A budget at war with the Finance Minister

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : A budget at war with the Finance Minister: "A huge hike in indirect taxes will cause a fall in both savings and consumption, achieving the opposite of what was intended."

With revenue deficit (4.4 per cent of the GDP) and fiscal deficit (5.9 per cent) hitting the roof, the Finance Minister seems to have turned to chartered accountants for ideas to make his balance sheet appear less inelegant. The result is the innovation of “effective revenue deficit,” which bears the stamp of some multinational accounting firm rather than our conservative civil service.

There are more positive signals in the Finance Minister's speech than in the budget proper. Finance Minister has declared that the government is committed fully to providing for food subsidy even if it cannot afford it. Yet, he has not provided a single penny for the food security project!

Water transport imperatives

"Inland Water Transport (IWT) for passenger and freight movement involves lower operating costs and environmental pollution than for road, rail or air options. It could relieve pressure on the other modes, which face their own constraints. "

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Water transport imperatives:   In India only 0.15 per cent of domestic surface transport is accounted for by IWT.  The reasons are many, but include, most significantly, lack of investment for the creation of infrastructure modernisation and lack of efficient operators.

India needs to study the viability and means to attract more investment to the sector, by creating an institutional framework. The enhanced level of involvement of the private sector in IWT that has now been initiated is a welcome step. More waterways should be identified for development, and those earmarked given a push.

IWT should power the growth of the economy.

Losing hearts and minds

"The anger and bitterness millions of Afghans feel over the war's rising civilian death toll will not subdue by an American apology. There is simmering resentment over repeated episodes in which the conduct of NATO forces has been grossly offensive. The clear message is that Nato troops are above Afghan law, that the Afghan judicial process is not good enough to try them. This makes a nonsense of U.S. claims of respect for Afghan sovereignty.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Losing hearts and minds: As the self-imposed deadline of 2014 for the withdrawal of U.S. troops approaches, it is essential that Afghan sovereignty be strengthened and respected in word and deed. This means ensuring a greater role for the Afghan National Security Forces, particularly in combat operations, and zero tolerance towards acts by western troops which are an affront to Afghanistan's identity and sense of self-respect.

Who killed Baby Falak?

"The two-year-old died a horrible death because the system did not care enough to want her to live."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Who killed Baby Falak?:  A child died and we collectively mourn. She was just two years old. And she fought bravely, but the tubes and wires connecting her to life support in the AIIMS Trauma Centre were no match for the systemic failures that carried this baby to her death. For the truth is that Falak never really stood a chance.

Playing The Growth Card

Constrained by economic circumstances, the finance minister had made the best of a poor hand

Playing The Growth Card

"If the budget assumptions are validated, and the revenue and expenditure targets hold, fiscal policy will be back on the path of consolidation, while also helping to revive growth."

-The Times of India, March 17, 2012 

Digging Up The Ghost of Non-Alignment

Digging Up The Ghost of Non-Alignment

Centre for Policy Research had recently released a study on India's foreign policy options. Nayan Chanda presents a commentary on the study, and notes that their label Non-Alignment 2.0 maybe outdated and negative.

-The Times of India, March 17, 2012

Timid Knock

Budget 2012-13 is no tonic for a slowdown-hit economy

Timid Knock

With a metaphor to cricket, the editorial goes into the various nuances of the budget in considerable detail, and says, "it plays too safe, having the feel of a tail-ender's knock in the UPA's innings."

-The Times of India, March 17, 2012

'It's possible that between 2012-16, we'll grow at 6%-plus, not 9%'

Q&A


Shankar Acharya has been chief economic advisor to the government between 1993-2001 - a formative years for India's economic reforms. He's also served in the prime minister's advisory council and the 12th Finance Commission. With the 2012-13 Union Budget arriving, Acharya spoke with Vikram Sinha about major challenges facing the Indian economy - and solutions he envisages:


Interview - Q&A

-The Times of India, March 16, 2012

The Gangrapes of Gurgaon

These crimes are a wake-up call - and a pointer to how skewed development is hurting India

The Gangrapes of Gurgaon

"While one part of Gurgaon got sewn into a global economy, another part remained cloistered in rural hamlets, awash suddenly in big money with no sensitization about what caused its arrival."

-The Times of India, March 16, 2012

A smile from Lanka

The best gift we can bring back from a so-called 'failed state' is a :-)

http://author.toiblogs.com/jugglebandhi/entry/a_smile_from_lanka

Jug Suraiya shares his experiences from his visit to Lanka, and the abundant receiving of smiles from the Lankan public, and a greeting of Ayubowan.

-The Times of India, March 16, 2012

Save The Budgets

Congress and Mamata must work out a deal

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Save-the-budgets/articleshow/12279973.cms

With West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee triggering "a political storm by requesting the axing of her own party minister, Dinesh Trivedi, after he presented the railway budget," the congress may have to be prepared for further opposition "to anything other than populist sops" from "the same quarters" in today's budget.

-The Times of India, March 16, 2012

Asset Gains

Census figures show growth may be trickling down, to some extent

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Asset-gains/articleshow/12280048.cms

Improved growth rates have trickled down into housing, inclusive banking, and possessions of telephones, televisions, motorcycles, cars and jeeps over the last decade.

-The Times of India, March 16, 2012

Balochistan : Another Bangladesh???

For long, Pakistan hasn't come out of the conventional and the orthodoxy approach to administration, culture, socio-economic qualms and other issues.

A lot of territorial sections of Pakistan have gone ahead of this increasingly tight-bound approach to growth and are looking for an imperial and a Sovereign status that has often led to widespread unrest in the country.

The Indian-spined Bangladesh movement is a classic case and the Balochistan's liberation movement that has and is gaining impetus in the recent past is another fine example.

Rubbing salt to the injury is the Pakistan defense forces' attack on the prosperous and prospective liberation movement leaders from the region.

If the situation continues to be as disturbing as the status quo, creation of another Bangladesh will be inevitable, opines Balachandra Rao as he explains the social dynamics of the territory and the political and geographical sensitivities of the region...

Balochistan: Pakistan's second Bangladesh?

A budget for the auto sector

Vinesh Kriplani, a tax partner in Ernst & Young (along with Sonal Jain, senior tax professional with a member firm of the Ernst & Young) explains the potential in the auto sector to boost the economy and why should the government consider providing it the required attention in this years' budget.

"A strong Budget that supports the auto sector at large and brings in clarity on existing anomalies in law will be welcomed by the industry."

Wanted : A budget that plays straight for the auto

Growth engine

The budget for the year 2012 is almost on the cards and India is yearning to see an all inclusive, realistically plausible, and a far-sighted economic perspective with apt imagination and innovation in our plan and balance sheet for this fiscal year.

PM Mathews, a professor of economics in the Christ University explains more...

A fantastic read if one needs to understand the complicated dynamics in economy and the challenges that India face to stabilise it....

Growth is fine, but can Pranab take all on board?