This refers to the Lunch with BS with Varun Gandhi, "My kind of politics" (June 6). I am specifically concerned with the painting by Rabindranath Tagore featuring Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, which was gifted by Gandhiji to Nehru and inherited by Varun Gandhi.To the best of my knowledge, there is no record of Tagore painting Nehru and Gandhi, and him gifting it to Gandhiji. If such a painting by Tagore is with Varun Gandhi, an image of the same should be published, so that the authenticity of the same can be verified by experts.Shailesh Parekh  AhmedabadLetters 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: The real picture

Business Standard

Questions on Sushma Swaraj show that politicians should be careful about separating the personal from the public

President, ministers must restore people's trust in political institutions

NDA displayes its true colours when it comes to education and cultureThe students' strike at Pune's Film and Television Institute of India over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman is another reminder that when it comes to education and culture, the National Democratic Alliance government displays its true colours. Mr Chauhan's appointment has less to do with any demonstrable thoughts or perspective on the audio-visual arts or his role as Yudhishthira in the television serial Mahabharat but as a convenor of culture for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His is not the only example of the ruling party's effort to stamp its authority on institutions partly or wholly funded by the central exchequer. January witnessed the unedifying spectacle of the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, the respected Leela Samson, resigning after the board was overruled by the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry for blocking the release of MSG: The Messenger of G

Govt needs to stop undermining educational, cultural institutions

Fall in sales growth is also caused by rise in diesel and petrol prices

Dip in auto sales growth: Blame softness in rural demand

How times change! Times Now, the news channel that has pursued the Sushma Swaraj-Lalit Modi controversy with vigour, and its editor Arnab Goswami, were lauded by many on Twitter for the channel's determined follow-up of such news stories - the Commonwealth Games scam and 2G spectrum scam during the United Progressive Alliance years. But the news channel and its editor no longer enjoy the same respect among Bharatiya Janata Party sympathisers on the micro-blogging site ever since Sunday. On Tuesday, one of the most trending hashtags was #TraitorTimesNow. The tweets ranged from abusive to anachronistic. Sample this tweet by @thekernelspeaks: "Shame on u @TimesNow For Keeping Mum when @INCIndia shamelessly helped Murderer W. Anderson Escape." That, incidentally, was way back in 1984 - about two decades before the news channel was launched.

The Twitterati wants to know

Eyebrows were raised when Congress leader Milind Deora tweeted support for former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Somnath Bharti, who is caught in the eye of a storm over allegations of domestic violence levelled by his wife. Deora said, "I'm no fan of @attorneybharti or his party, but how about we spare his children, wife & mother from our distasteful voyeurism?" Soon, @attorneybharti tweeted his gratitude to Deora for "understanding my pain, Being new 2 politics I m still learning on how 2 balance time b/w my family n consti". But Deora replied tongue-in-cheek, "I hope 'newcomers' like you reform your party to behave civilized too." The bonhomie between the two was short-lived. Bharti replied, "@milinddeora milind ji, I condemn ur such comment on my party. AAP has not to learn civilization from cong or bjp. Anyway, thx 4 ur concern." But the former Congress Union minister had the last word: "Your unauthorised midnight raid didn't exactly bolster privacy. Let's not shift goalposts.

Outside support, only just

In the aftermath of the Maggi noodles controversy, the food regulator, Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), seems to be going all out with information related not just to the products it has blacklisted, but also to its testing abilities. Facing criticism over the lack of adequate infrastructure for quality tests on Maggi samples and removing Nestle India's instant noodles from the market, the FSSAI has made public a list of 82 accredited laboratories across the country. However, only 65 of these are currently valid for chemical or biological analysis of food samples, the fine print suggests. Maharashtra accounts for the most of these, 18, while the scope of accreditation has expired for two of these. Delhi is next, with a total of 11 labs, of which seven are valid. The list of states with no lab capability is long at 16 - Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Naga

FSSAI's lab headcount

This refers to Premvir Das' article "Navy to navy" (June 16). It is high time the world acknowledged the fact that China, a highly belligerent nation, cannot be countered by mere reconnaissance flights and issuing statements at various meets. China has set its eyes on becoming a major navy player and is making no bones about its intention to control trade through the South China Sea and even restrict access to the rich mineral bed in that area.India, one of the few players that can actually engage meaningfully with China, and come to reasonable conclusions, must use its "might and wise" to become an equal player in this race. We have already lost to China on several other fronts. This should not be a repeat because water supremacy once achieved, cannot be reversed or countered easily. Increased thrust on indigenisation, more efficient navy infrastructure centres, an assertive stance coupled with the right dose of engagement is the only way forward, if both the dragon and the elephant a

Letters: Water supremacy

This refers to Debashis Basu's column "Public sector banks: Mr Modi's nightmare?" (Irrational Choice, June 15). It is true that the remedy to resurrect the ailing public sector banks is to privatise them. All the "trial and error" attempts made earlier have closed the road for their viability, except for treading the path of privatistion. In fact, we are late by a couple of decades. It was suggested to consolidate all PSBs (except the State Bank of India) into four or five entities to compete with private sector banks, when licences were issued to them in the nineties.All the ideas and recommendations are available with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He has to show the willpower and go the whole hog with privatisation to put the Indian economy back on the rails. In view of the Reserve Bank of India's recent directive to borrowing companies, Basu has correctly envisaged the process for takeover/change in the management of the defaulting companies. In addition, the government should stri

Letters: Time for privatisation

I am writing with regard to an editorial, which appeared in Business Standard ("Restoring trust", June 16, 2015), in which certain comments have been made regarding the President of India.It is hereby clarified that no email has been sent to any corporate or business group from the President's Office asking for aid in the matter of a British visa for a relative or employment of a young man in Kolkata as mentioned in the editorial.Further, the President grants interviews to representatives of media of countries he is visiting on the eve of such visits. This is a customary practice and done on the recommendation of the Embassy in the countries concerned as well as the Ministry of External Affairs. The same was followed in the case of the Swedish newspaper.It is most unfortunate that unfounded comments which are baseless and contrary to reality have been made in the editorial.Venu RajamonyPress Secretary, Rashtrapati BhavanThe reference to the emails in the editorial was based on a report

Letters: Setting the record straight

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation continued to fall in May, dropping to -2.4 per cent from -2.7 per cent in April. But some upside pressures from fuel prices limited the decline in overall inflation this month as petrol and diesel prices were raised. During May, a combination of higher global oil prices (16 per cent higher than March '15 levels) and weaker rupee (eight per cent year-on-year) put pressure on fuel imports and pushed up domestic fuel prices.Still, the headline inflation number has declined for the seventh month. Much of the decline over these months stems from fuel inflation (-10.5 per cent y-o-y in May, but a lower decline compared to the past three-month average of  -13.3 per cent).Meanwhile, manufactured products' inflation declined for the third consecutive month (to -0.6 per cent against 0.5 per cent last month), indicating strong disinflationary trends. Food inflation (primary articles plus manufactured goods) continued to provide respite as it fell to

Headline inflation still in negative zone, but fuel price rise limits overall decline

Pilot training has loopholes, but problems are not widespread

Panic in the air: Average Indian pilots are not incompetent

Last week, the stock market was scandalised by a namesake of big bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, when Surana Solar shares jumped as much as 17.4 per cent after National Stock Exchange data showed that Jhunjhunwala had bought 256,000 shares in the Hyderabad-based company. While this was the first time the market was fooled on this scale, a random search on LinkedIn showed there could be more trouble. The site threw up at least 13 professionals named Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. While one of these matched the designation of big bull (CEO, RARE Enterprises), others ranged from an entrepreneur in Bengaluru to a courier in Mumbai.

Many big bulls of LinkedIn

During the announcement of the Cairn-Vedanta merger, reporters from some television news channels created a ruckus in their bid to be the first to ask questions. This left Tom Albanese, CEO, Vedanta Resources Plc, a little perplexed. The group's communication head then took charge, asking the television reporters to give their print media counterparts a chance to ask questions and gestured to Albanese not to answer any question from television reporters. To that, Albanese said, "Listen to the communication manager. I always listen to her."

TV versus print

At a recent literary event in Mumbai, members of the audience were surprised when actor Aamir Khan walked in casually and sat among them for the launch of a book by author Amitav Ghosh. Besides being an accomplished actor, Khan takes a keen interest in literature. At the event, Ghosh revealed that while writing the third and final part of the Ibis Trilogy, Flood of Fire, he was suddenly faced with writer's block. It was Khan who sent Ghosh a string of messages praising his first two books of the trilogy, which worked as words of encouragement and helped him overcome the block.

Khan and Ghosh

This refers to Debashis Basu's column "Public sector banks: Mr Modi's nightmare?" (Irrational Choice, June 15) and the article "Saving banks' distressed assets" (June 15) pointing out that "the Reserve Bank of India's move to empower banks to take charge of companies that default on loans could run into legal hurdles".One big-bang reform can solve both the problems: a judiciary, which is thousand times faster.This requires vacancy-less courts, with all judicial appointments being made well in advance of every retirement, elimination of all British-era dilatory practices such as summer holidays in courts and the introduction of compound interest on all monetary awards by courts (this will, in one stroke, eliminate endless litigation and the deliberate delaying of cases by those who have to pay).But with every lawyer (including judges who are also lawyers) focusing solely on their own petty self-interest at the cost of causing unnecessary grievous injury to millions (such as the Uphaar c

Letters: Public banks and judiciary

This refers to Debashis Basu's column "Public sector banks: Mr Modi's nightmare?" (Irrational Choice, June 15). The political bosses at the Centre have now realised the bitter truth. The mantra of privatisation is visiting the policymakers but the government would not be able to sew the solution during its first term. The best thing it can do right now is to ensure that the financial health of public sector banks (PSBs) does not deteriorate further.The sanction of big loans should be outsourced to a group of professionals who should be directed to follow the appraisal process practised by leading private sector banks. In fact, the top management in PSBs should not hesitate to approach their private sector peers. The follow-up system should be streamlined and here again, the private sector banks' systems should be adopted.K V Rao  BengaluruLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-

Letters: Some private sector help

This refers to the Chinese Whispers item "Posturing over Yoga postures" (June 12). The repeated comments from the Sangh Parivar's senior members, including MPs and ministers, should not cause surprise. While it is true that the 2014 elections were founded on Narendra Modi's performance as Gujarat chief minister, one cannot ignore the undeniable role played by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in mobilising voters and marshalling them in to the polling booths. Without that force, even the ineptitude and the scandals of the United Progressive Alliance-II might not have tilted the scale so decisively. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now caught in an impossible situation. On the one hand, it is trying to present itself as a modernising force that is clearly attuned to aspiring Indians, but it can't dare drop the VHP-RSS demands such as a ban on cow slaughter, removal of Article 370, "ghar wapsi" and other slogans of Hindutva.To partly overcome th

Letters: The Hindutva angle

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

Case study

Business Standard brings you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in a price range of Rs 1-1.5 crore. If you are looking at buying real estate and your budget falls within this range, an idea about prevailing rates would come in handy

Realty check

I have the option of including my parents in my employer's group health insurance but I have to pay 10 per cent of the claim amount. Should I opt for that, since they are already covered under my family floater policy?Group health insurance plans generally provide added advantages - such as inclusion of many pre-existing diseases, cost benefit, added covers - that might not be available immediately under individual cover. However, one should compare the premium rate and product features being offered by the group health cover vis-à-vis the individual policy you have. Additionally, you should also decide after evaluating whether the sum insured under your individual policy is adequate to cover all exigencies.I am going abroad for a two-year project and am planning to give my house on rent. Asthe family does not require furniture, I am keeping my furniture in a warehouse for two years. Can I take insurance for it? What will be the insurance cover?You can cover your home structure agains

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