Of B-schools shutting shop....

Management programmes across the country may be losing some of their sheen. Latest figures released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) show that 147 standalone B-schools and MBA programmes offered by engineering institutions across the country closed down in the last academic year. The number of postgraduate diploma programmes in management institutes has also dropped from 606 to 600 in the same period.
Maharashtra where 24 MBA colleges shut down and TN with 23 account for the largest number of closures followed by Andhra Pradesh with 19. Among other states, only Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala have shown growth by adding new institutions.They have each started one new institution in this period.
Educational consultants said most institutions closed down because of lack of patronage.The decline started a couple of years ago after a dip in number of registrations for CAT, scores of which determine admission to the premier Indian Institutes of Managements and other management programmes across the country .

BJP's Vision Document for Delhi

BJP released it's `vision document' which incorporates old promises, recent central government announcements and its CM candidate Kiran Bedi's `blueprint' that she tweeted with the hashtag #KiransBlueprint last week.
The 24-page document lists 37 key areas, of which nine will be addressed first if BJP comes to power. Bedi said, “Women's safety, youth affairs, power and water, housing, civic infrastructure and transport, cleanliness and health, trade, education and skill development, jobs and environment top the agenda. All nine rank number one on my priority list“.
Bedi's stamp is evident on the document, as 10 of the 25 points from her agenda have been incorporated. The last page of the document mentions her six S's (Surakshit, Swachh, Saakshar, Saksham, Sanskari and Sab ki Dilli) for the capital.
Bedi released the document at an event where Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay , state in-charge Prabhat Jha, and Union ministers Anant Kumar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Harsh Vardhan were also present. However, they refused to answer any questions on the document. Controversially , the document refers to people from the Northeast as “immigrants“ and does not mention the demand for full statehood.
BJP has listed projects and welfare schemes the Narendra Modi-led Centre has planned for the city . Apart from women's safety , there's a detailed plan for upgrading the city's transport and road infrastructure. It promises scrapping of BRT, Metro connectivity in rural areas, construction of third Ring Road, development of Eastern and Western expressways, more footbridges and interlinking of transport services, among other things.
With AAP trying to woo traders, minorities and scheduled castes, BJP has announced several schemes for them. For traders, it promises accidental insurance cover, suspension of T2 form (submitted when goods are bought from other states) for two years followed by its discontinuation, freehold conversion of industrial plots, simplified VAT payment and a constitution of Special Trade Board--all longstanding demands of traders.
In the education sector, BJP has promised 85% reservation for Delhiites in city colleges and strengthening of Right to Education. For the poor, it has reiterated its old stand of providing housing, regularization of unauthorized colonies, regular water supply and upgrading of sports infrastructure.
The document states new departments and boards will be set up to streamline the government's functioning. It plans to set up a department of public security which will look into food security , an accountability commission to ensure proper utilization of public funds, Madrasa Board, Delhi Financial Corporation that will grant loans to women entrepreneurs, Delhi Yamuna Development Tribunal for cleaning the river.

Air Pegasus

Another low-cost regional airline will soon fly the southern skies. Air Pegasus, which received air operator’s permit last year, plans to start services from its Bengaluru base to Thiruvananthapuram, Hubli and Chennai by mid-February. “We are planning to start services between February 15 and 20 and booking is likely to begin a week before the launch date. The first flight will be from Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram. We will have a fleet of three ATR aircraft. The first aircraft has already arrived. We are planning a ‘proving flight’ next week as per DGCA specifications,” said managing director Shyson Thomas.
Fares are expected to be Rs.700 to Rs.1,000 lower than competitors. A ‘proving flight’ is to check if a new airline complies with operations, ground-handling and other procedures and facilities.
In the current schedule, the first aircraft will be used to fly Bengaluru-Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru, Bengaluru-Hubli-Bengaluru, Bengaluru-Chennai, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai and back to Bengaluru.
Chennai will be the second hub after Bengaluru. “We will operate services from Chennai to Tuticorin, Rajahmundry, Hyderabad and Kochi when the next two planes arrive by March. All formalities to acquire the planes have been completed,“ he added.
The carrier is backed by its parent company and airport ground-handling firm Decor Aviation, which has provided Air Pegasus $15 million in loans along with Canara Bank, providing $5 million, says a report by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
The airline also plans to cut down costs by offering ground handling to its parent company .
Air Costa, a Hyderabad based regional carrier, which received licence for regional airline along with Air Pegasus two years ago, has started flying on national routes and also connects Chennai with Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Chennai-based Premier Air has also received license to operate as regional carrier.

Petrol, Diesel prices cut

State-run fuel retailers have reduced petrol price by Rs.2.42 per litre and diesel by Rs.2.25, but the motor fuels still remain costlier than jet fuel -which costs Rs.47.69 per litre in Mumbai -due to four consecutive hikes in excise duty .
Petrol in Mumbai will cost Rs.63.90 from Wednesday , down from Rs.66.36, and diesel Rs.52.99, against the earlier rate of Rs.55.47.
Tuesday's revision marks the tenth straight cut in petrol since last August and sixth in diesel rates since October.The petrol price is lowest since September 2010, while diesel is cheapest since March 2013.
The sharp reductions come three days before Delhi goes to polls. The retailers normally announce revision in rates on the 14th and last day of each month. This time, however, they took two more than days to do so. No reason was given.
Even after the reduction, the retailers are making a margin of Rs.4 a litre on petrol and about Rs.3.6 per litre on diesel which they want to use for recouping inventory losses. Oil firms buy crude oil at one price but by the time it is processed and turned into fuel -a process that may take up to six weeks -a fall in international rates results in inventory loss.
The government raised excise duty four times since November, totalling Rs.7.75 a litre on petrol and Rs.7.50 on diesel. But for the excise hike, the cumulative reduction of Rs.17.11 per litre in petrol price in 10 cuts since August and Rs.12.96 a litre on diesel since its deregulation in October, would have been higher.
Petrol and diesel prices were last cut on January 17 by Rs.2.42 and Rs.2.25 a litre respectively . 

BJP targets Kejriwal in Delhi campaign

Chidu has the last laugh

At the outset, nobody would believe that India's economy expanded by double-digits only four years earlier and the growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP) dived to as little as below four per cent during the global financial crisis period of 2008-09. Yet, these would be the facts if one measures growth in terms of the new official definition.
The revised definition and change in the base year will add sheen to the second stint of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, on its management of the economy. And, moderately take it away for the first tenure of the Manmohan Singh government, compared to the older method of computing GDP.
Particularly, questions might be raised about handling of the global financial crisis period of 2008-09 by the then government.
The new definition would throw out surprising results for performance of the economy, making some years worse and others better than considered till now. The second stint of the UPA government has yielded a 7.5 per cent average annual growth rate in the new parameters, against 6.7 per cent with the older one and the previous base year of 2004-05. If only the base year is changed to 2011-12 and the older concept of GDP is used, the average annual growth will be 7.1 per cent.
The government will henceforth measure GDP at market prices, which includes indirect taxes. Till now, the government has been computing it in terms of GDP at factor cost, which excludes these.
Also, intellectual property products have been added to the new definition of GDP.
Besides, the base year has been changed to 2011-12 from 2004-05 but this will impact only the last two years of the UPA government.
On the other hand, the first stint of the Manmohan Singh government had delivered eight per cent annual growth compared to the 8.4 per cent measured earlier.
The UPA government had drawn flak for growth slowing to a decadal low in 2012-13 and below five per cent for the consecutive years of 2012-13 and 2013-14. However, in the new methodology, the rate was not below five per cent in these two years; 2012-13 delivered 5.1 per cent and 2013-14 one of 6.9 per cent. These are much higher than the 3.7 per cent that the global financial crisis year yielded in the new method (the earlier measure had this at 6.7 per cent).
Beside, the economy rose 10.3 per cent in 2010-11 against 8.9 per cent in the older measure.
One thing that does not change is the pattern of growth in the three years prior to 2008-09, when US financial services icon Lehman Brothers had collapsed, triggering a global financial meltdown. In both methods, the economy produced a growth rate of over nine per cent in each of these three years.
However, due to the much lower growth in global financial crisis period of 2008-09 under the new set of numbers, the growth rate under UPA-1 was a bit lower than under the previous methodology.
The new growth numbers also throw up policy issues. The new numbers show that mining and manufacturing, earlier shown as contracting, in fact grew 5.4 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively, in 2013-14. Then does it mean that pressure on the Reserve Bank of India to cut the policy rate was wrong?
Interestingly, the change in computing the GDP growth rate came at a time when the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have started giving India's growth rate on the basis of GDP at factor cost. Earlier, these bodies would give it at market prices. Officials in the finance ministry and Planning Commission would take pains to explain the difference between the two sets to journalists, particularly when IMF projections showed only a 3.75 per cent growth rate for 2013-14.

Jayanti Natrajan quits Congress