JOURNALISTS often repeat the old joke that India has many sick industries but very few sick industrialists. There are cases where it is so profitable to run a sick industry that the owner positively radiates good health. As long as […]

For those labouring under the illusion; that Mr Narasmiha Rao is really serious about liberalising the Indian economy, a look at the proposed privatisation of Indian Iron and Steel Co (IISCO) will prove sobering. Staggering under accumulated losses of Rs

Do you believe that the world economic system is biased against the poor countries and in favour of the rich? Then listen to the latest IMF estimate that the seven richest countries (G-7) will grow much more slowly than third

The demonstration by leftist trade unions in the capital last week was aimed mainly at the proposed change in the Industrial Relations Act. Today workers cannot be retrenched save with government permission (which is rarely given) in companies having over

ONE reason for the sharp rise in grain prices that has hit the poor in the last three years is the stagnation of cereal production, particularly so in the case of wheat. And one important reason for this arrest in

MOST of us have been brought up to regard debt as a terrible thing, sad so are very worried at the size of our foreign debt (currently nearing $ 80 billion). Much of this worry is misdirected. Here is a

IGNORANCE about the role of markets and international institutions like the World Bank and IMF is as widespread among right-wingers in the USA as among left-wingers in India. The American right believes that free, untrammelled markets are a good thing

News reports suggest that the Textile Labour Association (FLA) in Gujarat has become the first trade union to embrace the idea that scrapping sick units is the correct way to revive dying industrial cities like Ahmedabad and Kanpur. This is

WITH the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has become commonplace to say that capitalism has triumphed over communism. I think this is misleading and inaccurate notion. What has triumphed is the market-driven welfare state, the mixture of private enterprise

There\’s an old saying that the law is an ass, but I never grasped its full meaning till I read the Supreme Court\’s judgement on the right to education. The court was pronouncing on the validity of Karnataka\’s law on