Articles

Last week, I described the emerging war between generations in the West. The western welfare state taxes workers to finance pensions and health care for the aged. But the ratio of the aged to the workforce is rising relentlessly, and […]

A great new social struggle is emerging in the world. The old struggle was between workers and capitalists. The new struggle is between the workers and the aged. Forget about class wars, we are now in a war between generations.

One reason why India remains mired in poverty is that the political class gets worked up if anybody makes an excess profit of Rs 100 crore, but does not turn a hair if the public sector wastes Rs 100,000 crore.

For all those following the debate on poverty trends since the reforms of 1991, there is encouraging news from the National council of Applied Economic Research. Its latest consumer survey for 1993-94 shows that: The proportion of low-income households has

The Parliament has witnessed a furore over Mr Sukh Ram\’s attempts to favour Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) in basic telephone licences. The Opposition parties have declared that this is a Rs 20,000-crore scam, and plan to make it part

It looks as though the Enron drama is going to have a happy ending. Many details of the re-, negotiation are secret, but certainly the total project cost has been stashed, its size has been expanded, and the levelised power

A part from the government and business, non-government organisation (NGOs) are rising as a third major force in the socio-economic scene. We have 20,000 to 30,000 NGOs handling around Rs 3,000 crores per year, two-thirds from foreign donors and most

Most people are worried, even alarmed by the sudden drop in the value of the rupee en late October. Panicky {businessmen are predicting a forty-rupee dollar by the end of the year (which is pure rubbish). But I welcome the

THE latest gyrations on the swadeshi issue are bizarre. Sundry groups, some of whom are Hindu nationalist, are attacking Kentucky Fried Chicken as junk food. Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray has declared he will not allow such food to be

Another Gandhi, Jayanti has arrived. The great man’s ideals have largely been forgotten. The one saying of his that has suddenly become fashionable, and is repeated endlessly by the greens, is that nature has enough for everybody\’s need but not