NEW DELHI ― The news that the Mars orbiter spacecraft Mangalyaan, launched by India on Nov. 5, has left the Earth’s orbit, traversed the moon, and is on course for its ultimate destination, 400 million kilometers away, brought early holiday cheer to Indians. Space missions have become a matter of pride for India, which is already one of the top countries in terms of rocket and satellite technology.Mangalyaan, India’s first inter-planetary satellite, was purpose-built for the Mars mission ― and i

Viewpoints Dec. 26, 2013

A bill banning chaebol companies from making fresh circular equity investments in sister firms is likely to be passed in the National Assembly within this year. If enacted, the bill is expected to improve corporate governance. The current law bans cross-shareholding between two units of a business group. To work around this ban, chaebol groups use circular shareholding structures. An ownership loop is created when Company A makes an equity investment in Company B, which buys a stake in Company C

Editorial Dec. 25, 2013

Controversy has arisen after Korean peacekeepers in South Sudan received 10,000 rounds of ammunition from Japan’s Peacekeeping Operations troops in the war-torn African country.The 280-member Korean contingent, Hanbit, has been stationed since March in the town of Bor, some 170 kilometers north of Juba, the capital. Last week, the town was seized by rebels, prompting the Korean troops to step up a defense posture.The Hanbit troops’ mission is to assist in the country’s reconstruction efforts. As

Editorial Dec. 25, 2013

It’s only when the tide goes out, as Warren Buffett famously said, that you learn who’s been swimming naked. Well, 2013 has been a banner year for skinny-dipping among Asian leaders, central banks and business people.In Japan and South Korea, talk of epochal change from two newish leaders was shown to be empty. China’s supposedly peaceful rise was laid bare by aggressive actions. Hopes that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would rediscover his reformist roots proved barren. Supposedly omnipo

Viewpoints Dec. 25, 2013

Barack Obama calls education “the currency for the information age.” Education is, however, based on the genesis of ideas and their expression. In his book “Ideas and Opinions,” Albert Einstein wrote about the importance of opinions and formation of ideas in any scientific discipline. What is an “idea”? It is knowledge, a brainwave or some new germane thinking giving birth to some potential discoveries or inventions. In the discipline of economics, the importance of ideas is not new. Schumpeter

Viewpoints Dec. 25, 2013

A federal judge last week struck down part of Utah’s ban on polygamy ― the state can no longer prosecute adult men and women who “cohabitate” in numbers larger than the traditional pair. Critics suggested the ruling was a natural next step after the success of same-sex marriage campaigns and lawsuits in recent years.But Kody Brown, the fundamentalist Mormon “Sister Wives” star whose case sparked the ruling, proclaimed it a victory for religious freedom.Is polygamy inevitable? Are we headed down

Viewpoints Dec. 25, 2013

The U.S. political system is dysfunctional and the economy is still struggling, especially for those in the middle and working classes. But when it comes to the biggest concern of some experts a generation ago ― the decay of our culture ― there is evidence that the country is doing all right.In the 1990s, the conservative Bill Bennett, a former education secretary and drug czar, devised his “Index of Leading Cultural Indicators.” He worried about a pervasive decline in U.S. moral values and “ero

Viewpoints Dec. 24, 2013

Courts have recently handed down a series of stiff rulings against workers involved in illegal strikes. These rulings are welcome as they will help curb illegitimate industrial action and union militancy. Last Thursday, the district court in Ulsan told 22 irregular workers of Hyundai Motor to pay 9 billion won to the carmaker for the losses they had inflicted on it by staging an illegal strike in 2010. The figure represents the largest-ever award of damages in relation to an illegal strike. In N

Editorial Dec. 23, 2013

Major Korean business groups facing potential liquidity problems are rushing to sell off assets to shore up their balance sheets. This is a well-advised move in light of the recent debacles of the STX and Tongyang groups, both of which collapsed under excessive debt burdens.On Sunday, Hyundai Group, a second-tier conglomerate separate from Hyundai Motor Group, announced it would dispose of an array of assets to raise 3.3 trillion won ($3.1 billion). It will use the proceeds to lower the average

Editorial Dec. 23, 2013

As a member of the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, whose report was released this week, I was struck by some close connections between debates over national security and debates over environmental protection. In both contexts, many people favor the Precautionary Principle, which can lead in unfortunate directions.In environmental policy, the Precautionary Principle means we should take aggressive action to avoid risks, even if we don’t know that those ri

Viewpoints Dec. 23, 2013

Many Americans would like to know more about what they eat, including whether the food they purchase contains genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. That desire has sparked ballot initiatives and bitter fights in states across the country. But what a lot of concerned consumers don’t realize is that there is already a way to ensure that the foods they purchase are free of GMOs.During the Clinton administration, we were responsible for implementing the Organic Foods Production Act. One of the im

Viewpoints Dec. 23, 2013