Best of both worlds

MotoGP legend as well as V8 Supercar and Japanese GT Sports car star, Wayne Gardner has certainly known the best of both worlds, but doesn’t shy from taking sides…

Generically speaking, cars are faster, and safer. Where do you think bikes score over the four wheeled counterparts?

Generally speaking, cars are safer because you're driving in a steel shell, but most bikes are much faster and more nimble, and they give you a complete feeling of freedom – bikes win hands down for fun. For safety, cars are definitely the winner, but the flirt with danger and exposure to the elements on a bike can't be beaten!

They say bikes are the cruising envy of drivers. Cars, especially SUVs or large vehicles, mention ‘space’ as a selling point to give them “the illusion of the freedom to cruise.” Your comments...

I don't believe you'll ever replicate the feeling of a motorcycle in a car because you're still within a controlled environment. However, if cruising to you means sitting back in a lounge chair and relaxing, then I guess a large vehicle can provide a 'cruisy' ride for some – those that have never ridden a motorcycle that is. The closest you can come to a motorcycle in a car – and it's still a long way off – is in a fast convertible, at least you can feel the wind in your face.

How does bike racing compare with car racing?

Nothing could ever replace the excitement of motorcycle racing for me. However, I took up car racing because my competitive nature needed another challenge as a form of weaning myself off motorcycle racing. I moved to cars purely from a safety point of view – as I got older, my self-preservation mechanism kicked in! Car racing is extremely competitive and unlike motorcycle racing, the performance of the car is a lot more important than driver ability. For me, it was a huge challenge and a learning opportunity to understand car set-up and performance. What did surprise me was the corner speed of cars as opposed to motorcycles – the breaking points were so much later and higher, which took some adjusting and helped my search for the adrenalin rush. Racing motorcycles will always be my passion but car racing helped me satisfy my competitive nature at the time when I still needed the fix.

You’ve handled both machines. Which of them is more "obedient" in the hands of its master? And which one "spoils" you more?

A motorcycle is definitely more obedient because when you ride a bike, it becomes an extension of you and you are totally united with the bike. So, you are really driving the machine. In a car you are strapped in a seat in a large shell, and it feels much more like the vehicle is taking you for a ride, rather than you driving it. You just don't have that one-on-one relationship that you do with a bike.

Define for us: 1) The quintessential bike guy (or girl) and 2) The quintessential car guy (or girl)

The average motorcycle rider is a passionate and emotional person. Motorcycle riding is driven by passion. They are down-to-earth and have a good sense of adventure.

I think the average car enthusiast is driven by image, style, and speed. Their car is a reflection of their success. They are high achievers and strive for comfort and style in their life.

Of the many you own, which is your favourite machine? I don't have any of the Hondas or the Ford F100 (unfortunately) anymore. I now drive an Audi Q7 and a Volvo XC60 convertible. I did love my F100, but unfortunately all the family didn't fit – so now I just feed my passion and ride my new Honda CBR1,000 Fireblade for fun. I guess the real love of my life is my 1987 World Champion NSR500 which is now in a museum at Bathurst, NSW, so that everyone can enjoy it. I can't ride it anymore but it gave me one of the best gifts of my life (my World Championship) and so it has my loyalty forever!! My kids also now race Dirt Track and so we have quite a few more race bikes in the garage!

In closing, I'd just like to sum up with my belief that cars are a mode of transport whilst bikes are a way of life!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Ideas felled by the gun: Kennedys and Luther King Jr

It's been almost five decades since John F. Kennedy was hit in his head and throat when three shots were fired at his car. The presidential convoy was passing through the main commercial district of Dallas, driving from the airport to the city centre. A bystander alleged that shots were fired from the casement of a construction across the road. The President buckled into Jackie Kennedy’s arms, who was heard crying out “Oh no”. The President’s limousine was immediately driven at speed to the Parklands Hospital. He died 35 minutes after being shot. Within hours of the shooting, a cop approached Lee Harvey Oswald, believing he matched the description of the killer. The cop was shot dead. Oswald was arrested straightaway, suspected of being the assassin. Shortly afterwards, he was charged. The suspect was never tried as he was shot dead two days later.

So it’s over: the Kennedy epoch in which the political realisation of the majority of my American cohort was born. It was John and Robert Kennedy whose lives actually thrilled American political principles and whose murders surely catalysed, as Norman Mailer previously asserted, a “general nervous breakdown”. It was that disastrous psychic rage that gave birth to the “youth culture” of the Hippie era, with its blend of lofty romanticism and self-absorbed bliss – which, as it happens, was a predominantly fitting cenotaph for the Kennedy dream. As I spent much of that period at Berkeley, where we made up what became the international student revolution; this is what I can analyse in retrospect.

It is nearly unfeasible to overrate the impact that the presidential campaign, the poll triumph, and then the assassination of President Kennedy had on a suggestible fresh legion of Americans who were rising from the Eisenhower years and a phase of conventional stagnation. Experts had termed our direct predecessors “the silent generation”.

All that optimism, all that pledge, the Peace Corps, the initial official acknowledgment of the objectives of the civil rights movement, the splendid oratory of Kennedy's speeches were doused in what was then an “unimaginable act”.


The jolt was literally astounding. I can still, to this very day, evoke it in all its intuitive passion, as can, I am sure, approximately every American who had been conscious then. When Bobby Kennedy, too, was killed, there was a philosophical sense of ineffectuality. Possibly it was at that instant that the movements entered properly into their nihilistic stage. For, there was still a faith then that the Kennedys were two typically good men who personified the most excellent aims of America. That was, obviously, before we learned the reality about their personal lives. But strangely, even after we came to know of the inconsistency between the personal and public ethics of the Kennedys – in John Kennedy’s case, a sexual promiscuity bordering on the pathological – and of the squalid arrangements that were made to obtain women for JFK by his kin, the legacy was not entirely shattered.

On the other hand, you simply cannot listen to the name Martin Luther King, Jr and not imagine death. You may heed the words “I have a dream,” but they will undoubtedly only dole out to emphasise a picture of a plain motel terrace, a large man made small, a pool of blood. Although King was among the most famous figures of his era, when he was alive, it was death that eventually defined him.

He ate, drank, and slept death. He bopped with it, he lectured it, he dreaded it and he stared it down. He looked for avenues to lay it sideways, this weight of his own transience, but eventually recognised that his steadfast resolve on a non-violent end to the ill-treatment of his folks could just end violently.

Since the age he started speaking in public, King was preoccupied by death – assaulted by the pledge of obliteration for seeking an end to humiliation to African Americans and the commencement of parity with whites. He dishevelled the feathers of white chauvinists who grew further resolute to bring him down. There were outstanding physical threats to King.

In an illustration of bare hostility, two white cops tried to wedge his entry into a Montgomery courtroom for the trial of a fellow who assaulted one of his comrades. Regardless of a caution from the cops, King jabbed his head in the courtroom looking for his solicitor to help him get in. His behaviour put a match to cops’ rage. The cop twisted his arm behind his back and shoved him into detention. A photographer happened to click the picture.

The shot of Dr King, clad in a natty tan outfit, fashionable gold watch and a cool snap-brim fedora, flinching as he is shoved to imprisonment, is an iconic civil rights image

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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When Charisma Confronts Fate

mundane are not the only things common to South Asian nations. Another bizarre distinction they share is a history of assassinations of leaders. It started with Mahatma Gandhi in January, 1948 and looks be on a brief ‘pause’ mode since December, 2007 when Benazir Bhutto was sacrificed at the altar of South Asian history. In between, in the late 1970s, her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was ‘judicially’ assassinated by a military strongman called General Zia-ul Haq who himself died mysteriously in a plane crash in 1988. No country has been spared the trauma; no ruling ‘family’ has been spared the agony and the despair. Even as you read this, India is paying tribute to yet another victim of assassination – Indira Gandhi whose grandson Rahul Gandhi is preparing himself to become Prime Minister in 2014.

It is too early for objective history to be written on the impact these assassinations had on the trajectories taken by these nations. But some of these assassinations clearly look as portents of tragic history set to be repeated again, and again. Back in the 1950s, Sri Lanka, like India, was a newly independent nation grappling with existential issues like identity politics and the treatment of minorities. Solomon Bandaranaike was the charismatic Prime Minister of the country. He is the one who first gave a voice and a direction to ‘Sinhala’ nationalism at the cost of minority Tamils. He was shot dead by a Buddhist Sinhala monk who was convinced Bandaranaike was sacrificing Sinhala interests and pampering the Tamils. The genie was unleashed and continues to torment and traumatise the island nation even 50 years after the assassination. The genesis of V. Prabhakaran, the now dead leader of LTTE, can surely be traced to that one act of madness by a ‘Buddhist’ monk in 1959 (Ironically, it was the LTTE, formed to fight against Sinhala majoritarianism, that assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991). For the moment, civil war in Sri Lanka has paused after an orgy of killings, assassinations and violence. But the ghosts of Solomon Bandaranaike and the monk who shot him still torment Sri Lanka.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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The turkish trick!!

In near future, Russia and Turkey are all set to spar

The Turks and the Russians certainly have some thing in common. If not any thing then at least their ambition of becoming more powerful - especially in their region. If Russia is trying to revamp its influence over erstwhile Soviet region, then Turkey is leaving no stone unturned to capture the centre-stage of geopolitical arena.

Energy is no doubt the major issue in Turkish strategic thinking. As Turkey continues to industrialise, its thirst for energy is all set to increase. With Turkey being the largest supplier of low-cost goods to the Russian market, the influence of Turkey’s soft power can be easily felt over the Russian land. Since most of Russian corporations (heavy industry) can’t afford expensive western imports, Turkey found its foot into Russian economy by providing them economically affordable alternatives. Moreover, Turkey has a significant intervention and trade-ties in former communist states like Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. For the uninitiated, most of the Balkan states are already members of the European Union. Furthering this trade related ties, Russia is Turkey’s chief trading partner, with energy accounting for a huge pie. Talking in numbers, presently Turkey depends on Russia for 65-70 per cent of its natural gas and 40 per cent of its oil imports.

Even the Europeans have being eying Turkey as an energy transit hub for routes that would bypass Russia altogether. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is one such route that is still stuck in the initial stages. Thus, Russians seem to have all the more reason to pressurise the Turks not to get into this pipeline deal, as it would cost Russia its energy trade with Europe and eventually a big client.

The second potential source of energy for the Turks is the Central Asia region. If there is something that may increase the friction between the Russians and Turks, its going to be this region. The hurdle that Turkey faces over this region is that it does not directly adjoin the region. The only help it would get to attach itself with a central Asian nation, who would be more than happy to deal with Turkey, is from Azerbaijan. However, the core of Azerbaijan does not share its borders with Turkey. Instead, it is on the other side of Armenia. Armenia has sold itself to the Russians to keep its Turkish foes at bay, thanks to their bitter past. Russia has been building up a substantial military presence in this small Caucasian state. But then things seems to be changing as Turkey and Armenia will sign landmark deals in the near future to normalise ties, in a major step towards ending nearly a century of hostility over their bloody history. This would eventually open many gates for turkey, which are currently inaccessible. It’s beyond any apprehension that these two nations who are all set to rewrite their power equations, will soon collide into each other. With their ambition overlapping, their relation may turn sour quite soon. In the short term they may continue their trade ties which may mutually benefit each other, but in the long term their interest are for sure to clash. It’s all a matter of time. In future this piece of region will be interesting to watch out for...

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Reining in the Rogues

The govt has set up a committee to prevent fake surrenders

For some reason, it’s taken the Assam government three decades to do what it should have done earlier: ensure that militancy in the state did not grow into an industry with ‘surrendered’ militants ruling the roost. It is now that the government has set up a committee to prevent such ‘fake surrenders’.

It all started in the early 1990s when then Congress chief minister late Hiteswar Saikia tried to weaken the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), creating a monster called the Sulfa or surrendered Ulfa. These men became a law unto themselves. Most of them became gangsters. These former militants act like private armymen of political establishments, becoming rich overnight. Ironically, after joining the mainstream, these men are not even punished for the crimes they committed as a rebel. But now all of that will come to an end.

Khagen Sharma, additional director general of police and spokesperson for the Assam Police, tells TSI that the new committee will now screen possible surrendered candidates and ensure that only hardcore militants are allowed to do so. There are, of course, questions that will forever remain unanswered: why were the security forces allowed to stage manage ‘surrenders’ with village boys made to hold single and double-barrel guns? Sceptics say it was done to impress the Centre.

Indications, though, are that the government is beginning to learn from its mistakes, and is tightening the screws on the system dealing with the entire surrender procedure. Rules for surrendered militants, who were often allowed to retain their weapons on grounds of ‘personal security’, thereby giving them the opportunity to become hoodlums, are now being made strict. For one, surrendered militants, who will continue to be put up in designated camps, will be monitored for three years before being given Rs 1.5 lakh for rehabilitation. Also, the government will no longer accept surrender by soft members such as courier boys and sympathisers.

Besides, any surrendered militant found to have indulged in extortion or kidnapping or other crimes will not receive any favour from the government.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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The dissolution of old empires

More than 30 years ago, Sharad Pawar was a young stormy petrel who created history. He ditched the Congress party (then led by Indira Gandhi) and formed a government in Maharashtra with him as the Chief Minister. More than a decade ago, he rebelled against the ‘foreigner’ daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). During his second ‘revolt’, Sonia Gandhi became a persona non-grata; but only for a while. This time around, the ‘Maratha’ strongman’s party will again be in power as an ally of the Congress. But the grand dreams that Sharad Pawar had of upstaging the Congress are all but over. In the 2004 assembly elections, his party actually won more seats than the Congress. This time, it is way behind the Congress. And it does appear as if his daughter Surekha Sule will inherit the Pawar mantle even as she starts losing an Empire.

This has clearly been an election of hubris and déjà vu. Most pundits were of the opinion that the Congress led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will sweep the assembly elections in Haryana since the opposition was badly fragmented. In the end, the voters ended up scaring Hooda who barely managed to scrape through with a narrow victory (At the time of going to press). The lesson for both Pawar and Hooda is stark and clear: Voters inevitably have a nasty habit of springing surprises if you become overconfident. Hooda will now be a much wiser politician while time is clearly running out for Pawar. In the future, Sharad Pawar and NCP have no choice but to play second fiddle to the Congress. He can’t form a government even if he now ditches the Congress and hitches up with the Shiv Sena.

There is yet another trend that the three assembly election results have reinforced. The era of anti-incumbency is rapidly receding and in danger of becoming a distant memory. Narendra Modi in Gujarat, Shivraj Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh, Sheila Dixit in Delhi, Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh, the late YSR Reddy in Andhra Pradesh and of course the Manmohan-Sonia team at the Centre have all defied anti-incumbency to get elected. Perhaps the only prominent politician who did succumb to anti-incumbency was Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan. Does that mean that the average Indian voter is satisfied with the governance delivered by governments ­— both at the Centre and in the states? A straightforward yes would be foolhardy because even Congress insiders admit that the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra has delivered appalling governance in the last many years. Take out Mumbai and Maharashtra slips to rank number 11 in terms of per capita income. The state leads in farmers’ suicides; power cuts have now become the norm and heavy rains now routinely cripple the city of Mumbai. Clearly, if just governance was the parameter, the voters would have decisively booted out the Congress-NCP alliance.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Once bitten, twice shy

The CPI(M)-led LDF will not repeat the mistake of hugging Madani in public this time as The congress-led udf readies for the battle for three assembly constituencies in kerala, says Anu Warrier

During the last Lok Sabha polls, a CPI(M) Politburo member from Kerala was sad that the state had only 20 constituencies. As the results came out, he boarded himself up inside Delhi’s AKG Bhavan. Party committees blamed chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s remarks, his studied silence on controversial issues and the LDF’s relationship with Abdul Nasser Madani’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the loss of 16 seats. Now, the party faces yet another litmus test. The three Assembly seats, which fell vacant after the representatives got elected to the Lok Sabha, go to polls on November 7.

As usual, the fight is between the CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF. Unlike the parliamentary elections, this time both fronts are reluctant to claim victory. The constituencies as well as the warring fronts themselves have been in considerable flux.

In an attempt to come clean in front of the voters, the LDF has made sure that CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan does not hug Madani this time. Vijayan had supported Madani, who was in jail for nine years as an accused in Coimbatore blast case, against all odds in the Lok Sabha polls. He had even challenged the CPI, another key LDF constituent, to protect the interests of the PDP chairman on Ponnani seat. Now he keeps mum on his party’s relationship with PDP. To add to that, Madani has fielded his candidate against G. Krishnaprasad, the CPI nominee in Alappuzha. But in Ernakulam and Kannur, where CPI(M) candidates are in the fray, PDP has offered support to the LDF. However, the CPI(M) leadership has assured other LDF constituents that the front will not share dais with any party that is not a part of the front.

Another major change has been chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s ouster from the party’s supreme committee over charges of factionalism. Achuthanandan, who was always vocal in criticising the official faction of the party, is virtually silent after the Politburo action against him. He even inaugurated the LDF poll campaign at Kannur, where his archrival and Pinarayi-confidant M.V.Jayarajan puts up a hard fight against A.P. Abdullakkutty, the former CPI(M) MP who changed sides after getting booted out from the party just before the Lok Sabha polls. The UDF has another advantage in Kannur. The Janata Dal (S) faction, led by M.P. Veerendra Kumar, has officially joined the UDF. Moreover, there is no history of an LDF candidate winning the Kannur Assembly seat.

The bypolls in Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Kannur have become a trial of strength for both the fronts. The seats, held by UDF, fell vacant after the representatives were elected to the Lok Sabha and the LDF has made this an issue for campaign. The UDF wants to prove that the victory in the parliamentary election was not a fluke. The LDF, on the other hand, is determined to wrest at least one seat this time to show that the Lok Sabha poll result was just a one-time occurrence.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better
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