Agriculture
Agriculture sector: Paradox of plenty
A SWEEPING survey of opinion-makers in business and industry reveals a cautious and subdued outlook on their production and investment plans, despite the various efforts of the Government. In the 2001 Budget, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, prov
ided concessions worth Rs 1,000 crore and made a number of modifications in the latest Finance Bill. The Reserve Bank of India also unveiled the best possible scenario for softening interest rates, and sought to restore confidence in the financial system
.
Economy
Dispute over dead lambs
THE WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) adopted the Appellate Body Report and the Panel Report on `United States - Safeguard Measures on Imports of Fresh, Chilled or Frozen Lamb Meat from New Zealand and Australia' on May 16. This dispute is both current a
nd relevant, as it involves safeguard measures taken on an alleged import surge, a situation that is thought likely to occur in the domestic market in the post-quantitative restrictions (QR) era.
SEBI should have shown more gumption
IN ``Financial derivatives policy: Time to show gumption,'' the authors had advocated the introduction of options and futures on individual stocks (Business Line, May 31). They had argued that the listing of options on individual stocks would have a favo
urable impact on capital formation, enterprise within enterprises, risk-taking, the hygiene and vitality of disinvestment of Government equity to the public, and the pricing of employee stock options and equity warrants.
Editorial
Drawback drama
EITHER THE GOVERNMENT had initially performed a shoddy job of calculating the duty incidence on export output or has now allowed itself to be bamboozled into conceding to the exporting community a refund. This is the conclusion that one is forced to come
to in the wake of the revised duty drawback rates announced by the Government the other day on a host of export goods. And neither of the two inferences reflects too well on the quality of governance provided by the present ruling alliance. It was in th
e first week of June that the Government announced a set of rates which laid down the unit compensation that an exporter would be entitled to by way of refund of duty paid on inputs used in export manufacture. Now, in less than a month, it has claimed th
at the original rates required revision.
Health
Escape from reality
Today is Anti-Drug Abuse Day. Every year the number of people suffering the perilous effects of drug addiction is increasing alarmingly.
Miscellaneous
A suicide manual
A RECENT article in The Economist observes that ``money's not everything, but can it buy you happiness? Governments of the rich countries, as well as the OECD, in Paris, worry about the links between economic growth and well-being.''
Politics
What happened in Nepal?
THE massacre of King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya Rajyalakshmi, their two sons, Crown Prince Dipendra, Nirajan, sister Shruti, among others, in the Narayanhiti palace in Kathmandu has cast a dark shadow over the future of both monarchy and democracy in Nep
al.
