In October last year, a potter and a group of students fashioned a ten-foot terracotta sculpture decorated with striking Warli motifs. A culmination of a skill-sharing workshop that they&rsquo;d had with Warli artists, the students created their own renditions of this ancient folk art, infusing it with new energy. But what made the sculpture truly piquant was that it was of a Coke bottle! The Warli-embellished bottle of Coke represents what the organisers, the Happy Hands Foundation, hope to accomplish &mdash; the revival of Indian folk art and craft forms through contemporary ways. Coke used this sculpture in their advertising which I&rsquo;d seen, so when I learnt that Happy Hands was organising another workshop &ndash; this time with a Madhubani artist &ndash; I was keen to see what would come out of it.

Geetanjali Krishna: Crafted for a new generation

Business Standard

Most invitations received at home these days are addressed to my wife, and though I&rsquo;m no male chauvinist, it makes things a little awkward to be the hanger-on at parties as the spare-part spouse. &ldquo;Your name, please?&rdquo; a hostess will ask at the table guarding the venue, where a team is seated to scan lists and confirm that you aren&rsquo;t gatecrashers, and when my wife takes out her business card, I can see all of them looking up and thinking: &ldquo;Loser&rdquo;.

Kishore Singh: Where big meets bling

While he completes the seventh year of his governance, the Prime Minister could claim two distinct USPs &mdash; he could claim to be an honest man and a distinguished economist. As an honest man, unquestionably, he leads a dishonest government. Certainly, he leads a government which is unable to contain inflation. Both his USPs are of no use to the nation.

'This is a dishonest government headed by an honest man'

Khushibala Mondal, a domestic help, managed to open an account in a bank in Noida in Uttar Pradesh last year. But she has not been able to either deposit or withdraw money. The reason is that she can write and read only in Bangla. And, bank cheques and deposit slips don&rsquo;t recognise her language. In other words, the bank is illiterate as far as she or people like her are concerned. For all practical purposes, she is still financially excluded.

Sreelatha Menon: Literacy for banks

The age-old conflict between humans and wild animals seems to have intensified of late in India. As the human habitat crawls closer to the edge of what has been for long the habitat of all manner of other beings, the two species have begun to attack each other. In areas around the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve alone, over 25 villagers are said to have been mauled to death by tigers and nine big cats killed by people in the past 13 months.

Man vs. animal

It&rsquo;s always a good time to look at India, where it stands and how it is doing. The news has been depressing and the question, &ldquo;Is India in bad shape?&rdquo; keeps coming up. Let&rsquo;s look at 14 issues. First, 2011 is a year of elections in India. The Election Commission will be under heavy pressure. Is there need for worry? No, because India&rsquo;s Election Commission is seen to be the world&rsquo;s finest example of such an institution.

Tarun Das: Positives aplenty in the India Story

Crude oil and natural gas, occupy a special place among financial assets. Energy is the cornerstone of modern civilisation and oil &amp; gas (O&amp;G) provides the lion's share. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates 60 per cent of global energy is from oil (37 per cent) and gas (23 per cent), while 25-26 per cent is coal-based.

It's global, not local

The Union finance ministry&rsquo;s Economic Survey 2010-11 offers an upbeat view of the state of the Indian economy and its prospects in the foreseeable future. While the document does raise concerns about potential spoilers like inflation, high levels of fiscal and current account deficits, declining levels of foreign direct investment, global economic conditions, including a spike in oil prices, it tends to portray them as transitory.

North Block view

On the face of it, the railway budget points to an improvement in the operating performance of the organisation in the current year (2010-11), compared to the previous year, with the operating ratio improving by over three percentage points to 92.1. This is still below what was achieved under her predecessor Lalu Prasad, but a slight turnaround nevertheless. However, even this has been wrought at a long term cost to the organisation.

Running down the railways

Depending on which day of the week is February 28, I have been writing either trying to analyse the implications or a budget wish list, usually changes in FDI in insurance, retail and defence sectors.

lawyers tend to forget cost should meet value of work

Just when most economic analysts were beginning to question the utility of wasting so much paper on an annual official Economic Survey, when so much of the data is now regularly published and comprehensively analysed by so many from quarter to quarter, the Union government&rsquo;s chief economic advisor (CEA) Kaushik Basu has injected new life into an otherwise dull document.

Sanjaya Baru: Kaushik's calculus

A majority decision by an arbitral tribunal adjudicating a comm-ercial dispute with the Government of India seems to have revived a public debate about whether an owner of shares of a public limited company has the right to agree not to sell them. While the decision of the arbitrators should have no precedent value at this stage, and it is only binding among the parties to the dispute, the dispute raises a much larger issue about the nation&rsquo;s governance and investment policy.

Government going bania comes at a cost

Budget imposes heavy taxes sometimes which the taxpayers consider as too harsh. It can be either be like a very high tax on news-print as in the late eighties or a new service tax which meant serious burden on the taxpayers in recent times. There has been an ongoing debate whet-her such imposition of tax could be legally regarded as too harsh which would vitiate the levy itself.

How harsh can a levy of tax in a Budget be

As you read this article, the finance minister would be about to release the Union Budget 2011. The press is busy reflecting the views of business and industry lobbies, as they quibble over duty exemptions, insist on financial stimulus and other incentives, and cry for big-ticket reform &mdash; foreign direct investment in retail and insurance.

Sunita Narain: Think differently, Mr Finance Minister

The Supreme Court (SC) stated last week that if the selection of distributors of LPG gas of Indian Oil Corporation was tainted with corruption, it should be scrapped altogether. The selection could not be upheld merely because there was no one to challenge it.

Quash illegal dealership choice even if none protests

The finance minister has set up a group to examine the pros and cons of an income tax amnesty to mop up black money. Based on a quick sketch of the economic theory of amnesties, evidence on the impact of past amnesties in India and elsewhere, and the current tax enforcement climate, there may be a case for declaring an amnesty now, provided other tax enforcement measures are taken in tandem.

Arindam Das-Gupta: The case for income tax amnesty

It was with a few friends in a hostel of a journalism institute when I first watched Neeraj Pandeyâ€™s remarkable A Wednesday (released in 2008). All of them were overwhelmed with its storyline, concept and presentation, something that was never ever so clearly conveyed in the history of Indian Cinema. The award-winning movie appealed peopleâ€™s sentiments and tried to awaken the â€œcitizenâ€ under the wake of rising terrorism. My friends sought my reaction too. I agreed that it was a great movie but wished to question the director, â€œWhy were the terrorists whom the protagonist successfully plans to eliminate were those with Muslim names?â€

Reflections on terror and secularism

The Maha Kumbh in Allahabad has perhaps no parallel in terms of the sheer size of the congregation. In less than two months over 100 million people are expected to come to this city, at the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna. But even as they celebrate the rivers it seems they donâ€™t see the rivers, but only the ritual.This mela is about how the Hindu religion â€” and I believe all religions â€” is based on a deep understanding of and respect for natureâ€™s strength. But we now worship without reason. So people can take a dip in the polluted river but still believe that the dirt, the filth and the plastic that swims around them will not defile the riverâ€™s properties. Our strength has become our weakness.It is a fact today that the Ganga and the Yamuna are polluted beyond acceptable levels. But why should we be surprised. We mercilessly take clean water from our rivers and return sewage and industrial waste. In its upper reaches, the Ganga does not even fl

Sunita Narain: Kumbh - cleaning a river with faith

Relative price changes across food items may impinge on long-term food security

Subir Gokarn: Protein portents

Tatas' return to civil aviation means more competition

Finally airborne

Privatising poorly run state-owned banks made more sense

Not the obvious solution

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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