The government faces a staff shortage, a news report says. Most people might find it difficult to believe that, given how the total staff strength has been growing almost every yearinstead of coming

Too few babus?

Business Standard

Sebis MAPIN system has elicited enormous controversy. Many people have instinctively flinched from the prospect of a database of fingerprints. But after a protracted process of public discussion,

Investor privacy

The Bill to amend the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), introduced in the Rajya Sabha shortly before the conclusion of the winter session, reflects a very half-hearted bid to tone down the provisions

Non-essential law

Lifetime customer value, not transaction value. Market-derived pricing, not cost-plus pricing. Marketers in several industries cite these as touchstones in long-range businesses. The telecom industry

End game in telecom?

A key element for modernising Indian agriculture is well-functioning markets for agricultural products. Way back in 1952, a Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act was passed, which was about banning all

How many Sebis?

The announcement by the railway ministry that it will allow private operators to offer container freight services is a huge step forward in reforming the sector. Railway reforms in recent years have

Competition on track

The man in the street has not been the only one to be taken by surprise by the temperature dipping to near freezing point in the northern region, including Delhi, on Sunday morning. The national

Forecasting the weather

Credit ratings are a subjective assessment of the chances that a debenture will go into default. On any one debenture, the rating agency can be wrongsometimes, a low-rated bond can actually perform,

Rating difficulties

It is a healthy sign that most of the states have reacted favourably to the labour ministrys reform proposals, which have focused on amending the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA) and the Contract Labour

Unbundle labour reform

The latest Nasscom-McKinsey report indicates that if India can beef up its supply of urban infrastructure and skills, there are at least five more years of top-of-the-line growth in software and

Subir Roy: Innovate and rule the world

It is now generally accepted that in the real sector, if a tax is placed on multiple intermediate stages of production, it creates distortions. The incidence of a turnover tax (or excise) thus falls

A wrong tax

The Vaidyanathan task force on cooperative credit, which had earlier recommended a financial package of Rs 14,839 crore for the rejuvenation of short-term cooperative credit institutions, has now come

No soft options, please

Ever since the UPA government came to power in May 2004, it has been an open secret in the Capital that it is not entirely what it seems. One reason for this perception was the fact that Sonia Gandhi,

Freelance ministers

The demat scam has got larger in size as one more IPO allotmentIDFChas got added to the Yes Bank episode. The culprits are the same. If Roopalben Panchal had 6,315 bogus demat accounts in the Yes

The IPO scam

Though there are the obvious differences, as on history text books, between the NDAs HRD minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, and the UPAs Arjun Singh, there are too many unwelcome similarities too. While

Different song, same tune

To the governments credit, it seems to be trying to make sure that the privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports is done righteven if it means committee after committee, and review after review

Why not re-bid?

In the endless discussion over the politics of literary awardsis it Nigerias turn or Albanias to win a Nobel, was such-and-such judge guilty of literary infidelity when he abandoned x or y authora

Nilanjana S Roy: Crossed swords and Crosswords

The latest Auto Expo grabbed the headlines even before its scheduled startfor all the wrong reasons. It did so in 2004 too, when some major auto makers decided that the bi-annual event was too

Pedal to metal

The 5th Pay Commission (1997) looms large in everyones memory, for the damage it did to Indian public finance. It has taken years of effort to claw back to the fiscal numbers that prevailed prior to

Don`t make haste

The airline business isnt the greatest around. Margins tend to be low, if they exist at allwhich is why one American airline after another has sought Chapter 11 protection against creditors.

Where`s the Commission?

The previous governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bimal Jalan, once expressed his wish to make the half-yearly monetary and credit policy announcement a non-event. His wish was fulfilled, in

Make it a non-event

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 299 - Editorial Comment