Political fallout of US surveillance continued on Tuesday, as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff attacked it in the UN. In India, The Hindu  carried revelations of US spying

India among top 5 countries the US spies on

Business Standard

The vote share of national parties has come down. Even in 2009, the combined vote share of the Congress and the BJP, at 47.5 per cent, had declined by 1.2 per cent compared to 2004. This means the Indian democracy is no longer run by a majority's mandate. Will NOTA (none of the above) option with voters further reduce vote share of parties?

Someone save the majority mandate

Not for the first time, Lalit Modi trended on Twitter on Thursday, though not for the right reasons. On morning radio, Anant and Saurabh of Radio Mirchi read an open letter to him, showing his hold on popular imagination. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, or BCCI, fired a fresh salvo at Modi on Wednesday, expelling him "for life". The BCCI is itself under criticism for not  tackling a fixing scam that tainted President N Srinivasan's son-in-law, among others.

The Life and Times of Lalit Modi

The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the 2G spectrum scam, which gave a clean chit to PM Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was adopted by the government on Friday. The report, to be tabled in Parliament's winter session, differs on many counts with the draft Public Accounts Committee (PAC)'s report*, submitted in April 2011, that said the PM's Office and department of telecommunications (DoT) had "misled" PM on 2G spectrum allocation. A look at the two reports

The 2G maze

After six rounds of weekly pay-ins in a staggered settlement process, National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) has managed to recover just Rs 159.69 crore from its 24 so-called borrowers. This amounts to just 15 per cent of the targeted Rs 1,048 crore supposed to have been realised, according to the bourse's settlement calendar. The sum recovered amounts to less than three per cent of the total outstanding dues of the exchange. Only one of the borrowers, Sankhya Investments, has made pay-ins during each of the six weeks. Sankhya and Topworth Steels are ahead of the schedule, having paid more than their dues, while three entities-Tavishi, Spincot Textiles and NCS Sugars- did not pay even a single instalment. Business Standard looks at the NSEL books for you:

Miles to go..

A top Union minister actually granted an interview to a TV channel, defending the United Progressive Alliance's "convicted Neta" ordinance. He spoke at length on how the ordinance was necessary. The interview was recorded earlier and when Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi tore into his own government's ordinance, the TV channel intelligently played the minister's defence of it to show how much at odds with the party, its "netas" were. The minister first telephoned the interviewer, then one of the owners of the channel to browbeat them into withdrawing the interview. The journalists did not comply.

It's all about timing...

Bureaucrats are rarely excited by government schemes. So, when a senior government officer in Rajasthan was asked on how the ambitious food security Act was being implemented in his state, he refused to answer, and stated he was not in an examination hall. Instead, he complained that because of the Act, his health was deteriorating. On being questioned how, the officer replied, "My morning and evening walks have stopped ever since the state government brought an Ordinance to implement the provisions of this Bill." The Rajasthan government, with an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections, introduced an Ordinance in August. Since then, the officer said, he had to sit in office from eight-to-eight.

When Acts take a toll

The price of a tiger

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has often taken flack for running a company supposedly well past its glory days. The iPhone franchise is sometimes dismissed as a spent force, losing ground to more innovative brands such as Android and Samsung. Here's a different picture

Far ahead, still: iPhone sales eclipse Microsoft and Amazon revenues

The notification according recognition to MCX was not published in the Maharashtra state gazette, as required under FCRA, till 2012, whereas the exchange was functioning since 2003.  The aforesaid allegation is false. It is based on a concocted and wrong interpretation of statutory provisions; and is without any merit or substantiation.The crucial requirement under Forward Contract (Regulation) Act, 1952, ("FCRA"), is the grant of Recognition to an association and the publication of the Recognition in the Gazette of India, to legitimise its activities.MCX was granted recognition vide notification for recognition, published in the Central Gazette in Part II Section 3 Sub-Section (ii) of the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 26th September, 2003. It was also forwarded by the Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, New Delhi to the Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra with a request "that the Notification may be published in the State Government

Allegations false, concocted and without merit: MCX

Shielding criminal lawmakers an own goal by Congress

Unnecessary ordinance

On September 24, a day before its Annual general meeting, Financial Technologies (FTIL) told the exchanges that key resolutions are deferred.  One of the reasons given was that Deloitte Haskins & Sells, had some reservations about the audit report it had earlier given following the crisis in National Spot Exchange (NSEL), a key FTIL subsidiary. BS tells you what it is and what it is not.

Did you know? 10 facts about Deloitte's FT audit

No halfway house

From the looks of it, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is learning the tricks of the trade very quickly ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. As various poll results are being released to the press every other day projecting different parties as the winner, AAP has also decided to throw its hat in the ring. A recent survey conducted by the team of Yogendra Yadav shows that 41 per cent of Delhiites who were surveyed want the party to come to power. A party candidate confessed that while the AAP had conducted some polls earlier as well, since the numbers were not good enough they were never released to the press. Candid, we must say!

Poll position

Today, every company wants a strong social media presence. This can, however, prove counterproductive. As the news about  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banning the zero per cent interest rate scheme for the purchase of consumer goods was published on the Facebook pages of newspapers, an avid Facebook user simply tagged Bajaj Finserv Lending's official Facebook page to the news in the comments box without commenting any further. Well, the page handler might choose to ignore the news, but it is certainly difficult for the company management to ignore the RBI diktat.

Social media travails

"Now invest Rs 15 to Rs 17 lakh on an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and get a pay package of Rs 6 lakh only". Granted, such an ad will never attract a student to a business school, but this statement reflects the mood during the  placement season this year. If some media reports are anything to go by, this year, IIM Lucknow and Kolkata placed some of their students for not-so-attractive pay packages. Things were so bad that many students were forced to opt out of the placement programmes. By signing a document, a student can refuse to be a part of an IIM's placement procedure. You can well imagine what the placement scene at the non-IIM B-schools was like!

Best is not enough

This refers to the report, "On a path less travelled, in an auto-rickshaw" (Start-up Corner, September 23). One can always keep his fingers crossed about the success of the feeder service in the form of auto-rickshaws. But what is needed is a service when public transport systems such as BEST go on strike, or when there is a strike by auto-rickshaw unions. This could be a novel corporate social responsibility initiative if companies come together, including those who manufacture auto-rickshaws. It will be an emergency-response system, on the lines of disaster management service. Meanwhile, an unexpected development has taken place in Chennai. Auto-rickshaws have started charging commuters by meter again. Autos in Chennai never charged on meter, and one usually needed to bargain. Now, the state government has fixed new rates for autos, and for the first time in Chennai, one can find autos fitted with electronic digital meters and a global positioning system facility. They will also come

Letters: Hailing an auto-rickshaw

Apropos the editorial "Errors and exaggerations" (September 25), I want to submit that the editorial also suffers from the same errors and exaggerations that it is accusing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of. The increased share in Indian manufacturing output in Gujarat has been called deceptive by excluding the refineries of Reliance and Essar on the expansive logic that they are "import-intensive and resource-sensitive". There is no earthly ground why the refineries should be taken out. Just quoting the Economic and Political Weekly does not make any sense unless the arguments used there are also quoted. If economics is any consideration, then all manufacturing, whether it is potato chips or computer chips, count the same for the purpose of the gross domestic product.Sukumar Mukhopadhyay  New DelhiLetters 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

Letters: Output numbers

Apropos the editorial "Pleasing a vote bank" (September 26), the enthusiasm with which the central government (read finance ministry) has announced the new Pay Panel for its employees underscores its efforts to woo eight million (five million existing employees and the balance pensioners) voters. Employees know that the recommendations will be implemented after January 2016. But it would definitely benefit them by way of raise in basic, dearness allowance and other allowances, and even increments. Who is bothered about government finances? The finance ministry is working 24 hours to do whatever is required to please different vote banks. The approval of the Food Security Bill, issuing new bank licences etc, are all examples of its smart responses to the upcoming general elections in 2014.K V Rao  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

Business Standard

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Page 680 - Business Standard

India among top 5 countries the US spies on

Someone save the majority mandate

The Life and Times of Lalit Modi

The 2G maze

Miles to go..

It's all about timing...

When Acts take a toll

The price of a tiger

Far ahead, still: iPhone sales eclipse Microsoft and Amazon revenues

Allegations false, concocted and without merit: MCX

Unnecessary ordinance

Did you know? 10 facts about Deloitte's FT audit

No halfway house

Poll position

Social media travails

Best is not enough

Letters: Hailing an auto-rickshaw

Letters: Output numbers

Letters: Wooing the voters

The unfriendly eavesdropper