Meet Sadashiv Chandrakanth Khodke. His life was turned upside down, exactly one year ago, when the despicable scum called terrorists attacked Mumbai. I heard his tale on a BBC podcast and it touched me – and it’s the subject of this Sunday’s non business post.
Sadashiv was a waiter in a restaurant, holding a steady job. His misfortune was that he was in VT station at exactly the wrong time. He was...
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Friday, 27 November 2009
The world's most outrageous CEOs
The media loves to makes lists – the richest people in the world, the biggest companies in the world and so on. Forbes has compiled a rather unusual list – the 10 most outrageous CEOs of 2009.
Bernie Madoff would have been a slam dunk for the winner – but his place in the sun was last year – so he’s disqualified.
This year’s list is full of people who have been charged or indicted of fraud. Robert...
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Rupert Murdoch vs Google
In the blue corner is Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon – Chairman of Newscorp, owner of The Times and the Sun in the UK and New York Times in the US, and the TV Channels Sky, Star and Fox News. In the red corner is Google – the titan of the on line world. The bout has begun.In question is the issue of on line news – who owns it, who pays whom for it, etc etc. Now we are perfectly willing to pay a...
Sunday, 22 November 2009
The day when India was on top of the world
One of the greatest of days in Indian sport , to me THE greatest day in Indian sport, was the day in March , long ago, when India lifted the hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. India beat Pakistan in the final to win the World Cup for the first, and alas thus far the only, time.The greatest day was actually...
Friday, 20 November 2009
Flights of fancy
Of all the markets in the markets in the world, one of the most nonsensically regulated is the air travel market. Countries are still clinging on to the antiquated notion that somehow national interests are involved in the aviation sector and “national airlines”, however dinosaur like they may be, must be propped up.
This post is prompted by the news that Germany has asked Emirates to raise its...
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Romance is in the air
This seems to be the season for whispering sweet nothings. K and C are engaged in a very public courtship as I blogged here – its progressing at such a snail’s pace that its probably more exciting to watch grass grow. K has threatened to abduct and carry away C, and C is saying “bah” as women are wont to do !
But there’s another rumour doing the rounds. Yesterday curious things happened with Colgate...
Monday, 16 November 2009
Is the consumer a king or a tyrant ?
“Remove baby before folding the stroller “ is a famous example of the American legal system gone crazy. It remained an object of mirth until it became all too real last week. For, Maclaren, a small privately held maker of baby strollers was faced with a massive crisis on a similar sort of a problem.
Maclaren’s strollers are actually of a reasonably high safety standard. However it appears that when...
Sunday, 15 November 2009
The continuing idyll of our yuppie
Our city bred yuppie has settled down into the village, mastered the art of managing without plumbing and has been proposed to. If you’ve missed this story of a couple of weeks ago, click here.
Statutory warning : This is a X rated post. Youngish readers and those with sensitive feelings please leave now !!
Of course the company has not put him here to bask in the adulation of the village belles....
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
When good politics was better than good economics
Yesterday was 9/11, written in the British way. It is as momentous a day as its American equivalent is tragic. For it was on this day, 20 years ago, that the Berlin wall collapsed. And Europe would never be the same again.
A trillion words are being written about the event and the celebration and the hoopla surrounding it. This blog is loath to add to that total, and in any case is not a political...
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Work Wife Balance
This weekend's irreverent post is a guest post in le embrouille blogueur's blog. I am flirting with deep danger by continuing to needle the fair ladies, but then, this Sunday is that sort of a Sunday. Ladies - this is all just for some idle fun ; don't take anything seriously ! Click here to read this po...
Saturday, 7 November 2009
The taxman and Windows 7
If you are in India and wanted to buy a Windows 7 box, you could not do it legally. Never mind that Windows 7 was released globally about 2 weeks ago. Never mind that much of Windows 7 development happened in India. Why ? Because the babus (pedantic officer) at Customs wanted to tax the stuff twice !!
This is an example of the nonsensical complexity that abounds in India’s taxation law and the missionary...
Thursday, 5 November 2009
The right royal mess at GM Europe
Politicians should, in general, not meddle in business. A great illustration of this danger is the mess brewing in General Motors Europe.
Facts of the case are as follows. When GM was entering bankruptcy last year, the fate of GM Europe was in serious doubt. In any case GM Europe had too much of manufacturing capacity in Germany, the UK , Spain and Belgium. Even under normal circumstances a big restructuring...
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
The "Ants" of China
China places an enormous value on education – both the society and the government are, rightly, obsessed with it. As a nation it has done a fantastic job of educating huge chunks of its population and providing them with job opportunities. But it’s a massive task and sometimes education and jobs are not always in tandem. This was brought out to me in vivid detail when I read the book review of Ants...
Monday, 2 November 2009
If something is too good to be true, it is too good to be true
Since the beginning of the year, the prices of all sorts of risky assets – shares, oil, etc have increased by fantastic proportions. Take equity. In virtually any market in the world, you would have made returns of 50% plus, even if you are an idiot. Did somebody say we were in the midst of a huge crisis ? Here was massive money to be made, by just being there. Sounds too good to be true ?? As the...
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Oh, the joys of village life
A couple of generations ago, our great grandparents made the decision to leave their villages and move to the city, largely in search of a better life. In just two or three generations, we have completely lost the understanding of what village life is. One company decided, many decades ago, that city bred yuppies, who it was mostly recruiting as trainees, must spend two months in a village to reacquaint...
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