The ball, once again, is in New Delhi's court

RBI runs out of room

Business Standard

The government has not imposed any new levies in the railway budget as it is a vote on account exercise. 


Wrong medicine

As the <I>Economic and Political Weekly</I> accommodates and adjusts to the late Mr Krishna Rajs successor, it is fitting that its readers reflect on the contributions that the magazine has made to

An enduring achievement

It is posthumous vindication, and the late Rajiv Gandhis family is understandably keen to emphasise the point. 


Belated vindication

The human resource ministrys diktat to the six premier institutes of management, asking them to slash student fees by 80 per cent, is bogus egalitarianism built on the basis of a lie. 


IIMs shining

Almost all the pre-Lok Sabha dissolution packages announced by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh have had measures aimed at wooing Indian farmers and for strengthening the agriculture sector. 


Farm package

When the food processing industry began sprouting in the late 1980s, nobody could imagine that it would soon outpace agriculture in growth and leave behind fancied sectors like pharmaceuticals and

Stunted growth

Everybody knows that, for all the ideological arguments in favour of free trade, negotiations on trade issues have always been an exercise in quid pro quo exchanges: you give some and you take some.

Look at the dollar

In a little over nine months from now, on December 31, the multi-fibre agreement, that for decades has governed the international trade in textiles, will come to an end. The agreement was designed in

Opportunity knocks

With an avalanche of shares being offloaded, its no wonder that the stock market is nervous. An estimated Rs 20,000 crore worth of new paper will hit the market in the next five weeks, thanks to the

Too much, too quickly

As part of the desire to be seen to be doing something for the aam aadmi who lost thousands of crore rupees to shady company promoters, the government has dusted the cobwebs off the proposal to deal

Another wild goose chase

The development commissioner, small-scale industry, has just published the Third All India Census of Small-Scale Industries. The census was conducted in 2001-02. The previous census was conducted in

Small could be ugly

For some time now, there has been talk of using the countrys large foreign exchange reserves to greater effect. Of course, the primary purpose of accumulating reserves is to provide a cushion against

Reserves to the rescue?

The tragedy of exploding scrap at a steel plant in Ghaziabad, in which 10 people were killed and several injured, looks increasingly likely to repeat itself. It turns out that this was not an isolated

An explosive problem

Scientific prizes offer underpaid researchers some recognition for their achievements and thus encourage future generations of scientists. Unfortunately, however, awards tend to be made long after the

Devangshu Datta: It's never too late for a Nobel

A meeting scheduled last week was to decide on the future of the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), one of the three national-level development finance institutions. 


Best to close it

If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is serious about what he said to senior bureaucrats a few weeks ago about preserving their independence by, if need be, coming directly to him, he must first emphasise

Red alert

India Post, the countrys inefficient postman and conduit of high-cost savings, wants to run a commercial bank. On the face of it, the organisation seems to have all the essentials in place: a

Not another bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will announce its mid-year economic outlook and its monetary and credit policy at noon today. The announcement will be made against the backdrop of the most turbulent

Stay the course

When governments change, new ministers often want to establish their superiority over their predecessors as quickly as possible. Some achieve this by design, others by luck, most not at all. 


Destructive continuity

This years Business Standard Banking Annual, published yesterday, has consolidation in the banking industry for its theme. The timing couldnt have been better because, as the recent quarterly

Consolidated banking

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 345 - Editorial Comment