The auction of the 1,800-MHz band 2G telecom spectrum that began on Monday received poor response from telecom firms, and the govt was able to get just Rs 9,224.75 cr at the end of the seventh round of bidding.

The 2G auction: a flop show

Business Standard

Indian-origin CEO of Datawind, the maker of India's low-cost tablet Aakash, Suneet Singh Tuli and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Anant Agarwal have been named by Forbes magazine among the 15 &ldquo;classroom revolutionaries&rdquo; who are using innovative technologies to reinvent education for students and teachers globally.

Education innovators

Asked a question about Vijay Mallya striking a deal to sell a major chunk of his liquor business to Diageo and whether it would help revive ailing Kingfisher Airlines, Chaudhuri passed the question to SBI&rsquo;s newly-appointed Managing Director S Vishvanathan, saying, &ldquo;He is the best person to answer that question in the right spirit, and not in a derogatory way, as he shares the best and intimate relationship with Mr Mallya.

Relationship management

In its mid-year review, the software association Nasscom has revised its forecast for software and services exports (IT &amp; ITeS) for the current fiscal year of 2012-13 to 11 per cent, from the 11-14 per cent range indicated at the beginning of the year. While this is, strictly speaking, not a downward revision, the implication is clear: any hope at the start of the financial year that things may get better further down the line has been belied.

IT exports slow down

Discussing the &ldquo;moderation&rdquo; of India&rsquo;s tax regime recently, Finance Minister P Chidambaram indulged in a bit of soul-searching. He insisted that 15 years of moderation have &ldquo;by and large&rdquo; promoted growth and equity &ndash; remember, the finance minister who reformed taxes 15 years ago was a certain Mr Chidambaram &ndash; but said the question must be asked as to whether the unequal accumulation of wealth has been ignored in the process. Even with that in mind, he said he was nevertheless &ldquo;still hesitant&rdquo; even to talk about inter-generational equity or an inheritance tax &ndash; which was abolished in 1985 &ndash; but that these questions need to be debated.

Bequest tax worries

This refers to the editorial &ldquo;Worsening asset quality&rdquo; (November 12). The present mess in large public sector banks (PSBs) is of their own making. In the wake of the global financial crisis, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took a lenient view on non-performing asset (NPA) provisioning, and introduced revised restructuring norms to help affected borrowers. Banks took these as a bonanza. Despite large PSBs making profits, they were unwilling to provide for NPAs.

Letters: Banks' brazenness

This refers to Arvind Subramanian&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Which nations failed?&rdquo; (November 13). The writer has faulted the authors of Why Nations Fail for the inability of the latter&rsquo;s analysis to account for the case of India and China. Referring to a graph, Prof Subramanian has noted that both India and China would need to undergo dramatic transformations &ndash; which seem unlikely &ndash; to hew to the WNF remit. However, the four scenarios painted by him are incomplete.

Letters: Avoiding the extremes

The discouraging data on industrial production and exports have once again become an excuse for entrepreneurs to ask for an interest rate cut. That affects lending rates if banks are dependent on the RBI for funds. This is not the case now. The banking system is flooded with liquidity, augmented further by the cut in the cash reserve ratio. The bid-cover ratios for Treasury Bill auctions are at their highest in recent times.

Letters: No rate cut needed

It is clear that much agricultural credit, heavily subsidised by the government, is being either misdirected by banks or misused by its recipients. The total flow of such credit has increased manifold in the past decade; but a commensurate impact is visible neither in agricultural growth nor in farmers&rsquo; reduced dependence on informal sources of credit. The use of inputs like fresh seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and farm machinery hasn&rsquo;t expanded proportionately, either.

Big loopholes in farm credit 

At first glance, the last samvat &ndash; the year as reckoned by the lunar calendar, from one Diwali to the next &ndash; has seen decent gains for equity investors. The Nifty and the Sensex are up about 10 per cent year-on-year and, of course, some individual stocks and specific sectors have done better.

A muted celebration 

State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri was very candid about answering all the questions reporters asked him at a recent press conference, including the names of companies that have defaulted and which were headed for debt-restructuring. But his senior colleagues were visibly upset. Their contention: by naming the companies, the SBI chairman was leaving the bank open to possible legal action by defaulters. So much so that a top official admonished reporters for asking such questions at all. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s only because we answer that you ask. You always want some sensationalism. Would you ask such questions to ICICI Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar?&rdquo; was his angry comment.

Talking head

The Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) has put up a board wishing Telugus a happy Diwali. The greetings are written in Marathi and Telugu &mdash; which leaves one wondering about MNS&rsquo; Marathi Manoos agenda.

MNS' Telugu connection

Comptroller &amp; Auditor General Vinod Rai was the highlight of the first session at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, but he discovered the flip side of media interest. Before the session began, he told journalists not to expect headline-making statements from him. During the session, Rai said the brazenness with which decisions were taken in the government was appaling, but things had started changing. Some papers played up only the first part of his statement, so Rai unwittingly ended up making headlines anyway. Small wonder Congress leader Digvijay Singh took a dig at Rai and asked him to stop leaks from the institution he heads.

Telling omission

The report &ldquo;Public sector banks account for bulk of customer complaints in 2011-12&rdquo; (November 9) makes one wonder whether the banks would show any improvement in the current year. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its circular dated September 3, 2012, directed banks to issue only CTS (cheque truncation system)-2010 cheques after September 30, 2012. With just about two months before these cheques become invalid, at least one public sector bank, Central Bank of India, continues to flout the RBI directive. As late as October 31, 2012, customers have been issued cheque-books that are not in accordance with the stipulated CTS-2010 standard by their Hadapsar (Pune region) branch. Is this not wasteful expenditure, customer harassment, and deficiency of services? Perhaps, the solution lies in the su-motu action by the ombudsman on flouting of RBI&rsquo;s directives.

Letters: Flouting the norm

This refers to the edit &ldquo;Just too many meetings&rdquo; (November 9). The basic purpose of appointing independent directors is to improve corporate governance standards in listed companies. But with individuals having more than one directorship, the benefit of independent directors&rsquo; wise counsel is not always available to companies concerned. In this light, the findings of Ingovern Research Services are quite revealing. Many independent directors are either not able to attend all board meetings, or do not devote enough time to do their duty as directors. Thus, the very objective behind appointment of independent directors is defeated.

Letters: Not in the line of duty

This refers to the edit &ldquo;Worsening asset quality&rdquo; (November 12). The deterioration in the quality of assets may be partly due to the downtrend in the economy, but the same cannot be taken as a matter of consolation for banks and stakeholders of banks. The seeds of non-performing assets (NPAs) are sown during the boom period when banks expand credit, throwing caution to the winds all appraisal standards. Borrowers take full advantage of this liberalised approach of the banks.

Letters: Asset liabilities

The documents that Arvind Kejriwal released last week, which he claimed were leaked witness statements recorded by income tax officials in the course of a raid, raise serious questions about the Indian entity of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).

Stop the silence 

When the industrial production statistics for the month of August 2012 were released last month, many observers quickly declared that the economy had bottomed out. The index of industrial production (IIP) for August 2012 was 2.5 per cent higher than for August 2011. Some senior government figures publicly claimed the 2.5 per cent per cent year-on-year growth indicated the Indian economy had turned a corner. However, as this newspaper warned at the time, greater caution was warranted.

A long winter for industry

At a panel discussion on Inclusive Governance at the World Economic Forum last week, somebody from the floor asked Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai why bureaucrats and ministers always travelled in white Ambassadors with curtains on the windows, if the government was serious about bringing in more transparency into its functioning. Rai proved the eagle-eyed auditor when he swiftly corrected the questioner: &ldquo;White ambassadors have made way for Maruti SX4s.

Rai's 'carrection'

Abheek Barua&rsquo;s column &ldquo;What Obama means for the markets&rdquo; (World Money, November 12) provides a very lucid analysis of the positive effects of Obama&rsquo;s re-election on the world economy. It is, however, difficult to agree with its analysis of the looming US fiscal cliff.

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