Bizination - Dhando, Takko, Rokdo

Cut back to your school days when on the sports day, the entire class would split into two halves to play the tug of war. It was a fun PT period for us at school. But not so much for the RBI which is trying hard to pull with all its might against both inflation and deflation. Recently, RBI cut the repo rates and the reverse repo rates to boost the economy. Ritika gives us a run down of what these jargons mean. The Federal Reserve has shown its benevolence to AIG again with its third bail out package. Citibank announcing a quarterly profit was some good news at BiziNation after a long time.

The interim budget was as bland as Russian food. But Pranab Mukharjee spiced it up just in time for the elections. With the benevolent excise duty, service tax and a few other rate cuts, the consumer will have to spend less on mobile phone bills, buying an LCD TV, etc. In the corporate sector, after the Satyam debacle, SEBI has asked for full disclosure from the promoters of companies who pledge their shares to raise more money. In cricket, the multi million IPL season will kick off very soon. On other side of the world, in England, Sir Allen Stanford, the man who sponsored the million dollar T20 tournament in West Indies has been booked for fraud.

And we are back after a pretty long time, but nothing much has changed since we spoke about bad news that surrounded the world economy. In fact, things have only gone downhill. Layoffs have begun even in India. The US economy is reeling and is hoping under Barack Obama's slogan of Hope, not fear. The US congress has approved the $700 billion odd stimulas package. In other news from India, Subhiksha, the ailing retail chain is fighting hard to survive bankruptcy.

"They can have it in any colour they want as long as it is black," Henry Ford's arrogance back in the 19th Century was justified when he was selling his cars and telling consumers what they NEEDED because he didn't believe that the customers knew what they wanted. Given a choice, Ford's customers would have demanded a faster horse, but he built the Model T anyway. CUT TO 2008. The swaggar which the auto makers had gotten used to is now reduced to a limp. With people shoving their hard earned money under the mattress, today, a sleek sports car is no more than a gas guzzling peace of metal meant for the foo ish few who are skating on thin ice. With the auto industry consistently posting losses, it hope to get a 25 bn USD loan from the treasury to fix a few things. We talk about the mess and some dope from the aviation industry in India as well.

Two years after TATA announced the one lakh car, argubly a revolution of the magnitude of Henry Ford's Model T, the car industry's most binouculared project is yet to lay its foundation stone. After elaborate protests, some violence and lots of confusion, TATA took the painful call of relocating to another state. A week later, all the newspapers carried a picture of Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat shaking hands with Ratan Tata. This podcast is more about our thoughts on how politics can ruin capitalism. We want to know your take on this one. In another news, HCL is set to acquire Axon, an SAP consulting firm and TCS has bought over the back office arm of Citigroup.

When they asked Tom about his occupation, he balked. He wanted to keep that as a secret. But they persisted wanting to know about what Tom does for a living. He finally relented, "I work as a piano man in a brothel." He had lied. He was too ashamed to admit that he was an investment banker. This podcast is dedicated to all the innocent Toms from the unsinkable 'Titanic' like industry in the US called Investment banking where the lifeboats are afloat with people who's jobs and families are on the line. We would love to know your take on this unceremonius downfall of goliaths likeLehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, etc. How bad is it out there?

We are back after getting stuck in a rather unhealthy habit of not being on time. The last month was plump with a number of mergers and acquisitions on a national and an international scale. Spice married Idea in the telecom sector. On the global front, Anil bhais ADAG and MTN, the South African telecom giant are contemplating a merger of sorts, but Mukesh Ambani comes in his younger bro's way yet again. Ranbaxy, the Indian pharmaceutical major has been acquired by its Japanese Counterpart, Daiichi Sankyo in a landmark deal. This season, in India, as the rains pour, so do the mergers.

The epidemic is back. It is called inflation. USA, India, China, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Haiti, Egypt are searching for the medicine to cure themselves. The medicine itself is not only bitter, but sometimes fatal! Among the developing economies, India leads the pack. In this podcast, we talk about how relavent is this whole issue to the common man or the housewife who buys vegetables on the street in a city in India. We recorded this episode when the inflation was around 7 per cent. Two weeks later, now, as I type, it has notched up to 9 per cent. We would love to know your take on this issue that has perplexed economists from around the world.

Richard Branson does a James Bond like stunt again. To announce his tie up with Tata Teleservices, he jumped from some high rise building to get to the front pages of all leading publications here in India. He made a bigger splash when he experimented flying one of his planes on Alternative fuel. VISA has announced its intensions for the world's biggest IPO and in another news, the Indian Banking industry boasted of the biggest deal ever.

Every year, on the last day of February, all the guns are out aiming at two men, the Railway Minister and the Finance Minister of India. This year was no different. We attempt to give you a run down of the Railway Budget presented by the flamboyant Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Union Budget announced by the calm and composed Chidambaram, the CFO of India. Everything from the huge Rs. 60,000 crore agricultural debt waiver to increasing the income tax slabs unabashedly knocked the voter's doors to draw their attention. We have our share of light moments where Ritika does a Lalu impersonation. No kidding!