Paavi

Ignore doomsters. Let’s celebrate the 8-billion milestone

October 12, 2022

UN World Population Prospects 2022 predicts that on November 15, global population will cross 8 billion, and during 2023, India’s population will overtake China’s. This has induced hang-wringing by environmentalists and some members of the ruling establishment who back population control. Billions think the world faces depleting resources and an environmental apocalypse. Now, for the […]

Ignore doomsters. Let’s celebrate the 8-billion milestone Read More »

Mistaken priority: Putting all eggs in manufacturing basket is starving services

October 9, 2022

The future lies in services, not manufacturing. This is good news since India has a greater comparative advantage in services than in manufacturing, and should be building on its strengths. Instead, the government seems obsessed with manufacturing and is pouring enormous subsidies into that sector. This is a mistaken priority. The services that require priority

Mistaken priority: Putting all eggs in manufacturing basket is starving services Read More »

Padyatra is fine but harness the power of Mahatma’s music

October 3, 2022

Your Bharat Jodo (unify India) padyatra has started well. India is a badly divided nation that needs healing. Yet that wound cannot be healed without clearly understanding the cause and remedy. You believe the hard secularism of Jawaharlal Nehru has become an electoral liability, saddling your party with an anti-Hindu image. So, you have switched

Padyatra is fine but harness the power of Mahatma’s music Read More »

Are subsidies for silicon fabrication plants liable to be wasteful ‘revadis’?

September 26, 2022

Along with Taiwan’s Foxconn, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta plans to set up India’s first silicon fabrication plant (fab) in Gujarat, along with a display glass unit, costing a whopping $20 billion (₹1.6 trillion). Silicon from this project will be sliced into wafers and converted in stages into microprocessors – computers on a chip – and solar

Are subsidies for silicon fabrication plants liable to be wasteful ‘revadis’? Read More »

Let’s put things in perspective with a towering Gandhi statue

September 22, 2022

Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue at India Gate in New Delhi was inaugurated last week, replacing the earlier statue of George V. I always wanted that space occupied by a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, something that never happened. The BJP is excellent at messaging. This downplays the role of the Congress in Indian independence and highlights

Let’s put things in perspective with a towering Gandhi statue Read More »

The real story of how Narmada dam oustees became crorepatis

September 15, 2022

Last week’s column exposing Medha Patkar’s claims on the Sardar Sarovar Dam drew responses like how dare you attack a great activist; large dams are bad; dam resettlement has a terrible history; tribals have been the biggest victims of displacement. Yet none could deny Medha’s falsehoods — that Narmada water would never reach arid Kutch

The real story of how Narmada dam oustees became crorepatis Read More »

Who’s sanctioning whom? How the Ukraine screenplay has been reversed

September 10, 2022

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the US and its Nato allies quickly imposed tough sanctions on Russia, including the freezing of its foreign exchange reserves and suspension from the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) payments system that is used for international transactions. The sanctions aimed at cuts in imports of Russian raw

Who’s sanctioning whom? How the Ukraine screenplay has been reversed Read More »

Medha Patkar was wrong on Narmada project

September 10, 2022

Inaugurating several projects including a canal bringing Narmada water to Kutch, Prime Minister Modi said last week that Medha Patkar and her “urban Naxal” friends had opposed and delayed the Narmada project that had greatly benefited Gujarat. In fact, the project was opposed by a very wide range of critics including the World Bank’s Morse

Medha Patkar was wrong on Narmada project Read More »

Deeper US recession spells big trouble for India, says Swaminathan Aiyar

July 28, 2022

There is not the slightest chance that the world has a hard landing and India does not. We are only 7% of the global economy; the idea that we will stand out is a fantasy to me,” says Swaminathan Aiyar, Consulting Editor, ET NOW in an interaction with Tamanna Inamdar. Edited excerpts: How worried should

Deeper US recession spells big trouble for India, says Swaminathan Aiyar Read More »

Rupee nearing 80? Swaminathan Aiyar on why we shouldn’t worry too much

July 1, 2022

The latest projections of the IMF, even with the downward revisions is still showing India as being the fastest growing economy. When everybody else is going down, let us not pretend that we can become a 10% economy. If we can do 7% or even 6.5% in this kind of atmosphere, we are doing pretty

Rupee nearing 80? Swaminathan Aiyar on why we shouldn’t worry too much Read More »

Join Mailing List