Useful Information

India’s largest companies by turnover for Financial Year ending March 2009
(Amount in Rs crore)

Top 6
Indian Oil   – Rs 290,946 crore  – Oil and Gas
Reliance Industries  – Rs 153,128 crore  – Oil and Gas
Tata Steel   – Rs 147,595 crore  – Steel
BPCL   – Rs 137,993 crore  – Oil and Gas
HPCL   – Rs 129,979 crore  – Oil and Gas
State Bank of India   – Rs 113093 crore  – Banking

Others of interest
11 NTPC – Rs 47,647 crore  – Power generation
13 Larsen & Toubro – Rs 41,055 crore  – Capital goods
Tata Consultancy Services – Rs 27,386 crore  – Infotech
Infosys – Rs 22,166 crore  – Infotech
Bharti Airtel – Rs 37,504 crore  – Telecom
Hindustan Unilever – Rs 16,848 crore  – FMCG

Approximate figures (from Outlook issue referenced in an earlier post)
Bennett Coleman & Company (Times of India group) – nearly Rs 5000 crore
Dainik Bhaskar Group (Publisher of Dainik Bhaskar, the largest circulated daily and DNA) – Rs 1400 crore

Having worked in Larsen & Toubro  as a project engineer for 5+ years (mainly for the experience as I do not want to do a job ever again in my life) and with many of these big companies as customers while working as a project engineer, some general observations:

• Have very good systems in place

• Except the software and banking companies, they do not have too many employees, but have investments of thousands of crores in machinery and infrastructure

• Difficult to displace these companies in terms of turnover due to the investment made.

For employees,
Plus points
you work with experienced people and learn from them, so you make fewer mistakes
Very professional work environment, with little blatant discrimination on the basis of gender
Handle high value projects valued in crores, monitor profits closely, manage risk
You get very good exposure to people from different social and economic backgrounds, treat them fairly, do not discriminate because they are not your “friends”
Secure job, all payments, including dues made on time
Learn to deal with customers and vendors , both good and bad.
Decisions are made on the basis of facts and numbers, not gossip and false rumors.
Transparency – you could ask customers and vendors anything and get an answer and vice versa.

Negatives
salary is average
growth is slow (one promotion every three years)
little flexibility

From http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/yahoo-spy.pdf

Federal law (See 18 U.S.C. § 2706) requires law enforcement to reimburse providers like Yahoo! for costs incurred responding to subpoena requests, court orders, or search warrants.

• Basic subscriber records: approx. $20 for the first ID, $10 per ID thereafter
• Basic Group Information (including information about moderators): approx. $20 for a group with a single moderator
• Contents of subscriber accounts, including email: approx. $30-$40 per user
• Contents of Groups: approx. $40 – $80 per group

Yahoo is not the only company indulging in these activities.  This is the reason having a personal profile on any kind of networking website like Facebook, Orkut or Linkedin is risky,  you never know how it will be used or misused.  Better to spend a little money and get  your own website.

Over the last week, I have realized how much freedom of speech you have in India and how much better most large Indian companies are compared to certain foreign organizations in so called democracies.

Even if Rs 3 is wrongly deducted , you can hope to get it back in India from a well run company,  but outside India, you are unlikely to be treated fairly and decisions are taken unilaterally. Their lawyers  will claim to have made payment, but will not be able to provide any supporting evidence.

If  you are dealing with a government organization,  you can use the

Right to Information Act

It takes time, but you will get the information you need.

Interesting article on how the mainstream media is controlled  -  Operation Mockingbird

http://www.kidmercuryblog.com/t1659/

Many of the influential bloggers and media persons are not as independent as most people think, they are controlled using various methods.

File your income tax returns online

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.do

If you do not have a digital certificate, you have to take a printout and send it by ordinary post and hope it reaches in time.   In a year, the process  should be streamlined.

You can confirm the PAN of  an individual or  firm , if you know the complete name and date of birth.  You can also find out the jurisdiction

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/knowpan/knowpan.jsp