There is no doubt the oil companies are bleeding, but the issue is whether the government should also reduce the extra taxes it gets from high oil prices.
There are many issues that will have to be resolved before the committee's recommendations can be translated into practice. First, the backlash from clubby bureaucrats from the elite all-India services will have to be dealt with. Then, the experiment with a more flexible system and variable pay based on performance should not be introduced across the board, but tried out in a dozen or two enterprises, to see how it works in practice.
The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission's decision to fine mobile phone firm Vodafone Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) for offering prizes of gold coins and a Maruti SX4 as part of a promotional scheme is something all marketers in the country would do well to pay attention to.
The political exigencies are, unfortunately, likely to overwhelm the need for undoing the damage to the agricultural credit sector. At stake, therefore, is the much-needed resurgence of the Indian agriculture.
Inflation is far too important a problem to have to rely on an inadequate and, ultimately, unreliable database for solutions.
A repo rate hike may hurt growth far more than it will help deal with an inflation rate that is already dropping.
While the finance minister is in favour of sacrificing some growth to curb inflation, the problem lies in inflation being more a supply-side than a demand-led problem.
The controversy over whether the government should mandate cooked food or pre-packaged meals at child care centres (anganwadis) and for the mid-day meal scheme in primary schools under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) misses the wood for the trees.
In today's circumstances, however, getting people to borrow more is the last thing on the minds of financial service providers. Most of them are reeling under the weight of assets whose prices have declined precipitously because nobody in his right mind wants to buy them.
Rising geopolitical uncertainty, a falling dollar and the growing speculative interest in commodities trading will keep crude prices volatile.
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