As a consensus remains elusive on key economic policies like foreign investment norms, industry leader Deepak Parekh has said India's FDI policy is akin to 'inviting guests over to our house, but not opening the door'.
While Congressmen may try and give Rahul Gandhi credit for the withdrawal of the controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers, it was the President's timely intervention that saved the day for the Congress, says Anita Katyal.
Markets have gone into a tailspin, the Modi govt must revive investment sentiment.
How the Congress vice president conducts himself over the next few months will determine whether or not he has understood his serendipitous situation
Bold reforms and prudent monetary and fiscal policies by the incoming Narendra Modi government will help the economy to grow at 6.5-7 percent, says a report.
Modi may bet on old faces and new to boost reforms
There are tell-tale signs of a slide in the quality of Budgets presented by the current administration, says Parthasarathi Shome.
Be it loan waiver or DBT transfer, it only helps in creating a "feel good" factor and postpones the problem for some time if structural problems are not handled.
'Will 'Make in India' be able to harness the demographic dividend so it does not become a disaster?' 'Will 'Digital India' live up to the lofty promises the government and private sector made as part of its recent launch?'
'Swachh Bharat Cess imposed last year should be made broad-based.' 'Budget should be predominantly economy/ business-oriented and problem-solving rather than political consideration-based.'
Jaitley's Budget has the potential to change the face of Modi's Bharat
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
All efforts of Trump's party to repeal the healthcare of his predecessor has failed so far, mainly due to the opposition of some of his own Senators.
The government is following a path where it will not be irresponsible or profligate with public money but will intervene in the interest of the poor
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Candidates in the current state elections must be made to offer specific promises against which their performance can be measured, says Indira Rajaraman
'That Modi and the BJP can continue to treat the rising and expanding middle class this way shows that they have gamed its mind quite perfectly,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Somewhere in the midst of the three milestones of 1881, 1984 and 1999 are the clues that provide the answer to the troubling corrosion of Karnataka politics: The disappearance of values, the criminalisation of politics, and the complete collapse of ideology,' says Krishna Prasad, former editor-in-chief, Outlook.
'The government and the RBI have been playing a very good part in terms of inflation management.'
Ten years after his defeat, Chandrababu Naidu is once again going to be the chief minister of a truncated Andhra Pradesh, says Aditi Phadnis
'Who would have thought that Brexit would take place or Donald Trump would become US president or Kim Jong-un's madness could bring the prospect of nuclear war over Asia?' 'It is the time of the unexpected; the French elections should perhaps be seen in this perspective,' says Claude Arpi.
'We have here the world's largest economy and dominant superpower thrashing about as it wrestles with its own decline.' 'It has become everything that China was supposed to be: A threat to the world order, and as a country that is not playing by the rules on trade, on climate change, international commitments and nuclear deals,' says T N Ninan.
In the near term, two key factors are the outcome of the monsoon season in respect to cropping yields; and the correction in the crude oil price.
Last year this time, India was grappling with an imminent sovereign downgrade, with an uncontrolled fiscal deficit, policy paralysis of the highest order with no economic reforms for eight long years and a weakening rupee.
The Association for Democratic Reforms has urged political parties to refrain from giving tickets to candidates who are facing serious criminal charges and asked them to disclose the criteria for the selection of candidates during elections.
He dropped those perceived to be non-performers or whose integrity came into question, and also where it was felt they needed to learn a lesson or two in humility.
PM started 'Make in India' but every product in market is Make in China: Rahul
The international media on hailed Narendra Modi as a "no-nonsense, can-do leader" after Bharatiya Janata Party secured a stunning win in the Lok Sabha polls, but cautioned that many challenges are in store for the "steely style" politician.
The negative aspect about the Budget is that the capital expenditure has been marginally cut to achieve the fiscal deficit target assumptions, and the onus of sustaining investment demand till private capex revives continues to vest with the public sector enterprises, notes Jyotivardhan Jaipuria.
The ruling party has indicated willingness to discuss opposition-sponsored motions on 'intolerance'; Jaitley has also shown willingness to accommodate concerns on GST
In prior elections, not only have opinion poll forecasts been very different from the results, the error margin has increased over time. One need only look at the charts that show the Sensex half a year before and after the results day for the last six elections. The markets did not change direction in any, says Neelkanth Mishra.
Rahul Gandhi thinks his imaginary Congress is the silver bullet; Narendra Modi thinks he himself is the silver bullet; Arvind Kejriwal seems to think that neighbourhood councils are a silver bullet. But none of them is right, says Mihir S Sharma.
To claim that Tamil Nadu was waiting for a messiah of the 'spiritual' Rajini kind is misplaced, if not mischievous, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Singapore's single-rate GST structure cannot be India's model. But its practice of early announcement of rates much before their implementation should be emulated by India, says A K Bhattacharya.
'I know of at least one techie who quit his job to join the AAP in Delhi. Many others traveled to India to volunteer during the election. If you ask these volunteers why they were doing it when they can't even vote in India, they say, "We want a corruption-free India".' Ritu Jha looks back on the year that was; it was party time, she says, for news junkies like her.
It is time to take a few macroeconomic risks to kick start the growth.
Pakistan opposition leader Imran Khan on Sunday warned the Nawaz Sharif government that thousands of his supporters could enter the high-security Red Zone in Islamabad if the Prime Minister refused to quit, even as popular cleric Tahir-ul Qadri issued a 48-hour ultimatum demanding the same.
Global rating agency Fitch on Friday pegged India's growth at 5.5 per cent in the current fiscal and 6 per cent in 2015-16 and affirmed the country's rating outlook at stable level.
Despite the recent electoral reverses, Rahul is getting ready to walk the fire once more. The question is whether he will get burned or burnished in the process, says Saroj Nagi.
'As he has no executive track record, so far, he is all talk and hence essentially a braggart and a bigot.' 'That he is described as the 'Trump of the tropics' should give a shorthand summary to what he stands for on issues in general,' points out Ambassador B S Prakash, India's former envoy to Brazil.
'Almost deified by enough Indians now, never mind his politics and, worse, economics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
