Eat the rich

Beyond falling profit margins, slowing industrial growth, high interest rates and voter uncertainty, there are two new beasts that high inflation, across the world, is unleashing — riots in poor countries and lifestyle changes in richer ones. Backed by a 39 per cent rise in prices over the past year, food riots erupted in countries as diverse as Egypt and Indonesia, Guinea and Mexico, Haiti and Uzbekistan, Mauritania and Yemen.
On the other side of the wealth divide, the rise in oil prices is going to change more than just diets; US citizens are going to see lifestyle changes. Under risk is the country’s suburban economy, where workers drive 100 miles to work on cheap gas. Will workplaces move to where the workers are or vice versa, will technology replace human interactions, these are questions companies and employees there are asking.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, May, 14, 2008

Can’t axe those roots

We may be Muslims, saab, but we cannot cut this peepal tree. His name is Rahim and his band of workers sound Muslim too. The carpenter --- Maulana saab. The painters --- Abdul and Ismail. The plumber --- Yaqub. I didn’t hire him because of who he was (or who he thinks he is) but because he’s a competent contractor. And among the many other jobs that a house needs, cutting the peepal tree on the terrace of our landlord’s apartment was one. The tree, like thousands on Delhi buildings and millions across north India, was a hazard to the building. My generally invisible neighbours brought it to my notice. The tree had to go. Period.

Opinion in The Indian Express, March 17, 2008

Oye boss!

How do you deal with a bad boss? That’s a question a 25-year-old asked me last week. The worst thing anyone — individuals, organisations, countries — can tolerate today is a bad boss. It impacts teams, creates bad blood, generates disharmony and tilts the balance against work in a work-life balance where life drives work and work influences life. It seriously impacts the organisation, though most leaders, in an either-or, tend to favour the bad boss on the cold assumption of premium replacement value, not realising that it is generals in corner cabins that have to be retired, not soldiers on streets getting business.

Opinion in The Indian Express, March 9, 2008

Meet India's 53 Forbes billionaires: 19 newcomers, 28 'self-made'

Meet Sameer Gehlaut, 34. Engineer from IIT-Delhi. Self-made entrepreneur who launched online brokerage Indiabulls in 2000, diversified into real estate, picked up high-end land in high-end auctions in Delhi and Mumbai. And, almost as a by-product, is India’s youngest billionaire, according to Forbes which released its list of 1,125 wealthiest people today.

Story in The Indian Express, March 07, 2008

Ny-lon-kong-mum

When controversy convulses Mumbai and its social tensions are seen to be politically sharpened, it becomes so easy to forget its proven capacity to survive. The city became a commercial centre in the 17th century when Gerald Aungier, the second governor of Mumbai, invited and attracted skilled and trading talent — Gujaratis, Parsis, Bohras, Jews, Banias. On August 8, 1672, while inaugurating the First British Court of Justice he told the court: “The inhabitants of this island consist of several nations and religions, like English, Portuguese and other Christians, Moores and Gentoos, but you, when you sit in this seat of justice and judgment, must look upon them with one single eye as I do, without distinction of nation or religion.”

Opinion in The Indian Express, February 14, 2008

'It is not worth CAG’s while to look at Rs 100 telephone bills or Rs 200 staff car bills'

How do you define the holistic picture? How is it a step away from what the CAG has been doing so far?
I’m not saying that what the CAG has been doing is not right. No, I’m only saying, prioritise. Government budgets are expanding by leaps and bounds. Which means Government expenditures will increase. But the CAG staff is not expanding. We have limited staff and we have to do the audit in this limited staff. Hence the need to prioritise. We have to ensure that we get to those issues which have a larger impact on society. Maybe NRHM, NREGS. It is not worth our while going and sitting on a PSU, the sales turnover of which is Rs 400-500 crore.
Also, if audit comes up with some findings, it doesn’t mean the findings are malafide. It only means that somewhere some omissions have occurred, it’s not necessarily commissions all the time.

Interview in The Indian Express, February 13, 2008

Business of bliss

Whatever else the world may throw at him, there is no doubt that along with Osho (1931-90), Mahesh Yogi brought the second wave of Indian Spirituality to the US, which in turn offered both gurus the opportunity to re-export it to the rest of the world. Sitting on the crest of the first wave --- created by Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) in 1893 with his speech at Parliament of Religions in Chicago and Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) with his life changing 1946 work, Autobiography of a Yogi --- Mahesh Yogi and Osho discarded the simplicity of the first wave and embedded their spiritual messages with matter. If Osho’s outer signatures were his 93 Rolls Royce cars and sex (remember From Sex to Superconsciousness?), Yogi had the Beatles as his students, trademarked transcendental meditation (TM) and levitating techniques.

Opinion in The Indian Express, February 11, 2008