srivarahan

Phoneless office : ICICI Prudential's experiment?

2012-01-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

We have heard about paperless offices. How about phoneless ones?

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has an office in Kodambakkam High Road, Chennai. I went there to enquire about a life policy. The first response predictably was "Our systems are down". However after some time, I was given the information. The conversation went like this:

"Would you give me your telephone number so that I can avoid coming to your office for simple enquiries?'

"We don't have a phone. You have to come personally if you want details."

"Why so?"

"When we are engaging a customer, we do not want to be interrupted by a phone call." (WOW!)

"Can you provide your mobile number?"

"Why should I give you my personal mobile number?" (in a brusque tone).

"I do not want your personal number. I thought the company would have provided you a mobile. Can I see the head of this office?"

I was directed to another official. His reasoning was even more bizarre.

"IRDA, the insurance regulator, has prohibited our calling the customers who are in "do not call" list. So we do not have telephones."

"Why don't you have phones atleast for incoming calls?"

"You don't understand. We are prohibited by IRDA ----"

This kind of nonsense and irresponsibility is not expected from ICICI Pru.

Army, ISRO and GOI

2012-01-29T04:58:00.000-08:00

We have started wondering whether the Government of India can do anything right at all. Murphy's Law has taken a new name: GOI Law.

GOI bungled as much as humanly possible in the age issue of the Army Chief. Now it is handling the Antrix-Devas deal most clumsily. V.Narayanaswamy, a rambunctious minister, says that the action taken against the former Chairman of ISRO is a lesson to all scientists. He has deservedly been castigated by C.N.R.Rao, Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister who wonders whether the honourable minister has attended any school!

People are wondering why the maladroit government has not awarded Bharat Ratna to Kasab. Maybe it soon will.

Ministry of cabals

2012-01-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

It is repeatedly coming to light that Manmohan Singh is assisted only by a ministry of cabals. It is now authoritatively known that Alliance Air had cancelled a scheduled flight inconveniencing booked passengers only to accommodate the interests of Praful Patel's daughter and the IPL team. Government resource is used for private purposes. Shameful!

If the prime minister and the president do not care for principles of governance, ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey.

Army Chief goes to court

2012-01-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

Gen.V.K.Singh has thought it fit and even necessary to seek legal remedy to be rid of aspersions on his integrity. It is widely perceived that he is being victimised on account of his refusal to tolerate proven corruption in the army.

It is for the Supreme Court to decide on the issue of the General's chronological age. The court may or may not agree to spend its valuable time to find the actual date of birth. It may take the view that the Supreme Court will decide only on legalities and it is for the lower courts to fish for facts.

In the normal course, people may not favour the Chief of the Army to litigate against the government. But the present days are extraordinary. The central government has covered itself with so much inglory that anyone fighting against it is deemed as a welcome crusader. Indeed the General may truly be one.

Thuglak's 42nd annual meeting (continued)

2012-01-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

There is a huge interest among Tamils all over the world regarding what happens in the meetings convened by Cho Ramaswamy. So some more details of the Valluvar Kottam meeting are given here. It is astonishing that Cho has single-handedly carried on the Thuglak crusade for 42 years so far. I wonder if there is any other magazine which has been navigated by just one person for such a long time.

In the 41st meeting, Cho had hoped for a change of government in Tamilnadu. Since his wish had come true, it was natural that the readers raised some questions on the replaced Chief Minister. Cho responded that Karunanidhi ought to be more pitied than criticised. The colossal defeat in the elections has totally unnerved Karunanidhi. Cho ridiculed Karunanidhi's theory of "the upper caste conspiracy" being responsible for DMK's electoral defeat.

Cho blamed the disabling competition among newspapers for the unexpected (and to some, shocking) front-page coverage given by The Hindu to a report in "Nakkeeran" newspaper on Jayalalitha. A newspaper that prides itself on its agreement with The New York Times on publishing the latter's material and on its role in the WikiLeaks saga has also chosen to publish a report from Nakkeeran. Cho argued that publication of such information in Nakkeeran is neither surprising nor unusual. Rather, it is expected. But The Hindu's readiness to outdo other newspapers in sensationalism is shocking and is a sad commentary on the state of the Press. (It is interesting to note that The Hindu dated 15th January has given copious coverage to the meeting.)

Advani's assertion that good governance and corruption cannot go together was understandably cheered by the audience. So was his reference to incompatibility of democracy and dynastic politics. He wondered if Sonia Gandhi is capable of articulating her views cogently on any issue of importance to the nation. Calling Cho as the tallest among journalists for sarcasm and humour, he felt sorry for continuing decay of capacity for humour among the legislators of today.

Modi gave irrefutable facts and figures to prove Gujarat's achievements. He read out a fairly long speech in English.

In an interesting interlude, Cho offered to translate Advani's address into Tamil. Advani remarked that in that case, the translated version would be better than the original. Cho readily withdrew his offer and assured Advani that the audience does not need a translation.

We now look forward to the 43rd Anniversary meeting. Cho's annual meetings are compared by Chennaivasis to the budget speeches that the eminent jurist Palkhivala used to deliver in the good old days. There was only one Palkhivala. There is only one Cho. It is the rarity of such personalities that makes them appealing to the public.

Thuglak's 42nd annual meeting

2012-01-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

The traditional Pongal-eve meeting of readers of the Thuglak magazine took place on Saturday,the 14th January. Valluvar Kottam, the venue of the meeting is perhaps the most spacious place for such gatherings. The hall was overflowing even two hours before the start of the meeting.

Cho was at his sarcastic best. He laid bare the ills of the Manmohan Singh government. Kapil Sibal's habitual denial of even the most blatant scandals received special attention.

L.K.Advani and Narendra Modi also spoke.

Supreme Court on the Prime Minister

2012-01-12T05:01:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court has castigated the Prime Minister in unambiguous terms on 10th January. "The Prime Minister is not an honest man as he had not lived up to his constitutional oath. Action must be taken against him for failing to act on an order to reopen graft cases against the President."

The five-judge bench added, "The Prime Minister is not an honourable man as he had not lived up to his constitutional oath. The premier had shown loyalty to his political party rather than the constitution. The government's refusal to write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen cases of alleged money laundering went against the Constitution."

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has now proved to be more courageous and dutiful than its Indian counterpart.

Where is the dollar headed?

2012-01-03T05:26:00.000-08:00

The links to an article that appeared in the "Industrial Economist" issue of January 2012 are provided below:

http://www.industrialeconomist.com/curr/8.html

http://www.industrialeconomist.com/curr/9.html

Prejudices in reasonable minds

2011-12-31T21:30:00.000-08:00

It is not uncommon to witness otherwise reasonable minds to vehemently disagree on certain issues of public interest. Yesterday, NDTV presented a discussion featuring Prannoy Roy, Narayana Murthy, Shekhar Gupta (of Indian Express) and Arvind Kejriwal. It was not surprising to hear all of them praise the efforts of Anna Hazare to centrestage the issue of corruption. The first three however took serious exception to Anna's controversial statements like "If Lokpal were in existence, Chidambaram would be in jail" and "Alcoholics may have to be beaten to wean them away from addiction". Since he was in a hopeless minority. Kejriwal could not defend Anna fully. Perhaps one way of looking at the issue is to trace the genesis of such statements to Anna's obsessive sincerity.

No human mind is completely free from bias or prejudice. "Stereotyping" is a bias most of us are prey to. Anna while reforming and transforming Ralegan Siddhi had come across many incorrigible alcoholics and he was privy to the resultant sufferings endured by many women and children. To him. the village was the universe. He formed a stereotype in his mind that consumption of alcohol and family distress go together. Similarly, some of the controversial acts and utterances of Chidambaram made Anna to fit him into the stereotyped version of a politician as a venal, arrogant person. Absence of direct exposure to social evils like alcoholism and its impact on economic conditions has enabled formation of a different kind of prejudice in the minds of PR, NM and SG. Because of inevitability of powerful prejudices like these, the otherwise wise people are forever condemned to disagree among themselves and let the sinister rule the world.

Mahatma Gandhi and Anna Hazare

2011-12-24T04:34:00.000-08:00

Comparison between Anna Hazare and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is inevitable in view of the ethical foundation of their approaches to social issues. Their modus operandi, atleast apparently, is similar. Hunger strike and Satyagraha lend commonality to their campaigns. How do we make a comparative assessment of the roles played by these two gentlemen?

Gurudas Dasgupta, an erudite parliamentarian, avows there is no second Mahatma. In a caustic criticism of Anna's ways, the Bombay High Court says,"One man's Satyagraha may be another's nuisance". (This was what the British used to say!) The Mahatma is held in high esteem by the entire country and rightly so. Ofcourse, praising the Mahatma's approach does not seem to preclude the self-proclaimed Gandhians from adopting unethical and corrupt ways in their life. Such Gandhians are a dime a dozen among particularly the politicians.

The Mahatma was a legend in his lifetime and has taken on divine dimensions in his afterlife. Therefore any earthly characterisation of even his mundane dealings is considered profane. Hence I attempt only a tentative comparison between the two giants.

The Mahatma was well educated in India and in the inns of London. He had advisors / followers like Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajaji, Satyamurthy, Vallabhai Patel and others. He was a gifted writer and an orator equally at ease in English and Hindi (and ofcourse in Gujarati too). Most of all, he fought for India's freedom from aliens who had not forsaken all vestiges of integrity and decency.

In contrast, Anna Hazare is barely educated, had never been abroad to facilitate broader vision, and has to fight against a cabal of corrupt, dishonest and unethical persons whose overpowering aim in life is to amass wealth (if the economy is destroyed in the process, why should these venal elements bother?). He can speak only in vernacular languages.

If inspite of these disadvantages, Anna Hazare is able to make the kind of impact he has already made and has stirred the nation's conscience through his crusade (albeit misguided at times, because of the limitations mentioned above), is he not in some ways atleast (yes, I am commiting the sacrilege) better than the Mahatma?

Anna is no Mahatma. The Mahatma was no Anna either.

Chidambaram's discomfiture

2011-12-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

The Home Minister is embroiled in a spate of controversies. He is alleged to have gone easy on A.Raja who decided on pricing of 2G spectrum. His narrow victory in the last election to the Lok Sabha is legally contested. The latest controversy is regarding the grant of permission to withdraw a criminal case against a fraudulent hotelier. In this case, the minister had earlier argued in the courts in favour of the hotelier and lost the cases. Chidambaram has taken a position that he does not remember all his erstwhile clients.

On 22nd Nov 2010, we argued as follows:

"The ever-repulsive spokesperson of the Congress party has unconvincingly argued that CAG's report on 2G Scam refers only to "presumptive loss" to the exchequer and therefore the country is needlessly agitated over a non-issue.

Even before we could digest this argument, the normally sensible P.Chidambaram has sought to throw further light on the theory of presumption. "I place some 50-60 signatures in a day with the presumption that they are right to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps few may go wrong, but they were not malafide because the intentions were right." (The Hindu dated 22nd Nov.)

Is Chidambaram serving advance notice on the prime minister ? This specious presumption argument can be used by every decision-maker. So no one can be held accountable for any decision, for who will accept his intentions were wrong? "

One is afraid that Chidambaram's continuance in the cabinet has become untenable.

Harvard elbows out Subramanian Swamy

2011-12-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Subramanian Swamy has been handling two courses for the Harvard Summer School for a long time. The subjects were "Quantitative Methods in Economics" and "South Asian economies". Harvard has a tradition of reviewing each course every year. This year these two are the only courses being discontinued. Swamy is annoyed, perhaps naturally.

The courses are being discontinued only because Swamy had earlier written an allegedly inflammatory article in an Indian newspaper. Harvard university favours freedom of expression. Diana Eck, the well-known Professor of Comparative Religion at Harvard led the move against Swamy. She drew a distinction between what is unpopular and what is unwelcome. She characterised Swamy's fulmination against followers of a particular religion as 'unwelcome' and therefore she wanted a ban on Swamy's courses. Isn't there a further distinction between what is 'unwelcome' and what is 'intolerable'?

Harvard's decision may be a blow against freedom of expression which any academic institution should protect. However, Harvard cannot be blamed as partisan. Remember Lawrence Summers who had to resign from presidency of Harvard because he had made a politically incorrect statement on rarity of female professors in science disciplines?

Subramanian Swamy's latest letter to CBI

2011-12-07T06:21:00.000-08:00

The following letter makes interesting reading:

Letter from Dr. Subramanian Swamy to Mr. A.P. Singh, Director, CBI, New Delhi

Please refer to the Written Complaint that I had submitted on November 28, 2011 to CBI through you, and on behalf the Action Committee Against Corruption in India (ACACI).

The letter is by way of additional information relating to the disclosure of offences committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).
First, is the information from an article published in Schweitzer Illustrate in its November 1991 issue, which magazine is a highly respected and widely circulated magazine in German language, and published in Switzerland. This information discloses that the former Prime Minister, Mr.Rajiv Gandhi (now deceased), had about $2 billion in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, which is clearly disproportionate to his known sources of income as per his affidavit filed with his nomination papers upon becoming a candidate for Lok Sabha elections in 1991. This attracts section 13(1)(d) of the PCA. Although the information is two decades old, but you are aware that there is no time limitation for corruption cases under the PCA. Also even if Rajiv Gandhi is now deceased, his likely beneficiaries are his wife, Sonia, and two children, two of whom are public servants.
The second information is from Dr.Yevgenia Albats, a Russian scholar, holding a Harvard Ph.D and who was a member of the Inquiry Commission into KGB Activities which Commission was appointed by President Yeltsin of Russia. She subsequently authored a book titled: “A State Within a State: KGB in Soviet Union.” In that book, she disclosed the File Numbers contain evidence of the KGB payments to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his family members. This disclosure was confirmed by the spokesperson of the FIS, the KGB’s successor spy agency (equivalent of our IB and RAW combined) in a Press Conference in 1992, and reported by The Hindu, Times of India, and UNI. In 2002, the then External Affairs Minister Mr.Jaswant Singh had taken this matter up with the Russians and was informed by the Russian authorities that the GOI may send a senior representative of the RAW to Moscow to obtain authenticated records of KGB payments to Rajiv Gandhi and family.
Third, I have information that Mr.Rahul Gandhi was detained in Boston’s Logan Airport by US law enforcement authorities sometime in the later half of September 2001. He was in possession of $160,000 in cash which he did not declare upon arrival. US Customs require all amounts above $10,000 in cash to be declared, and if not every $10,000 installment carries a 8 year imprisonment, if convicted. This means Rahul Gandhi was indictable for a prison term of 144 years. However, the then Principal Secretary to the PM, Mr.Brijesh Mishra, to my knowledge, had intervened with US Secretary of State, and arrangements were made get to Mr.Gandhi released.
In his deposition to the US authorities before returning to London Mr.Gandhi had declared that the money was his, and he had drawn it out of his secret account in Pictet Bank, head quartered in Zurich, Switzerland. I may mention here later that while studying in Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, USA, Mr.Gandhi paid his Tuition and other fees to the College from his secret accounts.
New information has surfaced which is related to a Geneva court order, freezing the bank accounts of one Sanjay Pasari as reported in Pioneer of Dec. 7, 2011. Mr. Pasari reportedly was acting on behalf of certain Indian public officials. Investigation of this transaction will help ensure the restitution of illicit wealth stashed in tax havens provided Letters Rogatory for prosecuting complaints under PCA are obtained.

After the became aware of these developments — after US counterparts alerted your Bureau the CBI has merely put Mr. Pasari in the Undesirable Contact Men’s list. But that is clearly insufficient. This development adds up to the ACACI petition submitted to you on November 28, 2011 in person urging the CBI to register a FIR.

Best regards,

Yours sincerely,
Subramanian Swamy.

Misuse of Intelligence

2011-12-06T03:24:00.000-08:00

Intelligence services in any country are supposed to take care of threats to national security. It is reported by The Hindu that Indian intelligence services are generally utilised by their political masters to spy on opposition, within and outside their party. It is an extremely dangerous trend and needs to be arrested immediately. Intelligence resources are scarce and if they are misused like this, terrorist and other anti-national activities are at an advantage. This is an important issue that needs to be debated in the parliament. But does our parliament have time or concern for such crucial issues? Will the judiciary take suo-moto notice of this?

Kapil Sibal's warning to social websites

2011-12-06T03:12:00.000-08:00

Kapil Sibal has been stung once again. He sees the world in black and white terms, no shades of gray ever. A typical lawyerly approach perhaps. Regarding the 2G scam, it was "zero loss". Now he has issued a stern warning to Facebook, YouTube and other social websites to desist from uploading "disparaging and defamatory" content. Apart from the fact that such a check may not be technologically possible, the minister should remember that these are international (or nation-less) sites and what is defamatory in one place may not be so in another. The minister has become sensitive on this issue because of morphed images of his party leaders appearing in the sites. Such incidents involving others are common. People in public life need to be a bit more tolerant and liberal.

Additions made on 7th December:

The following is a report from BBC:

"Before the press conference, Mr Sibal showed reporters morphed photos of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as well as pigs running through Islam's holy city of Mecca."

One wonders why the minister is mixing up Congress leaders and the holy city of Mecca. Devoted Muslims are capable of safeguarding their interest. The minister is deliberately communalising the issue of freedom of social websites in order to obfuscate that his only mission is to protect his party leaders from alleged denigration. The minister has only committed the blunder of providing wide publicity to what would have died down otherwise. In a lighter vein, Sibal must be hauled up for comparing the party leaders with pigs!

The Succession Charade

2011-11-26T23:42:00.000-08:00

Ratan Tata has announced that Cyrus Mistry, the son of Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry and the brother of Noel Tata's wife, will succeed him as the chief of the Tata group. As reports go, Cyrus Mistry is a cultured gentleman who espouses humility and respect for governance. Prima facie, the choice is apt. Though only 43, Cyrus Mistry is well experienced in construction business and apparently receptive to advice from well-wishers.

Ratan Tata had earlier observed that his half-brother, Noel Tata, is not experienced enough to succeed him. The question that arises now is: Is Cyrus Mistry more experienced than Noel Tata? The answer may not be reassuring. Ratan Tata also made a mysterious remark, perhaps more philosophical than pragmatic, that Noel Tata's lack of readiness to head the Tata empire was partly his own making. This enigmatic statement gave the game-plan away.

Earlier, a 5-member committee was formed with a great deal of fanfare to do a "global search" for the successor. A world-wide search was made for more than a year only to discover that the target was in Tata's backyard. This brouhaha was, in retrospect, a deceptive ploy. Shapoorji Pallonji's family owns about 18% of Tata Sons. This family seems to have asserted its rights to manage the business empire. This is what happens in many business groups and there is nothing ethically wrong about this development.

However, what is disconcerting is the elaborate drama that was enacted to make us believe that the group was professional and mature enough to delink ownership and management completely. The search committee owes it to the Tata shareholders to inform them the rationale for the ultimate selection. There is no doubt (based on what information is available in the public domain) that Cyrus Mistry is a good choice. It is doubtful however if the committee could not have found a better choice.

Fair value Accounting of own debt

2011-11-19T05:03:00.000-08:00

Fair value accounting requires that assets and liabilities are valued not at historical cost but at current market prices. This extends to revaluation of one's own debt also. It has been revealed that 5 major banks in the U S namely the Citigroup, B of A ML, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs together have taken credit for more than 80% of their net profit totalling $16 bn for the quarter ended 30th Sep 2011 from this nefarious but permitted practice of revaluing one's own debt. Standard Chartered Bank desists from this practice. This practice is not unlawful though it is funny. In effect, a company or a bank in difficult straits says, "I am in difficulty. So those who have lent money to me may not recover the full amount from me as of now. This is reflected in the high spread on my Credit Default Swap. Accordingly, I revalue what I owe to others and cock a snook at my creditors. My profits are therefore bloated but this is strictly in terms of the concept of Fair Value Accounting." Ofcourse, the profits will get reversed when fortunes improve. This is a blatant anomaly that needs to be set right.

Deregulation of Savings Bank interest rates

2011-11-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

RBI is known for its well-calibrated moves. It was sounding the banks for more than a year regarding the pros and cons of empowering the banks to fix their rates of interest on savings bank accounts. It is likely that many banks were already assessing the implications to their respective selves if deregulation happened.

Therefore it is quite surprising that public sector banks are now unable to decide on their strategies even a month after deregulation was announced. Yes Bank justified its name by taking a prompt decision. A few private sector banks reluctantly followed. The private sector behemoths, namely ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, are still ruminating.

Public sector banks continue to have a preference for administered pricing. RBI on its part could have been more clarificatory. For instance, can the banks provide interest on daily balances or minimum monthly balances or some other criterion of their choice? RBI has stipulated that multiplicity of rates is permitted only for balances above Rs.1 lac. What happens to those accounts which have balances above and below Rs. 1 lac alternately?

Kingfisher Airlines on the rocks

2011-11-12T21:57:00.000-08:00

Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines is deep in the red. "Kingfisher Red" has become a self-fulfilling name. This aviation company anxiously awaits the emergence of some kind of a saviour. It is anybody's guess whether there will be corporate amputation or a corporate takeover. Mallya has started identifying external excuses for his self-inflicted misery. He has raised issues like "Should a business be forced to carry on despite loss?" (i.e. does not an airline have the right to cancel flights?) and "Does it make sense for the government to insist on catering to ungainly routes?"

He is a firm believer in "privatising profits and socialising losses". Hence the Civil Aviation minister was requested to come to his succour. Vayalar Ravi in turn sought help from the Finance Minister who turned to the Petroleum Minister. Not one to put up with the game of passing the misplaced buck, Mallya turned to the Prime Minister. The latter wants the ministries concerned to look into the matter. What else can a Prime Minister without authority do? Has it not occurred to Mallya that only the UPA Chairperson can ease him out of the quagmire?

Why is Kingfisher in this predicament? Unlike his father, Vijay Mallya keeps chasing glamour. This strategy does not always make business sense. There is a story (apocryphal?) of the Chairman of a bank who decided after travelling once by Kingfisher Airlines that a company that delights its customers so well cannot fail and thereafter started lending to the Airlines. He had overlooked the caution that excellent customer service is only a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for corporate success.

It will be unwise on the part of the government to pressurise the banks or the oil companies to extend a favourable treatment to an ailing company. That will amount to penalising the tax payers. Mallya should actively look for a buyer. Ego should not stand in the way of common sense.

Auditors' misdemeanour

2011-11-12T05:37:00.000-08:00

We are coming across cases of delinquency among auditors with distressing and depressing regularity. The latest to hit the public domain relates to one of the "Big Four", Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

P.N.Sudarshan, a Senior Director of this reputed audit firm has recently admitted in a Hyderabad Court that they had succumbed to pressure in inflating the value of Jagati Publications, a media firm owned by Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of a former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Sudarshan clarifies that the company's value was overstated to Rs.3500 cr whereas the value was assessed as Rs.2500 cr. He was also under pressure to show the date of his report as Nov 2007 though the assessment was done in April 2008. He was influenced by Jagati's former auditor, Vijay Sai Reddy. The latter is now vice-chairman of Jagati Publications.

It is unfortunate that the reputation of esteemed auditors is really up for sale.

Srijan Pal Singh

2011-11-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

Srijan Pal Singh is an atypical alumnus of IIMA. He passed out in 2009 as a gold medallist and declined a job offer from Boston Consulting Group. He is now working with APJ Abdul Kalam. APJ and SPS have recently commended the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. They envision bright days for India when thorium replaces uranium as the fuel of choice for a power plant. Here is a 2009 report on SP Singh: (courtesy: Business Standard)

"IIM-A student chooses politics over placements

Vinay Umarji / Ahmedabad March 7, 2009, 0:19 IST

Opts out of placements to apply to national political parties.
If Krishna Chepuri, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), made history by interning with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Sitaram Yechury, another IIM-A student has now chosen politics over placements. Final year post graduate programme (PGP) student Srijan Pal Singh has opted out of placements to pursue his dream of joining politics.

The 25-year-old has applied to a couple of national political parties including Congress party and is awaiting reply.

“I had always wanted to work with political parties and be actively involved in politics. So far even as a student I had been trying my hand at politics in several ways. Now, I wish to get fully involved in politics which is why I opted out of placements this year in spite of having couple of offers in hand. I personally wish to work for Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi," said Singh, who, after applying on the political party's website, is now lobbying in the political corridors of Delhi to fulfill his dream.
Singh's interests in politics can be linked his involvement in the Public Policy Group (PPG) course, for which a team of seven students were assisted by Members of Parliament (MPs) like Sitaram Yechury, Madhusudan Mistry and Harin Pathak to formulate a framework for constituency management programme, last year.

Under the PPG course, Singh, and his batchmates, also developed an information and communication technology (ICT) system under which citizens in several constituencies could register their complaints with their respective MPs through an interactive voice response system (IVRS) and avail prompt response from respective departments.

Singh, who has worked with several NGOs and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), also has an offer from the global agency in hand. Before pursuing a PGP degree from IIM-A, Singh graduated in mechanical engineering from the Government Engineering College at Lucknow.
This year, around seven students have opted out of final placements at IIM-A including Srijan. Another final year PGP student, V Krishnakanth, 24, has decided to set up his own career consulting firm to coach eng0ineering undergraduates for post graduate entrance exams. "Coaching is a very fragmented market and I observed that students rarely get all kinds of coaching at one place. Using my education at IIM-A, I will be coaching them on how to crack several entrance exams. While currently I will be focusing on engineering undergraduates, later on I will also train Std. XII students for SAT," said Krishnakanth"

SP Singh deserves best of luck.

Judicial intervention

2011-11-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

What is accused as "judicial activism" by some may also be interpreted as " inevitable judicial intervention " . If the legislature and the executive abdicate their respective responsblity, the courts are obliged to intervene lest the system should implode. Ths may be kept n vew while reading the following report:

Kerala HC judges ask people to protest against price rise

ET Bureau Nov 5, 2011, 05.47am ISTTags:prise rise
PIL
Kerala High Court bench

NEW DELHI/KOCHI: As occupy protests spread like wild fire in foreign capitals, a Kerala High Court bench has nudged people to come out against the policies of the government responsible for distress.

In an observation of the spiralling prices of commodities, a Kerala HC bench comprising Justices CN Ramachandran Nair and PS Gopinathan said the people of the country should react against the frequent rise of prices by the government.

"Price rise is equivalent to slow death. People of the country should come to the fore rather than political parties," the court said. The observation came during the hearing on a PIL against the latest hike in petrol prices. The oil companies had effected yet another hike in petrol price, by Rs 1.80 per litre with effect from Thursday.

Political bloviation and judicial ire

2011-11-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

The saga of 2G scam meanders along keeping courts and CBI awefully busy. The Law minister Salman Khurshid unlawfully advises Advani not to speak about the scam as the matter is "sub judice" and as his utterances may influence the courts! What a poor opinion about the capacity of the courts!

The Supreme Court also has fallen a prey to political red-herrings and has started warning the media to abstain from misrepresenting the court proceedings. Markanday Katju, a recently retired judge of the Supreme Court who is now heading the Press Council repeatedly cautions the press not to give too much coverage to matters like cricket, astrology, actors etc. He wants the Press Council to be empowered to suspend publication of newspapers that do not ' behave'. He desires that visual media should also be monitored by the Press Council. He has already given vent to his ire against preponderant sections of the visual media which are screening programmes not to his taste. How democratic! One also wonders how ethical it is for judges to accept post-retirement jobs.

Added on 6th Nov: Saubhik Chakrabarti has quoted Marshall McLuhan in the Economic Times today: "A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding." I hope Justice Katju reads this.

Lessons from Rajat Gupta

2011-11-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

Rajat Gupta is obviously going through tough times. Charges against him are formidable and proving them will require enormous ingenuity on the part of prosecutors. Given the amazing skills of U S prosecutors and absence of political interference, Rajat Gupta's future is dark.

It is difficult to believe that Gupta succumbed to an error of judgement. He is too intelligent for that excuse to be accepted. (I am assuming he did what he is alleged to have done.) He must have been confident that chances of being caught were next to nil. Perhaps luck deserted him when he needed it most. Every dog has its day. It is equally true that every 'kutha' (dog) has its night too.

Congress party's loudmouth, Digvijaya, has drawn a strange lesson from this. He argues that Indian judges should learn to provide bail to the accused pending hearing and finality. Yes, Rajat Gupta is out on bail. Digvijaya should appreciate that the bail has cost Gupta $10 mn and his passport. The bail amount is a staggering amount of $10 mn though Gupta's gain from his crime is yet unknown and may be much less. Indian courts should insist on Rs.hundreds of crores as bail amount when the alleged crimes involve humongous moolah. In the meanwhile, the likes of Digvijaya will be better advised to draw relevant lessons. Will the Indian government let the prosecutors do their job without outside influence?

Customer Service at "Time" magazine

2011-10-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

The following inconclusive and perhaps never-ending correspondence speaks for itself:

Ofcourse, readers subscribe to Time for its content and not for the gift. Yet, Time's response to complaint regarding non-receipt of gift is interesting. Reminders are invariably profusely thanked, best services are always promised and remedial action assured. Cooperation is requested. {I wonder what is meant by cooperation. Does it mean "please do not again remind us"?) I am also asked to please get back to them for further assistance/clarification. Is this Marketing all about?

Dear Mr.Nigar,

I have not yet received the gift.
Regards,
K.R.Srivarahan

--- On Wed, 10/5/11, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "K.R.Srivarahan"

Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 10:50 AM

Dear Mr. Srivarahan,
This is with reference to your e-mail in regards to the non receipt of gift.
We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you due to the non receipt of the gift. Your details have already been sent to the department concerned to look into the matter and resolve it at the earliest. As per the status received from them, we would like to inform you that we are keeping a follow up for this case with the postal authorities to resolve the matter and in the meanwhile, we are once again arranging to send you the gift from our end. The dispatch date for shall be 13/10/2011, we shell also secure a proof of delivery for the same, we request you for your kind understanding and cooperation.
Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.
Assuring you for the best possible services; always.
Regards
Nigar
(Customer Care) Executive
Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 4:41 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511Dear Sirs,

Eleven months have passed since I started following up with you. How many more months should I wait?
Regards,
K.R.Srivarahan

--- On Fri, 7/22/11, Time Care wrote:From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "K.R.Srivarahan"

Date: Friday, July 22, 2011, 3:12 PM

Dear Mr. Srivarahan,

This is in reference to your e-mail in regards to non receipt of gift.

We are sorry that you had to contact to us repeatedly due to non receipt of gift. We do understand you have every reason to be vexed with us .We could not dispatch the gift earlier to you due to some unavoidable circumstances. However, we assure you that this time the gift shall be delivered to you with in 10-12 working days.

We request for your kind understanding & cooperation.

Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.

Assuring you for the best possible services; always.

Regards
Jyoti
Executive (Customer Care)
Please quote your Subscription Number: 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 6:34 PM

To: Time Care

Cc: customer_service_1107_2@netedm.com

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511
Dear Mr.Richard Evans and others,

I have been following up from 11th Nov. 2010. Your assurances lack credibility. Please have a look at the spate of emails which are reproduced here.
Regards,
K.R.Srivarahan

--- On Tue, 6/14/11, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "'K.R.Srivarahan'"

Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 11:17 AM

Dear Mr. Srivarahan,

This is in reference to your e-mail in regards to non receipt of gift.

We are sorry that you had to contact to us repeatedly due to non receipt of gift. We do understand you have every reason to be vexed with us. However, we regret to inform you that the shipment which was due on 25th May’ 2011 was withheld due to certain reasons. We are now expecting the same in next 8-10 working days and accordingly we have forwarded your subscription details to the department concerned and have instructed them to dispatch the gift on priority basis. We assure you that the gift would be delivered to you within next 10-12 working days. Kindly confirm the receipt of the same.

We would appreciate if you could kindly co-operate with us.
Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications. Assuring you for the best possible services; always. Regards
Jyoti
Executive (Customer Care)

Please quote your Subscription Number: 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 8:04 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

I have lost count of the number of reminders I have sent to you. Do you really mean what you write?

Srivarahan

--- On Wed, 4/27/11, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "K.R.Srivarahan"

Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 1:39 PM

Dear Mr. Srivarahan,

This is in reference to your e-mail in regards to non reciept of gift.

We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.

We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you regard gift. Due to some unavoidable circumstances we could not dispatch the gift earlier to you. We assure you that this time the gift shall be delivered to you within 15-20 working days time.
Hope you would understand our limitations and co-operate with us.Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.
Assuring you for the best possible services; always.
Regards
Nigar
Customer Care) Executive

Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 7:09 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511
I have NOT YET received the gift.

K.R.Srivarahan

--- On Wed, 3/16/11, Time Care wrote:
From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "K.R.Srivarahan"

Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 2:46 PM
Dear Mr. Srivarahan,
This is in reference to your e-mail.
We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.

We would like to clarify that earlier your subscription gift was sent through "Express Parcel Post", since you have not received the same, we had forwarded your details to the department concerned to look into the matter and resolve it at the earliest. As per the status received from them, we would like to inform you that we are taking the necessary actions against the the postal authorities to look into the matter and in the meanwhile, we have already arranged to send you the replacement gift.

Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.
Assuring you for the best possible services; always.

Regards
Nigar
(Customer Care) Executive
Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 3:26 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511
I have checked up with the local post office ; I was informed that no such parcel has been received.

Regards,
K.R.Srivarahan
--- On Wed, 3/9/11, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "'K.R.Srivarahan'"

Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 4:40 PM
Dear Mr. Srivarahan,

This is in reference to your e-mail.

We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.
We are extremely sorry for all the inconvenience caused to you due to the non receipt of the gift. As per the status received from the department concerned, we would like to inform you that your subscription gift has been dispatched from our end, through "Express Parcel Post" vide EPP number 435. We request you to kindly check with the local post office and confirm the receipt of the same.
Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.
Assuring you for the best possible services; always.
Regards
Nigar
(Customer Care) Executive
Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 7:19 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511
We have been corresponding from November 2010 totally in vain.

K.R.Srivarahan
--- On Thu, 1/27/11, Time Care wrote:
From: Time Care
Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "'K.R.Srivarahan'"
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 1:01 PM
Dear Mr. Srivarahan,
This is in reference to your e-mail.
We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.

We are sorry that you had to contact to us repeatedly. We do understand you have every reason to be vexed with us. As per the latest revert received from the department concerned we would like to inform you that the dispatches of the gift of “Time 04 Piece Bag Set” is expected by 31/01/2011. Hope you shall bear with us in the interim. Hope you would understand our limitations and co-operate with us.
We request you to consider this incident in isolation & not as being a representative of our services. We appreciate your feedback which enables us to improve our services and also help us in our endeavor to achieve service excellence.

Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.
Assuring you for the best possible services; always.
Regards
Nigar
(Customer Care) Executive
Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 7:03 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511
I am yet to receive the gift !!

K.R.Srivarahan
--- On Tue, 12/21/10, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511

To: "'K.R.Srivarahan'"

Date: Tuesday, December 21, 2010, 1:23 PM

Dear Subscriber,
This is in reference to your e-mail.
We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.

We are extremely sorry for all the inconvenience caused to you due to the non receipt of the gift. We would like to inform you that the shipment which was due on 30th nov’ 2010 was withheld due to certain reasons. We are now expecting the same in next 1—2 weeks and accordingly we have forwarded your subscription details to the department concerned and have instructed them to dispatch the gift on priority basis. We assure you that the gift would be delivered to you within next 3-4 weeks. Kindly confirm the receipt of the same.We would appreciate if you could kindly co-operate with us.

Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.

Assuring you for the best possible services; always.
Regards
Anand
Executive (Customer Care)
Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 6:25 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time Subscription no. 12674511
I am yet to receive the gift.
K.R.Srivarahan--- On Mon, 11/15/10, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: RE: Time

To: "'K.R.Srivarahan'"

Date: Monday, November 15, 2010, 4:34 PM

Dear Mr. Srivarahan ,
This is in reference to your e-mail.
We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.

We are sorry to hear from you, about the non receipt of the gift. We are taking up the matter with the concerned department to expedite the delivery of the gift and the same shall be delivered to you within next 3-4 weeks. Hope you shall bear with us in the interim and we promise you that the gift will be delivered to you this time within the given time frame.

Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.

Assuring you for the best possible services; always.

Regards
Nigar
(Customer Care) Executive

Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 3:33 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: Re: Time
Please refer to the covering letter of my cheque wherein I had clearly mentioned the details of offered gift. I do not have the offer letter with me now. I remember I had opted for travel bags.

Regards,
K.R.Srivarahan

--- On Fri, 11/12/10, Time Care wrote:

From: Time Care

Subject: Time

To: "'K.R.Srivarahan'"

Date: Friday, November 12, 2010, 11:00 AM

Dear Mr. SRIVARAHAN ,
This is in reference to your e-mail.
We thank you for contacting us regarding the Time Subscription.

Further, we request you to kindly confirm the gift offer which you received at the time of subscribing to the Time Magazine, as our system reflects “No Gift” against your subscription.

Please feel free to get back to us for further assistance/clarifications.
Assuring you for the best possible services; always.
Regards
Nigar
(Customer Care) Executive
Please quote your Subscription Number 12674511 in all future correspondence.

From: K.R.Srivarahan [mailto:srivarahan@yahoo.com]

Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 8:04 PM

To: Time Care

Subject: NON-RECEIPT OF FREE GIFTS CUSTOMER NO. 012674511
I recently renewed my subscription for 3 years. I am yet to receive the promised gifts includng travel bags.
K.R.Srivarahan

Update on 7th Nov 2011: The subscription gift was received today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Money moves mountains

2011-10-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

Faith may move mountains elsewhere, but in India money alone does miracles. Anna Hazare is an exception. He is able to arouse people's emotion against corruption. Advani's yatra against corruption is obviously a political gimmick. The main political parties, the Congress and BJP, trading bribery charges against each other is a fraudulent spectacle. We have lived with this tamasha for a long time and we may continue to tolerate this idiocy for some more time. But what is worrying is that even balanced persons have started making ridiculous statements in public with a show of righteous indignation. Salman Khurshid argues that if corporate honchos are jailed, economic development will suffer. We can extend the argument and say that if politicians are arrested, politics will get stymied. If erring cops are punished, criminal system will fail. So, spare the criminals and the corrupt and let a thousand flowers bloom.

Steve Jobs

2011-10-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

The untimely death of Steven Paul Jobs was not unexpected. Combination of diseased pancreas and foreign liver is an invitation to early death. Heightened perception of mortality pushed Jobs to be more creative. While delivering the Commencement Address to graduating students at Stanford University in June 2005, he hoped that diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in the year 2004 was the closest he got to a near-death experience FOR A FEW MORE DECADES. This was one of the very few unprophetic utterances we can ever attribute to the co-founder of Apple. If he had had a say in the design of his physiology he would have lived longer.

He was as fascinated with death as he was with the products designed by him. To him Death was very likely the single best invention of Life. He combined the philosophical and the practical when he exhorted the Stanford students, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." A legend is no more.

Added on 9th October:

Name any handicap or obstacle to progress, Steve Jobs faced it and yet succeeded. He was an illegitimate child, an adopted son, a college drop out, a struggling entrepreneur, an ousted manager, living with a transplanted liver and dying from a rare type of painful pancreatic cancer.

N R Narayana Murthy on IIT students

2011-10-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

It is not surprising that whatever NRN says is heard with respect. Addressing a gathering of IIT alumni in New York, the software czar commented adversely on what he called "the lower and lower quality of students entering IITs". This is what the news agencies report:

Poor quality of students entering IITs: Narayana Murthy

Press Trust of India, Updated: October 03, 2011 13:51 IST

New York: Voicing his displeasure over the quality of engineers that pass out of the IITs, Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy has said there is a need to overhaul the selection criteria for students seeking admission to the prestigious technology institutions.

Addressing a gathering of hundreds of former IITians at a 'Pan IIT' summit here, Murthy said the quality of students entering Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has deteriorated over the years due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.

He said the majority of the students fare poorly at jobs and global institutions of higher education. "Thanks to the coaching classes today, the quality of students entering IITs has gone lower and lower," Murthy said, receiving a thundering applause from his audience.

He said apart from the top 20 per cent of students who crack the tough IIT entrance examination and can "stand among the best anywhere in the world," quality of the remaining 80 per cent of students leave much to be desired. Coaching classes teach aspirants limited sets of problems, out of which a few are asked in the examinations.

"They somehow get through the joint entrance examination. But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be.

"This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at."

It is to be expected that NRN has formed his views analytically from his experience. There are two caveats though.

First, he was addressing those who had passed out of IITs. Alumni of any institution are generally pleased to hear that they were more diligent than the succeeding generations of students. Therefore, the applause that NRN received from the audience should not prejudice our mind . In other words, the applause was not objective approval.

Secondly, why blame the coaching institutions? After all they are only teaching the students. If they are able to sharpen the minds, what is wrong? There are many ways in which students learn. Coaching is perhaps the most focused way. One may even argue that if IITs are able to teach their students as well as the coaching institutions do, perhaps the quality of IIT students would be better ! (I am not saying that teaching quality in IITs is bad. I am only reminded of what Jairam Ramesh controversially said sometime in May this year: "The faculty in IIT is not world class. It is the students in IITs who are world class".)

There is thus a huge divergence between the views of NRN and JR. I believe neither is wholly correct.

According to news reports, NRN also observed that examinations should test independent thinking of students rather than their ability to solve problems. What is the utility of one without the other? Can these two qualities be delinked?

The 2-G Tragicomedy continues

2011-09-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

It is unbelievable that Salman Khurshid dismisses the note -or OM, the Office Memorandum- submitted by the Finance Ministry to the prime minister as bereft of "life". One does not fully understand what he means by this. But it is clear that he does not want us to take the note seriously. The note was prepared with factual inputs from various ministries and also Prime Minister's Office! If such a note is not to be taken seriously, one is at a loss to understand what should be taken seriously.

The CBI says Chidambaram alone could not have reversed Raja's unlawful action in allocation of spectrum. Only the cabinet could have done that! If this argument is accepted, CBI should start investigating the entire cabinet. Obviously when under political pressure, an institution will be confused about what it is communicating.

Chidambaram claims the issue (of relevance of the note to PM and his own integrity) is closed. Great! The accused himself decides that he is not guilty. Why do we need the CBI and the courts? What do they know which PC may not know?

Pranabda asserts (hesitatingly?) that he did not agree with conclusions emerging from the factual note though he forwarded the note to PMO. Did he note his disagreement in the note? No, how could he foresee the subsequent developments and the inevitable pressure from Soniaji to protect PC?

If the government survives despite all these shenanigans, it shows how weak the opposition is.

Manmohan Singh joins the panoply of jokers

2011-09-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

One would have thought that Manmohan Singh was incapable of joining the ranks of Manish Tewari and Kapil Sibal in tearing the opposition to pieces. The prime minister has proved us wrong.

1) Manmohan Singh has discovered that the opposition is out to destabilise polity. He argues that since UPA government has been voted back to power after the "issues of 2006 or so" those issues should not be raked up by the opposition now. The murky issues of "2006 or so" are becoming clear only now. So what is the opposition supposed to do? Sit back and compliment the government ?

2) The honorable prime minister has now courageously blamed Dayanidhi Maran for genesis of 2G scam. "There was pressure from Maran to force the pricing of 2G spectrum out of the purview of a Group of Ministers set up to deal with the issue". What a great leadership! First yield to pressure; then when things go horribly and unconcealably wrong, blame the coercer!

Beware, Manish Tewari and Kapil Sibal. The prime minister has started eclipsing you both.

Joke of the year

2011-09-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

According to media reports, CBI has asserted in the Supreme Court that the Union Government cannot give instructions to it on what it should probe ! "The CBI is an autonomous body and we don't take instructions from anyone." Who said the CBI does not have a sense of humour?

UBS CEO's resignation

2011-09-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

19th September: Daily Mail Reporter:

"UBS boss Oswald Gruebel says he won't resign as rogue trader loss hits £1.5bn

UBS boss Oswald Gruebel said he would not be resigning, as the bank raised its estimate of losses racked up by London-based rogue trader Kweku Adoboli to £1.5billion.

Defiant: UBS boss Oswald Gruebel said he would not be resigning

The Swiss bank said the loss, previously thought to be £1.3billion, was caused by unauthorised trades on stock index futures made over the past three months. It said the transactions were within normal limits and slipped through risk controls due to ‘fictitious trades’ in complex financial instruments called exchange traded funds (ETFs), which were used to cover up losses.

UBS also countered suggestions that it did not notice the trades until Adoboli came forward, saying the 31-year-old trader – charged last week with fraud and false accounting – had been responding to the bank’s inquiries.

Mr Gruebel said calls for his resignation were ‘purely political’ and that he was ‘not thinking about stepping down’. He added that while he bore ultimate responsibility, he did not feel ‘guilty’ for failing to prevent the costly and embarrassing incident.

His defiant stance comes amid suggestions that Swiss regulators could tell the bank to hive off or close down its investment banking division, which houses the ‘Delta One’ desk where Adoboli worked. Such a drastic response would deal a huge blow to the City, where UBS employs some 6000 workers. "

24th September:

"UBS says CEO Oswald Gruebel resigns

agence france presse

ZURICH, 24 SEPT: Swiss banking giant UBS announced today that chief executive, Mr Oswald Gruebel has handed in his resignation, which was accepted by the board of directors, in the wake of a trading scandal. Mr Sergio Ermotti has been named as interim CEO effective immediately, a bank statement said, nine days after the arrest of a trader accused of a $2.3 billion fraud at UBS.

While the board “regrets” Mr Gruebel's decision UBS chairman, Mr Kaspar Villiger said in the statement Mr Gruebel “feels that it is his duty to assume responsibility for the recent unauthorised trading incident.”

Mr Villiger praised Mr Gruebel for “his uncompromising principles and integrity”, and acknowledged that during his tenure “he achieved an impressive turnaround and strengthened UBS fundamentally.” The board also said it would “fully support” the independent investigation into the rogue trading and would ensure that “mitigating measures” were implemented to prevent such incidents from recurring."

Is it not surprising that within the same week "uncompromising principles and integrity" dictate exactly opposite moves?

Mostly in politics, but nowadays in business also, resignations are usually preceded by denials of any such intention. Why is it so difficult to accept that resignations occur due to external compulsions and have nothing to do with uncompromising principles and other utopian ideals?

PM's conversation with Soniaji

2011-09-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

The prime minister, Manmohan Singh had left the country for the United Nations when the political bomb blast occurred in India. A note placed by the Finance Ministry to the prime minister sometime in March 2011 emerged in the public domain through an RTI application and immediately created a furore among the impotent cognoscenti.

The note informed the prime minister that the then Finance Minister, P.Chidambaram could have prevented the 2-G scam. The note was prepared when Pranabda had become the Finance Minister. The war between PC and Pranabda (P vs P) was once again out in the open. PC is alleged to have spied Pranabda's activities not long ago.

Manmohan Singh had reached Frankfurt on his way to New York when he emboldened himself to call Sonia Gandhi to take directions from her on how to handle the developing crisis. The text of the conversation was made available under the Right to Disinformation Act.

"M: Madam, I am speaking from Frankfurt. I request you--- you--- you to please guide me what to say regarding the March note-----
S: This is what I don't like, why should you be frank ? Don't you want to continue in politics?

M: (Apologetically) I am sorry. Please guide me. Do I have your permission to observe omerta if the media wants my reaction to the note?
S: I know you will never grow up. Why are you exposing the Italian connection so amateurishly? If you don't know how to respond expediently, claim that you are observing mauna vratha. Better still, go on a fast against ---- ---.

M: Oh, madam, you know doctors have advised me against any kind of fast.
S: This is the problem with innocents like you. Don'y you know that you can claim to be on fast even though you may have normal food in private. Do you want me to teach you political dharma? There should be no connection between private practice and public pronouncements.

M: Madam, I now under--under--understand. I will sidetrack media's attention from the note.
S: Don't do anything stupid. You better leave it to professionals like Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari. They know what to say. They will convince the media, "What note? Where is the note? It is all in the evil mind of the opposition. Anyway, PC was never the Finance Minister. There was zero-loss in 2-G allocation. Do you want somebody to prevent zero-loss? What nonsense are you talking? Do you understand?" The media will then realise their folly. Don't worry. If Kapil and Manish fail to convince the people, Digvijay Singh is always there with his foot permanently in the mouth. He is also endowed with 20-20 vision. He can see the hand of RSS everywhere.

M: Madam, what do I do if--if--if Supreme Swami ---
S: I know you are as usual confused. You are mixing up Supreme Court and Subramaniam Swami.

M: Madam, yes you are right. What do I do if --if--Subramaniam Court---
S: It is the job of Attorney General to defend you from the hostile Supreme Court. If he does not do that, sack him and find another. If he cannot defend the unlawful, what is he for?

M: Madam, do I have your permission to speak to Pranab and PC?
S: Understand one thing clearly. PC is more reliable and capable. Don't you remember he could make unfair gains even from Fairgrowth Financial Services Ltd. promoted by Ratnakar? You cannot trust Pranabda. He is guilty of occasional spasms of honesty.

M: One last advice from you , madam. The note was received in my secretariat only in the month of March. I have not yet seen it. Should I now have a look at it?
S: I am happy I made you the prime minister. As long as you do not notice what is happening around you, you have my assurance that I will not sack you.

M: Oh, no ! I have misplaced the papers containing the speech I have to make in the UN.
S: Don't panic, Manmohanji. You get a copy from the Italian prime minister. If he is not to be found as is likely, get hold of somebody else's address and start reading it. Try to learn from your colleague, S M Krishna. Good Luck."

Needless to say, Manmohanji was feeling relieved.

Mismatch in employment skills

2011-09-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

The Economist says,

"The mismatch between the skills demanded by employers and those available in the market is a reflection both of bad choices by students, who have not thought hard enough about what will help them find a good job, and of education systems that are too often indifferent to the needs of the labour market and too slow to change even if they try. It is not just Egypt where the universities provide training for public-sector jobs that are no longer abundant yet fail to equip students with what they need to thrive in a market economy. Out of necessity, India is emerging as a model for tackling these problems, both because its companies have become expert in turning useless graduates into useful ones and because it has allowed industry to take the lead in creating a huge new programme to tackle skills shortages."

Is it so?

Mani Shankar Aiyer spews venom

2011-09-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

It is always a pleasure to hear or read M S Aiyer though no one would like to be at the receiving end of his sharp comments. Here is what he has commented on the Sports Minister Ajay Maken's epistle to the Prime Minister:

"Printed from Times of India

BA can't write such words, Aiyar on Maken letter to PM

TNN
Sep 10, 2011, 03.41AM IST

NEW DELHI: Taking on sports minister Ajay Maken, some would say even personally, former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday said Maken wrote to the Prime Minister at the behest of someone within the government, saying that "a BA (pass) graduate from Hansraj College" could not write the kind of words used in the letter.

In the letter, Maken had blamed Aiyar for playing an "obstructionist role" that eventually led to huge cost and time overruns in the Commonwealth Games.

Speaking to a news channel, Aiyar - without naming Montek Singh Ahluwalia - called him a "scrooge who runs the Planning Commission". The reference to Ahluwalia came in the context of Maken accusing Aiyar of not being thankful to either the PM or UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Aiyar said, "It was clear to me that without the backing of the PM I wouldn't have even got from this scrooge who runs the Planning Commission even a Rs 600 crore a year that I managed to squeeze out of him, and if Mrs Gandhi wouldn't have been an ardent supporter of panchayat raj as her husband was I don't think they would qualled in front of my demands and therefore I don't think i have to grovel at the feet of the PM and the President. The Congress president and PM understand the nature of my gratitude to them."

As for Maken's letter, Aiyar said, "Firstly, we have to establish the authenticity of this letter. It contains words like 'dichotomous' which I cannot believe that a BA Pass from Hansraj College would know. So, is this really a letter written by him or somebody else cooked it up. So, I have written a letter to Maken yesterday to either certify the authenticity of the newspaper reports or to send me an authentic copy of the letter, because frankly the letter that he has written doesn't seem to either fit in with the character of the man I know."
Aiyar singled out the language of the letter and said, "There are such big big words used that unless Maken had a thesaurus by his side, I don't believe that he wrote that letter, perhaps I don't know may be he will let me know, whether he appended his signature to a draft prepared by someone else." Aiyar said unlike Maken, sports secretary Sindhushree Khullar "is in fact a very highly educated young lady, so it will be interesting to discover whether such a letter was ever written, whether it was authentic and whether it was drafted by Maken himself or whether he was given some assistance either from his own ministry or some other arm of the government of India in preparing that letter."
Asked about Maken's statement that Aiyar did not give credit to either the PM or UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Aiyar said, "I don't think it's the duty of a minister to go around tom-tomming his personal thanks to a Prime Minister."

I wondered why Aiyer is so acrimonious towards Montek Singh Ahluwalia. I chanced upon the following old news item:

"

Issue Date: Monday, November 27, 2006 The Telegraph

All that glitters is not clout

- Mani daughter wedding a mini-summit, Montek son’s is quiet

RASHEED KIDWAI

Mani Shankar Aiyar with his daughter Yamini and son-in-law Adarsh. Picture by Prem Singh

Nov. 26: One is the father of the bride and a Union minister. But the foreign dignitaries who trooped in for the wedding made the venue look somewhat like a mini Saarc summit.
The other is the father of the groom and one of the Prime Minister’s most trusted men. But the wedding was largely a family-and-friends affair, though the grandeur was not missing.

DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s daughter Yamini and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s son Aman got married — not to each other — at ceremonies whose contrasting styles could be taken as beguiling pointers to the subtle shift in the power balance.

Yamini’s wedding to former Union minister Krishna Kumar’s son Adarsh was held today at Aiyar’s 14 Akbar Road residence, with the lawns rocking non-stop to Bollywood and Indipop numbers.
The celebrations have, in fact, been going on for three days and will spill over to tomorrow. But the talking point was the foreign dignitaries who were present.
Among the guests were Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, former Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Pakistan foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri and wife Naureen, the Bhutan agriculture minister and high-level representations from Bangladesh, the Maldives and other countries.

Cut to two days ago when Montek’s son Aman got married. The reception was held against the backdrop of the majestic Neemrana fort on the Delhi-Jaipur highway but the guests were mostly friends and family. The affair was not shorn of grandeur but not many political faces were on display.
Such nuggets are unlikely to attract much thought elsewhere but not in Delhi.

Political weathervanes are now busy activating their antennae to figure out whether the weddings offered clues to the changing power climate in the capital.

One pundit had this to offer: the glitz and the guest lists are inversely proportional to the amount of clout the two papas enjoy.
Montek is Manmohan Singh’s handpicked lieutenant and among some 20 technocrats/professionals who are calling the shots at the moment.
The others include members of the Planning Commission and the National Advisory Council; heads of the finance commission and the scientific advisory council; and the interlocutors for behind-the-scenes talks with the US, Pakistan and China.

On the face of it, politicians may appear to be in charge of big portfolios but in reality, their influence is on the wane. Their places are being taken over by highly skilled professionals who share Manmohan’s vision.
Some ministers claimed that colleagues like Arjun Singh, A.R. Antulay and Meira Kumar are not helping politicians by indulging in rhetoric on sensitive issues.
Against such a backdrop, any social occasion that offers a chance to showcase friends in high places becomes a handy barometer, though it need not necessarily reflect the full picture."

No impeachmant, no punishment too ?

2011-09-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

Justice Soumitra Sen of the Kolkata High Court defended himself in the Rajya Sabha. But the Rajya Sabha was not convinced and voted for impeachment. Realising that he was cornered, Justice Sen resigned from the court. The Lok Sabha will not go through the motions of impeachment. So far, so good. Will there be any criminal proceedings against him for his defalcation? It appears the answer is no.

A similar drama may play out in the case of Justice P D Dinakaran. Is this justice?

Delayed execution of death sentence

2011-09-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

A lively debate is raging in the country regarding undue delays in execution of death sentences. There are people questioning the very wisdom of capital punishment. Since capital punishment is not (yet) outlawed in our country, the Supreme Court has wisely laid down that it is to be imposed only in rarest of rare cases.

Delays in implementation of any judicial decree are to be avoided. Whenever death sentences are awarded by the courts, the accused invariably go on appeals and if and when the judicial appeal process comes to an end they plead for mercy from the President. Delayed responses to such petitions has become the norm. Delays extending over a decade are pretty common.

Do such delays justify automatic commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment? Those who agree with this proposition argue that such inordinate delays are by themselves a cruel punishment and that the accused should not be subjected to another cruel punishment in the form of death by hanging. There is a logical flaw in this argument. The accused plead for mercy because they prefer to live as long as possible. When there is delay in response to their petition, they turn around and claim that not effecting the death sentence in time, that is allowing them to live longer, is a cruel punishment. This is a typical case of eating the cake and having it too.

Attributing cruelty to delayed response of the executive amounts to ignoring the cruelty suffered by the victims' families.

A curious case of corporate governance

2011-09-03T03:59:00.000-07:00

Everonn Education Ltd., a leading provider of education service has claimed that "it would provide all cooperation to all concerned as necessary to clearly demonstrate its commitment and adherence to principled corporate governance". The company has said this after its CEO was caught red-handed bribing an Additional Commissioner of Income Tax. The non-executive Chairman of the company, J J Irani has since resigned from the Board of Directors. Mr.Irani is a former MD of Tata Steel Ltd.

Why should a company "affirm" its adherence to corporate governance after recklessly violating it? Can it not stop with confirming its readiness to cooperate in enquiries that are bound to follow? Does the company really believe that its claim of adherence to governance is credible? Crisis management requires transparency and frank admission of proven guilt. Mouthing non-existing allegiance to exemplary principles of conduct is a classic case of crisis mismanagement. Will corporates ever learn?

Farther away from home, the happenings at Sino-Forest Company, Canada are another instance of gross violation of principles of governance. The role of Ernst & Young has also come in for criticism. It is not clear how many more cases of corporate chicanery will come out in the open in the near future.

Capital Punishment and President's Accountability

2011-09-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

It is moot whether capital punishment should be abolished or not. Convincing arguments exist for both retention and removal. As long as the provision finds a place in our legal scheme of things, it is incumbent on the authorities to perform their related functions diligently and in time. Vexatious delays in the legal processes and clemency proceedings are unpardonable.

Dilatoriness in decisions on mercy petitions is under intense debate now in view of the case relating to killers of Rajiv Gandhi. Four persons were awarded capital punishment by the courts. One of them, a lady, had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Since her guilt was not seen to be less gruesome than that of others, this is probably a case of discrimination in the eye of law. The other three pleaded for mercy eleven years back. Their petitions gathered dust in the Home Ministry for five years and in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan for six long years. Are not the ministers and presidents accountable for this inexplicable tardiness?

Perhaps this is one of the few cases where the ex- President Abdul Kalam owes an explanation to the nation.

Arundhati Roy on Anna Hazare's movement

2011-08-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

The captious critic, Arundhati Roy is playing her usual carping game once again. A pathological believer in monopolising people's attention, she is seething with impotent anger that she is unable to wean people away from Anna's campaign against corruption. She discovers that the movement is funded by the World Bank and the Ford Foundation! What an egregious thought!

If the campaign is really supported by the WB and the FF, we should indeed be thankful to them. Read the baseless allegations of Roy:

".....Jan Lokpal bill regressive, Anna used as prop: Arundhati Roy

By Indo Asian News Service
IANS – 16 hours ago...New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) The Jan Lokpal bill is a 'regressive piece of legislation' and Anna Hazare has been 'used as a prop by foreign-funded NGOs' to lead the anti-corruption movement, writer and activist Arundhati Roy has said.

In an interview to CNN IBN, Roy said she is glad that the civil society's Jan Lokpal bill did not go through in parliament.
'I am extremely glad that the Jan Lokpal bill did not go through parliament in its current form,' Roy said.

'I think the legislation is a dangerous piece of work. You used the real and legitimate anger of the people against corruption to push through this specific piece of legislation, which is very regressive according to me,' she added.

Alleging that activist Anna Hazare, who spearheaded the anti-corruption movement, was used just as a prop, Roy said: 'It was an NGO-driven movement by Kiran Bedi, (Arvind) Kejriwal and (Manish) Sisodia. Three of them run NGOs.'

'I wanted to indicate why these NGOs are participating to mediate in what the public policy should be. World Bank and Ford Foundation fund the anti-corruption campaigns. Anna Hazare was picked up and propped up as the saint for the masses. He was not the brain behind the movement,' she added.

Talking about the Jan Lokpal bill, Roy said that it attempts to create a form of 'parallel oligarchy'.

'The Jan Lokpal team, including the chairman, is to be selected by a pool of elite people and they are a pool of elite people. You have a bureaucracy which will have the policing power, the power to tap phones, prosecute, charge and judge from the prime minister to the bottom,' she said.

Roy also questioned the media for its 24X7 coverage of Hazare's 12-day fast. 'For a nation of one billion people, the media did not find anything else to report,' she said, adding that 'certain major TV channels campaigned for' the movement. 'That's a kind of corruption for me at first place'."

What an outlandish idea! Media's focus on an issue of national importance is called as corruption! However, there is one elemental truth in Roy's outburst. Anna is not the brain behind the movement. He is the soul.

Arundhati Roy has proved her credentials to become a minister. Manmohan Singh may take notice.

Supreme Court Judge's dangerous plea

2011-08-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Mr. Justice Markandey Katju, a judge of the apex court has in a lecture in Chennai pleaded, "You must create a situation where judges are not put under pressure to become corrupt". He was saying that the judges are not adequately paid for their work. If non-payment of adequate compensation is reason enough to be corrupt, most Indians will be so. Pleading for appropriate salaries is one thing. But to reason that otherwise corruption will become more endemic is sinister. Such an argument is not much different from the Maoists' justification that if the government resorts to violence, so would they. Some idealistic solutions are impractical. Governments would never be totally pacifist. Salaries of judges or for that matter any group of employees would never be high enough to preempt the greed for more.

Mani Shankar Aiyar's false argument

2011-08-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

Writing in The Economic Times dated 28th August, M.S.Aiyar argues, "I don't quite know what Anna Hazare is doing at the Ramlila ground when he ought to be laying siege to Dalal Street and the CII headquarters. For, while some of the corruption can be traced to the venality of politicians, all of it leads straight to business houses."

Well, this is a convenient argument to deflect popular anger away from the government. But is this a valid argument? If crimes go unchecked in a particular town, we do not hold demonstration against the criminals. We only question the police / state why they are not taking any effective action. There is an implicit contract between the citizens and the elected representatives who form the government that the latter would keep criminals at bay. There is no agreement between the corporate sector and the citizens that the former would stay away from venal ways. Therefore even if Aiyar's assumption that corporates are the fountainhead of corruption is correct, his conclusion that we should question only the corporates and not the government is absurd.

However if Aiyar is sincere in his expression, we expect him to organise a dharna in front of Dalal Street. We may know how many people support him.

Ensuring effectiveness of Lokpal

2011-08-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

Institutions like CBI become a let-down when the investigating official is (a) corrupt or/and (b) politically or extraneously influenced or/and (c) indolent. It is too well known that CBI is politically influenced. These three vitiating factors can be avoided in Lokpal if and only if he/she is chosen with due care by an appropriate authority. If the selection is made unanimously by a committee consisting of the Chief Justice, Prime Minister and Leader of the opposition as should be done in the case of CVC, the Lokpal is unlikely to suffer from any of the triple infimities mentioned above. Unanimity in selection is essential in view of what unfolded in the case of P J Thomas. (It is interesting to note that the Supreme Court bypassed the question as to whether unanimity is a legal requirement in the PJT case.)What happens if the committee members are corrupt? That is a second order question which should await its day for solution. It is however

helpful to remember that the incorruptible Justice Kapadia is a black swan and that we have more, substantially more, Balakrishnans than Kapadias. Recently Karan Thapar interviewed Salman Kurshid. The latter came up with an astonishing revelation that the government (at that point of time) was averse to insisting on Lok Ayukthas for all states because it was difficult to identify so many honest people ! When Karan sarcastically questioned if it was really that difficult in a nation of a billion plus population, Salman cynically put him down saying it was perhaps difficult even to find enough honest members for the Lokpal itself.

Anna Hazare's movement

2011-08-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

Arundhati Roy says, "While Anna's means may be Gandhian, his demands are certainly not" (The Hindu dated 22nd Aug.). There are many who believe that his goals are acceptable, but his means are not. Thus we have many citizens who support his methods. Similarly there are many (not necessarily the same people) who endorse his objectives. The crowds at Ramlila maidan in Delhi and Sunday's unprecedented march of more than a hundred thousand people in Mumbai give the lie to arrogant minister's claim that a mere five thousand odd people do not reflect popular opinion.

After Kapil Sibal made the extraordinary remark belittling the movement, a "referendum" was conducted in Chandni Chowk, Sibal's constituency. Nearly 90% voted for Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal bill. The worthy minister again ridiculed the referendum sarcastically commenting that the movement could have got 100% also. Various polls conducted by electronic media in different places revealed similar support for the anti-corruption drive. The minister is now observing "maunavrath".

Manmohan Singh who is normally too academically oriented to know the pulse of the people is now additionally advised by mendacious lawyers like Sibal. This certainly is not the way to lead the nation.

In the meantime, the unpopular government is trying all possible tricks to torpedo Anna's moves. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the least belligerent among the Congress spokespersons, has pleaded, "Give the Standing Committee a chance. Allow us to do our work." (How well they have done their work when such bills were earlier presented in the parliament !) Aruna Roy, a member of National Advisory Council which has the blessings of Sonia Gandhi, has joined a few others to come up with a last-minute red-herring proposal under the National Campaign for the right to Information (NCPRI). One of its brilliant recommendations is, "The prime minister should only be investigated if the full Bench of the Lokpal recommends such an investigation." This is again subject to another rider that a Full Bench of the Supreme Court has to concur with this recommendation. Have they omitted to say that the Full Bench should "unanimously" second the recommendation? In simple words, investigation against the prime minister is sought to be made a statistical impossibility.

Arvind Kejriwal vs Rahul Gandhi

2011-08-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

Some mischievous elements who obviously do not have the interests of the nation in their mind are making a comparison between Rahul Gandhi and the Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal. This is what they are saying:

ARVIND KEJRIVAL:-

Mechanical Engineer -IIT Kharagpur
Job :-Tata Steel
Former IRS resigned from the Govt job(posted IT Commisioner's office)
Social Activist:-
Man behind (Right to Information Act).
LokPal bill
Awards Various Ashoka Fellow, Civic Engagement.
2005: 'Satyendra Dubey Memorial Award', IIT Kanpur for his campaign for bringing transparency in Government
2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership.
2006: CNN-IBN, 'Indian of the Year' in Public Service
2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Emergent Leadership.
2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year, Economic Times Corporate Excellence Award along with Aruna Roy.
Fighting against corruption
.............He left his job in IRS to fight against corruption.

RAHUL GANDHI :-
Education- failed to secure passing grades in National Economic Planning and Policy graduated by any how
job: Got ancestral political power and running through it
Award: he is making awards not getting it
Fight against Indians sentiments
For him Terror attacks are common thing...
we should not be worried of that.....let it happen(since they have z class security)
he will never talk about Govt. policies....and planning....since he
is not intelligent enough to grasp that.(claimed to be most eligible to be PM)
Won't talk about black money and corruption.
will never talk in Parliament.
No political vision and goals for nation .
Trained well to fool poor villagers with safed kurta ..nd khadhi(doing same in UP and other places.)

Achievements:-
Great Grandson OF Nehru,
Grandson of Indira Gandhi....

Son Of Rajiv gandhi....

FRom Gandhi Family.....
..............Claimed to be next PM of INDIA ..Future face of congress.

Rahul Gandhi's credentials

2011-08-21T02:35:00.000-07:00

It looks all but certain that the Prince Charming will replace Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. With a view to getting enlightened on the future Prime Minister's credentials, Ram Jethmalani has asked him the following questions:

"1. We have no objection to your mother's ambition to see you installed as India's Prime Minister. Obviously she did not entertain this ambition either for herself or any of her children in 1991. Are you prepared to take the nation into confidence and disclose the qualifications you have acquired since then to take into your hands the destiny of this complex and most populous and poverty stricken democracy?

2. Do you agree that the best available statesman in the country should fill that post? If yes, how have you convinced yourself that you are the one? We would not mind if your mother answers this question. We hope you will not turn to our dear friends Mani Shankar Aiyar or Abhishek Singhvi to ghost write the answers.

3. We are highly appreciative of the Election Commission which compels candidates for public office to disclose their material assets.

We wish they logically mandate the disclosure of intellectual assets as well. But if democracy is all about transparency, would you kindly let the nation know what academic qualifications you have acquired, when, how and from which institutions. It will help if you also tell the curious Indian nation what books you have read during the last five years; have you published any articles or any readable material on politics, economics, terrorism, war and peace? Is there any speech in Parliament, to the local Rotary Club or to a bunch of tiny toddlers with a single quotable quote that illumines or inspires and gives us some clue to your intellectual attainments? We know quite a few talented young men in the Congress party and naturally people would like to be satisfied that you are better endowed than them all. That your mother is Soniaji or your father was Rajivji is not enough evidence.

4. There have been oft-repeated charges of financial impropriety and worse against your family, including by the president of Janata Party, Subramanian Swamy, Swiss magazines and, most unusually in a book on the KGB. Why have you not responded?

If you plead ignorance of all the stuff mentioned in the questions you do not deserve to be India's Prime Minister any way.

Will the free press look into this serious business and make effective the People's Right to Know?"

Of course, let us not naively expect any answers to these questions.

Prime Minister takes no decisions

2011-08-14T02:27:00.000-07:00

Anna Hazare wrote a letter to the PM seeking his intervention to be allowed to demonstrate against corruption. PM's reply is given below:

Here's the full text of the PM's letter:

"I have received your letter, carrying the date 14th August, 2011 and carefully read its contents.

Your grievance that the police has given you permission to protest and go on fast at JP Park only for three days needs to be addressed by the statutory authorities who have taken that decision. My Office does not in any way get involved in the decision making process. The terms and conditions on which you are entitled to carry on with your protest are decided by the statutory authorities concerned taking into account the prevailing circumstances and other relevant factors.

I would request you to address your grievances to the statutory authorities concerned.

We are all committed to the Constitution of India and to uphold it both in letter and spirit. "

The prime minister admits that "My office does not in any way get involved in the decision making process". Maybe he wants to refer to this particular issue of permitting anti-corruption fast. However the observation applies generally also. Many scams were allowed to occur because the prime minister is not in the habit of taking any decision. In the few instances where decisions were purportedly taken, decisions came from a "higher authority'.

Supreme Court's order on black money

2011-08-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

We don't normally expect the judiciary to quote ,inter alia, Arthur Laffer, informational asymmetries, Washington Consensus, "Greed is good" philosophy, Gunnar Myrdal's "Soft state" concept, "Follow the money" principle, Prof.Rotberg and that too in the same judgement. This is exactly what the Supreme Court has done in its order in the case filed by Ram Jethmalani raising issues relating to black money. The order is a logically reasoned and elegantly phrased magnum opus that deserves approbation.

On the contrary the Government has sought recall of the order. This shows the ethical deficit and abject poverty of social values among ministers and bureaucrats.

Many paragraphs in the order are worth quoting and are a delight to read. For example,

"15.In addition, it would also appear that in this miasmic cultural environment in which greed is extolled,

conspicuous consumption viewed as both necessary and socially valuable, and the wealthy viewed as demi-gods,
the agents of the State may have also succumbed to the notions of the neo-liberal paradigm that the role of the
State ought to only be an enabling one, and not exercise significant control. This attitude would have a significant
impact on exercise of discretion, especially in the context of regulating economic activities, including keeping an
account of the monies generated in various activities, both legal and illegal. Carried away by the ideology of
neo-liberalism, it is entirely possible that the agents of the State entrusted with the task of supervising the economic
and social activities may err more on the side of extreme caution, whereby signals of wrong doing may be ignored
even when they are strong. Instances of the powers that be ignoring publicly visible stock market scams, or turning
a blind eye to large scale illegal mining have become all too familiar, and may be readily cited. That such activities
are allowed to continue to occur, with weak, or non-existent, responses from the State may, at best, be
charitably ascribed to this broader culture of permissibility of all manner of private activities in search of ever more
lucre. Ethical compromises, by the elite - those who wield the powers of the state, and those who fatten themselves
in an ever more exploitative economic sphere- can be expected to thrive in an environment marked by such a

permissive attitude, of weakened laws, and of weakened law enforcement machineries and attitudes."

The detailed order is available in the following link:

http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/helddis3.aspx

S&P impoverishes America

2011-08-07T03:43:00.000-07:00

At last the Rubicon has been crossed. Standard & Poor's has downgraded the American sovereign long term rating from AAA to AA+ and as if to add insult to injury has placed the rating in negative watch ( sorry, it is not negative watch; it is negative outlook : corrected after seeing the comment below) which means further downgrading is not ruled out. China which is rated two notches below i.e. AA- has advised the American government to give up its addiction to debt and to learn to live within means. China, a communist country wants America, a capitalist nation to trim its bloated "social welfare" expenses. It is difficult to come across a greater irony.

Has S&P jumped the gun in an attempt to undo the damage that resulted from its inability to foresee the subprime crisis? In case this interpretation is correct, we need to appreciate that two wrongs do not make a right.

Moody's and Fitch have not downgraded America for the present. Is S&P trying to prove its leadership among ratings companies once again?

Whatever be the reason for this epochal decision, members of American treasury and Congress have only betrayed their boorishness by criticising S&P for its weighty decision. At present India is rated BBB- and any downgrade will mean slippage into speculative zone with all its attendant negative consequences. You can trust our politicians to test that possibility any time soon.

Secrecy mistaken as privacy

2011-08-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Right to privacy is an inalienable right of every individual. Unfortunately privacy is often viewed synonymously with secrecy. Secrecy engenders suspicion. Privacy is sacrosanct whereas secrecy betrays paranoia and is very often an attempt to conceal one's detestable behaviour.

Sonia Gandhi is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed ailment in an undisclosed hospital, according to her confidants. The cloud of secrecy surrounding the announcement makes one wonder whether she is really undergoing medical treatment or has gone abroad for some undisclosable purpose like operating secret bank accounts. It may be unchivalrous to think on these lines, but it would be gullible and anti-national not to think so.

Pot and kettle

2011-07-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

Manmohan Singh has made an observation that the opposition also is not clean.

'We are not afraid of discussing the issue of corruption. The opposition also has too many skeletons in its cupboard. We are not afraid of discussing any issue in parliament,' Manmohan Singh, who came to Parliament House to attend an all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

It is a pity that instead of ensuring good governance, the prime minister draws comfort from the fact that both government and opposition are letting the country down. What a fall for a person who used to talk about global benchmarking ! Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde ?

Prime Minister's expedience

2011-07-31T04:34:00.000-07:00

Who said our prime minister is not a scheming politician? Read what he says now on the 2G scam:

“The matter is before courts. It should be left to be decided by the court and Parliament should not pre-judge the issue,” Dr. Singh told reporters on the sidelines of an all-party meeting convened by Speaker Meira Kumar.

So the much revered parliament (Salman Kurshid and Kapil Sibal have repeatedly advised Anna Hazare and his team to "respect the parliament" as if they do not now) does not have the power to discuss the 2G issue as long as the matter is in the court, according to the worthy prime minister. Manmohan Singh is more machiavellian than many other politicians. The monsoon session of the parliament opens tomorrow. If the BJP does not shut down the session, the ruling party will. The discredited former minister, A.Raja has argued in the court that he is not more culpable than the prime minister. Manmohan Singh owes an explanation to the parliament and the nation. He has apparently decided not to respond not because of any regard for the judicial process but because he finds it expedient to find an alibi for his trademark silence. Never in the history of India has there been such a dichotomy between a person's assumed honesty and actual dishonesty.

Primacy of Parliament

2011-07-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Salman Kurshid who is among the more sober elements in the central cabinet has said that protesting against the government's Lokpal Bill is an action not against the government but against the proceedings of Parliament. This creates a false impression that the government respects the parliament. Truth to tell, the government is unwilling even to take any action against the perpetrators of dastardly attack on the parliament. Well, Salman Kurshid has every right to play politics. He need not trivialise the proposed fast by Anna Hazare against the teethless bill approved by the cabinet.

Manmohan Singh has said that he prefers inclusion of prime minister under the Lokpal, but he defers to the cabinet decision against it. He has become a joker in the process.

Culture of corruption

2011-07-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

It is now clear that Justice Santosh Hegde, the Lok Ayuktha of Karnataka has held Yeddyurappa and some of his cabinet colleagues guilty of corrupt practices. It is also fairly obvious that the BJP or the state government will not act on these findings. Being corrupt is condemnable; sticking onto power even after corruption is proved is nefarious and subversive of all principles of good governance. BJP and Congress are the pot and the kettle each calling the other black. Both are heinously craven political parties. Both have wreaked havoc on Indian politics. Corruption is so rife that honesty and integrity are deemed to be obsolete qualities.

The Supreme Court under the leadership of Justice Kapadia has tried its best to redeem the nation from the all pervasive evil of corruption. But the task is not easy. When corruption has become the only way of life, who can save the nation?

President's Role

2011-07-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

We are passing through a difficult political phase as corruption corrodes every aspect of governance. These are exactly the times when we need a President like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan or Abdul Kalam. Unfortunately, ------------------

Gopal Subramaniam, the Solicitor General met the President today and discussed with her the issue relating to the Telecom Ministry engaging a private lawyer to defend Kapil Sibal. What can we expect from the present President?

Cartelisation by banks ?

2011-07-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

All public sector banks are having almost the same "base rate" i.e.10.25% Reserve Bank of India had earlier advsed banks to come up with their own base rate to be calculated on the basis of their respective cost of funds, administrative costs and profit margin. Each borrower was supposed to be charged an interest rate that would be base rate plus borrower's risk premium. It is surprising that all banks are having similar cost structure!
RBI also was of the view that the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) which is sought to be replaced by Base Rate was non-transparently fixed by various banks. It now appears that the fate of Base Rate may be no different.

Riding the storm of life

2011-06-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice narration on how to deal with life by Janina Gomes that recently appeared in TOI Speaking Tree.

Riding the storm of life

Janina Gomes
Jun 15, 2011, 12.00am IST

We do not have to go to the foot of the Himalayas to attain inner peace. We

also do not need to renounce everything before attaining quietude.

Instead, we can live day to day in inner quietude. If we look at all of

life's experiences and their disturbing content with inner eyes, the

disturbances we undergo will remain at the periphery. Deep down there will

be an emotional quiet.

Inner peace is all about coping. If the unpleasant and painful memories

remain too long with us, we will not make the transition that we are called

to make from restless non-acceptance to quiet acceptance.

We are in a win-win situation when we accept the challenge of living,

discriminating how far we should go along a certain track, who we should

relate to in more intimate terms and those we need to distance because their

values are so disparate from our own.

If we are self-sacrificing and wise, we will remain calm and tranquil

despite the provocations we face. We do not avoid difficult people and

circumstances, but learn to deal with them by distancing ourselves from them

and building on relationships that bring happiness.

Withdrawal is an option but it would lead to disengagement and

non-involvement and that does not bring required results. The inner peace we

crave for comes after traversing a long passage. Learning with experience,

we begin to take things in our stride. It's not all that easy, though.

There are many ways to cultivate and build on inner peace. We could set some

time aside daily for prayer and meditation. Disproportionate understanding

can blow up the way we perceive things. We could spend quiet time in the

garden, in silent communication with plants and trees. We endure life's

storms and learn to absorb its shocks and we find that we are, in fact, in

the midst of all these circumstances, communing with God, a tangible

presence in our lives.

Coping is not just reactive, it's proactive, too. We pick up the mantle

thrown to us and practise patience, detachment, endurance, serenity and

acceptance of all that comes our way. To overcome obstacles and difficulties

we need to develop coping skills that encompass emotional, mental and

spiritual needs.

The only difference between the wise and the foolish is that the wise learn

to cope with reality and transform it and the foolish get swept away by the

ups and downs of life.

Life is uncertain; it is unpredictable. It is also unfair, it seems. But in

learning to cope with all the ups and down of life, we begin to live a full

life.

There is the parable of the wise man in the gospels who built his house on

rock. It withstood all the rains and storms. On the other hand, the man who

built his house on sand watched his house get destroyed in the rain and

storm. Hence, we need to cultivate rock-like resilience and welcome

attributes that will help us to cope. The reward of inner strength is inner

peace. Right here, in your living room, your workplace, in your family you

will find inner peace. We do not have to look too far.

Once we learn to cope, the going will be easier and there will be no need

for camouflage. There is no need to hide our real selves. We will be able to

stand up and meet life on our own terms. And experience the fulfilment of a

pilgrimage well weathered

Hindustan Unilever

2011-06-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

18th March 2010 we discussed the none-too-good state of Unilever group under the caption "Unilever in crisis mode?" There are some happy tidings since then.

Harish Manwani who continues as Chairman of HUL will additionally be COO of the Unilever group. Gopal Vittal, one of the EDs of HUL recently remarked, "The question is , are we winning in the markets of tomorrow, with the consumers of tomorrow, in the segments and the channels of tomorrow, because in each of these there are tailwinds coming our way".

Nice to hear. Though focus on future is necessary, we need to realise that the long run is only a seres of short runs. If a company does not do well in a series of short runs, its long term strategy also gets stymied. Strong headwinds in the near term may not allow us to survive in the distant term.

Myopia is bad. Hypermetropia may be worse!

Court hearings in bail applications relating to 2G scam

2011-06-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Ms.Kanimozhi has failed to obtain bail despite her sequential applications in the CBI court, Delhi High Court and now the Supreme Court. Some of the exchanges between the Supreme Court judges and the advocates are partly interesting and partly intriguing. For example,

"A special bench of justices G. S. Singhvi and B. S. Chauhan ticked off counsel for Ms. Kanimozhi and co-accused Kalaignar TV managing Director Sharad Kumar when they claimed that they were innocent and were not hungry for money.

“Hungry people neither take bribe nor do they come to the courts. None of them (accused) is a hungry person,” the bench remarked when senior counsel Altaf Ahmed argued that the accused were “not hungry for money,” and the Rs. 200 crore transferred to Kalaignar TV was part of a loan amount."

Again,

"The bench was not impressed with the defence plea that the accused were willing to abide by any condition for bail and even the IMF Chief Dominique Strauss—Kahn was granted bail in the sexual molestation case.

“Let us keep the media discussions outside. It tends to blur our thinking" the bench remarked. "

Are the alleged offences of Kahn and Kanimozhi comparable? Kahn was arrested as soon as the alleged offence was committed whereas the latter was taken into custody when it became unavoidable.

The Court championed the cause of equality when

The bench did not agree with the plea of senior counsel Sushil Kumar that Ms. Kanimozhi should be granted bail as she has a 10-year old child to look after and that she was being denied his company.

“That happens to all other women,” the bench remarked.

Misleading Charts in annual reports of companies

2011-06-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement -- Corporate Governance -- Annexure 1C requires companies to disclose in their annual reports, inter-alia, (a) Market Price data: High , Low during each month in last financial year and (b) Performance in comparison to broad-based indices such as BSE Sensex, CRISIL Index etc.

An ingenious practice is adopted by various listed companies to nullify the spirit behind the need for disclosing comparison between company's share price movement and sensex / nifty movement.

Whereas companies dutifully comply with the requirement of disclosure, most of them especially those companies whose share prices declined more sharply than sensex / nifty have chosen to depict the comparative movements in the form of a graph. In a combined graph which shows the movements of both share price and sensex / nifty, Y-axis is calibrated in such a way that the slopes of both curves look similar and thus give a mistaken impression that the share price has moved in tandem with the indices. This impression is created because the Y-axis does not begin at zero value at the origin and same lengths in the Y-axis are used to portray substantially different ranges in movement of share price and indices.

For example, the graph in page 45 of the 2008-09 annual report of Cholamandalam DBS Finance Limited gives a distorted appearance of "in-tandem" movement though the fall in Sensex was only about 35 % whereas the decline in share price was as high as 85 %

This matter was taken up with SEBI as early as July 2009. Response is still awaited.

Civil Society vs Politicians

2011-06-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

It is only to be expected that politicians who have had exclusive jurisdiction over the terms of social contract in the country rise in revolt against the incipient civil society that threatens the former's venal ways. Even Pranab Mukherjee who is among the less aggressive and more reasonable among the politicians, has questioned the rights of civil society to decide what needs to be legislated. He is too intelligent to misunderstand the requirements of the so-called civil society. He ought to know that in a democracy citizens are sovereign and parliamentarians are expected only to satisfy the needs of citizens. To argue that legislation is the exclusive domain of the legislators and therefore the civil society should not interfere betrays a deliberate attempt to derail the snowballing people's crusade against political corruption.

We should not be surprised that ministers will leave no stone unturned to ensure that their cosy life is not disturbed by people daring to demand activation of democratic principles.

Indians taken for a ride?

2011-06-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

I came across the following outpourings of a concerned citizen. I thought these are worth sharing with others. I do not know the veracity or otherwise of the incidents quoted. Since these allegations are frequently and publicly expressed, it is incumbent on the leaders of the Congress party to probe them. If these are found to be true, the Congress leaders should throw the Gandhis out of the party. If the allegations are wrong, the Congress party should explain to the nation so that the unfair abuse of the Gandhi family will cease.:

"Rahul gandhi Exposed by an IIT student...

THE CURIOUS CASE OF RAHUL GANDHI

Rahul Gandhi: "I feel ashamed to call myself an INDIAN after seeing what has

happened here in UP".

PLEASE DON'T BE ASHAMED OF U.P. YET

Please don't be ashamed of Uttar Pradesh yet. Congress ruled the State for

the Majority of the duration Pre Independence to Post Independence.. from

1939 to 1989 ( barring the Periods of Emergency.. Thanks to your Grand Mom

Indira G. and a couple of transitional Governments)

8 out of the total 14 Prime Ministers of India have been from UP, 6 out of

those 8 have been from Congress...

I think your party had more than half a century and half a Dozen PM's to

build a State...
The Reason Mulayam Singh, subsequently came to Power is because your party

wasn't exactly Gandhian in their dealings in the State.. So May be If you

look at in totality the present chaos in UP is the outcome of the glorious

leadership displayed by Congress in UP for about 50 years!

So Please don't feel ashamed as yet Dear Rahul.. For Mayawati is only using

the Land Acquisition Bill which your party had itself used to LOOT the

Farmers many times in the Past!

WHY DIDN'T YOUR PARTY CHANGE THE BILL WHEN IT WAS IN POWER FOR SO LONG?

Not that I Endorse what Mayawati is doing.. What Mayawati is doing is

Unacceptable..
But the past actions of your party and your recent comments, puts a question

mark on your INTENT and CONSISTENCY.

YOU REALLY WANT TO FEEL ASHAMED

But don't be disappointed, I would give you ample reasons to feel ashamed...

You really want to feel Ashamed..?

First Ask Pranav Mukherjee, Why isn't he giving the details of the account

holders in the Swiss Banks.

Ask your Mother, Who is impeding the Investigation against Hasan Ali?

Ask her, Who got 60% Kickbacks in the 2G Scam ?

Kalamdi is accused of a Few hundred Crores, Who Pocketed the Rest in the

Common Wealth Games?

Ask Praful Patel what he did to the Indian Airlines? Why did Air India let

go of the Profitable Routes ?

Why should the Tax Payer pay for the Air India losses, when you intend to

eventually DIVEST IT ANYWAY!!!

Also, You People can't run an Airline Properly. How can we expect you to run

the Nation?

Ask Manmohan Singh. Why/What kept him quiet for so long?

Are Kalmadi and A Raja are Scapegoats to save Big Names like Harshad Mehta

was in the 1992 Stock Market Scandal ?

Who let the BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY Accused go Scot Free? ( 20,000 People died in

that Tragedy)
Who ordered the State Sponsored Massacre of SIKHS in 84?

Please read more about, How Indira Gandhi pushed the Nation Under Emergency

in 76-77, after the HC declared her election to Lok Sabha Void!

(I bet She had utmost respect for DEMOCRACY and JUDICIARY and FREE PRESS)

I guess you know the answers already. So My question is, Why the Double

Standards in Judging Mayawati and members of your Family and Party?

I condemn Mayawati. But Is She the only one you feel Ashamed for?

What about the ones close to you? For their contribution to the Nation's

Misery is beyond comparison.

You talk about the Land being taken away from the Farmers. How many Suicides

have happened under your Parties Rule in Vidarbha ? Does that Not Ashame You

?
THE 72,000 CRORE LOAN WAIVER

Your Party gave those Farmers a 72,000 Crore Loan Waiver. Which didn't even

reach the Farmers by the way.

So, Why don't you focus on implementing the policies which your govt. has

undertaken, instead of earning brownie points by trying to manufacture

consent by bombarding us with pictures of having food with Poor

Villagers....

You want to feel ashamed. You can feel ashamed for your Party taking CREDIT

for DEBITING the Public Money (72,000 crores) from the Government Coffers

and literally Wasting it...

You want to feel ashamed.. Feel ashamed for that...

WHY ONLY HIGHLIGHT THIS ARREST?

Dear Rahul, to refresh your memory, you were arrested/detained by the FBI

the BOSTON Airport in September 2001.

You were carrying with you $ 1,60,000 in Cash. You couldn't explain why you

were carrying so much Cash.

Incidentally He was with his Columbian girlfriend Veronique Cartelli,

ALLEGEDLY, the Daughter of Drug Mafia.

9 HOURS he was kept at the Airport.

Later then freed on the intervention of the then Prime Minister

Mr.Vajpayee.. FBI filed an equivalent of an FIR in US and released him.

When FBI was asked to divulge the information, by Right/Freedom to

Information Activists about the reasons Rahul was arrested ... FBI asked for

a NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE from Rahul Gandhi.

So Subramaniyam Swami wrote a Letter to Rahul Gandhi, " If you have NOTHING

to HIDE, Give us the Permission"

HE NEVER REPLIED!

Why did that arrest not make Headlines Rahul? You could have gone to the

Media and told, "I am ashamed to call myself an INDIAN?".
Or is it that, you only do like to highlight Symbolic Arrests (like in UP)

and not Actual Arrests ( In BOSTON)

Kindly Clarify.....

In any case, you want to feel ashamed, Read Along...

YOUR MOTHER'S SO CALLED SACRIFICE OF GIVING UP PRIME MINISTER SHIP in 2004.

According to a Provision in the Citizenship Act.

A Foreign National who becomes a Citizen of India, is bounded by the same

restrictions, which an Indian would face, If he/she were to become a Citizen

of Italy.

(Condition based on principle of reciprocity)

Now Since you can't become a PM in Italy, Unless you are born there.
Likewise an Italian Citizen can't become Indian PM, unless He/She is not

born here!

Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI (The Man who Exposed the 2G Scam) sent a letter to

the PRESIDENT OF INDIA bringing the same to his Notice.

PRESIDENT OF INDIA sent a letter to Sonia Gandhi to this effect, 3:30 PM,

May 17th, 2004.
Swearing Ceremony was scheduled for 5 PM the same Day.
Manmohan Singh was brought in the Picture at the last moment to Save Face!!

Rest of the SACRIFICE DRAMA which she choreographed was an EYE WASH!!!

Infact Sonia Gandhi had sent, 340 letters, each signed by different MP to

the PRESIDENT KALAM, supporting her candidacy for PM.

One of those letters read, I Sonia Gandhi, elected Member from Rai Bareli,

hereby propose Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister.

So SHE was Pretty INTERESTED! Until She came to know the Facts!

So She didn't make any Sacrifice, It so happens that SONIA GANDHI couldn't

have become the PM of INDIA that time.

You could be Ashamed about that Dear Rahul!! One Credential Sonia G had,

Even that was a HOAX!

THINK ABOUT YOURSELF.

You go to Harvard on Donation Quota. ( Hindujas Gave HARVARD 11 million

dollars the same year, when Rajiv Gandhi was in Power)

Then you are expelled in 3 Months/ You Dropped out in 3 Months.... ( Sadly

Manmohan Singh wasn't the Dean of Harvard that time, else you might have had

a chance... Too Bad, there is only one Manmohan Singh!)

Some Accounts say, You had to Drop out because of Rajiv Gandhi's

Assassination.

May be, But Then Why did you go about lying about being Masters in Economics

from Harvard .. before finally taking it off your Resume upon questioning by

Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI (The Gentlemen who exposed the 2G Scam)

At St. Stephens.. You Fail the Hindi Exam.

Hindi Exam!!!

And you are representing the Biggest Hindi Speaking State of the Country?

SONIA GANDHI's EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Sonia G gave a sworn affidavit as a Candidate that She Studied English at

University of Cambridge

According to Cambridge University, there is no such Student EVER!

Upon a Case by Dr. Subramaniyam Swami filed against her,

She subsequently dropped the CAMBRIDGE CREDENTIAL from her Affidavit.

Sonia Gandhi didn't even pass High School. She is just 5th class Pass!

In this sense, She shares a common Educational Background with her 2G

Partner in Crime, Karunanidhi.

You Fake your Educational Degree, Your Mother Fakes her Educational Degree.

And then you go out saying, " We want Educated Youth into Politics!"

Contrast that with Gandhi Ji , who went to South Africa, Became a Barrister,

on Merit, Left all that to work for South Africa, then for the Country....

WHY LIE ABOUT EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS?

Not that Education is a Prerequisite for being a great Leader, but then you

shouldn't have lied about your qualifications!

You could feel a little ashamed about Lying about your Educational

Qualifications. You had your reasons I know, Because in India, WE RESPECT

EDUCATION!
But who cares about Education, When you are a Youth Icon!!

YOUTH ICON

You traveled in the Local Train for the first time at the Age of 38.

You went to some Villages as a part of Election Campaign.

And You won a Youth Icon!! ... That's why You are my Youth Icon.

For 25 Million People travel by Train Everyday. You are the First Person to

win a Youth Icon for boarding a Train.

Thousands of Postmen go to remotest of Villages. None of them have yet

gotten a Youth Icon.

You were neither YOUNG Nor ICONIC!

Still You became a Youth Icon beating Iconic and Younger Contenders like

RAHUL DRAVID.

Shakespeare said, What's in a Name?

Little did he knew, It's all in the Name, Especially the Surname!

Speaking of Surname, Sir

DO YOU REALLY RESPECT GANDHI, OR IS IT JUST TO CASH IN ON THE GOODWILL OF

MAHATMA?

Because the Name on your Passport is RAUL VINCI.

Not RAHUL GANDHI..

May be if you wrote your Surname as Gandhi, you would have experienced, what

Gandhi feels like, LITERALLY ( Pun Intended)

You People don't seem to use Gandhi much, except when you are fighting

Elections. ( There it makes complete sense).

Imagine fighting elections by the Name Raul Vinci...

It feels sadly Ironic, Gandhi Ji, who inspired Icons like Nelson Mandela

,Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon, across the world, Couldn't inspire

members of his party/ Nehru's Family, who only seem to use his Surname for

the purposes of FIGHTING ELECTIONS and conveniently use a different name on

their PASSPORT.

You use the name GANDHI at will and then say, " Mujhe yeh YUVRAJ shabd

Insulting lagta hai! Kyonki aaj Hindustan mein Democracy hai, aur is shabd

ka koi matlab nahin hai!

YUVRAJ, Itna hi Insulting lagta hai, to lad lo RAUL VINCI ke Naam se!!! Jin

Kisano ke saath photo khinchate ho woh bhi isliye entertain karte hain ki

GANDHI ho.. RAUL VINCI bol ke Jao... Ghar mein nahin ghusaenge!!!

You could feel ashamed for your Double Standards.

YOUTH INTO POLITICS.

Now You want Youth to Join Politics.
I say First you Join Politics.
Because you haven't Joined Politics. You have Joined a Family Business.

First you Join Politics. Win an Election fighting as RAUL VINCI and Not

Rahul Gandhi, then come and ask the youth and the Educated Brass for more

involvement in Politics.

Also till then, Please don't give me examples of Sachin Pilot and Milin
Deora and Naveen Jindal as youth who have joined Politics..

They are not Politicians. They Just happen to be Politicians.

Much Like Abhishek Bachchan and other Star Sons are not Actors. They just

happen to be Actors (For Obvious Reasons)

So, We would appreciate if you stop requesting the Youth to Join Politics

till you establish your credentials...

WHY WE CAN'T JOIN POLITICS!

Rahul Baba, Please understand, Your Father had a lot of money in your Family

account ( in Swiss Bank) when he died.

Ordinary Youth has to WORK FOR A LIVING.

YOUR FAMILY just needs to NETWORK FOR A LIVING

If our Father had left thousands of Crores with us, We might consider doing

the same..

But we have to Work. Not just for ourselves. But also for you. So that we

can pay 30% of our Income to the Govt. which can then be channelized to the

Swiss Banks and your Personal Accounts under some Pseudo Names.

So Rahul, Please don't mind If the Youth doesn't Join Politics. We are doing

our best to fund your Election Campaigns and your Chopper Trips to the

Villages.

Somebody has to Earn the Money that Politicians Feed On.

NO WONDER YOU ARE NOT GANDHI'S. YOU ARE SO CALLED GANDHI'S!!

Air India, KG Gas Division, 2G, CWG, SWISS BANK Account Details... Hasan

Ali, KGB., FBI Arrest..

You want to feel ashamed..

Feel Ashamed for what the First Family of Politics has been reduced to...

A Money Laundering Enterprise.

NO WONDER YOU ARE NOT GANDHI'S BY BLOOD. GANDHI is an adopted Name. For

Indira didn't marry Mahatma Gandhi's Son.

For even if you had one GENE OF GANDHI JI in your DNA. YOU WOULDN'T HAVE

BEEN PLAGUED BY SUCH 'POVERTY OF AMBITION' ( Ambition of only EARNING MONEY)

You really want to feel Ashamed.

Feel Ashamed for what you ' SO CALLED GANDHI'S' have done to MAHATMA'S

Legacy..

I so wish GANDHI JI had Copyrighted his Name!

Meanwhile, I would request Sonia Gandhi to change her name to $ONIA GANDHI,

and you could replace the 'R' in RAHUL/RAUL by the New Rupee Symbol!!!

RAUL VINCI : I am ashamed to call myself an Indian.

Even we are ashamed to call you so!

P.S: Popular Media is either bought or blackmailed, controlled to

Manufacture Consent!

My Guess is Social Media is still a Democratic Platform. (Now they are

trying to put legislations to censor that too!!)

Meanwhile, Let's ask these questions, for we deserve some Answers.

For we are all Gandhi's. For Bapu is the Father of the Nation!

To know more, Try looking for Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI. He is the reason today

2G SCAM is being Investigated!!!

YOURS SINCERELY

NITIN GUPTA ( RIVALDO)

B.Tech, IIT Bombay""

.

Kapil Sibal's baloney

2011-06-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

Various comments have been made in this blog on Kapil Sibal's hubris, egregious outbursts and misplaced sarcasm (vide posts dated 23.09.09, 8.1.11 and 24.1.11.) Now he has given us an opportunity to question his integrity also.

"Nobody was hurt in the police action against Baba Ramdev's followers !" Sibal's outrageous lie was repeatedly telecast (alongside the video clips of several persons being beaten by police) the day after the police resorted to teargas shelling and lathi-charge. Does the honourable minister expect us to believe that the police were only lathi-charging the wind and teargassing the sand? In the near future, comparisons between Ramlila Grounds and Tiananmen Square are likely. It has now emerged that a lady, Rajbala, who suffered injuries in the police lathi-charge is paralysed for life below the neck.

Mendacity may be a useful tool in courts to save scoundrels, but it is not expected of a minister. His shamelessly inconsistent behaviour of obsequiously pleading with Ramdev at the airport and subsequently heaping ridicule on him after unlawfully banishing him from Delhi speaks volumes about the minister's highhanded duplicity.

"We know how to reach out and also how to rein in" claims the minister. He could as well have said, "We know how to falsify the truth and how to legitimise the unlawful". Manmohan Singh's minions have upstaged him on many occasions. Poor Prime Minister ! Why is he putting up with all this arrant nonsense?

Theatre of the Absurd and the Bizarre

2011-06-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

What is going on in our country makes even the most cynical Cassandra sound like an unrealistic optimist. The government claims helplessness in dealing with ill-gotten wealth stashed away abroad by Indian politicians, on account of various treaty commitments. Pranab Mukherjee cries himself hoarse that our "credibility" in the comity of nations will suffer an irreparable loss if we violate our "commitments" and even name the persons who maintain accounts abroad. How scrupulous !

Enters Baba Ramdev who demands that the corrupt who are hoarding their money abroad be hanged to death. A group of ministers dashes to the Baba, seeks his blessings and negotiates. The assurances already given by the government to Anna Hazare are swiftly consigned to the back burner. The government gives the impression that it will not act against the illegal foreign deposit accounts on its own and whenever there is a popular demand that the government should act, the government pretends to become serious only to laze away once the pressure subsides.

The schizophrenic Congress party makes a spectacle of itself frequently enough to ensure that people do not forget its devious clownishness. Even as some ministers belonging to the Congress party are reverentially pleading with Ramdev to give up his plan to fast, another Congress worthy questions the Baba's bonafides and discovers the latter's ulterior motives. When ochre-robed celebrities start sharing the dais with the Baba, the Congress party begins to breathe fire and brimstone.

We begin to wonder what kind of democracy we are having . Even ochlocracy would be more representative of the populace.

Non-executive Prime Minister

2011-06-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

The more we come to know about Manmohan Singh's style of (non-)functioning, the more scared we become. Dr.Roddam Narasimha presented his report on the ISRO Antrix - Devas deal to the prime minister by mid-March. The report on what is called the "S-BAND SPECTRUM SCAM" is gathering dust in the prime minister's office. Manmohan Singh has deemed it fit not to share any information with the public.

Dayanidhi Maran is supposed to have misused telecom facilities resulting in loss to the exchequer to the extent of Rs.440 crore, according to a front-page report in the Indian Express today. This shenanigan occurred in 2007. The CBI submitted its report in December, 2007. Again the prime minister has neither time nor intention to act on this report. Don't we deserve a functioning prime minister ?

World class research

2011-05-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

An IIMA-ite settled in the US says the following:

"Take the IIMs: During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a decent trickle of Indian PhDs from respected American universities returning to India, would be recruited by Ravi Matthai & nitish dey. It was a brief window of arbitrage. By the mid to late 1970s, that was no longer the case. You would have classic situations like CK Prahlad feeling, or Paul Mampilly + Suresh Seshan (not US PhDs) seeking greener pastures at AIM Manila. American universities would offer professorships to PhDs in management & engineering to a PhD from a barely average American university, thus there was no longer any need to go back to India. Further, Indira Gandhi had dispelled hope of India to shine soon.

Take the 2000s, 30 years later, with India shining, when ISB took root. The under-trial Rajat Gupta and convict Anil Kumar, as McKinseyites, realized that the Ravi matthai model would not work. Further, they did not want to recruit Indian university PhDs (or even IIM FPMs), because they could see the huge quality difference between faculty at American universities and at IIM/IIT. These ISB founders decided to “arbitrage” across Indian faculty at American business schools, specifically faculty with a PhD from the top business schools, who were active in research, and had proved themselves by earning tenure at some decent American university. They provided these Indians in USA with airfare + campus hotel in Hyderabad, and very little direct cash compensation. Thus, the compensation was indirect, i.e. a free paid trip to India, with the possibility of immersing themselves in (shining) India while there were making their brief 1-2 week teaching journeys, family reunion, etc. The cost to ISB would be higher than recruiting and paying Indian faculty. However, ISB soon began charging US$ fees after its turnaround, sufficient to cover these US$ expenses. It is unclear how long the Gupta/Kumar arbitrage model would work. Thus, ISB (it least in its initial stages) could not be accused of harboring (Indian home grown) faculty which did not live up to world class research standards.

Can the IITs/ IIMs catch up to world class research standards? Note that these world research standards apply only to universities in USA, who dominate the world in academic research output, due to a century-long tradition of academic independence and emphasis on faculty research. US Universities are not seen as mere teaching factories, but epicenters of deep research. Faculty are appointed and tenured based largely on research, with Peking capability being considered a minor component. UK has barely a handful of research universities, and likewise Europe. You don’t hear of much research coming out of Japanese universities. Australia has only three relevant research universities, maybe 4: Sydney, Melbourne, ANU Canberra and Perth, and they’ve got to where they are by emulating Oxbridge research tradition of their mother country. When was the last you heard something novel come out of German/ Germanic universities after Einstein and WW-2? Thus, the expression “world class research” is appropriately substituted by “American university research”."

Fracas over quality of IIM / IIT Faculty

2011-05-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

The argumentative minister has once again stirred the hornet's nest by questioning the "world-classness" of professors of IIMs and IITs. He has also drawn an odious comparison between the qualities of students and faculty of these institutions. Having been a student of IIT himself, there is an inherent conflict of interest in his utterance. Apparently, he had been unable to benefit academically from his professors. This could be his fault rather than a foible on the part of his gurus. The honourable minister loves to create controversies. Remember the nonsense he uttered about India's Home Ministry while he was in China ? It is clear that IIT has not taught discretion to this voluble politician. To that limited extent, teachers in IIT are blame-worthy.

It is unfortunate that IIT / IIM academicians have joined a slanging match with the minister. Why should they be so sensitive to the rants of a hubristic self-acclaimed intellectual ?

Respect for rule of law

2011-05-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

So Dominique Strauss Kahn is out of IMF and is unlikely to be in the race for French presidency. The American law enforcement system has once again acted with celerity. This is in sharp contrast to what obtains in India. The New York police nabbed him just in time before he could depart to Paris, placed him on suicide watch and arraigned him before the judiciary in time. Status, wealth and political influence of the accused did not detract the investigating authorities from their job. Richard Nixon had to resign for committing a crime; Bill Clinton faced impeachment proceedings for a sexual misdemeanour. There was no escape from the long arm of the law.

Why is the situation in India different? The present Supreme Court Chief Justice, Justice Kapadia happens to be a bold and unbiassed deliverer of justice. Hence there are instances of criminals being caught and brought to justice, for a change. It is more than likely that his successor, whoever he is, will be less atypical and more amenable to political pressure. It will soon be business as usual in India. For example, it will not be too long before the accused in the 2G scam get back to their usual ways of skulduggery. The basic difference between India and America is that it requires a strong-willed person to set right the legal system in India whereas no one, however strong-willed, can crook the legal system in the US.

Free TVs and nemesis

2011-05-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

Voters in Tamilnadu have thrown out the DMK party from power. Politicians like Mani Shankar Aiyer had opined, prior to election, that the DMK had kept up its earlier commitments including free distribution of TVs to all households and hence would be voted back to power. What went wrong?

Possibly, free TVs proved DMK's undoing. Many TV channels gave widespread and unmistakable publicity to the 2G scam. Domination of Karunanidhi's family in all businesses in Tamil Nadu was also driven home repeatedly and effectively. The Robinhood act backfired on the DMK. Nemesis?

Obama sin-laden ?

2011-05-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

Obama and his agents did not think twice before killing the unarmed Osama bin Laden. This may be forgiven when viewed against the utterly gruesome deeds of al Qaeda. Opinions of course may vary.

If we do not mind a little bit of malapropism and are game for inoffensive humour, we may call the American President Obama sin-laden.

2G Scam

2011-05-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

Ram Jethmalani is appearing in defense of Kanimozhi in the CBI court. Prima facie he has every right to defend whomever he wants to defend as a professional lawyer. A few ethical questions may be involved. But ethics should not trifle with professional choice. Atleast it is so in the view of some maverick advocates.

Jethmalani has argued that 1) Raja and Sharath Kumar are responsible for the scam of unlawful routing of money and 2) Kanimozhi was unaware of the money transaction. Thank God, there is now admission of a scam.

Kanimozhi has pleaded for her bail on the ground that she is a lady and that she is an MP. These two qualities neutralise each other. Chivalry demands sympathetic treatment of women. Accountability and governance require that an MP is held accountable to higher standards of behaviour and therefore not eligible for any discriminatory and sympathetic treatment. Jethmalani also argues that her "clean record" so far must entitle her to bail. Apparently all first-time offenders irrespective of seriousness of the crime must be rewarded with bail !

Court orders on the bail application are expected on or after 14th May. Tamilnadu assembly election results will be known on 13th May. Further proceedings will depend on the outcome of the election. We need to be extremely gullible to hope for justice in our political system.

What can one think of the following argument? Does it not indirectly acknowledge that all acts of offence have been covert? It appears that Jethmalani is only leading the Karunanidhi family down the garden path.

"My misfortune is that I am Karunanidhi's daughter and an MP. I have 20 per cent shares in Kalaignar TV. Show me one overt act of mine which relates to the offence," Kanimozhi had submitted.

Promoters vs Professionals

2011-05-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

In an interview to The Hindu Business Line, N.R.Narayana Murthy has made a lot of interesting observations. He has said, inter alia, "There are many people who comment on founders versus professionals. Unfortunately, none of them knows the kind of sacrifice the founder professionals went through in the beginning. Their wives cooked food for the employees, their wives carried out secretarial jobs; they lived on $250 per month in the US and had to be away from their children. So, I think it is very easy to criticise and comment about founders and non-founders. If you are an entrepreneur, in the beginning, you have to make tremendous sacrifice. Only those who can indeed make that kind of sacrifice should become entrepreneurs."

Well, Murthy is partly right and mostly wrong. It is not clear whether the jibe is directed towards Mohandas Pai. No one denies that the seven promoters of Infosys and their family members had made enormous sacrifice while founding the company. The just reward for that is the handsome return they have got on their equity, sweat and otherwise. Let us not cheapen their sacrifice by allotting top management positions to promoters qua promoters.

Infosys is a company and not a partnership firm. Therefore, the company's management is accountable to the shareholders and is expected to abide by well-established canons of corporate governance. Infosys is expected to be managed by competent CXOs and not by founder-CXOs if non-founders are found to be more competent. A company is responsible to all its shareholders and not only to its founders and their families. Any contrary view even if expressed by the most famous exemplar of governance is unsound.

Trinitarian Chair at Infosys

2011-04-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

The three-member Nominations Committee has recommended that K.V.Kamath be the successor to N.R.Narayana Murthy as Chairman. Nothing surprising in this choice except that K.V.Kamath is also a member of the Nominations Committee. This is not the way corporate governance is practised. K.V. was earlier able to take the ICICI Bank to phenomenal heights through his able leadership though there are doubts about the way his successor at the bank was nominated which resulted in exodus at top management levels.

Kris Gopalakrishnan will be the Executive Co-Chairman of the company which will be renamed Infosys Limited. Narayanamurthy is to be Emeritus Chairman. Can a company be more top-heavy? It is a bit odd for a "global company" to be presided over by Trimurtys all from the same state. What kind of diversity is this? Some European companies no doubt have experimented with co-chairmen but not with remarkable success. When it is the turn of Shibulal to retire from CEOship, will Infosys have four chairmen? Concept of lean management ought to apply to the top also.

If all the chairpersons take their job seriously, there is bound to be continuing friction given their stature. If, on the other hand, they take it easy in the overall interest of the organisation, the multiple posts will be in the nature of sinecures. Either way, it is not the way to go forward.

Updated on 1st May: One is tempted to draw a parallel between Wipro's unsuccessful experiment with joint CEOs and Infosys' plan to have joint chairmen. It is true that jobs of CEO and chairman are not strictly comparable. Multiple CEOs are more likely to be dysfunctional than multiple chairpersons. Nevertheless, it is difficult to justify having more than one chairman on the grounds of either efficiency or governance. In the case of Infosys, the cause seems to be the imagined need to accommodate promoters' interests. This approach is not sustainable in the long run.

Internal strife in The Hindu

2011-04-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

It is not unusual to hear about the discord among the shareholders / directors of The Hindu. Bitterness has been simmering ever since N.Ram catapulted himself into the position of Editor-in-Chief. Ram's contribution to The Hindu in terms of opening up the Bofors issue and publication of WikiLeaked documents is praise-worthy. His support (though justified at times) to communists and China on all occasions and his megalomaniac tendency have often violated the newspaper's constant claim of impartiality and objectivity. Those who have made "reading The Hindu" a life-long habit are pained at Ram's inability to carry the team along and his sinister tendency to present the skewed as the mainstream.

Here is a report from The Tehelka on recent developments at The Hindu:

"The Hindu family feud gets ugly, editor N Ravi thrown out

Ravi writes a damning letter against N Ram, questioning his silence on A Raja
Tehelka Bureau,New Delhi

The family feud of the owners of The Hindu daily has intensified further, with N Ram, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, teaming up with some directors to keep his cousin N Ravi away from the post of the next editor-in-chief. Ram has appointed Siddharth Varadarajan in Ravi’s place, who till now was the strategic affairs editor of the newspaper. Varadarajan also headed the national bureau of the newspaper in Delhi.
Ram was supposed to have retired last May when he turned 65, and Ravi was to take over from him as the new editor-in-chief. But, now Ravi finds himself in the wilderness. He points out how Ram had earlier tried to remove another family member, N Murali, as the managing director of the company. Ravi also points out the Ram had thrown out another family member Malini Parthasarathy, who held the post of the executive editor, from the newspaper.
Ravi has shot out a letter to all employees of the newspaper, protesting against his removal by the board of directors in a “supposed” meeting held on Monday. Following is Ravi’s letter titled “The recent happenings in The Hindu” and written on April 20:

“Even as we are entering the second, and what might turn out to be a prolonged, phase of conflict and turbulence in the institution, I write to seek your understanding.
“In a shocking display of bad faith that has left me deeply anguished, N. Ram and some of the directors at the meeting of the Board on April 18, 2011 have sought to remove me and appoint as editor Siddharth Varadarajan who joined The Hindu in 2004.
You are all aware that I have been working in a wholly professional capacity for several decades ever since I joined the newspaper as a reporter in 1972. During this period, I have been fortunate to enjoy your cooperation and help in taking the newspaper forward. After 1991 when I took over as editor, our team transformed The Hindu from a Chennai-centred daily with just one page of local news to a well recognized national newspaper with extensive local and state coverage spread over four pages, and attractive features. We started a lively engagement with the leading issues of the day with extensive coverage and diverse viewpoints. We sought to uphold editorial integrity, seeking accountability from institutions and public officials without fear or favour.
“Though the economy then was not so buoyant as during the later period, between January 1991 and June 2003, the circulation of The Hindu increased from 4,52,918 copies (July-December 1990) to 9,33,458 copies (January-June 2003) or by 4,80,540 copies or 106.1%. In the more recent period, The Hindu has been losing market share, and from being level with the Hindustan Times, it has now fallen far behind that newspaper. Findings from the most recent market survey present a depressing picture of reader perception of unappealing content and a pronounced bias towards the left.
“It is a matter of public record that N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, was to retire on May 4, 2010 on turning 65 and I was to take over as Editor-in-Chief under the arrangement agreed upon. However, in a shocking display of bad faith, Ram went on to renege on his commitment to retire and the whole process of editorial succession came to a standstill.
“During the conflict created by Ram’s breach of faith, Ram and a group of directors on the Board removed the powers and responsibilities of N. Murali, Managing Director in a vindictive move that was overturned by the Company Law Board, Chennai Bench that also came out with a severe indictment that their action was lacking in probity, good faith and fairness. Barely four months after the indictment, Ram and his group of directors have turned on me with the same lack of probity, good faith and fairness and have sought to remove me and impose a plan of editorial succession that is totally at variance with the longstanding tradition and practice in the institution and is also contrary to the directions of the Company Law Board.
“Almost a year past the agreed retirement date, his position having become untenable in the face of the Company Law Board order, Ram seems bent on taking all the editorial directors—most are in their 50s—into retirement with him with a scorched earth policy to ensure that no one in the family succeeds him. Instead of coming up with a succession plan, he and some of the other directors have come up with a plan of wholesale removal. In a sudden change of rules and under the specious plea of separating ownership from management, along with my removal as editor, Nirmala Lakshman is to be forced to ‘step down’ as joint editor and Malini Parthasarathy as executive editor.
“Apart from the basic unfairness of the removal, the move seeks to entrench several of the distortions that have crept into the editorial framework since 2003 when Ram was appointed Editor-in-Chief by stealth over the protests of four of us. Among the issues that I have raised with the other directors during the discussions in the Board and outside are: the unmerited coverage of certain political favourites on specific directions; excessive coverage of the activities of the left and some of its leaders; for reasons that are bound to emerge sooner rather than later, turning the newspaper into an apologist for A. Raja through the 2G scam coverage, remaining deafeningly silent on his resignation in the face of mounting evidence even when demanding the resignation of Suresh Kalmadi, Ashok Chavan and Yeddyurappa in similar circumstances; pronounced pro-China tilt, blacking out or downplaying any news that is less than complimentary to the Chinese Communist regime; and contrary to the practice in any mainline newspaper, the Editor-in-Chief indulging in an unceasing self-glorification campaign, publishing his own ribbon cutting pictures and reports of his activities and speeches with a regularity that would put corporate house journals to shame.

“The Hindu as an institution had in the past valued its editorial integrity over all else. In the recent period, editorial integrity has been severely compromised and news coverage linked directly to advertising in a way that is little different from paid news. A meaningless distinction has been sought to be made between walls and lines, and the walls between editorial and advertising are sought to be replaced by “lines” between them. Very recently, those of us who were not privy to the deal making learnt to our shock that a major interview with A. Raja in defence of the telecom licensing policy published on May 22, 2010—that was referred to by the Prime Minister in his press conference--involved a direct quid pro quo in the form of a full page, colour advertisement from the Telecom Ministry that was specially and hurriedly cleared by the Minister personally for publication on the same day in The Hindu. The contrast between such a deed and pious editorial declarations including the campaign against paid news cannot be starker. To continue with such practices, the editorial structure is sought to be changed, with the editor being made subordinate to an executive board comprising a majority of business side executives. The undermining of the primacy of the editorial function is an attack on the very soul of The Hindu. In the context of these distortions that have crept into actual practice, the high sounding code of editorial values that is sought to be publicized now would seem no more than empty rhetoric.

“This round of turbulence comes at a time when all manner of investors are looking to gain influence and control over the media, and competition is increasing with newspapers striving to attract the attention of readers through better, more contemporary and enriched content. As part of the journalistic team, all of you have contributed so much to the growth of The Hindu and are vitally interested in the task of moving forward in a highly competitive environment even while observing the highest standards of editorial integrity. I feel strongly that when a distorted picture has emerged based on selective leaks, information on the happenings cannot be restricted to the confines of the boardroom and all the journalists as stakeholders need to be taken into confidence.
“It is in this spirit that I am sharing my views with you all. I also write to you with the confidence that the unfair and untenable move will not be allowed to prevail. In the task of upholding the editorial principles that are so dear to all of us, I appeal for your support and understanding."

Search for successor to Ratan Tata (contd.)

2011-04-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

In the post dated 7th April, a view was expressed that much ado is being made in finding a successor to Ratan Tata. Similar sentiments find a place in the Financial Express today (18th April). The article is reproduced here:

"At the outset let me announce my deep respect and professional regard for the four industry veterans—Ratan Tata, NR Narayana Murthy, AM Naik and YC Deveshwar—whose impending superannuation is creating much media noise of late. I have interviewed/met three of the four in the past, and have found them worthy of every bit of praise they’re generally heaped with—visionary leaders, business colossuses and all that.

Infosys’s Murthy has stridden the Indian IT industry like a tall statesman for close to three decades now, the time he saw his $250 fledgling morph into a $5.7 billion raptor. In the last 20 years he has been at the helm, Ratan Tata has transformed the $2 billion Tata Group into a $67 billion Indian multinational, with its corporate flag flying high in industries and geographies hitherto considered to be the sole domain of developed market transnationals. L&T’s AM Naik has led the $10 billion software-to-rigs behemoth from the front since 1999, and led it to victory in many a bruising battle. ITC’s YC Deveshwar took the reins of the firm at a far from favourable time—recollect the 1995-96 messy shareholders’ fight and ignominious departure of the then chairman KL Chugh—and turned the cigarette major into one of the country’s biggest, and most respected consumer goods & hospitality companies.

But, of late, word coming out from these hallowed organisations on how they view the current succession plans, and more importantly the current incumbent, should be cause for some concern for the yet to be identified/named new chiefs. “Our committee has come to the conclusion that we cannot find a replacement for Mr Tata!” And that the committee may have to “rearrange the model,” to make it easier for the new chief to manage the hydra-headed group. This from a senior group manager and a member of the five-member search panel mandated to find a successor to Ratan Tata. Dispensing the operating companies-specific part of the Tata chief’s job with that of being the principal shareholder (as chairman of holding firm, Tata Sons) is desirable and so is the search panel’s reported bias for young Tata-ites to be inducted in the Tata Sons board, and reducing the retirement age on non-executive directors from 75 to 70. But what I find hard to understand is the need to publicly pronounce the incumbent as a kind of a “super-human”—“we cannot find a replacement for Mr Tata”—the only one who could manage “an extremely large, complex and diverse” group, though surely the group will have a new chief come December 2012, as Ratan Tata has made abundantly clear that he is not hanging on beyond that. After all, with every passing decade, businesses are only getting more complex, diverse and large and the one Ratan Tata is leaving is surely more of all these than the one he inherited from the legendary JRD Tata. In 1991, when he took over from JRD, no one gave him half a chance to bring order to a chaotic organisation with prima donnas galore, but all credit to Ratan Tata for showing such a stupendous success. Is the intent here then merely to pay obeisance to one of India’s finest business leaders or does it tantamount to pre-judging the new chief, whosoever she/he may be?

Move over to L&T, where Naik has announced virtually splitting the company into nine entities, each with its own CEO, in an attempt to simplify management of the conglomerate. There has been persistent, though unverified talk of splitting the group-wide chairman & MD’s post, wherein Naik continues as chairman well beyond his September 2012 superannuation. Something similar is under way at ITC, where the incumbent chief Deveshwar is reportedly angling for an extension beyond April 2012, to see through the group’s initiatives in food and personal care. Although Infosys’s Murthy has long given up executive positions, and is slated to relinquish the non-executive chairman’s chair later this year, he will continue as chairman Emeritus even as a new non-executive chairman and CEO takes guard this August.

At the risk of being accused of being uncharitable to undoubtedly the finest business leaders that India has seen after liberalisation, is there a tendency here to hang on and/or create an aura of indispensability? The affliction of perennially being there in some role or another that characterises Indian politicians—when was the last time you heard a politician fade away voluntarily?—seems to have bitten businessmen too.

True, people like Naik or Deveshwar are super-achievers, and sometimes the organisation may need to turn back to them for advice and leadership even after the normal retirement age or the first innings—much like the case with Apple’s Steve Jobs or Coke’s Neville Isdell who came back from wilderness and retirement to lead their troubled companies back to glory.

But to have them back was the choice the new management and shareholders took, after much bungling by the new leadership. And Jobs’s and Isdell’s stature has only grown by quitting first, only to be back because the company needed them desperately. And coming back is not always the trend. Jack Welch, the most successful business executive in American history, retired at 65 years, after seeing GE’s market cap go up from $14 billion to over $410 billion in 2001, which has since tumbled to around $212 billion, without anyone even suggesting putting a call to Welch!"

shailesh.dobhal@expressindia.com

Manmohan Singh's unrealistic obsession

2011-04-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

Most Indians are disappointed with Manmohan Singh's performance as the Prime Minister. He has consistently turned a blind eye to instances of corruption in various ministries. Some see Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde in him. One reason for the prime minister's abysmal performance is his all-consuming urge to normalise relations with Pakistan. There is no doubt that normalised relations with all our neighbours would be great.

However, unrealistic obsession with normalising relations with the unstable neighbour is only a prescription for disappointment and worse. Pakistan is variously controlled and manipulated by religious fundamentalists, the army and the ISI. No one really represents Pakistan with any unambiguous authority. There are reports that ISI keeps printing fake Indian currency notes to destabilise our economy. Ofcourse, we should expect the government of Pakistan to deny this serious allegation outright.

Manmohan Singh must realise that Indo-Pak relationship is not the only issue that warrants his attention.

Cash for votes in Tamilnadu (contd.)

2011-04-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

The Election Commission is happy that the Assembly election in Tamilnadu is now over. The Chief Election Commissioner stated the obvious when he said "Tamilnadu elections gave us sleepless nights". It is impossible to conclude how much cash and cash convertibles were used to bribe the voters unless the political parties themselves submit honest accounts (which will never happen).

In the normal course, the ruling party (DMK) would have been voted back to power on account of its performance in terms of delivery on its 2006 poll promises particularly those concerning the have-nots. The Spectrum scam obviously queered the pitch for the DMK and the party became a by-word for corruption. As if this was not enough, the Congress party as an alliance partner became more of a liability. The Congress party in Tamilnadu is a house divided against itself and it will be a miracle if this party is able to win even 10% of the seats it contested.

With its back to the wall, DMK started converting the entire state of Tamilnadu into Thirumangalam. (In an earlier bye-election in Thirumangalam in Madurai district, Mr.M.K.Alagiri was alleged to have distributed unprecedented amounts of cash to garner votes for DMK). This is not to say that other parties were squeaky clean. They had less financial resources. The ill-gotten wealth from the Spectrum scam enabled DMK to buy votes on a much larger scale. Deontologists might say that wealth obtained in unethical ways cannot be retained.

If the role of cash in elections is not arrested immediately, the evil will strengthen further in Tamilnadu and will spread to other states. Whichever party is now elected to power, it may be forced to indulge in a bigger scam if only to fund the elections in 2016. The Election Commission has a tough job on its hands.

Unfortunately there is an acute crisis of leadership in the country now. As Julian Assange pithily said, "Manmohan Singh has a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption". It is a tragi-comedy that he is the most honest politician around !

Cash for votes in Tamilnadu

2011-04-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

Distribution of cash to voters to purchase their votes is rampant in Tamilnadu. More than Rs.50 crore has already been seized by the Election Commission. Unfortunately the matter stops there. No further step is taken against the violators of democratic norms. Unintercepted cash may run into thousands of crore rupees.
To start with, some penalties must be imposed on distributors of cash. For example, for every Rs.1 crore seized, the guilty political party should be made to lose one seat among the victors from that party. The loss must be in that constituency where that party has won by the narrowest margin. The person who has gathered the next maximum number of votes should be deemed elected in that constituency.
If deterrent steps are not taken, corruption to make up for cash distributed will snowball from election to election.

Search for successor to Ratan Tata

2011-04-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

R.K.Krishna Kumar, a director in Tata Sons, has said that the committee appointed in August last year to spot a successor to Ratan Tata who is likely to retire from executive chairmanship next December (2012) on attaining 75 years of age, has not been able to find a worthy successor so far.

Despite RKK's glowing tributes to his chief, one may say that the committee's failure is more on account of its own shortcomings, whatever they be, rather than non-availability of persons of comparable merit.

RKK has also made an obsequious remark to the effect that the committee might have to lower the benchmark to find a successor. The implication is that whoever is finally appointed, he or she is not a worthy successor and has been selected only by diluting the selection criteria. One does not expect such drivel from the House of Tatas.

If interested in the full interview, the following link will be useful:

http://www.tata.com/media/interviews/inside.aspx?artid=RiW4YJ/4lpI=

Takeaways from Cricket World Cup

2011-04-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

The 2011 ICC World Cup has just got over. Victory celebrations in India have not yet subsided. State governments are competing with one another in rewarding the cricketers.

The SriLankans have accepted their second successive runner-up status with grace. Their team received an appreciative welcome when it landed in Colombo after losing to India in the finals at Mumbai. This was in welcome contrast to how Indians and Pakistanis treat their teams if they come back losing.

This tournament has again proved that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties, a once-popular saying that is very rarely heard these days. Who could have imagined that Sachin would be let off four times in the semis ? This is perhaps what God does to the God of Cricket ! Muthiah Muralitharan going wicketless in the finals was unthinkable.

UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System) has come to stay in one-day cricket also though BCCI continues to be sceptical about it. This system has been utilised to a T by most of the teams in the World Cup. Interestingly, the UDRS option is exercised by keeping the hands to form the shape 'T'.

The confusion caused by the roar of the crowd during the toss was surprising. Had there been no controversy about it and if India had won the toss, would the result of the finals have been different ? Such permutations and combinations continue to enthrall cricket aficionados.

Shall we call it "quanami" ?

2011-03-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

It is now common knowledge that tsunamis are caused by submarine earth movement or volcanic eruption. Therefore, only quakes occuring below the sea are likely to result in tsunamis. Thus we have two kinds of earthquakes : one causing tsunamis and the other not. As of now, there is no specific name for a quake that causes a tsunami. Will it not be appropriate to christen it as a "quanami" (quake + tsunami) ?

Rajat Gupta and Manmohan Singh

2011-03-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Sumit Mitra, writing in The Indian Express, has questioned the judgemental skills of Manmohan Singh in associating himself closely with Rajat Gupta. Of course, it may not be a fair assessment since it is yet too early to confirm Gupta's guilt. However, this is one more evidence that Singh is not behaving like Caesar's wife. (Rajat Gupta has now resigned from ISB's Board. Why did he take so long to do the obvious?)

"By Sumit Mitra

19 Mar 2011 01:43:00 AM IST

PM’s ‘Error of judgment’ - II Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, already famous for his “error of judgment” on the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commission, seems to have ‘erred’ yet again, this time round in an investigation unfolding in the US. His involvement with NRI idol Rajat Gupta, whom the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused of being a party to America’s biggest ever insider trading scam by Sri Lankan hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, has the potential to raise further questions about Manmohan’s habitual claim of being innocent as a lamb while scams unfold all around him.

Rajaratnam is facing trial in New York on 14 separate criminal charges. They are poison-tipped with FBI wiretaps of 2,400 conversations with 1,300 friends. It is the first instance of wiretaps being used in an insider trading case. As skeletons tumble out of the cupboard of America’s financial world, Gupta may become a major liability for all those who’d lionised him. Manmohan is certainly one of them. Gupta was his golden boy at whose beck and call he had placed the cream of his staff, including Principal Secretary TKA Nair and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Thanks to the PM’s support, the Indian-American former boss of McKinsey was free to tinker with public policy through institutions such as Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a PPP in which the Union Government invested over Rs 400 crore, and the Indian School of Business (ISB), also part-supported by the Government.

Though Gupta resigned last week as chairman of PHFI, he continues as head of ISB. This is despite the fact that he resigned from the board of investment bank Goldman Sachs as early as March 19 last year when the news perhaps first reached the bank that the SEC had been preparing the ground to implicate him as Rajaratnam’s co-conspirator. Since then he resigned from nearly all the big directorial posts he held—at Genpact, Harman International, Procter & Gamble (P&G) and AMR. As the prosecution made the first statement in the Rajaratnam case, he also took ‘leave of absence’ from New Silk Route (NSR), an India-focused private equity firm with assets worth $1.4 billion.

Gupta’s lawyers claim he is innocent. He has written to the ISB: “There are no tapes or any other direct evidence of me tipping Mr Rajaratnam. I did not trade any of the securities involved.” Not impressed, the SEC has filed a civil suit against him, clearing the ground for his administrative trial. But it has a tough job on its hands as there is no evidence it has shown yet of Gupta reaping profits from his information. Therefore, unlike in Rajaratnam’s case, what is at stake for Gupta is not his freedom but his reputation. The 63-year-old American corporate celebrity is regarded by a generation of aspiring Indians as its role model.

The main charge against Rajaratnam is that he used his Galleon hedge fund, and its experts network, to illegally ferret out non-public market-sensitive information from such blue chips as Intel, Hilton, IBM and e-Bay. Such information, powering his operations on the stock market, enabled him to net at least $45 million, if not $85 million, between 2003 and 2008.

However, the probe reached the topmost rungs of the corporate pyramid last May when the SEC named Gupta as an alleged tipster of Rajaratnam. It said that Gupta, while serving on the board of Goldman Sachs from 2006 until he resigned in 2010, had passed on material insider information on the company to Rajaratnam that enabled the latter to gain $18 million from that stock alone. On October 23, 2008 Gupta dialled into the Goldman Sachs board meeting when it was scheduled to start, and stayed on the call till its end. “Just 23 seconds after disconnecting from the call,” the SEC alleges, “Gupta called Rajaratnam. The call lasted approximately 13 minutes.” It is during this call that it became known to the board members that the “sage of Omaha” Warren Buffet had promised a $5-billion bailout package to the bank. Following the call, it is alleged, Rajaratnam got his Galleon Tech fund to acquire millions of Goldman Sachs shares which he sold as the market opened at 9.30 the next morning, after the news of the bank being in dire straits had become public (making prices plummet).

As the Galleon trial goes on, many of the Indian Government’s moves will come under the scanner. For instance, Nair continued to work under Gupta on the board of PHFI long after his alleged role in the Goldman Sachs had become common knowledge. And so did Ahluwalia, another protégé of the prime minister on the PHFI board. Besides, Manmohan also approved the appointment of K. Srinath Reddy, the head of the PM’s medical team, on a five-year secondment from AIIMS, as PHFI president.

Further, Gupta continues to be a member of the PM’s Global Advisory Council for Overseas Indians. Nor has he given an indication that he’ll quit ISB, a B-school associated with men of tainted records yet favoured by the Government. Earlier, Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers and his colleague M. Rama Mohan Rao, the former a director and the latter a dean of ISB, were both indicted in corporate scams. Moreover, Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey partner who was arrested in the Rajaratnam case and now promises to squeal on him, was a co-founder of ISB with Gupta.

Both PHFI and ISB have their boards studded with India’s corporate stars. Mukesh Ambani, Shiv Nadar, Purnendu Chatterjee and Harpal Singh (Fortis) are on the board of PHFI. The ISB board has Anil Ambani, Rahul Bajaj, Adi Godrej, Sunil Mittal and Chanda Kochhar (ICICI Bank). As if by a conspiracy of silence, not a word has been spoken by any of them about the discomfort of continuing with Gupta.

If the SEC’s allegations are proved, it would also expose a Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde personality in Gupta—on one hand, being a picture of integrity to merge in the heartland of American capitalism, and yet wedded to philanthropy by striving for public health in India and serving as the head of Bill and Melinda Gates Fund’s global operation, but, on the other hand, using his privileged position to steal prize corporate information.

Gupta’s defence so far has been a denial based not so much on the conversation he allegedly had with outsiders than on his assertion that he did not benefit from any insider trade. Under the SEC law against insider trading, conviction requires proof of personal benefit; mere tipping is not enough.

However, his record on the ‘personal benefit test’ may not be squeaky clean because nobody yet knows how Galleon paid its tipsters, except for the racy details—$500,000 a year paid into a Swiss bank account in the name of his housekeeper—that came out in Anil Kumar’s testimony. But the linkages between Gupta and Rajaratnam are tell-tale. Rajaratnam partnered Gupta at least till 2008 (when his trouble began) in NSR, with Galleon directly investing in some of NSR’s Indian clients. Further, of NSR’s initial fund-raising of $2 billion in the name of Taj Capital, $600 million were parked in Galleon. It is true, as NSR is now claiming, that Rajaratnam never had a management role in the fund. But there is undeniable proximity. If SEC expands the orbit of its inquiry, and seeks the assistance of Indian regulators and agencies, it may open a Pandora’s Box, showing the proceeds of insider tipping in one continent flowing into a private equity fund in another one.

Gupta is indeed a denizen of the stratospheric layers of American capitalism. He lives in a $8-million house near Long Island Sound in Westport, Connecticut, that was once owned by the legendary billionaire J. C. Penny. He was so precious to his big-ticket clients that A.G. Lafley, P&G chairman in 2005, the year it acquired Gillette on his (Gupta’s) advice, remarked that “I think of him as Thomas Aquinus.” He personally advised Bill and Melinda Gates, General Electric’s Jeff Immelt and the Clintons.

In India, Gupta was more a national hero than a successful expatriate businessman. The ‘Firm’, McKinsey, which he headed from 1994 to 2003 (he is still a partner emeritus), became almost the philosopher and guide of Manmohan, both as finance minister from 1991 to 1996 and as PM since 2004. The fact that both Hilary Clinton and the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, had served as its partner at different times added glory to Gupta’s power.

Which is precisely why there is substance to the suspicion that his role in McKinsey was a front for picking up privileged information from every source, including India, and to offer it for sale to those having any need of them. That’s bad news for the Union Government which had allowed McKinsey unchecked access into the books of the nationalised banks, including the State Bank of India.

But what is more worrying is the dent that the perception of India in the West may suffer due to these ugly incidents. Apart from Anil Kumar, the prosecutors have filed chargesheets against Rajiv Goel, director of the strategic investments in Intel Capital. If it is proved that Gupta had taken America for a ride, with the assistance of a handful of his sleazy countrymen, it will make the US think again about how much it could really open up to India. Such doubt may recoil, among others, on the thriving IT sector which has access to the inner working of some of America’s best companies. A trust deficit with the US is something that India can hardly afford.

© Copyright 2008 ExpressBuzz"

Prime Minister's pathetic argument

2011-03-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

Wikileaks evidences what was already known : The government survived a confidence vote in July 2008 by bribing some members of the parliament.

Addressing the India Today summit on 18th March, Manmohan Singh has made a few assertions which have brought down his credibility a few notches.

1) "I have no knowledge of any such purchases (of MPs)": Can we afford to have a prime minister who is so oblivious of reality ? He is perhaps the only Indian unaware of this grotesque event.

2) "I am absolutely categorical I have not authorised anyone to purchase any votes": Mr.Prime Minister, nobody seeks any authorisation from you for any matter. Remember that even cabinet formation is decided by others. You need not state the obvious. Everyone knows you are only a nominal head.

3) "I am absolutely certain in asserting that I am not at all, I think, involved in any of these transactions" : The prime minister is not asserting that he is not involved. He is only asserting that he thinks he is not involved. A strange argument indeed. Singh is disingenuous in proffering this misleading assertion.

In putting up with Raja for an inordinately long time, proposing P J Thomas as CVC despite Sushma Swaraj's reasoned dissent and denying any knowledge of parliamentary corruption, Singh has let down the nation very badly. He has behaved like a venal politician and not like a noble statesman.

Rajat Gupta goes aggressive

2011-03-19T04:23:00.000-07:00

Rajat Gupta who has been charged by SEC for insider-trading has now filed a case against SEC . His main contention is:
1) SEC seeks administrative trial against him rather than court trial thereby trying to accelerate proceedings and denying him the rights which defendants in a court case are entitled to and 2) SEC is seeking retro-active application of a law called the Dodd-Frank. He alleges discrimination and arbitrariness on the part of SEC. The counter-attack is interesting and is obviously argued by eminent lawyers.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/ex-goldman-director-sues-s-e-c-over-galleon-allegations/?ref=business

Will the Japanese quake throw up another Nick Leeson ?

2011-03-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

Nicholas (Nick) Leeson was a derivatives trader in the Singapore branch of Barings Bank. After earning enormous profits for his bank (mainly through unauthorised trades), he found to his dismay that his luck was running out and that his trades (unauthorised, as usual) were becoming excessively out of the money and incurring huge losses for the bank. He did his best to hide the losses and started taking positions with the view that Japanese stocks would move up in value.

Misfortunes don't come singly. A huge earthquake struck Kobe, Japan on 17th January, 1995. The equity market in Japan crashed and Nick Leeson's attempts to recoup losses collapsed. Nick Leeson, the rogue trader, was caught napping and his notoriety became legendary. The Kobe earthquake was the turning point that caused Barings' extinction.

The present crisis in Japan is a double whammy. The Sendai disaster is a deadly combination of massive earthquake (8.9 on the Richter) and tricky tsunami. Damage to men and materials is horrendous. Has any rogue trader somewhere in the flat world taken a position that might prove fatal to some well-known financial institution ? One hopes not. But derivatives, or more particularly derivative traders, are so devious that it is impossible to rule out any unpleasant surprise.

CBI's discriminatory treatment

2011-03-12T05:42:00.000-08:00

The officials of CBI questioned the wife and daughter of the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu on 11th March in connection with the 2G scam. There is nothing exceptional about this. But what is alarmingly discriminatory and blatantly cursory was the fact that the questioning was done not at the premises of CBI as is usually the case but at the office of Kalaignar TV. If the suspects are questioned in their own place, the CBI officials cannot even meaningfully discuss among themselves for fear that the place may contain eavesdropping devices. Would this option of choosing the place of questioning be made available to all citizens of the country? We are a democracy, are n't we? Only in a dictatorship, such privileges are partisanly extended to cronies of the dictator.

The Supreme Court has ensured that the CBI would expedite investigations in this telecom muddle. Can it also ensure that the investigation would be fair and politically unbiassed? Only the future will tell.

Case against Rajat Gupta

2011-03-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

SEC has issued an order instituting proceedings against Rajat Gupta, a distinguished alumnus of IIT, Delhi and Harvard Business School on charges of insider trading when he was a Director in P & G and Goldman Sachs. The order is available at the following link:

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00492/SEC_Order_against_R_492369a.pdf

Gupta has denied the charges. A cursory reading of the order gives the impression that prima facie the charges are evidence-based. The CEO of Goldman Sachs, Blankfein has agreed to testify before the SEC.

Vittal's inconsistent logic

2011-03-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

The otherwise reputed former CVC Vittal shocked the nation's conscience when he voluntarily vouchsafed P J Thomas' integrity. He also welcomed the case in the Supreme Court on the pretext that we ought to know the correct legal position regarding the requirements for selection of CVC.

Now, after the verdict, Vittal acknowledges that were he a decision maker in the government, he would have desisted from supporting the appointment once the Court raised possible objections. In that event, would he not have preempted an opportunity to know the correct legal position ? Vittal could have kept his reputation intact by not rushing to his former colleague's rescue.

Supreme Court : Sentinel on the qui vive

2011-03-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court administered three well-deserved blows to the government today (3rd March). Appointment of P J Thomas as CVC was held as unlawful. The Court ordered the CBI to investigate the cancellation and subsequent restoration of 2G licence to S-Tel. The government was rapped for not being serious in its measures against black money. The Court lamented , "What the hell is going on ?"

The Court was categorical that personal and institutional integrity is an indispensable criterion in appointment of CVC. This pronouncement sounds axiomatic and unexceptionable. Spokespersons of the Congress party claim that the recommendation of the high-powered committee consisting of the Prime Minister , the Home Minister and the leader of the opposition was only an error of judgement and not clothed in mala fides. A very funny argument given the fact that the Committee chose to ignore the criminal case pending against P J Thomas and the government steamrollered its decision to spite the opposition. Mens rea was writ large.

If the Supreme Court were to call the prime minister a rascal, the Congress party would derive comfort by claiming that he was not called a scoundrel !

Feathering one's nest : Do IITs and IIMs make a difference ?

2011-02-27T00:08:00.000-08:00

Chairman and Managing Director of NALCO , a public sector unit, has been arrested on charges of corruption. He is a mechanical engineer and had studied in IIT, Delhi. Abhay Kumar Srivastava was earlier CMD of Cement Corporation of India, another public sector unit.

Srivastava's appointment as CMD of NALCO was a subject of controversy as the following report which appeared in the Business Standard on October 2, 2009 exposes:

"Abhay Kumar Srivastava, the chairman and managing director of Cement Corporation of India (CCIL) today took over as CMD of navratna public sector unit, National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco).

Srivastava, a mechanical engineer by profession, took over from C R Pradhan, who retired as Nalco CMD yesterday. Before joining Nalco, Srivastava was heading CCIL, a Govt. of India Undertaking under ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, as its CMD for about 5 years.
However, Srivastava’s appointment to the new post is not without its share of controversy as a shareholder has filed a petition in the Orissa High Court challenging his appointment to the post.
The petitioner pointed out that in the interview held for the post of Nalco CMD in 2007, C R Pradhan, who has been acting as the CMD in charge since February 2005, was empanelled as the number one candidate followed by A. K Srivastava in the second slot.
The panel was valid for one year.
Though the panel of name was finalised in October 2007, Pradhan’s appointment was delayed till 3 August 2009. On Pradhan’s retirement, the petitioner argued, fresh process of selection should have been started by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension and the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) giving opportunities to all those candidates who had not qualified for the post in the earlier interview.
However, the PMO in violation of all the established guidelines and procedure appointed Srivastava, the second person from the panel as CMD, Nalco from 1 October 2009, long after the validity of the panel had expired, the petitioner pointed out."

One is tempted to think that a person who does not hesitate to swindle money would have unhesitatingly purchased his way in career progression. His wife also has been arrested.

Media reports indicate that Ms.Srivastava's bank lockers contained 10 kg of gold bricks, jewellery and Rs.24.5 lac cash. She was also carrying with her Rs.5 lac when she was arrested in a bank branch in Delhi. She had opened bank accounts using forged PAN card. It is surprising that A.K.Srivastava appealed to the court where he was produced, not to be sent to police custody as he could then be placed under suspension and that it would cause irreparable damage to him. Ms.Chandni Srivastava told the judge to excuse her spouse since he had nothing to do with the bank lockers.

Institutions of higher learning like IITs may not immunise the students from greed (in fact, it may be fostered), but the students of such institutes are supposed to play fair and not indulge in social evils like corruption. Spousal contagion effect also might have played a part in this sordid story.

Well done, Mr. Prime Minister

2011-02-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

Manmohan Singh interacted with editors of various TV channels recently and was true to his form. He proved once again that he is a highly-evolved spiritual person. The prime minister made it clear that he does not do what ordinary mortals may think he is doing. When asked why he accommodated Raja in UPA2, he clarified that in a coalition government ministers are nominated by participating parties and therefore where is the role of a mere prime minister. Another gullible editor quizzed him on the 2G scam. Once the Finance Minister and the Telecom Minister had decided, what did the prime minister have to do ? Great reasoning.

It requires real grounding in spirituality to appreciate that "we" do not do what we do. There is an an unseen power behind all that is done (never mind it may be Sonia Gandhi or Karunanidhi). Collective responsibility makes sense only to those who are spiritual dwarfs. We may wonder why the prime minister has suddenly brought in Chidambaram as one of the architects of the 2G scam. But this must have been foreseen by PC. The Finance Minister had already prepared his counter to Singh's attempted deflection. In the post dated 22nd Nov 2010, under the caption "The 'presumptive' argument" we had ventured to comment as follows :

"The ever-repulsive spokesperson of the Congress party has unconvincingly argued that CAG's report on 2G Scam refers only to "presumptive loss" to the exchequer and therefore the country is needlessly agitated over a non-issue.

Even before we could digest this argument, the normally sensible P.Chidambaram has sought to throw further light on the theory of presumption. "I place some 50-60 signatures in a day with the presumption that they are right to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps few may go wrong, but they were not malafide because the intentions were right." (The Hindu dated 22nd Nov.)

Is Chidambaram serving advance notice on the prime minister ? This specious presumption argument can be used by every decision-maker. So no one can be held accountable for any decision, for who will accept his intentions were wrong? "

Who is more spiritual, Singh or Chidambaram ? Which is higher spiritual philosophy, "I do not do what I appear to be doing" or "My view is not what I have signed" ? It is time we had lesser mortals as ministers.

Politics in Air India (updated on 7th March)

2011-02-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

The following was posted on 29th March, 2010 under the caption "Air india's intriguing transparency". It was suggested that if a foreigner was appointed as AI's COO, problems would abound since he would not be comfortable with political nuances in managing the organisation :

"It is customary for companies to be discreet about selection of new CXOs and not to announce names of contenders / applicants till the final choice is effected. One is surprised therefore that Air India sources have gleefully announced that the new COO will be one of the three shortlisted who have been named. They are presently with Austrian Airlines, Air Malta and Rapidair.

Will this not needlessly create friction in the relationship of these applicants with their present employers ? This apart, is it likely that there is no one within the country who can do a better job ? Air India is not just a business organisation. It is also caught in a political cobweb and hence someone more appreciative of India's political nuances would be a better choice. But then, serial bungling is Air India's forte ! "

Unfortunately the prediction has come true so soon.

The Financial Express has published the following interview with Gustav Baldauf, COO, Air India:

"Gustav Baldauf, the COO of Air India, has not had a smooth flight eversinceheassumedoffice.Soonafter he got the offer letter, his annual pay package of about Rs 3 crore created a storm with airline employees openly questioning the management's decision to appoint him.Subsequently,he had to face the ire of the aviation ministry for being on foreign trip when the airline was shifting its operation from the old terminal to the modern T3 at the Delhi airport. His decision to appoint Pawan Arora as the COO of the airline'sbudgetarmAirIndiaExpress has been revoked by the govern ment. In an interview with FE's Nirbhay Kumar, Baldauf spoke regarding the controversiessurrounding him stating that politics seems to be driving decisions in AI, which is not good for anybody.

How do you read the government's decision to sack Air India Express COO Pawan Arora?

I would not like to comment on the decision. What I though understand from the development is that a lot of politics is going on. Politics is influencing the decisionmaking in the airline. It's not good for Air India. It's not good for the country as the entire world is watching it. I don't want to go into politics.

There are reports that other outside professionals could also be in the firing line including you...

For appointment of the airline COO advertisements were publishedinternationally .Candidates across the world applied for it. I was selected purely on the basis of merit and experience. I am an operational expert and just want to do my job. However, it's difficult to work in this environment. It negatively affects the morale of the employees. All the new people who have joined are professionally competent. Captain Arora, for example, was very focused on his targets.

It's only bad things which keep appearing in the media about Air India. I don't want my staff to be de-motivated by reading newspaper reports in the morning. Only badthings are pointed out.Nobody looks at so many good things happening in the airline since these are expected. I have rarely heard peopletalkingaboutourpreparedness during the fog season, optimum utilisation of the fleet and rising load factor, for instance. What's the progress on the implementation of the turnaround plan?

The turnaround plan is not something which could be implementedoverthree months or six months. It's a complete threeyear plan. As part of this,severalstepshavebeentaken and further steps need to be taken consistently . The government wants us to improve. It should help us in doing that. The two airlines (Indian Airlines and Air India) have been merged. It's a totally new company . So, several operating processes have to be put in place. The three key processes -flight, customer service and HR are being streamlined. We are taking measures to address HR issues.

With several things in place we are doing better and better.However,it takes time to set up systems.

You have worked with so many airlines and in so many countries. How has been your experience working with Air India?

I have seen different cultures. I grew up in Europe. It's easy to build systems in Europe. It's a bit difficult in Russia. It's even more difficult in India since the culture here is different. In Air India, the system is completely different."

It is also surprising that people are ready to become CXOs without making any due diligence about the companies they are joining.

Update on 7th March 2011: Gustav Baldauf has since resigned. The new Minister for Civil Aviation says GB has not been able to convince him on his work.

Confusion Galore

2011-02-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Senior counsel K.K.Venugopal and Attorney-General Vahanvati are arguing for the CVC Thomas and the Central Government respectively in the Supreme Court case questioning the propriety of Thomas' appointment as CVC. Both are arguing that the appointment is proper and at any rate not questionable by the Court.

10th February saw both these eminences put forth their views in the court. There was a glaring contradiction in their opinions regarding presidential powers on appointment of CVC.

Venugopal was emphatic that " in the case of appointment of the CVC, the President exercised the discretionary power and not on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. While so, such discretion could not be a subject matter of judicial review".

Vahanvati was equally forthright when he said, "once the recommendation goes from the PM, it is binding on the President to give assent and she has no other option".

Obviously, both views cannot be simultaneously tenable. In their anxiety to protect Thomas, the learned counsels are telling the Supreme Court that it may interpret the law whichever way it wants so long as it upholds the appointment of Thomas.

Most painful let-down

2011-02-12T22:57:00.000-08:00

Ratan Tata's role in the 2G episode is among the most unexpected disappointments in recent times. What has devalued the Tata image even more is the total absence of remorse or contrition on his part. The New Indian Express has reproduced a letter written by Ratan Tata to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 13th Nov 2007 :

" Dear Mr Chief Minister, I am taking the liberty of writing to you on the subject of the telecommunication sector which has been in the news these past few weeks and where there has been much public controversy mainly created by powerful vested interest groups within the industry.

Ever since Mr Raja took over as Minister, there has been a rational, fair and action-oriented leadership in the ministry. On the issue of spectrum also, his stated policies, for most part, have been legally sound, rational and well-reasoned. Part of the existing controversy revolves around one approval, which is being contested in the courts. In all other cases his stated polices appear fair and he deserves everyone's support.

The telecom industry is the fastest-growing sector in this country's history and the leadership to this sector is with your party.

It is essential that history praises the vision, creativity, and high growth achieved by you and your Minister. Our industry is in the viewing glass of the entire world, because our market is so large. If done well, the DMK can possibly claim telecom to be its greatest achievement and most significant contribution to the nation's growth.

This growth would need to come from rational and fair polices without favorites and without pandering to vested interest groups who are only interested in serving themselves.

I have the highest regard and respect for you as a person of great equity and great vision. I would like to see you derive great kudos for the visionary growth in this sector, which I believe can be delivered under your leadership by Mr Raja.

I have therefore requested Ms Niira Radia to personally carry this letter to you and to explain to you the public perceptions, the orchestrated misinformation and the vested interest that are seeking to de-rail the process of growth through technological and spectrum battles, rather than seeking national gain.

I hope you will take this letter in the spirit in which it has been written.

With regards Yours sincerely Ratan"

The self-righteous stand adopted by this doyen of industry is hypocrisy at its worst. Unedifying blend of sycophancy and condescension employed in the letter is unbecoming of even lesser mortals, not to speak of Ratan Tata.

Did Amartya Sen overvalue democracy?

2011-02-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

Amartya Sen had famously said that large-scale famines would not occur in a democracy in view of accountability factor. Current events in India vis-a-vis the happenings in Tunisia and Egypt are eroding the credibility of Sen's assumptions.

Multiple scams in India including 2G, ISRO etc. indicate clearly that massive corruption and lack of accountability are not alien to a democratic system. In Tunisia, the act of a police official slapping a fruit vendor was enough to trigger the justly famous Jasmine Revolution. A despot has to be perpetually on guard to ensure that subjects' ire does not gather the critical mass to morph into people's movement. On the contrary, the leaders in a democracy need to be careful only once in say 5 years when elections are held. Victory in one election, however unrepresentative it is, is enough to legitimise misrule till the next elections are on.

Does corruption matter ?

2011-02-04T02:50:00.000-08:00

Let us first read what our Home Minister says:

On the penultimate day at Davos, Home Minister P Chidambaram spoke to P Vaidyanathan Iyer of The Indian Express about the India show at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and asserted that no foreign leader or investor has raised any issues on corruption back home. Excerpts:

Some WEF participants have raised issues relating to governance deficit and corruption in India. Any comments?

No foreign leader, investor—and I have met dozens of them over the last few days — has raised with me any issues relating to corruption or money laundering. Nobody has spoken to me about these issues. It is unfortunate that a section of the Indian media is playing up this issue. In fact, we have discussed issues relating to investment, international economic situation, and the crisp growth rate that India is recording, even in a time of uncertainty.

Now let us read what the Prime Minister feels: ( A report in The Hindu quoting the PTI)

With his government under attack over various scams, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday spoke out against corruption, saying that it strikes at the roots of good governance, dents the country’s international image and “demeans us before our own people“.

“This is a challenge which has to be faced frontally, boldly and quickly,” he said addressing the annual conference of Chief Secretaries of States in New Delhi.

He said, “Corruption strikes at the roots of good governance. It is an impediment to faster growth. It dilutes, if not negates, our efforts at social inclusion”.

“It dents our international image and it demeans us before our own people,” Dr. Singh said
Serious concern has been expressed in many responsible circles about the lack of ethical conduct and probity in public life, he said.

Who is right and who is wrong ? One thing is clear. With such dysfunctional divergence of views at the top, the corrupt in the country can continue to feel totally safe.

Gurcharan Das, Pratibha Patil and Manmohan Singh

2011-01-29T06:20:00.000-08:00

In his copiously researched book, "The Difficulty of Being Good : on the subtle art of dharma", Gurcharan Das writes:

       " A similar conspiracy of silence (reference here is to Bhishma's silence when Draupadi was getting humiliated) diminished the office of the President of India in the summer of 2007. The official candidate for the largely ceremonial office was a woman Congress party leader, Pratibha Patil, against whom there were extensive corruption charges that were widely reported in the press. She had started a cooperative bank in Maharashtra whose licence was cancelled by RBI. Her bank had given 'illegal loans' to her relatives that exceeded the bank's share capital. It had also given a loan to her sugar mill which was never repaid. The bank waived these loans, and this drove it into liquidation. The government liquidator of the bank, P.D.Nigam, said, "The fact that relatives of the founder chairperson (Pratibha Patil) were among those indiscriminately granted loans and that some illegal loan waivers were done has come up in our audit." Six of the top defaulters in Pratibha Patil's bank were linked to her relatives.

      In July 2007, the nation had a Bhishma-like person of unquestionable integrity in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But he remained largely silent, deferring to his party's choice of the presidential candidate. In passing, he called it 'mudslinging' by the opposition, and the nation believed him. In any case, the Congress had the votes and Pratibha Patil replaced perhaps the most upright and popular president in Indian history. After that, the charges were never investigated."

        Gurcharan Das deserves kudos for his fearless expression of facts. He is not cowed down by adharmic authority. Manmohan Singh has a history of remaining silent when the nation's interests are thrown to the winds. His acquiescence in the appointments of P.J.Thomas as CVC and K.G.Balakrishnan as Chairman of NHRC should not therefore surprise us. In July 2007, the nation believed Manmohan Singh. Does anyone believe him now ? It is also obvious that he is acting at the behest of someone else. It suits the interests of that someone else if dubious and hence pliable persons are placed in crucial positions. It is shocking that over a billion "intelligent" people are led down the garden path by a scheming alien.

Pranabda's black humour on black money

2011-01-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

The income tax department raised a tax demand of Rs.71846 crore (nearly US $ 15 billion) on the Pune-based businessman, Hasan Ali in December 2008. This VVIP is under the scanner of Mumbai Police, IT department, SEBI, RBI, Ministry of External Affairs and Enforcement Directorate from the year 2008. He is believed to have huge deposits in German and Swiss banks. Unsurprisingly he is treated with kid gloves by our government.

A PTI report datelined New Delhi (25th January) quotes the Union Finance Minister saying in a press conference, "One account (of Hasan Ali) where $ 60000 was deposited, and next day the amount was withdrawn. There was no trace of that." What a profound information ! GOI is tracing (that too unsuccessfully) the trail of $ 60000 in an account of a multi-billionairre. I am sure that GOI will be bold enough to fine Hasan Ali for a petty traffic offence and then claim that law will take its own course.

Sonia willing, Pranab Mukherjee will be our next prime minister. He is not wasting any opportunity to prove that he will be a worthy successor to Manmohan Singh.

The Karnataka drama

2011-01-25T05:46:00.000-08:00

The no-holds-barred entertainer starring Bhardwaj and Yeddyurappa is now at yet another climactic best. Yeddy's immoral but lawful acts (to quote the BJP president) are as unacceptable as the governor's political ploys. (One wonders what is lawful about extending government largesses to one's relatives. Is the state property the chief minister's asset?) That the worthy governor is a former Law Minister makes the development tragi-comic. BJP's double standards are shocking.

Information on secret Swiss accounts

2011-01-25T05:31:00.000-08:00

Pranab Mukherji, the Union Finance Minister keeps on arguing that the government cannot divulge the names figuring in the list available with it since any such disclosure will violate the inter-governmental agreement. Even if we accept this specious plea, we should demand that the government confirm that the names of Union ministers, their relatives , Ms.Sonia Gandhi and her relatives are not in the distinguished list.