Conquering the World

India Inc. is surely going places! Taking over Corus is another feather in the cap of indigenous home-grown firms that have begun to reverse the order of takeovers. Only recently Videocon-Daewoo deal worth $684.78 mn showed that Corus is just not a stray deal and India Inc. has actually come of age to compete with the world’s best, even on their home turf.
Clearly, the axis of corporate power is seeing a major shift and the sure winners are Asian countries – India and China. The buyout of Corus (formerly British Steel) has in particular given a jolt to the Europe as it was this company which had provided the infrastructural backbone for the expansion of the English empire in the 18th and the 19th century. The tide has been reversed now. Summing this up, a prominent British newspaper headlined its story: “The Empire Strikes Back”.
The most significant change is that Indian businessmen who were till recently interested in smaller markets like Africa and Asia are flexing their muscles among the corporate world of Europe and Americas. It is estimated that out of the total investments done offshore by Indian companies, Oil and Gas and Pharma and Healthcare sectors together account for nearly 35%, followed IT companies that account for about 13% of all investments. The total amount of investments done offshore by Indian companies can be gauged from the fact that even after the takeover of Corus, being termed as the biggest global takeover by an Indian company, investments by Indians in the manufacturing sector a miniscule 10% of the overall investment.
Other than Tatas and Videocons, several more of Indian firms have been in news recently for similar takeover. These include Suzlon Energy, M&M, Ranbaxy Labs and the AV Birla Group. Even relatively lesser known Indian companies like Subex System which purchased UK-based Azure Solutions for $140 million.
Other companies which have been in the forefront of international ventures recently include AV Birla Group, whose MD, Kumar Mangalam Birla, is now on prowl looking for to buy global firms. The recent buyout of the Canadian Minacs was only one such step.
Ranbaxy too is eyeing new markets vigorously. Its CEO, Malvinder Singh has recently been on global acquisition spree. Presently, the company has eight overseas plants from where nearly three-fourth of its revenue comes.
A major acquisition was carried out by Suzlon Energy recently, which acquired Belgian Hansen Transmissions which is the world’s second largest maker of gearboxes. Tulsi Tanti, CMD, Suzlon Energy bought Hansen because gearboxes are a major component for Suzlon’s turbines. With another company in his arsenal, Suzlon is now gearing up for more global ventures.
Other significant acquisitions in the recent past include Tata Tea buying the food and beverage firm Energy Brands, USA ($677 mn), Wipro buying three US-based companies, mPower, cMango and Quantech, for a combined $58 mn, ONGC Videsh taking over Ominex of Columbia ($425 mn), Aban Lloyd buying the Norwegian oil major Sinvest ($425 mn), Dr. Reddy’s taking over Betapharm, Germany ($571.77 mn) and also Jeco Holding, Germany (140 mn euros), Ranbaxy taking over Terapia, Romania ($324 mn) and Videocon buying CPT major Thomson, France (240 mn euros).
This is not to speak of Reliance, which now divided two-fold, has become manifold stronger with both Mukesh and Anil Ambani looking for fresh M&As on global level. Though the two brothers have recently been concentrating on strengthening their domestic fiefdoms, the two cannot be excluded when one talks of M&As globally.
This is also not to speak of the Indian businessmen settled abroad like Mittals who are shoulder-to-shoulder with Tatas, when it comes to steel.

Are they bold, or have they shed their ethics?

It is not an everyday occurrence that you encounter all co-travelers of same age in your train coupe. This was the case when I traveled from Lucknow to Delhi. All the seven other occupants, including a representative from the fairer community, were what you would call young - the future flag bearers of India's destiny. Not that I have started considering myself among the older community, considering that I am still decidedly younger than most office-bearers of youth brigades of major political parties. But in my 30s, I was the oldest of the lot as the rest of the occupants were all between twenty and twenty-five years of age.
The purpose of this article is not to impart moral values and neither to compare the difference in attitude that has crept in the social values of a generation that is merely 10 years behind than me (or 10 years ahead, depending on how you look at it) and it doesn't befit to term it 'generation gap'.
If there are three aspiring doctors of Saraswati Dental College in Lucknow, two students of a Management Institute in Noida and two other bank employees who sell accounts and loans in Delhi, other than this writer with pen to carry as sword, you should naturally expect fun and frolic, jokes, lot of laughing and no seriousness. All this carried on till 12 in the night, before all including me retired to bed.
But what happened next alerted my thinking antennas. Before I mention any further, it is suitable now to add a line or two about the two bank employees - one male and the other female. The two were decidedly not married together, as the girl's husband had come to see her off at Lucknow. Though it was evident that all three knew each other and belonged to the same friend circle, the girl and this other guy were not all that familiar as they started conversation hesitantly, that too when the girl's husband had left, and initially talked about each other's office, their role therein and few common friends.
As night dawned and the date changed, there was a new action to catch among the motionless frames of human bodies trying to sleep. As the management student, who had chatted on his phone with his girl-friend since even prior to Lucknow Mail leaving the station at 10 in the night, prepared his bed around 12 only when the signals of his mobile parted company, one of the dentists, after bidding adieu to his friends on board called up his girl-friend at 12 in the night and greeted her with the line "so gayee thee kya" (Had you gone to sleep?) and followed it up with "ab uth ja!" (Now get up!). From then onwards, this guy talked and talked; it went on till 4 in the morning. It was apparent that this was their usual habit. Signals came and went and every time the train moved within the range of signals, he redialed to start conversation yet again. Seeing this, I was reminded of one of friends from college days who bought a costly pair of walkie-talkies from Nepal and gifted one of it to his girl. Every time he wanted to talk to her, he had to drive his car close to the girl's hostel wall, send the 'beep' signal from there and the two - the girl cozy in her hostel bed and my friend in his car - chatted for hours. There were also occasions when I accompanied him on the front side seat, sad fully delighting in their conversation. All that has changed now with the coming of mobiles, and this new generation is giving the mobile companies reason to smile at the cost of their parent's pocket.
Meanwhile, the girl had exchanged her berth with the doctor and opted for the side-upper while my berth was just under her. She along with her new found friend had dinner together while the two chatted, while seated on the upper berth.
I cannot tell exactly what development or conversation took place but by the time the dinner packets were discarded, the two had come dangerously physically close to each other. The girl put her headin the boy’s lap asthe two started a conversation tht wasto go on for next two hours. The man was definitely a good listener as he made the girl open up her chatterbox, non-stop till it was almost morning. Lying barely two feet under them, I could hear all the stories that she had to tell about her husband, how they met and fell in love, about mom-in-law, friends and relatives. If only I had ignored that she was lying in the lap of a person whom she had just become close, she appeared to be a devout wife. In between, the man added a few liners about his own girl-friend.
Desperately wanting to catch some sleep, the ceaseless chatter had become an irritant, as the stories told by the girl were coming to me at high pitch for the last two-and-a-half hours. As I lost patient, I addressed them with these words: "Please talk in a lower voice as I can hear each and every story of yourprivate conversation." To this the girl said “It didn't matter!" and went on.
However, this had a marked impact on the boy who asked the girl to lower down her voice. Moments later, they pulled up the blanket over them, both lying togethr on the one-and-a-half feet berth of the train, unmindfulof the rest o us. For next two hours, the shower of words was less frequent, though the chatter kept pouring down from top intermittently. As I lay, my thoughts wandered to empty berth on the other side. If not for the girl's husband who came to see her off, they could have done with one berth itself.
There's no way her husband was to find it out as he had been left behind in Lucknow. Even if he did get suspicious, there was no way he could muster proofs. And without proofs, he cannot even go to the court. Even ifhe did, the girl would surely be having other weapons up her sleeves. After all, the Domestic Violence Act and Dowry Act have only been strengthened lately.
Then I thought why was it that I was the only person who appeared disturbingly bothered. Rest of the co-passengers woke up and then went to sleep, while the doctor chatted on his phone all through the night. Ten years have made so much of a difference, I thought, and didn't go to sleep. I couldn't!

Your mobile phone can be a ticking time bomb

Government experts in the US have warned the Government that the mobile phones that we are using could be having adverse impact on our health. The experts have said that there is ‘hint of a link’ of mobile phones with certain diseases like brain cancer and infertility and it is high time that a mass study of the long-term impact of mobile phones is undertaken.
As part of this initiative, more than 200,000 volunteers, including long-term users, are to be monitored for at lest five years to plot mobile phone use against any serious diseases they develop, including cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Professor Lawrie Challis, who is in the final stages of negotiation with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry for the £3 million that he needs to fund the study, said that research has shown that mobiles are very safe in the short term but that there is a “hint of something” for people using them longer.
In an interview, Professor Challis, a world expert on mobile phone radiation, and chairman of the government-funded mobile telecommunications health research programme, emphasized that the “hint” was just that. One European study has found a slight association and using a mobile for more than ten years. The few long-term users developed more acoustic neuroma brain tumours which were found close to the ear used for phoning.
But, because of the tiny numbers involved, “it could be by chance,” he said. Asked whether the mobile phone could turn out to be the cigarette of the 21st century in terms of the damage it could inflict, he replied: “Absolutely.”
He said that the study was necessary because all the important breakthroughs in what caused cancers had shown that the effects often took more than ten years to show. “You find absolutely nothing for ten years and then after that it starts to grow dramatically. It goes up ten times. You look at what happened after the atomic bombs at Nagasaki, Hiroshima. You find again a long delay, nothing for ten years. The same for asbestos.”
He made plain that he was not put off because many existing studies had shown no dangers. “The fact that you don’t see anything in ten years is also more or less what you would expect if there is something happening,” he said.
Announcing the new study, he said: “Because there is a hint and because the professional epidemiologists who I trust and who do this all the time feel there is a chance that this could be real, they can’t rule out the possibility. And because we all know that most cancers don’t show up for more than ten years, I think you have to carry on. It’s essential we carry on.
“Otherwise what are we going to do? If in ten or fifteen years’ time people start getting trouble it won’t show up until it’s a really big effect.”
Professor Challis is planning a separate study monitoring the impact of mobile phone use on children. He disagreed with the claim of some scientists that there was no cause to believe mobiles affected them differently from adults.
“We all know that if you’re exposed to sunlight as a kid you are much more likely to get skin cancer than if you’re exposed as an adult.”
He insisted that there was nothing irresponsibly alarmist about his message. Even if a risk were found, people would not have to stop using phones, but perhaps reduce their use.“I do it because I think it’s worthwhile,” he said.

Box:
A science of ifs, buts and maybes . . .
2006 Largest study yet, of 420,000 Danish users for up to 21 years, ruled out any large effect on any cancer after short or long-term use
* It suggested there could be a very slightly raised risk of acoustic neuroma, a rare, benign cancer of the inner ear, among users of more than ten years
* A raised risk on the side on which sufferers said they used their phones was balanced by a decreased risk on the other side — which led the scientists to suggest recall bias as the likely explanation. They said no firm conclusions could be drawn
2006 US study suggested lower sperm counts among heavy users. It is widely thought that this reflects another aspect of heavy users’ lifestyles, such as stress or a lack of exercise
2005 Interphone international study finds no effect on acoustic neuroma for ten years of use. It was unable, however, to rule out an effect for longer-term use, because of insufficient data
2004 Study suggests users have a higher risk of brain cancer if they live in rural areas. It has been suggested that this could reflect the higher strength of signal in areas with few base stations
2003 Swedish study suggests higher risk of acoustic neuroma among heavy users of analogue mobile phones, which have since been phased out. Scientists criticized the methodology of the research
2002 Finnish research suggests that phone emissions can cause abnormalities in blood vessel cells in the laboratory. Scientists that said it was not possible to draw conclusions for phone safety for real people

New law against communal violence futile without the political will

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said sometime back that the government would soon bring in a model comprehensive law to tackle communal violence in the country. For reasons best known to it, the Samajwadi Party decided to oppose this Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005.
The state’s opposition to the proposed legislation stemmed from the fact that under the Constitution, law and order is a state subject, and any Central law on the subject should be operative only in Union territories. Any law that does otherwise negates the spirit of the Constitution. And if the Centre is given the power to interfere in one subject on the state list, the intrusion may soon spread to other subjects as well. Legal opinion provided to the state cautioned that through the bill, the Centre will have sweeping powers as in an Emergency.
The UPA’s Common Minimum Programme had promised a separate comprehensive law on communal violence under which investigations would be carried out only by Central agencies and prosecution by special courts. Mr Patil’s statement indicates that the government intends bringing in legislation to contain communal violence.Some have questioned the need for new legislation on the matter. After all, there are several laws to take care of such situations. For instance, Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code provides for punishment for any act, which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, linguistic, or regional groups or castes or communities and which disturbs or is likely to disturb the public tranquillity. There is legislation to tackle the inciting of violence and so on. Existing legislation to tackle communal violence has failed in the past because of poor implementation and a lack of political will. As evident in Gujarat in 2002, the attack on minorities assumed the immense proportions it did because the BJP government in the state along with the police force was complicit in the violence and refused to take steps to arrest its spread. There is no guarantee that the Central government would necessarily act to check communal violence if the state government is reluctant to do so. The BJP-led government in the centre simply looked the other way in the case of Gujarat. The Congress was in power at the Centre and in Maharashtra in 1992, when communal violence broke out after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Centre took no action when the Maharashtra government did not act effectively to halt the violence.No communal riot can occur if the government and its law and order machinery are determined to prevent or arrest the spread of such violence and virus. The need for keeping the intelligence apparatus in a fine fettle and making effective use of the input for nipping the trouble in the bud is also equally crucial. What is needed is political will to prevent the spread of the communal virus. The proposed new law could end up as just another piece of legislation if the government does not back it with effective implementation.
The raging violence in UP at present is an indicator how small incidents can turn barbarous, if the political will is only to seek benefits in elections, no matter at what costs. And if Congress has opened up a front against SP at the moment, it is merely because it is in opposition at the moment. Otherwise, Congress too can be blamed for many a riots in the past. Even the Srikrishna Commission that was attempting to unearth the names of those who were responsible for Mumbai riots that led to more than 1000 people killed and looting, arson and rape continuing for days, was terminated without a whimper, thus protecting the identities of those involved in the riots, including some policemen, perhaps forever.

Both BJP and SP set to gain from communal riots

If the eyes are on elections, who is bothered if a few more innocents get killed or their belongings looted in the communal riots that have begun spreading like forest-fire almost immediately after the dawn of the election year in UP. Ironically, two political parties perceived to be poles apart, at least ideologically, that is the SP and the BJP, are set to gain if the communal violence happens and spreads to other parts of the UP.
Large scale desertions had happened in the past both from BJP and SP, more so in the case of later due to it being in power for the last three and a half years. The shift was naturally towards Congress and BSP. With these riots, a great number of voters on periphery are sure to return to the folds of either the BJP or the SP. This is the vote politics of a pseudo-democracy like that of UP. You may call it the riot politics as well!
Mayawati is not far off the mark when she alleges that Samajwadi Party and BJP leaders had planned communal violence in Gorakhpur and neighbouring districts to serve their vested political interests.
“Both SP and BJP have lost the confidence of people and their base is shrinking fast. To regain the lost ground both the parties are indulging in the politics of communal violence”, she said. Cautioning the Muslims, she said they should understand the designs of both parties.
More communal violence would take place in the state in the coming days, she claimed and added that she had submitted memorandum to the Governor and the UPA government seeking dismissal of the State government and imposition of President’s rule, but in vain.
“Law and order is deteriorating in the State and jungle raj is prevailing. If people want that their sisters and daughters to remain safe and Muslims want to take revenge for Kareli madarsa and Ranipur rape case, they must vote Samajwadi Party out of power,” she said adding that it were the Samajwadi party leaders who were involved in Kareli madarsa (Allahabad) and Ranipur village (Jaunpur) rape case.
Evidently, Mayawati too is playing her cards, so as to reap the maximum out of the riots. So is the BJP. And who are the victims? Hutments of members of a particular community were set on fire in Behrampur in the wee hours recently. Shops belonging to members of a particular community too were torched. Miscreants tried to brun alive a member of a particular community when he was returning home after offering evening prayers in Singhadia locality, under Khorabar police station. Arsonists set ablaze a passenger train, attempted to burn Godan Express and torched vehicles. Another train was set ablaze at Tulsipur in Balrampur district on the metre guage section between Gorakhpur and Gonda. Two compartments of a train at Salempur railway station in Deoria district were also burnt. Buses too were burnt. Some activists of Hindu Yuva Vahini set on fire a government bus and held its driver and conductor hostage in Gurma village under Madhuban police station. All this seems to be offshoot of a well-planned strategy. After all, elections have dangerously close. And arrest of local BJP MP Yogi Adityanath is only an excuse.

Communal violence not a new phenomenon
Communal violence is not a new phenomenon in India. Prior to Independence they occurred because the rulers of the time benefited because of the Hindu-Muslim divide. Hence such divisionary tactics were framed and the riots fanned; most common example being the incidents of Meerut and Lucknow that resulted in the First War of Independence, 1857. Thereafter, riots continued to erupt, be it in Calcutta or be it in Punjab.
Post Independence, riots seem to have become a weapon in the armoury of political parties. Riots after demolition of Babri Masjid and not just the demolition catapulted BJP to power. The same happened in Gujarat where Narendra Modi had almost lost the election due to internal fights and anti-incumbency factors. The same is the case now as the BJP needs issues or passions to help it in the elections and if the political pundits predicted riots in UP much before, this was because they knew of the politics that politicians play.
One thing that is noteworthy in the present riots in UP is the inevitable presence of RSS or its sister organizations wherever the riots occur. At places it is in the form of Hindu Yuva Vahini, at other places in the form of Bajrang Dal or simply RSS workers. Even Yogi Adityanath and his supporters are known RSS sympathizers.

Political will needed to curb communal violence
Year 2007 has just begun and so has begun cases of communal violence in India. One precious life was lost and three others were injured in police firing to quell communal violence in Bangalore that flared up in eastern parts of the city during a RSS-sponsored procession as part of ‘Viraat Hindu Mahotsav’ recently. Several others were injured in the rioting that followed. A few days earlier, 50 persons were injured and several houses attacked after a protest against the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain turned violent. And now the entire Eastern UP is reeling under communal tension, owing to arrest of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.
Communal violence is not a new phenomenon in India, fuelled as it is by the fundamentalist forces on both sides.
Communal violence in India has reached unprecedented levels in the 1990s. Where conflicts were once localized, they now occur on a national scale. At the level of rhetoric, the government claims to be committed to secularism and nondiscrimination. However, the government shows a conspicuous tendency to ignore the scale of violence and human suffering during communal violence. Laxity in enforcing the law and the failure to punish those involved sends the wrong signals to both law-breakers and law enforcers across the country.

The racist Britons

Actress Shilpa Shetty has just won what she couldn’t accomplish all her career. Huge money, endorsement offers, meaty film roles, fame and even big money for giving ‘exclusive’ tabloid and TV interviews. Eventually, she would give so many of them that none of the interview would remain ‘exclusive’. Why refuse money when it is coming!
We surely have reasons to delight at her award unless and until we ponder over reasons that enabled her to get it. No doubt, racism in Britain is still predominantly present and the alleged racist comments by certain participants in the show were just an off-shoot of the prevailing undercurrent. After all, it were the grand fathers and great grand fathers of the present-day generation who had written “Dogs and Indians not allowed” outside restaurants or thrown a well-dressed, well-educated person named Gandhi out of a train. The treatment meted out by the Memsahibs and their male counterparts are still written in the annals of our past literature.
We are deriving too much out of a stray incident, some of you may say. As proof to substantiate what we are saying, we cite certain passages from column ‘London Diary’ by Anil Thakraney written in Outlook (November 26, 2006) prior to the shaping of events and controversies surrounding Shilpa Shetty.
In his column Thakraney mentions of “suspicion and derision” merely because he was ‘brown’. He writes: “One legendary taboo in London is making eye contact inside the tubes. It’s always been considered offensive to stare at the fellow commuter. The locals arm themselves with newspapers and books mainly to avoid any possibilities of eye contact. Well, apart from other things, the terrorists have changed this, too. I am stared at long and hard, usually with a mixture of suspicion and derision. Because not only am I ‘brown’, I cheerfully move around with a rather bulky green-coloured backpack. Never felt so important in London before.”
At another place he writes: “Most locals (living around London’s Finsbury Park mosque), I gather from any letters to editors, want the mosque eliminated ASAP. And Jack Straw wants the irritating veil unveiled.”
All this is happening because of the aftermaths of 9/11 and train-bombings that killed several people; you may say as a counter. But what would you say if a white policemen stares from beneath your daughter’s skirt up to her panties. Do they harbour suspicions that bombs can be carried inside? Sample this passage from Tahkraney’s column:
“On a night out at the happening Bond Street, I spot a group of overzealous white cops bodysearch some rappin’ Black teens. Reminds me of that provocative scene in Crash, where a racist cop orgasmically fingers a black lady up her panties. Mercifully, on this occasion, the officer is only looking up the girl’s skirt (swear, I didn’t make this up). And what exactly is their crime, I enquire. “The youngsters are suspected of soliciting and drug-dealings on the streets,” coolly informs Steve, one of the policemen. The tamasha carries on for a while, until one female member loudly accuses the cops of being unfairly racist, and threatens to file counter-charges. Taken aback, the policemen quickly disappear into the night. Makes me wonder. Shouldn’t they be focusing their energies on brainwashed Muslim kids of Brick Lane? Why go after soft targets? Mumbai mein bhi aisa hota hain, na?” (As long as they are Muslims, the media won’t complain.)
How would you react if our own Mumbaiite cop does this with a European lady visiting or staying in our country? After all, suspicions of drug-peddling by certain white-skinned Europeans have surfaced from time to time.
All this is prompting me to become racist for a while. Kudos to Ratan Tata who through purchase of British steel-giant Corus has shown the mettle, that ‘Brown’ is definitely a stronger colour than ‘white’.

Is Mulayam losing the won battle?

As the dark clouds of Assembly elections hover over Mulayam Singh Government in UP, the wrestler in him finds it difficult to escape the prospects of president’s rule during hustings.

Beleaguered due to the growing discontent against Samajwadi Party rule, Mulayam Singh is busy with last ditch efforts to retain his chief ministership during forthcoming (April-May) Assembly elections. In his attempt to thwart the danger of president’s rule, he called in the Assembly session from Jan 15. A notification to this effect was issued by Mata Prasad Pandey, the Assembly speaker.
On the other hand, the UP Government Rajeshwar Rao closed the session ‘sine-die’ w.e.f. 9th Jan 2007. This created an unprecedented constitutional crisis in the state of UP.
Why Mulayam Singh and his Samajwadi Party are getting desperate? Opposition parties including BJP and BSP have called upon the governor and the president of India stressing the need to impose president rule. The Congress, BSP and BJP have been citing incidents to show that the administration in UP has ‘collapsed’ and ‘law and order’ has failed.

The dailies in the state carry almost every day the stories about murder, loot, kidnapping, chain snatching, extortion and to top it all the refusal of the police to write FIRs.
The most recent incidents are of the disappearance or murder of Meerut University lecturer Dr. Kavita Chaudhary and serial killings about 20 boys and girls in Nithari (NOIDA). These are the hottest cases, which have been referred to CBI, now, reluctantly by the state government. The resignations of three ministers of Chaudhary Ajit Singh’s LOK DAL (LD) on 9th Jan, from the Mulayam Singh Ministry have sent shivers in the Mulayam Singh camp. Problem has been further aggravated due to Congress’s decision to withdraw support.
The latest Party position in the UP Assembly is as under:

SP 152 CPM 1
BSP 67 others 2
BJP 83 Independents 16
Congress 15 Nominative 1
LBD 33 Unattached 6
LD 15 Vacant 2
KCP 2 Debarred from voting rights 9

Out of total 404 (2 MLA have died) as such the effective strength of the UP Assembly is 393 members. For a majority 197 members are required. 13 independents are either ministers or CMDs of Government corporations. The Congress, LBD, LD, LCP, CPM, were supporting the government till now but the Congress has given a jolt to Mulayam’s plans by announcing withdrawal of support, making it almost inevitable that UP is heading towards President’s rule without Congress and Lok Dal.
Congress and Lok Dal’s decision means that Mulayam Singh will have a wafer thin majority of 204 members. If eight of these, too, withdraw their support, the government could collapse.
In spite of numerical strength at the moment, the imposition of president’s rule in UP appears imminent. The constitution crisis may take a curious turn. The coming days will be eventful.