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

The good news is that the Indian economy is likely to grow at around 8 per cent in fiscal 2011-12. The bad news is that the Indian economy is likely to grow only at around 8 per cent this fiscal. The other good news is that India, along with China, Brazil and a few other emerging economies, is likely to be among the fastest-growing economies in the world. The bad news is that with 8 per cent growth, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will have to re-work his Budget arithmetic that was based on a 9 per cent rate of growth. There are no surprises in the reports emanating from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the eve of the Fund&rsquo;s annual spring meetings, but these reports, especially the Fund&rsquo;s fiscal monitor, draw attention to the need for sustained fiscal consolidation and inflation expectations management in India.

Managing expectations

I first met Sarah in New York on New Year&rsquo;s Eve 1977 (I think), when a group of us convened in a vacant lot, dug a pit and lit a fire (it was freezing), and discoursed on art and politics. It was a strange and wonderful and foolish event, and most of the group went their separate ways since then. However, a part of the group, including Sarah and myself, stayed close &mdash; indeed, became much closer, almost like family. We spent a lot of time together, celebrating life and sharing each other&rsquo;s joys and idiosyncrasies.

Jamal Mecklai: A tribute to Sarah Wells

Two of India&rsquo;s biggest corporate entities &ndash; the Tata Group and Infosys &ndash; are in the midst of succession planning. But over 75 per cent of company boards in India do not even discuss the issue and most CEOs are unable to imagine anyone as an adequate replacement. Even if they have to choose somebody, most are inclined to replace themselves with a clone.

Shyamal Majumdar: Succession blues

After the &ldquo;new assertiveness&rdquo; of 2010 that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complained about, there seems to be a &ldquo;new accommodativeness&rdquo; in 2011 between China and India. The first sign of a cooling down of temperatures came during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao&rsquo;s visit to New Delhi in December 2010. At Sanya, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, China&rsquo;s President Hu Jintao, the more conservative and hard-headed leader, exuded uncharacteristic warmth and seems to echo the sentiments of the more liberal and reform-minded Premier Wen. That Prime Minister Singh and President Hu have agreed to not just hold a Strategic Economic Dialogue and promote people-to-people contacts, but also resume defence and military exchanges and put in place a working mechanism for consultation and coordination on border affairs, augurs well for the bilateral relationship.

Hu-Singh's new tune

Two seemingly disparate statements by the Union ministry of power in the past month are confounding in that they portend two very different scenarios for future capacity addition in the domestic power sector. The first, disturbingly familiar, was a sombre announcement that the 11th plan target of 78,000 Mw would be missed by more than a third. The second announcement, more heart-warming, was that India would add over 20,000 Mw of power during FY 2012. A simple extrapolation of the second announcement would imply that India has developed the capacity to add over 100,000 Mw in a five-year period, exactly what the 12th five year plan envisions. So, has India&rsquo;s power sector turned the corner in meeting the ambitious goals it has set for itself? It would be tempting to assume it has, but the reality on the ground is less palatable.

Power without ability

On March 23, 2011, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne made a fleeting reference to the Indian tax code in his Budget speech. Embarking on reducing UK corporate taxes from the current level of 28 per cent to 23 per cent by 2014-15 and simplifying its tax structure, Osborne remarked that &ldquo;our tax code has become so complex that it recently overtook India to become the longest in the world&rdquo;.

Jaimini Bhagwati: Keep it less taxing, please

It was announced last week that there would be a new director on the board of Kingfisher Airlines; a nominee of the 13 banks that have lent vast sums to the troubled airline will join the existing eight directors &mdash; comprising three people from the promoter group/management and five others (a former chairman of Sebi, a former finance secretary, the head of a leading advertising agency, a former CEO who is also a chartered accountant, and Vijay Amritraj).

T N Ninan: Five-star banking

Recently, there has been much lamentation about the US Fed&rsquo;s policy of quantitative easing (QE), which has led to a decline in the dollar and sparked fears of global inflation. China has been vociferous in condemning QE2 since it rightly fears that this might be the first sign of its largest debtor taking the time-honoured route towards the euthanasia of its rentier.

Deepak Lal: Reviewing capital controls

The paradox of Anna Hazare&rsquo;s anti-corruption campaign is that, for the tremendous across-the-board support it has evoked, it has also provoked widespread debate and vociferous disagreement. In his crusade to unify a broad spectrum of public opinion are sown the first seeds of disunity.

Sunil Sethi: In Anna Hazare's wonderland

Two events in the past fortnight stand out: India winning the cricket World Cup on April 2 in Mumbai and activist Anna Hazare bowling a non-violent Gandhian googly, which resulted in the Manmohan Singh government being caught on the wrong foot.

K Natwar Singh: Games people play, and win

Three separate incidents brought the subject of age and our attitude to it centre-stage this week.

Old Bones Nation

A year or two ago someone phoned me, on behalf of the Swedish embassy, to say that Astrid Lindgren&rsquo;s books were now going to be available in India.

People of note

In 2001, when the Congress came to power in Assam and Tarun Gogoi took charge as chief minister of Assam, it was hard not feel a rush of sympathy for him. The outgoing Asom Gana Parishad government had left the state&rsquo;s finances in a mess. Neighbouring militant groups were claiming that Assam was actually part of Greater Nagaland.

Aditi Phadnis: Surviving the third wave

The working group on operating procedure of monetary policy &ndash; appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) &ndash; has done a timely and professional job in its report. Its findings are supported by empirical evidence and provide the rationale for recommendations it made in relation to the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF). However, a few caveats are in order.

A Seshan: Single rate, multiple realities

Future income projections will show what we already know based on data of the last five and ten years: that between now and 2015, if there is no dramatic change in policy, past patterns of income growth will perpetuate and the top (richest) 20 per cent of Consumer India will increase its income at a much faster rate than the rest of India and get even more unequally rich. We also know from past data that this group has a healthy income surplus, so, despite inflation, it will continue to increase its surplus. That&rsquo;s why we haven&rsquo;t seen any demand-led slowdown in expensive durables including cars, the stock market, in high-end smartphones and so on. That is why business class seats are not going a-begging despite ridiculous spot fares, because the opportunity cost of the buyers&rsquo; time to earn more is greater.

Rama Bijapurkar: Will consumption hold up?

Scene 1: The candles are lit and as the wax drips, the sombre mood is lifted by the haunting strains of Vande Mataram.&nbsp;The dusky pink sky turns dark and the stars descend on Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the Gateway of India and Azad Maidan in Mumbai, the streets of Bangalore and Kolkata. All lit in small flames, small fires igniting the imagination of the nation. United by one man, fasting. The government bows to the will of the people. This is a Revolution.

For somebody and nobody

For those who have seen it, Death of a Pope is arguably the best painting of F N Souza&rsquo;s career &mdash; but you can decide for yourself now, with the 1962 work on view by appointment only at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya where the efforts of collector Jehangir Nicholson to dedicate his 800-odd works to the nation have finally found a home in a 4,500 sq ft wing in his name, to be managed by a foundation that has liquidated his assets to manage the collection.

Art (be)quest

As Jairam Ramesh fights to save our forests, he can be rest assured that his colleagues in the forest department are fighting to save each tree.

Keya Sarkar: Dealing with dead wood

These days, with my wife living out of her suitcase more often than not, I&rsquo;ve been given a quick course in what a long-distance marriage is about. It started years ago when we decided not to share bathrooms, each blaming the other for, er, acceptable minimal levels of hygiene, and that worked fine with a boy zone and a girl zone. But it soon spilled over into separate bedrooms whenever my wife could manage it, discouraging our son from coming come home for holidays and advising our daughter to sleep over at her friends&rsquo;. &ldquo;Driving home at night isn&rsquo;t safe,&rdquo; she&rsquo;d tell her, even though it was only five in the evening, but our daughter was only to happy to stay away from the battles that would erupt around bedtime at home.

Kishore Singh: Within shouting distance

India&rsquo;s seamless switch from the World Cup victory to pop-rock cricket, the India Premier League, has all the makings of another spectacular innings. The only party-pooper seems to be the tussle between the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) and Sri Lanka Cricket, which wants the Lankans back for practice sessions for international matches. In this clash between flag and IPL, as in other similar ones, the bet is that the BCCI-controlled IPL will win &mdash; almost uncontested.

Flouting the clout

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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