The Tale of Mukesh Ambani

"In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India's most famous and
powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as
playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi,
Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a
vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold
ideas for what India ought to become. Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny
ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man
focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a
champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly — and,
some critics say, ruthlessly — wields financial power. He is the
richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of
billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the
richest person on earth before long," says a profile of Mukesh Ambani
one of the world's richest people in the New York Times today.

Wow to be compared to Gandhi, that is something, isn't for a man who
is building the worlds most expensive, extravagant, and elaborate home
in Mumbai. (See my earlier post
http://vtilak.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-richest-of-rich-will-live.html)

""Can we really banish abject poverty in this country?" he mused aloud
in a rare interview at his headquarters here. "Yes, in 10, 15 years we
can say we would have done that substantially. Can we make sure that
we create a social structure where we remove untouchability? We're
fast moving to a new India where you don't think about this caste and
that caste."

As millions of Indians graduate from burning cow dung for energy to
guzzling oil, Reliance is plowing billions of dollars into energy
exploration and is building the world's largest oil refinery. It has
also opened a chain of nearly 700 stores selling food and various
wares; Mr. Ambani promises that it will funnel money from the
flourishing cities into the struggling agricultural heartland. He
envisions Reliance, with $39 billion in revenue, as providing incomes
to 12 million to 30 million Indians within the next five years by
buying from farmers and employing new workers in its stores.

And as Mumbai, Mr. Ambani's hometown and the commercial and
entertainment capital of India, has grown ever more populous and ever
less livable, he has proposed that Reliance simply build a new,
improved city across the harbor," says this very interesting article
about an even more interesting man.

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/business/worldbusiness/15ambani.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

The Upside Down World

"Developed", "Developing", and "Underdeveloped" countries. I wonder
who coined these terms and how they came up with the classification.

A country which was once very rich and well matured, with some of the
best in education, science, business and trade is plundered by various
foreign invaders and is left limping to fend for itself. This nation
whose limbs have been cut-off and is now struggling to grow again, and
is called a developing nation. The foreign nation that was the
plunderer takes the term developed nation. It is all very confusing to
me, and not convincing.

To this effect Roger Cohen's editorial in the New York Times says,
that the world once again has become upside down. He says, "For a
while the world was flat. Now it's upside down. To understand it,
invert your thinking. See the developed world as depending on the
developing world, rather than the other way round. Understand that
two-thirds of global economic growth last year came from emerging
countries, whose economies will expand about 6.7 percent in 2008,
against 1.3 percent for the United States, Japan and euro zone
states."

Citing Indian examples he emphasizes, "That's also a good position
from which to view India's Tata Motors agreeing to buy Land Rover and
Jaguar from Ford for $2.3 billion, or Tata Steel's acquisition last
year of the Anglo-Dutch Corus Group steel company for $12 billion.
Globalization is now a two-way street; in fact it's an Indian street
with traffic weaving in all directions."

"A shift in economic power is under way to which the developed world
has not yet adjusted. Of course the G-8 and the permanent membership
of the U.N. Security Council need to be expanded to reflect this
change. The 21st century can't be handled with 20th-century
institutions.That's obvious. Less obvious is how the United States,
which underwrites global security at vast expense, begins to share
this burden, so that the new multi-polarity of wealth is reflected in
a multipolarity of security commitments. Headstands are in order for
the next U.S. president," writes Cohen.

Read the whole commentary at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/opinion/l02cohen.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Bollywood Meets Hollywood

"Bollywood has met Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival, with George
Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt signing rupee-spinning deals for big
movie collaborations," says an article in the Times Online. It is
interesting to see that India's economic growth is going beyond
traditional business and into the realm of movies, books and other
cultural areas.

"India produces more films than any other country, and sells more than
four billion cinema tickets a year, far more than in America. Now one
of its biggest companies is to become a significant Hollywood player,
it was announced yesterday in Cannes.
Reliance Big Entertainment, part of a $100 billion (£50 billion)
Indian conglomerate, is to invest in development funds for eight
production companies owned by Alist stars: they include Nicolas Cage's
Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey's JC 23 Entertainment, Clooney's
Smokehouse Productions, Hanks's Playtone Productions and Pitt's Plan B
Entertainment.
The Indian company, owned by Anil Ambani, ranked the world's
sixth-richest man in the Forbes list, is offering an initial $1
billion investment in Hollywood. It is a vital injection of cash for
the US studios at a time when equity financing has dried up with the
credit crunch. It also offers the Americans a foothold in India.
Amit Khanna, Reliance's chairman, said: "Reliance Entertainment has a
dominant position in India but, when it comes to motion pictures, it
has been obvious that we need to extend our footprint to Hollywood . .
.
"Bollywood is somehow personified by song and dance and Hollywood by
sex and violence, and there is this idea that neither can meet. We
don't believe this is true."

Bollywood in it's original form has been quite popular in many areas
outside India, and it's popularity is only increasing. Then there is
the whole concept of the "melting pot", where as this article
emphasizes Bollywood meets Hollywood to give birth to a new genre of
films that are already in the making.

Read the full article at --
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article3965523.ece

How The Richest Of The Rich Will Live...

Have we forgotten that the world is going through a food crisis and
people are starving in the same country where this home is being
built?

Mukesh Ambani the fifth richest man in the world is building this $2
billlion home in Mumbai, when right across town exists the largest
slum in the world, Dharawi.

"The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the
market is the $70 million triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New
York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in
the air. When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing
a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet
of interior space. The home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise
of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings: A
hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor,
and uses the same materials throughout the building (such as door
handles, floors, lamps and window treatments)," says an article in
Forbes magazine.

"The Ambani home, called Antilla, differs in that no two floors are
alike in either plans or materials used. At the request of Nita
Ambani, say the designers, if a metal, wood or crystal is part of the
ninth-floor design, it shouldn't be used on the eleventh floor, for
example. The idea is to blend styles and architectural elements so
spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition," reports
Forbes, "Antilla's shape is based on Vaastu, an Indian tradition much
like Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through the
building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects."

Apparently, "Ambani plans to occasionally use the residence for
corporate entertainment, and the family wants the look and feel of the
home's interior to be distinctly Indian; 85% of the materials and
labor will come from outside the U.S., most of it from India," so one
may argue that this is creating a mini industry in India adding to the
economy. However, to most, there are better ways to revitalize the
down trodden than spend $2 billion on an extravagant home for oneself.

Read the full article and see pictures at--
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/home-india-billion-forbeslife-cx_mw_0430realestate.html?feed=rss_popstories

A 15 year Old Uber-Desi

When you read about this young boy, make one wonder, what did I do
when I was fifteen years old? Another answer that is better left
unsaid!

From IANS--
"Anshul Samar is not your average Indian-American teenager. Even as
his peers spend time playing, 14-year-old Samar is out looking to
raise half a million dollars to fund his Silicon Valley start-up.
Samar is the CEO of Alchemist Empire Inc., and invented a trading card
game, 'Elementeo', that aims to teach chemistry to students in a fun
way.

The eighth-grader kick-started his company with $500 from the
California Association of the Gifted, using the money to develop a
prototype of Elementeo.

Samar, an Art of Living fan, presented the prototype at The Indus
Entrepreneurs (TiE) conference in the US in mid 2007, creating quite a
sensation as he made his pitch for funding.

Now he is all set to present his inventive card game at the national
meeting of the American Chemical Society - another pitch to get the
financial backing he needs to mass produce Elementeo."

Read the full article at--
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/indian-american-teen-ceo-seeks-500000-for-start-up_10036020.html

Chandigarh's Treasures

Chandigarh, a city conceived and designed by reknowned architect Le
Corbusier is supposed to be one of the most organized cities ever
built. It is usually not in the news, until I came across this article
in the New York Times which made me sit up and want to go back and
check out all those chairs and antique furniture at my grandparents
homes!!

An excerpt

"Every working day for the past 20 years, Suresh Kanwar, a civil
engineer in Chandigarh's Forestry Department, has been sitting on the
same battered wooden chair, an object he said had "no beauty" even if
it was, "for office use, very comfortable."

A man sat working on, and next to, an original Pierre Jeanneret teak
armchair at the Forestry Department in Chandigarh, India. Mr.
Jeanneret was a cousin of the architect Le Corbusier, who conceived
the modernist city in the 1950s.

Hazarding a guess as to its value, he suggested 400 rupees, or about
$10, "perhaps, at a junkyard."

A pair of chairs identical to Mr. Kanwar's, instantly recognizable to
collectors as Pierre Jeanneret teak "V-chairs," will go on sale at the
auction house Christie's in New York this month with a reserve of
$8,000 to $12,000."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=2008/03/19/world/asia/19chandigarh.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin

The Other Nano

An editorial in the New York Times --

What do a ’73 Volkswagen Bug, a navigation system on a new Jaguar and a brand new Nano sedan have in common? Two things: they cost about $2,500 and involve the Indian entrepreneur Ratan Tata.

Mr. Tata is chairman of the Tata Group and currently the leading bidder to buy Jaguar from the Ford Motor Company. Last Thursday, he unveiled the world’s cheapest car — a cute five-door hatchback called Nano that’s powered by two cylinders in back, capable of running at 75 miles an hour and costing about $2,500. Mr. Tata hopes to sell a million Nanos a year in India and to expand to other developing countries. He claims the car meets European emission standards and gets a hybridlike 50 miles to the gallon.

Given the gas-guzzling behemoths that so many of us in the West feel entitled to, it would seem hypocritical to begrudge people in poor countries an affordable car. Much like the hypocrisy of the dealers who have resisted Tata’s bid for Jaguar on the grounds that Indian ownership would erode the brand’s prestige.

The sad fact is that the world has changed since Americans celebrated the egalitarian breakthrough of the Ford Model T. We know now that gas-driven automobiles do terrible damage to the environment, and the notion of loosing millions upon millions of new carbon emitters on our planet is not something to celebrate.

So while we admire Mr. Tata’s business and engineering acumen in creating the Nano, we ardently wish that he would focus his talents elsewhere: creating transportation that is both affordable and doesn’t emit ever more greenhouse gases. That would be something for the whole world to celebrate and buy.

15 Companies That Will Change The World

In an article titled "The Next Disruptors" CNNMoney.com lists 15 companies that they think will change the world. About 5 of them are headed and/or founded by South Asian Americans.

From the article -- "This year's selection is the culmination of an extensive search for the most disruptive startups in the country, including a multi-city series of roundtable discussions last spring. At events in Boston, Los Angeles and Chapel Hill, N.C., we convened more than 100 entrepreneurs, some of whom are represented here. We also launched a weekly Web video series on CNNMoney.com called The New Disruptors (available as a podcast on iTunes). In it you'll find video profiles of companies featured here, plus many others. If you know where to look, disruption is everywhere."

Interesting article. Read the full story at the link below--
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/09/01/100169862/index.htm