Oil hit a record $135/barrel last week, up from $51/barrel in January 2007. Taking a longer four-year perspective, the price of the crude is up 230%, but Indian petrol is up only 35%, diesel 46%, and kerosene not at all! […]
Oil subsidies are bogus socialism Read More »
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
Roti, kapda, makaan and TVs Read More »
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
Ban on food exports from India fueled world prices Read More »
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
Let others starve, self-righteously Read More »
Last week, I showed that spending $50 billion on dams and canals in the 11th Plan would be a waste. Surface irrigation provides water in quantities and at times fixed by the irrigation authorities. This is useless for farmers growing
How to reform power & irrigation Read More »
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
RBI cannot focus on inflation alone Read More »
Ostensibly to help farmers, the 11th five-year Plan allocates nearly $50 billion to surface irrigation (dam reservoirs, tanks and canals). This will be a huge waste of money on obsolete, ineffective irrigation concepts dating from the 19th century, says irrigation
Wasting $50 bn on major irrigation Read More »
Which of the three candidates for the US Presidency — Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama, and John McCain — will be best for India? Most Indians would opt for Obama or Clinton. But from a policy viewpoint, McCain would be best
India needs McCain as US President Read More »
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 BRICs have changed the world Read More »
Terrified that surging food prices will cause it to lose the coming state elections, the government has come out with an anti-inflation package banning most agricultural exports and slashing import duties on edible oil. Yet the biggest anti-inflation measure is
Fiscal deficit back to record level? Read More »
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