As the Parliamentary board of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday declared Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate after hectic parleys by senior leaders, Business Standard presents a scorecard of Gujarat's performance on the economic and social fronts under Modi

Modi's Gujarat

Business Standard

This refers to the report "Common man hit more than industry by AP partition stir" (September 12). The report said the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation lost ~480 crore during the stir. Creating more states will not result in development, and it is a misconception. When a new state is created, funds have to be provided for building infrastructure. The taxpayers will bear this avoidable expenditure. Creating a new state, only fulfils the ambition of a politician to become the chief minister. Why should violence precede the creation of a new state?The rule that government employees are not supposed to take part in the stir - whether pro-AP or Telangana, is going for a toss. A study needs to be made to show how much public and private property has been lost due to the violent stir for the creation of a new state. This money could have been used for the development of the region for which a new state is demanded. Such a study would open the eyes of the public, and one hopes t

Letters: Creating states

This refers to the report "PM's advisors differ with finance ministry" (September 14). Now that the current account deficit (CAD) has risen to 4.8 per cent of the gross domestic product, the policymakers have been forced to identify the sources of its funding. Unfortunately, there is some misreading of the CAD itself. Many have interpreted it as the excess of imports over imports. That would only be a textbook explanation of the phenomenon. A major portion of the CAD has arisen due to over leveraged position (read huge external commercial borrowing) of many companies. Companies have not been able to service the piling up of the debt due to sluggish sale, squeezed margins and poor cash flow. This is also clear from the rising restructured portfolio of lending banks. Adding to this is the fall in foreign inflows due to the perceived escalation in country risk.K V Rao, BangaloreLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargN

Letters: Funding the CAD

This refers to the editorial "Enter, foreign universities" (September 12). Under the supervision of the University Grants Commission, Indian universities have not made their mark in the recently released list of the top 200 universities of the world. Many of them from Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia and South Africa featured in the list, but none from India. It speaks volumes for the standards prevalent in our country. Universities and colleges in India are geared towards maximising revenues through the capitation/donation route. The quality of education has tumbled steeply.We should allow foreign universities to set up their institutions in India, to not only improve the quality of education but also to proffer the badly-needed competition to impart quality education. American universities are unquestionably pre-eminent in teaching and research, attracting students and faculty members from around the world. Universities play a significant role in innovations that arise from research in

Letters: A foreign touch

Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (pictured) is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the first elected female head of state of an African nation. Yet the Chhattisgarh government gave her the coolest of receptions when she visited the state during her recent trip to India to receive the Indira Gandhi peace prize. The reason the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state gave an honoured guest of the government of India short shrift was that her visit was arranged by Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL). Sirleaf visited the JSPL facilities in Raigarh and left the same evening and the state government observed the minimum protocol of allocating some officials to receive her and see her off. The problem, it appeared. was purely commercial. The African country has iron ore deposits in abundance. As industrial department officials pointed out, Sirleaf showed interest in JSPL only, hence the cool reception. Had she taken the initiative to allocate a few mines to the state-run Mineral Develop

Mining an opportunity

Policy uncertainty, the received wisdom goes, is the key reason Indian businessmen prefer to locate their investments overseas - including in Africa - rather than in India. Jindal Steel and Power Ltd chief Naveen Jindal added a new deterrent to the list: the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Under investigation following a CAG report for irregularities in coal mines allocated to it by the government, Jindal told reporters in Raigarh that he planned to set up power plants in Africa because there was no fear of CAG nor a coal scandal in countries there. What is more, he added, investors were given red-carpet treatment and assistance in those countries, the unspoken sub-text being that India didn't offer similar treatment to prospective investors.

CAG gag

Going by the dictum that anything sells in the name of Rahul Gandhi, an NGO that calls itself "Rahul Gandhi ka Bharat" has instituted a "Rahul Gandhi National Award for Excellence in Media." Asked about it, Rahul Gandhi's office, however stated it had "no connection with this award and had nothing to do with this organisation". Going by the level of adulation people have for "netas", several such organisations exist in the name of the Gandhi scion and even of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. While the organisation, as evident from its website, dedicates itself to chronicling Rahul Gandhi and his activities, its webpage acknowledges it can be "accuse(d) us of sycophancy". What is significant is that several Congress legislators such as Mahabal Mishra, Kamal Kishor, both Lok Sabha MPs, are listed as patrons. Mishra, who figures in its picture gallery as being part of earlier award ceremonies, said he could have attended as chief guest in the past but had nothing to do with the organisati

Rahul's self-confessed sycophants

Can travel policies be extended?Only those policies which are active and purchased for a period of at least 30 days can be extended. Also, to be eligible for extension, there should have been no claim made by you in that policy period.For how many days can these be extended?Such policies can be extended just once and only up to a maximum of 180 days. The total policy period including the extension should not exceed 360 days. The premium payable towards extending a policy has to be paid before the actual extension comes into effect

Tipping point

To tackle the rupee's fall of about 20 per cent this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken a slew of initiatives. However, analysts say the RBI measures may not lead to a sustained recovery, unless accompanied by government measures that can convince markets of its willingness to tackle the country's fiscal and current account deficits and slowing growth. A look at the measures taken by the authorities:

Steps to rescue the rupee

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari unveiled the All India Radio (AIR) News free SMS service as well as the "Bharat Nirman" web portal with much fanfare earlier this week. During a question and answer session that ensued, Tewari insisted that journalists restrict their questions to specifically the "Bharat Nirman" portal and not digress. However Tewari's efforts came to naught. AIR News service's first SMS beeped into cell phones of reporters attending the event, pertained to the Muzaffarnagar riots and the DIG concerned being transferred. Reporters took their cue; quoting this SMS, they plied the minister with an unending list of questions about the riots, with hardly anyone querying the United Progressive Alliance's publicity campaign Bharat Nirman.

SMS at the wrong time

On Friday, even as senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried hard to bring BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani on board, the media managers of the party had other worries. They wondered whether the announcement of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate would get downplayed, as the same day a Delhi court was to deliver a verdict in the December 16 gang-rape case. Some of these managers even suggested delaying the announcement by a day, to ensure the announcement got a grand display. Notwithstanding their concern, the announcement came and an elated Modi shared space in the morning papers with the news of the conviction of the four men guilty of rape.

Sharing the headlines

Twitter well-placed to exploit the future

The next big IPO

Hardest hit were developed economies where GDP contracted while emerging economies escaped with just a dip in growth. Since then stocks indices have scaled new highs in developed markets such as the US, Germany, the UK and Japan while they continue to languish in emerging markets

Economy & mkts declined after crisis

HRD ministry ignores parliamentary logjam

Enter foreign universities

No broad-based recovery in industrial output

From clothes to machines

It is baffling that a country that has only about $6 billion by way of foreign-currency-denominated sovereign debt is so hung up about its alignment with global interest rates

Letters: The wrong fears

The editorial "Power dreams" (September 10) has stressed the importance of power supply for the growth of industry and manufacturing that are essential for employment, solving the problem of increasing exports etc

Letters: Coal in our backyard

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) recently notified an National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) exam for merchant bankers

Letters: Financial joke

UltraTech's acquisition of Jaypee Cement Corporation's Gujarat unit had helped the Jaypee Group reduce its debt by a substantial Rs 3,800 crore

No more heavy lifting

Sushil Maroo, once considered a confidant of Naveen Jindal, resigned as deputy managing director of Jindal Steel and Power in the last week of August and joined Essar Energy as chief executive officer

Paid leave?

It was always a given that most of the 24 borrowers of National Spot Exchange Ltd had strong political connections and local support

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