Historical sexual and social taboos are disappearing in ways considered impossible even a couple of decades ago. Indian and US courts have decreed that transgender persons have the same rights as males and females. In the US, where conservative Christianity […]
After gay rights, is polygamy the next revolution? Read More »
Narendra Modi has raised the target for solar electric capacity from 20,000MW to 100,000MW by 2022 at a cost of maybe $100 billion. This is a serious blunder. It will sabotage his “Make in India” plans by technically disrupting the
100,000MW of costly solar power can sink ‘Make in India’ Read More »
Back in 2008, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian co-authored a paper showing that India had overtaken China in outward FDI as a proportion of GDP. Typically, FDI flows from rich to poor countries, and many Indian economists warned in 1991
Why foreign acquisitions need opportunism, not gigantism Read More »
The Joint Parliamentary Committee reviewing the proposed land acquisition law has asked for suggestions from the public. I suggest that the law’s thrust must shift from compulsory acquisition to leasing. This will benefit all concerned — farmers, governments and project
Government should lease land, not acquire it Read More »
The Modi government has laid much stress on its “Make in India“ campaign. After all, he won the election by promising jobs galore through rapid indus trial growth. However, industrial jobs are not growing fast anywhere in the world. Modern
‘Make in India’ and ‘Manufacture in India’ are two different things Read More »
Last week’s column cited news reports of The Times of India and Economic Times in which businessmen and bureaucrats agreed almost unanimously that big corruption had fallen dramatically under Narendra Modi. But Rahul Gandhi says that Modi heads a suited-booted
Little sign of Modi cronyism in stock market trends Read More »
Narendra Modi’s biggest achievement in his first year in office is, arguably, a huge reduction in big corruption (involving top politicians and industrialists). Hard data on corruption doesn’t exist, so assessments can be subjective and incomplete. But for the most
Modi’s greatest feat: Booting out big corruption Read More »
Many lessons flow from David Cameron’s victory in the British elections for Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. First and foremost: it’s the economy, stupid! Economic performance in your last two years matters hugely, even though it’s not the only factor.
Both PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi can learn a few things from the British election results Read More »
Former BJP minister Arun Shourie has lambasted Narendra Modi as directionless in policy. He says Modi’s haphazard, inconsistent and half-hearted reforms send conflicting signals. A prime minister must not move project by project or slogan by slogan: he must have
Directionless? Learn from Narasimha Rao Read More »
The vast majority of suicides are of non farmers. Why are their deaths treated as lesser tragedies than those of farmers? Because presenting farm suicides as a single mass tragedy can win awards for journalists, TRPs for TV anchors, donations
Depression is the main cause of farm suicides Read More »
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