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Journalism of Courage
Morgan Stanley8217;s high-profile Chief Economist Stephen Roach is as bullish about India today as he was about China in the 1990s. And, he is bearish about the US. This should considerably cheer Indian investors, but for the niggling worry that Roach8217;s recent whistle-top visit is a tad over-optimistic. We liked it when Roach, after his last visit, declared that our show-piece Mumbai-Pune Expressway was no big deal if we couldn8217;t get the access roads to Mumbai and Pune right. But this time, Roach found positives in Mumbai after torrential rains and the July 26 deluge had shaken the confidence even of usually unflappable Mumbaikars. 8216;8216;The roads and airports are still terrible in India 8212; the traffic jam and driving conditions going to the Mumbai airport the other night were unbelievable. But compared with conditions I saw 9 to 18 months ago, there is a palpable sense of improvement. Signs of road construction are evident everywhere8217;8217;, says Roach. He was also happy at the renovated airport terminal and the new budget airlines. Isn8217;t that strange? Road repairs are a sore issue with Mumbaikars and the subject of PILs. As for the airport, it took 72 hours to clear an aircraft stuck off a runway and nobody has been held accountable for the massive losses due to delays, disrupted schedules and the use of a dangerous second runway. Airports resemble crowded railway terminals due to regular flight delays. Yet, Roach thinks that 8216;8216;there is risk of going too far in condemning the recent backsliding on reforms8217;8217;, especially with respect to infrastructure. If only we could share his optimism.
Open to Retail
Overture rebuffed?
Did the Anil Ambani group really seek a strategic stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange? The bourse has strongly denied a report by a prominent daily following the market regulator8217;s intervention. After calling the report 8216;inaccurate8217; and 8216;highly speculative8217; the BSE merely says that it has still to work out a future road map. Exchange officials told the regulator that Anil Ambani8217;s top aides, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Madhu Kela, came up with several proposals for cooperation and strategic alliances. These included an offer to light up the Jeejeebhoy Towers during Diwali, to teaming up with the bourse to conduct investor awareness programmes. Both were politely turned down. The exchange runs a well-funded investor awareness programme. The BSE8217;s version of the meeting reported to the regulator was that Reliance was told that it was premature to have a discussion since the bourse was still to firm up its plans. With a stake in the commodity bourse MCDEX already under its blt, the Anil Ambani group clearly believes that exchanges are an influential investment.
Spooks need directory
Newspaper reports say that security and intelligence agencies want the government to mandate publication of directories by cellphone companies similar to government-owned fixed line phone companies. This makes no sense. If intelligence agencies have to thumb through bulky directories for numbers, it is no wonder that investigations drag on for years. Also, public sector companies don8217;t update directors regularly, since increased tele-density has made printing costs prohibitive. While government firms at least have Internet directories and help-lines, fixed-line operators in the private sector have neither, especially for callers from another service provider. As for mobiles, even ordinary people know how easy it is to track the precise location of cellphone calls and to eavesdrop on conversations. The demand for directories only shows how government agencies are clueless about technology. A mobile phone is a personal instrument and the government cannot mandate the publication of numbers without the explicit subscriber consent. Otherwise it will only increase crank calls and harassment.
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