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Iran is emerging from a strangling sanctions regime

StatsGuru: Economic significance of the PM's trip to Iran

Business Standard

There isn't much rationale to presume that politicians and bureaucrats sitting in New Delhi can come up with a template that can work equally well across this vast and diverse country

Letters: No central meddling

There is a major point, not mentioned by the writer, on which the anti-Nehru campaign of the present regime is based - the assumption of Nehru as the one who introduced dynastic politics in India

Letters: Nehru misunderstood

Barring some chains offering a 10 per cent discount to senior citizens, none of this is passed on to customers

Letters: Unhealthy practice

If you haven't bought a helmet yet, don't ride around in a two-wheeler in Odisha

Helmet please

Kalavati Bandurkar became the face of farm widows in Vidarbha after Gandhi visited her in 2008 and narrated her plight in Parliament

Kalavati is back

Parrikar's comments come at a time when Goa is getting ready for elections next year

The outsider

J Jayalalithaa

Tamil Nadu on its way to becoming a liquor-free state

The ruling J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK had said that it would implement prohibition step by step

Hamid Ansari to visit Morocco and Tunisia

India has economic ties with both countries

Pharmaceuticals department has achieved little

Only a price controller

Business Standard analyses one family's finances and suggests a way forward

Case study

Two years in, major reforms seem off the table

Avoiding reform

If the Shiv Sena can have "Shiv" vada-pav (an Indian snack) eateries across Mumbai, can the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its partner in the ruling alliance at the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), be far behind? The party has decided to launch "Namo" (short for Narendra Modi) tea stalls across the city. Manoj Kotak, BJP group leader in the MCGM, claimed the concept had been discussed at a party meeting. Opposition parties, however, lashed out at the idea. "This move is another joomla (gimmick)," said former BJP member Pravin Chheda, now leader of the Opposition party, the Congress, in the MCGM.

Party tea and snack

As the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government kicked off its celebrations on completing two years in power last week, senior Congress leaders criticised its achievements. Senior leader Digvijaya Singh visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi "in search of the developmental works", and claimed he was disappointed. "Nothing has changed at the ground level," he rued. Kapil Sibal said Congress was "pained and concerned" about the attitude of the government and asked it to explain what it had done for the farmers since coming to power. Congress spokesman Raj Babbar said there should be "a limit to celebrations".

Congress' pain

As the star-studded swearing-in ceremony of Mamata Banerjee consumed people's attention last week, an interesting episode escaped notice. India's neighbour, Bangladesh, sent a special jamdani sari, 20 kg of hilsa and molasses for Banerjee as she was re-installed as West Bengal chief minister on Friday after the landslide victory of the Trinamool Congress in the recent state Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Banerjee had visited Bangladesh in June last year.

Goodies for Mamata

Shekhar Gupta's understanding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's position on privatisation in the article, "Not quite the anti-Nehru" (May 28), is not quite correct. Gupta errs in referring to Gujarat Gas. The presence of Gujarat in the company's name leads him to believe that it is an old state public sector unit. It is, after a fashion, but a new one and not in the sense he would have the readers understand it and thus conclude that its non-privatisation is further proof of Modi's aversion to it. In fact, the reverse is true.The present Gujarat Gas is the successor to a three-decade-old company of the same name, originally belonging to the Mafatlal Group, which sold its holding to British Gas. It is a listed company. In 2012, British Gas sold its 65 per cent holding to GSPC Distribution Networks, a subsidiary of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. Since then, all the natural gas distribution businesses of GSPC have been amalgamated into the new Gujarat Gas. Its present shareholding c

Letters: Not quite correct

In the article, "Oh, for a crisis!" (May 28), T N Ninan suggests that public sector banks (PSB) have to be brought out of the present crisis. How to do that is the big question. Let us examine some suggestions from banking experts. One of the radical ones is privatisation. This is not possible in India, considering the strong labour resistance to the proposal. The Narendra Modi government can take a bet on the proposal, at the risk of not returning to power.Unions cannot be professional in their approach or attitude. Long-term gains and short-term losses do not influence any of the labour leaders. The best the Modi government can do is to sell the idea to labour leaders silently and muster their support. But that is only a wild guess at the moment.Other reforms comprise infusion of further capital that would spur credit growth. While credit growth may be achieved, there is no guarantee about the quality of such growth.Here is a suggestion worth considering due to its limited negative o

Letters: How to cure PSBs

India Inc., govt must support working women

Creche course

After Power Minister Piyush Goyal's observation that Jayalalithaa was an inaccessible chief minister and this was impeding power sector reforms in Tamil Nadu, it appears Information Technology and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has emerged as Jayalalithaa's favourite Union minister (after Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu). When Prasad phoned the Tamil Nadu CM to congratulate her, she wondered ingenuously if he had come campaigning in Tamil Nadu. "I criticised your party, Madam," said Prasad. "But never you…" He said she giggled at his remark and invited him to come to the state. So, now we know who the go-between is going to be between the Centre and Tamil Nadu.

Prasad emerges as Jayalalithaa's favourite Union minister

And the quotable quote award from the campaign, government formation, etc, during the Assembly elections has to go to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Sambit Patra. In the course of a TV debate after the results of the elections had been declared, he said the Congress had now become a neo-regional party!

And the award goes to Sambit Patra

Criminals and Crorepatis in cabinet

Kerala's ministers had least average assets and the state also had least number of crorepati ministers

Business Standard

Business Standard

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