To Pay or not to Pay ?

on Rediff

Call it the great 3G spectrum rip off. Or call it a short-sighted bid to garner money for the government. Howsoever mobile services companies see it, one thing is clear -- a huge controversy has erupted, with the mobile services industry split down the middle.
The bone of contention? Should the government charge mobile services companies for providing 3G (short for third generation) spectrum (or the airwaves through which mobile phone services are provided -- in this case, mobile services which will offer high speed Internet services and data services)? Or should spectrum be free?
The row broke out a fortnight ago when Tata group chairman Ratan Tata shot off a letter to Communications Minster Dayanidhi Maran urging that 3G spectrum should be paid for.

TRAI and Dhayanithi Maran have a big task at their hands leading India to a 3G nation.

Argument : Giving free 3G spectrum will help in promoting rural telephony
Counter-Argument : Even the current spectrum is underutilised. Talking about using 3G is rubbish

A: Paying for 3G would increase cost to the consumer
CA: Reliance and other GSM operators came in by paying huge fees. But actually brought down prices.

A: Auctions in Europe led to over-bidding and companies went bankrupt.
CA: Auctions were not held properly in Europe. Anyway, Indian operators are experienced enough not to overbid.

A: Paying for 3G spectrum will choke the growth of operators.
CA: 3G spectrum is an economic resource and makes no sense to give it away free.

And the argument continues ......

Why India will rule the world ?

OK. Here is another economist arguing for India.

It is always interesting to see the underlying assumptions and risks that could make the projections off target.

The Risks

However, Dr William T Wilson warns that India's smart rise towards the position of an economic powerhouse could be marred by the following events:

Armed conflicts: With Pakistan or other neighbours.

Energy sources

1. India lacks adequate domestic energy sources and finding foreign energy sources to satisfy demand will not be easy.

2. India's oil import share will rise from 60% to 80% by the year 2030.

3. Government spending and fiscal deficits

4. Government continues to find it impossible to control its own spending.

5. Combined deficits of central and state governments are at 10% of GDP.

AIDS

India currently has the second highest number of AIDS cases after South Africa.

Indra Nooyi - Career

Indra Nooyi's career sure is a dream come true for most MBA students and company executives. I just ran a quick background check on her on Bloomberg. From Mettur to Pepsico President is cool !!

Education

Yale Univ, master's degree, public & private management

Madras Christian College, bachelor's degree

Indian Inst of Mgmt Calcutta, Master's degree, finance & management

Career

5/2001-PRESENT PEPSICO INC PRESIDENT/CFO
2/2000-5/2001 PEPSICO INC SENIOR VP/CFO
1994-2/2000 PEPSICO INC SENIOR VP
Strategic Planning, Corporate Strategy and Development
1990-1994 ASEA BROWN BOVERI INC SENIOR VP
Strategy, Planning and Strategic Marketing
1988-1990 MOTOROLA INC VP
As well as Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning
1986-1988 MOTOROLA INC VARIOUS POSITIONS
Business Development, Automotive Division
1980-1986 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP DIRECTOR
International Corporate Strategy Products

Prior to joining Boston Consulting Group, Ms. Nooyi served as a Product Manager with Johnson & Johnson and Mettur Beardsell Ltd

Pay Packet

Company Year Salary Bonus Total 000's
PEPSICO INC 2004 767 1845 2612 USD
2003 721 1487 2208 USD
2002 700 1350 2050 USD
2001 681 1526 2207 USD
2000 575 791 1366 USD
1999 460 489 949 USD
1998 388 204 592 USD
1997 338 407 745 USD

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The Indra Nooyi controversy

Indra Nooyi is one of IIMC's celebrated alumni and is President/CFO of PepsiCo Inc., People have wrought up a stupid controversy alleging she showed the 'middle finger' to America.

The Economic Times Article : Nooyi's mid-finger makes US see red

The index finger is Europe, pointing the way up; the ring finger is Latin America, sensual and romantic (think Salma Hayek or J-Lo); the thumb is Asia, proud and aspiring; the little finger is the Dark Continent, while the middle finger - yes, you guessed it - is the United States of America.

Soon, the incident had blogworld all aflutter. “It would certainly be a shame if the president of PepsiCo had gotten rich on America, while she was gallivanting around college campuses claiming that the US was giving the middle finger to the rest of the world. That would not be cricket, would it?” asked one of the blogs.

“Remember that the middle finger - the US - always stands out. If you are smart, if you exhibit emotional intelligence as well as academic intelligence, if you ascribe positive intent to all your actions on the international business stage, this can be a great advantage,” she concludes.

Apparently, ET claims this issue has caused a blog-storm. A quick Technorati search threw up 64 posts. Im not sure if this is a blog-storm.

Pepsico was quick to react. This is Indra Nooyi's clarification (Full Text of the speech):

As part of this illustration, I assigned five of the world’s continents to the different fingers and thumb. I refer to North America and particularly the U.S. as the middle finger because it is the longest and anchors every function the hand performs. The middle finger also is key to all the fingers working together effectively. That is how I view America’s place of importance in the world.

The point of my analogy was to emphasize America’s leadership position. Equally critical is the need for each of us as citizens to take a constructive role in whatever we choose to do in life to ensure the U.S. continues as the world’s “helping hand.”

Does not make sense from the angle of both parties. Either the bloggers/newspapers should have sense enough to understand Ms.Nooyi , President of PepsiCo, would not choose a graduation ceremony to show her country the middle-finger. Atleast, Ms.Nooyi or her speech-writer should have sense enough to know what the middle-finger signifies.

Trilogians are CA champions

This is incredible. A TU2K4 project wins $400,000 !! For the uninitiated, TU stands for Trilogy University, which you have to get through to become part of the league of Trilogians. TU has been covered by Fortune magazine I guess but I dont have any weblink right now.

Shift2Ingres, an Oracle migration toolkit submitted by Harsh Azad, Rohit Gaddi, Achal Rastogi, Geetanjali Bahuguna and Ashutosh Upadhyay of New Delhi won the largest prize of $400,000.

Team profile -- Shift2Ingres

Harsh Azad: Harsh is a Technical Analyst with Trilogy E-Business Software India Pvt Ltd He holds a master's degree in computer science from University of Pune. Harsh has won prizes and contests on computer programming organised by The Computer Society of India and South East Asian Regional Computer Confederation during college days.

Rohit Gaddi: Rohit is a Technical Analyst with Trilogy E-Business Software India Pvt. Ltd. He holds master's degree in computer application from Pune University. Rohit was ranked 37th in a recently held Google India Code Jam 2005. He was also a Junior Research Fellow with Computer Science Department, Pune University from July- Nov 2002. Rohit was ranked amongst the top 1 percentile in NCST entrance 2001.

Achal Rastogi: Achal is working with Trilogy E-business Software (I) Pvt Ltd for past one year. He holds master's degree in computer application from National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Achal's areas of interest include Databases, Data Structures and Operating Systems. Besides winning the Ingres Million Dollar Challenge, Achal secured 2nd rank (all India) in DOEACC 'O' level exam recognised by the Union ministry of human resources and development.

Geetanjali Bahuguna: Geetanjali is a Technical Analyst with Trilogy E-business Software (I) Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore. An MCA from University of Pune, Geetanjali was a topper in college for all the three years during her bachelor's in mathematics from University of Delhi.

Ashutosh Upadhyay: Ashutosh is currently working with Trilogy E-Business Software (I) Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore. Ashutosh holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

Microsoft's Vision for an Identity Metasystem

Summary: The Identity Metasystem is an interoperable architecture for digital identity that assumes people will have several digital identities based on multiple underlying technologies, implementations, and providers. Using this approach, customers will be able to continue to use their existing identity infrastructure investments, choose the identity technology that works best for them, and more easily migrate from old technologies to new technologies without sacrificing nteroperability with others. This paper introduces the principles behind this approach in "The Laws of Identity"; it presents an open and interoperable architecture for building the metasystem, and it describes Microsoft's plans to participate in the identity metasystem. (12 printed pages)

Biocon Saga

on Forbes

The daughter of a brewmaster and a stay-at-home mom, Mazumdar-Shaw grew up in a progressive, middle-class family, which encouraged her to pursue an education instead of an arranged marriage. She returned to India in 1975 after getting a B.S. in zoology at the University of Bangalore and an M.S. in brewing from Ballarat College in Australia, expecting to have to fend off job offers. No one would hire her. "It was too rough a job for a woman," she recalls being told.

There will be a flood of money coming in from America, as well. As U.S. drug development costs soar, pharmas are looking to India, where expenses from molecule to market can run 80% less. Partnerships with seven of the largest U.S. and European pharmaceuticals--in drug discovery and clinical trials--now account for 15% of Biocon's top line