Mainstream Weekly

Welcome Telangana!

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2014-03-03T16:43:18Z

This article was written much before Telangana became a separate State of the Indian Union. It is being published now as its contents continue to be relevant today.
Major Andhra politicians are in a dilemma on the splitting of the State. Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam had supported splitting of the State previously. Now he has developed cold feet on the issue. YSR Congress had mainly kept mum on the issue. Now it has come out in the open against the move. The turnaround seems to be (…)

- 2014

Food Security with Economic Growth

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2013-10-09T06:35:07Z

Our economy is under pressure for the last three months. The rupee has been falling though the fall has been temporarily arrested for some time. Inflation shows no signs of reducing. And, the common man is restive as seen in the Chhattisgarh massacre. Yet, the weak condition of the economy should not prevent us from taking steps to ameliorate the conditions of the poor. I welcome the Food Security Act for this reason. The problem, however, is that this effort will be sustainable only if the (…)

- 2013

Union Budget 2013 - 2014: Look at the Components of Fiscal Deficit, Mr Chidambaram

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2013-03-10T19:26:02Z

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram stressed during presentation of the Budget that the fiscal deficit should be kept in control in order to attain high growth rates. He has not made large increases in outlays in order to keep the fiscal deficit under control. The government is much concerned that international rating agencies may downgrade India if the fiscal deficit is not kept under control. A downgrade may lead to the foreign investors fleeing and that would bring the UPA crashing down. The (…)

- 2013

Manmohanomics Responsible for Declining Economic Clout of India

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2012-07-04T18:13:24Z

International Rating Agency Standard and Poors had downgraded the outlook on India from BBB+ to BBB- in April. Since then the dismal data for the last quarter of 2011-12 ending in March have come out. Now Standard and Poors has threatened that it may actually downgrade India because the consensus in favour of economic reforms is eroding.
S&P has mentioned four reasons for this change: investment and economic growth have slowed, current account deficit has widened and political (…)

- 2012

Don't Invoke the Bogey of Foreign Hand to Hide Bad Governance

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2012-05-22T00:52:03Z

About 23,000 people have decided to surrender their voter cards in protest against continuation of work on the Kudankulam nu-clear plant which is slated to be commissioned in mere 40 days or so. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had supported the cause of the protesters a few months ago but has backed out since then and is now supporting continuation of the plant. The Government of India is of the view that the protestors are being incited by foreign entities—NGOs as well as anti-nuclear (…)

- 2012

Energy Security

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2012-04-13T12:44:51Z

The energy crisis appears to be deepening. The global price of oil is increasing. United States' President Obama has blamed this on higher consumption by India and China. Growing global energy shortage has encouraged coal-exporting countries like Indonesia and Australia to up the export price of coal. We have limited domestic sources of energy. Our coal reserves are expected to last about 150-200 years but speedier consump-tion of this would lead to a deeper crisis after the domestic sources (…)

- 2012

Meaning of 'Occupy Wall Street'

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2011-11-05T16:11:59Z

The common man of the developed countries is agitated. Hundreds are camping in a park across the Wall Street which houses the New York Stock Exchange. People are holding demons-trations at City Square in Melbourne and in front of the Reserve Bank of Australia in Sydney. Similar demonstrations are taking place in Athens, Tokyo, Taipei and Seoul. The reason is unemployment and inequality. These youth believe the bankers have speculated, made huge losses and brought down the global economy (…)

- 2011

Global Crisis is Brewing

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2011-02-21T09:01:40Z

The World Bank has estimated in the recently released ‘Global Economic Prospects' report that the growth rate of the developed countries is likely to increase from the present 2.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent in 2012. The growth rate of the developing countries is likely to remain firm at the respectable six per cent. The Bank, in the same breath, has cautioned that the problem of government debt of the developed countries can become dangerous. Other analysts have expressed concern that (…)

- 2011

Prasar Bharati Must Perform

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2010-11-10T15:33:01Z

The government has decided that Door-darshan and Akashvani will be provided limited financial assistance in future. These services are run by their parent organisation, Prasar Bharati. Presently the deficit in current expenditures is wholly met by the government through budgetary support. It is now decided that only one-half of the current expenditures will be met by the government. Prasar Bharati will have to raise one-half through advertisements. The property being used by the organisation (…)

- 2010

Directionless in Agriculture

Bharat Jhunjhunwala — 2010-04-19T18:25:36Z

The growth rate of agriculture was three per cent and that of manufacturing was 4.5 per cent during the first three decades after independence. The growth rate for agriculture has slipped to 2.8 per cent while that for manufacturing has increased to 6.4 per cent during the last 15 years. Farmers continue to commit suicides across the country. The groundwater level is declining. The country has to import wheat, edible oils and pulses year after year.
That said we must not ignore the (…)

- 2010