Sunday, November 20, 2011

Mallya takes on the Media


After many articles covering KFA's troubles, the media frenzy regarding this issue hit its peak after news that Mr. Mallya is allegedly negotiating a bailout package. Key people in the Govt (The PM, no less) spoke about the need step in which outraged many. How can taxpayer's money be used to save a private company, they asked. 

While following the developments, I wondered how the flamboyant man would react to all this. The response was measured. First his friends addressed the battle field. Suhel Seth and others spoke rationally and articulately about the problems surrounding KFA and the ills of the airlines industry at large. 

Then the man himself came out. The press seemed hostile, but Mallya composed.


He might have been fighting for his airline's survival, negotiating a "bail-out" package or partying with the Calender girls, you wouldn't have known by watching this interview. Among all his sporting interests, he would make (or probably is) a bloody good poker player.

Then he attacked the Media: 

@thevijaymallya: "Watching media reports n analysis that share prices of United Spirits fell due to Airline fears. How flawed. United Spirits is liquid gold"
"World largest plane lessor speaks 2 ET Delhi- full support 4 Kingfisher. Not published. Instead ET Mumbai correspondent ignores n attacks !"

Mallya's companies are one of the key advertisers for the Indian media. So it is very difficult to buy these arguments. I feel the TV media at least has been measured and cautious in its attack of KFA. They get facts wrong most time. They pronounce their verdict before hearing the case most times. But the slightest mention of "Bailout" got a swift response from Mallya. And soon enough, most of them corrected.

Either ways, the media seems to have moved on (in search of the next scam), with Mallya emerging the clear winner in this round. He and his airlines are hear to stay. For now at least.

In between this drama surrounding the media coverage for the last two weeks, KFA has achieved three things:

(a) Got Kingfisher out of some of the non-profitable routes, without much hue and cry from the government. Make no mistake, some passengers will suffer. But of the important reason why Indigo is profitable, is that they run only on profitable routes. 

(b) Its now become common knowledge that there is problem with the punishing taxes that the center/states levy. That Air India is also bleeding is a concern to the government. So if the government relaxes the taxes, they are less likely to get the "You are taking measures for private greed, what have you done for the common man" argument. Not sure they will be touching this though.

(c) Made it a bit easier for those lobbying for increase in FDI in airlines sector. India badly needs Reforms 2.0 and the Airline industry is in pole position to be freed up.

Final thought - 
@TheVijayMallya "If our Government has denied FDI by Airlines in Indian carriers on security grounds, how come we have expat non Indian Airline CEO's ?" On the Spice Jet CEO

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Starting your day with Twitter?

More than a year back, I decided to purchase the Ipad and also simultaneously stopped subscribing to any newspaper. Also because I didn't see a point waking up and reading the Toilet paper of India. 

So, since then I usually wake up and browse favorite websites, news apps and Twitter. Slowly, it has become only Twitter. I get all the news - the very latest, well written editorial are always RTed. Plus there the funny men with their funny lines. So, there has been no need to go anywhere else actually. 

But recently, twitter has not been good to start of with and I am thinking of going back to the newspaper days. Reason - Waking up to those RIP messages.. It is such a useless/sad way to start of your day. And usually on most occasions, these day only gets worse. 

Take for instance today's death of Peter Roebuck - I didn't need that information at 9AM.. It could have easily waited till say post noon and it wouldn't have changed anything. For two weeks I woke up to some tribute or the other of Steve Jobs .. Great man, but should not affect your 14 consecutive mornings! The last few months have been just terrible.

I wonder how many people start their day with twitter on your apple / android / blackberry machines? Do you? (Pls leave a comment; You might probably be the first one :) )

I am thinking of getting back to the old habits of reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee.. And not opening twitter till much later in office.. What say? And which newspaper to go for in Delhi? HT?

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The joke that is Ballon d'or!

Whatever might have been the process to arrive at the nominations, the Ballon d'or list was very disappointing, to say the least.

There was a clear message (As in the earlier years as well) - It is not the football over the last 12 months but your popularity that wins nomination. Perfect example was Eric Abidal, who received a nomination after raising the CL trophy coming back from illness. Another example was Eto'o.

Lets get the easier task out of the way - predicting the winner

The Winner - Lionel Messi

It doesn't matter that Messi is a dud playing for Argentina, a side with the attacking talent of Higuain, Tevez, Aguero.. Creativity in Di Maria, Riquelme & I am sure that I am missing a lot of names

It doesn't matter that he did this last season:



Neither that he often goes to ground easily. Messi is the darling of world football. He cannot do any wrong. Hence Winner.

How Sneijder could miss out last season still beats me! Scratch that, he couldn't make it to the top 3 .. The rest have no chance this year.

Runner Up - Ronaldo
Third - Xavi &/ Iniesta


A word on the nominations:

Full List: Eric Abidal (France), Sergio Aguero (Argentina), Karim Benzema (France), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Dani Alves (Brazil), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Nani (Portugal), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Gerard Pique (Spain), Wayne Rooney (England), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), Luis Suarez (Uruguay), David Villa (Spain), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Xavi (Spain).


From the list, two clubs dominate the nominations:
Barcelona - 8
Real Madrid - 5


They are currently the best two clubs in the world, that they can be no doubt.. Ofcourse, Manchester United have a better "recent history" (the last 5 seasons) than Real Madrid.

Here's my changes to the list of 23 nominations:


Omissions I make from the current list: 

  1. Villa, really? If at all a Barca player has to be nominated, it should have been Pedro, who provided the real spark last season (Including the first goal in the Champions League finals)
  2. Eric Abidal? As discussed. 
  3. Sergio Aguero. Please Explain. 10 Points.
  4. Benzema? 20 Points for anybody who makes a half decent attempt.
  5. Muller comes in as a total surpise.. Specially considering neither Goetze or Nuri Sahin made the cut. Also Gomez scored 39 goals.. Muller, playing for the same club only scored 19
  6. Samuel Eto'o: Another one who gets the popularity vote
  7. Fabregas: Cant recollect him doing anything last season apart from sulking and being injured. Actually, that is good enough for many !
  8. Ozil: Had to put his name after some thought. Had a very good half a season but was completely missing from the crucial matches in the second half.. Probably it was the fatigue factor, but not this year, Ozil.
  9. Bastian Schweinsteiger: Bayern Munich finished 3rd in the league, Round of 16 in CL and won nothing.. Very good player, but sorry, no nomination this season

Just making the cut:

Dani Alves (He won a lot of trophies, played well & there are very few defenders in the list) , Sneijder (He should have won it the last season.. This year, he just makes the cut because of grace marks carried forward), Forlan (For his international performances)

Inclusions:

  1. Van Persie - Is the single reason why Arsenal is still competing today
  2. Goetze - I think the only reason he does not make the list is because of that Ronaldo's quote
  3. Nuri Sahin - Bundesliga's player of the season last year
  4. Cavani - Not far behind DiNatale in terms of goals, was an inspiration to Napoli guiding them to 3rd and the Champions League place
  5. DiNatale - Top scorer for Italian league last season. Was the reason why Udinese's finished 4th
  6. Falcao - Nobody deserves to be in the list more than Falcao based on what he achieved for Porto, especially in the UEFA cup
  7. Hazard - The best player in the French league, the only reason he is not there in the list is that no bigger club has paid 40 million for his services

The list has very few defenders and/or goal keepers. So here are two who deserve to be there:

  1. Vidic - United were EPL champions and the CL finalists: They deserve 3 nominations.
  2. Manuel Nauer - The goalkeeper who should have been in the list along with Iker Cassilas

Notable Absentees
Mario Gomez (Picked Goetze and Sahin ahead of him), David Silva, Hulk


Summary - 


The best three clubs (of 2010-11) representation in my list:
Barcelona - 5 (Probably too many, but they did win the double)
Manchester United - 3
Real Madrid - 3 (+1; Sahin)

9 Changes (Plus a possible 3 more) to a squad of 23, shows how poor the Fifa nominations are.