&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve neither seen, nor heard of such a thing!&rdquo; spluttered my friend as we pulled out of a busy south Delhi market in her car, &ldquo;parking lot attendants smiling and waving you away, letting you park for free?&rdquo; When we neared the exit of the lot, other attendants smilingly salaamed us, and my friend and I began to wonder if we were in a particularly self congratulatory dream-for-two. The driver cleared his throat when he saw our incredulous faces in the rear view mirror, &ldquo;Madam, I&rsquo;m sorry if the parking lot attendants have embarrassed you &mdash; actually, they never let me pay when I park here!&rdquo; What had he done, we asked, to deserve such an honour? &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to tell you the story of my entire family to explain,&rdquo; he almost warned us. Aware of the fact that we were a captive audience in the rear seat, we nodded.

Geetanjali Krishna: Not quite in the family!

Business Standard

It looks like rain in the hills in front, the lake is a deep, enchanting green, the sun hasn&rsquo;t broken through the clouds the whole day, the air is cool, and I&rsquo;m contemplating retirement. And to think last night I was in Delhi at a lounge party where the music was wild, the party was in full swing, and someone seemed to have removed all the furniture so you could stand and drink, or you could dance, which was alright since you couldn&rsquo;t talk over the music anyway.

Kishore Singh: Haven't got over those hills

Nandan Nilekani virtually wrote himself a new job when he wrote Imagining India. On pages 367-371, he went into the business of issuing a unique identity card to all citizens&mdash;a project that has now been handed over to him, to general approval about a great choice having been made. With a full measure of realism about what he is getting into, Mr Nilekani terms the project a &ldquo;hairy&rdquo; business; and in his book (excerpted on the facing page), he gives some idea why.

T N Ninan: Citizen No. 473879621?

Running a state was a lot more treacherous than building roads.

Aditi Phadnis: Highway to disaster

The zero hunger programme that started in Brazil has tips for India, which is trying to put in place a right to food law.

Sreelatha Menon: India&#39;s Fome Zero

Through the TV, one grew familiar with the many moves of Michael Jackson.

Beat it, no more

While swine flu spreads, the official helpline stays unhelpfully silent.

Taking a call

Veerappa Moily, the law minister, has talked of introducing judicial reform, and of bringing to Parliament a Bill that will mandate wealth disclosures by judges. While many kinds of reform are needed and desirable, two simple steps should be given precedence. The first is largely, if not almost entirely, in the government&rsquo;s domain and relates to the appointment of judges&mdash;far too few exist, and far too few are being appointed.

Quick justice from transparent judges

I am an Indian student in Germany, and reading about attacks on Indian students in Australia has been quite disturbing. I am not aware of the circumstances under which these attacks took place, but first of all, I would like to say that it is important to keep in mind that such isolated incidents do not make all white Australians &mdash; or any other ethnic group for that matter &mdash; racist to be wary of.

Ali Mehdi: Racist attacks & economic woes

It could be one of those years when exposure in commodity futures, along with equities could be a good investment strategy.

Commodity to the rescue

Whether it is Air India or various social welfare schemes, reducing the colossal waste of funds is the real challenge.

A V Rajwade: Giant gravy train

From setting the rates, to the constitutional changes required and the training needed, it is unlikely we will be able to implement it by April 2010, says S Madhavan.

S Madhavan: We're a long way from being ready for the GST

If time and space are similar and space is fractalled then time fractals are not far away.

Space and time

Post the market rally, returns expectations will need to be tempered.

Sensex to rise 14 per cent, says Nomura

Emerging-market stock funds lost $1.87 billion in the week ended June 24, the first week of net outflows since early March, on concern that a rebound in exports will be delayed, EPFR Global said.

Emerging-market funds pulling out

Private, public interests can co-exist in higher education.

Incentives and accountability

The government has decided to revise schedule VI to the Companies Act, which stipulates the manner in which every company prepares and presents its balance sheet and profit and loss account. The revision aims to harmonise and synchronise the general disclosure requirements under schedule VI with those prescribed in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which India will adopt from April 1, 2011. The draft of the revised schedule VI is available at the web site of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (http://www.mca.gov.in/).

Schedule VI of Companies Act under revision

While the euphoria of thumping mandate may still be settling down, the new government has its task cut out before the finance minister rises to deliver his Budget speech in a week's time. An unprecedented mandate not witnessed in last decade is evidently weighing in the minds of the Mandarins at North block as the Budget proposals are being given a final shape.

Crystal ball gazing the 'Big Budget'

Sibal&rsquo;s proposals can be viewed as the end game of a complete overhaul of the primary education system, says Subir Gokarn.

Subir Gokarn: Strategy and structure in education

The concept of Advance Rulings was introduced in India in 1993. For this purpose a statutory body called The Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) was constituted.

Need for advance rulings in transfer pricing issues

An earlier article in this series had addressed the service tax implications of brand licensing vis-&agrave;-vis contract manufacturing. With particular reference to service tax on production of alcoholic products on a job work basis, in terms of the aforesaid brand licensing vs. contract manufacturing situations, certain recent developments have introduced an element of uncertainty into what was understood to be a well settled position.

Service tax on alcoholic products

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