Okay, I&rsquo;ve been going on about this wine and that, and how the aroma and taste must be both complex and balanced to signal a &ldquo;good&rdquo; or even a &ldquo;great&rdquo; wine.

Taste and tell

Business Standard

&ldquo;Is it true that you don&rsquo;t believe in magic?&rdquo; asked Seema the other day. She&rsquo;d been telling my children a story about this wicked witch in her village. Some years ago, her neighbour quarrelled with the witch so she&rsquo;d given him a magic potion, and he died without seeing the next sunrise&hellip;&ldquo;Her cooking must have been terrible!&rdquo; laughed my son, &ldquo;or maybe she fed him poison&hellip;.

Geetanjali Krishna: Black magic woman...

I don&rsquo;t know if other cities have it, but Delhi has a tradition of organising rain dances in the hot summer months, mostly at clubs &mdash; though if you have a lawn large enough, anyone should be able to do it since all it requires is stringing up a web of pipes overhead that act as shower heads, a dance floor below, some high wattage music, and of course, a generous bar. Twice a year, our club manages to pull it off, though it has been unlucky on several occasions because the artificial rain has coincided with thunderstorms and real rain, robbing the dance of some of its romance and sending party-goers fleeing inwards, since food, or snacks, or even sitting around in the actual rain is hardly an option.

Kishore Singh: Taking a rain-check on fun

You know that story about the fisherman and the entrepreneur? The bright young MBA comes upon a fisherman on the beach, drowsing and reading in the shade of a coconut tree, beside his rod and a catch bucket in which there are two measly fish. What a waste of time and opportunity, he thinks, and decides to help the guy out.

The devil&#39;s sweatshop

A TV ad for home security systems a few years ago showed the youthful father of a good-looking nuclear family turning on the home alarm at night. As he did so, from the keypad a host of 0s and 1s spilled out in all directions across the wall, around corners and onto ceilings, until all surfaces of the house, and thus the family within, were protected by this flickering binary mesh. It was sufficiently disquieting to remain lodged in the memory &mdash; and I was reminded of it recently, while reading about new discoveries at the Alhambra, the castle-palace of Granada in Spain.

Palace of allusions

Rules will be supreme as a spring cleaning gets under way.

Aditi Phadnis: New home truths

In May, a &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; Kashmiri separatist stood for election to the Lok Sabha. This was a &ldquo;first&rdquo;, and there was more than the usual interest because the separatists have always been taunted that they do not subject themselves to the test of popular choice because they know that they do not represent the majority view in even Kashmir valley. Well, Sajjad Lone had decided that he would take the test, and he failed badly.

The human rights question

Lock up the booze, and hide your wallet. America&rsquo;s most powerful, too-big-to-fail banks are turning in their TARP money. And you know what that means: It&rsquo;s party time again on Wall Street.

Jonathan Weil: Banks trade TARP for bonuses, debauchery, jets

Try watching Asit Sen's Khamoshi to find out for yourself how to decide on a movie's merits.

Films with split personalities

Welcome to what could become Delhi's new favourite watering hole.

Hard Rock rocks!

There are several similarities between July 1991 and July 2009 on the economic and political fronts. The economy is not doing too well, relatively speaking, a state to which global conditions have contributed significantly.

Subir Gokarn: Budgeting for the mandate

Given his track record as an energetic minister, Kamal Nath&rsquo;s innings in the highways ministry are being keenly anticipated. For if there&rsquo;s one infrastructure ministry that needs urgent attention, it is this one.

Sunil Jain: Kaise khilega Kamal?

Corporate financial report communicates economic impact of transactions and other events on the economic resources and the capital stru-cture of the company. The aim is to provide information that is relevant for economic decision-making by inves-tors and creditors. The information is also used to evaluate management in its stewardship function. It is expected that the infor-mation in financial report should be presented in such a manner that it is easy to comprehend and analyse.

Complexity in corporate financial reporting

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has notified the new SEBI (Delisting of Equity Shares) Regulations, 2009 (&ldquo;Delisting Regulations&rdquo;). In a nutshell, delisting of shares from stock exchanges has never been tougher.

Delisting of shares has never been tougher

Government of India has vide two separate notifications dated October 1, 2008, extended the Employees&rsquo; Provident Fund and Pension Scheme to all &ldquo;international workers&rdquo;. The term international worker includes a foreign employee working for an establishment in India to which PF Act applies. Thus, the expatriate employees will normally fall in the definition of international worker.

EPF scheme for expatriate employees: clarification required

It is a testimony to our commitment to socialism, enshrined by the senior Mrs Gandhi in our Constitution, that it remains alive and kicking: Even the large number of crorepatis amongst our parliamentarians, swear by socialism. And, the way the Congress Party&rsquo;s partners in government, in particular the DMK and the Grassroots (Trinamool) Congress, have began their innings would ensure that the Congress does not feel the absence of the Left as its ally.

A V Rajwade: Socialism forever?

The government candidly admits it cannot provide data on gross capital formation in infrastructure.

Vinayak Chatterjee: Planning in ignorance

That India&rsquo;s new Attorney General, Ghoolam Vahanvati, has come first in every exam he has taken (except his first year at law college, when he came second, because &lsquo;the son of someone influential came first&rsquo;) shouldn&rsquo;t be held against him. Despite blandishments by his science teacher at school &mdash; did he really want to waste his time being a &lsquo;liar&rsquo; &mdash; Vahanvati refused to consider any profession but law.

Aditi Phadnis: Nothing but the law for him

With the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Limited (Nacil) forced to delay salary payments, it could be that the government will now rush through the package that the company has been demanding for many months. Whatever the final details of the bailout package (Nacil officials insist it is not a bailout but the cost of the merger of Air-India and Indian Airlines, which the government must legitimately pay for), the government&rsquo;s strategy remains unclear.

Headed for crash-landing

The latest round of talks for thrashing out a successor to the Kyoto accord on climate change, on the basis of the new text circulated by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), ended in Bonn on Friday and saw an unexpected, if subtle, shift in the US stand which could change the course of these negotiations.

Flashing amber, not green

If stock market and interest-rate spreads are to be believed, America&rsquo;s economy has seen the worst and may be on its way to a slow recovery. But the troubles for the world economy are just starting. If globalisation does not get the fix it needs, economic prospects will be dim for rich and poor countries alike.

Dani Rodrik: The bumpy road ahead

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