The Hindu Business Line : Thursday, October 20, 2005

Balancing act in Geneva
THE PRIME MINISTER, Dr Manmohan Singh's suggestion that the country's negotiators in Geneva — working on a draft declaration acceptable to all parties for the December Hong Kong ministerial of the World Trade Organisation — should ... More

ECONOMY

JOTTINGS
Beware the backlash
ECONOMIST Paul Krugman warned recently that free trade liberals have to fear a likely backlash from American labour. Faced with further cuts in the already stagnant hourly wage-rates, under competitive pressure, and ... More

ACCOUNTANCY

We have too many people watching the pot!
TO WAKE a wolf is as bad as to smell a fox, says Falstaff to Lord Chief-Justice, in King Henry IV, part II. And Hamlet may philosophise, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." But what happened in Refco's case is ... More

Will the company secretary stand up?
N. R. Sridharan looks at the issues confronting the profession of company secretary More

POLITICS

Mitrokhin Archives — Politics in the Cold War years
The more important question that arises from Vasily Mitrokhin's revelations is not whether any individual or political party received money from one or the other superpower, but whether their foreign links compromised national security and sovereignt y. Both superpowers expended huge resources to "win hearts and minds" worldwide. There were many who believed in the values, ideals and policies practised by one or the other of the contending parties. G. Parthasarathy recalls the Cold War pol itics vis-à-vis India. More

LETTERS

Education loans
This is with reference to the article, "New pvt banks lag behind in granting education loans in Kerala", (Business Line, October 19). Private sector banks lag behind in granting education loans not only in Kerala but in the other States as ... More

Independent directors
This is with reference to the article, "Regulators may have say on more independent directors: Company Law to set minimum number", (Business Line, October 19). What if the provision is used to appoint politicians as independent ... More

Opening the LoC
It is said that God creates problems for people so that they can become more humane. From the enormous scale of damage caused to people on both sides of the Line of Control, has emerged a silver lining. The Pakistan President has thrown open ... More

IT for poll contestants
According to a TV news channel, several of the contestants in the Bihar Assembly elections have declared family incomes exceeding Rs 1 crore per annum. It will be interesting to know if they have declared this in their income-tax returns and paid ... More