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

Business Standard

This refers to the editorial "The IAS flies abroad" (September 18). It used to be said there is a class of people in India that can write its own pay cheque, viz Members of Parliament (MPs). Now the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), too, claims this facility on the grounds that they are entitled to it because other privileged classes such as ministers and MPs enjoy this perk. Perhaps there are two standards - one for ministers, MPs and civil servants and another for lesser mortals. And this great bonanza is being given even as India is offering medical tourism. No wonder a British newspaper wrote a few years back referring on the one hand to Delhi's slick flyovers and state-of-the-art hospitals and on the other to its disadvantaged women giving birth to their babies unattended under those very slick flyovers. While the privileged IAS is seeking the grant of the benefits of a paid holiday with family for treatment abroad, what do they do to tone up the working of public hospitals? Pr

Letters: Perks bonanza

Apropos the report "Foreign banks to give upfront loans for Indian dollar deposits" (September 17), it appears that there is a positive endorsement to increased foreign currency flows on account of leveraged deposits.The process involves a non-resident Indian (NRI) depositor making a foreign currency non-resident (FCNR) deposit in India through an overseas branch of an Indian bank (or a foreign bank with operations in India), then borrowing locally (at the overseas centre) against the same deposit with a haircut of, say, 5 per cent, at rates linked to the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), and redepositing the borrowed amount in another FCNR deposit with the same bank. This process can be repeated any number of times till no more borrowings are possible against the last deposit - normally it is limited to 8 to 10 times. This implies that an NRI with an initial FCNR deposit of $10 million, can create an aggregate FCNR deposit of $80 million with a leverage of 10 times (the 21 times

Letters: FCNR scam?

Some close aides of the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (pictured) no longer send messages or talk on the phone these days. Reason: they are apprehensive their numbers are being tapped. Some fear the government, others fear Modi. So, on the day of Modi's elevation, a confidant of the Gujarat chief minister said he would prefer further communication be conducted in person. Another aide, who is a member of Parliament, regretted having cracked a joke about Modi on his birthday and said, "I will be in deep trouble if Modi comes to power." 

Big Brothers are listening

Everyone is familiar with the emails from Nigerian fraudsters proposing random business ideas. One favourite is suggesting that they would park vast sums of inherited money in your bank account for mysterious reasons in return for a generous fee. Some even invoke the Reserve Bank of India to add credibility to their offers. But just once in a while they fail to do their homework properly. Thus, one recent proposition read in its trademark grammar: "Due to economy buoyant of India in term of Infrastructural/Manufacturer business sector make my cousin brother interested to venture into a viable profitable business with whomever is ready to go into partnership for long duration of time." No doubt these fraudsters were unaware of the fact that these are the two sectors that are facing the most heat in the current downturn and they are using five-year-old data to lure people.

Unresearched fraud

Finance Minister P Chidambaram addressed a session on G 20 on Tuesday organised by the Delhi-based think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. However, reporters were more intent on catching him on the sidelines of the event to comment on the decision that the US Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee is expected to take on quantitative easing at its meeting on Wednesday. In all seriousness, Chidambaram told reporters to take down the phone number of the person concerned. As unsuspecting reporters started taking out their pens and pads to note the number, the finance minister said he was talking about US Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's (pictured) number. "Please call him and ask what he plans to do," he told reporters. Touche!

Please call Ben

Amid buzz Nandan Nilekani might contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bangalore on a Congress ticket, here is a look at professionals who have joined politics:

Shifting for a change

New moves on land for industry, agri-marketing

Reality dawns on Trinamool

Technocrats seeking election will bring greater accountability

Voting for expertise

There has been a substantial moderation of salary expectations among B-school graduates this year, suggests the InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2013 by InsideIIM.com, a website providing an inside perspective on B-schools. The survey says students have become more realistic in their ass-essment, which is leading them to try and match their aspirations with their existing skills sets. The preference for the so-called high-flying finance and strategy consulting jobs is not very strong, because these jobs are few in number. More and more people are realising there are other ways to have a meaningful career, by making use of one's already existing skill sets.

B-school students' aspiration

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:  Do you think it is the right time to for working professionals to quit jobs for higher studies?

Student's corner

CRISIL's Core Inflation Indicator, a measure of demand-side pressure on prices, fell to a four-year low of 2.6 per cent in August

Inflation trouble for RBI

The old tale about long-term investors making more money seems borne out by Sensex data over the last 25 years. Investors who bought at the beginning of the calendar year and held on for 10 years never lost money. Some benefits of a longer tenure also accrue to investors who hold on for lower durations. A holding period of at least three years reduces chances of negative returns by half, compared with a one-year time frame, and results in an 'eight out of 10' chance of making gains. Probability of gains and losses over various holding periods:

Investing in sensex? better think long term

Fixing commodity trading

India's rulers insulate themselves further

The IAS flies abroad

In this new era of economic growth, nations doing reasonably well, when met with extended periods of stagnation, have opted for a change in the government. If it was the US in 2008, it was the euro zone and Latin American countries later. China had a routine change but it is also trimming its political sails drastically now. India, too, must want a political change and this is where the injection of Narendra Modi into high-end national politics must seed our worries. Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party  (BJP) nor the Congress have cadre-based presence in half the Indian states; one reason the nation has been under a compulsive coalition governance for decades. The workings of a decade and more of Modi would tend to put off most of the ranking regional parties to gel together to form a government with the BJP, if it leads the Congress. If the BJP is unable to touch respectable figures on its own, the resurrection of a Third Front will loom large. A successful big leap forward by the Modi

Letters: The half leap

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has undertaken rupee-dollar swaps with commercial banks mobilising fresh funds under the foreign currency non-resident (banks) deposits and overseas borrowings. They will strengthen its forex reserves. But if the banks swap dollars with the RBI, it would lead to a reduction in their supply in the market causing a depreciation of the rupee. The swap would be counterproductive if intervention is undertaken. The release of rupee has an implication for money supply. The RBI will have to moderate its Open Market Operations accordingly. The RBI governor has indicated transparency and predictability as his watchwords. So, the RBI should announce the exchange rates used in the swaps, including the ones with oil marketing companies. It will have a salutary impact on the market rate. It should consider removing the remaining restrictions on interest rates on non-resident Indian deposits. It should also encourage commercial banks to issue forex loans on internation

Letters: Forex trouble

Daniel Gros' article "How the euro sank the emerging markets" (September 14), has shown how it is impossible that all significant economies can run large current account surpluses at the same time, and the effects of the euro zone's turn-around in managing deficits. The post-World War II period has seen the rise of non-traditional powers such as Asia, West Asia and the rebuilding of Europe. The export success that Japan, Germany and South Korea have had, is more striking than that of China's. China will slow down much before Korea did. This is because of its much larger size and the shrinking global scope for an export-driven model. India's misfortune is that it started much later in trying to get linked to the global merchandise and capital markets. India will have a much smaller window of high-growth possibility compared to China.P Datta, KolkataLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 2

Letters: India's window for growth

With the election code of conduct expected to come into effect anytime, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh is anxious to "deliver" to the people till the last moment. Last week, for instance, the state cabinet held one of its lengthiest meetings - it started in the early evening and continued till 10 p m - to clear as many proposals as possible so that the state administration would start working on them ahead of the November state polls. Senior bureaucrats have been working overtime to, first, prepare the proposals that needed to be tabled at the cabinet meeting and, second, ensure that they are implemented before the election so that the ruling party gets political mileage from them. This has sometimes led to bizarre situations, such as the time Chief Minister Raman Singh and his ministers even inaugurated a road project in the capital city before it was complete.

BJP stands and delivers

The recent acquisition of Jaypee Cement Corporation's Gujarat unit has made UltraTech the undisputed leader in the Indian cement industry. UltraTech's capacity will now increase by five million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 59 mtpa, strengthening its position as the largest player in India. Asked about the impact of the deal on his company, Jaypee Group Chairman Manoj Gaur ruefully said, "It is like a race to win a gold medal. We were the bronze medalist and will remain one. The race tally after the acquisition remains the same, gold remains with its owner, while bronze remains with us."

Gold and bronze status quo

A graphic doing the internet rounds in Gujarat is an amusing if telling comment on the economic management - or lack thereof - of the current regime. It shows the reverse side of a Re 1 coin of 2002 (when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was in power) engraved with the numeral one flanked by two ears of corn. Below it is another graphic, this time the reverse side of a Re 1 coin circa 2010 (when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had been in power for six years). It shows the numeral one flanked by an upraised thumb, which can be interpreted two ways. One, as a thumbs-up and, two, also a universal symbol for doing nothing. Given the diminishing purchasing power of the rupee, the latter interpretation is certainly more relevant.

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