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 […]
For Nitish, rural electrification can be a winner Read More »
Narendra Modi’s Digital India is a scheme that includes connecting all Indian villages with broadband. He says this will empower rural Indians, without spelling out all the details. He should learn from China’s Taobao villages, which have been transformed by
China’s Taobao villages show e-commerce can transform rural India Read More »
Angus Deaton, who has just won the Nobel Prize for Economics, is famous for three major findings. First, humanity has enjoyed a Great Escape from poverty because of rapid economic growth, especially in China and India. Second, humanity has also
Longer life is the greatest form of poverty reduction Read More »
Predicting elections is a mug’s game. Nonetheless, I predict that the BJP will lose in Bihar. Killing beef-eaters does not win elections. Journalists have long accused the BJP of trying to win Bihar by stoking communal passions with stunts like
The Dadri effect: Killing beef-eaters will not win elections Read More »
As a beef-eating Hindu, I am utterly outraged at the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri by a Hindu mob claiming the man had beef in his house. Even worse is the attempt of BJP politicians to sanitize the lynching.
A beef-eating Hindu demands his rights Read More »
Cynics say that G20 meetings are a complete waste of time. The G20 was created for a coordinated fiscal and monetary push out of the Great Recession of 2008-10. Since then, it seems to have lost its rationale. Arvind Panagariya,
G20 should consider a new, more fair intellectual property rights regime Read More »
Last week, I wrote of the huge potential for creating fresh land by reclaiming it from the sea, instead of dispossessing farmers to build future industries and airports. India has a very long coastline, with large mud flats (especially in
Reclaim land for industry from rivers, reservoirs Read More »
The land acquisition issue has been brushed under the carpet for the time being. Yet officials in the department of industrial promotion and policy say that the land banks available with many state governments are getting exhausted. A JP Morgan
Create land offshore instead of acquiring it Read More »
World Bank’s chief economist Kaushik Basu wants the US Fed to postpone raising US interest rates, fearing “panic and turmoil” in emerging markets like India. Alas, this mistakes dither and indecision for good policy. For years, the Fed has kept
Don’t be afraid of US raising interest rates Read More »
A financial typhoon from China has sunk stock and commodity markets across the globe. This is neither temporary nor just economic. It represents an existentialist political crisis for the Communist Party of China. Till now, the party has combined authoritarian
China’s market crash presages coming political crisis Read More »
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