Export of software services (Click on graphic)

Soft reboot

Business Standard

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

The third and final debate on foreign policy between US President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled next week. A national survey finds increasing public pessimism about developments in West Asia, support for tough policies on Iran&rsquo;s nuclear programme and economic issues with China.

Vox populi

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is annoyed at a section of the media in Jaipur. It was reported that Raje would quit the Bharatiya Janata Party soon and launch her own political outfit before the Assembly elections in Rajasthan in December 2013. &ldquo;Why would Raje launch her own party when she can become the chief minister next year? She is very annoyed and is consulting lawyers to take action against the reports,&rdquo; said her aide.

Pressing charges  

On October 20, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to launch the first major step in integrating the Unique ID, or Aadhaar, with government welfare schemes. The event is supposed to take place in Dudu, a town in Jaipur district in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. The presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi also seems to suggest that the United Progressive Alliance will likely use the roll-out of Aadhaar-linked schemes as part of the achievements it will try and sell to voters come re-election time. Five welfare programmes are due to be linked to Aadhaar immediately: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Gramin Awas Yojana that helps build rural houses for families living below the poverty line, the senior citizens&rsquo; pension scheme, payments under the Asha Sahyogini programme and the Chief Minister&rsquo;s Scholarships.

UID's next step

I have covered my family under a family floater plan &mdash; including myself, my parents and my elder sister. However, she is getting married by the end of this year.

General Insurance: K K Mishra

Does the Reserve Bank of India face a changed situation, allowing it to cut rates in the coming fortnight? Overall growth remains anaemic, though the precipitous slide visible in Table 1 appears to have been arrested. The index of industrial production for manufacturing &ndash; visible in Table 2 &ndash; was positive in August, too &ndash; though there is little doubt, looking at the graph&rsquo;s overall shape, that the trend is downward.

StatsGuru-22-October-12

Improved economic conditions, stronger TV advertising, growth in pay TV penetration and the migration of sports to pay TV are likely to raise global sports revenues to an estimated $145.3 bn by 2015, a compounded annual growth rate of 3.7% (Click on graphic)

Business of sports

When the Deccan Chargers, past champions of cricket&rsquo;s Indian Premier League or IPL, were removed from the roster of teams recently, it drew attention to an odd fact: many of the owners of the teams in the league have not precisely been stellar performers of late when it comes to their core businesses.

Beyond boundaries  

The Bharatiya Janata Party&rsquo;s veteran leader L K Advani avoids making political statements in public. Yet, when Advani was invited to speak at the Swami Vivekanand study circle, MP Balbir Punj suggested that he should make a political speech, given the presence of prime-time news channels. But Advani declined the offer. &ldquo;I was asked to deliver a political speech because it would be telecast live on television. But I don&rsquo;t want to do it,&rdquo; said Advani while speaking at the venue.

Not quite the orator 

It might come as little solace to the aam aadmi, but it is not just the ordinary housewife who is reeling under the burden of increasing prices and the latest move to cap domestic LPG cylinders. A senior Congressman disclosed how the wife of the India head of a multinational oil and gas company was unhappy with her husband. &ldquo;You see, despite her husband&rsquo;s Rs 1-crore monthly salary, she was only given Rs 50,000 for kitchen and household expenses. Now, with the annual six cylinder cap, the lady is at her wits&rsquo; end,&rdquo; said the Congressman.

Common woes

Karl Slym, the recently appointed joint managing director of Tata Motors, had developed a friendly relationship with reporters on the beat, not least because of his sense of humour. So, it was almost inevitable that he would be teased for crossing the floor from General Motors India, which he headed, to competitor Tata Motors.

Sailing through

There is a world of difference between engineering and commerce batches at the CAT (Common Admission Test) coaching centre. Engineering students respond enthusiastically to Math classes. Numbers, algebra, geometry &mdash; these are their hideouts from life&rsquo;s abiding dailiness. Commerce batches, on the contrary, come alive in English sessions. Talk of graphs and pie charts is inane chatter to them, but bring up the difference between au fait and au courant, and their limbs shiver in glee.

Acting the part

Of the two fertiliser-related decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at its recent meeting, the token hike of Rs 50 per tonne in urea prices is inconsequential, and the new mechanism for subsidising fertiliser is problematic.

Still afraid of reform 

Apropos the Q&amp;A with Rahul Bhasin &ldquo;I would be surprised if more than 30 PEs survive downturn&rdquo; (October 18), I can foresee the stock markets are dying. Liquidity in the West will come down to realistic levels. Since the underlying fundamentals of most countries will not warrant high valuation, the markets will come down quickly. In the long run, the stock exchanges die a natural death. Funding to and from private equities (PEs) will increase.

Letters: 'Dying' stock markets

This refers to Asish K Bhattacharyya&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Do companies take CSR seriously?&rdquo; (October 15). Making corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending mandatory will completely change its purpose. In that case, CSR should be rechristened corporate social mandate (CSM) and companies should appoint an officer to overlook the spending on CSM initiatives. CSR is not merely about the money spent on social projects.

Letters: CSR needs passion

This refers to the report &ldquo;Ashok Khemka: Whistle-blower, maverick &mdash; or both?&rdquo; (October 17). It is astonishing that in this age of 24x7 news, and with activist Arvind Kejriwal set to lay bare corruption, those in power still believe they can act arbitrarily and fool the country. Contrary to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda&rsquo;s claims, circumstantial evidence points to the fact that Ashok Khemka was transferred because he ordered a probe into the Vadra-DLF land deals. It&rsquo;s common knowledge that transfers are used as a tool by politicians to get rid of and punish upright officers who refuse to fall in line and show allegiance to the rule book. This is one of the reasons for the political-bureaucrat nexus and the resultant corruption in the system. Upright bureaucrats need to be protected from political harassment by allowing a high-level committee to decide their transfers.

Letters: Curious case of transfers

The buzz about a Cabinet reshuffle has prompted some hyperactivity among West Bengal Congress leaders. After the exit of Trinamool Congress&rsquo; ministers from the Centre, there are many new aspirants for a place in the ministry. Whether it is state party chief Pradip Bhattacharya, Adhir Chowdhury or Deepa Dasmunshi, all of them are flocking to New Delhi, strenuously networking with everyone of influence &mdash; from President Pranab Mukherjee to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. But that&rsquo;s not all. If Bhattacharya gets a ministerial berth, the Pradesh Congress chief&rsquo;s post will also fall vacant. This is probably why Congress MLA Manas Bhuinya is also visiting the national capital along with contenders for ministerial berths.

Bengal's reshuffle shuffle

The transfer of IAS officer Ashok Khemka has raised many questions. The fact that his transfer came in the wake of Khemka ordering an investigation into the Vadra-DLF land deals, the government should initiate a probe into the entire issue. Proper norms should be observed in the transfer of IAS officers. There should be a mechanism in force to monitor transfers and the sale of Panchayat and government land to private parties.

Letters: A question to answers

The Congress finds itself in a tricky situation as far as Law Minister Salman Khurshid is concerned. The party as well as his senior Cabinet colleagues had stood firmly behind Khurshid, when he was attacked by India against Corruption&rsquo;s Arvind Kejriwal on possible irregularities in the functioning of his NGO.

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