The Times of India

The BJP says it will usher in swadeshi economic policies. What exactly does this mean? It means, says the National Agenda on Governance, that India must be built by Indians. But it could hardly be otherwise: The World Bank and […]

Now that it seems certain Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee will become the Prime Minister, the BJP\’s version of swadeshi will attract a lot of attention. Its stalwarts declare that foreign investment will be allowed in microchips but not potato chips.

OCED countries, by 2020, could generate anything upto 60 million jobs in looking after the disabled alone, says Swaminathan S A Aiyar. In my last column I said the future of business and exports lies more in services than manufacturing.

I wrote last week about how the World Trade Organisation\’s rules have helped, Indian basmati rice exports to increase by hundreds of millions of dollars, and gain protection for it from foreign imitation. This protection is based not on the

Indian basmati rice has gained hundreds of millions of dollars from intellectual property rights (IPRs) bestowed on it by the much-maligned WTO agreement. This is little known since the eco-jingoists dominating the debate in India have consistently spread disinformation that

India’s greatest comparative advantage lies not in manufacturing but in services, says Swaminathan S Aiyar India\’s future lies in services, much more than industry. Most people in India almost automatically equate business with manufacturing. This is plain wrong. The share

I showed in this column last week how simple explanations for the Asian currency crisis (like going too fast or liberalising too much) were wrong, and how the lessons from each country were different. The one factor common to all

What lessons should India draw from the Asian currency crisis? Many layfolk believe the tiger economies made the mistake of going too fast, and India should desist from doing so. Prime Minister Inder Gujral has expressed this view more than

The urban educated Indian’s love for the nuclear option is morbid and repudiates the Gandhian heritage, says Swaminathan S Aiyar. In Hiroshima, even the birds seem to fall silent at the A-bomb memorial, built at the site of the nuclear

What does Atal Behari Vajpayee have in common with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair? He, like them, is trying to gain power by stealing the electoral planks of his opponents. I welcome the burglary. Such theft is excellent for society.