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

Business Standard

When it comes to agriculture, the Budget for 2007-08 flatters to deceive. In his Budget speech, the finance minister said right at the outset that agriculture must top the agenda of policy-makers, and

Where`s the beef?

After a Budget that disappointed with its lack of reforms, the government is following up with a policy that can bring back the days when the prices of everything, including initial public offerings

Farewell to free market

The successful launch of the Insat-4B communication satellite from Kourou in French Guyana on Monday morning marks a further expansion of Indias domestic communication satellite network, now by far

Not enough for DTH

The sugar industry is in crisis for no fault of its own. Being under total government command, it is slipping into the red largely because of ill-conceived and ill-timed policy interventions. While

Lessons not learnt

The governments announcement of the highest ever bonus of Rs 100 a quintal for wheat, on top of a similar hike in the minimum support price (MSP) for the grain, reflects its continuing (though

Panic on wheat

Free trade agreements (FTAs) may be a preferred way to boost trade with other countries, circumventing the multilateral trade negotiations under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), but

Not so free

The environment and forests ministrys move to seek the help of a non-governmental organisation to define forest may sound quaint, but it is a welcome step which should have been taken long ago.

What is a `forest`?

The launch of a weather-linked insurance scheme for coffee plantations, by the Agriculture Insurance Corporation of India (AIC), marks yet another experiment in covering the risks inherent to

Unlikely to work

Lurking fears of a water crisis have grown to alarming proportions and are staring us in the face. The latest jolt, perhaps the most disquieting, has come from the global nature conservation body, the

Threat to rivers

The finance minister has just completed a round of meeting with three groups of people in preparation for the 2007 Union Budget. He met with agriculturists and then trade unionists last Friday, and

Needed: a prior agenda

The interest rate in the call money (overnight) market surged close to 20 per cent last week. This is the market in which banks borrow from each other or other financial players, such as mutual funds,

Temporary spike

Farmers in Kolzari village in Yavatmal district, in the suicide-ridden cotton belt of Vidarbha, have reportedly vowed not to grow cotton any more. Even if driven by desperation, this is a wise move.

Moving out of cotton

Where has all the wheat gone? That was the question asked at the end of the last wheat marketing season in June 2006, when government procurement plummeted to its lowest level in years, despite a

Who has a wheat problem?

The power ministrys reported move to come out with a policy for promoting mega and ultra-mega hydro-power projects needs to be viewed with caution. The need to harness the countrys vast hydel power

Hydel should be small

Barely six months after Indias geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle, GSLV-FO2, broke up in the sky 65 seconds after its take-off, the countrys space scientists have more than made up for that

Space ambitions

The Supreme Court has done the country a service by arresting the mischief that has been sought to be done by politicians, who (it would appear) would like to take all contentious legislation beyond

Back on track

Goebbels is credited with the statement that if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Had it not been for West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjees decision to come out with

Left off the truth

Even as a collective sigh of relief is heaved about the 14.4 per cent growth in industrial production during November, which takes it to above 10 per cent for the year so far, there are some elements

... but for how long?

With one more TV news channel going public with an issue of shares, the question arises: what is it that is making TV companies trade at lofty valuations? New Delhi Television (NDTV) trades at a

The fine print

The fifth Indo-Asean summit, held in Cebu in the Philippines, may not have been a deal-clincher for India, but the deliberations that took place there are important. Where the much-delayed free trade

Progress with Asean

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

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