How an image-fixated chief minister has bent the state’s media to his will If you haven’t heard of an income tax raid on the residential premises of Nitish Kumar’s close aide and treasurer of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Vinay Kumar Sinha, you are not alone. Thanks to the local media, it took a while even in Patna—where the house is located—for people to get to know. This, incidentally, is the...

Statistics can abet illusions, unless properly understood and used. The debates on poverty line and budget deficits reflect a lack of understanding of the meaning and purpose of these measures. India has been recently witness to furious debates on measures of poverty and budget deficits. Any measure can be used only for the purpose it is designed for. The debates in the present cases were furious, because preconceptions and emotions were...

-PTI A government sub-committee looking into probable sources of funds for urban transport projects in the 12th Plan has suggested the creation of a national fund, resource for which can be generated through taxes on vehicles and petrol consumption.  The recent report of the Sub-Committee on Financing Urban Infrastructure in the 12th Plan said investments to the tune of 87,000 crore were required in the Five Year Plan duration.  The huge investment needs...

Despite the high-theatrics rollback of the Railway Budget, the government is confident of being able to push ahead with the reforms agenda. Despite the high-theatrics rollback of the Railway Budget, the government is confident of being able to push ahead with the reforms agenda. In an e-mailed post-Budget interview, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee took questions from Outlook’s Lola Nayar and Sebastian P.T. Edited excerpts: The government has managed to get UPA...

By the sheer loudness of their protests, NGOs, journalists and intellectuals have bamboozled the prime minister into withdrawing the latest Planning Commission report. The report had shown accelerated poverty reduction, a perfectly plausible outcome in view of accelerated growth since 2003-04. But the critics are not happy that India is succeeding in combating destitution. They therefore tirelessly invent myths to muddy the discourse. If we are to avoid costly policy...