We are discussing a governance-reform initiative &mdash; setting up of authorities that are created under law, reporting to Parliament &mdash; to take effective, independent decisions.

Sunita Narain: Regulate the regulator

Business Standard

Business Standard Hindi had, some days ago, organised a roundtable in Lucknow. The idea was to bring together bureaucrats, economists and industry for a discussion on industrial development in the state. From the word go, businessmen proved very difficult to get. Normally, they are more than happy to get a platform to interact with top bureaucrats. Here, on one excuse or the other, they all opted out.

Bhupesh Bhandari: The basket case of Uttar Pradesh

Would I spend Rs 6,000 for Anaarkali&rsquo;s two-person portion of gourmet butter chicken? To put this into perspective, for that kind of cash I could buy nine bars of Amedei Porcelana cacao chocolate, a tiny spoonful of Iranian Almas caviar, three to five cups of Kopi Luwak coffee, or about one pound of Wagyu beef.

The 6,000-rupee question

For more than a quarter-century, academics have discussed what has come to be called the curse of oil. The argument goes that countries and regions that are rich in natural resources usually do worse than others, when it comes to over-all development. One study showed that members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) saw their economies growing more slowly than other developing countries, over a quarter of a century.

T N Ninan: The curse of gas?

Sometimes the solution to the most entrenched problems can be quite simple&mdash;as simple as telling the rural poor to boil their drinking water to prevent disease and death. All that it requires is a clear focus on the problem, some common sense and an unswerving commitment to setting matters right.

Latha Jishnu: The curse of the dying children

I don&rsquo;t want to attain immortality by becoming famous. I want to become immortal by living forever&rdquo;&mdash;Woody Allen&rsquo;s wistful confession encapsulates the mystical world view of the alchemists, who sought the philosopher&rsquo;s stone. That search for a magical object that conferred immortality (and turned dross to gold) led to the scientific discipline of chemistry.

Devangshu Datta: Intimations of immortality

It sounded like the understatement of the year when Montek Singh Ahluwalia said India would &ldquo;not be threatened if movement of unskilled work force is allowed globally&rdquo;. Far from being threatened, India will be greatly enriched if even more Indian labourers join the armies now toiling in Singapore and the Gulf. Or, perhaps, he meant that Indian workers can hold their own against Somalis, Yemenis and other economic refugees from similarly impoverished societies.

Sunanda K Datta-Ray: Migration&#39;s migraine

The recent controversy over faculty pay at the IITs and IIMs suggests that they need to radically reorient themselves as academic institutions.

Pradipta Mukherjee & Kanika Datta: He who pays...

When I decided to settle in Santiniketan it was because I was a trifle tired of the many things to &lsquo;do&rsquo; in Mumbai. But since I have moved I have met many who lament the &lsquo;nothing-to-do-ness&rdquo; of the place. While I have decided to live here, those looking for activity are typically weekend visitors. If I had thought that the lack of contrived entertainment was the charm of Santiniketan, I was wrong. What you do not need money to buy is clearly not worth having, is the new credo.

Keya Sarkar: The making of a &#39;village&#39;

Whenever my wife goes to Jaipur, which is often, I know evil lurks afoot. So when she hotfooted it to the Pink City bang in the middle of the week, ignoring an Important Dinner where Celebrities would be present, I could feel the cold hand of dread reach out and squeeze my heart, leaving me not a little breathless, and mindful of the future.

Kishore Singh Can we outlaw in-laws?

Some people make lemonade. Me, I prefer to whine about it to anyone who&rsquo;ll listen.

When life hands you lemons...

This year's presidential election is among the most significant in our nation's history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: Energy, disease, climate change, security and economic competitiveness.

An Open Letter to the American People...

Two studies find that posting skilled staff is more effective than national missions in checking deaths during childbirth.

Sreelatha Menon: A national mission to rescue mothers

Now that the IIT teachers&rsquo; agitation has been put on hold, attention should turn to what needs doing to put this important educational brand on a long-term path of good health and growth. These institutes&rsquo; traditional weakness, when it comes to research, has been underlined, in the meantime, by the awarding of a Nobel to an Indian-born scientist working in Cambridge. The question arises, is it enough to produce good engineers, or should elite educational centres seek to achieve more by expanding the frontiers of human knowledge? There might be some conflict between the goals of teaching and research (faculty time is finite, after all), but the best institutions manage to do both very well.

Teaching is not enough

Leading political figures of Australia have been travelling to India to allay fears of &lsquo;attacks&rsquo; on Indians in their country. The Indian media has been describing these attacks on students and workers as &lsquo;racist&rsquo;.

Rajesh Tandon: Educational route to Australia

The simplest solutions continue to escape those trying to fix our broken financial system. Consider banks&rsquo; need to have enough capital on hand to weather market storms. Instead of requiring banks to simply raise and hold more common equity&mdash;the most important kind of capital&mdash;regulators are kicking around more convoluted ideas.

David Reilly: Death-spiral capital relieves Fed&#39;s dilemma

For the past two years, the Indian telecom industry has been heading for a crisis. This assertion sounds utterly absurd at first glance since India has become the fastest growing market in the world (and the second largest in terms of subscriber size) during that period. In the last two fiscals, India added over 200 million subscribers. Currently, over 15 million new subscribers are signing up every month.

Calling for action...

Artistes have come up with new strategies to market music online.

A multitude of options

The derivatives market was characterised by steady volumes and narrow range-trading last week. There was underlying nervousness and premiums rose as there were net losses pretty much across the board.

Daily volatility set to rise

In an environment of competitive symbolism with austerity measures, the debate triggered by Union minister for corporate affairs Salman Khurshid over managerial remuneration is indeed ominous.

Pay control will corrupt corporates

Pumping oil in a petrol pump is manufacturing process, so ruled the Supreme Court in a very recent judgement.

Pumping oil in petrol pump is manufacture

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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