ET2010 ⁽¹²⁾

It is ridiculous for a party's views on the subject of decontrol of petro-product prices to shift depending on whether it is in power or not.Read full article The history of dismantling of administered price mechanism (APM) in the fuel sector offers an unusual window to the hypocrisy of political parties. Depending on political expediency, each party has both supported and opposed this reform at different points in time. The only significant exception is offered by the left-wing parties, which have never met a control they did not like. Beginning with the members of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), it can be safely assumed that they currently support the dismantling of the APM. From media reports, there seems no substantive opposition to this move within the UPA.

While the govts can make contributions in areas of mutual interest, long-term relationship will be built on individual contacts.Read full article Following the conclusion of the first India-US strategic dialogue , commentators in the Indian press have nearly uniformly expressed frustration with the lack of action under the Obama administration . To judge whether this dissatisfaction is grounded in reality, we must first ask whether each country has enough reason to invest in a close relationship with the other in the first place. From the Indian perspective, there seem to be sufficient reasons for an affirmative answer. Accounting for almost a quarter of the world's GDP, the United States is by far the largest economy in the world. It is also the only super power on the globe and likely to remain so in the foreseeable future. It is a democracy that values other democracies. And, finally, it is by far the largest single recipient of India exports of goods and services. If we seek rising economic prosperity and increasing voice in the world affairs, America is a good bet.

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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…