Friday, November 28, 2014

BS, TOI , BL TODAY Readers' choice

TOI
Dec 15 



< "If any crack develops in the judicial system, it will have an adverse impact on the other wings of democracy -- the legislature as well as the executive," Dattu said.
Justice Dattu was of the view that as a custodian of fundamental rights, the judiciary needs some time to assess and ascertain facts before delivering what he termed real justice.

On pending cases, he said the judiciary needs to decide every case on merit and also within the framework of the law. Many cases that could have been decided in the lower courts, often reach the Supreme Court and it should stop, he added. >



In praise of boring governance

It's mind vs mindset in India - Times Of India | Blogs


BL


Yashwant Sinha: time for bold reforms


...<  cautioned that “the government should act, and should be seen as acting, on livelihood issues and quality of life issues. Hopefully the next year’s Union Budget will cater to this area also,” he said.....

He acknowledged that the corporate world was “frustrated” with the delay in bringing out new policies. At the same time, he added: “Reforms in India have always been very difficult and elude consensus among political parties.”>


Need of the times is not simply 'bold' but profoundly

righteous and ideal, not ideological, 'reforms' ; more so, 

"the people oriented".  Diligent Monitoring and 

effective  surveillance of the machinery -that is, of the

"concerned authorities" , lowliest to the top, - 

empowered, and entrusted with duties, hence expected to 

take care of the implementation and enforcement, that have 

been in short supply/perennially in deficit, require to be

geared up and galvanized.


For, after all, "the proof of the pudding is to be seen in its 

eating".  


BS
Dec 12


The nature of intelligence and how it can be measured are contentious. It will take more than scientific debates to make racists change ...
But insurance Bill should make fresh equity mandatory
Problems and possibilities of new traffic rules




BL
Dec 14

Not our fault if govt was sleeping for a year: Uber drivers


Dec 8



Meera Siva
Don’t have the time or money to visit a lawyer? Draft your will online »      1 comment

K R Srivats
If you thought the Modi-led Government would come up with any amnesty scheme for bringing back u... »      2 comments

Passion Pays

Sanjiv Chaudhary
Can a grandmother give a gift of ₹2 lakh to the wife of a grandson (grand daughter-in-law)... »

Brains and Brands

During the last 10 days, I have had several surprising brushes with a rather esoteric area of science that has begun impacting marketing — consumer neuroscience.  

Just a few days later, in Singapore, I met up with Gemma Calvert, a senior fellow at the Institute of Asian Consumer Insight. An internationally renowned cognitive neuroscientist, she is the founder of a firm called Neurosense.

She spoke to me about how neuroscience is rapidly unlocking the consumer brain and how strong skepticism of the early years has given way to growing acceptance of the findings of this powerful science. For instance, it is now acknowledged that around 90 per cent of our behavior is driven by our subconscious brain — and our emotions, not our conscious thoughts, are largely responsible for the decisions we make. Imagine the impact of this on understanding consumer behavior.

 

 
Bag and the Bhat
It’s funny. ....in Europe and just shows the new sensation Alia Bhat walking around in different dresses, carrying different handbags from the Caprese collection. Made by Company, the film has a very pleasing look about it and the use of the celebrity serves its purpose to increase awareness in the right way about the brand. At the end of the film, Alia says “I’m a Caprese girl”, and that’s about the entire “dialogue” in the film. The problem is in deciding whether you can take your eyes off the fetching Alia to take in the details of the handbags.

Mr Brief  says

Shall one say, - missing (not see) the handbags for 'fetching Alia' ; simply for fun, to rhyme with the Proverb, - not see the wood for the trees



TOI 

 
a quixot

The promised simplification of the direct tax code has been in wait for too long, to make one anymore believe that it has not been shelved at least for now. Notably, that has happened /been inevitable, especially because of the scathing but well reasoned criticism from learned circles against some, if not all, of the drastic changes conceived of and proposed to be covered, but pima facie nowhere meeting the need urged for making the law simple and tax payer friendly, with the least scope for long drawn disputes and endless but infractions litigating, often right up to the apex court. With this in the backdrop, the FM should think on the lines of bringing in at least those widely-clamored-for changes, in already identified areas crying loud for rationalization. For instance, (a) doing away with / liberalizing the extant time limits such as for ‘roll over investment’, to qualify for CGT exemption, (b) substantially raising the wealth tax threshold limit to a currently realistic level, so on. Not but not least, all such modifications should be made in a manner as to avoiding once for all the thus-far / historically prolonged disgusting consequences, mainly for reasons of inept / mindless drafting; and thereby ushering in a new era of clarity and ready comprehensibility of the "intention" behind any enactment. May be, there could probably be many more, of the like, which experts of eminence , with a public-centric disposition, be provoked to proffer, ultimately proving for the ‘common good’,- of the taxpayers, and in no small measure, of the Revenue itself, in the long run.


Tax dept goes for friendly image makeover

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