This refers to the editorial "Another income tax problem" (June 12). It is true that only a fraction of the population pays income tax and that evading tax or getting away with a token payment - hugely disproportionate to the dazzling lifestyle - is not considered bad or shameful. The Income Tax Department is  grappling with the menace of massive tax evasion. Clearly, exhorting people to pay taxes under the slogan that they are used for development has not worked. However, asking for wider powers to send tax evaders to jail is debatable.As rightly advocated in your editorial, it is fraught with the serious risk of misuse or mismanagement by the unscrupulous in the department and might even turn out to be counterproductive.The use of innovative and modern techniques, including data analysis and collection of credible evidence to challenge tax defaulters, is no doubt advisable. On this subject, it must also be said that tax departments should do serious introspection to improve the quali

Letters: To tax or not to tax

Business Standard

This refers to the article "Maggi imbroglio: The big picture" by T Thomas (June 12). The author has expressed his concern on the negative image created in the minds of foreign investors who are planning massive investments in India. This negativism is the by-product of the frontal attack by the press on Nestle, on the detection of harmful elements - such as monosodium glutamate and lead - in their Maggi noodles product by the health authorities of the government of India.According to Thomas, this kind of initiative and punitive action by the government is contrary to the invitation being extended to foreign investors by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his trips to foreign countries.As one of the fastest emerging economies, which is slated to register 7.4 per cent gross domestic product growth (according to a World Bank report), no multinational can ignore the Indian market. We should be proud of the bold and people-friendly stand taken by the state and central governments, which wi

Letters: A welcome stance

Children in more than a dozen state-run schools in and around Jharkhand's capital, Ranchi, are still not being served eggs on their mid-day meal plates, despite the much-hyped re-launch of the 'Anda Abhiyan' in March. A recent report compiled by the state chapter of the Right to Food Campaign, a network of professionals who mounted pressure for better nutrition at state-run schools, says only one government middle school was offering eggs to students, three days a week. Apparently, the funds to buy eggs had been released by the state human resources development department, but like many other things that vanished in the last mile, they hadn't reached the school accounts. In the age of instant money transfer, 3,000-odd students in these government schools would have to wait for their schools to reopen after the summer vacation to enjoy their eggs.

Egg-less

The Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) might have come together under the Janata Parivar umbrella to unitedly fight the coming Bihar Assembly elections, but the animosity between the members of the two parties simply refuses to die. In fact, leaders of the two parties continue to castigate each other at the first given opportunity. Senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh publicly taunted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently for his "hi-fi" publicity blitz and urged him not to copy Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi while devising his election campaign. Just a few days before that, at the launch of the state's government's ambitious Bihar@2025 campaign, some audio-visual clips screened on the occasion talked about the deplorable condition of the infrastructure in the state under the earlier dispensation (the RJD ruled the state when Kumar came to power with the Bharatiya Janata Party as an ally in 2005).

Friends or foes?

Morgan Stanley concluded its India summit, which hosted 80 corporates and held over 850 meetings. Following are the US-based investment bank's ratings on some key stocks

Micro bets

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is at it again. VHP leader Pravin Togadia has charged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has gone back on its promises. He holds Home Minister Rajnath Singh and party President Amit Shah responsible for the BJP's reversal. Togadia asserted at Bulandshahar (where he was attending a VHP meeting) that to build the Ram Temple and to amend Article 370, no constitutional amendment was necessary - it could be done by passing new laws. So the government's excuse that they needed two thirds majority in both houses of Parliament was incorrect (both Shah and Singh had said the National Democratic Alliance needed to get a majority in both houses to change the Constitution).

VHP is at it again

Delhi's safai karamcharis - those who remove garbage - were on strike for 12 days and are now back at work. In order to get some mileage from the strike, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders decided they would clear the garbage if the karamcharis were not doing so. But the mountain of garbage - which had been piling up for 11 days - was not that easy to clear. In many places, AAP leaders found it a daunting task. Even more daunting was answering the taunts of the locals - they wondered where AAP had been for 11 days and why they'd only turned up when the safai karamcharis announced they were calling off the strike. In Krishna Nagar, represented by AAP MLA S K Bagga, people turned on him when he reached there with his 'jhaadu' (broom). "Where were you all these days?" people asked. Ashish Khetan, also from AAP, had to face similar queries.

AAP's clean-up act

Yoga Day is less about public health and more about power

Soft power day

Martin da Costa

Best work moment Watching the 80-strong 70 EMG team on stage, exhausted, happy and fulfilled at the end of this year's India Bike Week in Goa being cheered by over 12,000 bikers from across the country.Books on your bedsidePatrick O'Brien's Master & Commander, Phil Klay's Redeployment, Michael Lewis' The New New Thing and Martin Amis' Zone of InterestMassage or workout to de-stress?Currently, I've just found - and started - the 28-day yoga workout from www.dirtyyoga.com, which is a hysterical website aimed at people who don't have the time to do yoga. Its incredibly challenging and very addictive. Favourite accessory It has to be the new Sea Dweller I just rewarded myself with. Possibly the world's best, most technically advanced mechanical watch and one whose essential design hasn't changed in 40 years. Plus Sean Connery wore it in Dr. No. Designs that have caught your eyeI've just come across a Portuguese artist called Luis Alves, some of whose work is stunning. Otherwise it

My Life My Style: Martin da Costa

Implementation of the proposal can be a tricky affair

Fixed-term employment will create jobs, reduce employer's fear

To highlight a recourse already available to tax officers is to unnecessarily spread panic

Jail threats won't solve taxman's problems

The posturing over surya namaskar and International Yoga Day continues. After Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath went on record to say that those who were opposed to surya namaskar should "drown in the sea", Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan retorted, "He (Yogi Adityanath) should rather offer namaaz (prayers) that would not only give him physical strength but also put his mind on the right track". Khan maintained that surya namaskar was a religious exercise that should not be forced upon others.

Posturing over yoga postures

Devotees at a Hanuman temple in the Chhoti Bazaria area of Madhya Pradesh's Bhind district were taken aback recently when they found a notice pasted on the temple door. The notice urged the deity to clear the place in a week as the structure had encroached on public space. The notice, addressed to Lord Hanuman and not the temple priest or the trust, was among a total of 218 notices served to clear the area of encroachments. When devotees protested, the chief municipality officer of Bhind blamed the anti-encroachment drive incharge for the goof-up and served him a notice to look into the matter.

A notice for a notice

While naming Nitish Kumar as the leader of the Bihar alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after weeks of posturing, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad had said, "If I have to drink poison to remove the BJP, I can do so." Sceptics read political compulsion as a reason for his change of stance. On Thursday, however, there was a lot of cheerful bonhomie after the current chief minister, Nitish Kumar, drove to the house of former chief minister Rabri Devi to wish friend-turned-political-rival-turned ally Prasad happy birthday. After the guests enjoyed a bite of his birthday cake, Prasad said he still felt young and vowed to put the BJP and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi in trouble.

Birthday promise

This refers to D P Ghatak's letter "When women win" (June 10). It is difficult to think of a braver or more futile attempt to defend the indefensible. There is no denying the fact that even today the odds are stacked against the fairer sex for various reasons and every effort must be made to empower women. However, there is a world of difference between a drawing-room conversation and a public address delivered by a dignitary. It was downright patronising of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to applaud the success achieved by his Bangladeshi counterpart, despite the gender disadvantage. How would Modi have liked, let the writer ask himself, if Sheikh Hasina were to return the compliment with a reference to Modi's humble "chaiwallah" background?Unfortunately, this is not an isolated instance of the Indian Prime Minister's indiscretion. On two earlier occasions, both on foreign soil, he slammed the previous government for corruption and later, he outrageously claimed that earlier (in the pre-

Letters: The signs of a true leader

A K Bhattacharya's column, "FM's wage bill worries" (New Delhi Diary, June 10) has aptly observed that the process of government recruitment results in an exodus of talent at the top due to the meagre salaries they get, in comparison to what the private sector pays to people with a similar profile. In contrast, the employees at lower levels get paid a lot in comparison to private sector workers who put in more in terms of time and effort. As suggested by the writer, all previous governments ignored recommendations for staff rationalisation and downsizing manpower, and only implemented salary revisions. The cumulative effect of all this will have to be borne by the current government, with its fiscal consolidation plans going haywire with the consequences. So, what should the finance minister (FM) do? The FM is in the most comfortable position - with the general elections a good four years away - to perform a surgical operation to undo the sins of the past governments.An interesting obs

Letters: All work, no pay

This refers to the report "Regulator said to have pressed for exit of Deutsche chiefs" (June 10). Can it happen in India? Wilful defaulters of bank loans continue to run companies. Regulators just become mere spectators in case of wrongdoings by companies. Can we not have a system where regulating authorities, apart from the shareholders, should have a say in the management of companies? The times are changing and a system needs to be evolved in this regard.We need to widen the scope of the Right To Information Act to bring private companies under it and to check whether they are complying with the rules and regulations in the interests of the public and shareholders. Only an informed society can act as a check on the mismanagement of companies.Deendayal M Lulla  MumbaiLetters 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 telep

Letters: More teeth to regulators

Myanmar attack: Cross-border ops are best kept out of the public domain

Why govt should stop chest-thumping on Myanmar operation

Only a strong bankruptcy law can rein in errant promoters

Dr Rajan's interim solution

A smooth amalgamation of capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and commodities market watchdog Forward Markets Commission (FMC) is what the market needs and the finance ministry desires. Alas, desires seldom translate into reality. In this case, the employees of the two regulators are finding it difficult to get along. Sebi employees don't want to accommodate the FMC workforce; on their part, FMC officers don't consider it lucrative to join Sebi despite the provisions in the finance Bill. If it is any consolation for corporations in the throes of a difficult merger, even regulators are sailing in the same boat.

In the same boat

K V Chowdary, the newly appointed Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), only has great respect for senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani and former Aam Aadmi Party leader Prashant Bhushan, and considers Jethmalani "a father figure". One would remember that the appointment of Chowdary - a former chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes - as CVC didn't go down well with Jethmalani and Bhushan, who questioned his credentials. Jethmalani was so incensed with the appointment that he shot off a letter to the Prime Minister and posted it on Twitter, declaring that his "diminishing respect for you (PM) ends today". When asked about this opposition, Chowdary, the target of these barbs, refused to add fuel to the fire.

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