Daily Hindu Editorials

How Roger Federer is fighting against time Twenty years after he turned pro and an equal number of Grand Slams later, Roger Federer has proven that his ability to surprise is undiminished. In 2017, when Federer returned after a long break, it was a chance for us to relive our best memories of him: that whipping cross-court one-handed backhand, the vintage Federer slice. Now in 2018, his sheer presence is a promise. What does Wimbledon hold in store for us, we wonder. There was something else about Federer’s Australian Open final win last weekend: an unusual blend of razor-sharp intensity and vulnerable uncertainty. He raced to a confident first set victory, completely squandered some opportunities in the fourth, staged a clinical destruction in the fifth, and finally let his emotions run free during the ceremony. Holding back tears, he said, “I can’t believe it... but the fairytale continues.” Neither can we. Tennis critics have been talking about the “...

The Chief Economic Adviser on fears of an asset bubble, the need to guard against populism, and reviving private investment A day after the release of the Economic Survey 2017-18, its lead author says small stock market investors should be wary of a sharp correction in market levels, and cautions the government against implementing populist measures in an election year as they could worsen the fiscal situation. Excerpts: 🔹Is there a possibility of income tax slabs being changed given the widening tax base and increased engagement with the tax system as shown in the Survey? Remember that the government had set up a committee and I am a kind of permanent invited member on this. I think the fact that we have set up this committee and the government has invested a fair amount of thought into this for the future is something that shows it is an important subject, and the government is going to be thinking about it constantly. Whether it happens in this Budget or the medium te...

As the tax base widens, the Finance Minister should cut the share of indirect taxes The demonetisation of high-value currency notes and the advent of the goods and services tax regime have triggered a surge in the number of those filing taxes in the country. The Economic Survey argues that the large gains on the indirect and direct tax fronts indicate that the primary intentions behind the two big-bang economic strides — of formalising the economy and bringing more income into the tax net — have been met to some extent. From about 59 million individuals who filed income tax returns or whose tax was deducted at source in 2015-16, the number of tax-filers rose by 10.1 million since the note ban. Stripped of statistical adjustments to avoid a bias in findings, the Survey assesses that roughly 1.8 million, or 3% of the existing compliers, started paying up. Many of them are reporting incomes close to the ₹2.5-lakh threshold for personal income tax, so this may not swell t...

The Taliban and the Islamic State are exposing Kabul’s growing inability to keep the peace With four attacks in 10 days that killed at least 158 people in Afghanistan, terrorists have sent a loud message to the government and its international backers. Of the four, two were claimed by the Taliban — the raid on January 20 in Kabul’s tightly-guarded Intercontinental Hotel and the January 27 ambulance bombing in a busy street. The Islamic State attacked a British children’s charity in Jalalabad on January 24 and an army post outside the capital days later. Though the IS and the Taliban are opposed to each other in the complex conflict landscape, both share a goal: to destabilise the state that has been built since 2001, and throw the country into further chaos. In recent years, despite the government’s claims of cracking down on militants, threats from the IS and Taliban have only grown. The IS, which lost territory in Iraq and Syria, is trying to build netwo...

It is now time to draw up a ‘to-do’ list and begin the heavy lifting in India-ASEAN ties When you stand at the peak of a mountain, you get a full view of the path travelled and the road ahead that will take you to the next peak. The principal gain of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Commemorative Summit, held in New Delhi last week, is to provide ample clarity on what their partnership has achieved and where it should move in the future. 🔷  Scope for cooperation A good way to begin is to listen to ASEAN voices. The participation of ASEAN leaders in a second summit in Delhi in five years and their historic presence as chief guests at the Republic Day celebrations convey a clear message: India is important to ASEAN; it is viewed as a benign power; and huge scope exists to develop cooperation with it. “We believe,” said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as co-chair of the summit, “that India makes a major contrib...

Will the Budget address the concerns raised in the Economic Survey or will it go its own way? The Economic Survey, a statutory document tabled in Parliament, is meant to be a scorecard of the economy for the current fiscal year. But over the years, it has morphed into a sourcebook for data and policy analysis. Indeed, economists and even academicians look forward to its scholarly content, even though it may have a partisan outlook. 🔷  Sober realities This year’s Survey too does not disappoint in being a veritable feast and also presenting fairly sober realities. Under the leadership of Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian, one quirk of the Survey is its thematic catchphrases. For instance, a few years ago, the CEA, in the Survey’s preamble, said that the Indian political economy was not capable of big bang reforms. Instead, reforms would be persistent, creative and incremental. It’s a different matter that in November 2016, India got the worl...