Showing 1 - 10 of 10
India needs more leaders like Manmohan Singh
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 10/04/2024
» Almost 10 years after he gave way to Narendra Modi as prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh retired last week from public life. During his long career, Mr Singh also served as chief economist, central bank governor, finance minister, and foreign minister. Although he disappointed many who hoped he would accomplish more, India today owes much of its success to the reforms he implemented.
Imran Khan's election presents a global dilemma
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 01/08/2018
» The cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has finally been accepted as Pakistan's next prime minister. I say "finally" because the election commission managed to add to widespread concerns about the elections by inexplicably delaying its announcement of the outcome.
India's banks need more than a bailout
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 27/10/2017
» India has long been faced with a slow-motion bank crisis.
Bad advice is driving India's bulls
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 15/09/2017
» India's economy is not doing as well as many had hoped. Growth has been slowing for several quarters, and even if there's a slight recovery in coming quarters, the signs for the medium term aren't propitious.
India central bank passes buck back to government
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 04/08/2017
» At their Wednesday meeting, the makers of India's monetary policy cut interest rates only slightly. They would seem to have had little choice -- but also little confidence that a deeper cut would jumpstart the Indian economy.
India's states will pay for populism
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 14/07/2017
» Things only seem to get worse for India's farmers. They'd barely recovered from two years of drought when they were hit by the government's decision last autumn to declare 86% of India's currency illegal. They struggled through that, and the consequent crash in prices, in hopes that this year's monsoon would be healthy. And, although forecasters insisted enough rain would fall, an "unexpected dry spell" is now threatening to ruin their summer crop.
Budget misses chance of jobs focus
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 03/02/2017
» Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in India in May 2014 ardently promising -- like so many chest-thumping leaders elsewhere in the world -- that he would create jobs. The angry and under-employed young people of heavily populated north India, in particular, decided to trust a man who sold himself as a strong, sound steward of the economy.
Budget must address India's reputation problem
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 31/01/2017
» One of the least enviable jobs in the world at the moment has to be that of the Indian finance minister. Arun Jaitley is to present his fourth annual budget to India's parliament tomorrow amid terrible headwinds -- mostly caused by his government's bewildering and disruptive decision to invalidate 86% of India's currency last November. If he's to revive growth, the first thing he has to do is rethink his priorities.
Cash crunch woes only beginning
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 06/01/2017
» 'Give me 50 days, friends," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked citizens after he cancelled 86% of the country's currency notes. After Dec 30, if Indians saw his decision as flawed, he promised to "suffer any punishment". But, he said confidently, if they could bear 50 days of disruption, they would have the "India of their dreams".
'Gradualist' reform slowed growth
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 26/07/2016
» On July 26, 1991, Manmohan Singh -- then Finance Minister, and later prime minister for 10 years -- rose in parliament to deliver an address that would transform India. That speech, outlining the first budget of a just-elected government under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, launched India's journey of economic reform, dismantling many decades-old socialist-style controls on the private sector.