Agriculture
Farm credit: Banks must be more proactive
THE Reserve Bank of India is on the threshold of preparing a policy perspective for the next 15 years, and another committee may be constituted to develop it. Thus, it is imperative to analyse the banking industry scene since the introduction of banking
reforms. Indian banks have traditionally followed the principle of `suspect and respect', and not the reverse, while dealing with clients.
Economy
UNDP's Human Development Report 2001 -- Biotechnology will bypass the hungry
THE former Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, strictly followed an unwritten principle. He would not inaugurate any conference -- national or international -- which did not focus on rural development. It so happened that it was during his tenure that the air
craft industry had planned a conference in New Delhi. For that industry, the inauguration of the international conference by anyone other than the Prime Minister was not palatable for obvious reasons.
Competition law on the anvil
PARLIAMENT is all set to consider the Draft Competition Regulation Bill shortly. From a regime of over-regulation we have moved to the opposite extreme of unregulated competition among national and multinational corporations. Time was when the Industries
(Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 sought to interfere in the day-to-day working of companies to channel private investment through licensing.
Decade of corporate churning and change
THE internal and external liberalisation measures introduced over the last decade and the dramatic changes that have taken place in the international business environment have had a far-reaching impact on Indian business. The face of Corporate India has
changed more over the past decade than in the preceding four decades thanks to the U-turn in the Government's economic policy in 1991.
Editorial
Divestment panel gets new life
THE APPOINTMENT LAST week of a new chairman of the Disinvestment Commission after a lapse of over 20 months is but a feeble attempt to stop the drift in the policy of divestment that the Centre has been pursuing in the last seven-eight years.
Miscellaneous
Coupled careers
IN the recent surge of voluntary retirements, particularly in banks, it was the women who quit jobs in droves so that their husbands may continue with their careers even when some of them were smarter than their spouses. Even where the husbands were empl
oyed in the banking industry itself, the wife gave up her ambitions of a bright career for the sake of family and children.
Policy
Committees and commissions -- Take them seriously
THE Expert Group on Railways, under the chairmanship of Dr Rakesh Mohan, in its interim report submitted in March, said: ``Indian Railways is one of the most studied institutions on the planet. For almost every conceivable question that can be asked ther
e already exists a comprehensive and rigorous report that lays out the facts and indicates the answers. What is striking, however, is that there has been little action on the many reports it has commissioned''.
