Below the line

On yer bike

How serious is the fuel crisis in Nepal? A correspondent preparing to visit Kathmandu was advised by Nepalese friends to bring along a bicycle because taxis are scarce and those on the road are demanding upwards of ₹4,000 an hour.

Hail Caesar

Roman emperor Julius Caesar made a royal appearance in Kerala last week when a judge of the Kerala High Court, in his verdict on the ‘bar bribery’ scandal involving the former finance minister, KM Mani, said Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion, implying that Mani must step down.

This caught the fancy of political commentators in the print and visual media as well as the chatteratti on social media and the quote soon became a household phrase. It also led to many jokes on social media. Our prize goes to: “It (Mani’s resignation) was a caesarian surgery; the baby had refused to come out for a full year!”

Jinxed post

With Mani resigning , the position of chairman of the empowered committee of State finance ministers is up for grabs.

Although some State finance ministers think the post is jinxed, West Bengal’s Amit Mitra is reportedly keen on the job; he feels it would give the State a stronger voice in the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax. His predecessor, Asim Dasgupta, too was chairman of the empowered committee.

Adjust maadi, kindly adjust

Street food vendors have found a novel way of profiting from rising vegetable prices.

A vendor who served cauliflower manchurian liberally dosed with cabbage had this explanation: “Please adjust or be prepared to pay double per plate; cauliflower costs ₹55, which is more than double the cost of cabbage.”

A 1300-year-old lesson

At a symposium recently, Pradipta Mohapatra, the chairman and co-founder of Coaching Foundation India Limited, explained how an enterprise that upholds long-held value systems can survive in a constantly changing business environment.

The Enochian Association in France is an organisation for old family enterprises more than 200 years old. To qualify for membership, the company should have at least one member of the founding family still serving on the board as a majority shareholder; company should also have been financially sound over the years.

The oldest member of this association is Hoshi Ryokan, a Japanese inn still managed by the Hoshi family since its inception in 718, and is now headed by Zengoro Hoshi, representing the 46th generation of the family.

Will he, won’t he?

With Wipro CEO TK Kurien’s tenure at the top coming to an end a couple of months from now, there’s speculation about his successor. Wipro’s group president and COO, and former TCS honcho, Abid Ali Neemuchwala, is in the reckoning. Insiders say Kurien may get chairman Azim Premji’s nod to continue for another year, something unprecedented in the company.

Vaastu vandalism?

A two-storeyed majestic heritage building of the Nizam era constructed nearly a century ago is in the news after the Telangana government began to bring it down earlier this month. The bungalow adjacent to the chief minister’s camp office has been serving as the IAS Officers’ Association Building and a club house for a couple of decades.

With the government deciding to construct a new building for Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in line with vaastu requirements, a portion of the building was demolished, before a division bench of the High Court at Hyderabad ordered status quo on a PIL. The fate of the building now hangs in limbo.

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