Essays for IIM

On Sunday, Crimea voted to split away from Ukraine and return to the Russian fold. For a vast majority of Crimea’s Russian-speaking population this is an act of redressing a monumental injustice that happened in 1991 when Crimea, which geographically, ethnically and historically is more Russian than many regions of Russia itself, became part of a foreign state as the Soviet Union broke up along arbitrarily drawn administrative borders. However, reuniting a divided people may not have been the prime motive that forced President Vladimir Putin’s hand in Crimea. The Ukraine crisis is viewed in Moscow as a continuation of the Western plan to encircle Russia militarily and torpedo its reintegration efforts in the former Soviet Union. The new leaders in Kiev installed with the West’s support are the same people who staged the “orange revolution” in Ukraine in 2004 and set Ukraine on the path of NATO membership. Strategic catastrophe Ukraine’s induction into NATO would be a strategi...

•         Russian forces in Crimea urged Ukrainian forces to give up their weapons and stand down, as the number of Russian troops and boats on the peninsula continued to grow. Russia built up forces on both sides of the ferry connecting it to Crimea and sent troops across. •         “The facts on the ground in Crimea are deeply troubling,” US president Barack Obama said. “Russia is on the wrong side of history.” •         The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN said 16,000 Russian troops have arrived in Crimea since 26 February. The Russian ambassador retorted that treaties allow 25,000. The Ukrainian envoy argued that the legal cap was 11,000. •         In a feisty meeting at the UN, the Russian ambassador said that Moscow does not consider it its responsibility to return deposed president Viktor Yanukovich to power. •    ...

China is at a crossroads. After experiencing three decades of unprecedentedly rapid GDP growth, the country weathered the global economic crisis exceptionally well. But it sustains considerable economic imbalances, which are undermining its ability to achieve high-income status. The question is whether China’s leaders—preoccupied with challenges like financial instability stemming from risky shadow-banking activities and a heavy burden of local government debt—have the policy space to put the economy on a sounder footing. In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, China appeared to be on track to complete such a rebalancing. Its current account surplus fell from more than 10% of GDP in 2007 to 2.6% in 2012, and it ran a large capital account deficit for the first time since 1998. Moreover, China added only $98.7 billion to its foreign exchange reserves in 2012, compared with an average annual increase of more than $435 billion from 2007 to 2011. That meant diminishi...

The 2G spectrum auction concluded on Thursday after 68 rounds of bidding. Apart from the telecom operators that bagged rights to spectrum, the government also emerged a big winner as the auction will bring in higher-than-expected revenues. The government will get Rs. 61,162 crore from the spectrum auction. This is much higher than the government's estimates of nearly Rs. 41,000 crore. The licence would be valid for a period of nearly 20 years . The telecom minister hoped that despite the aggressive bidding by the telecom operators, there would be no affect on call rates.  Vodafone and Airtel bagged the crucial 900 MHz band in important markets like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. For these two operators, winning this band in these places had become crucial as the Supreme Court had refused to extend their licences. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone bought telecommunications airwaves worth nearly Rs. 18,600 crore each in an auction. Idea also managed to bag the crucial 900 MHz band in Delhi...

1) What is KG D6 basin? Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin is spread across 50,000 sq km in the Krishna River and Godavari river basins near the coast of Andhra Pradesh. The site Dhirubhai-6 (D6) is where Reliance Industries discovered the biggest gas reserves in India. In government records, the 7,645 sq km block is known as KG-DWN-98/1. The KG basin is considered to be the largest natural gas basin in India. 2) How did Reliance Industries get into KG basin? Government of India opened up hydrocarbon exploration and production (E&P) in the country to private and foreign players in 1991. Small and medium sized blocks were opened up in this round which was followed up by giving out bigger blocks in 1999 as per the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP). Through NELP, Reliance bagged the rights to explore the D6 block. 3) Did government have a role after the block was handed over? Since all mining resources belong to the people of India, government monitors the exploration an...