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Sunday, December 14, 2025
TopicLicence Raj

Topic: Licence Raj

When Licence Raj went after Vicks Vaporub in India’s peak flu season

In 'Another Sort of Freedom', Gurcharan Das says that one must squarely blame Indira Gandhi for not changing course when Japan, Korea and Taiwan had already shown the way.

Markets, memoir, moksha — Gurcharan Das traces India Story from Licence Raj to liberal ’90s

The freewheeling conversation between Das and William Dalrymple moved from Partition, Manmohan Singh, Mahabharata, and Margaret Thatcher to AI seamlessly.

Modi govt wants to hurt China with laptop import curb, but it will end up hurting India

Unless India lines up a ‘Plan B’ before Modi govt can nix the model it has come to depend on, the unimpactful attempts to hurt China economically will continue.

India’s ‘big’ state is making a comeback with laptop import curb. It’s yesterday once more

The Indian experience so far is that when imports are banned or restricted in the expectation of domestic manufacturers filling in, it almost never — in fact, never — happens.

‘Consumer is king’ now. But it wouldn’t have been possible without 1991 reforms 

Exactly 30 years ago, the historic 1991 economic reforms freed up the private sector and removed many trade barriers, unleashing India’s growth potential.

60 years ago, a Right liberal Swatantra Party had challenged Nehru’s socialist Raj

It was a sign of Swatantra Party's political acumen that many of its policies would be adopted by Narasimha Rao 17 years after its demise in 1974.

If you knew the Licence Raj days, you wouldn’t complain about GST flip-flops

Constantly making changes to policies like GST shows that a government is responsive and open to course-correction, despite what critics say. 

Now, don’t lose the plot

The next big reform India needs is of its land laws.

On Camera

India’s aviation crisis is all about too big to tame

Nobody is safe in a market where competition is stunted and choice limited. For the industry, meaningful reform will have to start with the government itself.

South rising, west slipping: India’s export map is being redrawn, shows RBI data

Data shows re-alignment in India’s exports, with Tamil Nadu & Telangana posting strong growth in 2024-25 as traditional heavyweights Gujarat & Maharashtra see declines. Gujarat still leads, though.

US clears $686-mn package to breathe fresh life into Pakistani F-16s

Of the total package, $649 million will be utilised for additional hardware, software, and support services, and the remaining for Major Defence Equipment (MDE).

India’s top airline just handed sarkar the keys. That’s IndiGo’s real ‘crime’

Don’t blame misfortune. This is colossal incompetence and insensitivity. So bad, heads would have rolled even in the old PSU-era Indian Airlines and Air India.