Developed nations must invest in confidence-renewing measures like the Marshall Plan.

Robert J Shiller: Winning the confidence game

Business Standard

I cannot and will not claim to be a market expert and will always defer to that often-used but least-understood phrase, &lsquo;the market is king&rsquo;. Now on to some happenings in the kingdom.

Govindraj Ethiraj: India&#39;s middle class ($) millionaires

India's regulators still remain the preserve of the IAS.

A K Bhattacharya: Regulatory capture

When will the Schumpeterian perennial gale of creative destruction that started from the credit and housing bubble in the US slow down? Despite the assurances of UK Chancellor Alistair Darling that &lsquo;markets could have confidence that countries will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to tackle the global slowdown&rsquo;, there is still no agreement on how long the recession will last and whether it will turn into the classic deflation with its attendant massive social unrest.

D Ravi Kanth: Hope and despair at the G-20

This could be the way to retain the entrepreneurial spirit of the IT industry.

Shiv Nadar: Looking inwards for growth

UBS AG has only itself to blame for landing in a vise, squeezed by Swiss banking secrecy law on one side and the US Internal Revenue Service on the other.

Ann Woolner: UBS forced to lift secrecy skirt for peek by IRS

Having stated in the Budget, &ldquo;Extraordinary economic circumstances merit extraordinary measures. Now is the time for such measures,&rdquo; the government announced no measures.

Arun Shourie: Govt covering up

A global net-based project for finding a new TB drug sets the pace for research into poor man's diseases that don't attract big money.

Sreelatha Menon: Researchers sans borders

The revelation by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that the government has been overstating the spending on its flagship programmes and other schemes meant for the welfare of the aam aadmi (common man) is distressing, but not a surprise. The report, released two weeks ago, said that funds worth over Rs 51,000 crore allocated for these programmes in 2007-08 were actually transferred to the bank accounts of non-government organisations (NGOs), autonomous bodies and district authorities.

Where it goes

For the average investor, an understanding of asset allocation is more important than reading balance sheets.

Portfolio management

The flip-flops in the latest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) guidelines, and the confusions created by the Press Notes which followed, display the discomfort of Indian regulators in dealing with offshore multi-layered investments, with demons of drug money, tax evasion and round tripping lurking in all corners. Multi-layered tax effective investment structuring is commonly resorted to by transnational corporations, leveraging favourable tax rates, no different from other advantages any destination has to offer by reason of location or resources.

Unclear as to which way the FDI policy will swing

Given the limited policy space that he had, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has done well to focus on procedural issues that impact transaction costs and render Indian exporters competitive. The interim Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) that he unveiled as an annual supplement on Thursday gives away little by way of cash incentives that many exporters demanded. Nath has also very rightly preferred to remain silent on the issue of losses that some exporters incurred in derivatives trading.

Interim FTP addresses procedural issues

With the service tax rate being reversed from 12 to 10 per cent, a question which the service providers face is to determine the day on which the new service tax rate is effective. Even after 15 years of introduction of service tax in India, this very crucial legal issue is still unresolved. Controversies are going on, some tribunal judgments have come out but there is no trade notice, no circular and no clear law.

Service tax cut-off date unclear

The Supreme Court has ruled that a house provided by a company to a manager should be vacated by the legal representatives after his death. If they do not vacate the premises, they would be liable for criminal action under Section 630 of the Companies Act. This ruling was given in the case, Gopika Chandrabhushan vs M/s XLO India Ltd. The house in Mumbai was owned by the Maharani of Gwalior and was leased to API Ltd, which allotted it to Chandrabhushan who was a director of that company.

Legal representatives must vacate house provided by company: SC

In an earlier article, the problems faced by service exporters in obtaining refunds of input taxes were highlighted. The point was made that if India was serious about ensuring its continued competitiveness as a provider of services at a global level, it was imperative that these problems were expeditiously addressed so that the twin benefits of zero rating of exports of services under the service tax law and that of refunds of input taxes were actually realised by the services exporting community.

Clarifications on exports of services

Several questions arise on the appropriateness of the measure in the already strained fiscal scenario.

M Govinda Rao: 3rd stimulus package & fiscal conundrum

The proverbial penny dropped sometime last week. It happened whilst moderating a panel discussion organised by industry body CII&rsquo;s Pune chapter on how companies are managing through this slowdown.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Call the psychologists

The political face-off in Pakistan has ended without boiling over into a full-blown crisis. Given the run-up to Nawaz Sharif&rsquo;s defiant protest action in the form of a &ldquo;long march&rdquo;, this was almost too much to hope for. But whether out of good sense or strong persuasion from the army chief and the United States, President Asif Ali Zardari has backed down, retraced his steps, and thereby created the room for normal, civilian rule once again. However, the action is not over.

Hope in Pakistan?

The IT vision statement released by the BJP (the first major political party to do so) has its due share of populist measures, which is to be expected in a pre-election exercise. Also, some of its assertions are unrealistic. Nevertheless, the exercise indicates the extent to which IT has become mainstream in India, or an important party would not have considered it worth its while to make such a large number of promises on one industry.

Only partial sense on IT

There continue to be many ill-informed misconceptions about India's innovational capacity.

Ashok Parthasarathi: Who says we have not innovated?

In less than a year, that is as 2010 dawns, the Indian economy should be out of the woods and on a clear recovery path. Corporate India should then be in a position to think bold thoughts again and plan for growth and investment. It is therefore necessary to ask right now what will be the likely lessons from the roughly year-long setback the economy will have suffered when sentiment and the growth momentum begin to recover again.

Subir Roy: Start preparing for the upturn

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 916 - Opinion Specials