India spends 2.35 per cent of GDP on defence. This includes defence pensions; and pensions must be included because it is after all an integral part of defence expenditure. This is also the norm internationally. Therefore, it is this figure that we must use when we compare India’s defence spending with that of other countries.…
Since the Reserve Bank of India released its discussion paper on Wholesale and Long-Term Finance Banks (WLTF), much ink has been spilt over how it is much needed or how it has been tried before with ICICI, IDBI, IDFC etc. and failed. India’s infrastructure is generally accepted as inadequate and inefficient. India could do with…
Having just returned from Italy meeting investors, academics and officials, I find the gulf between the foreigners’ perception of India’s economic story and that of domestic commentators most perplexing. Could it be that the latter are focusing excessively on the here and now, while foreign investors and domestic stock markets are looking more at what…
Two incidents brought home to me that it is still a long haul ahead before the country has an efficiently operating Goods and Services Tax (GST). The first was the activeencouragement by a salesperson ina boutique furniture store tofinalise our purchase of a pair ofbeautiful reclining chairs, which wecould not afford, before the onsetof the…
Robust intellectual property rights regime holds the key to incentivising research on medicines One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) articulated by the United Nations in 2015 is to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. India is among the countries that agreed to this sustainable development agenda. Governments, businesses…
In a bid to entice the economically and/or socially marginalised sections of society, political organisations in India are projecting themselves as champions of inclusive growth, democratic socialism and principled politics. These organisations have scrambled to embrace the remnants of Ram Manohar Lohia’s ideology, generously invoking the visionary thinker, when talking about the future of socialism,…
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…
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…