So, the UPA has one the first round on FDI in multi-brand retail. The Congress-led alliance says foreign investments in this space will boost the economy, besides helping the farmer get a better deal for his produce and offering a wider choice of goods at much lower prices for you, the consumer.

How would FDI in multi-brand retail benefit you, the consumer?

Business Standard

The government has announced a road map to implement Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer across the country by April 1, 2014. A closer look at the current enrolment status, however, indicates the target might not be realistic. Also, people in only a few states could benefit.

On shaky ground?

Gold importers in India, the world's biggest buyer of the metal, continued to be on the sidelines, as prices steadied near their highest levels in about two months(Click on graphic)

Gold prices near 2-month high

Investigations are still ongoing into the confused few seconds just over a week ago when Gurdeep Singh &ldquo;Ponty&rdquo; Chadha and his brother Hardeep Singh Chadha were both shot and killed in Chhattarpur, in one of the farmhouses that dot the green, expensive and dangerous southern margin of Delhi. Seven recreations of the crime have not, reportedly, helped. Meanwhile, the fallout of the murders has taken a political turn. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has apparently accused a minister in the state government of Delhi of having links to Hardeep Chadha &mdash; the latter&rsquo;s spirits company was reportedly given a contract to operate buses in South Delhi, which it only partially fulfilled. Another accused in the shootout is an expelled BJP leader from Uttarakhand, Sukhdev Singh Namdhari.

Ponty Chadha's world

R P Singh, the former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) official, has been hogging the limelight for turning the heat on his former boss, claiming the Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss figure mentioned in the 2G spectrum audit was wrong. But this is not the first or the only big audit in which he was involved. Singh claims the famous CAG report on Project Tiger, which brought to the fore various discrepancies in the conservation of the national animal in 2005-06, was authored by him.

Singh and Sher

In a speech in Mumbai earlier this month, Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao made a striking point about the changing world order. There was a time in the eighties and nineties, he said, when parents across the world told their children not to waste food because there are millions who go hungry.

The job market

If you thought marketers found their insights only from consumers&rsquo; buying habits, think again. At Nielsen&rsquo;s Consumer 360 conference, Future Value Retail CEO Sadashiv Nayak shared a clip from the movie Darr while talking about discovering the next &ldquo;shoppertunity&rdquo;. The clip showed the scene in which Shahrukh Khan, the villain, kills Sunny Deol, the hero. When Nayak saw this movie in a packed theatre in Kolkata, he says, the audience erupted in cheers at this anomaly of the bad guy killing the good guy. His lesson for marketers: don&rsquo;t be afraid to do something just because it goes against convention, the consumer may just surprise you.

Lesson from Darr

This refers to the report &ldquo;UBS fined $47.5 million in rogue trading scandal&rdquo; (November 27). Despite robust internal controls and risk management processes in place, the UBS issue may not be the last of its kind.

Letters: Crossing the line

This refers to A Seshan&rsquo;s letter to the editor &ldquo;An &lsquo;optimistic&rsquo; mistake&rdquo; (November 27). Since no details of the context are given, we don&rsquo;t know if the finance ministry official&rsquo;s view that the rupee is likely to appreciate once the economy is back on the upward curve merits the writer&rsquo;s virtual dismissal that it reflects a mere common sense approach, unsupported by economic reasoning and analysis. The point that faster economic growth could lead to a surge in imports without a corresponding rise in exports (which depend more on the global markets) is well-taken. However, trade balance is not the only factor that impacts the rupee.

Letters: The 'common sense' tactic

A war of words has broken out between the Socialist Party government of France and ArcelorMittal after the steel maker announced on October 1 that it would shut two blast furnaces at Florange because these had become uncompetitive. It had agreed to the French government&rsquo;s request that it would like to find a buyer for these furnaces by the end of this month, probably because 629 jobs were at stake. ArcelorMittal had added a coke plant to the sale, though it was not being closed. This Monday, Arnaud Montebaurg, France&rsquo;s minister for industrial renewal, threatened to nationalise the entire Florange plant (not just the two blast furnaces) and said the group was no longer welcome in France. He later watered down his comments, but accused Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, who is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, of &ldquo;non-respect of its commitments, blackmail and threats&rdquo;.

France vs Mittal 

Trouble is again being caused by the inherent contradictions between the two laws &ndash; the Indian Forest Act and the Forest Rights Act (FRA) &ndash; that govern India&rsquo;s forests, their produce and the people dependent on them for their livelihood. The fact that these statutes are implemented by different ministries &ndash; the environment ministry for the forest law and the tribal affairs ministry for the FRA &ndash; exacerbates the problem. The latest manifestation of this conflict has emerged from the missive despatched by Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo to his environment ministry counterpart, Jayanthi Natarajan, accusing the latter of handing over forests to industry without seeking consent from the local Gram Sabhas, which is mandatory under the FRA. Another revealing discrepancy between the two laws that has come to light recently concerns the collection and movement of minor forest produce by forest-dwelling communities.

Forests vs tribals 

A debate is raging on in the insurance industry that public and private life insurers should be treated on a par in terms of increase in the investment cap in equity, but the numbers tell a different story. The cap at present is at 10 per cent for private insurers, but it has been revised to 30 per cent for Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). While LIC had already breached the 10 per cent limit in most companies, data show private insurers are yet to reach the 10 per cent limit.

Top 5 pvt life insurers' holdings in firms

Amid tough competition in the market and taking into account the sluggish economy, hiring of talented and employable persons becomes equally important.

Student&#8217s corner

The nearly decade-old programme to promote ethanol-blended petrol has failed to make much headway despite continued attempts by the government to get it going. The latest such attempt was last week, when the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) made the very poor decision to force oil marketing companies to mix five per cent ethanol with petrol throughout the country from next month. Past experience should have warned the CCEA off.

Nothing in the tank

The issue of local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders emerging on the national scene has recently been a contentious one within the party. And no one has stronger views on this issue than Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been at the centre of it. Earlier in the month, Modi visited Chhattisgarh and addressed a gathering at the state&rsquo;s foundation day function. By way of an appeal for re-electing the BJP government in the state, which goes to the polls next year, Modi urged people not to allow Chief Minister Raman Singh to leave the state. Chhattisgarh leaders, however, read the statement as restricting Singh from emerging as a leader in national politics. So earlier this week, Singh returned the compliment. When he addressed a public meeting in Gujarat, which goes to the polls next month, Singh urged people to re-elect the BJP in the state and ensure that Modi heads the government again.

Stay orders

Not that Modi allowed this understated intra-party rivalry to hinder him. Decreeing that the state&rsquo;s investor meet, Vibrant Gujarat, lacked the aam aadmi touch, he has dispatched a team of officials to study how Chhattisgarh had managed to draw the crowds to its trade exhibition organised around the state&rsquo;s foundation day. The team is likely to visit Chhattisgarh sometime next week to meet local officials who managed the show at Naya Raipur.

Consultancy services

H R Khan, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has this habit of smiling at the audience a lot. This would not matter in the ordinary course but, according to C V R Rajendran, executive director, Bank of Maharashtra, a banker&rsquo;s smile can be misleading. Bankers do not smile, it is their code of conduct, he joked, so when RBI top officials smiled after the monetary policy review, it is taken to indicate a repo rate cut.

Smile index

This refers to &ldquo;Enlightened politics&rdquo; (New Delhi Diary, November 28). It seems na&iuml;ve to expect the opposition parties, especially in these times of a badly fractured polity, to behave with a &ldquo;sense of responsibility&rdquo; in the national interest. The opposition parties seem to be using all possible ways and means, some legitimate and others not quite so, to put the government on the mat. However, it is not at all clear why the government is reluctant to use some of the instruments at its disposal.

Letters: Sense and responsibility

The term smog was coined about 100 years ago in England and was the result of heavy deposits of sulphur dioxide in the air from burning coal for electricity production combining with moisture in atmosphere. A hundred years down the line, smog is dotting every city and village, big or small. Ironically, although technology is helping industry to somehow control pollution, we are adding multiple such polluting industries on the roads every day. Sunita Narain has rightly pointed out in her article &ldquo;Fighting Delhi&rsquo;s smog&rdquo; (November 26) that 1,400 vehicles are added per day. If the NCR region is included, the figure would be even higher, since Gurgaon adds 330 vehicles a day.

Letters: Smog alert

A K Bhattacharya highlights how all political parties in India are accountable for the economy&rsquo;s downslide. A responsible government and a responsive opposition are the sine qua non of a vibrant democracy. As the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation of such a culture. In spite of a high majority in Parliament, he treated the Opposition with dignity and paid attention to its demands. The Opposition too behaved constructively. This lofty tradition declined during the subsequent Congress regime and now the situation resembles a dialogue between the dumb and the deaf. Sonia Gandhi considers it below her dignity to talk to BJP leaders, and Manmohan Singh is not known for his negotiation skills. The second factor is the obstinacy of the Congress party in monopolising the credit for electorally attractive measures. Right to Information and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are being trouted as Sonia Gandhi&rsquo;s brainchild.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 807 - Business Standard

How would FDI in multi-brand retail benefit you, the consumer?

On shaky ground?

Gold prices near 2-month high

Ponty Chadha's world

Singh and Sher

The job market

Lesson from Darr

Letters: Crossing the line

Letters: The 'common sense' tactic

France vs Mittal

Forests vs tribals

On shaky ground?

Top 5 pvt life insurers' holdings in firms

Student’s corner

Nothing in the tank

Stay orders

Consultancy services

Smile index

Letters: Sense and responsibility

Letters: Smog alert