Current valuation levels of Indian shares provide attractive entry points for investors, according to Ambit Capital. The Mumbai-based brokerage studied the performance of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark, Sensex, for different time periods based on its price-to-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratios.

India oversold?

Business Standard

Industrial growth generally moves in sync with the index of eight core industries, which have almost 38% weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The core sector grew at the rate of a muted 2.2 % in April 2012-13. However, IIP numbers will have the advantage of a low base of April 2011-12 (at 166 points), which has already been surpassed in March 2011-12 (186 points). Over the past few years, a sharp drop has been seen in core sector and IIP growth in April, compared to March.

IIP outlook

This refers to the edit &ldquo;BJP&rsquo;s asset and liability&rdquo; (June 12). It is understandable if leaders in the BJP feel that the party needs a fresh start. It has no hope if it continues to function in the same old tired way that is becoming reminiscent of the Congress. So, projecting Modi as a prime ministerial candidate seems like a gamble worth taking &mdash; even if that may mean alienating some NDA partners, who in any case seem more interested in charting their own political course. So, it makes sense for the BJP to gather the courage and project its clear stand on the next PM candidate.

Letters: Modi: a gamble worth taking

Experts often say, installing security devices helps cut auto premiums.

General Insurance: Gaurav Garg

The guidelines can ensure sustainable corporate commitment to society but insisting on compulsory compliance is tricky
Rijit Sengupta
Director, Consumer Unity &amp; Trust Society (CUTS) International
&ldquo;The guidelines urge firms to integrate responsible business conduct within its core business model, rather than treating the issue peripherally, as a mere PR function&rdquo;
Notwithstanding the Satyam scandal, the number of cases of corporate misdemeanours hitting the headlines in recent

Will the govt's business responsibility norms improve corporate governance?

Leaders at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting were unusually forthright at the day-long meet last week. With the UPA under attack on every front from people like Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, several Congress members were heard lamenting about the golden days when Indira Gandhi was prime minister. &ldquo;If Indiraji had been around, she would have fixed them,&rdquo; said one, alluding to the memorable description of the late prime minister as &ldquo;the only man in her Cabinet&rdquo;. Comments like this are interesting because Congressmen are reputed for their extreme deference to current Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and questioning the top leadership was unheard of till now.

Leading comments

Economists may make many technical forecasts about the future recovery of the world economy, but some businessmen prefer to put their faith in divine intervention. At Commerce Minister Anand Sharma&rsquo;s meeting with Confederation of India Industry (CII) members on the foreign trade policy, former CII President Sunil K Munjal had everyone laughing at an amusing anecdote about an associate in Europe, the region worst hit by recession. These days, the friend said gloomily, the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off by god and would only be turned on when the recovery begins.

God knows

In Punjab, the declared killer of a former state chief minister is honoured by those speaking in the name of a whole community. In Tamil Nadu, Andimuthu Raja returns to his home state as a conquering hero, after having had to resign as communications minister and then spending 15 months in jail. In the first case, the killer is awaiting execution, while in the second the trial is still to get under way. In that sense, the two are on different planes. But it is necessary to ask whether the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is no better than some of the Akali factions when they cock a defiant snook at the law.

Lionising the indicted 

The index of industrial production, which was negative in March, was positive in April &mdash; but just barely. It rose by 0.1 per cent, according to figures released on Tuesday, compared to 5.3 per cent a year ago. Manufacturing output grew at only 0.1 per cent as well. Mining contracted by 3.1 per cent, intermediate goods by 1.4 per cent, and capital goods by 16.3 per cent, revealing that the backbone of the manufacturing economy is weakened.

The RBI needs to act

Legislators and ministers in India are used to having their every whim and wish fulfilled. So, the chagrin of UP&rsquo;s MLAs at being ignored by doctors at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) is no surprise. Since the state government does not fund its operations, SGPGIMS&rsquo; doctors routinely ignore recommendations from MLAs and ministers for subsidised or free treatment for poor people from their constituencies. Of course, the Lucknow-based super speciality hospital is well within its rights, but MLAs across party lines considered the matter serious enough to raise it in the Assembly last week. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan, supported by BJP member Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya, urged the Speaker to summon the institute&rsquo;s director and set things right.

Forced aid

This refers to the report &ldquo;India may be the first fallen BRIC angel: S&amp;P&rdquo; (June 12). There may be some substance to the warning signals contained in the rating agency&rsquo;s report.

Letters: S&P's unfair comparison

This refers to Sunita Narain&rsquo;s column &ldquo;Stained steel&rsquo;&rsquo; (Down To Earth, June 11). Indeed, it is important to measure the environmental impact of industry. I live in a block in Burdwan district, the rice bowl of West Bengal. Over the years, a number of rice mills have mushroomed in the area, but few of these follow environmental guidelines. These rice mills cause extensive damage to the environment. They pollute the Damodar Valley Corporation canals that are a lifeline for the people living here. Unfortunately, the local administration and the pollution control board have done nothing to curb this problem.

Letters: Toxic rice mills

I had invested in a fixed deposit for a year, a day before my bank cut its deposit rate on that maturity.

Banking: Prashant Joshi

One of the major outcomes of the recent meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party&rsquo;s (BJP&rsquo;s) national executive is the apparent solidification of support for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Although he continues to be an extremely divisive figure beyond the party faithful &ndash; and even the BJP&rsquo;s parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has its doubts about his reliability as a vessel for its ideology &ndash; Mr Modi&rsquo;s chances of emerging as the party&rsquo;s prime ministerial candidate for the next general elections have been substantially enhanced. The BJP&rsquo;s logic has a certain coherence to it. Since the eclipse of Lal Krishna Advani following the 2009 general elections defeat, it has appeared rudderless. Its ambitious Delhi leaders have squandered the advantages provided by the United Progressive Alliance government&rsquo;s loss of credibility, through infighting and populism.

BJP's asset, and liability

India&rsquo;s laws governing competition are being overhauled currently, with the ministry of corporate affairs spearheading proposed amendments to the Competition Act. At present with a group of ministers (GoM), the amendments reportedly seek to extend the scope of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) across all sectors.

Competing exemptions

The Planning Commission&rsquo;s swanky new toilet complex, renovated at an estimated Rs 35 lakh, may have grabbed the headlines as much for the cost as the fact that it restricted access to the facilities via smart cards issued to 60 people. But it turns outs that a finance ministry department has left the Plan panel far behind in the use of technology to restrict the use of the officers&rsquo; toilets. One of its offices in central Delhi requires biometric identification to gain entry to the toilet. Or so a visiting officer from another building discovered when he tried to use the facility and was denied access. Finally, he had to call an officer from the department to swipe him in.

Private convenience

A leading local newspaper recently launched an edition from Korba and, in keeping with its editorial policy, started attacking corporate houses in the district, which is known as the state&rsquo;s aluminium and power hub . To start with, the newspaper targeted one of the state&rsquo;s largest aluminium conglomerates and ran a series of stories against it. This powerful corporation, however, did not waste time and its corporate communication team worked hard to circulate the notion that the paper concerned had failed to make its presence felt in Korba. How far either campaign has worked is hard to tell but this battle has certainly been good news for the newcomer&rsquo;s rivals.

Rivalry off the record

In the article &ldquo;Land Bill needs a new public purpose&rdquo; (June 7), Rajiv Kumar and Chetan Bijesure make the valid point that infrastructure projects on a public-private partnership, or PPP, basis must not be excluded from the &ldquo;public purpose&rdquo; category in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011. However, they go on to make two questionable arguments.

Letters: The issue of land and growth

In all the reports and jokes on the renovation of toilets in Yojana Bhavan, one important point is missed. Even the North and the South Blocks that house the offices of the prime minister and Cabinet ministers do not have luxurious toilets. We have seen in the Commonwealth Games scandal how equipment and supplies were priced unconscionably high for obvious reasons. One unique characteristic of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General is the audit against propriety. He can raise the question whether the expenditure was justified in the first instance, even if the sanction was obtained, and whether there were less expensive options. There are high-tech toilets in five-star hotels in developed countries. I have a suspicion that the Planning Commission might have installed such a suite of toilets as part of its plan to modernise the infrastructure of the country where millions of people have access only to open-air lavatories.

Letters: Toilet tamasha

Many politicians overreact to difficult questions from journalists but Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh clearly knows how to handle them. At a recent conference, journalists persistently questioned the special privileges that Members of Parliament demand on Air India flights and were not pleased by the minister&rsquo;s assurance that he had asked Air India Chairman Rohit Nandan to treat all its passengers as MPs. So Singh put the ball in their court. He said he would ask Mr Nandan to have a Special Operating Procedure for journalists when they fly Air India &mdash; and the questions on the issue died after that.

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