The Economist (October 26 2006):
"In the early 1900s, when Britain ruled India, the chairman
of the colony's Railway Board, Sir Frederick Upcott, was so sceptical about
Tata, then a young steel company, that he declared he would “eat every pound of
steel rail” that it could produce to Britain's exacting specifications. His
subsequent indigestion is not recorded, even though Tata was producing hundreds
of tonnes a year by 1916."
A Case for Opium Dens: Indian industry got its first tranche of capital accumulation in the 19th century when the Tatas joined hands with the Sassoons and the British to force opium onto the Chinese.
The addicts in China in that period took to opium to drown their
unpleasant reality in momentary dreams, while knowing in moments of cold
assessment that pipe dreams could never be realised in real life. It
was only when Mao Zedong came to
power in 1949 that the Chinese government banned opium dens, and people
accepted their closure in the expectation that they might have a chance
of achieving some of their hopes..."
Arundhati Roy:
"...The Tatas, for example, run
more than 100 companies in 80 countries. They are one of India’s oldest and
largest private sector power companies. They own mines, gas fields, steel
plants, telephone, cable TV and broadband networks, and run whole townships.
They manufacture cars and trucks, own the Taj Hotel chain, Jaguar, Land Rover,
Daewoo, Tetley Tea, a publishing company, a chain of bookstores, a major brand
of iodised salt and the cosmetics giant Lakme. Their advertising tagline could
easily be: You Can’t Live Without Us.
According to the rules of the
Gush-Up Gospel, the more you have, the more you can have..."
Mr. Ratan Tata retires this month. I have nothing to say on the man. Particularly after "Radia tapes controversy". I felt so disappointed. I have worked in corporates for many years and I know real life is messy and real people are complicated. But that messy and that complicated? Couldn't Tata's be different?
"...In the
science fiction film, “The Matrix”, Morpheus tells Neo, “You're here because
you know there's something wrong with the world.” The Matrix, he says, is the
world that has been pulled over everyone's eyes to blind them from the truth
that they are slaves. He offers Neo the choice of a blue or red pill. “You take
the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you
want to believe. You take the red pill ... and I show you how deep the
rabbit-hole goes.”
The Nira
Radia audio archive loaded on to the Internet by Open and Outlook magazines
last week is the red pill of our time. It reveals the source codes, networks,
routers, viruses and malware that make up the matrix of the Indian State. The
transmission of information, also known as “news”, between different nodes is
vital for the system to work efficiently. The news is also the medium for
reconciling conflicts between different sectors of the establishment. If you
hear the recordings, you begin to understand the truth about the Wonderland
that is India. No wonder there are many amongst us who would rather swallow the
blue pill. For once you go in, the only way out is to keep digging. And yes,
the rabbit-hole runs deep...
Artist: William Steig, The New Yorker, 2 July 1960
"I didn't get where I am by begging for raises, Aniruddha, I lobbied for what I wanted."
Look at the cartoon, as old as me, above. There is not much to it except two things- catchy caption and, more importantly, the depiction of the boss. I can just go on looking at him for all day long. That is the hallmark of a great cartoonist like the late Mr. Steig (1907-2003)- she creates the lasting impact out of thin air by her art.
Look at the cartoon, as old as me, above. There is not much to it except two things- catchy caption and, more importantly, the depiction of the boss. I can just go on looking at him for all day long. That is the hallmark of a great cartoonist like the late Mr. Steig (1907-2003)- she creates the lasting impact out of thin air by her art.
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