Let me write this down. (Laughter.) Surprised, troubled.

&#39;A typical president, I think, has two or three big problems&#39;

Business Standard

A forest conservator in Haryana gets villagers to grow trees and earn money by selling carbon credits in the international market.

Sreelatha Menon: Sirsa&#39;s carbon farmers

Regardless of the competence of the next government, it would make sense to invest in dips from now.

Minimalist expectation

There's plenty of performance, but not enough scholarship.

Action words

Thai brand Harnn's first spa in India is welcome for a bundle of nerves.

Spa fresh

As the country heads for the final round of the elections, the possibility that every opinion poll had ruled out is now very real: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could emerge as the single-largest party.

A party of government

Higher salaries, declining spreads and lower fee incomes will ensure this.

Gourav Gupta: Bank profitability set to fall

In a far-reaching decision, a division bench of the Bombay High Court has endorsed a special resolution of a company to reduce the share capital of a company on the basis of the identity of the person holding the shares. Majority shareholders can now throw out minority shareholders by effect a reduction of the capital held by minority shareholders alone.

Minority shareholders can be thrown out

high court to reconsider the claims of Indian Bank and other secured and unsecured creditors against a company in liquidation. The company had taken a loan from VGP Finance Ltd but as it could not repay, the latter took over its assets. The bank and other creditors were not parties to the proceedings in the high court. Indian Bank hence appealed to the Supreme Court. The court stated that the high court had not taken into account certain vital aspects which it was bound to consider, like the interest of other creditors of the company, their right to be heard, the list of assets, and the list of creditors. Therefore, the high court was asked to reconsider the claims.

SC asks Madras HC to reconsider creditors&#39; claims

The trade numbers for March 2009, released by the ministry of commerce and industry on Friday, show that the decline in exports that began last October not only persists but seems to be accelerating. In dollar terms, exports declined by 33.3 per cent over March 2008, the largest monthly decline yet. For the year as a whole, exports came in at $168.7 billion, significantly short of the original target of $200 billion and also below the revised range of $170-175 billion.

The shrinking trade deficit

The ongoing general elections are the first to be contested under the newly delimited constituency framework. Some recent state elections were conducted within the new arrangements and there is a view that they do have an impact on the outcome. Whether this is true at a national level or not will undoubtedly be revealed by micro-analysis of voting numbers after the election results are in.

Subir Gokarn: Limitations of delimitation

A paradigm shift in the economic environment in the past decade has led to announcement of several accounting standards. Though, the initiative in setting standards is predominantly led by the The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), enabling provisions under the Companies Act and role of regulators like SEBI, RBI and National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS) is of equal importance.

Supreme Court highlights accounting standards

Going concern is a fundamental accounting concept. Financial statements are normally prepared on the assumption that an entity is a going concern. Going concern implies that the entity will continue its operation in the foreseeable future. It is assumed that the entity has neither the intention nor the need to liquidate or curtail materially the scale of its operations.

A going concern

The New Pension Scheme (NPS) is one of the more ambitious programmes tried out by the government. If successful, it has the power to transform India&rsquo;s savings habits. Millions of Indians who, today, don&rsquo;t have a long-term flexible savings option will now have one, irrespective of where they live and where they are employed.

Attractive over the long term

Expatriate employees&rsquo; salary for working in India is chargeable to tax in India. The tax is charged on the basis of working in India whether the salary amount is received in India or outside India. There may be cases where a part of salary and other allowances and facilities may be paid outside India. There may yet be another class of employees whose salaries are paid by foreign employers but the facilities and allowances are provided in India by their Indian counterparts.

Deducting tax on salary paid outside India

In this election campaign, one of the issues relates to bringing back the money stashed abroad by Indians. The estimates of such money have varied but everyone seems to agree that large amounts are kept abroad by some Indians. On the issue of bringing the money back, several opinions have been expressed, but the best way seems to be to create a more favourable investment climate in India that will entice the money back.

Create favourable investment climate to bring money from tax havens

The reported decision by the government to raise the level of viability gap funding, or grants, for projects under the fifth phase of the National Highway Development Programme, may breathe some new life into a scheme that has stuttered to a halt. No project has been awarded in recent months because no one bid for some, while for others there was only a single bid.

No speed on highways

Last week&rsquo;s order of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, in a case filed by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), should set at rest the year-long concern about the maintainability of the rights of state-owned power generating companies if they wish to take punitive action against errant state electricity boards.

A wrong undone

The Chinese have become more assertive in the global economic stakes.

Frank Sieren & Andreas Sieren: Dogged persistence

It was exactly a year ago that Arjun N Murti predicted that crude oil prices were headed towards the $150-$200 mark. And it was not due to &ldquo;speculative excess,&rdquo; the Goldman Sachs analyst said in a report which he lead-authored. The price rise seemed to reflect a true play of demand and supply factors since there were no indications of excess supply in the market, according to him.

Vandana Gombar: Of suspect projections

Unlike bird flu that killed a large number of birds before affecting human beings, swine flu affects only humans.

Surinder Sud: The pigs are safe

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 893 - Opinion Specials

'A typical president, I think, has two or three big problems'

Sreelatha Menon: Sirsa's carbon farmers