Agriculture
Is India really surplus in foodgrains?
THE GOVERNMENT'S recent decision to sell part of the foodgrains stocks in international markets at prices much lower than their economic costs has created misunderstandings.
Economy
External debt of LICs -- The vulnerability factors
SINCE the 1970s, there has been a substantial increase in the external debt of several low income countries. Recently an IMF team, after making a detailed study of ten such countries, made some observations from their experience. The ten countries includ
e those with high external debt burdens (Congo, Nicaragua); those with more sound debt management (Ghana, Kenya); countries with a high fiscal burden of debt (Niger, Cameroon) those with relatively low ones (Bolivia, Kenya); countries with a highly conce
ntrated export base and vulnerability to commodity price shocks (Uganda, Niger, Zambia); those with less export concentration (Bolivia, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya) and countries with considerable debt to private creditors (Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire).
The right to protest
BANDHS, processions and protest rallies have become so much a part and parcel of life, that not a week passes without a political party, trade union or association calling for a bandh to highlight their grievances. In any democracy, the freedom of expres
sion/speech is well-enshrined in the constitution, but it should be articulated in a peaceful manner without hurting fellow citizens.
Tackling fiscal constraints to growth
AS THE Finance Ministry embarks on the preliminary exercises for the 2001-02 Budget, in the final year of the Ninth Five Year Plan, there is no sign of optimism.
Providing social services -- Whose responsibility is it?
TWO KINDS of changes have been happening in the Indian economy, and, to a certain extent, they are interconnected. The first is the structural adjustment programme undertaken by the Government to tackle the balance of payments (BoP) crisis (1991) in the
short run and bring about certain fundamental changes in the economy so that future BoP crises are averted.
Editorial
Another oil patch
THE DECISION TAKEN at Sunday's NDA Coordination Committee meeting to reduce the price of kerosene by Re 1 a litre and cooking gas by Rs 10 a cylinder was purely political, and has, in fact, increased the Government's economic problems.
Politics
Birth of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal -- The dearth of common-sense
With the creation of the three new States -- Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal -- neither the BJP nor the Congress(I) has notched any points. On the contrary, the new units portend political instability and financial anarchy. It may take a few years
for the infrastructure to take shape and even longer for effective and purposeful administration to develop. Whatever development work was underway has come to a halt in the three States. In fact, there has been virtually no governance in the parent sta
te of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and whatever semblance of governance there is will dip to below zero level in the new units.
Gore and Bush: Tweedledum or Tweedledumber
THE US presidential election -- or lottery -- may end in victory for Tweedledum or Tweedledumber. But who best fits the bill for either: Al Gore or George W. Bush? The wisdom of a Solomon would dictate that the two candidates toss a coin for first batter
, Tweedledum, then move to second pitcher (we are talking baseball), Tweedledee. The roles are reversed and the US Supreme Court calls the winner. American self-esteem may suffer, but no foreign country would have been bombed and no foreign citizens kill
ed or maimed.
