Neo Colonialism

The buy out of Corus (erstwhile stolid British Steel merged with a dutch company) has had the Corus union in UK worried: obvious fear of job loss compounded by the fact that the jobs would be determined by and Indian company. Normally, the Brits are pretty tolerant and Bindas and the anti outsourcing lobby does not work threre half as well as it works in US. But as they say even the worm turns at last... Like the Indians have a high level of tolerance till you show Krishna as a vicious political animal, or try to paint pictures of Allah or think of releasing the last temptation. Let us face it, Corus is a very inefficient company and Tata Steel is very efficient. J N Tata while planning to establish a steel factory (which became TISCO the forerunner of Tata Steel) had returned empty handed from UK: he had gone there to raise money and seek exeprts in prospecting etc. He was told that the idea of building a steel plant in India was a pipe dream [I am sure the Vitorian Englishment would have used more soothing words to drive this message home to Mr Tata] Subsequenltly much of the technical expertise was brought in from the US and much of the money was raised in India [Mumbai]. This is history turning on its head:) Tata's of course have never detached themselves from the brits. In the initial years Tata Steel survived and thrived on guaranteed orders from the India Railways [which was owned by British stockowners] and Tata House in Grosvenor Square in London has been as venerable a sign of Indian presence in UK as the India House off London School of Economics.
India is the fourth or third largest inward investor in UK and with the corus deal we would have expected the following:
Airtel to take over Vodaphone in the next 3 years, BSNL to buy out British Telecom, DMRC to buy of London Underground; Vijay malla to buy out White and McKay and give us some good scotch at Indian prices; Appollo Group with eh support of Max can buy out National Health; HDFC and ICICI can make a joint pitch for the Insurance companies in Scotland and the Indian BPOs can buy out the Irish ones. As my Bangladeshi Brit friend in Whitechapel would say "In your dreams buddy"

Am I a Fool

I think I am a fool or something is seriously wrong with our crime investigation agencies. Since last week CBI has been raiding homes of police officers involved in allegedly conniving in the henious crimes at Nithari in NOIDA.I would assume that in order for a raid to be effective it has to be done suddenly and without prior information to the person or persons who homes are going tobe raided. This is at least true of Income Tax related raids, information on which are only shared in the last moment with only relevant officers of the department and raids are essentially carried out at ungodly hours so that the raidees are caught unawares. After the first raid on a junior police officer's house a more than a month after the case came to light, the CBI claimed to find some incriminating papers. So far so good.What did they do next? Spoke to the press and said that more raids would follow! This is what I read in newspapers yesterday. What was the wisdom behind this cute piece of communications to the press? To inform us that CBI is really working hard on the case? Or to inform the other suspected policeman to be aware and make best efforts to hide all incriminating papers before the raid happens? I dunno reallyOR is that the safe assumption of CBI that police officers do not read newspapers an watch television?I think it is the pathetic desire to talk more and work less that drives most organisations these days. In teh zeal to talk they sometimes forget what they should talk and what they should not talk about. This bug seems to have bitten many ministers, government departments, police and even the judiciary. I guess normally quiet and reticent government types are learning their communication skills pretty fast from the coprorate types:)