Evolution of Cricket

Fascinating and amusing to see the evolution of cricket. Used to be a leisurely six-day-game (!) once upon a time - remember, they used to have a rest day for the games in the sub-continent. Score of 200+ is a well played game. Advent of one-day games introduced some aggression. Yet, the old one-day games - some of them 60 overs a match (till 1983 world cup) looks like a mini-test matches when compared with the T20 games today !

Glut of one-day games, day-night matches, colored dresses - all well documented evolution of cricket did made the game interesting but still the old world charm for the test cricket has not ended. The plight of the players have to be sympathized as no other game needs this kind of adjustment for the games they play - test match, one-day, T20 ....not to talk about the different climate, pitch conditions.

Cricket will have its share of criticisms - but it will continue its evolution and keep enthralling us.

The hunter becomes hunted

Six to seven months have been a long period ! The world has turned upside down for SUN TV or so I think ! Just recapping the major events happened in the intervening period :

• Dinakaran carried a survey on after Kalignar who is the likely successor in the DMK. The survey results showed that majority (70%) in favour of Stalin, around 2% each for Kanimozhi and Azhagiri and 20% for others.
• The 20% apparently disguised for Dhayanidhi maran
• Azahgiri clan was not too happy with the results and ransacked the Madurai Dinakaran office killing around 3 people in theprocess.
• Dayanidhi Maran removed from the Central Govt
• Launch of Kalignar TV announced
• Sharath, the earlier architect of SUN TV was roped in to architect/consult Kalaignar TV
• SUN TV and its bouquet, who earlier refused to play ball with TATA SKY now announces that their channels are available with TATA SKY
• Kalaignar TV launched
• Several Marquee composers, technicians, shift loyalty to Kalignar TV
• SUN Group announces its own DTH services
• Cable operators protest - showdown with SCV and DTH service providers
• Govt announces it can "operate" its own Cable network and DTH service ...

And so the saga continues ......

Amusing to say the least ....A fight between the family group results in a showdown like this !
Few things that begs answer - who owns Kalaignar TV ? Why does DMK party promotes it ? Wont there be any conflict of interest ?

When the Chennai streets are stinking with the Garbage, does the Govt needs this kind of indulgence in primarily what is a commercial activity ?

Back after a Gap

Kind of in hibernation for some period. Work load, family load et all. Usual excuses. From June have been traveling widely - mainly in the west zone. Been to Mumbai thrice, Vadoadara and Pune - all work related. Not able to explore the full areas but started loving Mumbai and its hectic pace of life. Experienced the famed Mumbai rains, understood the complex train network that carries Mumbai, visited a Bandra bar with an old friend ........still a lot to explore in Mumbai.

Will write more about Mumbai, Pune and in General more frequently...of course if time and my two little daughters permits.

Infosys bashing - II

More credible articles/blogs on the Infosys bashing and in general emphasizing on the importance of being a product driven economy:

http://windia.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-infosys-cant-be-product-making.html
http://windia.blogspot.com/2006/08/is-world-flat.html
http://www.webyantra.net/2006/08/28/infosys-takes-to-corporate-blogging%e2%80%a6trying-to-be-noticed-in-the-web20-world/
http://www.amitranjan.com/2005/07/15/infosys%e2%80%99s-global-dreams-%e2%80%93-diagnosing-its-achilles-heel/

Infosys bashing

It is not easy being in the top. Everybody throws stones and mud at you .....its your choice to respond or to ignore ......Infosys bashing is becoming a favorite past time for many of us .....but the truth is most of them are valid ...if not all ....

No doubt Infosys is a great company, Narayanamoorthy is an icon and they may have generated a great amount of wealth but it is still a looooong way to be compared with a giant like IBM and other tech biggies. Simple reason - Infosys is not a company which generates "value" and spawns an "ecosystem". It is just a user of technology, provider of services in an efficient, professional, quality and cheaper way and makes an enormous amount of money (legally and ethically).

It is still in the tier-II of the software service providers and has a long way to go to be in the league of EDS, HP and IBM the top troika among the service providers. It comes nowhere near in the league of Microsoft, Oracle and SAP in terms of product innovation and global domination. Neither it is an innovator in the tecnology space like Google, Yahoo or Apple. Worse it cannot even come near to some middle level software product companies like BEA Weblogic, Symantec et all. And then there are a host of technology leaders like Intel, CISCO, Nortel. Where does Infosys stand among these. Are we just overhyping and overplaying a simple minor software service provider whose only advantage is dollar-rupee differential and does the job given to him in a perfect way - typical of an Indian clerk ? One point to be noted is - it is listed in NASDAQ as not as a software product/services company but as an "Technology Consulting company".

Where is the "value" ? Where is the "ecosystem" any major company provides. Both Infosys and our Software companies in general dosn't even provide one tenth of what the old economy companies provide in terms of eco-system. An industry like Automobile manufacturer spawns a network of auto component manufacturers, dealers, suppliers, infrastructure suppliers and the like - it generates a multitude of investment opportunities and wealth. Our $oftware companies are not able to sustain this kind of system - in fact it doesn not benefit any of the locals at all. Most of the Infosys type companies use Dell or IBM computers, CISCO switches et all, thus benefitting the global behemoths and not helping any of the Indian counterparts.

Is Infy aworld beater with its 69,000 employess ?- what is its employee-to-turnover ratio. How does it compare with Google, Microsoft and Apple or with IBM, CISCO and Oracle. Do they have an ecosystem that spans across the channels .....meaning any dealers or resellers selling Infosys products, any training institutes that teaches Infosys products, any desktops or servers that carry Infy's products ? Any free downloadable version of Infy's products ........... It is just a body shopping company that makes a ton of money by easy dollars .....but kills innovation among the India IT enginners.

Leaving aside all those - I doubt Infosys can survive this model for the next twenty or twenty five years - I doubt whether they will be able to celebrate their 50th anniversary - leave alone in the much same fanfare as they did their twenty-fifth anniversary.

Farmers and the Free Power

The "free power scheme" is in vogue for longtime now in TamilNadu. In AP, it was brought back by YSR when he became the chief minister. In Punjab, Akali Dal promises free power back to farmers when it comes back to "power". In MP, restoration of free power scheme during the last Assembly Elections invoked the ire of High Court. PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh is always opposed to the free power. Why this scheme is such an explosive and politically sensitive issue?

In general, the tendency is to put the farmers in the poor light, because they are seeking something "free" and when it is withdrawn they are protesting against it. To be fair to the farmers, they are one of the simple, hardworking and honorable class of people you can find anywhere. And like any honorable people they do feel hurt if they are branded as someone who wants everything free.

Majority of the farmers depend either on the canal water (water from dams, tanks and rivers - called as command area) or the ground water (open wells, deep bore wells - called as dry land) for the irrigation. The general opinion was that the cost of cultivation of a dry land farmer was much higher than that of a command area farmer.

Thanks to the successive monsoon failures, the ground water table has gone down. As a result, farmers have to dig up to 1,000 ft (atleast in TN) to get water. In effect, most farmers will have pumpsets of five to ten horsepower. So the overall cost of the cultivation increases. In fact, even if there is a bumper crop for the farmer, especially the small and marginal ones will not benefit due to the fall in prices of his produce and also of the increased input costs.

While the canal water is subsidised by the Govt.(meaning there is a cost involved in the management and distribution of the canal water - which is not passed on to the farmers) the well water used for irrigation was not subsidised. So the argument is - power supply to agricultural pump sets should be free.

The strong feeling among the farmers community is to have the subsidy continued. The other points they put forward in favor of their opinion:

1. The power supply to the farmers is only free for the irrigation purposes and not for the household uses.
2. Power supply is used for ground water tapping and it has helped to cultivate waste lands and drought-hit areas to the benefit of the country.
3. If farmers do not get subsidy in any form, while their counterparts in foreign countries are getting it, how will they be able to compete?
4. The loss to SEB's (State Electricity Boards) is not due the free power scheme (as projected in certain circles) but mainly due to the transmission loss and power theft.
5. The non-farming electricity users (household, industries) continue to get all sorts of subsidies why should we alone have to bear the brunt.

I am not articulating the other side of the argument as it is well known ........(nothing should be free, atleast cost should be borne, .....et all)

My personal opinion and comments are:

1. India is a land of vast rural tract, in the ratio of 70 : 30 (Rural vs Urban) and the country's stake in agriculture is simply too large. It should not be at the mercy of whims and fancies of politicians.
2. Serious thoughts should be given on Rural Economics - the unbridled dog-eat-dog Market Economics is not going to help the farmers.
3. Even in advanced countries (US included) farmers are heavily subsidised and protected. So there is nothing wrong if we have to protect our farmers.
4. Instead of absolute free power - nominal charge for farmers can be brought in.
5. Income tax for rich farmers can be introduced. The income generated can be used to offset against the loss incurred in the free power. (Income tax for farmers is another explosive issue with its own problems ...)

Overall, we require a far more understanding and empathy to handle this issue instead of blind rhetorics.

The emerging Media Monopoly in South India

Readers in today’s (Feb 26, 2007) The Hindu wouldn’t have missed a full page ad showing Dinakaran as the No.1 daily in the Tamil language, displacing the Dhina Thandhi - the venerable Tamil daily started by late C.P.Adithanar. Guess most of you are aware that Dinakaran is now owned by SUN TV group, the emerging Media Moghul of South India.

Just see the media interests of SUN group below:

1. Dinakaran – the No 1 Tamil daily (morning)
2. Tamizh Murasu – the No1 Tamil Daily (eveninger)
3. Kumkumam – one among the top three Tamil Weekly
4. Suryan FM and S FM – the FM stations operating from Chennai, Coimbatore , Thirunelveli in TN, Hyderabad and Vizag in AP, Bangalore and Jaipur.
5. SUN TV, K TV, Sun Music, Sun News – the bouquet of Tamil channels
6. Gemini TV, Gemini Music, Teja TV, Teja news – the bouquet of Telugu Channels
7. Udaya, Ushe, Hdaya News, Udaya vardhagulu – the bouquet of Kannada Channels
8. Surya and Kiran – the Malayalam channels
9. SCV – Sumangali Cable Vision – the cable network covering most of the places in TN
10. Several other small magazines like Mutharam, Vannathirai and few other smaller TV channels.
    

It is obvious that it has mind blogging err… boggling domination in the TV, Audio and the Print Media and not to mention its interest in the cable distribution as well.

And what are its future plans? Anybody’s guess…..to take this domination further … it has plans to take a Direct to Home license – both the players in the DTH segment now (Dish TV and TATA Sky) don’t carry SUN group bouquet of channels. And again the group is planning to take a majority of license in the community FM services and if it materializes it will enable its reach to almost every nook and corner.

The other related area in which right now it doesn’t have its presence is ISP or Internet distribution (any time SCV will be able to do a Hathway kind of job), Mobile Media and online Internet content. With its deep pockets, political connections and ruthless execution it is not impossible for them to get what they want in the near future if they decide to enter this segment also - Aircel, Chennai Online, Sulekha Classifieds could be their potential takeover targets.

The purpose of this posting is not debate the merits and demerits of the almost monopoly dominance the SUN TV group is getting into. It got into this situation by being the early entrant (guess from 1992 onwards), good vision, good business acumen and execution.

May be having your Grand Father as a CM and your (late) father and brother as union ministers would have helped here and there, but none can take the credit away from Mr.Kalanidhi Maran in building such a big empire.

But still there are a lot of questionable practices followed by them in this growth period. In a series of postings I will be highlighting them with my perspective.