The Economic Times

Booms and busts are not aberrations. They are intrinsic to market democracies. Many folks love the idea of steady, uninterrupted progress. This is socialism’s false promise, and helps explain why that philosophy remains attractive to many despite proven repeated failure. […]

Does GDP growth matter in state elections? A statistical exercise by this newspaper some years ago suggested that if average GDP growth during the incumbent’s rule accelerated compared with the five previous years, there was a 60% chance the incumbent

Six months ago, I wrote a column, ‘Why bother about small interest rate changes in India?’, (goo.gl/7cFp1L, September 16, 2015) that I could reproduce and yet be spot on after the RBI’s cut in interest rates last week. It will

I have welcomed this Budget, but with fingers crossed. First, it may be based on faulty statistics. Second, the global financial typhoon sweeping across emerging markets may make nonsense of all Budget projections. Nominal GDP is projected to grow 11%

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The current rant against ‘anti-national’ slogans at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) highlights the abundance of scoundrels among Indian politicians and television anchors. The notion that there can be only one concept of

Oil has crashed from $110 a barrel to $28 a barrel, and could fall to $20 a barrel. Many other commodity prices have crashed. What is happening, and why? Oil supply has shot up even as demand has slowed. Non-Opec

Indian business has long been represented by Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry). The new kid on the block is Dicci – the Dalit Industrial Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It boasts of nearly 4,000 members, heralding

The Mid-Year Economic Analysis of the finance ministry, prepared by chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, is controversial. It asks whether India should depart from its promised path of fiscal consolidation, which calls for the fiscal deficit to fall by another

Earlier this year, I expressed worries that India was galloping ahead with solar power when experts predicted that solar panel costs would plummet. Why not wait till costs crashed? One solar enthusiast told me the crash in costs had already