Transparency needed in opinion polls, not an outright ban

Polls that mislead

Business Standard

Activist minority shareholders can thrive in India, too

Green shoots of governance

Bridging the gap between RBI and finance ministry

Different strokes

Russia's Vladimir Putin may have overreached himself

In Ukraine's Maidan

IMF report on India should be read with care

Reality check

Facebook spends a fortune to recover younger users

Why WhatsApp

For vibrant, safer and more usable public spaces

A law for vendors at last

Making the agriculture growth story sustainable

Checking a claim

Interim Budget's partiality to sports utility vehicles

Big car error

India's IT sector has to meet technology challenge

Reinventing digital world

The interim Budget's problematic subsidy mathematics

Rollover blues

Singling out Andhra

A strategic response to stress on public sector banks

Ticking time bomb

Back in 2011-12, before P Chidambaram returned as the finance minister, the fiscal deficit was Rs 5.16 lakh crore. In the Budget that Mr Chidambaram has presented to the Lok Sabha, the deficit for next year has been put only marginally higher, at Rs 5.29 lakh crore. In a three-year period (2012-15) during which average economic growth is almost certain to be the lowest in any three-year period since the early 1990s, the government's revenue has been budgeted to grow by 55.3 per cent, and expenditure by 33.7 per cent; the absolute figure for the deficit has thereby been kept virtually unchanged - and brought down from 5.7 to 4.1 per cent in relation to gross domestic product (GDP). This would be a considerable achievement, and points to the fiscal correction that Mr Chidambaram has achieved and postulated.Admittedly, though, the arithmetic is predicated on some ambitious assessments of tax revenue growth (19 per cent for next year, something that has not been achieved in any recent year

Predicated on recovery

Arvind Kejriwal's resignation is smart politics

Back to the aam aadmi

Inflation moderates, but government can and must do more

The dilemma continues

The perils of ignoring basic science research

Misplaced priority

Parliament's presiding officers cannot escape their responsibility

Pepper trouble

Panicked telcos shell out vast sums for spectrum

Now or never?

Another lost year

Slower growth is not impacting consumer price inflation

An increasing disconnect

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 334 - Editorial Comment