Nira Radia tapes: An interesting phenomenon on twitter

An interesting phenomenon was observed recently on twitter. Some enthusiastic tweeple suspended their activities all of a sudden on 18th November 2010 while some others went on an overdrive.But curiously, the great Indian Idiot Box has chosen not to cover the phenomenon. Here is the recent twitter activities of some NDTV 'journalists' including Barkha Dutt, Prabhu Chawla and Suhel Seth. Seems like the junior NDTV journos and Suhel were waiting if anything more is coming out or maybe they went into a huddle but Barkha reacted right away probably knowing those were the only telephonic tapes. Maybe there was no other fishy activity or maybe it was not on Phone. Prabhu Chawla's activity seems normal on 18th but seems like he had a lot of explanation to do on the next day. I also looked at Vir Sanghvi's twitter counter but it was usual low activity, no deviation from the norm. Journalists, particularly of the dishonest variety need to learn few lessons in Social networking, even though they may emulate Ostrich but they are being watched.

Barkha Dutt

Suhel Seth

Sunetra Chaudhari

Pankaj Pachauri

Nidhi Rajdan

Prabhu Chawla

Nira Radia Tapes:Some Interesting trends

A quick look at Alexa suggests that there has been tremendous increase in traffic for Open Magazine and Outlook India. This increase is apparently at the cost of rivals NDTV, Hindustan Times, IBN Live and Times Group. The last image shows a sharp spike on Google search volume about Nira Radia triggered by Open Magazine disclosure. An interesting phenomenon is that news reference sources are declining in volume while reader interest is increasing which is quite unusual in a democratic country. Take a look:

Why Not?

There are some achievers whose success is partly shaped by kind of peers they had and the kind of intellectual ecosystem they grew in,a University being the top contributor.But in the successof people that follow, this factor is peripheral, if at all.If exceptional intelligence is a truly random phenomenon, than why not in India as well?

1. There can not be a Warren Buffet in India since transparency among listed companies and their openness and respect to co-owners is still somewhat less compared to their US counterparts and despite the recent SEBI noises and apparent activism it is no match for the dreaded SEC.Recall the fate of Ra jratnam.
2. There can not be a Jim Rogers in India since every other day the futures trading in one or the other commodity or its import or export is banned in India or myriad other restrictions placed on its free trade.
3. There cannot be a George Soros in India since if there ever were he will truly be treated as a blood sucking dracula and likely to be persecuted on charges of treason resulting in spending rest of his life trying to be a philosopher and barred from accessing capital markets by any means.
4. There cannot be a Thomas Edison despite any amount of intelligence since the numerous patents that Edison spawned and ventures that they resulted in were a result of the well protected IPR regime and a law system which worked and where contracts could be enforced before the invention became obsolete. In India Patent regime is apparently liberal but there is no upper limit on the number of years it can take to resolve a case no matter how high profile the case is,recent Ayodhya ruling a case in point.
5. There cannot be a Richard Branson in India because Indian society does not appreciate failure and a young man without a degree is more likely to be disallowed to fill a loan application let alone meet the bankers no matter what promises his ideas hold.
6. There cannot be a Steve Jobs in India because kids born to unwed mothers except in case of celebrities are seldom treated with dignity.Not sure if adoption laws are more complicated in India or US but I am yet to see a storied individual adopted by humble parents in India. Also, as per one theory, there is only but one God.

Maybe one day, one of these days somebody might just pop up who is our answer to these giants and say well,why not?