Economy
An economist for a finance minister?
THESE days, many economists prefer to express their views on current economic affairs and policies in articles in financial newspapers. Newspapers currently do not report fully the speeches and viewpoints of economists. It is probable that most political
leaders and even lay persons handling economic matters may not read financial columns, even assuming that they understand the nuances of these writings. Unfortunately, economic events and issues do not make for sensational presentations. Yet, once in a
while the speeches and opinions of ex-finance ministers do get reported.
Post WTO-entry... -- Is the Chinese challenge real?
THE prospect of foreign investment in India is under threat in the wake of China's entry into the WTO next year. Analysts fear that China, the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in Asia in the pre-WTO period ($40 billion a year), will pose a
greater threat to India, after it enters the WTO.
Editorial
Promote oilseeds cultivation
THE CENTRE DESERVES to be commended for its efforts, albeit somewhat belated, to eliminate suspected under-invoicing and loss of revenue in the import of edible oils. The fixing of tariff values early this month for crude palm oil, refined palm oil and r
efined palmolein (to the exclusion of other oils) is likely to become a bone of contention between traders and policy-makers.
Information Technology
The chip effect on business intelligence solutions
MOORE'S law has come true, and it is showing up in every aspect of our lives. Every twenty years, since 1900, the amount of computational power that can be bought with one dollar has increased by a factor of thousand. Since 1950, there has been a more th
an million-fold increase. If the same had happened to automobiles, a Rolls-Royce should cost just one dollar. The ten-second pre-recorded musical greeting-card has more processing power than any computer did in 1950. The Sony PlayStation video game (1995
) at $299 had more power than the Cray-I that cost $20 million when it was introduced. The new Chevrolet has more computational power than the Apollo spacecraft in 1969.
Moore's Law
MOORE'S Law says that the pace of microchip technology change is such that the amount of data storage that a microchip can hold doubles every year, or at least every 18 months. In 1965, Gordon Moore noticed that up to that time microchip capacity seemed
to double each year.
PSU
Decade of reforms -- Privatisation: A dismal report card
THE gap between plans drawn up and the actual achievement has been the widest in the privatisation of the country's monolithic public sector. While successive Governments since 1991 had drawn up elaborate and bold roadmaps for divestment of Government's
equity stake in most of the Central sector public sector undertakings (PSUs) and their eventual privatisation, in actual practice, the record has remained dismal. The reforms process in this crucial area has not moved beyond the limited divestment of equ
ity in select profit-making PSUs.
Politics
Unholy alliances
THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been talking of coalition dharma for quite some time, and had recently even offered to resign because of his inability to bring cohesion and order to the functioning of the National Democratic Alliance (ND
A). The question for which he should first of all find answer in his own mind is whether it is realistic to expect dharma in something that carries the seeds of adharma in its very formation. For, adharma is what is at the root of all the alliances, with
out exception, on the political front.
Chota Shakeel: Smoke without fire?
AT 8.10 pm on August 17, one or more persons moving fast in a car in an unidentified area of Karachi threw a hand-grenade at some persons.
Technology
Stem cells -- Excitement and controversy
IN Egyptian mythology Osiris is considered the God of regrowth and rejuvenation. Deriving inspiration from this, a Baltimore-based biotechnology firm Osiris Therapeutics is set on unravelling the mysteries of the human stem cells.
