Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Feb 01, 2011

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator

The very special Mr Warren Buffet

This is a story about a hiatus between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law; an example of how loopholes in law can be exploited to defeat its spirit. This is an account of how Berkshire Hathaway, one of the largest insurance companies in the world headed by well-known investor Warren Buffet, has been able to make a back-door entry into India’s insurance industry, bypassing the limits or caps on foreign direct investment (FDI) that have been imposed by the government.

Criminal justice

It has become a cliché to reiterate the fact that justice delayed is justice denied. At the same time, there are examples of how the long arm of the law has an uncanny knack of catching up with criminals many years after they have committed a crime.

Corruption, fast forward

The lasting legacy of the agitation led by Anna Hazare will not be the yet-to-be-enacted legislation to set up a Lokpal and Lokayuktas in all states, but the attention that has been drawn to the brazen corruption that pervades life in India.

Anna’s long shadow on Red Fort

The shadow of Anna Hazare loomed large over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech. Though he did not mention him by name, Dr Singh’s concern over the anti-corruption campaign and his government was apparent. But, by holding out veiled threats against him and by trashing those who are rallying behind him, the cheerleaders of the government and the Congress Party are willy-nilly elevating Mr Hazare’s stature — perhaps to a position as high as that of Jayaprakash Narayan around whom the Right and the Left came together in the 1970s in the wake of the imposition of the Emergency.

Skeletons from Bellary

Three years and two months after he was sworn in as the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of a state in southern India, Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa was asked by his party bosses to put in his papers. He did not do so gracefully. He left kicking and screaming. Next in line to lose his job is Gali Janardhan Reddy, Karnataka’s minister for infrastructure development, tourism and youth affairs.

What price, lost land!

Indian National Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is clear that land acquisition is going to be a major plank in his party’s electoral campaign against the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party regime led by Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.

PM & a world of uncertainties

Opinion is divided on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refurbished his image after addressing television editors on February 16 and his session with five senior editors from the print media on June 29. While there are some who argue that Dr Singh came out of the media interactions appearing more sincere and in complete

Don’t cage CAG

Union minister for human resources development Kapil Sibal has called for a debate on the role of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. This suggestion has come in the wake of recent findings of the CAG that have embarrassed the government considerably.

Loan politics

When, in February 2008, the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government announced a more than `70,000 crores farm loan waiver scheme, it was hailed as a path-breaking move that would go a long way towards alleviating an important problem afflicting Indian agriculture, that is, rural indebtedness. What is more, the decision to writeoff bank loans

Why is the UPA so nervous?

It is two years since the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was elected to power with a stronger-than-before mandate, independent of outside support from the Left. The political Opposition to the ruling coalition has become weaker in this period. Yet, paradoxically, having entered his eighth year as Prime Minister of India, if Manmohan Singh

Horoscope