There were two thought provokers for me this week on the implications of demographic and lifestyle changes: an article reprinted from The New York Times in The Indian Express titled &ldquo;How marriage survives&rdquo; by Justin Wolfers (Wharton professor and Brookings fellow); and a chat with Jagdish Sheth, marketing guru at Emory, whose early work on consumer behaviour was path-breaking. Sheth researched the implications of changing social events on consumer behaviour in America.

Rama Bijapurkar: Learning to read social change

Business Standard

Although we try to be as low-profile as possible, putting up no signs on the road pointing our way or advertising our little shop in any way, word of mouth is a powerful thing; especially because the number of places where you can splurge in Santiniketan has not kept pace with the burgeoning number of tourists or their bulging purses.

Keya Sarkar: Colour-blind marketers

If I ask the cook for fried eggs for breakfast, my wife will insist on sausages instead, knowing how much I dislike starting the day with meat. If I suggest going out for a meal, she&rsquo;ll point to the effort that went into preparing a special treat for dinner &mdash; even if what&rsquo;s on the menu is kedgeree rather than biryani. We don&rsquo;t endorse the same films, or music, or books, or at least that&rsquo;s her explanation for when she chooses to be off on her own while I&rsquo;m left to fend for myself, even though it irks her that I&rsquo;m less than unhappy about the outcome.

Kishore Singh: A Games plan gone awry

Over the years, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has functioned in a complex working environment with multiple and growing demands on its resources. It is called upon to educate top quality health professionals, serve as a hub of biomedical research, provide extensive hospital services and increasingly provide leadership in the area of public health.

'What does AIIMS aspire to become in the year 2025?'

The migrant workers who were all over Delhi at the various work sites related to the Commonwealth Games are long gone. Those who linger at the incomplete projects are a reminder of the poor returns workers in the informal sector get for hard physical labour.

Sreelatha Menon: Bonded, forced and unpaid labour

For the past year, Liverpool Football Club has been in the throes of a fierce takeover battle that involves, among other things, court cases in the United States and Britain and the government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland. The 118-year-old club is an institution in football-mad Britain, its most successful club in European footballing history and it has an enormous global fan following. Yet not once through the months of the controversy has any politician thought fit to pronounce, unilaterally or otherwise, on bankrupt Liverpool FC&rsquo;s problems. These are certainly a big deal in a country in which the sport plays a far greater economic role than cricket does in India.

Game for politics

As there is little to buy at current valuations, wait for events to unfold.

Nothing much to do for retail investors

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, may not have tilted at wind mills but he certainly was speaking with a forked tongue when he gave an admonition wrapped inside some sage counsel &mdash; there are no domestic solutions for international problems &mdash; which incidentally had a nice ring to it, besides being of a piece with another sobering adage (&lsquo;think global, act local&rsquo;).

S Murlidharan: IMF's chickens come home to roost

With the Commonwealth Games behind us, the time has come to audit what went right and what went wrong. In the end, much went well, not all. There was no reason for anything to have gone awry as happened &mdash; ticketing, internal security at Games&rsquo; venues, media coverage, seating protocols. Many stands were empty for a number of events as tickets were not freely available. Some diplomats and VIPs found their cars stopped at outer barriers, as chauffeurs did not have security clearance, and had to walk considerable distances in poor light without escorts.

B G Verghese: It's time to audit the Commonwealth Games

The Companies Bill 2009 has dealt with independent directors quite extensively. The Standing Committee has spent significant time on issues relating to independent directors as evident from the report of the Committee. This shows the criticality of the effectiveness of independent directors in corporate governance. In the words of the Standing Committee &ldquo;It is important that Independent Directors play their designated role to nurture the finan-cial health of the Company and to protect the interests of various stakeholders, particularly the minority shareholders&rdquo;. It is a general belief that the presence of independent directors in the board improves the effectiveness of the oversight function of the board. Independent directors bring objectivity in board room deliberations, and skills and experience required for proper functioning of the board.

Independent director: Short tenure not wise

The Commonwealth Games went off without any hitch but it is difficult to shake off the defence of an official when shown pictures of unclean toilets at the Games village, that &ldquo;their (western) standard of hygiene and cleanliness could be different from ours, so there is nothing to be ashamed about&rdquo;.

Stop complaining about higher product standards

Going by the reigning government&rsquo;s endeavors, the two most noble tax policy reforms of our times would be replacement of archaic Income tax Act, 1961, and revamp of multiplicity of indirect tax cascading lev-ies. The working group at the Ministry of finance true to its promise presented the revised draft of the Direct taxes Code last month&rsquo;s concluding Monsoon session of the Parliament. The fact that media and tax fraternity didn&rsquo;t make noise on the revised draft is suggestive of job well done. While in the run up to the Monsoon session, trade and industry was anticipating Parliamentary debate on the Code, decision to defer its application (from April &rsquo;11 to &rsquo;12) seems sensible as it gives breathing time to the Government to draft well thought and researched subordinate legislation. The landscape for GST implementation has progressed tad slower as politics is overriding economics, though the Central Government remains committed to timeline.

Tax reforms take a long winding route

As pointed out earlier also, functioning of DRPs is bringing a dis-repute to internal judicial appellate system of the income-tax department.

Restore judicial impartiality: scrap DRP

An earlier article in this column had discussed the decision of the Supreme Court in A&amp;G Projects &amp; Technologies Ltd. Vs. State of Karnataka [(2008) VIL 40 SC], wherein it had laid down certain important principles governing the taxation of inter state sales of goods under the Central Sales Tax Act 1956 (the Act). While the Court had analyzed the two categories of inter state sales as visualised in Sections 3(a) and (b) of the Act, it essentially specified the conditions that were to be met for in transit sales under Section 3(b) above, in order to qualify for exemption from tax under Section 6(2) of the Act. The Court held that if a contract for sales of goods subsequent to the first sale, which occasioned the movement of goods on an inter state basis, was already in place prior to the commencement of the inter state movement of goods, the benefit of exemption from central sales tax on the subsequent sales, as in transit sales, was not available.

Clarifications on taxability of in-transit sales

The Supreme Court (SC) last week quashed a criminal complaint against the former chairman of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, now a distribution company. However, the new company will face prosecution for fabricating evidence and making false statements before an arbitrator hearing a dispute between the company and Datar Switchgear Ltd. Though the ex-chairman was in charge then, &ldquo;It is a settled proposition of law one cannot draw a presumption the chairman of a company is responsible for all acts committed by or on behalf of the company.

Chairman absolved from charge against company

The Re&rsquo;s both good news and bad news from the price front. The good news is that inflation seems to be stabilising with the September number only marginally higher than the 8.5 per cent in August. More importantly, manufacturing product inflation, often described as core inflation by economists, has continued its downward trend. From 6.4 per cent in April, factory price inflation is down to 4.6 per cent in September.

Inflation and appreciation

India&rsquo;s sportspersons have every reason to be proud of their performance at the 19th Commonwealth Games. While not too many world and Olympic records were broken, the impressive performance of Indian sportspersons, especially women, has done the nation proud. Kudos also to the organisers of the events and to Delhi police and security forces for their handling of security and traffic management. New Delhi was not the chaos many feared it would be. The opening and closing ceremonies were competently handled, even if the telecast was poor and the show failed to inspire, seeking merely to entertain. While the Games ended well, all was certainly not well with the organisation and those guilty of corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement should be punished. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did well not to waste time instituting a high-level enquiry by former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu. This is welcome activism on the part of the prime minister.

Heads must roll

This is the snub-Kalmadi week. Every storm finds its own lightning rod.

Sanjaya Baru: Importance of Shunglu

The principal topic of hot debate in the previous week-end&rsquo;s IMF-World Bank meetings was the need for realignment of currencies to reduce the global imbalances (read US deficit and unemployment).

A V Rajwade: Clash of currencies

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair ...

Vinayak Chatterjee: The tale of our cities

That you say you are offended, insults me mortally. And if you insult one Rat mortally, you offend all Rats gravely.

Nilanjana S Roy: The ratting out of Rohinton

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