Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Shocking...

Disgusting!

The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the country’s premier technical intelligence agency set up after the Kargil intrusion, is already under the scanner of the Supreme Court for a slew of alleged irregularities. The latest is a shocking case of officials using secret service funds to illegally film their women colleagues in the toilet.


This happened three years ago but has surfaced only now. It’s been learnt that some women staffers who worked in NTRO’s temporary office in Hauz Khas in New Delhi, complained about a spycam fixed in their toilet with the feed from the camera being accessed by a computer manned by the agency’s counter-intelligence and security unit.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/officials-at-intel-agency-filmed-women-colleagues-in-toilet/849534/0


The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is a premier apex scientific organization under the National Security Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, India.[1] It was set up in 2004.[2] It also includes National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development (NICRD), which is first of its kind in Asia. [3]


The organization does hi-tech surveillance jobs, including satellite monitoring, terrestrial monitoring, internet monitoring, considered vital for the national security apparatus.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Technical_Research_Organisation


And we thought these officers were appointed to protect out country.

Was there none to monitor them?

How do they select these candidates?

Sad indeed!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Watch Singham

Let me understand the term Public Company.

It is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government. Their legal status varies from being a part of government into stock companies with a state as a regular stockholder. There is no standard definition of a government-owned corporation (GOC) or state-owned enterprise (SOE), although the two terms can be used interchangeably. The defining characteristics are that they have a distinct legal form and they are established to operate in commercial affairs. While they may also have public policy objectives, GOCs should be differentiated from other forms of government agencies or state entities established to pursue purely non-financial objectives that have no need or goal of satisfying the shareholders with return on their investment through price increase or dividends

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/government-corporation#ixzz1YDmIos6J


In India, a government-owned corporation is termed as a public sector undertaking (PSU). This term is used to refer to companies in which the government (either the federal Union Government or the many state or territorial governments, or both) own a majority (51 percent or more) of the company equity. Some examples include:
Since I am more interested about the Oil Companies, let me look at India's star performer.

Indian Oil Corporation:

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. is India's largest company by sales with a turnover of Rs. 3,28,744 crore ($ 68,837 million) and profit of Rs. 7445.48 crore ($ 1,719 million) for the year 2010-11.

IndianOil is the highest ranked Indian company in the latest Fortune ‘Global 500’ listings, ranked at the 98th position. IndianOil's vision is driven by a group of dynamic leaders who have made it a name to reckon with.

In this section, read about IndianOil’s business and its spread across the country & abroad. You can also know about IndianOil's current financial performance, special initiatives and recognitions & awards that have come its way.
collage
Updated on July 11, 2011
  • IndianOil breaks into Top 100 of Fortune Global listing, ranked 98th
  • IndianOil: One of ‘The Best Companies to Work For’
                                  
This is just one of our petroleum companies, and as an Indian, I should be really proud of it's performance by only looking at the profit it churns out year after year. And this holds true for every other state owned oil companies and so also the two private oil companies: Reliance and Essar.

And what are they doing with this profit? Oh yes.. they pay dividends. And how do they make this profit? Mostly by the sale of petroleum products. Who buys them? The Indian populace. One should remember that not every Indian directly purchases these oil products but every Indian is unfortunately linked with the same since every commodity he purchases is connected to Oil one way or the other. Hence when the oil prices increase it is the 70% of India's population who is yet again squeezed. As of 2005, according to World Bank statistics, 75.6% of the population lived on less than $2 a day (PPP), while 41.6% of the population was living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day.

Last year when we went for our vacation, I clearly remember that the petrol price was around IRS 55/- and this year? IRS 68/- ! Figure out the increase in price.

Yes, last year the price of crude oil was USD 74 (avg) in September while this year USD 86. But what I do not understand is how in the world were these oil companies making profit year after year even when the price stood at an average of USD 85/- ? And what are they doing with this profit? Yet even this time they blame lack of profit for the price increase.

The year before last, Reliance opened their petrol bunks all over Kerala but was soon forced to close due to lack of profit. And then the government gave up their the right of control over oil prices and now those petrol bunks are back in business. Figure out how.

While listening to our policy makers and politicians, I understand that they have no intention in doing anything to solve the present crisis.

And why should they, when we read that just like these companies even they have been churning out profit year after year!

"The average asset value of a minister in the current ministry is Rs.10,63,55,097 (Rs.10.6 crore). In 2009, the average asset value of a minister was Rs.7.3 crore. The current ministers, on an average, are Rs.3.3 crore richer than in 2009," the report said."

On the other hand, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's assets have grown by 107 percent, even though he has not mentioned three residential flats owned by him and his wife.



And hence what shall the the Indian citizens do....
 
Watch the movie Singham!

 
 
Invoke your imagination and your "favourite" politician/policy maker  to mind. Try to enjoy the result. 

But do forget that this movie is made by Reliance... and that over the years the Indian masses have been conditioned to vent their frustration by watching movies.





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