After bringing down the nearly-25-year-old civil war, Sri Lanka is now working towards improving its investment climate. The economy is now in a high-accelerating mode, on the back of the political will and stability in the new era. India will play a big role in this development and will be a key partner for Sri Lanka, Janaka Ratnayake, chairman and chief executive of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board, tells TE Narasimhan.

Q&A: Janaka Ratnayake, Sri Lanka Export Development Board

Business Standard

After bringing down the nearly-25-year-old civil war, Sri Lanka is now working towards improving its investment climate. The economy is now in a high-accelerating mode, on the back of the political will and stability in the new era. India will play a big role in this development and will be a key partner for Sri Lanka, Janaka Ratnayake, chairman and chief executive of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board, tells T E Narasimhan.

Q&A: Janaka Rtnayake, Sri Lanka Export Development Board

The competitive nature of the Indian economy is strong enough to be withstand the fallout of the euro zone crisis and the global slowdown, according to National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) member secretary Ajay Shankar. India has effectively tackled the present crisis, and can achieve a target of 14% manufacturing growth envisaged in the national manufacturing policy, he tells Sanjay Jog.

Q&A: Ajay Shankar, member secretary, NMCC

The power and coal sectors are in trouble. Misplaced domestic policies and the recent environmental tirade against infrastructure projects have thrown coal production and the linked-power capacity projections off track. The latest report of the Planning Commission-appointed Shunglu panel, meanwhile, has brought back focus on Rs 80,000 crore losses of power distribution companies.

Q&A: Bal Krishna Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission 

Finally, the Lok Pal Bill is tabled. But critics say without investigation powers, it is quite useless.

Q&A: Aruna Roy, Member, NAC

The competitive nature of the Indian economy is strong enough to withstand the fallout of the euro zone crisis and the global slowdown, according to National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council member secretary Ajay Shankar. India has effectively tackled the crisis, and can achieve a target of 14 per cent manufacturing growth envisaged in the national manufacturing policy, he tells Sanjay Jog.

Q&A: Ajay Shankar, NMCC

Industry chambers are normally cautious about criticising the government but current Ficci President and Chairman and Managing Director of Marico Harsh Mariwala has been forthright in his observation that policy paralysis was impacting the government. There was a problem of trust between the government and the corporate sector, he said earlier this week. In this interview with M Saraswathy and Arijit Barman, he explains his misgivings.

Q&A: Harsh Mariwala, President, Ficci

Rating agency Moody&rsquo;s Investors Service has upgraded India&rsquo;s sovereign debt ratings denominated in rupee to investment grade from junk. However, many economists have questioned the rationale behind the move, given the deteriorating fiscal consolidation and growth story of the Indian economy.

Q&A: Atsi Sheth, Moody 

It&rsquo;s a little less than six months after Ficci&rsquo;s former secretary-general Amit Mitra took over as the finance minister of West Bengal. Of late, he has got into a war of words with his predecessor, Asim Dasgupta, over nuances of the budget documents. In a telephonic conversation, Mitra explains to Namrata Acharya how the state is reeling under a huge debt, a &ldquo;legacy&rdquo; of the Left government.

Q&A: Amit Mitra, Finance Minister, West Bengal

The first Chief Statistician of India and currently principal adviser to the Planning Commission Pronab Sen talks to Santosh Tiwari about the recent Central Administrative Tribunal order quashing the appointment of current Chief Statistician T C A Anant and the Reserve Bank of India&rsquo;s concerns about the volatility of official data.

Q&A: Pronab Sen, Planning Commission

Basic health care and maternal mortality are the most pressing concerns for India now, UNDP India senior advisor, Dr K Seeta Prabhu, tells Sreelatha Menon.

Q&A: Dr K Seeta Prabhu, UNDP India senior advisor

Eight years after the national pharmaceutical policy was struck down by the judiciary, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the chemicals and fertilisers ministry, has attempted to re-frame a pricing policy for medicines sold in the country. The new policy draft attempts to suggest a model that brings in all essential medicines under price control, as the Supreme Court suggested. There are differing views on the efficacy of this attempt too. Ranjit Shahani, chief of the Indian subsidiary of Swiss drug major Novartis and president of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), shares his views with Joe C Mathew on the issue.

Q&A: Ranjit Shahani, President, OPPI

India and Pakistan have set a bilateral trade target of $6 billion by 2014. According to Pakistan&rsquo;s commerce minister, Makhmood Muhammed Amin Fahim, greater liberalisation of trade might lead to exceeding the target. On a three-day visit to India, he tells Nayanima Basu the Pak government is ready to discuss anything to augment the trading and other relations.

Q&A: Makhmood Muhammed Amin Fahim

B C Khanduri, popularly called the General of Uttarakhand, is back at the helm of affairs in the hill state as part of BJP&rsquo;s well-planned poll strategy. He talks to Shishir Prashant about his priorities and targets.

Q&A: B C Khanduri, General of Uttarakhand

At a time when apprehensions have been raised on the attempts to use information acquired through Right to Information (RTI) Act, Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra says the law has sufficient in-built mechanism to curb misuse. In an interview with Santosh Tiwari, the former IAS bureaucrat says information officers require proper training before appointment so as to handle the law effectively.

Q&A: Satyananda Mishra, Central Information Commission

Rising demand around the globe is increasing pressure on the environment, and creating greater competition for natural resources. The only way out is green growth, according to European Union environment commissioner Janez Potocnik, on a visit to India. Talking to Piyali Mandal, he explains why the industry and environment need to work hand-in-hand in the long term if one needs to attain a sustainable future.

Q&A: Janez Potocnik, European Union

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is away from Delhi to celebrate Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Mirati, near Kirnahar in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. Amid the rituals of Maha Ashtami (the third day of the five-day festival), Mukherjee spoke to Shine Jacob on the Moody&rsquo;s downgrade of SBI and other issues.

Q&A: Pranab Mukherjee, FM

After Pakistan trade minister Makhdoom Muhammad Amin Fahim&rsquo;s visit to India last month, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, or Assocham, has decided to sent a business delegation to the neighbouring country next month. In a freewheeling chat with Shaikh Zoaib Saleem, Assocham president and Spice Mobility managing director Dilip Modi talked about how they were looking forward to reinforce people-to-people contacts and strengthen bilateral trade.

Q&A: Dilip Modi, Assocham President

Mihir Shah, member of the Planning Commission and chairman of the committee to redraft rules and guidelines of NREGA, tells Sreelatha Menon that the Act may also cover farm labourers.

Q&A: Mihir Shah, Planning Commission

Prime Minister&rsquo;s Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan had advised caution while interpreting the data by HSBC purchasing managers&rsquo; index that showed contraction in services in India in September &mdash; as no other parameters have corroborated these findings. Leif Eskesen, HSBC chief economist for India &amp; Asean, demystifies the data in an interview with Indivjal Dhasmana.

Q&A: Leif Eskesen, HSBC Chief Economist for India & Asean

After crossing the one billion-tonne capacity mark last year, India&rsquo;s port sector is now being readied to handle over three billion tonnes of cargo by 2020. Shipping secretary K Mohandas tells Ruchika Chitravanshi &amp; Jyoti Mukul that competition is the way forward with port tariffs being left to market forces.

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