A tale of two global rankings

Two global rankings were announced recently. One was the 2019 "Doing Business" report published by the World Bank, which was earlier called the "Ease of Doing Business" (EODB) India jumped to 63 from 77 last year. The improvement is dramatic, and in just five years India has improved its global position from 142 to 63. It is in line with Prime Minister Modi's goal of being among the top 50 countries of the world by next year.Read more

Stronger fiscal federalism

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh recently urged the Centre to do more to enhance the spirit of cooperative federalism. His comments were in the context of the changes made to the terms of reference to the 15th Finance Commission (15FC). These changes were made in July, quite late in the tenure of the 15FC, and especially when the final report was expected by the end of October.Read more 

Fiscal constraint prevents stimulus

The interim budget in February gave a substantial stimulus to the taxpayer. Almost three crore taxpayers moved out of the net, as the minimum threshold was raised. Further, the cash transfer to households led to some consumption push, not to forget the electoral gains.Read more 

Reservations may turn out to be vacuous

Both these are part of the fundamental rights conferred by the Constitution upon the citizens of India. The reservation bill amends both these articles by inserting sub-clauses. That these articles were amended with very little prior notice and almost no debate among people’s representatives is alarming, to say the least.Read more