River interlinking can only work on a small scale

Too grandiose a plan

Business Standard

Narendra Modi missed the point about IITs, IIMs

Quality, not quantity

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ideologue Yogendra Yadav, who was in the thick of the action at the "dharna" site at ground zero across Rail Bhavan, appeared a tad out of sync with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. While Kejriwal had publicly declared that he had come "prepared" to stake it out for 10 days and was seen spending the night on the open street covered by a thick blue quilt, Yadav had made no such preparations. On Tuesday, the second day of the agitation, Yadav was seen walking around carrying a tiny green packet with his toothbrush and toothpaste peeping out of it. When quizzed about it, Yadav laughed, "Obviously, I didn't come prepared for even 48 hours." Prophetically, the AAP's much-touted 10-day dharna was called off by 7.30 p m the same day.

So prophetic?

Union minister Manish Tewari was one of those many VIPs who were caught in traffic jams caused by the Aam Aadmi Party' (AAP)s protests near Central Secretariat. Forced to step out of his official vehicle and walk past the barricades and road blocks, Tewari used his Twitter handle to report the experience: "Enjoyed walk for Governance from Parl. to Labor Min. past the rites of anarchy. A2P (Aam Aadmi Party) needs to make transition from agitators to administrators." Political observers wryly observed that the Congress better take care of their Union ministers. Should Jairam Ramesh happen to pass by AAP protests, then he might not just "walk" by it like Tewari but sit down and join them instead - the comment was a dig at the rural development minister's declared soft spot for AAP, which Ramesh subsequently retracted.

Walking the talk

Petrotech 2014, India's showcase hydrocarbon event organised by ONGC recently, was criticised widely for organisational flaws. On day one, when the prime minister was addressing the session, a couple of diplomats from African countries were forced to stand outside the venue because the security detail refused them to allow them to enter on grounds that the programme has already started. The interim-CEO of an Indian company faced the same situation. It took a few journalists who were also stuck outside to convince the security men that the people who were denied entry were indeed VIPs. And this incident occurred just as the government was getting ready to invite bids from global companies for a new round of oil and gas exploration licences.

Out in the cold

This refers to Barun Roy's column "India's great artistic divide" (Asia File, January 23). History and culture have shown us that only good and stable time has the potential to bring out the best of arts. There are many examples in India - the Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Ajanta Ellora caves, Gopurams of south Indian temples and many more. Like China, we have our valuable heritage to look at and promote. For promoting contemporary art linked to our heritage, we need a dynamic policy to represent our diversity of culture through the modern digital media to the world. We also need Indian museums to come out of preservation mode and get into promotion mode. A change in the museums' management attitude could definitely bring a turnaround in our image around the world.Dushyant Nathwani  VadodaraLetters 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 a

Lettes: Promotion, not preservation

The chart in Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian's article "Taxation's fatal neglect?" (January 20) clearly shows that the rate of growth of taxpayers in India dropped from around 23 per cent to around two per cent in the National Democratic Alliance days, and that this value increased marginally to just over three per cent in the United Progressive Alliance days. The low rate of increase in the number of taxpayers shows that gross domestic product growth of the economy has increased incomes almost entirely in the hands of existing taxpayers; those exempt from taxation viz. farmers and perhaps also in the hands of wealthy businessmen, many of whom avoid declaring their true income. This last category needs to be targeted better by the tax authorities to increase the number of taxpayers.Alok Sarkar  KolkataLetters 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

Lettes: Taxing it right

The Reserve Bank of India in its strategy to combat the menace of black money has directed people to return all the currency notes printed (minted) prior to 2005. It will be better if these notes are also barred from circulation. When Moraji Desai was prime minister during the Janata Party rule, he had demonetised Rs 1,000 notes to unearth black money. Though, it was not a permanent solution, the steps taken by the then government unnerved black money holders. The periodical exchange of currency notes with the old ones is only a temporary measure. As contemplated earlier, it is better if plastic notes come into circulation. Scribbling on the notes and soiling them would then become a thing of past. It would be right if plastic notes are introduced from April 1, 2014, so that the double work of exchanging old currency notes with new ones, and then exchanging paper currency notes with plastic ones can be avoided.K V Seetharamaiah  HassanLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Edi

Lettes: Hitting the right notes

This refers to "Popenomics in action" (Breaking Views, January 23). Pope Francis' address at the World Economic Forum at Davos fits into the teaching of Jesuits. His two goals that "people should not have to suffer hunger" and that "refugees should be offered minimally dignified living conditions" are perhaps the minimum that the world economy should satisfy. This year's theme at Davos is inequality. It may not be possible to achieve strict equality, but the surplus that delegates have in knowledge, money and influence should be invested in giving others a dignified living. It is plausible that by doing so corruption could be eliminated.Jacob Sahayam  ThiruvananthapuramLetters 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

Lettes: Equilibrium equation

Do you think the current format discourages female aspirants from attempting CAT?

Students' Corner

Essential to make new e-business portal work

Portal to efficiency?

Government must help RBI fix monetary policy framework

The right noises

Last week, at the release of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a report on the quality of education in rural India published by the NGO Pratham, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, was asked to give the keynote address. Throughout his speech, Ahluwalia repeatedly referred to the R in ASER as "rural" and spoke about how the report needed to include urban India as well. That forced the organisers to tell him, towards the end of the speech, that the R in ASER stands for Report and not rural.

One R of education

Protests by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in front of Rail Bhavan may have thrown normal life out of gear and troubled commuters. But one enterprising shopkeeper wasn't complaining. Unlike Jantar Mantar, which is a regular protest site and has many street food stalls, the Rail Bhavan circle does not have many eating places and even the nearby Press Club of India was closed. As a result, the dharna became a windfall for the small shop on Red Cross road. The shopkeeper did more than the entire week's business in just two days selling tea and snacks. In honour of the occasion, he even expanded the menu with Maggi noodles, bread pakoras and omelettes.

Dharna is good business

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may have set a trend of staging sit-in protests while in power but its leader Arvind Kejriwal has unwittingly set a new fashion trend with his muffler-wrapped head - a standard aam aadmi way of keeping warm in India - and it has become something of a trademark for the party. So much so that one wary Union minister was heard cross-checking with a muffler-wrapped journalist who approached him whether he was from the Aam Aadmi Party. It took some explanation to convince the minister that he (the journalist) was not from AAP but had merely wrapped his muffler over his ears to keep out the bone-chilling cold.

AAP fashion statement

This refers to the editorial "What Modi didn't say" (January 21). The biggest problem with the Modi economic outline is its one-sided elitism. Bullet trains, IITs and IIMs in all states and 100 smart cities, whatever that means, will not address the biggest issue of the poor earning power of the majority of Indians, which manifests itself in 30 per cent of the urban citizens living in slums, 50 per cent of Indian children being under-nourished and the abysmal condition of basic health, hygiene, education, public transportation and housing facilities. Poor buying power is the reason behind the need to transfer payments such as subsidies, and the failure of infrastructural public-private partnerships with a revenue model. India already produces more than sufficient number of engineers and management graduates. In fact, many such colleges are closing down. Even with that, there is a serious deficit of faculty. The Congress believed that a lack of earning capacity can be bridged by handout

Letters: Buying prowess matters

This refers to the report "RBI panel wants retail inflation as new policy benchmark" (January 22). There is nothing new about about the proposed Monetary Policy Committee since a similar committee reviews inflation in the UK and the US. The Urjit Patel committee talks only about retail inflation? What about food inflation? It has about 50 per cent weight in consumer price index. What about non-food, non-oil, manufacturing inflation? The government has an important role in controlling food inflation and to that extent the concept of retail inflation is out of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s ambit. The Urjit Patel committee appears to have re-defined the role of RBI itself by prioritising inflation targeting as the important function, and economic growth can come on its radar only when it achieves the inflation target. Although the RBI panel has attempted to re-draw the lines between RBI and the government, the real issue of retail inflation remains unsolved. As long as we have unbridl

Letters: RBI's role

Apropos Shyamal Majumdar's column "Labour pain in govt banks" (Human Factor, January 17) human resource management in public sector banks is a curious amalgam of negligence of, and capitulation to, the employee demands. An out-of-the-box job design plays a key role in many bank jobs since they are repetitive and dominated by strict procedures providing little room for variation or discretion. However, one continues to see a person updating pass books on a computer or distributing cash from morning to evening. To overcome the tedium the employees leave their stations every now and then and chat with colleagues or rush to the canteen. The victims are the customers waiting in a long queue. At the other end, the bank employees' unions and officers' associations keep extracting more benefits and pay by using the weapon of frequent strikes. Thus, government banks enjoy the most number of holidays in a year, and the average cost per employee in public sector banks is now higher than that for

Letters: Customary service

Shubhada Rao

However, in a courageous move, the RBI decided to maintain status quo by presciently citing reasons for the same

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 633 - Business Standard

Too grandiose a plan

Quality, not quantity

So prophetic?

Walking the talk

Out in the cold

Lettes: Promotion, not preservation

Lettes: Taxing it right

Lettes: Hitting the right notes

Lettes: Equilibrium equation

Students' Corner

Portal to efficiency?

The right noises

One R of education

Dharna is good business

AAP fashion statement

Letters: Buying prowess matters

Letters: RBI's role

Letters: Customary service

Diminishing compulsions for a rate hike: Subhada Rao

TCS leads IT upswing