Congress should not be triumphalist about Karnataka results

Voting out misgovernance

Business Standard

Govt cannot brazen out Supreme Court's observations

Freeing the parrot

This refers to the editorial "A Bill too long delayed" (May 2). The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), a single-window clearance approval mechanism for genetically modified (GM) crops and a tool to circumvent public opposition to such crops, poses a frightening picture. The BRAI Bill is fundamentally flawed - it is creating a regulation to promote biotechnology rather than protect biosafety. Moreover, it is housed within the ministry of science and technology, which raises an issue of conflict of interest. In addition, the BRAI Bill is against the federal nature of the country since it reduces the role of state governments to a recommendatory capacity by taking away their decision-making power, even though agriculture is a state subject. The need of the hour is a biosafety protection law, as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, which clearly mentioned that BRAI is not a way forward to regulate GM crops. In 2003-04, the idea of an independ

Letters: Biosafety of our food

The article "Making Doordarshan work" (May 6) reports that TAM has issues in its methodology. To clarify, TAM's methodology has been audited by international survey measurement experts as well as reviewed by Nielsen Global Quality  team. In fact, the entire TAM methodology report was used as a guiding principle by the Amit Mitra committee set up by the information and broadcasting ministry in its recommendations on the TRP system and was annexed for reading for transparency reasons.Siddhartha MukherjeeSenior Vice-President, TAM Media ResearchLetters 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: TAM's methodology

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP's) defeat in the Karnataka Assembly polls turned Finance Minister P Chidambaram into a TV reporter. As senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh emerged from Parliament, the senior Congress leader, who was being questioned on the elections by journalists, took the mike from a TV reporter and asked Singh, "Don't you credit the Congress with victory?" Singh, who was Chidambaram's predecessor in the finance ministry, agreed that "if you stop governance, people will vote you out". "He is a gentleman," Chidambaram said of Singh when he restored the mike to the reporter.

Chidambaram, TV reporter

This refers to Vivek Dahejia's article "The real moral failure in the food security Bill debate" (May 7). One wonders where the question of morality of the "genuine centre-right, pro-market" goes when it comes to failures of "pro-market ethos that has emerged in India since 1991"? For example, the conscience of the author may remain rather unmoved by, say, facts about the so-called "pro-market" handouts to private capital. As a reader - and not an economist - one seldom comes across any moral compunction that the top 10 borrower groups in India account for 13 per cent of all commercial banks' outstanding loans. Or the burden of financing losses of banks stemming from private capital, as reflected by the 47.9 per cent compounded growth rate in volume of assets restructured by the banks between 2009 and 2012, while credit grew at 19.6 per cent. No tears for the "pro-market" economy, resulting in the public sector banking system shoring up private capital. It is convenient to shed "centre

Letters: Social irresponsibility

The conventional practice in polling booths is to mark the index figure of the voter with indelible ink after the vote has been cast. In the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly polls, it was the ring finger that was marked. When a curious voter asked an election official about this change, she said: "It is for the same reason the wedding ring is put on that finger. It's a matter of the heart. It only shows how emotionally attached we Indians are to the electoral process."

Heart of the matter

Manmohan Singh has been criticised time and again for playing second fiddle to Sonia Gandhi, keeping the prime minister's seat warm for Rahul Gandhi and more. We do not know if it was this, or his loyalty to the Congress first family that resulted in one of Congress front-runners for the Karnataka chief minister's post, Siddaramaiah, telling the media in his first post-results comments, "I wish to thank Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Gandhi."

'Manmohan Gandhi'

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think conducting CAT throughout the year would help more candidates crack the test?

Student's corner

As Pakistan prepares for national elections, the country's public mood is exceedingly grim. Roughly nine-in-10 Pakistanis believe the country is on the wrong track, and about eight-in-10 say the economy is in poor shape, according to a new survey of Pakistan by the Pew Research Center.Meanwhile, concerns about extremist groups have increased markedly. More than nine-in-10 Pakistanis describe terrorism as a very big problem, and about half now say the Taliban is a very serious threat to their country. For the first time since the Pew Research Center began polling on these issues, the Taliban is essentially considered as big a threat to Pakistan as longtime rival India.While worries about the Taliban are growing, there is almost no desire to see the US extend its fight against the group in neighbouring Afghanistan. Two-in-three Pakistanis say it is a good thing that the US plans to remove most of its troops from Afghanistan by 2014. At the same time, Washington's use of drones to target

On eve of elections, a dismal public mood in Pakistan

| Supreme Court (SC) to pronounce its verdict on the alleged interference by the government in the CBI status report on coal scam| The Congress is rebuffing all demands for resignation of Law Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal despite the CBI in its affidavit ( of May 6 ) stating that "significant" changes were made and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar had been shown the draft report| Congress says future course of action will be decided on Law minister after the court's judgment| Crucial Karnataka poll results| Pollsters predicting majority for the Congress. A Congress win will be a shot in the arm for the beleaguered Congress-led UPA, which is fending off corruption charges and several scam allegations. Also, it would put the BJP on the backfoot so far as corruption allegations go as the BJP state government was high on scams| The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-Sahara tussle is nearing the climax, as the SC is likely to decide on a contempt petition filed by Sebi. According to Sebi

All in a day

Cloud computing is revolutionary, but not yet fully reliable

A cloud over the cloud

How food security law is creating perverse incentives

Stoking inflation

Hounded by television channels to get the first on-camera reaction from him to the bribery allegations involving his nephew, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has taken to entering his Lutyens' Delhi bungalow from the back door to avoid the media stationed at the main entrance. But Bansal has another reason to worry since the 6 Ashoka Road bungalow is bang opposite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters. Naturally, the Opposition party is only too eager to feed news-hungry reporters with all sorts of details about Bansal's business and political interests. So much so that BJP workers are even providing refreshments to the waiting journalists, whereas Bansal's own staff has not even bothered to talk to them.

Tracking Bansal

Sudipta Sen, the kingpin of the beleaguered Saradha Realty, may be the biggest villain among small savers in West Bengal just now, but he has an unshakeable sense of his company's values. The message from the chairman and managing director on the company's website shows an empty chair -  which is extremely appropriate considering Sen was in jail. But it's the message that is even more bizarre given the circumstance. "Only our bonding to save the community can help the country to recoverâ€¦ We give priority to moral values".

Saradha: More empty claims

The controversy, though, has certainly compounded the confusion for Bengal Post, the group's now-closed English newspaper. In the middle of a Facebook post extolling the greatness of Saradha, one line suddenly pops out at random: "Is it the right time for Sachin Tendulkar to retire from active cricket?". Good question but what that issue has to do with a dodgy collective fund scheme is anybody's guess.

Sticky wicket

This refers to the report "No decision on Bansal at Cong core group meet" (May 4). The indecision on Pawan Kumar Bansal's resignation shows a vertiginous fall in probity in public life. Consider this: in 1956, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned accepting moral and constitutional responsibility for a railway accident at Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu that resulted in 144 deaths. While speaking in Parliament on the incident, Jawaharlal Nehru stated that he was accepting the resignation because it would set an example in constitutional propriety, and not because Shastri was in any way responsible for the accident. In Bansal's case, what has given resonance to the allegations is the fact that the bribe-giver is a member of the Railway Board, and the arrested person is  his close relative. Bansal will find it difficult to shake off suspicions that he was not aware of what was happening and, therefore, has a lot to explain.M M Gurbaxani  BangaloreLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Busin

Letters: Bansal - Morally responsible

This refers to the report "Chidambaram 'assures' no wealth tax on agriculture land" (April 30). It may be logical for the government to impose a wealth tax on farm land for rate purposes, as in the case of income tax (vide clause 2 (2) of the Finance Bill, 2013). If it does so, our wealthy agriculturists would not be able to enjoy the basic exemption limit of Rs 15 lakh for wealth tax, as the value of agricultural land would have to be taken into consideration for rate purposes only.M Krishnan  Navi MumbaiLetters 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: Wealth tax for rate purposes

This refers to Anoop Singh's article "India in a three-speed world" (May 7). Despite witnessing double-digit growth in the post-recession period, India has been devoid of robustness to sustain itself. It eventually collapsed like a stack of playing cards. The problem is deep-rooted. The lower stratum, consisting of 70 per cent of the population, is dependant on growth emanating from urban areas, mostly driven by the service sector, which has the advantage of turning investment into fast cash. The manufacturing sector has grown moderately since it does not have much advantage in competing with other emerging economies. At the same time, there are infrastructure bottlenecks, and skilled manpower is not easily available. The state of the power, mining and other tangible sectors is appalling. Besides, irregularities in mining, gas, 2G and coal are sending investors a negative message. The countercyclical measure cannot work for the economy's recovery given its huge external deficit. Moreov

Letters: India's speed breakers

Production in the eight core sectors increased 2.9% in March. Though lower than the 3% recorded in March 2012, a positive March reading is welcome, coming as it is after 2.5% contraction in February. Seven of the eight sectors - coal, crude oil, petroleum refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity - saw growth in output, against just 3 in February

Green Shoots Tracker

Backing ministers seen as corrupt is dangerous

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