Economy
Turkey at the crossroads
TURKEY'S economy is in deep trouble. On July 17, the lira declined 8 per cent to a level of 1.48 million to one US dollar. That is right. With inflation raging at about 57 per cent, the Turkish prices and currency rates are all in the millions. Along wit
h the falling lira, the stock market declined about 4 per cent. Interest on seven-month treasury bonds skyrocketed to 104.89 per cent. Debt service is at 7.4 per cent of GDP. Turkish citizens are beginning to wonder if there is anyone at all among their
political leadership capable of turning around the economy.
Global economic trends and India
THE latest reports of gloom in the global economy are significant for India. The global economy is an important determinant of India's growth prospects. Global GDP growth stalled in the quarter just ended -- the weakest performance in the last decade. J.
P. Morgan's highly respected report on World Financial Markets for the third quarter 2001 states that the world economy as a whole is suffering from low growth.
India's strategic positioning -- Strengthened by the genus
BACK in 1934, G. F. Gause of Moscow University conducted a series of genetic experiments. The professor found that two very small animals (protozoans) of the same genus did not survive if put together in a bottle, even if given an adequate supply of food
. However, if the two protozoans were of different species, they not only survived but grew together. Gause's observation forms the basis of the Principle of Competitive Exclusion: Two species of the same genus cannot coexist together.
Economic competence: The global gulf widens
US INDICATORS signal economic bottom is at hand. In the week that ended, the US dollar continued to lose ground against the euro, and, to a lesser extent, against the yen as well. This, despite the fact that economic data released in the US were mixed an
d did not signal a slide back towards recession. Consumer confidence and the national purchasing managers' index were weaker than expected, but jobless claims dropped. Important, employment in July fell less than expected and were buttressed by revisions
to figures for May and June. Fewer jobs were lost in June and, actually, 41,000 new jobs were added in May, revising the earlier drop.
Editorial
`Kept in the dark': How?
IIF THE UTI crisis spotlights the problems of the country's financial sector, politicians are regaling its people with extraordinary stories -- the unsolved puzzle of UTI investments, the drama surrounding the Prime Minister's resignation offer, the Fina
nce Ministry being ``kept in the dark'' on the happenings at the Government-owned mutual fund, the Opposition suddenly wanting to behave like a guardian angel... The irony is that all of the leaders know what really happens in our financial sector.
Politics
Deja vu
NEWS of recent happenings in India on the political and financial fronts must have acted like a deja vu effect on old timers who had been following public affairs in the country since Independence. They must have been overcome by a strange feeling that t
hey are reliving the early years of the Nehru era. They must also have been realising the truth of the French aphorism that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Vajpayee's `quit' drama
ON JULY 31, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said: ``Since I am Prime Minister, I am responsible. I feel I have not been able to manage and discipline the NDA. I have grown old. People also say I am unwell and, therefore, I should retire. But
rather than wait for people to say I should retire, I have myself decided to step down.''
