From the Editor : Anil Tyagi

The Indian economy is in a tailspin. And it is fast spinning out of control. From a slowdown over the past few quarters, we may walk into a fully-blown recession within a year, i.e. in 2020. One is unable to understand why the Modi 2.0, which knows what to do, isn’t doing anything about it. Experts talk about a challenging period ahead. For those who know, this implies that the economy needs to be pulled out of the current malaise. The time for nudge and stimulus is gone. Now, we need drastic and focused policies and decisions. 

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CORRUPTION : FROM RAJ TO RAFALE 12 : Rob Peter to Pay Peter

For the past three decades, it proved to be the dreaded ‘D’ word. Disinvestment ensured that the cash-rich public sector undertakings (PSUs) remained the milking cows for the political elite, either directly or indirectly. Earlier, they were inefficient because their earnings were religiously siphoned off by politicians, civil servants, senior managers of the companies, and private contractors. Post-privatisation, they were used to cook the government’s books, and to further crony capitalism. Thus, the PSUs remained the sacred placed where the powers-that-be offered prayers of corruption, and receive illegitimate blessings.

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COVER STORY : India Inc. in distress

This is the age of terror – physical (blasts, shootings, and crashes), cyber-warfare (Russia’s alleged influence on elections in the US, Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia), and financial (attacks on currencies, stocks, and businesses). India is clearly affected by the first two, which is evident from events in Kashmir and the North East, and the extensive misuse of social media for political and electoral reasons. However, a sacking and a death in the past few weeks indicate that financial terror too has gripped the country.

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GOVERNANCE : Hamster on a wheel

The demand to ban TikTok and break the encryption technology of WhatsApp highlights the challenges that rapidly evolving digital technologies pose for India. The absence of data protection laws further exacerbates the problem, leaving millions of Indians vulnerable to behavioural manipulation by vested groups. Vivek Mukherji reports. 

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GOVERNANCE : RTI Act Amendment: Killing one more institution?

The issue of RTI Act Amendment basically is: Should the truth about the arbitrary, autocratic, corrupt and opaque functioning of government and its instrumentalities be brought in the open and made accountable? When the government is killing the Information Commission it is expressing its own fear of the truth and is projecting a false image before the public.

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GOVERNANCE : Did NSEL-FTIL : Illegally transfer funds?

On July 31, 2013, the NSEL exchange was officially asked to close down shop after it defaulted on payments to the tune of Rs. 5,600 crore to its 13,000 investors. Despite the stop order by the concerned ministry, market regulator and the Bombay High Court, NSEL allegedly received Rs. 65 crore from NAFED and illegally transferred Rs. 31 crore to FTIL in 2013 well past it ceased to exist.  However, when the matter came to light, FTIL returned the amount Rs. 31 crore to NSEL on January 25, 2019, and called it an ‘inadvertent’ and ‘unintentional’ mistake.

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