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.

Sound support?

Business Standard

The hullabaloo around the celebration of International Yoga Day on June 21 has also given rise to some unique dilemmas. For instance, what if you belong to a different religion and elders in the community don't approve of, say, a surya namaskar. Karnataka Health Minister U T Khader says if community leaders have a problem with it, they should simply turn around, and do the exercises with their back to the sun. Khader said: "With yoga there is no downfall or upliftment of any community. Only health will go up and down."

New twist to yoga

This refers to Mihir Sharma's column "End the IAS" (Ticker, June 6). There is a middle position before ending the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Why not free it from the elaborate procedures that encase it and slow it down? After all, the same IAS delivers quickly during elections, emergencies and so on, when procedures are simplified or even lifted.If any IAS officer does manage to acquire domain knowledge, he isn't always placed in that area, so that he gains diverse experience. Even if he or she manages to stay in the special area and spend some time as a Home Secretary or Cabinet or Chief Secretary, they would be overlooked for their lack of diverse experience. Domain expertise is most useful in the middle management area but general managerial capability is still required at the highest levels, and is sought out in preference to specialists. The IAS does provide this.But that also happens in China, where party members are typically engineers, scientists and so on. But at the

Letters: Free the IAS

Apropos the editorial "The Maggi lesson" (June 10), it is true that quality control in edibles is lax in the unorganised business, but then it also does not command the same faith a consumer places in a branded product such as Maggi. A person buying vegetables or eating golgappas from a street vendor is aware of the risk he exposes himself to, while he suspends his judgement in buying a branded product from an established multinational such as Nestle. A brand is founded on trust and Nestle has betrayed it.Similarly, when celebrities endorse any product, the purchaser-fan may or may not know that the former does not stand by its claims about results and benefits, yet he does believe that his idol would not recommend something that compromises on his safety or health.Consumers also place a lot of trust in the regulators. When they fail in their duty in exchange for other gains, the consequent price the society pays is irrecoverable. Lastly, all this sloppiness is encouraged by consumer i

Letters: Trusting brands

This refers to the report "Govt turns down FDI in retail e-commerce" (June 10). In support of the government's decision the following point needs to be appreciated: B2B e-commerce is facilitating value creation. This has enormous forward linkages that are in keeping with the national strategy of enhancing the ease of doing business. It has, for these reasons, the potential to boost the sagging manufacturing growth in India. However, B2C is about backward linkages and is seen as facilitating consumption (absorption of value). It can create demand where none exists. So, investments into such facilities, before the secondary sector is revived, could prove wasteful. Investments into B2B e-commerce, on the other hand, would boost supply along with demand.T Syama Sundar  HyderabadLetters 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

Letters: Batting for B2B

Electoral verdict suggests economy needs urgent attention

Turkish treatment

More organised retail would make food safety easier to police

The Maggi lesson

Envoys and their support staff in Indian embassies, high commissions and consulates are under some stress to make the International Yoga Day on June 21 a global success. They are busy imploring members of the Indian diaspora, local clubs and foreign governments to hold events to mark the day. The governments of countries with significant population of Indians, such as Canada and the UK, are amenable to the pitch. They are being urged to take photographs of these events and post them on social media sites and/or send them to the external affairs ministry in South Block, which will then upload it on its official Twitter handle and other social media platforms. The only hitch is the huge time difference between India and countries in the Australian and American continents. It will be either the middle of the night in India when those in Australia start their yoga session or nearly evening when those in North and South America take it up. So, ceaseless retweets would be the order of the da

Making yoga work

Nobody triggers a war on Twitter like Prime Minister Narendra Modi does. Yesterday, Chinese Whispers told you about #DespiteBeingAWoman becoming a top trend on the micro-blogging site, after Modi praised his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina for her fight against terrorism. Soon after, #ModiEmpowersWomen started trending as Modi's supporters began tweeting with the hashtag. A similar hashtag war had broken out during Modi's China visit. #modiinsultsindia had started trending after Modi said, "Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born in India." However, the PM's army of Twitter supporters ensured #ModiIndiasPride topped the trending list in no time.

Hashtag wars

The promoters of the Tata group, Reliance and Sterlite were conspicuous by their absence at a recent function organised by the Ministry of Power to reward companies in the sector for their achievements. The one person whose presence created a stir at the event was Naveen Jindal, promoter of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL). There was some commotion as he got on to the dais to receive an award from Power Minister Piyush Goyal. A former Congress MP, Jindal is an accused in a coal block allocation scam case along with 14 others. JSPL has recently moved the Delhi High Court against the Centre's decision to cancel coal blocks allocated to it. Although its winning bids for some mines were the highest in their individual auctions, they were low compared with the winning bids for other similar blocks.

Power play

This refers to Shreekant Sambrani's column "Monsoon mystics" (Et Cetera, June 9). India is a big country and moreover, there is a lot of variation in rainfall. Therefore, sometimes, rainfall prediction does not show the correct picture. Instead of using a single forecast, it should be split into four parts based on meteorological regions - the north-west, central, north-east and south - or even in smaller parts. A study of the spatial distribution of rainfall in the north-west shows that in two years during the last decade, there was a deficit of 80 per cent but food grain output did not suffer as there was excess rainfall in July.The central region, even in the drought years of 2009 and 2014, fared better than the north-west, recording excess rainfall in July. These instances highlight the need for region- and district-wise forecasts. Therefore, there is a need to classify areas and study the behaviour of rainfall to decide and follow different crop patterns.Sushil Bakliwal  JaipurLet

Letters: A better forecast plan

This refers to Ajai Shukla's column "Stop the dithering with Washington" (Broadsword, June 9). While pointing out the invaluable support the US provided to India in 1962, Shukla has omitted the US' 1956 snub - "If you are not with us, you are against us" - to democratic India that pushed us into the open arms of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the aircraft and tanks supply to Pakistan that caused the 1965 war and; the unbelievable US support to atrocities in the then East Pakistan in 1971. Even the much touted India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement is yet to see ground-level implementation, with the US still cribbing about the safeguards that are more than reasonable after Bhopal.Given this background, is it not only reasonable that India should proceed with caution in getting into a strategic tie-up with Washington? If the US continues in its arrogant ways, who knows, India might be forced into closer relations with China and Russia, especially if China's growth weakens (as is not

Letters: Watching Washington

This refers to the Chinese Whispers item "Despite being a woman" (June 9). The needless controversy over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's praise for Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina smacks of a cockroach-like approach, where one looks for crevices. It is basically an effort to hide rather than stand in the sunshine. I did not know that praising somebody for standing up to adversities in spite of being faced with it can become a rallying point for anti-Modi entrepreneurs. When we praise a woman for making it big in life despite being a woman, it is not sexist. It is not to highlight her weakness. While we do it to appreciate her strength, it is also a comment on the society at large. It is a criticism of the society that works overtime to oppress women. We do it to underline the fact that it is much easier for a man to achieve heights in life as compared to a woman because of societal partisanship. A woman has to tread anti-current and fight oppression to achieve heights.If we fail

Letters: When women win

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a rousing speech at the University of Dhaka on Sunday evening. On TV, one saw several people in the audience applauding vociferously, while some were even moved to tears with his comment that India and Bangladesh, two poor and developing countries, were not just "paas, paas" (close) but also "saath, saath" (together). But the speech lost its sheen somewhat when Modi appreciated Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's zero tolerance policy on terrorism, "mahila hone ke bavjood" or despite being a woman. The hashtag #DespiteBeingAWoman was one of the trending topics on Monday.

Despite being a woman

Dealing with global warming-induced heat stress

Heat's here to stay

PM's visit to Bangladesh took big steps forward

Most important neighbours

First there was indignance, now social media is agog with some good jokes and some off-colour puns on the Maggi crisis. One of the jokes tried to connect the Nestle stock with the crisis caused due to the discovery of, among other things, lead above permissible limits. It said: "The exchanges are meeting today to decide whether the Nestle stock should continue in the FMCG index or shifted to the metals index."

Laughing stock

The Maggi controversy has also sparked a debate on whether brand ambassadors should be held accountable for the products or services they endorse. The debate gets trickier if you endorse something like marriage. No wonder Chetan Bhagat, who is the brand ambassador for marriage portal Shaadi.com, made this timely disclosure: "Brand ambassadors responsible for their products? Ok so @shaadidotcom is just a website. Making your shaadi work is your responsibility!"

Endorsement vow

This refers to Sunita Narain's column "Delhi's clean-air challenge" (Down to Earth, June 8). Although Narain has cited the example of the Delhi traffic (which has the highest vehicular density among Indian metros), the picture is no different in other metros. During winter, I am sure the Delhi roads will be even more polluting than last year.An automobile delivers comfort and time-efficient journey to the customer (the owner) but it also produces by-products in the form of harmful air pollutants. In the driving process, the stakeholders are the oil companies that are supposed to produce cleaner fuel; the car companies that are supposed to create designs for a clean car; the governments and the user.The collective efforts of all these stakeholders can help reduce pollution. The government should encourage car-pooling and the use of public transport systems to restrict air pollution to acceptable levels. We are already late.Ashok Chakrabarty  KolkataLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mail

Letters: The road to clean air

This refers to the report "After Maggi; food regulator turns to Kellogg and Heinz" (June 5). The Maggi experience has raised question marks on several other packaged food companies, and the Indian food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, has finally woken from its deep slumber. The consequences are clear: Maggi's production has been halted; the endorsers are being grilled by government authorities and the product is facing a ban across several states of the country, causing grave damage to its image.But a new chapter has been written in this story: Kellogg and Heinz seem to be the new targets of the food regulator. This is not the first time a reputed food brand has fallen on hard times. Giants such as McDonald's, KFC, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others have all been in the news for the wrong reasons in the past. In the absence of a vigilant food regulator, these companies have been running successfully at the cost of the consumer's health. The need of the ho

Letters: This packet contains...

The textile sector accounts for about 14 per cent of India's industrial production and nearly 12 per cent of the country's export earnings. CRISIL has analysed the performance of more than 200 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the textile sector, rated on the basis of their financials during the period 2011-12 to 2013-14 (financial year April 1 to March 31). The analysis reveals that while net sales have registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent, the operating profit and net profit margins have declined by 10-30 basis points (one percentage point is 100 basis points) during the three-year period.The operating profit margins declined on account of raw material price volatility and other factors. Additionally, higher interest and depreciation costs as a result of capacity additions and modernisation have also contributed to a decline in the net profit margins. CRISIL expects a slowdown in both domestic demand and export demand from the Western markets d

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