In an earlier column I had outlined two alternative theories about global warming: the CO2 theory propagated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark&rsquo;s &ldquo;cosmoclimatology&rdquo; theory which linked &ldquo;sunspots&rdquo; and cosmic rays to the Earth&rsquo;s climate (&ldquo;Climate change: sun and the stars vs CO2&rdquo;, June 2007). I had also noted that an experiment at the CERN particle physics laboratory called CLOUD was to begin in 2010 to test the cosmoclimatology theory. The first results from this experiment were published recently (&ldquo;Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation&rdquo;, by Kirby et al, Nature (2011), 476, 429-433). It finds a &ldquo;significant&rdquo; cosmic ray cloud effect (see www.thegwpf.org for details and commentaries including from Professor Svensmark).

Deepak Lal: Clouds of climate change

Business Standard

The fight for space in cities like New Delhi is also a quest for new-found authority and power. Is there hidden irony in the fact that the country&rsquo;s latest anti-terrorist outfit, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), created after the Mumbai attacks in 2008, is to occupy two floors vacated by the corruption-riddled Commonwealth Games organising committee, which has been bundled out of the municipality&rsquo;s weird concrete tower in the heart of the capital? Other government departments were hungrily eyeing this pie in the sky till they were overruled by the home ministry. The NIA is apparently unable to function properly without a prime location in the city.

Sunil Sethi: Terrorism's 'unfinished agenda'

When Bollywood cutie Imran Khan files a PIL in the Bombay High Court challenging Maharashtra government&rsquo;s decision raising the legal age limit for consuming alcohol from 21 to 25 years, he is only one in a long list of actors who have embraced causes.

Of actors and causes

Far from the shores of India, in an outpost of the Empire over which the sun did set, two Sikhnis have kept an even earlier legacy dynamically alive. Amrit and Rabindra, Liverpool twins, who have only occasionally been shown in India (the National Gallery of Modern Art did them a commendable show, and they were a noticeable presence at the last India Art Summit) have become this country&rsquo;s ambassadors, chroniclers and experimenters of its tradition of miniature art.

The Singh Twins

John Vickers needs to write a thank you note to Kweku Adoboli. On the face of it, they have very little in common. Vickers, silver-haired and a knighted academic, is a far cry from the 31-year-old party-loving Adoboli of African origin. Still, they are in the spotlight this week and inextricably linked. Adoboli&rsquo;s trading action earlier this week, that caused a $2 billion loss at Switzerland&rsquo;s largest bank UBS, has just cemented Vickers&rsquo; argument for ring-fencing investment banking operations from retail. Vickers plea for isolating high risk is something regulators worldwide can no longer afford to ignore.

The high-risk game

Lt Gen B C Khanduri might not know that much about politics, but he does know his real job: building roads (he&rsquo;s a sapper). Impressed by his performance as Union minister for surface transport through the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government &ndash; where he built his career on building road and built so many of them that the Golden Quadrilateral became the centrepiece of that government&rsquo;s achievements &ndash; the BJP thought he would be the best candidate for chief minister of Uttarakhand.

Aditi Phadnis: Lt General to the BJP's rescue

The rain-swept waves lashed against the tripods at Marine Drive, Mumbai&rsquo;s C-shaped boulevard. Parts of the drive appeared skewed, overwhelmed by the grey sea. How many dreams have lived and died on this edge? A new phone app called &lsquo;The Time Machine&rsquo; promises to answer this question to a certain extent by allowing users to view the modern, techni-colour art deco buildings facing Marine Drive in their erstwhile sepia glory.

Time traveller's  museum

Consumer price inflation has been virtually in double digits for three years and the wholesale price index (WPI) has accelerated and stayed stubbornly high. Compared to its own recent history, India&rsquo;s inflation became unhinged, thereby reversing creditable performance, from as far back as 2006. In the last two years, among its major comparators India has the highest rate of consumer inflation; it is also volatile in relation to its peers in Asia.

Gangadhar Darbha & Urjit R Patel: Inflation 'herding' & Indian 'PIGs'

The Bible tells us &mdash; &ldquo;weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

'NYC is still the most vibrant of capitals'

Farida Khan was barely 15 when she lost her husband and was left to fend for herself and her two children. She had never been to school and her only claim to importance was that she was the daughter of the maulana at Delhi&rsquo;s Nizamuddin basti. That was 30 years ago.

Sreelatha Menon: Yes, Farida can!

It is unlikely that the office-bearers of Hockey India watched the Rugby World Cup that is currently under way in New Zealand. They should have, if only to see efficient sports management in action. Rugby is not a sport that transfixes world sports audiences. Few countries with large populations actually play it at the international level &mdash; although India and China are members of the global rugby federation, Argentina is probably the most populous participating in the current World Cup.

Sports' informal licence raj

Barring a handful of die-hard pacifists, Indians appear to believe that peaceful relations with Pakistan are a non-event. Consequently, the recent attempts at initiating a process of Indo-Pak dialogue have been marked by cynicism. However, despite the pessimism about the state of affairs in Pakistan, it is still possible to give peace with Pakistan a chance. For even a marginal success there will free up New Delhi&rsquo;s attention to focus more effectively on its internal wars.

Bibhu Prasad Routray: India-Pak 'reset' will help address Maoist problem

In the past the implementation of rural development projects has been beset with a number of problems. Projects are not always selected in consultation with the actual beneficiaries; there is leakage in fund utilisation; transparency in the award of contracts and their implementation is lacking; and only a small fraction of the funds allotted goes towards actual creation of benefits for the target persons.

G V Ramakrishna: A new paradigm for rural uplift projects

You could buy on big dips , if you believe things will change in a year.

With bears waiting to strike...

Consistency may generally be regarded as the virtue of fools, but consistency is the least one expects from a central bank. Having joined the battle against inflation, and finding the enemy still unvanquished, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had no option but to take the rate hike action that it did last week: it increased the repo rate by 25 basis points, taking it to 8.25 per cent. If the spectre of inflationary expectations continues to haunt, one must expect RBI to take further action, at least till it reaches the pre-Lehman threshold of nine per cent. In that sense, the central bank still has some headroom for further action. That this has negative consequences for growth and capital formation is well understood by policy makers and it is clearly the price the central bank thinks the economy ought to be willing to pay for price stability as well as for altering the state of expectations.

The last lap

While Japan is one of the countries that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited recently, he now has an invitation from the People&rsquo;s Republic of China. One lesson he would learn from the China-Japan relationship is the political importance of an apology. For all the good work that Mr Modi has done, and continues to do, in Gujarat, he has to convincingly atone for the communal carnage in the state in 2002. His three-day fast has turned out to be more a farce than a genuine expression of remorse and an attempt at reconciliation. Gujarat needs a &ldquo;truth and reconciliation&rdquo; process for the future well-being of its people as well as for Mr Modi to seek his destiny in national politics.

Just say sorry

Seven years ago this week when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, little did he know that his two conversations on the sidelines, with then US President George Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, would trigger the beginning of two of his most important policy initiatives in his first term.

Sanjaya Baru: Partnership in progress

The previous article in this column had highlighted the salient features of the Concept Paper on Services Taxation (Paper), which was recently released by the Central Board of Excise and Customs for public debate. This article will focus on the various services that have been listed out in the Paper for possible inclusion in the negative list. These services have been grouped into eight specified categories with the ninth being a residual one wherein as many as ten individual services have been identified.

Negative List Basis of Service Taxation

The Hon&rsquo;ble Delhi High Court has recently delivered a historical judgement in case of CIT v. D.C.M. Ltd. 336 ITR 599 in respect of meaning of the term &ldquo;royalty&rdquo;. An Indian company which is engaged in manufacturing of sugar entered into an agreement with a UK company for transfer of comprehensive technical information and know-how. The Indian company agreed to pay the specified amount towards supply of documents relating to technology.

New dimension to the definition of  'royalty'

I have received some comments on my views on &lsquo;work with stakeholders&rsquo; published in this space on September 5, 2011. Some argued that the philosophy of working with stakeholders rather than managing them lacks pragmatism. Some others believe that the idea of &lsquo;working with stakeholders&rsquo; is subsumed in the concept of corporate social responsibility&rsquo; (CSR). All these comments have induced me to elaborate on the concept of working with stakeholders.

Pragmatism in corporate governance

ORDINARILY the high courts or the Supreme Court should not interfere with the determination of electricity tariff as it is the job of an expert body like the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission set up under the relevant Act of 1998, the Supreme Court stated last week. The court was deciding a batch of disputes between the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation and the government-owned electricity producer, NTPC Ltd over fixation of tariff. &ldquo;Determination of tariff involves highly technical procedure requiring not only working knowledge of law but also of engineering, finance, commerce and management,&rdquo; the judgment said and recommended that an expert appellate body was the best forum to adjudicate on such disputes.

Courts should not interfere with power tariff fixation: SC

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