Opinions and Editorials

If there is a reason common to why Tirupati laddoos, Darjeeling tea, and Goa feni are epicurean delights, many would argue that it is because the air, soil and local peculiarities of their place of origin are key to the quality of the final product.

Lalgarh and the arrest of Kobad Ghandy brought to light two things that we have, always, either known as facts or suspected as possibilities — that militant Maoists are every bit as keen on publicity as everybody else; and that there are intriguing, though not altogether inexplicable, pockets of urban elite sympathy for their ideology.

" Nobody can deny that today's India is a power. In recent years, Indians have become more narrow-minded and intolerable of outside criticism as nationalism sentiment rises, with some of them even turning to hegemony. It can be proved by India's recent provocation on border issues with China.

The decision of the People's Republic of China to build a dam on the Brahmaputra will naturally cause concern.

Since the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee has given its nod to the commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal after two years of extensive field trials, and the final clearance rests now only with the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, is it prudent to hope that the debate on genetically modified crops has been settled once and for all? A speady clearance, and then large-scale cultivation of Bt

Since the Reliance split was formalised in June 2005, shareholders have had cause to celebrate—value creation following the demerger hasn't been bad news for their coffers.

Since Mumbai and Maharashtra have voted, let's recall the tallest of encomiums and the biggest of promises made.

These columns have argued for changing the way official economic data is processed. For example, we argued that month-on-month, seasonally-adjusted data gives a more realistic picture of current industrial growth—healthy, but not exuberant and, therefore, requiring more support. But month-on-month seasonally-adjusted data has abiding significance in all areas.

So murky has the Ambani sparring over natural gas contracts gotten that we find it difficult to express optimism even over their olive branch exchange this weekend.

Reading economic data right has perhaps never been so important in recent memory as it is now. Now is when policymakers have to decide whether recovery has taken hold or if it has, whether it still needs nurturing or whether it is already strong enough to start thinking of precautionary actions. The index of industrial production data for August shows 10.21% year-on-year growth.

That the Indian embassy in Kabul was a target of attack for the second time in two years is a direct result of our deep involvement in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, a project which the insurgent Taliban and other extremist groups would like to thwart at all costs.

Later today, we will know who wins the Economics Nobel for this year. That's a good provocation to ask this question: when will we know economics as a discipline has evolved a bit more. This question, of course, provokes another question: does economics need to evolve at all? Isn't it, in broad principles, a fully mature discipline anyway? Perhaps not.

Corporate results for the second quarter ended September kicked off on Friday with Infosys Technologies reporting 2.8% sequential growth in its topline.

At a time when the US is mulling increasing the boots on the ground by sending additional troops to Afghanistan - and Gordon Brown is urging a restive Britain to stay the course - despite plummeting support back home, a Nato air strike in Afghanistan's Kunduz province has killed scores of civilians.

The neighbourhood watch is bringing in strange news. The Army reports that in July, the Chinese carpet-bombed Indian soil with tinned food. A mistake, apparently - no one really knows where the border is supposed to be. And meanwhile, on our other border, the Pakistanis are in the throes of a change of guard that's as quaintly archaic as the one at Buckingham Palace.

Despite his huge popularity and iron grip over Andhra Pradesh, Y.S.R. Reddy was probably not known that well beyond the confines of his own state. But the man, who defied skeptics and the dares of anti-incumbency to deliver 33 Lok Sabha seats in this election, may have ironically preferred it that way. It's this that made YSR an unusual politician for his times.

Controversy was Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's constant companion in politics - as one who represented violence-prone Cuddapah in Parliament, and the legislative Assembly since the late 1970s. But electoral triumphs buttressed by populist schemes transformed it all for the Andhra CM. In his death, the Congress has lost its strongest regional face in recent memory.

Given the public slanging match between India's top scientists over the success of Pokhran II, the confusion itself calls for keeping our options open for future nuclear testing. In fact, quick and firm responses from the prime minister and a former president have only bolstered the credentials of this controversy, with various other voices joining the polemics.

Adecade ago when Sharad Pawar was quitting the Congress over Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue, he told a group of journalists, "In the Congress party, there is no place for genuine mass leaders. There is only the high command and the loyal followers."

Now that Force India has secured a podium finish in the Belgian Grand Prix, isn't it about time we had an Indian driver in the hot seat? With rumours that Ferrari may be eyeing Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella, Vijay Mallya and Co.