We Ran, We Pledged and finally we conquered...

Context :- Running the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon' 2009 for raising money for Teach for India's operations.

Action :-
(a) 57 students from SPJIMR joined together for this marathon escapade.
(b) Trained for around 2 months.
(c) Raised awareness and contacted corporates/family/friends for pledging in our favor towards Teach for India.

Achievement :-
(a) Pledges raised for the tune of 42,000 INR. from the SPJIMR family. This shall further be matched penny to penny by corporates from Bain Capital.
(b) Times of India Exclusive Coverage
(c) Pics of our Marathon achievement

A special thanks to everyone who contributed and helped us achieve this feat.

From Mumbai Marathon-2009

From SWITCH to WHICH

How many of us knew that SATYAM was honored for their corporate Governance :-
1)UK Trade & Investment India (UKTI) Business Award for corporate social responsibility awarded by UKTI

2)Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance awarded by World Council for Corporate Governance (WCFCG)

But as houses made of cards we have a 2.1 Bn $ company heading for 77% drop in the Market value. Though you must have already been bombarded with various facets of the news these days; here are a few questions that in my view remain unanswered especially considering the time-frames of the events...(Click on the pic for a better view)


A few pointers :-
Dec 15 : The prices fall due to large FIIs taking away their investments and then the SATYAM MAYTAS deal is released to newspapers. (Though logically, since Ramalinga Raju had only 5.3% share-holding and Institutional investors accounted for 61%; how could they go ahead with the deal without majority?)
Dec 22 : Satyam announces Buy-Back deal and thanks to the recommendations floating across various web-sites many ill-informed investors got the prices up.
Dec 23: World Bank bans satyam.
Dec 30 : 3 Independent directors resign (This is where things really go murky, since I haven't heard of any directors quitting due to wrong decisions.. my belief is that these directors got access to the insider information of incorrect valuations.. which would further doom Satyam later)
Jan 7th : Ramalinga Raju resigns and announces of the 5000 Cr deficit. (Suddenly Merrill lynch washes their hands and PWC is caught with their standard "No comments" remark)

Here arrives India's ENRON
But a few questions that shall go unanswered :-
1) Role of the Auditors (would we also expect a Arthur Anderson kinda backlash)
2) Hierarchical Flow of information (First the FIIs who pulled out in Dec 12, then the Directors resigning and then the world bank and only later on jan 7th almost a month later does the retail investor (Aam-Admi) who would have untill then lost his savings comes to realize his folly.
3) How would the valuations be for the take-over ?? Since after the fraud not only the investors, employees but also customers would run helter-skelter.

Well... as of now i shall let the questions plague my night and hopefully SEBI might use this as an oppurtunity to introduce any semblence of Sarbanes Oaxley into our indian system.

Breaking my break.... for the new years

What's with new years and resolutions; or even better sayings about new-year resolutions ...

"May all your troubles last as long as your new year resolutions" - some wise guy

As an impartial writer i shall leave you to conjecture upon the same...

Now back to the topic... What would be my Top 5 resolutions for the FY 09-10 ? But before that a small recollection of my previous year achievements, Social Project and those innumerable treks (including the NZ trip) I just can't get over the euphoria of last year's experiences. But unfortunately I have always suffered from amnesia and still looking out for the next big thing.... after all I believe that "I am an just an ordinary person in extra-ordinary circumstances"
So a few things that i shall be looking forward in this year; is a drastic change in my professional (back to corporate life and end of academics) and personal (3 year long wait for the union) life.
My Top 5 resolutions for FY'09-10 :-
1) Publish an article in a national newspaper.
Apart from a few articles of mine getting published in a few magazines, I have really been procrastinating. So this shall be one of my first goal.
2) Review 20 out-of-the-world books :-
Reading books has always been a passion, but one-fine day i just thought what if i can read and review around 100 books through-out my lifetime ?? Here was the beginning of my attempt.
3) Travel to atleast 5 new places :-
Travel-for-work not included :) and priority for budget and team would always be retained.
4) Initiate and involve people in a social venture :-
Well, I can definitely be crossing this out of the list ... courtesy Marathon
5) Learn something new :-
A few top things on my mind are either squash or pencil-sketching or atleast salsa

So wish me good luck... cause i really do need them in loads and definitely all of the above would definitely keep the posts-count of this blog mounting .