Government efforts to curb gold imports are yielding results. Riding on lower gold imports

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But making Infosys a star again won't be easy

Cheering Mr Murthy

Although the curtains were brought down on the 163-year-old telegram service, the decision does not seem to have gone down well with a  section of employees in the telegraph department of the Bharatiya Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). A telegram was sent, addressed to BSNL Chairman & Managing Director R K Upadhyay by the BSNL Employees Union of Kolkata, stating that the argument by management that the service is making losses is just "imaginary and unfounded". It further stated that the management also "ignored" the decision of the union to discuss the issue on the record. A copy of this telegram was put up inside the telegraph office by its employees.

A telegram for continuity

Just two decades ago, the Indian tourist travelling on restricted foreign exchange was hardly welcomed in popular foreign destinations. A hugely liberalised forex regime and growing wealth changed all that. Now that downturns in Europe and the US are pinching the pockets of travellers from those countries, the big-spending Indian tourist is more than welcome and no one is working harder to attract them than the Malaysian tourism board. Recently, it brought together a princess of a local state of Kedah, T P Noor Suzanna Abdullah, and popular Indian singer Kumar Sanu to produce a Bollywood music video. Abdullah, who has been a singer from childhood, has sung some original songs and popular Hindi duets with Kumar Sanu in the hope of luring Indian tourists to their country.

Malaysia's Bollywood lures

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh may be looking at picking fights  with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the drop of a hat. Be it Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari or his latest target Amit Shah, he rarely misses an opportunity and uses all the media at his disposal. One person seems to be an exception and that is BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman. Last week, he tweeted "Yesterday in NDTV panel I was with Nirmala Sitaraman. Quite a gracious lady and quite articulate but in the wrong party!"

Fighting on TV, admiring on Twitter

This refers to Malavika Sangghvi's column "Bollywood's secular heart" (Trending, July 13). As rightly observed, the Hindi film fraternity represents an enviable example of religious harmony. The good spirit goes back to the pre-independence days. In V Shantaram's much acclaimed movie Padosi (which was noted for highlighting the Hindu-Muslim brotherhood) the role of the Hindu neighbour was played by a Muslim and vice versa. Not that there has been no intense rivalry in Bollywood, but it never acquired religious overtones.A major reason such non-communal spirit pervades Bollywood is that the film community has, by and large, kept away from politics where one party promotes aloofness instead of integration between religions and the other resorts to exclusiveness of the majority.Such is the influence of Hindi films that the fans too ignore religion or politics while rooting for their favourites. Shahrukh Khan has many admirers in the BJP and Shatrughan Sinha has many among the Congress. It

Letters: Free from toxic politics

This refers to A K Bhattacharya's column "The Next RBI Governor" (Raisina Hill, July 15). Given the profound impact the monetary policy has on nominal variables, which in turn influence real sector variables like growth and employment, it is imperative that emphasis is placed on the economic training of potential contenders for the Reserve Bank of India Governor's post. He must be a man of integrity, be intellectually strong and not bow to the populist pressures of North Block. We need "specialists" and not "generalists" for such jobs.Also, the Indian economy has become increasingly globalised, with the fear of contagion always lurking. A case in point - the recent impact of the great recession on our economy. Consequently, taming macroeconomic fluctuations in an open economy requires the two blades of the policy scissors - monetary and fiscal - working in coordination. Sadly, one has seen a trust gap between Mint Road and North Block recently. This gap must be filled. However, to atta

Letters: Specialists wanted

This refers to the letter of Sri Chandrashekhar G Ranade of Washington DC published in your issue of Friday, July 12, 2013. My remark that the Reserve Bank of India and government cannot fight the market published in your newspaper of July 11, 2013 was explicitly in the context of the stock market and the foreign exchange market. I fail to understand how this remark can be connected to the issue of foreign direct investment in the retail trade and entry of Walmart in India. There is no confusion in my mind. The confusion is in the mind of Sri Ranade.Yashwant Sinha  DelhiLetters 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: Wrong context

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

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Every Monday, Business Standard analyses one family's finances and suggests a suitable way forward

Case study

IIP numbers put pressure on Reserve Bank to cut rates

StatsGuru-15-July-13

What if I haven't filed returns for FY12?You can still file belated returns. There is no penalty for late filing if you've paid all the taxes. For FY12, you can file belated returns till March 31, 2014. However, if there is some tax due, you will be levied an interest of one per cent for every month of delay.What is the penalty if I forget to file?Not declaring your income or failure to pay taxes by the due date amounts to tax evasion. The penalty can be anywhere between 100 and 300 per cent of the amount due. Hence, even if all taxes are paid, do file returns.

Tipping point

Business Standard brings you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in a price range of Rs 1-1.5 crore. If you are looking at buying real estate and your budget falls within this range, an idea about prevailing rates would come in handy

Realty check

This refers to the editorial "Red Signals". (July 12). The Railway Unions' demand for a new pay commission has some merit since the government has not been able to control prices. The Railway Vision Document 2020 concedes that the Indian Railways has the most bloated labour force in the world. Successive Railway ministers have paid little or no attention to over staffing. All the promises about improving safety, training and finances have taken a back seat. In a country beset with a serious power problem, the switch from diesel to electric locomotive is debatable. A diesel locomotive does not draw an iota of electric energy and is a virtual power house on wheels, converting fossil fuel directly, eliminating the transmission losses involved in electric traction which can be as high as 30 per cent.M M Gurbaxani, BangaloreLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201  Â·  E-mail: letters@

Letters: Faulty tracks

B Vithal Rao, HyderabadLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201  Â·  E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Give microfinance a chance

Arvind Subramanian's factual and well-written article "The economic consequences of Prof Amartya Sen" (July 10), knocks the bottom out of Sen's Nobel Prize-winning theory of Redistribution through Rights and Entitlements (RRE). It shows that RRE was about the importance of broad purchasing power rather than the narrow physical availability of food. It is mystifying to see Sen forcefully arguing now, through morbidity-laden polemic, for the physical provision for one type of food, cereals.Sen's other major insight was that development was about the freedom to exercise choice. RRE is, on the other hand, privileged paternalism. Amartya Sen, the academic, has been eclipsed by Amartya Sen, the populist advocate. My considered opinion is that the present Food Security Bill is an example of gargantuan populism that will bring  economic disaster to the country. It also shows that when economists come to the government both as economic advisors or as ministers, their economics knowledge takes l

Letters: Sen - Academic vs populist

The Congress may have had an eye to elections by appointing the 85-year-old Sis Ram Ola (pictured) as labour minister but neither bureaucrats in Shram Shakti Bhavan nor the media appreciate his replacing the energetic Mallikarjun Kharge in the last reshuffle. Officials complain he treats them like children. As for journalists - well, they are flummoxed. Last week Ola called a press conference to talk of the initiative to begin online transfer of Provident Fund for workers. Instead, he devoted the entire speech to the Uttarakhand floods and then left the conference room abruptly without bothering to take questions. Ministry officials also quietly followed Ola, leaving the media high and dry.

Labour ministry pains

Releasing the data entailed more drama. Pujari called the conference, briefed the media, gave numbers and stood for camera bytes. But wire reporters soon realised that there was a difference in the numbers he gave out and what was given in the press release. Realising the mistake, Pujari asked the media to wait for a clarification. After almost half an hour, an email and SMS came from a Press Information Bureau Director saying the data on the official press release was correct. Now, the DGFT had briefed the media along with two junior colleagues, of whom one is the commerce ministry's financial advisor and the other is from the Central Statistical Organisation. Yet, none of the three appeared to be sure of the numbers. But of course, the confusion did not surprise reporters covering the ministry of commerce and industry. This is the same ministry that goofed up in 2011-12 by overstating exports by $9 billion.

Data bites

In a departure from standard practice, only Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Anup K Pujari released the trade data for June. Commerce Secretary S R Rao also usually attends these routine press conferences, and Pujari must have sorely missed him this time. That's because he had to face persistent questions on rising imports to which he struggled to find answers. Eventually, he returned a reply to the effect that he is "Director General of Foreign Trade and not Director General Exports, so the rise in imports does not matter to me", which is surely a risky statement at a time like this.

Rising imports? Who cares!

Narendra Modi finally addresses 2002, but gets it wrong

Business Standard

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Page 709 - Business Standard

Green shoots tracker

Cheering Mr Murthy

A telegram for continuity

Malaysia's Bollywood lures

Fighting on TV, admiring on Twitter

Letters: Free from toxic politics

Letters: Specialists wanted

Letters: Wrong context

Indicus price monitor

Case study

StatsGuru-15-July-13

Tipping point

Realty check

Letters: Faulty tracks

Letters: Give microfinance a chance

Letters: Sen - Academic vs populist

Labour ministry pains

Data bites

Rising imports? Who cares!

Under his wheels