Cover
Story
Oil
PSUs: Should they be merged?
-- Anupama
Chowdary and DG Prasuna
The
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mani Shankar
Aiyer has expressed his intention to strengthen the public
sector oil companies and enable them to compete better with
their private counterparts, both domestic and foreign. A slew
of measures are under consideration including a mega merger
of the oil PSUs creating two vertically integrated oil behemoths.
Other measures under review are restricting the existing players
to their core competence and setting up a high-level regulator
to coordinate their activities. Among these, the move to merge
oil PSUs stands out, since it would mean considerable realignment
and restructuring of companies that could possibly change
the shape of the industry. But is the merger desirable?
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Coporate
Strategy
Microsoft:
Why is it Playing Santa?
-- D
G Prasuna
Microsoft
announced a Christmas bonanza for its shareholders when it
unveiled its plans to return $75 bn to them over the next
four years. What does this decision mean for Microsoft and
its shareholders?
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Industry
US
Online Giants’ Global Gambit: Localize and Leap
-- Nidhi Joshi
Leading
US online companies are aiming to replicate their successes
elsewhere as well, as they line up their overseas expansion
plans. However, this would require adapting to the individual
local business environments.
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Business
Environment
Indian
BPOs: Attrition Woes
-- Feroz
Zaheer
The
Indian BPO industry has the highest attrition rate in Asia.
What does this mean to India as an outsourcing hub?
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Inflation:
Cause for Concern
-- Priyanka
Sugandhi
In
order to curb inflation which is at a four year high, the
Finance Minister has cut duties on crude oil, steel and edible
oil. But can the government really control inflation? Which
way will inflation go in the future?
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WTO:
Back on Track?
-- Anupama Chowdary
After
the disagreements at Cancun in September 2003, the recent
WTO meeting in Geneva has put the Doha round of talks back
on track, but they still have a long way to go.
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Multilateral
Framework for World Trade: Cautious Optimism
-- Dr.
B Speyer and Dr. Klaus Deutsch
WTO
members only achieved a framework for negotiations and some
basic pillars for the final package. Hence, even though several
issues on how to continue the talks have been clarified, the
members still face tough negotiations on the methods and scope
of trade liberalization.
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European
Business: Embracing Long Workweeks
-- Feroz
Zaheer
With
employers demanding an increase in the working hours and the
employees gradually ceding to the demand, the future of 35-hour
workweek seems uncertain.
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International
Finance
World
Bank: Dealing with Corruption
-- Nidhi Joshi
Troubled
by corruption among its ranks as well as borrowers, the World
Bank has initiated a multi-pronged strategy to curb corruption.
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Financial
Markets
Gilt
Market: A New Screenplay
-- Indu
Prasad
RBI
is launching an anonymous, order-matched, screen-based trading
system on the Negotiated Dealing System for debt market, specifically
for gilt securities. One of the objectives of the move is
to reduce the number of middlemen. Does this mean the end
of debt market brokers?
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Corporate
Finance
Second
Lien Term Loans: In Vogue
-- Shashidhar
Mishra
An
obscure financing instrument has caught the fancy of the US
corporates in need of debt capital.
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Second
Lien Term Loans: An Indian Perspective
-- Vinod
Kothari
Instead
of being mechanically lured by second tier loans, corporates
must evaluate the weighted average cost of the first and second
lien loans put together, and that of the unstratified loan
on the asset.
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Book
Review
The
Wisdom of Crowds
-- Bijan
Roy
Most
investors, managers and voters believe only experts have valuable
knowledge. They think that the key to solving problems or
taking the right decisions depends on finding that right person—the
expert. This book explains why the concept of ‘chasing
the expert’ is a mistake and at times costly too. It
advocates that when imperfect judgments of ordinary people
are directed in the right way, the collective intelligence
arrived at is often excellent.
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