The irony, of course, is that even the suggestion that the petroleum and natural gas ministry thought was practical and workable has few takers in the government. Among the many suggestions on petroleum product prices, the Chaturvedi Committee had recommended dual pricing of diesel.
Not just the Indian Railways, even the state transport companies too should be subjected to the same norm of paying a market-linked price for the diesel they use. If the state transport units take an annual hit of Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) because of the higher diesel price, let the additional financial burden be borne by the different state governments which run those services. Why let the state-controlled oil marketing companies bear the burden all on their own?
The Reserve Bank of India may soon be given the job of both collecting and processing inflation data.
The reason for their silence is that the Ranbaxy deal has not hurt the interests of most sections of the voting community. Let alone farmers, even the urban voters are not bothered by the deal as it has no direct adverse impact on them.
The list of departures from the path of economic reforms can be longer.
The government's response to the price hike needs to be less panicky. The imposition of export duties, reduction in import duties, increasing the minimum export prices, restricting exports and raising the cash reserve ratio for banks have been among the measures that have resulted from this concern over inflation.
The apparent reason for this bold step is SBI's concern over rising defaults on loans for such farm equipment. The additional trigger for this may have also been the SBI top management's assessment that defaults on farm equipment loans will only rise in the wake of the central government's announcement of the Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) farm loan waiver scheme.
Why blame the petroleum minister for not hiking oil prices when no one else is arguing for market prices?
Today, the current spike is accepted as a long-term reality and has impacted all aspects of the economy in different ways
Of the five years when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister, only in two years did the government manage to keep the average annual inflation rate below 10 per cent. The remaining three years were hit by an average annual inflation rate (based on the wholesale price index) of 13.7 per cent in 1991-92, 10.1 per cent in 1992-93 and 12.6 per cent in 1994-95. Yet, a comparison should be useful.
If you add to this 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays every year, when government offices are closed, the total number of holidays a central government employee can enjoy is 171days. That is close to half the number of days in a year. This context has to be kept in mind before judging what may well turn out to be the Sixth Pay Commission's most controversial recommendation. To be sure, the Pay Commission does not favour a reduction in the number of earned or casual leave.
Unlike the finance ministry which takes a larger view, the commerce ministry only looks at exporters' interests.
Getting Nandan Nilekani and Bimal Jalan to share ideas is a good beginning for North Block officials.
Today, NRIs are eager to reconnect with India because India is a growth story and it makes good business sense.
Now for the first time, the top team in North Block has the predominance of IAS officers.
National highways in India have seen a dramatic improvement over the last decade. Improvements are more evident in shorter stretches. For instance, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Agra are now well-connected with Delhi. Similarly, the highway that connects Mumbai with Pune can easily compare with the best anywhere in the world. This is true of many other national highways connecting major cities in southern and eastern India.
The Lok Sabha has now cleared a bill to divest government equity in TCI.
After netting a mere Rs 1,570 crore in 2005-06 and 2006-07, divestment proceeds could well touch Rs 5,000 crore in this financial year.
There is a queue when you want to pay your water bills. There is a queue when you want to get your child admitted to a school. There is a long queue when you want to get your complaint heard in a court of law. Needless to point out that all these sectors are in dire need of reform.
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