Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Land Acquisition Bill

Uncategorized May 18, 2012 Comments: 2

I am a socialist at heart. I believe in public good over corporate profits. I think that mandatory CSR spend should be at least 20 per cent of a company’s earnings before tax. Yes, draconian. But in a socialist way. Or so I hope as everyone can’t be kept happy. Someone somewhere has to disagree. That is the law and even though we are masters at breaking them, this is one law we adhere to its soul.

Anyway, coming back to the issue — The Land Acquisition Bill. Now, I don’t want to get into the entirety of the bill but just one moot point — The panel suggests that the government should not help companies in buying land.

You might say that this will help people in getting a fair value of their land as the government always pays less. Also, why should the government became the bad guy in the corporate-citizen stand-off. Fair enough. However, if this is the bill and your support, then first stop comparing yourself to China. Because there, what the government says is the last word. In India, multi-billion dollar projects are delayed by half a decade at the minimum because of land acquisition issues. Google: JSW Steel, Tata Steel, ArcelorMittal, POSCO, etc.

Now, I said I am a socialist but the last argument was anything but that, correct? Right. This is because I have a problem with this perspective of the parliamentary panel’s recommendation. Either you are pro-development or against it. There is no middle path here. Yes, the development can be slow or expedited depending upon the wish of the government and the law of the land, but it is still development.

India, currently, is nowhere.

In my view, the government cannot pull its hands from the land acquisition and get the corporate world in direct contact with the farmers/poor citizens, et al. You just can’t. The FDI in retail was to eliminate the middle-men and get farmers their due.

The government has to play the middle-man in land acquisition to get the farmer their due. Don’t believe me? See what happened at Tata Steel’s plant in Kalinganagar. How many people protest the plant and how many adivasis died. What happens in Chhattisgarh in the name of land acquisition.

Look at ArcelorMittal. Trying to buy land in Jharkhand for 7 years now and they are still at zero. From changing the location of the plant to downsizing the capacity, they have tried everything. Zilch, yet.

Yes, the government intervention is a red-tape step and you might even term it as regressive and further slowing down of the economy. But this is a decision you have to make.

Some sacrifices will have to be made. I am ready to sacrifice the pace of development for the so called ‘ inclusive growth’. Which, in my mind, cannot happen if the government is absent from the land acquisition for manufacturing sector.

Companies will bully the poor farmers, pay them lumpsum and throw them out of the land. The policy should mean that the government is a custodian of the rights of the land owners even after they have agreed to sell.

This is one responsibility the government cannot shy away from. Unfortunately, that is exactly what  the parliament is trying at the moment.

Why is it a contempt to disagree with the Supreme Court?

Uncategorized April 9, 2012 Comments: 2

Near shutdown situation for Karnataka steelmakers as SC adjourns case, again

My view on the Karnataka mining, steel-makers and the SC.

March 30 was a regular day in the Supreme Court of India with many cases heard and many deferred. One of the cases was of the steel-makers in Karnataka crying for iron ore supply in order to sustain steel production. On that day, the Supreme Court of India adjourned the hearing of the iron ore mining case for the 13th time.

Given the fact that Karnataka accounts for over 20 per cent of India’s steel production and close to half of iron ore production, you may very well imagine the impact. Also, steel sector is said to be at the core of the infrastructure development. And we know that the government is stress on infrastructure development like Bollywood heroines’ stress on developing fake bosoms/lips. That serious.

Anyway, this slow hearing process has seriously affected the viability of steel-making in the state as the quality of ore is worsening by the day.

Out of the 27 times that the case was listed in the Supreme Court, the hearing has been deferred 13 times. Means nearly every second hearing was deferred/adjourned or whatever legal jargon you want to give. (PS: Dear Supreme Court, I am in complete knowledge of your guidelines for court reporters and let me assure you that I am not a court reporter).

Out of these 13 adjournments, five have happened consecutively since February 24, the latest one being the one on March 30. On March 16, the hearing was adjourned as one of the judges wasn’t available and March 23 hearing was adjourned because the CEC panel failed to submit its report to the SC bench.  The Supreme Court, in a notice on its website on March 14, said, “Due to non-availability of Honourable Mr Justice Aftab Alam for hearing forest bench matters, special bench comprising of Honourable The Chief Justice, Honourable Mr Justice Aftab Alam and Honourable Mr Justice Swatanter Kumar for hearing the matter will not sit on Friday, the 16 March 2012.”

This case if a matter of national importance and the stakes are high. And even though nearly half of the scheduled hearings getting cancelled due to one reason or the other, companies/stakeholders/everyone who is affected by this, are keeping their mouth shut fearing a showdown by the SC.

And this is what I want to ask today. Is it wrong to disagree with the Supreme Court in India? Why is is that disagreeing with a SC order or the way its proceedings are held, in a specific case or in general, are taken as a contempt of the judiciary in India?

The companies are silent. They are scared that whatever they may say will be taken against them by the SC. So, is it that even the SC, the guardian of citizens’ rights in this country doesn’t tolerate freedom of expression/speech even when its done keeping in mind all the clauses of the constitution?

Is it that difficult to disagree with the Supreme Court or its judgement?

The steel industry in Karnataka is again staring at a near shut down situation because of these delays. Even though the SC had given a respite to the industry in the state by allowing e-auctions every month from the 25 million tonne of stockpiles and allowing NMDC to mine, the industry is unhappy as the grades of ore has been deteriorating sharply.

Steel-makers say that the CEC, in its report to the SC, recommended category ‘A’ mines to function as no illegalities were found there. ” All we are asking the SC to consider this recommendation as soon as possible so that the steel production can carry on,” they say.

Currently, with no solution in sight, only a “few” months iron ore supplies are left in the state. Over half of the sponge iron makers in Karnataka have already drawn shutters and rest are bleeding money profusely in the hope of a judgement. The mega steel plants in the state, too, are slowly cutting production.

If the SC allows these mines to function again, then 8.5 million tonne of iron ore will available for steel-making annually.

The steel-making in the state would have shut down last year itself if the SC did not allow e-auctions of the iron ore from the state stock-piles. The companies are relieved by the move, but, are again getting flustered.

They say, “Iron ore is available from the stock-piles but the low grades are affecting the blast furnaces. As a result, cost of producing steel is going up. If relief doesn’t come from the SC then the industry will face closure yet again.”

A top official from an affected steel company, said, “Out of the 25 million tonne, 17 million tonne has been e-auctioned, however, mostly it has been iron ore fines. The grades of ore has also reduced which is affecting the blast furnaces.”

Iron ore is available in two forms, lumps and fines. Lumps are the chunks of iron ore in solid form whereas fines are the ore in powdered form which remain at the mines after lumps are taken out. Ore is fed into the blast furnace with other raw material to make steel.

The total steel capacity in Karnataka is 16 million tonne, of that 3 million tonne is sponge iron. Most of this sponge iron production has been shut down and steel plants are running at low capacities.

JSW Steel, the biggest steel-maker in the state and the second largest in India,  production in the month of February fell down by 24 per cent sequentially, at 6.10 lakh tonne. The company, on March 5, said, “As the stock pile of 25 million tonne is getting exhausted, the quality of iron ore being offered in E-auction is deteriorating substantially. Further certain iron ore in E-auctions contained high Alumina, Silica, Manganese and Low Fe which led to poor Sinter quality, high slag formation and low productivity in the Blast Furnaces.”

So, I ask the question again. Till when are we going to stick our heads in the sand and ignore the stark realities that face us? The argument that Indian courts are over-worked with millions of cases pending, is valid. But, such cases where the future of our economic development depends, can’t be left to such frequent adjournments.

Also, the demons of ‘contempt of court’ if we say anything against the court or its order, has to be taken out. Else, we are not free.

Par maine kab kahaa ki main shayar hoon?

Poetry, Uncategorized, What I Call Poetry March 28, 2012 1 Comment

Tumhari tarah shabd toh nahi hain mere pass
Bas ek dil hai, joh kabhi-kabhi bol uthta hai
Tumhari tarah tootey huye sapne bhi nahi hai
Bas kuch yaadein hain, jo kabhi-kabhi ro deti hain
Par maine kab kahaa ki main shayar hoon?

Yahaan par toh sunnewale bhi taaliyaan nahi bajate
Bas char deewaarien hain, jinme mere shabd joongte hain
Tumhari tarah dard bhari kahaani bhi nahee mere paas
Bas kuch khwaab hain, jinhe theek se piroya bhi nahee
Par maine kab kaha ki main shaayar hoon?

Dil ko syahi banane waalon mein se main nahee
Bas khoon ki kuch boondon se yaadein seench rakhi hain
Zindagi ka zeher sirf tumhare hi liye kadva ho jata hoga
Mere toh shabd bhi zamzam aur bhaavnaayein bhi
keh toh raha hoon tum se, sab se, kab se,
Ke maine kab kahaa ki main shayar hoon?

Firstpost

Uncategorized March 26, 2012 Leave a comment

When FirstPost based its story on my statement on the Budget 2012 🙂 Cheap thrills.

http://www.firstpost.com/india/union-budget-2012-the-govt-has-to-give-up-its-love-for-power-246272.html

 

Coalgate

Uncategorized March 22, 2012 Leave a comment

The CAG coal scam report. I don’t see much merit in the report. More so, drawing parallels with the 2G scam is utterly wrong as the premise of both the cases are completely different.

In 2G, A Raja sidetracked the boundaries of the policy, made it first-come-first and thereby making money for himself and favouring select companies. In the so-called Coalgate, the policy to allocate mines based on companies allocation is an age policy. What should be noted is how many allocations have been made.

Yes, there have been irregularities in the allocations as the government has the power to allocate to companies it deems fit. But pegging entire allocation as a scam is juvenile. Most of the power, steel, aluminium, cement, etc companies in India do not have coal blocks allotted to them. It takes years before anyone gets an allocation.

Therefore, the targets to achieve a set power production in five year plans have been missed consistently. It is because of this that the government thought of auctioning the coal blocks. The proposal is still under discussion but is likely to be passed soon.

In my opinion, saying that Rs 10 lakh crore was lost because the coal blocks were not auctioned doesn’t hold much water. Anyway, the water table in this country are fast depleting so I am not going to argue much about the scam.

Auctioning of national resources is the way to cut down on corruption and even in the case of coal blocks, the move has been under consideration from much before the 2G scam surfaced.

What I want to draw your attention towards, is Coal India. World’s largest coal company and a government of India enterprise which raised mega monies last year by selling its stake to investors, including us.

Coal India, now, is no more a fiefdom of the government. Investors have put in money and they demand fair practices so that they could earn returns on their investments. Nothing wrong with that. However, Coal India sells coal to companies, government and private, at below market rates. Why? This was fine till the time it was a complete government owned company. Not anymore.

And a few months ago when Coal India tried to increase prices and change the way it charged customers for the coal they bought, it met with a great resistance. The coal minister intervened and rolled-back the price hike.

Isn’t this against the culture of free market which Coal India was made a part of after raising money from private investors?

Also, see the trend of coal production by this Navratna company. Its production has been dropping ever since with no solution in sight. It is a monopoly coal supplier in India and power companies have no other option but to buy coal from Coal India. But how can they buy coal from the company when there is no coal available because Coal India is not mining enough? Not only mining enough, its production is falling.

It is then the government allowed companies to import coal to meet their requirements.

India has one of the largest coal reserves in the world and Coal India is the largest coal company in the world. Isn’t it strange that such a company cannot meet coal demand and companies have resorted to importing? If there has to be an audit, do it on Coal India.

I would have termed Coalgate as a scam if most of the companies had got coal allocations. But the fact is very different. Some companies have got and most are still in waiting. This is the reason why companies are importing coal. Because they do not have any.

Every companies which requires coal is in favour of auctioning. They are ready to pay sky-high rates for coal blocks. They say at least we will have our own coal and won’t have to suffer with the global coal price fluctuations.

And this is the reason why the latest 5 year plan has reduced electricity production targets. Because there is no assurance of coal supply and global prices are high.

Auctioning coal block means your power costs will go up. The power companies have two types of contracts, short and long term. Some part of their electricity generation is tied up with state power distribution companies at a previously agreed upon price. With Coal India not meeting the demand, companies are importing and coal costs are soaring.

It is then these power companies went to their respective state governments to renegotiate power rates. They were shown the signed agreement and the door.

Why will a power company set up a power plant when it knows that it will lose money of every unit of power generated?

Yes, there might be favours in whatever coal block allocations made, but it is time we look at the bigger picture to solve the problem rather than bickering about what the policy was and what happened in the past.

Auction coal blocks and break Coal India’s monopoly. Power costs will go up for everyone. This is the price we have to pay for development. Sooner or later. Gear up.

What Dinesh Trivedi is singing for Mamata Banerjee

Uncategorized March 19, 2012 Leave a comment

Making a monster out of a simple statement of accounts – The Budget

Uncategorized March 15, 2012 Leave a comment

I don’t really understand this hoopla around the annual budget. Is it really that important? Why such a fuss? Just calm the fuck down. It is only the government’s statement of accounts on how it intends to earn its money and spend it. That it all.

And price hikes of cars, petrol, houses, etc, are now not restricted to budgetary moves. Happen all around the year. Still budget is drama. This annual exercise is completely futile. If you want to make the government more accountable, there should be a quarterly review. If companies declare their results every 3 months, so should the govt. The budget should the roadmap for the year. Review it every quarter. That is how you make your parliament accountable to your money. Do you remember how much was allocated to a rural scheme last year? No.

So, what is the point in listening to the finance minister harp on fresh expenditure when we can’t even benchmark it to previous year? This yearly façade of budgetary allocations are way off the mark. Every single subsidy, deficit, targets, etc are porous. So, why can’t the government review its budget expenditure and achievements on a quarterly basis? Coming back on track will be much easier.

And then the budget is based on assumptions. These are bound to go wrong.What happens to the budget then? A failed exercise. An assumption of how much the government will earn this year. The foundation itself is flawed. Every year the targets are missed.

When you can’t even guarantee how much money you will earn how do you plan spending that rupee? Its all a big ‘if’. But this talk falls on deaf ears. Budget is to business papers what elections is to a general newspaper. We can’t do away with our love to blow statement of accounts out of proportion. So be it. But at least start with a regular quarterly review.

When a top international mining company tried to arm-twist.

Uncategorized March 15, 2012 Leave a comment

A top international mining company calls me in the morning. Upset with the story! haha. “We have such a good rapport. Why you write this?” “You are a friend. The management knows you. See if you could write some positive story. Otherwise would be very difficult to talk again.” This is PR. The arm twisting tactics are nowadays very direct. Earlier the game was in subtlety. 

“We had so much trouble accommodating you for that exclusive interview. The chairman rarely talks and this is what you write.” “And on top of it we have a relationship of so many years now. You are like (company’s name) family.” You want me to be your mouthpiece then you rather hire me as your corp comm. Will be happy to edit your internal magazine. But the kind of arguments corp comm heads and PRs come up with nowadays is pure bizarre.

According to this particular gentleman, I should be thankful that the chairman agreed to meet me. I ruined it by writing a scathing story. “This is not the first time you have done this. Even in the past have written negative stories against us. Why can’t you see good things.” This is a very common grudge of these mining/metal companies against me. “Why can’t I see what they are doing for sustainable development.” Just because I have a rapport (or lack of it) with them, they expect me to ignore all the negatives. Why?

These guys will do one good thing (mere token) and harp as if they are championing a cause. Multiple press releases, shouting from the top. Find one negative (which is the job as companies never say what is wrong with them) and they shut your doors like heaven on Osama (I hope). If this is the business of communication then please try not to tell me what to write. It is a two-way process. Let it be that way. And then you expect me shut my eyes and look the other way. Well, this is why I have glasses (bad pun).

All I can guarantee is that I won’t be biased against you. And this is where these companies play dirty. “How much has the rival paid you to write this against us?” Hear this often now. Its like a Hindi Film script. Poor boy, rich girl. Typical. And they think that by not talking they can stop us from writing about them. Mistake. To top it all, it is they who come back. “Wassup buddy? Long time! Accha sent you a press release. We are spending xx on CSR. Please zara dekh lo.”

I will write about your CSR if you spend more than the amount made compulsory by the law. Else it is just a law which has to be followed. And what CSR? Bloody your CSR depts are run by your wives. Who have nothing better to do apart from socialite parties. Use CSR as a show-off. This is a thankless job and will always remain one. You write good then you are a pimp. You write negative and you are paid off by rivals.

But no one wants to see the merit of the written word. Mud slinging is the order of the day. Let me get some shrapnel, then.

*End of Rant*

Dear Sachin, please don’t ruin it.

Uncategorized March 15, 2012 1 Comment

Yes, it is not about Sachin’s 100th 100 anymore. Its about a player who is out of form for a year but yet he is not dropped. If Sachin is not bigger than the game then he has no business continuing in the team till he gets his form back. Simple.

And do not give me stats about his mahanta. He is a legend. But everyone has a shelf-life. Everyone. If you want him to play because of a legend that he is, buy an IPL team and buy him out. National team is not about past glory.

I am a Sachin fan. But I want to keep only the good memories of his play. Unfortunately, he himself is ruining it.

I think I told you

Poetry, Uncategorized, What I Call Poetry February 19, 2012 1 Comment

I think I told you
What it is to be without you.
I think I told you
What you are — morning hues.

I think I told you
That you add reds to my blues.
I think I told you
Why I still don’t have a clue.

I think I told you
About the dreams, how they flew.
I think I told you
Some lies and maybe some trues.

I think I told you
What it is to be without you.
I think I told you
What you are — my morning hues.