... but be prepared for a steep fall as and when there is a reversal in the current market surge

Devangshu Data: Enjoy the festive spirit

Business Standard

The value of institutions is not in what they think is right but in what they know is wrong

Subir Gokarn: An evolving multilateralism

UPA's failure to reform shows up, starkly

No place for business

Amid compulsions, the Delhi Assembly elections would test the Aam Aadmi Party's endurance

Sreelatha Menon: Storm in the AAP teacup

Distinguished visiting professor, 
National INstitute of Public Finance and Policy

Unlike China, India did not reform its bureaucracy and administration, and is now paying the price for this in terms of reduced growth

Ajay Chhibber: India's missed reforms

Very often you will see motorists in Indian cities not giving way to an ambulance

Malavika Sangghvi: The common good

Sachin Tendulkar will retire from cricket and the joy will leach out of our lives like the last embers of sunrays on a moonless night.Sachin who brought magic into the lives of millions of Indians. Millions? No billions.One billion people gathered at the same stadium, cheering.That Sachin, he's retiring. And all the nation's  trees will drop their flowers.Sachin, who gave us the feeling that no matter what, we could triumph, we would prevail, that no challenge was insurmountable. No ball too tricky.Sachin is retiring, and for one day all the players of gully cricket in all the maidans and by- lanes of Mumbai, will point their bats up at the sky. That was Sachin's gesture. You must have seen him do it when he wanted to communicate with his father.An army of unknown boys will raise their bats to the sky at ten past ten on the tenth of next month. What? It will be the eleventh month you say?Never mind. The calendar will reset itself  spontaneously to render the day more appropriate. What'

Malavika Sangghvi: Sachin is retiring

Last night as I watched the horrifying and brutal  violence that broke out in Goa between  locals and a mob of Nigerians, I found myself thinking about the nature of violence and its assaults on our psyche.Why do human beings lose their human qualities and turn into beasts? Why do they attack the weakest and most vulnerable amongst them with a fury that defies words?In the run up to what is easily going to be the most violent national elections ever witnessed in our  country, deep introspection and a healthy dialogue on the subject  is called for. Because everywhere I look, the levels of anger, rage intolerance and aggravation appear to be on the rise.Switch on the TV and the irascibility is  visible on the news debates which have degenerated into slanging matches. Switch to Bigg Boss and there are physical fights and hysterics like never before. Communal violence in Muzaffarnagar continues to simmer. Violence against women has taken its most alarming turn. Rape is only one of the arse

Malavika Sangghvi: A violent season

Given the NSA-triggered paranoia of the zeitgeist and a lack of faith in fiat currencies, clones of Silk Road will likely pop up sooner or later

Devangshu Datta: Bitcoin becomes real

We'd barely entered Sanjana's house when we were divested of the mandatory bottle of wine we'd carried as a Diwali gift, issued a receipt for it - true! - and our credit card details politely but firmly requested. Just as when checking into a hotel, the card was swiped on an electronic machine, then handed back before we were let in to search for our hosts in rooms full of guests concentrating hard on their game of Diwali flush. Drinks trolleys moved amid them, but a party buzz and conversations were missing. Diwali gambling had just moved up a notch. Did we wish to play?Actually, it appeared, there was to be little choice - you could either join in, or move on. Looking at the stakes being called around us, we noticed an absence of money on the tables. Instead, each hand was accompanied by a swipe of the players' debit cards for instant credit to whoever managed the billing system. Piles of bank cards lay stacked before the players. Spouses borrowed or loaned cards to each other. "I th

Kishore Singh: Diwali on the cards

The old Bhimakali temple rose to the sky, a stately old wooden structure sitting on a stone plinth with a slate roof that glittered like black gold in the sunlight. Its wooden walls and floors were warm under my bare feet. I wandered through the temple, marvelling at how harmoniously its architecture blended with the climate and conditions of its environs in Sarahan, a tiny Himachali hamlet. "This construction technique is over 800 years old," one of the priests said when he saw me admiring the carvings on the walls. "Not only is it beautiful, it is also the most practical architecture for this region! The wood walls and floors add warmth, the tiny windows keep the building aired as well as insulated, and the high stone plinth ensures accessibility even when the area is covered in deep snow!"My admiration, however, turned to bemusement as I walked out of the temple to explore the little village. Sarahan was clearly in the middle of a modest construction boom. But everywhere I looked, t

Geetanjali Krishna: Old houses for new

The fine art of the political insult is something that we, in India, have not studied as well as we could have. Mostly, our politicians get by with insulting their audience's intelligence. Or, in the case of Rahul "my-stomach-is-upset-because-of-you" Gandhi, their audience's food.When one politician insults another, it must be both unanswerable and also calibrated - it shouldn't make the insulter look bad, just the insultee. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, last week, launched just such an assault on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi - focusing, in particular, on his supposed lack of a "democratic tone"."A man running for prime minister should be sober and patient," The Telegraph's Sankarshan Thakur, reports Nitish as saying, but Modi has "a bitter tongue". Clearly, Nitish thinks the best political insults come when you're criticising other politicians for being too fond of insults.Interestingly, however, Nitish chose also to go after Modi's sense of history, calling him a "very e

Mihir S Sharma: Inventing a history

I was lucky to see what I could at the Mumbai International Film Festival; many films are otherwise unlikely to be shown in India, now that the gruff censorship of something as innocuous as smoking is making filmmakers reconsider their decision to screen their films here. Of the films I saw, Le Passe by Asghar Farhadi (of A Separation) was hands-down the best. Starring Berenice Bejo (The Artist's Peppy Miller) as a woman divided between her love for two men, it showcases everything one has come to expect from Farhadi: intense drama, moral conflicts, characters walking the fine line between desire and conscience.In brief, a woman is in a coma after attempting suicide. Her husband (the scintillatingly good-looking Tahar Rahim) and another woman (Bejo) are having an affair. Bejo's husband, who lives separately, is in the city to finalise their divorce. The film revolves around the cause of the suicide, with other characters, such as Bejo's daughter and Rahim's colleague, contributing to

Vikram Johri: What film festivals offer

We have had an unusual couple visiting us in the last few weeks, introducing a new flavour in our lives. They are young - very young in fact - and have a kind of artless genuineness found only among those not yet broken in by the settled mores of older people.For example, they don't call before coming, not even when they visit us rather early in the morning. And once they get in, they think nothing of going around discovering our place and, their expressions say, examining if it will suit them and if so, which corner.Logically, I should have raised a figurative eyebrow and asked in as mock-casual a way as possible: so how have you decided that we have a corner to spare? But to say this to a couple of such fresh faces would be to behave like the worst prig in the world.After they had gone round a little, I could guess what they were looking for. The last thing on their minds was an attached bath or exclusive kitchen. All they were interested in was their corner - and the way they peered

Subir Roy: When a young couple comes calling

Halloween is not a traditional Indian festival

Wooooo! Wooooo!…Um.

As concern about the unfolding economic crisis has risen in India, many experts have assured us that 2013 is not 1991. It is important to think so; if you feel otherwise, the negative sentiment will create its own reality. How serious the situation actually is can be gauged by the ease - or otherwise - with which correctives can be devised. And it is here that a disturbing scenario emerges.One major cause of the current malady on which most are agreed is inflation. The high inflation that has been raging for a couple of years has now caused people to lose faith in keeping money in banks and stocks and, instead, opt for gold. This has led to a sharp rise in gold imports, a key contributor to the current account deficit. Therefore, the appropriate course correction is to bring down the rate of inflation.Another reason behind the high current account deficit, which has created adverse sentiment over the rupee and led to its sharp decline vis-à-vis the US dollar, is the high energy import

Policy dilemmas galore

India has to come to terms with a growing obesity problem that is rapidly becoming a crisis

Anuradha Sajjanhar: 'Food, Glorious Food'

The occurrence of events by chance in a beneficial way is crucial

R Gopalakrishnan: Serendipity in innovation

My father used to say, "The central bank should be like God. You should never see him or hear him unless there is a crisis." Of course, Dad cut his teeth in the era of fixed exchange rates and relatively quiet markets, which may explain his observation. At that time, central bankers were grand old men who hardly interacted with the market and only descended from their mountain very rarely to announce some dramatic event, like devaluation.However, with the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, the world gingerly moved towards floating exchange rates and the relationship between central banks and the market (which began to assert itself more and more) took on a different hue - adversarial would, perhaps, be the best word to describe it. There were many skirmishes fought in the foreign exchange market. In some of these, the central banks relented and raised (or lowered) interest rates as markets were demanding; in others, they simply fought back against the market with successful inter

Jamal Mecklai: Poker lessons

What corporate India can learn about consistency, challenges and teamwork from India's greatest sporting icon

Madhukar Sabnavis: Sachin Tendulkar, the brand

No recovery yet

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Devangshu Datta: Enjoy the festive spirit