'With the big political job done, the time has come to pay attention to the economy, which is the main problem now,' argues T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
A Chennai-based school faced angry protests from parents over its alleged dual fee policy and for discriminating between students.
'How do you deliver wealth when you don't have the slightest idea about it?' asks T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'You can't consume clean air if you won't pay for it just because it's a 30-day problem,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'Should the most important part of economic reform not comprise the way we look at the fiscal deficit?', asks T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'The Indian economy has become like a car that has the appropriate wheels on one side -- political liberalism -- and scooter wheels -- economic illiberalism -- on the other,' points out T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
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Fag-end dollar selling by exporters helped the rupee to recover lost ground and settle at the day's high of 60.77, a gain of 11 paise. The rupee earlier touched an intra-day low of 61.21 on July 8.
New body to replace Plan panel might retain 40% of existing staff
'A single seven-year term will free them from party pressures entirely,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'The 2019 election could well become a referendum on Narendra Damodardas Modi, in which case the BJP could prove all its critics wrong,' notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'...because of its permanent nature.' 'If you work for the private sector or for yourself, you are not regarded as being employed,' points out T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'An era of fiscal pessimism is setting in, which, if not countered intellectually, is going to have the same effect as export pessimism has had,' notes T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'In both places the minority was disproportionately powerful.' 'Few people acknowledge it but at its core the Tamil Nadu problem between the Brahmins and the rest was one of power.' 'In Kashmir the Hindus held most of the land and the accompanying political power, while the Muslims were the peasants and powerless,' notes T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
''I have been saying for the last 25 years, to no avail naturally, that the only government asset that is politically unproblematic is land,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'If he were to ask me, I would tell Mr Modi that the real Congress legacy he has to undo is not Nehru's social and political philosophy -- which fits India perfectly -- but his daughter's economic philosophy,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
Elections are about exploiting emotions and not things like roti, kapda and makan, a very senior BJP politician tells T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'Whether it is a good upgrade or not is something the judges will decide on the technicalities of the process, not substance. 'But they can't do much because of the constitutional fiction they themselves propounded with their "basic structure" formulation. 'That has not been violated because Article 370 was constitutionally temporary,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'The CBI must become a creature of the Constitution,' argues T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'All that Mr Modi needed to do was to call Urjit Patel over for a cup of tea and ask him nicely, and this fuss would never have happened.'
Even Subramanian Swamy, who says he is an ardent supporter of the prime minister, has been taking proxy pot shots at him.' 'At the ground level too, there is resentment from workers and local leaders who have perhaps not got whatever they may have wanted,' notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
It is a sharp depreciation in rupee valuation against the US dollar that has led to this steeper fall in the Dollex.
The RBI governor has to convert the zero-sum game with the government from a non-cooperative one -- which his two predecessors had made it -- to a cooperative one, explains T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
The views are stunning, the skies are blue, the forests are lush and, wonder of wonders, thanks to the discipline of the tea estate, even man isn't vile, discover Renu Bahal Wadhwa and T C A Srinivasa Raghavan after a trip to Kerala's breathtakingly beautiful hill retreat.
'If Modi wants to help the poor and get the credit for it as well, he must do what China does. He must openly adopt pro-capital policies.'
'The Constitution must reflect the reality of mature states because otherwise it is the Centre that will become irrelevant,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'After living in a country with hazy skies and a billion people, it is breathtaking when the sky is blue, the air crisply clean and there is drinking water in the taps. And, joy of joys, hardly any people.'
'Has the time come to devise Version 2 of ad hoc T-bills?' 'In return, the government must agree to privatise all but five or six banks.' 'If something like this is not done, we will have governments going on the rampage, with increasing frequency,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan recalls a tussle between the government and RBI when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister and how it was resolved.
'In macroeconomic policy, timing is all, and by leaving things too late, Mr Modi may have made around 50 seats in the Lok Sabha highly vulnerable,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
Many important RSS people believe the 2014 result was the consequence of Hindutva and not just Modi's outstanding oratory, says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'When you ask one of the established industrialists to execute a large project it is exactly the same as your not asking your neighbourhood dhaba-owner to cater at your daughter's wedding dinner which will be attended by a thousand guests,' notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'If on the back of the resentment against the Modi government, on the very outside chance that the Congress emerges as the single largest party in May 2019, will Rahul Gandhi become prime minister?' 'Or will he do a Sonia and appoint someone else?' asks T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'Vajpayee would not have approved either of the way the BJP now functions or of the thoughts that it entertains in its mind,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'Mr Modi, unless he changes his approach, may further legitimise the idea that it is perfectly all right for Hindus to dictate terms to the minorities.' 'Indira Gandhi's political expediency did permanent economic damage. Mr Modi's may end up causing permanent social damage,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'If you keep inflation low, everything else like messing up after after demonetisation will be forgiven,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'The BJP and Congress are like those Bollywood lovers who are kept apart by their families where it is a generational problem of different values: The older ones think differently from the younger ones,' argues T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'Today the real issue facing the Modi government is not about investment, credit and money supply and all those things economists like to talk about.' 'It is whether your average citizen has confidence in the government not to do something utterly whacky,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
A writer reveals the trick to writing a successful book.
'Though coalitions, which ruled India for 25 years after 1989, are regarded as a terrible thing politically, they delivered the best economic results,' points out T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The classic Third Year or Mid-Term Problem has afflicted all but two prime ministers who have lasted a full term, give or take a few months this way or that, points out T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
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