Public private partnerships (PPP) in water supply projects had their first application to the urban water sector in India nearly 230 years ago! Fort St. George was the first settlement of the East India Company (EIC) in South India. It was already growing in size in the mid-1700s, but by this time the Anglo-French war spread to India.

Gautam Pingle: 18th century Madras - A study in BOOT

Business Standard

Invest only that part of the portfolio in equities that you will not require in the short term.

Rising crude will hurt valuations

The campaign for the April 13 Assembly elections started in Tamil Nadu on March 24, with a massive programme attended by the AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa, DMDK leader Vijayakant and the leaders of the CPI (M) and CPI. And now the fear of their worst-ever defeat is haunting the DMK-Congress alliance headed by the infamous Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

DMK resorting to strong-arm tactics in Tamil Nadu

Recently, Pappu Yadav, former member of parliament, went on a fast-unto-death in a Patna jail to show support for Anna Hazare&rsquo;s fast against corruption. Yadav, who faces murder charges, demanded that corruption be weeded out of society.

Sreelatha Menon: When the media gets hold of a cause

It&rsquo;s been more than fifteen years since the Supreme Court passed its judgment in the Vishaka Vs. State of Rajasthan (Vishaka), and ten since the Medha Kotwal case. Vishakha constitutes the Indian Judiciary&rsquo;s first pronouncement on gender justice in the workplace.&ldquo;Harassment&rdquo;was interpreted to include physical contact and advances, sexually coloured remarks, any physical verbal/non verbal overture or a demand/request, as being indicative, and not comprehensive. The Court prescribed certain guidelines and norms as representing the minimum standards to be followed by employers and other responsible persons in containing and dealing with harassment, bearing in mind that neither civil or penal laws provided adequate protection, till such time a law was enacted.

The Sexual Harassment Bill, going forward

Jantar Mantar is the flavour of the month. SMS messages, Blackberry Messenger broadcasts and e-mail forwards have been exhorting a mass turnout. The nation has never been more self-righteous in post-Emergency India. At the time of going to press, social activist Anna Hazare had declared victory for his hunger strike, on the basis of the government having agreed to constitute a committee to adopt the Lok Pal Bill &ndash; a draft law that would create a super-powered body to oversee probity in Indian public life.

Corruption is flavour of the month

The evolution from VAT to GST is theoretically a desirable progress and the industry welcomed it like never before hoping that it would be a comprehensive and a seamless GST fostering development of a National Common Market, minimization of compliance cost and uniformity of exemptions across all jurisdictions.

Structural defects of GST model being proposed by constitution amendment Bill '11

A home financing company (HFC) cannot be made a party to arbitration of disputes between the developer and the buyer of the house unless the HFC was a party to the arbitration agreement, the Supreme Court stated in the case, Deutsche Post Bank Home Finance Ltd vs Taduri Sridhar. In this case, the buyer of the house and the developer had an arbitration agreement. The HFC was not party to it. When disputes arose between the buyer and the developer, the buyer moved the Andhra Pradesh high court for appointment of an arbitrator under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The high court appointed an arbitrator and made the HFC as a party as the buyer alleged collusion between the HFC and the developer. The HFC appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that it was not a party to the bipartite agreement between the buyer and the developer. The Supreme Court accepted this contention and dropped the HFC from the arbitration.

Third parties cannot be dragged into arbitration

Showing grace in defeat Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared, &ldquo;The fact that civil society and the government have joined hands to evolve a consensus to move this historic (lok pal) legislation augurs well for our democracy.&rdquo; Caught between the need to defend the institutional processes of the State and the desire to respond to the anger and anguish of civil society, the prime minister went more than halfway in conceding the demands of an assortment of civil society activists led by Anna Hazare of Maharashtra. Only history will judge whether this uneasy compromise between the government and social activists is a blow for Indian democracy or a blow to the Indian State. History will also have to judge whether the institution of Lok Pal will reverse the rising tide of corruption in public life.

Another institution

Just before the beginning of the year, The Economist had a &ldquo;Leader&rdquo; (the magazine insists on calling itself a newspaper and its editorials &ldquo;Leaders&rdquo;) speculating on the possibility that 2011 may turn out to be the year of sovereign default in developed economies.

A V Rajwade: The year of sovereign defaults?

The Anna Hazare movement leading to the formation of a joint committee to frame an effective Lok Pal Bill is likely to have one major consequence for senior civil servants. Many of them may now become even more reluctant to take decisions. The belief among several government officials is that if you do not take decisions you are unlikely to make mistakes. The tribe of such officers may grow after the Hazare movement.

A K Bhattacharya: The Hazare fall-out

The government has tweaked the eligibility rules for those aspiring to the posts of chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) and executive director (ED) of nationalised banks. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with that since these rules are arbitrary beyond a point. But look at the nature of changes made. You need to have at least 18 months of residual service &ndash; and not two years, which was the rule last year &ndash; to be considered for the post of CMD. But in the case of EDs, there has been no such change. Why is it that what is good for CMDs is not good for EDs? The absence of a rational explanation will give the impression that such tinkering is aimed at accommodating one or more candidates with high-powered connections.

Playing favourites

The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan and the global financial crisis centred on the US and Britain suggest that decision makers in even the advanced societies experience difficulty in acknowledging, let alone managing, worst-case scenarios in modern, complex systems.

Suman Bery: Uncertainty, risk and development 

The answer is, most probably, no. It has been more than a decade since the first multiplex opened in India. Of about 11,000 individually owned screens, more than 1,050 or 10 per cent of the total now belong to six retail chains.

Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: The missing link in multiplex marketing

In the late 1970s, my family was persuaded by Qantas to pose for a brochure. It was part of a now-forgotten series the airlines had done on families around the world; so you had typical Australian families represented by a Chappell or a Marshall, a typical Nigerian or Canadian or Greek family, and the Roys representing, inadvertently, the typical Indian family.

Nilanjana S Roy: Pakistan - The guidebook approach

The Union minister for many things, Kapil Sibal, made good his promise to present a new telecom policy in 100 days by delineating its broad contours bang on deadline. The original announcement was made on January 1 when he took over from scam-tainted telecom minister A Raja. The details will take a year to finalise to take all stakeholder opinion on board. Monday&rsquo;s announcement &ndash; which will replace the 1999 policy that many regard as being at the root of the 2G scam &ndash; was mostly on expected lines and will not surprise mobile service providers. They are unlikely to welcome it wholeheartedly, of course. Most operators have accepted that licence costs will have to rise from the current Rs 1,650 crore, but there is bound to be some nervousness on the pricing of licence and spectrum, the airwaves that enable mobile calls and the epicentre of the current controversy and CBI investigations.

Redialling policy

The Index of Industrial Production numbers for February 2011 released by the Central Statistical Organisation provide little cheer from the pervasive grey enveloping the sector over the past few months. Industrial production for the month was 3.6 per cent higher (year-on-year) than the corresponding figure last year. The results are even more sobering when seasonally adjusted production figures are considered: production in February was down 0.6 per cent as opposed to a marginal increase of 1.3 per cent in January. A review of the performance of each industry within the sector is instructive. Capital goods production declined for the third consecutive term registering a decline of 18.4 per cent, though a high base effect (the sector grew 47 per cent during March-July 2010) adversely affected performance. Consumer goods production, on the other hand, grew by 11.4 per cent (year-on-year), driven by a sharp increase in the production of consumer durables.

Not so industrious

The high-powered committee headed by Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia recently presented its report on urban infrastructure. The report focuses on the infrastructure needs of a rapidly urbanising country and highlights important issues ranging from governance to waste management. I have high personal regard for individual members of the committee and find few faults with specific recommendations.

Sanjeev Sanyal: Urban planning and chaos

A peaceful revolution seems on the way in India, sans civil strife. It is still in swaddling clothes so the denouement is a long way off. But the uncertainty is matched by hope. In a world where oppressed people, from Libya to China, are either violently struggling to emerge free or meekly remaining in line, Anna Hazare and his band of civil society leaders are trying to chalk out a unique path by non-violently challenging the established order and winning the first battle.

Subir Roy: India's peaceful revolution

The nation has seen candle light vigils demanding tough laws with more teeth to prevent economic corruption. Watching the proceedings in the Supreme Court last week, one would recommend similar rallies to make the existing laws work. It is not just about tainted money parked in nondescript islands and mountain kingdoms or the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation since the Bofors days, but how statutes are lobotomised by mere inaction.

M J Antony: The trials of tribunals

I don&rsquo;t see why the law should be bent. Winning the World Cup was a splendid display of excellence.

Should the Indian team get a tax break?

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 673 - Opinion Specials