it will happen again and again..

The events of 16th night will go down in infamy - but what contributed for the same will never be debated nor addressed. It is this separation between responsibility and action that will make these incidents repeat again and again.

If the politicians are really serious - first hang the guy who shot jessica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Lal

hang the guy(s) who forced a minor to commit suicide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruchika_Girhotra_Case

hang the guy who walked into a house, abducts the girl just because she caught his fancy
http://punjabnewsline.com/news/Faridkot-abduction_-Shruti-backtracks_-says-police-threatened-her.html

If the above is done then we know it will NOT happen again BUT we all know the odds of that ... and i am not even a betting man..

Final note - shame on the wife of rathod for defending her husband, shame on the mother of manu sharma for defending him, shame on the mother of nishan singh for helping him abduct the girl ..

NOW lets take a look at the calls for the death penalty.

In the present case it is a no brainer - the 6 of them should hang as this is the most heinous of heinous BUT the above listed are also in the same category and hence the political class will have to show they mean business by first acting on the above old cases.

Should capital punishment be part of the statute for rape cases? One has to understand that already there are a lot of acts which protect the woman just on her recorded statement without any proof - adding the death sentence will only make it more one sided and easier for women to blackmail the men. I think the rule should be if there are more than 2 or 3 perps then the death can be invoked - if only one man rapes a woman the current law (however incompetent ) should suffice. THE bigger issue is of the trial time - there should be a clear 15 day rule. 7days judicial custody - 15 days trial and then the judgment. in cases of appeal - verdict by the higher courts shall be delivered in 7 days. THIS is the only effective deterrent.

Finally in the current there are men who are sexually abused by women - where is the law for them?

IITF - 32 years - at the crossroads

As a visitor of the trade fair from its 3rd edition till now i have seen the same grow from one populated with state pavilions, then the SAARC nations and more recently the chinese invasion - it has been one of great anticipation every year.

As school kids we would roam the 2 days of the weekend and generally hang around the book stores and hope that on the last day - the owners would sell us some books at deeply discounted rates as books weigh a lot to ship back!!

Those were the times when terorrism was somthing in Punjab and Kashmir and rest of India was a different state. The cops on duty would allow us school students in for free!! BUt something happened post liberalisation in '91 - the liberalised cops became overnight money makers!! Anyways i digress, the main theme of this note is to comment on the IITF itself.

The IITF has now become a major marketing extravaganza in the Indian calendar and as such the denizens of Delhi NCR look forward to a fortnight of shoping frenzy. This is India's own shopping festival to rival the one of Dubai. And herein lies the oppotunity lost.

It is beyond one's thinking as to why the concept of a global village (as in Dubai) and its shopping festival have still not been imported here by the IITF?

The state pavilions are closed the year round except for these 14days and maybe the odd day or two in the year when the respective state governmenets have some state events/ functions. These pavilions can be used as the global village options during the rest of the year and for one week of the IIFT the same can be part of the exhibitors and open to only business visitors. This would also stagger the crowds throughout the year and also make delhi a more pleasurable destination for the tourists who otherwise have a forced diet of "death mounuments" starting with gandhi, indira, rajiv, etc etc and also their homes which are now "museums" (a subtle land grab of sorts?).

The trade fair if it does not reinvent itself sooner rather than later - it may soon be consigned to the back benchers in international trade fairs and it may just remain as a marketing show for local demestic retail customers (as i fear it has already become the past 4-5years).

Politics of subsidies and vote banks of the poor

All subsidies are scams. They only transfer the potential exploitation of the poor by the rich in a local area to exploitation of consolidated poor as a VOTE BANK by the politician at the cost of the poor and the rich through INFLATION.

The only way has been as in the past - the truly poor(read those who dont have the wherewithal for even one meal a day) - they are taken care of by local bigwigs and in return they provide some odd service - this is the only way there is some direct quid pro quo between the subsidiser and the beneficiary - the socio economic benefits of this (and the one con of possible exploitation) are too numerous to be ignored for the sake of the one con against. BUT polititcans benefit by interfering here as they have a so called "blank cheque" which only ends up stoking inflation which kills everybody (even the abv e mentioned donor) in the long term making him fearful of the future due to rising prices and hence REDUCE his donor activities!

Subsides are acceptable only in education (NOT RESERVATIONS - JUST SUBSIDY), and this should be a fixed amount and will be given to certain schools directly - ergo anybody who studies in these schools will get the benefit - no individual transfers etc etc. HOW to go about selecting these schools - very simple those which have fixed a fee of less than INR300 per month to get 100% subsidy and those less than 1000 to get 10% and those above 1000 - nil and so on. if a rich man wants to send his child for some free education - he is most welcome to do so!! :-)

This kind of investment subsidy will enable a whole generation to educate itself and hence maybe over 2 generations provide a platform for the next level of growth.

what have subsidies provided by the govt achieved till date?
1. Each and every subsidy scheme has created a scam without exception
2. the cost of administration of retail subsidy is by itself 10% of the cost of the service / product provided
3. large Mafia's have been created which kills IPS/ IAS / Politicians with impunity etc etc
4. Inflation is rampant due to the printing of money to finance these "subsidies" resulting in the rich becoming poor and the middle class becoming poor and the poor forever being dependent on this largesse of the politician with no real "growth" doomed to a lifetime of being served the fish (instead of learning to catch their own fish) and binding themselves willingly to a life of servitude to the party in power!

only wish will live to see the day of TRUE empowerment of the people - the day they reject the party which promises things for free and elects a party which promises only work and no freebies!!

On whats wrong with the "system"

The following is a comment by an airline pilot to the news item of UA losing a ten year old unaccompanied minor!! the sheer lack of leadership is what caused the termites to start eating at the system. nothing exemplifies this more than the observation of the article

"This is the key moment in the story, note that in her role as a United employee, this woman would not help Perry and Annie. It was only when Perry asked her if she was a mother and how she would feel that she was able to shed her deeply ingrained United indifference -- the lack of felt accountability that pervades the system. Yes, there are design problems, there are operations problems, but the to me the core lesson is this is a system packed with people who don't feel responsible for doing the right thing.  We can argue over who is to blame and how much -- management is at the top of the list in my book, but I won't let any of individual employees off the hook"  - the entire article can be read here at

 http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/08/united-airlines-lost-my-friends-10-year-old-daughter-and-didnt-care.html

Comment by the airline pilot:

"This story, and these comments, are appalling. I know, and I live this story every day, because I am a United Airlines Captain. I have been with UAL for over 25 years (which means that I was hired AFTER the bitter 1985 strike). As an employee, it is very hard for me to watch the boarding videos that many of our frequent flyers also wince at. Yes, Mr. Smisek certainly says all the right words; teamwork, satisfied employees, professional service, fair, rewarding, leadership. Then he talks about how we now have "professional management", and how that improves the lives of everyone that "professional management" touches. Yes, he says the words.

Then, there is the experience. The employees you are all discussing here have had the following experiences in the past twenty years.

1. Bought the company with six years and nine months of sacrificed pay.

1a. Watched the company run into a bankruptcy where all that stock was voided. United is still here, all the operations continue, just new owners and very well paid lawyers. Bankruptcy to nine BILLION dollars in cash in just a few years. We all watched while State Street Bank "protected" us, hanging on to the stock from over $120/sh to $.78/sh. Over two billion dollars was taken from the employees before "professional management" tanked the company. For a reference point, go see what Mr. Arpey had to say about his Board of Directors taking AA into bankruptcy with Bain Capital as their $14 million a MONTH advisors.

2. My pay is half what I made 14 years ago, about equal to my pay in 1994.

3. I had to fight to keep my children on my medical insurance after United lost the paperwork they started to "verify" that, after ten years, my children were still my children.

4. Could not access my Flexible Spending Account due to United vendors changing software on the cheap.

5. Pass privileges? Please, it's a painful memory.

6. Pension, oh yes, taken in bankruptcy.

7. Payroll accounting-Only United could screw up a peoplesoft product implementation, payroll functioned without one single error for decades, "professional management" can't fix problems they created six months ago.

8. Passenger Service-I had the gall to apologize to my 150 passengers for a shares delay of 45 minutes one day. I was asked to write a letter of apology TO MANAGEMENT for mentioning the problem. (I think the videos also say something about being truthful and taking responsibility).

An army of people who used to WORK at United are gone now, replaced by an army of people who carry clipboards and watches and take notes. They have no idea how to do the work at hand, but by God they are going to make it better, faster, and cheaper. Meanwhile, the folk who actually know the work the best, the ones who DO it, well; tell you what, you just fly the airplane, and we'll run the company.

Great Job Guys.

When the employees owned this company, and it was a cooperative effort by a company-wide team of dedicated, committed, engaged, respected (for real, not the words), and supported employees who would tell you how they LOVED United, it was run like a swiss watch. As the article above describes so well, there are companies run this way, by a LEADERSHIP team. At United, we have "professional management" instead. I think you can make your own judgement about the effectiveness of the two.

Kind of makes you yearn for the days when Airlines (and other companies) were run by folk who loved the business, built it, owned it (I mean EARNED it), and were it it for the long haul. To build a successful business was an honorable thing, today; it's a quarterly earnings thing, and then off to the next "professional" temporary duty. There were guys like Robert Six, Pat Patterson, C.R. Smith, even Bob Crandall. You didn't have to love labor to build a service company, you had to love the company and respect the folk who toiled for you. That's all.

I used to be the Captain who ran downstairs to make sure the jetway air conditioning was cold and properly hooked up. Who helped the mechanic with the cowling and held the flashlight for him. I used to write notes to MY guests, and thank them for their business. I wrote reports, hundreds of reports, on everything from bad coffee to more efficient taxi techniques.

No more. I have been told to do my job, and I do my job. My love for aviation has been ground into dust. After 15 years of being lied to, deceived, ignored, blamed falsely; and watching the same mistakes being made over and over again by a "professional management" that never seems to learn from the copious reports of our new "watchers", I give.

It's not an easy thing to do. I am an Eagle Scout, an entrepreneur, and a retired Air Force Officer with over 22 years of service. Those twelve points of the Scout law still mean something to me, especially the first three. I have been in great units and not so great units, and the difference ALWAYS came down to LEADERSHIP. Most (and I will be the first to admit not all) of the employees that you all have been talking about here are desperate. They would give anything to find a LEADER, with a VISION, and a sense of HONOR to lead this company.

Though I never knew him, I know that Pat Patterson is somewhere crying, perhaps sobbing, as he watches the wonderful company he BUILT OVER DECADES dismantled by a crew of Harvard and Yale trained lawyers. I know I am.

Please forgive me, I did try to be brief........"

Government - Caution Goondas at work - grid failure

It was nothing but political "goondaism" that caused possibly the world largest power outage possibly earning India an infamous entry into the Guinness book of records.

Local politicians threaten the grid people to allow them to overdraw which causes the grid to trip. the last time this happened was in 2001 when it lasted between 11 to 48hrs. this time it was 9 hrs and 6 hrs. but it never need happen if:
1. power is fully priced
2. power thieves are jailed &/or their properties auctioned off
3. overdrawals are automatically cut off by a computer - thus eliminating any human involvement.

nothing more nothing less.

media reports "showed" off that it was to India that the US turned to when their grid collapsed in 2003 & 2008. one of the readers comments kinda nails it - " possibly because India is more experienced with power cuts?"

jokes apart the setting up of the Power Grid as a separate entity back in 1996 (in the teeth of union and political opposition - conceived and ordered by narsimha rao) was the cornerstone on which the discipline in the power management of the nation has been steadily being built up.

But it is miles to go in the filed of babudom not bowing to political pressure that is the call of the hour and maybe it is this moral corruption that the old man is actually fasting against in Jantar mantar. we hope that his health holds up in this latest struggle to awaken the spirit of the nation.

Government - Caution crooks at work - EU bank bailouts

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/spain-banks-idINL6E8IA9UQ20120710

As per the draft Spanish Bank bailout proposal - the preference shareholders and subordinate capital debt hybrid investors are to take a 90% cut. WHAT I dont understand is that why have the equity shareholders been spared?

Ideally the entire equity shareholders should have been wiped off and then the preference shareholders should have been wiped off and all subordinate capital debt holders to be automatically converted to equity - alongwith the bailout funds - also as equity instead of debt.

Instead of this the crooks in the EU have allowed the equity shareholders to go scot free whereas the debt holders have been penalised before the equity share holders - makes you think which is the risk on and which is the risk off asset!!

Government - Caution idiot(s) at work - "retrospectively"

After the "retrospective" clarification by the government to collect some "free" money from vodafone comes this shocker from the delhi government.

kindly refer http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news-/all-power-of-attorney-property-deals-banned-in-delhi-transactions-since-october-2011-declared-void/articleshow/12990636.cms?adcode=13

The joker wants to invalidate all registered transfers with retrospective effect from October 2011. Thus the sellers will now want more and this will create a whole lot of new litigation.

This is a disaster waiting to happen as there is a lot of such transactions happening across the country in other states even now. Just because the supreme court has made a ruling doent mean it is applicable from that date. It can only be applicable from the date that same is communicated and uniformly applied by the government machinery which in this case has taken over 7 months.

The main purpose of the supreme court order was to reduce litigation - the exact opposite is being achieved with this ridiculous "retrospective" order.

Problem point:

The supreme court knows about the idiots in government - what stopped them from issuing an order to all the states/ UT's that the same is to be implemented in 60days and compliance report to be submitted in the courts and that all transactions till the respective dates of transactions are valid?

As usual something doesnt smell right as the only people to benefit from all this are the benami users who would have got rid of all their properties in the past 6-7 months (these people are normally the politicians/ civil servants etc)

TATA's Gift to Financial Institutions

TISCO made an issue of perpetual bonds giving a coupon of 11.8% (yes you are reading it right) in March 2011. Funnily this was a private placement and not open to the public. Now one year later one of the private institutions is offloading these bonds at a premium to face value of close to 12%. This is after getting the interest of 11.8% for the first year resulting in a total return of close to 23.8%.

Diwali came real early for these insitutions.

Now the question is?
1. Why did Tisco sell only privately when they could have sold the same to the public and possibly also saved some money on the coupon rate?
2. Why is the financial institution selling this bond now to its clients when the RBI has just signalled a rate reversal in policy stance?

The Tisco CFO sure has some explaining to do, as to how he failed to secure the best rate and terms for the debt raised by him? This is surely not some unknown brand for him to justify this gift of 12% to the financial institutions OR was it the payback for these institutions supporting the public offer made by the company at 610/- ?