A load of crap from an idle brain

Iam a strong believer in the theory that the government has no business doing any business.  The government has no business running steel companies, textile mills, condom companies etc.  All that the government has to do is to manage the law and order machinery, keep the country safe and to create laws and an environment that is conductive for its people do do business and prosper.  The government exists so that the common man can use his skills to run his own business and employ people.  More than 60 years ago when the country got its independence, it was ok for the government to get into all the industries so as to kick start the process of industrialisation.  As time went by, the citizens of the country got into the business of making money and it was time for the government to sell off the businesses and do what it was mandated to….and that is to govern the country.

But under the socialist regime of our succesive governments, the economy has been screwed up badly and sadly even 63 years after independence, we have millions of our citizens going hungry every day while millions of tons of foodgrains rot in open grounds for lack of storage space.

Meanwhile we have a food and agricultural minister who is busy hobnobbing with the glamour of industry and entertainment and involving himself in cricket. Not to mention monopolising the sugar business in his home state of Maharashtra. All this at time when foodgrains have no place to be stored and are left to the mercy of rains and heat in some open lands.

Even though the Supreme Court has woken up late, its good to see that the apex court has now come out with a ruling stating that not a single grain should be wasted and if the government cant do the needful, it must distribute the food to the poor free of cost.

The Supreme Court has observed that not a single food grain should be wasted. In a strongly-worded ruling, the apex court has told the government that foodgrains are rotting and if you can’t do anything about it then distribute it among the poor. The court has also sought government’s response on this.

Meanwhile, as the government faces flak over letting close to 30 lakh tonnes of foodgrain rot across the country, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food has reportedly decided to sell an additional 30 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat to 11.5 crore Above-Poverty-Line (APL) families through ration shops.

Didnt such a though occur to the incompetent government and the food minister earlier?

PS: Remember the days of waiting for 2 years for a land line, booking periods for a Bajaj scooter or a Maruti car?  That’s the kind of pathetic performance only our government can do.  That’s why agriculture, retail and everything to do with logistics needs to be deregulated.  So that the private sector can do in a few years what our government hasn’t been able to do in decades.

Picture courtesy: Poonam

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The Bhopal gas tragedy, the 1984 Sikh riots, the Bombay riots, the Gujarat riots, various corporate and stock market scandals (Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh) are just a few examples where the Indian judicial system as well as successive governments have failed miserably.

Today’s news reports that 5 people involved in the Satyam scam have been given bail. Dont be surprised when Ramalinga Raju who is living like a king in the NIMS hospital but refuses to appear in courts or even take part in a televideo trial will soon be released on bail too.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry can make out that the various excuses given by criminals and undertrials are fake and yet our courts accept those excuses and keep pushing the dates of the cases.  A friend of mine who was working under a famous lawyer in Hyderabad used to tell numerous stories of how his boss used to hoodwink the courts with fake medical leaves, out of station kinda excuses to not attend the court.  Heck, the lawyer even used to give excuses like his car’s tyre got punctured and excused himself from attending court.  I wonder if the judge didnt remind the lawyer that there is something called autos, taxis or other public transport that he could have taken to attend court.

Till the government amends the laws to ensure that every case needs to be wrapped up in a certain amount of time no matter what the excuse, this charade will keep going on.   It took 26 years for the courts to find the guilty in the Bhopal gas carnage.  People are still suffering the after effects.  The wounds of the survivors of the Sikh riots led by the Congress ministers, the muslims killed in Gujarat with the active participation of the ruling BJP and the current CM Narendra Modi, the riots of Bombay perpetrated by the Thuggerays….the list goes on.

Till the feet of our leaders are held to the fire and action demanded from them, i dont see any closure for the millions of people on whom the actual crime is not the injustice, but the judicial system and the government that was elected to keep them safe from harm insults them repeatedly by denying them justice.

Fraudulent sales, inflated invoices, accrued interest and understated liabilities were some of the major methods that Ramalinga Raju and his henchmen used in order to make Satyam Computers Services Ltd appear highly profitable and keep the share price high, so that he could take away a whopping Rs2,743 crore out of the company. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) explained this and other intricacies of its investigation into Satyam at a media workshop in Mumbai.

JL Negi, general manager, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on deputation to the CBI explained how Ramalinga Raju falsified facts and puffed up results. He said, the company benchmarked its performance to that of Infosys. The financial numbers were massaged through fraudulent sales- invoices generated through “Excel porting”, which allowed the founder of Satyam and his co-conspirators to raise invoices bypassing the regular system and obfuscating an audit trail. In the period from April 2003 to December 2008, 7,561 fake invoices were created by a set of people close to Raju, who had access to the system. The fake invoices generated without purchase orders were shown as “hidden” and could only be accessed by a chosen core group. The CBI alleges that Mr Raju even asked his software team to develop certain products for seven non-existent customers.

These were Mobitel, Cellnet, E-care, Synony, Northsea, Autotech and Hargreaves. Fake revenue was recognized for these products by generating fictitious email as if they originated from these customers.  A domain was created in rediffmail to send these emails and 63 invoices were generated to raise Rs430.66 crore. The company even booked Rs31.18 crore as forex profit on account of fictitious sales.

Read this full article in livemint on how Ramanlinga Raju used his position in Satyam to perpetrate the scam.  You have to simply say hats off for the way he manipulated the scam.

Not to mention a big kick on the backside of the regulators, law enforcement agencies who let the scam happen for years and kept their eyes shut.

Past articles on the Satyam scam

The Satyam shocker continues…
Ramalinga Raju – The fraud King
Satyam’s pack of lies crumble
The Satyam – Maytas flip flop

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The jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The five-member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar’s design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval.

Kumar’s symbol (on the left) is an amalgam of the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.

The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister’s approval, said a Ministry official.

The Ministry had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.

Full news here

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After Saina, its Paes again.  Consistency when you are 37 years old is no joke.  At a time when tennis players hang up their racquests, Leander Paes is still going strong.

India’s Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe beat South African Wesley Moodie and Lisa Raymond of the US 6-4, 7-6 (5) to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title here Sunday.

With this victory, Paes surpassed his one-time doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi in winning the most Grand Slam titles for India. Paes now has six doubles and six mixed-doubles titles. Bhupathi has 11 Grand Slam titles — four doubles and seven mixed doubles titles.

Full article here

Above pictures courtesy: Wimbledon

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Its a hat-trick of wins for Saina Nehwal.  After the Indian Open and the Singaporean Open, the defending champion Saina has won the Indonesian Open again in Jakarta.  True, the top seeded Chinese were not in the draw, but it doesnt take the sheen away from the wins of the World’s 3rd ranking player.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging form as she completed a spectacular hat-trick of titles by clinching the Indonesia Open Super Series with a three-game triumph over Japan’s Sayaka Sato on Sunday.

Unbeaten for the past three weeks, the top seeded defending champion defeated her unseeded but resolute rival 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in a rollercoaster encounter that lasted 45 minutes.

This was Saina’s third successive title, having won the Indian Open Grand Prix at home and the Singapore Open Super Series Tournament last week. This is also the 20-year-old world number three’s third Super Series title overall.

Read the rest of the news here

Above picture courtesy: Dhirendra

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2nd tournament win in a row after the India Open Grand Prix win a few days ago.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal clinched her second Super Series title, winning the Singapore Open with a straight-game triumph over qualifier Tzu Ying Tai in the final on Sunday.

The top seed Indian ace needed just 33 minutes to beat Chinese Taipei’s Tai 21-18, 21-15 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The world No 6, who was the lone Indian left in the fray after others crashed out by the semi-final stage, had bagged her maiden Super Series title last June at the Indonesian Open.

The in-form Saina came into the Singapore Open after winning the India Open Grand Prix Gold title last week.

Rest of the article here

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3 years of hard work…all for this.  Got my MBA convocation certificate. Yay.

Next whole week i will be on course.  After that, a few more certifications…maybe.

Few additions to the blog including my portfolio on the right.  Also the latest BSE / NSE and stock prices updated in real time.  Was sick of logging on to different websites to check for the stock prices.  So, put up all of them here on this blog.

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A bit old news, but still interesting way to sell your goods.  Levis, the world’s oldest jeans company now sells Jeans in India in installments.  Anyone tried buying?

Riding on the success of its equated monthly instalments (EMI) scheme, denim major Levi Strauss India is looking to join hands with four more banks to drive consumption growth.

Last year, the company had launched this unique EMI scheme in an attempt to fit into tight pockets of consumers during the reversionary phase. This scheme allows consumers to buy premium-priced denims on a zero per cent interest.

At present, the company has tie-ups with Axis bank and HDFC Bank, where a buyer can pay the total amount over three equal instalments using their credit card for a shopping value of a minimum of Rs 1,500.

Read full news here

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