This refers to the debate &ldquo;Do we need the Aadhar scheme?&rdquo; (February 1). A scheme of such magnitude is bound to suffer from some flaws. Thus, it was obvious from the beginning that the Unique Identification Project would not be completely free of technical errors and would face some initial implementation glitches. One basic mistake people make is to confuse an Adhaar for an alternative to a PAN card or a voter ID &mdash; clearly it is not and the government should have made an effort to clear the air on this matter. Nevertheless, being the world&rsquo;s largest biometric database with 170 million enrolments, we should give the project some more time to succeed rather than rejecting it out rightly and saying it a waste of money.

Letters: Give Aaadhar a chance

Business Standard

The sugar industry&rsquo;s wait for an end to stifling restrictions and regulations seems to be eternal. Even as the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Economic Advisory Council, headed by C Rangarajan, had reportedly chalked out a detailed road map for sugar decontrol, the prime minister, instead of acting on it, chose to appoint another committee &ndash; headed by Rangarajan himself &ndash; to go into all the related issues. This has given rise to more suspicion than it has quelled about the government&rsquo;s real intentions concerning deregulation. The timing of the announcement, coming in the middle of the Assembly election process in three major sugar-producing states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand, further compounds misgivings, given the sector&rsquo;s deep-rooted politicisation.

The bitter sweet truth

In a much-anticipated judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the telecom licences issued by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2008 are invalid. The overall implications of the judgment are not yet clear, but it is apparent from the information emerging so far that the government has been directed to begin the process of cancelling and reissuing the licences, which must conclude in four months. The Court has also directed the sector regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Trai, to come up with a fresh set of recommendations within two months; the government should auction the licences and associated spectrum a month after that. The Court deserves to be complimented for its verdict and indeed for doing what the government should have done long ago.

Time to redial 

This refers to the report &ldquo;Subbarao says there is need to cap public debt&rdquo; (February 2). Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor has acknowledged the undesirability of the central bank buying back old government securities to keep down yields for new bonds. The main objective of a separate public debt office being set up is to resolve the conflict of interest in the central bank functioning as a monetary authority and also as a banker to the government. In a recent interview to the press, a deputy governor of the central bank indicated that it would continue to engage in buyback operations even after it was relieved of the function of public debt management. He made the point that only the portfolio management (yield and so on) will be taken away, while the financing part will be retained. Is this how it works in western central banks? The continuance of buybacks will defeat the purpose of a stand-alone debt office.

Letters: On buybacks of RBI

What is the difference between leverage and high leverage? Ask Y V Reddy, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, who was at his wittiest best at the Indian Overseas Bank&rsquo;s platinum jubilee commemorative lecture. &ldquo;Basically, leverage means others&rsquo; money and high leverage means that you are playing more with others&rsquo; money,&rdquo; he said. And what does liquidity mean? &ldquo;Liquidity has many meanings ...

The meaning of liquidity

The former central banker also had a pertinent point to make about economic crises around the globe. &ldquo;If a crisis happens in Asia, we call it an Asian crisis. If a crisis happens in Latin America, we call it the Latin American crisis. But, if a crisis happens in either Europe or the US, I still wonder why we call it a global crisis.

Crisis management

The article &ldquo;Unravelling India: growth bottlenecks&rdquo; (January 31) correctly pointed out the growth bottlenecks that India faces and the suggestions it made are laudable.

Letters: India's growth hitches

Apropos &ldquo;SC wants deadline to sanction officials&rsquo; prosecution&rdquo; (February 1), the Supreme Court has ruled that the right to file a complaint against a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act is a constitutional right and any citizen can approach the competent court to seek prosecution of a corrupt public servant, minister, MP or MLA. The court recommended that Parliament should make amendments to Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 under which the sanction of the competent authority is a prerequisite to prosecute corrupt public servants. It is this provision that is abused by the government to protect corrupt politicians and public servants by denying or indefinitely holding back requests to sanction prosecution. The Supreme Court&rsquo;s landmark ruling will certainly go a long way in containing corruption in high places.

Letters: SC's landmark ruiling

The minister for statistics and programme implementation Srikant Jena is not known to be media savvy, especially when it comes to affairs related to this particular ministry. But recently, he has adopted a new way of making his presence felt. Now, every data release from the ministry invariably has an accompanying statement from the minister, though that&rsquo;s mostly a summary of the data. Maybe this is a sign that Jena could become more interactive but the talk is that not everyone is happy with this development. As a senior official pointed out after adding the minister&rsquo;s name to a data release, the minister should try and offer some perspective to the information instead of mechanically adding his name.

Stating the stated

Over the last two years there has been a flurry of defence deals running into billions of dollars, the recent one being the deal with Dassault for 126 Rafale aircraft. The moot point is whether India should remain dependent on imports to fight its wars. No country, especially one that nurtures the ambition of being a superpower, can fight and win wars with imported weaponry. Despite a well-established aviation industry with aerospace companies like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and a half-a-century long tie-up with Russia, we cannot produce even advanced jet trainer aircraft, barring some odd exceptions. The envisaged transfer-of-technology route seldom helps unless we develop our own know-how. The only way out of this perennial import spiral is to emulate China and go for re-engineering aviation under inspiring leaders like G Madhavan Nair. Similarly, proven weapons systems tailored to our ops requirements should be indigenised without any qualms.

Letters: Indian military might?

Announcing the development of a new Comparative Rating Index for Sovereigns (CRIS) on Tuesday, Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu said the formula behind the rating mechanism would be secret till it is explained in the upcoming Economic Survey. In the meantime, he added with mock seriousness, the team that developed the formula is taking all precautions to ensure it doesn&rsquo;t get lost. &ldquo;As children, we used to be told that the Coca Cola formula was so secret that only three or four people in the company knew it and, therefore, they never travelled together,&rdquo; Basu said, adding with a twinkle, &ldquo;so, of the four or five of us who have developed this model, we have left one behind in the ministry of finance.

'CRIS' security

Discussions on the issue of disinvestment may loom large in the corridors of power, but in the corridors of a large public sector company, executives clearly don't think highly of their organisation. Discussing the upcoming annual appraisal exercise, a group of senior officials ended up making fun of themselves. One official told the others, &quot;I think we should make Mr Gupta the GM for HR this time.

Same difference

The chief economic adviser, however, declined to claim that CRIS was a new idea. Asked whether any other agency had developed a comparative rating system for nations on the lines of CRIS, Basu provided a different answer. His long association with academics, he said, suggested that the moment someone claimed to have developed a new idea, any number of rival claimants would insist they had developed it 20 years before. For instance, when he was facing criticism for his views on corruption &ndash; especially on the point that the bribe giver should be protected &ndash; somebody wrote to him from Italy saying the idea had been developed by him before and he should be given the credit for it. So on CRIS, Basu said he would not stick his neck out and claim that he had developed the idea first &mdash; he did add, however, that the research done by his team suggested that nobody else had come out with this kind of relative index earlier.

First among equals?

Hiring agencies for placements will present an apprehensive picture of the B-schools to the recruiters, wherein the institution lacks self-reliance to conduct placements by itself.

Student&#8217s corner

This refers to the edit &ldquo;Listen to Mr Pawar&rdquo; (February 1). The basic idea of food security for weaker sections of the populace is indeed noble. However, one must grant that food security, as proposed by the government, is an act of charity that should not be imposed. But when food security is to be funded through tax payers&rsquo; money, it amounts to an imposed charity, albeit indirectly. So, one is inclined to suggest that such a charity is best left to the good sense of society. At best, the government could set up its own charitable body that can run free langars, the funding of which can be out of voluntary donations.

Letters: Forced charity

Prominent US-based IT businessman and philanthropist Romesh Wadhwani doesn&rsquo;t have a high opinion of Indian research. In India last week to inaugurate a laboratory that he is funding, he expressed delight with the talent available in the country but was unhappy about the poor infrastructure and the quality of research resulting from it. &ldquo;Much of the research happening is not just boring, but outright depressing,&rdquo; he was heard saying.

&#39;Indian R&D is depressing&#39;

News emerged on Tuesday that the Rafale fighter aircraft, manufactured by France-based Dassault Aviation, is the lowest bidder among the candidates vying for the contract to supply 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian Air Force (IAF). The remaining contender was also a European product, the Eurofighter Typhoon, produced by a consortium of four countries. The Rafale, it was determined, would be distinctly cheaper to buy, fly, make and maintain. The matter now moves to contract negotiation, for which there is a special committee within the defence ministry. The total contract is expected to be around Rs 75,000 crore.

Bid low, fly high

Even if one were to believe that Coal India&rsquo;s decision to roll back the rise in coal prices was just poll-time politics, it is a decision that signals another step backwards in economic liberalisation. Coal India moved to pricing coal on the basis of the gross calorific value from January 1, which caused, on an average, a 12.5 per cent rise in coal prices. Power producers, state-owned as well as private, said this had started to erode their profitability. Coal India has given in, albeit saying that it will review the situation three months from now. The lobby against the new pricing system was led by state-owned NTPC, the largest thermal power generator, which said its input costs had risen 40 per cent. Under current rules, all non-merchant power plants are free to pass on any rise in input costs to their customers, the state electricity boards and distribution companies.

Yet another rollback

The Quick Estimates of India&rsquo;s economic growth, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Tuesday, have revised the GDP growth figure for 2010-11 downwards slightly, to 8.4 per cent from 8.5 per cent. This is the figure for the growth in GDP at constant prices; 2010-11 growth in GDP at current prices is much higher, at 17.5 per cent, reflecting an inflationary environment. The downward revision is, fortunately, relatively marginal.

Happy estimates

Among the large number of disparagers of the government&rsquo;s proposed food security law, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has been the most relentless, and also among the most outspoken. His latest salvo, expressing misgivings about its smooth implementation without investing more on boosting food production, is as relevant as the objections he had raised earlier concerning its impact on the already fragile state of the government&rsquo;s finances. The landmark Bill, now before the parliamentary standing committee, aims at providing a statutory right to about 64 per cent of the country&rsquo;s population to highly subsidised grain &mdash; Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 1 for coarse grains. Its enforcement is anticipated to swell the annual food subsidy outgo to anywhere between Rs 90,000 crore and Rs 1,00,000 crore, from around Rs 65,000 crore currently.

Listen to Mr Pawar

The government, it would appear, has begun its exercise to identify who should succeed Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor in the finance ministry. Basu, who joined the government in January 2010 with a two-year tenure, was set to return to Cornell University, where he holds a faculty position, this month. However, he has agreed to extend his stay in North Block till August, well after the Budget is passed.

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 939 - Business Standard

Letters: Give Aaadhar a chance

The bitter sweet truth

Time to redial

Letters: On buybacks of RBI

The meaning of liquidity

Crisis management

Letters: India's growth hitches

Letters: SC's landmark ruiling

Stating the stated

Letters: Indian military might?

'CRIS' security

Same difference

First among equals?

Student’s corner

Letters: Forced charity

'Indian R&D is depressing'

Bid low, fly high

Yet another rollback

Happy estimates

Listen to Mr Pawar