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.





Monday, August 29, 2011

Ente Keralam....

Getting back to blogging did not look easy after the vacation. Though every day the blog beckoned me, I somehow managed to evade this space, but here I am now!

And one should not blame me since as soon as I got back from vacation, it was Anna Hazare who got all my attention. May God bless this man and all who worked with him. He gave our nation a choice and showed that power can still rest with the common man. The battle is not won yet, but it is a good start. And while looking at the rest of the world facing unrest, a small fear did gnaw at me, specially since there were many calling this a undemocratic and foolish way of handling issues (my foot!)  but thankfully peace was maintained. What happened in London was shocking too. A nation that claims to be culturally and democratically much advanced than the rest of world, failed somehow.

This vacation was as hectic as any other and the days flew fast. Except for a brief trip to Kanyakumari, the entire time was spent in Kerala since we had a bit of house renovation going on. It dragged through the entire holiday and more! The rain was one culprit and so also the frequent power failure due to the heavy rains. In between we did manage a trip to Cochin and two trips to Trivandrum and from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari.

If there is one thing that I remember most about this vacation, it would be the food. I think there was no respite given to the stomach anytime. Since we were mostly at home there was always fresh food and lots of fresh fish.

It was on our way to Cochin that we stopped at Avees Puttu House at Onnamkara– Kuttanadu. The Appam and curry was too good! On our way back we tried the tiger prawns and faced the same predicament that Mr. Bean faced. Heard the distinct sound… crunch, crunch.. but there was no other way to enjoy it!

A day at Kanyakumari was the most relaxing of all. The hotel that we booked online and with absolutely no clue turned out to be a good choice. The gentle and cool sea breeze was all that was needed to soothe you. The entire staff and also the food was too good.


A few photos that were clicked.









At Kanyakumari....



The sunrise at Kanyakumari..






At Sparsa....







Spent most of the time looking at this scene.... from the level of the water in the river, one would have an idea of the rain that fell overnight.


 

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