The Satyam of the CS profession-Company Secretaries-heal WIRC before preaching governance

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India(ICSI) is organized into 5 regional councils. Of these, the WIRC(Western India Regional Council) got a stinker in terms of adverse audit report due to financial iregularities pointed out by the statutory financial auditor-incidently a chartered accountant
https://www.icsi.edu/Portals/72/WIRC%20Annual%20Report%202015-16.pdf

The report goes into deep detail but to quote a few examples, the adverse observations include procurements at high prices without comparative quotations, organizing events in 5 star hotels without HQ approval, incurring hotel tariffs over authorized limit, purchasing luxury pens worth Rs 4 lakh and keeping with self, giving staff overtime via inflated conveyance vouchers, purchases via non substantiated invoices, giving sponsorship without written agreement resulting in potential NPAs. These observations led to AGM being adjourned, speculation in CS community and finally the supercission of the regional council, with the ICSI Central Council finally making its actions public below
https://www.icsi.edu/WebModules/Advisory.pdf

While a single instance does not tarnish a full community, the institute employees are akin to public servants, and the office bearers being elected representatives of professionals, have a duty not to bring the profession into disrepute. What happened at the WIRC ICSI appears a failure of internal control, collusion/overlooking of employee fraud by elected council members who themselves were not setting a good example. And despite the audit taking 6mths to close, the council members did not comment on the audit report and just blamed the earlier President. This is not good governance.

While this is bad for any profession, it is especially ironic that ICSI which brands itself as a governance expert, did not nip the WIRC issues in the bud. One only hopes that the WIRC issues are investigated, corrective action is taken including reprimand/dismissals so that further episodes don't repeat. And here may I point out that it took a chartered accountant to detect the fraud, and not a CS/CWA. This only reiterates that financial audit is a job best left to CAs, and that having an auditor independent/not regulated by the institute(A CA is not regulated by ICSI) does help to detect fraud.

Why are Indian lawyers more businessmen than professionals

Recently, I had read books on the medical profession such as http://www.amazon.in/Dissenting-Diagnosis-Arun-Gadre/dp/8184007019?ie=UTF8&keywords=Dissenting%20Diagnosis&qid=1477762824&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=8-1  and http://www.amazon.in/Ethical-Doctor-Kamal-Kumar-Mahawar/dp/9352640098/ref=pd_sim_14_6?  _encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1CTG40KCX9RYQRE0FVWW
This got me thinking about other professions including law, and therefore this law. The reason I write about law is the importance of it in the growing litigious environment amidst the legal shambles. No other profession gets such negative coverage, be it the advocates agitation/strikes, 'tareek pe tareek'..While reading about this topic, I saw that the list of misconducts cited in the below article is mind boggling
http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/professional-misconduct-of-lawyers-in-india-1665-1.html

Without much ado, I proceed to my grouses

1. ·         Advocates strikes/hartals/bandhs-even at the cost of their clients 
2.  ·         The culture of adjournments
3.  ·         ‘Eternal’ arbitrations
4.  ·         Probono very care, legal services cell hardly in vogue
5.  ·         Preferential treatment to Senior Counsel-unjustified that their reputation is formalized and fee earning capacity enhanced, by the result of a opaque process without any continuing obligation
6.  ·         Too much separation of work-Advocate, Solicitor, Counsel-many folks to pay fees
7.  ·         Limited effort to insert ‘Plain English’ in drafting
8.  ·         No scale of fees/standard rate chart-

Remedies

1. ·         Startups to assess win/loss odds like in UK basis type of matter, number and outcome of hearings, case status(upheld/overturned)-This is a formal assessment of succcess rate and efficiency which could help for mass litigation matters
2.  ·         Automate ‘routine’ stuff like legal contracts-This while reducing bread/butter business, would help lawyers do more value adding work
3.  ·         ADR allowing for other professionals such as CA/CS/CWA, who are regulated more strictly
4.       Simplication of laws, procedures and court/police procedures, so that the common man can represent himself/herself in court and largely via written submissions 
5.      Restriction on # of matters a lawyer can take at a time(~ceiling on tax audits of CA) so that the culture of adjourments reduces
6.      Court Management Introduction to address delays in proceedings     

Dear CAs in industry, just 3000 votes can elect a ICAI Central Council Member from Western Region

I have often felt that members in service despite constituting 52% of the overall members of ICAI, are not adequately represented on the ICAI Central Council. I decided to delve deeper into the 2015 election results to see why this is so.

I noticed that the Western region with 88000 members saw a 44% turnout for 11 seats, thereby needing 3230 votes(total of first preference and others). This represents merely 3.7% of the total members, or 6.5% of members in practice! Imagine the power of CAs in industry, if they turnout to elect, even taking the 40% turnout, they can combine and ensure that around 5-6 members of their choice are elected from WIRC.

Also, if we notice the votes secured by the 11 finally elected members, we notice that 6 members obtained merely between 50%-65% of the required votes on the first ballot, with remaining votes via 2nd/other preferences. Therefore, there is still hope for those who marshall above 1600 votes on the first preference ballot. 

Member Finally Elected	1st preference votes	1st Pref as % of threshold
BHANDARI ANIL	1692	52%
CHHAIRA JAY AJIT	2685	83%
CHHAJED PRAFULLA	1666	52%
GHIA TARUN JAMNADAS	2083	64%
HEGDE NANDKISHORE	2558	79%
JAMBUSARIA NIHAR NIRANJAN	2058	64%
KHANDELWAL DHIRAJ KUMAR	1683	52%
KINARE MANGESH PANDURANG	1603	50%
SHAH DHINAL ASHVINBHAI	2925	91%
VIKAMSEY NILESH SHIVJI	3112	96%
ZAWARE SHIWAJI BHIKAJI	3264	101%
Others tranasfer
Others voters	13433
Votes lost
	38762

When will ICAI presidents stop regionalism?

Last week,  I attended the ICAI international conference in Hyderabad. There, the chief guest Venkiah Naidu(Urban Development Minister, also from Hyderabad) said he had accepted the invite because "A local person has brought this event to Hyderabad". It struck me then that the very reason for chosing Hyderabad is because it is the president's town. But this is not an isolated instance as one can see below, each past president brings atleast ONE major/international/annual event to their home city.

When Railway Ministers used to relocate Railway headquarters/launch special trains to their hometowns, I used to laugh at their power hungry nature. But when such a thing happens at my own professional body, I wonder what to do!

President	Year	Zone	City	Event Held in the city
CA. Amarjit Chopra	2010-11	CIRC	Delhi	International Conference on Accountancy Profession: Catalyst to Sustained Economic Growth
CA. G Ramaswamy	2011-12	SIRC	Chennai	International Conference: Leveraging Challenges for Inclusive Growth
CA. Jaydeep Narendra Shah	2012-13	WIRC	Nagpur	International Conference (ICON 2012) for CA Students
CA. Subodh Kr. Agrawal	2013-14	EIRC	Kolkata	Accountancy Profession: Emerging Frontiers of Future Growth” from November 21-23, 2013
CA. K. Raghu	2014-15	SIRC	Bangalore	Accountancy Profession: Building Global Competitiveness; Accelerating Growth from January 29th-31st, 2015
CA. Manoj Fadnis	2015-16	CIRC	Indore	Accountancy Profession: Spearheading Excellence
CA. M. Devaraja Reddy	2016-17	SIRC	Hyderabad	ICAI International Conference-Hyderabad-2016

How finance professional regulators like ICAI ICSI ICWAI are failing the public interest test

In a recent article, Prof Ajay Shah of NIFP advocated the separation of powers of professional regulators to ensure that 'poachers cannot be gamekeepers'. He cites the example of stock brokers regulation as a success model here.
http://www.nipfp.org.in/media/medialibrary/2016/07/25072016.pdf

Ever since the Medical Council of India(MCI) which was plagued by corruption was dissolved and a new body asked to be created with 4 verticals of UG education, PG education, Licensing and New College creation/Infra, there has been interest in figuring out models for others.

As regulators like CVC and CAG have put it below, professional regulation is not working enough:
http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/one-in-five-cas-breach-tax-audit-norms-says-cag-report-regulator-steps-in-to-form-panel/
http://cvc.nic.in/codeethics.pdf 

My view is that unless the disciplinary arm and academic arm is divorced from the membership body, we will have issues like lax disciplinary measures, pass rate depending on economic conditions(or so it appears to the outside world) and people joining the councils for reputation/business enhancement(eg coaching class owners who are clearly conflicted) rather than public service motto

Indian startups suck at customer service-PAYTM is the latest example

Despite its higher charges and less attractive reward points, the reason I have retained my Citibank credit card is the fantastic customer service-right from the low IVR wait times, to the considerate customer service team who reminds to redeem reward points before surrendering the card. Unfortunately, I cannot say this about many other companies, and hardly any Indian startups. The reason I single out startups (and not established companies) is that they claim to be customer centric without hierarchy. The reality however is far different. This blog is a pent up series of issues prompted by my latest experience with PAYTM-where Uber added a toll to my fare and refused to remove it, and PAYTM(via which it was paid), refused to get involved.

1. PAYTM: They delayed my premium wallet registration by 2 weeks. Also when I raised a vendor dispute with Uber, they said that they will not get involved. Bottomline: PAYTM CANNOT replace your credit card and is not a neutral marketplace. If you want safety and ability to chargeback, do not use the PAYTM wallet. Also, the customer care team has long wait lines and has very poor email etiquette 
2. Citus Wallet: The one occassion I had to check for fraudulent withdrawal, they dragged their heels. Also, hardly willing to commit on phone and insist on an email
3. Quikr: Nearly lost Rs 10,000 here when they disclaimed an escrow account claim. Only repeated threats of credit card chargebacks got them to budge
4. Flipkart: Not tried it for a long time but lack of live chat is a bad thing
5. Makemytrip: Technically this is no longer a startup but is quite bad in resolving issues fast
6. Travel Triangle: My brother booked a tour package through them, the driver was quite bad, but they did not help/hold the fee. Finally he had to settle for a lower amount after much persuasion
7. Zerodha: If you need help with technical issues like pending trades, god help you

To balance out the above negative view, some stellar examples in my experience

1. OYO: I accidently missed a booking but they gave me a complimentary room to make up. 
2. Ebay India: They helped me get the seller to cancel the order after he refused to change the shipping address. The team was helpful at a personal level
3. Amazon India: Their live chat with a 2min wait time is just amazing.
4. CityFlo: Prompt refund of unused balances despite stopping business
5. Lifto: Customer care wanting to know 'VOC'(Voice of customer) often

Some foreign startups I have used and which have great customer service

1. Getabstract: Willing to extend Indian/student discount without much procedure

We Indians have brought it upon ourselves by not (seemingly) being willing to pay a premium for customer service-but as 5 star hotels would attest-and 2 star OYO-there is a market for such things.
Just that Indian startups maybe feel that UX/UI/Ad/Promos are enough, and that customers will do 'JUgaad' to fix things. They might-but then you eventually pay for it

Has Zerodha lost its mojo?

Nearly 4years ago, I began using Zerodha inspired by its discount brokerage philosophy. Since then, the following are the good things I have seen

• Android App: Changed from clunky app to the 'Kite' softwate
• Technology: Kite and Backoffice are great features to use. 
• Small investor helped with Order Types+Charting+Algos: This is a feature earlier only available to HNIs/Institutions but now available to other investors
• Knowledge base: Zerodha Varsity is one of the best modules I have seen-far better than NSE-NCFM or any other paid material
• People: Many of the people have stayed with them since start-this I recognize from the names of the people I speak to whenever I need support etc
• Pricing: Still at the same levels-and removed for equity delivery trades. 

The disadvantage which I see is

• Inadequate backup/redundancy: Whenever the website/app fails or slows down, the call centre strength is not ramped up. This leads to possible order loss and real losses if not able to exit the position. 
• Compensation for failures is stopped: On an occassion last year, when the networks failed, Zerodha apologized and reversed brokerage charges for that day. But the last 2 times It has happened, there was only 1 apology and no talk of brokerage reversal
• Frequent technology failures: I have faced inability to access/place orders, around once a month. 
• No flexibility for third party demat accounts: One cannot sell from a non Zerodha demat account(but can take delivery). This inhibits safe custody of assets if one is not comfortable with IF&FS/Zerodha/CDSL
• Poor support for demat/updates: Their ability to support for demat needs a change. Also they insist on physical signed requests instead of an online interface
• Possible order flow leakage/Prop Trading competition: Zerodha runs its own prop trading arm and startups. They MIGHT be using the order flow data to trade/front run.
• Non transparent revenues-do they earn for order flow routing: It is not clear whether like some brokers abroad, Zerodha earns money to route orders to the preferred exchange. While customer has the right to choose exchange, Zerodha could nudge him towards NSE/BSE for reasons other than best price..
• No fund transfer on Saturday: They allow to fund the account 24*7 but not to withdraw the balance on Saturday. This is unfair
• Mistakes on the app and/or Backoffice: Recently, I saw an absurdly high amount on my "Kite' page, and my father saw an incorrect ledger statements. These errors are not acceptable

Above are maybe common with other brokers but if the tech failures continue, I might reduce my usage of Zerodha.

How hyperlocal services startups are increasing/causing inflation

Have you ever used Urbanclap, Quikr or other hyperlocal startups to book a service like plumber, electrician, beautician, painter etc? If so, you may have unwittingly contributed to the growth of inflation for now and later. While it is good to have more visible choice online, this does not necessarily help the end consumer if there is no increase in supply. The reasons are manifold

• Migration from informal sector to 'organized sector': With the activity getting recorded, there is only a matter of time before service tax/GST and TDS(on professional services deducted by the platform from payments made to the service provider) kicks in. And at ~19% and 10% respectively, you are already looking at a 30% inflation.
• Premium for language skills/soft skills/training: While skilling of these workers is a good thing, it often results in expensive rates even for people who do not need this level of sophistication.  
• Cross subsidization via standard ratecards: For example, an expat in Malabar hill and a housewife in the suburbs need not pay the same rate but they often end up doing so. 
• Lack of fresh supply: When talent becomes more mobile and goes online, the rates would go up since the demand does not reduce
• GMV Inflation: To increase GMV, these startups sometimes do a 'Lenskart' with high sticker prices and daily sales. This has the risk of increasing offline prices too for those not savvy enough to use the codes.

Other factors which seemingly affect inflation but which may not in reality

• Platform fee/commission: The 10%-30% cut taken by the platform(in steady state) merely replaces the fee taken by the neighborhood shopkeeper. 

To sum up, an end-end integrated business model like one suggested by Sramana Mitra in her book India Vision 2020 might allow such services at affordable prices. But I am not holding my breath for this, since anything which might provoke deflation even if win-win might not be implemented fast

The bearish case for the Indian cotton Industry

It has always puzzled me why do good clothes cost so much in India-recently my parents went to Singapore and purchased a T shirt made in Thailand for Rs 500, which would have cost me around Rs 800+ in India. One reason could be export pricing being applied to India, very much like an Ipad, with no thought for PPP. There is already pushback against brands like Zodiac who are now struggling to make profit. While analysts are bullish on the industry and have lead investors to bid up shares like Page Industries, Kitex, Ambika Cotton, Indocount, Arvind Mills etc to new highs, there are global winds in the offing which are not so favourable. The Zodiac online annual report does a good job of flagging this. Thats probably the only notable thing in the otherwise bland report

http://www.zodiaconline.com/portalrepository/media/files/Annual+Report+2015-16.pdf Pg 54

1. The TRANS PACIFIC Partnership (TPP Agreement) is expected to come into force circa end 2017. Of the currently 12 participants, Vietnam and Malaysia are the two TPP members who can pose a serious threat to India’s export of clothing, due to tariff concessions, practically zero duty access, that they would get in the US market. Vietnam is already one of the fastest growing major exporters to the US market, even without any tariff concessions. Also relevant is that Vietnam is already in negotiation with the EU for a FTA, expected to be finalized by 2018.
2.  India’s own FTA with the EU, negotiations for which started in 2007, has not progressed substantially. In textiles and clothing there is already tentative agreement, that all customs duties can be abolished on both sides, but there are issues outside the Textiles space that remain to be resolved. While EU importers of India’s clothing are currently paying customs duty of 9.6%, many of our competitors, notably Bangladesh, have zero duty access. The FTA agreement is therefore of utmost importance, and can be a game changer. It needs to be signed at the earliest to harvest the competitive advantage that the economic package for clothing, announced in June 2016 by the Government of India envisages
3.  Britain’s decision to leave the EU is likely to add to the complexity. From India’s export, 37% or USD 6.25 B goes to the EU, from which 15% or USD 1.8 billion goes to the UK, the risk being recession/contraction of growth, as well as further depreciation of their currencies. 
4.  China diversifying its supply base to service their customers out of low cost/tariff benefit countries and thereby, yielding less ground. 
5. In this decade of volatility, Forex volatility witnessed in the last few years constitutes a threat.
6. How long will the global economy/consumer demand and the Indian consumer demand (including the additional constituent of fresh demand from the Demographic Dividend) take to revive? -
7. The internal barrier to trade in India of Entry Permits needs to be extinguished forthwith.

While Point 1 & 2 may not emerge with the TPP almost dead, and Point 7 to be solved next year with the advent of GST, the danger is real.

Will business books get replaced by abstracts/summaries anytime soon?

As a subscriber to book summary service Blinkist( and a past one of Getabstract), I believe in the view that one can get the maximum out of business abstracts rather than read the full book. Reasons for this are

1. Much crisper-5 pages vs 300-500 pages
2. Cheaper-Perhaps not in emerging markets where the price($10) is enough to buy 2 or more business books to keep, but certainly for developing markets
3. Time-Saves a lot of time
4. Format-Digital format and mobile/tablet friendly-easier than paper

Cons against this is

1. Usually 'Cloud' and unable to download-so you lose access after subscription ends-you do NOT own the summary/asbtract-Access is not permanent
2. The vivid stories/anecdotes which help remember otherwise dry concepts/lessons are not captured in the summary, so retention could be lower
3. Gradually one might lose the ability to read longer text, and therefore lose the pleasure of classics or books like that of Adam Smith/Mises
4. Book summaries may not be for the 'long tail' which one may still need to buy

While the market is up for disruption, the services may not continue in their present subscripton based form due to competition from Kindle Unlimited-This allows you to read the entire book. Also, many enterprising folks are creating unlicensed(?) summaries of popular non fiction books which are included under Kindle Unlimited, and hence at zero marginal cost for the reader

I would say overall that the business book market is inefficient, but if the prices are lowered or if unlimited book libraries continue, then people would still prefer to skim/speed read the book than resort to an expensive summary. 

Meena Ganesh 100% successful serial entrepreneur tag fading away with Portea?

'Able was I ere I saw Elba'-this quote attributed to Napolean, indicates that every successful person eventually meets their Waterloo. In this case, Portea seems to be the one crack in the success story of Ms Ganesh, who otherwise has a great record(http://www.vccircle.com/news/healthcare-services/2013/07/29/serial-entrepreneurs-meena-k-ganesh-buy-healthcare-services-firm). They purchased the firm in 2013, and scaled it up getting capital from Accel even as late as Sep-15. However, this did not halt them from being among the firms who withdrew campus offers as reported widely in the media(http://m.techgig.com/tech-news/editors-pick/8-tech-companies-who-delayed-or-cancelled-offer-letters-44581). While the other companies here may be run by first time entrepreneurs or have burnt through funding, that is not the case for this firm with such excellent management. The couple have ensured profitable exits for all their portfolio firms so far.

However, there were indications that this was coming. For example, when my aunt needed a full time medical attendent, another aunt(a qualified MD) thought to use Portea, but given the quality of the attendants and the shoddy customer service, she repented her decision since the service did not even match basic standards, forget justifying its premium pricing. So given the operational issues in the firm, cancellation of offers is just an outcome, indicating underlying business issues.

One hopes that the company can be salvaged, however present situations do not seem good. Read more about the company at the below link

http://paulwriter.com/quick-chat-with-meena-ganesh-partner-growthstory-in-and-md-ceo-portea-medical/
Meena is MD & CEO of Portea Medical, India’s largest and fastest growing home healthcare company, which she co-founded in July 2013. With 4500+ employees and operations across 24 cities in India and 4 cities in Malaysia, Portea (www.portea.com) brings in-home to patients the full range of geriatric, chronic, post-operative care as well as allied healthcare services. Meena is leading the charge as the company expands to 50 cities over the next 2 years providing affordable and convenient healthcare solutions.

Why Indian startups suck at customer service compared to Western peers

In these days of Startup India, homegrown startups can do little wrong-except maybe when they delay joining offers to students hired from campus. So this

Let me give a few examples

1. Flipkart vs Amazon: Amazon is WAY easier to contact using multi channels-you can write an email after logging into the account, or call or chat. They respond quickly and helpfully. It is not that they are pushovers or that they bend policy-for example when I wanted to convert an ongoing monthly subscription into an annual subscription to save money, they said I need to cancel the monthly one first and then take the annual one. But when it comes to resolving a genuine customer grievance(as opposed to a wish), they are unmatched. For instance, I ordered L'oreal Kajal eyeliner for my wife, which got over in 2mths vs normal usage of 5mths. When I pointed this out through email, Amazon did not reply but directly placed a free replacement order. This is customer delight indeed. In contrast, Flipkart takes time to respond to emails, and is not too well known for timely or helpful resolution. While Flipkart's hiring of people from customer centric industries may change this trend, I believe Flipkart has a long way to go here
2. Uber vs Ola: While Ola is more tuned to the Indian marker(for example Launching Ola Share before Uber Pool in India, and launching Ola Outstation), 
1. its customer service is slower than Uber and can be reached through a NON toll free number. Whereas Uber has a super helpful drop down menu where customers can select their grievance category, and drill down to the sub type. In case of a common complaint of overcharging/poor route/wrong distance, Uber compares the fare to its database and estimate of the best fare, and adjusts if any difference. For example, the fare from my home to Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 is around Rs 220 by UberGo. When a driver missed a turn leading to a detour of ~5km and 15min, Uber corrected the fare by ~60. However, they do not do this for cases where the distance is small, or the best route was not taken. For the same complaint type, Uber can resolve it faster and better than Ola, who seem wedded to a manual process itself. 
2. However, Uber is NOT free of murk-it has introduced a long distance surcharge in Hyderabad where distances over 15km are charged at 2x the normal rate. This is quite unfair and not shown on the app, still they have done this. Still, considering it is an aberration, I can forgive it. 
3. Credit Card integration has not yet happened in Ola, so if the wallet balance runs out, one needs to pay in cash which is an irritant. I suppose this is a business call to minimize credit risk, however this is an irritant and does not leave the option to dispute fare components such as toll. 
3. Quikr not getting involved into post delivery complications such as refund or escrow balances. I had ordered a sofa set which was delivered to the society watchman(hence I could not reject it on the spot) however this was a kit involving assembly which the seller had not mentioned, and refused to help in. While Quikr initially said I need to solve it with the seller, when I raised the threat of credit card chargeback, they started getting involved and trying to persuade the seller. However, they STILL released the payment to the seller, who thankfully saw the light and agreed to refund the amount. Lesson learnt: Make payment through credit cards so that you can chargeback the amount in case of fraud. This is where bank accounts and wallets are absolutely of NO use. 
4. PAYTM nearly non existent customer care-Very tardy to respond to emails/tickets, and no phone number worth the name. One of the worst customer care processes I have seen-if your problem does not fall within their defined types, you wait 4 days for a response, and then some drone on the other end dutifully raises a query(instead of calling), and then extends the whole loop again. 

How can you protect yourself in this scenario?

1. Transact preferably through credit cards so that you can chargeback if needed
2. Prefer websites who offer an escrow mechanism-for example fulfilled by Amazon
3. Be comfortable writing detailed emails to minimize to and fro

Books to understand the dark side of Indian corporates

One can easily get in a filter bubble by reading the same set of newspapers, magazines and all. Hence, to avoid confirmation bias especially about India Inc (4yrs of work experience has removed the blinkers even if they existed earlier), it is good to seek out and read books that aim to reflect the dark side.

While picking the books, though not having read many/all of them, I adopted the following criteria.

·         Indian Business environment-The book should impart insight on the Indian business environment-I have excluded equally great books like that of P Sainath

·         Fact based/Objective-Should not be a set of leftist propaganda nor should it vilify business for their mere existence. Hence, does not include books of Ms Arundhati Roy.  

·         No hagiographies aka business biographies-These should not be written by the person themselves-I have noticed this leads to too much rosy picture, which is anyways available.

       Non Fiction ONLY-There are several excellent business novels which are on thinly guised events but not many may recognize the characters so I have ignored these

Without much ado, we proceed to the books classified by sector

If confused whether to buy these books, read the reviews on Amazon, often these will give the essence and help you decide whether to buy them. Also, I have given Amazon links since these are the cheapest source I have seen-I do NOT earn any affiliate income from these links!

Infrastructure/Natural resources

Unsurprisingly, this sector accounts for many books due to the way resource allocation was perverted and twisted in the pre NDA times. 

http://www.amazon.in/Gas-Wars-Crony-Capitalism-Ambanis/dp/8192855120  The book by an IIM Ahmedabad professor and reputed journalist, examines the gas pricing dispute

http://www.amazon.in/Crusader-Conspirator-Coalgate-Other-Truths/dp/8170494877/ref=pd_bxgy_14_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM

http://www.amazon.in/Spectrum-Grab-Inside-Story-2G/dp/9380740115/ref=pd_sim_14_29?ie=UTF8&dpID=41t2air4EjL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR137%2C160_&refRID=1K6120F5AMECE42RDKCW The (in)famous 2G story

http://www.amazon.in/Eat-Dust-Mining-Greed-Goa/dp/9351364844/ref=pd_sim_14_71?ie=UTF8&dpID=51BoSGrYG3L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=0GT4H7773M61MRX237QC Mining scams in Goa which led to shutdown and change in fortunes

http://www.amazon.in/Ambani-Sons-Hamish-McDonald/dp/8174368140/ref=pd_sim_14_61?ie=UTF8&dpID=51NCCPEJj-L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR101%2C160_&refRID=1K6120F5AMECE42RDKCW A very dated book but lessons still apply for new age barons

Corporate Failures
The VUCA Company This outlines the failures of prominent listed companies such as SKS, Wockhardt, Renuka, Suzlon
Why I failed- http://www.amazon.in/Why-I-Failed-Lessons-Leaders-ebook/dp/B00DQ6GM1G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461251229&sr=1-1&keywords=why+i+failed

E Commerce

http://www.amazon.in/The-Golden-Tap-Inside-Startups/dp/9351941523/ref=pd_sim_14_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=51RM73W8pjL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM This book is making waves, and while receiving mixed reviews, is among the few ones on the sector, in India or globally

Scams/BQ Quotient in General

http://www.amazon.in/Bullshit-Quotient-Decoding-Corporate-Fineprint/dp/9350095092/ref=pd_sim_14_9?ie=UTF8&dpID=41dY-PnKd1L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM One of my favourite books

http://www.amazon.in/Saving-Capitalism-Capitalists-Raghuram-Rajan/dp/9351361756/ref=pd_sim_14_21?ie=UTF8&dpID=31xtmEYNxgL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM A book to better understand WHY the RBI Governor is the enemy of crony capitalism

Land Acquisition/Naxal areas

http://www.amazon.in/Clear-Hold-Build-Lessons-Business/dp/935136299X/ref=pd_sim_14_53?ie=UTF8&dpID=51cURUfQAdL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR103%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM

http://www.amazon.in/The-Price-Land-Acquisition-Consequence/dp/0198089546/ref=pd_sim_14_48?ie=UTF8&dpID=51qj8TlWUJL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM

Scams in General

http://www.amazon.in/Not-Just-Accountant-Nations-Conscience/dp/8129134616/ref=pd_sim_14_30?ie=UTF8&dpID=51RIMg7LIWL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM

IPL/Sports

http://www.amazon.in/Fixed-Corruption-Shantanu-Guha-Ray/dp/935177385X/ref=pd_sim_14_17?ie=UTF8&dpID=51p%2B5fLmggL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=0GT4H7773M61MRX237QC

Cement Industry Association prebudget memorandum-crossing the line to ask for policy changes!

In 2012, I had blogged about how prebudget memorandums by professional associations were blatantly self serving
http://apoliticallyincorrect.blogspot.com/2012/01/prebudget-memorandums-sometimes.html

However, the same is true of those circulated by industry associations-of course the very act of a memorandum is to ask for a change-so one should not be surprised. But when the logic of that change is so blatantly self serving, then one is surprised. For example, the Cement manufacturer's association  desire free fly ash as raw material, restriction on participation in e-auctions and making it mandatory for the indirect tax administration body CBEC to reply to their clarifications within 60days OR else have the industry version deemed to be accepted. All these are quite rich from an industry accused of cartelism. The full version of the memorandum is below
http://www.cmaindia.org/mc-admin/assets/images/listfiles/mc-list13730928941829160979.pdf 

but I have taken the liberty to put extracts in italics, with my comments then.

• Cement Industry’s initiative of popularizing PPC has helped thermal power plant in overcoming the menace of fly ash. However, what started off as a free offering has now been converted into a revenue stream by certain power plants. This is leading to a situation wherein an innovator is being penalized and a polluter is profiteering. It is high time that cement industry is supplied fly ash ‘free of cost’ on long term basis on the worldwide principle of ‘Polluter pays’ Cement industry wants free fly ash!
• Spot E-Auction Scheme Under E- auction any entity (irrespective of actual user, trader etc) can participate. It has been experienced that the traders are able to get substantial quantities of coal under E- auction which are then sold to actual consumers at higher margins. This unnecessarily increases the cost of coal for actual consumers. It is suggested that only actual consumers are allowed to participate under E- auction with some mechanism for monitoring which may include self-declaration & stringent action on diversion of coal etc.  Want coal auctions to be restricted to end users, so that they can pay less!
• It is suggested that a suitable provision may be incorporated in the Rules making it mandatory for the CBEC to give clarification sought for by Association of the industries or an individual assessee on the point within 60 days from the date of such communication. It should also be provided in the Rules that if no communication is issued by the Board within the stipulated period, the interpretation understood by the Association of industry or assessee will prevail upon the department. Insistence on a ‘RTI’ for Government to address policy representations, even though private sector reserves the right not to address shareholder questions!  When even advance rulings reserve the right to avoid answering possible tax evasion questions, then why should a free service have this SLA? 

Spreadsheet mastery no longer mandatory course-ahead of the curve or eroding competitive advantage of IIM Ahmedabad students?

Recently, I read an article in Livemint by an IIM Ahmedabad professor who described the rationale of no longer keeping the mandatory excel course in the first year. I have reproduced the relevant section below, and I strongly suggest reading the article in its entirity. 

https://vineetv.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/etc-finance-without-spreadsheets/

There is no denying the utility of a spreadsheet software, and given the ubiquity of Microsoft systems in organizations, perhaps even unavoidable. It remains useful for prototyping, basic data analysis and teaching elementary statistics, but, in my opinion, it is not exactly suited for large projects and serious scientific research….We have done away with our compulsory Excel course in the first year, and many of us use R and Python in the classroom regularly.

From an academic perspective, IIM Ahmedabad is doing the right thing by being 'medium' neutral and teaching students to handle big data sets with R/Python, and not to depend on an inefficient error prone medium. This is very helpful for students heading to technology or such firms with big data, and to instill a caution for the limitations of excel. However, in my view, Excel is no where near the redundancy path (despite clarion calls for the limited use of it in finance) , and first year MBA students need to learn this for the following reasons

• Excel is best for 'Small Data'-Excel can handle 1Mn rows and 64,000 columns. Most data sets in corporate life can be dealt with in Excel, or even if analyzed in MS Access, are best summarized in Excel. 
• Interoperatable with legacy software-Be it a ERP, planning or other application, chances are it will have ability to export in excel or txt. Ability to manipulate this well will save a lot of time. 
• Self study options limited in first year-Usually, students with corporate exposure especially with accountancy/Big 4 background would have mastered Excel before setting step into the campus but others would not. Realizing after securing that internship that you need Excel, and that your learning it will impact your grades or other commitments, will make you lament not having learnt it earlier
• Advantage over other colleges-For whatever reason, IIM Ahmedabad students have better excel skills than their peers from other colleges-this may seem a jingoistic statement from this IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, but I think the mandatory course is responsible, and many seniors have attributed this to their outperforming their peers and completing the projects

Instead of scrapping the course, it would be great to add a session on error proofing or best work practices/spreadsheet audit, so that the tool's limitations are well appreciated. Else, it would be great to advise the incoming students to pursue advanced courses from provides like www.excelnext.in so that they can prepare for something not taught on campus, but needed in India Inc and helpful in general life.