Chennai rainfall

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  Motorists wade through water on IT corridor. Photo: M. Karunakaran/The Hindu
  
  
  
  A fallen tree blocked access to 15th Main Road, Anna Nagar, for a while on Thursday. Photo: M. Vedhan/The Hindu
  
  Vehicles stranded on water-logged IT Corridor on Thursday. Photo: M. Karunakaran/The Hindu
  
  
  
  Traffic was thrown out of gear on arterial roads, including in north Chennai, which experienced less rainfall compared to other parts of the city. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam/
  
  
  Trees were uprooted in several places, including on Rukmani Lakshmipathy Road in Egmore. Photo: R. Ragu
  
  The Hindu :September 13, 2013 07:53 IST :
  
  
  The rains may have receded on Thursday, but waters from Tuesday night’s torrential downpour and Wednesday’s night mild shower continued to impact traffic, and low-level areas of the city remained inundated.

  On Thursday, Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam recorded less than one cm of rainfall.

  Several arterial roads, including Nelson Manickam Road, Poonamallee High Road and Sterling Road were held up by traffic snarls. On the IT Corridor, vehicles inched in serpentine queues on the waterlogged stretches in areas such as Perungudi and Kandhanchavadi.

  Residents of Kalaivanar Nagar, Ambattur, staged a road roko demanding that the stormwater drain in their locality be desilted to reduce flooding.

  A few trees too, were uprooted in some areas. Access to 15 Main Road, Anna Nagar was cut off for a while, as a huge tree had fallen on the road.

  In the southern suburbs, Madipakkam was worst affected, as it is during every heavy spell of rain. Residents of Ram Nagar and Sadasivam Nagar in the area spent a sleepless night mopping up ankle-deep water that had entered their homes.

  “I have taken leave from work because of the rains,” said K. Jayaraman, an employee at a private hospital, as he helped his daughter mop up the wet floor in their living room. His apartment complex on Sadasivam Nagar Main Road is completely surrounded by water and the residents here said they spent around Rs. 8,000 tobuy two HP motors a few years ago to drain rainwater.

  At Ram Nagar, some families moved into their relatives’ homes, waiting for the water to recede.

  In Tambaram, S. Sebastin, joint director of municipal administration inspected measures being taken by the local body to combat flood-related problems. A press release said five teams had been formed in Tambaram and Sembakkam municipalities to ensure that chlorinated drinking water was supplied to residents.

  According to the meteorological department, the low-pressure area over west-central Bay of Bengal has become less marked now, and its associated upper cyclonic circulation extends six km above sea level. This is expected to bring moderate to heavy rainfall over the State for two more days. Chennai and its fringes will get a few spells of rain or thundershowers until Saturday.
• The Hindu
  

  
  

Banks function on 14th and 15th September, 2013 (Saturday & Sunday) to accept advance tax payments

PTI | 12 Sep, 2013, 07.59PM

NEW DELHI: Banks authorised to collect advance tax payments will function full day this coming Saturday besides being open on Sunday. 

"All designated branches of authorised banks have been asked to function on 14th and 15th September, 2013 (Saturday & Sunday) to accept advance tax payments,"Finance Ministry said in a statement today. 

If any tax payer fails to pay the advance tax on these two days, then the person can make the payment on September 16, it added. 

Payment of quarterly advance tax on or before 15th September, 2013 by the tax payers is a statutory requirement. 

"All such tax payers who are liable to pay advance tax must make payments in the designated branches of the banks authorised to accept tax payments," it said. 

The Reserve Bank has designated bank branches of State Bank of Indi public sector bank branches, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Ban, IDBI Ban and Kotak Mahindra Bankto collect advance tax payments.

India runs risk of sovereign debt crisis: Christopher Wood, Chief Equity Strategist, CLSA

The current woes of the Indian economy, he said were “self-inflicted due to 
continuing lack of investment cycle and deprecation of the currency against the dollar”.

By Biswajit Baruah, ET Bureau | 12 Sep, 2013, 07.10AM IST

MUMBAI: Chris Wood's view on India is sharply at odds with the current market cheer that's been engendered by the dramatic recovery in the rupee, the surge in stocks and an increasingly sunny outlook. CLSA's chief equity strategist is holding out against getting swayed by a change of sentiment that's just about a week old after all.

Still, some of his comments in an interview with ET seemed counter-intuitive. For instance, he declared that "India in the Asian markets remains most at risk of a sovereign debt crisis", but argued against the contention as well. "This is despite the fact that India does not have a debt market reliant on foreign capital, given the lack of foreign ownership of rupee debt. The foreign ownership of Indian government securities was only 1.61 per cent at the end of March, though it is up from 0.88 per cent at the end of March 2012. In this sense, India is not directly correlated into emerging market debt dynamics."

The best hope for the Indian stock markets would be a worsening of the country's economic crisis, he argued. Why? Because that will improve the chances of Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi emerging as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, according to Wood. As for the current woes of the Indian economy, he said they were "self-inflicted due to continuing lack of investment cycle and deprecation of the currency against the dollar".

He's not surprised by the resilience of the Indian equity markets because foreign funds are "crowded into quality, albeit expensive stocks that have outperformed".

 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have bought stocks worth more than $875 million over the past five trading sessions through Wednesday, after having been net sellers to the tune of $4 billion between June and August.

FIIs have so far invested $138 billion into Indian equities, and foreign ownership in them is estimated at around 22 per cent. Continuing with his theme of gloom despite the current positive sentiment, Wood said India was staring at a sovereign downgrade as economic fundamentals continue to worsen and the rupee is losing its stability. But any move to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance would be political suicide for the current Congress-led UPA government, he said.

Following the passage of the Food Security Bill, concerns over the fiscal situation have become more acute, renewing doubts about the government's ability to control spending ahead of elections due next year. "In this respect, it hardly inspires confidence that Congress leader, Italy-born Sonia Gandhi, appeared in Parliament recently talking up her expensive Food Security Bill," Wood said.

Emerging markets, including those in Asia, will remain vulnerable to further selling pressure, as long as markets continue to anticipate the normalisation of US monetary policy, and related strengthening of the dollar, Wood said.

Wood also drew attention to the prospect of the bad debt burden of state-owned Indian banks rising further, given higher interest rates and the slump persisting.

"Despite the temptation to buy cheap (state-run) banks on a contrarian basis, we will stick with the expensive quality private sector banks geared to the consumer space, since it is far from evident that India has passed the worst," he said.

 "It is also the case that the credit problems are primarily in the corporate and infrastructure-related sectors."

The Management Tip of the Day : 2 Unconventional Questions to Ask a Job Applicant

HBR ;September 13, 2013 Gauging a potential employee's skills and suitability is tricky when you don’t have much time.  But there are ways to take interviewees out of their comfort zones and encourage the kind of candor that will enable you to find the best fits.  Try using these takes on standard interview questions: "What don't you want to be doing five years from now?" Asking the question this way forces an applicant to think on his feet, revealing a lot about his adaptability. "What would you say is the biggest misperception people have of you?"  Top candidates will have a high level of self-awareness and won’t have trouble answering this.  They’ll also understand that perception is reality in many cases, and may already have a plan to address it. Adapted from “How to Separate the Winners from the Spinners,” by Chris Smith and Chris Stephenson.