US snooping and Indian response both shocking

The unfriendly eavesdropper

Business Standard

The race for a permanent chairman of the Railway Board is getting nastier and more petty by the day. Insiders said a section of the senior officers' association is deeply discontented after an investigation was re-opened against a retired officer solely on account of factional feud between various camps. The case relates to the purchase of, of all things, perfume dispensers for railway coaches and was closed both by the Central Vigilance Commission and Central Bureau of Investigation but was re-opened just to kill the chance of one of the contender for the top job in the Indian Railways.

Raising a stink

News of the joint venture between the Tata group and AirAsia was leaked to the media almost as soon as the application was filed and the documents, too, were freely available. Not so with the Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture. That news was disseminated via a company press release. The difference lay in the manner in which the applications were filed. The first application was filed in a hard copy and since the department of civil aviation demands 12 or 13 copies it was all too easy for a leak to occur. With Tata-SIA, the application was filed online and the Tata group also set out most (but not all) of the information in a press release at the same time. Online filing makes leaks difficult since they are easy to trace electronically. Of course, that did not mean the application stayed online within the ministry - but it took three or four days after the announcement for the documents to come out in the open.

Hard facts

The Right to Information Act is one of the various initiatives for which the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) likes to take credit. But Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh frankly admitted to journalists in Ahmedabad that it had become a "noose" for the party, an oblique reference to the alleged scams that the Congress is facing. "There have been six milestones under the rights-based approach to development by the UPA, and the RTI Act in 2005 was the first. There is no second opinion that RTI is Congress' contribution. We were the only political party in 2004 to say in manifesto that we would bring in RTI if voted to power. However, RTI has now become a noose around our neck. Despite this, we won't discontinue that Act, because RTI has brought in a revolution in administration," he said. True, but it could be said that the other rights-based laws are nooses for the next government.

Noose talk

The recent proposal by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion to permit 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the Indian Railways is a step in the right direction. The resulting investments will hopefully enable the railways to inch closer to fulfilling its potential fund requirement of approximately Rs 8.4 lakh crore as estimated in the 12th Five Year Plan.I hope that this proposal, if and once implemented, serves as a precursor to instituting markedly higher private sector participation in the Railways in the future. Currently, the Indian Railways has an implicit disincentive in providing efficient services owing to its distinct business model, which is fundamentally uneconomic in nature. Under the pretext of enabling inclusive growth, it tries to maintain artificially low prices at the cost of sacrificing revenues, growth, and innovation.There is a need for a stronger, market-based railways model that will ensure greater private sector involvement. This model will h

Letters: Privatise railways

This refers to the editorial "Keeping Aadhaar" (September 25). The passport and permanent account number (PAN) were designed as single purpose identity vehicles and yet the sheer number and geographical spread for securing them, entailed decades to streamline their delivery with highest levels of data fidelity. The Aadhaar was weak on two counts: the number was much higher than the passport and PAN put together and effective delivery was expected in less than half a decade even as it was prematurely loaded with catering to the refund of commodity/utility prices etc. Such overloading will continue unless the Aadhaar stage-I goal and time frame get fixed. Meanwhile, the PAN could offer a temporary platform for direct benefits transfer. Else, an overloaded Aadhaar will discover greater disillusionment.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

Letters: A temporary platform

This refers to the editorial "Keeping Aadhaar" (September 25). The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has misled the government by making it believe that in a country with 48 per cent illiteracy, a 16-digit card would be helpful in reaching the poor. The failure, if we can say so, could be to acknowledge the possibility of migration of the population in search of livelihood. The UID enrolment process has been a challenge for handicapped and disabled citizens. By conveniently ignoring this section of the population and making Aadhaar mandatory for all, the government is denying their rights to avail subsidies and make a living.Vivek George  AlappuzhaLetters 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: Better reach

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think an external peer review and accreditation of IITs will help better their performance?

Student's corner

Narendra Modi should worry about fact-checking

The Unique Identification Scheme,managed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, got a body blow on Monday when the SC ruled it was not mandatory to have an Aadhaar card. Its chequered run:

A problem of identity: The Aadhaar Story

This refers to the report "FM in war of words with BJP leaders over growth rate" (September 24). The problem can be sorted out if the correct procedure is followed. There are three measures of central tendency, viz. mean, median and mode. Mean has three sub-divisions - arithmetic mean (AM), geometric mean (GM) and harmonic mean, each tailored to a specific context. What we call in common parlance as the average is the AM, which is arrived at by adding the figures in a series and dividing them by their number. While normally it works, for variables such as growth rate the right procedure is to compute the GM because of the changing bases. The correct position for the gross domestic product growth rates (GM) is given below in relation to what the finance minister has stated.It appears that P Chidambaram's staff gave him the AMs (rounded off to one decimal) and not the GMs. The figures underlying the growth rates are humongous, so, even a second decimal change can make a lot of difference

Letters: GDP growth rates

Keeping Aadhaar

At the India Infrastructure Summit organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a session on railways development was attended by the heavy hitters - the managing directors of the Dedicated Freight Corridor and Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Railway Board chairman, among others. Each made passionate claims about how these projects could transform India's growth, which may well be true, but it was a short speech by World Bank Representative Ben Eijbergen that could be construed as a reality check. "You have freight trains running in India at the speed of 25 km an hour. That's like a bicycle in the Netherlands!"

India's cycle of growth

Several confession statements are floating around after the National Spot Exchange went bust on account of being unable to settle investor trades. While some confessions are against junior employees, other confessions are against the senior officials. Interestingly, all confessions absolve the board officials and the promoters and investor groups are abuzz with talk about the sum of money for which each confession has been bought.

'Confessions' for a price?

Atal Bihari Vajpayee set the trend with his famous vote-canvassing exercise via pre-recorded messages sent to phones ahead of the 2004 general elections. Now Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal has gone one step ahead and started sending recorded messages to both landlines and mobiles listing the misdeeds of the ruling Congress party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the national capital. A senior AAP member said one such call even went to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Her immediate reaction was not recorded.

Phoning it in

The general elections in 2014 are like nothing before, except perhaps the one just after the Emergency in 1975. The stakes are high and the electoral process must be robust and free from interference. A lot of misgivings have been expressed about the electronic voting machines (EVMs). What we need is a system that cannot be tampered with at the polling booth or subsequently where the EVMs are held in custody. Why not think of a web-based client server application? Today, with touch screens, the voter can see the picture as well as the symbol of the candidates. The voting process would be much more simpler and safer this way. Further, the Aadhaar can be made compulsory for a voter. The fingerprint reader as well as the iris scanner can ensure that the right person is voting and that no votes are duplicated.T R Ramaswami  MumbaiLetters 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

Letters: Elections and EVMs

The editorial "No more feuding" (September 24) shows the vertiginous decline in the political authority in the defence services. A K Antony has the dubious distinction of being our longest-serving defence minister, but his tenure has been lacklustre. Antony is known for his incorruptible record, but is not seen as a particularly decisive minister, preferring to delay rather than take decisions. No movement forward has been recorded on the serious issue of modernisation as well. After spending $46.1 billion, India ranks 8th in the list of the top 15 countries in terms of defence spending, based on data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. China, with $166 billion, is the second-largest spender after the US. The defence chiefs were earlier part of the Cabinet Committee on Security. Now they are invited only sporadically. Their participation has thus, dwindled leading to a further disconnect with the civilian arm of the government.M M Gurbaxani  BangaloreLette

Letters: Defence disconnect

Four of the five states/Union territories going to polls in the coming months have seen a host of inaugurations and stone-laying ceremonies by their respective chief ministers

Of votes and Inaugurations

Sebi has allowed foreign investors to invest directly (on tap) in Indian debt till the utilisation limit reaches90 per cent. The move will enable foreign institutional investors (FIIs) more flexibility for fund allocation and timing investments. Earlier, FIIs had to purchase permits to invest in debt. FIIs are allowed to invest $25 billion in government debt, excluding $5 billion meant for sovereign wealth funds, and $51 billion in corporate debt. Although, the government has taken a lot of initiatives, including removal of various sub-limits, to ensure overseas investors are attracted towards the debt market, experts believe FIIs may not lap up the available limits in a hurry. The FII investment outlook remains mixed, say analysts. Receding downgrade fears and the deferment of QE tapering could be positives, while the increase in repo rate and concerns surrounding further rate hikes could play spoilsport.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 681 - Business Standard

The unfriendly eavesdropper

Raising a stink

Hard facts

Noose talk

Letters: Privatise railways

Letters: A temporary platform

Letters: Better reach

Student's corner

Narendra Modi should worry about fact-checking

A problem of identity: The Aadhaar Story

Letters: GDP growth rates

Keeping Aadhaar

India's cycle of growth

'Confessions' for a price?

Phoning it in

Letters: Elections and EVMs

Letters: Defence disconnect

Of votes and Inaugurations

Tapping investment limit no life-and-debt matter for FIIs

The Merkel effect