Sarthis, battery-operated vehicles that can seat seven, have been declared illegal by the Delhi government but are common in the city

A new spoke in the urban transport wheel

Business Standard

Picture an airport runway in the heart of south Delhi. That's Harvinder Singh Kalra's office, a runway-like bus depot housing his new orange buses.Scratch Kalra's hardened 'I-am-just-a-businessman' surface, and his views come across. "It's ok to promote the metro and I am all for it but buses alone can provide connectivity when people criss-cross or go in different directions. The metro can give you only point-to-point transit," he says, grabbing a pen and paper and explaining diagrammatically how people move in Delhi, and why the metro and bus systems should work in tandem.Kalra, 56, not related to this reporter, has been in this business for 30 years, in a previous avatar as a Blueline bus owner, part of a system now phased out. In recent months, he has partnered the Delhi government in its new cluster bus scheme, through which the 11,000 buses in Delhi would be divided equally between Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), which has ruled the city's roads for what seems like forever, an

Public transport in Delhi: A bus system tries to transit from old to new

Last year in Sept, India allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49% in local carriers to bolster an ailing sector. Since then, three high-profile joint ventures have been announced. A look at where each has reached:

Looking for a smooth landing

A chunk of online company's sales come from fitness equipment and dietary supplements bought by India's youth

John Abraham, SRK-inspired six-pack abs craze fuels this company's dream

The new safe-harbour rules aim to reduce litigation and disputes with multi-national companies over cross-border transactions, which the government sees as tax-avoidance schemes. The rules stipulate acceptable margins of profit on such transactions; beyond these profits, transactions will be taxed

India is less taxing now for MNCs

When was the last time you had a sense of shared space with other drivers on the road? Probably never!

Few takers for the wheel of public transport

Lily Thomas pulls herself upright, straightens her hair, and stares into the camera when a fellow Malayali walks into her lawyer's chamber in the Supreme Court to take her photographs. "Don't move, Lily. No James Bond is arriving to marry you. You have missed the bus," he says, with easy familiarity of someone who knows her well."There is no bus," says Thomas, who by being determinedly single at 87, has proved that, at least for her, marital status or the 'bus' she has missed is an insignificant issue. Her silvery peal of laughter breaks above the din of lawyers' voices as she preens in new-found limelight. This reporter is informed by her staff that foreign journalists have just left after interviewing her.Two lawyers are ensconced with Thomas, here to ask her to look into the constitution of a new club of women lawyers of the Supreme Court, to "fight women's cases, to work together, for our own protection also", says Prerna Kumari, a Supreme Court advocate and deputy attorney general

Legal eagle who launched crusade against 'tainted' legislators

Public relations industry that's estimated to touch $10 billion this year does not have an agency or body representing it

PR sector deals with 'irrational expectations'

Cases increased in number and size, said a report by a think tank in Delhi, prepared with a sample of 100 fraud cases in corporate India

Growing fraud should worry regulators

Short-term, unrealistic expectations could lead to sour relationships, charges of corporate governance failures

Of private equity funds and their ties with promoters

Though his case files are stacked across four rooms, Sanjay Parikh, the lawyer who thrust a spoke into India-focused miner Vedanta Resources' plans, has ensured each is marked neatly."This is the Kalahandi case... this is Basmati rice," he says, as he hops excitedly from one room to another. These are famous cases - one in which the court, petitioned by Parikh, tracked delivery systems for 10 years to prevent starvation deaths; another through which India gave the US a stinging defeat on patents.The lawyer behind these cases, however, is known only in select human rights and legal circles. It took this reporter three weeks of calls, doorstepping, and a reference from another lawyer to get an interview with Parikh. "Talk about my cases, but why a profile?" he asks at the eventual interview.'A balance is required'The latest case that put the spotlight on Parikh is that of the Niyamgiri forest, where Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Aluminum Ltd, a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources, tried t

The Niyamgiri warrior

CEOs point fingers at rural job guarantee and related govt welfare schemes; say mechanisation an increasingly viable option

Labour shortage for India Inc projects

Cases of cyber crime in Indian offices are on the rise, but mostly, such cases are settled by the HR dept

Aparna Kalra