Govt should take criticism of coal auctions seriously

CAG on coal, again

Business Standard

After successfully bringing back several Indians in difficult situations in foreign countries, the Ministry of Home Affairs has taken up the case of a female elephant stuck in Bangladesh. The elephant landed in an island in the neighbouring country when flood waters washed it away from the Kaziranga National Park. The ministry sprung into action when the Bangladesh government informed it about the elephant's whereabouts and expressed its willingness to send the animal back. A three-member team is getting ready to go to Bangladesh to bring it back. A lot of planning is underway since the only channel of evacuation would be the waterways connecting India and Bangladesh.

Jumbo affair

At a time when the Congress is running a major campaign to project former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as Uttar Pradesh's CM candidate for the coming Assembly elections, a blog by Sandeep Dikshit, Sheila's son and a former Lok Sabha member of Parliament, is bound to roil the waters. In his blog, Sandeep, who was also a key member of Rahul Gandhi's strategy team, accused the party leadership of promoting people in Delhi who abused and maligned his mother. "I am in the Congress, but as far as its Delhi unit is concerned, I cannot accept a leadership whose sole objective was to discredit the Congress government in Delhi under Sheila Dikshit... I am informed that I am not particularly liked for my rebellious nature and irreverent attitude," he wrote. Wonder how his comments will affect his mother's prospects in UP.

Ill-timed blog

Strong endorsement from Mr Obama may help Ms Clinton

Hillary's Everests

The reading room for members of Parliament and journalists in the Parliament House premises, near its hallowed Central Hall, had an unwelcome visitor on Thursday. A monkey sneaked in and sat inside for nearly half an hour amid newspapers and magazines. The reading room staff members were too scared to drive it out and sought the help of the watch and ward department. They were, however, alert that the monkey might sneak into the Central Hall, where senior MPs were busy meeting each other and the door that opens towards the reading room was closed hurriedly. Until recently, the Parliament House had employed a langur and his caretaker to scare away monkeys. The langur was removed from service purportedly under pressure from animal rights activists.

Simian distraction

With reference to the editorial "Failures in defence" (July 28), the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on defence equipments speaks volumes about the scant respect being shown by the government agencies/departments to the security concerns of the nation. Needless to say any delay in the acquisition of vital defence equipment and timely execution of the related projects can wreak havoc with national security should an emergency arise.The editorial justifiably highlights several key issues pertaining to strengthening of our forces where prompt action was required but was delayed for one reason or another. Mind you, the matter pertaining to the placing of final orders with vendors for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft is unresolved despite the lapse of around four years since these were officially chosen by the government after thorough scrutiny.It is ironical to learn that our armed forces have also failed to maintain defence equipment properly. This must be v

Letters: A stitch in time

This is with reference to A V Rajwade's column "Central bank independence" (July 28). That economic growth should get precedence over inflation is good logic, but we should add some caveats in the Indian context. The benefit of growth should be experienced by all classes. With nearly eight per cent growth, India has an increasing numbers of the world's richest billionaires but it is also home to the largest number of poor. Growth has not been inclusive.Besides, with 12 million people joining the ranks of the unemployed every year, growth should be accompanied by a high number of job opportunities. This has not happened so far. Job growth is skewed and mostly confined to the services sector, where only knowledge workers from urban and semi-urban areas get jobs, while a vast number in rural society, being undergraduates, keeps waiting.According to a Nasscom study, 50 per cent of the jobs in the information and technology industry will be automated by 2025. This raises the risk of net job

Letters: Growth with a caveat

This refers to the editorial "Risky option" (July 28). Options  trading is a natural corollary of futures trading. However, the entry of banks, foreign institutional investors, mutual funds and foreign hedgers in Indian agri-commodities is fraught with danger. It is disconcerting to note that recommendations have been made merely to provide liquidity and depth to the commodities market without an analysis of deeper implications for the economy. Banks and institutions will enter the commodities market not as voluntary market makers, but to generate profits for themselves. As in the equity game, volatile bull markets are the ones that bring profits to the futures and options players. Price rise will be a natural consequence when cash-rich players start chasing local agri-commodities. This is as good as hoarding.Regulatory provisions cannot prevent manipulative trade. Regulators can only limit the damage or they may conduct a post-mortem if things go out of hand. What actually happen is p

Letters: Futureless option

Democrats celebrate Hillary's day

Click on graphic

With the historic nomination of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential Candidate and the cooling embers of Bernie Sanders revolution, Democrats gathered in Philadelphia hoped they had turned a corner on Tuesday. The momentous day was capped by a rousing Bill Clinton speech. "She'll never quit on you," he said. "She never quit on me.""In the most extended applause line of his speech, the former president said Republicans are running against "a cartoon" version of Hillary Clinton, but "earlier today, you nominated the real one."

Fund managers' calls go awry

Several of the top investment calls by India's leading equity fund managers in June haven't yielded the desired results. While their most-bought stocks have performed in line with the markets, some of the counters they have exited have seen gains. The Sensex is up nearly four per cent in July. Besides Lupin and YES Bank, shares of other most-bought companies, including Sun Pharma, State Bank of India and Mahindra & Mahindra, have performed in line with or underperformed the Sensex. On the other hand, Vedanta, Tata Motors and Reliance Capital, among the most-sold stocks by fund managers, have gained 28 per cent, 11 per cent and eight per cent, respectively.

No respite from indigenisation delays, maintenance woes

Failures in defence

Sadly, there have been several attempts by the government in the recent past to "circumvent" the independence of RBI

Letters: RBI's independence

She has attained iconic status and her suffering will go down as an inspiring chapter in the annals of Indian history

Letters: Sharmila's decision

India not yet ready for options trading in commodities

Risky options

Lenders, particularly public sector banks (PSBs) and the Reserve Bank of India have been struggling to recover non-performing assets stacked in various sectors

Letters: Limitations of S4A

The government might have provided brand new smartphones to all its information officers, but it will not foot the bills of those who are below the rank of director

Dialling up a storm

Conrad K Sangma, the newly elected member of Lok Sabha from Meghalaya, was one of the three Young Turks, among other members of Parliament, to highlight the havoc caused by floods in their respective home states

Point taken

Addressing a rally of Bahujan Samaj Party rebel R K Chowdhary's supporters in the state capital, Kumar said while the SP brandished Lohia's name to garner votes, it never followed his principles

Confusing signals

Early-bird corporate results offer hope but no clear trend

No broad-based revival

Questions arising out of Antrix-Devas arbitration

Honouring treaties

The NITI Aayog building in New Delhi is being refurbished ... again... within a span of just over a year

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