governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
The latest public “dog and pony show”, unveiled on Thursday in Delhi, is the selection of 20 cities across the richest 11 states of India for accessing the governments Smart Cities fund. Photo credit: smartcitiesindia.com The near-complete exclusion of the poor “cow belt” states, except Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, can be explained by the need […]
Read More SmartCities: Making the rich smarterYou have to hand it to the French. They look effortlessly stylish- think Christine Lagarde, the French Managing Director of the IMF. Even when they wear plain work clothes they come encased in an inherited frisson of elegance- the 1789 French revolution, it seems, diffused aristocratic elegance more evenly rather than destroying it all together, as […]
Read More President Hollande’s musings on IndiaEven as Davos was worrying over the haemorrhage of international capital from emerging markets and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was at pains to point out that India was different, a different narrative was unfolding in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. It had to do with a consultation paper issued by TRAI […]
Read More TRAI: Misplaced rage against FacebookBeing workaholics and 24×7 people, Team Modi must be avid coffee drinkers, with a yen for espresso. For the uninitiated, espresso is the end product of forcing boiling water through ground coffee, thereby concentrating the caffeine content and enhancing the “kick”. photo credit: http://www.utube.com India’s “espresso” moment happened last Saturday in New Delhi with the […]
Read More Startups: Keep the adrenalin flowingphoto credit: http://www.rediff.com So what is a Public Private Partnership (PPP)? And why have industry insiders declared it as broken even though India has 1200 such projects in operation (the largest number internationally for any economy) with a total investment of over Rs 7 lakh crores (US $ 100 billion)? And does it matter? PPP […]
Read More Salvaging the PPP: Kelkar Committee
Opinion India 