Anand Krishna’s musings

Here’s wishing all of you and your friends, families and other loved ones, a very happy, healthy, peaceful, sucessful and prosperous new year.

To those of you who have been reading my blogs regularly- thank you. To those that haven’t- please do start.

Over the next two weeks, a lot will be written on the subject of new year resolutions and how long they usually last. Let me contribute my mite to the billions of bytes.

I had originally intended NOT to make any new year resolutions, but I have since changed my mind, so here are my top resolutions:

1. Be happy no matter what happens.

2. Exercise significantly more than I have done in the past.

3. Continue to blog regularly.

Good luck with sticking to your new year resolutions!

India has lost the Boxing Day test match against Australia at Melbourne. I suppose the loss per se is not unexpected; what is disappointing is the manner in which the fabled Indian batting capitulated not once, but twice in a space of 2 days. Yes, almost all Australian wickets also fell in a matter of a day or so- but they managed to score at a faster rate and got at least 2 partnerships going.

The Indian team has egg on its face not just because of the loss, but also because their performance has belied their arrogant comments about Brad Hogg and his bowling capabilities. Hogg may be no Warne but the Indian batting line-up- including the “Fab 4″- could not stand up to his wily flippers. It was almost embarrassing to see the likes of Dhoni unable to read Hogg’s “wrong ‘un” frequently.

Kumble was right when he said that the collapse reflected collective non-performance by the batsmen. Dravid is only a makeshift opener and in a perverse manner, did half his job- stayed at the crease till the new ball lost its shine. That he did not score (and not just not score fast) is perhaps because of his overall slump in form.

For the Sydney test that starts on January 2nd, I would argue for Sehwag to be included. He may not score too many runs, but then, nobody else seems to have done that either. So we may be no worse for his inclusion, and in fact, have a good chance of a decent (and quick) start if he does fire. And who would he replace? I shall stick my neck out and say Jaffer. Yuvraj can bowl a bit and at Sydney, that may come in handy.

For most people, it is a time of joy, as they bid adieu to the old year and ring in the new. But events of the past 24 hours have taken away this joy not just from the families of Ms Benazir Bhutto and the others that died at the hands of a suicide bomber, but surely also for right-thinking people around the world.

Assassinations have been around for almost as long as humankind has. Several well-known leaders have met a violent end. Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Aldo Moro, Anwar Sadat, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Olof Palme are only some of the names that come immediately to mind. Just as heinous were the killing of Che Guevara and Salvatore Allende. The perpetrators always have their own reasons and motives. But yet, each time someone is assassinated, one is hit by a sense of revulsion at the cowardice of the act and the sadness it leaves behind.

Yesterday’s assassination of Benazir Bhutto is no exception. For all her alleged corruptions and other frailties (which modern political leader is above these anyway?), I was greatly saddened by the fact that her children have lost their mother, and her husband, his wife. She was undoubtedly a woman of courage, for she braved heavy odds to return to Pakistan and announce her intent to contest the forthcoming elections. She was aware of the threats to her life, whether from the Taliban/Al Qaeda or other religious fanatics or from political opponents. And yet she returned to Pakistan, her home. He strident attack on foreigners trying to safeguard Pakistan was perhaps largely political rhetoric- but she had started to gain popular support.

Today’s reports suggest that she was not hit by bullets, and that her car was bomb-proof and hence the explosion was not the cause of death either. The evidence seems to indicate that she stood up on hearing the explosion and was hit by something inside the vehicle. We may never know the entire truth behind her death- who ordered it, why and the actual cause of death. But that does not take away one bit from the fact that a human life has been cruelly snuffed out.

Benazir- rest in peace. And I hope Pakistan returns to democracy after paying such a heavy price.

A sterling bowling performance on Day 1 of the Boxing Day test at the MCG saw India restrict Australia to under 350 runs. Expectations were high that the batsmen would do their share on Day 2, but sadly, except Sachin and Saurav (and Kumble, who is a fighter if nothing else) everyone else let the team down very badly.

It must have been very disappointing for these three that their efforts have come to nought. Jaffer, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Laxman- if each of them had contributed just 30 runs each (and surely, that is not too much to hope for from some of the best-known names of Indian cricket)- we would have not conceded a lead. It is always easy to pass judgements and be an armchair critic. But as an Indian cricket fan, I am hurting badly and this piece is an outpouring of my disappointment and anger. I refuse to believe that there were so many demons in the pitch that not one of these batsmen could hold their own. Four singles contribute just as much to the total as does a boundary. The running between the wicket was non-existent when Dravid and Laxman were at the crease.

I hope someone tells the players that it is not enough to either bowl or bat well- you need to do both well. And of course, field very well too.

In the last year or so, Indian companies or companies owned by Indians have become quite aggressive in terms of adopting M&A as a growth strategy. There have been some high-pofile takeovers, such as Mittal’s acquisition of Arcelor, and several lower-profile ones (M&M’s acquisition in Germany, Wipro’s and TCS’ acquisitions etc.). But today, there is a lot of debate around actions such as Orient Express spurning the Tatas (Taj group’s offer) by stating that an Indian owned brand will weaken its image and US dealers of Jaguar cars saying that a sale to an Indian group (the Tatas) would dilute the brand. I wonder if Orient’s properties charge as much as some Taj properties do.

The fact of the matter is that a new economic play has been set in motion. It will still take countries like India a couple of decades or more to ctach up with the developed economies of the west in terms of general standard of living etc. But make no mistake- India’s economic clout is growing steadily. Increasingly, Indian companies are viewing the world as their canvas of opportunity, and not as a threat (which was the mindset till about 5 years ago). Indian business leaders are realizing that they have the skills to take on the best of the foreign companies- even in their own backyard. Vijay Mallya has acquired Whyte & Mackay;  Jaguar and Land Rover are expected to be sold to the Tatas (the current front-runners).

Economics is far too powerful for politics, racism or nationalistic jingoism to prevent actions that ultimately will benefit shareholders. There could well be hurdles on the way, but in the medium to long run, the will of economics shall prevail.

Think about some of the Bollywood movies that have been released in the past 6 weeks or so and one thing jumps out- the throwback to an era gone by. Om Shanthi Om and Khoya Khoya Chand are examples that readily come to mind. Even some of the recent music scores rely more on melody than most of their peers do. I wonder if the new generation has begun to accept that “old is gold”?!

Instead of Ponting, Gilchrist and Symonds, it is now players like Hussey and Brett Lee that have started expressing opinions about the visiting Indian team. Even Shane Warne has joined the chorus (or maybe started the song) by praising Sachin and predicting that he will score heavily. All this is carefully designed to put pressure on the Indians. One just hopes the team, with its much-vaunted “senior players” and coaches, is smart enough to not pay attention to the chatter.

The weather in Melbourne has denied the visitors even the one 3 day practice match. More rain is predicted, and one hopes we will have good weather in time for the first test next week.

I am sure the Aussie crowds are disappointed that Sreesanth is not around. But I am sure enterprising cameramen will pick up on some smart alecky posters/banners. And I hope  he is fit enough to join the ODI squad in another 5 weeks or so. The contest between Sree and Symonds in Australia will be something else.

Each day brings some new report about how close we are to environmental apocalypse. I am told that low lying areas in Bangladesh and West Bengal could be flooded by heavy rains that will occur more frequently than in the past. Another report in some newspaper I read said that by 2013- and this is just another 6 years away- ice in the North Pole will melt during the summer, leaving only cold water.

Dr Pachauri has already come out strongly about the Tatas’ Rs 1 lakh (approximately US$3000) car. The argument is that if cars are made so low-priced, they will become far more affordable. They will cannibalize scooters and motorcycles, and add to the country’s carbon footprint. While there is some merit to the argument, it is not entirely fair. After all, it is similar to developing countries saying to the developed world that for all these years, you have messed up the environment- and now you want us to cut down on our emissions? Status symbol apart, cars in India provide the users with more flexibility and comfort relative to public transport. The only way we can come out of this trap is to provide high-quality (air-c0nditioned, comfortable) trains/mass rapid transit and buses. This is why the red air conditioned Volvo buses introduced by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) have become so popular, in spite of a hefty price premium relative to the ordinary buses.

Forget life 30 years from now. Forget future generations. By nature, all humans are selfish. Let us, at least for the reason of selfishness, agree to work actively and proactively to cut down  environmental damage. Think how much more money can be made on the stock markets if we all worked to make sure the world (and the stock exchanges) exist for a few more years!

What has been described as the best Indian cricket team to tour Australia has reached Australian soil. The traditional Boxing Day test match starts in just over a week, and all eyes are on India. Unlike on previous occasions, when visitors would be “softened up” by the Aussie pace battery at Perth, these days, tours start at Melbourne or Sydney. But then, it is also true that the WACA pitch is no longer what it used to be in the 70s and 80s after it was relaid some years ago. And pundits have pointed out that Warne and McGrath will be hard to replace.

I fully agree that bowlers like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath are not easy to replace. But the new crop of Aussie pacemen- Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark and Shaun Tait is not anything to scoff at either. And there is also the more experienced Brett Lee leading the pack. And given that the tracks are not likely to keep slow/low, the onus will very clearly be on our experienced top order batsmen to see off the fast bowlers and build a platform that the middle order can build further upon.

In the last year and a bit, we’ve won matches and series in the West Indies, England, Bangladesh and at home against Pakistan. In the one day and T20 variety of the game, we’ve beaten South Africa and Australia. Sachin and Yuvraj have been in sublime form, while Jaffer has been quite consistent as an opener. Ganguly too has proved that there is still some cricket left in him. But our famous middle order (read Dravid) seems to be a tad out of touch, while Dhoni is untested in bouncy Australian wickets. Our bowling attack is weaker because Sreesanth and Munaf are out with injuries (Munaf’s height and Sree’s pace would have helped).

But that is the luck of the draw and in international sports, one can’t gripe and carp about such things. One only hopes that the Indian “seniors” acquit themselves well and overall, the team performs to its potential.

One suspects the Australian public will be just as disappointed as Sreesanth himself that he is not touring Australia. Hopefully, the series will focus more on cricket than on extraneous irritants like sledging, racial abuse, crowd heckling etc. than what was on display a few months ago when Ponting’s team tourded India.

Especially in the last year or two, a lot has been said and written about the supposed shortage of talent in India. Whether it is in the context of the IT industry looking for skilled programmers, analysts and business consultants, or the Retail sector demanding supply chain specialists, merchandising experts and CRM professionals, or the biotech industry looking for PhDs in genomics, business leaders unanimously agree that the biggest threat to sustaining a 10%+ p.a. GDP growth rate for the next decade or so, is a lack of skilled people (or “resources”, to use a more popular term).
To plug this gap, experts have recommended various solutions such as re-hiring retired professionals, importing foreign talent, increasing the number of women in the workforce by making policies that are more “women friendly” etc.

Prima facie, these solutions seem logical. Personaly, though, I am very puzzled by this widespread lamentation about skills shortage and the reality I am seeing. Let me explain. My wife is a BPharm-MBA (Mktg) with over 5 years experience in pharmaceutical product and brand management and pharma field force training. She has worked both in MNCs and Indian pharma companies. She is amazingly versatile in her talents and was very successful. She chose to take a break from her career when we had our daughter. However, the break extended for more than we had originally planned because of my overseas relocations (visa issues precluded her from working either in the UK or US) and multiple health-related crises in both sides of the family. But now that she is ready to re-enter the productive workforce, she finds herself effectively locked out. Full-time, part-time, consultancy- nobody seems interested in even speaking to her. If we are going to ignore available talent, what is the point in complaining about the talent shortage in India Inc? Or maybe there is no dearth of talent and all the hue and cry is really a case of much ado about nothing.

This morning, I read a horrifying story about a woman being gang-raped in Bangalore. She was reportedly drugged by the taxi driver she hired to drop her to the hotel (because the hotel was full, she had to look for alternative accommodation and it was late at night when this sordid story unfolded).

In the past couple of years, several foreign women tourists have been raped in different parts of India. Sadly, the Incredible India tag the government seeks to promote will surely ring hollow to the victims of such savagery.

Not that Indian women are any safer. The newspapers are full of reports of molestation and rape across the country. There were even reports of gang rape being used as an instrument of vengeance. How many women professionals have been sexually assaulted (and many even killed) by drivers etc.?

It’s all a vicious cycle. By killing girl children, the sex ratio becomes even more adverse. There is naturally a shortage of women and when hormones run high, frustrated men take to rape and assault. I hope we can come out of this rut before polyandry becomes the norm!

For years, Indians have shone as doctors, engineers, professors and even management gurus. And while we had an Indian heading  major US airline companies (Rakesh Gangwal was Chairman of US Airways and Rono Dutta was President of United Airlines in the mid 2000s), the financial services sector in the US has not seen any Indian in the C-suite. But that has changed, with Citigroup’s Board selecting India-born Vikram Pandit as the CEO after Chuck Prince resigned some weeks ago. Chak de India!

Here’s wishing Vikram a very successful stint as CEO of one of the world’s largest financial services conglomerates.

The Indians- and, for that matter, the Pakistanis- have a long tradition in hospitality. But for it to manifest in the form of 76 extras (a dubious world record in one innings of a test match, I might add), is a bit much. Wayward bowling combined with some rather poor wicket keeping contributed to this “achievement” by India. Poor Dinesh Kaarthick had such an off day behind the stumps that there is already talk of Parthiv Patel replacing him on the tour of Australia- proving yet again how short-lived public memory is when it comes to cricket. A few short months ago, Kaarthick was the toast of a grateful nation, for having contributed with the bat in the successful tour of England. But now, having failed with the bat in this series and being instrumental in some missed chances and conceding 35 byes and 26 leg byes in Pakistan’s first innings alone, he is learning the truism of the old Roman adage- “they raise you the higher, that the heavier you may fall”.

Personally, I think he deserves another chance- if only for his grit. God knows we need oodles of that trait when negotiating the Australian fast bowlers Down Under.

In spite of all the extras given and the lost opportunity to seal the series 2-0, one does need to congratulate young Ishant Sharma for his showing-his first five wicket haul. in international test cricket. Tragic that it was not in a winning cause. And no matter that it was only “cheap” wickets in the form of tailenders. Think back to recent test matches where India has consistently struggled to get rid of a wagging tail, and you will see what I mean by that.

Injuries are hard to predict, and admittedly, when Shoaib Akhtar played the first test, he may have been fully fit. In fact, he did do quite well at Delhi-especially in the first innings. But both at Kolkata and Bangalore (match underway), he has been more a liability than the spearhead that he is supposed to be. He couldn’t bowl much and even in the few overs he bowled, he was a far cry from being the fearsome bowler that he can be.

I am not privy to the reasons why he was included- assuming he told the management that he was unfit. But if he was included because he said he was fit, I’m afraid Shoaib has put himself before his team. And that cannot bode well for any player (or team).

As a struggling Ford Motor Company looks to sell some of its crown jewels to raise money and remain competitive (afloat, the cynic might say), there are signals that 2 of the 3 bidders in the fray are Indian companies. Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra are both said to be among the most serious bidders.  US dealers are reportedly concerned that such premier, venerated brands might be sold to an Indian company, and this might make the brands lose their sheen. This argument, is downright racial. The underlying thought process is something that runs thus: India is a poor country and not one known for its cars. As such, an Indian company cannot own what are largely aspirational brands. Further, if an Indian company buys these brands, future automobiles coming from this stable will be shoddy and cheap and hence unworthy of being marketed internationally using brands that have for decades, been prima donnas.

To people that think this way (and to those that buy this line of thought), all I’d say is “get real, folks”. It’s a flattening world out there and just in case you have not noticed, Toyota has overtaken GM as the biggest automobile manufacturer in the world. A lot of new cars are being designed specifically for emerging markets like India- because that is where the money is to be made over the next twenty years or so. And if Ford had been really about superior technology, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, HR, Finance and everything else that goes into making a business successful, perhaps it would not find itself in such a pickle now.

It is expected that the successful bidder’s name will be announced sometime early in the new year. There is a private equity buy-out team that has also submitted a bid (reportedly not the highest)- so it is by no means assured that the Tatas or the Mahindras will be the new owners of Jaguar or Land Rover. But even the possibility of this being true is such a refreshingly chak de thought.

And btw, M&M plans to market its Scorpio into the US soon; its tractors are already doing well in that market (even Americans found the M&M tractor quite useful in the relief operations post Hurricane Katrina). And Tata Motors already exports quite a good number of its cars to Europe.

A decade from now, Indian auto-makers may well become major players in the global automotive sector- just as we today dominate the outsourced IT services domain.