The Hindu Business Line : Friday, March 07, 2003

Pricing fertiliser
PITY THE FINANCE MINISTER. While deciding to raise the issue price of fertilisers modestly, Mr Jaswant Singh may have scarcely imagined that howls of protests from a cross-section of MPs and others would greet the proposal. The demand for a ... More

BUDGET

Jaswant's new arithmetic
A professional approach, which involves all the financial institutions and banks and an understanding regulator, is the key to the success of the budgetary arithmetic that the Finance Minister has designed. More

ECONOMY

Just give them cash
Instead of subsidising food and kerosene, the Government would be better off distributing the same amount in cash to the target families for it is simpler to transmit money that move grain or fuel, and leakages are easier to plug. It is better for the beneficiaries too as it gives purchasing power and choice where there was none. This freedom of the market place will bring out the efficiencies all round, says K. Venugopal. More

Reinforcing faith in India Inc
INDIA INC. has a whale of a time three times a year. Its views on the aggregate economy and expectations are sought before the Budget. Its feedback is sought after the presentation of the Budget. Acting through the major apex chambers of commerce ... More

The poverty of Gandhiji's countries
IT WAS 5-45 a.m. in Durban. My body and (if one may add soul) were at home. We were staying in a wonderful waterfront hotel. And although I am no Shane Warne, the beach appeals to me. But being the cautious South Indian that I am, I started my ... More

POLITICS

Situation wanted: Dictator
I AM seriously considering applying for a job as a dictator. The pay is pretty good, you chose your own working hours, you get any number of freebees and you do not pay income-tax. Of course the downside, and there is always a downside to any ... More

It's just public choice
THE Kelkar Committee consultation paper on tax reforms and the subsequent Union budget for 2003 which pretty much ignored it have occasioned much earnest debate in diverse public fora about the primacy that has been accorded by the BJP-led ... More

GENDER

A battle-cry against war
ON THE eve of the International Day for Women, and with the war against Iraq looming large on the horizon, with military strikes by the US and the UK planned, perhaps as early as next week, it is worth taking a look at how wars and all conflict ... More

TRENDS

`Empires of Profit'
MULTI- (or trans) national corporations (MNCs) have been the whipping boys of political and economic analysts for as long as I can remember. They are generally deemed to be morbidly obsessed with their bottom lines to the extent of being ... More

LETTERS

Anti-poor Budget

Drain on exchequer

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