The finance ministrys banking division seems to have mastered the art of putting its foot in its mouth. First, the confusion over the governments plan to buy back public sector bank equity wreaked

A `deficit' in the banking division

Business Standard

It isnt as if he likes train journeys a lot, but for all that my uncle seems to spend a good deal of his time providing patronage to the Indian Railways. I can think of better ways in which to while

Doing it the rail way

At a time when the countrys foreign exchange reserves are booming and import duties are being rationalised, all that the annual exim policy changes can hope to achieve is to address the remaining

Making more sense

Heritage resorts attract many kinds of travellers, but who would have thought that an erstwhile hunting lodge near Bikaner could house a posse of artists in temporary residence? 


Canvassing for decor

A slew of policy initiatives may be breathing life back into the infrastructure sector

Policy spring and green shoots

RBI and banks must restore public trust after sting

Remember Caesar's wife

The inverse relation between dollar movements and risk soon change

The new 'growth' currency

India must not allow EU to distance itself from Italy's mala fide act

Don't let Europe off the hook

Retiring officers of the IAS, IPS and the judiciary become regulators and head commissions, weakening the state

Golden parachutes, leaden results

State governments yet to act on sorting MGNREGA wage delays

A rural wageless job scheme

It is our firm belief that our mandate is not merely to prepare reports and place them in the legislature. The constitutional mandate places a larger responsibility on us-holding the government financially accountable to the legislature. It enjoins upon us to keep the ultimate stakeholder, namely the man on the street, apprised of the outcomes of government spending, and not merely conduct expenditure audits. Thus, to sensitise public opinion, we have taken steps to disseminate audit findings to citizen groups, non-governmental bodies, educational institutions and the media.It is with this objective in mind that we have devised what are commonly referred to us as 'Noddy Books', which provide a snapshot of our salient audit findings and recommendations. These 'Noddy Books' also prominently display good practices adopted by implementing agencies, and provide a channel for the dissemination of these practices to other institutions implementing such projects. We believe that such an initia

'We try hard to build a foolproof, robust system'

Italian elections reveal impatience with austerity, but Europe must reform labour markets to restore growth

Why Europe needs to stay the course and avoid extra spending

It is unfortunate that transport, on which poorer families have to spend 25-30% of their total income, does not even figure in the basic tasks of our urban local bodies

Budget recognises urban transport

Hilary Mantel's lecture 'Royal Bodies' lays bare the obsessive relationship the British public shares with its royalty

Royal mistake

In the face-off between Reliance and the petroleum ministry, why is there no easy solution? I would venture two reasons. First, there is the suspicion that Reliance may be holding back on gas production in the Krishna-Godavari basin because it is waiting for the government to allow an increase in the price of gas. A second suspicion is that Reliance is inflating its capital cost in order to deny the government its share of the take from the gas field

The trust factor

India is swiftly becoming a high-sex ratio society, and policy must change to accommodate that

A demographic time bomb

Our jars of sauces and dips from Genoa had served us well, though we'd been out of pesto for a while, attempts by my wife to sneak in substitutes from INA Market having been foiled by our daughter. But she had found a bakery in the city where the focaccia at least could be trusted. For a variety of reasons, our motley collection of wines included a sizeable selection from Tuscany. We had olives from Spain, true, reserved for family treats, but salads and strangers had to make do with Italian olives, no slur intended. And now here they were, packed into cartons that my wife said we were to give away."Wow," said my son surveying the spoils, "is Christmas early?" - exactly the sort of statement likely to get him in trouble with his mother. She'd been in a dilemma deciding what to do with the mozzarella made with Italian know-how, thanks to an enterprising businessman for whom the burden of friendship meant a supply line from his factory to our home. The milk for the cheese came from India

The Italy we hate to love

The other day, my 14-year old and I were discussing the issue of migration before his economics exam. "Why can't the government provide better work opportunities in villages to control migration?" he asked with the clarity of a young mind undimmed by reality's disappointments. "I can imagine how unfair it would seem to a young person from a village, if he were told not to seek work in Delhi and stagnate in his own village, just because it's already too crowded!" So I told him the story of Yogeshwar Kumar and his Namda project - a story so inspirational that I decided to share it here as well.Kumar is an impassioned IIT alumnus-turned-power activist who's engineered many an impossibility into reality. Years ago, when he realised that many villages in far-flung areas were too far from the grid line to even hope to be electrified, he decided to do something about it. "I trained villagers to build, operate and maintain their own hydel power plants, harnessing the waterfalls and streams aro

More power to the people

Their pictures in the papers stop you dead in your tracks - ripped bodies, tailored shirts, aviators, styled hair slick with gel. They look sharp, Salvatore & Massimiliano, and if that doesn't sound like a designer brand I don't know what does. If only they weren't fugitives from Indian justice at the centre of the current extremely large embarrassment known as the Indo-Italian relationship. Of course, if you're going to be fugitives, you may as well be cool ones.So, as everybody who has a pulse knows, the Italian marines were being detained in India, apparently in complete comfort at the Embassy, until someone figures out what to do about their killing of two Keralite fishermen. The marines were allowed to go home for Christmas provided they returned in January, which makes you wonder whether India might not be taking the whole human rights thing beyond the call of duty. Be that as it may, they returned as instructed. They were then allowed to go home again to vote - on the Italia

The Italian job

If you want a whiff of old Lucknow, you could turn a corner at Qaisar Bagh and enter the gracefully restored home of filmmaker, artist and musical impresario Muzaffar Ali

Shades of old Lucknow

While in other areas of financial services, the FDI limit were raised after five years, it's been 13 years since the FDI limit in insurance has stayed at 26%

The Insurance Bill: An opportunity to attract FDI and support growth?

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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