The Great Indian Nightmare

(A very good article)

George Bernard Shaw once asked an attractive woman seated next to him at a dinner table, "Madam, would you go to bed with me for a thousand pounds?" The woman shook her head. "How about 50,000 pounds?" he continued. The woman, after further thought, coyly replied, "Perhaps." Shaw continued, "How about five pounds?" The woman exclaimed, "Mr Shaw, what do you take me for!" Shaw calmly replied, "We have already established what you are. Now we are merely haggling for the price."

In the great Indian Education Bazaar, everything is up for sale -- government, media, educational institutes, foreign faculty, collaboration with foreign varsities, endorsement of teaching shops by reputed names for credibility, successful candidates in competitive exams posing as alumni. The only issue is the price, and you can haggle over it.

"I threatened one institute with legal recourse if it uses my name in any of its brochures," said a topper, whose name the institute was using to position itself in the market.

Says a parent, "My son joined the BBA course offered by a Delhi-based institute. Mortgaging my house in Bihar, I paid Rs 12 lakhs as fees, only to realise later that it wasn't accredited with the UGC (University Grants Commission). Worried, I admitted my son to the Delhi Open University, too. My son now studies in two institutes without any time for himself, and has gone into a depression and developed suicidal....

Read the rest on...:

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2008/sep/25peri.htm

The Times group forges unusual alliances

The Times group forges unusual alliances with companies which serve the interests of everybody - except those of readers and consumers. Sucheta Dalal throws new light on this unique "business strategy"

If you are an investor who depends on India's largest-selling economic newspaper for unbiased news, then you must know and understand the concept of "private treaties" (PT). Since the Times of India (TOI) far outsells every other English newspaper and The Economic Times is by far the market leader in the economic news category, the concept is of universal interest, especially for MoneyLIFE readers. Although PTs sound like agreements between two sovereign nations, they are, in fact, pacts between the Times of India group and approximately 100-odd companies, under which TOI buys shares of small and fast-growing companies. The list is expanding rapidly.

In an article for India-Seminar on 'The changing Indian media scene', TN Ninan, editor of Business Standard, described PTs as "basically the transfer of ...

For rest read:

http://www.suchetadalal.com/articles/display/569/2686.article

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UTSAV happening for Delhi for first time

Utsav, the grand event of Art of Living to be participated in by more than 1 Lac people is going to happen in Noida on 20-23 Nov. Its a mega-gala-huge event See its blog: Delhi | UTSAV | Nov 20-23

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The lowest level of Wall Street Food Chain

ON the subway, a stranger in a suit knowingly eyed my Lehman Brothers ID badge in its Bear Stearns holster. With a look of detached curiosity, he expressed his condolences. This is not the way I thought my Wall Street career would begin. During college, I was an intern at Bear Stearns. There, I toiled at the lowest levels of Wall Street, fetching coffee, moving boxes, filing papers. In my final summer at Bear, I was promoted to intern in the marketing department of the asset management division. There, I worked on some hedge funds that invested in stuff called "mortgage-backed securities." Several months later, the hedge funds went down the tubes, dragging Bear Stearns behind them. After I graduated from college, Lehman Brothers hired me to help settle trades in complex derivatives, the very derivatives that led to the company's demise. I helped resolve trading issues involving tens — hundreds — of millions of dollars. And now? Now from my  Read the rest from the given link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/opinion/19baris.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin