Crony capitalism involves both corrupt politicians and unscrupulous businessmen in a close embrace to manipulate for private profit the discretionary powers that still rest with the government, despite liberalisation. The allocation of publicly controlled natural resources and land is the biggest arena for this collusion. The Supreme Court judgment on the 2G case is a serious attempt at containing such collusion to steal the resource rents that rightfully should go to the public purse.

Nitin Desai: The end of crony capitalism?

Business Standard

A hundred and thirty years ago, the American economist Henry George wrote a famous tract called &ldquo;Progress and Poverty&rdquo;. It argued that all natural resources, including land, are a gift of nature. Any private person owning them is only entitled to be compensated for the effort he has put in with his labour and capital to raise its productivity.

Nitin Desai: Taxing the land

The Kelkar committee report on fiscal consolidation focuses, quite understandably, on the next three years, because it is the near-term impact of an uncontrolled fiscal deficit on inflation and external confidence that is worrying the finance ministry. This column deals with the longer-term fiscal prospect, which requires much more than the immediate fixes of subsidy rationalisation and better tax administration.

Nitin Desai: Balancing the future

The National River-Linking Project (NRLP) is a spectacular instance of this.

Nitin Desai: Falling prey to gigantism

In the wake of the July 31 blackout, much has been said and written about the policy failures in the power sector. The litany of woes is a long one &mdash; inefficient state electricity boards (SEBs), their huge accumulated losses, power thefts, problems with coal linkages, uneconomic consumer tariffs, capacity kept idle despite shortages, and so on.

Nitin Desai: A real market for power


This column comes to you from Rio, where I am attending the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, popularly called Rio+20, the reference being to the original Rio summit of 1992. The mix of activities is very similar to other such large UN conferences &mdash; an acrimonious negotiation process, corporate gatherings to allow a display of social responsibility, a vast number of side events that offer their version of what needs to be done, activist groups that diligently lobby

Nitin Desai: What Rio needs is responsibility

The Right to Education (RTE) law, and the subsequent Supreme Court judgment, has focused attention on the future of school education in India. The judgment on the provision that requires private schools to offer 25 per cent of their seats to economically weaker sections opens new opportunities for the poor, and that is welcome.

Nitin Desai: Right to principals

The next prime minister of India will wield even less authority over his Cabinet colleagues than Dr Manmohan Singh. The next government in Delhi will be pushed around by powerful state chief ministers even more than the United Progressive Alliance in its second term (UPA-II) has been. This is the new normal that the recent state elections signal &mdash; a weak Centre and strong states.

Nitin Desai: The rise of the states

Tomorrow the finance minister has to present a Budget that will revive investor confidence, restore fiscal balance and rescue the electoral prospects of his badly battered party. Corporate leaders, the domestic and foreign commentariat (including yours truly) and the finance minister&rsquo;s party colleagues will be marking his performance from these perspectives. Here is a score sheet for what we can reasonably expect in the Budget tomorrow in pursuit of these three goals.

Nitin Desai: A Budget scorecard

The central goal of the Budget that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present in March must be to restore confidence in the prospects for rapid growth in India. He has to convince not just prospective foreign investors, but also domestic corporations and financial institutions, as well as the stock market.

Nitin Desai