You leave me numb as always
I am smiling, or grinning, may be.
I don’t know what to make out of it
The world with words and no words.
Take the step, be a stranger no more
Blush, go pink, unbreak, make it one.
There is something that binds us
And I hope that it’s enough.
Its been long since I wrote a poem
Funny, because I have never written one.
There was no reason for me to write again
Yes, I was looking in the wrong direction.
I am happy as I could have ever been
Although, inhibitions had to be shunned.
These lines as always make no rhyme
But then, I also give them no reason.
I have never been the river or the sea
Yet, for no reason I just let myself drown
I may like what we have between us
Sure, I am not looking how long it will go on.
You are spineless, aimless and yet so effortless.
You have a glass half empty, yet so plentiful.
I am heartless, shameless and yet so penniless.
I have a thorn in my throat, yet not scornful.
You are speechless, feet-less and yet so fearless.
You have a face to stare-at yet so mournful.
I am guileless, mindless and yet so smirk-less.
I have an entire universe in my heart yet no force pull.
Last night we saw Mactards rise from the ashes again in a bid to regain their control over the stupidity quotient over the Internet.
Apple was announcing the new version of iOS dubbed as ‘iOS 6’. I went through a couple of stories to check what new Android feature has Apple copied that is making the fans orgasm so much.
Here’s the link of the story I referred to: http://t.co/GcWqfXmD
1. Passbook.
Now Apple lets you see your bank account details on the go. It stores everywhere detail of your checks and balances of your accounts in a safe and secure way. Oh wait, that’s not what this passbook does.
This one stores your flight tickets, loyalty card details, etc.
Masterstroke: calling it Passbook. And guess what? Android doesn’t have this inbuilt. (Did Apple really manage to think something original for the iPhone?
By NOW Mactards are going this http://instagr.am/p/Lvt9tCJ6r1/.
We have apps to do this. Don’t see a reason why this is a big deal. Anyhow, moving on.
2. Maps
Apple to give its own internally developed maps. Yes, have ditched Google Maps. Wait, what? They were using Google Maps all this while? ROFL.
3. Attach photos in emails
Dear Mactards, welcome to 2008.
4. Do not disturb
Basically, if you don’t any calls, etc, while you are asleep you can use this feature. It will remind you later to read those messages or make those calls.
For a much easier functionality, it’s called the ‘silent mode’ in all phones. Selling it as a top feature is a masterstroke only Apple could think of. And the reminder thing.. Yeah we have notifications for that. iOS guys got notifications like last year so I guess they haven’t figured it out yet hence this new feature.
As it turns out, the biggest surprise in iOS 6 was The Stig at the WWDC event! Oh wait, he is not replacing Siri? Damn.
Conclusion: http://instagr.am/p/LvtmfEJ6rs/.
May 25, 2012
Below text (Only on the cigarette business) is verbatim from ITC’s press release announcing its fourth quarter and Fy12 results.
The Cigarettes industry in India continues to be impacted by an environment of rapidly escalating challenges and discriminatory taxation. The steep increase in the tax rates on cigarettes, both at the Central and at the State level, has led to the undesirable consequence of shifting consumption patterns to lightly taxed or tax evaded tobacco products besides fuelling the rampant growth of illegal cigarettes. In effect, the spiralling tax rates have only led to sub-optimising the revenue potential from this industry without achieving the stated objective of a reduction in overall tobacco consumption.
The steep hike in Excise Duty rates announced in the Union Budget 2012 will further exacerbate the problem of discriminatory and high taxation on cigarettes within the tobacco industry.
The accelerated tax increase on cigarettes relative to other tobacco products has shifted tobacco consumption to cheaper, lightly taxed or tax evaded products like Bidi, Khaini, Chewing Tobacco and Gutkha which are the most dominant forms of tobacco consumption in India and constitute as much as 85% of total usage. The objectives of revenue maximisation and tobacco control have been severely compromised by this lopsided tax policy on Cigarettes which now contributes over 74% of tax revenue, whilst accounting for less than 15% of tobacco consumption.
The domestic legal cigarette industry is faced with the growing menace of illegal cigarettes. Independent research indicates that, in India, whilst there is a fall in volumes of ‘duty paid’ cigarettes by 4.4% during the period 2005 to 2010, the ‘duty-not-paid’ volumes grew by 49.3% during the same period. India has now been recognised as one of the leading destinations for Illegal cigarettes.
Attractive tax arbitrage opportunities, due to high level of taxes on the legal domestic Cigarette industry in India, incentivises illegal flow of cigarettes into the country, especially of internationally advertised and known brands. Coupled with our porous borders, cigarette imports under Open General License (OGL) make it extremely difficult to monitor and regulate the inflow of illegal stocks. Further, with the domestic Cigarette industry being strictly regulated, including compulsory licensing under the Industrial (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951, a liberal import policy is contrary to the Government’s tobacco control policies. This is also detrimental to the interests of Indian tobacco farmers, as it directly impacts the demand for indigenous tobacco by the domestic industry.
The demographic construct of India’s population calls for multiple price points to meet the needs of the country’s diverse consumer segments. The growth of illegal cigarettes is also aided by the vacuum created at lower price points, where legal industry has been unable to operate, due to a disproportionately high tax burden. Further, the lacunae in the provisions of the Industrial (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 encourages ‘fly by night’ operators to manufacture illegal cigarettes without obtaining requisite licenses and clandestinely clear them without payment of taxes.
The Company, along with other stakeholders and industry bodies continues to represent to the regulatory authorities seeking a non-discriminatory tax and regulatory policy on tobacco products in the interest of the Government exchequer, domestic farmer community and industry.
Despite a difficult operating environment in the market place, it is gratifying to report that the business further improved its market standing during the year. The business’s uncompromising commitment to continuous and consistent offerings of value-added, world-class products has been reinforced through innovations in product development and launch of differentiated offers. The portfolio has been strengthened through strategic investments in product quality and technology.
A premium line of hand-rolled cigars launched in 2010 under the brand name ‘Armenteros’ has gained significant consumer franchise, competing against world renowned Cuban and other cigar brands. The Armenteros range of cigars is now available in premium outlets across key cigar markets and is expected to further consolidate and grow its franchise.
The Cigarette business faces the daunting challenges of an unprecedented high incidence of taxation, complex tax structure, rising illegal trade and a discriminatory regulatory climate. Despite these challenges, the relentless pursuit of excellence in building robust, world-class brands and innovation in processes and investment in appropriate state-of-art technologies will enable it to further consolidate its market standing.
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.
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.
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?
When FirstPost based its story on my statement on the Budget 2012 🙂 Cheap thrills.
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.
A Day In My Life. 