The use of the ubiquitous mobile phone for financial services is akin to e-payments on steroids.

Probir Roy: The 4 R's of mobile banking

Business Standard

Batten down the hatches? Pull out all the stops? It might be difficult to find the clich&eacute; that adequately emphasises the urgency with which the government needs to tackle inflation. The worry is not just that May inflation was in double digits (10.16 per cent). It is also a fact that prices of commodities other than food are now beginning to gallop. Inflation in non-food manufactured products (often referred to as core inflation) was 6.7 per cent in May, up from 6 per cent in March and 3.6 per cent in January. Non-core inflation actually declined in this period. Thus, inflation now seems to be in textbook territory where rising demand on the back of strong growth pulls up prices. It is no longer principally a supply-side problem driven by shortfall in food production. &ldquo;Demand-pull&rdquo; inflation has the nasty habit of embedding itself and feeding off growth. Its stubbornness makes it a much more difficult malaise to cure than supply-driven inflation.

Pulled by demand

The Planning Commission&rsquo;s advice to the Haryana government to levy a cess on agricultural power to raise funds for replenishing dwindling groundwater is wise counsel that is likely to fall on deaf ears. There is no denying that the continuous decline in groundwater levels across the subcontinent and weak attempts at replenishment constitute a grave threat to human security in this part of the world. Haryana is not a lonely sinner. Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in its vicinity are equally guilty of extracting more groundwater than is naturally replenished, causing the water table to decline sharply. Though the gains from tapping groundwater for crop production have, in the past, been spectacular, it has now reached a stage where it is jeopardising the future of agriculture in this key bread basket of the country. What is worse, in peninsular India, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, groundwater use has reached an unsustainable level.

Rational use of groundwater

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa&rsquo;s recent visit to India during June 8-11, 2010 culminated in a joint declaration between the two countries. The declaration aimed at building peace and reconciliation in war-afflicted northern Sri Lanka. India agreed to give a grant for rehabilitation and resettlement of internally displaced persons.

Nisha Taneja: Rajapaksa's Visit - A lost opportunity

Is a low-cost health-care model possible? To put it differently, can a hospital charge low, affordable fee and still make money? This is the new debate that has gripped the industry in India. Most private hospital chains, at least the ones in news, cater to the top-end of the market. Can they afford to move down the value chain? Tata Motors has made a low-cost car, GE has come out with inexpensive medical equipment and experiments are afoot in low-cost housing.

Bhupesh Bhandari: Healing in a low-cost era

Days after President Barack Obama lashed out at British Petroleum (BP) saying he would not let it &ldquo;nickel-and-dime&rdquo; his people in the oil spill case, the sessions court in Bhopal did precisely that with the victims in one of the world&rsquo;s worst industrial disasters. There is no doubt this is one case where the victims have been let down completely by the Indian state &mdash; the government and the judiciary.

Sunita Narain: The Bhopal legacy

In 1949, the Chinese Railway (CR) network added less than 22,000 km of poorly maintained, war-damaged lines. By 2008, its network touched 80,000 route km &mdash; 36 per cent double-tracked and 35 per cent electrified. During 1950-1980, China added 107 railway lines, stretching over 30,000 km, and has plans to extend the network to 20,000 route km by 2020 &mdash; 50 per cent of it double-tracked and 60 per cent electrified.

Raghu Dayal: China rail on a long roll

A week in small town Europe with lousy service (by my spoilt Indian standards) and lots of avoidable Do-It-Yourself clarified my understanding of our service economy. It was further sharpened by a conversation I had with a receptionist at a hotel in a town with 150,000 population.

Rama Bijapurkar: Many cooks make the broth cost-effective

Walking around the lake of Sattal near Nainital early one morning last week, we were appalled to see so many plastic bottles along its banks. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s pick them up and chuck them in a dustbin,&rdquo; I suggested, &ldquo;as our good deed of the day!&rdquo; So we clambered down to the waterfront, our city slicker legs slipping on pine needles, to a place where a dozen bottles lay. But something looked not quite right. The bottles were arranged too artistically to have been just thrown there. They all had some sort of string twined across. In front of each bottle, there was a pile of carefully stacked stones. I lifted one of the bottles gingerly, for it was old and dirty. Instantly, the stack of stones collapsed with a clatter.

Geetanjali Krishna: Thank god for plastic!

The good people of Gurgaon have some peculiar habits. Chief among them is the provincial custom of inviting guests home at teatime &mdash; for dinner. &ldquo;Reach by eight,&rdquo; they&rsquo;re likely to text admonitory messages, which causes those of us who live in urbane Delhi an inordinate amount of stress, not to mention the strain of planning and coordinating the acceptance of such summons.

Kishore Singh: Gurgaon's bucolic ways

As Indian food reinvents itself, we could do with more Bourdains.

Bourdain vs Bourdain

I like playing football. I last played in middle school when our physical education classes required us to have a stab at every kind of sport, and football was my favourite. I offered to play attacker (we called it centre forward), but the coach seemed to think of me as more of a defender; it isn&rsquo;t perfectly clear to me why, but I&rsquo;m nothing if not a cooperative team player type.

The drink that cheers

Check with somebody who has played a role in a takeover or defended a takeover. The rush of adrenaline is incomparable. Men and women go into a huddle for days together: promoters, executives, financiers, investment bankers, legal experts, communication specialists and lobbyists. It is like an army camp in times of war. One in ten deals may reach its logical conclusion. If successful, there are rewards aplenty for all. Defeat can devastate. The drama is always intense.

The battle for Arcelor

Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, flew into Washington earlier this week to face a grilling from members of the US Senate. As he stepped out of his limousine to enter the Capitol building, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) swooped down and arrested him on the charge of &ldquo;culpable homicide reducible to criminal negligence&rdquo;.

T N Ninan: How they don't deal with it

With talk of a G2 running the world, there is no more important question for India than to form a judgment on where China is headed economically and politically. This is the subject of this column and the next.

Deepak Lal: Chinese Puzzle-I - Economy

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has failed so far to live up to the hype.

Trash talk of the town

The expectations of Indian cricket fans include watching their favourite game at the time most convenient to them. It doesn&rsquo;t matter where a match is played. If the Blues are in action, schedules must be shuffled to give desis their fix at times when they are most likely to be relaxed and receptive to advertising.

Devangshu Datta: Time zone dictates love of game

As I walked up the stairs to our flat with the wife after fetching her back from office (post-retirement, I am the family driver), we saw the front door wide open. There is someone in the flat, she said in panic. There wasn&rsquo;t. It was something perhaps more serious. I had forgotten to pull the door shut on my way out. How could you do this? said the look in her eyes. I was just absent-minded, my look said in reply.

Subir Roy: Open doors, all the time

The controversy over Calcutta&rsquo;s La Martiniere for Boys is a reminder that many of the institutions &mdash; public service utilities, newspapers, nursing homes and clubs &mdash; that were in robust health in 1947 are barely recognisable 63 years later. Yet, thanks to an upwardly mobile population&rsquo;s yearning for education, all English-medium schools throughout the country are bursting at the seams.

Sunanda K Datta-Ray: It's not about using the rod

When the searchlight is turned on what we &mdash; as India &mdash; do in Afghanistan, the vista is clear. India is engaged in developmental and humanitarian work to assist the Afghan people as they build a peaceful, stable, inclusive, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan.

'Development should not be a zero-sum game'

Dial 080-40952044 and you are transported to another world in a village in Chhattisgarh&rsquo;s Rajnandgaon. A reporter, Bhanu Sahu, tells you how women panches in a village are not getting payments under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as their names are not in the muster roll. She says male panches are getting paid even without working under the scheme.

Sreelatha Menon: Media of the masses

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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