Bi-weekly roundup of the wackiest whispers and murmurs in corporate corridors & policy parlours

Tata Bye Bye to Manmohan’s CEO Forum

When Narendra Modi travels to the US next month, India Inc’s big bosses will also be there – but there will be no Indo-US CEO forum meeting on the sidelines of Modi-Obama powwow. ET hears this Bharat-Amriki corporate bhaichara, which was a regular feature of Manmohan Singh’s US trips, won’t happen because Modi Sarkar wants to reconstitute the Indian CEO forum. Ratan Tata, who used to chair the forum, will no longer do so. The CEO forum, we hear, will have a new head and may be some new members. Now, don’t get all excited and start guessing which India Inc hotshot will get the honour. With Modi Sarkar, as journos are learning, there’s absolutely no point second guessing the Big Man’s mind.



Bala-Pai Buyback

Infys’ ex-CFOs V Balakrishnan and Mohandas Pai are on a mission – getting Infy to buy back shares. Bala’s and Pai’s letter to Infy board produced no response. So the two have now set up a Facebook page, “Buy Back Infosys”. Pity for them then that there are just 120-odd likes so far. What next? A WhatsApp group? And BTW, is there something odd here, considering NRN is known to be still fond of Bala and Pai?

Hunting -I

Kumar Birla’s UltraTech cement, we hear, is hunting for a joint MD, and the chosen one will succeed current chief OP Puranmalka. OP, a Birla loyalist who’s never worked anywhere else, has been chief for a decade and is tasked with mentoring his successor. The hunt can reach far and wide. Birla picked Satish Pai to lead his aluminum business by poaching him from German company Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil field services company.
Hunting -II

Here’s another way to headhunt. Deloitte India needs a boss since current boss Udayan Sen is retiring next year. ET’s learnt Deloitte will copy the practice of its rivals in the consulting business – pick the boss via an intracompany poll. These polls can get very interesting…one of Deloitte’s managing partners, N Venkatram, is apparently a strong candidate.

Tell-off-Co

Guys, cool it. That’s what many analysts wanted to tell two senior execs of a big telco during a recent earnings call. The two suits were constantly trying to show up each other…when one started speaking, the other would butt in, or when the other said something, his colleague would say, “let me put it this way”. It all got very entertaining and then a little disconcerting…and no one was left in doubt about what only a few knew, that these two suits are rivals in their company. Word of advice to suits – keep your office politics in office.

Bhushan Bombs

Bankers are now deathly scared of what banking people with a grim sense of humour are calling Bhushan Bombs. A Bhushan Bomb is defined as a past banking call that favoured Bhushan Steel and therefore looks dodgy in the extreme now and therefore, can blow up on one’s face. One example of a Bhushan Bomb – we are told that last year the smaller arm of a large lender had raised a red flag for the first time about an imminent crisis in Bhushan Steel, but guess what, the finance team apparently explained it away, saying expat engineers and mosquitoes are the reason behind project delay. Meaning? Mosquitoes bite expats and expats fall ill, so blast furnaces etc can’t be built in time. Wow – mosquitoes cause a Rs 40,000 crore banking scam!