It seems Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy has not been able to completely give up teaching, even after Harvard University scrapped the two courses he taught following a controversial article he wrote on Islamic terrorism in an Indian journal. So, while presenting documents related to alleged Companies Act violations against United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, Swamy said, &ldquo;Everybody knows that my press conferences are like MBA classes and this time again, I will address reporters as if I am teaching students.

Teaching the media

Business Standard

This July, Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao spoke of his receding hairline and the high price he had to pay for a haircut. The idea was to to drive home the impact of rising rates of inflation. He said he used to pay Rs 25 for a haircut 20 years earlier; that went up to Rs 50 even as his hair thinned. &ldquo;Now, when I have virtually no hair left, I pay Rs 150 for a haircut,&rdquo; he said.

Make your portfolio inflation-proof

Your group did not get into emerging sectors such as financial services and telecom.

I feel blessed that my sons are together: Nusli Wadia

This refers to Mihir S Sharma&rsquo;s review of Perry Anderson&rsquo;s book, &ldquo;The Indian Ideology&rdquo; (November 1). I do not know the basis of Sharma&rsquo;s sweeping assertions &mdash; such as scholars like Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Ramachandra Guha and Amartya Sen are not representatives and are viewed as &ldquo;outsiders&rdquo; and &ldquo;most academics in India are more Marxist in orientation&rdquo;; and the rhetorical question, &ldquo;...

Letters: Street knowledge

This refers to the Q&amp;A with Nusli Wadia &ldquo;I missed the bus because I didn&rsquo;t manipulate the system&rdquo; (November 5). I second Wadia&rsquo;s views that a company falls behind, if it chooses to not &ldquo;manage the system for all licences&rdquo;.

Letters: Values and valuation

A long-simmering rivalry between two powerful ministers in Chhattisgarh, Brijmohan Agrawal and Rajesh Munat, spilled in the open at the state&rsquo;s foundation day celebrations and global investors&rsquo; meet. Agrawal, who holds the culture and public works department portfolios, was ignored during the preparations for the events, which were supervised and monitored by Industry Minister Munat. The culture minister was not even consulted when it came to inviting artistes for the cultural programmes. When the stage was all set to inaugurate the state&rsquo;s 12th foundation day ceremony, however, unseasonal rains disrupted a much-anticipated performance by Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor. Later, in the corridors of power in Raipur, the joke doing the rounds was that the rain gods obliged Agrawal, who happens to hold the portfolio of department of religious affairs as well.

Raining vengeance

It is said the best way to a man&rsquo;s heart is through his stomach. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expanded the adage beyond any gender bias. At a recent conference to launch the Sudha brand of milk and milk products in the national capital, a senior official from the Bihar State Milk Co-operative Federation said it was Kumar&rsquo;s ardent wish and objective to include at least one food item from Bihar on every Indian&rsquo;s plate. And, all the state departments and ministries are working to expand the reach of food items made in Bihar across India &mdash; the launch of Sudha milk in Delhi was one such effort in this direction.

Bihar on my plate

This refers to Devangshu Datta&rsquo;s column &ldquo;Waiting to explode&rdquo; (Viewpoint, November 3). The magnitude of the apocalypse that nuclear weapons could bring to the world is unimaginable. There are large numbers of secret and illegal nuclear programmes being carried out in Pakistan, Iran and North Korea. Pakistan&rsquo;s nuclear scientist A Q Khan has already given a secret nuclear proliferation support to North Korea and Iran. Hence, the real nuclear threat are these countries. It is the responsibility of the UN atomic watchdog to take a tough stand against them. Also, other countries should work in tandem and keep a check on such dangerous acts.

Letters: Looming nuclear threats

While the performance of Maharashtra&rsquo;s irrigation sector is being debated, especially following the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the people need to be assured that the dams in the state are safe. Maharashtra has 2,093 dams, of which 218 are under-construction. Of the 1,875 completed dams, as many as 375 dams have one or more deficiencies that require immediate government intervention. While the state has built a strong capability at the Dam Safety Organisation, Nasik to identify potential hazards of large dams and canals and suggest remedial measures, the state government should annually make DSO&rsquo;s inspection findings on individual dams public, indicating repairs required and the budgetary allocations made. The government needs to adopt a holistic approach for dam safety, rehabilitation and modernisation, with focus on creating new sources of revenue at dam sites.

Letters: Unsafe Maharashtra dams

The Bharatiya Janata Party&rsquo;s embattled chief Nitin Gadkari&rsquo;s weight might have become a butt of jokes on Twitter with author Chetan Bhagat calling him &ldquo;excess baggage&rdquo;, and so on. But people who meet Gadkari will discover that he is not that heavy anymore &mdash; thanks to bariatric surgery he underwent some time ago. He may have lost some weight and, lately, some credibility, but he is in no way a political lightweight in his homeland. Some farmers in Tamasvada, near Wardha, remember how Gadkari visited the area to oversee the progress on desilting centuries-old nullahs and building check dams on them, even though he had not fully recovered from surgery. &ldquo;He was here with bandages and all. He was passionate about this,&rdquo; one of them said.

Weighty influence

At the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) this week, one of the world&rsquo;s most outwardly smooth transitions of power will occur. The administration of President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, the &ldquo;fourth generation&rdquo; of leadership of the People&rsquo;s Republic, will step aside and be replaced by younger partymen. Unlike the transition from the first generation &ndash; of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai &ndash; to the second generation of Deng Xiaoping, this transfer of power is planned and stable, as was the case when Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji of the third generation gave way to Messrs Hu and Wen in 2003. But, unlike in 2003, the economic fundamentals are likely to make the new administration&rsquo;s task difficult.

Fifth-generation problems

The investigation ordered by the Lok Ayukta court in Karnataka into the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) project, which has the mandate to build the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), consisting of an expressway and five townships, is significant for two reasons. One, despite being headless for some time, the Karnataka Lok Ayukta is not a toothless organisation; it played a key role in B S Yeddyurappa losing his chief ministership. The full investigation now ordered is based on the preliminary investigation initiated by the assertive Santosh Hegde. Two, among those to be investigated are three former chief ministers of Karnataka of different parties: H D Deve Gowda, S M Krishna and B S Yeddyurappa. This is likely to be a long-drawn-out affair, and the final denouement cannot be anticipated.

The expressway mire

Last month, Dabur launched the new-look 30-Plus, its energy brand for men, with Malaika Arora Khan, the sultry Bollywood actor, as the brand ambassador. Those in their middle ages will remember that the brand was endorsed by actor Jeetendra in the 1980s. He was the Jumping Jack of filmdom, and 30-Plus was sold as the reason for the spring in his vertical dance movements. Dabur, after acquiring the brand from Ajanta Pharma last year, did a survey among potential consumers &mdash; all men, of course. The message was that people would prefer a woman to communicate the benefits of the capsule rather than a man. A shortlist was drawn up, and finally Malaika walked away with the contract. Market leader Revital, of Ranbaxy, was endorsed by cricketer Yuvraj Singh. After his recent illness, Ranbaxy hired actor Salman Khan as the brand&rsquo;s ambassador.

Women smarter - after 30

Many of the top industrialists and diplomats invited to the two-day global investors meet organised in Chhattisgarh, did not attend the event that concluded last week in Naya Raipur, the state&rsquo;s new capital. The problem was that neither Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) Chairman Badridhar Diwan nor his staff appeared to be aware of this. This became evident as soon as Diwan proposed the vote of thanks at the conclusion of the first day of the meet. He started reading the name of industrialists and diplomats &mdash; including the UAE Ambassador &mdash; who did not, in fact, attend the meet. As one delegate commented, &ldquo;Diwan sahib thanked people for not attending!&rdquo; The chairman was given the list by the CSIDC officials and he simply read it without verifying the names.

Thank you for your absence

Apropos Shreekant Sambrani&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Modern retail and fresh produce &mdash; cui bono?&rdquo; (November 4), I want to suggest two more ways that foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail will benefit consumers and farmers. One, the Bharti Walmart-type stores give consumers additional choices regarding what to shop. Second, these stores open up international markets for farmers&rsquo; produce. In this context, read about women from Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu getting access to overseas markets for their rasagullas and cashews, respectively (&ldquo;Bharti Walmart to step up sourcing from women&rdquo;, July 24). This &ldquo;free to choose&rdquo; option is what India needs. Similar to the retail FDI, a case should also be made for genetically modified seeds for farmers. Let them make an educated choice &mdash; GM seeds or traditional hybrids.

Letters: 'Free to choose'

This refers to T N Ninan&rsquo;s column &ldquo;Political penalties&rdquo; (Weekend Ruminations, November 4). The piece offers an insight into the ironical reality of inequality of atonement in Indian politics &mdash; how our politicians experience, or escape, penance for the faults they made or did not make. Back into the past and now, we find a steep fall in the moral behaviour of our leaders. After independence, K D Malaviya and V K Menon, who were close to the prime minister, quit on charges of favour or inefficiency. From this zenith, the decline was set in motion by Indira Gandhi, who chided A R Antulay &mdash; not for being corrupt, but for having been caught when he was chief minister of Maharashtra. The moral morass is at its nadir now when tainted ministers are promoted, despite public protests (Salman Khurshid), or claim prominence even when allegations of malpractice pile up against them (B S Yeddyurappa).

Letters: Moral cowardice

Apropos &ldquo;Combative Cong hits back at Oppn&rdquo; (November 5), it is easy to get applause from a mobilised crowd, but not from the common man. It is only when the going is smooth that words of those in power impress the people and are taken at face value. Talks on retail FDI, food security Bill, economic reforms, the functioning of Parliament and so on can hardly pacify the common man who is hit hard by inflation and corruption. With Assembly elections in many states round the corner and the general election only a few months away, the time for rhetoric and blame game is over for the Congress. The electoral prospects of the Congress and the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) would largely depend on what they actually deliver to bringing down the common man&rsquo;s cost of living and containing corruption in the system.

Letters: What next?

The Congress party&rsquo;s rally in New Delhi on Sunday cannot quite be dismissed as business as usual. True, there were the usual highlights: frequent mention of the &ldquo;aam aadmi&rdquo;, a hearkening back to the party&rsquo;s history. But the symbolic value of the occasion should not be understated. The party&rsquo;s president, Sonia Gandhi, and its possible next leader, Rahul Gandhi, both spoke of their firm support for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his reform programme &mdash; even though it is no secret that many in the Congress prefer the government to go easy on fiscal restraint, reduction in subsidies and investment enhancement efforts. Such unequivocal public support from the party&rsquo;s leadership for the government&rsquo;s economic vision is rare.

Not business as usual 

As voters in the US go to the polls, they will know that the contest between the Democrat incumbent and his Republican challenger is expected to be close. According to the Pew Research Centre&rsquo;s election weekend survey, Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by just three percentage points when the probable decisions of undecided voters are accounted for. Mr Obama has received a slight last-minute surge thanks to his competent handling of the impact of Hurricane Sandy. Not only did 46 per cent of Mr Romney&rsquo;s supporters indicate their approval &ndash; including, famously, New Jersey&rsquo;s colourful Republican governor Chris Christie &ndash; 63 per cent of swing voters did, too. All eyes, therefore, are on the nine battleground states in which both candidates are frantically campaigning.

Light under a bushel

A Gallup analysis of 75,000 respondents across eight BPO organisations over a two-year period indicates 28% of employees (fewer than one in three) agree that they intend to stay with their organisation for the next two years and the same number strongly agree that they would recommend their organisation to friends/family.

BPO industry in trouble in India: Gallup 

Tuesday&rsquo;s US election is being closely watched by financial markets all over the world, with incumbent Barack Obama seen as more supportive of continued stimulus measures and Republican challenger Mitt Romney expected not to favour additional easing.

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