The vanaspati industry has been passing through a bad patch for a long time. Its troubles are due wholly to the flawed import duty structure for palm oil, the major raw material for vanaspati

Correct the anomaly

Business Standard

News reports say that the new government is looking at ways of making the official system function more effectively, by changing the rules governing bureaucrats. If this is indeed the case, it will

Reforming the bureaucracy

Having reacted quickly to the sharp spurt in inflation by going into repeated huddles, and announced that both the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank will take measured steps to tackle the

Don't choke growth

Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs maiden Independence Day speech could not have been much better either in tone or content. Or even duration. 


Nice speech, but...

It does not take a genius to figure out that post office savings schemes are currently the best thing going for the Indian saver. 


Out of whack

Tata Steels proposed acquisition of Singapores NatSteel marks yet another global foray for the Tatas. 


In acquisitive mode

On the face of it, the huge spread of contract manufacturing is one of the best things to happen to Indias corporate sector in recent times. A cover story published in The Strategist section of this

Contracting it out

Starting last week, this newspaper has been running a series of stories under the banner Corporate Shootout to showcase the financials of some of the best companies in each industry. 


Pointers to excellence

The sharp rise in bond yields over the last few weeks has unnerved banks, who now have to budget for a large depreciation in the market values of their investments. 


The depreciation trap

The governments decision to lower import and excise duties on various petroleum products last week has not come a day too soon. It may leave some equity analysts and refineries unhappythey will have

Cooling oil

In the last round of the Lok Sabha elections, two IT-savvy state governments of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were voted out of power and replaced by avowedly rural and agriculture-oriented

IT as a catalyst

The recently concluded IPO by Google, the Internets most popular search engine, generated more buzz than usual for several reasons. For one, it was the first major Internet-related offering since the

Lessons from Google IPO

It should come as no surprise that some of the states that top the Debroy-Bhandari Composite Economic Freedom Index are also the ones with the highest per capita incomes. 


Freedom & growth

Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswans proposal to increase the number of drugs under price control from the current 74 to over 300 is certain to go down well with the common man. But

Worse than the disease

In theory, the consumer is king. The evidence of this is available every time we see ads announcing price cuts, discounts, and enhanced product features to entice the consumer. 


Alive, but not kicking

The success of the TCS issue has destroyed several myths and reinforced some old lessons. To start with, there was some talk that the sheer size of the issue would be too much for the market to digest

TCS and the markets

Its early days yet, but there seems to have been some progress on the power reforms front. 


Let there be light

The Prime Minister is reported to be upset at the way the Opposition rendered the last session of Parliament infructuous. The Union Budget was passed without much debatea rare event in an otherwise

Parliament Street

The seeds business today is not what it was when the Seed Act was enacted in 1966. Four decades ago, the Green Revolution was still to happen, and seedsan important contributor to that Revolution

Aligning seeds & needs

The finance ministers remarks at the annual general meeting of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) the other day indicate that the government is in favour of consolidation in the Indian banking

Bank merger posers

The new private sector general insurance companies have proved the potential of the Indian market. Six of the eight players have been able to make profits within three years of starting operations in

On their way

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 321 - Editorial Comment