Budget games appear to have begun in full earnest. Over the years, they had dwindled in interest levels, what with the finance ministrys rather rigid insistence on boring ideas like fiscal

Fiscal playground

Business Standard

Forecasting the growth of the Indian economy has become a hazardous business. The numbers for the first quarter of 2006-07, released late last week, beat even the most optimistic forecasts and had GDP

Beating the forecasts

A doctor belonging to that premier medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), died of dengue last week. He died not in some remote village where medical help was not

Shame!

On major economic policy issues, the government presents a rather confusing picture to a world looking for clear signals and straight answers on policy positions. For some months now, there has been a

In each other's way

Every year, the Berlin-based Transparency International comes out with various survey-based reports ranking the different countries on a corruption scale. This week, it released its Bribe Payers

Reputation risk

It took Infosys Technologies 23 years to achieve a turnover of $1 billion, and 23 months to add another billion; now it will take just 12 months to add a third billion if it meets its guidance of $3

Burning up the track

Recent columns on this page have highlighted the sheer magnitude of the challenge that employment poses for policymakers in this country. The labour force (generally defined as the number of people

Jobs for the masses

A year-long sting operation by a BBC channel into data theft involving BPO work offshored to India, has created public anxiety. In three separate actions, those conducting the operation have been able

BPO firms carry the can

The government may not want to concede it, but the country seems headed towards one of its worst outbreaks of vector-borne viral and other diseases. While the deadly dengue has already swept across 19

Public health fiasco

The recent behaviour of macroeconomic indicators have apparently convinced financial markets that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will hike the benchmark repo and reverse repo rates in its next policy

A hike for sure?

The fact that the convention to mark one year of the Right to Information Act was inaugurated by the President and the Prime Minister delivered the valedictory address indicates that at least in form

Trappings vs substance

It is not the first time that the Centre has asked the states to review their foodgrain allocation quotas if they failed to curb the leakage of grains from the targeted public distribution system

A leaking system

No one can deny that India has a serious security problem, but the governments responses in recent months appear both excessive and counter-productive. At the behest of the security agencies, and

Security vs growth

The Tata bid for Corus Steel is a landmark case in Indian corporate history. It is the first multi-billion dollar bid for an overseas company, and therefore sets a benchmark even as it stands out for

Landmark bid

Talk of doubling the rate of increase in farm production seems to have become semi-permanent fashion. The previous NDA government stuck to the theme for five years, and the present UPA government has

Wishful thinking

The reported move by China to divert a whopping 200 billion cubic metres of water annually from the Brahmaputra to its dwindling Yellow river, has been formally denied by China but remains a matter of

Turning the tide

Last week, data put out by the US department of commerce indicated that the US economy grew by a relatively modest annualised rate of 1.6 per cent during the quarter ended September 30. This is the

American anxieties

The government seems to be committing one wrong after another on agricultural pricing. The new price policy for kharif crops is the latest manifestation. While the minimum support prices (MSPs) of the

Kharif pay-off

The first quarter of 2006-07 has not been good for government finances. Despite some increase in revenue collections, the fiscal deficit rose 46 per cent over its level during the first quarter of

Fiscal slippage

Reports indicate that the government is considering a revamp of the tax on beer. Alcohol taxation is, of course, exclusively in the domain of state governments and the Centre can, at best, provide

Beer necessities

The governments move to set up a national research centre on glaciology addresses an important concern, because it has been known for some time that many of the countrys major glaciers are shrinking

Disappearing glaciers

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 366 - Editorial Comment