Articles

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 moreChidambaram’s 74 Per Cent Argument

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 morePrivate Space Flight

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 morePrivatisation In Power Sector Imposes High Costs On The Citizens

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 moreThe Stock Market Melt Down and the Media Hysteria

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 moreReviewing the Electricity Act 2003:Real Initiatives Needed-II

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 moreSaras Flies: But Where To?

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 moreReviewing The Electricity Act 2003: Real Initiatives Needed – I

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

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 moreFrom Bofors To Bulgaria

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

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 morePrivatisation Of Municipal Water Supply

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 moreWhere Have All The WMDs Gone?