The Maharashtra monopoly cotton procurement schemes colossal financial losses of over Rs 1,500 crore do not seem to have deterred the Centre from further experimentation in this area. 


Extending the folly

Business Standard

Indias ranking in terms of the competitiveness of its information and communications technology (ICT) sector has gone up several notches, according to the latest Network Readiness Index prepared for

ICT high flier

With the huge surge of dollars into the country showing no signs of abating (reserves grew by $8billion last month and by 1.9 billion in the first week of this month), some alarm bells have already

Correction scenario

The National Small Savings Organisation (NSSO) operates a variety of schemes  the Public Provident Fund, the National Savings Scheme and others run through the post office network  which provide an

Small savings, big problems

While the countrys export community welcomed Commerce Minister Kamal Naths Exim policy last year, the problem is that not too many of the announcements have been translated into action. 


Action, not words

The spate of preferential offers in recent months, half of them to foreign institutional investors (FII), is yet another indication of the seemingly insatiable foreign appetite for Indian stocks. 


Preferential bonanza

For consumers used to seeing telecom tariffs falling almost every other day, the reforms in the power sector must come as a big disappointment. 


Powerless reforms

After a few years of sluggishness, placement season 2004-05 is seeing a raging bull market for MBAs. Signs of the coming boom were evident a couple of months earlier when top-rung business schools

Bullish B-schools

There has been a remarkable change in the stockmarkets attitude towards bank stocks, especially public sector banks. 


PSU banks` dream run

The sudden flight to safety from emerging markets last week reminded investors once again of the risks looming over them. High oil prices, fears of inflation in the US and rising bond yields rattled

Increased risk

There has been considerable international anger at the nomination, by the US President, of Paul Wolfowitz for the post of the next president of the World Bank. He has been the deputy secretary of

In sheep`s clothing?

Aviation Minister Praful Patels move to give a facelift to 35 non-metro airports in the country at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore is welcome, since Indias aviation infrastructure is light years behind the

Fix the nuts & bolts

Observers of the Indian economic policy scenario over the last decade would be forgiven for thinking that a broad national consensus had indeed emerged on the reforms road mapsince four different

Two-faced politics

The Narendra Modi visa episode is a classic example of Roger de Coverleys languid observation Much, my dear, can be said on both sides. 


No winners

The government has done well to make substantial amendments to the patents Bill before getting it passed by Parliament. All was not well with the patents amendment Ordinance that was issued in

Better now, but...

The New Delhi ministerial meet of the G-20 group of developing countries may not have achieved much in terms of pushing global trade talks forward, but it has succeeded in keeping eyes focused on the

No headway

The deferment of the date for compliance with Sebis amendments to Clause 49 of the stock exchange listing agreement is a tacit acknowledgment that many of the new provisions are impractical,

Corporate governance

Last year Colin Powell, the then secretary of state, came here and went on to Pakistan, where he announced that the US had granted Pakistan the status of a major non-Nato ally. India took that badly

No surprise

It has taken almost two years of a strong bull run to lure investors back to mutual funds. New schemes have started mopping up large amounts of money, and there are many more mutual fund IPOs in the

Late to the party

The global reflation trade is unravelling. Last Tuesday, the US Federal Reserve raised its fed funds rate by the customary 25 basis points, but it changed the wording of its accompanying statement to

Greenspan`s moves

<B>More independent company boards are the order of the day, but blind copying of western models will not help.</B> 

Can Clause 49 improve governance?

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

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