Forbes India - Mar 05, 2010 Issue

ISSUE DATE Mar 05, 2010

Surviving Africa

Bharti Airtel's bid for Zain is the logical next step for the company. The Indian market is bleeding after the latest price war. Revenues have fallen for all operators. Fresh spectrum to improve quality of services isn't available. Africa is the only emerging market that can offer scale and future growth. Yet, Bharti will find it tough to make money in Africa in the short term. Besides regulatory hassles of operating in several African countries, it will also have to deal with turning around Zain, whose Africa operations are in losses.

The Missing Heirs

A.M. Naik and his old guard have led engineering giant L&T on a phenomenal growth path for the past decade. But in the next two years, they will retire or step down. L&T has been trying to develop a pipeline of leaders to take the company forward but has so far met with little success. As L&T embarks on a new growth plan for the next five years, the leadership void has become a full-blown crisis.

An Agenda for India

The UPA government's social welfare schemes have gradually started showing results, but they are still patchy. Instead of just increasing funding, the government must now build local institutions and managerial capabilities to strengthen the framework in which it operates its human development programmes.

The Man Who Came in from the Cold

V.K. Raina is a retired geologist. R.K. Pachauri is the head of an international organisation set up by the United Nations. This is a blow-by-blow account of how a 76-year-old took on one of the most influential men in the world on global warming and beat him at his own game.