The Economic Times

When I first visited Kashmir in 1981, the pros and cons of accession to India or Pakistan inevitably cropped up in conversation. One government official argued that the Kashmiri economy, highly dependent on fruit, had suffered because the state had […]

The media and public have deplored the buying and selling of legislators to influence voting in the motion of confidence in Parliament. They have also deplored the spectacle of convicted criminal MPs being released from jail to vote. This has

India today presents a sorry picture of messed-up opportunities and policies. The government may fall because of Marxist resistance to the Indo-US nuclear deal. The government is too timid to pass on the high price of oil and fertilisers to

I was a gung-ho liberaliser when economic reforms began in 1991. At the time, a sceptical politician asked me which sectors would benefit most. I replied it was not possible to predict the winners. In that case, he sneered, why

If I were Prakash Karat, I would topple the Congress-led UPA government in the monsoon session of Parliament starting in July. Why? Because the Congress faces a terrible election climate right now, which might improve by May 2009, when the

Surging food prices and the Karnataka election once again raise the question, how needy and distressed are Indians? Karnataka has been at the very forefront of India’s record GDP growth of almost 9% per year. But critics claim that rapid

Indians are outraged by President Bush\’s claim that rising food consumption in India and China have sent world food prices skyrocketing. When incomes rise, people eat more meat, so more grain is fed to animals. Seven tonnes of grain produce

I greatly respect Raghuram Rajan. He warned in writings and speeches of rising risks in the US financial sector in 2005-07, when all others were singing hosannas to financial innovation. The subsequent financial crisis proved him prescient. Yet I disagree

In 2001, Goldman Sachs came out with the concept of the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India China – as high-population countries that would dominate the world economy by 2050. At the time, global financiers sneered that this was a facile

How long and hard will the US recession be, and how badly will it affect India? Analysis of that issue has currently been hijacked by the sensational events in the US stock market, mirrored by gyrations in Indian markets. The