It Isn’t Just…

February 10, 2006

It isn’t just Reliance Infocomm which tries to cheat BSNL. BSNL employees do the same thing. So who’s to blame- Reliance, or the stupid system of tariffs and cross-subsisdies that sets up arbitrage opportunities like this in the first place?

It isn’t just airports which are seeing private participation and development. The MMRDA has received fifteen tenders for a new bus terminus to be run on a build-own-operate-transfer contract. Which should hopefully answer Dilip D’ Souza.

And it isn’t just Jayalalitha who nationalises industries to give political rivals a poke in the eye. The Andhra Pradesh government has just handed all the well-managed dairy cooperatives to the bureaucracy. Once again, the political rivals will eventually come back to power, and it’s the consumers and dairy farmers who’ll get shafted.


Wanted: Guest Blogger

February 9, 2006

It looks like the only thing I shall have time to write over the next few weeks are analyst reports on recruiters. In the interest of keeping this blog alive, I am shamelessly flicking Ravikiran’s tactic and inviting applications for guest bloggers.

Candidates must possess impeccable spelling and grammar skills.

Guest blogging at Maajorly Shadymax Arbit Fundaes will provide you an exciting career opportunity at a blog which receives at least a hundred and fifty unique visits a day, and gives you a chance to grow this even further in a dynamic and progressive blogging environment.

Maajorly Shadymax Arbit Fundaes owes its success to its values. Although every blog will talk about its values, we at MSAF believe that our values are special. Our values are a strong focus on readers, nurturing our people1, and creating shareholder value2.

Compensation is ten lakh rupees per annum.3

Apply through the comments or the email form.


1: Admittedly, our people is only me up to this point. But I strongly believe that I should be nurtured.
2: As there are no shareholders, any value created leads to infinite shareholder value.
3: Estimated monetized value of the fame that comes as part of guest-blogging on MSAF. Includes variable pay (subject to performance review).


If you danced a slow dance in Manhattan…

February 6, 2006

Read the rest of this entry »


Airport Modernization

February 4, 2006

As everyone knows by now, Delhi and Mumbai airports are going to be modernized by private contractors, and the AAI has promptly gone on strike.

Since the new contractors have committed to retain all staff for the next three years, and retain at least 60% of the staff beyond that, what exactly is troubling these people so much that they are declaring an illegal strike to protest? Is it blind opposition to privatization? Is it sheer cussedness? Is it politics?

Actually, it is none of these. What everyone has forgotten is that the leaders of both the winning consortiums- GMR and GVK- are both Gult companies. The AAI workers, are quite understandably, worried that the new management will change their uniforms and that they will end up looking like this or this, or horror of horrors, this. (Warning: links not only Not Safe For Work, but probably Not Safe For Anything)

So you see, the way out of the impasse is really very simple. All that has to be done for the strike to end is for the new management to assure the employees that the design of new uniforms, if any, will be left to the German and Malaysian partners.


The Unmaad Open Quiz 2006

February 4, 2006

Was conducted today, to general appreciation. Here are the quizzes:

Prelims, 5.7 MB

and

Finals, 10.8 MB

We also used three questions as tiebreakers (though there was still a tie even after we used them, so the teams split their prizes). These were:

  1. Who is the first chief minister of J&K from Jammu rather than Kashmir?
  2. There is an online game called Stick Cricket. The animation for getting out hit wicket is a tribute to what?
  3. The producers of this TV series were not sure how popular it would be, and if it would last more than a season so they came up with a gimmick for the last episode of the first season. This was to reveal that one of the characters was just a figment of the male lead’s imagination, and so for the entire first season, this character talked to nobody except the male lead. By the time the season ended, the show was a hit and in no danger of cancellation. So in subsequent seasons the character started interacting with other characters. Identify the series.

Answers can be submitted to me using the contact form.