life in general: two videos of my july visit to village on narmada river shoreline

This is a follow-up to my 28 July 2007 post on my visit to a village in Madhya Pradesh on the shoreline of Narmada river with regard to the issues surrounding the huge Sardar Sarovar Dam on the river and consequent displacement of villagers, submersion of villages in water and diversion of dam water to corporates and industries at cheap rates.

In that post, among other stuff, I had given a link to a video I had taken during my visit. In this post, I am giving link to two other videos taken during my visit that I have been able to upload to YouTube. One is a conversation I had with an elderly lady (Maushi) of Eklara village near the Narmada shoreline and the other is a general video of a flock of goats and three children.

These videos give a visual idea of what kind of villages, villagers, village life, animal life will get uprooted when they come under submersion due to the ever-increasing height of the Dam.

life in financial markets: hectic!

Its been two weeks since my last post. Things have been pretty hectic at my workplace. As a journalist writing on the financial markets there has been little breathing space with the volatile action in recent days and weeks.

Will endeavour to update here my thoughts, & contributions to Business World (the magazine for which I write) on the financial markets.

life in journalism: cowering before a police state?

From whatever limited I hear, see and sense around me in Indian journalism I have no choice but to say that a vast majority of editors (editor-in-chiefs, executive editors, deputy editors, chiefs of bureau etc) of mainstream newspapers, magazines and television news channels have, in the last 10 years, become almost completely silent on the various dangerous operational biases (anti-minorities, anti-poor, anti-labourer, anti-farmer etc) of the police of most states in India. There is a eerie silence every day in the media on the police’s machinations.

Some (or many) journalists who write on issues related to police, crime, civil, environmental and social issues do not mind this and go along, binding themselves completely to sources in police who provide them with selective information on various cases.

But there are journalists who do not want to be puppets of the police administration. They keep trying their best in their work despite being actively discouraged by their editors and ugly pressures from the police force. Hats off to them. For instance, Tehelka weekly newsmagazine does regular stories on the police (although I find Tehelka goes soft stories on business and stock markets). To take as an example, in their latest issue (13 October 2007, that would have hit the stands on 6 October), there are two stories exposing police machinations. One is on the Delhi police's Special Cell yet-again dubious role in an important investigation and the second and the other is on police-criminal nexus in Tamil Nadu.

life in general: excerpts (part 1) from a citizen panel's report on bombay's communal violence of 1992-93

I have been born and brought up in Bombay. In 1992, at 22 years of age, I was working as an executive in a financial services company in Bombay. At the end of that year, in the aftermath of planned demolition of a mosque in Ayodhya (in Uttar Pradesh state in north India) by Hindutva parties (BJP, VHP, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal & RSS), my city was rocked by crimes against humanity in the name of religion. I clearly recollect how utterly shocked and deeply hurt I was by what I saw and read at that time. Similar violence also took place in some other parts of the country like Surat in Gujarat.

Sometime soon after the communal violence against minorities subsided a citizens' group headed by former high court judges S.M.Daud and H.Suresh came out with a report titled 'The People's Verdict: An enquiry into the Dec '92 & Jan '93 riots in Bombay' and commissioned by the Indian People's Human Rights Tribunal. I present below excerpts from this report:

............
THE FINDINGS

Having taken an overall view of the two bouts of rioting in different areas of Bombay, we have to now address ourselves to various questions listed in the terms of reference.

CAUSES

A Century Old Precedent

The December 1992 and the January 1993 riots came almost a century after the Bombay riots of 1893, An account of the last century's riots is found in the "Economic and Political Weekly" dated January 1993, pp. 182-187. On that occasion also, rumours and incendiary writings had excited passions on both sides. This followed from a pamphlet entitled "The Dreadful Bombay Riots" ("Mumbai ma thaelum bhayankar hoolad") published for the "Cow-Protection Society", which could well compare with the outpourings of the 'Saamna' (the Shiv Sena mouthpiece), the 'Navakal' (a Marathi daily), not to speak of the 'Organiser' (the mouthpiece of the RSS). Published on August 24 1893, only 13 days after the first outbreak of the riots, the Gujarati pamphlet contained verses "praising the actions of rioters for what they had done; the rioters were not riots but brave fights undertaken by Shivaji's warriors; the participants not rioters but soldiers who had fought like men.”

Incidents had taken place all over the city then, as they had in our present limes. As in those days, there were numerous instances when members of one religion protected members of the other...

Historical Background : A Survey

Even prior to the departure of the British from India, communal polarisation had been used by individuals and groups as a means to attain a following amongst the masses… and through such a route, attempt to gain power. The British policy of divide and rule enabled such groups to legitimise their aspirations and actions. In course of time, there arose political formations brazenly parading their parochial platforms. The Hindu Mahasabha, the Muslim League, the Akalis – all these and many more splinters made no secret of their striving for the advancement of a section of the people to the exclusion of others. Thus the Hindu communalists advocated the supremacy of the Hindu faith, traditions and aspirations. The Muslim was seen as a polluting element in the polity and his subjugation if not elimination was openly advocated. In the same way the Muslim communalist spoke of a mythical past when Islam and its adherents had brought glory to various lands including India.

...Thus began a contest between the communalists of different faiths and even within the same faith. ...
........

life in general: how at least the usa, china, france & india support burma's (myanmar's) military dictatorship

There is nearly almost double standards in the foreign policies of all the democracies with regard to non-democracies. Most human rights-supporting people of existing democracies know how the military dictatorship of Burma (Myanmar) has been repressing the rights of its people for so long. But most of these people wouldn't know how their own democratic governments, in order to further oil & gas interests or other corporate interests using the justification of doing this to maintain their economies for their citizens, have pampered Burma's military dictatorship all along.

We have been reading the current news (here, here and here) of Burmese military government's ugly attacks on its protesting citizens. There is a very insightful write-up on the dynamics in Burma here.

As far as my country (India) is concerned, I do not agree at all with my government (of India) pampering the military rulers of Burma and not pressing for restoration of democracy and release of Aung San Suu Kyi. Many Indians and government officials keep cribbing about US pampering Pakistan (which is true) at the cost of allowing extremists trained in Pakistan to carry on with their violent activities in Kashmir.

Indian military is known to supply arms to the military rulers of Burma to suppress the democracy-seeking rebel groups. Its a sorry state of affairs. In my work as a financial journalist, I had recently interacted with an official of Excise Revenue Intelligence department of the government and among other things that we discussed he told me that in quite some of their raids on companies and agencies they have come across caches of arms belonging to the Indian military and earmarked for dispatch to Burma.

Officially, Indian government denies sending arms. But it does harp on wanting to prevent insurgency operations by ULFA and other groups in North-East states of India (which, in my view, have always been excessively forced to be a part of India even when their local populaces would rather prefer to be independent countries) many of which, it claims, operate out of the the Burmese side of the India-Burma border.

Last 3-5 years, India is also trying to get oil & gas projects in Burma and has preferred to ignore the fact that Burma is run by a military dictatorship in its cheap attempts to bag those projects.

Other countries are no better. Dick Cheney, current US vice-president, was in the past a cheerleader for American companies oil & gas exploration investments in Burma among other countries. Read more about it here.

France's oil company, Total, has a presence in Burma.

China, as everyone knows, has always supported the Burmese military dictatorship.

life in general: presence outside the eternal void and amidst eternal matter!

I was reminded recently that all life in our universe (earth's living beings are not the only livings beings in our universe) originated from the void. The void, that is, the nothingness, is eternal. But from it parts continously emerge as living dots, each surrounded by white light. When a living dot surrounded by white light looks back at the place where it emerged from it sees nothing because you can't see something that is void. It looks elsewhere around, observes matter and gets attracted to it.

Assume the matter to be like a prism. When white light passes through prism it converts into VIBGYOR (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red) colours. Thus newly emerged entertwines with matter and takes form of something different. This keeps on happening and getting manifested in different life forms. Humans are just one kind of the ongoing and continuous manifestations between living light and matter.

The search for identity by a soul (living dot) can only end through a return to the void.

life in financial markets: nse's egg-headed approach to information dissemination

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is better than the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in many many areas. But in one area--that of information dissemination to the media--the NSE is as bad as the BSE. I say this because I interact with them as a part of my work as a financial journalist covering the stock market.

Two weeks ago, I sent a formal email to NSE's corporation communication department (cc_nse@nse.co.in) asking for the 3.30 pm (closing time) values of the Nifty (NSE-50) index for the last three years.

The official closing values that is available at NSE's website for downloading purpose is calculated on the weighted average of the trades of the last 30 minutes of trading (usually 3 pm to 3.30 pm). I wanted the exact 3.30 pm value and not the weighted average based closing values.

I wanted this to compare with last traded values (usually the 3.30 pm ones) of Nifty futures and arrive at the accurate premiums/discounts of the futures prices to the underlying. Ideally, this should be provided by NSE at its website in the derivatives data download files. But the spot underlying value at the the time of last traded price of the futures and options trades is not given. So, I said let me do the hard work myself by getting the underlying spot values of at least the Nifty as at 3.30 pm and mix it with the last traded price of the futures price to get the premiums/discounts for the last 3 years.

This was only for the Nifty values. I also wanted the 3.30 pm prices for the stocks in which futures trading is very liquid. But I said let me first try for the Nifty values.

But, yesterday (Thursday) evening, when I followed up with NSE on my 2-week old email for the 4th-5th time I was told that I can not be given the information "because it is not published information for the public". I was appalled! Firstly, the 3.30 pm value is available to all members of the public if they visit the NSE's website at 3.30 pm and check the real-time values of Nifty and all the stocks. Since the public and the media might not be able to do it day after day they might want to get it later separately from the exchange.

NSE's egg-headed approach to such basic sharing of information is worrisome. This is not the first time I have encountered such egg-headedness of NSE's corporate communications department. It has happened earlier too. I have even brought this notice to the managing director of NSE, Ravi Narain, a couple of times. But he does not appear to have done anything in this regard. He seems to be blinded to the deficiencies of the corporate communications department.

life in financial markets: slow website of sebi

In my work, I often have to download stuff from the website of the stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), www.sebi.gov.in. It is the slowest and the most user-unfriendly website I have come across of any regulatory body worldwide.

To give one instance, many documents like regulatory orders, monthly bulletins, IPO offer documents etc are available for download in pdf format. The download happens compulsorily in a pop-up window, so if you are using Mozilla Firefox browser you can't take it to a new tab. Then the speed of download is the slowest and there is no monitoring indicator during the download process. If Sebi's website server hangs, or your computer is giving some problem, you will never know because you will think the download is taking time becuase of a high file size. But in reality the download would have hanged and you will end up waiting a long time before realising it and trying all over again.

The Sebi website server is equipped with poor processing strength and is badly configured.

Stock exchanges, depositories, brokers, depository participants, listed companies, investment bankers etc use internet technology intensively as a part of their daily bsuiness activities and Sebi, as their regultor, has the powers to take them to task if their systems suffer from inadequacies and slow speed. But who will take Sebi to task for their miserable website?

There is another market site which is important for investors but which is just the worst designed one. I am referring to Bombay Stock Exchange's website www.bseindia.com which too I have to use heavily in my work. To get to advanced data you want to download you have to hunt for it endlessly in the site. Its worse than Sebi's site.

Another example is that of a commodity derivatives exchange in India. The website of Multi Commodity Exchange of India, www.mcxindia.com. Some months back when I wanted to download basic data on aggregate trading volumes monthwise across each commodity I couldn't. Because the data is given in such a manner that you have to take every day's data and aggregate it yourself on your computer. And even the daily data is not presented in a direct downloadable file. I noticed the site was giving 15-20 records in a single page. I could not but sense that there was a deliberate mischievous attempt by MCX to prevent researchers and journalists to analyse its trading data.

(this part was added on September 18) The fact that worldwide market regulators give a lot of significance to their websites can be gauged by yesterday's (September 17) press release of the US Federal Reserve Board pertaining to its website.

life in general: the (mostly) false celebration of gods in india

Today, a 10-day religious festival of Ganesha began here in Bombay and in all parts of India. Anyone and everyone who wants to revere Ganesha, who is considered as an important God by Hindus, can do so in a more enhanced manner during this 10-day festival. But, like all aspects of our society and polity, this has, by and large, become polluted with loudness, commercial exploitation, extortion, political manipulation, religious extremism and vulgarity.

Living in Bombay since last 37 years from the time of my birth I have seen with my eyes how Ganesh Chaturthi (as the festival is called) has come from a less shrill affair to the vulgar display that it has become today.

The big and small Ganesha idols, made largely from plaster of paris material that pollutes the sea and rivers where they are immersed, are taken through the streets in the most boisterous manner possible. The streets of many cities are taken over by the so-called devotees on 4 out of the 10 days of the festival. The most obnoxious thing, in my view, is their use of thousands, nay millions, of extremely loud and heavy smoke-emitting firecrackers. During Diwali festival, towards the end of every year, this is hundred times more worse.

To cater to false religious pride, the government and the authorities allow things to happen during the festival which on other days they will pounce upon any group or groups doing it. I consider this hypocrisy on the part of Indian society and administration.

To be sure, we see such fanaticism in the celebration of the festivals of most of the religions worldwide. But I wonder whether the fanaticism seen here during the current Ganesh Chaturthi festival, the forthcoming (in October this year ) Navaratri festival and the Diwali festival (in November this year), surpasses all of them.

life in financial markets: what investors want

Last month, I contributed to Business World a story on how investor complaints against companies, like old wounds, are still widely prevalent in India's financial system. The story is given below.


What Investors Want

Its a revealing peep into retail investors minds. They can't complain about losses in equities if the market prices go down but surely do if they don't receive declared dividends. And if their investments in fixed deposits are not redeemed by companies they do raise a hue and cry – you will receive at least two complaints a day if you invite investors to email you. This is borne out of an analysis of one year's data of investor complaints received by a Ministry of Company Affairs-funded and Midas Touch Investors Association-operated (MTIA) internet-based informal service called www.investorhelpline.in.

A first of its kind, this website had become operational on September 9 last year. In its first year of operations it has got 2,400 valid complaints against companies of which 950 were just for non-receipt of principal amounts and/or interest amounts in past cases of deposits with companies. About 430 investors said they were not receiving annual reports or annual general meeting notices, another 330 had not got shares alloted or amounts refunded in primary market issues and IPOs and about 250 claimed they were not getting dividends on shares they owned.

The depositors' grievances which formed the largest chunk mostly pertained to over five year old cases where companies were defaulting on principal repayments and interest payments (see table: 'Most complained against'). Around 30 such companies against which 663 investor complaints were received are undergoing judicial process involving court hearings or liquidation proceedings.

Most complained against:
Lloyds Finance - 313 complaints
Morepen Labs - 188 complaints
PAL-Peugeot - 69 complaints
DCM Financial - 45 complaints
Nagarjuna Finance - 39 complaints
Duncans Industries - 34 complaints
CFL Capital - 33 complaints
All the above are on non-refund of deposits

MTIA managers have got over 60% of valid grievances redressed. "The investor helpline service does not have legal power, yet the response from companies to redress the complaints was much beyond our expectations," says Virendra Jain, president of MTIA. The worrisome point, Jain found, was that there a little over 100 companies complained against came back undelivered because their names or addresses had changed and the BSE did not have their up-to-date contact information or status.

Shareholder complaints against listed complaints are actually supposed to be resolved by stock exchanges and Sebi but Jain says these are probably not given much importance by them. Depositor complaints lie with the RBI if the deposit taker is a NBFC and the rest lie with the Company Law Board (a judicial body set up under the Companies Act 1956). This is the reason for investorhelpline.in getting so many investors writing in with their grievances.

It also perhaps shows that helpline services are not only successful in social operations like child abuse, violence against women and suicidal tendencies among depressed persons but also for investors or depositors in the financial markets. At the same time, however, depositor complaints of the kind that investorhelpline.in got are legacy issues and will not arise afresh simply because there is very few companies who accept deposits from the public currently.