Down South

I, me and myself : Deve Gowda's politics

2008-11-20T04:54:00Z

Inspite of largely having worked in business journalism in my career, I have had the opportunity to meet quite a few politicians, mainly those of the southern states. The only one who occupied the highest post in the land from the South is a self styled 'humble farmer' whom large sections of media (rightly) ridiculed as a 'bumbling harmer.' Circumstances propelled a man with just 17 MP's support to be eventually elected as the Prime Minister and H D Deve Gowda never allows anybody he meets to forget that.There is nobody more humble when out of power and nobody who is more arrogant when he is in power or close to it.

In a interview he gave a couple of days ago to a colleague, Deve Gowda ever the politican is trying to resurrect both his party and his reputation at the *** end of his career. His support comes mainly from his fellow caste men -- Vokkaligas (farming community in Karnataka) though it would be wrong to say that they alone constiute his base. But Gowda antagnoised every leader in the party so that the way would be clear for his ambitious sons. H D Kumaraswamy who for 20 months became the Chief Minister of Karnataka used to talk development politics in power but once out of it has decided that he would go back to his core caste base.

Even as the prime minister he never developed a broad vision for the country as a whole and was more interested in his own constitutency and district. When the history of Indian Prime Ministers' are written, Deve Gowda unfortunately will be a mere footnote. He would not probably even make the list of 3 most impactful CM's of Karnataka. That is the tragedy of Deve Gowda. So much of political acumen wasted in the politics of I, me and myself. Karnataka needs a powerful third political force between the Congress and BJP. Deve Gowda if he had played his cards well could have been that.

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On why Nielkani's 'Imagining India' is so important

2008-11-16T07:28:00Z

The cross section of Indian corporate chieftans I have had the good fortune to meet have collectively done more for India and its people than all the politicans put together. Some of them have come from extremely humble backgrounds, grabbed the opportunity presented by the opening of the economy post 1990's and have done themselves and their shareholders very well, not to forget the millions of jobs they have created.

However the one thing I find them lacking in, is courage to involve themselves in the system and contribute to changing it fundamentally. The would rather 'work around' a problem rather than change the system. I have had more than few 'off the record' conversations wherein some of the pillars of Indian industry have privately bemoaned the way things are run. I understand some of the relctuance. Just as the government has no business to be in business, it is not the natural provenance of business chieftans to govern. But they can surely act as a catalyst for change. Some of them do try, behind the scences to influence and do that. But in a country where caste, religion and region alone tend to define how succesful one is in politics, corporate chieftans are understandably relectuant to muddy their hands.While some of them do try to changes things in a small way with their own private intiatives or through corporate social responsiblity actions, very few of them pulbicly voice anything for fear of attracting not just opposition (which they can deal with) but ridicule and ostracisation..

Unlike in large swathes of Western world where a succesful CEO decides to pursue a role in public life, there are very few instances where people in India quit high paying corporate jobs for the uncertainity of public life. Even those who do, like a Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a Vijay Mallya or a Rahul Bajaj, rightly or (mostly) wrongly are seen as pursuing their own agendas which suit their business interests. Because the power for punitive action from the political class is very high (witness Asscoham docilely withdrawing its own report under government pressure) we wont see the Indian equivalent of a Meg Whitman or a Carly Fiorina backing McCain or a Warren Bufffet backing Obama.

This is was not always the case. Even in pre-independence India, a G D Birla or a Jamanlal Bajaj supported and played a overt role by supporting Mahatma Gandhi, but after independence, industralisits in general were seen through a socialist and communist prism and weren't welcomed much in public life.

That is the reason why Nandan Nilekani's attempt to 'Imagine India' is so important. I haven't read the book (it is slated for release only on the 24th of this month) but the very fact that a corporate chief (who unlike say a Rahul Bajaj is not doing this at the end of his career) is bold enough to publicly voice his thoughts (and thus open himself up for criticism) is such a welcome move.

Infosys and its founders have held a special place for all those who grew up in the 90's for they showed the spirit of 'Yes we can.' There have been a number of success stories of Indian entreprenuership be it a Sunil Bharati Mittal or L N Mittal, but Infosys and its story captured the imagination because most of them came from middle class backgrounds and were first generation entreprenuers.

In contrast Sunil Mittal's father was a minister and L N Mittal's father was a businessman. The point is not to belittle the achievements of Sunil Mittal or L N Mittal, or to say that their success was because of their parentage (which clearly it isn't), but the reason why Infosys's founders became iconoic was precisely they were like the friendly neighbours next door.(Though with their wealth it is no longer true but I hope you get the point). They were able to create aspirational leadership. They struck a chord not just because of success but precisely because of the manner in which they went about achieveing their success.

That is the reason why Nielkani's voice and views should be heard carefully. He is one of the shrewdest (a senior colleague once aptly described talking to him in-depth, as playing a mental game of 3D chess) businessman and who has used a part of his personal wealth for the benefit of his fellow country men. (Arghyam a charitable foundation was setup with a grant of Rs 100 crore from his wife is but one instance). He not only deserves to be heard but his ideas need to be debated. Hopefully this will set a trend for more corporate chiefs to come forward share their thoughts and ideas to make India work better.

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Feckless leaders and family politics

2008-11-12T07:35:00Z

Margaret Alva's outburst on tickets having been sold in the recent Karnataka elections has set the cat among the pigeons. She of course has had to pay a price for it. Both Margaret Alva and C K Jaffer Sharief have been dissatisfied because their children (or in the case of Sharief grand children) were not given tickets. Family has always meant more to our politicans than ideology.

Congress of course has been accussed of family (dynasty) politics but looking at the spate of sons and daughters ascending in other parties too (the only probable exception has been the communists), this argument no longer resonates. Karunanidhi who at one time was a staunch opponent of Congress and is now a close ally, surrounds himself with sons and daughter, though nephews for the moment are out of favour. N T Rama Rao's Telugu Desam which was started on a anti-congress plank is today full of son-in-laws and sons of the actor. Ditto with Akali Dal's Badal where it is sonrise time. BJP with its own Vasundhara and Yashodara Raje (daughters of Vijaya Raje) and Manavendra Singh (Jaswant's son) is also, no exception. The list of 'family politicians' (those who have rise in ploitics because of family connections) is too long to be re-stated here.

What should be more worrying for the Congress is the timing of Alva's outburst. With party readying itself for polls in 5 states (in which 3 are being ruled by BJP) such accusations can demoralise party cadre at a crucial time. In Karnataka itself Alva has little or no influence except as a representative of the 'high command.' It is unlikely that 'central leaders' like Alva, Oscar Fernandes, G Parameshwar or a B K Hariprasad can even influence the outcome in a few assembly seats, forget the state. Several of them have served only in the Rajya Sabha and have never contested elections. While it is perfectly understandable that everybody cannot be a mass leader, Congress will have to ensure that, it gives recognition to mass leaders if it has to retain its base. While Alva in a moment of indiscretion shot off her mouth, party cadres fear, her allegations are true. Congress will have to do some soul searching and clearly set its house in order. Karnataka with 28 Lok Sabha seats will be crucial in the party's attempt to thwart the BJP from grabbing a bigger chunk of the 18 seats the saffron party won last time. The new KPCC president R V Deshpande and the Working President D K Shiv Kumar clearly have a challenge in hand.

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Of elephants, Yeddyurappa and Jayalalithaa

2008-11-09T07:58:00Z

The controversy surrounding the donation of a elephant to a Kerala temple by Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappa is downright silly. While the merits and demerits of moving an animal sevral hundred kilometres to be donated can be debated by all animal activists, it is not the first time that such a move has created an elephantine ruckus. First it is a matter of faith and belief. As long as the animal was not harmed in any way and BSY has really paid for its long term upkeep and no laws are broken, it is a matter of personal choice. The comments by the secretary of the Kannur based Elephant Lovers Association really intrigued me. I didn't know that there were laws governing elephant donation and that one had to be declared a pauper to donate a elephant.

Elephants have always played a very important role in Indian and Asian culture. The elephant headed Ganesh is the beloved god to whom Hindus pray before starting any work. In ancient Siam (modern day Thailand) if the king wanted to punish a courtier he would gift him a white elephant. Being a gift from the King it had to be maintained well which was expensive and one would go bankrupt. So anything which costs more to maintain than its utility was labeled as a white elephant.

Yeddyurappa like most politicans (nay most Indians) is extremely superstitious. His astrologer and vaastu consultants (there are a panoply of them) decide in what direction the door to his office should be, what temples he should regularly visit and what donations he ought to make. Fomer CM of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa of AIADMK had similarly donated a elephant to another Kerala temple. Mani Shankar Aiyar whose distate for Jayalalithaa is known had then commented that "he would have donated Jayalalithaa." A swipe in poor taste but for which he paid a price being attacked by AIADMK supporters. That donation did not save Jayalalithaa's government from being swept away from power in the last elections.

If only politicans struck to addresssing at least in part, the elephantine expectations of their constitutents instead of donating pachyderms, they would probably set a better example.

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Is Obama's victory bad for Indian IT ?

2008-11-05T06:26:00Z

So finally after months of intense debate and a hard fought battle, USA has its first African American president in Barack Obama. While large parts of the world including India welcome his victory, Indian IT players might be chary, given some of the comments he made during the runup to elections.

Obama has clearly indicated that he would punish companies who outsource jobs and reward companies which keep them in America. Hopefully some of that was only part of campaign rhetoric and USA would not make it tougher for Indian IT companies to do business there. However the general tenor of Obama's stance is bad news for Indian IT companies who get more than 60% of their $ 40.4 billion revenues in 2007-08 from the American market. Already reeling from cutbacks and project delays by key clients in the US, Indian IT companies will be under pressure to ramp up nearshore centres to deliver work and employ more locals, which would means they become relatively more uncompetitive.

IT industry lobby group Nasscom was quick in congratulating the president elect here but in the months leading upto election a few industry leaders who I had spoken with had said that in general they would have prefer a McCain victory but none of them would speak on record as they felt it was 'inappropriate and for the American people to decide" and also as they had key clients who would not be happy about them expressing in public any opinion on this.

Indian IT already hit by the global slowdown and being forced to cut jobs here, will be hoping that President Obama will be different from Candidate Obama

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Should journalists accept state awards and patronage ?

2008-10-31T05:20:00Z

Come end of October the silly season in Karnataka begins with the government announcing a list of awardees for its 'Rajyothsava' honours to coincide with the state formation day. Let me amend the word, 'honours' as it is a doubious one considering the calibre of several of the awardees. In early 1990's former CM S Bangarappa even gave the Rajyotsava award to the person who put up tents and shamiana for his political rallies as well as the Nadaswaram player who welcomed him to the award function, who was till then not even on the list.

Another former CM Dharam Singh conferred this on his personal astrologer as well as a journalist who wrote a sychopantic column called 'Namskara CM' (Greetings CM).

Each year there is hectic lobbying behind the scences for obtaining this award and there have been whispers that even money changes hands. After each year's fiasco the government announces that next year it will form a 'impartial' committee to scrutinise nominations. But come October all those pious statements, go out of the window. So what drives the not-so eligible to aspire for this award ? Apart from providing them some gloss to preen on their 'achievements,' one also get preferential land allotment from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Given the astronomical price of land in Bangalore, it is no mean attraction.

The current BJP government in the state has shown that it is no exception to weilding the patronage lure. It even announced the award to a journalist who already was given the same in 2000 before somebody pointed out the error and his name was hastily withdrawn. Journalists who are seen as sympathetic to the party in power are conferred with state awards and patronage.

One of the master practitioners of this art in Karnataka was a Congress 'pro-IT' CM, who incidentally is now a Rajya Sabha MP. As CM he liberally doled out pieces of land in various parts of Bangalore to senior journalists at prices which were 10% of the true market value thus in turn ensuring their 'loyalty.' Several of these senior journalists who otherwise pontificate on all matter of public interest showed their true colours when it came to their private interests and are now crorepatis.

Political correspondents because of their nature of work and access to key people, were the obvious choices. But even several business journalists including one who has morphed into a 'hotel and resorts' entreprenur as well as another who misses no occasion to bring up the fact that he is the grandson of a famous litterateur from the state, were among the beneficiaries. Another Delhi based, Karnataka origin journalist threw a tantrum that he would fly only first class air and not accept a train ticket as per government rules to recive his award.Owner-editor of a influential regional daily with its know left of centre bias was conferred the Rajyotsava award during former CM Kumaraswamy's regime. In one year with nearly 120 awardees to be honored in the span of 3-4 hours which also included long winding speeches by politicos, the awardees who were at the *** end of the list were literally 'passed' the shawl and the basket of fruits. Unfortunately it included some really deserving achievers.

It is not just state-level awards. Even the national awards have been plagued by the ideological tilt of the journalists in question. If prizes, awards or honours need to be accepted, journalists should look at doing so from professional organisations not the government. A Nikhil Chakravarty is unfortunately still rare in Indian journalism.

Given the very nature of work journalists should be chary of being co-opted by the powers that be. If it is not subsidised land, it is lure of pension by the government or free medical care or any number of such blandishments suitably dressed up as showing concern to the media fraternity which is on offer. Makes one wonder why no such similar scheme for the millions who lead a life of destitution. What do you think about journalists accepting rajyothsava and padma awards ?

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A cracker of a problem

2008-10-29T04:25:00Z

For all those out there a happy Diwali. The Muhurat trading session started off with a bang with substantial gains.Hopefully the year ahead will see healthy markets though most expect that till central elections, due in May, things may just drift. But those weighty matters are for another day.

Am sure like me you must have done your bit to keep the wheels of economy greased by shopping. Having laid off crackers for the last 5 years at the insistence of the better half, this year decided to do my bit towards slowing market sentiments, though in Adam Smith way of being driven by selfish interests and also as it was my daughter's first diwali.

What appalled me about the cracker business were two things. One the MRP (max retail price) had no co-relation to what eventually one paid. While like most Indians I love a good haggle, when the final price one pays is not even a quarter of what is printed on the carton as its MRP, the business seems to be dysfunctional. Also the other gripe is about quality standards. While after advising everybody on how to be careful, I became a victim myself. Not because of callousness, but a 'flower pot' exploded in my hand (making keying in this post a wee bit painful as some skin peeled off two fingers on my right hand), I began to wonder why there were no premium priced, safe fire crackers. I know 'safe- fire cracker' sounds a bit of a oxymoron but minimal standards of safety seems to be missing. I dont know whether the pique and the inspiration for this post is because of the peeled skin on two of my fingers but brands are required in the firecracker business.

I know, there are some advertised brands, but they dont seem to have any better quality vis-a-vis other players. Infact I wouldn't mind paying a premium if I was sure of the quality of the product I was buying. Unfortunately Sivakasi - from where most of India's firecrackers come doesn't seem to be interested in moving to the next level. While Sivakasi and its firecracker manufacturing industry has taken commendable steps to almost completely remove child labour, better quality and branding is something they should aspire to.

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Are Indian telecos resting on past laurels ?

2008-10-26T08:12:00Z

One of the significant success stories of the past decade alongwith the Indian IT sector has been the Indian telecom sector. I remember that as late as 1993 to get a landline I had to pay Rs 15,000 under a DoT (Department of Telecom) scheme called OYT (own your telephone) which was essentially a premium I paid to jump ahead of the queue. Since then the opening up of the Indian telecom sector has meant that cell phones which we used to see only in some english movie in early 1990's has become passe.

With more than 300 million wireless subscribers India has the second largest cellular base in the world after China. One of the favourite examples about the benefits of opening the telecom sector was how fishermen in Kerala would dial in from the high seas to find out the best prices available for their catch and land at that place. Several fortunes have been built around the exponential growth witnessed by the Indian telecom sector. From a daily wage labourer to the CEO of a company, anybody who wants a connection can get one within minutes. Waiting list is something which sounds quaint to a generation like that of my niece who couldnt belive that you had to book a phone, and wait for years for one to arrive.

However the explosive growth that telecom sector has unleashed is slowly petering out. No, I dont mean in terms of susbscriber base. Every month, the service providers continue to add 6-7 million subscribers. And yes, a Airtel (from Bharati), Vodafone (formerly Hutch), Reliance Communications, Tata Indicomm, Idea cellular or any of the players will provide you instant connection the moment you even express a remote desire to have one. But after the initial sign up, service seems to be something alien to them.

Dropped calls are becoming more than a mere nuisance, as it starts affecting one's functioning. The rate plans offered are growing ever more complex and impossible for a lay person to understand. While average revenue per user (ARPU in industry speak) is declining, companies dont seem to care about service levels to people who fall even in the top percentile bracket of valuable customers. Two of my colleagues have in the past excoriated a service provider here and here in the past. But belive me the story is the same with all players.

While those who set policy (read : government) have to be partially blamed, service provider companies have gotten fat and complacent. That is why their is no 3G service available for your iPhone or number portablitiy still remains a dream (has been postponed now to a August 2009 launch)...Even the existing browsing services on your blackberry are terribly slow.

The feeling one gets is that telecom companies have started just milking customers and only provide passable service. They keep claiming that they offer some of the lowest rates in the world. Such claims have to be seen in the Indian context of purchasing power relative to the international comparisons they make. Most Indian telecos have stopped investing in significant innovation or enhancing service quality and seem to be interested only in adding to their subscriber base.

Usually more competition is the panacea to such ills and hopefully they are on their way with more players being offered licenses for the same. Market forces will help to set this uneven balance now weighed against the customer. Till then be ready to put up with shoddy service and pray for launch of 3G, number portability and more players to enter the market. Indian teleco should stop resting on past laurels and start investing to upgrade both technology as well as service levels.

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Malayali connection to Moon Mission

2008-10-23T08:08:00Z

At the risk of sounding parochial, Malayalees (as those who hail from Kerala are called) seem to be disproportionately represented in the top rungs of the successful Chandrayan moon mission, as a colleague who tracks this sector closely, pointed out. Full disclosure : I am not a Malayalee though I have several close friends who are. The chairman of ISRO is G Madhavan Nair, George Joseph – ISRO professor and Chairman of the taskforce on moon mission, George Koshy, Mission Director, PSLV rocket, M K Radhakrishnan Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Trivandrum and S Sree Kumar, Chief Scientist. This is not to belittle the contribution of thousands of faceless engineers and other staff of ISRO coming from all communities and corners of India, who have worked quietly behind the scenes for India’s successful launch of the unmanned moon mission. More an attempt to show, how people from one of the smallest states in India, seem to be punching above their numerical weight. (My editor in this piece pointed out how there is overrepresentation of Malayalees in Mint itself) There is this old gag of how Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon was greeted by a Malyalee Nair Chai (tea) vendor when he lands there. The point being made is about their ubiquity and ability to thrive in the most demanding and if need be hostile environment. This is a common joke which with some nifty substitutions is bandied with regard to all communities which are enterprising and go-getting like the Sindhis, Marwaris, Gujaratis and the resilient Sikhs. What sets the Malayalee apart from the other communities is that he is very successful outside his state whereas back home, well to put it politely it is a different story. The dream of at least a substantial sector of Malayalees is to make it big in the gulf, which is almost like a second home to them, though increasingly conditions are worsening there. This has led to some even labeling the state (unfairly I feel) as a mail order economy. Kerala doesn’t have too many industries or entrepreneurs to boast of except for tourism and Ayurveda practitioners. The common thread with most of these successful communities is that they thrive after they seem to have left their own states/regions. Rootlessness and getting out of one's comfort zones seems to increase entrepreneurship.

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Distinguish between Tamil and LTTE interests

2008-10-20T07:29:00Z

The move by DMK members of parliment to submit resignations to party supremo Karunanidhi (and not to the speaker of the LS where it can be accepted) to try and pressurise India to intervene in the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka is not a healthy sign. The teardrop shaped island has not seen comprehensive peace since unrest broke out in the early 1970's between the majority buddhist Sinhalese and the minority Tamils who are mostly Christians and Hindus. Lanka in the early 70's used to have a per capita income which was the highest in the SAARC region, till the civil war ruined the beautiful country.

While India has a legitimate interest in looking after the welfare of Tamils and it is a fact that the Sinhala majority have done injustice to them in the past, as a responsible regional power India should be careful that it is not seen as meddling in the internal affairs of a neighbour.

The DMK's resignation drama is due to two counts. Elections are round the corner and it wants to position itself as the player who protects 'tamil interests.' Also after a long time the LTTE is on the military backfoot and needs time to recuperate and re-group. DMK would like India to lean on the Sri Lankan government so that LTTE can breathe easy.

India should diffentiate between legitimate Tamil aspirations and LTTE which is banned in India in the wake of them assassinating former PM Rajiv Gandhi. LTTE is not the sole voice of all Lanka tamilians. Given opportunities in the past, they have refused to be a part of the democratic process and have never given up violence. So even as India closely monitors the situation and goads the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to do the right thing by the ethnic minority Tamils in the country, it has to be careful that it doesn't succumb to pressure from its partners or bogged down in brave but ultimately futile experiment like the IPKF.

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Is the Indian IT outsourcing story over ?

2008-10-13T05:55:00Z

The numbers are trickling in for IT companies and while the second quarter looks good specially on the margins front (primarily it is because of a dollar fetching 49 rupees instead of the 39 it used at the beginning of the year), growth forecasts are being cut. Volume of business growth is declining. There may yet be lot of pain left and I have a feeling that Indian IT companies are in denial mode.

Even the ever sunny Nasscom seems to have realised that there are strong headwinds ahead. Everybody sanguinely points out how Indian IT braved the nuclear chill of 2001-02 to emerge stronger. There are however key differences betweeen what happened then and what is happening now. In 2001-02 it was mainly the tech sector which was hit. In 2008 there isn't a single sector which has been left unscathed. Sure, some of the ripple effect is yet to be felt here, but I am no beliver in the economic de-coupling theory. If the world's largest economy gets hit badly so will India and Indian companies dependent on the international market. And as everybody has been pointing out it is not just wall street but main street which is hurting. Also Indian IT companies were growing on a smaller base in 2001-02 rather than the multi-billion dollar revenue giants that they have become. So to keep the growth momentum Indian IT players are rushing to buy growth. All the fracas around Axon between HCL and Infy is essentially for the growth push, as is TCS's buy of Citi's BPO arm for half a billion dollars. They might say strategy but I would say growth is the imperative pushing them to make deals.

So is the Indian IT outsourcing story largely based on labour ($- Rs) arbitrage and to some extent skillsets and domain expertise over ? NO. Not by a long shot. Indian IT talent still costs anywhere between a fourth to a third of equivalent western talent. So the arbitrage opportunity still continues and is for real. Indian IT is also more deeply embedded into their customers than they were 7 years back and have developed some real capablities and not just low end ADM (Application Development and Maintenance) work .

The top six Indian IT players have collectively just about two percent of the global services market. That means the opportunity to grow is huge. However in order to do this, they will have to give up their obsession with their 20% plus margins, broadbase their management and talent in general, be a little bit more aggressive in M & A, acquire greater industry and domain expertise, have more nearshore delivery centres, do more innovation and create IP. Essentially they will have to get out of their existing comfort zone. Those who do will emerge as global players. Every crisis as they say is an opportunity. While not yet in a crisis like situation, Indian IT companies could use the current turbulent state to catapult themselves to the global stage.

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IBM's staying power

2008-10-09T05:44:00Z

The Indian technology results season kicks off tomorrow with Infosys announcing its second quarter numbers tomorrow. While there are some analysts who are saying that Infy for the first time in 24 quarters may miss its numbers...I am not so sure...Infy has a way of surprising the markets and may yet do so....But this is not about Infy...as the title of this post indicates...it is about Big Blue's resilience...Even as their is market mayhem with some of the best names in the industry struggling to deliver their numbers, IBM like clock work has done it again...What is remarkable also is the way IBM bet big on services in the Indian market....Infy for long neglected the Indian market and even now just gets a single digit of its annual $ 4 billion plus revenue from its domestic market..that too mainly selling its banking product Finacle. IBM in contrast today earns close to $ 500 million from the Indian IT services market....as this IDC study indicates and has emerged as the market leader...While Wipro and TCS earn about a fifth of their revenues from the Indian market...they are nowhere close to IBM in India..

Increasingly Big Blue is also using the Indian labour arbitrage for its international operations with more than 80,000 people employed by it in India....I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually emerges as the single largest IT employer in India even overtaking its Indian competitors....The excellent results put out by IBM in a turbulent market clearly reiterates what Lou Grestner Jr said in 'Who says elephant can't dance' that the company knows how to reinvent itself. Hopefully Indian IT companies will take a few cues even if they havent reached an elephantine size...

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India's best city to live in is ....

2008-10-05T08:03:00Z

The business magazine I used to work for brings out a annual survey on India's Best Cities for Business. However have always wondered which is India's best city to live in? The city has to have a combination of good quality of life AND business/economic opportunities. The city I grew up in and (still) love a lot Bangalore is becoming increasingly unliveable with its horrendous traffic, skyrocketing cost of living and unaffordable real estate. Several tech companies are fleeing the state. I know the same arguements can apply to any major city in India about traffic, pollution and cost of living, but having personally seen the transition of what was once a peacful city into a snarling metro has been unsettling.

Mumbai for all its great economic opportunities, is a impersonal nightmare and add to that threats from assorted goons on 'outsiders.' (as they percive every non-Maharastrian who comes to the city). Kolkata (or Calcutta as it was known then) though it has improved a lot since Rajiv Gandhi called it a 'dying city' is one from where people still flee for lack of adequate opportunities. Chennai with its muggy and stifling weather for most of parts of the year is off putting alongwith the language chauvinism. Hyderabad has a lot going for it but is too laid back for my taste and a place like Kochi is too much of a mail order economy inspite of the recent growth spurt. Delhi has compartively good infrastrcture (For some Delhities this might come as a surprise given all the problems the city faces including rising crime. That is why I said comparative...If you think Delhi is bad, you haven't seen other parts of the country) and is a reasonably good choice....

Cities like Pune, Coimbatore, Bhopal, Jaipur, Vizag and Mysore are increasingly offering a combination of decent quality of life plus business opportunities. What do you think is India's best city to live in ? I have one request to make. Think of a city apart from the one you currently live in as a choice and as always the feedback is welcome.

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A vegetarian Eid ?

2008-10-01T09:45:00Z

Had sent wishes to a Muslim friend who also happens to be a journalist on the occasion of Eid which marks the end the fasting month of Ramzan as the arabic Ramadan is commonly known here. She pointed out that tomorrow being the birthday of the Father of nation, Gandhi, this year the festivities (which like festivities in all religions largely consist of stuffing one's face) would be muted because it would have to be a vegetarian Eid as slaughter of animals and sale of meat is prohibited.Well not really as she and her family have stocked up well....but the point is....imagine a Ganesha festival without his favourite Modak...

Am a vegetarian (though not a Vegan ) and I am all for saving animal lives, but it should be out of choice and not compulsion, It seems irrational to ban fellow citizens from exercising what is usually a lawful lifestyle choice. The government imposing bans on lifestyle related issues is retrogade. In the early to mid-90's I remember government declaring mourning by playing awful music for a couple of days whenever somebody of note kicked the bucket. (Whenever it has to be sombre or funereal music, always used to wonder why DD would pick Hindustani or instrumental music)... Remember this was the era of no private channels, so in essence the government owned monopoly would force the entire nation to listen to its choice of music. Isn't it time that we abandoned such archaic practices of government deciding whether and what we should eat or even drink......?

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...Ghostly trouble at Bangalore Airport.....

2008-09-30T09:04:00Z

The Bangalore International Airport since it started functioning in May has been in the news all for the wrong reasons. As if it's regulatory and managerial problems were not enough, there is this rather silly story of the Airport Ghost circulating around. More than the ghost causing alleged problems (like delaying take-off's and landing), what I am more worried is that while Albert Brunner the CEO of BIAL in this interview, had said there was no gold plating and was ready to throw open the books to public, they haven't done so even after Karnataka Information Commission said it was a public authority. While opinion is polarised on the functioning of the airport, since both the central government and the state are partners, BIAL should be more open in its finances.

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