.
No more bad debts!

A financial institution recently discovered a unique way of recovering a loan. This particular FI, in its capacity as a lender, decided to nominate one of its non-executive directors to the board of a recipient corporate. But what should have been a routine nomination kicked off a flurry of activity, both within the company and the FI.

The company management was very uncomfortable with the FI’s choice since the nominee happened to be a chartered accountant and, more pertinently, sat on the board of another company with whom this particular company is currently locked in a corporate battle. But the FI remained firm on its choice. So the company struck at the core of the issue –– it pre-paid the loan, which the cash-strapped FI accepted gleefully! A lesson in this for other FIs?

Crowing curiosity

Questions by honourable MPs never cease to amaze. Among the gems which will come up during this session is this one on crows. A sensitive MP is worried that the government’s inaction over the growing numbers of crows would soon create a threat for all other birds in the country. The government’s reply? Since questions by MPs are a state secret, it could only be ascertained that the government will tell this MP that ‘there’s no conclusive evidence’ on the increase in crow population, and therefore, on whether such a threat exists. Period!

Lip service

Education may have become a fundamental right, but no one seems to take the issue very seriously. At the India Economic Summit, the session on `elementary education’was thinly attended. Worse still, while it was supposed to highlight the role of women in furthering universal education, all the panelists were men! Even though a lady attendee brought this to the panel’s notice, ’twas, by then, too late to make amends.