The Greek economy once again threatens to bring down the European project. But it is, in many ways, a clear outlier. As Table 1 shows, Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio exploded since 2008, and is considerably out of the European mainstream. Meanwhile its output, as Table 2 reveals, has shrunk far more since the crisis than that of other European countries.This is not to say that it has suffered unique levels of pain. As Table 3 shows, Spanish unemployment in particular is comparable to Greece's.Table 4 shows one reason why Greece's GDP has struggled to get back on track: While it has reduced its imports, it has failed to increase competitiveness sufficiently to grow its exports.Table 5 shows the yield on European debt. Once again, Greece is an outlier - and the increased spread of late suggests the renewed lack of confidence in the country's future in Europe, especially since the current government was elected.

StatsGuru: Analysing the Greek crisis

Business Standard

One of the planks on which the Nitish Kumar government came to power was access to  primary schools. A look at data culled from Aser surveys reveals while the number of children not enrolled in school has gone down  since 2006, it has risen again in recent years. In contrast, children enrolled in private schools are back at nearly 2006-levels

State of primary education in Bihar

When BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava was asked during a press meet last week to explain how sick PSUs could hope to record profits if they continued to dole out freebies to customers, he said they should focus on making customers 'stress-free', that is, offer them hassle-free services. Paradoxically, BSNL subscribers continue to complain of frequent call drops, even as the operator has started offering unlimited free calls across India over its landline network from 9 pm to 7 am and made roaming free for all its subscribers.

Cross connection

The girl child is suddenly the cynosure of all eyes. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the 'beti bachao-selfie banao' initiative, launched by Bibipur village in Haryana's Jind district, and announced a #SelfieWithDaughter campaign, the village panchayat unveiled a 'Digital India with Laado' campaign over the weekend. As part of the campaign, representatives of the village panchayat will visit households and put up boards bearing the name and email address of the daughter of the house along with the tagline, "Digital India with Laado", replacing the names of the head of the family.

Digital daughters

Apropos the article "764,266 consumers step on gas to Giveitup" (July 6), while Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted people to voluntarily give up cooking gas subsidy, the momentum gained as Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, among others, announced forgoing the subsidy and joined the campaign. To encourage citizens, it was made clear the subsidy savings would go to the poor. The initiative was started by the United Progressive Alliance government but there was no follow-up to make it successful. While the previous government took the initiative, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in January 2014 asked then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to increase the number of subsidised gas cylinders from nine to 12. If the government and the party are working at cross purposes, the result could be disaster. Against this, if the leader leads from the front and people working under him lead by example, the virtuous results are there for everyone to see.Naresh

Letters: Subsidy savings

This refers to the column 'Is the capex cycle finally turning?' (July 6). It intricately links three major growth indicators - implementation bottlenecks, capex spending and easing of monetary conditions. There should be no doubt about the first indicator given how hard the govt has been working rolling out initiatives for investors, cutting down on red tape and archaic laws and simplifying legislations. It is also trying to go for a stable set of laws related to various aspects of business so that investors do not feel threatened due to notorious clauses in the law.Capex spending is finally lifting. Even though the banking sector's reluctance to cut rates despite so many positive macro indicators may worry some, we must understand the Reserve Bank of India's inflation control logic, which has reined in the prices of essentials. Easing monetary conditions is visible given the investment flow and spate of mergers and acquisitions in heavyweight sectors. All these are subtle yet strong i

Letters: Investment flow

Apropos the article "PMKSY to subsume three irrigation programmes" (July 6), which is expected to usher in development in the agriculture sector. Coordination between departments and programmes dealing with water use is essential for more crop per drop.Water harvesting structures should be constructed where existing structures do not meet the requirement. Water guzzler crops should be discouraged. About 3,000-5,000 litres of water is required to produce a kg of paddy, whereas wheat needs less than half this quantity. Water supply rates need to be increased in command areas. It would encourage adoption of efficient methods and save up to 30 per cent water.However, it must be kept in mind the economics of rain-fed farming is a pretty grim affair. Therefore, inter-linking of rivers should be a priority.Sushil Bakliwal  JaipurLetters 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@bsm

Letters: Smart harvest

CRISIL has rated over 75,000 MSMEs in India; this fortnightly tracker presents insights on MSMEs

Export-oriented MSMEs perform better than domestic players

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

Case study

The Pakistani side seems keen to hold a meeting but conceded that no one had contacted them yet

Will PM Modi, Nawaz Sharif break the ice at Ufa?

The Dawood Ibrahim issue is likely to stay right on top of the political discourse in the coming week after Nationalist Congress Party supremo and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar claimed that although senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani had given a proposition regarding the surrender of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, 'it was 'conditional'."Ram Jethmalani gave a proposition that's true, but it was conditional. The condition was that after Dawood comes to Bombay; he would not be arrested but permitted to stay at home. How could we accept that? For a man who had so many cases against him, the law had to take its course," Pawar told the media. This is the first time that anyone in a responsible position is acknowledging that a deal with the most wanted underworld don had been in the works and did not materialise.

Dawood Ibrahim will stay in the headlines

M J Akbar, media personality and spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won a Rajya Sabha seat in a by-election from Jharkhand. This increases the BJP's tally in the Upper House by one.But more importantly, it raises the chance of a Cabinet reshuffle ahead of the Parliament session starting July 21. In Akbar's share were 47 votes, but he got two more from Independents - one from Geeta Koda, the wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda; and another from Shivpujan Mehta. The other minister from Jharkhand is Jayant Sinha, minister of state for finance.

Will next reshuffle see M J Akbar joining the government?

As the monsoon advances, the week starting Monday will be crucial for rains. Although the Kosi and the Ganga in parts of Uttar Pradesh are in spate because of incessant rain, most north Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar are reporting a shortfall. Bihar has got 27 per cent rain below normal rain and if it doesn't rain properly this coming week, paddy, maize and toor dal crops will be hit. At this point, because the soil does not have enough moisture, planting these crops is already a problem. If rains are delayed or is not enough, this will impact the crop. July 6 to 9 will decide if the monsoon has been effective or not in north India.Will next reshuffle see M J Akbar joining the government?M J Akbar, media personality and spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won a Rajya Sabha seat in a by-election from Jharkhand. This increases the BJP's tally in the Upper House by one. But more importantly, it raises the chance of a Cabinet reshuffle ahead of

This week will decide fate of monsoon in north India

Are there any charges if I switch from dividend investment to a growth option of the same fund? What if I switch from a regular option to direct option? A switch from dividend to growth option is a redemption and thereafter fresh purchase in the scheme. Simply put, growth and dividend options have different Net Asset Values. Such a switch could attract exit load depending on the fund house and fund's mandate. For example, if the fund mandates exit load up to a year, it can apply in case you switch before the stipulated period.In case of switch from regular to direct plan, it would attract exit load, if exited before the stipulated period. While you make the switch, also keep in mind the taxation aspect of your investment.I have been investing in an Equity Linked Savings Scheme fund (ELSS )through systematic investment plan (SIP) for more than three years now. How can I redeem it?Your ELSS investment could have helped you derive the twin benefits of taxation and capital appreciation fro

Mutual Fund: Nimesh Shah

E-governance roll-out needs better infrastructure, privacy protection

Digital ambitions

Census figures on deprivation call for improved delivery system

A bottom-up approach

On the day he launched the Digital India programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited 150 of his most avid supporters on social media to his residence at 7, Race Course Road, and asked them not to use abusive language on social media. What the PM probably hadn't anticipated was the abuse that would be heaped on his advisers who had ostensibly selected only those who thought of themselves as the PM's committed supporters on social media. Those invited didn't help matters by tweeting their pictures with the PM. @MukulAgarwal66 tweeted: "Finally met the PM at 7RCR... Shook hands and got to speak... Cloudland :))))))." The response from the PM's followers was caustic. "BJP IT cell is acting too smart. Mass boycott is declared by multiple teams," tweeted @kernelspeaks. Minister Giriraj Singh tried to smoothen ruffled feathers with, "Dear followers, you have 10 years to meet our PM Namo. Just a beginning with 100+ activists..." This was also met with howls of protest. Yogeshwar Singh repl

Social media storm

During a recent press conference organised by the Bharti group and Japanese internet and telecom giant SoftBank to announce a venture in the solar energy space, founder, chairman and group chief executive officer (CEO) of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal, and founder and current CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, were taking questions when a journalist began asking a question in Japanese. While everyone else present on the dais and the audience drew a blank, Son was expectedly completely at ease. As he began to answer, he said he would first do so in Japanese and then in English. But what's the question, asked those on the dais. The second richest man in Japan, according to 2015 Japan's 50 Richest People by Forbes, proceeded to translate the question in English, then answer in Japanese and finally translate his answer in English for the benefit of his colleagues and the audience.

Rich language

President Pranab Mukherjee said lessons that applied to relations between two nations also applied to ties between two states. Speaking at a function last week, he said rather than locking horns, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana should learn to live together in peace. As in our international relations, "we can choose our friends but we can't choose our neighbours", he said. He also quoted one of the 10 Commandments, "love thy neighbour", to drive home the need for the two states to bury the hatchet. The President was speaking at a function after releasing a book by Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao.

Peace lessons

Apropos the article "Lessons from the first year" (Line and length, July 4) by T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan, the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Narendra Modi as change agents on the Indian political scene was the inevitability forced by the methodology in governance followed by successive governments since 1970s. India would have taken in her stride issues like delay in handling hunger-related problems and to some extent even corruption, if the political leadership (irrespective of denominations) had not been dominated by greed and total neglect of the masses, assuming voters can be 'handled' once in five years by promises and sporadic sprinkling of money accumulated in accessible pockets during the 'previous five years'.AAP proved that an election can be fought and won without the support of a government 'somewhere in power' and Modi declared that political leadership need not be hereditary. Both the AAP and Modi era may finally turn out to be passing phases in the long political

Letters: Modi-fied thoughts

Apropos the article "Corruption and Indian Democracy" (July 1) by Ashok K Lahiri, he argues that corruption is there in almost all countries, only the intensity and scale varies. He makes an important point that 'poverty exuberates corruption not because poor are amoral, but because people in power find underhand means the most convenient way of getting rich fast'. He acknowledges the vibrant nature of democracy in India but laments that all that has been done thus far by democratic institutions, including the judiciary, to curtail corruption is inadequate and that the remedy lies in expanding the economic opportunities with accelerating growth.It may be true that corruption is 'global', but what is most worrisome for India is its spread and ferocity. Arguably, the perception and belief of widespread corruption was central to the defeat of the United Progressive Alliance in the last general elections. However, that education alone would reduce corruption is as much doubtful. Many belie

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