Zero hero

At the India Investors Week in Hyderabad last week, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid talked of how his ministry was planning to organise 3,000 investor awareness workshops and events this year. Actually, he said, “We were supposed to do 300. I was answering a question in Parliament related to this.

I forgot how much we were supposed to do. I thought 300 seemed too little and 30,000 seemed too high. So, I added one zero and said we were planning 3,000.” Khurshid said there was an uproar, so he went back and asked if he could correct the figure with the permission of the House and the Speaker. “However, it was decided to go ahead with 3,000. Now I wonder why I didn't say 30,000. One day we will have to do it as we have to get into the villages as well.”