Lok Satta News: November 2014

Electricity, land acquisition and labour laws are the three factors that are forcing the entrepreneurs to move to other states from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to pursue business, observed Jaya Prakash Narayan, president, Lok Satta.

He was delivering a talk on ‘Thought Leaders - An Indian Entrepreneur’s Way Forward’ organized by FAPCCI Women in Business (FWB). He particularly focused on the hurdles faced by the entrepreneurs in TS and AP. “One of the key factors is lack of power. Many industries in the State are shutting down due to the shortage of power. Hence, there is a need for an electricity grid exclusively for the industrial activity,” he suggested.

Referring to a recent survey on the entrepreneurs, Jaya Prakash said that India is by far the toughest country for entrepreneur to set up their business.

“As many as 24% of the entrepreneurs have revealed that they have faced severe difficulties in registering for a business,” he said, further adding,

“Fortysix per cent people have revealed that they were troubled for a tax approval while 80% have claimed that getting environmental clearance was a major hurdle. These are only a few of the many factors that are driving the businessmen away from the states and the country all together,” he expressed.

He commented that social factors like caste, religion, region and language have created a bias and are interfering with creation of business in the two states. “A wealth creator does not look at any of these elements as it only creates a hurdle to them,” he added.

Jayesh Ranjan, Managing Director of Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, who was also one of the speakers at the event, spoke on the different steps the state government plans to take in future to lure more entrepreneurs into the State.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express

Supreme Court order on CBI director Ranjit Sinha is perfectly justified. His integrity, judgement and competence are all suspect. Ranjit Sinha should go.

Sinha acted with reckless disregard for truth and public interest in Parakh and SEBI cases. Now SC finds him compromised in 2G case.

CVC needs to come clean and explain how a person like him was appointed in the first place. Clearly the earlier safeguards failed.

This case shows that we need to carefully construct balance among institutions of rule of law. We cannot blindly trust any person or organ.

Activists who put all faith in one all-powerful office or institution are wrong - be it Lokpal or CBI. A network of institutions is the key

Power without accountability is dangerous, particularly in police, prosecution and judiciary. Now we need to restore CBI's credibility.

The new Lokpal law provides for CBI chief's appointment by PM, Chief Justice and Leader of Opposition. Let us hope they will act with wisdom and nobility.

Now is the time to ensure that all constitutional and statutory authorities are appointed by a collegium, and the best are chosen.

(Back in December 2010, Loksatta filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) along with distinguished citizens J.M.Lyngdoh, S. Gopala Swamy, TS Krishnamurthy, Julio Ribeiro, Admiral Tahilyani to cancel the 2G spectrum licenses that were granted without competitive bidding and transparency. The case was argued by Prashant Bhushan and the Supreme Court delivered the verdict on 2nd February 2012 canceling 122 licenses.)