As Indians stroll down to the polling booths today in the first phase of the countrys 14th general elections, many voters will wonder what exactly they are voting for. 


Many convergences

Business Standard

US Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Alan Greenspan, has perfected the art of stating the obvious. In fact, so obvious that at times the global markets,which hang on to every syllable he utters, go into

No cause for concern

The World Development Indicators, 2004, recently released by the World Bank, shows that the proportion of people living in absolute poverty in developing countries has almost halved in the 20 years

Recipe for growth

If a week is a long time in politics, exit polls seem to compress time even further. A week ago, the stock market was rejoicing at the results of the exit polls that were held after the first phase of

Waiting for uncertainty

The problem of a bloated bureaucracy is not because of the officers in the system, who are relatively few and do not cost much, but the babus or clerks and equivalents, who make up the bulk of the

Getting rid of babus

Murli Manohar Joshi is in good company, that of the countrys courts. While his demand to get the IIMs to slash their fees was upheld by the Supreme Court (with a caveat on the IIMs autonomy being

Wrong issue

There is suddenly a flurry of forecasts about Indias economic growth in the new year. Most forecasts predict a second year of high growth. 


Long-term questions

It was always obvious that the issue of fees that the institutes of management and technology should charge, was not something for a court to decide. 


Now for other issues

The governments decision to put off, unconditionally, the move to impose the Conditional Access System (CAS) on television viewers, is a victory for consumers  who chose to not watch their favourite

Consumer victory

Whats common between the governments reaction to the bear hammering of PSU stocks and, say, the reduction in excise duties on steel? Or between these and various schemes announced in recent weeks to

The old mindset

The finance ministry has finalised a new round of senior public sector bank appointments, following its established procedures. But it is time to do things differently. 


Selecting bank chiefs

Sumantra Ghoshal, who died in London on Wednesday of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 58, was the quintessential representative of his own ideas: creative, and constantly pushing at the borders of

An influential thinker

One of the more challenging tasks for a professional is to build an institution, with the internal systems and depth that make for sustained success. 


Institution-builder

Arun Shourie, the minister for disinvestment, must be a happy man. After an initial hiccup, his disinvestment programme has gone like a breeze. 


Successful sale

After the furore over the human resource development ministrys interference in the institutes of technology and management, the next battle area could well be privately run schools. 


Passing the buck

The National Democratic Alliances India Shining campaign may have attracted more than its share of criticism for overstating the countrys achievements. 


Out of focus

While the election code of conduct has been cited as a reason for not cutting the interest rates payable on the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) from the present 9.5 per cent, its difficult to figure

Improvident fund

The Securities and Exchange Board of Indias (Sebis) move to lay down a set of regulations to enable hedge funds to operate in this country is the latest attempt to solve a problem that has vexed

Hedging against funds

The decision by the global parent GlaxoSmithKline to merge its Indian Glaxo subsidiary with Burroughs Wellcome India, is on the face of it nothing more than a follow through of the global merger,

Readying for battle

Every time the government meddles with the customs and excise duty structure for edible oils, it messes up further. And such meddling is not infrequent. As a result, this sector has to cope with a

Irrational duty structure

Indias farm sector may never be the same again. While close to two million farmers are already exposed to the wonders of an online market thanks to ITCs e-choupal project, others in places like

Gold is no longer secure

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 327 - Editorial Comment