Dear Students,LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think creation of Telangana will have any impact on Andhra Pradesh as an education hub?BEST RESPONSEThe creation of Telangana state would not have any adverse effect on the education scenario of the Andhra region. The Telangana region, which is the hub of educational institutes, also has important private and government institutes that would function well even after the creation of the new state. The divided state of Andhra Pradesh might allow the opening of more colleges to compensate for the loss of college seats in the Telangana region, which has the most number of colleges.Swar Grover, GNDU, AmritsarOTHER RESPONSESThe bifurcation of the state is unlikely to have any impact on the education sector as a whole. But from the perspective of an individual state, being disintegrated, it might sway its reputation of being an educational hub; since comparison is done among states which collectively unite to become the key driver for change. It is so

Students' corner

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Govt's attempt to raise tribal incomes is counterproductive

More support prices

Raghuram Rajan has many challenges to face

Trial by fire, again

Impending elections provoke strange actions and reactions from rival parties, as the latest bout between the local units of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)/Rashtriya Swayamsevak (RSS) Sangh in Madhya Pradesh shows. In Mandsaur, 325 km west of Bhopal, members of the Congress, including sitting municipal corporaters, organised a cleanliness drive in the party office. But this was not the usual exercise with brooms and vacuum cleaners. Instead, pundits were invited to perform a purifying hawan, and even spray a non-toxic, non-synthetic disinfectant concocted by mixing neem, rose-water and cow urine. What prompted them to do so was an alleged attack by the BJP and RSS activists on the office. "They are dirty-minded people and after their attack the office had become ashudha (impure). Instead of lodging a police complaint we preferred to purify the office," a Congress member said disdainfully. The attack by members of the Sangh Parivar duo followed a remark by Congress sta

Ritual retaliation

The recent controversial suspension of Indian Administrative Service officer Durga Shakti Nagpal in Uttar Pradesh has not gone down well with a section of the ruling Samajwadi Party. Though most leaders from the party have outwardly supported the Akhilesh Yadav-led state government on the move, several have expressed resentment at the manner in which the entire issue was handled. When the officer could have been transferred to convey the government's displeasure, what was the need to suspend her, an old-timer asked. This understated intra-party dissidence under Akhilesh Yadav's leadership is in sharp contrast to the iron hand with which his father led the party. Now, with the troika of Shivpal, Azam Khan and Mulayam overriding the chief minister, decision-making has become cumbersome. Rule by remote control is clearly not the prerogative of the Congress party at the Centre.

Suspended disapproval

An industry body recently organised a workshop on industrial safety in the Chhattisgarh capital. But the state's principal secretary with the industry department, N Baijendra Kumar, suggested that it wasn't just the safety of workers in the factories that needed attention, the "security" of industry in the state was at stake. No, he was not talking of Naxal-related disruptions but the fact that the many small and medium industries here were suffering as a result of the Union government's policies that left them struggling for raw materials - that too in a mineral-rich state.

Shortage in abundance

This refers to the report "Lakshmi Mittal hangs up on Odihsa" (August 6). It comes as a shock that the Mittals were not fully committed to the Odisha project because their other two projects were better located. This is squatter tactics; sign multiple memorandums of understanding with different state governments and then pick and choose. This would have been fine if the industrialist didn't want land, water, transport linkage, construction power and licences for coal and iron ore from the government. Even new-age industries such as information technology are not immune from this desire for state goodies. Infosys, after having got the land, also wants the Bengal government to give special economic zones (SEZs) or SEZ-like breaks, and the central government to give income tax breaks. Infosys and Tatas' refusal to hand back the land (against compensation), even when the Bengal government has made its position clear about SEZs and forceful land eviction, does not befit their professed ethi

Letters: Squatter tactics

Apropos the report "Drug price cuts not applied" (August 5), how is it that prominent pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Cipla, Pfizer and Sanofi have not bothered to comply with the order of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, fixing the new prices of 348 essential medicines with the direction that all companies must comply within 45 days of the price notification? The companies are selling these medicines on the old prices even after 50 days of the notification. Patients on regular medication had high hopes of a substantial relief as prices of medicines were to drop. It is reported that prices of 50 more medicines are to be revised soon. The order for revision of prices would be meaningless unless its implementation is monitored and ensured.M C Joshi  LucknowLetters 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

Letters: Price revision

This refers to the report "Government's dash for cash triggers meltdown in PSU stocks" (August 5). The government of India came out with public issues of various public sector undertakings such as NHPC, NTPC, Rural Electrification Corporation, Union Bank Of India, NMDC, SJVN, Engineers India, Coal India Ltd, Power Grid, MOIL, Shipping Corporation of India and Punjab & Sind Bank in 2009 and 2010.At that time, self-acclaimed experts recommended these issues to small investors with a long-term view. So, many gullible small investors, like me, believed them and put in their hard-earned life savings in these issues. Look at the plight of such long-term investors after three to four years of investment. Leave alone yielding any return, their capital has been wiped off to the extent of 70 per cent in some of these stocks. Those who sold their shares immediately after listing, made the profit but the long-term investors have been left with nothing.A K Gupta  LudhianaLetters can be mailed,

Letters: PSU stock losses

The data comes as a relief, as PMI for manufacturing fell 50.1 points in July from 50.3 in June

Green shoots tracker

Arbitrary transfers of IAS officers must end

Melting steel frame

Tightrope over crisis

Several jokes are doing the rounds in market circles as marketmen try to use their sense of humour to sail through the gloom following the collapse of the National Spot Exchange. "With no money to pay sellers, participants are scared that the exchange may bring trucks of wool and castor seed and drop it in your backyards, be prepared," one went. Another said, "We are advising clients to buy Godrej. At this rate, there will be a huge demand for Godrej locks as people are going to see multiple locks hanging in the godowns, offices, everywhere."

Lock, Stock and Exchange

To ensure that people applying for the unique identification number or Aadhaar receive their intimation letters on schedule and can check the status if they do not, the government chose the more expensive and apparently faster Speed Post as a delivery mode. However, after horror stories surfaced of how several hundreds of Aadhaar letters were misplaced or undelivered, the government has now resorted to ordinary post. Authorities claim that anecdotal evidence suggests that the delivery rate may have increased after the switch. One, ordinary post is cheaper (Rs 5 compared to Rs 23 in the case of Speed Post) so even if a letter gets lost, it can be resent at minimal cost. The second reason is probably novel for any bureaucratic set-up. Since there is very little traceability possible with ordinary post, the authorities claim, it is considered less bureaucratic in nature - and therefore more efficient!

Virtues of snail mail

Call it the Sheila Dikshit's "jawani" moment. The exuberant septuagenarian Delhi chief minister has been elected three times and faces yet another election soon but this does not appear to have left her jaded. Last week at the inauguration of the IGL Suraksha Yojana, a programme to provide free insurance to drivers of CNG-run public transport vehicles, she added some entertainment to an otherwise routinely solemn occasion. When a choir sang the Hindi version of the rousing anthem, "We shall overcome" Dixit began clapping in tune, executed some sketchy dance steps and soon, she had the whole auditorium singing along.

Dikshit on song

This refers to Dorab R Sopariwala's article, "Welcome Telangana - but what next?" (August 2). The coastal Andhra region (by whatever name it was known then and now) faces the same problem today, while separating from the proposed Telugu Desam, which it did 60 years ago when it was separated from the erstwhile state of Madras - of finding a capital. Justice K N Wanchoo (then Chief Justice of Rajasthan) who recommended the creation of the Andhra state had suggested that Madras should remain the "guest capital" of the new state till Andhra builds its new capital. But the then Chief Minister of Madras, (and former Governor General of India) C Rajagopalachari did not agree to it. Andhra must move out of Madras, the moment it separates, he demanded; the visionary in him knew that the "guest capital" scheme, would not work. Andhraites had to, post-haste, identify the nondescript town of Kurnool as their capital and select an executive engineer's bungalow to be reconditioned as the new state's

Letters: Andhra - Capital issues

This refers to the reports "IAF at war with HAL; wants to import, not build, a trainer" (July 29) and "IAF diluted at least 12 benchmarks for trainer aircraft" (July 30). The spat between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on purchase or development of the basic trainer aircraft (BTA) is getting uglier by the day. The IAF is keen to buy a BTA from foreign sources, whereas HAL has pushed for indigenous development. The IAF is motivated to obtain a proven and reliable system to train its rookie pilots. HAL, on the other hand, wants to complete its current development of the BTA and create a finished product. This lack of synergy is the latest instance of a long-standing lack of trust between the services, development and production agencies.The resolution of such conflicts invariably ends up in the office of the Raksha Mantri (RM) who generally has no expertise in such cases. The Integrated Defence Staff has been found wanting in rendering timely and actionabl

Letters: A lack of trust

The sorry state of India's banking industry

StatsGuru-05-August-13

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

Indicus price monitor

Indian generic companies need better regulation

Taking the medicine

Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh does not suffer undue modesty when it comes to accepting the plaudits that are heaped on him for being the first state to enact the food security and nutrition Act. Singh, recently in Delhi to participate in a seminar that was organised specifically to celebrate him and the new law, related a story to demonstrate how people in his state viewed the food security law. Travelling in the interiors, he asked a man he met in a forest village who had provided him 35 kg of rice at Rs 2. Singh said the man replied: The rice is given by chawal wale baba (the rice god). Thus, said Singh triumphantly, the forest dweller did not know either the chief minister or anyone else in the administration but had paid the richest tribute to him and the scheme. What more praise can one get? he asked rhetorically. Too true, but Singh may want to hold the self-congratulation a bit, since many forest dwellers in Chattisgarh were forced to live in hiding or in camps for near

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