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FIRSTPOST

2011 Rise of democracy; decline of the West

What 2011 warns media to watch out for in 2012 Pappus end-year final exam

The News That made 2011 Bollywood Sport

Best Actresses of 2011: The Year of the Bad Girl Goodbye superhero, hello real guy: The best actors of 2011

The hits and misses of 2011: A recap of Indian sport Remember that day in April, when India became Worl Champs?

2012 will be a year of austerity for India so be prepared Here are Indias top business newsmakers for 2011

Business Tech

Forget iPad 2, here are the top five gadgets for 2011
Top five tech trainwrecks of 2011: BlackBerry PlayBook and Kapil Sibal

The most Googled terms in 2011 are

What! Investors lose Rs 20 lakh cr as FIIs turn bearish on India

Gold retains best asset class tag as mkt volatility is here to stay

Investing Economy

5 things that can go right for Indias economy in 2012 The 5 big economy questions for 2012

FIRSTPOST Golden Chikoos of 2011 And the winner is

decline of the West

It was a year that celebrated the new - the power of the people - and underlined all that is now old and stale: the irretrievable decline of the West.
Shiv Visvanathan, Dec 30, 2011

2011 Rise of democracy;

011 began like a silent film and suddenly transformed itself into the talkies.

At the outset, inflation was high, scandals were rife, and yet citizens were silent, saving energy for household decisions. The scandals provided a kind of gender justice. Shiela Dikshit, Kanimozhi and Neera Radia created gender symmetry against Kalamadi, Raja and the corporate dons. The nation was soon busy celebrating what it called the Indian Century. The world cup victory under MS Dhoni gave us a sense of euphoria, of being top of the world. The world of advertising found new models in Virat Kohli. The other celebration centred on Salman Khans films; both, Ready with its catchy silly song and Bodyguard set the tenor of the early months. Dhinka Chika was the national ditty until Kolaveri di literally erased it from memory. There was a sense of shallowness, a feeling that nothing could stir the still waters of India. Despite inflation, despite the inertia of the world economy, Bollywood, Cricket and India seemed to march on. Politics seemed to have taken a backseat. Life was happy, content, and full of clichs and advertisements until a septuagenarian hawaldar decided things should be different. Supporters of Hazare wave flags at his fast in Mumbai on 27 Dec. Reuters Anna Hazare was both mnemonic and iconic of the national movement. He reminded a new generation of the idealism of the national movement. He created a sense of continuity where an older and a younger generation found its solidarity in a battle against corruption. If one event marked the year, it was the rise and the rise of Anna Hazare. Whether it was Anna, Aruna or the later battles around Kudankulam, it was a period where civil society ambushed the state and the ossified political parties. The Arab Spring played out the same dynamic with far greater success. Anna, the Arab Spring and Occypy Wall Street became the three critical movements of the year.

Sometimes a year is a short time in politics especially when you want to look at structures. If you look at the last decade, the west looks gloomy and rusty and continued to do so in 2011. For all its Tofflers and Huntingtons, its lofty theories of innovation, the West appears entropic. Every crisis produces folklore of response, a cult of leadership. It is here that Peter Druckers distinction between managers and leaders becomes critical. Drucker argued that leaders do the right thing and managers merely do things right. The first involves ethics, vision, imagination and invention. The second emphasizes procedure and technique. The current leaders of the West are at best managers. The Obamas, the Sarkozys, even Angela Merkel behaved like custodians of a system rather than path breaking innovators. Their approach to economic crisis is appalling. They have literally created a structure of internal colonialism in Europe. Countries like Greece, Portugal and Italy are being forced into a Shylockian bargain from which they may not recover. Democracy might have originated in the West but is today a frozen asset. Democracy has become a procedural exercise in formal participation and official representation in Europe and the United States. All the experiments in democracy are emerging in Latin America, India and Africa. 2011 was a year where the reality show called democracy ripped through the official facade. Popular protests across the world might eventually outlive the inertia of the economy. Or it may run aground, as did the Hazare movement over the past week. All in all, a confused year, full of hope and anxiety, pregnant with the new and yet still clinging to an old view of the world that refuses to go away.

The News That made 2011

warns media
to watch out for in 2012
The incidents of 2011 suggest that 2012 will be a defining year for news media and social media in India.
Anant Rangaswami, Dec 26, 2011

What 2011

he ability to speak ones mind has never been easier, thanks to the Internet and social media. The ability to publish has never been easier, thanks to the Internet and social media. The ability to broadcast news and opinions instantly has never been easier, thanks to satellite television and advancements in communication links. The ability to defame has never been easier. The ability to be irresponsible in news coverage has never been easier. The ability to insult, provoke and incite has never been easier. 2011 is the year that saw Justice Katju, chairman of the Press Council of India, vehemently arguing that news television be brought under the ambit of the Press Council. 2011 is when IIPM sued Caravan magazine for Rs 50 crore for an allegedly defamatory article. 2011 is the year that saw Times Now being slapped with a Rs 100 crore defamation suit by Justice Sawant. 2011 is the year when Suhel Seth was sued for hold your breath Rs. 200 crore by ITC. 2011 is the year when Kapil Sibal threatened to regulate content on the internet in general and social media in particular. 2011 is the year when The Weekend Leader was sued by the Times of India for Rs. 100 crore. 2011 is the year when broadcast editors unilaterally and voluntarily imposed guidelines for

the coverage of the Abhishek Bachchan Aishwarya Rai baby. 2011 is the year that the Indian Broadcasters Federation evolved their own selfregulatory guidelines and created a complaints redressal mechanism. If technology makes it frighteningly easy to publish, its clear that, while you have the freedom to publish and to speak, its a freedom that comes with conditions attached. The freedoms come with responsibility and irresponsibility, we now learn, can be punished. Continued irresponsibility could lead to a curb on the freedoms in the form of regulation, perhaps even a slice of censorship. The defamation cases are the tip of the iceberg and the final judgments will be closely watched. If the courts rule, in one or more cases, in favour of the complainant, look out for a rash of defamation cases being filed. Aggrieved citizens and corporates who have felt helpless in the face of unfair and irresponsible media coverage will have new hope that justice is, indeed, available. The case against Suhel Seth, too, merits close watching. Did he actually tweet what ITC claims he did, or was it, as Seth has claimed, an update made by someone who hacked into his twitter account. Notwithstanding that, was the update itself defamatory and subject to penal action?

Is broadcast media a law unto itself? Is the selfregulation enough or is more needed before Justice Katju can be satisfied? What is the role of the regulator in story selection? Does news media have a greater role to perform as far as the disadvantaged sections of society are concerned? Can a defamatory Facebook update be punished as severely as a defamatory article in a newspaper? The incidents of 2011 mentioned above suggest that 2012 will be a defining year for news media and social media in India. They also suggest that all is not well with the news industry. Issues such as paid news are not even being

debated, and it will rear its head once elections come around and come back to bite it. India has, thankfully, a free press and near free speech. Introspect and improve, and itll stay that way. Ignore the concerns of citizens, corporates and the establishment, hoping this problem will go away will ensure that the pressure for regulation will be more severe than it has ever been.

Pappus end-year final exam

Given the importance of current affairs in judging academic excellence, we we set a test paper based on events in 2011 and asked Pappu to take a bash at it.
Anant Rangaswami, Dec 21, 2011

e all know how important it is for students in India to excel at examinations and what a rat-race it is for youth. The knowledge of current affairs is considered a very, very important sign of academic excellence, so we set a test paper based on events in 2011 and asked Pappu to take a bash at it. Pappu pass ho gaya! How are laws made in India? It is very easy. You have to go and fast at either the Ramlila grounds, Azad Maidan or MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex (if you can afford it) and demand a particular law. Do you require a majority in Parliament to pass a law? No, you only need the majority support of the news media. Who is Anna Hazare? He is a man who wants Sharad Pawar slapped more than once. He does not like postmen and other Group C and D government servants. He is very powerful. He sits in the front seat of his car without a seat-belt on and no one challans him. He is a very bad blogger. TV cameras love him. His favourite word is niyyat.

What is Ralegan Siddhi? It is a place like the Jindal Health farm or any Kerala Ayurveda centre. It is a place to go when you want to detox. You cannot drink alcohol there. There is no cable TV. Instead of masseurs, they have people who beat you with a stick. Who is Arvind Kejriwal? He is an angry man. Who is Kiran Bedi? She is an angry woman. Who is Prashant Bhushan? He is an angry man. Together, what are Kejriwal, Bedi and Bhushan? They are a game, like Angry Birds. Their game is called Angry Core Committee. In their game, no one throws things at them, they throw things at politicians, especially from the Congress party. What is FDI? I think it is a car. The USA likes it, but the opposition parties in India do not like it. I think it is a car because it can be rolled back. Who is Justice Katju? A confused man. He thinks he has been ap-

pointed the conscience of the country when everyone knows that it is Medha Patkar. He also thinks he is an editor. He thinks he is the greatest editor in the country. He is also opposed to a Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar. He does not go to astrologers. He doesnt like TV news channels, though he watches all of them 24X7. Who is Jayalalithaa? She is the Santa Claus of Tamil Nadu. She gives everyone free TVs, mixies, laptops and sewing machines. Who pays for all these freebies? Are they made by elves? No. There are no elves. The freebies are paid for by the citizens of Tamil Nadu. What is Mullaiperiyar? It is a piece required to play chess. My father says its a pawn in a game between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. What is Radiagate? It is a gadget that allows direct contact between industrialists and politicians instantly. Who is Manmohan Singh? Im not sure. But I think he is the one Anna Hazare copied the concept of maun-vrat from. Who is the head of the government of India? Someone called Ten Jan Path. Who is Mayawati? She is a statue. She is a statue with a handbag. Actually she is many statues with many handbags.

Who is Kalmadi? He is a master magician. He can make anything 100 times more expensive in seconds. He can also make large sums of money disappear. However, he cannot disappear from jail. Who is Raja? He is also a master magician. He can also make large sums of money disappear. But he, too, cannot disappear from jail. Who is Sunny Leone? She is a very nice girl who is much misunderstood. Many people think she is a porn star when, in fact, she is just a very nice girl. Why do so many people wear funny hats with I am Anna written on it? All these people are called Anna and all have memory deficiencies and, every now and then, they forget their own names. When they do, they look at the funny hats. They meet at Ramlila grounds, Azad Maidan and MMRDA grounds. When this happens, it is very confusing as there are hundreds of people, all called Anna. They all eat while another man called Anna does not eat. What is the Food Security Act? It is like the National Security Act. It wont work. Who is Kapil Sibal? He is a man with no friends on Facebook. People on Twitter laugh at him the whole day. He does not like people making fun of his real-life friends.

Bollywood

Best Actresses of 2011:

the Bad Girl

If this were the 80s, many of the women in this list would have been slapped into submission. Fortunately,the bad girls lit up the silver screen this year, and we look at some of the top actresses from 2011.
Vikram Phukan , Dec 26, 2011

The Year of

arlier this year, our mid-year picks brought out the indie soul of Bollywood, before a litany of blockbusters took over the box-office in quick succession. Female actors often have precious little to do in many of these 100-crore bonanzas. However, this year has certainly reaped a rich harvest of great turns by women, several of which have been in films that have done reasonably well commercially. A common theme that has emerged is how the bad girl seems to have been catapulted to centrestage, indicating that audiences are perhaps increasingly able to view women outside the mould of tailor-made propriety. Vidya Balans performance as the actress Silk, in The Dirty Picture, is sometimes seen as a function of the excess kilos she bravely put on for the role, or of her being able to pull off the bawdy act convincingly. In a pivotal scene in the movie, when a heavily-sedated (and over the hill) Silk stumbles out of the sets of a soft-porn filmthe shooting of which has just been bustedinto a once-familiar neighbourhood where the chaste echoes of the girl she once was can still be found, Balan does more than just display a lack of vanity in ill-fitting sexy attire. She manages to get as unnervingly close as possible to the emotional truth of her character, demonstrating, in devastating close-up, the laceration of a womans psyche, and the embittered morale of an actress being pushed into oblivion, even as she continues to hold on for just about as long as she can. While it is uncertain how much of real-life starlet Silk Smithas life has been plundered here for the purposes of cinematic license (The Dirty Picture is essentially an exploitation flick in the guise of a B-movie), Balan creates her Silk in the mould of a free spirit and a gamechanger, who seems strangely untouched by the sleaze around her, almost like a diamond in the raw. Its a piece de resistance turn that nicely complements her less showy but superbly crafted part in No One Killed Jessica. Balan is undeniably the actress of the year. Although Tigmanshu Dhulias Saheb Biwi aur Gangster is not really a remake of the Abrar Alvi classic (sharing only some narrative themes with it), its leading actress Mahie Gill acquits herself well enough to emerge from the shadow of Meena Kumari gut-wrenching portrayal of the sex-starved wife of a feudal lord who takes

to alcohol with a vengeance. Gills pill-popping Chhoti Bahu is also as emotionally ravaged, and driven to bouts of attention-seeking hysteria, but she is also cannily observant of her own situation and possessing of the enterprise with which she can subvert her lot, either by engaging in a passionate tryst with her driver in response to her mans infidelities, or by wresting control of her husbands fiefdom in a delicious climatic twist. Gill extends her range to edgier territory, while still holding on to a kind of rawness that makes her a shoo-in for parts that dont fall within the realm of candy-floss cinema.

In her films, Kalki Koechlin usually lugs around the persona of someone so utterly self-possessed that it is difficult to imagine that there could be an emotionally fragile side to her. In That Girl in Yellow Boots as Ruth, a British girl in search of her Indian fathershe may still be one hard cookie, but she allows us to look, beyond that impassiveness, at whats simmering just under the surface. In the process, she gives a maudlin tale (a script she has co-written with Anurag Kashyap) a shot of vitality. Her shaky

hold over the local tongue adds to Ruths earthy child-like bearing (her portions in English seem surprisingly hokey in comparison), and Koechlin delivers a performance of splintered elegance, even with the film being set in a seedy massage parlour in Mumbai. Given the films inconsistent emotional tenor, she still manages to steer Ruth towards a heart-rending denouementin what is a fully-realised performance more so than her work in Shaitan, where she is more of an art installationa metaphor for the timesthan a real person. This year some of our more seasoned actors have played women grappling with bereavement. In Memories in March, Deepti Naval is wonderfully stoic as she deals with the untimely death of her son in a car accident, creating a stillness in her performance that allows each poignant moment to breathe. Its only when she discovers that her son was gay, that the potent mixof emotions and conflict and moral indignancepierces into the silence as Naval negotiates the transitions with lilting compassion in a film that is ultimately more a bitter-sweet tale of warmth and acceptance than a paean to suffering. For Juhi Chawla in I Am Megha, it is more than just a physical or material loss, it is the loss of identity. She plays a Kashmiri Pandit who returns to Kashmir for a visit, still haunted by memories of the time when her family had to leave the valley in the wake of what seemed to be anti-Pandit pogroms. Chawla eschews her trademark chirpiness and employs a softer palette to give us a stirring portrait of Meghas melancholic self. Manisha Koirala plays her childhood friend and simmers with a warmth and luminosity that makes her underwritten part of a Kashmiri woman come alive. Its a Manisha who is very much redolent of the cinema of her prime like Dil Se or Khamoshithose expressive eyes still speak volumes, yet now they contain so many more untold stories. The revelation of the year is Katrina Kaif in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Long dismissed as an acting lightweight, under director Zoya Akhtar, Kaif blossoms into a incandescent woman with a full-blooded personality. As Laila, an adventure-seeker with the soul of a wanderer, Kaif wears her wisdom lightly and unselfcon-

sciously, amidst all the preening men about her. As she rides back several miles in a bike to deliver what could be a final kiss to her beloved

(played by Hrithik Roshan), Kaif gets it all accurately on her flushed countenance, embodying the films philosophy in one fleeting moment thats almost worth the price of admission. We have seen Rani Mukerji spew expletives earlier in films like Bichhoo, and indeed she has been a firebrand in several of her roles, but as the hard-nosed journalist Meera Gaety in No One Killed Jessica, Mukerji is exquisitely heroic despite the Max Factor eyes and the neatly appointed outfits. Its a flamboyantly brash part, but in a film thats more pop-thriller than human document, it fits in nicely. In a supporting turn as a deaf girl in Soundtrack, Soha Ali Khan keeps her tics in control

and gives us a charming young woman, who despite her lack of hearing (or maybe because of it), is someone whose optimism and zest

for life (and lip-reading) is infectious. Poorna Jagannathan in Delhi Belly brings more to her part than just articulateness or confidence, but also an earthily attractive integrity of character

daughter of one of Delhis nouveau riche businessmen. With her winning persona, Nusrat Bharucha stops her unsympathetic turn of a passive-aggressive girlfriend in Pyaar Ka Punchnama from veering into vixen-from-hell territory, delivering instead a nuanced portrayal that is disarmingly identifiable. Finally, Saba Azad is self-depreciatingly vivacious in Mujhse Fraandship Karoge giving us a leading lady with a difference (and erasing memories of her self-conscious debut in Dil Kabaddi Etc). If this were the 80s, many of the women in this list would have been slapped into submission and asked to toe the line. Fortunately, bonafide bad girls such as thesewhose bodies are their own, who speak their own minds and who seem to be in control of their romantic and sexual entanglementslit up the silver screen this year, and revealed the progressive side of even a parochial movie industry such as ours. For every fleshed-out role there are possibly umpteen decorative parts but hopefully those will be consigned to history, while these ones will endure.

(although a diamond heist is still fair game). Puja Sarup in That Girl in Yellow Boots and Parineeti Chopra in Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl take their similar parts of women with a gift of the gab, to opposite ends, with Sarup deliciously sending up a massage parlour madam to light up the dreariness of a subaltern existence, and Chopra (aided by Habib Faisals dialogues) chalking up an amusing caricature as the spoilt

Goodbye superhero, The best actors of 2011

No shortage of six packs but the men of Bollywood men got a little more real in 2011. Film Impressions picks the best of 2011.
Vikram Phukan , Jan 4, 2012

hello real guy:

anbir Kapoor As it was for this years women where we had a clear frontrunner in the performing sweepstakes, Ranbir Kapoor in Imtiaz Alis Rockstar steals a march on last years field, holding together a film that otherwise seems to be coming apart at its seams.

We have seen the star demonstrate great acting range in Wake Up Sid and Rocket SinghSalesman of the Year, two back-to-back films that go together in as much as they tell the same story using two different styles of cinema and Kapoor straddles both boats effectively. With Ali at the helm, Rockstar may have seemed like a veritable masterpiece on paper, and it had the sweep to deliver an epic. Instead we got an average fare that is all but rescued by the sheer virtuosity of its star, an actor who seems to have finally come of age. Randeep Hooda In Once Upon A Time in Mumbai, Randeep Hooda was gritty but understated, possessing the panache of a leading man even in a supporting part standing out in stark contrast to all the 70s style flamboyance on display by the films lead actors. In Saheb Biwi aur Gangster, he gets to do the swashbuckling this time, and his natural swagger and deadpan dialogue delivery has never been put to better use, as he becomes one with his character of Babloo, a flunky who fancies himself a king. Even within the dissolute moral climate of the

In the opening montage, he is the recalcitrant rock star, a rebel who fights through a barricade to take the stage in a giant amphitheater filled with thousands of his fans, and as the camera swoops unto his almost upholstered frame, we segue into flashback mode Kapoor in college tweeds and a marked air of deference, busking with his guitar at a road crossing. Over the course of its running time, the film takes us through his characters progression, and although the styling of his look is an important part of the transformation of a gauche kid with cropped hair to a straggly haired rock icon, Kapoor inhabits each change like a second skin. In the performing of his songs (backed by Mohit Chauhan whose full-throated singing contributes heavily to Kapoors success in this role), he is a consummate artist at work, whether its a rousing jagran number, or a Sufi qawaali at the Nizamuddin shrine, or a send-up of an old Shammi Kapoor hit from Kashmir Ki Kali. The born performer in him comes alive, and he embodies all the traits we have come to expect of the quintessential star-actor. When he isnt lip-synching, Kapoor tries to make sense of Alis disjointed screenplay, with some great support from theatre actor Kumud Mishra, who provides the perfect foil to Jordans early impetuousness.

film, he isnt quite the full-blown gangster and there is still a hint of small-town navet (a nod perhaps, to Guru Dutts Bhootnath from Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam) that adds to his rustic charm, making his romantic tryst with his lords wife almost inevitable. Despite having been in the industry for a decade, Hooda has been waiting for a definitive showcase (since Ram Gopal Varmas D) and this film gets really close.

Partho Numaan Partho Numaan, who plays the lead in Stanley ka Dabba, gets the playfulness down pat, but he also draws us beautifully into the heartbreaking world that Stanley inhabits outside the cheer and din of the classrooms. He propels his character from the back-benches of obscurity (where most children are relegated to in Indian classrooms) to the front of his class, allowing

standing out even as the other actors (including Shiv Pandit, Kalki Koechlin and Rajat Bar-

mecha, in an interesting cameo) feed his performance with their own bravura turns. The top guns The top guns havent fared badly either this year. Shah Rukh Khan somewhat recovers from his stiff turn in Ra-One with his edgier performance as a mafia kingpin in Don 2. Although hes done evil before much more outlandishly (as is his usual schtick) here his

us to look at a childs world-view and potential, with alternative eyes. Numaan holds his ground with disarming maturity in a performance that deserves full marks. Supporting turns Two supporting turns make it to the top of the pile. In Pyaar Ka Punchnama, the delicate Divyendu Sharma makes us root for the underdog even as he sinks further and further into an increasingly pathetic cesspool of thwarted desire, because there is that natural spunkiness that lies underneath, which Sharma uses well to make his character sympathetic and identifiable. His Liquid is one of the more memorable (and quote-worthy) characters of the year, destined for the kind of cult status not usually conferred upon boys-next-door. In Shaitan, Gulshan Devaiahs character loses steam mid-way and doesnt quite develop into an iconic anti-hero for the ages, but the actor springs off the blocks in blustering fashion. There is a simmering existential angst to his character and even if the film never quite justifies it with its stylised panache and overemphatic score, Devaiah keeps it real. Shaitan is a true ensemble film and he seems to benefit the most from the explosive synergy on display,

director restricts him to an economy of expression that although predictably, makes a sympathetic character out of an impenitent criminal. It also gives him a grunge persona that punctuates the action with just the right dash of lan, even in a thriller that follows a rather downtempo trajectory. Hrithik Roshan is an actor who still has the wing-span of an albatross, and packs a lot of brawn into every moment on celluloid, but we see a more fragile, dysfunctional side to the

man in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Hes played someone whos perennially moored in a state of limbo before, in Lakshya, from the same team.

and Jimmy Shergill, Hindi cinemas eternal journeyman. While Prateiks later performances this year havent been up to the mark, in Dhobi Ghat as the young washerman Munna he exudes a charismatic vibe and a gravitas that seems to sit easily on his young shoulders. There are conflicts in his character his dalliance with a society girl is given an aspirational twist that he essays with a kind of casual indifference, which adds volumes to the languorous charm of this boulevard boy.

That character benefited from Roshans early earnestness, this one puts his mid-career jadedness to very good use. It does demonstrate that he has travelled some distance as an actor, and maybe his star status (and the tics are very much in display) restricts his oeuvre somewhat. There is a lot of bombast in Aarakshan, and Amitabh Bachchan has to deliver most of the overwritten rhetoric. Old hand that he is, he doesnt balk at the task in hand, and instead raises (by several notches) the emotional tenor of a relatively rudderless film. He reminds us of of his best work in films like Govind Nihalanis Dev the moral rectitude and integrity of character is sill there, but the lack of conviction in the plot stunts the impact of his character somewhat. Journeyman and rising star

Shergill consistently springs upon us solid performances that demonstrate his considerable range as an actor and reminds us that hes still in the reckoning (a fact people keep forgetting). In Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster, he is naturally blue-blooded but he infuses his character with a gashing of injured pride and a facile ostentation that accurately reflect the state of decrepitude his fiefdom seems to be in the throes of. In other noteworthy performances, we have the ripped-to-perfection Ajay Devgn in true-blue

To round off the top ten, we have Prateik an actor who is honing his nascent star appeal

superhero mode in Singham an impressive performance even when taking into account the parameters of Southern-style masala cinema. In Shor in The City, Pitobash Tripathy brings a manic energy to his part of a petty thug who is a bit of a nutcase. It is a stock character of sorts, but Tripathy is like an Energizer bunny on steroids and entertaining as hell.

less hits on Youtube). Finally, Saqib Saleem in Mujhse Fraandship Karoge gives us a live-wire act that is audacious and full of personality a perfect showcase for the young actor. Although the six-packers are still very much in vogue with Salman Khan garnering up two of the years biggest hits 2011 has given us a motley crew of other kinds of men. Those who are real and identifiable, and take Hindi cinema away from its usual legion of over-the-top paragons with nary a human bone in their bodies. Thus giving us every man heroes, who seem to have been plucked out of the everyday narratives that we ourselves inhabit. This is what we have wanted to see in our cinema, all along.

Rajeev Khandelwal is good as the easily irked police-officer in Shaitan, but in Soundtrack, as a rockstar who has lost his hearing, Khandelwal gives his character pause, allowing him to find his musical feet again without losing his mind. Kartikeya Tiwari in Pyaar Ka Punchnama, takes venting to a new level, especially in a tenminute long spiel on the ill-considered ways of women a scene that is well worth the price of admission (and which has racked up count-

Sport

The hits and misses

A recap of Indian sport
of 2011:

A bit of history and a bit of mystery, a few controversies and a few coveted victories read all what made news in the sporting world this season.
Aparna Popat , Dec 27, 2011

cross the spectrum, 2011 was yet another year filled with a myriad of happenings in the Indian sporting world. A bit of history and a bit of mystery, some hits and some misses, a few controversies and a few coveted victories. We won the World Cup!!! After a void of 28 years, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the Indian team to victory against the Sri Lankans on home soil. The mood was euphoric. As was also when Virendra Sehwag smashed a spectacular 219 runs against West Indies to set a new world record for the highest individual score in an ODI match. World Cup win Further, in cricket we had Ramakant Achrekar being awarded the Lifetime achievement award by Sports Illustrated India. This was a richly deserved recognition for a man who has honed young cricketers for decades with his most famous pupils being Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli amongst other first class cricketers. We also lost one of our beloved cricket captains, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi who succumbed to a lung disease. Our heart goes out to the Tiger who with his dynamic personality led the Indian team at the tender age of 21 years. Let us not limit our imagination and information to cricket alone. Indian sport seems to have evolved and finally other sports are being recognised. Speaking of recognition, Gagan Narang, our ace shooter finally got his due. This year he was awarded the countrys highest sporting honour the Khel Ratna award. A shot in the arm for him surely. Indian tennis has been steadily looking up. Indian tennis star, Rohan Bopanna, pairing up with Pakistani Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi, became one of the top 10 doubles teams in the world. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi finally set aside their differences and decided to pair up again. They found outstanding success at the ATP World Tour Finals when they upset threetime champions, the Bryan brothers, in straight sets. Yet, at the end of the year Lee-Hesh an-

nounced their decision to split. Mahesh shall now partner Bopanna next season. Yet another match up! Badminton is another sport where Indians delighted. Apart from Saina Nehwal who has commendably maintained a top-five world ranking this year, we saw brilliant performances by Ajay

Jayaram and Guru Sai Dutt at the Hong Kong Open and Saurabh Verma at the recently-concluded Indian Open Grand Prix. But the highlight was most definitely the World Championship bronze medal of the Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa pairing. They put up an inspiring performance and created history of sorts. Hockey is our national sport. Yet, the sport caused enough worry this year with the tiff between rival factions Hockey India and the Indian Hockey Federation gaining steam. Despite several warnings and attempts from the government and the International Hockey Federation, there is no solution in sight. However, this did not deter our boys who put up a grand show winning the Asian Champions Trophy for the first time. Success at the Asian level also came to Luge athlete Shiva Keshavan from Himachal Pradesh who set a new Asian speed record of 134.3 kmph to win the gold medal at the 2011 Asia Cup. He thus became the first-ever gold medal winner for India in an international winter sports event and the first non-Japanese to win the crown. The crown prince of football, Lionel Messi, graced the football crazy city of Kolkata in September for a friendly match between Argentina and Venezuela. That was, Im sure, a dream

come true for thousands of fans. A few years ago if someone said that India would have their own Formula 1 Grand Prix soon, it was surely because they were dreaming. The Buddh International Circuit was built at a cost of around Rs 2,000 crore and found praise from one and all. The event was a speedy success. Success came to two of Indias profound sons P Gopichand, AllEngland champion and Abhinav Bindra, Olympic Gold medallist in shooting. The success stories of these two great champions were penned down. Therefore, we saw the release of two sports biographies on these Indian greats (i.e. other than cricketers). The year was not sans controversy. The donkeys comment by Nasser Hussain was criticised. During a T20 international, Hussain referred to some Indian fielders saying there are one or two donkeys in the field still causing a furore. The arrest of prominent sports administrators, Suresh Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot and VK Verma in connection with the CWG scam also made big news. So did the unfortunate incident of our CWG medal winning athletes testing positive for dope and facing a one-year ban. But yet there is a definite ray of hope. The Sports Development Bill that was rejected in Parliament once this year has been revised and is ready to be reintroduced. The bill proposes to help promote and ensure transparency in Indian sport. Also, the recent consideration of

sportspersons for the Bharat Ratna is a distinct boost. On a lighter note, Andrew Symonds entered the Big Boss House. So now, its not only the real entertainment of IPL for the foreign cricketers but the reality of shows too. I would like to conclude with the brilliant speech Rahul Dravid delivered in Australia. He was the first non-Australian cricketer invited to deliver the Bradman Oration and he scored articulately. Somewhere in the speech, he put up a defence against the clichd image of cricket the money and power. He said I cannot take all of you into the towns and villages our players come from, and introduce you to their families, teachers, coaches, mentors and teammates who made them international cricketers. I cannot take all of you here to India to show you the belief, struggle, effort and sacrifice from hundreds of people that runs through our game. This retort I think applies not only to cricket but to sport and sportspersons all over India. Therefore, come 2012, we must stand up and take notice of not only the elite sportspersons but also the upcoming struggling ones and give them their due. After all, the sporting world is tough.

World Champs?
n 11 games before the final, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has averaged a paltry 22.38. So when he pushed himself up the order, ahead of in-form Yuvraj Singh, it was a do-or-die gamble, the kind that could redefine careers. But it came off and how. During the 91-run innings off 79 balls, Dhoni hit two sixes. But we remember just one; the one he hit to finish the match. As the crowd went wild, Yuvraj Singh raised his arms but Dhoni, seemingly oblivious to it all, twirled his bat and kept his eyes fixed on the ball as it sailed into the stands. That was that, India were world champions and the celebrations didnt stop for a long time to come. Here's a look at India's moment of glory; one that will stand the test of time itself.

Remember that day in April, when India became

Business

so be prepared
Debt reduction and lower consumption will be the watchwords for India. This is good for the markets in the long run. Look for a revival by the second half of 2012.
Arjun Parthasarathy , Dec 29, 2011

2012 will be a year of austerity for India

ne prediction that one can confidently make for calendar 2012 is that austerity will be the key word for nations, corporations and common people.

Nations will adopt austerity measures to bring down debt, corporations will make austerity the theme to cut costs while the common people will be forced to adopt austerity on the lack of availability of debt and uncertainty over incomes. Unfortunately, no one has a choice in adopting austerity measures given the fact that debt is considered a four-letter word in the current market environment. Austerity has its positives and negatives, with positives outweighing the negatives in the long run. The lack of freedom to borrow and spend by all sections of the economy results in falling demand for non-essential goods and services. This fall in demand will reflect in falling inflation levels as the demand-supply factor tilts in favour of supply. Inflation, which trended at over 9 percent for most of the calendar year 2011, will fall faster than expected in 2012 on the back of the fall in demand. Rupee Inflation, which trended at over 9 percent for most of the calendar year 2011, will fall faster than expected in 2012 on the back of the fall in demand. Andrew Middleton/Flickr The Indian government is facing a huge pressure on its finances due to economic mismanagement. The government will exceed its budgeted fiscal deficit of 4.6 percent of GDP by more than half a percentage point due to the rising subsidy bill on fuel and fertilisers. The subsidy bill for 2011-12 is likely to exceed budget estimates by more than Rs 100,000 crore. Higher than expected government borrowing is placing pressure on borrowing costs, with the cost going higher by over 1 percent from 201011 to 2011-12. The government will be forced to adopt austerity measures to bring down its borrowing costs and, if the government can contain its fiscal deficit, it will be positive for interest rates, which will trend down.

Falling inflation coupled with less pressure on government bond supply (if the government can actually control its finances) will lead to falling bond yields and lower interest rates across the economy as the Reserve Bank starts cutting policy rates. The RBI has a lot of leeway on its policy rates with the CRR (cash reserve ratio) at 6 percent and the repo at 8.5 percent. India can go into a lower interest rate regime, leading to better growth prospects. Austerity brings around a fundamental change in economies. Over-investment and over-consumption will become under-investment and under-consumption. Once interest rates are sufficiently low for investment and consumption to take place, there will be an uptick in demand, leading to strong economic growth.

India is going from a phase of over-investment and over-consumption to under-investment and under-consumption, as seen by the fall in IIP (Index of Industrial Production) growth numbers. IIP growth for April-October 2011 was 3.5 percent against 8.7 percent seen last year. India has to see interest rates come off in 2012 for it to get back a balance on investment and consumption. Austerity is not taken well by markets in the short term. Equity markets do not like to see growth rates fall as it leads to earnings downgrades. However, the fact that austerity is the result of bond markets making borrowers pay for high debt levels in the economy is overlooked by most. The sharp rise in the borrowing costs of seemingly strong countries in the eurozone is a case

in point. The markets forced countries such as Italy, Spain and France to adopt austerity measures by taking up bond yields on the sovereign debt of these nations. Bond yields rose by 150400 bps (1.5-4 percent) across eurozone nations as bond markets gave a thumbs down on high debt levels carried by eurozone nations. The Sensex and Nifty are down over 20 percent in the calendar year to date as the markets fretted about rising inflation, rising interest rates, global debt issues and slowing domestic growth. Austerity will keep equity markets down until the outlook for inflation and interest rates become highly positive.

Once the markets start factoring in better economic prospects on the back of low interest rates, equity markets will see a sharp uptrend. Investors should start playing for a market revival in 2012 as austerity measures start working on inflation and interest rates.

Here are Indias top business newsmakers for 2011

Some cos faced the end of an era, while others basked in the promise of a new one ahead. It was also a year in which some firms became rising stars while others plumbed to new lows.
Indira Vergis, Dec 22, 2011

t was a remarkable year for Indian business. Safe to say, it had its fair share of ups and downs. Some companies made headlines for all the wrong reasons (DLF), while others won praise for their accomplishments (Flipkart). Some companies faced the end of an era (Infosys), while others basked in the promise of a new one ahead (the Tata group). It was also a year in which some companies became rising stars (Cognizant), while others plumbed to new lows (Maruti Suzuki). Heres a look back at some of the more memorable business newsmakers of 2011. Tata Group: It arguably made the most anticipated corporate announcement of 2011. Indias largest business conglomerate finally named a successor to chairman Ratan Tata. His name: Cyrus Mistry, the 43 year-old son of Pallonji Mistry, whose company Shapoorji Pallonji is the largest shareholder in Tata Sons. Tata Sons is the holding company of the $80 billion business group. Mistry, former managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji, will spend a year training for the top job under Ratan Tata, and is expected to take over as chairman in December 2012. Infosys: One of Indias highly respected IT companies saw the end of an era when cofounder Narayana Murthy stepped down in late August. Murthy co-founded Infosys with six engineers in 1981 by borrowing Rs 10,000 from wife Sudha. Today, the company boasts a market capitalisation of Rs 1,53,000 crore. Famous for his sense of integrity and honesty, Murthy continues to remain Chairman Emeritus at Infosys. K V Kamath, former ICICI Bank chairman, replaced Murthy as chairman, while S D Shibulal was appointed chief executive officer and managing director. Reliance Industries: Perhaps the biggest development this year was the possibility of a rapprochement between the formerly warring Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil. Mukeshs group reportedly plans to use Anils telecom companys towers to make a second

foray into the telecom sector to provide 4G services. Of course, there was plenty of other news to keep both groups in the spotlight through the year, including a sharp drop in gas output from its KG-D6 basin (for the Mukesh-led group) and Reliance Communications alleged involvement in the 2G scam (for the Anil-led group). Flipkart: Nicknamed the Amazon of India, Flipkart made waves after it was reported to have raised $150 million from General Atlantic Partners in a deal that valued the company at $1 billion, according to a report by VC Circle.

The deal transformed the company into Indias first billion-dollar Internet startup. Flipkart was co-founded as an online bookstore in 2007 by an unrelated duo, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. According to this Firstpost article, the website, now engaged in general e-commerce, expects to post a 10-fold rise in revenues in the financial year ending March 2012. Cognizant: In early August, the US-headquartered company grabbed international attention after it beat Wipro in terms of revenues for the June-ending quarter to become Indias thirdlargest IT services company. It maintained its lead in the September-ended quarter on the back of business growth in the US and Europe. Most analysts believe that by the end of March 2012, Cognizant will cement its lead over Bangalore-based Wipro. Will it topple Infosys? Not yet, but its getting there. Kingfisher Airlines: Was there anything that didnt go wrong with the airline? A severe cash crunch led to a string of problems that continue

even today: dozens of flight cancellations; the exit of hundreds of pilots and cabin crew because they werent paid their salaries; lessors reportedly grabbing back an aircraft for nonpayment of dues; suppliers threatening to cut off fuel supplies; airports threatening to force the airline to pay landing fees every time an aircraft landed or took off (instead of extending credit); a huge debt overload; and a reluctance by banks to inject more funds. Whew! The start of 2012 promises to bring more bad news. State Bank of India: Moodys downgrade of State Bank of Indias financial strength rating to D+ from C- in October caused quite a commotion in equity markets, and even prompted Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to lash out ratings agencies for trying to destabilise the banking system. Moodys downgrade was a result of worries about the banks capital adequacy in the face of a rapid deterioration in asset quality. A capital infusion could remedy the situation, but given the governments cash-strapped situation, theres little clarity on when that will happen. Maruti Suzuki: A widely reported labour strike kept Indias largest car maker in the news for most of the second half of the year. Striking employees led to a slump in production as well as car sales, intensifying the pain already being felt because of cooling demand.

dled. All in all, it was not one of Marutis finest moments. DLF: Indias largest real estate company by market value hit the spotlight after it was fined a whopping Rs 630 crore by the Competition Commission of India for breaching laws on unfair pricing and abusing its market dominant position, following a complaint lodged by a customer of the company.

It triggered a countrywide debate on the urgent need to regulate a sector already tainted by numerous scandals involving politicians. While DLF is legally contesting the fine, the CCI judgement is considered to be a big thumbs-up for consumer rights in the country. SKS Microfinance: The long list of problems at Indias only listed microfinance institution culminated last month with the exit of founder Vikram Akula, once regarded as the industrys poster boy. SKS came under harsh criticism for its flawed business model that saw it morph from a non-governmental organisation into a commercial institution that chased investor returns and rapid growth instead of providing financial services to the poor. Other negatives like lending far more than the borrowers capacity to repay and aggressive debt recovery practices also gave microlenders a bad name. SKS now plans to cut its microfinance exposure and increase income from other operations, according to a DNA report.

Making matters worse, union leaders were reportedly given huge financial payoffs to leave the company, leaving some institutional investors unhappy at how the whole affair was han-

Tech

Forget iPad 2,
here are the top five gadgets for 2011

ure the world is filled with gadgets, dont try sticking it to a window or vertical but there are a few that stand out. Its not surface.) The review videos dont do this litjust because they are powerful or top of tle gadget justice. On a good resonant surface, the line but they also bring something unique to this thing can really pump up the volume. To the table. They buy the WOWee stand out from Weve taken a look back at 2011 to find the coolest slim speaker click the crowd. here. Here are five gadgets that we think have Kevin Anderson, Dec 21, 2011 stood out in 2011 because they fit the bill. Maybe its just a new take on an The Asus Transformer Prime existing technology or maybe its a totally new Were in one of those times when companies technology that shakes up our view of things. are really trying new things, especially with the dizzying array of mobile phones and tablets. As with all of our end of the year reviews, this Taiwanese computer and gadget maker Asus is is just the five that stood out for us here at one of the more experimental companies, and Firstpost Tech. Were sure that you have a lot its Transformer series of tablets is one of its of ideas of your own. Let us know about here in more successful attempts to create a new class the comments. of gadget. Part tablet, part notebook, the Transformer Prime now sports Nvidias fiveThe WOWee slim speaker core Tegra3, and with the extra battery in the option keyboard, We forget how many times that weve wanted youll get a staggering 18 hours of to play music or show a video to someone but use . Right now, the Transformthe weak laptop speakers didnt fill the room. er Prime is running the GoogIf youve ever run into this problem too, youll les tablet-focused version of want to check out the WOWee Slim. Its not Android, aka Honeycomb. To just a portable speaker. It has a gel bottom that be honest, we think it doesnt adheres to any flat surface, like show everything that is posa wooden table, and turns sible with this cool tablet, but it into a giant Asus promises that you can speaker. upgrade to the newer version (Note, of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, when its ready. To know more about tech details and its price in India click here.

gadgets. Some are ground breaking, either in design or technology, and many of them will set the trends for 2012.

Motorola Atrix 2 Android has given mobile pioneer Motorola a new lease on life. After the Razr, Motorola didnt really have a second act, but its now turning out some very interesting handsets. Motorola makes a lot more than mobile phones, including cable boxes, and it wants to knit together its home entertainment equipment with its phones. The Atrix not only does that, but like the Transformer, it has a few tricks. You can buy a dock to transform this powerful smartphone into a notebook, and it also has a home multimedia dock with an HDMI output. From the reviews, were not entirely convinced that the Atrix has hit its stride, but we hope it does. Its a nice idea, and with a little more polish, especially with the laptop dock, it has the potential to be the first phone that tempt you to leave your laptop at home. To know more about its price in India click here. The Lytro digital camera We wrote about the Lytro when it was introduced earlier in the autumn. If you dont remember, this is the camera where you can point-and-shoot and worry about the focus later. The Lytro isnt just a cool looking camera, but its an entirely new type of camera. It uses some very advanced physics and some powerful software to capture the entire light field, allowing you to choose the plane of focus after you take the picture rather than before. Popular Science dubbed it the innovation of 2011. Again, this first generation probably doesnt show the full promise of this technology, but this is a ground-breaking device. We think there is something in being first.

Sonys 3-D camcorder binoculars To be honest, weve resisted the 3-D craze this year, but this combo gadget from Sony really caught our eye. The two binoculars cum camcorders give you 10x optical zoom to get you closer to the action, but better than that, at the click of a button, they can then record the scene in full HD and 3D, although that cuts the magnification down to only 5.4x. The top-of-the-line DEV-5 also has a built-in GPS if you want to add location to your video. The 3D video will play on most of the new 3D televisions. To know more about the product click here.

Top five tech trainwrecks of 2011: BlackBerry PlayBook Kapil Sibal

From the BlackBerry PlayBook, to HPs bizarre business strategies, to laws that could end the Internet as we know it, we take a look at some of 2011s biggest tech failures.
Suw Charman-Anderson, Dec 19, 2011

and

rom disastrous product launches to unfathomable business decisions and nasty cases of hubris, 2011 saw a wide variety of tech industry misfires, backfires and flame-outs. Here we take a look at five of the most gobsmacking. BlackBerry PlayBook: When it comes to failed tablets, this year has seen more than its fair share with Android devices widely flopping and the HP TouchPad turning out to be a touch embarrassing. But no tablet trainwreck has been quite as bad as RIMs BlackBerry PlayBook. The first of RIMs devices to use BBX, the new QNX-based operating system, the PlayBook launched in April with very few apps and, crucially, without native support for email or calendaring. The patch that should fix the email problem still hasnt been released and isnt now expected until February 2012. The PlayBook has been such a disaster that RIM had to slash prices and write off the value of its remaining inventory, slashing $485 mn off its pre-tax profits. Although RIM hopes that deep discounts globally might reverse the fortunes of both the PlayBook and the company, customers havent forgotten the extended outage earlier in the year that disconnected millions of users worldwide. RIM must be wishing it could ditch the now albatross-shaped PlayBook, but as its only BBXbased device, they are stuck. Question is, can RIM survive through 2012? Kapil Sibal: A New York Times report that communications minister Kapil Sibal was demanding internet companies, including Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Yahoo, pre-screen user generated content sparked a firestorm of outrage from Indias digerati. Initial reports said that Sibal wanted social media sites to proactively look for and delete objectionable content, an impossible task. Sibal himself in press interviews seemed very frustrated that Facebook and friends raised their hands expressing inability to do anything, but he later did a U-turn and began to deny that he had ever asked for pre-screening of content. After the TouchPad went down the tubes, HP confused pretty much everyone by announcing that it was going to ditch its PC business to refocus on enterprise software. Given HP leads the Windows PC market and often uses its ability to provide both hardware and software to win contracts, the decision to spin off or sell the division seemed odd. Indeed, HP quickly changed its To complete his pirouette, Sibal has now asked Google, Facebook and Twitter for suggestions on how the government can use social media to empower government, because, yeah, government needs more power. Whatever Sipals final position on pre-screening and social media turns out to be, he has effectively undermined his own credibility as communications minister. HP: I was originally going to put the HP TouchPad as one of this years biggest tech failures but, whilst it certainly was a spectacular own goal, Hewlett Packards wider business failures overshadow that of its products.

mind when stock plummeted and then sacked CEO Leo Apotheker, whose idea it was. HP also said it was going to sell off webOS, which it acquired when it bought Palm for $1.2 bn in 2010, but no one seemed all that interested in buying. Instead, they decided to open source webOS and axed some 500 jobs in the process. HPs profits fell off a cliff in the fourth quarter, plunging 91 percent. New CEO Meg Whitman has a steep mountain to climb to rehabilitate HP, but the signs arent good. Along with RIM, HP could go the way of the dodo in 2012. SOPA/PIPA: When it comes to era-ending stupidity, its hard to beat the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. These two acts are currently progressing through the American legislative system and are both strong candidates for destroying the internet as we know it. SOPA would provide rightsholders with the ability to force payment providers to sever their relationships with any website accused of copyright infringement. They would also be able to get injunctions to force ISPs to damage their own DNS records to effectively censor the site off the web. All this would be done without adequate due process or recourse, giving the notoriously feckless recording industry a bottomless pit of mud to fling around the web. Its no exaggeration to say that SOPA and PIPA could easily end the web as we know it. Pretty much everyone you could think of opposes the bills, from tech giants to civil liberties groups to journalists to lawemakers. But that may not be enough to counter the very well-funded lobbyists trying to frog march this legislation through.

Enjoy the web whilst youve got it, for tomorrow it may be gone. Color : In comparison to our other tech failures, Color seems like such a small, innocuous and almost pitiful example of hubris. An iPhone and Android app in which users could share photos with other Color users within 100 feet. Investors ploughed $41 mn into Color, getting all over-excited about the buzzword bingo that surrounded the app. But when it launched in March, it was an instant failure. Despite the massive hype, people didnt seem to want to share their photos in such a scattershot way. With no privacy features, no friends lists and no filtering, it was an app for extreme extroverts only. Color was a great example of what happens when start-ups, stuck in the rarefied bubble of Silicon Valley, fail to understand how normal people live their lives. Sharing, yes, we like to do that, but sharing indiscriminately with everyone nearby? Not so much. In the end, Color blew its cash on an app no one wanted and had to to continue the theme of this years failures pivot and reinvent itself as a live video broadcasting tool for Facebook. Given that it can only do 30 seconds of video at a time, its not clear that its new direction is going to work either. Which tech flops had you gasping in surprise through 2011? And which companies do you see running into trouble in 2012? Let us know in the comments!

The most Googled terms in 2011 are

Google, has announced its 2011 most searched words list or what they call the Zeitgeist 2011. Check out who all made it to the list.
FP Staff, Dec 19, 2011 ts the end of the year. Therefore, time for lists. Facebook presented its own set of the most shared/read articles on the site by country earlier this month. Of course, the search giant Google has followed suit with 2011s most searched words list or what they called the Zeitgeist 2011. The list has a bunch of surprises to offer. The most searched term worldwide was Rebecca Black, the singer whos hit single Friday got nearly 167 million hits on YouTube. Second on the list was Googles very own social networking site Google+. The late reality television star Ryan Dunn was the third most searched.

Adele, whose hit song Someone like You had topped the charts in the UK, is number seven on the list. The late Apple founder, Steve Jobs, whose death was mourned by Apple fans worldwide was number nine, while Apples iPad 2 was number 10. Google also felt the need to put in a sappy video, sort of like a goodbye to 2011. But the video was mostly abound the end of the Iraq war and the last shot of an Iraqi boy with an American soldier was a bit too much to handle.

Watch Googles Zeitgeist 2011 video

Investing

class tag as mkt volatility is here to stay

As the stock market investors burnt their fingers with heavy losses of Rs 19.46 cr in 2011, the tried-and-tested gold added to its glitter and silver also managed to retain part of the sheen it gained during the year.
PTI, Jan 2, 2012

Gold retains best asset

ew Delhi: After an average loss of over one million dollars in every ten seconds of trade in stocks last year, market pundits seem to be playing it safe and are predicting Sensex levels ranging from as low as 8,000 to as high as 28,500 points in 2012. Going by these wide projections, the market valuations could either plunge to a low of about half the current levels, or might double in the New Year. The Sensex ended the year 2011 at 15,454.92 points. On the other hand, analysts appear much more optimistic about another year of rally in another major asset class, the gold, which emerged as the best investment avenue in 2011 as well, despite a high level of volatility. As the stock market investors burnt their fingers with heavy losses of Rs 19.46 crore ($619 billion) in 2011, the tried-and-tested gold added to its glitter and silver also managed to retain part of the sheen it gained during the year. In percentage terms, the losses in the stock market were 24.6 percent, while gold appreciated 32 percent and silver by 10 percent during 2011. Retaining its tag of the best asset class, gold prices began the year 2011 at Rs 20,890 per ten grams and ended at Rs 27,640. On the other hand, the silver prices rose from Rs 46,500 per kg to Rs 51,150. During the year, gold prices had risen to close to Rs 30,000, while silver had gone close to Rs 60,000 at one point of time. While gold prices managed to retain most of their gains, the same was not the case for silver. On the other hand, the stock market barometer Sensex fell 5,054 points during 2011 to end at 15,454.92 points. The total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market value of all listed stocks, dipped by Rs 19.46 lakh crore to Rs 53,48,644.8 crore ($1.002 trillion). Taking into account the total number of trading sessions during 2011, this corresponds to an average loss of more than one million dollars in every 10 seconds of trade. Religare Securities CEO Gagan Randev said that the volatility in stock markets was here to stay, at least in the

short to medium term. Our view is that the markets will bottom out in first quarter and then begin a phase of upward consolidation. Our level for Sensex for 2012 is 18,000, he said. Mutual fund house Quantum Asset Management Co Director Ajit Dayal said that those wishing for more certainty (in the new year) should use their wish for something more likely to come true. Global economic uncertainty will continue to plague us as it has since the year 2008 A butterfly flapping its wings in the US could cause a storm in Europe; a hiccup in Europe could cause a meltdown in Asia, Dayal noted. Noting that the stock market should benefit from growing earnings of Indian companies in the long run, Dayal said FIIs will determine the level of share prices. A 28,500 Index is possible, and so is an Index of 8,000. Greed will take it up just as fear has brought it down, he said, while advising the long-term investors to build a sensible portfolio and ignore the passing effects of a million butterflies flapping their wings. Analysts at Merrill Lynch-Bank of America, on the other hand, said that the Sensex could correct to 14,500 level in the next six months and predicted a 19,000-mark by year-end. Angel Brokings Managing Director Lalit Thakkar also said that the markets would remain volatile in the near term and predicted a 17,500-level for the Sensex by December 2012. Painting the most bearish picture, global equity research major CLSA said that a violent selloff down to the 11,000-12,000 levels on the Sensex, combined with a further depreciation in the rupee to the Rs60/USD level, now appears quite possible. CLSA, however, said that a selloff to the 11,000-12,000 level on the Sensex, particularly if combined with a rupee move to the 60 level, should generate sufficient noise in Indias always noisy media to wake the politicians in Delhi up. That would represent a great buying opportunity.

Religares Randev said that the movement in world markets would be determined by the reaction of the political class to the prevailing economic scenario. Domestically, the outcomes of the elections in five states, the Budget of 2012 (which is feared to be populist) and the rate at which inflation comes down (which will also result in interest rates coming down) will be events to be watched in the first half of calendar year 2012, he added. Quantum MFs Dayal said that it would be good to seek comfort in a stable India against a backdrop of volatile global markets. But it could be another futile wish for 2012, Dayal said, as a disconnected government is fighting battles within their allies and outside.

Talking about another asset class, the gold, Quantum MFs Chirag Mehta said that its relatively high prices, seen over the past few years, are well supported by fundamental factors. Over the long term, we can clearly see that gold prices are trending upwards. The macroeconomic and supply-demand drivers point to a continued increase in gold prices. Demand from consumption centers, such as India and China largely seem to be on a firm footing, he said. While dismissing any bubble developing in gold, Mehta said that investment demand has been robust and is likely to continue to grow, lending support to gold prices.

What! Investors lose

as FIIs turn bearish on India

Rs 20 lakh cr

Rate-sensitive stocks suffered a sharp setback. The metal sector, too, was at the receiving end due to a big fall in commodity prices in the absence of demand in global markets.
PTI, Dec 28, 2011

umbai: In a departure from big gains in the past two years, investors saw around Rs 20 lakh crore of their wealth eroded as Indian equities tanked in 2011 because of inflation, high interest rates and the uncertain global growth environment accentuated by the euro zone debt crisis. In addition, the rupee fell to historic lows against the US dollar, hitting the countrys import bill. The bellwether indices of the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as the National Stock Exchange fell by over 26 percent during the course of the year, touching new lows. The 30-scrip BSE Sensex was down by 5,334.01 points, or over 26 per cent, at 15.175.08 on December 20, against last years close of 20,509.09. Similarly, the 50-share Nifty witnessed a hefty fall of 1,590.30 points, or 25.92 percent, to 4,544.20 on December 20 from last years close. There has been some recovery since then, with the Sensex closing at 15,873.95 and the Nifty at 4,750.50 yesterday, but market experts say investors remain cautious on India. Globally, the deepening European debt crisis and a historic downgrade of US creditworthiness hit the economic growth sentiment. Besides, political turmoil in the Middle East pushed up global crude oil prices, adding to inflationary pressures and pushing up the countrys import bill. FIIs, the main drivers of the market, turned negative on Indian equities this year and after having injected a record Rs 1,33,266 crore, or over $29.36 billion, in 2010, pulled out Rs 2,497.50 crore, or $318.00 million, from equities till December 19. Meanwhile, as per Sebi data, they pumped in Rs 39,637.50 crore, or over$ 8.2 billion, into the debt market till December 19.

The Sensex had gained 7,817.50 points, or 81.03 per cent, in 2009 the highest rise in any one year in absolute terms while it spurted by another 3,044.28 points, or 17.43 per cent, in 2010. The Nifty also had soared by 2,241.90 points, or 75.76 per cent, in 2009, followed by 933.45 points, or 17.95 percent, last year. Fears of a global economic slowdown and domestic troubles with inflation, interest rates, lack of reforms and the falling rupee made investors cautious in 2011, especially during the last quarter. Aggressive offloading resulted in 12 of the 13 sectoral indices closing in the red, with some of them hitting 52-week lows during 2011. Only the BSE-FMCG gained, but just about 9 percent up to last week. In a bid to tame swollen inflation, the Reserve Bank of India hiked key lending rates 13 times in 19 months. It also cut the GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7.6 percent from 8 percent projected earlier. However, in the midquarter monetary policy review on December 16, the RBI left the lending rate unchanged to support faltering economic growth amid hopes that inflation will begin to fall after hovering close to double digits most of the year. The sustained rise in interest rates dented the investor sentiment on fears that it would hit corporate profitability because of the high cost of borrowing, besides slowing down consumer demand. Rate-sensitive realty, banking and auto stocks suffered a sharp setback. The metal sector, too, was at the receiving end due to a big fall in commodity prices in the absence of demand in global markets.

Economy

economy in 2012
For the pessimist, theres plenty to be worried about as we head into 2012. But there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic too.
FP Editors, Dec 20, 2011

go right for Indias

5 things that can

errible. Thats how 2011 was for the Indian economy.

Economic growth slowed to a crawl, the rupee plunged to a fresh low, foreign investments all but dried up and government action on economic and political reforms practically came to a standstill as it battled one corruption scandal after another. For the pessimist, theres plenty to be worried about as we head into 2012. But there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic too. After all, its a new year a time for renewed hope. Firstpost lists five reasons why India could have a moderately better New Year: One, Indias gross domestic product will continue to grow in 2012, albeit at a much slower rate of below 7 percent. While that is, admittedly, disappointing for a country that aims to roar ahead in double-digits, its still better than the growth rate of the global economy, which is predicted to expand by about 3.5 percent next year. Plus, Indias growth will rank second only to China among the group of BRIC Brazil, Russia, India and China nations. While China is expected to grow by about 8.18.4 percent, Brazils and Russias economies are expected to expand by less than 4 percent in 2012. So, maybe were not that badly-off? Two, weve probably reached a turning point on interest rates. That means the economic pain were enduring now has probably reached its peak. The next move by the Reserve Bank of India is likely to be a policy rate cut early next year. That could help breath some life into the sluggish economy by lifting credit demand for investment and spending. It will cheer stock markets as well. Globally, countries ranging from Brazil and Australia to Indonesia and China have cut rates on the back of weakening inflation and growth expectations. Low interest regimes in economies across the globe are likely to fuel growth going ahead.

Three, a slowdown in consumer spending, which grew by a mere 5.9 percent in the September-ended quarter, might be close to hitting bottom. Domestic spending accounts for about 60 percent of economic activity, so its quite an important gauge of economic health. A cut in interest rates could certainly revive sentiment and boost spending, which should lift demand for services and sectors across the board. Four, the stock markets are currently in a bear phase (down more than 20 percent from their previous peaks). For the brave-hearted, its not such a bad time to buy, although caution might be warranted in the short term. As a Firstpost article noted, bear markets tend to depress prices more than warranted and that, in itself, is a natural risk control mechanism. Downside risk at every level becomes lower. The article also noted that the extreme pessimism over India is now similar to the extreme optimism seen during the bull run of 2007. While the Sensex could fall another 25 percent from current levels, given our inherent longterm potential of the economy, the markets have to rebound sooner or later. Five, the economy has been backed into such a tight spot that the government may have little choice but to introduce economic reforms. A recent CLSA report also noted that if the Sensex falls to 11,000-12,000 and the rupee tumbles to 60 against the dollar, the ensuing noise from the media and India Inc would force the government into some sort of reformative action. That could present investors with a buying opportunity, the brokerage added. In other words, something good might emerge from all the bad stuff thats happened to the economy after all.

economy questions for 2012

The 5 big

So, what are the key events to watch out for next year? Firstpost lists the top five events that will affect the global economy.
FP Editors, Dec 19, 2011

ts nearing the end of 2011 and what a year it has been.

After the collapse and near-collapse of several private-sector financial institutions in developed countries brought almost the entire world to its knees in 2008, this year, it was the turn of governments to inflict blows on the world economy. Sovereign debt became the new bad word for the financial markets in 2011. The US had its sterling triple-A debt rating downgraded for lack of progress in cutting its mammoth government debt, while Greece and Italy frightened global investors by teetering on the brink of debt default. Countries in other parts of the world also came under the scanner for their government debt. It doesnt look like things will get much better in 2012. So, what are the key events to watch out for next year? Firstpost lists the top five events that will affect the global economy. Will the eurozone tip into recession? Increasingly, the answer to that looks like a yes, assuming we still have a eurozone in 2012.

forcing countries to enforce even harsher measures). This vicious circle will keep countries in low-growth mode for a pretty long time. That will have significant impact because the European Union represents about 30 percent of global GDP. Exports of countries like India will be affected because exports could contract. Meanwhile, the sovereign debt crisis continues to rumble on. Worse, a banking crisis is also simmering in the region, and threatens to affect banks around the world. The year-end brings no respite: this week, all eyes are on France, which is bracing itself for a cut in its triple-A rating by agencies. Will there be good news from the US?

It has been a year of modest gains for the US economy holiday season spending is holding up, exports are rising, jobless claims are falling and the economy is adding jobs, according to this report in The Globe and Mail. Consumer confidence is rising and the housing market is also bottoming out. Yet, the outlook for 2012 remains subdued. What happens in Europe and China will also play a part in how the US economy shapes up in 2012. A banking crisis in Europe, in particular, holds the danger of a spill-over effect in the US. Will China experience a hard landing? The possibility of a hard landing in China a phrase referring to a sudden, sharp fall in economic growth is a huge concern for the world.

If there is no break-up of the eurozone, then it seems almost inevitable that the region will fall into recession. The shrill calls for belt tightening across the region, especially by Germany, is forcing indebted countries into implementing austerity measures which will ensure lower growth and keep their debt-to-GDP figure high (when GDP falls, debt-to-GDP ratio increases further even without an increase in debt levels,

When demand in developed markets collapsed in the aftermath of the 2008 global credit crisis, China embarked on the worlds biggest government stimulus programme to lift demand in its own economy, which, in turn, boosted economies across the world. If China suffers a slump, the commodities market, in particular, will have reason to mourn. China is the largest consumer of everything from energy and steel to copper, nickel, zinc and foodgrains and there could be devastating impact on major commodity exporters like Brazil, Australia and the Middle East. On the flip side, lower commodity prices could hugely benefit importing countries like India. Will India experience stagflation? Indias economy is giving a big headache to policy makers. Inflation remains stubbornly high even as GDP growth seems set to fall below 7 percent in the financial year ending March 2012. Even though inflation is predicted to fall to around 7 percent by March, cost pushes across sectors will ensure that inflation remains relatively high for most of 2012.

That could affect foreign investments and the rupees value. Foreign equity portfolio investments into India have virtually dried up after last years $29 billion inflows. With the outlook for corporate earnings still bleak and the political fiasco over introducing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, dont expect any change in foreign investor sentiment any time soon. Will elections affect policymaking in countries? This one is especially for investors who want to ace the markets in 2012. As a recent Firstpost article pointed out, over the next year, as many as 12 countries and/or administrative regions around the world which collectively account for 50 percent of the worlds economy will either go in for national elections or witness leadership transitions.

Some of these elections will be fought by rival contenders embracing economic philosophies that are poles apart; consequently, who wins and who loses will determine policy outcomes and worldviews that have a momentous impact. In many ways, the US presidential elections are the most significant. Depending on who comes to power, policies on government spending on healthcare, decisions on corporate and individual income tax could differ widely, and have a dramatic impact on markets. China is also in line for a political change of enormous significance. How these new leaders position their US policy will be crucial to global markets. Turmoil and political leadership changes in the Middle East will also influence oil prices.

There is no guarantee that a rate cut (widely expected some time early next year after the Reserve Bank of India changed its policy stance moderately last week) will boost growth significantly. Blame that primarily on policy paralysis by the corruption-scandal tainted government, which has been unable to introduce any significant economic reforms. That could lead the economy into a period of stagflation stagnating growth and high inflation.

FIRSTPOST Golden Chikoos

And the winner is
Who cares about the Bharat Ratna. Firstpost announces the winners of the prestigious Golden Chikoo awards dedicated to recognising the truly Indian achievements of 2011.
FP Editors, Dec 23, 2011

of 2011

Its that time of the year. The new year is around the corner and lists, lists, and more lists abound. Best, worst, most notable, blah, blah, blah. We too have our very own Firstpost list but not the usual kind. This very special year requires its own very special categories to capture its insanity. The unceasing parade of dancing politicos, fasting septuagenarians, World Cup ecstasy, silky sirens and celebrity spawn have made it one hell of a year (and it aint over yet). Here then is our tribute to all those who made 2011 truly memorable. Foot in mouth award: Digvijay Singh Diggy Raja is the knockout winner for trying to link both Anna and the Mumbai blasts to the RSS, and dissing poor MMS as a fairly good prime minister. Honourable mention for Kapil Sibal and Manish Tiwari who proved that every Congresswala facing a television camera in 2011 was driven by the same simple motto: How can I make it worse? The Con de Nasty travel award: Tihar Ashram Once the haunt of murderers, rapists, and other lowlife, this humble penitentiary got a muchneeded makeover in 2011 as the new stomping ground of the very rich. No air-conditioning but we hear the pottery classes are to die for. Most expensive midlife meltdown: Ra One The 100-plus crore self-indulgence managed to annoy critics, offend Tamilians and disappoint the audience, all at the same time. Aging gracelessly has never been more expensive, or in such bad taste. Worst fashion faux pas: Baba Ramdev The poor swamiji paid a high price for breaking the ultimate fashion rule: Never run from the police in a salwar kameez. Life is a drag when youre trying to wrap a dupatta around your beard. Weight, weight, you love me award: Vi-

dya Balan In a year where ann shan was hugely in vogue with everyone from Narendra Modi to Nitin Gadkari jumping in the fray only silky Vidya stood out by boldly embracing her inner fatty to far sexier effect. Moral of the story: visual feast trumps political famine. Art is dead award: Mamatas paintings The death of MF Husain was tough, but the lowest blow for Indian art in 2011 was Mamata Banerjees sell-out exhibition. When the likes of Jagmohan Dalmiya et al paid over a crore for sit-and-draw etches, it marked a whole new low for political art. Verbal incontinence award: Anna Hazare Annajis 19-day maun vrat was remarkable for many reasons, most of all because it didnt stop him talking, and incessantly so. Silence has never spoken in such large volumes.

The Arundhati Roy award: Arvind Kejriwal No one can do moral outrage quite like Ms Roy. So who better suited to inherit her mantle than Kejriwal, he of the permanently furrowed brow of fury. Honourable mention for the chappal and thapad wielding aam aadmi who found that violence does indeed pay for those 15 minutes of fame.

Silent night award: Metallica concert in Gurgaon Metallicas big Indian debut was the quietest ever for a heavy metal group. Cancelled for technical reasons, it left pissed off fans singing their own version of Seek and Destroy!

Wet paint award: Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhis speech to the parliament revealed his secret campaign strategy: to bore us all into submission. With the UP elections round the corner and many more such speeches in store Indians find themselves burdened with a national pastime every bit as exciting as watching paint dry. Dumb and dumber award: MMS for arresting Anna Hazare Dear Manmohan Singh gave unfortunate credence to all those Sardarji jokes when he threw the 74-year-old Gandhian behind bars. Or was this just political hara-kiri at its finest? All good warriors also know when to throw themselves on the sword. One big yawn award: IPL season After the World Cup high, we realised there is such a thing as too much cricket thanks to the Indian Premiere League. Then again, those IPL tickets were a whole lot cheaper than paying Rs 15000 to watch a bunch of Formula One cars whiz right by. My name is red award: Vijay Mallya

Best botox commercial: Indias Most Desirable Every middle-aged girls best friend found itself the perfect brand ambassador in Simi Grewal, aka Kiki. That frozen brow and clown-like smile made her otherwise banal show memorable for all the undesirable reasons. Best political item number: Kiran Bedi and Sushma Swaraj Be it Kiran Bedis freaky nautanki in Ram Lila or Sushma Swarajs jig on our beloved Bapujis samadhi, this year our leaders decided to unleash their inner chammak challo to most unfortunate effect. Ignoble Peace Prize: Meira Kumar Nobody invoked peace with as much tenacity as the hapless Speaker Meira Kumar. Her Shant ho jaiye refrain became the stuff of parliamentary legend even if it had zero effect on zero hour. 140 Characters of Embarrassment: Amitabh Bachchan on Ashs pregnancy When Big B fell over himself to tweet the bahus pregnancy, he pipped his own son to the post. Worse, our favourite buddha erased the babys baap from existence. The joy of the first Bachchan coming after my brother and me? Oops!

The colour of those tight air hostesses uniforms gained unfortunate significance when Kingfisher plunged into bankruptcy. The companys new motto: We fly the good times and cancel half our flights in the bad.

Heartbreak hotel award: Jayalalitha and Sasikala Ooh la la. Jayalalithaa and Sasikala abruptly ended a two decade long friendship when Amma asked her bosom buddy to move out lock, stock and barrel. We just have to wait for someone to make it into a dirty picture.

Enough, already award: Kolaveri Di Its fun, its catchy, its novel. But all the Kolaveri Di remixes, knock-offs, tributes have turned it into Kolaveri Done-to-death. Do we really have to watch Sonu Nigams son sing it?

Name in vain award: Corruption/Anna Asli mard award: The middle aged bachelorette Single girls have never had it so good since Sex and the City. The Amma-Didi twin punch delivered more girl power than any Womens Reservation bill. Too bad Mayawati was too busy building white elephant parks to pitch in. Corruption was God, and Anna his equally invoked prophet. Everyone wanted to cash in on the anti-corruption mantra from over-animated TV anchors to KBCs Shuklaji to T-shirt vendors. In 2011, blasphemy was just another word for branding.

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