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| ANAND MAHINDRA:
All for his first love |
It
wasn't just Aishwarya Rai who stole the show at the 56th Cannes
Film Festival, with her five suitcases bulging with designer clothes
and De Beers diamonds. Anand Mahindra, the new President
of CII and the VC-MD of Mahindra & Mahindra, did his bit too to
hard- sell Indian films to the world. This is the second time for
the CII at Cannes, but the first time that its President has led
the contingent. Incidental? Not at all. While making tractors and
automobiles is what Mahindra does for a living, his first passion
was-and the trip suggests that it continues to be-movies. The 48-year-old
actually studied cinematography in his "rebel" years at the University
of California and Los Angeles (UCLA) before obtaining the mandatory
Master's in business administration from Harvard. And guess who
his classmate was at UCLA? Mira Nair of Salaam Bombay and Monsoon
Wedding fame. Mahindra sure knows how to keep good company.
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| P.K. CHAUDHURY: Looking west |
Give Him AAA+
P.K. Chaudhury of ICRA is taking his rating
agency global-quarter-way at least. Recently, the Delhi-based rating
agency, which has a tie up with Moody's, signed a three-year deal
to offer technical expertise to the Kuwait-based Credit Rating &
Collection Company. Chaudhury is also talking to three other countries
for similar deals, one of which is Oman. "We see a good growth opportunity
in this," explains the fast-talking Chaudhury.
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| N. SRINIVASAN: The debt hurts |
Back To Square One
There's good news and bad news for India cement's
reclusive N. Srinivasan. The good news is that a consortium
of lenders, led by IDBI, has agreed to restructure the company's
Rs 2,000-crore debt and repayment over the next six years. The debt
was acquired to fund a string of acquisitions, including Raasi Cements,
Sree Vishnu and Visakha Cement, making India Cements the largest
player in south. The bad news? With prices down, Srinivasan is being
forced to sell his acquisitions (Sri Vishnu is gone). Worse, he
isn't finding any buyer for the price he wants.
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| PRAKASH G. APTE: Reason to smile |
We Told You So
Usually, Prakash G. Apte isn't given
to long sentences or strong emotions. But just this once, he's grinning
from ear to ear. Reason: IIM Bangalore, whose Director Apte is,
hasn't just made it to the Wall Street Journal's top 100, but is
the only Asian school to do so. Apte, who thinks there are too many
B-schooling listings around, says that "it is a vindication of the
strategy followed by us to make IIM-B the premier B-school in the
world". But anybody who's been reading BT would have seen this coming.
The school has been topping BT's own ranking of best B-schools in
the country. (The first time with IIM-A as a competitor and the
second time without it.) Our point: It isn't just the Journal where
you read tomorrow's news today.
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| C.S. RAO: Great
expectations |
Change of Guard
Chellapillai Satyanarayan Rao takes up where
N. Rangachary leaves off. The Revenue Secretary is slated
to take over as the new Chairman of IRDA. Should the industry feel
nervous? Not necessarily. Like Rangachary, who was the Chairman
of CBDT previously, Rao is a go-getter and an industry-friendly
guy. The industry is expecting a lot from him. One of the things
is for him to carry forward pension reforms, which Rangachary had
just started. Ironically, the man who had the most to gain from
the controversial service tax levied on insurance companies this
budget was Rao himself. Now, of course, he may sing a different
tune.
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| SHASHI & RAVI RUIA: Destination Lebanon |
Greener Pastures
In India, the brothers Shashi and Ravi
Ruia may have been forced to play second-fiddle to partner Hutchison,
but their telecom ambitions are far from buried. Their Essar Teleholdings,
which currently has operations in tier-two circles of Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh, and Rajasthan, has joined hands with a consortium that's
bidding for Lebanon's two state-owned cellular networks, Cellis
and LibanCell. At 4 million, the size of the Lebanese cellular market
is less than a third of India's. So what's got the Ruias interested?
Apparently, the revenue per user is high in Lebanon. The hitch:
Essar will likely be a minority partner in the consortium. Now,
again, why is Essar going to Lebanon?
-contributed by Swati Prasad, Ashish
Gupta, Venkatesha Babu, Suveen K. Sinha, and Nitya Varadarajan
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