News and Views- Saturday, September25, 2004
Posted : September 25, 2004 at 1:04 pm [IST]
And a joke for you, CEO
A company, feeling it was time for a shape-up, hires a new CEO. The new CEO is determined to rid the company of all unproductive workers.
On a tour of the facilities, the CEO notices a young chap leaning on a wall and relaxing. The room is full of workers who were busy working, except for this guy. The CEO decides to let his staff know that he means business!
The CEO walks up to the guy and asks, “And how much money do you make a week?”
A little surprised, the young fellow looks at him and replies, “I make $300.00 a week………Why?”
The CEO then hands the guy $600 in cash and screams, “Here’s two weeks’ pay, now GET OUT and don’t come back!”.
Surprised and in fear, the guy immediately leaves. Feeling pretty good about having fired his first worker, the CEO looks around the room and asks, “Does anyone want to tell me which department that worker belonged to?”
With a sheepish grin, one of the other workers mutters, “He was the Pizza Delivery guy from Pizza Hut……
Maruti readies 1,300cc concept car
Hindustan Times
Over a period of time MUL has trained a team of some 55 engineers that has locally redesigned the Zen, WagonR and Esteem models. A ‘concept car’ is under development by the same team. India will be Suzuki’s R & D centre for Asia with a capability of launching a 100 per cent Indian designed and developed model.
Rs 1,000 crore will be solely invested for the diesel engine plant with a capacity of 300,000 units. The Indian passenger car market is already divided 82:18 between petrol and diesel variants.
Suzuki has bought technology from Fiat Auto and Adam Opel for the diesel assembly and the two companies will help it in executing and setting up the plant.
A large part of the investment outlay will also be spent on ’scrap and build’ whereby the existing plant’s machinery and equipment will be replaced by automated technology. Further, Maruti will be launching a slew of new vehicles in India. Each new model is expected to cost Rs 200 crore.
Suzuki never wanted to develop MUL’s as R&D centre till it didn’t control its management with majority share. Now as MUL is a Suzuki company, Suzuki wants to take the advantage of MUL’s local strength of cheap trained technical manpower. With very little training at Suzuki, Indian engineers can develop and produce a totally new car. Gradually even manufacturing giants such as general Motors have realized that India will be the best place for a competitive R&D work.
Premji moots common e-governance platform
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
CHENNAI: A common platform for e-governance initiatives of different states would help in reducing regional disparities and also avoid duplication of efforts
“NCAER report on e-readiness showed some states - Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra - were much ahead of the others. A common platform would help in bridging the gap. Successful egovernance initiatives demanded enthusiastic champions at the top - the chief ministers and other top ministers - efficient execution of the projects to avoid cost and time overruns, and cutting down long decision-making time.”
He suggested five focus areas. E-procurement for all government purchases (to ensure transparency), monitoring of projects, setting up of state wide area networks, a common e-governance framework, and leveraging emerging technologies such as smart card and GIS. “The World Economic Forum’s global IT report had ranked India 37th among 87 countries. India’s dream should be to be in the top 10 in the next few years.” “‘A better strategy for the governments would be to focus on ‘low hanging fruits’ - projects with demonstrable success. It is certainly true that success begets success,. Digitising land records is a good example.”
I wish all the state governments are listening to the suggestion of the richest man of the country. Many things in administration should be same including some laws such as one on tenancy. It will make the life of citizens easy and save a lot of cost.
Union Minister asks for more fund:
CHENNAI, SEPT 24: The Union road transport and shipping minister, TRBaloo will seek Cabinet approval for a Rs 64,000-crore project to develop about 41,000 km of national highway.
Of the 65,000 km of national highways, 24,000 km were covered by special schemes like Golden Quadrilateral and East-West and North-South corridors (14,000 km) and National Highway Development Programme - 3 (10,000 km He intends to convert all single lane highway to least two lanes all along,
Why do the minister and his whole army concentrate on getting all the on-going projects expedited so that the benefits reach the users fast? In most cases, the request or demand for enhanced funds is to create a screen on its inefficiency in implementing the current projects so that people do not talk about the delay in execution. Mr. Baloo has pushed the date of completion of GQ by a year. And my wish to drive on the total of GQ remains unfulfilled.
Crores found on excise chief
Hindustan Times, Mumbai, September 24
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday recovered cash and silver utensils worth Rs 2.7 crore in a raid on a house in Nana Chowk in Central Mumbai. According to the CBI, the money belongs to Central Excise Commissioner P.K. Ajwani. Ajwani had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore from a garment exporter and threatened to have him arrested for defaulting on excise duty payments if the money was not paid. His official residence on Napean Sea Road was raided on Tuesday, and Rs 12.6 lakh in cash and several incriminating documents recovered from there, but CBI officers say Ajwani and his daughter had shifted their wealth to the Nana Chowk house by then. Ajwani tried to bribe them while they were conducting the raid, the officers allege.
We hear these seizures many times, but nothing happens and the corruption is so rampant that the people in general have lost faith in the ability of our system both political and judicial to get rid of this. Even our society has become totally indifferent. Why can’t such persons be socially boycotted?
Restriction on iron ore export : New Delhi, Sept. 23: The government is “actively examining” the need to restrict export of high-quality iron-ore from the country. While export of high-grade iron-ore should be restricted, that of low-grade iron ore should be allowed.
“High-quality iron-ore was going out of the country and building assets in other countries while our industry was paying a higher price to source it. This needed to be looked into. Our iron ore should be used in building our assets and attracting foreign investment,” said Kamal Nath.
The decision to reduce the thrust on export of high grade iron ore will be a right decision if executed properly. We must cut down the cost of mining and reduce the price of iron ore for local steel makers to make them globally more competitive.
- Indra
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