Cold flushes

Visiting the loo is only natural before getting into a meeting. Especially one where you are fighting for a scarce commodity that fuels your business. So, when a CDMA telecom czar went to meet Telecom Secretary D.S. Mathur on the issue of spectrum allocation, he felt like visiting the loo on the way.

No problem. Except that he told a GSM czar who just then emerged from his meeting with the Secretary in Sanchar Bhawan. Further, he prefaced the mention of his urge with a comment that met with a cold response from the GSM czar. Surely, the humour spectrum is warped in this business.

Loss of power

DMK ministers are a powerful lot in the current regime. A. Raja is sitting on the fate of the telecom industry. T.R. Baalu oversees the mega highway programme.

However, the latter has not been able to revive his 110-MW power project in Tamil Nadu. The issue: gas shortages.

Baalu claims that he was victimised by the earlier regime and denied supply despite being first in the queue. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, however, has decided to play it safe— he has referred it to the Law Ministry.