Why I was right about the acquisitions by Indian companies - I didnt like them.

Last year India and the Indian media had celebrated wildly when the Tata group bought Jaguar, Landrover and Corus Steel etc, when other Indian companies bought more companies around the world.

Sure it is good to see Indian companies coming out of their own mental and capital constraints and venture boldly around the world. It is heartwarming to see the can do spirit - time for the emerging market economies to take on the world. But I wasnt a big fan of some specific deals then and for sure I now feel vindicated.

Because in their euphoria and desire to do the deal - they ended up overpaying and taking on a pile of debt, compounding the problem with an integration strategy that beats all known logic. There is always a business and value logic to doing M&A - in the case of the Jaguar deal, the Tata group threw all value logic out of the window - why else would they buy something which nobody else would touch with a barnpole! and pay so much for it! There was no subsequent integration and cost reduction initiative. Where was the value creation going to come from?

My sense is that it is time for Mr Tata to think of a successor for himself. Some of his judgement may not have benefited shareholders and customers and his comments indicate that he is tired - for instance - for instance after the Bombay attacks - he indicated that they had received warnings of the attack - but the Taj DID NOTHING about those. And then he says nohting could have prepared them for those attacks - Wrong- they could have been prepared, if they had paid attention to those warnongs which come within 24 12 months after the Bombay train blasts!

Now he admits that the timing of the Jaguar deal may not have been right. I am a fan of Mr Tata, but I fear that age and the years of hardwork have caught up with him. It is the interest of Tata shareholders that Mr Tata should hand over reins to somebody else.