Kodagu area falls into the catchment of the Cauvery river, the water distribution of which has led to disputes in riparian states

Letters: Coffee woes

Business Standard

The global economic outlook remains problematic

Good, bad… and risky

President Pranab Mukherjee, who is unlikely to get a second term, plans to mark his four years in office on July 25 with some fanfare. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Phase II museum of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on that day. It will mark the completion of the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Complex, a project that Mukherjee initiated when he moved into his official residence in mid-2012. The Phase II museum is being developed at the site of a heritage building where the garage for Rashtrapati Bhavan vehicles was located earlier. The Phase I museum had come up at the site of the erstwhile stables and was opened on July 25, 2014. The Clock Tower was inaugurated on July 25, 2015. The Phase II museum, spread over 10,000 square metres, will depict the story of the planning and construction of Rashtrapati Bhavan and subsequent developments. The President will unveil a microsite on the Rashtrapati Bhavan website. He will also lay the foundation stone for a cluster of new residential u

Big plans for Rashtrapati Bhavan

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and Member of Parliament R C Prasad, also known as RCP, was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's close aide until recently. But a string of electoral setbacks has made his position a tad shaky. According to a Bharatiya Janata Party leader in the state, he is now a favourite of the Opposition party. "He was the main strategist of the JD-U in the last Lok Sabha polls, but the party managed to win only two out of the 40 seats in the state," the BJP leader said. "In the Assembly elections, he was responsible for two seats: Biharsharif and Barh. Both were crucial to Nitishji and JD-U lost both." The BJP would be hoping RCP's losing streak continues.

Betting on a losing streak

The West Bengal government has announced the setting up of a new board to boost industrialisation. The Industrial Development and Promotional Board will meet every week to resolve problems facing industry, process new proposals and submit a report to the Chief Minister's Office every Saturday. A section of officials immediately questioned the move, arguing that the government already had several boards and panels for the purpose. There is the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and a core committee on industries chaired by the CM, besides eight sectoral committees of industrialists and officials attached to the housing, information technology, food processing, micro and small-scale industries and so on. Some said the move showed the government's desperation to attract investments, which eluded the state during Mamata Banerjee's first stint as CM.

Another board

With reference to the editorial, "Tackling terror" (July 20), terrorists are increasingly using bizarre, random forms of attack and taking intelligence agencies for a ride. The latest example of this kind of attack was the Nice carnage in France.Considering such tendencies, a country like India, which is surrounded by hostile neighbours, is especially vulnerable. Lack of preparedness may not only betray the country's counterterrorism tactics against fidayeen (suicide) attacks but also jeopardise its strategic interests.In an attempt to radically change the anaemic internal security mechanism, the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) was envisaged by the United Progressive Alliance government. It was proposed that the NCTC would have access to counterterrorism intelligence generated by India's covert services, as well as command authority over the National Security Guard and the National Investigation Agency. Newly-created electronic databases would strengthen the NCTC backbone, pro

Letters: Time to set up NCTC

Apropos the editorial, "Tackling terror", the inexorable slide in the global economy after two decades of boom, has affected nations in different ways. While democratic countries such as the US saw movements such as Occupy Wall Street, the euro zone buckled and the UK inflicted Brexit on itself.Arab Spring sprouted in some countries of West Asia, while others in the that region are grappling with an amorphous cause, made worse by plunging oil revenues and growing authority of radicals. More recently, there was a coup bid in Turkey.History is replete with periodic sociopolitical unrests. What is worrying about the current unrests is that these are becoming more rabid and radical. Worse, they are usurped by freelance or franchise extremists, where the perpetrators and the "cause" feed off each other and terror ensues as the byproduct.The world over, baffled leaderships are looking for solutions to a growing menace that has its roots in political and economic non-inclusiveness.R Narayanan

Letters: Roots of terror

The government has conveyed its intention to infuse Rs 22,915 crore into 13 state-run lenders. This is good news for capital-starved banks. To what extent it will help them ensure regulatory compliance or, for that matter, expand their credit is anybody's guess.It is estimated that public sector banks (PSB) in India will require additional capital support of at least Rs 3 lakh crore spread over three years until 2019. As the largest stakeholder in PSBs, to what extent the government will be able to meet these additional requirements amid a not-so-favourable fiscal situation is a big question. What, on the other hand, would be the response of the banks in the face of global uncertainties and market volatility?A permanent solution lies in taking some bold initiatives and reducing the banks' dependence on the government. Ensuring greater functional autonomy and a more professional management of operations are critical for banks to achieve independence.Srinivasan Umashankar   NagpurLetters

Letters: Autonomy for PSBs

Capital infusion norms for public sector banks are questionable

Half-hearted measure

It appears the formats, which are totally outdated, were designed by someone with no knowledge of the basic principles of accounting

Letters: Update the formats

The simultaneous resignation of his wife, Navjot Kaur, a BJP legislator from the Amritsar (East) constituency, might have poured more salt on the BJP's political wounds

Letters: Good days ahead

Ingenuity in attacks demands creative political responses

Tackling terror

Arshad Badruddin, a 36-year-old imam, alleged that his wife had been haranguing him to shave his well-groomed beard

When beard seems weird

Amend the definition of public servants in Lokpal Act

Illogical move

The JD-U was part of the NDA for about 17 years till it fell out with the alliance in 2013

Friend or foe?

The index will identify the member, who emerges as the chief disruptor during the course of the day, the political party he/she belongs to and the amount of time wasted

An index of Parliament disruption

We'll look at all levers on pricing: Sanjiv Mehta

Ban on Kashmir media dangerous and unwarranted

Muzzling the press

RBI should review its instruments of measuring inflation

Mr Rajan's concerns

Among MSMEs, services sector outpaces manufacturing

Rrising incomes have meant improving demand for health care, entertainment, and education, which, in turn, helped the services sector thrive

In a recent internal communication, Naidu has warned that officers and staff members who are absent during designated hours or arrive late for work repeatedly will have to forgo a day's casual or earned leave

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 323 - Business Standard