Accountancy
Chinks in the lease norms
K. Srinivasan says the ICAI's proposed standard on leases does not hit the grade.
Groping in the dark
S. Murlidharan says that book-builders could be operating in an information void when participating in `price discovery'.
Narrow margin
LAST weekend I spent an evening at the wedding reception of a friend's nephew. The bridegroom, say BG, had finished his CA about a year ago, after about a dozen attempts by when he was nearing the marriageable age. My friend informed me, amidst the din o
f the mandatory nadaswaram and thavil in the mandapam, that the boy had almost given up hopes of qualifying and any consequent advantages that it could bestow upon him, but he had suggested to BG: ``Why not ask for a re-totalling?''
Economy
Digital economy and product cycle management -- Lead, follow or get out of the way
FOR SOME time now, economists have realised that many of the market economy's laws are being rewritten by the growing reliance on software and knowledge-based products. These have the potential of revolutionising the workings of the entire capitalist eco
nomy. These comprise communication, education and entertainment in digital form. The digital economy's appearance represents the current high-water-mark of this knowledge-based economy, with knowledge encoded in digital form.
Editorial
Chinese `chucker'
THE RECENT NATIONWIDE Customs drive against ``smuggled and undervalued Chinese consumer goods'' is important for two reasons. First, that such a step had to be taken indicates clearly the seriousness of the threat posed by these imports to domestic produ
cts.
Fertilisers
Fertiliser subsidy coupons: Impracticable?
THE PRESENT method of subsidising fertilisers, that is, selling at a uniform price below the reasonable cost of supply, has come under flak in view of its alleged benefit to the more well-to-do farmers and the producers of fertilisers. As an alternative,
economists have come up with the idea of targeting subsidy and making it transparent.
Information Technology
Being small
When Po Bronson in his recent best seller, The Nudist on the Late Shift, says that the software guys have this terrible dilemma of making career choices which he calls the ``ABCDEFG problem'' ranging from A -- joining a ``start up such as 3MDO'' -- to G
-- a job ``bringing $2 million worth of stock option in Microsoft'' -- and a whole range of choices in between, he seems to state the obvious.
Miscellaneous
Will they live happily ever after?
I PICKED up a delightful book for children the other day. It is called Trouble on Thunder Mountain, and the story, by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake, is about a dinosaur family going about its own business, growing vegetables and watching television, (`
Rocky Dinosaur - Secret Agent', and `The Extinct Road Show', among other things.)
States
`We will continue knocking at court doors' -- Ms Medha Patkar, NBA activist
The Sardar Sarovar Dam over the Narmada has taken the centrestage again, following the Supreme Court ruling that allows resumption of the dam's construction, which had been stayed for the past five years.
