Front Page

• Greeks defy Europe with an overwhelming ‘No’: Greece has voted overwhelmingly to reject the terms that the Eurozone had levied for a bailout of their economy. Basically, this is a situation similar to India in  1991. Then, we had reached a financial crisis, and few conditions were set by people who were willing to help us (like IMF/World Bank) that if we did some things (like undergoing  the processes of LPG), only then would they bail us out. We agreed to those terms and opened up our closed economy to save the country from collapsing financially. Today, Greece owes some people (mostly the EU Bank and some European countries) money, but cannot repay them. These creditors of Greece had set some conditions: that if you take such-and-such steps, only then are we willing to postpone the date of calling in the loans by 3-6 months. The govt did not agree or disagree to the conditions, but asked the people to vote on what they want. In that referendum, Greeks have voted that they do not accept the conditions of the debtors. So, Greece is now risking financial and political isolation within the euro zone and a banking collapse if its creditors refuse further aid.

• GDP upward revision: In January, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released revised estimates for India’s GDP for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14 using a new base year of 2011-12. Economists including Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan have expressed discomfort about these estimates, saying that the picture they paint about the economy does not depict macroeconomic trends over the two years.

Opinion/Editorial

• Right intent, misplaced action: The suspicion among critics is that the decision of the Maharastra government to derecognise institutions imparting religious education only has come under criticism. But it is also true that many madrasas require reform to reach a basic standard before they can be recognised as educational institutions. (Please don’t ignore this development just because it is a state issue. It has the full potential to develop into a national issue, bringing questions about Articles 15, 21A and 25 to the forefront. See the newspaper of July 3 for the original article.)

• Barack Obama’s Indian summer: This doles out some of the achievements of the Barack Obama administration, and the legacy it will leave behind. Consider reading it once if you have interest, or political science optional.

• Why everyone loves ‘good governance’: This is a must-read, and explores the relationship of good governance with corruption and transparency, a hardcore reality in today’s India.

• SECC not irrelevant just yet: The Socio-Economic and Caste Census was meant to help Central and State authorities to come up with a range of indicators for deprivation and help in the efforts to correctly identify poor or deprived people. It was also meant to allow the government to re-evaluate which caste groups were economically worst off and which were better off. Although neither of those objectives is likely to be served,  a mature society should have accurate information on the well-being of its people; and since the SECC is a big step towards this, it should not be branded away as a failure.

Economy/Business

• A slowdown or recession: If there comes a global credit withdrawal, countries from which these withdrawals occur have a very real chance of slipping into depression. For India, the solution is to step up public investments, especially in infrastructure projects and stimulate private investment. India already remains competitive in merchandise exports and services, and these should be maintained and enhanced.