Low tariffs conceal major evacuation challenges

Caution on solar power

Business Standard

Distributing sweets and dry fruits is an integral part of Diwali festivities. So it makes sense for the health-conscious to be extra cautious after the festive season. Officials at Krishi Bhawan, home to the Union ministries of agriculture and food, went through a day-long diabetes screening, awareness and education programme on Monday. The note sent out by the organiser of the programme quoted a joint secretary-level official as saying, "The modern-day job demands fitness for us to be productive and happy. Hence, it is imperative that we monitor our health and adopt a very active lifestyle".

Health is wealth

Union Minister V K Singh has alleged that the media debate on intolerance in India right before the Bihar Assembly elections was politically motivated just like the debate on attacks on the Christian community prior to the Delhi Assembly elections. Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, told reporters on the sidelines of the Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Los Angeles over the weekend that someone was paying for the debate and the media was just playing ball. He insisted that "inclusiveness" was the hallmark of the current government, which was working to create an investor-friendly climate in India.

A paid-for debate?

Thoongaa Vanam, a Tamil thriller starring Kamal Haasan and Trisha, is running in New Delhi's multiplexes. The film is about an undercover police officer out to nab a narcotics trafficking gang that has kidnapped his son. While the film itself is a bit of a drag, the few viewers who had come to watch it at a theatre in a south Delhi mall on Sunday, were pleasantly surprised to find real-life super cop K Vijay Kumar sitting among them. Kumar is a decorated Tamil Nadu cadre Indian Police Service officer famous for Operation Cocoon that ended with the death of notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan in 2004. His exploits have inspired several Tamil films and actors are known to consult him for tips while playing top police officials in movies.

Real cop, reel cop

Centralisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as proposed by Subir Gokarn in his column, "Leveraging the CSR mandate" (November 16), defeats the very purpose of integrating corporations with the social environment surrounding them and in a small way, correcting the imbalances in the local environment. Manufacturing and service corporations, wherever located, may come forward and help create social infrastructure such as public toilets, parks, libraries, health initiatives etc and also bring in quality processes in education and sports.Society recognises the hand that comes forward to help it. The above-mentioned initiatives will create goodwill for corporations, which may come handy when a unit gets negative publicity due to unforeseen circumstances. Involving local corporate branch staff in CSR activities is necessary as they are the face of a corporation among communities. The concept of a 'certificate' reminds me of utilisation certificates collected by governments as proo

Letters: Localise CSR

Although India and Pakistan share a long history, the two countries did not have, until recently, any common icons. Emperors Ashoka and Akbar ruled over both the territories, but Pakistan never eulogised either of them. But in Karnataka, the Congress and writer Girish Karnad seem to have discovered one in Tipu Sultan: the state government celebrated the monarch's birth anniversary while Karnad said the Bengaluru airport should be named after him. They are probably not aware that Tipu Sultan is considered a hero in Pakistan although he might never have visited the areas that are part of the country now.I had lived in the famous Christian mission hostel, Ewing Hall, in the heart of Lahore city from 1944-47. Political stalwarts like Inder Kumar Gujral had lived in that hostel before me. When I visited Lahore in 1999, I found that the government had taken over its ownership and named it Tipu Hall. The reason for Pakistan's admiration of Tipu Sultan may be totally different from or opposite

Letters: Tipu, a hero in Pakistan

Apropos the letter to the editor, "Bank pensioners' woes" (November 16), someone who retired as managing director (MD) of a public sector bank in 2001 gets a pension of about Rs 20,000 per month, whereas an MD who retired in 2004 gets Rs 40,000. Likewise, an MD who retired in 2013 or 2014 gets a pension of Rs 70,000. One can imagine how difficult it is for the MD who retired in 2001 to take care of himself and his spouse with the pension amount of Rs 20,000 and also meet medical expenses.That is why bank officers are demanding parity in pension to lead a decent life after retirement. The pension corpus of public sector banks amounted to Rs 1.25 lakh crore as on March 31, 2015. The pension disbursement and retirement benefits are much less than the amount accruing to the pension corpus by way of contribution from the banks as well as interest earned on the corpus.R Sridhar   ChennaiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar

Letters: Need for pension parity

No aid in sight for welfare ministry

In February, the budget of the women and child welfare ministry was cut by about half, from Rs 17,950 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 10,287 crore for 2015-16.Minister Maneka Gandhi sparked a controversy earlier this week after telling Reuters her departments were struggling, her observations interpreted as criticism of her own government. "We have problems because our cut has still not been restored," she told Reuters. "Literally, it's a month-to-month suspense on whether we can meet wages."Gandhi is right. Factchecker.in found the budget for women and child development has been cut 51 per cent. There has been a steep decline in funding for schemes run by the ministry like Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls. There has been a 49 per cent decline in the child welfare budget from Rs 17,613 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 8,844 crore in 2015-16. The budget for women welfare saw an increase of 17 per cent in same period, from Rs 384 crore t

StatsGuru: Tracking the numbers behind corporate results

Click on graphic

An examination of trends in the corporate results for the quarter-ended September declared so far (excluding banking and finance companies) shows that, while the sharp decrease in demand growth as measured by corporate revenue has ceased, it is still, as Table 1 shows, showing year-on-year fall. As Table 2 shows, growth in adjusted net profit has also fallen year on year. That matters are not worse is thanks to sharp declines in costs. As Table 3 shows, raw material costs in particular have shrunk considerably year on year. Employee compensation, as Table 4 describes, has increased year-on-year but not as much as it did the previous quarter. Growth in interest costs has also been positive, according to Table 5, but far from the high levels of two years ago.Sectors hit hardest by the demand shortfall include steel, as Table 6 shows. Power, however, has seen decent revenue growth, as has infrastructure - but fast moving consumer goods, a bellwether for consumer demand, has seen minimal r

For much of last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was away in the UK and Turkey. This week, he will have to respond to the charges made by his party senior that the BJP is being run as a fiefdom of a handful of people. Some of his supporters have taken up cudgels on his behalf and are demanding action against those who have criticised him and party chief Amit Shah. Modi has had the time to ponder over this and formulate a strategy. The question is how he will phrase his rejoinder.In the past, as chief minister of Gujarat, he had faced a similar rebellion by former chief minister Keshubhai Patel. This time, some heads are likely to roll, which will party president Amit Shah's. The question is whether this will happen before December (when his term ends) or immediately.

Modi to respond to veterans' concerns

The winter session of the Delhi Assembly session will begin on Wednesday. The 70-member House will sit till November 28, during which a legislation to regulate private schools' fees is likely to be introduced. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Vijender Gupta has warned the BJP would corner the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on the implementation of recommendations of the fourth Delhi Finance Commission.Against the background of repeated strikes by safai karamcharis in the various municipal corporations, the BJP has already set the stage for a contentious session by accusing the AAP government of acting out of 'political vendetta' against the three corporations. "This is precisely the reason why Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) has said the government will only table the report of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission in the Assembly but not implement it," said Gupta.Gupta said the Delhi government owes the three corporations Rs 4,400 crore and because of the government's neglect, the bodies

Delhi Assembly's winter session likely to be stormy

Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav celebrate victory in bihar elections

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi will attend the event

Will BJP leaders attend Nitish's swearing-in?

Food delivery start-up HelloFresh AG, which announced an IPO of equity on Oct 28, has decided to delay the sale because of concern about investor demand

HelloFresh delays IPO

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

Case study

The rate of using voice calls and SMS declined around 20 per cent in the last two years (2013-2015) while voice over internet (VoIP) usage increased 22 per cent, according to a Deloitte report, hinting that in the coming years the quality of network for internet would be more important than the quality of network for voice calls

The changing communication landscape

Writing in style

William Penn

The LAMY imporium has launched a new line of writing instruments that includes fountain pens, rollerball pens, ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils. These products, partially galvanised with physical vapour deposition coating, guarantee a soft writing experience and are available in different nib widths. The new writing instruments are priced between Rs 28,000 to Rs 38,000 and are available at William Penn stores across the country.Exuding eleganceSLG Jewellers has introduced a new range of diamond, polki and gold jewellery studded with coloured stones. The new collection includes neckpieces and earrings and are priced Rs 50,000 onwards. The new collection is available at the company's showrooms in Delhi and the national capital region.Dining outChef Sanjeev Kapoor has launched a range of premium houseware, kitchen and table linen and gold- and silver-plated cutlery sets. The kitchen and table linen range includes mittens, pot holders, kitchen aprons, place mats, kitchen towels, napki

Finance tech sees increase in investments across APAC

Investments in financial technology (fintech) across Asia Pacific skyrocketed in 2015 - from about $880 million in all of 2014 to nearly $3.5 billion in just the first nine months of 2015, according to a new report by Accenture. The largest share of 2015 Asia Pacific fintech investment deals were in payments (40 per cent) and lending (25 per cent), which have traditionally been the sole domain of banks."We are seeing the convergence of two trends: venture capitalists are clearly signaling fintech is a growth opportunity and simultaneously financial services companies are waking up to the vast opportunities created by the current wave of fintech," says Jon Allaway, senior managing director of Accenture's Financial Services group in ASEAN and executive sponsor of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific. "Financial services institutions are embracing cloud technology, mobile wallets and blockchain to fundamentally redefine their business and operational models. We are seeing this in the i

Spinning out: Invest in bigger and experienced team

Spinning out? What you are able to take with you to your new company will determine how well you do. When it comes to leaving a company to start your own, whether you sink or swim could depend on how many good people you can bring with you. According to a research by Rotman School of Management's professor April Franco, it's a founder's ability to attract a large and experienced team of colleagues that will determine success of a spin-out company.Spin-outs are start-ups created by employees who leave one company to form another in the same industry. Quite often it's the charismatic founder who is given disproportionate attention when a company "spins-out." In fact, existing research looks at the "founder effect" and the value of a team as separate factors when considering spin-out performance. But the two, Franco says, are closely related."A founder's individual characteristics are important but what's more important is that person's ability to bring a bigger and more experienced team

The Strategist Quiz (#434)

1 Black bun burgers were launched by Burger King in Japan and McDonalds. Burger king used Bamboo charcoal and McDonalds used Squid Ink to color it black.2 All are bonds traded in financial markets. Masala bonds are Indian rupee denominated bonds issued in offshore capital markets. These will be offered and settled in US dollars to raise Indian rupees from international investors for infrastructure development in India. IFC will convert bond proceeds from dollars into rupees and use the rupees to finance private sector investment in India.3 Alphabet's project of launching helium balloons across Indonesia to give internet access to people on the ground.4 Defeat Device. The one which got Volkswagen into a major scandal5  Artificial Christmas Trees.6 The Jeep Grand Wagoneer.7 CII (Confederation of Indian Industries).8 Gillette. It was known as Eraser Mate.9 Parle Poppins.10 Amara Raja. The makers of Amaron Batteries.There were 11 correct entries to quiz No 434. Prachi Jain from IIT Roorkee

Answers to the Strategist Quiz (#434)

The dilemma returns

France and the world must respond to the attacks with care

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