The news that the Department of Posts has set out to try and start a bank is balm to this writer, who has been arguing for it for more than five years. The post office savings bank has huge deposits (totalling Rs 3.7 lakh crore at end-2009-10, nearly half of banking leader SBI&rsquo;s) but also makes huge losses (net deficit 94 per cent of revenue in an exceptional pay commission award-burdened year, and 61 per cent in the more normal previous year, 2008-09).

Subir Roy: Creating a post office bank

Business Standard

A leading watchmaker has disappointed the street with its latest financial results. Why? Watches aren&rsquo;t doing so well. Unsurprisingly, an offer is currently on, says a hoarding, of up to 40 per cent discount on some watches.

Subir Roy: Running out of time 

A horrible year is over, and an uncertain one is ahead. A combination of political uncertainty and monetary tightening is lethal for growth, as a memory of the 90s would suggest. An inflationary bout in 1994-95 brought in its wake monetary tightening. Then the defeat of the Narasimha Rao government in 1996 introduced a period of political instability, which only ended with the 1989 elections that renewed the mandate of the Vajpayee government.

Subir Roy: A repeat of the nervous 90s?

Among the silhouette of trees that formed the early morning outline of Kolkata&rsquo;s mist-laden Dhakuria Lakes, one looked like a longish half-bent sapling all wrapped up. This one moved about, albeit slowly and with deliberation, like an old man mindful of his bad back. It was an old man, near destitute. He was picking up bits of plastic and putting them into a biggish plastic bag. He would later hawk his day&rsquo;s catch, litter left behind by the day before&rsquo;s visitors, to the front men of recyclers for a miserable few rupees.

Subir Roy: Old men, bags and clean-ups

Pot luck, it was decided, for our next adda with friends at our place. It went quite smoothly as we ran through the list of those coming, opting to bring this dish or that. The first ripple occurred as each offered to bring his own choice of liquor. When my turn came, there was a chorus that since I liked single malt whisky so much, I should offer up a bottle. My protestation that I went gaga over single malt only in print, to have something interesting to write about, and a retired journalist could hardly afford such stuff, cut no ice.

Subir Roy: Not a drop to drink

Coal India is crucial for India&rsquo;s future. To grow GDP at nine per cent, energy consumption has to grow by six per cent. Two-thirds of this energy demand is met by coal, and Coal India accounts for 70 per cent of total coal consumption. There are two major market imperfections in the sector. One, Coal India enjoys a virtual monopoly. Private mining of coal is allowed only for own or captive consumption, merchant sale being reserved for the public sector.

Subir Roy: Let Coal India face competition 

Here are two models for solid waste disposal in two major cities &mdash; Kolkata and Pune. Kolkata has a history of garbage lying on streets, with a brief period in the sun during the early 2000s when the garbage disappeared, to make a partial comeback in the last several years. Pune, in the last decade, has seen explosive growth, with information technology taking over the baton from engineering.

Subir Roy: A waste of an opportunity

My friend looked embarrassed as he handed me a card. Why, I wondered, when I saw it was a complimentary invitation to the final and climactic evening of the Dover Lane Music Conference, one of the star fixtures of Kolkata&rsquo;s classical music season. Then I realised the cause of his diffidence. He had only one card to offer, something that had come his way as a bigwig at his club. How could anyone go alone to a whole night music conference? It was worse than going to see a movie alone.

Subir Roy