If this is not then what is?

Decline in sales growth was spread across most of the industries. Sales contracted
in the motor vehicles, iron & steel, cement, coke & refined petroleum products and
electrical machinery and apparatus industries among the major industries. Cement,
iron & steel and construction industries witnessed significant contraction in EBITDA
and net profit. Profit margins contracted in all these industries. Interest coverage
declined in most of the industries

Source: RBI

Rahul, the God! the other one

Rahul Dravid on the period before he got selected for the Indian team - "You can take a Chinese bamboo seed and plant it in the ground, water and nurture that for an entire year. You will not see any sprout. In fact you will not see a sprout for 5 years. But suddenly a tiny shoot will spring from the ground. Over the next 6 weeks the plant can grow as tall as 90 feet. It can grow as fast as 39 inches every 24 hours. You can literally watch the plant grow. What was the plant doing in those 5 years, seemingly dormant? It was growing its roots. For 5 full years, it was preparing itself for rapid massive growth, With its roots structure the plant could not simply support itself for future growth. Some say that the plant grew 90 feet in 6 weeks. I would say it grew 90 feet in 5 years and 6 weeks. This period tested my faith and my willingness to believe in my own talent at the beginning of my journey.

Super quotes

Math is no more about equations than poetry is about spelling. Equations and spelling exist to convey an idea. Understand that idea.

Here’s a few of my favorite quotes on learning.

On What We Truly Know

• “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” – Socrates
• “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” – Isaac Newton

On Understanding

• “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Albert Einstein
• “Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in language comprehensible to everyone.” – Albert Einstein
• “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” – Albert Einstein
• “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein
• “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.” – Richard Hamming
• “You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” – Richard Feynman

On Thinking and Problem Solving

• “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
• “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.” – Matsuo Basho
• “If I’d listened to customers, I’d have given them a faster horse.” – Henry Ford
• “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.” – Brian Kernighan
• “My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” – Ernest Hemingway

Ferguson reveals secrets of success

Ferguson, who retired in the summer after winning 49 trophies, revealed the theories behind his management in interviews with the Harvard Business School.

Ferguson’s blueprint is published in October’s Harvard Business Review, and his eight core beliefs are:

1. Start with the foundation

Ferguson: “From the moment I got to Manchester United, I thought of only one thing: building a football club. I wanted to build right from the bottom.”

2. Dare to rebuild your team

Ferguson: “I believe that the cycle of a successful team lasts maybe four years and then some change is needed. So we tried to visualise the team three or four years ahead and make decisions accordingly. Because I was at United for such a long time, I could afford to plan ahead.”

3. Set high standards and hold everyone to them

Ferguson: “Everything we did was about maintaining the standards we had set as a football club -- this applied to all my team building, my team preparation, motivational talks and tactical talks. I expected even more from the star players [than the rest].”

4. Never, ever cede control

Ferguson: “I wasn't going to allow anyone to be stronger than I was. If the day came that the manager of Manchester United was controlled by the players -- if the players decided how the training should be, what days they should have off, what the discipline should be and what the tactics should be -- then Manchester United would not be the Manchester United we know. “

5. Match the message to the moment

Ferguson: “No one likes to be criticised. Most respond to encouragement. At the same time, you need to point out mistakes. You play different roles at different times. Sometimes you have to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a father.”

5. Prepare to win

Ferguson: “Winning is in my nature. There is no other option for me. I am a risk taker and you can see that in how we played in the late stages of matches. All my teams had perseverance -- they never gave in. It's a fantastic characteristic to have.”

7. Rely on the power of observation

Ferguson: “My presence and ability to supervise were always there and what you can pick up by watching is incredibly valuable. Sometimes I could even tell that a player was injured when he thought he was fine.”

8. Never stop adapting.

Ferguson: “When I started, there were no agents and, although games were televised, the media did not elevate players to the level of film stars and constantly look for new stories about them. Players have led more sheltered lives, so they are much more fragile than players were 25 years ago.”

Raghuram Rajan - inspires confidence

I hope this euphoria is not short lived!

reduce the swap rate to 3% - touch of magic! Its easy to say why predecessors could not do this, whatever it is, anything that course corrects Indian economy is utter welcome

Best deals

Were always always always made during recessions aka now
Buy great great great aka consumer oriented businesses at fair multiples
in a recession things will always seem bad always!

only question is can you stick around to buy through the recession!

Bajaj corp - acquisition strategy

Acquisitions Initiative/Strategy

Bajaj Corp has identified inorganic growth as a strategy to create shareholder value over the long term. This may take the form of purchasing brands or acquiring companies as a means to gain access to high growth categories, new markets or consolidate market share in existing categories like hair care. In line with our acquisition strategy of entering high growth categories where we believe we can add value, your Company has pursued several opportunities during the FY2012-13 both within India and outside India. The Company had progressed to different stages of the M&A process in various transactions in multiple geographies including in India.

During the process of its acquisition forays your Company had engaged the services of reputed advisors, both in India and in foreign geographies. The advice was availed in the field of strategic advisory, tax and structuring advisory, as the case may be. Your Company will continue to take counsel of such experts as it believes that such services bring tremendous knowledge, expertise and also some excellent processes which help enhance the Company's competencies besides helping in areas of governance.

Your Company continues to pursue M&A very aggressively and expects to close a couple of acquisition transactions in FY 2014. However, in interest of its shareholder value the Company will make very prudent decisions on acquisitions by way of strategic importance, pricing of the deal and its financing, having observed some hard knocks that several Indian and foreign companies have taken in the last few years when such companies were over aggressive in pursuit of their inorganic growth and the hits taken on account of impairment / forex losses for cross border acquisition and challenges at the time of closing of their ECBs.

The Company's acquisition initiatives will primarily be focused in India, where the company believes it can create shareholder value by leveraging the strengths of your Company's marketing, sales and distribution, although assets in India continue to remain expensive even though there is slight slowdown in the FMCG sector. Few emerging markets in Africa, Middle East SAARC and South East Asia are also targeted for M&A initiative if opportunities can be developed to fit our strategy and meet investment philosophy. 

From 2012 ar

In the Red Herring document for the Bajaj Corp Limited IPO in August 2010 the Company had informed that part of the IPO funds would be used for acquisitions i.e. inorganic growth.

Towards this initiative, Bajaj Corp created a formal organization structure with a team of executives and managers to aggressively pursue the Merger and Acquisition (M & A) initiative in a structured and methodical manner. A head of M&A was brought on board as Executive Director - Business Development in August 2011 and a team of managers was appointed to drive the M & A initiative. The Executive Director had prior experience of leading M&A at one of the largest Indian FMCG companies with a strong track record of both domestic and cross border M&A as well as operating International Business.

By the 3rd quarter of FY 2011 an M&A Play Book was in place which provided the framework and boundaries for the acquisition strategy of Bajaj Corp. Hair care and skin care were identified as top priority categories in the M&A Play book, followed by other personal and household care segments. Skin care and hair care are the two fastest growing sectors in personal care across the world and also in India.

The Company has pursued several opportunities during the FY2011-12 both within India and outside India. The Company has progressed to different stages of the M&A process in various transactions in multiple geographies including in India. In view of the confidentiality obligations the Company is not in a position to share the details of the opportunities pursued, including some where the process of negotiations with the sellers is in progress as on date.

For each acquisition opportunity a very robust and detailed process is followed by the Company's M&A team .

The Company continues to pursue M&A very aggressively and expects to close some acquisition transaction in H1 of FY 13. However, in interest of its shareholder value the Company will make very prudent decisions on acquisitions by way of pricing of the deals, having observed some hard knocks that other Indian and foreign companies have taken since 2008 when they have been over aggressive in pursuit of their inorganic growth and the hits taken on account of impairment / forex losses and challenges at the time of closing of their ECBs.

During the process of its acquisition forays the Company had engaged the services of reputed advisors in the field of strategic advisory, tax and structuring advisory and legal advisory as the case may be. The Company will continue to take counsel of such experts as it believes that they bring tremendous knowledge, expertise and also some excellent processes which help enhance the Company's competencies besides helping in areas of governance.