MxMIndia

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  • More than the possibility of business empires exerting pressure after investing in the media, the worry is when the situation reaches oligopolistic proportions, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Why media purists needn’t worry about Kumar Mangalam Birla’s 27.5 % in Living Media

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    On April 10, the TV Today network clarified to the Bombay Stock Exchange on rumours that the Aditya Birla group was acquiring a stake in the India Today group. The clarification said the Company (TV Today) was not aware of any such transaction and was not in a position to confirm the contents of the media reports.

     

    A little over a month later, the same organization sent the BSE a copy of the press release stating that 27.5 per cent of Living Media India, better known as the India Today group, was sold to the Aditya Birla group.

     

    A senior member of the AV Birla group told this correspondent that the investment was made by chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on a personal level and not by any of the group companies.  After the customary approvals in a few months, we would get to know the real numbers. Late on Friday, Ashish Bagga, recently appointed CEO of the entire group (including TV Today), informed staff of the development by way of an email.

     

    The question which everyone wants to know is the price that Mr Birla paid for the 27.5%. There have been various figures floating around… that the money paid is in the region of Rs 350-500 crore. In the communique issued, Mr Birla is quoted saying: “The media sector is a sunrise sector from an investment point of view. I believe that Living Media India offers one of the best opportunities for growth and value creation.”

     

    Also read:

    AV Birla group buys 27.5% in India Today group

     

    Birla may use personal money for buy, Mail Today may now launch editions in Mumbai, other metros

     

    Loss of plurality is worrying: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

    And here’s what Aroon Purie, chairman of the India Today group said: “I am delighted to partner with the Aditya Birla group to aggressively address the current and future potential of the Indian media business which is at a tipping point. The Aditya Birla group with its strong leadership global footprint, diversified business interests and its shared values of integrity, commitment and social responsibility make it a perfect fit with the India Today group.”

     

    So where’s the money going to be used? For one, it would mean expanding its current businesses. Specifically, Mail Today to move to markets like Mumbai and other cities and for TV Today to get into the regional space, and possibly a business channel. With a question mark on overall growth of newsmagazines, Living Media needs to invest its resources on segments with a growth potential.

     

    It has already done so by investing in smaller, niche magazines which have a smaller print run and attract fair amount of advertising as also bringing in international content.

     

    The TV Today network has also been in pressure in recent months with competition gaining ground. The radio station -Oye 104.8 – also needs to grow on the ratings roster.

     

    And what does it mean for the industry? Although a 27.5% equity will give Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla a toehold in media, it’s not significant enough for him to wrest editorial control. However, while there is fear of how big business money may impact the media, the fact is that it is already doing so. Even today, there exist managements and editors which buckle under pressure from large advertisers and influential individuals. There are enough stories of vested interests at play in Indian journalism, and for the media as a whole, the infusion of money from big business houses and foreign players could possibly ensure better salaries and hence lesser corruption. Standards of journalism are bound to improve.

     

    Also, it’s not that business empires haven’t been in the media already. The KK Birla group runs Hindustan Times, the Tatas would own the Indian title of Reader’s Digest until it sold to Living Media and there are other smaller players too who are known to back media players. Zee TV’s Subhash Chandra has a successful enterprise running under the Essel brand and even The Times of India group’s Jains have had long-standing interests in other fields.

     

    Since the media needs to increase scale, it needs the money for expansion. A route followed by some groups like Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar and Deccan Chronicle has been to go public. Still others – like Network 18 and Television 18 – have been public and also secured investment. Last year, the Abhey Oswal group bought 14.17% in NDTV.

     

    The Reliance Anil Ambani group has significant presence in the media with radio and television. It has also acquired a majority stake in business channel Bloomberg UTV. Just yesterday (Sunday, May 22), one saw a programme airing consumer complaints with a subscribers’s peeve against Reliance Communications. So it’s not that Bloomberg UTV blanks out all criticism of Reliance ADAG activities.

     

    According to me, more than the possibility of business empires exerting pressure after investing in the media, the worry is when the situation reaches oligopolistic proportions. This has in fact been seen with media groups having a stake in allied business like radio, television and events.

     

    Buzz me if you have a story to tell. Confidentiality assured. There are various ways you can reach me:

    pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com, BBM 23050B5D, Gtalk pradyumanm@gmail.com, Twitter @pmahesh and of course the mobile: 98338 76278.

     

    Disclaimer: Although he is CEO and Editor-in-Chief of this site, Pradyuman Maheshwari’s views in Mediaah! are not necessarily those of the rest of the team and MxMIndia.com.

     

     

     

     

  • If the Ashok Leyland guys had to use Dhoni, the least they should have done was to make the man play a credible role in the script

    Debrief: Ashok Leyland: Terrible casting!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    You must have watched umpteen numbers of ads where you are left scratching your head wondering how did that celebrity fit into this (SRK selling Santro had me in splits for days together), However, truck maker Ashok Leyland appointing MS Dhoni as their brand ambassador will have you tearing your hair out in utter frustration.

     

    In the TVC, Maahi doesn’t just bond with truck operators and mechanics, he claims to represent Ashok Leyland (like a company salesman), and worse, the cricket captain boasts, ‘Hamara barson ka tajurba’! Wow! What on earth does the Mercedes Benz driving dude know of trucks?? Has he spent even a single day with Ashok Leyland? In the very next commercial, I saw Dhoni jiving with some international footballers, busy selling Pepsi.

     

    The Ashok Leyland guys must think their customers are totally dumb to buy into this nonsense. And if they had to use Dhoni, the least they should have done was to make the man play a credible role in the script. As if all this isn’t bad enough, the ad is very boring and painful to watch. And I say this even when I put myself in a trucker’s shoes.

     

    Complete disaster, I say.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 0. Incredible and dull

     

  • PR is not a quick fix and helps achieve goodwill – which cannot be earned overnight and has to be nurtured and sustained through long-term PR activity for the company or brand says Toral Sanghavi

    The Anchor: 6 things that ail the PR industry

    By Toral Sanghavi

     

    1. Lack of awareness or poor knowledge on what PR can do for a company or a brand, leads to ineffective use of this marketing tool. Clients who have a different perspective of the role leads to a huge void in meeting the PR objective.

     

    2. PR is also looked upon as a short-term activity and expectations are far higher vis-a-vis advertising. Here it is to be appreciated that PR is not a quick fix and helps achieve goodwill – which cannot be earned overnight and has to be nurtured and sustained through long-term PR activity for the company or brand.

     

    3. There is no true value placed for PR activity and hence it cannot be truly measured by any accounts, which at times, leaves the client wanting for more and dissatisfied inspite of good media reportage.

     

    4. Lack of the right talent in this industry. Average time spent in the industry by professionals is not more than 5 years and then the general growth chart of a PR professional is to move to the corporate side of the business. This can leave a void for seasoned PR professionals in the business.

     

    5. Public Relations is an unpaid form of communication and hence dependent on an outside agency’s opinion and bias on the topic.  It is totally dependent on an individual’s rapport with the target media and hence media reportage and coverage can get unpredictable.

     

    6. The media universe is getting larger, in-depth and niche to a variety of target audience and industry. In such case, PR activities can get challenged and restricted in nature.  Also timeliness can affect coverage.

     

    Toral Sanghavi is Director – Clea Public Relations, India

     

  • In Freaking News, which appears every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    [MJR] Media has to protect freedom of expression and thought

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The knee-jerk government response to the Ambedkar cartoon controversy – banning cartoons from text books – got a very strong response from Sunday’s newspapers. The need to protect freedom of speech, why cartoons frighten those in power, the personal attacks faced by cartoonists were covered by The Times of India, Indian Express and Hindustan Times in special features and detailed stories.

     

    Many also carried cartoons which have caused trouble in the past and tried to examine just why cartoons are seen as dangerous.

     

    Indian Express had a comprehensive interview with historian Mushir-ul-Hasan who has just written a book on Parsee Punch, a cartoon magazine brought out by Parsis in colonial India. The British in India at the time either had a good sense of humour or the good sense to realise that going after cartoons was hardly likely to end subversive thinking.

     

    The media has to come out and protect freedom of expression and thought – because in any battle against it, it will be the first casualty. The threat does not come just from those in power but also from pressure groups in civil society. Unfortunately in India, the first response by the government is to cave in to the demands of those whose “sentiments are hurt” rather than stand up for the Constitution.

     

    * * *

     

    After running through the IPL as the scourge of human civilisation, TV channels found something else to amuse themselves. Not, of course, the Indian economy, which seems perilously close to bad times ahead – there is after all little scope for a melodramatic studio-based jatra based on a falling rupee and rising inflation. Much better instead to concentrate on parties (not political ones, but the others where people gather to eat, drink and make merry and thus promote unconscionable evils), why the BCCI has insulted Kapil Dev by not giving him lots of money (and then providing the answer – because Dev hooked off to the rebel league ICL) and for all I know whether the sun will rise tomorrow or not.

     

    * * *

     

    It is always interesting to see journalists take the moral high ground when it comes to other people eating and drinking. Everyone knows that there are journalists who will do anything for a free meal and many attend press conferences only for the free drinks at the end. Even those who are not quite so greedy enjoy a drink or two at the end (or the middle) of a long and stressful working day. So why this moralistic posturing when it comes to others? Just to appeal to a puritanical audience or has alcohol dimmed their memories of their own excesses?

     

    In fine contrast, of course, the glamour sections of newspapers and glamour segments on news channels only serve to glorify the “having fun” lifestyle and employ almost no critical faculties at all.

     

    Just because the general public doesn’t know what you get up to in your spare time does not mean that you have to give in quite so much to hypocrisy.

     

    * * *

     

    Now that the Lokpal Bill has been put off till the next session, one can predict an all out publicity campaign by the Anna Hazare brigade – that’s easy. However, it is also possible to predict that while the movement may not fizzle out, the media coverage will.

  • Consider this: If Mukeshbhai gets caught in a scandal, will Rajdeep Sardesai even think of going after the big man? You know the answer

    Anil Thakraney: Bad times looming for editors/content heads

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    What’s the best way for large advertisers to get some ‘good press’ in the media? Use PR agents? Throw lavish parties? Suck up to the editors? Naaah! All that is old fashioned stuff. Nowadays, at least in India, where the media acquisition laws are weak, the industrialists simply go ahead and buy a large stake in a media house. Thus controlling the content, whether the proprietors would like to accept that or not. Recently, Ambani picked up a substantial stake in the Network 18 group. And now the Birlas have bought into the India Today group. Am quite certain more large industrial houses are eyeing similar acquisitions in the media.

     

    This is obviously terrible news for content heads. Because their powers get badly curtailed. Of course, the worst case scenario, which means direct intervention in the content agenda, sucks big time… that’s a nightmarish situation. But even the best case scenario sounds pretty depressing. Because that would mean the media house cannot report/write a single word against the shareholding industrial group. And will often be compelled to project them (and all their partners and subsidiaries) in a favourable light. Consider this: If Mukeshbhai gets caught in a scandal, will Rajdeep Sardesai even think of going after the big man? You know the answer.

     

    I can understand why the corporate world wants to invest in the media. Because it’s a powerful weapon to have in the war chest, and industrialists can leverage business/political deals with its help. The question is: Can we not have tighter laws on media acquisition, like it happens in the western world? Surely the time has come for that.

     

    As a journalist, what worries me most is the yet another body blow to the freedom of expression. Already the industry has suffered because of paid news, sponsored news and other malpractices. Not to speak of the greater powers bestowed to the marketing department of the media company. And now this! Clearly it’s not a good time to be a journalist in this nation.

     

    As for moi, I am seriously thinking of shifting back to advertising. The advertisers are calling all the shots anyway. 🙂

     

    * * *

     

    PS: Haha. The advertising life depicted accurately and hilariously in pictures. If you belong to the ad world, you will identify with every single situation. I am sure you are living them right now!

     

    Link: http://thisadvertisinglife.tumblr.com/

     

     

    Anil Thakraney is a Mumbai-based commentator and editor. He is also Editor-at-large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own

     

     

  • If size would have always been proportional to the potential of things, then microprocessor chips would have never got invented, says Manish Bhatt

    The Anchor: Manish Bhatt on 5 myths people have about an independent agency

    Manish Bhatt

    By Manish Bhatt,Founder Director,Scarecrow Communications Ltd.

     

    Myth 1: Independent agencies are the land of scamsters

    Just like the world thought India is a land of snake charmers and elephants… We think every man in Jaisalmer wears a turban and has royal mustaches and a parting beard… People who haven’t visited the South of France always think that every beach of French Rivierais a nudist beach… People think independent agencies are the breeding grounds and shelters for scamsters. Dear Scamsters, beware… The creative department of Independent agencies are not governed by Global Creative Council in Chicago. Neither by those aspirant NCDs who want to score high in Cannes by indulging in some scams, so that he or she can attend the next global creative council meeting in the exotic destinations like Sao Paulo, Santa Clara or Jamaica.

     

    Myth 2: Independent agencies are cheap

    The Network Agency with presence in 24 countries and 100 offices across the world can charge premium. But thinking that Indian independent agencies with presence in 2 cities are cheap to hire – if this is true, then buying clothes from Big Bazaar (with around 1,000 stores across cities) should be more expensive than clothes sold at Versace or Armani with 2 city presence.

     

    Myth 3: Independent agencies are small creative hot shops

    If size would have always been proportional to the potential of things, then microprocessor chips would have never got invented. In 2 years’ time, Scarecrow has 2 offices, 50 people, a separate Design division, an Art Gallery, more than 25 brands across 4 cities, will you call us a creative boutique or a full service agency?

     

    Myth 4: Independent agencies can never attract MNC brands

    When an Indian can buyout global brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover, why can’t an Indian independent agency attract global brands? Look at Pepsi working with Taproot, Audi with Creativeland Asia and we at Scarecrow working with MNC Brands like Nestle, Eristoff (Bacardi), Viacom, Danone, Anchor Panasonic and Barclays.

     

    Myth 5: Independent agencies can never attract great talent

    People with good taste always prefer to stay in an isolated cottage, a countryside vs  a multi-storied apartment in the hustle bustle of the city. That’s why we have one of the best design minds of the country like Kapil Tammal in our Mumbai office and Andy at Delhi office – the man behind ‘Mein aur meri Maggi’ campaign.

     

    Manish Bhatt is Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications Ltd.

     

  • Bottom-line: Wrong positioning, wrong idea, wrong situation and a very stupid pun to top it all

    Debrief: Maruti Ertiga: Not LUVing it!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Okay, I am kinda confused. What IS the Maruti Ertiga? From what I read in the initial media reports, it’s an MUV (Multi Utility Vehicle). Then someone said it’s an MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle). And even as I was still scratching my head over the difference, in comes the TV commercial which calls it an LUV – Life Utility Vehicle. What in the world is that now?

     

    So I watched the commercial as if it was a mystery movie, and guess what? I am left EVEN more confused! I was expecting to see a large, hansta khelta Hindu undivided khandaan in the ad. That’s the segment that would go in for a car like this, I assumed. Instead, what I saw was a young babe doing things I couldn’t comprehend after repeat exposures. All I recall is many boring shots of the Maruti Ertiga, the interiors and the exterior. And then it suddenly struck me: They are using LUV as a pun for LOVE! Wow!

     

    I would say the Maruti guys are fortunate to get away with such inane and puzzling advertising. And that’s because the Ertiga is actually a fabulous option for those looking for a largish family vehicle that doesn’t cost the earth. Maruti, in any case, enjoys huge loyalty in the market, therefore sales won’t be an issue at all. Even if the ad sucks, which it does in this case.

     

    Bottom-line: Wrong positioning, wrong idea, wrong situation and a very stupid pun to top it all.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 1. Confused and silly

     

  • Every Thursday, Ranjona Banerji will write about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    [MJR] Wanted: sponsors to cover the Olympics!

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The biggest sporting event in the world (no, not the FIFA World Cup) is due to begin in a couple of months. So how many Indian newspapers are going to send someone to cover the Olympic Games in London? This is where Indian sportspersons are hoping to make a breakthrough after Abhinav Bindra won the first individual gold medal by an Indian in Beijing. The Indian hockey team did very well in the qualifiers, leading to expectations that they will shine again in a sport which has won us eight gold medals but no one in India really watches.

     

    So what’s the grouse? The reluctance of Indian newspaper managements to spend money on newsgathering. The Olympics are not just any old event. They represent an ideal – of human endeavour, of a global spirit and a desire to push back boundaries of achievements. Editorials will declaim with thundering authority about the significance of “citius, altius, fortius” but when it comes to actually reporting on the efforts to get there, everything depends on a “sponsor”.

     

    That is, a newspaper or journal will often only cover an event like this if the marketing department can get someone to cover its expenses. One can understand the reluctance in the days when foreign travel was prohibitive and foreign currency limited by the government (yes, I know it almost seems like we’re back in those times!) but in today’s world, depending on agency feed is nothing short of laziness and taking your reader for a ride.

     

    Yet strangely, in the olden days (that is, when I was young), the idea of “junkets” was anathema and people I know lost their jobs for accepting favours. Over the years, managements realised, “why pay for something when someone else can be convinced to do it”. This is why so many sports pages – like The Times of India’s for instance – are so full of “sponsored columns” that there is hardly any place left for actual news.

    One doesn’t know yet of course how many newspapers are going to go for the easy route to the Olympics, but one hears rumours…

     

    Meanwhile, the entire film journalism community appears to be in Cannes for the film festival, where given the quality of our cinema, almost nothing makes it even within shouting distance of a tin palm, let alone a golden one. But visits to Cannes are now de rigueur on the junket circuit, so no dip in the newspaper’s bank balance there. And credibility? Well, we stopped worrying about that a long time ago.

     

  • Chandradeep 'CD' Mitra on why general entertainment channels rule telly-land!

    The Anchor: Chandradeep Mitra on 5 reasons why GECs rule the Indian TV industry

    By Chandradeep Mitra

     

    1. Historicity – General Entertainment Channels (or GECs) were the first and the main channels which started the TV culture in our country – Doordarshan (DD), then Zee, then Star. In fact, all other channel genres – news, sports, kids, music, etc. – started off as sections within main GECs before being spun off separately. However, GECs have remained the main draws, the big brothers and the bouquet-drivers in the TV business.

     

    2. Mainstream Entertainment Quotient – In an entertainment-crazy nation fed on Bollywood and other escapist fare, GECs provide the most broad-based mass-appeal entertainment platter (think ‘Thali’!) that aims to please most, if not all, of the TV audiences, unlike more niche options targeting smaller audience groups.

     

    3. Targeting Remote Controllers – Among various TV audiences, GECs have traditionally targeted the middle-class, middle-aged women the most, who form the largest and most loyal TV viewing group. Long-running soaps and popular well-tested formats ensured repeat viewing of this core audience. And the fact that most Indian households are single TV homes ensured that GECs won over other channels during primetime by targeting the folks who controlled the TV remote at those hours. The creation of the afternoon slot also resulted from targeting this audience group, further consolidating the lead of GECs.

     

    4. Resource Prioritization – As GECs were historically the bigger TV channels, media owners as well as advertisers put greater focus and energy on continuing their success, hence dominance. The biggest production budgets, the slickest marketing campaigns and the biggest stars (think Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan…) all were marshaled to make GECs bigger and stronger. Success perpetuated more success.

     

    5. Biggest Innovations / Breakthroughs – While a number of GECs continued to play safe and repeat successful formulas (remember the Saas Bahu serials?!), the high stakes game in the GEC genre also ensured that the biggest innovations and introduction of breakthrough formats also happened on GECs (think KBC and Satyamev Jayate). This ensured that more often than not, it was a GEC that benefited from a positive discontinuity in Indian television (IPL is perhaps one exception).

     

    Chandradeep Mitra is CEO, PipalMajik

     

     

  • Every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on news television and the newspapers in Freaking News

    MJR: TV worries about aam aadmi, forgets economics

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The petrol price hike announced on Wednesday sent TV into a spin. Since the economy is not a strong point for our honourable anchors, they all decided it was a bad thing but then didn’t know how to go further so opted for passionate pleas on the plight on the aam aadmi. Economists have a slightly different view – they see the subsidies to the aam aadmi as the problem as far as India’s oil bill and budget deficit is concerned. The hike on petrol will apparently have only a marginal effect on easing the financial burden carried by the gas companies.

     

    Said The Economic Times on Thursday, “Subsidising petro-fuels is not something that India can afford: this subsidy accounts for a sizeable part of the fiscal deficit and drives up the current account deficit. These twin deficits depress growth by curtailing investment. India needs de-control and competition in petro-fuels.”

     

    The Times of India on Friday says more or less the same thing: “Despite shock and awe for the middle class, the surprising thing about the petrol price hike is that it will only have a marginal impact on the under-recoveries of oil companies or in curbing oil imports. Petrol accounts for just about one-eighth of total oil consumption. In fact most recent numbers show that it is diesel, kerosene and LPG – which account for almost three-fourth of the oil products consumed – that has pushed under-recoveries of oil companies by a massive Rs 1.38 lakh crore.”

     

    The Hindustan Times on Friday: “A steep hike in petrol prices has jolted Indian consumers out of a false sense of security that the government can shield them from the relentless rise in oil prices… India’s energy consumption has remained oblivious to how international prices moved. Our oil demand does not decline as prices rise and this adds to the downward pressure on the rupee. It is a vicious cycle that can be broken up by freeing up all fuel prices and reimbursing only those who cannot afford market rates. A sizeable chunk of the economy is getting a free ride on the government’s fuel subsidy.”

     

    Therefore, despite the hysteria generated by TV channels, the consensus from other sources is clear – we have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from a price increase in all petroleum products. In their anxiousness to get a dramatic confrontation, TV channels forget that not everything makes for a good debate. Why not have a good, solid interview with an economist to explain the problem? They can of course intersperse the interview with song and dance (am I confusing this with IPL?) or run their earlier tapes of panellists yelling at each other so that viewers are not terribly confused with a large dose of sensible talking.

     

    **

     

    On NDTV, there was mudslinging at the media by the friends of the Talwars, now about to be tried for the murders of their daughter and their domestic servant. There is no doubt that the media goes overboard very often and did so in the Talwar case as well, over-dramatising the details of Aarushi’s life for instance.

     

    But nor can there be any doubt that the Talwars manipulated the media and milked the sympathy card for all it was worth. To get a respected popular historian like Patrick French to write an impassioned article in your defence and then follow that up with a TV interview – master stroke. Unfortunately for them, the judge did not quite see it that way and ruled that they be tried for double murder. Justice may or may not be blind but it is often oblivious to TV channel hoopla.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and columnist based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia

     

     

  • Time to move on, Sir. Please start lobbying for the post of President. You are a nice, honest, good man, so no one will mind supporting your candidature

    Anil Thakraney: MMS for Prez! Puhleez!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I implore all the political parties to do at least one good deed for the nation. Please send Dr Manmohan Singh to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, with all the accompanying pomp and gaiety. The man needs to retire ASAP, and what better old age home than the grandiose Bhavan?

     

    No, I am not suggesting this because MMS needs to be rewarded, but because the gentleman needs to be immediately ejected from the Prime Minister’s office. Don’t think anyone, not even Ms Rabri Devi, can do worse than him. Everyone adores MMS because he’s reputed to be a ‘nice guy’ and an ‘honest man’. Is this qualification enough to run such a huge, complicated, scandal-infested country? Would you hire a CEO based only on this yardstick? Heck, would you marry your daughter to a man based on this qualification alone?

     

    Let’s examine Mr Nice Guy’s scintillating resume. The nuclear deal, over which he staked his job and promised truckloads of energy and dosh to the nation, is all forgotten. The proposal of FDI in multi-brand retail was quickly scuttled at the first shout from the opposition leaders in the Parliament. The PM’s allowed his retro finance mantri to come up with that hare-brained scheme called Retrospective Tax, which has made global investors become very wary of India. The mother of all scams, the famed 2G scam, happened right under the watchful eye of Dr Singh. And the man keeps getting blackmailed by his allies, and is unable to deal with them. Worse, it’s hard to imagine MMS ran the RBI once, and brought economic reforms to India. Today, he has no idea how to stop the rupee from sliding down the hill, and petrol prices have been increasing as regularly as sixes get hit in the IPL. And these are just some of Mr Nice Guy’s achievements.

     

    No, we simply cannot afford to have this incompetent man hang around for another two years in office. The nation can deal with only so many failures. Time to move on, Sir. Please start lobbying for the post of President. You are a nice, honest, good man, so no one will mind supporting your candidature. Not even if you later get busy collecting frequent flyer miles, a la Ms Pratibha Patil.

     

    Please move on! It’s been rather nice knowing you.

     

    * * *

     

    PS: Must read for all creative people. Some powerful advice on how to keep the fires burning, and not let life’s set backs (petrol prices!) come in the way of creativity. It’s applicable to creators in all walks of life.

     

    Link: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/22/neil-gaiman-commencement-address/

     

     

  • Now that the IPL is over however, it will be interesting to see how our perpetual moaning machines in the media will fill up their time…

    [MJR] IPL symptomatic of the end of civilization

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    There’s only one newsmaker this morning and that’s the IPL. As Manoj Tiwary hit a four over Chepauk stadium winning the title for the Kolkata Knight Riders, season five of a very successful Indian Premier League comes to an end.

     

    And what a season it has been – a film star team owner fights with a security guard, another film star team owner castigates a third umpire for being unfair to one of her players, a player assaults a woman at a party, five players are exposed for spot-fixing and the management is exposed for unfair processes in the buying and selling of players… have I left anything out?

     

    And then there’s been the cricket. The drama over Saurav Ganguly now being with the Pune Warriors, the expectation that Sachin Tendulkar would soon reach his 1000th Test century, the thrilling last ball finishes, the sentiment attached to Rahul Dravid and all the news finds.

     

    And of course, the media. For some, like the ultra-bore Boria Majumdar parked in the Times of India stable, the IPL is symptomatic of the end of civilisation. The erudite Ram Guha doesn’t like it either. A player misbehaves at a party and a couple of former players threaten to go on a hunger strike – which I don’t think happened. Or at least, everyone forgot soon after. The TV channels also decided that IPL was the thin end of the wedge before the human race sinks into an irreversible path of iniquity. I would say the same thing about TV news as far as the fate of the media in India is concerned but…

     

    Sharda Ugra in The Indian Express lauds the good things, hopes the BCCI will fix the bad things and then focuses on what was really wrong with the IPL – the terrible pre and post shows on Sony’s SET Max, Extra Innings. I think there may be an extra ‘a’ in there for some inexplicable reason. Having dispensed with the dispensable Mandira Bedi, we have had the unpalatable and hysterical Gaurav Kapoor and those two girls foisted on us. Isa Guha, since she understood cricket and took it seriously, was a rare breath of fresh air. Why those two badly dressed, screeching and oddly accented girls had to interview minor starlets on the grounds was not explained to us. The cheerleaders in the studio were the worst available. I cannot understand a word Navjot Singh Sidhu says so I was spared tearing my hair out. My only concern was that he needed to go on a diet. Ever since Harsha Bhogle had a hair transplant, I cannot but concentrate on his new fringe to the exclusion of his platitudinous and fatuous observations on cricket.

    Ugra, I have to confess, was not this nasty.

     

    Mid-Day’s headline “Ra.Won” is the winner of the day. The Hindustan Times gave us a sort of truncated report, obviously written in a hurry and the reporter clearly did not like Shah Rukh Khan. The Times of India had a better report – a real surprise since its sports coverage has sunk to new lows recently – but its reporter is clearly no fan of MS Dhoni’s and called him out for his “standard tricks”, in this instance, slow over rate towards the end of the match.

     

    Now that the IPL is over however, it will be interesting to see how our perpetual moaning machines in the media will fill up their time…