The Great Fraud Act

The media in India is considered by many commentators as one of the most open and free in the world. I wish it were true. The two main channels of media - electronic and print - are riddled with paid news and are driven by their vested interests. 

Take the case of NDTV. Any serious observer of the Indian media space would swear by the fact that NDTV is shamelessly pro-Congress. Prannoy James Roy (above) and his bouquet of channels lack any ethics and are neck deep in peddling lies about anyone who dares to oppose the Sonia Maino-led Congress. 

If you think I am leveling allegations against these self-appointed media gods, then read the following extract of investigative journalism from Zoom Indian Media:

During 1997 and 1998, the names of NDTV and its founder Prannoy Roy appear in newspapers and magazines in relation to a major corruption case in Doordarshan. 

In the context of the recent reports of financial malpractice by NDTV and its founder Prannoy Roy, I followed up on this tweet by Kunal Majumdar, a journalist: 

In 1998 CBI had filed a case against Pranoy Roy for creating a loss of Rs 5 cr to DD. http://bit.ly/ij5lC3 #fb

I was surprised to learn of the existence of a CBI case against Prannoy Roy. I wanted to dig up more on this story. I went through all 16 pages returned by Google for “prannoy roy cbi dd” and found many interesting links. I’m putting the links here quoting revelant portions of the articles. One must be cautious before drawing conclusions from these articles as they were written more than a decade ago. But one conclusion that people may safely draw is that during the early 90s, NDTV and its founder and Executive Chairperson Prannoy Roy were allegedly involved in corrupt dealings reportedly causing a loss of atleast Rs. 3.52 crore to Doordarshan, allegedly bribed an official in the Government of India, and in January 1998 cases were filed against Roy and others by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

If you think this was bad, then you should read this article from The Sunday Guardian. Let me cite an excerpt from the article: 

NDTV, through its foreign subsidiaries, is suspected to be indulging in gross violations of Indian tax and corporate laws. NDTV Network Plc, UK was set up in November 2006. Its balance sheets were not filed in India. This company has raised and invested huge sums of money in its subsidiaries, NDTV Imagine (now sold), NDTV Lifestyle, NDTV Labs, NDTV Convergence and NGEN Media Services. The main activity of the company seems to be that of buying shares, as detailed later. Even now, most of the deals being struck by NDTV are being transacted through this UK subsidiary, with no money seemingly coming to India by way of tax.

Here's how NDTV indulges in financial chicanery and is looting the wealth of shareholders. Read this second complete article here.

NDTV Limited and associate companies in which Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have a majority stake have indulged in financial misdemeanours and malpractices in connivance with ICICI Bank, and raised funds by misdeclaration of the value of shares in NDTV. These shares were held by a company called RRPR Holding Private Limited.

For publishing these articles, NDTV threatened The Sunday Guardian with its usual strong arm tactics. (Read NDTV's reply to the articles here.)

I used to wonder as what could be the possible reasons behind NDTV's staunch support for the INC, to the extent that it has become the voice of the Congress party. 

Today I know why; the Congress party has Prannoy Roy by his balls because of these corruption allegations. Become our voice and pander to our agenda, says the INC to NDTV. 

Roy and NDTV are just being 'His Master's Voice', i.e. Sonia Maino's voice. It is twist of irony that NDTV's tag-line reads: 'Experience Truth. First.' Yes, the lies and prejudices peddled as truth.

The Ticking Time Bomb

Last week, global population hit the 7 billion counter! India's share in the world population pie is a whopping 17%! While we grew at a still high 1.76% per annum since 2001, it is lower than the 2.13% per annum growth rate we generated between 1991 and 2001.

At the current rate of population growth, we will overtake China in a matter of few years. In a country like India with huge income disparities and social and economic tensions, a fast-growing population places enormous pressure on resources. 

On the Reuters blog, I found four interesting infographics on global population numbers, including on the attended themes of urbanisation, ageing, and poverty. I do not know if the world is running out of resources to feed our ever growing numbers but I am sure that at the current pace of consumption we are living on borrowed time.

Click on the graphics for larger views.

The Explainer: Bond

It has been many days since I penned The Explainer. Last week, I was at a college where a student asked me about 'bonds'. She told me that she had come across this term while running through the numerous scary stories on the Greek crisis. While I did explain the term to this student, I thought of sharing with you a few ideas on bonds.

So here is The Explainer on Bonds.

What is a Bond?

A bond is a security, just like a fixed deposit. In the case of an FD, you put money in the form of a deposit with a bank and the bank pays a fixed rate of interest on your deposit. 

Let us say, you wish to invest Rs10,000 (this amount is called 'principal') in a five-year FD, which will pay you an annual interest rate of 8%. This means that every year, your FD will yield 8 per cent in interest and at the end of five years, you will get back your principal amount of Rs10,000. 

In other words, you are lending your money to the bank, for which it pays you interest. 

Just like this, in the case of a bond, you keep your money with the government and the government pays a fixed rate of interest. When a government wants to borrow money, it does so by way of issuing bonds. 

Here's a simple example: The Government of India wishes to borrow money to finance its expenditure (or to spend on anything it wishes). To borrow money, it issues bonds.

Let us say, the government prices each bond at Rs1,000, which carries an interest rate of 5% and a tenure of 10 years. This means that if you buy the Rs1,000 bond, you will be paid interest at 5% and at the end of 10 years, the government will return your principal amount of Rs1,000 also. 

What is 'yield' on bond?

The rate of interest generated on your investment when you buy a bond is called yield. Like in the example, the ten-year Rs1000 bond carries an interest rate of 5%. This 5% is called yield. 

Who buys government bonds? Are they safe?

Government bonds carry sovereign guarantee. This means that the government of the country stands 'guarantee' to the repayment of your investment. Such bonds are generally considered very safe for investment and are rated to be risk-free. This attracts a large number of conservative investors (like pension funds and insurance companies), who generally avoid investing in risky securities like shares.

Does a bond market, like a share market, exist? 

Yes. There is a large bond market in our country, and so is the case with most large economies. Generally, in India it is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that sells bonds to generate funds for the government. 

Can you buy / sell bonds?

Yes. If you wish to sell your bond, you can do so. However, it depends on the interest rate scenario. For example, if you (as a bond holder) believe that the government will not be able to honour its repayment, i.e. it may default, then you will try to sell the bond in the market. But such a bond will attract a low price, which means that you will lose money on selling it.  

Read The Explainers on Stock Market - Part I; Stock Market - Part II; Stock Market - Part III; 
Foreign Direct Investment; Cash Reserve Ratio; Credit Rating, and GDP - Part I.

10 Things You Should Know – Episode II

Friends, here is this week's list of 10 Things You Should Know. 

(Read Episode I of Things You Should Know.)

1. Employees who return to their previous places of work are called boomerang employees.

2. Operation Vijay was the codename of the military operation launched to liberate Goa, Daman, & Diu from the colonial rule of Portugal, in 1961.  

3. Walmart is the largest company in the world by revenue, with sales of U.S.$421 billion in 2011. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, it was founded by Samuel Moore ‘Sam’ Walton in 1962.  

4. A Lusophone is someone who speaks the Portuguese language, either as a native, as an additional language, or as a learner. The word comes from Lusitania, an ancient Roman province which covered most of the part of the Iberian Peninsula that is today the Republic of Portugal and part of Spain. Brazil is the largest lusophone country in the world. 

5. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is a co-founder of Facebook. At school, he loved math and astronomy while excelling in the Classical studies. In fact, on his college application, Zuckerberg listed as non-English languages he could read and write: French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek! 

6. A Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde invented =, the ‘equals’ sign in 1557. He is the author of ‘The Grounde of Artes’, the first book in English on algebra.

7. Durex is a portmanteau of ‘Durability, Reliability, and Excellence’.

8. Mumbai was originally built on seven islands. In 1782, Governor William Hornby launched Hornby Vellard, a project to unite all the seven islands into a single island, a task which was completed by 1838. 

9. George Bush once locked Colin Powell (Secretary of State) out of a meeting for being late.  

10. Karl Marx’s mother once quipped this about her famous son: “If only Karl had made capital instead of writing about it!” 

Origins of Company Names - in Pics!

As the title of this post says, here are some pictorial stories behind company names. I have reproduced a few here; you can find the long list at Buzzfeed.

The Rise and Fall of the Mad Dog

Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried. For a man who ruled Libya with an iron fist for nearly 42 years, the end has rather been an ignominious one. From wallowing in his luxury tent to spending his last moments in a drain pipe, Gaddafi's life and death epitomise the adage that 'those who live by the sword die by the sword'.

Gaddafi was the uncontrolled master of everything he surveyed. He never occupied any post, yet styled himself 'The Leader'. He was a megalomaniac, one who loved unbridled power but with no accountability. A paranoid, he did not trust his own shadow.

Fear and repression were his twin weapons, especially against his own countrymen. A past-master at suppressing dissent, he crushed all opposition and brooked no criticism. 

From his hideout, he claimed that he would fight an all-out war, that he was not a woman to run away. This comes from a man who had an all-female bodyguard (Amazonian women guard) who formed the ring of bullet-takers around him. So much for his manhood; did someone say, male chauvinism?
He loved women, of course. It was an open secret in Libya that he had the hots for an Ukranian nurse, named Galina Kolotnitskaya. Most of the women guards and nurses would be raped and abused by Gaddafi and his sons and their cronies. 

Gaddafi is said to have stashed away U.S.$200 billion in overseas secret accounts and investments. This money was siphoned away from the proceeds generated from Libya's biggest export: petroleum. Incidentally, Libya has the world's tenth largest proven reserves of petroleum.

He supported terrorist acts against his enemies, especially against the West, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. The 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am bombing is a case in point: Libyan intelligence agents blew up the London-New York Pan Am flight, killing all 269 passengers on board and 11 others in the village of Lockerbie where the plane debris fell.

A few weeks after the rebellion against his tyrannical rule started in the eastern city of Benghazi, he went on air to vent his threats to the rebels. He ranted that he would "how no mercy, no pity. We will come. House by house, room by room...vengeance awaits rats and dogs... It's over. The issue has been decided... We will find you in your closets." 

Unfortunately for Gaddafi, it was for him the issue had been decided. It was Gaddafi who took refuge in a rat-hole. He died a miserable death, a death of dishonour and shame - much like the way he killed thousands of his countrymen in his paranoid pursuit of power. 

The Mad Dog has been hunted and killed. 

Check out these two infographics from Reuters. (Links - for first infographic; second infographic.)

The Ugly Face of the Gandhis

The Indian National Congress is probably the most unique political party in the world. No, not because it is headed by a woman who holds a foreign passport (and not an Indian passport),  and certainly not because it is a party with a ruling dynasty.

The INC is unique because it has an unstated and unwritten rule that if the member aspires to a leadership role, at any level, (s)he has to be sycophant par excellence. Nothing that is critical of the Gandhi Family (with a Capital 'F') can ever be said; the party leader brooks no dissent against her dictatorial ways.

Without a nod from the Gandhis, none of the party's members, be they ministers or organisational workers, can dare open their mouths. The only time they can do so is to extol the greatness of Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi, the incomparable sacrifice of Sonia Maino (said to be the name on her Italian passport) in giving up prime ministerial aspirations, and the dynamic leadership of their Rahul Baba.

If there is one reason why self-respecting Indians (except for the kow-towing Congress workers) have come to lose all respect for the Gandhis, it is Digvijay Singh. 

Digvijaya Singh is anything but a careless speaker: his remarks are tongue-in-cheek; his targets are people who are making life difficult for the Gandhis in particular and the INC in general. 

Diggy Raja's actions speak for his penchant for sycophancy of the Gandhis. To appease the Muslim community, the Congress' traditional vote bank, he went to Azamgarh, a village in Uttar Pradesh known as the nursery of radical Islamists. Speaking at the village mosque, he abused a brave Delhi policeman who was killed in a police encounter with Islamist terrorists. He claimed that the slain policeman was corrupt and was killed by a police bullet and not by the terrorists, so that his family could claim compensation from the government.

Ever since the India Against Corruption movement started, Diggy Raja has been digging out dirt and leveling allegations of corruption against Team Anna members. (I am not a fan of Anna Hazare; but I will save that story for some other day.) He has not been able to produce any evidence in support of his allegations.

Today Diggy Raja tweeted his ABC theory: “Plan A - Baba Ramdev. Crashed. Plan B- Anna. ? Plan C - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar soon to start his campaign.”

Diggy Raja said that "the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was trying to bring in Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in their campaign against the government, while urging the spiritual guru not to get involved in this... The RSS had earlier brought in yoga guru Baba Ramdev and social activist Anna Hazare in the campaign... The RSS is doing this to divert the country's attention from its terror activities." 

And how has the yoga guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar responded to Digvijay’s ‘ABC plan’ tweet? The yoga guru said that Diggy Raja's comment is not worth responding too and that he doesn’t fear any one and will continue to raise his voice against the malice of corruption. In fact, he has advised Diggy Raja to enroll for the ‘Art of Living’ course.

Do you think a senior leader like Digvijay Singh can dare level such bizarre allegations against highly-respected citizens without Sonia Gandhi’s permission? 

Sonia is firing salvos against people who are trying to bring in a positive change in our corruption-riddled polity and society. And she is firing these salvos from the shoulders of one of her most trusted sycophants: Diggy Raja. 

Diggy Raja represents the worst in our political system: opportunistic, corrupt, spineless, and No.1 vote bank appeaser. 

Diggy Raja is just the mask on the ugly faces of the Gandhis. 

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Click on the video below to see Diggy Raja addressing OBL as "Osamaji".