Espresso Economics

Why Manmohan Singh, Nero, is a Hero

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:24:06 +0530

Did the UPA use cash to win the trust vote in 2008? It would be naive to believe that it did not. Should Manmohan Singh resign? No. He is still

Rail Budget: neither sugar-free nor Rasagulla. It is Mamata's Fudge!

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:34:20 +0530

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Railways were passing through "difficult" and "testing" times. How come? The Indian economy is growing at 8.6 percent a year. Have the Railways fallen

Prices and A Govt That Doesn't Know Its Onions

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:56:43 +0530

A colleague, who has done very well for himself and lives on Mumbai's Pali Hill, sent a new year's day message advising his friends not to buy onions and risk

Growth Vs Caring: A 'Stupid' and 'Nonsensical' Debate!

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:21:01 +0530

Chasing growth is "stupid" says Professor Amartya Sen. That he is obsessed with growth is "nonsense" says Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. At the time when the government's stewardship of the economy

Aarushi's case: Closure report should not be the end

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:05:00 +0530

The closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Aarushi murder case should not be the end of the matter. Its admission of failure must trigger another

Insomnia in the house of Tatas

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 04:01:38 +0530

The Tatas are known as India's most ethical group. It is a reputation well earned. Infosys may have has a squeaky clean image but it operates in an industry that

Bloodletting will improve Indian journalism

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:31:00 +0530

By publishing the taped conversations that Tata group and Reliance Industries lobbyist Niira Radia had with select journalists, magazines Open and Outlook, and Mail Today newspaper have broken an unwritten

Will President Obama be fussy about handshakes?

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:00:17 +0530

President Barack Obama is not visiting Bangalore or Hyderabad but can he avoid shaking hands with IT industry leaders? Right-wing radio hosts and channels like Fox News will not miss

Media also to blame for pre-Games mess-up

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 06:19:59 +0530

Guest editors on Karan Thapar's show, the Last Word, gave high marks for media coverage of the Commonwealth Games. Only Swapan Dasgupta gave it 50:50. He said the Indian media

Vietnam Diary: Well-swept streets, paved footpaths & chain-snatchers

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:02:53 +0530

Hanoi was celebrating its 1000th anniversary when Delhi was hosting the Commonwealth Games. Fearing that the Games would be a no-show and opting not to be vicariously embarrassed, I decided

Perks in the Budget are bigger than the pain

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:25:13 +0530

The political Opposition seems to have got it wrong. They have misjudged the mood of the nation. If there was ever a popular Budget, this is it. There is a

We also carry goods: Mamata’s Budget spills all over

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:27:53 +0530

At one time the Tatas used to say, "We also make steel." That was in the early 1990s when Russy Modi was heading Tisco, as it was then called. Those

The Delhi Metro Is Slipping

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:57:03 +0530

I am a Metro enthusiast. So I did not need persuasion when Line 4 went into service. I had decided to make the Metro a habit to office. Travel would

News for sale: How media is squandering its credibility

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:09:26 +0530

News space was blatantly on sale in the run-up to the last Lok Sabha elections. Newspapers had fixed the rates for interviews with candidates, coverage of their rallies, reports on

Austerity Must Come From Within, But Hypocrisy Has Its Uses

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:31:50 +0530

Hypocrisy has a place in public life. It is also known as political correctness. Joining politics and becoming an MP at the first opportunity might seem like a brilliant career

Someone stole my subsidy

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:54:24 +0530

Delhiites are used to paying less than residents of other cities for power, water, and bus services provided by the government, so the withdrawal of subsidy on power has come

Ambani squabble exposes politics of policy-making

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:10:39 +0530

For the muck that he has been raked, Anil Ambani must get this year's award for investigative journalism! He has put a shadow of doubt on the neutrality of Petroleum

The audacity of the airline industry

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:14:19 +0530

Do private airlines have a case for protesting? They say that high domestic jet fuel prices are killing and the average 26 percent sales tax rate is positively murderous. They

Delhi Metro Places Integrity Over Image

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:34:22 +0530

When Delhi Metro had named its chief design engineer to the four-member team probing the accident that killed six workers on July 12, it gave the impression of prizing image

Mamata must fight land sharks with fairer Land Act changes

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:25:04 +0530

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had to be persuaded from walking out of a Cabinet meeting in protest against amendments to the Land Acquisition Act. She has termed them anti-farmer and

Shopping for Schooling in Seelampur Janata Colony

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:02:04 +0530

Parth J Shah of the Centre for Civil Society says "the right to education cannot become meaningful unless it becomes the right to education of choice." He is an economic

We Need City Planners Who See And Listen

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:07:25 +0530

Sagarika's accompanying piece on cities has got me started. I have come around to the view that urban planning is a mindless exercise. Last week, we found the Municipal Corporation

Market reacted to Budget's packaging, not substance

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:32:43 +0530

The panel of discussants I was associated with on CNN-IBN did not share the stock market's disappointment with the Budget. Former economic adviser Shankar Acharya rated it "almost good", Shubhashis

Eco Survey high on ambition, is past scepticism in order?

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:11:12 +0530

Is this year's Economic Survey irrationally exuberant? Not in its diagnosis of the state of the economy and the prospects of high growth - about which it is guardedly optimistic

Do a Satyam on Air India

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:34:09 +0530

The government must do a Satyam on Air India. Just as it did not trust the anointed lieutenants of Ramalinga Raju to salvage the company after he stripped it clean,

Do not be generous, Mr Mukherjee

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:39:06 +0530

From news reports about tax changes that are likely in the Budget, one would get the impression that there is no sanctity to the Budget-making process, and that the Finance

What Poor People Say About Moving Out of Poverty

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:33:19 +0530

Economists have described poverty in terms of daily calorie intake, purchasing power or income. But what do poor people have to say about it? Moving out of Poverty is an

Jai Ho Kirana Store

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:17:19 +0530

One would have expected a Parliamentary Standing Committee having members with a progressive outlook on the economy, like Arun Jaitley and Omar Abdullah and Dinesh Trivedi, to give a nuanced

President's Address Falls Short of Congress Promise

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:36:59 +0530

The Congress manifesto had promised 100 days of a work a year, at a real wage of 100 rupees a day for everyone under NREGA. This was understood

Why The Budget Must Enunciate The Disinvestment Policy

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:01:05 +0530

The meetings sought with Disivestment Secretary Rahul Khullar by investments bankers Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and UBS indicate the expectation that the Congress led government has generated. But Khullar would not

Why farmers should not fear FDI in retail

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:49:56 +0530

Foreign direct investment in retailing may be a red rag for swadeshis and Leftists who fear it will wipe out kirana stores, but during his pre-Budget consultations Finance Minsiter Pranab

The rise and fall of ministries

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:38:10 +0530

When a person who made a name for himself at the World Trade Organisation opts out of Commerce and Industry for the highways portfolio, it says something about the rise

Election contests as an investment in power

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:40:17 +0530

The scramble for Cabinet berths confirms what we knew all along - that election contests are indeed an investment in power. Candidates stake a lot, because the returns can be

A case for reviving the National Advisory Council

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:43:29 +0530

There is a case for reviving the National Advisory Council (NAC) because it championed legislation and schemes that gave the UPA the edge in the elections. Whether it is Right

P Chidambaram's touch-and-go win

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:18:09 +0530

Last year after he announced the Rs 72,000 crore farm loan waiver as Finance Minister, P Chidambaram had returned to Sivaganga, his constituency, to a hero's welcome. He was disappointed

Will NREGS survive a change in regime?

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:08:07 +0530

This government is on its last legs but a clutch of corporate leaders and economic administrators do not curtains to be drawn on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in

Catholic poll advice: communal parties greater evil than criminal candidates

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:42:52 +0530

The month-long communal clashes in Kandhamal in Orissa that left scores of people dead and many thousands displaced, and the attacks on churches in Mangalore last year have politically galvanised

Voting The BJP to Power Is Not Taxing, But Will Pinch The Public Purse

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:42:57 +0530

It will not tax you to vote the BJP to power, but it could cost the treasury at least Rs 50,000 cr. The BJP's political manifesto, released after a gap

India's Experience With PPPs: Private Gain At Public Expense

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:34:49 +0530

The BJP and the Congress may differ on privatisation of state enterprises, but they both agree that public private partnerships are necessary in infrastructure. India's experience so far with PPPs,

Buddha's manifesto

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:47:33 +0530

The Congress manifesto for the current elections talks of the middle path, and balance between government regulation and private sector enterprise, between the public and private sector, urban and rural

Voting Is Not Enough, Youth Must Make Their Voices Heard Too

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:17:49 +0530

Across the country campaigns have sprung up urging educated youth to come out and vote. For some it is a brand-building exercise. Tata Tea's Jaagore campaign, in association with urban

Cong could count the farmer on its side

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:38:49 +0530

These are elections that the Congress Party has been preparing for over a year. Last year, then Finance Minister P Chidambaram was surprised when the party's troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee had

Trinamool tries to woo urban voters with argument

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:39:50 +0530

"The Left Front is like gangrene. It cannot be cured. It must be excised out." Restraint is not what you see in economists Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari's study

The Bajrang Dal doesn't belong in Mangalore

editor@ibnlive.com — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 03:32:56 +0530

For us from Mangalore it is hard to accept at a Catholic monastery could have been attacked. On Sunday (Sept 14) morning, I got an SMS from a friend there

Modi's Management Style Dissected

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:59:13 +0530

Even those who do not agree with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's divisive politics, and I am one of them, admire his administrative skills. In July, I interviewed him for

What's the next stop after Geneva?

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:24:14 +0530

I have covered WTO minister-level meetings in Cancun in 2003, in Hong Kong in 2005 and this time in Geneva. All of them ended in failure, disappointment and anger, but

Going round and round at the WTO

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:09:10 +0530

For five days, till last Friday, the WTO talks in Geneva produced fresh terminology, instead of progress. The negotiations were mainly among seven principal members - the US, EU, Japan,

Winning the trust vote might be good for WTO talks

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:58:14 +0530

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said he would attend the talks regardless of the outcome of the trust vote in Parliament, when I spoke to him on the phone from Geneva.