Sunday, January 18, 2009

Commercial Street

Commercial Street Bangalore

The elite shopping area in Bangalore is still the commercial street. In this small area, you can find almost find all kind of shopping stuff that one would look for. Clothes is the USP for this area, while shoes , Wedding Clothes, Home decoration, everything one would find here. 

Like all crowded places, you will find it very difficult to find parking space. If you do find, it would mostly be quite far. 

On the parallel lane to the Comm Street, you would find the lane, which you can get all kind of ready to stitch materials. And yeah, not to forget, plenty of tailors. Some even promise to give the delivery within couple of hours.




Lot of eating joints are found, though my favourite being Shiv Sagar.

A must visit place in Bangalore for shopping.




Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Satyam Employee Shot Dead in US

The news channels seem to be streaming news of the Satyam Mega Scam. When I called in to my friend who is currently in US to ask about his wherabouts, he was in a bigger shock. One of his colleagues was shot dead by a most likely serial killer.
The serial killer apparently killed another person in a short period and still is at large.

Apparently he was mugged for cash, but since he didnt have enough money, he was shot in the foot and then bled to death. He was hospitalised for a day or so before he succumbed to injuries. His parents didnt have a passport , and hence couldnt travel. I understand that the body will be sent to India on Friday [ 16th Jan 2009]

Definitely not a great year for Saytamites

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Article in CNN-IBN Live

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/satyam-stunner-highs-and-lows-of-rajus-career/82183-7.html

 In a stunning five-page letter detailing years of financial deception at the firm he founded, Satyam Computer Services Chairman B Ramalinga Raju brought an illustrious corporate career to an undignified end.

A poster boy of Indian business after setting Satyam on a path of high growth, hiring thousands of staff and bagging lucrative outsourcing contracts from overseas clients, Raju admitted on Wednesday that profits at the company had been falsely inflated for years. India's biggest corporate scandal in memory hammered Satyam's shares, which had already been under pressure since last month.

The stock fell more than 80 per cent on Wednesday, leaving the company worth around $500 million, against nearer $7 billion just six months ago.

Life for the 54-year-old Satyam chief became tough last month after a botched attempt to buy two firms partly owned by the company's founders, which he said on Wednesday was a final attempt to resolve the problem of the fictitious assets.

"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten," he said in his resignation letter. His problems were compounded last month when the World Bank barred Satyam from business, citing "improper benefits" given to Bank officials. Satyam has demanded the World Bank retract those comments.

But nothing prepared investors for Raju's stunning revelation of years of inflated profits based on non-existent assets. He acknowledged no other board member had been aware of the financial irregularities, and insisted he had not profited from the company's inflated results.

Soft-spoken Raju, born into a family of farmers, said he was prepared to face up to the legal consequences of a scandal that analysts swiftly dubbed as "India's Enron". "This development was the last straw to break the camel's back," said Sudin Apte, country head of Forrester.

"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten," said Satyam Computer ServicesChairman B Ramalinga Raju in his resignation letter. 

"I believe possibly a third of Satyam's clients will exit in the next two-three months." Indian market regulators and government officials were quick to condemn, and banker Merrill Lynch terminated its engagement with Satyam, which counts General Electric and Nestle among its clients.

A management graduate from Ohio University, Raju moved away from agriculture to start a textile unit in 1977 before later moving into real estate.

In 1987, he founded Satyam Computer along with his brother B Rama Raju and brother-in-law DVS. Raju, taking the company public four years later. That year, he won his first offshore contract from US tractor maker John Deere & Co.

Raju steered the company in the next decade, snapping up joint ventures with GE and US defence and auto parts firm TRW Inc, which was acquired in 2002 by Northrop Grumman. Raju was among the first to spot the outsourcing opportunities of the turn-of-the-millennium Y2K computer problem, which saw the coming-of-age of Indian outsourcers, including Infosys Technologies and Wipro.

He then followed up with six acquisitions over the next few years, taking the firm's headcount to more than 53,000 working in software facilities in India and overseas.

With growth slowing sharply for Indian outsourcers due to the global economic turmoil, Satyam's new management will have an additional challenge – how to boost sagging morale among staff, customers and shareholders.

And Raju, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007, will be left having to watch from the sidelines rather than calling the shots at Satyam, which in Sanskrit means 'truth'.


The Big Scam

Satyam : Sanskrit Meaning "Truth"
What came out today , was anything but the truth. Raju M, the founder of Satyam Computers releaved the huge cooking up of the books for years together and along with that came his resignation from the Board Members. 
This has been the top story across all the main stream TV channels and all that one finds are the questions to the auditors PWC who are the biggest in the world. 
Questions will be raised, more inquiries will be setup and so on. But sadly for Raju, its not just the Indian Investors who are cheated, but those in the US also; Satyam being listed on NYSE and days are just tough for the man who started it off. 

The stock dropped to an alltime low of 30 and finally settled at 40 at the end of the day from the day's high of 188/-. Quite a feat !!
The only good news that I found in this issue is that Reliance Capital is going to replace Satyam in Nifty.