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Lowering The Age Barrier
It could be an innovative attempt to get the reforms process up and going again. We're referring to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Cabinet reshuffle on September 1, 2001, that saw the average age of the council of ministers (all 72 of them) fall from 52 to a little over 50. Two years is a significant reduction, especially so if you consider that the average age of the five ministers of state inducted into the council is 48. Of the lot, Anna Sahib Patil is the only one on the wrong side of 50-he is 62. The rest, are all under 50. Ashok Pradhan, the Minister of State (MoS) for Consumer affairs, Food & Public distribution, Ravi Shankar Prasad, MoS, Coals & Mines, and Vijay Goel, MoS, PMO, with additional charge of Planning, are all 47. And Rajiv Pratap Rudy, mos, Commerce and Industry, is just 39. The average age of the two new mps, made Cabinet Ministers (Karia Munda, and Ved Prakash Goyal) is a mature 70, but Vajpayee has probably offset that skew a little by promoting MoS Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who is all of 32, to Cabinet rank. Tapan Sikdar, a mature 56, and MoS, Communications, is all for inducting young people: ''It is a very good sign; young people are the pillars on which the country is built.'' Yes, and they'll look good on the tube too, but can we get along with the reforms now please... A Boon Or A Bane?
It was déjà vu, and not of a particular pleasant variety for Som Mittal, the CEO of Digital Globalsoft. Forty-four months ago, the company he headed, Digital Equipment India Limited, had been acquired by Compaq. He'd survived those days, and after overseeing the merger of DEIL's hardware business with Compaq's chosen, to head the software subsidiary that was hived off under the Digital umbrella. Early this year, the company's name was changed to Digital Globalsoft and all seemed well with the world. Then, at 6.00 a.m on September 4, he received a call from a friend informing him that Hewlett-Packard had announced that it was acquiring Compaq. The move could be a boon for the software hotshop Mittal, 48, heads. Digital gets most of its business from Compaq, and the latter's merger with h-p could see the quantum of this increase significantly. However, Mittal isn't willing to share his views with the press. Maybe it has something to do with being at the receiving end of an acquisition happening elsewhere. An Indigenous Approach
Lalaji HRD Karenge and Kaluram becomes Fenko bank Chairman are not the most likely titles for management books. But according to their author, Dr P.N. Singh both are meant for those who want to 'laugh and learn'. The first is a dialogue on hr between an human resources professional called Pyarelal and Lalaji, the chairman of the mm Group (that stands for Money Making). Singh who has headed the hr function at the G.P. Goenka Group, the AV Birla group, Voltas, and IOC, confesses that the book is inspired by several of his own experiences as well as those of his friends. The second book about a corrupt chairman of a bank highlights several bad financial management practices found in India that need to be avoided. Singh is now the chairman of Grid Consultants, an hr consulting firm. The 60-year-old hr veteran has always had a lot of interesting stories to tell on hr in the Indian environment and now that he has put them down it will help in spreading the laughter, sorry, knowledge. |
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