India's politicians need to do a better job of managing the economy: Inflation control, productivity improvement, etc, asserts T N Ninan.
Forget the big-ticket stuff, for years we have not even been able to dredge Mumbai harbour so that submarines can move in and out round the clock, rues T N Ninan
If P Chidambaram's Budget speech was an hour-long attempt at presenting his government's and his own record in a good light - as he is perfectly entitled to do - such a "marketing" effort invites the recounting of an alternative retelling of the record.
The relatively poor performance of government-owned banks comes at a cost to taxpayers.
The poor quality of the initial statistics must take some of the blame for the flak that the government has been getting; growth rates have been recorded as plunging more than they may in fact have.
Business has paid a pittance for farmers' land, indulged in widespread illegal mining, and cheated on 'green' commitments.
All those who have been dismayed by the food security ordinance should thank Manmohan Singh and his colleagues for a neat optical trick, says T N Ninan.
In March 2012, the rupee was about 51 to the US dollar - not much cheaper than it was a decade earlier.
The market is holding up pretty well in the face of a lot of bad news.
These six people have created a political climate more difficult for business, indeed more hostile to business, than at any time since the mid-1980s.
The one fact of life that will be unchanged into the foreseeable future is that India will remain hugely import-dependent for energy, while rival countries are booking sources of supply, or blocking other sources through trade embargoes.
Most people don't know that India is an agricultural power in world markets, says T N Ninan.
The country has learnt that corruption in defence deals is a fact of life, and has to be dealt with maturely, says T N Ninan
The RBI's mistake may have been in interpreting its mandate to maintain retail inflation at 4%, with 2% leeway in either direction, as being a mandate that permitted it to do nothing even when inflation was at or near the upper bound of 6%, observes T N Ninan.
There will be even less Teflon left if the court asks the joint secretary concerned in the Prime Minister's Office to testify who instructed him to vet the CBI's report to the court, says T N Ninan
Bill Clinton's address had lessons for both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, says T N Ninan
'Food security' will, unfortunately, become a giant boondoggle.
Politicians need to wake up. Many of them have functioned as though they were above the law -- and indeed they were. But things have changed -- substantially, not wholly, notes T N Ninan.
The coal scandal began with revelations about the Manmohan Singh government, then expanded in scope to take in the Vajpayee government, and has now become a sweeping saga that lays bare the contemporary Indian state.
While much attention has been devoted to interest rates and industrial revival, the bigger problem for the economy could be its external vulnerability.
The country's mood at the end of 2012 is markedly different from that at the end of 2011. Bread and butter issues, not corruption, have become the focus of attention, says T N Ninan
Country's mood at the end of 2012 is markedly different from that at the end of 2011.
By way of illustration, there have been increasingly frequent reports in the press of proposals for India to provide special funds to support overseas investments by public sector resource firms so as to ensure security of supply for key minerals and fuels.
'Perhaps GST was too complex a system for the Indian economy at its present stage of development,' argues T N Ninan.
The answer to the problems of high inflation and slowing growth, and low farm incomes, would lie in addressing the basic reforms that India is still to attempt -- like labour laws, says T N Ninan.
The reason why corruption charges are designed to do reputation damage more than anything else is that such charges are rarely brought to closure, points out T N Ninan
More than merely being an economic balancing act, this was also about walking the political tightrope.
So, while it is great that India's numbers look relatively good, don't raise a cheer just yet, points out T N Ninan.
Condoling the death of veteran investigative reporter J Dey in Mumbai, the Editors Guild of India on Saturday urged the Maharashtra government to take immediate steps to ensure that the killers are brought to justice."The Editors Guild deplores the law enforcement agencies' inability to protect the life of a journalist engaged in carrying out his professional duties at great risk to himself," Guild president T N Ninan and Secretary Coomi Kapoor said in a statement.
Nothing that Sten Lindstrom says now is new, says T N Ninan
When Sten Lindstrom, who led the investigation in Sweden, says there was no evidence that Rajiv took the money, he is saying something established long ago, says T N Ninan
"You can't please all people. And the finance minister has done as good a job as was possible," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an interview with T N Ninan, editorial director and chairman of Business Standard Ltd, on Monday after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the Budget proposals in Parliament.
"You can't please all people. And the finance minister has done as good a job as was possible," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an interview with T N Ninan, editorial director and chairman of Business Standard Ltd, on Monday after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the Budget proposals in Parliament.
If the government can get even a minimalist agenda going while improving its management of infrastructure, and if the Reserve Bank of India can cut interest rates quickly, the Indian script for 2012 could change.
Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, suggests T N Ninan.
When turbans are allowed on school and college campuses, or sacred ash on the forehead, can one ban the hijab? asks T N Ninan.
'The finance minister in her Budget speech should spell out how exactly she intends to get back to the 7% track, and the hard decisions she intends to take in order to adjust to the realities of a slowing economy until growth momentum returns,' suggests T N Ninan.
The proliferating flyovers, eyesores every one of them, merely redistribute traffic to new choke points.
T N Ninan writes on how the United States is handling the BP oil spill disaster and what India needed to do in the horrific Bhopal gas tragedy.
Perhaps the calculation is that economic recovery will have been achieved before the next general election comes around, but such assumptions can come unstuck if current directions are not reversed quickly, cautions T N Ninan.
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