If the Budget is status quo, the market will not fall much and the rewards for going long would be high.

High on expectations

Business Standard

TR BAALU (SRIPERUMBUDUR): Madam, as far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, every year on June 12, Mettur Dam is opened for irrigation. But till date, this particular dam has not been opened because it is almost dry. Water has to come from the adjacent state of Karnataka. But there is a dry spell even in Karnataka.

'Fuel prices have  been raised at an inopportune time'

Section 377, which banned gay relations and was recently declared unconstitutional by the Delhi High Court, also used to be invoked to protect minors against sexual abuse.

Sreelatha Menon: The death of a law

Theatreperson Habib Tanvir brought folk and urban face-to-face in his plays, and took the best of both.

A brave voice

Designer Suneet Varma came out in the open about his sexuality at a young age. Though that did not stop him from being accepted by society, Mr Varma was ecstatic when the Delhi High Court ruled on Tuesday that treating as a crime consensual sex between adults of the same gender was a violation of the fundamental rights protected under the Constitution. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re free at last&rdquo;, Mr Varma said in a televised interview.

'You can't legislate love'

Developing countries&rsquo; share of worldwide equity value climbed to a record as the fastest-growing economies lured investors amid the first global recession since World War II.

Destination emerging markets

The Economic Survey is fairly upbeat on the growth prospects for the Indian economy but quite downbeat on the growth prospects for exporters. More significant, it recommends fundamental policy changes rather than any quick-fix solutions to revive exports. This means that the exporters can look forward to little more than comforting words from the finance minister on Monday.

Not much for exporters in Economic Survey

Shortly after this piece gets published, the Finance Minister would be making the budget speech in Parliament. Expectations from the speech vary. Some expect &ldquo;market-friendly&rdquo; measures in the Budget speech while others expect a lacklustre spectacle. Stock brokers wait with bated breath for the aftermath of the market reaction &ndash; not just for the contents of the speech, but also for what can follow from the regulators.

Every Budget reaction is not market manipulation

It's a long journey for the Information Technology (IT) Act 2008, passed sometime in February this year, and yet to be notified. The IT Act 2000, the first law to address the diverse legal issues emanating from India&rsquo;s phenomena IT growth, proceeded on a fundamental premise in trying to provide an omnibus law to cover e-governance, e-commerce, e-archiving, as well as the basic framework for cyber security and cyber crimes. The platform was deficient, as issues of cyber security, particularly in the context of the proliferation in internet transactions for goods and services, transfer of funds through banks, online credit card payments, which exposed and enhanced the scope of vulnerability to frauds and other crimes, were not addressed.

IT Act 2008 gets tougher with cyber crime

Organisation (WTO) and was the external auditor of the United Nations and Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The Other Auditor: It&#39;s CAG

The benefits of the highly liberal Cenvat Rules, 2004, has not percolated to manufacturers&nbsp;using welding electrode. This article analyses the eligibility of welding electrode to Cenvat credit and how the change of rules during this Budget can solve the problem.

Budget 2009: Advice to amend Cenvat Rule

It is relevant to understand the background to Budget 2009/10. Hope and despair is how I would describe it. Hope because the government finally had a political mandate, a vote much beyond its own optimistic expectations. &ldquo;No more excuses&rdquo; was the Congress&rsquo;s future. One would now know for sure whether the Communists within the Congress party really held sway over policy decisions.

Surjit S Bhalla: Beginning of the end of C3?

The Union Budget gives the first clear indication of how willing and able the second avatar of the UPA government is in delivering inclusive growth. The signal is that it is willing, but it is a bit open if it will be able to. The willingness, putting your money where your mouth is, comes through in actions such as sharply hiking the allocation for the flagship employment guarantee programme, the rural health mission, rural roads and the urban renewal mission.

Subir Roy: Money alone can&#39;t buy inclusive growth

The Court says the government can skip floating tenders or auctions to speed up urgent modernisation projects.

M J Antony: More elbow room

It boils down to whether greater government spending makes up for lower private consumption or whether, through higher interest rates or inflation, it hurts it.

'Do fiscal deficits hurt economic growth?'

For a country that has, perhaps, the most at stake in protecting its traditional knowledge (TK) which is part and parcel of its daily life, India remains strangely silent &mdash; and absent &mdash; in global discussions on this subject. Last Friday, the World Intellectual Property Organisation ended a five-day meeting of the Inter-governmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore without India&rsquo;s participation. Nor was there any document stating its position on the talks. On the other hand, a raft of countries from the US to Brazil and the European Union and Ethiopia in between has commented on the draft proposals.

Latha Jishnu: Dilemma on traditional knowledge

A day later, it is not clear if Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has budgeted conservatively, or aggressively, or whether a combination of the two cancels out. For starters, the assumption of nominal (ie real plus inflation) GDP growth of 10.1 per cent for 2009-10 seems on the low side if it is assumed, as Mr Mukherjee said, that the worst of the financial crisis is over. Against this backdrop, the assumption of poor tax buoyancy in 2009-10 is confusing.

Squaring the circle

Mr Nilekani has taken on the responsibility over the most ambitious government programme of national identification in recent years.&nbsp;Having a single nationally accepted identification and identity number, it is generally thought, will enable the government to not only better manage internal security, but also enable direct contact between the state and the citizen.

Peeyush Bajpai & Laveesh Bhandari: The dark side of the ID database

The big issue thrown up by the Budget for 2009-10 is the extent of government borrowing planned for the year. At close to Rs 400,000 crore of market borrowings, it is about four times what was initially planned for the last fiscal year. This is a stupendous figure when seen in another context as well, the size of India&rsquo;s banking sector. The last financial year saw an increase in total bank deposits of well over 20 per cent, or about Rs 650,000 crore. If the government were to swallow Rs 400,000 crore (or 60 per cent of such a figure) this year, it would leave precious little for anyone else. Bear in mind that the government&rsquo;s Budget is equal to only 17 per cent of the GDP figure, and that the statutory requirement for banks is to hold government and other approved paper (including state government paper) of just 25 per cent. Pre-empting 60 per cent of bank resources for just the Centre would be therefore an extraordinary situation.

Feeding the government

The Toyota Way is not merely an engineering marvel, it is about the people who make it a success.

Shyamal Majumdar: Back to basics at Toyota

The current phase of sub-zero inflation will get over in a couple of months, maybe even sooner given the profligacy in the budget.

Poonam Munjal & Dharmakirti Joshi: Just a transient phase

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 875 - Opinion Specials