Richard Branson to run India's railways?

Richard Branson is currently in Mumbai to launch the new Virgin Airways flights from here to London. That is obviously good news for all of us Londoners currently living in Mumbai - although there aren't that many of us- the expat community here (around 10,000-20,000) is tiny compared to somewhere like Hong Kong (450,000) or Singapore.(800,000).

In an interview for Mint, a leading financial newspaper, he was asked if he was considering doing business in India in areas other than airlines. He said "if Indian Railways is privatised,we'd love to evaluate the opportunities". Not an unreasonable answer and of course what amazing things he could do for railways in India. The railways are slowly falling apart, suffering from huge over-crowding and lack of investment. When the previous railways minister recently tried to increase fares for the first time in years - and pretty reasonable in a country suffering from 9% inflation - he was promptly sacked for doing so. Therefore, Richard Branson's idea of getting involved would be brilliant. However, the interviewer quickly moved on. The reason? That privatisation of Indian Railways is so unthinkable, that just to mention it seems hugely out of touch with Indian politics. The furore surrounding the recent changes in Foreign Direct Investment rules shows that. Huge swathes of the Indian economy are still in state hands, with few signs of much change. Manmohan Singh, the economist turned Prime Minister, has only gone so far as to sell off some stakes in public listed companies which is a start, but is a long way from rail privatisation. And if by some miracle, it entered into public debate, and in 10 years time it actually happened, the idea that a foreigner would be allowed anywhere near it, is totally unthinkable. Depressing, but sadly true.

First Starbucks opens in India

Amazingly, until this week, there were no Starbucks in India. Lots of homegrown coffee shops like Barista and Cafe Coffee Day, but few international brands. The reasons are the complex rules surrounding what is called FDI - Foreign Direct Investment - something that is bizarrely controversial in india. The debate is led by the rich elites who run india, and who don't want any outside competition interfering with their businesses.

To get round this, Starbucks have teamed up with the biggest and most well known of these elites- Tata. Tata is undoubtedly one of india's best run companies, but one that also does very well out of india's myriad of rules being one of the few companies that can through and round them.

Anyhow, the upshot is that finally Starbucks is coming to india, and the first one has opened just round the corner from my office in Fort, Mumbai! It's been done amazingly, and I can get a great decaf americano with a drop of hot foam. Haven't managed to have lunch there yet, as by lunchtime, there's a 2 hour queue snaking down the street with TV cameras still trained on it.

Exciting times and with 80 more stores being rolled out, india won't be quite the same again.

The Economist censored in india

One of the great things about india, particularly when compared to china, is the degree of political freedom and freedom of expression. Slightly perturbing therefore, to see a large black out over one of the articles in last weeks Economist. There was a very good Briefing on India with a series of articles, but one obviously fell foul of someone or something. Haven't yet worked out which was the offending article, but will update as soon as I have.

I hear differing views on the degree of press freedom in India. Lots of journalists I speak to say that they write and say pretty much what they want, others suggest they have to take care. Someone even suggested I should be careful what I write on this blog or risk deportation! Seems highly unlikely and I'm not that easily cowed.