Abhishek's

Conferred with Corporate Dealmaker of the year award for the recent acquisitions

2011-11-16T10:50:00.001+05:30

Dear All, I am very pleased to share that I have been conferred with Corporate Dealmaker of the Year award by Global M&A Network at a ceremony held on Nov 3, 2011 at hotel Four Season in Mumbai.

Earlier in the day, I also participated in M&A intelligence forum and chaired a panel discussion on Corporate Growth Strategy.

Link to Official Press Release

Where are the crorepaties ??

2011-06-03T15:50:00.000+05:30

I was shocked to see the following graphic in today's Economic Times. There are only 20,000 odd tax payers in India with income more than Rs 1 Cr. I am sure, I can find more just in Andheri suburb of Mumbai.

If we do a back of envelop calculation assuming that India has 1% 'real' crorepatis - Annual taxable income of 1Cr and more. On a very conservative side, it means about 1 Cr people do not pay tax on their taxable income of minimum 1 Cr each. At current tax slabs, this would estimate to a whopping 1,25,000 crores. Compare this amount with the total direct and indirect tax receipt estimate of Union Budget - Rs 9,32,440 crore. Bloody 15% of total tax income of the government.

This much money can (a) do wonders to our Infrastructure spending or (b) reduce the income tax rates drastically to spread the load of running the country from a 'helpless service-class' to more evenly with the 'business-class'. The service-class as I see is actually working like a 'slave class' by filling up all the hard earned money as taxes while our business-class reap all the benefits, buy properties, gold and other luxury stuff in black and do not pay any tax.

It is terrible state of affairs of Indian finances on what could be the extent of the black money doing around. I am sure that Income Tax Department is not so helpless to not even know how many people in India are really crorepaties... Somebody should check that may be our Income Tax dons themselves may be having more than 20000 'black sheeps' earning more than a crore each just to keep the listed crorepaties low in the country.

God bless India.

ISB ranked 12 in 2010 FT MBA Rankings

2010-01-25T16:08:00.005+05:30

Indian School of Business does it again by rapidly increasing its ranking in the annual FT MBA rankings.

As always the parameter where ISB scores on all other BSchools is the % increase in salary from pre to post MBA. ISB registered a salary increase of 166% for its students against 109% for Harvard and 102% for INSEAD (also a 1 year program like ISB)

What are the reasons for it ? are ISB alumni's overpaid compared to peers from other renowned BSchools ? or are ISB alumni so good that companies are fighting for them ? or India has big shortage of management talent ?? While these are some of possible conclusions and personally I would like to side with 2nd one, but honestly I think a big part of this increase is that the pre-MBA salaries in India are far too low !!

The journey so far for ISB has been commendable and has established itself into the realms of ivy league but it is just the start of tougher part - sustaining itself there... Alumni like me have to play a crucial role in this by doing our part well and bringing good repute to the school and surely alumni are at it...

An interesting fact measured by the rankings is that ISB alumni has ranked the school very low on fulfilling their goals or reasons for doing MBA...

Like the increase in salary chart it is very easy to make wrong conclusions from this chart as well... do students have wrong / too much expectations from the school or the business practices in India are still rudimentary where students do not get to apply what they learn ? May be ISB can set this right by slightly extending the duration and including internship in the curriculum... Internship will not only provide students an opportunity to better judge career prospects but also will provide to get back to business with right expectations !!!

charts and data courtesy: FT.com

Landline numbers to become 10 Digits!

2010-01-11T14:05:00.002+05:30

I agree with Arun's comment that it would be a big inconvenience to change 500M+ mobile numbers and that way TRAI's proposal of changing landline numbers makes sense... but just thinking from a 'brand building' perspective having 11 digit when world has 10 is a sure indicator that Indian economy has potential to become an order of magnitude larger than anyone else in the world !!

Schneider Electric has signed an agreement to acquire Bangalore-based Conzerv Systems

2009-06-07T11:54:00.001+05:30

Unreal estate !

2008-08-29T12:06:00.005+05:30

The survey published in this week's economist is pretty interesting. According to it, Mumbai is among the least buy to let yield rates city. It means that if someone is buying a property only to lease it.. then its a money loosing proposition given the high inflation and interest rates scenario.

But what about the returns when a sells the property?

The real return of any real estate world over is from the capital gains. Even in this list if we analyze the topper Cairo, the rank has no meaning... Just a look at the prevalent interest rate there which is at 12.12% for 3 month loan (Reference: economist - published 28th Aug 2008) suggest that the return would be therefore negative ! True it will be more negative for Mumbai, but the comparison is still not accurate.

An accurate comparison should not just compare buy to let yeilds but should also adjust it for prevalent home loan rate and also the price appreciation. Mumbai which is doing badly on yeild & interest rate (thanks to Indian inflation) will quickly climb rankings on the capital gains! This will hold inspite of recent softening of property rates.

Olympic & Entrepreneurship

2008-08-24T20:07:00.005+05:30

How is Olympic medal tally related to the world order ?

Historic trend for UK, US & Former USSR in terms of number of medal won per capita GDP suggest interesting conclusions. Though there is a visible decline for all three, Former USSR shows sharpest. Countries like Jamaica establish the fact that there is no close relation between Olympic medal and the financial power of the country, but we need to look deeper into the events where countries win. Russia traditionally has had stronghold in gymnastics while countries like Jamaica win in atheletics, while US has traditionally been winning in all kinds of events... individual or team. The declining medal to per capita GDP ratio is perhaps another indicator of 'flat world' and changing world order. The relatively stable trend for UK seem to indicate relativly stable social fabric for UK. It has undergone changes, but not as revolutionary as US or Russia & old friends.

The earstwhile USSR was known for its socialist way of things and children were identified quite early and trained to win at olympics. The events they won it required such "disciplined" training. While Jamaican atheletes might not had such training facilities, but its rather the power in the genes.

In US, UK while it seems more of the individualism... people excel at event of their interest.. hence a wide range of success stories.

Even Indian medals at 2008 suggest individualism victory. All the medal winners are ones who had put on line their own money to achieve the feet. This entrepreneual turnaround will definitly lead India to more medals in future olympics as their is now a establish record of instant success and celebrity status on winning. A status which till now was enjoyed by only cricketers and filmstars. Now there is another avenue. Indian entrepreneurs will surely grab this opportunity in near future and Indian victory will not be limited to few events.. but in diverse events.

Indian Pharma: Rx Consolidation

2007-12-15T12:23:00.000+05:30

Indian Pharma sector has been long under performing compared to various other sectors. This under performance is attributed to several reasons such as eroding margins in the US generic business, weakening dollar etc. The chart shows the beating Pharma stocks have taken on the NSE.

Indian pharma companies are very good at producing quality generic drugs with continuous improvement and are also amongst the lowest cost manufacturers in the world. These companies are very similar in their operations, business model and to a large extent in the skill sets too. This seems to me the predominant reason for current under performance as these companies are competing fiercely not only in domestic market but also in the export market. This high competition is largely responsible for reducing margins and conceding all the 'low cost' Indian advantage to the world. The competition in the world generic market is further heating up and smaller Indian companies cannot sustain for long unless they get strong backup from Indian market.
With many players around the world going after generics, the margins are ought to fall. Companies are doing cross border M&A to access newer markets and capabilities. But this phenomena is causing problems because all companies in a way are becoming similar. Even the name is 'generics' but there is a critical need among companies to differentiate and to build scale. Acquiring companies abroad will help Indian companies in accessing new markets and counter the weak dollar effect, but to deal with margin pressures lot of domestic 'big deals' would be required. Currently there are some 15+ companies supplying bulk drugs largely to US market and it makes a very good case for these companies to come together and benefit from economies of scale to efficiently manufacture while also efficiently maintain large R&D pipelines.

but why is it already not happening?

Almost all Indian pharma companies are family owned. Is this ownership structure impeding domestic M&A?

A similar situation can be soon expected in IT sector also when margins will start shrinking when Indian service providers start competing vigorously against one another. But will we see M&A sooner there for them being largely professional companies?

Economics 101 - Demand & Supply of Crude Oil

2007-11-11T17:36:00.000+05:30

Experts say that the current oil price 'crisis' is a lot different from the other two which hit the world during 1970s and 1980s. The earlier crisis were result of formation of OPEC and Iran Iraq war which disrupted the supply and hence by the law of economics at a constant demand if supply decreases then the price increases.

In the current scenario, when there is no obvious supply crisis, experts claim that the price is increasing as a result of increasing demand. especially from China and India who are in-efficient users of oil (use more oil per $ of GDP) vis a vis US and other developed countries. These economies growing at roughly 10% a year use 3 times as much oil per $ of GDP as some of the developed countries use. In the light of this data it would be interesting to see this exhibit:

The world is at the crossroads today where the developing world GDP is almost equal to developed world. Assuming that developing world uses 3 times more oil than developed world for every $ of incremental GDP, so the current oil demand should increase by 17% (assuming the developed world grow at 4% while developing at 10% with constant oil efficiency). In a scenario of linear supply function, the price should hence increase by 17% but in reality it has jumped by more than 60% in last one year.

Clearly it is not just the demand which is at play here. What can be the plausible cause to explain the price rise?

The supply may not be a linear function! The oil producers may be running very close to their existing operating limits and any significant increase in production will require huge investments and that too in geo-politically unstable regions.

This hypothesis may be partly correct in the intermediate to long term but looking at the short term it still does not make sense. The exhibit (from OPEC website) shows the OPEC capacity and in short term situation seems quite comfortable.

Another hypothesis can be increased geo-political risk premium. In the current world political environment in which nothing other than the US presidential elections seems to cause a major change in world order. Does this elections has anything to do with oil prices? May be... It would be interesting to listen to some of the conspiracy theorist for the Texas connection to this oil price increase! After all the invisible hand is also the part of demand and supply relationship!

To me, the situation seems to be a combination of these scenarios, the cause of the rise in oil price would be due to demand effect + premium for new investment + increased geo-political risk premium. about $15 (20%) largely due to China and India, and rest $25 as investment and risk premium.

If someone is worried about next generation seeing oil. Here is the good news. We still seem to have oil for thousands of years! The current demand is less than 100 million barrels a year while proven reserves are in excess of 1000 billion barrels. Though majority in regions of the world which may not be exactly peaceful to likening of our democratic uncle Sam.

IPO - The Dutch Way?

2007-10-07T11:51:00.000+05:30

With the recent Power Grid Corporation of India's IPO jumping close to 100% on listing, the debate is intense on SEBI allowing Dutch auction method for launching IPO. Analysis of few recent IPOs (last 22 IPOs since June 2007) reveals that as much as Rs 4500 crore was left on the table - the difference between closing price on listing day and the IPO price . More than half of this amount can be attributed to Power Grid Corp. On an average this represent a value jump of about 17% which is very much a typical IPO discount to encourage investors overcome the information asymmetry. A closer analysis of top 50% among these IPOs reveal a whopping 75% value jump totaling to Rs 3600 crore. If we drop Power grid from this analysis then it reduces to 45% or little more than Rs 800 crore.

Whose money was it anyway and whom will the Dutch auction benefit?

In case of Power grid it was government's money (direct equity and also the future plans of power grid) which went into the pockets of large institutions.

Analyzing the largest 3 IPOs during the period (DLF, Omaxe and Power Grid) it was only Power Grid which was severely under priced. DLF and Omaxe went up only by 8.6% and 12.9%. So is it about the ability of underwriters to price the IPO or about the ability of management to understand intrinsic value of their own company?

Dutch auction is theoretically a ideal solution which Google tried with its IPO but it was largely unsuccessful in meeting its objectives. The primary reason was execution. Dutch auction put lot of emphasis on investors to accurately price the offer. With lack of credible information and valuation abilities, are investors in a position to invest wisely?

Sensex - 20/20 champion by year end!

2007-10-06T12:25:00.000+05:30

Will SENSEX go Up or Down ??

If the current euphoria in India Inc is to continue, then I predict the Sensex to cross the 20K mark by the year end.

At the current bull run the BSE bellwether index is trading just a notch above its long term historical P/E average (current P/E of about 24 vis a vis average since 1991 being 21.65). Current P/E is largely a result of the bull run seen in the last 12 sessions. Market is still at a lot lower P/E than what it had seen during the downturn of Jan 2000. The market needs to be more than 21K today to reach that levels of P/E.

The Q2 earnings will start coming in soon and the expectation is that India Inc will grow again by a handsome figure in the north of 10%. So the current P/E ratio (and even the historic one) justifies 20K by the end of Q3.

Another interesting fact here is the Price to Book Value ratio. It is currently at its highest value in more than last 10 years. Is this a sign of worry? Traditionally price to book value was in good correlation with P/E but currently it looks somewhat overheated. But here my belief is that it is largly due to the run in real estate prices. For many companies the book value of these assets depicts the historic value but today the market values them much more. So unless real estate prices crash, which is unlikely for commercial property, the current market levels should be sustainable and very much bullish.

Infosys - The Toyota Way

2007-09-24T15:31:00.000+05:30

In the linked article Jitendra V. Singh, dean of Singapore's Nanyang Business School argues that Indian firms should use the rupee's strength to their advantage by adapting their business models in innovative ways, much as Japan's automakers did during the 1980s.

The article provides a good starting point for Indian IT industry to think ways to reduce their currency risk. The risk is inherent by the nature of business where predominantly revenue is in USD while costs are in INR. Ideal situation as also suggested in the article is to follow Japanese automakers when they shifted production of low margin products to US thereby reducing impact of currency appreciation. But in the Indian scenario the fundamentals are different. While Japanese did enjoy the low cost advantage but they also had very high productivity which enabled them to be highly competitive even when shifted manufacturing to US. The Indian IT industry is still far from matching US productivity let alone surpass it. Indian advantage is genuinely labor arbitrage which more than compensates low productivity and enables firms like Infy to earn margins close to 30%. But as the article speculates on an exchange rate close to INR 20 / USD this would kill the Indian advantage if productivity does not rise large enough and also fast enough. The fact with any arbitrage is that it remains only for a short while before markets become efficient and wipe it out.

The exchange rates are beyond control of Indian IT firms so what can they do to still stay competitive? Answer lies in productivity improvement. Apart from organic ways of doing it through training, companies like Infy should use their accumulated funds and make logical overseas acquisitions in the space of high end IT services. The integration of these companies and their practices back in India would be very important as it is here where the productivity gains are required. High end services would also enable to expand the margins thereby providing thicker cushions against USD fall. These overseas acquisitions will also help IT companies in having a more geographically balanced revenue-cost structure thereby providing a partial hedge.

So overall its not just the Toyota Way for Indian IT companies but they need to find a innovative solution to the rupee appreciation. How about a (Shinning) India providing large part of revenues to Infy in our very own rupee?
...

Arun Gandhi on Tata Corus Deal

2007-09-16T10:09:00.000+05:30

Arun Gandhi - the Tata Corus deal maker in an interview to Moneycontrol talked about the deal. Some of the highlights:

Deal Timing:
The timing of the deal was crucial as during that time the Russian companies were undergoing IPO and if the deal had been delayed then they would have also jumped in with their IPO collections thereby increasing the competitive pressures of the bid.

UK Takeover code:
The UK take over code governs the deal making process to ensure fair deal to the shareholders. The law requires regulations on the break fee and stake building which acts as defense against the competition. The break fee has to be less than 1% of the transaction value and also the company directors need to certify that the break fee is in interest of shareholders. The stake building is allowed upto 30% prior to announcement. Post announcement stake building is risky as the access to confidential information during due diligence may expose the bidder to criminal insider trading prosecution and also it does not get a right to vote in the bidding. The UK law also has a provision to prevent financial assistance - target company (only public companies) to let the bidder use its assets or guaranties to secure financing.

608 pence:
In the last round of bidding CSN topped up at 603 pence and Tata wrapped up the deal at 608 pence. The price was chosen at 5 pence higher as there was 6 weeks time to go after the auction date and the Corus share price would have included the time value of money thereby keeping the share price lower than 603 pence. CSN at this point might had created trouble as it could have bought as many shares as it could at a price less than or equal to its bid of 603. Tata hence had to keep the share price above 603 and hence a bid of 608.

Recession or Growth ?

2007-08-27T22:46:00.000+05:30

source: The Fed

Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers fear of recession seems un-real to me. The US interest rates are rising not because of inflation but because of growth in the economy as reflected by rise in real interest rates. The growth implies greater investment opportunities while the savings are slightly less than usual due to consumer driven growth. This imbalance of demand vs supply of money is the root cause of rising interest rates. The fear of recession does not seem real to me.

India Inc and Global domination!

2007-08-27T22:18:00.000+05:30

Are the days of cheap money for buyouts over?

The rising bond yields suggest so. Media reports or Blackstone's stock performance also suggests so. Does it means the end of Mergers and Acquisitions around the world and especially the much talked about India Inc' overseas acquisitions?

I do not think so.

Indian companies were not acquiring overseas companies because interest rates were low earlier. Predominantly all Indian acquisitions were strategic and growth oriented. They were either to acquire technology or to acquire market access and customers. Those fundamentals of India Inc are still very much intact and hence the intent to acquire is intact. The question of funding though important but is not ultimate decider. Indian companies have been borrowing large sums overseas to fund the acquisitions only because funds are cheaper there. The increased interest rates will increase cost of borrowing but will equally reduce the valuations. In that scenario the increased interest expenses should be more than compensated with reduced cost of asset overseas. The US stock markets are down by about 6% while interest rate is up by about 4%. Hence the overall impact is only towards the better liking of India Inc. Instead of slowing down global acquisitions it is rather a buying opportunity!

Butterfly

2007-08-26T12:16:00.000+05:30

Butterfly - not this colorful one found in nature but is found around the world's financial markets! ... It is a fixed income (bonds / swaps) basket trading strategy to profit from anomalies of the interest rate term structure. The arbitrage is based on the principal of mean reversion where market expects the term structure's curvature to oscillate around its historical average position. Traders predict the shape of term structure and make a bet on it.

A Butterfly trading strategy is designed to profit from a relative mis-pricing of securities of different maturities while protecting against market and curvature risk. For instance if a trader maintains a view that a particular bond ,say a 4 yr zero, is priced higher relative to other bonds, he could short this bond in the hope that it would become cheaper in the near future. However such a strategy would involve too much market risk. If the interest rates fall then an outright short position in a 4yr bond would lose money anyway even if the trader had been right and the bond did become cheap relative to other bonds.

One way in which the trader could protect the short position is by buying a nearby issue, say a 2yr zero. In this case if the interest rates fall then the loss on the short position would be covered by the corresponding long position in the 2yr bond and vice versa. Thus if the relative mis-pricing were to correct the trader would make money regardless of the direction of the market movement. In other words such a strategy protects the trader against parallel shifts in the term-structure.

However one possible problem with such a strategy arises for non-parallel shifts in term structure. If the yield curve flattens, the yield on the 4yr bond might fall while the 2yr remains unchanged. Thus in this case the trader would lose money on the short position while the long would remain unchanged, thus even if the relative mis-pricing were to correct the trader would lose money. To cover the slope (change) risk the trader might take a long position in another bond with duration higher then 4 yrs, say a 6yr zero. With this strategy in place if the term structure flattens then the trader would lose money on the 4yr bond, gain on the 6yr bond while the position in the 2yr bond remains unchanged. If the term structure becomes steeper the opposite would hold true .Thus if the relative mis-pricing of the 4yr bond were to correct here the trader would register a net gain irrespective of any change in the term structure. In other words the strategy becomes direction neutral.

Such a strategy involving three securities of different maturities is called a butterfly trading strategy. The security in the middle of the maturity range, in this case the 4yr bond, is called the body, while the other two securities are called the wings. As described above such a strategy is designed to profit from relative mis-pricing while protecting against the interest rate level and slope risk.

Jaguar & Land Rover in Rs 1 lakh

2007-08-25T11:52:00.000+05:30

Whats the Tata strategy?

One on end Tata is pushing for the highest end of Jaguar and Land Rover while on the another is the Tata's "bottom of the pyramid" much hyped Rs 1 Lakh car. Is Tata spreading itself too thin or there is some deliberate thought behind? Lets think about it...

1 Lakh car is primarily for India and other India like emerging economies. Its more about the scale economics and knock down costs by fully redesigning and probably redefining what we know now as a car. The whole supply chain has to improve efficiency by order of magnitudes if the output has to be a car. Also technologically the fuel efficiency of this cars has to be improved by leaps and bounds such that it is not just a cheap car like Mauti 800 (even cheaper) but is overall a "bottom of the pyramid" car with lower total monthly cost of ownership. It will need to have fuel efficiencies closer to a two wheeler to compete in the market where at the lower side two wheelers owners look for flexibility and costs while at the higher side maruti 800 owners look for convenience and also the cost. If Tata has to sell its cars then it has to marry the two segments. Put together a car which is low cost but also offer convenience and flexibility. It should not be a car competing against a 3 yr old Maruti 800 available in second hand market for prices closer to Rs 1 lakh. No fun there!

So do Mr. Tata have the technology for a car with fuel efficiencies more than 40 KM per liter?

If he does not... I doubt the success of 1 Lakh car.
If he do.. then I believe we should long tata motors stock as not only 1 lakh car but also the Land Rovers and the Jaguars are going to do very well!

Why Rover and Jaguar? The biggest problem with these money loosing highly aspirational brands is the "gas guzzler" nature embedded deep in the very design of these 'cars'. If the 1 lakh car fuel technology can be applied here.. then we have at our hands a premium car which is as fuel efficient as a normal car. It is then the aspiration brand value in these brands will kick in and Tata can have winning proposition at hand.

Think Again: India

2007-01-31T03:07:00.000+05:30

Barbara Crossette advices US to stay clear of India in Foreign Policy

First of all thank you Barbara for making every Indian feel so proud for duping US (world's big daddy) into nuclear deal. Its really an honor when someone claims that India can con US. Indians usually believe that India is one nation which is historically conned by every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Now lets talk some facts and refute flawed reasoning:

“India and the United States are not natural allies”
Well Uncle Sam is not stupid to give away goodies to 'spoiled brat' India had there been not ulterior interests. Uncle Sam wants to have a world where China's power have a counter balance in the upcoming world order and who better to take China head on other than India. From point of view of India the deal is not bad because India indeed want to compete with China on every front. Thinking that India will give away the nuclear technology to Iran is very imaginative as India's interest with Iran is only oil. Giving away nukes in neighborhood means getting them back in worst way. We already have a rouge pakistan to take care of. Can't afford another. So the natural allies is indeed the demand of hour.

"India is not a responsible world power"
Thanks for recognizing Indian power but it would help to understand the situation from Indina perspective. Indian interference in South Asian politics is purely strategic in nature. India has so many enemies all around that it is not left with any choice but to proactively thwart any threat. It is similar to uncle Sam's approach on Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and what not... Only difference is that we do it in our backyard while uncle Sam does it in others backyard. And you should not be surprised that on maximum occasions the guns rising against India are tagged 'Made in USA'

“India will not surpass China except for population”
Please refer to your very own Goldman Sachs updated BRIC report "Global Economics Paper No: 152 - India’s Rising Growth Potential" where it claims that India will surpass US by 2045. Are you still worried about China?

“India is not becoming a high-tech, middle-class nation”
Next time do not believe anyone if they crib that their job got Bangalored. Write in business magazines advising US corps to not worry about Indian consumers as there aren't many. Just google fastest growing economies and check for yourself how many your own compatriots are going crazy over Indian market.

“India is not a model of tolerance”
Step 1: Get a world map
Step 2: Check if it shows pakistan
Step 3: If answer to previous step is yes then your hypothesis is proved wrong!

We are not the one who are reconstructing Iraq or Afghanistan. On loss of some 3000 lives (that too had a good number of Indians) US goes to flatten out Afghanistan. India is a long sufferer of terrorism and loses many times more lives every year. US is not the only privileged to secure its countrymen.

Barbara, I know that you are upset by the nuclear deal but think hard and you will figure out that it helps US more than India. It is another step from stopping energy hungry India to reach out to Iran for its oil.

Think again!

India Poised!

2007-01-08T00:58:00.000+05:30

A nice forward which came to me! Captures the spirit of India Poised.....

OLD VERSION.....

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and
starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast alongwith other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

Opposition MP's stage a walkout.

Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden'

Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

*****************************************************
Many years later...

The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley

100s of grasshoppers die of starvation somewhere in India...
*****************************************************

Should LoC be made the border?

2006-11-01T20:35:00.000+05:30

Should LoC be made the border?

The critical issue between India and Pakistan is Kashmir and unless the mistrust built over time is resolved amicably, everything else will just be a lip service. The last 50 years of endless discussions skirting around the issues has produced nothing but wars and terrorism. The need of the hour is to take concrete steps to reach a breakthrough by changing the playing field and the rules of the game. For a successfully growing Indian economy last thing we want is another futile war with Pakistan

which will push back our economy again by decades.

We are yet to fix Pakistan on negotiating table to give up its preference for terrorism. In the absence of an international border, Pakistan always gets away in the pretext of providing 'moral' support to 'freedom fighters' of a troubled territory. Indian diplomacy therefore is unable to book Pakistan's misdoings as act of war. An international border will leave Pakistan no such hiding stone and it will never risk a direct war by crossing ‘international border’. This will go a long way in reducing infiltration and subsequently restoring peace in Kashmir.

It makes huge political, economical and diplomatic sense for India to freeze LOC as the international border. We never had the piece of land called POK anywhere except on our map and ego. We are spending billions everyday to fight sponsored terrorism. We haven’t cornered Pakistan in international forums. We always seem to be reacting to Pakistani adventures. We need to break this routine and redefining international border would be first step of success.

Of course in accepting LOC as the international border there are issues like accrediting POK as part of Pakistan but this would be a very good carrot to beat Pakistan on the negotiating table. We can not only clinch a hard bargain from Pakistan in lieu of POK but also better address the root cause of terrorism by giving the people of Kashmir a chance to benefit from shining Indian economy.

Free Markets!

2006-10-08T23:51:00.000+05:30

500 year old Jaipur Donkey Fair

This proves that India is well versed with knowledge of free market system since long. If we can trade even donkeys in the market then why the left over donkeys (our esteemed politicians from Left parties) impede the way to new Indian revolution. Its revolution for free markets... free from dirty politics, free from restrictions. Free market can achieve for India what in all these years politicians failed to do (I am make a wild assumption here that they genuinely intended to improve India) .

Why 1/4 of Indians in India are below poverty line while 1/4 of Indians in US and UK are among the richest? Probably there were no donkeys there to stop them!

December 13

2006-10-01T20:18:00.000+05:30

Protests continue over Afzal sentence

Afzal had very noble intentions of benefiting India by getting rid of some of the most unwanted people on the land who have restrained India and its progress. Had his hired men would have succeeded in their design, India would had climbed much higher on Corruption Perception Index. Nobody should be given death sentence for trying to reduce corruption.

But Afzal should be hanged for his plot killed brave soldiers of India who tried to protect epitome of Indian democracy. Afzal plotted to strike democracy of India and capital punishment is too little for such act of terrorism. The same punishment should also be given to anyone and everyone on either side of the border who was involved in any plot of terrorism on Indian soil or against any Indian in the whole world.

We don't mind if anyone knocks off the rotten politicians who have caused misery to people of India but a person would be out of his mind to even think of any evil against India or brave Indian soldiers. Such persons should be preemptively smoked out.

Bluffmaster!

2006-09-26T01:47:00.000+05:30

Sabse bada rupaiya!

Abhishek Bachchan tried hard to become Bluffmaster but the Oscar goes to musharraf. All of harping is only to sell few copies of his book. Seems like a simple plan to collect retirement fund because as history suggests that he would have to leave pakistan as soon as he gives up the power in the elections which he promised soon! So write some tabloid type crap with fancy publicity involving who's who of the world, make millions and live happily ever after! Such a simple plan involving "4 units" of bluff and a "landslide" windfall.

I think musharraf would have already instructed isi to print all the copies in the Quetta currency press to supply everything free of cost to India. Better do it because anyway Indians are not going to pay musharraf any royalty for this bundle of rotten junk!

Don't worry about pakistan, it is anyway soon going to be in stone age... US bombing won't be necessary. Thanks to French connection to put spanner in your efforts to extort US aid in name of 'dead' osama!

Bush, musharraf & Kargil

2006-09-24T03:07:00.000+05:30

What's common between Bush and musharraf ?

Both are paranoid and dream about things which never exists. Bush dreamt WMD in Iraq and bombed it to no limits while musharraf dreamt of India attacking pakistan in 1999 and sent his army to Kargil.

But why not Bush is holding musharraf as a Kargil war criminal and sending him to a trial the way it is happening for Saddam Hussein. In Iraq there has been no evidence found for WMD but musharraf is confessing in his biography the fact that he sent his 5 army units to assist terror groups in infiltrating Kargil.

Surprisingly musharraf claims Kargil war to be pakistani army's landmark victory. Yeah... Surely best ever! as pakistani army was in best ever position at start of any previous war, but obviously the end result was same as all other previous wars! Numerous unfortunate pakistani soldiers were "landmarked" on Indian soil. How coward would be the army who even refuses to accepted bodies of its slain soldiers! And musharraf calls this victory! Buzz off... Limit your definition of victory to occasional cricket and hockey.. There is no other way pakistan can win anything else from India.

And winning hearts as musharraf said sometime back... Well India had enough heartburn after trusting pakistan. Its time India stop treating pakistan like a spoiled street kid and takes the task of actually 'reforming' it. The way Bush did in Iraq! Isn't that the best way Mr. Bush or are you thinking of doing it yourself to meet your dear friend Osama?

Brand IIT, quota raj & David Fagiano

2006-09-21T21:13:00.000+05:30

Brand IIT can coexist with quota raj : David Fagiano

With due respect Mr. Fagiano, your argument that IIT's are second to none in the country and hence the brand name will not be diluted because of quota raj is flawed.

IITs are not competing with any Indian tech school for their existence. They belong to stature of Ivy league and when we talk of brand dilution its with respect to Ivy league and not with respect to some unknown institute of Tamil Nadu who offers close to 80% reservation. Please let me know if MIT or CMU or Stanford or any one for that matter gives admit on bases of merit or something else?

Extending your logic Mr. Fagiano, when you were COO at Dale Carnegie, did you recruited a person on his merit or because his forefathers has faced discrimination in US. Its very competitive out here making it survival of fittest. We definitely appreciate your concern about the so called socially backwards of India, but the solution is not enrolling them into IITs but it would be making them eligible to get into IITs themselves. A person with crutches will never be able to run!