Policy Watch

Policy watch How good is Maharashtra’s land management? RN Bhaskar This is the first part of a two-part analysis of Maharashtra and Sugarcane.  The first part can be found at https://asiaconverge.com/2023/03/maharashtra-has-a-fatal-obsession-for-sugarcane/ Before one attempts to provide an answer to the question in the...

https://www.freepressjournal.in/analysis/the-folly-of-banning-futures-trading-in-commodities A primer for policymakers on commodities trading RN Bhaskar The government never tires of telling people that it wants to empower farmers.  It says it wants to empower commodities trading in futures, and commodity exchanges. This was the claim made by earlier...

https://www.freepressjournal.in/editorspick/options-shrink-but-promise-remains-r-n-bhaskar/1405546   The Indian economy’s options are shrinking, but they’re still there RN Bhaskar -- 29 November, 2018 The next six months will probably be focused on elections.  Planners may not have either the political support or the willingness to deal with serious...

China develops Africa both as Plan B for itself and for the world RN Bhaskar The future of the world will lie in making Africa grow.  That is what China has been doing all along.  That is what India should be...

https://www.freepressjournal.in/analysis/policy-watch-clean-up-the-gold-trade-quickly-as-a-national-priority Gold smuggling- II: Cleaning up the gold trade is a national priority RN Bhaskar (Part I of this series can be found at http://www.asiaconverge.com/2020/10/gold-smuggling-i-is-encouraged-by-flawed-government-policies/) Why should gold be a national priority? There are three reasons why gold assumes immense significance for the integrity...

https://www.freepressjournal.in/editorspick/nothing-is-quiet-on-the-farm-loan-waiver-front/1433503 The farm loan waiver front is getting messier RN Bhaskar -- January 10, 2019 Fiscal discipline threatens to go entirely haywire – at least where some states are concerned. And it has come in the form of farm-loan waivers. This author has...

https://www.freepressjournal.in/editorspick/solar-energyministries-practice-to-deceive Are India's solar energy plans sought to be scuttled? RN Bhaskar  -- October 10, 2019 The performance of prime minister Narendra Modi, at the recently concluded United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, was electrifying (pun intended). He reiterated before...

Power generation is as critical to humans as water, education, and healthcare. The government has goofed badly on all these front At first glance, India has done quite impressively on the power generation front.  Statistics from the Central Electricity...

https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/policy-watch-e-solutions-cannot-substitute-efficiency-integrity-and-intelligence India stunts its own ecommerce potential RN Bhaskar India has always prided itself on its IT (information Technology) skills.  It believes that it can become the world’s outsourcing hub for technology. It believes that it could become the biggest ecommerce and esolutions...

R N Bhaskar 6 January 2014 The government of India likes to claim it is committed to uplifting its people. But, sadly, most numbers point towards a different direction. Consider the table alongside. Even a cursory glance will show you that the...