globalisation is good for india as well as the MNC's

Consider the numbers. Walmart the world largest retailer sales $375 billion worth of stuff from its format retail stores world wide . This astounding figure is put in perspective when you consider that it is much bigger than the GDP's of Pakistan which in 2007 was a comparative meager $1.275 billion. If that is not enough, Citibank with all its troubles is a firm with a turn over of $2 trillion which is double the GDP of India.
There is no doubting the fact that globalization has spurred multinational firms to record size . The very structure of these firms with bases where the best return on investment are possible allow then to leverage global opportunities and grow. In itself this should be a good thing. For instance countries where there is a labor surplus with good infrastructure can attract MNC investment and help their own populations and economies to grow. The resultant purchasing power improvement can help create viable middle class as well. Indeed India is also as much a gainer from globalisation as these massive MNC's. With a large pool of labor and a vast market the mnc's invested as much as $16 billion in 2007 in India and are likely to invest another $25 billion in 2008
So what is the problem with the MNC's size? There are plenty of issues and surprising both the Indian left and the American right share concerns. the foremost significance is that it is perceived that the multinational of their sheer size and spread are beyond sovereign regulations of individual countries.
This is a misleading assessment. Countries where robust regulations exist or evolve can in fact use MNC's to their advantage. China is one such example which after making the MNC's invest in access of 300 billion dollars over the last fifteen years have now changed regulations and restricted MNC's investments as well as profit reparation. The Chinese have also come up with a government owned firm that will invest $200 billion some of it in these vary MNC's. This is the creativity of globalist which allows sensible countries to benefit from the MNC/s. The sovereign state of today is not yesterday's banana republic The fact is that dependence works both ways in globalisation. A win win situation should not be made into a scare story just because individual firms have leveraged the global opportunity to grow.

deconstructing delhi metro

There is a new vigour to Delhi’s urban culture and it’s literally subaltern. It is fuelled by the speed, efficiency and a quite wondrous pride in the metro train line that is transforming the commuting culture of this ancient city.
The pride part is imperative. For too long the capital and its inhabitants have had much too blasé an attitude about the city they call home. This was captured memorably by Naipaul in India: An Area Of Darkness — the shocking apathy of spiting without looking, peeing at every available lamppost, and driving down the wrong side of the road without a care. Now, this has been replaced by a collective restraint and admirable dignity and a strange sense of ownership.
It is this sense of ownership, which the Metro has uniquely succeeded in inculcating in Delhi’s citizens. They see in it a symbol of an emerging India and they want to preserve its purity.
On the Metro it appears that there is citizen schizophrenia. On the road the old rage still dominates, with every kind of vehicle jostling for space in the most chaotic manner possible. In the Metro, the same citizen turns respectful of public convenience and decency.
What explains this dichotomy? I think it is because Delhi has never before seen the like of the Metro —efficient, cool and modern — and likes what it now sees.
The subway offers a forty-kilometer ride in 25 minutes flat, with none of the jerks associated with surface travel. What is more, thanks to the air-conditioning, the whole ride is easy — literally no sweat. And with the punctuality on which you can set your clock, the Metro is now the ultimate arbiter of time and space in a city that expands in all directions, way beyond the 80-kilometre ring road. Page 2 of 2 (Jump to page 1)A facility so perfect can be almost frightening for a citizenry used to terrible rickety buses and quarrelling drivers. It seems Delhi’s denizens believe they don’t deserve such superb service; that if they spoil it, the metro train will somehow disappear just as magically as it made its miraculous appearance.
It took me just one commute from the poor district of Seelampur in the east of Delhi to Pragati Maidan, to become a fully paid-up fan. That day 265,000 people reportedly travelled on the commuter line between 9 am and 9 pm. And yet the platforms were clean, there was no half-finished burger lying about, nor were there any paan stains. Also, unlike Mumbai’s suburban local train, the pushing and shoving were absent.
Here’s another unexplained miracle: the Delhiwallah, ever callous towards the fairer sex, has seemingly reformed on the Metro. Ever since it started there has not been one single reported incident of offensive behaviour against women on the Metro. While the close circuit cameras may have played their part, the body language is decidedly different, too.
My high point of the discovery of the Metro Republic came when I came across a rich dude with a gold chain on his broad chest and the keys to his Ford Ikon dangling casually on his belt, board the train at Chandni Chowk and calmly hanging around with co-passengers who had never owned a car but had now a billion-rupee publicly owned train to cart them around.
Mumbai locals are said to be great levellers because they crush them all in the morning Churchgate fast. But thats not funny. When Mumbai gets its own Metro — it will be another republic.

human rights under threat world wide

Human rights under global pressure
Indira Gandhi once famously said that Corruption is a global phenomenon. Going by the latest report of human rights watch the internationally respected NGO, the same seems to hold true for Human rights abuses.
The 2006 edition of human rights watch is a scathing indictment of the United States of America. The damage done to freedom of speech, expression and international guarantees by the Bush administration’s policies come in for special mention.
The US is by no means the only - or indeed the biggest - violator of such freedoms in the world. However, as one of the world largest democracies and a beacon of freedom it is especially troubling for the country to be in the spotlight for some of the worse abuses of human rights that include torture of prisoners and denial of freedoms guaranteed under international law.
The approach to give a state a license to maim, torture and to kill - an increasingly rampant tendency in today’s world has come under special criticism by the report. The executive director of the report Kenneth Roth has said that”… fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause. But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive.”
India too has come for criticism. In particular, on account of India’s gender discrimination. The report says that in India, women continue to face discrimination and violence. The report also point to the fact the India has a bad record in respecting human right in those areas where it is fighting insurgencies. The report further points out that “militant groups and Indian security forces continued attacks on civilians. Caste-based violence continued, especially in rural areas, and tribal groups that had converted to Christianity were targeted for attack by extremist Hindu organizations.”
To be fair, India has a robust and open society where numerous human rights groups routinely point out the problems. However when an internationally respected group comes up with such findings it should act as a wake up call for our civil society.
Democracies have more influence in global order and a far greater responsibility to maintain human rights standards. From the latest report it would appear that democracies as prone as dictatorships when it comes to the option of shooting first and asking questions later.
This is worrying for the future of democracy as a system and the values that dictate the civil societies of these free countries.

soros looks @ indian entertainment sector

When billionaires come together industries shake. The decision by billionaire investor George Soros top put $100 million for a three percent staked in Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment has indeed shaken up the sector .

Go to any film studio in Mumbai or a gaming café in Bangalore and you can see that consumer interest and easy availability through retail is allowing for a boom in India’s entertainment sector. The Indian leisure classes love their movies and their TV shows and there are more then 150 million of these willing to pay for content.
According to Price Waterhouse coopers, a consultancy, Indian entertainment industry has a turnover of $10 billion. It is estimated that the industry will be worth $13 billion by 2010.

The crucial difference this time is that this industry is moving away from fragmentation. Mr. Ambani’s enterprise for instance has under its roof more then 100 theaters across India and an equal number planned in the US. It also has film production firms that have signed upon big names in bollywood. Add to the menu gaming portals, postproduction faculties, an animation firm, TV programming companies, DVD distribution, FM channels with a pan Asian presence and music. What emerges is a media conglomerate in the making that can do the famed end-to-end operations Ambani style.
The larger industry too is growing exceptionally. New television channels are multiplying like rabbits similar growth is there in sectors such as movies and magazines. The Indian consumer is growing richer and more literate and there is also the back up of the foreign residing Indians hungry for content from back home. The annual growth of 18 % in this industry is looking to get bigger.
In all this growth however there are real issues distribution still remains a bottleneck though direct to home access will in time change that. The entertainment industry is heavily taxed making film tickets expensive even in small towns. Revenue models from entertainment avenues including FM radio and the Internet are in its infancy. However investors like Soros have taken a bet that a foot n the door now will ensure rich rewards as the market matures. This appears to be a good bet.

mills update bombay

Mills to develop into a new city center @ parel

The Supreme Court verdict, allowing unfettered development of mill lands brings to a close a bitterly fought struggle between the green lobby and the builders combine. The agenda is now set for commercial and residential development of 600 acres of land spread over sixty textile mills in Parel and laubaug in central Mumbai. .The decision will make 4 million square feet of developed land available in Mumbai within two years.
Fears have been expressed that the new development may at best stabilize the price of commercial space in Mumbai - but may not bring it down by much. The DLF group has proposed the development of a one million square feet mega mall on the NCT land it bought while India bulls –the group that successfully bid for two mills - is to redevelop for commercial space.
This leaves very little new property for residential purposes. The average bidding price for mill lands at the auctions was Rs. 15,000 per square feet. The price will naturally be much higher once development and marketing costs are factored by the builders. The residential property on offer given is unlikely to be within the reach of the middle class. What it may do however, is to take the price pressure off the better properties in the suburbs - and bring a general ceiling to land prices rising in the near future.
This may be just what Mumbai needed given that it will slow a sudden downturn in price. The deal may deflate the price bubble and reduce the chances of a burst..
For the greens the court order is a blow. They had hoped for 400 acres of green space from the mill land redevelopment scheme. However, with the Supreme Court upholding the the amendment in 2001, that changed the availability of free land these hopes have been dashed. The city will end up getting only about 60 across of green land in the new deal. This is bad news or Mumbai, by contrast Lodi Gardens, just one of the open spaces in Delhi is over 100 acres in spread. The order means that Mumbai landscape in terms of gardens walks and such like - that are a given in all the other great cities of the world is unlikely to change much. The ration of open space per thousand person is .003 acres in Mumbai and that is likely to remain unchanged.While the greens may have lost this immediate battle, they will do well to fight on. The docklands – the size of 60 Nariman points are likely to come up for redevelopment at some stage in the future an active campaign could yet help develop a green lung for the city.

domestic Infotech market should not be ignored

Leverage the domestic IT opportunity
A new report by Information technology industry consultant garner points out that Indian firms will up IT spending by as much as 13 percent this year. The Indian domestic market is already estimated to worth $9.7 billion. This is an important pointer for IT firms to look at India as a serious revenue generating opportunity. In times when they are troubled by the rising dollar, a squeeze on the price arbitrage model that is the backbone of Indian It exports and a talent crunch that is seriously undermining their ability to execute large projects, the domestic market could come to the rescue. The only problem is that IT firms are not looking seriously at opportunities out of Kochi or Surat instead they continue to look at markets as diverse as Romania and Japan.
This could be a costly error of judgment because multinational firms like IBM and accenture are doing the reverse. They have already cornered an impressive 55 % of the Indian market for IT products and services including big-ticket deals like Bharti’s $1.3 billion outsourcing contract to IBM.
The domestic market is also likely to get an impetuous from e government initiatives launched by center and state governments. According to an estimate by Skoh consultancy a research and consulting firm, in the e governance initiatives by the central and state governments in India are estimated to be worth over 5000 crore by 2008. These are often straight forwards contracts that require, less complexity and product ownership then the international contracts and are therefore far more profitable for the IT firms that undertake these.
Indian forms will do well not to ignore the domestic opportunity. It will need a new strategic orientation to ensure that this market is exploited properly. Indian firms will need to groom a different set of talent that would look at selling within the country. If they do not reorient their marketing strategy that combines global reach with local markets they may see the rug pulled from under their feet by MNC firms in their home turf. That would certainly be an ironic outcome along with a costly mistake.

indian airports are a shame

. The state of major airports in India is nothing short of a scandal. Near miss collisions, congestion lasting over three quarters of an hour, fatal accidents on the tarmac and traffic jams at the approach is all in a day’s flight at India’s airports. The airports are disasters waiting to happen.

A while back the aircraft carrying Sonia Gandhi came too close for comfort with another commercial flight. If this can happen on VVIP flights the layman is surly a sitting - or rather flying duck.
At the heart of the problem is the gap between the growth in the air traffic in India the infrastructure that ought to go with it. Currently 19 million people fly the Indian skies every year and this is going up at a staggering five million people per year. Of this growth 46 per cent has come from non-metro airports, which while not getting much publicity, are similarly constrained by infrastructure concerns.

The air traffic control links in India is poor both in numbers on the ground and the technology that they work with. Experts believe that the best way to ensure the position of an aircraft approach and departure position is the secondary surveillance radar. Shockingly many airports, including bangalore, are not equipped with this technology, likewise many airlines are not spending money to train their pilots in category III landing systems that allow for fog landing thereby throwing schedules off gear.

The second major concern is the unsustainable model of budget airline. Contrary to impression food and beverage costs are a tiny fraction of operating expenses. For both the full fare and budget airlines it is the fuel, maintenance, parking and crew costs that make up the large percentage of expenses. Thus temptations to cut costs are high a routine maintenance missed could lead to a catastrophic crash.

The bad news is that the scene at the Indian airports is likely top get worse before it gets better. Sure privatization at Delhi and Mumbai will help. It will create better utilization of resources and more comfortable transit. However till the airport authorities of India and the ministry of civil aviation comes in line with the urgent need for upgrading airport infrastructure today’s air traveler will have to contend with the fear of flying.

infrastrucre delays cause pain to india

Arrest crippling delay
The delay in completing public infrastructure projects in India is nothing new. What is new is the staggering scale of the delay as well as the fact that with the recent increase in commodity prices the cost of these delays are piling up too unsustainable levels. The delayed projects also come with a huge opportunity cost. A delayed port or a highway programme can put breaks on economic growth and cause the economy to overheat.
According to a recent report ministry of statistics and program implementation Out of these 605 projects, around 248 projects are way behind schedule. Another 149 projects, though approved, have not even been commissioned, and 46 other projects are waiting for the updating of their completion schedule. Merely 22 projects are ahead of schedule, while 14 are on schedule. A staggering 105,000 crore has already been spent on these projects and the delays cost an average of The overall cost overrun with respect to original cost is calculated on an average to be 21.5 per cent.
The worst performers are sectors such as nuclear energy, Hydropower generation, Indian railways and ministry of health and family welfare. The delays are a symptom of comprehensive governance failure. The political structure of a parliamentary democracy in India also leads to many pork barrel projects where costs are exaggerated from the inception stage. Powerful MP’s often insists on mega projects n the vicinity of their power base irrespective of the feasibility of the project. There is urgent need to tighten the feasibility study criteria for government-funded projects.
Lessons also need to be learned by the babu’s from the private sector in project execution. Whether it is the Reliance refinery at Jamnagar or the Delhi metro port large time bound project are now being executed with much greater efficiency by the private sector.
A public private partnership model for project execution ought to be a top governmental priority. A vast engineering pool needs to be created for flexible project management. Some of these ideas have been mooted by the planning commission in the past but never taken forward in a concrete executable format. India can ill afford ignoring such an initiative
division has 605 projects worth Rs 267,815 crore (Rs 2,678.15 billion) on the monitoring system on which Rs 105,146 crore (Rs 1,051.46 billion) have already been spent.
Out of these 605 projects, around 248 projects are way behind schedule. Another 149 projects, though approved, have not even been commissioned, and 46 other projects are waiting for the updating of their completion schedule.
Merely 22 projects are ahead of schedule, while 14 are on schedule.
The overall cost overrun with respect to original cost is 21.5 per cent, mainly because of delays, which range from one month to 13 years!

Mumbai needs to be more cosmo not less

Bombay needs Cosmo character
Mumbai has many attractions that work as a magnet for investors. It has a tradition of commerce, a deep-sea port, a vibrant stock market and most of all a hardworking workforce and a cosmopolitan culture. These values have combined to make it a financial powerhouse with a majority of Indian and multi national firms headquartered in the island city.
The cosmopolitan culture of the city though is under fresh attack. Like its ramshackle infrastructure, cosmopolitan Mumbai is degrading by the day. The latest assault comes from a politician known for his strident chauvinistic line.
The controversy started with Raj thackery’s comments on film star Amithabh Bachchan questioning his credentials as a true citizen of the city just because he was the brand ambassador of another state - Utter Pradesh.
He also questioned the right of religious festivities observed by migrant labors from uttar Pradesh and Bihar. His followers bashed up people of these states at a political rally the next day for good measure.
While it is true that there has been a slow and continues process of ghettoizing of Mumbai since the 1970’s, when Shiv Sena a party pioneered pandering to lower middle class Marathi chauvinism with attacks on Gujratis and South Indians of the city. The Mumbai riots in the 80’s further ghettoized the city. Even earlier during British times Mumbai was neatly divided among communal lines with different clubs and residents for different communities leading to an ethnic separation. However the difference between that time and now is that Mumbai's people worked and co existed as one.
If Mumbai is to remain the financial center and commercial capital of India this slide in communal harmony and cosmopolitan way of life needs to been arrested immediately.
In a global world the Indian state often needs to take a stand when Indian minorities are harassed overseas. Most recently this happened in Malaysia and Kenya. Ethnic Indians also face visa discrimination in the UK. A country can hardly take a stand on such issues if at home its own people are treated as outsiders with impunity. It is for the center to take a stand put an end to this dangerous trend of rule by the mob. Capital flees ghettos and embraces stability this is a lesson Mumbai knows well. Not to arrest this slide now will tantamount to killing the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs