Right now, the popularity ratings of Vijay Mallya, MP and industrialist — though I'm not sure if that's the descending or ascending order of importance from his point of view — at the Boeing World Headquarters in Chicago stand at an all-time high. According to the proverbial reliable sources, Mallya is talking to Boeing about buying aircraft to set up his (fleet of Kingfisher aeroplanes to start his much-awaited new airline in India. 

And apparently the total value of his likely order is to the tune of $1 billion, a sum large enough for Boeing world HQ to lay out the red carpet for this potential client. Of course, aeroplane manufacturers are used to having to deal with glamorous and maverick fleet owners. Sir Richard Branson's name come; readily to mind. I've no doubt whatsoever that Boeing knows its way around with celebrities like Mallya.

The other Tata
As an almost exact contemporary of D. Tata, Naval Tata was destined to be always overshadowed by his high profile cousin. He was doubtless quite happy to let things he this way because it enabled him to focus his attention on the human resources aspect of industry. Naval Tata was a humanitarian first and he devoted his life to his employees. Remember that those were days when labour laws did not exist and there was a big gap between labour management. As president of the Employers' Federation of India, Tata did a great deal to help bridge this gap. 

Later, he rose to be a member of the governing body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and, in this capacity, he initiated the ILO Family Planning Programme. Among the several social causes he espoused was hockey. India's dominance of world hockey for three decades spanning the 30s, 40s and 50s owed a lot to Naval Tata's benign patronage. Monday this week, the 30th, marked the 100th birth anniversary of this distinguished son of India. I'm sure readers will join me in paying tribute to the memory of Naval Tata.

Muthiah's second doctorate
On a visit to Chennai last weekend, I spent Saturday evening's "Happy Hour" at Dr A.C. Muthiah's elegant residence in the city. He had just returned from a trip to the districts and one of his engagements, I learnt, was to attend the 16th convocation of Alagappa University at Karaikudi. There, Muthiah received the degree of Doctor of Literature (honoris causa) from the hands of the Tamilnadu governor and university chancellor P.S. Ramamohan Rao for his contribution to industry, education, sports, health care, culture and nation-building.

The citation read out by vice-chancellor P. Kanniappan outlined the business, social and philanthropic initiatives taken by Muthiah in his entrepreneurial career spanning over three decades. His alma mater Anna University has already conferred a doctorate degree on Muthiah, so this was his second doctoral scroll - well deserved and well earned.

Budhia in KL
The other day, in Kolkata, I was looking for my friend Sanjay Budhia to be told that he had gone to Kuala Lumpur. I wondered if he was taking his honorary consulship for Malaysia a wee bit too seriously — but of course that isn't so. As chairman of CII's National Council on Export, Sanjay was attending the 2nd Asia Economic Summit at KL and indeed addressing it too. Speaking on the theme of Indian-ASEAN partnership, Sanjay forcefully made the point that India accounts for less than two per cent of ASEAN's total trade notwithstanding the recent rising trend in Indo-ASEAN trade and that this measly figure should change. 

And that shouldn't be too hard either, given that while India has a lot to offer in areas like biotechnology, it is itself a huge crucible of business opportunities in a vast swathe of sectors from private healthcare to infrastructure to IT to retail to agribusiness. Surely there are going to be many takers from ASEAN in these areas? I entirely share Sanjay's optimism that a change can and should be brought about.