2007 has been a standout year for India in terms of mergers and acquisitions. M&amp;As became a part of the Indian business scene soon after the policy constraints on growth were lifted, with each

The changing M&A game

Business Standard

Benazir Bhuttos killing marks another tragedy in the terrible saga of Pakistans most prominent political family, with her father and brother having suffered unnatural deaths before her. It also

Pakistan on the edge

Rarely has the impending launch of a commercial product worked up so much lather in advance as Tata Motors much-awaited Rs 1 lakh car has done. RK Pachauri, who chairs the Inter-Government Panel on

Tax emissions

An idle mind, it has been wisely said, is a devils workshop. The point can be illustrated in several ways but altogether the best example is to be found in what is happening in South Asia. The region

A violent neighbourhood

As a lengthening list of major global financial institutions discloses the impact that the sub-prime problem has had on their performance, a somewhat unexpected source of rescue and relief has emerged

Sovereign forays

There was a lot of optimism surrounding the power sector at the start of the 11th five-year Plan, in April. It has taken all of seven months to puncture the optimism, and to recognise that consumers

A familiar story

Coming as it does on the heels of the department of telecommunications (DoT) playing favourites with Reliance Communications, the Telecom Engineering Centres (TECs) recommendations on sharply hiking

Bad call

The US Federal Reserve Board has done the expected, and dropped the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, to 4.50 per cent. It has also said that there will be no further rate cut at its next meeting

Behind the Fed`s rate cut

Prakash Karat, the seemingly all-conquering general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), is certainly breaking new ground. He has given a certificate of integrity to Manmohan Singh,

Batting for China

Dictators, even those clothed in democratic raiment, do not give up power voluntarily. Even less do they stand down because of adverse judicial pronouncements. So, few will be in doubt that Gen.

The way of all dictators

By all accounts, the action taken by the government and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for stopping the practice of issuing participatory notes with derivatives underlying has been

Taxing derivatives trading

And repent at leisure. The classic exposition of this adage appears to be the Haryana governments reported move to announce a host of incentives to help exporters pare their wage bills after the

Act in haste...

It is a measure of how seriously Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is viewing the general outrage over the telecom ministry helping Reliance Communications to jump the queue of those waiting for spectrum

Half-truths

A Nobel winning economist once famously remarked that in the US human capital depreciated very rapidly so that old men had no place in the countrys public life. India and other eastern societies have

Giving youth a chance, finally

Several media reports in the past few days have brought the issue of environmental pollution back into sharp focus. One such pertained to the findings by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)

Clean technology

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has taken umbrage at US clothing retailer Gap deciding to return clothing from India on the grounds that the exporter who had sent the consignment had used child labour to

Bridging the Gap

The Planning Commission has proposed that the Centres gross budgetary support for education should go up from 8 per cent of GDP in the Tenth Plan (2002-07) to over 19 per cent in the Eleventh. This

The money alone won't help

A vital test of a system is whether it can survive the depredations of a rogue ruler. Indian democracy survived Indira Gandhis assault on it in the mid-1970s and has done reasonably well in the three

Pakistan`s shaky bedrock

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for September 2007, released yesterday, says industrial output grew by 6.4 per cent over September 2006, the slowest growth rate so far in the current year.

Sharper than expected

Many things have gone seriously wrong at Nandigram in southern West Bengal. The genesis of the crisis lies in the decision of an agency of the state government in January this year to notify the

Party before state

On the face of it, fining ICICI Bank Rs 55 lakh for using goons to recover a car loan was entirely the correct thing to do; banks will think twice now before repeating the tactic against defaulting

Sub-prime solutions

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 266 - Editorial Comment