Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Remembering Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

  27 July 2009, by Pankaj Naithani

  This article reached us before June 29, Prof Mahalanobis’ birthday, but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  Various statistical activities, such as crop-cutting surveys, socio-economic surveys, economic census, agriculture census, demographic census etc. being conducted in India are well known worldwide for their size and technical efficacy. Data captured through these surveys and censuses are utilised to ensure planned development and formulating policies for economic (…)

• The Poison in Bangladesh Polity

  27 July 2009, by J Sri Raman

  Was Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed fed poisoned food while in detention during 2007-08? The question should be a matter of concern not for reasons of her health alone and not only for the country that gave her a landslide election victory at the end of last year.
  On June 27, in a television programme that went almost unnoticed outside of Bangladesh, a top leader of Hasina’s Awami League (AL) alleged that Hasina was served poison-laced food for an unspecified period as (…)

• Dissecting the Agrarian Crisis in Punjab

  27 July 2009, by Rajiv Kumar

  BOOK REVIEW
  Rural Development in Punjab: A Success Story Going Astray by Autar S. Dhesi and Gurmail Singh (eds.); Routledge, New Delhi; 2008.
  There was a forecast of starvation in India during the 1960s due to food deficit. As a response to meet the food deficit the state launched the Green Revolution which was spearheaded by Punjab. Under the Green Revolution specialisation of wheat-paddy crops brought tremendous growth in food production. India not only became food-sufficient but also (…)

• Prospect from Simla

  27 July 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  This month marked the 37th anniversary of the Simla Summit. On this occasion, we reproduce the following piece by N.C. in ‘Editor’s Notebook’ (Mainstream, July 8, 1972). This needs to be read in the context of the just concluded Manmohan-Gilani talks in Sharm-el-Sheikh. —Editor
  If cautious optimism marked the approach of New Delhi to the Indo-Pak Summit before it took place, it persists, more or less in the same measure, even after the Simla Agreement. At the (…)

• Obama’s Visit to Russia in Retrospect

  27 July 2009, by S Nihal Singh

  The short point to US President Barack Obama’s first visit to Russia in his new avatar is that he forgot to reset the button before leaving Washington. To say “forgot” is to indulge in euphemism because the American foreign policy-making elite has no intention of fulfilling what Vice-President Joe Biden initially promised in resetting the button in relations with Russia.
  True, the US and Russia took the first steps in agreeing to reduce their gargantuan nuclear arsenals to replace (…)

• Armageddon and After

  27 July 2009, by N A Karim

  The CPM will never be the same after the disastrous Delhi decision of the Central leadership on July 12, 2009.
  The long awaited final decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party-Marxist on that day after prolonged discussions at various State and central levels apparently to end factionalism in the Kerala State unit of the CPM did not surprise anyone but disappointed many in the party and its fellow-travellers. The nature of the punishment was less severe than generally (…)

• Union Budget 2009-10: Growth with a Conscience

  27 July 2009, by Pulin B. Nayak

  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget for 2009-10 seems to have received mixed responses. It is clear that the corporate sector is not very pleased with it. We are also told that it has nothing for the urban sector, and that it is too heavily biased towards the rural populace. It is also true that the Budget leaves too big a resource gap, with the fiscal deficit figure being 6.8 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is more than double of the earlier fixed Fiscal (…)

• Union Budget 2009-10: In Tune with the Thinking of the National Movement

  27 July 2009, by Girish Mishra

  Undoubtedly, the Union Budget 2009-10, presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the Lok Sabha on July 6, has disappointed certain sections here and abroad that had been expecting India to go in for the Washington Consensus-based economic reforms in full swing. They had based their expectations largely on the assumption that the Left had been the only impediment in their way all these years. With Left not only distancing itself from the Congress-led UPA but also having suffered big (…)

• Why Rs 1417030000000 won’t Save Us

  27 July 2009, by T J S George

  One followed by seven zeroes, a crore, is easy to conceptualise. It’s the unit in which politicians count their money. But one followed by twelve zeroes? It takes an Indian Budget to think in those terms—Rs 1417030000000 being the allocation for defence in the Mukherjee Budget. It’s 34 per cent higher than last year’s but it’s for our defence, so no one will grudge it.
  That’s a pity because we must indeed grudge it. And precisely because it is for defence. Not that the money is too (…)

• Union Budget 2009-10: Quality of Fiscal Deficit

  27 July 2009, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has relied on increase in fiscal deficit to break the recession. The fiscal deficit was about 3 per cent of our national income two years ago. It increased to 6.2 per cent in the last year, 2008-09. Now Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to increase it to 6.8 per cent for the coming year.
  Expenditures in excess of income of the government are called fiscal deficit. The government has the authority to print notes or borrow from the public or foreign (…)