Page 7 - Mihir S Sharma/workspace/business Standard Web/video

Betting on the public sector

History will judge this Budget based on whether the Centre's big bet on a public sector borrowing-driven growth revival works out

The foreign hand, again

Conspiratorial thinking leads to tyranny. It means you imagine connections between disparate groups of dissenters, and thereby elevate in your mind their danger to the state

Budget bets big on growth: FM squeezes subsidies, raises capex again

Asset sale to get Rs 1.75 trillion; transparent budgeting gets a leg-up

A call to print more money: Economic Survey sees a 'V-shaped recovery'

Forget fiscal conservatism, turn on the fiscal taps, and ignore debt build-up, says Survey

How the republic falls

If you want to understand today's politics, read novels about the fall of Rome. Populism is democracy's oldest and most enduring disease

Budget 2021 must not undermine govt's response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Govt has so far been restrained and sensible in pandemic response. Budget must not throw away that effort

Covid-19: The last thing India needs in 2021 is to repeat disasters of 2020

How we deal with the new strain of coronavirus will show whether we have learnt the right lessons from the initial response to the coronavirus

India's future may depend upon BJP reconciling its absolutist approach

Can the 2020 BJP leadership can, at this late stage, manage to reconcile its absolutist, majoritarian, Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan approach with the coalition dharma of its Vajpayee-era predecessors

Resilience, recovery and then revival

Much remains uncertain about the Indian economy's future path. How can we grade the government's efforts to prop it up?

Serial entertainers

Literary fandom in East Asia is certainly of a different, and usually more intense, quality than elsewhere

Developed countries can ignore macro-economic reality but India can't

Hard work on inflation means there is monetary space in this crisis; but years of mismanagement means there is no fiscal firepower

It may not be right to say that first wave of Covid-19 has peaked in India

We knew from the moment the pandemic took hold that this would be a long haul - at least 12 to 18 months. Nothing should have changed that assessment.

Covid-19: What handling of the pandemic reveals about India and the world

Chinese officials are right to praise the response of the city and people of Wuhan itself

Platforms and publishing

In the end, publishers are corporations

What's there to celebrate?

Independence Day should be a day for celebration and optimism. But what is there, in 2020, to celebrate?

A pandemic report card

There are now about 1.3 million positive cases recorded, though given India's testing rates, the true number is perhaps several multiples of that

An unsuitable novel

Not everything can be adapted for TV

Truth & tests

By the optimistic reading, India or Indians possess something special that prevents Covid-19 from truly taking hold

The treasure of comfort reads

The ideal re-reading ritual should be of a book just smart enough to not irritate you, just deep enough to keep you engaged

Fiscal prudence still matters

Govt will need to spend more, but should credibly commit through institutional reform to future transparency and prudence