Eternal vigilance, it has been said rightly, is the price of liberty. By that token, Indian media, both print and electronic, have been remiss on account of their growing obsession with sensationalism

Sleeping beauties

Business Standard

One of the great moral issues that dominated public discourse from the last quarter of the 19th century until the last quarter of the 20th was the responsibility of the state towards the poor. Until

The last Keynesian

Corporate India has shown enough resilience in the March 2006 quarter. The 965 companies that have so far declared their results have shown better growth in net profit than that in operating profit.

Cautious optimism

The 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), held in Hyderabad last week, provided an appropriate occasion to take stock of the regions economic performance and examine the main

Re-defining ADB

Money can be antidote to many things, including (as it turned out) to the spread of Communism in Asia. But you need a knife to spread the jam on the toast, and of the many institutions that sprang up

Make a start

Mixed signals abound in the data released by the government last week. First, the ministry of agriculture announced revised estimates of crop production during 2004-05, which will lower the base for

Still growing, but...

Two things stood out during Mani Shankar Aiyars tenure in the petroleum ministry: the enthusiasm with which he pursued oil diplomacy, working out deals to ensure energy supplies to India from

Murli Shankar Aiyar

Well begun, it is often said, is half-done. While that may be true in many circumstances, it need not be the case with the Indian monsoon. The uncertainties of this great weather system, influenced by

Well begun

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured all sections of society that his government will amicably settle the issues arising out of the proposed reservation for other backward classes (OBC) in

Reservations dilemma

A job of the stock market is to engage in speculative trading, where an assessment about the future dividends of shares is translated into what one would be willing to pay for them right now. The P/E

A wake-up call

Corporate performance in any period is inevitably going to be judged in relation to the achievements, or lack of them, in previous periods. Thus, it is that, when a sample of over 1,400 companies

Calming numbers

The ministry of commerce, as reported in this newspaper, is in the process of finalising a National Offset Policy to cover all non-defence purchases of more than Rs 300 crore. The logic of the policy,

Offset costs too

In 15 years, between 1970 and 1985, a determined leadership transformed Singapore from a small, swampy port town to one of the worlds most sought after and prosperous economic destinations. Between

Get going, Mr Kumar

Last Friday was a bad day for the Tatas, at least as far as their telecom business is concerned. Though the International Court of Arbitration had ruled against the Tata-owned VSNL on May 17, it was

Consumer's flag

The process of enacting a new food law to integrate over a dozen existing laws administered by nearly nine ministries has been dragging on for years. Even after its introduction in Parliament, the

Without vision

With the Delhi Metro running at around a fifth of capacity (the current ridership is 4.5 lakh passengers a day, against the original projection of 21.8 lakh at this stage of the project), it is time

Take the bus?

The governments move to import 1.5 million tonnes of wheat, in addition to 0.5 million tonnes already contracted, amounts to an admission of its failure to manage the foodgrain economy. The fact that

Reform the PDS

With ever increasing sums of foreign money rushing into the Indian equity market, it looks like the India story has been well and truly bought into by the rest of the world. Whatever ones investment

India abroad

Kamal Nath, the minister for commerce and industry, can justifiably take pride in the country¿s export performance since he took office in 2004. For two successive years, merchandise exports have

Stop this farce

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will make its quarterly assessment of the macroeconomic situation next week and, consequent upon that, announce its monetary policy stance for the quarter. Last time

Value of liquidity

It is often asked what good reforms have done. The story of what has happened to the productivity of Indian manufacturing, especially in the private sector, is well-known. But what has happened to

Reform works

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 369 - Editorial Comment