The right to free speech is a right whose value you only appreciate when you don't have it. This blogger has experienced what it is not to have that right - where every conceivable & useful global site on the internet is blocked, where any non state controlled TV channel is simply unavailable and where the press is just plain awful. As it would be for any blogger, the right is a precious one....
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Who is Deven Sharma ?
If I told you that the most important person in the world now is Deven Sharma, you are most likely to be flabbergasted. Deven who ?? I am absolutely certain that not one reader of this blog has heard of him before. In fact I am sheepishly admitting that I had not heard of him either, one week ago. And yet for the next one week, he may actually be the most important man in the world.
Of course, this...
Monday, 25 July 2011
The succession at Deutsche Bank
Does nationality still play a major part in deciding who should become the Chairman or Chief Executive of the company. It shouldn't, right? But of course it does. Except, to its eternal credit, in the United States of America. A country pretty much devoted to meritocracy and where, by and large, only merit counts. It doesn't matter where you are from or whether you are white or black or yellow or...
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Waltzing Matilda
It's an Australian winning the Tour de France for the first time ever. Just got off the telly watching the final stage of one of the most gripping of races for many a year. On a bright sunny day in Paris, against the wonderful backdrop of the Champs-Élysées, the sight of Cadel Evans winning the Tour...
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Go ladies, Go
If you are a sport's fan , you are somewhat spoilt for choice today. If you fancy sublime South American football, the Copa America is on in Argentina. The final day of the British Open golf, with all the hype surrounding the next Tiger Woods - Rory McIlroy may be your choice. Or the majestic Tour de France, the world's premier cycling event, thankfully free of any doping scandal so far. But my pick...
Friday, 15 July 2011
What will happen after the world ends on Aug 2
The end of the world is near. On Aug 2 to be precise. Repent and thou shall be saved.
Every year, some nutter prophecies the end of the world on some artificial date and his followers prepare for Armageddon. Come the day and nothing happens. We live on till the next prophecy. Is this what is going to happen on August 2nd, the latest doomsday deadline ?
Somewhere on August 1st or so, America will reach...
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Brightly fade the stars
The first powered human flight took place in 1903 when the Wright Brothers took their flyer to the sky and flew 120 feet in 12 seconds. In just 58 years after that momentous event, mankind took to space - Yuri Gagarin made that historic spaceflight in 1961. Just eight years later man was on the moon....
Saturday, 9 July 2011
The colour of money
These days, in India, the flavour of the month is black money. The ire seems to be directed (thanks to a popular yoga practioner's antics) against black money stashed abroad. Apparently in Switzerland and Lichtenstein. This yoga practioner claimed that if all the black money stashed abroad were...
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Vanity thy name is Chinese Company
Vanity thy name is Chinese Internet Company, went the title of an earlier post of mine here. I should correct this now to Vanity thy name is Chinese Internet Company. How else can you explain the rush of Chinese non Internet companies who want to list in the US ?
There are 900 companies with businesses mainly, or only, in China listed in the US. Compared to that there are only some 2000 odd companies...
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Kyon nahin aaya kal ? (Why didn't you come yesterday ?)
Consider the following employee employer relationship. The post is set in an Indian context, but it could be true of virtually any developing country.
There is no written contract of employment. The worker is paid below that statutory minimum wage. There is no Provident Fund or Employee State Insurance, both of which are statutorily mandated in India. There is no paid leave. Most often, there is no...
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