Telgu film makers want to ban dubbed movies

BusinessLine reports

The Telugu film industry is in for a fresh row with Producers' Council deciding to impose curbs on dubbing movies, taking a cue from neighbouring Karnataka.

The council has also called for putting a full stop on dubbing films. It, however, has given a reprieve for those who have already bought rights for dubbing at a very huge consideration.

Such producers are supposed to produce relevant papers within a week. Those films will be released at a later date. "We will not consider any plea later on," the council warned its members.

The argument in favour of the decision is that dubbing movies would destroy the original movie-making in Telugu.

Government might lower petrol prices

FE reports

Petrol and diesel consumers need not expect any immediate cut in fuel prices as the government will consider a reduction only when international crude oil prices fall further and the Indian basket of crude oil touches the $52-a-barrel level.

Politicians may not love markets, but they love to play it

Starch manufacturers want to ban maize exports

FE reports

The All-India Starch Manufacturers’ Association has asked government to ban maize exports and allow imports on user basis due to shortfall in the country, association president Amol Sheth told Crisil MarketWire. Excessive rainfall in maize growing regions in the country this year has impacted production and has widened the supply shortfall by 1.2 million tonne (mt), he said. “Unless the government bans maize exports on lines of wheat and simultaneously allows imports as per user basis requirements, the threat of layoffs cannot be ruled out,” he said.

One good thing is, they are lobbying for imports!

Bad losers

FE writes on Anil Ambani group’s petition challenging the award of the Mumbai and Delhi airport privatisation contracts to the GVK- and GMR-led consortia:

The story of opening up India’s infrastructure sector has been marred often by unnecessary litigation and unfounded allegations of corruption. Every sane Indian knows that rapid and massive growth of infrastructure, through public investment, public-private partnerships and privatisation, lies at the core of India’s sustaining and accelerating its economic growth. Yet, time and again, politicians with deluded ideologies, and private players who have not got some contract for legitimate reasons, have tried to delay the process.

Tough to pay tax

BS reports

India is home to the most burdensome tax administration, as measured by the number of pages of central tax laws, among the world’s top 20 economies, a new study has revealed.

India, ranked 10th among the world’s 20 biggest countries in terms of GDP, has 9,000 pages of primary tax legislation, global accounting major PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a joint study with World Bank.

Cut it further, says Paswan

BS reports

Reacting to widespread criticism of the “farcical” price cut on the 886 generic drugs, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan has expressed disappointment over the industry’s failure to take a substantive step in making the drugs affordable.

“They gave an assurance of a price cut on drugs. The ministry will speak to them as there has been a let-down,” said Paswan while responding to reporters’ observation that the 886 drugs were neither manufactured nor sold by the companies.

Well, well. Healthcare in a country that has poor social development indicators is not that simple. But politicians love to play the role of markets in setting prices

Bombay club

AKB writes in Business Standard:

"Who is opposed to higher FDI limits in retail and insurance? Going by public pronouncements, the Left parties are the most vocal about opposing any relaxation in the FDI policy for these two sectors. They fear that opening up the retail sector to unrestricted foreign players would take away jobs and sound the death knell for millions of small shops in this country. Similarly, a further opening up of the insurance sector, the Left fears, would undermine the interests of the state-owned insurance industry and the country’s economic sovereignty. And since the Left wields considerable influence over the Manmohan Singh government, most analysts believe that any forward movement on these fronts will happen only after the Left is convinced of the proposed changes.

But if you talk to those who deal with such policies in the government, you might come back with a different perception. It is the large Indian retail players who are more worried about the entry of the foreign players if and when the FDI policy is relaxed for the retail sector. It is not just the fear of the small retail shop-owners. The big Indian retail chains also want a little more breathing space to grow and expand their businesses without any competition from the foreign retailers.

Similarly, it is the relatively big insurance players who are not completely open to the idea of a higher FDI"

Save capitalism from capitalists!