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

Business Standard

Vijay Mallyas acquisition of Whyte &amp; Mackay, the fourth-largest Scotch whisky producer in the world, marks a personal milestone which plays in with some key emerging realities in India today. Mr

Mr Good Times

In the early days of the new telecom policy regime, private equity funds played an important part in providing resources to the emerging private presence in the sector. Warburg Pincus picked Bharti

Equity for infrastructure

Among the institutions in which Indians can justly take pride is the constitutionally mandated office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Its reports often provide the only clear window to the way

Voice in the wilderness

It is well-known that dams built for producing hydro-power emit methane, an environment-unfriendly greenhouse gas. But that the Indian dams in particular are the worlds worst methane polluters, as

Unfairly damned?

Most, if not all, observers of the real estate sector would be inclined to agree that recent price increases have shown signs of being a bit of a bubble. The upward pressure on prices has been caused

Real estate tightrope

India may have succeeded in getting the ban lifted on the export of mangoes to the US and Japan, after years of effort, but this may not be the end of the battle to get its fruits into lucrative

Beyond mangoes

Considering the inherent uncertainties of the weather, meteorological predictions cannot be expected to hold true all the time. But if forecasts err more often than not, the want of prediction skills

Why re-invent the wheel?

If Tata Power and Reliance Energy manage to pull off the impossible and are able to source another 200 Mw of power on a sustained basis, it is possible that Mumbai will continue to be one of the few

No longer an island

With the oil-marketing companies firming up the supply of over a billion litres of ethanol from sugar mills, the long-delayed move to introduce 5 per cent alcohol-doped petrol in 20 states seems

Not without costs

<B>Mehbubul Alam, Independent, Bangladesh:</B> We talk of connectivity all the time. How will we achieve it? 


Bilateral ties need to improve too

The ministry of defence, traditionally a support base for a network of public sector production units, is at last thinking of defence production in terms of free-market competition. Beginning with a

Not ambitious enough

In his direct but non-confrontational manner, the Prime Minister has told a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of High Courts that the judiciary must stick to its knitting. The

Doctor, heal thyself

The agriculture ministry has raised its estimate of this years wheat crop, to 73.7 million tonnes from the earlier projection of 72.5 million tonnes (which compares with the last years actual output

Upbeat on wheat

The annual targets for credit flow to agriculture may have been exceeded in the past couple of years, but the broad farm credit scenario remains nearly unchanged: the share of the non-formal sources

Rural indebtedness

I would like to examine why India-Pakistan relations have been so unsatisfactory for so long, and what we might do about them. 


Misconceptions about India, Pak abound

The numbers for industrial production during February, released last week, show that manufacturing output grew by 12.3 per cent over February 2006, taking the growth rate for the year to date to over

Macro vs micro trends

Jet Airways acquisition of Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore has thrown up several issues, questioning the soundness of the deal. These include whether Jet overpaid for the acquisition and if the lag of

Jet, set, merge

The governments arguments, made in its affidavit to the Supreme Court, asking for a lifting of the stay on the reservation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), do not really clarify matters; rather they

Confusing matters

One of the most revolutionary steps taken by the government, on the prodding of the National Advisory Council, has been the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Though the usage of the Act has been limited

Misusing RTI

The fertiliser industry is on the brink of sickness, through no fault of its own. While pervasive controls have stifled the industry, the mismanagement of subsidy payments by the government has pushed

Fertilising trouble

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 381 - Editorial Comment