Dangers of High debt- Infrastructure Companies

Read a piece on High debt Companies especially in the infra sector and how they have been stymied in pursuit of growth due to delays in clearances in projects. High debt is a high risk game  especially in India . Most of these high debt companies obviously are from the Capital Intensive sectors , namely construction, Road building, Mines and so on.Most of these "user" Industries are dependent on various environment clearances or in most cases the customer and or the regulator is some like NHAI,TRAI etc  and in Indian they typically clearnces take several years or sometimes not given at all. The problem is , if the Infra companies get in to areas where the initial clearance is given and construction started and subsequent clearances are held up fro some reason or other, the project gets stalled, the money invested is stuck , interest clock is on and bankruptcy or like conditions sets in.

Very frightening game.Most of us think and are convinced that India needs huge Infra investments, of course India has also to be careful not to overdo the same, after all, overbuilt infra is nothing but idle capacity and waste of national resources. Notwithstanding the urgency of such a need,has the Government done much in facilitating a transparent process, no is the answer.Either there is distribution of largesse or denial of any clearnce on grounds of public welfare, environmental issues etc. There , sure would be ways to achieve results without getting in to the quagmire of the two extremes.

Just look at the Companies mentioned in the Business Today report. Table is taken from the magazine

Company	Debt/Equity	Debt in books-Rs Crs	Net profit Rs Crs
GVK	5	25,264	(336)
Videocon	NA	27,283	NA
Lanco	9.4	39,034	(1,073)
GMR	4.9	40,824	88
JSW	1.5	41,575	(167)
Jaypee	4.8	63,654	461
Adani	2.9	81,222	1,613
Essar	2.4	98,412	(3,467)
Vedanta	0.5	99,610	22,051
Reliance ADA	1.1	113,543	4,742

Degree Coffee by the yard by Nirmala Lakshman

Interesting read. It is a "short biography of Madras or Chennai as it is called now. The author deals with aspects of the origins of the city as it stands now , geographically, how several small villages cobbled together progressively made up for Madras or Chennai

Madrasapatnam  was supposed to have been a Village off Coromandal Coast , and parts closer to Fort George etc belonged to Chennakesava Nayaka,the local "in charge" of the Nayak Kings.Some of these areeas were taken on lease by the English and gradually annexed as theirs possibly. Initial occupation was by the East Indai Company. The author traces the aspect of how Madras was more or less thge first post for the English. At some stage  , the Comapny gets official approval of the throme from English

Each of the area , Triplicane, Mylapore etc were supposed to have been small  villages at some point .

The author traces the Portugues coming in sometime in the middle of 16 th century , coming in of St Thomas after whom the Portuguese named the area they occupied as SanThome.

The English were  occupying and built Fort George and in and around the same place. 

The author traces the aspect of various parts of the current day Chennai being under occupation of the Cholas, and later of Pallavas etc .

Most of the streets get their name from various British Governors or some top ranking British official of charge at the relevant time. Names like Chamiers, Binny and so one. The tale of how Buckingham Canal, was used as canal by the Brotish for trade etc also nicely captured.

Apart from this, the author talks of how carnatic music flourished , the key players like MS. MLV etc . Talks of the devadasi system and shifting of devadasis ( great dancers) shifted from Tanjore etc to Madras.

Author talks of the 60 s and 70 s millieu in chennai. Talks of how Chennai has kept pace with the changing world , the modernisations ,at the same time still having a connection and keeping  to  its old values and cultural ethos

Talks of the anti Brahmin movements, anti Hindi movement, domination by Brahmions and touches upon how this was sought to be nullified by the Atheist party , DK etc.

Author talks of the almost unique  local obsession of coffee, "degree coffee" possibly means the strength of the coffee or as the author mentions use of milk of a certain strength and also delves a bit in to the way coffee is cooled by transfer between the glass and the dubara.

The author has relied a lot of existing material and for such a short biography , you obviously have to do that . Considering the restriction in terms of the size, I think she has done justice.

Of course no one worth his or her salt and who writes about Chennai can skip the movie making and the Political connection.

Chennai , being a port city had attracted a lot of traders, the Armenians, the Portugues, the English and the French . It had also attracted the merchant community like the Marwaris, the chettiars and of course since was the seat of education et , it attracted the Brahmins from Tanjore, etc

The author is part of The Hindu family

She also talks of the less fortunate ones who contribute significantly to the wheels of the city moving but who personally have been less fortunate in terms of quality of life etc.

She just about  touches upon the dirty side of the City. It is almost an after thought and almost to make sure that it adds to the credibility factor. Can't blame her. After all when one talks of the History of a place, they would like to by and large talk of the good aspects, though I feel that a little more space for the seamier aspects of Chennai , namely the auto wallas fleecing , the degeneration of the Tamil language , of course one can appreciate this as a innovative approach to bring in a balance amongst the various migrant population and their differing lingo.