Global wealth to increase
Global household wealth saw a significant fall between mid-2011 and mid-2012. However, the outlook for the next five years looks bright, as aggregate wealth is likely to rise to $330 trillion, says Credit Suisse Research Institute&rsquo;s third annual Global Wealth Report 2012. From mid-2011 to mid-2012, aggregate global household wealth fell 5.2 per cent in current dollar terms to $223 trillion, owing to economic uncertainties, especially in the Euro zone(Click on

Global wealth health

Business Standard

This refers to your editorial &ldquo;Loyalty above duty&rdquo; (October 11). Having allowed and tolerated all sorts of scams and corruption all these years, it would have been better if the prime minister had maintained his characteristic silence rather than talk about measures to prevent corruption. Considering his government has lost credibility, particularly in curbing corruption, his latest&nbsp;statement that the Prevention of Corruption Act would be amended will do little to convince people.

Letters: Confidence deficit

To answer this question best, let&rsquo;s do an exercise. Take a piece of paper, write your goals clearly. For example, don&rsquo;t write &ldquo;I would like to retire rich&rdquo;; instead you could write &ldquo;I would like to retire at the age of 60 with a corpus which can maintain my current lifestyle till I am 90&rdquo;.

Financial Planning: Malhar Majumder

The report of the committee appointed by the government to look into taxation-related matters, headed by Parthasarathi Shome, is now public. While much in the report can be questioned, it is certain that it can form the framework for the government to move forward on the high-profile tax disputes that have worried investors of late &mdash; particularly the one involving the transfer of Indian mobile phone operations from Hutchison Essar to Vodafone. The transfer took place in an offshore tax haven, as a result of which capital gains tax on the deal became disputed; when the income-tax department tried to get hold of the tax withholding liability from Vodafone, lengthy litigation ensued. The Bombay High Court ruled against Vodafone; that verdict was then overturned by the Supreme Court, which said the intent of the legislature was unclear.

Time to move on 

The gradual roll back of the licence raj since 1991 was expected to, among other things, free business enterprises from the shackles of government red-tapism, unleash their &ldquo;animal spirits&rdquo; and catapult India into prosperity. The fact that two decades later, the Cabinet will soon consider the establishment of a National Investment Board (NIB) to fast-track clearances of large infrastructure projects suggests that the exercise has not been entirely successful. At one level, the NIB can thus be seen as a practical solution to an issue that has not just leashed animal spirits but also left India a critically infrastructure-deficient state. Given the plethora of clearances and approvals that complex projects require from a bewildering array of ministries and authorities, an empowered standing committee that can provide a single window of approvals certainly makes sense.

Fast-tracked problems 

When US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was in New Delhi recently, he made no secret of the fact that he was proud of his government&rsquo;s quick response to the financial crisis &mdash; as well as his distrust of financial markets. At a CII-organised event in a five-star hotel, when Geithner was taking questions from the floor, he was asked one by the India head of the giant insurer AIG &mdash; who called Geithner his company&rsquo;s &ldquo;owner&rdquo;. Of course, the US government had bailed out AIG, in return for equity, in the emergency atmosphere following the fall of Lehman. Geithner responded, quick as a flash, &ldquo;reluctant owner, I assure you,&rdquo; and went on to say that he expected it would be very temporary indeed.

Own goal

The wide media attention on Arvind Kejriwal's press conferences is inevitably attracting many jokes as well. The most popular one doing the rounds is that politicians have asked actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor to plan their wedding day for October 16, the day Kejriwal is holding the next press conference to expose other politicians. The idea being that the star-struck media will divert its attentions to the wedding instead of Kejriwal's allegations.

Nuptial solutions

This refers to the edit &ldquo;The Kingfisher exemption&rdquo; (October 10). The edit rightly mentions that the sorry state of affairs at Kingfisher Airlines would not have come to pass if it were not for Mr Mallya&rsquo;s connections at the highest levels of government.

Letters: Jungle law

At the Economic Editors&rsquo; Conference a long-time attendee from Chennai complained that neither the minister of state nor the secretaries in the finance ministry took the trouble to visit his state, barring on one or two occasions, to understand the issues there. Finance Minister P Chidambaram replied that the job was being done by TV channels. The journalist, however, said the channels were feeding &quot;all the wrong news&quot;, causing the conference hall to burst into peals of laughter. &ldquo;For the record, I didn&rsquo;t say that, you said that,&rdquo; said the finance minister.

Bad news

The editorial &ldquo;Loyalty above duty&rdquo; rightly asks why the prime minister was saying to the Central Bureau of Investigation and its cohorts what he should say to his own Cabinet. His statement that his government &ldquo;stands firm in its commitment to do everything possible to ensure probity, transparency and accountability in the work of public authorities and is committed to fighting the menace of corruption in every possible way&rdquo; is a fine example of contradiction between words and deeds. If that was the case, the recent scams would have been impossible.

Letters: Looking away?

The article &ldquo;Double trouble in single windows&rdquo; (Swot, October 11) cites interesting facts about the single window. Since single window licensing reduces administrative procedures, projects can be fast-tracked. The trouble starts when power is consolidated to get things done for the benefit of a select few. The democratic nature of administration then gives way to autocratic dominance. And, as the article rightly points out, such a situation leads to the emergence of power centres, one such as the Gujarat chief minister. Clearly, there is a need for reforms, which will bring transparency and efficiency in the central and state administrative systems.

Letters: Window pains

My father is 54 and plans to retire in two years. I wish to gift him a medical policy. What should I keep in mind? Will a family floater plan work better? My mother is 50, and has a health policy (sum assured of Rs 2 lakh). Please advice.

General Insurance: K K Mishra

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the annual conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state anti-corruption bureaux, said that the Prevention of Corruption Act would be amended to focus on corporate bribery, and that investigative agencies should upgrade their &ldquo;skills and techniques&rdquo; to deal with &ldquo;newer methods of corruption&rdquo;. He added that his government &ldquo;stands firm in its commitment to do everything possible to ensure probity, transparency and accountability in governance&rdquo;. These are fine words, and should be welcomed. However, it is far from clear why the prime minister was addressing them to the CBI and its cohorts rather than to his own Cabinet. For here the government appears to be speaking in two voices; as the prime minister talks of the need to examine newer forms of corruption, his ministers are busy defending DLF&rsquo;s dealings with Robert Vadra well in advance of the full facts.

Loyalty above duty

The decision by the railway ministry to set up a Rail Tariff Authority to take care of periodic changes in passenger fares and freight rates needs to be welcomed in unequivocal terms. As C P Joshi, minister for road transport, is holding additional charge of the railway ministry and so may not have the perspective to initiate fresh policy moves in key areas, the thought process behind the move may have originated from the prime minister himself. The Cabinet&rsquo;s ability to take a positive decision in the matter has been enhanced by the end of the overbearing presence of Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal chief minister, who considered the Railways to be part of her fiefdom and was opposed to any passenger fare hike. To put it plainly, an inability to raise fares and freight rates to take care of rising costs will mean the kiss of death for the national carrier. Such a calamitous situation has to be avoided at all costs.

What Railways needs most

At a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was asked a question from the floor about the future, presumably contractionary, effects on the US economy when the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s quantitative easing was withdrawn. Geithner refused to answer the question.

Independence daze

What is the government doing about inflation? With vegetable prices still soaring, a journalist asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram why the government was unable to address the issue. Chidambaram explained that high prices were the result of supply constraints and high fiscal deficit. But the question clearly irritated him because he added one of his trademark put-downs: &ldquo;If you have an easy answer I&rsquo;m willing to exchange places with you.

Exchange offer

The finance minister&rsquo;s animus did not, however, extend to other journalists. At the recent Economic Editors&rsquo; Conference, an elderly journalist from Chennai put up his hand to ask a question. Before he could begin, Chidambaram observed that the journalist was perhaps the only person to attend all the Economic Editors&rsquo; Conferences in the last three decades. &ldquo;Forty years,&rdquo; the journalist corrected him proudly.

In attendance

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 has been awarded to the European Union because it has &ldquo;for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe&rdquo;. Coming as this does in the midst of a full-fledged European economic crisis &mdash; one with political overtones, as the right-wing riots in Athens accompanying the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to that city show &mdash; the award has been, fairly predictably, attacked. This ranges from the infuriated, from Eurosceptic British tabloids &mdash; The Sun&rsquo;s headline was &ldquo;EU have got to be joking&rdquo;, and the Daily Mail went with &ldquo;Nobel Peace Prize for Idiocy&rdquo; &mdash; to the amused. More than one commentator pointed out that at least Europe did not win the Nobel Prize for economics; also common was the joke that Europe could do with the $1.4 million prize money.

Something worth saving   

National Democratic Alliance convener Sharad Yadav is annoyed with the repeated tussle between Janata Dal (United) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in Bihar on whether or not Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi be invited to the state. Soon after BJP state president C P Thakur said Modi would be invited, JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari was asked to tell Thakur that he must avoid statements that could create a rift between the alliance partners.

Bone of contention

Very few people are accorded this honour. Robert Vadra is one of them. A reader reports that he travelled J-class to Dubai. Seated in the front in the same aircraft was Vadra. Everyone got off the plane to proceed for immigration checks. But a car came on to the tarmac, Vadra got into it and disappeared. He was unaccompanied.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 830 - Business Standard

Global wealth health

Letters: Confidence deficit

Financial Planning: Malhar Majumder

Time to move on

Fast-tracked problems

Own goal

Nuptial solutions

Letters: Jungle law

Bad news

Letters: Looking away?

Letters: Window pains

General Insurance: K K Mishra

Loyalty above duty

What Railways needs most

Independence daze

Exchange offer

In attendance

Something worth saving

Bone of contention

The VIP treatment