Budget
Can Mr. Sinha manage growth with equity?
THE COUNTDOWN to the Budget 2000 has begun with the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha warning of `hard options'. The fiscal situation, which has been witnessing a steady deterioration post-reforms, has worsened over the last two years. The unsustainab
le rise of revenue and fiscal deficits remains a major cause for worry. The task of reining in the fiscal deficit will be made more difficult by the inevitable hike in the Defence outlay, a further rise in interest payments and a big shortfall in the tar
geted PSU disinvestment.
Economy
GLOBAL FINANCE _ AN OVERVIEW
TWICE a year (February and July), the US Federal Reserve chairman trudges up Capitol Hill to deliver the Humphrey-Hawkins testimony to the Banking Committee of the House of Representatives, and the Senate in the following week, on the state of the econom
y and the likely direction of the monetary policy.
Preparing for the knowledge-revolution
THERE is universal recognition of the fact that the world not only entered a new millennium but also a new era of international economic relations. Countries find themselves far more inter-dependent today, especially in trade and economy, than ever befor
e. The decade of the 1990s showed that the circle of acceptance for market-driven but regulated economic reforms is expanding around the world. This century will be marked by the knowledge revolution and India can be among the winners given the creativit
y of its human resource.
Editorial
Billing and wooing
THERE IS LITTLE doubt that the US President, Mr. Bill Clinton's visit to India could be a windfall for both countries in terms of closer cooperation on a range of subjects provided, of course, New Delhi and Washington are determined to make the visit the
cornerstone of a new relationship. In fact, Mr. Clinton has publicly said that the time has arrived for the US to make a new beginning with India ``because it is the biggest democracy in the world and I think we have not been working with them enough''.
Confirming the new emphasis, the US National Security Council spokesman, Mr. David Leavy, said: ``The President views strong Indian relations as essential to our own interests, the interests of the American people''.
Information Technology
Band-width access
THE Government promulgated the universally-lauded liberal Internet Service Policy in September 1998. The two most important features of the policy are that licensed Internet service providers can have their own international gateways and lease either sat
ellite transponders or submarine cable capacity for connecting to Internet backbones in other countries, at the peer points. Till today, not one private ISP (PISP) has been given effective permission by the DoT.
Miscellaneous
OFFHAND: Living well
WHAT a beguilingly simple title, but what a stupendous task! It is something with which the mightiest minds have wrestled down the ages. How to live well is a question with which all religions, cultures, divine incarnations, sages and seers, beginning fr
om Lord Krishna to the Buddha to Confucius, not to mention latter day savants and seekers after Truth such as Tiruvalluvar, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and others have been grappling.
States
State finances
THE RBI has come out with its customary Annual Report on the state of State Finances. It is unfortunate that the study on the Budget for 1999-2000 has come in only at a time when the next Budget is about to be presented. This is a defect, which I hope th
e RBI will correct. It is obvious that the lessons of the analysis of the Budgets can be incorporated in the next Budget only if they are available well in time.
