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

Two Worlds, Just Across The Street

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer saga continues... What
better place to see this today, than in the booming techno towns of
India. "India has always had its upper classes, as well as legions of
the world's very poor. But today a landscape dotted with Hamilton
Courts, pressed up against the slums that serve them, has underscored
more than ever the stark gulf between those worlds, raising
uncomfortable questions for a democratically elected government about
whether India can enable all its citizens to scale the golden ladders
of the new economy, says an article in the New York Times.

According to this article, "In India, poverty has also dropped
appreciably in the last 17 years of economic change, even as the gulf
between the rich and poor has grown. More than a quarter of all
Indians still live below the official poverty line (subsisting on
roughly $1 a day); one in four city dwellers live on less than 50
cents a day; and nearly half of all Indian children are clinically
malnourished.
At the same time, the ranks of dollar millionaires have swelled to
100,000, and the Indian middle class, though notoriously hard to
define and still small, has by all indications expanded.
For those with the right skills, the good times have been very good.
Mr. Chand, 34, a business school graduate who runs the regional
operations for an American manufacturing firm, has seen his salary
grow eightfold in the last five years, which is not unusual for upper
class Indians like him."

This widening gap became very obvious to me when I visited Bangalore,
a little over a year ago. Rising sky scrapers, huge wallets,
increasing poverty and lack of infrastructure to keep with the
phenomenal growth. Similarly according to the article, "Gurgaon, a
largely privately developed city and a metonym for Indian ambition,
has seen a building frenzy to satisfy people like the Chands. The
city's population has nearly doubled in the last six years, to 1.5
million. The skyline is dotted with scaffolds. Glass towers house
companies like American Express and Accenture. Not far from Hamilton
Court, Burberry and BMW have set up shop. State services, meanwhile,
have barely kept pace. The city has neither enough water nor
electricity for the population. There is no sewage treatment plant
yet; construction is scheduled to begin this year."

"India has long lived with such inequities, and though a Maoist
rebellion is building in the countryside, the nation has for the most
part skirted social upheaval through a critical safety valve: giving
the poor their chance to vent at the ballot box. Indeed, four years
ago, voters threw out the incumbent government, with its "India
Shining" slogan, because it was perceived to have neglected the poor.
It is little wonder then that the current administration has seized on
"inclusive growth" as its mantra, and as elections approach in less
than a year, it is spending heavily on education, widely acknowledged
as a key barrier to upward mobility for the poor," says this article.

Read the full article at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/world/asia/09gated.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Where Wealth is Health!

While India's economic growth is on the media radar, and articles
about how Americans and other westerners are going to India for it's
high quality, yet relatively cheap healthcare get written, the truth
is that there are many millions of Indians who are getting poorer and
are unable to receive proper healthcare. Capitalism is on the rise.

From a New York Times article, titled, "Royal Care for Some of India's
Patients, Neglect for Others" -- "Mr. Steeles, 60, a car dealer from
Daphne, Ala., had flown halfway around the world last month to save
his heart, at a price he could pay. He had a mitral valve repaired at
a state-of-the-art private hospital here, called Wockhardt, and for 10
days, he was recuperating in a carpeted, wood-paneled room, with a
view of a leafy green courtyard.

A dietician helped select his meals. A dermatologist came as soon as
he complained of an itch. His Royal Suite had cable TV, a computer, a
minirefrigerator, where an attendant that afternoon stashed some ice
cream, for when he felt hungry later. Three days after surgery, he was
sitting in a chair, smiling, chattering, thrilled to be alive.

On his bed lay the morning's paper. Dominating its front page was the
story of other men, many of them day laborers who laid bricks and
mixed cement for Bangalore's construction boom, who had fallen gravely
ill after drinking illegally brewed liquor. All told, more than 150
died that week, here and in neighboring Tamil Nadu State.

Not for them the care of India's best private hospitals. They had been
wheeled in by wives and brothers to the overstretched government-run
Bowring Hospital, on the other side of town. Bowring had no intensive
care unit, no ventilators, no dialysis machine. Dinner was a stack of
white bread, on which a healthy cockroach crawled while a patient,
named Yelappa, slept.

Wockhardt has 30 ventilators, including some that are noninvasive, so
the patient does not have to have a tube rammed down his throat. At
any one time, a half-dozen are in use. An elderly woman had been in
its intensive care unit for a week, on dialysis; her family wanted to
do whatever possible to keep her alive, no matter the cost.

At Bowring, one of the young doctors, named Harish, said a ventilator
and a dialysis machine would have allowed him to keep half of his
patients alive. The most severe case, Mohammed Amin, was breathing
with the aid of a hand pump that his wife squeezed silently. Dr.
Harish sent the relative of one man to get blood tests done at the
nearest private hospital; there was no equipment to do the test here.
Then the doctor rushed to the triage section in Bowring's lobby, where
the newest patient, writhing, resisting, disoriented from the poison
in his gut, had to be tied down with bedsheets."

Universal healthcare is not just needed for the US, it is required for
other capitalistic societies like India as well.

Read the full NYT article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/weekinreview/01sengupta.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

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

India owes New York City $42.3 Million!!!

It is quite common for politicians to misuse governmental funds and
property. I remember cases when ex Presidents would not vacate the Raj
Bhavan on time or during their reign at the Raj Bhavan made sure that
their post poilitical home was a fairly equivalent mansion. But to
come to a foreign country and abuse diplomatic relations with a host
is another thing.

An excerpt from the New York TImes --
"The governments of India, Mongolia and the Philippines owe New York
City roughly $57 million in property taxes, a federal judge has ruled,
closing a long chapter in the Bloomberg administration's efforts to
force foreign governments to shoulder some of the costs of their
presence at the United Nations.

The ruling, released on Monday by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United
States District Court in Manhattan, awards the city $42.3 million from
India, $10.9 million from the Philippines and $4.4 million from
Mongolia. The bulk of the amount is interest that had accrued on
outstanding taxes over decades.

Whether that money will ultimately land in New York's coffers remains
to be seen, since the city cannot enforce the liens in the usual way
by foreclosing on the buildings. But Michael A. Cardozo, the city's
corporation counsel, said he hoped the ruling would persuade the three
countries and other nations to pay taxes they owed. A provision of the
Foreign Operations Appropriations Act penalizes countries with unpaid
taxes by withholding 110 percent of the debt from their foreign aid."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/03/19/nyregion/19missions.html&tntemail0=y

Bobby Jindal proves to be a doer...

A very nice article about Bobby Jindal and what he has accomplished
within a short period of time in the New York Times.

An excerpt --
"Six weeks into the term of Gov. Bobby Jindal, an extensive package of
ethics bills was approved here this week, signaling a shift in the
political culture of a state proud of its brazen style. Mr. Jindal,
the earnest son of Indian immigrants, quickly declared open season on
the cozy fusion of interests and social habits that have prevailed
among lobbyists, state legislators and state agencies here for
decades. Mostly, he got what he wanted."

More excerpts --
"I've talked to C.E.O.'s in New York, even the president of the United
States," Mr. Jindal said in an interview, and when "you ask them for
more investment, more help on the coast and other areas, their first
reaction always is: 'Well, who do you need to know? Who do I have to
hire? Is this money going to end up in somebody's pocket?' "
That had to change, the governor said, and he was using his "narrow
window" — his honeymoon at the Capitol — to do it.
The volume of grumbling suggested real change was afoot.
"This is huge," said D. W. Hunt, a veteran lobbyist at the Capitol.
"This is a sea change. This will seriously, dramatically change
things. The meta-theme is the transparency."
Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana, a
good-government watchdog group, described the new bills as "a major
change in the culture."
"It's a world of difference, particularly on the disclosure side, and
the same thing with conflict-of-interest," he said."

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/28/us/28jindal.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin

Is a shift in global power not imminent?

"The continued rise of the emerging economies, particularly India and
China, is never far from the headlines. What impact these economies
will have on the twenty-first century is the subject of much debate,
with the possibility of a shift in global political power a recurring
theme. It is often assumed that the emerging economies are following
the same path to development that the established economic powers did
- but this assumption is worth questioning," says Stuart Simpson in a
very interesting essay on Spiked.

Read the full essay at --
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4390/

Bobby Jindal an unlikely running mate for McCain

While many speculate about who the Vice-Presidential candidates will
be and who the presidential candidates, Louisiana Governor Bobby
Jindal's name has been mentioned by Rush Limbaugh and other political
commentators. In an excerpt from an interview with Wolf Blitzer on
CNN's Late Edition here is what Jindal had to say --

"BLITZER: Rush Limbaugh, who is no great fan of John McCain's, as you
well know. He is a big fan of yours. He said this on February 8th. "I
am going to give you a name that would make me jump for joy -- Bobby
Jindal. I did an interview with Bobby Jindal. He is the next Ronald
Reagan if he doesn't change."

He was throwing out your name as a potential vice presidential running
mate for John McCain. What do you think about that?

JINDAL: Well, first, I'm obviously extremely flattered. Whenever
anybody puts your name in that kind of context, it's flattering. It
was very nice for Rush to do that.

The reality is, I've got the job I want. I've got an incredible
opportunity in Louisiana. We've got an historic opportunity to change
our state.

The storms caused massive destruction, but we had challenges before
the storms. We had challenges in health care, in our economy, in our
roads. We had challenges throughout our state. We now have a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix our state.

BLITZER: Well, what if McCain asked you?

JINDAL: He's not going to ask me.

BLITZER: How do you know?

JINDAL: Look, he's not going to ask me. But, no, my focus is on
Louisiana. I've been elected. I've told the people of Louisiana, this
is our chance to fix our state, and I mean that. I don't think we'll
get this chance again in our lifetimes. So it is my responsibility to
work with the legislature and the voters.

We're in the middle of an historic ethics session. I promise your
viewers this -- we'll move Louisiana from the bottom five to the top
five when it comes to ethics and good government.

We have a second session coming up in a couple of weeks to cut taxes
on businesses. We have a third regular session coming up in March.
We'll revamp workforce training, revamp our health care systems.

This is my goal. What my contribution in public life and public
service is right now, my focus is making sure that people in Louisiana
can pursue that American dream without leaving the state."

Read the full interview at--
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0802/17/le.01.html

No Pakistan Information Here...

I am not going to discuss Pakistan here, I think it is absolutely ludicrous what is going on there. That pretty much says it all. I am more concerned about the innocent citizens of that country and those that are losing their lives for the sake of a ridiculous political drama. What bothers me most are these people who have no idea how to use thier political clout to do good for the world, rather than accumulate more power and forget about the greater good.