Economy
A look at the quick estimates
THE Central Statistical Organisation has released the Quick Estimates of National Incomes for 1998-99. The constant price estimates are at 1993-94 prices. From 1993-94, the national income base was enlarged to take into account new activities, especially in horticulture, transportation (other than railways) and communications. The last includes the impact of the changes in the information technology and communication sectors. This article discusses the salient features in the estimates and indicates the broad trends between 1993-94 and 1998-99, in which period the economy grew 6.3 per cent per annum.

Editorial
Coal reforms
BY EASING FOREIGN investment norms, New Delhi has tried to push coal sector reforms, carried out in fits and starts over the last five-six years. The newly-formed Ministry of Mines and Minerals _ with which the erstwhile Coal Ministry has been integrated _ is working on wide-ranging amendments to the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act to deepen reforms, and indications are that a Bill will be brought forward in the Budget session of Parliament. Ideally, the Commerce and Industry Ministry should have timed t he relaxation in foreign investment norms with the passage of the Bill. That would have enabled prospective investors, domestic and foreign, take a composite view of coal sector reforms. The Centre cannot deny that its efforts to involve the private sect or in coal mining, in the limited context of captive consumption for power generation, have virtually drawn a blank. Foreign investors cannot be expected to flock into an area Indian private sector investors are avoiding as liberalisation thus far has no t been inviting enough. Wholesale changes in the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act, therefore, hold the key.

Miscellaneous
Not a drop to drink
THE recent decision of the Delhi government, ignoring the Supreme Court's directive, allowing polluting industries to drain effluents into the Yamuna, is indicative of the political and bureaucratic indifference to continuous water quality deterioration.

Politics
A Government that works
IF ANYONE had an iota of doubt about whether the Vajpayee Government is one that works, the alacrity with which it has moved on the Constitution-review issue should help to remove it once and for all.

Sugar
Policy flip-flop that leaves sugar bitter
IT IS a classic Jekyll-and-Hyde approach. On December 30, the Government raises the import duty on sugar from 27.5 per cent to 40 per cent to the domestic industry's delight.

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