Apropos Mihir Sharma's column "Damned if you do" (Ticker, April 27), the author seems to overlook one important feature of our democracy, namely collective responsibility of the Cabinet. Each ministry may be an independent institution, but only in a limited sense, insofar as the day-to-day working is concerned. Though a ministry may propose policies and methods of implementation, the Cabinet is expected to keep a check on them to ensure that there are no malafides or obvious errors of omission and commission in the ministry's policies and procedures. To that extent, the prime minister is required to play the role of a big brother watching all the time. While he may not ride roughshod over ministers, he should certainly bring contentious issues to the Cabinet and ensure that they are sorted out collectively and expeditiously in the optimum public interest. That is how the prime minister is expected to play the role of a leader. If the Cabinet decisions are taken by a majority vote inste

Letters: Collective responsibility

Business Standard

When it comes to computer-attack traffic, China deserves the bulk of the blame, but not all of it. Ten countries, including China, accounted for three-quarters of the world's cyber-assault traffic during the last quarter of 2012, according to Akamai Technologies, which helps companies speed the delivery of online content. Here's a look at which countries made the top 10 list

Red alert

Centre must share blame for Ponzi schemes with West Bengal

Waking up too late

Horns of a dilemma

Prime accused in the Saradha scam, Sudipta Sen, had named several VIPs as complicit  - some indirect connections, some passing references, but it is not clear if anything substantial will be proved against any of them. Sen, however, also named two key people who seemed to have played pivotal roles in bringing Saradha into existence and marketing it. Shib Narayan Das introduced the hugely profitable "money market  business" to Sen, and Subir Das, the marketing head, helped him build it across Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and the northeastern states. Little is known of their whereabouts. In all the din surrounding Sen and his political bosses, the men who built Sen's empire seem to be getting away.

Saradha's missing links

Trinamool Congress' Kalyan Banerjee, as chairman of the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel, went hammer and tongs against the coal block allocations between 1993 and 2010, terming them "illegal and unauthorised". He demanded that all blocks that had not started production should be immediately scrapped. "No transparent system was followed and it was total abuse of power by the government," Kalyan thundered. To this, a journalist pointed out that Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee, who was coal minister in the previous National Democratic Alliance government, was also involved in the allocations. That stumped Kalyan who, ever the party loyalist, came up with an absurd answer after a second: "Every coal minister is not party to the allocation process."

Coal block, mental block

When Maruti Suzuki announced its financial results on Friday, journalists were surprised to note the presence of both current Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa and his recently retired predecessor Shinzo Nakanishi. To clear the confusion, Nakanishi jokingly explained, "I told Ayukawa san if the numbers are good, I will announce them. If the results are bad, he can present them and blame me." True to form, it was Nakanishi who went ahead and announced the company's highest-ever quarterly profits. Maybe he was trying to underline the fact that the achievement happened on his watch.

Driven by success

This refers to Shyamal Majumdar's column "When HR meets economics" (Human Factor, April 26). Today, human resources (HR) management on a stand-alone basis does not serve any purpose. Unless HR managers are effective marketing managers; good at strategy-making and implementation as well as hard-core business operations; and have the ability to grasp and interpret financial numbers; they cannot engage, train, develop and retain scarce talent in different fields of operations. In fact, stand-alone HR specialists cannot even draw up and implement suitable HR strategies, and integrate them with overall business strategies.I K Kilam  FaridabadLetters 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: Better HR managers

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ranjit Sinha's affidavit before the apex court has delivered a damning indictment of the unscrupulous ways of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The "prostituted" report once again establishes that the Congress constantly interferes in the functioning of CBI. Ashwani Kumar may be a minister with a good command of English. But the purported correction of "grammatical mistakes" in the CBI report stretches credulity to the limit. The tampering of the CBI report by the government is tantamount to the acquittal report being written by the accused themselves. Going to any lengths, including  meddling in CBI's affairs, to escape the consequences of its corruption, has become the wont and hallmark of the UPA government. The argument that the final draft was not shown to the law minister is specious. There was no need to show it to him after it was altered and amended to suit the government. It is common sense that the draft "app

Letters: The government's CBI report

In analysing the statistics on bank advances, the data on the total outstanding credit (stock) of the institutions are utilised. The difference in the amounts between two dates is interpreted as the credit extended (flow). Conceptually, the outstanding credit at the end of a period is equal to that at the beginning plus fresh lendings minus repayments (the last two during the period). The true flow of credit relates to principal only. The problem facing a researcher is that the outstanding stock at a point of time, published now, includes interest and the principal. In both cases, a part is made up of data on non-performing assets (NPAs). At a time of rising NPAs, a significant proportion of the so-called increase in credit between two points of time may be accounted for by the interest element and rising overdues. The Reserve Bank of India needs to look into the matter and devise measures to capture the true data relating to fresh advances (flows) of banks.A Seshan  MumbaiLetters can

Letters: Credit, stocks and flows

The price of rice has been rising since September 2011, making this basic cereal more and more expensive

Indicus price monitor

StatsGuru: 29-April-2013

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

Case study

A pinch of salt

PMO's approach to reviving economy needs rethinking

No quick fixes

This refers to the report "Mukesh Ambani's 24x7 Z-security cover to cost him Rs 15 lakh a month" (April 23)

Letters: Securing Ambani

This refers to Shanthu Shantharam's letter "The value of new biology" (April 23). Michael Antoniou, Claire Robinson and John Fagan  have presented a detailed evidence-based examination of the claims for the safety and efficacy of genetically modified (GM) crops

Letters: Demystifying GM

This refers to Kanika Datta's column "Age-old problems" (April 25). Gerontocracy - the hallmark of totalitarian regimes in Communist Russia, China, Cuba or erstwhile Eastern Bloc and theocratic regimes in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Vatican - is inexplicable in a democratic country like India, especially when 65 per cent of our population is below 30 years of age

Letters: Perils of patriarchy

In early April, a leading financial daily published a front-page advertisement saying the CII was organising a financial markets conclave in Kolkata

Ad infinitum

The Congress and the DMK might have turned sworn enemies after the latter withdrew support to the UPA government

Talking heads

Who will win the next general elections? No one's sure, not even the ruling parties, it seems

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