Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the two big state-controlled telecom companies, have written to the government asking that it bear the entire cost of the additional spectrum assigned to the two giants. Under the recommendations that are before the Empowered Group of Ministers, or EGoM, all telecom companies with more than 4.4 gigahertz of spectrum are to pay a one-time fee for it.

Govt must exit telecom PSUs

Business Standard

In his address to the annual convention of information commissioners, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered a speech which is widely being seen as part of an effort by his government to limit the scope and power of the right to information (RTI) legislation, which was one of its landmark achievements. He suggested to the information commissioners that they reflect on three questions. First, whether the RTI is being used, in some cases, for &ldquo;frivolous or vexatious&rdquo; reasons; second, if answers under the RTI can infringe upon personal privacy; and third, the degree to which public-private partnerships are answerable under the RTI Act. Dr Singh also said that &ldquo;this important legislation should not be only about criticising, ridiculing and running down public authorities,&rdquo; but about &ldquo;promoting transparency and accountability&rdquo;.

The RTI's working

The Haryana government&rsquo;s transfer of serving IAS officer Ashok Khemka from his post as director general of consolidation of holdings in the state&rsquo;s revenue department has caused a great deal of concern. Mr Khemka had opened a series of investigations into transfers in his state of panchayat-held land to private individuals and companies.

Realty reforms, now

The high-level committee on sugar, headed by the chairman of the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Economic Advisory Council, C Rangarajan, has done well to suggest sweeping reforms targeted at unshackling the sugar sector from needless controls and regulations. But it has fallen short; it should have recommended total decontrol.

Rangarajan panel stops short

Two recent documents from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, suggest that the market regulator is acting at cross purposes with its brief. The first, a discussion paper on a &ldquo;mandatory safety net mechanism&rdquo;, outlines a buyback mechanism to protect retail individual investors, if the price of a recently listed share falls below the issue price. The second, an order entitled &ldquo;Framework for the rejection of draft offer documents&rdquo; lists wide-ranging, vaguely defined discretionary criteria for the same. If these measures are implemented, they will have an entirely negative effect. On the one hand, they would make initial public offers less attractive for issuers. On the other, they would offer much scope for officers of Sebi to exercise discretionary power in undesirable ways.

Retying the red tape

Of the two fertiliser-related decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at its recent meeting, the token hike of Rs 50 per tonne in urea prices is inconsequential, and the new mechanism for subsidising fertiliser is problematic.

Still afraid of reform 

On October 20, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to launch the first major step in integrating the Unique ID, or Aadhaar, with government welfare schemes. The event is supposed to take place in Dudu, a town in Jaipur district in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. The presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi also seems to suggest that the United Progressive Alliance will likely use the roll-out of Aadhaar-linked schemes as part of the achievements it will try and sell to voters come re-election time. Five welfare programmes are due to be linked to Aadhaar immediately: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Gramin Awas Yojana that helps build rural houses for families living below the poverty line, the senior citizens&rsquo; pension scheme, payments under the Asha Sahyogini programme and the Chief Minister&rsquo;s Scholarships.

UID's next step

When the Deccan Chargers, past champions of cricket&rsquo;s Indian Premier League or IPL, were removed from the roster of teams recently, it drew attention to an odd fact: many of the owners of the teams in the league have not precisely been stellar performers of late when it comes to their core businesses.

Beyond boundaries  

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Saturday suspended the licence of Kingfisher Airlines, denying it permission to fly. The DGCA&rsquo;s stated reason was that the company had failed to provide a viable recovery plan; failing such a plan, it was not clear that safety standards would be met. Kingfisher&rsquo;s engineers have been on strike for over a fortnight, demanding the payment of salaries which have been in arrears for several months.

A bird that won't fly

The second-quarter results of the major Indian software companies threw up few surprises. TCS has continued to better expectations and Infosys has been unable to meet them, possibly paying for its inherent conservatism. There is by now a pattern in the market&rsquo;s response to Infosys&rsquo; results. In their immediate aftermath, the company&rsquo;s stock takes a beating; but, by the time the next quarterly results are due, the stock makes up lost ground.

IT scenario unchanged

Much criticism has been directed at Friday&rsquo;s agreement in Brussels among the European leaders to make the European Central Bank the bloc&rsquo;s financial supervisor, mainly for the slow pace at which it will be implemented. But the agreement that will bind the 17-nation monetary union more tightly via a central bank oversight body could also be considered an indicator of the durability of the euro zone.

Euro zone redux

In distant Whitehall, the political class is having a pretty bad week. Andrew Mitchell, the powerful Chief Whip of Britain&rsquo;s ruling Conservative Party, had to resign after reports emerged that he had sworn at police officers preventing him from entering Prime Minister David Cameron&rsquo;s residence at Number 10, Downing Street. That Mr Mitchell called the policemen on duty &ldquo;plebs&rdquo;, underlining a perceived class disconnect between the Conservative leadership and the British people, made it worse. This impression was only reinforced when, on Friday, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had to upgrade the second-class ticket he had bought after he had settled into a first-class railway compartment. Of course, any possibility that rules do not apply to the politically powerful is distasteful &mdash; and this point was made not just by opposition parties but by many within the two parties of government, too.

Cross-party consensus?

That interest in protecting nature has waned globally, stalling progress in negotiations on climate change, was also noticeable in the just-concluded United Nations conference on biodiversity in Hyderabad. All it could manage, and that too after marathon haggling, was to extract higher commitments to funding by developed countries for the national biodiversity protection programmes of developing nations.

Why hotspots are needed

The response to the upcoming 2G auctions may be muted, with most operators saying they will bid for a few, specific circles. A significant premium over the base price of Rs 14,000 crore may be unachievable, making the Budgeted receipts of Rs 40,000 crore appear unlikely. Nobody has applied for a pan-India permit. No new global operator has evinced interest. Reliance Communications, Aircel and Sistema have opted out. Reliance Industries is not bidding, as was earlier expected.

Speak up for other goals

Bangalore has just won a temporary reprieve from the garbage problem besetting it for over two months now. During the latest phase of the crisis, in which garbage removal stopped for several days, there were worries over the heightened risk of dengue, malaria and jaundice.

Sinking into landfills

A recent speech by the chairman of the prime minister&rsquo;s economic advisory council, C Rangarajan, was interesting in that it directly addressed questions about the sustainability of India&rsquo;s high current account deficit, and measures that could be taken to moderate its effects.

The hot money debate

Much debate can be expected on whether former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta got off too lightly. Many will wonder whether Manhattan US District Judge Jed Rakoff&rsquo;s sentence of two years in prison and a $5-million fine was influenced by Mr Gupta&rsquo;s extensive charitable work, as his experienced lawyer argued.

Trial and error

On October 30, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will announce its review of monetary policy for the second quarter of 2012-13. The dilemma facing the RBI has not changed substantially since the last policy review; while, on the one hand, the government has promised to rein in the fiscal deficit and even taken a few tentative moves in that direction, on the other the optimistic would detect signs that economic growth is reviving even without a rate cut.

Thinking for itself

Once considered the &lsquo;Chanakya&rsquo; of Odisha politics, Rajya Sabha MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra was suspended from his party Biju Janata Dal in May, for an alleged coup attempt to dislodge CM Naveen Patnaik. He has now launched a forum &mdash; Odisha Jan Manch.

My suspension is illegal, Patnaik cannot expel me: Pyarimohan Mohapatra

This week, Microsoft launched the eighth version of Windows, which, like all the versions of the operating system since the epochal launch of 3.1 two decades ago, reflects and marks the changing landscape of personal computing. This version, Windows 8, is Microsoft&rsquo;s most powerful attempt to expand the once-ubiquitous operating system&rsquo;s reach beyond desktop and notebook systems to smartphones and tablets.

The Empire Strikes Back 

Eventually, the reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers was a far larger exercise than anyone expected. Seven ministers resigned in advance, allowing the leadership of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) enough space to substantially rework its team in what the prime minister said would likely be the last reshuffle of portfolios before the next general elections. Those hoping for a single, coherent narrative from such a large exercise are likely to be disappointed; as always, the final moves will have been a product of some peculiar combination of political necessity, regional balancing, reward for loyalty and punishment for non-performance.

A mixed bag

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 610 - Editorial Comment