Bank of America

Just saw a post on twitter by Wikileaks pleading people to stop doing business with the bank.

Wikileaks said that they have dug up some dirt of BoA and the bank said that they will not process any payments intended for wikileaks.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/17/2528138/bank-of-america-says-it-wont-process.html

I wonder, why one would have accounts or for that matter any kind of transaction with a bank that they are bent upon digging dirt about. I would rather steer clear of it completely.


As an afterthought, interestingly, event Mastercard, Visa and Paypal are not processing payments meant for Wikileaks. Why is the site not asking people to stop doing business with these agencies as well?

Tata Jumps In...

In the last month, a set of audio tapes with the taped conversations between Nira Radia (I am not impressed with the extra 'i') and certain journalists, came into the public domain. Subsequently, Mr. Ratan Tata went straight to the Supreme Court asking for the government to make sure that the tape(s) that have been gathered over the course of the CBI surveillance, not be allowed leak into public purview.

A few observations:

By doing this Mr. Tata has made it quite obvious that he himself has quite a few skeletons in the closet. All the bull about 'I did not start my airline because I was asked to bribe and I could not go to bed knowing that I had bribed'; was all media stunt and nothing else. He is neck deep, if not more, involved in bribery, probably the T&C with the aviation minister did not work out back at that time. It probably was not a 'Win-Win' situation.

Either that or, Mr. Ratan Tata, is the bellwether for privacy protection for those people/entities who happen to be certified frauds.

Corrupt India

There have been several occasions when I have heard countless people in India crib about that fact that we do not seem to have an honest government. The ministers are corrupt, the officials are corrupt, the assistants are corrupt, so much so that even the peons are corrupt. All in all the entire system is corrupt.

Why is this the case? Is there no solution to this?

Some call for martial law, some dictatorship, some even for civil war, some kind of revolution that will put an end to all of this.

Well, let us look at some facts. Lets take the case of a ministry and work it out.

Telecom ministry

The telecom ministry has generated 45000 Crores in this year alone. Let us assume this to be the revenue of the ministry. Now the salary of the Telecom minister is Rs. 30,000 per month. Don't jump at me, I know there are a few perks, some calls, house, pension, air travel and the likes.

Now, if we consider the Reliance Group, Mukesh Ambani who is the CEO of the company, which has a turnover of roughly 1.2 Lac Crores; gets a salary of about 44 Crores annually.

Where is the parity, by these standards, the telecom minister should have got, 15 Crores per year, instead he is getting less than what an MBA pass out would get. Why would there not be corruption in the system?

They make a furore over the fact that the Indian government expenditure is a 1000 Crores on all of the ministers, it is supporting an economy of USD 1.16 Trillion. Let us say Reliance was making that kind of revenues, would there not be salary expenses to such tune? In fact it would be several times that figure.

Salaries of this nature are incentive to corruption. Well, I am managing 1.16 Trillion USD, would it be wrong if I get one percent of that as service charges, which by the way works out to 55,000 crores. We are nowhere close to paying that kind of salaries.

When Lee Kuan Yew first took over Singapore as an independent country, the first thing he did was to make sure that every minister had a top notch salary, if not at par with private sector, at least close. This was essential to attract the best talent in the country and abroad to manage the show. We have some of the worst politicians that the world can see primarily for this reason. If you are talented, why on earth would you get into politics? It pays peanuts.

Now the next argument will be that the politicians are corrupt not because of need but because of greed.

Well some of them are, no denying it. It the entire corporate world, there had to be a Ramalingam Raju who had to show that there always is room for greed. But he does not define the system; that is not what corporate India is all about. There is more to it.

Similarly, if the salaries of the people who are a part of the government improves, you will root out the incentive to go after more. The incentive for risking ones image and reputation will outweigh the additional money that they can make. Furthermore, the enforcement can also take place more effectively. Currently, enforcement officers are some of the most poorly paid government employees. It makes it easy for those wish to bribe their way out of a problem.

The same is also been stated in economics long back as the 'Decreasing margins of returns'. Currently the benchmark has been set so low, with salaries that could have been considered good in 1980, that corruption is prevalent.

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening. There is such a furore for a minor salary hike of government employees and our budgets are stretched hard due to the amount of money that we spend on oil and defense, that there is no room for such lavish increases.

One things I am pretty certain about is that, this is the only thing that can put and end to corruption in this country.

Raavan

Every good director has to once in while dish out a shitty movie. Saawariya was Bansali's lousy dishing and Raavan is Mani Ratnam's.

The movie never manages to capture your attention at any point of time. It just flows very slowly through exotic scenery and unnecessary visual effects.






The actors have done their due, but the story never gets you going at all. Too much slow motion visual effects at all of the wrong times, takes the attention away from the story/situation itslef. Further, even the setting of the story is very unconvincing. The excitement and vigour that should be a part of a chase movie is completely absent.

The movie is not even worth a watch.

PVR - Ticket Loot

Karnataka happens to be the only state in India, which does not have any ceiling on the pricing of movie tickets and PVR has been exploiting this fact to the hilt. Currently, during the opening weekend of a movie, the theater charges a cool Rs. 350 per head and even on weekdays, they are charging Rs. 250 per head.

The management has lost sight of the difference between pricing high and ripping people off. The thin line dividing the two has suddenly been erased.

Not only are the ticket prices high, PVR has also embarked on a program of bumping the price of pop-corn up by Rs 15 every 3 months. A large combo that earlier would cost Rs. 100 has jumped to Rs. 130 in the space of the last 6 months, through two price hikes. They buy burgers for Rs. 7 and sell it for Rs. 70. To top it, they are shameless enough to leave the vendor price on the burger.

The company is fast moving its revenue model towards what can only be deemed as rank extortion.

PVR - Remodeled Loo

For the past 6 months one or the other bathroom at PVR Classic, in Forum, Bangalore, has been going under the hammer for the purpose or renovation. Once they did complete the renovation of one of the restrooms, I was aghast to see that there were no dividers between the urinals.

Apparently the design came from the woman, little wonder! When has she strut her modesty out to pee? Despite requests from the staff, the company is reluctant to do anything about the urinals, for which they have already spent a bomb (Rs. 30 Lacs, I am given to understand) and caused sufficient inconvenience to all.

Currently as the situation stands, its quite embarrassing to pee in PVR Classic cinema, Forum, Bangalore. The company that was once setting new standards for customer satisfaction seems to have gone astray.

Raajneeti

As the heart of it the movie was quite good. There were some really good performances from various actors.

The movie is about a political family and the fight for power that ensues the moment the head of the family and the political party gets paralysed. Infighting ensues and two factions are formed.

The political moves that are played out thereon to determine who assumes power is the most interesting part of the movie. The performances by Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor are worth a mention.

Though I fail to understand why Katrina required so much of tutoring for delivering one line in the movie. She was just unnecessarily hyped.

Worth a watch.

Global Investor's Meet

Last week, the government held, what can only be referred to as a chest thumping exercise, the Global Investor's Meet.

To begin with the only company that was not Indian was Arcelor Mittal. If one discounts this company for the fact that Mr. Mittal happens to be Indian, it was pretty much an Indian investors meet. So why call it Global Investor's Meet?

The entire two days, for which a whopping 1000 Crores were spent marketing, was spent signing MoUs. Nobody knows how many of these will actually get converted into real investments. The entire event was a waste and one that could have been completely avoided.

A poorly executed and miserable show.

Optician gone crazy

I went to buy a new pair of glasses today, when I realized a truth about retail of optical solutions in India. Guess the price of a rimless frame!

Well if it has a brand name on it, it costs about Rs. 4,000 (USD85) and if it is one that is not branded it would cost about Rs. 1,500 (USD35). For two steel sticks which weigh less than 100 grams, the prices are quite ridiculous. The cost of fabrication of the product would be hardly a few hundred rupees, not to mention that most of these (branded and un-branded alike) are manufactured in China.

Understandably, a bulk of the cost goes to the retailers and channel partners. The margins that retailers and distributors get in this business are huge. Little wonder someone like Titan, who had no background in the business decided to foray into it through Titan Eye+.

It is just a shame that the margins are so high in a business that can be likened to healthcare solution.

Seb and Mark Crash

Sebastian Vettel On-Board



Mark Webber On-Board



It is amazing how from a third person's perspective it becomes so important to pin the blame on one or the other.

Last weekend in the Turkish Grand Prix, the two championship leaders had a crash that they both must be shameful about. But when you take a look at the on-board camera views of the two drivers, it becomes very clear that neither is wrong. They just assumed that the other would not get in the way.

It was just a racing incident. Had it been between two drivers of opposite teams it would have been brushed off as competition, but since the drivers are both from the same team, it is being drummed up a lot.

I think the press should just leave them alone.

Shrek Forever After

I often find that Animated movies are able to communicate subtle lessons in life much better than movies with real people; the same is true with Shrek Forever After.

At the core the movie is about Shrek's mid-life crisis; wanting to go back to the life he once had. Shrek achieves his wish, soon to realise that he has been tricked by Rumpelstiltskin. As he long to get back to the family that he once had, he realises the value of what he had.

A delightful film, though not as funny as the first two parts, since the donkey has a much subdued role; it is a major improvement on 'Shrek The Third'. I would recommend it as a must watch for those who have followed all of the Shrek movies.

My Name is Khan

My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.

The statement alone echoes the thoughts of many Muslims who have lived or continue to live in the post 9/11 U.S. There have been many movies that have been made on this subject, but not one has been able to treat the subject with the same degree of empathy or sensitivity as 'My Name is Khan' has managed to.

Rizwan Khan, the protagonist of the movie, is not a American Muslim, he is not a guy who can blend right in, but gets spotted due to his name. He is a devout Muslim, the kind that reads all 5 namaz on time, the kind that constantly repeats a few 'Rakats' at all times. He is the kind that will get singled out as a Muslim quite easily, and one who is proud to put up his name; Khan. This movie portrays the after effects of 9/11 on one such man.

The movie itself is quite tightly edited and there are very few unnecessary scenes, which is a part and parcel of most dramatised Indian cinema. Shah Rukh Khan has pushed himself to the limit to put forward a performance which is unlike any prior to this. He has managed to carry the role of Rizwan Khan with great passion and given a moving performance. The writers and directors (I am sure that SRK made a great deal of contribution of the script) have subtly tried to use many of the teachings from the Quraan, to portray the true teachings of Islam.

One such instance that comes to mind is when he goes to a mosque and hears a doctor manipulate the story of Ishmael from the Quraan, to mislead a group of individuals, Rizwan explains the true significance of the story and while telling them that it was the devil who misled, SRK throws three stones at the doctor. This is the same act that is performed by every Muslim during the Haj, where they throw stones at a rock, supposed to be the devil itself. (Some people like Anupama Chopra, who know not better assume this to be a shout fest.)

The movie moves back and forth, between the past and the present, which is presented in the form of a narrative by Rizwan Khan as he travels to try and meet the President of U.S.

The seriousness is broken at various points with funny sequences, but the movie overall remains a serious affair. Kajol's acting is good, but completely overshadowed by SRK's performance.

One of the best movies on Muslims in U.S., post 9/11. It touches the crux of the issue at hand and takes a very strong stand. There are only two kinds of people in this world; Good People and Bad People. It is important to be a good person and shun all other devides. The movie manages to get this across in an excellent manner.

Undoubtedly, My Name is Khan is one of the best movies I have seen on a serious subject in a long time.

iPad and Keyboard

Apple launched this new product called the iPad, which it says is in-between an iPhone and a Mac. They have finally got it wrong. I am surprised that a company of the caliber of Apple has failed to understand the primary issue with devices. KEYBOARDS!

No matter what fancy touch driven gadgets they bring out, as long as they do not find a way to dispose of the QWERTY layout and bring in a paradigm shift in input of data, they are not going to find that solution. All touch driven keyboards are bad. Anyone who has used them can testify for the fact. They need to make the sort of jump that the 'Mouse' made in the data input field. The mouse radically changed the way data is input into the computer.

The replacement for the keyboard will give us the next big device.

Tata Docomo - Victims of Success

I guess when, Tata launched its GSM service with Docomo, they would have never thought that they would get such unprecedented response to their connection. The marketing done for the launch of the brand was very fresh and attractive. Along with that, the pitch of 1 Paise per Second, touched the right nerve with the audience. Paying for seconds that one does not use was a matter of great debate for a long time and they provided the apt solution.

Having said all of that, the network that they erected would have been done thinking that they would get perhaps tens of thousand of sign ups, whereas the sign ups ran into the hundreds of thousands. Now, the Tata Docomo network is one of the worst networks to be on. Almost every call has to be dialed twice due to frequent disconnections. The quality and clarity remains a huge problem with the network.

Tata Docomo; a victim of its own success. They are unable to support the volumes on their network.

One would have to give up to the fact that, they changed the paradigms of mobile business in India. Before you knew it, every single mobile telephony company was scrambling to change their plan to a per second rate. Even a behemoth such as Airtel, who claim 110 Million people on their network, had to make this shift.

Tata Docomo has managed to be the game changer but successful, I don't know about it.

Chetan Bhagat and 3 Idiots

The story of Chetan Bhagat is one of sour grapes. He went ahead and signed a legally binding contract with the film producer prior to the movie, without reading the contract carefully enough.

Now that the movie has been released, he is crying about credit. Even if he gets the credit, now that the movie has been released, what is he going to achieve out of it. Did he not know that he was not going to get much credit, when he signed on the dotted line.

I think he is just trying to derive as much mileage as possible out of the given situation. If he had a basis for protest, he would have filed a case 2 days before the release of the movie and cashed out on the opportunity. This strategy has been used well by many to reap great rewards.

I think that what he is doing is just going to result in Chetan getting sued.