A minister had asked for Rs 15 cr bribe: Tata

Mon, Nov 15 04:25 PM

Dehradun: When asked to reveal his mantra for success without compromising with ethics and
values, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said he did not have a methodology in this regard but
he has an example to tell the audience.
"Several years ago, Tatas were trying to set up a domestic airlines in collaboration with
Singapore Airlines. Even though we were pioneer in airline industry, we had enormous problems
if you remember through the reports in the media.
"We approached three Prime Ministers also. But an individual thwarted our efforts to form the
airlines." he said.
Later, Tata said a fellow industrialist commented, "You are stupid people. The Minister was
asking for Rs 15 crore. Why didn't he pay?"
The top industrialist was responding to a query from audience after delivering 8th Uttarakhand
foundation lecture on "India in the 21st century: Opportunities and Challenges" on the occassion
of 10th anniversery of formation of hill state.
Ratan Tata also made it clear there were no change in his plans to retire in 2012 even as he
assured a successor who is committed to "ethics and value". Tata, who took the the USD 72
billion dollar company to new heights and made the world's cheapest car Nano, has already
announced he will quit office by the end of 2012.
"I don't want to change my deadline I set for my retirement. There are lots of sacrifices, one has
to make in terms of personal life. I wanted my life back. I want to enjoy the things that I wanted
to do," the top industrialist said here.
In August this year, the Board of Tata Sons Ltd has formed a selection committee comprising
five members, including an external member for eventually deciding on a suitable successor to
Ratan N Tata.
"There is no such thing indispensably individual. The day I succeeded JRD Tata, I felt in very
large shoes. I knew that I cannot be another JRD and I have to be my own person", Tata said in
reply to a question after delivering a lecture here.
"I believe my successor will be his own person and hopefully will do things for the country and
the group the way we have been doing till now or much better. "I ferociously wanted to ensure
that my successor has total commitment for ethics and values, we fought for years now," Tata
said.

Govt seeks extra $4.39 bln net spend in FY11

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The

government on Monday sought Click to enlarge
photo
parliamentary approval to spend a net additional 198.12 billion rupees ($4.39 billion) in the
2010/11 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament the gross additional spending nod sought
was for 449.46 billion rupees. The government has a budget target of spending 11.09 trillion
rupees in the current fiscal year.
The finance minister also sought parliamentary approval for spending 50 billion rupees towards
compensation to fertiliser firms and 2.78 billion rupees as cash compensation to state-run oil
marketing firms for selling products below cost.
The finance minister told parliament that the additional spending will not increase 2010/11 fiscal
deficit, which the government aims to limit to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product.
The government seeks legislative approval for spending amounts beyond what it estimates
during the budget for the year. Generally, these additional sums are for increases in major
expenditure heads such as interest payments and subsidies.
Mukherjee, while setting the 2010/11 fiscal deficit target in February, had said the the gap would
be partially funded through market borrowings of 4.57 billion rupees.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; editing by Malini Menon)

Obama, Singh and Gandhi

Sun, Nov 14 06:08 AM

If the title of this column rhymes with that of my last column ('Obama, King and Gandhi',
October 31, 2010), which was written before the US president's visit to India, it is intentional.
Barack Obama's visit further strengthened the natural friendship between Indians and Americans,
this time on an equal footing. He and his wife won the hearts of Indians, the president with his
sincere oratory and Michelle, well, simply with her natural elegance, best displayed in her Diwali
dance with children. Closer bonds are forged between nations when their people can sing and
dance together than when their leaders sign joint statements loaded with stiff diplomatese lacking
in the naturalness of hips and lips that don't lie.
For Dr Manmohan Singh, this visit was a personal achievement. It showed that his prime
ministership coincides with a time when India has finally come to be recognised as a global
power. However, recognition of this irrefutable historical fact should not be regarded as
America's gift to India. I say this because many Indians are exulting over Obama's statement that
America would back India becoming a permanent member of UNSC. If a leadership role in the
UN were based on the light of universal civilisational values, and not on the might of economies
and military arsenals, then India deserved it more than any of the Big Five in UNSC. This whole
notion, cherished by many in the ruling establishments in New Delhi and Washington, that the
US will help India become a global power is ridiculous. India is going to occupy its rightful
place in the world by virtue of its own strengths, both ancient and newly acquired. It doesn't need
any external prop, much less a prop that has a questionable record of global leadership.
Therefore, in the Indo-US joint statement, Dr Singh and his colleagues should have rejected
linking India's enhanced prosperity to "US global economic leadership." When will we realise
that America's continued global leadership is simply unsustainable because it is based on a
mountain of debt with no basis in real economic strength?
What made Obama's visit particularly memorable was his heartfelt tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
How Gandhiji influenced Dr Martin Luther King Jr, how both he and King influenced Obama,
and how Obama himself influenced Americans is a fascinating lesson in the immense power of
universal human values. Nevertheless, Obama's influence on America and the rest of the world is
still "work-in-progress". We must remain sceptical about what, and how much, Gandhiji means
to Obama the president, as against Obama the person. So far, he hasn't summoned the courage to
invoke the Mahatma's philosophy of non-violence for revising the untenable notion of America's
leadership of global security in the 21st century. It's a philosophy that indicts not only Bush's war
in Iraq but also Obama's war in Afghanistan as immoral, illegitimate and destructive to both the
victim and the aggressor.
Obama's speech in Parliament justified the unwinnable war in Afghanistan, sadly to the applause
of many MPs. His National Security Strategy, unveiled in May, does the same by declaring that,
post 9/11, the US must "defeat al-Qa'ida and its affiliates" and deny "them safe haven" in order
to "secure our homeland". It also claims a "fundamental connection" between America's national
security and its "moral example." What hypocrisy! America's decade-old war has already killed
ten times more innocent Afghan civilians than the number of people killed in the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. The destruction and destabilisation suffered by Afghanistan bears no comparison to what
9/11 did to America. The barbarians who have misused the name of Islam to commit crimes
against humanity must be fought. But is Obama setting a moral example by continuing to
militarily occupy an ill-fated country that had already been devastated by the other, now extinct,
superpower? The Soviet Union's extinction was hastened by its immoral misadventure in
Afghanistan. History's verdict about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be the same when
America ceases, soon, to be a superpower.
But what about India? By tacitly supporting America's war in our civilisational neighbourhood,
are we being true to Gandhiji's precepts? We are deluding ourselves by believing that it is
bolstering India's national security. It's having an opposite effect. By not condemning erstwhile
USSR's military invasion of Afghanistan, India had unwittingly strengthened Islamist terrorism
and its chief mentor, Pakistan's military. By not condemning the US war in Afghanistan, we are
contributing to the same outcome.
India must—and can—defeat Islamist terrorism. But we cannot do so as long as we rely on an
arrogant and ignorant outsider's meddling in our neighbourhood. An outsider's role is justified
only if he is a moral exemplar. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Iran and other countries in
our neighbourhood can successfully resolve all our problems, including the problem in Kashmir
(created by an outside power meddling in our affairs), provided our leaders rely on our own
civilisational wisdom. To begin with, let them—and let us—meditate upon Gandhiji's address of
timeless relevance at the Asian Relations Conference in April 1947. Reminding its delegates that
all the prophets of all the great religions of the world were born in Asia, this prophet of our age
said, "I want you to understand, if you can, that the message of the East is not to be learnt
through the Western spectacles, not by imitating the tinsel of the West, the gun-powder of the
West." He urged Asian nations to remain true to "the precious heritage (of Truth and Non-
Violence) your teachers, my teachers, have left to us." India can become a global leader, in the
true sense of the word 'leadership', only by upholding this heritage.

New telecom minister is a cellphone poet

By Vox Purpli - YahooINEditors – November 16th, 2010
Email Facebook Twitter Print

Kapil Sibal, who takes over from scandal-hit A Raja as the telecom minister, is famous for
putting his mobile phone to unconventional use: he writes poetry on it.
In 2009, he published a book, I Witness, Partial Observations, with verses he had composed on
his Blackberry.
Sibal, who confesses he is indisciplined, began writing poetry on a long plane journey. His
verses deal with subjects as diverse as the Mumbai terror attack, penguins in the Antarctica,
Delhi’s yuppie culture, and even his love life.
Sibal likes Sufi music, and manages to catch the latest movies. Last year, he liked Omkara, but
hated Slumdog Millionaire.
An interviewer was taken aback by his compulsive rhyming, and said he was no Philip Larkin or
Nissim Ezekiel, but stopped short of dismissing his poetry as schoolboyish.
Three major telecom players are happy with Raja’s exit, while the Tatas and Ambanis are not,
the DNA reported. The paper said Sibal was expected to clean up the mess left behind by Raja.
Sibal (62) hails from a Punjabi family of lawyers. During partition, his family was rendered
homeless, and his father started his life afresh, his official website says.
Sibal represents Delhi’s Chandni Chowk constituency, and has been an MP since 1998. He
studied at Harvard Law School, ran a legal practice in Delhi, and served for a while as
Additional Solicitor-General of India. He already holds the human resources development
portfolio, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has now given him the additional responsibilities
of communication and information technology.
In his capacity as HRD minister, Sibal has ruled out nationalisation of education, and is seen as
a liberal who does not place excessive emphasis on examinations.
Newspapers say he comes with a clean image, as one who will not let the lure of money
determine his policies.

The Name is Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar.

By Bikash Singh – November 15th, 2010

Email Facebook Twitter Print

There is always room for improvement. I am happy with my current performance but not
satisfied. I want to get better. In fact, in any profession one must strive to get better and better. I
always want to remain a student of the game because that is when you grasp more and are
always keen to improve – Sachin Tendulkar
WOW!
I was not much of a cricket fan when the master blaster made his Test debut against Pakistan on
15 November, 1989. But now, I may perhaps stop following the sport when Sachin Tendulkar
retires.
The master batsman completes 21 years (again, 21 years) in Test cricket on November 15 and
continues to inspire generations of cricketers with room for improvement on his mind. Most
runs, centuries, half-centuries, fours, sixes and what not – Sachin has broken every possible
record in international cricket and is still on the prowl.
Life would be flat without dreams. It’s really important to dream – and then to chase those
dreams. I really believe it’s this dreaming that makes me work so hard. I want to continue doing
that because I’ve worked very hard the last couple of years on my batting, says a modest Sachin
in an interview with Guardian.
He still remains the prized wicket for any bowler and it is advisable to not look him in the eye
with the slightest hint of sledging, because it will backfire. As Brett Lee puts it – there are guys
you can stir up and get stuck into and there are others you leave alone. Sachin Tendulkar is a guy
you don’t want to chat to, period, because he will knuckle you down. (Easy – if Sachin hits you
for a four/six, admire that and if he misses, just smile, go back and finish your over).
Arguably the greatest batsman of all time, Tendulkar’s resurgence in the year gone by gives me
hope that India might get to lay their hands on the World Cup trophy this time again. From 200
runs in ODIs to the ICC awards and most runs and all that, the genius still takes comfort in being
the student of the game. His pure love for cricket and his country brings smiles on billions of
faces; not to discount the amount of pressure Sachin is on whenever he walks out with that
willow.
He has been an epitome of professionalism – always maintained the spirit of the game on and off
the field. The little master has reached a summit which is quite beyond the reach of lesser
humans. The 37-year-old batsman has had the most fertile year of his Test career in 2010 and
withdrawal seems like a distant nightmare with many more goals in his sight.
Tendulkar better than Bradman/Bradman better than Tendulkar?
Such headlines have been selling news since Sir Donald Bradman invited Sachin Tendulkar on
his 90th birthday.
How can there be a comparison between two unique personalities? Moreover, Sir Don never
played One-Day Internationals. The two greats played in different times and it is
difficult/impossible to determine one’s greatness over the other.
Competition in international cricket has been augmented two-fold or even three-fold and
comparing two greats of different times is really a never-ending, and an unnecessary, debate.
Cricket is altogether a different game now from when Don Bradman played and Sachin seems to
be only getting stronger in spite of ever-increasing competition.
They say, ‘with age, cricketers/players often turn a little bit more into themselves’ but with
Sachin, the phrase can take a backseat as the master has already been approved as one of the
masters of the age.
Viv Richards could terrorise an attack with pitiless brutality, Lara could dissect bowlers with
surgical and magical strokes, Tendulkar can take an attack apart with towering simplicity. From
the start he had an uncanny way of executing his strokes perfectly. Tendulkar was born to bat –
Peter Roebuck
The little master has won matches and the hearts of the opposition with his true display of
unstinted sportsmanship – thanking his father first, looking at the heavens – and continuing with
voracious appetite for runs. The Sachin show is not stopping anytime soon.
On a second thought, Bradman may be the ‘Don of Cricket’, but Sachin is the ‘God of Cricket’!