Congrats to the new President of the most powerful country of the world.
Its only fitting that a guy who talked more sense and who showed more sense in electing a better VP candidate won.
Let’s hope he revives the biggest economy in the world.
A lay off in US was on the cards for about a month now. It was featured and gossiped in the area portals.
So the announcement as such was not shocking. But what was indeed shocking was that some of the folks I had personally interacted with and who are the best have been asked to go.
It’s all fine to calculate like 1 resource in US = X resources in India. But there are some good resources who are invaluable. They can hire ten resources like me in India and yet we cannot compensate for that one critical guy who knows the product in and out for the past 5 years. I do not understand this logic of 1 guy with normal vision = 5 blind guys. Forget sentiments, this does not make business sense.
I cannot talk about this to the folks here since these are sensitive topics and NOT to be discussed. I cannot talk to the victims since they think they got fired because of us.
All this is done ostensibly to reduce costs. But some of the folks have been given benefits which are two years their annual salary ON HAND. So how does this reduce costs? My hunch is, and I may be wrong, its a mere accounting gimmick. A one time settlement, even if its a huge one will be written off from the company’s reserves, a Balance sheet item, while salaries which is a recurring item will be charged to P/L books periodically. These guys are going to show the analysts that we are reducing the salaries, and hence will increase profits in the P/L books in future while doling out two years pay from the balance sheet. They should have huge reserves in the balance sheet so it should not matter.
I think we are taking the adage, ‘Numbers don’t lie’ a bit too far. While numbers don’t lie, they only speak half the truth.
They weave a story of cost cutting which is stupid in the first place, and then spend a lot at one go as a result of such cost cutting! If the last sentence do not make sense, you are not alone.
The very fact that Ranbaxy is hiring Giuliani to fend on its behalf in its imbroglio with USFDA makes me suspect their credentials. The intro on Giuliani Partners’ site was the ultimate piece of mokkai I’ve come across in recent times. Businessweek had covered the Ranbaxy issue , before the issue hit headlines.
What caught my attention was this.
Ranbaxy denies any wrongdoing. The company counters that it made changes recommended by the audits, and that the audits themselves are protected by attorney-client privilege. On Aug. 3, Ranbaxy turned over some documents to the FDA.
Manufacturing mess-ups do occur in the big bad world of pharma worldwide. A cursory glance through http://drug-injury.com reveals quite a bit. It is not confined to third world countries or one particular manufacturer.
But perceptions are a completely different beast. A wrongdoing by a US Pharma company will always be seen as a wrong doing by that company in that plant, while a failure by Ranbaxy will quickly translate to ‘India companies are always like this’ type generalizations. Anything manufactured in India is by default viewed as cheap, and of poor quality simply because it is from India. And to be honest, we have done very little to rectify that perception. I am sure Japanese car manufacturers would’ve faced the same issues sometime back. Look where they are now!
At this point, it looks like Ranbaxy has acted like one of those irresponsible brats I had mentioned in my previous post. At a time when Indian pharma companies are gearing up to move to the next level in the CRAM space (Contract research), acts like these by biggies like Ranbaxy brings a lot of bad press and pushes the whole industry and the country behind by a few notches.
Looks like there are conflicting theories to all pressing issues including commodity futures trading and price rises, also called ‘Yooga vanigam’ in tamil.
There are some politicians and intellectuals in Tamil Nadu who attribute commodity futures trading as the leading cause of price rises and inflationary conditions. Maruthuvar Ayya, and the left are examples of the anti-futures trading camp, which makes me get closer to the opposite camp quite naturally.
But they simply say that as a statement, as if like the causal relation has been as proven as ‘The sun rises in the east’. There is one columnist in Kumudham Reporter called Solai (or Cholai) who claims that had rice had not been banned from commodities futures trading, the price of rice per kg. would’ve reached Rs. 100. I am not sure where and how he comes to this conclusion. He does not explain that, maybe we should believe him just like the way we believe Kalaam on N-deal? On the other hand, articles like these give a different view. Yaarai namburadhu?
If commodities futures trading had led to price rises, how come there were no price rises in all the countries where it had been in vogue all along? When did commodities futures trading come into effect in other countries? Is the correlation valid only for India?
I am not very clear on this issue, but from what I read, I am more inclined to the view taken by the Sen committee and in opposition to the view expressed by the maruthuvar ayya camp and the Solai camp whose ideas are decidedly governed by Leftist ideologies. Any pointers welcome.
Well, the N-deal has took an interesting turn. Looks like the US is intent on defacing all those who backed this deal as usual.
Check out here for more. Looks like a classic case of how perceptions can differ even when two parties communicate in the same language.
I was one of those who thought that we should go for the deal. Not so sure now.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri_percap-crime-total-crimes-per-capita
Like all stats, you can interpret it the way you want. You can argue that crime reporting happens more in developed countries. You can add that the very definition of crime varies by country. Both are valid arguments. On the other extreme, if you are a proud Indian, you would still feel good that for a population of her size, India’s crime rate is remarkably low.
I would make an average of these two extremes and would conclude that the truth is somewhere between these two.
Barack Obama wants to remove tax cuts to companies which send jobs outside America. I am not sure what tax cuts these companies are getting now. That apart, a lot of naive Indian IT coolies are worried that they might lose their jobs. What would happen to their commitments? On the other hand, there are a few NRI folks who are happy that there is some one who is taking the path of going against the outsourcing wave. One I spoke to even mentioned, ‘Sub prime mortage naale ella IT projects um gaali.. Rupee appeciation naale inime IT outsourcing wave avlo dhaan…TCS la onsite la irukara neraya pera thirumba vara solitaangalam’ with barely concealed glee. I am sure these guys might want to listen to Barack Obama speak against outsourcing in their iPods which incidentally is manufactured like this here. I would like to know what would be the cost of iPod had it been manufactured in Cupertino? And how many desis , or even Americans who oppose outsourcing would be prepared to buy at that price? TCS may or may not have called back all the onsite resources. But Cognizant is building a mega campus in Coimbatore.
The first time I came to know about outsourcing is not when Infosys and Wipro made headlines. It was much before that. Nikon, my favorite camera manufacturer introduced a model called FM-10. For the first time, a new Nikon was available at affordable price for a middle class guy. My father then said, ‘Ellam China la panradhu da, ellam cheap stuff’. On the other hand, the German made Leica always costs a bomb. Its like you basically get half the features for double the price. Leica R4 costed 1500$ when a comparable Nikon / Canon would cost half of that with more features. Right now, My D50 body is manufactured in Thailand. My favorite 50mm f/1.8 plastic lens is manufactured in China.
Barack Obama, Michael Moore, and some NRIs in general are against outsourcing. But the decision to outsource is a business one, not political.
Personally, i am neither for nor against outsourcing. All I would say is that with the current level of integration among the economies of the world, and whose pace is only increasing, outsourcing is inevitable. We can stop outsourcing, if we are prepared to move out of this globally interconnected economic model to small, localized economies using intermediate technologies as envisioned by E F Schumacher. Such a model is more environment friendly albeit less sophisticated. But that would mean No to iPods, no to Japanese cars in US, and No to Nike shoes. Perhaps we can stretch the logic to even ask people to return to their home countries.
Sitting comfortably in countries like US, UK and talking bad about outsourcing is called ‘pithalaatam’ in my lexicon.
I have been wanting to write this for sometime. Let me make this clear. I am no US lover when it comes to their foreign policies.
But there is something called durable competitive advantage. Warren Buffet is always fond of talking about them.
I guess some entities - be it countries or companies have that. US is one of them. The way to play with those entities is to partner with them but be clear on our priorities. I don’t think its a zero sum game. There is lot of brouhaha going on about this being a stake sale to the US. Our PM is for once right in drawing clear parallels to the economic liberalization reforms and and how that got dubbed as a stake sale too.
What exactly is the issue? The main selling point of those who oppose this deal is the reputation of US. I agree that is a concern.
On the other hand, there is nothing concrete to suggest we are compromising on our national interest. Are we signing NPT? No.
Do we have exit route? Yes.
Assuming this deal is not perfect, do we have any alternate plans to meet our energy requirements? Nothing concrete so far.
I did read about thorium resources in india but not sure how that can be capitalized. How better is that route than the US deal? One blogger says we have 80% of the world’s thorium reserves, another web site says we have 30%. Again no clear answers.
I do not think the US can treat India the way it has treated other countries simply because India is too huge a market for US corporates.
There is always an element of risk and uncertainty in any kind of decision making, let alone the one which has a nation’s progress at stake. What I look for in these situations is the long term perspective.
Given all this, I think the risk taken by our PM seems to be a calculated risk. If nothing else, this would be seen as a risk which had a positive approach rather than fear and suspicion as propounded by the left.
Forget everything, our PM should be appreciated for just taking the time to think about our energy requirements in the future.
That in itself is a kind of achievement among Indian politicians.
Bottomline: Notwithstanding my allergy to US foreign policy, I would support the N-deal.
PS: Had this in my draft for far too long 