Shutting down venues for live music robs a city of character.

End of the line for The Tote

Business Standard

Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and consequent climate change is perhaps the most contentious issue in the world today. At the centre of it all is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which collates the work of thousands of scientists, assessed through peer-review and approved by 192 governments.

Hard times for climate scientists

Even gods have their moments of doubt &mdash; of coming up against seemingly insurmountable odds. And it would seem that cricket, one of the subcontinent&rsquo;s most venerated gods, may have met such a match in the current India-Pakistan d&eacute;tente. Politicians in Pakistan and cricket lovers in India alike have decried the IPL auction that rejected every Pakistani player up for bids, disappointed that team owners were unable to overcome visa fears and security risks to transcend borders.

Suhasini Haidar: India and Pakistan: new over in the offing?

One of the great things about wine is that every year is a voyage of discovery: no two vintages are exactly alike, and with new labels appearing on the shelves all the time, consumers have the opportunity to find something new every time they visit a good retailer.

The time is ripe for something new

Swimming in the Yangtze is not easy, or so web-giant Google is discovering. Bitten by the censorship shark, Google is threatening to withdraw from China over orchestrated cyber-attacks targeting e-mail accounts of human rights activists and dissidents, users of google.cn and systematic hacking of valuable corporate secrets of major financial, defence and technology companies based in the United States from its computer systems.

Anurag Viswanath: China unrepentant at Google's googly

Too often, governmental intelligence efforts have focused on politico-military and economic intelligence. While its relevance cannot be questioned, its sufficiency can be. The reason is obvious. Most often, the standard checklist does not go beyond or behind the super-structure, does not look at societal realities and pays inadequate attention to other people's ways of thinking and behaving.

'Intelligence has to be assessed on three planes'

Radio cabs in Delhi still have a long way to go.

Not a smooth ride

The key to successful implementation of many government schemes lies in a few ifs.

Sreelatha Menon: The iffy case of NREGP

The proposals to set up new steel plants in the last four months alone add up to over two-thirds of the total current capacity.

Mahesh Vyas: India's new steel frame takes shape

The decision to introduce currency futures for dollars last year and to extend it now to euro and yen is a sign that Indian regulators are learning the right lessons from the global financial crisis. Instead of shunning the market, they seem to be focusing on improving its depth and transparency. Besides, the large trade volumes with Europe and Japan make a compelling case for introducing hedging instruments in their currencies. Trade with the EU was about $56 bn in 2007-08 and $10 bn with Japan.

A basket of futures

India was right to serve a demarche on China last week protesting the role of non-tariff barriers in the accumulation of a huge trade deficit that has ballooned from $1.08 billion in 2001-02 to $22.05 billion in 2008-09. Indian industry has long complained that a lack of transparency in Chinese procedures, regulations, systems and pricing methods was adding to the rising trade deficit. If India&rsquo;s exports to the rest of the world are rising in double digits, why is India unable to export more to China? For their part, Chinese authorities have argued that their products are more competitive and India&rsquo;s less so. Clearly, the truth lies somewhere in between and the sooner the two governments address the problem, the better for bilateral relations.

Beyond the Great Wall

We were on the top floor of Samsung&rsquo;s headquarters in Seoul. I asked a senior vice-president of this global Korean chaebol what his company&rsquo;s plans for India were.

Sanjaya Baru: When Korea Discovered India

Surely and quietly, our law makers have taken a giant stride in introducing the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill 2009, to set up special fast track Courts for commercial disputes. Though the Law Commission had recommended this as early as 2003, it is believed that the current initiative was motivated by the 2007 World Bank Report, grading India&rsquo;s dispute resolution, judicial and enforcement systems as near rock bottom.

Alternative dispute mechanism will speed up commercial case resolution

There are over 5 million income tax payers in India, and this number is fast growing. The tax department, therefore, has to deal with millions of fresh returns every year. The tax returns along with annexures make a very huge mass of records which is nearly impossible to handle in a properly required manner. Therefore, in order to overcome the problem of dealing with bulky papers, concept of electronic filing of income tax return has been introduced, which is to fulfil the objective of paper less return.

Electronic returns of income need review

In order to make exports of services from India internationally competitive, the Government of India has zero rated such exports. Consequently, the services exporting community is entitled to obtain refunds of input tax credits or utilise such credits to offset domestic output service taxes. The IT and the ITES industry is a key part of the service exporting community and was expected to be a major beneficiary of such refunds in terms of being competitive in the global marketplace.

Service tax refunds to exporters

THE Supreme Court has ruled in favour of small scale companies in regard to payment of interest on dues towards them. In this case, Snehadeep Structures Ltd vs Maharashtra Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Ltd, the corporation issued supply order in favour of Snehadeep for work to be done for the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. There was delay in the payment to Snehadeep, a small scale unit.

Small units find speedier way to secure interest on dues

There will be much celebratory and self-deprecatory talk about national unity as India marks the 60th anniversary of the Republic. In this land of contradictions and contrasts, every statement about India, and its opposite, can be taken as true. For every valid celebratory comment, there would be equally valid critical ones. One must, therefore, strike a balance while commenting on any contemporary political, social and economic phenomenon. Even so, the growing temptation to resort to chauvinism, of various kinds &mdash; communal, caste, linguistic, religious, regional &mdash; should worry anyone who has the best interests of the Indian nation and the Republic at heart. The ease with which politicians are able to create, maintain, manipulate and exploit a range of chauvinistic political platforms does not augur well for the future of the Republic.

Competitive chauvinism

Condoleeza Rice was all of 46 years of age, a professor and not a retired official, when the most powerful head of state in the world appointed her as a National Security Advisor (NSA). Ms Rice was chosen because of her impeccable intellectual credentials in the field of strategic policy, apart from her political affiliation to the incumbent President of the United States. India has yet to decide what ought to be the qualifications of its NSA. Thus far, it is the individual in the job who has defined the post, and not the other way round. India&rsquo;s first NSA, Brajesh Mishra, defined the job in his own idiosyncratic way. It was a model that his successor, the late JN Dixit, wanted to follow but that was not to be, for purely political reasons.

What does an NSA do?

The biggest gathering of bankers in the country called BANCON is an annual occasion for review, introspection and future-gazing. Hosted jointly by the Indian Banks Association and a member bank by rotation, this year&rsquo;s venue was Mumbai and the joint host was the country&rsquo;s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI). The theme of the conference was &ldquo;The New Normal&rdquo;, a phrase that has gained currency rather quickly, even faster than &ldquo;green shoots&rdquo;.

Ajit Ranade: The Coming Capital Famine

I don&rsquo;t. Which is why I believe more attention must be paid to what US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said last week in India, when asked whether he had counselled restraint to New Delhi in the event of another terror strike.

Ajai Shukla: Fighting for US objectives

Even while the prices of agricultural commodities are ruling sky high, farmers are not benefiting from it. Being small producers, they face several inherent disadvantages which come in the way of realising better returns. Their share of what the consumer is paying for a commodity, therefore, remains woefully low.

Surinder Sud: Poor peasants' price pangs

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