Banking transaction tax idea is poorly thought out

BJP's strange brainwave

Business Standard

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has got the established national parties in a tizzy after its unprecedented electoral success and both the Congress (which renders it outside support) and the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP (the Opposition) have been keeping a close watch on every step taken by AAP, ready to tear to shreds every wrong move the fledgling government makes.So when education minister Manish Sisodia announced they were in favour of 90 per cent reservation for Delhi students in Delhi University colleges which were fully funded by the state government, the Congress immediately declared that the decision revealed AAP's "anti-migrant mindset" and accused it of "harming Delhi's cosmopolitan character for narrow political gains". Ironically, this comes from a party that till not so long ago blamed migrants for every problem in the capital - from overcrowding to the rising crime graph - and started appeasing the migrant population only when they realised its potential as a vote bank.The BJ

Congress and BJP ready to pounce if AAP falters

Arvind Kejriwal and the limits of radical accountability

The crowd at the durbar

Coffers of political parties are ringing, courtesy India's corporate and business houses, suggests a latest study by the Association of Democratic Reforms. The study said around 87 per cent of all donations received by national political parties came from business or corporate houses

Donation box

People in India possibly spend more time with their mobile phones than their near and dear ones. Wherever one goes, one sees people, especially youngsters, hunched over their phones, lost in their own world. A recent survey by a telecom major has come up with some insights on what Indians are doing on their mobile phones. A sampler:

Mobile mania

A shift to research and higher quality is overdue

Indian pharma's challenges

This refers to Sukumar Mukhopadhyay's letter, "The definition of reform" (January 7), a rejoinder to A Seshan's article, "The dangers of 'tolerable' inflation" (December 27). There can be no quarrel with A Seshan's legitimate lament that there is no explicit definition of the term, "monetary stability" that figures in the preamble to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act. Popular usage, which covers various terms such as "reforms" and "policy paralysis", evolves over a period of time, and generally entails no confusion. However, a parliamentary Act stands on a different footing, and the need for precision and clarity in the language used cannot be overstated. In the absence of such clarity, "monetary stability" has apparently come to be interpreted as "price stability". It cannot be said that the author has opted for a policy of "rigid price stability". He clearly stated early on in the article that "a zero rate of inflation is not practicable or even desirable". Seshan's pertinent quest

Letters: Economic clarity?

Barun Roy in his column "And now, back to the future" (Asia File, January 9) has raised pertinent questions on the character of our democracy that has been taken hostage by self-serving politicians who have succeeded in exploiting the voters and grabbing power on the basis of identity vote banks of cast, community, religion, gender, and by promising quotas, subsidies and freebies to various vote banks. The Congress' massive defeat in the recently concluded Assembly elections shows that voters can no longer be fooled by such tactics. The Aam Aadmi Party has set the cat among the pigeons by pursuing a different kind of politics. However, it still seems too far for India to emerge as a classless and casteless democracy.M C Joshi,  LucknowLetters 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: Far-fetched democracy

This refers to A K Bhattacharya's column "Good politics, bad economics (New Delhi Diary, January 8). We need to understand that even though the intention of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is to safeguard the common man's interest, it is ultimately a political party desperately seeking more voters. The decision to provide free water and subsidise electricity has helped Arvind Kejriwal and his crew to garner more followers. Kejriwal is, at the moment, battling his conversion from an activist to an administrator. It is essential for both his party and for him to stay in the limelight till the upcoming general elections. The promise of a clean government alone won't enable him to stay in power and deliver the promises he made during the polls. After all, if freebies can flow in Tamil Nadu, then what is wrong in emulating this seasoned tactic in New Delhi.Vivek Mathai, AlappuzhaLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delh

Letters: AAP's motives

Insurance companies' extravagant claim about their pay-out promptitude has become something of a joke in the insurance industry too, if the remarks of a CEO of a private insurer are anything to go by. He was heard telling a joke to this effect at a recent insurance summit in Mumbai. When three insurers met, he said, one said his company pays claims within days of death. The second said his pays the claim at the funeral. To this, the third one replied that if one were to fall from the seventh floor of a building, the claim cheque would be handed to the person from the third floor.

Claims to die for

Not only has the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged as a credible "alternative" to mainstream politics and political parties, the party also believes in alternative strategies in dealing with key leaders of the Opposition. A senior AAP leader closely associated with formulating the party's policies said there are two ways to tackle Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. One, attack him on the 2002 Gujarat riots, as the Congress does. Or two, continue to do constructive things. "For us, the second option seems to have clicked," the party leader said, pointing to the huge response it is getting from Modiland.

AAP's Modi-fied strategy

Why aren't there many women in the top rungs of the retail sector? When he was asked this question, Future group chief executive Kishore Biyani thought briefly and then said, "Maybe we need more Kamaths in the retail sector." Biyani was referring to ICICI's K V Kamath (pictured) whose stint as executive chief of the bank saw the rise of many talented women bankers, from Chanda Kochhar, who heads the bank now, to Shikha Sharma (now heading Axis Bank) and Renuka Ramnath (who headed ICICI Ventures and now runs a PE fund), among others. Kamath was widely credited for creating conditions conducive for women to grow in the organisation.

More Kamaths, please

For a central bank which took four years and yet couldn't decide on whom to give a standard bank licence, expecting to ensure a bank account to all citizens in two years might sound a bit too much. While the Nachiket Mor committee recommendations are in the right direction to foster financial inclusion, its implementation within the specified time frame will be an uphill task. Business Standard spoke to five experts for their take on the panel's suggestions

Nachiket Mor panel report: Execution is key

Problems and possibilities of the national power grid

One India, lit up

Nachiket Mor panel's suggestions make a bold beginning

Ambition for inclusion

DRDO is the commonly recognised abbreviation for the government's key defence research body. But for officers of enforcement agencies, it holds an altogether different meaning. In their parlance, it refers to the fact that procedures that need to be followed for investigating government officials keep changing, depending on the rank of the official concerned. In this context, DRDO stands for "different rule for different officer," a senior officer quipped.

The other DRDO

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's press conference last week hit the headlines in almost all dailies, even though he did not say anything startlingly novel. No doubt, an explanation for the wide coverage can be found in the fact that this was only the third press conference by the prime minister in his 10 years in office. But Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari did not seem to have issues with Singh's underwhelming performance because he was delighted with the wide publicity for the event, which he moderated for the first time. He was happy enough, at any rate, to throw a thank-you party for officials and staff of the Press Information Bureau at the newly-inaugurated National Media Centre on Monday for their efforts in organising the conference.

Party line

With the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pointing to gaps in the Lok Pal Act, the infamous epithet of "caged parrot" - which is how the Supreme Court described the CBI - is being heard once again in government corridors. Pointing to the provisions in the Act that give powers to the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lok Pal itself to take the final call on filing charge sheets against an accused person, a senior enforcement agency official observed with irony, "There is just one parrot and so many cages wanting to keep it."

Multi-caged parrot

This refers to the report "Raju's baby reborn & growing even as those accused stay on bail" (January 7). It is not surprising that the Satyam Computer Services' scam case will linger on, and B Ramalinga Raju is on bail living the "good life". It's already five years since he was arrested. Even when they are convicted, the well connected can come out frequently on parole. It is the same case with other high-profile cases such as the Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum, coal allocation and other scams. Bernard Madoff was 71 years old when he was arrested for a similar Ponzi scheme in the US, in December 2008, and was convicted for 150 years by June 2009.H N Ramakrishna  BangaloreLetters 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

Letters: The parole game

This refers to the report "Modi as PM disastrous for nation" (January 4). The fact is that in the last four years, Manmohan Singh has played an indifferent innings when the economic growth rate slumped to about four per cent and corruption spiralled to shocking levels. Hence, a novice political party such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was able to make mincemeat of the Congress in the recent Assembly elections. It is natural for Singh to espouse Rahul Gandhi as the future prime minister of India. However, Gandhi has no experience in the government. If he was really sincere in his desire, he should have taken a ministry in the current government and delivered some results. To entrust this country, the world's largest democracy, to him, would be very asinine.Singh's deriding Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi was churlish. Till date, there is no concrete evidence or conviction against Modi that he abetted the riots in Gujarat. This allegation has become a handy tool to cast aspersions

Letters: Managing the nation

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:  Do you think smaller engineering institutes should pool together to weather slowdown during placements?

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