Here's a look at what transpired over the era of rock-bottom interest rates and three rounds of aggressive 'quantitative easing':

Taper tiger: Charting the QE era

Business Standard

According to a Times Now-C Voter opinion poll on the coming Assembly elections in four states, the Bharatiya Janata Party is seen retaining power in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while it could wrest Rajasthan from the Congress by winning a majority of seats. In Delhi, the battle could be closely-contested, with the Congress and BJP winning an almost equal number of seats and the Aam Aadmi Party putting up a surprise good show. The Hindustan Times-C Fore survey, on the other hand, forecasts the Congress' return to power in Delhi, as AAP spoils the party for BJP

BJP may sweep three states: poll

At the press conference after the mid-quarter review, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said the emphasis was on maintaining the internal stability of the rupee that should ensure it externally also. I am not sure of this. This view is a hangover from the days of the purchasing power parity theory when the current account decided the exchange rate. Today, it is the capital account that dominates the balance of payments where hot money flows, of the type we see in the case of foreign institutional investors, have a significant influence on the determination of the rate irrespective of domestic inflation. We have seen it in India and elsewhere also.A Seshan  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@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Capital account counts

This refers to the report "Controversy over N-liability law ahead of PM's US visit" (September 20). The government should not bypass the Atomic Energy Commission for signing any contract with a US company engaged in nuclear energy. The prime minister staked his government on the Indo-US nuclear deal, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) withdrew its support from the coalition government. And now, the government wants to circumvent a crucial law that makes a foreign supplier liable for a nuclear disaster. India does not need a nuclear deal with the US since we have rich resources to run nuclear plants and the fast breeder nuclear reactors do not need imported uranium. The US itself has not built any new nuclear electricity plant for more than three decades. So, why should India spend precious foreign exchange on import of uranium since the value of rupee has declined vis-a-vis the dollar? Instead, the government should focus on solar power because it is a clean source of energy, a

Letters: Solar power

Among the measures taken by the government to stabilise onion prices last week were an increase in the export floor price (by $250 a tonne to $900) and a stern warning to hoarders. Business Standard brings you the low-down on India's onion production, export and price scenario:

The onion diaries

Ever since Narendra Modi (pictured) was declared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate, his barbs directed at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance have only increased. Countering him at every step has been Union minister Kapil Sibal. Sibal has even gone ahead and coined the epithet, "nirantar virodhi" (constant opponent) to describe Modi. Speaking to reporters, Sibal questioned what "nirantar virodhi's" alternative vision for the country was since he (Modi) and his party, the BJP, had got into the habit of opposing. The former human resources development minister (HRD) said, "What is his stand on education when his party has opposed Bills on foreign universities and accreditation of educational institutions?"In the past, Sibal and Modi have sparred over the low-cost "Aakash" tablet that was developed by the HRD ministry. The Gujarat chief minister, taking a jibe at Sibal, had questioned the delay in production of these tablets, saying it was all mere ta

'Nirantar virodhi'

No place that's clean

Excerpts of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's speech at his maiden monetary policy review

'Repo will return to being effective policy rate'

Jay Z and Beyonce Knowles are more than just the first couple of contemporary music. Forbes magazine called them "two of the savviest business people in entertainment". They made more money than any other celebrity couple between June 2012 and June 2013. Forbes made the list by talking to managers, agents, producers and other in-the-know folks for estimates of each celebrity's entertainment-related earnings.

Forbes list of celeb couples raking in the most moolah

Comment: Samiran Chakraborty

Comment: Ravneet Gill

Over the past few days, expectations that the United States Federal Reserve Board's Open Market Committee would initiate its "tapering" policy during its two-day meeting were clearly moderating. The most recent US data suggested that neither unemployment nor inflation was converging as rapidly towards the thresholds that had been previously suggested as triggers for the withdrawal of liquidity.

Fed taper delayed, but get moving on reform

State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, on Thursday increased its base rate or minimum lending rate by 10 basis points (bps)  to 9.80 per cent. The state-run lender has also increased the spreads on home and auto loan rates by 5-20 bps.

Tracking base rate

On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve decided not to cut on the $85-billion bond-buying programme fuelling stock rallies around the globe. Loosely interpreted as printing money by some, Quantitative Easing (QE), which involves injecting liquidity into the economy through purchases of long-dated assets, became the favoured policy option for the Fed as its original monetary policy tool, the federal funds rate, had already touched zero following several cuts since 2007. It began with buying of agency mortgage-backed securities to restart the market that had gone into a deep freeze following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. In the first edition, it ended bloating the Fed's balance sheet by over $2 trillion but had little impact on the local economy as most of the liquidity found its way to emerging market stocks and commodities. QE2 and QE3 have been a different story as the Dow and Nasdaq have emerged clear winners. Business Standard breaks down the three phasesfor you:

A fairy tale of three QEs

To restore sanity to real estate, pass regulation

Empty shells

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Nandan Nilekani may be planning a transition to politics but he still displays the instincts of a corporate executive when it comes to his target audience. Nilekani was speaking at an industry forum this week and when the floor was opened up for questions, someone from the audience started relating his woes about a wrong address entry during the Aadhaar enrolment process that UIDAI is implementing. Nilekani tried to intervene by telling him about the various ways in which the error could be rectified but to no avail. Finally he said, "Give me your card and I will follow up on it." Then he laconically added for the benefit of his amazed audience: "Customer service, yaar", and earned some thunderous applause.

Unique authority

As luck would have it, later in the question-and-answer session, a corporate executive rose to ask a question and Nilekani immediately recognised him as a service provider of the UIDAI. Even as the person was introducing himself, Nilekani told him to get the issue regarding the wrong address rectified along with a couple of others that had cropped up during the session. The executive immediately obliged. Will Nilekani be able to replicate this speed of service in his political life as well?

Serve and volley

National Spot Exchange Ltd investors are desperate to find a good Samaritan who can offer some help to recover their money. One investor with a few crores stuck in the exchange got in touch with a senior police official working in one of the iconic buildings in Lutyens' Delhi to seek his help for an appointment with the power player whose security he oversaw. Without trying to understand the issue or offering any solution, the official started crunching numbers. He said he would take a cut of 25 per cent and, of this, 20 per cent had to be paid in advance. "For the rest, I'll tell you when and where," he said without batting an eyelid. The investor understandably retreated but he is keen to tell this story to whoever he meets these days.

A 'helping' hand

This refers to the editorial "The IAS flies abroad" (September 18). This is a surprising concession by the government given the fact that India is facing a foreign exchange crunch and the much-vaunted claim to develop India as a medical tourism hub. Our medical institutions have state-of-the-art facilities available within the country. Many nations are looking to India for treating their patients due to the high costs of treatment in their own country. Major insurance companies of the UK, Europe, the US favour India due to quality care, English language skills and lower costs. The UK has recently taken a stand that some patients maybe referred to India due to lower costs. Hospitalisation charges have soared elsewhere and according to recent figures the average daily cost of a hospital stay in the US is $4,287. According to the report "Medical tourism set to be in the pink of health" (August 22), India, with a current market share of nearly three per cent, is perceived to be among the f

Letters: India first

Apropos the editorial "The IAS flies abroad" (September 18), it is not a shameful but a criminal act by the government to allow members of Parliament, ministers and senior bureaucrats to get treatment abroad at the taxpayer's cost when it has failed to provide even basic health care facilities to the common man. No politician or bureaucrat should be entitled to treatment abroad at public cost of an ailment that can be treated in India. Those who wish to take treatment abroad should pay from their own pocket. Only critical cases that are incurable in India should be allowed to get treatment abroad in super specialty hospitals approved by the government of India. If they take treatment in other hospitals where the cost of treatment is higher than that of approved hospitals, they must be entitled to only partial reimbursement of the amount equivalent to the cost in the approved hospitals.M C Joshi  LucknowLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House

Letters: A matter of cost

This refers to the editorial "The IAS flies abroad" (September 18). The idea behind the latest perk of medical treatment abroad granted to the senior Indian Administrative Service  (IAS) officers may ostensibly be to "keep them going as long as possible" under the assumption that their services are valuable to the government. However, pragmatism may dictate that this perk should, if at all, be granted to younger officers because they have many more years of service left than the top level officers. But if that sounds too "pragmatic", then the government may as well extend this perk to all the IAS officers.Kishor Kulkarni  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@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

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