Once the Congress lost its majority in parliament long ago, it had to reconcile itself to forming coalitions and sharing ministries. The Congress liked to keep important ministries like home and finance; its allies, enjoying a few uncertain years in power, preferred lucrative ministries. Their favourite cash cow was the railways. Corrupt ministers promoted corrupt bureaucrats. That is how the r
The media make parrots out of us. Instead of working things out for ourselves, we are taught to repeat formulae by rote. The formula on Greece is well known. It went on borrowing as if there was no tomorrow. Such wise and kind uncles as the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank kept lending to it, and urging it to mend its ways. But it did not. So it went bankrup
Perhaps the most overlooked comparison in Asia is that between India and its civilisational sibling, Indonesia. These two eclectic democracies have more in common than India and China, yet they are only rarely hyphenated. While China’s per capita GDP in 2013 (adjusted for purchasing power parity) was at $9,800, the equivalent for India was a mere $4,000, putting it much closer to Indonesi
“The top 30 defaulters are sitting on bad loans of Rs. 95,122 crore, which is more than one-third of the entire NPAs of public sector banks.” That is the tailpiece in an article in the Economic Times of June 11, 2015, titled “RBI in favour of developing better strategies to deal with bad loan problem”. That also happens to be the standard quote in the flood of articles o
On assumption of office, prime minister Narendra Modi had emphasised the governance mantra, “maximum governance with minimum government”. In the formation of the government he kept the cabinet size initially to less than 10 percent of the strength of the Lok Sabha as against the 15 percent ceiling under Article 75 of the constitution. Political leaders while finalisi
The specialist vs. generalist debate in India’s civil services resurfaces periodically. One has seen a chief of the electricity board, an excellent engineer who managed his power plants and transmission systems extremely well, totally clueless in matters relating to power policy. One has also seen a first-rate irrigation chief engineer taking over as secretary of the irrigation department
Earlier in this column, I had discussed what governments can learn from businesses and vice versa. This piece is not about that per se. But yes, there is a definite shift in expectation from technology in business. And it is time that happened in the realm of governance too. The early phase of IT adoption saw emphasis on efficiency through automation; the next phase was all abou
Bad news is good news; media revel in news of crisis and catastrophe. No news is bad news; some space has to be filled with news if anyone is going to look at accompanying views and ads. But if there is no news, pseudo-news can be invented, also known as speculation. Speculation is possible all round the year on weather, for luckily, India is situated far enough from the equator to have pronoun
There is considerable talk of judicial accountability in the nation, but it does not address the key parameter of time-bound justice. Of three persons in prisons two are under trials, most of whom may not have committed any crime. Right to Speedy Justice which has been recognized by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right is violated daily in the courts. Justice delayed is injustice.
In August 2014, the Narendra Modi government, aiming to connect billions of Indians, announced an ambitious Digital India vision. The programme aims to deliver all government services to citizens electronically by connecting rural areas with high-speed internet network. The project has even attracted support from the likes of Facebook and Google to usher in this new era of connectivity in India
Do you want to be recognized by the world as a record-breaker? You can do it: take eight steps: 1. Choose a record. 2. Contact Guinness. 3. Follow the guidelines they send you. 4. Recruit an expert just in case you need adjudication. 5. Collect evidence. 6. Send it to Guinness. 7. Wait. 8. On getting a decision, celebrate – or commit suicide. I should clarify that the last three wor
Much has been said about gold in the recent past - India’s almost unwavering demand for gold, the impact it has on our import bill, the impact it has on our current account deficit and why India needs a gold policy. Yet, no one can deny that India’s largest untapped potential is gold. The affinity to the yellow metal has not waned over generations. On the contrary, deep-rooted socio
Since the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991 an issue has been prominently raised by the government that huge investment is needed to boost economic growth. It is assumed that once economic growth takes place, employment and income of workers in the country will correspondingly increase, thereby reducing present unemployment. However, there is a great impediment to investm
A year ago, there were people even outside BJP who made it their own mission to see Narendra Modi as prime minister. Today, many of them are restless and impatient. And yet Modi remains popular; a survey in May found 74 percent of Indians backing him as PM. How do we make sense of this paradox? One factor that can explain the situation is that there is nobody around to challenge him and take hi
The approval by Sri Lanka’s parliament last month of the 19th constitutional amendment represents a historic landmark in that country’s governance. Its implications stretch well beyond Sri Lanka and deserve the attention of governance reformers in India and elsewhere. The amendment is part of a broad programme of reforms launched by president Maithrapala Sirisena, who was a surprise
Forming an opinion about someone comes easy. In fact, it’s second nature. Forming an opinion on their life or death doesn`t appear to be too difficult either. Even if we`ve never met them. On Monday morning as news came in from Mumbai`s King Edward Memorial hospital that Aruna Shanbaug was no more, India was caught up in the euthanasia debate, hastily opining on an issue ne
May Day is an occasion to take stock of the situation as far as workers are concerned. The day refers to the struggle in 1886 in Chicago, where the demand was of eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of recreation. The essence of the whole demand was that there should be a limit to the exploitation of workers. Before mechanisation, it used to be a dawn-to-dusk affair for work
The RTI Act has caught the imagination of people and the way it has spread is appreciated and admired around the world. A great change has come in India in the last decade in the power equation between the sovereign citizens and those in power. This change is just beginning and if we can sustain and strengthen it, our defective elective democracy can metamorphose into a truly participatory demo
The heart of the net neutrality debate in India is centred on three fundamental questions. First, is internet a public good? In theory, at least, it is. The Narendra Modi government seems to think so too. The entire plan for the ambitious Digital India initiative is built on the premise of providing all Indians access to internet, the underlying principle of any definition of public good. Secon
April 14, 2016 will be the 125th birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar, and the nation is paying tributes. Most political parties are trying to appropriate the iconic leader’s legacy with an eye on dalit votes. There is no difference between the left and the right in this regard. The BJP organised a rally in Patna on April 14 to launch its election campaign in Bihar. The Con
