It doesnt need great wisdom or political sagacity to argue that the government is in the wrong by persisting with tainted ministers who have been charge sheeted by the courts. 


Playing with the system

Business Standard

The proposed legislation to grant land rights to tribals has been imperilled even before the draft Bill goes for Cabinet clearance. The Bill seeks to provide tribals with rights to the land and forest

A Bill in the woods

The world over, privatisation has often been accompanied by controversyusually over the selling of public sector companies to wrong bidders or at the wrong price. 


Imperfect process

Even if the government does manage to get the controversial Dabhol power project going, this is unlikely to solve the countrys huge power crisis since the current shortage levels are around 12 per

Sunil Jain: The real power crisis

Apart from the fiscal unsustainability of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which has grabbed increasing attention over the past few months, a serious issue that has not got much

Spot the pensioner

That the yuan will be revalued against its dollar peg is no longer an issuethe issue is when and by what amount. With Chinas current account surplus surging by 50 per cent last year, and especially

The yuan effect

The Right to Information Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, is one of the few measures of social significance carried through in the UPA governments one year in office. That it has been

Information, at last

Since access to pre-specified air wave frequencies or spectrum is to mobile phone companies what supply lines are to armies, it is no surprise that the battle between various mobile phone companies

Trai at it again

While the government continues to be non-committal on the nature of the inquiry that it is ordering into the privatisation of the two Centaur hotels in Mumbai, the Comptroller and Auditor Generals

No left turns

The bold initiative to launch ethanol-doped petrol in nine states and four Union territories in 2002-03 was an environment-friendly, energy security-oriented step, but one that could not be sustained.

Look beyond ethanol

With Lalu Prasad as minister for railways, whatever hope remained for substantial reform of the system had been discounted a year ago. 


Reforming the railways

Manmohan Singh has given his government 60 per cent for its first-year performance. In the Indian educational marking system, that means a first division, without distinction. 


'Yeh dil maange more'

The National Food for Work programme, launched late last year by the United Progressive Alliance as its signature programme for poverty reduction, appears to suffer from the weaknesses of other such

Just as leaky

The fact that the Securities and Exchange Board of India chose the anniversary of Black Monday to announce a ban on participatory notes issued by UBS Securities has resulted in the order being greeted

The timing says it

LK Advani was looking for an issue that could be used to mobilise the already rising tide of Hindu resentment in 1986-87, when Rajiv Gandhi gave it to him on a platter, with his governments decision

End this mischief

The most telling statement about how Indias textile exports have done after they were freed up is that the US and the EU have been threatening to take action against Chinese textile exports! These

Textile trauma

The dissolution of the Bihar assembly, elected a scant three months ago but out of which no government could be born because it was badly hung, could have been done at any stage in the last two months

A third outrage

Rather surprisingly, contradicting the predictions of most market pundits, the bond market has been seeing a smart rally, in spite of the Reserve Bank of India raising its reverse repo rate in its

Relief rally in bonds

While the monthly index of industrial production, which is one of the earliest available indicators of the health of the economy, is released with a six-week lag, a small subset of it, referred to as

Early warnings

His first year as prime minister safely behind him, Manmohan Singh has made a good start in the second. While there is as yet still no action on the much-needed price hike in petrol and diesel prices,

Not just gas

While even a casual drive around most urban areas in the country reveals the extent of the decay, the results of the National Sample Survey Organisations (NSSOs) latest household survey data are

Urban decay

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 309 - Editorial Comment