Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar

For those labouring under the illusion; that Mr Narasmiha Rao is really serious about liberalising the Indian economy, a look at the proposed privatisation of Indian Iron and Steel Co (IISCO) will prove sobering. Staggering under accumulated losses of Rs 750 crore, the public sector company cannot raise the Rs 6,500 crore needed for its […]

Do you believe that the world economic system is biased against the poor countries and in favour of the rich? Then listen to the latest IMF estimate that the seven richest countries (G-7) will grow much more slowly than third world countries of Asia in 1993. This trend has already been evident for a decade,

The demonstration by leftist trade unions in the capital last week was aimed mainly at the proposed change in the Industrial Relations Act. Today workers cannot be retrenched save with government permission (which is rarely given) in companies having over 100 workers. The new law will raise the ceiling to 300 workers. This, according to

ONE reason for the sharp rise in grain prices that has hit the poor in the last three years is the stagnation of cereal production, particularly so in the case of wheat. And one important reason for this arrest in production is ecological degradation. This insidious cancer is spreading through the length and breadth of

MOST of us have been brought up to regard debt as a terrible thing, sad so are very worried at the size of our foreign debt (currently nearing $ 80 billion). Much of this worry is misdirected. Here is a story I often tell. When I was a schoolboy, my mother told me that borrowing

IGNORANCE about the role of markets and international institutions like the World Bank and IMF is as widespread among right-wingers in the USA as among left-wingers in India. The American right believes that free, untrammelled markets are a good thing while the Indian left believes they are a bad thing, but both seem to agree

News reports suggest that the Textile Labour Association (FLA) in Gujarat has become the first trade union to embrace the idea that scrapping sick units is the correct way to revive dying industrial cities like Ahmedabad and Kanpur. This is welcome recognition from industrial workers of here their own interests lie. Agreement has been reached

WITH the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has become commonplace to say that capitalism has triumphed over communism. I think this is misleading and inaccurate notion. What has triumphed is the market-driven welfare state, the mixture of private enterprise and government paternalism that has become standard in western democracies. This is as different from

There\’s an old saying that the law is an ass, but I never grasped its full meaning till I read the Supreme Court\’s judgement on the right to education. The court was pronouncing on the validity of Karnataka\’s law on private medical colleges. This law abolished capitation fees but allowed colleges to charge Rs 60,000

EVERYBODY knows that justice is a basic need. But not many think of justice as an economic input. Yet no economic reform, including the one India has embarked on, can succeed fully without judicial reform. Justice is as essential an input for liberalising economy as deregulation or globalisation. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund