Automobiles
Should import of `used' cars be banned?
STRANGELY enough, though the major small car manufacturers, in India -- Maruti Udyog, Daewoo, Hyundai, Tata Engineering -- are engaged in cut-throat competition to increase their market share, they are all united on the issue of banning import of used, o
r second-hand, cars.
Economy
PM's economic advisers have spoken
THE BUDGET season is on in full swing. Advice inundates the Finance Minister. The Gujarat earthquake shocks mean a further burden of Rs 21,000 crore. The FM's task is rendered all the more difficult by the corporate slowdown. While in the first quarter o
f the year, the revenue estimates were exceeded substantially, it now looks as though the figures for the latest quarter do not support his optimism.
Vision 2020 -- The real disaster behind disasters
The best thing a Prime Minister or a Chief Minister can do in an emergency, as in Gujarat, is appoint a highly-competent administrator, and invest him with full authority to handle the situation -- and stay religiously away from the s
cene.
Unemployment, private sector and role of the state
THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced that public sector employment will be cut by 10 per cent during the next three years and people should not harbour undue expectations for public sector jobs. The basic aim of Mr Vajpayee's declaratio
n is to downsize the government. By cutting administrative expenditure, a reduction of revenue and fiscal deficits can be achieved. There is no doubt that the Central and State Governments should do this, but the moot question is: Is downsizing the gover
nment the only measure to achieve this objectives?
Editorial
Farm failure
IT WAS NOT much of a surprise when the Central Statistical Organisation forecast GDP growth for 2000-01 at 6 per cent, sharply down from the ambitious target of 7 per cent and also last year's 6.4 per cent.
Politics
Grating great
The Clintons -- one lately US President and the other currently US Senator -- have not exactly covered themselves with glory, going by the stories of the manner they played with White House property and the gifts received by them. While clearing out of t
heir erstwhile presidential abode, they seem to have cleared it of things that did not rightfully belong to them. Not only that, when the ugly stories of their acquisitive instinct broke, they have come out with highly convoluted justifications, grudging
ly agreeing to pay for some of the valuables and items of furniture they had conveniently shoved into their new home.
Destabilising role of ISI in Pakistan
``THE liberation of Kashmir is not our only task. Our next goal is the liberation of Indian Muslims from Hindu rule.'' These were the words of the leader of the Harkat ul Mujahideen, Mr Farooq Kahmiri, while speaking in Islamabad on January 29. Mr Kashmi
ri was appointed Harkat chief primarily because the ISI wanted to demonstrate that a Kashmiri leads the organistion, rather than a Pakistani national. The real leader of the Harkat is, however, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a Pakistani. The Harkat was re
sponsible for the hijack of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 in December 1999.
Telecommunications
`Far-reaching' telecom revolution
THE beneficial effect of demonopolising telecommunications and introducing competition in India is becoming evident. First, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India brought down the lease charges to one-fifth of what they were under the earlie
r monopoly regime, without regulation. That reduction benefited the business users. Then came two reductions in the long-distance telephone rates. Not only businessmen, but even ordinary users benefited. And now comes the Communications Minister, Mr Ram
Vilas Paswan's gift of charging local-call rates for calls up to 200 km.
