The Jio war
The fight between the telecom majors has spilled over to the social media and personal messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. A write-up speculating on the drawbacks of Reliance Jio’s ₹1500 phone has emerged and has been circulating online. The write-up is promoted by executives from competing networks and notes that the phone being offered by Mukesh Ambani is watered down and would not have the features required by the internet of today. Talk about corporate rivalry!
All eyes are on the RBI and the finance ministry: Will they let go the age-old tradition of selecting an RBI deputy governor (the post reserved for a banker) from the public sector banks? Reason: For the first time, representatives of the private sector have been invited for interviews to fill this seat.
There is another interesting dimension. An earlier norm requiring the CMD of banks appearing for interviews to have at least one year’s experience as CMD has also been dispensed with. Clearly, new ground has been broken by the Government and the RBI in this interview process.
Time is also running out as Deputy Governor SS Mundra demits office on Monday. The fact that private sector representatives have been invited for interviews is a clear pointer that the Government and the RBI have an open mind on this and are looking to expand their horizons to get the right person, say banking industry observers. Whoever makes it is bound to face a tough time in the hot seat, especially in the current times, is the thinking. A ‘yes man’ is the need of the hour and, going by the list of those who’ve made it to the interview stage, this seems like a distinct possibility.
Jobs vs motherhood
The Centre may have brought in the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, but on-ground execution still seems a far cry, going by the number of Twitter complaints being received every day by the women and child development (WCD) ministry’s hashtag #HelpMeWCD. Last week, WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi sent an official release acknowledging this and pasting a few Twitter complaints pertaining to harassment by employers during pregnancy and termination of jobs across sectors. She is also taking up some cases with labour commissioners. With unions becoming scarce, the social media seems to be the only outlet available for aggrieved employees — regardless of the outcome, of course.
Family matters
The recent presidential and now vice-presidential elections have seen interesting methods of campaigning. No medium has been left untouched.
Check this out! A WhatsApp message doing the rounds is an open letter to vice-presidential candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, which reads : “My dear Gopu mama, At the onset, I want to congratulate you on being a candidate for the post of the Vice-President of India. While one part of me is very happy for you — as this is a step in the direction of you realising your longstanding political ambition, the other part of me — the ‘citizen common man’, is once again dismayed by your choice of whom you offered your candidature to. One of your grandfathers and one of my great grandfathers, happens to be the same man — Mohandas K Gandhi. We therefore share a common heritage.”
And the letter goes on…ending with: “I am sorry Gopu mama, but this decision of yours doesn’t build confidence, at least not in me. Rather it is confidence betrayal (as they say in Tamil — Nampikkai Throgam )! My affection for you remains undiminished. I wish you good luck in your quest for being VP. With my love and pranams , I remain, Yours very truly, Krish (Shrikrishna Kulkarni), Bangalore, July 25th, 2017.”
The footnote reads: “P.S. I am putting this letter on social media so that I can share my views with other citizens of this nation.” Well, well!