Budget
Budget 2001-2002: Great expectations
THE FINANCE Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, has a difficult task to perform in the 2001-2002 Budget. With a worldwide recession on the horizon, a massive natural calamity perceptibly affecting GDP growth, and a chronic drought gripping several parts of the
country, what kind of a Budget would satisfy without pain the various requirements of the people, is the million-dollar question.
Economy
Realpolitik of economic reforms
ECONOMISTS and policy-makers, in general, treat economic policy-making as a purely `technical' problem. Their primary concern is to devise a policy proposal that ``maximises or improves social welfare''. And once a desirable policy is recommended, they e
xpect the decision-maker (the government) to implement it as designed, so that the desired effects of the policy flows to the economy. In economics jargon, this is known as the ``normative'' approach to economic policy-making.
Editorial
Balco disinvestment
THE FITS-AND-STARTS process of disinvestment in public sector units once again appears to have received the characteristic year-end boost with the sale of a controlling stake in Bharat Aluminium Company. Towards the end of last fiscal, the Government sol
d a 74 per cent stake in Modern Foods to Hindustan Lever and, thereafter, no progress was made until the disinvestment in Balco now. Hopefully, the latest effort will provide the much-needed momentum to the disinvestment programme.
Miscellaneous
Managing disasters
THE horrendous nature of the earthquake in Gujarat has stirred up a lot of interest in disaster management. Leaders of all the important political parties have laid aside their differences on policies and ideologies and are readily participating in the n
ational committee set up under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister to deal with the aftermath of a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude.
States
Gujarat: Compounded by human failure
THE NATION has been going through traumatic times since the January 26 earthquake in Gujarat, a calamity that caused the worst havoc since Independence. The nation is familiar with tragedies, experiencing its fair share every year in the form of floods,
heavy rainfall in unexpected regions, cyclones, drought and, occasionally, an earthquake.
Steel
`Steel'ing the show
Rolling of 12-mm CTD bars in progress at the 18-inch bar mill of National Iron and Steel Company's Belurmath works.
Transport
With Railways' competitive advantage... -- Mamata's politics is profound economics too
Raising fares is a mechanistic, easy solution for bureaucrats because that gets the balance-sheet restored though at the cost of the passenger. But it is little realised that by delivering the transportation service relatively cheap the Railways help the
cause of keeping wages and, by extension, the cost of producing goods and services low. But, undeniably, the operations need to be made more efficient. Then Ms Mamata Banerjee will be doubly correct -- politically and commercially.
