Archives: All articles

For Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the irony could not have been more cruel. The man who is credited with lifting the country's economy from the brink of disaster in 1991 as finance minister in PV Narasimha Rao's government, is today facing a situation which is not very much better. In fact, in at least two respects - economic inequality and the international exchange rate of the rupee - India's economy appears to be worse off than where it was two decades earlier. India is not in danger of...

The “restructuring” at Network 18 which resulted in the exit of an editor and three senior employees is becoming something of a cause celebre. Journalists organisations are taking it up and issuing statements, the mainstream media has begun writing about it. There have been sackings before but not over ESOPs, involving business journalists employed in a joint venture with an international business magazine, floated by a high profile media house owned by one of the country’s wealthiest magnates...

Some Questions and Answers on a Tycoon, a Law Officer and an Editor Question: What is the nature of the relationship between one of India's richest men and the country's top legal officer? Answer: Good friends. Question: Can legal notices be deployed to prevent a publication from coming out with an article even before it is published? Answer: Such attempts are indeed made but these are not always successful, since not all editors and publishers are easily intimidated or buckle under pressure...

With a substantial section of the Indian media choosing to hype the upcoming 16th General Election as an American presidential style contest between Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it is not surprising that popular interest in the controversial leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has grown exponentially in recent months. Predictably, two journalist-authors and their publishers have sought to ride the crest of this wave of interest about a...

A consultation paper prepared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and released in mid-February makes out a strong and persuasive case for imposition of legal restrictions on cross-media ownership by corporate conglomerates. In the past, there have been several organisations, including TRAI and a committee of Parliament, that have argued why the domination of particular groups over different sections of the mass media, including print, radio and television, in specific...

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is probing whether investments by so-called shell companies linked with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), headed by Mukesh Ambani, caused intentional losses to the company's shareholders. The investments were made during 2009-10 in companies that were part of the INX Media (now 9X Media) group which owns and operates television channels. The ongoing investigation by the SFIO (which is part of the government of India's Ministry of Corporate Affairs...

The paradox is rather apparent. In the contemporary history of India, never have so many once-influential politicians had to spend time behind bars as they have in recent times. Yet the second UPA government, headed by a Prime Minister who was known as Mr Clean, is also being perceived as one of the country’s most corrupt regimes, packed by people with flexible ethics. Before one seeks to explain the contradiction, here’s a roll call of important politicians who were recent guests of the...

BCCL’s Newsprint Burden As the biggest publisher of newspapers in India, it is hardly surprising that BCCL is the single largest consumer of newsprint in the country. The company consumed Rs 1,246.90 crore worth of raw materials in 2010-11, the bulk of it newsprint, comprising over a third (38 per cent) of its turnover that year. The company’s imports stood at Rs 1,374.26 crore, up by as much as 2.8 times from Rs 484.91 crore in the previous financial year. In a report published in Business...

Arvind Kejriwal put it rather bluntly when he asked rhetorically: Who’s running the country, Manmohan Singh or Mukesh Ambani? After a long time, the question was posed in a manner that laid bare the ugly nexus between politics and business – the nexus which is at the root of much of the corruption that is widespread in India today and which is responsible for the ugly underbelly of economic liberalisation, that is, brazen forms of crony capitalism. That Kejriwal’s statements could not be ignored...

Private treaties: boon or bane for BCCL? BCCL was the first media company in India to accept equity shares in lieu of money for advertising space. Others followed thereafter. Here are excerpts from the April 2010 report of the sub-committee of the Press Council of India (PCI) entitled “Paid News: How Corruption in the Indian Media Undermines Democracy” which is available on the Council’s website. The writer of this article was co-author of the sub-committee’s report as a member of the PCI. “BCCL...

Allegations leveled by Palagummi Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu newspaper that its competing daily, the Times of India, published an article at the behest of Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech without disclosing this fact to its readers and subsequently gained financially from its publication, have been endorsed by a committee of Parliamentarians in a recently-published report. Whereas the report, prepared by a panel of MPs belonging to different political parties, does not mention the ToI by...

BCCL is one of the most profitable companies of its kind. In the financial year that ended on 31 March 2011, the company earned profit before tax of Rs 1,489.2 crore on a total income of Rs 4,749.3 crore, implying a phenomenally high profit margin of 31.89 per cent. In 2010-11, BCCL earned a net profit of Rs 968.74 crore (20.4 per cent of turnover) -- up by as much as 3.8 times from Rs 252.26 crore in the previous financial year. (This is the last balance sheet of the company that is available...

“For some, coal means diamonds and gold. For others, the coal signifies bread. They go underground not to take out coal but to sustain their life. They put their lives at risk. They are ready to face death at any moment. But they don’t earn much. The bulk of the profits generated by mining coal is appropriated by the mafia. This is the main reason for poverty here.” This was a perceptive statement made by Amit Raja, a talented journalist who has authored a book titled Aag mein Jharia (Jharia on...

A set of bewildering questions are being raised by industry lobbies and a section of the media about the levy of a one-time fee for excess electromagnetic spectrum fee held by India's telecommunications companies and the refarming or reallocation of spectrum in the privileged 900 MHz (MegaHertz) band that had hitherto been "reserved" for the early entrants. An impression has been sought to be created that these measures have suddenly come out of the blue and that these are both anti-industry and...

A cartoon in The Hindu (that predates the current Ambedkar cartoon controversy) depicts the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, trying to calm down a bunch of jubilant students, saying “I banned Marx, not marks”. Trinamool Congress chief Banerjee’s ire is primarily directed towards her arch political rival, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), whose mouthpiece, Ganashakti, which she does not want the State-funded libraries to subscribe to. There are many others on her list...

IS INFLUENCE being used to scuttle a major money-laundering case against the Agarwal family, the mining magnates who control the Vedanta Resources/Sterlite corporate empire? Circumstantial evidence certainly points in this direction. On October 13, there was confusion in the Delhi High Court, where a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S Muralidhar was about to hear a case: It suddenly transpired that the Enforcement Directorate (which is under the...

Is more competition what India's latest exchange for financial instruments, MCX-SX (Multi-Commodity Exchange - Stock Exchange), will be able to bring to the table and is this the key to a vibrant and more inclusive capital market? Had it just been a matter of competition between exchanges, the advent of the National Stock Exchange would have made all the difference. The NSE, however, started playing "big brother" soon after it ousted the Bombay Stock Exchange from that position. A source close...

India's financial markets are at present highly skewed and dominated by a few players. Consider these facts: The cash equities segment is only 10 per cent of the total turnover of all stock exchanges with 45 per cent of the turnover accounted for by 25 brokers. Equities' futures and options (F&O) comprise more than 75 per cent of total trading volumes on the country's exchanges. Over 70per cent of the total cash equities turnover is cash settled and the entire equity F&O turnover is cash settled...

With the MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) receiving approvals in August to start trading in currency options from both the watchdog of India's capital markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the country's banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the dust may have settled on the newest stock exchange after four years of courtroom battles but fundamental questions about the state of bourse management in India remains. As news broke in July that the MCX (Multi-Commodity...

Allegations leveled by Palagummi Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu newspaper that its competing daily, the Times of India, published an article at the behest of Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech without disclosing this fact to its readers and subsequently gained financially from its publication, have been endorsed by a committee of Parliamentarians in a recently-published report. Whereas the report, prepared by a panel of MPs belonging to different political parties, does not mention the ToI by...

THERE IS a reason to believe that the legal suit that NDTV has filed against The Nielsen Co is based on an investigation conducted by Nielsen’s own global head of security, a former FBI official. This report suggested that Television Audience Measurement (TAM) India operations were among the most corrupt in the group. NDTV will use Nielsen’s own internal report to make its case. Perhaps that’s the reason why NDTV chose to file the complaint in New York where Nielsen has its headquarters. This is...

In July and August, instead of breaking news, Deccan Chronicle, reportedly the largest-selling English daily published out of Hyderabad, was making news, especially on the pages of its rival publications such as The Times of India. The newspaper’s publisher Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) and its flamboyant chairman T. Venkattram Reddy are going through their worst-ever crisis. The company and its promoters are deep in debt, they are facing criminal charges of forgery and fraud, share...

Consolidation of media activities is formalized through conglomerates and increased corporate institutionalism. A look at the business activities of some of the leading media organisations in the world confirm the proposition that economies of scale lead to the formation of oligarchic markets. In India, however, the formation of new media conglomerates in recent times is also a consequence of existing debt-burdened players seeking associates to bail them out while seeking synergies for...

The mass media across the world and in India as well are converging and consolidating. Creators of content are coming closer to distributors and disseminators. Erstwhile competitors are becoming collaborators. The dividing line between broadcasting and telecommunications is getting increasingly blurred. While these phenomena restrict consumer choice by reducing content diversity, the technological advantages of integration make these processes inevitable and inexorable. It has, therefore, become...

What should one say about a feature film where there is superlative acting, which has outstanding production qualities, is incredibly realistic in terms of style and treatment and is, above all, an avant garde work which seeks to depart from typical formulae that are supposed to ensure a movie is not just commercially viable, but also enables the producer to laugh all the way to the bank and back? What should one say about a film that makes waves in the south of France as a shining paradigm of...

For the diminutive, bespectacled, dhoti-clad Bengali babu, the short distance on Raisina Hill between North Block and Rashtrapati Bhavan represents the final lap in a long journey that began more than four decades ago. Pranab Mukherjee has successfully reached the pinnacle of his career. But his movement away from the hurly-burly of active politics can only weaken the already-beleaguered second United Progressive Alliance government in Delhi. That’s one paradox. As Pranab babu enjoys his walks...

Who owns the mass media in India? That is a rather difficult question to answer. There are many media organisations in the country that are owned and controlled by a wide variety of entities including corporate bodies, societies and trusts, and individuals. Information about such organisations and people is scattered, incomplete, and dated, thereby making it rather difficult to collate such information leave alone analyse it. Nevertheless, a few salient aspects about media ownership stand out...

A report prepared by an independent institution recommending imposition of cross-media ownership restrictions recently entered the public domain nearly three years after it was submitted, following a rebuke to the government by a panel of lawmakers. The report, running into nearly 200 pages, was prepared by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) at the instance of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B). Though this report was submitted in July 2009, it was placed on the...

IT MAY sound funny, but is meant to be deadly serious. A White Paper on Black Money! Well, that is exactly what was tabled in Parliament on 21 May by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The document, running into just under 100 pages, prepared by the Central Board of direct Taxes in the department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance, is significant — not for what it states, but what it does not. The document goes into some length about how ‘black money’ should be defined, the various factors...

The crisis in Europe is not merely an economic one; it has profound political and social dimensions as well. The impact of the double-dip recession in that continent is being felt across the globe and also in India. The European crisis has contributed to the sharp and sudden fall in the value of the Indian rupee vis-à-vis the American dollar, but the parallels do not stop there. On the political front, the weakening of centrist and conservative political parties in Europe mirrors the weakening...

PURNO AGITOK SANGMA is an unusual politician whose rise through the ranks is remarkable. He became Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 1996. He was the first tribal, that too from the Northeast, the first MP belonging to the Opposition and the youngest person elected unanimously to head the lower house of Parliament. He was elected to the Lok Sabha no less than nine consecutive times between 1977 and 2006 and has also been the CM of Meghalaya. This publication is essentially a collection of speeches...

The word “anarchy” means different things to different people. It is believed that the word originated from the ancient Greek word anarchia which literally means “absence of a leader”. As a political expression, anarchy can imply two diametrically opposite points of view, one positive and the other negative. Many American political scientists and philosophers suggest that anarchy is a state of society without publicly-enforced rule of law in the form of a government that has a mandate to govern...

Mayawati, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has come to epitomise empowerment of dalits, the lowest segment of India’s caste hierarchy. What explains her humiliating electoral defeat? Was it her vanity that distanced her from large sections of the country’s most populous state? Will she able to stage a comeback five years down the line? It is early days yet to write the political obituary of the president of the Bahujan Samaj Party. Just as the BSP was the biggest beneficiary of anti...

Never before in the history of independent India have so many once-influential politicians, businesspersons and bureaucrats spent – in certain cases, still spending - time behind bars on corruption charges. Yet the current United Progressive Alliance government is widely perceived as being packed with people with flexible ethics. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s personal integrity has never been questioned, but he is also perceived as the head of a government, who chose to turn a blind eye to the...

Over the last two decades, roughly coinciding with the period of economic liberalization, there has been a dramatic transformation of India’s ‘mediascape’ – a term first used by Arjun Appadurai, an academic of Indian origin based in the US, to describe the way the visual imagery impacts the world and to describe and situate the role of the mass media in global cultural flows. With the advent of new communication technologies and the burgeoning of urban middle classes whose consumerist...

PRESS COUNCIL of India Chairman Justice (retd) Markandey Katju has rightly taken up the issue of journalists being attacked in Maharashtra. This has been going on for far too long. But to use this occasion to threaten to dismiss the state government is an extreme position to take. It’s one thing to say that the PCI urges Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to take action against those responsible for the attacks on journalists. It’s one thing to express unhappiness at the chief minister for not...

On 3 January, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) – India’s biggest privately-owned corporate entity with a turnover of Rs 2,58,651 crore in the financial year that ended on 31 March 2011 – announced that it was entering into a complex, multilayered financial arrangement that involved selling its interests in the Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh-based Eenadu group founded by Ramoji Rao to the Network18 group headed by Raghav Bahl and also funding the latter through a rights issue of shares...

He will turn 42 on June 19 this year. At this age, his father had spent more than a year as prime minister of the world’s largest democracy. His son and daughter were in their teens. Is Rahul Gandhi’s mother worried that he is not yet married? Almost all Italy-born Roman Catholic women and Indian mothers would be. Does he have a steady girlfriend? Is Veronique still around in his life? Cut the trivia! The more important question is whether he is ready to assume bigger responsibilities. There is...

The Supreme Court’s stinging judgement against the government in the 2G spectrum scam case is an extremely significant attempt by the country’s highest court to curb the corrupt nexus between business and politics and will further damage the UPA’s already battered credibility. The court’s decision will not merely have far-reaching consequences on India’s political economy, it has highlighted the huge price that Manmohan Singh himself and the government he heads are now having to pay for turning...

It was quietly done, without any publicity. A group of senior bureaucrats, presumably at the behest of their political masters, recently chose to reinterpret rules governing the sale of assets in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in a manner which will greatly benefit foreign investors by enabling them to acquire real estate. While the recent decision to allow FDI in retail will allow foreign parties to own urban real estate as part of the business, the SEZ decision will enable further transfers of...

THE MINISTRY of Information and Broadcasting recently issued a show-cause notice to news channels Sahara Samay and P7 after they telecast a video purportedly showing sexual intimacy between sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna and government nurse Bhanwari Devi. The channels have been asked to explain why action should not be taken against them after they aired parts of the CD. The channels have been virtually directed to stop further broadcast of the video on grounds of depiction of...

SONIA GANDHI’s story represents the greatest transformational journey made by any world leader in the past four decades. Circumstance and tragedy, rather than ambition, paved her path to power.” So read the first two sentences of the inside-cover blurb of this book written by London-based journalist Rani Singh. With a foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev and fulsome praise from Henry Kissinger on the back cover, the volume raises high expectations that are, unfortunately, largely belied. The book has...

The popularity of the second ‘United Progressive Alliance’ (UPA) government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has plummeted in a manner in which few could have imagined. The government, which came to power in May 2009 after the UPA won a larger-than-expected mandate from the country’s voters, appears to be lurching from one crisis to another – despite it not having completed even half its five-year term. If elections were to suddenly take place, there is a distinct possibility that the...

When in the June 6 issue of Outlook weekly, senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, sought to distance herself from the infamous Gali Reddy brothers of Bellary in Karnataka and claimed that their rise was on account of support given to them by former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Arun Jaitley, her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha, it was clear that the ground was slowly slipping under the feet of the notorious siblings and...

NOW THAT the dreaded double-dip recession is almost upon us, what impact will it have on India and what lessons do we need to learn from the ongoing crisis? Government spokespersons, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, are seeking to assuage apprehensions about the negative impact of the fall in the credit rating of American treasury bonds on India. It is being said that India’s ‘growth story’ is intact and that since we weathered the worst of the September 2008 meltdown, this time too...

The mining scandal which led to the unseating of a prominent leader in India's southern state of Karnataka is the latest scandal to hit the industry. BS Yeddyurappa of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit recently after an anti-corruption report named him as a key suspect in a scam which allegedly cost the exchequer more than $3bn (£1.8bn). Mr Yeddyurappa denies any wrongdoing. But what is undeniable is that illegal mining has been rife for years in Karnataka. The state...

The knives are out. Now that it has become more-or-less apparent that BS Yeddyurappa’s days as Chief Minister of Karnataka are numbered following the indictment of his government by the state’s Lokayukta, Justice N Santosh Hegde, for his alleged complicity in illegal iron ore mining in Bellary district, both party and Chief Minister are working on a succession plan. Yeddyurappa, who is the first BJP man to head a government in south India, is hastily putting together a succession plan. But this...

Less than 24 hours after the formation of the "historic" Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was announced on Monday (18 July) with much fanfare in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supremo Bimal Gurung, the last-named individual categorically told his supporters that the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland created out of West Bengal had not been given up. Gurung was evidently...

The irony was inescapable for Indians when last Friday global oil prices tumbled, yet the government announced a hike in the prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas. Such a move will further stoke inflation in Asia's third largest economy. India's wholesale prices have already increased by 9.1%, and looks certain to touch double digits in the days to come. High inflation is hurting growth. The government thinks GDP growth will slow to between 7.5 to 8% during the fiscal year ending April 2012...