The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The Economic Survey predicts GDP growth as high as 7.75% in 2009-10 if the global economy turns up by autumn, and a reasonable 6.25% if the global recession drags on. Exuding confidence on the external front, the survey […]

Gird your loins to ride out the global economic storm, and don’t get diverted by pleas for unending tax cuts and stimulus packages that will empty the treasury without ending the storm. That should be the approach of finance minister

Why did voters in south Mumbai have a pathetic turnout at 42% whereas other areas in India recorded up to 90%? Why was the south Mumbai turnout worse than in South Delhi, both areas populated by the elite chatterati? There

Almost all pundits anticipated a hung parliament with regional and caste-based parties holding the balance of power. Now that the United Progressive Alliance has achieved a clear victory, the same pundits are coming out with grand theories to explain it.

India cannot return to rapid growth till the world economy recovers. And that cannot happen till the US economy recovers. Alas, the Obama administration is prolonging the recession by avoiding surgery to remove dead wood from its financial sector. Some

Five years (2003-08) of near-9% growth suddenly seems a distant memory. The CSO estimated GDP growth in October-December 2008 at just 5.3%. Indeed, the IMF estimates that India will average just 5.1% growth in the calendar year 2009. There is

India cannot grow fast again till the US economy recovers. And US recovery depends on reviving the housing sector, whence the downswing began. Alas, the Obama Plan for housing is a crutch, not a cure. Putting all the blame on

We are on the verge of a revolution worth half a trillion dollars. After almost a decade of effort, India is about to move to a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) to replace the current plethora of central and

Governments across the globe are using Keynesian stimuli to revive drooping economies. Even George Bush has presided over the greatest stimuli in US history, with a projected fiscal deficit of $ 1.2 trillion and monetary injection of almost $ 2

The global recession is going to be worse than expected. The developed countries as a whole will suffer a fall in GDP in 2009, the first fall since World War II. India cannot escape the global downswing. But the mid-term