Economy
Reforms: A sustainable balance-sheet
ECONOMIC reforms, industrial deregulation, and liberalisation of investment introduced by Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh, have changed the face of India. Though the reforms process has faltered, it has not changed direction though three dif ferent governments followed the Congress (I) regime -- the United Front, the National Democratic Front, and now the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. There is almost a national consensus on the need for reforms, though there are differences on detail .

Editorial
Power reforms, again
THAT MAJOR REFORMS were being planned for the power distribution sector has been known for some time. The Power Minister, Mr Suresh Prabhu's recent exposition on the subject before the Union Cabinet -- based on a policy paper prepared by his Ministry -- gives a fillip to the effort, but it remains to be seen whether, at the end of the day, anything concrete will result. This pessimism stems from the experience of the earlier policy that tried to develop the power sector by providing incentives to privat e companies (both domestic and foreign) to set up power generating stations. The policy, despite massive investments, has generated more controversies than electricity leaving the field hardly inviting for new investments. Mr Prabhu himself has acknowled ged to the Cabinet that ``significant private investments in generation will flow after reforms succeed, and, till such time, public sector investments will need to lead the way''.

Forex
Price stability and resilient euro
In the recent past, there have been worries worldover among academics, bankers and policy-makers about the sliding euro, especially when it touched an all-time low of 0.83 to the dollar. Since its launch, fears have been aired in the media about the euro 's dipping trend, and many of the European Central Bank's fears have come in for severe criticism, some even going as far as seeking the resignation of the ECB Chairman, Dr W. F. Duisenberg.

Miscellaneous


The Southern magic
An attentive audience watches a puppet play in progress at Dakshina Chitra, near Chennai. Innaugurated in December 1996, this ongoing project of the Madras Craft Foundation, a non-profit organisation, aims to acquaint visitors with South Indian tradition and cultural history.

Politics
Bangladesh: `Exploited country'?
``WHY don't you supply us gas?'' I asked the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka a few days ago. ``Both India and America have the same question,'' she said. ``We shall first find out how large are our reserves. If we come to the conclusio n that we can export, keeping our needs in view, we shall do so.'' The Opposition leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, gave the same reply, more or less in the same words, in the same tone.

British vs Indian!
MORE and more, people in villages are judging the performance of the government by the access to, and the quality of, basic services they feel they are entitled to get. For them, the primary responsibility of elected representatives at whatever level -- panchayats, State Assemblies or Parliament -- is to ensure the proper, efficient and responsive functioning of schools, health centres, fair price shops and drinking water supply facilities which touch their lives every day.

Telecommunications
Telecom infrastructure -- Biggest bottleneck to media growth
THE dividing line between the print and electronic media is fast disappearing, with newspapers and magazines becoming available on the World Wide Web, and books readable from CD-ROMs. The advantages of a paperless working environment, the difficulties of disposing of paper, the ill-effects on the green cover and the problem of storing documents are making futurists move away from the print medium.

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