What Am I

After years of dominating the whole world, 7 is being replaced by 20 to make sure that the representatives become all encompassing. This Recession which began in US had a huge impact across the globe, but is felt the most in the developed part i.e. the group of G-7. So forced to give-in the supremacy, the G-7 is now trying to accommodate the developing nation into the elite group. Us, which is blamed for all its greed and other activities that have taken a dent on its image, is surprisingly the one which has initiated this process of giving more power to G-20. At times one may wonder if the EU is the actual culprit in the world economic forums, not not US as is perceived. Not that US can be said as a great proliferator of free trade especially with the recent 35% import duty on Chinese tyres. Getting back to the topic, Iam sure there would be huge reluctance from the G-7 to give-in to sharing of powers with the G-20 which make the forum all the more dynamic. Iam not sure ...

Remember all those case studies done in MBA about Japanese Car makers' plants in USA revolutionizing the automobile processes. I was just going through the latest news and I came across an article which is a big news in certain circles for sure. Toyota is closing down its first plant in USA, the plant in California. What does this indicate? Besides the fact that California is no longer the destination for investment, this is the first time that Toyota has ever closed a plant. The plant in USA, especially the one in California initiated the successful journey of Toyota in USA. Last year it replaced Ford as the largest selling car marker in USA. During the MBA course curriculum, The Toyota plant in USA along with the plant of Honda in Ohio were a part of the major case studies discussed for "Corporate Strategy" and also for "Operations management" to understand its "Lean" processes. The success stories of one time are no longer the ones sought after...

The major headline today in Nytimes was "U.S. Considers Curbs on Speculative Trading of Oil". I felt very happy to look at it. For once oil & gas trading will be restricted mostly to the people actually use oil but not the financial institutions and non-energy based organizations which trade in oil like any other commodity. Some of the trends of oil movement make no sense nowadays. There is no good news in the world economy, but still oil prices jumped to $70/bbl. Even even during the earlier so called "bull run" the movement of oil to $140 was way beyond the understanding of many experts. But everyone agrees to the involvement of speculative trading in all the commodities. US for once is thinking about some restrictions on the free market phenomenon by putting curbs on the involvement of these speculative traders who are there to just make money and let the others go for a toss. I hope similar things should happen even for other commodities. I know of...

I give you billions of dollars to fend off common enemies. What do you do with that money? You siphon off more than $5 billion to build your nuclear empire. Not bad Pakistan! Iam a tax payer and through every penny that I earn, I pay a percentage to you to provide me with good infrastructure. What do you do with that money? Build a gigantic monument of your own statues by consuming money worth Rs 2000 crores. This happens while most of the people you are ruling are below poverty line. Kudos to Mayawati, CM of Uttar Pradesh. I am a tax payer and I want to make sure that you govern well. What do you do with that money? Amass thousands of crores of assets for your son and yourself, and also get a chartered flight so that you can boast of better coverage. This in a state where there are huge suicides of farmers and mill workers because they cannot earn even Rs 20 per day :(.. Jai ho Mr. Rajasekhar Reddy, CM of Andhra Pradesh Of course there is another person, the boss of all th...

I was just browsing through some articles about the aviation industry. The industry is obviously going through a tough time, but I just happened to look at two airlines which are almost on the verge of bankruptcy. British Airways(BA) Air India(AI) Both are government operated airlines and are equally famous for their misdeeds. British Airways was very famous for its baggage mishandling and the much crowded Heathrow airport in London added to its chaos.. Air India has been always famous for its irresponsible behavior with its customers and what not. But the interesting topic to discuss is the way the employees of both these organizations are behaving during the present crisis. BA employees have voluntarily agreed for a paycut or an unpaid leave instead of mass layoffs. They are trying their level best to keep the company up and floating. AI employees on the other hand are about to go on a strike demanding that they receive all their salaries on time. They are in fact askin...

India is just believing that it is recovering from the financial crisis. But one thing that has been supportive to India for the past couple of years may play the spoil sport. It is the monsoons! Being in Mumbai, where monsoons create a havoc because of their downpour, there is hardly any rain and we are already into the last week of June. Already in Mumbai alone the rains are down by atleast 40% in the month of June and close to 70% of the reservoirs across India are running under deficit water. If the situation continues then any respite to the GDP growth will evaporate with the hopes of the farmers. Good monsoons add atleast 200-400 basis points to the GDP. So all the eyes should be glued towards the skies and pray for the rain god!! BTW, Saina Nehwal won the Indonesian badminton championship, making it the best performance by any Indian woman ever.

One is a country which has just completed a bloody battle within the its boundaries and completed a civil war which lasted for close to 30 years but are still worried about the humanitarian crisis. Another country is battling with its own survival because of various reasons and is also facing the worst immigration crisis after its birth. Both the countries are heavily battered, and need something to really cheer about. The countries are Pakistan & Srilanka respectively. Sports have had the reputation of making people happy through major wins and hence I hope Pakitan can clinch the ICC 20-20 2009 wolrdcup series, for which the final match is going to be played today between Pakistan & Srilanka. Both the countries have played well to reach the finals. But amongst both the teams I cheer for Pakistan because of the position of its country right now. THere is hardly any news that will make Pakistan happy. Day in and day out all the Pakistan is able to see is crisis all ar...

How much does space mean? I've been looking out for apartment in Mumbai for close to two weeks now, and Iam not satisfied with the response that I got so far. We are being asked too much for the kind of facilities that are promised. I felt like a refugee when I looked at some of the apartments. We are still scratching our brains if the no. of people to stay in an apartment is "n+1" or will "n+2" or "n+3" is also ok..where "n" stands for the no. of bedrooms in the apartment. So much so for the refugee talk... I just realized what it takes to lead a life like a refugee. 75 people including women and children living in three rooms and a single toilet. People sleeping in hand-mouth conditions that one cannot see the ground on which they are sleeping. This is the situation in Pakistan who is tormented by the flood of refugee from the tarnished areas of Swat valley. The Pathans so famous for their hospitality, generosity are being stretch...

June 1st, the big day On this day Iam beginning my career as Management Trainee in Feedback ventures Energy division. Finally my shift to energy has been a grand success. It is infact a big day to me considering the fact that this profile is what I wanted for quite sometime and also that Iam into the elusive Energy sector. But today is also a big day for a country atleast 6000 miles away from us. GM is about to file bankruptcy on June 1st. A company that celebrated 100 years last year and the one which has been the pride of US for such long time is finally biting the dust. Though the talks of bankruptcy have been lingering around for quite some time, to see that one of the world's first and biggest car manufacturing companies is going down in this fashion is seldom a good feeling. Hopefully this day will prove to be a much needed transformation for GM. I pray to god that this journey of mine will make me feel happy about all the decisions that lead me into this. Amen!!

Stimulus bills, stimulus bills and more stimulus bills to revive the collapsed economies all over the world. What do these stimulus bills do? Try and increase the economy by increasing the money flow in the economy and make people CONSUME more. So, it's all about consumption. Oh, I forgot that the world over which tries to imitate the US style follows the Keynesian pattern, where consumption is the most crucial thing. So, more consumption and hence better growth rates. Without Keynesian way system India would never have clocked the rates because much of its growth is bellowed by the internal consumption. For that matter US will not retain its status as the world's economic power but for the mammoth per capita consumption that its population have. But this consumption, which most of us should/would have realized by now should be the real cause of worry because we have limited resources or limited access to them. Hence in the long run consumption has to be reduced. I d...

$2 trillion in savings..so what should one do?? Go shopping of course!! because only if an entity with such huge savings goes on a shopping spree can the world have something to cheer about. But instead of terming "shopping", if it translates into "investing" it would make much more sense for both the consumer and the producer in the long run. China with huge forex reserves has started its strategic acquisitions in this downturn where the commodity prices have gone down tremendously. Till recent times when people resented investments from China because of the negative image about them, but everyone is welcoming them with open hands. Obviously anyone would latch onto any country/person willing to extend capital in these very tight credit times. China has spent $41 billion in last week alone..some of the things in its shopping list are: a) Venezuela received a $6 billion loan from China and agreed to increase its oil exports to China b) China Minmetals Corpo...

Guess what this is about, the potential clash between Nadal and Federer in the Australian Open Finals on this sunday. Federer defeated Roddick in straight sets and has taken a seat in the finals. And in all probability Nadal, who looks in sublime touch as well may get into the finals. Some of the shots that Federer plays look vintage, classic...there are those gems that sometimes we can witness from the willow of Laxman, the cricketer from India. You know from the sound of the bat hitting the ball that, yes! that shot is a winner. Today Federer seems to have got back some of his game that he seem to have kept in the back burner in the last year. But, even today he wasn't looking at his best. Roddick was no where close to putting any pressure on Federer. It was like Ivanisevic playing against Pete Sampras. THe former had one of the best serves but no rally game. But Sampras always matched ace to ace with his opponent. Similar was the situation today. Roddick was banking on his s...

How ever considerate I wish to be about the policies of Bush he always surprises me with more and more acts that seem to take the common man's life for a toss. I came across this article in NYtimes about the acts that Bush pushed during the last stages of his government. Here are some of those acts... Health care : One particularly objectionable rule took effect the day President Bush left town. It gives an increased number of medical institutions and a broad range of health care workers the right to refuse to provide abortion referrals, unbiased counseling or emergency contraception, even to rape victims — further restricting women’s rights to health care. The administration should suspend enforcement and craft a new rule. Gun control : A new rule would end a 25-year ban on carrying loaded weapons in national parks, which are among the safest places in this country. Before that changes, the administration should overturn this rule. Workers’ rights : Revisions to the federal ...

Srilankan military stated that it occupied the final bastion of LTTE, the dreaded area of Mullaitivu. What does mean to the region? Finally people in Srilanka can breath free. tamils who were initially supportive of LTTE's cause slowly realized that it was another person's fervour towards power. Many things which start for a good cause seems to be lost in the frenzy of power. But let me NOT draw any conclusions towards the approach of LTTE and military. LTTE may have started for a good cause, but the bloodshed for such a long time was not justified. This is one example for various states that partition will not satisfy any thirst. People should continue to live in harmony. The future certainly looks good for Srilanka. I wish all the Srilankans all the very best for their future. They certainly have set some example about the way to fight internal threats and the bigger cause of the nation always should take a precedent. I wish India extends and continues good relations ...

Ever wondered what can be the cost of a foolish decision! A decision taken by Musharraf has just taken a toll on 1.3 million people in Swat valley [details about the swat valley http://www.swatvalley.com/gallery/browse.php?category=mingora] Taliban has almost taken its control over swat valley and people over there are being made to do the things that they never thought they would have to worry about. This reminds of the famous philosopher against the nazis.. They came for the communists and I ignored, because Iam not a communist They came for the Jews and I ignored, because Iam not a Jew They came for the Russians and I ignored, because Iam not one of them And finally they came for me, but there was no one to rescue me... Similar is the situation for people in Pakistan...they ignored the raising threats from Taliban and ignored all the crimes that they performed all this while and now the Taliban came for them and they are helpless.. Police is complaining of lack of equ...

I was just wondering about the major international headlines in this first week of the year and the topics that have created furore a) Israel attacks on Gaza b) Sri lankan soldier's attacks on LTTE These two are marking more violence at the dawn of the new year. But hopefully this may actually close the violence that has been prevalent for quite some time. So, Iam still debating myself whether these fresh attacks are an indication of a concrete end to violence but beginning of more. If the former is the fight over land, then another news is happening due to the fight over resources. Gazprom, the oil major in Russia, threatening Ukraine about gas supply: This major company has been threatening Ukraine because the latter hasn't paid some of its bills. If Gazprom curtails its supplies then many people in EU will be freezed to death since 25% of EU gas supplies are through these pipelines. These two major headlines, ignoring the others, are an indication of the wars that ...