Pakistan- state of Nation

After receiving aids profusely , Pakistan  started fighting with Taliban. The army movements in and around Pakistan is huge and it is expected to touch 15000 against 4000 Taliban fighters. The terrorists are surely outnumbered but they have successfully jettisoned some of the fact that Mr Musharraf ( as a President followed by Mr Zardari) used to convey. To begin with the very fact that Pakistan held the Pashtuns and other Afghani Tribal insurgents off its borders has been blown off to bits. 

Second and the curious one is the way Pak has submitted the modified version of sharia law in 2 months time. This not only raises alarms but also questions the mannerism things were conducted in and around these regions.

Here comes an observation , Indian region we also call as POK(Pak occupied Kashmir ) saw a similar insurgency. Was India not capable of holding the terrorists back ?The answer is simple and is related to weather in and around the region around POK. 

Rewinding our thoughts back to pak region, the panacea is believed to billions of dollars for each and every attack carried out against Afghani Taliban. The fickle in the heart and minds of paki officials have again made them akin to their desolated enemy. Yusuf Raza Gilani , PM of Pakistan is also believed to presage the act of war in Swat region as a wilting effort. 

so what is going to come off such discussion , discernment ?.No , the conclusion is what is  most engaging. War do brings loss of life and property but in this situation it was also a blessing in disguise for pakis. Now they not only have money to back themselves up , their economic position (where inflation once stood at mind-boggling 26%) has eased off. US has constantly stood beside their ostensible partners , helping them whenever they need it.I consider this as an act of partial atonement (it was CIA who created Taliban and Al- queda in the first place) and also as an experimental battleground where they can test their napalm missiles or Drones for that matter. The loss belongs to AF-PAK and is constantly perpetuating to its neighbors.

poignant journey

After changing my orkut profile title to -"on a hiatus" , I packed some of my clothes with some quintessential stuff to embark a 300 km journey to my 2nd home Nainital .(OH yes you can checkout some very cool pictures from my orkut profile). I share a very inimical relationship with Nainital and the exact reason is the scenic beauty that leaves me spellbound (almost the chauvinism of Raj Thackrey for Maharashtra ).

The initial feeling of traveling alone is like killing yourself but with all these years in traveling one becomes more of an explorer , to be precise an explorer of human behavior . The long pastures and agricultural lands present a very great scene and  not to forget the obscure point of view and good intriguing talks about politics that you can share with the people (listening is equally good!). Recent events like Mumbai attacks share equal enthusiasm among the public and with the watery tea that they sell in trains , it good to learn how people behave and interact and argue presenting a new point of view every time.(Almost everyone of them posses a great acumen).

Also not to forget that such discussions often lead to a very good relationship (particularly business). 

The most important part of the whole journey is the pain people take and the time they take to adjust their seat or shift to one nearby to their family members. The great negotiations over a rupee , the fight over 'where to keep my bag ' etc. I find a profound happiness in observing them. Another important fact I noticed while noticing people is that often 50-60 km before the destination, there is a tipping point wherein everyone starts asking about which station is it. I was constantly thinking what difference would it make asking the same question but in the end its the anxiety which shall be blamed. 

Beggars also present a great observation , its not that I am mocking them but its just that a person with a slightest of business sense will tell you that the time gap between 2 beggars is evenly decided , as if they want people to recharge their emotional batteries and again give us some god damned money (also 2 rupees is worthwhile than 1).

It was all in a good experience.

what were they thinking !!!

This post is written to remove commonality between Good intelligent people and people with extravagant Corporate Governance  skills . 

Recently there was a news on Satyam trying to go for a buyout option for its Maytas infra and properties. Thats some guts  considering the dim future this company might have under Mr Raju. Now how does corporate governance vs intelligence comes into picture - to start off with it I would like to give a prima facie of what Satyam software solutions really is. Its the 4rth largest software vendors in India and also diverse into infrastructure with some very huge SEZ projects under its belt .( Now thats called a good governance because people can make diamonds and gold but land is the only thing which is finishing up fast. )

The recent Wall street crumble shook the world or more likely , the IT people. Such turbulent time often comes with attrition and cost cuttings and  Satyam was no different . They  decided not only to close their Kolkata office but also not to call the freshers. This already had created an air eerie atmosphere and a bad thing worse. Soon the maelstrom accompanied casualties with some senior board member quitting. Now Mr Raju still hopeful of a rally in such subdued market , decided to have a buyout for its sister companies. But this is exactly where things went wrong and the fact that Satyam remain blissfully oblivious about its Institutional Investors hit them like a comet and the stock lost nearly 30% in next days trade. This part was some thing of a lesson and a very good case study on Corporate Governance. 

While still trying to revive and mitigate the damage that has been made , there was an announcement of Rights issue  but nothing seems to give them a hope.

But their worse was still to come and next day World bank announced that it is going to ban Satyam from working with it and also posed a ban of 8 years after  espionage was detected in their system.

Now for all those Madhur Bhandarkar fan who saw "CORPORATE"  must be aware of the fact that somebody is going to take a toll of such an impromptu decision , one of the board member is told to take the responsibility of the whole event and is asked to leave the company. That happens here also.

Satyam board has members like "Mr Vinod Dham " of silicon valley and contracts like FIFA world cup which are reason enough for the company to sally forth. But does that really mean that they can take a capricious decision.

According to me No , they can't . The company knew that the news of WORLD BANK breaking off their partnership will soon hit the markets so rights issue and selling more than $1 billion of company's assets to buy another was made in a bid to shy away from the aftereffects of world bank. This was although an intelligent move but proved a bad solution from the point of view of corporate governance.