The governments Economic Survey for 2006-07, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday by the finance minister, contains little that has not been known or anticipated. As a report card on the economys

Food for thought

Business Standard

Even in the chequered history of sudden wealth-creation by politicians in India, the Mayawati disclosures must signal a new benchmark. It has been the general belief for decades that politicians amass

The full Monty?

Its that sinking feeling yet again in Mumbai, just a week after the first monsoon showers. The financial capital looked battered last Saturday (it was the wettest day since the deluge in July two

That sinking feeling

The dispute over Russias ban on the import of Indian rice, citing health safety concerns, is symptomatic of the issues that plague international trade in agricultural products. India and the US had

Go back to WTO rules

Controversies over the mishandling of wheat imports, as also mismanagement of the wheat economy as a whole, refuse to go away, and with good reason. Far from learning any lessons from last years

Bungling on wheat

Doctors are supposed to heal, not kill. And architects are supposed to build, not destroy. But they have started doing just that. Mohammad Atta, the man who led the attack on the World Trade Towers,

The educated terrorist

What she told the media, the public and legislators.


Pratibha Patil's campaign thus far

Aviation policy is no longer subservient to the commercial interests of the government-owned airlines. Broadcasting policy is yet to make the transition. Cricket telecast contracts are turned upside

Injury on top of insult

There is a saying in Urdu, <I>Is hamaam mein hum sab nange hain</I> (we are all naked in the bath), which applies very well to the candidates in the forthcoming Presidential election. The

Mandate public disclosure

The ministry of commerce and industry and the money of finance worked out an arrangement last week to offset the impact of the steadily rising rupee on export competitiveness. This mainly consists of

Focus on productivity

The 2007-08 first quarter results of the top three software companies have come as a bit of a shock to an Indian public which had got used to the regular unveiling of exceptional numbers. The results

This squall will pass

The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), which is supposed to promote competitive trading on the commodity futures exchanges, has taken the strange step of advising retail investors to stay away from

Comex uncertainties

Prima facie, the proposed Sethusamundaram canal project seems well-conceived as it will provide a shorter route for ships traversing the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, resulting in

Controversial canal

The export-oriented software industry has reacted in several ways to the negative impact of rupee appreciation on its financial performance, especially in the last (April-June) quarter. In the first

Software`s new challenges

The stock market may be at a new high this month, but there isnt much reason to cheer if the early bird financial results of companies are anything to go by. The net sales growth of 496 companies

Corporate slowdown

Tuesdays quarterly announcement of its monetary and credit policy by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will come in the wake of the global financial turbulence of last Thursday and Friday. These

Delicate balance

The latest report on nutritional intake in India, released by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on Thursday, is bound to cause eyebrows to rise. It shows that, notwithstanding rapid

No food security

Our analysis of the performance of a large sample of 1,700 Indian companies, representing about 75 per cent of the market capitalisation of the Bombay Stock Exchange, reinforces the very positive

Sustaining rapid growth

An important development is the significant increase in the direct transfers to various autonomous bodies. 


M Govinda Rao: Fiscal federalism and management

Last weeks summit of the worlds eight richest countries, along with five key developing nations, at Heiligendamm in Germany, was supposed to lend fresh impetus to the global fight against poverty,

Poor pickings

The core argument made by Indian steel mills when asking last year for restrictions on iron ore exports was that Indias steel requirements were set to grow exponentially, as Chinas has already done,

Shaky argument

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 379 - Editorial Comment