The Times of India

Why are some nations rich and some poor? Important lessons come from Haiti, the Caribbean country whose democratically-elected President Aristide fled last week after rioting against his misrule. Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America. But two centuries ago, […]

Paranoia, followed by delusions of grandeur. That describes the soap opera that the governments disinvestment programme became last week. Originally, the government hoped to raise Rs 12,000 crore through disinvestment. To maximise prices and improve efficiency, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie

In 1991, many Indians were terrified that globalisation would cost us millions of jobs. Today, American politicians are terrified that millions of their jobs will be outsourced to India . What a compliment to our global success! And what a

Many people, including those at the World Social Summit in Mumbai, believe that there is a clear link between poverty and violence. So, they argue, we cannot solve terrorism without solving its root cause, poverty. This logic flows easily from

Can Chandrababu Naidu win a third successive term for the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh? The TDP is a key constituent of the BJP-led alliance in Delhi , so the TDP’s fate could determine the BJP’s too. Voters typically

Predicting elections is a mug’s game. Even the best-designed opinion polls and exit polls can go badly wrong. Opinion polls that turn out to be correct often owe a lot to serendipity: errors for and against a party neatly cancel

GNP, exports and the stock market are booming. What could disturb this idyllic feel good factor, which the BJP is betting on to win the elections? Bird flu could. The deadly H5N1 flu virus is sweeping across Asia , ravaging

A successful finance minister typically has three characteristics: good luck, political savvy, and wisdom. Yashwant Sinha was neither lucky nor politically savvy, though he showed flashes of wisdom. Jaswant Singh has demonstrated both luck and political savvy. He still needs

Ladies and gentlemen please take your seats. You are about to witness one of the greatest shows on earth: the gradual Indian takeover of global companies. As the process unfolds, every worthwhile Indian company will become a multinational corporation (MNC)

In 1998, Boris Yeltsin bowed out of office with the Russian economy in ruins. The Indian Left gleefully attributed this to rapid economic liberalisation. Five years later, after even more liberalisation by Vladimir Putin, the Soviet economy has staged a