Agriculture
The fading rice revolution
THESE days the computer revolution commandeers most conversations, and a mention of the Green Revolution is only likely to elicit disdain, if not outright contempt. The official line is that the FCI's godowns are overflowing with buffe
r-stocks and there is enough food to go around.
Coal
Coal privatisation -- a must
TO SUSTAIN the pace of the economy's development, a reconsideration of the policy related to the coal sector's development is needed. This has to be seen against the background of the coal industry's nationalisation in 1973.
Corporate
Corporate dilemma
THE dizzying pace of integration with global economy is making nonsense of the tradition of sticking life-long to one employer. Indeed, employees no longer take loyalty to their organisations as sacrosanct. What matters is where and how they
can get the best deal. This applies to a much greater extent to ICE professionals, scientists, financial and investment experts, software programmers and knowledge workers of every description. In their case, in particular, demand far
exceeds supply, forcing countries such as Germany, Japan, the UK and the US to go to the extent of relaxing their immigration laws and procedures in order to fill the gap.
Economy
Is the productivity revival for real in the US?
Among other things, international trade liberalisation, more competitive economic structure, deregulation and central bank autonomy have all played a role in guiding inflation expectations lower in the last decade. More important, fisca
l deficit reduction in the early 1990s acted as a catalyst. Our politicians would do well to note the dynamics at work instead of merely calling for the Reserve Bank of India to lower rates without doing their part, says V. Anantha-Nag
eswaran.
Money management and development
THE BANK for International Settlements (BIS) is the central bank of central banks. Its annual reports on the global economy are eagerly awaited. The latest BIS annual report (dated June 5, 2000), covers the development aspect in ind
ustrial countries and emerging markets with its customary focus on monetary developments and central bank actions.
Editorial
Some more tinkering
IT IS DIFFICULT to understand why SEBI has further relaxed the norms for volatility, raising the intra-day limit from 12 per cent to 16 per cent. Only recently was the limit raised from 8 per cent to 12 per cent and nothing much has changed since then. T
here was little empirical evidence articulated by SEBI when the circuit-filter was relaxed to 12 per cent, and there is nothing now. Further, the SEBI brass ruled out removal of circuit-filters or price bands, saying the market is yet to ``attain maturit
y''. SEBI seems to have its own ideas of the state of maturity and these seem to be driving its secondary market measures. The better way for SEBI would be to collect empirical evidence to support a regulatory move, give the market time to respond, and t
hen make the final move. Especially for such crucial issues as circuit-filters and margin structures. Unfortunately, this has not been the approach and, thus, every time the SEBI Governing Board or its Group on Stock Exchanges meets, the market players,
including investors, are in for surprises.
Management
Are trade unions dying?
``OF all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry, the proletariat is its special
and essential product.'' So said Karl Marx and Frederick Engels on the dictatorship of the proletariat (written in 1847-1848, Collected Works Vol. 6, pg. 494).
Politics
On how (not) to sell a cow
THE UNION Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Sharad Yadav, hails from Bihar, and few will disagree with the observation that there is something tangibly different with such people, when compared to Ministers coming from other States. This is
not a pejorative remark, in any sense of the term, for the simple reason that this it is not the intention behind making it.
