Banking and Finance
Sterile debate on interest rates
THE REDUCTION in the interest rate by the Government on public provident fund (PPF) and other small-savings instruments, such as National Savings Certificates and post-office monthly income accounts, by one percentage point has triggered an interesting
debate on whether it signals a lower interest rate regime.
Editorial
Pruning subsidies
FACED WITH A worsening fiscal situation that is threatening to get out of control, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, recently warned of `hard options' and the Government having to `bite the bullet'.
Miscellaneous
E-xtortion
IT HAD to happen some day, and already there are enough signs that electronic extortion is all set to become the scourge of the 21st century. No wonder. The very fact of exponential growth of some of the mightiest companies engaged in e-commerce and cont
ent sites on the World Wide Web has put an idea or two in the minds of blackmailers prowling the Net looking to start protection money rackets in cyberland.
Tilting at farm income-tax
THE day of the Union Budget is fast approaching, and the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, will present his third successive edition on February 29. That, by itself, is a remarkable feat. Mr. Sinha, in presenting the first Budget of the new century,
is under pressure to present a milestone version that would mark the beginning of a new economic epoch.
Politics
`Haiderisation' of Europe?
IF MR. JOERG Haider is Austria's Mr. Bal Thackeray, then Austria is today the European Union's Kerala or Kelantan (of Malaysia).
`Bihar awaits knowledge-based economic development'
The industrial revolution might have left Bihar behind, but the backward State can overcome this disadvantage in the coming years if it makes a leap to knowledge-based education, which is going to play a major role in this century, says the well-known ec
onomist from Bihar, Dr. Shaibal Gupta, founder-member and Member-Secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute, in Patna.
