Economists, philosophers, political scientists, politicians, retired civil servants and countless others have all along said that developing countries are short of capital, technology, institutions,

Royal statements

Business Standard

As Agni III, the 16-metre intermediate range ballistic missile, successfully leapt up into the sky in its test-fire last week, it marked a crucial breakthrough in Indias search for an effective

Catch up, fast

Capital controls were introduced in India many decades ago; so for almost everyone living today, a life in India has been one where the government has had an intrusive system of controls affecting the

Capital control

The latest round of advertisement wars between Internet job sites presents yet another challenge for the advertising industry. While the advertisements by TimesJobs do not mention Naukri.com by name,

Regulate yourself

In the old days, when people were less fussy, it was a common and accepted practice for potentates, major or minor, to reward their friends at public expense. The cost of a private pleasure was thus

Wolfowitz and Spartan law

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath unveiled the annual supplement to the five-year foreign trade policy yesterday. For several years now, the prevalent view on this annual exercise has been

If it ain't broke ...

The current year has brought more good news for Indias top cities than in any of the preceding decades. The latest is the Maharashtra governments decision to table a resolution in the state Assembly

May the ceiling fall

The quarterly schedule of the monetary and credit policy announcement looks increasingly redundant. The policy changes in the last two scheduled announcements, in October and January respectively,

Monetary challenges

As the Indian software story gets better and better, it is becoming increasingly intriguing how long such exceptional performance can continue. In the last quarter, five of the top six Indian IT

Software on a roll

The India Meteorological Departments prediction that the total rainfall in the coming monsoon season (June-September) is likely to be 95 per cent of the long-period average with an error margin of 5

Predicting monsoon

It is not without reason that the world despises politicians. Often, to put a nice spin on it, they are very badly morally challenged. Even so, Babubhai Katara, the BJP MP who was trying to smuggle

Misuse of privilege

The flawless 11th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C8) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), from the Sriharikota launch pad on Monday, is more significant than all its

Going commercial

The Reserve Banks annual policy delineation has managed to do two contrary things at the same time. It has used inaction quite effectively in the key area where tough action had been fearedfurther

Relief all round

When it comes to unedifying spectacles, India is never short of one. Whether it is MPs indulging in human trafficking or taking money for asking questions or peddling preferential cooking gas

A supply issue

The handing over of the Mundra ultra mega project to Tata Power is probably the only positive development in the power industry over the last few months. It will add around 4,000 Mw of power to the

Get moving on power

The revenue growth rate for 256 companies that have declared results so far (excluding banks and non-financial companies) for the March 2007 quarter has slowed to 21.4 per cent year-on-year as

Good, but...

Usually, tournaments like the cricket world cup are remembered for who won them. This time, however, there will be at least three other competing elements.<BR><BR>The first is the mysterious death of

A dismal show

Has the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) changed its mind onand its attitude tocapital flows, currency management and how to cope with the problems caused by its established monetary policy? That would

Confusing signals

It is clear now that only political initiative can salvage the Indo-US nuclear deal. Several rounds of negotiations at the official level have not narrowed the gap on the crucial issues, and it would

No nukes?

A 100-minute Budget speech, full of announcements regarding large budgetary outlays, can mask a different kind of reality. As in past years, the finance minister has flattered to deceivebecause the

Budgeting with caution -Video

The fertiliser subsidy bill, which used to be around Rs 13,000 crore till the beginning of this decade, has surged to over Rs 28,000 crore. Even as the numbers have climbed, the government has not

Re-working the subsidy

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 277 - Editorial Comment