CONTROVERSY-SUBHASH CHANDRA & THE ESSEL GROUP.

 

The media is crying hoarse about Subhash Chandras approved payment of Rs 6.5 crores as a personal guarantor and the cut is much too high. What is the fact? For this first we have to check the liabilities of the Essel Group Creditor wise and who voted for what. Let us examine those figures below.

Who voted in favour of the repayment plan?

1.       World Crest Advisors                                      28.49%                  6273.27

2.       Lemonade Capital Advisors LLP                    16.85%                  3709.11

3.       Catalyst Trusteeship                                        11.85%                  2607.78

4.       Corpcall Capital Advisors LLP                       10.30%                  2266.68

5.       Veena Investments (P) Ltd.                               4.99%                  1097.33

6.       Indiabulls Housing Fin. Ltd                              1.98%                    435.73

7.       Direct Media Dist. Ven. Pvt. Ltd                       1.15%                    253.07

8.       Kautilya Traders Pvt. Ltd.                                 1.02%                    224.46

9.       Anil Kumar                                                        0.67%                    147.34

10.   Sunil Jain                                                            0.18%                      39.62

TOTAL                                     77.48%               17054.39

Who voted against the repayment plan?

1.       LIC Housing Finance                                          6.09%                  1340.60

2.       IDBI Trusteeship Services(Franklin Tem)          3.36%                    739.26

3.       HDFC Bank                                                         3.17%                    698.91

4.       Axis Bank                                                            2.86%                   629.79

5.       Canara Bank                                                        1.60%                   352.10

6.       UBI (UK) Ltd.                                         0.76%                   167.35

7.       RBL Bank                                                0.55%                   121.07

TOTAL                                      18.42%                 4048.08

 

Who abstained from voting?

 

1.       IDBI Trusteeship (Edelweiss)                       2.60%                   572.17

2.       Indusind Bank                                                1.11%                  244.20                                                  

3.       Axis Trustee Services (Client-1)                    0.18%                    39.61

4.       Axis Trustee Services (Client-2)                    0.11%                    24.21

5.       Axis Trusteeship Services (Client-3)              0.04%                      8.80

6.       Catalyst Trusteeship (HDFC Ass.Mgt. Co)    0.06%                    13.20

TOTAL                                                           4.10%                   902.19

 

Debt Represented Rs 22006.57 crores.

 

The Principal borrowers remain separately liable to pay Rs 1494 crores. Adding this to Subhash Chandras Rs 6 crores, the total amount payable would be Rs 1500 crores. So even after considering that the cut would be 93% of the loan amount.

 

To claim that Subhash Chandra only has Rs 6.5 crores of personal assets is nonsense. As a personal guarantor he is fully liable to pay the entire debt himself in case of default by the borrowing companies, of course provided he has the assets. He keeps on claiming that is not his personal borrowing, but that does not matter at all as to whose borrowing it is. As per Section 128 of the Indian Contract Act, the liability of the guarantor is coextensive with that of the borrower. As he has given a personal guarantee he is fully liable for the entire irrespective of whether it is his personal borrowing or not. As the Chairman of the Essel group, he would  be squarely liable for the debt to the extent of his share in the group.   

 

There are 4 companies in the Essel group along with Promoters stake in % currently. They are

 

1.       Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd.           3.99%  current value  Rs 360 crores

2.       Zee Media Corporation Ltd.                      4.34%  current value Rs    22 crores 

3.       Dish TV                                                        4.04% current value  Rs    20 crores

4.       Siti Networks                                               6.10% current value  Rs      1.5 crores 

 

Of course the stake was much higher earlier but a large portion of the Promoters equity was either sold or invoked by lenders and transferred to institutional and foreign entities to clear group liabilities.

 

So the total value of the Promoters shareholding currently in all the Essel group together is only Rs 400 crores as per the above calculation. And all these shares should now be pledged to Financial Institutions so there would not be any value left in them for Chandra.

 

Now what exactly is the current Net Worth of Subhash Chandra? In 2017-2018 Chandra’s Net Worth was estimated at around Rs 40,000 to 45,000 crores. Chandra claims that it is blown up only because of the Essel Group share prices. That may well be so because the share price of Zee Tele reached Rs 600 in Jan 2018 compared to only Rs 93 now. So it dropped by some 6.5 times. But even after dropping that much it has a market cap of Rs 9000 crores.

 

Zee media another smaller company of the Essel group peaked at Rs 47 in Jan 2018 compared to only Rs 9 now.  That suffered an erosion of about 5 times. After dropping its current market cap is Rs 560 crores.

 

Dish TV share reached a peak of Rs 23.5 in Feb 2018, but it is now drastically down to Rs 2.75 and has a market cap of Rs 500 crores.   

 

Siti Networks shares flopped miserably and could only top at Rs 34 in Jan 2018. It is now hammered to only Rs 0.29. Current market cap Rs 25 crores.

 

The institutions now say they have a debt of Rs 22,000 crores. The market value of the Essel group at its peak was only about Rs 50,000 crores in 2018. How could the institutions be so imprudent to loan Rs 22,000 crores with such market cap? Where is the margin of safety?

 

In 2016 when he became a Rajya Sabha member Chandras affidavit stated his net worth as Rs 39.07 crores. The current Net Worth of Chandra is Rs 31.79 crores of which Rs 25 crores comes from a residential property.

 

Has Chandra diverted money when his share was flying high? Only a Forensic audit report can reveal that.  But in his current position Chandra is finished and cannot fund much more than what he promised.

NANCY GRACE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE

 

Already 2 Space Telescopes orbiting the earth taking observations of the Universe. The Hubble was launched by NASA in 1990 and is still operational, while the James Webb was launched more recently in Dec 2021.

Close on the heels of the James Webb comes the “Nancy Grace Roman” space telescope which would be launched by NASA on 30.08.2026.

This telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman NASA’s first Chief Astronomer and is often called the mother of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Nancy Grace Roman telescope would orbit the earth in the 2^nd Sun Lagrange Point 1.5 million Km away from the earth. This telescope’s field of view is 100 times that of the Hubble telescope enabling it to map enormous stretches of sky in great detail far quicker than earlier.

Hubble provides sharp multi wavelength views, James Webb examines individual objects in excellent infrared detail while Roman would excel at wide area surveys.

Two of Roman’s primary aims are to unravel part of the Universe’s darkest of mysteries, Dark Energy & Dark Matter. Of course, these two cannot be measured by any instruments made by man including the Roman, yet the Roman can closely examine the effects they have on the surrounding matter.

The Roman will also measure the Universe’s expansion history and it also searches for Exo planets. This telescope can block starlight to directly see Exo planets and planet forming discs and complete a statistical census of planetary systems in our Galaxy.               

A STATISTICAL GENIUS FROM INDIA-POFESSOR CALYAMPUDI RADHAKRISHNA RAO-.

 

Professor C Radhakrishna Rao was born into a Telugu family in Bellary District of Karnataka in 1920. He did his MSc in Mathematics from Andhra University and MA in Statistics from Calcutta University in 1943. His father was a Police Inspector and CR Rao was his 8^th child out of 10.  

He did his PhD from Kings College, Cambridge in 1948 and then a DSc from Cambridge in 1965. He completed his DSc at the age of 45.

CR Rao married Bhargavi Rao in 1948 who was a Professor of Psychology and studied at BHU and University of Illinois.

He first worked at the Indian Statistical Institute at Calcutta and then at the Anthropological Museum at Cambridge. He was the Director of the Indian Statistical Institute, Professor at JNU and National Professor in India. He was later University Professor at the University of Pittsburg and then Eberly Professor at Pennsylvania State University.

At the Indian Statistical Institute, he worked till his retirement and produced many leaders in Mathematics. He founded the CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science at Hyderabad in the Hyderabad University campus.

The best known of his discoveries are Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Rao Distance, Rao’s Score Test, Rao’s Quadratic Entropy, Cramer-Rao bound and the Rao Blackwell Theorem. He was the author of 15 books and over 400 journal publications. Majority of his publications were made at the time of his long stint at the Indian Statistical Institute.

He received 38 honorary doctorates from universities in 19 countries and numerous awards & medals. He was awarded a Padma Bhushan way back in 1968, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001. He was the President of the International Statistical Institute, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (USA) and the International Biometric Society.  The Journal of Quantitative Economics published a special issue in Rao’s honor in 1991.

CR Rao moved to the USA in 1980 after completing his long tenure at the Indian Statistical Institute aged 60`. He first joined the University of Pittsburg as a Professor and then joined Pennsylvania State University as a Professor in 1988. He then moved to the University at Buffalo as a Research Professor in 2010 at the age of 90. He died aged 102 in August 2023. His career spanned 8 decades which in itself is a record.

INDIAN WIRELESS WIZARD-PROFESSOR AROGYASWAMI PAULRAJ.

 

Have you ever heard of Professor Arogyaswamy Paulraj? 

I never heard of him till yesterday when a Whats App post was made on him  in my classmates group and what I read about the guy amazed me.

He is an Engineer from a place called Pollachi in Tamilnadu and joined the Indian Navy as a Cadet in 1961 at NDA Khadakvasla and was commissioned in 1965.

He was deputed to IIT Delhi between 1969-71 for doing his masters, instead he directly transitioned into his PhD and completed it in 1973.From 1972 to 74 he led a team at IIT Delhi to redesign the British developed Anti Submarine Sonar to be fitted on our Navy warships when no country was ready to pass on that technology to us.

From 1987 to 1989 he supervised the development of a large systems software suite for parallel computers at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Bangalore and concurrently supervised the development of Radar and communications systems at Bharat Electronic cs.

He was the founding Director of the center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Bangalore, and the Center for Development of Advanced Computing Bangalore .

And he was doing all that when the computer was relatively an unknown thing in India.

Currently he is  Professor Emeritus at Stanford.

He was Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford where he has pioneered the development of new wireless technology using multiple antennas. He invented the MIMO ( Multiple-Input & Multiple Output)   technology in 1992 enabling a way for the 5G technology we use today.

His research has also spanned emphasizing estimation theory, sensor signal processing, parallel computers architectures/algorithms, and space-time signal processing for wireless systems.

He seems to be a wizard in Wireless. Why we have to learn about such people from only Whats App posts pains me. His work is fit to be put into our school textbooks but unfortunately very few of us know about him.

 

Broadcom purchased Beceem Communications, a wireless semiconductor company founded by Paulraj in 2004 to help build its 4G and wireless business.

Intel acquired Iospan Wireless, a startup founded by Paulraj in 1998.

 

MIMO ( Multiple Input, Multiple Output) is a wireless technology that revolutionized broadband wireless internet for billions of people. MIMO improves both transmission data rates and expands network coverage. It is the essential foundation for all current and future broadband wireless communications.

ANCIENT DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA-SABHA & SAMITI.

 

The basic roots of the Democracy in India can be traced to the Vedic times in the institutions called the “Sabha” & “Samiti”. Therefore, Democracy is nothing new or strange to India. However, in India with time, Kingship evolved from Democracy and strengthened. Our people had forgotten all about Democracy and we had to re learn it from Britain which in fact experimented with the Democratic systems far later than us.

Britain started off on the road of Democracy with the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 AD which limited the powers of the King. The people of England then had to fight with the King in order to obtain their rights. But it took a long time for England to evolve into a full-fledged Democracy. 

When the East India Company was founded in England in 1600 AD, the English people were still struggling against the King to get their Democratic rights. By 1832 AD only a small number of middle class citizens had a right to vote. Only by the year 1928 AD could all the men and women vote in England. So, India had to reinvent Democracy some 2000 years later after it lost it to that very England some 200 years earlier.

But we have to remember that the Sabha and the Samiti despite having wide powers are by no means fully democratic because they did not consist of all the male population and also excluded most of  the entire female population.

The Sabha was as selective council of elders, nobles, wealthy men and priests who advised the King and managed Judicial matters, in administrative and policy decisions. So, they are the elite members of the society and by no means represented the common people. The early Vedic tests occasionally note the presence of women in the Sabhas.

As opposed to the Sabha, the Samiti represented a large number of freemen and ordinary members of the tribe. The Samiti is attended by the tribal king. The Samiti addressed major tribal business, discussed cattle and wealth and debated war and peace. The Samiti held the power to approve or elect the king.

Women (named Sabhavati) occasionally attended early Sabha meetings while they had no role in the Samiti at all.

The Sabha and samiti were mentioned in the Rigveda itself and hence date back to as late as 1500-1200 BC. During the later Vedic period between 1000-600 BC, their powers declined rapidly and the importance of the King increased. The Samiti disappeared altogether as it became impossible for all citizens to gather when the Kingdoms expanded greatly. The Sabha became more exclusive and it was dominated by the king, rich nobles and Brahmin priests. The women who attended the Sabha during the earlier Vedic period were totally banned to attend the Sabha.

While this had been the case with other kingdoms, the Vajji (Vrijji in Sanskrit) confederacy existed at the time of Buddha. The Vajji confederacy consisted of and led by Licchavis, Videha and Jnatrika clans. The Vajji confederacy had its capital at Vaishali and had a rivalry with Magadha and ultimately Ajatashatru of Magadha conquered them in 468 BC and it was merged into the Magadha kingdom.

The Shakya clan of Buddha was another separate tribal republic but King Virudhaka of of Kosala massacred and extinguished the clan during the time of Buddha himself in about 510 BC. This happened on account of the following events.

King Prasenajit ( Pasenadi in Prakrit) of Kosala sought the hand of a Shakya Princess in marriage. The proud Shakyas sent a slave girl disguised as a Princess to whom was born Virudhaka. 

When Virudhaka learned the secret of his birth he was furious and vowed to destroy the Shakya clan. After ascending the throne Virudhaka invaded Kapilavastu in 510 BC and massacred the population which was quoted in the Buddhist texts. 

With the perishing of both the Vajji (Vrijji in Sanskrit) confederacy and the Shakyas, Democracy completely ended in India. We got it back in the 1900’s under the English some 2400 years after it was extinguished in India. Because India got Democracy off the shelf unlike in countries where it evolved it could not act with efficiency and failed to embed the Democratic values and systems in the minds of the people.

Wherever Democracy evolved itself (which is mostly in the West), it had largely been successful.  Today’s Democracy is not one of the past and is based on the equality of men rather than certain types of men like the older Democracy. It is an evolute of the society we live in.

But we can certainly say that India was almost the first country in the world where Democracy happened even if it be in a rudimentary form but it ended far too soon and was completely extinguished far before the British came in. However, the Western historians claim that Democracy evolved first in Athens in Greece which is not factual.

Democracy was supposed to have been brought into Athens/Greece by Cleisthenes in about 500 BC, but our Vedic texts and later the Buddhist ones clearly indicate that the Sabha and Samiti existed in 1000 BC itself. 

However, the Phoenicians from whom the Greeks learnt a lot of things also had the type of Democracy India had it at almost the same time as they did 1100 BC. So, if at all, the concept of Democracy first arose in Phoenicia and then almost at the same time in India.

The Phoenicians are the neighbors of the Hebrews and are a seafaring trading civilization located at the Eastern point of the Mediterranean sea. Their language is closely allied to Hebrew. They built the strong and fortified cities of Tyre & Sidon on the easternmost coast of the Mediterranean sea and gained a monopoly of trading in the Western seas. Marseilles in France was one of their colonies.   

They developed a high level of civilization and Greeks had a cultural exchange with them and have certainly borrowed their Democracy from the Phoenicians despite the Western historians denying it and claiming that Greeks developed their own. The Phoenicians did not know what the words integrity or honesty meant and lived only for profit.  They lived in an area which is now the countries of Lebanon, with parts of Syria and Israel.

To claim that Democracy first arose in Greece is overlooking strong evidence on account of a bias of the Western Historians. In fact the Greeks actually took Democracy form the Phoenicians. They and India are the places in the world that first developed Democracy at the same time.