The Times of India

The best form of attack is political theatre. It satisfies the bloodlust of enraged domestic audiences without causing serious military damage to the other side, thus limiting escalation. India’s supposed “surgical strike” on seven terrorist bases across the Line of […]

Three years ago, all emerging markets including India suffered a huge outflow of dollars. The US Federal Reserve gave notice of ending quantitative easing, leading eventually to higher US interest rates that would attract money from everywhere. The Sensex collapsed,

The Supreme Court has quashed the West Bengal government’s acquisition of land at Singur (later leased to Tata Motors), holding it was not for a “public purpose”. Lawyers had argued that “public purpose” did not apply to land acquired for

A bountiful monsoon has led some analysts to hope for 8% GDP growth this year. Incremental reforms across many areas are improving the country’s economic foundations. Yet Modi must worry about his failure to create the job explosion he promised

For decades I have argued that the railway budget is a colonial aberration that should be abolished. Wonder of wonders, the government now agrees. Arun Jaitley’s next budget will incorporate all railway revenue and spending, so there will be no

Kalikho Pul, who split the Congress party and manipulated a friendly governor to become chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh last February, committed suicide earlier this month. The Supreme Court had struck down the governor’s actions, ousting Pul. Finding the humiliation

The Rajya Sabha has just amended the Maternity Benefits Act, mandating 26 weeks of paid leave for mothers against the existing 12 weeks. Many feminists will cheer. But as a feminist myself, I view this as highly flawed. Feminism should

The Constitutional amendment to facilitate a goods and services tax has been called the greatest economic reform since 1991. Political scientists have hailed the new “co-operative financial federalism, and “one nation, one tax, one market”. Trucks in India average just

An anti-corruption agitation by NGOs in 2011 forced the government to enact a law setting up a lokpal. In an outrageous twist, the government now seeks to use that same Lokpal Act to harass NGOs in ways unprecedented in democracies.

In a forthcoming paper for the Cato Institute, I have summed up the 25 years of economic reform as an era of private sector success, government failure, and eroding institutions. In 1991, many analysts warned that opening up the economy