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RBI POLICY WITH BS

Business Standard

The IIMs may be signing away independence

Diploma or degree?

The party's move towards the political centre

BJP at 35

About 32 state-owned companies, including ONGC and NTPC, have failed to meet the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)'s requirement of having at least one woman director each on their boards. These public sector undertakings (PSUs) and another 150 private companies are likely to face Sebi's ire for non-compliance. In June 2013, Sebi had passed an order against 105 companies for failing to comply with the 25 per cent minimum public shareholding requirement. The penalty included freezing of voting rights and corporate benefits of the promoter group. Back then, none of the non-compliant companies were PSUs. It remains to be seen what action Sebi takes this time around.

Where are the women?

Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh on Monday threw a party for bureaucrats and journalists in Delhi as part of a series of events he had hosted to celebrate his son's marriage in the first week of March. While he had hosted receptions for his relatives and ministerial colleagues in Delhi and Jammu earlier, his staff said he wasn't able to accommodate everyone he wanted to invite. The Delhi event was cancelled twice before - the first time, it was cancelled because of the Vasanta Navratri celebrations, when most people in north India prefer not to eat non-vegetarian food, and the second time, it was called off due to heavy unseasonal rain in the last week of March.

The lunch

You have heard about the 4Ps of marketing. Here are the 3Ps of judiciary. Addressing a joint conference of chief justices and chief ministers in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while the judiciary enjoyed the highest credibility among all institutions in the country, it should not be content with just being "powerful", but strive to be "perfect". Sounding a note of caution, he said that while it was easy to deliver judgments based on the law and the Constitution, the judiciary should avoid "perception"-based verdicts, especially when such perceptions were sourced from "five-star activists".

The 3Ps of judiciary

Apropos Veenu Sandhu's article "Tell and suffer" (BS Weekend, April 4), many Indian companies apprehend (wrongly) that a complaint of sexual harassment if investigated or proved would affect their reputation adversely. So, the first attempt is to hush it up or dissuade the victim from pursuing the matter. Besides, the wide-ranging definition of the term in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition And Redressal) Act has made organisations (fearing many cases) defensive of the aggressor rather than supportive of the victim. Then the male mindset that treats a woman as an object of pleasure stands by the aggressor.An effective way to check sexual harassment is to institute a strong organisational culture that emphasises the need for workforce diversity and mutual respect for the dignity of co-workers. As a punitive measure, this offence should be treated on par with other serious incidents of deviant workplace behaviour such as theft and gross indiscipline.Besi

Letters: Harassment woes

This refers to T N Ninan's column "Water and Boko Haram" (Weekend Ruminations, April 4). The author has convincingly explained that the main cause of conflicts in Syria and Nigeria is the shortage of water in these areas because of increasing pollution and the resulting climate change all over the world, which is worrisome.India is also likely to be hit seriously with the increasing population and neglect towards the protection of environment. Our farming pattern has to change and states must educate their farmers to go in for crops that need less water for irrigation. The current government has been talking of linking rivers but nothing seems to be happening on the ground.In urban areas, every building needs to have water-harvesting systems to save water and bring up the water table. The Modi government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should be undertaken seriously by one and all, so that the effects of global warming are reduced.P K Vasudeva  PanchkulaLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed

Letters: Pollution check

Apropos the report "Fabindia investors ask tough questions, want thorough probe" (April 6), such unethical conduct by a leading brand is not at all expected. It is an act of privacy intrusion. Capturing images of any person in a private area without his or her consent is a punishable offence.The customer's faith on the brand has taken a hit. Moreover, this issue has even raised a question mark on several other brands' trial room scenario, which are still not under any scanner. Had Union Minister Smriti Irani not spotted the CCTV camera focusing on the trial room, this issue would not have been raised so intensely. Any prudent customer, would respect the store's intention to maintain a vigil over the store, so that there is no theft of apparels or other articles, but this is not the way out.Now, even the investors have raised a concern over the matter. There could have been several ways to maintain security in the store; they could have deployed personnel outside the changing rooms and

Letters: Fashion disaster

Business Standard takes a look at RBI's action on repo rate, CRR and SLR since Raghuram Rajan took charge as governor in September 2013

RBI's rate actions under Rajan

RBI is facing a dilemma heading into its annual monetary policy review. We look at the numbers that might govern its stance on Tuesday

StatsGuru:  Key numbers RBI will consider while framing its policy

I'm in urgent need of money. Should I take a loan from my office, apply for a personal loan or take a loan against my life insurance policy?The decision points could be the amount of loan, urgency, interest rates and equated monthly instalments. You need to compare your loan options with these factors. Normally, office loans are preferable, being the cheapest, fastest, need least documentation, have the longest repayment period, and don't consume your other credit limits.I got a mail from my bank saying I'm eligible for a pre-approved personal loan. However, when I applied, it got rejected, saying the documents were not in order. How's that possible? What should I do? Pre-approved loans are given by banks for existing customers after checking creditworthiness. Income documents are not relevant. Either they don't take any documents or at best ask only KYC (Know Your Customer) documents for identity and records. Ask the bank about the discrepancy, which should be easy for you to resolve.

Debt Counselling:Sanjay Agarwal

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 3-3.5 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

Mumbai-based mobile application development and marketing company AppsDaily Solutions Pvt Ltd has raised Rs 100 crore ($16 million) in Series-C round of funding led by Zodius Capital, with participation of its existing investors. Existing investors comprise Russian VC fund Ru-Net, Kalaari Capital and Qualcomm Ventures. The fresh funds will be primarily used to expand product offering, launch a digital platform, and expand its retail distribution.TripHobo raises $3 millionTripHobo, a platform for user-generated travel itineraries, has secured $3 million in Series-B funding led by incoming investor Mayfield and existing investor Kalaari Capital. This is the second round of funding for TripHobo in the 12 months after a Series-A round in July 2014. The funds would be used to primarily invest in research and development, talent acquisition, scaling content and technology integration with the travel system.Exfinity Ventures backs LensBricksBangalore-based early-stage venture capital firm Exf

AppsDaily raises $16 million

But it should also look at the Indian market

Infosys buys to grow

The real economy

Ten years ago, just ahead of the 2005 Assembly elections in Bihar, the BJP-Janata Dal (United) had described Lalu Prasad Yadav's rule as "jungle raj". They dug up the sobriquet again during the 2010 elections, which re-elected them with a majority. Now, the descriptor is back in conversations in Bihar. This time, however, it is being used to describe Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's regime. Speaking at the party national executive session last week, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah accused Kumar of returning Bihar to "jungle raj". While some within the BJP conceded that the tag wasn't appropriate to describe Kumar's rule, they hoped it would go some way in offsetting caste loyalties and turning popular opinion against the Lalu-Nitish alliance in Bihar, where Assembly elections are due later this year.

Jungle Raj Part II

Just like players "work the refs", politicians are known to prod the media to get the desired coverage. Take this latest instance. After the media was inundated with reports over the weekend that Union minister Smriti Irani had spotted a hidden camera in the trial room of a garment store in Panaji, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi tweeted that she "smelt a rat". Her theory was that the media furore was aimed "to obfuscate" the coverage of the BJP's national executive meeting in Bengaluru. When the twitterati began wondering if Lekhi was taking potshots at her party colleague, she put a separate post on the micro-blogging site: "response 2 my previous tweet shows D intent while 1 story is relevant as news, other a discussion material, ?ing not Smritiji's but media emphasis."

Blame it on the media

Who said the Congress is late in adopting social media? The party has decided to fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of farmers' plight through this medium. In fact, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has taken the fight to the PM's door with a parody of slogans. He posted on Twitter: "Subhash Chandra Bose: tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azadi doonga. Modi: tum mujhe jameen do, main tumhe berojgari doonga. Modi: Tum mujhe tumhari subsidy do, main ameeron kay tax kam karoonga." (Subhash Chandra Bose said, give me blood, I will give you freedom, Modi said [to farmers]: give me your land, I will give you unemployment. Give up your subsidy, I will reduce the taxes for the rich.)

Twitter war

This refers to the report "Rajan is 'perfect'; govt, RBI think on similar lines: Modi" (April 2). If Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan was "perfect", then why were his wings clipped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Does Modi want the RBI to follow his dictates like the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog?The differences between the government and the RBI over inflation and interest rates are too conspicuous to be wished away. Under pressure, Rajan had to make two cuts in as many months in bank interest rates by 25 basis points. This step might boost some sectors of the economy but not without causing erratic inflation, depending on the duration of the government's largesse.Regarding the government's move to extend easy loans to farmers for promoting the so-called inclusive growth, public sector banks could agree to this, provided they are ready to write them off as bad loans sooner or later. Non-performing assets are already proving a ball and cha

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 459 - Business Standard

RBI POLICY WITH BS

Diploma or degree?

BJP at 35

Where are the women?

The lunch

The 3Ps of judiciary

Letters: Harassment woes

Letters: Pollution check

Letters: Fashion disaster

RBI's rate actions under Rajan

StatsGuru: Key numbers RBI will consider while framing its policy

Debt Counselling: Sanjay Agarwal

Case study

Realty check

AppsDaily raises $16 million

Infosys buys to grow

The real economy

Jungle Raj Part II

Blame it on the media

Twitter war