A strong derivatives carryover trend and short-covering from FIIs triggered an upside breakout during settlement week. Sentiment seems to be quite bullish. But a short-term correction could be around the corner.

Bullish within a narrow range

Business Standard

Emerging-market equity funds received net inflows in the past week, rebounding from the biggest weekly outflow of the year, on speculation a global economic recovery will boost demand for commodity exports.

Growth prospects lure EM funds

Ever since the Clinton visit, rumours have been flying fast and furious. Insiders claim that India has fast forwarded the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill, and the media has held forth at length on the probable facts and interpretations. Some angst is misplaced, for example the exclusion of the jurisdiction of civil courts.

Onus of liability in case of nuclear mishaps

Newspapers have recently reported that a proposal has been mooted in government to convert the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) into a &ldquo;Financial Services Appellate Tribunal&rdquo; to hear grievances against orders passed by various sub-sectoral regulators.&nbsp;Presently, the SAT hears appeals only against orders passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Single tribunal for financial sector needed

India's Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index may rise to 20,000 by March 2011, helped by a recovery in the economy and company earnings, UBS AG said.

UBS sets Sensex target at 20,000

Thirty three years ago I had made a seizure in a customs case and now I had to appear for the eighth time in the Court as a witness. The prosecution case is pending for thirty two years. Seven times I was cross examined as witness before the fra-ming of charges. That was fifteen years ago. Eighth time was now. After my retirement I went to places like Bangalore, Goa, Delhi many times for appearing as witness. All these are not true for me alone but all who appear as witness. I am highlighting all these facts not usually known to others who recommend solutions but are not exactly aware of the ground realities. The reality is far grimmer than what people can imagine from outside.

Backlogs: Increasing judges only half the solution

If prices continue to rise, will the first steps towards monetary tightening be taken by the year-end, asks Abheek Barua.

Abheek Barua: Rate hikes soon?

Given the impact of the exchange rate on all aspects of the economy, it would be unwise to leave it to market forces.

A V Rajwade: Financial Regulation - II

The government&rsquo;s decision to launch a national project that will give every citizen a unique biometric identity card, and to put at its head one of the foremost names in the Indian software industry, has the potential to begin a process that can transform India. First, it sends a strong signal that the use of information technology for development has arrived.

Transformational IT

Most people would agree that the correct response to the Maoist challenge in West Bengal&rsquo;s Lalgarh was to crush the rebels and to re-establish the government&rsquo;s authority in the area, a task which has been done after an unconscionable delay of several months. Whatever the reasons for the disaffection of the local population, the government cannot afford to cede its authority.

Lalgarh lessons

Urjit R Patel on fiscal and monetary markers that should guide a shift in policy focus.

Urjit R Patel: Signposts for an anti-crisis exit

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is facing competition, something few of his predecessors in the last decade faced. With the Union Budget for 2009-10 less than a week away, his colleagues in several other ministries are working overtime to announce a series of initiatives in fulfilment of the agenda set out by the re-elected Manmohan Singh government.

A K Bhattacharya: Time to re-focus the spotlight

If the courts do not deliver decisions within a reasonable time, important reforms could be stalled.

M J Antony: Waiting for judgements

If a dual GST is the only one that is acceptable to the states, tax rates will have to be harmonised to prevent leakages by diverting sales to low-tax jurisdictions.

&#39;Is a unified GST better than a dual one?&#39;

I made no attempt to cultivate the thin severe looking old gentleman, with fresh bibhuti marks on his forehead every morning, who lived a few houses away from ours. But I was forced to cross his path and the culprit was our dog who seemed quite oblivious of what he had done. It was fairly early in the morning and I was out walking him, the expression standing for the compulsory stroll round at least a bit of the neighbourhood for him to do you know what.

Subir Roy: Dogs will be dogs

Just as there are many ways to define poverty, there is now an a la carte menu of poverty estimates to choose from. Arjun Sengupta, the economist and member of the Rajya Sabha, declared a few years ago that an overwhelming 836 million people in India lived on a per capita consumption of less than Rs 20 a day (or Rs 600 in a month). This startling figure, which meant that 77 per cent of the country was below the poverty line, has been much loved by the Left after it appeared in a report on the Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector.

Poverty of thought

Even as controversy rages over the transgenic Bt-brinjal, Indian scientists have developed a genetically modified (GM) fish, which could be the first genetically engineered animal to get into the human food chain. The Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology is reported to have altered the genes of the popular Rohu (or carp), to boost its production. The modified Rohu is claimed to have a synthesised gene which stimulates the production of a growth hormone that makes the fish bigger and grow faster. The scientists who have developed this fish maintain that they have not used any alien gene; instead, they have inserted a gene into the Rohu genome which is a mashed cocktail of its own genome. This makes it auto-transgenic, and not the usual transgenic product which gets a gene from an alien species inserted into its DNA.

Now, GM fish!

All nations are equally endowed with radio waves, or &lsquo;spectrum&rsquo;. But some do better than others at using this resource. Currently, by trying to optimise spectrum use measured by communications-traffic-per-unit-of-spectrum, our benefits are suboptimal. India&rsquo;s misplaced emphasis on this kind of spectrum efficiency results in economic inefficiency.

Shyam Ponappa: A rational spectrum allocation policy

The expectations from the UPA government keep rising by the day, and there is near unanimity about the urgent need to reform and increase spending on social infrastructure sectors including education and healthcare. The next few days and months will give some indication of the vision, resolve and ability of the government to give a boost to social infrastructure.

Arvind Singhal: The financial potential of healthcare

The head of one of the world&rsquo;s most successful drug firms tells Pallavi Aiyar that many of the factors that held back this industry in India are slowly being tackled.

Pallavi Aiyar: Pharma, not IT, is India&#39;s next big thing

If policy-makers are worried about employment, it is not without good reason. Even though employment growth is rising, labour intensity is falling, suggesting that the growth is not as permanent as you'd like. The usual policy response to this would be to give a boost to traditional labour-intensive industry but, as a paper by Deb Kusum Das, Deepika Wadhwa and Gunajit Kalita (all at ICRIER) brings out, labour intensity levels have gone down quite dramatically in even traditionally labour-intensive industries.

Sunil Jain: Labour&#39;s litany

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