Foreign investment
Four features of Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s budget stand out. First, thanks to its obsession with reducing the fiscal deficit, the budget fails to raise social-sector expenditure – just when…
Moving a bullock-cart of a nation
Unity, faith, discipline...forget the first two: call this a disciplined nation? Put food on the table, say at a marriage feast, and we can’t get that right, scarcely satisfied unless…
Between peril and promise
What is the state of Pakistan`s economy? Or, perhaps of greater relevance, the broader state of the `union`? Each year, the highly-regarded and widely followed annual report of the State…
The care they can take
The constitution is silent on the precise role of the caretaker government. There is a general agreement that the caretaker setup should not take any action that favors one political…
MFN status for India now
ThePakistan government had resolved in principle to give India MFN status by end of 2012. Regrettably, it has sought an extension in the implementation of this decision, an outcome that…
Soptlight: Donkey years? No, much worse!
In business concerns, whether industries or commercial enterprises, there is a two-word term used to describe an employee's experience whose length does not have much to show by way of…
Endemic corruption
Pakistan is going through an immensely difficult era. Is it because of democracy? Is it because of the legacy that Musharraf left behind? Whatever the diagnosis the fact is that…
New bailout package
The government, at the fag end of its tenure, has reportedly invited International Monetary Fund (IMF) for negotiating a three-year bailout programme. It is a rather surprising move, especially its…
Comment: report””s footnotes tell the real story
The footnotes published by the State Bank of Pakistan in its Annual Report 2011-2012, tell the real story of country''''s economy and not the heavily vetted analysis that was issued…
The Congress and the ‘middle class’
Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as the Congress Party’s vice-president was an organisational non-event. He was already functioning as its Number Two, and dynastically destined to succeed his mother. The appointment’s significance…
