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July 13, 2021
As Work From Home Deepens...
... Are far-reaching social changes coming with it, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.

September 05, 2020
The Rise and Rise of the Attention Economy
'The attention economy is making it economically valuable for us to spread our attention thin', observes ad guru Sandeep Goyal.

January 08, 2020
In advertising, to err is human
'The advertising business, methinks, needs to tone down a bit. Take control of itself, and its emotions,' advises adguru Sandeep Goyal.

July 22, 2019
50 years of nationalised banks: Time to celebrate, or sing dirges?
The 50th anniversary of bank nationalisation is an appropriate occasion for the owner to take a call on their future, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

March 02, 2019
The digital disruption that is tearing through Indian media
Zee and Star, the two largest media companies in India, are undergoing some radical ownership changes. What could it mean? Vanita Kohli Khandekar attempts an answer.

January 04, 2019
Only industry can solve agriculture's problem
The challenge for politicians is that the continuous electoral cycle favours short-termism and the loan waiver type of policy, whereas prosperity requires hard decisions where commonly held perceptions must be disrupted and over-turned, says Dhiraj Nayyar.

November 14, 2018
Cutback in oil output, rise in crude prices could impact India
Given that India will get a huge part of its oil supplies from Iran through its government-owned oil PSUs, any unwelcome shocks in global crude rates could be absorbed well enough.

October 17, 2018
Durga Puja economy is worth Rs 1 lakh cr!
If the Puja as a brand can be marketed more effectively outside Bengal, even overseas, it might do wonders for the economy, says Atanu Biswas.

August 03, 2018
Has India missed the electric vehicle revolution?
Signals received from the government in the past one year reflect a state of utter confusion, says Abhishek Tripathi.

March 30, 2018
Creating 'employee value' is essential for success
'It is important that employees are trained to acquire skills that would be needed in future, when the company sees disruption coming -- that is, much before the disruption occurs or the company plans to change the business model,' says Asish K Bhattacharyya.

March 17, 2018
Looking beyond loan writeoffs for farmers
Governments must encourage micro-irrigation, use of natural manure and pesticides in a big way. Farm income can be doubled by reducing cost as much as by increasing MSP, says Sanjeev Nayyar.

March 15, 2018
When we work as one, we can truly transform India
If we have to develop this nation, says Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, it can only happen in a public-private partnership, when you and we work together as one.

May 30, 2017
Mr Modi, where are the 10 million jobs you promised?
It is necessary that at least three million additional jobs (if not more) are created every year to ensure that there isn't an increase in the stock of unemployed, says Mahesh Vyas.

May 29, 2017
Why China needs the One Belt One Road
China is keen to rebalance its economy towards higher consumption, services, technology use and value-added exports. The hope is that its currency will strengthen as the world embraces it as a global trade and reserve currency, say Abheek Barua & Bidisha Ganguly.

April 05, 2017
If the GST has to <I>really</I> work...
The GST has been a great achievement, but it does suffer from weaknesses, says Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.

January 26, 2017
Surely, this isn't the credit economy Modi talks about!
The banana grower, like everyone else in the village, was buying all his daily requirements on credit.

January 12, 2017
What ails the NSE?
An exchange which preaches others on governance must start practising it first, says Shyamal Majumdar.

December 01, 2016
Demonetisation: Why the Opposition opposes it
'The whole country supports the government. The exceptions are only two -- those who thrived on black money and those who are inimical to Indian interests,' argues Major General Mrinal Suman.

November 27, 2016
Cash crunch at banks continue
'If supply of cash is not sufficient from the RBI, it may create difficulty for both banks and people.'

November 23, 2016
Nation Building at the ATM
'As citizens of this country, we often expect sweeping changes here, but find the smallest of abdications that we may ourselves be called upon to make far too inconveniencing.'

November 14, 2016
'<em>Ek bhi neta nahi dikha </em>line <em>mein</em>'
Paloma Sharma -- the only non-middle aged, non-canine member of the home -- on a Sunday spent at the bank.

Mr PM, you lost the war, the battle and me
'You may show at the end of December how much money has come into the system, but none would be the wiser because most of see only what we want to see and believe.'

October 18, 2016
The 3 factors holding back Modi's 'Achche Din' for all
India's rising GDP may have propelled the middle class to become richer, buy new cars, travel around the world and build assets, but it further pushed the economically disadvantaged and poor into poverty and drudgery, says Devanik Saha.

October 17, 2016
'Parmeshwar was a dynamo and a doer'
Laughter was a component of Parmeshar Godrej's large-hearted Punjabi spirit, recalls Sunil Sethi.

October 05, 2016
SBI's merger plan may lead to a banking meltdown
'SBI is already too big. Too big to fail.'

August 25, 2016
Tax, spend and be doomed: A lesson from France
GST will make it easier for governments to spend more, says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.

July 19, 2016
All about the mystery of job creation
The processes that create a seven per cent-plus GDP growth rate without a similar growth in jobs are far from fully understood, says Ajit Balakrishnan.

Markets shrug off Brexit impact but will it last?
Traders are waiting for the earnings season to kick off.

July 08, 2016
Brexit: An unlikely divorce?
The UK has had a complex relationship and checkered history with the EU.

How the government mismanaged Rajan's exit
Even if Modi had wanted Rajan out, the government could have done it with some finesse and tact.

July 05, 2016
How to abolish extreme poverty: A few important tips
India could gain four times over by winding up dysfunctional subsidies.

July 01, 2016
Make in India alright but will it fetch jobs?
A comprehensive solution involves a complete overhaul of our education and training model.

June 28, 2016
No extension for Rajan: Very wrong decision but RBI won't suffer
Rajan's exit will neither affect the RBI's de facto independence nor its working.

June 21, 2016
Is the internet all that it's cracked up to be?
Is the internet just a fun thing to do like TV and radio?

June 19, 2016
Nobel Prize, World Bank Chief... anything is possible for R3
'With his envious academic record, extraordinary research calibre and unparalleled work experience, we can trust him to become the first Indian -- fully Indian, not one of those Americans of Indian origin -- to win the Nobel Prize in Economics,' says Sudhir Bisht.

June 17, 2016
Economic breakthrough? 15 questions and a plea
Over 15 years, with seven per cent growth, the Indian economy will be three times bigger.

June 16, 2016
10 reasons why India won't grow at 8% plus
The prospects for strong, sustained economic reforms do not appear to be promising in India.

June 15, 2016
Does India's gloomy exports scenario have a silver lining?
The growth has slowed down with exports at $6.7 billion last year.

May 26, 2016
Rajan 2.0: What's on the table
In a recent article, Rajan has ridiculed critics of the exchange rate policy.

May 25, 2016
How cow slaughter ban is hurting Indian economy
Cows are required for milk and as producer goods for breeding cows and bulls for the future.

Modi@2: Has the economy improved?
Economic growth in the last two years has stayed above seven per cent.

May 24, 2016
Garbage is all about recycling
New ventures are emerging to take the stigma out of this garbage sorting business.

May 18, 2016
Start-ups must learn corporate ayurveda
Funding Indian start-ups has slowed down.

May 13, 2016
India's children can make Modi's 'Swachh Bharat' dream come true
Lack of basic sanitation affects people's dignity.

May 06, 2016
Why RBI needs to monitor liquidity carefully
the RBI will need to fulfil its April 4 pledge to avoid liquidity shortages.

China: Should we doubt the 'economic stabilisation'?
Most analysts had predicted a decline in real estate fixed asset investment.

May 04, 2016
EPF issue: What led to so many U-turns?
EPF is the major vehicle for the long-term savings of organised private sector employees.

May 03, 2016
Growth at the heart of India's transformation agenda?
energy is India's binding supply-side constraint for inclusive growth.

Why we need to avoid falling into the soft skills trap
A more rigorous training in core skills is required to boost the engineering talent in the country, instead of a varnish of 'soft skills', says Ajit Balakrishnan.

May 02, 2016
Why do we need to worry about e-commerce start-ups
There is ample fuel in the computer revolution to do many useful things.

Mr Modi and markets: The next 3 years
We remain at the mercy of the global economic climate.

April 27, 2016
Why we need a national market for electricity
Power plant load factors are at historic lows of around 60 per cent.

Transformation of India? It's much more than numbers
There is no clarity yet on how an estimated 10.9 million new jobs would be created every year.

April 21, 2016
Public vs private banks and the winner is. . .
Private banks are assumed to be more efficient at intermediating between depositors and investors.

Cash reserve ratio: A few important points to ponder
The RBI's reluctance to cut rates should be seen as a case of inability in the face of inflation.

April 20, 2016
TCS meets bump on digital highway
The challenge before TCS is to be totally at home with the IPR regime of developed economies.

April 19, 2016
Wanted! Clean energy investors
Renewable energy is mistakenly restricted to electricity.

April 14, 2016
Evaluating India's well-being
The challenge ahead for central and state governments remains enormous.

Money laundering: We are looking at the tip of the iceberg
Occasionally, a whistle-blower releases sensitive financial data.

What went wrong with the people's car called Nano
Nano remains a cautionary tale of misplaced ambitions and a drag on profit.

April 13, 2016
The storm from Panama
The Panama papers come at a very sensitive moment.

April 12, 2016
Will a change in RBI's strategy help the common people?
If banks have a surplus, they have the option of parking the money with the RBI.

How to keep Air India away from a sordid cycle
In the case of Air India, even competition could not compete with the government.

April 11, 2016
Swachh Bharat Mission: What the nation needs to know
City governments must work out the treatment system for faecal sludge.

April 07, 2016
Digital India or a distant dream?
It's time the government accepts that Digital India is too distant.

March 28, 2016
Can Parrikar overhaul defence procurement?
As the DefenceExpo gets underway in Goa, Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd) says the proposed Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 should ensure that the Indian defence industry is on the path to design, develop and make in India.

March 23, 2016
How long will the commodity rally last?
The dollar has fallen not just against commodity-linked assets but against other asset prices.

What ails our cities?
Reforms do happen and one example is Odisha which has taken steps to create a dedicated municipal cadre.

March 22, 2016
How to succeed by failing correctly
Failure is something that needs to be managed as carefully as success.

Why water management is of huge importance today
It's time we remembered the fundamental: water cycle and life cycle are one.

March 18, 2016
How fear factor is haunting the global markets
A big hit to China's growth or to Europe's financial system could certainly tip the global economy.

Mr Mallya's case is only the tip of the iceberg
The clean-up process begun by the Reserve Bank of India runs the risk of spiralling out of control.

'Make in India' needs ex-servicemen
'Ex-servicemen engineers and technicians are true professionals worthy of being 'Make in India' agents. They can be trusted to bring long term dividends -- it is in their character to be long term loyalists!' says Air Marshal P V Athawale (Retd).

March 17, 2016
Are the forces of globalisation losing steam?
If prices remain low the next decade might well see global trade stagnate.

Budget numbers: Full of sound and fury
High fiscal deficits raise inflation which hits the lowest income and salaried classes.

Budget: A genuine opportunity badly missed?
The biggest disappointment was the compromise on the promised corporate tax reduction path.

March 16, 2016
Budget 2016: 6 takeaways, 1 lesson
There are a couple of proposals, however, whose goals are not easily achievable.

March 11, 2016
How GST can boost revenue
The very design of the GST will bring in revenue buoyancy.

March 01, 2016
A good balancing act, Mr Jaitley!
The Budget provides a reassuring message about Prime Minister Narendra Modi staying the course.

Government addresses the Achilles heel of fiscal management
The government has at last commenced important structural reforms.

Budget is credible but badly packaged
As for structural reform, there are signs if one looks hard enough.

Budget: Nothing exceptional at all
What is required from government is intellectual framework.

Budget: It's important to spend all that money well
India is only on the starting block.

Tax on provident fund withdrawal, a big blow for the salaried
It is best to invest long-term surplus in stocks or equity mutual funds.

February 26, 2016
3 Budget policies that can revive growth
The economy hasn't gathered even half the traction that some of us assumed it would just a year back.

February 24, 2016
It's time for smart villages
India's neglect of villages shows up in many other ways.

Here's how to pick the right tax-saving fund
Experts say the size of the fund shouldn't be a primary criterion for selection.

What is fueling the rise of Sanders and Trump in US primaries?
The economics behind the surprising popularity of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

The curious case of India's industrial growth
The greatest disconnect lies in the estimates of industrial growth.

February 22, 2016
Why the PPP model should be taken seriously
One hopes that the government will act on the Kelkar panel recommendations.

Lower interest rates or die
Investors with stalled projects and mounting bad debt will refinance their loans.

Is it time we forgot the bull market?
The Sensex was around 18,600 by the end of August.

February 19, 2016
Why the global economic slump refuses to end
'Chinese real GDP growth is 7.1% and India's is 7.4%'.

February 18, 2016
A strange new world of negative interest rates
Sweden has the world's highest negative rate.

February 17, 2016
Why is the world economy being shaky?
One has to wonder what is so wrong with the European Union.

Why it is necessary to have a Cabinet panel on exports
Exports are slowing and economic growth in major markets for Indian goods has taken a hit.

Are we ready yet for the bullet trains?
Currently, the travel time between Mumbai and Delhi varies between 16 and 30 hours.

February 16, 2016
Insecure China accuses India of manipulating economic data
A Chinese government newspaper accuses the Modi government of manipulating economic data to project the 'myth' that India has caught up with the US and surpassed China.

February 15, 2016
Can brands be taught to disrupt?
The start up culture has redefined the way even old companies view themselves.

February 10, 2016
Why Baba Ramdev's anti-MNC strategy is self-destructive
What does one make of Ramdev's recent allegations that MNCs are conspiring against Patanjali?

January 25, 2016
How will India fare if global oil prices rise again?
The year is not yet over and a few more duty hikes are not ruled out.

January 23, 2016
Why the Indian economy is like Rohit Sharma
Even a doomsayer like Nouriel Roubini says India is in a sweet spot. If only we'd live up to the promise, says Shekhar Gupta.

January 22, 2016
Bearish markets? Here's how you can still gain
Even US equities are now back to end-2014 levels.

Start-ups aren't from Mars
Start-ups have their own sub-cultures their language and ways of working.

January 20, 2016
Why loosening the fiscal policy is a trap
There are many collateral advantages of taking the tough decision.

January 19, 2016
Modi's action plan for start-ups: Up, up and away
'Expectations were being built up about radical moves and the action plan did not disappoint.'

January 15, 2016
Rajan's wake-up call for RBI staff
It's time the regulator did some introspection.

January 13, 2016
Marketing lessons to learn from the odd-even experiment
There was all-round scepticism about the workability of the scheme.

January 12, 2016
Threats to India's Startup Spring
Startups in India need low-cost debt for working capital, which is impossible to get.

January 07, 2016
What ails the Chinese economy?
On Wednesday, the Chinese authorities extended a ban on sales of shares by large shareholders.

January 05, 2016
India's e-retail revolution: Too good to be true?
Most companies often subsidise the sale and the delivery, making losses on their books.

Markets in 2015: Gains for some, losses for many?
A market where prices are not likely to go up is excellent for the long-term investor.

January 04, 2016
Path-breaking ideas? Try reading these books, Mr Modi!
India's primary failings have been in its inability to deliver health and education for all.

December 31, 2015
2015: When hashtag became mainstream, active and lethal
2015 was characterised by some interesting events and trends.

December 29, 2015
It's the start-up season
Perhaps, the most misunderstood aspect is the role of the state.

December 28, 2015
Will 2016 be better than 2015 for the Indian economy?
For India, it is business as usual with the government muddling along.

December 24, 2015
A week after the Fed rate rise
There are already some signs of stress in this market.

10 thoughts about India's economy for the coming year
India has just had one of the worst quarters in export earnings.

December 21, 2015
Fed rate hike: Why we should be worried
Asian emerging market stock prices did see a bounce post Fed-talk.

All about India's fiscal prudence
Opting for a pause on the government's fiscal deficit reduction plan is an easy way out.

All is not right for the economy of India
Excerpts from a speech on the Supplementary Demands for Grants, December 15.

December 18, 2015
Can mobile handsets biz better Modi's 'Make in India' plan?
LCD displays could be produced in India in the near future.

The Fed's move: Where does India stand
Many things are going unnoticed by India watchers.

Is the Paris climate pact unfair and inadequate?
At the summit, the US is able to play the role of a bully.

December 14, 2015
The many impacts of the Real Estate Bill on home buyers
The need for a regulatory authority has been felt since a long time in the real estate sector, struggling for many years due to tough market and economic conditions.

December 07, 2015
Is Modi able to appease the climate gods?
The choking of natural drainage brings monsoonal Mumbai to its knees year after year.

Energy sector: The sun gets brighter
Emission norms for automobile industry should be tightened.

November 30, 2015
7th pay panel: Let's give credit where it is due
A lot has been written about the impact of the recommendations.

Why GST is important for the economy
It's difficult to understand if GDP growth has actually improved.

November 23, 2015
Busting 4 myths about the Pay Commission
Analysis of the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations.

November 17, 2015
Why Vietnam Beckons
'The success of the country's economic policies is affirmed by receipt of FDI of $15 billion last year, the highest in the Asia-Pacific after China and India, and well ahead of Indonesia, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand,' notes Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad.

November 13, 2015
Are Modi's economic steps slow? It's too early to give up
Expectations were probably too high from Narendra Modi.

November 09, 2015
The dark side of lower oil prices
Foreign exchange reserves of the oil producers have increased by $1.1 trillion over the past decade.

Waste not, want not
The problem of waste is not a problem of management alone.

BJP's election loss could bring focus back to reforms
The National Democratic Alliance won 64 seats.

October 29, 2015
IndiGo and the habit of consistently making money
IndiGo is arguably more a financial services company than airline.

October 27, 2015
What needs to be done to bring down price of pulses
Of all the pulses, tur appears to be the most desired.

October 09, 2015
What is the key to a successful railway network
India had its own battle over gauges.

When meetings become your only work
The employees often look at these meetings as a barometer.

October 08, 2015
Balance of payments: Why we should not be complacent
Stability in currency markets was only restored from September.

Technology, Mr Modi, is the god with clay feet
Technology can certainly gain India membership in the comity of modern nations in the 21st century.

September 28, 2015
Has the US monetary authority lost the plot?
The belief that the Fed knows something that lesser mortals don't is common.

September 24, 2015
A commitment that G20 makes every year, time to deliver?
India's finance minister has emphasised that "it is the real economy that is going to matter.

September 18, 2015
Nitin Mangal, the analyst who weathered a storm
Although now free, Mangal's ordeal may be far from over.

Fed holds rates, what now?
It is surprising that central bankers around the world have cautioned the US Federal Reserve against raising rates.

September 15, 2015
US Fed likely to hike rates: How should India cope?
All evidence suggests that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates soon.

'Make in India' idea is good but where's the resource?
India is affected by a 'resource inefficiency curse'.

September 08, 2015
Take visual literacy seriously
Students' flagging interest in the written word is because of a generational digital divide, says Ajit Balakrishnan.

September 07, 2015
How to end tax uncertainty
Pushing people to litigation is a major source of tax uncertainty.

September 04, 2015
Will Americans become poorer?
Americans are lucky they have inherited the innovations of the past.

September 03, 2015
All about the return of the rupee
RBI is expected to cut policy rates by 50 basis points by 2016.

August 31, 2015
Why market crash is different this time
When the bull run begins its march again, it will really be different!

How India can profit from China's stumble
China's slowing means commodity markets are no longer overheated.

August 25, 2015
All about income inequality
We never see income inequality as a 'problem'.

August 10, 2015
Steps that govt must take to help India's ailing healthcare
China's Xiaomi to unveil its first India-made phone on Monday

August 03, 2015
What a Fed rate hike could mean for India
The majority in the markets believe that a September lift-off is likely.

July 31, 2015
What will drive India's growth?
India has a long way to go to catch up with Thailand let alone the US.

July 15, 2015
India remains mostly rural and poor
Less than half of rural households are engaged in agriculture.

July 14, 2015
Modi initiatives that are paving the way for reforms
These are initiatives not commonly seen in economic administration.

July 13, 2015
More money may come to India if China slows down
The recent market crash in China has triggered sympathetic drops.

July 09, 2015
Smart cities okay but where are the smart citizens?
Are Indian citizens mindful of their responsibility?

The 10 biggest policy mistakes of the past
There are conflicting signs on India's investment cycle.

June 19, 2015
The human side to the Maggi crisis
Being conservative is good, but not quite in a crisis.

June 02, 2015
What the monsoon winds bring
We are all 'Chasing the Monsoon', notes Ajit Balakishnan.

May 22, 2015
The world is just not prepared for another financial crisis
History would indicate that a recession is not that far off.

May 21, 2015
All about the government's wrong land war
Why is the government ignoring the advice of its own Economic Survey?

May 19, 2015
GST should be a good and simple tax
The GST will alter the very face of fiscal federalism in India.

May 18, 2015
Modi@1: There is progress but also gaps on various fronts
Progress on several parameters creates a tipping point situation.

Modi@1: The govt report card reads 'average'!
The global economy may just be entering a new phase.

Why we need to have a liberal approach towards gold
The government has retained 10% duty on import of the yellow metal.

May 04, 2015
What effect will a bad monsoon have on the economy?
Weather forecasts have notoriously large error margins.

April 30, 2015
Can Indian agriculture adopt the 'Gujarat Model'?
The agrarian crisis must be met with similarly speedy responses.

April 24, 2015
Will markets be bullish in the long term?
Markets are likely to go down, correct and stay subdued.

IMD or Skymet: Who will get El Nino's impact on monsoon right?
IMD will present its month-wise and region-wise forecast in June.

April 23, 2015
Yawning gap in Modi government's claims and deeds on climate
Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tall claims that no one has served nature more than India, some of the steps taken by his BJP government proves that the ground reality is exactly opposite, says Devanik Saha.

Airtel Zero: More sinned against than sinning?
Never before has an open and innovative platform like Airtel Zero been on offer that will help drive internet adoption through free usage (and companies and app developers being an equal partner in the process), says Srini Gopalan.

April 09, 2015
How fast is India growing?
The estimates of national income and growth do not pass the 'smell test'.

April 08, 2015
How RBI is putting the onus on banks
Tuesday's policy announcement had a regulatory and development component.

Happy 5th, Xiaomi, now can you show Indians you care?
As Chinese gadget-maker Xiaomi, the world's third largest smartphone seller after Apple and Samsung, turns five today, it will seek to intensify its India push.

Is rural India angry with Modi?
The anger against land acquisition is not only among landowners.

Forget Make in India, try design thinking
Design thinking is not designing as traditionally understood.

April 06, 2015
All about the great oil circle
India's macroeconomic situation has benefited from oil prices' decline.

March 30, 2015
Reforms? Forget all about them!
It is time for Mr Modi to be a little more reasonable and rational.

March 26, 2015
Why AirAsia needs a new flight plan
AirAsia's competitors are offering more reliable services.

March 23, 2015
Minimum government? It starts right here!
Nobody is clear what 'minimum government maximum governance' means.

March 19, 2015
Make in India push: Is it a flight of fancy?
Has Make in India's mascot, the metal lion, begun to rust?

March 18, 2015
'We know India can run -- judging by cricket -- but can it fly?'
The elements are all aligned to make India a global powerhouse, says IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

A Budget with sense and sensibility
To begin, the Budget has no doubt attempted to address uncertainty.

Why India's reforms cannot be postponed
India's numbers have shown a reasonable amount of improvement.

March 12, 2015
Budget not excellent but just above average
This Budget plans for an increase to 10.3% of GDP from 9.9%.

March 11, 2015
Here's how to fix the public distribution system
Now the PMO needs to take the food sector reforms forward.

Say goodbye to the national health policy
Expenditure on health in India is at a global low of 1.2% of GDP.

Budget: Excellent, yet tough!
Can Jaitley's team hope to garner 17% more on personal income tax?

March 05, 2015
How Railways can pave the way for a Digital India
Railway Budget is the first indicator of possibly better days

Move forward on infrastructure, not back
Shifting to a PPP model could repeat the errors of the past

Budget has succeeded in keeping market mood positive
The Nifty and Sensex traded close to their respective all-time highs.

March 04, 2015
All about the politics of Budget
The finance minister defended the change in the tax rates.

March 03, 2015
Why is the Budget silent on ecommerce
Budget had no sector-specific measures.

March 02, 2015
Budget impact on agriculture? It's pretty blurry
The Budget has stuck to annual increases in agri credit targets.

Plan to reduce corporation tax? More clarity, please!
A few companies continue to pay taxes at 15-20%.

Budget Impact: Hope and disappointment
The government will have to get projects moving.

February 28, 2015
Balancing the budget -- the Jaitley way
All credit to the finance minister for walking the fiscal and expectation tightrope extremely well in his budget speech, says Ganesh Natarajan.

The masterclass and the Budget
'The finance minister and the government have met the immediate challenge. The wine this time is new and also in a new bottle, which, though not full, is less than half empty.'

February 26, 2015
Is Indian Railways for the people?
The lawmakers seem as uninterested as those who use the railways.

February 25, 2015
Save lives, fight air pollution
Air that people breathe in Indian cities is among the worst in the world.

The Cinderella of all Budgets
The service conditions and judges' remuneration are not alluring .

This Budget will be Mr Modi's credibility test
Curbing the federal deficit is the government's absolute priority on February 28.

February 19, 2015
A Budget for the Aam Aadmi, please!
It is time to take a few macroeconomic risks to kick start the growth.

February 18, 2015
For Subrata Roy, anxiety rises as deal unravels
Subrata Roy is in jail since March last year.

February 17, 2015
Will Budget 2015 ensure Make in India?
Skill development is a key area of concern.

February 12, 2015
What ails the Chinese economy
The risks of a cascade of defaults are high.

February 11, 2015
The perils of China's slowing economy
Chinese leaders may well respond to challenges with heightened rhetoric.

January 15, 2015
Will the decline in inflation be sustained?
If the pattern over the last three months is going to continue, the likelihood is that both indices will register inflation rates close to current levels over the next few months.

SpiceJet saga: Lessons to learn for low-cost carrier
At the height of its troubles and desperate to mop up cash to fly the next day, SpiceJet was offering ridiculously high deposit incentives to travel agents and online portals -- incentives it could ill afford.

January 14, 2015
The political roots of black money
An enormous amount of black money flows in and out of the banking system and still remains black.

January 13, 2015
Hail the invisible hand of the State
Neither pharma nor IT would have become the stars of the economy without the active but largely invisible hand of the Indian State, says Ajit Balakrishnan.

January 07, 2015
Why the new National Health Policy is a step in the wrong direction
The implementation of the policy would require public health spending to rise to nearly 2.5 per cent of the gross domestic product, from the present dismal one per cent, with the Centre bearing about 40 per cent of it.

January 05, 2015
How private airlines destroyed Indian aviation
In the previous decade, the government, with Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister, saw the introduction of an irrational 5/20 policy.

Why more clarity on NITI Aayog's role is necessary
The prime minister's economic advisory council was disbanded early on, and not reconstituted.

January 03, 2015
Oil @ $60 a barrel: Should we be happy?
The retail prices of petroleum products have moved broadly in line with, or somewhat more than, the rupee cost of oil imports.

December 24, 2014
Why West Bengal is lagging behind other states
West Bengal was the second-most industrialised state in terms of value added and first in terms of number of factories and employment even in the mid-1960s. With a severe and long process of deindustrialisation, it lost its primacy.

December 22, 2014
Economy recovering? Govt has a tough task ahead
The Analysis lists a number of steps taken by the government that have contributed to both positive short-term outcomes, such as lower food inflation, and the capacity for more equitable growth, through financial inclusion.

December 17, 2014
Why high growth is no panacea
When industrial output and inflation fall simultaneously, though it is both a piece of good and bad news, taken together they can signal clear signs of an economic slowdown.

December 06, 2014
Will govt's divestment programme 'SAIL' through?
Going by the experience of the previous years -- when the actual proceeds from stake sale were much lower than the targets -- the government's disinvestment target for 2014-15 appears too ambitious.

E-commerce vs kirana: And the winner is. . .
Foreign retail chains, reluctantly allowed limited entry, have begun to make their initial moves and, like Ikea, intend to spend big money -- sometimes in the billions of dollars.

December 01, 2014
Black money trail: Tall promises meet big challenges
There is no doubt that the Modi government has showed greater urgency in unearthing unaccounted money stashed away by some Indians in tax havens and other countries, enjoying the advantages of the latter's banking secrecy laws.

November 20, 2014
How swachh is Narendra Modi's business 'abhiyan'?
Indian business has many legitimate grievances against the political class for not delivering an optimal business environment.

November 18, 2014
Here's how Suresh Prabhu can reengineer the Railways
Suresh Prabhu, the new railway minister, described his charge as being 'the engine of growth'.

The internet's next step
The step forward in marketing could be a move to bypass the media and towards owning it directly, says Ajit Balakrishnan.

November 14, 2014
What the Sino-US climate deal means for India


Why Germany should be India's best partner in Europe
Germany, as the locomotive of Europe, has much to teach India in manufacturing and process management, says Rajeev Srinivasan.

November 13, 2014
Mr Jaitley, why is the income tax department hiding data?
Our income tax department should bring out monthly bulletin as well as annual reports providing insights into the nature of our direct tax segments, points out .

November 10, 2014
Clearing the cobwebs from the concept of GST
GST necessarily includes service tax, but VAT can only be on goods without including service tax

October 17, 2014
Why it is time to scrap NREGA
'How many people have been skilled up and thus able to escape from needing to be in NREGA? The true success of NREGA would lie in its irrelevance -- that is, people no longer need it as a crutch.' 'NREGA should enable them to climb out of poverty and stand on their feet.'

October 13, 2014
Why we should not blindly trust the US dollar
The fact that the US dollar has become the world's preferred reserve currency is now the core of global financial crisis, says .

IIP a negative surprise, but recovery durable
The expectation of a recovery will clearly be strengthened by the rapidly improving macroeconomic situation.

September 26, 2014
No respite for coal; Uncertainty for other sectors
Exceptions were made for ultra-mega power plants, such as the one at Sasan, which the court observed were not under consideration, and for coal blocks attached to the power and steel companies controlled by the central government.

Inflation trend reassuring, but not enough for a rate cut
Food inflation is still very much a problem and needs fixing urgently, but the bad monsoon apparently did not make it worse.

September 23, 2014
New life for Aadhaar: Is it possible?
The key gain from using Aadhaar will be a drastic cut in impersonation and fictitious identities, thereby plugging a major loophole through which a lot of leakage in subsidy payment takes place.

September 17, 2014
Why RBI's reading of inflation numbers is a significant pointer
CPI inflation has declined by almost a percentage point from July, from close to eight per cent to just above seven per cent.

September 15, 2014
Why economic uptick cannot be taken for granted
Production grew by a mere 0.5 per cent year-on-year, a significant comedown from the 3.5 per cent clocked in June.

September 12, 2014
The new government must not undermine PSU independence
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided that 10 per cent of the government's stake in Coal India Ltd would be sold. Similarly, the sale of five per cent of its stake in ONGC and 11.4 per cent in the hydropower public-sector unit, NHPC, has been cleared.

Bullet trains in India: Fast track to nowhere?
Some would argue that it bullet trains are too expensive for the cash-starved Indian Railways, and its cost far outweighs the benefits.

September 10, 2014
How to make unsmart cities smart
The government is looking at building by-laws and floor area ratio so that you can build up instead of out, thus requiring less land.

September 08, 2014
How to make Jan Dhan Yojana a successful scheme


Change in the nature of monsoon and its effect on the economy
Each year, economic damages increase -- and once again, development gains are lost in one season of flood or bad drought.

September 04, 2014
Rajan has done well but his task is incomplete
RBI data show one-fifth of all the infrastructure loans are stressed and the share of such loans in overall stressed assets is nearly a third.

September 03, 2014
100 days: Govt starts with energy but has no grand strategy
The problems facing India and its economy are far too severe and deep to be fixed in 100 days, and an excessive focus on the first 100 days might have indicated that the government had failed to understand that.

September 02, 2014
What Rajan needs to do to cement his legacy
He has had a productive first year at the RBI -- one which saw, also, India's economic imbalances improve and the unexpectedly strong general election outcome.

September 01, 2014
All you want to know about shadow banking
In advanced economies where the financial system is more matured, the form of shadow banking is more of risk transformation through securitisation.

'Come. Make in India' -- but how?
In the World Bank's rankings on the "Ease of Doing Business" India stands at 139 out of 189 economies surveyed in 2014; its position has in fact dropped from 131 last year.

Why India's low-growth phase seems to be over
Evidently, the economy has come out of the low growth phase in the past two years and it does appear the economy will continue to remain in the plus-five per cent range.

August 30, 2014
Why Modi's approach to financial inclusion is better
Within two weeks of the speech, the prime minister flagged off the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, and the day was marked by announcing its outcome on the very first day of its implementation.

August 28, 2014
Coalgate and India's crony capitalism
The Supreme Court judgement will hopefully ensure that those in power and authority will hesitate before allotting precious natural resources that belong to each and every citizen of the country in an arbitrary and corrupt manner, says .

India may not weather the poor monsoon
The total rainfall till now is not only deficient, but is also erratic in terms of both geographical spread and timings.

Skipping Asean meet makes government look amateurish
Mr Modi has indicated he will carry on, and intensify, India's 'Look East' policy. But this start is hardly inspiring.

August 27, 2014
'Minimum government, maximum governance' in public sector banks
The Bharatiya Janata Party regime will have to make good on this election slogan to restore state-owned banks to health, says .

More government, more growth?
Most mainstream researchers agree that good governance is a necessary condition for growth.

August 26, 2014
Modi govt must act swiftly to revive Air India's fortunes
National carrier Air India is running in losses and needs government's attention.

Rise of Naxalism: Blame India's skewed mining policy
It is the low cost of iron ore extracted from their adivasi homeland mines that enables steelmakers like Tata Steel and Essar, and miners like NMDC, not only to be among the most profitable companies in India, but also gives it the financial muscle to make huge overseas acquisitions. Ultimately, it is the poor adivasi who pays for it with his home and hearth and gets no credit for it! Either from the State, which connives in their exploitation, or the industry that lords over their resources, says .

Is replacing the Planning Commission justified?
The need for co-ordinated policy between Centre and states was likewise foreseen and assigned.

August 25, 2014
Use technology, get taxi pronto
To address a crescendo of complaints, the state government recently created a new category of taxis that have a self-explanatory 'no refusal' blazoned on them and come in the by-now-ubiquitous blue and white colours of the Trinamool Congress.

Why it's so difficult to formulate an oil price policy
The government should start with two assumptions: first, that oil prices are fundamentally unstable and susceptible to wide fluctuations, and second, that raising the prices of petroleum products is politically difficult.

August 22, 2014
Finally, a ray of hope for the Indian economy
The good news for us is that India's economy - and sentiment about it - is much better than it was a year ago, says Jamal Mecklai.

Why the govt should end diesel subsidy now
It's time government used oil windfall wisely.

August 21, 2014
Why the Planning Commission failed to meet expectations
The Planning Commission has not been central to the policy making process since the mid-1960s, says Nitin Desai.

August 20, 2014
Understanding Modi government's economic priorities
The prime minister's August 15 address was undoubtedly inspirational and outlined important economic and social objectives, such as making India a global hub for manufacturing, ensuring bank accounts for all poor families, major thrusts in sanitation and cleanliness, and a radical restructuring of the Planning Commission.

Is the market's bull run sustainable?
This rally is largely being driven by hopes that the Modi government will drive economic growth higher, and, thus, increase earnings growth for companies.

August 19, 2014
A behavioural theory on why productivity declines
The impact of 'family first' on productivity in developing societies is yet to be modeled, says Agnikalam.

An inflation targeting policy regime for India?
Richard Clarida's recent paper could be key for policymakers in deciding whether India should move to an 'inflation targeting policy regime', says .

August 18, 2014
Retail trade in derivatives: Is there really a problem?
Before considering reducing the freedom of private investors in the derivatives market, we need to check if the maladies in markets elsewhere exist in India, says .

What must replace the Planning Commission
There are justifiable concerns that, if all financial allocation powers are now shifted to the finance ministry, then the end of the Commission might be counter-productive -- states' needs could, in fact, be addressed less.

August 14, 2014
Relaxing labour laws: Modi to lose or gain?
Narendra Modi's pay-off from relaxing labour laws would be huge.

How India plans to attract more foreign investment
India will look to play a key role in the APEC, EU and Africa regions to increase its competitiveness.

What ails India's industrial production
But growth recovery is under way.

August 13, 2014
Modi govt must not ignore farmers
The farming community expects much more substance from the government, .

August 12, 2014
Modi govt needs new talent to change India
If the Modi government is to keep its promise of change, it must bring in fresh faces.

August 11, 2014
Smart cities can change the urban way of life
Smart cities can provide more safety, better management of traffic congestion, a low-carbon environment and better services.

Why attack Ratan Tata for criticising Bengal's flaws
Mitra's stout and vociferous protest to what most see as Tata's meandering and even affectionate critique has taken people by surprise.

Global factors spell trouble for the stock market
The market could be influenced by events elsewhere in the world and regardless of what happens to India's economy

August 06, 2014
Why RBI is right in maintaining status quo
The RBI's projections for consumer inflation over the rest of the year indicate some acceleration, with the rate reaching eight per cent in its baseline scenario.

August 05, 2014
Inside Governor Rajan's mind
There is little scope for significant monetary easing even in the next fiscal year.

August 01, 2014
The secret behind building brands
Faces are important in India, because people connect with people, not concepts.

July 31, 2014
Corporate governance: It's not getting any better
The markets have reacted negatively, for example, to recent news that Cairn India, of which the Anil Agarwal group company Vedanta owns 60 per cent, will give a $1.25-billion loan (about Rs 7,500 crore) on notably easy terms to Sesa Sterlite, another Anil Agarwal group company.

July 27, 2014
'Over-emphasis on real estate may not be very healthy'
India is also exploring that way but the strength of the Indian economy was such that not even one bank was threatened, not even one insurance company was threatened, and we were able to withstand the shocks.

July 26, 2014
Why India ranks low in the Human Development Index
Like its predecessors, the 2014 report (released two days ago) allows one to compare India's performance with other countries.

How we can make our banks safer
Capital adequacy and tighter regulation are just one step forward.

July 22, 2014
Why derivatives are a Pyrrhic triumph for our equity markets
The expansion in equity market volumes is driven by retail speculators indulging in heavy trading of complex derivatives that are economically unproductive, say .

July 21, 2014
The rising vulnerability of emerging markets
Emerging markets could be affected by a combination of lower liquidity and higher dollar interest rates caused by a hike in the US Fed funds rate.

July 16, 2014
Budget: Good beginning or missed opportunity?
With Jaitley preferring continuity over change, good days might take a little longer to arrive, says Shankar Acharya.

July 15, 2014
Economic Survey's agricultural road map better than Budget's
A barrier-free market -- coupled with removal of controls, licensing system, intermediaries and state-imposed levies on farm commodities -- will benefit both sellers and buyers.

All about job creation and destruction
In India, the need to find a solution for the jobs problem is perhaps even more urgent considering the oft-quoted number of a million young people arriving every month looking for jobs.

How to bring India back on the growth path
The idea is to boost household savings and turn more of them into growth capital. If the plan succeeds, sustained eight per cent-plus rates of gross domestic product growth should be within reach in a few years.

July 11, 2014
Budget: A preparatory exercise to usher in reforms
Finance minister tries to put house in order before reforms are unveiled in February.

June 27, 2014
Will Modi grasp the economic nettle?
In putting the country's economy back on the rails, it is best that Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley draw on grass-roots feedback and their own practical sense and native wisdom without allowing themselves to be sucked into the quicksand of economic punditry, says B S Prakash.

June 12, 2014
What Reliance's takeover of Network 18 means for media
With Mukesh Ambani taking over Network 18, the space for disseminating a diverse range of views could shrink, feels .

June 11, 2014
Most rural Indians can afford a toilet but don't want one
A household survey shows that they don't think using a toilet is good for their health, pointing to the need for sanitation policies that focus on changing attitudes rather than just building latrines.

June 10, 2014
Public sector banks can get a big leap forward
A Bank Investment Company to act as a holding company for state-owned banks would go a long way in minimising government interference and improving governance.

'Bull markets are a bit like revolutions'
Bull markets need a a charismatic leader and a fancy destination.

June 03, 2014
Say no to inflation Botox
The idiosyncratic aspect of India's macroeconomic challenge is the stubbornly high retail -- especially core -- inflation, despite the collapse in economic growth.

What ails the aviation sector?
India perhaps is the only market in the world where full-service and low-cost fares have become one.

March 25, 2014
The Left, the Right and us
Now, the world over, policymakers are dusting off their copies of Keynes' classic, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, and figuring out whether there are any answers there to our own challenges of growing our economies.

March 19, 2014
India's coal, power sectors need change in mindset
The economy can't grow without increasing electrification, which requires more power plants, and given coal is the cheapest form of fuel and is abundant, it makes sense that India is looking to boost the use of the fuel.

February 21, 2014
Why it is important to exercise prudence
It is important to understand that debt investors are a conservative lot and, in general, most such investments are hedged out of foreign exchange risk to simply earn an arbitrage profit, rather than carry the risk to possibly increase their yield.

February 18, 2014
Why it is important now to boost growth
There was hope in some quarters that the interim Budget would boost sentiment and lay the groundwork for kick-starting the investment cycle, while staying on a path of fiscal consolidation.

Direct taxes and GST: The unfulfilled promises
The government now ends its mandate with reaffirmation in the vote-on-account of the same goals, for which it claims to have a clear line of sight.

February 13, 2014
Will Asian growth rebound?
The resilience of many emerging markets, notably China and India, in the aftermath of the Lehman shock further strengthened this sense of manifest destiny.

All about a duel on drugs
The South African government and large pharmaceutical companies are in combat mode regarding the proposed national policy on intellectual property that hopes to improve access to medicines for the poorer sections of the population.

January 24, 2014
Is deflation the real threat?
Many macroeconomic forecasters have built predictive models on inflation, all of which highlight intense downward pressure on prices.

January 22, 2014
Considerable churn in US and European stock markets
In India, however, the Nifty continues to climb a wall of worry as general elections loom, fiscal deficit surges and the current account deficit is barely under control following subdued gold and crude prices, says .

January 20, 2014
Market Notes: Is it really time to buy commodities?
Waiting for capitulation in commodity markets is the better route to profits, says .

January 16, 2014
Inflation: What the RBI, government need to do
Inflation moderates, but a rate cut is unlikely.

January 14, 2014
BHAG Inclusion BHAG
The goal of the Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households, a panel chaired by Nachiket Mor that submitted its report to the Reserve Bank of India last week, is truly a BHAG.

January 13, 2014
There's nothing bearish about most equity markets
It is too early to say if we have seen the "final" bottom to these stocks in August 2013 or if another attempt to test them will be made before or just after elections, says .

January 10, 2014
Can the industry avoid being scrutinised by CAG?
CAG may not be the cure-all for the ills that afflict PPP projects and is perhaps a sub-optimal solution to the problem.

January 08, 2014
Will the US economy look up in 2014?
Although there are serious risks facing the US economy in the coming year, there is also a good chance that growth will be substantially stronger than it has been since before the recession began.

January 07, 2014
MARKET NOTES: Commodities in early phase of recovery
Where do the commodities market go in the new year? offers an insight.

January 06, 2014
Weak yen will continue to drive currency markets
A lot will depend on how the equity markets in the US play out in April-May this year. A correction there, long overdue, could change all the variables in the current equations, says

January 02, 2014
Why trade resolutions for 2014 matter a lot
The success of the Bali Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in the first week of December in 2013 will mean that in 2014 countries will identify areas for early conclusion so that within the next two years, the Doha Agenda of the WTO -- which has remained in a limbo for long -- can be concluded.

December 18, 2013
India's infrastructure action on the Twitter route
From Kudankulam to the Land Bill, the author takes the Twitter route to capture the infra action of 2013.

December 16, 2013
Market Notes: Gold waits for capitulation
Once the US dollar launches into its final bull leg from the 79 region towards 84, the appreciating currency should put a lot of pressure on commodities that will perhaps trigger the capitulation that the market needs in commodities liker gold, silver and WTI crude, says .

November 22, 2013
Applying economic theory to airline regulation
In July and August full-service carriers cut fares to levels that were, absurdly, only a whisker more than the fares of low-cost carriers.

November 18, 2013
How to predict the next economic crisis
Economists have long argued that they shouldn't be expected to predict crises, such as the one that almost sank the global economy five years ago.

'Non-IAS experts must feel welcome in govt organisations'
The sudden exit of Yogesh Agarwal as the chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, or PFRDA, has once again brought the relationship between financial sector regulators and the finance ministry into sharp focus.

November 11, 2013
Why it may be a very volatile week for markets
Trading through this coming week could be influenced by reactions to events in Europe and the US.

November 08, 2013
How long will the equity bubbles last?
Most expect these bubbles to break in short order and cause serious financial pain to anyone who's foolhardy enough to remain invested in financial assets.

November 07, 2013
Of Raghuram Rajan and a few natural-born biases
If Mr Rajan's citizenship is considered relevant for heading an organisation that issues sovereign currency, should the provenance of a participant in a critical function of a sovereign democracy not count as well?

November 05, 2013
Philanthropy and Buffett Junior
While his father has often been quoted on tips for investing, Buffett junior's focus is on spreading the word about both self-improvement and ways in which to make a positive difference in the world - with a special focus on solving hunger.

October 31, 2013
Why do Indian cities need a complete redesign
We need a comprehensive redevelopment plan that seeks to redesign our overgrown cities in terms of connectivity, mobility and liveability.

Why the govt needs to focus on growth now
The consumer price index has been in double digits for much of the past year, and was 9.8 per cent in September.

October 25, 2013
Indian economy: There's no room for complacency
Given the 18-day government shutdown in the US and the likelihood for continued wrangling between the Democrats and the Republicans, it now looks like tapering may be off the table till the first quarter of 2014.

Will CBI move against Birla dampen biz confidence?
Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot intoned, "Recent incidents will certainly dampen business confidence and investment sentiment, both domestic and foreign; and perhaps also negatively affect decision making by bureaucrats and policy makers."

October 24, 2013
Why soft loans will be hard on the exchequer
The government is somehow convinced that selective low-rate lending will stimulate demand and accelerate economic growth that plunged to a four-year low of 4.4 per cent in the first three months of 2013-14.

October 15, 2013
Whom to blame for India's stagflation?
Raghuram Rajan is correct -- the RBI's monetary response to inflation in the past has been too weak.

October 14, 2013
How India can gain from the US Fed's taper programme
For one thing, US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was perhaps right in postponing the quantitative easing taper even though the markets had complained at that time that they were primed for some reduction in QE3 and the Fed had missed an opportunity to execute their plans without causing too much of a flutter.

September 27, 2013
Why diesel subsidy should be removed for all
In January this year, with a view to cutting the subsidy on diesel, the government had decreed that all bulk users, such as the railways, state transport corporations, armed forces and all commercial establishments, would be charged the market price for diesel.

September 26, 2013
Honouring Solar Mamas
Bunker Roy, founder of the Barefoot College at Tilonia in Rajasthan, was awarded the Clinton Global Citizen Award at a ceremony in New York on September 25.

September 10, 2013
Food Bill: Lessons India should have learnt from Soviet Union
By throwing food at poverty that is result of faulty economics and lack of jobs, one is only trying to suicidal path.

September 06, 2013
Rupee fall: India can revamp its manufacturing sector
Thanks to rupee depreciation, India has a chance to fundamentally rework its stifled manufacturing sector.

September 04, 2013
All about the Food Security Bill myth
The Bill at best makes the existing public distribution system a legal right, an aspect that seems of little consequence to the lords of high finance, whose primary anxiety is the FSB-by-numbers.

August 28, 2013
The trouble with the richie itch
The basics and history of India's tax policy suggests that increase in the number of taxpayers has occurred and so has compliance with a reduction of tax slabs and moderate rates of tax.

How policy dilemmas led to the economic mess
As concern about the unfolding economic crisis has risen in India, many experts have assured us that 2013 is not 1991.

August 25, 2013
US equity markets stage routine pullback from 38 pc retracement level
The dollar's preliminary moves after the low 80.90 are supportive of a like dollar rally back to 85.50. We should see confirmation of that in the early part of next week, says

August 23, 2013
Column: Giving by force
Corporate Social Responsibility can become a serious tool for improving the lives of millions in any structural and long term way, writes .

How Tirupati Trust can help India counter economic crisis
While there are no definitive statistics available, the Tirupati Trust Foundation has well over 1,000 tonnes of gold.

August 08, 2013
Can Jeff Bezos invent a new future for newspapers?
By buying The Washington Post in his personal capacity, the Amazon founder and internet pioneer may just be looking to save an American institution.

August 04, 2013
The US dollar could surprise with a massive rally
Hoard cash. There will be plenty of time and opportunity at far lower levels, warns in her weekly Market Notes

July 30, 2013
Will shale gas become a game-changer for India?
Seeing the potential of shale gas, Reliance Industries moved early to secure a foothold in the Marcellus shale reserves in the US.

July 29, 2013
Murphy's law at work in India
Last year this time, India was grappling with an imminent sovereign downgrade, with an uncontrolled fiscal deficit, policy paralysis of the highest order with no economic reforms for eight long years and a weakening rupee.

July 28, 2013
US equity markets are approaching an intermediate correction
The dollar is king in an intermediate correction, says

July 21, 2013
When the market offers you money for jam, take both and run!
Time to take profits and move to the sidelines in an euphoria, says

July 14, 2013
As the markets hit new highs, look to take profits
Keep exit plans handy, D-day could be the second week of August, writes in Market Notes.

July 11, 2013
Is the Indian economy shrinking?
The toxic brew of fiscal populism, crony capitalism and bad economic management has ensured the collapse of economic growth, industrial stagnation, stubbornly high consumer inflation, declining savings and investment, shrinking employment opportunities, and a dangerously vulnerable external financing situation.

July 10, 2013
UPA and the economic consequences of Amartya Sen
One may fault this government for incompetence, corruption, and delayed action but it cannot be faulted for lacking a vision.

July 07, 2013
US equities resume uptrend amidst surging dollar and crashing commodities
A resurgent US dollar is the key feature of the current scenario and its value continues to drive other markets, from euro, yen to the INR. Most currencies continue to seek lower valuations against the greenback. This trend is likely to continue until the dollar peaks out by yearend at around 89 as opposed to 84.5 right now, says

July 03, 2013
Zombie wheat case: GM food safety debate far from settled
Efforts by Indian activists to challenge the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill, now pending in Parliament, may get a boost from a controversy that has broken out in the US

June 30, 2013
Equity markets were resilient through interest rate turmoil but precious metals collapse
If the dollar continues to rally as expected, commodities will continue to tank after a short counter-trend rally.The same holds true for precious metals, says

June 25, 2013
Mobile remittances: A potential game changer in India?
While Indians are increasingly using mobile platforms and technology for various financial transactions and purchases like bill payments, ticket bookings, entertainment, travel and banking transactions, cross border mobile remittance is yet to see the light of the day.

June 24, 2013
Why India must support start-ups
We need to make start-ups, instead of small businesses, part of the priority sector, says .

The upturn in the interest rate cycle cracks SPX and DAX
The crack in the equity markets is serious and portends a deeper correction ahead. The markets will almost certainly attempt to complete the interrupted up move next week, says

June 19, 2013
Blacklisting companies? What the govt must do
Governments must give companies a hearing before blacklisting them.

June 18, 2013
Water: By the people, of the people, for the people
Six villages in Maharashtra that are within the drought affected area have remained water secure even in an extremely bad year.

June 16, 2013
World equity markets may attempt to stake out a new high
The fall in equity values following the spike in interest rates was sharp but very shallow; stopping just at the 50 DMA for most markets even after the first 5-wave leg down was complete. That shows markets could have another leg up that could make new highs, says

June 09, 2013
Equities all set to resume bid for new highs
The structure of the rallies that unfold will determine if they make new highs or not, and there is scope for new highs, says

June 04, 2013
COLUMN: Why there's a twist in the GM tale
Anti-GM voices have inadvertently spurred farm scientists to support the use of gene manipulation for producing stress-resistant crops.

New RBI norms: They are tough but necessary
After 2015, all re-structured assets will be treated on a par with non-performing assets, requiring the same level of provisioning.

June 03, 2013
RBI should explain 'liquidity'
There seem to be several concepts of liquidity floating around. And a distinction is sought to be made between money supply and liquidity.

June 02, 2013
Next market rally could be last before major correction
If the corrections underway across most markets hold first support, the probability of another leg to the rally until mid-August is fairly certain, says

May 30, 2013
Open fight over sustainability
While the violence of guns gets more media attention the war between votaries of sustainable development and those who favour rapid industrial growth rages on.

May 28, 2013
How the West's central banks' turbulence will affect India
Winding down quantitative easing will be messy for the West and a big problem for India.

May 26, 2013
World commodity markets continue to slide, equities pause
There is no ignoring the fact that world equity markets at this point are in unsustainable parabolic trajectories. The question is when, not if, a deep and sharp correction arrives. Investors need to be prepared for a quick exit if they are riding the rallies at this late stage, says

May 20, 2013
How India should reform its trade for the 21st century?
Focus should be on integrating India into regional trade blocs and helping professional services transcend borders.

May 19, 2013
Expect equity markets and dollar to consolidate
Clearly the DXY is overbought and needs to work off overbought conditions. That will trigger consolidation in US equity markets that are just as overbought, says

May 13, 2013
Did the CAG overstep the mark?
The Comptroller and Auditor General reports saw senior politicians, powerful ministers and top bureaucrats end up in jail. Thanks to those reports, public scams such as 2G, Coalgate and the Commonwealth Games became part of the popular discourse.

May 12, 2013
US markets make new highs while Nifty plods on to first resistance
Nifty could consolidate below 6100 for a week or so. Those who missed the bus at 5400 could consider buying their blue chips in the consolidation that ensues, says

May 06, 2013
Why does India need balance sheet reforms?
In the absence of market opportunities, the management will need to persuade shareholders that legitimate methods of valuation were used and the transaction price was justifiable.

May 05, 2013
S&P 500 makes a new high while Nifty begins a new super cycle
On April 10, the Nifty could have begun a new super cycle which could run to 2025, says

April 28, 2013
Expect the equity markets to retest recent supports
The rally from supports averted an immediate meltdown but the correction is far from over, says .

April 27, 2013
Brown rice and Bluetooth
Brown and organic rice were just words to many who lived in cities

April 25, 2013
Vedanta and international standards on mining
The most significant development over the last 10 years is that such organisations have accepted the need to operate on the basis of the principle of FPIC, namely Free, Prior and Informed Consent, by the local people whom a mining project affects.

April 21, 2013
The clawback in commodities last week was a dead cat bounce
Most commodities are on the verge of tipping over into deep long-term bear markets not seen for decades, says

April 16, 2013
Should you be brave and buy gold, or silver?
We are in a general commodity correction wherein we must expect all commodities to bottom more or less simultaneously since money is fungible and you have no means of knowing which bull is trapped where, says

Struggle for life saving drugs
People die from diseases like AIDS, TB, etc because life saving essential medicines are either too expensive, or not available because they are not seen as financially viable.

April 15, 2013
Gold collapse sets up market for deep correction in commodities
The best part of the collapse in the price of gold [bullish for India on its own merits] was in what it says for commodities in general but for crude in particula, says

April 12, 2013
India-EU FTA: A parting kick from UPA?
Barring a few exceptions India has a chronic trade deficit with most of its existing FTA partners as it is with most of its proposed FTA partners.

Should pharma MNCs be peeved?
In spite of all their complaints, pharma MNCs have been gaining market share in India. And this growth has come largely with generics.

April 10, 2013
RBI's exchange rate policy should favour exports, but it doesn't
The daily movement in exchange rates should favour exporters, and not importers, in a visible transparent manner. The RBI owes this to exporters, says

April 08, 2013
What was the Novartis case really about?
The drug Glivec was a genuinely new and important discovery deserving of patent protection.

US markets in a short term correction but no sign of reversal
Signs abound of money flowing out of commodities and equities into US treasuries, indicating we are nearing a top even in the US markets, says

India's love affair with gold
India does not regard gold merely as an investment, it is also the preferred form of hoarding tax-evaded wealth.

April 06, 2013
Not just the govt, India Inc, too, is responsible for the current mess
Business has paid a pittance for farmers' land, indulged in widespread illegal mining, and cheated on 'green' commitments.

April 02, 2013
Can we have waterless agriculture too Mr PM?
We need a master plan to increase our water storage capacity, improve irrigation facilities and create water networks across the country that links the draught prone with those experiencing floods.

April 01, 2013
NASDAQ 100, SPX make new all-time (closing) highs, DAX sags
Unless the markets confirm a downtrend, don't short the markets. Investors should wait till a direction to US markets becomes clear, says

March 29, 2013
The vexing issue of 3G roaming
The Department of Telecommunications' restriction on this service flies in the face of both policy precedents and market logic.

March 22, 2013
Food security or dole?
There is a vast grey area between a bill that promises to ensure that no one goes hungry and the political economy of producing food, writes .

March 21, 2013
The invisible hand of the government
When we have 30,000-plus colleges and scores of research labs, why is it that we do not produce a steady stream of Nobel Prize winners?

March 20, 2013
US, EU markets continue to make new highs as Asians take a breather
Investors in India have a great buying opportunity in cyclical stocks that have completed their long corrections from the peak of 2007, says

March 19, 2013
Anji Reddy, healer extraordinaire
Dr Reddy, an innovative technocrat par excellence, led from the front the countless initiatives of his famed laboratory in discovering many effective, affordable, cures for the numerous ailments of mankind, writes .

March 18, 2013
Money laundering: Switzerland's envy. India's pride?
Several corporate, including some airlines, software and even consulting companies operate in India with dodgy secretive and multi-layered ownership patterns.

March 11, 2013
Trapped bears can fuel the rally in the US much further
Setting bear traps is the common tactic to extend rallies at tops because bulls don't have to use their own cash to fuel such rallies, says

March 09, 2013
Obsessing about GDP growth
True sustainable growth can come only through an increase in productivity, and such increases can happen only through innovations, technical and organisational, in all sectors of the economy - industry, services and agriculture, writes .

March 06, 2013
Budget 2013 - An elaborate exercise in denial
Thanks to policy paralysis at the Centre, we are doing exactly the opposite of what the doctor prescribed, writes .

March 04, 2013
FM flatters, but Budget deceives
The Budget is disappointing because it refuses to fundamentally repudiate fiscal populism.

The freebie nation
Despite warnings from a parliamentary panel, the list of tax exemptions in 2012-13 shows a rising trend.

March 01, 2013
Budget: A victory for pragmatism and realism
The minister learns from Europe's economic suicide, and pulls off a difficult balancing act.

February 25, 2013
NIFTY has cleverly anticipated the correction in world markets
Investors should use the correction to buy in looking to individual stocks and not the indices, which are more sentiment indicators rather than that of value, says

February 20, 2013
No quick fixes for high growth
The Indian economy suffers deep structural flaws that piecemeal measures in the Budget are unlikely to solve.

February 18, 2013
UPA government: A decade of decay!
The two decades of our "spectacular economic progress" has side-stepped vast swath of our underprivileged that oscillates between twenty per cent and one-fifth of our population!

February 15, 2013
Are exit interviews a fuzzy exercise?
Most companies still treat exit interviews as a fuzzy exercise It's your last day, actually hour, in the office.

February 13, 2013
One Billion Rising
The underlying issues of male domination and the urgent need for a 'feminisation' of society and economy are much more difficult to tackle, writes .

February 12, 2013
Economic slowdown: Will the PM take the blame?
tells us why the UPA under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh is akin to a terminally ill patient on a ventilator.

February 07, 2013
Price pooling of coal is a bad idea
It is more than certain that coal supply is a major constraint on power production; and power is a major constraint on industrial growth.

Realising India's industrial dreams
The causes for and solutions to India's manufacturing angst may not lie in high land costs, excessively labour-friendly laws or excessive taxes.

February 04, 2013
World markets make new highs while NIFTY retests 5950
NIFTY appears determined to retest the break point as support, which is a healthy sign -- provided it holds. Should it do so, NIFTY too will join the other markets to reach for new highs, says

January 21, 2013
You can't argue with markets making new highs but caution warranted
Enjoy the ride but avoid getting greedy. Disciplined profit-taking is a must to survive in the treacherous markets ahead, says

Why an illegal telephone exchange in Maran's house?
The startling details of a secret and possibly illegal telephone exchange set up in the residence of former telecommunications minister Mr. Dayanishi Maran in Chennai are in public domain for over three years.

January 08, 2013
India gets the wrong end of trade deals
Data show that preferential treaties have facilitated more imports than exports.

January 07, 2013
Expect Nifty and world markets to rally sharply
NIFTY has now moved into a bull phase though there will be corrections on the way, but some of these could well be running corrections, says

January 01, 2013
US equity markets at a critical juncture
The only matter for speculation is if the markets will make a new high before turning down or simply slip unceremoniously anytime now, says

December 31, 2012
Has the time for India to lead come?
For starters given a declining West, it is indeed unwise on our part to depend on it for any matter whatsoever for our growth.

Policy paralysis in 2013 again?
Given that there are number of state elections leading up to the national election in 2014, the government is unlikely to take hard decisions.

December 28, 2012
'Celebrate the spirit of resistance'
If you feel that the year 2012 is coming to a close on a depressing note focusing on an unusual New Year celebration in Kundankulam in Tamil Nadu might offer a glimmer of hope.

December 27, 2012
Some light at the end of the 2012 tunnel?
Next year might be better than the last.

December 24, 2012
For Nifty, time to exercise caution till a break over 5950 is confirmed
There is room for caution as we are in a very mature bull market in the US and a sudden slide there will have ramifications for Nifty, says

December 20, 2012
All about the world's new energy economy
New oil supply projections and the failure of climate talks mean that India must alter its geostrategic stance.

December 17, 2012
Investment in gold: A no-confidence against the government
Importing gold widens current account deficit, channels domestic savings into personal investments and of course forces domestic entrepreneurs to scout for foreign funds, writes .

December 11, 2012
To control inflation, use structural reform
Inflation will persist until supply increases. So supply has to be addressed through structural reforms such as in telecom and power.

December 06, 2012
Fighting India's gold bug
RBI's suggestion of new products to lower gold imports treats the symptom rather than the underlying disease

Bilateral investment: A drag on the developing world
Bilateral investment treaties can adversely impact policy space for governments

November 26, 2012
This leg of the market correction may be over
Exciting times ahead in the FX markets, predicts

November 22, 2012
How IT became competitive
It was government policies, not ITA-I, according to a recent study.

November 21, 2012
What are the pitfalls for subsidy targeting
Cash transfer is targeted at the poor, but Aadhaar which will be at the core of the direct transfer process -- has no role in identifying the poor.

November 20, 2012
Will BP's punishment teach any lesson?
The billion dollar penalty of the kind imposed on BP will not deter risky operations but it will hopefully create an incentive for stricter safety measures.

November 19, 2012
And now a Rs 100 crore scam hits ICAI!
The national trait of exploiting the inherent weakness of democracy is now mirrored within the ICAI too.

November 12, 2012
A market pullback that may challenge previous top
However, a higher high from this rally will not negate a deeper correction to follow sometime in December, says

November 08, 2012
Market correction to continue
Short-term wave counts show that there could be minor pullbacks next week, which will be small counter-trend rallies to correct for over-sold conditions. says

November 05, 2012
Sebi, do no harm
To make mutual funds go beyond the top 15 locations, Sebi has decided to rob investors and pay the funds.

How the Euro could survive
Signs of recovery in Spain and commitment from Germany must be met with the willingness to let the euro fall.

November 01, 2012
All about chasing real estate's shadows
After all, he had already, in the short three years that he had worked for us, in the middle of a punishing schedule of writing algorithms crucial for our business, found the time and energy to write two articles for international peer-reviewed journals and co-author with me a chapter in a book of readings on collective intelligence edited by a prominent US academic.

October 30, 2012
The much anticipated correction is here!
The question now is the extent and duration of the correction, says

October 25, 2012
From the Indus Valley Civilisation to SEZs
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry carried out a review of municipal solid waste management in Indian cities in 2009, and found that only six of the 22 surveyed cities in the study had sanitary landfills, while 10 cities -- including major waste generators like New Delhi, Greater Mumbai (greatest generator of waste) and Kanpur -- did not have sanitary landfills.

'Thrash out' trade differences
WTO should focus more on what it 'should do' than what it 'can do'

Of foreign hands across the waters
Globalisation may have many discontents as contents.

Why the West is in disarray
The last European summit, in June, was supposed to have decided that the European Stability Mechanism would use its euro 500 billion to help directly recapitalise banks in distress, once a euro-zone banking supervisor authority was established.

October 22, 2012
Why the govt is failing to rein in fiscal deficit?
RBI may think twice before agreeing with suggestions of a rate cut.

Is the serious crack in the Nasdaq Composite index enough to reverse this rally?
The market is skating on thin ice of an extension that can reverse on a dime, says

October 17, 2012
The positive side of reforms
Whatever may have been the pace, sequence or quality of reforms in the last two decades, nobody can dispute their positive impact on the degree of accountability in governance standards.

October 16, 2012
Can India Inc deliver tomorrow's economy?
Corporations are still hard-wired for the old 'brown' economy which aims to generate only shareholder value not stakeholder value.

There may be another leg up to the rally in US equities
Temper greed with plenty of caution, warns

The 'VBS mystery' solved!
The officer can use the Evidence Act to bring VBS' identity to light.

October 15, 2012
Column: Why the media's credibility is at stake
When it comes to fundamental issues involving corporate, corruption or anti money-laundering laws, media is increasingly demonstrating its ignorance.

October 11, 2012
Indian markets may have signalled the end of a correction
Mere portfolio investment inflows via FIIs should not be used as a pretext to allow an appreciation in the rupee, says

October 08, 2012
When it comes to economy, Obama is clueless, Romney confused
Neither Obama nor Romney realise that government intervention as it is practiced in the US is not the answer to deliver people out of poverty, writes .

October 04, 2012
All about Reserve Bank's overkill on gold loans
Back in March this year, when the Reserve Bank of India stepped in with a cap of 60 per cent on the loan-to-value ratio for gold loan non-banking financial companies, it said it was acting to pre-empt systemic risks and to safeguard public funds.

If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?
A financially successful business may be described as a good role model for its management practices -- whereas its financial success may have almost nothing to do with these practices.

October 02, 2012
The perils of conflating Modi with Gujarat
The fact is that by conflating Modi with Gujarat the larger lesson in development -- economic reforms -- is being sidelined and lost, say

October 01, 2012
Has the flat C for US equities begun?
The US markets have had a nice four-year bull run from March 2009 that just doesn't seem to be ending. The markets are on an extension. That's not surprising after the severe crash in 2008. However, these extensions can terminate at any time without notice, says

A few notifications is NOT reforms Mr PM!
For two decades while we continuously talked of infrastructure, power, ports, airports, irrigation, railways, roads, sewer systems, public transport, skill development, education, et all we also realised that our governments has very less vision to structure it, very little political will to carry it and far less managerial band-with to deliver such projects on time, writes .

September 26, 2012
Manmohan Singh: A failed economist, and a prudent politician?
But what has his two decades in 7 RCR meant for a nation in the throws of burgeoning domestic growth, a sudden global crisis and complete political turmoil? Senior Business journalist says Manmohan Singh has failed us as an economist but surprised us with his political prudence.

September 24, 2012
Forget small retailers, can our govt stand up to Walmart?
As multilateral negotiations have paused, multi-national corporates have increasingly become aggressive; and our bureaucrats restless.

September 18, 2012
RBI Monetary Policy: Calculated pause or characteristic freeze?
Inflation in India is indeed a complex subject. Interest rate hike (or cuts) alone are not the solution to tackle inflation, writes .

September 17, 2012
Markets are still largely sideways
As always buy into blue chips that are currently at lows, suggests

Wholesale of India, by FDI in retail
A democratically elected government cannot bulldoze its way through, whatever be the compulsions, writes .

September 13, 2012
Bad days of the licence raj are alive in India
Broadly, where policy has remained mainly in government hands, the problems more thoughtful commentators noted back in the mid-nineties remain.

Will China have to 'discover' the humble drumstick before we do?
Why has the drumstick tree not found favour with officialdom given the ease of cultivation, its excellent nutritional value, shelf-life of its leaves as food, and its use as vegetable, asks

September 10, 2012
Has gold really broken out?
We will not know if the breakout is just a reactive pullback or the real thing for another two weeks or so, says

September 07, 2012
Competitiveness in what?
If we are to maintain stable societies and productive lives, we can no longer sustain a widening budget gap between what nature is able to provide and how much our infrastructure, economies and lifestyles require.

September 04, 2012
Coal-gate: Mr. Minister, can you answer these questions?
The sad part is that it is corporate war that is exposing the chink within the system.

September 03, 2012
Has gold really broken out?
Respect the yellow metal's breakout but treat it with more than ordinary caution, says

Coal-gate - Economic reforms to economic deforms?
Dr Singh, the architect of reforms, has in effect been the architect of this model of economic deforms. Whatever the Finance Minister Dr Singh giveth, the Prime Mnister Dr Singh taketh.

August 31, 2012
What Lalu did right for the railways, and where others fail
Lalu Yadav's s successors have discarded his shrewd pricing strategy and Indian Railways has tamely slipped back into its old shabby ways, says

August 29, 2012
Are agricultural commodity prices peaking out?
We are very close to the peak and may well be in for another leg to the correction that commenced in May 2011, says

August 27, 2012
Caution: Treacherous markets ahead
On the whole expect a very treacherous markets as the price levels could be driven purely by the technical play between bulls and bears as the new trend is established, cautions

August 21, 2012
Equity markets continue to be toppish
Spend time accumulating good blue chips that indicate that prices have bottomed out, says

August 13, 2012
Look for buying opportunities without chasing stocks
We are pretty much towards the end of a bear market in terms of wave counts and these are times to accumulate blue chips, not sell, says

August 10, 2012
Salvaging the UPA gravy train wreck
It is in the interest of all politicians, ruling and opposition who hope to grab power in the next elections, to resolve the subsidies mess here and now. But how can it be done? offer a checklist

August 09, 2012
Defending the Internet, loudly
Internet businesses, including cybercafes, now stand protected because Section 79 classifies them as 'intermediaries' -- not holding them responsible for what people view and upload.

August 07, 2012
The Fed did not add to the central bank created liquidity
While one must recognise that we are towards the end of a long bearish trend, there is little evidence of the capitulation that is necessary for a confirmation to the end, says

July 30, 2012
Beware of rallies that fade out quickly
These are times to buy as prices crash; at your own pace, at your prices, says

Foolish ant and intelligent grasshopper - 2012 version
Call it by whatever name, the economic system of modern times favors indiscipline of individuals, societies and governments.

July 25, 2012
Can Gujarat's growth story be attributed to Modi?
In the decade that Narendra Modi has been chief minister, Gujarat has done well but so have other states. In fact, some have closed the gap with Gujarat, particularly in the last five years, argue

July 23, 2012
India missed the bus on reforming its POL sector
As expected, the government did not move in time to grab the fleeting opportunity for POL sector reforms, writes in her weekly Market Notes

July 20, 2012
A bleak future for the Indian economy
India cannot come out unscathed from the current crisis.

July 18, 2012
Agricultural commodities: High prices to be new normal?
Long-term trends indicate that the extremely high world agricultural prices are not an aberration but will soon become the new normal, which has humongous policy implications for India's economy, says

July 13, 2012
Has a serious dollar rally begun?
During 2013 and 2014, we will see both 65 and 50 to the dollar.

July 11, 2012
Modi's myths about Gujarat's growth and other hype
Gujarat's success story deserves all the credit that good performance demands. However, the credit for it owes to economic reforms and the entrepreneurial tradition of Gujarat, say

July 09, 2012
Most markets are poised at crucial turning points
The critical points will unfold over the next two to four weeks, says

July 04, 2012
Is this why DMK supported Pranab Mukherjee?
The flow of funds to Kalignar TV begins on 23rd December 2008 and goes on till August 2009. The Finance Minister during that time was Pranab Mukherjee - the UPA's candidate for the post of Presidency.

June 27, 2012
Hindutva is largely irrelevant to economic reforms
Hindutva is being conflated with good governance and economic performance in a determined bid to promote Narendra Modi, says

June 22, 2012
Column: Companies look for 'AQ' in leaders
Companies now look at the adversity quotient scores of their leaders.

June 19, 2012
Reawaken India: It's time for overseas fund-raising
India's officialdom must turn to the diaspora to fund the economy's addiction to foreign money.

June 12, 2012
The goals and challenges of Rio+20
The bad news about the environment far outweighs small advances that have been made.

Restore confidence? Take action on Dr Singh
While the middle class believes that while Dr Singh may not exactly be corrupt, they simultaneously also perceive that the best bet for anyone to loot and scoot in India is while he continues to be around.

May 28, 2012
Will RBI and government learn their lessons from current crisis?
We are still in love with the idea of a strong rupee, not realising how much it hurts our poor people and the farmers, says

May 18, 2012
How India can stabilise its BoP situation
Near-term movements of INR will continue to be shaped by the capital flows situation, which in turn will be influenced by developments in Europe.

April 13, 2012
Limits to growth and how to overcome them
We as a species are hitting global constraints imposed by Earth's ecological and bio-systems that we don't know how to mitigate or resolve as a species, says

April 10, 2012
Why multitasking doesn't work
As the brain is forced to respond to several stimuli at the same time which results in the brain switching between tasks and thus losing time as it determines which task to perform.

March 29, 2012
Why China needs BRICS for the time being
The BRICS states need to pin down China on long-term norm-based values, ideas and concrete proposals and programmes for the mutual benefit of the constituent member states.

March 17, 2012
Budget 2012: More spend, yet no positive results
Spending has been increased again, but there's still no effort in the Budget to improve outcomes.

Budget 2012: A good move towards GST, but reforms neglected
This Budget must be complimented for having taken two very positive steps towards the goods and services tax, or GST.

Budget 2012 fell short of the world's expectations
The fiery 'India Shining' and 'India Everywhere' slogans of a not-so-distant past may have been empty bluster, as the bravado has been replaced by a mood of despondency in the Indian business community.

Budget 2012: Not a disaster but not enough, either
The Budget arithmetic seemed to be more realistic this time, though the final 5.9 per cent fiscal deficit will be more like 6.1 per cent for this year, and the target for 2012-13 of 5.1 per cent may be more like 5.3 per cent.

Budget: Hike in shipping tonnage tax at the wrong time
The shipping industry unlike other industries attracts tonnage tax and the budget has proposed to increase the tonnage tax by more than 50% on various class of tonnage effective from April 1, 2013.

A Budget for credibility
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was saddled with a number of handicaps when he presented the Union Budget 2012-13 on Friday morning.

'Budget 2012-Neither too cruel, nor too kind'
Pragmatism, perseverance, patience, persistence -- and a lot of detailed work.

March 13, 2012
UPA II: Dressing up to go nowhere
The methods being used by the government to window-dress the fiscal deficit will fool no one, least of all foreign investors or bodies like the IMF, warns

February 24, 2012
More turbulence likely in global markets
While Greece may well hang on through its next handout or two, it is hard to see how it can survive in the euro.

Successful business? Thanks to 'core competence'
It is not certain whether management theories have a role in modern society. In fact, some of them need to be reconstructed.

January 26, 2012
Pirates of the modern world
Filtering of websites has now been introduced as a discussable topic. The current battle is about who will control the most visible and glamorous layer, the content layer.

December 29, 2011
Why the middle-class across the world is angry
There are few periods in human history that have seen worldwide expressions of middle-class angst like the current one has.

December 21, 2011
Ho-hum, so the Lok Sabha discussed black money, what's new?
Can a corrupt revenue system be trusted to keep confidences when oodles of money are involved, asks

December 12, 2011
Consume or Kill? Save or Spend?
'The public are being told to consume more, even in China and India. A part of the global problem is being attributed to the saving patterns of people in Asia and we are being told that greater demand and consumption in BRIC countries can help ease the pain of the developed world,' says B S Prakash.

November 30, 2011
Should drug prices be regulated?
Medicines are not commodities.

October 07, 2011
The story of Kasimbazar's networks
If you do not know much about Kasimbazar, I would not hold it against you; after all it has a population of only 10,000 and lies in one of the most neglected corners of the state of West Bengal.

October 06, 2011
Steve Jobs: The CEO as auteur
Mr Jobs's place in management history is assured for being the model CEO who spent his waking hours obsessing about making their products 'insanely great', says .

October 03, 2011
Playing dirty politics with the poor
'Second-generation neoliberal policies, coupled with multiple failures on the food front, could do to the UPA what India Shining did to the NDA in 2004,' says .

September 27, 2011
Why the strange quest for privacy on Facebook?
Facebook, the world's biggest social networking website, is attempting to become the one-stop media hub for its 750 million users.

September 15, 2011
Can global consciousness be mapped by machines?
The answer appears to be a tentative yes, says .

September 08, 2011
Steve Jobs: The role model CEO
Mr Jobs' resignation has prompted various eulogies, with many aptly calling him America's greatest industrialist ranked right up there with the likes of Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie. But many also made references to his "micro-managing".

August 19, 2011
The business of banking
assesses the key points in RBI's discussion paper on new bank licences.

August 16, 2011
Freedom, hurt sentiments and dissent
Demanding that we all fit into a black and white framing of any dispute undermines democratic culture.

July 25, 2011
How Euro-zone can exit from the present crisis
The EU is still an India in the making.

Is bailout the end of Euro-zone's problems?
The Greece and Euro-zone bailout may not end their solvency problems but it signals that EU policymakers remain committed to global financial stability.

July 20, 2011
Indo-US ties: it's the economies, stupid
To read Raymond Vickery's hugely interesting book while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still on Indian soil reminds one of the great distance India and the US have travelled since the 1998 nuclear tests.

June 13, 2011
'An IIM seat cannot be bought'
Judging the research output of an IIM is an art form.

May 13, 2011
Will China's growth slow down?
Growth in China may slow down, but excess domestic demand will ensure high growth rates.

May 11, 2011
Why India faces lower growth, higher inflation
It is nearly impossible to effectively control inflation when it is not properly measured.

April 13, 2011
Can a peaceful revolution tackle India's corruption?
Civil society, whose legitimacy lies primarily in its own eyes, has won an equal role in shaping the Lok Pal Bill, which has the potential to change the way India is governed.

April 12, 2011
Planning in India? It needs a thorough change
Planning in India will need to change to take account of a more volatile global economy.

A few details of the Hazare fall-out
Government decision-making may soon become a casualty

March 02, 2011
Post-protest: Challenges of building local economy
What is really at stake is the future of the local economy and its place in the larger picture.

How will media companies make money
The online audience will attract only a fraction of the ad rates the one on television gets.

March 01, 2011
A balancing act: Some relief for the common man
One can say that with the host of expenditure plans announced in the Budget, the finance minister has managed not to burden the common man directly with taxes.

February 28, 2011
Does the Budget have a human face?
Now 60 per cent of India's agriculture is rainfed and rainfed farmers and areas have the largest concentration of poorest people.

February 24, 2011
Of walking the fiscal tightrope
Ballooning fiscal deficit can derail India's growth momentum

February 21, 2011
How gigantic sums of public money are being lost
BSNL shall be bankrupt by the end of 2011, Indian Railways is bleeding; Air India has run up a total debt of Rs 40,000 crore. on the figures that tell the government's story.

February 09, 2011
The DB Realty-DMK puzzle
'The CBI suspects A Raja of favouring Swan Telecom, a wing of DB Realty. A chain of firms connected to DB Realty transferred over Rs 200 crore to a television network connected to M Karunanidhi's immediate family....'

February 07, 2011
Do we have job recovery?
Global growth may be rebounding, but labour markets are not, or only very weakly and unevenly.

January 11, 2011
2010: High profile projects hit the green hurdle
The year 2010 was a loud year when high profile projects hit the headlines for non-compliance with environmental regulations.

January 10, 2011
Should a stock exchange also be a regulator?
The securities market regulators were not to be born till a couple of centuries later and it was the stock exchanges that had to lay down the rules for admitting members and conditions for trading.

January 07, 2011
Corrupt relationship managers: Blame the bank
Most banks follow lax selection and due diligence procedures as long as relationship managers bring in the money.

January 05, 2011
Lessons for micro-finance from 2010
The year 2010 was a tumultuous one for micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in India.

Big plans, zero execution in 2010
G20 meetings last year degenerated into a sort of a grand junket for stressed out global leaders.

December 29, 2010
2010 saw regulators testing their autonomy
Several found their powers challenged or at least redefined -- insurance, stock market, and telecom -- and plans for a new 'autonomous' regulator -- for civil aviation -- were up in the air.

December 22, 2010
Trade with China? India needs a careful strategy
China is rapidly emerging as the country that matters the most to India.

December 09, 2010
How to counter rising rates
The classic answers are to cut exposure to medium-and-long-term debt funds as well as financial stocks.

December 03, 2010
How politicians should deal with businessmen
All the scams that have tumbled out of the closet in the last few months have exposed one more time the link that exists between businessmen and politicians.

November 29, 2010
Employee Value Proposition: How effective is it?
A Towers Watson survey shows that there are few differences among companies on a critical metric that determines employee satisfaction

November 26, 2010
Market may look crazy, but Indian stocks to do well
The bottom line is that one should stay invested and not get spooked out of one's equity holdings, says .

Time to reinvent DD and AIR
The unending travails of Prasar Bharati Corporation, now made worse by allegations of corruption in high places and a threatened strike by its employees, point once again to the need for new thinking on public broadcasting.

November 24, 2010
A grounded project finally begins to take off
Thirteen years and several hurdles later, the plan has finally got a new "estimated time of departure".

November 09, 2010
How Kerala is improving healthcare for the poor
Kerala has used the Centre's Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to the advantage of its government hospitals.

November 02, 2010
CDS: How to design a regulatory framework
The decision to allow a product or not, should depend on its economic value addition and not on its mere availability and wide usage in the "sophisticated" markets.

November 01, 2010
When companies fail to recognise trade unions
Gaps in labour legislation and India's reluctance to ratify two ILO conventions are stoking disputes over trade union recognition between managements and workers.

Of Anil Ambani & his business with Beijing
Anil Ambani's power deal is an aid to diplomacy.

Why European Union seizes Indian drugs
India's status as the pharmacy of the world is at stake.

October 19, 2010
Reasons for Europe's financial crisis
The continent cannot escape a crisis in its financial markets until it fixes its banks.

October 18, 2010
It's time to audit the Commonwealth Games
Allegations of corruption in construction and procurement need to be investigated and all those responsible brought to book.

Reasons for the clash of currencies
The principal topic of hot debate in the previous week-end's IMF-World Bank meetings was the need for realignment of currencies to reduce the global imbalances (read US deficit and unemployment).

US financial crisis over? Not really
Not only is the current US financial crisis not solved, the seeds are there for even more serious crises in the future, writes .

Micro loans, macro returns
One of the main criticisms of microfinance institutions one hears is that they charge high interest rates. One reason for this perception is the reference to interest rates as a percentage of the loan amount.

October 15, 2010
Financial news: Lessons from the past
Indian equities were one of the first out of the gate, followed in short order by more gold, a wide array of commodities and, finally - by the end of September - the rupee and other animals.

October 14, 2010
Why India, China should do business together
There are four thrust areas - IT, pharmaceuticals, engineering and agriculture.

Why mystery around the Budget is lost forever
The finance ministry's Budget Manual has ended the aura of secrecy around the preparation of the annual Budget.

October 11, 2010
Taxpayers' right to be taxed the least
The thesis that the taxpayer has the right to be taxed the least amounts to saying that if he is faced with two exemptions, which are applicable to a particular commodity, the taxpayer can choose the one more beneficial to himself.

State power over corporates all set to increase
House Panel loses opportunity to correct anomalies.

How to improve food safety in India
We are running out of time in the food-health trajectory.

The need to build the eager-to-learn leaders
The industry today needs eager-to-learn leaders and not the know-it-all Gods that management institutions are creating.

What can India do for the US?
Mr Obama's wish list for India will not be as daunting as the one he has for China.

A few lessons from Vodafone's case
Hutchison Essar is an Indian Company, the controlling interest of Hutchison Essar is held by an SPV of Cayman Island (CGP Investments Holding Ltd). CGP is owned by Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL), Hong Kong.

October 06, 2010
Can the G20 rescue deadlocked Doha?
The Seoul meeting could provide an opportunity to sort out differences between the US and emerging economies within the larger framework of global adjustment.

October 05, 2010
India needs a stimulus exit strategy for growth
Indian policy makers will have to evolve an exit strategy that maintains high growth with price stability.

Food grains: Danger signals crop up
This year's kharif output may be higher than last year but it will be short of 2007 or 2008 levels.

October 04, 2010
It's time to correct the appreciating rupee
The latest balance of payments data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week indicate that the CAD in fiscal 2010-11 could be anywhere between 3.5 and 4.0 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

How attractive are technology jobs for Indians?
Encouraging younger people to adopt careers in science depends on changing our mindset.

What makes a good leader?
Leading a team and strategising are two different competencies and mutually exclusive.

India: Billionaires among a sea of poor people
India's share of world GDP is just 2 per cent, and of global poverty an embarrassing 30 per cent.

September 29, 2010
In microfinance, big is beautiful
There is an inevitable good fallout from the government's recent proposal to limit the interest rate levied by large microfinance institutions getting priority sector loans from banks.

September 27, 2010
Getting to know the India that is Bharat
It is heartening to know that, on the eve of the formulation of India's 12th Five Year Plan, the Planning Commission is making an attempt to sensitise senior officers, advisers and experts to the country's ground realities.

September 23, 2010
When art turns into a valuable asset
There's sufficient evidence to indicate that art as an asset class is on an upswing, says Kishore Singh

September 20, 2010
'Indian economy has covered significant ground'
Though this growth slowed down a little in the aftermath of the global economic crisis, our economy has rebounded. After dipping to 6.7 per cent in 2008, growth this year is expected to be in the region of 8.5 per cent.

September 08, 2010
DTC: Baby steps in tax reform
It's important to make the penalty system an effective deterrent to ensure greater efficiency in the tax system, says .

September 07, 2010
Deadly mishaps loom over India's farm sector
Why can't India design ergonomic farm equipment? asks

September 06, 2010
The lack of financial governance in India
Squandering of taxpayer money over the Commonwealth Games highlights the sad lack of financial governance.

September 02, 2010
Free foodgrain to needy: To give or not to give
The Supreme Court's order on free distribution of grains to the needy is most likely meant to be a one-time exercise, feels .

How to sustain a high GDP growth
The 8.8 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2010-11 (that comes on the heels of 8.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2009-10) should put to rest any doubts about the durability of the economic recovery.

It's time to end <i>Dabba </i>trading
A parallel system of futures trading in commodities, operating outside recognised commodity exchanges, better known by its colloquial epithet <I>Dabba, </I>has been thriving unchecked and is believed to be now generating bigger trading volumes than the regular exchanges.

August 30, 2010
Vedanta chief's Emperor Ashoka inspiration?
argues that if people don't struggle for fair and equitable prosperity right now, they might lose the chance of doing so in the future.

August 27, 2010
'Bangalore phobia' will only hurt Western economies
Rather than creating hurdles, America and Europe must thank Indian IT firms for coming to their rescue and increasing the productivity of their corporations, says .

Why the home market is the kingmaker
The good news is that India is hitting critical mass across product categories like mobile telephony, auto and consumer electronics, to name a few.

August 20, 2010
Peace talks: Economics might be the answer
CfP's PeaceTalks initiative is a platform for highlighting such strivings and other forms of creative action aimed at resolving conflicts.

August 16, 2010
The $8.5 billion gamble?
Given it is in a completely different business, it's a question if Vedanta can seamlessly implement the optimal strategy for Cairn

August 11, 2010
You can't have it both ways, Mr FM
If he expects the states to take steps for controlling inflation, he should also respect the country's federal structure and not assume a veto power at the GST Council.

August 06, 2010
CEOs are back to getting king's salary
V Vaidyanathan joins a growing list of top executives getting a sumptuous sign-on bonus

August 03, 2010
The hidden future of the US economy
While forecast of a double dip would be rash, most analysts are raising the odds for such an event.

July 29, 2010
Innovating solutions for India's challenges
India first needs to innovate the solution itself, and then focus on the product.

July 28, 2010
Is splitting RBI an option?
RBI as the monetary policy authority deserves autonomy. The problem arises when it also functions as the regulator for banks.

July 21, 2010
Stock markets? Nah! How about rum instead?
Dilip D'Souza is totally baffled by the strange and unfathomable ways of the stock markets.

The business of financial inclusion
Business systems that serve customers who are starkly above or below the average customer on any parameter need to be differently designed. Forcing one-size-fits-all products is not a good solution, says .

July 20, 2010
Why have financial regulators suddenly found voice?
Is the exit of the capital markets joint secretary the reason behind this, wonders .

July 19, 2010
Why are the PM's wishes being violated by the govt?
Not enough people in the government or the private sector have the confidence in creating industrial and mining projects that offer win-win deals to tribals, says .

The <I>neta-babu raj</I>
The licence permit raj has morphed into a system which is just as crippling.

July 14, 2010
Why Kamal Nath lashed out at Montek Singh
If Kamal Nath launches a broadside, it is because his ministry now can no longer afford to ignore the advice that comes from Yojana Bhavan.

July 13, 2010
Udaan gives school dropouts a second chance
Nachiket Mor is today championing the concept of residential bridge schools for dropouts.

July 12, 2010
What's the philosophy of investing?
Very few investors give a serious thought to the underlying issues involved in an investing style and if it fits their personal risk-profile.

Bandhs: Acts of terror by another name
If Naxalites and extremists disrupt normal life, destroy public property, inject fear into people and make them retreat into their homes and away from public places, we call that terrorism. What is a state-sponsored bandh?

July 08, 2010
Flight delays? Time to fix 'soft' infrastructure
We need is to build a culture of systemic planning and skills of facilitation to align objectives and goals if we really want to solve the complex issues we face in our lives today.

July 07, 2010
India's growth? Private sector to the fore
India needs more public investment, to sustain upwards of 9 per cent national income growth and also to fuel private sector dynamism.

The PM has 8 councils of advisors, but...
With an eighth council now in place, no one can accuse Manmohan Singh of being ill-advised.

Food security? Over 8 crore fake ration cards!
The real challenge before the government is to improve the institutions that are charged with the responsibility of delivering food to the consumer through the existing public distribution system (PDS).

Why Pawar must quit as agriculture minister
The Union Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, who also doubled as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and has now become president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), has reportedly pleaded with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his ministerial burdens be reduced so that he can devote more of his time to his cricketing responsibilities.

7 ways to improve infrastructure in Indian cities
The challenge for India is to write a new chapter in low-cost urban development.

July 06, 2010
Recover your environment! Here's how
Next week's 'Recover your environment' workshop in Hyderabad is a tiny step towards compensating for how little has changed since the Bhopal tragedy, says .

July 05, 2010
The failure of the food security bill
Unlike in langars, free feeding under the food security bill may force people to swallow their shame.

We must have ambitions beyond profits and votes: FM
We are working to make our government more efficient and transparent, says Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

July 01, 2010
How India can catch up on broadband
The government can invest some of the Rs 100,000 crore from the spectrum auctions to help India catch up on broadband

June 30, 2010
Infosys at Chandigarh and why SEZs work
Govt should examine how SEZs can overcome their main problems over land acquisition.

Why we must give Trai's broadband plan a hand
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's visionary plan to build India's Information Super Highway has been very carefully thought-out and needs all the support we can give it, says .

June 29, 2010
What we must learn from the Bhopal tragedy
The US is less concerned about who's jailed and more about a huge compensation from BP.

Here comes Reliance!
The flip side of decontrol is greater competition for oil PSUs, says .

Non-executive directors: Only after the perks?
The position of director is more than the sinecure that all too many retired executives seek out because of the fees, car, and the opportunity to feel important, says .

'I'm worried about our country, Dr Singh'
We have been carrying open letters written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by ordinary citizens of India , the so-called aam aadmi. The issue that we want to focus on for the moment is petro price hike and the consequent inflation.

June 28, 2010
City scape: Where reason drives action
A peek outside your airplane window as you land in any Indian metropolis is confirmation of the fact that 26 per cent of Mumbai and an astounding 60 per cent of New Delhi lives in slums or substandard housing.

Why India had no choice but to hike fuel prices
The government must be complimented for finally showing some determination in biting the bullet on petroleum prices. It must now stand its ground and ride the wave of political protests that are bound to be staged by an Opposition waiting to return to relevance.

June 23, 2010
The G20 and 'Chermany'
The grouping has influenced China, but Germany will be more difficult.

Let's build a few Chandigarhs
Chandigarh remains the only new independent city of any consequence built in independent India.

Bhopal: Why India needs to arrest Keshub Mahindra
If the Bhopal judgment results in independent directors and CEOs/plant managers waking up to their responsibilities, that can only be a good thing.

June 22, 2010
The world cup for advertising kicks off
A peep into the Cannes advertising contest.

Oil at $300 a barrel: Will it or won't it?
Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but any case of negativity on oil should be the last till oil starts shock news.

June 21, 2010
Of Bhopal and a democracy we can be proud of
The magnitude of outrage triggered by the miscarriage of justice in the Bhopal gas leak tragedy is a moment of truth for all of us, says .

Many cooks make the broth cost-effective
Market forces always work and India has an intensely competitive service economy, says .

Bhopal & BP: How they don't deal with it
writes on how the United States is handling the BP oil spill disaster and what India needed to do in the horrific Bhopal gas tragedy.

Is speculation God's work?
Speculators do play a role in creating liquid markets. Other players like hedgers, arbitrageurs and long-term investors are not enough to create continuous market liquidity and prices.

Why infrastructure is the defining issue?
A single unified definition of infrastructure should not be attempted. It is neither desirable, nor useful.

June 16, 2010
Why UPA tolerates some ineffcient ministers
Almost without exception, all ministers from non-Congress coalition partners of the UPA have been behaving as though they are a law unto themselves.

June 14, 2010
Cash for work - Asia's answer to crises
Policy makers in Asia are looking at social protection measures to provide relief.

The answer to Maoism? People-friendly growth
The challenge of Maoism can be met with equitable and inclusive socio-economic progress.

Mamata needs a crash course in public finance
It will be helpful advice for a chief minister-in-waiting who is going to have to deal with empty coffers and overflowing expectations

June 10, 2010
All about the business of humanity
To cope with the backlash against globalisation, more and more transnational corporations are adopting strategies that go beyond short-term profit maximisation.

June 09, 2010
Say goodbye to oil PSUs
In six years, they've lost Rs 156,000 crore to subsidies.

June 08, 2010
Now, commerce and finance ministries in good terms
Relations between the commerce and finance ministries have improved with new personalities at the helm of affairs.

The mystery of missing media mergers
The $17-billion Indian media and entertainment industry is very fragmented.

Japan: Land of the setting sun?
More than a decade's economic stagnation had virtually paralysed Japan. While remaining the world's second-largest economy, it watched China's rise with part anxiety and part greed.

June 07, 2010
Prosperity? The key lies in de-growth
What is required instead is a 'steady state economy' - where human economic activity strives for a balance with nature's economy in ways that would reduce or eliminate waste.

June 03, 2010
India's sorry spectrum story
The approach to spectrum management is an object lesson in how not to use information and communications technology for development.

GDP data: More shades of grey
The latest gross domestic product (GDP) numbers are reassuring, at first glance. GDP grew 8.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009-10 (Q4FY10), with manufacturing and mining playing stellar roles.

June 02, 2010
This is the century of innovation, Krishna tells USIBC
The India-US example, similarly, draws its strength not merely from engagement and understanding between governments, but from the vitality of private partnerships and the warmth of ties between our peoples. .

May 31, 2010
When trade unions lose their power
The short-lived strike by Air India employees makes one thing clear: the days of rampant trade unionism are over.

May 28, 2010
More work + Blackberry = Holiday
The super-busy executives around you may make you feel redundant if your mobile is silent on a family holiday trip.

May 27, 2010
Why Air India was right in imposing a 'gag' order
Air India's employees should not consider their company any different from other firms that allow only authorised personnel to speak to the media, says .

Who's afraid of Synthia?
Venter's patent application for his synthetic cell creation has set off a frenzied debate on monopolies in genetic research.

May 26, 2010
'You don't need IIM degree to build a successful co'
There is nothing more inspiring than the story of a boy born on the wrong side of the tracks making it big against all odds.

May 25, 2010
Green Scorecard: Private sector holds the upper hand?
But the toughest opposition to a strategy for halting climate change also comes from entrenched private interests, says .

May 24, 2010
What Chhattisgarh needs is jobs
Chhattisgarh needs special people's offices to identify skills and link them to earning possibilities

Celebrating the decline of Europe
Given the dynamics of the world today, it is inevitable that a relative decline in European power will occur.

Fiscal consolidation: What needs to be done
Stronger fiscal surveillance should be accompanied with broader macroeconomic surveillance, to go to the roots of sustainable growth.

Bonanza for PSU gas players
In the short run, ONGC and OIL should both reap a bonanza given the government hike.

May 21, 2010
Why India should welcome all capital inflows
If India can fast utilise currency flows for long-term projects, the regulatory regime could be more liberal.

May 20, 2010
Death of India's marketplaces
It will be a sad day when most of India will shop only inside enclosed, characterless shopping malls.

May 18, 2010
Trai and the Great Democratic Liberator
The cellphone is a Great Democratic Liberator: 'Great' because of its impact on people; 'democratic' because it gives the same benefits to all; and 'liberator' because it frees us from the terrible infrastructure, says Rama Bijapurkar.

Greek lessons for world economy
Democracy, nation-state and globalisation can't go together; we can have at the most two at one time, says .

May 17, 2010
$1-trillion aid surprises markets
The only amount that is actually committed in the Europe rescue package is 60 billion pound from an EU emergency fund

Brands: A few thought starters
The kind of feeling a brand evokes dictates the kind of relationship it will have with it consumers. Many a times, strong feelings remain long after the message fades, says .

India's infrastructure: What needs to be done
It is time infrastructure managers started adopting the best practices in project execution, says .

Telecom tussle: Raja's in the saddle again
Given how the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) recommendations on 2G spectrum will hit telecom firms, it's not surprising that telecom stocks have plunged.

The price poor people pay for huge projects
A principle adopted to ensure rehabilitation of evacuees alongside progress on projects is known for violations.

May 14, 2010
Greece crisis and the consequences for India
If the Greek crisis spirals into a larger European sovereign debt crisis and possible fragmentation of the eurozone, India's trade and capital flows could be hit, says .

May 13, 2010
Businessmen and society: A conflicting relationship
Businessmen and society have a strangely contradictory relationship.

Why Roche lost a patent battle in India
The Valcyte case is vital as it bars incremental innovation and recognises the right of patient groups to oppose patents.

India can gain from the crisis
The Indian economy, by and large, will withstand the current crisis like it withstood the Asian and Western world credit crises.

More woes for India's telecom sector
Lower margins, caused by substantial cash outflows and increasing competition, are seen as negatives for the sector.

May 11, 2010
How Jairam Ramesh has made a difference
'Jairam Ramesh is almost single handedly bringing about a paradigm shift within the government.'

Greek lessons for India
The wisdom of capping FII access to local debt, restriction on ECBs, etcetera is now apparent.

May 10, 2010
Govt must talk to RBI to protect exporters' interest
The commerce ministry must talk to the Reserve Bank of India and see how India's view can be represented and exporters' interests best protected.

The IMF, Greece, and 'immoral hazard'
Greece was an opportunity for the IMF to set a precedent for an orderly debt resolution programme.

What's wrong with economics and how to fix it
A New York-based institute seeks to empower new economists to challenge outdated approaches with innovative and ethical economic strategy and Indian policy makers must take note of it, says .

Experiments with education: The IT way
A touch-screen computer on classroom tables in New Delhi helps activity-based learning go online.

May 06, 2010
What India must learn from China
Emulate China's coordinated policies for strategic sectors, and we'll rely less on commodity exports.

Can you trust the IMD's weather forecast?
Given IMD's past record on forecasts, the latest one could also go wrong.

Glut of MBAs: Where are the jobs?
There are no easy solutions except that MBA colleges have to reinvent themselves and their programmes immediately before they add more capacity, and all new aspirants for an MBA programme should keep in mind that an MBA degree from even a high-ranking institute may not translate into a dream job in the near future!

May 05, 2010
Should Mumbai be made a Union Territory?
If Mumbai has to be India's Shanghai, it should remain more open to talent and enterprise, says .

Why RBI still needs to go easy
If excess liquidity is coming back to RBI, there is precious little that higher policy rates can achieve

May 04, 2010
Has Apple invented a whole new paradigm for computing?
The iPad might allow Apple to disrupt the publishing industry, as it has done with music and telecom already, says .

Farming: Maharashtra shows the way in pest control
NCIPM's awareness-cum-surveillance project helped reduce the pest-infected area in Maharashtra by 67 per cent.

The cost and efficacy of tax sops
The revenue foregone due to tax incentives in 2009-10 is estimated at Rs 5,40,269 crore.

May 03, 2010
The IPL's capitalist ideology
IPL is a metaphor for a new India - crass, brash and razzmatazz - but it is in big trouble.

Rising inflation: The govt got it wrong
This failure of basic short-term policy is surprising, given the star power that this government brings to its economic management.

Will Greece's debt do apart Europe's union?
Every financial crisis has political and geo-political consequences.

Spectre of bankruptcy comes to China
China's businessmen have always needed resilience, but now they must become accustomed to the spectre of bankruptcy.

April 30, 2010
Ten Commandments of IT security in banks
Excerpted from the inaugural address by Dr , Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, at the IBA-DSCI Conference on 'Security Framework in Indian Banks', in Mumbai on April 26.

How small exporters can get better profits
RBI and Sebi should modify the structure of the currency futures market to permit settlement by delivery of dollars ONLY from an EEFC account, says .

Why Greece will default on its debt
To not default, Greece's current deficit of 14% of GDP will have to fall to 5% which is unlikely, says .

April 29, 2010
The crisis in economics
The free fall of economies could be arrested only after a massive coordinated effort by world leaders from the G-20 nations.

How India can bring down cost of medicines
With the deadline for filing the information having ended on March 31, all attention is now centred on what the Patent Office will reveal in coming days.

Three factors that can derail India's growth
Climate change, water, land won't be the only obstacle to India's growth prospects; water and land have an almost equal potential to derail things.

April 28, 2010
The G-20, power, and ideas
The dispersion of global economic power augurs well for the role of ideas in policy-making.

Learning to live with hawkers
The embattled Left Front has done one more volte face by deciding to regularise hawkers in Kolkata's busiest streets.

April 26, 2010
Indians just don't trust the stock markets
The investor is voting for safe investment avenues and is not impressed by the lucre promised by Dalal Street, says .

How you can go 'green'
From Earth Hour to LEED ratings for buildings, from carbon footprint to carbon credits, the world is climbing onto the 'green' bandwagon.

Forget IPL. Wanted, a JPC to probe tax havens!
Nothing could trivialise the sanctity of Parliament than a JPC on the IPL. We need a JPC to cover the tax havens and its impact on the Indian economy, says .

Why politicians disagree with central banks
Central banks should be free to decide on monetary and credit policy.

Why power of corporations needs to be curbed
Efforts to curb the power of corporations and assert the power of citizens through democratic processes are vital, says .

Warring regulators in an undefined world
As India moves towards a multi-sector regulatory regime, drawing lines within the regulatory framework and demarcating areas is of paramount importance.

The next imbalance in the global economy
There is a need for coordination among emerging economies on managing capital flows and exchange rates, and China's exchange rate policy can help. That it is ready to be more flexible is welcome

April 23, 2010
India must learn to fly
The first thing that needs to be addressed is Air India's cost structure. If it were a private airline, Air India could apply for bankruptcy, but as a national airline that option is not on the table, says .

Urban India will be like a giant slum by 2030
Not paying attention to our cities is perilous and could result in massive urban decay.

Why the climate deal is bad for us
There is no way the Copenhagen Accord can be billed as a climate change agreement. It is simply an agreement to legitimise the right to pollute.

April 21, 2010
C K Prahalad - the man who knew strategy
Rajeev Srinivasan considers the legacy of the man who popularised strategic intent and the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Business was not the guru's core competence
In a sense, C K Prahalad was behind the curve; he provided coherent articulation of existing best practices rather than providing future prescriptions.

April 20, 2010
No government action on most CAG reports
If CAG indicts Raja, will action be taken? asks .

April 19, 2010
Infrastructure: More good news than bad
What's really interesting is that during the 10th Plan, about 25 per cent of the total investment in infrastructure came from the private sector, says .

What made CK Prahalad a management guru
Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad was insightful and definitely provocative.

How lessons in micro-finance can help the poor
A rural women's university is pioneering an effort to teach microfinance through practical lessons in the villages of Sonepat.

The paradox of hunger amidst potential plenty
Grain stocks in the current procurement season will be enough to feed all those who go hungry, and the FCI only needs to invest in proper storage facilities.

April 18, 2010
'We will miss you, our great guide'
'For C K, the business of business must be to improve the world for everyone.'

April 17, 2010
'Prahalad truly believed India will become a leader of the world'
Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Capital Funds Ltd Gopal Srinivasan was a student of Prahalad at the University of Michigan. In a tribute to his guru, he remembers how Prahalad had imagined India@75.

'The corporate world has lost a strategist of the highest order'
In the demise of C K Prahalad, the corporate world has lost a management guru and a corporate strategist of the highest order. While he will indeed be missed by all in the corporate world, his lifelong commitment and work towards helping shape the future of global economy will inspire and guide leaders all over the world for a long time to come. His fresh and ever-evolving business insights, and the sheer depth and breadth of his knowledge helped entrepreneurial ambitions

April 16, 2010
Why there are few women in Indian boardrooms
The executive suites of most major companies still remain largely boys' clubs, but things are improving.

Is appreciation of rupee inevitable?
It is not in our interest for the rupeee to rise against the dollar in which our exports are invoiced.

April 15, 2010
Ulip war: Why Sebi order may not be right
The cornerstone of any efficient financial market is certainty and coherence in its regulatory framework.

April 14, 2010
Tharoor-Modi row: Conflict of business interests
There is nothing wrong in business persons and professionals entering public life and becoming ministers. But once they do so, they should keep at an arms length their private interests, both of their own and their near and dear ones.

April 13, 2010
The truth behind unread Parliament committee reports
Since few read discussion papers or Parliament committee reports on Budgets, this doesn't help policymaking

April 12, 2010
Rupee rises despite higher deficits!
Only a mix of sterilised currency intervention and capital account management can halt the rupee's rise, says .

Now, walk the talk on cities!
Citizens must start a campaign to convert prominent shopping complexes in cities into no-car zones, says .

The mammaries, revisited
on how the 'reformer' groups are milking the economy to serve their ends.

How to cope with Naxals: Plan panel's 7-point strategy
Working for the adivasis' well-being through means that secure their rights, honour their dignity and build a shared prosperity will make the Maoists irrelevant, says .

April 09, 2010
Luxury: How India differs from China
Luxury in India may not have gone 'mass market' as in China, but it has taken some very firm strides.

April 08, 2010
Column: India's appalling environment laws
The Lafarge mining case has highlighted the appalling weakness of the environmental clearance procedures at all levels, writes .

April 07, 2010
Should RBI hike rates further?
RBI does need to keep signalling to the markets that it is tough on inflation.

The politics behind slow economic reforms
Popular anguish over the slow pace of economic reforms has grown more intense in the last few weeks even as Congress President Sonia Gandhi takes charge as the head of the National Advisory Council and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's grip on the policy-making apparatus of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government appears to get weaker.

India, US could agree on reinventing IMF
India is not particularly enamoured by the AMF idea and would much rather see the Fund revitalised and reinvented as a multilateral institution. Indeed, there could be a meeting of minds between India and the US on the IMF's future.

Three tears for PSUs
The SC laments that they spend most of their time in covering their back rather than in achieving their goals.

April 06, 2010
Higher industrial growth, more pollution
It took 10 years for the pollution load of industry to double, and then it took just three more years for this to rise by 50 per cent.

Impact of climate change on Indian agriculture
Small and marginal farmers practising agriculture on rain-fed farms will bear the brunt of climate change

How to bring fiscal discipline
Legislation on fiscal discipline will not help unless government is ready to bite the bullet.

April 05, 2010
What Geithner should and should not do
He should not publicly press India to open its financial sector.

April 02, 2010
How much of business is truly customer-centric?
Customer centricity is about understanding the ecosystem in which a product is operating in the customer's life and working towards making every element of the ecosystem friendly and enjoyable to the customer.

Lessons from E&Y and Lehman crisis
Perhaps these new revelations about E&Y and Lehman will inspire the govt to reopen the subject for more radical change.

April 01, 2010
How to make BSNL, MTNL more relevant
The telecom majors should focus on improving service quality with a strong partner, and not on one-shot stake sales.

Bt cotton: Monsanto is back in courts over royalty
Not all state governments have been kind to the global seed giant Monsanto. And cotton farmers have been less than grateful for the genetically modified technology that is said to have changed their fortunes dramatically.

March 31, 2010
Courts can help create lung space for cities
High courts should replicate for states what the Supreme Court has done for Delhi's environment, says .

What food coupons can and cannot do
Even if the government starts issuing vouchers which can be sold, a fairly early sunset will be written into them because of new technology clearly on the horizon , says .

Why this will be India's century!
A Carnegie paper estimates India's GDP will grow at 5.9% p.a. till 2050, compared to China's 5.6%, says .

Should overseas deals be taxed?
Reinterpreting long-established tax treaty provisions by the tax authorities creates confusion and has to be avoided as it affects investment into India.

March 30, 2010
Why Mamata's decision may cost Railways dearly
Mamata Banerjee's decision on land acquisition policy for dedicated freight corridor has very serious implications, says .

Is the euro overvalued?
It will strengthen, because global economic conditions require the eurozone to run trade deficits.

March 29, 2010
Why the NREGA programme is a dud!
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had said that well-meaning programmes meant for the poor did not reach them: the same is true of the NREGA, says .

Inclusive growth: Why Lohia's legacy is still alive
Professing a commitment to equity is now a political necessity -- something that Ram Manohar Lohia advocated years ago, says .

The nation pays for pampered Delhi
Given the financial support and the makeover that Delhi is getting for the Commonwealth Games, Delhiites should not crib about some hike in tax, says .

March 24, 2010
Biz families: Should sons step into fathers' shoes?
oining the same profession one's father belongs to inevitably leads people to compare and contrast the son with the father

March 23, 2010
How to tide over seed shortage
An acute shortage of healthy seeding materials for horticulture requires redrafting of the Seeds Bill, 2004.

March 22, 2010
Can India be a great power in the post-Lehman era?
If India counts itself as a 'great power', it will have to play a role in framing and enforcing new global rules, says .

Why the Foreign Universities Bill is elitist
The Bill suggests to the backward classes that 'the best from the West is not for you, the home-grown is good enough for you', says .

JNNURM: How has it transformed cities?
Urbanisation in India has been like climate change in the world. It has been happening inexorably for decades, not receiving much attention, its significance not noted. 300 million Indians live in towns and cities, underserved by utilities, with inadequate housing, and now choking in traffic.

NREGS: Tamil Nadu's success story
The Tamil Nadu development formula makes programmes like the NREGS work through simple but top-down solutions.

Educating Kapil*
A nation must educate its own, foreigners can only help at the margin.

March 19, 2010
Climate change: What will happen to our forests?
Foresters should not succumb to the temptations of easy money for carbon sequestration

Intellectual property rights: Brazil vs US
Brazil plans to break IP rights on American drugs, music, software and movies as retaliation for its cotton subsidies.

The feasibility of Tobin tax
Tobin Tax has immense potential when used along with complementary policies such as counter-cyclical and macro-prudential measures.

Retaining talent: Are companies doing enough?
A McKinsey survey shows very few firms focus on building the capability that adds the most value to performance.

SC did well to reject government blackmail
Economic reform entails reducing the space for arbitrary decision-making and ensuring transparency in policy.

GM crops are part of India's and world's future
New-age genetic research and technology brings new life to an old economy industry, one that is amongst the largest employers in the country.

March 18, 2010
Educating India, in a B-Grade American style
Nothing can be more dangerous than programming the mindset of the young generation of India through an education system that has nothing to do with the great culture.

March 17, 2010
The end of an era in finance
IMF's change of heart on capital controls is important, but it needs to be followed by further action.

Of media balance sheets and transparency
Why don't media companies work harder at having annual reports and balance sheets that are well arranged, easy to read and comprehensible?

March 15, 2010
Capitalism that we can be proud of
on why some kind of transformation in the culture of capitalism is inevitable.

March 11, 2010
Budget helps conmen, not the common man
A change that the Budget proposes to make could end up helping Indians who might have laundered their ill-gotten money, says .

Biotech Bill: Sweeping powers, glaring omissions
The biotech regulatory Bill gags dissent and takes away the power of states without providing any safeguards to farmers and consumers.

Why this is a 'good-average' Budget
The expenditure cuts are one-off, too much has been given away in tax cuts and there are few green shoots of reform.

March 09, 2010
How safe are your dollars?
They may well be, but investments in euro-denominated bonds will give higher safe returns, says .

March 08, 2010
Please give Mamata an air ticket to China
Mamata should travel to China to see how the Chinese railway system is expanding, says .

March 05, 2010
Budget: A new paradigm for India
Budget 2010 went far beyond most recent Budgets in that it defined an entirely new paradigm for the Indian economy.

The best way to influence consumers
For many big brands, investment in advertising is as big as the amounts spent in setting up factories and other infrastructure.

How SBI has become a preferred employer
HR audit, Strategic Training Unit, leadership development - SBI is doing all that it takes to be an employer of choice.

March 04, 2010
Road projects, flyovers: A major scandal?
smells a scandal in the BOT model for road projects.

The absurd MNC-backed 'India Project'
MNC-backed IP summits try to influence sitting judges on patent law enforcement issues pending in Indian courts.

The need for innovative spectrum management
Telephony and broadband need innovative spectrum management.

How real is Bihar's high growth story?
Bihar's own Survey shows much lower GDP numbers than the CSO does - nor is there any rational explanation for the higher figures.

March 02, 2010
Tension between FinMin and RBI on the cards
The FM's proposal on new banks and a Financial Stability and Development Council could spark tension with RBI.

Budget: Are the upsides greater than the downsides?
Given the tight control on expenditure the finance minister has exercised and how niggardly the increases have been on flagship programmes - Bharat Nirman has risen from Rs 32,473 crore (Rs 324.73 billion) to Rs 35,953 crore (Rs 359.53 billion) and employment guarantee from Rs 39,100 crore (Rs 391 billion) to Rs 40,100 crore (Rs 401 billion) - it's natural to wonder whether the deficit reduction targets are for real.

Trusteeship and how it can spawn development
If the endeavour that was flagged off in Udaipur flourishes and diverse energies combine to refine the lens of Trusteeship, 'growth' itself could be redefined. Then 'inclusion' will be an inherent rather than a separate goal, says .

Reviving agriculture: What the FM missed
The agricultural growth package mooted in the Union Budget for 2010-11 seems well conceived but not adequately supported by funding for its key elements. This, surprisingly, is despite the 21.6 per cent increase in the overall Central plan outlay for agriculture and allied sectors, the highest hike in recent years.

Finance ministry: Return of the Gladstonians
The global financial crisis has empowered fiscal conservatives in India.

February 27, 2010
Defence Budget: In need of direction
Defence and diplomacy are two sides of the same coin and India can't afford to ignore either of these.

Look out for a high-scoring Indian economy!
Overall, this is a budget with a pro growth stance with an attempt at fiscal restraint and some initiatives with major long term implications. It stays within mid-on and mid-off but does score boundaries.

Budget: In the same old style of the early 1980s
The Budget has no reforms, no move to facilitate GST for next year introduced, too many exemptions given and hardly a few withdrawn.

Budget: Big reforms pushed out
The government has to realise that at some stage it will have to deliver on big ticket items.

The paradox of FM's Budget strategy
Mr Mukherjee has presented a good budget, perhaps even a very good one under the circumstances, but he has shied away from presenting a great budget.

Budget: The real fiscal challenge lies ahead
Pranab Mukherjee will have to stay lucky if he is to climb the big mountain that lies ahead.

February 26, 2010
Defence Budget: Alarm bells ringing
Stagnant defence expenditure in India and set back to modernisation would be music to the ears of Gen Kayani and Hu Jin Tao.

'Budgets rarely follow the Survey's sermon'
Last year, the Survey suggested a long list of reforms, but most of these found no place in the Budget.

February 24, 2010
Urgent needs that FM's Budget must address
Certain key initiatives are necessary to build a greater momentum towards growth and increased penetration of the insurance industry.

February 23, 2010
Reason triumphs over Bt brinjal!
By embargoing Bt brinjal, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh may have done a greater service to democracy than he intended, says .

February 22, 2010
Students are prisoners of classrooms
Students in eight medical colleges in Mumbai recently discovered the wealth of knowledge they could gain by spending time with people.

KN Raj inspired others to think big
The late economist inspired a generation to think big and to aim at understanding the larger political economy of India.

The Pranab Mukherjee Budget
Will the finance minister present a legacy-seeking Budget?

February 19, 2010
Banks: Time for more aggressive regulation
The RBI should step into a more aggressive market development mode and require banks to allocate capital for asset-liability mismatches beyond a particular level.

Want to be a good leader? Here's how
Leading HR experts say a coach can bring in the edge that is vital to make the transition from just another boss to the boss.

February 18, 2010
Get ready to face a new economic reality
The world is going to see a new economic reality, which may not be as attractive as that of the heady years of unprecedented growth.

February 17, 2010
Lessons from the NTPC fiasco
There can be no forgetting the Margaret Thatcher principle of leaving something on the table for the small investor.

February 16, 2010
The political ploy over Bt Brinjal
If a public debate ended in a near-ban on Bt brinjal, the next review could well end up the other way.

Will Obama's banking proposals ever become law?
The internal battle within the Obama administration seemed to have been won by Paul Volcker, the impressive and outspoken former Federal Reserve chairman who has long been a critic of financial innovation.

How to make mobile banking viable in India
The possibility of this is inextricably linked with the Unique ID project.

February 15, 2010
What the Budget has in store for the infrastructure sector
A draft of the infrastructure portion of the Budget speech for Pranab Mukherjee's consideration.

Why are govt policies blind to human needs?
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was the first law in India to mandate child-care facilities for women at work sites.

Bt brinjal and the politics of knowledge
A moratorium 'for now' on Bt brinjal is a healthy breathing space. It could still turn toxic if any one technology is pushed at the cost of a multi-dimensional approach to securing our food future, says .

Right time for fiscal consolidation
The government response was key in overcoming the recent financial crisis, but the time is now ripe for credible fiscal consolidation.

How to sustain new white collar jobs
It took India's IT-BPO sector just over a decade to grow more than 12 times, from $4 billion in 1998 to a shade under $50 billion in 2009. Admittedly, the target set by the software service providers' body Nasscom was off by a year.

The uniqueness of Professor Raj
A personal tribute to a guru, a great economist and a nation-builder

February 12, 2010
Jairam Ramesh is right
The research on Bt brinjal isn't unequivocal and hasn't been publicly-funded either - given the concerns, it's not worth the risk, says .

Car makers want stimulus to go on. Here's why
Car makers fear that when car prices go up and loans become expensive, running a car will also cost more. Thus a stimulus-pullback will act as the straw that broke the camel's back, says .

Why the coming Budget is very significant
The time has come to seize the opportunity and convince investors that UPA means business, says .

February 11, 2010
Budget might not articulate government's vision
Demand indicators have turned hot and despite the bad monsoon, India's GDP growth is likely to top 7 per cent, says .

February 09, 2010
10 things India's common man needs from the Budget
The challenge before India is to make the process of development inclusive so that the gap between the rich and the poor decreases, says .

India's food crisis was foretold, but. . .
The food crisis was obvious in July but the government had unrealistic hopes of a good rabi, says .

Remember, the money doesn't belong to you
CSR should be re-labelled ISR, Individual Social Responsibility, and each of us, as individuals ought to feel the need to give back, says .

Regulatory failure in the financial sector
It is unwise to stifle innovation while improving regulation

February 05, 2010
Pay-cut days over, but don't get carried away
India Inc is hiring once again, but caution is still the watchword, says .

Noise, water pollution must be checked
Billions of rupees spent on river cleaning programmes have gone down the drain. This situation cannot be allowed to continue, says .

Petro price hike can work wonders for govt finances
The room for political manoeuvre to raise petroleum prices is the highest at this point in time, says .

February 04, 2010
A tribute to Subir Raha, leader extraordinaire
The former ONGC chairman's passion for everything that he set out to do was such that he would settle for nothing short of being the best, says .

Last call for Mr Mukherjee
The challenge of fiscal empowerment...

February 01, 2010
Budget: The best vs the good
While the time frame may therefore be pushed back by a year, the debate on various aspects of the new tax regime has begun in earnest. Prominent among these is the question of whether there should be two sets of rates (one for the Centre, one for the states) or a single rate, the revenues from which would be shared between the Centre and the states.

Money alone can't buy inclusive growth
The signal is that it is willing, but it is a bit open if it will be able to.

The death threat to Gori Ganga!
If you are confused about the severity of human-induced climate change, it might help to focus on the death threat to Gori Ganga, says .

January 29, 2010
Copenhagen accord: A polluter's manual
We dumped Kyoto because of the US - but even the diluted US-inspired Copenhagen accord is in peril.

Why it makes sense to build a business and sell it
It has become old fashioned to be attached to your business.

America's growth in the decade ahead
Next decade's annual growth is likely to be about 2 per cent, roughly same as the last 10-year average, says .

Stock market caught in a pincer
Invesors are caught between bullish China and bearish India.

January 28, 2010
Poor farmers' price pangs
The business models developed to help farmers realise better returns are facing several hurdles, says .

Where innovation creates value
Value innovation can help improve efficiency across the organisation and deliver better results, says Richard Lee.

FM needs a miracle to save banks
This is not a new or unknown problem, but every time it crops up, our policy-makers have tried to wish it away. In the present circumstances too, the government has stopgap arrangements. It is borrowing from the World Bank (that's window-dressing fiscal deficit), says .

January 27, 2010
Power is aluminum's single biggest cost component
China itself is now a point of concern for aluminium producers globally, including India.

January 25, 2010
Hard times for climate scientists
It would be a tragedy if unchecked global warming destroys our habitat.

NREGA: How to make it successful
The key to successful implementation of many government schemes lies in a few ifs.

China unrepentant at Google's googly
Google, whose unofficial motto is 'Don't be evil', is at the receiving end today.

January 22, 2010
Have time, will waste
Managers of the world seem to be united in their passion for wasting time at work.

January 21, 2010
Basu-led Left Front's labour story
It is worth wondering how far the fulsome national coverage Jyoti Basu received this week was warranted, except on the basis of his record as India's longest-serving chief minister.

January 20, 2010
Fissures in FDI regulatory framework
Draft Press Notes on FDI regulatory framework fail to address the gap between the domestic and foreign regulatory regimes.

India, a case of bad governance
Our civil administration is organised in a way that is not performance-based, says .

Can India lure global firms away from China?
India needs to do a lot more before global companies view it as a better option than China for business, says .

Stop these teaser loan rates, please!
People who cannot afford long-term higher rate home loans are lured by these teaser rates, only to rue their fate later, says .

The problem with vehicle insurance laws
The rate of road accidents in India is so high that the chances of getting run over by a motor vehicle are higher than those of winning a bet at the club.

January 19, 2010
Economic reforms: Cut down irrelevant ministries
The fewer the number of central ministries that matter, the better the efficacy of India's reforms.

Will China rule the world?
If China attains economic predominance, democracy may well lose its lustre as the global norm.

January 18, 2010
One man's crusade to bring riches to rural areas
Aavishkaar CEO Vineet Rai has been raising the 'social entrepreneurship' bar that will help create excellent, livelihood-generating rural enterprises, says .

Oh no, I'm being watched online! And so are you!
The good part of targeting is that you get information and advertising that is relevant to you. The scary part is that a lot of strangers potentially have access to your private interests.

RBI - An institution India deserves
RBI's platinum jubilee volume chronicles the thinking of a distinguished institution.

January 15, 2010
Yet another economic shock may be lurking around the corner
To sum up, it is increasingly likely that in the last quarter of 2010, there may be another round of convulsions in western economies. The consequent opportunity costs for India of not having insurance mechanisms in place and pushing for reforms could be higher than usual.

Going green: Take the bus or buy a hybrid car?
The garbage in cities is growing by the day, even as governments scramble to find ways of reducing plastic and hiding the rest in landfills in far-off places. Air pollution in cities is worse and toxins hurt our bodies, damaging our lungs. All in all, the report card is not good.

Incredible India's credible media plan
Unknown to the public eye, the Incredible India campaign bid has triggered a row of sorts.

January 14, 2010
The paradox of India's new prosperity
The most aspirational and optimistic youth are in places that have seen the least growth and yet they are hardly turning out to vote.

January 13, 2010
India and the road from Copenhagen
It is important for India to reflect on the implications of mitigation commitments.

Whose spectrum is it anyway?
Government needs to take a call on the DoT-MoD faceoff....

January 11, 2010
Meri Dilli, aamchi Mumbai
It may not be possible for the Indian city and its architecture today to reflect the multifaceted nature of its citizens but perhaps with the use or even reuse of a sensitively planned public domain, people can acquire the character of their cities -- recalibrating themselves to regain a lost civic pride that changes the word 'my' from its singular format to a collective identity.

What is the answer to Delhi's traffic woes?
The proliferating flyovers, eyesores every one of them, merely redistribute traffic to new choke points.

India's aerospace industry to boost economy
Over the last 16 years, India has seen more engineering and R&D investments in aerospace than the US or Europe.

Bollywood's global market beckons
A WTO ruling opening up China to Hollywood should help Bollywood too

Subsidies are injurious to health
Major subsidies must be knifed before unwinding excise cuts

India's 'real' poverty
Even if you raise the poverty line as much as the Expert Group does, it turns out just 11 per cent of Indians are poor, not 37 per cent -- that's a huge poverty of estimation.

'Barefoot' lawyers to help the poor in AP
Andhra Pradesh sets up centres to provide legal help to the poor caught in land disputes; the model may be replicated in other states.

January 08, 2010
Delhi's growth: What it has lost
Money and value propositions similarly dictate the unending growth of Delhi.

The diaspora impact on a changing India
The global success of people of Indian origin gave hope and showed the way to a new India.

January 07, 2010
How India can get the best researchers
Aggregate domestic R&D spend in India has never exceeded 1 per cent of GDP, and over 80 per cent of Indian firms spend nothing on research.

January 06, 2010
Do forecasters ever get it right?
Hardly ever, because none of them has a crystal ball and all of them depend on current trends.

Lessons from recession and the road ahead
Looking inward, innovating for the Indian market, and IT-led innovation to make possible no-frills accounts and microfinance loans will be key elements of the medium-term strategy for corporate India.

Myths on tackling cyber threats busted
Tackling cyber frauds effectively will be the greatest challenge facing us all in the present century.

January 05, 2010
Budget: Which way will the FM turn?
From withdrawing the stimulus to implementing the Finance Commission proposals, the FM has his task cut out.

Cloud computing: Good opportunity for Indian IT firms
Cloud computing is helping corporations create new, cost-effective business models

India's real partner is the US, not China
India and China seemed to be on the same side at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, while the United States had to gatecrash to join hands.

Japan's yo-yo ties with India
The news that came on the evening of the Hatoyama visit that India has become the most important destination for Japanese investment, as it has been for Japanese aid, defines the new tenor of the relationship.

January 04, 2010
Is gold a good hedge?
There are better ways to hedge inflation and exchange rate risk than buying gold, says Martin Feldstein.

Relax, capitalism is not the problem
The choice for policy-makers is not between free markets and central planning but in getting the right mix of regulation.

Investment boom to boost India Inc's prowess
The continuation of the new investments boom and the greater success in completion of projects imply that the investment boom is on, and this augurs well for growth in 2010 and beyond.

Making money no more the true measure of success
The real winners will be those who best align social, environmental, human and financial aspects of a companies' work, says .

December 31, 2009
Time to do a reality check for businesses
At the end of 2019, the winners of that decade will be largely those who chose to see the coming decade as a fundamentally different one from any of the previous that India has seen.

Flip-flop over GST continues
The tax base should comprehensively extend over all goods and services up to the final consumer point.

The incredible rise of India Inc
Corporate India is now globally confident.

From Copenhagen to Mexico: The cycle continues
If India wishes to lead the environmental battle for the developing world, it must come out in the open with a clear outline of goals.

December 30, 2009
The great betrayal at Copenhagen
India caved in to a bad deal at Copenhagen, says .

Water woes: Is it self-made?
As global warming makes the weather more unpredictable, the water economy of urban India will have to be planned without depending on reservoirs getting routinely filled up by rain every year.

December 29, 2009
PM on how to build a poverty-free India
The percentage of population below the poverty line has certainly not increased, says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

December 28, 2009
Tax reform needs careful implementation
'The challenge is particularly daunting in the case of services, where it is often hard to define the exact amount of the service rendered.'

Don't ignore External Commercial Borrowings
While RBI is right to worry about the share of outstanding ECBs in our reserves, firms need these to finance investment -- some prudent limits need to be set, says .

How India can be a successful economy
Much hard work remains to be done if the country is to become a successful economy and a modern society.

A new act to make mining community-friendly
A new law has been put together to actually take control of the mining sector away from the government, specially the Union government, and make regulation by an independent authority the basis of mineral development in India.

December 24, 2009
Healthcare is terrible in India, but Tamil Nadu shines
The most important thing for India is to resurrect public health services in the country, says .

Bengaluru airport and take-off troubles
India needs long-term thinking for long-term projects and a better handling of PPPs, says .

Forget big bang, focus on small
The government should focus on smaller labour reforms; they may not be headline-grabbing but can collectively be effective, says .

December 23, 2009
The fourth 'G' of 3G
So, if the government is looking for a healthy industry, as it must, it will be better to clear the policy on M&As so that only those who really want 3G spectrum to offer 3G services will bid for it.

Coping well with Copenhagen climate
The climate accord secured for India a place at the high table in recognition of its importance for the rest of the world, says .

Tax reforms for higher growth
Indirect tax reforms may help strengthen the Indian state and hence long-run growth.

December 22, 2009
Mamata may have embarrassed Lalu, but. . .
Although Mamata Banerjee's white paper points out areas of concern, it lacks the courage to confront them, says .

December 21, 2009
Will mothers get paid to take care of kids?
India is moving towards computing the value of unpaid work done by millions of people to compensate them in some way.

How skewed is data on India's poverty?
It would be a huge advance for India if poverty estimates moved to the family as a unit.

December 18, 2009
Where are the jobs?
Indeed, although total industrial employment grew by over 6 per cent annually, organised industrial sector employment fell by 1 per cent per year, bringing the share of organised industrial sector employment down from 18 per cent (of total industrial employment) in 1998 to only 10 per cent in 2004.

December 17, 2009
The Copenhagen climate circus
The main G-77 concern was to get the developed countries to recognise their historical culpability and primary responsibility.

Why we must 'speed up' India
The environment minister doesn't focus on India needing more roads to ensure the Nano brings mobility to millions.

An Indian tribute: Paul Samuelson, Guru
'In the 1990s after we ushered in reforms, Paul Samuelson wrote me a letter expressing happiness that "at last, India has discovered economic growth."'

December 16, 2009
Lessons from Dubai crisis
Turbulence in financial markets could mean that 'exit' from expansionary policies will be delayed.

December 15, 2009
India: Global hub for warship-building
The INS Shivalik, now completing sea trials, is a world-class frigate built at Indian prices.

A rising renminbi can hurt China seriously
China can maintain its currency undervaluation practices only at the risk of global macroeconomic imbalances, says .

Why billionaires get involved in frauds
It's hard to fathom why billionaires like Rajaratnam stake their reputation for tiny additions to their wealth.

What good corporate governance is all about
Corporate governance codes work only where firms believe working in a legal, ethical and transparent fashion also means good business

December 14, 2009
How I learnt what education is all about
writes about why learning the real values of human life is real education.

December 11, 2009
What Bengaluru must learn from San Francisco
San Francisco and Bangalore have a lot in common but there is a lot more that is different.Bangalore needs to imbibe the spirit of San Francisco.

The cost of land
That the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Energy Limited (REL) will be affected by the Allahabad High Court's decision on the land acquired by it for its 7,500 Mw Dadri power plant is obvious since the entire process of inviting objections to the acquisition has to be initiated from scratch.

December 10, 2009
'Foreign hands' in Indian business
Just a decade ago, a kind of muscular nationalism was the leitmotif for talent management within Indian corporations. Any suggestion of bringing in foreign talent had managers bristling with indignation.

December 09, 2009
Why Indian slums are not places of hopelessness
Redevelopment schemes take a static view of slums, whereas they are really evolving ecosystems, says .

Road ahead from Copenhagen
As Copenhagen has got going amidst more hope than was there initially, attention must shift to the massive task that lies beyond.

December 08, 2009
Copenhagen: Why China-India alliance will break up
China and India are on different sides of the climate debate and, after the United States, Beijing has to make the most cuts.

December 07, 2009
Single person to constitute a Company
With the implementation of the Companies Bill 2009, a single person will constitute a Company, under the One Person Company (OPC) concept.

The resurgence of brand mascots
The Amul girl is still synonymous with branded butter and the iconic billboards continue to be conversation starters.

It's time for a 'Look Further East Policy'
India has to catch up with East Asian regional economic integration.

14 days to avert an approaching calamity
The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

How India can cut its energy needs by 20%!
Using energy more efficiently can reduce our energy needs by one fifth; it is a strategy we must pursue even as we promote renewables, says .

It's the right climate for change
In defining a new and nuanced stance on India's negotiating position at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have left some at home dissatisfied but his perspective appears to have been defined by a larger view of how India should deal with global challenges.

December 04, 2009
The secret behind successful marketing
Stories that are able to multiply effect through word of mouth have a better chance to overcome clutter and cynicism.

Should India rescue Dubai?
Is this the time to use India's forex reserves to bail out Dubai? The emirate might be grateful, but how would the others in the United Arab Emirates react? asks TVR Shenoy.

December 03, 2009
Exports: All about cushioning the fall
The International Monetary Fund expects global GDP to grow by around 1.5 per cent, but global trade will shrink by perhaps 8 to 10 per cent. India's exports too have suffered the same fate.

Mobile banking: What the RBI is doing
Mobile phone outlets outnumber bank branches 15:1.

Why globalism is the new villain
In this era of numerous invisible fences, globalism is the new villain and patriotism the new virtue.

Modern retail may spell doom for old markets
As new, modern shopping centres come up in more than 100 cities across the country, shoppers of all strata will happily desert the congested, filthy and shopper-convenience-unfriendly traditional markets in those cities.

How to revolutionise broadband in India
As the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India deliberates on spectrum and licensing after the hearings ending December 2, some important points are worth highlighting.

December 02, 2009
Agriculture growth figures: Wishful thinking or gimmickry?
Foodgrain production in current is fiscal is likely to fall by at least 10%, if not more. It may be better to be realistic in our estimates than give unrealistic positive spin to these figures, says .

How will history remember this decade?
The first decade of the 21st century is about to end. It is difficult to encompass a decade's major trends and developments in a short essay. However, it would be instructive to recall a few of them. Globally, the decade began with the breakdown of trust in corporate governance. Corporate scandals and acts of malfeasance that may have been kept hidden from public gaze in all the previous decades came tumbling out of the cupboard as the first decade of the 21st century began.

The biggest risk for financial markets
The prospect of the Chinese central bank tightening rates is the biggest risk for the financial markets, says .

December 01, 2009
Climate change: The story of mere promises
When it comes to climate, change and promise may only be in the eyes of the beholder.

Concerns on China's trade boom
China's trade has zoomed despite doomsday predictions about the impact of WTO accession, but there are concerns.

November 30, 2009
Act now, before Mumbai, Kolkata drown!
In India, there is a perception that the current ecological disaster is a responsibility of the developed world. If we want to play in the big league we must stop seeing ecological solutions as impositions, say .

The good, bad & the ugly of music downloads
In fact, a research conducted by Jupiter in 2008 estimates the cumulative effect of downloading to result in losses in 2012 around £1.1 billion.

Dubai crisis: Don't panic, but hedge your bets
For the last one year, there have been far too many stories coming out of the region on real and potential bankruptcies, plans being shelved, excess capacity and inadequate demand.

I have been advocating flexibility: Jairam Ramesh
"Sir, my only purpose has been to open up windows of flexibility for India because the world is changing; different countries are taking different positions."

Of US, economics, and the rising power of China
Even if the Chinese become even more powerful as they lend even more money to the Americans, they do find an open confrontation with America too risky. For that the Chinese are too new on the global stage.

Roads, flyover, yes. . . but what about pedestrians?
It is important that urban planners for roads in cities make their outlook a little more inclusive and provide for reasonable space for pedestrians and cyclists on roads by protecting their right to use sidewalks.

The rise of renminbi
The renminbi is likely to be used increasingly for current account purposes, but its use in capital account transactions will hinge on convertibility in China.

Spectrum: The govt faces big trouble
With even the division bench of the Delhi High Court ruling that Communications Minister A Raja's decision to come up with an arbitrary cut-off date of September 25, 2007 was illegal, the government is in huge trouble.

Delhi flourishes, as Mumbai loses sheen
Do the Thackerays really believe that Mumbai will not lose jobs if banks and companies lose the freedom to hire whom they choose.

November 27, 2009
Has RBI been diversifying out of dollars?
RBI kept on adding non-SDR currencies over the next couple of years till they reached about 7.5% of reserves, which is the level they continue to hold.

November 23, 2009
5 reasons behind the rise of China
The media started talking of a world dominated not by G-7, but by G-2 consisting of the US and China.

What India needs to do to transform the economy
The time may have come for India to stop thinking of five-year plans, and to focus instead on 10-and 20-year scenarios.

November 20, 2009
More standard ratings, less moody ones
In the wake of the sharp downturn in the valuations of mortgage-backed securities last year, financial firms justified their investment in these non-transparent instruments on the triple ratings accorded to them.

Tata's tata to Tata
Like many other Indian companies, the Tata group too has globalised in the past decade. It is a testimony to the success of Indian enterprise in the global marketplace that many of them have done well, in the face of severe competition.

Of Naxals and rich land of the poor
India's mineral-rich areas have the largest number of poor and are Naxal-affected - there's an obvious story here.

Who'll finance 'affordable' housing?
Tata Housing's efforts at helping less privileged sections of society are commendable, but after a point it won't be able to do much for the simple reason that there aren't going to be enough lenders to give loans to these prospective home buyers.

November 19, 2009
G-20: A new global oligarchy
The G-20's new-found importance should be used to challenge North Atlantic hegemony.

The reign of rural retail
The monsoon rains may have failed and crop output may be lower but, after a small blip, the rural markets are back on track.

Women workforce: A revolution in the making
One of the most important implications will be on account of a rapid increase of women in the workforce in the coming years, leading to an unprecedented economic and social empowerment for them and thereby a dramatic redefinition of their roles and influence.

November 17, 2009
No protests over reforms policies! Hmmm. . .
It would seem that the government can announce almost anything it wants, without exciting any opposition. That is a sea change.

November 16, 2009
Making the Asean FTA work
The formalisation of Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) covering the goods sector marks an important step towards India's deepening trade links with its partners in the Asian region.

November 13, 2009
The cost of living in India
Why life for an average Indian is a real struggle right from morning till evening or even mid night as compared to his counterparts in the west. Take a look...

A 'memorable' journey in the Duronto
The greatest plus of the Duronto is the service of the outsourced catering staff.

November 12, 2009
Asia's post-crisis challenges
Asia is rebounding fast from the global financial crisis.

When MBAs aspire to become clerks
There are 300 applicants for each clerical post at SBI, mostly engineers/MBAs, for a job that just requires a Class 12 qualification.

November 11, 2009
Rebuilding Mumbai for the 21st century
Mumbai does not need to be - de-congested - it needs to redeploy its eastern seaboard.

Meeting the urban challenge effectively
The gap between promise and achievement in JNNURM is enormous.

November 09, 2009
What the CII achieved in 25 years
More than lobbying for concessions, CII strove to be an instrument of change.

November 06, 2009
Jaipur oil mishap: IOC chairman must be fired
The current IOC chief should be fired because this fire occurred during his tenure. He should have ensured that safety audits are done seriously. If he is fired, his successor will take safety more seriously, says .

November 04, 2009
Time to get our fiscal act together
India's political and economic business cycles enter fiscal correction phase

November 03, 2009
Carbon dioxide can actually be good for farming
A national network project, run by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research since 2004, carried out to study the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture, is also throwing some light on the complex inter-relation between CO2, global warming and crop productivity.

Stimulus: It's important to time the exit right
Although not intended as fiscal stimulus, the unprecedented fiscal expansion during 2008-09 and 2009-10 did help in combating the economic slowdown, but it cannot continue and measures must be initiated to chart a route for fiscal consolidation.

November 02, 2009
2010: An economic odyssey
The collapse of Lehman Brothers was clearly a point of inflection, in which the rate of decline of the financial system accelerated sharply and its impact on the global economy intensified. In retrospect, it could have been any one or more of the global financial institutions to precipitate the collapse.

Telecom scam: Noose tightens around Raja?
It's difficult to say whether the CBI will find enough proof against telecom minister A Raja or whether it will get caught in the parcel of half-truths he's been dishing out on how he's just followed the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the actions of his predecessors.

Dealing with a weak dollar
It offers a lot of opportunities, especially in the commodities market.

October 29, 2009
How flexible benefit plans can help employees
Instead of a one-size-fits-all strategy, employees can be allowed to tailor their benefits package to their specific needs.

October 28, 2009
Time for us to sound the food alarm
Dun and Bradstreet forecasts that overall inflation will touch 6 per cent by the end of the current fiscal, fuelled by, among others, current high food prices and the impact of the drought. The 20 per cent deficit in the monsoon is slated to bring down kharif output by 15-20 per cent. The news couldn't get worse.

October 27, 2009
What next for India's financial sector?
For the financial sector to serve the real sector, yesterday's beliefs offer no road map for tomorrow's policy options, says .

October 26, 2009
Opening the door to Bt brinjal, a step towards disaster
'Ultimately, do we want sustainable agriculture that's relevant to our climate, resources and food security? Or do we want corporate farming based on high-risk GM seeds and high chemical inputs?'

Two headaches, one solution
The government simply has to find a way to deliver the basics. That is what will defeat the Maoists and hold off China.

China's economic diplomacy
China is using its growing trade power to enhance its global influence, especially in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where it is perceived as an all-weather friend. Since opening up its economy in 1978, China's foreign trade has been growing by leaps and bounds.

Can Manmohan ditch Raja?
The solicitor general and the TDSAT have both okayed Raja's moves.

What if RBI Governor hikes interest rates tomorrow?
While there are certainly more hawks perched on monetary policy committees of central banks around the world now than a couple of months ago, the doves still have the upper hand.

Recovery in realty mart: Will it last?
Developers are tweaking their business model by launching smaller apartment sizes and playing the volume game to keep prices low and create buyer interest.

October 23, 2009
Realty: What're the builders so worried about?
It's a pity that home buyers in this country have got such a raw deal all these years while developers have been almost a law unto themselves.

October 22, 2009
Of climate change and constructing a winning narrative
With less than two months to go for the climate-change summit in Copenhagen, India has resolved to re-brand itself as a deal-maker.

October 15, 2009
Of growth and obsolescence
Short-lived products create a spiral of wasteful consumerism that raises a whole new set of problems.

October 13, 2009
The myth of rising protectionism
Despite the hue and cry, governments have imposed remarkably few barriers on imports

October 12, 2009
An insecure future for India's unskilled workers
More often than not unskilled workers end up getting a raw deal.

How to resolve the financial crisis at IITs, IIMs
The recent controversy over faculty pay at the IITs and IIMs suggests that they need to radically reorient themselves as academic institutions

Vulgarity in executive compensation? A point of view
While the definition of what is vulgar is relative, there is little doubt that Board-level compensation committees are given short shrift in India.

October 09, 2009
Why gold is a good investment option
Gold is a hedge against the dollar and inflation. It has a very low correlation with other asset classes like equity and debt thereby a good asset to diversify the overall portfolio.

India's strategy to fight global warming
It looks far from clear whether the climate change negotiations will succeed as developing countries like India want to be supported financially and through technology sharing with the rich industrialized world, says .

How to regulate the regulator?
The Food Safety and Standards Authority's track-record suggests it is industry-friendly, not pro-consumer.

Growth to collapse if stimulus packages withdrawn
The political mood seems to have changed in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development capitals, and it would be very difficult for any government to justify new stimulus measures in today's environment. Public pressure to reduce government budget deficits and minimise public debt burdens is growing across the developed world.

October 08, 2009
India's huge education deficit
India has just about 5,500 ITIs and 1,745 polytechnics, compared to 500,000 similar institutes in China.

6 reasons why you will remember September
Looking back 20 years from now, the month just gone by will loom even larger in history books.

October 07, 2009
Economy: India's 5 major concerns
Managing recovery is a bigger challenge than managing crisis, says the Reserve Bank of India governor

Why tirade against CEO salary is unfair
The salaries that Indian CEOs get is just about okay by international standards. But it is the promoters who take the biggest packages.

India's stake in the dollar's future
New Delhi can be neutral in the dollar-euro-yen dance, but it has a stake in a stable US currency.

October 06, 2009
A cure for India's traffic mess
The most obvious reason is that a strict vigilance and punishment system is absent here.

October 05, 2009
Exports continue to plunge, but...
From a balance of payments perspective, however, the continuing decline in exports is not particularly threatening, because imports have been declining even faster than exports.

Is India's telecom sector in deep trouble?
There are 10 million new subscribers each month, but they're not adding much value - telecom revenues are flat as a chapatti.

How a social audit makes people accountable
Social audit of rural jobs scheme promises to empower people with information about how they are being denied the benefits of the schemes meant for them.

October 01, 2009
What the IITs really need
What is really needed is a tenure track where higher pay goes with accountability, not peer review which tends to favour the upward drift of the incumbent mediocrity.

September 30, 2009
The US model: Don't follow it blindly!
We need to be careful not to confuse financial market reform with following the US model of regulation, if finance is to remain a servant, not master, of the real economy, says .

Curbing costly CEOs!
Provided they have all the details, shareholders are best placed to do this.

Climate change talks are more about politics
I am not joining the small minority which still argues that global warming is voodoo science; there is simply too much evidence of ice melting to argue from that standpoint. But I would suggest that there is hope on the global warming front, says .

The beginning of an electric car revolution
One of the first countries which committed to replace its petrol vends with battery feeders and substitute its liquid-fuel cars with battery-operated vehicles was Israel.

September 29, 2009
The G-20 arrives!
The new global group has notched up important successes.

Swiss banks' proposal not good enough
The Swiss banks' proposal to levy a withholding tax on the income generated from assets of Indian nationals and held in Swiss banks, is not worth treating seriously.

India needs a proper privacy law
Intelligence sharing is fine, but India needs to protect personal privacy.

September 28, 2009
Only 123 corrupt officials in India?
The Central Vigilance Commission report evades the big questions.

September 25, 2009
Headhunters back on the prowl; jobs boom
Globally, most headhunters are down 40-50 per cent in revenue. But India, it seems, is ahead of the curve.

Should portfolio pricing replace MRP?
The idea of the MRP is becoming less relevant and should be replaced by portfolio pricing.

September 24, 2009
India's new class of entrepreneurs
There is a rapidly advancing 'middle class' of entrepreneurs in India today.

Raising India's 'pulse' rate
With a focused and integrated approach, India has the potential to produce more than double the current output of pulses.

Policy continuity at the Reserve Bank
For those, like me, who backed the Reddy-Mohan approaches to monetary and regulatory policies, the continuity shown by Subbarao's RBI is very heartening. For earlier critics of these approaches there may be some disappointment and discomfort.

September 23, 2009
The dangers of Mr Sibal's plan
Will the secondary school system be able to produce teachers competent to carry out and monitor the new assessment system? asks .

Why land acquisition issue needs a quick solution
The stalled Land Acquisition Bill should be completely overhauled, says .

September 22, 2009
The G-20's empty promises
It would be futile to believe G-20's promises to rein in monetary and fiscal policies

September 21, 2009
Why poverty and inequality are rising in India
There is a strong state-wise dimension to India's poverty question, and the first answers have to come from the governments of the concerned states.

Infrastructure: Opt for the Swiss Challenge
For India, the Swiss Challenge method is a new step in the field of public-private partnerships.

September 18, 2009
Of hunger and its eradication
The media is celebrating Norman Borlaug as a great hunger-fighter, whose intervention with the 'Green Revolution' is supposed to have eradicated hunger in India. Obviously, the real starvation is of the mind, says .

September 16, 2009
How green are the shoots?
The biggest challenge for central banks of the world is to unwind liquidity without hurting recovery

September 15, 2009
Should Google own the world's words?
That's the key question in the ferocious debate raging over Google Book Search.

The fear of a PSU called Jet Airways
Why the recent strike could see the carrier go Air India's way.

September 14, 2009
Preparing for recovery
The RBI may be concerned about inflation but it is unlikely to put an abrupt end to monetary accommodation

September 10, 2009
What makes Indian companies excel abroad?
The knowledge component and managerial competence gives Indian companies an edge to be competitive, says B S Prakash.

Why the city gas distribution is in a mess
Snarled in spats with established players and legal cases, the gas regulator has done little to streamline the process of expanding city gas networks.

Will G20 summit offer more for emerging nations?
The Pittsburgh summit could determine the timing of a calibrated winding down of public spending, now that the signs of a global economic recovery are evident.

The essence of rural job scheme
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was launched by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the first flush of its commitment to the 'Aam Aadmi' agenda.

September 09, 2009
The real story about the drought
The poor monsoon is only a hiccup for the unfolding India growth story and will not dampen high growth rates, says .

The job at hand for India
A quarterly index on jobs created is vital for policy action.

September 07, 2009
How unequal a country is India?
In economic writings on India it is commonplace to describe Indian economic inequality to be relatively low, says .

Industrial growth you can bank upon
Once you adjust the credit growth data for seasonality, it shows an upturn that corresponds with a similar trend in industrial production, says .

September 04, 2009
How to make broadband succeed in India
There are opportunities to repeat the success of NTP '99 with 3G and Broadband Wireless Access, says .

Of advertising, news and big business
The time will come when Indian readers will head that way too, so India Inc will have to rethink traditional ways of controlling information flows.

September 01, 2009
How to make Indian babus more productive
The best solution is to appoint a top flight management consultant, study the working of each of the ministries, and ask the consultant to submit a detailed report that should be made public for a national debate.

Can we afford the draft direct taxes code?
A good tax system should minimise the cost of collection, compliance cost and the cost to the economy in terms of the distortions it creates while generating revenues.

Air India flies into another storm
Halving the productivity-linked incentive will make its salary levels unattractive and put a heavier burden on junior staffers.

August 31, 2009
Air India, your humble airline
Air India vacates posh Berkeley Square space, will it leave Nariman Point?

August 28, 2009
Retail sector's new mantra
Revenue-share deals instead of fixed rentals will give retailers a better shot at profitability only over the long run.

India's big agriculture challenge
There is a pressing need for developing high-calibre talent focused on 'Food & Agriculture' technology and management.

Why the Direct Taxes Code is flawed
The Direct Taxes Code suffers from serious weaknesses.

August 27, 2009
Accountability is what India lacks the most
Unless true accountability is established, nothing will change for the better.

August 26, 2009
The G-20: An idea from India
India should push the World Bank to focus on generating ideas and technology.

Debt collection pangs: Borrowers vs creditors
Borrowers can move civil courts to stall recovery proceedings as they have few other choices.

August 24, 2009
How valuations of oil PSUs can rise
Removing the administered price mechanism for oil could see valuations of PSUs jump, writes Devangshu Datta.

August 20, 2009
How real is the economic recovery?
Most emerging economies may be returning to growth, but they are performing well below their potential.

August 19, 2009
Will probated in the US not recognised in India
It is necessary to get the same probated in India also.

August 18, 2009
Now, China facing the heat of global trade
Commercial tensions came to a head on many issues between China and other major western countries.

August 17, 2009
No tax exemption on capital gains from sale of land
A N Shanbhag, the highly respected investment guru, and his son Sandeep Shanbhag, answer your questions on NRI investment.

3-step plan to counter cyber attacks
At least 70 per cent of security breaches occur because of poorly written code with zero thought for security.

Land Acquisition Act: No help to farmers
Rule 4 in Section 55 of the Land Acquisition Act's Company Rules may help farmers in Dadri but is hardly a guarantee for other cultivators.

August 14, 2009
When expressways take their toll
It's also true that the traffic estimates for the sea link were made quite a few years back after which a good many offices have shifted from the central business district to the western suburbs because rents had become simply unaffordable.

August 13, 2009
Roti, mobile, gaadi aur necklace
Consumer spending patterns are witnessing mega-shifts with implications for all involved parties, says .

Money, a solution to India's infrastructure woes?
India has a huge infrastructure problem and the solution so far appears to be to throw more money at the problem, without much effort to fix the core issues, says Sunil Jain.

Why India's aviation sector is in crisis
The aviation industry in India, through Air India, is a gleaming example of what the lack of corporate governance can do to a business, says Pratip Kar.

August 11, 2009
Independent experts should be truly independent
It is now widely accepted that the faith placed in independent directors, to improve the standards of corporate governance, has often been misplaced. Most of them, and not just in the case of Satyam Computers, tend to go along with the promoters who appoint them.

The remarkable saga of Narendra Jadhav
Jadhav has a certain way with the crowds with his earthy Marathi speeches he got unprecedented crowds whenever he held public meetings as the VC and his innovative schemes at Pune University which took academia to the villages have made him a popular figure in Pune.

What the new Fed chairman should do
The world economy has been run for too long by finance enthusiasts. It is time that finance sceptics began to take over.

August 10, 2009
'Money lies in the mass market'
Bubble economies don't last, and crises bring you back to reality. The truth of both these assertions has become manifest in recent weeks.

Where is the food for all?
The right to food campaign, which is a collaboration of people's movements from across the country, is now on the verge of seeing its demand of a right to food become a reality.

Good idea, bad timing
The strongest reasons for creating an independent debt management office (DMO) are also the ones for not doing it now, says .

Can India deal with the drought?
India should not allow millions to suffer the ill effects of a drought because of official apathy or sluggishness, says .

No revival in credit demand
The earliest that credit demand will revive is 2010-11, and this year's growth is unlikely to be more than 12-14 per cent, says .

Drought: How govt bungling can hurt India's economy
The government's decision to downplay the monsoon's failure has only worsened its credibility and will lead to a worse panic

August 07, 2009
When corporations capture the state
The danger of a corporate capture of government isn't imaginary, and corporations represent narrow profit-seeking interests of businessmen whose forte is not Constitutional values, says .

3 sticky issues that hamper Indo-US ties
Hillary Clinton's recent visit notwithstanding, the divergence between the US and India remains as stark as ever.

August 06, 2009
Beginning of an economic recovery?
The US decline decelerates on the back of public spending.

Don't be secretive about cyber crime
What should the management do when it discovers a technology fraud?

August 05, 2009
It's time Mr Deora got a new portfolio
A friend of Mukesh Ambani should not be petroleum minister

August 04, 2009
Where Marx comes alive
Europe's bloated welfare state helps you understand the old communist adage 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need'.

August 03, 2009
Dirty games that India's telecom ministry plays
This has to be one of the most blatant tricks Raja is pulling off.

A word of advice for India's private airlines
Don't threaten a strike, check your business model

July 30, 2009
Why India should go ahead with Asean FTA
India is the only country which has a negative list incorporated in a trade pact with Asean.

July 29, 2009
Don't tax common man to bail out Air India
Air India, having run up losses of Rs 7,200 crore and adding about Rs 15 crore worth of red ink every twenty-four hours, is now asking for even more money to burn from the Government of India.

July 28, 2009
BSNL-MTNL merger: Don't dial it, please
One lesson the government should learn from the Air India-Indian Airlines merger fiasco is that combining two sick people ends up making them sicker.

The interest rate pendulum
Fiscal, rather than monetary, forces will determine interest rates in the coming months, says .

Finance capital: The new dominant minority
Finance capital is the creative minority that Toynbee spoke of -- one which takes more than it gives to society.

July 27, 2009
The plans are man's, the odds are God's
Under a third of the target for power generating capacity in 2008-09 was met. What's worse is that just better management could have fixed things, says .

July 24, 2009
Email: For God's sake, use it!
Some officials, I am told, do not even have an email address and for them, papers placed on a cardboard file and wrapped in the horizontal four-inch flaps and a thread are quite the official thing. An email which demands quick attention can stare him/her in the face unlike a file that can pile up with others on some remote shelf in the office, sometimes almost forgotten.

The Fed is in the red
Research shows the US Fed doesn't get its predictions right as often as we would like to believe. With India and China in an upbeat mood, the dark days of last September are slowly fading in memory.

Why India will do a China
Thanks to political changes, India is in the midst of a long-term growth path that will mirror China.

July 21, 2009
Is Air India an airline?
Air India is a good example of a company that started out as a monopoly but has failed to do what Tata Steel did once the goody monopoly days were over - downsize and re-organise.

How to assess our financial vulnerability
We need fresh perspectives to assess our financial vulnerability.

Jerry Rao's mission: Affordable housing
After bidding adieu to his technology firm, this ex-Citibanker-turned-poet is now indulging in his latest passion of providing affordable housing for the masses.

Budget to be passed without much scrutiny
The high deficit was bad enough, Parliament's standing committees won't be scrutinising budget proposals either.

July 20, 2009
What if our ATM network is hacked?
Very often we all have used Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to withdraw money. But only a few of us think about the repercussions of an attack on a national centralised server which manages the transactions across ATMs.

5 ways joblessness threatens the economy
A sharp contraction in labour income has many negative effects on the economy and financial markets, says .

Labouring over the rupee
If India does not want to shed jobs in labour-intensive industries, it must have a competitive exchange rate.

Time to go, Mr Sreedharan
The Comptroller and Auditor General has indicted the way the DMRC is run and points to the novel 50:50 management structure that neither of the governments is in charge, so the company is pretty much run by the management, namely Sreedharan.

The Budget's impact on markets
While the focus on infrastructure means more business for PSU banks, the lack of risk-assessment capability is a major issue.

July 17, 2009
For RNOR, foreign income is tax-free in India
A N Shanbhag, investment guru, and his son Sandeep Shanbhag, answer questions on NRI investment.

July 15, 2009
Rising unemployment poses threat to US recovery
The high numbers are becoming the centre of a political storm.

July 14, 2009
India's daunting urban challenge
The challenge is making governments at the Centre and in the states start focusing on the needs of towns and cities

July 13, 2009
Valuable lessons for Air India's revival
In the 1990s, Lufthansa's market share was plunging as were its revenues. Its turnaround strategy holds good lessons.

Deficit sets alarm bells ringing
The government's fiscal profligacy has made a mockery of the FRBM Act.

Good demand for certified wood
Global demand for certified wood has prompted Indian companies to get their logging vetted by monitoring agencies.

July 10, 2009
'Let's not stall energy security'
We have stalled various projects of national importance on one ground or the other; let us not do the same with Reliance's KG Basin gas.

Have reforms changed India's corporate structure?
Despite the reforms of the 1990s, the country's corporate structure hasn't transformed in any major manner.

July 09, 2009
Is the dollar's supremacy coming to an end?
For now, dollar can reign but BRIC nations have decided to address the issue at the 2010 Brazil summit.

The dark side of the ID database
The hurdles start with the mindboggling logistics of the project.

July 08, 2009
Money alone can't buy inclusive growth
The signal is that it is willing, but it is a bit open if it will be able to.

Budget's revenue numbers: Cautious & optimistic
For starters, the assumption of nominal (ie real plus inflation) GDP growth of 10.1 per cent for 2009-10 seems on the low side if it is assumed, as Mr Mukherjee said, that the worst of the financial crisis is over. Against this backdrop, the assumption of poor tax buoyancy in 2009-10 is confusing.

July 06, 2009
Budget: The best vs the good
While the time frame may therefore be pushed back by a year, the debate on various aspects of the new tax regime has begun in earnest. Prominent among these is the question of whether there should be two sets of rates (one for the Centre, one for the states) or a single rate, the revenues from which would be shared between the Centre and the states.

July 05, 2009
SBI surges ahead with smart rate cuts
SBI has sought to be a lender of choice through aggressive cuts in lending rates. But borrowers need to do a proper analysis.

July 04, 2009
Is the First World the new Third World?
There exists a strange disconnect in the developed world between the offer of money and the provision of services.

July 03, 2009
A rational spectrum allocation policy
India's misplaced emphasis on this kind of spectrum efficiency results in economic inefficiency. Some basic issues concerning spectrum allocation must be addressed before misdirected considerations of government revenues or fiscal deficits lead to self-inflicted damage from ill-advised auctions.

Houses @ Rs 7 lakh: Dream or reality?
It's wonderful that Jerry Rao is planning to build houses that cost Rs 700,000 or less. The former Citibanker's model is simple enough: land is bought with the equity capital while construction is financed through bank loans at market-related rates currently anywhere between 11 and 13 per cent.

June 30, 2009
Agri problems? Opt for rain-proofing farming
The NRAA was set up to do precisely this in rain-fed areas, but inter-ministerial wrangling ensured this didn't happen.

June 29, 2009
Gas woes: Let's do the math
explains why the government does not necessarily win if it applies a higher gas price.

What exporters need to understand...
The exporters need to be told sometime or the other that the playing field can never be the same for all countries. Every country has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of its natural endowments, capabilities of its manpower, stage of development, levels of technology absorption and so on. Each country has to make the best of what it has and carry on, says .

June 25, 2009
Wake up, India! Don't ignore EU
India and the EU would do well to assess each other

June 23, 2009
Financial gain, economic pain
A negative oil shock, together with rising government-bond yields, could clip the recovery's wings, says .

SEZs aren't delivering. Time to scrap them?
Despite the special incentives they get, SEZs today comprise under 5% of all fresh investments announced in the country.

June 22, 2009
Why foreign investors are scared
Cases such as Vodafone and E*Trade are scaring foreign investors away, says .

China's Great (Fire)Wall
If the Chinese government has its way, the sexual proclivities of the grandchildren of the revolution will be remoulded. As of July 1, every personal computer sold in the PRC must ship with pre-installed censorship software called "Green Dam Youth Escort".

Choking on gas
Now that the Bombay High Court has rejected the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas' (MoPNG) attempts to help Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) wriggle out of its 2005 contract to supply 28 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL), the pressure on it has increased several times over.

Sunny Indians and dangers of optimism
Forget all those theories about the passive, fatalist Indian, long peddled by commentators, both home-grown and foreign. If recent survey data are to be believed, Indians are among the most optimistic people on earth, and this is true of consumers, investors, business managers. . . the whole spectrum.

June 15, 2009
How can the common man own a house?
The problem in India is that much of the cost of the roof over your head is on account of the land beneath your feet--which has been kept hopelessly expensive by the politician-builder nexus.

Budgeting for the mandate
Key lessons from the mandate must find reflection in Budget announcements.

June 11, 2009
How to invest in a recession
Talk to your financial advisor about employing a dollar cost averaging strategy over the next year, as well as the investment opportunities within diversified emerging markets mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Small-town India holds the key
India needs to urbanise more quickly and this can be done by making smaller urban centres a magnet for rural migration, says .

Top performers get good pay hikes
India Inc has ignored the equal treatment approach to reward its top performers with handsome pay hikes, says .

June 10, 2009
Reforming the World Bank - Not so easy!
What is required is a radical reworking of business processes and incentives to which staff respond.

The 2020 challenge before IT-BPO
What does India need to do to realise the full potential that information technology and outsourced business services?

Economic diplomacy: Mantra for new govt
International economic diplomacy will be a major focus for the new government.

June 09, 2009
Keeping the financial doors half open
To be fair, the President's speech does separate the mention of large foreign investment flows (particularly foreign direct investment) from 'the need to augment resources in the banking and insurance sectors,' in turn 'to serve the needs of society better.' But the sentences follow each other -- the kind of wording which permits either forward movement or backtracking, depending on how matters develop, says .

Why extending retirees' tenure is unfair
Giving extensions to secretaries after fixing their tenure is unfair to the rest.

June 08, 2009
India & WTO: A rethink needed
The huge increase in WTO membership and the rising share of emerging economies in world trade belie the perception that the WTO exclusively serves the rich countries' interests.

'Search' a big business opportunity
In the digital age, the art of searching has become an entirely separate domain of knowledge. It is only in the past 15 years that search has become location-independent. It is the biggest entirely new business opportunity spawned by the Web.

A licence raj mindset on spectrum
Everyone, from the government to companies and customers, is paying a price for the short-sighted policy on spectrum.

June 05, 2009
Malvinder Singh's Ranbaxy report card
One reform that Malvinder couldn't do was that of the company's board of directors. For long, doctors and scientists have been inadequately represented on the Ranbaxy board. The new owner will have to address this problem.

The magic of the Zoozoos
discusses the making of iconic advertising that gets talked about.

'Warrant'ing a change in rules
Why should promoters have an option to buy shares when other shareholders don't? Perhaps warrants can be done away with altogether since most promoters don't seem convinced about the value of their companies, says .

Needed: Reforms for the poor
Put the poor who have voted for this government at the centre of reforms, says .

Money sent to parents in India is tax-free
A N Shanbhag, the highly respected investment guru, and his son Sandeep Shanbhag, answers your questions on NRI investment.

June 04, 2009
Of NRIs, spouses and taxation
A N Shanbhag, the highly respected investment guru, and his son Sandeep Shanbhag, answers your questions on NRI investment.

Why India needs a broadband stimulus
We need good, accessible, inexpensive broadband.

June 03, 2009
Divestment - What can go wrong with UPA's plan
The divestment plan can be prepared now, but its execution should wait for a politically opportune time.

The promises are encouraging; now for action
There is an air of purposiveness about the new government which is heartening.

Employee discontent and economic recovery
Employee dissatisfaction could spoil the recovery party that the world awaits.

June 02, 2009
Tightrope walk for the finance minister
hopes the Budget will contain the deficit while continuing to create conditions for pushing growth.

June 01, 2009
Education: India must learn from China
The quality of manpower is a significant resource for large populous countries such as India and China, which depend on them for their rapid economic growth.

Power sector reform: India's biggest problem
Though power reforms are the most important item on the government's agenda, it often leads to face-offs between the Centre and states.

May 29, 2009
Women's unhappiness = Increased unemployment
Rising levels of unhappiness in women workers in the US are equivalent to an 8.5 percentage point hike in unemployment, says .

May 28, 2009
The good, the bad and the <I>aam aadmi</I>
Industrialisation in India is increasingly acquiring the characteristics of crony capitalism in which states are perceived to be ganging up with businessmen at the cost of the aam aadmi

Meltdown: Is the worst behind us?
Full recovery may still be a good way off, but the job market is showing clear signs of improvement.

May 27, 2009
The new UPA govt: Hope for a new agenda?
In 2009, when urban India was in the throes of a slowdown, with growth likely down to 6 per cent and shopping malls going empty, the electorate gave a clear thumbs up.

To be or wannabe a superpower?
China shows that strong public finances are important for global leadership.

May 26, 2009
The ministers that really matter
It's not clear how a party with a majority will do any better when our ability to tackle the roads, ports, power projects and airports problem has not shown marked improvement in the last five years.

Tasks for an emerging superpower
Rapid economic growth and increasing military strength are essential to meeting geo-political challenges.

May 25, 2009
Sell America, buy India?
For investors dumping dollar assets, emerging world capital markets are a clear alternative, says .

May 22, 2009
Swine Flu: The real pandemic
The current wave of influenza A virus is linked to the way we produce food — in factory farms.

May 21, 2009
Stock markets' rise: A happy surprise!
The prime minister's comments so far suggest that he is aware of the burden of expectations; indeed, during the election campaign, he spoke somewhat uncharacteristically about a 100-day agenda.

May 18, 2009
The application of three systems
The widespread application of three is not a coincidence, it might be the pulse of everything.

Polls: Good governance wins
It is remarkable that all three states that had assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha polls Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim have re-elected the parties that were running their governments till now.

Now, the spotlight is on Press Notes
Even with a clear mandate, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is unlikely to allow foreign direct investment in sensitive sectors such as retail and may like to revisit the recently issued norms that give companies elbow room in dealing with the FDI norms.

'New govt has an enormous task'
One can only hope the euphoria and sycophancy attendant with such electoral triumph does not blind the Singh government into believing its own electoral sales pitch

Now, the spotlight is on Press Notes
Even with a clear mandate, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is unlikely to allow foreign direct investment in sensitive sectors such as retail and may like to revisit the recently issued norms that give companies elbow room in dealing with the FDI norms.

May 15, 2009
Is speculation good or bad?
The impact of their actions on prices is not conclusive - and overzealous regulations could add to the problem.

Tax havens and banking secrecy
Anti-money laundering efforts will not succeed unless banking secrecy laws are repealed.

May 14, 2009
Markets: A game between traders and common men
Given the very fluid state of national politics where a party can emphatically say diametrically different things at different times, it is hard to understand the basis on which brokers made this judgment.

May 13, 2009
IT-BPO: Is it the end of a dream run?
IT-BPO exports grew at a compound annual rate of 31.6 per cent in the boom years 2004-08. But the rate fell to 16 per cent last year (2008-09) and is likely to be in single digit in the current year.

Artists must demand their resale rights
India's Copyright Act allows for a percentage of any secondary art sale to be paid to the original copyright holder.

May 12, 2009
Gender budgeting? A failed attempt
Three years after the Centre decided to publish separately the money it spends on women in the Union Budget, experts are questioning the methodology adopted, which in most cases inflates the amount spent.

Y V Reddy on global turbulence
The speeches that deserve the most attention are those that include one made in July 2004 in Mussoorie to a group of civil servants, titled 'India And The Global Economy', and one made in July 2008 in Manchester, titled Global Financial Turbulence and Financial Sector in India. And of course everything in between.

Are we moving towards a de-globalised world?
Developing countries' return to high growth will require them to resume the push into tradable goods and services.

May 11, 2009
Replacing the US dollar: A lengthy affair
Finding a subsitute for the dollar as well as China being able to grow without the US market will both take time.

A steel famine on the horizon
Demand in 2012 was anticipated as 89 million tonnes; the rest of the capacity would help make India a major exporter of steel, rather than being a major exporter of iron-ore without any value-addition. That was then.

Economic recovery? Aren't we being too optimistic?
There is little evidence that investments are picking up in the private sector or in infrastructure, says

Foreign trade becomes environment conscious
The concerns about environment and public health are slowly gaining ground in the matter of imports and exports also.

May 08, 2009
Why market rally will last longer
The rally is likely to last longer than people think, and it is also unlikely to correct severely.

Buying land overseas makes sense
The trend of acquiring land abroad for growing food and other crops may have got a fresh boost, following the food security concerns provoked by high agricultural prices in 2007 and 2008, but it began a long time ago.

Retail biz: Need to develop strong value proposition
Here's how Westside scored over Shopper's Stop.

The challenge of the chulha
Simply replacing the chulha won't help, we have to help the poor use clean renewable energy.

May 07, 2009
Need to make the textile sector fashionable
The continued weak financial health of this sector remains one of the big enigmas of the post-liberalisation India.

RBI: A call to action
The public can only wish banks would provide more credit and at lower rates; the RBI, however, can and must ensure that they do.

Telecom nirvana: Will MNP help?
One reason why mobile subscribers haven't shifted companies is that the service is uniformly bad. But now, with new players coming in, the picture could be different, says .

May 06, 2009
The buck must stop at EC's door
The government has not taken any decision on the communications ministry's proposal for appointing the next chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Economic priorities for the new government
Getting ministers from various parties in the new coalition to pull in the same direction is the real challenge.

May 05, 2009
What media investors want
Both advertising growth and investments into the business have been lackadaisical. It, therefore, seems to be a good time to look at the pattern of investments into the M&E industry over the last three years.

Of global stakes and China's dogged persistence
The prime interest rate levels have hit 'record lows' and fiscal deficits 'have soared', is the sobering analysis of Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, on the global economy.

Fake experts, faulty forecasts
The challenging task for the non-expert then is to pick up the right experts to follow, and these are not necessarily the ones who make the most noise!

Of Borge's death and why fear is the key
Being beaten up in police custody is more common than being killed by police in what they call encounters which are almost invariably staged. And policing, we are told, is always like that. It ought not to be. That fear is what we, as claims to be a part of the civilised world, need to take note of. That is a common man's biggest crisis when dealing with the police and policemen.

May 04, 2009
Bank profitability set to fall
Moreover, the RBI's use of reserve ratios, statutory liquidity ratio and cash reserve ratio as monetary policy tools affected banks' profitability: No interest is paid on CRR balances, and the interest yield on SLR securities is far lower than the yields on advances.

Dialling trouble in telecom
Decisions are also being pushed on free allotment of additional spectrum to telecom firms, on extending the licence period for 'dual technology' firms like Reliance Communications/Tata Teleservices etc, and on revising merger and acquisition norms. Given how each of these cases is so controversial, even apart from the issue of propriety, it is unacceptable that a government on its last legs should be taking such decisions.

The big city-gas dream
Policy air bubbles and implementation snags could block plans to connect India's cities to a clean fuel grid.

New pension scheme: Good over the long term
The New Pension Scheme is one of the more ambitious programmes tried out by the government. If successful, it has the power to transform India's savings habits.

Dangers and foibles of tax reform


The shrinking trade deficit
In dollar terms, exports declined by 33.3 per cent over March 2008, the largest monthly decline yet. For the year as a whole, exports came in at $168.7 billion, significantly short of the original target of $200 billion and also below the revised range of $170-175 billion.

May 01, 2009
Indians are less rational than marketers think
So talking to the heart makes as much, or more, sense as trying to attack the mind. Soft selling works better than hard selling.

April 30, 2009
The 'Ford' test of CEO success
The surprise was Conde Nast Portfolio's topper for the world's best-ever CEO. It was Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motors. There is no doubt that Ford was a great entrepreneur and business visionary. But, with the hindsight of almost a century, it is worth questioning whether he was a good CEO. Ford could easily have won the accolade in his lifetime for revolutionising the personal transportation industry with the Model T.

Swine flu: How to deal with it
Over 150 people have already lost their lives in Mexico, the US and elsewhere, prompting the World Health Organisation to proclaim the flu as a 'public health emergency of international concern'. While the mad cow and bird flu could pass on from animals to humans through either direct contact with the diseased animals or on consumption of the under-cooked flesh of sick livestock, the swine flu virus A-H1N1 is easily transmittable from animals to humans and vice versa.

April 29, 2009
The sun shines on green shoots
By the way, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said while the banking and financial systems will need to stabilise first, at the moment he is seeing "green shoots". About time, considering all the fertiliser scattered around.

In the Nano's headlights
Nano is a tribute to India's achievements in low-cost innovation that the global automobile giants have been forced to sit up and take notice of Tata Motors' ability to design, develop and sell a sub-compact car at the lowest possible cost.

April 28, 2009
Are MP funds well-spent?
Unlike other government projects, most funds under MPLADS get spent - now to see if they're well-spent.

April 27, 2009
What the Credit Policy really said
The entire concept of PLRs ought to be recast to make them more representative.

Why independent directors are quitting in droves
More than 500 independent directors have resigned since January 1 this year.

The whys, whats and wherefores of QIPs
QIP is an investment option which is available only to QIBs -- Qualified Institutional Buyers, which are public and financial institutions, foreign venture capital and institutional investors registered with SEBI, scheduled commercial banks, mutual funds and various other categories, defined in Clause 2.2.2 B (v) of the SEBI (Disclosure & Investor Protection "DIP"), Guidelines.

Black money: Can BJP bring it back?
Vote for the BJP if you have to, but not because they're going to bring back Rs 25,00,000 crore and use this to develop roads or provide piped water to India's villages. That's a pipe dream.

How to deal with scams
When you think about it, it is scarcely believable. A large, scandal-hit company has found a buyer without presenting up-to-date accounts, and despite the fact that its previous accounting statements were largely fiction.

Showcasing Gujarat, abroad
Non-Resident Gujaratis can claim formidable achievements in most fields.

'India can safely expect a 6% GDP growth'
A stable government and more reforms are needed to hike growth beyond 6%.

April 24, 2009
A not-so-young job-seeker's tale
A first person account of an elderly man without job in this hour of crisis.

April 22, 2009
How real are the figures on black money abroad?
Though there are different views on the Global Financial Integrity numbers that the BJP cites, getting the money back to India is not going to be an easy task

April 22, 2009
How real are the figures on black money abroad?
Though there are different views on the Global Financial Integrity numbers that the BJP cites, getting the money back to India is not going to be an easy task

April 22, 2009
How real are the figures on black money abroad?
Though there are different views on the Global Financial Integrity numbers that the BJP cites, getting the money back to India is not going to be an easy task

April 16, 2009
How to deal with India's fiscal deficit
The first thing the new government has to do is to spell out its plan to deal with the mounting fiscal deficit.

Don't blame the global crisis
There is little doubt that the global economic crisis has worsened Indias growth prospects, but the slowdown began long before the US financial meltdown began.

Why it will be tough to get back funds in Swiss accounts
The Swiss authorities have never considered tax evasion a reason for breaking banking secrecy on an account; what they have acknowledged now is that they will cooperate in cases of tax fraud, which has a tighter definition.

April 15, 2009
Indian banks spectacular compared to global peers
The bank credit figures for 2008-09 (lowest overall credit and commercial credit growth in five years) provide further evidence, if any was needed, that a credit crunch lies at the heart of the severe slowdown that continues to beset the economy.

End of economic gloom?
Not yet, says . Economic recovery everywhere will be weaker and will take longer than expected.

April 14, 2009
Satyam: Will Raju go to trial quickly?
The company was sold in 100 days, but will Ramalinga Raju be brought to justice as quickly asks .

April 13, 2009
Orissa versus Rest of India
It'll only be when other states start following this discrimination for a large enough number of products, presumably, that the political class will wake up to it. Hopefully, the courts will too.

Patterns in governance failures
Greed lies at the heart of all governance failures too and we, who hopefully are now a little bit more aware and wiser of the consequences of greed, may differ with Gordon Gekko.

An IMF we can love?
It will depend on how the Fund chooses to deploy its newfound power, asks .

Corporate frauds: A shocking revelation
Taking immediate corrective action and lessons from the US experience would help in restoring investor confidence.

April 07, 2009
Reviving the world economy - G20 and beyond
G20's success will hinge on outcome of follow-up measures

April 01, 2009
The G-20 and IMF reform
The current Euro-Atlantic Monetary Fund must become an International Monetary Fund.

March 31, 2009
'These award-winning private banks'
The private banks won laurels because they pulled the banking system out of a decades-long stupor, combining technology and aggressive marketing to win customers. Now the shoe is on the other foot

The G-20's empty cupboard
The moot issue is whether the consumers have money to spend at a time when they have no jobs and income.

March 28, 2009
Of economic crisis and the brazen deceits of the rich
Ordinary folk, every newspaper and TV channel in the country, Congressmen (including the ones who were screaming for bank bailouts during 2008) and even people on the Wall Street (what an irony!) are furious that AIG should be paying some of its executives handsome bonuses while on the dole. The details of the AIG bailout that have been made public, reluctantly, by the government focus the spotlight more clearly on the faults of the system as a whole.

Big bucks? Authors too are getting them
Publishers who turn out between 100 and 250 titles in a year would be quite pleased if they managed to sell 2,000-3,000 copies of any particular release. In fact, tomes written for the academic world have print runs that often stop at 600. The good news is that the big books are coming out more frequently, and there is greater variety. The reason is not just a flowering of Indian creativity in English, or the arrival of quality writers, though both are of course true.

March 27, 2009
Why Europe may see more economic pain
The recent bailout of Romania by the International Monetary Fund puts the spotlight back on the East European block of countries and what it means for the Western European banking sector. If evidence is anything to go by, things are turning for the worse. In fact, if a block of countries could be termed 'sub-prime', Eastern Europe seems to qualify as the countries seem to have been battered and bruised big time by the ongoing global financial turmoil.

Of Nano, jingoism and the right question
When a car gets mixed up with national pride, just as journalism, economy and cricket have, questions are condemned to be still-born.

March 26, 2009
Indonesia: The new Asian business hub?
If Indonesia can keep up its political will, we're going to see a new business centre emerge in Asia.

India needs a marketing stimulus
This deferred or reduced spending is now extending across most major consumption sectors such as discretionary food and groceries, clothing and home textiles, consumer durables and home appliances, jewellery, furniture and furnishings, leisure travel, and entertainment. Oddly, the response of many manufacturers, marketers and retailers has been counter-intuitive.

China's recovery and global growth
The Chinese government must work towards policies that lead to higher spending by Chinese consumers.

March 25, 2009
UPA will cost India economic superstardom
After sixty years of Congress misrule, India has most of the world's poor people, and some of the worst health and nutrition indicators, even worse than much poorer sub-Saharan Africa. This is truly a crime and a national shame.

March 23, 2009
Will the slowdown impact tax collections?
Tax collections so far are pointing towards the government missing on the gross tax revenue target for the first time in several years, primarily due to a continuous decline in excise, custom and advance tax payments, says .

Beyond corporate frauds
Frauds have to be tackled with speed, focus and condign punishments of a career-ending nature by a credible single institutional agency like the Serious Fraud Investigation Office established by statute. Special courts have to be set up for effective and speedy prosecution of those guilty.

March 20, 2009
Global warming: Carbon trading not enough
Whatever little was happening on emission reductions through the carbon trading mechanism has been halted by the collapse of the carbon market, in the wake of the global economic recession.

Meltdown mantra: Shock and alter
Today, the worry is that a change in incentives against saving may tip the balance in favour of those who don't save.

It's a season for bad ideas
The widely held notion that supply constraints, coupled with protectionist policies (read export bans) in several food-surplus countries, including India, were the prime causes of the problem has virtually been discounted by this global food policy think tank.

Meltdown: A story of financial alchemy?
The financial and economic meltdown in G7 nations has had a negative impact on growth in India and other developing countries. Could anyone seriously believe that there is some form of financial alchemy which consistently provides returns on capital well in excess of national GDP growth rates and the major equity and bond indices over decades?

March 19, 2009
This growth isn't crashing
India's growth rates may be crashing, but the rates of growth of crashing on the country's roads, and those dying in these crashes, are growing by leaps and bounds.

The boiled frog syndrome
India Inc is paying the price for not noticing the slow change in the economic climate - just like the frog that boiled over.

The road to recovery
Financial and trade protectionism in the OECD could block the road to economic recovery.

VC funds available for tech start-ups
VCs also do not want to under-finance companies and are ensuring that the current capital infusion takes them through at least 18-24 months, which is the expected time when the outside fundraising environment starts to recover, says .

Health is exclusive wealth
To be fair, the problem of inadequate healthcare does not lie with these hospitals themselves but in the manner in which they have been allowed to function by the government.

March 18, 2009
Accident compensation has a multiplier effect
The accident compensation formula ignores inflation and the rise in life expectancy.

March 17, 2009
Will G-20 win the confidence game?
People everywhere, consumers and investors alike, are cancelling spending plans, because the world economy seems very risky right now. The same thing happened during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Is the ESOP dream run over?
Companies are awarding even more stock to make up for the lost share prices. Except that the market, in its infinite wisdom, seems to be telling India's middle class millionaires that stock is no longer a currency for compensation, says .

Hope and despair at the G-20
Despite the assurances of UK Chancellor Alistair Darling that 'markets could have confidence that countries will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to tackle the global slowdown', there is still no agreement on how long the recession will last and whether it will turn into the classic deflation with its attendant massive social unrest.

March 16, 2009
How the audit profession can heal itself
It is the ICAI which has the wherewithal to understand what the professional issues involved are and it is they who should be in charge of the solution, believes .

The world is not flat
Tom Friedman has got his challenger. The world is not flat, says the World Bank, in its latest World Development Report.

An embarrassed forecaster's apology
Those of us who predicted a bottom for the financial markets earlier this year have reason to be contrite, says .

Can regulators effectively supervise banks?
The huge losses suffered by major banks recently, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, have brought to the fore the weaknesses of the architecture of the Basel II capital ratios, and have also raised questions pertaining to the wisdom of fair value accounting norms.

'Infrastructure spend must be disclosed'
Strangely, no consolidated figures on infrastructure investments made on ground are ever disseminated by any official arm of the Government of India.

Is investing in gold risky?
The decline in jewellery demand is likely to make investments in this safe haven a risky proposition.

March 14, 2009
Blame economists, not economics
As the world economy tumbles off the edge of a precipice, critics of the economics profession are raising questions about its complicity in the current crisis. Rightly so: economists have plenty to answer for.

March 10, 2009
There is growth amidst turbulence
The global meltdown puts a greater premium on efficient use of domestic capabilities.

Myths in cable TV pricing
Last week's Supreme Court decision on cable-pricing means that 83 million cable homes will end up paying more for their television.

March 07, 2009
The end of the immigration boom
The global recession is beginning to seriously hurt international migration, and many migrants are forced to go home again.

March 06, 2009
Japan aims at green leadership
Being one of the most ecologically modernized state in the world, Japan heads to Copenhagen with its ambition of green leadership in the post Kyoto regime. Japan has nurtured this ambition through smart diplomatic endeavors, ecological restructuring of policies and technological innovations.

Climate change: New dawn or same old song?
As the fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, India has an important role to play in the global response to climate change.

The need for culture-sensitive marketing
Marketing gurus from the west have built their theories based on the belief that consumers, where ever they are, behave the same.

Ajit Jain: Berkshire's next Oracle?
Ajit Jain specialises in mega-catastrophe coverage, that is, he takes risks that rivals avoid.

March 04, 2009
Indian economy: Nothing much to cheer
While the forecast was still lower than what we have been recording over the last few years, it instilled a false sense of comfort that India might still weather the storm better than many other countries.

When policy makers behave like religious militants
Some modern-day officials and policy makers continue to behave like religious militants of medieval times, chanting those same mantras markets on their own will take care of everything.

Getting back to 'Hindu' growth
While the government, and market, looks at the year-on-year data for GDP growth of 6.8 per cent, in reality the economy has been growing at only a 4.5 per cent pace (GDP factor cost data).

March 03, 2009
It pays to be a listed company
Over the last six years close to Rs 96,000 crore (Rs 960 billion) has been mopped up through IPOs by nearly 300 companies while another 56 companies have picked up about Rs 47,000 crore (Rs 470 billion) from the equity market through follow-on issues.

Crunch time: Let's make the most of it
India has a better chance of growing independent of the West than any other country in Asia.

Of stimulus packages and fiscal conundrums
Several questions arise on the appropriateness of the measure in the already strained fiscal scenario, says .

March 02, 2009
Slowdown hangs heavy on us, when to exhale?
Only when we make the world less economically vulnerable and more climate-secure, can we breathe easy.

Yet another bailout
Last week, the government announced that the passengers, would be bailing out Delhi International Airport Limited by paying Rs 200 if they take a domestic flight out of Delhi airport and Rs 1,300 (which sounds pretty exorbitant) if they take an international flight out of the capital.

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