Investors in Singapore have to be either terribly confused or terribly impressed. They&rsquo;ve just been told by Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath that he plans to increase five-fold the pace of construction of highways in the country, to 20 km a day. Mr Nath, who is currently on a trip to South-East Asia, plans to repeat his message in the US and Europe. To convince them, he has outlined some of his plans. These include setting up of 150 exclusive land acquisition wings, reducing the stranglehold that engineers have on the National Highways Authority of India &mdash; engineers typically over-specify projects, making them non-bankable. The minister gives the example of the Belgaum-Dharwad highway where paring of unnecessary service lanes and flyovers has reduced the cost by 40 per cent, from the original estimate of Rs 480 crore. An expressway authority has also been announced.

Hairpin bend ahead

Business Standard

Thanks to political changes, India is in the midst of a long-term growth path that will mirror China.

Akash Prakash: Why India will do a China

The recently concluded G-8 meeting in Italy was significant because it was the first time that India and China were seated at the high table of global politics and finance, and there were many observers who believed that these two emerging heroes were the stars of the show. Indeed, there are some who believe that within a decade, the currencies of these two countries would be considered amongst the majors.

Jamal Mecklai: Coming of age

Omar Abdullah's apathy in the Shopian incident is a product of his class - he lives in a Kashmir which is a secure isolated castle, not the one in which ordinary Kashmiris live.

Basharat Peer: In a &#39;class&#39; of his own

He&rsquo;s a Charlie Chaplin impersonator, pretty good at his job, but that&rsquo;s not Raju&rsquo;s only claim to fame. He grew up in poverty, never went to school and yet, today he has been all over &mdash; from Tanzania to Dubai, with his Charlie Chaplin act. This isn&rsquo;t his biggest claim to fame either. For me, when I met Raju, what seemed most extraordinary was his assertion that he&rsquo;d grown up in the lap of a saint.

Geetanjali Krishna: Touched by an angel

The excitement of showing off their shopping was almost as much as the experiences they wanted to share of their month in the United States, so I knew I was in for a long night, but having been apart for so long it was the least I could devote to my wife and daughter on their return from the Big Apple. Packages and stories tumbled out simultaneously, of the tours they had taken, and the museums they had seen, and the shopping they had done, and the memories they had brought back, along with, at least, as many gifts as the names of friends in their mobile phones.

Kishore Singh: It is the thought, isn&#39;t it?

The extra status accorded to VIPs is usually in inverse proportion to the development index that a country has. On a Bangladesh Biman flight to Dhaka some years ago, the business class cabin had a toilet marked &ldquo;For VIPs only&rdquo;, which meant that paying passengers who were non-VIPs in the business cabin had to go look for a toilet elsewhere.

T N Ninan: VIPs & development

The combination of large future fiscal deficits and foreign lenders' reduced willingness to buy US securities will lead to both a lower dollar and higher US interest rates.

Martin Feldstein: US saving rate & the dollar's future

Outsiders sometimes point to certain Indian characteristics such as reverence for the elderly, respect for seniority and a politeness towards authority in general, as embedded in our system of &ldquo;family values&rdquo;. How remarkable, they say, that such virtues exist in a rapidly modernising society when they are virtually extinct in others.

Sunil Sethi: Virtue, vice and VIPs


The solar eclipse on July 22nd so captured everyone&rsquo;s imagination this past week that the news channels actually took a couple of minutes out from yelling about the diplomatic bloopers committed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding Baluchistan, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, to yell about where one might best watch the eclipse (Taregana, Bihar), when (early in the morning), how (through pinhole glasses) and why (it would be the

Here comes the moon

Chicago has an idea to offer to Indian cities. It&rsquo;s what public art can become if it is creatively and bravely envisioned. Two landmark public sculptures bracket this idea. The first is Picasso&rsquo;s famous and unnamed corrosive tensile steel work, installed in 1967 in the Civic Centre Plaza, outside the Daley Centre building.

Lessons from Chicago

Trapped by the Inca! For violating the sacred temple! Tied to stakes atop a pyre which will soon be lit by the rays of the sun, concentrated by a lens! But why does Tintin look so calm? Ah, it is because he knows something these colourfully dressed Incas don&rsquo;t: there is going to be a solar eclipse. Tintin calls out to the sun to hide his face, and lo and behold! the god obeys. Tintin and his friends are saved; nay, they are treated as demigods by the hapless Incas.

D.e.m. clones

The death of microfinance expert Sitaram Rao brings the spotlight on credit-plus services that institutions in the field can offer.

Sreelatha Menon: Remembering Sitaram Rao

I want to raise some overarching issues. One is the fiscal deficit. The second is the capital expenditure not being as high as it should be. And the third question is with regard to delivery of services and how much it costs.

'You have to turn the whole system upside down...'

Calling for a home-delivered pizza is not as easy as pie.

Thrice burnt, slightly crusty

While the general rate of inflation has displayed a consistent downtrend since November 2008, moving into the negative domain last month, food inflation has defied all attempts to tame it, and is a matter of concern.

The story is food inflation

Amid all the chaos, the Aug 20 presidential poll indicates that things are changing.

Jyoti Malhotra: An election in Afghanistan

Turns out that America&rsquo;s accounting poobahs have some fight in them after all. Call them crazy, or maybe just brave. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is girding for another brawl with the banking industry over mark-to-market accounting. And this time, it&rsquo;s the FASB that has come out swinging.

Jonathan Weil: FASB girds up its loins for brawl with bankers

Fox History &amp; Entertainment is beginning a new series for Indian viewers. Called The Ascent of Money, it&rsquo;s a television documentary based on Harvard professor Niall Ferguson&rsquo;s book of the same title, published in 2008. It has been shown in the US, UK and Hong Kong, but for Indian viewers this six-part series will begin on July 30, 2009, at 10 pm.

Old money

Without land, big projects will not take off.

Singur reprise

Colleagues may be trying to pull him down a peg.

PM loses ground

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

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