Karishma...: An IP sleight-of-hand, surely

By the time you read this, the Supreme Court would have either struck a blow for intellectual property rights, or set a precedent for pirates to cite in their defence. On August 4, around the time this magazine hits the stands, the court will hear New York-based author Barbara Taylor Bradford's appeal challenging the Calcutta High Court's order of July 21 that allows Sahara Media Entertainment to air its Rs 60-crore magnum opus Karishma-A Miracle of Destiny. It has been Bradford's concession all along that the serial is based on her work, A Woman of Substance. The High Court, in its July 21 order, observed that Indian copyright law did not protect basic plots and characters and that the only material for the petitioner's suit was an interview with the director of the serial Akashdeep Shabir where he said the serial was based on A Woman of Substance. On the strength of the court's order Sahara resumed telecast of the serial-the first episode was aired a good two months back, on May 12. If the apex court upholds the High Court's order, this writer proposes to tap the opportunities presented. J.K. Rowling, here I come.

-Shailesh Dobhal

The End Of One-Man Show
A board-run SEBI should prove more effective.

G.N. Bajpai: Power reforms

Ever since it was set up in 1988, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has been a one-man show. Its Chairman-and it has had quite a few powerful personalities, including S.A. Dave, G.V. Ramakrishna and D.R. Mehta-is not just its face, but also its key administrator, deciding on both policy and operational issues. It wasn't unusual for the chairman to personally sit in on hearings of cases being investigated.

All that is going to change. The recent revamping of the SEBI Act, 1992, has put two full-time directors, A.K. Batra and T.M. Nagarajan, on the Board (earlier except for the chairman, the other board members were part-time), and given them adjudicating powers. Under the new set up, Batra will look after corporate finance, investment management and corporate restructuring, and takeover code. Executive Directors C.K. Das and R.S. Loona will report to him. Nagarajan, on the other hand, will handle market intermediaries regulation and supervision department (MIRSD), derivatives and new products, integrated surveillance and investigation. EDs Pratip Kar and C.S. Kahlon will report to Nagarajan. Says G.N. Bajpai, Chairman, SEBI: "This will free me up to look at macro issues and be an effective regulator.''

Not only does SEBI now become a board-run organisation, but resolution of cases will no longer be dependent on just one man's schedule. Says L.C. Gupta, former SEBI board member: "SEBI should not be a one-man show. The organisation can grow only if the Chairman has good lieutenants." Obviously, Bajpai has already got the message.

-Roshni Jayakar

EXECUTIVE TRACKING
Adidas Adieu...

Tarun Kunzru: Footing it

...not quite, but Pepsi-alum Tarun Kunzru, the current Managing Director of Adidas India is moving on. The 44-year-old former first-class cricketer-he represented Karnataka in the mid- and late-70s -is probably headed for an international posting within the Adidas family. The buzz is that Harish Doraiswamy, now Director, Marketing of the company will step into Kunzru's shoes. That'll require some nifty footwork: despite Kunzru's best efforts Adidas remains #3 in what is essentially a field of three.

Syeda Imam: Sorely missed

Creative Vacuum

In March this year, Contract's National Creative Director and Indian advertising's grand old dame Syeda Imam moved on to JWT. Since then, the agency has soldiered on with no national creative director. Although, the agency's President, Colvyn Harris rules out a "creative hunt", we learn that the agency was keen on hiring Bobby Pawar, a former employee of O&M's Big Apple branch, and now a gun-for-hire as Imam's replacement. That deal, it would now appear, has fallen through. Not that we blame Harris for keeping mum. With due apologies to Einstein, creativity is about knowing how to hide your sources.

Great Scope

As far as moves go, this must be the one of the fortnight. Not too long ago, Arvind Kathpalia was the general manager of Scope International, Standard Chartered's shared services back-end in Chennai. Now, as Head (Operations, Technology and Finance), Kotak Mahindra Bank, he is #2 to Executive Director Deepak Gupta. Clearly, Stanchart's loss is Kotak's gain.

-Moinak Mitra

DASH BOARD

A+
We knew he'd be back, but didn't expect the bang to be as loud. Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-3: Rise of The Machines smashed box office records in India with takings of $1 million (Rs 4.7 crore). No boy wizards for us please, we're Indian.

C-
We're hard pressed to put a motive to the finance ministry's recent decision to disallow corporates from borrowing amounts higher than $100 million (overseas). ICICI's application to raise $300 million was, naturally, rejected by the ministry. This intervention, sadly, takes away some of the sheen from Jaswant Singh's reformist credentials.

ONE-FOR-ALL
Unified Pangs

TRAI's Baijal: En Garde!

We like Pradeep Baijal, the feisty telecom regulator who cut a wide swath in his earlier posting as a Secretary in the Department of Disinvestment. But we don't like his recent push for a unified cellular-plus-basic telecom licence. Reason? The unification is not to pave the way for next generation networks, lower end-user cost, increase tele-density, or break a monopoly or a cartel-all sound reasons to issue a new licence-but to end the litigation between the rival GSM (mobile) and CDMA (mobile in 'basic' guise) camps. Baijal believes this is the only "pragmatic" solution to the issue. India's cellular operators, themselves the beneficiaries of similar intervention when the government okayed their move to a revenue-sharing regime (from a fixed-licence fee one) in 1999, are up in arms against what they see as an effort to legitimise the entry of basic telephony companies into the mobile arena. Even ignoring that, there are issues such as recompensing existing licence holders and the scope of unification that need to be worked out. It doesn't work Mr. Baijal.

-Vandana Gombar