Media offices recently received a gift from the I&B ministry: two books, Activities undertaken by the Ministry of I&B for Comprehensive Coverage of International Day of Yoga (200+ pages) and Sal Ek Shuruaat Anek — One Year of Government. Activities undertaken by the I&B Ministry (200+pages). Replete with pictures, especially of the Prime Minister, the books are being seen as the ministry’s effort to score brownie points before its performance appraisal is done. Well, we wait with bated breath!

Say cheese please

The annual general meetings of banks invariably produce lighter moments. At the recent AGM of Corporation Bank, one of the shareholders pointed to the profile pictures of the board of directors in the annual report and asked why two of them were not smiling. The entire hall burst into laughter. So whether it is FB or annual report , the profile picture is bound to attract comments.

Make India first

At a recent conference the Union minister for heavy industries, Anant Geete, said he was upset that when he went to buy a Statue of Liberty miniature in Manhattan he found it had been ‘Made in China’. He was confident ‘Make in India’ would put India’s stamp on these kind of souvenirs soon. The Maharashtra minister for industries, Subhash Desai, consoled Geete by pointing out, “You are worried about China’s stamp in the Statue of Liberty, but we see the same marking in Ganesha and Devi idols during Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri in Maharashtra”.

Early birds

Normally the day starts a little late and ends early in the hills. But in Mizoram, in the far eastern corner of the country, it is different. Mizos generally wake up at 4 and by 7.30 am when the rest of India is just about getting out of bed, they have already had lunch. Dinner is at 5.30 pm sharp. On a recent visit to Aizawl, our correspondent discovered an accidental advantage of this schedule: you can start meeting people from as early as 6 pm!

What’s up?

The CEO of a low-cost airline recently took time off from work. That in itself is not unusual, but what is, is that he will be away for over a month at a time when his airline is bleeding and during a quarter when business is hard to come by. The airline is on autopilot now while decision-making takes a back seat. No wonder one of the partners wants to eject asap.

Up front or not

While it is well known that the top five e-commerce startups in the country are in the rat race of multiplying the GMV run rate month-on-month, they are also competing against each other in extracting the maximum mileage in columns per cm coverage in newspapers. When a senior journalist recently asked the country’s top e-commerce firm for information, the journalist was pointedly asked if the story would lead with that firm or be used as a quote in a larger story that led with its rivals. A clear case of one-upmanship!

Glorious sympathy

The BJP’s taking the third spot with a substantial number of votes in Kerala’s Aruvikkara assembly by-election this week is being hailed as the party’s coming of age, electorally, in Kerala’s bipolar political arena. The ruling United Democratic Front successfully fielded Sabarinath, son of the late speaker, G Karthikeyan, to cash in on the sympathy wave generated by his father’s untimely death. However, the real sympathy wave was in favour of the BJP candidate, O Rajagopal. He has fought several Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the past two decades, but has lost every time, jocularly earning the title “born to be defeated”.

When the Modi government came to power, it was rumoured Rajagopal would be made a governor, but that was not to be. Some Aruvikkara voters decided Rajagopal needed a mood lift — the ‘sympathy wave’ helped him win five times as many votes than those garnered by the BJP candidate last time! Clearly, a glorious defeat!

Related Topics