The General presides over the assault on our sensibility

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

The General is at it again. This evening (May 25), he will release a book, 'Assault on Merit', by RK Anand. It is an assault ...
02:51 PM, May 25, 2012

Land Acquisition: Two Standing Committees, Pole Postures

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

In forty-four months, the standing committees of Parliament which examined the land acquisition bills have done an about turn on the issue of the state ...
06:17 PM, May 22, 2012

Politicians use Ambedkar cartoon as ploy to denigrate accountability-seekers

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

The Ambedkar cartoon controversy is not only an attempt by the votaries of Dalit politics to keep their icons beyond scrutiny, but also a ploy ...
09:18 PM, May 19, 2012

Time to pension off the professional agitators

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

The right to information, the right to work, the right to education, the right to food and now the right to pension. Watching Sagarika Ghose's ...
08:50 AM, May 10, 2012

Aamir's Satyamev Jayate is indictment of TV journalism and call for renewal

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

Just when you thought that the news media was dissipating itself in the purposeless eddies of irrelevance, trying to keep people excited without engaging them ...
03:16 PM, May 07, 2012

Relax, Bofors was not all loot-and-scoot

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

If one were to take a purely transaction-oriented approach to the Bofors deal, one will wonder what the fuss is all about. Even Sten Lindstrom, ...
03:48 PM, May 01, 2012

Keep the burqa, remove the veil

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

My first reaction on reading the news that St Aloysius College in Mangalore had restricted the use of burqa was that it was unnecessarily provocative. ...
06:46 PM, Apr 28, 2012

A vote for BJP's non-performance in Delhi's municipal elections

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can claim that its victory in the Delhi municipal elections is an endorsement of its performance but as a person ...
12:55 PM, Apr 19, 2012

Why the God-damned NGOs should continue to crow at Koodankulam

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

It would be a euphemism to say that I hate non-governmental organisations. They are generally anti-development, self-righteous, obdurate, ill-liberal, conspiratorial, secretive and even plain deceptive: ...
03:04 PM, Apr 12, 2012

A Tamil news channel walks alone and wins

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

Tamil Nadu's latest offering, PuthiyaThalaimurai ('new generation') topped the charts within a few weeks of launch and has sustained the lead in a television news ...
06:52 PM, Mar 30, 2012

Why not Delhi-Mumbai in 5 hours by train?

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

Indians are big losers because the Indian Railways lack drive, ambition and imagination. How? Delhi and Mumbai (1,380 km) are about as distant as Beijing ...
04:22 PM, Mar 29, 2012

Army Chief and the Brotherhood of the Bribable

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

A few weeks ago, a former secretary in the Defence Ministry told minister A K Antony to expect embarrassment from General V K Singh. The ...
02:58 PM, Mar 27, 2012

Comment: when ministerial whim passes off as policy

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

Mukul Roy, the new railway minister, is a very quick learner. Within a day of taking over, he has decided that the Railways do not ...
05:14 PM, Mar 22, 2012

Trivedi exit shows Mamata can only tear things apart, not build

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

I recollect Dinesh Trivedi as a cautious man. In May 2009, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, he got two economists, Bibek Debroy and Lavish ...
01:03 PM, Mar 20, 2012

Budget 2012: bland, with some big ideas

Espresso Economics |  Vivian Fernandes

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has so consistently disappointed that it is difficult to believe he will keep his word on the fiscal deficit. This year's ...
01:02 PM, Mar 20, 2012