DEFENCE-The More the Merrier

A noticeable change in the report is the reticence in giving financial results. It would not be out of place to give summarised annual accounts for each public corporation, but at least some figures should be mentioned in the Ministry's annual report. Reading between the lines one gathers that Neyveli, Singareni, NCDC and Hindustan Zinc made substantial losses, while MOIt made a profit. But one would like to know, for example, how the NMDC fared after it started charging ex-mine prices instead of fob, what happened to NCDC's scandalously large stores inventories, and why Bharat Coking Coal made losses in 6 months when the same mines had showed a profit during the previous 6 months, as indicated in Parliament a week ago.