Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam

The pandemic metamorphosed into tragedy for people across countries. It was more brutal for the unprivileged who suffered on many fronts. In India, the second wave turned people’s lives upside down; many lost their lives, loved ones, social and economic security, mental health, etc. In a democracy, if a country undergoes a tragedy, the government is expected to function accordingly, especially keeping in focus the needs of marginalised sections, who bear the brunt of such humanitarian crises. The budget is one such policy that gives people hope for a better life, where all the sections of society eagerly lookout for schemes and plan for their representation in society with equity.

DR MOHAMMAD MANZOOR ALAM explains how the quest for "economic growth with a humane face" is just the contemporary articulation of an old ideal that seeks to balance the creation and accumulation of wealth with fair-play and concern for the underprivileged. The desire for attaining such a balance goes back a couple of millennia.

How do you look at the Union Budget 2007-2008?

Before I attempt an answer to your question, let me re-phrase it in a more general way. How do we look at any budget? A budget, in the ultimate analysis, is a statement of income and expenditure. In short, how to generate income and where to spend it. A budget may belong to a family, to a firm, to an institution or to a government. Our immediate point of reference is the Union budget, that is, the statement of income and expenditure of the Government of India. A government raises its income from taxes and spends it on certain items of social welfare and development. Hence, the annual budget of the government gives the programme of the government for the next fiscal year. That is the significance of the Union budget in any given year.

Honestly, figuring out the budget is not everybody’s cup of tea. Different people look at the same budget differently. Alternatively, the same people look at it in different ways at different occasions.
 

Naturally, the budget is primarily looked at from class angle. That is, everyone first thinks of how it is going to affect his or her class of people, those in the same income bracket, business, profession, even caste and community.

AT a time when Islamic financial products are gaining wide acceptance, an advocate of interest-free banking has come up with a new Islamic banking model.

"Economists have only made recommendations about interest-free banking, but no one has come up with a working model," claims Abdul Wadood Khan, who has been campaigning for Islamic banking based on the Time Multiple Counter Loan (TMCL) concept conceived by Professor Mahmud Ahmed, a renowned Pakistani economist.

An article published in Washington Times, a right-wing conservative daily founded and supported by a christian religious group, informed its readers about islamic banking in Turkey. The article is written by its correspondent Nicholas Birch.

Full content of the article is as follows:
‘Turkey is missing out on an opportunity to profit from Arab oil wealth as tensions between its secular government and religious authorities prevent it from issuing interest-free Islamic bonds that have become popular throughout the Muslim world.

Islamic Finance has come of age. Presently hundreds of Islamic financial institutions are working around the globe. Presence of a Shari’ah Board within each Islamic financial institution is required to establish a credible presence. However, is a Shariah board required in every institution? Does it add to the efficiency of Islamic financial institution? Has it helped to achieve the objectives of the institution? What is the role of these Shariah boards in achieving the objectives of Islamic economic system. Noted scholars of Islamic finance Prof. M. Nehatullah Siddiqi has raised these and similar issues in this paper which is being published on this web site to encourage thinking and discussion on this issue. However, The Institute of Objective Studies does not necessarily subscribe to all the views of the author expressed in this paper. In order to stimulate discussion, the readers are invited to send their views to ios@vsnl.com 

Slowly, but steadily, the world is sliding back into the 19th-century mould of Great Game, when the major European powers were locked in a struggle to grab most of Asia and Africa. This scramble for empire-building at the cost of Asian and African peoples generated great wars and destruction on unprecedented scale. The Americas and Australia were already captured by white settlers from Europe, the local population decimated or driven out to remote areas.

As a student of economics I have always been troubled by the concerns of most economists. Even while doing my Ph.D. I had always the question at the back of my mind as to why can’t we be a little more humane, a little more equitable, a little more concerned about human wellbeing rather than about GNP and GDP, standard of living and growth rate.

New Delhi: Fears of joblessness in the US have forced several states to introduce legislation seeking to prevent BPO (business processes outsourcing) jobs being farmed out to companies in other countries. India being a major beneficiary of this system has reasons to worry.

 Opposition to BPO has grown over the last few months as the slowdown in US economy has turned out to be more enduring than was expected. American jobs sourced out to India means fewer jobs for American citizens.

The designing, packaging and marketing of Asia uses the standard recipe of advertising –– a little bit of truth, a lot of hype, dollops of dreams: stir and put on a slow boil.

The recently concluded ASEAN summit in Indonesia was a grand spectacle. The 36 year-old organisation of ten South East Asian nations has of late been trying to woo Japan, China and India in a bid to emerge as some kind of a European Union of the area. The ambition is quite understandable. The only problem is that inordinate media hype makes it look as if the ambition has already been fulfilled. The fact remains that it cannot be achieved by 2020, not even in terms of similarity, let alone parity.

This study has attempted to present an outline of stock market on the basis of Islamic standards in the following five sections. The paper has confined specially to equity market.