At least 100,000 trade unionists marched through New Delhi on Wednesday in a protest against high food prices and unemployment, piling pressure on an administration under fire over corruption scandals. The demonstration was the biggest in New Delhi in years and included members of a trade union linked to the ruling Congress party, reflecting disquiet within the party over food inflation which hit a high of over 18 percent last December. It...

The Government does not bother to know what crops are being sown “India's daily turnover from vegetables and fruits could be easily about Rs. 275 crores (US$ 59 million). The estimated cost of ‘wastage' per day, is around Rs. 130 crores (US$ 27 million). In summary, it's a lot bigger than some of the Indian IT sector's daily turnover”, says Mr. Venkat Subramanian, Founder and Managing Director, Matchbox Solutions, a company...

When it came to power in May 2009, some ministers in the UPA government had set themselves a deadline of 100 days to show results. But one year and nine-odd months later, the report card of its flagship programmes in nine states hit by Maoism is dismal. Much of the money allocated has gone unspent, according to the “performance study” the Planning Commission conducted in these states and submitted to...

With India growing faster than almost every other large economy, the government is right to address its long-run challenges. The push for investment in infrastructure is bearing fruit and the expansion of social programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the Right to Education Act (RTE) is spreading the benefits of growth across the population. But just as improved infrastructure doesn’t eliminate all traffic jams, rapid growth...

Then Clive Lloyd took over the West Indies cricket team, he knew he was no Garfield Sobers. Lloyd focused on infusing discipline and strategy sessions with the team. "Both exceptional leaders, Sobers led by example, while Lloyd built a team. I suspect Jairam Ramesh is more like Sobers," an environment analyst sums up his assessment of the minister. The Sobers analogy crops up, in explicit and implicit ways, in any...