Ashok Bhattacharya (A.K. Bhattacharya)
Editorial Director, Business Standard. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
journalistauthoranalyst@AshokAkaybee ↗business-standard.com ↗
A veteran financial journalist with over four decades of experience, he pens the governance and economy column Raisina Hill for Business Standard. He is also the author of the book series examining India's finance ministers from independence onward.
1shows
1appearances
33statements
14resolved
10supported
0contradicted
71%fully supported
Everything Ashok Bhattacharya (A.K. Bhattacharya) said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Long-tenured Indian governments take fewer economic reform risks than coalitions
“What happened in the 19 nineties was that because the government's Where coalition governments, they were not strong governments, so they could probably experiment with many economic reforms, but from the 2000 onwards governments have been, 10 year duration. Y…”
RBI Governor K.R. Puri changed banking rules for Sanjay Gandhi's Maruti
“The K. R. Puri was the governor. He changed the banking regulation norms so that the Maruti gets the loan.”
Urjit Patel resigned over RBI regulation of public sector banks
“Even he fell out with the government because he wanted the public sector governance norms to be changed so that the RBI can monitor and regulate the public sector banks adequately. So there the differences open and arose. So he also had to quit suddenly.”
Pranab Mukherjee's retrospective tax still damages foreign investor confidence
“He introduced the so-called Vodafone tax, over which the succeeding years have been spent, and even now India faces a lack of confidence in the foreign investor because of that retrospective taxation.”
India's 'national champion' economic model deters foreign investors
“So the national champion phenomenon is, does not inspire confidence among foreign investors to come in.”
Manmohan Singh failed by not preventing the 1992 Harshad Mehta scam
“Manmohan Singh's failure was not to have anticipated it, not to have taken adequate steps in, in, in preventing that scam. Instead, probably letting it continue for a while.”
Emigrant entrepreneurs like Binny Bansal will return if Indian conditions improve
“Now, if they have gone back, it is not gone out, does not necessarily mean they are gone out forever. Ah, they could well be, ah, be not a brain drain, but they well could be the brain reserve. So if you can improve the conditions here a little more attractive…”
The Reserve Bank of India is not truly autonomous from the government
“Yes, on paper, RBI is an independent institution, a regulatory body, but it is not really autonomous.”
India's telecommunications duopoly undermines the core objective of economic reforms
“It has become a duopoly, which is a very sad thing because there's not the idea of a reform.”
The Finance Ministry managed COVID-19 without destroying India's fiscal balance
“I would say that the finance ministry handled the COVID crisis very competently, and did not use government resources far too in excess to destroy fiscal balance of the economy, of the government.”
Indian Finance Ministers must align with the Prime Minister's political ideology
“A finance minister has to be completely in tune with the political ideology or the political vision of the party, as well as in party in power, as well as the prime minister. So I have seen that in the last so many, 75, 76 years, the equation between the prime…”
Manmohan Singh mistakenly dismissed 1992 stock market spikes in Parliament
“The mistake of the finance minister was to have made a statement in parliament that a finance minister cannot lose his sleep just because the stock market price is going up or going down.”
Finance Minister H.M. Patel opposed 1978 demonetization but executed Desai's order
“H.M. Patel presided over, you know, Independent India's first demonetization as a finance minister. He did not agree with the idea of demonetizing, demonetizing those currencies. But the prime minister said, the Moorajit said, nothing doing. He went ahead and …”
Rajiv Gandhi ousted V.P. Singh weeks before the Union Budget
“And he decided to remove him. And remove him when? Remove him less than four weeks before the budget presentation.”
The 1981 IMF loan was proposed by Narasimham directly to Indira Gandhi
“The finance minister did not even moot the idea. It was the idea mooted by India's representative in the World Bank. M. Narasimham, a former RBI governor, he muted the idea. He came and he met not the finance minister, but the prime minister Indira Gandhi.”
The Modi government rolled back farm and land reform laws
“You take a look at even the Narendra Modi government. Now, it did try to reform land laws. It did try to do reform the labor laws. Land reform laws were withdrawn. Labor laws have been passed, but not to be notified yet. The farm sector laws, they were very re…”
Health and education reforms enable sustainable economic changes in India
“If we could take care of these two elements, health and education, then I would say that we will reach a point Where economic reforms will not be that big a stumbling block in the, in our road to political democratic journey.”
Health and education access is the only fix for India's wealth concentration
“And the only way to make sure That it does not get concentrated like this is to enable ordinary citizens, ordinary Indians to have the best access to health and education, which will make them not in this maybe generation, but the next generation will be able …”
RBI and Finance Ministry friction spans every Indian government
“Whether it is this government Or, ah, the previous governments, whether it is the Muraji Desai government or it's the Nehru government, the tensions and stressful relations between the RBI and RBI governor and the finance ministry and the prime minister and th…”
Shaktikanta Das maintains smooth relations with the Modi government
“So he's he enjoys the trust of the government and the equations so far are good. But even then, even now, there are occasions where the RBI governor would talk about how how cryptocurrency is something that you should not touch with a barge ball, whereas the g…”
Chidambaram efficiently implemented state VAT but failed on GST consensus
“And apart from maintaining a stable tax rate, direct tax rate, and excise rates, what he failed to get was he could not get the kind of consensus building on GSD. He did not. But his implementation of the state value added tax was very very efficient”
Foreign investor confidence in India is rising despite reform expectations
“I think the confidence is increasing because India is the, probably the only bright spot. But along with the rise in confidence, there is also expectation that India will address its basic bureaucratic, judicial ease of doing business and plus employable youth…”
A $30T to $40T Indian economy is achievable over time
“Theoretically, why not? Ah, ah, but it all depends on the manner in which, ah, you are growing, ah, the manner in which, ah, you, ah, how soon you reach, ah, the end of your demographic dividend. Ah, and how soon? The dollar rupee exchange rate perform because…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ashok's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 NEON SHOWLEDGER | Editorial Director, Business Standard | 1 | 33 | 71% 10/14 | full record on the Neon Show → |