Govindraj Ethiraj's article, "Designing Swachh Bharat differently" (November 24) was an interesting read. I am in agreement with the writer's basic aversion to designing the programme from out of policy pigeonholes like other government initiatives. But the article revolves around the general obsession with cleaning rather than the cause of garbage. The most important aspect of garbage is its generation, but this is being ignored by all and sundry in the excitement over the Swachh Bharat campaign.India is basically a poor country, but like most developed nations, the majority of the garbage here is generated by the rich and powerful. The United States is the largest per capita garbage generator. Rich societies produce more waste because they can do without the leftovers. That the rich may be educated generally makes a poor case for arguing that they would not produce much garbage. On the other hand, living in poverty means every bit of resource has to be reused, recycled or utilised in

Letters: Focus on reducing waste

Business Standard

With reference to the report, "Govt looks to curb domestic circulation of black money" (November 23), the measures being taken by the Central Board of Direct Taxes and other regulators are necessary and commendable and will definitely reduce the middle class taxpayers' temptation to evade taxes in an attempt to reduce their expenditure. But these measures are incapable of tracking black money, which is a product of several corrupt practices. Perhaps, for regulators, even the black money becomes white, once the tax and, where applicable, the penalty have been paid.In India, black money gets accumulated as immovable property, assets in the form of precious metals and undervalued investments. As a country, we have a soft corner for organisations engaged in social and charitable/religious work and vested interests take advantage of this.Huge election expenditures prompt the political leadership to allow a different treatment for enforcement of law with respect to their funding sources. Whi

Letters: Keep tabs on net worth

Click on graphic

Wall Street measures the strength of the dollar against six global currencies. The Federal Reserve looks at those six, plus 20 more many from emerging markets which the nation trades with

Tracking the dollar across globe

Less taxing times for some

Bank of Amercia-Merrill Lynch has analysed firms' earnings per share (EPS), based on estimated tax rate for 2018

Registered firms have better access to short-term finance

The analysis indicates that registered partnership firms have better access to short-term finance, as compared to their unregistered counterparts

The Congress has got into a war of words with the Samajwadi Party (SP) whose members were celebrating party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's 76th birthday with razzmatazz last week. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said "the ostentatious display of wealth, of garish expenditure running into hundreds of crores" would have been better utilised for the welfare of the poor. Without mincing words, Yadav accused the Congress of "humiliating" its senior leaders. Citing the example of veteran Congress leader and former Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand chief minister N D Tiwari, Singhvi said, "Had he (Tiwari) been in the SP, he would have been a big name among socialist leaders."

Verbal volleys

Tejaswi Yadav, the new deputy chief minister of Bihar, and Tej Pratap Yadav, the health, minor water resources, forests and environment minister of the state, will not move to their official ministerial bungalows. They are expected to stay with their father and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad at his 10, Circular Road residence. Last week, after they were sworn-in as ministers, some journalists requested Prasad to send his sons to another corner to field questions from the press. Prasad declined with a smile. Incidentally, Tejaswi Yadav also holds the building construction department portfolio, which allots bungalows to ministers.

Family ties

At a recent conference on insurance in Mumbai, executives from two private life insurance corporations were heard joking that selling insurance policies was fast resembling a "ladki dekhne wala" ceremony where even if the prospective bride (or the policy) had great potential, the prospective groom would inevitably say, "Ladki achchi hain (the girl is good) but I do not wish to get married". Many customers check out a whole range of policies even when they are not ready to buy one.

Policy check

With reference to the report, "7th Pay Commission announces bonanza for central govt staff" (November 20), the good news is only with respect to government finances. The nearly 24 per cent increase in salary, allowances and pension for serving staff is much less than the 40 per cent increase implemented by the United Progressive Alliance government. There is no word on productivity in the announcement this time. Or is it difficult to relate to the work when it comprises only service and that, too, rendered in the context of a government?T N Ninan in his column, "How much is enough" (November 21), writes that the pay being offered now should not be a disincentive for public-spirited people with ability, provided income maximisation is not their goal. But the assumption that income maximisation should not be their goal seems unrealistic. Senior government officials compare their remuneration with their private sector counterparts, although such a comparison is out of context. Several ins

Letters: Wrong timing

The 7th Pay Commission has recommended an increase of about 24 per cent in the pay package of central government employees and pensioners. I am sure the government will accept the recommendations and implement the pay increase.However, I wonder why the government and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) are shy about accepting the same demand from bank pensioners. It is surprising that during the signing of the 10th bipartite settlement with the staff unions of banks, the IBA mentioned that "as banks do not have any contractual liability towards the pensioners, the demand for revision of pension along with salary revision cannot be accepted". Why then are the pensions of government employees considered for revision?A moot point here is that the government is ready to shoulder the additional financial burden on account of the pension revision out of the revenue income, whereas banks are required to meet this liability from their profits from commercial operations. Current bank pensioners

Letters: Bank pensioners' woes

In the wake of the 7th Pay Commission's report, as a tax-paying citizen, I am least interested in which cadre gets what or how much a judge, minister, secretary or an armed forces general is paid. What I am interested in is what the per capita payout to the entire bureaucracy is, that is, the amount paid from the Consolidated Funds of India divided by all those who get paid from it. I want to know how many times it is the country's per capita income and how this compares with the corresponding statistics of other countries. This should include the market cost of house, medical facilities, state paid house helps, car, membership of clubs/institutes, free/concessional travel facilities, pension, study leave etc. Will the media release such statistics or simply talk about the salaries of bureaucrats and politicians?T R Ramaswami   MumbaiLetters 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: Let's do a comparison

Essential that climate summit is at least a modest success

Hopes from Paris

India must not opt out of emerging trade regime

Summit subtext

India fares poorly on condition of children

The number of underweight Indian children under the age of five is dismal when compared with the other members of BRICS. India has reduced malnutrition, but here it is 13 times worse than Brazil, nine times worse than China and three times worse than South Africa.Yet, Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) data when compared with data from National Family Health Survey 2 (1995-96) and National Health Survey 3 (2005-06) indicates a clear reduction in the percentage of children identified as malnourished. India's ranking among neighbours has improved; it is now next to Nepal, marginally better off with 29.1 per cent of children under the age of five underweight. The percentage of stunted children dropped from 51 per cent in 1999 to 38.7 per cent in 2013-14.Similarly, the percentage of underweight children has come down from 42.7 per cent to 29.4 per cent over the  period. The percentage of children who are wasted was 19.7 per cent in 1999-2000, which increased to 22.9 per cent in 2006-07. In 20

StatsGuru: Analysis of the economic impact of a weak monsoon

Rural demand has struggled following another sub-par monsoon. As Table 1 shows, this year's monsoon has been particularly deficient in states in which irrigation penetration is not high and therefore, dependence on rainfall is higher. Table 2 shows that central and southern India have been particularly badly hit this year. As a consequence, analysis in Table 3 by CRISIL shows that kharif sowing of rice and coarse cereals lags long-term trends.Agricultural income has been further hit by a major downturn in the world prices of agri-commodities, as shown in Table 4. The consequences on rural demand of this stressed farm income are visible in the sales growth for two-wheelers and tractors in recent times, shown in Table 5. Companies with high rural exposure have also seen sharply declining revenue of late, as Table 6 reveals.

Nitish Kumar (Photo: Facebook)

Law and order is Kumar's big selling point and is likely to be his top priority

What will Nitish Kumar do in his third term?

Alibaba has announced it intends to launch a $306-million ( Rs 2,044 crore) fund to invest in start-ups in Taiwan

Alibaba's $306-million fund

Arvind Kejriwal

The Delhi cabinet has cleared the Lokpal Bill, which brings the office of the chief minister under the preview of the proposed ombudsman. It should come up in the city assembly next week. It also stipulates that investigation by the Lokpal be completed in six months and trials be conducted in a time-bound manner.The Bill was approved by the cabinet after a row in the assembly, where the Bharatiya Janata Party asked why it wasn't being passed despite the huge majority of the Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress, which has no seats in had the same question.On the floor of the House, Leader of the Opposition, the BJP's Vijender Gupta, questioned the chief minister, saying "the Bill over which the AK-49 government resigned has forgotten the issue, this time despite a thumping majority. They have not even mentioned the Bill in the House."It reached a point where the hashtag #KejriwalWhereIsLokpal,  became a top trend on Twitter, hours before the assembly session started.The Bill for a strong anti-

Lokpal Bill to come up in Delhi assembly next week

At stake for India in Paris climate talks

The two-week Paris climate change negotiations begin on November 30, with about than 120 heads of states arriving in France's capital for two days. The meeting hopes to produce a new global agreement that would help by the turn of the century to keep global temperature rise below two degrees, compared with the pre-industrialisation era. The pact is likely to indirectly impose a price on use of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas and give impetus to greater use of renewable energy.India, expected to increase the use of coal despite rapidly adding renewable power over the next decade, has lots at stake in Paris. A pact that shifts the burden of costly emission reduction disproportionately on to developing countries could significantly hit India's future economic growth story. A less ambitious pact that asks countries not to do enough to reduce emissions would leave the country more vulnerable to the impact of more dangerous climate change in the medium- and long-term.The ideal, a high

Digital transformation accelerating growth on the third platform

Digital transformation (DX) is accelerating growth on the third platform and challenging current chief information officer (CIO) leadership model, claims IDC Asia/Pacific in its report titled, FutureScapes. IDC Asia/Pacific predicts that by the end of 2017, 60 per cent of APAC 1000 (A1000) enterprises will have DX at the centre of their corporate strategy, with majority even creating an independent position to oversee the DX strategy implementation.By 2017, over 60 per cent of organisations' ICT spending will be for third platform technologies, solutions and services, increasing to 80 per cent by 2020. Further, by 2018, 80 per cent of B2C and 60 per cent of B2B organisations will overhaul their "digital front door" to support 1,000 to 10,000 times as many customers/customer touchpoints as they do today.Jaideep Mehta, managing director, IDC South Asia, says, "Crucially, they are breaking down barriers to entry and new competitors can come from unexpected quarters: so, a bank needs to wo

Start-up leaders in India lack flexibility

The least common traits prevalent amongst the start-up founders were consultative, flexible and methodical

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