Talk of innovation and we have the Confederation of All India Traders coming up with innovative techniques to protest against foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. It has decided to observe March as &ldquo;retail democracy month&rdquo; and an elaborate programme has been drawn up. On the eve of Holi, members of the association will burn effigies representing FDI across the country. &ldquo;We will follow the rituals and burn the effigy using all the mantras,&rdquo; said the association&rsquo;s secretary general. On March 16, the day of the Budget, there&rsquo;s a nationwide sit-in protest planned. On March 23, they will do the rounds of markets using drums and temple bells to publicise their cause. On March 30, the last working day of the financial year, they will round off the protest with &ldquo;Gandhigiri&rdquo;. &ldquo;You will see traders begging on the streets, polishing shoes, and washing dishes to protest against FDI,&rdquo; he said.

Hard-selling protest

Business Standard

Official tour reports from the fields are usually pretty drab documents that tend to get buried deep inside government offices. This year, however, the agriculture ministry has decided not to let the light of such official reports be hidden under a bushel. So the ministry has produced a neatly compiled book of the tour reports of the last year by its 15-odd officials titled &ldquo;Vignettes of Indian Agriculture&rdquo;. Apart from being a repository of ground-level reports, the book also contains suggestions to problems as seen by officers on the scene and how good work done in some places replicated nationwide. It is uncertain how far policy makers will refer to this document, but as an example of transparent bureaucracy it has certainly set a precedent.

Breaking new ground

This refers to the edit &ldquo;Lining up to vote&rdquo; (March 6). The recent Assembly elections are indicative of the fact that people are now getting serious about their right to vote. And this perhaps an opportune time for us to give some serious thought to the electoral system. The low voter turnout in elections weakens our democracy and this chronic issue should be addressed without delay. To add more strength and value to the electoral system, a massive campaign should be launched across the country to highlight the importance of voting. This will not only increase the turnout but also lead to significant results in elections.

Letters: Making voting count

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be deflated by its performance in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections but at least one faction of the party has found a reason to celebrate. This is over Uma Bharati&rsquo;s victory from the Charkhari seat, defeating her Samajwadi Party rival by over 25,000 votes. Indeed, many of those who had opposed her in Madhya Pradesh were learnt to have been propitiating the gods to ensure her a comfortable win and it seems their prayers were answered. Their happiness, however, has less to do with wishing the doughty Bharti well as much as ensuring that she stayed out of MP politics. &ldquo;No one wants her losing the Charkhari seat and coming back to Madhya Pradesh,&rdquo; a senior leader remarked.

BJP's 'win-win' in UP

This refers to the report &ldquo;Debt Management Bill likely soon&rdquo; (March 7). Though it is rational of the government to take over and manage public debt on its own, the haste with which the finance ministry is trying to pass the Bill is unwarranted. The ministry is already burdened with several other preoccupations and compulsions arising from loss of credibility, compulsions of coalition politics and a host of other relationship issues with regulators and financial institutions including banks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been managing smoothly the Centre and state governments' public debt for several decades. In the interest of financial stability the government should not disturb the present arrangement, at least until it is in a position to take up a comprehensive review of the monetary system envisaged in the preamble of the RBI Act.

Letters: Not so fast

I am 27 and have been working for the past two years. I have invested in PPF and also hold fixed deposits worth about Rs 2 lakh. I want to take exposure to equity. How much should I start with? And, how to do it? I have an investible surplus of Rs 1 lakh.

Investing: Paras Adenwala

As the National People&rsquo;s Congress, the People&rsquo;s Republic of China&rsquo;s stand-in for a directly elected legislature, opened this week, it has become increasingly clear that China&rsquo;s economy, polity and foreign stance are all going through a major transition. These transitions coincide with, but are probably largely unrelated to, the inter-generational transfer of power from the &ldquo;fourth generation&rdquo; of Chinese leaders to the &ldquo;fifth generation&rdquo;, a handover that is being managed to be as stable and continuous as possible. In terms of the economy, it is clear that China&rsquo;s leaders have accepted that growth is slowing. For the first time in years, the country has set a growth target below eight per cent &mdash; which many assumed to be the very lowest bound that the ruling party would permit, necessary to preserve political stability.

Congress of change

Now that the Assembly elections in five states are over, with what can only be called a defeat for the Congress, the pressure is on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to help the United Progressive Alliance, in its second term, (UPA-II) out of the hole it&rsquo;s in. Mr Mukherjee&rsquo;s job is unenviable: the government has been stuck in policy paralysis for months; political obstructionism among its allies and the Opposition have held up basic reform; and the fiscal space has shrunk. Yet there is a certain minimum of reform that is both politically feasible and economically sensible. If this minimum is accomplished in the next Budget, Mr Mukherjee will have averted disaster.

The four essentials

During the initial start up phase financial support is required to run the business. Due to the economic slowdown there will be less infusion of money in the economy which will hamper the potential loan capacity of entrepreneur and running cost of business.

Student&#8217s corner

It is rare but not unusual for an airline CEO to fly another airline. CEOs may do so for convenience (urgent meetings, for instance) or to experience the in-flight service of a competitor. But if you are Kingfisher Airlines CEO such travel choices do raise eyebrows given the current problems in the airline. Last Sunday, Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal flew from Mumbai to Goa on SpiceJet (of which he was CEO till recently) in afternoon even though Kingfisher has a flight to Goa 50 minutes later. He returned to Mumbai the same night on an Air India flight. The airline spokesperson says the CEO&rsquo;s airline choice had nothing to do with the crisis in the airline but the timing of his meeting. But Kingfisher staff find that reason hard to believe. Travelling by another airline ensures that the trip remains hush hush. About a month ago, Aggarwal was mobbed by ground staff at Delhi airport demanding salaries. On flights, too, cabin crew have made the same pleas.

KFA CEO takes Spice route

Following the footsteps of the private sector and some public sector enterprises, many ministries have started using swipe cards and biometric technology to record the attendance of their employees. Some employees think it would improve efficiency in government departments and bring in some discipline, but others are not happy with the change. Reason: this would make their timings inflexible and the overtime allowance they get for spending extra hours in office is not enough.

Time out

This refers to your edit &ldquo;Lining up to vote&rdquo; (March 6). The high voter turnout in the recent state elections is certainly a boost to our democracy. However, this is just the first stage of the three stages that make a mature democracy. The second stage is one in which voters rise above petty considerations and vote for the right candidate, keeping real issues in mind. And the third stage is one in which political parties are compelled to work for the larger good of society, shunning divisive ways and wrong practices. Till there is such voter awakening and change in the political culture, it makes little difference which party or alliance comes to power since it is unlikely to bring any significant change.

Letters: A numbers show

This refers to edit &ldquo;Railways must modernise&rdquo; (March 6). The fact that coalition politics is just one factor that has brought the Indian Railways (IR) to its present financial mess must be acknowledged. If the government really desires to put the railways back on track, it must insist on the railways minister abandoning populist policies.

Letters: Putting IR back on track

This refers to the report &ldquo;Maharashtra revives water transport project&rdquo; (March 5). Though it is nice to note that this will be an environment-friendly mode of transport, it remains to be seen whether the project&rsquo;s benefits will cover the bulk of the twin-cities&rsquo; working population or be limited to serving the elite. It needs to be pointed out that the state has dropped, without giving any reason, the rail portion of the road-cum-rail bridge from Nava Sheva to Sewri.

Letters: Public transport?

This refers to the edit &ldquo;No more status quo&rdquo; (March 7). It is time the Congress realised that it can no longer win the hearts of voters by simply announcing largesse sitting in Delhi. For one, the ground-level delivery mechanism, the bureaucracy, remains corrupt and unreformed. Hence the benefits do not reach people. Second, the party&rsquo;s grass-roots organisations that could have helped it keep a tab on the delivery mechanism is in neglect.

Letters: Regional rules

For the Congress party, there&rsquo;s no getting around it: in this round of Assembly elections, it has been roundly beaten. Uttar Pradesh, in particular, was a high-stakes contest. The party claims that its general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, created a &ldquo;favourable climate&rdquo; that its state unit failed to take advantage of. Yet that does not absolve the national leadership, including Mr Gandhi, of blame in failing to understand that elections are won through organisation, not well-attended rallies. In its failure to improve its statewide network sufficiently to increase its share of seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP), and in its failure to capitalise on the stasis that Punjab has suffered under the chief ministership of Parkash Singh Badal &ndash; who was first elected chief minister (CM) in 1970 &ndash; the Congress has shown that it is out of ideas. The omens are not good.

No more status quo

With the Congress having won just one of the five state elections, the market was clearly nervous. In the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) where the Samajwadi Party (SP) has won a clear majority, the Congress clearly has no role in government formation. This is something the market had hoped for, believing it would provide much-needed trigger for strong policy action at the Centre. An extract below from two known research houses on what the outcomes mean for the market.

Poll outcome: Impact for markets

The fiasco over the auction of a five per cent government stake in the Oil Natural Gas Corporation last week has given rise to intense debate in North Block over the efficacy of this mode of disinvestment. A senior finance ministry official suggested that the arguments were being wrongly framed. You can&rsquo;t compare the auction route with the normal IPO and FPO mode just as you can&rsquo;t compare Holi and Diwali, he said. Both are big festivals but are very different in the way they are celebrated.

Celebrating disinvestment

The humble writing pad has been an indispensable part of a reporter&rsquo;s accessories for as long as the profession has been around. Who would think it could be a cause for discomfort for the interviewee? But that&rsquo;s exactly what happened to a Business Standard reporter recently. The head of an IT firm he was interviewing took umbrage at the reporter using a writing pad that bore the logo of his rival and b&ecirc;te noire and refused to speak or let the interviewer take notes. Instead, he called for a pad with his own company&rsquo;s logo before going ahead with the interview. Just one clue: the logo on the offending pad was Infosys.

Writing on the pad

Stocks of Jaiprakash group companies slumped on expectations of the defeat of the incumbent Bahujan Samaj Party in the Assembly elections. But the infrastructure group, which openly advertised its links with Chief Minister Mayawati, is nothing if not realistic about its own prospects. A day before the results were announced, Jaypee Associates sent out letters to investors who have bought into their real estate projects along the Greater Noida Expressway, which they built following considerable controversy over land acquisition, assuring them of continuing service and all the facilities that had been promised. Given that previous letters were usually demands for more money, this &quot;comfort letter&quot; is certainly significant in the light of the election results.

Building relations

Here&rsquo;s an SMS joke that started doing the rounds once the Assembly election results in Uttar Pradesh were clear: &ldquo;Breaking news: Hit and run case in UP: Elephant run over by cycle&rdquo;!

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 925 - Business Standard

Hard-selling protest

Breaking new ground

Letters: Making voting count

BJP's 'win-win' in UP

Letters: Not so fast

Investing: Paras Adenwala

Congress of change

The four essentials

Student’s corner

KFA CEO takes Spice route

Time out

Letters: A numbers show

Letters: Putting IR back on track

Letters: Public transport?

Letters: Regional rules

No more status quo

Poll outcome: Impact for markets

Celebrating disinvestment

Writing on the pad

Building relations