Last Sunday, a data collector came over for the economic census, and asked me the usual questions about my income and the source. Next, she asked my religion. When I said I had none, she made an entry. I wanted to see what she had written. I checked and saw that she had classified me as "others". She showed me that there were eight religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism, and the last entry was "others". I told her if I had no religion and was an atheist, she could not put me into "other religions". She said with the list structured as it was, she could not do anything else.She is not to blame. But a separate classification of atheism should exist. By no stretch of imagination, can atheism be "other religions". I remember an entry for atheists in the 1971 Census. I read in newspapers that there were 10,000 atheists in Delhi. We  have the right to know if we have become an endangered species. And, more importantly, what is the reason for this enormous wa

Letters: Endangering atheists

Business Standard

This refers to the Chinese Whisper "Utterly Butterly" (April 2). I recall a similar incident related to a senior Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) official at a function where foreign delegates were invited. On being introduced to one of the foreign delegates, the Sebi official took out his pack of visiting cards and - horror of horrors - licked his index finger before extracting a card! The look on the foreign delegate's face was a sight - only I did not have a camera. Old habits evidently do not die easily. The card was gingerly accepted by the recipient, but I am sure to be discarded or disinfected later. Many senior officials in governments, private and public sectors and banks actually need to learn some basic etiquette.T R Ramaswami, MumbaiLetters 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 n

Letters: Licky wicky

Many Indian retail e-commerce websites selling electronic items do not ship to West Bengal and to some other states. Dell, the world leader in customised notebooks and desktop computers, also prefers not to ship to these states. The deterrent is the hassle involved in getting a waybill for an unregistered person for the entry of merchandise into these states. Some shippers, however, manage to ship to these states with the help of unscrupulous courier companies, which appear to smuggle these shipments without tax payments. Better sense can prevail if the state governments allow courier companies to clear these shipments upon the payment of requisite commercial taxes on behalf of the addressee. This is already operational in case of Customs Duty. Additionally, the state governments can put up a convenient interface with a payment gateway on their websites to facilitate instant issue of waybills. It is high time the babus woke up to the need of the hour in the interest of revenue and the

Letters: 'Free' home delivery

Here is a succinct description of the policy paralysis that ails the Indian government. Explaining how uncertainty is killing the confidence of business houses and impacting investments at a recent panel discussion in Delhi, HCL Infosystems CEO Harsh Chitale said it operates at multiple levels: "One government changing the decision of the other, or one bureaucrat of the same government changing the policy of another. And if nobody is changing the decision, then someone else will at least question it."

Paralysed by change

Land-related issues are political hot potatoes and nobody understands this better than Food Minister K V Thomas, whose home state is tiny Kerala, which has one of the highest population densities in India. At a recent press meet, he candidly admitted that the emotional attachment to land is so strong in Kerala that if he favoured ending land ceiling in the state, he would have no chance of being re-elected. If, on the other hand, he opposed an end to land ceiling, it would have no impact on his electoral prospects. The minister's frank observations could apply to any state and is a pointer to why industry struggles to acquire the large landholdings it needs to compete globally.

A minister's ground reality

Rahul Gandhi's speech had repercussions of sorts a few kilometres away at the Hero Mindmine Summit 2013, the topic for which was "Today's India: Economics or Politics?". The keynote speaker at the summit was Praful Patel, who said Gandhi's address would answer the question posed by the topic in the future. To which session moderator Sunil Kant Munjal sceptically countered: "Will it really make an impact?" Patel then beat a retreat saying he was only being politically correct. The sub-text: his Nationalist Congress Party is a key ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance after all, and elections aren't that far away.

Telling support

At least nine current or former SAC employees have been tied to allegations of insider trading while working at the hedge fund. SAC settled two civil insider trading lawsuits for $616 million earlier this month. Here is how some of those cases have progressed

Insider trading cases at a top hedge fund

Sector-wise allocations in 2013The real estate sector attracted the most investments, accounting for 31.43% of the total investments in terms of deal value with an aggregate of $540.05 million. Utilities came second, attracting $364.96 million (10.34%) across four deals in 2013. Materials, healthcare equipment & services were the other top sectors (Click on graphic)

A Snapshot of pe activity & deals

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think IIMs should also get a Council on the similar lines of IIT Council?

Student's corner

Task for the BJP's nominee is not that easy

Mr Modi's bumpy road

FSLRC recommendations ignore the Indian context

All in the preconditions

Apropos the editorial "Between two stools" (March 29), when the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was sent, India had Sri Lanka agree that the Tamil majority areas in the north and east of Sri Lanka would have the same rights as the states of the Indian Union. Had the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) not spurned India's efforts to help them, waged a totally unnecessary war against the IPKF killing over 1,000 Indian soldiers and assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the main problem of the Sri Lankan Tamils would have been over long back. Just as Hitler had brought untold sorrow to Germany, V Prabhakaran has brought untold sorrow to Sri Lankan Tamils. While one hopes that the Sri Lankan government will treat Sri Lankan Tamils decently, it makes little sense for India and Indian Tamils to ask for instant solutions after the LTTE foisted a totally unnecessary, debilitating and bitter war on the Sri Lankan government.Alok Sarkar,  KolkataLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor,

Letters: Warring nations

Apropos Jayanta Roy's article "Time to scrap the annual trade policy" (March 25), not only the current account deficit, but also the rapidly burgeoning negative balance of trade, owing to heavy imports of coal, oil and gas and falling exports, pose serious concerns. It's time for India to revamp its foreign trade policy. The recent India-Africa conclave brought to light the potential of the little-tapped African market for both imports and exports. Most African countries need infrastructure projects such as power, road, ports and rail, but lack sufficient funds. At the same time, they have huge deposits of coal and gas (for our power projects), phosphate (for our fertiliser industry) and oil. Hence, India should resort to the traditional way of "barter" trading, or even "rupee trade" akin to the one with the erstwhile USSR using an escrow account. This will not only reduce the country's trade imbalance but will also open the floodgates for other Indian products and services into Africa

Letters: Bartering with Africa

This refers to the editorial "Patent problems" (April 2). The recent Supreme Court verdict will benefit several other nations that receive health aids through Unicef and non-governmental organisations like the International Dispensary Association since five per cent of their supply is sourced from India. At the same time, the verdict will not have a deterrent effect on innovations. The fear of pharmaceutical companies not investing in research and development for new drugs in India is misplaced, since it will still be cost-effective for companies to invest in the country. It is a lesson for multinational companies to stop using patents as their "right to loot". Clearly, the costing practice of pharma companies is not transparent; it is based on exaggerated and unrealistic assumptions. And this lobby has become very powerful - even trying to extend its hold to get patents for traditional ayurvedic products, yoga and turmeric, the traditional Indian spice. Medicine prices have gone up mo

Letters: MNCs & their 'right to loot'

Little things can sometimes trigger the biggest of revolts, even in waning organisations like the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE). The DSE is witnessing an uproar with some shareholders challenging the management's decisions. They have even managed to reject the exchange's annual accounts. It all started with an air-conditioner. Some time ago, the management had stopped the air-conditioning facility at the stock exchange's old premises where some of the broker-shareholders had their offices. The annual expense of Rs 20 lakh was too much to foot for the defunct exchange, the management had reasoned then. Now, brokers have turned the tables on the management, questioning the rationale of having high-cost staff and innumerable board meetings and spending lakhs of rupees on sitting fees for those meetings when it could not afford an electricity bill.

Heat over air-conditioning

In India, it is routine for job vacancies to receive many thousands of applicants per job, especially for government jobs. But the level of unemployment in the West is rising so rapidly that it is beginning to resemble the Indian job market in some ways. Recently, for instance, when Costa Coffee advertised for eight jobs in the UK, it reportedly received 1,701 applications.

Situations vacant

In a slip of the tongue, Vedanta chief Anil Agarwal last week inadvertently found himself inviting the government to join the board of his hard-won company Cairn India. Raising concerns about the delay in clearances for oil and gas projects and explaining the success of Cairn's Barmer project, Agarwal said, "Instead of having management committees and various levels of approval, the government can put their nominee on the board of Cairn to reduce the delay approval process." This statement was made in the presence of Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily. Even as some reporters were trying to work out why Cairn would offer board membership to the government, the demands of 24x7 news meant the story was already on the wires. Within minutes, however, a senior company official launched into a firefighting mode, clarifying that Agarwal was asking for government membership on the management committee of blocks, not the Cairn India board.

Board game

Govt should beware of picking winners in tech sectors

Deja vu on industrial policy

Gold bull runs were followed by sharp price corrections

Risky ride

Politics means sugarcane gets Maharashtra's scarce water

Man-made drought

Subramanian Swamy's many followers on the right and online follow his adventures with much excitement. Swamy has, in the past, publicly taken credit for the Supreme Court's strong words when it appeared the Italian marines accused of killing Kerala fishermen appeared to be staying in Italy instead of returning to India to face trial. Perhaps the Court's patience with Swamy - who is not a lawyer, but has tendered petitions to the Court in numerous politically high-profile cases - is finally wearing thin? On Tuesday, Swamy tweeted: "CJI refused to hear my Contempt Petition in which I said GOI and Italy had colluded on letting the Italians to go. So I walked out." He added: "I don't mind being insulted by CJI for defending the honour of Bharat Mata. GOI Italy collusion is disgusting." He certainly must be feeling peeved - far from choosing to walk out, one person present during the proceedings says that the chief justice asked him to leave when he pressed his case. In fact, Chief Justice

Business Standard

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Page 749 - Business Standard

Letters: Endangering atheists

Letters: Licky wicky

Letters: 'Free' home delivery

Paralysed by change

A minister's ground reality

Telling support

Insider trading cases at a top hedge fund

A Snapshot of PE activity & deals

Student's corner

Mr Modi's bumpy road

All in the preconditions

Letters: Warring nations

Letters: Bartering with Africa

Letters: MNCs & their 'right to loot'

Heat over air-conditioning

Situations vacant

Board game

Deja vu on industrial policy

Risky ride

Man-made drought