Iran deal has important implications for the region

A landmark agreement

Business Standard

Lessons of 26/11 have been learnt, but not fully implemented

Five years of delay

It is not just within India that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has become well known for his inexplicable studied silences on matters of national controversy. He appears to have acquired an international reputation on this score as well. A recent meeting of the Indian diaspora in Singapore had a compere jokingly request the audience to turn their phones to "Manmohan Singh mode" ahead of the speeches. No one had to think twice before turning their phones to "silent" mode.

The sounds of silence

Language wasn't the only barrier at Mitra's press conference. He was keen to talk about the theme of West Bengal Day - inclusive growth - and declined to take questions on anything other than that subject. Apart from claiming that industrial growth in the state was faster than the national average in the April-August period, he added that West Bengal's own tax collections in this period were the second-highest among the states. Which was the highest state, came the obvious question. "That is for you to look up on the web," Mitra shot back, unwilling to divulge even this basic information.

I, me and my state

Amit Mitra, finance minister of West Bengal, appears to have acquired a language barrier within just a few years away from the capital. In his earlier avatar as a prominent office bearer of an industry lobby in New Delhi, he had routinely addressed the press in English. But attending a press conference in New Delhi on the eve of West Bengal day, he chose to greet the press in Bengali but promised to translate his Bengali comments into English for the conference. The need for this bilingual format was hard to fathom since there was a sizeable contingent of non-Bengali reporters present. Indeed, as the presser proceeded, Mitra slipped so deep into "Bengali" mode that he forgot to translate into English. After almost half the proceedings were over, someone pointed this out, to which Mitra reverted saying, "Oh yes, keep reminding me about that."

Telling omission

In his article "India's frontiers: A razor's edge" (November 23) Deepak Lal has failed to understand Nehru's and a newly independent India's core strategy. With Europe's decline after World War II, the US and the Soviet Bloc remained the only major powers. It was clear even then that China and India were great powers of the future.A newly independent India understandably did not want to become a vassal to either the US or the USSR and wanted to be friends with China. This policy was sound then, and is even sound now. Look at Manmohan Singh's recent statement "When China and India shake hands the whole world watches".When China began to consolidate its hold on Tibet, the Dalai Lama understandably fled to India. With its liberal traditions India could hardly refuse asylum to the Dalai Lama. This was naturally seen as a threat by China. The 1962 war resulted from China's need to secure Tibet by pre-empting any Indian attack, possibly reinforced by supporters of the Dalai Lama.Now, with Ti

Letters: China is no threat

This refers to the editorial "Empty think tanks" (November 24). India does not have a practice of leaving behind historical records and treatises like other societies. Historical events are often turned into enduring myths in which facts and fantasy are merged. Our historical source records are what others have left behind such as the various Mughal-Namas, travelogues, British publications on history, and after independence and the Marxist interpretations of India' history. Several histories have been written on India but the best of them have been the one's written by foreigners such as A L Basham, Arnold Toynbee, Will Durant, Stella Kramrisch and Wendy Doniger. Such eminent historians have a sympathetic and unbiased approach, and do extensive investigation.Our "historians" are subjective and often display a political slant to the events of the day or, for that matter, even our ancient history.H N Ramakrishna  BangaloreLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business S

Letters: Historical value

This refers to T N Ninan's column "Reinvent state-owned banks" (Weekend Ruminations, November 23). The author's call to public sector banks (PSBs) to reinvent themselves by changing their culture of functioning is appropriate. But the moot question is: can they do it? Would their political boss give permission? The ills of PSBs can be traced in large part to their parentage. The author's comparison of PSBs and their private sector counterparts reminded me of the banks' exposure to Kingfisher Airlines. ICICI Bank washed off its exposure by transferring it to Srei Infrastructure Finance, even as the State Bank of India struggled with the airline.PSBs have been used by the government for enriching its interests. Come elections and there will be further interference. We can already see that with the finance ministry asking PSBs to write off farm loans of more than Rs 70,000 crore in 2008. PSBs can only be set free when the government's ownership gets diluted to minority.K V Rao  BangaloreL

Letters: PSBs woes

CRISIL has analysed the sales and employee cost as compared to the total employee strength of 9,200 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing and service sectors for 2011-12 (refers to financial year, April 1 to March 31).The analysis reveals that MSMEs in the manufacturing sector utilised their manpower in a more productive manner than their counterparts in the service sector, despite the fact that cost per employee was almost the same in both sectors.The average output per employee in the manufacturing sector was Rs 27.52 lakh, as against manpower cost of Rs 1.04 lakh per employee. In comparison, the average output per employee in the service sector was Rs 19.10 lakh, as against manpower cost of Rs 1.05 lakh per employee.This trend in employee output arises from the fact that manufacturing enterprises generally have much higher investment in production assets than service enterprises with a similar-sized workforce. Production assets build scale and the ability

Manufacturing MSMEs have higher employee output

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

Indicus price monitor

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

Case study

Budget: Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore Business Standard brings you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in a price range of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 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

The sugar mill industry has long complained about the impact of politics on its sustainability. This is in spite of the fact that, after a hiccup a few years ago, it seems to be doing well enough in terms of production and of acreage under sugarcane, as Table 1 suggests. However, mills point out that the baseline price the Centre recommends mills pay farmers for sugarcane has increased sharply in the past 10 years, as Table 2 shows. Worse, from their point of view, in recent years, some states have sharply increased their own "state-advised" prices for sugarcane, as Table 3 shows. This has clearly stressed mills, particularly in Uttar Pradesh. It is true that the Centre's price is a less significant proportion of the ex-mill price in UP than in, say, Maharashtra, as Table 4 shows. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and listed sugar-mill firms have seen a precipitous decline in after-tax profit margins, as Table 5 shows; and are increasingly unable to pay the farmers they ar

StatsGuru-25-November-2013

Today, Managing Director of Experian Credit Information Company, Mohan Jayaraman answers your questionsI lost my job recently and I am in the middle of repaying my home loan, taken two years ago, which means a majority of repayment is yet to be made. I am sure I will get another job soon but I don't know when. How should I convince my bank?It is absolutely essential that as a responsible borrower, you report the drop in overall family earnings in advance to all your lenders, not just the bank from whom you have taken a home loan. If you let your lender know about your change in circumstances as soon as possible, they should be able to help. They do not want the expense and bother of chasing you for repayments or, in extreme cases, taking you to court. They would much rather find a way of helping you out. Getting a copy of your credit information report will help you remember all the lenders you need to contact. Your report will also help you to understand how your liabilities compared

Debt Counseling: Mohan Jayaraman

sexual harassment

Business Standard takes stock of India Inc's track record when it comes to living up to the letter and spirit of regulations governing sexual harassment at the workplace

Corporate India on slippery ground

Public sector enterprises are still denied autonomy

The Holy Grail

The VAT lesson

Cracks have begun appearing in the National Spot Exchange Ltd investor community as the fight to retrieve their investments drags on into the fifth month. Even as the investor forum has issued an appeal to its members to pay 0.2 per cent of their investments towards legal and other costs of running the forum, some members have begun circulating links of blogs that show that a senior functionary of the forum was involved in the 2G telecom spectrum scam and was even arrested by investigative agencies. If proved true, this could be a body blow for the forum.

Self goals

Chennai-based Arvind Datar's multilingual skills came to the fore on Thursday when he read out the registration documents of a critical 106-acre plot in Versova issued by Zilla Adhikari of Borivali. The documents, critical in the case between the Securities and Exchange Board of India and Sahara, made it clear that the plot was registered for a value of Rs 118 crore after deducting a 30 per cent abatement. "Oh, you can read Marathi?" the surprised judge commented. It turns out Datar is a Maharashtrian settled in Chennai.

Language skills

Election observers deputed by the Election Commission of India to conduct free and fair elections in Chhattisgarh found themselves under observation by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This was after the state's public works minister Brijmohan Agrawal quipped that the election observers appeared to be acting like players for the Congress rather than as impartial umpires by involving themselves in matters outside their remit. The proximate cause for this allegation was that one of them attended the press conference of a senior BJP leader at the party's state headquarters and took notes of the proceedings, just like a reporter. The observer had attended the press conference to monitor how much the party was spending on refreshments and snacks offered to journalists, and the BJP leaders realised who he was only after he had left.

Observers under observation

Bruce Nussbaum

How do you define 'Creative Intelligence,' or 'CQ'?A few years ago I was at a conference on innovation and design thinking at Stanford's Institute of Design. Bill Burnett, who heads up Stanford's design programme, said something that really resonated with me: "We have GREs and SATs to measure math, verbal and writing scores; but we don't even attempt to measure creativity." That got me thinking: what if we could develop a methodology to assess an individual's Creative Intelligence (CQ)?I started talking to some of the most creative people I know about how we might assess creativity. First up was (former) Rotman dean Roger Martin, who was among the first to bring design thinking into a business school setting. He offered some simple advice: "Do what Juilliard does," he said. "Look at students' portfolios, and then test them on their performance."Next I spoke to Tim Brown of IDEO, who described the very similar approach that IDEO uses for hiring people. Like Juilliard, they begin by look

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