What a week! 3 news items that made headlines are worth taking note of.
Rickshaw driver returns Rs 1.90 crore cheque
The 1st report on how an ordinary autorikshaw driver surrendered 2 crore check to Guj Govt. The story is about how the AR driver who was the past owner of a land acquired by the Gujarat govt returned the compensation of 2 crores asserting that the money belongs to the new owners.
Source - Time Of India
An Ahmedabad auto rickshaw driver has returned Rs 1.90 crore cheque issued in his name in lieu of three bigha land acquired for Tata's Nano plant in Sanand. Raju Bharwad could have pocketed the sum, but gave an undertaking that he was no longer the land owner. He ensured that the names of the new owners are entered in the official records.
Ranbaxy to Pay $500 Million in Adulterated Drugs Case
Than the news about Ranbaxy's $500 MIllion fine that it had to pay to US government for its corrupt practices in making adulterated drugs. What is more worrying is the way the management of Ranbaxy led this whole episode, basically they willing and knowingly ran this exercise with full knowledge of wrong doing and putting millions of human lives on danger.
Source - Wall Street Journal
Indian generic pharmaceutical maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.'s U.S. subsidiary pleaded guilty to felony charges Monday relating to adulterated drugs made at two of Ranbaxy's manufacturing facilities in India, according to the Justice Department.
Source - CNN Money
Thakur left Kumar's office stunned. He returned home that evening to find his 3-year-old son playing on the front lawn. The previous year in India, the boy had developed a serious ear infection. A pediatrician prescribed Ranbaxy's version of amoxiclav, a powerful antibiotic. For three scary days, his son's 102° fever persisted, despite the medicine. Finally, the pediatrician changed the prescription to the brand-name antibiotic made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Within a day, his fever disappeared. Thakur hadn't thought about it much before. Now he took the boy in his arms and resolved not to give his family any more Ranbaxy drugs until he knew the truth.
IPL in a spot, fans in a fix
Source - The Hindu
the Delhi Police Special Cell has smashed a spot-fixing racket in the ongoing Indian Premier League matches with the arrest of Indian pacer S. Sreesanth and two of his teammates from Rajasthan Royals along with 11 bookies and middlemen. The cricketers — all bowlers — had allegedly struck a deal with the bookies to fix the number of runs they would give in a particular over for payments ranging from Rs. 40 lakh to Rs. 60 lakh.
On one hand we still have ordinary souls like Raju Bharwad in spite of difficult lives they live, try very hard to earn the living honestly. On the other hand we have the big corporates, wealthy indulging in corrupt practices including producing adulterated medicines to earn more profits. No days passes, on this very site we are given the lessons on virtues of private enterprises and made to believe that private enterprise can do no wrongs. I would like to know how do they would regard this acts of Ranbaxy. The wrong doings were exposed by an insider and investigation by the FDA of US govt. Ranbaxy's willingness to pay the fine speaks volumes about its acts. Then we have the dose of IPL spot fixing controversy. In many of our conversations we do suggest that when people are paid handsomely, they are less prone to corruption. Both Ranbaxy and IPL cases belie that belief.
What is the irony is, if people like Raju Bharwad goes to any bank or financier for a loan, I don't think he would get any. On the same the same bank would be happy to dole out loans to Ranbaxy or the alleged IPL players. Isn't that odd?
Comments
More Trouble for Ranbaxy?
Seems more bad news for Ranbaxy.
Source - Business Standard
http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/after-us-india-to-probe-ranbaxy-s-documents-113052101067_1.html
How much more do we need to live?
Corruption being the topic of recent times, often the cries of privatization and less government is heard loud. A point is made that with less government, there is less scope for corruption. It is a narrow viewing of corruption to be a product of government providing the services.
Reality is, the human greed is bereft of any ideology of socialism or capitalism? The recent happenings both in Ranabxy and IPL proves the above assertion wrong.
How should we view Ranbaxy's malpractices in the full comamnd of upper management? isn't putting lives in danger with substandard drugs, false Clinical trials and fudging data any less than the corruption that we come across in any govt department?
There is nothing much to say about the rot in IPL for that matter in BBCI. For once I would agree with Yeshwant Sinha that IPL is nothing but gambling den. The speed at which the ownership of CSK is changed is worth noting.
Source - The Hindu
The defining silence of 2 major political parties says it all.
Where humanity is given go by?
Source - Deccan Herald
Classic case of corrupt govt officials leaving these laborers to the mercy of private builders turning out to be sharks.
nice way, but very one sided
Its sort of like saying all voters are honest but all elected reps are bad. elected reps don't drop from the skies, they are one of the voters only.
Same way, when our core only has corruption (all of us), the same tendencies persist across the pyramid, whether auto rickshaw or ranbaxy or cricket player or administrator.
But, because we prefer to live in denial, we use the "socialist" side of our heart to highlight good deeds of the poor and place higher levels of scrutiny on the rich. A poor voter taking bribe to vote is "poor", and at no fault at all, but a rich neta offering bribe is "corrupt" - that sort of inequality feeds corruption, and breeds it, literally from the grassroots level.
my 2 cents.
He Could have earned Crores, but?
SB,
The intent of post is not to paint poor being good and running down the rich. It is about to show the nature of human being which comes in different stripes and shades. We tend to bracket people with our prejudices and specially if the talk is about reforms, private enterprise, corporate honchos, our first impression about them is honest, sincere and trustworthy. Whereas if the talk is about poor, middle class, government officials, generally our impression of them is vulnerable, voting for cash, corrupt and less than honest etc. The news items at least debunks that theory and demonstrates that good exists in all classes and so as bad.
A vast majority of people are honest and look forward to honest dealings/earnings. There are very miniscule minority that has made the whole system corrupt and forces even the honest one's to corrupt practices. There are few who stand up to the truth and some even pay for it. If it had not been for those honest bureaucrats and individuals, none of the scams would have come out.
Here is another fine example of good people who prefer doing good while they could have made monetary fortune out of the opportunity.
Source - Deccan Herald
In reality, Mr. Momin has invested in such an endeavor that can only increase, doesn't get decreased and this deal is called "Sadaqa Jaariya" in Arabic, meaning charity in perpetuity.
A vast country like India is full of such examples and a vast majority remains invisible. Here is another story of a village boy who runs a school for other children. He is catering to nearly 800 students.
Source - BBC
SB, the post in not about socialism or capitalism, it is about human nature, Honest, considerate Vs dishonest, greedy. It can be anybody poor or rich, Hindu or Muslim, educated or illiterate, male or female. It can be anybody, it is that simple.