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The worst kept secret in the recent Coal India offer for sale is how Life Insurance Corporation did some heavy lifting to ensure the success of the divestment transaction. The buzz is that LIC had chipped in with nearly ₹10,000 crore under the institutional investor’s book. GIC is said to have forked out ₹1,000 crore. Nearly, half the total amount realised (₹22,000 crore) from Coal India divestment came from the domestic insurance biggies! Now whether the Centre nudged LIC to go for it or whether the insurance behemoth itself saw merit in going the whole hog is anybody’s guess.
The joy of spending
About 300 babus and politicians in Andhra Pradesh are going through a three-day session on ‘Inner Engineering-for Joyful Living,’ organised by Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev of the Isha Foundation. While the exercise itself may or may not be of use for the busy bureaucrats, the course comes with a hefty bill to the state exchequer, costing an estimated ₹1.5 crore.
Lucky charms?
Trinamool Congress General Secretary Mukul Roy has been presented with various lucky charms or threads ( dhagas ) by his supporters. Ahead of his appearance before the CBI, Roy’s followers thronged his residence gifting him amulets, wristbands, threads, lockets and stones. Since he didn’t end up getting arrested, can we conclude these charms have worked? Yes, for the moment.
Chinese checkers
The competition between the two Chinese handset makers, which started at home, is getting more intense and spilling over to India. The day Mi India launched its new phone Mi 4 in Delhi, competitor Lenovo issued a release saying its A6000 model, launched the same day, sold out in two seconds! Maybe the older, established player is learning something from the start-up!
Monkey menace
Government briefings in Shastri Bhawan, Delhi, rarely fail to attract a group of monkeys. Not all enter the conference hall, some prefer to wait in the corridor. Some Ministers are clearly uneasy about this. Earlier this week, Ravi Shankar Prasad asked his security personnel to clear the way in the corridor. A pistol-wielding security man found the going tough. Eventually, an enterprising journalist helped with the aid of a fluorescent light.
Tea, anyone?
Tata Global Beverages may position itself as a global company, but is reluctant to bring any of its international brands to India. “Indian consumers will not be willing to pay for these premium brands and consumers are even complaining about Starbucks’ pricing,’’ said Ajoy K Misra, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Global Beverages. Even the acquired UK brand Tetley has not launched its full portfolio here. While there were packs of new variants of Tetley’s green tea portfolio displayed at the roundtable during the results conference, the company was not sure if these packs would actually be visible on shop shelves in India.
CBDT matters
A day after the Union Cabinet decided to accept the order of the Bombay High Court in the Vodafone transfer pricing case, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said it had decided to do the same. Now, the question is why the CBDT should declare it accepts something that has already been accepted by the Union Cabinet? After all, it could hardly declare that it rejects the Cabinet decision.
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