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This refers to "Miner's obsession with targets led it to rejig production cycle for years" (April 12). The answer lies in large-producing underground mechanised mines. It would not only ensure good quality ore, but also augment domestic coal production and defer the cost of mechanisation, or bring the production cost to economic level. The government should liberalise the coal sector and encourage both public sector undertakings and private companies to implement the mechanisation. This would also reduce the dependence on coal imports and ensure India's growth trajectory is not compromised owing to want of energy security.Amar Bhasin New South Wales, AustraliaLetters 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

Letter: Increasing coal production

Apropos the report "Finance ministry relaxes govt banks' staff promotion norms" (April 8), the ministry has mandated banks to exclude an officer out of the consideration zone if he has not obtained an average of minimum 60 per cent marks in the preceding five years in the annual performance appraisal ratings. Employees cannot be subject to any change in the policy guidelines with retrospective effect; it's against the rules of natural justice. An employee stands excluded for the lower marks in annual appraisal ratings of performance since 2007-08 - one, without his previous marks disclosed to him; two, without an opportunity to represent against arbitrary appraisal rating, detrimental to his promotion. Such a policy change demands the communication of marks to the officer concerned, with a view to give him a chance to have a say.Naresh Gaurav Mittal New DelhiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002F

Letter: An unfair appraisal system

This refers to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar's column "Trai's bad timing" (Media Scope, April 9). The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai's) decision to cap advertising time to 12 minutes per hour may be controversial. But it is not just advertising that may make the consumer switch off, sulk, surf or put up with it. It is our panel of experts, as well, who appear on TV with their sundry views and opinions, driving consumers to sulk or surf.We regularly see the same personalities being called to participate as panelists, and their considered opinion sought on the varied subjects and topics of the day. They represent different political parties or socially well-known personalities. Arthur Koestler, an intellectual of the last century, called them "the call girls", and wrote a novel with the same title. They are men and women of the international jet set who, at the lift of a telephone, will fly from conference to congress to symposium to discuss subjects of world importance. These conf

Letter: Frequent guest fatigue

Is the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) three times lucky? Having revised industry growth targets three times for financial year 2012-13 on the back of uncertain macroeconomic conditions, SIAM President S Sandilya was more cautious when he presented the outlook for the current year. After going over detailed data on growth projections for the economy, inflation, agriculture and industry, he said, "Given that all these parameters remain the same, we are likely to achieve our target." Then came a specific caveat: "But there is a chance of around 33 per cent that we just might not!"

Third time lucky

Losing steam$5.85 billionTotal value of M&A, PE deals in the first quarter of 2013, compared with $20.53 billion and $20.48 billion in the corresponding quarters of 2012 and 2011, respectively$0.19 billionValue of outbound deals (Indian companies acquiring businesses abroad) in the first quarter of 2013, compared with $0.69 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2011

M&A deals slow to a snail's pace

Of the high-earning billionaire chief executives in the US,some have an annual salary of just $1, while others take home a tidy sum as salary. A chunk of their annual pay cheques, however, consists of vested stocks and other options. A look at the billionaire chief executives taking home the biggest pay cheques in 2012, based on SEC filings. (Click on graphic)

Billionaire CEOs with the biggest pay cheques

Senior Congress leaders, who otherwise were prone to giving their instantaneous response to any issue, have suddenly started exercising caution. This can be largely attributed to the new six-member media response committee set up by Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. Peeved by the multiple voices emanating from the Congress camp over current issues, such as the controversy generated over General Secretary Digvijay Singh's remark of "twin power centres" and the Congressmen giving divergent views on it, Gandhi has appointed the team, comprising Ahmed Patel, Janardhan Dwivedi and Manish Tewari, to brainstorm and come up with uniform responses to issues. The team has a "good balance" of youth and experienced leaders, since it also includes Digvijay Singh, Deepinder Hooda and Sandeep Dikshit.

Solo voice

The political tussle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has of late spilled over into the social media. Although the Congress was a late entrant - with the BJP sympathisers doing exceedingly well with their onslaught of #PappuCII on Twitter, lampooning Rahul Gandhi's address at the Confederation of Indian Industry's convention - most reckon that the Congress camp made up for the lost time. While there is no official word on this from either camps, the fact is that within minutes of Narendra Modi addressing the Ficci Ladies Organisation meet, Twitter was flooded with #Feku tweets, targeting Modi. While there is much speculation that both political parties were initially behind the whole Twitter war, it was the twitterati who enjoyed it the most - spinning non-stop jokes at the expense of the two leaders.

Twitter wars

An analysis of shareholding data of Nifty companies shows foreign investors increased holdings in power major NTPC most, followed by private sector lenders Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank. The substantial increase in shareholding in NTPC (7.16 percentage points) and Axis Bank (4.53) could be on the back of the large share sales in these two companies.IndusInd Bank, too, saw foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and insurance companies increase holding by 158 and 132 percentage points respectively, but mutual funds pared their holding in the Mumbai-based bank by 179 basis points. On an overall basis, FII shareholding in Indian companies rose further to an all-time high during the March quarter, while that of domestic investors fell to the lowest level in over three years (Click on graphic)

The long and short of it

The land acquisition Bill that waits to be presented in Parliament has had a long journey. From being a rehabilitation and resettlement policy for those who lose land, it has become a policy aiming to balance the land needs of industry with the problems of displacement and compensation faced by those who lose land. A look at the journey down the past decade:

A decade of the land bill

Overall industrial output has grown at a rate lower than that of the core sector in each month of 2012-13 (till Jan), barring Oct. In Feb, the core sector output, with a weight of 38 per cent on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), declined 2.5 per cent, the first fall since July 2005. The low base - of 160.2 points in Feb 2012 - could, however, help IIP register high growth numbers in the month this year, data for which will be released today. (Click on graphic)

Industrial turnaround?

While the country's current account deficit (CAD) touched a high of 6.7 per cent of GDP in the third quarter of 2012-13, the rupee has not reacted much. According to analysts, the CAD figures, compiled by the government, taking into account the commerce ministry's figures on the oil import bill, among other things, is different from the petroleum ministry's figures. During the April-February period, the petroleum ministry says the crude oil import bill, including lubricants, was $129 billion. The commerce ministry's estimate shows it was $156 billion. According to economists, if the petroleum ministry's estimates are taken into account, the CAD numbers will not be as bad. In the first three quarters of 2012-13, the gap widened by $11 billion, while the rupee has remained range-bound during most of that period, with the central bank buying and selling dollars.The reasons for the rupee remaining range-bound include strong inflow of foreign institutional investors (FII)'s money into equit

Despite high CAD, rupee remains range-bound

India's milk revolution is still incomplete

Protect the Anand model

RBI norms on foreign control of corporations will clear the air

Lines of foreign control

The hot season is upon us, the time when politicians and bureaucrats start heading overseas. Usually these trips are made on the flimsiest of pretexts, but with sharp cutbacks in expenditure, the reasons for overseas travel have to be more robust. And what better reason than to study the complex and politically sensitive Goods and Services Tax (GST)? Indeed, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has visited several countries in the last few years to study their GST models. After travelling to Canada, Europe, Japan, the UK, Australia and New Zealand in the past, a state finance minister suggested a trip to the US this year. When told that there is no GST in the US, his response was: "Even better. If such a large country can do without GST, we must go and see."

Goods and Services Travel

The portfolio of industries and mines is an onerous one in any state. But perhaps for Saurabh Patel, who holds the portfolio in Gujarat, it's a little more troublesome than most. Talking about a recent visit from a group of cotton ginners, Patel said he asked them why they weren't being industrious and expanding. Was it for lack of money? To this they replied, "Saheb, paisa bahu chhe, pann 2 number na chhe, karvanu shu?" which translates to, "Sir, we have lots of money but it's black money. What should we do?"

The colour of money

Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Arvind Mayaram has a serious public persona but DEA officials got to see quite another side to him during the annual retreat last week. Not only did he good-naturedly display his singing talents, he also stayed for all three days of the retreat, unlike some past secretaries. He also broke the tradition of arriving at the venue in his official car, opting instead to travel with other officials in the bus that started from North Block. In a true retreat spirit, he encouraged his officers to mingle with each other, speak to officials in other divisions and exchange ideas.

Retreat from formality

This refers to the editorial "The Iron Example" (April 10). Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi were contemporaries. The former had a market-oriented approach, while the latter pursued a centre (rather a centre-left) path, though a decade or so earlier. Thatcher was a success, and so was Gandhi. However, what worked in the 1970s and 1980s for both Britain and India is not working today - which is not surprising.In fact, India is in the same situation as Britain was when Thatcher took over. The key parameters for the head of the next government due by 2014 are deregulating the economy, encouraging enterprise and risk-taking, and cutting taxes for businesses to incentivise efforts. Individual aspiration also needs to be encouraged. Unions hold on power must be loosened. All these point to Narendra Modi as the most suitable candidate.In Britain, whatever Thatcher did - and failed in - did not prompt a call by the socialists to take the road back to the days of quasi-communism and union st

Letters: A Thatcher for India

Apropos the editorial "Preventing an exit" (April 11), data show how precarious our forex reserve position is. Out of the total reserve of $300 billion, almost half constitute of FII holdings -which is extremely volatile. In a pessimistic scenario, where exports remain sluggish and prices of both crude oil and gold increase, we could even see our reserves being reduced to about half the current levels. Hopefully, such a scenario will not play out, and we may be able to avoid taking resort to IMF funding.P V Rajeev  New DelhiLetters 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: Risky forex reserves

What to do if FII selling becomes a trend

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