Sukanya Verma looks at the recent spate of book-to-screen adaptations.
Barring stray references such as the 'dual control' of banks and shifting the goalposts during demonetisation, he is not in a fault-finding mode with the government, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Sensex is on course to ending calendar year (CY) 2019 at a price-earnings (P/E) multiple of 29x, the highest in 25 years. Current valuations are, however, lower than those seen in the early 1990s. The Sensex has risen close to 14 per cent in the last 12 months, while the index underlying EPS dropped 6.7 per cent during the period.
A common factor that binds all these men is greed.
'The Modi government has been taking credit for improvement in respect of the ease of doing business in India.' 'But when I look at the scams I cannot help feeling that it is too easy to do business with banks in India, if one is a Harshad Mehta, Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi and their tribe,' says former Union home secretary Madhav Godbole.
'The book captures Rana Kapoor's hunger for real estate leading to bungalows in Delhi, Mumbai, London and other cities; the multiple companies -- over 100 -- to fund his family's various ventures; the attempt to game the system by showing lower non-performing assets,' notes Joydeep Ghosh.
The PNB fiasco falls into a family line that involves non-fund limits - read contingent liabilities which are off-books. Harshad Mehta did it with bankers' receipts in 1992. Ketan Parekh exploited the ignorance of bankers who did not know the difference between a cheque and a pay-order. And the RBI blinked when it failed to insist the SWIFT platform be linked to the core banking solution. Raghu Mohan & Abhijit Lele trace the banking mess that was just waiting to happen.
Home-grown fare, international discoveries, brand new seasons of hugely anticipated series, Sukanya Verma lists her top 10 OTT shows.
'After 23 years of making films, you feel vindicated that you stuck to your guns and continues to try different things.'
Here is a look at some of Aseem Chhabra's favourite memories of 2020 in Hindi cinema, performances by well-known and new actors, special moments in films and shows.
Radhakishan Damani is the only billionaire to see his wealth grow by around 20% during the lockdown.
Indian business, on quite a different trajectory from its global counterpart, remains relatively insulated from any kind of backlash.
Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2020.
'...Rs 137 lakh crores of people's money?' 'It is not the government's money, it is people's money.'
'Amitabh Bachchan Sir said some nice and encouraging things about the trailer, the way I directed it and, of course, about Abhishek's performance.'
Business is down to such an extent that last year these firms could not even meet RBI's capital norm of Rs 50 million for partnerships and Rs 100 million for public and private firms in this line of business.
'Revelations about his assaults on young women mean that his reputation and all that he has stood for is in tatters for all time,' says Aakar Patel.
The classic Third Year or Mid-Term Problem has afflicted all but two prime ministers who have lasted a full term, give or take a few months this way or that, points out T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Uncertainty lingers in the minds of retail investors due to scams.
'The Indian market has all the factors at the moment: Over-valuation, over-confidence, reliance on some source of massive fund flows and massive scams.' 'The trigger for a collapse could also have arrived.' warns Devangshu Datta.
Today, they can't meet even the piffling capital norm set by Mint Road - Rs 5 crore for partnerships and Rs 10 crore for public and private firms in this line of business. Bulk of the trades are put through e-platform offerings of Reuters, Bloomberg, JPMorgan, Barclays or Deutsche Bank. And they have the web-based FXall, FXconnect, Atriax, Hotspotfx and LavaFX for company.
Ram Jethmalani passed away a few days before his 96th birthday on September 14.
The company was looking to raise around Rs 1,800 crore for a stake sale of 10 per cent.
It appears that the BJP government has succeeded in managing the communication of the PNB scam in a manner that its adverse impact on its electoral fortunes is largely contained
'Four weeks have passed after the scam was exposed, yet no big guy has been arrested.' 'This gives the impression that he wants to be soft on the biggies.'
In good times, analysts justify valuations giving interesting investment rationale.
'What does the nation get out of the CBI's fabulous infrastructure? Very little that is useful.'
He is talking, making sense, and India is listening. Rahul Gandhi needs to listen to him, too, says Shekhar Gupta.
Each scam that comes out in the open shows the regulators to be miles behind.
The stocks Radhakishan Damani enters or exits are closely watched by fund managers, says Joydeep Ghosh.
The finance ministry is not only keen to split the roles of CMD, but also wants to appoint them for a fixed tenure of five years.
That "Rollback Budget" ushered in an era of rollback.
'There are different ways in which some are lucky through their lives. My great boon has been serendipity,' says Subir Roy.
It could be a matter of concern that foreign shareholders of the NSE are registered in tax havens such as Mauritius and Cyprus.
The markets tend to react six to eight months in advance
During the Congress regime, India did witnessa slew of reforms which are now taken up by the Modi government too.
Commodity futures market's dream run came to a halt in 2013 as a Rs 5,600 crore scam in Jignesh Shah-led spot exchange NSEL and imposition of transaction tax on non-farm items hampered the growth of business, with turnover estimated to dip by 30 per cent to Rs 125 lakh crore.
Nifty has a virtual monopoly in the index derivatives segment.
'NiMo having skipped, the next best bet is a high-profile banker.' 'Ms Usha happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.' 'Ms Usha's crime? That's as thin as it gets.'
Dr Raghuram Rajan's departure holds lessons for all, be it sections of the media, politicians or the people themselves. We need to learn how to value and retain talent. At the same time the talented must realise that talent alone does not ensure the top job, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
