A few months ago, Norberto Fuentes wrote an autobiography of Fidel Castro, a book that starts and ends in Castro&rsquo;s voice, where by page 150 the reader has forgotten that this is a fictional creation. Fuentes&rsquo; relationship with Fidel was a dark and troubled one; he was once one of Castro&rsquo;s supporters, then one of Castro&rsquo;s prisoners, and finally one of Cuba&rsquo;s exiles.

Nilanjana S Roy: Saint Sonia - Sari seems to be the hardest word

Business Standard

Differences between the commerce ministry and the finance ministry over policy issues have been quite common. In the good old days, the finance ministry would prepare detailed notes on how expensive various export incentive schemes were and the commerce ministry, in turn, would argue the incentives were critical to achieving higher exports growth and even make public its own calculations on the actual revenue losses of the government.

A K Bhattacharya: Lessons from ego clash

Any measure aimed at increasing the number of shares available for public trading enhances liquidity and depth of the stock market and is desirable. In that sense, the amendment to the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules 1957 (SCRR) by the central government to provide for a minimum 25 per cent threshold level of public holding for all listed companies is a very welcome move. The use of the words &ldquo;all listed companies&rdquo; is to say the least heartening. The presumption is that the word &ldquo;all&rdquo; would imply that there will be no exemption to any one. The earlier dispensation of rule 19 2(B) of the SCRR, however, has much the same intent. But the practical difficulties have bedevilled its implementation all these years.

A good measure, but...

Government spinmeisters will have you believe that while no decision on freeing up oil prices could be taken on Monday due to a lack of quorum of critical ministers, things will work out at the next meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM). This is so much pie in the sky.

Say goodbye to oil PSUs

More than half the world&rsquo;s population lives in cities and, within a generation, this will be true even for India. How we design and run our cities is important for virtually every aspect of human activity in the 21st century. Not surprisingly, therefore, we expect our cities to do many things at the same time. We expect them to be energy-efficient and environment-friendly. We want them to be socially inclusive. We also need them to be vibrant engines of economic growth.

Sanjeev Sanyal: Those streets are made for walking

The microfinance sector should be holding a coming-of-age party. One of the younger microfinance institutions (MFIs), four-year-old Ujjivan, a pioneer in lending to the urban poor, broke even last year (2009-10), making virtually the entire top-ten MFIs that are members of the recently floated industry association, Micro Finance Institutions Network (MFIN), profitable. In fact, less than half a dozen of the leading 30-odd MFIs lose money.

Subir Roy: Microfinance's hour of reckoning

Suspect government policies followed by lawsuits can stall reforms even in sensitive areas. The case of high security registration plates for motor vehicles, which landed twice in the Supreme Court in nine years, is the latest instance.

M J Antony: Number plate logjam

The draft Bill seeks to empower regulators while making them accountable to legislature.

Will the regulatory Bill work?

Secret societies invariably fill one with dread. It&rsquo;s the fear of the unknown &mdash; not knowing what these societies stand for, and even if one is familiar with their ideology, there is the uncertainty of not knowing how they will act to advance their cause. If you&rsquo;ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan, you&rsquo;ll know pretty much what I am talking about. Some of Arthur Conan Doyle&rsquo;s most gripping tales of the famous detective (The Valley of Fear, The Musgrave Ritual and A Study in Scarlet) centred on secret societies and how they operated. The secret outfit in the first and the scariest of the stories, according to some critics, is supposed to be the Freemasons. That thesis may or may not be right, and as the Freemasons argue, they are much less a secret society &mdash; at least now &mdash; and more of &ldquo;a society with secrets&rdquo;.

Latha Jishnu: Waking up to ACTA

MNCs are increasingly trying to combine business interests with social development to cope with discontent against globalisation.

N Chandra Mohan: The business of humanity

The failure of the state is a cyclical event connected with debt. The reason we are never prepared to handle it is because we, as a society, are cycle-blind. Even real societies still struggle to accept the idea of a failed state. Now that, after Greece, Hungary&rsquo;s potential default is in the news, the question of how the state managed to fail is pretty relevant.

The cycle of state failure

My home in Allahabad is over 30 years old. I wanted to insure it against fire and earthquake, but the insurance company refused as the building is old.

NON-LIFE INSURANCE: Ajay Bimbhet

The caution that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sounded at the recent G20 meeting seems to have been very timely. The world economy and particularly the developed countries face an active danger of a double-dip depression in the aftermath of the Greek crisis and so there is a need to avoid rushing to the fiscal exit all at the same time, Mr Mukherjee advised. Fiscal deterioration is a natural corollary of deep and prolonged downturns as governments try to stimulate economies back to their potential. The slow signs of recovery that the globally coordinated fiscal stimulus generated in the aftermath of 2008 appear threatened in the face of the belt-tightening measures that European economies like Spain, Portugal and Ireland are introducing in order to avoid the fate of Greece. The dilemma faced by policy-makers is real. Investors and markets will give a thumbs down to economies whose fiscal health appears seriously undermined.

Don't get stampeded

Granted, he was a lightweight and no tears will be shed over Shashi Tharoor resigning from the Cabinet. But it is curious that the only ministers who&rsquo;re resigning from the UPA government are those belonging to the Congress party. Even Shivraj Patil, who was axed after the Mumbai terrorist attack, was a Congressman. In sharp contrast, ministers like Praful Patel were not axed after the mess made in the civil aviation ministry (and this goes way beyond the Mangalore accident); A Raja continues to be his cocky self even after there is enough evidence to suggest that he cost the country Rs 50,000-60,000 crore in terms of the cheap licences he handed out; and Sharad Pawar seems unconcerned by stories such as the one involving a company in which he has a stake bidding for an IPL franchise.

The Jalan solution

As with every edition of the World Cup football, pundits, fans and commentators will theorise endlessly on why the tournament is one of the most-watched TV events on the planet. Set aside the pure sporting pleasure (which is considerable), here&rsquo;s another reason to celebrate the tournament: it&rsquo;s a great equaliser.

Kanika Datta: G32 - The great equaliser

A global survey&rsquo;s rating of Indian consumers as the greenest in the world, though significant in itself, should be viewed in perspective. In the annual survey carried out by the National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan, India topped the ranking for the eco-friendly consumption pattern of its population for the second year in a row. Brazil has been adjudged second, China third and the US last in the survey that appraised 17 nations. The criteria chosen for measuring the environmental impact of consumption pattern included modes of transportation, household energy and resource use, food consumption and the use of consumer goods, besides people&rsquo;s attitude towards environmental issues. It is not surprising that barring housing, where India scored behind Brazil, it topped in all other areas. Much of the credit for this high green rating goes to the poverty and frugality of Indian consumers.

A mixed blessing

Markets continue to remain very unsettled, and frisky. Over the last week, the latest stress points were over Hungary, some strangely timed comments on the euro out of France, disappointing payrolls data out of the US and continued poor price action with the S&amp;P failing for the third time to break above its 200-day moving average. The markets are obviously deeply worried about the outlook and the concerns are no longer just Greece.

Akash Prakash: A changing landscape

An inescapable conclusion from the series of financial crises that have been roiling our lives over the past couple of years is that the financial sector has become much too big for our good. Finance used to be &mdash; and should be &mdash; a support function in life. It certainly is in most companies that add tangible value in terms of products and services. Instead, it has become one of the loudest aspects of contemporary life.

Jamal Mecklai: The next cycle

It is 3 in the afternoon. You are on a long-distance call while checking your emails, surfing channels and taking a reluctant bite of the sandwich which has got cold as you just didn&rsquo;t have enough time in between those daily meetings.

Shyamal Majumdar: Hurry sickness

Indian wines are doing very well at international wine fairs.

Think local, act global

We&rsquo;re no banana republic, okay? We&rsquo;re the world&rsquo;s largest democracy and we have robust democratic institutions. Take the recently concluded case of the Really Trying, Whiny People of Bhopal vs. The Chaps Who Were Just Making Some Damn Pesticide. India should thank the district court in Bhopal for winding things up in a lightning 26 years, because frankly, nobody wants to go on listening to aforesaid really trying, whiny people say the same things witness after witness, year after year. Untold suffering is so out.

Pass the methyl isocyanate, please

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