04 Oct
I’m trying to figure why that is turning out to be a big deal. Given that we have over 5 years of history of “organized retail” in India, and that it hasn’t performed particularly well on a lot of factors, I don’t know how permitting FDI in multi-brand retail is going to make a difference. [...]
Posted in business, economics, fundaes, politics, retail by: skimpy
3 Comments
02 Jul
Last week I’d written this post about managing studs, and while discussing that with some colleagues the other day, I realized that I could reformulate it without touching upon the studs and fighters theory. So let us consider a consulting firm. There is a partner, whose sole job is to solicit business for the firm, [...]
Posted in business, personal, work by: skimpy
No Comments
16 Jun
I just read a long article in today’s Business Standard (how I used to miss the paper until I resubscribed to it last week!) about the ongoing labour struggles at the Maruti Suzuki factory in Manesar. So the workers there want to form a new union, and allow a whopping 33% of the new union’s [...]
Posted in business, economics by: skimpy
1 Comment
01 Mar
So I finally finished going through today’s Mint and noticed that most of it was filled with analysis of the budget. I tried reading most of them, and didn’t manage to finish any of them (save Anil Padmanabhan’s I think). Most of them were full of globe, each had an idea that could have been [...]
Posted in arbit, finance, fundaes by: skimpy
2 Comments
16 Dec
So on Sunday we went to this temple on the outskirts of Bangalore where the in-laws performed Satyanarayana Pooja. There was a small number relatives there, and a large gang on unknown people (it was essentially a public function). It’s a nice temple, dedicated to Shiva, and built in the Kerala style. I think it’s [...]
Posted in arbit, economics, religion by: skimpy
2 Comments
07 Nov
So I was at an aunt’s place last night to celebrate Diwali, and we were celebrating with fireworks. Don’t raise a stink about my carbon footprint here since that’s besides the point. Also besides the point is that I spent a long time playing on the swing in my aunt’s house and thoroughly enjoyed himself. [...]
Posted in arbit, descriptive, economics, fundaes by: skimpy
1 Comment
17 Jul
Some six of us have planned for a vacation for next month. And so far, the “labour” of planning the vacation has been divided unevenly. So far, it has been three of us who have been doing a lot of the work – talking with tour operators, drawing up schedules, planning transport and accommodation, booking [...]
Posted in arbit, economics by: skimpy
15 Comments
06 Mar
People, especially in the US, make a big deal about home ownership. In fact a large part of the current economic meltdown has its roots in the American craze for home ownership. Fannie and Freddie were created to help home loans become cheaper, then there was the CDO wave. Then came subprime. NINJA (no income [...]
Posted in arbit, economics, fundaes, general by: skimpy
9 Comments
02 Mar
Over the weekend I spoke to a few friends, over phone and GTalk. And enquired about their business. Some interesting insights: On Saturday, I spoke to this guy who is a banker in the City of London. He says that one major fallout of the global economic crisis is that the financial markets have become [...]
Posted in business, economics, finance, investment banking by: skimpy
1 Comment
22 Feb
One of the greatest sins in the normal relationship process is tw0-timing. If your statistically significant other figures out that there is yet another other who might also be statistically significant, she is not going to take things lying down. The most likely scenario will be that the yet another other will indeed become statistically [...]
Posted in arbit, fundaes, personal, relationships by: skimpy
4 Comments