&quot;I personally met the prime minister at least 10 times. What else can I do? Shall I go beat him up? Then people will call me a 'goonda'. Anyway, they call me that.

Didi's comedy show

Business Standard

The debate between India and Bharat has come to the fore again with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat&rsquo;s comments on rape. A financial daily recently reported on the rising investments made by residents of Bharat, viz farmers, in mutual funds and real estate. With the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act providing job security in the hinterland, the daily said, several farmers were moving to sophisticated investment methods.

In search of a homeland

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

Case study

The good news is Indian banks are still adding jobs. Having said that, the most important part of our mission is ensuring the quality of assets is in good shape. A few sectors in India have pressure on on the asset side of the balance sheet. In general, banking continues to grow. We are growing credit at about 25% (a year)at our bank.

Indian consumption story the strongest: Uday Kotak

There is a widening gap between the technical education and the employability needs of the industry. India is going to become the largest workforce by 2025. According to the surveys, every year lakhs of students pass out from the universities butÂ  hardly 20 per cent of them are employable.

Student's corner

It has been a characteristic of two-term presidencies in the United States that the first term is frenetic, full of policy adventures and misadventures, and the second term is much more sedate. In many cases, the broad agenda is set in the first term; in the second, the president struggles to fulfil it and secure his legacy. But, even given this, Barack Obama&rsquo;s second inaugural speech was worryingly content-free.

Lame-duck speech

Months after accusations broke claiming that he had misused his position as public works minister in Maharashtra, Nitin Gadkari is out as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Exit Mr Gadkari

After a Street-beating performance by the company, Mukesh Ambani, CMD, commented that the company&rsquo;s performance had improved with margin expansion in petrochemicals and earnings in refining.

Sizing up Reliance Industries

Apropos Arvind Subramanian&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Is the Modi miracle overrated?&rdquo; (January 23), judging the performance of a state like Gujarat solely by the &ldquo;own tax revenues as a share of its gross domestic product&rdquo; is not good economics. It does not take into account many other important parameters. Writers like Mihir Sharma and Kanika Datta have written in this paper about Modi&rsquo;s achievements in Gujarat after taking into consideration several factors, and not just one. One may or may not agree with their conclusions but they are comprehensive. But Subramanian&rsquo;s write-up is only based on one factor. He has mentioned casually a couple of other factors but without data or analysis. For instance, he has mentioned child malnutrition without providing figures.

Letters: One-sided analysis

This refers to the debate &ldquo;Should industrial houses be given bank licences?&rdquo; (January 16). In its 1969 report, the Industrial Licensing Policy Inquiry Committee under the chairmanship of Subimal Dutt, noted &ldquo;whether and if so, how far, the policies followed by specialised financial institutions in advancing loans to industries have resulted in any undue reference being given to the larger industrial houses&rdquo;. In 1969, when the government nationalised 14 banks by promulgating the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Ordinance, 1969, a notable feature of Indian commercial banking was the control of major banks by leaders of commerce and industry. Banks were being run to satisfy the requirements of the wealthy &mdash; evident from the gradual erosion of their capital base.

Letters: Banking for big business

The petroleum ministry's proposed gas price hike for domestically sold gas from the present $4.2 million British per unit (mBtu) to over $7 per mBtu sent the stocks of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) rallying on Thursday. ONGC and OIL produce gas from nominated fields, called APM gas, and a hike in the gas prices will be positive for the companies.

Gas price move sends ONGC, OIL stocks soaring

Farewells to office colleagues leaving the organisation are always fraught with the delicate matter of raising contributions from the staff. Inevitably, some colleagues contribute willingly and generously and others not. Trust the Government of India to find a practical solution to this problem. Jettisoning the practice of having a peon approach the officer for a contribution, some departments now put up a notice in the office premises telling people to contribute voluntarily.

Farewell notice

If some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are happy to see former party president Nitin Gadkari&rsquo;s fall from grace, the reason has as much to do with his work habits. Apparently, Gadkari was notorious for calling urgent meetings late at night and working till dawn. Most senior leaders, accustomed to starting and ending their day early, disliked this habit and L K Advani made a point of referring to it on Gadkari&rsquo;s last day as president.

Work to rule

Though Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani didn&rsquo;t want Nitin Gadkari to get a second term as party president, the seniormost leader had initially accepted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) decision to make Gadkari BJP chief for the second consecutive term. During a meeting of RSS and BJP leaders on January 19, four days before the election, Advani had agreed to a second term for Gadkari. Indeed, the date for the election of party president was announced, January 23, only after consulting Advani who had assured RSS leaders that he would back Gadkari&rsquo;s candidature. Rajnath Singh&rsquo;s unexpected elevation to the post was purely a result of income tax department raids against Gadkari and had nothing to do with Advani&rsquo;s opposition.

Consent order

If the general elections were held now, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would be well ahead of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), shows a survey by ABP News-Nielsen (Click on graphic)

Crystal-gazing

The J S Verma Committee, which was set up with commendable promptness by the Union government within a week of the gang rape of a young woman in Delhi, is to be congratulated for doing a quick and thorough job. It has delivered a 657-page report in a month. Its remit was to look into how the country&rsquo;s criminal law could be amended to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for those committing serious sexual assaults against women, but it has made wide-ranging recommendations. The report and its recommendations deserve the closest scrutiny and contemplation. If the right legislative and executive action follows quickly, India will go a long way towards ensuring that crimes so brazen and barbaric as the Delhi gang rape do not happen.

A road map worth following

On January 29, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to review monetary policy, and it has been widely expected that interest rates will be cut. This expectation is thanks to various statements from the central bank and its governor, Duvvuri Subbarao. The mid-quarter review of monetary policy in mid-December 2012 was pretty explicit about it, in fact. It said that inflation was steadily moderating.

A promise made

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has been a regular feature at the World Economic Forum&rsquo;s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This time, however, he will not be attending. Though the deputy chairman might not have officially given any reason for skipping it, the buzz is he is uncomfortable with the idea of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath heading the delegation in place of the commerce minister, which is the standard practice.

Expert opinion

Cricket matches usually bring out the competitive spirit of the participants, and a recent exhibition match between the Officials&rsquo; Eleven and the Chief Minister&rsquo;s Eleven in Lucknow was no exception. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav scored a decent 44 runs but his excellent innings was cut short by none other than the collector of Sultanpur district (which happens to cover the constituencies of Amethi and Raebareli, pocket-boroughs of Congress President Sonia Gandhi).

Settling scores

Amitabh Bachchan, one of India&rsquo;s most-followed stars on Twitter, just completed 1,000 consecutive days tweeting, 1,742 days blogging and 96 days on Facebook. He celebrated his 1,000th tweet by inaugurating a network process for educating children in remote regions. &ldquo;An educated nation is a prosperous nation,&rdquo; he tweeted.

Big B's virtual records

This refers to Arvind Subramanian&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Is the Modi miracle overrated?&rdquo; (January 23). In terms of tax collection to the gross domestic product ratio, it may be incorrect to consider only the revenue side. To get a more balanced picture, it is necessary to also look at expenditure.

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