Apropos T N Ninan's column "The greatest! Who?" (Weekend Ruminations, April 20),  one of Margaret Thatcher's major "achievements" was her downgrading of tertiary education. That is ironic since she started out being education minister. Clement Attlee's  major initiative of actively supporting the Redbricks does not often find mention. If Sussex, Birmingham, Reading and even Warwick attained unprecedented fame in the 1960s and the early 1970s, it was because Attlee had set in motion policies to enhance support for them without infringing on their autonomy. In Thatcher's zeal to cut government spending, milk for schoolchildren was not the only casualty. The universities had the mortification of finding reduced government support, which affected the Redbricks far worse than the ancients. The out-migration of British academics, chiefly to the US, Canada and Australia, has been irreversible. I know many of them personally, and they are without exception still smarting from having to leave i

Letters: From 'Great' to 'Little' Britain

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This refers to A K Bhattacharya's article "Not so parliamentary" (Raisina Hill, April 22). The instrument of Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs), by definition, does not seem to be effective anymore. It pertains to the way a JPC is constituted - it represents different political parties in proportion to their members of Parliament. This means the ruling combine can always manage to have its way because of its majority. Maybe, in the early days after Independence, this could have worked because the politics was not so competitive, and there were still many leaders of stature and moral standards present. But  that is not the case anymore. So, it may be worthwhile to consider constituting a JPC where parties that may have conflicts of interest recuse themselves. This will ensure a fairer enquiry.Kishor Kulkarni  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.i

Letters: A fairer JPC

Business Standard brings to you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in a price range of Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore. If you are looking at buying real estate and your budget falls within this range, an idea about prevailing rates would come in handy

Realty check

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

Case study

What ails India's beleaguered auto sector?

StatsGuru-22-April-13

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

Indicus price monitor

The price of the Supreme Court's shutdown of mining

Never again

Slowing economic growth, a depreciating rupee, and a string of arms purchase scandals that tarnished the ministry of defence (MoD) and scuttled ongoing purchases of weaponry together made a powerful case for building rather than buying defence equipment for India's military. In the dozen years since defence production was opened to foreign direct investment (with a 26 per cent cap) and to private Indian companies, the MoD has published a series of limp policies that merely paid lip service to indigenisation. Successive Defence Procurement Procedures (DPPs) of 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011 took baby steps when giant strides were needed, creating despondency and mistrust within the private sector.The latest procurement policy, DPP-2013, which the MoD cleared on Saturday, is a dramatic departure. The new acquisition procedure explicitly recognises that India's private sector is as Indian as the public sector behemoths. Now the Tata group, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Forge and a multitud

Defence Ministry comes to life

The editorial "A missed opportunity?" (April 16) provides timely advice to the public sector banks to utilise the opportunity likely to be created by mass retirements to restructure its operations by employing new technology. The fact that the large number of vacancies are intended to be filled up by compromising on job specifications shows poor succession planning. Instead of compounding the lapse by relying on internal promotions in spite of a dearth of competent personnel, the banks should use the occasion to induct fresh and better talent at different levels, and go for adding young people at foundation levels (probationary officers and the like) by adjusting the intake against higher positions. Then they can employ the new talent-mix to transform their work culture from customer-disorientation to customer-friendly organisations. In public perception, PSBs are overstaffed and gossip-minded service providers, who look upon customers as intruders in their pastime. Their true mindset

Letters: Correct, not compound

We have read in economics about how nominal values do not reflect reality. People often have a money illusion, in which they may feel better off with a rise in their nominal incomes, although their real incomes, or the purchasing power, might have fallen owing to inflation. Economists take care of such an illusion when they compile the real gross domestic product (GDP), or the net of inflation, to reflect the true underlying value of goods and services produced in a year. But, in my view, even that is illusory. Think of the enormous amount of funds squandered and misappropriated in various schemes, and without any tangible result. Under the expenditure approach to the compilation of national income, all this money is supposed to contribute to GDP. Second, in the case of works like the laying of roads, what is counted as capital formation is really patchy, lasting for just one rainy season. It is in the nature of current and not capital expenditure. It should, therefore, be deducted fro

Letters: Macroeconomics maya

The Congress and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government are facing flak over the mismanagement of the economy, and one big reason for that has been the burgeoning expenditure. Well, the austerity drive may have begun in the government, but that has not stopped some UPA ministers from openly splurging their personal wealth. A recent marriage ceremony of the grand-daughter of a senior Cabinet minister from Uttar Pradesh saw a guest list of 25,000 people - and that was only the official count. The ceremony was a virtual "open durbar" with people from all walks of life attending and availing themselves of the feasting and celebrations. This prompted some old-timers from his constituency to comment that the minister must have invited such a huge number of guests with the coming general elections in mind, and the Congress' rather uncomfortable position in Uttar Pradesh.

Open season

Milk is literally flowing in North Block, thanks to a health-conscious senior bureaucrat who prefers milk instead of tea or coffee even in the office. Apparently, the officer's staff is happy with his choice of refreshment since it affords them variety in an office where everybody survives on the standard tea from the Tea Board or coffee from the Coffee Board. But the happiest of all must be the cats roaming the corridors of North Block, which are fed all the leftover milk. Perhaps another "white revolution" has started in the finance ministry?

Milking an opportunity

The recently concluded Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in New Delhi caught the public eye with energy ministers from 23 countries vowing to take steps to increase energy efficiency and making it visible. The meeting saw the world leaders speak vigorously about energy efficiency. During her address, International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven (pictured) batted for visibility of clean initiatives and the role countries like India can play. Call it a commentator's curse, the power was suddenly disrupted, which forced Hoeven to swallow her words. "This is not energy efficiency for sure," she said.

Energy inefficiency

Is there an age limit for residential property to be insured?Yes, most insurers decline to insure homes that are 30 or 40 years old. Even if an insurer issues a home policy for an old property, it will charge a high premium (25 to 30 per cent higher, on an average), depending on the risk to the house/society and the increase in cost of construction in the area where the house is.What happens if an insured house is sold?Once the ownership is completely transferred, the policy stands cancelled and policy proposer or the previous owner of the house is paid back the premium for the remaining policy period.

Tipping point

The share of advertising on mobile and social media is expected to outshine display and e-mail

Tracking online Ad industry

If gold settles at current levels, the FY14 current account deficit forecast will come off 40 bps to 4.4% of GDP from 4.8% of GDP. Commodity strategists forecast gold prices at $1670/oz in 2013, same as 2012

Adding to the shine

A T20 cricket match will be held on May 20 between a cricket team comprising members of Parliament and Mumbai Heroes, the cricket team comprising actors of the Hindi film industry led by Sunil Shetty, at the international cricket stadium in Dharamshala. The film industry will be represented by Sohail Khan, Bobby Deol, Riteish Deshmukh and Aftab Shivadasani, while the team of parliamentarians will have veteran cricketers Mohammed Azharuddin, Kirti Azad and Navjot Singh Sidhu. The cricket team of parliamentarians will be led by Anurag Thakur, a Bharatiya Janata Party member, who is also part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Parliamentarians vs actors

Members of Parliament Shivakumar Udasi and B Y Raghavendra, son of former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, have been suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for helping the former chief minister in his campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections. Senior leaders of the BJP said Raghavendra and Udasi were not only campaigning for Yeddyurappa, but also asking BJP supporters to work for his Karnataka Janata Party (KJP). The Karnataka unit of the BJP was trying to get both of them suspended for several months, but BJP leaders finally decided to act just a month before the Assembly elections, which is due on May 5.

Political moves

Lesson of Boston, Delhi - trust between people and police matters

The greatest weapon

With plastic money gaining popularity among Indian masses, banks are stepping up efforts to increase credit card spends. Many banks have introduced reward programmes to persuade cardholders to use credit cards for booking tickets, paying bills or shopping online

The card game

Fall in gold price will likely result in a $1.37-billion dip in value of gold reserves with RBI

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