In October 2011, when Aakash launched, I expressed doubts about the device&rsquo;s quality, and also about the government&rsquo;s ability to develop and deliver a mass-adoption device. Readers castigated me for unpatriotic doubts and some accused me of being paid by rival tablet makers.

Devangshu Datta: Aakash's the limit

Business Standard

There was light disbelief on the face of my friend when I said I would go to South City Mall on Republic Day, to be done in one go with the diverse shopping list that had piled up for want of a suitable one-stop shop nearby. You are obviously new to the city, he said, adding that, on a holiday, that place has more crowds than the zoo.

Subir Roy: The rise and fall of malls

The United Commodity Exchange (UCX) is getting ready to enter the crowded space of the Indian commodity futures market. The exchange is in the final round of discussions with domestic and foreign private sector investors to sell a nine per cent stake for which it expects a premium &mdash; despite the fact that it is yet to start operations. This is not an unreasonable expectation given that Oman Investment Fund paid Rs 27.5 per share (face value Rs 10) for its five per cent stake.

Rajesh Bhayani: Comexes wait for critical mass

The winter session of Parliament in 2011 was drowned out in the din of tabling the Lok Pal Bill. In the build-up to the session, many Bills to be tabled were sent back for reconsideration by the respective parliamentary standing committees, including the Unique Identification (UID) Bill. While the objective of UID is laudable, even keeping aside issues with political overtones the members do seem to have raised some valid concerns.

Dilip James: We are all an item number

Can there be any thing as fulfilling as the life of a writer? I am writing this column ensconced in the study of the late Manohar Malgonkar, in the remote region of Jagalbet in Karnataka. Set amidst 10 acres of wheat fields and jungle, the sprawling bungalow is where he worked and breathed his last at the ripe old age of 98 a couple of years ago.

A solitary reaper

They say our very own Saint Valentine, Vatsyayana, said roses abloom in a garden arbor were a sure shot way to awaken love in the heart of the beloved. But now that Valentine&rsquo;s Day is on our heads again, I find myself surrounded by people who mindlessly buy bouquets on bouquets of red roses with nary a thought for where they are grown, or, for that matter, the people who tend them. A chance visit to Chanakya Puri&rsquo;s Rose Garden opened my eyes to this. The garden was a riot of roses of all hues, making me wonder what the big deal was about the plain old red ones. It epitomised the notions of traditional Bollywood romance &mdash; roses kissing coyly, birds chirping, bees buzzing contentedly and all. Vatsyayana would have been happy here, I thought. A gardener was sitting quietly near a blooming bed, and I ambled across to discuss matters of the heart with him.

Geetanjali Krishna: Valentine's Day - mali and me

It was mere coincidence that I happened to be home when my wife was having a group of &ldquo;Sweeties&rdquo; over for lunch, and I was quickly drafted into mixing their cocktails while minding my own business and keeping quiet. As an observer, I quickly discovered that women in their fifties &ndash; referred to as &ldquo;Sweeties&rdquo; among each other, which is useful when you can&rsquo;t tell a Kamini from a Kamya behind the botox mask &ndash; after first demurring about daytime drinking, knocked back their Cosmopolitans faster than most men I know; they delighted in dirty talking; and innuendo was invented by them as idle entertainment.

Kishore Singh: The age of the 'Sweeties'

I have said during my meetings that we have come here not to form an alliance with any political party. We are here to change UP. Our strategy will be very simple... Our alliance will be with the people of UP, and not with anybody else. The biggest problem in the state is that the honour of the people is at stake. Here the government and the leaders do not respect the voice of the people. We run a government at the Centre and we respect the voice of the people. We go to the people and listen to them. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is not our concept, but the concept of the people in this country. The concept of waiving loans of farmers is the concept of the farmers... We just listened to them and implemented the program accordingly. Same is the case with Bunkars&rsquo; package or any other policy made by us.

'Rahul Gandhi is not obsessed with becoming PM'

Ever since microfinance became a dirty name &mdash; seen as a driver of suicides and the subsequent harsh legislative measures in Andhra Pradesh &mdash; microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been struggling to survive.

Sreelatha Menon: Recycling microfinance

India believes that the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives and the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), has paved the way for a &ldquo;legitimately formed government&rdquo; under the new president, Mohamed Waheed Hassan, and that after the restoration of calm and stability in some months, fresh elections should be held in the Indian Ocean island.

Jyoti Malhotra: Islands in the storm

Any disaster of the magnitude of AMRI or Bhopal is a matter of deep concern, and while it calls for preventive and punitive actions as may be warranted, the current witch-hunt is somewhat over the top. Six non-executive directors arrested within days of the incident and are languishing behind bars, the seventh under judicial custody in a hospital. Two months later, the Managing Director, Dr Chettri, and another director, Dr Dasgupta were arrested. Chettri has been granted bail, presumably on grounds of age, but there is no relief for the others, including Dasgupta, till date. Three whole time directors, two of whom are appointees and family members of the promoters, are believed to be absconding. Possibly the detention of all others is intended to pressurise the absconders to surrender.

Brand it as corporate manslaughter and change the treatment

The Vodafone judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in January, 2012, has set the cat amongst the pigeons. At a macro level it has the calculated effect of implicitly legitimizing tax havens, weakens our cause against illicit wealth parked abroad and explicitly sanctions corporate structures that use tax havens primarily as a tax avoidance measure.

A judgment ahead of our times!

Tax planning has once again come to the fore as a subject of discussion after the Vodafone judgement. In the case of Vodafone International Holdings BV versus Union of India, the Supreme Court gave a judgment on 20th January, 2012, in which in para 67 it has been said that &ldquo; whether a transaction is used principally as a colourable device for the distribution of earnings, profits and gains, is determined by a review of all the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction... It is in the above cases that the principle of lifting the corporate veil or the doctrine of substance over form or the concept of beneficial ownership or the concept of alter ego arises&rdquo;. Applying this test the Supreme Court concluded that &ldquo;the Offshore Transaction herein is a bonafide structured FDI investment into India which fell outside India&rsquo;s territorial tax jurisdiction and hence not taxable.

Tax planning in the context of verdict

The United States Senate has passed the &lsquo;Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (&ldquo;Stock Act) earlier this month &ndash; a law that would explicitly prohibit employees of the federal government, and lawmakers from trading in securities while in possession of unpublished price sensitive information &ndash; popularly called &ldquo;insider trading&rdquo;.

Under-enforcement against political insiders

The Supreme Court last week transferred to the Gujarat High Court all cases pending in various other high courts, where the validity of Section 80HHC of the Income Tax Act has been challenged by various assessees. The central government wanted this transfer as there might be conflicting judgments if the cases are dealt with by different high courts. This lengthy provision deals with deduction in respect of profits retained for export business. The Supreme Court order in this batch of cases, led by Union of India vs Vijay Silk House (Bangalore) Ltd, noted that the maximum number of cases were pending in the Gujarat High Court and therefore it was proper that the high court there decided the law.

Gujarat HC to decide I-T question

This year, the Budget will be presented amidst growing concerns of slowing economic growth, a widening trade and current account deficiand a sluggish global economy.

Suggestions for Budget 2012-13

As the Supreme Court judgment on February 2 cancelling the issue of 2G licences in 2008 reiterated, auctions are the preferred method of handing over natural resources to the private sector for exploitation. Properly designed and implemented, they are useful methods to discover the true price of the resource being allocated.

Another 2G, in mining? 

In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in financial remittances into India.

Devesh Kapur: The $50 billion question

Fault lines have appeared in the primary market. These have been recurring, but recent actions taken by the regulator in some of the initial public offerings (IPOs) helped highlight the issue (see the previous column &ldquo;Fault lines in the Indian IPO market,&rdquo; January 9). A serious reparation effort of these fault lines would involve a careful analysis of the three primary factors that have largely influenced the behaviour of the market, and the pricing of issues, the participation in issues and the processes involved. Interlacing these factors is the behaviour of the investors.

Pratip Kar: Repairing the IPO market's fault lines

On Monday, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma walked across the Wagah land border between India and Pakistan on his way to attend the closing ceremony of the extremely popular &ldquo;India Show&rdquo;, a trade fair organised to highlight Indian products in Lahore. The agenda for his visit is to move forward on liberalising trade between the two neighbours, following along from negotiations in Islamabad last year. The &ldquo;normalisation&rdquo; of trade has been repeatedly touted by New Delhi as a possible game-changer in bilateral relations. Yet it does not appear that Mr Sharma&rsquo;s visit will pay the dividends that would have been possible had India&rsquo;s bureaucracy capitalised on the gains made last year. Trade relations seem to still be held hostage to a mindset that believes that the only successful outcome is if the other side appears to have given more than you have.

Walking across Wagah 

Now that General V K Singh is on foreign shores for a while, the controversy over whether the commander of the world&rsquo;s second-largest army was born in 1950 or 1951 appears destined for a quiet burial. And now that the Supreme Court has dismissed his petition challenging the government&rsquo;s rejection of his demand for a reconciliation of his birth date, General Singh can be expected to retire in May this year, just as he was supposed to do when he was appointed chief. With that, the uncertainty over his successor has ended, and many believe that, with the Supreme Court having rapped both the government and the general on their knuckles &ndash; indicating that the dispute should never have been brought before it in the first place &ndash; the odds are even.

General in a labyrinth

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