While there will be those who disagree, the issues raised by the Stern Review on climate change are too serious to be ignored, more so since the impact of climate change is already visiblemelting

Stern warning

Business Standard

If the countrys pharmaceuticals industry is nervous about Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswans threats to increase the scope of price controls, it mostly has itself to blame. It under-estimated the

New prescription

The formation of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister in May 2004 had inspired the hope among civil servants that administrative reforms would now

Pay and performance

It is true, as the majority of the countrys mobile phone operators argue, that number portability (retaining your number even if you change operators) is not as critical today as it was a few years

Wrong call

A study by the US government accountability office (the equivalent of Indias office of the CAG) has highlighted huge differences between Indian and US balance of payments figures for business,

Count it differently

That the US will have to leave Iraq has been clear for some time. The reason is the next presidential election, which is due two years from now, and the effect the Iraq mess will have on Republican

Make a cautious exit

The US Congress has had its say on the Indo-US nuclear deal; now it is up to India to make up its mind on whether it can live with what it reads. Then it is for the two governments to negotiate the

The choice for India

Power Secretary RV Shahi appears to have pulled a rabbit out of his hat at a time when his ministry has fallen hopelessly short of the capacity creation target for the current five-year plan, which

Ultra mega ambitions

Controversy has been generated by the issue of whether the Prime Minister said that Muslims should have the first claim on development resources or whether, as officials claim, he said this of all

No dole to deliver

Indian financial regulators get skittish when the word hedge fund is used. Recent announcements suggest some movement by Sebi and the ministry of finance in their favour, while the RBI continues to

Who`s afraid of hedge funds?

The Prime Ministers speech at the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), which met a few days ago to finalise the approach to the Eleventh Five Year Plan, grabbed attention for its

Upping the ante

The brawl between Britannia Industries partners, Groupe Danone of France and Nusli Wadia, has been primarily over control of the Tiger biscuit brand. And the key lesson from this episode is that as

Brand wars

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, M Damodaran, is apparently keen on taking stock market regulation further. With this in mind, he has aired a number of far-reaching

New regulatory ideas

Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit to Japan seems to have given a new impetus to bilateral ties. Although there has been talk in Tokyo of a coming together of the two countries in the context of

Warming to Tokyo

The reprieve that the railway minister, Lalu Prasad, has gained by both he and his wife Rabri Devi being acquitted of the charge of owning assets disproportionate to their incomes, removes the danger

Don`t get carried away

On the face of it, the formal mechanism established by five leading oil importers to try and get lower oil prices, is an effort to use countervailing power when faced with suppliers whore

Countervailing power

Judging by the bids received for the two ultra mega power projects, Indias power sector has entered into a new zone of hope. While the state-owned NTPCs cost of production from all its plants

Two swallows...

One of the most important signs that a country is maturing as a democracy, which should mean not merely the right to periodically elect your rulers but also to hold them and their class accountable,

The idea of accountability

The Bill to reform pensions and appoint a pensions regulator is stranded because the trade unions want a government-guaranteed pension. The remarkable if paradoxical fact is that it is better for

The next 100 years

The mid-year review of the economy, placed before Parliament by the finance ministry on Tuesday, in compliance with the requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act,

Overheating or not?

Sometimes, it would seem that governments are even fonder of monopolies than private businessmen. The latest piece of evidence in support of such a thesis comes in the shape of the new city gas

Blessing monopolies

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 283 - Editorial Comment