Economy
Money laundering -- Can legislative fiat prevent it?
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act is comprehensive, lucid and unambiguous -- rare features in most Central legislation. But given the increasing application of information technology in the banking system, by which funds can be transferred at the cl
ick of a mouse, it remains to be seen if the Act will achieve its objectives, says K. S. V. Menon.
Project appraisals: Poor perspective
IN THE context of liberalisation during the 1990s, appraisal of projects has come to be regarded more as an exercise in `credit'. Several institutions which did not have the technical, managerial, financial and economic appraisal, have started assessing
`projects' and making public issues for the same.
Editorial
Shed this phobia
THE NOTION THAT the Government should not intervene in routine lending decisions of the country's financial institutions is now so well set that it hardly needs reiteration. Yet it is unfortunate that every now and then the issue crops up in the corridor
s of the Government. The provocation for a fresh round of debate on the subject has come from the decision of ICICI to support the French cement major Lafarge's acquisitions in the domestic cement industry.
Miscellaneous
New and old
ALMOST insidiously, the appellation `new economy', has wormed its way into common parlance. It connotes a fully wired economy, the whole gamut of which is determined by global networks, made possible by instantly established
computer connectivities based on information technology. It is a phenomenon which is also considered part of the new ICE (infotech, communications, entertainment) age sweeping the planet.
A billion enemies
GANDHI, and I do not mean the incumbent Congress(I) president, was absolutely appalled and disgusted by the way Indians treat animals. He even remarked that the mark of a civilised society was how it treated animals, and we fell very far short o
f his idea of civilisation. His words were but dust in the wind.
Politics
Sri Lanka: The dilemma
THE RECENT decline in the momentum of the LTTE's advance in the Jaffna area could be attributed to its difficulties in countering the new aircraft acquired by the Sri Lankan Air Force from Israel; the militant outfit running out of anti-aircraft ammuniti
on; and the expiry of the batteries for the SAM missiles procured in 1994.
