Electoral bonds: Why it is a giant scam
Imagine a house. The residents of this house are general fans of cleanliness. But one day, everyone wakes up to find a small pile of garbage in the living room. The residents shake their heads, point towards the pile, and start complaining. Suddenly, a cape-wearing bearded man appears and says:
INTERVIEW | ADR founder Jagdeep S. Chhokar on electoral bonds: ‘There is a lot still unaccounted for’
Jagdeep Chhokar. | Photo Credit: By special arrangement The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was the lead petitioner in the challenge to the electoral bonds scheme (EBS). It went to court in 2017 when the scheme was first introduced. Jagdeep Chhokar, one of the three founder-members of ADR, is a
SUM AND SUBSTANCE | Global rupee: Look before you leap
Speaking at the 90th anniversary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was time for the RBI to prepare a 10-year strategy to make the Indian rupee a global currency, one that was “accessible and acceptable” across the world. Extolled by the Prime Minister
Economic Perspectives | C.P. Chandrasekhar writes: How Thames Water symbolises the collapse of neoliberal privatisation
Thames Water, one of England’s many regional water monopolies, infamously privatised by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and symbolising the dramatic turn in economic policy that neoliberalism implied, is finally collapsing. Unable to mobilise £500 million from shareholders who have milked the company over the years, Kemble Water, the parent
Fate of Vizag Steel hangs in the balance with elections around the corner
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s return to power at the Centre in 2019 marked the beginning of their unrelenting stance to privatise the state-owned Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (Vizag Steel) in Andhra Pradesh. However, as the 2024 elections draw close, State leaders from the BJP and their alliance partners, the Telugu Desam
India Inc. and its changing hues in BJP’s India
Across the posh multi-storey homes of South Delhi, there is a new common theme. Saffron flags lie limp in the oppressive heat at the entrances of houses, residential housing societies and on scores of balconies, teeming with planters and elaborate windchimes. Distributed ahead of the Ram Temple inauguration, the saffron
The case for inheritance tax: Combating inequality and promoting social mobility
A feature of the ongoing election to the 18th Lok Sabha is an extraordinarily communal campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The debate on the reintroduction of inheritance tax and wealth tax in the country is an example of this. The Prime Minister began by misinterpreting an old speech
Economic Perspectives | C.P. Chandrasekhar writes: The hype around World Bank new chief Ajay Banga
Less than a year ago, Ajay Banga, a former chief executive of Mastercard, was picked to head the World Bank. Putting a Wall Street player addicted to profits in charge of a development institution claiming to help lift poor countries out of their underdevelopment seemed incongruous. Given that the Bank
Long on rhetoric, short on practice: Modi government battling corruption
A decade ago, in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Narendra Modi, then still the Chief Minister of Gujarat, famously declaimed: “Na khaoonga, na khaane doonga” (Neither will I take bribes, nor will I let others take bribes). He added that he would bring back illegal wealth stashed away
Era of deprivation: India is haunted by an unprecedented economic deprivation
The economic situation in the country today is extremely grim. It consists in the fact that the economy, through its spontaneous functioning, does not provide a level of income to the overwhelming majority of people that is enough to buy even a subsistence bundle of goods by contemporary standards. The