Gold demand in the third quarter of 2012 was 10% up over the previous quarter, but 11% lower year-on-year. In value terms, demand was worth $57.6 bn, 14% below Q3 2011. Investment demand was 16% below the exceptional levels witnessed in the third quarter of 2011, led by a steep drop in the bar and coin segment.

Gold demand and supply

Business Standard

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

Indicus price monitor

Do not be misled. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh&rsquo;s stolid expression and glazed eyes don&rsquo;t mean he is not listening to the debate. He&rsquo;s all there, quietly digesting everything that&rsquo;s being said. During the debate on foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail in the Rajya Sabha, it was the prime minister in alligator mode that took even the suave Member of Parliament N K Singh aback. N K Singh, while defending his position that FDI was bad for the country, said when someone asked economist John Galbraith to explain why he changed his mind about something, he replied: &ldquo;When the facts change, I change my mind.

The economist speaks

The conventional wisdom is that job security is something only 50-somethings care about; for younger workers, it is way down the priority list. In that sense, the findings of the Towers Watson Global Workforce Study, released earlier this week, are a surprise. According to the survey, which covers those below 30, job security ranks first as a driver of attraction. The larger trend that emerges is that employees now evaluate just how good the security blanket employers set up is. Even the reputation of the organisation is now being perceived as a surrogate of trust, rather than the badge of value it represented earlier. Stress and anxiety about the future are common, as over half the respondents agreed retirement security is more important today than just a few years ago. That&rsquo;s a completely new idiom for India Inc which, till recently, was grappling with a high rate of attrition and wasn&rsquo;t quite sure whether an employee leaving work today would come back tomorrow.

Job security centrestage  

The latest report from the United Nations&rsquo; AIDS body notes that India has managed to bring down the count of people affected by HIV/AIDS by as much as 57 per cent. That&rsquo;s an encouraging and creditable achievement. But it should not make the authorities overconfident. Slacking off in the campaign for the prevention and treatment of AIDS would quickly erode any gains made so far.

A changing enemy

This past year has been one of gloom for India &ndash; except, apparently, when it comes to the stock markets. As Table 1 lays out, the Sensex has massively outperformed pretty much all major indices. China&rsquo;s major stock market index actually lost value this year; the Sensex gained a quarter of its value at the beginning of this year. It is the conventional wisdom that much of this is because of high foreign institutional investments into the Indian market.

StatsGuru-10-December-12

The United Nations&rsquo; 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) on climate change ended its fortnight-long conference in Doha with, as always, minimal and marginal progress. It is easy to view the results of this conference as depressing. Still, there were some minor achievements.

Postponed, again

Economic growth continues to trend downwards and trends in corporate earnings have not been encouraging either. For the first time in three years, core revenues for India&rsquo;s top companies grew by single digits in the quarter ended September 2012. Yet the stock market is buoyant, giving out a distinctly different signal. The biggest factor pushing the markets up is that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continue to buy Indian equities by the bagful. During the year so far, FIIs have invested nearly $21 billion (about Rs 1.14 lakh crore), and many foreign brokerages have revised their growth estimates for India upwards for the next year. Most feel the central bank will cut rates soon, which should help, and that consumption will remain resilient, helping anchor demand. Stock markets are never the best indicators of the real economy but they do provide vital clues about future business conditions.

Green shoots, from afar

Yes, provided the senior citizen's name is the first one in the account. Usually, senior citizens earn an interest rate of 25-50 basis points (bps) more than other deposit holders. Some banks give up to 75 basis points extra. Also, the tax on the FD will apply to the senior citizen, as he is the first account holder.

Tipping point

Vienna retains the top spot as the city with the world&rsquo;s best quality of living, according to the Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey. Zurich and Auckland follow in second and third places, respectively. Munich is in the fourth place, followed by Vancouver in fifth. D&uuml;sseldorf dropped one spot to sixth followed by Frankfurt (7th), Geneva (8th), Copenhagen (9th), and Bern and Sydney at 10th.

Live and let live

Business Standard brings to you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in the price range of Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore.

Real estate investment: A wider picture

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

Case study

My wife and I are jointly applying for a home loan. But I had missed a few monthly instalments on a personal loan four years ago. I paid it off subsequently. My wife has never taken a loan.

Credit watch:  Mohan Jayaraman

Companies in retail, wholesale and distribution sectors need to pay more attention to their supply chain as they are more likely to get hit by fraud involving customers (23% ) and vendors (24%). However, the survey finds that they are less likely than average to be investing in partner, client and vendor due diligence. More attention here could pay dividends.

Fraud in the retail sector

This refers to the report &ldquo;UPA gets Maya boost in Rajya Sabha&rdquo; (December 7). The voting pattern on retail foreign direct investment (FDI) in both Houses of Parliament exposes the hypocrisy of our politicians. The United Progressive Alliance allies, and its outside supporters in particular, have made a mockery of democracy. Mayawati&rsquo;s U-turn to support retail FDI in the Rajya Sabha proves that she does not dare to face the Central Bureau of Investigation. It is unbecoming of prime ministerial aspirants &ndash; Pawar, Mulayam and Mayawati &ndash; to take such contradictory stands. Barring the Congress, all other parties had spoken vehemently against retail FDI, but at the last minute, they voted in its favour.

Letters: A mockery of democracy

Despite several allegations made against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Congress, they managed to get the President of their choice elected. Now, they have managed to win the vote on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail in both Houses of Parliament. It seems that all the noise made by the Opposition is like the story of sour grapes &mdash; as pointed out by Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.

Letters: UPA-III?

This refers to the report &ldquo;Retail FDI victory fuels govt reforms push&rdquo; (December 8). Beyond the questions of merits and demerits of foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, and who won or lost, the recent debate in Parliament has raised a larger question of the probity of parliamentarians. Parliament is the highest forum of expression of the people&rsquo;s will through their elected representatives, who have the obligation of carrying the will of the majority. In this case, though the will of the majority was against retail FDI, it was not carried because of opportunistic parties, such as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Although these parties had earlier participated in Bharat bandhs against the issue, during the voting in the House, they either abstained or voted in favour of the government&rsquo;s order allowing retail FDI to be cleared.

Letters: Parliamentarians' probity?

Like many other industrial projects in West Bengal, Tata Hitachi is also facing trouble getting land for the township it proposes to build for its employees working in the Kharagpur plant. No prizes for guessing the political party responsible for these problems. But attempts of getting Tata Hitachi Managing Director Rana Sinha to name the party during a press briefing failed.

Colour coded

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi described Congress leader Kapil Sibal&rsquo;s speech in an interesting way by citing what a law professor said to his students during his university days. Joshi quoted the professor: &ldquo;If you have law on your side, hammer the law into the head of the judge; if you have facts on your side, hammer the facts into the head of the jury; and if you have nothing on your side, then shout loudly and hammer with it.

Hammer and tongue

Till a couple of years ago, most private equity conferences in Mumbai were always crowded because India was one of the hottest investment destinations in Asia. But it is a measure of the country&rsquo;s diminished charms that participation in the last two big conferences organised by Southeast Asian private equity organisations were distinctly low key. For one two-day conference, half the participants left soon after lunch.

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