Gurcharan Das (Official Website)

Tata buys Chrysler for $1

Tata buys Chrysler’ was the headline in the online daily, The Globalist, on 23 February. Its author imagines a scenario in which Ratan Tata buys the Chrysler subsidiary from DaimlerChrysler for a dollar. The famous American car company is cheap because its employees’ health care and pension liability of $20 billion has bankrupted it. The story also has a message for Indians who don’t know quite what to make of the global ambitions of their companies. Continue reading…

A Tale of Two Numbers

India’s New Budget Reveals A Party Still in Love with Bureaucracy.  

On Febuary 28, India’s ruling congress party-led coalition introduced its latest budget, aiming, according to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, “to lift the poor” and close the income gap. The new plan, however, is no more likely to succeed than past efforts. The problem is best understood by focusing on two numbers hidden in the document. One represents a promise to hire 200,000 new schoolteachers; the other, to grant 100,000 scholarships. These two figures underscore both what is right and what is wrong with India today and why its leaders are failing to help the poor. Continue reading…

A tale of two numbers

India’s ruling Congress Party led coalition genuinely wanted this year’s government budget to help lift the poor and narrow the rich-poor divide, but it failed of course. Hidden in the budget, which the Finance Minister, P.C. Chidambaram announced on February 28 were two items that almost escaped notice. One was the provision to hire 200,000 teachers and the other was to give away 100,000 scholarships to schoolchildren. In the profoundly differing stories of these two numbers lies the answer to the question why every Indian government fails to help the poor. India’s economic rise bewilders Indians. Continue reading…