Surinder Sud: Farming without fear
Consider these startling facts. Nearly 45,000 agricultural workers lose their lives every year working in the fields and 755,000 others suffer various kinds of injuries, many of which can be wholly or partially debilitating. The economic losses from such accidents are estimated at a whopping Rs 54,000 crore a year. The annual average rate of [...]
Surinder Sud: Harvesting freshness
Indian farmers are known to be second to none when it comes to adoption of new technology. But, what is not so well-appreciated is that many of them are daring enough to take a break from traditional crops and venture into wholly new fields and make a success of it through their own ingenuity or with some institutional or state help. There are [...]
Sunil Jain: Untying the states
Given how the Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) has increased the share of states in central taxes from 30.5 per cent to 32 per cent and the various other goodies (Rs 28,360 crore relief on interest paid to the Centre over five years, for one), the reaction of West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta did seem a bit churlish — Dasgupta said [...]
Jamal Mecklai: Post-Budget – A new paradigm
Budget 2010 went far beyond most recent Budgets in that it defined an entirely new paradigm for the Indian economy. The most important part of the Budget was the Economic Survey, which, more than simply providing the conceptual underpinnings for the Budget, is the document that describes the government’s thoughts and beliefs. It tells us who our [...]
Jyoti Malhotra: Looking east via the North-East
During her meeting with a handful of Indian journalists just as she was wrapping up her visit to New Delhi last month, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was asked how the pro-Jamiat-i-Islami newspapers back home had reacted to her handing over of Ulfa terrorist Arabinda Rajkhowa to India. “Aaami kichhu jaani na (I have no idea what [...]
Slipping in oil
The hike in duties on petroleum products in the budget was seized upon by the opposition as a possible cause for an unprecedented and unjustifiable walkout during the budget speech, over the government’s inability to control food inflation. But since then the pressure on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to rethink his move, which would raise [...]
Vision 2020 or 2011?
In China the railway system becomes bigger every year, in India railway ministers’ speeches become longer by the year! But pardon Ms Mamata Banerjee, the minister for railways, for having an eye on next year’s elections in West Bengal. If she defeats the Left Front, she could contribute more to India’s economic development than she hopes to [...]
Gopalkrishna Gandhi: A hum, Hindustani
When President K.R. Narayanan started a spoken sentence with ‘Incidentally...’ his staff knew what was coming. Instructions of moment entered through that one-word gate, as did tickings-off for omissions, errors or even plain thoughtlessness. Careful paper work had preceded President Bill Clinton’s State visit in March 2000. But Narayanan [...]
End the Violence
The Maoists, reportedly, want to talk to the government. The suggestion, aired through the media, has come from Kishenji, a spokesperson for the CPI (Maoist). The government needs to assess the offer very cautiously. Just as the talks offer was being discussed, members of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) attacked a police camp [...]
Lacking Vision
For a Railway Budget that promised to introduce an ambitious 10-year plan dubbed Vision 2020, Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee's offering was strangely lacking in foresight and long-term measures. None of the initiatives she presented can be pointed to as clearly counterproductive. However, they seem a scattershot combination of populist [...]