With windfall profits on sale of investments a thing of the past, banks will have lost one important means of cleaning up their balance sheets. 


Sell NPAs

Business Standard

Who would have thought that a day would come when Lal Krishna Advani, the architect of the BJP's triumph in the 1990s, would be put on probation in the manner that he has been? 


Adieu Advani

On the face of it, the government has a point in not asking Reliance Industries to share the Rs 9,500-odd crore petroleum subsidy burden since the company is privately owned, and there is no reason

Oil slick

The finance minister was echoing the concerns of many domestic investors when he advised them to be cautious and not go overboard because of the rally in the stock market. 


Global risks

The terrorist attack in Varanasi (including one on an important Hanuman temple on Tuesday, in which about 15 people died) does not leave much room for doubt that these attacks follow a pattern. This

Easy targets

The government may claim to have adopted a pro-active strategy to contain and control the bird flu at the site of the infection in Navapur, Jalgaon, and surrounding districts of Maharashtra, Gujarat

Continuing toll

When Prime Minster Manmohan Singh called for a second green revolution during his address at the Indian Science Congress earlier this week, he was not doing so for the first time. What was new in his

Focus on farms

It is obvious that the Orissa government is to be blamed for the death of 12 tribals last week, following police firing at agitators who were refusing to vacate land required for setting up of steel

The Orissa problem

Estimates of indirect tax incidence on manufacturing vary widely, since they are sector-specific. As an average, 25 to 30 per cent of the sale price is commonly cited. Indirect taxes do not mean just

The inadequacies of CVD

The external trade figures for August 2006, released by the ministry of commerce and industry last week, provide some mixed signals on both the export and import fronts. Exports grew by a little over

Mixed signals from trade

Though sections of the steel industry continue to be apprehensive of the recommendations of the Hoda Committee on mineral policy, by and large, the suggestions appear positive and balance the needs of

Pragmatism on steel

When five leading developing countries were invited to take part in the G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg, one objective was to end the logjam in the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. As

More talks on Doha

The decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow banks to engage companies with large retail outlets as business correspondents has the potential to change the future of financial inclusion and branch banking in India.

Taking banking to people

By all accounts, Satyam (now known as Mahindra Satyam) is out of the woods. Losses have been cut. The hole caused by Ramalinga Raju&rsquo;s misdemeanours has been plugged. The company is now hopeful of coming out of the red within two years. Once the results for the first two quarters of the current financial year are out in November, merger with Tech Mahindra will be initiated. This is great news indeed for the company&rsquo;s shareholders, employees and business associates alike.

Satyam back on track

Legal purists and other busybodies have questioned the verdict of the three-member bench of the Allahabad High Court apportioning the disputed land in Ayodhya equally among three petitioners, and bringing in matters of faith into their judgment. But the people of India have responded in a mature and wise manner. India has moved on, and is moving on. In every neighbourhood across the country people want access to drinking water, to sanitation, to electricity, to better roads, better schools, better hospitals. In a land struggling for a better life, there is a remarkable consensus on the need to move on. Those pre-occupied with legal niceties are missing the woods for the trees.

Best of a bad bargain

At least two distinguished columnists of this newspaper, former chief economic advisor to the government of India, Shankar Acharya, and Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington DC, have sounded the alarm on the management of India&rsquo;s external economy in their columns published during the last fortnight. The rupee&rsquo;s steady appreciation in recent weeks, against the dollar, both in terms of the nominal and real effective exchange rate, and the steady rise in the current account deficit (CAD) in India&rsquo;s balance of payments, have been the objects of their shared concern. The latest balance of payments data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week indicate that the CAD in fiscal 2010-11 could be anywhere between 3.5 and 4.0 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Hot flows, cold comfort

The draft Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2010, issued by the the ministry of environment and forests has received more flak than acclaim. Though the notification meets the objective of restricting development activities within 500 metres of the country&rsquo;s 7,500-km long coastline, the numerous exemptions granted to certain areas and activities, some believe, may defeat the purpose of safeguarding India&rsquo;s seashore ecology. The notification sidesteps the key issue of protecting the livelihood and traditional rights of the fisher folks residing and working all along the sea coast by putting the onus of doing so on the agriculture ministry. Little wonder then that the fishermen&rsquo;s bodies, including the National Fishworkers Forum, have lost little time in rejecting the notification.

Coastal zone regulation

For all the controversy surrounding the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG), the opening ceremony went off without a glitch. The games have got off to a good start. Hopefully the rest of the Games will also be conducted with equal efficiency. While the opening ceremony had lots of colour, lots of sound and some good music too, and while there were some innovative ideas, like the display of yoga and the electronic man, the real clincher for the evening was the Rs 40 crore helium aerostat that added some visual excitement. It was the only innovation in a programme that stuck to a tried and tested government of India formula for official entertainment. The Games opening was a mix of a Republic Day parade, with its government-organised floats and school children acts, and a Festival of India routine of Indian classical and folk dance and music. The biggest surprise of the evening was that everything went according to plan.

Tried and tested formula

The country is well on the way to giving itself a fairly credible metro rail system in its large cities in a relatively short span of time. In around 15 years, that is by 2014, over 300 km of the rapid transit facility will have been constructed for a substantial Rs 75,000 crore or around 1.5 per cent of GDP. While this will do much to cater to the need for high-density commute to and from city centres, it will take the country no nearer to finding a solution to unbearable congestion on urban roads, which will get worse with every passing day. So a credible solution, which does not exist even on paper today, is desperately needed. The first step must be to create feeder services to metro rail accesses so that the heavy investment made in them is put to good use. In fact, an essential element in the solution must be an integrated multimodal transport system with a single system of ticketing so that there can be several legs to a journey.

Disentangling urban transport

Since January 2010, there has been a surge in equity values across every emerging market and India has been among the best performers. The Nifty, which tracks the 50 largest Indian stocks in terms of market capitalisation, is up 18.5 per cent since January 2010. At a value of 6,159 points on October 4, it is in touching distance of its all-time highs (6,357 points, January 2008). The Nifty is backed by strong price performance in most key subsidiary and sectoral indices. The CNXIT, which tracks technology stocks, and the Bank Nifty have both hit all-time highs. The Nifty Junior (which tracks stocks 51-100 by market capitalisation) is up 25 per cent since January. Many individual businesses, such as market leaders in metals and automobiles, are also at all-time highs. In the wake of the surging secondary market, the primary market has also seen heightened activity.

Laws of gravity work

Never a particularly elegant term to describe the Hindi film industry, the name &ldquo;Bollywood&rdquo; was not only a particularly unoriginal one, seeking glory from imitation, but it also suffered from delusions of grandeur, as if the Bombay film industry was the only base of the &ldquo;Indian&rdquo; film industry in the way Hollywood undoubtedly was and is for American cinema. But &ldquo;Bollywood&rdquo; acquired hegemony over Indian cinema with its budgets.

Regional goes global

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

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