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Who
says India's politicians aren't corporate-friendly? Certainly
not Jet Airways' Naresh Goyal. The Chairman of India's #1 airline
is getting some vocal support from Union Civil Aviation Minister
Praful Patel at a time when it matters the most. When Jet
Airways' name came up following the London bomb scare and Goyal's
credentials were questioned (allegedly, a London-based Jet employee
of British citizenship was involved in the plot to bomb 10 us-bound
flights), Patel, 49, was quick to reaffirm the fact that India
had given Goyal all requisite security clearances and any further
queries on the subject were "flawed" and "should never have been
an issue", he told reporters. It's, of course, a different matter
if the us, which is yet to give Jet approval for a us service,
will feel reassured by Patel's vote of confidence.
 Goodbye,
Tata
To
most people, the recent resignation of Kumar Mangalam Birla
from the Tata Steel board should not have come as a surprise.
Birla, 39, had attended only one Tata Steel board meeting during
2005-06 and was missing at its AGM too earlier this year. Clearly,
the bitter battle over Idea Cellular soured relations between
the Tatas and Birla. However, the young tycoon's premature departure
does mark the end of a long relationship. His great-grandfather
G.D. Birla had also served on the board of Tata Steel.
Advantage
Agarwal
 Anil
Agarwal's Vedanta resources buys 51 per cent stake in BALCO
from the Government of India (GoI) in March 2001. GoI promises
to sell the remaining stake by March 2004, but changes its mind
because commodity prices are soaring and BALCO is suddenly more
valuable. Agarwal, 52, is justifiably angry and threatens to drag
the government into arbitration. Put on the backfoot, the government
decides to wean Agarwal away from arbitration through 'conciliation
and mediation'. That's how the BALCO disinvestment story has played
out thus far, but it's clear that Agarwal has the upper hand.
SBI Cap had valued the 49 per cent stake at about Rs 843 crore
against the Rs 1,098 crore Vedanta has offered to pay. Any arbitration,
then, is likely to see GoI's change of heart as a case of seller's
regret.
 Not
A Fair Case
It's
strange that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should have a problem
with HSBC India CEO Naina Lal Kidwai, 49, being on the
global board of Nestle. The banking regulator says there's a potential
conflict of interest, never mind that the central bank itself
has prominent industrialists as its board members. It's a little,
hmm, naïve to assume that Nestle needs to give away board seats
to get bank loans and that Kidwai's bank wouldn't be able to do
business with the Swiss food giant otherwise. But since the RBI
is all powerful, Kidwai must acquiesce.
A Job To Do
 "Even
my predecessors had been trying hard for this, I have just tried
to consolidate the case," says TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India) Chairman, Nripendra Misra, of his recent plea to the
government for more powers to deal with broadcasting, which has
been put under TRAI 's purview. But Misra, 61, isn't very hopeful.
"It might take six months to a year to get things done," he says,
adding, "I would not be surprised if the matter isn't addressed
by the government at all."
 Victorious
At Last
You've
got to hand it to Navin Jindal. He knows how to fight and win.
Four years ago, the 36-year-old fought and won the right for Indian
citizens to hoist the national flag, and now he's managed to bag
a hard-fought deal with the socialist Bolivian government to set
up mining operations and the largest sponge iron plant in Latin
America. The El Mutun mines will generate 1.5 million tonnes of
iron ore every year, and Jindal's 40-year concession on the mines
(for which he beat out Mittal Steel, among others) might push
him up the global steel stakes. More impressively, he's secured
an entry into Bolivia at a time when President Evo Morales has
been turfing out foreign companies en masse after seizing all
major oil and gas fields on May 1 this year. So don't let Jindal's
easy looks fool you.
-Contributed by Kushan Mitra, Krishna
Gopalan, Ritwik Mukherjee, Anand Adhikari and Amit Mukherjee
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