Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week allowed its journals to be accessed by all. The movement for sharing scientific research for larger public good is gathering pace.

Sreelatha Menon: Opening up knowledge

Business Standard

Going long on the dollar via the NSE's currency futures contract seems to be more attractive than buying it in the current market.

Bullish on currency

A recurring matter on service tax law is the appropriate tax treatment of cost/revenue sharing arrangements between two contracting parties. Increasingly, global businesses as well as businesses in India are forced to look at ways and means to reduce costs by means of shared facilities such as offices, office equipment as well as common services.

Service tax applicability on cost/revenue-sharing arrangements

A very piquant situation has arisen after the judgement of the Supreme Court in the Ratan Melting case. One of my ex-colleagues who is known to be as knowledgeable as he is serious, rang me up with a lot of concern that this judgement now authorises the CBEC to file appeal in the Supreme Court against an action taken in pursuance of its own circular.

Can CBEC file an appeal to SC against its own circular?

Last week, the Finance Ministry imposed provisional safeguard duty on imports of aluminium flat rolled products and aluminium foil into India from China and imports of dimethoate technical. Provisional anti-dumping duty was also imposed on imports of all fully drawn or fully-oriented yarn/spin draw yarn/flat yarn of polyester (non-textured and non &ndash; POY) and imports of flax fabric from specified countries.

Invoking provisions of anti-dumping duty not too difficult

It is never too late to express appreciation or criticise a policy change, even if it&rsquo;s a month down the line. Press Note 4/2009 (PN 4/09) deserves a &ldquo;thumbs up&rdquo; for having done away with Press Note 9/99 (PN 9/99), which had posed, perhaps unintentionally, a roadblock to FDI.

Press Note 4/2009 deserves a 'thumbs up'

If the Central Bureau of Investigation&rsquo;s final report on Jagdish Tytler&rsquo;s alleged role in the anti-Sikh killings of 1984 is that there is no evidence to implicate him in the targeted attacks on Sikhs, it could serve to confirm the widely-held view that the CBI is a pliable tool in the hands of the government of the day.

An independent prosecutor

Global rankings are not always the most reliable indicators to use; economies that are routinely reckoned to be the most competitive are always beaten in the growth stakes by countries much lower down the totem pole.

Hope for the laggard

Fisher blamed over-indebtedness on 'easy money'-a succinct explanation of the current crisis.

Deepak Lal: A Hayekian recession with Fisherian consequences

It&rsquo;s a fairly common occurrence nowadays to see industry grumbling about inadequate bank credit. It&rsquo;s a little unusual to see a banker retorting in such fine form, as Punjab National Bank chairman K C Chakrabarty did at a recent Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) bankers&rsquo; conference the week before last in Mumbai.

Govindraj Ethiraj: These award-winning private banks

Many of us may not be aware that till about 30 years ago, private-sector engineering companies in West Bengal would enter into periodic industry-wide wage negotiations with workers.

A K Bhattacharya: Collective grief

Jobs, justice and climate,&rdquo; is the war cry of thousands protesting to G-20 leaders who will congregate in London this week. It is easy to dismiss them as anarchists and anti-globalisers, but difficult to address their hopes for immediate survival as they lose their jobs in the global meltdown. Surely they cannot be asked to wait patiently with empty stomachs till the return of normalcy since they were not responsible for the problems in the global financial markets which have brought the real economy to its knees.

D Ravi Kanth: The G-20&#39;s empty cupboard

Want to rebuild your stock portfolio? Start with a BRIC strategy.

The  BRIC strategy is getting hot again

&ldquo;Rich lives&rdquo; shown on TV shows such as Super Swank are likely to leave you feeling underprivileged.

Such a simple life

Four hundred billion dollars; $900 billion; $1.4 trillion; $2.2 trillion. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated the likely deterioration of assets due the sub-prime crisis in the US on four occasions, starting September 2007 and the latest one last week; its estimates have multiplied more than five-fold over this period and, its Global Financial Stability Report suggests, it&rsquo;s still counting.

No end in sight

Using banks to make NREGA payments has only added to corruption.

Anirban Kar: Don&#39;t bank on them

You know, what I think everybody is intrigued by is how this is all going to work, because you have a lot of very powerful personalities dealing with foreign policy, with diplomacy, et cetera &mdash; Biden, Gates, Jones and you, and the president.

We are watching Afghanistan and Pakistan broadly

Sheila Bair shouldn&rsquo;t try to jawbone these markets. The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation declared during a television interview last week that &ldquo;98 per cent of all banks are well capitalised.

David Reilly: Citi, BofA show investors can&#39;t bank on capital

NGO mobilises children from northern states in an attempt to change the approach of governments as well as political parties to issues concerning child rights.

Sreelatha Menon: Slumdog millions

While third quarter results do not reflect it, the sector's reluctance to cut interest rates points towards either high NPAs or wrong strategies.

Are banks hiding something?

On January 13, Price Waterhouse, the independent auditor of Satyam withdrew its audit reports on financial statements issued by Satyam. Dismayed investors and general public are still debating on how an auditor can withdraw a report that was relied on by investors.

Too early to nail Satyam auditors

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