Restore Trust for Economic Growth
The Economic Times, October 29, 2012
By Pradeep S
Mehta
Industrial
progress is not the only key to creating economic wealth,
but there are several other flanking and fundamental areas
that need to be reformed. These include, but are not
limited to, governance and administrative reforms, and,
most crucially, restoring trust of people in government.
Only then the National Investment Board proposal will earn
people's confidence. Should the government also not set in
motion a process that can identify and list reform and
remedial measures and report to people periodically? The
checklist could begin with crony capitalism, corruption in
the polity and administrative reforms. Even if we take one
step at a time, it can be done.
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Equity is Good for Growth
The Economic Times, October 08, 2012
By Pradeep S
Mehta
Competition
policy promotes economic equity and democracy, which is a
building block for political democracy. While macro
reforms have to be followed, micro reforms with effective
meso-level institutions are as important to ensure that
markets function well. In fact, the poor suffer more when
markets do not function well. Businesses benefit from
competition reform, so do the poor, as it leads to more
equitable growth. The current buzzword for economic
planning and management is 'inclusive growth'.
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CCI needs to pull up its socks
The Financial Express, October 08, 2012
By Pradeep S
Mehta
Recently, CUTS
published a round-up on the performance of the Competition
Commission of India called “CCI through the lens of
media”. The media scan captures CCI’s reported activities
from 2009 in an attempt to assess how it has performed
since it became active in enforcement. We think that
though still evolving, CCI has been very active in its
role as the competition watchdog. Notwithstanding this,
some deficiencies, such as a lack of sound economic
reasoning in its case analyses and a desired level of
consistency in its orders which is partly attributed to
this, continue to mar its functioning. To do this better,
CCI needs to pull up its socks.
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The two per cent conundrum
Business Standard, October 06, 2012
By Rijit Sengupta
The
implementation of public policies in India is often
characterised by lack of convergence of ideas and
processes, resulting in unnecessary duplication of efforts
and loss of public resources. Such discordant policy
processes not only baffle their implementers, but also
reduce the anticipated benefits considerably. The
development and implementation of the government’s
“corporate social responsibility” (CSR) strategy seem to
have followed this trend. As a result, there is a lot of
confusion and misgivings about how to make it operational.
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East Africa should reassess stand on EPAs
Business Daily Africa,
October 04, 2012
By Fredrick
Njehu
Only 36
countries within the ACP group have concluded some sort of
agreement. Eight of them are yet to sign, and 15 have not
even started the ratification process. The rationale of
the deadline is clear: if any African or Pacific country
wants to continue benefiting from duty-free and quota-free
EPA market access, it must conclude the negotiations
before 2014.
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