Thursday, December 13, 2012

SOUTH KOREAN CHAEBOLS: FRADULENT ACTS


They ignored the potential of ‘Clean capitalism’ ; they were wrong...

And so were the thieves caught, one after another. In 2000, the much discussed multi-billion Chaebol-cheat Daewoo, collapsed! Getting cheap credits from banks was never an issue, and Daewoo used this to snap up companies… [It’s not very known that founder & former CEO of Daewoo, Kim Woo-choong’s father had been dictator Park Chung Hee’s teacher.] The company cut several secret deals with the government to bail out his shipbuilding unit and it is also believed that during 1997-98, Kim masterminded Asia’s biggest accounting fraud that inflated Daewoo’s stock by $32 billion! Ultimately, post-Daewoo, he fled... 

Three years later, another Chaebol, SK Global’s accounting scandal erupted! SK Global, the sister firm of South Korea’s largest oil refiner, SK Corp, was involved in two cases – one, an accounting fraud (profits of FY 2001 were inflated by $1.25 billion), and two, for funnelling funds during the 2002 presidential elections. Weeks later, SK Corp’s Chairman Chey Tae-won – the eldest son of the group’s founding family and son-in-law of a former President of South Korea – was sentenced to 3 years in prison. 

After a break of 3 more years, more worms wriggled out of the can… and this time, it was Chung Mong-koo, Chairman of South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor Co., who was arrested on charges of embezzling company funds to create a $105 million slush fund in order to clandestinely bribe government officials. [Did you know that the current South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, had worked in Hyundai for 27 years and was its Chairman & CEO when he quit to enter politics?]. February 2008 saw more action in this regard – only this time it was the turn of the largest Chaebol, Samsung Electronics. Chairman Lee Kun-hee, alongwith his son, Lee Jae-yong resigned amidst allegations of financial irregularities and charges of hiding slush funds (a whopping $4.5 billion, used to bribe government officials). On July 26, 2008, Lee Kun was fined $109 million & sentenced to 3 years of suspended jail term… 


 Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Monday, December 10, 2012

Alright, Hallelujah! What next?

How religious leaders can help the world for its betterment

A close scrutiny exemplifies the fact that be it the Pope in Christianity or Dalai Lama in Buddhism, Rabbis in Judaism or Imams in Islam, religious leaders do all have implicit and explicit influences in the lives of even non-devotees.

To start off with, Pope Benedict XVI. Given the current global scenario, each of the Pope’s visits, addresses to the common people, official statements marks history. For instance, his mind-boggling address to the youths of Germany, inter-faith talks with Jews and Muslims and many other similar visits to Brazil, Austria, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the US have been overwhelmingly successful in garnering more international attention than his religious designation should warrant.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Constructive destruction!!!

Don’t play against nature, it will surely bite you back later...

The waiting game on embryonic stem cell research is almost over with Obama signing the bill to allow state funding of it. But the debate isn’t yet over. It was during the Clinton regime that the concept of Stem cell research took shape for the first time. Abortion was legalised and UK’s successful experiment with in vitro fertilisation inspired scientists in the US. Hence the Human Embryo Research Panel of the National Institute of Health approached President Bill Clinton to allow state funding but considering the moral and ethical concerns, he refused it. Later Bush faced similar predicaments but reacted more strongly than Clinton. In spite of unanimous support in the Congress in favour of it, he used his veto power thrice to stop it. He strategically defended his decision by stating, ‘the bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses the moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So, vetoed it.’


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Split left, right & centre!

CPI (M) is caught in an unsavoury fight over corruption in Kerala

Ghosts of a major scam have come to haunt the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala. Party’s state chief Pinarayi Vijayan is accused of financial misconduct in the Rs.3.33 billion contract awarded to a Canadian firm SNC Lavlin to upgrade the state’s three hydro-electric power stations during his tenure as Energy Minister of Kerala 12 years ago. The case was handed over to the CBI on orders of the Kerala High Court and the incumbent CM VS Achutanandan, known for his clean and uncompromising image, has sanctioned the prosecution of his party colleague, Vijayan. It is no secret that the two leaders have been at logger heads for a long time – so much so that both had been suspended from CPI(M)’s apex policy making body, the politburo last year. The latest controversy hasn’t helped the party’s cause a bit. The issue has vertically divided the party with Achutanandan claiming to fight corruption at every level and Vijayan claiming to be a victim of political conspiracy.

Things got so hot that the CPI(M) secretary general Prakash Karat himself had to broker a truce – with polit buro ratifying Vijayan’s conspiracy theory while issuing gang orders on Achutanandan. Citing CBI’s stringent indictment by the Supreme Court for frequently changing stance in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s disproportionate assets (DA) case, Karat said, “The Central government is fabricating a case against Vijayan only as a vendetta against our decision to withdraw support to it in wake of Indo-US nuclear deal. Looks like, the government hasn’t learnt from the court’s strictures against it in the Mulayam Singh case”.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

A winner on every pitch

'Diggi Raja' has attained an enviable political stature, and has kept his feet firmly on the ground

Once an opener and wicket-keeper in his college team, 'Diggi Raja' or Digvijay Singh can’t help but compare politics with cricket. In fact, he feels that both have uncanny resemblance in their characteristics. Diggi Raja was once heard saying that politics was like batting, where a batsman must learn to tackle beamers in order to score. Also, like batsman, politicians need immense patience to wait for the right occasion to strike and when the moment comes, make some quick decisions. We can’t agree more.

Digvijay Singh joined politics when he had barely crossed his teens. He ruled India’s then largest state, Madhya Pradesh for close to a decade – 1993 to 2003 – and when he lost the elections in 2003, he put on a very brave face, something so uncommon in Indian political class, and decided not to contest elections for the next 10 years. He was inducted in the core group of the party and assigned the post of General Secretary. His profile changed forever. Now, like his peer Ahmad Patel, he has become the eyes and ears of not only Rahul Gandhi, but of the party high-command itself. For example, in a recent meeting, he opined that the party should promote youngsters for seats that it considers “tough ones”. The idea struck a chord where it mattered the most: Rahul Gandhi.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Barack Obama’s election could mean for business

People have been overwhelmed by his victory but business leaders are guarded in optimism. Virat Bahri & Pallavi Srivastava of B&E analyse what Barack Obama’s election could mean for business

his business voice

So far, Obama’s egalitarian stance on various issues facing the economy hasn’t exactly kept him in the good books of business. It is well evident from his statement, “We cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.” His focus seems to be more bottom up; first the people and then the big fish; i.e. businesses. Obviously, that is not what corporate leaders would appreciate. Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, US Chamber of Commerce, which represents over 3 million businesses, commented on what he felt should be Obama’s priorities, “Restoring the nation’s economic health must be our top priority. Any successful and sustainable recovery will involve the business sector, which creates the jobs, the growth, and the revenues on which all Americans and our government depend.” His mandate was: Get economy and business on its feet first; and then we can take care of controversial issues. One of them is the Employer’s Free Choice Act, which takes away an employer’s rights over a secret ballot to decide whether workers may form unions. He has also talked about reforming bankruptcy laws to protect employees and to ban executive pay for executives of such companies.

In particular, the issue of CEO compensation has been a thorn in the flesh. The US President elect has clearly given the top honchos of big American businesses nightmares with his backing of the ‘Say-on-pay’ bill which will give shareholders a nonbinding proxy vote on executive pay. It is believed that Say-on-pay will become a legislation within first 100 days of Obama’s administration. Now that clearly is bad news for the big guys but Anjan Roy, Economic Advisor, FICCI argues, “If Lehman Brothers is falling apart, why can’t shareholders decide to cut on the exorbitant expenses on CEO pays. It will only be good for business.” Well, a CEO does hate to see his company go down; and if his cheque follows suit, you can imagine his plight!

The new President elect has also suggested supporting small businesses by offering more lending for them and cutting taxes. For the corporate sector on the whole, the plan is to cut tax rate to below 35% and act stringently to broaden the corporate tax base & reduce loopholes; like special interest loopholes for large companies as well as wealthy individuals. He is also advocating removing tax cuts for oil companies. He has anyway repeatedly lamented America’s reliance on Middle East oil; and the need to bring in a new ‘alternative’ energy economy. So oil companies may see their ‘windfall’ profits getting threatened.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Monday, December 3, 2012

These clouds have no silver lining

As dark clouds ominously hang low over most of Asia, environmentalists are urging nations to transform into low-carbon economies...

In the words of William Ruckelshaus, “nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.” If not judiciously used, it stands to change the ABCs of our very lives. In the present day scenario, the elements threatening to play havoc with our lives are the ABCs in our environment. Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) are expanding and assuming alarming proportions these days. These Atmospheric Brown Clouds are hovering over Asia and have been blocking out the sun and are aggravating the climatic imbalance brought on by the greenhouse effect. A noxious concoction of soot, smog and toxic chemicals has played havoc with the health of over a million in Asia, according to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports, and has altered the weather patterns in Arabian Peninsula, China and around the western Pacific Ocean. The three-kilometer thick ‘brown cloud’ of man-made pollution has had an immediate effect on the Himalayan-Hindu Kush glaciers, causing the ice-caps to melt.

Often termed as regional haze, these Atmospheric Brown Clouds have become the newest threat to global environment. The environmentalists believe that these brown clouds are caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and biomass, and ejections from motor vehicles and thermal plants. Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson to the Executive Director, UNEP, also adds that “if these gases are combined with other harmful emissions like C02, methane and other greenhouse gases, it would lead to further complexities.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Saturday, December 1, 2012

PORSCHE: VOLKSWAGEN STOCK OPTIONS

Porsche has made a whopping $8.7 billion by selling VW options; but may have to give up ownership bid

The market is rife with allegations of Porsche misusing loopholes in German laws.

Now, Porsche is seeking an overturn of a German ruling that gives the state of Lower Saxony special status. Evidently, Porsche is looking for management control; which would enable it to alter Volkswagen's structure & gain full access to its books. But the State of Lower Saxony has voting rights (as a 20% plus shareholder, thanks to the ruling) it doesn't want to give away. Porsche is trying to take the case to EU court, which might be stalled at the court in Hanover. Sal Oppenheim’s Christian Breitsprecher asserts, “The sensible thing (for Porsche) would be to sell a part of their holding and cash-in on this opportunity by settling down for a 60-65% holding in the company.” In fact, VW's options have proved very positive for Porsche, as the latter has made a cool $8.7 billion by selling 5% of VW options on October 29. So if the legal tangle gets too complicated, that seems to be the best track for Porsche – take the VW stake as an investment; and give up claims to acquiring them; unless it finds another loophole in German law!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, November 30, 2012

Mirror Mirror on the wall, why’re we the worst amongst them all?

Why discrete development of just a few sectors will prove futile. And why collective is the way to go...

After analysing every sector, we decide to write about one that is really pulling India down. And after hours of heated discussion and analysis of myriad reports, the editorial board came to a very interesting conclusion – we found that each sector had an impact on the other, something which is more grave than it sounds... ‘negative synergy’ for India is what we called it. In spite of such growth and development, the country is yet to initiate some basic transformations or changes.

A nation is generally considered successful when it achieves three significant milestones – free politics (which implies freedom of peoples’ choices), economic freedom (bringing prosperity and equality coupled-with social freedom) and finally, achieving peace and social cohesiveness. The world, during the last sixty years has fought to achieve these three ingredients of a healthy nation. Even when we speak about the Western countries, they have all achieved democracy and prosperity, but whether they’ve successfully been able to bring about ‘social cohesiveness and integration’ is really a question. Though India scored high in both political freedom and social integration, it is yet to witness that dream economic growth (that of 10%). Fortunately, with the initiation of economic liberalisation during the 1990s, India has brought revolution which Gurcharan Das in his book, The Elephant Paradigm, has explained vividly. The world can easily remember 1789 for French revolution and/or 1917 for the Russian revolution because of their pro-active nature. But the revolution in India has been like silent water flowing peacefully downhill... it’s happening but the rate of flow and change cannot be imagined or justified, or even quantified!

While expressing his view Parag Khanna, Director, Global Governance Initiative, New America Foundation comments, “I am impressed with the sustained growth in the economy and taken by surprise at how quickly and broadly manufacturing has boomed. This will be the secret to employment-generating-growth which can tackle one of the largest social deficiencies of the economy to date. There are still worrying signs at the top level like slow investment in infrastructure, and also deregulation. Many investors from America complain ceaselessly of the still opaque business environment in India...”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Can we educate the regulator?

B&E’s Managing Editor Sutanu Guru wrote on this literate dilemma two issues back; you missed it, he knew it, we’re re-running it... diligently!

Over the decades, he has emerged as one of the most respected entrepreneurs of post-Independence India and nurtures the powerful corporate legacy of the Godrej family. He is very optimistic about India’s future. And yet, when B&E asks Adi Godrej about one single issue that could derail India. he unhesitatingly says ‘education’. “The State has to encourage private sector participation in education. There is no other option. It is the private sector that made the third rate telecom and aviation sectors in India world class. It is the private sector that will do it in education.” And of critical importance is the FEI (Foreign Educational Institutions: regulation of entry and operations, maintenance of quality and prevention of commercialisation) Bill, 2007, that had to be shelved last year by Arjun Singh due to stiff opposition from the Left. Granted that the current UPA government has just about a few months left to go before it is election season.

But just as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has staked his future legacy through the nuclear deal, HRD Minister Arjun Singh too has a great opportunity to stake his own legacy by reforming higher education in the country, and in a major way by getting the FEI Bill passed. In fact, the passing of this Bill could well lead to benefits that will be far more significant and enduring than the nuclear deal. And now that the UPA government is not hobbled by an obstructionist and obscurantic Left when it comes to policy making and implementation, Arjun Singh even has the space now to quickly leave a lasting imprint; if he so wishes to. The question is, does he?

It just seems, Arjun Singh wishes to do so, and this time is moving double time. “The hurdles have been removed to an extent and now the Bill should be introduced... If time is available, I would like to see it happen,” Arjun Singh commented just 48 hours after the government won the trust vote. Arjun Singh even set up an urgent meeting with state education ministers to initiate a blueprint for considerable expansion and education reforms in the next five years. But as he confirmed with his actions, the meeting was primarily with a focus on getting the FEI Bill passed quick time.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, November 26, 2012

“The slowdown can be seasonal”

Vivek Nayar, VP (Marketing), Auto Division, Mahindra & Mahindra

B&E: What are the effects of the industry slowdown on M&M?
VN: If there is a slowdown, naturally we will also be affected by it. However I think that the slowdown is a seasonal factor and sales will pick up eventually. Then there is the monsoon and rains, a situation where the consumer is not very keen in making new purchases.

B&E: On M&M’s new found focus on the environment.
VN: The subject of global warming is something which we should be aware of. The beauty we see in the nature will not be here forever. What matters most is what you leave behind and that is what M&M wants to do. We are not only leading at the CNG initiative, there is a lot more. We have already demonstrated our electric vehicles at the auto expo as well. It all depends on the reach of infrastructure.

B&E: On the company’s environment friendly products.
VN: The launch is a part of our sustained mobility programme. We have already launched the Champion CNG and Alpha CNG in light load carrier segment. Now it is the two tonne segment, Bolero Pickup. We have a portfolio of small load capacity vehicles which are propelled by CNG. In the light commercial category these are solutions to a specific issue. Right now the launch is for the Delhi market, followed by Mumbai and Gujrat. As the infrastructure develops, and as the government plays a major role in increasing the CNG reach, we go to other places as well.

B&E: Will CNG be used in the company’s other models?
VN: Once you are strong in a technology you can use it in various segments; so I think we can provide this initiative into the passenger segment as well. We may launch a Scorpio hybrid in the near future.

B&E: On M&M’s market performance.
VN: M&M volumes have grown from 30,000-44,000, a CAGR growth of 20%. This is when the industry grew by only 7%. In pickups, we are the market leaders with 83% market share. Here, Mahindra grew at 77%, a full 33% more than the segment. 

Read more.......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, November 24, 2012

African safari gone sour

Discontinuing talks with MTN will not prove to be a long term setback for RCOM

It has the makings of a typical ‘Hindi Masala’ film, where boy (Reliance Communication or RCOM) meets girl (MTN) and they fall in love. Before exchanging the marriage vows the two enter in an exclusive ‘courtship’ period to plan their life ahead but then there’s a twist in the tale. Enter the villain – Mukesh Ambani, who claims that he has the right to veto and hence starts the arbitrage process, which ultimately leads to the state where both lovers decided to part on a good note. If talks would have been successful, it would have created an emerging market powerhouse worth up to $70 billion with a subscriber base of 120 million (as on June 30, 2008) spread across the globe, far larger than most Western mobile phone businesses.

After talks with RCOM ended, the grapevine had it that there could be a possibility of a return to Bharti-Airtel. Dobek Pater, Partner at Africa Analysis did not deny this as a possibility in times to come and added, “MTN has established a reputation of being too demanding in the past few month and in case it is bullish about entering India, which is a highly lucrative emerging market, it should drop some items from its wish list.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Animal index!

India would surely rank high on it

According to a recent report released jointly by Assocham and PwC, India is still way behind other BRIC countries when it comes to public spending on social sectors like health, education, providing access to healthy water, sanitation, schemes for elderly population et al. While India’s public spending on education and health was about 6% and 5% respectively according to the latest Indian Economic Survey, the same for its BRIC counterparts like Brazil, Russia and China is around 7.9% and 5.2% and 4.9% on health, and 12.8%, 12.9% and 10.2% on education respectively. The low public spending by India on health is visible by high mortality rate and growing health problems.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Rockers & shockers!

Imagine selling rock guitars when classical music comes into vogue! Surely, a difficult external environment can overwhelm the best of them. B&E profiles three key sectors that merit a mention for profitable or not-so-profitable reasons. psus, of course have been included for their prominence in the list

Sub-prime?: Who is he?

Despite global slowdown, interest rate uncertainties & mounting inflation, Indian banks have a great opportunity to move ahead. But consolidation is also looming on the horizon, says gyanendra kashyap

The paradigm shift in the dynamics of the banking industry is overwhelming; thanks to the continued strong economic cycle. A total of 23 banks made it to the B&E Power 100 list this year. This shows that we are either quite immune from the sub-prime crisis or the impact is yet to come.

Bankex, which trailed around the 3,000 mark a couple of years ago, crossed the 12,000 mark on January 14, 2008. Once dominated by public sector entities, the industry is witnessing unprecedented changes and shareholders are having the last laugh (even though 19 of the 23 are PSBs); and why not, for Indian banking has topped the charts in value creation in FY ’08 (Boston Consulting Group’s report entitled “Managing Shareholder Value in Turbulent Times”). What is more interesting is the sharp decline in NPAs (from 8% in 2000 to about 1% today). Private players as well as their foreign counterparts are making deep inroads into the highly untapped markets; on the backdrop of an efficient technological set up and customer service; and slowly and steadily increasing their market share. Estimates suggest that the duo have been adding 1% of market share on an annualised basis. Their growth in terms of market share (by total assets) has been phenomenal; in 2003, market share of private banks was 17.5% and of foreign banks was 6.9%; by the end of 2007, the private sector banks commanded 21.5% of the market share, while their foreign counterparts increased their share to 8% (Moody’s report). ICICI, HDFC and AXIS are challenging the PSBs both in terms of quality and profitability; nevertheless the banking major State Bank of India (SBI) still tops the charts as far as profitability is concerned.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Jiggling and joggling

Jiggling and joggling to wake up the souls...

Though a source of entertainment for many, this cruel sport is just one of the several ways of misusing animals since it gets the cash registers ringing. These mute beings used in movies and other T.V. programmes are treated as mere props and on many occasions, brutally tortured to get one shot right. “Animals are not natural performers. They don’t like performing. While it is practically impossible to completely refrain their use in media, it is important that they are not put through any sort of torture. So, capturing the natural behaviour of the animal is allowed but making them perform special acts that are not natural to their disposition is cruelty and is not allowed,” informs Jaya Simha, Campaign Manager, PETA India. This Mumbai-based organisation is all set to awaken the entertainment industry to animal rights. The most recent case pending in the court is for the rights of the pug used in the Hutch campaign. The little dog was unduly tortured when made to run during the ‘bus-chasing’ scene. “The chimps used in the Amul advertisement were pushed beyond their natural level of performance and that’s objectionable to us,” asserts Jaya.

It’s great to have such organisations work for the rights of animals, but it’s quite disappointing that only a handful of us worry about the life of those who cannot speak for themselves. The laws and campaigns might someday spare the animals used as props from torture, but I wonder if it can bring about mercy in those hearts that swell with life by watching those of others sink in pain and fear?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Did i forget to forget..?

Scientists scratch their heads over hyperthymesia

Have you ever thought how interesting it would be if you could replay in your mind the events of your life like a movie, and in the exact chronological order of its occurrence? Sounds interesting, but wishful right? Well, not really... Neurologists from the University of California (UC) Irvine had conducted studies on a few people who were diagnosed with this extraordinary ability to recall every moment of their life whenever desired!

Neuroscientists James Mc Gaugh and Larry Cahill of UC Irvine had been conducting studies on such cases and it was in 2006 that a case study on a person called AJ (name changed), who was detected with this syndrome, was published for the first time for everyone’s perusal. It was way back in 2000 that AJ had sent a mail requesting for help for her uncontrollably sharp memory that allowed her to recollect the exact events that had happened in her life since the days of early childhood, which intrigued scientists and triggered the study of such brains. Dr JD Mukherjee, a neurologist at Max Hospital explains, “The Super Memory Syndrome, scientifically termed as hyperthymesia allows one to recall even the trivial details of events that have occurred in their lives. Such cases are a rarity and till now only four people with this syndrome have been found. People with hyperthymesia also have the capability to remember the day which fell on a certain date. Basically, they have sharper non-stop detailed memory capacity.”

The mention of ‘sharper memory’ prompted just one question – could such people prove to be of greater utility if trained for advanced research for scientific inventions or the likes? – to which Dr Mukherjee clarified that “memory and intelligence are separate things.” The human brain has three types of memories. Immediate memory, which allows one to register and recall incidences occurred just minutes ago; short-term memory which enables one to recall the events of the previous few days and long-term memory which keeps the happening that had occurred long ago etched in the mind forever.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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