The Congress-led UPA undertook the last Cabinet reshuffle before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The average age of the four Union Cabinet ministers who were sworn in was 74 years. The average age of the eight ministers (including the four MoS s) is 71 years.A day earlier, the Congress reshuffled its office bearers. The AICC office bearers bore a much younger look with 52 being the average age.

Age no bar

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What's the difference between a death sentence and a sentence by hanging? The question may seem pointless but clearly not to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Angry over the rape and murder of a college student at Kamduni in Barasat, villagers accosted Banerjee with slogans such as "hang the rapists" and "we want the death sentence" during her visit last week. Never one to pass up the opportunity to respond to a crowd, she assured the protesters, "The charge sheet has been prepared and will be submitted to the court within seven days. We will ask for both hanging and death sentence for the culprits."

Hang the difference

With the Assembly election due in Madhya Pradesh in December, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not just relying on the popularity of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Instead, state leaders have a new slogan to benefit from the growing popularity and dominance of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by punning on the short form of his name: "Om NaMo Shivay". Senior leaders of Madhya Pradesh hope Modi's campaign in the state will ensure a third consecutive victory for the BJP in the state, though the development must irk Chouhan, who thinks he's done as good a job as Modi.

Invoking NaMo

This refers to the editorial "Bitter pill" (June 19). Drug pricing is an important issue since it affects mostly the middle and lower classes. It is also highly complex since, on the one hand, if we do not provide incentives to the private sector, new molecules and drugs will not be discovered; and, on the other hand, the common man will not have access to treatment because of costly medicines. The solution of reviving the public sector manufacturing companies needs to be analysed. We need to ask why did they turn sick in the first place. Also, will it augur well if more taxpayer money is invested in the public sector, which is susceptible to corruption? Although this requires a long-term solution, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority's decision to notify the medicine prices deemed essential by internationally recognised lists would be a sweet pill to patients, who no less "suffer" from the prohibitive pricing of drugs.Gopal Nayak  MumbaiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-maile

Letters: A healthy decision

This refers to the editorial "Rain before time" (June 19). It might be difficult to predict the exact timing of the monsoon, but not to adjust to variations. On the one hand, the current monsoon season will be beneficial for India's rice cultivation and production, and we must make adequate arrangements for storage and transport facilities. On the other hand, the havoc caused by the monsoon in north India - the huge loss of life and property - is a national tragedy and the Centre must extend support. There is also a need to draw up preventive measures for most states. The overall drainage system in most Indian cities is poor, and a conscious effort at improving it must be made.Jacob Sahayam  ThiruvananthapuramLetters 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: Rainy variations

This refers to the editorial "End of the cycle?" (June 18) that said "the Cabinet Committee on Investment, much hyped, has so far been a disappointment". This conclusion is contrary to the facts. The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) has been able to de-bottleneck stalled projects involving a cumulative investment of Rs 1.61 lakh crore. These projects will facilitate future investment of Rs 92,000 crore, since investment of Rs 69,000 crore has already been made in these stalled projects. These initiatives include issuing environment clearances to 106 different development projects; clearances to 30 New Exploration Licensing Policy blocks, where clearances were pending with either the ministry of commerce or the ministry of defence; 10 power transmission line projects and North Karanpura thermal power project in Jharkhand. The government's decision to set up a special cell in the Cabinet Secretariat is essentially in the nature of a project monitoring group for all large projects. T

Letters: The role of CCI

Dear Students, LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think B-schools should provide incentives to their faculty members to improve research?BEST RESPONSE Research involves great effort, along with out of the box thinking to develop something extraordinary, using specialised skills. It is responsible for rapid advancements in this fast-changing world. The faculty in a majority of institutes, in various fields, work on research projects. But they seem to have a tepid attitude towards research due to lack of remuneration. Therefore, to promote research, it is a must to provide incentives to faulty members, so as to give them a fillip.Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, LucknowOTHER RESPONSESIncentives for better research would indeed help faculty members stay motivated. That way, they would focus more on research. Faculty members would acquire more knowledge to do more research, thereby learning more with each passing day. What's more, the benefits would be transferred to institutes and their stude

Students' corner

Fixing fertility

Government must not hold up EU-India FTA further

Pushing the wrong way

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has put out an extensive database of offshore entities set up in tax havens. Thousands of entities are exposed in what is being branded a war against "secrecy". Yet, one stumbles on several offshore companies where names of shareholders and directors continue to be a secret. "Details temporarily withheld," the database said in many cases. Some of these "withheld" names are Indian. Who are these people? Are they too powerful or is the data not very reliable?

Secrecy in expose

Every organisation takes a while to get over a controversy and the railway ministry is no exception after its last minister Pawan Kumar Bansal (top) exited on the back of accusations of corruption. The trouble is, Bansal's ghost still looms large, as the new Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge realised when he took charge at Rail Bhavan today. The first draft of the press release that was given to journalists read "Shri Pawan Bansal was briefed by the railway officials...". The error was rectified after desperate calls to journalists. We can understand! What happened at the railway ministry is not easy to forget even for their employees.

Back track to Bansal

An applicant for a banking licence was recently asked what date he planned to submit the papers (applications need to be in before July 1). Obviously reluctant to provide a specific answer, he jokingly said it depended on when the stars would be propitiously aligned. And, because of the chronic uncertainty that plagues any new policy in India, he added half-seriously, "More than my own stars, it has to be RBI's stars!"

RBI's star power

This refers to Sunita Narain's column "A few pedestrian questions" (Down To Earth, June 17). It is said walking helps people improve their health. In India, unfortunately, walking on footpaths is dangerous for pedestrians. Like the statutory warnings on cigarettes, one should add "walking is dangerous to your health", at least in our cities. In Bangalore and for that matter in most Indian cities, pedestrians and cyclists are an endangered species. They are sandwiched between the footpath where they cannot walk, and the road where they run the risk of being decimated. The existing footpaths are often turned into parking bays for vehicles. Our authorities, with their mega-budget projects, should consider the plight of pedestrians and make our cities a better and safer place. They only think about making the traffic move swiftly, and not safely. Pedestrians do matter in plans that our authorities are continuously conceiving for the Indian cities. Let us also hope the police and transport

Letters: Walkable cities

This refers to T N Ninan's column "Where are the doers?" (Weekend Ruminations, June 15). A similar situation occurred during former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's regime, in which a large number of advisers were appointed from outside the civil services. Their editorials began debating whether it was a "boon or bane". A similar situation prevails here. Having too many advisory bodies with little matching action on the ground is certainly a bane for us. Further, it impedes the work of civil servants. It has now been over six months since the high-powered Cabinet committee was set up to clear stalled projects. The public is not aware of how many projects they have cleared so far. The only way to ensure this malaise is removed, is to insist on the annual reports of the respective ministries to be more meaningful with objectives, the relative achievement and reasons for shortfall. Currently, these annual reports deal with mundane information like the number of directors and divisions they

Letters: Advisory overkill

An early monsoon does not always mean a good monsoon

Rain before time

Drugs are unaffordable, but price control is the wrong answer

Bitter pill

The two-day political churning in the capital's corridors of power inevitably had its share of drama, and no one contributed to it more than Chowdhury Birender Singh, the senior Jat leader from Haryana. In the reshuffle of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the party's state-level Assembly, on Sunday evening, the member in charge of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand was divested of his organisational posts like fellow Congressman Oscar Fernandes. So where was he going? The textile ministry, some newspapers speculated, but no one could confirm this. Singh's mobile phones were switched off and his residential staff said "he would not be available for the whole of today". Most journalists interpreted this as Singh's leg-up to the Cabinet. But just before the Cabinet reshuffle, the AICC let it be officially known that Singh had been inducted as a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's executive committee. It appears that Singh had got wind of the fact that

One step sideways

Reports that the government is planning to spend over Rs 20 crore to create a separate wing of the Press Information Bureau to drive its social media initiative has come as a rude shock to its current officers. Officially, most of them declined comment. Off the record, however, they questioned the need for a fresh burden on the exchequer at a time when many of them have not received their full telephone, entertainment or mobile allowances for the past two years for lack of funds.

Spending power

This refers to Sreenivasan Jain's column "A grain of common sense" (The Thick Of It, June 12). A weak structure for accountability and auditing gives ample opportunities to officials of the food and civil supplies department and operators of the public distribution system (PDS) to tamper with the ration supplied. Though it is the department's duty to oversee the functioning of PDS, it's not possible to ensure the quality and quantity of the ration supplied given the difficulty in checking the manually maintained records. Even when the ration is stocked for a few days, there is much scope for manoeuvring. The operators have no stake in the entire system, and their commission is too nominal. And so, it's easy for officials to involve them, too. If the food security Bill is implemented, which has a provision to provide food to roughly 750 million people, the distribution will be virtually impossible via direct cash transfer. Hence, PDS seems indispensable. But then, it urgently needs to b

Letters: Overhaul PDS for food Bill

Here's a unique way of combating a professional misdemeanour. Last November, one person was shot dead after police fired ostensibly in self-defence to disperse an unruly crowd at Tehatta in West Bengal's Nadia district. Many held local Sub-Divisional Police Officer Shailesh Shah responsible, especially after TV footage confirmed his presence during the carnage. Writers' Building was also unhappy with him - a fact that was reflected in the state government's inquiry report. Not that this has chastened Shah one bit. Instead, he decided to take the civil services exam again. The last time his rank qualified him for the police service but this time he has been ranked high enough to join the Indian Administrative Service. That may be one way to buck the system, but there's still the small issue of obtaining a release letter from the state government before he can join the coveted service.

Dead serious

The report "Online retailers: Amazon versus Flipkart versus eBay" (June 17) focuses only on the online price differential. For a retiree who does a fair amount of online shopping (because it saves me the hassles of traffic and parking, besides time and petrol cost), I can say a small price differential is not the deciding factor - it's the overall shopping experience from any online retailer. And so I find that consistent service levels and responsiveness offered by the likes of Flipkart (WS Retail) and Myntra, which mainly sell their own goods, cannot be matched by retailers that follow a marketplace model. In the case of a marketplace model, the customer has to deal with a new entity each time, and has to be cautious with the fine print of each different "seller", whereas in the case of an inventory-based retailer, each satisfactory experience fortifies customer confidence since the retailer's delivery logistics and customer care remain the same. In fact, I stopped buying at eBay whe

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