The Economic Times

Tricky Days Are Here Again

Narendra Modi’s chances of returning to power in 2019 elections are 50-50 Media analysis in the first half of 2019 is going to focus on the coming general election in May, to the exclusion of almost everything else. Will Narendra …

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How Much is Not Too Much?

Four economists argue for Arun Jaitley against Urjit Patel on RBI reserves On October 26, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Viral Acharya had made a passionate speech warning that governments that raid the reserves of their central bank, as …

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Dance to Popular Numbers

We should treat the latest GDP statistics as innocent till proved guilty Has the government fudged GDP data to show that the Narendra Modi era has registered faster GDP growth than either of the two terms of the preceding UPA …

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Solving BOTs Through TOTs

For real privatisation in infrastructure, the old model needs to be inverted The Narendra Modi government has failed to privatise any public sector undertaking (PSU). Its sale of minority stakes in several PSUs is disinvestment, not privatisation — the latter …

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Don’t Be Seduced by Sirens

GoI raiding the central bank’s reserves is no solution for the fiscal deficit The controversy over the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) independence cloaks a bigger issue: the government’s chronic inability to control overspending and the fiscal deficit. RBI deputy …

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Pop Has Gone the Weasels

Falling, not rising, cronyism is the main cause of non-performing assets Former RBI chief Raghuram Rajan has dissected the banking crisis in his recent analysis of non-performing assets (NPAs). He implies that cronyism is an important cause. I would say …

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Let Fuel Burn, Rupee Melt

BJP would do well to ignore Rahul Gandhi and Congress’ advice to the contrary The Bharat Bandh called by Congress and sundry opposition parties, to protest against rising fuel prices and a falling rupee, represents the sad populism common before …

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Little Green Bogeymen

Alarmism over genetically modified foods is unscientific and false As an old fan of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), I deplore its campaign against genetically modified (GM) foods. The global anti-GM chorus flows from various prejudices, ranging from leftist …

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