Ashok Khemka too needs to be treated justly

The cost of transfers

Business Standard

Trade deficit falls, inflation steady, but industry still frozen

Growth comes last

Gujarat Revenue Minister Anandi Patel, following the footsteps of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has become active on social media. On Friday she wished the people of the state on the occasion of Eid-ul- Fitr via Twitter. "May this day bring peace and smoothness in your life, may it provide you the best time of your life. Happy Eid day," Patel wrote. The universal greeting is interesting not least because Patel is said to be the next in line as Gujarat chief minister once Modi moves on to assume a larger role in national politics.

Eid greetings from Gujarat

Changes in high protocol take time to filter into the consciousness of the less exalted. Thus, when former President A P J Abdul Kalam visited Vadodara for an event, he was referred to as "H.E. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam" in the banner on the dais and in the welcome speech, H.E. standing for His Excellency. This not only constitutes a misuse of protocol, since the former president cannot be referred to as His Excellency but the term is no longer in use either. Current incumbent Pranab Mukherjee had discarded it in favour of "Honourable" about a year ago. Taxed on the issue, the event organisers expressed ignorance of these developments

Honour in high places

Come August 24 and a part of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) will shift to a sophisticated new building bang opposite Le Meridian hotel. The building, which will house a section of the PIB, has been long-delayed - as many as three prime ministers were involved with the idea in different stages. PM Manmohan Singh will now inaugurate the new building.

Fourth time lucky?

The new building, which comes with a swanky new canteen, has attracted comment for other reasons. It will also house departments of high-profile ministries such as commerce, finance, home and the prime minister's office, while those of rural development, food and agriculture will continue to function from the old Shastri Bhawan. As a senior official remarked that it seems the government wants to only move high-profile ministries into a new building, that is next to a five-star hotel.

'Five-star' ministries

Apropos the article "An official recall policy? Whatever for!" (August 7), B V R Subbu, former President of Hyundai Motor who appears to have interests in commercial vehicle dealerships, expresses hidden loyalty to the automaker fraternity. He has also used the shield of so-called greater transparency in consumer information to reject a mandatory auto recall mechanism. General Motors India has been selling its Tavera vehicles from 2005 to 2013 and the type of approval it secured is a well-planned contravention of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR) and Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Any admission after eight years of bungling is nothing but a cover-up by the management, which has found scapegoats among its employees. The Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT) has consistently supported a mandatory auto recall mechanism in India as is being followed by vehicle manufacturers in their country of origin. Doing so will require automakers to conduct a scrutiny an

Letters: Auto recall policy

Apropos the report "INS Vikrant's first victory: Being built from Indian steel" (August 10), the steel grade DMR 249B that has gone into making the flight deck of the INS Vikrant - India's first indigenous aircraft carrier - has basically been developed and produced by SAIL's Alloy Steels Plant (ASP), Durgapur, in the form of continuous cast slabs. These slabs had subsequently been rolled into plates and heat-treated at SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant . The steel grade DMR292A used in the indigenous submarine  INS Arihant has also been developed at ASP, Durgapur, in the presence of Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory scientists in April, 2013.M M Nath, Manager (PR) ASP  DurgapurLetters 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: Vikrant's Durgapur connection

New companies law is welcome but incomplete

A job half done

A price index for agri commodities: A Business Standard and Indicus Analytics initiative

Indicus price monitor

As a new state, Telangana, is formed, how did India's last experiment with smaller states turn out? In 2000, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were formed from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, respectively. As Table 1 shows, Jharkhand's economic growth has largely been below Bihar's in recent years.However, Chhattisgarh has largely kept pace, if not bettered MP in the past decade; and Uttarakhand has easily outperformed UP. In terms of revenue and efficiency, as Table 2 shows, the small new states (and the smaller old states) have little to choose between them. If anything, as the experience of Uttarakhand shows, they have not been able to raise revenue in keeping with their higher local income. All states have brought down public debt, as Table 3 shows. But the record among the smaller states is mixed; Jharkhand has not done as well as Chhattisgarh. With respect to investment, the record is mixed.For example, as Table 4 shows, neither Bihar nor Jharkhand has been able to

StatsGuru-12-August-13

Constitutional amendment process should be started

Progress on GST

Responding to a Lok Sabha query on "vanishing companies", Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot's written reply was interesting for the way he chose to present the information. An annexed table provided a state-wise list in alphabetical order - with the exception of Gujarat, which was placed on the top of the list irrespective of the alphabetical sequence. Maybe that was to highlight the fact that the state accounted for the highest number of vanishing companies (26 out of 87) or maybe someone clearly wanted to emphasise the menace in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state whose chief minister is the party's prime ministerial candidate on the back of his state's popularity as a corporate investment destination.

Magnifying the vanishing act

The recent visit by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to disaster-hit Uttarakhand might have sparked off a controversy over his "Rambo" image and improbable rescue feat. But the story that went largely unreported was his undoubted star power. Officials in the state secretariat said Modi's visit to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna's office to discuss issues related to the disaster generated so much curiosity and commotion among the staff members and secretariat employees that senior Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi had to intervene and plead with staffers to get back to their desks and maintain decorum. Joshi, incidentally, is Bahuguna's sister.

Modi stars in Bahuguna's territory

Recently in Parliament, senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain was seen having a long discussion with two leaders from estranged political party Janata Dal (United). The bonhomie among the trio raised many eyebrows given that other members of the political-partners-turned-rivals are tearing strips off each other in Bihar. When someone asked what they discussed, Hussain said though the two parties have divorced but that does not mean partners cannot exchange greetings. On this, the JD (U) leader added that it is always difficult to get married after a divorce and both sides need to make many compromises for that.

Divorced rivalry

This refers to Shankar Acharya's column "A crisis foretold" (A Piece Of My Mind, August 7). Economic policy should be such that resources move from destructive to productive channels and plug the drain of resources. Our policies are pushing us in an opposite direction. Most productive resources are human intellect, technological advancements and synergy in human efforts; material resources are all subservient. Unfortunately, policymakers are blinded by the lure of revenue and are not able to comprehend the strangulation of entrepreneurship and disincentive to innovation by the taxation system. Most glaring is the prevalence of regressive, antisocial, inflationary, corruptive indirect taxes, that create hurdles and consume a major part of the productive intellectual energy. Enterprising human intellect is caught in the marsh of rules and procedures and is unable to spare some energy for innovation and productivity. The damage done by value reduction is certainly far greater than the val

Letters: The lure of revenue

This refers to the editorial "Do not escalate" (August 8). Though Pakistan has sent irregular armed forces supported by their regular forces into India many times since 1947, these efforts have done Pakistan more harm than good. For example, Maharaja Hari Singh might not have acceded into India at all but for the attack by Pakistanis! This practice of building and nurturing irregular armed forces over long periods has resulted in the development of a Frankenstein-like terror infrastructure that is partly under the control of the Pakistani authorities and has resulted in more terror attacks in Pakistan, than in India. The sooner Pakistani authorities realise that these attacks do not harm India in any significant way, the easier it will be for the saner sections in Pakistan to put an end to this practice.Alok Sarkar  KolkataLetters 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@bs

Letters: The war within

This refers to the report "Companies Bill passed" (August 9). The mother of all reforms in the corporate sector - giving shareholders the rights to access minutes of board meetings - should have been incorporated in the new Bill. Shareholders should have such a right, to keep a check on mismanagement since this reform is vitally linked to investor-protection measures. Board meetings can also be brought under the Right To Information Act. There should also be more democracy in running of the companies. and a cap on the number of terms a shareholder can hold as chairman or the managing director. Apart from promoters, other shareholders should also get an opportunity to run the company. As far as corporate social responsibility is concerned, companies should be more innovative.Deendayal M Lulla  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 h

Letters: A flawless Bill?

What lies behind the makeover for Kolkata's iconic secretariat

Rewriting Writers'

Business Standard answers a few frequently asked questions on the changes made by the government on CSR provisions in the Companies Bill, 2009, passed by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday

All about corporate social responsibility

Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension has turned the spotlight on the complex relationship between ministers and bureaucrats. Veenu Sandhu, Indulekha Aravind, Sanjay Jog and Shishir Prashant explore how the steel frame of India is bending

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 699 - Business Standard