Why are some nations rich and some poor? Important lessons come from Haiti, the Caribbean country whose democratically-elected President Aristide fled last week after rioting against his misrule. Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America. But two centuries ago, […]
Ousting Laloo won\’t cure Bihar Read More »
Why are some nations rich and some poor? Important lessons come from Haiti, the Caribbean country whose democratically-elected President Aristide fled last week after rioting against his misrule. Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America. But two centuries ago,
Ousting Laloo won\’t cure Bihar Read More »
Harvard don Dani Rodrik and IMF economist Arvind Subramanian are writing a revisionist paper on the Indian growth experience over the last two decades. The standard story is that India blundered along the socialist, inward-looking path till 1991. Then came
A second look at the 1980s Read More »
Paranoia, followed by delusions of grandeur. That describes the soap opera that the governments disinvestment programme became last week. Originally, the government hoped to raise Rs 12,000 crore through disinvestment. To maximise prices and improve efficiency, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie
Disinvestment as soap opera Read More »
In 1991, many Indians were terrified that globalisation would cost us millions of jobs. Today, American politicians are terrified that millions of their jobs will be outsourced to India . What a compliment to our global success! And what a
The gains from job losses Read More »
Few Indian observers have commented on the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are becoming a dime a dozen, and most yield only marginal changes. So why should we pay particular attention to the newly-signed AUSFTA? Because it
Trade diversion down under Read More »
Many people, including those at the World Social Summit in Mumbai, believe that there is a clear link between poverty and violence. So, they argue, we cannot solve terrorism without solving its root cause, poverty. This logic flows easily from
The truth about poverty and violence Read More »
Can Chandrababu Naidu win a third successive term for the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh? The TDP is a key constituent of the BJP-led alliance in Delhi , so the TDP’s fate could determine the BJP’s too. Voters typically
Empower women, win elections Read More »
The Democratic Party primaries in the US have once again shown that too many Indian foreign policy analysts are victims of wishful thinking. Many of them hoped Afghanistan would prove another Vietnam. This was soon exposed as wishful thinking. The
Why Iraq matters so little Read More »
Predicting elections is a mug’s game. Even the best-designed opinion polls and exit polls can go badly wrong. Opinion polls that turn out to be correct often owe a lot to serendipity: errors for and against a party neatly cancel
The feel-bad factor Read More »
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