The topic of privatisation is young. There is no ancient classic treatise on this topic, and the oft-quoted definitive reference book by Vickers and Yarrow, published in 1988, is relatively recent.


Balanced detractor

Business Standard

While exports create employment, it is not certain that a stronger rupee helps control inflation.


Ajit Ranade: Hitting exports to curb inflation is a bad idea

A year ago, the capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), asked that mutual funds not charge any entry load for investments by their subscribers. This was quite a revolutionary regulation, since it changed the incentive structure of the way mutual funds were sold to investors.

Ajit Ranade: A spat swallows RBI's autonomy

In 1954, Sir Arthur Lewis wrote a paper entitled &ldquo;Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour&rdquo;, which has had a lasting influence on the way we understand economic development. He wrote this paper while he was at Manchester, but subsequently moved to the West Indies, where he was born, and was later awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979. The Lewis model of economic development postulates two sectors, the subsistence and the modern.

Ajit Ranade: Lewis, labour and currency

Ever since the days of Adam Smith, economists have accepted the dogma that free and fair competition leads to optimal outcomes. It is good for consumers as they pay the lowest possible prices, and it also forces producers to be efficient. Socially, it leads to most productive allocation of aggregate resources. The competitive process just makes everybody pursue their own self-interest, but somehow miraculously the net outcome is socially beneficial to all. Smith famously illustrated this by pointing out that people get food not because of the charity of the butcher and baker, but because they earn their living by selling at the best possible prices, in competition with other butchers and bakers.

Ajit Ranade: Competition and overcrowding

The economic news from China is habitually &ldquo;inflectionary&rdquo;, conveying frequently a dramatic break from the past. Just when you thought that the output numbers are unrealistically high, there comes another series which is even higher. For many years, the official growth GDP target has been around 8 per cent, with officials sheepishly admitting to double-digit growth post facto. This year&rsquo;s growth too will cross 11 per cent while the rest of the world is still wobbly.

Ajit Ranade: Dancing with the Dragon

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) created history in October 2006, when it listed simultaneously in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, raising more than $19 billion in its initial public offer (IPO) of shares.

Ajit Ranade: Disinvestment as Portfolio shuffle

At least three states have been in the throes of crises arising out of mining deals. In Jharkhand, there are questions about transparency in the grant of dozens of mining leases. In Orissa, a public interest litigation has asked the Supreme Court to stop blatant flouting of mining lease rules. The apex court appointed a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to look into the irregularities. In its preliminary findings, the CEC described the situation as a &ldquo;can of worms&rdquo;. In Karnataka, there was a major political crisis &mdash; the ruling party had a near split over charges of illegal mining in Bellary. A fourth state, Andhra Pradesh, has its own mining woes, with opposition politicians gearing up to make illegal mining a major issue.

Ajit Ranade: What Lies Beneath

Invariably a Finance Minister trying to navigate between growth and fiscal restraint invites comparisons to a cricket shot that has to score a boundary, but remain between mid-on and mid-off. Not much firepower in those straight shots although they are less risky than hooks and pull shots. So an effective budget is workmanlike, refrains from announcing big bang reforms, but scores runs nevertheless. That&rsquo;s what this budget has done admirably.

Ajit Ranade: Batting above average

The biggest gathering of bankers in the country called BANCON is an annual occasion for review, introspection and future-gazing. Hosted jointly by the Indian Banks Association and a member bank by rotation, this year&rsquo;s venue was Mumbai and the joint host was the country&rsquo;s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI). The theme of the conference was &ldquo;The New Normal&rdquo;, a phrase that has gained currency rather quickly, even faster than &ldquo;green shoots&rdquo;.

Ajit Ranade