At a time when online posts on a social networking platform by two students has created a furore in the online and offline worlds, security firm McAfee has come up with a survey which shares insights on how Indian teenagers behave online. The survey shows one in every four teens has been a victim of cruel behaviour online, 35 per cent willingly access pornography and almost all have been active in social networks since the age of 13. Here's a picture of the dark alleys of the online world.

Lives of Indian teens in the virtual world

Business Standard

The number of patent filings in India may be growing but with low R&amp;D spend, it is still a long way behind that of global leaders (Click on graphic)

A patent problem

Hewlett-Packard recently said it had taken a $8.8-billion accounting charge after discovering &ldquo;serious accounting improprieties&rdquo; and &ldquo;outright misrepresentations&rdquo; at Autonomy, a British software maker it bought for $10 billion last year.

A long line of accounting scandals

The inheritance tax has caused heartburn in many countries, even forcing billionaires' children to migrate to avoid paying the tax. One such case, reported by Reuters, is that of the Rausings, inheritors of the Tetra Pak packaging fortune, who moved to England three decades ago to avoid paying high Swedish inheritance tax. Sweden has since abolished the tax.

A global experiment

I changed my job last week and my new employer has asked me to open a new account.

Banking: Sumant Kathpalia

This refers to T N Ninan&rsquo;s column &ldquo;What about depositors?&rdquo; (Weekend Ruminations, November 24). The writer&rsquo;s concern for bank depositors is quite refreshing. Every time, the monetary policy is about to be announced, there are only talks about reducing the lending rate; nobody has taken up the cause of depositors the way Ninan has. No doubt, the solution for a bank&rsquo;s profitability is maintaining a competitive net interest margin (NIM).

Letters: Rein in the fiscal deficit

Coca-Cola&rsquo;s Support My School initiative in India has been touted as one of the biggest CSR initiatives by corporate India and is beamed on NDTV with a lot of fanfare. Coca-Cola is not the only company that has effectively bundled, branded and communicated its CSR efforts; too many companies have started communicating their CSR efforts too early in too conspicuous a way.

CSR: A marketing tool?

Business Standard brings to you a snapshot of average current prices and unit sizes in localities that offer property in the price range of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore.

Realty check

Health expenditure in India was largely funded out of the pocket.

Trends in healthcare expenditure

The government is low on cash to finance its fiscal deficit, and is also facing an investment slowdown. It is looking to public-sector units (PSUs) to help with both problems. After all, as Table 1 shows, several of them &ndash; especially those in resource extraction &ndash; were making high and increasing profits even during the recent industrial slump.

StatsGuru: 26-November-2012

Bal Thackeray&rsquo;s death appears to have disproved the common notion that the Shiv Sena no longer wields much influence over workers&rsquo; unions in Mumbai. The walls outside the offices of the Reserve Bank of India and the Mint had prominent boards put up by the unions of both institutions carrying obituaries of the Sena leader.

Thackeray's shadow

They might have criticised Bal Thackeray roundly for his communal and regional politics when he was alive but the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress have displayed as much solidarity as Sena workers themselves over his death. In Mumbai, boards were put up by NCP leaders remembering Thackeray, and the party also published a newspaper advertisement in his memory. Not to be outdone, one Congress councilor demanded Dadar station be renamed after Thackeray at a special general body meeting called by the BMC as a memorial service. Incidentally, Thackeray had opposed renaming Dadar station when there was a demand to name it after Babasaheb Ambedkar. Shiv Sena&rsquo;s stand on the issue now will be worth watching.

Memorial services

Ajmal Kasab&rsquo;s hanging was certainly expected to produce its share of B-grade films but one producer has moved with lightning speed, releasing a movie titled 26/11 Mission Complete. The tagline reads: &ldquo;Kasab hanged. Justice done.&rdquo; accompanied by a photo circled by a hangman&rsquo;s rope.

Hanging on the story

With the fiscal deficit rising, the government is under pressure to moblise revenue. The recent telecom spectrum auction has not fetched the government enough revenue. Tax collection as a percentage of the GDP is low and our finance minister is adept in identifying new avenues to improve collection. In 2005, during his earlier tenure, he introduced the fringe benefit tax. Now, he could be looking at inheritance tax.

The ground realities should not be ignored

This refers to the edit &ldquo;Swift closure&rdquo; (November 22). The nation and the government appear to be in a self-congratulatory mood over the hanging of the lone surviving Pakistani gunman from the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. Fortunately, nobody thought of making Kasab aware of the strange provision in our legal system that makes even a presidential rejection of a mercy plea subject to judicial review. Otherwise, the case would have dragged on for some more time.

Letters: The Kasab conundrum

Not for a decade has growth in gross domestic product been as low as it is likely to be this financial year. Finance Minister P Chidambaram now says that it may be in the 5.5-6.0 per cent range; the Reserve Bank&rsquo;s figure is midway, at 5.7 per cent. More worryingly, while the slowdown has been caused very substantially by a shortfall in investment, there seem to be few sources of recovery on this front.

The sources of growth

The summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, at which India was an observer, concluded last week with a reaffirmation of the virtues of free trade and regional integration. US President Barack Obama&rsquo;s visit to Phnom Penh to the summit was preceded by a stopover in Myanmar, which only underlined the new importance of the country as a source of natural resources. Of course, for India, Myanmar means even more &mdash; particularly in the context of trade with Southeast Asia. Good relations with its eastern neighbour are essential if new communications networks are to be built that will reduce non-tariff barriers to trade between India and Asean countries.

Leading questions

External affairs minister: The information I have is as under the law we are required and in sense of propriety we attempted to convey to the Pakistan Foreign Office that this decision had been taken and the execution will be done this morning.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 809 - Business Standard

Lives of Indian teens in the virtual world

A patent problem

A long line of accounting scandals

A global experiment

Banking: Sumant Kathpalia

Letters: Rein in the fiscal deficit

CSR: A marketing tool?

Realty check

Trends in healthcare expenditure

StatsGuru: 26-November-2012

Thackeray's shadow

Memorial services

Hanging on the story

The ground realities should not be ignored

Letters: The Kasab conundrum

The sources of growth

Leading questions

'Our support for the Palestinian cause remains undiluted'

A patent problem

A long line of accounting scandals