As many as seven chief ministers have joined a chorus of disapproval against the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which the Union government notified earlier this month. The United Progressive Alliance, or UPA, has argued that the action flows from powers already in the existing unlawful activities statute.

Federal fears

Business Standard

The long winter this year is not just making news across Europe and North India. It has left a chill even in Mumbai, known for its hot weather and optimism, where businesses have developed cold feet over the country&rsquo;s macro-economic environment.

The winter of despondency

Just as Air India was receiving a debt recast plan that defies all financial prudence, or indeed logic, the newspapers were filled with splashy advertisements commemorating the centenary of civil aviation in India.

Flying unfree 

The recent attack on an Israeli diplomat&rsquo;s car, in what is supposedly the most secure part of New Delhi, has raised questions as to whether India&rsquo;s West Asia policy is sustainable. That policy has been fairly clear-cut till now. Israel is a major defence partner, and it co-operates closely with Indian security in counter-terrorism and technological matters.

A false choice

Pharmaceutical sector witnessed a strong 27 per cent growth in net sales for the quarter ended December 31 (Q3 FY12), led by strong US sales growth on exclusive product launches and rupee depreciation. Recovery in domestic formulations business also helped.

Pharma: Strong US sales drives revenue

Engineering and capital goods sector reported a 200 basis point drop (year-on-year) in operating margins for the third quarter, primarily due to higher raw material costs, stiff competition and increase in revenue from low-margin projects.

Engineering & capital goods: Operating margins disappoint

A renowned university based in Los Angeles opened an office in India. Significantly, the address on the business card of the university&rsquo;s director is the same as that of an IT company that is part of one of India&rsquo;s largest conglomerates &mdash; though the university&rsquo;s India office is not located there. Asked about this, the director said the present chairman of the group is on the board of the university so they were obliged to do this.

Board and lodging

People say Indian communism is at the crossroads and at no time has this been more evident than the last few weeks. In an effort to reinvent itself, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to look for new heroes. So, if the party&rsquo;s Kerala faction chose to portray Jesus Christ as the biggest revolutionary, the West Bengal group has jumped on the spirituality bandwagon in the run-up to its state conference this week. Instead of the standard posters of Marx, Engels and Lenin, it has chosen photos of Swami Vivekanda and Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray along with its party secretaries. If we exclude Ray who was a dedicated chemist and founder of Bengal Chemicals, it is possible to conclude that religion has become the opiate of Indian communism.

Divine intervention for the Left

You would have thought that the promoters of personal care products company Emami and the West Bengal government have little in common. Especially after Messrs Agarwal and Goenka were arrested on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s orders as key shareholders of the Advance Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) hospital where a fire claimed 90 lives. But as of last week, they actually do share a bond in brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan. The actor has long been the face of Emami brands like Navratna Cool Talc, Fair and Handsome and Sona Chandi Chyawanprash. Last week, the state government announced that he had agreed to be brand ambassador for West Bengal on an honorary basis. So the question everyone&rsquo;s asking now is whether Khan can bridge the gap between the company and the state he is promoting.

Testing star power

In your edit &ldquo;Clearing the runways&rdquo; (February 16), you have correctly pointed out that undue restrictions imposed on domestic private airlines from availing of the full advantages of bilateral agreements is one of the principal causes for the state of the airlines. But your reference to Indian airports in the same vein is definitely misplaced.

Letters: Airport conundrums

In December last year, the push to try and complete the Doha round of trade talks ended in failure at the World Trade Organisation&rsquo;s headquarters in Geneva. The Doha round had begun 10 years earlier, in 2001, but has run into several stumbling blocks; disagreement over agricultural subsidies and controls, in particular, has consistently held up progress. Meanwhile, new issues have arisen in the past decade, such as the rise of informal barriers to trade like differing labelling standards. Unsurprisingly, many countries have moved forward on bilateral trade deals. Such agreements are frequently less than ideal &ndash; they can divert, rather than increase, trade &ndash; but given the Doha deadlock, there are few alternatives. India&rsquo;s landmark trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, is coming into force in stages.

Distant second best

Competition Commission Chairman Ashok Chawla is a veteran bureaucrat and well placed to understand the functioning of government, his last stint being finance secretary. As a panelist at the New Delhi leg of the PwC-Business Standard CEO Summit, therefore, he was in a good position to answer a member of the audience who claimed to have worked for the government early in his career and asked why it refuses to address the concerns of industry.

An insider's view

In the past few weeks, Bangalore has reportedly seen over 150 instances of money being fraudulently withdrawn from automated teller machines or ATMs. The fraudulent transactions have been carefully timed at the cusp of midnight, to bypass daily withdrawal limits. The modus operandi is otherwise unclear; footage from surveillance cameras has not been helpful. The criminals may have cloned cards by copying data off magnetic strips. They may have hacked the software that validates transactions. Or perhaps, the chips in specific ATMs have been compromised. Bangalore has a large population possessing the requisite skills. The Reserve Bank of India and the banking/financial services industry will now have to brainstorm to identify and plug the specific hole, or holes.

The future of hacks

Candidates with criminal background and scam-tainted record are so common in Uttar Pradesh that the electorate is left with little choice but to turn a blind eye to their colourful pasts. In Farrukhabad, for instance, while the sitting MLA is Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra alias Antu Mishra, who was sacked after he was named in the National Rural Health Mission scam, the other contestants in the fray are &lsquo;bahubalis&rsquo; (strongmen) Vijay Singh, former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member who is now fighting as an independent, and Anupam Dubey, another independent candidate. But the electorate, strangely, instead of being angered at the BSP for Mishra&rsquo;s misdemeanors, is favouring BSP candidate Mohd Umar Farooq. According to the rationale of the locals, &ldquo;Mishra bahar ka tha, bahar chala gaya (Mishra was from outside and he has been left outside now).&rdquo; Mishra from Kanpur is Behenji&rsquo;s confidante Satish Chandra Mishra&rsquo;s relative.

Criminals or politicians?

Amethi and Rae Bareli seem synonymous with the Gandhi family now. The locals, too, are generally perceived to be die-hard loyalists in the bastion. But the Gandhi family has recently discovered that voters, especially the youth, cannot be taken for granted. Priyanka Gandhi got a taste of it during an election rally in Amethi, when she stated that her brother and their MP Rahul Gandhi had been visiting them on a regular basis. She had to soon stand corrected as young men in the crowd pointed out that he had not visited them even once. To this, Priyanka Gandhi was forced to reply that he (Rahul) had indeed visited the constituency twice, since he got elected &mdash; maybe not to that particular village, but other villages in the district.

Not just fan following

I am a retired person, dabbling occasionally in the markets, but not a serious trader. I place 30-40 trade orders per year. I need a few clarifications on the filing of income tax returns, involving my income/loss from day trading in equities and commodities. Should ITR 4 be used for filing returns? Is a tax audit necessary? What documentation is required for it? Is there any minimum turnover required to file returns? What amount is considered for calculating tax liability - gross value of contract or the net profit/loss? Last, I don't maintain trade-related documents. All the information is available on the broker's website. I show the short- and long-term profits from equity transactions in ITR 2 and not those of day trades.

Taxation: Homi Mistry

The market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, is considering a change in disclosure norms to ensure that price-sensitive information is released to the stock exchanges before being disseminated to other bodies such as industry associations. On the face of it, the immediate impact of this would be merely cosmetic. However, it may have positive or negative long-term implications. The underlying logic seems impeccable.

The price of data 

The government&rsquo;s announcement of its new telecom policy should be welcomed as a move forward after the missteps and uncertainty that have dogged the sector in the past months. Although it retains elements that appear to contradict other parts of the policy &ndash; as well as some recommendations of the sector regulator &ndash; it at least shows the government&rsquo;s intent to clean up telecom.

Telecom's fresh start

Participating in a panel discussion on corruption and innovation at the PwC-Business Standard CEO Summit in New Delhi, former Tata Sons director J J Irani established a unique connection between corruption and innovation. Highlighting the need to provide an environment that fosters innovation, he added in a lighter vein that corruption also requires a high degree of innovation &mdash; and in India, we excel in it.

Corruption & innovation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has scheduled its next mid-quarter review for March 15, 2012, a day before the presentation of the Budget. When it decided on the date, there was a general impression that the Budget would be announced by end-February, as usual, despite the elections to state Assemblies. Now the situation is different. RBI proposals will cover 45 days of which 30 will fall in the next financial year. While the prediction of the growth rate of GDP in 2012-13 may be in the realm of astrology, certainly the Budget forecasts for revenue, expenditure, fiscal deficit and borrowings will be among the benchmarks for the formulation of policy in relation to money supply, interest rate, open market operations and so on. In the interest of coordination between monetary and fiscal policies, it is desirable that the mid-quarter review is postponed by a week or so by which time the reaction of the markets and to the Budget would be known.

Letters: Review RBI's timing

In &ldquo;The importance of being SRK&rdquo; (February 16), Kanika Datta underscores the need for matching the choice of a brand-ambassador with the objectives and ground realities. When Narendra Modi opted for Amitabh Bachchan, he achieved two goals &mdash; presenting a traditionally- and contemporarily-rich Gujarat and an image makeover for himself. West Bengal abounds in historical, literary, spiritual and cultural tourist attractions, while the secular credentials of Mamata Banerjee are beyond reproach. Shah Rukh Khan who, unlike Mr Bachchan, represents urban taste and modernity may, thus, not convey the message effectively. Also, why should Bollywood actors always be the pick? Do they alone have a pan-Indian appeal? Gujarat may have its limitations, but for a state that has produced the likes of Satyajit Ray and Suchitra Sen, depending on SRK is like carrying coal to Newcastle.

Business Standard

Business Standard

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