Promoting competition is the need of the hour
Competition is precious. We in India have had precious little of it. Therefore, when the finance minister told us in his budget speech on February 27, 1999, that we need to shift our focus to promoting competition, we welcomed it.

Civil services -- Time to put the glitter back
Red tape was originally a reference to the red ribbons used by the British bureaucracy to tie the bundles of Government correspondences and papers. While bureaucracy was a way of life in Indian administrations even before the British came to India, `red tapism' came into its own with Britain's Indian Civil Service.

Public interest and rule of law
Governance by rule of law enjoins upon authorities the obligation to decide issues affecting the interests of people in a judicial manner.

Regional jets -- Is old really gold?
Regional jets, of 30 to 100 seats, continue to sell in an otherwise depressed market. These range from the simple to the sophisticated, and from new designs to derivatives of old ones.

Capital woes
The relaxation of ADR and GDR norms is a further step in the removal of unnecessary curbs on equity financing. There is no reason why the finance ministry should think that it is more qualified than the markets to judge the suitability of a company for an ADR or a GDR issue.

Empowering TRAI
Court rulings against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have abundantly made clear its perfunctory role in telecom development under a liberalised regime.