Economic Times ⁽²¹⁸⁾

From being ranked second-poorest state 30 years ago, Rajasthan clocked second-highest growth of 9.4% in 2008-09. Read full article Economically-prosperous states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are ‘happening’ places and, therefore, enjoy near-continuous coverage in print and electronic media. At the other extreme, when an exceptionally-poor state such as Bihar begins to register growth rates of 8-9%, it catches the eye of not just the national but also international press. But the achievements of states that are neither at the top nor at the bottom go largely unnoticed. One such state is my own: Rajasthan. Going by the available per-capita income data, Rajasthan was the second poorest state in financial year 1980-81, ranking barely above Bihar. For years, it was pejoratively referred to as a Bimaru state alongside Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The issue concerning GM crops is not that Bt brinjal was consigned to cold storage but the process that led to its approval being held in abeyance.Read full articleThe priority our environment and forest ministry gave public consultation over scientific evidence in reaching a negative verdict on Bt Brinjal calls for a look back at the process leading to the adoption of high-yielding varieties (HYV) that ushered the Green Revolution. The courage and tact then minister of agriculture C Subramaniam exhibited in navigating the process eventually earned him India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. And late Dr Norman E Borlaug, the inventor of the new technology with HYV seeds at its centre, won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. In the mid-1960 s when Subramaniam became the minister of agriculture, India suffered from such serious food shortages that then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri called upon all Indians to miss one meal each week. Around this time, assisted by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) had been experimenting with the seeds and cultivation method of…

Country's leadership views India's destiny to great world power as inevitable. As a result, complacency has returned at top policy levels. Top 10 challenges for IndiaRead full article The single most important reason why India receives as much attention worldwide as it does today is its perceived economic potential. At $1.25 trillion in GDP, the country currently accounts for only 2.2% of the world GDP. It ranks a low 12th in economic size despite a population of 1.2 billion and comes behind all remaining three BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. Yet India cannot be ignored because if it fulfils its promise of near-double-digit growth over the next two decades, it would become the third or fourth largest economy in the world. But nothing is ever carved in stone in the world of economics. In the 1950s, India had been seen as a rising star while South Korea was viewed as a basket case. But dramatically different policy choices by the two countries led to exactly the opposite outcome by 1980. Fortunes began to turn for the better for India only…

CCI is the biggest piece of reform in last six years but the main obstacle to its effective functioning would be raised by govt itself.Read full article Recently, when a customer petitioned the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to intervene on his behalf against prepayment penalty on a loan imposed by his creditor bank, a senior Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official was quick to tell an ET (Oct 17, 2009) reporter, “We will direct banks to do away with the prepayment penalty in case of loans disbursed in future.” For years, customers had complained to the RBI about excessive prepayment penalties ranging from 1-4% of the loan value but without notice. The game changer this time around was the pending petition by the customer to the CCI. The commission, which began its full operations in April 2009, is required by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007 to protect the interests of consumers against anti-competitive practices of all market entities.

By committing a 20% reduction in emission intensity while the west is making negligible effort, India may have compromised its interest.Read full articleIt is difficult to avoid speculating that in approaching the Copenhagen negotiations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accorded as high a priority to winning the admiration of US President Barack Obama as to cutting a deal that would best serve India’s interests. While the former objective was achieved, the same cannot be said of the latter.Begin by considering three facts relevant to India’s interests. First, with 400 million Indians without electricity and 300 million in abject poverty, India’s top priority has to be sustained rapid growth that would eliminate poverty and bring electricity to all in another decade or two. Without that, even absent any further global warming, millions of Indians will continue to be victims of cold waves, droughts, floods and cyclones. Second, while it is feasible to achieve small reductions in carbon emissions at low or no cost, at the current level of technological development, significant reductions would require substantial cuts in energy consumption. This would entail…