The Fallen Maharaja

Save the crashing plane! Air India's plead to save it from the clutches of a mega crash landing has got the Government of India stepping up to show it the light at the end of a mammoth tunnel. The Government's stand to help the airliner only if it restructures its policies needs to be appreciated. I would say it has been a self-made crisis by the airliner. It's been more than a decade that the carrier has been bruising itself repeatedly. The foray of private carriers and the steady increase in the services by foreign carriers added salt to its wound. Country-men take pride while travelling in their own airliners. I haven't seen many feeling totally comfortable having got a ticket of Air India.

Public Sector IT Industry

The worst hit by recession have been the thousands of engineers that the nation has produced over the years working in private companies. Back in 2001-02, it was primarily the IT industry that had to bite the dust, but the current monster has gobbled up many industries. Being the world's largest outsourced market, India had to face the heat too. And Obama's "Bangalore to Buffalo" stance did little to soothe the Indian worries. The collapse of investment banks shut the doors of hundreds of Indian start-ups which mainly were linked to the IT market. It's good to see however Indian giants like TCS and Wipro continue with their business with minimum lay-offs. Adding oil to the fire was the Satyam controversy that has rocked the very foundation of the Indian IT industry and has now over 10k employees holding their breathe to hear the worst news of their lay-off sooner or later.

Both the Same

A week ago, a popular national daily carried a centerfold half-page entry which focused on women's role and position in today's world. It was a very pleasing article that talked about woman's slow but powerful entry into the world of business,sport,media etc. 6 pages away from that centerfold print,deep at the bottom of the page was a victory. Above this victory rested a defeat. The Indian Men's cricket team couldn't defend the T20 WC and had to bow off without much sparkle a couple of days back. And as every newspaper had been carrying out their own survey on what went wrong with the team, this daily also had a half-page article investigating in vain the roots of the defeat. And below this, probably as a reminder to the readers was the Indian Women's cricket team's hard-earned victory that put them in the semi-finals of their World Cup.