The finance minister must reverse the government's turn to statism, and lay out a reformist vision in the Budget.
Modi's government has proceeded in a manner exactly predictable from his claims and promises on the campaign trail.
It is unfair to expect Mr Jaitley to perform miracles with the Centre's straitened finances.
'In the real economy, the scars of the pandemic will continue to define 2021.' 'It is still hard to tell the effect on unemployment, migrant workers, poverty, and the informal sector of the lockdown and of the pandemic,' observes Mihir S Sharma.
The extraordinary thing about UP is that, quietly, there has been an enormous improvement in the quality of roads.
The Jharkhand State Cricket Association president, Nafis Khan, has personally sent an invitation to Dhoni's family.
'There has been far too much overconfidence about the size and composition of the Indian consumer economy,' notes Mihir S Sharma.
The economic logic - and political reasons - behind the giant shift of spending power to the states
The fall in exports is a product of poor policy from the RBI and laziness from the Centre.
A Magistrate court in Ahmedabad on Thursday upheld the clean chit given to Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's over his alleged role in the post-Godhra riots in 2002.
The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, had opened its doors wide for leaders from other parties as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.
The sad truth is that the debt-to-GDP ratio will shoot up close to 90 per cent in the coming year, and the fiscal deficit glide path does not promise to reduce it substantially any time soon, predicts Mihir S Sharma.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for the United States in a blaze of optimism. The trip ended with an unrelieved gloom, says Mihir S Sharma
This is not the general election 'semi-final'. The element of anti-Congress sentiment is important, but not crucial. In at least three of the four states, the swing has mostly been caused by localised factors, says Mihir S Sharma
Sudha Shivpuri passed away on May 20 in Mumbai.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Mihir Bhatt, founder of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, a community-based, action research and advocacy organisation engaged in disaster risk management, tells Vicky Nanjappa that India needs to start learning from its flood experiences and innovating for future responses.
The common denominator: They were predominantly Gujarati, mostly male, and either related by blood or very well-known to Nirav.
Mihir Bhat, fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative who is also the director of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, discusses with Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa about what the National Integration Council should focus on.
More than any other party, the BJP can figure out exactly what is likely to infuriate and mobilise their core voter, says Mihir S Sharma
We're told; that the economy went up in flames demonstrates our uniquely poor performance. Never in the appalling annals of political-economic punditry in India have so many people been so wrong simultaneously.
A murder convict died of suspected food poisoning on Friday and over 130 inmates of Goa Central Jail at Aguada and Sub-Jail at Mapusa took ill after apparently consuming the dinner prepared by prisoners last night, jail authorities said.
Reader Mihir Modi sends us a photograph.
18-year-old Aditya Choudhary successfully completed the Ironman 70.3 triathlon in six hours and five minutes.
If the PM had just chosen to behave as if there wasn't anything wrong about existing systems, he wouldn't have been in such trouble today, says Mihir S Sharma
Of all the many arguments in Indian politics that are stupid, hypocritical and wrong -- and there are many -- the one exculpating Modi because of 1984 is the most dangerous, says Mihir S Sharma
Not only has the Sensex swung wildly in the interim, staying below 10,000 for months in late 2008, but the market's winning stocks have changed in composition and character.
Surjit Bhalla believes that RBI is the only central bank in the world that formed its monetary policy on the basis of the current account deficit. He also feels that the Chidambaram proposed women's bank in Budget to impress Sonia Gandhi.
2012 marked the shift of the news media becoming the story rather than reporting it, says Mihir S Sharma
Into his 10 year, Manmohan Singh is struggling to retrieve his legacy -- thanks to bad luck, a bad situation and at least two very bad calls, says Mihir S Sharma
With every passing year, India gets younger and younger and so expectations will be voiced more loudly, writes Mihir S Sharma
Mihir S Sharma asks a few questions on l'affaire Vadra, and makes notes on who should answer them and why
What sets Modi apart from the BJP's other successful CMs is that a whiff of the smoke of 2002 still clings to his clothing, notes Mihir S Sharma.
Noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, bureaucrat-turned-activist Harsh Mander and academician Madhav Gadgil have been denied re-nomination.
We knew from the moment the pandemic took hold that this would be a long haul -- at least 12 to 18 months. Nothing should have changed that assessment, says Mihir S Sharma.
Capital punishment brings the state, the highest invention of humanity, down to the level of the barbarity it is supposed to rise above, says Mihir S Sharma
That is not the sort of country many of us are happy to live in but we never gave another sort of country a chance, says Mihir S Sharma
In the absence of responsibility from the mainstream media, the darkest sections of the internet will begin to sound increasingly plausible to the angry and disconnected, says Mihir S Sharma.
Reader Mihir Modi has sent us a photograph.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances