governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
What sort of a legacy will Prime Minister Narendra Modi leave India? Oh, come on… say those who like him – and there are many- it’s way too early to talk about a legacy. The man is full of energy, strong in the saddle and is likely to be around till 2030. They are probably […]
Read More Modi’s LegacyThe first 100 days of the Modi 2.0 government have been marked by lows and highs. Sadly, the lows are longer lasting, while the highs are transient, even in the short term. The biggest low was the Budget for FY 2019-20 in July, which was presented, in the absence of the late Arun Jaitley, with […]
Read More Modi 2.0 100 not out!It’s a terrible time to be a minister in the Union government. The economy is tanking under the weight of debt funded public expenditure and low private investment due to the lacklustre consumer demand. Private corporate headline growth is low on the back of low capacity utilisation, which hits government tax revenues adversely and casts […]
Read More Modi 2.0: Time for frugal good governanceSo, the laddoos will remain to be savoured in the spanking new BJP headquarters. But formal celebrations are delayed. The results cannot be announced till 5 vote-verified-paper-audit-trail (VVPAT) per assembly segment are matched with the vote count of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM)– a concession the Supreme Court gave to the wailing opposition parties who […]
Read More Modi 2.0 Benign AmbitionNo one knows why Prime Minister Modi chose to walk behind Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji’s funeral cortege till “Smriti Sthal” (the place of remembrances), where India’s top politicians – are usually cremated. Was it to bridge the gap between his actions and the principle of Raj Dharma (ethical rule) enunciated by Atalji in 2002? Was he […]
Read More The Saffron brotherhood in 2024The David versus Goliath battle in Gujarat Assembly elections has ended, as expected, with Rahul Gandhi failing to pry away the State from the BJP. But the Modi magic has been dented, particularly with the slim margin of victory and the loss of his home constituency of Unja. With a 41% plus vote share the […]
Read More BJPs half-win in Gujarat(photo credit: freepik.com) There are three reasons why the AAP shall succeed in holding off a BJP government in Delhi. BICKERING IN THE DELHI BJP First, the debilitated state of the Delhi BJP unit for which the malfunctioning mike at PM Modi’s election rally on January 10, 2014 was an apt metaphor. PM Modi or […]
Read More Why the BJP will lose- Delhi State elections 2015PM Modi should consider listening to the “words of wisdom” in the famous 1970 Beatles hit –“Let it be”. Of course in this cruel results centric world of ours, only those who get going fast and hard survive. But there are virtues also to sometimes take a call and just let things be. Take for […]
Read More PM Modi “let it be”Sex is an outcome but also often the cause of inflamed passions. Regulating sex through law has a downside because the adversarial, legal process we follow is pretty poor at establishing “guilt”. The police are so busy lining the roads for VIPs and doing crowd control, that investigating individual crime is a low priority. Shoddy […]
Read More Careful with the eyes and anklesThe Gujarat Snoopgate can play out three ways. In two variations Amit Shah may be guilty. In the third version Modi himself may be the culprit. Amit Shah was either acting, at the behest of Modi, to help the woman’s father keep track of his daughter or was personally interested in the woman himself. The […]
Read More Modi & Kejriwal; adrift sans a “clean” anchor
Opinion India 