How to find your creditworth online in India - You can for Rs 450

For Rs 450, individuals can now get a copy of their credit history and credit score - the document which in recent years has become an important determinant of whether an individual is eligible for a loan on not. 

On Wednesday, Credit Information Bureau of India (Cibil) - a central agency which collects and maintains borrower information from lenders across the country said that it will make available online the Cibil Transunion score. This score along with a record of credit history is used by lenders as a measure of creditworthiness. The score ranges between 300 and a maximum of 900. A score of 800 is considered good and often eligible for loan by most lenders. 

The main advantage of obtaining the report from Cibil is that borrowers can find out in advance how good their score is. If the overall score is low the borrower can strive to improve his profile by paying all future dues on time and bringing down his overall borrowing. Also borrowers can take corrective action if there has been misrepresentation by lenders. 

Obtaining the report is a three step process. Borrowers have to log onto the Cibil website www.cibil.com and fill in the online request form and make a payment through either card or online banking. The report is released after the borrower identifies himself by answering three questions based on his credit history. 

According to a Cibil spokesperson factors that determine an individual's credit score include timeliness in repayments, extent of borrowing and the extent to which borrowings are unsecured. Interestingly an individual without any loans or credit cards will not have any credit history. As against this a borrower with small loans who has been repaying on time will have a good credit history. 

Although Cibil has been around for several years it is only the last two years that lenders have begun to extensively use the bureau as it now has a detailed history of almost the entire borrower population in India. After the passage of the credit information bill, banks have been incorporating in their loan agreement a clause that permits them to share borrower information with the bureau. 

Consumers benefit from the bureau as it emboldens lenders to make loans faster without having to independently investigate the borrowers track record. Home loan providers such as HDFC have been using Cibil to ascertain whether the borrower has defaulted in the past or whether he has multiple home loans.

Food inflation falls to 11.81% for week ended October 29

Food inflation declined marginally to 11.81 per cent in the week ended October 29, but the slight moderation in the rate of price rise provided little respite to consumers burdened by high prices of essential kitchen staples like vegetables and pulses.

Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 12.21 per cent in the previous week ended October 22. The rate of price rise of food items stood at 12.68 per cent in the corresponding week of the previous year.

As per data released by the government on Friday, vegetables became 26.05 per cent costlier on a year-on-year basis during the week ended October 29. Pulses grew costlier by 13.27 per cent, fruits by 11.70 per cent and milk by 11.79 per cent.

Eggs, meat and fish also became 12.74 per cent more expensive on an annual basis, while cereal prices were up 4.07 per cent.

However, onions became 19.31 per cent cheaper. Wheat prices were also down 1.77 per cent year-on-year during the week under review.

Inflation in the overall primary articles category stood at 11.43 per cent, compared to 12.08 per cent in the previous week. Primary articles have over 20 per cent weight in the wholesale price index.

Inflation in non-food articles, including fibres, oilseeds and minerals, was recorded at 6.41 per cent during the week under review.

Fuel and power inflation stood at 14.50 per cent during the week ended October 29, unchanged from the previous week.

With $85 trillion, how India can become world's largest economy

According to a study by US banking group Citi, India will be the world's largest economy within 39 years. Indian GDP in 2050, measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), will be $85.97 trillion. China, in second place, will have a GDP of $ 80.02 trillion and the US $ 39.07 trillion (see chart). 

With an estimated population in 2050 of 1.63 billion, India will thus have a per capita income of over $53,000 - in the range of today's wealthiest countries like Switzerland and Norway. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is. 

On paper - mathematically - Indian poverty should disappear by 2050. The reason it won't is that huge inequalities in income will persist unless we rapidly implement second-generation economic reforms which deliver real benefits to the bottom of India's socio-economic pyramid. 

The first chart in our three-chart collage shows the ranking of the top five countries by GDP in 2050 as per Citi's projections. Indian GDP in 2011 is estimated at $4.45 trillion (PPP). To reach $85.97 trillion in 2050, the Indian economy will have to grow at an average annual rate of 8.1% a year for the next 39 years. Optimistic? Perhaps, but not overly so. 

The Citi study relies heavily on India's two dividends - demographic and democratic. The demographic dividend will ensure that India has the largest number of working-age people in the world (over 800 million) between 2015 and 2035 before tapering off as our population reaches a plateau of just over 1.60 billion and starts ageing (as China's already is). Fertility rates of increasingly educated urban and rural Indian women will dip from today's 2.6 to 1.7, which is when a country's birth and death rates equalise. 

A large number of working-age Indians between 18 and 60, however, will be less than optimally productive if they remain poorly educated and are therefore unemployable. To gain from our 20-year demographic sweet spot, education reform must clearly top the government's agenda. Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy was partly right when he said that the standard of IIT students has fallen. It has. Too many are rote-learners, spewed out by coaching classes, not creative thinkers. 

Education reform must start with government-run primary schools. Shockingly, in some villages, primary schools have no teachers, no students and an empty shed that serves as a classroom. The government spends 52,000 crore on education every year. That is less than it spends on fertiliser subsidy alone ( 55,000 crore). 

The second dividend Citi banks on to project India's rise to the top of the GDP rankings in 2050 - especially in comparison with China - is democracy. China's autocratic government, the argument goes, can command 10% GDP growth, build superhighways and create gleaming infrastructure. 

But beneath the towers and the maglev bullet train tracks of Shanghai lurks social tension. As China's per capita income rises, its 1.34 billion people will increasingly yearn for real freedom: a free press, an open Internet and, most crucially, democracy. 

If the Chinese government can't deliver on these, a "Chinese Spring" a decade hence cannot be ruled out. That could plunge China into years of uncertainty. Throughout history, as countries grew richer, they grew freer. Will China prove an exception? Unlikely. By that token, India's democracy is a double-edge scimitar. Our raucous, open society takes us two steps forward economically and then one step backwards. 

Kingfisher Airlines' Vijay Mallya questions duty to fly loss-making routes

Tycoon Vijay Mallya, whose cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines cancelled scores of flights this week, drawing the ire of the government and travellers and spooking investors, questioned on Saturday whether it was the carrier's duty to fly loss-making routes. 

Shares in Kingfisher, the country's second-largest airline by market share, fell as much as 18 per cent to an all-time low on Friday as investors fretted about the viability of the carrier, which acknowledged it had been late in paying salaries in recent months. 

Media reports suggest that the government had decided in principle to allow foreign airlines to own up to 24 percent of Indian carriers, a move that could throw a lifeline to Kingfisher and its struggling rivals. 

The report claims that the matter would be put before the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the next four weeks. 

Mallya, the flamboyant liquor tycoon who owns a cricket team and a Formula One racing team, asked on the social networking site Twitter whether it was Kingfisher's duty to fly loss-making routes while it was being heavily taxed by state governments. 

Or should the airline be financially prudent and fly profitably, he asked. 

Late on Friday, Kingfisher said it was dropping unprofitable routes and speeding up a fleet reconfiguration, which would see its daily schedule of flights drop to 300 from 340. It recently said it was exiting the low-fare segment of the business. 

The carrier, whose share price has dropped 70 percent in 2011, bringing its market capitalisation below $200 million, also said on Friday it "does not see any risk to its future or long-term viability". 

Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said he would approach the finance minister to seek emergency bank assistance for troubled airlines. 

Gold hits record high of Rs 29,265 on seasonal demand

Gold prices today surged by Rs 175 to touch an all-time high of Rs 29,265 per 10 grams in the bullion market here today on rising seasonal demand amid a firming global trend. 


Silver also jumped up by Rs 800 to Rs 57,850 per kg. Traders said Gold spurted on heavy buying by stockists and jewellery makers to meet the ongoing marriage season demand amid a firming overseas trend as concerns about Europe's debt crisis boosted the demand for the metal as a protection of wealth. 


In New York, gold shot up by USD 6.60 to USD 1,765 an ounce. 


Back home, gold of 99.9 and 99.3 per cent purity shot up by Rs 175 each to Rs 29,265 and Rs 29,125 per 10 grams, respectively. Sovereign rose by Rs 850 to Rs 23,300 per piece of eight grams. 


Likewise, silver also climbed on brisk buying by industrial units. 


Silver ready jumped up by Rs 800 to Rs 57,850 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 825 to Rs 57,750 per kg. 


Silver coins shot up by Rs 1,000 to Rs 67,000 for buying and Rs 68,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

Infosys close to acquiring Thomson Reuters unit: Report

India's Infosys Technologies is close to acquiring Thomson Reuters' healthcare business for $700-$750 million, an Indian newspaper reported. 


The Business Standard newspaper cited sources close to the development as saying India's No. 2 outsourcer was the front-runner for the business and an announcement was expected shortly. 


Both news and information provider Thomson Reuters and Infosys declined to comment. 

Money lying idle in savings accounts to fetch more now

The money lying idle in your bank account will now fetch you more returns, with the Reserve Bank of India completely deregulating interest rates on Tuesday. The savings or the SB account, which fetched account holders a measly 4%, was the last bastion of administered pricing imposed by the banking regulator and sets the stage for competition among banks to attract more deposits by offering attractive interest rates to consumers. 

The new system comes into effect immediately and would replace the existing one, which has been in place since 1978. 

Within hours of the policy, private sector player, Yes Bank, increased the return on its SB accounts to 6%. Other banks with a relatively lower share of retail deposits such as IDBI Bank and Kotak Bank may follow suit in a bid to poach customers from rivals. Although the small banks lack the distribution network, they are likely to play the upstart by targeting salary accounts with the larger banks. 

Ways To Budget Your Expenses This Diwali

It’s that time of the year again - the festive season has arrived and it’s time for celebration, family bonding, mouth watering sweetmeats, house organizing and decoration, new jewellery for your wife… the list is endless!
 It’s at this time of the year that expenses can balloon. You will most likely find the domestic help asking for Diwali bakshish, you will be spending on gifts and mithai, you will spend probably the largest amount on home renovation, if you’re going in for it this year. All these things can add up to a happy but also expensive month!
 Whether you are salaried or a businessperson, there’s one thing that will help you manage your finances this month - a Diwali Budget.


Let’s get started.

Govt tries to fill Rs 50,000 cr revenue gap

The government is looking at a Rs 50,000 crore hole in its accounts due to a faltering disinvestment program and prospects of missing out on fresh mop-up from sale of spectrum, prompting it to scrape the bottom to plug the gap. 


Against the disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore, the government has so far managed to get Rs 1,144 crore from the stake sale in Power Finance Corporation. Although it has been forced to indefinitely postpone the ONGC follow-on offer in the face of volatile markets, officials said there was still hope of taking it to market by March as the public sector company's shares have not seen a steep decline. 

TCS falls most in 2 yrs

Indian shares fell 1.6 percent to their lowest close in two weeks on Tuesday, with export-driven Tata Consultancy Services sliding the most in more than two years over uncertain global economic outlook. 


Concerns foreign funds could pull out more from India, which has been one of the world's worst performing markets this year, also weighed. 


Traders said investor sentiment was dented by comments from the German finance minister against a quick-fix to Europe's debt problems, slowing growth in China and a warning on France's sovereign credit rating. 

Vijay Mallya's white house in the sky

Mumbai can boast of Mukesh Ambani's $1 billion Antilla, Delhi has its Lutyens' patch, and now Bengaluru gets a billionaire's wonder - a White House in the sky. 


Kingfisher Towers-Residences at UB City, the new home of India's flamboyant business tycoon, Vijay Mallya, as well as other billionaires is under way and will be completed in the next three years. 


TOI, in its July 11, 2008, edition, was the first to break the news that Vijay Mallya was razing down his ancestral home on Vittal Mallya Road to make way for a ultra-high end 34-storey millionaires ' paradise on top of which he would have a penthouse. 

HDFC Ltd Sept qtr net up 20 pct

India's top mortgage lender HDFC Ltd posted a 20 percent rise in net profit for the quarter-ended September led by higher income from operations and profit on sale of investments.


HDFC said its net profit increased to 9.71 billion rupees from 8.08 billion a year ago. Income from operations rose to 40.77 billion rupees from 29.07 billion rupees in the year-ago period.


Profit from sale of investments stood at 868.8 million rupees while its net interest margin for the September quarter was at 4.3 percent.


Its loan book size also increased by a fifth to 1.27 trillion rupees as of Sept. 30 - in line with its annual guidance.

TCS Q2 net up 15%; says economic uncertainty remains

India's top software exporter Tata Consultancy Services said it does not expect to increase its prices in the near term due to global economic uncertainty, after posting a slightly lower-than-expected 14.7 percent rise in quarterly net profit. 


India's showpiece $76 billion industry gets more than 90 percent of its revenue from providing technology services to overseas clients and counts the United States and Europe as its biggest markets. 


Europe is the second largest market for the software firms, and the euro zone debt crisis is a worry for the sector that has been looking to increase its sales to the region to hedge against their excessive exposure to the United States. 

Raj Rajaratnam sentenced to 11 years in prison

Raj Rajaratnam

Raj Rajaratnam, a self-made hedge fund tycoon convicted in the biggest Wall Street trading scandal in a generation, was ordered on Thursday to serve 11 years in prison, one of the longest sentences ever in an insider-trading case. 

Pak to grant MFN status to India - Hina Rabbani Khar

Pakistan has decided in principle to grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said, citing a number of achievements in bilateral ties.


Khar made the remarks while speaking during question hour in the national assembly or lower house of parliament on Wednesday evening. She did not provide details as to when the matter would be finalised. India bestowed MFN status on Pakistan in 1996.

Scam 2.0: $40bn of black money may have come back to India

On Tuesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flagged off Lal Krishna Advani's Jan Chetna Yatra, one of whose aims to is pressure the government to act against corruption and bring back the black money stashed abroad.

Here's a thought: Maybe Advani can take a break and chat up some smart cookies in Mumbai during his yatra. It seems some of the black money has already come back and is nesting in our own backyard. It is sloshing about in the stock markets and bank accounts.
Here's the stunner: The amounts involved could be as large as USD 40-45 billion and this is money that came back just in one year, 2010-11.


Three analysts from Kotak Securites have probably struck paydirt in unearthing a scam that will be bigger than the 2G, Commonwealth and multiple illegal mining scams put together.
Howzatt?

Force India re-named Sahara Force India

Sahara Force India

With just 19 days to go for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix , the Sahara Group bought 42.5 percent stake, worth US $100 million, in the Vijay Mallya-owned Force India F1 team.

Sahara Group buys 42.5% stake in Mallya's Force India team

Sahara Force India

With just 19 days to go for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, Sahara Group on Wednesday bought 42.5% stake, worth $100 million, in the Vijay Mallya owned Force India F1 team, which has been re-christened as Sahara Force India.


Sahara Group, headed by Subroto Roy, inked an agreement with Mallya's UB Group, which will also have 42.5% stake in the team.


The remaining 15% will be with the Mol family.

Infosys announced Q2 results [Detailed Report]

Infosys announced Q2 results (September 2011) today, beating expectations substantially. Revenues were up 8% from last quarter to 8099 cr. and Net profits up 9.73% from last year, to 1906 cr.


The stock is up 5% and has lifted the index up with it, with both the Nifty and Sensex up 1%.


Revenues and Profits

Revenue growth has returned but much of the spike is from the strong dollar. In dollar terms, Revenues grew 4.5% (QoQ) — the remaining has come from the dollar move. The USD-INR equation has moved 4% in their favour (from an average of 44.78 to 46.3)

The Indian IT industry recorded 19 per cent growth in revenues in the 2010-11 financial year to Rs 438,296 crore

The Indian IT industry recorded 19 per cent growth in revenues in the 2010-11 financial year to Rs 438,296 crore ($96.1 billion).

The growth is a significant recovery for the industry, which recorded just 8 per cent growth in 2009-10 in the wake of the global recession in 2008, which made both global and Indian companies cut back on their IT spending.

The figures were compiled by IT industry magazine Dataquest, the flagship publication of media house CyberMedia, which conducts an annual research study on the state of the industry.

According to the findings, exports accounted for two-thirds (66.4 per cent) of the industry's revenues, while the domestic market accounted for the remaining one-third (33.6 per cent) in 2010-11.

However, revenues from the domestic market experienced higher growth than exports in the financial year. Domestic IT revenues grew by 23 per cent to Rs 147,152 crore in FY'11, while exports clocked 17 per cent growth to Rs 291,144 crore.

While IT services exports grew by 21 per cent in FY'11 (compared to 6 per cent in FY'10) and engineering services exports grew by 22 per cent (compared to 6 per cent in the previous year), BPO exports growth slowed down to just 7 per cent, compared to 13 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Total services exports from India stood at $64 billion in FY'11, including IT software/services and BPO.

"The slowdown in 2009 and 2010 made the industry more efficient and mature. With the growth now back, the Indian IT industry can look forward to more depth, innovation and global spread in 2011-12," said Pradeep Gupta, the Chairman of CyberMedia India.

Hewlett-Packard India was the largest IT player in the domestic market, while TCS was the largest exporter from India and also the largest company across all categories.

Within the Indian domestic market, computer hardware sales jumped by 28 per cent. Software and services revenues grew by 19 per cent each, clearly indicating that enterprises have resumed their spend on new infrastructure creation and hardware replacement.

However, certain segments within software, such as business intelligence (BI), did particularly well. BI grew at 38 per cent.

The segment, which had grown by 44 per cent in FY'10, is the new focus for investment among large enterprise CIOs, as top executives are now relying more and more on analytics to take business decisions, Dataquest notes.

The research also reveals that most of the consumer technology segments, such as laptops, smartphones, and storage devices (MP3 players, digital cameras, consumer storage media), recorded impressive growth in FY'11.

Smartphones (revenues of Rs 8,796 crore) experienced the maximum growth in revenue terms across all categories, at 97 per cent. Computer hardware sales of Rs 29,151 crore included servers (Rs 2,709 crore), desktop computers (Rs 13,341 crore) and laptop computers (Rs 13,301 crore).

The Top 7 IT companies notched up revenues of over Rs 10,000 crore each, namely TCS (Rs 29,801 crore); Infosys (Rs 25,477 crore); Cognizant (Rs 21,393 crore); Wipro (Rs 19,421 crore); Hewlett-Packard (Rs 19,022 crore); HCL Technologies (Rs 13,264 crore) and HCL Infosystems (Rs 11,773 crore), totalling Rs 140,151 crore.

Why is the US dollar strengthening?

Despite the weakness of the US economy, high level of debt and downgrade of its long-term debt, the US dollar and the US Treasury securities continue to be in demand. How can a weak currency support a strong currency. Here's why: 


Greek Crisis 
The debt crisis in the euro zone, fears of default by Greece and breakup of the euro zone has been weighing down the euro. 


Volatile Market 
In uncertain times, investors prefer to cash over risky financial assets such as stocks. Global sell-off in stocks has increased demand for dollar and led to its appreciation. 


Operation Twist 
Fed's recent action of injecting liquidity by replacing long term bonds with short-term bonds instead of printing more money has prevented an increase in supply of dollar. 


Safe Haven 
The US dollar is still considered a safe haven despite all the troubles with the US and the central banks across the world continue to buy US Treasury securities. 


Outlook 
Indian Rupee to improve to Rs 46.3 to a dollar by March 2012, according to DBS. Consensus poll of Bloomberg estimates US/Rupee at Rs 44.1 by March. The euro too may recover some of its recent losses. 

Three Kerala IT firms win Nasscom honours

MobME Wireless, Innoz Technologies and Flytxt, all headquartered at the Technopark campus here, feature in the Nasscom's list of 50 top emerging IT companies in the country this calendar year. 


MobME Wireless and Flytxt have been chosen in the Emerge Innovation category and Innoz Technologies in the Emerge Start-ups category, said a Nasscom release issued here on Monday. 


Nasscom Emerge Leaders Awards is an initiative which has been started exclusively for the emerging/start-up IT companies to showcase their unique value proposition and create a distinct niche for them. 


The focus of this year's Emerge Conclave was on exploring how emerging and start-up companies can build economic value out of emerging web based social platforms, mobile and AppStore. MobME, Innoz and Flytxt were chosen as winners from a total of 350 applicants. 


Congratulating these companies, Technopark CEO Mervin Alexander said their business incubation division had put in lot of effort to identify innovative companies and nurture them to become a reckoning force globally. 


"Technopark can today boast of many such companies that are now creating waves globally with their breakthrough technologies," said Alexander. 


MobME Wireless CEO Sanjay Vijayakumar said that the award was a recognition of their efforts to constantly innovate and create solutions that would change the way of doing business in the telecom industry in India. 


Kerala has 300 IT companies which employ close to 50,000 IT professionals. 


Of the 1,300 member Nasscom companies, 27 are from Kerala. At the first ever executive committee meeting held here last month, the eighth office of Nasscom in the country was opened here. 

Free roaming, high broadband speeds in new telecom policy

The new telecom policy will bring cheer to consumers with the government on Monday proposing to remove roaming charges for subscribers within the country, exponentially increasing broadband availability and speed and allowing for mobile numbers to be ported to any part of the country.


According to the draft of the new telecom policy unveiled by communications minister Kapil Sibal, roaming charges will be done away with and users will be allowed to port their mobile numbers, keeping the same number, even while switching service areas.


The distinction between local and STD calls would vanish, as the policy aims at a 'one-nation-one-licence' regime.


Telecom operators would not require separate licences for operations in various parts of the country and a single licence would suffice.


The new policy also proposed to accord the telecom industry the status of an infrastructure sector, which will help ease credit flow to companies for funding roll-out plans or expansion activities.


Mobile service providers would also benefit from the policy as it proposes to allow companies to pool, share and later trade spectrum -- a scarce resource. The minister also said the government would look at bringing legislation for governance of spectrum.


"We believe it is imperative to move towards convergence of telecom, broadcast and IT services, networks, technologies and overcome all existing segregation of licensing, registration and regulatory mechanisms with the objective of enhancing access and reduce costs," Sibal said while unveiling the draft of the new policy.


"We will seek Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) recommendations on new licences, migration to new licences and exit policy," Sibal said.


"Revenue generation will play a secondary role," he added.


In the wake of the 2G scam, the minister said spectrum allocation would be delinked from licences and radiowaves would be made available at market-determined prices.


As the market is crowded with too many players, the government would also bring an exit policy.


Sibal also said that his ministry was targeting increasing rural tele-density from the current 35 per cent to 60 per cent by 2017 and completely covering rural areas by 2020.


Broadband penetration is another key thrust area for the new policy. The minister said the government was targeting 175 million broadband users by 2017, and increasing this to 600 million by 2020.


The final telecom policy will be announced by December.

Infosys Q2 profit seen up 9.9% at Rs 1891 cr

Country's second largest software services exporter Infosys is set to report a growth of 9.9% quarter-on-quarter in profit of Rs 1,891 crore for the second quarter of FY12, according to CNBC-TV18 estimates. Net profit for the previous quarter of current financial year was Rs 1,720 crore.

Revenues are expected to jump 7.9% to Rs 8,080 crore as against Rs 7,485 crore, quarter-on-quarter basis.


CNBC-TV18 expects earnings per share of Infosys to rise by 9.1% to Rs 32.9 in the quarter ended September 2011.


Earning before interest and tax (EBIT) for the July-September quarter of 2012 is likely to be at Rs 2187 crore, a growth of 12% compared to Rs 1952 crore in previous quarter.

Full text: India Inc's letter to govt on corruption

New Delhi: Leaders of the Indian industry have once again written a letter to the government expressing their concerns over corruption.

Here is the full text of the letter:

On January 17, 2011, we, a group of like-minded citizens who were deeply concerned with the state of affairs of the nation addressed an Open Letter to our leaders. This letter focused on four issues - (a) Growing Governance Deficit (b) Galloping Corruption (c) The urgent need to distinguish between 'Dissent' and 'Disruption' and (d) Environmental Challenges. The Open Letter received wide exposure in the public domain and was generally perceived as being timely. As mentioned in the first Open Letter, the aim of the group is to develop specific actions regarding the above-mentioned issues and place these in the public domain from time to time. It is in this context that we put forward our second Open Letter.

CNN-IBN

August 27, 2011 marked a high point by the historic debate leading to the 'Sense of the House' in the Parliament on the Lokpal Bill. The event reinforced the inviolable primacy of the Indian Constitution. It was also an event of relief and reassurance to the vast and silent majority who constitute India's core civil society.

We support the need for the urgent passage of a well-crafted Lokpal Bill by the Parliament. While the Parliament debates the contours of the Lokpal Bill, the discussion of the details now resides with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice. We, however, believe that the Lokpal Bill is only one small but critical step in the national task of weeding out the plague of corruption in India. This draft Lokpal Bill is intended to address EPISODIC CORRUPTION, but is unlikely to have any significant impact on the DAY-TO-DAY CORRUPTION which is insidious and demeaning.

We, the people, the common individual, seem to have no recourse in our daily life which is vitiated by corruption in almost every sphere of our normal dealings. Almost every interface of the common man with public officials is impaired by corruption, especially in the most routine transactions, such as the grant of 'pattas', issuing of birth/death certificates, utility connections and availing of entitlements amongst several others. Similar cases of continuous daily harassment are widely faced by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and numerous services and manufacturing entities.

The Group wishes to put forward some issues which call for urgent attention and action to make reforms effective and have a positive and perceptible impact on citizens' day-to-day life.

1. The common man (the poor bear the greatest burden) is a silent sufferer because available constitutional remedies remain inaccessible. Several antiquated laws require urgent overhaul to reflect contemporary realities. LAND, JUDICIAL, ELECTORAL and POLICE reforms are most urgently needed. Key recommendations and draft legislation on most of these issues are already in the public domain. It is imperative, however, that legislative reforms be constructively and constitutionally debated in a time-bound and orderly manner and not in uncivil and hostile environments. DISRUPTION, both in the Parliament and outside is socially debilitating and erodes public confidence.

2. It is acknowledged that a strong nexus exists between certain corporates, politicians, bureaucrats and power brokers. This is one of the greatest threats for the Indian economy. It may be worth mentioning that the UK, in July 2011, enacted the 'The Bribery Act, 2010'. The Act makes it illegal TO OFFER, RECEIVE AND FAIL TO PREVENT BRIBERY and extends culpability to the highest levels in an accused corporation. Only if timely and punitive action is taken against both, THE GIVER AS WELL AS THE RECEIVER OF THE BRIBE, will the fight against ground level corruption be won effectively.

3. Even the best crafted legislation will not cleanse the system unless effective REDRESSAL MECHANISMS are put in place. This, however, is not possible given the acute backlog of cases pending in the courts, estimated at over 3.1 crore. India has 10 judges per million population compared to 50 in the UK and 107 in the US. The adage of justice delayed is justice denied is the key reason why the common man is unable to fight against corruption. It is imperative to increase the number of judges and other judicial officers, modernise infrastructure and implement judicial reforms such as creating additional fast-track, specialised courts.

4. While we appreciate and support the need for environmental protection, it should be recognised that there is an impasse on ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCES which continues to delay several investment proposals and hamper economic growth. Among other measures, it is worthwhile considering the introduction of an on-line AUCTION process for allocation of natural resources which will provide the much needed TRANSPARENCY and prevent discretionary and irregular practices. Owing to several such impediments, fresh investments are not forthcoming at the pace required for a rapidly growing economy such as ours. Policy uncertainties and delays in approvals are forcing many large corporate entities to seek out opportunities in other geographies.

We wholeheartedly endorse Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh's statement that economic progress must not be hijacked by internal dissensions. Therefore, India's focus must remain steadfast on economic reforms and growth in order to reduce poverty and ensure adequate job creation. These national challenges cannot be solved by urban protests and posturing.

We are working with a group of professionals who have been specially commissioned by us to study issues of governance and public accountability. The results of this study, when completed, will be made available to Parliamentary Committees as may be appropriate when these issues are discussed.

We wish to reiterate that through URGENT and CONCERTED ACTION by the elected leaders of our country, positive transformation can begin to be achieved.

Sd/-

Mr N Vaghul

Mr Deepak Parekh

Dr Ashok Ganguly

Mr Jamshyd Godrej

Justice Sam Variava

Prof M Narasimham

Mr Yezdi Malegam

Ms Anu Aga

Dr A Vaidyanathan

Dr Bimal Jalan

Mr Keshub Mahindra

Mr Azim Premji

Mr Nachiket Mor

Justice B N Srikrishna

Date: October 3, 2011

Unitech files petition against partner Telenor

Telenor's India mobile phone joint-venture partner, Unitech, said on Tuesday it had filed a petition before the Company Law Board in India, alleging mismanagement of the venture by the Norwegian firm and its key executives, escalating a rift between the partners.


Telenor and Unitech have been at loggerheads over a planned $1.7 billion rights issue in the joint venture, which trades under the Uninor brand name. Telenor owns 67.25 percent of the joint venture and Unitech owns the remainder.


Telenor has said the rights issue is to secure long-term funding for the venture as bank loans to the telecoms sector have dried up after a graft scandal.


Unitech, which is India's No.2 listed property firm, said Telenor last November refused a long-term debt of 90 billion rupees ($1.8 billion) from India's top lender State Bank of India and was now seeking to "enforce" a rights issue.


Unitech said the joint venture does not now need funds. It also said Telenor and its executives were not running the business in the best interest of Uninor and its workforce.


A Telenor spokesman for Asia did not return calls.


The joint venture Unitech Wireless and Unitech's managing director, Sanjay Chandra, are among the three companies and 14 people charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a massive telecoms licensing scandal. All accused have denied any wrongdoing.


Telenor has said the events described in the CBI charges predate its investments in India.


The Company Law Board is an independent quasi-judiciary body that rules on corporate matters.