The scams were always happening. Its just that only now they are unraveling.  Does anyone remember the time when buying a scooter, ambassador car, telephone etc used to have a waiting time of years.  Today, you can throw in some money and take your pick.  Liberalisation has in fact brought down corruption a lot.  Earlier not a single file moved in the government office without bribe being paid.  Today a lot of government job can be done on the internet without the need for stepping into an office.  Just a decade ago, the government run PSU banks ran amuck. I remember having the misfortune of going to the banks to create a Demand Draft and know the headaches I had to endure.

Today, the private banks have revolutionised the business.  Hardly anyone of the present generation visits those PSU banks. The PSU banks are bending over backwards to win their business. Getting a driving license is not a chore anymore too. Many of the government work is either become efficient due to private sector competition or due to the introduction of technology.

Does it mean that all is hunky dory?  No, it isnt. The poor even today have to endure the red tape of the government.  Getting the loans granted by the government in their hands is at the mercy of the officer who is disbursing it.  After a catastrophe, the government declares an ex-gratia.  But the official overseeing the disbursal will make sure he get his cut before the money is given.  This trait of feeding over the dead body has been prevalent for decades.  Today, its a bit more difficult as you can call up the media to raise a muck and make sure the money is disbursed faster without any corruption in between.

So, why is it that so many scams are surfacing?  Truth is that the scams have been in our midst for decades.  Kalmadi was not involved in the sports graft for the first time.  He is a survivor in that business for decades.  His family and his cronies have made millions over these years.  People knew that yet didnt raise the muck because it was mostly hidden.  One didnt have access to all the information. Today the Right to Information (RTI) act and other kinds of citizen & judicial activism has increased. People are more aware of their rights and hence all these skeletons tumbling out.

Another reason is because the political parties themselves use these scams to settle scores. Its a simple theory which goes like… you expose one scam of mine and i do the same about you.  None of them are about public welfare nor is that only one political party is responsible for the mess.

Both the BJP and Congress are 2 sides of the same coin.  Both corrupt to the core.  If you were believing that the BJP led NDA was supposed to give you an alternative, you were living in a fools paradise. The NDA and its constituents are as equally bad as the UPA if not worse.

The Radia tapes doesnt reveal anything new.  Its a known issue that during the license permit raj of the 70s to 90s, businessmen used to pamper the politicians in power so that they could bag business or made sure that some of the laws were tweaked in their favour.  Today with lots of bidding and laws being online, its gone down to a large extent.  Even the media was nothing holy.  Currying favour with the media to carry their side of the story by politicians and businessmen was the norm earlier too.  Today its given a respectable name like Corporate Relations or Public Relations.

Anyway what i find baffling is the common man’s surprise at all these events.  Let’s face it.  We Indians have corruption engrained in our DNA.  We are taught from young on how to circumvent the rules, how to bribe the policeman to get away, to bribe the municipality to extend the height of the house by another floor etc.  If there was no TDS, am sure none of the so called “middle class” in India would pay taxes.  In fact the middle class of India are the biggest hypocrites you can encounter.

How did Raja, Kalmadi, Chavan, Yeddyurappa, Karunanidhi, Lalu, Mayawati etc come to power?  We voted them to power.  To satisfy our silly egos, to protect our so called religious casteist, regional beliefs etc we vote them to power.  Integrity is not something we are known for.  Everything and anything goes.  We are good at masking our incompetence with the national slogan of chalta hai attitude.  As government officials, we take bribe to do our work.  Our police takes bribe from the mafia and look the other way as they go about killing innocents and trading in arms and drugs.  We ourselves screw up our society and then blame all and sundry.

The rot is set.  Its a part of us.  Its in our system.  Its in our blood.  So, lets look within ourselves and cleanse ourselves as we go about uprooting this cancer of corruption from our midst.

Above pictures courtesy: Akalol & Indiabuzzing

+++

United Spirits’ brands include

Dalmore
Jura
Whyte & Mackay
Black Dog
Antiquity
Signature
Royal Challenge
McDowell’s No.1
Celebration Rum
Bouvet Ladubay
Pinky
Romanov
White Mischief
Kingfisher

United Spirits Limited (USL), the flagship company of The UB Group, today announced that it has crossed the milestone of clocking a sales volume of 100 million cases for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. This achievement makes United Spirits the world’s second-largest spirits company by volumes, dislodging Paris-headquartered Pernod Ricard.

Key Highlights:

• The retail sales value of the spirits portfolio sales of United Spirits for the 100 million cases sold is Rs. 30,000 Crores

• USL’s 100 million cases contributed Government revenue of Rs. 18,000 Crores through excise and other levies

• USL has dominant market share and the fastest growing brands in most key segments

• USL has outperformed global competitors with USL brands growing 14% while the world’s top 100 spirits brands collectively grew only 1% and this when 18 of the top 25 global premium brands lost ground

• In the last 25 years, USL has sold a total of 740 million cases

• United Spirits launched Black Dog 18 YO in the super premium Bottled — In-India (BII) scotch category to further ramp up its market share

• The company upped the ante in the premium IMFL segment with the introduction of 100% pure grain-based McDowell’s Platinum whisky.

Full article here

+++

For those who know Premji, it is not uncommon to see the fifth richest Indian on the Forbes List and the 63-year-old chairman of Wipro switching off the lights before leaving office. It is this commitment to avoid waste that has turned Premji’s attention to ecology and sustainability.

In October 2008, even as it warned of slowing growth in its main software outsourcing business in the backdrop of a global financial crisis, Wipro released a recruitment ad for two new businesses, Wipro Water and Wipro EcoEnergy. The company has spent the previous two years preparing for this diversification, which may turn out to be the company’s third big change. The first was when a 21-year-old Premji took charge at Wipro after his father’s sudden death; the next was when the vanaspati and soap maker transformed itself into a multi-billion dollar information technology giant in the 80s and 90s.

Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapathy says green services and solutions will bring in up to one out of every four dollars of the company’s revenue, three years from now. In the financial year ending March 2009, Wipro had revenue of more than Rs. 25,000 crore. Even if the revenue were to stagnate, a fourth of it — Rs. 6,250 crore — from ecology is no small amount. The plan also aligns well with Premji’s desire to ease down IT’s profit contribution from 93 percent currently to 70 percent in the next few years.

The new idea was first thought up by the 41-year-old head of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN), Anurag Behar. The two new ecology businesses will be housed under WIN. In January 2007, Behar made the first formal presentation about the ecology business to Wipro’s board of directors. The board reacted positively but also advised caution: Ecology was a nascent field with rapidly evolving technology and Wipro should not get locked in a technology that ran the risk of becoming obsolete soon.

Wipro has turned its 50-acre campus at Electronic City in Bangalore into a test bed. While 25,000 software engineers write code for Fortune 500 corporations, waste food from the cafeteria turns into methane for lighting burners, harvested rainwater is used to cool air-conditioning towers, a paper pulping plant recycles waste paper into writing pads and a micro windmill lights bulbs along the perimeter of the campus. Wipro’s Sarjapur campus a few kilometres away has India’s largest LED installations — all compact fluorescent lamps have been replaced with LED lights, helping save 75 percent in electricity consumption. Since 2003, Wipro has cut water usage in its offices across India by nearly two-thirds.

Read the full article here

+++

Chennai was sweltering hot, i sweated buckets.  Coupled with that the scarcity of water and a city that is used by its citizens as a garbage dump.  You wonder where the municipal workers of the city are?  If at all they are doing the work.  Whether you are the middle of the city or at the outskirts, one thing that defines Chennai is the consistent crappy smell in the air.  The air stinks in Chennai and uniformly so.  Dont know why and how.  This is in addition to the dirt and filth all around.  Wonder which moron decided to name it a metro.

Velankanni was equally dirty.  For a piligrim town with such a potential for tourism, there are hardly any good lodge/hotels.  The only good ones are the dorms run by the church, but they too offer you rooms for the next day only.  And if you are the ones (like me) who just drop into the town with no reservations, hoping to stay at some hotel, be disappointed with the kinds of rooms you get there.  As for the restaurants, stay away if you dont want to come down with some extreme case of food poisoning or diarrhea.

If you have any plans of going to Velankanni, stay at Nagapattinam, a town near Velankanni.  Take a bus in the morning to Velankanni, see around and come back to Nagapattinam.  This was advised by my friends after i did my trip much to my exasperation.

Took a train from Chennai to Hyderabad.  Was travelling by the Indian Railways after more than 11 years and loved the experience.  Reached Hyderabad early morning around 6am on the 14th (our 1st wedding anniversary).   Was amazed at how clean the city of Hyderabad was at 6 in the morning.   Either the roads were swept clean or at some places the cleaners were hard at work.  Kudos to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the people who work for them for keeping the city reasonably clean.

It was drizzling all through and there was a nice cool breeze.  Loved it. Since we were tired, we preferred to rest.  There was not much celebration for the anniversary as all plans were for wifey’s birthday which was 2 days later on the 16th.  Had a get together at home for friends and family for wifey’s birthday.

Later on in the week, went to the new mall in town, GVK-1.  Good place to hang out, but there was something lacking in the place.  I prefer Hyderabad Central or City Center.  Also the mall is pretty new and the shops are only coming up.  Maybe it will be good once it fills up.

Saw the movie New York.  Not bad i thought.  Better than the crap that Yash Raj is famous for churning out. Saw the movie at the new INOX multiplex at GVK-1.  The seating is good and so is the sound system.

Travelled back to Singapore via Chennai again.  From the superb airport of Hyderabad to a garbage can called Chennai Airport is a perfect example of what the private sector can do to our economy while at the same time, the Chennai airport run by the inefficient babus of Airports Authority of India have really screwed it up.

There were no seats at the international departure.  They simply disappeared.  For someone who’se flight is yet to start check-in, they simply have to stand there waiting for the counters to open.  Can you believe that?  What about the elderly and the people who need to rest?  Have the airport authorities ever thought about their comfort?

And the cafe’s selling stuff in Chennai airport are nothing but daylight robbery.  Tea is sold for Rs 30.  A samosa / aloo bonda costs Rs 60.  Whereas you get a good Cafe Coffee Day coffee at the Hyderabad airport for just Rs 15.

I can go on and on about the pathetic situation at Chennai airport, but its a waste of time.  Its a perfect example of why the airport needs to be handed over to a private player so that they can do a better job of the same.  Anyone with doubts can look at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Bombay airports and compare them to the ones run by AAI.  There is simply no comparison.

Back at office and a mountain of work stares me in the face.  Time to get going.

Chennai picture courtesy: I’m seeing green ;  Hyderabad tank bund and NTR gardens picture courtesy: Hyderabad

+++

Nandan Nilekani resigned as Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies and its board on Thursday, following his appointment as Chairman of an IT-driven Government program for providing unique identification numbers to citizens of the country.

“The Board of Directors at Infosys has already accepted Nilekani’s resignation. The resignation would be effective from July 9, 2009,” said the company.

Nilekani will take charge as Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India with the rank of Cabinet Minister.

As co-founder of India’s second-largest software exporting firm, Nilekani served as director on the Infosys board since its inception in 1981.

Between March 2002 and June 2007, he served as the company’s chief executive officer and managing director. He was later re-designated as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors.

“We are glad that an extraordinary individual like Nandan has got an opportunity to add value to India through this position. As a company that has always put the interest of society ahead of itself, Infosys will accept his absence with a sense of duty to a larger cause,” Infosys Chairman and Mentor N R Narayana Murthy said.

More here.

+++

What an awesome month this has been.  The chaddi gang routed in the elections.  Deccan Chargers coming out of nowhere to win this year’s IPL.  Twenty-20 world cup coming up in another 10 odd days. Yay.

Missing the sleep was worth it.  Tonight, i will have a contented sleep

It was a double whammy for Vijay Mallya yesterday.  His Formula 1 team, Force India just missed out on the points table and his cricket team, Bangalore Royal Challengers just missed out in the finals.

Pictures courtesy: IBNLive & Rediff

+++

The war begins in approximate 4 hours.

+++

Go Deccan Chargers Go 

+++

Meanwhile, I will put up a small review from Amazon.com.

India’s recent economic boom—similar in scope to that of the United States during the early 1990s or Europe’s during the 1970s—has triggered tremendous social, political, and cultural change. The result is a country that, while managing incredible economic growth, has also begun to fully inhabit its role on the world political stage. In this far-ranging look at the central ideas that have shaped this young nation, Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani offers a definitive and original interpretation of the country’s past, present, and future.

India’s future rests on more than simply economic growth; it also depends on reform and innovation in all sectors of public life. Imagining India traces the efforts of the country’s past and present leaders as they work to develop new frameworks that suit India’s specific characteristics and challenges. Imagining India charts the ideas that are crucial to India’s current infrastructure revolution and quest for universal literacy, urbanization, and unification; maps the ideological battlegrounds of caste, higher education, and labor reform; and argues that only a safety net of ideas—from social security to public health to the environment—can transcend political agendas and safeguard India’s economic future.

As a cofounder of Infosys, a global leader in information technology, Nandan Nilekani has actively participated in the company’s rise in the last fifteen years. In Imagining India, he uses the global experience and understanding he has gained at Infosys as a springboard from which to discuss the future of India and its role as a global citizen and emerging economic giant.

A fascinating window into the future of India, Imagining India engages with the central ideas and challenges that face the country—from within and as a part of the global economy—and charts a new way forward for a nation that has proved itself to be young, impatient, and vitally awake.

Above image and review from Amazon

+++

Am not surprised that everytime BJP comes into power in any state, we start to see their favourite brand of hate politics happening.  Once the master is in power, the dogs are out hounding and trying to impose their talibanic version of culture and religion on people.  It happened in Gujarat, Orissa and now in Karnataka.  Not to mention Madhya Pradesh and UP where such things happen with alarming regularity.

Read the full news about the attacks on hapless women by some eunuchs and Taliban of Indian culture.

Vote out BJP and its chaddi gang friends. Make a strong point that we will not cow down to some religious morons who try to impose their lifestyle on us.  That we will not bow down to the politics of hate. The constitution of India gives us the right to live our lives according to our own wish as long as we dont break the rules of the land.  Its the chaddi gang members who are breaking the law.

Its time for the women to fight back.  Take a moment and think.  You might believe that since you were not attacked, this doesnt concern you.  Yesterday, it was someone in Mangalore, today it was someone in Bangalore, tomorrow it could be you.

So, what can you do?  Pressurise the police to act on them.  Each one file a case on all the fellows who you think are involved in this.  Write to the media, appear on the media, make your voice heard.  The next time a politician comes begging for votes, ask him to first arrest the goons and lock them up, get them sentenced and then only come to you for votes.  Geraho the politicians and make them give public assurances and act upon them.  File FIR against the leaders of hate, file a PIL in the Supreme Court against the ‘Ye dur dur dur appa’  government for sitting back like a eunuch and watching the fun when they were elected to protect us from such morons.

Fight back.

Read Prem Panicker’s take on the issue here.

+++