Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar

Mixing morality and taxation typically produces hypocrisy. The Subramanian Committee on the goods and services tax has proposed an ultra-high rate of 40 per cent for sinful goods, against the standard rate of 17-18 per cent. Naturally, the sin list

The era of superpower hegemony is over, and that of non-state actors has arrived. Fourteen years after 9/11, the US has — let’s be blunt — been repeatedly defeated by radical Islam. Look at Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, or

I am amazed when people ask me why food prices, notably that of dal, have gone up. India has just suffered two consecutive droughts. The question to be asked is why, after a disastrous monsoon, food prices have risen so

Should some industries get tax breaks that others don’t? In general, no. The finance ministry has come out with proposals, for public discussion, to abolish several existing tax breaks. This is a building block of the Budget promise of finance

There is much in common between those who hit Paris last week and Mumbai on 26/11. Let nobody pretend, like elements of the left, that Paris was just revenge against Western imperialism. ISIS aims to become the biggest imperialist of

Narendra Modi said in London that “India will not tolerate intolerance”. Secular critics jeered, since the BJP had raised the communal temperature during the Bihar election. Over 50 writers have returned national awards in protest against intolerance. They cite the

Narendra Modi wants to create millions of jobs. India’s biggest job creator is construction, creating over 20 million jobs in the last nine years. Jobs in other sectors are growing slowly, or falling. Yet construction now faces a problem that

Forget caste arithmetic. Economic development gave Nitish Kumar his Bihar election victories in 2005 and 2010. He looks set to win a third victory based on development, the trump card this time being rural electricity. When Bihar was partitioned in