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Realty check: Jaipur, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad

Business Standard

A public sector bank chairman recently lost his temper when television channel reporters started fighting over who would get him on air first to speak on the bank&rsquo;s financial results. Though executive directors of banks were also available for a &ldquo;live link&rdquo;, the TV channels insisted on the chairman. One of the TV reporters tried to explain that getting him first mattered for TRPs. To which the chairman said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not in the business of managing TRPs. I run a bank.

Banking on TRPs

Seven years on, the United Progressive Alliance&rsquo;s flagship rural welfare programme, operated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA, continues to have effects that are simultaneously little understood and divisive. As this newspaper reported on Sunday, the past three years, since 2010-11, have seen the average number of workdays per worker it has provided fall, along with a decline in the actual expenditure incurred on the scheme.

What next for MGNREGA?

The US economy shrunk unexpectedly in Q4 of 2012, signifying bad news for families struggling with poverty despite parents being employed &mdash; the &lsquo;working poor&rsquo;. More people returned to work but mostly took up low-paying jobs.

Working poor in US increasing, Debt a threat to global economy

As a solution to all channels wanting only the CEO on their channel first, a reporter told an executive director of the bank to speak only on those issues that the chairman was not willing to discuss. This way, the channels would get something more to tell its audience, he suggested. The executive director quickly said, &ldquo;I have survived in this profession for more than 30 years by keeping my mouth shut. At this stage of my career, I don&rsquo;t want to open my mouth and say something that the chairman doesn&rsquo;t want to talk about.

Mouth wide shut

What will be the effect of the recent cut of the policy repo rate by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the banking sector? Will broad interest rates come down? As Table 1 shows, RBI&rsquo;s policy rate is coming off the high it reached following the sequential raises to control inflation that characterised RBI&rsquo;s actions after cuts at the time of the 2008 financial crisis.

StatsGuru: 04-February-2013

I am 33, married and earn Rs 10 lakh a year. I plan to buy term insurance.

<B>Life Insurance:</B> V Philip

Interest income earned by a savings account balance can get a tax benefit.

Tipping point

This refers to the editorial &ldquo;Karnataka&rsquo;s costly politics&rdquo; (January 31). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has forfeited its moral authority to talk about corruption of the UPA government, after disclosures regarding B S Yeddyurappa last year and Nitin Gadkari in the recent past. Though it is too early to say how many seats the Karnataka Janata Party will win in the next Assembly elections, it would be na&iuml;ve to think Yeddyurappa&rsquo;s exit would not harm the BJP&rsquo;s fortunes in Karnataka. His exit would have an impact in the next Lok Sabha elections, too. During the last 20 years or so, the BJP has admitted in its fold any number of leaders &mdash; with pockets of influence in one or more regions within states. Some of them, such as Yeddyurappa, became so strong that they could challenge the party&rsquo;s bosses in Delhi. For fear of losing power, the party&rsquo;s bosses in Delhi tried to ignore the corrupt deals of this former Karnataka chief minister.

<B>Letters:</B> Karnataka's turn of events

To those with a statistical bent of mind, India&rsquo;s recent problems with freedom of speech seem now reflected in a major international indicator. India has fallen sharply, by as much as nine places, in Reporters Without Borders&rsquo; World Press Freedom Index for 2013. The country now occupies a rank of 140 out of 179 nations, its lowest since 2002. In fact, the decline has been quite steady for a number of years, which indicates a trend. It is, of course, possible to quarrel with this ranking, which differs with the annual list put out by Freedom House, the older US-based organisation. In the latter&rsquo;s table for 2012, India figures at the 80th position in a list of 197, and well within the top half of the table. Both the rankings put the Nordic countries at the top of the league but, as is to be expected, Freedom House ranks the United States ahead of Britain, whereas the World Press Freedom Index does the opposite.

The state's first duty

The Centre and states finally managed to break the political logjam on Goods and Services Tax and agree on some important areas at their meeting in Bhubaneswar last week. Emerging from the three-hour-long meeting, Sushil Modi, who heads the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, announced that a broad consensus had been reached. But perhaps the deal was brokered a day before in Puri where the committee and Central government representatives had gone for a dinner. Although some officials held hectic parleys over the issue after dinner, the Finance Minister&rsquo;s Advisor Parthasarathi Shome joined Modi in his car on the way back to Bhubaneswar. Their discussions during the journey may have helped arrive at a consensus on a contentious issue.

Car-sensus on GST?

Every Monday, Business Standard analyses one family&rsquo;s finances and suggests a suitable way forward (Click on graphic)

Case study

A price index for agri commodities: A Business Standard and Indicus Analytics initiative (Click on graphic)

Indicus price monitor

What, precisely, are &ldquo;monopolistic practices&rdquo; in a world that is moving online? Can the same institutions drive our thinking about monopoly, online and off? Perhaps not. Google was the first business to leverage internet search to drive advertising. Its insight has translated into continuing dominance, through relentless innovation and a willingness to explore and embrace the new.

A whole new game 

BlackBerry has pinned its hopes on the new devices it launched this week.

How they stack up

Chennai airport got a new terminal on January 31; Kolkata got one on January 20. The upgrades would help handle the increasing passenger count.

Flight plan

To check gold imports, the government recently raised import duty on the yellow metal from four per cent to six per cent.

Gold imports

It is well known that Rajnath Singh, the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, had irked some political leaders, including former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, during his last tenure as the president. But this time, he is clearly not repeating his past mistakes. Soon after taking the charge of the party, which is divided in several groups, Singh decided to end all differences with Raje. He agreed to not only make her the chief ministerial candidate but also allow her close aide to become the BJP president of the Rajasthan unit. Rajasthan&rsquo;s Assembly elections are due in December this year, and Raje was upset till sometime back with the Central leaders of the BJP. The former chief minister had reportedly threatened to quit the party last year.

Making amends

Recently, after meeting Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, the pro-Telangana lobby of Andhra Pradesh claimed that the government had assured it that the new state will be formed. The Seemandhra (united Andhra) group, which subsequently met Shinde too, said the home minister had agreed to its demand to keep the state undivided.

Divided or not?

One of the United States&rsquo; largest and best-known think tanks, the Brookings Institution &ndash; which has often been called the world&rsquo;s most influential &ndash; has decided to open an India branch, which will be led by the former India head of the Shell Group of Companies, Vikram S Mehta.

Charge of the think tanks 

The Union Cabinet cleared the Lok Pal Bill on Thursday, and it is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the forthcoming Budget session. The Bill, which aims to set up a watchdog body to deal with corruption in high places, and which failed to pass the Rajya Sabha amid dramatic scenes in December 2011, has had several major changes made to it following prolonged scrutiny by the Select Committee in Parliament.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 778 - Business Standard

Realty check: Jaipur, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad

Banking on TRPs

What next for MGNREGA?

Working poor in US increasing, Debt a threat to global economy

Mouth wide shut

StatsGuru: 04-February-2013

Life Insurance: V Philip

Tipping point

Letters: Karnataka's turn of events

The state's first duty

Car-sensus on GST?

Case study

Indicus price monitor

A whole new game

How they stack up

Flight plan

Gold imports

Making amends

Divided or not?

Charge of the think tanks