Glitter Graphics & Comments
Glitter Graphics & Comments
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Thursday, 15 November 2007
The telecom war!
Its been in the papers.... on the news channels..... even to the Prime Minister... the telecom war - Reliance vs Bharti / Vodafone.
Reliance (or Ambanis) - scoundrels of our country - the bribery masters due to which the Indian politicians are so well corrupted. Fact is while the other family businesses grew over a century, Reliance (the most unreliable) grew over a decade. Whats the catch? Other industries thrived international competition while India was still progressing from agriculture based economy to an industrial economy. In this era, Reliance Industries requested "protection", corrupted the politicians by offering bribes, evaded custom duties, manipulated enough to become a monopoly and drive competition out. Imagine, with this background Anil Amabni actually has the shame to say that the other GSM players are encouraging unhealthy competition and evading taxes /fees payable to the government. His claim that the GSM players are depriving the government to earn high revenues from the telecom sector by way of license fees are baseless and faulty prima facie. For once, Relaince Communication has a CDMA license and it wants to enter GSM with this license - itself shows that they are evading license fees. An over night submission of license fees for entry into GSM worth a few thousand crores of rupees is astonishing! How did Anil Ambani know that he's got the license without any press release of the same by the DoT? Why is he hell bent on the number portability feature in the metros only for GSM? And when he talks about healthy competition, why at all favour number portability out of the blues? The TRAI had suggested number portability 20 months back - why is this decision taken by the DoT over night without any intimation and transparency? Fact remains that Reliance wants to drive out all the existing GSM players and fancy its name in being India's largest mobile service provider. They did this earlier with the textile industry and now GSM. What is surprising is that they entered CDMA with a huge flop, and now their target is GSM. At the end of the day, it does not suit him declaring that there should be healthy competition. All that Reliance wants is monopoly. Reliance Comm received the worst customer service for this CDMA services! The DNA - mumbai newspaper has claimed that he has bribed the DoT and probably all the Lok Sabha members with more than Rs 200 crores for just getting an easy entrance into the GSM sector.
An old school time joke - 3G CDMA stands for 3 Gujrati Chor- Dhirubhai, Mukesh, Anil
Did you know? Reliance Industries - run by Mukesh Ambani - does not allow its employees to use Reliance Comm cell phones!
An acquaintance working for Reliance Industries told me " they charge me for my evening tea at office" He further added "They retained Rs 1 lac from my salary annually to be payable after 3 years of service!" This is the state of the largest industry in our country!
And to think about it, the Ambani brothers are the richest Indians - corruption jindabad!
Reliance (or Ambanis) - scoundrels of our country - the bribery masters due to which the Indian politicians are so well corrupted. Fact is while the other family businesses grew over a century, Reliance (the most unreliable) grew over a decade. Whats the catch? Other industries thrived international competition while India was still progressing from agriculture based economy to an industrial economy. In this era, Reliance Industries requested "protection", corrupted the politicians by offering bribes, evaded custom duties, manipulated enough to become a monopoly and drive competition out. Imagine, with this background Anil Amabni actually has the shame to say that the other GSM players are encouraging unhealthy competition and evading taxes /fees payable to the government. His claim that the GSM players are depriving the government to earn high revenues from the telecom sector by way of license fees are baseless and faulty prima facie. For once, Relaince Communication has a CDMA license and it wants to enter GSM with this license - itself shows that they are evading license fees. An over night submission of license fees for entry into GSM worth a few thousand crores of rupees is astonishing! How did Anil Ambani know that he's got the license without any press release of the same by the DoT? Why is he hell bent on the number portability feature in the metros only for GSM? And when he talks about healthy competition, why at all favour number portability out of the blues? The TRAI had suggested number portability 20 months back - why is this decision taken by the DoT over night without any intimation and transparency? Fact remains that Reliance wants to drive out all the existing GSM players and fancy its name in being India's largest mobile service provider. They did this earlier with the textile industry and now GSM. What is surprising is that they entered CDMA with a huge flop, and now their target is GSM. At the end of the day, it does not suit him declaring that there should be healthy competition. All that Reliance wants is monopoly. Reliance Comm received the worst customer service for this CDMA services! The DNA - mumbai newspaper has claimed that he has bribed the DoT and probably all the Lok Sabha members with more than Rs 200 crores for just getting an easy entrance into the GSM sector.
An old school time joke - 3G CDMA stands for 3 Gujrati Chor- Dhirubhai, Mukesh, Anil
Did you know? Reliance Industries - run by Mukesh Ambani - does not allow its employees to use Reliance Comm cell phones!
An acquaintance working for Reliance Industries told me " they charge me for my evening tea at office" He further added "They retained Rs 1 lac from my salary annually to be payable after 3 years of service!" This is the state of the largest industry in our country!
And to think about it, the Ambani brothers are the richest Indians - corruption jindabad!
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Sensex crosses 15k... Poverty?
I was driving by in Mumbai last week, when a big hoarding caught my attention > Sensex crosses 15k but more than 23 million remain below the poverty line - An advertisement by DNA. True, the capital market in our country has undoubtedly shown tremendous results and many cyclical patterns of crashing and booming within 2 days.. So how does this affect our country? Why are the economists behind the capital markets and the big giant corporates panting behind their shares to do well? Where is all the money going if in one day Rs 17k crores were lost by the great crash? Thats a huge amount!
I remember during my first round of interview with ITC Ltd, the interviewer asked me how does the capital market reflect growth prospects of the Indian economy? I knew the answer but it was so basic, that I had no answers... It does... simply it does. Thinking back on those lines, people invest in the capital market... effectively investing in the companies they feel they are going to get some assured return risking their money. It may be capital appreciation or by way of annual dividend. So why will I as an investor or speculator invest in a company which is running into losses or has no bright future or for that matter in a country which shows no sign of growth? Obviously, to maximise my return on capital, I will ensure that my investments go in perfect companies where growth is obvious and there will possibly be no default. India is said to be a booming economy not only because it is an underdeveloped country, but also because the government has opened the economy for upgradation. The mass population by itself is the biggest consumer of goods and services and as people's wants grow, the demand grows thus showing a good prospect for corporates! Thus, the growth process is accelerated. And hence more and more people invest in capital markets. This in turn shows that our economy is booming and growing. Ofcourse this is one side of the story for capital markets boom. Various factors affect - international markets, oil price, other world economies, interest rates, government regulation, rumours, speculations, sentiments, etc. However a true investor will always remain in the market without worrying about the ups and downs.
So withthe sensex crossing 15k, obviously a lot of money is being exchanged. Where is this money? Why can't it be seen as a sign of real growth in terms of standard of living or in terms of poverty alleviation? Does a boom in the economy imply that poverty level has been reducing? Infact, its the opposite - the income disparity seem to be indefinitely large! When we talk in economics term, more demand for goods / services mean the industry is accelerated to supply which in turn means that more people are employed thus improving the standard of living and these people in turn are able to demand more goods and the cycle goes on. That means if the government sanctioned some amount towards infrastructure development, it means that more people will be employed to produce the goods - like roads, dams, bulldozer, bridges, railways and so on - who in turn will be paid for their services. They in turn will demand other goods (may be furniture, TV sets, new houses, cars, electronics) which previously they couldn't afford, thus setting the whole economy in parallel motion. So this means that the standard of living should have improved - but infact it is not. The middle men just got richer, the richer became millionaires and the poor remained where they are, with marginal increase in their income.
Even when profit figures of most giant corporates are doubling, it logically signifies that they are either expanding their business or atleast investing somewhere! Either ways the money should be available for consumption by the people of the country.
India suffers a basic problem of consumption and investment mismatch! The savings of the people are not mobilised and act like dead funds. There are known facts of people owning acres and acres of idle land with no rental income or any prospects of selling the land. They cash on the capital appreciation - dead funds. Unlike America, our economy thankfully doesn't move on credit system (may be half of America's growth is attributable to their credit cards!)- Indians have a tendency to save more and consume less - however, these savings are just dead funds most of the time! Proper investments and consumption ensures that the funds are parked in sectors requiring funds urgently for immediate growth. Consumption sets the machinery of production and growth into motion. The needy man is unable to get funds as and when required, thus leaving the country in spate of poverty! Round about this is a pure viscious circle!
The strong capital market indeed is a good sign for India Inc! However, poverty alleviation and infrastructure growth is mandate for India to shine like a Knight and help double the growth with low inflationary pressure!
I remember during my first round of interview with ITC Ltd, the interviewer asked me how does the capital market reflect growth prospects of the Indian economy? I knew the answer but it was so basic, that I had no answers... It does... simply it does. Thinking back on those lines, people invest in the capital market... effectively investing in the companies they feel they are going to get some assured return risking their money. It may be capital appreciation or by way of annual dividend. So why will I as an investor or speculator invest in a company which is running into losses or has no bright future or for that matter in a country which shows no sign of growth? Obviously, to maximise my return on capital, I will ensure that my investments go in perfect companies where growth is obvious and there will possibly be no default. India is said to be a booming economy not only because it is an underdeveloped country, but also because the government has opened the economy for upgradation. The mass population by itself is the biggest consumer of goods and services and as people's wants grow, the demand grows thus showing a good prospect for corporates! Thus, the growth process is accelerated. And hence more and more people invest in capital markets. This in turn shows that our economy is booming and growing. Ofcourse this is one side of the story for capital markets boom. Various factors affect - international markets, oil price, other world economies, interest rates, government regulation, rumours, speculations, sentiments, etc. However a true investor will always remain in the market without worrying about the ups and downs.
So withthe sensex crossing 15k, obviously a lot of money is being exchanged. Where is this money? Why can't it be seen as a sign of real growth in terms of standard of living or in terms of poverty alleviation? Does a boom in the economy imply that poverty level has been reducing? Infact, its the opposite - the income disparity seem to be indefinitely large! When we talk in economics term, more demand for goods / services mean the industry is accelerated to supply which in turn means that more people are employed thus improving the standard of living and these people in turn are able to demand more goods and the cycle goes on. That means if the government sanctioned some amount towards infrastructure development, it means that more people will be employed to produce the goods - like roads, dams, bulldozer, bridges, railways and so on - who in turn will be paid for their services. They in turn will demand other goods (may be furniture, TV sets, new houses, cars, electronics) which previously they couldn't afford, thus setting the whole economy in parallel motion. So this means that the standard of living should have improved - but infact it is not. The middle men just got richer, the richer became millionaires and the poor remained where they are, with marginal increase in their income.
Even when profit figures of most giant corporates are doubling, it logically signifies that they are either expanding their business or atleast investing somewhere! Either ways the money should be available for consumption by the people of the country.
India suffers a basic problem of consumption and investment mismatch! The savings of the people are not mobilised and act like dead funds. There are known facts of people owning acres and acres of idle land with no rental income or any prospects of selling the land. They cash on the capital appreciation - dead funds. Unlike America, our economy thankfully doesn't move on credit system (may be half of America's growth is attributable to their credit cards!)- Indians have a tendency to save more and consume less - however, these savings are just dead funds most of the time! Proper investments and consumption ensures that the funds are parked in sectors requiring funds urgently for immediate growth. Consumption sets the machinery of production and growth into motion. The needy man is unable to get funds as and when required, thus leaving the country in spate of poverty! Round about this is a pure viscious circle!
The strong capital market indeed is a good sign for India Inc! However, poverty alleviation and infrastructure growth is mandate for India to shine like a Knight and help double the growth with low inflationary pressure!
Friday, 10 August 2007
कैसी है यह दुनीया?
कुछ बुरा हो तो कहें हम
तकदीर ने साथ ना दीया
मीठे फल जब मीलें
तो कहें महनत सफल हुई
जब सब कुछ गलत हो
तो ज़माने को बदनाम करें
खुशियाँ मानाने के वक्त
वही ज़माने को बुलाये
कैसी ये दुनिया है -
ईशवर की प्रार्थना करना भूल गयी हैं
आज मैं कौन कल तुम कौन?
तकदीर ने साथ ना दीया
मीठे फल जब मीलें
तो कहें महनत सफल हुई
जब सब कुछ गलत हो
तो ज़माने को बदनाम करें
खुशियाँ मानाने के वक्त
वही ज़माने को बुलाये
कैसी ये दुनिया है -
ईशवर की प्रार्थना करना भूल गयी हैं
आज मैं कौन कल तुम कौन?
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Sab karte hai...
Nikle the dost banane ke vaaste
Dil ki dhadkan banane se rok na saake
Yeh duniya kar deti hai sabko afsaana
Kya dost kya dushman
Ishq mohabbat toh sab karte hai
Gum- e- judai mein wo sab rote hai
Shayari bhi chori chupke sab likhte hai
Phir humein kyu buri nazaron se dekhte hai
Jab ishq mohabbat toh sab karte hai?
Dil ki dhadkan banane se rok na saake
Yeh duniya kar deti hai sabko afsaana
Kya dost kya dushman
Ishq mohabbat toh sab karte hai
Gum- e- judai mein wo sab rote hai
Shayari bhi chori chupke sab likhte hai
Phir humein kyu buri nazaron se dekhte hai
Jab ishq mohabbat toh sab karte hai?
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Around Pune...
Nature at its PeAk beauty!!
Where is the electricity? Hey pole, did you eat it up? Or did they consume all the electricty to build you up?
Dare to go in this jungle forPhotography eh?
Touching the sky... the serenity
The ROCKY in Pune?
Saturday, 21 July 2007
EPCG - Promotion or Harassment?
EPCG - the great Indian initiative to build its economy - a great way to tempt entrepreneurs - a bright future into torture!
Welcome aboard to Indian Customs - where a hundred odd agencies are involved and another hundred odd regulations along with a fat budget for the beggars - our Customs officials. Now actually that gives me another topic to discuss and elaborate whole heartedly - misuse of powers by our government authorities.. may be some other time?
Going back, EPCG an abbreviation (ever wondered that the word abbreviation is very long?) for Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme. Means you import goods at flat 5% customs duty (thankfully the cess is done away with). Sounds awesome and tempting right? But you see the scheme says Export... obviously thats not all! You got to export - bring some foreign exchange and make our nation ah-so-proud! You will but naturally be contributing to our Balance of Trade in the process... and earn a title of being called an Exporter! But hey hey hey! Exporting under EPCG is an obligation (as they righfully call it) and not an option or an alternative to something!
So anyway, now that we call our country "a liberalised economy" I formally introduce you to the most "Idiotic and Unliberalised economic system topped with multiple instances of harassment by our Government servants ( I rightly call them beggars)" Well, if you thought Importing stuff to India requires permission, you may just be wrong. Export requires more tension and just saying bye bye to your money! You not only have to get permission but also pay our beggars to earn our living... sounds silly? Thats the fact!
The only difference between a roadside beggar and government beggars - their power. And if you don't give them "dakshina" (a hindi word for charity), they will harass you till you are on the road asking for dakshina! Worst still, you need to generate this illegal money in your business (and trust me if you are an innocent citizen, you'll have no clue what next). And not to be forgotten, generating this illegal money is obviously ILLEGAL... but that's perfectly Okay with our beggars. They actually want us to be illegal ... can I say illegal promotion audit? Or hey, Illegal Promotion rampage? IPR!!! (Sorry, the intellectual property rights should seek another abbreviation for itself!) Our Acts and Regulations have given the Government discretionary powers to do as they please to earn their living at the cost of the public. Actually despite huge tax collections, no money is left for any development, let alone paying good wages to the beggars! Various authorities penalise the country men for defaults, do they ever penalise the tax authorities or the government officials for defaults? I wish I could use my citizenship power, walk upto P C Chidambram's house and say "hey big guy, com'on shell out all your money and not to forget your brains too else I'm gonna harass you!" If you just questioned why brains - Well when intelligent people can't use their brains productively (like Bin Laden), its better to have them not use at all! Atleast it would save our billion population from headaches! I wonder if asprin or crocin sale has gone up ever since Congress has come in power.
So well I started out with EPCG and ended up with our beggars! Back to the point, so first getting this EPCG license involves a rocket scientist to fill up their ultra hi-tech form. And even though its online, you need to submit a hard copy (without which you're doomed!) God save our wanna-be-paperless-economy! So here are a few small time beggars you have to deal with. Next, they will never approve your application without asking for a couple of more undertakings and bla bla bla... Please visit DGFT site for more details!
All right! So you got the license after 2 months of hard work and now you get a peaceful sleep! Ever wondered how peacefully a farmer sleeps after a day of toil? So now you are excited about your equipment and you start gearing up for payments and opening a LOC (not that this job is more comforting, but we'll skip it for the moment!) You've received your Invoices, Bill of Lading, Certificates and everything else in some million copies (of which you again make a thousand copies!) You catch hold of a clearing agent - you obviously cannot clear this stuff yourself even if you carried the law book and followed every word of it. The clearing agent does his stuff and then demands you a fat ransom!! You go flat! Seeing stars in the day? Oh the beggars won't clear your stuff unless you give them dakshina! Well you think I work in this business, I am paying for my equipment and who is he to stop me? But Alas! You're in India!
Next.. the equipment comes, and you're excited (forgetting the past)! Next comes your Excise guy! He's the best! If you don't entertain him, he will default you under some rubbish section of Excise Act and presto! You're behind the bars! Its like the magical fairy with her magical wand! I sometimes wonder if I can give them a nice big bowl (may be tupperware's?) for begging? So there you break your head once again Generating Illegal money for our loved ones! Did you just think where do you get time to do productive work then? Or how do the big corporates manage? Well, you may just think that big corp won't be hassled, but the reality is far from this fact. They are also troubled but no one is made aware... It happens with the top management!
Oh yes! If you've forgotten what happens with the export then?First you need permission. Next, for every consignment you export, even if you are on Jupiter ( I wish all the beggars are sent there), you will have to send an intimation to the beggars " hey big boys, some cocaine just left my place. Will you kindly sign this copy of invoice and send it back to me?" No exaggeration!!!!!!! At the end of the year again, you need to file a return telling them you exported this this this to so and so people for so much money. Which again has to be approved!
Effectively, even if I export a needle I need two full time employees just filling forms, maintaining registers and of course entertaining our beggars! Just so much for being an Entrepreneur! So much for growing and so much for living life!
So if you want to live peacefully, start saving up illegal money for our beggars! Do you still have your piggy bank? May be you can find it in your cellars or old suitcase? And those guys barge in, call for a ligh game of treasure hunt and let them go for your piggy! Hope it farts in their nose!
PS : A lot many other beggars of our country have been left out in this discussion. Hope to catch up on them soon! Feeling nostalgic!
Welcome aboard to Indian Customs - where a hundred odd agencies are involved and another hundred odd regulations along with a fat budget for the beggars - our Customs officials. Now actually that gives me another topic to discuss and elaborate whole heartedly - misuse of powers by our government authorities.. may be some other time?
Going back, EPCG an abbreviation (ever wondered that the word abbreviation is very long?) for Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme. Means you import goods at flat 5% customs duty (thankfully the cess is done away with). Sounds awesome and tempting right? But you see the scheme says Export... obviously thats not all! You got to export - bring some foreign exchange and make our nation ah-so-proud! You will but naturally be contributing to our Balance of Trade in the process... and earn a title of being called an Exporter! But hey hey hey! Exporting under EPCG is an obligation (as they righfully call it) and not an option or an alternative to something!
So anyway, now that we call our country "a liberalised economy" I formally introduce you to the most "Idiotic and Unliberalised economic system topped with multiple instances of harassment by our Government servants ( I rightly call them beggars)" Well, if you thought Importing stuff to India requires permission, you may just be wrong. Export requires more tension and just saying bye bye to your money! You not only have to get permission but also pay our beggars to earn our living... sounds silly? Thats the fact!
The only difference between a roadside beggar and government beggars - their power. And if you don't give them "dakshina" (a hindi word for charity), they will harass you till you are on the road asking for dakshina! Worst still, you need to generate this illegal money in your business (and trust me if you are an innocent citizen, you'll have no clue what next). And not to be forgotten, generating this illegal money is obviously ILLEGAL... but that's perfectly Okay with our beggars. They actually want us to be illegal ... can I say illegal promotion audit? Or hey, Illegal Promotion rampage? IPR!!! (Sorry, the intellectual property rights should seek another abbreviation for itself!) Our Acts and Regulations have given the Government discretionary powers to do as they please to earn their living at the cost of the public. Actually despite huge tax collections, no money is left for any development, let alone paying good wages to the beggars! Various authorities penalise the country men for defaults, do they ever penalise the tax authorities or the government officials for defaults? I wish I could use my citizenship power, walk upto P C Chidambram's house and say "hey big guy, com'on shell out all your money and not to forget your brains too else I'm gonna harass you!" If you just questioned why brains - Well when intelligent people can't use their brains productively (like Bin Laden), its better to have them not use at all! Atleast it would save our billion population from headaches! I wonder if asprin or crocin sale has gone up ever since Congress has come in power.
So well I started out with EPCG and ended up with our beggars! Back to the point, so first getting this EPCG license involves a rocket scientist to fill up their ultra hi-tech form. And even though its online, you need to submit a hard copy (without which you're doomed!) God save our wanna-be-paperless-economy! So here are a few small time beggars you have to deal with. Next, they will never approve your application without asking for a couple of more undertakings and bla bla bla... Please visit DGFT site for more details!
All right! So you got the license after 2 months of hard work and now you get a peaceful sleep! Ever wondered how peacefully a farmer sleeps after a day of toil? So now you are excited about your equipment and you start gearing up for payments and opening a LOC (not that this job is more comforting, but we'll skip it for the moment!) You've received your Invoices, Bill of Lading, Certificates and everything else in some million copies (of which you again make a thousand copies!) You catch hold of a clearing agent - you obviously cannot clear this stuff yourself even if you carried the law book and followed every word of it. The clearing agent does his stuff and then demands you a fat ransom!! You go flat! Seeing stars in the day? Oh the beggars won't clear your stuff unless you give them dakshina! Well you think I work in this business, I am paying for my equipment and who is he to stop me? But Alas! You're in India!
Next.. the equipment comes, and you're excited (forgetting the past)! Next comes your Excise guy! He's the best! If you don't entertain him, he will default you under some rubbish section of Excise Act and presto! You're behind the bars! Its like the magical fairy with her magical wand! I sometimes wonder if I can give them a nice big bowl (may be tupperware's?) for begging? So there you break your head once again Generating Illegal money for our loved ones! Did you just think where do you get time to do productive work then? Or how do the big corporates manage? Well, you may just think that big corp won't be hassled, but the reality is far from this fact. They are also troubled but no one is made aware... It happens with the top management!
Oh yes! If you've forgotten what happens with the export then?First you need permission. Next, for every consignment you export, even if you are on Jupiter ( I wish all the beggars are sent there), you will have to send an intimation to the beggars " hey big boys, some cocaine just left my place. Will you kindly sign this copy of invoice and send it back to me?" No exaggeration!!!!!!! At the end of the year again, you need to file a return telling them you exported this this this to so and so people for so much money. Which again has to be approved!
Effectively, even if I export a needle I need two full time employees just filling forms, maintaining registers and of course entertaining our beggars! Just so much for being an Entrepreneur! So much for growing and so much for living life!
So if you want to live peacefully, start saving up illegal money for our beggars! Do you still have your piggy bank? May be you can find it in your cellars or old suitcase? And those guys barge in, call for a ligh game of treasure hunt and let them go for your piggy! Hope it farts in their nose!
PS : A lot many other beggars of our country have been left out in this discussion. Hope to catch up on them soon! Feeling nostalgic!
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