Cabinet clears FDI up to 51 % but with riders. One, 30% of the value of procurement must be sourced from small &amp; medium enterprises. Two, a minimum investment of $100 million.

The big-ticket issues of reforms

Business Standard

The environmental performance of the Indian iron and steel industry is poor, according to the latest indices released by the Green Rating Project of the Centre for Science and Environment. On a scale of 10 (the theoretical best), the global best practitioners score eight, while the Indian leaders score only two. The steel industry, if it chooses to ignore this index, will be an outlier.

Steel isn't green

With the coal scam at the centre of public and political debate in the country now, beleaguered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari thinks he has some reason to smile &mdash; even though his party-run government in Chhattisgarh is also under the scanner. The Chhattisgarh government has been accused of allotting a coal mine to Gadkari&rsquo;s alleged aide and BJP Rajya Sabha member Ajay Sancheti&rsquo;s firm at a throwaway price. Where most political commentators see this indictment as an embarrassment, Gadkari proudly thinks it reflects his power in the party before his elevation to national party president. The fact remains that the coal mine was allotted in 2007 and most senior BJP leaders in Chhattisgarh admit that they avoided taking Gadkari&rsquo;s calls at that time, let alone allotting a mine on his recommendation.

Scam-reflected glory

Quite a few tax-free bond issues have come out in the last few months from highly-rated PSUs and are listed on stock exchanges. Since many of these are available at yields of eight per cent, it would make sense for people with income in the highest tax bracket (of 30 per cent) to buy these bonds, since one would have to buy a taxable investment yielding 11.5 per cent to compare with the tax-free returns on these bonds.

Investing:  Rishi Nathany

The software &amp; services industry attracted the most investments in terms of deal volume (50 deals), with an aggregate deal value of $182.78 million.

A snapshot on PE activity & deals

V O Chidambaranar port trust in Tuticorin is one of the country&rsquo;s major ports under the Ministry of Shipping and has concluded fiscal-ended March 31, 2012, handling 28.10 million tonnes and fixed an internal target to handle 30 million tonnes next fiscal. In order to achieve our target, the port is implementing several Projects to augment the present capacity of 27.04 million tonnes to 61.78 million tonnes says A Subbiah, chairman of the VO Chidambaranar Port Trust.

On completion of some projects we can gain hub-port status: A Subbiah 

It would appear at first glance that the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy of UPA-II does what is necessary to restore robust export growth. Ballooning oil prices and gold imports during 2011-12 combined to cause a current account deficit that had reached a worrying four per cent of gross domestic product; clearly, India&rsquo;s exports needed a push. However, the agenda unveiled by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma quite comprehensively misses the point.

The stickiness of bad policy

Single entrance exam for NITs, IITs brings a great sigh of relief to all the students both financially and mentally. However, relevance of coaching institutes will not be lost rather will get modified.

Student&#8217s corner

The Congress may be short of spokespeople ever since Abhishek Manu Singhvi was axed following an alleged sex tape scandal, but the party does not believe in second chances. This despite the fact that Singhvi was skilled at fielding difficult questions and much sought after by television channels for studio discussions. So when Singhvi, who had submitted his resignation some time ago, was suddenly seen on TV responding on behalf of the party, the Congress swung into quick action. It promptly issued a media list of Congressmen authorised to represent the party on TV. The list retained the old names but added actor and MP Raj Babbar. Singhvi, everyone noted, was the only one to have been dropped. The Congress was clearly unperturbed about sacking him, but television reporters were heard lamenting his absence because &ldquo;he gave good sound bytes&rdquo;.

Byting the Singhvi bullet

This refers to the report &ldquo;RBI for overhaul of banks&rsquo; HR practices&rdquo; (June 6). Financial inclusion is one of our topmost priorities. All citizens, especially the poor, must have access to formal banking services &mdash; and there are no two ways about it. However, it is strange that K C Chakrabarty has questioned the wisdom of public sector banks (PSBs) in rushing to B-schools for recruitments . It is surprising that he questions whether students from top management schools would understand the spirit of financial inclusion drives and whether &ldquo;these people will have empathy towards the poorest of the poor&rdquo;.

Letter: Why not B-school grads?

If anyone has any doubts about who really calls the shots in the Railway ministry ever since Trinamool&rsquo;s Mukul Roy replaced Dinesh Trivedi, they would have been put to rest at a recent function in Arambagh in West Bengal. The event, to inaugurate a new railway line in the district, was held at a small ground but the organisers had not protected the gathering from the sun. This omission so enraged state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that she &ndash; not her prot&eacute;g&eacute; Roy &ndash; made the divisional railway manager Partha Sarathi Mandal apologise to the crowd for causing them discomfort. Partially mollified, the chief minister was heard saying, &ldquo;It seems that the state will have to take charge of things during such events.

Beaten track

Andrew Holland in his interview with Palak Shah made some telling comments on the Indian economy (&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have to re-tell the India story...it&rsquo;s a broken picture now,&rdquo; June 6). The biggest hurdle is lack of reforms and it seems the industry is getting tired of the all-talk-no-action approach of the political class. When Manmohan Singh took over as PM, one felt he would hasten reforms that were long overdue.

Letter: Waiting for reform

What with exporters&rsquo; aggressive expectations, the annual review of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2009-2014 could have been a fraught affair had it not been for Director General of Foreign Trade Anup K Pujari. He set the note in his opening remarks to the conference by saying the FTP was more the result of coincidence than effort &mdash; because the initials of the finance secretary&rsquo;s name were R S (as in R S Gujral) and the commerce secretary&rsquo;s S R (S R Rao).

Trading on humour

The edit &ldquo;At the highest levels&rdquo; (June 4) rightly diagnoses the changes the UPA government must bring about to revive the economy. Let us see whether it has the wherewithal to implement them. To depoliticise economic decision-making, we need a PM who is politically astute and an FM who is a knowledgeable modern economist. We have just the opposite. The Cabinet has to be restructured to place competent, not loyal, ministers in key economic portfolios. As regards to revitalising the Cabinet committee of economic affairs, the PM will have to involve himself more proactively and assert his authority. Finally, for engaging states, the government needs negotiators with persuasive communication skills and a reputation for objectivity. The UPA has none, barring perhaps Pranab Mukherjee.

Letter: UPA's ability

I have heard a parent can take insurance which will pay for his child's higher studies.

Life Insurance:  Deepak Sood

Modern military doctrine sees cyberspace as a fifth theatre of war along with land, air, sea and space. Every nation&rsquo;s infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber-assault. Almost every 21st-century artefact, from children&rsquo;s toys to pacemakers to credit cards to sewage disposal systems and power grids, has an embedded infotech component. Modern military systems are, of course, utterly dependent on information technology (IT). Given that, the widely reported claims in David Sanger&rsquo;s new book, Confront and Conceal: Obama&rsquo;s Secret Wars, seem credible. Mr Sanger says the US and Israel cooperated to create the Stuxnet computer worm that carried out cyber-attacks against Iran&rsquo;s nuclear infrastructure. Since 2010, when Stuxnet escaped into the wild after sabotaging thousands of Iranian centrifuges, programmers have insisted that it was too large and sophisticated to be written by a rogue hacker.

The secret wars

Opening up futures trading in commodities to banks, which may well be a precursor to similar access for other financial institutions, seems a measure whose time has not yet come. Futures trading, reintroduced in 2002 after a nearly four-decade hiatus, is still in its infancy in India. The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the commodity trade regulator, is weak and toothless; it finds it difficult to ensure fair and distortion-free trading through commodity exchanges even at current volumes.

Still for the future

The fourth-quarter and full-year GDP figures released last week were expected to be disappointing and provide a chance for industry chambers to call strongly for reforms. Sure enough, the two leading chambers of commerce were off the mark. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry sent invitations for a press conference on Monday on the Indian economy a week ahead of the GDP data release. Then the Confederation of Indian Industry sprang into action and announced a press conference on the same theme but a day after the data was released. The timing may have reflected chamber rivalry but the content of both conferences were the same.

Competitive chambers of India

This refers to Subir Roy&rsquo;s column &ldquo;India&rsquo;s opportunity in Myanmar&rdquo; (Value for Money, June 6). India must not repeat the mistake it made in implementing infrastructure development projects in Nepal. So interested were we in maximising our return on investment that we used substandard material in building &mdash; much like we do in our own country. The result was that we lost Nepal&rsquo;s goodwill and the Chinese replaced us. Considering this experience, we should deploy a group of suitable businessmen to carry forward Indian interests in Myanmar with a focus on not only earning more profits, but also providing neck-to-neck competition to China and other countries.

Letters: Repeating the Nepal folly

Apropos &ldquo;Auto companies lobby against tax on diesel cars&rdquo; (June 7), the auto industry&rsquo;s response to the move of increasing taxes on diesel cars clearly demonstrates lack of leadership and responsibility. Higher excise duty on diesel cars is unlikely to hurt overall growth of car sales &mdash; it will only decrease the sales of diesel vehicles. This may result in short-term losses for manufacturers who have invested in diesel engine plants.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 881 - Business Standard

The big-ticket issues of reforms

Steel isn't green

Scam-reflected glory

The big-ticket issues of reforms

Investing: Rishi Nathany

A snapshot on PE activity & deals

On completion of some projects we can gain hub-port status: A Subbiah

The stickiness of bad policy

Student’s corner

Byting the Singhvi bullet

Letter: Why not B-school grads?

Beaten track

Letter: Waiting for reform

Trading on humour

Letter: UPA's ability

Life Insurance: Deepak Sood

The secret wars

Still for the future

Competitive chambers of India

Letters: Repeating the Nepal folly