Thirty-two years after he first joined Citi as a management trainee in 1972 at its Fort branch in Mumbai, Victor Menezes will hang up his boots come December. In those three decades, Menezes, 54, held various posts and currently is the Senior Vice Chairman of Citigroup. Until the middle of 2002, he was seen as a potential successor to Citigroup Chairman Sandy Weill. But the fact that he belonged to the Citi part of the business (and not Weill's Travellers Inc., which merged with Citi in 1998 to create Citigroup) may have loaded the dice against him. Nevertheless, Menezes seems to have enjoyed his long stint at the group. In a memo to Citi's senior management, Menezes says as much. "As the Chinese proverb goes, 'Find a job that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.' For the most part, that has been my mantra for the last 32 years," he writes. Headhunters must already be queuing up at his doors with offers of directorship.

Oil's Well That...?

Almost a decade after Essar put in an application to share production of the Ratna-R series oil and gas field with ONGC and Premium Oil of the UK, it has got the nod of the ministries of petroleum and finance. Yet, Prashant Ruia, Director of Essar Oil, whose approval hung fire because the government had doubts about its ability to fund the project, is loath to celebrate or even comment on the move. One reason is that a similar approval is required from the Union Ministry of Law and that, Ruia feels, will come only after the elections. That means second half of this month, the Ruias may have to commence their trips to Delhi all over again.

Mistaken Identity

Did they or didn't they? Did the Mumbai-based realtors, the Hiranandanis, bail out the south-Pacific nation of Nauru by agreeing to settle a $172-million debt the country owed to GE Capital? According to Nauru's President, Rene Harris, they did and the news, for its sheer oddity, was reported by media in Australia, which financially supports Nauru. The real estate group, led by brothers Niranjan and Surendra Hiranandani, however, denied the reports. When BT went to press, the Hiranandanis were trying to figure out if there were any equally rich namesake in Mumbai.

Direct Attack

Early this month, when India's direct sellers met in Pune, they decided to launch a campaign against the less scrupulous players in the industry. And heading that initiative is William S. Pinckney, Managing Director of Amway India and also Chairman of the industry association. What got Pinckney's goat? The fact that dozens of fly-by-night operators have gotten into the booming direct selling business, causing confusion and consumer distrust. These operators, according to Pinckney, neither sell genuine products nor have any means to address consumer complaints. The association already has a counter strategy, but it awaits government approval. In the meantime, Pinckney wants to start educating the consumer and rope in consumer protection agencies in the battle.

Gemini Dreams

For the 39-year-old Salil Parekh, it's a huge climb up. Parekh, CEO of India and coo of Asia-Pacific at Capgemini, has been asked to head the consulting group's global technology services. "This came as a surprise," says Parekh, who is packing his bags for London. Globally, Capgemini is facing tough times and Parekh faces the challenge of kick-starting its growth in technology and systems integration business. Parekh has already hit the road, traversing the US, the UK, and France. "There is a market, all we have to do is to tap it," says Parekh. The Capgemini brass will be glad to hear that.

School Fight

May is proving to be terrible for ITC chairman Yogi Deveshwar. On the one hand, the ban on tobacco advertising has come into effect and on the other, the row over fee cut at the IIMs has spilled from IIM Calcutta's Joka campus (where Deveshwar is the Chairman) onto the pages of Kolkata-based The Telegraph, an Ananda Bazar Group publication. The newspaper ran an uncomplimentary story on Deveshwar's role in the fracas between the B-schools and the Union Ministry of Human Resources, and the chairman of the tobacco giant responded by slapping a Rs 550-crore suit (one of the largest defamation suits in recent history) against Aveek Sarkar, Chief Editor and owner of Ananda Bazar Patrika. When BT contacted ITC, its spokesperson confirmed the development, but refused to comment. A call to ABP did not elicit any immediate response. Will the peace pipes come out?

-Contributed by R. Sridharan, Kushan Mitra, Swati Prasad, Supriya Shrinate and Arnab Mitra