| Business/Economy |
Start and sell: India’s new Valley success stories -
Shilpa Phadnis, Times of India
Abheek Anand is no ordinary product manager working out of Facebook's California headquarters. The 32-year-old, along with fellow IITian Sohan Majumdar, sold the mobile-based customer loyalty startup Tagtile, which they had jointly launched, to Facebook last year. |
Crony capitalism alive and well -
R Srinivasan, Business Line
India Inc complains loudly and often about the derailment of reforms. But it may be the villain of the piece. Last week, to the obvious dismay of the government, global credit ratings major Standard & Poor’s declined to enhance India’s credit rating. Slower than expected reforms meant that growth will not pick up to the levels seen earlier in the decade, the agency concluded. |
Inflation: RBI versus the market -
Renu Kohli, Mint
Around a fortnight after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a distinctly hawkish inflation guidance in its annual monetary policy on 3 May, yields on 10-year government bonds or those of lesser duration tumbled below the central bank’s policy rate of 7.25. |
Sweatshop nations -
Kanika Datta, Business Standard
The Way of the Knife tells the riveting tale of how America’s efforts in the War on Terror fundamentally transformed the US national security establishment. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), fearing retribution from US investigators for its growing reliance on torture, morphed into a killing unit that launched Hellfire missiles from Predator drones at terrorists sheltering in no-go areas. |
Rethinking the rural -
Neelkanth, Indian Express
Say "rural India", and the image that flashes in our minds is that of a buffalo tied outside a mud hut. After all, for most if not all of us, rural equals agriculture. Imagine the surprise, therefore, when told that while all agriculture by definition is rural, the converse is no longer true. Now only one-fourth of rural output comes from agriculture. |
The ideal retail policy -
Arvind Singhal, Financial Express
The current policy for permitting FDI in multi-brand retail comes with many riders including several that are fundamentally and practically infeasible to comply with. The policy, to start with, limits the foreign shareholding to 51%. |
How deep is the malaise in the Indian Railways? -
Samar Jha, Business Standard
The recent appointments scam in the Railways brings back into focus the inadequate and ineffective management of the nation's most important infrastructure sector. That the arrest of Mahesh Kumar, the suspended member (staff), has dealt a body blow to the prestige and dignity of Indian Railways goes without saying. The common reaction of the ordinary citizen is one of disgust, and a feeling of unease. If promotions and appointments to senior positions can be bought, is the running of the Railways in the right hands? |
Why India needs ambitious projects -
Mint
Somewhere near the town of Ganjam in Orissa is an unfinished railway bridge, a small incomplete strip in the ambitious Golden Quadrilateral project that links the four main cities of India. The government told Parliament earlier this month that only those 110m remain incomplete in a 5,846km project; there were raised eyebrows when former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee first spoke about his plan to join the major cities with four- and six-lane highways but the Golden Quadrilateral is now held up as an exemplary public project. India has not had a similar project in the past decade. |
Retail tale: First, get the basics right -
Arvind Singhal, Financial Express
It is ironical that after years of heated discussion on the opening of India’s multi-brand retail to foreign investors there are no serious investment proposals yet from major international retailers and, instead, there is only an increasing list of queries and requests for clarifications. The government is likely to come out with some clarifications in the next few weeks but these may only lead to even more confusion, if some of the recent statements appearing in the media are to go by. |
Politician families in business: What aided their meteoric rise -
John Samuel Raja D, Economic Times
Talk about business growth and opportunity. In the last five years, Theon Pharmaceuticals, controlled by the immediate family of former railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, has increased in size from Rs 15 crore to Rs 152 crore. Elsewhere, in the same period, Rs 757 crore of cash has come into seven companies owned by Anand Kumar, the brother of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati. |
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