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

Business Standard

As the political crisis in Nepal deepens, Indians are being forced to re-examine their view of a country that they have taken for granted for 60 years, and which is now at a political crossroads. It

No easy options

After a spate of suicides by cotton growers in the state, it is now the turn of onion producers in Maharashtra to take the most extreme step. Wholesale prices have crashed in the intensive

Stop this tragedy

Even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did not change its benchmark interest rates in its quarterly monetary policy announcement earlier this week, it did introduce one measure that seems to have

Asset price concerns

Corporate India is in great shape, or so the Business Standard Research Bureaus study on the performance of early bird results indicates. Net sales have grown 23.39 per cent in the March 2006 quarter

The party continues

The most obvious point about the affidavits filed by various politicians facing the voter in the current round of state elections (and in one Lok Sabha by-election) is the enormous distance that

Where do politicians invest?

Those who expected some genuine reforms in terms of simplification of rates and procedures in respect of indirect taxes in this Budget would be thoroughly disappointed. There have only been some

Sukumar Mukhopadhyay: Conventional, no spark of reform

Most people have suspected for long that the exemptions given in the tax rules, for a variety of reasons (some of them quite creative), have ended up giving very special treatment to the favoured

`Exemption raj`

One of the striking features of this years Budget is the relatively pessimistic expectations it has for growth in the collection of central excise revenues. These are budgeted to grow at a mere 6.3

Energising excise

The fertiliser industry is caught in a crisis of the governments making, and the government seems to have no intention to address the problem. The bulk of the industrys input and product prices are

Inexplicable neglect

The governments initiative on changing foreign investment norms in telecom appears to be coming unstuck. What began as a battle for more between the Indian partner (the Ruias of Essar) and Hutch has

FDI questions

After the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century had laid them low, the Chinese developed a saying. Fear not the sun, fear not the moon; fear the foreign devil who speaks English. Well, now that

Sauce for the gander

The projection of a normal monsoon this year is a reassuring augury for the countrys economy as it looks ahead to a new financial year and continuation of rapid growth. Optimism on the monsoons

A good monsoon?

Twelve years after introducing current account convertibility (in his role then as finance minister), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done well to re-focus attention on the next step, capital

That forgotten goal

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawars announcement in Parliament on the formulation of a new agricultural insurance scheme is neither the first of its kind, nor will it be the last. More than half a

It won`t work

If the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India is being pursued in order to arrest the two airlines loss of market share over the years (as some reports have suggested), it is a bad idea. A merged

Expect turbulence

The plea in Mumbai last week by the Planning Commissions deputy chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, for taking agricultural development into areas like food processing, horticulture, life sciences and

Getting firms interested

The continuing boom in sugar scrips is neither unexpected nor unwarranted. These have been on the upswing for quite some time, though the gains in the past week have been even more easily noticed than

Sweet spot

Private insurers in India have just completed five years of existence. It is creditable that they have taken more than 26 per cent of the market in both the life and non-life segments, having

Questions on insurance

The South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta), replacing the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (Sapta), has come into effect this month, and implements the understanding reached at the Islamabad

A very limited step

The governments decision to slash the monthly foodgrain quota under the public distribution system (PDS), and to raise prices for households above the poverty line (or APLs) is a politically bold

Limited subsidy impact

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 370 - Editorial Comment