Mewat's biryani politics holds ominous portents

Beefed up for exclusion

Business Standard

Declining inflation softens an unexpectedly sharp fall in the IIP

Where is the recovery?

The new president lacks the political capital for reforms

Brazil's dilemma

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) sent notices to as many as 10 crowdfunding platforms last week, asking them to clarify their business models and explain how they were not in violation of the securities law. Sebi is worried about small investors being sucked into unknown, illiquid companies, as these platforms operate in a regulatory twilight zone. Sebi's discomfort also stems from the fact that none of these platforms meets the critical net worth criterion of ~100 crore required to set up securities exchanges.Sebi's concerns are valid, as crowdfunding platforms, which are in essence a link between investors and companies (typically start-ups), have been gaining popularity as alternative capital-raising facilitators, but they operate without any authorisation or registration. This is not the first time Sebi has raised these concerns. Two years ago, it had come out with a discussion paper proposing a framework to enable domestic start-ups and small and medium enterprise

Crowdfunding blues

Blocking entire web domains hurts genuine users

A torrent of bans

New Delhi must take the lead, ignore provocation

Maturity on Kashmir

Instituting the GST framework will be challenging

Rocky road ahead

Churn in valuation shows indecision about market's potential

Mixed signals on unicorns

India must not rush into ratifying Paris climate deal

Hit the pause button

Judiciary must heed calls to reform the collegium

Reform from within

The utility of G20 meets is an open question

Talking heads

States with high population density must re-imagine industrialisation

The lesson from Singur

The global investment climate favours India

Make it count

EU's ruling renews the debate over tax havens

The Apple tax fallout

Raghuram Rajan's tenure at RBI was path-breaking

Au revoir, Mr Rajan

The World Bank president must revisit his approach

It's Dr Kim, again

Religious leaders should not be addressing legislatures

Don't undermine Constitution

The emerging India-US relationship must be evaluated fairly

The minnow mindset

Raising minimum wage is no compensation for deeper reforms

Wasted labour

Q1 GDP disappoints but hope floats on recovery

A wet blanket

Govt must raise the ease of doing business in seed industry

A seedy affair

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 161 - Editorial Comment