BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The time has come to have a relook at the Constitution as every document has a shelf life.'
Rediff.com columnist M R Venkatesh is a qualified chartered accountant.
'It has taken 7-and-a-half years for this government to understand the fundamentals of economics.' 'If the prime minister wants to leave an imprint, he has to see to it that this succeeds.'
'When the government wants to sell these assets, even if one set of assets gets caught in any quagmire, the whole process will fail.' 'The entire world is watching us.'
If somebody wants to do an instant noodle study on contemporary Indian politics, Shobhaji's book, Battlefield India - 25 years of Politricks and Economix, is the one to look into, applauds M R Venkatesh, the well-known economic and political commentator.
'Modi has sowed the seeds of a transformational change.' 'For the sake of the nation and our children I hope he succeeds.'
'There is a vision in the Budget, and the vision is to take India from a largely agrarian, rural economy into a fast-track digitalised economy.'
'Nirmalaji must consider herself a very lucky finance minister, partly because of the government's response to covid and partly because we as a nation have done very well as an economy, post pandemic.'
Several corporate, including some airlines, software and even consulting companies operate in India with dodgy secretive and multi-layered ownership patterns.
The two decades of our "spectacular economic progress" has side-stepped vast swath of our underprivileged that oscillates between twenty per cent and one-fifth of our population!
A democratically elected government cannot bulldoze its way through, whatever be the compulsions, writes M R Venkatesh.
The startling details of a secret and possibly illegal telephone exchange set up in the residence of former telecommunications minister Mr. Dayanishi Maran in Chennai are in public domain for over three years.
Modi has arrived. Probably the country is not yet ready. Modi knows it. If Modi destroys the existing political consensus he will have to quickly replace it with another, notes M R Venkatesh.
The national trait of exploiting the inherent weakness of democracy is now mirrored within the ICAI too.
As multilateral negotiations have paused, multi-national corporates have increasingly become aggressive; and our bureaucrats restless.
India's monstrous public distribution system ensured that the government, and not private players, became a huge hoarder of food grains.
When crony capitalism flourishes, investor sentiment is bound to take a hit.
Importing gold widens current account deficit, channels domestic savings into personal investments and of course forces domestic entrepreneurs to scout for foreign funds, writes M R Venkatesh.
The government thinks that it can buy peace with its own people, not by providing an environment for growth, but by bribing them into silence, writes M R Venkatesh.
Poverty in the Indian context can never be wiped through direct state intervention. Kalavati is a classical example of this. The only way of eradicating it is by encouraging personal initiatives. Jasuben is a classical example of this, says M R Venkatesh
Barring a few exceptions India has a chronic trade deficit with most of its existing FTA partners as it is with most of its proposed FTA partners.
One of the primary contributors for many success stories has been the existence, functioning and domination of castes - yes castes - which urban Indian loves to hate, abuse and ridicule, writes M R Venkatesh.
We need a master plan to increase our water storage capacity, improve irrigation facilities and create water networks across the country that links the draught prone with those experiencing floods.
In contrast to the Congress that settles most of its internal quarrels through a reference to the ubiquitous party high command, the BJP has not yet evolved a mechanism to resolve its internal conflict. And that is the crux of the issue, says MR Venkatesh
Once we bring the Lankans into our economic embrace we will be in a position to dominate their internal politics. And only then can we offer true protection to Tamils in Sri Lanka, says M R Venkatesh.
In a developing county like India, the role of the Finance Minister is a crucial one, specially when the country is going through it's worst period in recent times. M R Venkatesh, has a few valid suggestions for Mr Chidambaram.
Isn't it funny that we are importing in excess of $50 billion of gold every year while simultaneously pleading with foreigners to invest a few billions.
For two decades while we continuously talked of infrastructure, power, ports, airports, irrigation, railways, roads, sewer systems, public transport, skill development, education, et all we also realised that our governments has very less vision to structure it, very little political will to carry it and far less managerial band-with to deliver such projects on time, writes M R Venkatesh.
M R Venkatesh tells us why the UPA under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh is akin to a terminally ill patient on a ventilator.
Inflation in India is indeed a complex subject. Interest rate hike (or cuts) alone are not the solution to tackle inflation, writes M R Venkatesh.
Kamal Haasan and his artistic freedom is the smaller issue. How will the world view us when a handful of demonstrators terrorise our governments to ban a movie? Who will invest in India when a few truckloads of fanatics can cause closure of the highly protected and centrally located US embassy in a prominent city of the country, asks M R Venkatesh.
The near decade of India under Dr Singh has convinced most that India is an Absentee State, where governance is grossly missing and rule of law virtually non-existent, writes M R Venkatesh.
We must understand that we live in extremely cynical times. If it is a politician he must be corrupt. If he is a businessman, he must be equally corrupt. Poor Gadkari, he is a politician and a businessman. That compounded matters for him, says M R Venkatesh.
National champion Abhijeet Gupta beat International Master Dean Ippolito of United States to win the Philadelphia International chess tournament, while M R Venkatesh became India's 28th Grandmaster at the event.
What were the Indian authorities doing all these years, especially when it was well known universally that all was not well within HSBC?
What were the Indian authorities doing all these years, especially when it was well known universally that all was not well within HSBC?
If Indian banks do not fix the right interest rates on deposits, they run the risk of dynamiting the social security of ordinary Indians.
Thanks to policy paralysis at the Centre, we are doing exactly the opposite of what the doctor prescribed, writes M R Venkatesh.
In Thailand and Brazil, within years, they have been seen to have destroyed domestic competition. Moreover, uniformly they are accused of adopting bad labour practices, squeezing manufacturers and following predatory pricing policies, says M R Venkatesh.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances