Chidambaram’s 74 Per Cent Argument

THE finance minister, P Chidambaram has proposed that the FDI caps for Insurance, Civil Aviation and Telecom be raised to 49 per cent for the first two and 74 per cent for the telecom sector. … Read more

Private Space Flight

THE successful flight in the US last week of the entirely private-funded SpaceShipOne taking 61 year-old pilot Mike Melvill into space made history in a number of ways. The event has been hailed as a … Read more

Privatisation In Power Sector Imposes High Costs On The Citizens

THE failure of restructuring of the electricity sector and the privatisation of erstwhile DVB are now becoming clearer by the day. It has imposed very high electricity costs on the citizens, as shown by the … Read more

The Stock Market Melt Down and the Media Hysteria

THE response of media, particularly the electronic one, to the stock market melt down of May 17, was revealing. It became the central story for days, pushing mundane events such as the electorate throwing out … Read more

Reviewing the Electricity Act 2003:Real Initiatives Needed-II

IN the earlier part of this article (June 6), we had examined why the cost of electricity has gone up almost three times in the last 10 years. As the major culprit, we had identified … Read more

Saras Flies: But Where To?

THE first Indian-made civilian passenger aircraft Saras, named after the Indian crane, took to the air in its maiden flight last week. Media stories and various commentators have promptly hailed this as a historic achievement, … Read more

Reviewing The Electricity Act 2003: Real Initiatives Needed – I

THE Common Minimum Programme of the new UPA government has finally accepted what the people concerned with the crisis of the power sector have been demanding all along: a re-look at the power policies followed … Read more

The Fiasco Of Opinion Polls: Bad Psephology Or Bad Psephologists?

THE elections to the 14th Lok Sabha have been disastrous not only for the BJP led NDA but also to the pollsters. The huge number of opinion polls and exit polls had all predicted that … Read more

From Bofors To Bulgaria

COME election time, it should surprise nobody that accusations of scams be levelled by both the main contenders, the BJP and the Congress, against each other. Certainly, neither party is a stranger to scams, even … Read more

N K Singh Committee’s Report on the Power Sector: World Bank-IMF Wine In BJP Bottle

ONE of the many problems with the current NDA government is its insistence that India must shine at all costs, even if it means sweeping under the carpet all evidence of failure. The power sector … Read more

Privatisation Of Municipal Water Supply

IT is an irony, indeed a tragedy, that on World Water Day (March 23, 2004), one should be writing this article about efforts being made at the level of both the centre and many states … Read more

Where Have All The WMDs Gone?

THE world has been agog the past few weeks at the astounding revelations from Pakistan that Dr A Q Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, had passed on nuclear weapons technologies to Libya, … Read more