UPA-II cannot afford to waste a year as a lame-duck govt

Retrieving a year

Business Standard

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is, understandably, extremely wary of allowing unknown people access to its office. That is why its personnel keep a close watch on those who purport to be journalists; allowing only familiar faces who cover the beat to stay behind after the day's business is done for strictly off-the-record briefings. Last week, the reasons for their suspicions became amply clear when an unfamiliar person sought to mingle with the journalists after business hours. When questioned, he mumbled something about representing a TV channel called "Network One", and even produced a card to this effect. Since the press officers had never heard of this channel, their suspicions were aroused and he was immediately escorted off the premises and out of the gate. It turns out that interested parties who are under investigation often resort to such measures to elicit information from CBI.

CBI's trespassers

A senior executive of a bank interested in opening a branch in Pakistan demurred when asked the status of the proposal, which followed the Indian and Pakistani governments' announcement that each would allow a branch of two banks in the other's countries. "We are scared," he eventually offered reluctantly after persistent questioning. Of what, he declined to specify. Maybe Nawaz Sharif's overt overtures of everlasting friendship for India will change those fears.

Scary banking

For Kashmir, the "heaven on earth" analogy may no longer hold true. Thanks to terrorism and disturbances in the Valley, it has come down to this: near Dal Lake in Srinagar, a sign reads, "Contractor is not responsible for any bomb blast".

No blast duty

Apropos the report "Getting ready for the anniversary" (May 13), the Rs 24,000 crore figure quoted by the Sahara chief was not the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi's) investigative disclosure. It was also Sahara that quoted the 30 million depositors figure in its optionally fully-convertible debentures scheme. Now, according to Sebi's dipstick, 99 per cent of these investors are non-existent, but the Rs 24,000 crore figure is accurate. Ideally, Sahara should have given details of a few thousand identifiable investors, and Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,000 crore as the investment. This would have been a win-win situation for all - Sebi, Sahara and the Supreme Court. If the argument is that the rest of the money was laundered, then Sahara has actually tied the cheat sheet along with the answer sheet.Next, according to Sahara, it has returned a major portion of the money to depositors, and what now remains is some Rs 5,000 crore (which Sahara has given to Sebi). Not to forget that Sa

Letters: The Sahara conundrum

The Congress has been able to get a simple majority in the Karnataka Assembly election to form the government. Its leaders interpret it to mean that the public is not convinced of any wrongdoing on the part of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. A dispassionate analysis shows that the Congress is the beneficiary of the "first-past-the-post-and-winner-takes-it-all" system. If proportional representation had been in operation, the Congress would have got around 80 seats - far below the 112 required for a simple majority. Its vote share was only 36.5 per cent - less than two per cent more than what it had on the previous occasion. Second, people are by now sufficiently educated and knowledgeable enough to distinguish between different elections. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam did not get a single seat in Tamil Nadu in the parliamentary election of 2004 and won only seven seats in 2008, but in the Assembly election of 2011 earned a good majority, thanks

Letters: Voting patterns

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think learning a web-based engineering course through NPTEL will help enhance skill and employability of students and professionals?

Student's corner

Should India's telecom backbone be made in China?

The foreign spine

Lessons for RBI and banks from Cobrapost investigation

Sting in the tale

Text messages sent to journalists by the commerce department on inflation data on Tuesday may belie the popular notion of lethargic government employees. The first message, routinely sent ahead of every government data release, said inflation data would be on the Press Information Bureau site shortly. Within minutes another message arrived to say the site was down and the information would be emailed to each journalist's personal ID. Sure enough, it arrived in their mailboxes soon after. Such proactive vigilance was probably the result of the seemingly "good" news that inflation had hit a three-year low, but in a news cycle in which competition is minute-to-minute, reporters at least were grateful.

Up to speed

Swedish home decor major IKEA sought to send out a pointed message recently at a series of meetings with the CEO. Having been at the centre of sourcing controversies, the chain, which is in the process of setting up stores in India, included three India-made products in a kit it is handing out to visitors. Retail policy requires foreign chains setting up shop in India to source at least a quarter of their products from the country and IKEA was clearly hoping to make the point on this politically sensitive issue as strongly as it could.

Made in India

A retail chain run by a large conglomerate seems to be facing even tougher times than it did before. Some poor numbers seem to have forced it to cut corners. Many of its stores had an army of housekeeping staff to keep things neat and tidy. But for the past few days, they have been conspicuous by their absence. Is there a change in contractor or the sales staff have got some new "sweeping" powers?

Sweeping powers

Apropos Sukumar Mukhopadhyay's article "Did the CAG overstep the mark?" (May 13), the retiring Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai has metamorphosed the image of his department as did T N Seshan to the Election Commission, but unlike him, in a non-boisterous manner. Rai has opened the CAG reports to the public eye under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. His team has been criticised for the "exaggerated" estimates of revenue losses arising from the wrong implementation of a policy or a procedure. However, one cannot allege that these were motivated. There is no single method of working out loss to the exchequer arising from the audit of scams like 2G or Coalgate, and the CAG selected one of them and spelt out the basis in its reports. It is wrong for the affected politicians to blame Rai for their troubles by the Central Bureau of Investigation or the judiciary. The CAG's reports did not suggest foul play on the part of the prime minister, but emphasised the la

Letters: Vinod Rai's legacy

Apropos the report "Hyd's rich report just Rs 5 lakh income" (May 11), while the rich get away with understating their income, the Income-Tax (I-T) Department chooses to harass honest taxpayers by not giving them their refunds. I have made several visits to the I-T Department for my refunds for 2008 and 2010, but to no avail. Two I-T officials verified my returns, passed the refunds, made me verify my bank account details three times and yet, my refunds have not been credited. "Grievance redressal" has no meaning - do the chief commissioners have a solution for such taxpayers?P Annapurna  SecunderabadLetters 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: Harrying honest taxpayers

Apropos the report "I have done no wrong: Ashwani Kumar" (May 12), Kumar is claiming innocence by hiding behind the fact that he himself did not suggest any changes in the report. But is Kumar not blissfully ignoring the fact that it was his action in calling the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director to his office that enabled the suspect ministries to not only discover what had been found against them, but suggest changes, which, most unreasonably, the CBI director accepted? Should Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not resign before people who were his direct subordinates in the Prime Minister's Office and the coal ministry at the time of allotment of many mines are actually indicted by the CBI for corruption in these allotments - as is almost sure to happen in the future? Alternatively, the Congress may aim to delay these indictments till after the 2014 elections.Alok Sarkar  KolkataLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur S

Letters: The PM must resign first

The European Union (EU) has emerged the new sick man of Europe, according to a Pew survey. The idea of a unified Europe, numerous efforts towards which have been made in the past half century, is now the principal casualty of the crisis across the region

Idea of European Union under threat

A Chinese wall between media arms and data services

Terminalgate

After the jobs-for-sale scam that cost Railway Minister Pawan Bansal his job, Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal was reportedly keen to meet journalists to clear his position and also that of the board's on the scam. Insiders said, however, the plan was dropped at the last minute. Some say one reason for cancelling the meet was that Mittal's own appointment has come under a cloud after the scam broke out.

Derailed intentions

Marriages may be made in heaven but the menu for the wedding feast is fixed by the bride's family. Of late in Maharashtra, though, the menu is being determined by the controversial local body tax (LBT). The traders' protest against the state government's decision to implement LBT to replace Octroi duty has forced the families to struggle to change the menu for want of supplies. Some families, thus, forewent their trendy menus of chaat, dosas, Chinese and Tex-Mex, and apologetically offered their guests the traditional puri bhhaji and shira instead.

Local body menu

With Air India's 787 Dreamliners set to resume operations today after being grounded a few months ago on safety issues, questions were raised about the compensation Boeing is offering for losses that the national carrier incurred. The compensation amount being negotiated being strictly confidential, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh adroitly skirted the question by laughingly acknowledging it. "Very good question. It's interesting," he said and quickly went on to other issues.

A question of answers

Nitin Gadkari may no longer be the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president but he is still busy. First, he is clearing the tax and legal issues facing the Purti Group of Industries that cost him a second presidential term. Second, he's trying to build bridges, but this time between the estranged brothers Uddhav and Raj Thackeray in a bid to form a "Maha Alliance" to defeat the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in the coming elections. But BJP insiders question Gadkari's efforts. They say Gadkari always likes to take credit for the construction of 55 flyovers in Greater Mumbai and the Mumbai-Pune expressway during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule in 1995-99. But where bridges and flyovers need good quality concrete and skilled manpower, building bridges between two people needs personal skills that Gadkari may lack.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 732 - Business Standard