hum mur

india joins the league of nations that waste resources. when icons like dhoni and harbajan buy a hummer just because they have the money, there are many others who waste just because they have the money.

what most nations forget is that, this is money that has been borrowed by mortgaging the future generations and irreversabily damaging the ecosystem that we depend on for our daily sustenance. "pralay" or "end of the world" is not far off at this rate.

the hindi meaning of "hum mur" is "we die"...

homeland security, a president and an actor

since 9-11 and the passing of the homeland security bill in the US - every muslim is deemed a terrorist unless otherwise proven innocent.

the most recent one when shah rukh khan was questioned for over 2 hrs in newark has caused a stir with the indian government responding quickly and demanding an answer from the american ambassador to india. the same government which did not respond when a former president (interestingly also a muslim) who is on the "exempt from security frisking list " until the same was leaked by the press a few months after the ugly incident which involved an american airline - continental.

now why this double standard? the former president maintained his dignity right through even though his personal security officer was taking issue with the airlines not to frisk the president - he just went ahead with the frisking and proceeded with life - till to his embarassment the story was leaked. on the other hand we have a movie star taken in for routine questioning (a few hundred people are questioned daily by HS) and this gets the government to react at the highest level?

i think the indian establishment has more to answer here than homeland security in the US for they had failed to react when a former president and that too one so dear to the public was practically manhandled by the continental staff in the name of security whereas they were efficiency personified when a movie star got a similar treatment.

is the indian government trying to tell the homeland security who they can and who they cant question? and at the same time allowing them to question the former leader of our armed forces who by law is entitiled to skip all security procedures anywhere in india and in the world where we have similar bilateral agreements?

shame on the government and shame on shah rukh for reacting the way he did.

yes it is wrong the way the homeland security does its job at times including racial profiling, cultural profiling, religious profiling etc etc but thats the way they have been going about their business. you dont like it - then dont go to the US. period.

PFRDA - printers devil?

i only hope the rate of INR2500/sft is a typo and not what is intended!!

refer http://www.pfrda.org.in/writereaddata/sublinkimages/Notification_November_14_2008978597363.pdf page 9.

even the swankiest address in delhi does not cost more than INR50/sft per month today!! like they say the devil is in the (fine) print!!

water finds its own level..

"Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind." - FROM THE MOVIE "WALL STREET" - 1987

when one looks at all the machinations that go on in corporate boardroom, the endless backstabbing in politics, sibling rivalry with no or the absence of morals etc etc - the world looks a unhappy place with no hope. In fact in my opinion if today there is no gandhi - it is so because he is dead the first time he rebelled against an unjust law!! the gandhi of the 19th century was possible because his opponent (the british) had some vestiges of morality and a misplaced sense of being seen doing the right thing!!

fast forward to the recent past. in india we had a person like APJ abdul kalam become the president. looking at how the present president a person with a chequered past was most uncerimoniously elected - it is all the more a wonder how mr kalam got elected. it is so because just like water find its own level - GREED(mistrust - put any negative human quality here) FINDS ITS OWN LEVEL TOO!! now when the last president was to be elected the congress wanted mr x and the bjp mr y - now both were unacceptable to the other as they had a colourfull past. so the fear and mistrust of the two parties got the only gita quoting muslim to become the president and the rest they say is history. he singlehandedly returned HOPE to the masses. the countless number of young children touched by this simple man with a message of hope and of a future of the world that is better than what we have today is the bedrock on which future political parties can claim they made a difference - but then we all know the one man who made it possible!!

on an aside one need not have to repeat the side effects of "greed" in the world of finance - just one look at the economic mess of the past couple of years should give pause to all those who think that "wall street" got it right!!

complete transcript of the iconic scene from the movie---WALL STREET - 1987

"Gekko: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.

You own the company. That's right -- you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You're out of line, Gekko!

Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated.

In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."

brother Vs brother

the battle between the ambani brothers might in the end be the sequel to the film guru and who doesnt like sequels?

it is clear that there is a lot of hate and pain between them and the way the current fight for gas allocation of the KG6 fields is playing out - it is clear who is using the muscle and who is getting battered.

now for some history. post the demise of "guru"dhirubhai, the elder brother took the younger one for granted and this obviously wasnt taken too well by the younger brother. so this led to the famous split which initially threatened corporate india (this group at that time accounted for 6% of government taxes). the terms of the split were finally brokered by their mother.

one of the companies that was transferred to anil was RNRL which has rights on a portion of the minerals to be extracted from the KG6 basin at a predetermined cost. it is this that is the bone of contention between the brothers as the elder one doesnt want to honour the agreement while the younger brother wants the same to be honoured in full.

mukesh (the elder brother) has been flexing all his political, beaureaucratic, legal and economic muscles to defer/ delay the supply of gas or simply to deny the gas altogether. what he is playing for is that anil is financially stretched (who is not in these times of excess) and is betting that if he delays the flow of gas sufficiently his brother would be forced to sell out his assets and that he can gain control over them again.

for this problem there is such an obvious solution. let us look at the arguments for not sticking to the original agreement - including those made by the lackeys in government who are in mukesh's pay.

1. min for oil - these are government assets and no private party(ies) can distribute the same as per a private agreement - Is the minister joking? for any concession there is the government share and there is a share which belongs to the developer - in this case RIL. now how RIL chooses to dispose off its share is its business. it is this share that is being fought over and not the government share.

2. min of fin - loss of revenue as the sale price of 2.3$ is way below the 4.5$ ruling today - in all long term contracts this is the risk - but just accepting the argument of the ministy they are free to assess the tax on a notional value of 4.5$ while the private rate exchanged between RIL and RNRL can remain as per the original terms of division.

the main reason for the fight is again financial - both the brothers are stretched financially, mukesh has lost heavily in his retail foray and the capex/ acquisition of anil in the past 4 years has left them both heavily leveraged. it is the super profits in the gas/ crude that they get which can save them and that too quickly. so this is one fight where the government will end up with a lot of mud for involving itself in such a cavalier manner and mukesh his credibility for fighting over a contract that was a part of the original division of assets.

one is not even talking of the normal questionable operational practices followed by the ril management in maximising their returns by exploiting every rule in the book and by utilising every accounting trick available - as they have in the past. but because they have always shared a part of this with their god - ie the shareholders one doesnt find anybody complaining!!

its a mad world out there so enjoy this free soap = brother vs brother..

bailout anyone..

Last week the private airlines in india decided to go on a strike to demand a "bailout" from the government.

well keeping in with what the developed capitalist world has been doing this was no surprise. only difference is in the capitalist world it is now the accepted norm that big business will get all the profits and bonuses and all the losses and delinquencies rest with the government. indian big business thought it was their right since they had after all funded the elections!!

sanity finally prevailed and the following reasons for the ills affecting the airline industry came out:

1. excess capacity (true capitalist tendency - where there are super profits everybody wants a piece of the action)

2. selling prices of tickets below cost - now who told them to do it?

3. high terminal charges - now these terminals are also private owned - just like these airlines they want to maximise their returns!! - so what are the airlines complaining about?

Well india has the lowest telecom tariffs with profitable companies to boot thanks to stiff competition and a decent enough regulator.

then why is the airline industry in the doldrums?

the reasons are not far to seek:

high infrastructure costs - terminal rights, pilots costs, high employee cost due to a wrongly perceived glamour quotient.

solution is simpler than the government or the private operators will ever accept:

1. have mulitple airports so that they compete for the business (at least in delhi NOIDA is an alternative) - in mumbai one can look at virar side?

2. set up enough pilot training academies so that pilots are available in plenty.

3. deglamourise the setup by mandating that only 50+people are stewards? :-)

of course nothing stops the airlines to come together to bid for future aiport projects in india or for that matter anywhere else in the world so that they can take out the guesswork of the future costs of terminal costs.

bad planning and execution points to a bailout and thats why there is a backlash waiting to happen in the US with respect to the bailouts from the long suffereing tax payer ==--

but then maybe not! for the tax payer has been the first beneficiary of the bailout scam - via the social security net for more than 8 decades!!

Long live the bailout? watch this column for more!!

note from author - oil is not considered as the author believes the same has to be additionaly taxed with a green tax - hence there is no scope for planning here by companies than to price their tickets to reflect the reality of cost.