Government gets around to re-energising wind power

A new breeze

Business Standard

Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present his first and India's 13th interim Budget on February 17

The temporary budgets

This refers to Neha Pandey Deoras' column "Don't rush to get Aadhaar number" (Your Money, February 4). To resolve the current impasse, it is proposed that rolling out Aadhaar and its usage should be separated. The government could use this breather to talk to political parties and build a consensus on Aadhaar's features and incorporate the concerns on the safety of the personal data collected. Aadhaar numbers could be rolled out first for adults, and then for minors in all the states to ensure a smooth roll-out. According to the Census 2011, we have 101.9 million households that do not avail of banking services. By using Aadhaar, every adult could be offered a bank account, without any additional data or efforts from existing banks. Aadhaar's usage will also eliminate any duplicate beneficiaries.Y P Issar  KarnalLetters 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

The ideal Aadhaar

Ashvin Parekh, Pratip Chaudhuri, G N Bajpai and Pradip P Shah

An eminent jury analysed data, vetted the process as well as ranking parameters before finalising the Business Standard Fund Managers of the Year. Their focus was on consistency of performance and quality of portfolio

Picking the winners

This refers to the report "Water shortage leading to rethink on irrigation strategy" (February 4). State governments are worried about water management since the per capita availability would be reduced to 1,342 cubic metre a year, compared to 1,365 cubic metre available currently. To enhance the efficiency of water use, Water User's Associations were created, but the results were not as expected. The productivity per unit of water used needs to be enhanced. Drip and sprinkler irrigation is one part of the solution, but the other part is a change in cropping pattern. This should be the cardinal principle of approach while using scarce water resources.Sushil Bakliwal  JaipurLetters 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

Irrigation ideas

Do you think the summer internship period at institutions should be increased from two months to six months?

Students' Corner

Interview with Newly-appointed CEO, Microsoft

We have the best platform to change the world: Satya Nadella

At the Auto Expo, an industry ripe for change

In idle gear

Why UPA's safety nets are not easy to roll back

Reforming entitlements

The massive crowd of 20,000 people a day on Mumbai's monorail service has taken almost everyone by surprise. While thousands queued up since early morning to get a ride, there were others who were not interested at all. When one of the city's famous dabbawalas (lunch box carriers) was asked whether he would ever use the new monorail, he replied matter of factly that for him and office goers the service is useless because the new service connects Chembur to Wadala - and both places do not have any offices in which to deliver dabbas.

Monorail out of the box

A group of students, probably appearing for social science exams, were having last-minute discussions on a commuter train in Mumbai. One of them looked visibly under-prepared and said, "If I don't know the answer to any question. I will simply write that the solution is to empower women, the solution is to empower the poor and the children." Pity Rahul Gandhi couldn't have heard this distinctly cynical assessment of his TV interview. Talk about empowering the youth!

Testing times

The newly created National Information Centre under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was not only meant to provide state-of-the-art facilities for journalists but also improve the functioning of the Press Information Bureau. But in its first year, the second part of the mandate does not seem to have been fulfilled. The inordinate delay and mismanagement in distribution and renewal of mandatory accreditation cards for journalists has prompted many to question whether the new set-up has done them more harm than good.

Pressed for efficiency

The editorial "A jolt for Aadhaar" (February 4), as do all discussions on this topic, does not reflect the fact that Aadhaar was meant to provide a proof of identity, and it has been successful in doing so to over 550 million of our population. Trying to position Aadhaar as a magic wand rather than just one of the enablers for complex issues such as financial inclusion, and elimination of subsidies reflects on the laziness and unwillingness of our government to do the real hard work.Also, Govindraj Ethiraj's article "Has Aadhaar lost its foundation?" does injustice by assuming that the LPG subsidy programme linked to Aadhaar is a good foundation. This was a bad demonstrative application picked for "quick wins" collectively by politicians and technocrats. All that was required was for oil marketing companies (OMCs) to do differentiated billing based on consumer data, and the subsidy could have been refunded by the government to the OMCs. Rather, this was complicated by introducing direc

Letters: Wrong foundation

Rajiv Shastri's article "Why India's subsidies are inflationary" (February 3) once again raises the cliched question, "can good economics and good politics co-exist?" Watching the political and economic situation in India, any thinking person will answer "no".Given this self-defeating situation, there is no political party that will be willing to bite the bullet and bring about a balance, unless they are driven to the wall. Finally, the number of politicians who have the ability to understand the economic consequences of their commissions and omissions is very small, and often their voices are muffled, ignored or unheard.I, for one, had some hope in the Aam Aadmi Party to bring about this balance, but the way AAP has been handling the power supply situation in Delhi, or the vigilantism displayed in handling a recent incident involving African women, that hope, too, is fading. In the upcoming elections, all the parties are focussing on how to win and come to power. Nobody talks about th

Letters: The political economy

The problems for the highway developers (Highway developers face policy speed breakers, February 4) are matters of serious concern. The lack of infrastructure is hurting the economy in terms of jobs, production and efficiency. Banks are looking at mounting non-performing assets from this segment. However, the problems are not all external to the developers. The bullishness in pursuing public-private partnership (PPP) opportunities and bidding for multiple projects at the same time were based upon faulty traffic and revenue projections. The recent troubles in Maharashtra with toll-booths also demonstrate that the willingness and ability of users to pay high tolls is lower than assumed by the developers. Many companies took on projects that were too large for them. Using banks to finance long-gestation projects is a practice that is fraught with danger for the banking system since banks mostly raise short-term money. Experts will have to come up with better solutions than just chanting P

Letters: Roads to development

UPA shouldn't have put on hold its only good idea

A jolt for Aadhaar

On UTI's 50th anniversary, actor and television presenter Kabir Bedi was announcing a list of ex-chairmen of UTI, most of whom are no longer alive. The list was long and he frequently had to use the word "late" before the names, inadvertently getting into a rhythm of sorts when it came to U K Sinha's name. When the crowd, including the finance minister and Sinha, started laughing, Bedi realised his mistake and rushed to apologise to Sinha saying "You live long, Mr Sinha." Sinha, who left UTI to head the Securities and Exchange Board of India in 2011, has recently been given a two-year extension, ahead of a tenure that was to end mid-February.

Late call

When UTI celebrated 50 years since it first began channelling savings into the markets, another, more ancient tradition was also unwittingly invoked. It so happened that part of the activities organised included sand art to depict the mutual fund's journey. However, the screen depicting this art was located behind the three chief guests, prompting the announcer to express the hope that they were adept at yoga. After a few attempts at turning their neck 180 degrees, the finance minister finally pointed out that there was a smaller screen in front of the stage, allowing them to enjoy the art without contorting their bodies; and saving the yoga lesson for another day.

UTI's 'yogic' celebrations

The tragic boat accident near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the last week of January brought out in the open the poor safety record of sea ferries, and the inadequate rescue facilities on board in case of an accident. Now, no one is giving the Andaman and Nicobar authorities the benefit of the doubt. A senior executive of a popular online travel portal who is planning a trip to the islands in a few months, declares that he will carry his own life jacket. Because, as he says, "who knows what they provide will even be inflatable".

Safety first on vacation

This refers to the report "US cuts India's air safety rating" (February 1). The US Federal Aviation Administration's decision to downgrade India's safety ranking from Category I to Category II is a matter of great concern for the country's booming civil aviation sector. This points to the fact that India lacks the necessary regulations to meet minimum international air safety standards, the deficiency in technical standards or the lack of trained manpower.In the last decade, our aviation sector has seen a boom, but we have paid little attention to air safety. One of the reasons is that we have focussed more on developing large, modern and high-tech airports. We have not invested in developing and training human resources. We find a big shortage of air traffic controllers; many pilots have left Indian carriers for greener pastures because of low salaries and the inadequacy of modern training by Indian airline operators.It is high time the government appoints a strong chief for the Direc

Letters: Mayday, mayday

CRISIL has analysed the growth of 3,850 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across India, rated by it between 2010-11 and 2012-13 (refers to the financial year April 1 to March 31). The analysis reveals that the sales of these CRISIL-rated MSMEs grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.53 per cent during this period. In absolute terms, average sales per enterprise grew from ~1,668.80 lakh in 2010-11 to ~2,505.30 lakh in 2012-13.The four northern states of India - namely Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana - lead this MSME growth story. The analysis further revealed that MSMEs from the agro-processing sector are key contributors, enabling excellent growth in these four states. The impressive growth of 68 per cent recorded by these enterprises in the agro-processing sector far outpaces the 22.53 per cent growth rate recorded by CRISIL-rated MSMEs across various sectors in India. The other industry sectors that propelled this growth, and have registered superior growt

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