Economy
Issues on optimum population size
INDIA'S population has crossed a billion. In terms of per capita income, on any comparable basis, India is among the poorest countries in the world. This is also true of the number and proportion of people below the poverty line.
Editorial
Sweet-bitter
THERE IS LITTLE doubt that the withdrawal of the neem patent, jointly registered with the Munich-based European Patent Office in 1995 by the US Department of Agriculture and the chemical giant W. R. Grace and Company, represents a major victory for India
, which has used neem derivatives for centuries. Indeed, this victory should be seen along with the successful 1997 legal challenge mounted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) against a US patent on turmeric, the principal message
being that while the grant of (mainly American) patents on plant derivatives cannot be discouraged effectively by sage counsel, use of the legal instrument can always be relied on to check foreign companies which are prepared to go any lengths to get co
mmercial advantage over their competitors.
Miscellaneous
Japanese banks -- Credit crunch or liquidity trap?
ABOUT A decade ago, the balance-sheets of Japanese banks were considered the strongest in the world. During the 1990s they deteriorated to an extent unparalleled in the post-War years. In the late 1980s, bank lending to property develo
pers had risen sharply. The decline in land prices beginning in 1992 raised serious concerns over the quality of these loans, which had often been made under rather lax credit conditions and were mostly collateralised by what proved to be ove
rpriced land.
Language press
THE lack of an authentic and comprehensive study on the role, content and influence of the Indian language press had been a long-standing void in the corpus of literature on the nature, scope and evolution of the print media in
India. A path-breaking book India's Newspaper Revolution ,just published by the Oxford University Press, has made a highly commendable job of filling it.
Politics
Constitution review: The economist's perspective
The Constitution Review Commission, which will present a comprehensive report on its findings in a year, has called for a debate on the regulation of fiscal and monetary policies to enhance the efficacy of the public auditing system. There can be no doub
t that the Commission's recommendations, when laid before Parliament, will have far-reaching implications for the polity, say T. C. A. Ramanujam and T. C. A. Sangeetha.
