Till recently, a slump in industrial production meant an economic recession and great social pain. Not any more, though. Industrial growth in India declined to just 0.6 per cent in February and 1.3 per cent in March, among the lowest […]

INDIAN industrial growth plunged to just 0.6 per cent in February, the lowest level for years. This has led to a search for deep explanations and culprits. Some blame high interest rates, others blame stock market shenanigans, still others blame

EXTERNAL affairs minister Jaswant Singh has visited the United States of America, held an unscheduled meeting with President George W Bush, and returned home exuding confidence about the future of Indo-US relations. In fact, the outlook for Indo-US ties has

Chairman Mao once claimed to represent permanent revolution. In fact, permanent revolution is represented best by capitalism, the most iconoclastic form of economic organisation ever invented. Other systems ranging from feudalism to communism protect a decreed system, and regard attempts

THE HIGHLIGHT of Yashwant Sinha’s budget was not his tax changes but his promise of second-generation reforms. But implementation lies in the hands of not the finance minister but other ministers and state governments, many of whom pay only lip-service

Back in 1981, I remember veteran politician HN Bahuguna distributing handouts giving his reaction to the budget immediately after the budget speech. To the naive, it looked an admirably fast reaction. But I realised that Bahuguna must have drafted his

Of India\’s many colonial legacies, the fetish about budget secrecy is one of the most absurd and anachronistic. A British Chancellor of the Exchequer once had to resign after dropping a hint that the tax on cigarettes might go up

Dear Ashok Singhal, I agree fully with you and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad that something must be done about the appalling quality of water in the Ganga. Once regarded as amrit, it is better regarded today as sewage. What I

WE all agree today that preferential allotments of shares to promoters area form of highway robbery that benefits promoters at the expense of small shareholders. But are stock options all that different? They too are preferential allotments, not to promoters

After the Gujarat earthquake, the Prime Minister has ordered a review of the Tehri Dam, which lies in a seismic area and could also suffer a major earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. I think the review should conclude