Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Feb 01, 2011

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator

And the rupee wept on

Greece is in turmoil. Europe is in the throes of a double-dip recession exacerbated by a sovereign debt crisis. The future of the euro is in doubt.

Banquo’s ghost and 2G spectre

A battle is raging in India’s telecommunications industry.

At a time when the entire economy of the planet is yet to recover from the debilitating impact of the Great Recession of 2008 and the economic health of the European Union continues to remain rather p

A quick march to anarchy

Is India going through a phase of anarchy in the most negative sense of the term? Yes, indeed. There is a Union government in New Delhi but it is not providing effective governance.

Last chance for real reforms

Will the outcome of the Assembly elections cast its long shadow on the Union Budget for 2012-13 which will be presented by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday? It is unrealistic to expect Budget proposals to be made in a political vacuum. The annual presentation of the Budget of the Government of India is much more than a bland statement of the assets and liabilities, profits and losses of the world’s largest democracy. It is much more than an accounting exercise. The announcement of the Budget proposals is an occasion that not only provides an opportunity for the government to indicate the future direction of its economic policies and programmes, but also to make important statements of political intent.

Taxes and borders

The unprecedented case relating to the income-tax department’s demand for Rs 11,000 crore in the form of capital gains tax from Vodafone International, which was rejected by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice of India, S.H. Kapadia, has become extremely murky and convoluted with an advocate petitioning for a reconsideration of the judgment on the ground that the Chief Justice should not have heard the case since his son is working for a consulting firm that had advised Vodafone on its tax dispute with the I-T authorities.

On Internet, a need for definition

Union minister for communications and information technology Kapil Sibal may claim to executives of Internet companies that he is ready to set fundamentalist hound-dogs belonging to a certain unnamed

UP and UPA

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati is no pushover. She will hit the road after all her political rivals. But it is clear that her election campaign will be a juggernaut. The leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), unlike most politicians, cares two hoots about the media, especially the English-language media. But she is conscious about building her public image as a no-nonsense administrator. After sacking 10 of her ministers in 10 days, she decided to deny half the sitting BSP MLAs tickets to contest the forthcoming polls.

A satrap plans siege of Centre

The past few months have indicated that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is one of the canniest politicians in India at present. She turns 57 on January 5. In a country where geriatrics still wield relatively greater influence and power, she has displayed instincts that are astute beyond her years. She has demonstrated that she possesses ruthless abilities to arm-twist her bigger partners in ways which few could have imagined, leave alone anticipated. She has shown that behind her apparently whimsical persona lurks a political animal that waits for her stronger quarry to show signs of weakness before striking to wound, not kill.

Is it fine to extenuate?

Imagine a situation where a person is found guilty of having committed a crime by a court of law after following a due process of ascertaining guilt. Imagine in this situation that the maximum penalty for having committed the offence is 20 years behind bars. The judge thereafter exercises his discretionary powers and pronounces that the guilty individual will be punished by paying a fine amounting to, say, `20 and by saying, “Sorry I shall never again do what I did.”

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