Taking the nation for a ride
At the end of the day, the purpose of disinvestment in public sector undertakings (PSUs) is to extinguish government ownership and allow the President of India, their nominal owner, to recover some of the money invested in these companies over the decades.

Need India leave her villages?
In independent India, agriculture has always been the great challenge of development. First, to drive away the grim spectre of famine that has haunted India for so many centuries. Second, in order to generate income in the hands of the 300 million people in the 1950s.

Don't count on rationality
Rationality has long dominated economic thinking. No longer, if the new crop of behavioural economists has its way. The rational economic man is guided by self-interest. But the work of David Laibson, a Harvard economist and Sendhil Mullainathan, an MIT economist, may force a rethink.

Mr Jalan's appetiser
The 50 basis points cut in the bank rate was clearly a compromise option between those who argued in favour of a 1 per cent cut, taking the bank rate back to last year's decadal low of 7 per cent, and others who advocated the status quo.

Extra-constitutional authority
Remember the Emergency of 1975-77? Remember the Report of the Shah Commission of Enquiry? Remember its indictment of the role of an `extra-constitutional authority' in governmental decision-making?

Nab the builders
One hopes that the Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel stands by his words. He promised on Friday that stringent action will be taken against those builders who are found to have compromised on the quality of construction material in Kutch, and especially in Ahmedabad.