There is rare consensus that Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)-designate Satyanand Mishra, a native of Orissa, was the best man for the job among the candidates before the three-member selection panel. The other choice was another information commissioner, Annapurna Dikshit.

Newsmaker: Satyanand Mishra

Business Standard

It took individual aggression, several strokes of luck, unwillingness among his colleagues to act, and a pliable bureaucracy to pull off the 2G scam. Although parliamentary democracy is about collective responsibility of the Cabinet, A Raja, the former telecom minister, still did whatever he wished to.

The hijacking of a policy

Not always within the folds of established trade unions, they could help define the direction of labour rights.

New faces of the workers' movement

Bank term loans to India&rsquo;s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) during the 11th Plan are expected to be Rs 148,720 crore if GDP growth during the plan period averages 9 per cent a year, according to an estimate by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi).

Term loans to MSMEs to exceed Rs 148k cr in 11th Plan

Finance ministry has also failed to establish a panel meant to review tax incentives to SEZ units and revenue losses incurred.

Investors shun SEZs over tax uncertainty

Among the 17 Indian states that have enacted the Lokayukta Act, and where the ombudsman is active and, to an extent, effective, is Karnataka. Justice Santosh N Hegde, the state&rsquo;s lokayukta, has been successful in trapping tainted ministers, lawmakers, senior officials and corporators since he took charge nearly five years ago.

Karnataka: Teeth to the lokayukta 

Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor (CEA) in the Union Finance Ministry, is unlike most government officers. He takes calls on his mobile, returns calls and text messages and does not hesitate to apologise if he&rsquo;s late replying. So when Business Standard decided to invite him to lunch at a restaurant of his choice, the task proved both simple and agreeable, writes A K Bhattacharya.

Lunch with BS: Kaushik Basu

In Andhra Pradesh, the Lokayukta Act came into force in 1983. The incumbent is Justice S Ananda Reddy. The office of the lokayukta in the state has not always been manned, remaining vacant for a couple of years during the tenure of former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Performance of the powerless

One of India&rsquo;s most developed states has had no lokayukta for seven years now. Gujarat&rsquo;s reputation for corruption may be less worrisome than most states, but the non-appointment of a lokayukta by the state government for seven years has come in for widespread criticism.

Blame games and defunct Lokayuktas

Three days in a month, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar opens the doors of his house to anybody who has a problem.

Patna Durbar

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has tightened the procedures for monitoring and finalisation of assessments under Project Import Regulations (PIR).

Some tightening on project imports

Two decades ago when the finance ministry discovered 'disinvestment' as a way of raising revenue from the sale of public sector equity to private entities, the Indian Left saw this as privatisation through the backdoor. While India's politicians have had a love-hate, see-saw relationship with the idea of privatisation, disinvestment has continued as a favourite revenue raising measure of finance ministry mandarins.

Disinvestment hope floats, again

A retired Pakistani General, with British drawl evident (Camberley and all that) was talking about Pakistan Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. &ldquo;How does he react under pressure,&rdquo; he was asked. Suddenly, he lapsed into boyish slang. &ldquo;Cool. Super cool,&rdquo; was the reply.

BS People: Ashfaq Pervez Kayani

Factory production above expectations, but growth unlikely to sustain.

IIP: Devil's in the fine print

After a humiliating defeat in Assembly elections, both in West Bengal and Kerala, it&rsquo;s time for the Left Front to start living in the present.

Left out in the cold

With political equations changing in bastions of Left unionism, stiff challenges await the soldiers of strikes and bandhs.

A few uncertain unions

When the word spread that Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy wanted to replace the secretary at his ministry, the questions that came to everyone&rsquo;s mind were why and who? Guessing why was not very difficult, as S Sundareshan did not fit into Reddy&rsquo;s style of functioning and his exit had looked imminent ever since the new minister assumed charge in January.

BS People: G C Chaturvedi

Persistence of high inflation at a time when India is on the verge of achieving pre-crisis growth levels, continues to be the cause of concern for the common man and the government. The fact that price pressures which had originated in the food segment owing to supply side bottlenecks had shifted to non-food products indicating demand side pressures, has further added to the difficulty of managing inflation by the government and RBI.

Policy rate hike by RBI: To what extent?

The Left regime has helped conjure perceptions about industrialists&rsquo; proximity to a particular party, but that may not be the reality
About a week before the historic Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress supremo &mdash; and now the chief minister of West Bengal &mdash; Mamata Banerjee displayed 98 of her paintings at Kolkata&rsquo;s Galerie 88. In four days, the exhibition, titled &lsquo;Twenty five hours a day&rsquo;, which painters from her cultural camp described as a

Brand Bengal lives on

Industry was the most obvious casualty of the Left&rsquo;s excesses.

Flight of business from Bengal

Ban multiple lending, bring about greater transparency, slash interest rates.

AP suicides raise questions on MFI model

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