Reliance SEZ no to Gurgaon

The economic downturn has begun to affect lives everywhere and if you thought that working for a top conglomerate would spare you the recession blues, you are grossly mistaken.
India’s showcase business group Reliance Industries is so badly hit by the global financial crash that Mukesh Ambani’s SEZ in Haryana has laid off most of its staff. You have nowhere to hide, really.
Work at the much-hyped Haryana’s pride SEZ has come to a standstill. The SEZ has a staff of around 800 (around 250 permanent and 550  contracted employees).
Although Reliance executives involved with the project claimed that the company had decided to “go slow” due to the recession, SEZ sources  confirmed that work won’t resume until the recession ends.
According to company sources, a large number of employees both at the senior and junior levels have already been asked to leave. But a Reliance spokesperson disagreed. He said,  “The project has not been delayed as the company is still acquiring land for it. There is a business plan for everything and it takes a long time to implement such big projects,” he added.

Do you think recession is the sole reason behind this step taken by Reliance?

Pappu can’t coach saala!

RJD MP Pappu Yadav may lose his job as the cricket coach of Tihar Jail Number 3 because his team lost the semi-finals of a  T20 tourney of inmates. Senior jail officials say he may not get the opportunity of being a coach again because he failed to lead his team to victory despite having the best team in Tihar. The trophy was shared jointly by jail 1 and jail 2 on Monday after the match ended in a draw.
Officials of jail number 3 allege that Pappu couldn’t get the team combination right and didn’t give the captain a free hand. “We had the best batsmen and bowlers but they were not used properly by the coach. Moreover, the captain was not given a free hand in taking any decision regarding the team selection and was not allowed to take important decisions on the field,” a senior jail officer told Metro Now.
Jail number 3 was one of the strongest teams in the tournament and crashing out in the semi-final has hurt not only the players but also the inmates and officials of that jail.
“We will soon start preparing for next year’s event and will re-think on his position as the coach. Most probably he might not be the coach for the next season. But even if he stays, we will ensure the captain is given a free hand in decision-making”, the officer said.
The annual Tihar Olympiad is played with great enthusiasm. Inmates as well as jail officers are deeply involved in the tournament and the competition is so fierce that every decision of the umpire is closely watched and debated. Sometimes it even leads to arguments so much so that the administration has to step in to settle the issue.
Each jail has its own team and a coach for every event but the one that is most popular is cricket and passions run high during a match. The one who draws maximum attention at these games is Pappu.
Jail Number 3 has an excellent track record in cricket and also in other sports. Jail sources, however, acknowledge that Pappu has taken a keen interest in shaping and developing the team right from his early days in Tihar and give him due credit for that. But just one loss, and he is charged of interference.

Should Pappu continue as the cricket coach or not?

Gang of flying thieves

They dress like corporate honchos, and are frequent fliers. They are no businessmen or bureaucrats. Their frequent travels have a different purpose. They are just well-dressed thieves. Meet, the trio, who were recently arrested for stealing baggage from the airports. The three gang members have been stealing baggage from airports for the last eight years. Travelling in flights to and from Mumbai or Delhi, since the route has maximum traffic, they used their travel to rob passengers.
Dressed like gentlemen, no one could guess that they were thieves. They would travel in groups of two or three. Like any other passenger, they would board the flight and land at the airport and then get down to their real business. The group used to spot their targets during the flight or during departure. Then they would stand near the conveyer belt and pretend they were waiting for their baggage to arrive. Meanwhile, one of them would go to the waiting area. As soon as the target arrived, the one sitting in the waiting area would signal to those waiting near the conveyer belt. While the passenger waited for his/her baggage to arrive, the thieves would clean out the cabin baggage the passenger would be carrying, within minutes, but leave the bag behind.
“These people are professionals and have been doing this for a long time. One of the gang members was arrested a long time back. They used to leave the bag in the waiting room and then walk out of the arrival hall,” a police official said.

Do you think its strange that the gang got away with stealing at airports for 8 years?

Bailout scheme busted!

A man convicted of murder would not think twice before committing fraud. Disgraced IPS office Ravi Kant Sharma, convicted of plotting the murder of a woman journalist, has now been caught trying to obtain interim bail from the Delhi High Court by presenting prima facie forged medical documents.
Should the court find that the documents are in fact forged, Sharma will find the punishment for perjury, forgery and contempt of court added to his life sentence.
Although the documents were presented by his wife Madhu in court, she cannot be party to the alleged forgery because she is Sharma’s legal representative and it is assumed that the documents she presented in court were given to her by Sharma.
Sharma had applied for interim bail in the Delhi High Court on November 15 last year. He sought bail by claiming that he needed to go to Silver Oaks Hospital in Mohali to seek medical opinion on a recurring back pain from the same doctor who had operated on his back in 2005.
Sharma’s wife, Madhu, filed an affidavit saying that Dr Sanjeev Sharma, a neurologist at Delhi’s GB Pant Hospital, had advised that Sharma should be taken to his doctor at Mohali for his evaluation and opinion as he was familiar with the case. Adding a sense of urgency to the bail plea, she said she had got an appointment with the Mohali doctor for December 26, 2008. She also submitted a registration card signed by Dr Sharma from GB Pant hospital as proof.
R.K. Sharma further said he needed to get a cataract operation done and his wife said she had obtained an appointment at the RP Centre at Aiims for December 29, 2008 for the surgery.
However, when the matter came up for hearing at the court on December 19, the court noted that neither of the two problems seemed urgent in nature and questioned the manner in which Madhu had already taken appointments with the doctors without the approval of the court.
The court listed the matter for January 14 for further hearing, giving enough time for the Delhi Police to verify the grounds for the bail.
So when the Delhi Police went to GB Pant Hospital to check the veracity of the documents, they found a large number of anomalies in the claims made by Madhu. The hospital OPD register showed that Sharma had never attended the Neurosurgery OPD till the date of the report. 
The doctor in Neurosurgery Department, Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, whose signature is on the registration card produced by Madhu clarified that the OPD prescription of Sharma is not his handwriting although the signature resembled his. He also said that to the best of his knowledge he had never signed any such prescription.
GB Pant Hospital has also said that the OPD registration number on Sharma’s registration card does not exist in hospital records.
What is a fact is that R.K. Sharma visited GB Pant Hospital on July 19, 2007 in the cardiology OPD vide OPD registration number 1401781 and on December 20, 2008 he attended the Gastroentology OPD vide registration number 1469736. Another interesting fact that came out in the scrutiny of the documents is that the OPD prescription slip of GB Pant hospital has been countersigned by the medical officer of Jail No. 1 of Tihar as true copy. The Delhi Police is in the process of verifying the signature of medical officer of Tihar as well.

Should Sharma be dealt with sternly which might serve as a deterrant to others?

Auto-thieves hit speed-breakers in Gurgaon

Increasing incidents of vehicle thefts in the city are not only giving sleepless nights to the owners but are also sending the police into a tizzy. On an average eight vehicles, mostly from the urban areas, are stolen every day.
Despite putting in their best efforts, only 500 of the reported 2,050 cases of vehicles thefts in 2008 have been solved. That leaves 75 per cent of the cases unsolved.
The year 2007 was no better either with only 275 cases out of 1,530 cases being  solved.
Motorcycles are stolen with impunity. “If one parks one’s bike and leaves it even for 10 minutes, it is likely to be stolen, Ramesh Gupta, whose bike was stolen,” from Apna Bazar Complex, says. He had left his bike for just about 10 minutes and when he returned it was gone.
There are a number of soft targets in the city that vehicle thieves generally target. Apna Bazaar, Aap Ka Bazaar, Radha Place – all on Gurudwara road near Sabzi Mandi, Jain Mandir Chowk, Hanuman Mandir, Galleria Market in DLF city, Central Market in DLF-II, Sikanderpur Market, Vyapar Kendra at Palam Vihar, markets in Sector 14, 17, 29 and Sector 31 are considered easy targets. Cops say people don’t park the vehicles at the designated spaces and end up losing their vehicles trying to save on the parking fees.
The police might point fingers at the public but the administration is also equally to be blamed for not providing enough parking lots. For instance, Sadar Bazar in Gurgaon doesn’t have a designated parking lot due to which people are forced to leave their cars unattended.
Sumit Kuhar, ACP of DLF City, said the police are doing their best to check vehicle thefts. Galleria Market has seen a sharp decline in theft incidents after a parking lot was introduced in the market a month ago.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Dhawan said a special cell has been formed for anti-vehicle theft and policemen in both plain clothes and uniforms, have been deputed at various places to nab the miscreants.
Most of the thieves are from Mewat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and the Jhajjar, Bhiwani and Hisar districts of Haryana. They are mostly illiterate and steal for a petty amount of Rs 2000 to 3000 per bike which is then sold off on the same day. The middle-men, after making certain modifications, sell the vehicles at higher prices in  far-flung areas, Anil Dhawan said.
Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal also said the thieves had a free hand as the police were busy with other commitments but now the police have tightened their network against them. The public should also cooperate and install second hidden locks in their vehicles, Mohinder Lal said.

Do you think allotment of enough parking space would solve the problem of auto theft?

The sting bee sucks!

On Sunday, the saying “the pot calling the kettle black” came true when high-profile Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh released the CD of a sting operation alleging that the BSP MPs were collecting huge amounts of money for Mayawati’s birthday celebrations.
The sting operation comes in the backdrop of the recent murder of Uttar Pradesh PWD engineer Manoj Gupta allegedly by sitting BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari. Gupta was murdered apparently after he refused to pay up.
But there’s more to the sting than meets the eye. The principal architect and conductor of the sting is Sanjay Tiwari Ujala, a self-styled journalist with dubious credentials.
Ujala has several cases lined up against him in Delhi’s courts for “extortion” and “blackmail” after he conducted  a number of similar sting operations.
Ujala earlier ran a small-time newspaper Northeast Times and now runs a website tiranganews.com. 
Last year, the New Delhi district Police had arrested Ujala in a case of extortion and impersonation on the complaint of tribal MPs from the Northeast and Jharkhand. Ujala had allegedly been blackmailing these politicians on the basis of ‘sting operations’. He has also been accused of extorting and blackmailing some LPG gas dealers.  So, has Amar Singh, famously labelled as “motormouth” for his drop-of-a-hat media conferences, jumped the gun this time? Did he know Tiwari’s background before he conducted Sunday’s press conference where he released the CD? When MetroNow tried to contact Amar Singh’s office, there was no response. Tiwari, however, defended his role.
“We came to know from our sources that BSP leaders were converting millions of black money into white. It was income-tax evasion. The BSP leaders had been carrying out this exercise for a long time, especially at the time of Mayawati’s birthday celebrations,” Tiwari said.
“I have put more than 150 LPG dealers and middlemen behind bars and registered 70 FIRs all over Delhi. And now in this case of BSP, I want Mayawati behind bars. The investigation should be conducted by a high level authority. While doing such sting operations, I always fear for my life. But this is real journalism,” Tiwari said.

What do you think? Has SP jumped the gun and ruined the chances of a probe against Mayawati?

Traffic cops get sterner

After lying low for the first few days of the new year, the Delhi Traffic Police has started challaning errant drivers on a war footing. In the last three days, the cops have issued more than 6,000 challans for various traffic rule violations.
Along with the new year, the cops have also changed their way of tackling errant drivers. In their ‘Carpet Bombing’-style campaign, they are making sure that no errant driver escapes. Traffic cops are coordinating with each other so that if an errant driver escapes at one place, he is caught at the next place. The Traffic patrol team plays an important role here. “They can’t escape,” a senior traffic police officer said.
Various teams have been formed to prosecute different categories of vehicles like — private cars, TSRs and commercial vehicles. Apart from that, traffic policemen on Pulsar bikes are patrolling the city’s roads to catch offenders.
On Friday, close to 4,000 challans were issued. On Saturday, the cops prosecuted more than 2,000 drivers.
“Our aim is to make the city’s roads safe. We have pledged to make the roads safer than last years. For that we need to educate people and make them understand that following traffic rules is the best way,” a senior traffic police officer said.  
Although the traffic police is keeping an eye on every traffic violation, its focus is on crossing the stop line, unauthorised parking, minor driving and issues related with auto-rickshaws.

Suggest areas that traffic cops should focus their campaign on?

Performance + no looks: Hopeless

They say looks don’t count in sport. It’s the performance that matters. The second sentence is gospel. The first, absolute rubbish. In modern-day sport, plain Janes and simple Simons will never be able to capture the public imagination the way some of their glamourous counterparts do, irrespective of the performance on the field.
How else do we explain the remarkable popularity of Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova, who did zilch on the courts but thanks to her long legs and a perfect-10 figure, won more admirers than Serena and Venus Williams put together?
Kournikova can’t hold a candle to the Williams sisters in achievements on the court, but hey, in a match between Kournikova and Serena, who would you be rooting for?
And over the last couple of days, we saw something similar happen back home. It’s a story of two girls with similar-sounding names. Saina Nehwal and Sania Mirza, the chalk and the cheese… one on top of her game, the other, down in the dumps.
A few days ago, Saina, from a small town in Haryana, did the unthinkable by becoming only the second Indian woman (after Ami Ghia) to break into the top 10 rankings in world badminton and she is still going great in Malaysia wher she has already reached the semi-finals of Malaysian Super Series
It’s a massive achievement, considering the domination of the Chinese, Korean and Malaysian shuttlers. But our spunky girl did achieve the impossible, and is very confident of breaking into top five within the next 12 months.
But the reaction of our media to this development was muted, to say the least. An anchor story on sports pages, a two-column picture, and a quote! No congratulatory messages from the sports minister, no cash rewards, no guest editorship of any newspaper!
Compare this with the time Sania Mirza reached the third round of Wimbledon and eventually lost to Serena. The Indians went mad, as our girl broke into top 50…yes, top 50, for God’s sake. Not top 10, not top 20, or even 30!
By the time the Hyderabad lass landed back after being thumped by Serena, India was completely gripped by Sania Mania. Sourav Ganguly, the then skipper, was seen trying to fit a crown on her head at a function in Siliguri, Sonia Gandhi hosted her at 10 Janpath, newspapers ran cover stories on her success —  what she ate, what she wore, what she liked, disliked, her favourite car — everything was macronized.
Now, after being dumped out of top 100 rankings, Sania continues to make news. Why? Simple enough. Sania looks sexy. She speaks with an accent, and more importantly, wears an attitude which is advertisers’ delight. She is HOT. Saina is talented, but is she sexy? Is she hot? You’ve got your answers, buddy.
Even in cricket, it’s no different. How else do you explain the contrasting fan following of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble? In terms of cricketing achievements, Kumble is not one bit lesser than Tendulkar. In fact, Kumble has a Test century, but Tendulkar can never dream of taking all ten wickets even in Ranji Trophy!
In terms of looks, Kumble — tall and lean — would leave Tendulkar far behind. But Tendulkar has the charisma. And style. His designer glasses and T-shirts, his Mercedes and BMWs wowed the fans as much as his on-field hitting.
Tendulkar was always that elusive star you can never reach out to. You can only admire him from afar. Kumble, on the other hand, was your regular engineer-types who also played cricket. You know you can always shake his hand.
The world, and not just India, is short on heroes and heroines. Just being talented and sincerity are not enough to inspire others. A generous dose of charisma goes a long way turning the world on its head. What say, Sania?

– Tapan Joshi

Do you think popularity of a sportswoman is directly proportional to her looks rather than her game?

To save the boys, villagers go to the Panchayat

Noida is scared and people of Garhi Chowkhandi are very scared. How else can one one explain the unjustified logic put forward by them in a panchayat to help save the ten boys, who have been accused of raping an MBA student. A day after the news of the involvement of the ten boys from Garhi Chowkhandi village in the gang-rape spread like wide fire, the villagers were ready to accept the truth and even shoot their boys if they were found guilty. But two days later, in a flip-flop that will put politicians to shame, they are now ready to use any means to save the rapists.
A panchayat on Thursday at the village was attended by the village elders and the family members of the arrested boys. The mother of one of the arrested rapists said, “My son is innocent. He is being framed. Infact, when the crime took place he was with his wife in the village. For proof, you all can conduct a medical examination on my daughter-in-law.” Many such defensive statements were made by the entire villagers.
In the panchayat it was declared that on Friday a written complaint would be submitted to the District magistrate asking for judicial probe in the matter. Also, they demanded that action be taken against the victim’s friend Amit and his father for lodging a false FIR in the case. The panchayat stated that if their plea was rejected they would protest.
Ironically, while the villagers are voicing their support to the accused boys, the sixth accused Little, who was produced in the court on Thursday, brazenly accepted the crime he committed. He said, “We found the girl and the boy in an objectionable position. As they were alone, we took advantage and took turns raping the girl.” Like the other five who were arrested, Little, too, was sent to 14 day judicial custody.

Do you think when the village said it would shoot the boys, they were bluffing to appease the authorities?

Satyam Shivam Scandalum

The world may now think twice before dealing with Indian IT and ITeS companies especially after Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju admitted to fraud in company balance sheet. This is what a section of business analysts feel, but industry bodies want to separate the scam as an one-off issue that does not necessarily muddy the image of India’s corporate governance.
Not just the world, the fall from grace of this iconic business leader and the shocking revelations have come as a shock to his peers, rivals, friends and fans. The scam has the potential to shortchange the otherwise unblemished Indian growth story dominated by IT.
“Raju has certainly inflicted a huge blow to the India story on the global business arena and the companies across the world would be much more vigilant before engaging any Indian company for business,” an analyst said.
Ramalinga Raju’s resignation along with that of managing director B. Rama Raju came a day after over 100 Satyam employees quit their jobs, fearing trouble. The latest developments could force more employees to hunt for jobs in other companies. Satyam has nearly 53,000 employees and development and delivery centres in India, the US, Canada, Brazil, Britain, China, Hungary, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.
 
Shine wanes
“Satyam was always seen as one of the top Indian IT companies and often represented a shining example of Indian liberalisation and entrepreneurship. This fraud on the investors and employees of the company shows a systemic breakdown in audit and also the oversight of the company board. Questions will need to be asked and quickly established how this happened and who caused it to happen,” Ficci president Rajeev Chandrasekhar  said.
Ramalinga Raju was once considered the pride of Andhra Pradesh. Now the fraud he has admitted to has badly shaken all industrialists in the state. “I was one of the greatest fans of Ramalinga Raju, but today I am very upset,” Harish Chandra Prasad, vice-chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Andhra Pradesh, said. 

The course of law
Business analysts privately say that Ramalinga Raju could face a jail term. The law will take its own course but nothing can shoo away the reality that the Indian IT-BPO industry, which had set very high standards of ethics and corporate governance, will be  somewhat hit by the Satyam scam. 
But Nasscom wants industry to perceive the Satyam scam as a stand-alone case of failure of corporate governance. It is critical that it be viewed in this light, Nasscom, the apex body of the IT-BPO industry, said.
“Let us first understand that scams happen worldwide — Enron, Barrings, Madoff and now Satyam is one more. I feel regulators need to show to the world that decisive action is taken against the culprits,” Siddharth Shankar, financial expert and economist, said.
Asked what PriceWaterhouse Coopers in the US was doing when all this happened, Shankar said, “I feel the auditors and regulators in the US and India need also be pulled up along with the board and the independent directors of Satyam.”
Industry body CII, too, believes there is a need to immediately examine the loopholes in regulation, accounting, audit and governance that allowed such lapses to occur and address them with urgency.
 
Image India not tainted
Chandrasekhar, too, stressed the need for regulators to move in quickly to demonstrate that this is an exceptional case amongst corporates.
“The investors need not worry about Indian corporate governance and accounting standards. This is critical to revive and rebuild the confidence and trust in India Inc amongst investors,” he said.
“While the occurrence of such events in a major company is a matter of deep regret, it would be inappropriate to question general governance standards in other companies,” the CII said.
“We are sure that all the stakeholders would also treat this as an isolated issue. This is not in any manner a reflection on the industry or corporate India. We will ensure that customers and other stakeholders get the right perspective,” the Nasscom said.
Corporate India must, however, reflect on ways to demonstrate its quality of governance and enhance the confidence of stakeholders, the CII said.
Nasscom said it would also work with the Satyam Task Force to reach out to their customers and employees and guide them through the transition.
 
What next?
According to Shankar, Satyam does not decide the course of economy or the stock market.
Though he added that the impact will be bad in terms of the corporate governance image of India and that we may see some negative sentiment in terms of foreign investments, in the long term, the markets will behave keeping in mind the macro-economic factors.
Regulators and Auditors will become more vigilant and companies who are still cooking their balance sheets will get shut or will correct their balance sheet, said Shankar.
Referring to the sharp fall in Satyam shares, an analyst said it was a natural reaction by the investors. “Satyam’s share today is not even worth Rs 10.”

Do you think the scam will seriously affect India’s image abroad?