The Economic Times

Traditional bank architecture is based on bank branches. The branches ensure the physical security of your savings. You go there to deposit and withdraw money, negotiate loans, and engage in other financial transactions. In the past two decades, the banking […]

The 61st NSSO round shows (see accompanying table) that per capita calorie consumption in India has declined once again in 2004-05, measured in kilocalories (popularly referred to simply as calories). Consumption has fallen to 2,047 calories in rural India (against

What is China going to do with $ 1.2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves? One answer came over the week-end—it will invest $ 3 billion in Blackstone, a US private equity company. Many see this as a breakthrough in developing-country

Annual average growth of gross state domestic product (%) for 14 major states.   1993-94 to 2004-05 1980-81 to 1990-91 Gujarat 7.46 5.08 W.Bengal 7.06 4.71 Rajasthan 6.39 6.60 Haryana 6.33 6.43 Karnataka 7.26 5.29 Kerala 6.18 3.57 A.P. 5.95

Rank Name Age Net worth $bl 5 Lakshmi Mittal 56 32 14 Mukesh Ambani 49 20.1 18 Anil Ambani 47 18.2 21 Azim Premji 61 17.1 62 Kushal Pal Singh 75 10 69 Sunil Mittal & family 49 9.5 86

By themselves, the state elections in Punjab and Uttrakhand are not important. But they hold lessons for the big event of the year, the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, in April-May. Lesson no 1. Sonia Gandhi’s Aam

Indian GDP growth has averaged 8% for four years. Indeed, it has crossed 9% in the first half of this fiscal year. The updated BRIC report of Goldman Sachs claims that India can sustain 8% growth for over a decade.

After Mohammed Yunus of Banladesh’s Grameen Bank won the Nobel peace prize, microcredit has hogged the headlines. We now need to focus on the next big thing: microfranchising. Microcredit has certainly empowered poor women and helped alleviate distress in South

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz spoke in New Delhi this week about his new book, “Making Globalisation Work.” Indian reformers like me will agree with much, though not all, of what he says. The problem lies in what he does not

I find myself constantly asked what will happen to the stock market in 2007. I protest that predicting markets astrology more than economics, but in vain. So, here is my astrological forecast for 2007. Taurus, the great bull of the