The law's dilemma

Business Standard

Time to question the assumptions behind the food Bill

Rushing it through

Aruna Roy's decision to end her relationship with the National Advisory Council (NAC) was an unmistakable protest against the precedence given by the United Progressive Alliance government to "pro-growth agenda" over "pro-poor agenda". Her realisation that NAC cannot match the overpowering influence of the corporate forces in policymaking in the government made her bid NAC adieu. Her parting shot that Sonia Gandhi's ability to push through welfare schemes has come down over the years attests that the government is in the control of corporate houses, and not the Congress and its supreme leader. It is the classic case of the surrender of the power of the state to the corporations. With its abject failure to implement inclusive policies and alleviate poverty, the government's claim of being pro-poor lies in tatters. The government, which has given a whopping ~5 lakh crore as tax concessions to the corporate sector, has no money to pay the statutory minimum wages to labourers who do back-b

Letters: NAC and corporate forces

Apropos the editorial "Natural partners" (May 30), Manmohan Singh's visit to Japan is a  welcome change from India's usual foreign policy stance in East Asia, which is overtly obsessed with China. India needs to shake itself out of the vestige of the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and  start asserting its presence in the region. For this, it needs to project itself as a viable alternative business destination to all Asian economies. This will not only give a fillip to India's foreign trade and economy, but will also provide the required leverage in our relation with China.V Sridhar, KolkataLetters 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: India's role in East Asia

Apropos Debashis Basu's column "Protecting customers from 'banksters'" (Irrational Choice, June 3), the word "banksters" rhymes with another word so well that it takes the meaning from it. While reading the article, I almost thought that the writer was describing my experience with private banks. Once my interest due was so cleverly siphoned away that I had to write a fireball of a letter to the topmost official of the bank. Pat came a call from one of its very senior officers, and I got my interest back. But why should such things happen? Reporting profits for a bank is fine, but not by playing upon the confidence of its customers. The so-called "relationship managers" have been let loose on unsuspecting customers. They gain access to the customers' residences, citing all sorts of imaginary stories such as the KYC is not updated or the demat account is not being used. And once you make an appointment and give your PAN card number (which has been given many times earlier), the relation

Letters: Gangs of private banks

Direct Benefit Transfer - one of the United Progressive Alliance's ambitious flagship welfare programmes - may have made a slow start, forcing the government to postpone the second phase. This has not, however, stopped it from installing an Aadhaar-linked attendance system in the Planning Commission. The move has left many employees perplexed: what does Aadhaar have to do with daily attendance formalities? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Unique Identification Authority of India, which is responsible for the Aadhaar programme, has an office attached to the Planning Commission.

Aadhaar as access card

Large corporations operating in Chhattisgarh are often criticised for not investing enough in local development to foster growth and prosperity in the state. But in one instance at least, they were literally responsible for feeding those who claim to be concerned about these issues. Recently, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) marched out on a vikas yatra, ostensibly to showcase Chief Minister Raman Singh's work on development. Since the operative word was "vikas" (progress), local leaders and bureaucrats decided that corporations had to be involved in some way. So industrial houses were told to be part of Chhattisgarh's "vikas" by arranging food for those accompanying the chief minister on the yatra. The CEO of a leading public sector company was even asked to welcome the chief minister when he passed through his project area. This request put the CEO in a fix. How could he attend a BJP-sponsored programme when the Congress was in power at the Centre? The remedy: the company arra

Food for work

Banking is a complex business, but even by those standards, some of the clarifications sought by prospective applicants of new banking licences from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were decidedly odd. A couple of them asked questions on the lines of "whether a bank is to be incorporated prior to making an application to the RBI for a licence/Is the banking company required to be incorporated before submitting the application?" To which the RBI obviously answered in the negative. Another question that foxed central bank officials read: "What is the nature of the business plan submission (Excel model/word file/any other format)?"

Banking on questions

Arrival of monsoonThe southwest monsoon hit Kerala on its usual onset date, June 1

Green shoots tracker

NAC shouldn't have seen growth as the enemy of welfare

A wrong diagnosis

New RBI norms for restructured assets to improve transparency

Tough but necessary

This refers to the report "Infosys recalls Murthy for forward push" (June 2). N R Narayana Murthy has accepted the distress call from Infosys, the company he founded and nurtured. It is unprecedented in corporate India that a retired chairman has been called to take control because the company is losing ground. Mr Murthy will certainly check the company's slipping fortunes. But he cannot be present forever. Infosys will have to learn to stay in good health even without Mr Murthy.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) 23720201  Â·  E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Back to the drawing board

Apropos Subrata Chakraborty's article "What they don't teach you at B-schools" (May 30), the writer is in good company with Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg in criticising the so-called irrelevance of management education in meeting employers' needs. The other side of the issue is: whether MBAs turn into "creative leaders" or "masters of analysis" depends much on the organisational culture and the type of leadership provided in their formative years. In a supportive, intra-entrepreneurial environment they - imbued with new ideas, updated learning and cognitive skills - establish their credentials. In a stifling climate, the budding genius is nipped in the bud. Failure of MBAs, if any, has to be shared by companies too.Having worked on both sides of the fence - 37 years in industry and 15 years in management teaching - I wonder whether business also should not adapt its policy and approach to benefit from business education. In other words, should MBAs be taught business ethics or the

Letters: It's not just B-schools

Apropos Subrata Chakraborty's straightforward commentary on Indian B-schools ("What they don't teach you at B-schools", May 30) that their curricula are out of step with corporate demand for innovation-led and creative thinkers, some introspection is also warranted on our submission to the Western model of management thinking and curricula building. Unless we have an Indian version of management stream, we will remain captive to irrelevant management models, which Chakraborty aptly describes as starting with disciplines, moving to functions and ending with an integration of topics. Having taught numerous MBA courses at premier B-schools, I have seen how students who score impressive CGPAs (or cumulative grade point average) are often ignorant about their social surroundings and institutional challenges, which form the bedrock of innovation. Such students, thus, remain in rational analysis mode of understanding business. It's time for a fundamental change in the thinking process on the

Letters: Let's get down to business

The launch of a new political party is rarely considered big news in a country that has over 100 of them at national and state level. So how do you entice the press to attend your launch press conference? Yogendra Makwana, who says his "Pan-India Political Party, Bharat Navnirman Party" will "provide a voice to all poor and underprivileged citizens in every part of the country regardless of caste, creed and religion", has clearly given some thought to this. Thus, the letter of invitation promises that reporters and photographers can "enjoy a Rajasthani lunch" after the press meet.

Lunch for launch

The free laptops doled out to students by the Uttar Pradesh government as part of the Samajwadi Party's election manifesto promises are unique in more ways than one. For one, they all come with pre-programmed screen savers in the form of photographs of UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav. But that's not all. Some students complain that they cannot change the screen saver. If their claims are correct, the users will be stuck with a permanent reminder of their benefactors - which is, after all, the object of the exercise.

Yadavs' photo op

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not without a sense of humour. Often, when he is at home, he takes off his pagdi. Since he has very little hair, it is possible that he may not be easily recognised without his pagdi. So once when he was working from home, an official who entered his study carrying some files thought he had come to the wrong place and tried to quickly retrace his steps. "Come in, come in, I am the same Manmohan Singh you see every day" called out the prime minister to reassure him.

Bald truth

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

Indicus price monitor

Some troubles in corporate results, but also green shoots

StatsGuru: 3-June-2013

Recovery is not guaranteed unless govt spends on asset creation

Stuck at the bottom?

Shopping portals must work to enhance their digital listening capabilities to address negative feedback

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