Opinions and Editorials

The merchant ship, MT Stolt Valor, with 18 Indian crew members on board, was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on September 15. Three weeks later, the Indian government still has no clear plan on how to bring its citizens safely home.

There are two forces of physics acting upon a changing India today. On the economic front, as India expands into global terrains, a centripetal force is gathering momentum, best represented by the country's 8 per cent growth rate.

Apples and oranges should not be compared. And when they are, the results can be misleading. Notwithstanding that, I am going to make such a comparison, focusing on the links between the financial crisis in the West and the burgeoning debt position of the public sector oil companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL. I realize that I could be accused of trivialising the former and exaggerating the latter.

Advertising is the most powerful tool in the production and marketing chain, and has the power to make or mar a product.

Now that a redressal agency headed by Justice J. S.

Russian liberalism is not just in crisis, politically speaking. It has ceased to exist. It is not represented in the parliament, it has disappeared as a focus of public debates, even among intellectuals, and its claims to be a credible and politically attractive ideology now seem vain if not preposterous.

On Monday RBI and SEBI took two welcome decisions. By cutting the cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points at a time when the Indian economy is facing a sharp liquidity crunch, RBI will help businesses and households access credit. In the last few days credit, especially for small enterprises, had become scarce and expensive and this was hurting economic activity.

The long-awaited release of the report of the UGC's pay review commission, chaired by G.K. Chadha, has at least demonstrated that the UGC correctly identifies the enormous problem that India faces in attracting and retaining sufficient talent to its colleges and universities, particularly at the entry level.

Did President Asif Ali Zardari call the militant Islamist groups operating in Kashmir "terrorists" while speaking with the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal? To begin with, we don't have a direct quote from Zardari on the issue.

In 1936, I was a student in the sixth standard, in a small town in Ferozepur district of Punjab. At the time, the British repression was matched only by the peoples' patriotic spirit. Once the deputy commissioner and the education officer of the district, both British, were coming to visit our town. Hectic preparations were made by the government officials.

There is little wisdom in writing for a newspaper on an issue on which the editorial and the editor in chief have already given a verdict ('Chain of command, demand').

So the bailout has passed and politics has triumphed once again over good economics. Other than giving up hope, what can those of us committed to free markets and limited government do? I think the most important task right now is "controlling the narrative." We are not going to change what government is doing, nor have much influence in stemming any problems that arise from it.

If on the same day RBI slashes the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points—that puts around Rs 20,000 crore back into the lending system—and Sebi eases rules governing participatory notes (see next edit), it is safe to say the monitors of Indian market are changing the rules of the game.

The Singur drama has finally come to a close with the exit of Tata Motors. It is now time for the 'what ifs' and the apportionment of blame. Ratan Tata has—with the graphic metaphor of Mamata Bannerjee pulling the trigger—identified the proximate cause of the death of the Nano venture at Singur.

As your editorial ('Saving your savings', Oct 6) suggests, there is a need in India to periodically raise the limit of bank deposit insurance as incomes grow.

Apples and oranges should not be compared. Notwithstanding I am going to make such a comparison. I am going to focus this article on the links between the financial crisis in the West and the burgeoning debt position of the public sector oil companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL. I realise that by making such a comparison I could be accused of trivialising the former and exaggerating the latter.

In the '50s, the Soviet Union put a Sputnik into space and initiated humankind's first journeys beyond the earth's atmosphere.

He was not a bon(e)a fide orthopaedist. Nevertheless, the Humpties and Dumpties of Poonamallee who had a great fall, hobbled straight to him. Most patients who came to make both broken ends meet were struggling to making both economic ends meet, their money bags almost always bone-dry. Which was not a problem, as his shrewd eyes did only x-ray the situs of injury, and not their pockets.

News that a comprehensive plan is being developed by the urban affairs ministry, with a focus on the areas around SEZs, is extremely welcome on several counts.

As the dust settles following the abandonment of the Nano plant in Singur by the Tatas, there are plenty of lessons to go around.