Andhra Pradesh has decided to end prohibition. There has been a cry of protest from a spectrum of people ranging from moralists to feminists. Others say attempts at prohibition the world over have only encouraged organised crime, illicit distillation, deaths […]

Despite rhetoric about small being beautiful, Indians have always regarded small as weak. We see multinational as strong and small-scale industries as weaklings to be protected. A radically different view in Taiwan has helped take its per capita income to

Of all the miracle economies of East Asia, the most miraculous is Hong Kong. Its per capita income of $23,000 makes it far richer than its colonial master, Britain. It is twice as rich per head as Korea, which often

Vision as India’s Biggest Export MR P Chidambaram’s new budget has vision. Most budgets make niggling tax changes to meet the limited challenges of the coming year. But Mr Chidambaram is thinking way beyond next year. He has a vision

For years, Mr P Chidambaram as lurked, with obvious unhappiness, in the shadow of Dr Manmohan Singh. But after his latest budget he has come into his own. He will now be seen as a statesman and visionary in his

Taxes, duties cut across the board Despite shortcomings, it is the best budget in decades. Finance minister P Chidambaram has combined global vision with stern expenditure control to perform the ultimate conjuror\’s trick. He has slashed income tax, corporate tax,

IF THE Railways were a company listed on stock markets, its share price would have tumbled after Mr Ram Vilas Paswan\’s performance as its chief executive officer. It is not yet a BIFR case, but is heading in that direction.

EVEN as the GDP growth soared above 7 per cent in 1994-95 and 1995-96, the real wages of unskilled agricultural labour declined, albeit marginally. This suggests, reading between the lines of the Economic Survey, that the poor were left out

There is an old saying about inventions, that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your doorstep. A mousetrap is a device to catch mice. And Deng Xiaoping has replaced the Pied Piper of

There is an old saying about inventions, that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your doorstep. A mousetrap is a device to catch mice. And Deng Xiaoping has replaced the Pied Piper of