What Am I

For the first time, the environmental concerns in India seem to be taking the limelight. Thanks to Mr. Jairam Ramesh for the first time we are seeing a stall to the major projects that have been flouting the environmental norms for decades. To begin with, Vedanta's very infamous alumnium smelter in Orissa may take a hit. Followed by the hydro projects of Lohari Nagpala and the one on Bhagirathi. Hopefully it will be a big blow to Vedanta's expansion plans...but the interesting part is just when the announcement of Vedanta's environmental concerns are about to be blown out of proportion, Vedanta announced its acquisition of Cairn. I guess, Vedanta already got a hint of the result and hence was planning to get away from there. I guess, Vedanta got tired of exploiting lush green forests, so it has targetted the vast desert!! I just pray that the group gets blown away by some sand storm. As the saying goes, the faster you rise the faster you fall...Considering the fact t...

Its been 12 years since Budha smiled again in India for the second time. How I wish that the scientists and the government of India refrained from making him smile. The first time Budha smiled, it inspired an otherwise sober Metal scientist to pursue on a dangerous mission of espionage and invent the nuclear black market. The first nuclear tests conducted by India inspired one person more than any one in the world to make sure that Pakistan also became a nuclear capable nation. That man was AQ Khan. The erstwhile kingmaker in Pakistan and the pioneer of Nuclear black market in the world. I just started reading the book 'The man from Pakistan', a book I was longing to read for quite sometime. Its just a conincidence that Iam reading it around 11th May, the day on which 12 years ago India conducted its nuclear tets. Any one interested to know how close we are to a holocaust again should read this book. But while reading the book and understanding the double standards of...

Earlier I used to wonder isn't is better for US and the world that US starts tapping its huge oil reserves in Gulf of Mexico. The fuss about environment and others are a small thing compared to the savings that oil production in Gulf of Mexico can provide. The BP oil rig incident brings the justification behind the same. On April 20th when the rig went on fire, BP said that the oil spill may be 1000 barrels per day. Then they increased it to 5000 barrels per day, and now the projections are that the leak may be as high as 60,000 barrels per day. (BTW 1 barrel ~ 160 lts of Oil). So per day, the spill is expected to be around 9,60,000 lts!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gulf of Mexico is considered one of the single largest locations of oil production in the world. They come next to the Mid-west Asia in terms of the aggregate oil production. The oil production from the rigs in Gulf of Mexico nears around 2 million barrels per day. That's a huge number!!  Compare this with India's bigge...

Do you know that almost 50% of the countries have not legalized abortion? I was surprised to know that. Considering the fact that if countries like India, which stand very low on human rights, have legalized abortion...it was almost a shocker to know that so many countries have not legalized abortion. I wanted to just understand how do various countries fare in their legal framework on abortion.  So, here is some analysis using the trusted Excel. The analysis done by verifying the abortion's legal status in various countries in 7 instances. Just to give an example, of how to read the above table, amongst the 54 countries in Africa, 1 country considers abortion illegal even when the woman's life is in danger. And amongst those 54 countries, there are 21 countries which consider abortion illegal when the physical health of the woman is in danger. Now, to understand some hard realities from these numbers.... From the above table, it ca...

The great C K Prahlad is dead. Sir, thanks for everything. You made us realize the importance to look micro before looking macro. Sir, your strategies have enabled the creation of many concepts like global SCM, micro financing etc. which have transformed the way business is done. Sir, you have created these concepts of bottom of pyramid etc. with good intentions. As an academician you have made sure that knowledge is created. But sir, the mere mortals that we are, made sure that the bottom of the pyramid has become broader after you suggested the value at the bottom of the pyramid. By implementing your concepts, people at the helm came across new ways to extract the most from the bottom. Your good intentions were probably misused. Sir, we will continue to be inspired by your ability to expand the cultural ethos to global platform. Thank you and we will surely miss you! PS: I always hated Union Carbide (will continue to do so), for all the bad things it had done. For once th...

Saale..sab chor hein! How much does an Investment bank make in a transaction? Let's see.. Investment bank arranges for currency swaps worth $4bn and it in turn gets around 2% as commission alone from the whole transaction. And of course the insights would allow the bank to invest/not invest in those currency swaps allowing for huge advantage over others. So a group of around 15-20 investment bankers from Goldmann sachs involved in the currency swap transaction garnered around $80 million in just commission. The transaction is made to make believe the world that Greece is in good shape. The country tried to fox the whole world saying that its deficit is 3% where as the actual hovers around 12%. But what is the eventual fall out of this transaction a) When the true picture came out, hundreds and thousands are left without pension, no medicare, no wages due to the austerity plan b) The country is on the verge of bankruptcy c) The same investment bank suggests not to inve...

GoI intends to raise more than $3 billion this fiscal by selling its stake in some of the PSUs. Result: Stock prices of the firms rose and every one cheers! So, obviously its a good thing. Or is it? This is a perspective from a common man. Do you want to kill a cash cow? or do u want to milk it continuously? can't there be a case where the govt. retains the company as a promoter but instead lets it run by promoters. Like BOOT basis. Why not? Sounds ridiculous??? What is the reason for divesting the stake? Raise money to fund social activities. But when the efficiency of the social activities is so less, that much of the money lands in the hands of the politicians..why raise the money through these ways. In an era where private companies are trying to consolidate their holdings why should govt. divest its stake. The argument can be that govt.'s duty is not to run organizations. But when creating employment opportunities is one of the important functions of the govt. di...