While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had set the stage for a firm anti-inflationary stance in its quarterly macro-economic review released on Monday, yesterday&rsquo;s repo rate and cash reserve

Editorial: Overkill?

Business Standard

The recommendation by the standing committee on agriculture to discourage futures trading in farm commodities needs to be treated with caution because it is not an unambiguous position. The

Editorial: A future for futures trading?

Like all previous bids to salvage the Doha round of trade talks, organised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the mini-ministerial meeting in Geneva has also ended in failure. Barring a salvage

Editorial: End of Doha?

P>The high aspirations that the Indian green energy-based companies had nurtured for generating additional resources through carbon trading have begun to fade.

Editorial: Dampener on carbon trading

P>The revised estimates for GDP in 2007-08 were released last Friday, showing that the Indian economy grew by 9 per cent during the year.

Editorial: Two thresholds

P>The quarterly and annual results of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which were declared last week, brought into sharp focus what everybody already knew.

Editorial: Bleeding to death

P>When the Indian Premier League began, Kunal Dasgupta had said that he expected a smile curve in viewership ratings, with high ratings at the beginning and end sandwiching low figures in the middle.

Editorial: Revitalised cricket

P>If you thought the debate about speculation and futures trading causing price bubbles is a purely domestic concern (pace the Abhijit Sen committee's tortured labours), think again.

Editorial: The futures debate again

&nbsp;Nepal has rid itself of an archaic form of government, namely, the monarchy. The Constituent Assembly, which abolished it, has also asked King Gyanendra to vacate his palace and live &#34like a commoner&#34.

Editorial: Gone with the wind

P>The government has at last done what it should have done long ago: raised petrol, diesel and LPG prices to neutralise a part of their increased cost.

Editorial: Half the job

P>Is Indian agriculture regaining its lost momentum? That is what the aggregate numbers would suggest, especially now that the rate of agricultural growth in 2007-08 has been raised sharply to 4.5 per cent, from the 2.6 per cent put out earlier.

Editorial: Regaining momentum

P>Barak Obama, now waiting to be crowned at the party convention as the official Democratic candidate for US president, has the potential to become a transformational leader.

Editorial: Obama it is

P>Admittedly, the middle of an economic slowdown and of a spurt in prices is not the best time to be shouting "Yippee!".

T N Ninan: Feel-bad factor

P>Stephen Jay Gould, the American evolutionary biologist who died prematurely in 2002, was of the view that change in nature occurred in a discrete way, instead of being slow and continuous.

Editorial: The age of equality

P>Civil aviation is an inherently unattractive business in a competitive environment; so while planes fly all the time, airlines find it impossible to soar.

Editorial: A business that won`t fly

P>The fifth Economic Census, based on data collected during 2005, was published recently.

Editorial: Self-employed nation

&nbsp;The global contagion has gripped the Indian stock market yet again. Bad economic news in the US, a fresh spurt in crude oil prices as well as the ongoing sub-prime debt problem in the US have wrought havoc in global equity markets.

Editorial: Bears everywhere

P>The merchandise export and import numbers for April 2008 suggest that things look reasonably healthy on the trade front.

Editorial: Export exuberance

P>The Doha Round of trade talks, now in its seventh year, could soon end in complete deadlock, or a breakthrough.

Editorial: Deadlock or breakthrough?

P>Facts often become the casualty when issues are sought to be settled on the streets.

Editorial: An untenable demand

P>In February 2006, the software industry body Nasscom was bullish when it teamed up with McKinsey, the consulting firm, to forecast that software exports would surpass $60 billion by March 2010, thereby updating its original target of $50 billion by December 2008.

Editorial: Beyond the IT majors

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

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