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

The accident compensation formula ignores inflation and the rise in life expectancy.

M J Antony: The multiplier effect

If the rules allow companies to book forex profits due to currency movements in a year, they can't be changed when the currency moves the other way.

'Do the AS 11 norms need to be relaxed'

There is an air of celebration emanating from IIT-Bombay. Reports in the local papers suggest that the senior faculty is delighted with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that IIT-B signed last Monday with Intellectual Ventures (IV), a Washington-based company that specialises in buying patents and leveraging them for optimum gain.

Latha Jishnu: Hope is a patent troll for IIT-Bombay

For the first time since the Gujarat riots, Kumar&rsquo;s party is making a distinction between the NDA and the JD(U).

Aditi Phadnis: Can Nitish swing Bihar?

It was about noon and we were roughly 30 kilometres from Jodhpur. The wind was blowing, and so was the sand. Instead of driving faster to reach our destination before a full-fledged sand storm developed, our driver slowed down. I waited for a bit, and then asked him to speed up. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he said, gesturing towards what I thought was a herd of goats, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to hit any deer here!&rdquo; I realised to my surprise, that the &lsquo;goats&rsquo; were actually black bucks, grazing peacefully. &ldquo;Are we in a reserved forest or a national park?&rdquo; I asked. &ldquo;Neither,&rdquo; replied the driver, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re in Bishnoi land. And the animals know they&rsquo;re safe with the protectors of the flora and fauna of the desert.

Geetanjali Krishna: Tree-huggers of the desert

All the evidence suggests that India's policy response to the financial crisis is some considerable distance towards ugly.

Surjit S Bhalla: Crisis response - Good, bad or ugly?

A new CPI(M) website was launched on Wednesday, a couple of days after the party&rsquo;s election manifesto was released. The manifesto is notable in that it does not promise outcomes (what rate of growth, how much increased equality, what level of reduction in unemployment, etc), but makes a list of random observations without any coherent framework: give the states more rights, protect the public sector, offer everyone guaranteed employment, etc.

T N Ninan: Relentless posturing

The ale at Howzzat definitely is the best, but not the pub's theme.

Just beer please, not cricket

Before buying a stock, examine it in the context of the total portfolio.

The basics of investing

Despite profit taking in the yellow metal by investors, gold might bounce back due to Fed&rsquo;s actions.

Temporary decline

Output typically troughs two to four months before markets indicating an approaching bottom.

Lower output signals lows?

The issue of exemption from service taxes on supplies of services from the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) to developers of Special Economic Zones/units located in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has been the subject of much controversy and debate. As is, by now, well known, SEZs have been set up with the fundamental objectives of promoting exports from India. Accordingly, they have been granted benefits in the form of exemptions from all taxes and duties. In the area of service tax however, problems have arisen regarding the manner in which the exemption from service tax would be granted to SEZs.

Service Tax exemption on SEZ supplies

Post Satyam, investors&rsquo; confidence in the corporate governance system is low. Audit is being questioned by investors. Subhiksha is an example. In the case of Siemens India, institutional investors questioned the valuation in a deal involving sale of Siemens Information Systems (SISL) to German parent Siemens AG.

Audit committee: At crossroads

Directors of listed companies would henceforth have to monitor their holdings in the companies on which they are directors to see if their holdings cross reporting thresholds specified under the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997 (&quot;Takeover Regulations&quot;) for &quot;persons in control&quot; over a listed company. In a far-reaching decision, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has ruled in an adjudication order that members of the board of directors of a listed company (&quot;Target Company&quot;) would be persons having control of the Target Company.

Directors should track, report their holdings

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has notified Regulations for Handling Cargo in Customs Areas. The Regulations apply to Custodians at ports or airports, like Port Trust, International Authority of India etc. and to Custodians at the Inland Container Depots (ICD) and Container Freight Stations (CFS), like Container Corporation, Central Warehousing Corporation etc., responsible for receipt, storage, delivery, dispatch or otherwise handling of imported goods and export goods.

CBEC regulations on cargo handling

Transfer pricing provisions were introduced in India by the Finance Act 2001 so as to protect its rights to collect fair share of tax in respect of cross border transactions. Accordingly an international transaction entered into between associated enterprises at a price which doesn&rsquo;t conform to the arms length principles, and which results in understatement of income in India will be hit by transfer pricing provisions.

Margin allowed in transfer pricing transaction

While the tax collection figures indicate a negative impact of global crisis on the overall fiscal situation, the moot point is how grim is India&rsquo;s position vis-&agrave;-vis other economies. Tax collections during the UPA regime point towards an accelerated and unprecedented growth. However, the regime shall also witness deteriorating finances with an unexpected bubble squeeze.

Will slowdown impact tax collections?

A simple triangle can integrate all market theories.

The triangular harmony

Thanks to the growing trend of greeting people with flowers, the demand for cut flowers has shot up and, in turn, has imparted a dynamism to floriculture that was unimaginable till the early 1990s. Consequently, growing flowers is no longer confined to gardens and backyards &mdash; it is today a thriving commercial activity.

Surinder Sud: Seeding floriculture

The tension between multiplex owners and film production/distribution companies over revenue-sharing has been building up for some time. It recently exploded into a full-fledged battle. Though their fight is only with multiplexes, a united front of film producers and distributors, has decided to hold back the releases to all theatres (including single screens) from April 3 this year.

Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: The trouble with multiplexes

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 917 - Opinion Specials