With reference to the editorial, "J&K's siege within", former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's doctrine of peace, progress and prosperity in the state in the spirit of insaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat (identity of the people of Kashmir) was acclaimed by political players of all hues, including separatists and extremist elements in the Kashmir Valley.Despite the setbacks to his dialogue initiatives - including the Kargil conflict, highjacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar and the terrorist attack on Parliament - the then National Democratic Alliance government continued to encourage confidence-building measures and people-to-people contact.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visits to the state in 2014, emphasised development as his only agenda. He said, "I will return your trust in me with interest by ensuring full-fledged development in J&K." The agenda of alliance of ruling state coalition partners Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a

Letters: Strong leadership

Business Standard

The editorial, "J&K's siege within" (August 24) sticks to lazy stereotyping of security forces as "kidnappers and rapists". It ignores the injuries suffered by security forces and how many of them have been killed in action.Burhan Wani was not an "ambitious middle class boy". He failed in high school and headed a terrorist group responsible for numerous atrocities. In a TV interview, Wani's father, a school teacher, called for a holy war against non-Muslims.The torching of Kashmiri Pandit homes and the issuing of protest calendar by separatists in mosques highlight the true nature of these violent protests. The editorial doesn't outline what "lasting political solution" it wants. Does it mean democratic governments should bow before leaders, who instigate violence?Manas Sahu   RourkelaLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a post

Letters: A lasting solution

With reference to Subhomoy Bhattacharjee's report, "Move to change RBI governor ranking" (August 22), it is not correct to consider the Reserve Bank of India governor as a regulator. Other regulators are responsible for specific segments of the economy, such as securities market and insurance, whereas the RBI governor is responsible for macroeconomic stability. RBI actions have a much wider impact on the economy and monetary policy supplements fiscal and other public policies.Making the RBI governor's position subordinate to that of the Cabinet secretary indicates the government's intention to undermine the central bank's autonomy and let the bureaucracy always have an upper hand.Outgoing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was seeking to upgrade the governor's position to that of a cabinet minister. The deputy chairman of NITI Aayog is of the rank of a cabinet minister; the national security advisor, who functions only in an advisory capacity, has the rank of a minister of state.It is clever

Letters: Undermining autonomy

Govt's reluctance to allow gene-engineered variety is to blame

Behind Bt-cotton's decline

Hike's growth underscores India's e-market potential

A new unicorn

Several journalists were surprised to find that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had been deputed to address the Cabinet briefing on Wednesday. Swaraj is not only a brilliant orator but also has a penchant to gauge the mood of her audience, particularly when it is a group of cynical journalists. "First, let me put at rest your curiosity," she said. "I am not here to talk about any issue related to the external affairs minister." Lest people start speculating, Swaraj said the Cabinet had approved a Bill to ban commercial surrogacy and she was addressing the press briefing as she had headed the Group of Ministers to draft the law.

Swaraj's raised profile

The introduction of Commercial Divisions in the high courts was supposed to change the face of commercial litigation in the country. While the Delhi High Court had unofficially established these specialised divisions in March 2015 based on a Law Commission recommendation, the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act came into force formally on January 1, 2016. Not much seems to have changed since. The same judges deal with these matters in much the same way. Even after nearly eight months of the passage of the law, the Commercial Divisions still appear to be just a mere change in nomenclature.

A cosmetic change

The Aditya Birla group was in the news this week after a section of the media reported that Idea Cellular and the group's loss-making grocery retail business, More, were up for sale. The group told Business Standard it suspected a wireless telecom rival of releasing the "motivated" news feed. A media company owned by the same rival was spreading the asset sale news, the group claimed. Watch this space for more on this new corporate war.

Not for sale

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting on Monday with Opposition leaders from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and his subsequent statement on the need for dialogue should be considered the first sign of hope as the Valley enters the 46th day of unrest following the killing of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen commander. Both, the meeting and the statement, signal a belated understanding by the political establishment that - forceful exhortations by the Home minister and finance minister notwithstanding - the upheavals in the state have less to do with Pakistan fomenting instability in the region than the Indian establishment's acts of omission and commission.In fact, the recent turmoil occurs at a time when militancy has been noticeably on the wane - fatalities in terrorist violence in J&K fell from a peak of 4,507 in 2001 to 375 in 2010 (the last year of major disaffection) and 174 in 2015. Concomitantly, tourism has risen steadily. Last year, the state welcomed more than 900,000 tou

J&K's siege within

The shining stars

Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence on Tuesday topped a Forbes magazine list of the world's highest-paid actress for the second straight year, earning some $46 million, followed by Melissa McCarthy. Bollywood star Deepika Padukone is the only newcomer on the list. With $10-million earnings she ranked 10th. Here is a look at the list:

Have the banking sector's losses bottomed out?

While gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the Indian banking system are expected to rise further in this financial year, the pace of deterioration is likely to moderate, as banks, prodded by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), were aggressive in recognising bad loans in FY16.According to a new report by India Ratings and Research, fresh slippages to the non-performing loans category are likely to be a minimum of 1.5 per cent of total bank credit in the current financial year. In large part, these slippages will come from loans turning out in the Infrastructure and construction sectors, followed by the power sector. But, it is possible that actual slippages may turn out to be higher if companies find it difficult to service loans that were restructured in the earlier financial years. At the end of FY16, gross NPAs in the banking system stood at 7.2 per cent.Banks' credit costs are likely to remain high, compared to the previous financial year, although these are expected to moderate. Cre

On Tuesday, NITI Aayog called experts from Mckinsey, ADB, John Hopkins Gates Foundation and Mahindra as part of its consultations for Vision 2032. After the meeting, NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant and Anand Mahindra became part of a mutual admiration society. Kant tweeted:"Gr8 inputs from @anandmahindra on d three conundrums facing India & d imperative need 2 pursue a bifocal approach." Mahindra tweeted back: "Thank you for the kind words. It was a privilege to be part of your consultations on Vision 2032."

Mutual admiration

The son of a media baron and head of an entertainment company recently faced a peculiar case of identity confusion while meeting some senior public sector officials. The gentleman was not recognised for who he was and hence, the conversation meandered. The reason? The people he was meeting expected him to have the same surname as his formidable father, but as he takes a different surname, they failed to register him and his position in the company.

Confusion over identity

Anti-noise pollution activists usually lament the lack of action by regulatory authorities to check pollutants such as honking. However, it seems the harmful effects of noise have caught up with the long arm of the law enforcers. A senior police official recently told scribes that he had to install sound-proof windows to be able to get any work done at his office, which is on a busy street in south Mumbai.

Cutting out the sound

Ajay Shah in his article, "Who is afraid of algorithmic trading" (August 22) has rightly emphasised empirical evidence as the basis for decision-making. It, therefore, behooves him and his ilk to produce empirical evidence that algorithmic trading has furthered the prime purpose of capital market, namely, channelling savings into financial assets.Not unlike the prognosis of Irving Fisher just before the great crash of US markets in 1929 that "stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau", Shah, in his article, "A crisis? Or a mere recession" (March 19, 2008) judged the 2008 crisis as: "This may well be a recession, but it is not an emerging markets-style crisis." What happened subsequently hardly needs mention.The murky, if not sinister, role played by "neutral academics" in engineering the crisis of 2008 was exposed in the Academy Award-winning documentary, Inside Job. Sophistication for its own sake serves no purpose; on the contrary it is the handmaiden of de

Letters: Stick to common sense

Even as a country of 1.3 billion people, with nearly 65 per cent of our population below the age of 35, India won just two medals at the Olympics and tied with Mongolia at the 67th spot in the medals' tally.Nevertheless, India can be proud of not only its two medal winners, shuttler P V Sindhu and wrestler Sakshi Malik, but also gymnast Dipa Karmakar, golfer Aditi Ashok and athlete Lalita Babar. I hope these women achieve at the 2020 Olympics what they missed out this time in Rio.Manish Singh Rawat deserves a mention, too. His spirited performance in the 20 km walk has gone unnoticed. He finished 13th, but his timing was less than a minute more than the bronze medallist in that race.Prime Minister Narendra Modi should first bring about changes in the administration of sports. He must seek an explanation from Sports Minister Vijay Goel regarding the aggressive and rude behaviour of his staff at the Olympics. Such misbehaviour shames the entire country.This is the right time for the Spor

Letters: Sorry state of affairs

With reference to the editorial, "Aviation safety blues" (August 23), 35 close calls in a 15-month period is alarming and cannot be brushed under the carpet, especially after the civil aviation policy underwent some changes. Safety standards have to be world class; there can be no relaxation in this aspect.We are short of 1,000 air traffic controllers; these vacancies can't be filled overnight. Lack of air traffic controllers will only make matters worse. The need of the hour is to fill the vacancies at the earliest without endangering the life of passengers.As highlighted in your editorial that low salaries and poor working conditions are the two main reasons for people not opting for a career with the Airports Authority of India, this is something the civil aviation minister and the government needs to look into before filling the vacancies.There is no point boasting that India is the fastest growing aviation market if it does not have even the basic infrastructure in place. The gove

Letters: No compromise on safety

But getting advance estimates of GDP will be a challenge

Early Budget is welcome

But use of a new accounting standard obscures the picture

Earnings cheer

With banks increasingly taking over defaulters' assets, a new problem is facing lenders. Bankers say they get all kinds of queries from employees, suppliers and customers of the defaulter company. A large number of questions relate to their salaries, income tax deductions and even ways to access their PF accounts! The promoters of these companies divert all queries to the banks that have taken over the assets. Exasperated bankers, who do not have any experience in running companies, rue how such calls eat up precious time.

Exasperated bankers

It's time to wake up to the ground realities

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