Beauty, we all know when we look at other peoples wives (and thank our stars), lies in the eyes of the beholder. Likewise, propriety lies in the minds of those who are expected to set an example by

Go stand in the corner

Business Standard

The Reserve Bank of Indias Annual Report for 2004-05 is largely a reiteration of the central banks prognosis of the economy, much of which has already been communicated in its annual monetary policy

Report card

The problems created by the flawed partial decontrol of phosphatic and potassic fertilisers in 1992 are still haunting the industry. To begin with, it was no decontrol at all as it merely replaced

Short-sighted policy (SSP)

Though the Bangalore-based Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulations (CMMACS), a government body, has for years been issuing monsoon forecasts by using its experimental prediction

Let 100 monsoons bloom

The Centre for Media Studies, which describes itself as a professional forum, has done a useful study of corruption in India. The study was done on behalf of Transparency International, globally known

Measuring corruption

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attends the meeting of the G-8 (the group of the worlds most prosperous nations) in Scotland today, he will not be doing so as just the head of an emerging economic

Resisting pressure

It may be trite to point out that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. But when that weakest link is the Indian co-operative banking system, with deposits of over Rs 100,000 crore, and when

Where`s the stick?

The outcome of the G-8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland has been very much on expected lines on both the key issues of poverty alleviation in Africa and global climate change. 


Cold Comfort

The early blues about an inadequate monsoon have subsided. Virtually the entire country has had good rains so far and, assuming that the monsoon will not peter out in the next few days, the

It`s raining growth

Now that the National Textile Corporation (NTC) has earned Rs 1,800 crore or so from the sale of mill land (and a lot more is forthcoming), it has become relatively easy for the government to agree to

Shut it down

The other day my daughter asked: Are you and Mama divorcing? Ohmigosh, I said, she and I had a scrap over the unmade beds, but I didnt know shed taken it to heart. She must have, butted in

Kishore Singh: Hitches in getting hitched

The Sensex may have crossed 7,200 and may be scaling new heights, but the retail investor has resolutely refused to join the party. 


The missing investor

Reports indicate that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is once again thinking of imposing curbs on the discretionary allotment of shares to Qualified Institutional Investors (QIBs) in

Less discretion, please

For the last several years India and the US, like two uncertain suitors, have been slowly discovering each other. Since the Bush administration came to power five years ago, the wooing has been at

A peck on the cheek

The broad contours of the deal made by the UPA with its Left allies can be traced from the list of Bills slated to make the cut in the coming session of Parliament. 


Faustian bargains?

The long-awaited revaluation of the yuan has finally happened. Speculation about the revaluation of the Chinese currency had been in the air for years, and had resulted in billions of dollars worth of

The yuan floats

The latest report on the state of the countrys forests, indicating a marginal increase in overall green cover, provides cold comfort. 


Uncertain progress

In retrospect, it is obvious that the government lost out on the Dabhol battle when it didnt get a state-owned firm like NTPC to bid for the bankrupt Enrons equity in the Dabhol power company, for

Dabhol`s prospects

And they all lived happily ever after. In this version of everyones favourite bedtime story, the foolish/wicked government realises the error of its ways and gives state-owned enterprises (SOEs)

Bedtime tales

Now that the little mushroom clouds, both of indignation and hosannas, have drifted off into the sunset, one thing seems clear: unless India wants to go on building nuclear weapons ad infinitum, it

Cap, no roll back

The Haryana police and the district administration of Gurgaon have only themselves to blame for the crisis that has visited the whole area. The potential fallout of what began as an industrial dispute

Uniformed lawlessness

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 359 - Editorial Comment