An Eminent Author & Management Guru: Prof Arindam Chaudhuri

Dancing With The Stars

2011-09-29T10:51:00.000+05:30

For some, it is a moral and ethical issue; for some it's just about making a quick buck - but the undeniable trend of cine stars turning into dancers for hire presents a strange quandary, discovers Subhash K Jha

The dancing kings and queens of Bollywood are at it. Their great skills at popular entertainment are up for sale at the right price, at any venue and occasion. That some of our hottest A-listers would be dancing at a wedding at a gutka baron’s home in Delhi just reiterates what the forever-quotable Shah Rukh Khan had said when the wave of private dancing had started, “I am a bhand (street entertainer) for rent. Anyone can hire me for a price.”

Bhand or no, stars seem to be up for sale to anyone who can afford them. Years ago Mamta Kulkarni (remember her?) had sent shock waves across Bollywood when she had danced at a cheesy politician’s private party in Jharkhand. In his inimitable way Shatrughan Sinha had quipped, “Bhai, kyun nahin (why not?)? In the olden days we had raj nartakis dancing in the king’s darbaar. We now have our filmi nartakis dancing for politicians. This is just carrying a tradition forward.”

Mamta had raised eyebrows by dancing for a politician. Today when A-listers from Bollywood agree to shake a limb and butt at a gutka king’s residence no one within the film industry is angered into protest.

One topnotch actor who absolutely refuses to get jiggy at private functions did tell me wryly, “Mamta danced for a politician. I hear Katrina is dancing for a gutka king. Which is worse? Depends on which is more harmful to your health. Gutka or politics? I’d never dance (privately) no matter what the price tag. To me it’s humiliating to even consider putting myself up for exhibition at someone’s son mundan ceremony or daughter’s wedding. I don’t mind making a brief appearance to say hello.”

Stars now charge money even to shake hands at weddings and birthdays. A few months ago Bipasha Basu underwent a horrific experience in Delhi where she had agreed to attend a private party for half an hour.

Recalls Bipasha, “I came to know it was actually the birthday party of the hotel owner. I refused to attend because the profile and guest attendance at a birthday party would be something different. I heard there were sozzled people and belly dancers among the invitees. There was loud music blaring across hotel and I could hear it in my room. Early in the day I told them I wouldn’t attend the party. At 1.30 am when I was sleeping, I was woken up with this crazy banging on my door. The voices from outside were demanding me to open the door.”

It was much later that Bipasha got to know that her bouncers had been removed from the hotel premises and that there were TV cameras from channels out there who had been informed that she had taken money to attend the party and then refused to do so.
Defends Bipasha, “I was shivering and crying inside. Even if I had taken money to attend the party, what gave these people the right to bang on my hotel door at that unearthly hour when I’m supposed to be safe and protected? Later I got to know there were hotel staff and also crime reporters from the channels banging on my door. Crime reporters!!! What crime had I committed? My business manager and make-up girl were outside the door going hysterical with terror trying to keep those men from breaking down my door. I could hear leery slurring voices saying, "Ladki hai varna darwaza tod denge." The kind of rudeness and trauma we three girls were subjected to is unbelievable.”

Since then Bipasha has been very careful about the events she attends. But would our other young attractive stars ever learn their lesson?

A very hot and happening actress who is always in and out of private functions had once said to me, “What is there? I just need to be there, do a few steps and get paid well. It makes them all happy. It makes me happy and richer by a few crores. But don’t write about it.”

“If you pay me I’ll dance even at your birthday,” one of today’s top leading ladies had challenged me. A far cry from the time when even a public classical performance was considered infra dig by our entertainment industry’s luminaries. Asia’s Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar fobbed off all the lucrative offers for performing at public concerts until the late 1960s. Her rationale? She is a playback singer, not a stage performer.
Lataji recalls, “Before I did my first live concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1969 my stage appearances were sporadic. I’d join my colleagues from the music industry to sing a few songs at charity concerts and then flee from the scene. The Albert Hall concert was done after innumerable requests. I did it on condition that the venue has to be of historical significance.”

Vyjayanthimala was the first screen queen who actually danced on stage, at the Filmfare awards, and that too on condition that her performance be purely classical and not filmy. In fact, when Asha Parekh and Hema Malini began performing on stage they made sure that they were not required to do any of their filmy dancing. When Vyjayanthimala went on tour of the West Indies in 1970 and the audience asked for her tantalising “Buddha Mil Gaya”, the elegant Tamil actress walked off the stage.

Ditto for Hema Malini. At a dance performance in Trinidad in 1972, Hema haughtily huffed off the stage when audiences clamoured for her filmy dances. I was present at that concert. Laughs the Dream Girl, “You were there? Yes, I’d as a rule walk out if audiences clamoured for glamour. I’m very clear that my stage performances are for my classical dancing. If you want to see me doing my film dances you’ve to see my films. Today the girls are dancing at private functions to make quick money.”

In her characteristically candid style Hema hits the nail on the head. If topnotch stars are willing to dance at private functions then blame the recession. Many of our top heroines are doing much less work on screen than they’d like to. Either the roles are too routine. Or the money too mundane. Why not just attend a function, wave to the crowds, do a jig and go home while the happy host sings “Jiggy jab se tu aaya mere dware….”

Yup, stars at your doorstep for a price. And barring a few like Ajay Devgn, Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, who won’t be caught dead dancing for weddings and funerals, stars seem to not mind this quick-money scheme at all, specially during these time of acute recession when barring a handful of stars no one is making instant money.
But then why would Shah Rukh Khan, Salman and Katrina Kaif who command staggering fees on celluloid and have more assignments on offer than they can handle, choose to gallop into the gutka gallery? Maybe they want to use the money to help victims of mouth cancer?

The ever-pragmatic Mahesh Bhatt jumps to the defence of modern-day raj-nartakis. Says Bhatt, “A star is a commodity with a price tag in the cultural supermarket. I have no issues with them dancing at shaadis.” Subhash Ghai’s no-objection certificate for private star-performances is conditional. “Stars have every right to make as much money as they want from sources other than films as long as the dates allotted to producers, which is the stars’ core commitment, is not hampered just because they get extra money. It’s a crime to cut producers’ dates or to give preference to stage appearances, thereby making producers bear heavy losses. Such actors and actresses have no work ethics.”

Stars are so enamoured of the quick money offered at these private functions that they report sick to producers and sneak off for a bit of fun money on the sly. Curiously, most stars don’t want to talk about their presence at private events. Two years ago Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra had danced live at a diamond merchant’s son wedding in Mumbai hoping no one would notice.

Right! With 2000 guests watching them and Akshay making a grand entrance on horse, the chances of going unnoticed were really high. Ha ha!

Why are stars embarrassed about their wed-and-wild appearances when they are paid upfront for their starry contribution to moneyed marriages? Sighs producer-director Suneel Darshan, “These public appearances by stars are signs of the changing times, rules and values. What was cinema earlier is now the entertainment industry.”
Adds Shailendra Singh whose company Percept arranges many a filmy razzmatazz, “Exploitation of your talent for monetary gains is not incorrect as long as what you do is not morally or socially wrong or doesn’t hurt your brand or image. I personally don’t think dancing at weddings is cool for stars’ images.”

Producer-director Vipul Shah whose favourite star, Akshay Kumar, has no qualms being a private entertainer, jumps at the defence of these public commodities, “Why not? When stars dance for private events the people behind these events feel special and happy. What’s wrong with that? Would anyone talk about it if stars didn’t charge a fee? Let the stars earn and make money as well.” Writer-director Abbas Tyrewala seconds that motion. “They’re performers and make their living performing. If some stars have taken their popularity to the point where they are paid crores for a private function then I say, more power to their tribe.”

Adds Pooja Bedi, “If they can do it for corporate events, fashion shows and product launches, why not weddings which are the most important day of some people’s lives?”
Only the outspoken Sanjay Gupta dares to openly castigate stars for their wedding wows, “I think it totally takes away from the stars’ persona. Can you imagine Mr Bachchan dancing at weddings? There’re so many avenues today for stars to make money. Why dance at weddings?” While the discussion on the moral ethical and financial feasibility of stars performing privately rages on, some of the newer hot-listers have quietly taken a stand against the private jiggle-bandi.

Imran Khan recently said to me, “I’m offered obscene amounts of money to make appearances at private functions. But, no thanks.” Ranbir Kapoor also feels dancing for money at weddings is “not happening.” Sonakshi Sinha would never dance at private functions.

The choice is clear. Obscene money. Or just obscene?

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Band Baaja Barat: Neither slick, nor grand

2011-09-26T10:47:00.000+05:30

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

The Worst Laid Plans

"Band Baaja Barat" (BBB) had the set up to be a well crafted rom-com directed by Maneesh Sharma as a complete family entertainer and would have lived up to those expectations if it had not bungled up on technicalities. Apart from the slight disconnect, abrupt love making scenes and distastefully done smooching sequences, the story BBB dishes out is an interesting one about Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma) aspires to become a wedding planner. Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh) is a laid back lad from Haryana, who passes out of Delhi University and is now desperate to get away from his family business of sugarcane farming. Luckily, he falls for Shruti and soon makes friends with her and convinces her to make him her partner in the big fat wedding planning business called ‘Shaadi Mubarak’. Shruti makes it a point not to mix business with pleasure and plays by her rule book and is ‘just friends’ with Bittoo. But soon that goes for a toss as the proximity between the duo increases and the equation becomes more relaxed once they rejoice after each successful event. How the duo ends up in bed and how things unfold in the second half lacks subtlety and class. Ranveer looks promising being a debutant and Anushka does justice to her role as well. The music by Salim Suleiman, especially the “Ainveyi Ainveyi” number is a peppy one and adds a little dash of flavour of this rather half cooked platter. A slight attention to detail and trivial tweaking would have made BBB delight. But the planning’s gone a bit awry.

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No Problem: Laugh you will, but only sporadically

2011-09-23T10:44:00.000+05:30

IIPM Mumbai Campus

Anees Bazmee had clearly announced with “Singh Is Kinng” (SIK) and “Welcome” that the brain is an optional (and possibly irritating) faculty for enjoying his light comic fare on the silver screen. “No Problem” turns out to be a watered down version of “Singh Is Kinng” – the same illogical jumps from one exotic location to another and a similar brand of silliness. But while SIK was slick and “Welcome” had some hilarious performances from Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar, “No Problem” has most of its problems in the performance department. Kangana Ranaut is non existent, Akshaye Khanna is wasted, Sushmita Sen does herself no justice and Sanjay Dutt miserably fails with his comic timing which so wonderfully fell in place in the “Munnabhai” series. The only redeeming factors are Anil Kapoor as the bumbling cop and Paresh Rawal as the banker who has been robbed by Yash (Sanjay Dutt) and Raj (Akshaye Khanna). The first half of the film takes terribly long to build up the story and while there are some nice and funny moments in the second half, the rest of the film has a jaded look to it. Even discounting for the silly performance of Suniel Shetty

as the villain, and the plot holes you will still only get very few laughs out of the movie. The music does nothing to lift the mood. “No Problem” would have been a breezy entertainer if only it were a bit funnier.

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The air fares conspiracy theory?

2011-09-20T11:42:00.000+05:30

IIPM Mumbai Campus

The last time domestic airlines were allowed to decide fare levels, they went into a hand-wringing war to death. This time, the government has intervened. But the players aren't amused. steven philip warner answers why.

Every time one scuttles across data-laden scrolls that predict “hope” for airlines in India, the claims are dismissed as wishful thinking. This situation has not changed in a long time now and under such a circumstance, even a good P&L account does little to ease the broad populist anger. Hardly mattered therefore, that the two largest domestic airlines – Jet Airways & Kingfisher – reported improved financials in recent times. Painful memories of Rs 260 billion in losses in the past five years is hard to wipe out. The ever-increasing debt load of the high-fliers is another sore. Rs 582.73 billion and counting it is, of which Jet accounts for Rs 138.97 billion and Kingfisher for Rs 79.22 billion (as on March 2010). There is worry in the air, and the airlines have suddenly realised that they are sinking faster than stone. And their hurried to ensure profits by increasing fares by at least 200% over the past month (since November 15, 2010).

The airlines had put forward a distance-based pricing cap “logic” to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), for its approval. The following were the fare slabs proposed: distance less than 750 km, 750-1,000 km, 1,000-1,400 km and more than 1,400 km. Had the DGCA given its nod, an IndiGo ticket priced at Rs 6,581, purchased on the day of travel, between Delhi and Mumbai, would have sky-rocketed by 244.3% i.e Rs 22,000 (distance of 1,407 km). For JetLite passengers, the spot fares would have risen by 289.1% from the current Rs 7,967 to Rs 31,000. Thus the fares of even the low-cost carriers (LCCs) would have become about 100-200% higher than the ongoing economy fares charged by the Full-Service Carriers (FSCs). Bad news for an environment which saw air traffic grow rapidly only after the advent of the LCCs in 2003. Says John Siddharth, Aerospace Expert, Frost & Sullivan to us, “LCCs have been successful in India due to their low cost strategy. Assuming the LCCs do not have a good competitive pricing in place, it would first reflect in their load factors, which would take a nose dive from the current average of about 85%. The Indian airline sector is on the verge of transforming into a luxury which would result in a negative growth of air passenger traffic.”

Not to forget, the pleading lot this time too, is the same, which went about illogically doling tickets at throw-away prices some years back (which resulted in the state of the domestic sector that is today), forming cartels, requesting relief from the government on all possible fronts and begging for deadline extensions on the billions of rupees due on jet fuel payments. [As on December 3, 2010, Jet & Kingfisher still owed Rs 10.50 billion.] So why is this lot requesting the government to stay home this time? The answer lies in understanding that these preachers of “Free-market Economics” desire to make every inch count. For them, this is the chance to garner windfall profits in unbelievable quick time.

Count the maths. Given the improved conditions of demand in recent months, which have proved a setback for LCCs to an extent, even if we assume that a 200% increase in fares across the board leads to a 50% fall in top line (considering 0% change in op. expenditures & ATF bills for the players), at the H1, FY2010-11 levels of top line, depreciation and interest on loans, Jet would have reported a net profit of a massive Rs 31.73 billion in the remaining two quarters of FY2010-11 – wiping out the nightmares of Rs 11.20 billion in losses garnered since FY2007-08 and lighten its existing debt burden by 91.33% over the next six quarters! Kingfisher, on the other hand, would have reported profits of Rs 52.13 billion during H2, FY2010-11 – enough herb to soothe the Rs 42.04 billion burn accumulated in five years, and wipe clean its total debt by Q2, FY2011-12. Given that the airline has never made profits since it began operations in FY2005-06, it clearly viewed the fare hike as an apt redemption from the societal pressure of not having broken-even yet. It wasn’t to be.

For now though, the government has put its foot down, to restrain the worst of corporate behaviours. It has already set up a tariff analysis unit to monitor route-wise fares of airlines, and the fares across various routes have already fallen by up to 70% since the DGCA made its intentions clear. As for the domestic aviators, they would do themselves good, even if they try and imitate the act of American LCC SouthWest Airlines (SWA) – the only airline that has never made losses in the past three decades! Even in 2009, while “all” airlines in the US reported negative bottom lines, it made $99 million in profits. SWA has made money by no wizadry. It plays with volumes (not price-hikes), offers just what a stripped down LCC aircraft can, and operates its fleet of 550 aircrafts only on profitable routes. Today, Indian carriers which deploy about 70% of their fleet in the budget model (as of October 2010), are close to getting it right. And some like CAPA have even forecasted profits to the tunes of $300 million this year. Says David Bentley, Joint MD, Big Pond Aviation, to us, “There is a demand for competitively priced tickets in the US. The same is the case in India. India is not physically as big as the US but there is the opportunity to follow the same path...”

To stop day-dreaming about fare hikes and do what profitable airlines do around the world, would be quite a change. It would also be some sign that airlines in India have learned a lesson after being stung for years by their own acts of “independent fare-fighting”.

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Indian Judicial System: Judges in the Dock

2011-09-17T10:33:00.000+05:30

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

The concerted campaign for a thorough clean-up of India's ailing judicial system has gathered momentum even as skeletons have kept tumbling out of its cupboard

India’s higher judiciary is in the news for the wrong reasons. Several judges face corruption charges. The collegium system of elevation of judges to the Supreme Court (SC) bench is under a cloud. Many SC verdicts have riled civil society for their "elitist" and "anti-poor" slant. Not long ago, the higher judiciary had dithered on the question of bringing the assets of SC judges, as well as the functioning of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. And now, ex-CJI KG Balakrishnan is in the eye of a storm over former telecom minister A. Raja's attempts to influence a Madras high court judge in a murder case.
The heat and dust that the above developments have whipped up underscore two crucial points. One, the rot runs really deep and, therefore, a clean-up of the nation’s legal system is the need of the hour. And two, the debate on making the superior judiciary – the SC and the high courts – as accountable as the other organs of the Indian republic is now on the national agenda.
The fact that a debate is on is itself a huge step forward for the cause of judicial accountability in a country where the office of a judge has been outside the purview of public discourse for decades. Although the judiciary still isn’t accountable to anyone, and the dreaded provisions of the contempt of court law are still very much in place, the media has lately been openly discussing issues related to misconduct by judges.
The man leading the charge is Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court lawyer and convenor of the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR). He currently faces contempt proceedings for levelling corruption charges against the higher judiciary (in an interview given to a weekly magazine). An unfazed Bhushan has filed an affidavit reiterating the very charges that have led to the contempt notice. He has, of course, received support from leading lights of India's civil society, including Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, Nikhil Dey and Arvind Kejriwal.
Bhushan's father, Shanti Bhushan, former Union law minister and senior lawyer, has refused to tender an apology to the SC on his or his son's behalf, saying, “I am of the firm belief there is a lot of corruption in the judiciary. The question of apology does not arise. I am prepared to go to jail.”
In a landmark September 2, 2009 ruling in the judges’ assets case, Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt of Delhi high court had said: “All power – judicial power being no exception – is held accountable in a modern Constitution. Holders of power too are expected to live by the standards they set, interpret, or enforce, at least to the extent their office demands.”
Hailing the judgment, former CJI J.S. Verma, had asserted: “These principles are unexceptionable. It would be a pity if the judgement is not accepted in good grace and it is challenged in appeal by the Supreme Court, ultimately before itself!”
SC did appeal against the Justice Bhatt judgment. Earlier this year Delhi high court not only upheld its earlier ruling but also asserted the provision of the RTI Act applied to the office of the CJI as well.
Life has never been a smooth arc for Prashant Bhushan. He went to IIT Madras only to leave after a single semester. He then headed to Princeton University to study economics and philosophy. Once again, he left the course midway. Destiny had other ideas for him. He finally studied law in Allahabad University.
Bhushan now fights corruption among judges. He states that there is only one way left for him in this crusade: utilising the power of public pressure to make the judiciary accountable and corruption-free. His approach is paying dividends. CJAR, which is a group of civil society activists, has taken up cudgels against “rampant corruption” in the judiciary.
The advocate's biggest achievement to date has been the case relating to retired CJI YK Sabharwal, which hogged the limelight a few years ago. Back then, casting aspersions on judges was unthinkable. But times have changed and pressure is mounting from all quarters on SC and high court judges to become more transparent in their dealings.
Understandably, the judges aren't taking things lying down. They assert that any external monitoring of judges would undermine the independence and objectivity of the judiciary. This stand is in response to a suggestion from Prashant Bhushan supporting the setting up of a National Complaints Commission.
However, not everybody in the legal fraternity is in agreement with Bhushan's idea. Ravi Kiran Jain, senior advocate in Allahabad, tells TSI: “I feel there is a bigger rot in the bar council. A large number of practising advocates in the lower courts are no more than quacks.” The fact that judges have a conflict of interests is an open secret. Relatives of judges have been practising advocates in lower courts, high courts and even in the SC. “It is a known fact that AM Ahmadi’s daughter practised in the apex court when he was the CJI,” says Naresh Chandra Rajvanshi, president, Allahabad High Court Bar Association and ex-chairman of the Bar Council.
The SC’s current official line is that exposing judges to all-out scrutiny under the RTI Act would undermine judicial independence. But those in favour of accountability argue that ‘independence’ means independence from the executive, and not freedom to indulge in corrupt practices and other forms of misconduct.
There is an urgent need to clean up the judiciary and this is a matter of highest priority. Rajvanshi suggests a simple solution. “The initial appointment of judges should be outside their home states. This will minimise allegations being levelled on judges. About 15-16 years ago 21 judges of Allahabad high court had been transferred and after that instances of favouritism had significantly reduced.”
Some legal experts feel direct attacks on judges would undermine the image of the judiciary. However, Justice DV Shylendra Kumar runs a blog that has raised the hackles of many judicial circles. In a post on the blog www. nyayabharat.blogspot.com about a year ago, he wrote: “The judicial system in our country has been shrouded in mystery, and secrecy as is perhaps the position elsewhere in the world and judges are expected to maintain distance, aloofness and should be inaccessible to the common people…”
After the enactment of the RTI Act in 2005, the tussle between civil society and the judiciary intensified. The row over judges' assets started when Subhash Chandra Agrawal filed an RTI plea seeking information about what the judges owned. This triggered a tussle between CIC and SC. A retired district court judge told TSI, “Judges should not expect they will be sitting on piles of information forever.”
The collegium system of appointment of judges, too, has been hotly debated in the media and on other public platforms in recent years. Many legal experts have repeatedly pointed out that the system of appointment of judges is seriously flawed. There were many highly capable judges likes of RS Sodhi and former CJI of Delhi High Court AP Shah in the past who never made it to the Supreme Court.

‘Corrupt judges are afraid of me’
Prashant Bhushan, SC Advocate

Should their be an independent agency to judge the judges or to monitor the judges?

Yes, there should be. We have been advocating the constitution of National Complaints Commission.

What can be the composition of such a body?

Eminent people from all walks of life can be part of such a body. I am not in favour of putting retired judges to head such a body or be a part of it because they might have vested interests.

Have you ever felt some kind of ill-feeling among judges when you argue in the court?

No. My practice has not been affected at all. See, there are three types of judges. First is corrupt judge and since they are corrupt they are afraid of me. He knows very well that I cannot be bribed or browbeaten. The second type are rigorously honest and they support me as they feel I am cleansing the mess in the judicial system. The third kind of judges is passively honest. They are honest but they feel whatever I am doing will tarnish the image of the judiciary. Their reaction, however, has been very limited and it has not affected my professional practice.

Now, there is lot of pressure on judges to become more transparent. What is the reaction among them?

There is a problem of mindset change among the judges who by and large feel that there should not be any external force on them and the only way to change is through self-regulation. In my view this is not correct as self-regulation has failed miserably which is clear from examples of Bar Council and Medical Council. The in-house committee of judges, too, has not been very effective barring few cases such as of Soumitra Sen and Nirmal Yadav in Chandigarh.

‘Appointments are arbitrary’
R S Sodhi, Retired Delhi High Court Justice

Despite proven capability and competence you did not make it to Supreme Court. What could be the reason?

(Laughs)….There were more competent judges than me in the queue.

Don't you feel there is something wrong with the system of appointment of judges?

Yes, there is tremendous arbitrariness in the way judges are appointed in the Supreme Court. It does exist.

Any regrets for not having made it to the Supreme Court?

No regrets… At least I made it to the Delhi high court. I was upright and always tried to take the side of truth be it in the Jessica Lal case or any other case. Nine-five per cent of my judgments were oral and spontaneous.

Your comment on the Supreme Court criticism of Allahabad high court…
(Cuts in…) Justice Katju was Chief Justice of Allahabad high court and he knew this fact for a long time. He could have taken steps to rectify the system.

Are you aware of Prashant Bhushan's campaign against corruption in the judiciary?
Yes. He is doing a commendable job but it will be premature to say how effective the campaign will be. The basic idea is whatever system you create, if people at the helm of affairs do not understand their responsibility, it will not work be it judicial commission or collegium or anything else.

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Privately owned sanctuaries in Karnataka have emerged as an alternative model for forest conservation in the Western Ghats

2011-09-14T11:31:00.000+05:30

IIPM Mumbai Campus

They are men on a remarkable mission. What they do for a living individually is none too unusual. G.N. Ashokavardhana owns a small book shop and Krishnamohan Prabhu is a surgeon. But together, they represent a whole new movement. The duo takes care of a private forest reserve in the Western Ghats. Importantly, they neither receive nor expect any help from the government.

Having jointly bought 15 acres of land in the Bisle reserve forest, Ashokavardhana, owner of Athree Book Centre in Mangalore, and Dr Prabhu have set out to preserve the biodiversity of the area. Bisle, located near Kukke Subrahmanya, a small hamlet in the Western Ghats, has one of India's densest rain forests. The ecology here is extremely fragile and under constant threat from city dwellers who frequent the many resorts that dot the reserve forest today.

It isn't as if Ashokavardhana and Dr Prabhu are sitting on pots of money. What drives them is grit and commitment to the cause of environmental conservation. They decided to pool their resources together as neither could have taken the onus of running a private sanctuary single-handedly. “We learned about a scenic stretch near Bisle reserve forest, which was being eyed by a party that wanted to set up a resort. We decided that something needed to be done to protect the sanctity of the forest. Hence this joint venture,” says Dr Prabhu.

The duo has left the land exactly the way it was when they bought it. “We may now be legal owners of this glorious patch, but we would like it to remain a natural forest,” he says. So no barricades have been put up around the land nor has the stretch been altered in any other manner.

Says Ashokavardhana: “Preserving this sacred forest in the face of indiscriminate commercial activity is the need of the hour. Nature lovers can visit the forest on foot and enjoy the wilderness on their own. Who needs a resort in the middle of the forest to attract travellers? If you want to drink and dance, you can opt for any commercial outlet in the city. Leave the forest alone.”
While Ashokavardhana owns nine acres of private forest land in Bisle Ghat, Dr Prabhu has the remaining six acres.

They aren't the only ones in this domain. Another private reserve forest, the much bigger SAI Sanctuary, is located in the heart of the watershed area for the entire peninsula and UN-designated biodiversity hotspot.

From the initial purchase of just 55 acres of private forested land in 1991, the sanctuary has grown to more than 300 acres. Its positive influence is being seen and felt in the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that border Brahmagiri, Nagarhole and Bandipur.

Uttar Pradesh-based Anil Kumar Malhotra, founder-president of SAI Sanctuary Trust (SST) bought 55 acres of private land when he decided to move to Coorg 18 years ago. But he did not alter the land for plantation or any other purpose. Instead, he just enriched it further by adding acreage as time went by. He wanted this land to be just the way nature meant it to be. As a result, the 300 acres of private land is richer in terms biodiversity than the surrounding government sanctuaries like Nagarhole and Bandipur.
Many naturalists and scientists have over the years done research within its grounds. Today the sanctuary has a rich variety of flora, including hundreds of different indigenous trees and plants – many with medicinal value – as well as numerous rare and threatened species of animals. The sanctuary is home to river otters, civet cats, giant Malabar squirrels, lesser loris, various types of deer, monkeys, and snakes (including the Indian King Cobra), dhole (Indian wild dog), foxes, jackals, leopards, the Asian elephant, and the Royal Bengal Tiger. The forest canopy is frequented by over 300 different kinds of birds, including the one that is on SST’s logo – the paradise flycatcher. Many of these species of both flora and fauna are found nowhere else on the planet.

SST is a registered nonprofit organisation originally formed to run the sanctuary. From different countries and cultures and from various walks of life, the trustees and advisors of SST include businessmen and educators, writers and speakers, veterinarians and naturalists, scientists and environmentalists. Protection of forests and their wildlife is the link that has drawn these trustees together. “We have kept our land as pure as it was earlier. Many scientists and like-minded people who come here for research and other reasons take great pleasure in discovering the rare flora and fauna, ” says Kashi, manager of Sai Sanctuary.

Government-owned forest land has been overrun in recent years by commercial establishments out to profit from the wanderlust of tourists. As part of this kind of tourism promotion, sprawling resorts and guest houses have come up in the forests, endangering their flora and fauna. Ashokavardhana alludes to the popular Bhagavathi Nature Camp, a resort run by the forest department near Kudremukh town. “It started as a small camp but as its fame grew the place has turned into a source of great disturbance in the once-peaceful forest,” he says.

Men like Ashokavardhana and Dr Prabhu are determined to make a difference. But how do they manage to maintain their little private sanctuary in the absence of monetary gains? The answer is simple. They say: “Preserving forests and wildlife requires no cost. Just leave the natural forests as they are and do nothing. Why do we need money?”

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BJP's New Hue

2011-09-11T10:28:00.000+05:30

IIPM Mumbai Campus

With an eye on resurrecting its political fortunes at the Centre, the saffron brigade has donned a liberal cloak and begun to train its focus on Muslims and Dalits

In an incident that can only be termed intriguing, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on November 15 this year, visited Ahmedabad's Muslim-dominated Juhapura locality, which is often referred to as “mini Pakistan” by the locals. The occasion was a Sufi music and qawwali programme at Sarkhez ka Roza, a Mughal era tomb, organised by the Gujarat government under a special drive to preserve and maintain heritage buildings. More interestingly, the tomb was especially chosen for the programme at Modi's behest. It was for the first time after the 2002 Gujarat riots that Modi had come calling here. On this visit, he spent a considerable time with Muslims of the locality.

December 6 is a special day for the BJP. Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu organisations celebrate it as shaurya diwas throughout the country, and BJP leaders make their presence felt in large numbers in these programmes. It is the day of Ambedkar’s death anniversary as well. This time around, the BJP top brass forgot Ram Lalla and chose to put the temple issue on the backburner. It instead focussed on Ambedkar. While Lal Krishna Advani bowed his head before Ambedkar’s statue in Parliament, prominent BJP Dalit leader Satya Prakash Jatiya demanded that Ambedkar’s parinirvana site, the place where he died in New Delhi, should be accorded the same status as Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. The party's other Dalit MPs in their letters to the Prime Minister echoed Jatiya's demand.

On December 12, organisations associated with VHP organised a yagna and a meeting of sadhus for the construction of Ram temple in Delhi. It was incumbent upon the local BJP leaders to make the programme a success. BJP's national organising secretary Ramlal convened several meetings of the cadre. However, on the day of the programme no BJP leader of repute was seen on the dais. Even the handful who turned up preferred to sit off the stage. Usually, such programmes see a huge gathering of big and small BJP leaders.

These incidents are pointers to the fact that Nitin Gadkari’s BJP is changing. It has been a year since Gadkari took over the reins as party president and the outcome of his policies is clearly visible. With an eye on the future political gains, the party is keen to shed its staunch Hindutva image and look more liberal. Gadkari aims to increase the party’s vote bank by 10 per cent by 2014 to wrest power away from the Congress.
The change in the party’s policies and programmes is a result of this thinking. Gadkari is eyeing the Muslim and Dalit vote bank which has traditionally been with the Congress and of late with other secular parties. Hence, instead of the temple, the party wants to make development and good governance its key issues. Gadkari has also coined two new slogans that embody the party’s new focus, “politics for development” and “antodaya” (meaning the development of the marginalised). For the latter he has established a special Antodaya cell in the party. For the politics of development, he has instructed all BJP workers to play a facilitatory role to government departments running development schemes.

Actually, it is now more of a compulsion for the BJP to come out of its hardline image, discard old issues and talk of development. At a time when Congress leaders, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, are making development the focus of all party policies, it is but natural for the BJP to follow suit. As political analyst Dr Subhrokamal Dutta puts it, “In a democracy, the politics of the opposition is determined by the agenda of the ruling party. If the ruling party is talking of development, the opposition should ideally do the same.”

But the question is: is RSS happy with the recent development of BJP distancing itself from the temple issue? According to sources close to Gadkari, this change in politics enjoys the support of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Even otherwise, Gadkari, who became the party chief at the behest of RSS, consults the organisation in every matter of importance.

As soon as he became the party chief, Gadkari initiated a process of dialogue with Muslims. In almost all his speeches he would cite the example of BJP ruled states, especially Gujarat, where development-oriented policies of the government had helped Muslims progress through an increase in their income and employment. By putting aside the temple issue and by stressing development programmes initiated for the benefit of Muslims and Dalits, the party is sending out the message that it is no longer a party unfriendly towards them. Mohd Idris Khan, a Muslim BJP leader in Ghaziabad, UP, and former district president of the party’s minority front, seconds this observation. “Although there have been many schemes for the development of the minorities right from the time of Kalyan Singh to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but Muslims were largely apprehensive of the party's motives. By pushing aside the temple issue, the party is ensuring that more Muslims come into its fold,” says Khan. The grant of aid to madrasas in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat is one of the steps that have been taken to woo the Muslims.
Senior BJP leader and former cabinet minister Shahnawaz Hussain says, “Through our work we are trying to remove the misconceptions that had been put into the minds of Muslims about the BJP. As a result, in the recent Bihar elections we have won a majority of Muslim-dominated seats. We have the support of almost 21 per cent Muslims there. In the panchayat and municipal council elections of Gujarat, our candidates have won on more than 100 Muslim dominated seats.”

To attract Dalits to the party, the BJP has started celebrating the birthdays and death anniversaries of several Dalit icons in a grand manner. It has also decided to raise issues pertaining to Dalits. This year, for the first time the party organised grand programmes on Valmiki Jayanti and on Ambedkar Diwas.

The BJP has understood that in today's coalition politics, Ambedkar is more relevant than Ram. In the BJP-ruled states special programmes are being formulated for the uplift of the Dalits but the focus is on educating them. The party believes that once educated, the Dalits will be more aware and parties like the BSP will not be able to exploit them.

National president of the BJP SC front Dushyant Kumar Gautam says, “Special funds are being allocated for the education of Dalits in BJP-ruled states. Our governments are giving scholarships on a large scale to Dalit children to encourage them to go abroad for higher studies.” It shows the aprty's changed perception of the “swadeshi”. The party’s earlier stance was to oppose the videshi (foreign).

Gadkari sees the party’s future in Ambedkar and Antodaya and not in Ram Lalla. Though a faction of the party is extremely unhappy with the policy alteration, Gadkari does not seem to care as long as he enjoys the Sangh's support.

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Save the Girl Child: Anganwadis may monitor against families and doctors misusing sonography machines

2011-09-08T14:50:00.006+05:30

IIPM Mumbai Campus

The shameful drop in girl child ratio (to 880 per 1,000 males) has propelled the government to initiate new measures to tackle this social menace in the state. In a revolutionary move, the state government plans to involve more than 4,000 anganwadi workers across Maharashtra to play the role of whistleblowers against families and doctors misusing sonography machines to identify and abort female foetuses.

The misuse of sonography machines in the backward regions of Nandurbar, Chandrapur, Akola, Gondia and Buldhana, posed a new challenge to the state administration. In order to meet this challenge, Minister of women and child welfare, Varsha Gaikwad, proposed the movement to engage anganwadi workers as monitoring agents. “An unassuming, low-profile anganwadi worker is the best bet. Through their close conventional networking, they can elicit all the details about developments in the family. They can not only monitor but also alert the administration about the misuse of the sonography," says Gaikwad.

In the past, former health minister Vimal Mundada took concrete steps to check rampant misuse of sonography machines. However, medical practitioners often took advantage of loopholes in the legal system to manipulate it to their advantage.

Not one to give up the fight against the skewed sex ratio, Gaikwad has travelled more than 2,000 km criss-crossing parts of Marathwada, Vidarbha, western Maharashtra and Thane regions. She laments, “It is a phenomenon that has broken economic and social barriers.

We all know that being a girl is super special. Sadly, not everyone seems to think so. That's why iDiva is celebrating September as "Save the Girl Child" month. Join us as we raise awareness about this cause, highlight initiatives that promote girl children and explore what we can do to make a difference. There's also loads of fun in store 'coz we're celebrating just how special we girls really are!

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Noida Extn dreams breaks as court scraps new acquisition

2011-07-20T18:05:00.001+05:30

IIPM Mumbai Campus

Panic has given way to complete despair among home buyers in Noida Extension as another court verdict ordered restoration of acquired land to farmers — the second such judgment in less than two weeks — putting in jeopardy the investments of around 30,000 buyers so far.

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday quashed the state`s notifications acquiring 589 hectares of farmland in Patwari village in Greater Noida. The land was later sold to builders through auction and 11 housing projects were coming up there.

The high court has so far reversed the acquisition of around 70% of land in Noida Extension. With three more farmers` suits coming up in the next seven days, all land in the area seems set to be returned to farmers. These lands too were acquired by the authority by invoking the urgency clause without giving them the opportunity to raise objections.

Delivering the verdict on a writ petition filed by farmer Har Karan Singh and several others of Patwari village, a division bench of Justices Sunil Ambwani and S S Tiwari observed: "Dispensation of hearing provided under Section 5-A of the Land Acquisition Act by invoking urgency clause under Section 17 (4) was not proper and legal. Hence, there was no urgency for acquiring farmers` land for residential purposes in Nodia."

The Maya government is not alone in invoke the clause to acquire land. Over 15,000 hectares has been acquired in Noida and Greater Noida since 1991. "Almost all these acquisitions were done using the urgency clause by successive state governments, including that of BJP, SP and BSP," said a senior official in the authority.

The affected builders, meanwhile, are putting up a brave face. Most of them met on Tuesday to find a solution to the crisis facing their projects. The builders association reiterated that developers will protect the interest of buyers. Amrapali, three of whose projects were by Tuesday`s judgment, said, "The decision will not affect the buyers` investment with the group. We require your (buyers`) patience and trust with us and all the commitments shall be fulfilled in due time as promised.``

Meanwhile, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority is considering approaching the Supreme Court again for judicial review of the verdict. Authority CEO Rama Raman, who was sacked by chief minister Mayawati later in the day, said, "A judicial review seems to be the only way out now." However, given that the Supreme Court had upheld the HC judgment on the Sahberi case earlier in this month, there`s little hope of the decision being upturned.

Reacting to the verdict, the state government too said it would file a special leave petition (SLP) against the high court order in the Supreme Court. Government officials said in Lucknow that a compensation of over Rs 500 crore had already been paid to the farmers and a majority of them had not opposed the acquisition.

The builder, on their part, too said they would go in appeal in the Supreme Court for relief. Most of them had begun construction in the area and had invested substantial sums of money in the projects.

Noida Extension, which is actually sectors 1 to 4 of Greater Noida, covers around 2,000 acres. GNIDA had acquired land in Patwari village three years ago after invoking the urgency clause on the pretext of laying down industrial units, and 90% of the villagers had claimed their compensation. However, around two dozen villagers had approached the Allahabad High Court earlier this year and submitted roughly 50 petitions seeking restoration of the acquired land.

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Item Numbers Are The New Mantras of Bollywood

2011-07-09T12:56:00.003+05:30

2010 was the year of the item girl. The once-reviled afterthought became the highlighting act. With the item number going mainstream, lead actresses fell over themselves to become the object of everyone's attention.

Item Numbers Are The New Mantras of Bollywood

Producers now invest crores just to shoot one of these videos. And with the likes of Katrina Kaif and Malaika Arora Khan leading the list, the year saw a deluge of item numbers flood screens.

Jacqueline Fernandis and Gauhar Khan made a mark as did Brazilian sizzler and newbie Maria Gopez (who did a disappearing act after shooting for her item number). Sameera Reddy featured on the lower rungs as did Saif's former girlfriend Rozza Catalano.

Songs don't just need lyrics to create a stir, the latka-jhatkas and the bump-n-grinds have become intrinsic to success on the charts. The item number phenomenon hasn't missed the men, either ( Aamir Khan took up the baton this year). 3.43 lakh votes were received on www.itimes.com

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Rs. One Lakh Crore Treasure Found In Kerala Temple

2011-07-04T17:42:00.002+05:30

Call it the mother of all treasure hunts. The stock-taking by a panel of experts at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy templehas catapulted the shrine located here to the country's richest, with reports claiming that the value of recoveries may have touched close to Rs 1 lakh crore, more than Kerala public debt of Rs 70,969 crore.

With one more "secret" vault yet to be opened, the figure in all likelihood will go up further. But sources said the figures could only be speculation as it wasn't possible to determine the antique value of the precious gems and jewellery. "These are antique pieces and it's not possible to determine their prices," said historian and former director of Indian Council of Historical Research M G S Narayanan. In other words, the worth of the treasure could be intimidatingly higher.

The Supreme Court-appointed committee on Sunday refused to confirm reports about the value of the recoveries, saying that its mandate is limited to making an inventory of the assets.

Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said the treasure would remain with the temple. "The wealth belonged to the temple and it will be preserved where it was found. There is religious and historical significance to the findings. The state will ensure its security," Chandy told reporters on Sunday.

Chandy said the police would patrol the shrine 24X7 and a control room had already started functioning. "Permanent security arrangements will be put in place only after consultations with the chief priest of the temple and the Travancore king who is the caretaker of the shrine," the CM said.

A source said the seven-member panel was stunned by what it found in the secret vault marked `A' during its inspection on Thursday. There were close to 1,000 kg of gold coins, some of these from the East India Company era and Napolean's period, about one tonne of gold in the form of rice trinkets, sack full of diamonds said to be from Burma and Sri Lanka, a rope made of gold and thousands of pieces of rare 'sarappoli' necklaces.

The stock-taking continued next day as only 30% of the assets could be counted on Thursday. Again there were surprises in the form of a three-and-a-half feet tall idol of Lord Vishnu studded with diamonds, emeralds and rubies, an 18-feet-long ornament used to adorn the deity and weighing 35 kg and 1 feet tall human figurines weighing 1 kg each. There were coins marked 1772 indicating they were from the era of former Travancore ruler Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma better known as `Dharma Raja' for his strict adherence to the rules of 'dharma'.

Entry was strictly forbidden for the media and public to the site. There are six vaults marked A to F in the shrine. The A and B cellars have never been opened after 1872. The panel had set out on the job on June 27 and opened three vaults marked C, D and F till Wednesday.

The observers, retired Kerala high court judge Justice M N Krishnan and Justice C S Rajan, said it was difficult give an exact date when the stock-taking would be completed. The B and E vaults remain to be opened.

Narayanan said there were specific documents called 'Mathilakam records' which speak about the history of the shrine and about how the assets came into it. "The temple has been known since the 9th Century and figures in the writings of that time. Native ruler of Travancore (then pricely state) Marthanda Varma had given away all the wealth to the deity and ruled the kingdom as the Lord's agent."

"Travancore was a very prosperous state and with its port facilities, traded in spices, sandalwood and ivory. The foreign currency recovered from the vaults may have come in through the trade route," he added.

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Microsoft rolls out Office 365

2011-06-29T17:25:00.001+05:30

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Microsoft Corp. made its biggest move into the mobile, internet-accessible world of "cloud" computing on Tuesday, taking the wraps off a revamped online version of its hugely profitable Office software suite.

The world's largest software company is heaving its two-decade old set of applications -- including Outlook email, Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint collaboration tools -- into an online format so that customers can use them on a variety of devices from wherever they can get an Internet connection.

It wants to push back against Google Inc, which has stolen a small but worrying percentage of corporate customers with cheaper, web-only alternatives, which remove the need for companies to spend time on installing software or managing servers.

"It puts Microsoft in a better position than they were -- they now have a broad product that they can more easily sell," said Michael Silver, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner.

Microsoft shares rose 0.8 per cent on Tuesday, following a 3.7 per cent jump the day before, partly buoyed by hopes that the company can ultimately boost profits by extending its software dominance to the growing cloud sector.

Microsoft has offered online versions of some Office programs -- chiefly Outlook email -- for its corporate customers for several years, and last year rolled out free versions for individual home users.

Chief executive Steve Ballmer presented the overhauled and updated set of offerings -- collectively called Office 365 -- at an event in New York City on Tuesday morning, stressing that online versions and built-in conferencing tools can save users money, especially small and medium-sized businesses.

One test customer "expects to cut travel costs and reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent after they retire the 60 servers they think they will save," said Ballmer.

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BJP turns a new leaf: Party president Nitin Gadkari is seeking to give the outfit a new image

2011-05-31T10:51:00.001+05:30

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BJP President Nitin Gadkari’s strategy to increase the party’s vote bank by 10 per cent in the forthcoming elections and wrest power from Congress is leading to a major revamp in the party’s focal policies. Gadkari’s eyes are set on Dalit and Muslim voters, traditionally been Congress supporters. The party is hoping to break free from its rabid Hindutva image and don a more liberal mantle. The BJP is no longer looking at Lord Ram as its saviour but has shifted focus to Ambedkar.

With the Ayodhya issue in deep freeze, the party is hoping to tell the Muslim voter that it is not inimical to the community. So, on December 6, the party chose to indulge in showy celebrations of Ambedkar’s death anniversary. The party’s Dalit MPs went as far as writing to the PM to accord national monument status to the birth and Mahaparinirvan sites of Ambedkar. This has helped the party send across two messages, one to the Dalit voters and the other to Muslims.

Gadkari wants to reach for the voters’ hearts through service and development activities. Hence instead of Mandir-Masjid the party is making electoral issues out of development and good governance. The BJP chief has given the party two slogans: “Politics for development” and “Antyodaya” (the development of the marginalised). For the latter he has set up a special cell in the party and directed workers to ensure the implementation of at least one development project through government agencies, in their areas.

To stop the Congress on the road to the Parliament, the party will be helmed by senior leaders in its attack on the UPA government on corruption and inflation. Party workers from various units and cells will play footsoldiers in the attack.

Gadkari wants the cells to reach out to the blocks and lower levels to make a connect with the public, especially the marginalised, through positive work. The BJP organisational set-up includes six fronts and about four dozen cells. These include fronts for youth, women, farmers and minorities. Of these, except the youth front, none had received special attention in the past while the cells were headed by loyalists of the party top brass. But under Gadkari not only are these been taken seriously, they are also being pressed into connecting with the public at the grassroots. Thus while the youth front has been handed an agenda to promote nationalism, the minority cell will run a campaign against terrorism. Similarly the farmers’ front will raise a hue and cry against what the party perceives as the “anti-farmer” policies of the UPA government. Naresh Sirohi, national general secretary of the Farmers Front, says, “Through dharnas, demonstrations and seminars we will caution farmers against the anti-farmer bills set to be introduced by the UPA so that farmers can teach the government a lesson in the 2014 elections."

Besides increasing the party’s vote bank, Gadkari is also looking to further the social and geographical reach of the BJP. Hence the party’s aggressive push towards uniting labourers, farmers, weavers, fishermen and artisans. After farmers, the greatest numbers of the marginalised are weavers while fishermen account for eight to 30 per cent of the voters in coastal areas. The party hopes to reap rich political dividends by uniting these disparate communities. To unite labourers the party has taken an historic step in the form of setting up the Bhartiya Janta Mazdoor Mahasangh while different cells have been set up for weavers, artisans and fishermen. The country has about 40 crore workers in the unorganised sector while 75 per cent of the country’s weavers live in UP, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Manipur: states where the party isn’t in a commanding position. Thus working amid these communities is sure to give a boost to the party’s vote bank.

P Murlidhar Rao, national secretary of the party, which has spent the last two decades campaigning against liberalisation and globalisation, has been given charge of the party’s fishermen, weavers, artisans and traders cell. Rao says, “Weavers, fishermen and traders form a large part of the country’s population. Yet after Independence the Congress has not paid any attention to them. Not only do we aim to unite them, we will vociferously raise their concerns and force the government to make favourable policies."

While Gadkari has seen some success in strengthening the party, groupism still dogs BJP. The animosity between the leaders of the Opposition in the LS and RS is not hidden from party workers. The party chief is now forced to have the two conduct joint press conferences in Parliament.

According to political analyst Dr Subhrakamal Dutta, “BJP has been considerably weakened by infighting. Differences among the top brass have prevented the BJP from playing the role of an effective opposition in Parliament. This has sullied its image.”

Gadkari is making efforts to capture power in 2014 though a large chunk in the BJP is miffed at him for having sidelined the party’s former core issues. He is however giving the party a new image and direction.

“We've connected with people on a large scale”

What are the party’s preparations for the 2014 polls?

The party is on the right track under Nitin Gadkari’s leadership. Through constructive work, we have been able to connect with people on a large scale. We are working for those who stand on the fringes of society: Dalits, farmers, weavers, fishermen and artisans. The party’s top leaders and functionaries are visiting suburbs and villages to enthuse workers. For the first time, report cards are being prepared for office bearers. We are presenting to the people a comparison of the UPA and NDA’s work.

What kind of comparison?

During the NDA regime, under Atalji, a transparent and effective mechanism was in place which put a check on both inflation and corruption. But in the UPA’s second term there has been a string of scams while prices have sky rocketed. While Atalji’s policies were pro- poor, the UPA is anti-poor. We are taking these differences to the public. It is understanding us, so much so that more than the Opposition it is the common man who is raising his voice against the government.

A charge that has stuck to the BJP is that thanks to the egos of top leaders, the party is unable to play the role of an effective Opposition.

This is a baseless allegation. There is coordination between the leaders of the Opposition in both Houses.

Groupism is weakening the party.

The leadership spectrum has grown. Earlier Atalji and Advaniji were supreme and they would take decisions jointly. The party’s growth has seen new leadership emerge. Things have changed. At the party forum there is an effort towards collective decision making. Under Nitin Gadkari’s leadership, the whole party is geared towards achieving its goal.

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Congress losing the plot

2011-05-28T10:44:00.000+05:30

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism

Tathagata Bhattacharya

People are strange when you are a stranger. But even to a seasoned observer of Indian politics and its dynamics, the results of the latest TSI-CVOTER State of the Nation opinion poll may come as shocking and, often, inexplicable.

Let's start with the more predictable tunes. Most of the 30,000 respondents from across the country, invariably from urban India, seem consistently upbeat about improvements in their standard of living and seem convinced that the country is marching on as well. This trend manifests itself throughout the eight-month period of the survey i.e. from June 2010 to January 2011. There is a strong feeling among those surveyed that they will continue to benefit from India's stellar economic growth in the next one year too.

Amongst the pressing issues facing the country, rising prices of goods and services have the urban Indian in a tizzy. From petrol to onions, from lentils to fruits, the average urban Indian family has had to cut corners. July 2010 saw most people of the country bear the sudden brunt of it as fuel prices were decontrolled in the end of June. This spurred a hike in prices of everything transportable, culminating in the Rs-60-for-a-kilo-of-onions January.

While unemployment was a bigger headache in the first two months, August onwards, corruption started taking centrestage. Starting with revelations about financial irregularities in organisation of Commonwealth Games, which brought immense international disrepute to the country, to the multi-billion dollar 2G Spectrum scam, more skeletons are tumbling out of closet even as TSI readers read this issue of the magazine. While the Congress and the UPA-II dispensation were already on the ropes, the Adarsh Society scam and the WikiLeaks expose of the cash-for-vote episode during UPA-I should have enabled the Opposition BJP to land killer blows.

You would expect performance ratings of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to decline drastically in the face of rising prices and rampant corruption. But their ratings are surprisingly high and stable. Well, one can attribute this to the fact that in India oddities are a mass phenomena often verging on the lines of impossibility but a more plausible explanation should be the BJP's utter inability to present a new generation of leadership.

The BJP's old order has not been able to see through a smooth transfer of power to the new leadership. This has repeatedly come to the forefront in the last one year when the veteran L.K. Advani and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj have voiced different opinions on the same issue. Their performance rating is stable but much below those of Dr Singh or Sonia Gandhi. The record of the Reddy Brothers and that of the Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yedyurappa, tainted by successive land scams in his state, have also not helped BJP's cause.

People are more disgruntled with their respective state governments though the percentage of people disenchanted with the policies of the Central Government is also on the rise. This is expected as both the Centre and the states are equally to blame for the fuel price rise. Many Indian states impose exorbitant taxes on petrol and diesel. The Centre's move to decontrol petroleum retail and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's ministerial duties taking a backseat in the face of his commitments to cricket has hit UPA-II hard.

While the performance rating of the BJP leaders have remained considerably less than the Congress top two, they have surprisingly closed gaps with the Congress over the last seven months in terms of people's choice to lead the government. In July 2010, the difference was 9.5 per cent in favour of Congress. It has come down to 3.2 per cent in January 2011.

Call it bizarre or whatever, the same set of people who returned the above-mentioned figures also returned the following voting preference results. The UPA and NDA's difference fall to a mere 0.7 per cent in February 2011. The UPA had a lead of 9 per cent in July 2010.

Poll forecasts for the four states going to polls in a few weeks' time throw up no major surprise. While the Mamata tsunami is poised to sink the Left Front in its Bengal citadel, the Left is also on the way out in Kerala. Assam is poised for a hung Assembly with the Congress having an edge over a resurgent Asom Gana Parishad. The J.Jayalalitha-led AIADMK's alliance with Vijayakanth should see them capture power in Tamil Nadu.

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Burden of unused funds: Unused, misused & abused

2011-05-24T10:39:00.004+05:30

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism

Not only is India sitting on unused funds, but is paying fines too

Misuse of funds is a common phenomenon in India. However, the even bigger one is underutilisation of funds. Every year during the budget session, the states and their respective ministers go ga-ga over allocations, – all of them demanding a raise in the sum of funds allocated to their respective ministries.

But the storm gradually calms down and a huge amount of funds is returned back to the Government at the end of the fiscal year. What is really embarrassing is that the funds borrowed from international agencies like IMF and World Bank remain shamelessly unused.

It’s rightly said that history repeats itself. But in our case, even before an issue can be termed as history, it is already repeated. In 2008, it was found that India was paying ‘obligation charges’ to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for unused sanctioned foreign assistance. The nation, then, was sitting on Rs 78,000 crores of unutilised foreign aid. The Government has had to pay Rs.124.54 crores to the World Bank and the ADB as commitment charges.

The biggest chunk of this unutilised foreign aid (about 37 per cent) was meant for infrastructure development like the urban road development, water and new energy sources.

Similarly, this year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that India has unutilised foreign aid of around Rs.1 lakh crore which actually boils down to around Rs.1000 per Indian. Most of these funds were meant for development activities and social welfare. Unfortunately, India had to pay commitment charges of Rs 86.11 crore to ADB and World Bank, besides others, during 2009-10 as penalty for not using aid. These unused funds were meant for urban development, road development, water & sanitation and power.

This implies that it was predominantly for development of facilities that would elevate and improve the lifestyle of the bottom of the pyramid. But alas! This aid later became a burden on the exchequer. Given the fact that the obligation and commitment charges are paid through exchequer money, the entire essence and core objective of foreign aid gets diluted.

It would have been better if the aid was directly disbursed to beneficiaries. At least, that would have saved the extra obligation charges. With India trying hard to control their budget deficit, such wastage of foreign aid and the related fines come as a big hurdle. Instead, investment and development initiatives using these aids would have bridged the deficit and development gaps between the different stratum of the Indian society.

For a country where 456 million people live under the global poverty line of $1.25 per day (estimates by World Bank), cities having no access to safe drinking water, and there is no clear focus on how the country is going to meet its future energy demand with the massive economic growth that its going to attract; paying such penalties is heinous and should be considered nothing less than a criminal offence.

It is only the minister's pocket that should pay the funds... and no one else! They have truly justified – India is the land of misused, unused and abused!

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Is war the price we all must pay for peace? Or is there another way that doesn't have to pass through the barrel of a loaded gun?

2011-05-05T10:43:00.001+05:30

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Mohandas Gandhi might well have been the father of the nation, but to many of his children in the east, especially in Bengal, he was a father who had betrayed one of their own – Subhas Chandra Bose. While growing up in a family displaced by the partition of Bengal and the terrible riots that followed in its wake, I was conditioned a fair bit by the anti-Gandhi sentiments that I overheard whenever family and neighbours gathered around food or festivities. Incidentally, my family had moved to Chittaranjan Park in South Delhi, a residential colony that was built to house refugees from East Pakistan. Next door were the ‘Punjabi colonies’ of Kalkaji and around, home to refugees from a Punjab torn apart by partition on the Western Frontier.

For these victims of partition, Gandhi was often the one to blame for their woes. I grew up listening to statements like “ Gandhi betrayed Subhash, he betrayed Bhagat…Gandhi favoured Nehru over Patel and Jinnah and it was Nehru’s obstinacy and Gandhi’s weakness for him that caused the partition…that’s why we lost our homes, our limbs, our loves; He sold us out to the Muslims…maybe a good man but he was a lousy leader…” and so on. Then, when I went to school, I was often mired in confusion and conflict. My school books spoke of how Gandhi’s ahimsa, more than anybody else, had found us our freedom, while friends and relatives in the refugee ghettoes back home told us tales of how selfless revolutionaries like Subhash, Khudiram, Bhagat, Azad, Udham Singh and Bagha Jatin had booted the British spirit out of this country long before Nehru’s tryst with destiny. The opportunistic Indian National Congress, I was told, was in fact promoted by the British, and came into prominence only because the Raj administration found Gandhi and the INC easier to negotiate with…apparently, he demanded far less, of himself, his followers, and most significantly, of the Empire.

A lot of sludge has flown under the Yamuna bridges since then. But Gandhian ideals had remained uncool for most people from my generation. In high school I was introduced to the romantic image of Che Guevara. An image that was further fortified during my studies at IIPM and the tales I heard from my teachers who are men of great learning, integrity and conviction. By now, Che and his writings had pushed me into asking questions of some other truths that I had hitherto deemed infalible. If Che was to be admired for saying ‘I believe in armed struggle as the only solution for people who are fighting for freedom, and I act according to this belief’, then why were those picking up arms in Kashmir any different? Eventually, I started teaching a subject called appreciation of literature and history, and there while discussing Che’s principles, we ended up discussing Kashmir. The class was shocked when I said I thought Kashmir deserved to be free because a people have the right to chose to be free, especially if neither history nor culture tied them to their current national identity. After all India would never have been one country if not for the British. So is it really wrong if a people want to be free, especially if they have the historical baggage that a Kashmir comes with?

But the more I read about Che, the more I wondered if his actions were as good as his intentions. Fox History’s series on terrorism tries to project Che as a global terrorist spreading death and destruction in countries as far apart as Bolivia and the Congo but that’s just propaganda. Che never intentionally had civilians in his crosshairs and had restricted almost all of his operations against armed soldiers of the establishment. But my doubts arose from the fact that his revolutions did not have the results he sought. In fact, armed revolutions rarely do. Lives were wasted for an ideal but ideals I have come to believe, are achieved, and more importantly sustained, through evolution, and not through a revolution. And that’s when Gandhi’s ideology became one that got me interested all over again. So was that man really relevant…
even today?

Yes, that frail old man in his loin cloth looked neither as brave, nor as inspiring a figure as the ruggedly handsome and macho figure of Che Guevara, but as I grew I got to learn that not only did Gandhi unarguably contribute at least an even share towards India’s freedom but also inspired a Martin Luther King Jr to have a dream and helped a Mandela, through his example, to guide a volatile new democracy to peaceful reconciliation. Gandhi’s Satyagraha inspired the Civil Rights movement, the demonstrations against the Vietnam War and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The point is, a Gandhi gently, but firmly, asks for a change of heart, while a Che pushes, often violently, for a change of heads. The former, if achieved, will almost always bring about peace, perhaps even prosperity, but the latter often only ends up replacing one tyrant with another. Look at the Congo, Afghanistan or even Pakistan.

So, the question is, now that we stand in a world fragmented by faith and festering political wounds, where separatist movements and power struggles simmer all over the world, from Chechneya to Kashmir and from Spain to Sri Lanka, can the Gandhian path of Satyagraha and peaceful non-violent protests achieve what many a blazing gun and bleeding heart has failed to find – freedom, peace and prosperity? Or are these battles about something else altogether? Power, for instance, or wealth. Can Gandhian values overcome greed and lust someday? In the following pages, TSI goes into the tents of battle-scarred rebel leaders who share their angst and seem so human from up close, that it is difficult not to empathise…We talk to journalists who have reported from the faultlines of history seeking rationale and perspective to all this madness and finally we talk to those who still walk the path of Gandhian ideals. Their words will soothe and
give hope...

As for me, I wonder, if to be able to love and reconcile with the enemy is the essence of Gandhian values, then does freedom or ethnic identity really matter? Couldn’t we have accepted and learnt to love the English then as much as we want the Kashmiris to accept us today? And centuries later, there would have been a whole new race of Indians of mixed Indo-British ancestry, just like when the Aryans mixed things up with the Dravidians, thus giving us our sense of India today.

My final lesson in Gandhian values came during a martial arts class. My Aikido (a Japanese combat art that emphasises the idea of strength in harmony) instructor told me after a particularly hard session, that “if you refuse to be the aggressor, and seek not to win over your enemies but instead to win them over, the energies of the universe will never let you lose… if you (or your causes) are right, you’ll find the might. Right, is might, and not the other way round.”
Amen to that, and whenever you clench your fist in anger against a fellow man, may the futility of violence scream out to you from the words of those who have caused it and suffered it, and may the kind compassion of a Thich Naht Hanh and the gentle yet iron will of an Irom Sharmila calm your soul and give you strength.

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Straight shooter: With civilian tolerance barely hanging by a thread, the Kashmir valley sits on a powder keg

2011-04-29T10:35:00.000+05:30

After Irom Sharmila last year, Anna Hazare wins IIPM's 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of Rs. 1cr. To be handed over on 9th May

Syed Salahuddin, the head of Hizbul Mujahideen, tells TSI that the only way to diffuse it is to give the Kashmiris what they want while clearing the air about the misgivings around Islam

Why do you feel that Kashmir will be happier with Pakistan?
For years, the people of Kashmir have been pleading to grant them peaceful lives. But peace not at the cost of freedom and independence. My question is that why aren’t the people of Kashmir asked as to what they want? I am not only talking about plebiscite. Isn’t it clear that when the people are granted their wishes, then peace will automatically come? Either grant them their wishes soon or get ready for another battle.

In the last elections, Kashmiris had participated in a big way. Also, some separatist leaders had lost. Isn’t this a sign that Kashmiris want a democratic set up and perhaps a resolution through a democratic process?

There were candidates from National Congress who had gone to BBC and said that even they want independence of Kashmir. And this time it’s the issue of administrative affairs. There is no infrastructure in Kashmir, there is no water, no electricity, no peace…to solve these issues people vote. But the candidate should fulfill the commitments made to the voters. The very fact that people have come out on streets, youngsters are pelting stones are signs that people are frustrated.

India won freedom through Gandhi’s values of non-violence and in South Africa, the apartheid was abolished by peaceful means. Going by these examples, do you feel that if people of Kashmir protest peacefully, it will be more effective?

I agree. In India wherever there is a specialist movement, whether in Nagaland or Assam or Manipur, the approach of India is different from that of Kashmir. From June 11, Kashmiris have been using stones. They did not use any bullets. The question is why have the youth been targeted by the forces? I see that India does not have a friendly or humane approach towards the Kashmiris. There is only one demand that the armed forces (and the draconian law) should be removed from Kashmir. We have all weapons and we can strike any part of India. But when Kashmiris came out on roads, we decided that we would not fire. If people want an unarmed protest and if by that way the demand is fulfilled, we will be the happiest. The day India wants to sit on the table and discuss about what Kashmiris want, we will support, insha Allah.

Do you believe that division on the basis of religion is a bad idea?

I do not agree with this. I will say that Islam is not a religion. Islam is a comprehensive code of conduct. It is unfortunate that Islam is being projected in a wrong way. It accords highest respect to non-Muslims. According to Islam, no one can be forced or pressurised to become a Muslim. The way communism and socialism are ideologies, Islam is an ideology. If Pakistan would have become Islamic Pakistan, then Bangladesh would not have happened. I am not in favour of the Islam that exists today. I am in favour of the Islam that was preached by the Prophet Mohammed.

Recently in Delhi, some tourists were attacked and a bomb exploded near Jama Masjid. It was later said that the attackers were from Indian Mujahideen (IM) and they did it for Kashmir. What would you say?

I do not agree. When we fight we call it jihad or holy war. It has a principle– don’t kill any old person, don’t lift your hand on any young kid and don’t look at any woman, fight with your enemy only if he fights. We cannot fight against non-belligerents. If I have waged a war, then Indian forces should fight with me. But then instead they attack my family. Now this reaction leads to what IM did. But still I would say targetting civilians with bombs is not jihad.

Many people in the world and in India want to visit Kashmir. But then they have a fear. What would you want to say to the Indians?

First, the politicians and people should not misunderstand us. We are fighting for a cause. We are not against India... we are against the hegemony and the forces and the policies of India. We want both India and Pakistan to live peacefully. I request India that Allah ke liye Kashmiriyon ka mamla samjhe (for God’s sake understand the Kashmiris' issues) and accept what the Kashmiris want.

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Kanwarpal Singh, a one-time aspiring IPS officer, took to arms after Operation Bluestar

2011-04-26T10:31:00.000+05:30

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Once an active member of Babbar Khalsa, he gave-up militancy and joined Dal Khalsa to espouse the cause of a sovereign Sikh state

I believe that the Sikhs want to be the masters of their own destiny. But this aspiration should not be judged in isolation. The very view that the Sikh religion was created as a sword arm of the Hindus to protect the Hindu religion is distorted, undermining the Sikh Gurus. This skewed perspective must be attributed to the conspiracy by Hindu hegemonists forcing the Sikhs to protect and assert their exclusive and separate identity. The religion, which is based on the concept of welfare of all (Sarbat da bhala), could not be against any other religion.

The Sikh Gurus justified ‘adoption of violence’ as the last resort for conflict resolution but always fought state repression. The Sikh Gurus have set extreme examples of supreme sacrifices; peacefully and by taking to arms in order to fight for justice. Even in the case of Khalistan, the groups fighting resorted to armed struggle only after the government responded by attacking the Golden Temple complex crushing the peaceful agitation launched by the Sikhs for protecting their honour and dignity.

When the Indian Constitution was formed, it attacked the very concept of sovereign Sikh identity by clubbing the Sikhs with the Hindus under Section 25 B. This forced the Akali Dal to articulate the Sikh aspirations and launch a peaceful agitation in the early 50s for a Punjabi-speaking state, but even this was denied by the government. The government further provoked Sikhs by encouraging some sects and sub-sects like the Nirankaris, which resulted in a confrontation in 1978 in which 13 Sikhs staging a peaceful protest were killed.

The Sikhs opted for violence only after the judicial system of the country failed to provide justice to them. Though I admit, this radical leadership couldn’t convert the militant struggle into mass movement the way leaders like Nelson Mandela achieved.

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In no man's land: Many 'peace talks' have come and gone, but the valley still sits on an edge.

2011-04-23T10:26:00.000+05:30

The Kashmiris have, literally, left no stone unturned to make their freedom aspirations heard, yet Javed Mir, a former militant commander and co-founder of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), insists on holding out for a peaceful resolution.

How will JKLF’s belief in a separate state help the people of Kashmir?
The last 100 days saw our boys being killed by the Indian forces. We hope ‘independence’ will help us live happily without being scapegoats of a political tussle. When the Hajy group (Sheikh Abdul Hamid, Ashfaq Majid Wani, Yasin Malik and I) started the struggle for an independent Kashmir in 1987, we wanted the world’s attention and we got it. The last 60 years have seen India and Pakistan fight three wars; but every time the Kashmiris have been ignored.

Will an independent Kashmir have place for other communities?
Kashmir Valley is a Muslim majority state along with the communities like Sikhs, Pundits, Buddhists and Christians. We want the Government of India to declare Kashmir a disputed territory where all Kashmiris can live together peacefully. Jammu and Kashmir is one.

Wouldn’t Kashmiris live a better life if economic demands are met by the government?
It is not a religious or economic, but a political issue. With people being killed, what good would economic progress do to us? While we want our people to live without any threat, the last few years have seen about 45,000 houses being damaged. There was a time when Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the initiative to solve this problem. It wasn’t good for Kashmir that BJP lost the election. Now, India and Pakistan have to solve this issue together.

When the leaders of JKLF separated after Yasin Malik’s release from jail, did the ideology change?
We operate separately now, but our cause is the same, i.e., a peaceful resolution. When Yasin’s nephew was killed, we controlled a crowd of at least 50,000 people. I hold a record for 600 peaceful demonstrations in the Guinness Book of World records. I was arrested 450 times but never resorted to violence, and that is what we teach the youth as well. The present situation has forced Kashmiris to resort to a little bit of violence, though we don’t want it.

Do you still think that JKLF’s peaceful means would help attain your goals?
When we did peaceful protests in schools and colleges, the forces invaded our houses and beat our people. When I went underground in 1988, my father was arrested. He was taken to an interrogation centre (Mufti Mohammed Sayeed lives here today), where he was tortured by drowning and was given electric shock. He was paralysed and soon died. We didn’t want any more fathers to suffer or children killed. However, there are some miscreants who want to malign our reputation. We are not terrorists and appeal to the youth not to pelt stones, but protest peacefully.

What is your message to the Indian government?
Kashmir doesn’t have oil or gold, but only the beautiful valley. My appeal to the government (and countries like the US and UK) is to think beyond their interests and help us. I have crossed the ceasefire line nine times and seen our people die on the border with no one to offer them water or a kafan.

Kashmiris are happy when sweets are exchanged at the border or when Pakistan visits India for dialogues of settlement; this reflects people’s keenness to be together. For politicians, it’s a fight for power. Kashmiris will continue to get killed until India and Pakistan stop fighting.

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Santosh Rana, the firebrand Naxal leader of the sixties, led the people in a large part of Bengal-Bihar-Orissa to "liberation"

2011-04-19T16:24:00.001+05:30

After Irom Sharmila last year, Anna Hazare wins IIPM's 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of Rs. 1cr. To be handed over on 9th May

Critical of current-day Maoists, he expresses how people's revolt is at times inevitabl...

As we move through the narrow besmirched lane of Kalitala in the eastern fringe of Kolkata, a dhoti-clad bespectacled man waves his hand towards us. He is none other than Santosh Rana, who was the firebrand leader of CPI(ML) or Naxalites in the late sixties. He was the key leader behind ‘virtually liberating’ Debra, Gopiballabhpur, Nayagram, Lodhasuli blocks of Midnapore, Baharagora of the then Bihar and some parts of Orissa like Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj. He is now leading a separate party CPI(ML)-PCC. “About a hundred people were killed during our movement in the late 60s, but none of them were Adivasi, Dalit or poor. I consider even that a mistake. Today, Maoists are killing poor Adivasis and villagers alleging they are police spies,” he begins, having made us comfortable in his modest house.

Santosh Rana was a research student and supporter of CPI(M) while CPI(ML) was formed. He was preparing for his PhD in Physics at Rajabazar Science College of Calcutta University. The wild call of revolution by Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and others inspired Rana. He left his PhD midway, returned to his village at Gopiballabhpur and dedicated himself to the agrarian revolution on the lines of Charu Majumdar. Today he recollects, “During my time, a mass of about 15,000 to 20,000 people, armed with lathis, stormed into the houses of the landlords who possessed firearms, and seized the arms. That was a big blow for the landlords or jotdars and they failed to resist our move to grab ceiling-excess land and distribute it among the landless bargadars. This was not violence, it was people’s revolt. Such pressure is always required in remote villages where landlords maintain personal armies.”

Four decades after the Naxalite uprising, Santosh Rana considers that the path of annihilation was as wrong as damaging statues or insulting opponents. His stand is “diametrically opposite” to what the Maoists are preaching today at Jungalmahal. “If this trend continues, it may happen that Maoists find a ‘natural ally’ among the terrorist groups… If such a thing happens, it would be disastrous for India,” says Rana.

“Communists should review the basics,” he believes, “because neither the Soviet nor the Chinese model would lead us to Socialism. Even Marx was not in favour of boycotting elections, he was in favour of ‘Right to recall’, which is still a distant dream for Indian democracy. Comrade Mao Tse Tung had also hinted once for multi-party democracy.” He finds the root of failure of the Soviet and Chinese model in the one-party rule system. However, he is “not ready to accept” Parliamentary democracy as the last word. “I am for extension of democracy by the people’s participation, like what we have seen at Gopiballabhpur in the late 60s, Nandigram in 2007 or Lalgarh in 2009.”

Advocating “necessary” violence and condemning the “unnecessary”, Rana has mixed opinion on Gandhian philosophies. He is all praise of Gandhi’s programme against untouchability and communal amity, but is totally against Gandhi’s firm beliefs on Barnashram. “Bapu wrote that each person’s role in the society is determined by his birth. He was not against education to all, but warned that this education should not be treated as a yardstick for job or placement. Bapu said that then indiscipline would prevail in the society. I cannot and will never support Gandhi’s stand on this.”

Gandhiji once said, “we have enough to fulfill everyone’s need, but very little to meet one’s greed.” Santosh Rana is ready to support Gandhi’s stand against consumerism. “I may agree with Gandhiji on a self-reliant India and on rural development, but cannot stand by preservation of cast-based society or advocacy of zamindari system.” As like any other communist, Rana too believes, “individual ownership on means of production is detrimental to the nation.”

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KERALA POST OFFICE: Life beyond Letters

2011-03-27T10:18:00.000+05:30

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Postal Orders are all the rage in rural India
Earlier the post office had limited roles to play in society. Usually, it was involved in sales of stamps, cards, inlands, transaction of money orders and running saving banks. But now all this has changed for good as the postal department is entering into all service activities. Opened in 1854 by Britain in India, the department is preparing itself for the changing times. During the P&T era, postal orders had been started for safe money transactions. The same time VPP was also started.

But from time to time the department has changed itself. Of late it has introduced the Postal Life Insurance that assures fewer premiums and more coverage. Parcel service was the continuation of post office's status as a retail outlet. Speed Post was launched to compete with private players who dominated the courier industry. In 1993'94, postal department embraced modernisation by adopting computerisation.

Then in 2001, the government controlled postal department entered into a joint venture with Western Union Money Transfer, an MNC which facilitated the easy money handling. Now, in the wake of Malhotra Committee recommendations, the department is working overtime to promote Rural Postal Life Insurance. E-post is another value addition. Scanned prints of any manuscript can be delivered to the addressee in a short period. Corporate electronic post is also available at affordable rates. Many government departments use them for routine mails of homogenous nature.

Bill mail service ' bulk dispatch of mobile phone bills ' is a great service for phone enthusiasts. In some states, even electricity and water bills are accepted in POs. In Kerala, BSNL phone bills are accepted. POs carry out address verifications for election commissions, mobile providers and municipalities. In Delhi, corporation taxes are also collected through POs. Media Post is a product under which post cards carry messages. POs exhibit sign boards as well. NREG payments are paid through them. In North East, even chartered flights are deployed for letter parcel transfer. This year, postal department in Kerala successfully distributed school textbooks after collecting from the production centre.

Sachar Commission Madrasa's pension was distributed by POs. It has become a rage as even scholarships are distributed through POs. Electronic MOs up to Rs 5,000 with 50 character messages are handled by POs. National pension scheme, foreign exchange dealing, MO abroad, sale of investment gold coins and passport processing are being carried out too. Now, a sophisticated monitoring system called Project Arrow is being implemented. India has 155,000 POs against US' 39,000 and China's 53,000.

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ORISSA WATER: Left in the Lurch

2011-03-23T10:15:00.000+05:30

IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again...

Contaminated drinking water maims many villagers
Two villages of Khurdha district ' Balsing and Singpur ' just 65 kilometres from Bhubaneswar, Orissa, are making news. Most of the villagers living in these regions suffer from a mysterious disease because of the presence of higher level of fluorine in the drinking water here.

Ganesh Baliarsingh, 18, doesn't look young. Any person can mistake him for a 37-year-old man. He suffers from a disease that has its toll on his age. There are many like him in these villages. Sukant, 24, the sole bread earner of his family, can't go to the nearest town Bolagarh or Khurdha for work as his body has become stiff. Fluorosis has crippled him. There are about some 50 people like him in these villages. The villagers tryst with this dreadful disease started in mid-eighties. Since then many of their youngsters have suffered. They face health problems like stiffness of body and deformity of bones from an early age. Doctors and authorities, who visited the area, said the presence of fluorine in drinking water has wreaked havoc.

All hell broke in 2002 when some five villagers died, four of them women. About 50 patients were admitted to a hospital due to fluorosis. The incident got overwhelming media coverage. Pressure was mounted on the local government to address the burning issue. But the state health directorate said people get sick because they drink contaminated water. Till now the government has done little to address the catastrophe. Now the situation is such that the locals have lost all hope. When this reporter visited these villages he was confronted by hostile villagers. 'Why are you here? We don't need any coverage. The media has defamed us. Now, no marriage proposals come for our children. Newspapers and television channels have reported our misery several times, but nothing good has happened. The government is yet to act,' say villagers.

But this is not the case. The government's attempt in 1992 to combat the crisis has failed to yield positive results. To solve the problem, the district administration dug three tube wells. Also, the administration constructed a pump house to supply safe drinking water to the villagers.

Besides, the villagers were advised not to use water from the wells. But the project to build a pump in the village never materialised. Prahalad Baliarsingh, ward member of the village, said: 'Now the government only supplies 30 litre of water per family in two days, which is insufficient. The dearth of water forces villagers to bank on tube wells for their day-to-day need like drinking and cooking food. Thus they expose themselves to the killer water.'

When the government realised that solving the problem would be cumbersome it asked the villagers to relocate. So far only two families have shifted. The rest are reluctant to move.

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CORRUPTION CALAMITY: Don't give them more

2011-03-19T10:12:00.000+05:30

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Rampant corruption is the single most challenge for poor nations
Stretching helping hands to the needy and disaster-hit is indeed a good deed. But at times, those deeds have to face lots of obstacles. While nature doesn't outweigh countries while it strikes, poor countries always fall prey to its rumbles. While several world communities and agencies show their generosity to the calamity-struck nations, managing disaster relief programmes in the underdeveloped nations is still embroiled with many hassles ' as corruption has become a key problem for them. In addition, poor governance, lack of transparency, callous and lethargic attitude of authorities concerned make relief and rehabilitation work less effective.

A UN investigation report released recently paints a grim picture about how overseas relief programmes are being siphoned off. The report revealed as many as 50 per cent of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Somalia have been stolen. Corruption cost the nation $485 million in 2009. However, Somalia is not the only crisis for the foreign aid agency. Even amidst the ongoing deluge in Pakistan, humanitarian groups expressed their sheer dissatisfaction over the ugliest corruption committed by Pakistani authorities. Pakistan received about $1.5 billion flood relief aid and $3 billion loan from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. But the donors are skeptic as well as curious about how the money will be spent?

A similar crisis was also witnessed while Haiti was struck by a devastated earthquake during January this year. While Haiti received $2.5 billion from the foreign aid agencies, a huge portion of the donation was amassed by government officials and aid workers. Moreover, the Indian Ocean tsunami aid generated a record amount of aid ' more than $11 billion. But the whopping amount, although not the whole, went into the wrong pockets. Africa receives the highest aid, but hasn't used it properly. Since 2001, the US has been donating nearly $1.4 billion a year to Africa for combating AIDS and for welfare works. By 2008, aid to Sub-Saharan Africa reached $50 per person. But rampant corruption has wasted a major portion of the aid. In Africa, cost of corruption is estimated about $150 billion per year. Realising the gravity of corruption, ex-Goldman Sachs economist Dambisa Moyo once asked the US 'to stop aiding Africa.' Apparently, the US is now rethinking its decision to donate $3.9 billion to Afghanistan.

But stopping aid during crisis is an unrealistic move as poor countries desperately need help. There are other ways by which these aid corruptions can be checked. Recipients should show greater accountability towards the donors. Stricter code of conduct and a transparent evaluation system, can certainly produce positive results. Although rampant corruption can't be wiped out totally, the relief-seekers should take some and swift actions against the perpetrators. The poor nations should now jointly take the cudgels to fight against corruptions in their countries.

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SECURITY INDIAN RAILWAY: Track of Reality and Fantasy

2011-03-15T17:04:00.002+05:30

IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again...

A safe and secure train journey requires an all round effort!
With Indian Railways (IR) carrying over 10 billion passengers every year and operating around 16,000 trains every day, covering a four time distance between the earth and the moon every day, it's a case study in itself. A few months back, the IR announced a transformational initiative ' to envisage12 high-speed railway corridors where trains can operate at a speed of 250-350 km per hour. Now, juxtapose this with the number of train accidents that occurred recently. Since April 2009 till the end of July 2010, over 15 major railway accidents occurred. In such a scenario, the feasibility of having high-speed railway corridors (with respect to railway and passengers safety) seems quite ridiculous. While the IR is yet to accelerate the pace of its safety drive and safety in train operation is still a concern for the government, high-speed railway corridors is not a welcome move.

In recent years, Indian Railways has witnessed over 350 accidents a year. However in order to reduce railway accidents, the Centre had floated a Corporate Safety Plan in 2003. High-speed trains that exceeded 250 km per hour, were successfully launched as early as 1964 in Japan and adopted in France in 1981. For many years, infrastructure and capacity improvement projects were limited to building more domestic airports and roads. High-speed trains tend to emit only one-fourth and one-third of CO2 per 100-passenger-km that aircraft and private cars do respectively. Japan has shown that this is possible as well as necessary for the success of the system. However, European countries have demonstrated that it is essential to develop the intra-city transport network and integrate it with the system so that the ridership can increase and travel can be seamless. Improving the stations, instituting sensitive pricing, and putting in place an accessible ticketing system are equally important. High-speed trains can facilitate balanced regional urban development and this is of special relevance to Indian conditions. With careful planning, urban growth can be shifted to and induced in mid-size towns connected by these trains and further crowding of large metropolitan cities avoided.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently revealed that railway managements are under-utilising (at the tune of 50 per cent) their funds allocated for safety work. The report further highlighted delays in the railways' commitment over safety-related projects. Most of the upgrade and modernisation plans were behind their promised scheduled. The IR ' in spite of being India's large employer ' have over 8,500 posts vacant in the railway safety department. Talking about railway infrastructure, the scenario here too look quite bleak. Despite a decade-old report suggesting urgent refurbishment and replacement of 50,000 railways bridges and over 10,000 km of track, not much heed was ever paid in this regard. However, it's no exaggeration to say that the fastest train service in India will accelerate and resemble India's pace of growth, but the country should ponder over reducing accidents rates before conceiving other plans.

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China's increasing economic clout will shuffle the present order and ruffle a few feathers, says Gyanendra Kashyap

2011-02-24T12:08:00.000+05:30

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Japan, once hailed as the 'economic miracle', an ascendant juggernaut on its way to rivaling the US, today finds itself in the midst of a political upheaval, increasing national debt and an aging population, producing a downward spiral. Given the difficulty in managing its economy, Japan was perhaps readying itself for the day when it would be eclipsed economically by China.

The uninterrupted economic ascent, that lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, saw China overtake Britain and France in 2005 and then Germany in 2007. Recently it has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, thanks to the dynamism unleashed by Deng's reform. The Chinese economy expanded 11.1 per cent in the first half of the current year and is likely to log a growth of more than nine per cent for the whole year. If the estimates provided by the World Bank and Goldman Sachs are any indicator, then China is on its course to overtake the US and vault into the numero uno spot sometime around 2025. In the same time span, the number of households with an annual disposable income above $10,000 (in nominal terms) will almost quadruple from 57.1 million in 2010 to 222 million. The question to be pondered upon is whether the growing economic might of Beijing will bring to an end the existing global economic order. What will be the possible ramifications in the arenas of trade and diplomacy and military power? Does this imply that China is going to be a threat to the US economy?

Craig K Elwell, Marc Labonte and Wayne M Morrison of Congressional Research Service in their report prepared for the members and committees of Congress argue that from an economic standpoint, 'describing China's economic rise or its economic policies as an economic threat to the United States fails to reflect that China's growth poses both challenges and opportunities for the US.' Nevertheless, there are others who see China's rise as America's relative decline. Their concern ' the accumulation of US Treasury securities by China and the ever widening trade deficit. While some in the West fret about 'China price' and its impact on Western economies, there are some firms in the Western economies which will benefit from the increasing division of labour and so will those who have a stake in these firms. Ellen H Palanca, Director, Chinese Studies Program, Ateneo deManila University, mentions in paper China's Economic Growth: Implications to the ASEAN states that China's economic growth has presented market opportunities to the ASEAN countries instead of impediments to their economic growth. One can only hope that the positivity spreads to other economic blocks as well. It is logical that without economic, structural and political adjustments in the rest of the world to China's ascent, there will be political tensions that will inevitably frustrate (though not prevent) the redistribution of power in the global economy. From Beijing's point of view the larger question would be if such a fast growth can be sustained.

China's rise in terms of economic might has produced glaring contradictions. The economic disparity between an elite who profited the most from three decades of reform and its poor majority is so wide that China has dozens of billionaires while average income for the rest of its people is among the world's lowest. There are problems ranging from bad loans to an under-funded pension insurance scheme, the lack of rural health care system and bankrupt local governments.

China's rise as the number two economic powerhouse thrusts on it the mantle of increasing responsibilities in global affairs, requiring it to contribute positively to global stability, progress and prosperity through cooperation with other players in the global economic system. Will it live up to the expectations?

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Shahid Husain tries to interview President Obama but fails. However, he claims that he has not given up as yet

2011-02-21T09:26:00.000+05:30

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The other day, I sent an e-mail to Tim Kennedy whom I knew since my Daily Times days. He was a participant at IDEAS, a defence conference. I wrote: 'Tim do you remember me? I interviewed you in Karachi when I worked for Daily Times. I would love to meet you.' Tim replied instantly: 'Of course Shahid! I remember you!'

We met at a caf' over a cup of coffee. We talked for nearly two hours and exchanged ideas. I told him I was writing a book in Urdu based on my memoirs/ diaries, and a book in English entitled: 'Nature and Homosapiens.' I explained that I was very good at mathematics and literature when I was in school but my parents wanted me to become a doctor. But circumstances made me a journalist.

Tim asked me to read Old Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreaux, a 19th century writer who believed that humans become whole by returning to nature.

Also sent an e-mail to Clausane, an American scholar whom I interviewed in Karachi for my paper The News. He teaches at the American University, Washington. He was in Brazil and sent a message from there that he would be returning on July 29 and then we could fix an appointment.

I also requested President Obama for an interview. The President must be busy but if Dawn's Anwer can interview him, why can't I? Friends encouraged me not to give up. I always had a theory: Learn from your kids! Long ago in 1986, I wrote a piece in Urdu titled 'Ankhein' (Eyes) and showed it to Professor Haroon Ahmed, Pakistan's top psychiatrist. I used to talk to my daughter, Zoya, then three, and now a doctor who got married last year and lives happily in Dubai with her husband Mustafa, an engineer. Zoya would paint, write poetry, short stories, participate in debates and was also a very good student.

Dr. Haroon suggested that I should write in Urdu: 'Aap Urdu mein likha karein (You should write in Urdu!)," I remember his words. But, thought I, how was I going to sustain my family if I wrote in Urdu. The pay is meagre in Urdu papers and publications.

In the meanwhile, I have almost completed my book in Urdu. Some of my friends thought I was crazy. I ignored them. Writing has always been a passion for me and if work is a passion, one never gets tired of it.

Also received a message from Whitney, secretary to Taylor, president of an American life sciences association, that he would be available on August 10. He had shown keen interest in my theory on Nature.

Meanwhile, I have confirmed my ticket to Karachi for August 14. Many friends have become sad that I am going home instead of staying here. Immigration has allowed me to stay till December but I miss my family and feel lonely.

I also intend to meet my old friend in Illinois. We established Young Writers' Forum in 1972 when National Students' Federation (NSF) was showing signs of disintegration. It was my idea. And we organised wonderful programmes, including one on Pablo Naruda and Salvador Allende that was also broadcast from Radio Moscow.

Distinguished writers such as Ismat Chugtai, Ali Sardar Jafri and Kaifi Azmi participated in our programmes besides anthropologist and historian Syed Sibte Hasan, poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Muneer Niazi, Himayat Ali Shair, Mohsin Bhopali, and Fahmida Riaz.

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Our representatives: Democracy in peril

2011-02-17T14:02:00.000+05:30

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Today's voter wants a piece of his MP in person and bothers little about the latter's official duties.
Raghu Thakur,
Socialist leader and thinker

If there has been a visible change in the style of working as well as the integrity of the elected representatives of the people, I consider two or three incidents as the basic reason behind this. The voters have raised their expectations vis-'-vis their elected representatives. But these expectations are less concerned with the issues for which these representatives have been elected and more with the personal issues of the voters.

Today, voters don't give two hoots about what Bills their representatives present in the House or what issues they raise. They are least interested in issues pertaining to national and human interest. They are more concerned whether the MP or MLA can participate in a wedding in his house. They expect them to be present in their house on every major family occasion. For them, it becomes a status symbol. And if the elected representative has done his bit by participating in a family event, he does not have to give much thought to other issues.

Elected representatives have taken this as a red herring. They have understood the demand of the people and have found out that long-term responsibility is one thing that does not figure in that list. I have seen these representatives drawing up what they call a 'source list'. These extensive lists have full details of social events that take place in the houses of influential persons in his constituency. The representatives participate in such functions almost religiously. This also helps them in other ways. It gives the impression that the representative is accessible and people-friendly. At times, when on a particular day, there is more than one such function, the family members of these elected representatives pitch in. Now a protocol list of sorts is prepared. It is obviously based on priority. The really important hosts are given top priority and the representative makes it a point to attend those functions personally. The lesser mortals get to host his wife and children. On any given day, the houses of these representatives appear unnaturally busy. One can see the cars running to and from their homes'not to fulfill that representative's responsibilities and obligations, but to attend these functions. My assessment is that an average elected representative has to dole out close to 20 lakh per year on attending such functions and bringing gifts. Now there is a catch there. Since he is an MP or an MLA, he'll have to carry a gift that suits his status. And for that, he needs money. Soon, it becomes a vicious cycle. But the purpose is fulfilled. The representative has successfully cultivated the image of an accessible representative. Who gives a damn about where the money for the gift came from.

The MPLAD funds are utilised in such largesse. It also acts as the capital fund for the subsequent elections. Similarly, the voters also expect direct monetary benefits from their representatives rather than developmental work. The representatives also dole out contracts to oblige them. There are very few representatives who don't take kickbacks or commissions in these tenders. If the prevailing kickback rate for an officer is 15 per cent, the corresponding figure for the elected representatives is close to 30 per cent. The voters have nourished this kickback system in such a way that it runs down to local bodies as well.

Also, for the voters, an accessible representative means one who can get their personal work done in jiffy. Even if that work concerns a lowly clerk at the block level, people want their representative's blessings to get the files moving. Representatives also don't think twice before shooting off a letter to them. They are neither concerned about their integrity and dignity nor worried about transgressing their jurisdiction. While shooting off these letters, they have a clear idea as to where their letter would get things moving and where it will be treated merely as a piece of paper. Also, there is a sort of understanding between these representatives, ministers and bureaucrats.

This sort of arrangement has evolved because of the changing nature of the expectations that voters have from their representatives. Parliament House has become the hub of brokering and liaison between these representatives and the government. Deals are struck in the chambers of the ministers. It is deplorable that both voters and their representatives have become corrupt. It is a warning bell for our democratic system.

But it was not like that always. Every party had a popular base then and they used to think about the entire society. Even with all its failings, the Congress workers used to care for the concerns of every social segment and not just the section that used to vote them. But today, the voters are polarised on caste and religious lines. That is why there are political parties that think of themselves as guardians of a particular caste or community.

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Left's Lalgarh dilemma: The communists and TC on collision course over rally

2011-02-14T13:08:00.002+05:30

INDIA'S BEST COLLEGES, INSTITUTES and UNIVERSITIES

The Lalgarh rally is giving sleepless nights to the communists in West Bengal after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced her plan to address a gathering on August 9 here. The Left government doesn't know how to tackle the issue.

It is showing apprehension in giving permission to TC and other social activists, including Swami Agnivesh and Medha Patkar, to hold such public meetings in the Naxal-hit Paschim Medinipur district. But Mamata is adamant and says: 'I am firm on going to Lalgarh on August 9. Let me see who stops me.'

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee says the situation in the Maoist stronghold is not conducive for such rallies. Once again, the state government and TC are on collision course.

Swami and Medha are also planning to hold the rally on the same day under the aegis of 'Santras Birodhi Mancha' (Anti-terror Forum). Swami has been appointed by the Centre as the interlocutor for talks with the CPI (Maoists). The rally is being taken out to protect the rights of the locals in Lalgarh. For the last one year the region has been under Section 144 Criminal Penal Code. The section prohibits demonstrations, rallies, processions, carrying of arms and other lethal weapons and assembly of five or more people.

Mamata has charged the government with stalling democracy in Lalgarh, Salboni and Goaltore areas. But the government is least moved with these allegations. The authorities argue that they are only taking steps that could ensure peace in the disturbed area. The government claims that the situation in and around Lalgarh has improved after killings of some 'top level' Maoists. Some intellectuals say: if the situation has improved then why is the government stopping us from organising peaceful rally in the region.

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Sexiest Woman of Asia: A Fit femme fatale

2011-01-31T09:12:00.001+05:30

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With an enviable body and a desirable aura, the 'Sexiest Woman of Asia' couldn't get better than this. The poster child for fitness in Bollywood, Bipasha Basu, drops in some health and fitness tips in a conversation with Spriha Srivastava.

Modeling by chance!
I was planning to pursue medicine and modelling happened by accident. I was waiting for my results of board examination and I used to frequent Park Hotel with my friend. I had gone for lunch once and that time the preliminary round of the supermodel contest was taking place.

That's when they asked me if I would want to participate. They asked me to fill a form and just for the fun of it, I did that. Then I got a call and I was selected among 100 girls. I had then forgotten about it and one day my parents got a call that your daughter has been selected for the finals and she has to come for a month. I convinced my parents because I was having holidays anyway. My dad wanted me to pursue academics because I was very good in studies. My mother has always been very flexible. It was a paid trip and we had to do nothing. So I went for it, won it and that's when I decided that I like this independent life and I'd like to continue it. I intended to settle down in New York earlier. With this, medicine took a backseat.

The drift to be fit'
I was a complete lazy ass! You know, my parents never encouraged me for sports as a kid because I was a big bookworm. I hated anything that sounded active. So all I did was model, eat and live a very comfortable life. I was not very lean. I had a nice puppy-fat face. You know it was my face that got me a lot of work in modeling because I had a chubby face. When I started acting, life was not very comfortable because that involved long working hours, like 18 hours a day without any break. That's when my health started deteriorating. I was falling sick almost every day! When one is younger, one's metabolic rate is high. It's only when you grow old, you have to work hard on your body. This goes for both men and women. I became unhealthy with the business of Bollywood because I was eating just anything and everything that was available on the sets. I wasn't exercising. I wasn't sleeping well. And I was working very unhealthy number of hours. I guess there's an alarm clock in everyone that rings and tells one that you're not healthy and it's time you do something about it. That happened to me. So no matter how good your genes are or how healthy you are, if you start leading an unhealthy life, it will catch up on you.

Modelling and malnourishment'
There was a time when models would not be very skinny. When I had started modelling, I did not see such lean girls in the business. I think this skinny thing has come into fashion very recently. I never had to starve and I haven't seen any of the models starve when I did modelling. It's sad to notice, but now models starve to get all the possible flesh out of their body. I'd say it's not healthy because ultimately you'd feel weak because of not eating and working for those long hours. When I look at these models today, it feels like some clothes have been put on a hanger!

Is John an influence to stay fit?
Oh no, not at all! You know, people have this wrong notion that John is a fitness freak and that John has turned me into one. Let me tell you that it's all my effort. John is equally lazy, but yes he does pay a lot of attention to his health. And so do I. I think it's more important to be healthy than to be fit. And John doesn't push me to work out. He, in fact, says that he likes me however I am'thin or fat'however.

Eat healthy, live healthy
I usually do a lot of cardio and I try to work out four days in a week. I have really toned up my body for my fitness video, but I didn't exert myself to get into that shape. During the time when I'm shooting and I'm outdoors, fitting in workouts in the schedule becomes a little difficult. But otherwise, I'm very regular and disciplined. I love to eat and I'm not very choosy. So I'd say that those who're a foodie, should not quit eating, but just control their diet. Eat the right food. Also, I've seen that a lot of people concentrate more on their bodies'the shape of the body' but forget about being healthy. I don't have a body fixation but I want to be healthy and that's what I concentrate on. Having a great body and having a healthy body are two different things. My video also promotes health. So eating right, exercising and a good sleep are the essentials of a healthy and fit body.

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Over-full Lamhaa

2011-01-28T09:08:00.001+05:30

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TSI Five-O: For documentary film fans
Rahul Dholakia is a well-meaning director. His last film 'Parzania' threw light on the plight of Gujarat's 2002 communal riots. With 'Lamhaa' he brings to the fore the scores of issues (corruption within the Indian government, the sorrowful state of Kashmiri Pandits, the government's apathy towards people searching for their missing relatives ' the works) that trouble the people of this beautiful valley. But while Dholokia's deep understanding of the subject is apparent, the numerous concerns of the film only serve to confuse the audience.

Sanjay Dutt, in his cargo pants, dark glasses and streaked hair, is the Indian undercover intelligence officer and is perhaps a bit too casual for his role. Bipasha Basu is impressive, despite being a terrible choice for the role. For its setting, 'Lamhaa' does little justice to the viewer failing to deliver a story as breathtaking as the scenery.

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Economic development and health insurance are meant to go hand in hand

2011-01-25T17:13:00.000+05:30

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Yet in the Indian context the economic development remains the leading indicator. But with healthcare becoming costlier than ever, that needs to change soon

Times have changed and India is moving fast from public healthcare system to the realm of private healthcare. Be it in terms of quality or reach of services, the truth is that people now prefer to go to a private hospital rather than one run by the public authorities. It is more obvious when you consider that 80% of the amount spent by the country's citizens on healthcare goes to the private sector. This may be an inspiring trend for many, considering that people now aspire for a higher quality in the healthcare segment, but the rising cost of private healthcare keeps it out of reach of millions who need it so desperately. Going by the reports, India today spends nearly 6% of its GDP on health, one of the highest among the developing nations. But the worst part is that 80% of the same is out of their pockets, which means an average Indian today loses a good portion of his annual income on healthcare alone.

And how do we react to the same? Well, like for almost every other problem, we blame the government for not doing enough and keep burning larger holes in our pockets without even contemplating a solution called health insurance.

The general notion that prevails in the country is that health insurance is meant for the rich, educated or those in business' and benefits hospitals more than policy holders. Owing to such a negative perception, the health insurance market in India is still grossly under-penetrated with only around 2% of the billion plus population possessing a health insurance cover. But why so? Answers Frederick D'Souza, Senior Vice President, HDFC Standard Life, 'In a savings oriented society like India, people view protection as an expense. Once they pay for insurance, they will look at making use of the insurance which leads to misuse of the service and higher costs to all.' Another roadblock for the industry's growth surfaces from a communication gap between the insurer and the insured. Quite often, it is noticed that people who opt for a health insurance policy either ignore or are not enlightened about the details related to definition of pre-existing diseases/critical illness et al, for which insurers deny to pay the latter when they go with their claims. As per records, annually 30% of health insurance claims are rejected and 90% of these rejections are due to pre-existing diseases. Such situations create a wrong image about the insurers among the mass. In the Pink of Health Nevertheless, better late than never. The herd mentality has started mending its course and the health insurance sector has shown some real resilience over the past few years. Explains V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd, 'Increasing awareness, rising healthcare costs, and detariffing of the general insurance industry have been key drivers for health insurance industry.' As a matter of fact, the industry has recorded total health insurance premium of Rs 8,100 crore (a 23% improvement over the previous year and more than twice the level seen just two years ago). Moreover, for the last six years, the health insurance industry has been growing at a CAGR of over 30%, and as put forward by experts it has the potential to become a $3 billion industry by 2015. But then, there are few glitches. As J. Hari Narayan, Chairman IRDA puts it, 'The growth in numbers is also fraught with numerous challenges of ensuring accessibility, affordability and efficiency in the health insurance system, which requires sustained and focused efforts on the part of all stakeholders.'

Rightly so, if the industry has to grow, keeping in mind the Indian demographics, then it is pertinent that apart from educating the masses, the communication between sales force and policy holders must increase. Moreover, insurance companies also need to make a conscious effort to come up with more and more tailor made products to include different groups of masses like the senior citizens. The importance of such products can be well understood from the fact that regular health insurance schemes are highly unaffordable for senior citizens as the cost of insurance increases with age. Unless the product is cross subsidised it is not possible to make health insurance affordable to all senior citizens. But senior citizens of the present day did not have an opportunity to buy insurance in their young age as such plans were not available at that time. So, as Frederick D'Souza puts it, 'They (senior citizens) have to be supported by some subsidy either from the government or the industry so that affordable insurance can be made available. Pricing is one of the issues that leads to very few senior citizen plans in the market.'

Considering the huge untapped potential present in India's health insurance segment, new players are flurrying into the market with every passing day and those who are already present are leaving no stone unturned to race ahead. But instead of competing on features on products and bombarding the same on a very restrictive audience, health insurance companies should concentrate more on consumer education, sales processes and control of healthcare expenses; thereby making it affordable for a larger market. Moreover, regulators and insurers must also see to the fact that there are standard definitions and lists of critical illnesses and non-medical expenses. This will not only enhance customer understanding of these terms, but will also help smoothen the interaction between patients, hospitals, TPAs and insurers, minimise ambiguities and generate higher level of faith.

UTTAR PRADESH MEDIA: The real reporters

2010-12-28T17:18:00.001+05:30

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri: The New Age Woman

UNICEF trains children of Lalitpur to change the world

Far from newspaper offices in Lucknow, a group of children in two of the six blocks of Lalitpur is writing of issues as they see them. They belong to one of Uttar Pradesh's most backward districts where the under five mortality rate stands at 159, only 55 per cent households have access to clean drinking water, just 23.3 per cent children receive full immunization and barely 17.2 per cent of the households have access to toilets.

These are the child reporters (CRs) who have been active since 2006 in a UNICEF supported programme. It aims to use children as fact finders based on the premise that they would be more knowledgeable about local issues and as first generation literates would be looked upon with respect by both their families and villagers. And also, they can be brutally honest.

At village Jamalpur, Uma Devi Bhargava, a class six student for instance is quick to refute the village pradhan's (also called Uma Devi) contention that she undertook surprise checks of the mid-day meal. Bhargava says: 'She is lying. We are forced to eat undercooked rice which has midges and weevils rolling out. For the last one month there has been no food, but our Pradhanji is not bothered. And why have a man who does not know how to cook in the school.'

Fifty-six children of the Talbahet and Birdha blocks (32 girls, 24 boys) aged between 8 and 14, sketch, write reports and poems that are then collated into a news booklet called Balvani (voice of the children). Though the selection process of CRs is by force narrowed down as school teachers are asked to identify bright and articulate children, the writings have begun to have an impact. Thus when 12-year-old Anup Singh's sketch of a sleeping teacher in a class full of children (apparently born from his experience at his primary school in village Sunaora) published in the inaugural issue of Balvani (May-July 2006) reached the district officials, the teacher was immediately suspended.

At village Jamalpur, Madhu Raja, a student of class seven is working on a report on how school principals ask for money during enrollment. For Sonam Vishwakarma of the same village, each day is a new learning experience. 'Only yesterday I came to know that education till class 12 is free. I can now grow up to be anything. I have to pass this message to all the children in my village', she says. It was on Vishwakarma's insistence that two children from a Sahariya (tribal) hamlet approached the village headman to insist that the well in their hamlet be cleaned. 'The well was cleaned within three days and the children couldn't thank me enough', she beams.

In November 2009, at the first national convention of CRs in New Delhi, attended by 70 CRs from 14 states, seasoned media persons who came to interact with them, were stumped. Senior Hindi journalist Ram Sharan Joshi complimented them on being 'the real reporters, authentic, genuine and grass roots.'

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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IIPM Prof Arindam Chaudhuri on 'BJP and Kashmir Azaadi'

2010-12-20T10:45:00.001+05:30

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri's Snaps

IF BJP PLAYS ITS CARDS WELL, KASHMIR COULD BE ITS BIG CHANCE TO STAGE A RETURN!

More than a year ago, I wrote a cover story in this very magazine stating, WHY NOT AZAADI FOR KASHMIR? I argued why keeping unwilling Kashmiris as a part of India was a huge drain on resources as well as on India's moral authority. Moreover, unlike all other parts of India that may also demand independence tomorrow, Kashmir has a huge and long history attached; and worldwide, when such groups have historically staked a claim for their independence, democratic nations have obliged. My article had then triggered a tremendous response – ranging for praise to virulent abuse! I still stand by my point that it is pointless to force Kashmiris to remain with India at gunpoint. This only triggers ill feeling. I have many Kashmiris and Muslims studying in my institute and even working with me. And many are also linked up with me on my Facebook account. When I at times go to their profiles and check out the material that they post, it scares the wits out of me. They are mostly openly anti-India. They write stories of all that they have gone through. They post videos that will make anyone hate India. They themselves almost hate India! And they want azaadi for Kashmir.

Digressing a little, if Facebook is any indicator of what real people of Kashmir want, that's freedom from India. When I read their posts, two things cross my mind. Firstly, are they potential terrorists? The answer is, of course not… I know a lot of them. They are educated, nice people. It’s a free nation and they speak their minds out of their personal experiences. The second thought that crosses my mind is obviously how Facebook has become an open forum to actually spread hatred; and that the Intelligence departments of India should keep a track of the communication happening there… My blood oft en boils when I read so much of open anti-India comments. And imagine I have to oft en see these people the next day walking into my office! It is surely a great test of patience and belief in democratic values for a patriotic Indian. I do try to understand their perspective too and realise their reasons for hating India. But I must add that while I can vouch for a lot of my students that they are nice people, I obviously can’t vouch for their friends. The situation now is such, that completely anti-India people are openly spreading hatred for India amongst Indian Muslims. Accept it or not, there are clear signs that a strong united community of India haters is developing, who are connected not as friends but by their hatred for India – something that was not that easy in pre-Facebook days. Anyway, I will leave it at that.

Coming back to my original topic – should we give azaadi to Kashmir? I still say, yes, of course! Keeping people dictatorially bound to a nation under gunpoint is totally meaningless and almost inhuman. But I do realise the problems that the Indian government has in hand. An azaad Kashmir must come with some pledges from whoever becomes the leader of Kashmir. A pledge to take back hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits and allow them full freedom to earn a living and practice their religion. A pledge to allow similar freedom to the Buddhists, Shias and other minority communities. And a pledge to remain a secular republic in both form and content. Of course, the question is, will those leaders be able to give such pledges? And will they be thereon willing to keep them? The truth possibly is that within 48 hours of such independence being granted, Kashmir will become a part of Pakistan and an Islamic state. Soon after, China would gain control of strategic parts of the region. And we must remember that India is the only major nation to have systematically lost national territory in the 20th century. From the Government of India's point of view, it surely cannot afford to lose more, nor can it afford to let azaad Kashmir become a playground for Islamic radicals and China.

So what does India do? That’s a tricky one to answer. But right now, all I can say is that from a political perspective, the Congress can’t take the situation lightly and keep waffling on it and let anarchy prevail. It’s actually sad to see our liberal and so-called secular intellectuals bend over backwards to be politically correct even when faced with dangers of hardline Islam. If someone from the Hindu or Christian community is a bigot, we never hesitate to denounce such an individual openly. Why do we then hesitate to denounce in the same tone, when it comes to a Muslim bigot? Why can’t we tell radical Muslims – just as we tell radical Hindus – that their ideology and vision is simply not acceptable to India? That oppressive and regressive parts of the sharia are as unacceptable as parts of the manu code of the Hindus? It's time the government took a strong stance – whatever it is – and engaged the masses to make their viewpoint logically clear to Indians at large who are finding the government weak at this point of time.

I am reminded of the days of the Shah Bano case when the Congress, having absolute majority in Parliament, was the unquestionable dominant political force and BJP was in the fringes. Post the Shah Bano case [when Congress passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, overruling a Supreme Court verdict], we saw the dramatic growth of BJP from 2 seats to 85 seats to even majority as the nation in general clearly saw the government's attempt to overrule the verdict of the Supreme Court of India as an illogical appeasement of the Muslims. The current happenings can possibly give Indians a similar feel. And if the Congress doesn’t look decisive, this could be the opportunity that BJP might have been waiting for. BJP's Ram Janmabhoomi plank might be dead, but its 'non appeasement of Muslims' plank is very much alive. Masses are also getting enlightened today. They are on the same Facebook. They see the pseudo-intellectuals speak. And they know this can take a dangerous turn. They may not take much time to turn the wave during the 2014 elections, giving the Congress a nasty shock and leading to a dramatic revival of the BJP.

TIMELINE J&K

1846: Jammu and Kashmir state is created under the Treaty of Amritsar between the East India Company and Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu

1925: Maharaja Hari Singh succeeds the throne

1932: Sheikh Abdullah becomes head of 'Muslim Conference'

1939: The Muslim Conference changes its name to the National Conference and moves closer to the Indian Nationalist movement

1947: Maharaja suppresses revolt in Poonch ruthlessly

OCTOBER 27, 1948: Large numbers of raiders cross from NWFP into Kashmir. Hari Singh asks for help from India and accedes. Indian troops arrive and thrust the invaders back.

1948: Abdullah becomes Prime Minister of Kashmir. Problems ensue between him and the Maharaja. Kashmir gets a special status in the Indian Constitution.

1948: India takes the Kashmir problem to the UNSC.

1949: On 1 January, a ceasefire between Indian and Pakistani forces leaves India in control of most of the valley, as well as Jammu and Ladakh, while Pakistan gains control of part of Kashmir including what Pakistan calls "Azad" Kashmir and Northern territories.

1949: On 17 October, the Indian Constituent Assembly adopts Article 370 of the Constitution, ensuring a special status and internal autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.

1951: First post-independence elections. Abdullah wins unopposed.

1952: Kashmir and India reach an agreement on the flag, citizenship.

1953: Abdullah is dismissed as Prime Minister and arrested. He's replaced by Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad aka 'Bakshi the Builder'

1954: Kashmir's Constituent Assembly ratifies accession to India. The customs barrier between Kashmir and India is lifted.

1957: kashmir approves its constitution. Abdullah views this as a repudiation of the commitment to a plebescite. Aug 1965: Kashmiri nationalists Amanullah Khan and Maqbool Butt form another Plebiscite Front with an armed wing called the National Liberation Front (NLF) in POK.

1974: Kashmir Accord is signed by G. Parthasarathy for Indira Gandhi and Mirza Afzal Beg for Sheikh Abdullah. The Accord retains Kashmir's special status, but the state is termed as a 'constituent unit of the Union of India'.

1976: Maqbool Butt is arrested on his return to the Valley; Amanullah Khan moves to England and NLF becomes Jammu and Kashmir liberation Front (JKLF).

1987: The Muslim United Front (MUF) against Farooq's Conference- Congress alliance. MUF manages to win just 4 seats amidst rigging. The insurgency in the valley increases in momentum from this point on.

1990: At a march of 1 million, 40 Kashmiris are killed by police firing. 350,000 Pundits leave the Kashmir valley for refugee camps in Jammu amidst threat to life.

MAY 7, 1999: The Indian Army patrols detect intruders on Kargil ridges in Kashmir. India fights to regain lost territory.

2000: Hizbul Mujahedeen declares a unilateral ceasefire for three months. India begins peace talks.
This article is sourced from PR-CANADA.net, click here to read compelete article.

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'V'iciously 'A'bnormal 'T'ax!

2010-12-14T13:38:00.001+05:30

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Inter-state VAT variations are proving to be the chronic ulcer for trade and commerce in the country. And the problems are visible. Will the yet to be implemented GST prove a breather? Finds out Savreen Gadhoke

This outflux of diesel buyers from Delhi has cost the petrol pumps in the capital city about Rs. 350 million in net earnings within just the first month (April 2010) of the increase in VAT. As industry sources confirm, revenues of diesel sellers have dipped by 40% in Delhi and is expected to fall further by around 80%. Understandably, the worst affected are the oil shops that lie on the border areas of the capital. A field enquiry suggests that those in areas like Ghazipur, Anand Vihar (East Delhi) and Dilshad Garden (North-East Delhi) have seen their monthly revenues fall by as much as 70%.

There is another negative spillover. The month of February 2010 saw the minimum wage levels of unskilled labour being increased by 33.5%. At a time when revenues have fallen, it becomes hard to imagine how the gas station owners can adhere to the rule of wage increase.

So do they have an answer to this bonehead play? The gas station parties believe they do ' retaliate. Adopting a demonstrative method, the Petrol Dealers Association of Delhi and NCR has announced that petrol pumps in Delhi will go on a 24-hour strike every Monday, starting May 14, 2010, so long as the VAT increase is not annulled. Till date, there have been three such day-long shut downs' on April 9, May 14 & May 24. The Association has also threatened to go on an indefinite strike from June 14, 2010, if its demands are not met.

The predicament of the gas station owners in Delhi is just one of such instances, where variable inter-state VAT is bringing about great inconvenience to trade and commerce. While these variations have negatively impacted businesses in certain states, they have also given rise to smuggling and black marketing. This defeats the intention of introducing VAT in 2005. It was conceived with a view to make accounting more transparent, to cut trade barriers, curb tax evasion and boost tax revenues. Items were classified into various categories such as essential, nonessential, luxury items with taxes ranging from 1% to 20%. VAT rates for each state is decided by the individual state governments, and this has led to non-consistency in the taxes levied on similar product categories.

Poultry is one example of how variation in VAT has affected the trade between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala has depended on Tamil Nadu for poultry supply, for decades. There was no state tax applicable on poultry till Kerala agreed to the VAT regime. Thereafter, consumers buying poultry had to pay 12.5% more on the purchase of poultry in Kerala, while the commodity was kept free of VAT in Tamil Nadu. The effect ' during 2004, around two million live birds were transported from Tamil Nadu to Kerala, post-VAT, the trade almost came to a halt. This gave rise to smuggling of live birds from Tamil Nadu into Kerala to bypass VAT and earn that 12.5% on bottomlines by the traders. The act has become so severe and organised now that even after the strengthening of check posts on borders by the Kerala government, smuggling continues through parallel roads and country routes. Kerala's coconut farmers also faced troubles when the state government levied 12.5% VAT on copra and other coconut products. Subsequently, the government was forced to waive-off the tax to support exports to Tamil Nadu. While TN levies a VAT of 12.5% on automobiles, marbles, tiles, refrigerators, ACs and timber, the state of Puducherry charges just 4%. So why would you buy your next car or your new twin-door refrigerator in Tamil Nadu? A VAT of 12.5% is levied on silk in Karnataka, J&K and Maharashtra, while in Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Bihar & Uttaranchal, the tax applicable is just 4%. Tyres and tubes attract 8% VAT in Haryana, while in Delhi they attract 4%. The stark difference shows up as on as much a burger at Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Delhi levies a tax of 12.5% on a KFC snack, while the hungry buyers end up shelling out 13.5% more as tax in UP! Naturally, these differences in VAT hamper sales of certain commodities in selected states. 'Traders are at a disadvantage due to variations in VAT. If any commodity is charged 12.5% somewhere and the neighbouring states charges 4%, certainly, the higher VAT state will lose. And, if that commodity is a high value product, the difference is much. So, obviously the buyer will get it from the adjoining state,' says DP Nag, Secretary, Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industries. The culprit ' the Constitutional right that the states have, exercising which, they can charge VAT. And this causes discrepancies in prices, despite there are friendly treaties and trade agreement between neighbouring states.

Be that as it may, VAT, which was implemented with a view to simplify the taxation structure has had negative impacts on certain businesses. However, efforts are being made by various state governments to keep the VAT rates in sync with the neighbouring states. For instance, the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Haryana and UP are soon scheduled to meet to mull over how to reduce variations in VAT levied on diesel, so as to save the aggrieved diesel retailing lot of Delhi. But the truth is: despite efforts on the part of the state machineries, uniform tax remains the only working hypothesis. There is some hope with the Ministry of Finance's target of implementing Goods & Services Tax (GST) by 2011, which will impose uniform tax rates at a national level. But as market experts believe, it seems a far-fetched dream for now. 'At this juncture, no state can be tamed. The GST regime is showing some hope, but the road to that is not as easy as we have a Quasi-Federal Constitution. Under this, states enjoy some autonomy, particularly in List II, where states enjoy full rights to tax as per their whims. Will any state want to lose that autonomy,' questions Ramendra Nath Ganguly, former Assistant Commissioner ' Sales Tax, Ministry of Finance.

A uniform GST is a dream. The asymmetrical VAT is reality. Simply said, the answer lies in market economics, and only the simple Marshallian Law of Demand and Supply can perhaps wipe off what the traders hate for now.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Sound of music

2010-11-30T12:39:00.001+05:30

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The multi-faceted and free-spirited Sophie Choudry returns with an album of original tracks, and a brand new channel on YouTube. Aakriti Bhardwaj in conversation with the remix queen of India

Sound of music You have studied at the esteemed Sciences Po Paris and LSE. How did a career in veejaying and music happen?

I was a very good student, I got four A's for my O level. At the same time I was determined to become an actor. Whilst I was studying, Biddu, who is my mentor and guide, launched me in a girl band Sansara and that's when we first came to India for work and did the videos for Yeh dil sun raha hai. It became really popular but like most girl bands we couldn't stand each other! Then I went back to complete my graduation.

With your latest album Sound of Sophie, are you sort of returning the favour to Biddu?

Not at all! Biddu is the man who launched me, I did my first two albums with him, he's the reason I moved to India. It was Biddu who said, "Kid, you need to move to India for one year and see what happens if you are serious about this." In one year, I became a VJ; Babu chhail chhabila happened. He has done me a favour in Sound of Sophie as he's completely retired from music and the last song he composed was If I can't have you for my album.

Of your various pursuits ' music, dancing, acting, modelling, anchoring ' which one is closest to your heart?

It is really hard to say. Veejaying was wonderful; it made me a household name. Acting is exciting; you wake up being someone different all the time. Singing is really the extension of who I am. That is where I creatively express who I am. I think singing gives me a three dimensional way of enjoying it: one, for the music; two, my music videos are like mini movies and I get to fulfil my fantasies in there, and three, for my live performances where I instantly reach out to my audience. Has there been a conscious effort to steer clear of remixes?

The reason I had to produce this album is because I did not want to do any remixes. When I did Ek Pardesi, it was so big that I don't think I'll be able to repeat that kind of success. I really think that phase is really done with. Today, film songs are becoming remixes. 'Aa Dekhen Zara' did a remix. If the film people are doing remixes then I don't think pop artists need to do it; pop artists need to create something original.

You are the first in India to be signed by YouTube to launch an official celebrity channel. How do you feel about it?

I am having a ball with the channel. I have got all these subscribers and I have got thousands and thousands of 'views'! I have only been active on it for a month but my video uploads have already had 200,000 hits. I am considering breaking my second video on YouTube exclusively.

Tell us about your forthcoming film Alibaug.

I'm grateful to Sanjay Gupta for giving me such a beautiful role. I play a girl called Nisha, and everybody feels that her life will turn out to be perfect ' she marries her college sweetheart ' but ends up going through a divorce. She transforms into 'real' woman ' strong and independent. She is a practicing psychiatrist whose own life is pretty complicated but she handles it with a lot of grace.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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SOCIETY: Mega Sporting Events, Poor Sporting Spirit!

2010-11-18T16:34:00.001+05:30

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Sporting events come heavily on the marginalised population

The upcoming FIFA World cup 2010 in South Africa is seen as a major breakthrough in sporting history. Not only because it’s after a long struggle that an African nation succeeded in grabbing the opportunity of hosting such a mega sporting event, but also as it is expected to refurbish South Africa’s economy. Amidst South Africa’s preparation to make this event a major success, the poorest citizens of the country are being largely neglected. In order to bring up world standard stadiums, the government has ordered massive eviction. In simple words, to make space for stadium and games infrastructure, the South African government has evicted low income housing areas and informal traders. More than 70,000 workers employed on World Cup projects have raised their voices for better wages and conditions. In contrast to 500,000 jobs promises, only 22,000 jobs have been created with occupational health and safety survey giving negative rating to 52 per cent of World Cup construction sites.

The construction of N2 Gateway housing project (construction of rental housing for the 2010 World Cup) led to the removal of over 20,000 residents from the Joe Slovo settlement. The government has also came up with the Elimination & Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act to eliminate slums and put homeless shack dwellers in transit camps during the games. Without any apprehension, this mega sporting event would not only will help the country to upgrade their infrastructure but would also help them tap economic gains. But then, the major pie of the profit will eventually go to big business houses and to FIFA.

This is not for the first time that a mega sporting event would create major hurdles for the underprivileged population of the nation. During 1988 Olympic Games, more than 15 per cent of the population of Seoul, Republic of Korea, was evicted and 48,000 buildings were reduced to ruins to accommodate game’s infrastructure. Similarly in 1996 Olympic, around 1,500 social housing units for the poor were destroyed in Atlanta, in 1992 in Barcelona, 200 families were evicted, in Beijing mass evictions were executed, 6000 were made homeless in Sydney in the run-up to the Olympics and similar eviction is predicted to happen in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Besides direct impact such as mass eviction and trade bans, indirect displacement due to gentrification and escalating housing costs can also be led to social crisis. After Olympics, prices of houses rose by 28 per cent in Seoul, by 131 per cent in Barcelona, by 500 per cent in Sydney — to name a few incidents. Many governments went to an extent of criminalising the homeless and marginalised pockets of populations. In Seoul, local authorities created a list of places where homeless people were banned and in Atlanta, homelessness was made illegal. Recently, to address such inhuman issue and rush to the rescue of marganised people, the UN has asked the games organiser to properly scrutinise the host cities and introduce housing provisions in hosting agreements. These nations and host countries should learn from their counterparts like Los Angeles, who uplifted the local economy and permanent housing and an Olympic village.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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LET YOUR HARD WORK SPEAK FOR YOU

2010-10-05T15:39:00.001+05:30

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How would you market an NGO? Do celebrities matter for them? How does an NGO break through the clutter? 4Ps B&M chats up with a practitioner and an expert

Who are your major fund providers and how challenging is it for you to market a social cause to them?
Our major fund providers are foundations and trusts. It is really difficult for us to market ourselves as we look after people who are at the end of their lives. In fact, our break through occurs only when people, who have a cancer patient at home, personally experience palliative care/hospice services and realise how valuable they are.

Many corporates have their own CSR programmes? What is it that further motivates them to invest in social sector through NGOs? How do you convince them?
I think the best way to convince them is to show them your work. We invite our potential donors to visit our Day Care and Home Care programmes and give them the first hand experience of what we are actually doing. Often people in corporate world are also looking for volunteer opportunities – to be able to do some thing that is hands on. Further, those who have experienced cancer in their personal lives are highly motivated to give back.

What role does branding and advertising play in your fund raising strategy?
Branding and advertising do not play much of a role unless one finds a sponsor. Further, as it’s an expensive exercise therefore we rather like to spend every single paisa on our programmes. Fundraising events, such as our annual walk-a-thon, ‘Walk for Life’, are ways in which we ensure our visibility. We also celebrate World Hospice Day.

What strategies do you adopt to break through the clutter and ensure that people and authorities notice your efforts?
This is very difficult as we do not have the funds nor do we wish to allocate funds for advertising our brand. Our work and the transparency of our functioning speak for us. Information about us is generally conveyed by word of mouth by our beneficiaries, through our volunteers and friends who are associated with us and via our publications.

There are several celebrities that can be seen associated, both directly and indirectly, with some or the other NGO? Do such associations really make your job easier?
Our experience with celebrities has been limited to our events. We have found that it requires a great deal of investment, both in terms of time and effort on our part, which could be used with greater results elsewhere. However, the sad truth is that the media is more likely to highlight the event if a celebrity is attending it.

How important is transparency when it comes to operations?
For us this is the most important area. Therefore we have an active managing committee, a functioning executive committee and SOPs for all our activities and programmes. In fact, there is a monitoring process in place for all our programmes and activities.

What are the important changes required, both in terms of policy & operations, to ensure that the social sector bears fruits in the long run?
The government must accept its responsibility of being the spearhead for bringing about social change. Organisations like ours, with limited means and capacities, should be used judiciously. We can serve as replicable models, provide training, fill gaps in delivery of specific services temporarily as well as monitor the implementation of programmes at the ground level. It is also important to make us part of the policy process so that we can share our operational experiences as providers and consumers. This feedback will make for more effective policy making at the government level.

Harmala Gupta is the Founder-President of CanSupport, a Delhi-based NGO that works for cancer patients

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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A multi-billion dollar question – does the Indian consumer really care about the ‘brand value’ of the four wheeler the family so desires?

2010-08-11T12:11:00.000+05:30

Brand valuation experts Millward Brown was quick to make its claim in a report titled, “Brand-driven shareholder value creation’ which proved empirically how “Brands with greater market presence and a superior ability to convert customers from brand awareness to strong relationships significantly outperform the market, producing annual average total shareholder returns of 10% to 20% in the period 1998 to 2006. In comparison, the market on average yielded a mere 4% return to shareholders annually.” A paper by McKinsey & Company titled, ‘The New Rules of Branding’ also proves how “companies with strong brands have shareholder returns of 1.9 points more than their industries’ average.” This was doubled up by another McKinsey product titled, ‘The Power of Brand Delivery’, that interestingly put forward its proposal of an emotional connect. “Strong brands create value for shareholders by building emotional bonds with customers,” is what it claims. But who better to talk about emotional bonding and emotional attachment than the Indian consumers. It is therefore surprising then that the global automakers’ claims of great intangible brand value score low on Indian frontiers when it comes to performance in the market. Value-for-money is what the Indian middle-class consumer generally looks out for in everyday consumption, from the time she makes her choice of detergent to choosing the ‘right’ kind of four-wheeler. The Maruti 800s, the Altos, the Zens, the i10s, the Swifts, the Santros, the Indicas – these are of the ilk that made great headway into the Indian market, having sold millions of units till date. But ask an ordinary consumer what characteristic he associates with these abovementioned brands between being ‘performance-based’ and ‘goodwill-based’, and the answer would be nothing but the obvious – these are value-for-money performers and not brands which command billion dollar goodwill in the market (compare them to the BMWs, the Audis, the Mercs and the Land Rovers and you’d understand our point here)!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Global players are not a threat to us, due to our USP of giving Indianised food”

2010-06-30T15:34:00.000+05:30

Nishant Arora, Head Food Division, Kohinoor Foods Ltd

Do you think the coming of foreign competitors is a threat for you?
I don’t think so because our USP is ‘Indianized’ menu and we provide convenience food which requires Indian expertise and can be provided only by Indian players.

Do we miss out big on positioning?
I can’t comment on other players, but in Kohinoor Foods, our focus or positioning has been very clear. We offer hygienic and convenient Indian food, which no other players offer. Positioning is very important in any industry and this industry is no exception.

You are promoting the Kohinoor Foods brand in USA. Any bottlenecks?
When it comes to attracting Indians in the US, we didn’t have to face any bottlenecks; but when it comes to attracting non-Indian consumers, you need to focus on many things – like the hygiene condition during the preparation of food and details in packaging.

The future of the convenience food industry would be...
There would be more and more brands emerging in the Indian convenience food market and a majority of these would be from the retail companies.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Why Ford loves the ‘licensing‘ game in India

2010-06-17T15:45:00.000+05:30

Ford Motor Company is one name that counts amongst the top believers in the power of brand licensing. Mark Bentley on the how, why and what of Ford’s licensing program

Licensing has played an important role in Ford Motor Company’s marketing mix for nearly 20 years now. Established in 1991, the Ford Global Brand Licensing program has grown from two dozen companies to over 350 licensees worldwide in 2009. Annual retail sales of Ford licensed products were recently projected at over $1.5 billion. Our key partners include Mattel, Fisher-Price, Aramis, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony and Franklin Mint. The “3 Ps” form the foundation stone of Ford’s licensing program. In order of importance, the team focuses on the following basic rules: 1) Protect the brand; 2) Promote the brand; and 3) Produce revenues.

It is no small task to protect an iconic, 106-year-old company’s trademarks. Ford and its agency partner, The Beanstalk Group, work hard to ensure that the company’s intellectual assets are being used properly. Key trademarks such as the Ford Blue Oval, Ford Mustang, Model-T, Ford Thunderbird, Ford Racing and “Built Ford Tough” trucks are constantly monitored in the marketplace. If necessary, Ford takes additional steps through its brand protection and legal teams to settle trademark infringement matters.

Ford leverages licensing as a platform to create additional brand exposure. Licensees indirectly promote Ford brands by creating millions of additional brand impressions and consumer touch points. For example, over 150 licensed toy and videogame companies annually produce Ford products allowing consumers of all ages to experience the brand in ways that reach far beyond traditional advertising.

Consumers also indirectly advertise corporate trademarks by wearing Ford brands on their apparel. Ultimately, positive brand exposure may lead to the purchase of actual Ford cars and trucks.

Finally, licensing unlocks brand equity by allowing the company to receive a steady stream of royalty revenue. Ford creates brand value and consumer goodwill by annually spending billions in marketing and advertising. Inspirational designs and high quality products also contribute greatly to the company’s success. The licensing team is responsible for leveraging these marketing and design efforts by extending the brand into many categories including die-cast vehicles, videogames, apparel, technical publications, gifts and vehicle accessories.

Ford Global Brand Licensing plans to replicate its licensing successes far beyond its core North American market. In 2009, foundations were laid in India, China and Latin America. Although licensing is still in its infancy in many emerging markets, Ford is poised to capitalise on future global growth in the sector.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Smartphones at smart prices...

2010-05-27T16:07:00.000+05:30

Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Sony ericsson has recently launched three new slick phones namely Satio, Aino and Yari that the company is touting as “smarter phones.” It’s noteworthy that Sony Ericsson, which was at the fourth spot in the Indian handset market in 2008, had come under extreme pressure all through 2009 as it lost a considerable market share in the mid- and high-end category to Korean rivals like Samsung and LG. The growing popularity of their affordable touch screen phones were the major cause of worry for Sony Ericsson. However, now with the launch of these phones, the company plans to come back in action. Anil Sethi, President, Sony Ericsson says, “In today’s market place, the definition of a smartphone is getting increasingly fuzzy as people want their phones to enable them to do it all at the same time. And with the help of these three phones, we expect that the consumer would be able to do all and help us in writing a new chapter for Sony Ericsson in India and strengthen its position as an aspirational and an irresistible brand.” Indeed Satio, Aino and Yari come loaded with all possible features. However, the key to succeed in the Indian market lies not just in loading in features but also in getting the pricing right. Unfortunately, it seems that Sony Ericsson has not learnt the art of pricing its products as was evident in the case of its earlier flop show Xperia X1. On the other hand, Samsung (Star, Corby) and LG (Cookie, Arena) have launched pocket-friendly smart phones, which reflects in the huge sales of their offerings. If Sony Ericsson does not want to repeat history, it will have to re-look at its pricing strategy and price its smartphones smartly.

Surbhi Chawla

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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You wanna test my confidence?!

2010-05-10T15:30:00.000+05:30

Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Agreement
The Nuke Deal, on one hand, overturned decades of India’s nuclear apartheid, significantly enhancing India’s global brand image, and on the other, made heroes of PM Manmohan Singh & UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi within India, adding oodles to their political charisma and clout. Uncle Sam’s one-time exception for India to keep its nuclear weapons (without signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty), overnight gave credence to India’s positioning from a slumbering elephant to the hungry tiger. In one fell swoop, years of mutual suspicion & distrust between the world’s largest and oldest democracies were swept away. On the flip side, the deal encouraged India’s blinkered Left Front to withdraw support from the incumbent UPA government, but the UPA’s unquestionable win in the subsequent Election went a long way in underlining the positive brand aura of the Civilian Nuclear Agreement. As for our economist turned politician PM, he’s still getting used to the Yankee ‘you’re with us or against us’ ideology!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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The movers...

2010-04-09T16:56:00.001+05:30

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

• Reliance Big Pictures, the motion pictures arm of Reliance Big Entertainment has roped in Sanjeev Lamba as its CEO. Prior to this, Lamba was the COO of Zee Motion Pictures. An industry veteran, Lamba brings with him 25 years experience in advertising, consumer products licensing, movies, video games, et al. Lamba has been previously associated with companies like Ogilvy & Mather, Walt Disney and Weinstein.

•Anil Srivatsa, ex-COO of India Today Group-owned radio, Meow FM, is all set to join Kings XI Punjab, the IPL team jointly owned by Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia as its CEO. After having started as a RJ, Srivatsa tried his hands at different verticals of television including production and management, besides DTH and IPTV. At Kings XI Punjab, Srivatsa will take control of the management of the company and revenues.

•Ending her stint with Dentsu Communications, Vijaya Sriram has joined Bates 141 as VP, Chennai branch. Sriram has an experience of 18 years and has worked with agencies like RK Swamy BBDO and JWT and handled accounts of P&G, Aircel, MRF, et al.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Redemption for the titans!

2010-03-30T16:32:00.000+05:30

Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Its campaign – Diwali hogi cup wali, rightfully mixes the two biggest celebrated events in the country – Diwali and cricket. The campaign includes television commercials (of varying durations), as well as strategic tie-ups with news channels, radio stations and coffee houses to reach viewers. In fact, after India crashed out early from the T20 tournament, the channel had to ensure that the value of the channel was not eroded. “The efforts went in consoling the viewer that a lot more cricket is coming up and hence we felt a serious need for aggressive marketing,” avers Dayani. When it comes to aggressive marketing, 2009 is being considered a watershed year for ESS; but as Dayani claims, ESS had not been dormant even last year.

“We made huge investments last year also. As far as investments during 2009 is concerned, the efforts are on to make the Champions League a unique property in itself,” claims Dayani. In September last year, ESS had paid $975 million for commercial rights of the T20 Champions League for 10 years – the most expensive deal in the history of the channel. But can it become as big as the IPL, especially considering that the club format has never been tried before in cricket atleast? There is a debate brewing there, but many experts opine that it will take a season or two to reach the IPL platform. “After watching tournaments like IPL and T20 World Cup, people can easily relate to the format. However, it may take some time to get familiar with the international club team format that is not known to the sport. But we are confident that it has the potential to become a unique cricket property for us,” forecasts an optimistic Dayani. While that was the sentiment about the modern shorter version of the game, surprisingly, ESS continues its bullish approach to the 50-over format as well. And this is despite the fact that the recently ended Champions Trophy (which was a 50-over format) wasn’t able to garner as high TRPs as the recently concluded T20 tournament did. Experts also believe that increasing competition from channels like SET Max (which owns rights for IPL) and Neo Sports have been a party spoiler for ESS. Then there is an added threat from BCCI, which plans to launch its captive sports channel. But Dayani chooses to differ as he notes, “Competition is always good for the industry, as it makes you proactive.” And the worries seem to fade further with ESS’ plan to launch a round-the clock sports news channel. So for now, with little differentiation in content, the only salvation for the sports channel gods is marketing, in other words, advertise shamelessly! Remember, it’s always the last over in a competitive market!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Burning the tracks, in time!

2010-03-06T14:20:00.001+05:30

IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme

Then the growth story was jolted to a halt; the smooth run fast becoming a tale of the past. Reason? Although the brand won great recognition amongst youngsters, the price was found to be a significant dampener as research proved how the target group, which consisted of college students could not yet afford this brand. Added to this was its eccentric act to extend its reach from the early jobbers to executive segment. Result – a decline in annual sales by Rs.23 crore for the year ended 2003. The group needed cushion there, to ease the heartache and bounce back. A consumer research followed, which advocated how mobiles/deodorants and sunglasses were the most popular accessories in the purchase list of youngsters. The next cash cow for Fastrack was born in the form of sunglasses. The product fit the bill perfectly as there was no Indian brand presence in this category and Ray-Ban served a relatively premium segment. So as a brand extension strategy, Fastrack ventured into the sunglasses category and again with its time-honoured strategy of economical pricing, it stole the show from unbranded players in this category.

In 2005, the brand went for another repositioning exercise with a new logo. Supported by a new campaign – ‘How many do you have?’, the brand sales increased by Rs.35 crore during 2007. That was another fresh start. Through massive product proliferation & innovative pricing strategy, Fastrack succeeded in maintaining an average y-o-y growth of 30% and has thus become the fastest growing brand under the Titan umbrella in the past four years. With an annual turnover of Rs.300 crore for FY2008-09 and an annual sales of 1.5 million watches, Fastrack is mulling over plans to clock a turnover of Rs.500 crore by FY2011-12; the brand focus shifting from being just a ‘watch’ brand to an ‘accessory’ brand.

So, what is Fastrack exactly doing to facilitate this shift in brand focus? Starting from brand new launches (like bags, wallets and belts) to venturing into new areas (like sports shoes), Fastrack has big plans. “Our mission is to completely envelope the new Indian youth,” announces a beaming Simeran Bhasin, Marketing Head, Fastrack & New Brands.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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“We are doing a lot of BTL activities around the workshop areas.”

2010-02-23T14:59:00.000+05:30

IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme

It’s the approach that matters. More so, it’s all about customer interactions when it comes to becoming an auto-service bigwig. A 4Ps B&M exclusive...

4Ps B&M: Two months since you launched Carnation. What’s the distance covered?
JK: By the end of June 2009, we had started operations in nine locations. The 10th came in July. Overall, our rollout has been quite decent, though some people call it aggressive. We are planning to open another 20 workshops by the end of the current fiscal...

4Ps B&M: How has been the initial response in the country?
JK: Till date, we have serviced around 8000 vehicles but our motto is to sustain the initial response.

4Ps B&M: 8,000 alright; but then isn’t your model ‘similar’ to that of the authorised and local workshops?
JK: It’s our approach that is different. The equipment that we use is world-class, which makes us different from the neighborhood workshops. And our approach is to minimise the cost of ownership of a vehicle, i.e. we focus on repairing an accidental part rather than changing it with a new one, unlike the case with the authorised workshops. Our target is very different and we want to be as transparent as water in customer service.

4Ps B&M: What efforts are you making to ensure footfalls? Any great attractive deals for the consumers?
JK: We are doing a lot of BTL activities around the area where the workshop is located as it suits the current needs of the business and is economical too. Till the time the volume doesn’t build up and consumers aren’t aware of an Carnation experience, it’s of no use to offer them any form of deal or contract with the company.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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BIG... BIGGER... ADAG! - Surbhi Chawla reviews the whys and wherefores...

2010-02-17T11:40:00.000+05:30

IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme

If RCOM added to ADAG’s overall brand value in a ‘big’ way, BIG TV – the company’s DTH venture – also added its brilliant mite, what with its much hyped launch. Add to that tactics like the launch of the new Reliance Energy bill in Mumbai – which has a very customer friendly and an easy to navigate design – and you have a brilliant positive word of mouth doing the rounds. Having said that, it is a clear fact that the recent gas controversy has taken its toll not only on the current ranking but also on group efforts moving them away from the primary business objectives. What is more critical is the scenario if the dispute and controversy continues further, the same might affect future rankings.

But what is more important is that ADAG does not build its brand only through its customers but also through numerous stakeholders on a daily basis. Shah tells us, “Reliance ADAG stocks are investor favourites. The task at hand has been to invest in micro-marketing initiatives rather than hi-decibel campaigns.” To meet this objective, Reliance Capital brand, for example, initiated an innovative drive to connect with its premium customer base through an association with theatre (in one specific case, Reliance Capital sponsored a musical show titled City of Dreams, which went on to be a complete sell out). ADAG, in the meanwhile, has kept reaping the benefits of being a valued brand for investors. The Reliance Infrastructure Fund, despite the market conditions, saw contrarian participation of over Rs.2,000 crores from retail investors, a figure which went completely beyond the forecasts.

The year 2008-09 also saw ADAG migrate ADLABS to BIG cinemas and heralded the launch of new BIG multiplexes across the globe, including in Malaysia and US. The BIG brand was also in the news for inking a multi billion dollar deal with Steven Spielberg to produce Hollywood movies.

“The BIG TV Brand will become even bigger with well planned & executed BTL & ATL [below the line, above the line] campaigns nationally,” adds Shah. Brand ‘BIG’ is also expected to strengthen ADAG’s play across platforms in the media and entertainment sectors, utilising the group’s education arms, NIS Sparta and NIS Academy. So where to from here on? How does ADAG make the last mile jump from the number three position to number one? With a lot of patience, and a little lesser of, well, controversies...

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

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Indraprastha Gas Ltd.

2010-01-25T16:34:00.000+05:30

Entry Price: Rs.144
Target Price: Rs.161
EPS: 15.4 (FY10E)
P/E: 9.4 on FY10E EPS
Time Duration: At least one year
Rationale: Promising business model, robust growth in CNG vehicles and PNG customers in NCT of Delhi, timely expansion plans and low industry competition provides a long term & stable visibility to company’s future performance and growth trajectory. However, due to the supply side pricing constraints, margins are expected to remain under pressure.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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The off screen TRP war

2010-01-15T15:23:00.000+05:30

The small screen is sizzling with TRP wars with the launch of myriad of new shows like Sach Ka Saamna on Star Plus, Is Jungle se Mujhe Bachao on Sony, Color’s India’s Got Talent and Rakhi ka Swaymvar on NDTV Imagine. While GECs are seriously fighting the war of one-upmanship to garner maximum TRPs; the off screen rating war among the rating agencies Television Audience Measurement (TAM) and Audience Measurement Analytics Ltd. (aMap) is raising the temperature of the TV town. aMap has partnered with Eurodata TV Worldwide (an international rating agency, which compiles viewership data of 2000 channels in 80 territories across five continents) to provide international TV ratings in India besides doling out Indian TV ratings across the world. This tie-up will strengthen aMap, which has not been able to gain much stranglehold despite being in the business since 2004, in this off screen TRP war. aMaps’ large sample size and quick data delivery (overnight) for events and shows gave it the initial kick. On the other hand, being in the industry for over a decade, TAM enjoys an edge as it is more like a TV rating currency. As the Indian economy is getting increasingly interwoven with the rest of the world, in the context of television, this means that there is greater international advertiser interest in the Indian market. International interest in the Indian culture is also increasing. Take for instance, Brazil’s latest hit show Caminho Das Indias (India’s Way) is about an Indian upper-caste girl falling in love with a Dalit boy. Driven by such trends, international broadcasting companies, content providers, et al, are all looking to do business in India. International broadcasters are looking to have a comprehensive data that gives them a hint of what works in the Indian market and this is where aMap will get a strong edge over TAM. “This move will give advertisers and broadcasters in India their first ever preview of the TV program performance around the world, an opportunity to study successful formats the world over and therefore to identify successful opportunities in India...” says Amit Varma, CEO, aMap. It’s time TAM bucks up, for it won’t be too long before aMap races ahead of it.

Pallavi Srivastava

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Not cheap! It’s economical…

2010-01-11T14:01:00.000+05:30

Bajaj Auto’s over reliance on brand ‘Pulsar’ and increasing focus on the 125cc-plus motorcycle market garnered it a heavy loss in not only its market share in the two-wheeler segment, but also in its bottomlines. However, Bajaj Auto is revisiting its strategies and is now all set to make a comeback into the 100cc segment with its Discover DTS-Si, which will hit the showrooms from July 27 onwards. Interestingly, Bajaj Auto’s plan to reign in more market share in the 100cc segment is a bit different from the strategy formulated by the company in the first place. But will the discovery of Bajaj Discover be able to create the desired position in the executive segment for Bajaj Auto?

There is no denying that Bajaj Auto’s strategy riding on the superior technology and advanced designing fronts has been very successful to tap the consumer in the premium segment. The company is banking on the same pillars to replicate its success in the executive segment. If the words of Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto are to be believed, “In terms of sales and profits, this fiscal will be the best ever for Bajaj Auto.” Introduced as a 125cc model and presently selling in a 135cc version, Discover has been operating in the Indian market for over five years now and is well poised to take on Hero Honda’s executive model – Splendor and Passion by which the company plans to take the sales figure to around the 2,00,000-units mark. And if Bajaj is able to create a new category in the executive segment, the company may garner a healthy share of the entry level segment.

Pawan Chabra

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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How the hand Rocked the Lotus, Elephant, Bicycle, Lantern...

2009-10-21T12:51:00.000+05:30

The revamp of the 124-year-old party and brand continues. Says Santosh Desai, CEO of Future Brands, “Congress as a party has understood that Indian elections are the largest marketing exercise in the world and that inclusive growth can be the best USP of the Congress brand.” But, inclusive growth does not mean literally going back to the villages embracing the old dogmas of socialism. The appointment of Nandan Nilekani as the head of the Unique Identification Authority with the rank of a Cabinet Minister sends out another powerful message about the new brand Congress – talent is welcome, even if it is from the private sector. If and when Nandan Nilekani succeeds in his mission, the Congress would have used a private sector entrepreneur to execute one of the most critical ‘public’ tasks. Tamper proof I cards can ensure the poor actually get the benefits from social welfare schemes. And if money meant for the poor actually manages to reach the poor, brand Congress would have nurtured a massive base of loyal consumers (Voters). There are twin benefits of this ‘private-public strategy, according to Congress insiders. Having Nandan Nilekani lead this mammoth task will be a big hit with the Gen Next that idolises successful and ‘ethical’ entrepreneurs like Nilekani and looks up to them as role models. Then again, Nilekani’s success means more than 400 million rural consumers will have a solid reason to choose Congress over other brands.

This unabashed and unapologetic ‘coupling’ of Brand Congress with the aam aadmi can be seen even in the Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He has simply junked the old – and insidious – habit of finance ministers of doling out largesse to corporate titans and Dalal Street while paying lip service to the poor. This Pranab budget is all about rural India, about farmers and about poor Indians everywhere. And more importantly, the Budget has not taken any step to take the Indian economy back to the bad old days of crony ‘socialism’. This aam aadmi socialism yes; but of a kind where entrepreneurs and wealth creators will have a key role to play. Senior Congressmen understand the potential power of this strategy. Says Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari, “ The Budget is a judicious mix of short term stimulus, medium term fiscal prudence and long term institutional reform.” When asked about how the market is perceiving the Budget as a marketing exercise, the politician Tiwari is quick to retort, “I don’t think the Budget can be really seen as an image building exercise or a kind of a political platform. A Budget can be evaluated in the context of circumstances.” Tiwari may be coy, but the marketing and advertising world knows that the budget is actually a huge boost for the new brand identity of Congress.

And lest you think that brand Congress is now all about doling out sops to the poor without a future vision, please re-examine what the Minister for Human resources Kapil Sibal has been saying for a while. Sibal has loudly and persistently made it clear that the private sector must play a key role in revamping India’s messy education system. Sibal and his team understand clearly that India can never reap the demographic dividend with the current education system where rent seeking and corruption is rife and rampant. Sibal is laying down a vision where the young – both rich and poor – will have more choices when it comes to education and careers. Once implemented, this strategy will create one whole generation of loyal consumers who have not yet reached the legal age of voting!

And of course, no matter what you and I say or the aam aadmi says, Brand Congress will also be closely identified and linked with Brand Gandhi. Like it or not, it is Sonia Gandhi who first gave a new lease of life to the dying Congress in 2004. In 2009, the CEO to be Rahul Gandhi is getting ready to take over from his mother, with sister Priyanka always around as a strategic advisor. Says Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar, “While Sonia resonates to dignity and simplicity, Rahul implies to modernity.”

That, as rivals of Brand Congress have realised painfully, is an unbeatable identity for a brand to have!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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From Black Monday to Golden Monday

2009-08-31T11:27:00.000+05:30

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The life and times of UPA : Five years on, every piece is falling in place for India even in torrid times for the global economy... And the world is watching!

The message from the election results 2009 is loud and clear: Indians have emerged and India’s thinking has improved. Evolving is a continuous process in any country’s life and we have displayed it thoroughly this time.

Exactly five years back, on May 17, 2004, when UPA came to power, the capital market welcomed it with a ‘thumbs down’, sending the market to the ‘lower circuit’ of -10%, (infamously known as ‘Black Monday’). Make no mistakes; it was justified then, because of the fear of ‘unknown’. The market wasn’t able to digest how the new government would handle the ‘emerging’ Indian ‘growth story’. Until then, the capital market participants were on a high about Indian prospects, with a flurry of reports from global research houses suggesting the rise of India as a super-power. The market had feared whether the then government would prove to be a spoil-sport.

However, God is living somewhere in New Delhi since then. Almost everything went right in Indian economy in terms of GDP growth, industrial production, rainfall, exports, Balance of Payments, demographics, FII & FDI inflows. Indians are extremely lucky to be served by some of the finest brains in the form of ministers and regulators at RBI and SEBI. An enviable team with abundant knowledge and qualifications, comprising of Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram, Y. V. Reddy, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and C. Rangarajan has given proper direction to the unleashing strength of Indian economy. This has helped India survive the impact of an unprecedented global crisis with least possible injuries. All of them truly deserved to be called as the ‘leaders’ rather than ‘regulators’. What is most striking is that these ‘leaders’ are not just intellectuals but balanced and matured individuals. And, the ever-maturing Indian voters have taken notice of their efforts and blessed them with thumping success in the current elections. After five years, on May 18, 2009, the capital market has welcomed them with a big ‘thumbs up’, sending market to ‘upper circuit’ of +20%, (famously titled ‘Golden Monday’). That’s right, this is the best election result India has had in the last 30 years and this is the best ever capital market performance. So, the ever-related Delhi politics and Mumbai capital markets have seen full circle from ‘Black Monday’ to ‘Golden Monday’.

Way to go...

In the previous UPA government, the Congress had a tough time convincing the Left to implement any developmental projects. Of course, in a way this helped Congress to take shelter for any of their under performance. However, this time they are extremely well placed with a clear mandate, improving global economy, best of demographics and quality leaders. This obviously raises expectations on their performance delivery. The world is looking at India, and the investors are looking at Indian government.

One thing is for sure: the level of confidence in the tone of market participants has increased substantially. Unless there are any global shocks, India should be flooded with fresh investment, increasing job opportunities and rising capital markets. Revival in PSU IPOs and disinvestment will help the government reduce its fiscal deficit and IPO markets, in general, will be revived sooner than later. Further, the government can relax FDI guidelines to some extent encouraging more foreign inflows in industries such as retail, mining, telecom and insurance.

As the government is free from the ‘Left’ load, it can think of ‘right’ things. If all goes as planned (of course, not possible as per Murphy’s Law), during the tenure of this 15th Lok Sabha, India will truly emerge as an economic superpower. And also, Indians will enjoy their best times ever in their standard and quality of living. These future generations will live in much better living conditions than their erstwhile generations have ever done.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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ANISHA MOTWANI, EVP, MKTG, MNYL

2009-08-12T16:34:00.000+05:30

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1. Cadbury’s ‘Kya swaad hai zindagi ka’ campaign
2. ‘Thanda matlab Coca Cola’ campaign
3. The ‘Czechoslovakia’ ad from Max New York Life Insurances
4. ‘Yeh Fevicol ka mazboot jod hai, tootega nahin’ commercial
5. Closeup’s ‘Kya aap Closeup karte hain’ campaign

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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S. NARAYAN, MKTG MNGR, VOLVO INDIA

2009-07-31T14:12:00.000+05:30

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1. Airtel’s ‘India ka atoot network’ campaign
2. Happydent White
3. Thums Up
4. Chevrolet’s ‘I’m Indian, I’m Chevrolet’ campaign
5. Sony Ericsson’s ‘Thump!’ campaign featuring Hrithik Roshan, which led to growth in Sony Ericsson’s market share

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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S. D. GUPTA, VP, CORP AFFAIRS, WHIRLPOOL

2009-07-28T11:17:00.000+05:30

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1. Happydent chewing gum’s campaign for sparkling teeth
2. ‘Yeh Fevicol ka mazboot jod hai, tootega nahin’ campaign
3. Asian Paints’ ‘Har ghar kuch kehta hai’ campaign
4. Maggi Tomato Ketchup’s ‘It’s different’ campaign
5. ‘Mummy ka magic;’ campaign from Whirlpool

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Godrej’s strategic makeover...

2009-07-21T14:14:00.000+05:30

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Adi may be old in years, but he does not want his brand to look old for sure. So to reinvigorate brand Godrej and give it a youthful appeal (at par with his aggressive Korean rivals), Adi Godrej and his senior management team adopted a complete makeover strategy for ‘Godrej’ at the beginning of FY 2008-09. The message of change was drilled into the collective psyche of the 23,000 strong Godrej ‘family.’ At that time, Adi Godrej told 4Ps B&M, “There has been a major change within us and we at Godrej have welcomed this change. Our employees have responded to this change positively.” The makeover, complete with fresh colours in their durable portfolio, paid off handsomely for Godrej. The group invested smartly in IPL’s season I to communicate the change. Ask them and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. (GCPL) claims that the makeover gave required thrust for brands like Cinthol and Ezee. Insiders claim that the overall group has seen topline growth of over 20% in the year ended 31st March 2009. It’s April 2009, the onset of another fiscal year; the future beckons and the sprawling 3,500 acre Godrej ‘campus’ in Mumbai is still reaping in the gains of change!

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Mixing pleasure with business all the way...

2009-07-07T11:57:00.000+05:30

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He’s been in the business for the last 16 years and coming from a family of chartered accountants, he sure knows a thing or two about monetising his passion
Apart from his flair for creating clean western silhouettes, this designer from Mumbai has managed to crack some smart deals with corporate houses. He stepped boldly into retailing in 2003 in collaboration with up-market retail store, Benzer. His first prêt line Rocky S Jeans saw great interest from a host of chain boutiques and ever since this designer has experimented with a host of prêt creations. With Akshay Kumar & Beyoncé Knowles as clients, Rocky S indeed knows which side of the bread is to be buttered. He shares his designs at making money...

4Ps B&M: Why haven’t Indian designers been able to build sustainable brands?
RS: I don’t think we’re missing out big time but we have lately realised that from the long run sustainability perspective of the brand, we need to focus more on the affordable segment. See, designers today have two types of collection in their portfolio – the haute couture for the high-end customers and the ready-to-wear prêt line. In order to create a popular brand, I think we need to focus on the prêt line.

4Ps B&M: The Indian designer wear industry is unstructured. Comment.
RS: We haven’t grown as compared to the European designer industry. But, if you consider any designer brand from Europe, you will see initially they have been supported by big business houses. This trend however, till date, is conspicuous by its absence in India. The Indian designer wear industry is lacking funds and therefore we need support from the corporate houses. It can be in the form of tie-ups with retailers or even from venture-capitalists.

4Ps B&M: But, why is corporate interest missing?
RS: I think this is because it requires a lot of transparency to generate investments. If someone is investing in your business, he/she has full liability to know what exactly is happening with the money. We are still in a nascent stage to maintain such transparency and thus, many designers are now starting to become more organised. Some of us have now even begun to pay attention to financial audits.

4Ps B&M: Given the global recession, do you think fashion industry must resort to cost-cutting?
RS: Yes! Remember at the end of the day you need to make money and so like any other business organisation you need to have your financial plans intact. The recession has affected the global fashion industry badly, as visible in the London and Milan Fashion Weeks.

4Ps B&M: How do Indian Fashion Weeks compare with the London or Milan Fashion Weeks?
RS: The fashion events at London and Milan are much bigger than the Indian Fashion Weeks, but at the same time, please remember that they are over 20-30-years-old and we are just a decade old. Showing your collection in Indian fashion weeks will cost you between Rs.6-12 lakh but for global fashion events the cost is almost double.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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“It is not an ideal scenario”

2009-06-24T14:19:00.000+05:30

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From shift in the IPL’s venue to the overall cricketing in the sub-continent. satish chapparike caught up with ICC’s Chief to talk about all this and more...

4Ps B&M: What’s your view about shifting IPL from India?
HL: Safety and security is paramount and IPL is a domestic tournament run by the BCCI. If the organisers and the Indian Government are unable to reach a compromise to allow the tournament to take place with what are deemed to be the necessary levels of security, then those organisers will do what is in their best interests. From the IPL’s perspective it is not an ideal scenario.

4Ps B&M: Do you think that the terror attacks in Pakistan will have a long term impact on cricket in the sub-continent?
HL: Security has always been a concern no matter where the game is being played. It is impossible to predict the long-term impact of the issue on cricket anywhere. It is something that we have said we will begin to discuss at the ICC’s Board meeting, set to take place in Dubai in the middle of next month.

4Ps B&M: The situation in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India is worrying. So what is going to happen to 2011 World Cup, which is slated to be played in the sub-continent?
HL: Currently there is no plan to change the hosts of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. The sub-continent countries – Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are still the hosts of the event. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. However, there is always a back-up venue for any major ICC event and for this event it is Australia and New Zealand, which was agreed by the ICC Board sometime ago.

4Ps B&M: Don’t you think IPL is growing beyond BCCI and ICC in terms of business venture and economic goliath?
HL: IPL is owned and run by BCCI, which is a member of ICC. IPL is a domestic event and to try to compare it to an ICC international event is not appropriate. ICC events such as the World Cup and the ICC World Twenty20 involve international teams, which are also ICC member countries.

4Ps B&M: One cannot deny that there are talented young cricketers in ICL who have been denied a chance of representing their country. Comment.
HL: ICC is in favour of a resolution to the issue of ICL, as that is in the best interest of cricket. It is an issue that will be considered during the ICC’s next Board meeting in Dubai.

4Ps B&M: With Twenty20 becoming so popular, will test cricket become extinct?
HL: Test cricket is the pinnacle of our game, cherished by international players as the ultimate in our great sport. Our members have also expressed a desire to ensure the primacy of international cricket, particularly test cricket. In fact they have formed a working group made up of representatives of all ICC members to ensure that test cricket is promoted well so that it continues to flourish. ICC and its members believe there is space for all three formats of the game to be embraced by all.

4Ps B&M: What are your plans to revive test cricket?
HL: Test cricket is strong. One simply needs to look at the recent series between South Africa and Australia & the ongoing performance of the Indian cricket team to support this fact. ICC’s members are determined to ensure it grows stronger and the working group referred to already is one way of ensuring this. Each format has its own history. Test cricket is 132-years-old but still appeals to many people around the world. Even ODIs have been going for almost 40 years and have produced nine ICC Cricket World Cups dating back to 1975. Twenty20 cricket too has brought a new audience to the game, inspired a more positive approach in the other formats and produced a thrilling inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in 2007. The game is lucky to have such a great spread of formats.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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