The lengthy arguments in the most contested corporate family battle between the two Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, ended last week in the Supreme Court, and now the speculation is over the date of the judgment.

MJ Antony: Line-up for justice

Business Standard

Microsoft&rsquo;s headline grabbing copyright infringement suits filed in the Delhi High Court recently against four companies operating in different parts of India have opened a festering can of worms.

Latha Jishnu: Copyright aggression

Global tax experts are keenly watching India&rsquo;s attempts to reform its indirect and direct tax regimes. Alan J Auerbach, director of the Burch Centre for Tax Policy and Public Finance and former chair of the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, was in New Delhi to deliver the Raja Chelliah Memorial Lecture. He spoke to Jyoti Mukul on the risks of granting exemptions, and how the US tax stimulus was flawed in some ways.

'Only tax breaks may not draw investors'

He is a highly useful social agent whose importance is growing.

Subir Roy: Remember the ragpicker

Governance may suffer again in Jharkhand.

Aditi Phadnis: Back to the future

Another year is ending. For many it has been an annus horribilis &mdash; certainly for those involved in the hospitality business (no mistake about it: wines are very much part of it), things were bad. The &ldquo;quadruple whammy&rdquo; of the global recession, terrorist attacks, an adverse dollar exchange rate and higher prices saw miserable hotel occupancy rates and a concomitant falling-off in business to vendors.

Cheers to the end!

There&rsquo;s some confusion about whether to treat this December 31 as the end of the noughties decade or whether it should properly be next year. Most people seem to be treating this one as the end of the decade, but there&rsquo;s enough sense in the argument that 01 is the first year of a decade and 10 the last, to dilute their confidence. The result is that there don&rsquo;t seem to be that many wild and decadent party plans. Many seem to revolve around heaters and blankets and hot chocolate or wine.

Glass half full

Whether a one-night hook-up or a long-running romance, a relationship without marriage rarely requires lawyers.

Lawyers out of the woods

Forty years ago, man landed on the Moon. Also in 1969, the Vietnam war ground on, high hippydom ruled Western youth culture, feminism was in its so-called second wave, and the collectivist kibbutz movement in Israel was at the peak of its post-war efficacy. In 1969, Ursula Le Guin was just gaining renown as a writer. In that year she turned 40, and published her best-known science fiction novel.

Just imagine

While RBI is right to worry about the share of outstanding ECBs in our reserves, firms need these to finance investment &mdash; some prudent limits need to be set.

Madan Sabnavis: Don't ignore External Commercial Borrowings

For journalists, pundits and comedians, the end of the year provides an opportunity to look back, fantasise forward and let the creative juices flow.

An 'exit strategy' for the 'new normal'

Deputy Chairman, Sir, I have heard and gone through the elaborate statement made by the minister. I cannot hide my disappointment under the present circumstances.

'Accord appears to be complete betrayal of poor, weaker nations'

Home Minister P Chidambaram has outlined an ambitious new structure that will knit together intelligence gathering agencies to form a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC).

Setting up NCTC by the end of the year is feasible

For this country, the latter is considered the expert, while the former &mdash; who can feel the winds and predict the rains, touch the soil and scan the health of the seedlings in its womb &mdash; is nothing more than a labourer.

When the farmers' jury gave its verdict

Valuations can look stretched if the momentum in recovery doesn&rsquo;t pick up as expected.

2010: A gamble in equities

Investments worth Rs 700,000 crore will get commissioned in 2010-11, 55 per cent more than those in the current year.

Mahesh Vyas:Investment continues to power ahead

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) uses fair value measurement more extensively than the Indian GAAP. The greatest challenge in applying IFRS in the preparation and presentation of financial statement is to estimate fair value of assets and liabilities in different situations. This is so because IFRS does not specify methods or processes for measuring items at fair value.

Fair Value must be based on observable market prices

&ldquo;For the purposes of this clause, &lsquo;fees for technical services&rsquo; means any consideration (including any lump sum consideration) for the rendering of any managerial, technical or consultancy services (including the provision of services of technical or other personnel)...

Technical services sans human interface may be tax-free

As is now well known, the Task Force appointed by the Thirteenth Finance Commission, Government of India, has issued a report on December 15, 2009 detailing the recommendations on various issues relating to the design and implementation of the proposed GST in India.

GST Task Force advice differs from that of ministerial panel

Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram must be complimented for the loud thinking he did on India&rsquo;s internal security administration and counter-terrorism machinery. His key proposal to create an internal security czar, to whom all agencies dealing with internal security issues report, is well taken. The implied criticism that today there are parallel centres of authority is also correct. The proposal to create a National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC) that will prevent, contain and respond to terrorist attacks is also well taken. There are two aspects to Mr Chidambaram&rsquo;s proposals &mdash; first, a reform and restructuring of his own ministry; second, institutional changes that involve other ministries, including the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office and the Cabinet Secretariat. As Home Minister, Mr Chidambaram has already done a lot to revitalise a moribund ministry that has suffered for long due to a lack of imaginative leadership.

Chidambaram's proposals

Once bitten, twice shy. After the Sharm el Sheikh fiasco, the government has gone into a blue funk on dealing with Pakistan. While Pakistan&rsquo;s unhelpful response to investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks continues to make it difficult for India, it is also clear that any prime ministerial initiative now requires more political energy than may be available. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was right to pose the rhetorical question, &ldquo;Who does one deal with in Pakistan?&rdquo; Between President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, there are three parallel centres of power in Pakistan. If one is to believe that Prime Minister Gilani has the backing of General Kayani, then there are at least two centres of power within the government and another outside, in the person of the Opposition leader Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif.

Engaging Pakistan

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