The disease becomes endemic, revealing health system's flaws

Swine flu strikes again

Business Standard

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has become almost legendary for his frugal lifestyle and, in the run-up to the state elections, his income and wealth disclosures only served to underline that point. The chief minister does not have any fixed deposits to his name and owns an ancestral house in his village. He also declared a bank balance of Rs 10,000. At the last state elections five years ago, his bank balance was Rs 16,000. That makes Sarkar perhaps the only politician in the country whose bank balance has, in fact, declined while in power.

Balance of power

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rarely miss the chance to take potshots at each otherâ€™s achievements. In a recent informal meeting with reporters, a senior Congress leader suggested that senior BJP leader L K Advaniâ€™s book My Country, My Life should have been titled My Life, My Lies because it has innumerable factual errors on political developments in and outside the country.

True 'lies'

Dharwad-based Karnatak Universityâ€™s 63rd convocation held last week saw some moments that would have been comical had they not been so tense for the organisers. The convocation was to be inaugurated by the chancellor, who also happens to be the governor of the state â€” in this case, H Bhardwaj. But when the emcee requested the chancellor to declare the convocation inaugurated, Bhardwaj could not find the text he was supposed to read out. The vice-chancellor and other officials spent a good 10 anxious minutes looking for the speech, and it was finally located by an official who handed it to the governor to read out.

Some text missing

This refers to Ajai Shuklaâ€™s column â€œVVIP lessons: build arms, donâ€™t buy themâ€ (Broadsword, February 19). Itâ€™s not that our establishment does not know the best way to keep the defence system up to date. We surely have some great thinkers and experts with good experience and exposure, even outside the establishment, who have given the right ideas time and again. But the problem is that the establishment most likely does not see any reason to go for those ideas. It is obvious that vested interests in maintaining status quo are preventing a shift towards an effective and efficient domestic military-industry complex.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.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Military status quo

Apropos Shyamal Majumdarâ€™s column â€œThe final meetingâ€ (Human Factor, February 14), the agony of exit interviews can be sub-grouped in three categories on the basis of the employeeâ€™s number of years of work experience: Between two and nine years: The possible reasons for leaving the company are shifting to a higher-level organisation; better remuneration; migrating abroad or higher studies. Except big corporations that spend a lot of time and money on the recruitment and training process, others donâ€™t bother much about such employees. In most cases, the HR department does not spend more than five minutes on their exit interviews. Between nine and 20 years: They mostly leave any company owing to a lack of growth/motivation; work environment; and area of operation. Normally, such employees start giving direct and indirect feedback at least six to eight months before they put in their papers. An honest employee gives the feedback

Letters: Moving on

Apropos Devangshu Dattaâ€™s column â€œWhen corruption is healthyâ€ (Viewpoint, February 9), the existence of extremely close and powerful networks based on family connections and shared values is a long-standing historical phenomenon in many, if not most, countries. The US â€“ the land of immigrants and â€œopportunities for allâ€ â€“ is an exception. But, as the author has noted, there are close ties within particular communities in the US, too. Good laws and efficient enforcement are indeed a part of a more egalitarian society. But the reason the author makes the creation of opportunities synonymous with corruption is not clear. Does he think that advancement for all those who are not part of â€œold moneyâ€ families in societies like ours is possible only through corruption â€” and, therefore, corruption must be supported? This premise is certainly faulty.Alok Sarkar  KolkataLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business Standard

Letters: Defending corruption

REAL ESTATEOutlook for 2013The Emerging Trends in Real Estate-Asia-Pacific 2013, published by Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, states the sector has slipped on the list of top investment and development destinations for 2013 in Asia-Pacific.

Budget 2013-14: Wishlist

HealthcareHealthcare has seen the highest investment of $755 million in 2012. It remains an attractive option for PE funds. In 2013, it is expected there will be a slew of investments in asset-light delivery models, including eye care, dental, day care surgery centres, mother and child hospitals, orthopaedic hospitals and diagnostics.Though at a nascent stage, mobile healthcare which promises 24x7 access could also see a spurt in investment. The Medtech space, in which a few Indian firms are reaching the requisite scale of operations, will also evince PE interest

As it changes, the government's attitude must change too

The changing IT industry

A double-edged sword

The world may be running after low-cost generic drugs to reduce health care expenditure, but in India, generic drug manufacturing companies (better known as pharmacies to the world) are struggling to gain respect. Recently, when a pharma industry official met Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram and tried to push some industry demands for the upcoming Budget, the bureaucrat apparently told him Indian pharma companies did not need incentives because they never did any research and were mere copycats. The industry official says he wanted to ask Mayaram, Mr Bureaucrat, how much do you understand pharmaceuticals and chemistry?

No chemistry

Opposition parties frequently attract criticism for disrupting the business of Parliament on the most flimsy of pretexts. No one understands this better than Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury. Talking to reporters in his capacity as chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, he pointed out that members of Parliament actually do some work apart from stalling the proceedings of the House. He could afford to be gently ironical since he had just presented a voluminous three-part report on the state of Indias transport sector. Now, if only Yechurys other colleagues in the opposition bench followed his advice.

Working brief

Here is more evidence of the disruptive impact of the President of Indias elaborate security protocol. A foreign embassy representative of one of the countries organising the International Engineering Trade Fair at New Delhis Pragati Maidan discovered to her chagrin that she was barred from entering the premises until the president had finished inaugurating it. In vain did she wave her embassy identity card and explain that she was on the organising committee and had been delayed because she had had to walk from a distant car park owing to security restrictions on vehicle movement to the fair ground. Like other ordinary visitors, she was only let through when the president had left.

Foreign body

The government is building up its cash balances with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As on February 8, they amounted to Rs 39,100 crore  having gone up by Rs 16,700 crore over the week. However, it does not tell the whole story. At the post-policy press conference on January 29, the RBI governor indicated that the central bank had sought the governments concurrence for revealing the full picture. The estimated decline in the gross domestic product growth rate from 5.5 per cent to five per cent has made the fiscal deficit target difficult to achieve. Hence, there will be a further curb on expenditure in March through the deferment of the payment of bills, tax refunds, and so on. The stress on the money market caused by the absorption of liquidity in the first fortnight of March owing to advance tax payments will be aggravated by the estimated Rs 1 lakh crore of certificates of deposit maturing for redemption in March. The government should consider auctioning its deposits and hence, re

Letters: The liquidity problem

This refers to the editorial Dealing with defence deals (February 14). The arms and equipment industry is driven by high-end research and modifications  even as nations compete on their perceived defence needs and rival manufacturers on doing deals with nations. The constant interaction between the supplier and the user is a technical compulsion. Clearly, therefore, commercial clarity and incisive checks are answers to ensuring transparency. But if at every stage, procurement were to be held up owing to caution or timidity, the raison detre of defence preparednesss will be surely lost.R Narayanan  GhaziabadLetters 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: A technical compulsion

The AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam has brought back the memory of the infamous Bofors scandal. Once again, the nation and its people are shocked with the gargantuan graft charges levelled against the red-faced government and its officials by the Italian authorities. It shows a lack of transparency and a constant misappropriation of funds by the government while doing massive defence deals for the country with foreign investors. The Italian government has taken the right decision to arrest Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi for indulging in the slush-fund racket of getting the tender to sell choppers to India in favour of his company. It has also pulled in the name of former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief S P Tyagi as a middleman in the bribery nexus. That will surely damage the reputation of the IAF and the country. It is similar to what happened to the Army, which was embroiled in the Tatra trucks scandal. The Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry ordered by the government is a mere plo

Letters: The Bofors scandal revisited

I had defaulted on a personal loan two years back. However, I settled that with a gap of few months. Will the bank give me a clean chit or deny me a loan if I need one in future?Once you have settled a loan, you will get a clean chit by way of a â€˜No Dues Certificateâ€™ from the bank. However, approval of a fresh loan will depend on your overall credit history with the credit bureaus that includes all your credit cards and other loans and the credit criteria of individual banks.I am 32 and own a credit card of a private bank. I want a higher credit card limit. Will the bank agree to increase the limit or would I need to switch to a different bank?Sometimes, credit card issuing banks enhance credit limits on their own, depending on the usage of the card and repayment behavior of the customer. They also do it on customer request, for which they normally ask for an application and the latest income details. You should speak to your banker about the p

Debt Counselling: Sanjay Agarwal

StatsGuru-08-February-13

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

Indicus price monitor

Uday Kotak, Executive Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, says a combination of fiscal deficit and monetary policy play will determine future market movement. Ahead of the three-day Kotak Annual Global Investor Conference that begins today, Kotak spoke to Udayan Mukherjee of CNBC TV18

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