With reference to Sahil Makkar's article, "India's temple of democracy needs expansion" (August 9), any proposal to shift Parliament to another building should be deliberated upon carefully, because the present building has witnessed many a historic event and occasion, the memories of which should be preserved for posterity.It was here that freedom fighter Bhagat Singh dropped two bombs in April 1929. It was in the central hall of Parliament that independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, delivered his famous "Tryst with destiny" speech. It was on the premises of Parliament that the Constitution of India was enshrined after historic orations by stalwarts.Being home to the Central Legislature, the building reminds us that it had once hosted the erstwhile Chamber of Princes, a conclave of rajas and maharajas who governed one third of what is modern-day India. The erasure of their kingdoms from the map of India is one of the proudest moments of post-Independence India. It

Letters: Preserve heritage

Business Standard

Apropos Anup Roy's report, "Raghuram Rajan leaves repo rate unchanged at 6.5%" (August 9), the decision of the outgoing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor to maintain status quo at his final monetary policy review meeting wasn't a surprise; it was a foregone conclusion in the wake of the "inflationary" situation in the economy.Retail inflation for June was 5.77 per cent. This had its root in the spurt in food prices. Man-made circumstances created by vested interests jacked up the Consumer Price Index (CPI), much to the discomfiture of the common man as well as the RBI.Of course, the central bank's monetary policy doesn't have direct bearing on the prices of food items and fuel, even though both carry weight in the basket of goods used to fix the benchmark figures for inclusion in the CPI indicating the actual price level in the economy.Rajan once again relied on an accommodating stance. Had he opted for a rate cut, he would have contradicted himself by moving away from his well-know

Letters: Rajan knows his job well

Opinions are bound to be varied on the issue of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) due to the complexities and uncertainties associated with it. In the present situation such complexities and uncertainties appear to be under control, though a spike in inflation and some other critical factors cannot be ignored. Thus, the RBI's decision to maintain status quo in its third bimonthly monetary policy is along expected lines and will allow the situation to stabilise.Consistency in policy action is key to sustained growth. Outgoing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan would like to wrap his innings in a subdued manner without much exhibition. Nevertheless, his tenure will be remembered for a long time. His calm yet effective actions will be missed.Srinivasan Umashankar   NagpurLetters 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 postal address and t

Letters: Rajan will be missed

It's time to extend a similar gesture to Muslims, too

PM's clear condemnation

Better regulation of deposit schemes a must

Fly-by-night problems

Giving a major relief to the cash-starved state, public sector oil companies Oil India Ltd and ONGC Ltd made a payment last week to the government of Assam, towards differential royalty for a certain period on pre-discount price. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the natural resources of a place belonged to the people living there and, hence, it was only fair that full royalty should be paid to Assam for the oil explored there. State finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was quick to show his gratitude. "Mr Sarraf (Dinesh Sarraf, chairman, ONGC) is our Shaktimaan (fictional Indian superhero from the television series of the same name). Aap iss shakti ka istemal kar dijiye aur Assam se aur oil produce kar dijiye (use your powers to produce more oil from Assam), so that we get more money."

Shaktimaan in Assam

Conventional business wisdom has long held that to gain attention from senior management or to climb the corporate ladder faster you need to take up golf. Not for Utpal Bora, the new Oil India chairman. A hard-core cricket fan, he doesn't miss a match that India plays. "I used to play cricket for school, college and university. However, my reflexes are not as fast as it was before," Bora rued. "But they are strong enough to increase the production of OIL India," he said emphatically.

Golf versus cricket

Every Bengaluru resident has his or her tale on the city's infamous traffic snarls. It is now for the VIPs to experience the traffic mess. Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara, who was returning home from a personal trip to Tirupati last weekend, got stuck in a traffic jam at the busy K R Puram flyover. The road, which connects east Bengaluru to the technology hub of Whitefield and Sarjapur, has bumper-to-bumper traffic round-the-clock, thanks to an ill-designed suspension bridge. The delay in getting the minister out of the traffic mess has resulted in a local inspector getting a notice from his bosses. Not sure if Parameshwara's travails will bring about changes for the better for the common man.

Minister in a jam

With reference to "Transforming bank licensing" (August 8), the editorial was timely and self-explanatory. Continuity is an issue by all means. But it is unlikely that there will be a relatively long queue in front of the tap for bank licence. An individual with a minimum of 10 years' banking experience and solid cash of Rs 255 crore in pocket will be rare. For those who have done banking in India, it will be beyond imagination, much less an impossibility. So, the opportunities for individuals will be limited to the few who are enriched with banking experience abroad.The instructions do not permit public sector units to float a bank. Had it been permitted, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) fully owned by various state governments would have been able to contemplate entering the universal banking, at least for the niche market of their respective states. The tap is not open for them. This will further shorten the queue. It will end up in NBFCs officially calling themselves as "banks

Letters: Queue for bank licence

With reference to "A time bomb is ticking towards a fiscal crisis in states" (August 8), the interview with Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra is a serious disappointment. Instead of laying out a path for the future, he has repeated the lame and dead excuses handed out by the discredited Left government and its platoon of fellow-travelling experts. The Left front had failed in financial management, marked by possibly the lowest tax to state GDP ratio among all big states, poor user charge collection such as in case of electricity, poor expenditure control and a lazy over-reliance on small savings that end up as loan in the state's books.The Trinamool Congress (TMC) was aware of the debt burden and trajectory when it fought for power in 2011 and 2016. True, the Left government accumulated too much debt, but then one inherits the good things along with the bad. Blaming the Centre for approving loans serves no purpose; the Centre wasn't doing the maths nor providing a counter-guarantee. A

Letters: TMC's excuses

It is bewildering to note that the judge-population ratio has stood at 18:10 lakh. If the Law Commission had recommended 50 judges in 1987, the report has ostensibly not received government attention. Even the slackness on the part of successive governments both at the Centre and in states in appointing judges commensurate with the growing number of cases has rendered the judiciary to go on slow in disposal of cases. If the judges' strength is 18 for every 10 lakhs, it doesn't mean there is pressure on 18 judges to handle 10 lakh cases. The reports must reveal the ratio of judges to the pendency of cases. The litigant public in need of justice is scared to moving courts considering the inordinate delay expected in disposal of cases. The governments have an obligation to do away with this fear. For this to happen, an adequate number of judges must be appointed, more courts has to be set up, excessive adjournments should be eliminated, court holidays must be curtailed besides a number of

Letters: Skewed ratio

Click on graphic

Business Standard analyses one family's finances and suggests a way forward>Status & GoalsHemant works in the business intelligence division of a fast-moving consumer good company and  Vrinda as a trainer with a private bank. They are currentlyly living on rent and plan to buy their own apartment this year. They also want to plan their son's education, followed by retirement

Case study

V Sivasubramanian

Shardul Shroff

Lau Kien Foh

Pritam Mahure

Businesses have only 240 days to realign their systems and processes in line with the new indirect tax regime in the country. Experts share their views on the steps that will help them become GST-ready

Making GST work for India Inc

It was not just 'serious' contributors to the MyGov portal - a government initiative for citizen-government interaction - who had been invited to its second anniversary celebration on Saturday. Worried that they would not be able to fill the seats at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, the venue where the celebrations were held, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology and the MyGov event management team had sent out invites to everyone who had ever dropped a suggestion on the portal since it went live two years ago. This irked volunteers who had been toiling hard to contribute regularly. A group of these regulars were heard grumbling that it was unfair that "all kinds of people" had been invited to fill seats.

Free for all

Translated into English it would mean "Kids, old and young/he meets everyone/that's our PM". The song in Hindi accompanied by a music video showing people prancing around with montages of the Prime Minister taking selfies, playing a drum and so on kept playing in a loop at intervals during the MyGov event on Saturday. The song and the music video had been produced by the MyGov creative team especially for the event. A volunteer boasted that the music video could give any music director and production team a run for their money. He went on to say that the stage, laser lights and the giant screens installed at the venue were comparable or even better than those used at film award functions.

Better than the best

Default of loans by Indian companies is making headlines every day, but there are many that have managed to remain below the radar despite taking thousands of crores of loans from banks. While Vijay Mallya has become the poster boy of India Inc defaults, some companies that are getting negative press have hired spin doctors so that they can remain outside the media glare. One option suggested by spin doctors is to stay away from Mumbai and Delhi because a large chunk of the national media is based in the two cities. Another strategy is to deny any information about default and blame journalists for running an agenda on behalf of competition. This was exactly how Kingfisher ran its campaign till the chickens came home to roost.

Managing the media

With reference to "Much to meditate on" (August 6), if one refers to the all-time bestseller "Games People Play", Arvind Kejriwal truly comes across as a persistent game player among politicians in India. Eric Berne's book describes the psychological drama that human beings resort to for creating a commonplace social disturbance to gain a "payoff". In Delhi's context the origin of the game between the lieutenant-governor and chief minister is the ambiguity of Delhi's constitutional status. It appears, for all practical purposes, Delhi is a Union Territory with an elected CM who has to work amicably with an appointed LG if he has to show results. Kejriwal is consistently playing the rebellious stifled "child" while the LG plays the bureaucratic "parent" asserting his procedural authority.One wishes our young emerging politicians emulate Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who always made effective use of humour and repartee to make his point without offending anybody. Even his adversaries in party po

Letters: Delhi mind games

Data Tracker: Setting the table

Consumer attitudes towards food and beverages are changing. Health and fitness are among the primary concerns for consumers, especially millennials. Alison Martin, director at Kantar Worldpanel, which ranks brands according to consumer reach points (CRP) says the demand for 'free-from' products, non-traditional flavours and fusion foods is eroding the advantages of scale that used to help multinationals in the past. The times are changing| In beverages Coca-Cola remains the market leader, reaching 46 per cent of the world's population. Red Bull has had a good year (Position 96, growing CRPs by 8 per cent)| Sprite is the fastest growing brand in the top 10; found an additional 15.9 million shoppers in 2015| The US remains the single biggest market for Sprite, India is its fifth largest market where the brand has been innovative with Sprite Zero, the low calorie variant was exclusively tested on the e-commerce mobile app Grofers rather than the usual route of modern trade outlets| Brands

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 316 - Business Standard

Letters: Preserve heritage

Letters: Rajan knows his job well

Letters: Rajan will be missed

PM's clear condemnation

Fly-by-night problems

Shaktimaan in Assam

Golf versus cricket

Minister in a jam

Letters: Queue for bank licence

Letters: TMC's excuses

Letters: Skewed ratio

Case study

Making GST work for India Inc

Free for all

Better than the best

Managing the media

Letters: Delhi mind games

Data Tracker: Setting the table

How real is the recovery?

Transforming bank licensing