Wall Street Journal

India Says No to $80 Toilet Paper

 

 

An anticorruption campaign has given voice to a growing middle class tired of public indignities

Wall Street Journal | September 05, 2011 | Read more

The Next Battleground

Book review for The Wall Street Journal, Saturday Oct 16, 2010
by Gurcharan Das

Robert D. Kaplan, Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, Hardcover, price $28, 384 pages, Random House, 2010

We have come to accept that the 500-year domination of Asia by the West is coming to an end and that the balance of power in the 21st century will rest on the fortunes of China, India and the United States. In “Monsoon,” Robert D. Kaplan goes further, suggesting that it is in the Indian Ocean where history will be made and where the global struggle for democracy, energy, religion and security will be waged.

Wall Street Journal | October 18, 2010 | Read more

Entrepreneurs and Eggplant

  THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

OPINION ASI A
MARCH 8, 2010, 2:06 P.M. ET

Entrepreneurs and Eggplant

A case study in how India's government is the main obstacle to economic progress.

By GURCHARAN DAS

New Delhi

Risk is built into capitalism because the rewards of investment arrive in the future. Risk usually comes from the unknown responses of customers and competitors in the marketplace. But in India, the greatest uncertainty still emanates from government and its overweening regulators, despite 18 years of economic reform. If anything holds India back from realizing its true potential, it is weak institutions of governance.

Wall Street Journal | March 09, 2010 | Read more

The Dharma of Capitalism

The most damaging fallout from this economic crisis may well be a loss of trust in the democratic capitalist system, especially if those who are unemployed and suffering begin to believe that "anything goes" in an unfair world. In the rush to rewrite the rules of the game, policy makers might consider the message of dharma from Indian philosophy and literature, which offers a more nuanced answer to moral failure and the ethics of capitalism.

Wall Street Journal | April 21, 2009 | Read more

Why is India shining?

It has been called the greatest show on earth, and not without reason, as the world's largest electorate of 670 million voters goes to the polls. Although Indians have been voting uninterruptedly for more than 50 years, elections are still festive affairs. They may be cynical about their politicians, but they remain addicted to democracy. Between April 20 and May 10 sixty percent of the India's electorate is expected to vote in 700,000 polling booths via 1.1 million voting machines, supervised by 5.5 million state officials (many of them school teachers). To avoid the Florida fiasco, the Election Commission says that Indian made “high tech voting machines have zero tolerance for failure”.

Wall Street Journal | April 21, 2007 | Read more

India's New Self -Assuredness

NEW DELHI -- Next Monday, India's general elections -- which began on April 20 -- will finally conclude. In an exercise that was both staggered and staggering, 670 million Indians will have had the opportunity to vote at 700,000 polling booths via 1.1 million voting machines -- with all this, the greatest democratic show on earth, supervised by 5.5 million state officials.