the hindu rate of globalization

companies in the organized public and private sector seem to take decades, after they've gone insolvent, to fall. and while they're falling, oh so slowly, like the textile mills nationalized by the goi (i wonder if anyone among the ruling and indignant classes were thinking of the handloom workers across the country when they were embarking on this magnanimous project), a new generation of small unorganized businesses, like the powerlooms in bhivandi, rise and fall, more than a couple of times.

that's what i'd said a couple of weeks ago, in this post. going by ramalinga raju's confession, satyam had been falling, slowly, for half a decade? and now that the company has acknowledged the fact that it was falling, we now see a rescue act slowly gathering form. the government testing waters, thinks aloud a bailout. even before its thoughts are out, the cpm suggests that the government claim a stake in satyam. both agree, the employees need to be protected. i remember a fleeting headline on one of the business channels- over 12 million workers to lose jobs in the indian textile sector (mostly in unorganized businesses) by the end of this year. both, i'm sure, would talk about protecting them too. but, i'm sure again, nothing tangible, except much talk, would come out of that.

yes, the view that the government shouldn't use taxpayers' money to save satyam has a larger constituency among the powerful and the vocal. something about principles of free markets and capitalism is cited. but these sections too are aware that satyam's employees would be saved- their confidence stems from the belief that the company could be broken up and sold and even if it's not, the customers and the employees would be absorbed by competing indian companies.

what do you see? this is the result of liberalization and globalization? of free markets? it tells you about the need for regulation? that's one school of thought. this is a one-off phenomenon- that's another point of view.

neither point of view can adequately explain why satyam's employees would be saved and the textile workers would have to starve.