Right of centre and left of right. Right about everything!

Ever since Apple launched the iPhone 3G S on June 19 ‘09, people in India (the world’s second largest mobile handset market) have been wondering about it’s launch here in India. However, Apple and the two authorized Indian carriers for the iPhone, Vodafone and Airtel, have maintained a tight-lipped silence on the matter.

Vodafone and Airtel are probably hoping that a quiet, unobtrusive entry into the market may be a better bet than the over-the-top iPhone 3G launch last year. Even though the launch had created a buzz, Vodafone and Airtel got slammed for pricing the iPhone 3G exorbitantly high. As a result, iPhone 3G sales were lukewarm at most. So much so that they had to introduce installment plans to induce people into buying. [Read more →]

After India’s private airline operators ganged up and threatened to strike if they were not provided with bailout package by the government, Vijay Mallya (liquor baron and owner of Kingfisher Airlines) said that he was open to the idea of government holding equity in Kingfisher Airlines. Obviously the idea of letting the government own stake in his airline was his way of enticing the government into announcing a bailout package for the private airlines.

But consider what would happen if indeed that comes to pass. Kingfisher Airlines would become a fleet piloted by drunk pilots and owned in parts by a flamboyant man with interests in booze and expensive and underperforming sports teams and an entity with an unblemished record of mismanaging an airline it already owns.

Fly Kingfisher, anyone?

Minister of State for external affairs, the inimitable Shashi Tharoor mentioned… err… tweeted today,

Rajya Sabha debate on MEA ends. Minister Krishna’s reply broadens the terms of argument by covering whole of fp & not just one narrow issue

The “narrow” issue being debated was the fallout of the India-Pakistan joint statement issued at Sharm-el-Sheikh, notably the de-linking of terror from dialogue and the mention of Balochistan.
[Read more →]

Point to ponder… Why is it called horse-trading when it’s asses that are being traded?!

If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.
  - Pierre Gallois

Pretty much sums up why John Buchanan’s coach-by-laptop method does not work.

Poor KKR!