The title of this column is inspired by a brilliant Jack Nicholson movie called ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’. Friday saw the opening ceremony of the Olympics at the Birds Nest stadium in Beijing, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao must have been proud of its spectacular success. The Chinese political leaders who were determined to showcase their country’s success and worked towards that nationalistic goal must now be flying with pride.

Last week we saw sale of promoter’s stake in Ranbaxy, India’s largest generic pharma company, to Dii Ichi Sankyo of Japan. Ranbaxy, set up in 1961, was valued at $ 8.5 b. in the deal. During a prior week I had attended the analyst meet of Punjab National Bank, which, after 119 years, has grown to become the largest but one (after SBI) public sector bank.

Although the private sector has thrown off its initial fears of being swamped if exposed to foreign competition, the Government and the bureaucracy continue to harbour a fear of a repeat of the East India company.

Everyone, but everyone, knows that stock markets globally are driven by two primal emotions, viz excessive greed (which brings about the end of a bull market) and fear (which signals the demise of the bear).

Although general elections are due next year, it is generally expected that they would be announced later this year, either as a gambit or as an inevitability if the Left withdraws support should the Government go ahead and sign the nuclear agreement with the US, as, indeed, it should, to mitigate the energy crisis that is sure to befall us.