Sony and BMG - The german japanese marriage

The two strategy courses really intererst me this term. For example the news of the upcoming merger of Sony and BMG. Together they command would 25% industry share (second largest after Universal). With the top four players cornering 80% of the market share, no wonder the independents and other small players are crying foul about the BBC NEWS | Business | Sony and BMG merger backed by EU">EU approval of the merger. All might not be good for small consumers as the companies together will be able to crack down better of piracy and cheap music, the major problems faced by music industry. The merger is still undergoing antitrust review in the US though.

Technology Companies test the market

The IT success story had been watched the world over. Google created ripples earlier this year by launching the gmail service that redefined the standards for free email services.(That reminds me my two invites are still open). The company has now filed $2.7 billion IPO. The IPO is being handled by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston but, what is interesting is Merrill Lymch pulled out of the IPO citing poor profit potential. This unofficial site discusses the IPO. Analysts advise investors to buy it and then sell ASAP considering the possibility of hyped valuations.

On the Indian scene after last two years of dilly dallying, TCS is finally coming to the market. The company has already submitted its red herring prospectus to SEBI. Last heard it was supposed to be priced around Rs 800/share. Unofficial word says the company plans to launch its IPO on July 29, which coincides with be centenary celebrations of the group.

The Budget

The Economic Times article does not mention how much is the excise duty on computers. If you have similar problems access the full text of budget here

Anyways what affects people like me majorly

- The 8% excise duty on computers has been removed. My new computer should cost Rs 2000 less atleast.
- The collateral requirement has been waived for educational loans up to Rs 7.5 lakh from Rs 4 lakh (Doesn't help much. Banks did not follow this anyway)

Anyways this is what I could make of the budget, trying to address the concerns raised by Stephen of Morgan Stanley.

+ Plans to make procedures for registration and operations simpler and quicker for FIIs
+ Investment ceiling for FII's in Debt funds has been increased from US$1 billion to US$ 1.75 billion;
+ As far FDI is concerned, caps have been raised in Telecom (74%), Insurance(49%) & Aviation(49%)
- Disinvestment targets for 2004-2005 reduced to Rs 4000 crore
- Profit making PSU's not to be sold
+ If your taxable income is below 1 Lakh no tax (Rs 9000 saved/year)
? Non Resident Deposits no longer welcome(interest to be taxed)
+ Reasonable Fiscal Deficit at 4.4% of GDP

Capital Gains Tax
- Long term capital gains tax abolished
+ Small investors - Short term capital gains taxed uniformly at 10%from earlier 10%/20%/30% regime.
These two apparently led to the a lot of selling pressure from small investors.

- Transaction tax on all securities (15 basis points)
This one sent the capital markets on a nosedive. Would majorly affect big players, brokers and mutual funds who churn their portfolios often. More so beacuse its across the board and cannot be escaped. (Future and Options and bonds included).The FM also planned to put an end to bonus and divident stripping. No longer can you make a killing by those bonus shares. I hope dad has booked some of his profits.

All the direct taxes of course need to be approved by the parliament first.The criticism of the budget is though it promised "Growth, Stability and Equity", And it does seem to be satisfy the last two of its objectives , the growth part seems to be meant for certain sectors like agriculture

Anyways here it direct from the horse's mouth. An interview with Mr Chidambaram after budget

Controversy Sells ?

Well I wonder if that's a question. But it came up again in class during the discussion of ethics at workplace . The professor referred to increasing reporting of interpersonal abuse in the media as proof of its increasing clutches on our society.

I think the reality is different. With survival pressures heating up in all sectors. Organizations are thinking of ways to sustain and grow their market share. Strategies like innovative advertising, new products, added functionalities etc do not work in case of newspapers websites and other such means of communication. For a newspaper TOI (Times of India) defied the assumption that you can not anything innovative to it by 'giving readers what they want'. (Check out a previous post here).It today is the market leader. If I look around, the same phenomenon exists everywhere. Talk of websites like Indiatimes. All those who have learnt that you can't sustain by catering to the elitist customer. Post a controversial news/spicy photo/article and the no of hits to your sites multiply many times. Catering to people who want celebrities and other such news on page three is a thing on the past. Now such articles occupy their proud place on front page. The increase in no the hits or circulation once you publish something is definitely worth it, seems to be the consensus. Parveen talks about an incident reflecting this in his blog.

This is one issue I have told many people about...So here it goes again...

We had this Kamasutra sex survey a month ago, the results of which were published in many leading magazines.The Times of India had published them too, in the front pages of its supplement, The Hyderabad Times. The next day, a guy wrote a letter to the editor. I don't remember it verbatim, but I'll try...

"Sir, Nowadays we have been seeing that the Times is publishing more non-news items than news items...Many people in my organization are thinking of stopping the newspaper, since there are kids at home who read the same stuff...I don't think you should have published such stuff in the main pages...."

The reply from the editor was..
"Dear Reader, Thanks for your valuable opinion. May we suggest, our esteemed sister publication, "The Hindu"

The message being there is no moral dilemma what so ever. No wonder most of our class is circumspect about the media. We have learnt not to take things at face value.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of USA and a co author of Declaration of Independence wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man". His opinion of newspapers was

" The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper."
" The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

Anyways coming back to the issue the professor raised, I think increasing reporting reflects something else, that there is increasing awareness, that what was under the carpet is being talked about and rectified. That hence is a reason for hope, a step forward
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People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)

Stephen Roach's (MD, Morgan Stanley) take on India

The onus of good interview lies on the interviewer. An interviwer who knows his subject and asks good specific questions can definitely make the interview much more interesting. I realized this as I read a conversation with Stephen Roach telecasted on CNBC TV 18 (The article doesn't mention the interviewers).

Over the last few months, there has been a lot of concern about what Foreign Investors think about the future of Indian economy. Many half baked articles/analysis tell you how they will be concerned about 'reforms' etc. Stephen Roach clearly specifies his watchlist - Privatization, Infrastructure, and Foreign Investment. But the real beauty of the analysis is that the interview takes the issue deeper. Privatization- why ? What do the foreign investors want? Efficiences in Indian industries or just reduced deficits. Would diluting stakes do or is strategic sale the only option? Foreign Investment - What do the FI's want - would better procedures bring them back or an increase in caps would be needed?

The interview also analyses the Indian growth story - If services, then why? Is the government wrong on going back to the Manufacturing and agriculture? Lots of issues like this which concern those who have been watching the markets and policy announcements.

Now that you have read my views on the article, you can read the full text here

Export orders for Indian Concept Car - Reva

I fell in love with that pleasing green coloured small small car when I saw Reva for the first( and last so far) time in a road in Rohtak, Haryana.Reva -the electric car made by Reva Electric Car Company has got export orders of 500 units from British company Going Green Plc according to this ndtv article . Reva was developed as a choice for clean city driving. The car has classy looks. It can seat 4 people (2 adults and 2 children ) comfortably. The car travel up to 80 kilometres in the city once fully charged (6 hours/9 units/Rs. 35-40 approx) and is easy to drive with no clutches and gears or engine vibrations for that matter. Its easy to park too because of its small size.

Reva is an joint venture with 80% Indian stake. With a production capacity of just 6000/year I won't say Reva has changed the face of Indian roads but it definitely is the shape of things to come.

Job fairs arrive in India

I just read that an IT Job Fair is coming up in New Delhi on July 3, 4

A job fair is a place where a lot of recruiters come together at a common place to recruit candidates. The purpose of a job fair is to provide a common place for candidates to look for suitable employment and offer an army of highly qualified candidates to a desirable employer as this article on strategic recruitment using job fairs describes. World wide job fairs are one the most commonly used method of recruitment. However the concept is not that popular in India unless you consider the on campus placement of major institutes. This on campus placement has restricted access and is on a much smaller scale.

But such recruitment techniques will definitely make both job seekers and providers life easier.

Gmail invites on auction ;)

I have just realized I have more email space than I need (or can handle)- 1 GB each of rediff and google. And also on traditional mail providers as yahoo and hotmail.

I haven't even used my Gmail invites yet. Its a little late but I am still sure many visitors to this mail would be interested in this. So do write back with your bid.....

What I did this summer?

Did I mention my stay in Bollywood included a few (now that's an understatement) movies...

"Yuva" - I liked this Mani Ratnam flick a lot. For those who havn't realized Mani ratnam has finished his India tour with this movie- Bombay (Western India), Roja (South & Kashmir), Dil se (North East, Ladakh) and now Yuva (Calcutta). A real movie about the lives of young people. The one liners were really funny. The chemistry between Abhishek and Rani is amazing, and somehow the height difference enlivens it further. Vivek is looking good and Kareena her usual self, though I must say Ajay Devgan inspite of his good acting, looks too old to be college student. Read New Times reivew here

Main Hoon Na - Well a huge hit. A typical commercial movie with all elements in the right mix though you might need to shut down your brains. But some real action shots inspired fron Matrix. Read the TOI review here - Main Hoon Na - so what? ( The title had me gigling).

Murder - This one was popular for all the 'wrong' reasons. The Mallika Sherawat act. Though I must say film trailers were probably purposeful to attract the masses to theaters. A copy of the english movie Unfaithful, the one does not come any close to it.

Passion of Christ - If you have a weak heart, or even a moderately strong one, I won't recommend this one. It has lots of blood, gore and violence. And it its moving, shocking, hurting and painful throughout. I would say it doesn't tell a story, its just a depiction of last few hours/days of Jesus's life and it shakes you.This Mel Gibson movie has had its share of controversies. One of the most academic reviews I could get.

Meenaxi-A tale of three cities. - Directed by MF Hussain,the heroine of this one is NOT Madhuri. Tabu is really good and picture is a visual and audio treat. Nice colors and music. Only if you ask me, its not a movie at all. It makes you scratch your brains for a story. This Webindia review captures the essence beautifully.

......................

Controversy Sells?

Well I wonder if that's a question. But it came up again in class during the discussion of ethics at workplace . The professor referred to increasing reporting of interpersonal abuse in the media as proof of its increasing clutches on our society.

With so much wiring of the world and now India, I guess survival pressures are heating up in all sectors. Which, makes organizations think of innovative ways to sustain and grow their market share. We often talk of innovative advertising, new products, added functionalities and improved services used by companies to do this. But what could be done about things like newspapers websites and other such means of communication. For a newspaper TOI (Times of India) defied the assumption that you can not anything innovative to it by 'giving readers what they want'. (Check out a previous post here).It today is the market leader. If I look around, the same phenomenon exists everywhere. Talk of websites like Indiatimes. All those have learnt that you can't sustain by catering to the elitist customer. Post a controversial news/spicy photo/article and the no of hits to your sites multiply many times. Catering to people who want celebrities and other such news has shifting from page three is a thing on the past. Now such articles occupy their proud place or front page. The increase in no the hits or circulation once you publish something is definitely worth it, seems to be the consensus. Parveen talks about an incident reflecting this in his blog.

This is one issue I have told many people about...So here
goes again...

We had this Kamasutra sex survey a month ago, the results of which were published in many leading magazines.The Times of India had published them too, in the front pages of its supplement, The Hyderabad Times. The next day, a guy wrote a letter to the editor. I don't remember it verbatim, but I'll try...

"Sir, Nowadays we have been seeing that the Times is publishing more non-news items than news items...Many people in my organization are thinking of stopping the newspaper, since there are kids at home who read the same stuff...I don't think you should have published such stuff in the main pages...."

The reply from the editor was..
"Dear Reader, Thanks for your valuable opinion. May we suggest, our esteemed sister publication, "The Hindu"

The message being there is no moral dilemma what so ever. No wonder most of our class is circumspect about the media. We have learnt not to take things at face value.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of USA and a co author of Declaration of Independence wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form
of tyranny over the mind of man". His opinion of newspapers included the following

" The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper."
" The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

Anyways coming back to the issue the professor raised, I think increasing reporting reflects something else, that there is increasing awareness, that what was under the carpet is being talked about and rectified. That hence is a reason for hope, a step forward......

------------------------------------------------------------------
People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)

Group Think

The tendency of a group to act unanimously and to gag to directly or indirectly members with a dissenting opinion. Group think ensures everyone follows in line and organizations, teams and forums work under the illusion of unanimity. Its easier for the group to think colllectively if the members are or made to believe that are taking a moral stand.I read all this in my OB textbook and I used to believe all this happens only in textbooks till my summers. The loan application that we processed was an eye opener.But things lately have been much more than that.

Freedom of expression does not mean mudslinging. There has been too much of that on my personal blog. So I have decided to remove stuff.
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Thought for the day- "Every right has a corresponding duty."
The Indian Constitution

EQ Vs IQ

Thought for the day - Is it really true that Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) and IQ are inversely proportional to each other ? If you are intelligent , is it necessary that you have have a low EQ, that you have to be unable to face the situations life throws at you. That you find it difficult to accept things , mingle with people and adapt to society. Yes, people quote Albert Einstein as a perfect example.

But then, does one necessarily lead to the other. If you can't handle life does it means you are intelligent or vice versa.Look at the people around you and think...

Well, Was offered an explanation like this for an issue when I started a discussion with a friend. Too hard to digest. Can't believe. The world would be such a difficult place to live otherwise. Come on, I only thought u could not have a beauty with brains;)

-Do not face the sky and spit,for the spit falls back on you.

Am back it XL. First few days will be spent figuring out the electives and courses. The new batch is also on campus. Suddenly we are seniors. Summers is indeed transition in so may ways. This time its indeed different from when I was here last year this time. I just don't mean the fact that I was beginning the course and was new to campus.This term there is this sudden urgency , this realization that another few months is what we have got to be the perfect fit for the corporate roles that we want. Last it time the feeling was accomplishment, this time its of impatience and a sudden scarcity of time too.

The senior's placements are still fresh in my mind. 'India Shining' effect and the bumper harvest that B-Schools had. But suddenly things have changed now. We have the 'Father of the reforms', Dr.Manmohan Singh as prime minister and the 'Dream Budget' man as FM but still it seems the faith of investors both foreign and as a cascading effect retail is yet to come back. The crash of that black monday, May 17, 2004 is fresh in my mind. The Nifty graph at NSE India kept on plunging and plunging. Trading was stopped twice i think. The greatest ever fall of 800 points from last days close in a single day in the stock market. The stories have it LIC and UTI were asked to buy by the finance ministry and ultimately it closed some around 560 points down. Since then it has been 'Range Bound' to quote the CNBC India's hosts. ( I have been watching the channel day in out while I was home)But its rather amazing this see saw effect that I saw. Am told traders have been making a lot of money through systemically shortselling and futures and covering up in this market.Equally interesting is this mutual fund scene. Never knew there were so many different options mutual funds provided. The ICICI securties allotment receipt made much more sense to me this time.

This is also something I owe to my summers, this sudden keen interest in the functioning of the stock markets. What was earlier just a general interest has suddenly changed into this keen desire to know how everything works. I have also started making some small effort in this direction.Have taken the job of dad's advisor for his investments. Can I do it ? I definitely think so.

Read 'Rich Dad , Poor Dad', back home in Delhi. Good book to learn the basics of making money. No its not about giving some ten point receipe to be rich, the book talks the importance of financial education and unconventional but perhaps extremely logical way of being independent. Does help you get a perspective on money.

Am reading ' Catcher in the Rye'. everyone has been praising it a lot. Will talk more about it once i finish the book.

Well as my time as Mumbai draws to close, it has indeed been a learning ( and really enjoyable) experience. New friends and contacts , sightseeing and lots on practical enrichnments. "Summer projects are not about rocket science", to quote a friend of mine. Won't go in the details but This is one sentence any b-school student will identify with (after his/her summers ofcourse)

Anyways submitted the first draft of my report.Was generally appreciated. (Though its different I don't see what is there to appreciate about it).There has been a lot of learning in terms of structured financing though. And no it seems I can't say I have a hand in giving the money that went into developing of the first planned hill station town of India- the loan was refused. ( I shouldn't complain I am the one who has been describing the plan as unviable from the beginning )

Preparations are up the grand party that happens during summers one event everyone is looking forward to- The Alumni Meet. Called up some people and talked to them it felt really nice to realize the Xl bond. People you don't know you seem all eager to attend to you.

Have had the first rains of the season.Something like pre-monsoon showers od delhi. Yes the rains are different but still I think delhi feels better after rains pretty logical because the place is less humid...