Columns

It was the remarkable foresight of the makers of the Indian Constitution that they thought of creating a dedicated Schedule of Languages - the 8thSchedule – which initially included 14 languages as the languages of administration. This was a radical departure from the European idea of nationalism... read more

Admiral Karambir Singh, who assumed command as Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) last month-end, has put out “elaborate directives aimed at curbing subservient behaviour, restricting certain ceremonial practices and ensuring equality among the ranks.” The directives vary from the standard of cutlery and... read more

It was on 17 April last that Jet Airways had run out of funds, and its operations had come to a grinding halt. Jet, a full-service airline, was competing domestically head-on with highly agile and viciously competitive low-cost carriers (LCCs) which had mastered the art of cost control. The cost... read more

Economists are confused about the health of the Indian economy. Firstly, statistics of the economy are unreliable. Methodologies for measuring growth and employment have been changed. Comparisons with the past are no longer straight-forward; trends cannot be gauged accurately.Secondly, the... read more

The rate cut last week by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is unparalleled in the monetary policy history of the RBI since it is for the first time that the policy repo rate has been cut for the third time in a row in a calendar year. Headlines tend to translate a policy repo cut to a lower EMI... read more

The Finance Minister will present her maiden Union Budget on July 5. She has asked all citizens to send their inputs, promising that each proposal will be duly examined. She has welcomed and already thanked all the anticipated contributors to this crowdsourcing. This makes the process more... read more

As widely expected, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI, in a somewhat rare show of unanimity cut the policy repo rate from 6% to 5.75% - third cut in a row- and what is more important, shifted the policy stance from ‘neutral’ to ‘accommodative’ in its second bi-monthly meeting yesterday. As... read more

The 25 bps rate cut and the change in policy stance from ‘neutral’ to ‘accommodative’ has been welcomed by the markets and is consistent with the growth projections and the inflation target. The MPC needs to be congratulated for a timely and appropriate policy, that has provided comfort to the... read more

Elections of course are far more complex...but one thing may be said – the pundits, often sitting at the upper end of the economic pyramid, are more likely to read it wrong. They get it the least, and today it can be said that they probably also matter the least!

We will need a series of actions that fix structural issues and can drive change in the medium and longer term. There is in the end no quick fix to the given situation. Suggestions that the government will go on a PSU-privatisaton spree, as reported, carry little meaning because in the end who will... read more

The huge downside of this experience for doctors at the start of their career will certainly mark them for life. This will possibly shape them, even scar them, and many may tend to believe that work in a public hospital is a sentence that they must serve so that they are then “free” to work in... read more

It will be sometime before the depth of Narendra Modi’s electoral sweep sinks in and a much longer time before the phenomenon is better understood. The Prime Minister was right in telling his party workers that this country has truly given him a lot and that political pundits will have to revisit... read more

The new NDA government will take charge in the last week of May 2019. The immediate task before the government is to prepare and present the Union budget. The budget exercise will be against the backdrop of a sub-par 4 per cent inflation rate, a growth rate of a little higher than 7 per cent and... read more

There is an old saying in Sanskrit. यथा राजा तथा प्रजा  - as the King so are the people. In a democracy, the reverse is also true. As the people, so is the king. So, the people have got the King they deserve again in 2019. Indian democracy is comparatively young. Hence, the commoners still... read more

After the exit polls on May 19 predicted a landslide victory for the National Democratic Alliance, the stock market in Mumbai gave a euphoric salute, and the index broke its previous record. But across the Asia Pacific, from Hong Kong and Shanghai, to Singapore, Seoul and Sydney, the markets were... read more

The economic growth for the past three years has declined from 8.2 to 7.2 to 7.0 percent. The latest quarterly growth rate is 6.6 percent, and the January to March quarter data will be published in a couple of weeks. So, this declining trend continues, and for the fourth year in a row, India will... read more

Clawbacks are not uncommon in the US and can be particularly gratifying for shareholders and many groups of stakeholders, particularly when the money being taken back is from a former and powerful business leader who is seen in violation of regulations, trust and actions that have brought losses... read more

There are a host of considerations that rule, and not all of them are easily fathomed by city folk who tend to prefer the so-called national parties and pre-set alliances. Some of these dynamics are now opening up the reading, tentative, early and not backed up well, that the SP-BSP combine is... read more

The rise of Hindutva in a country that was thought to be largely secular has flummoxed many. Whatever the outcome of this general election, the BJP and its parent, the RSS, will remain important players and influence the political agenda in a manner they never had been able to before 2014. This is... read more

Even for those who might have held Rajiv Gandhi culpable in the mass of allegations around the Bofors gun, his death brought that conversation to an end. That is the Indian way – not to speak ill of the dead, to forgive and to let bygones be bygones.