| Subir Roy: Meeting the urban challenge effectively | 11-NOV-09 |
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| The only positive change visible in Indian cities indicating that policy and action to meet the urban challenge are moving in the right direction is the significant number of shiny, new low-floor buses funded by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). |
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| Subir Roy: Sound the food alarm | 28-OCT-09 |
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| Pulses getting dangerously close to Rs 100 per kilo, potatoes in West Bengal (a traditional exporter) crossing Rs 20 a kilo, make real the food price inflation that statisticians’ numbers signal. Inflation in primary food articles is currently running at over 13 per cent. Dun and Bradstreet forecasts that overall inflation will touch 6 per cent by the end of the current fiscal, fuelled by, among others, current high food prices and the impact of the drought. The 20 per cent deficit in the monsoon is slated to bring down kharif output by 15-20 per cent. The news couldn’t get worse. |
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| Subir Roy: How to handle negative Chinese vibes | 14-OCT-09 |
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| Negative vibes between India and China are growing. It would be calamitous if this leads to greater military spending which will inevitably take away resources from fighting poverty. For their part, both the governments have sought to underplay rising temperatures, with the Indian government asserting that the border has been the “most peaceful” and there is machinery to sort out incursions. |
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| Subir Roy: A governance structure for IITs | 30-SEP-09 |
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| India has been witness to the unedifying spectacle of the teachers’ association of its globally best known educational brand, the IITs, going on strike against their new pay and conditions of work. What bodes ill for the future is that the disaffection may continue. The minister concerned, Kapil Sibal, one of the best we have, is in no mood to seriously rethink matters though he has said he is open to considering greater autonomy for the IITs. |
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| Subir Roy: Rates need cutting further | 05-AUG-09 |
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| Analysts and the media have near-unanimously approved the latest monetary policy update of the Reserve Bank of India which has left key interest rates unchanged, while indicating that its accommodative stance will continue until recovery becomes more robust. But it is possible to question whether this halfway house is the right place to be in right now. |
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| Subir Roy: Reengineering higher education | 22-JUL-09 |
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| The country is immersed in a critical debate on how to reform and rejuvenate its higher education, led by a literate and articulate minister Kapil Sibal. Luckily, two major forward-looking reports (of the Knowledge Commission and the Yash Pal committee) provide vital reference points from which arguments can take off. |
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| Subir Roy: Money alone can't buy inclusive growth | 08-JUL-09 |
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| The Union Budget gives the first clear indication of how willing and able the second avatar of the UPA government is in delivering inclusive growth. The signal is that it is willing, but it is a bit open if it will be able to. The willingness, putting your money where your mouth is, comes through in actions such as sharply hiking the allocation for the flagship employment guarantee programme, the rural health mission, rural roads and the urban renewal mission. |
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| Subir Roy: Growing in a responsible way | 24-JUN-09 |
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| The apple economy of Himachal is getting hugely destabilised. Lower snowfall and higher temperatures are making it difficult to grow apples at below 6,000 ft where they have been grown for almost a hundred years. The Gangotri glacier, which ensures a perennial flow in the Ganga, is melting. |
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| Subir Roy: The 2020 challenge before IT-BPO | 10-JUN-09 |
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| What does India need to do to realise the full potential that information technology and outsourced business services (BPO) will offer in the next decade by building on the capabilities that it already has? The achievement so far — exports of $47 billion by 2008-09, giving it a 51 per cent share of the global outsourced market. |
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| Subir Roy: Hope for a new agenda | 27-MAY-09 |
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| Manmohan Singh’s second five-year term begins with four pluses. There is now the certainty of stability and continuity; a grain mountain ensures food security; the monsoon shows every sign of beginning well; and the worst of the economic slowdown that hit last year appears to be over. Hence expectations from the government will be high. |
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| Online shopping in India rises despite slump: Survey | 20-MAY-09 |
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| Indian customers shopped online more frequently in the fourth quarter of 2008 than in the same period the previous year, despite the bleaker economic climate, a survey conducted by Mastercard Worldwide reveals. |
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| Subir Roy: Sea change ahead of IT-BPO | 13-MAY-09 |
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| India’s software and IT enabled services industry has had a dream run till now, capturing by 2008 a 51 per cent share of the global market for sourcing of technology and business services. But it now faces the biggest challenge of its lifetime. The world around the Indian IT-BPO industry is rapidly changing and it will have to transform itself extensively even to stay where it is. |
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Content Guide
