Quotes from Sucheta Dalal

Methinks, that a broker, however good and savvy, will only speak about the stock that interest him after he has bought enough of shares already and is now in the process of booking profits.

An ordinary person who wants to invest in the stock market or a mutual fund, or simply open a saving bank account, is bombarded by ever increasing compliance regulations under the pretext of automation, efficiency, better governance or prevention of money laundering.

There is nothing as nervous as a highly overbought and slightly crazy stock market dominated by greedy small investors and day traders all out to squeeze a huge profit out of the present bull run.

India is no stranger to crises - wars, hijackings, plane crashes - we have seen them all.

Clearly, rules governing advertising aimed at children differ dramatically from one country to another. At the same time, multinational companies are selling their products across the globe. The need, therefore, is to evolve an international code on such advertisements.

In the e-filing system, the accountant has the user identity and password of each company. This would potentially allow a rogue accountant to play serious mischief with the accounts of an entity.

Nobody expects the tax collector to be a friend, but one does expect the government to apply its mind to making payments and refunds fair and user friendly especially for those who are actually paying tax.

Mobile users happily suffer bad connections, dropped calls, inaccessible networks and pay higher charges for services that would have caused endless annoyance on a fixed line.

Companies know that children have disproportionate influence over their parents' purse strings.

Everybody loves to receive gifts and free goodies, and often parents are loath to look out for hidden strings attached to corporate freebies.

Indias rapid economic growth has mainly been due to the dismantling of government controls. An attempt to reintroduce monopolistic pricing must be strongly opposed.

Even in private e-mail groups, it is journalists who seem outraged, anguished and disheartened at what has been described as the 'prostitution' of news; the reader response is always lukewarm.

Sure, investors do tend to overreact, but they are investing real money based on doubtful information. Complacency or a wrong move sees their money literally vanish into thin air.

Secured debentures of the non-convertible variety were the rage in the mid-1980s, but their glamour ended on their maturity when it became obvious that there was nothing secured about them.

Some argue that even physical databases were open to abuse and fake passports or driving licenses were fairly common. But technology, coupled with poor security systems, can ruin innocent victims lives by wiping out their bank balances or investments, or by misusing their identity for dubious deals.

At the end of the day, you have to admit that it's just not cricket anymore; it is a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry, that has to be viewed in a correct and sober perspective.

Every one of us encounters, tolerates and often participates in the most blatant corruption in every aspect of our everyday existence - licenses, permissions, gas connections, until recently the black market in buying telephones and scooters, traffic violations... even violence and murder be it wife-beating, bride burning or bonded labour.