Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has used the spring meeting of the IMF-World Bank to tom-tom the economic performance of the BJP government. At the Peterson Institute, he said: “In late 2013, India was teetering on the edge of a macro-economic […]

Delhi’s air pollution is terrible. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned diesel vehicles more than 10 years old, having already banned petrol vehicles over 15 years old. But IIT Professor Dinesh Mohan has revealed that old vehicles constitute a

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently reiterated his call for an “uncompromising mission-mode approach” to cleanse the polluted Ganga. This is the wrong way forward. We do not need the battering-ram approach of yet another government mission, but new institutions with long-term

When Lee Kwan Yew became Singapore’s first prime minister in 1959, its per capita income was $400. Today, it is $55,000. No other country has gone so fast from rags to riches. Yet in the Nehru-Indira era, Indian socialists viewed

Green activists have long gained fame and fortune by campaigning against genetically modified foods, which they denounce as “monster foods” that can ruin traditional agriculture and decimate the human race. They claim scientists that splice genes from one organism into

Many people wonder what Niti Aayog, the successor to the Planning Commission, will do. It will serve as a think tank, making policy proposals. But history shows that policy proposals not backed by cash are typically ignored. Nobody would listen

Astrologers remain in high demand no matter how often they are proved wrong. That’s true of the media too. Those who failed to analyse or predict voter behaviour before the Delhi election were holding forth the next day on the

Indian officials say the Obama visit broke a seven-year logjam in nuclear cooperation, opening the way for US firms to set up nuclear power plants in India. However, in Washington there is no jubilation, much caution, and some plain scepticism.

I called Arun Jaitley’s first budget “a Chidambaram budget with a dash of saffron lipstick“. Jaitley made only minor changes from Chidambaram’s interim budget a few months earlier. BJP supporters said Jaitley had assumed office only in May, lacked the