Here is a look at the states&rsquo; requests at the NDC meeting (Click on graphic)

What states want

Business Standard

The Coffee Board of India has cut its output estimate for the crop year ending September 2013, owing to a normal berry drop during the monsoon season and the black rot and stalk rot in certain high rainfall areas, according to a Reuters report (Click on graphic)

Hot cuppa 

Actresses Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart are Hollywood&rsquo;s most bankable stars and provide studios with the highest average returns for their films, according to Forbes.

Best actors for the buck

When he took over as chairman of the Tata Group in 1991, the majority perception was that the untested nephew of J R D Tata would be a pushover. Twenty-one years later, as he hands over the baton to 44-year-old Cyrus Mistry today, all that is a distant memory. Tata, 75, has led the transformation of the group to a $100-billion-plus global conglomerate.

Farewell, Mr Tata

Think back to 1991. The 87-year-old J R D Tata had been Tata chairman for more than half a century. With the group&rsquo;s leading companies managed by similarly ageing satraps, the last thing the Tata name stood for was vibrancy and energy; the more usual adjectives were staid and unenterprising.

An illustrious career

A new price index for agri commodities; a Business Standard and Indicus Analytics initiative.

Indicus price monitor

As 2012 comes to an end, let me wish you and your family all the best for the New Year. I hope that 2013 and the future years bring you good health, peace of mind and great happiness.

Memories of personal sacrifices will stay with me: Tata

A little over five years ago, India&rsquo;s moribund and sometimes distant relations with Japan got a dramatic boost when that country&rsquo;s visiting prime minister, Shinzo Abe, told India&rsquo;s Parliament that he looked forward to a &ldquo;confluence of the two seas&rdquo; (the Indian and Pacific oceans), and a &ldquo;broader Asia&rdquo; that would create &ldquo;an arc of freedom and prosperity&rdquo;. Mr Abe declared that Japan had &ldquo;rediscovered India as a partner that shares the same values and interests&rdquo;. His strategic vision included Australia and the United States, with which India and Japan launched what was called a &ldquo;Quadrilateral initiative&rdquo; that included joint military exercises. The exclusion of China from this &ldquo;concert of powers&rdquo; was self-evident, and Beijing protested strongly against the birth of what it called an &ldquo;Asian Nato&rdquo;.

The significance of Mr Abe

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

Case study

Starting January 2013, fund houses will start rolling out direct plans for various schemes, which will offer separate net asset values (NAV). The yield could be 0.5 to 1.25 per cent higher (in case of direct plans). However, investing through this plan makes sense only if the person stays invested for a longer tenure. Reason: The difference in cost may seem negligible in isolation, but the difference of 50 basis points (assumption) can show its impact in the long term. For instance, you invest Rs 1 lakh in an equity fund through a direct plan and the regular plan. If the former generates an annualised return of 15 per cent and the later generates 14.5 per cent, the difference in returns will widen with the increasing number of years. Difference in returns over 10 years will be Rs 17,000, over 15 years it will be Rs 51,000 and 20 years, it will be Rs 1.37 lakh.

Tipping point

Consumers are increasingly opting to view television content on their mobiles instead of the traditional television screens, finds a study

Changing screen size

The draft of the 12th Five-Year Plan approved by the National Development Council last week is well written and forward-looking. It is also forthright about failures to implement various aspects of the 11th Plan and openly nuances various claims the government has made recently &mdash; for example, about the likelihood that investment in agricultural cold chains is sufficiently win-win and that it would be a magic bullet for agricultural marketing. The prime minister, in his speech at the NDC, recognised that the &ldquo;aspirational&rdquo; Plan target of eight per cent required a steep increase in growth in the last three years of the Plan period. This is asking for a great deal. As the Plan points out, India will have to return to 2007-08&rsquo;s gross fixed capital formation rate of 35 per cent of gross domestic product from the current 32 per cent.

An ambitious Plan 

I changed my profession this year and as a result, had to take a cut in my pay by 40 per cent. Today, I earn Rs 35,000 in hand every month. I have been investing in three large cap funds (via SIP of Rs 5,000 each) and three Ulips till last year. Though I would like to continue with the SIP in mutual funds, I don't think I can put money in Ulips (premium of Rs 30,000 each). My goals are to buy a house in three years and go on an international trip by 2014. How do I continue investing to meet my goals without any interruptions? Are there any cheaper avenues to invest than Ulips? I am 35 and married.

Financial Planning: Malhar Majumder

Truncation is the process of using an electronic image of a cheque, instead of using the physical instrument, while presenting it for clearing. The electronic image of the cheque is transmitted to the drawee branch by the clearing house, along with relevant information such as data on the MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) band and date of presentation. This makes the clearing process faster and safer.

Making cheque transaction faster and safer

Just after 2 am IST on Saturday morning, the 23-year old woman who had been brutally raped in a moving bus in South Delhi two weeks ago died in a Singapore hospital. According to most reports, she had been on life support through most of that time, and had undergone at least three major operations, including one to remove her small intestine, which had become gangrenous due to her wounds. In response, an outpouring of grief and anger has spilled out on to the streets of India's capital and many of its other towns and cities. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a statement, has said: &ldquo;It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channel these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action. The need of the hour is a dispassionate debate and inquiry into the critical changes that are required in societal attitudes.

Directing the anger

Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has had many followers in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). When he had threatened to resign from the top post, at least 50 members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) came out in his support. When he finally quit the BJP and formed his own political party, 21 BJP MLAs, including seven Karnataka ministers, were with him. But now, when he recently called for a march to the state Assembly, accusing the BJP of running a minority government, no BJP MLA came out in his support.

Popularity quotient?

Celebrating former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee&rsquo;s 88th birthday on December 25, senior leaders of the BJP released several of his old photographs. In one of those, Vajpayee is seen talking to former prime minister Indira Gandhi. In another one, he is seen playing holi with his fellow BJP leaders. And, in yet another photograph, Vajpayee is seen leading a baraat (marriage procession).

Picture-perfect moments

Spread across over 3,000 sqft at the National Museum are some of the rarest archaeological finds in India in the past half a century &mdash; including one dating back 1.5 million years. With the aim to bring the country&rsquo;s historical treasures to its people, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is showcasing some of the greatest finds since 1961 &mdash; an array of priceless tools, seals, implements, artifacts, pottery, figurines, sculptures, ornaments and inscriptions.

A grand display

With the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority launching the Integrated Grievance Managenment System (IGMS), the number of reported grievances in the insurance sector increased 30 times in 2011-12 from that the year before. Besides a phenomenal increase in reporting of grievances, a significant improvement was seen in redressal, too.

More complaints, better resolution

Work, by its nature, cannot run smoothly for long. All I would like to do is teach at the CAT (Common Admission Test) coaching institute that employs me. But no, there is always that dicey expanse called &ldquo;human nature&rdquo; to traverse. The other day, 25 minutes into the class, I was in the middle of making an important point about adjectives when a group of students casually breezed in.

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