Of all the all voices raised against the high interest rates charged by microfinance institutions (MFIs), one person&rsquo;s voice proved most important. It was that of R Subrahmanyam, principal secretary, rural development department, Andhra Pradesh. He is also the one behind the drafting of the Andhra Pradesh Micro Finance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Ordinance, 2010, which has now become a thorn in the flesh for many MFIs, particularly for its clauses on loan recovery.

A man with a mission to manage microfinance

Business Standard

Today&rsquo;s leaders in public service and government-owned companies are those who joined the government a few decades back, but with the current trend of talent looking for opportunities in the private sector, there may be problems a few years hence. The afternoon plenary at the India Economic Summit on Monday saw speakers converge on the need to restore the lure of politics and public office.

Lure of politics and public office must be restored: Arun Jaitley

India is a dynamic and diverse market, and marketing a single brand in such a market is a big challenge. Constant innovation and customisation of products is needed to stay in business while remaining profitable. This was the consensus among panelists at a session on brands at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum.

Constant innovation key to brand profitability in India

India needs to put in place stringent laws against corruption in order to develop a clean and transparent system
The challenge of combining growth with integrity to &lsquo;design out corruption&rsquo; and create processes that will help India perform better on the transparency and integrity index was today addressed at the India Economic Summit and the consensus was that rectification of processes and the idealism of a new breed of Indian entrepreneur would help in driving corruption

A new breed of entrepreneur will drive corruption out

India might have created its mark in the services sector &mdash; especially in information technology &mdash; on the global map, but the development of the rural sector still has a lot of ground to cover.

Broadband to connect 2.5 lakh villages by 2010

In 2009, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suffered a huge setback.

Newsmaker: Nitish Kumar

After 34 years of Left Front rule, West Bengal could be on the verge of regime change. Ishita Ayan Dutt charts the course of the Left&rsquo;s long stint in power and the rise of Mamata Banerjee.

Thin red line

Soon, you will get vehicle CNG even outside the networked cities.

Go green, even when touring outside your city

Theories abound on the controversial suicide of Sadiq Batcha, a close aide to the now-jailed former Union telecom minister, A Raja, after being intensely interrogated in the telecom spectrum allocation scandal.

When the questions became too hot to handle for Batcha

Anoop Mishra, a 1978-batch IAS officer, has been appointed the 45th chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, ahead of many seniors and other likely contenders.

BS People: Anoop Mishra

The first time I met Anna Hazare was in the mid-1980s. My colleague Anil Agarwal was travelling in search of answers to how India could regenerate lands and address desperate poverty. We heard about a village, Ralegan Siddhi, in the drought region of Ahmednagar. It was peak summer.

Anna's next war of Indian independence

The largest-ever census in the second-most populous country of the world was undertaken from February 9 to 28. Business Standard has a bird&rsquo;s-eye view of the exercise.

How India put 1.21 bn people on record

Even after a prolonged investigation by India&rsquo;s top agencies, any substantive evidence against the 53-year-old alleged money-launderer and biggest tax evader in the country, Hasan Ali, remains as elusive as it was three years ago, when the Income Tax Department conducted first raids on him.

Chasing a wild goose in Ali's stud farm

There is a political tradition in Kerala that the voter mandate swings between rival fronts. Since 1982, that has meant between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Left is battling to stay, but record and image are mixed

Tamil Nadu polls are invariably about alliance arithmetic. It had appeared that the DMK-Congress alliance, ruling in the state for seven years, would end in a divorce over seat sharing. But, hard bargaining and drama resulted in compromises.

TN has grown amid scams, populism

Strong consumption and slow industrial growth imply impending capacity crunch.

IIP: Something has to give

The agitation for the enactment of the Jan Lokpal Bill has brought people from different walks of life under one roof.

Hazare's angels ready for the long haul

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee&rsquo;s tenure of more than a decade as the chief minister of West Bengal is a tale best captured in two contrasting imageries: First, of a dhoti-clad head of state, perched on a cycle-van (a rustic vehicle), reaching out to people in a remote village of South 24 Parganas in 2000
And, second, of Bhattacharjee flanked by Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata at Writers&rsquo; Building, announcing the Nano project, right after the swearing-in ceremony of the seventh Left Front

An industry focus that boomeranged

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday launched its Industrial Outlook Survey for April-June, 2011 period to gauge the progress of the manufacturing sector that has pulled down industrial growth.

RBI survey to gauge manufacturing growth

Press Trust of India

Little-known Skoch Awards attract high government functionaries.

Top-notch for Skoch

Balancing the holy trinity of growth, inflation and currency is increasingly becoming tough for the policy-makers. The Reserve Bank of India may continue with its hawkish stance on policy rates to anchor inflation expectations, but it has seemingly no silver bullet to deal with price rise without hurting growth.

Inflation starts to pinch growth

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