The Prime Ministers economic advisory council is reported to be of the view that nominal interest rates may have dropped too low as the system responded to the low rates of inflation that prevailed

The interest question

Business Standard

M K Narayanan, special advisor to the Prime Minister, has been appointed National Security Advisor (NSA). With this ends the speculation about who would get the job, which fell vacant when J N Dixit

Same job, new role

The government has done well to open up a new window of opportunity for the disinvestment programme. 


On with disinvestment

Bank results in the third quarter point to the need for consolidation in the financial sector. 


Needed: Consolidation

The Reserve Bank of Indias report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India, 2003-04 is largely a recapitulation of known facts and figures. 


Mixed picture

It isnt only the Sensex that is breaking recordson Tuesday, benchmark equity indices in Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil all soared to record highs. On the same day, the Reuters

Time to strike

If there were lingering doubts that the communal riots in Gujarat in February/March 2002 were a state-sponsored pogrom, last weeks series in the Indian Express should conclusively dispel them. 


Gujarat`s guilty conscience

The Prime Minister is reported to have sounded an upbeat and positive tone during his meeting with his council on trade and industry, Saturday. 


More committees

The new labour minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, has done well to sensitise workers to the need to bring more flexibility into the countrys labour laws to, as he put it, adjust our social protection

More labour pains

The idea that the hoards of black money in the economy can be unearthed and then used to provide resources for social schemes or any other purpose is conceptually flawed. 


Should the government use black money to fund social sector scheme ?

The railways seem to be toying with the idea of some ultra-fast trains running between the major cities, at speeds up to 250 km per hour. 


Flights of fancy

The Reliance affair is now two weeks old. Many issues are not clear at this stage of the tussle between the two managing directors of the company, but one thing has certainly become clear. 


Time for answers

Many observers have drawn attention to, and over-stated the implications of, the role of Sonia Gandhi and her national advisory committee in the UPA scheme of things. 


Rise of civil society

The flow of economic news continues to be extremely positive. Industrial growth in October moved into double digits after a long time, at just over 10 per cent, and export growth in November was an

As good as it gets

The 12-day United Nations conference on climate change that began in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on December 6 assumes significance for several reasons. For one thing, it is the last such global meet

Season of opportunity

Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented his mid-year review of the economy to Parliament on Monday, in keeping with the governments commitments under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management

Balancing act

The National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange are doing their bit for the current rally in the markets. Effective December 20 (next Monday) these exchanges will revise the methodology of

Coming soon: the PE prop

With winter barely setting in, horror stories of interminable flight delays and planes not being able to land in the capital are already the subject of daily conversation and news reporting. 


Foggy skies and minds

Hedge funds have been growing by leaps and bounds across the world. Assets under hedge fund management have grown 10-fold in the last five years, and are estimated at almost $1 trillion. 


Open up some more

The Gartner report on the attractiveness of various Indian cities as hosts for outsourced IT work confirms what is already widely believed Bangalore is rapidly going downhill and Chennai and

Bangalore's blues

The government (or its nominees) seems to have tried to carry out a boardroom coup at UTI Bank. The bank, in which UTI-1, the General Insurance Corporation and the Life Insurance Corporation of India,

Disgraceful

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 314 - Editorial Comment