NEWS, VIEWS & YOU: March 2012

Saturday, 31 March 2012

The wait of justice

The wait of justice June 9th 2010

Justice delayed is justice denied & this adage is no truer than now. Issue is not only of judiciary & its delays,given the fact that bureaucratic ways of India and its defunct judiciary;but the overwhelming influence that people in power have on judiciary.
The independence of Indian judiciary is not even seen at Supreme Court level. Given the gravity of this accident and its social repercussions, it makes a mockery of the judiciary system where a case with such gravity is decided by a district court?
Where is the juris-prudence in it? Is Government of India is serious about the judicial system in the country & does it also intend to project the right picture to the world? After 1977 (Change of political leadership by a coalition front that could not last), in fact from 1966 (after a systemic murder of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent), the deterioration of judiciary in India has been very rapid due to inclusion of criminals in politics or criminalisation of politics.
More importantly, had this been an industrial disaster in USA, which is the base nation for Union Carbide, can we say with certainty that justice would have been meted after 26 years and getting away by paying the husk of a peanut, where for libel people are sued on divorce cases in million of dollars.
World surely is a place full of dichotomy & antithesis

Too close to Sun November 12th 2009

Will restraining the competition in any way is going to stymie the behemoths from controlling the customers. I don't think so.

Creating wealth is more important by these synergies; more crucial is sharing the wealth & intellectual properties.

DOJ & EU's apprehensions are not very loud. At the end of the day they see it as a potential to have a dependent consumers having no choice, hence the turn-down

Unveiled

Unveiled May 25th 2009

Some of the words, especially used as a news headline, in Economist are almost blasphemous & sacrilegious, a magazine that I have been reading with pride for more than quarter of a century.

Certainly, Economist does not need such conjectures to make it. I am still proud that my children also read it, though very young, but inculcated as habit to them.

It would be profane to label a palaeontological finding as a piece of pornographic material.

In that case what Economist can comment about the first documented Vatsyan classic called Kamasutra. Old day playboys & Penthouse? Most certainly not I guess.

Yes indeed, when coming to male psyche, it is almost an axiom that they think alike when it comes to the matter of, well we all know.

Symbolism has been the hallmark of our history, both modern and old and our mindset makes it as an object of desire or a sex toy. What do your scribes would say when they interpret a modern painting? All camouflaged pornography?

We expect better journals from Economist.

The bonus racket

The bonus racket January 30th 2009

The traditions of paying obscene salary & bonuses to the bankers are an eye sore to most of the people and even in industries.

Greed is the precursors to all collapses in the world. History tells us. Citadels of kingdoms have been rubbled in the annals of history books because of un-satiated appetite for personal wealth.

The modern history would also have the same chronicle for the empires that were build on greed, like banking empires & investment banking.

Look at the impunity and brazenness with which the employees, in fiduciary relationship with investors, are pillaging the owners/ investors.

Poor shareholder may not even get a bare net of tax dividend to justify his investment and to stay invested. This is all in the name of professionalism.

Imagine the High Net Worth individuals who stay invested in schemes, as advised by their investment bankers, to earn a better return on their wealth and are just returned bare average returns in the name of risk and continuity, while the people who are entrusted with that funds are having a daylight heist on account of the investors & shareholders.

We see reports on Bank of America & Citi Bank where corporate splurge has assumed a dimension of obscenity that it puts the world to shame. Some one just redecorated his office at Bank of America at a cost of 1.5 million US $!!! And US government is trying to salvage such institutions by funding them to stay afloat by injecting trillions of dollars to keep them afloat!!! Ridiculous.

Seriously, are we in the business of undermining the basic intelligence of humankind?

Personal ambitions when overrides the ground realities, a situation is always witnessed that eventually leads to public censures and a abasement for the entire industry for acts of few.

All would agree that there is nothing superlative about such pillages and daylight heist, but the plethora is webbed through a ‘sophisticated’ business model that does not stand the test of time and generally accepted traditional wisdom and collapses before another genre gets time to study this.

Time has come to give the monitoring agencies a bit of biting abilities from being a toothless watchdog that can bark but cannot bite. Poor sons of bitches!!!

There is no harm in bonuses; it should be a motivator to do well for all, but not to be used by corporate honchos as a tool to feather their nests and the expenses of the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Stumble or fall?

Stumble or fall? January 12th 2009

The trend is very clear. The emerging markets emerged out of the needs of the evolved and 'mature' markets.

The evolved markets in the 1st world economy virtually outsourced all so called non core functions that was considerd as a drain on the unit on a micro level.With out sourcing went out the job for the masses.

A few year down the line, to sustain the population without a gainful full time activity became very difficult as subsidy and welfare was not sustainable in longer terms.

So how do you reverse the wheel that you had set in motion. The power of ridicule is often overwhelming even for the strongest of the governments, so the way forward was to precipitate a crisis across the economy and then reverse the motion fo the wheel, in the hope of resurrecting the flagging economy.

Any economy, unless backed up by a proper mix of agrigarian, manufacturing and service can not be helathy in long run.

This global crisis precipitated is a percusor for the revival of the manufacturing sectors in the developed and mature economies, naturally the shrinkage effect would be more glaring to the emerging economies that opted to play the pawn in the game.

Thus a temporary mid term halting of these emerging economies would be more discernable that what we are contemplating today. Nonetheless, their are advantages to these economies, as they have stabilised their infrastructures to a large level and have also build up a credible economic base with relatively low cost economic metrics.

In times to come, the differentiator would get narrow as perceptible shift would be noticed across the globe in the egalaterian trend line and incomes for the masses would be not so disparate in emerging and devoleped economy. This is some time away.

But in the near and immediate future, emerging economy is bound to take a substantial hit , as consolidation of manufacturing sector takes place in developed world.

All the jos that went out would largely come back and that would be providing the feel good factor for all the politicians that they have been able to create so many jobs, the reality would be that they just got it restored somehow at the expense of trillions of dollars across the global economies by precipitating the crisis in the first place.

Classic case of of troubleshooting, where you began the trouble in the first place.

The resilienec of emerging economies in Asia & Latino world is quite enduring and I have the conviction and faith in those economies that has witnessed turbulence already, so what is there for them to fear. They can rise from the rubbles, provided they keep their independant mind and does not get manipulated on policy pills.

Time would tell , so would Economist.

Rajeev Pandey- Kenya

Death to the media moguls!

Death to the media moguls! September 29th 2008

The most belligerent and the boisterous behaviour are demonstrated by the males from Saudi & its vicinity whenever you get to catch them in any of the tourist destinations across the world. With their pockets weighing more than them, they feel that they can indulge upon the privacy and chastity of anyone and everyone.

Those are amongst the most ridiculous society that is closed to the reality of the modern world and are flogging a dead horse of hackneyed tradition and have actually been sponsoring such wanton Islam-isation across the world wherever they can, including in Asia, Africa & now for sometimes in Europe.

We still do not understand as to how USA & other part of the world accept such decadent behaviour and in US campsin Saudia, I am told that life is as boisterous as it can get & mingling is not of hispanics & causcians & negros but are local influential arabs. I guess the black liquid gold has done its black magic and coloured our senses!!!

The maximum sale of pornography and sleaze shows are done and organised in those closed societies, which I guess is starved for the liberated living; and not in open cultured society. If Saudi does not open their eyes to the realities of neighbourhood, then the Iran & Iraq kind of situation is not very far away. Both were culturally liberated and happy society till it was overtaken by Khomenis & the types.

Result – we all know!!! They need to democratise fast and must not be evaluated as the heavy weight of OPEC & stasher of petro dollars. Imagine a oppresive life with all the wealth that money can buy and no freedom. Birds of golden cage!!!

Executive pay

Executive pay September 18th 2008

The methodology seems to be completely flawed. The middle East employers always bench their remuneration structures based on the country they intend to fill up the position. And they do not hire the top talent as most of them are unwilling to move to such social structures for living.
Secondly, the myth of 'senior managers' is not defined and is amongst the most amorphous terms in corporate hoodwinking.
The cost of living being what it is the real diffrence is not much except related to expenses for buying out exclusivity of brands and aspirational living, which most of the migrant workers avoid consciously as the motive for moving to locations like ME & third world countries are beyond that.
The real difference in living cost is housing & transport cost that of late is narrowing down across the locations in terms of rentals & pump price.
The real percieved advantage could be tax free salaries in some locations, but employers do consider pegging the offers keeping those metrics of 'cost to the company' in mind
Personally I feel that the homework & survey study needs to be done a bit more objectivelywith a more wider samples and clearly pre defined terms and methodology.

Russia resurgent

The erstwhile USSR had an aura of real power on global landscape and geographical & political alignments were discernable without much overt display.

Generally, the world knew the 'allies' and the 'foes'. Cold war or no cold war. After Gorbachave's glasnots and perestroika, the USSR crumbled as a super power and seccionist abmitions of the regional politicians ensured that USSR was wrecked. The economic might, military might and generally the citizens took a heavy beating and the portion of Eastern Europe plunged into a state of anarchy too soon for the world to do anything, or was it deliberate not to do anything.

Putin has tried to restore the pride of Russia and wants the world leaders to take note. His moves may not be politically etiquetted and correct, but are eventually right for the people who have some stakes in the future generation. If he is trying hard to provide Russia a level playing field by weilding whatever means that Russia has its disposal, there is nothing wrong in it. Is it not the same that is being done by EU & USA? He is not doing cartelisation of energy in collaboration with oil producers , but is just asking that please treat Russia with the respect it deserves and as a global stakeholders with substantial stake, its pride of the place must be restored. In a sitution that is similar to Russia, what any European country or USA would have done? Let us get reminded of Falklands, Cuba, Kashmir, Honk Kong,Sri Lanka, ASEAN countiries and host of African nations.

If Putin has boldly defied the purported world order and have taken the bulls by its horns, why cry? In fact he should be lauded for smothering the seccecionist ambitions in the region and giving signals to the world that individual ambitions are secondary to national pride.

We already have more that 205 countries in the world and some even do not have a critical mass to sustain any meaningful economic activities.

Above all reunification or some kind of Economic Alliance of Russia under a democratic process would be able to resurrect the world economy and would give the EU & USA to get a chance to stand against a behemoth, called China. At the end of the day the power flows from the economy and every leader has an obligation to ensure that for the sake of the nation that they are ruining.