It is time for India's government to put its money where its mouth is. New Delhi has raised some $30 billion since March by selling state assets and telecom airwaves. That is about as much as the country will attract in foreign direct investment this fiscal year. There is one area above all else where this money should be directed: food security. New Delhi talks a lot about guaranteeing food for India's...

“To make democracy function effectively, we must have inclusive growth. Microfinance has given a choice to those who were earlier excluded from the traditional institutional mode of finance. Since more than 80 per cent of Indian farmers do not get loans from such institutions, emergence of micro-finance has been beneficial to the rural poor.” Dr Amiya Sharma, executive director of the Rastriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi (RGVN) opined this at the fourth...

The economic resolution adopted by the All India Congress Committee at the Burari session is a reiteration of the party’s last two election manifestos. It combines a commitment to rapid economic growth with that to redistributive policies that would help make the growth process socially inclusive. There is a helpful explanation of the three sources of inflation — excess demand, improved prices to farmers and global commodity price inflation —...

In this winter of gloom, doom and corruption, the government can bask in some warmth from data collected by its statistical agencies. (Alas, these agencies have yet to hire some basic data-processing capabilities from minor computer firms, let alone agencies like Infosys. Perhaps Nandan Nilekani can loan some programmers from the UID project.) So what is the issue, and what is the evidence?It was only a few months ago that...

India will not be a nation until the aam aadmi's “progress is based not on who he knows but on what he knows,” Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi told cheering delegates at the 83rd plenary session at Burari here on Sunday. On a day when his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi declared war on corruption, Mr. Gandhi's devastating critique of the “system” took the audience by surprise. “Corruption is...