Business Standard

Work is workshop and other stories

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N Sundaresha Subramanian New Delhi

It’s been back to school for many of us journalists over the past week, as the powers that be suddenly decided that scribes in the capital needed some classes on the capital market. I was nominated to attend one on the private equity market and I gatecrashed another on the listed market. Despite my prejudices about such sessions, the gate that belonged to the Taj Mansingh was definitely worth crashing in.

It hosted the media workshop organised by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and had a couple of media stalwarts turning up for a panel discussion with chairman U K Sinha and National Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) chief Nitin Desai.

 

The journalists’ turnout was so good that it made the stalwart No. 1 wisecrack that only Sebi and actress Rekha could have pulled that kind of a crowd on a Saturday morning.

One of the serious issues raised was the entry of corporates into the ownership of media companies. Only a day before, a top business group had bought a significant stake in a media company. Was Sebi worried and what kind of disclosure could be given in this case? While Sebi has, in collaboration with the Press Council of India, prescribed disclosure norms for media companies that invest in corporates, it is yet to speak out on the reverse that has been playing out now (big corporates buying directly or indirectly into media houses).

While the trend raises the larger questions about credibility and the business model of media companies, the point I raised was limited to the capital market, with the perspective of resolving of the potential conflict(s) of interests that may arise out of such transactions. For example, if a sandpaper-to-skyscraper corporate group that has interests in 5,000 businesses across seven continents buys into the second largest regional language daily, what disclosure should the paper give on a story it is writing about the chief minister’s son’s wedding, whose government is sitting on approval of a mega infrastructure project?

Desai of NBSA admitted the trend was disturbing and needed to be addressed. He said we should put in place adequate firewalls.

“Sir, we all already have Chinese walls. But, we know how to make Indian windows in them. Walls are not enough,” I tried to interrupt, trying to engage the others. While Desai stuck to his wall, other panelists chose to laugh it off and jumped to the next questions. But, they cannot keep doing so for long.

Meanwhile, the falling rupee has been triggering all sorts of theories, jokes and it has even brought back from the dead the great Indian Bharat Bandh. One I liked the most, given my insatiable appetite for conspiracies, was the one that connected it to the government’s black money report.

The buzz on the Street is that the white paper itself was more important than its rather unimpressive, nothing-new contents. The white paper could be a precursor to the return of VDIS – Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme.

Keeping aside the technicalities, the timing seems perfect for the coloured money to come back to India. “For money that was taken from India when the dollar was around 35-40 levels, there is no better time to come back, when it is flirting with 60,” said a Streetsmart.

According to him, whatever mandatory tax the VDIS requires the taxpayer to pay, which could be say 10, 15 or even 20 per cent, would be more than adequately covered by the currency appreciation.

Aam Admi’s poison is often Khaas Admi’s meat.

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First Published: May 29 2012 | 12:01 AM IST

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