Cricket King Sachin Tendulkar will be the latest sporting celebrity to be featured at the internationally-renowned Madame Tussauds in London when a new wax figure of the Master-Blaster joins the A-list line up in April.
'We are delighted to confirm our next Indian superstar is going to be Sachin Tendulkar; his achievements on the cricket pitch are phenomenal and he is one of the biggest names in international sport,' says Liz Edwards, Madame Tussauds PR manager.
Sachin Tendulkar is third player from cricket after Caribbean cricket star Brian Lara and Australian magical spinner Shane Warne. Sachin Tendulkar will join the ranks of sporting greats, including David Beckham, Mohammed Ali, Tiger Woods and Jesse Owens, in Madame Tussauds interactive Sports Zone.
Master-Blaster follows in the famous footsteps of Bollywood greats Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. This is a golden moment for every Indian cricket fans.
IF the opinions of some of Internet users are anything to go by, Narendra Modi should not be the next chief minister of Gujarat. Instead, he should be the next Prime Minister of India. Free social networking sites on the Internet is galore with communities and postings, which project Modi as BJP’s best bet for prime ministerial candidate for the general elections in 2009.
A posting in Orkut, a social networking site, apparently sent from Meerut, said, “It is time Modi is promoted as PM and not just as CM of Gujarat. A thumping victory in Gujarat can force the BJP leadership to hand over the mantle to Modi. This will help BJP to encash on Modi’s popularity amongst the Hindus and save their own seats and deposits in 2009 elections. Uttar Pradesh election results have shown what is going to happen in future. Gujaratis must not miss this opportunity.”
Another scrap, by an apparent non-resident Gujarati from New Jersey, said, “Missing BJP here in America. A great personality is handling BJP Government in Gujarat, so have created this community in order to honour the one and only courageous and talented Mr Modi and his ministry. Yeh Woh Modi Hai Jisne Hame Hamare Dushmano Ke Samne Sar Uthake Jina Sikhaya, Jo Hamare Gujarat Me Ham Hi Pe Raj Kar Rahe The. (Modi has taught us to face our enemies and live with pride). So, make him the next Prime Minister.”
Some entries also provide a list of reasons why Modi is the best candidate for the next PM. One list read:
“1. He has stood by Hindutava no matter what the situation. He is loyal and must be rewarded.
2. He has stood by the party unlike Uma Bharti, who is also a popular leader but had spoken against the party.
3. Gujarat is India’s best state under Modi’s leadership.
4. Modi is an OBC and I think the time has come that we should bring OBC candidates to lead Bharat.”
BJP Supporter’s Group, a community in Orkut, with a membership of well over 8,000, had carried out a poll on prime ministerial candidates. Out of the total 365 votes casted, Modi had a clear majority. However, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Bharat Singh Solanki said, “These are the manifestations of his propaganda. How much of public support he really has will be seen only after the elections.”
Suspended BJP leader Gordhan Zadaphia went a step ahead. “He (Modi) is a master of manipulation. With the kind of fabricated picture he has projected outside, people are bound to get influenced,” he said.
The Indo-US relationship, which started gaining momentum under Bill Clinton and was accelerated by George Bush during his eight years of rule, is set to continue its upward trajectory under President Obama, a top American expert on South Asia said today. Observing that it is amazing to see how far the Indo-US relationship has come in the last one decade, Karl Inderfurth, former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia from 1997 to 2001, said before a Congressional panel that the remarkable transformation in relations started under Clinton Administration and was then accelerated by George W Bush.
"It is now set to continue its positive upward trajectory under President Obama," Inderfurth said before the House Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, which had convened a hearing on building Indo-US relationship post Mumbai attack. "This transformation has been an excellent example of policy continuity and bipartisanship in US foreign policy," he said.
Moreover, each time the incumbent US president found a willing and able Indian Prime Minister to partner with in its truly joint endeavor from Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh, he added.
Within the enormous caverns of the Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan is a nugget for US companies to spend a few billions to construct roads and bridges, mass transit rails and national parks. The US president is right in expecting a massive spin off for his economy from the measure that will improve the top lines of construction companies, if not their profits and lead to a surge in job creation. In more or less the same period the European governments too plan a similar push to their infrastructure investments.
This is one part of the plan that should be of most concern to India, probably even more than the proposal to cut tax breaks for firms which ship jobs overseas. Because, in the same time frame ie within the next two years or 2012, we also plan to spend about $500 billion to develop our infrastructure in a massive way. The dampener on outsourcing will be moderated as Indian and US companies will be on the same wave length on this—cut costs. But that benefit will not work in the race to capture the global infra funds.
Put simply, after a nice lull of several years, companies planning to invest in Indian infra sectors will now face steep competition in attracting the attention of global infra fund managers. They will have to sound convincing that India offers a better deal than the US or Europe in the infrastructure business, in the next few years. This will include the rules for doing business and the rules for raising finance. All this has to be done, in the midst of the ripples that have already begun in the global financial markets about the Obama plan. At least one global fund house has already begun mobilising finance at Libor plus 500 bps to invest in US infrastructure.
We also have to remember that even for domestic infra funds, the rules for investment abroad have been simplified. Few fund managers at this stage will be able to say that given a chance they will prefer to invest in a special purpose vehicle to develop a road project in India than one in the US. These are not academic exercises but real bread and butter choices that companies in very harsh financial markets will be making very soon.
If that sounds challenging there is no doubt it is and talking to the Indian companies has made me sure that they too think the Obama plan will impact them big. So it is very urgent that we get our act right on the stuff that crimp infra investment in India.
And here, instead of moaning about the problems, I feel there is cause for cheer if one looks at some things we have recently got right. Of these, the one that needs a big round of applause is a government proposal to allow single bidders for projects, especially for roads and highways. This might seem like playing with government money but it is not. Of the 34 projects that the NHAI had advertised, only 16 have received any bids. Of these, six stretches have got only one bid.
Before readers begin to draw pictures of cartels playing cahoots with rules, it is worth recounting that the railways face the same problem. Its flagship project to construct a locomotive factory at Madhepura in Bihar has received only one financial bid out of the three companies that had put in technical bids. The phase II of the Mumbai metro project has done worse. It has got no bidders from among the seven companies that put in technical bids.
The central government is plainly waking up to the sudden drying of funds in infrastructure sector. But what is most needed at this juncture is similar realisation among state governments too. Indian infra projects with the glorious exception of the Delhi Metro have consistently been delayed in completion, largely due to state level bottlenecks. The latest flash report of the ministry of programme implementation shows that 47% of the 523 biggest projects involving the government are running delayed. The more important piece of statistic is that this has raised the cumulative cost of these projects by over 11%. The implications are obvious. Since infra project developers rarely get funding at less than 14-16% rate of interest in normal circumstances, an 11% cost over run means adding one more per cent to the project cost.
So, it is quite pleasing that governments, both at the centre and states, have revised their take on land acquisition. On February 23, for the first time in nearly two years states and the Centre publicly acknowledged that they need to go for the jugular to get land for projects. Infra projects were almost paralysed as a fall out of the problems in acquiring land from 2007 onwards. But at a meeting of the state chief secretaries with the cabinet secretary to work out ways to make the government stimuluspackage work, ministry officials, to quote the government release, told states to give "special attention to land acquisition wherever projects are stalled on account of this reason". In Indian government speak that could mean a big step forward.
Would these be enough? I doubt it. In the next few months, several Indian entities will approach the international markets to raise debt to finance their projects. To ensure they have any reasonable chance to compete, the entire infra project approval and delivery mechanism needs to be redrawn very fast.
Satyam's board member Tarun Das said recently that six to seven companies were interested in taking over the software firm.
The initial enthusiasm of a few of the original contenders have dimmed somewhat. Here's a snapshot of the likely bidders.
Larsen & Toubro
Engineering and construction giant Larsen and Toubro, which acquired a 12 per cent stake in Satyam, is seen as the most aggressive suitor for the troubled IT firm.
L&T, in fact, has been the only firm to have categorically expressed its interest to the government in acquiring management control. It has invested around Rs 670 crore (Rs 6.7 billion) in the company so far.
However, that enthusiasm seems to have taken a knock, with L&T chairman and managing director A M Naik telling reporters in Mumbai recently that many things had changed in the last few weeks: some key clients had moved out and some key employees had also left.
L&T, however, still sees a lot of synergy between the core strengths of the beleaguered software giant with that of L&T Infotech.
"Satyam has a huge focus in the enterprise application space and the engineering segment. These two complement L&T Infotech as a large chunk of their work also comes from ERP practice," added the banker.
Spice Group
The Spice Group, too, has expressed interest to invest around Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in Satyam, and wants to buy a 51 per cent stake.
B K Modi, chairman of Spice Group, told Business Standard that his company "is close to appointing a consultant to advise on the bid".
He said he believed that Satyam had only 43,000 employees, adding that if he won the bid, he "will change the brand name of Satyam".
The new name, however, might still start with an 'S'. Modi estimates the liability from the 13 class actions suits would range between $440-840 million (around Rs 2,200-4,200 crore) but adds that "I will contest these suits".
Tech Mahindra
Another strong contender is the Mahindra and Mahindra group's IT business Tech Mahindra.
"For Tech Mahindra this will be a good diversification strategy as it is too dependent on one sector that is telecom and one client," said an analyst.
However, the biggest concern for Tech Mahindra is the liabilities. Besides there is a growing concern among the management of the company on the constant news that some or the other top clients of Satyam have left.
Deepak Parekh, member of the Satyam board, is also on the board of Mahindra and Mahindra since 1990.
If Tech Mahindra decides to bid, it could raise the concern of transparency and corporate governance unless he steps down from the Mahindra boards, opines Haresh Ganatra, SC Advocate, Ganatra & Co.
HCL Technologies
The Delhi-based IT services provider is also being considered as an eligible candidate for acquiring Satyam.
But an analyst said acquiring yet another firm, that too with a headcount of above 50,000, could be a stretch for the firm.
HCL Tech has cash and cash equivalent of $146 million and treasury investments $270.1 million.
Analysts said that though Satyam would increase HCL's scale and size, its capabilities were similar to HCL Axon's to a certain extent and that would not be complementing HCL's existing capabilities.
"Satyam will not bring in any new capability for HCL. Besides there are chances of overlap and redundancies," said an analyst.
Genpact
A leading player in the BPO segment, Genpact is another firm that is looking at acquiring Satyam to increase its presence in the IT services segment.
However, analysts and bankers are not too sure about the synergies as well as the possibility of the firm in the race. Genpact has cash on hand worth $385 million.
However, experts said the acquisition would be of value if Genpact could integrate Satyam's IT solutions with its BPO business.
Hinduja Group
Hinduja Global Solutions, the business process outsourcing arm of the Hinduja Group with an estimated worldwide revenue of $10 billion, is the next big suitor in the acquisition race.
"From what we have heard, while the group has submitted interest for the full operations of the company, it is more interested in the BPO operations of Satyam. But the management bandwidth needed to run an IT services firm is clearly missing," said an analyst.
The BPO has over 80 clients as on December 31, 2008 and a cash reserve of Rs 490 crore (Rs 4.9 billion) as on March 31, 2008.
Essar
Essar Group's IT business arm Aegis Ltd is another firm interested in Satyam's BPO business. When contacted, the company said it would not like to comment.
"As far as Aegis is concerned, the group is interested in acquiring the BPO operations. The focus for the company has been to grow in the BPO business," said a source close to the company. Satyam chairman Kiran Kiran, however, has ruled out sale of parts of Satyam.
iGate
Satyam has lost its value with customers moving out of the company, according to Phaneesh Murthy, chief executive of the US-based iGate Corporation.
"The process has taken time, customers have moved out and Satyam has lost its value. We have lost interest in buying the company," Murthy said.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The highest paid CEO in India
Even in these times of economic gloom, there are chief executive officers who are earning huge salaries. Some time ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sparked off a debate when he suggested that CEO salaries should be curbed. That was when there was no economic crisis anywhere in sight.
Now even the epitome of capitalism, the United States, has endorsed those views, and American policymakers want CEO compensation to be kept at manageable levels. Meanwhile, here is a list of the highest paid CEOs in India.
Background: Mukesh Ambani has been ranked India's richest person, and the world's fifth richest man, by business magazine Forbes. His net worth is approximately $50 billion. With a personal stake of 48 per cent, he is the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector enterprise.
Ambani, who joined Reliance in 1981, led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, built at a cost of Rs 100,000 crores (Rs 1,000 billion).
His fortune has seen a 62 per cent drop since January 2008, but he still ranks No 3 in Forbes' list of world's wealthiest CEOs.
This is an incredible moment. My life will never be the same again!" Resul Pookutty exclaims. "Not even in dreams did I imagine that I would get such a big honour. I am particularly happy that I got an award for a film that was shot in my favourite city, Mumbai.''
Minutes after he bagged his award, the Oscar winner was on the phone with rediff, talking about his big win for Slumdog Millionaire in the Best Sound Mixing category.
He added that he would like to dedicate the award to India, especially to the film industry.
''I am really proud that I could do this for my country. I'm thrilled that I am winning this award for India," Pookutty said.
Vilakkupara, a tiny hamlet in Kerala, where he was born, erupted in cricket-style celebrations when the news was flashed on television channels. Almost 1,000 people turned up at his house, where mediapersons were part of the celebrations.
When informed about the celebration in Kerala, he said, "I am really happy. This could be one of Kerala's biggest moments. It is the perfect Shivratri gift for Keralites."
Pookutty is now planning to direct a Malayalam film -- an adaptation of well-known writer Anand's Govardhanante Yatrakal --starring Mammooty.
For those who missed Resul's acceptance speech at the Oscars, here it is: 'This is unbelievable. We can't believe this. Ladies and gentlemen... sorry... I share the stage with two magicians, you know, who created the very ordinary sounds of Bombay, the cacophony of Bombay, into a soul-stirring, artful resonance called Slumdog Millionaire.
I come from a country and a civilization that given the universal word. That word is preceded by silence, followed by more silence. That word is 'Om.' So I dedicate this award to my country. Thank you, Academy, this is not just a sound award, this is history being handed over to me. My sincere and deepest gratitude to my teachers, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie, Pravesh... and everybody who has contributed to this film, Glenn Freemantle and all the sound mixers. I dedicate this to you guys. Thank you, Academy. Thank you very much.
The US President, Barack Obama wants to watch Slumdog Millionaire, the White House has said.
Slumdog Millionaire, the exhilarating rags-to-riches fairy tale set in Mumbai, swept the Oscars with eight awards including the best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay; with A R Rahman becoming the only Indian to bag two Oscars for the best score and original song.
"I don't know if he has seen Slumdog Millionaire. I know he wants to," White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters during the course of his daily press briefing.
Gibbs said Obama has watched several movies recently. "I think that a lot of the movies that he has seen recently are movies that might also entertain a seven-and-a-10-year-old girl. Not sure that Slumdog Millionaire would be on that list," Gibbs said.
The US President, Barack Obama wants to watch Slumdog Millionaire, the White House has said.
Slumdog Millionaire, the exhilarating rags-to-riches fairy tale set in Mumbai, swept the Oscars with eight awards including the best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay; with A R Rahman becoming the only Indian to bag two Oscars for the best score and original song.
"I don't know if he has seen Slumdog Millionaire. I know he wants to," White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters during the course of his daily press briefing.
Gibbs said Obama has watched several movies recently. "I think that a lot of the movies that he has seen recently are movies that might also entertain a seven-and-a-10-year-old girl. Not sure that Slumdog Millionaire would be on that list," Gibbs said.
Narendra Modi was born on 17th September 1950 in a small town of Vadnagar in Mehsana district in North Gujarat in India.
Narendra Modi completed his schooling in Vadnagar and did his masters degree in Political Science from GujaratUniversity. Even as a boy he was interested in social services. During the Indo-Pak war in early sixties, he went to help the soldiers in transit in railway stations. In 1967 he offered voluntary services to the people affected in Narmada Tapti floods. He continued serving the victims of major disasters in various parts of the country in his student and adult life.
Narendra Modi's abilities and leadership qualities were seen in the early days of his student life when he became the student leader of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (All India Students Council). He played a prominent role in the anticorruption movement in 1974 in Gujarat.
He entered politics in 1987 by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Within a year, he was elevated to the level of General Secretary of the Gujarat unit of the party. In 1995 he was made the National Secretary of the party in-charge of five major states in India – a rare distinction. He traveled extensively through out the world, which helped him to develop a global perspective.
After carving a niche for himself in the national politics as a master strategist, he took over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on 7th October 2001.
Narendra , who is ever capable of turning an adversity into an opportunity made use of his inexperience to start afresh, on a clean slate without the burden of the past. His beginner mind was a blessing in disguise for him to learn things without any bias and without the need to unlearn the dead past. Though he was a wandering type of Sangh Pracharak he had a wealth of national and international exposure with him. Immediately after the swearing in ceremony he swung into action. His administrative acumen, clear vision and integrity brought him a landslide victory in the general elections held in December 2002 and he was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the second term on 22nd December 2002.
The biggest challenge which Narendra Modi had to face when he took over as the Chief Minster was the reconstruction of the earthquake affected areas. Bhuj was a city of rubble. People were living in temporary shelters without basic infrastructure. Earthquake recovery became his first priority. His dynamic vision and quick decisions have put Gujarat Reconstruction Programme as one of the best reconstruction programmes on the global map and set a benchmark for reconstruction and disaster recovery, not only in India, but also in the entire Asia. Earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation in Gujarat achieved global recognition.
Narendra Modi as soon as he took over as the Chief Minister focused quickly on integrated overall development. Along with industrial growth and economic development, he also focused on rural development, improvement in education, education of girl child, development of the deprived, agricultural development, science and technology and disaster management. Gujarat had always focused on industrial growth, but Narendra Modi made an attempt to correct the imbalance in development by focusing appropriately on social sectors, integrating social and economic growth. He put Gujarat on the road to integrated development with a special focus on five sectors namely – education, water, energy, human resources and safety & security.
Narendra Modi quickly shifted the gear from government centered administration to people centered administration. People's participation became the foundation of all development programs. Efficient application of information technology for governance, focus on agriculture, human resources development, and delivery of health services, rural development and thrust on post disaster recovery has made Gujarat emerge as the leader among the Indian states in spite of a series of disasters.
Attention and priority given by Narendra Modi to education as compared to any other past Chief Minister of the state is also noteworthy. His realization that no amount of economic, industrial or commercial resurgence can be sustained on a long-term basis without the foundation of proper academic and professional education has made him re-work the whole system of education in Gujarat state. Successive annual campaigns for enrolment of all children in schools, with a special focus on enrolment of the girl child have brought lakhs of children back to school, which otherwise would have been left out. The concern of the Narendra Modi for education of the girl child is reflected in the fact that he has specially created a fund called “Kanya Kelavani Nidhi”. Now it is a well-known fact that all the gifts received by Narendra Modi are auctioned and the funds are credited to this account.
Narendra Modi has been constantly innovating for improving the efficiency and productivity in various sectors. One such innovative step is the decision to involve private sector for development of huge wastelands. Another innovative step is celebration of traditional festivals, and covert them into events of major tourist attraction. In a mobile world in order to make citizens really mobile, roaming ration cards and roaming school cards have been introduced. Provision of soil health cards to the farmers is another innovation to help farmers improve the land quality and ultimately agricultural productivity. “Sujalam Sufalam” scheme launched to create a grid of water resources in Gujarat is another innovative step towards water conservation and its appropriate utilization.
Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's meet is an innovative bi-annual submit organized by Narendra Modi to attract investment from rest of the country and abroad. Narendra Modi in his five years of rule has ensured all round development of Gujarat in all areas including agriculture, rural development, education and industrial development. His vision is to make Gujarat emerge as the leader, not only in the Indian sub-continent, but also in the entire Asia to compete with Japan, Taiwan, and China.
Narendra Modi looks beyond the immediate gratification for the purpose of getting votes. The programmes such as Krushi Mahotsav, River Grid, Chiranjeevi & Matru Vandana schemes, schemes for reduction in infant mortality rate, Beti Bachavo campaign (save the girl child), Jyotigram, Karmayogi Abhiyan etc. aim at multi-dimensional development of Gujarat in the long-term. The vision, concept and implementation of such programmes make Narendra Modi rise as a statesman, who thinks of the next generation in the backdrop of politicians who think about the next elections.
UN Sasakawa Award for disaster reduction, CAPAM award for innovation in governance, UNESCO award, CSI award for e-governance, No.1 state in industrial investment (MOUs), No.1 among major health care services, availability and utility of infrastructure, Indiatech award in power sector etc. is an indicative list of what Gujarat achieved under the able Chief Ministership of Narendra Modi. The very fact that Narendra Modi has been ranked as the number one Chief Minister by the public for the second consecutive year speaks volumes about his achievements.
Narendra Modi is a powerful orator – avid reader and an original thinker. Apart from numerous articles and Essays, he also has authored three books.
