The verbal fisticuffs between the ruling coalition and the Opposition over the goods and services tax (GST) continue unabated. As the Opposition Congress dug its heels in over the Constitution amendment Bill for GST, an exasperated Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, dismissed its concerns, saying this was merely an "afterthought". Not one to give up easily, former Union minister and Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said, "After single-handedly sabotaging the GST for three years, (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi's support for it is also an 'afterthought'," adding for good measure, that "politics is all about thoughts and afterthoughts".

Thought and afterthought

Business Standard

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which had been lying low after the Bombay High Court asked Nestle India to get samples of Maggi noodles tested again at three accredited labs, is gearing up for greater organisational security. The regulator has issued a tender to procure and install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and surveillance systems in the halls, elevators, lobbies and staircases on the third and fourth floors of the FDA Bhawan, the headquarters of FSSAI in New Delhi. Most senior officials of the food safety regulatory body have their offices on the third and fourth floors. While many ministries and government departments have CCTVs, FSSAI hadn't felt the need for it earlier.'

Safety first

With reference to the report, "Postal department gets moving after payments bank approval," (August 21), has anybody thought about the viability of payments banks? Basic needs of the poor such as deposits, remittances, insurance, payments and pension have been considered under financial inclusion. Since the last decade these needs have been underlined and enough efforts made by the Centre and the banking sector to increase the access of the poor to the financial system. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley talked about a proposal to utilise the vast postal network to make the payments bank venture successful.The entire structure of payments banks is dependent on information technology (IT), which can cut the cost of transactions for the poor. There has to be heavy investment in IT infrastructure to start payments banks. There are other constraints such as market competition, maximum deposit per customer (Rs 1 lakh) and the fact that incentivisation cost of such deposits

Letters: Check viability

Apropos the report, "Rajan allays concern on payments banks" (August 21), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) being the authority empowered to grant licences, it was quite logical that its governor, Raghuram Rajan, would assure bankers on the issue. But what about the opinion of the banks, especially the public sector ones that are likely to be affected by this new institution - the payments banks?When the country's largest lender, State Bank of India, and its chairperson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, expresses concern, other bankers would chip in too with theirs. Let us examine a few facts about payment banks (PB).First, PBs would eat into the risk-free fee business of public sector lenders. Remitters would switch to PBs because of convenience of transacting payments. Second, the inordinate delay faced by  small-time remitters in public sector banks would make them opt for PBs.  Third, PBs are capable of providing hassle-free platform to remitters.The best course of action for public sector ba

Letters: Join the fray

A recent 'mood of the nation' poll shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is losing favour as far as his image as a man intolerant of corruption is concerned, although he remains the most popular choice for prime minister. The National Democratic Alliance's strength has also dropped from 355 to 288. The Lalit Modi row involving External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and the Vyapam scam for which Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has come under attack seem to have influenced people's opinion about the PM.Even then the Modi government went gaga over its win in the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan civic polls. In Rajasthan, the vote share gap between the BJP and Congress has slipped one per cent from the 26 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls last year. The Congress also embarrassed Raje and her son Dushyant Singh by getting a majority in several municipalities that are their bastions. The government should take this feedback constr

Letters: Take note

In August 2013, the rupee came under pressure due to weak external sector indicators: Forex reserves were falling and the current account deficit rising, as also the share of short-term debt in external debt (in percentage terms). In Sept 2013, Raghuram Rajan moved from Delhi to Mint Road as RBI governor, with an aim of improving these conditions. Cut to August 2015: The share of short-term external debt to forex reserves fell from 34.2 in Sept 2013 to 27.7 per cent in Sept 2014, while the period for which imports can be financed through forex reserves rose to 8.9 months in March 2015 from 6.6 months in Sept 2013. Forex reserves rose to $353 billion on August 14, 2015, from $275 billion in August 2013.

Rupee at sept '13 levels but external sector better

Unmanned aerial vehicles need enabling regulations

The drones of tomorrow

Of late, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has become quite a movie buff. Last week, Kejriwal attended a special screening of the new release, Manjhi: The Mountain Man with the film's lead actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui. After the screening, the CM tweeted: "@Nawazuddin_S Nawaz, ur acting is phenomenal in Manjhi. V inspiring." Earlier this month, Kejriwal watched Drishyam starring Tabu and Ajay Devgn and  described it as "a must watch". Some suspect, the CM's 'movie reviews', are a tactic to get Bollywood to shoot films in the capital.

Kejriwal, the movie reviewer

The internal dynamics of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have largely gone unnoticed in the midst of the shadow-boxing between India and Pakistan over their national security advisor-level talks. On Friday, reports in the media, quoting unnamed sources, claimed that PDP President Mehbooba Mufti was upset with the Jammu and Kashmir Police for placing Hurriyat leaders under house arrest acting on orders from New Delhi. Reports also suggested that Mehbooba, daughter of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, ensured that the Hurriyat leaders were released within a few hours. Incidentally, the CM is also the home minister in the government that PDP runs in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The episode projected Mehbooba, a Lok Sabha MP from Anantnag, as a strong leader willing to take on even her party's alliance partner, the BJP, as well as the government in New Delhi. Party sources have started talking about how it was time for Mehbooba to take over the

Time for Sayeed's daughter to take over?

A detailed look at the companies and people who this week won licences to set up payments banks

Meet the winners who get payments banks licence

A brief look at the man who will take over from Masayoshi Son

Arora betting big

Diversity of payments bank models should aid their success

Merits of experimentation

Airport privatisation deserves a sincere try

Specious logic

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said in Amethi on Tuesday that unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "suit-boot ki sarkar", the Congress cared for people in "shirts, chappals and kurta-pyjamas". A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader quipped that the comment again showed the 45-year-old's ignorance. Not only did he leave out the millions in India who wore dhoti, lungi, veshti and mundu, he also seemed unaware of stalwarts such as Dalit leader B R Ambedkar, who considered 'suit-boot' a symbol of upward social mobility. Interestingly, for the BJP leadership, dhoti has been the preferred dress option, though the new crop has shifted to the more convenient kurta-pyjama. Left leaders, barring West Bengal stalwarts such as Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, wear shirt and trousers. Socialist Ram Manohar Lohia and his followers preferred khadi kurta-pyjama but the current crop, including Mulayam Singh Yadav, are always clad in dhoti. The Congress doesn't seem to have such an unwritte

Dress code

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore for Bihar, a move (as interpreted by many) aimed at boosting the Bharatiya Janata Party's chances in the state's Assembly elections later this year. His dramatic performance - escalating the size of the package with every cheer from the crowd - drew both praise and derision. On Wednesday, during a rally, Lalu imitated Modi, ending his performance with the quip: "Modiji theek se bolo, nahi toh nas fat jayaga (Modiji speak properly, else you'll burst a vein)." Humour can be the best medicine but also a bitter barb.

Mimic barb for Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have found themselves in a tricky situation, courtesy a falling rupee and climbing onion prices. Some avid followers on Twitter have dug up old tweets of ruling party members that criticised the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for not controlling the gyrations of these two. In December 2010, Smriti Irani had tweeted: "Income tax dept is keeping a watch on all high value transactions. Don't buy onions." Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, had tweeted in October 2013: "Onions are produced mostly in Congress-ruled states, then why is its price rising? Why don't they answer?" Earlier in the same year in July, Modi tweeted: "Rupee is not losing strength because its size has changed. It is because those sitting in Delhi are busy in corruption."

Falling rupee, rising onion prices

Apropos the article, "Decoding the Indian financial code 2.0" (August 18), it appears the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to lose its autonomy. A monetary policy committee with government-nominated members outnumbering those appointed by the RBI and no veto power for the RBI governor are acts of encroachment and interference by the government. How accountability would be fixed in such a situation is not clear.Till now, maintaining financial stability was the RBI's responsibility and this went hand in hand with its other functions such as coordination, promotion and development of the financial sector. What is the need to disturb this all-inclusive system?This apart, creating one more vertical for government debt management seems unnecessary. An earlier attempt to get it managed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India was abandoned. Instead, the flaws in the existing system need to be found and fixed. Besides, it would be risky to have outside professionals manage such an agenc

Letters: Let RBI be autonomous

It is laudable that Sri Lanka's electorate have shown President Mahinda Rajapaksa the door in the recent parliamentary elections. While there was a strong notion that Sri Lankans, in particular the rural Sinhalese population who consider Rajapaksa a hero for dealing with terrorism effectively, would vote him back to power, that has not happened. They have conveyed to him and his coterie that it is not that "we love you less, but we love a corruption-free government more".Although it is a distant possibility, Indians too should drive out corrupt politicians and thus emulate the Sri Lankans.Tharcius S Fernando   ChennaiLetters 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: Showing graft the door

With reference to the article, "Europe's migration crisis" (August 20), the continent's migration policy is like apartheid: There is no noise when rich people want to migrate; it becomes an issue only when the illiterate and the poor want to do so. Britain has laid out the red carpet for those who can bring money to that nation. But those not earning and arriving in that country in search of greener pastures are frowned upon. Recently, thousands of Africans tried to cross over to Europe in unsafe boats. Europe is facing its worst refugee crisis since World War II. Fortunately, some nations such as Greece and Italy have accepted these hapless people.Is the situation any better in India? Here, politicians of one state do not want migrants from a particular state, as they believe that the latter would take away the jobs of locals. There are taxi drivers and milkmen in Mumbai from states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Are Mumbaikars interested in these jobs? Then why this hue and cry abo

Letters: Accept migration

Reliance, Airtel, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Vodafone, Tech Mahindra, NSDL, Cholamandalam Investment were among the 11 entities that got 'ín-principle' approvals from RBI; the banks would provide basic savings, deposit, payment and remittance services to people without accessing the formal banking system. Business Standard takes a look at the new licence holders:

Financial inclusion plan gets a push

The top 10 stock picks of India's equity fund managers have been consistent so far this financial year. About one-fourth of the equity assets under management has continued to find place in the top 10 stocks - all blue chips. There has not been much change in their rankings, barring capital goods firm Larsen & Toubro overtaking India's largest lender State Bank of India at the fourth position, and changes in the bottom two picks. Private lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank dominate top two posts. During the past three months, Bharti Airtel and BPCL could not find place among top ten. Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, Tata Motors briefly made to top 10.

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