Shashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea

Idea Chief Marketing Officer Sashi Shankar says the company is seeing a rapid adoption of 3G and 2G by subscribers

Exclusive interview with Sashi Shankar, CMO, Idea Cellular

Business Standard

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is keen to see his party win the Gurgaon seat from the Congress because, according the estimates of the BJP, Modi has a very strong fan following in the satellite town and if he can ensure that people come out to vote for him, the BJP candidate will win. Keeping this idea in mind, the main opposition party is talking to Rao Inderjit Singh, the Congress MP from Gurgaon, who has already met most leaders of the party at least six times in the past few weeks.

Eyeing Gurgaon

After a dismal show in the quarter ended March, private equity (PE) investments in the June quarter more than doubled

Surge in PE investments

Much spent, but still too few planes and ships

Under-defended India

Govt should help industry take advantage of depreciation

Gaining from the fall

The chaotic stock market has inevitably generated its brand of black humour within the investing community. Take this text message that is doing the rounds. It says, "Considering the current turmoil in the capital markets, the Analysts' Glossary stands revised:BSE: Bombay se exitNSE: Nation se exitF/O: Future overNifty: No income for this yearFII: Fraudulent international investorsHNI: Has no ideaPMS: Pre-meditated scamSIP: Suicide by investing patientlyEBITDA: Exit before it tumbles down again"

The New Analysts' Glossary

What happens when you misplace a bag on a flight? In India, that depends on who you are. For instance, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj managed to mobilise several senior police officials and local party leaders in Chhattisgarh when she discovered a bag she'd brought with her on a flight to Raipur was missing. Swaraj discovered the loss soon after she left the airport with Chief Minister Raman Singh. She notified an assistant who soon had the top security and political brass hotfooting it to the airport in search of the bag. It was found inside the special aircraft Swaraj had used. She was duly informed but no, she said she didn't need it and would collect it after her day's programme was over.

Bagging rights

The new Press Information Bureau (PIB) building is just about 200 metres away from the old one but that has not stopped eager babus splurging government money to inspect the new premises ahead of its inauguration by the prime minister on August 24. Recently, as many as six official cars were requisitioned to transport top officials from Shastri Bhawan to the new PIB building for this purpose. Maybe they are unaware of the government's austerity drive.

In transports over PIB

The steep fall in the value of the rupee vis-Ã -vis the dollar in a short period defies rational explanation. No doubt the large size of the current account deficit is a major factor, besides the doubt about the compensating capital inflows. But what has happened in the last few days that led to the current crisis? The market knows that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cannot make any effective intervention since its reserves are equal to just a few days' turnover. Of the total turnover, about one-fourth only are accounted for by real transactions. The inter-bank dealings making up the rest are fly-by-night adventures of the treasury branches of banks and others. An investigation of the treasury incomes of banks in the recent period will confirm this. There was a rule in the distant past when no net-open position was allowed at any time, even during the day besides overnight. The RBI should revive it assuring the market that it would be withdrawn when there is reasonable stability in th

Letters: Forex crisis

Apropos the report "IOB's core banking system caught in technical glitch" (August 19), as a customer of the bank I would like to update readers that the Indian Overseas Bank's operations had come to a complete halt from August 19 till now (August 22). A visit to the branch revealed that employees were sitting idle and all enquiries elicited a curt reply of a "link failure." Customers such as I have been rendered "cashless" for four days. Accounts have not been credited and customers have no clue about their available balance, preventing them from drawing cheques or making any kind of payment. What is more surprising and galling as a customer is that during this period, the chairman and managing director of IOB was reported to have been busy opening the 3,000th branch of the bank at Sivaganga, the constituency of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was present at the opening too. At a time when bank operations have collapsed is it too much to expect, as a customer, that the chairman sho

Letters: IOB's glitch

During the last few days, a number of erudite people have given their considered opinion in the state of the rupee. A K Bhattacharya, in his column "A worrying disconnect" (New Delhi Diary, August 21), has written about the total and abject indifference of the legislatures. His column has hit the nail on the head. After all, if the country's economy is in total disarray, the legislators, who make and control the policies, should sit up and take the bull by the horns. Who are these so called legislators? Most of them have past criminal records and do not have good intentions for the country and her people in their heart. On top of this, a sizeable percentage of the legislators are involved in financial scams such as the 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games, Coalgate etc. And it is not, therefore, surprising that the economy along with the external value of rupee are in the doldrums.There is no dearth of knowledgeable and efficient legislators in India. But they are not being heard by th

Letters: Needed - Good legislators

A test for Mr Tewari

A big regulatory hole

Before the hearing involving the case between YES Bank and Madhu Kapur, widow of a promoter, over the appointment of her daughter to the board, Bombay High Court Justice S J Kathawala asked who was representing Rana Kapoor, the bank's chief executive officer and managing director. When the lawyer concerned stood up, the judge bluntly told him to tell Rana Kapoor not to send him brochures of Assocham (Kapoor recently became president of the industry body). The lawyer clarified that these brochures had been sent to all judges of the high court but Justice Kathawala said he wanted YES Bank to stop sending copies to him, especially since he was hearing the case. "Anyhow, that brochure is full of his photographs with the prime minister," the judge observed caustically. Kapoor's lawyer could only smile weakly and confirm that he would convey the message to his client.

The brochure approach

The investors of National Spot Exchange have formed an association to help them recover dues. The association at present is based in Mumbai and has a few hundred members although the total number of people affected is said to be over 13,000. Named NSEL Investors Forum (NIF), it has provided a platform of sorts for an organised response. But it does not come for free. People who want to join have to pay up. "I request you to enroll yourself as a member of NIF by remitting an Entrance Fee of Rs 5,000 separately for each investor entity in favour of NSEL Investors Forum with a simple covering letter, mentioning your investment amount involved and broker," the forum said in a letter.

Loser pays all

After Saradha went bust, the local media published photographs or telecast footage of some Trinamool leaders and state ministers sharing the stage with, or and showering praise on, Sudipta Sen, the promoter, at various functions. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee then directed all her party colleagues to avoid "chit-fund" companies in public life (although Saradha was not a chit fund but a collective investment scheme). Banerjee now seems to be leading by example. Invitations are already pouring into her office requesting her presence for the inauguration of many Durga Pujas in October. Banerjee has ordered an innovative way to sort out the invitations. According to officials in her office, Banerjee has said she would not inaugurate those pujas that are being sponsored by any of the so-called "chit-fund" companies.

Puja elimination process

Apropos the editorial "Bargains in a slowdown" (August 19), there are lessons for the trade unions, too, from the strike at Bajaj Auto's Chakan Plant. The union came up with Utopian demands and stuck to them creating an impasse at the outset itself. It failed to get support from other unions in the area because of this. Such demands can be pushed through by a strong leader and the union lacked that too. A lack of preparation and failure to co-ordinate with the workers at the Aurangabad plant enabled the management to threaten shifting of jobs there.However, it may be premature, if not risky, to use the Bajaj Auto model as a remedy for industrial relation problems. By ensuring unconditional withdrawal of the strike what the management achieved is armed truce and not a lasting solution. It may now use the uneasy calm to restore the faith of the workers and consider their reasonable demands in a spirit of give and take.Y G Chouksey  PuneLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Edit

Letters: A risky model

Many papers have bemoaned the lack of business in the Lok Sabha over the last two years. The number of Bills passed by Parliament is among the lowest since Independence. But if the Bills first in line for passage are ill-advised schemes such as the Food Security Bill (that will lead to fiscal ruin and inefficient cropping patterns) and the Land Acquisition Bill (that will make it difficult to buy contiguous land), could it be that the stalling of business in the House has been of vital purpose for India's future? Indeed, perversely, has this been a good session of Parliament?Rohan Soares  MumbaiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Good by default?

This refers to the editorial "Let's get the facts right" (August 19). The confusion on the historic value of the rupee against the dollar is indeed bothersome. While Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party have mentioned the supposed equivalence of the two currencies in 1947, they are neither the originators nor main propagators of the myth, as the editorial seems to suggest. Indeed, the finance minister's statement in the Rajya Sabha on August 14 is not a mere obiter dictum and deserves proper condemnation for perpetuating a falsehood rather than a mere rap on the knuckles. Modi's mistake was to believe him and the front page item in India's leading English daily on August 15.The rupee was never equal to the dollar even in the hoary past. Shershah Suri formalised the silver rupee in the 1540s, fixing its weight at 178 grains (1 tola). At that time Â£1 (colloquially equal to four dollars or five-shilling pieces) was worth a tower pound or 5,400 grains of silver. That made the doll

Letters: Value of the rupee

Do you think IITs should devise strategies to better their financial condition so that their dependence on government grant reduces?

Students' Corner

Linking currency depreciation to stock market fall in emerging markets is like asking the proverbial question: What came first - the chicken or the egg?While the Indian rupee and the stock markets are down this year because of high current account deficit; the Shanghai benchmark index has seen a much sharper fall, even as the country has a current account surplus; and the Chinese renminbi has appreciated. In case of Russia, however, both its currency and the stock market are down, despite the country running one of the largest current account surpluses among the emerging markets.In a majority of the emerging markets, currency depreciation has led to a fall in the stock market, but the correlation between the two vary greatly. The rupee, for instance, has been the second-worst performing currency among the seven key ones, but the BSE Sensex has done better than all but its two peers. This indicates at best a tenuous link between the currency and the stock market. Only in three countries

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