Views

ADB`s growth estimate for India conservative

Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected India`s growth at 8.2 percent in the current fiscal, which is lower than International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) revised prediction of 9.4 percent for India this year. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the govt was sticking to a more conservative 8.5 percent growth at the CII summit on Monday. While

Lessons in Laffer Curve

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has learnt a bitter lesson in the interlink between the tax rates and the revenue raised. Believing in the dangerous myth that higher taxes means higher revenues, she raised the value-added tax (VAT) on diesel from 8.5 percent to 20 percent in Delhi in April. She hoped that the higher tax on diesel in the seemingly affluent capital would get more revenue for

Inflation to settle down to 6-8 percent by December: FICCI

“Inflation would settle in the 6 percent to 8 percent range by end of the year against the government’s projection of 5 percent,” said Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in its latest economic outlook survey. “The only difference being that primary inflation will start to cool down from August 2010 onwards as the ‘negativ

Shrinking cover of food security

In accepting the recommendations of the Planning Commission on the Food Security Bill, the National Advisory Council (NAC) has acknowledged what the government has been saying all along, that food entitlements cannot stretch beyond the food supply. Thus, the food security coat must be cut according to the available cloth. At this point, agriculture cannot sustain universalise

June `10 the hottest month ever: NOAA

In June, 2010, temperatures soared to a new high making the month as the warmest ever in recorded history. A study released by the America’s climate agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said, “Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and

Highway heist

Driving at 110 kmph on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway is hardly the place to carp about the decisions of the almighty babus managing our national highways strategy. But apart from the smooth ride on some select highways, whim and nepotism is fast becoming the rule of the game. So much so that the babus seem callous about the obsession of their boss, minister of road transport and highways Ka

Eight Indian states have more poor than 26 African countries

There are more poor in eight Indian states tahn there are in 26 African countries, according to a report brought out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford university. The study says that there are more poor people as per Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in eight Indian states - a total of around 421 million in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Mad

Palliative care quality suffers in India

Not only is the Indian quality of life lamentable, we as a nation suffer from low end-of-life care also, says a new survey. It placed India at the bottom of the table of 40 nations surveyed. The report - “Quality of Death” index was prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Shamingly, India is placed below Uganda in the list of 40 countries. The report mentioned th

A bleeding sore

The newspapers, sometime back, carried the picture of a security personnel, lying on the ground and half a dozen young hooligans beating him with sticks, in Srinagar. Nobody was trying to stop such elements from thrashing the helpless policeman. I was reminded of my tenure as inspector general of police, in Srinagar, during the worst period of 1988, when the terrorists had kidnapped the

Indian cities score low on global livability index

Indian metros - despite their sheen inside India - have not found a spot among the top 20 cities to live in globally. None of the Indian cities did well on any of the five key indicators considered in a study, whose eresluts are reflected in the rankings. The study took stock of five key livability indicators – good governance, urban infrastructure, environmental friendlin

Govt may be gagged but city`s not blind

Unspeakable - that`s how bad the state of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games is, as the Delhi chief minister has rightly realised. So, Sheila Dikshit has asked her ministers to keep their comments on the same to themselves if the media were to bait them for a byte, according to a Hindustan Times report. It is a very, very sensible move given that it offers us an escape from having to l

Quota respite for TN, K`taka is a wake-up call

There is no escape from the reservation genie. The Supreme Court has, by allowing Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to continue with their 69 percent and 73 percent quotas, respectively, for another year, created an opportunity for other states to exceed the 50 percent ceiling that it had laid down earlier in the Indira Sawhney case in 1992. The apex court has now asked these two state governments to pr

Games as nation`s prestige and other myths

Let me begin with a caveat. It is no one’s case that sporting events are unnecessary. But when a sporting event becomes a vehicle for misinformation and meeting questionable ends, one can’t help but sit up and take notice. We as part of our ongoing research and advocacy for the revival for the river Yamuna got unwittingly embroiled in challenging the wisdom of the powers th

Swiss banking and India: Hide and seek

If you want to know what the Indian government does not want you to know about Swiss banks` operations, let`s begin with some backgrounder. Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) is in a severe crisis over charges of financial frauds, being accessory to money laundering and huge losses in the US. Barack Obama has put pressure on Swiss banks, threatening sanctions on the entire Swiss economy aft

India a tier-II country in US human trafficking list

Trafficking in India is largely internal - an intra-national racket with rural areas serving as sources and cities serving as transit points and destinations. The United States has put India on Tier II watch list for the seventh consecutive year in its report saying that India has not done enough to prevent labour trafficking particularly bonded labour. India is one level better

“Resources are always a constraint”

Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister for water resources as well as for parliamentary affairs, is a seasoned parliamentarian. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha during 1984-90, he was elected to the Lok Sabha and now he is in his fourth term in the lower house. In an interview with Sweta Ranjan, he spoke candidly about issues relating to both the ministries he handles.

Cabinet secretary, who?

Bureaucrats have spent a large part of summer discussing who will be the next cabinet secretary. Putting an end to their collective misery, K M Chandrasekhar, the present incumbent, has secured another extension. This gives him a fourth year in saddle. I’m told it’s a record among 28 cab secs that we’ve had, equalled only by Y S Suthankar and B D Pande. Chandrasekhar’s d

No way through water

It was the same story which is retold in Delhi every monsoon. Just a downpour and the city again came to a standstill. Traffic from the office hubs to residential colonies did not move for hours. Those who wanted to avoid getting stuck in their private vehicles opted for public transport, thus straining the already over-crowded metro trains and buses. Waterlogged roads with just 21.2mm

Don`t take that call from the PMO, Mr Ramesh!

It is not at all common or usual for a minister to take a principled stand; or having taken it, to stick his or her neck out to defend that position. In that sense, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh’s position on a few contentious issues is admirable. His refusal to bow to pressure from his cabinet colleagues in the aviation, power and surface transport ministr

Indian men feel more entitled to jobs over women: study

Most Indian men are likely to think that their right to a job should supersede that of women during tough economic times. A study by the American think tank – Pew research Centre said that 84 percent of Indian males say that `men should receive preferential treatment when jobs are scarce.’ India is ranked ahead of countries like Pakistan (82 percent), Nigeria (77 percent), E

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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