SMS power

After a daily splashed the alleged details of the future plans of a well-known marketing executive, he sent a forceful denial on SMS to a 'few friends.' This said that not only was the report about him joining a particular company false, he was not joining any of the other companies whose names were doing the rounds.

"My CV is not in the market," the executive thundered, adding that he had not agreed to meet anyone for a job and that he didn't plan to do so for another three months. Here's hoping journalists start getting stories on SMS soon.

'I'm in Delhi, mostly'

While the stock markets are afire, and irrationally so if you go by some of the warnings issued by various luminaries, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman M Damodaran appears to be spending most of his time in the capital.

When a reporter complained about not being able to meet Damodaran as he was hardly ever in Delhi, at a recent press conference, Damodaran expressed surprise and said, "I am in Delhi. In fact I am in Delhi most of the time."

Dabhol drama

While most hurdles along the way of restarting the Dabhol plant appear to have been removed with GE and Bechtel now withdrawing their arbitration case in London, another small irritant remains.

Some years ago, when Dabhol had imported an LNG plant to supply LNG for the power plant, the Pune commissioner levied an import duty on it arguing that since LNG would also be sold commercially, an import duty had to be levied on the imports.

The company appealed against this saying that it was part of the overall power plant and so should get the same concessions that were available for that.

After four years, the appellate tribunal for tax disputes, the Cestat, quashed the original order saying the LNG plant was part of the overall power plant and so would be entitled to the duty concessions.

With GAIL now planning to link Dabhol to Uran and supply gas from the Dabhol LNG plant, the issue of the original Pune order could come up once again.

Green journalism

While the media has now woken up to environmental issues such as forest cover, there was a time when, according to Jamshyd Godrej, managing director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd and president, World Wide Fund for Nature India, such stories had to be planted. But the nature lover made a quick recovery by replacing "planting" with "tell the media".

Only Kingfisher

When Vijay Mallya arrived in Mumbai last Thursday amidst a heavy downpour to make an announcement about Kingfisher Airline, he said Mumbaikars would have to travel in a boat and reminded everyone that they should be looking at general infrastructure more than just airport infrastructure.

At the press conference, a journalist asked Mallya whether beer sales had increased after the launch of the airline. An amused Mallya explained that the Kingfisher beer brand was far larger than the newly launched airline and, thus, the question was irrelevant.