Govt must explore new options to limit OROP's impact

Fiscal time bomb

Business Standard

Spillovers from Western monetary policy a problem

Collective challenges

Caught between the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and the Islamic State's onslaught in the region, people fleeing the bombs, chemical weapon attacks

Letters: Refugee crisis

With reference to the article, "Raghuram Rajan: Many hits but some misses, too", RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan may not be a satisfied man with regard to developments and challenges after completing two years in office

Letters: Right man, right place

I refer to the delightful article, "The politics of the Census" (September 5) by Devangshu Datta

Letters: What atheism means

A one-time compliance window - open until September 30, 2015 - has been notified under The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, to declare undisclosed foreign assets and undisclosed foreign income, and come clean. Over the last two months, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has come out with two sets of FAQs to assuage the fears of taxpayers. Tax experts Tapati Ghose, partner,Deloitte Haskins & Sells, and Prakash Hegde, director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, de-fog some key issues for tax payers when they avail themselves of the compliance window.Disclosure of foreign bank accountsIn the case of a foreign bank account, value for purposes of declaration is the sum of all the deposits made in respective bank accounts.  Any amount withdrawn from such bank accounts, and re-deposited would not be counted. A reduction from gross deposits is available for withdrawals that have been used to acquire new assets, or create deposits in another ba

When you use the one-time compliance window

On Saturday, journalists who went to Jantar Mantar to cover protests by ex-servicemen demanding 'OROP' were gheraoed by followers of self-styled godman Asaram

'Saintly' campaigning

JD(U) has released a booklet, Dalit Virodhi Bhajpa had said about the BJP and what BJP leaders had said about him when he was CM and belonged to the JD(U)

When friends were enemies

On Saturday, the team that handles Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Twitter handle @PMOIndia, had to delete a tweet about his visit to Bodh Gaya

First among equals

Govt proposal on maternity benefits deserves study

Companies and maternity

Some seasoned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are not crowing about the Samajwadi Party's (SP) decision to walk out of its 'grand alliance' with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal in Bihar and fight all 243 seats alone in the Assembly elections later this year.  These BJP leaders know that the SP doesn't have a significant support base in Bihar. They anticipate similar fights on seat-sharing within the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. This will lead many NDA rebel candidates to contest the Bihar elections on their own. The BJP is likely to contest 160 to 170 seats, which would not leave enough seats for its allies like the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party, Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Party. All three have demanded at least 25 to 30 seats.

Seat-sharing fights expected in Bihar

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) brass is finding it hard to explain the success of the all-India trade union strike on September 2. Secretly, its hierarchy isn't disappointed with the impact of the strike. But it cannot laud the effort of the other trade unions as it had opted out of the strike and asked them to be patient with the government and postpone the strike by six months. BMS leaders have taken to questioning claims that the strike was successful. It has even doubted Assocham's figure that the strike led to a loss of Rs 25,000 crore as well as its efficacy in various sectors. In Delhi, most auto rickshaws and taxis stayed off the roads. BMS leaders insisted this wasn't the case, as a transport strike in Delhi wasn't possible without its support. BMS leaders are arguing that by organising a failed strike the other trade unions have surrendered their advantage and now the government would crush future strikes.

BMS opinion on the Sept 2 strike

Click of graphic

Here is a quick look at rail accidents over the past three years.

Derailed: Train mishaps

Questions about Competition Commission's investigation of Google

A difficult case

Why is govt staying in airlines but ignoring health care?

Misplaced priorities

An overzealous marketing executive got rapped on social media recently. A promotional mail from Flipkart saying "beautiful women are more successful in their lives" went out to women customers recently, offering discounts on clothing and footwear if they shopped on the Flipkart app. One of the recipients of this mail took to Twitter to vent her ire. "Thanks for this piece of sexist **** email @Flipkart," she posted along with a screenshot of the promotional email. To Flipkart's credit, it lost no time in replying. It tweeted that the company "does not endorse the content of the email and will investigate and take action". The chief product officer of the online marketplace also offered an unconditional apology to the customer, saying, "this is a big fail, will not happen again".

The flip side of Flipkart's offer

The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and rival Left Front drew their own conclusions from the outcome of the general strike called by central trade unions on Wednesday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said bandhs had no future, adding that Left parties were trying to survive by resorting to them frequently. On their part, members of the Opposition Left accused the state government of using "anti-democratic measures" to thwart the strike, and concluded that the chief minister had opposed the strike to present herself as a "valuable ally" of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

One strike, two conclusions

The recent bureaucratic reshuffle brought a senior official into a key ministry. However, there are murmurs that this official's spouse holds a senior position in a fast moving consumer goods group. While the relationship itself doesn't represent a conflict, what is raising eyebrows is the fact that some entities associated with the corporate house are party to certain proceedings initiated by a department of the ministry in question.

Conflict of interest

In his column, "Coping with regional disparities" (September 2), Ashok K Lahiri does not take into account three important factors  responsible for the situation economically laggard states find themselves in: poor administration, population explosion and  corruption.Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar were among the few better administered states in the 1950s. The slide started with the deterioration in the quality of political leadership. Proportionately, corruption increased and soon became rampant. Plans and projects were, of course, conceived, but the political  'mafia'  dictated the release of tenders and execution. The result was that many projects, including development of infrastructure, were either not properly executed or remained on paper. Maintenance of law and order took a back seat. Look at the fate of the National Rural Health Mission in UP. Besides, there was no control over population growth in UP and Bihar. No amount of central assistance will help if corruption and populat

Letters: From prosperity to despair

With reference to the editorial, "Transmission travails" (September 3), the need of the hour is to unshackle interest rates of tax-saving instruments and make these largely amenable to changes according to market conditions so that households can make conscious decisions on the matter. These rates should no longer be held hostage to the 'political' wisdom of the government. Of course, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can't do much here as fiscal policies (the taxation part) are the sole prerogative of the government.An active market for bonds as recommended by the Urjit Patel Committee must be given serious thought. Both the RBI and the government should function in coordination to meet the twin objectives of containing inflation and achieving the desired level of growth in the economy. The government has fixed six per cent as the inflation rate target for the RBI till March 2016. But how can the RBI control inflation while also ensuring much-needed growth through rate cuts at the call

Letters: Growth and inflation

With reference to the Patel's agitation for quota being led by Hardik Patel in Gujarat, he might be young and politically inexperienced, but his demand - either free the country from reservation or make everyone its slave -  is unexceptionable.Introduced in the 1950 as a temporary provision for 10 years for the uplift of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), reservations have been perpetuated and their ambit widened to include communities under Other Backward Classes (OBC). However the benefits of reservation have been cornered mostly by affluent sections of SC, ST and OBC communities. This has led to a vertical division in society, merit getting buried and a feeling of discrimination among the poor belonging to reserved communities as well as those from communities not entitled to any quota. Little wonder then that communities like the Patels, who do not come under any quota category, are clamouring for inclusion in the list of OBCs.The implementation of the quota policy in

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