Category DNA Money
Mobiles May Make Banks Extinct
By Prof R.Vaidyanathan on 17th April 2017 The mobile phone is now being used for small-time financial activities, such as information on prices, billing settlements, etc. We have service providers like Air Tel/Jio providing internet based TV channels which will provide competition to Dish TV /Tata sky etc .Over period of time satellite based TV […]
Media’s low credibility
Recently I had occasion to address more than 500 post-graduate students from different institutions. When they were asked how many trusted the media — print and electronic — less than 10 hands went up. Similar questions in the eighties had evoked a much larger positive response. At that time, some newspapers used to proclaim readership […]
Binayak Sen: Convicted of sedition, advising the plan panel
Within weeks of getting bail from the Supreme Court in connection with charges of sedition, Binayak Sen has been made a member of the Planning Commission’s steering committee on health, which will advise the panel on the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017). Interestingly the mainstream media reported Sen as a human rights activist — whatever it […]
Time govt stopped foreign funding of Civil Society groups
Among the largest members of the Indian economy is the NGO sector or what is known as the Third Sector or Civil Society (other than government and private) in academic circles. Two important criteria are that they should be independent from government and organisations not meant for making profit. But many get money from the […]
The main issue is Indian black money in Swiss banks
It is heartening to note the overwhelming response to the fast undertaken by Anna Hazare at Delhi on the issue of corruption and the Jan Lokpal bill. There is a groundswell of public opinion in his favour since ordinary citizens face the problem of corruption on a day-to-day basis. It is womb to tomb (birth […]
One government, two cabinets, and no governance
It is an open secret even in the Byzantine passageways of Delhi that the jholawala cabinet is more powerful than the cabinet of Manmohan Singh and will have its way. The jholawala cabinet or J-cabinet – also known as National Advisory Council (NAC) – has many ideas to empty government coffers and bleed India with […]
Time to shake down the Swiss banks
Financial experts used to exhort other countries to follow the example of these innovative financial centres and emulate them in offering imaginative products as well as privacy. But these are now the tax havens where the ill-gotten wealth of tax evaders of many countries is hoarded. A decade earlier, they were the cynosure of the […]
Dynasty politics is about protecting ill-gotten wealth
The recent finding by Patrick French (India: A Portrait) is that more than two-thirds of the under-40 members of the Lok Sabha are hereditary and many of them are hyper-hereditary, based on their dynasty. Actually many of us forget that since 1885, members of the Motilal Nehru family have presided over the Congress party for […]
Why is government reluctant to retrieve funds stashed abroad?
The Global Financial Integrity — a non-profit research organisation working in the area of tax havens — has estimated that the present value of illegal financial flows of India held abroad is at least US$462 billion. This means that the money stashed abroad is nearly 40% of our GDP of US$1.2 trillion. When this became […]
The India growth story is propelled by black money
Post-Nira Radia, many economists and experts have been wondering whether our reforms, which are supposed to be facilitating growth, are giving raise to crony capitalism. These experts look at India with western lens and cannot think beyond received wisdom from Oxford and Harvard. They do not realise that the corporate sector has a relatively small […]
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