The agriculture production figures for 2003-04, indicating a record foodgrain harvest, may add to the feel-good factor but do not really point to much progress on the farm front. 


Deceptive bounty

Business Standard

First they sulked. Then they talked about talking. Then they talked about what to talk about. Then it was about when to talk. 


Now for real talks

One would have expected that last years bull charge in the stock markets should have resulted in heightened investor interest in equity funds. 


Lingering suspicion

The Comptroller and Auditor-Generals audit para that says the government lost Rs 145.7 crore on the sale of the Centaur Hotel to the A.L. Batra group two years ago, doesnt hold up to scrutiny. 


Just discount it

With investments worth $2 trillion and growing, it is no exaggeration to say that multinational investment in the developing world is now a fact of life. 


Truths about FDI

The Union government seems to be completely at sea about its plans for the financial sector. The most recent proposal is to merge the Infrastructure Development and Finance Company (IDFC) with the

Wrong medicine

Just as one swallow does not make a summers day, too much need not be read into the fact that many of the top B-schools have managed to get their wards placed in well-paying jobs on Day One. 


Placement signals

For 21 successive weeks now, the rate of inflation, measured by the percentage change in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) over the corresponding week of the previous year, has been above 5 per cent. 


Worry about prices

The fear of losing their old power, if not relevance, must explain Tuesdays strike by trade unions. 


Losing relevance

One can have too much of a good thing, as the tourism industry is discovering just as visitors from overseas have begun dropping by in increasing numbers. 


No room here

The government decided to offload the shares of six public sector companies. Three issues got off to a good start, while IBP got a lukewarm response in the initial bidding. 


Can't bear all this

Ever since its inception in the early 1950s as the Jana Sangh and then its re-branding a quarter century later, the BJP has avowedly been a party of the Hindu majority. 


Miyan Atal Bihari?

Corporate results for the third quarter of FY 2004 show that India Inc continues to improve its performance. A <I><B>Business Standard Research Bureau </I></B>study of 950 non-banking companies shows

Getting better

It speaks volumes for the independence of banks in the country that the board of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) should approve a merger with the ailing IFCI without knowing what the swap ratio of the

Life after IFCI

The first impression created by Jaswant Singh is that his interim Budget is everything that it should be: restrained with regard to new announcements in view of the coming elections, and showing

Betting on growth

The finance minister has reaffirmed IDBIs status as the countrys lead development finance institution. 


Confusion on roles

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has been a proponent of the idea of public-private partnership in developing big infrastructure projects. 


Problematic partnerships

The finance minister, Jaswant Singh, may not have realised it but he has just increased the risk of stunting Indias nascent business process outsourcing (BPO) industrys growthfirst, because of a

Killing the goose

The country is barely recovering from the fiasco of cost-plus pricing and guaranteed offtake from power producers like Enrons Dabhol, and the N.K. Singh task force on power investments has virtually

Back to Dabhol

It is just as well that the proposal to open up international aviation routes to private Indian airlines, did not make it through Cabinet. 


Potholes on the runway

The stock markets have been range-bound in the past few weeks, after a sizzling run in December. After the markets superlative performance last year, some amount of profit-taking is only to be

Correction phase

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 329 - Editorial Comment