governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
(photo credit: http://www.firstpost.com) Imagine if FM Jaitley had admitted in his budget speech of February 28 that of the Rs 17.77 lakh crores (US$ 287 billion) of expenditure he was tabling in Parliament, less than one third was really available for innovating on the past trends and the bulk of the funds relate to liabilities […]
Read More FM Jaitley’s conundrum: Fat wallet but empty pockets(photo credit: guns.com) An inequitable sharing of power and the “glass ceilings” of “closed order” societies, devised to keep the status quo intact, are ripe pickings for terrorism. Apologists of terror focus on this underlying social explanation for the breeding of terror. But this is cold comfort for the victims of terror who, generally, are […]
Read More Taming Terror(photo credit: dnaindia.com) Clothes truly make a man. FM Jaitley’s budget, presented to Parliament today, turned out to be constructed the manner in which he was dressed- a Modi jacket over a shirt, trousers and chappals (flip flops) for shoes. Nothing objectionable of course and yet unexceptional. Tarun Das, the veteran Industry budget watcher, known […]
Read More Union Budget 2015: Well-meaning but lacking spirit(photo credit: Indianexpress.com) As expected Suresh Prabhu, the likable, very professional and intensely committed Railway Minister presented a Rail Budget yesterday, which is not only fiscally responsible; internally consistent; aligned with the medium terms needs of the economy but which also pushes all the right buttons. For the middle class the buttons pushed are availability […]
Read More If only Suresh Prabhu was CEO of Indian Rail!(photo credit: india.com) The annual ritual of the government’s budget with allocations of money in billions is just gobbledygook for the average citizen. It is the “tone” of the budget which people tune into first and foremost. What must Finance Minister Jaitley do to get the tone right? First, clothes make a man, as they […]
Read More Packaging Budget 2015(photo credit: indiatoday.com) Speaking today in Ramlila Grounds, the “maidan” of the people’s movement which birthed the Aam Admi Party, just over a year ago, Kejriwal, in his acceptance speech as Chief Minister of Delhi state government, confided that it was God who had ordained the Tsunami like landslide win of the AAP (96% of […]
Read More Kejriwal – God’s own messenger(photo credit: dailymail.uk.co) February is when the Indian Finance Minister (FM) gets flooded with unsolicited help from well-wishers on how to get his job done of presenting the Union government’s annual budget on the 28th. This time, the flood is a Tsunami as a consequence of the Delhi state assembly electoral debacle for the BJP […]
Read More The budget of small things(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 2015(photo credit: economic times.com) RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan got it horribly wrong when he amended PM Modi’s “make in India” program by adding a “make for India” byline in his FICCI address yesterday. What on earth could he have meant? Was he implying that the domestic economy should be further insulated from foreign competition? That […]
Read More Gov. Rajan gets it wrong this time(photo credit: http://www.smithsonianmag.com) India has negligible resources of oil and gas in the context of our future needs and from the perspective of the currently available extraction technology. Oil markets are liquid and sufficiently deep not to worry about oil availability so long as one has the USD to purchase it with. Oil, gas and […]
Read More Give Us Energy Mr. Putin
Opinion India 