Courts
Supreme Court's obiter dicta -- Moderation adds to majesty of law
``JUDICIAL decorum requires that judgments and orders should confine themselves to facts and legal points... may be, sometimes Judges would, perhaps wittingly, or even unwittingly, step outside the contours of legislation, but even such overlappings shou
ld be within bounds of propriety and sobriety.''
Economy
Vision 2020 -- You cannot be too far-sighted
By objective standards, India is among the poorest countries. The administration is corrupt. Caste divisions are rampant. All these are tolerated only because officials and politicians have each built small fortresses of their own to prote
ct themselves from the consequences.
FDI in the print media
THE Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, should be complimented for focussing attention once again on the issue of whether foreign direct investment should be allowed in the Indian Press, particularly for her suggest
ion that the whole subject needs to be considered afresh in view of the ``changing times''. To say this is not to drop a hint that there is no harm now -- in the conditions of FDI liberalisation and economic reform, generally speaking -- in allow
ing foreign companies to set up shop here in the world of Indian newspapers and magazines.
Editorial
Reduced to a rag
THE COSTLY DITHERING on the ``comprehensive'' national textile policy continues even as the crisis in the industry deepens with more and more mills downing shutters (the latest tally is 350), the sick mills reporting ever more losses and the
unutilised weaving capacity in the mills exceeding 80 per cent.
Information Technology
Internet recession -- two views
A PRESTIGIOUS US business magazine, The Business Week, has published a discussion initiated by one of its Economic Editors, Mr Michael J. Mandel, explaining why America's technology-driven boom may end with a steep decline. Mr Mandel has recently written
a book titled The coming Internet Depression, which foresees a decline in the US economy arising from an unexpected downturn in capital spending in the high-tech industry. While it is not my view that all that Mr Mandel says is right, his warnings are s
ignificant, especially now that the Indian economy is itself turning to depend heavily on America's technological revolution.
Politics
Citizen's day
EVERY dog has its day, and every man his hour -- so goes the saying. Well, the citizen-voter has his hour when he enters the polling booth, collects the ballot paper, ponders over the name of the candidates and affixes the stamp of the circled cr
oss on one of the symbols.
Attack on USS Cole: Who engineered it?
INVESTIGATIONS BY the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the October 12 terrorist attack at Aden on the US naval destroyer USS Cole are still in the preliminary stages and there seems to be as yet no breakthrough in establishing the identity o
f the culprits.
