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| RATAN TATA (L) AND RUPERT MURDOCH:
A pie in the sky for Tata |
So,
is the Tata Group picking up a 5-10 per cent stake in Rupert
Murdoch's Star News? Despite denials from Bombay House, the
buzz just won't die. After all, Star honchos did make a presentation
to the Tata top-brass. Besides, Star is on a tight deadline. It
must reduce its holdings in the outfit to 26 per cent by June, 2003.
"Even if it's not the Tatas, things will definitely get firmed up
within the month, leaving us enough time to apply for a licence,"
a Star spokesperson told BT. Things are expected to hot up once
Star's India CEO Peter Mukerjea returns to India in the middle of
May. Meanwhile, don't write off the Tatas yet. In corporate India,
vehement denials have preceded some of the biggest deals.
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| RAMESH GELLI: Better luck
this time |
Sticky Issue
It's been two years since Ramesh Gelli resigned
as the Chairman of the Hyderabad-based Global Trust Bank, but controversies
continue to dog him. This time it's about Gelli selling a lakh of
shares of the bank he promoted. Gelli, who is under SEBI investigation
for market irregularities, is barred (alongwith Ketan Parekh) from
selling GTB shares. Gelli says the shares were sold prior to the
SEBI order, and is exasperated with the fuss. The ex-banker's next
move: A turnaround fund.
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| VIJAY MALLYA: Spreading the spirit of
friendship |
The Pacifist
What is it? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, politics,
or merely age? We don't know, but feisty Vijay Mallya is
turning mellow. The liquor baron, who now as an mp spends more time
in Delhi, is waving the white flag to his long-time rivals, the
Chhabrias of Shaw Wallace. Not only does Mallya seem keen to settle
his dispute with Kishore Chhabria over Herbertsons, but he's also
trying to make peace with the Shaw Wallace chairperson Vidya Chhabria.
Is the new Mallya here to stay? Watch this space.
A RAW Deal
Asim Ghosh, MD, Hutchison telecom, had
some fire-fighting to do last fortnight. The Research and Analysis
Wing and the Intelligence Bureau reportedly found a security threat
in the company's Hong Kong parentage and its relations with Chinese
companies. The government even deferred its plans of hiking the
FDI limit in telecom sector to 74 per cent for national security
reasons such as these. Finally, Ghosh got his partner, Hutchison
Whampoa Group MD Canning Fok, to write a letter to pm Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, saying that the report was baseless and the company operated
purely for commercial reasons. "It was too far-fetched and bizarre,"
says Ghosh. Maybe, he and his partners will have to do a better
job of ''connecting people''.
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| SUSHMA SWARAJ (L) AND J. JAYALALITHA:
Prescription mamas |
ExSARSperating
No, it can't have anything to do with the fact
that both are women. More likely it's their profession that's behind
it-the SARS thing, that is. While Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister J.
Jayalalitha has suggested a diet of papaya and basil to ward
off SARS, Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj has done one
better. The Indian genetic make up, Swaraj has said, is strong enough
to resist SARS. So no worry. But what executives, we are told, are
really waiting to hear from the ladies is their prescription for
the economy.
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| C.K. PRAHALAD: Lots of patience |
Constant Guru
It's remarkable that Coimbatore K. Prahalad
hasn't tired of his India circuits. Because what the Harvey
C. Fruehauf professor of business administration at the University
of Michigan is forever asked to do is to tell corporate captains
that they can win. At the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas do held in January
this year, Prahalad had to make a case on why India could grow faster.
Again late April, the professor-cum-management guru had to say that
India manufacturing is actually pretty good. In a country that's
perpetually brainstorming, everybody is a good listener. But getting
India Inc. to walk Prahalad's talk, it seems, is another story.
-contributed by Abir Pal, Sahad P.V.,
and Venkatesha Babu
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