First Minister Rhodri Morgan has dismissed the allegations saying, "There was no question of any linkage (to Corus' shut down) with any donation made to the Labour Party." The implied connection is that Labour failed to support a workers' buyout despite thousands of workers losing their jobs because of Mittal's donation. A Labour spokesman says the allegations are "nonsense" and adds that the donation was not hush-hush. It was listed on the Electoral Commission's website, he says.

Another prominent Indian in the UK is also having a hard time. Keith Vaz, MP, has been banned from the House of Commons for failing to cooperate in an inquiry into his financial affairs. Vaz was condemned by Elizabeth Filkin, the Commons Commissioner for Standards, for allegedly obstructing her scrutiny of his financial relations with the Hindujas.

-Ishara Bhasi

See No Evil

Taking Indian channels off Pakistani cable TVs may have prevented saturation of Pakistani minds with Indian propaganda and halted the flight of financial capital, but "the amount of TV watched has gone down", says Asad-ur-Rehman of MindShare, a media-buying house. Less TV viewership means less time for adsell. This means more ad clutter on PTV, the only channel to have benefited from the ban. Sony, Star Plus and Zee together took about 38 per cent of the satellite advertising pie of $6 million per annum.

There is consensus in the industry that the ban will be short-lived. A scheme to give Pakistan's electronic media greater penetration through terrestrial broadcasting is in the offing. PTV md Yusuf Baig Mirza believes greater penetration will enable Pakistani channels to counter Indian "cross-border media infiltration". The industry is not so sure. If the crorepatis and saas-bahus of India continue to hold sway over Pakistani viewers, advertisers will put their money where the viewership is.

-Sahar Ali

In a sense, it is a measure of civilisation. The Heritage Foundation, one of the premier think tanks of the US, has just released its Index of Economic Freedom for 2002. Topping the list of free economies is Hong Kong, with a score of 1.35-the best possible being 1.0. Singapore is close behind with 1.55. At 1.80, Uncle Sam is merely joint fourth.

While two tiny territories have done Asia proud, the bottom of the table is also a continental preserve. Iraq and North Korea-part of the new "axis" powers-are joint 155th with an overall score of 5.0.

For India, there's not much to celebrate. A 3.55 rating places it at number 121, 20 places below Pakistan, 61 notches below Mongolia and, if it helps, 112 ranks below Chile. The disaggregated scores give India a rockbottom 5.0 for trade policy. Even if the overall score is 0.30 points above 2001's, the index should still embarrass a certain Mr Sinha in Delhi.

-Ashok Malik