Columns

The Pulwama terrorist attack was mind-numbing brutality. Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility, and it operates from Pakistan. The deadly attack needed sophisticated planning, logistics, arms procurement, fund flow and sensitive information. All this is not possible without some sort of... read more

The death of 44 CRPF troops in the suicide bombing in Pulwama last week raises many questions and changes many things in Jammu & Kashmir. The anguish and outrage at the suicide bombing has been voiced and felt across the nation. Social media is full of demands for tough retaliatory action.... read more

During the reform period till 2013, the Government took several steps to strengthen the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank of India and added to the reserves. For instance, the excessive cost of sterilisation which normally is borne by the Central bank was shared by the Government to keep the... read more

Ms. Chanda Kochhar is now facing the full brunt of a wide-ranging investigation. Multiple agencies are poised to probe deep into a case that the worthies on the ICICI Board dismissed not too long ago. ICICI Bank has a new CEO since October 2018. The bank under him has moved with full force against... read more

We have a rate cut after a gap of about 18 months. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced on Friday that the policy repo rate, which goes on to influence the rate at which banks lend to customers, stands cut to 6.25 per cent, down from 6.5 per cent. This change came along with a change in... read more

The noted actor, director and producer Amol Palekar is a gentle speaker but can make a powerful point. He was one of the guest speakers for the opening of a retrospective of the late artist Prabhakar Barwe at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai last week. Palekar took the occasion to speak... read more

The recent Union Budget proposals gave generous income support to farmers and lower income taxpayers. Whether this will translate into electoral support for the ruling party, only time will tell. The revised data on GDP shows that the past four years have had exceptionally good growth, putting... read more

The Union Interim Budget which was placed in Parliament on February 01 2019 has broken all the conventions of an interim budget. It has expenditure proposals, tax proposals and above all a vision for 2030. In the interest of prudency in the budget making process, the government should have... read more

There was much drama involving economic data on the eve of the budget. Firstly, the remaining two independent members of the Statistical Commission resigned. Their exit made the constitutional body effectively vacuous, since the Chairman’s post was lying vacant since July. This is an apex advisory... read more

Learned people in various committees and commissions have prepared voluminous reports but why does the agriculture sector continue to be in distress? Why are farmers committing suicide especially after the World Bank–inspired 1992 wave of financial reforms? Let us examine whether we need a second... read more

In the lead up to the presentation of the interim budget for 2019-20 by a ‘substitute’ finance minister, there were enough indications that it wouldn’t be a dull ‘vote-on-account’ show. Some even expected that the government would come up with a kind of full budget, which caused a last-minute... read more

The Finance Minister while presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 has categorically mentioned that this is not an interim budget but a medium of the country’s developmental journey. In saying so, he has broken the convention, sanctity and integrity of an interim budget and stretched the boundaries... read more

The Interim Budget presented on Feb 01, 2019 was not expected to be a reform-oriented budget in any way. All the 12 interim budgets presented in India since Independence had avoided making any big bang structural reforms, as the government in power is a custodian for a few months.Yet, the Interim... read more

The Parliament of India passed a constitutional amendment which modifies articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. This is to provide reservation for economically weaker sections for admission to institutes of higher education, and jobs in the government and possibly in the private sector. Article 15... read more

The Union Budget 2019-20 to be unveiled on Friday will carry all the features of a regular budget without any fresh tax and expenditure proposals. As an interim budget looking to a medium term perspective, its broad goals and direction should typically be growth enhancing along with qualitative... read more

Every year there is a hype when the Finance Minister presents the Government’s budget. Though the principal purpose of the budget is to deal with the accounts of the Government, people look to it to gauge which way the country will be heading. In an election year, the Government is expected to... read more

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is almost half a century old now. It describes itself as “the international organisation for public-private cooperation” and says it is “committed to improving the state of the world”. Early on in its journey, the Forum introduced a system of membership for “the 1,000... read more

A star at WEF this year was David Attenborough, the legendary advocate of care for our planet. He fears it may already be too late to stop climate change. The backdrop to the TV reports from Davos is the banner: ‘WEF: Defining the Business Landscape’. In a few days, on January 30, the people of... read more

The burning issue of the so-called illegal migrants in Assam and some other States in the North East has assumed disturbing proportions, particularly in the light of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 that has just been passed by the Lok Sabha and is awaiting its passage through the Rajya Sabha.... read more

It turned out to be a discussion on the city of Mumbai. The venue was the Taj Mahal hotel and the occasion was the launch of a big fat book called ‘CoastLine’ that tells the tale of Mumbai and the larger Indian coastline in caricatures and charming stories by the uniquely talented Paul Fernandes,... read more