Sexual Detours in Europe

Pamella bordes saga: Bordes shot to fame in the 80s when her sexual relations with British MPs came into light. Tory MPs David Shaw and Henry Bellingham got her unauthorised entry in to the House of Commons.

mitterrand's french wine: The daughter of French President François Mitterrand and his mistress, Anne Pingeot could never openly call her father “papa” and had to hide in cars as she visited him in Elysee Palace.

profumo soviet shock: John Profumo, the Tory Secretary of State for War in Britain, had a passionate affair with Christine Keeler, a call girl, who was also dating a Soviet naval attaché, who was probably a spy.

john's major embarrasment: Between 1984 and 1988, British PM John Major and Edwina Currie, his Downing Street cook, had been lovers. The truth came out only in 2002 when Currie published her diary.

it's part of my job: The images of a man, claimed to be Russia’s then-Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov, in bed with two prostitutes were aired on a state-controlled Russian television. Skuratov never recovered.

it's two to tango: Robert Boothby, ex-Private Secretary of Churchill, not only had an affair with Harold Wilson’s wife – British PM – but with a homosexual notorious East End gangster as well.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Sexual Detours in Europe

Pamella bordes saga: Bordes shot to fame in the 80s when her sexual relations with British MPs came into light. Tory MPs David Shaw and Henry Bellingham got her unauthorised entry in to the House of Commons.

mitterrand's french wine: The daughter of French President François Mitterrand and his mistress, Anne Pingeot could never openly call her father “papa” and had to hide in cars as she visited him in Elysee Palace.

profumo soviet shock: John Profumo, the Tory Secretary of State for War in Britain, had a passionate affair with Christine Keeler, a call girl, who was also dating a Soviet naval attaché, who was probably a spy.

john's major embarrasment: Between 1984 and 1988, British PM John Major and Edwina Currie, his Downing Street cook, had been lovers. The truth came out only in 2002 when Currie published her diary.

it's part of my job: The images of a man, claimed to be Russia’s then-Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov, in bed with two prostitutes were aired on a state-controlled Russian television. Skuratov never recovered.

it's two to tango: Robert Boothby, ex-Private Secretary of Churchill, not only had an affair with Harold Wilson’s wife – British PM – but with a homosexual notorious East End gangster as well.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better
IIPM fights meltdown

Heart break Andhra

The suicides in Andhra Pradesh by the late YSR’s fans show that in South India icon worship has not stopped exacting its bloody toll, report Naresh Nunna and N Asokan

The grisly routine was repeated yet again: this time in Andhra Pradesh. A charismatic leader had died in the most tragic circumstances, leaving behind such bereavement that one death became the cause of 46. Some, it is true, suffered heart attacks; but as in the past many of these were not natural deaths.

Among the fans of the late Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy were also scores who, while they had not the heart to take their own lives, were so overcome with grief that they remain inconsolable even today. Does that strike you as strange? That somebody should grieve for another even more than for one’s own family? Yet the death of the charismatic YSR exacted precisely such a toll. After he went missing on September 2 the entire state seemed to be falling apart. And after his death was conclusively established, it was – whichever way you turned – Heartbreak Andhra.

One youngster’s suicide note said, “YSR dedicated his life to the people, I am dedicating my life to him.” And without waiting to give it a second thought the youth had consumed pesticide. Tragic as this is, though, it is well known that South India is the country’s suicide zone; and while what caused the most recent spate of suicides was a major loss for the state, few are ever surprised when someone unknown in South India decides to end his/her life. The respected British medical journal The Lancet in fact says that South India accounts for the world’s largest number of suicides, and not just India’s.

One of the commonest suicide triggers in the South – particularly Andhra and Tamil Nadu – is the demise of a mass icon. Only, nobody quite knows what it is in this region that so propels people to commit hara-kiri in extreme – and sometimes not so extreme – circumstances. Says A Marx, a social scientist, “South India’s history is replete with loyalists in awe of their rulers, who gladly allow themselves to be decapitated because nothing less will satisfy them. In the southern tradition suicides resulting from such extreme emotions has always been venerated.” When star politician MG Ramachandran died Tamil Nadu witnessed many such cases. Countless others tonsured their heads as though MGR was their own kin. When Karunanidhi was in the opposition and was arrested it was normal for his party cadres to attempt self-immolation bids. A DMK member made an abortive attempt in front of Karunanidhi’s residence when the latter announced his political retirement. Karunanidhi expectedly withdrew it. When Vaiko was expelled from the DMK in 1993, a youngster, Nochikuppam Dhandapani, committed self-immolation right in front of his house. There followed four more suicides – causing Vaiko to form a new party.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Collateral Damage

Bureaucrats find themselves caught in a career-threatening crossfire as the chasm between the CPM and its Chief Minister continues to widen in Kerala, reports Anu Warrier

What can a civil service officer close to the state Chief Minister expect when he is facing disciplinary action? A cakewalk, you would reckon. But if you are K. Suresh Kumar, IAS officer and trusted confidant of Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, the tables can turn.

Suresh Kumar was the leader of the special team that Achuthanandan had set up for the first phase of the unsuccessful Munnar Mission, which tried to drive out wealthy and politically connected encroachers from the hill station. Suresh Kumar is now under suspension for the last seven months after his public stand against the CM’s personal and political secretaries. Even though the CM signed an order to reinstate Suresh Kumar after accepting an inquiry report by Chief Secretary Neela Gangadharan, it is yet to be implemented. Reason: the CM’s party is against reinstating Suresh. The CPM had ordered the CM’s office to freeze the order until the party state secretariat took a decision on Suresh Kumar’s case.

Moreover, a move is afoot to frame Suresh Kumar in other cases related to alleged irregularities in the State Cooperative Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. He was the Managing Director of the bank when the controversy regarding the CM’s office erupted.

Suresh Kumar is not the first or last victim of the CPM’s factional feud. Last week, C.R. Neelakandan, a social activist and environmentalist close to the CM’s camp, was transferred to the Hyderabad office of Keltron, a state government enterprise. Neelakandan was in the news recently for authoring a book on the reality of the Lavalin case in which the CPM state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan. is one of the accused.

In another incident, a Kerala University professor who had compared Pinarayi with Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung in an article published in an English newspaper was denied promotion. The CPM state leadership is doing everything in its power to thwart Achuthanandan’s attempts to portray the state secretary and his cronies as corrupt. The party’s central leadership had recently ousted the CM from its politbureau, alleging the octogenarian leader had been violating party discipline.

The party state leadership’s targeting of Suresh Kumar proves that action against Achuthanandan has not been effective in putting out the fire of factionalism in the Kerala CPM. Opposition leader Oommen Chandy asserts that these incidents prove the allegations regarding lack of coordination in the state administration.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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Bribing militants?! oh please...

NC Council leaders bribed militants, says Commission

It isn’t too often that inquiry commissions in the North-East point out what has long been obvious: that militants and anti-national elements would not call the shots here, unless the governments in power – either covertly or overtly – allowed them to do so.

But this time it’s different. The Manisena Commission, set up to probe the violence that has rocked Assam’s North Cachar Hills over the past few years, has dealt a body blow to the recently dissolved NC Hills Autonomous Council. The commission said the council leaders were directly involved with militants of the Dima Halim Daogah (Jewel group).

The commission’s report that was made public last week says leaders of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and of the district’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – both of whom ruled the council – had offered Rs 2 crore to a militant group during council elections. Of this amount, Rs 1 crore had already been paid.

Partha Warisa, the self-styled ‘deputy commander-in-chief’ of the DHD (J), allegedly told police that the money had been made available by Mohit Hojai, BJP leader and chief executive member of the NC Hills Council. While Hojai was arrested, the council was dissolved by the state government, leading to a political confrontation between the BJP and the ASDC that ruled the council and the Congress-ruled state government. The government has handed over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The ASDC meanwhile has denied the allegations made by the commission. “This is a conspiracy. The Manisena Commission did not speak to any of our members, only to the Congress,” claims Prakanta Warisa, NC Hills president from the ASDC. As for Hojai paying off Partha Warisa in Meghalaya, he said, “This could have been something personal of which I am not aware.” The commission has gone on to say that the last council misappropriated Rs 18.09 crore.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Debt, drought and death

Without a concrete plan, India will surely witness a death rise

Maharashtra is known as an economic power house and the most industrialised state of India. But the flinty reality of farmers committing mass suicides in Vidharbha speaks of two parallel economies with luster of Mumbai’s skyscrapers and flyovers shining down the unkept and unwashed destitute farmers, caught up in debt trap that they cannot get away with. 1,044 farmers committed suicides in 2006 alone in the Vidarbha region causing embarrassment to the government whose efforts till now to save the situation was paltry and minimal. By their own admission, the government did not listen to farmer’s demands; neither had they consulted the local bodies like panchayats to create the relief package. Consequently, it resulted in failing measures with nothing new offered to them, and quite obviously the problem was not solved. Although it is difficult to ascertain exactly how many have succumbed, but the official statistics indicate a figure of 1,920 (out of 3.2 millions cotton farmers, 2.8 millions are debt defaulters). The reason for such augury is the high cost of cotton production in Vidharbha. It is Rs.70 per kg in Vidharbha, where as it ranges from Rs.35 to Rs.48 per kg in the rest of the country! Albeit, the Prime Minister has announced a relief package of Rs.3,750 crore, it is doubtful how much of it will eventually reach the real disadvantaged. This pall of misery is not confined to Maharashtra alone, but it is a phenomenon that is visible throughout the country.

A substantial figure of 1,500 has committed mass suicide in Chattisgarh because of receding water levels, which has gone below 250 feet. Deforestation, inadequate irrigation facilities and unplanned dam projects have resulted in falling water levels. This also indicates the extent of our dependence on right monsoon for the survival of our farmers.

Very recently, much to the shock of the entire nation about 20 farmers killed themselves in Telengana and Rayalseema region of Andhra Pradesh. The same debt trap is the cause as they had taken loans to dig bores and tap ground water that could not be done because the water was at low ebb. This year too, because of insufficient monsoon, 177 out of 626 districts have been declared as "drought-affected" by Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The grass root level implementation is often far fetched from the satisfactory level. Moreover, the investment in the sector has come down from 14.9 per cent in the first Five Year Plan to 5.2 per cent in the 11th Five Year Plan one. Investment to GDP ratio too has also plummeted from 1.6 per cent to 1.3 per cent.

Despite huge investments in water resources and irrigation, our agriculture is monsoon dependant. A concomitant phenomenon of risk and uncertainty. It is observed that in a cycle of every four years there would be at least one drought, ensuring the small and medium landowners to be deprived of credit, forcing them to lend money from the land owners, thus falling into the vicious cycle of debt trap. It is true that preparing for unknown is tough, but with drought being a common trend, preparing for the same is inevitable.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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A fragmented society

When the ripples triggered by the attack on leaders of Dera Sachkhand Ballan in far off Vienna reached Jalandhar, it became clear how simple it is to shatter the uneasy calm that prevails in today’s Punjab.

Punjabi society is highly fragmented. This Dera is venerated by the Ravidasias at the global level. The second in command of the Dera Sant Ramanad succumbed to his injuries. The Dera head, Sant Naranjan Das, had also been injured. This attack was attributed to Sikh hardliners though exact details of the incident are still not available.

The objection of the Sikh organisations was that though the Dera believes in Guru Granth Sahib, it does not mainstain its prescribed maryada. The followers of the sect also touch the feet of the Dera head in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib which is not permitted in the Sikh religion.

A section of the Ravidasias is Sikh. The situation during the couple of chaotic days when a part of the state was put under curfew was also an indication of the strong undercurrents of tension in the society.

Sikh religion is casteless, but Sikh society isn’t. Gurdwaras based on castes have mushroomed not only in Punjab but also overseas, where Punjabis have settled over the years. This goes against Sikh philosophy. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee has miserably failed to check this trend. The irony is that this Parliament of the Sikhs has a president who, for the first time in its history, is referred to by his sub-caste Makkar. The SGPC had no doubt issued an appeal when Avtar Singh Makkar took over not to refer to him as Makkar. However, at a news conference at Chandigarh, he said he was known by that surname. Not that the Dera culture is a recent phenomenon. The Deras have existed ever since the founding of the Sikh religion and some of the Deras have also made positive contributions to the Sikh religion. However, the deras have ruffled feathers within Sikh organisations with acts and utterances that are variance with the tenets of Sikhism. Trouble has been brewing in Punjab for quite a while now. The time for action is now.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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A new era begins

LDP is voted out after more than half a century of uninterrupted rule

Taking a leaf out of Obama’s Presidential campaign, Yukio Hatoyama of Democratic Party of Japan used “change” as the rhetoric in Japan’s most interesting elections ever. And if it clicked once, it would have clicked again. And click it did.

When sleepy Japanese came out to vote early Sunday morning their conscience was wide awake. The decision they were going to make was not at all simple. Actually far from it. They had to select between a more than five decades old party that they no more had any trust in, and its fledgling 11-year-old rival that has certainly not been in the driver's seat. They made their decision judiciously.

Opposition Democratic Party of Japan bagged as many as 308 seats, out of 480, in the lower house of parliament. With its alliance partners—who bagged another 32 seats—DPJ is all set for a landslide victory. It also saw end to the era of the Liberal Democratic Party, which governed Japan in most of the years after World War II. Yukio Hatoyama is all set to form next government with the help of his coalition partners Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party.

The election gave full control to DPJ in governance as it already had majority in the upper house of the parliament—an instrument it used ruthlessly to scuttle nearly all the bills that her rival LDP proposed on the floor. The filibuster majority will essentially mean a free hand for DPJ to rule the country.

“There are not many dates in post war Japanese history that can claim to change the course. One was certainly in August 1945. Another one probably is this,” reacted Gerald Curtis, a Japanese affairs expert at School of International Studies Columbia University, while talking to TSI. Strictly speaking, nevertheless, this contrasting result is also because of Liberal Democrats’ penchant for committing Hara-kiri. The party that served an umbrella organisation for all the flip-flop lower conservative factions, who shifted allegiance at will, lost its clue in last few years. Their once common hatred against communism was unable to hold them for long. However, their commitment to market liberalism made them a blue eyed boy of corporate and bureaucracy. And that helped them to propel war-ravaged Japan to the status of the world’s second-ranked economy. But as the bubble burst in the 1990s the rift between the functioning of LDP and the ethos and aspirations of Japanese grew wider and wider. The lifetime employment system — Japan’s capitalist response to Communism’s pension scheme — fall apart and Gini Coefficient rocketed, the people on the lower strata started abandoning its support base. The country aged rapidly too and the new generation faced the fact, the hitherto unknown, anxious situation of going from one temporary position to another.

Naturally, the right step would have been fundamental reforms. However they were a few. To give devil its due, it was not that Liberal Democrats were unwilling to introduce change; however, they were helpless in the face of opposition from their most influential support base comprising corporate and bureaucrats. Some other neo-liberal efforts though wrested Gini Coefficient for sometime, in the long run, the disparity between the rich and the poor only grew. Since then, as many as 13 PMs have been replaced.

For a race merely accustomed to degrees of amend — if any — the Japanese have elected a party whose guiding principles differ quite obviously from those of its precursor. It has vowed to produce jobs and lend a hand to customers rather than aligning itself to big corporations. This, quite naturally, will be as tough for the fresh ruler to achieve as it will be for Japanese commercial establishments to agree to. Winds of change are blowing on foreign policy front too. Although Japan will keep acting as US’s second fiddle in Asia in years to come; the earlier “joint to the hip” appearance will definitely cease.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Mr. Singh, They Need Your Help...

Rising prices are wreaking havoc on middle-class family budgets. Vikas Kumar and Niharika patra analyse how

Sadhna Singh gets perplexed, mystified, exasperated and even infuriated when she watches news on TV or reads the front pages of her newspaper these days. She is sick and tired of Baluchistan, the fight between Anil and Mukesh Ambani, the antics of participants in "Rakhi Ka Swayamvar" and the statues that UP Chief Minister Mayawati is erecting. She is terribly disappointed with the media; she never had any hopes from august members of Parliament anyway. “Rising costs of grocery has completely damaged our monthly budget. It is really difficult to maintain the same standard. Our monthly saving is now nil," says this agitated bank employee even as she struggles to identify one ‘cheap’ vegetable.

There are literally millions of consumers, homemakers and families across India who share the rising desperation of Sadhna Singh. For them, all the stuff that comes out in newspapers about the rate of inflation falling below zero is a bad joke inflicted upon them in poor taste. School teacher Rajarshi couldn’t care less about the subtle differences between the wholesale and the consumer price index; it is ‘price’ that is killing her. But as former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan says, we should focus on the consumer price index rather than the wholesale one while talking about consumer inflation. And that index is galloping ahead at double digit rates.

Most of them still think that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has the experience and the wisdom to stem the rot; but they can’t help wondering why Mr Singh is not paying more attention to such ‘bread and butter’ issues. Reality for them is the relentless rise in prices of goods and services that account for the bulk of a middle-class family budget. And the price hikes in many cases are incredibly high. Fond of cauliflower and capsicum? Be prepared to shell out Rs 80 per kg. Think you can increase the ‘nutrition’ quotient in the diet of your child by adding more Arhar Dal? You need to be ready to shell out close to Rs 100 per kg. Have a sweet tooth? Well, sugar is touching Rs 30 per kg.

It is not just the normal day to day food items that are wreaking havoc on middle-class family budgets. Thanks to the largesse doled out by the Sixth Pay Commission, the amount of money they have to pay as school fees for their children has virtually doubled – often with retrospective effect. And unlike their luckier ‘government employee’ counterparts, an overwhelming majority of those working in the private sector have not seen a pay hike for more than a year. Says Rajarshi, "I have two sons and their school fees have now doubled. I don't know how will I pay all this." Rajarshi and her husband really don’t know how to tackle this situation. So, middle-class Indians like Sadhna and Rajarshi who used to save about Rs 5,000 per month have now seen their savings dwindle to literally nothing (See table).


There is more bad news for them in store with the monsoon being far from normal. Says JP Malik, Department of Economic Analysis and Policy at RBI, “It is simple economics. The problem is because of the supply-demand gap which has happened because of the trouble in monsoons. Pulses and cereals have suffered more because they are more dependent on monsoon water”. But poor monsoons alone cannot be blamed for the incredible rise in prices. There is something rotten in the supply chain related to food products in the country. The farmer in the village still gets less than Rs 10 for every kg of cauliflower that he can harvest and sell. By the time you buy it from the market, it costs at least Rs 80 per kg. This is a clear sign that the trader and the middleman are making hay while the farmer as well as the consumer suffer. Add the complete absence of modern cold storages in rural areas despite many pious announcements from myriad policy makers.

It is not as if the people at the helm in Delhi are not worried and not paying attention. In fact, there was a detailed and intense discussion during a recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs where ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Sharad Pawar (whose ministry is responsible for food distribution and prices) had a ‘frank’ exchange of views. According to Congress insiders, both UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are paying close attention to this ticking time bomb.

And a ticking time bomb it is. One major reason for the UPA – and particularly the Congress – coming back to power was a strong perception among voters that the regime was genuinely concerned about the welfare of the aam aadmi. But rising food prices have a nasty historical habit of destroying the relationship between voters and ruling regimes. Sadhna and Rajarshi still have implicit faith in Manmohan Singh. But that faith is being tested at the moment.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Farmers reel under power cut

10-hr blackout in rural areas threatens to hamper crop output

People in Karnataka, especially farmers, are upset with the state government’s decision to cut power for 10 hours daily in rural areas and two hours in cities. Besides, power will not be supplied to gram panchayats that do not pay their electricity bills.

Justifying its stand, state energy minister KS Eshwarappa says: “In August, we require 120 million units, but are able to generate only 117 million units. In Septmber, the demand is 125 million units, where as our generation capacity is only 119 units. So we do not have any other choice, but to cut power. Moreover, the minister says this has been done to make optimum use of the energy available in the state. The power supply companies have been informed.

However, the government’s decision will have a debilitating effect on the farmers. Last year they had lost almost 60 per cent of their crops because of less rain. This year though the rain has been good, but the power outages are likely to hamper crop production, say agriculture experts.

According to the official report of Karnataka State Farmers’ Association there are more than 30 lakh farmers who use electric pump-set and more than 1.5 crore hectares of farm land depend on electricity. It also points out that non-availability of electricity translates into 30 to 40 per cent fall in farm output.

Karnataka State Farmers Association’s Secretary V Ashok tells TSI that we voted for this government because it had assured farmers a better deal. “In its election manifesto the ruling BJP had promised to give 24 hours power supply to farmers. But the recent decision of 10-hour power cut reflects bad on the government,” he said.

“The farmers are in distress. The government is ignoring the countryside by cutting power for only two hours in cities. In my district only there are more than 70,000 farmers who are dependent on electricity for farm related work. Has the government ever thought about them? The BJP government is doing injustice with us by not supplying electricity in villages,” says a furious Somu Buddu Swamy, farmers’ leader of Challakere Taluk, Chitradurga district.

What has angered state’s farmers the most is that there will be no power cut in Bangalore. And to sort out power crisis the state energy minister has a plan to convert Bangalore into a ‘solar city’. But apparently the government has got no time to think about small industries – running in loss and students suffering of power cut in rural parts of the state.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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