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

Business Standard

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers for April 2007 were released by the Central Statistical Organisation yesterday. These are, of course, the first indicators of activity for the current

Unusual spike

How many times have you heard people say that the Indian government is miles behind other countries when it comes to automation of processes? How many times have you heard them praise the electronic

Finally, a tech-savvy ministry

A tussle involving turf may be developing between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), about the currency futures market. By definition, a currency

Let Sebi do it

The OECD Employment Outlook 2007, an annual report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, provides a detailed picture of employment growth in the BRICs (Brazil,

The jobs challenge

Even as social entrepreneurship and the social sector bloom in the country with some commendable work in the field, the recent blacklisting of 600 non-government organisations (NGOs) and the lodging

Streamline NGOs

<B>Question:</B> Mr Boucher, the US declares itself as one of the largest democracies. Then, why does your government support a military regime in Pakistan?


Indo-Pak peace process doing well without US

Coal accounts for 50 per cent of the countrys energy mix and 70 per cent of its coal is used in power generation. The dependence on coal will not reduce over time and is likely to increase. Hence,

Clean up coal

The sordid face-off between the Punjab &amp; Sind Bank (PSB) chairman and managing director (CMD) and the five non-official directors reminds us yet again of the huge gap in standards that prevail

Double standard

The National Sample Survey Organisations (NSSOs) Consumer Expenditure Survey is conducted roughly once every five years on a large, nationwide sample. Detailed results from the latest round, which

A glass half full

The foreign secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon, is reported to have told a parliamentary standing committee that his ministry is under-staffed. He is also reported to have said: We are not that efficient

Diplomacy needs a corps

The two notable points about the finance ministers reply to the debate on the Budget are, first, that the buoyant revenue performance has been confirmed; and second, that Mr Chidambaram has responded

Try discussion papers

Two recent developments have given a fresh twist to the unending debate on the intellectual property protection, particularly the criteria for the patentability of a product. The first was the US

The patent twist

The new currency regime that the RBI is following has led to new difficulties for individuals and firms. Two things have happened at once: The level of the rupee/US dollar has shifted from Rs 45 to Rs

Rupee: level vs volatility

The Index of Industrial Production numbers for March were released on Friday, putting the last pieces relating to the sectors performance during 2006-07 into place. Broadly, they confirm what has

Ending on a high note

The conditional vacation by the Supreme Court last week of the eight month-old stay on conducting field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops prior to their release for commercial cultivation,

Interim solution

The election results in Uttar Pradesh, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress between them could not win even 20 per cent of the seats in the assembly, have inevitably cast their shadow on

Shadow on Delhi

The happenings at M S University of Vadodara over the last week have revealed how fragile some of the basic rights of citizens in the country are, and how compromised the institutional and official

Illiberal ethos

The deep-sea fishing sector has been in limbo ever since the licences of foreign vessels were withdrawn in the mid-1990s, following protests from local fishing communities that the trawlers were

Long-lasting limbo

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, put his finger on the spot when, while chastising members who had not allowed Parliament to function in recent days and weeks, he said that the countrys

No work, no pay

It seems almost a foregone conclusion that Paul Wolfowitz will resign his position as president of the World Bank. The position of 37 of the 39 directors of the Bank in this regard leaves him with

Wolf at the door

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 380 - Editorial Comment