With 37% of urban Indian voters active online, there's little doubt that internet is going to play a crucial role in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections

Netizens gazing at the poll star

Business Standard

Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily grabbed the headlines today through his unique campaign for fuel conservation by travelling on public transport every Wednesday. He had asked all oil ministry officials and public sector staff to do the same. After taking the metro to work today, the minister told a bunch of journalist, "I have specifically asked my driver not to take the car out of the garage. If he does so, then, even I may fall to the temptation of using it some time during the day."

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Whatever your opinion of him, TV anchor Arnab Goswami has managed to embed himself in popular culture. Thus, the Kaun Banega Crorepati quiz show on Sony, where Indians, young and old, test their general knowledge skills, actually asked a contestant to name the television news anchor who says: "The nation wants to know," which is Goswami's trademark sentence. The four options given were the usual suspects but the contestant eventually got it right. That apart, online retailer Flipkart has come out with a spoof advertisement featuring Goswami. The show in the advertisement is called - what else - "India Wants to Know".

Who wants to know?

The government may have been unsuccessful in trying to overturn the Supreme Court's judgment barring tainted politicians from contesting elections. But its chosen route of introducing an ordinance seems to have had an impact on the judiciary all the same. The government recently filed a petition requesting a modification of an order on the issue of making Aadhaar mandatory for people availing of government services. When the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, the Supreme Court did not change its stance on the issue despite persistent arguments from the government's lawyers. Instead, the bench hearing the matter took a dig at the government by suggesting that it could take the ordinance route on this issue as well.

Ordinance by default

This refers to the report "SC sticks paper trail to voting machines" (October 9). While we welcome the apex court's order, is it really an economically-viable option for free and fair elections? The estimated cost for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is Rs 10,000 crore and this new provision means an addition of Rs 1,500 crore to the election budget. Moreover, it's an additional burden on the electronic voting machines that will now require more battery and paper to print the receipts. In a phased manner, if we can link the voter's cell phone to the election process, paper receipts can be substituted by an SMS acknowledging their vote. This will serve the purpose and reduce the cost considerably.Vivek George  KeralaLetters 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 SMS option

The editorial "Depoliticise tariffs" (October 8) has recommended the setting up of an independent regulator for railways. But whether it could solve the problem of the railways remains doubtful. Currently, the railways needs better safety, security, and maintenance. It also needs to focus on the convenience and comfort of passengers.These issues may be well served by creating a separate fund. Modernising the railways is a continuous process that needs money and an administrative mechanism to look after it.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

Letters: Railways revamp

There has been ample discussion among experts and commentators on the potential repercussions of the US defaulting on its debt. It may dampen the macroeconomic sentiment in terms of employment and output, cause a flight of capital from the US (and possibly Europe) to emerging markets, raise the premium on Treasury interest rates, worsening the budget deficit, and harm world exports.These fears, however, are overrated for two reasons. First, there is no precedent. The Treasury has never before failed during a debt-limit impasse to meet a payment obligation and it seems unlikely that the officials presiding over the current debt scenario will allow for a situation that may have worse ramifications for the US economy than the 2008 financial crisis. Second, a 2012 report by the Treasury's Office of Inspector General considered two likely options in case the Treasury exhausts its borrowing authority and cash to pay all the bills. It can either prioritise payments (laying special emphasis on

Letters: Debt default unlikely

World Education Services (WES) aims to help institutions develop effective and informed international enrolment strategies through understanding of student segments. International students are subdivided into 4 segments - strivers, strugglers, highfliers and explorers - based on academic preparedness and financial resources. WES examined how these segments differ by level of education and by source countries  in terms of their information-seeking behaviour, and suggests strategies for effective outreach. WES research suggests institutions using or considering using agents need to better understand the behaviour of students that rely on their services and take pro-active steps to ensure their relationship with agents is transparent to students.

Student segmentation for effective international enrolment strategy

Need for a new states reorganisation commission

Lessons from Hyderabad

RBI starts taking liquidity measure back to July

Returning to normal

The conviction of Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Rs 950-crore fodder scam redeems our faith in the otherwise putrid crime and punishment system. This shows that there is a need of honest bureaucrats such as Commissioner Amit Kumar Jha (who smelt a rat in the fodder business); investigating officers such as Upendranath Biswas, his teammate Samir Ranjan Majumder; prosecutors such as B M P Singh (special Central Bureau of Investigation public prosecutor) and upright judges such as Pravas Kumar Singh (CBI Judge) to trace the powerful culprits, put them on trial and punish them.We can imagine the kind of allurement and intimidation (including threat to life) these people must have been subjected to. In fact, in the beginning of the investigation in 1996, an effort was made to derail the investigation when Biswas' report was diluted; but he took courage to highlight the fact in the high court to set the course right. The verdict also reminds us that we still have capable public servants in all the

Letters: Capable public servants

The editorial "Marketing, not hoarding" (October 1) sums up the reasons for the recent surge in onion prices. It is not the failure of the United Progressive Alliance or the opposition-ruled states but a total failure of the state and government machinery regardless of which party is in power. Consider this: the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED)'s offer, in June 2013, to store onions at its cold-storage complex at Nashik to be accessed during the lean season, went begging. Two months before onion prices touched Rs 70 to 80 a kg, states were warned of an impending spike in rates and offered the option of booking stocks in advance at a modest market rate of Rs 15.50 a kg at the onion hub of Nashik but no state government responded. NAFED usually levies 2 per cent as administrative charges. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has a radiation processing plant in Nashik (technology demonstration plant) designed to process 10 tonnes of onions an hour. Built in 2005

Letters: Onion problem

This refers to the report "Looking for investment with a difference? Buy yourself an ATM" (October 7). It is reported that high net-worth individuals (HNIs) are considering buying ATM space as an investment opportunity. Rural India needs to take a cue from this and our high population/high net worth gram panchayats should also own such space and offer it to banks to install ATMs. To further motivate the banks, panchayats could lease an ATM from the companies and offer wet lease to banks, making the installation of ATMs a reality in a large number of bigger and richer villages. Since the government wants the payment of MNREGA wages through bank accounts, the ministry of rural development (MoRD) could subsidise such panchayat-owned ATMs. This would also help the cause of rural financial inclusion. Also, the MoRD could consider a pilot scheme for such panchayat ATMs in coordination with the ministry of finance.Y P Issar, KarnalLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Busine

Letters: Panchayat-owned ATMs

It is not everyday that the bureaucracy has the upper hand over corporate lawyers. But at least one bureaucrat briefly enjoyed that feeling at a recent industry-government meeting on the Companies Act in the capital. A storied corporate lawyer was speaking eloquently about the hidden land mines in the new law. A senior bureaucrat sitting next to him on the dais suddenly cut him short, saying curtly, "We have already revised the rules. You seem to be referring to earlier draft rules." The lawyer conceded the case to the bureaucrat, admitting that he may have down-loaded the old draft in a hurry.

One up

The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi rarely misses an opportunity to take a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or other Congress leaders. Last week, however, he decided to take a break from this practice and crack a joke at the expense of Gujaratis instead. Arguing for a more aggressive policy in the tourism sector, Modi said, "Gujaratis are the best tourists." As the audience laughed, Modi added, "Go to any five-star hotel anywhere in the world, you will find a 'kemcho' with his lunchbox eating dhokla."

Laughing matter

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi recently told a meeting of dalit leaders and students that the biggest problem with the community is lack of leaders which has been exploited by people such as Mayawati. Exhorting his party men to let leaders from the grass roots emerge as true champions of the dalits, Gandhi urged the Congress workers to look for such sons of soil. What he probably overlooked was that the two prominent dalit faces in the Congress who shared the dais with him didn't have any link to grass-root politics. One was chairman of the National Commission for SC/ST and former IAS officer P L Punia, the other was Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer and former secretary of the National Advisory Council, K Raju.

Uprooted

Depoliticise tariffs

Unmaking monetary policy

With roughly six months to go for the general elections, the lame-duck nature of the current government was sharply underlined at a recent meeting between Minister of Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot and industry representatives to discuss the newly passed Companies Act, 2013. Pointing to the problem of overlapping control by the various financial sector regulators and the ministry, industry veteran and Chairman of Bajaj Auto Rahul Bajaj kindly told an embarrassed Pilot, "I understand, you cannot do much on these issues. I should perhaps take them up with the finance minister or better with the new government." Talk about inconvenient truths.

Auto Pilot

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan may not have an official twitter account but someone has set up a parody account on the microblogging site under the handle The Governator that has a modest following of 3,000-odd and some mildly amusing tweets. The CV reads: "RBI Governor. Hottest man in the Delhi-Mumbai bureaucracy corridor." After Deutsche Bank awarded Rajan its 2013 Prize for Financial Economics late last month, one of the tweets read, "Hey Deutsche Bank, thanks for the award and all. But don't worry, you aren't getting away from any rural lending targets". Another said if he had known that it rains so hard in Mumbai, he would have never taken the governor's job. Yet another said he was removing Maharashtra from the list of most developed states for the disruptions caused after the rains, an oblique reference to the report of a panel headed by Rajan that recommended a controversial multi-dimensional index to determine the backwardness of states.

* The Governator *

Ministers and their bureaucrats rarely agree on policy and a small example of this was on display at a conference hopefully titled "Development of Indian Mining Industry - The Way Forward", organised by industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Minister of Mines Dinsha Patel was supposed to deliver the inaugural address but was unable to attend at the last minute. So, Arun Kumar, joint secretary in the ministry, who was scheduled to chair a session afterwards, was requested to fill in. Kumar obliged but right at the start he firmly clarified that he was not there to read out Patel's prepared speech or convey his thoughts. "Whatever I will say will be in my personal capacity though I happen to be the joint secretary," he announced.

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