Economy
VISION 2020 -- `Rurban' habitat: The promised land?
This is the 23rd article in the Vision 2020 series. The previous one was published on July 3.
Editorial
Keep the doors open
LIMITED COMPETITION MAY be better than no competition. But it is still a poor substitute for unrestricted competition. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) did not quite agree with that, and advocated the admission of only four players into the lon
g-distance telephony market through a bidding process. Clearly, the DoT was trying to make the long-distance service provider club exclusive and orderly by setting tough qualifying criteria. But the Prime Minister's dramatic policy push over the weekend
promising free and unrestricted entry into the business has cleansed the landscape. The Prime Minister has also reflected a fairly broad-minded attitude to the benefits of free competition by drawing reference to the gains made through a liberal licensin
g policy for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The free competition in the ISP arena has contributed to a rapid proliferation of ISPs and sharply falling Internet tariffs for the consumer. Given the overwhelming advantages to be gained from free competi
tion, the Prime Minister has placed faith in the market forces to regulate the players in the best possible manner.
Food & Dairy Products
Indian liquor market in a tizzy
DESPITE AN unfavourable policy environment, multinational companies remain optimistic and continue to bring in new brands to the Indian liquor market.
Miscellaneous
AP's Vision 2020 -- Succour for child workers and illiterates?
EDUCATION is crucial for the development of the human personality. It provides knowledge, skills and shores up the individual's self-confidence. Indeed, the lowest paid job in any sector is no longer available to the uneducated. Education is the sine qua
non for development -- material, intellectual and spiritual. Unfortunately, 43 years after Andhra Pradesh's formation, 56 per cent of the population remains illiterate.
Conversions
THE ISSUE of religious conversions has gripped the public mind in India and abroad, following the incidents of arson and murder in some states involving Christian priests and churches. However reprehensible such episodes may be
, there is absolutely no sense in brushing the contributory factors under the carpet and mouthing platitudes about Constitutional provisions permitting the propagation of religion, and the individual's right to convert to whatever reli
gion (s)he wants.
Economy and statute review
ON JULY 8, the spokesman for the Constitution Review Commission, Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy, announced that the panel would look into the nation's economic policy and assess whether ``globalisation'' had helped alleviate poverty or not. To quote him: ``P
overty is one of the major concerns and we have to see whether the new economic policy has contributed to the eradication of poverty or actually further added to it.''
