Tata group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, 76, has lately become one of the most high-profile investors in India's highly competitive e-commerce start-up space.

Ratan Tata on a shopping spree

Business Standard

Gold continues to be an obsession for Indians. As Table 1 shows, gold imports by weight have jumped again to the levels that helped cause current-account weakness in 2013 - although the value of the imports has not jumped proportionately.This may be because of the falling price of the asset, shown in Table 2 - though movement of the rupee has meant that Indians don't benefit from the full pass-through of global price falls. The equivalent calculations for silver are shown in Tables 3 and 4.Yet gold as an investment is not quite as appealing, according to Table 5. Had an investor bought on Akshaya Tritiya in 2012, even bank deposits, let alone stocks, would have given far better returns.Clearly, it is the material qualities of gold and not pure returns that are driving demand - as brought home by Tables 6 and 7, which show the declining values of various gold-based financial instruments.

StatsGuru: The numbers behind Indians' obsession for gold

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

Case study

The Constitution does not provide for a parallel levy of indirect taxes by the Centre and states, a pre-requisite for the roll-out of goods and services tax (GST) in the country. The government introduced in Parliament last week the 122nd Constitution amendment Bill to address this. Some key highlights of the Bill are:1.Enables introduction of GSTThe Bill replaces the lapsed 115th Constitution amendment Bill, introduced by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in March 2011. This enables the Centre and state governments, including Union territories, to introduce the law for levying GST on supply of goods and services. Under the GST regime, there will be one Central GST law and one state GST law each for the states.2.'GST' definedThe term 'GST' is defined in Article 366 (12A) to mean "any tax on supply of goods or services or both except taxes on supply of the alcoholic liquor for human consumption".Thus, all supply of goods or services will attract Central GST (CGST) and sta

10 things to watch out for in GST Bill

This refers to Abheek Barua's article "Raghuram Rajan's arithmetic" (April 25). The contention of the central bank that it has no view on exchange rates and fair value for the rupee sounds like an enigma. How then does it determine the timing, direction (buy or sell) and volume of intervention in the forex market, be it for the professed purpose of smoothening the volatility spikes? The central bank is also silent as to the volatility index/metric it might be tracking for the purpose. We find that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been intervening through the spot, forward and swap forex market. While taking positions in forward/swap deals for intervention or sterilisation purpose, the RBI is implicitly taking a view on the future value of the currency.While it is not necessary for the central bank to fully disclose the policies, strategies, tools and weapons in its armour, through an appropriate communication strategy and signals, it can enable the economic agents to anchor exchange

Letters: A suggestion for RBI

This refers to the book review "How India's democracy came of age" (April 22). The reviewer has praised Vir Sanghvi of the Radiia tapes fame so much that he could not detect the way the author has tried to mislead his readers. In my case, however, Sanghvi failed.Sanghvi, according to the reviewer, says the Congress in 2009 had hit upon the plan that if it did not have the numbers after the elections, it would propose the name of Pranab Mukherjee as prime minister, in the hope of getting Left support.Wasn't Manmohan Singh the Congress' PM candidate before the elections? How would the Congress have explained this change to other partners such as the Nationalist Congress Party or the Trinamool Congress?Darren Kochuveedan,  New DelhiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201  ·  E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Pre-meditated move?

This refers to the editorial "Bad weather news" (April 24). We are still an agri-based economy, with over 46 per cent of the working population engaged in this sector. Obviously, bad monsoon is going to play havoc in our economy and inflation. On a micro-level, it affects the normal lives of farmers - sometimes leading them to commit suicide.The issue is not whether the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is correct or Skymet is correct. In prediction, everyone has the moral right of going wrong because of obvious differences in perceptions about some unforeseen phenomena, which no model can capture, however accurate it might be. It has happened with IMD and also with economists while predicting gross domestic product growth.The real issue that needs to be addressed is whether we are ready with a contingency plan. A contingency plan is independent of what the forecasts are - it acts on the principle of uncertainty and a certain amount has to be allocated for that.The question is whet

Letters: A contingency plan

During a television discussion on farmer Gajendra Singh Rathore's alleged suicide at an Aam Aadmi Party rally, party leader Ashutosh broke down and urged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh and Sambit Patra, not to "politicise" the issue. While some on social media debated if the tears were for real, Ashutosh has leaders such as Modi and US President Barack Obama for company. The BJP's vikas purush and then PM-designate Modi broke down while delivering a speech in Lok Sabha last year and Obama is known to have cried not once or twice but at least three times in public view.

Boys don't cry?

As the government moves fast to get important Bills cleared in Parliament, one couldn't help but ask a key minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government what the hurry was about. The answer was obvious: "Our brief from the PM and the FM is simple - the investment community dislikes policy uncertainty." On an emotional note, he added, "While some people allege that our government works for corporates, we are, in fact, working for the growth of the country and that will happen only when global funds come in." Looks like Rahul Gandhi's 'suit-boot ki sarkar' slur has hit where it hurts.

Hitting where it hurts

Trust Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to find novel ways to unsettle his younger colleagues on the Opposition benches in Parliament. When he got up to reply to Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi after his speech on the agrarian crisis in the Lok Sabha last week, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi tried to interject at some point. "Please Tarunji have patience," Naidu responded, referring to Gaurav by the name of his father and Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi. This unsettled Gaurav who tried to correct Naidu, forgetting all about the issue on which he wanted to speak in the first place. Soon, the Congress' Rohtak MP, Deepender Hooda, interrupted Naidu. "Please, Bhupinderji," Naidu said, referring to him by his father and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Hooda's name. The effect on him was similar to what Naidu had on Gogoi junior.

Name, surname

Better this is being done now when crude oil prices are low and construction activity is muted

Indian strategic oil reserve long overdue

India has adapted lax construction methods of much safer lands instead of Japan's

Nepal quake highlights poor urban planning in India

One of the debit cards I am using is very old. How do I get it upgraded? All banks have fairly simple processes for upgrading debit cards. You should call your bank's call centre or visit their website. Most banks allow you to apply from here. In case you don't find the function there, walk into your nearest branch and they should be able to do it. Do remember to ask about charges, if any, and the functionalities and features on the upgraded card.Many banks are offering lower home loan rates for women. I am planning to take a home loan. If it take it jointly with my mother or sister, will we get lower rates? Yes, there are indeed some offers in the market where women borrowers get preferential rates. As you choose, make sure you look at the conditions applicable. In some institutions, the woman must be the primary applicant, and sole owner of the property (or first owner, in case of joint ownership). Others might ask for the woman to be the primary applicant to the loan, and would be o

Banking: Jairam Sridharan

Why does a spat in St Stephen's arouse such interest?

This Stephanian matter

Is a Greek exit from the euro zone inevitable?

Exit risks

A bad monsoon could add to mounting rural distress

Bad weather news

On completing 50 days in power, the Delhi government - led by Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal - launched its anti-corruption helpline, 1031. The helpline, advertised through billboards and radio spots, urged people to make audio or video recordings of anyone - be it government officials or the police - demanding bribes. Now, it appears that several police stations in Delhi have banned visitors from entering the station premises with cell phones. The Ghazipur police station in the eastern periphery of Delhi, for instance, has put up a notice with a list of items that cannot be taken inside, which includes, you guessed it, cell phones with cameras. At some other police stations, officers were seen frisking visitors or asking them to leave their camera phones outside.

Bad connection

The net neutrality issue has roiled the waters so badly that the chief executives of all telecom companies have decided to come together to address a joint press conference today. Today is also the last day to submit comments to the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on its consultation paper on the regulation of over-the-top players such as WhatsApp, Skype and Viber among others. This is the first time operators are coming together on the same platform, that of the Cellular Operators Association of India, since the debate on net neutrality started. The trigger was the launch of the Airtel Zero platform by Bharti Airtel on April 6. Until now, only Airtel had come forward to respond to critics who alleged that the platform was against the principle of net neutrality.

Unity in diversity

So what if you don't have power, you have the mobile phone! Electricity consumers in Gaya town, Bodh Gaya and Manpur areas in Bihar will soon get SMS alerts in case of a power cut. India Power Corporation Ltd, the Kolkata-based franchisee for power distribution in Gaya town and certain blocks of Gaya district, currently sends text messages to consumers with details of their electricity consumption. The planned SMS alerts would contain details such as the nature of the breakdown and the tentative restoration time.

The power of mobile

Apropos the editorial "'Are you serious?'" (April 22), it is unfair to reject the "suit boot ki sarkar" criticism by quoting past sins of the Congress regimes. That's history. Let's move on to the here and now.It is true that the past sins brought them down. But Congressmen have not forsaken their right to fault the current regime, have they? Therefore, saying "the most corrupt government in Indian history", "that was in bed with every crony capitalist you could find" is simply letting off steam without heeding the substance of the criticism - this government is helping businessmen to the detriment of the interests of kisans, as pointed out by Rahul Gandhi.That the regime is business-friendly is publicly orchestrated by the ruling elite itself, both here and abroad, so the "suit boot ki sarkar" criticism should not hurt. Yet if it does, it's only a tacit admission of its failure to perceive the distress signals emanating from other quarters that built up this perception in the first pl

Letters: Shades of opinion

Only with a view to setting the record straight, I am truly constrained to point out two glaring, and unbelievable, errors of date/year and name - about the same historical event - in Devangshu Datta's otherwise interesting and persuasive column "Secrets, lies and conspiracy theories" (Viewpoint, April 18). Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent not in 1965, but in 1966, on January 11. And the Tashkent "deal" was "brokered" not by Leonid Brezhnev, but by Alexei Kosygin, the then prime minister of the then Soviet Union.Sharadchandra Panse  PuneDevangshu Datta replies: Mr Panse is absolutely right about the Tashkent Conference being held in January 1966. This is entirely my error since I was writing from memory and did not check it. The Kosygin/Brezhnev attribution is more debatable but Kosygin was indeed, the man who oversaw the deal in that he sat at the table with Ayub Khan and Lal Bahadur Shastri.Our apologies. We stand corrected.Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor,

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