The failure of India&rsquo;s sole H-bomb is the latest in DAE and BARC&rsquo;s long history of being economical with the truth.

K Santhanam & Ashok Parthasarathi: Pokhran-II: an H-bomb disaster

Business Standard

Think of Madonna &mdash; the pop star, not the Mother of God &mdash; and then think of your first association after the triangular breasts.

Second life

News reports in business dailies, including this one, tell us almost every day that India and Asia continue to grow at a robust rate. While developed nations are still suffering from the effects of the recession, India and most of Asia are clocking impressive growth rates.

Don't forget the home ground

By far the most important skill in business,&rdquo; wrote the London Times&rsquo;s Sathnam Sanghera in a recent column (also carried in this paper), &ldquo;is the ability to tell a decent anecdote.&rdquo; I think he&rsquo;s right, especially when it comes to the old-fashioned way of doing business &mdash; face to face. &ldquo;Frankly,&rdquo; said Sanghera, &ldquo;banter should be taught at school alongside Geography and Maths. Nothing will benefit your career more.

Past speaking

Time was when the only &ldquo;wines&rdquo; available were either the port-style stuff from Goa (remember &ldquo;Adega de Velha&rdquo;?) or Golconda. In 1986 Indage launched &ldquo;Marquise de Pompadour&rdquo; &mdash; touted as the first &ldquo;Indian champagne&rdquo; (we really didn&rsquo;t know much about wine back then, did we?). Grover&rsquo;s entry three years later gave some competition, but it was Sula which raised the bar by bringing in better-quality wines and marketing their wines professionally.

Anniversaries and milestones

India&rsquo;s rising forest cover is good news for Copenhagen.

Plenty of cover

With a bold stance on emissions and a well-reasoned roadmap for low-carbon growth, India can be a leader in clean development in three or four decades.

Climate policy options in East-west squeeze

What was happening that day? This is the most important part, Madam. At about noon, a teenaged kar sevak vaulted onto the dome and thereby signaled the breaking of the outer cordon. Other kar sevaks wielding pickaxes, hammers, iron-rods and shovels started scaling the Ram Deewar and over the barriers of the outer, inner and isolation cordons, from the east, west and south directions.

'Beyond doubt, the demolition was a pre-planned act'

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan tells Sanjay Jog that the state&rsquo;s debt burden is huge but under control.

We need ideas to make business feel secure

Ten tribes in Uttar Pradesh are unable to contest elections due to the mismatch between census data and government data.

A state for the excluded

The change in the dynamics of the energy sector could solve its deep-rooted problems.

Climate change and energy issues

Issue of Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) is a pioneering initiative by the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. The first CAS (CAS-1) was issued by the institute in the year 2002. The Preface to Cost Accounting Standards issued by the institute has set out the following objectives to be achieved through CAS: to provide better guidelines on standard cost accounting practices; to assist cost accountants in preparation of uniform cost statements; to provide guidelines to bring standard approach towards maintenance of cost accounting records under various statutes; to assist the management to follow the standard cost accounting practices in the matter of compliance with statutory obligations; and to help Indian industry and the government towards better cost management.

Cost Accounting Standards meet needs of managers

In many cases foreign companies grant access to Indian companies for using their data base and other copyr-ighted material. The question for consideration is whether the amount received by the foreign company for permitting use of such copyrighted material constitutes consideration which could be treated as royalty under the provisions of the tax laws.

Consideration for use of copyright is not royalty

The First Discussion Paper (&lsquo;Paper&rsquo;) on the Goods and Services Tax (&lsquo;GST&rsquo;) in India was released on November 10, 2009. As stated therein, the objectives of the dual GST are to broaden the tax base, to remove the present problem of tax cascading, to move to a common tax base and to subsume various Central and State taxes and levies into the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) respectively.

Right levels critical to acceptability of GST regime

The Supreme Court last week set aside the judgement of the Allahabad high court and ruled that an arbitrator can award interest for the period in dispute. In this case, M/s Madnani Construction Corporation Ltd vs Union of India, the high court had rejected that part of the award which granted interest to the construction company which had constructed two bridge islands over Kosi for North Eastern Railway.

Arbitrator can award interest for period in dispute

A new body seeks to integrate scattered R&amp;D to meet the needs of a growing export and domestic market.

Surinder Sud: Flower power

The question whether smaller states are better governed than bigger ones is irrelevant. In our experience, both large and small states will continue to be badly governed until there is effective devolution of funds, functions and functionaries to local authorities, that is, elected panchayats in villages and urban local bodies in cities.

'Are smaller states better governed?'

Since state financial corporations are set up to encourage the establishment of industries by providing loans on liberal terms, the recovery of debts from chronic defaulters is seen by courts from two angles. One is that public money is lent for starting private enterprises and, therefore, the financial institutions should be tough on the debtors.

M J Antony: Lending public money

If the current decade gave India the confidence to dream big, the coming one may well decide if those dreams could ever become a reality and perhaps even define what India&rsquo;s future may be.

Arvind Singhal: A future-defining decade ahead

It&rsquo;s an irony. As India produces more cars of more varieties for more people, traffic in its cities gets slower and slower. While new trains are introduced by the dozen, speed of our railways hasn&rsquo;t improved in a hundred years. New highways are being built, but cargo trucks on our roads don&rsquo;t move at more than 20 km an hour, on an average. The more we make a move, the more we seem to be stuck. The better our economy does, the worse is our gajagamini reputation.

Barun Roy: A bad idea, Mr Ramesh?

As you read this, a deal is possibly being signed at Copenhagen to save the world from climate change. But be very clear. The agreement which the world has waited for is not going to be either an effective deal or a fair deal to reduce emissions in the world. The reason is clear: The industrialised world needs to cut emissions drastically, and this is not easy or cheap. So, it is looking for easy answers and, most of all, in Copenhagen it is looking for ways to blame the failure of the conference on someone.

Sunita Narain: Copenhagen's non-deal

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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