Corporate
Nothing better to do
I HAVE to admit I am quite baffled by the Bofors imbroglio. It has been running for so long, almost like the stage play, The Mouse Trap in London, that I cannot recall when the whole thing began. It feels as if it all happened in the last century. I gues
s it did.
Economy
Who is afraid of the rating agencies?
STANDARD and Poor's (S&P) lowered its long-term local currency sovereign credit rating of India to triple B minus from triple B. At the same time, it affirmed its double B long-term and B short-term foreign currency and A-3 short-term local currency rati
ngs. The long-term outlook was revised to `negative' (meaning it may be lowered) from `stable'. The local currency downgrade reflects, inter alia, the unchecked Budget deficits resulting in rising domestic indebtedness, and the lack of progress in econom
ic reforms. It expects the Central and State Government Budget deficits to exceed 10 per cent of GDP this year.
Editorial
Petty politics
IT IS DIFFICULT to appreciate why the location of Damodar Valley Corporation's headquarters and its proposal to sell power directly to small consumers outside its command area in Jharkhand and West Bengal should become contentious issues.
Management
Information overload
THE more information you have, the faster and the better your ability to make decisions. Right? Wrong! The law is exactly the reverse: Efficiency and speed of decision-making is inversely proportional to the size of the mounds of data at your disposal. I
nformation overload had long been suspected to be the villain of the piece in slowing down work in the so-called paperless offices. Not only have recent studies confirmed this, but they have gone further and established that it has been the root cause of
stress arising out of a guilt complex which again is generated by the inability to be on top of the piles of data under which executives are submerged.
Mutual Funds
UTI scandal: Behind the scenes
IT IS still a mystery how the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, has been able to escape the ugliness of the UTI mess. The middle-class, the backbone of the BJP-led coalition at New Delhi, has lost crores of rupees. Many of those who took a hit expecte
d the party to appoint a new minister to prove that the BJP had punished Mr Sinha.
Steel
Steel's tale of woes
THE WORLD steel market is in a deep slump. The international prices of steel have crashed below the production costs of even the above-average mills in terms of efficiency. While the global commodity markets have remained weak, the steel prices have witn
essed volatility unlike any other. The turbulence has surprised even the experts in the business.
