VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 188 Date: 13.02.2017
Contents:
1. Narayanmurthy's Pet Pieve?
2. Shutting Down Liquor Outlets 500 Meters Near Highways
3. Narendra Modi Yet Again Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Narayanmurthy's
Pet Pieve?
The upcoming spat between Narayanmurthy
and the other original promoters of Infosys since not associated with the
Co. is throwing up shades of the Ratan Tata - Mistry spat in the Tata group.
The idea seems to be that if Ratan Tata got his way why should we not try the
same at Infosys with Narayanmurthy leading the pack against the
present CEO, Sikka and Charman, Seshashayee. This is again the classic
case of backseat driving with the original founders wishing that they had the
steering wheel in their hands still though their public statements would be
exactly the opposite. Narayanmurthy and his fellow brethren in
this initiative should understand that they have handed over the Co. to
professionals and there can be no scope to now sit on the sidelines and carp
about the fine details, clothing themselves with holy statements about
shareholder value and corporate responsibility. Taking potshots again at one or the other individual managing
Infosys now and orchestrating comments from likely new appointees to replace
the targeted individuals is showing a complete lack of responsibility and rank
bad practice of management however noble the objectives of the founders may
sound. There
is another issue here that the Tata group is an almost a century and half old
and has the track record of that period to support them and thus obtain public
and/or shareholder support while in comparison Infosys has had a much smaller
span of time to cultivate the same image and therefore may not be able to
garner much public or shareholder backing in Narayanmurthy's present
pieve. There is no doubt that Infosys has been an achiever in the Indian IT
sector and has been commended for the values it upholds in terms of corporate
governance and generating shareholder value. But then one must go back to the
early 1980's when Indian IT was in its infancy and Cos. like Infosys who
started with hardware manufacturing also struggled with prevailing
conditions of rules, regulations and government bureaucracy and cut corners on
following these regulations like that of excise, the income tax exemptions for
the IT industry and the implementation of the STP (Software Technology
Parks) policy. Also there has been a long standing comment that the amount
of handholding and support that Indian IT industry got from successive governments
at the Centre through the 80's and until now, if it had been made
available to any other sector of Indian industry they would have achieved
the same level of success and fame around the world. Thus in this context the
awards and other accolades that Narayanmurthy claims that
Infosys has got, one can take with a pinch of salt since many awards as we
know can be bought. In the same manner the interview that Narayanmurthy
gave to one of the leading financial papers on this matter seems to be
bought and planted with the sole objective to make the founders look sacred and
paint the present management black. Narayanmurthy needs to
recognise that the IT business worldwide has changed with the
developing worldwide scenarios and Infosys' present management has to deal with
these matters on an ongoing basis and show the promised results over a period
of time. Thus to freeze frame the accusations to one or the other issue or
incident and to draw alarmist conclusions from that will only boomerang on the
founders who are advancing in age and it is natural that people may draw
conclusions that are otherwise on the state of the minds of the founders. It is
sad to see that inspite of Narayanmurthy's high sounding words he is
unable to sever his links with Infosys after publicly handing it over and
stoops to define what Sikka should do in having regular meetings with a dozen
or more old hands of the Co. instead of doing the job that he is paid for and
that is to run Infosys.
Shutting
Down Liquor Outlets 500 Meters Near Highways
Sometimes the Supreme Court in matters of
common knowledge seems to be a little deficient while on aspects of
jurisprudence one would give them top marks. This comment relates to the recent
judgement that bars and liquor shops within 500 meters of highways should be
shut down. The objective of the judgment though laudable that drunk drivers
cause accidents is at variance with the facts on the ground wherein the court
should have known that across India many of the highways go through small towns
and even upcoming cities. This is more so in Goa where most of the population
lives on the two sides of the NH17 which more or less bisects the State and you
have a 'Bar & Rest' almost every 100 meters of the 120 KM NH17 traverse
through the State. Where it goes through or near the big towns like Madgaon
many liquor vends, bars and restaurants serving liquor that have been there for
generations would get affected by the Supreme Court judgment. Thus the judges
should have taken cognizance that across India not all are open highways and
therefore any notice to close down these bars and liquor vends will affect the
livelihood of lakhs of people. Another point to be noted here is that for a
truck driver or for that matter any vehicle driver who is a habitual drinker
and/or an alcoholic the 500 meters ban is not going to make any difference
since they are known to drive tens of kilometers to find a liquor shop that is
open at the dead of night. Therefore it is best that the Supreme Court
reviews this judgment, the sooner, the better.
Narendra
Modi Yet Again Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Someone must have put in Narendra Modi's
ears mid-2016 that the IT Dept. officials are not putting in the
proper amount of work and are in fact slackening which may be far from what the
reality was. That is why he brought in the demonetisation on Nov 8th, 2016
apart from many other weighty reasons which brought the IT Dept. a huge
amount of workload. Initially it was reported that the IT Dept. has sent in 18
Lakh notices to individuals and entities whose deposits post 10th Nov 2016 to
31st Dec 2016 do not match their IT returns and are in excess of Rs. 5 Lakhs.
That truth on the number of cases has also changed now with the IT Dept.
stating that they are pursuing 1 crore cases. This is the actual number of
cases thrown up by the data analytics tools used by the IT Dept. So the IT
Dept. has another 82 Lakhs cases to go. With 18 Lakh cases the IT Dept.
would have been snowed under and with the 1 crore cases it is like being hit
with an avalanche or a tsunami. The truth regarding the value of deposits has
also changed from Rs. 2 Lakhs initially to Rs. 5 Lakhs in the middle and now
finally Rs. 2.5 Lakhs. Narendra Modi and the BJP unfortunately keeps
playing with the truth. When questioned, they would claim that the latest truth
is the 'better' truth. Little do they realise that there is only one truth which
is infallible and non-negotiable. The average Indian is gleeful that the IT
Dept. is swamped with cases. What the Indian psyche does which the IT
Dept. is fully aware of is that it gambles in the good old ‘jugaad’ way
that their file or case will never be picked up by the IT Dept.
Until the unlikely event moment arrives of their file or case getting
picked, they deal with it in an attitude of ‘dekha jayega’ or ‘we will
cross that bridge when he come to it’ – hoping against hope that the bridge
never comes on their horizon. The other thing is that these 1 crore cases are
supposed to involve Rs. 10 Lakh crores which is rather close to the value of
the demonetised currency on Nov 8th, 2016. Thus with some conviction
one can say that maybe the IT Dept. and the government is
yet again barking up the wrong tree, like when all the demonetised
currency came back to the banks by 31st Dec 2016, and they will
find that most of these are legitimate deposits within the existing framework
of IT rules and end up blaming the data analytics tools saying that it is
in cahoots with the black money mafia conniving to make fools of the IT
Dept. and trying to get at Narendra Modi.
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