A part from the government and business, non-government organisation (NGOs) are rising as a third major force in the socio-economic scene. We have 20,000 to 30,000 NGOs handling around Rs 3,000 crores per year, two-thirds from foreign donors and most […]

Most people are worried, even alarmed by the sudden drop in the value of the rupee en late October. Panicky {businessmen are predicting a forty-rupee dollar by the end of the year (which is pure rubbish). But I welcome the

THE latest gyrations on the swadeshi issue are bizarre. Sundry groups, some of whom are Hindu nationalist, are attacking Kentucky Fried Chicken as junk food. Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray has declared he will not allow such food to be

Another Gandhi, Jayanti has arrived. The great man’s ideals have largely been forgotten. The one saying of his that has suddenly become fashionable, and is repeated endlessly by the greens, is that nature has enough for everybody\’s need but not

Much of the economic reforms so far have been half-baked, but in one area our economic structure has truly been transformed. Exports, which used to be only 5 per cent of gross national product (GNP) in the 1980s, have now

For decades, we have regarded large power stations as essential and small generating sets as expensive stand-bys, to be used only when grid power fails. This is why we have been so keen on setting up new megaplants, of which

Dear Mr Gopinath Munde, As head of the committee that suggested scrapping the Dabhol project of Enron, you must be a happy man today. We all agree with you on the need for transparency. But surely transparency demands that your

It\’s official, straight from the horse\’s mouth. At a training camp for Congress Party workers, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao bemoaned the fact that his partymen had become slaves to power and alienated from the people. Voters have known this for

Forbes, the US magazine, has just produced its annual list of the wealthiest people in the world, and the top position goes to Mr Bill Gates. This whizz-kid\’s computer software company, Microsoft, started as a subcontractor to IBM and soon

On returning to work after four weeks\’ leave, my colleagues tell me that Enron remains the hottest topic in town. and that I simply must write about it. I have long argued that the ideal solution is for the Maharashtra