The upward revision of the gross domestic product numbers for 2005-06 (from 8.4 per cent to 9 per cent) is surprising mainly because of the sharp increase shown in the growth of the agriculture and

Agricultural blip

Business Standard

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been maintaining for the last few years that its job is to ensure an inflation rate of between 5 per cent and 5.5 per cent. That sounds comforting, and the Bank is

What should inflation be?

The sharp surge in corporate profits, in relation to sales growth, has meant that profits (after tax) now average a handsome 10 per cent of turnoverup from 7 per cent not so long ago. There could be

Import competition

Deepender Singh Hooda recently argued in a <I>Business Standard</I> debate that a genuine free market for the underlying commodity is a pre-condition for futures trading. He argues that since such a

Futures trading works

Much has been made of Indias Golden Quadrilateral project. Among its key claims are that truck speeds have increased more than 40 per cent as a result of better-quality roads. While improved road

Building roads not enough

The government promulgated an extraordinary Ordinance last Saturday. The new law requires private broadcasters to share their live signals with Doordarshan (DD), which is the public broadcaster. It

Self-willed government

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) released its advance estimates of GDP for the full year 2006-07 yesterday. These are the numbers on which various fiscal parameters will be premised when Mr

Confirming the obvious

The initial numbers put out at the first anniversary of the UPA governments flagship programme, embodied in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), confirm in some ways what the sceptics

Hardly job guarantee

When the National Association of Software Service Companies (Nasscom) and the consulting firm McKinsey came out at the start of this decade with their joint projection of $50 billion exports of

Citius, altius...

India may be getting excited about domestic semiconductor manufacturing, but there are two analyst reportsfrom J P Morgan and Gartnerin the last one week which state that the country should not go

Design it

In the good old days, the identification between a firm and a country was obvious.. IBM was an American company through ownership, management team, value added and source of profits, and Sony was

Firms fuse nationalities

After all the controversy and even intrigue surrounding it in the past few months, the Indian team for the cricket World Cup squad has been announced. The much-debated experimentations with the team

The old reliables

Indian companies may be going overseas to acquire large firms and, barring a few sectors, India welcomes foreign firms coming and taking over businesses here and setting up greenfield ventures.

An illiberal mindset

It is a well-recognised fact that whenever the government does not want to do something in a hurry, it sets up a commission. Depending on the predilections of the chairman of the commission, a set of

A starting point

The petroleum ministrys decision to reduce both petrol and diesel prices (to be followed probably by matching duty cuts on these products, so that the hapless oil-marketing companies are spared

Fighting inflationary fires

By one view, the Great Leader has held a gun to the heads of the Great Powers by going nuclear and got them to give him what his country needs most  energy in the form of fuel oil, the promise of

Diplomacy or blackmail?

Rapid economic growth has gifted the government with a tax bonanza this year. Direct tax revenue, in particular, has been running well ahead of Budget estimates. So the government should expect to

Stick to deficit reduction

The newspapers are filled with tales of acquisitions. Firms, it seems, are spending more time buying businesses than building them. This is great for investment bankers, but is it right for India? In

The M&A rush

Mistakes are often the result of desperation, and/or bad advice. Both cloud judgment. The Congress, ever since it came back to power at the Centre in 2004, has had a surfeit of all threedesperation,

The urge to dismiss

The courts have stepped up pressure on governments to clean the countrys rivers. The predictable response is to throw more money at the problem. That translates into more sewage treatment plants.

Dead river tales

Farmer suicides and distress in the countryside have taken on the dimensions of a national scandal. What farmers need most of all is assured water for irrigating their crops; indeed, many suicides by

Failure in irrigation

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 280 - Editorial Comment