Blame beyond the proxy war

The Tata8217;s ability to convince the heaviest hitter on their board, Nusli Wadia, to arbitrate in office ensured the intervening of a man...

The Tata8217;s ability to convince the heaviest hitter on their board, Nusli Wadia, to arbitrate in office ensured the intervening of a man who usually worries only about terrorism, Home Minister L.K. Advani, with a rather heavy hand, in the proxy battle around VSNL. Nusli has always maintained a close proximity to Advani over the years, but he has rarely used it to sort out his corporate matters. But this was clearly a different kind of an issue. The Tatas felt that the VSNL controversy had billowed out of control simply on account of two high-profile ministers having slammed it out in public and dragging what was essentially a corporate controversy into public arena. They were particularly piqued, that behind the attack on their ethics, morals and processes, was the hand of a corporate rival. The Home Minister may be a bit miffed that the Tatas feel that he has done only part of their work. Tarun Das from CII has now been called in to reinforce the salvage team. For the moment Tatas may be allowed to get away with a mere rap on their knuckles. Bombay House is figuring out how to cope with the longer-term damage to the fair game of the house of Tatas. For those of you who are wondering when the blame game will start, the news is that it has already started. Some big boys at Bombay House are hinting that a rather impetuous Johnny-come-lately to the Tata fold is responsible for this mess. A special prize for anyone who can guess what happens to him next.

Spurred by the spurious

Ramesh Chauhan insists that the thing that bothered him when he was asked to close down his massive mineral water facility in the Capital, was his concern for the consumer. Spurious mineral water is one of the biggest problems that the industry is facing. The fact that a rather petty official wanted to impose a penalty that was completely out of proportion to the misdemeanor using a outdated label, could have more than Chauhan8217;s customers who would be short changed . The little man who has given the rest of the soft drinks industry the biggest headaches that they have ever encountered, is annoyed that global majors may not allow him the dream run that he has been having. For those of us who have forgotten its worth recalling that Ramesh8217;s first launch of bottled water 8216;Bisleri8217; during 1968-69, was a major flop as Indians were not prepared to purchase water. Today Chauhan8217;s Bisleri and other brands claims a 40 market share followed by Coca-Cola8217;s Kinley with 29 and Pepsi8217;s Aquafina at 11. But Chauhan insists that the big worry that during this hot weather, any mineral water short supply could result in masses of spurious stuff giving consumers a bellyache. So Chauhan is once again back to his familiar role of beating the odds, by hitting the streets and the bhawans.

Freedom

to choose

Subroto Roy, the chief of Sahara who has free-to-air channels, is the most active supporter of the Conditional Access System for TV viewer. The original act has already received the Lok Sabha8217;s nod much to the relief of Roy and his ilk. Roy perceive the CAS regime as a win-win situation for all8212;the subscriber pays for what he wants to watch, the cable operator gets an assured income and the broadcasters would not crib about under-declaration by cable operators. But in the process, Sumit Roy conveniently ignores the contention of some of the fellow pay channel broadcasters, including Star India who might lose out on selling their bouquet of channels to the subscriber. The Indian Broadcasters8217; Foundation has however not favoured CAS and has voiced its negative opinions. Sahara though a part of this broadcasting community does not endorse the views embraced by IBF. The Sahara tycoon insists that his team was not even unaware of the IBF meet on CAS and so, his opinions could not be voiced. But IBF insists that Sahara was represented in this meeting. But Sahara is not waiting for this dust to settle. Instead he is getting aggressive with his plans to launch more channels. May be he knows something other players don8217;t.

Dilip Cherian, runs a public affairs firm Perfect Relations. He is an economy watcher and tycoon tracker . None of the people he writes about are his clients. Your insider tales are welcome at dilipcheriannow-india.net.in