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

Letters: A ticking bomb

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Top five PE deals this yearThe top five deals this year accounted for 23.68% of the total investment in terms of deal value. The largest deal of this year was Centerbridge Partners LP investing $1,157.5 million in Senvion SE for 100% stake from Suzlon Energy, while Alibaba Group Holding, SAIF Partners Fund III invested $635 million in Noida-based One97 Communication for 27.60% stake. This was followed by $565.87 million investment made by Apax Partners in Chennai-based Shriram City Union Finance. and Carlyle International Energy Partners investing $500 million in London-based Magna Energy

A Snapshot of PE activity & deals

We remain bullish on festive demand: Pawan Munjal

Tenancy regulations are outdated and counter-productive

Start leasing land

Time to free interest rates for small savings, provident funds

Transmission travails

You might completely disagree with his views on women, but you can't fault him for lack of attention to detail. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar made an hour-long presentation before the media, outlining the achievements of his recent visit to the US and Canada. The presentation gave a blow-by-blow account of the 10-day trip - there were separate slides showing the minister paying homage at Ground Zero (the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre stood before the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001), participating in the Independence Day parade with Haryana's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign ambassador, actor Parineeti Chopra, meeting business honchos in that country, among others. Each slide was packed with information such as the number of days spent in a particular location, people Khattar met, things he did in a city etc. Khattar also did not forget to mention the potential investment his state was expecting from the memoranda of understanding signed in

Attention to detail

Rattled by instances of corporate espionage, energy sector executives dealing with corporate affairs, media and policy issues are more than careful these days with their computers and laptops, the repositories of all information. While only a couple of companies were affected by the espionage, executives across the board have been warned to carefully guard all communication. The existence of old computer files and papers is considered a sin; only the indispensable ones are saved as back-up. The sudden absence of policy papers in media house corridors is proof that the energy ministry is also careful about plugging holes. Amid such security, old documents are hard to trace, as is the history of long-pending matters. As a senior executive in an oil company quipped, "The task of cleaning up is a pain in the drive."

Pain in the 'drive'

Two days before retiring as finance secretary, Rajiv Mehrishi travelled to Shrinathji temple at Nathdwara, close to Udaipur, to offer special prayers. He stayed there for two days before taking charge as home secretary in New Delhi on Monday. Mehrishi seems to have a special connection with the temple having released the new Rs 1 notes from there in March this year. The government had decided to reprint the Rs 1 note after nearly 20 years with Mehrishi's signature on them.

Divine intervention

With reference to the editorial, "An unnecessary strike" (September 1), large-scale transformation is occurring due to rapid technological innovations and their penetration in all fields. Conventional systems and procedures have undergone drastic changes to cope with developments across the world. However these changes have not had any effect either on the organisational set-up or the functioning of trade unions in India.Labour being one of the most important resources for economic activity, trade unions as the protectors of workers' rights have a vital role to play in the economic growth and development of a country. It is of paramount importance for trade unions to distance themselves from gimmicks of political parties to maintain harmonious industrial relations.While trade unions must stand for the rights of the working class, it is necessary for them to ensure that they don't become a pawn of either the ruling parties or the Opposition, as both have their  respective agenda. Associ

Letters: Don't become a pawn

With reference to the report, "HDFC Bank slashes base rate to 9.35%" (September 1), HDFC Bank is one of the consistent performers. India's second-largest private lender has created a sensation in the market by cutting its base rate by 35 basis points to 9.35 per cent - the lowest offer in the sector.The move comes at a time when the festival season is days away. Even after the Reserve Bank of India made successive cuts in the key policy rate, banks have been reluctant to pass on the rate cuts to borrowers due to rising bad loans and consequential pressure on margins. But HDFC's sharp rate cut is likely to prompt them to revisit this aspect, as much as their operational constraints would allow. This is where a low-cost operating model, resource generating capacity and risk-taking appetite of banks will come into play and possibly play a critical role in differentiating one bank from the other.While the stress in the system is evident, that cannot and should not deter banks from garnerin

Letters: Booster dose

Apropos the report, "Govt to auction 20 iron ore mines to revive industry" (August 26), calling these 'auctions' is misleading: these are only auctions of potential mineral-bearing areas - 'potential' because exploratory efforts already undertaken are meagre. Once acquired, these will become prospects as and when further exploratory efforts are undertaken.Only after these exploratory efforts are successfully completed can the prospects be called 'mines', which is not guaranteed, as among other factors, luck and chance play a role in finding and establishing mineral occurrence.S M Bothra   NagpurLetters 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@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Prospects, not a sure bet

What prompted RBI to classify some banks as systemically important?

The BCBS further required all member countries to have a regulatory framework to deal with Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs)

'Smart city' choices bypass real urban problems

Creating showpieces

Over to states after the land ordinance lapse

Ground realities

Forget the manifesto. Focus on the slogan. It is not just in poll-bound Bihar; the battle of slogans is also hotting up in Punjab, where Assembly polls are due in 2017. Addressing a conference at the Rakhar Punia fair, held annually in the historical town of Baba Bakala, Partap Singh Bajwa, president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, sought the people's mandate on three issues: a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged drug scam, a debt waiver for farmers and the implementation of one rank one pension (OROP). Then, calling the Bharatiya Janata Party the "Bhartiya Jumla Party", he reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi that OROP was one of his election promises (Rewari, September 2013), and dilly-dallying on it amounted to cheating.

Politics of slogan

This is the second time in a month that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was at the receiving end of a public dressing-down from his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. Addressing a public meeting after unveiling statues of Jai Bahadur Singh and Jhakhandey Rai in Mau, Mulayam 'taunted' the ministers and party leaders that they would definitely lose the 2017 state elections if they didn't get down to ground work. He gave ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav-led government and party MLAs a month's time to "improve" their performance so that the party could post better results in the Assembly elections in 2017.

A father's wrath

Complaining that the National Democratic Alliance government's sanitation drive did not elicit much excitement from the media, Piyush Goyal, minister of state for coal, power and renewable energy, compared it with a murder controversy involving former HR consultant and media executive Indrani Mukerjea (without, of course, taking names) that has riveted the media over the last week or so. Apologising for his use of "unparliamentary language", Goyal claimed no newspaper or prime-time TV show after August 15 had talked about the number of toilets the government had constructed because "it is not exciting enough". "I don't know what pleasure people are getting out of it (the news involving Mukerjea) but I am worried about the impact it will have on the next generation," rued Goyal.

Bad news

Apropos the report, "India pitches for rating upgrade by S&P on strong macro data" (September 1), for a country like India, it not comforting if time and again politicians and bureaucrats have to beg for better rating from rating agencies, which have their own interests. Such a situation arises because we have not developed in-house expertise to market the country's strengths and explain the context of its weaknesses.The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog should take up the task of marketing Brand India. This would mean setting up an Indian rating agency, which will learn, understand and speak the language of international rating agencies. Gradually, we will understand our strengths and weaknesses and speed up corrective action.The country's domestic resources have not been mapped yet. These include surface stock of over 20,000 tonnes of gold and minerals whose value is yet to be assessed. Even financial resources have not yet been brought into the mainstream

Letters: Let's rate ourselves

With reference to the report, "Autonomy for government banks remains on paper" (August 31), the banking sector, especially public sector banks, had a bitter experience with credit camps/loan melas in the past. Despite this, the Centre is stepping forward with the Prime Minister's Mudra Yojana (PMMY) loan mela, purportedly to augment self employment and job creation.The government is looking for ways other than direct lending to keep banks from taking commercial decisions on their own, lest quality is compromised and this leads to loans turning bad.For the bamking system to become a growth engine, banks need to frame their own credit policies in tandem with the objectives of the government and the banking regulator. Autonomy for banks deserves greater importance even as these institutions need to be monitored to ensure that they comply with the policies of the government and the Reserve Bank of India.Considering the cost involved in opening accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana,

Letters: Strike a balance

This is with reference to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to grant licences to payments banks. In the present situation, commercial banks, especially the public sector ones, are doing their best to cater to the banking needs of the common man. Banks are performing well in opening deposit accounts, issuance of debit cards and offering remittance services. They are soliciting deposits from small savers and offering this corpus of funds as loans to industry, which needs money to run its business. It is a matter of satisfaction that our banks have enough liquidity to meet loan requirements of industry and agriculture.Payments banks will snatch away some precious liquidity from existing banks and offer services, which the latter are offering anyway. Keeping this in mind, according to the RBI's decision, business houses are being licensed to attract low-cost deposits from savers directly by permitting them to open payment banks. This favours industry, but not so much banks, which

Letters: Banks will suffer

Loss of growth momentum in latest numbers

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