One may fault this government for incompetence, corruption, and delayed action but it cannot be faulted for lacking a vision.
'Success will require political skill, not just economic expertise'
Bankers seem to be pleased with the government for keeping its promise of not interfering in operational matters, but are apprehensive about the intense scrutiny of their functioning.
'All of Indira Gandhi's bad economic ideas are being strengthened, from nationalised banks to anti-poverty, handout yojanas,' says Shekhar Gupta.
They can carry huge amounts of data, have a lot of bandwidth, but operate at short ranges, between 200 metres and 2-3 km reports Surajeet Das Gupta
'The virus of trust deficit seems to be taking a toll of the friendship built over the years by succeeding leaderships of the two countries,' notes Rup Narayan Das.
Shifting to a PPP model could repeat the errors of the past
'A month after assuming charge, Parrikar promised a policy within six months to "end or at least reduce" terrorist infiltration across the Line of Control.' 'However, infiltration continued apace, leading to high-profile terrorist attacks in Gurdaspur, Pathankot, and Uri.' 'During this phase, he made the controversial suggestion that India should fight terror with terror, hinting at supporting terror groups to strike in Pakistan,' observes Ajai Shukla.
Non-performing assets of banks have been on the rise for past several months due to slowdown in the economy.
When it came to dealing with the media and academia, it has been a roller coaster ride for the National Democratic Alliance, observes Nitin Sethi.
While the total disbursement of housing loans by PSBs as well as HFCs witnessed a deceleration in 2016-17, there was significant growth for the lower slabs
Calling RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's exit a 'bad omen' for the Indian economy, eminent economists and former policymakers on Sunday said it will be seen by the world as India's non-approval to a policy against inflation and bad loans.
'Modi wants to reverse everything Nehru did, but is shy of touching his daughter's most unwise policies.' 'There is no example of this more stark than bank nationalisation,' says Shekhar Gupta.
A consensus builder, Jaitley was regarded by some as Modi's original 'Chanakya'.
Indians want change and progress. They should be willing to accept tough decisions, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
We must see New Delhi's position as a signal of competition to the Chinese grand design for the 21st century world, says Nitin Pai.
Given Congressional objections, we have told the Pakistanis that they should put forward national funds for that purpose," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
'The Modi government has been taking credit for improvement in respect of the ease of doing business in India.' 'But when I look at the scams I cannot help feeling that it is too easy to do business with banks in India, if one is a Harshad Mehta, Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi and their tribe,' says former Union home secretary Madhav Godbole.
Indian economy about to take-off
The plan of UID/Aadhaar-based surveillance does not end with the collection of fingerprints and iris scan, it goes quite beyond it and poses a lethal threat to the idea of India, says Gopal Krishna.
Since 2000, India has had three serious droughts.
'Both reflect prejudice and short-sightedness peculiar to Mr Modi's way of thinking.'
Yes. Whilst public expenditure is kicking in, the key reason is the decline in private investment
Despite all of the PM's many strengths, it is increasingly clear that he does not necessarily have a coherent and clear worldview on matters of macro policy.
During the Congress regime, India did witnessa slew of reforms which are now taken up by the Modi government too.
Initiated move to privatise Air India, but reports on poverty and cast census remained unfinished
'Rahul is only making a pathetic public spectacle of his lack of judgment and good sense by hallucinating that somehow, the Congress, or whatever political combine is cobbled together, will displace the BJP at the coming Lok Sabha election by constantly harping on the Rafale deal,' argues retired civil servant B S Raghavan.
'LIC's proposed investment will come out of what is technically called the 'policyholders funds'.' 'As the name implies, these monies belong to policyholders; that is, you, me and 25 crore others who have taken a total of 30 crore policies from LIC.' 'It is not the government's or LIC's money to play poker with,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
India has some ability to influence what the world order will look like, but it needs to make structural changes to the ministries of external affairs and commerce, and evolve formal coordination mechanisms with the ministries of finance and home, says Nitin Pai
'The temptation of governments, to have a finger in the RBI pie will be just too great to resist, unless extensive amendments are carried out in the RBI Act treating it almost as the fourth branch of the government.'
'There is no difference between the earlier government and the present government.' 'They are all following the economic policy based on the Chicago School of thought.' 'This school of thought says the government should have very little role in governing the country and the majority of the work should be handed over to the private sector.' 'This has not succeeded in the US.' 'Yet, it is being tried here by people like Arvind Subramaniam, Arvind Panagariya, Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan.'
'The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is neither beneficial to banks nor helpful for the borrower.' 'Genuine people who are caught in economic stagnation will lose everything and thousands will lose jobs.'
The govt hiked defence budget by 7.81 per cent over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore.
Dr Mitra called the Pandara Road crowd a 'cheerful collective of young dreamers,' united in its 'love and pride for the newly Independent India,' despite 'sharp disparities in background, temperament and attitude.' Dr Shreekant Sambrani recalls his encounters with the legendary economist who passed into the ages.
The problem can be met, according to Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, research director of India Development Foundation, by the government tapping into its own land holdings.
One hopes that the government will act on the Kelkar panel recommendations.
Vajpayee had always felt that India must act with conviction and panache. He decided that, irrespective of the attendant risks, he would undertake what many felt was a precarious course. A fascinating excerpt from N K Singh's Portraits Of Power: Half A Century Of Being At Ringside on Atalji's 96th birthday, December 25.
India's credit and banking are neither too big nor too small.
The prime minister and president stated their intention to expand defence co-operation to bolster national, regional and global security.
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