At a recent Track II conference of Indians and Pakistanis, predictions about the fate of Richard Holbrooke, the key interlocutor for US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Af-Pak, because nothing can be solved in Afghanistan without addressing Pakistan) were dire.

Aditi Phadnis: Bulldozer&#39;s tracks

Business Standard

Nothing focuses people&rsquo;s mind on China more than its accumulated foreign exchange reserves. China&rsquo;s reserves rose a record $178 billion in the second quarter of the current year to $2.132 trillion, and are growing.

Ashok K Lahiri: Limits of mercantilism

One of my most interesting encounters at Nature Bazaar this November was with a young American, an ardent consumer of &ldquo;natural&rdquo; and &ldquo;organic&rdquo; products. We got talking at a stall selling reetha (soapnut) powder. Two Delhi ladies were staring at it doubtfully, wondering how it could replace their regular brand of shampoo.

Geetanjali Krishna: Tough nuts to crack!

Last Friday, I &mdash; and 17 other unwary souls &mdash; got a bit plastered.

The test of wines

We&rsquo;ve been missing two kids for some time now, children who lived at home, replaced instead by two adult strangers we&rsquo;re a little scared of. Yet, they seem to have taken over the establishment in a quiet coup. &ldquo;Can I have my breakfast?&rdquo; I ask Mary, our cook.

Kishore Singh: The kids shrank us!

What makes for a successfully curated show? For over a year now, I&rsquo;ve struggled to answer my own question. In the last fortnight, I seemed to have finally gleaned some worthwhile insights.

The Eureka moment

The zeitgeist builds itself; being right up close to events, we see at first only the separate bricks. At some particular moment, however, a precipitating event suddenly converts the soup of soluble doubts to a crystal of certainty. Bricks become house.

Would be nice

This has been a hot week for climate talks. The two laggards, China and the US, both departed from their no commitment stand to boldly announce the following: the US to reduce its carbon emissions by 17 per cent over 2005 levels, and China to reduce the intensity (CO2 emissions per unit of output) by 40-45 percent. Europe has already promised a 40 per cent cut in per capita terms. (The terminal date for these promises is 2020 or 2025). The US promise is not as little as it seems, and the China promise not as large. In per capita terms, the US is promising about a 30 per cent reduction (population will increase by 15 per cent or so between now and 2025), and 50 per cent reduction in intensity of output (output is expected to increase by 50 per cent or so over the next 18 years).

Surjit S Bhalla: Climate change - Promises, promises

Everyone with a reasonable memory remembers 26/11, but how many can instantly recall 31/10, 21/5 or 6/12? Those were equally shattering dates in the nation&rsquo;s political calendar that led to convulsive bloodletting, grief and trauma. They are the dates when Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated and the Babri Masjid was demolished. Public memory is notoriously short, but unless personally affected by tragedy, catastrophic moments lie chiefly in the province of chroniclers of history. There are thousands of others who perished in other recent calamities, natural or man-made &mdash; terrorist strikes, Naxalite encounters, floods, earthquakes and rail accidents &mdash; but can anyone precisely recall when? Of course not.

Sunil Sethi: Why we can't remember dates

T here&rsquo;s a reason that many writers have odd personalities: writing is such a solitary exercise that you can see why they might eventually go quite postal, or at least start wearing funny hats and divorcing their spouses. I love to look at the Guardian&rsquo;s online edition where they have a column called &lsquo;Writers&rsquo; rooms&rsquo;, which features a photograph of some one, well, writer&rsquo;s room, and a short write-up outlining the space and how the person uses it, according to their particular routines, eccentricities and superstitions. It makes me feel very well adjusted because I don&rsquo;t have, for instance, giant paper fish hanging from the ceiling, or a dessicated crocodile on the wall.

A stab at writing

Canary Wharf is London&rsquo;s Las Vegas Strip, not just a place to win (or lose) money, but a culinary destination that draws in chefs seeking a slice of the action.

Brand new bites

What do the Thackerays read? Did they read the report last week which said that more flights now operate from Delhi&rsquo;s than from Mumbai&rsquo;s airport? It wasn&rsquo;t so long ago when Mumbai accounted for half of all flights in the country, so this is a big change. It is after all a global rule that any city which becomes the transport hub becomes the centre of much other activity as well.

T N Ninan: Losing a city

I would like to reiterate once again, Sir, that as the minister for environment and forests, I stand prepared for any form of discussion at any point of time on any issue relating to climate change before the Copenhagen process starts on the 7th of December.

&#39;What I have been advocating is flexibility&#39;

An investor with a wide exposure to small caps can beat the Nifty.

A small-cap strategy

If there is one factor that unites most cities in India these days, it is the spectacle of road construction. Work on flyovers, fresh carpeting or widening of existing roads and construction of new ones are a common sight, holding out the promise of better connectivity for motorised vehicles across cities. In the last few weeks, New Delhi has seen almost all its roads dug up, either to be built afresh or to facilitate the installation of new lamp-posts. The sudden surge in road construction activity in New Delhi is largely attributable to the Commonwealth Games to be held in the city next year. However, the reason for the pick-up in road construction in other cities is the rising demand for better and wider roads from more people using their own vehicles to commute from one place to the other. This is the other side of India's automobiles boom.

Paving the way

Gap, a leading garment brand, pushes natural farming based on cow dung as opposed to organic farming based on vermicompost in a bid to gain a social and business edge.

Sreelatha Menon: The cow versus the earthworm

That was an unpleasant journey to Asia for Barack Obama. On one hand, it has shown to him that he has become President at a very unfavourable time. Against the powerful forces inflicted on him by America&rsquo;s weak economy and China&rsquo;s new strength, Obama&rsquo;s charisma resembles tired aftershave after a long day&rsquo;s work. He was not able to play his refreshing free and democratic persuasiveness tune. In Asia, one is cautious of the USA. Especially since it looks like things will continue as usual.

Frank Sieren & Andreas Sieren: Two wrestlers

The good, the bad, the ugly of downloading music.

Music to the ears

Echoing his famous remark on the new foundations of India-US partnership in his celebrated address to the joint session of the US Congress in July 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC last week: &ldquo;The edifice of the India-US partnership is founded on many pillars. It is a relationship based on pragmatism and principle; and strengthened by shared values and common interests.

Sanjaya Baru: Obama seeks to encash nuclear deal IOUs

CSR makes good 'business case'

In a recent decision by the Karnataka High Court (HC) on taxability of software sale and related tax withholding obligation towards payments to non-resident, the HC ruled that it is obligatory to withhold tax on such payments. Disposing a batch of appeals filed by the Revenue, the Court held that in absence of a &lsquo;nil&rsquo; withholding order, the payer is obliged to withhold tax, even if the payment is later held to be not taxable on finality of assessment by the Revenue.

K'taka HC decision sharpens Revenue's teeth

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Aditi Phadnis: Bulldozer's tracks