Articles by D N Ghosh

A personal tribute by a friend of over half a century to the well-known public finance economist and federalist who passed away on February 20.

The tone of the political debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal has been bewildering. What is worrying, as illustrated by this exchange, is that political parties are undermining the culture of dialogue and deliberation that lies at the heart of our democratic polity. Rival speakers have to listen to one another and be prepared to modify their respective positions. It is only through such dialogue and deliberation that political establishments can prove that they are capable of democratically responsible behaviour.

India's Politics: A View from the Backbench by Bimal Jalan

The story of the Medici Bank of 14th and 15th century Florence is the story of how one family used finance to control a government. In the priority that the Medicis gave to financial deals can be found the seeds of the forces of global finance that today wield so much influence on the politics and economics of nation states.

Corporate governance assessment is still in its infancy; it has been around only for the last three to four years. It is not and does not aim to be fool-proof in its predictive claim, as it has to rely necessarily on data as may be made available or shared voluntarily by insiders. Even though rating agencies cannot claim to have the kind of knowledge that an insider can have, CG assessment promises to emerge, if properly designed and developed, as a powerful tool not only for the investing community but also for all other groups interested in the healthy and sustained development of the capital market: financial intermediaries as well as the regulator and policy-makers. In order to widen the potential application of CG assessment and refine the methodologies in use by different agencies, extensive research will be needed to make it evolve and acceptable over time.