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Friday, November 7, 2025
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Indian Liberals Matter

If fundamental right to property can be taken away, so can all the others: AG Mulgaokar

If this step even partially achieves its desired results, there will be so much dislocation in the country’s economic structure as to prove a national calamity, advocate AG Mulgaokar wrote in 1969.

English didn’t enslave India. It was the harbinger of a new creative consciousness: A Ranganathan

Rabindranath Tagore stood apart from his contemporaries by infusing poetry and universalism into Indian nationalism, opposing chauvinism and blind obedience, wrote A Ranganathan in 1962.

Economist DR Pendse’s 7-point plan to cut expenditure and control budget deficit

Revenue generation is not the answer for us. In fact, it aggravates the malady. We must concentrate on curbing expenditure, wrote DR Pendse in 2000.

Was India’s public sector born out of European envy?

For all its obvious blemishes, capitalism alone holds out the most creative and dynamic force that any civilization has ever discovered, wrote BP Godrej in 1980.

Russian-style socialism dominated Nehru’s imagination. It was disastrous

It is necessary to break the spell of socialist dogma on the imagination of those attracted by its Utopia as the only scientific way of progress, wrote MA Venkatarao in 1963.

State control blocks India’s progress and exploits its people: C Rajagopalachari

The Swatantra Party wants the removal of the permit-licence-quota raj, which sits heavily over all national production and trade, Rajagopalachari wrote in 1963.

From Vedanta, India turned to Nehruvian socialism and buried its liberal roots: Sharad Joshi

An Indian Hitler will have to be exceptionally lucky to survive for any length of time. This much hope ought to be enough for seekers of liberty and equality, wrote Sharad Anantrao Joshi, president of Swatantra Bharat Paksh party, in 1995.

Planning for the free market, not state control, will lift India out of poverty: BR Shenoy

A free-market system based on consumer sovereignty, with the state confined to essential public functions would generate much faster growth, Shenoy wrote in 1963.

Like a gambler, govts squandered India’s legacy through mindless socialism: Nani Palkhivala

Our brand of socialism did not result in transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor but only from the honest rich to the dishonest rich, lawyer-jurist Nani A Palkhivala said in 1991.

Bank nationalisation will be a blow to India’s mixed economy, lead to totalitarianism: Phiroze Shroff

If banks were to be nationalised, politicians would start interfering with bank officials and put undue pressure on them, Prof Shroff wrote in 1963.

On Camera

As Gaza peace plan takes shape, does India have a role?

If there is any country trusted by both sides in Gaza, it is India. While some Arab and Muslim countries are mistrusted by Israel, any Western influence is doubted by Palestinians.

India’s services exports touching $400 bn—a quiet engine offsetting trade deficit

In 2024-25, India exported $387.54 bn worth of services, against imports of $198.14 bn, earning all-time high surplus of $189.40 bn. This offset 2/3rd of goods trade deficit. 

‘Let them see’: Putin says new nuclear-powered missiles in the making, in message to Washington

At a ceremony felicitating Russian military engineers, Putin highlights Moscow’s 'parity' in defence technologies for the next century.

Trump’s trade wars have rewritten powerplay, but India didn’t get the memo

This world is being restructured and redrawn by one man, and what’s his power? It’s not his formidable military. It’s trade. With China, it turned on him.