BL Diary - Practice makes a man perfect

Infosys co-founder Shibu Lal was at his articulate best at the farewell function hosted for the company's chairman, N R Narayana Murthy. Recalled Shibu Lal, I had to go to Murthy's office to take him out for a meeting. I found to my surprise that Murthy, who was by then a very well known speaker across the globe, was rehearsing his speech. “It was then I realised the importance of the adage, practice makes a man perfect.

Writing a diary helps

One of Infosys' first contracts was the project offered by Mico (now Bosch). Both Murthy and Shibu Lal would drive down to Mico campus and every day Mr Murthy would give Shibulal a list of 10 things which he had to work on. “The next day, he would come back to check whether I had completed the job. I would complete eight and invariably, Murthy would ask for those which I had not completed which sometimes would reduce me to tears. But after Murthy told me to keep a diary, I became more organised”.

Infosys' ‘Home' secret

It's well known that Infosys was launched by Narayana Murthy with a seed fund of Rs 10,000 given by his wife Sudha. But during the farewell function, Ms Sudha Murthi revealed that it was her mother who had advised her at her marriage that she should start saving some money every month even without the knowledge of her husband as the money could come in handy during an emergency.

When Mr Murthy asked for the money to fund the start-up, she had Rs 10,256 as savings in her kitty. She remembered her mother's words and gave her hubby only Rs 10,000. She continued her saving trend for the next three year feeling that her husband will run out of money soon. It's another matter that she need not have bothered. In retrospect, it's clear that no start-up has given as much returns as Infosys. That Rs 10, 000 is worth over Rs 30,000 crore, 30 years later now.

Lokpal blues

As the Government and Congress(I) face flak over mishandling of the entire Lokpal Bill-Anna Hazare issue, an SMS joke doing the rounds has captured the situation quite aptly. “The Congress is in trouble because one of its leaders is out of coverage area, the other is in silent mode, and the third is in vibrating mode!”

Taxing 3-letter acronyms

There seems to be no end to the three-letter abbreviations in the tax laws. While VAT, MAT and CST were often repeated abbreviations in any of the industry forums, it is now the turn of GST.

Talking about these tax provisions at a workshop, T.T. Srinivasa Raghavan, President, Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "We need to learn to live with the three-letter abbreviation all through".

One-upmanship?

Deloitte Touche Tomatsu Ltd's study of the prospects of electric vehicles in India was innocuous enough — it did nothing more than assess the prospects of electric cars in India on the basis of a sample survey — but some keen industry observers couldn't help suspecting one-upmanship. They point out that the Department of Heavy Industry and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers had mandated Booz & Company to come up with a road map for promoting electric vehicles in India. The report is to be made public at SIAM's annual general meeting that will be held on September 7. Well, so what if Deloitte tried to upstage Booz? After all, it is a competitive world and who can blame players for displaying feral instincts?

Some concern for scribes

Journalists have always been a privileged tribe. The staff at the Calcutta High Court have made some exceptions to reinforce this in a way. During the initial days of the Singur case, scribes had stand throughout the day's proceedings as non-lawyers are not allowed to sit in chairs inside the court room. The few odd benches were placed so far away that it was difficult to hear a lawyers' submissions sitting there.

Taking note of the fact that journos had found all odd places such as file racks to sit, the court staff made some temporary seating arrangement. One bench - which earlier served as a file rack - has now been emptied while a second seating arrangement has also been made . A welcome gesture indeed!

Power confusion

The other day Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy, was waxing eloquent about the power situation in the State. Addressing corporate leaders from South India at the CII Southern Regional Council meet, he said Andhra Pradesh was the best power managed State in the country. The demand-to -shortage ratio was the least and even during peak summer, the distribution was managed well.

Paradoxically, the CII members who had congregated to discuss issues of land, industrial climate, sunrise sectors etc. were eager to get some clarity from the Chief Minister on the uncertainties in the political, law and order and investment scenarios and were indirectly probing whether the present Government had the power to manage the issues well. The Chief Minister did try his best to allay fears quite frankly, but perceptions of the media and results of surveys point in another direction.

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