May 2016, I’m sitting in Kigali where my host, an Englishman who calls Rwanda home, has a few people over for drinks. Among them is a septuagenarian British writer who is writing a book on Rwanda. He waxed eloquent about how successful Rwanda has been since 1994. Buses run on time, the roads are paved…
In the Union Budget of 2013-14, the then Finance Minister of India, Mr. P Chidambaram, announced the introduction (or rather re-introduction) of 0.01 per cent Commodity Transaction Tax (CTT) on sale of all non-agricultural commodity derivatives. The FM’s decision was based on the premises that, “There is no distinction between derivatives trading in securities market…
Up to $30 billion in defence deals could be unlocked with the new policy. But the fine print will decide whether it will give a leg up to Indian firms and reduce the country’s dependence on costly imports. It has been well over a decade since India’s private sector was directly involved in defence…
The eighth seminar of the monthly “BSE-PIF Financial Sector Policy Series” was held in Mumbai on the 23rd May 2017. The opening remarks for the session was made by Shri Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange Limited. The session was chaired and moderated by Dr Rajiv Kumar, Director, Central Board of RBI…
Article 110 of the Indian Constitution defines what a money bill is. It specifies only six subjects under the ambit of a money bill, and ‘any matter incidental to any of the matters specified’. The qualification of the Aadhaar Bill to be a money bill has been questioned by the Opposition on multiple occasions. Since a…
The three years of the Modi government have been hyper active both in terms of reforms actually implemented and even more for the huge body of work in progress. The slew of measures taken by the Modi government during the last three years have surely laid the foundation for the Indian economy’s transition to a…
Rajiv Kumar on three years of Modi sarkar The Narendra Modi government has completed three rather breathless and turbulent years. So much seems to have changed, or has been in a flux. There is no separate railway budget anymore, with the Union Budget itself having been advanced by a month to February 1. The Reserve Bank of…
Recent amendments to the RBI Act have drawn expected flak. The criticism that a central bank is only a regulator, and not responsible for handling a crisis, is patently misplaced. Central banks have led the way for addressing banking sector crisis over time and across countries. The plausible fear is that these measures may draw…
There are few countries that are as entranced by gold as India. China recently overtook India as the largest consumer of gold. Turkey, like India, has been a gold consuming country with great success in monetising gold. In India, the introduction of the three gold monetisation schemes was the first step towards gold monetisation and…
The game plan of terrorists in Kashmir is crystal clear. They will terrorise the population into submission to their reprehensible programme of creating a Wahhabi society in the state. This should not be allowed at any cost. It will sound the death knell of Kashmiryat as we have known it and also perhaps of Jamhooriyat in the state for…
Once confined to specific corners of the world and largely ignored, the 21st century has seen a revival of populism in politics. But where is it headed? The rise of populism has been one of the broad political themes of the past decade. Till 2000, populism was confined to obscure corners of the world in…
Yogi Adityanath is apparently treating his maiden tenure as chief minister as being only of two years as he aims to deliver tangible results by 2019. The loan waiver for small and marginal farmers, the first decision taken by the new cabinet in UP under Yogi Adityanath, will benefit about 1.83 crore farming households, with…