The Satyam fiasco – Ramalinga Raju’s misadventures

Sorry for not blogging about this earlier. I did not have access to broadband Internet at my home for the last 3 days and was working off my Blackberry for office related tasks.

While the economic and financial implications have been written about far and wide and everyone is busy reading the tea leaves, what are the lessons one take’s away from this? Before I begin my analysis, I would like to remind my readers that I had blogged on Corporate governance and sound accounting practices as early as 1.5 years ago on this very blog: http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/importance-of-accounting-for-the-business-world/ and on http://www.accounting101.wordpress.com AND on Corporate Ethics here: http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2006/11/16/corporate-ethics/ more than TWO years ago!

Wall Street – the movie / 1987

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_(film)

I saw this captivating movie on TV today and it really sums up what has been happening. A great movie about a young broker who decides to go the fast track unethical way of conveying insider information but thankfully stops short but does get nailed towards the end.

Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko in the movie) and Charlie Sheen (Bud Fox in the movie) have acted well! Can’t believe that 21 years ago, they still had good old PC’s and big satellite phones to communicate which is pretty much what we have today but more compact and sophisticated machines – as one would expect. But, the point is, it could well have been 2008 and not 1987!

Three point something – MBA courses/CGPA and their grading methodology

I was just ruminating on my IIFT roller coaster ride completed over two years ago and was pondering over their associated letter grades that they had assigned over my three trimesters over a span of 1.5 years and another three months for my research project (which was a 6-credit course).

My IIFT EMIB CGPA was 3.63/4 and I was in the top 10% of my class of practicing managers across the country, with an average class work experience of over 10 years.

One year PG Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights Law – NLSIU

Before I begin this post, this is my mantra since the last few years when I have been exposed to this: I have a fondness for IP creation or Intellectual Property creation and this blog probably stands testimony to that fact! Which better place than to study IPR law from India’s topmost institute – National law school of India University (NLSIU).

I have written about this earlier too: http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/captive-product-units/

Blogging guidelines – my two cents

What are the important factors one needs to consider before one begins to blog:

1. First, get over this obsession of Google adsense. 99/100 bloggers I meet first think of making a quick buck on adsense rather than focus on quality of their blogs and its relevance towards the topic(s) chosen! This is really very disturbing statistics.

Will receive my print edition of Mint from tomorrow!

Looking forward to reading the Wall Street Journal from tomorrow! In addition, I will be able to compare the two competitors – Eco Times and Mint. I believe Mint already has a healthy subscription base of over 100000+ readers.

Here’s wishing good luck to Mint to take on Eco Times – after all – the newspaper industry is largely dominated by Eco Times and Times of India as market leaders enjoying almost a Monopoly status. New entrants like Mint should be able to displace them from this Monopoly status – which is ultimately good for us – the end readers and consumers!

Indian circus going out of business

Its a 130-year old industry. We have spent our childhood watching those trapeze artists and animals perform stunts to packed crowds. I have personally been to so many of those in my childhood with my parents. Shahrukh Khan once starred in a famous Circus teleserial during the beginning of his career.

The decline of this industry is apparent: In 2002, the Indian circus federation had 22 members and today has about 10 or 15 of them.

This erstwhile and magnificant/graceful business is almost shutting shop today.

Caveat Emptor: Guidelines for purchasing an apartment unit in India – due diligence to be carried out

One of the biggest issues one needs to factor in is to make all payments to the seller in plain cheque. That should be the right logical approach. This is easy on first sales where you buy a property directly from a reputed builder where you make payments by cheque and in instalments.

Second sales are invariably having this complication where cheque payments may not be accepted in entirety (its different if you buy directly from a builder as they accept money only in cheque) and this is where I felt there was a lacuna of information and therefore tried to fill in this gap with below due diligence/analysis.

Some of the principles used in Real Estate investing are highlighted below. These are from my own experiences in dealing with this tricky (and murky) world of business.

Research reports to come shortly – aka McKinseyQuarterly style

All our research reports would be in PDF format and we are going to do comprehensive consulting analysis for our readers on myriad topics especially on the business sectors.

All research reports would be made available at http://www.acc101.com

Watch that space for more.

BCCI and its monopolistic attitude

This has been spoken of in the past by the media so I will try to keep my post short.

What is a monopoly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly