Fewer homeless people

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Aam Aadmi Party's next step must be into government

The fruits of success

Narendra Modi may be the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate and its most prominent leader, but it hasn't gone unnoticed how he was missing from most thank-you messages issued by his senior colleagues after the party's victories in the Assembly elections were announced. Party president Rajnath Singh thanked all the state leaders and party workers on Twitter - but didn't mention the party's national face, Modi. Sushma Swaraj, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and a long-time Modi foe, sent out a series of tweets thanking voters and cadre and leaders, and also did not mention Mr Modi. The BJP has argued that a "Modi effect" is visible in these elections - but it should perhaps start by persuading its own leaders of that?

BJP leaders' missing link

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley's entry to micro-blogging site Twitter has attracted a decent following of supporters and opponents alike. One unusual follower, though, was Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, with whom Jaitley recently had a fairly bitter feud over Article 370. Abdullah tweeted: "Good to see the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha here now, welcome to Twitter."

Welcome opposition

China attracts a lot of attention in India, especially in the oil and gas business. Both countries compete in acquisitions abroad but have tie-ups too. At the Eighth Asia Gas Partnership summit last week, it was a different story altogether. India delayed issuing a visa to Huang Weihe, vice-president, PetroChina Company, and other Chinese experts who wanted to take part in another event on the telecom industry. Huang was to be one of the speakers at a special session on the way forward for the Asian gas market. But without the Chinese participation, a way forward is difficult to gauge especially when India is going along with Japan in forming a special interest group on gas.

Visa power

Apropos the editorial "Emerging alternatives" (December 9), if the landslide victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is anything to go by, it is clear that the BJP is again emerging as a front runner in national politics. Ever since Narendra Modi was projected as their prime ministerial candidate, the Congress has been desperately trying to steal the show by making absurd statements, and that has worsened their credibility. From a high of 9.5 per cent a decade back, growth has slid to 5 per cent thanks to the inconsistent policies pursued by the United Progressive Alliance. The verdict is now clear that people are fed up with dirty politics, and want good governance.Srinivasan Umashankar  NagpurLetters 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: A verdict for governance

This refers to the report "Demographic dividend fast becoming a curse" (August 30). The views expressed by the author in the report, we are tempted to describe, are "feminine public altruism". The author says, "many (men) are single and sexually frustrated, as the sex ratio has been skewed for several decades". And that "there are about 37 million more men than women in India". According to the Census of India 2011, India's total population is 1.21 billion with a break-up of 623.72 million males and 586.47 million females. It does not mean 37.25 million "extra" men are "single and sexually frustrated".The author claims that a large body of social sciences research establishes a strong relationship between unemployment and the incidence of crime. However, the positive association between unemployment and crime, in general, and crime against women, in particular, has not been established the way it has between poverty and crime. Take, for example, Moninder Singh Pandher, who was the main

Letters: Men singled out

The Congress was on the back foot with the long shadows cast by United Progressive Alliance-II. The concluded polls reflect this and the sole beneficiary was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But the Aam Aadmi Party exposed the standing of the BJP by matching the saffron seats. This must be ominous for the Congress and the BJP since both now seem to face an organised third contender in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. There is also an opportunity for regional entities to also become a mature electoral group. Perhaps, we are seeing the end of cloak and dagger politics with its quid-pro-quo dispensation.R Narayanan  GhaziabadLetters 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: Cloak and dagger politics

CRISIL has analysed the performance of 9,200 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) based on their legal constitution during the year 2011-12 (refers to the financial year, April 1 to March 31). The analysis reveals that MSMEs operating as proprietorship concerns and partnership firms (referred to as 'firms') earn a higher return on capital employed (RoCE) then their corporate counterparts, largely private limited companies. Promoters of non-corporates largely deploy their funds in their business as unsecured debt, and therefore CRISIL has considered RoCE rather than return on equity (RoE) for this analysis.CRISIL's analysis reveals that firms had lower operating profit (OPBDIT) margin of 6.30 per cent during 2011-12 as against 7.91 per cent for corporates. However, the firms registered higher RoCE of 16.94 per cent compared with 15.04 per cent for corporates. Firms have significantly lower average capital employed of '426 lakh as on March 31, 2012 as against '1,567 lakh for corpo

Return on capital: Non-corporates have an edge over corporates in MSME sector

A price index for agri commodities: A Business Standard and Indicus Analytics initiative

Indicus price monitor

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

Case study

At the recently concluded world trade talks in Bali, what was at stake? First, look at the current patterns of Indian and world trade. Table 1 shows the top four importers and India for various product and service categories. (If India is one of the top five, then top five are shown.) What is notable is the categories in which India is minuscule as an exporter - for example high-tech semiconductors and manufactures in general. Commercial services, too, see a tiny Indian presence, but it is second in IT services export.A majority of India's exports, as Table 2 shows, go to other Asian countries. Not all of this could be for final demand, suggesting that India perhaps is becoming integrated into regional supply chains - exactly what the "trade facilitation" agenda at Bali was supposed to further enable. Notably, as Table 3 shows, Indian exports are beginning to see a slight uptick overall, so trade reform comes at a crucial time.Trade facilitation, the Bali agenda said, will not provide

StatsGuru: Making sense of the global trade debate at Bali

The results have shown the importance of leadership in securing the interest of a state and pushing forward governance at the state level

An important signal, but reforms have already begun: Mark Mobius

Markets in the near term are likely to remain volatile after an initial bust after the election results

Contra investment strategy to work better than momentum investing: Nilesh Shah

The new governments in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan will have to live up to people's expectations

Strong winds of change: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

How is a mutual fund (MF) investment transferred if the first holder passes away?If the MF investment is a joint investment, it is transferred to the second holder. If it is not a joint investment, the nominee or the legal heir of the first holder of the investment gets to decide whether to continue or redeem it.Is this norm applicable to all types of funds?No, the above procedure does not apply to an equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS). ELSS comes with a three-year lock-in for both lumpsum and systematic investment plans. In case of the death of the first holder, the lock-in is reduced. If ELSS units get transferred, the lock-in gets reduced to one year. So, the nominee or the legal heir will have to wait for one year before selling the units.

Tipping point

About three months earlier, I moved to Mumbai. I got my new residential address and mobile number updated across all banks I hold accounts with. However, one private bank with whom I have a savings account and a home loan account is giving me a lot of grief over address updation. The bank has updated the address for the loan account by accepting my rent agreement as proof. However, for the savings account they refuse to accept the same. And it has no explanation for this. Because of this I can't apply for a new debit card, which has expired and if applied will go to the old address. How do I get my work done? According to RBI guidelines, a rent agreement indicating the address of the customer, duly registered with state government or similar registration authority, is a valid address proof. I suggest you meet your branch manager and explain the problem. I am sure he will be able to resolve this problem. In case you do not get a resolution, you can always approach the banking ombudsman

Banking:  Prashant Joshi

Bureaucrats in Chhattisgarh were eagerly awaiting the Assembly election results in five states - but not for signals of which party will form the next government at the Centre at next year's general elections. They are merely eager for the exercise to be over so that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) can refocus its attention to the issue of extending the retirement age of officials from the all-India service from 60 years to 62. The careers of the three top officials in the state hang on this decision - Chief Secretary Sunil Kumar, Director General of Police Ramniwas and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dheerendra Sharma. All three are due to retire between January and February 2014. State government officials have been granted the extension already. The file on extending the retirement age for all-India service officials was returned once by the PMO, but has now been sent back to it. Officials expect some sort of decision now that the file is back with the PMO, but that can onl

Result-oriented bureaucrats

Is there a connection between economic gloom and doom and the marriage market? A recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) certainly suggests that. According to a recent IAMAI report, the uploading of matrimonial ads grew more than 200 per cent in October to 2.49 million over the same month the previous year. On the other hand, the number of resume uploads dipped to 1.50 million in October 2013 against 1.60 million in October 2012. Of course, this data precedes the traditional big wedding season but the huge differential says much about the state of the job market.

Situations vacant

Emerging alternatives

At Bali, conditional victory for Indian interests

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