Friday, January 4, 2013

HEADS OF STATE: NO MORE

Sigh... I resign with a heavy ‘head’

The recession and related industrial issues has also led to street demonstrations in Iceland forcing the Prime Minister Geir Haarde to reign. Hilariously, not to be left out, the Hungarian prime minister has also threatened to resign (though to his credit, he has not yet forwarded his formal resignation letter).

And on the other front, for a change, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to resign despite his party’s shameful defence (or lack of it) of the expenditure bills of many MPs. What is the learning from all these? Jefferson, the author of America’s Declaration of Independence, had famously quoted, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% may take away the rights of the other 49%..” Interestingly, there is not even one reference to ‘democracy’ in the said Declaration. Thankfully, there are a million references to democracy in all the reports we presented to you... Democracy lives, like how...


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

India’s most high profile sibling rivalry

It’s slated to be the largest non-pharma deal this year (till date), if successful. But the Bharti-MTN deal is much more than that, for it can potentially be a major game changer in corporate India’s most high profile sibling rivalry – that of the Ambani brothers

Guess who benefited from this public demonstration of the bitter spat and subsequent split? Sunil Bharti Mittal and Airtel because Mukesh and the thousands and thousands of his employees switched over to Airtel connections!

The reverberations of that ‘switch’ are being felt even today; even as the second instalment of the UPA regime settles down to govern the country. You guessed it right again. We are talking about the latest bombshell that was dropped by Sunil Mittal recently when Bharti announced a ‘New Deal’ (You can call it an agreement, a merger, a reverse merger, an acquisition or whatever word takes your fancy!) with MTN, the South Africa-based telecom giant. An excited Sunil Bharti Mittal has said on that deal, “We are delighted at the prospect of developing a partnership with MTN to create an emerging market telecom powerhouse. This opportunity also represents a first of its kind in developing an Indian-African initiative that would serve as a shining example of South-South cooperation.”

One year ago, it looked as if Anil Ambani was all set to steal the thunder from Sunil Mittal when ‘agreement’ talks between MTN and Bharti collapsed and Reliance Infocom emerged as the new and favourite suitor. One year down the road, you could say that the wheel has turned full circle and the lead established by Sunil Mittal and Airtel as the unquestionable number one telecom player from India now looks unassailable.

Some simple facts – most of them known to you by now – will establish why Sunil stands taller than Anil. The $23 billion deal – the largest non-pharma deal in the world in 2009 so far – will create an entity that will automatically become the fourth largest mobile service provider in the world with more than 200 million subscribers. Just recently, when Airtel had announced celebrations to mark the accomplishment of a 100 million subscriber base, Sunil Mittal had already hinted to this magazine (see exclusive interview) that the 200 million milestone will come far more quickly. If the deal goes through – as most analysts and insiders expect it to – what Sunil had hinted at will have already happened! And it will happen thanks to a mind bogglingly complex ‘agreement’ that will involve both cash and fresh equity.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Friday, December 21, 2012

The Confusing Congress Chimera

 Just a few days ago, I was in Lucknow arguing vociferously with my father-in-law. He is a die hard supporter of Congress and would have cast his vote in favour of Rita Bahuguna Joshi. I personally think the chances of her winning are about as high as Shah Rukh’s Knight Riders winning IPL 2. But then faith and optimism are eternal. In fact, my father-in-law, who is a middle class Bihari settled in U.P. is convinced that there is a strong undercurrent in favour of Congress this time in the Hindi heartland. He is almost wistful when he talks about how the glory days of Congress can come back with Rahul Gandhi by the time the next Lok Sabha elections are organised. I have come across hundreds of such Congress well wishers who are sick and tired of regional parties ‘holding the nation to ransom’. I empathize with them, but can’t help pointing out some hard realities that make the challenge of reviving the Congress so formidable for Rahul Gandhi and his well meaning earnestness.

Here is a list of major states where the Congress can hope to win a lot of seats on its own: Assam, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Orissa and Karnataka. That works out to about 230 plus seats. Here is a list of states where the Congress cannot hope to win even a few seats without strong regional allies: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and J&K. That works out to almost 300 seats. The last time Congress won in Tamil Nadu was in 1967; it was 1967 in West Bengal; 1984-85 in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; 1991 in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and Maharashtra on its own. In the states where the Congress can win many seats on its own, the party already has about 110 out of 130. In the second category of states, the party has about 50 out of 300.

Even a school child will know that it is the second category of states that will be the biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi and his so called youth brigade. To be able to cross even 200 Lok Sabha seats, it needs to at least double its tally in the second category of states. More importantly, Rahul Gandhi needs to plan and execute a strategy which can help the Congress have even a decent chance of winning a large number of seats on its own in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand which send almost 225 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Currently, the Congress has just about 50 representatives from these important states.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Social no more


Is Keynes’ theory relevant today?

Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson wrote, “Economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions.” Poor John Maynard Keynes. Falling to gallery criticism, his theory has been much criticised over the years.

Keynes’ ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’, which was published in 1936, states that there is a chance of aggregate demand to be insufficient during a downturn, and this leads to high unemployment and low output. In such a situation, government intervention by lowering interest rates and increasing investment to increase aggregate demand will help recover the economy. Franklin Roosevelt was amongst the more famous leaders who were influenced by this theory. He adopted some aspects of this theory amidst The Great Depression. The success of Keynesian theory was further witnessed after the World War II in rebuilding war ravaged countries. It became more prevalent in socialist-democratic European countries and even in the US in 1960s.


 Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.


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Sunday, December 9, 2012

Golden words...

... are not repeated, but they can be cherished. Some interesting quotes by UPA’s ministers, which we don’t think they would want to be caught dead repeating!

Manmohan Singh:

“The public sector banks have been instructed to ensure that they act counter cyclically in this situation to counter the general erosion of confidence...” (November 2008, in a speech to the Indian industry)

Shivraj Patil:

“We had bits of information, but we didn’t know when and where it would happen… we are taking all steps to stop this terror violence...” (August 2007, post the twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad)

Kamal Nath:

“The huge growth in FDI in India despite global economic slowdown shows how sound and resilient our economy is.” (October 2008)

P. Chidambaram:

“We will remain vigilant. Our regulators have shown great agility. Going forward, we can still end this year with a growth rate of 8%. I am confident that in 2009/10, the growth rate will bounce back to 9%...” (October, 2008)

A. Raja:

“Guidelines for 3G and Wimax will be announced by June and the roll out will start by January 2009 or end of December 2008.” (May 2008)


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.


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Friday, December 7, 2012

Useless effort!!!

Example of a responsible ministry

The Indian Ministry of Finance has announced a public competition to select a design for the new symbol of the rupee. Currently, rupee has no globally recognised symbol like the Dollar, Pound, Yen, or the Euro. The word “rupee” originated from the word ‘rup’ or ‘rupa’ which means ‘silver’. The rupee is generally abbreviated to Rs or INR (Indian National Rupee). To encourage participants, Government has also promised a prize money of Rs 25,000 to the five shortlisted participants and whopping Rs 2,50,000 for the winner.

One should not forgot that changing the currency symbol can be a costly exercise for the government. For example, when Euro was introduced after the replacement of guilder in 1999, it cost Europe’s biggest companies more than $50 billion to update their computer systems. Europe had to replace 70 billion coins which was an expensive proposition. Turkey too changed its currency. In January 2009, Turkey officially started using the Turkish Lira (TL) instead of Yeni Turkish Lira (YTL).


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

US: WEST ASIA

A recent release of classified documents shows how US has manipulated West Asia. A B&E exclusive

President Nixon's crown national security aides including James Schlesinger and William Colby met right away and chuckled that they could clarify their abrupt decision by blaming “Russian treachery”. They indicted Moscow of commissioning a “massive” airlift, falsely, according to the CIA's guesstimate. Kissinger rough drafted what the government would say to the world: “We can now say there was Russian treachery on the negotiations.

They have made an abortion of our peace move and sent in 200 flights of arms. We can run the Russians into the ground and we can call it an act of Russian treachery,” Schlesinger added. There was laughter in the room when Schlesinger added, “We had anticipated that!” Also, while the US was non-committal over a peace initiative, it was very active in securing its oil interests in the region. In July 1973, Henry Kissinger opened a clandestine channel to the Shah of Iran to synchronise the development of contingency tactics to snatch control of Saudi Arabia and its colossal oil riches, in the backdrop of instability in the House of Saud. “Any contingency planning on Saudi Arabia must be most hush-hush,” the Shah told Kissinger. He also added that he was a supporter of the Israelis.

Later Arabia''s King Fahd made an official visit to the White House when it was aggressively cooperating with the US operation to drive out the Soviet force from Afghanistan. Documents reveal that the Saudis also were clandestinely sponsoring US-backed Contra insurgents fighting the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. George Bush may have been a great damager in the Middle East impasse... but he is certainly not the only US President in that ‘Hall of shame’.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.



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