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The much-quoted sentence, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics”, was attributed to the 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli by American author Mark Twain. Although researchers could never find such a statement in any written work of Disraeli, the sentence gained universal popularity to signify how economists and other number-crunchers use the “persuasive power” of figures to make a political point or debunk an argument, even if the contention rests on...

The term ‘fourth estate’, often used to describe the media, was reportedly coined by the Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke in a debate in the British House of Commons in 1787. Using the term to describe reporters who sat in a gallery, he argued that the press was “far more important” than the three other “estates”, namely, the clergy, the nobility and the commoners. The independence of the media, which is meant to ensure checks and balances in the working of other institutions of the...

It has now become apparent to the Narendra Modi government that the manner in which it sought to amend the law relating to acquisition of land is not politically feasible. There are indications that the government will belatedly compromise instead of standing on prestige. The government is on the defensive on another issue. Despite claims about how more money will now go to the states from the Central government, actual transfers may come down and there would be a curtailment of welfare...

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on various socio-economic indicators of Gujarat that was tabled in the state assembly on March 31 has highlighted what was common knowledge to many -- which is that the much-talked-about Gujarat Model of Development under the stewardship of Narendra Modi is more hype than substance. With facts and figures, the CAG report has highlighted how Gujarat was far from a role model for states across India, and that the progress made in this...

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pulled off a David vs Goliath in the capital's much-watched poll, routing the BJP and eliminating Congress. Ten months into the five-year term of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some of the sheen seems to have worn off the new regime in the world's largest democracy. A surprising electoral victory by a young, upstart political party born out of an anti-corruption movement in the country's capital New Delhi...

Media professionals have an important responsibility to society since they are in a position to mould public opinion. But the recent exposures of journalists taking favours from corporate groups have only highlighted once again an old phenomenon in India--codes of conduct are observed in their breach and Chinese walls are usually non-existent in media organisations. Since the 1980s, groups of journalists have tried to straddle the worlds of the media, business and politics, and in the process...

Corporate espionage in India is hardly new. For decades, tycoons have used spies to ferret out information about what is going on behind closed doors in the corridors of power. Access to sensitive information known only to a few powerful politicians and influential bureaucrats is often not just a source of profit but also provides competitive advantage over business rivals. The government is vast and multi-layered — it can be easily compromised by bribing junior officials with relatively small...

Corporate espionage in India is hardly new. For decades, tycoons have used spies to ferret out information about what is going on behind closed doors in the corridors of power. Access to sensitive information known only to a few powerful politicians and influential bureaucrats is often not just a source of profit but also provides competitive advantage over business rivals. The government is vast and multi-layered — it can be easily compromised by bribing junior officials with relatively small...

The Supreme Court of India's decision to scrap Section 66A of the Information Technology Act of 2000 came not a day too soon. The apex court's order not only signifies a big victory for those who have struggled to uphold the right to free expression, which is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen, it has restrained government authorities -- notably the police -- from acting in an arrogant and arbitrary manner against anyone and everyone who 'offends', or does not subscribe to the views of...

The government of the USA is pushing India to revise its existing robust Intellectual Property (IP) framework that effectively protects the national and public interest by balancing the rights of IP owners with their obligation to society. Submitting to the US agenda will adversely impact innovation, production and prices, especially of medicines and medical care. Multinational pharmaceutical companies will reap the benefits of an unfettered run of the Indian market. Indian companies will have...

My problem with Outlook is that I’m addicted to it. And like all addictions which are bad, I develop withdrawal symptoms if I don’t get my weekly fix of left-wing liberalism coupled with large dollops of masala sex and mirchi violence. If one adds to all these mouth-watering ingredients generous doses of conspiracy theory, sensational gossip and eyeball-popping exaggeration, what more can a reader like me want over a weekend to escape from pressing household chores and parental responsibilities...

A legal dispute relating to companies headed by a prominent industrialist close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised an interesting question: Can an Indian company become a shareholder of a foreign company and even offer corporate guarantees abroad without having paid for its shareholding in that foreign company? This question is going to be decided by the Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange (ATFE), New Delhi, in a case relating to the Mumbai-based Welspun group of companies. The case...

Brutally frank about his own follies Vinod Mehta was much more than one of India's greatest journalists. He was one of the most candid and transparent individuals I have ever known, a person who could bare his innermost secrets to the world at large, who could write about a daughter he had but never met, who could confess how his error of editorial judgement cost him his job in the now-defunct Independent newspaper, and how he was humiliated by the late industrialist Lalit Mohan Thapar who owned...

CORPORATE espionage in India is hardly new. It is also common knowledge that the bureaucracy in the country leaks like a sieve. So what is so special about the arrest by the Delhi Police of 14 individuals —including a journalist, an energy consultant, a clutch of corporate executives and a few junior government employees—while investigating the theft of confidential documents from various economic ministries, including the Ministries of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Coal, and Power? The sheer scale...

Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s first full-fledged Union Budget epitomises how optimism can overtake realism. He has tried to answer his government’s critics by promising something or the other to all sections of the population: the poor, the middle classes, the corporate sector, farmers, small businesspersons, the youth and the elderly. The problem in trying to please everyone is that he could end up pleasing no one. How has he been excessively optimistic? He has assumed that inflation in the...

The first full budget presented by India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley aims at pleasing all Indians, rich, middle-class and poor. It seeks to dispel criticism that Mr Modi's government is pro-big business and favours the affluent who are often accused of evading taxes. While promising to simplify India's complex and convoluted tax structures, the finance minister has laid out a plan to cut corporate tax over the coming years. He has said he will clamp down on the beneficiaries of the country's...

NEW DELHI: The arrest by the Delhi police of a group of individuals accused of illegally obtaining confidential documents from the government of India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has revealed yet again how deep the corrupt nexus between business and politics runs in this country. Among those arrested are an employee of India's largest private corporate entity, Reliance Industries Limited, two so-called consultants, including a journalist, and junior government employees. Who does...

Some financial transactions attract attention because of the scale and nature of the irregularities being brought to light. Others may warrant scrutiny because of the profile of the people involved. The case in this article deserves close examination on both counts. The protagonist of this tale is India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s biggest private corporate conglomerate. The supporting character is a former Indian...

The sharp and sudden collapse of international prices of crude oil brings significant short-term gains for the Indian economy. However, in the medium and long run, the fall in oil prices has ramifications that are far from positive for this country. The windfall gains that have accrued will provide temporary relief for finance minister Arun Jaitley and will enable him to meet the fiscal deficit target in the forthcoming Union Budget for 2015-16 that will be presented in late February. However...

Two unconnected developments marked 2014 as a unique year in the history of India’s political economy. The first was the outcome of the 16th general elections, which saw a party win a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own for the first time in three decades. The second was an international phenomenon: the sudden fall in the prices of crude oil which has had an unexpected beneficial impact on the economy. However, beneath the apparently benign surface of the positive developments and the country’s...

While many perceive Atal Behari Vajpayee as among the least controversial of the political leaders who belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party and were part of its earlier avatar, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, it would be incorrect to state that Vajpayee has never had a taste of controversy since he was initiated into public life while still a student by the senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Balasaheb Deoras, in the late-1930s. What is not so well known is that a particular contentious...

What was unique about him was not just his gritty voice, raspy and rough as gravel. Watching him perform was an unforgettable experience. He would gesticulate with the idiosyncratic intensity of a demented person. His body would move spasmodically. Each yell of his appeared to be ripping apart not only his parched throat but his whole being. In between the screams he spewed out were exquisite strains of sheer melody — therein lay his talent and genius. He didn't compose his own songs. Nor did he...

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first person to become prime minister of India without ever having been a member of the Congress party, has been in the political limelight for most of the past four decades. Though he was a founder member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh when it was formed in 1951, and a protege of the first president of the Jana Sangh, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, he was first noticed on the national stage when he got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1957 from Balrampur, having failed in his...

Given the pathetic state of the Opposition in the country, it is not surprisingly that one discerns the beginning of a trend of political forces opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party coming together. While there is a certain inevitability about this trend gathering momentum in the coming years, for the time being the BJP can glibly rest assured simply because of the sharp differences that exist between and among major non-BJP political parties. With the BJP becoming the most prominent pole of...

During a discussion on his recently-published book "2014: The Election That Changed India”, senior journalist and television anchor Rajdeep Sardesai was very critical of the working of the Indian media, not only in the run-up to the general election but also because of the unquestioning attitude of many journalists who praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The discussion, organised by the book's publisher, Penguin Books India, in collaboration with the Maulana Mohamed Ali 'Jauhar' (MMAJ) Academy...

An unprecedented dispute between India's largest public sector company, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and the country's biggest private company, Reliance Industries Limited, over allegations of theft of natural gas worth nearly $5 billion or Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin levelled by the former against the latter, is likely to be resolved in coming months. An 'independent' foreign firm will examine the veracity of claims and counter-claims that have...

It’s an all-out war now between Didi and Dada. The chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, had the temerity to question: Who is Amit Shah? The reply came on Sunday, at a public rally in the heart of Kolkata. The president of the Bharatiya Janata Party retorted that he, a small BJP worker, would lead his party to drive the Trinamool Congress out of Bengal. Rhetoric aside, the political tussle between the two portends ill for the state that has seen relatively harmonious Hindu-Muslim...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be patting himself on the back because President Barack Obama has agreed to India’s position on food stockholding norms in World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, New Delhi seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate the American government and giant multinational corporations (MNCs) in the pharmaceutical industry, which will work to the detriment of our country’s interests. In less than six months, the Modi government has taken several steps that play...