World at large and the small Indian Stamp

All movies have these legendary characters with some of the iconic dialogues and taglines. And yeah the good guy gets all the good ones. Exception being The Joker #MassiveRespect. Well one of them needs no introduction. The name is Bond, James Bond and the car is Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra. Well almost !!

Recent turn of events gave rise to the speculation that the fate of iconic British carmaker Aston Martin will be finalized at the hands of none other than Indian auto heavy weight Mahindra & Mahindra. They have come as the frontrunner and will see the deal as more of a strategic investment.

M&M is likely to pick up a minority stake of around 40% and an option to up their ante to 50% over the next two-four years. The transaction may also see fresh equity being issued to M&M based on final valuation. Though the Indian auto giant may have to shell out $190-320 million. Aston Martin is one name which gets all the car lovers drooling and this one time Ford owned brand was sold to Kuwaiti consortium Investment Dar for $767 million. Currently Aston Martin is valued little over $1 billion. If deal goes ahead, M&M will benefit surely as they currently dont have a luxury or sports car to flaunt in their portfolio. The Warwickshire plant of Aston Martin makes two door beauties like Vanquish and Vantage which now India based car manufacturer looks to be at an Ad'Vantage'. But thats not all it seems ... 

Coming are the days when the iconic chases between Bond and his villains will involve Mahindra tractors and would span across sugarcane farms in Northen Punjab. On the flip side, for promotions of their new tractor line Daniel Craig just might come down to sign some autographs-photographs and pose with the lucky winner - Balwinder Singh !!! 

Thats just one iconic brand getting the India stamp and with India rising equation, that day will soon arise when we see some of the following events. Dont take your palms to your face ladies & gentlemen, the day is coming soon.

Starbucks has already entered India with their strategic partner, the Tata group. However one day we will see the Medusa-esque lady will be waving 'Tata' from the green neon to customers taking out Kerala brew and Assam tea in blocks across USA.

Her Majesty the Queen herself would sport on saree style gowns specially designed by Parag and Praful sarees. Madonna's dresses would be straight from the markets of Hill road and Linking road in Bandra, Mumbai. Given a thought and by the judgement of her current style statement, its not totally wrong that this trend has already started. Weird world !!

The likes of Pan Parag and Pataka Chai sit prominently on the boundary billboards of South African test matches. Only some days left that Pan Parag will be proud sponsors of a country's cricket or rugby team. Imagine the look on their face when they realize that what we chew and spit out gets them revenue by sporting on their shirt.

SuperBowl's highest paying advert willo have the tagline 'Kya aapke toothpaste mein namak hain?' while the pyro and fireworks at Olympics will be exclusively from Standard fireworks, Sivakashi.

Last but not the least, Vivek Oberoi and Celina Jaitley will be the poster favs across Manchester and in the New York square. I went too far, didnt I ?? #OkBye

2G: Raja flipped, now Sibal flopped !!

For a country with one of the largest consumer base and the mentality of buying galore, it was that awkward moment as huge money spinning, moolah strumming bands of airwaves went unsold. The government, which had set a reserve price of Rs 14,000 crore for pan-India spectrum was based on some serious number crunching by CAG. These calculations were done to cover the losses as part of the previous sale in 2008. However the government managed a meagre Rs 9,407.64 crore in the auction that lasted barely two days. Even well 'Cook'ed innings by English batsmen in Tests in India last longer.

But the government was under the weather similar to that IT guy just before the appraisals. The targets were locked and garnering Rs 30,000 crore through disinvestment and Rs 28,000 crore by way of sale of spectrum to telecom companies by the end of this fiscal was no easy task. The deficit was 'hot-air' ballooning and the disinvestment also not going the way it intended to which meant that 2G was their 'ParleG' for treasury nourishment.

This was a classic case of inability of striking the iron when it is hot. From Montek to the neighborhood paanwala, it was a unanimous decision that the auction was timed wrongly. But who says nothing can be done. Like for every flop bollywood star Big Boss acts as that moment of comeback to limelight, in the exact same way re-pricing the spectrum at regular intervals and auction of the remaining bandwidth should be a win-win. Scabbers .. oops Mr. Sibal likes this.

So it all started with Raja treating one of the biggest auctions the country has seen aka 2G spectrum one as inventory system of the local grocer. However the First Come First Served scheme was tinkered with and even the Prime minister and other 'not so Prime ones' were as bamboozled as Aussies facing Indian spinners on fifth day Wankhede wicket. The system threw 'Error 404' everytime the word transparency came up and rest as we know is history.

But let us look from another perspective. Would the common people come to know about the problems in the process if not for the hue and cry by CAG and more importantly the Rs 1.76 lakh crore amount doing the rounds. Its India and people pay attention to numbers. Replace the ministers' names with mere barcodes or heavy numbers and people will take notice. What is gone is gone, make ammends and carry on !!

But again we all flock to one common consensus and earmark one reason and carry on. This time the scapegoat is 'The price of the spectrum is too high'. It sounds like a mere statement and its totally unjustified. Firstly, the spectrum is being sold for a block of 20 years. Who knows where the prices vs usage graph will take us in some years. So what happens when India grows at larger rate, the dynamics have to be understood now and the price needs to be factored. Its like how much you convince the movie buffs that its the start of parallel cinema but that one SRK romantic movie brings you back on the level one supposition.

Second, its mere stupidity to price spectrum low just because business is low. Its like asking for discounts for woolen wear in the month of May. Here it may sound appropriate, but sweaters are no telecom spectrums. And if things worked the same everywhere I would be at the non strike seeing Sachin Tendulkar in action *snap*.  So back to reality then.

Third but not the last, the initial price of the spectrum was kept on the lower side to lure foreign money to the country's economy. Now how much of that money went into the economy is a big question. So now Manmohan Singh and his troops have to work on reverse psychology and get their work done.

So then to put it in a nutshell, one knows that the auction will always be in a pickle when there is bad investment scenario looming large, no involvement of the bigwigs, cartelisation, absence of policy changes and ofcourse the high price of spectrum and not proper utlization. It was basically a recipe for disaster and its fitting that Sibal and his entourage owns up.

So Mr. Sibal, snap out from that Bubble !! Wow that rhymed !!

Financography .. when Finance meets Geography !!

As much as the topic sounds a bit weird but how riveting it would be to learn such a subject. Its often conveyed by the so called 'Gurus of Finance' that Finance is not a stand alone thing .. you have to align yourselves with all the avenues adjoining it. Its like Finance is no Chuck Norris, visualize it more like Justice League or the Avengers !! With this we take almost the literal meaning of avenue and the expansive geographies  that go with it. 

Take Fiscal cliff for example. The fiscal cliff is a newly coined term in USA referring to the effect of a number of laws which, if unchanged, could result in tax increases, spending cuts, and a corresponding reduction in the budget deficit beginning in 2013. And you thought it would be one of those specially named geographical appendage along the Grand Canyon. Headlines doing the rounds are 'Rivals dig in as Fiscal cliff deepens' making one think that this is surely a geographical marvel which is being dug upon under the orders of the people in charge. So the wealthy will be taxed more so as to bring parity and improve the economy of the nation. Now this even the Geographers would not mind, even Mr. Eratosthenes !! 

The world of Technical Analysis - A branch of checking stocks, sends the not so finance world in a tizzy. There are peaks and there are troughs which are actually the measures to see price levels and not the means for cartographers to draw maps on. However both have this common thread - pressure. While the geographic counterparts develop as a result of the air and ground pressure all along, their financial namesakes develop due to buying and selling pressure of the stocks and scrips.

Then there are wedges, not sand nor green, they are technical analysis patterns which forecast market trends. Again Geography waits behind in the queue like geeks after the cool guys devoid of existence.

Now for Time to bring some History to the mix. Bretton Woods is an epoch event not just for USA but for the World at large as it is here that the exchange rate system involving gold and US dollars came into existence. By mere one look at the word, it sounds more like the one next to Yellowstone Park where Yogi Bear & BooBoo would venture out in search for picnic baskets.

American, European & Bermuda options are all terms in the Derivatives segment. All are means of exercising the option on or before the expiry of the contract and not some continent oriented avenues for the people on a vacation. As for Bermuda, I would be immensely happy if people mistake it for the island of notoriety and not for a piece of clothing worn by the great Govinda !!

Basel Accords are not the pre decided tourist spots in a Yashraj movie, they are infact the principles adopted for banking regulations. So now you know one more thing apart from Roger Federer to come out of Switzerland and which is important. Ouch !!

Upstream is just the methodology of exploration in oil industry and not the way in which the fishes swim. For a minute even Moby Dick got excited. Sorry thats the only famous fish I know. Technically a mammal. Damn this is hard !!

Shogun and Tankan are not Japanese mountain peaks. They are merely public offerings and public information systems in the Land of the Rising Sun. But who would blame the land where a mere plumber teaches a kid martial arts and makes him win a big tournament involving big bullies. Ohh wait .. was it Chinese ?!?! Can the real Mr. Miyagi please stand up !!

There are many more instances where Finance weds Geography and a confused term is born as a result of this wedlock. Keep calm and let the term find its own existence in this finance crazy world.

Heard this fact very often that dont judge the book by its cover. Taking the proverb forward, I promise that I wont judge the financial term by its geographical relation. Is it too late to put this under my New Year resolution, coz this seems feasible.

United States: Divided State of Elections !!!

And its settled Barack Obama got re-elected as the President of United States for another 4 years after beating Mitt Romney 275 to 203 votes. More like the first time we heard that a Donkey had the option to say 'Kiss My Ass' to an Elephant. The iconic tweet of 'Four More Years' got spread faster than ants in a sugar factory with 800 odd thousand retweets around the world. The appointment was met with admiration and love. If it was for any Indian politician 'Four More Years' would have been expressed in a different tone altogether !!

So then Mr. Obama has extended his mayorship of White House on Foursquare. But with him at the helm, I think the new paint job for the White house is a must. Simply because the white needs to be more brighter for the new President. Disclaimer: No racist remarks involved, not even thought. So the celebrations went on with great joy and pomp. Even I did not think twice before celebrating and enjoyed this moment with a couple of Dark Chocolate Brownies ... yeah coz they are my favorites !! What did you think ??

So lets see how the finances went ... Obama had UCLA, Microsoft, Google & Harvard University as the main contributors while Romney had all the financial bigwigs namely Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley & Credit Suisse. It gives me the feel of a typical stables animosity from WWE where five guys from each side go at each other in a Tag team or a Lumber jack match !! Basically it shows the divided state of United States. Thats the first time I am using Antithesis since school !!

So now the man has taken his seat, what it means for people at large. The US of A, the World and most importantly India. Obama is facing whats called a fiscal cliff and its not one found along the Grand Canyon. If this is not resolved, US economy could face $600 billion worth of tax hikes and public spending cuts. More than his own rating, he now has to worry about whether US gets a credit rating knock. A downgrade for US is bad for the whole world .. its similar to how one bad SRK film makes the entire Bollywood sit and think. Tushar Kapoor & Uday Chopra are glad that I did not use their reference but what they fail to register is that we are talking about occasional flops. I hope they get it at some point.

But there is good news for India all around. US economy is showing signs of recovery although the unemployment rate is still high. However the easy money policy under Obama will mean more funds to be invested in emerging markets. This just in: Dalal street is celebrating !! Needless to say IT services will grow and expect more business. Along with IT, Pharma companies will gain from Obama's health plan. More like Pharma getting their new lease of life.

But there is this one thing pending ... So now we all wait for Mr. Arvind Kejriwal to come up to the podium and expose Mr. Obama. Yes, thats happening !!