A rotten joint venture

The late night air around the three-storeyed Kingfisher Airlines’ Vile Parle office in Mumbai on October 13 was thick with expectation. Reporters stood outside waiting. Five hours later, when the chairmen of Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways emerged, armed with their wide smiles, the “alliance” they announced — which experts termed ‘cartelisation’ — only served to cover their next day’s intent.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, October 21, 2008

Searching high and low for the law

There are two forces of physics acting upon a changing India today. On the economic front, as India expands into global terrains, a centripetal force is gathering momentum, best represented by the country’s 8 per cent growth rate. This force, however, is being pulled back, through an equally strong centrifugal force that looks inward, is fragmented and savage in its execution. Caught in between are the rest of us. If economic development and mass prosperity have to be delivered, the politics of violence that the centrifugal force represents needs to die. And there lies a political opportunity for Elections 2009.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, October 07, 2008

Energise

We need to explore the scope for acquiring energy assets abroad.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, September 20

I am delighted to formally announce the first flow of crude oil from the Krishna-Godavari basin.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, September 21

For those who think these two statements made in the past two days are intellectually slippery, here’s the bottom line. More than anything else, it is energy security that will drive India’s economic growth and help drill prosperity into the country. It affects the fortunes of countries and companies, investors and consumers and most important, it brings political stability.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, September 23, 2008

Land ahoy!

Between Tata Motors’ Singur face-off and your 250 sq m plot in Delhi that’s been under siege from builders for the past three years, there’s a single binding force: transfer of property. It is the process of transfer that differentiates the first from the last — you have a choice.
In the case of mega-projects dotting the country, owners of land don’t have that choice. Here, too, if the land is acquired by a private company — a DLF acquiring 2,500 acres in Gurgaon to develop a township, for instance — and landowners get what they feel is a market rate (or higher), the transfer is smooth. Sweetening such deals is also the promise of jobs, an equity stake in the project, equivalent land elsewhere and so on.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, September 09, 2008

Not a nano question

It is not about Ratan Tata or India’s largest auto company, Tata Motors —which is challenging assumptions of costs the world over. The Rs 1,500 crore that the company is ready to forego for employee safety is as generous a promoter as any worker can aspire for. The amount — 9 per cent of the company’s market capitalisation — has been taken in stride by the 309,530 shareholders. Between Tata’s exit threat and today, its stock has risen almost 5 per cent.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, August 25, 2008

Singh is Kinng is that many-splendoured thing: a great entertainer

There is a herd mentality that plagues fund managers — the top holdings of the funds they manage are frightfully similar. The Indian film critics seem no different. They kneel at the altar of Kurasowa’s Rashomon but there are no eight versions from eight critics on offer. They pray to De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves but there are no twists in their climaxes. They worship Ray’s Pather Panchali as a classic, but there’s nothing beyond black and white in their writings.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, August 12, 2008

Pension tension

The decision by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) last week has unequivocally and irreversibly opened the gates for pension reforms. While the decision to open fund management to three private sector fund managers — HSBC AMC (Asset Management Company), ICICI Prudential and Reliance — and to the State Bank of India is rather simple, the fact that the EPFO’s powerful Central Board of Trustees felt the need for better fund management — and found private firms worthy of shouldering that responsibility — is a step that shows a new thinking in tune with changing times.
I am enthusiastic about this move not merely from the political or public policy perspective. The numbers thrown up as a result of this decision show a high level of economic efficiency, unseen so far. The charges bid by the three firms to manage about Rs 30,000 crore per annum are the lowest we’ve seen in independent India. At less than one basis point (100 basis points make a percentage point), HSBC, ICICI and Reliance are offering economies of fund management that scale allows them.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, August 03, 2008