Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be congratulated on pulling off a landmark nuclear deal with the US during President Bush's visit. From the information that is available, the deal seems to be on

A landmark deal

Business Standard

Central Budgets are not the obvious place to look for corrective action when it comes to agriculture. For one thing, agriculture is a state subject. For another, most of the issues are non-financial,

Farming problems

The information that has been dribbling out suggests that the critical driver of the Indo-US nuclear deal has been none other than President Bush. He sent his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to

A broader engagement

Automobile manufacturers are said to be figuring out ways in which they can tinker with engine specifications so as to qualify for the lower excise duty of 16 per cent for small cars, announced in the

Slippery slope

The dust is settling on the nuclear deal, and it looks as thoughfor the first time in four decades, if not morethe country can look at nuclear energy with enthusiasm. If the US Congress co-operates

Now for nuclear power

No individual can be bigger than the institution. And so it is in the case of the Election Commission, which first grabbed the public mindspace when TN Seshan began disciplining political parties

A matter of confidence

Dont just have it on your mind. Have it on your plate too! So runs one of the series of advertisements that the ministry of health and family welfare and the department of animal husbandry are

Is the bird flu over?

The sharp correction in stock prices on Wednesday has been followed immediately by a correction of the correction. Stock prices have thus repeated the trend of recent months: every correction merely

A pause button

What TV viewers in Chennai have been suffering for the last few years will now be visited on their counterparts elsewherethanks to a court order that asks the government to introduce the conditional

Why penalise the viewer?

Each society or system has its own revered myths. In democracies based on the principle of separation of powers, the incorruptibility of the judiciary is one such. But to err is human and, as the

Unjustified conflict

The American game plan in Iraq seems to be coming badly unstuck. Sectarian violence has grown in frequency and scale, and there is talk increasingly of the country heading for civil war between rival

Iraq unravelling

The piles of cash that some state governments are sitting on have become the focus of attention and comment. Officials at the Centre have suggested that cash-surplus states should use the money to

Short-term bounty

The record-breaking placement offer of $193,000 (about Rs 86 lakh) from Barclays Capital, London, for a graduate from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Bangalore, is renewed affirmation of

More than the salary

It is well recognised that one of the reasons why the Hong Kong ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation didnt go the Cancun way, or that of Seattle, was because it discussed few specific

Building on Hong Kong

In an earlier era, the latest trade data would have caused much hand-wringing and brows furrowed with anxiety. It turns out that (in dollar terms) exports grew by about 12 per cent in February. This

A safe deficit

Rising people costs are the single biggest challenge the Indian software and services sector faces. This is to be expected in a services business where people matter more than machines. But people

IT`s rising costs

Its been more than two years since new government recruits moved from the old defined-benefit category of retirement schemes to the fiscally less problematic defined-contribution scheme (thus

Losing out

Verghese Kurien first talked of retirement a quarter century ago, when he was approaching 60. His departure on Monday has therefore been long overdue, and it is sad that it should have been

The milkman goes

The Reserve Bank of Indias report on Currency &amp; Finance has opened the debate on the merits of a super-regulator once againand the Sebi chairman has immediately thrown cold water on the idea.

A premature idea

When India opened up to trade, it facilitated greater competition and improved the muscle tone of Indian manufacturing. In similar fashion, opening the capital account will give greater competition in

Go slow on banks

It is a game at which politicians, especially those belonging to the Congress, are experts: when the law doesnt suit your personal requirements, change the thing, and principles be damned. So it

Double standards

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 296 - Editorial Comment