The strong defence of genetically modified (GM) crops by Nobel laureate Norman E Borlaug, hailed as father of the Green Revolution, is essentially commonsense. 


GM crop potential

Business Standard

If there is one long-term threat under which the otherwise confident and buoyant Indian software industry lives, it is the fear of being overtaken by China. 


India-China IT gap

The Prime Minister was right to point out while speaking at the 30th anniversary celebrations of Business Standard last week, that although India has a system of

Missing consensus

The upward revision of farm production estimates for 2004-05, done by the agriculture ministry, lends itself to various interpretations and conclusions. The total foodgrain output is now pegged at a

Greener numbers

A recent market study by Gartner has projected that by the time the current year is out, 70 per cent of the top 15 Indian-owned business process outsourcing (BPO) start-ups in the customer-facing,

Alarmist

Not enough credit is given in India to the open, democratic system for the way in which it works to correct distortions and reverse wrong decisions. 


An open system works

The prolonged downturn in global commodity prices was reversed a couple of years ago, and since then there has been a veritable commodity price boom. 


Beyond the boom

While the numbers for the current year are yet to be finalised, the initial indications suggest that reforms in the power sector may be beginning to produce results. 


Generating hope

While the details of the proposals made by the Ashok Lahiri panel, set up to recommend a duty structure for the oil sector, are not yet out, reports suggest the idea is to halve import duties on crude

Not far enough

Going by recent reports, the finance ministry appears to have developed a case of split personality. At one level, ever since the 1991 reforms, the predominant themes in fiscal policy have been

What one hand taketh

The reason most commonly cited for the sharp tumble taken by share prices is the prospect of an interest rate increase in the US. This could slow down the inflow of FII money into India if money

Tactics, not theory

Press Note 18 had in recent months become something of a cause celebre, thanks to the governments determination to scrap the obsolete rule, and the concerted struggle by vested interests against its

Sensible compromise

Even when Railway Minister Lalu Prasad set up the U C Banerjee panel last September to inquire into the Godhra massacre, on the grounds that this involved his ministry since a train compartment had

Politicising crime

The governments move to allow foreign direct investment in all real estate projects makes sense, given the fact that the country requires huge funds for property development. 


Realty realities

This is not the first time that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has tinkered with the creeping acquisition limit. 


A job half done

Perhaps the most dramatic statement made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his press conference on Tuesday was that his government had decided to set up the Sixth Pay Commission, to review the

Value for money

While the decline in the population of tigers has been in sharp focus in recent years, an even faster drop in the number of vultures has gone largely unnoticed. Their population is reckoned to have

Disappearing vultures

The governments decision to import wheat at this time of year defies logic. That this decision was taken in a haste is clear, as it came barely hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emphatically

Poorly timed

The economy has just had its best three-year period ever. The advance estimates for GDP during the full year 2005-06 were released on Tuesday by the Central Statistical Organisation. GDP is expected

Boom time

The external trade data for December and January, released by the ministry of commerce and industry on Tuesday, reinforce the sense of contradiction that was apparent last week when both the advance

Evidence of slowing down?

As World War II came to an end, John Maynard Keynes designed a world monetary system which involved pegged exchange rates. Given the fresh memories of the Great Depression, autonomy of monetary policy

Endgame in sight for IMF?

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 363 - Editorial Comment