If I remember correctly, there was no debate or discussion when the salaries of the president, the vice-president and governors were raised. So, why this unnecessary excitement when the members of Parliament (MPs) rightly demand an increase in their monthly pay. At the moment, our MPs are paid a pittance. Even in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, parliamentarians have generous emoluments. No one objects, as far as I know. The Cabinet should not have had second thoughts on the subject.

K Natwar Singh: MPs&#39; pay hike OK, behaviour not

Business Standard

New wine, new bottles

At the World Tamil Conference in June this year that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi inaugurated, M Karunanidhi asked the PM sotto voce: &ldquo;So is Raja going?&rdquo; He was referring, of course, to A Raja, the telecommunications minister who is being investigated for his role in allotting spectrum following allegations of corruption.

Aditi Phadnis: A sleeping partner

In some remote villages in India, which are most unlikely to pose as models of development, a quiet rejuvenation is taking place, with communities learning to adapt to the climate change reality of the country today.

Keya Acharya: India's 'constant gardeners'

Every day when I open the newspaper, I wonder about double standards when it comes to accountability. When train accidents occur and innocent people die because of the train driver&rsquo;s negligence or because the tampered tracks went undetected despite prescribed routine surveillance, there is no move or even talk from either the NGOs, the media or the government to hold the non-executive chairman of the Railways responsible.

Rama Bijapurkar: Let's be fair

Ever since my father died three years ago, I had been trying to convince my mother to shut down her establishment in Kolkata and move to Santiniketan. Although she has been ailing for years, her fiercely independent nature did not allow her to give in easily. It is only in the beginning of this year that I managed to change her mind.

Keya Sarkar: Health care without the glitz

Never before at home has the Internet, restricted to music and film downloads, and to Google last-minute information for college projects, been as brutally punished as in this last week. The monitor has morphed into some form of talisman from which my daughter and her gaggle of friends can&rsquo;t seem to tear themselves away. Rousing cheers and intermittent groans mark their passage as they move from PC to laptop to BlackBerry in an attempt to unearth some hidden gem of information, a clue to something remarkable, a nugget of rare facts.

Kishore Singh: City lights, parental blights

A fundamental question in the study of complex manifolds is: When is an almost complex structure given by a complex structure? A manifold is a topological space that can be locally described in terms of such simpler, well-understood spaces as Euclidean. For a manifold to be a complex manifold (where operations with imaginary numbers can be defined), the existence of an almost complex structure is necessary, but not sufficient.

A Louis Nirenberg profile: In love with inequalities

What if Natha, the protagonist of the latest Aamir Khan movie, Peepli Live, were to watch this movie in a multiplex? Can he dare to? In the story, Natha is a debt-ridden farmer who has lost his land to moneylenders and decides to commit suicide in the hope of some compensation from the government.

Sreelatha Menon: Natha watches Peepli Live

Going by the ongoing discourse on the drafting of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, it would appear that the rights of India&rsquo;s citizens are forever determined by the wording of the nation&rsquo;s laws. One word here protects the citizen from depredation and worse, one word there surrenders sovereignty forever. If laws and rights were edible there would be no hunger in India, and every citizen of this great democracy would have been the most politically, socially and economically empowered person in the world.

Land of laws and rights

The past few decades have witnessed serious debate with respect to the relative roles of the market and the state. This debate has taken place especially in the developed world, where the advocates of a free market far outvoiced those in favour of a greater role for the government. There have been a few, including Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman and Dani Rodrik, who have consistently supported a greater role for the state, particularly in the context of framing an industrial policy, a view which, however, has not found much favour.

V Govindarajan: Statism returns when the market falters

Jawaharlal Nehru&rsquo;s stirring oratory to usher in India&rsquo;s independence raised the hopes of &lsquo;midnight&rsquo;s children&rsquo;, only to have them dashed by the Hindu growth rate: three decades of growth averaging 1.5 per cent per capita that did little to raise living standards. As India enters its 64th year, however, palpable optimism reigns amongst midnight&rsquo;s grandchildren. The Hindu growth rate is history, and having brushed off the financial crisis as a minor irritant, India is poised for near double-digit growth.

Arvind Subramanian: India's new growth driver- growth itself

Contrarians would like to test it at the bottom of a bear market or top of a bull market.

Sentiment signals

In September 2007, when India was invited to present its views in Kyoto International Fiscal Association (IFA) Congress on &lsquo;Transfer Pricing and intangibles&rsquo;, I thought it was too early to warrant a debate where India should participate. I was perhaps wrong given the pace of developments.

Delhi HC's new-age lakshman rekha

When foreigners are deputed to work in India, their salary may be paid in India or outside India, or sometimes partly in India and partly outside India.

Employer has to deduct tax on salary paid outside

News reports over the week end have it that the much awaited GST may miss the 1st April deadline for its introduction, given the continued uncertainty as to when a key element of the reform process, that of the Constitutional amendments that are required to enable the GST to come about, will be initiated. This article discusses the recent developments in this regard.

GST: Will the April 2011 deadline be met?

In two judgments last week, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that in road accidents, insurance companies should pay compensation under the &lsquo;no-fault liability&rsquo; clause in the Motor Vehicles Act irrespective of the circumstances of the deaths. In one appeal, Indra Devi vs Bagada Ram, the death was invited by the negligence of the deceased driver himself. The Rajasthan HC asked the recipients of the compensation to return the amount with interest to New India Assurance Co as the claimants were not entitled to the amount. The SC set aside the high court order and asserted the &lsquo;no-fault liability&rsquo; under Section 140 of the Act did not depend upon the conduct of the driver or the victim. In the second case, Eshwarappa vs CS Gurushanthappa, the drunk driver and his four friends died while rashly driving to a temple without informing the car owner. The accidents tribunal denied any compensation.

Damages for road deaths without deciding on guilty

It is commonplace to say that not only are there as many views about the economy as there are economists, but, in fact, double that given that most economists hedge their bets with &ldquo;on the hand this, on the other hand that&rdquo;.

No threat of double dip

Then you should say what you mean, the March Hare said. &ldquo;I do. At least I mean what I say &mdash; that&rsquo;s the same thing, you know.&rdquo; Said Alice. &ldquo;Not the same thing a bit!&rdquo; said the Hatter.

Sanjaya Baru: Unclear energy

The draft Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, or MMDR Bill, includes a crucial provision to share the wealth of mining &mdash; 26 per cent of the annual profits &mdash; with people who live near the projects. But industry wants this profit-sharing clause dropped. The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (Fimi) says it will breed lazy people, who will only drink and beat up their women.

Sunita Narain: Sharing profits for new gains

The state of some of the major economies like the US, Europe and Japan has been intriguing us for a long time. Are these countries heading for deflation, or inflation thanks to extremely loose monetary and fiscal policies, or neither? Even the extremely shrewd managers of &ldquo;macro&rdquo; hedge funds, who customarily earn huge returns for their investors by correctly reading the direction of the macro-economy, seem to be puzzled. Most of them have earned very poor returns in the current year. On the other hand, Mark Mobius of Templeton Asset Management believes that global recovery is &ldquo;well in place and may accelerate now&rdquo;, thanks to growth in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), Turkey and South Africa.

A V Rajwade: Developed world's lost decade?

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K Natwar Singh: MPs' pay hike OK, behaviour not