Chidambaram should follow the GST model.
The Supreme Court has tried manfully for a few years now, but to little avail, to implement police reforms in this country. The handful of states — mainly the North-Eastern states — which have undertaken a partial implementation of the SC recommendations have been virtually forced to do so. The [...]
Andrew F. Cooper, writing in the latest issue of the Public Diplomacy magazine, contends that India — along with other BRIC nations — has moved on from being a middle power to an emerging power.
In economic terms, middle powers have been overtaken by the big emerging powers. These economies are garnering significant attention from the [...]
[Another post from this blog's favourite guest blogger, BeeCee. His take on internal issues of the defence services is obviously triggered by Karan Thapar's views on the promises made to the service personnel and veterans in its manifesto by the BJP, and the vow of a veterans organisation to support the BJP.]
On personnel & accountability [...]
Some will say I am too focused on the wars we are in and not enough on future threats. But, it is important to remember that every defense dollar spent to over-insure against a remote or diminishing risk – or, in effect, to ‘run up the score’ in a capability where the United States is [...]
Meghnad Desai on why economic reforms in India are akin to sex:
[In India] economic reform is pursued by stealth. No leader praises the good record of growth. Like sex, no one [...]
If it is too good to be true, it probably is.
Now the international media has also waken up to the story. The New York Times has a story [HT: The Acorn] explaining that as the commodity prices fall, the Chinese purse-strings are being tightened in Africa.
China’s approach to securing minerals in Africa has been to [...]
Better national security is not merely more defence spending.
Thomas Mathew has been paltering at the Hindustan Times about the inadequate Indian defence expenditure. While he bases his argument on linking defence expenditure to a higher percentage of GDP, he needs to understand that tying defence expenditure to GDP is no substitute for policy making.
In any [...]
Why rising defence spending is not equal to increased military capability?
Increasing outlays only for day-to-day running of the defence services and continuous surrender of modernisation funds have attracted little attention in the mainstream media. This is the time to question why such a state has been reached and to find some answers. Here are two [...]
Increasing defence outlays. Decreasing outcomes.
Till last week, the Indian army was left with spending 41% of its capital budget for 2008-09. After surrendering Rs. 2,077 crore from its original estimates, it is yet to spend Rs 9,220 crore out of 15, 615 crore. In case of any other ministry or any other department of the [...]
Bare facts.
#1 – Rs 7,007 crore returned unspent from the capital outlay for defence in 2008-09. Rs 16,285 crore was overspent in the revenue outlay in 2008-09. This revenue expense doesn’t include defence pensions.
#2 – Defence pensions overshot the outlay in 2008-09 by 4,670 crore. And they are not even considered as part of the [...]
Tying defence expenditure to GDP is no substitute for policy making.
India’s defence expenditure this year is pegged at less than 2 per cent of the GDP which is lower than India’s defence spending in 1962 — 2.1 per cent of the GDP. After the Chinese debacle, it jumped to 4.5 per cent in 1964. By [...]
Commodity price decline shows the true colour of Chinese intentions in Africa. India should hold steady to its own model of engagement in Africa.
It was a story where most thought that China had beaten India and even United States and Africa’s former colonial masters in Europe. However, it might surprise these wise men to hear [...]
Rajeev Shukla, the Congress MP, would better stick to cricket, bollywood and petty politics.
Rajeev Shukla, Congress Rajya Sabha MP with pretensions of being a serious journalist, had attended the 63rd session of UN General Assembly in New York late last month. In a piece in the Indian Express, he puts his foot in the mouth [...]
…because India has no Starbucks outlet.
The more Starbucks a country has, the bigger its financial problems.
Ilian Mihov, Professor of Economics at INSEAD, holds forth on the lessons of the collapse of the ‘golden age’ of the late 1920s.
What is the biggest lesson from the Great Depression? In my view, it is that monetary policy and the financial sector play a crucial role in economic development. Let me put it more [...]
Did you know that the Indian government imposes a cess on indigenously produced crude oil? The Oil Industry Development Act, 1974 based on [...]
Previous post on the subject - The soldier and the corporate
There ought to be at least some military veterans at the top of the pile in various corporate houses in India. It is just unfortunate that their military background doesn’t get much prominence in the media. While the services do not promote these ex-military corporate leaders [...]
Unorganised and organised retail must coexist and flourish in India…
After almost scaring the Tata Motors away from West Bengal, Mamata Bannerjee has now trained her guns on Reliance Retail. Well, Reliance Retail should be used to being targeted by feisty women politicians. Immediately after coming to power in Lucknow, Ms. Mayawati had earlier undertaken a similar [...]
Now, this one is an interesting situation. The Indian government likes to tom-tom the oil subsidy bill as a proof of its socialistic credentials; the media targets the government for unfairly subsidising the expenditure of the middle class; and most economists lay the blame at the door of the government for distorting the free market [...]
Not everything, except a few things that many failed to take note of…
Unrealistic expectations were build up by the services top brass through selective leaks of their proposals to the government. Remember the powerpoint presentations harping on 4.5 times increase flooding your mailboxes. Favourable media reports, planted by the services, also added to the hype. [...]
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