The Hindu Business Line : The Cabinet roulette

THE impending Cabinet reshuffle has set off speculation among mediapersons covering political beats and all eyes are on who will be the next External Affairs Minister. Given today's style of diplomacy, where relationship building with counterparts is the key to success, there are just a few candidates in the existing Council of Ministers who can make it to that slot. Since the portfolio is to remain with the Congress party, the shortlist contains the names of Messrs P. Chidambaram, Kamal Nath and Mani Shankar Aiyar. Now, if Mr Chidambaram moves, then who moves into North Block? Again, two names are doing the round — Messrs Pranab Mukherjee and C. Rangarajan, former Reserve Bank Governor and the current Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.

Mr Kamal Nath is unlikely to be shifted as he is quite neck deep in WTO talks. That leaves Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, a former India Foreign Service officer, who has forced diplomacy into the Petroleum Ministry by taking up cross-border oil and gas pipelines and forging relations with other countries in the quest for energy security. And if Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar moves, who shifts into Petroleum — Mr Satish Sharma or Mr Murli Deora? The media, it seems, has got it all worked out for the Prime Minister.

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IT is gobbledegook

INDIA'S success in the IT sector has spawned a new language — Techi Talk. At a semi-social do of a leading IT company, IT-impaired invitees had a tough time keeping up with the conversation going around. "Did you deliberately down bowl the guidance?" asked one which a helpful soul translated to mean that the person was asking whether the company had deliberately played down its anticipated future growth.

"What about anti-bodies that the Indian IT success has sparked off?" The reference apparently was to the protests about job losses abroad because of outsourcing. "Our strategy for growth is price contamination," announced a leading player. The helpful soul helped out again to explain it meant that you under-price your products and services while maintaining quality so that competition with thinner profit margins gets wiped out. Phew...

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News re-call

MR Dayanidhi Maran, the Telecom and IT Minister, makes it to the front-pages quite frequently. But his not being in Delhi when the Microsoft boss, Mr Bill Gates, came calling kept him away from the news for a few days. So, last week Mr Maran's office called the media for a Nokia press meet where the Minister was to be present. But when the only `news' that came out was that the location of Nokia's global solutions centre would be Chennai, journalists cried foul as that had been announced two months back. The Minister promptly pulled up the journalists for not treating the guests (from Nokia) properly but when a copy of the old press release was fished out, he was humble enough to accept that he was not aware of the earlier announcement. And, for good measure, he promised to make up with some `hot' news early next year. Of course, both the company and the Ministry officials went red in the face trying to explain why the media had been called when there was no fresh news.

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Different time zone

SEEMS like the Press Information Bureau works in a time zone different from the Indian Standard Time. When a reporter called at 8-40 p.m. to enquire about a press release, the phone was picked up by an office assistant.

Asked for the Duty Officer, the assistant said that the officer had already left for home. When reminded that it was still 20 minutes to 9 p.m. (the official closing time), the assistant said in Hindi: "Sir yahaan par 9 baj gaye" (it is already 9 here).

New Delhi Bureau