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It is tempting to believe the Manmohan Singh's Sharm el-Sheikh goof-up was all his own. He certainly must take a large share of the blame. But, in a fundamental sense, he hasn't done anything that other Indian prime ministers haven't. Singh's naivete in assuming that the insertion of Balochistan in the Indo-Pak statement was something minor will be proven wrong as Pakistan starts tom-tomming Indian encouragement of terrorism on its soil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Eight months ago, when the world was staring at the possibility of its second Great Depression, the uppermost thought in the minds of most governments was how to throw money at the problem and somehow avoid this fate. Today, that danger is gone. Short of showering money on people from helicopters, everything has been done to put cash in the hands of whoever seemed to need it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Peter Principle suggests that every person rises to his level of incompetence. The Principle, enunciated by Laurence J Peter and Raymond Hull some 41 years ago in a path-breaking book, has almost never been contradicted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even as hyper-competition forces diversified conglomerates to divest unrelated businesses and focus on the core, in India a new force will add to the pressures: the proposed goods and services tax (GST). In his Union Budget, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that he intends to shift to GST by next April. That's just eight months away. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If blame has to be apportioned for the god-awful mess in civil aviation, and for Air India's latest flirtation with bankruptcy, here's the obvious candidate: Praful Patel, the minister in charge. In the last five-and-odd years that he has been at the helm, he has, almost single-handedly, brought the sector to its knees. Both airports and airlines are gasping for breath. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the paradoxes concerning former finance minister P Chidambaram is that he had the best ideas, but only an average ability to implement them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For nearly two decades now, Kashmiris have been battling off and on for azadi. They are fighting for a wrong cause, a cause that may have made some sense 60 years ago, but not in today's world of globalisation, economic migration, demographic pressure and multiculturalism. Kashmir is never going to be independent, because its independence is defined in xenophobic terms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Anyone who has lived in India knows one thing for sure: when government appoints a committee or commission to suggest something or find something out, they don't necessarily want to hear the answers. Committees are a way to avoid decisions, not to make them. Commissions may be used to harass or embarrass people out of power. They are not meant to report the truth or deliver justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Whoever thought up the 90-10 quota scheme for students seeking admission to junior colleges in Maharashtra needs to have his butt (or butts) kicked. Quite apart from the fact that the Bombay high court has thoroughly exposed the state government's transparent effort to pander to the SSC stream, there is a more fundamental issue at stake here: does the state have a right to arbitrarily change the rules in the middle of the game, leading to unnecessary confusion and tension? Can the goalposts be shifted when the game is on? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three words sum up Pranab Mukherjee's short, and not so sweet, budget speech: yesterday, today and tomorrow. The approach was so yesterday, the proposals all about meeting the needs of today, and the best ideas were left for tomorrow. No great flashes of brilliance punctuated Mukherjee's speech. Caution and incrementalism were the watchwords. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The needless controversy over the burkha stirred up by French president Nicolas Sarkozy did serve two useful purposes: one is to reaffirm the importance of the liberal ethos; the other is to remind us that even democracies may not be all that liberal when we scratch a bit below the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Picture yourself doing this. You buy a plasma TV at a high price. The salesman is not only rude, but treats you like dirt. You swallow the humiliation, for you badly want that TV. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UPA government's decision to appoint Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, to head the Unique Identification Card mission is an inspired one. If it works - and we must make it work - it should pave the way for the induction of competent private sector professionals of the calibre of KV Kamath at ICICI Bank, S Ramadorai at TCS, or Deepak Parekh of HDFC - to name just a few - for running gigantic public sector initiatives. It is sheer waste of national resources to let professional expertise remain confined to private enterprises when the country needs them more. These professionals bring not only the knowledge of a competitive operating environment, but leadership capabilities, integrity and a commitment to performance that the government often lacks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Maoist threat in Lalgarh, West Bengal, is less an indicator of the growing strength of violent Left-wing groups than of the state's unwillingness to confront them. With an estimated committed cadre of around 10,000 combatants all over India, it is not beyond the power of the Central and state governments to defeat, disband and rehabilitate them over the next couple of years. But through sheer callousness and carelessness we have allowed a minor threat to grow into a Frankenstein. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the first week of July, Pranab Mukherjee will be the cynosure of all eyes as he presents the second UPA administration's first full-fledged budget. It is for this moment in the sun that all politicians vie for this ministry. This is the reason why Sonia Gandhi could not let Manmohan Singh have his way and appoint Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a bureaucrat, hold the job. It is too important a carrot to throw to politically insignificant people. If Manmohan had suggested Montek for any other job, he is more likely to have succeeded. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The world is never short of rogue states. Think North Korea. Burma. Sudan. And even Pakistan. Rogue states exist because they have sponsors. For much of the 20th century, and especially before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the US and USSR backed every possible tinpot dictator in the world. Today, that chief sponsor of rogue states is China. It backs each one of the four rogue (or near-rogue) states mentioned above. In its cynical pursuit of global hegemony, China provides succour to many unsavoury regimes as long as it can achieve its own strategic goals. These goals include finding cheap energy sources or overawing current and future rivals (Japan, Taiwan, India). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bankers say the feel-good sentiment in the economy will help India more than any sop given to any particularly sector. In the second and concluding part of DNA Conversations (the first was published on Thursday), Kamlesh Rao, head of retail assets at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Ashish Vaidya, head of interest rate trading at HDFC Bank, R V S Sridhar, head of markets at Axis Bank, C S Jain, head, personal banking group, at IDBI Bank, and S Rajendran, general manager, treasury and international banking, Union Bank of India, discuss the forthcoming budget and the global scenario. R Jagannathan & Joel Rebello moderated the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth, one is not sure what he meant. But he sure got it right. This article will explore the many dimensions of meekness, and how the meek are indeed inheriting the earth and vice-versa: the earth is also inheriting the meek. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interesting times these surely are, what with the upswing in the equity and currency markets. And interest rates have yo-yoed like rarely ever over the last 12 months. In the context, DNA Money organised a Conversations event with bankers last week to discuss the latest trends. Kamlesh Rao, head of retail assets at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Ashish Vaidya, head of interest rate trading at HDFC Bank, R V S Sridhar, head of markets at Axis Bank, C S Jain, executive director and head of personal banking at IDBI Bank, and S Rajendran, general manager, treasury and international banking, Union Bank of India took part in the discussion moderated by R Jagannathan & Joel Rebello. Excerpts: [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last few weeks, the world has come face to face with Australian racism. Australia has some of the toughest anti-racial legislation in the world, just as we have some of the most draconian anti-casteism laws. But legislation does not make a society less racist, less communal or less casteist. Only steady social change, continuous interaction between communities, a liberal education system and empowerment of the downtrodden can do that. But that's a long process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of our basic assumptions - that the Congress has emerged stronger after the recent elections - is already being put to the test. The idea that its allies have lost the ability to rock the boat is floundering. The Congress may have left Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party and Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal sulking in their tents, but other allies are giving it a tough time. Among them: DMK's M Karunanidhi and Trinamool's Mamata Banerjee. With an assembly election due later this year, one shouldn't discount Sharad Pawar's ability to extract more juice out of the Congress either. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Is the worst over for the world economy? Or for India? The US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke announced two months ago that he had seen "green shoots" of recovery. The shoots included a skimpy recovery in consumer spending, and a reduction in the speed with which home sales were falling. That, plus the fact that Chinese growth has picked up, gave the market enough reason for a rally. Many stock analysts, in fact, announced the start of a new bull market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emphatic victory of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) may not have one single explanation. There are state-level explanations for its victories in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and West Bengal, for instance. But the fact that the party dented rivals such as BJP and Mayawati in their home bases suggests that its message struck a chord. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The end of a marathon election season brings little hope for India. Even if the Congress or the BJP were to win 180 seats, there will be no end to political uncertainty, since that depends on their partners. With each front requiring the equivalent of another 90 seats to reach the magic figure of 272, it means roping in at least five unstable partners with 10-25 seats each at the minimum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three seminal events have given rise to a new economic vision. It's called socio-capitalism, a term that seeks to combine the best ideals of socialism while mitigating the worst features of capitalism. It's being discussed in blogosphere, and some critics of market fundamentalism - Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz and Raghuram Rajan, among others - have discussed it elliptically ("Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists", et al). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the bitter ethnic war in Sri Lanka inches towards a bloody climax, the questions that arise are the following: What did the war achieve for either side? What were the concessions the Sinhalese could have made to avoid so much bloodshed? What could the Tamils have accepted short of independence? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Last Monday, when the Supreme Court asked the special investigation team to probe Narendra Modi's role in the Gujarat violence of 2002, his political rivals were quick to demand his resignation or apology, or both. Why not ask for the moon when you know you win either way? If Modi obliges, you've achieved your political goal of getting him to eat crow. If he doesn't, you've proved that, maybe, he has something to hide. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When Bhima and Duryodhana were fighting the last major battle of the Mahabharata, the combat was turning out to be indecisive, with neither gaining an edge. When Krishna realised this, he quietly intervened and showed Bhima his adversary's vulnerable spots. Bhima took the hint and kayoed Duryodhana in due course. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ongoing general election will prove to be a watershed for the Indian polity. Not because the results will be dramatically different from the last time but because the change will be subtle. Give or take a few seats here and there, we are going to end up with the Congress and the BJP remaining as the largest single parties. We will also - alas - be stuck with a whole bunch of regional parties that will make - and finally break - the next government. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The quick sale of Satyam Computer Services to Tech Mahindra is less a tribute to the new management's efficiency than the government's anxiety to quickly bury the corporate-cum-political scam at the root of it all. With the company's future assured, one can be fairly certain now that the investigations by the Andhra police and the CBI will not lead to any politician, least of the Andhra CM, YS Rajasekhar Reddy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Never underestimate the wrath of the timid man. The NDA's prime ministerial hopeful, Lal Krishna Advani, has been stung by the surprisingly bitter counter-attacks of Manmohan Singh, who has managed to wound the former by his sharp diatribes on the Kandahar, Babri Masjid, and Gujarat episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The best thing to own during a recession is cash. With everything going crash-bang-thud, hard cash gives you a sense of security, especially when inflation is not denting its value. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Is there really a difference between low-cost and full-service carriers? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The forthcoming elections will be India's most undemocratic exercise ever. Violence, money power, authoritarian leadership and empty rhetoric are the key currencies in use, and we are sure to end up with a verdict that will sanctify rule by one group of thugs rather than the other. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rapid rate at which western icons are biting the dust suggests that we need a new formula for corporate success. While conglomerates are going the way of T-Rex - GE is the latest one to unravel - it's not as if other ways of running companies are faring any better. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If you have been watching the regular eruption of Hindutva frenzy in various parts of the country over the past decade - Gujarat, Mangalore, Kandhamal, and, now, Pilibhit - you must be wondering why so many Hindus are losing it. What is happening to the old belief in tolerance? Why are people becoming obsessed with "defending our culture," making hate speeches (as in Varun Gandhi's "hath kaat doonga"), and beating up women pub-goers? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If you have been watching the regular eruption of Hindutva frenzy in various parts of the country over the past decade - Gujarat, Mangalore, Kandhamal, and, now, Pilibhit - you must be wondering why so many Hindus are losing it. What is happening to the old belief in tolerance? Why are people becoming obsessed with "defending our culture," making hate speeches (as in Varun Gandhi's "hath kaat doonga"), and beating up women pub-goers? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Investing your money has just got more complicated. Thanks to the dramatic drop in inflation, interest rates are barrelling downwards. The stock market has rebounded this week, but it's not worth betting your life's savings on it. It doesn't know whether it is going or coming. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The impending success of the Tata Nano should force a rethink among urban transport planners. Not because the Nano is going to clog the roads and foul up the air - every vehicle does that, never mind how many wheels it has - but because everyone will now have to remove his blinkers. The Nano bridges the perception gap between two-wheelers and cars, and this is a good thing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We often rail against political parties for unprincipled alliances. No doubt many of our politicians are unprincipled, but sometimes we need to question widely-held assumptions. If every politician behaves in the same way, maybe there is something we are missing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the next few weeks, India's national and regional political parties will test their inherent brand strengths with the electorate. By mid-May we will have answers to questions like these: Are national brands such as Congress and BJP losing out to regional brands? Which brands are growing in strength and which ones stagnating? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If democracy is about choice, India's hapless voter is inundated with it. The real problem is figuring out who constitutes the lesser evil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The results of the Bhadohi byelections in Uttar Pradesh provide a counterpoint to the widespread assumption that the rise of Mayawati is inevitable. This is not to suggest that she won't be prime minister after the next election, but that will happen only in the context of the fact that any ambitious politician can indeed become PM, given the right kind of political arithmetic or stalemate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As banks collapse and government bailouts proliferate, it's difficult to see how capitalism is going to reinvent itself. When last heard of, Citibank, a bank 20 times bigger than State Bank of India, had a market value just about equal to the latter. Giant enterprises - from GE to GM - were either tottering from market blows or emitting death rattle sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The coming general election in April-May will be a good one to lose. Whoever wins will struggle to hold on to power; whoever loses will get an inside edge at the next elections, which may come as early as 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the major miracles of the UPA regime has been the dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the railways. Lalu Prasad, the man credited for this transformation, boasted last week that he had delivered a surplus of Rs 90,000 crore over 5 years in an enterprise that was heading towards bankruptcy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Every thinking person knows that the secular-liberal space is shrinking. It is shrinking not only in India, but in the whole subcontinent, and possibly all over the world. Even in the stoutly secular European Union, growing Islamophobia has sharpened religious antagonisms within. This is evidence of the hidden threat to liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Satyam fraud investigations are meandering into irrelevance. A curious convergence of political, regional and business interests is conspiring to derail the probe. The prime minister does not want Satyam to sink as it might dent India's global IT image. The UPA's political leadership cannot let a corruption scandal damage Andhra chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR) in an election year. With him goes the Congress party's hope of returning to power as head of the next coalition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The other day, the promoter of Subhiksha, a beleaguered grocery chain, summed up the corporate world's current dilemma simply. "We did not raise enough equity and we paid the price," the chain's managing director, R Subramanian, said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sometimes, we miss the wood for trees. Our columnists and commentators have latched on to the anti-pub culture remarks of BS Yeddyurappa, Ashok Gehlot and Anbumani Ramadoss to score semantic points. One critic pointed out the double-standards behind targeting pub culture - what's okay for men is not okay for women. Others have lampooned politicians for targeting minor vices like pub culture when horrendous evils like corruption and street violence go unchecked. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]