Biz Buzz

This is arguably one of the best news for the country's hydrocarbon sector.UK-based Cairn Energy has claimed what could be a significant gas find in the Bayof Bengal. According to sources, the discovery is said to have reserves of up to4 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 667 million barrels of oil equivalent. Sourcesin India claim that Cairn plans to sell 1 million cubic feet of gas to aSouthern Indian power producer.

The potential of the new find will come as a relief to the Indian Government, ostensibly because of neighbouring Bangladesh's refusal to sell gas from its reserves and the proposed Iran pipeline (via Pakistan) still in limbo.The Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik, is due to make an announcement later this week. Is this a lesson for the crisis-ridden ONGC which continues to claim the eastern sector had little gas and oil and continues to direct all its efforts to the Bombay High and other Southern offshore fields?

What is Sanjay Bhatnagar upto? Well, the buzz is that the former Enron IndiaCEO has formed his new venture fund company, the Thot Capital Group, and iscurrently scouting for a host of projects, both in India and the U.S. (his newhome being in New York). And of the ventures, two are extremely interesting. Oneis a partnership with the legendary Quincey Jones (whom he had met during thelast World Economic Forum meeting in Davos) to set up music studios inIndia and bring classy Broadway theatres to Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.

The second one revolves around picking interesting gameshows in collaboration withCBS of the United States. Expectedly, interested people in India (read Delhi)have started queuing up his permanent suit in The Oberoi. Watch this space formore details.

After Credit Suisse First Boston's (CSFB) infamous involvement in the KetanParekh-triggered scam, is it the turn of J.P. Morgan to face flak from theGovernment? It seems so, especially after J.P. Morgan completed its financialevaluation of one of the public sector undertakings on the Government'sdisinvestment list. Last week, the India head of the investment consultantcompany, R. Srinivasan, wrote to Disinvestment Secretary, Pradip Baijal,offering explanations for its financial evaluation of NALCO which had upset theDepartment of Disinvestment (DoD). But Baijal, it seems, is still unhappy.

Is the cash-strapped Zee Network currently on a patch-up job with theGovernment (read PMO)? Otherwise, why is it that the group Chairman, SubhasChandra Goyal, has had as many as seven meetings during the last two months withnone other than Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his Principal SecurityAdvisor, Brajesh Mishra? There's more. In a quiet announcement last week, thechannel's programming staff were told to tone down the anti-PM stance of themuch-hyped Pradhan Mantri.

Besides, the channel is not making public itsproposed investments in Tehelka, the news and current affairs dotcom companywhich shot into prominence following its expose of payoff scandals in defencedeals. But who helped Goel smoke the peace pipe?

Insiders claim the Zee Chairman was told by his confidants that it makes no sense to play a dual role: That of attending the RSS annual show and criticising the Government threadbare on the channel. Hence the sudden change in attitude.

This may sound simply bizzare but it's true. During the due diligence ofAir-India, one issue continued to trouble the bidders: Who owns the works ofclassy painters which adorn the walls of the company's offices across thecountry and abroad? Air-India estimates the paintings - which include the worksof M.F. Hussain,

Bikash Bhattacharya, R. Ramachandran, Kishen Khanna, ManjitBawa, Anjolie Ela Menon and even the late N. Roerich - are worth Rs 150 croresand that it should be included in the final cost of the company. But the biddersare not ready to buy the theory. Last heard, both the bidders (the Tata-SIA andthe Hinduja brothers) had sought professional help to ascertain the cost.

If politicians can hog limelight for the Great Mansarovar Yatra, can thecorporate captains be left behind? Led by liquor baron Vijay Mallaya, a team -which includes Tina and Anil Ambani and Parmeshwar and Adi Godrej - has startedon the great, 150-km trek to the lake in China. Highly placed sources in UnitedBreweries claim Mallaya - long known for his penchant for wine, horses, planesand cars - is contemplating one such trip every year to all popular religiouscentres across the globe, thanks to his association with Sr Sri Ravi Shankar ofthe Art of Living fame.

News about Dr Prannoy Roy's NDTV and News Television India refuses to die.The absolutely latest is the one wherein News Television asked NDTV to switchoff three programmes - Good Morning India, Sawal and Nationwide - and soughtreplacements. But despite News Television's official claim that it will be NDTVwhich will fill in the vacant slots with new programmes, the news is that asmany as four new production houses have been asked to work on new programmes.And mind you, these will not be for Star TV but Star News, an area which - tillrecently - was NDTV's sole domain.

Does that mean it's almost a losing battlefor NDTV even as News Television checks out other content providers in themarket? Could be yes, though the only consolation is that (under the lastagreement signed between the two) Dr Roy's team has time till March, 2003.

When Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) completes a takeover, you can be sure ofjob cuts. After all, HLL always wants a lean and mean work machine. The latestjob cuts are happening at Modern Foods, the first state-owned company where theGovernment completed its disinvestment process. Insiders claim the HLL top brassrecently completed the VRS process for Modern Foods and that all the unions -till recently clamouring about job losses and shutdown - have signed on thedotted line without a murmur. Fading signs of  the once redoubtable LalSalaam power?