We were so greedy for land, we killed the very channels that prevented rivers from flooding.
This year, for once, the devastating floods of Bihar, where Kosi has swollen to expand across the state seem to have touched us. I say this because, last year, when the same region was under reeling under what was said to be the worst floods in living history, we simply did not know. Media had flashed a few images but it was just more of the same: rivers flood this region every year. So what’s new?
This year there are some differences. One, the breach in the Kosi’s protection system of embankments and barrages took place in Nepal, not in India. As the protection paraphernalia was our responsibility, this meant that this year, for once, we could not blame Nepal for the floods. We had to look within.
Two, the area drowned under the flood was massive and millions were marooned in remote villages. This was partly because the river breached up-stream of the Kosi barrage and spilled over the land, forgetting that it even had a course to run. Remember this is a river that has changed its course by 210 km in the past 250 years — satellite images show 12 distinct channels of how the river has moved.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the flood captured our attention because of the scale of human tragedy. It was made clear that in spite of all our big talk and even bigger institutions for disaster management, we remain unprepared, under-staffed and unequipped for the crisis when it hits.
Now that the waters are finally receding and before our attention also moves on, let us learn for once the hard message of the Kosi floods of 2008. Let us learn because this disaster may not be the first or the last, but it is definitely the worst. It tells us that we have done so much wrong in the way we have managed our environment. It tells us that we know so little about how climate change and its manifestation of changing intensities of rainfall will exacerbate the future. It also tells that we cannot ‘adapt’ to these changes unless we do things differently.
Let’s unpack this lesson. For long we have believed that we can ‘conquer’ nature, control the flood, emasculate our rivers. It was as far back as 1991 that environmentalist Anil Agarwal published this finding in the book, Floods, Flood Plains and Environmental Myths. He explained how the engineering solution was in fact increasing both the incidence and intensity of floods. The reason was simple. The rivers brought down huge quantities of silt each year. Where the embankments were built, silt got deposited in the river, increasing flood incidence. The embankments also increased the duration of floods, as there was no drainage in the surrounding areas. Worse, the engineering walls led people to believe that they were protected from floods. As a result, low-lying areas got populated. Then when the wall broke, the flood hit hard.
In all this, Anil Agarwal explained, we messed up the drainage system of the region. We merrily filled up the water bodies, which were the sponges for its floodwater, and forgot the ‘dead’ channels of the river, which took away the water as fast as possible. We forgot because we were hungry for land. Then, we were greedy for the money we would make from these engineering marvels, which were repaired on paper and half-built for full money. Corruption became the way of life. In all this, we finally and crucially forgot that we had once learnt to ‘live’ with floods.
When Anil Agarwal wrote this in 1991, he was mocked and pilloried. The environmental lobby accused him of playing into the timber contractor’s hand. Because he said that we should stop blaming the mountains for the floods in the plains. He said that it was time we understood that the forests of the Himalayas were needed for the people who lived there. But the forests in this fragile and extremely-young and erosion-prone region would not stop the floods in the plains. The water engineers rubbished this view saying that they knew better. They had the answers.
But what we have to understand is that now we are faced with a double whammy: floods will also increase because the pattern of rainfall is in a twist because of climate change — we are beginning to see more unseasonal, erratic and intense rainfall in many parts of the country. All this will only make ‘coping’ with floods even more difficult and adapting to the future impossible.
In all this, what we can do without is the deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance. Instead we can do with some learning and a lot of doing.
Sep 13, 2008
Business - Simply absurd to simply red
can’t help but feel a tinge of sadness for Air Deccan, as we knew it since 2004. As I woke up one morning to see full page advertisements in the dailies announcing the extinction of the yellow and blue common man’s airline and the birth of Kingfisher Red, it was hard not to feel slight regret at what might have been and will now never be.
Air Deccan was launched with the intention of making every Indian fly. Captain Gopinath, whose baby it was, almost ran his airline aground to prove that he truly meant this. The airline bled with absurdly-low fares (one of my favourite ad-lines from the Deccan campaign was “every time we fly, the economy looks up”). Impractical routes, poor management and extraneous circumstances brought the airline to a stage where no one in his right mind was willing to lend any money to Deccan. Passengers complained about the service but flights went full because no one else offered such a deal.
Yet, despite its shoddy service and poor image, I found the airline and what it stood for had seeped into people’s psyche. A number of Indians identified with the airline as “their own”and were willing to forgive and tolerate.
However, market dynamics are not controlled by emotions and in due course Air Deccan gave way to SimpliFly Deccan. (When I told Captain Gopinath that the name was “Simply Absurd” and a mouthful — one that their own announcers at airports don’t bother to elucidate, sticking to the more easy-on-the-tongue Deccan — he defended the change.) SimpliFly Deccan lost some its regular-though-troubled fliers and many employees who no longer felt strongly associated with it (employee morale and identification with Air Deccan was among the highest I have seen).
A day before the announcement of the merger (December 2007), at his house on Vittal Mallya road, I remember Captain Gopinath telling me about how they (he and Mallya) had a shareholders’ agreement in which he was the chairman of the company and Mallya was the vice-chairman and the company was run by professionals at the behest of the board. He said he and Mallya could appoint six directors each and the board would be neutral. He said they were proceeding on trust and that whatever would happen had happened and would continue to happen with his consent. Things however took quite a different turn the very next day.
But if one was to look at what happened objectively, things perhaps turned out for the best. Hard-nosed passengers, for one, gained. With the services of SimplyFly Deccan showing a marked improvement (a fall in cancellations and a better on- time performance), passengers found they got a better deal. Fares may have moved up but that’s true across the board. For whatever the passenger pays, there’s no denying that he gets a better value for money with SimpliFly Deccan than he did with Air Deccan. In fact, many fliers may well prefer the new flashier, more arrogant and more “with it” image that Kingfisher Red promises to deliver because flying is not only about reaching destinations but also about making a statement.
He may have lost his carrier but Captain Gopinath is better off. Even if he had not sold his airline when he did, how would he have managed the latest oil carnage when bankers turned reluctant to lend to the best of the carriers? If he got a decent price then, he may not have got even half of that today. Industry analysts argue that a sale to Anil Ambani may have been better as Vijay Mallya is not known for his ability to create shareholder value but this is merely an academic point today. Shareholders undoubtedly now have more to look forward than they did last year when Deccan was usually in the news for all the wrong reasons.
With oil reaching record highs and competition intensifying, Gopinath’s chances of keeping his carrier afloat would have been more than slim. Employee’s jobs and salaries would have been at stake. Even if the 3100-odd employees feel rudderless today, without the sale, they would have been rudderless and riddled by uncertainty of whether or where their next pay cheque would be coming from. So, employees — if less happy — are probably better off than before.
I still remember the day last December when, outside the Air Deccan head office on the busy Cunningham road in Bangalore, the back-lit common man’s poster that once symbolised the airline was taken down.
That in a nutshell, literally and figuratively, brings us to the end of this story, shareholder agreements notwithstanding.
Air Deccan was launched with the intention of making every Indian fly. Captain Gopinath, whose baby it was, almost ran his airline aground to prove that he truly meant this. The airline bled with absurdly-low fares (one of my favourite ad-lines from the Deccan campaign was “every time we fly, the economy looks up”). Impractical routes, poor management and extraneous circumstances brought the airline to a stage where no one in his right mind was willing to lend any money to Deccan. Passengers complained about the service but flights went full because no one else offered such a deal.
Yet, despite its shoddy service and poor image, I found the airline and what it stood for had seeped into people’s psyche. A number of Indians identified with the airline as “their own”and were willing to forgive and tolerate.
However, market dynamics are not controlled by emotions and in due course Air Deccan gave way to SimpliFly Deccan. (When I told Captain Gopinath that the name was “Simply Absurd” and a mouthful — one that their own announcers at airports don’t bother to elucidate, sticking to the more easy-on-the-tongue Deccan — he defended the change.) SimpliFly Deccan lost some its regular-though-troubled fliers and many employees who no longer felt strongly associated with it (employee morale and identification with Air Deccan was among the highest I have seen).
A day before the announcement of the merger (December 2007), at his house on Vittal Mallya road, I remember Captain Gopinath telling me about how they (he and Mallya) had a shareholders’ agreement in which he was the chairman of the company and Mallya was the vice-chairman and the company was run by professionals at the behest of the board. He said he and Mallya could appoint six directors each and the board would be neutral. He said they were proceeding on trust and that whatever would happen had happened and would continue to happen with his consent. Things however took quite a different turn the very next day.
But if one was to look at what happened objectively, things perhaps turned out for the best. Hard-nosed passengers, for one, gained. With the services of SimplyFly Deccan showing a marked improvement (a fall in cancellations and a better on- time performance), passengers found they got a better deal. Fares may have moved up but that’s true across the board. For whatever the passenger pays, there’s no denying that he gets a better value for money with SimpliFly Deccan than he did with Air Deccan. In fact, many fliers may well prefer the new flashier, more arrogant and more “with it” image that Kingfisher Red promises to deliver because flying is not only about reaching destinations but also about making a statement.
He may have lost his carrier but Captain Gopinath is better off. Even if he had not sold his airline when he did, how would he have managed the latest oil carnage when bankers turned reluctant to lend to the best of the carriers? If he got a decent price then, he may not have got even half of that today. Industry analysts argue that a sale to Anil Ambani may have been better as Vijay Mallya is not known for his ability to create shareholder value but this is merely an academic point today. Shareholders undoubtedly now have more to look forward than they did last year when Deccan was usually in the news for all the wrong reasons.
With oil reaching record highs and competition intensifying, Gopinath’s chances of keeping his carrier afloat would have been more than slim. Employee’s jobs and salaries would have been at stake. Even if the 3100-odd employees feel rudderless today, without the sale, they would have been rudderless and riddled by uncertainty of whether or where their next pay cheque would be coming from. So, employees — if less happy — are probably better off than before.
I still remember the day last December when, outside the Air Deccan head office on the busy Cunningham road in Bangalore, the back-lit common man’s poster that once symbolised the airline was taken down.
That in a nutshell, literally and figuratively, brings us to the end of this story, shareholder agreements notwithstanding.
World - Not through ideology
You wouldn’t have thought that an ex-chairman of Goldman Sachs would be ordering what someone has called “the greatest nationalisation in the history of humanity”. But that is what Hank Paulson did last week-end when, as the US treasury secretary, he nationalised the giant mortgage refinance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That immediately cost the American taxpayer $200 billion, and doubled the US public debt by adding $6 trillion to the total. This is only the latest in a long sequence of events where governments in different western capitals have stepped in to take over or salvage banks and other financial institutions. In February, there was the British nationalisation of Northern Rock (which added about $100 billion to government loans and guarantees); in March, the Fed-facilitated takeover by JP Morgan of Bear Stearns; and in April, the German Bundesbank’s $7 billion bail-out of WestLB.
Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority now owns 5 per cent of Citigroup, becoming its second largest shareholder after it pumped in $7.5 billion; Temasek, a creation of the Singapore government, owns 17 per cent of Standard Chartered, while the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation picked up a 9 per cent stake in UBS (at the same time as an unnamed West Asian investor also stepped in) when that large Swiss bank needed fresh capital. Finally, earlier this week, Lehman Brothers decided to dismember itself only after the state-run Korean Development Bank decided not to put money into the troubled New York firm. Through all this, private investors in financial firms have been losing their shirt, as one bank or investment firm after the other has acknowledged massive writedowns and/or incurred unprecedented losses. Citigroup, for instance, has lost 60 per cent of its market value, others have done even worse, and the blood-letting still continues. The result is that many of the storied New York firms are now worth less than some Indian banks!
What is the moral of this story? Martin Wolf declared in the Financial Times on Wednesday that “the US government … (should) spare us homilies on the sacred role of free financial markets for a long while”. Certainly, people in Asia and South America will remember the advice given by Washington when there were financial crises in these regions — nationalisation was never a part of the package. But if free-flowing financial capitalism is now discredited in most people’s eyes, because profits stay in private pockets while losses become part of the public debt, that is still not the predominant view within the global financial community — which does not accept that its model is broken. One consequence is that the search for a new financial sector paradigm has barely begun.
All this is of immediate relevance in India, when a new governor has taken charge at the Reserve Bank and faces the challenge of structurally reforming India’s financial sector. There is pressure to open up more to international banks, the government-owned banks need to be brought up to speed in many ways, and financial inclusion remains a challenge. It is vital at this stage to not view issues through an ideological prism, and to focus on what works. For instance, the Cornell economist Kaushik Basu has argued recently that one reason for the acceleration of Indian economic growth in 1980 (from 3.5 per cent till then to nearly 6 per cent) was the much-reviled bank nationalisation of 1969. This resulted in the spread of bank branches into small towns and the countryside, and helped increase the extent of financial savings, which helped finance higher growth. Talk of the law of unintended consequences! So it might be that, in terms of relative importance, measures to further improve financial inclusiveness are more important than the more fashionable talking points of bankers.
Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority now owns 5 per cent of Citigroup, becoming its second largest shareholder after it pumped in $7.5 billion; Temasek, a creation of the Singapore government, owns 17 per cent of Standard Chartered, while the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation picked up a 9 per cent stake in UBS (at the same time as an unnamed West Asian investor also stepped in) when that large Swiss bank needed fresh capital. Finally, earlier this week, Lehman Brothers decided to dismember itself only after the state-run Korean Development Bank decided not to put money into the troubled New York firm. Through all this, private investors in financial firms have been losing their shirt, as one bank or investment firm after the other has acknowledged massive writedowns and/or incurred unprecedented losses. Citigroup, for instance, has lost 60 per cent of its market value, others have done even worse, and the blood-letting still continues. The result is that many of the storied New York firms are now worth less than some Indian banks!
What is the moral of this story? Martin Wolf declared in the Financial Times on Wednesday that “the US government … (should) spare us homilies on the sacred role of free financial markets for a long while”. Certainly, people in Asia and South America will remember the advice given by Washington when there were financial crises in these regions — nationalisation was never a part of the package. But if free-flowing financial capitalism is now discredited in most people’s eyes, because profits stay in private pockets while losses become part of the public debt, that is still not the predominant view within the global financial community — which does not accept that its model is broken. One consequence is that the search for a new financial sector paradigm has barely begun.
All this is of immediate relevance in India, when a new governor has taken charge at the Reserve Bank and faces the challenge of structurally reforming India’s financial sector. There is pressure to open up more to international banks, the government-owned banks need to be brought up to speed in many ways, and financial inclusion remains a challenge. It is vital at this stage to not view issues through an ideological prism, and to focus on what works. For instance, the Cornell economist Kaushik Basu has argued recently that one reason for the acceleration of Indian economic growth in 1980 (from 3.5 per cent till then to nearly 6 per cent) was the much-reviled bank nationalisation of 1969. This resulted in the spread of bank branches into small towns and the countryside, and helped increase the extent of financial savings, which helped finance higher growth. Talk of the law of unintended consequences! So it might be that, in terms of relative importance, measures to further improve financial inclusiveness are more important than the more fashionable talking points of bankers.
India - A dubious river sutra
Floods bring out the worst in us. They might occur elsewhere in Asia, Africa and even in Europe, but when they happen here, as they invariably do every year, floods turn into the quintessential Indian phenomenon: a blame game involving (angry) politicians across regions and parties, (defensive) bureaucrats, (largely absent) engineers and somewhat self-righteous civil society organisations with disparate agendas. Then there is talk of building high dams in neighbouring countries to contain turbulent rivers, however impractical or ecologically unsound the proposals might be. And, finally, the spectre of a decades-old project to link India’s rivers rises once again to complete the circle of helplessness and hopelessness.
India’s river sutra for dealing with floods is a wily mixture of politics, commerce and barely disguised ignorance of matters technical combined with a remarkable indifference to the sufferings of the victims. The millions displaced by the swirling waters — close to five million in Bihar and Assam this year — provide but spectacle and a fleeting focus for the excuses and allegations that are churned up every time our volatile rivers burst their embankments and devastate increasingly larger swathes of the country.
Although natural calamities are occurring more frequently and striking with greater force thanks to climate change, there is a remarkable consistency in the way officialdom responds to disasters. Each time a flood touches the political danger mark, prime ministers, chief ministers and party leaders hop into planes for aerial surveys of the affected areas. Ask anyone who is familiar with rivers and they will tell you that there is nothing much you can glean from this height. Even in normal times, a river is nothing but a sheet of water which hides all that has gone before it.
Part of the politics of flood management is the dole from Delhi, the largesse depending entirely on the political calculations of the ruling party at the Centre. Figures of the people and livestock affected along with those relating to the area of submergence, both of which have a bearing on final tally of losses, have nothing to do with the amount of relief that is announced since most statistics appear to be a matter of guesswork. In 2004, the Central Water Commission had claimed the land submerged in north Bihar was more than the total area of these districts! It was a discrepancy that neither the Ministry of Water Resources nor the PMO spotted when the state government used the same figures to seek relief.
This time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been unusually quick to grant a Rs 1,000-crore package for Bihar although this has triggered a political sideshow in his “home state” of Assam — Singh is a Rajya Sabha member from Dispur — which believes its misery is being belittled. Stoking the controversy is the call to MPs by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to contribute Rs 10 lakh each from their Local Area Development Scheme funds for reconstruction projects in Bihar. Should Assam have been left out?
Relief, timely or not, has tended to dominate the discourse on floods in times of crisis but even at other times the core issue of river management through long-term measures has seldom been a priority. The standard response so far has been to set up a committee or task force to study the problem although there are enough reports with the government to erect a substantial barrage across the Kosi. In 2004, Manmohan Singh, who is chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, announced a task force to look into the problem of recurrent floods of the past 50 years. “We need to find an abiding solution to this problem — of upstream solutions in the catchment areas and downstream solutions in the form of flood control measure,” Singh declared in July 2004, when the state was in the grip of another of its “worst-ever” floods. The task force was to submit its report in six months. No one has seen its recommendations yet.
Abiding solutions may prove elusive specially since we share rivers with neighbours. Take the Brahmaputra. At 2,906 km, it is one of Asia’s longest rivers, traversing China’s Tibet region, India and Bangladesh before joining the Ganga. Every year, the river washes away countless villages and submerges vast tracts of farmlands besides causing considerable loss of human and animal life. Traditional approaches to “taming” the river do not work and policy-makers have to understand the ground realities before coming up with solutions.
Or look at the Kosi, undoubtedly one of the world’s most volatile rivers. Before embankments were taken up in earnest and became a tool of political patronage, the flood-prone area of Bihar was just 2.5 million hectares. By 1974, the Kosi had 2,192 km of embankments while the area vulnerable to floods has shot up to 4.3 million hectares. Today, the state has embankments stretching for 3,430 km and a sharp rise in the flood-prone area to 6.88 million hectares. Since embankments are obviously not the solution, another task force has been appointed to look at Bihar’s woes. That, however, will not stop much money and sand flowing down the Kosi as embankments are repaired periodically.
Meanwhile, a proposal made in 1937 to dam the Kosi at Barahkshetra in Nepal and revived periodically since then is being taken out of mothballs. This promises to take its own time even for talks to be initiated with Nepal. For the millions trapped by flood waters, there is no lifeline in sight.
India’s river sutra for dealing with floods is a wily mixture of politics, commerce and barely disguised ignorance of matters technical combined with a remarkable indifference to the sufferings of the victims. The millions displaced by the swirling waters — close to five million in Bihar and Assam this year — provide but spectacle and a fleeting focus for the excuses and allegations that are churned up every time our volatile rivers burst their embankments and devastate increasingly larger swathes of the country.
Although natural calamities are occurring more frequently and striking with greater force thanks to climate change, there is a remarkable consistency in the way officialdom responds to disasters. Each time a flood touches the political danger mark, prime ministers, chief ministers and party leaders hop into planes for aerial surveys of the affected areas. Ask anyone who is familiar with rivers and they will tell you that there is nothing much you can glean from this height. Even in normal times, a river is nothing but a sheet of water which hides all that has gone before it.
Part of the politics of flood management is the dole from Delhi, the largesse depending entirely on the political calculations of the ruling party at the Centre. Figures of the people and livestock affected along with those relating to the area of submergence, both of which have a bearing on final tally of losses, have nothing to do with the amount of relief that is announced since most statistics appear to be a matter of guesswork. In 2004, the Central Water Commission had claimed the land submerged in north Bihar was more than the total area of these districts! It was a discrepancy that neither the Ministry of Water Resources nor the PMO spotted when the state government used the same figures to seek relief.
This time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been unusually quick to grant a Rs 1,000-crore package for Bihar although this has triggered a political sideshow in his “home state” of Assam — Singh is a Rajya Sabha member from Dispur — which believes its misery is being belittled. Stoking the controversy is the call to MPs by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to contribute Rs 10 lakh each from their Local Area Development Scheme funds for reconstruction projects in Bihar. Should Assam have been left out?
Relief, timely or not, has tended to dominate the discourse on floods in times of crisis but even at other times the core issue of river management through long-term measures has seldom been a priority. The standard response so far has been to set up a committee or task force to study the problem although there are enough reports with the government to erect a substantial barrage across the Kosi. In 2004, Manmohan Singh, who is chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, announced a task force to look into the problem of recurrent floods of the past 50 years. “We need to find an abiding solution to this problem — of upstream solutions in the catchment areas and downstream solutions in the form of flood control measure,” Singh declared in July 2004, when the state was in the grip of another of its “worst-ever” floods. The task force was to submit its report in six months. No one has seen its recommendations yet.
Abiding solutions may prove elusive specially since we share rivers with neighbours. Take the Brahmaputra. At 2,906 km, it is one of Asia’s longest rivers, traversing China’s Tibet region, India and Bangladesh before joining the Ganga. Every year, the river washes away countless villages and submerges vast tracts of farmlands besides causing considerable loss of human and animal life. Traditional approaches to “taming” the river do not work and policy-makers have to understand the ground realities before coming up with solutions.
Or look at the Kosi, undoubtedly one of the world’s most volatile rivers. Before embankments were taken up in earnest and became a tool of political patronage, the flood-prone area of Bihar was just 2.5 million hectares. By 1974, the Kosi had 2,192 km of embankments while the area vulnerable to floods has shot up to 4.3 million hectares. Today, the state has embankments stretching for 3,430 km and a sharp rise in the flood-prone area to 6.88 million hectares. Since embankments are obviously not the solution, another task force has been appointed to look at Bihar’s woes. That, however, will not stop much money and sand flowing down the Kosi as embankments are repaired periodically.
Meanwhile, a proposal made in 1937 to dam the Kosi at Barahkshetra in Nepal and revived periodically since then is being taken out of mothballs. This promises to take its own time even for talks to be initiated with Nepal. For the millions trapped by flood waters, there is no lifeline in sight.
India - Let the market handle exit polls
Why do politicians go out on the election campaign trail? Presumably in the hope of influencing public opinion and getting more votes. There are of course, other ways to win elections including intimidation of voters, gerrymandering, fiddling electoral rolls, booth-capturing and other creative forms of rigging. However, influencing public opinion is generally considered the most legitimate method to win an election and there should be broad consensus across the Indian political spectrum about this.
Oddly however, there appears to be a broad consensus among political parties that non-politicians should not be allowed to influence public opinion with respect to elections. At least that is the only reasonable explanation that one can find for the apparently overwhelming desire to ban opinion polling, and in particular, to ban exit polling.
The information and broadcasting ministry and the Cabinet are reportedly considering passing an ordinance to empower the Election Commission to ban exit polls. The major political parties all concur that exit polls can influence voting patterns.
This issue pops up every so often and the Election Commission is also said to be in favour of a ban. The last time it was mooted, the Supreme Court pointed out that it was a violation of the right of freedom of expression.
It is frankly weird. Undoubtedly exit polls could make a difference to voting patterns if polling is being conducted in stages, as it is in India. But that influence would be mixed at best because voter-psyche is mixed.
Some voters would decide to back the apparently winning party. Others would try to shore up the losing parties. A third set of voters would perhaps stay away because they were intending to vote for the leaders and decide to enjoy a holiday instead. What would the net outcome be? Impossible to decipher.
An exit poll is a prediction. Like any other prediction about an election outcome, it could be wrong. It cannot be any more illegitimate than a politician saying that he is confident of victory, or an astrologer or numerologist citing the influence of Mars or counting up the letters in the names of candidates.
For that matter, an exit poll cannot be any more illegitimate than any citizen of whatever hue simply saying that she wants “X Party” to win. All these are opinions that could influence voting patterns. However, an opinion thus expressed is a legitimate influence.
It is by no means clear from any cited statistical evidence that exit polls do influence voting patterns. Even if that is admitted for argument’s sake, there is no intimidation involved in taking an exit poll and there is no rigging. There is an opinion being freely expressed. To stifle that opinion is in itself a deeply undemocratic act.
It is also easy to note that the exit poll mechanism is a useful check and balance against blatant rigging. While pollsters often get things wrong, their presence prevents excesses of thuggery and booth capturing. The most recent ban on exit polls was imposed by Robert Mugabe and there cannot be a better, left-handed endorsement of the democratic utility of this mechanism.
Apart from being undemocratic, such a ban would also involve economic discrimination. It affects the professional psephologists and market research outfits. It takes away the livelihood of the temporary worker, the aam admi who is paid a daily wage to stand at the booth and ask the question.
If the current state of Indian exit polling is unsatisfactory, market forces should be allowed to deal with it. India has multitudes of opinion pollsters and if they compete with each other, they would all have an incentive to improve.
Oddly however, there appears to be a broad consensus among political parties that non-politicians should not be allowed to influence public opinion with respect to elections. At least that is the only reasonable explanation that one can find for the apparently overwhelming desire to ban opinion polling, and in particular, to ban exit polling.
The information and broadcasting ministry and the Cabinet are reportedly considering passing an ordinance to empower the Election Commission to ban exit polls. The major political parties all concur that exit polls can influence voting patterns.
This issue pops up every so often and the Election Commission is also said to be in favour of a ban. The last time it was mooted, the Supreme Court pointed out that it was a violation of the right of freedom of expression.
It is frankly weird. Undoubtedly exit polls could make a difference to voting patterns if polling is being conducted in stages, as it is in India. But that influence would be mixed at best because voter-psyche is mixed.
Some voters would decide to back the apparently winning party. Others would try to shore up the losing parties. A third set of voters would perhaps stay away because they were intending to vote for the leaders and decide to enjoy a holiday instead. What would the net outcome be? Impossible to decipher.
An exit poll is a prediction. Like any other prediction about an election outcome, it could be wrong. It cannot be any more illegitimate than a politician saying that he is confident of victory, or an astrologer or numerologist citing the influence of Mars or counting up the letters in the names of candidates.
For that matter, an exit poll cannot be any more illegitimate than any citizen of whatever hue simply saying that she wants “X Party” to win. All these are opinions that could influence voting patterns. However, an opinion thus expressed is a legitimate influence.
It is by no means clear from any cited statistical evidence that exit polls do influence voting patterns. Even if that is admitted for argument’s sake, there is no intimidation involved in taking an exit poll and there is no rigging. There is an opinion being freely expressed. To stifle that opinion is in itself a deeply undemocratic act.
It is also easy to note that the exit poll mechanism is a useful check and balance against blatant rigging. While pollsters often get things wrong, their presence prevents excesses of thuggery and booth capturing. The most recent ban on exit polls was imposed by Robert Mugabe and there cannot be a better, left-handed endorsement of the democratic utility of this mechanism.
Apart from being undemocratic, such a ban would also involve economic discrimination. It affects the professional psephologists and market research outfits. It takes away the livelihood of the temporary worker, the aam admi who is paid a daily wage to stand at the booth and ask the question.
If the current state of Indian exit polling is unsatisfactory, market forces should be allowed to deal with it. India has multitudes of opinion pollsters and if they compete with each other, they would all have an incentive to improve.
India - Car hat trick for Bengal ?
Whether or not the Nano rolls out from Singur — the four-member land committee is supposed to finish its investigations today — no one can snatch away West Bengal’s laurels in pioneering car manufacture in Asia. Some might attribute the Ambassador’s easy birth to politics in the 1940s meaning more than vote-mongering. Others would argue that today’s agreements and announcements — by and between the CPI(M), Trinamool Congress and even Tata Motors — obfuscate rather than enlighten. Whatever the reason, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should shout from the housetops that Tata’s dinky one-lakh job is chickenfeed for a state that gave India its sturdy warhorse of our potholed roads.
B M Birla started Hindustan Motors in 1942 in Port Okha but moved in 1948 to a 743-acre facility, said to be the biggest in South Asia, at Uttarpara, 30 km from Calcutta, where multi-utility vehicles (Trekker, Porter, Pushpak) were also produced. I remember as a small boy the proud thrill when the Hindustan 10 hit the road. An older politically-minded cousin claimed the name reflected British insistence on restricting Indian car production to an annual 10. As a young journalist, I was allotted a Landmaster. Though the Amby might be reeling under pressure of competition from sleek new brands, the Hindustan Motors factory, 60 years old this year, still turns out several thousand cars every month. Its remarkable freedom from labour trouble prompted whispers of the Birlas handsomely funding Communist politicians.
Congress strategists must be laughing up their sleeves at frustrated Ratan Tata’s threat to withdraw from West Bengal. With elections round the corner, it is in their interest to incite Mamata Banerjee to drive nails into what they hope will be the Left Front government’s coffin. For Manmohan Singh, it would be sweet revenge for four years of bonded slavery, especially since many in West Bengal blame Prakash Karat rather than the chief minister for the Nandigram bloodshed that preceded the furore over Singur.
There is some reason for Tata to feel “unwanted” in West Bengal because, as this column pointed out earlier, the project has been so thoroughly mishandled that there is a strong public perception of haste without planning. Our Mamata could not have gone on the rampage if Tatas had bought their own land through the market mechanism. Invoking a century-old acquisition law reinforced charges of colonial arbitrariness. The government is accused of hypocrisy mainly because of Bhatacharjee’s fanciful promises about acquiring only one-crop land. It tied itself up in knots by denying forcible acquisition, then confessed that not 400 acres, as Banerjee claims, but 167 acres (the figure has since been revised many times) had indeed been so acquired.
Application of the Centre’s rehabilitation package would have blunted the edge of criticism somewhat. So would greater publicity for Tata’s promise to generate 10,000 jobs as well as train dispossessed peasants with no idea of manufacturing. It’s a mystery, too, why the government will not disclose details of its agreement with Tatas. Secrecy fuels rumours about hidden construction and other deals for the Tatas that will handsomely benefit the CPI(M) as well as individual Marxist notables. It also encourages rampant land speculation.
Reason plays little part in the dialogue. Indeed, despite Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s heroic efforts, there is more demagoguery than dialogue. Every player grinds a private axe. The Centre seeks to discredit the Left Front, Banerjee to mobilise voters, and Bhattacharjee to retain the loyalty of the next generation of Bengalis. But as the recent CITU bandh demonstrated, the populist forces the CPI(M) has stoked for three decades can explode in its face and destroy its dream of the future.
Our Amby is the sole survivor of Britain’s glory when BMC was the world’s fourth largest car manufacturer. When Shanti Swarup Dhavan, high commissioner to Britain in the late 1960s, patriotically demanded an Ambassador, he was told that Londoners would think poverty-stricken India had resurrected a 1957 Morris Oxford Series III for its envoy. But Bengalis can take time off from fighting the East India Company to gloat over an export version of the Amby being the favourite cab in London’s trendy Notting Hill.
As the controversy rages, I wonder whether the Amby’s success or rivalry between two great industrial houses influenced Tata’s choice of location. It seems too much of a coincidence that Singur and Hind Motor should be in the same district. It only remains for Bhattacharjee to persuade Rahul Bajaj to make the Bajaj Lite also in Hooghly. That would be a hat trick for decrepit-but-ambitious Bengal.
B M Birla started Hindustan Motors in 1942 in Port Okha but moved in 1948 to a 743-acre facility, said to be the biggest in South Asia, at Uttarpara, 30 km from Calcutta, where multi-utility vehicles (Trekker, Porter, Pushpak) were also produced. I remember as a small boy the proud thrill when the Hindustan 10 hit the road. An older politically-minded cousin claimed the name reflected British insistence on restricting Indian car production to an annual 10. As a young journalist, I was allotted a Landmaster. Though the Amby might be reeling under pressure of competition from sleek new brands, the Hindustan Motors factory, 60 years old this year, still turns out several thousand cars every month. Its remarkable freedom from labour trouble prompted whispers of the Birlas handsomely funding Communist politicians.
Congress strategists must be laughing up their sleeves at frustrated Ratan Tata’s threat to withdraw from West Bengal. With elections round the corner, it is in their interest to incite Mamata Banerjee to drive nails into what they hope will be the Left Front government’s coffin. For Manmohan Singh, it would be sweet revenge for four years of bonded slavery, especially since many in West Bengal blame Prakash Karat rather than the chief minister for the Nandigram bloodshed that preceded the furore over Singur.
There is some reason for Tata to feel “unwanted” in West Bengal because, as this column pointed out earlier, the project has been so thoroughly mishandled that there is a strong public perception of haste without planning. Our Mamata could not have gone on the rampage if Tatas had bought their own land through the market mechanism. Invoking a century-old acquisition law reinforced charges of colonial arbitrariness. The government is accused of hypocrisy mainly because of Bhatacharjee’s fanciful promises about acquiring only one-crop land. It tied itself up in knots by denying forcible acquisition, then confessed that not 400 acres, as Banerjee claims, but 167 acres (the figure has since been revised many times) had indeed been so acquired.
Application of the Centre’s rehabilitation package would have blunted the edge of criticism somewhat. So would greater publicity for Tata’s promise to generate 10,000 jobs as well as train dispossessed peasants with no idea of manufacturing. It’s a mystery, too, why the government will not disclose details of its agreement with Tatas. Secrecy fuels rumours about hidden construction and other deals for the Tatas that will handsomely benefit the CPI(M) as well as individual Marxist notables. It also encourages rampant land speculation.
Reason plays little part in the dialogue. Indeed, despite Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s heroic efforts, there is more demagoguery than dialogue. Every player grinds a private axe. The Centre seeks to discredit the Left Front, Banerjee to mobilise voters, and Bhattacharjee to retain the loyalty of the next generation of Bengalis. But as the recent CITU bandh demonstrated, the populist forces the CPI(M) has stoked for three decades can explode in its face and destroy its dream of the future.
Our Amby is the sole survivor of Britain’s glory when BMC was the world’s fourth largest car manufacturer. When Shanti Swarup Dhavan, high commissioner to Britain in the late 1960s, patriotically demanded an Ambassador, he was told that Londoners would think poverty-stricken India had resurrected a 1957 Morris Oxford Series III for its envoy. But Bengalis can take time off from fighting the East India Company to gloat over an export version of the Amby being the favourite cab in London’s trendy Notting Hill.
As the controversy rages, I wonder whether the Amby’s success or rivalry between two great industrial houses influenced Tata’s choice of location. It seems too much of a coincidence that Singur and Hind Motor should be in the same district. It only remains for Bhattacharjee to persuade Rahul Bajaj to make the Bajaj Lite also in Hooghly. That would be a hat trick for decrepit-but-ambitious Bengal.
Tech - Closing the gates on windows
Google’s Chrome is another link in its strategy to use the net for popularising free online applications to supersede the traditional and expensive desktop computing model.
Until a few years ago, mainstream media (MSM) editors insisted the expansion of “FAQs” be provided when the term was used. Nowadays, faqs require no explanation. “FOSS” is another acronym heading in the same direction though MSM editors still insist on explaining that it stands for Free (and) Open Source Software.
Even if Foss supposedly requires expansion, the concepts have gone mainstream. A substantial portion of large global enterprise and all the world’s small businesses and individual IT users depend on Foss.
The term embodies two different related concepts. Free software need not be open source and open source software may not be free. For example, Microsoft offers a free but not open source browser (Internet Explorer) and Red Hat offers open source applications that it charges for.
But most frequently, Foss is both free and open source. That is, it can be downloaded and distributed freely without payment and the source code is also freely available for anybody to tinker with. Foss has changed computing paradigms.
Enter Chrome. The browser from Google is deliberately misnamed because it uses a minimum of “chrome”, which is what the look and feel of a browser is called. Chrome rides the trend of increasing dependence on Foss and other trends in communication technologies that suggest the imminent superseding of the traditional desktop computing model.
Chrome “sells” on the USP of being fast and uncluttered. It was marketed through an operating manual distributed in the form of a downloadable comic book. Reportedly, over 40 million users downloaded Chrome within the first 12 hours of release.
The browser is fast and easy on the eye because it dispenses with pull-down menus. Instead, there’s an “omnibar” where anything (urls, searches) can be typed. There’s a wrench-icon, which tweaks functionalities and an “incognito” option that allows more secure browser windows or tabs to be opened.
While average reviews have been positive, power users have had mixed reactions. There are many grey areas in current functionality. The most glaring is the lack of Linux and Mac versions, though rollouts are expected soon.
The initial End-user license agreement (EULA) gave Google copyright claims to practically any content created through Chrome. That was fixed within 24 hours (with retrospective effect for initial downloads). But there are a dozen known security holes and exploits were published very quickly. Google may have fixed some with its first security update, a week after the initial release.
While Java works quickly where it works, and the multimedia viewer experience is good on sites like YouTube, there is an absence of plug-ins that allow all java-enabled sites to work. There is also an absence of plug-ins like RealPlayer that allow one-click downloads of flash video and other multimedia content. Since Chrome is open-source, these problems will presumably be fixed fairly quickly by independent developers, if not by the Google team itself.
Reliance on the global software development community is the foundation of the open source paradigm. The logic is that, if a global community of IT developers has access to source code, holes in security and gaps in functionality are rectified quickly. The argument is that a Microsoft, with its mere 70,000-odd employees, cannot compete with a global IT ecosystem where 300 million geeks are continuously writing code.
In fact, open source may be eventually more secure and have wider functionality than closed systems developed by corporates. This is true for Mozilla’s popular browser Firefox, which has grabbed 20 per cent market share because it is clearly better than Internet Explorer. It has worked for the many flavours of Linux (Ubuntu, RedHat, Knoppix, Debian, etc).
Firefox rides on a multitude of plug-ins and add-ons written by independents. Linux distributions have become more popular as independents have developed better graphic-user interfaces (GUI) and written more applications for those platforms.
Beyond functionality and security, the killer advantage for Foss is price. The software on a PC running a legal Windows OS with MS Office bundled will cost upwards of $400. The software on a PC running a Linux distribution with Open Office costs zero and offers the same functionality and probably, better online security.
The Foss paradigm has been extended further by greater broadband penetration and commoditisation of cheap server space and bandwidth. You no longer need fancy high-end hardware to run common applications.
It started with free webmail but the concept has now extended much further. Free versions of office applications are available on the Internet (Google Documents for example) and so is vast amounts of free space where you can store content. Even software developer tools are available and of course, multimedia applications as well. All you now need is a basic device and a reliable broadband connection to get you online; after that, you can work, play games or watch videos to your heart’s content.
This is cloud computing. Information is stored on the Internet and accessed as required through a variety of devices. Services are provided for users who may not own any of the infrastructure or understand any of the technology.
Instead of charging large sums upfront as traditional products do, the providers of these IT services generate revenues from the online presence and actions of their users. Some may charge small sums on per-use basis. Also, when a user checks out an online ad or buys something, a small percentage may accrue to the service provider. Of course, since the service providers know user behaviour and consumption patterns, they can tailor offerings better and reach deeper into the consumers’ wallet.
As broadband penetration increases (in India, the next big jump will be via 3G) and more applications are available for free, this trend of doing everything online will become more pronounced. The conventional paid-OS and applications sitting on a high-end desktop will be rendered irrelevant.
Google recognised this trend earlier than most companies. Its dominance of the Net and its strategy for the future is based on trying to leverage that greater understanding. Google hopes that you will be online 24x7, using its browser, employing its webmail and gTalk chat, interacting with friends on the social networks it owns, blogging on the free space it provides, watching and uploading videos on YouTube, using its online office applications, writing applications on Gears, etc.
It does not charge the user for any of this. It probably never will. It doesn’t need to. The revenues will accrue from the things users do. The revenues will also accrue from the leverage Google possesses vis-a-vis other businesses because it influences and controls your online actions.
A long time ago, AOL built a multi-billion business out of providing a “walled garden” that connected to the wider world of the Web. That wall has long been dismantled. If Google is successful, it will become the game-warden of the wide open world of Web 2.0 and of subsequent versions of the Net.
Until a few years ago, mainstream media (MSM) editors insisted the expansion of “FAQs” be provided when the term was used. Nowadays, faqs require no explanation. “FOSS” is another acronym heading in the same direction though MSM editors still insist on explaining that it stands for Free (and) Open Source Software.
Even if Foss supposedly requires expansion, the concepts have gone mainstream. A substantial portion of large global enterprise and all the world’s small businesses and individual IT users depend on Foss.
The term embodies two different related concepts. Free software need not be open source and open source software may not be free. For example, Microsoft offers a free but not open source browser (Internet Explorer) and Red Hat offers open source applications that it charges for.
But most frequently, Foss is both free and open source. That is, it can be downloaded and distributed freely without payment and the source code is also freely available for anybody to tinker with. Foss has changed computing paradigms.
Enter Chrome. The browser from Google is deliberately misnamed because it uses a minimum of “chrome”, which is what the look and feel of a browser is called. Chrome rides the trend of increasing dependence on Foss and other trends in communication technologies that suggest the imminent superseding of the traditional desktop computing model.
Chrome “sells” on the USP of being fast and uncluttered. It was marketed through an operating manual distributed in the form of a downloadable comic book. Reportedly, over 40 million users downloaded Chrome within the first 12 hours of release.
The browser is fast and easy on the eye because it dispenses with pull-down menus. Instead, there’s an “omnibar” where anything (urls, searches) can be typed. There’s a wrench-icon, which tweaks functionalities and an “incognito” option that allows more secure browser windows or tabs to be opened.
While average reviews have been positive, power users have had mixed reactions. There are many grey areas in current functionality. The most glaring is the lack of Linux and Mac versions, though rollouts are expected soon.
The initial End-user license agreement (EULA) gave Google copyright claims to practically any content created through Chrome. That was fixed within 24 hours (with retrospective effect for initial downloads). But there are a dozen known security holes and exploits were published very quickly. Google may have fixed some with its first security update, a week after the initial release.
While Java works quickly where it works, and the multimedia viewer experience is good on sites like YouTube, there is an absence of plug-ins that allow all java-enabled sites to work. There is also an absence of plug-ins like RealPlayer that allow one-click downloads of flash video and other multimedia content. Since Chrome is open-source, these problems will presumably be fixed fairly quickly by independent developers, if not by the Google team itself.
Reliance on the global software development community is the foundation of the open source paradigm. The logic is that, if a global community of IT developers has access to source code, holes in security and gaps in functionality are rectified quickly. The argument is that a Microsoft, with its mere 70,000-odd employees, cannot compete with a global IT ecosystem where 300 million geeks are continuously writing code.
In fact, open source may be eventually more secure and have wider functionality than closed systems developed by corporates. This is true for Mozilla’s popular browser Firefox, which has grabbed 20 per cent market share because it is clearly better than Internet Explorer. It has worked for the many flavours of Linux (Ubuntu, RedHat, Knoppix, Debian, etc).
Firefox rides on a multitude of plug-ins and add-ons written by independents. Linux distributions have become more popular as independents have developed better graphic-user interfaces (GUI) and written more applications for those platforms.
Beyond functionality and security, the killer advantage for Foss is price. The software on a PC running a legal Windows OS with MS Office bundled will cost upwards of $400. The software on a PC running a Linux distribution with Open Office costs zero and offers the same functionality and probably, better online security.
The Foss paradigm has been extended further by greater broadband penetration and commoditisation of cheap server space and bandwidth. You no longer need fancy high-end hardware to run common applications.
It started with free webmail but the concept has now extended much further. Free versions of office applications are available on the Internet (Google Documents for example) and so is vast amounts of free space where you can store content. Even software developer tools are available and of course, multimedia applications as well. All you now need is a basic device and a reliable broadband connection to get you online; after that, you can work, play games or watch videos to your heart’s content.
This is cloud computing. Information is stored on the Internet and accessed as required through a variety of devices. Services are provided for users who may not own any of the infrastructure or understand any of the technology.
Instead of charging large sums upfront as traditional products do, the providers of these IT services generate revenues from the online presence and actions of their users. Some may charge small sums on per-use basis. Also, when a user checks out an online ad or buys something, a small percentage may accrue to the service provider. Of course, since the service providers know user behaviour and consumption patterns, they can tailor offerings better and reach deeper into the consumers’ wallet.
As broadband penetration increases (in India, the next big jump will be via 3G) and more applications are available for free, this trend of doing everything online will become more pronounced. The conventional paid-OS and applications sitting on a high-end desktop will be rendered irrelevant.
Google recognised this trend earlier than most companies. Its dominance of the Net and its strategy for the future is based on trying to leverage that greater understanding. Google hopes that you will be online 24x7, using its browser, employing its webmail and gTalk chat, interacting with friends on the social networks it owns, blogging on the free space it provides, watching and uploading videos on YouTube, using its online office applications, writing applications on Gears, etc.
It does not charge the user for any of this. It probably never will. It doesn’t need to. The revenues will accrue from the things users do. The revenues will also accrue from the leverage Google possesses vis-a-vis other businesses because it influences and controls your online actions.
A long time ago, AOL built a multi-billion business out of providing a “walled garden” that connected to the wider world of the Web. That wall has long been dismantled. If Google is successful, it will become the game-warden of the wide open world of Web 2.0 and of subsequent versions of the Net.
Lifestyle - Household chores are good for the kids
Quiz for the day: How much time each day, on average, does a child of 6-12 years spend on household chores? If you guessed more than a half-hour, you’re wrong. Children are spending a mere 24 minutes a day doing cleaning, laundry and other housework—a 12% decline since 1997 and a 25% drop from 1981 levels, says Sandra Hofferth, director of the Maryland Population Research Centre at the University of Maryland, based on a study of 1,343 children. In the glacial realm of sociological change, that amounts to a free fall.
It also reflects “important behavioural and values shifts that will affect lives for years to come”, Hofferth says. One consequence is never more obvious than at this time of year, when hundreds of thousands of college freshmen move into their dorms and promptly begin destroying their laundry. Other studies suggest the shift may have longer-term implications for marriage and community life.
Of course, children aren’t doing housework partly because they’re spending more time on such worthy pursuits as reading, studying and youth groups, Hofferth’s data show. Parents are doing less housework themselves, hiring help or just making peace with dust bunnies. And clearly, some housework is best relegated to museums. While Allison O’Steen, Tryon, North Carolina, loved her late mother, she says her habit of ironing sheets isn’t something O’Steen, a mother of two, wants to pass on.
Nevertheless, research into the role of housework in human relationships suggests we may be losing something of value here. While most parents today focus mostly on teaching kids self-reliance—keeping themselves clean, fed and botulism-free—the benefits of learning housework run deeper. For example: Pitching in at home has become a crucial marriage-preservation skill for young men. Studies show parents still assign more housework to girls than boys. Yet these same young women hope as adults to find men who will help out; 90% of 60 women in the age group of 18-32 studied by Kathleen Gerson, a New York University sociology professor, said they hoped to share housework and child care with spouses “in a committed, mutually supportive and egalitarian way”. After controlling for other factors, US marriages tend to be more stable when men participate more in domestic tasks, says a study of 506 US couples published in 2006 in the American Journal of Sociology.
Mindful of the issue, Kathy Helmetag, Troy, Michigan, is instilling “the whole housekeeping thing into” her sons, 7 and 9, she says. Years from now, she believes, their homemaking skills will help them “score a few points with any significant others”.
Housework has unique value in instilling a habit of serving others. Analysing data on more than 3,000 adults, Alice Rossi, an emerita professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts Amherst, found doing household chores as a child was a major, independent predictor of whether a person chose to do volunteer or other community work as an adult. Thus for parents who value service, housework is an important teaching tool.
David Jackson has consistently required his twins, 16, to help around the house, starting as toddlers when they began picking up their toys and adding harder chores, such as stocking bathrooms or mowing the lawn, at each new stage. He sees the chores as a way of teaching empathy and “stewardship—taking care of the community assets”, says the Tulsa, Oklahoma, father. “It helps them realize the world is not all about them.”
If you enjoy a domestic art as an outlet for creativity or love, it’s worth passing on. I love sewing; making prom dresses years ago with my stepdaughter is a fond memory. But I was always rushing around too much when my two biological kids were small to sit down and teach them to sew. With 20-20 hindsight, I’m sorry that at ages 18 and 20, they still don’t know how.
If you lack time to teach a home art you love, look for other avenues. Keeping the family TV tuned to the Food Channel inspired Cindy Harris’ son Mikey, 8, to love cooking. For show-and-tell in class II, he whipped up a chef’s salad; he concocts novel cookie recipes with chocolate, coconut, butterscotch and pecans. While the cookies can be strange, says the Novato, California, mother of two, the whole family nevertheless cherishes Mikey’s gifts.
It also reflects “important behavioural and values shifts that will affect lives for years to come”, Hofferth says. One consequence is never more obvious than at this time of year, when hundreds of thousands of college freshmen move into their dorms and promptly begin destroying their laundry. Other studies suggest the shift may have longer-term implications for marriage and community life.
Of course, children aren’t doing housework partly because they’re spending more time on such worthy pursuits as reading, studying and youth groups, Hofferth’s data show. Parents are doing less housework themselves, hiring help or just making peace with dust bunnies. And clearly, some housework is best relegated to museums. While Allison O’Steen, Tryon, North Carolina, loved her late mother, she says her habit of ironing sheets isn’t something O’Steen, a mother of two, wants to pass on.
Nevertheless, research into the role of housework in human relationships suggests we may be losing something of value here. While most parents today focus mostly on teaching kids self-reliance—keeping themselves clean, fed and botulism-free—the benefits of learning housework run deeper. For example: Pitching in at home has become a crucial marriage-preservation skill for young men. Studies show parents still assign more housework to girls than boys. Yet these same young women hope as adults to find men who will help out; 90% of 60 women in the age group of 18-32 studied by Kathleen Gerson, a New York University sociology professor, said they hoped to share housework and child care with spouses “in a committed, mutually supportive and egalitarian way”. After controlling for other factors, US marriages tend to be more stable when men participate more in domestic tasks, says a study of 506 US couples published in 2006 in the American Journal of Sociology.
Mindful of the issue, Kathy Helmetag, Troy, Michigan, is instilling “the whole housekeeping thing into” her sons, 7 and 9, she says. Years from now, she believes, their homemaking skills will help them “score a few points with any significant others”.
Housework has unique value in instilling a habit of serving others. Analysing data on more than 3,000 adults, Alice Rossi, an emerita professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts Amherst, found doing household chores as a child was a major, independent predictor of whether a person chose to do volunteer or other community work as an adult. Thus for parents who value service, housework is an important teaching tool.
David Jackson has consistently required his twins, 16, to help around the house, starting as toddlers when they began picking up their toys and adding harder chores, such as stocking bathrooms or mowing the lawn, at each new stage. He sees the chores as a way of teaching empathy and “stewardship—taking care of the community assets”, says the Tulsa, Oklahoma, father. “It helps them realize the world is not all about them.”
If you enjoy a domestic art as an outlet for creativity or love, it’s worth passing on. I love sewing; making prom dresses years ago with my stepdaughter is a fond memory. But I was always rushing around too much when my two biological kids were small to sit down and teach them to sew. With 20-20 hindsight, I’m sorry that at ages 18 and 20, they still don’t know how.
If you lack time to teach a home art you love, look for other avenues. Keeping the family TV tuned to the Food Channel inspired Cindy Harris’ son Mikey, 8, to love cooking. For show-and-tell in class II, he whipped up a chef’s salad; he concocts novel cookie recipes with chocolate, coconut, butterscotch and pecans. While the cookies can be strange, says the Novato, California, mother of two, the whole family nevertheless cherishes Mikey’s gifts.
Lifestyle - Europe on sale-Now,buy that
Charmant properties are available in old Europe for less than the price of a dream farmhouse. Rrishi Raote tells you why and how you must buy in.
For decades Britons and Americans of every class have been crossing the Channel or the “pond” to sample the delights of old Europe. Many of them have chosen to stay on and make their homes, or second homes, in parts of Europe perhaps more sunny and salubrious than their native turf.
Now that Indians are surfing a decade-old wave of prosperity, will some of us wash up on European shores? There are several reasons to think so. First, there are more Indian millionaires and “high net-worth individuals” (HNIs) than ever before, with more money and less conservative tastes than their parents.
Second, the RBI is sitting on a mountain of foreign exchange — $300 billion — and doesn’t want all of it. So it has raised the limit on how much money an individual Indian can legally send out of the country for investment, from $25,000 per year in 1994 to $200,000 per year in 2007. That’s just over Rs 90 lakh, and you can use it to buy anything from shares to bonds to property.
But what kind of dream property can you get for that kind of money in Europe? A flat in south Mumbai costs more. Well: consider a modern farmhouse on 6,000 sq m of land in the town of Castiglione del Lago, near Lake Trasimeno in central Italy, for 90,000 euros (Rs 57 lakh). Or a considerably more remote medieval farmhouse in the French Pyrenees, with access “via ancient paved pedestrian pathway” — not quite a steal at 143,000 euros (Rs 90 lakh).
No, no, you want a chic urban pad. Well, for the same amount you can have a “charmant” studio in the artsy district of Montmartre in Paris — really a poky garret. More idyllic is an equally tiny but “delizioso” flat on the outskirts of Rome, with a handkerchief-size garden, an AC and a flowering shrub near the door, for 135,000 euros. Modest and restful?
But modesty is hardly a motivating factor for the well off. You can set your sights higher by joining forces. For instance, a couple can spend $400,000, and if you buy at the cusp of the financial year, in March-April, then two years’ limits can be combined for a grand total of $800,000 —which will buy you something quite grand. Add family members and the number goes up accordingly.
At this price level, your choices are many, from brand-new villas with pools in Provence to very little castles. In Italy, you can explore prestigious territory like Tuscany, home to thousands of north-European and American expats. Here is a picturesque ruin on a hectare of hillside with sea views and fresh spring water, yours for 600,000 euros.
The problem is, Indians are not romantic buyers. “India-based HNIs show a preference for newly-built properties,” says Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), an international property consultancy, not romantic ruins.
Unlike many British and American buyers, Indians are not making the kind of lifestyle choice that involves loving and exhausting regeneration of a rundown farmhouse with superb views. They will not buy a chateau to refurbish as a bed-and-breakfast, as dozens of British families have done. That is an emotional rather than a financial investment.
Children are our chief investment, and many well-off Indians buy homes abroad either for their children who work or study there, or so that they can spend time near them. “My daughters were studying in London,” says Kavita Malani, a Mumbai-based property developer, “and I thought they might want to stay back there.”
So she bought a house near London, with the help of a friend’s brother. “It was a very good deal,” she says, even though to meet RBI guidelines “you have to put it in four different names”. The house is one of four in a compound, all Indian-owned. “We feel much safer and mentally calmer if we have people of our own kind around us.”
Even if she decides to sell, Malani says, “That money I’m not going to bring back to India.” She’s aware of various other property offerings in “England, Dubai, Malaysia” — areas which have already attracted a great deal of Indian money and attention. “They are very easy to buy because they do everything and give you,” she says. “They even pay your ticket to see the place.” Last month JLLM published research showing that the UK residential market is ripe for Indian buyers.
Malani has a point about convenience, because buying in continental Europe involves a number of taxes and fees and careful scrutiny by solicitors. In France, notarial charges alone can be 3-10 per cent on top of the purchase price. A buyer must also understand tax agreements between those countries and India, designed to prevent double taxation of capital gains, for example, or protect inheritance rights. Perhaps for this reason, agent after European agent that we spoke to said they have never had Indian clients. One even said “We don’t do the lower end.”
Perhaps India’s HNIs are satisfied with suburban farmhouses, hill-station homes, a villa in Goa or Mauritius, a flat in London or Dubai for work or play. But this will not last, especially as the wealth gap that separates us from Europe shrinks, and as Europeans begin to look for more congenial neighbours than the Russians who are currently buying up their continent.
For decades Britons and Americans of every class have been crossing the Channel or the “pond” to sample the delights of old Europe. Many of them have chosen to stay on and make their homes, or second homes, in parts of Europe perhaps more sunny and salubrious than their native turf.
Now that Indians are surfing a decade-old wave of prosperity, will some of us wash up on European shores? There are several reasons to think so. First, there are more Indian millionaires and “high net-worth individuals” (HNIs) than ever before, with more money and less conservative tastes than their parents.
Second, the RBI is sitting on a mountain of foreign exchange — $300 billion — and doesn’t want all of it. So it has raised the limit on how much money an individual Indian can legally send out of the country for investment, from $25,000 per year in 1994 to $200,000 per year in 2007. That’s just over Rs 90 lakh, and you can use it to buy anything from shares to bonds to property.
But what kind of dream property can you get for that kind of money in Europe? A flat in south Mumbai costs more. Well: consider a modern farmhouse on 6,000 sq m of land in the town of Castiglione del Lago, near Lake Trasimeno in central Italy, for 90,000 euros (Rs 57 lakh). Or a considerably more remote medieval farmhouse in the French Pyrenees, with access “via ancient paved pedestrian pathway” — not quite a steal at 143,000 euros (Rs 90 lakh).
No, no, you want a chic urban pad. Well, for the same amount you can have a “charmant” studio in the artsy district of Montmartre in Paris — really a poky garret. More idyllic is an equally tiny but “delizioso” flat on the outskirts of Rome, with a handkerchief-size garden, an AC and a flowering shrub near the door, for 135,000 euros. Modest and restful?
But modesty is hardly a motivating factor for the well off. You can set your sights higher by joining forces. For instance, a couple can spend $400,000, and if you buy at the cusp of the financial year, in March-April, then two years’ limits can be combined for a grand total of $800,000 —which will buy you something quite grand. Add family members and the number goes up accordingly.
At this price level, your choices are many, from brand-new villas with pools in Provence to very little castles. In Italy, you can explore prestigious territory like Tuscany, home to thousands of north-European and American expats. Here is a picturesque ruin on a hectare of hillside with sea views and fresh spring water, yours for 600,000 euros.
The problem is, Indians are not romantic buyers. “India-based HNIs show a preference for newly-built properties,” says Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), an international property consultancy, not romantic ruins.
Unlike many British and American buyers, Indians are not making the kind of lifestyle choice that involves loving and exhausting regeneration of a rundown farmhouse with superb views. They will not buy a chateau to refurbish as a bed-and-breakfast, as dozens of British families have done. That is an emotional rather than a financial investment.
Children are our chief investment, and many well-off Indians buy homes abroad either for their children who work or study there, or so that they can spend time near them. “My daughters were studying in London,” says Kavita Malani, a Mumbai-based property developer, “and I thought they might want to stay back there.”
So she bought a house near London, with the help of a friend’s brother. “It was a very good deal,” she says, even though to meet RBI guidelines “you have to put it in four different names”. The house is one of four in a compound, all Indian-owned. “We feel much safer and mentally calmer if we have people of our own kind around us.”
Even if she decides to sell, Malani says, “That money I’m not going to bring back to India.” She’s aware of various other property offerings in “England, Dubai, Malaysia” — areas which have already attracted a great deal of Indian money and attention. “They are very easy to buy because they do everything and give you,” she says. “They even pay your ticket to see the place.” Last month JLLM published research showing that the UK residential market is ripe for Indian buyers.
Malani has a point about convenience, because buying in continental Europe involves a number of taxes and fees and careful scrutiny by solicitors. In France, notarial charges alone can be 3-10 per cent on top of the purchase price. A buyer must also understand tax agreements between those countries and India, designed to prevent double taxation of capital gains, for example, or protect inheritance rights. Perhaps for this reason, agent after European agent that we spoke to said they have never had Indian clients. One even said “We don’t do the lower end.”
Perhaps India’s HNIs are satisfied with suburban farmhouses, hill-station homes, a villa in Goa or Mauritius, a flat in London or Dubai for work or play. But this will not last, especially as the wealth gap that separates us from Europe shrinks, and as Europeans begin to look for more congenial neighbours than the Russians who are currently buying up their continent.
Lifestyle - India Inc Rocks
During the week, Udayan Dasgupta, 39, is the picture of the responsible, senior executive. But over weekends, the director finance of Crocs India turns rock musician.
For the best part of the two days, from around four in the afternoon to 10-11 at night on Saturday, and again from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon on Sunday, Dasgupta’s to be found at the HCL auditorium in Noida banging away on his Fenders Strat — the Clapton Blackie he picked up on an office tour to the US — rehearsing with a band that goes by the name Contra-band.
They play covers, all the old Rolling Stones, U2 and Floyd favourites, and have also recently perfected an original composition, a dirge to Nicobarese Shompen and all the tribes that are losing their habitat and way of life to civilisation:
“Yanomamo die — of the common coldFrom Miners , digging land for gold.Said a Yagua — in an Amazon treeThe Jaguar, is life’s only worry...”
Ask Dasgupta, or Raja as he’s known in music circles, where he finds the energy and he’ll tell you that “it’s a lot about passion” and that making music is relaxing. “It’s a reprieve from all that I do throughout the week.”
Raja was a fairly well known face in the college-band scene in Kolkata as the lead guitarist of Midas Touch, which swept many a college fest in the early nineties.
“We were once even approached by Magnasound to cut an album,” he says. Then, of course, the band dispersed, as each member left college and the city. Music, after all, especially rock music, did not pay. Raja, too, did his company-secretaryship, and left to work for various companies in different cities. His guitar and his music were confined to the odd gig and jamming at friends’ places, an exercise in nostalgia.
Last year the opportunity to be part of a band surfaced again with Maarich, a Bangla band (whose members again had absorbing dayjobs, one was a doctor, another worked with a private firm; only the drummer was a professional). Maarich played at a few puja pandals in Delhi, but the momentum was soon lost. And then Contra-band happened.
Sounds familiar? Does Raja remind you of Aditya Shroff, the character Farhan Akhtar plays in Rock On!! — a rock musician who becomes an investment banker and then makes a comeback with his band, juggling his work day with rehearsals, bonding with band members, discussing chords, riffs and scales?
In truth, Aditya and Raja are not isolated phenomena. There are many others, mid-level and senior denizens of the corporate world, successful entrepreneurs and businessmen, whose lives have taken a similar trajectory.
Take Krishnan Chatterjee, lead vocalist for Contra-band, and assistant vice president of HCL Technologies. Or its drummer, Kalyan Kumar, who is global practice head of HCL Comnet’s IT service assurance division.
Then there’re Philipe Haydon, president and CEO for Asia-Pacific for the pharmaceutical division of Himalaya Drug Company, who sings lead and plays the guitar for Ministry of Blues in Bangalore; Devraj Sanyal, CEO of integrated marketing firm PDM India, and vocalist with Brahma, a popular heavy metal band; as also Anup Kutty, the editor of Maxim and vocalist again for Delhi band Menwhopause.
Among others of this ilk are Suresh Bhojwani, chairman and managing director of plastics company Bright Brothers who, along with his wife Devika, is a regular at Not Just Jazz By the Bay, Hard Rock Cafe, 1900s, and lately The Blue Frog, of which he is director.
Rock On!!’s Aditya is “kind of” based on Pratish (Prat) Motwane, Wharton graduate, ex-investment banker (Goldman Sachs and First Boston in New York) and now energy entrepreneur who plays the Blues Harmonica for Beatroot Blues.
True, there are many senior executives with absorbing hobbies, even music. But rock music? That’s for the young — or so most of us think.
Indeed, most of this set picked up the guitar young, when they were growing up between the sixties and the eighties, the high noon of rock. Their initiation was college fests such as IIT Kharagpur’s Springfest. It was heady, being on stage, being the subject of adulation, the slightly beyond the pale persona of the rock musician...
“Ahhh, the ‘scene’!” reminisces Jaideep Gopinath, director, brand management and marketing operations of Subex, who was part of a band called Sweet Cynaide in college and still plays the guitar occasionally.
“Sitting around talking about Ozzy Osbourne and his crazy antics on stage, or what a great guitarist Jimi Hendrix was and how unfortunate it was that he died so young, or dreaming about the rock greats coming on tour to India, or Back Masking — rumor had it that rock bands were conniving with the devil and adding words from the occult into the back ground of their music...but it added to the mystery of rock music and was a favourite urban legend topic with all of us.”
Others like Haydon (and his brother Mark who works with Astra Zeneca) came to it fairly late: “Dad bought me my first guitar from a hippy in Goa for Rs 10...said it was a bargain too good to resist! Super support from mom ‘n’ dad…” Ditto for Motwane, who became part of the blues scene in New York when he was all of 26.
“I did an eight week course in the Blues Harmonica at the New School for Social Research,” says the musician who has played with jazz legends like Muddy Waters and Jerry Portnoy (a regular with Clapton) and jammed with Buddy Guy at the NCPA — along with his friend and occasional rocker Milind Deora.
But for every Haydon, for every Raja and for every Motwane, there’re many talented others who fell by the wayside. Take one illustrious example, that of Prabhakar Mundkur, vocalist, guitarist and later song-writer for Savages, the band from the late sixties-early seventies considered by many to be the pioneering rock band in India (Remo Fernandes was for a brief while a part of it) — now CEO of advertising agency Percept.
“I played from 1968 to 1973 and then left to go back to my studies. At the time I didn’t see any future in live music.” And this when, by his own admission, Mundkur was making more money out of music than his naval officer father. Savages, incidentally, was back in June this year for a 30 years’ reunion concert at Mumbai’s Not Just Jazz By the Bay, but Mundkur is dismissive about the grey-haired, paunchy lot getting together seriously again.
Nondon Bagchi, the HIP Pocket anchor and veteran on the Kolkata rock scene, makes an important point when he says that there’s no need to romanticise these middle-aged rockers, because when it came to the crunch they chose to forsake music.
“I remember a friend — this was in the eighties — who was part of our band and used to work with Mecon. Even a half inch extra length of hair was frowned upon. I remember we had to lie to his boss and tell him that we were going to play at the Asiad Games opening, to attend a gig in Delhi. Those were difficult times.”
Indeed, many a rock band member turned to music professionally so they could continue to do what they liked — somewhat. Chris Avinash, who was part of Sweet Cyanide with Gopinath and later formed another band, Document Done, with his BPL colleagues, stumbled upon a winning concept, the corporate rock festival TouchBass, and chucked his job to concentrate on growing the event.
Many of the members of Savages too did that: Bashir Sheikh, who worked with music companies, and Joe Alvares, who worked with his father’s auto ancillary firm and turned to organising high-profile jazz events under his company, Galilee Superstars.
But the times have changed a bit, and perhaps, our rockers have a slightly easier time of it today. “Today’s organisations are much freer, they are not process driven like earlier, but ideas driven. They know that they have to help employees unleash their human potential if they are to come up with fresh ideas,” says Chatterjee, who has ready access to the HCL auditorium, which is where Contra-band rehearses.
Families too are, by and large, much more supportive. “My wife and two daughters are quite used to the fact that after I get home every day and regardless of how late, I practice for at least an hour,” says Haydon. Motwane also says that it was his wife (author Namita Devidayal) who pushed him to pursue his passion.
Of course, when it comes to the crunch, work has to take precedence. “Initially, I’d put in more than eight hours of practice a day….can’t manage that now,” rues Haydon.
“But then you build redundancies into the band, so that if someone has got to be away, you can carry on,” points out Chatterjee. At least the self-employed like Motwane and Bhojwani have the leisure of doing as they please!
In one way, of course, having a lucrative career on the side is a big plus. You can afford all the fancy guitars that you could never hope to buy if you were a lowly musician. Haydon has 13 — three of them gifts from his chairman — including a rare Fender Heartfield Talon2 and an Ibanez Les Paul copy (’73).
Bhojwani has seven, his favourite being a 1964 Fender Stratocaster “Blackie” with a rosewood fretboard on a maple stalk. Is that compensation enough?
For the best part of the two days, from around four in the afternoon to 10-11 at night on Saturday, and again from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon on Sunday, Dasgupta’s to be found at the HCL auditorium in Noida banging away on his Fenders Strat — the Clapton Blackie he picked up on an office tour to the US — rehearsing with a band that goes by the name Contra-band.
They play covers, all the old Rolling Stones, U2 and Floyd favourites, and have also recently perfected an original composition, a dirge to Nicobarese Shompen and all the tribes that are losing their habitat and way of life to civilisation:
“Yanomamo die — of the common coldFrom Miners , digging land for gold.Said a Yagua — in an Amazon treeThe Jaguar, is life’s only worry...”
Ask Dasgupta, or Raja as he’s known in music circles, where he finds the energy and he’ll tell you that “it’s a lot about passion” and that making music is relaxing. “It’s a reprieve from all that I do throughout the week.”
Raja was a fairly well known face in the college-band scene in Kolkata as the lead guitarist of Midas Touch, which swept many a college fest in the early nineties.
“We were once even approached by Magnasound to cut an album,” he says. Then, of course, the band dispersed, as each member left college and the city. Music, after all, especially rock music, did not pay. Raja, too, did his company-secretaryship, and left to work for various companies in different cities. His guitar and his music were confined to the odd gig and jamming at friends’ places, an exercise in nostalgia.
Last year the opportunity to be part of a band surfaced again with Maarich, a Bangla band (whose members again had absorbing dayjobs, one was a doctor, another worked with a private firm; only the drummer was a professional). Maarich played at a few puja pandals in Delhi, but the momentum was soon lost. And then Contra-band happened.
Sounds familiar? Does Raja remind you of Aditya Shroff, the character Farhan Akhtar plays in Rock On!! — a rock musician who becomes an investment banker and then makes a comeback with his band, juggling his work day with rehearsals, bonding with band members, discussing chords, riffs and scales?
In truth, Aditya and Raja are not isolated phenomena. There are many others, mid-level and senior denizens of the corporate world, successful entrepreneurs and businessmen, whose lives have taken a similar trajectory.
Take Krishnan Chatterjee, lead vocalist for Contra-band, and assistant vice president of HCL Technologies. Or its drummer, Kalyan Kumar, who is global practice head of HCL Comnet’s IT service assurance division.
Then there’re Philipe Haydon, president and CEO for Asia-Pacific for the pharmaceutical division of Himalaya Drug Company, who sings lead and plays the guitar for Ministry of Blues in Bangalore; Devraj Sanyal, CEO of integrated marketing firm PDM India, and vocalist with Brahma, a popular heavy metal band; as also Anup Kutty, the editor of Maxim and vocalist again for Delhi band Menwhopause.
Among others of this ilk are Suresh Bhojwani, chairman and managing director of plastics company Bright Brothers who, along with his wife Devika, is a regular at Not Just Jazz By the Bay, Hard Rock Cafe, 1900s, and lately The Blue Frog, of which he is director.
Rock On!!’s Aditya is “kind of” based on Pratish (Prat) Motwane, Wharton graduate, ex-investment banker (Goldman Sachs and First Boston in New York) and now energy entrepreneur who plays the Blues Harmonica for Beatroot Blues.
True, there are many senior executives with absorbing hobbies, even music. But rock music? That’s for the young — or so most of us think.
Indeed, most of this set picked up the guitar young, when they were growing up between the sixties and the eighties, the high noon of rock. Their initiation was college fests such as IIT Kharagpur’s Springfest. It was heady, being on stage, being the subject of adulation, the slightly beyond the pale persona of the rock musician...
“Ahhh, the ‘scene’!” reminisces Jaideep Gopinath, director, brand management and marketing operations of Subex, who was part of a band called Sweet Cynaide in college and still plays the guitar occasionally.
“Sitting around talking about Ozzy Osbourne and his crazy antics on stage, or what a great guitarist Jimi Hendrix was and how unfortunate it was that he died so young, or dreaming about the rock greats coming on tour to India, or Back Masking — rumor had it that rock bands were conniving with the devil and adding words from the occult into the back ground of their music...but it added to the mystery of rock music and was a favourite urban legend topic with all of us.”
Others like Haydon (and his brother Mark who works with Astra Zeneca) came to it fairly late: “Dad bought me my first guitar from a hippy in Goa for Rs 10...said it was a bargain too good to resist! Super support from mom ‘n’ dad…” Ditto for Motwane, who became part of the blues scene in New York when he was all of 26.
“I did an eight week course in the Blues Harmonica at the New School for Social Research,” says the musician who has played with jazz legends like Muddy Waters and Jerry Portnoy (a regular with Clapton) and jammed with Buddy Guy at the NCPA — along with his friend and occasional rocker Milind Deora.
But for every Haydon, for every Raja and for every Motwane, there’re many talented others who fell by the wayside. Take one illustrious example, that of Prabhakar Mundkur, vocalist, guitarist and later song-writer for Savages, the band from the late sixties-early seventies considered by many to be the pioneering rock band in India (Remo Fernandes was for a brief while a part of it) — now CEO of advertising agency Percept.
“I played from 1968 to 1973 and then left to go back to my studies. At the time I didn’t see any future in live music.” And this when, by his own admission, Mundkur was making more money out of music than his naval officer father. Savages, incidentally, was back in June this year for a 30 years’ reunion concert at Mumbai’s Not Just Jazz By the Bay, but Mundkur is dismissive about the grey-haired, paunchy lot getting together seriously again.
Nondon Bagchi, the HIP Pocket anchor and veteran on the Kolkata rock scene, makes an important point when he says that there’s no need to romanticise these middle-aged rockers, because when it came to the crunch they chose to forsake music.
“I remember a friend — this was in the eighties — who was part of our band and used to work with Mecon. Even a half inch extra length of hair was frowned upon. I remember we had to lie to his boss and tell him that we were going to play at the Asiad Games opening, to attend a gig in Delhi. Those were difficult times.”
Indeed, many a rock band member turned to music professionally so they could continue to do what they liked — somewhat. Chris Avinash, who was part of Sweet Cyanide with Gopinath and later formed another band, Document Done, with his BPL colleagues, stumbled upon a winning concept, the corporate rock festival TouchBass, and chucked his job to concentrate on growing the event.
Many of the members of Savages too did that: Bashir Sheikh, who worked with music companies, and Joe Alvares, who worked with his father’s auto ancillary firm and turned to organising high-profile jazz events under his company, Galilee Superstars.
But the times have changed a bit, and perhaps, our rockers have a slightly easier time of it today. “Today’s organisations are much freer, they are not process driven like earlier, but ideas driven. They know that they have to help employees unleash their human potential if they are to come up with fresh ideas,” says Chatterjee, who has ready access to the HCL auditorium, which is where Contra-band rehearses.
Families too are, by and large, much more supportive. “My wife and two daughters are quite used to the fact that after I get home every day and regardless of how late, I practice for at least an hour,” says Haydon. Motwane also says that it was his wife (author Namita Devidayal) who pushed him to pursue his passion.
Of course, when it comes to the crunch, work has to take precedence. “Initially, I’d put in more than eight hours of practice a day….can’t manage that now,” rues Haydon.
“But then you build redundancies into the band, so that if someone has got to be away, you can carry on,” points out Chatterjee. At least the self-employed like Motwane and Bhojwani have the leisure of doing as they please!
In one way, of course, having a lucrative career on the side is a big plus. You can afford all the fancy guitars that you could never hope to buy if you were a lowly musician. Haydon has 13 — three of them gifts from his chairman — including a rare Fender Heartfield Talon2 and an Ibanez Les Paul copy (’73).
Bhojwani has seven, his favourite being a 1964 Fender Stratocaster “Blackie” with a rosewood fretboard on a maple stalk. Is that compensation enough?
Lifestyle - Kitchen porn
Twelve years ago, I shopped for kitchen supplies for my first-ever grown-up kitchen at Mehta Merchants and General Suppliers in Sarojini Nagar. Mehta Merchants didn’t believe in pampering the customer: if they had aluminum cookware guaranteed to give you a stomach ache, or knives that couldn’t cut butter, too bad. That was what you got.
It’s considerably different today. If you’re buying cooking pans, there’s Le Creuset — wildly expensive but absolutely worth it. Even the local kirana store will answer your questions about whether a knife has the right tang (the blade should run the entire length of the handle). And the debate over whether to buy Global, Glaser, Santoku, Furi, Masamoto or Misono can get ugly if serious chefs are involved. (Extra points for bespoke knives, especially if they were made by Dehillerin in Paris or by a fifth-generation knifesmith tucked away in a small village in Japan.) Olive oil pourers, copper casseroles, cast-iron woks, butcher block cutting boards that retail at over Rs 3,000 — all essential in the eyes of fanatic chefs or, unfortunately, amateur foodies like myself.
“Are we going too far?” I asked a writer friend who’s also a passionate cook. “I don’t know,” he said, “but if you’re rich enough to afford Le Creuset, my birthday’s in January.” Another friend who’s a professional chef asked not to be identified because she endorses several high-end products: “It’s gadget porn,” she says. “It’s about equipping the perfect designer kitchen. My question is, are you really going to cook in it? If you’re buying a Misono knife, do you know how to look after it, or will your maid be using it to slice onions?”
Good question. Like many amateur cooks, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes — usually to do with gadgets that look like they’re promising a lifelong affair when all that they’ll deliver is a one-night stand.
My whirly basket salad spinner does a lot of whirling and twirling, but doesn’t get the leaves dry — and it needs as much care as a week-old baby. (I dumped it on a foodie snob who doesn’t cook, but who loves showing it off.) The melon baller? Good buy: I use it for everything from scooping out little potato or apple marbles to, yes, melons.
The potato-and-egg slicer? Bad move. It mashes potatoes, turns eggs into egg salad, and I’ve sliced my fingers on it more times than I can remember. As for the cherry pitter, the stove grill pan that smokes the kitchen up in three seconds flat, the egg separator — I can only plead temporary insanity. And I would never use a garlic press — what it does to garlic is akin to what Jeffrey Dahmer did to his victims, and that’s what your fancy chef's knife is for anyway.
So what are the keepers? I polled a few dedicated cooks, and here’s what we came up with:
1) Knives, two sets: Let the household help have the cheap, short-tang set that will take a certain amount of abuse; invest in at least two really good knives for yourself. Learn how to use a sharpening steel, ditch the fancy knife block (it picks up dust in India) and use a knife case or magnetic knife rack. If you’re clumsy, don’t touch mandolins, no matter how heavily they’re praised by top chefs: you’ll lose more in blood and bone than is good for your health.
2) One really good cast-iron non-stick frying pan, one really good casserole ditto. Copper casseroles only if you’re prepared to look after them. A good wok, preferably cast-iron if you’re prepared to season it; a steamer basket and an omelette pan that’s used only for making omelettes. And a vegetable steamer.
3) A hand-blender and a stand mixer, but a juicer only if you’re fanatic about juicing — otherwise it’s just one more gadget to clean.
4) Microplane graters —absolutely essential and great fun to use.
5) And most important, a sense of fun. Cooking shouldn’t be about showing off what you know or what you’ve bought — it’s about enjoying food and spending time with family and friends.
It’s considerably different today. If you’re buying cooking pans, there’s Le Creuset — wildly expensive but absolutely worth it. Even the local kirana store will answer your questions about whether a knife has the right tang (the blade should run the entire length of the handle). And the debate over whether to buy Global, Glaser, Santoku, Furi, Masamoto or Misono can get ugly if serious chefs are involved. (Extra points for bespoke knives, especially if they were made by Dehillerin in Paris or by a fifth-generation knifesmith tucked away in a small village in Japan.) Olive oil pourers, copper casseroles, cast-iron woks, butcher block cutting boards that retail at over Rs 3,000 — all essential in the eyes of fanatic chefs or, unfortunately, amateur foodies like myself.
“Are we going too far?” I asked a writer friend who’s also a passionate cook. “I don’t know,” he said, “but if you’re rich enough to afford Le Creuset, my birthday’s in January.” Another friend who’s a professional chef asked not to be identified because she endorses several high-end products: “It’s gadget porn,” she says. “It’s about equipping the perfect designer kitchen. My question is, are you really going to cook in it? If you’re buying a Misono knife, do you know how to look after it, or will your maid be using it to slice onions?”
Good question. Like many amateur cooks, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes — usually to do with gadgets that look like they’re promising a lifelong affair when all that they’ll deliver is a one-night stand.
My whirly basket salad spinner does a lot of whirling and twirling, but doesn’t get the leaves dry — and it needs as much care as a week-old baby. (I dumped it on a foodie snob who doesn’t cook, but who loves showing it off.) The melon baller? Good buy: I use it for everything from scooping out little potato or apple marbles to, yes, melons.
The potato-and-egg slicer? Bad move. It mashes potatoes, turns eggs into egg salad, and I’ve sliced my fingers on it more times than I can remember. As for the cherry pitter, the stove grill pan that smokes the kitchen up in three seconds flat, the egg separator — I can only plead temporary insanity. And I would never use a garlic press — what it does to garlic is akin to what Jeffrey Dahmer did to his victims, and that’s what your fancy chef's knife is for anyway.
So what are the keepers? I polled a few dedicated cooks, and here’s what we came up with:
1) Knives, two sets: Let the household help have the cheap, short-tang set that will take a certain amount of abuse; invest in at least two really good knives for yourself. Learn how to use a sharpening steel, ditch the fancy knife block (it picks up dust in India) and use a knife case or magnetic knife rack. If you’re clumsy, don’t touch mandolins, no matter how heavily they’re praised by top chefs: you’ll lose more in blood and bone than is good for your health.
2) One really good cast-iron non-stick frying pan, one really good casserole ditto. Copper casseroles only if you’re prepared to look after them. A good wok, preferably cast-iron if you’re prepared to season it; a steamer basket and an omelette pan that’s used only for making omelettes. And a vegetable steamer.
3) A hand-blender and a stand mixer, but a juicer only if you’re fanatic about juicing — otherwise it’s just one more gadget to clean.
4) Microplane graters —absolutely essential and great fun to use.
5) And most important, a sense of fun. Cooking shouldn’t be about showing off what you know or what you’ve bought — it’s about enjoying food and spending time with family and friends.
Columnists - Vir Sanghvi ( Is Jesus Christ a god,a legend or a myth?)
Westerners often say that fundamentalist Muslims are entirely isolated from the world and focus only on their immediate environment. By and large, this can be true. One of the worrying things about the current Kashmir agitation is how virulent the hatred of India is among the young. But this is less baffling when you realize that this generation grew up during the insurgency, after the Pandits had been driven out and when the only Hindus they ever saw were soldiers. They have no experience of the world outside the valley and no sense of how Kashmir would collapse as an independent nation.
But I sometimes wonder if the same isn’t true of Western Christians as well. The fundamentalists of America’s Bible Belt may be ignorant bigots, almost by definition, but even educated Western Christians seem remarkably ignorant about the origins of their own religion.
They have been brought up to think of Christianity as a Western religion and of Jesus Christ as the blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan messiah of European paintings. When you point out that the chances of Jesus having fair skin and blond hair are roughly on par with Osama bin Laden being outed as a secret Catholic, they look at you in astonishment.
The truth is that Christianity is a West-Asian religion, born in the same general vicinity as Islam. Jesus was a West-Asian Jew and probably had dark skin, curly hair, brown eyes and Semitic features. The parallels with Islam do not end there. All three West-Asian religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) subscribe to the Old Testament and the Quran includes many references to Jesus. Further, the “Allah” whom credulous Americans have come to regard with such dread is a Biblical figure; Allah is simply the Aramaic word for God. The Bible is written in Aramaic so whenever God is referred to, it is as “Allah”. And when Jesus talked about his divine father, he probably referred to “Allah”.
Say this to most Western Christians and you’ll freak them out.
Integral to many currently popular views of Christianity is the notion that Jesus asked his Western brethren to go to the Third World and to save the heathen black and brown hordes. Tell an American or a European that there were Christians in India many centuries before Christianity had taken over the West and he is startled.
But the truth is that the Syrian Christians of Kerala are among the world’s oldest Christian communities. According to legend, they were converted by St Thomas (the Doubting Thomas of the Bible) who journeyed to India after Jesus’s crucifixion. The Syrian Christians had flourishing churches at a time when Europeans were worshipping trees and animals.
Once you see Jesus as a brown man and Christianity as a West Asian religion, it rather changes your perspective on all the claims advanced for the Christian basis of Western morality.
But what stuns Western Christians the most is the idea that Christianity may have had a Hindu link. Though the evidence for this is sketchy and scant (fair enough: the evidence for the existence of the historical Jesus is also hard to find), there is a legend that suggests Jesus came to India before and after the crucifixion.
The theory is based on three planks. The first is the persistent Indian legend that Jesus was here. The second is the mystery of the missing years. We know from the Bible that Jesus spend much of his youth travelling, though the Gospels are unforthcoming about where he went. By the time he was ready to found the sect that became Christianity and be treated as the messiah, he was already a grown man. So where did he go during those missing years? Is it plausible that he came to India? After all, we know that travel between West Asia and India was easy: How else could the Syrian Christians have converted so soon after the crucifixion?
The third plank has to do with the nature of his teachings. The God of the Old Testament is a vengeful God — it’s all “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” stuff. The God of the New Testament, on the other hand, is gentle and forgiving: turn the other cheek etc.
Where did this peace-and-love message come from? Of the world’s great religions, the only one that advocated this kind of message was Hinduism (and perhaps, Buddhism which spun off from Hinduism).
Could it be that, on his travels during the missing years, Jesus came to India and picked up on our spiritual tradition?
It’s only a theory, of course, and one that has no evidence to support it. But it is a worth a thought, isn’t it?
Then, there’s an entirely distinct legend. At most Indian airports, you’ll find copies of Holger Jensen’s book on Jesus’s Kashmir years on sale. Jensen picks on the persistent Kashmir legend that a tomb of a holy man who is buried in the valley is actually the tomb of Jesus Christ (I gather that the same claim is advanced for other tombs in the region as well.)
According to this legend, Jesus did not die on the cross. (Others routinely survived crucifixion too.) He fainted and was taken away by his disciples. A couple of days later when he was better, they moved him to a safe location (this explains the missing body and the Resurrection) and then, he went off to Kashmir where he lived and preached for many years.
I’m not sure I believe any of this myself. It rests on too much guesswork and too little history. But then, so does most of the Bible. Is there any evidence for the parting of the Red Sea? Of Jesus walking on water? Of the raising of Lazarus?
In these matters, you either believe or you do not. I’m not a believer in any of these views. But if the origins of religion are not about evidence but about faith, then here’s one theory that deserves to be heard.
But I sometimes wonder if the same isn’t true of Western Christians as well. The fundamentalists of America’s Bible Belt may be ignorant bigots, almost by definition, but even educated Western Christians seem remarkably ignorant about the origins of their own religion.
They have been brought up to think of Christianity as a Western religion and of Jesus Christ as the blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan messiah of European paintings. When you point out that the chances of Jesus having fair skin and blond hair are roughly on par with Osama bin Laden being outed as a secret Catholic, they look at you in astonishment.
The truth is that Christianity is a West-Asian religion, born in the same general vicinity as Islam. Jesus was a West-Asian Jew and probably had dark skin, curly hair, brown eyes and Semitic features. The parallels with Islam do not end there. All three West-Asian religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) subscribe to the Old Testament and the Quran includes many references to Jesus. Further, the “Allah” whom credulous Americans have come to regard with such dread is a Biblical figure; Allah is simply the Aramaic word for God. The Bible is written in Aramaic so whenever God is referred to, it is as “Allah”. And when Jesus talked about his divine father, he probably referred to “Allah”.
Say this to most Western Christians and you’ll freak them out.
Integral to many currently popular views of Christianity is the notion that Jesus asked his Western brethren to go to the Third World and to save the heathen black and brown hordes. Tell an American or a European that there were Christians in India many centuries before Christianity had taken over the West and he is startled.
But the truth is that the Syrian Christians of Kerala are among the world’s oldest Christian communities. According to legend, they were converted by St Thomas (the Doubting Thomas of the Bible) who journeyed to India after Jesus’s crucifixion. The Syrian Christians had flourishing churches at a time when Europeans were worshipping trees and animals.
Once you see Jesus as a brown man and Christianity as a West Asian religion, it rather changes your perspective on all the claims advanced for the Christian basis of Western morality.
But what stuns Western Christians the most is the idea that Christianity may have had a Hindu link. Though the evidence for this is sketchy and scant (fair enough: the evidence for the existence of the historical Jesus is also hard to find), there is a legend that suggests Jesus came to India before and after the crucifixion.
The theory is based on three planks. The first is the persistent Indian legend that Jesus was here. The second is the mystery of the missing years. We know from the Bible that Jesus spend much of his youth travelling, though the Gospels are unforthcoming about where he went. By the time he was ready to found the sect that became Christianity and be treated as the messiah, he was already a grown man. So where did he go during those missing years? Is it plausible that he came to India? After all, we know that travel between West Asia and India was easy: How else could the Syrian Christians have converted so soon after the crucifixion?
The third plank has to do with the nature of his teachings. The God of the Old Testament is a vengeful God — it’s all “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” stuff. The God of the New Testament, on the other hand, is gentle and forgiving: turn the other cheek etc.
Where did this peace-and-love message come from? Of the world’s great religions, the only one that advocated this kind of message was Hinduism (and perhaps, Buddhism which spun off from Hinduism).
Could it be that, on his travels during the missing years, Jesus came to India and picked up on our spiritual tradition?
It’s only a theory, of course, and one that has no evidence to support it. But it is a worth a thought, isn’t it?
Then, there’s an entirely distinct legend. At most Indian airports, you’ll find copies of Holger Jensen’s book on Jesus’s Kashmir years on sale. Jensen picks on the persistent Kashmir legend that a tomb of a holy man who is buried in the valley is actually the tomb of Jesus Christ (I gather that the same claim is advanced for other tombs in the region as well.)
According to this legend, Jesus did not die on the cross. (Others routinely survived crucifixion too.) He fainted and was taken away by his disciples. A couple of days later when he was better, they moved him to a safe location (this explains the missing body and the Resurrection) and then, he went off to Kashmir where he lived and preached for many years.
I’m not sure I believe any of this myself. It rests on too much guesswork and too little history. But then, so does most of the Bible. Is there any evidence for the parting of the Red Sea? Of Jesus walking on water? Of the raising of Lazarus?
In these matters, you either believe or you do not. I’m not a believer in any of these views. But if the origins of religion are not about evidence but about faith, then here’s one theory that deserves to be heard.
Business - Lunch with Kalpana Morparia, JP Morgan Country Head( G.Read)
From watching films on their opening weekend to shopping like there is no tomorrow, life is swinging at 60 for this former joint-MD of ICICI Bank.
She didn’t want to hang up her boots quite so soon; after all, she was used to 12-hour days in ICICI Bank. And she didn’t think she was cut out be an entrepreneur. So when the job came her way, Kalpana Morparia decided she would head JP Morgan in India. As a little girl, all she had really wanted was to get married, have lots of children and go to kitty party or two. But life turned out very differently for the lady who must catch a Hindi film on the very first weekend, whether in London or New York, writes Shobhana Subramanian.
We’re at the Trattoria in Mumbai which doesn’t quite have the ambience it did several years ago and completely lacks the kind of Mediterranean cheerfulness one would ideally have wanted. It’s well past one but there are very few people present, possibly because its pouring outside. This makes it easy to get a large corner table. Since she’s conscious about her weight and also has to battle a low metabolic rate, Kalpana’s very careful about what she eats. She’s already worried that her new job is going to throw her gym schedule out of gear because she has to be in by nine. So we skip the starters, settling for soup instead: a minestrone for her and a mushroom soup for me.
Life after 33 years in ICICI must be very different, I say. Yes, she admits, ICICI Bank was like a surname. “I could never complete an introduction without saying ‘Kalpana Morparia from ICICI’,” she says. But she believes retiring from ICICI would have probably affected her much more. The excitement of working with a big investment bank now is a big kick. “I wouldn’t mind being on the regulatory side but that isn’t really open to private sector bankers, so I decided I was going to get back to ‘deal-making’ which is what I really enjoy,” she says.
Kalpana says it was KV Kamath who helped her migrate from being a corporate lawyer to a corporate leader, when in 1996 she was asked to head ICICI’s treasury. What prompted her to study law in Government Law College, Bombay? “I did it for a lark, possibly because my sister did law,” she says. Incidentally, Kalpana had drafted the legal framework for the JP Morgan-ICICI Bank joint venture in 1991. That fell apart after five years, as have other JVs after that. A key reason why joint ventures in the investment banking space haven’t worked out, she says, is because the business isn’t as well-defined as it is, perhaps, in life insurance, where it’s clear what products are going to be sold. “Banking is all about cross-selling, much like a hypermarket where players are trying to get as much as possible from one customer,” she points out. “JP Morgan probably wanted to do much more than what the blueprint allowed and since many of the products were off-bounds, they decided to move on.” It’s unlikely that too many joint ventures will take off in this space, she feels, probably because home-grown investment banks, like Enam or Motilal Oswal, are not really looking to compete with foreign banks but are instead looking at a different market and a different set of clients. What Kalpana wants to do at JP Morgan is to customise as many of its global products as possible for the Indian corporate sector that’s raring to go global. “Ten years ago, the products may not have been so relevant but today, with the appetite that companies have to go global, there’s a lot of potential,” she says.
The pasta arrives — extra spicy penne arabiata for my guest while I eat lasagne. Kalpana loves Italian food and like most Gujaratis, she can’t resist South Indian cuisine. The other thing she can’t resist is shopping — for sarees and jewellery (she loves diamonds) — and she doesn’t mind spending her money. Since she doesn’t have children, she feels she might as well enjoy everything she’s earning in one lifetime. So, no trip to Hyderabad or Jaipur or Europe is ever wasted. She takes as many holidays as she can and has just returned from a holiday in Turkey; Istanbul, she says, is probably the best city in the world and is certainly her favourite.
It’s on long flights that she catches up with her reading. Kalpana’s a big Robert Ludlum fan — she’s read all his books — and being a banker, she hasn’t missed Alan Greenspan’s biography. One of her favourite authors is Richard NorthPatterson and she has the entire collection of Georgette Heyer. But what she enjoyed thoroughly is India after Gandhi — she says she’s been promoting it so much she must ask Ramchandra Guha, the book’s author, for a share of the royalty. On domestic flights, she catches up on all the gossip in Bollywood, reading Stardust and Filmfare from cover to cover. “My most embarrassing moment was when the editor of a business magazine told me he had been sitting next to me during a flight from Bombay to Delhi but hadn’t had the heart to disturb me because I had been so engrossed in some film magazines,” she recalls. and it’s not just gossip, Kalpana doesn’t miss out on Bollywood films either. “Even if I’m in London or New York, I try and see a film in the first few days. I also love TV shows like Koffee with Karan.” So it’s not surprising to learn that she was one of the strongest votaries of making Amitabh Bachchan ICICI Bank’s brand ambassador.
Kalpana doesn’t have a sweet tooth so prefers a cappucino while I indulge myself with a tiramisu. Will it be difficult for someone to step into Kamath’s shoes? She doesn’t want to talk about it but I persist. “When HT Parekh stepped down, we thought no one could replace him, but Mr Nadkarni came along. When he moved to IDBI in 1985, we felt bereaved and wondered what would happen to ICICI. But Vaghul completely reshaped the organisation. And then, when Vaghul stepped down, Kamath came back from Manila and once again re-jigged the bank. There are always leaders,” she says definitively.
Nachiket Mor, was tipped to be a favourite for the number one post at one time, I say. “Yes, he was brilliant, he topped every exam he took. But he was more drawn to development for the underprivileged people. That is his big passion. And the development of market linkages, microfinance and infant mortality. So, he’s working with the ICICI Foundation now,” she says.
What Kalpana will probably miss a lot now are the shopping sessions, while on tour, with colleagues Chanda Kochar, who’s also a compulsive shopper, and Shikha Sharma. Though she might still make it for holidays with Renuka Ramnath and Ramni Nirula. And she’s not about to give up “ladies’ night out” with the gang. “I always tell them to dress well for the occasion,” she chuckles, adding that “apart from talking about everyone else we know, we also gossip about media persons”. As we leave the restaurant, Kalpana gets an SMS from a friend wanting to know when she’ll be free to see Rock On. At 59, this lady sure is rocking.
She didn’t want to hang up her boots quite so soon; after all, she was used to 12-hour days in ICICI Bank. And she didn’t think she was cut out be an entrepreneur. So when the job came her way, Kalpana Morparia decided she would head JP Morgan in India. As a little girl, all she had really wanted was to get married, have lots of children and go to kitty party or two. But life turned out very differently for the lady who must catch a Hindi film on the very first weekend, whether in London or New York, writes Shobhana Subramanian.
We’re at the Trattoria in Mumbai which doesn’t quite have the ambience it did several years ago and completely lacks the kind of Mediterranean cheerfulness one would ideally have wanted. It’s well past one but there are very few people present, possibly because its pouring outside. This makes it easy to get a large corner table. Since she’s conscious about her weight and also has to battle a low metabolic rate, Kalpana’s very careful about what she eats. She’s already worried that her new job is going to throw her gym schedule out of gear because she has to be in by nine. So we skip the starters, settling for soup instead: a minestrone for her and a mushroom soup for me.
Life after 33 years in ICICI must be very different, I say. Yes, she admits, ICICI Bank was like a surname. “I could never complete an introduction without saying ‘Kalpana Morparia from ICICI’,” she says. But she believes retiring from ICICI would have probably affected her much more. The excitement of working with a big investment bank now is a big kick. “I wouldn’t mind being on the regulatory side but that isn’t really open to private sector bankers, so I decided I was going to get back to ‘deal-making’ which is what I really enjoy,” she says.
Kalpana says it was KV Kamath who helped her migrate from being a corporate lawyer to a corporate leader, when in 1996 she was asked to head ICICI’s treasury. What prompted her to study law in Government Law College, Bombay? “I did it for a lark, possibly because my sister did law,” she says. Incidentally, Kalpana had drafted the legal framework for the JP Morgan-ICICI Bank joint venture in 1991. That fell apart after five years, as have other JVs after that. A key reason why joint ventures in the investment banking space haven’t worked out, she says, is because the business isn’t as well-defined as it is, perhaps, in life insurance, where it’s clear what products are going to be sold. “Banking is all about cross-selling, much like a hypermarket where players are trying to get as much as possible from one customer,” she points out. “JP Morgan probably wanted to do much more than what the blueprint allowed and since many of the products were off-bounds, they decided to move on.” It’s unlikely that too many joint ventures will take off in this space, she feels, probably because home-grown investment banks, like Enam or Motilal Oswal, are not really looking to compete with foreign banks but are instead looking at a different market and a different set of clients. What Kalpana wants to do at JP Morgan is to customise as many of its global products as possible for the Indian corporate sector that’s raring to go global. “Ten years ago, the products may not have been so relevant but today, with the appetite that companies have to go global, there’s a lot of potential,” she says.
The pasta arrives — extra spicy penne arabiata for my guest while I eat lasagne. Kalpana loves Italian food and like most Gujaratis, she can’t resist South Indian cuisine. The other thing she can’t resist is shopping — for sarees and jewellery (she loves diamonds) — and she doesn’t mind spending her money. Since she doesn’t have children, she feels she might as well enjoy everything she’s earning in one lifetime. So, no trip to Hyderabad or Jaipur or Europe is ever wasted. She takes as many holidays as she can and has just returned from a holiday in Turkey; Istanbul, she says, is probably the best city in the world and is certainly her favourite.
It’s on long flights that she catches up with her reading. Kalpana’s a big Robert Ludlum fan — she’s read all his books — and being a banker, she hasn’t missed Alan Greenspan’s biography. One of her favourite authors is Richard NorthPatterson and she has the entire collection of Georgette Heyer. But what she enjoyed thoroughly is India after Gandhi — she says she’s been promoting it so much she must ask Ramchandra Guha, the book’s author, for a share of the royalty. On domestic flights, she catches up on all the gossip in Bollywood, reading Stardust and Filmfare from cover to cover. “My most embarrassing moment was when the editor of a business magazine told me he had been sitting next to me during a flight from Bombay to Delhi but hadn’t had the heart to disturb me because I had been so engrossed in some film magazines,” she recalls. and it’s not just gossip, Kalpana doesn’t miss out on Bollywood films either. “Even if I’m in London or New York, I try and see a film in the first few days. I also love TV shows like Koffee with Karan.” So it’s not surprising to learn that she was one of the strongest votaries of making Amitabh Bachchan ICICI Bank’s brand ambassador.
Kalpana doesn’t have a sweet tooth so prefers a cappucino while I indulge myself with a tiramisu. Will it be difficult for someone to step into Kamath’s shoes? She doesn’t want to talk about it but I persist. “When HT Parekh stepped down, we thought no one could replace him, but Mr Nadkarni came along. When he moved to IDBI in 1985, we felt bereaved and wondered what would happen to ICICI. But Vaghul completely reshaped the organisation. And then, when Vaghul stepped down, Kamath came back from Manila and once again re-jigged the bank. There are always leaders,” she says definitively.
Nachiket Mor, was tipped to be a favourite for the number one post at one time, I say. “Yes, he was brilliant, he topped every exam he took. But he was more drawn to development for the underprivileged people. That is his big passion. And the development of market linkages, microfinance and infant mortality. So, he’s working with the ICICI Foundation now,” she says.
What Kalpana will probably miss a lot now are the shopping sessions, while on tour, with colleagues Chanda Kochar, who’s also a compulsive shopper, and Shikha Sharma. Though she might still make it for holidays with Renuka Ramnath and Ramni Nirula. And she’s not about to give up “ladies’ night out” with the gang. “I always tell them to dress well for the occasion,” she chuckles, adding that “apart from talking about everyone else we know, we also gossip about media persons”. As we leave the restaurant, Kalpana gets an SMS from a friend wanting to know when she’ll be free to see Rock On. At 59, this lady sure is rocking.
HR - Indian salaries likely to increase by 16% in 2009
Salaries in India are expected to increase by 16 per cent in 2009, one of the highest in the Asia-Pacific region driven by strong economic growth and pressure on employers due to soaring inflation, a latest report said.
As per a report by the Hong Kong based compensation firm HR Business Solutions (HRBS) pay increases in the Asia-Pacific region are likely grow even as the economies are expected to be impacted by the global slowdown.
"The forecast pay increase in India averaging 16 per cent is one of the highest among all the countries," the report stated. The HRBS 2009 pay increase forecast is based primarily on four economic factors — GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, manpower demand and past pay increase trends.
Elaborating further it said that the Indian economy is reported to be cooling, but still it is expected to achieve a growth rate of 7-8 per cent in 2008, which is among the strongest in the region after China.
"In addition, it has the fourth highest inflation rate of over 12 per cent in 2008 which increases pay rise pressures on employers. Labour demand is still robust and there is a lack of sufficient supply of the skills-set required by India's rapidly growing services, manufacturing, construction and retail industries to boot," the HRBS report added.
Economic growth rates in Asia are mostly forecast to be moderately lower in 2008 relative to 2007, while inflation rate across the Asia-Pacific region has soared to an all-time high.
"In many of the Asian countries, demand for manpower continues and in some cases, while general unemployment rate remains high, the labour market is extremely tight for qualified employees, for example, India, China and Vietnam," it stated.
Besides, in some developed economies such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, while the unemployment rate is low, the demand for people has been strong.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is the other country which is forecast to see a higher double-digit rise in salaries of about 17 per cent in 2009. The country's inflation rate of more than 16 per cent is the next highest in Asia after Vietnam and firms in Sri Lanka are hiring and facing challenges in recruiting and retaining skilled human capital.
Most of the neighbouring countries of India - Pakistan, China and Bangladesh are forecast to post around 11 per cent of expected pay increase.
In 2008, the salary increase in India had averaged at 14.9 per cent.
Other Asia-Pacific countries like China, Vietnam and Indonesia are forecast to see a rise of 11 per cent, 12.4 per cent and 12.7 per cent, respectively in 2009.
Earlier, in a separate report on Asian compensations, global HR consultancy Mercer had forecast that India was likely to witness over 14 per cent increase in salaries annually for the next three years as the corporates were facing shortage of talent.
The Mercer report had also stated that India, Vietnam and Indonesia were the only three countries in the Asia-Pacific region which are likely to see a double-digit increase in salaries until 2011
As per a report by the Hong Kong based compensation firm HR Business Solutions (HRBS) pay increases in the Asia-Pacific region are likely grow even as the economies are expected to be impacted by the global slowdown.
"The forecast pay increase in India averaging 16 per cent is one of the highest among all the countries," the report stated. The HRBS 2009 pay increase forecast is based primarily on four economic factors — GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, manpower demand and past pay increase trends.
Elaborating further it said that the Indian economy is reported to be cooling, but still it is expected to achieve a growth rate of 7-8 per cent in 2008, which is among the strongest in the region after China.
"In addition, it has the fourth highest inflation rate of over 12 per cent in 2008 which increases pay rise pressures on employers. Labour demand is still robust and there is a lack of sufficient supply of the skills-set required by India's rapidly growing services, manufacturing, construction and retail industries to boot," the HRBS report added.
Economic growth rates in Asia are mostly forecast to be moderately lower in 2008 relative to 2007, while inflation rate across the Asia-Pacific region has soared to an all-time high.
"In many of the Asian countries, demand for manpower continues and in some cases, while general unemployment rate remains high, the labour market is extremely tight for qualified employees, for example, India, China and Vietnam," it stated.
Besides, in some developed economies such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, while the unemployment rate is low, the demand for people has been strong.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is the other country which is forecast to see a higher double-digit rise in salaries of about 17 per cent in 2009. The country's inflation rate of more than 16 per cent is the next highest in Asia after Vietnam and firms in Sri Lanka are hiring and facing challenges in recruiting and retaining skilled human capital.
Most of the neighbouring countries of India - Pakistan, China and Bangladesh are forecast to post around 11 per cent of expected pay increase.
In 2008, the salary increase in India had averaged at 14.9 per cent.
Other Asia-Pacific countries like China, Vietnam and Indonesia are forecast to see a rise of 11 per cent, 12.4 per cent and 12.7 per cent, respectively in 2009.
Earlier, in a separate report on Asian compensations, global HR consultancy Mercer had forecast that India was likely to witness over 14 per cent increase in salaries annually for the next three years as the corporates were facing shortage of talent.
The Mercer report had also stated that India, Vietnam and Indonesia were the only three countries in the Asia-Pacific region which are likely to see a double-digit increase in salaries until 2011
Business - ESPN-Star on a strong wicket in cricket broadcasting business
Leading sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports, a joint venture between Disney and Rupert Murdoch's Star, has overshadowed its rivals in terms of the number of cricket matches it has grabbed for the next few years.
Estimates and bid amounts available in the public domain show that ESPN Star Sports is now sitting on nearly 1,400 days of international cricket matches over the next ten years for which it has paid nearly Rs 9,380 crore. In other words, the broadcaster will offer viewers roughly 140 days of cricket every year. And it has acquired each match-day at an average cost of Rs 7 crore, which the industry says is cost-effective.
Most of the these rights fall between 2007 and 2018.
THE BROADCASTING PITCH
SportsBroadcaster Rights Year of rights Amount Paid (In Rs crore) No. of Days
ESPN ICC 2007-15 4700 700
ESPN Champions League 2008-18 4387 250
ESPN England 2007-12 300 200-plus
ESPN Australia 2007-12 450 200-plus
Sony IPL/NZ 2008-18 4314 750
Nimbus BCCI + Non-ICC 2006-10 2191 171
Ten Sports* West Indies 2008-13 300-400 225
Source: Industry Estimates,*Ten Sports held rights for Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, both of which have to be rexviewed.According to industry estimates, the per-match cost for Nimbus works out to Rs 12.8 crore (2006-2010) since it paid the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Rs 2,191 crore for rights to all the international matches to be held in India from 2006 to 2010. Nimbus is offering about 37 days of cricket every year. The broadcaster has also lined up the tours of England and Australia to India.
Sony, which bought the rights for the Indian Premier League's Twenty-20 League for Rs 4,104 crore, is paying Rs 7.4 crore for 10-year rights for IPL matches (2008-2018). It also paid around Rs 200 crore for international matches in New Zealand for 2007 to 2011.
However, the channel will offer about 75 days of cricket annually for its viewers and the average cost per match for Sony is much lower than ESPN at around Rs 5.6 crore. But all the big matches and tournaments have been cornered by ESPN.
The telecast rights held by Ten Sports and Zee Sports for countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and others are up for renewal now. However, Ten Sports has the five-year telecast rights for all international cricket played in the West Indies, and sources said its per-match cost works out to less than Rs 2 crore.
A senior media planner handling large auto and banking clients said ESPN will be able to more than recover its acquisition cost if viewers can be attracted to watch cricket consistently over the next three years and these matches deliver ratings of 3-5 per cent.
"If the 10-second spot rates for IPL are any indication of things to come, then sports broadcasters will just need to sell their spots at Rs 3-4 lakh in addition to roping in five or six fixed sponsors," said a senior executive of a Gurgaon-based media buying agency.
"The per-match cost of some of these sports broadcasters is in the region of Rs 8-9 crore, 13-15 per cent higher than ESPN's per-match cost. It will be interesting to see where the advertisers now put their money," an analyst of a leading sports marketing firm said.
Commenting on the cost-benefit analysis of having paid $975 million for Champions League telecast rights for 10 years, RC Venkateish, managing director, ESPN Software India Ltd, said ESPN-Star expected to break even from the first year. “We expect to be able to price our advertising at a 25-30 per cent premium over what advertisers paid for the IPL because the international format will be more popular,” he said.
Venkateish added that since the broadcasting rights are global, the combine expects to generate 50-60 per cent of its advertising revenues from India and the rest from other participating countries.
Estimates and bid amounts available in the public domain show that ESPN Star Sports is now sitting on nearly 1,400 days of international cricket matches over the next ten years for which it has paid nearly Rs 9,380 crore. In other words, the broadcaster will offer viewers roughly 140 days of cricket every year. And it has acquired each match-day at an average cost of Rs 7 crore, which the industry says is cost-effective.
Most of the these rights fall between 2007 and 2018.
THE BROADCASTING PITCH
SportsBroadcaster Rights Year of rights Amount Paid (In Rs crore) No. of Days
ESPN ICC 2007-15 4700 700
ESPN Champions League 2008-18 4387 250
ESPN England 2007-12 300 200-plus
ESPN Australia 2007-12 450 200-plus
Sony IPL/NZ 2008-18 4314 750
Nimbus BCCI + Non-ICC 2006-10 2191 171
Ten Sports* West Indies 2008-13 300-400 225
Source: Industry Estimates,*Ten Sports held rights for Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, both of which have to be rexviewed.According to industry estimates, the per-match cost for Nimbus works out to Rs 12.8 crore (2006-2010) since it paid the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Rs 2,191 crore for rights to all the international matches to be held in India from 2006 to 2010. Nimbus is offering about 37 days of cricket every year. The broadcaster has also lined up the tours of England and Australia to India.
Sony, which bought the rights for the Indian Premier League's Twenty-20 League for Rs 4,104 crore, is paying Rs 7.4 crore for 10-year rights for IPL matches (2008-2018). It also paid around Rs 200 crore for international matches in New Zealand for 2007 to 2011.
However, the channel will offer about 75 days of cricket annually for its viewers and the average cost per match for Sony is much lower than ESPN at around Rs 5.6 crore. But all the big matches and tournaments have been cornered by ESPN.
The telecast rights held by Ten Sports and Zee Sports for countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and others are up for renewal now. However, Ten Sports has the five-year telecast rights for all international cricket played in the West Indies, and sources said its per-match cost works out to less than Rs 2 crore.
A senior media planner handling large auto and banking clients said ESPN will be able to more than recover its acquisition cost if viewers can be attracted to watch cricket consistently over the next three years and these matches deliver ratings of 3-5 per cent.
"If the 10-second spot rates for IPL are any indication of things to come, then sports broadcasters will just need to sell their spots at Rs 3-4 lakh in addition to roping in five or six fixed sponsors," said a senior executive of a Gurgaon-based media buying agency.
"The per-match cost of some of these sports broadcasters is in the region of Rs 8-9 crore, 13-15 per cent higher than ESPN's per-match cost. It will be interesting to see where the advertisers now put their money," an analyst of a leading sports marketing firm said.
Commenting on the cost-benefit analysis of having paid $975 million for Champions League telecast rights for 10 years, RC Venkateish, managing director, ESPN Software India Ltd, said ESPN-Star expected to break even from the first year. “We expect to be able to price our advertising at a 25-30 per cent premium over what advertisers paid for the IPL because the international format will be more popular,” he said.
Venkateish added that since the broadcasting rights are global, the combine expects to generate 50-60 per cent of its advertising revenues from India and the rest from other participating countries.
Lifestyle - New website, a key to teen jargon
A British charity has launched a website on ‘teenglish’ to make parents understand the jargon their children use in normal conversations.The jargon-buster website, gotateenager.org.uk, contains almost a hundred definitions for words commonly used by teenagers but until now incomprehensible to their parents.It is one way to make way for better communication between parents and their teenage children, according to British charity Parentline Plus.They spent months talking to parents and teenagers about the latest slang before compiling the online dictionary of 96 words from bare meaning many to wagwaan or what’s going on?Other words include phat (cool), tight (close), bluds (friends), bait (obvious), butters (ugly), buff (attractive) and rents (parents). There are also translations of on their jays (on their own), flossing (showing off) and hench (to be strong). Chirps, or to chat up; dry, or boring; nang, which translates as brilliant; and off the hook, a phrase to describe something as excellent.Feds refers to the police, ends means neighbourhood, a player is a love cheat, butters is ugly, murk is to kill, gaged is robbed and jook is to stab or steal. Nikola Mann, who helped create the site, told the Daily Mail: “It makes you realise how out of touch you can get when you read some of the words teenagers are using now”.She said the website grew out of conversations “we were having with parents on our free 24-hour helpline who were struggling to understand their children and they wanted to know what words used by their teenagers actually meant”.The website also includes a host of features from e-learning modules, boundaries, health, school and self-confidence to an online comic book with storylines and scenarios familiar to many teens.
World - Tu-160 as a means of persuasion
The landing of Tu-160 heavy bombers at the Libertador airfield in Venezuela is the latest step in the new Cold War.
This is a clear show of force. The United States, which is deploying its own security system in Eastern Europe, should think about the risk posed by its potential enemy’s combat aircraft appearing in its own backyard. Moreover, Russian warships will soon be plying Venezuelan waters. The two countries are planning to hold joint naval military exercises.
These games started in the 19th century when global confrontation was unfolding between the Russian and British empires. Both sides used ships to fly their flags in key regions. This is how they signalled each other their readiness and ability to defend their interests.
The appearance of Russian bombers in the Caribbean can be interpreted in various ways. Geopolitically, this step is designed to remind Washington of the need to listen to what other countries have to say. After all, if the United States is deploying more and more military sites near the Russian borders, it would be strange not to expect an adequate response from Moscow. The landing of Tu-160 bombers capable of carrying considerable nuclear ordnance shows that such a response is possible.
Militarily, the landing of the Russian bombers is nothing extraordinary, but the possibility of their regular appearance in the region should compel the United States to think about its vulnerability.
Historically, the main U.S. air and missile defence forces face the North Pole, as the main directions of potential nuclear strikes pass over the Arctic Ocean. As a result, the southern direction is much less protected, and the emergence of a potential threat from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico will come as a very unpleasant surprise, considering that the Pentagon’s budget is already overstretched.
The United States should understand that its attempts to isolate Russia through expanding NATO and deploying missile defence elements will lead nowhere. Moscow will find an adequate military response as well as the countries ready to help it overcome the NATO barrier, which is not insurmountable even now. Eventually, this understanding should prompt the United States to work for compromise. However, the messianic mentality of many American politicians, including presidential nominee John McCain, may prevent Washington from reaching compromise.
They are absolutely convinced that they are right, and do not care for the other side’s position. This attitude can only aggravate any conflict. If Mr. McCain wins the presidential elections, he is not likely to unleash a third world war, but the conflict between Russia and the United States may well backslide into the direct military confrontation of the 1960s-1980s, aggravated by the global economic crisis.
At the same time, Russia cannot accept a situation where European security architecture is being built without it, and mostly against it. Moreover, the designs for it are being made by a country that is not even part of Europe.
National security interests require that Russia’s opinion should be considered. The United States will either recognise Russia’s right to vote on European security, or will have to face totally new methods of persuasion. At one time, to have U.S. missiles removed from Turkey, the Soviet Union did not stop at unleashing the Cuban missile crisis. Soviet missiles were soon withdrawn, but the goal was achieved. Having realised the extent of threat, the United States removed its missiles from the Soviet borders.
It is very uncomfortable to live in a world where superpowers use thermonuclear arguments to persuade each other of the need to think about collective security. Hopefully, the landing of Tu-160 bombers and the appearance of warships will be enough to make the United States think about the potential risks. — RIA Novosti
This is a clear show of force. The United States, which is deploying its own security system in Eastern Europe, should think about the risk posed by its potential enemy’s combat aircraft appearing in its own backyard. Moreover, Russian warships will soon be plying Venezuelan waters. The two countries are planning to hold joint naval military exercises.
These games started in the 19th century when global confrontation was unfolding between the Russian and British empires. Both sides used ships to fly their flags in key regions. This is how they signalled each other their readiness and ability to defend their interests.
The appearance of Russian bombers in the Caribbean can be interpreted in various ways. Geopolitically, this step is designed to remind Washington of the need to listen to what other countries have to say. After all, if the United States is deploying more and more military sites near the Russian borders, it would be strange not to expect an adequate response from Moscow. The landing of Tu-160 bombers capable of carrying considerable nuclear ordnance shows that such a response is possible.
Militarily, the landing of the Russian bombers is nothing extraordinary, but the possibility of their regular appearance in the region should compel the United States to think about its vulnerability.
Historically, the main U.S. air and missile defence forces face the North Pole, as the main directions of potential nuclear strikes pass over the Arctic Ocean. As a result, the southern direction is much less protected, and the emergence of a potential threat from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico will come as a very unpleasant surprise, considering that the Pentagon’s budget is already overstretched.
The United States should understand that its attempts to isolate Russia through expanding NATO and deploying missile defence elements will lead nowhere. Moscow will find an adequate military response as well as the countries ready to help it overcome the NATO barrier, which is not insurmountable even now. Eventually, this understanding should prompt the United States to work for compromise. However, the messianic mentality of many American politicians, including presidential nominee John McCain, may prevent Washington from reaching compromise.
They are absolutely convinced that they are right, and do not care for the other side’s position. This attitude can only aggravate any conflict. If Mr. McCain wins the presidential elections, he is not likely to unleash a third world war, but the conflict between Russia and the United States may well backslide into the direct military confrontation of the 1960s-1980s, aggravated by the global economic crisis.
At the same time, Russia cannot accept a situation where European security architecture is being built without it, and mostly against it. Moreover, the designs for it are being made by a country that is not even part of Europe.
National security interests require that Russia’s opinion should be considered. The United States will either recognise Russia’s right to vote on European security, or will have to face totally new methods of persuasion. At one time, to have U.S. missiles removed from Turkey, the Soviet Union did not stop at unleashing the Cuban missile crisis. Soviet missiles were soon withdrawn, but the goal was achieved. Having realised the extent of threat, the United States removed its missiles from the Soviet borders.
It is very uncomfortable to live in a world where superpowers use thermonuclear arguments to persuade each other of the need to think about collective security. Hopefully, the landing of Tu-160 bombers and the appearance of warships will be enough to make the United States think about the potential risks. — RIA Novosti
India - Hunt for Indian Mujahideen's 'al-Arbi' (G.Read)
Less than forty eight hours before over thirty bombs tore Ahmedabad apart in July, Abdul Subhan Usman Qureshi caught an overnight train to Mumbai — and disappeared.
Police forces across India, backed by the Intelligence Bureau, have made the hunt for the short, thin built man who the Ahmedabad bombers knew by the code-name ‘Kasim’, their top priority.
Based on the interrogation of Shahbaz Husain, a Lucknow businessman alleged to have led the cell responsible for a string of urban bombings carried out by a Students Islamic Movement of India front organisation calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, investigators are now certain that Qureshi trained the bomb-makers who fabricated the bombs used in the terror offensive.
Qureshi, police believe, was also the “al-Arbi” who signed e-mail manifestos issued by the Indian Mujahideen after each bombing — a finding supported by forensic detectives, who have determined that the rounded-‘A’ which “al-Arabi” used to sign the documents matches the rendering of the same character in his personal correspondence.Against the grain
The story of SIMI’s top bomb-maker sits ill with the narrative often used to explain why Islamist terrorism has grown in India.
Qureshi studied at a secular school, not a seminary. He, unlike many inner-city Muslims, enjoyed access to both education and economic opportunity. Most important, Qureshi’s political radicalisation seems not to have been connected to the win poles that marked the growth the jihad in India, the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 2002 communal pogrom in Gujarat.
Like many first-generation working-class migrants to Mumbai, Qureshi’s parents—who hailed from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh—took education seriously.
Qureshi graduated from the Antonio DeSouza High School, a church-run institution which caters to children from all major religious communities in 1988, securing a more-than-reasonable secondary school certificate average of 76.6 per cent. Interestingly, Qureshi’s parents offered all their children access to educational opportunity — not just, as is common among religious conservatives, the boys. Qureshi’s sisters, Asma and Safia, have Masters of Arts degrees; none of his three brothers, who also well-educated, appear to have been drawn to SIMI or other Islamist groups.
In the autumn of 1992 — months before Mumbai was hit by a murderous Shiv Sena-led communal pogrom which followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid — Qureshi began studies at the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in Navi Mumbai. Neither the communal pogrom, nor the serial bombings which followed them, appear to have directly touched Qureshi’s life. In 1995, he obtained a diploma in industrial electronics, and landed a part-time job at String Computers in Mazgaon. Later, in 1996, he went on to earn a specialised software maintenance qualification from the CMS Institute in Marol.
Armed with these qualifications, Qureshi had little difficulty finding work. He joined Radical Solutions, an independent computer firm operating out of the upmarket Fort area in south Mumbai in November, 1996, on a starting salary of Rs. 2,450 per month. By the accounts of his co-workers, Qureshi was an exceptional worker — an assessment that is borne out by his resume. Just three years into his professional life, Qureshi succeeded in quadrupling his pay. He handled several major independent projects, including an intranet implementation for Bharat Petro-Chemicals carried out by Wipro in 1999, and then landed a job with computer major Datamatics.
But then, Qureshi suddenly decided to leave in his job. In his March 26, 2001, letter, he offered the firm only “I wish to inform you,” the letter read, “that I have decided to devote one complete year to pursue religious and spiritual matters.”
Qureshi’s friends and family claim to have no knowledge of what led him to make the decision. His family claims not to have met since SIMI was proscribed later that year. This seems improbable: Qureshi’s youngest child, with his wife Aafia, is, after all, just two and a half years old.A career in terror
Mumbai police investigators have begun to reconstruct Qureshi’s career in terror. No one is certain just how he was recruited, but by 1998, Qureshi appears to have been a committed SIMI activist. He was charged, that year, with defacing public property, by pasting SIMI posters. Later, he went on to edit one of SIMI’s house-magazines, Islamic Voice, from New Delhi.
Police sources told The Hindu that Qureshi participated in the October, 1999, SIMI conference in October, 1999. Sheikh Yasin, the head of the Palestinian Hamas and the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islamic chief Qazi Husain Ahmad, were among those who delivered speeches, through telephone links. Seven-year-old Gulrez Siddiqui was reported to have been trotted out in front of the estimated 20,000-strong crowd to read out this couplet: “Islam ka ghazi, butshikan, Mera sher, Osama bin Laden” (Warrior for Islam, destroyer of idols / My lion, Osama bin Laden)”.
SIMI’s growing links with the global jihadist movement became increasingly clear in the months and years that followed. In January, 2000, for example, police in West Bengal arrested Chinese national Abdul Rahman just after he crossed the Bahirhat border with Bangaldesh. Investigators learned that Rahman, who had escaped from a prison in China’s Xinjiang region where he had been serving time for the murder of a police officer, had been brought to India to train Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives. His handlers Aziz-ul-Haq and Nazrul Islam were both SIMI members. Later, in May, 2001, eight SIMI members involved in an abortive plot to bomb the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s headquarters in Nagpur were found to have trained with the Hizb ul-Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir.
By the time of SIMI’s 1999 Aurangabad convention, which Qureshi is believed to have helped organise, many of the speeches delivered by delegates were frankly inflammatory. “Islam is our nation, not India,” thundered Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad, one of over a dozen SIMI-linked Lashkar operatives arrested in 2005 for smuggling in military-grade explosives and assault rifles for a planned series of attacks in Gujarat. Among those listening to the speech was Mohammad Azam Ghauri, one of the co-founders of the Lashkar’s India operations. Ghauri, some SIMI members present in Aurangabad say, was offered SIMI’s leadership, but refused.
Qureshi was, investigators say, one of the principal organisers of SIMI’s last public conference in 2001. SIMI leaders told the estimated 25,000 followers who attended the conference that the time had come for Indian Muslims to launch an armed jihad which would have the establishment of a caliphate at its final aim.
In the wake of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in September, 2001, SIMI activists organised demonstrations attacking the United States of America for being an “enemy of Islam.” SIMI literature hailed Osama as a “true mujahid [Islamic warrior]” and celebrated the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban. Muslims were exhorted to “trample the infidels.”
Finding Qureshi — as well as figures like Qayamuddin Kapadia, the missing Vadodara based computer-graphics artist who police believe led the SIMI cell which targeted Surat — could prove key to preventing the next big terror bombings. But the threat will not end with his arrest. Investigations of other SIMI-linked terror cells have thrown up evidence which suggests Qureshi trained several hundred recent recruits to the Islamist group’s terror cells, at camps held across India from 2007 onwards.
India, it seems probable, will be compelled to live with this threat for many years to come.
Police forces across India, backed by the Intelligence Bureau, have made the hunt for the short, thin built man who the Ahmedabad bombers knew by the code-name ‘Kasim’, their top priority.
Based on the interrogation of Shahbaz Husain, a Lucknow businessman alleged to have led the cell responsible for a string of urban bombings carried out by a Students Islamic Movement of India front organisation calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, investigators are now certain that Qureshi trained the bomb-makers who fabricated the bombs used in the terror offensive.
Qureshi, police believe, was also the “al-Arbi” who signed e-mail manifestos issued by the Indian Mujahideen after each bombing — a finding supported by forensic detectives, who have determined that the rounded-‘A’ which “al-Arabi” used to sign the documents matches the rendering of the same character in his personal correspondence.Against the grain
The story of SIMI’s top bomb-maker sits ill with the narrative often used to explain why Islamist terrorism has grown in India.
Qureshi studied at a secular school, not a seminary. He, unlike many inner-city Muslims, enjoyed access to both education and economic opportunity. Most important, Qureshi’s political radicalisation seems not to have been connected to the win poles that marked the growth the jihad in India, the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 2002 communal pogrom in Gujarat.
Like many first-generation working-class migrants to Mumbai, Qureshi’s parents—who hailed from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh—took education seriously.
Qureshi graduated from the Antonio DeSouza High School, a church-run institution which caters to children from all major religious communities in 1988, securing a more-than-reasonable secondary school certificate average of 76.6 per cent. Interestingly, Qureshi’s parents offered all their children access to educational opportunity — not just, as is common among religious conservatives, the boys. Qureshi’s sisters, Asma and Safia, have Masters of Arts degrees; none of his three brothers, who also well-educated, appear to have been drawn to SIMI or other Islamist groups.
In the autumn of 1992 — months before Mumbai was hit by a murderous Shiv Sena-led communal pogrom which followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid — Qureshi began studies at the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in Navi Mumbai. Neither the communal pogrom, nor the serial bombings which followed them, appear to have directly touched Qureshi’s life. In 1995, he obtained a diploma in industrial electronics, and landed a part-time job at String Computers in Mazgaon. Later, in 1996, he went on to earn a specialised software maintenance qualification from the CMS Institute in Marol.
Armed with these qualifications, Qureshi had little difficulty finding work. He joined Radical Solutions, an independent computer firm operating out of the upmarket Fort area in south Mumbai in November, 1996, on a starting salary of Rs. 2,450 per month. By the accounts of his co-workers, Qureshi was an exceptional worker — an assessment that is borne out by his resume. Just three years into his professional life, Qureshi succeeded in quadrupling his pay. He handled several major independent projects, including an intranet implementation for Bharat Petro-Chemicals carried out by Wipro in 1999, and then landed a job with computer major Datamatics.
But then, Qureshi suddenly decided to leave in his job. In his March 26, 2001, letter, he offered the firm only “I wish to inform you,” the letter read, “that I have decided to devote one complete year to pursue religious and spiritual matters.”
Qureshi’s friends and family claim to have no knowledge of what led him to make the decision. His family claims not to have met since SIMI was proscribed later that year. This seems improbable: Qureshi’s youngest child, with his wife Aafia, is, after all, just two and a half years old.A career in terror
Mumbai police investigators have begun to reconstruct Qureshi’s career in terror. No one is certain just how he was recruited, but by 1998, Qureshi appears to have been a committed SIMI activist. He was charged, that year, with defacing public property, by pasting SIMI posters. Later, he went on to edit one of SIMI’s house-magazines, Islamic Voice, from New Delhi.
Police sources told The Hindu that Qureshi participated in the October, 1999, SIMI conference in October, 1999. Sheikh Yasin, the head of the Palestinian Hamas and the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islamic chief Qazi Husain Ahmad, were among those who delivered speeches, through telephone links. Seven-year-old Gulrez Siddiqui was reported to have been trotted out in front of the estimated 20,000-strong crowd to read out this couplet: “Islam ka ghazi, butshikan, Mera sher, Osama bin Laden” (Warrior for Islam, destroyer of idols / My lion, Osama bin Laden)”.
SIMI’s growing links with the global jihadist movement became increasingly clear in the months and years that followed. In January, 2000, for example, police in West Bengal arrested Chinese national Abdul Rahman just after he crossed the Bahirhat border with Bangaldesh. Investigators learned that Rahman, who had escaped from a prison in China’s Xinjiang region where he had been serving time for the murder of a police officer, had been brought to India to train Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives. His handlers Aziz-ul-Haq and Nazrul Islam were both SIMI members. Later, in May, 2001, eight SIMI members involved in an abortive plot to bomb the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s headquarters in Nagpur were found to have trained with the Hizb ul-Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir.
By the time of SIMI’s 1999 Aurangabad convention, which Qureshi is believed to have helped organise, many of the speeches delivered by delegates were frankly inflammatory. “Islam is our nation, not India,” thundered Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad, one of over a dozen SIMI-linked Lashkar operatives arrested in 2005 for smuggling in military-grade explosives and assault rifles for a planned series of attacks in Gujarat. Among those listening to the speech was Mohammad Azam Ghauri, one of the co-founders of the Lashkar’s India operations. Ghauri, some SIMI members present in Aurangabad say, was offered SIMI’s leadership, but refused.
Qureshi was, investigators say, one of the principal organisers of SIMI’s last public conference in 2001. SIMI leaders told the estimated 25,000 followers who attended the conference that the time had come for Indian Muslims to launch an armed jihad which would have the establishment of a caliphate at its final aim.
In the wake of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in September, 2001, SIMI activists organised demonstrations attacking the United States of America for being an “enemy of Islam.” SIMI literature hailed Osama as a “true mujahid [Islamic warrior]” and celebrated the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban. Muslims were exhorted to “trample the infidels.”
Finding Qureshi — as well as figures like Qayamuddin Kapadia, the missing Vadodara based computer-graphics artist who police believe led the SIMI cell which targeted Surat — could prove key to preventing the next big terror bombings. But the threat will not end with his arrest. Investigations of other SIMI-linked terror cells have thrown up evidence which suggests Qureshi trained several hundred recent recruits to the Islamist group’s terror cells, at camps held across India from 2007 onwards.
India, it seems probable, will be compelled to live with this threat for many years to come.
Sport - BCCI to get 50% of Champions T20 League TV Rights Deal
MELBOURNE: It is windfall for the three founding members of Champions Twenty20 League after inking massive $ 975 million television rights deal with ESPN STAR but the Indian Cricket Board will be the biggest beneficiary with 50 per cent of the amount going to its coffers. According to media reports here, the three founding member boards -- BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa -- will share the 10-year deal amount with India getting half of it and CA and CSA pocketing 25 per cent each. "Cricket Australia will earn about 25 per cent of the figure, as will Cricket South Africa, while the game's major power-broker -- the Board of Control for Cricket in India -- takes the remaining half," a report in 'Sydney Morning Herald' said. The Champions Twenty20 League deal is the second biggest rights agreement this year after the $ 1 billion deal for 10 years for the outstandingly successful Indian Premier League. But the eight-day global Twenty20 league, which will be held from December 3 to 10, will become the highest value cricket tournament on a per game basis ever scheduled.
Eight teams, winners and runners-up of domestic Twenty20 competitions in India, Australia and South Africa, plus winners of 2008 Twenty20 championships from Pakistan and England have been invited to compete in the inaugural edition. Next year, 12 teams will compete and the tournament will extend to 16 days. Teams will vie for $ 6 million in prize money, with half awarded to the winner and a minimum $ 250,000 to each participant. India is expected to stage this year's tournament while venues in the United Arab Emirates are vying for hosting rights for next year and beyond.
Eight teams, winners and runners-up of domestic Twenty20 competitions in India, Australia and South Africa, plus winners of 2008 Twenty20 championships from Pakistan and England have been invited to compete in the inaugural edition. Next year, 12 teams will compete and the tournament will extend to 16 days. Teams will vie for $ 6 million in prize money, with half awarded to the winner and a minimum $ 250,000 to each participant. India is expected to stage this year's tournament while venues in the United Arab Emirates are vying for hosting rights for next year and beyond.
India - Cashing in on floods;Bihar
Bihar needs to get back on track. Even though vast farmlands still lie under the swirling waters of Kosi, there's still hope.
Scientists say the solution must come from these fields. “Those affected are mostly farmers and the solution, too, must come from agricultural sciences,” said MS Swaminathan, one of India's best-known agricultural scientists and a Rajya Sabha member.
According to Swaminathan, Bihar now needs to change its short-term farm strategy and switch to short-haul cash crops that do rather well after floods. The idea is to grow crops that mature quickly — in about two months — and have a good market.
But such quick-fix solutions need adequate soil testing to determine areas that have benefited from silt deposits, Swaminathan said. Finance minister P. Chidambaram had, in the last budget, set aside an exclusive fund for mobile soil-testing vans. “This can come in handy now,” Swaminathan added.
Agronomists say high-value cash crops like sweet potatoes, mustard, oilseeds, drumsticks, mushroom and vegetables could solve the displaced farmers' problems for now.
“We are preparing to send our recommendations to the Bihar government in a day or two,” said Baldeo Singh, a scientist from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
The Bihar government has asked the Union agriculture ministry to send experts in 15 days from now.
Bihar's additional commissioner for disaster management, Pratyaya Amrit, however, said a few flood-hit districts may become accessible after October 15, but the water may not fully dry up till February next year.
Bihar has another problem: its landless labourers. With crops ruined and fields submerged, it will be difficult for millions to get work.
Scientists say the solution must come from these fields. “Those affected are mostly farmers and the solution, too, must come from agricultural sciences,” said MS Swaminathan, one of India's best-known agricultural scientists and a Rajya Sabha member.
According to Swaminathan, Bihar now needs to change its short-term farm strategy and switch to short-haul cash crops that do rather well after floods. The idea is to grow crops that mature quickly — in about two months — and have a good market.
But such quick-fix solutions need adequate soil testing to determine areas that have benefited from silt deposits, Swaminathan said. Finance minister P. Chidambaram had, in the last budget, set aside an exclusive fund for mobile soil-testing vans. “This can come in handy now,” Swaminathan added.
Agronomists say high-value cash crops like sweet potatoes, mustard, oilseeds, drumsticks, mushroom and vegetables could solve the displaced farmers' problems for now.
“We are preparing to send our recommendations to the Bihar government in a day or two,” said Baldeo Singh, a scientist from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
The Bihar government has asked the Union agriculture ministry to send experts in 15 days from now.
Bihar's additional commissioner for disaster management, Pratyaya Amrit, however, said a few flood-hit districts may become accessible after October 15, but the water may not fully dry up till February next year.
Bihar has another problem: its landless labourers. With crops ruined and fields submerged, it will be difficult for millions to get work.
Columnists - Sitaram Yechury
In what must be considered as the world’s most ambitious and expensive experiment, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the underground CERN facility near Geneva fired its first protons into a 27-mile-long tunnel. The LHC is designed to fire sub-atomic particles in opposite directions to collide at a speed of 99.9 per cent of the speed of light. It is hoped that this would recreate the circumstances close to the Big Bang that created the universe in the first place. This, in turn, should help us to understand many things that remain unknown. “We think we understand the universe, but we only understand 4 per cent of everything,” said James Watson Cronin, the 1980 Nobel Laureate for Physics. It is this 96 per cent of matter, pervasive but unidentified, that holds the universe together and accelerates its expansion.
Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, who hails the LHC as the greatest experiment in human history, believes that there are many universes, possibly an infinite number, each with different attributes, in different combinations, and that we simply live in one that combines things in a way that allows us to exist. Will the LHC take humanity forward in comprehending that special combination that creates creatures like us who seek answers to how and why they evolve and exist?
The popular science writer, Paul Davies, asks: “Are the seemingly endless varieties of natural forms and structures which appear as the universe unfolds, simply the accidental products of random forces? Or are they somehow the inevitable outcome of the creative activity of nature? Is there a ‘cosmic blueprint’?”
Such deep questions of existence have been the battleground for philosophy and theology down the ages. Every scientific advance has been interpreted accordingly in this battle. Popular novelist Dan Brown, in Angels and Demons, drawing on the earlier achievement of CERN in producing anti-matter, suggests a convergence of science with the Biblical theory of creation fascinatingly captured by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Anti-matter is a very powerful source that releases energy with 100 per cent efficiency as compared to 1.5 per cent in nuclear fission. Yet, it is highly unstable, igniting when it comes in contact with matter. Did God create life through matter and anti-matter collision? If so, was God necessary?
Scientists today believe that soon after one ten millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, gravity emerged. In a ridiculously small interval of time, electro-magnetism and nuclear forces emerged, accompanied by an army of photons, protons, electrons, neutrons and much else. From virtual nothingness the infinitely large cosmos emerged that continues to expand.
Will the LHC throw new light on understanding these phenomena? We now know that the essence of all substances — living and non-living — and their attributes are determined by the atoms of which they are made and how these atoms are linked together. Science now tells us that these atoms were all synthesised from pristine hydrogen by processes deep inside stars that died before our solar system came into being. As Martin Rees says, “We are literally the ashes of ancient stars — the ‘nuclear waste’ from the fuel that made them shine.”
Newton’s discovery of gravity showed that the same forces acted on the stars as they act on our bodies. This led to the control of the trajectory of spacecraft and satellites. Faraday’s discovery of electric and magnetic forces led to electricity generation and radio waves. The discovery of the anatomy of the atom and its electrons led to nuclear energy, laser technology etc. However, as Rees says, we have very little knowledge of the force that actually holds the nuclei of atoms together, the force without which there would be no carbon, no oxygen and, hence, no life. Will the LHC throw some light on what this force may be?
Sub-atomic particles may have emerged from the Big Bang. But then, how did they acquire any mass? This is the elusive Higgs boson through which the sub-atomic particles pass through, acquiring mass and, thus, constituting the matter that makes up the universe. Stephen Hawking calls this ‘the God particle’. Will the LHC find this?
Such are the questions that a global team of physicists are hoping to provide answers to. What happened in astronomy with the Hubble telescope and in biology with the human genome project, is now happening in physics with the LHC. Whatever be the levels of excitement, it would be naïve to expect immediate results as it will take well over a year for the collider to reach the expected speeds and energy emissions to replicate, on a minuscule scale, the conditions of the Big Bang.
It is, indeed, gratifying that over a hundred Indian scientists are involved in the LHC project. India gifted a bronze statue of the Nataraja to celebrate India’s connection with CERN. The plaque on the statue quotes Fritjof Capra of The Tao of Physics fame: “... for modern physicists Shiva’s dance is a dance of sub-atomic matter”. Another symbolism of significance should not be missed. Shiva, in the tandav trance, is always shown in the Nataraja as encircled. Is this the dialectical unity between the zero and infinity — unity of the opposites?
This quest to understand the universe and, therefore, ourselves, must proceed on the basis of a rational scientific temper. This man-nature dialectic must unfold by, say, restoring to Einstein his awe of creation — to create one unit of matter, energy equivalent to the square of the speed of light is required (m=E/c2), rather than emphasise on destruction, where tremendous amounts of energy are released with the destruction of matter (E=mc2).
(Sitaram Yechury is CPI(M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP)
Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, who hails the LHC as the greatest experiment in human history, believes that there are many universes, possibly an infinite number, each with different attributes, in different combinations, and that we simply live in one that combines things in a way that allows us to exist. Will the LHC take humanity forward in comprehending that special combination that creates creatures like us who seek answers to how and why they evolve and exist?
The popular science writer, Paul Davies, asks: “Are the seemingly endless varieties of natural forms and structures which appear as the universe unfolds, simply the accidental products of random forces? Or are they somehow the inevitable outcome of the creative activity of nature? Is there a ‘cosmic blueprint’?”
Such deep questions of existence have been the battleground for philosophy and theology down the ages. Every scientific advance has been interpreted accordingly in this battle. Popular novelist Dan Brown, in Angels and Demons, drawing on the earlier achievement of CERN in producing anti-matter, suggests a convergence of science with the Biblical theory of creation fascinatingly captured by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Anti-matter is a very powerful source that releases energy with 100 per cent efficiency as compared to 1.5 per cent in nuclear fission. Yet, it is highly unstable, igniting when it comes in contact with matter. Did God create life through matter and anti-matter collision? If so, was God necessary?
Scientists today believe that soon after one ten millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, gravity emerged. In a ridiculously small interval of time, electro-magnetism and nuclear forces emerged, accompanied by an army of photons, protons, electrons, neutrons and much else. From virtual nothingness the infinitely large cosmos emerged that continues to expand.
Will the LHC throw new light on understanding these phenomena? We now know that the essence of all substances — living and non-living — and their attributes are determined by the atoms of which they are made and how these atoms are linked together. Science now tells us that these atoms were all synthesised from pristine hydrogen by processes deep inside stars that died before our solar system came into being. As Martin Rees says, “We are literally the ashes of ancient stars — the ‘nuclear waste’ from the fuel that made them shine.”
Newton’s discovery of gravity showed that the same forces acted on the stars as they act on our bodies. This led to the control of the trajectory of spacecraft and satellites. Faraday’s discovery of electric and magnetic forces led to electricity generation and radio waves. The discovery of the anatomy of the atom and its electrons led to nuclear energy, laser technology etc. However, as Rees says, we have very little knowledge of the force that actually holds the nuclei of atoms together, the force without which there would be no carbon, no oxygen and, hence, no life. Will the LHC throw some light on what this force may be?
Sub-atomic particles may have emerged from the Big Bang. But then, how did they acquire any mass? This is the elusive Higgs boson through which the sub-atomic particles pass through, acquiring mass and, thus, constituting the matter that makes up the universe. Stephen Hawking calls this ‘the God particle’. Will the LHC find this?
Such are the questions that a global team of physicists are hoping to provide answers to. What happened in astronomy with the Hubble telescope and in biology with the human genome project, is now happening in physics with the LHC. Whatever be the levels of excitement, it would be naïve to expect immediate results as it will take well over a year for the collider to reach the expected speeds and energy emissions to replicate, on a minuscule scale, the conditions of the Big Bang.
It is, indeed, gratifying that over a hundred Indian scientists are involved in the LHC project. India gifted a bronze statue of the Nataraja to celebrate India’s connection with CERN. The plaque on the statue quotes Fritjof Capra of The Tao of Physics fame: “... for modern physicists Shiva’s dance is a dance of sub-atomic matter”. Another symbolism of significance should not be missed. Shiva, in the tandav trance, is always shown in the Nataraja as encircled. Is this the dialectical unity between the zero and infinity — unity of the opposites?
This quest to understand the universe and, therefore, ourselves, must proceed on the basis of a rational scientific temper. This man-nature dialectic must unfold by, say, restoring to Einstein his awe of creation — to create one unit of matter, energy equivalent to the square of the speed of light is required (m=E/c2), rather than emphasise on destruction, where tremendous amounts of energy are released with the destruction of matter (E=mc2).
(Sitaram Yechury is CPI(M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP)
India - When the congressmen come marching in
When this Saturday (September 13) the 200-odd members of the upper echelons of the Congress leaderships gather at the Parliament House Annexe for a meeting of the “extended” Congress Working Committee, they could go about their business in one of the two ways. The easiest, the traditional and the most comfortable choice would be to reduce the entire exercise to a massive endorsement of the leadership of the Congress president and the Prime Minister.
The second, the more difficult and the most needed option is to be in a position to tell the country, at the end of the day’s deliberations, why the Congress ought to be voted back to power. The country has to be given a coherent intellectual justification for continuing to repose its faith in the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh leadership, even after five years of fitful governance.
In other words the Congress will need to market itself as something much more than a mere instrument for furthering the interests and ambitions of a particular political family. In May 2004 the party made a historic choice that bestowed nobility on its leadership and introduced a large dose of decency in an otherwise unedifying political matrix. Much of that nobility, as also the element of “tyaag,” stand worn off. The party needs to devise new formulas for renewing its political respectability and acceptability — as a group of leaders that has the stamina, hunger and the clarity of goals to steer the country in these difficult and exacting times.
Now, instead of harping on the 2004 “tyaag” or relapsing into old-fashioned family mantras, the Congress can legitimately try to project Ms Gandhi as the iconic leader around whom a new intellectual and ideological narrative can be crafted. Leadership alone does not sell, especially in this cynical and irreverent age; a leader must be marketed as representing certain values, as subscribing to some ideas on how to fulfil the society’s aspirations, and as advocating some solutions to the polity’s current inflictions.
The Congress has to rediscover the world of ideas and ideology. For instance, even after the party leadership took the biggest of all political gambles over the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement the Congressmen remain charmingly innocent of the ideological and policy issues, immediate and long-term, at stake. The Congressmen’s confusion is the party’s business, but the country needs to have from them a glimpse of the passion and urgency underlying the nuclear deal and all that it entails for our collective fortunes.
For that matter, the country also would like to know what the Congress thinks or stands for in the current bloody turmoil in Kashmir or what was the Congress position in the stand-off over the Amarnath controversy; and, while we are at it, the country may also want to know what the Congress thinks of the anti-Christian violence in Orissa — or of the stand-off at Singur, or the anti-north Indian agitation in Mumbai, or the ever expanding reach of the Naxalite groups. Not only it needs to spell out its views and ideas, the Congress has to reassure the nation that it is equipped than other political parties to promote national welfare.
As a political group that fancies itself as the natural party of governance, the Congress owes it to itself and the country to re-energise national consensus around key strategic and policy issues. Clarity on what its core values can have the added advantage of framing political action around those convictions; a re-statement of values and ideas imposes a cohesion and a sense of identity on the entire political organisation as also defines parameters for the newcomers to the party.
Admittedly in this election year the Congress’ pre-occupation naturally would be with winning the coming Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. Also admittedly, the all too obvious organisational infirmities (mostly self-inflicted) cannot be wished away. But if the Congress hopes to break out of its limited electoral real estate, it can do so only by giving the non-Congress voters a reason to favour the party. For a change the party must humour the citizen rather than its leader. The September 13 congregation is an opportunity for the party and its leadership to craft a new appeal.
The second, the more difficult and the most needed option is to be in a position to tell the country, at the end of the day’s deliberations, why the Congress ought to be voted back to power. The country has to be given a coherent intellectual justification for continuing to repose its faith in the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh leadership, even after five years of fitful governance.
In other words the Congress will need to market itself as something much more than a mere instrument for furthering the interests and ambitions of a particular political family. In May 2004 the party made a historic choice that bestowed nobility on its leadership and introduced a large dose of decency in an otherwise unedifying political matrix. Much of that nobility, as also the element of “tyaag,” stand worn off. The party needs to devise new formulas for renewing its political respectability and acceptability — as a group of leaders that has the stamina, hunger and the clarity of goals to steer the country in these difficult and exacting times.
Now, instead of harping on the 2004 “tyaag” or relapsing into old-fashioned family mantras, the Congress can legitimately try to project Ms Gandhi as the iconic leader around whom a new intellectual and ideological narrative can be crafted. Leadership alone does not sell, especially in this cynical and irreverent age; a leader must be marketed as representing certain values, as subscribing to some ideas on how to fulfil the society’s aspirations, and as advocating some solutions to the polity’s current inflictions.
The Congress has to rediscover the world of ideas and ideology. For instance, even after the party leadership took the biggest of all political gambles over the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement the Congressmen remain charmingly innocent of the ideological and policy issues, immediate and long-term, at stake. The Congressmen’s confusion is the party’s business, but the country needs to have from them a glimpse of the passion and urgency underlying the nuclear deal and all that it entails for our collective fortunes.
For that matter, the country also would like to know what the Congress thinks or stands for in the current bloody turmoil in Kashmir or what was the Congress position in the stand-off over the Amarnath controversy; and, while we are at it, the country may also want to know what the Congress thinks of the anti-Christian violence in Orissa — or of the stand-off at Singur, or the anti-north Indian agitation in Mumbai, or the ever expanding reach of the Naxalite groups. Not only it needs to spell out its views and ideas, the Congress has to reassure the nation that it is equipped than other political parties to promote national welfare.
As a political group that fancies itself as the natural party of governance, the Congress owes it to itself and the country to re-energise national consensus around key strategic and policy issues. Clarity on what its core values can have the added advantage of framing political action around those convictions; a re-statement of values and ideas imposes a cohesion and a sense of identity on the entire political organisation as also defines parameters for the newcomers to the party.
Admittedly in this election year the Congress’ pre-occupation naturally would be with winning the coming Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. Also admittedly, the all too obvious organisational infirmities (mostly self-inflicted) cannot be wished away. But if the Congress hopes to break out of its limited electoral real estate, it can do so only by giving the non-Congress voters a reason to favour the party. For a change the party must humour the citizen rather than its leader. The September 13 congregation is an opportunity for the party and its leadership to craft a new appeal.
India - Raigad plans referendum on Reliance SEZ
About 4,000 landowners in 22 villages near Mumbai will decide the fate of Reliance group’s proposed Mumbai Special Economic Zone (MSEZ).
Raigad district will hold a referendum on September 21 to ask villagers whether they wish to part with their land for the 5,000-acre project.
This is India’s first-ever such exercise and is scheduled even as Singur stays on edge over the land acquisition for Tata Motors’ Nano plant.
Despite the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance offering relief packages, the 22 villages in Pen want to continue farming rice. They say the near-complete Rs 360-crore Hetavane dam will soon solve their irrigation problems.
Futher, the villagers say the Rs 10 lakh per acre offered by Reliance is lower than the market rate, Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh per acre.
Ulka Mahajan, of the Shoshit Jan Andolan, said the “the villagers want to keep their land for farming”.
Raigad district will hold a referendum on September 21 to ask villagers whether they wish to part with their land for the 5,000-acre project.
This is India’s first-ever such exercise and is scheduled even as Singur stays on edge over the land acquisition for Tata Motors’ Nano plant.
Despite the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance offering relief packages, the 22 villages in Pen want to continue farming rice. They say the near-complete Rs 360-crore Hetavane dam will soon solve their irrigation problems.
Futher, the villagers say the Rs 10 lakh per acre offered by Reliance is lower than the market rate, Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh per acre.
Ulka Mahajan, of the Shoshit Jan Andolan, said the “the villagers want to keep their land for farming”.
Tech - Hackers break into Big Bang experiment
NEW DELHI: Efforts to recreate the Big Bang theory at Cern hit its first roadblock, with scientists admitting that their experiment was hacked into by maverick hackers. ( Watch ) The hackers reportedly mounted an attack on the Large Hadron Collider, which has raised eyebrows over the security of this historic experiment in the world, as it surpasses a vital milestone. Scientists say that it was a competition between two hacker groups - known in hacking circles as 2600 and 1337, that led them to break into the experiment just before it was to begin. 2600, also known as the Greek Security Team broke into the experiment and left a message saying, "We are 2600.. don't mess with us..." The scientists who were behind the mammoth experiment had received threatening emails prior to the start. No real damage done, but the hackers got perilously close. The hackers attacked the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, or CMS. Scientists working at Cern, the organisation that runs the vast smasher, were worried about what the hackers could do because they were "one step away" from the computer control system of one of the huge detectors of the machine, a vast magnet that weighs 12,500 tons, measuring around 21 metres in length and 15 metres wide. If they had hacked into a second computer network, they could have turned off parts of the vast detector and, said the insider, "it is hard enough to make these things work if no one is messing with it." Fortunately, only one file was damaged but one of the scientists firing off emails as the CMS team fought off the hackers said it was a "scary experience". The hackers breached the CMSMON system, which monitors the CMS software system. CMS takes vast amounts of data during collisions.
World - It's a gas (G.Read)
San Antonio in the United States could become the first city to draw all its energy requirements from methane gas generated from the city's water treatment system through recycling 14,000 tonnes of biosolids in sewage annually. The methane source includes human waste that, if left untreated and unutilised, would only pollute soil and water. Treating bio-waste, however, could generate an average of 1.5 million cubic feet of gas a day - enough to fill 1,250 tanker trucks daily - according to the system's chief operating officer. A by-product of human and organic waste, methane is the chief component of natural gas that can fuel generators, power plants and furnaces. Closer home, gobar gas - natural gas obtained from methane released by cattle waste - as a green alternative to diesel and other fossil fuels has been taken up seriously, particularly in rural households. However, a lack of adequate hygiene is a constraint because the gas formation - in the large containers filled with gobar - makes the drum's lid rise, and there is spillage all around the plant. So, in India gobar gas plants are fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other pests. But this is not an insurmountable problem. Gobar gas plants could be expanded and diversified to include energy extraction from all kinds of biomass and the gas so produced could fuel power stations - as San Antonio proposes to do - and with improved sanitation, the experiment could yield good results for several Indian cities. As a renewable resource, biomass - either from plants, agriculture and forestry residues, animal or human waste - is biodegradable and so is far more eco-friendly than petroleum-derived fuels. And they are relatively easier to source and process, unlike the sophisticated instruments and know-how required to extract oil or refine coal. Ethanol derived from biofuels has a very high octane rating. It might deliver less energy than gasoline, but by blending about 10 per cent ethanol and petrol or diesel together, a feasible balance is achieved with no perceptible effect on fuel economy. America's space agency NASA is sponsoring a joint project to turn human waste into a power source for spaceships using a process that could also produce other chemicals that can be used on board. Instead of turning up our noses at the idea of recycling human waste and other biosolids in sewage, it would be worthwhile to explore fully and exploit the immense potential hidden in what we routinely regard as being useless.
Business - Niche channels outsourcing ad sales duties
The trend began with NDTV setting up NDTV Media. The full-service company that was formed to manage ad sales for NDTV's own channels later went on to shoulder the duties of Sahara's entertainment channels as well, in lieu of a commission fee of course.Soon after, NDTV Media also started servicing regional channels such as Mi Marathi and Just TV Punjabi. Sensing the huge opportunity — regional television advertising is about 24% of total TV advertising market— an independent player Integrid Media also entered the space about a year back. Twenty months on, Integrid Media — helmed by former UTV chief operating officer Anil Mishra — won the mandate to manage the ad sales duties for the country's first Bhojpuri channel Mahua TV. And by this time outsourcing of ad sales by niche media, which was seen as a one-off case in the start, had almost become a ritual. Mahua TV, which is a general entertainment channel targeted at a Bhojpuri population of close to 150 million, spent close to Rs 15 crore in marketing and buying airtime at the time of the launch. "It was an outsourcing arrangement. But it wasn't limited to mere ad sales. Our employees have a strong background in the television business, so we also provided inputs for programming, strategising and ideating media agnostic solutions," said Mishra. Mahua Media Pvt Ltd (MMPL) has also outsourced its ad sales duties to Integrid for its forthcoming channels — Mahua News and Mahua Music — slated to be launched in a few months. "Creating a fully-staffed, in-house ad sales team from scratch is proving to be a challenge for new players in the media business," said a senior ad sales executive with a general entertainment channel. "If it's a niche channel, then the pool of advertisers to tap into is shallow, making it challenging to continuously generate ad revenues from them at a time when everybody is gnawing at the ad pie." Experts say it makes a better sense if an outsourced entity handles ad sales for niche media. Going by the industry estimates, annual salaries from the bottom rung of a television channel's ad sales team could start from Rs 4-5 lakh a year going up to as high Rs 25 lakh per annum for senior management. The average size of an ad sales team would comprise of at least 6-7 members and the same number of people would be present in major ad markets. In contract, a specialist like NDTV Media team would have more than 250 professionals with an extensive experience in the Indian media market, many of whom would have held senior positions at premier television companies such as Star, Discovery Channel, ESPN Star Sports and Zee TV. Similar team sizes would be delegated for each channel, but the presence of several channels in the seller's kitty would give better negotiating power and value for advertisers and media planners. Chandradeep Mitra, president, Mudra Max, said, "Costs of maintaining a strong sales team are better rationalised in this manner. Unless you have a strong sales teams spread across the country, a specialist is a better choice.
Mktg - Celebrity endorser joke of an Ad
A young man with an unusual perspective on the ups and downs of life is singing the praises of being prepared financially.The verb in that sentence may help you guess his identity. He is Sanjaya Malakar, who may be the most talked-about contestant to appear on the popular reality series American Idol. Malakar, who turned 19 on Wednesday, is featured in a commercial for Nationwide Financial that is part of the next instalment of a campaign carrying the theme Life comes at you fast. There is also a special website (sanjaya-ize.com) where visitors can customise photographs of themselves with different looks sported by Malakar on television; the results can be shared with friends and family. The rise of Malakar last year from unknown Seattle-area teenager to national sensation as a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol was meteoric. The debate over his talent, or lack thereof, and his oddball hairstyles, like the "ponyhawk" — ponytails crossed with a faux mohawk — attracted so much attention that he has become part of American popular culture. He has been parodied on TV shows like Saturday Night Live and in movies like Meet the Spartans. It is that fame, or notoriety, that Nationwide hopes to tap into by signing Malakar for the campaign. He is the most recent in a string of offbeat personalities signed by Nationwide to illustrate how rapidly the vagaries of life can change your financial needs. The others include the former rapper MC Hammer and Kevin Federline, the former husband of Britney Spears. In each instance, the celebrity is in on the joke, poking fun at himself and his experience with the potentials and pitfalls of stardom. For example, the commercial with Federline, which appeared during the 2007 Super Bowl, began with him performing in an elaborate rap video. But it turned out to be a daydream he was having during his shift as the fry chef at a fast-food restaurant. The commercial with Malakar is among six, all humorous, that are being aimed at Americans of South Asian heritage; Malakar is the son of a Bengali Indian father and an Italian-American mother. This is the third year that Nationwide has focused on the South Asian market with tailored advertising. The company also sponsors specific ads for black consumers as well as Spanish-speaking consumers and those who are gay or lesbian. The campaign is by a New York agency named the A Partnership that creates ads for marketers seeking to reach Asian-American consumers. The ads adapt the Life comes at you fast theme developed by the Nationwide agency for the general market, TM Advertising in Dallas, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. Consumers from South Asian countries like India and Pakistan are "a quickly emerging market for a lot of reasons," said Steven Schreibman, vice-president for advertising and brand management at the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in Columbus, Ohio. Americans of South Asian heritage tend to be highly educated, Schreibman said, and focused on the financial well-being of their families. That is reflected in the plots of the commercials in the campaign, which began last month. In one spot, the proud parents of a son who has been accepted to an Ivy League college have to sell just about everything they own to keep him there. On graduation day, he informs his mother and father, "I'm going to London for my Ph.D." In response, they cry — and clearly, not tears of joy. In another commercial, an office worker discovers he has won the lottery. He goes into his boss' office to quit but loses his grip on his winning ticket, which floats through the air and lands in the boss' shredder. Oops! The commercial with Malakar, filmed in India, starts with him standing outside a temple, singing for a long time — as evidenced by changes in the weather and the variety of his wacky hairstyles and outfits — to win an audience with a spiritual master. Only after he agrees to stop singing does he gain entry to the inner sanctum. "Oh, great Guruji, please help me," Malakar says. "I've tasted fame and fortune. Girls adore me. But I still feel that there's something missing. Tell me, what is the most important thing in life?" The master, resplendent in a white robe, intones, "A good retirement plan," as the doors close on him. An announcer says, "Life comes at you fast," and the doors open. "And a haircut," the master adds, as the doors close again. Malakar, who accompanied Schreibman to New York recently for interviews about the campaign, said he liked the concept for the commercial as soon as he heard about it. "Especially if you're going to continue being an entertainer, be in the media, you have to have some humour about yourself," said Malakar, who said that in addition to working on an album he was pursuing deals for a book, a reality TV show and a video game. "The thing that took the longest" during the filming of the commercial, Malakar recalled, was the creation of the many hairstyles he sports, some based on his American Idol looks and others brand new. Some of the hairdos required egg whites for body, he added, laughing, and some required "two cans of hair spray." The concept for the spot was developed with Malakar in mind, said Jeannie Yuen, president and chief executive at the A Partnership. The commercials "are playing on typical South Asia lifestyle situations," she added, particularly the one about college, because "a lot of South Asians come here for education." NYTThe goal of the campaign is to build awareness for the Nationwide brand among South Asians, Yuen said, which is "very middle American" and "not a brand they're exposed to in their home countries." The commercials are appearing on television outlets that are watched by the target audience, which include Zee TV. Now that Nationwide has added another celebrity to the "Life comes at you fast" campaign, who may be next? Well, depending on what happens on November 4, imagine this script: A woman with librarian looks walks into camera view with her husband; offspring including an infant, a pregnant teenage daughter and a soldier son; and a prospective son-in-law carrying a hockey stick. "I've gone from obscurity to celebrity and back to obscurity," she says ruefully. "Life comes at you fast."
Business - Swatch plans joint venture for Indian market
The Swatch group, the world’s largest watch company with annual revenues of $ 6 billion, is now seriously eyeing the Indian subcontinent as a good market to expand.In an exclusive interview to The Hindu Business Line, Mr Nicholas G Hayek Senior, founder and Chairman of the Swatch Group, said that the group has decided to build a dedicated distribution network in the Indian market and the first step towards that has been the finalisation of a joint venture with an Indian company. While the identity of the chosen partner was not disclosed, the agreement is to set up 100 dedicated Swatch outlets in India.With Indians getting on par with the Western world when it comes to sporting trendy luxury watches, India was the market being talked about during the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Swatch Group at Bregenz in Austria, where its ‘007’ series of 22 watches was unveiled, each modelled and named after 22 villains featured in various James Bond movies over the years. In an interview to this correspondent, Mr Hayek spelt out his vision for India by stating that he would like to see a Swatch watch on the hand of every fifth Indian and to achieve a revenue of one billion Swiss Francs (about $ 900 million) in India, both in the span of the next ten years. Market sources estimate that the group’s current turnover in India would be in the region of about $ 75 million (Rs 300 crore). The responsibility for growing the Indian market has been vested with Mr Hayek’s daughter, Ms Nayla Hayek.While in India the Swatch brands already sell more than all other foreign brands put together, its plans will put it in direct confrontation with the Indian watch major Titan Industries, which today is more than four times the size of the Swiss major in the Indian market. The biggest challenge for Swatch, however, is to replicate the huge distribution network Titan has built for itself. While Swatch today has only about seven exclusive outlets in India, Titan sells its watches across several hundred exclusive and multi-brand outlets. Swatch watches world over are usually bracketed in the low-price category. In India, however, the equations change. A Swatch watch which sells in India typically in the range Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 would be considered expensive and not mass market. Thus Swatch’s strategy would hinge on positioning the brand, garnering volumes through the Swatch brand primarily while earning the revenues through its other luxury brands such as Breguet, Omega, Rado, Longines, Tissot and the several more it has in its portfolio. Apart from owning the top-notch brands, the Swatch Group is also the world’s largest manufacturer of quartz and mechanical movements which is used by most of Swatch’s competitors.
India - Kalam's class to be webcast
AHMEDABAD: Not everybody is lucky to be in a class at Indian Institution of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), leave alone a class taken by former president. But, the internet can be a great leveller. Former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's three-and-a-half hour talk on Saturday will be webcast and everyone can be in his virtual class real time on the institute's official website. "We decided to do this because we did not want to restrict Kalam only to our class and the participants who got selected. Since we could not accommodate more, we have a lot of students on campus as well who are not a part of this course. With this, even they and all the people outside can be a part of this lecture," said general secretary of students' council Srijan Pal Singh. Security personnel sanitised the campus on Friday and swarmed it before Kalam arrived. Access to the campus was restricted and special passes issued for people who need to be there on Saturday.
Lifestyle - Nervous in Bed ?
You've been waiting for this night when you and lady love will create fire works in bed. But then... You want to make it a special night for her where she feels the ultimate sexual satisfaction. But just as the moment ripens, your mind is paranoid with disturbingly anxious thoughts. "Will I be able to satisfy her? What if she thinks I'm too small? What if she doesn't get an orgasm?" are the multiple anxious sentiments going through your mind space. And, before you know, your much awaited sexcapade goes completely awry, leaving you feeling frustrated, inadequate and helpless. Anxiety is a part of life; but when it comes to performance anxiety faced by men in bed; it takes a toll on both the partners. But what exactly is performance anxiety? Male sexual performance anxiety is described when a man has trouble getting an erection. Men with this problem usually worry about whether they will get a penile erection and when they are just about to have sex, they lose their erection. This problem also sometimes surfaces in the course of having sex, when they lose their genital erection. Every man wants to please his woman, but sometimes obsessing about the performance makes them overtly conscious, resulting in premature ejaculation at times. Handle with care: Sex is a very rewarding part of conjugal life. Your partner plays an important role in helping you deal with your performance anxiety. The situation might be worsened by a selfish, uncaring partner. Understanding the helplessness and loneliness of your man will help you bond well with him as this forms the first step in maintaining a strong relationship and getting your sexual life back on track. Anuj Khanna (name changed), an advertising professional coyly confesses "I was totally devastated when I faced this situation for the first time in my life. That was when I was 24-years-old and I didn't know how to handle it. Not only could I not function in regular life, I couldn't get onstage." "Sexual performance anxiety can be caused by a simple event even in very stable, emotionally healthy individuals. The main dilemma is much like being stuck in a slippery pit - the more frantic you are, the slipperier you make your problem. The calmer you are, the more likely you are to escape," says Dr. Manoj Khanna, a counseling psychologist. Performance anxiety, in most cases, is not a permanent dysfunction. One should not try and avoid sexual activity due to the fear of non-performance. Reassurance by female partner acts as a strong tool which helps the male member to regain confidence and enjoy a healthy sexual life. One just has to focus on the problem and find ways to eliminate it. A word of caution - remember, that anyone from a beginner to a seasoned player can get affected by this syndrome. So, don't worry and just put your best feet forward. Be sure of the fact that you have complete control over your body.
Business - IT Cos brand builders
Indian technology firms, which have cracked the software codes, are now ready to learn a few marketing mantras and may actually be practicing what they preach. Small and medium firms are seen outsourcing some key marketing functions like making pitch documents, lead generation, power point presentations and even reverse outsourcing (where they appoint a local agency to market their products and services in the US). Demand is coming from startups seeking to attract potential buyers and investors and those who are looking at sustained growth. Many VCs (venture capitalists) and PE (private equity) players are also approaching outsourced CMO (chief marketing officer) or such outfits for their portfolio companies.
A cluster of service providers are mushrooming to capture business from small enterprises, who either lack the bandwidth or cannot afford a high-cost, full-time marketing resource. CMO Axis, co-founded by Vinod Harith, till recently global head of marketing communications for Wipro Technologies, offers to build and run a company’s annual marketing calendar. “We also work for large companies and free management time by taking over functions like blog and website management IT presentations, Powerpoint repurposing,” says Harith.
In the same space is Vijay Menon, a freelance CMO, formerly vice president, marketing at QuEST and Infosys BPO. Menon says, “These enterprises may not be able to derive benefits from hiring a full-time CMO, who may come at a salary level bill of up to Rs 50 lakh per annum.” Obviously, “During a downturn everybody is cautious of hiring a high-cost professional,” one industry player said. However, Srini Rajam, CEO, Ittiam Systems, makes a clear distinction between marketing and branding. Marketing becomes the fulcrum of any organisation in deciding the road map as well as the genesis of product and services
Some parts of branding activity could be outsourced especially when a product is being taken to the market, he adds. Gaurav Gupta of Everest Group, says, “It is a long way to go before sales force is outsourced as most companies like to be in control and have their internal systems in place." Outsourcing is catching up in telemarketing and analytics, particularly in financial services sector like credit cards, insurance and the like. Even captives of i-banks, for instance, bring to offshore tasks like pitch documents, power points, analytics and marketing support.
Globally, there is a case for outsourcing for companies in the $20 to $100 million range and the biggest challenge for them is lead generation and building a brand. The challenge in the marketing outsourcing service provider space in India stems from lack of integration between analytics, market intelligence and marketing functions, says S Sabyasachi, senior director, neoIT, an offshore advisory firm. Courtesy: Times News Network
A cluster of service providers are mushrooming to capture business from small enterprises, who either lack the bandwidth or cannot afford a high-cost, full-time marketing resource. CMO Axis, co-founded by Vinod Harith, till recently global head of marketing communications for Wipro Technologies, offers to build and run a company’s annual marketing calendar. “We also work for large companies and free management time by taking over functions like blog and website management IT presentations, Powerpoint repurposing,” says Harith.
In the same space is Vijay Menon, a freelance CMO, formerly vice president, marketing at QuEST and Infosys BPO. Menon says, “These enterprises may not be able to derive benefits from hiring a full-time CMO, who may come at a salary level bill of up to Rs 50 lakh per annum.” Obviously, “During a downturn everybody is cautious of hiring a high-cost professional,” one industry player said. However, Srini Rajam, CEO, Ittiam Systems, makes a clear distinction between marketing and branding. Marketing becomes the fulcrum of any organisation in deciding the road map as well as the genesis of product and services
Some parts of branding activity could be outsourced especially when a product is being taken to the market, he adds. Gaurav Gupta of Everest Group, says, “It is a long way to go before sales force is outsourced as most companies like to be in control and have their internal systems in place." Outsourcing is catching up in telemarketing and analytics, particularly in financial services sector like credit cards, insurance and the like. Even captives of i-banks, for instance, bring to offshore tasks like pitch documents, power points, analytics and marketing support.
Globally, there is a case for outsourcing for companies in the $20 to $100 million range and the biggest challenge for them is lead generation and building a brand. The challenge in the marketing outsourcing service provider space in India stems from lack of integration between analytics, market intelligence and marketing functions, says S Sabyasachi, senior director, neoIT, an offshore advisory firm. Courtesy: Times News Network
Lifestyle - Deities of the hills;India (G.Read)
You have probably never heard of these deities, unless you are a Naga, belonging to a specific tribe that identifies with a specific deity. HT introduces you to some of these enigmatic spirits of our land.
Chükhiu: The only one with a visage, Chükhiu is the odd god out in Nagaland. Somewhat resembling Hanuman, Chükhiu’s nature-sculpted rock face looms over Khonoma. Inhabited by the Angami tribe, Khonoma is where the Naga secessionist movement had taken shape in the 1950s. Chükhiu is the god of the animals. For the Angamis (and other tribes) hunting ensured food. And praying to Chükhiu before a hunt guaranteed kills that would sustain the entire family or clan. Chükhiu ascertained that no one killed his animals for sport, only for food. Successful hunters even offered him a part of their kill.
Miawenüo: This Angami goddess is perhaps the quirkiest of Nagaland’s spirits. With her penchant for ignoring a devotee’s actual needs while granting wishes, she was more of a liability in those days of dependence on divine intervention. If a person sought good harvest, Miawenüo would bless him or her with children; if someone asked for children, she would grant livestock. Miawenüo, in a way, helped the Angamis think before wishing. She also taught them a lesson: rely more on your own enterprise than on the supernatural to get work done.
Lijaba: The god of a tribe believed to have descended from Longtrok – a cluster of six stones – needed to do something special. Lijaba did just that, saving the Aos from a long phase of pestilence followed by famine. But Lijaba was very demanding; he wanted all the Ao males – females in certain cases – to abstain from all pleasure and to perform rites to expiate their sins. The Aos not only obeyed, they incorporated the rites and ‘genna’ (taboo on activities like physical contact with the opposite sex for the six days of the Moatsu festival in May (‘Moa’ means God’s blessings).
Chung Pathen: In the pre-Christian days, the Kukis of Nagaland were in awe of Thilha the Demon. He would destroy their crops, unleash diseases and poison livestock if villagers failed to offer him the blood of cows, pigs, unblemished roosters and ‘mithun’ buffalo. It was crucial to keep Thilha in good humour; it was equally important to have a supergod who could counter him. Chung Pathen was the one, though as hard to please. But once satisfied, he countered Thilha’s easily.
Arimpuh: Almost all gods in Nagaland love rice beer, their addiction apparently giving mortals the license to guzzle. And Arimpuh, god of the Yimchungru tribe, was no different. This minimum-fuss god was by and large benevolent, and all that a devotee needed to do was place a bamboo mug of rice beer near the entrance of his or her house, luring the spirit to stay in the house throughout the yea (like alcohol is offered to Shiva as Kaalbhairav in Ujjain).
Youngwan & Kahshih: Sometimes, a god tags an anti-god along to ensure mortals don’t forget him after their prayers are answered. The Konyak tribe thus had the angry Kahshih virtually riding piggyback on the seemingly benign Youngwan. Kahshih scripted suffering and death until the people went on an elaborate appeasement drive. Youngwan determined the fate and destiny of the Konyaks.
Litsaba: Non-Christian Sumis swear by this crop-protecting deity, who alsotakes care of human reproductive health. Litsaba is invoked during the Tuluni post-harvest festival in July. Nobody works that day in the fields.
Sebarai: The Creator knows best. And if he prefers cooked rice and meat (meedo-karba), so be it. Sebarai’s presumed fondness for a non-vegetarian diet was precisely the reason why the Kacharis of Nagaland began offering him meedo-karba. On special occasions, they would not partake of food before offering it to Sebarai, preceded, like with the Vedic people, by an elaborate ritual to properly propitiate the Creator with.
Rampaube & Tengrangpui: For the Zemes, god isn’t greater than parents. So parents are their living gods, and the spirits are their metaphysical form. Consequently, Rampaube is the father-like god and Tengrangpui is the divine mother. Non-Christian Zemes believe the parental deities reside on Mt Pauna – Nagaland’s third highest peak – from where they derive their strength to “face the harsh world”. Pauna, incidentally, is home to the elusive cailihei, the ginseng-like herb believed to bring the dead back to life.
Chükhiu: The only one with a visage, Chükhiu is the odd god out in Nagaland. Somewhat resembling Hanuman, Chükhiu’s nature-sculpted rock face looms over Khonoma. Inhabited by the Angami tribe, Khonoma is where the Naga secessionist movement had taken shape in the 1950s. Chükhiu is the god of the animals. For the Angamis (and other tribes) hunting ensured food. And praying to Chükhiu before a hunt guaranteed kills that would sustain the entire family or clan. Chükhiu ascertained that no one killed his animals for sport, only for food. Successful hunters even offered him a part of their kill.
Miawenüo: This Angami goddess is perhaps the quirkiest of Nagaland’s spirits. With her penchant for ignoring a devotee’s actual needs while granting wishes, she was more of a liability in those days of dependence on divine intervention. If a person sought good harvest, Miawenüo would bless him or her with children; if someone asked for children, she would grant livestock. Miawenüo, in a way, helped the Angamis think before wishing. She also taught them a lesson: rely more on your own enterprise than on the supernatural to get work done.
Lijaba: The god of a tribe believed to have descended from Longtrok – a cluster of six stones – needed to do something special. Lijaba did just that, saving the Aos from a long phase of pestilence followed by famine. But Lijaba was very demanding; he wanted all the Ao males – females in certain cases – to abstain from all pleasure and to perform rites to expiate their sins. The Aos not only obeyed, they incorporated the rites and ‘genna’ (taboo on activities like physical contact with the opposite sex for the six days of the Moatsu festival in May (‘Moa’ means God’s blessings).
Chung Pathen: In the pre-Christian days, the Kukis of Nagaland were in awe of Thilha the Demon. He would destroy their crops, unleash diseases and poison livestock if villagers failed to offer him the blood of cows, pigs, unblemished roosters and ‘mithun’ buffalo. It was crucial to keep Thilha in good humour; it was equally important to have a supergod who could counter him. Chung Pathen was the one, though as hard to please. But once satisfied, he countered Thilha’s easily.
Arimpuh: Almost all gods in Nagaland love rice beer, their addiction apparently giving mortals the license to guzzle. And Arimpuh, god of the Yimchungru tribe, was no different. This minimum-fuss god was by and large benevolent, and all that a devotee needed to do was place a bamboo mug of rice beer near the entrance of his or her house, luring the spirit to stay in the house throughout the yea (like alcohol is offered to Shiva as Kaalbhairav in Ujjain).
Youngwan & Kahshih: Sometimes, a god tags an anti-god along to ensure mortals don’t forget him after their prayers are answered. The Konyak tribe thus had the angry Kahshih virtually riding piggyback on the seemingly benign Youngwan. Kahshih scripted suffering and death until the people went on an elaborate appeasement drive. Youngwan determined the fate and destiny of the Konyaks.
Litsaba: Non-Christian Sumis swear by this crop-protecting deity, who alsotakes care of human reproductive health. Litsaba is invoked during the Tuluni post-harvest festival in July. Nobody works that day in the fields.
Sebarai: The Creator knows best. And if he prefers cooked rice and meat (meedo-karba), so be it. Sebarai’s presumed fondness for a non-vegetarian diet was precisely the reason why the Kacharis of Nagaland began offering him meedo-karba. On special occasions, they would not partake of food before offering it to Sebarai, preceded, like with the Vedic people, by an elaborate ritual to properly propitiate the Creator with.
Rampaube & Tengrangpui: For the Zemes, god isn’t greater than parents. So parents are their living gods, and the spirits are their metaphysical form. Consequently, Rampaube is the father-like god and Tengrangpui is the divine mother. Non-Christian Zemes believe the parental deities reside on Mt Pauna – Nagaland’s third highest peak – from where they derive their strength to “face the harsh world”. Pauna, incidentally, is home to the elusive cailihei, the ginseng-like herb believed to bring the dead back to life.
Business - India;In fresh blow,Satyam decides to quit Kolkata
HYDERABAD/KOLKATA: In what would be a further blow for West Bengal's industrialization plans, India's fourth-largest software exporter Satyam Computer Services, after dilly-dallying for the last four years, has decided to quit Kolkata. A decision to not go forward with its proposed software development centre at Salt Lake's Sector V, Kolkata's IT hub, was taken at a high-level internal meeting last week. But the move is yet to be formalized and the company's decision hasn't so far been communicated to the West Bengal government. According to internal Satyam sources, the company feels that the piece of land allocated to it in Salt Lake is low-lying and amenable to water logging, especially during monsoons. "Therefore, as such, it is not suitable for establishing a software development centre," a company source said. Satyam had been allocated 2.77 acres at Salt Lake for the software development centre. On its part, though, the Bengal government still expressed confidence that Satyam would not give up on Kolkata. "We have no reason to believe that the company wants to back out of the city because it has always appeared genuinely interested in setting up a presence in Kolkata during the frequent interactions we have had with them. We are even offering Satyam land near Vedic Village at Rajarhat (where Infosys and Wipro are each being given 90 acres) for setting up an IT SEZ which it is keen to establish," West Bengal IT minister Debesh Das told TOI. In July, Satyam had expressed interest in setting up an IT SEZ in Kolkata. As per norms, a company needs a minimum land area of 25 acres to establish an IT SEZ. "As for Sector V, our assessment is that Satyam is waiting for some more clarity on the extension of the STPI scheme so that it can take a call on how it can make use of the land allotted to it there,"Das said. The STPI scheme, which confers a host of fiscal benefits to IT units nationwide, is supposed to expire on March 31, 2010. The MoU between Satyam and Webel (the West Bengal government agency responsible for promoting IT investments) for setting up the Kolkata facility was signed on January 30, 2004, in the presence of Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Hyderabad. The foundation stone for the Kolkata project was laid on February 24, 2006. Though Satyam had announced that it proposed to create a facility at Salt Lake that would be able to employ 2000 associates, the plans never got off. But, periodically, the company has been assuring the West Bengal government that it was "serious" about Kolkata.
Mktg - Yahoo to get a new home page
CALIFORNIA: Yahoo Inc is preparing to tweak several popular sections of its website, including its home page, during the next few months to accommodate more material from rival services as the Internet company tries to polish its tarnished franchise. The makeover outlined for reporters on Thursday represents a key step in Yahoo's push to regain the momentum that it lost while being outmaneuvered by Internet search rival Google Inc and more recent upstarts like the rapidly growing online hangouts MySpace and Facebook. Yahoo's previous dawdling crimped its profits during the past two years, leading to a dramatic downturn in its market value that triggered an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft Corp this year. Since Microsoft withdrew its $47.5 billion bid in May, Yahoo has been battling to boost its stock price, which recently sank to its lowest level in nearly five years. Yahoo shares climbed 85 cents, or almost 5 per cent, Thursday to close at $18.55 -- well below Microsoft's last offer of $33. Boasting 500 million users worldwide, Yahoo is hoping to bounce back by becoming an even more indispensable vehicle for Web surfers and advertisers. As part of that process, the Sunnyvale-based company has been spotlighting more content from other websites and extending its advertising network so it can run ads on more Internet properties. Yahoo plans to open up more with the first major redesign of its home page since May 2006. The changes will enable Yahoo users to plant more mini-applications known as "widgets" on personalised versions of the home page, said Ash Patel, executive vice president of the company's audience product division. In a demonstration, Patel showed how Yahoo users subscribing to the online DVD rental service Netflix will soon be able to review their latest movie requests and ratings without leaving Yahoo's main page. Yahoo is hosting a conference for outside developers on Friday in hopes of cultivating more applications for its new home page.
Patel declined to specify when the redesigned page will be unveiled, saying only that it will begin gradually within the next few months. "You will see a rolling thunder kind of thing," he said. Yahoo also plans to open up its music section to rival services like Apple Inc's iTunes and Amazon.com Inc during the next few weeks, said Scott Moore, who runs Yahoo's media operations. Moore said Yahoo's news section also will start to feature more local content from newspapers around the nation. Another one-time Internet darling, Time Warner Inc's AOL, announced a similar redesign this week, opening its home page to content from rival companies in a bid to broaden its appeal to users who have endless choices online. On the marketing front, Yahoo still plans to begin an advertising partnership with Google next month despite an intensifying antitrust investigation by the US Justice Department. Yahoo thinks it can boost its annual revenue by $800 million by relying on Google's technology to sell some of the ads on its website, but the partnership has raised concerns about diminished competition because the two companies combined control more than 80 per cent of the US search advertising market. In a move that could foreshadow a formal legal challenge, the Justice Department has hired an antitrust lawyer to review the evidence collected in an inquiry that began even before Yahoo announced its partnership plans with Google in June. Because they aren't exchanging stock or cash, Yahoo and Google could have launched their alliance months ago but voluntarily waited until October to allow antitrust regulators to assess the situation. Yahoo hopes the regulatory inquiry to be wrapped up within the next few weeks so it can begin posting some Google ads at an unspecified date next month, company spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. Either Google or Yahoo can cancel the partnership beginning on October 11 to avoid or resolve an antitrust lawsuit filed by the government, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Patel declined to specify when the redesigned page will be unveiled, saying only that it will begin gradually within the next few months. "You will see a rolling thunder kind of thing," he said. Yahoo also plans to open up its music section to rival services like Apple Inc's iTunes and Amazon.com Inc during the next few weeks, said Scott Moore, who runs Yahoo's media operations. Moore said Yahoo's news section also will start to feature more local content from newspapers around the nation. Another one-time Internet darling, Time Warner Inc's AOL, announced a similar redesign this week, opening its home page to content from rival companies in a bid to broaden its appeal to users who have endless choices online. On the marketing front, Yahoo still plans to begin an advertising partnership with Google next month despite an intensifying antitrust investigation by the US Justice Department. Yahoo thinks it can boost its annual revenue by $800 million by relying on Google's technology to sell some of the ads on its website, but the partnership has raised concerns about diminished competition because the two companies combined control more than 80 per cent of the US search advertising market. In a move that could foreshadow a formal legal challenge, the Justice Department has hired an antitrust lawyer to review the evidence collected in an inquiry that began even before Yahoo announced its partnership plans with Google in June. Because they aren't exchanging stock or cash, Yahoo and Google could have launched their alliance months ago but voluntarily waited until October to allow antitrust regulators to assess the situation. Yahoo hopes the regulatory inquiry to be wrapped up within the next few weeks so it can begin posting some Google ads at an unspecified date next month, company spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. Either Google or Yahoo can cancel the partnership beginning on October 11 to avoid or resolve an antitrust lawsuit filed by the government, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tech - Smallest SLR camera coming soon
TOKYO: Japan's Matsushita said it would launch the world's smallest digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, targeting female users who want a high-performance machine that does not weigh too much. SLR cameras, high-end models with interchangeable lenses, are the fastest growing and most lucrative segment of the digital camera market. But some compact camera users are reluctant to move up to SLR models because they are bulkier and heavier. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, which changes its name to Panasonic on October 1, offers the Lumix brand digital cameras. Its new Lumix model, DMC-G1, is 27 per cent smaller than its existing DMC-L10 SLR camera, and weighs 385 grams -- slightly more than a regular can of beer. The new machine will go on sale in Japan on October 31. Matsushita it expected a package of the camera body and a lens unit to sell for 90,000 yen ($839.5). Overseas launches are scheduled for late October and early November. Matsushita was the world's seventh-largest digital camera maker with a 7.1 per cent share in 2007, according to data from research firm IDC. In the digital SLR camera market, which is dominated by Canon Inc and Nikon Corp, its share stood at 0.5 per cent last year.
Lifestyle - Gulf malayalis & Onam feast
Millions of Malayalis across the Gulf celebrated Onam, Kerala's traditional harvest festival, on Friday albeit in a low key manner due to Ramadan, the ongoing Islamic holy month of fasting.
Though the festival usually sees Malayalis thronging restaurants for Onam Sadhya, the traditional Onam feast, or family and friend gatherings in public, this time they have mostly restricted themselves to their homes. Millions of Malayalis across the Gulf celebrated Onam, Kerala's harvest fest, albeit in a low key manner due to Ramadan.
Restaurants in the region served Onam Sadhya in lunch boxes as takeaways and did not open up dining areas.
A box containing the usual 21 items of Onam Sadhya is being sold for anywhere between 25 dirhams (Rs.311) and 40 dirhams (Rs.498).
"We always give boxes as well as dining experience in our restaurant but this time, due to Ramadan, we are offering only takeaways," Ramachandran, a chef at a popular South Indian restaurant in downtown Dubai, told IANS.
He said that this has not affected business and the crowd has been as good as before. "We have sold about 1,700 boxes till now," he said half-an-hour before closing the takeaway service Friday afternoon.
Friday is also the official weekend here. Ramachandran's Onam Sadhya boxes were being sold at 30 dirhams (Rs.374) each. Meanwhile, many Malayalis have kept their family and friends get-togethers for the evening to coincide with Iftar timings. Most major Malayali associations across the region have also kept their Onam celebrations to after Ramadan and this time the festival has been more of a personal and family affair. A vast majority of the over 4.8 million Indian expatriates in the six Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hail from Kerala.
A vast majority of the over 4.8 million Indian expatriates in the six Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hail from Kerala.
Skyrocketing inflation in the region has also hurt the pockets of people with many traditional Onam items not available at all or at prohibitive prices.
"Because of the Indian government's ban on the export of non-basmati rice, we have not been able to get 'ponya' rice which is so much in demand during Onam," a manager at a supermarket chain branch had told IANS.
The supply of 'matta' or parboiled rice, an important part of Onam Sadhya, from India has been severely hit this year.
Malayalis complained that they have not been able to procure this variety of rice and what was available was way too expensive.
In Qatar, local media reports put the price of 'matta', which was 5.50 Qatari riyals (Rs.69) a kg last month at QR11 (Rs.137) a kg now.
"This is because of the unaffordable and unreasonable price of Indian parboiled rice varieties," a shopkeeper in Doha was quoted as saying.
In such circumstances, people are compelled to buy Thai varieties of parboiled rice, which are priced between QR29 (Rs.362) and QR40 (Rs.500) for a bag of five kilos.
But a longtime Malayali resident in Dubai told IANS: "I don't know where they managed this from but I got Indian matta in the Onam Sadhya box I bought from a restaurant today and that too at a reasonable price!"
Though the festival usually sees Malayalis thronging restaurants for Onam Sadhya, the traditional Onam feast, or family and friend gatherings in public, this time they have mostly restricted themselves to their homes. Millions of Malayalis across the Gulf celebrated Onam, Kerala's harvest fest, albeit in a low key manner due to Ramadan.
Restaurants in the region served Onam Sadhya in lunch boxes as takeaways and did not open up dining areas.
A box containing the usual 21 items of Onam Sadhya is being sold for anywhere between 25 dirhams (Rs.311) and 40 dirhams (Rs.498).
"We always give boxes as well as dining experience in our restaurant but this time, due to Ramadan, we are offering only takeaways," Ramachandran, a chef at a popular South Indian restaurant in downtown Dubai, told IANS.
He said that this has not affected business and the crowd has been as good as before. "We have sold about 1,700 boxes till now," he said half-an-hour before closing the takeaway service Friday afternoon.
Friday is also the official weekend here. Ramachandran's Onam Sadhya boxes were being sold at 30 dirhams (Rs.374) each. Meanwhile, many Malayalis have kept their family and friends get-togethers for the evening to coincide with Iftar timings. Most major Malayali associations across the region have also kept their Onam celebrations to after Ramadan and this time the festival has been more of a personal and family affair. A vast majority of the over 4.8 million Indian expatriates in the six Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hail from Kerala.
A vast majority of the over 4.8 million Indian expatriates in the six Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hail from Kerala.
Skyrocketing inflation in the region has also hurt the pockets of people with many traditional Onam items not available at all or at prohibitive prices.
"Because of the Indian government's ban on the export of non-basmati rice, we have not been able to get 'ponya' rice which is so much in demand during Onam," a manager at a supermarket chain branch had told IANS.
The supply of 'matta' or parboiled rice, an important part of Onam Sadhya, from India has been severely hit this year.
Malayalis complained that they have not been able to procure this variety of rice and what was available was way too expensive.
In Qatar, local media reports put the price of 'matta', which was 5.50 Qatari riyals (Rs.69) a kg last month at QR11 (Rs.137) a kg now.
"This is because of the unaffordable and unreasonable price of Indian parboiled rice varieties," a shopkeeper in Doha was quoted as saying.
In such circumstances, people are compelled to buy Thai varieties of parboiled rice, which are priced between QR29 (Rs.362) and QR40 (Rs.500) for a bag of five kilos.
But a longtime Malayali resident in Dubai told IANS: "I don't know where they managed this from but I got Indian matta in the Onam Sadhya box I bought from a restaurant today and that too at a reasonable price!"
Entertainment - Britney's sex tape to be released
Britney Spears’ sex tape in which she’s seen romping with ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib is about to be released, according to reports. According to BANG Showbiz, the tape was allegedly shot in January, while the duo was holidaying in Mexico. In the league of Paris Hilton, the 26-year-old pop diva, would be seen stripping completely – apart from a pink wig, the sources said. "The video starts with Britney undressing. She was wearing some cheap clothes. The sex wasn't particularly kinky but Britney wears a pink wig throughout,” Perth Now quoted a source, as saying. "At one point in the tape Adnan asks Britney to remove the pink wig but she refuses, saying "Take what off? There's nothing left to take off," a source added
India - Abandoning a parliament session
For the first time in the history of the Indian Parliament, a session has been abandoned or frozen for reasons that are unclear. This is unjustifiable.
The monsoon session of Parliament stands deferred. This constitutes wilful disrespect to the democratic institution of Parliament. The next session will begin on October 17 and run till November 21. Technically speaking, this five-week session will be a continuation of the two-day session of July 21 and 22 as the Lok Sabha was not prorogued after the trust vote. It was originally believed that the session would be reconvened on August 11 following the vote. However, the UP A government has resolved to cast aside the functions of a democratic Parliament. Thus it has practically managed to freeze up an important session from the parliamentary calendar. There is no possibility now of a winter session, which usually begins in the third week of November: the deferred monsoon session will practically replace it.
This is the first time in the history of the Indian Parliament that a session has been abandoned or frozen for reasons that are unclear. The reason stated by the government is the Prime Minister’s absence from the country during the third week of September. This has left a general impression that the UPA government is not giving due importance to Parliament’s status.
In recent times it has been a practice for the government to curtail or cut down the length of the session, reducing the originally scheduled number of days of sitting. There have been instances of the normal starting dates being altered due to elections in some States. The monsoon session of 2007 was supposed to begin in mid-July but was delayed until August 10 in view of the visit of the Prime Minister of Japan as the government was keen that he addressed Parliament.
This is unjustifiable. Any government recklessly dispensing with a session of Parliament or deferring its sitting for whatever reason will have a detrimental effect on its ability to carry forward its constitutional responsibilities.
There are normally three sessions in a year: the budget session (February-May), the monsoon session (July-September), and the winter session (November-December). The question of having more or less fixed dates for the start of the three sessions was considered by the General Purpose Committee of the Lok Sabha at a sitting held on April 22, 1955. It recommended a time table for the three sessions. Later these recommendations were adopted by the Cabinet. The sessions start on different dates, though more or less in specified months in the parliamentary calendar. However, this time table has clearly not been observed in practice.
There has been a trend of decline in terms of the number and duration of sittings of Parliament after the period of the first Lok Sabha during 1952-1957. This trend of deterioration has been not only in terms of sittings or ‘hours of labour’ but also the quality and length of the debates and the legislative outcomes. There were 677 sittings (3,784 hours) during the first Lok Sabha (1952-57). This is the highest recorded count of the number of sittings of the House of the People. The Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, had 565 sittings during 1952-57. During the period 1971-77 (when Parliament had its tenure extended by a year), the Lok Sabha had 613 sittings (4,071 hours).
This, however, cannot be considered to have been a positive trend, as it included the period of the Emergency. The average number of sittings of the Lok Sabha during 1952-57 was 135 days a year. In 1956, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha sat for 151 and 113 days respectively. This is the highest number of sittings of Parliament till today. In 2006, Parliament sat for 77 days. In 2007, however, this declined in the Lok Sabha to 66 days, marking the lowest number of days in the last few years with the exception of 2004, which was an election year. And now it looks as though 2008 is going to have the lowest number of sittings. This is disheartening, and will inevitably erode public trust in the institution.
There is a long-pending proposal that the minimum number of days of sittings for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha be fixed as 120 and 100 respectively, so as to ensure that Parliament is able to transact its business and carry forward its responsibilities in an optimal manner. This proposal has not been implemented or received due consideration.
Parliament’s role in the decision-making process is becoming more marginal than it was in the formative years of Indian democracy. Though there are conflicting critical views about Jawaharlal Nehru’s role in building the institution, he undoubtedly believed in the primacy of Parliament and was an active and eloquent participant in its debates. According to Atul Kohli, the author of Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability, powerful leaders and political parties in India have often proved to be enemies of democratic institutions and have shown sustained disrespect towards their functions.
Parliament was a vibrant institution during Nehru’s period. After his death in 1964 it retained its prime position in the polity and was highly functional until 1971. The period of Indira Gandhi’s prime ministership, on the other hand, saw persistent and intermittent efforts towards the deinstitutionalisation of fundamental democratic instruments. According to critics, Parliament’s stature was diminished under Indira Gandhi and it was effectively reduced to a rubber stamp. Rajiv Gandhi was absent from the floor even during major debates. Though P.V. Narasimha Rao had a reputation of being a good and serious parliamentarian, he also maintained a level of indifference towards the institution. Interestingly, Parliament’s activities were expanded and it played a far more significant role during the minority governments under the leadership of V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar in the period between 1989 and 1991.
India has adopted the Westminster model of parliamentary system. It was claimed that this was not merely a pale imitation of the British model, but that the success of India’s experiments in parliamentary democracy would have immeasurable influence throughout Asia and other countries.Vital in representative democracy
The holding of Parliament sessions in a regular manner is vital in a representative democracy as it is Parliament that links the government with the people. Parliament is the prime and foremost debating body, where functions such as the consideration of policy and legislation, articulation of constituency grievances or issues of national importance can be performed and solutions found. A serious and proactive Parliament can aid good governance, but the expectations of the citizens can only be fulfilled if the institutions of Parliament, and its members, are well informed, committed and sensitised.
There is widespread concern about dispensing with a session of Parliament among the citizens and the opposition parties, including those on the Left. However, the expressed concern of these parties for democratic protocol will be undermined if they proceed to disallow the business of the Houses and create pandemonium. It is the responsibility of the treasury benches and the opposition to ensure the smooth and effective running of the House. There are substantially developed and legitimate parliamentary procedures available in Parliament to raise or bring issues to the notice of the government and subsequently to seek a solution. The public interest requires that the House engages with its constitutional functions and follows legitimate and established protocol.
There are issues of prime concern to be raised in the next session, such as the Jammu and Kashmir crisis, price rise and inflation. Apart from these, there are many important issues that need Parliament’s attention. Long-pending Bills such as those relating to the right to education, reservation for women, social security for the unorganised sector, HIV/AIDS affected persons and so on, are awaiting due consideration and passage. Without discounting the responsibility of the opposition benches in this regard, it should be said that if the UPA government persists with its disrespect towards Parliament and subjugates an established system of democratic governance into disarray, democratic shock therapy will provide a sharp reminder at the next general elections.
The monsoon session of Parliament stands deferred. This constitutes wilful disrespect to the democratic institution of Parliament. The next session will begin on October 17 and run till November 21. Technically speaking, this five-week session will be a continuation of the two-day session of July 21 and 22 as the Lok Sabha was not prorogued after the trust vote. It was originally believed that the session would be reconvened on August 11 following the vote. However, the UP A government has resolved to cast aside the functions of a democratic Parliament. Thus it has practically managed to freeze up an important session from the parliamentary calendar. There is no possibility now of a winter session, which usually begins in the third week of November: the deferred monsoon session will practically replace it.
This is the first time in the history of the Indian Parliament that a session has been abandoned or frozen for reasons that are unclear. The reason stated by the government is the Prime Minister’s absence from the country during the third week of September. This has left a general impression that the UPA government is not giving due importance to Parliament’s status.
In recent times it has been a practice for the government to curtail or cut down the length of the session, reducing the originally scheduled number of days of sitting. There have been instances of the normal starting dates being altered due to elections in some States. The monsoon session of 2007 was supposed to begin in mid-July but was delayed until August 10 in view of the visit of the Prime Minister of Japan as the government was keen that he addressed Parliament.
This is unjustifiable. Any government recklessly dispensing with a session of Parliament or deferring its sitting for whatever reason will have a detrimental effect on its ability to carry forward its constitutional responsibilities.
There are normally three sessions in a year: the budget session (February-May), the monsoon session (July-September), and the winter session (November-December). The question of having more or less fixed dates for the start of the three sessions was considered by the General Purpose Committee of the Lok Sabha at a sitting held on April 22, 1955. It recommended a time table for the three sessions. Later these recommendations were adopted by the Cabinet. The sessions start on different dates, though more or less in specified months in the parliamentary calendar. However, this time table has clearly not been observed in practice.
There has been a trend of decline in terms of the number and duration of sittings of Parliament after the period of the first Lok Sabha during 1952-1957. This trend of deterioration has been not only in terms of sittings or ‘hours of labour’ but also the quality and length of the debates and the legislative outcomes. There were 677 sittings (3,784 hours) during the first Lok Sabha (1952-57). This is the highest recorded count of the number of sittings of the House of the People. The Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, had 565 sittings during 1952-57. During the period 1971-77 (when Parliament had its tenure extended by a year), the Lok Sabha had 613 sittings (4,071 hours).
This, however, cannot be considered to have been a positive trend, as it included the period of the Emergency. The average number of sittings of the Lok Sabha during 1952-57 was 135 days a year. In 1956, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha sat for 151 and 113 days respectively. This is the highest number of sittings of Parliament till today. In 2006, Parliament sat for 77 days. In 2007, however, this declined in the Lok Sabha to 66 days, marking the lowest number of days in the last few years with the exception of 2004, which was an election year. And now it looks as though 2008 is going to have the lowest number of sittings. This is disheartening, and will inevitably erode public trust in the institution.
There is a long-pending proposal that the minimum number of days of sittings for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha be fixed as 120 and 100 respectively, so as to ensure that Parliament is able to transact its business and carry forward its responsibilities in an optimal manner. This proposal has not been implemented or received due consideration.
Parliament’s role in the decision-making process is becoming more marginal than it was in the formative years of Indian democracy. Though there are conflicting critical views about Jawaharlal Nehru’s role in building the institution, he undoubtedly believed in the primacy of Parliament and was an active and eloquent participant in its debates. According to Atul Kohli, the author of Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability, powerful leaders and political parties in India have often proved to be enemies of democratic institutions and have shown sustained disrespect towards their functions.
Parliament was a vibrant institution during Nehru’s period. After his death in 1964 it retained its prime position in the polity and was highly functional until 1971. The period of Indira Gandhi’s prime ministership, on the other hand, saw persistent and intermittent efforts towards the deinstitutionalisation of fundamental democratic instruments. According to critics, Parliament’s stature was diminished under Indira Gandhi and it was effectively reduced to a rubber stamp. Rajiv Gandhi was absent from the floor even during major debates. Though P.V. Narasimha Rao had a reputation of being a good and serious parliamentarian, he also maintained a level of indifference towards the institution. Interestingly, Parliament’s activities were expanded and it played a far more significant role during the minority governments under the leadership of V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar in the period between 1989 and 1991.
India has adopted the Westminster model of parliamentary system. It was claimed that this was not merely a pale imitation of the British model, but that the success of India’s experiments in parliamentary democracy would have immeasurable influence throughout Asia and other countries.Vital in representative democracy
The holding of Parliament sessions in a regular manner is vital in a representative democracy as it is Parliament that links the government with the people. Parliament is the prime and foremost debating body, where functions such as the consideration of policy and legislation, articulation of constituency grievances or issues of national importance can be performed and solutions found. A serious and proactive Parliament can aid good governance, but the expectations of the citizens can only be fulfilled if the institutions of Parliament, and its members, are well informed, committed and sensitised.
There is widespread concern about dispensing with a session of Parliament among the citizens and the opposition parties, including those on the Left. However, the expressed concern of these parties for democratic protocol will be undermined if they proceed to disallow the business of the Houses and create pandemonium. It is the responsibility of the treasury benches and the opposition to ensure the smooth and effective running of the House. There are substantially developed and legitimate parliamentary procedures available in Parliament to raise or bring issues to the notice of the government and subsequently to seek a solution. The public interest requires that the House engages with its constitutional functions and follows legitimate and established protocol.
There are issues of prime concern to be raised in the next session, such as the Jammu and Kashmir crisis, price rise and inflation. Apart from these, there are many important issues that need Parliament’s attention. Long-pending Bills such as those relating to the right to education, reservation for women, social security for the unorganised sector, HIV/AIDS affected persons and so on, are awaiting due consideration and passage. Without discounting the responsibility of the opposition benches in this regard, it should be said that if the UPA government persists with its disrespect towards Parliament and subjugates an established system of democratic governance into disarray, democratic shock therapy will provide a sharp reminder at the next general elections.
India - Ensuring Transparency
The campaign for public access to all biosafety data carried on by environmentalists and others has received a boost. In respect of genetically modified crops undergoing field trials, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has recently posted the data on Bt brinjal on its website, setting a healthy precedent. The posting of the raw data comes after a protracted battle with the regulatory body which appeared to be doing everything possible to delay or scuttle it. It all started in 2005 when public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court seeking public access to all the biosafety data. In the beginning of 2006, an NGO made a request under the Right to Information Act that the Department of Biotechnology provide biosafety data of all crops undergoing trials. But the DBT refused to divulge the information, arguing that under the Act it was not obligated to reveal details in cases involving commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property. But the hollowness of its stance stood exposed when it later permitted the appellant to scrutinise the data in person at the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The inherently misleading approach of the GEAC became sharply evident when it informed the Supreme Court that the data on Bt brinjal were posted on the website when in reality it had provided only the result summary.
Finally, it was the Supreme Court’s order in April that enabled the process of making available the data of Bt brinjal, which is at an advanced stage of field trials. This was after several attempts by the regulatory body and the company to block public access to the information, reluctant as they were to allow its disclosure before the transgenic brinjal is commercialised. The chastened GEAC in a sudden change of stand noted at its meeting in May that it did not view any of the biosafety information provided by the company to be confidential. It is not clear if the data posted on its website include the results of the tests that were required to be done by the expert committee. It is imperative that the regulator puts the trials on hold for a specific period so that the data are studied in depth. Besides, the biosafety results of other transgenic food crops that are now in various stages of field trials should also be thrown open for public scrutiny. The failure to allow public access to critical data, especially valuable for the farming community, will create unnecessary suspicion as regards the motives underlying the reluctance to be transparent.
Finally, it was the Supreme Court’s order in April that enabled the process of making available the data of Bt brinjal, which is at an advanced stage of field trials. This was after several attempts by the regulatory body and the company to block public access to the information, reluctant as they were to allow its disclosure before the transgenic brinjal is commercialised. The chastened GEAC in a sudden change of stand noted at its meeting in May that it did not view any of the biosafety information provided by the company to be confidential. It is not clear if the data posted on its website include the results of the tests that were required to be done by the expert committee. It is imperative that the regulator puts the trials on hold for a specific period so that the data are studied in depth. Besides, the biosafety results of other transgenic food crops that are now in various stages of field trials should also be thrown open for public scrutiny. The failure to allow public access to critical data, especially valuable for the farming community, will create unnecessary suspicion as regards the motives underlying the reluctance to be transparent.
Tech - Russian water detector on U.S lunar orbiter
A Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) readied at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been sent to the U.S. to be installed on the American Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scheduled for launch in 2009. The aim of the mission is to map the Moon’s surface. The task of the Russian device is to look for hydrogen and hydrogen-bearing compounds, above all frozen water, in the lunar subsurface.
A companion event will be the “impacting” of the Moon to produce fresh information on the Earth’s natural satellite, and seek water resources, presumably of cometary origin. The launch vehicle and the instrument container will impact the Moon.
A similar technique was used in 2005 when scientists made a study of the Tempel-1 comet, into which a copper impactor weighing 369 kg was manoeuvred. Crashing into the comet at a speed of 170 metres a second, it gouged a crater the size of a football field and several dozen meters deep. The impact released energy equivalent to the explosion of 5 tonnes of TNT and caused the comet to eject a huge cloud of matter. This matter was analysed by instruments from the Deep Impact spacecraft.
Impacting is harmless for comets or the Moon. The Moon experienced the first effect of the kind in September 1959, when the Soviet Luna-2 probe crashed into it, or rather two separate machines crashed into it — the probe’s instrument package and the last stage of the launch vehicle. A dark round spot several kilometres across that erupted four seconds after the fall spread out to 40 km as observers watched. The results of the observation proved interesting but were never understood by astronomers.
Later, each abortive mission of lunar probes resulted in a hard landing on the Moon. But no special studies were made of their effects, or of the substances that were thrown up.
Lacking an atmosphere of its own, the Moon is constantly bombarded with solar wind and cometary or meteoritic particles. Near its southern pole there is an impact-formed crater, perhaps the largest of any in the Solar System.
The main aim of the NASA experiment is to validate a theory that the Moon may contain water, first voiced in 1998. Observations from artificial satellites have suggested that at least lenses of frozen water are imbedded in some craters around the poles, shadowed from the sun.
The Moon is the immediate possible next stage of human expansion in the universe and could be the first to host extra-terrestrial bases with an engineered environment. Future colonists will need both water and its components: oxygen and hydrogen, the former for breathing and the latter as rocket fuel, combined with oxygen. If water supplies are found on the Moon, there will be no need to deliver them from the Earth, and colonisation will be easier.
The search for water on the Moon is also important to understand the evolution of the Solar System. The most likely scenario is one in which water would collect in beds as comets fall on the moon. Each bed would chronicle a succession of cometary impacts over a billion or more years. This study would make it possible to trace the history of the system since its inception. One theory is of life having arrived on the Earth from space, brought by comets. A study of lunar cometary “leftovers” could yield fresh evidence favouring this view.
The impacting has been suggested by scientists from the Ames Research Centre in California. The idea of the project, code-named Blue Ice, is to use the reserve capacity of the Atlas-5 launch vehicle (its first stage is powered by the Russian RD-180 engine) to orbit a small additional research probe filled with optical, spectral and other equipment at the same time as the Lunar Orbiter. The probe is named the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS.
A distinctive feature of the Blue Ice craft is that the Russian-made LEND probe will do preliminary reconnaissance to determine the area of the most likely occurrence of water. It is into this region that the Centaur stage will smash. — RIA Novosti
A companion event will be the “impacting” of the Moon to produce fresh information on the Earth’s natural satellite, and seek water resources, presumably of cometary origin. The launch vehicle and the instrument container will impact the Moon.
A similar technique was used in 2005 when scientists made a study of the Tempel-1 comet, into which a copper impactor weighing 369 kg was manoeuvred. Crashing into the comet at a speed of 170 metres a second, it gouged a crater the size of a football field and several dozen meters deep. The impact released energy equivalent to the explosion of 5 tonnes of TNT and caused the comet to eject a huge cloud of matter. This matter was analysed by instruments from the Deep Impact spacecraft.
Impacting is harmless for comets or the Moon. The Moon experienced the first effect of the kind in September 1959, when the Soviet Luna-2 probe crashed into it, or rather two separate machines crashed into it — the probe’s instrument package and the last stage of the launch vehicle. A dark round spot several kilometres across that erupted four seconds after the fall spread out to 40 km as observers watched. The results of the observation proved interesting but were never understood by astronomers.
Later, each abortive mission of lunar probes resulted in a hard landing on the Moon. But no special studies were made of their effects, or of the substances that were thrown up.
Lacking an atmosphere of its own, the Moon is constantly bombarded with solar wind and cometary or meteoritic particles. Near its southern pole there is an impact-formed crater, perhaps the largest of any in the Solar System.
The main aim of the NASA experiment is to validate a theory that the Moon may contain water, first voiced in 1998. Observations from artificial satellites have suggested that at least lenses of frozen water are imbedded in some craters around the poles, shadowed from the sun.
The Moon is the immediate possible next stage of human expansion in the universe and could be the first to host extra-terrestrial bases with an engineered environment. Future colonists will need both water and its components: oxygen and hydrogen, the former for breathing and the latter as rocket fuel, combined with oxygen. If water supplies are found on the Moon, there will be no need to deliver them from the Earth, and colonisation will be easier.
The search for water on the Moon is also important to understand the evolution of the Solar System. The most likely scenario is one in which water would collect in beds as comets fall on the moon. Each bed would chronicle a succession of cometary impacts over a billion or more years. This study would make it possible to trace the history of the system since its inception. One theory is of life having arrived on the Earth from space, brought by comets. A study of lunar cometary “leftovers” could yield fresh evidence favouring this view.
The impacting has been suggested by scientists from the Ames Research Centre in California. The idea of the project, code-named Blue Ice, is to use the reserve capacity of the Atlas-5 launch vehicle (its first stage is powered by the Russian RD-180 engine) to orbit a small additional research probe filled with optical, spectral and other equipment at the same time as the Lunar Orbiter. The probe is named the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS.
A distinctive feature of the Blue Ice craft is that the Russian-made LEND probe will do preliminary reconnaissance to determine the area of the most likely occurrence of water. It is into this region that the Centaur stage will smash. — RIA Novosti
World - China to address urban-rural income gap
Hu’s stress on development in countryside
Channels for farmers to make money are limited
BEIJING: A recent special report of the Chinese State Council raised a pair of paradoxical figures that reflected one of the most difficult problems of the economy.
According to the report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the per capita disposable income gained 9.5 per cent to 4,140 yuan (about $608.8) in real terms in 2007 in the countryside, the largest annual growth since 1985.
But it is not accompanied by a lower urban-rural income gap. The average city dweller received an income that was 3.33 times higher than the rural resident. The disparity amounted to 9,646 yuan, marking the largest gap since the reforms and opening up of China in 1978.Focus of reform
The income ratio, a gauge of balanced social development, has been enlarging since 1985, when the income growth of rural residents slowed down as the focus of reform has moved from countryside to cities. Though the rural income growth once hit 9 per cent in 1996, it was gradually reduced to 2.1 per cent in 2000.
After the government took major stimulative policies including tax reduction in the following years, the income growth of rural residents recovered to a higher level. For four consecutive years from 2004 to 2007, farmers saw a more-than-300-yuan increase in annual income, which means an increase of more than 6 per cent.
However, despite the improvement in the farmer’s disposable income, the urban and rural income gap has continued widening in recent years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the income ratio was 2.57:1 in 1978, and was reduced to 1.80:1 before it grew to 3.33:1 in 2007.
Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai has called for more technological and financial support for the rest of the year to help farmers increase their incomes.
Though the farmers’ income rose at a rapid pace, the foundation for the growth has remained weak, and the channels for farmers to make money are limited, said Mr. Sun, calling for the establishment of a long-term mechanism to boost rural income.
Of the 2,528-yuan per capita cash income of farmers in the first half this year, an average of 785 yuan was earned by doing non-farming jobs, often as migrant workers in cities. While 1,080 yuan per capita was gained from selling agricultural products, 336 yuan came from running businesses. The skyrocketing producer price index, the rising wages for migrant labour and the growth of subsidies are said to have contributed to the major rise in farmer income this year.
But the increase would be nibbled away as farming costs increased because of more expensive materials. Alternative sources of employment are also diminishing as many export-oriented factories shut down in coastal areas, which employed mainly migrant workers.
How to effectively boost the farmer’s income and narrow the urban-rural income gap triggered widespread discussion of deeper conflict in the economic and social development of society.
Yan Chengzhong, director of the Institute of Economic Development and Cooperation of Shanghai Donghua University, said the problem existed not only in income, but also in areas of education, medical care and welfare.
Measures have been taken to improve infrastructure and rural production. In 2007 alone, the central government allocated 420 billion yuan from the treasury for rural development, a sum which almost equals aggregate government spending in rural areas from 1998 to 2003. The allocation in 2008 is said to be even higher.Central task
But the central task should be the reform of the existing dualistic economic structure of cities and the countryside in the next round of development in China, said Li Yining, a well-known economist who had proposed the ongoing shareholding system reform in China.
In 2007, the central government initiated a pilot reform in two rural experiment zones in Chongqing and Chengdu, where the government explored ways to provide service in employment, education and social securities that equals those provided to urban dwellers.
President Hu Jintao stressed the urgent demand to push forward reform and development in the countryside in a recent three-day visit to central Henan Province, calling for vigorous efforts to improve rural operation mechanism, promote the transformation of agricultural business mode and optimise the system supporting the development of agriculture and rural areas. — Xinhua
Channels for farmers to make money are limited
BEIJING: A recent special report of the Chinese State Council raised a pair of paradoxical figures that reflected one of the most difficult problems of the economy.
According to the report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the per capita disposable income gained 9.5 per cent to 4,140 yuan (about $608.8) in real terms in 2007 in the countryside, the largest annual growth since 1985.
But it is not accompanied by a lower urban-rural income gap. The average city dweller received an income that was 3.33 times higher than the rural resident. The disparity amounted to 9,646 yuan, marking the largest gap since the reforms and opening up of China in 1978.Focus of reform
The income ratio, a gauge of balanced social development, has been enlarging since 1985, when the income growth of rural residents slowed down as the focus of reform has moved from countryside to cities. Though the rural income growth once hit 9 per cent in 1996, it was gradually reduced to 2.1 per cent in 2000.
After the government took major stimulative policies including tax reduction in the following years, the income growth of rural residents recovered to a higher level. For four consecutive years from 2004 to 2007, farmers saw a more-than-300-yuan increase in annual income, which means an increase of more than 6 per cent.
However, despite the improvement in the farmer’s disposable income, the urban and rural income gap has continued widening in recent years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the income ratio was 2.57:1 in 1978, and was reduced to 1.80:1 before it grew to 3.33:1 in 2007.
Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai has called for more technological and financial support for the rest of the year to help farmers increase their incomes.
Though the farmers’ income rose at a rapid pace, the foundation for the growth has remained weak, and the channels for farmers to make money are limited, said Mr. Sun, calling for the establishment of a long-term mechanism to boost rural income.
Of the 2,528-yuan per capita cash income of farmers in the first half this year, an average of 785 yuan was earned by doing non-farming jobs, often as migrant workers in cities. While 1,080 yuan per capita was gained from selling agricultural products, 336 yuan came from running businesses. The skyrocketing producer price index, the rising wages for migrant labour and the growth of subsidies are said to have contributed to the major rise in farmer income this year.
But the increase would be nibbled away as farming costs increased because of more expensive materials. Alternative sources of employment are also diminishing as many export-oriented factories shut down in coastal areas, which employed mainly migrant workers.
How to effectively boost the farmer’s income and narrow the urban-rural income gap triggered widespread discussion of deeper conflict in the economic and social development of society.
Yan Chengzhong, director of the Institute of Economic Development and Cooperation of Shanghai Donghua University, said the problem existed not only in income, but also in areas of education, medical care and welfare.
Measures have been taken to improve infrastructure and rural production. In 2007 alone, the central government allocated 420 billion yuan from the treasury for rural development, a sum which almost equals aggregate government spending in rural areas from 1998 to 2003. The allocation in 2008 is said to be even higher.Central task
But the central task should be the reform of the existing dualistic economic structure of cities and the countryside in the next round of development in China, said Li Yining, a well-known economist who had proposed the ongoing shareholding system reform in China.
In 2007, the central government initiated a pilot reform in two rural experiment zones in Chongqing and Chengdu, where the government explored ways to provide service in employment, education and social securities that equals those provided to urban dwellers.
President Hu Jintao stressed the urgent demand to push forward reform and development in the countryside in a recent three-day visit to central Henan Province, calling for vigorous efforts to improve rural operation mechanism, promote the transformation of agricultural business mode and optimise the system supporting the development of agriculture and rural areas. — Xinhua
Tech - Microchip turns 50
London: The microchip, an integrated circuit currently being used in almost all electronic gadgets and equipment, turned 50 on Friday.
The first working microchip was displayed by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments on September 12, 1958. It consisted of a strip of germanium with one transistor and other components all glued to the side of a piece of glass.
In July 1958 Kilby was a fresh engineer at Texas Instruments who was not eligible for a summer vacation. So he spent the summer working on the problem in circuit design that was commonly called the “tyranny of numbers.” He concluded that manufacturing the circuit components on a mass scale in a single piece of semiconductor material could be the solution.
On September 12, he presented his findings to the Texas Instruments management. He showed them a piece of germanium with an oscilloscope attached, pressed a switch, and the oscilloscope showed a continuous sine wave. This proved that his integrated circuit worked. He had solved the problem.
Kilby’s rough device revolutionised electronics. The microchip virtually created the modern computer industry, and the Internet would be unthinkable without it. — PTI
The first working microchip was displayed by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments on September 12, 1958. It consisted of a strip of germanium with one transistor and other components all glued to the side of a piece of glass.
In July 1958 Kilby was a fresh engineer at Texas Instruments who was not eligible for a summer vacation. So he spent the summer working on the problem in circuit design that was commonly called the “tyranny of numbers.” He concluded that manufacturing the circuit components on a mass scale in a single piece of semiconductor material could be the solution.
On September 12, he presented his findings to the Texas Instruments management. He showed them a piece of germanium with an oscilloscope attached, pressed a switch, and the oscilloscope showed a continuous sine wave. This proved that his integrated circuit worked. He had solved the problem.
Kilby’s rough device revolutionised electronics. The microchip virtually created the modern computer industry, and the Internet would be unthinkable without it. — PTI
World - London;Free recipe book for school pupils
London: Every 11-year-old boy and girl in England will now be entitled to a free recipe book as England’s 11-year-olds are to take up their wooden spoons, tie aprons and come to the rescue of the English dinner table, too often these days heralded by the ping of the microwave tackling the ready meal.
Any household without an 11-year-old should borrow one immediately to benefit from recipes for roast chicken, lamb rogan josh, mushroom risotto and summer pudding. Every boy and girl in England is entitled to a free cookery book containing the 32 recipes voted for by the public as “real meals” — fresh ingredients, proper cooking and not a tin of onions or a plastic bag of frozen breadcrumbs in sight.
“Too many people just accept they cannot cook or simply do not have time for it,” the schools secretary, Ed Balls, said on Thursday. “We’ve lost touch with making basic dishes from scratch, even though there has never been a wider range of food in our shops. Schools are only part of the solution — at the end of the day parents bring up children, not teachers.”
The Real Meals booklet comes with a foreword by the celebrity chef Phil Vickery, who says: “Cooking is a skill and often it is not learned at an early enough age. Once you can cook the basics, you will have the best survival tool in the box to take you into adult life.”
The recipe book comes in advance of the introduction of compulsory cooking lessons for all 11- to 14-year-olds by 2011. The government also announced that £151 million would be spent on “food technology areas” in schools.
When the introduction of compulsory cooking was announced, teachers’ representatives warned that one in seven schools would be unable to comply, since they had neither the space, the equipment nor the staff qualified to teach even basic cookery skills. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008
Any household without an 11-year-old should borrow one immediately to benefit from recipes for roast chicken, lamb rogan josh, mushroom risotto and summer pudding. Every boy and girl in England is entitled to a free cookery book containing the 32 recipes voted for by the public as “real meals” — fresh ingredients, proper cooking and not a tin of onions or a plastic bag of frozen breadcrumbs in sight.
“Too many people just accept they cannot cook or simply do not have time for it,” the schools secretary, Ed Balls, said on Thursday. “We’ve lost touch with making basic dishes from scratch, even though there has never been a wider range of food in our shops. Schools are only part of the solution — at the end of the day parents bring up children, not teachers.”
The Real Meals booklet comes with a foreword by the celebrity chef Phil Vickery, who says: “Cooking is a skill and often it is not learned at an early enough age. Once you can cook the basics, you will have the best survival tool in the box to take you into adult life.”
The recipe book comes in advance of the introduction of compulsory cooking lessons for all 11- to 14-year-olds by 2011. The government also announced that £151 million would be spent on “food technology areas” in schools.
When the introduction of compulsory cooking was announced, teachers’ representatives warned that one in seven schools would be unable to comply, since they had neither the space, the equipment nor the staff qualified to teach even basic cookery skills. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008
India - Train ticket reservation at post office launched
KANCHEEPURAM: A computerised passenger ticket reservation counter at the Sriperumbudur post office, first of its kind in Southern Railway, was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Railways R.Velu on Friday.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the facility was one of the 17 such counters being established in post offices across the country. The facility would be extended to other post offices depending on the passenger response.
Apart from post offices, Indian Railways proposed to utilise the services of village panchayats in remote and hilly areas to extend reservation facility for rural people.
The proposal to facilitate booking of train tickets using mobile phones and at petrol bunks was under the active consideration, Mr.Velu told reporters at the function in Sriperumbudur.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the facility was one of the 17 such counters being established in post offices across the country. The facility would be extended to other post offices depending on the passenger response.
Apart from post offices, Indian Railways proposed to utilise the services of village panchayats in remote and hilly areas to extend reservation facility for rural people.
The proposal to facilitate booking of train tickets using mobile phones and at petrol bunks was under the active consideration, Mr.Velu told reporters at the function in Sriperumbudur.
Sport - Symonds's absence a relief for India
Andrew Symonds’s absence from the Australia touring party leaves it shorn of a forceful cricketer and character. India has felt his power at the crease and will be relieved to be spared any repetition. Never mind that he was patently caught behind the wicket before he had taken command, still Symonds’s innings in the ill-mannered Sydney Test match was one of coruscating power. Once he was underway, Anil Kumble and company might as well have been firing popguns at a tank. It was an exceptional assault.
Add the all-rounder’s athleticism and knack of breaking partnerships with seamers or off-breaks and his capacity is revealed. But Symonds’s influence on the Australian team goes beyond runs and wickets. Something in his nature causes colleagues to circle the wagons around him. Perhaps it is that he took so long to make his mark, or the knockabout way he talks, or his fondness for fishing, or his humour, or his shyness, or the vulnerability caused by his mixed background. Heck, even the New Zealand judge called upon to disentangle the SCG Test liked him.Strong solidarity
Whatever the cause, teammates feel a strong solidarity with him, or they did. Of course the same applies to Harbhajan Singh. Otherwise events in Sydney cannot be fully understood. Indeed the Australians were so eager to protect their man in Sydney that they lost their heads. Afterwards Symonds said that he did not understand what all the fuss was about. In the meantime battles had been fought on his behalf. Ricky Ponting’s failure to hold himself or his team in check showed him in a poor light.
But Symonds also has limitations, most particularly a stubborn streak that might impress a mule. His reluctance, bordering on refusal, to so much as countenance going to play cricket in Pakistan has had a strong influence on his teammates.
Whereas others might be prepare to listen to those responsible for the wellbeing of the game, Symonds was not for turning. And his attitude took hold.
Before long Australia’s reputation as the most narrow-minded of the international teams had been restored.
As ever the senior players must take the blame. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were missed.
All the more reason to lament Symond’s decision to go fishing during a team meeting in Darwin. Never mind that meetings are mostly a waste of time, or that the opposition was weak. He was obliged to support his team and his captain and instead slapped their faces. It is not a capital offence but he deserves a stint in a remote paddock.In good hands
By no means, though has the episode been all bad for the Australians. In his first sustained stint as captain, Michael Clarke was called upon to choose between his mate and his team. To his credit, he accepted that the offender ought to be sent home. It was the second time in a few months that he had shown that he is his own man.
His rejection of the IPL lollies demonstrated his independence. By no means an innocent party in the SCG imbroglio, Clarke has bounced back impressively. As India can confirm, he is also a fleet-footed batsman and the best finger spinner in his country. Australia’s future is in good hands.
Although Symonds will be missed, he is not irreplaceable. Simon Katich is a fine cricketer and Shane Watson is pressing. And it’d be unwise to underestimate Bryce McGain and Peter Sidall.
McGain is an accomplished and experienced wrist-spinner and his fellow Victorian sends down lively outswingers. Australia has a lot of unfamiliar faces but will still be hard to beat.
Add the all-rounder’s athleticism and knack of breaking partnerships with seamers or off-breaks and his capacity is revealed. But Symonds’s influence on the Australian team goes beyond runs and wickets. Something in his nature causes colleagues to circle the wagons around him. Perhaps it is that he took so long to make his mark, or the knockabout way he talks, or his fondness for fishing, or his humour, or his shyness, or the vulnerability caused by his mixed background. Heck, even the New Zealand judge called upon to disentangle the SCG Test liked him.Strong solidarity
Whatever the cause, teammates feel a strong solidarity with him, or they did. Of course the same applies to Harbhajan Singh. Otherwise events in Sydney cannot be fully understood. Indeed the Australians were so eager to protect their man in Sydney that they lost their heads. Afterwards Symonds said that he did not understand what all the fuss was about. In the meantime battles had been fought on his behalf. Ricky Ponting’s failure to hold himself or his team in check showed him in a poor light.
But Symonds also has limitations, most particularly a stubborn streak that might impress a mule. His reluctance, bordering on refusal, to so much as countenance going to play cricket in Pakistan has had a strong influence on his teammates.
Whereas others might be prepare to listen to those responsible for the wellbeing of the game, Symonds was not for turning. And his attitude took hold.
Before long Australia’s reputation as the most narrow-minded of the international teams had been restored.
As ever the senior players must take the blame. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were missed.
All the more reason to lament Symond’s decision to go fishing during a team meeting in Darwin. Never mind that meetings are mostly a waste of time, or that the opposition was weak. He was obliged to support his team and his captain and instead slapped their faces. It is not a capital offence but he deserves a stint in a remote paddock.In good hands
By no means, though has the episode been all bad for the Australians. In his first sustained stint as captain, Michael Clarke was called upon to choose between his mate and his team. To his credit, he accepted that the offender ought to be sent home. It was the second time in a few months that he had shown that he is his own man.
His rejection of the IPL lollies demonstrated his independence. By no means an innocent party in the SCG imbroglio, Clarke has bounced back impressively. As India can confirm, he is also a fleet-footed batsman and the best finger spinner in his country. Australia’s future is in good hands.
Although Symonds will be missed, he is not irreplaceable. Simon Katich is a fine cricketer and Shane Watson is pressing. And it’d be unwise to underestimate Bryce McGain and Peter Sidall.
McGain is an accomplished and experienced wrist-spinner and his fellow Victorian sends down lively outswingers. Australia has a lot of unfamiliar faces but will still be hard to beat.
Sport - Australia to bank on paceman;Cricket
MELBOURNE: Australia will be counting on its pace attack, not spin, to beat India in the four-Test series that begins next month, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said on Friday.
Australia named the uncapped Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle in the 15-man squad to provide back-up to the frontline trio of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson for the series. “It’ll depend on conditions, they are spinner friendly, but when we won there last time (in 2004) we won because of our quick bowlers and we think it’ll be the same this time,” Hilditch said. Uncapped spinner
Selectors also included uncapped leg-spinner Bryce McGain, who could make his Test debut at the age of 36, and off-spinner Jason Krejza in the squad to replace the now-retired Stuart MacGill.
All-rounder Andrew Symonds, dropped from the side for the one-day series with Bangladesh in Darwin earlier this month after he missed a team meeting and went fishing instead, was not included.
Hilditch had said earlier in a statement that Symonds would not be considered again until the national selection panel was satisfied he was committed to playing for the team.
The 33-year-old, who was almost sent home from the 2005 Ashes tour of England when he turned up for a match still under the influence of alcohol, has been replaced by fellow all-rounder Shane Watson.
“You miss Andrew Symonds, he’s a great player, but this is just the way it is at the moment,” said Hilditch. “At the moment it’s all about Andrew’s welfare and that process will take as long as it takes.”
Captain Ricky Ponting (wrist) and opening batsman Matthew Hayden (Achille’s tendon) have been included after they returned home injured from the tour of West Indies.
Ponting had surgery while Hayden underwent an extensive rehabilitation programme, with both missing the recent one-day series in Darwin. Iconic series
Hilditch said the series was becoming as important to Australia as the Ashes series with England.
“It’s an iconic series, but I don’t know what the players would say about which is more important.
“We always traditionally say the Ashes and that will always be up there, but this is really up there for the players,” he said.
“We’ve only won there once in 30 years so this’ll be a real test for this team and we’ve picked it to specifically try to win this series.”
The first Test begins in Bangalore on October 9, followed by matches in Mohali (Oct. 17-21), Delhi (Oct. 29-Nov. 2) and in Nagpur (Nov. 5-9).
The squad: Ricky Ponting (capt.), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Bryce McGain, Peter Siddle, Shane Watson.
Australia named the uncapped Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle in the 15-man squad to provide back-up to the frontline trio of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson for the series. “It’ll depend on conditions, they are spinner friendly, but when we won there last time (in 2004) we won because of our quick bowlers and we think it’ll be the same this time,” Hilditch said. Uncapped spinner
Selectors also included uncapped leg-spinner Bryce McGain, who could make his Test debut at the age of 36, and off-spinner Jason Krejza in the squad to replace the now-retired Stuart MacGill.
All-rounder Andrew Symonds, dropped from the side for the one-day series with Bangladesh in Darwin earlier this month after he missed a team meeting and went fishing instead, was not included.
Hilditch had said earlier in a statement that Symonds would not be considered again until the national selection panel was satisfied he was committed to playing for the team.
The 33-year-old, who was almost sent home from the 2005 Ashes tour of England when he turned up for a match still under the influence of alcohol, has been replaced by fellow all-rounder Shane Watson.
“You miss Andrew Symonds, he’s a great player, but this is just the way it is at the moment,” said Hilditch. “At the moment it’s all about Andrew’s welfare and that process will take as long as it takes.”
Captain Ricky Ponting (wrist) and opening batsman Matthew Hayden (Achille’s tendon) have been included after they returned home injured from the tour of West Indies.
Ponting had surgery while Hayden underwent an extensive rehabilitation programme, with both missing the recent one-day series in Darwin. Iconic series
Hilditch said the series was becoming as important to Australia as the Ashes series with England.
“It’s an iconic series, but I don’t know what the players would say about which is more important.
“We always traditionally say the Ashes and that will always be up there, but this is really up there for the players,” he said.
“We’ve only won there once in 30 years so this’ll be a real test for this team and we’ve picked it to specifically try to win this series.”
The first Test begins in Bangalore on October 9, followed by matches in Mohali (Oct. 17-21), Delhi (Oct. 29-Nov. 2) and in Nagpur (Nov. 5-9).
The squad: Ricky Ponting (capt.), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Bryce McGain, Peter Siddle, Shane Watson.
Lifestyle - On Sale;Beijing cheergirls dirty lingerie
HONGKONG: After staging a spectacular Olympics that wowed the world, China was hoping to savour the sweet smell of success. But it’s raised a stink instead. A posting on China’s leading auction site Taobao for the sale of Beijing Olympics cheerleaders’ uniforms, including their unwashed bras and panties, has whipped up a minor storm on China’s Internet. An agent claiming to represent one of the many international teams of Olympics cheerleaders put up the intimate innerwear items for auction and “guaranteed their authenticity” and their “unwashed” status. In language intended to appeal to panty fetishists, the agent wrote, “They are sure to excite you: When you hold them up to your nose and sniff, you’ll smell the youthful fragrance of the young girls.”It turns out that the uniforms and innerwear had been offered for sale by some cheerleaders, a few of whom had come from Japan — in response to a call to contribute some personal effects for auction to raise money for the Sichuan earthquake victims. Some donated dolls, jewellery and other trinkets; others donated intimate apparel. Predictably, the auction listing has been flamed by incensed Chinese netizens as a “vulgar, shameless insult to the Olympics spirit.” One blogger ranted that the language of the listing was “inflammatory and obscene” and had “tarnished the purity of the Olympics.” Being a part of the Olympics, another commentator noted, “came with a high sense of honour and self-esteem” and for someone to offer their used underwear for cash was “a stain on the reputation of the volunteers.” From all accounts, the ‘panty donors’ may have been cheerleaders from Japan, where there exists a thriving market for used innerwear that are used in auto-erotic practices. In fact, so-called ‘burusera’ (literally, bloomers-seller) shops in Japanese cities and towns cater to the kinky needs of hormonally driven men to this day. Typically, the merchandise is sold with a photograph of the girl wearing it, which works like a ‘certificate of authenticity’.Up until a few years ago, there were even vending machines that dispensed used panties. Japanese director Takeshi Miyasaka’s 1996 film Burusera: Shop of Horrors depicts three schoolgirls who sell their underwear for pocket money, only to realise that the fashion lines had changed from merely soiled underwear to blood-stained ones.Japanese cities have been attempting to crack down on this fetishist trade, in which sometimes even schoolgirls are complicit because it is an easy source of pocket money. In 2004, for instance, the Tokyo metropolitan administration banned the sale of used underwear from women under age 18, but buyers and sellers have found inventive ways to beat the ban. Chinese Internet users are now worried that the panty fetish may make the crossing from Japan into China. “I don’t know whether Chinese girls too will take to this trade in order to enjoy the luxuries of life,” notes one blogger. “That’s really something to worry about.”
Sep 12, 2008
Me - 10,000 Page Views :-)
Hi,
We crossed 10,000 page views yesterday.Thanx to everyone who visits.Keep visitin,Keep readin !
Happy Onam to All,I will be bak with tons of posts from tommorrow.
SZri
We crossed 10,000 page views yesterday.Thanx to everyone who visits.Keep visitin,Keep readin !
Happy Onam to All,I will be bak with tons of posts from tommorrow.
SZri
Tech - On to a new era of discovery
Fourteen years, thousands of physicists and $8 billion in the making, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator built at the European Centre for Nuclear Research in Geneva, crossed a major milestone on Wednesday. The first proton beam was successfully switched on and steered around the full 27-kilometre circumference of the underground ringed machine, marking the beginning of a new era of discovery in physics. The world particle physics community today is perhaps in the midst of a revolution in its understanding of what the universe is made of and how it works. Even as physicists have successfully described the fundamental constituents of matter that make up the universe with increasing detail based on what is called the Standard Model, over the last 15 years they have realised that they know much less than they thought they did. For instance, the Model cannot describe the universe in the first moments after the Big Bang. Today physicists believe that visible matter — the stars and the galaxies — makes up only 5 per cent of the energy density of the universe. The rest is believed to be some mysterious dark matter and dark energy. A crucial missing link in the Standard Model is the Higgs boson, the elusive particle that is believed to endow mass to all the particles. Tevatron, the most powerful accelerator of today at Fermilab in the United States, fell short of the energy required to produce Higgs.
The LHC is designed to bring together counter-rotating beams of protons to collide head-on with seven times Tevatron’s energy and create temperatures and energy densities prevalent at a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. This will produce a host of particles — known, expected, and totally unexpected. These may answer some outstanding questions. Is Higgs for real? What is dark matter made of? What is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe? What lies beyond the Standard Model? Is it supersymmetry? Are there higher dimensions that string theories require? Is there new physics lurking at these energies and beyond? They may also raise new ones. All these will slowly unravel as results begin to emerge from the LHC a year from now. About 600 million collisions per second will spew out 15 million gigabytes of data annually that physicists around the world will analyse. In this exciting development, there is some creditable contribution from Indian physicists, who are participating in two of the six experiments to be performed using the LHC. It is, however, unfortunate that at this time of great scientific excitement over the prospect of new discoveries, there should be irrational voices predicting an apocalypse.
The LHC is designed to bring together counter-rotating beams of protons to collide head-on with seven times Tevatron’s energy and create temperatures and energy densities prevalent at a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. This will produce a host of particles — known, expected, and totally unexpected. These may answer some outstanding questions. Is Higgs for real? What is dark matter made of? What is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe? What lies beyond the Standard Model? Is it supersymmetry? Are there higher dimensions that string theories require? Is there new physics lurking at these energies and beyond? They may also raise new ones. All these will slowly unravel as results begin to emerge from the LHC a year from now. About 600 million collisions per second will spew out 15 million gigabytes of data annually that physicists around the world will analyse. In this exciting development, there is some creditable contribution from Indian physicists, who are participating in two of the six experiments to be performed using the LHC. It is, however, unfortunate that at this time of great scientific excitement over the prospect of new discoveries, there should be irrational voices predicting an apocalypse.
Tech - Rewired woman at work
London: A “rewired” woman fitted with a “bionic arm” that is controlled by thought has experienced sensation in her missing hand, in a development that offers hope for improvements in prosthetics.
Claudia Mitchell, nicknamed the ‘Bionic Woman,’ was fitted with the limb in 2006 after losing her arm in a motorcycle crash in 2004. Now, when Ms. Mitchell thinks ‘move,’ her chest muscle let out tiny electrical impulses which are picked up by the robotic arm. These signals are interpreted by a computer and motors cause the arm to move almost instantly, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The procedure has had an odd side-effect, enabling Ms. Mitchell to “feel” sensations in her missing hand. The discovery offers the hope of new improvements in prosthetics.
Ms. Mitchell experienced the sensations because doctors moved sensory and motor nerves from her shoulder to chest, believe scientists. — PTI
Claudia Mitchell, nicknamed the ‘Bionic Woman,’ was fitted with the limb in 2006 after losing her arm in a motorcycle crash in 2004. Now, when Ms. Mitchell thinks ‘move,’ her chest muscle let out tiny electrical impulses which are picked up by the robotic arm. These signals are interpreted by a computer and motors cause the arm to move almost instantly, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The procedure has had an odd side-effect, enabling Ms. Mitchell to “feel” sensations in her missing hand. The discovery offers the hope of new improvements in prosthetics.
Ms. Mitchell experienced the sensations because doctors moved sensory and motor nerves from her shoulder to chest, believe scientists. — PTI
World - Significant change in Tactics;War on Terror
The fight against the Taliban in the territory along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border appears to be entering a critical phase. Special Operations Forces of the United States have already carried out at least one ground incursion into South Waziristan. This operation was evidently conducted following an order by President George W. Bush in July, authorising such attacks on militant strongholds in the tribal belt of the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. The order apparently enjoins the commanders of the attacking forces to inform, but not seek the approval of, their Pakistani counterparts. While the Central Intelligence Agency has been using pilotless aircraft to bomb militant targets on the eastern side of the Durand Line for quite some time, the decision to use the infantry in addition is significant on several counts. It shows that Washington has set aside its policy of relying solely on Pakistan soldiers for ground operations in the tribal belt. There is a certain degree of anonymity that cloaks raids by drones. Yet, questions of sovereignty are inevitably brought sharply into focus when men in uniform cross into territory without the approval of the government to which it belongs. The Pakistan army chief, General Ashfaq Kiyani has reacted angrily to the reports of the authorisation of ground operations in Pakistan by U.S. troops and warned that his forces would resist these incursions at all costs. Yet fears about the consequences of the fallout of a possible clash between the forces of the supposed allies may be unfounded given the paucity of Pakistani troops in that tribal belt.
With U.S. officials hinting that key decision-makers in Islamabad had been consulted before the tactics were changed, there is speculation about President Asif Ali Zardari’s approach to the issue. At a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai soon after he was sworn in, Mr. Zardari expressed his determination to act against terrorist groups active in the tribal belt. What lends credibility to his assertion is the fact that the democratic forces in Pakistan are in direct competition with the extremist groups for the allegiance of the masses. The civilian leadership in Islamabad does not have the wherewithal to take on the militants especially in view of the strong client-patron nexus that exists between the militants and the military establishment. Given the sensitive issue of sovereignty, Mr. Zardari cannot openly support the change in U.S. tactics. But he has the advantage of being able to democratically mobilise the moderate majority against extremists who care little for the rights of anyone else.
With U.S. officials hinting that key decision-makers in Islamabad had been consulted before the tactics were changed, there is speculation about President Asif Ali Zardari’s approach to the issue. At a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai soon after he was sworn in, Mr. Zardari expressed his determination to act against terrorist groups active in the tribal belt. What lends credibility to his assertion is the fact that the democratic forces in Pakistan are in direct competition with the extremist groups for the allegiance of the masses. The civilian leadership in Islamabad does not have the wherewithal to take on the militants especially in view of the strong client-patron nexus that exists between the militants and the military establishment. Given the sensitive issue of sovereignty, Mr. Zardari cannot openly support the change in U.S. tactics. But he has the advantage of being able to democratically mobilise the moderate majority against extremists who care little for the rights of anyone else.
World - The Almighty & The Electorate
Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain had a problem with the idea that two potential Presidents of the U.S. could submit themselves to very public interviews on a religious platform.
Barack Obama made sure his eyes looked unblinking into the television camera as he said: “I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that I am redeemed through him.” Barely an hour later, John McCain said from the very same platform (into the same television cameras) that being a follower of Christ “means I’m saved and forgiven. We’re talking about the world. Our faith encompasses not just the United States but the world.”
Both presidential candidates were confessing their faith to Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church. This was in mid-August and their first major public event on the same platform — though they did not appear together. They were interviewed one immediately after the other by the good pastor. They were reaching audiences of millions, but were basically aiming at a large religious constituency. Both knew what they had to say and how to say it. Neither had a problem with the idea that two potential Presidents of the U.S. could submit themselves to very public interviews (and seek absolution?) on a religious platform of one faith.
It is of course legitimate for candidates to harbour religious beliefs. It is also true that the U.S. was probably the first among modern nations to have a written Constitution making a strong and sharp separation of the church and the state. Among the founders of the USA were those who had seen religious persecution in Europe. Hence their wall between the church and the state. It is precisely that separation that begins to erode in such public displays of faith.
Let’s suppose this had happened in, say, Pakistan. Let’s say Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif or whoever, had had their opening debate moderated by mullahs at a mosque. You’d never have heard the end of it in the U.S. media. It would have been the ‘aha’ proof, if any were needed, of religious zealotry, bigotry, fundamentalism and the rest of it. In the U.S. though, the swamp of analysis in the mainstream media that followed the Saddleback event had no such conclusions to draw. Not even in mild, diluted terms.Media fear
The media not only fear (and sometimes suck up to) the religious right, they also factor in what they see as vital sensitivities of their audiences. For all its world leader status and excellence in scientific research, far more people in America believe in the Devil than in Darwin, as one late 2007 poll put it. Belief in (literal) hell and the devil was firm amongst 62 per cent of those surveyed. Darwin, complete with evolution/‘natural selection’ and the rest of it, clocked in with a poor 42 per cent. (About the same as Mr. Obama’s rating in his latest polls.)
Also noteworthy: 79 per cent believed in miracles, 75 per cent in (a literal) heaven. Witches and UFOs drew roughly the same score, with about a third of Americans believing in them. The UFOs have it by a short head among the general population — 35 per cent against 31 per cent for witches. But witches outclass UFOs amongst born-again Christians — with whom Darwin fares worse than both, logging a mere 16 per cent. (You’ve got to hand it to the Harris pollsters. Someday, someone must pull off this exercise at the level of the Indian political class with its godmen and tantriks and yagnas.)
The religious (and spiritual-moral) motif in the U.S. presidential race extends far beyond Saddleback, though. And not just in terms of prayers at the Conventions of both Republicans and Democrats. The choice of Sarah Palin as Mr. McCain’s running mate had a lot to do with it, too. It was a move aimed at getting unhappy Evangelicals to board the McCain bandwagon. To that extent, it’s a move that has worked. It has also delivered the Republicans the added benefit of throwing the Obama camp into disarray and despondency. The more so since the Democrats have tried hard to broaden their base amongst ‘faith voters’ for some time now.
This effort is partly based on the dangerous and fragile notion that the Left-inclined, the anti-Bush voters, those angry over the economy will vote Democrat anyway. So let’s target the ‘faith voters’ a bit more.
Religious writers and religious correspondents did spot this even before the Democrats held their Convention in Denver. They pointed to the fact that the party had a new “faith caucus” and was throwing up themes like: “Faith in 2009. How an Obama Administration will Engage People of Faith.” True, the religious events at their Conventions were billed as “inter-faith” services but their scope was more Christian than anything else. And, of course, Jewish sentiments and votes are also an important factor in U.S. elections.
Other religions have made disastrous forays into U.S. presidential races. Nothing was more awful than the debacle of year 2000, when several Muslim leaders and bodies decided and declared that the best candidate for Muslims was George W. Bush. As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Religion Writer points out: “The decision was heavily influenced by Bush’s public declaration to end the use of secret evidence in immigration cases, a form of racial profiling, that disproportionately affected Muslims. Muslim leaders touted the fact that the bloc vote delivered thousands of extra Bush votes in Florida, where Bush’s margin was in the hundreds.” The rest is history.Demonising Muslims
Demonising Muslims and Islam has multiplied manifold since then. The Hillary Clinton campaign did not lag far behind the McCain one when it came to reminding people that Mr. Obama’s middle name is Hussein. Even while being given a mudbath on that one, Mr. Obama faced flak from the media for his association with his — Christian — pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The Rev. Wright holds what to the U.S. media are “controversial” views — like saying that 9/11 was a result of the U.S.’ own terrorism elsewhere. Mr. Obama quickly distanced himself from his pastor. Now, the Democrats wait, hoping that Sarah Palin’s controversial church and pastor will do her some damage. They could be hoping in vain. True, a recent sermon at her church held that bomb blasts and suicide attacks directed at Israel were punishment for the Jews not converting to Christianity. But outrageous statements on the Right get off far more lightly than the mildest criticisms from elsewhere.
In India, we do have the Bharatiya Janata Party that has worked hard, consciously and pretty explicitly, at suffusing every sphere of activity with religion. That is, with its Brahminical brand of Hinduism. In government, in education — and even in and with the Army, it has spared no effort to whip up religiosity and carry God all the way to the voting booth. While it has made significant advances in all these efforts, it gets more complex at election time. Inflation will be a much bigger God in the next polls and the BJP will seat him high up on its pantheon. Sickening amounts of blood have been spilt in the name of God and in the claim of votes. But God’s electoral avatar always faces challenge and criticism.
Other parties of the Hindu Right, like the Shiv Sena, would have a very poor base if their radical religious rhetoric were not also pinned on to issues of regional identity. As also to fears of discrimination against “sons-of-the-soil” in jobs and in positions of authority. Besides, caste has time and again stymied God in the Indian polls. There have been coalitions, even at the Centre, with no major religious motif. And there have been several movements and parties, essentially atheistic, which have come to power in the States on non-religious platforms. Far more Muslims have voted to send Communists to Parliament than to seat candidates of the Muslim League there. And while drawing wide conclusions from it would be very wrong — you still do have a Hindu woman for President, a Muslim as Vice-President, a Sikh as Prime Minister, a Dalit as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an atheist as Speaker of the nation’s Parliament. That’s apart from the fact that the leader of the country’s ruling party is a Christian. As complex and confusing as it gets. Though perhaps logical when politics is seen as a mix of so many diverse streams. In the U.S. — the first modern nation to legally separate the church and the state — it’s different.
Barack Obama made sure his eyes looked unblinking into the television camera as he said: “I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that I am redeemed through him.” Barely an hour later, John McCain said from the very same platform (into the same television cameras) that being a follower of Christ “means I’m saved and forgiven. We’re talking about the world. Our faith encompasses not just the United States but the world.”
Both presidential candidates were confessing their faith to Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church. This was in mid-August and their first major public event on the same platform — though they did not appear together. They were interviewed one immediately after the other by the good pastor. They were reaching audiences of millions, but were basically aiming at a large religious constituency. Both knew what they had to say and how to say it. Neither had a problem with the idea that two potential Presidents of the U.S. could submit themselves to very public interviews (and seek absolution?) on a religious platform of one faith.
It is of course legitimate for candidates to harbour religious beliefs. It is also true that the U.S. was probably the first among modern nations to have a written Constitution making a strong and sharp separation of the church and the state. Among the founders of the USA were those who had seen religious persecution in Europe. Hence their wall between the church and the state. It is precisely that separation that begins to erode in such public displays of faith.
Let’s suppose this had happened in, say, Pakistan. Let’s say Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif or whoever, had had their opening debate moderated by mullahs at a mosque. You’d never have heard the end of it in the U.S. media. It would have been the ‘aha’ proof, if any were needed, of religious zealotry, bigotry, fundamentalism and the rest of it. In the U.S. though, the swamp of analysis in the mainstream media that followed the Saddleback event had no such conclusions to draw. Not even in mild, diluted terms.Media fear
The media not only fear (and sometimes suck up to) the religious right, they also factor in what they see as vital sensitivities of their audiences. For all its world leader status and excellence in scientific research, far more people in America believe in the Devil than in Darwin, as one late 2007 poll put it. Belief in (literal) hell and the devil was firm amongst 62 per cent of those surveyed. Darwin, complete with evolution/‘natural selection’ and the rest of it, clocked in with a poor 42 per cent. (About the same as Mr. Obama’s rating in his latest polls.)
Also noteworthy: 79 per cent believed in miracles, 75 per cent in (a literal) heaven. Witches and UFOs drew roughly the same score, with about a third of Americans believing in them. The UFOs have it by a short head among the general population — 35 per cent against 31 per cent for witches. But witches outclass UFOs amongst born-again Christians — with whom Darwin fares worse than both, logging a mere 16 per cent. (You’ve got to hand it to the Harris pollsters. Someday, someone must pull off this exercise at the level of the Indian political class with its godmen and tantriks and yagnas.)
The religious (and spiritual-moral) motif in the U.S. presidential race extends far beyond Saddleback, though. And not just in terms of prayers at the Conventions of both Republicans and Democrats. The choice of Sarah Palin as Mr. McCain’s running mate had a lot to do with it, too. It was a move aimed at getting unhappy Evangelicals to board the McCain bandwagon. To that extent, it’s a move that has worked. It has also delivered the Republicans the added benefit of throwing the Obama camp into disarray and despondency. The more so since the Democrats have tried hard to broaden their base amongst ‘faith voters’ for some time now.
This effort is partly based on the dangerous and fragile notion that the Left-inclined, the anti-Bush voters, those angry over the economy will vote Democrat anyway. So let’s target the ‘faith voters’ a bit more.
Religious writers and religious correspondents did spot this even before the Democrats held their Convention in Denver. They pointed to the fact that the party had a new “faith caucus” and was throwing up themes like: “Faith in 2009. How an Obama Administration will Engage People of Faith.” True, the religious events at their Conventions were billed as “inter-faith” services but their scope was more Christian than anything else. And, of course, Jewish sentiments and votes are also an important factor in U.S. elections.
Other religions have made disastrous forays into U.S. presidential races. Nothing was more awful than the debacle of year 2000, when several Muslim leaders and bodies decided and declared that the best candidate for Muslims was George W. Bush. As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Religion Writer points out: “The decision was heavily influenced by Bush’s public declaration to end the use of secret evidence in immigration cases, a form of racial profiling, that disproportionately affected Muslims. Muslim leaders touted the fact that the bloc vote delivered thousands of extra Bush votes in Florida, where Bush’s margin was in the hundreds.” The rest is history.Demonising Muslims
Demonising Muslims and Islam has multiplied manifold since then. The Hillary Clinton campaign did not lag far behind the McCain one when it came to reminding people that Mr. Obama’s middle name is Hussein. Even while being given a mudbath on that one, Mr. Obama faced flak from the media for his association with his — Christian — pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The Rev. Wright holds what to the U.S. media are “controversial” views — like saying that 9/11 was a result of the U.S.’ own terrorism elsewhere. Mr. Obama quickly distanced himself from his pastor. Now, the Democrats wait, hoping that Sarah Palin’s controversial church and pastor will do her some damage. They could be hoping in vain. True, a recent sermon at her church held that bomb blasts and suicide attacks directed at Israel were punishment for the Jews not converting to Christianity. But outrageous statements on the Right get off far more lightly than the mildest criticisms from elsewhere.
In India, we do have the Bharatiya Janata Party that has worked hard, consciously and pretty explicitly, at suffusing every sphere of activity with religion. That is, with its Brahminical brand of Hinduism. In government, in education — and even in and with the Army, it has spared no effort to whip up religiosity and carry God all the way to the voting booth. While it has made significant advances in all these efforts, it gets more complex at election time. Inflation will be a much bigger God in the next polls and the BJP will seat him high up on its pantheon. Sickening amounts of blood have been spilt in the name of God and in the claim of votes. But God’s electoral avatar always faces challenge and criticism.
Other parties of the Hindu Right, like the Shiv Sena, would have a very poor base if their radical religious rhetoric were not also pinned on to issues of regional identity. As also to fears of discrimination against “sons-of-the-soil” in jobs and in positions of authority. Besides, caste has time and again stymied God in the Indian polls. There have been coalitions, even at the Centre, with no major religious motif. And there have been several movements and parties, essentially atheistic, which have come to power in the States on non-religious platforms. Far more Muslims have voted to send Communists to Parliament than to seat candidates of the Muslim League there. And while drawing wide conclusions from it would be very wrong — you still do have a Hindu woman for President, a Muslim as Vice-President, a Sikh as Prime Minister, a Dalit as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an atheist as Speaker of the nation’s Parliament. That’s apart from the fact that the leader of the country’s ruling party is a Christian. As complex and confusing as it gets. Though perhaps logical when politics is seen as a mix of so many diverse streams. In the U.S. — the first modern nation to legally separate the church and the state — it’s different.
Mktg - Titan pitches in for endangered specied with new 'WWF Collection'
Vanishing species have been of great concern for conservationists. In a bid to do its bit for India’s endangered species, Titan has launched its ‘WWF Collection’ of watches, wherein Rs 150 would be given to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on the sale of every watch from this Collection.
The ‘WWF Collection’ is being supported by a 360-degree campaign spanning press, outdoor and retail media.
Harish Bhat, COO, Titan Watches, said, “The advertising campaign is expected to hit the market this weekend. O&M is the creative agency, while the media agency is Maxus. We will spend about Rs 3 crore over the next nine months on advertising.”
It may be recalled that in June this year, Titan and World Wildlife Fund India had announced a tie-up to celebrate World Environment Day. The main objective of this partnership is to spread awareness about some of the highly endangered species in India through a collection of exclusively designed Titan watches.
“Titan is a fifth largest brand and the reach is pan-world and India is the largest market for us. Titan is a complete Indian brand. Our current market share is 65 per cent and 20-30 per cent of sales growth is expected for the next 12 month,” Bhat added.
The Titan-WWF Collection is inspired by six endangered species – tiger, Indian rhino, Gangetic river dolphin, red panda, whale shark and Oliver Ridley turtle. This unisex collection is targeted at the new generation Indians, who want to express their concern for these species by wearing one of these watches.
Bhat further said, “At Titan, we strive to develop collections of watches that help our consumers connect with their deep-rooted yearnings for self-expression, and thus ‘Be More’ in their lives. The Titan-WWF Collection fits this theme perfectly.”
Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF India, said, “We are proud to partner with Titan Industries Ltd. WWF India views this association as a unique awareness campaign for saving some of India’s endangered species. Titan’s endangered species collection is not only an attempt to illustrate the plight of some of India’s iconic species, but also a commitment for conservation.”
The Titan-WWF collection is available in 13 different styles and priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,800. The watches would be sold through World of Titan showrooms, multi-brand outlets and various malls across the country.
The ‘WWF Collection’ is being supported by a 360-degree campaign spanning press, outdoor and retail media.
Harish Bhat, COO, Titan Watches, said, “The advertising campaign is expected to hit the market this weekend. O&M is the creative agency, while the media agency is Maxus. We will spend about Rs 3 crore over the next nine months on advertising.”
It may be recalled that in June this year, Titan and World Wildlife Fund India had announced a tie-up to celebrate World Environment Day. The main objective of this partnership is to spread awareness about some of the highly endangered species in India through a collection of exclusively designed Titan watches.
“Titan is a fifth largest brand and the reach is pan-world and India is the largest market for us. Titan is a complete Indian brand. Our current market share is 65 per cent and 20-30 per cent of sales growth is expected for the next 12 month,” Bhat added.
The Titan-WWF Collection is inspired by six endangered species – tiger, Indian rhino, Gangetic river dolphin, red panda, whale shark and Oliver Ridley turtle. This unisex collection is targeted at the new generation Indians, who want to express their concern for these species by wearing one of these watches.
Bhat further said, “At Titan, we strive to develop collections of watches that help our consumers connect with their deep-rooted yearnings for self-expression, and thus ‘Be More’ in their lives. The Titan-WWF Collection fits this theme perfectly.”
Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF India, said, “We are proud to partner with Titan Industries Ltd. WWF India views this association as a unique awareness campaign for saving some of India’s endangered species. Titan’s endangered species collection is not only an attempt to illustrate the plight of some of India’s iconic species, but also a commitment for conservation.”
The Titan-WWF collection is available in 13 different styles and priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,800. The watches would be sold through World of Titan showrooms, multi-brand outlets and various malls across the country.
India - Arun Sarin calls for 'inclusive India'
LONDON: Arun Sarin, in his first public engagement after quitting as CEO of mobile phone giant Vodafone July 29, offered words of advice for India on Wednesday, saying it had to take "everybody on board" in order to seal its place in the economic top table over the next 20 years. "India has a good future as long as we are mindful that we are bringing everybody on board, that there are reasonable regulatory policies, and that capital, management and ideas continue to flourish for the next 20 years the way they have in the last five years," he said. Sarin, who is credited with turning around the fortunes of Vodafone with an aggressive emerging markets strategy during his five years as CEO, was speaking at a panel discussion on India alongside another Indian corporate sector luminary, former McKinsey CEO Rajat Gupta. At the event, called to celebrate the Hyderabad-based Indian Business School's success in being placed on the Financial Times list of the world's best business schools, Sarin backed Gupta's call for building an "inclusive economy" in India. "I'm sitting amongst the best and the privileged," Sarin told a large audience of London-based IBS alumni at the Indian High Commission. "But we have to remember we have a population of 1.1 billion and we have to take everybody along. I think that is the challenge India has." Sarin said when he took Vodafone into the Indian market 18 months ago, the company set up a $10-million endowment to help those people who "could afford to have a degree but didn't have either the language skills, or the confidence or the proper management skills to perform in the global economy". "What we are talking about here is pretty serious stuff. The fundamental issue is of infrastructure across every sector. It doesn't matter if it's education or roads or power or telephony - India needs better infrastructure to lock in growth at seven, eight or nine percent for the next 20 years," he said. "The past five years have been good, the 15 to 20-year journey has been okay. But it's really about India performing at this level for the next 20 years. "You're going to need capital, you're going to need [skilled] people and managers and you're going to need ideas. And I think India needs all of those three things in large volumes. "More and more companies, more and more people, more and more organisations need to bring capital, management and ideas to India to help India ride on for the next 20 years." Sarin also had a word of caution for macro-managers of the Indian economy: that India could not completely insulate itself from the global downturn. He said although India, China and other fast-growing emerging economies had managed to post 100 to 150 basis points of growth, "we are connected globally, so there is no concept of complete decoupling, although marginally you can decouple for a period of time".
Business = Indigo flys past Deccan to become No-1 no frills
Air traffic continues to lose altitude; demand has plunged 29% since MayBANGALORE: IndiGo, the Gurgaon-based carrier, flew past Deccan (now Kingfisher Airlines) to become the largest no-frills carrier in India in August.
That’s a fast flight, considering it started services exactly two years ago, in 2006 August, while rivals have been flying for far longer.
Despite a 0.20 percentage point fall in its spoils, IndiGo nosed ahead, ratcheting up 10.3% market share compared with Deccan’s 10.2%.“It’s going to be neck and neck fight between the two (Deccan and IndiGo),” said an industry source.
Besides Deccan, Kingfisher and IndiGo, the other airline that has lost market share in August is Air India (domestic).
On the other hand, Jet, JetLite, SpiceJet, Paramount, GoAir and MDLR have each usurped a higher share.
Domestic air traffic continued its downward slide as the number of passengers carried by scheduled airlines fell by 5.28% in August to 29.22 lakh passengers from 30.85 lakh passengers in July.
Air travel demand has crashed 29% since May this year, when the domestic airlines had carried 41.16 lakh passengers.
Vijay Mallya took the biggest hit in August —- full service carrier Kingfisher and budget airline Deccan both saw a huge slump in the number of passenger carried.
In all, they sold 90,000 seats less, with Deccan clocking 50,000 less seats and Kingfisher the rest compared with July.
The two carriers also saw the biggest drop in the load factor of 14.50 percentage points in August.
Deccan’s load factor in August was down to 39% compared with 49.2% in July.Kingfisher’s load slipped to 59% from 63.3% in July.
All this has led to Mallya’s airlines losing 1.17 percentage points market share.In contrast, the airlines of Mallya’s rival Naresh Goyal — Jet Airways and JetLite — gained 1.7 percentage points market share and sold 1,000 more tickets in August. During the same month, its market share rose by 2.7 percentage points.
An airline source said; “It looks like Jet Airways has eaten into Kingfisher’s market share through its aggressive promotions.”
That’s a fast flight, considering it started services exactly two years ago, in 2006 August, while rivals have been flying for far longer.
Despite a 0.20 percentage point fall in its spoils, IndiGo nosed ahead, ratcheting up 10.3% market share compared with Deccan’s 10.2%.“It’s going to be neck and neck fight between the two (Deccan and IndiGo),” said an industry source.
Besides Deccan, Kingfisher and IndiGo, the other airline that has lost market share in August is Air India (domestic).
On the other hand, Jet, JetLite, SpiceJet, Paramount, GoAir and MDLR have each usurped a higher share.
Domestic air traffic continued its downward slide as the number of passengers carried by scheduled airlines fell by 5.28% in August to 29.22 lakh passengers from 30.85 lakh passengers in July.
Air travel demand has crashed 29% since May this year, when the domestic airlines had carried 41.16 lakh passengers.
Vijay Mallya took the biggest hit in August —- full service carrier Kingfisher and budget airline Deccan both saw a huge slump in the number of passenger carried.
In all, they sold 90,000 seats less, with Deccan clocking 50,000 less seats and Kingfisher the rest compared with July.
The two carriers also saw the biggest drop in the load factor of 14.50 percentage points in August.
Deccan’s load factor in August was down to 39% compared with 49.2% in July.Kingfisher’s load slipped to 59% from 63.3% in July.
All this has led to Mallya’s airlines losing 1.17 percentage points market share.In contrast, the airlines of Mallya’s rival Naresh Goyal — Jet Airways and JetLite — gained 1.7 percentage points market share and sold 1,000 more tickets in August. During the same month, its market share rose by 2.7 percentage points.
An airline source said; “It looks like Jet Airways has eaten into Kingfisher’s market share through its aggressive promotions.”
Sep 11, 2008
Entertainment - Q&A UTV Television COO
With industry pundits expecting the television content industry to explode from Rs 14 billion to Rs 30 billion over the next two years, UTV Software Communications is laying the foundation to ride on this boom.
Having slipped in the television content production business over the years, UTV's revival strategy includes holding IPR rights for some of the content that it creates, working out a genre-specific approach, and striking partnerships with other production houses.
The Ronnie Screwvala promoted company, which has set the pace for the Bollywood industry, is readying to develop formats and content that can travel across the globe.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Sibabrata Das & Anindita Sarkar, UTV Television COO Ajit Thakur explains how the company plans to scale up its content business.
Excerpts:
Why is it that UTV's television content production business slipped over the years?A few years back, production houses started emerging as specialist content providers. While Hats Off Productions mastered comedies, Fire Works started working on thrillers and Synergy specialised in format shows.
UTV did not take steps in this direction. We didn't have a genre-specific approach, but continued to do a number of things. Also, good talent was lacking in the industry.
Is UTV going to focus on specific genres as part of its revival strategy?Our key focus now is to specialise in different genres and develop formats for which we can hold the IPR. We have identified a need gap in reality formats and have gone into it. We are also looking at formats and content that can travel in the global marketplace. We are clear that we want to hold the rights to some of our content. That is what keeps international content companies like Endemol and FremantleMedia in strong financial health; about 70 per cent of their turnover comes from 3-4 big shows.
Which is why you are interested in creating a property like Gandhi?Exactly. If you do not hold the IPR to the big properties that you create, you will never be able to cushion yourself from the cyclic downturns that every creative content company goes through. The current structure of the broadcasting business is such that there is no value model for the production houses. We are out to change that. As part of that ambition, we are producing Gandhi for India as well as the world.
How much will the fund requirement be for this project and are you planning to strike a deal with an international broadcaster ahead of production as a de-risk strategy?We will have to get there, no matter what it takes. We are creating an internal research team and will have a panel of Indian and international historians. Most of the creative team will not be from the television but the film industry. We will have writers from Bollywood and the West. Since we are sure that the content will travel, we are producing it in Hindi as well as in the English language. We are in talks with US and UK broadcasters.
Will you hold the IPR for the Indian market as well?We will hold the global rights while selling the Hindi version of the drama series to an Indian broadcaster. Once we have a definite fix on the story board and zero in on the cast, we will know about the costs. We haven't worked out the budget yet but are prepared to spend on the project. It is easy to go to the Middle East and South East Asian markets. We want our content to travel to the US, UK and European markets.
How will the basic revenue flow from the content supply to local broadcasters be taken care of?There is a business opportunity in soaps, reality, mythology and fantasy content. For starters, we have hit on the reality genre. We have set up the team for it and have produced EK Se Badhkar Ek for Zee TV. We will be replacing it with another reality show for the same channel. We will have Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina, a weekly dance reality show which has six leading cricketers as participants, on Colors. The game show, Cash Cab, has been developed by us on a licensed format, originally produced by Lion Television for ITV. Bindaas will be airing it from 15 September.
We see the reality genre having the potential to travel to overseas markets as well. Our aim is to produce six reality shows by the end of this fiscal.
Our next look will be in fiction and we will take a genre-specific approach. In fact, every six months we will get into a new genre and consolidate in that space.
What are the genres that carry an opportunity for UTV and could be tapped?We are definitely not looking at the saas-bahu genre as the audience for this segment is steadily diminishing. There are thriller, comedy, fantasy and mythology genres. There is enough scope for period dramas too.
UTV has got into co-production partnerships with different local production houses. Isn't this the beginning of a new trend, much like what has happened in the movie business?Our aim is to be among the top two TV content producers in the Indian market. One way of getting there is by creating partnerships with other production houses who have a distinct content flavour. We have equal joint ventures with three players and are looking at other proposals. We have JVs with Smriti Irani Television Ltd (SITL), Windmill Entertainment with Shekhar Suman, and another with Rajesh Beri. On the Gandhi project, we are doing it with SITL.
Going global, of course, is a key part of the scale up plan. We have another big project coming up which we feel we can take to the global arena.
Hasn't UTV recently started getting into TV content production in the southern languages?We were earlier doing only airtime sales for the Sun TV network. But recently we have got into production as well and are doing a show for Sun TV (Tamil) and Gemini (Telugu). It is not a big revenue earner for us, but is more of strategic value. Since we were doing airtime sales, it was a logical step for us to integrate it with our creative resources. Once we have 5-6 shows on Sun, it can be a big step for us.
How much of turnover growth do you expect from the TV segment this fiscal?We are looking at doubling our turnover. Our current slate of five shows will grow to ten by March. We are producing a documentary for National Geographic on the ONGC fire incident in the show titled Seconds From Disaster. We are also working with the UN on three non-profit projects.
In a unique deal, UTV paid a minimum guarantee to NDTV Imagine for Ramayan and syndicated it to the Sun TV network of channels. Will we see more such deals?We are close to signing up with a broadcaster for another mythology and syndicating that content down south.
Having slipped in the television content production business over the years, UTV's revival strategy includes holding IPR rights for some of the content that it creates, working out a genre-specific approach, and striking partnerships with other production houses.
The Ronnie Screwvala promoted company, which has set the pace for the Bollywood industry, is readying to develop formats and content that can travel across the globe.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Sibabrata Das & Anindita Sarkar, UTV Television COO Ajit Thakur explains how the company plans to scale up its content business.
Excerpts:
Why is it that UTV's television content production business slipped over the years?A few years back, production houses started emerging as specialist content providers. While Hats Off Productions mastered comedies, Fire Works started working on thrillers and Synergy specialised in format shows.
UTV did not take steps in this direction. We didn't have a genre-specific approach, but continued to do a number of things. Also, good talent was lacking in the industry.
Is UTV going to focus on specific genres as part of its revival strategy?Our key focus now is to specialise in different genres and develop formats for which we can hold the IPR. We have identified a need gap in reality formats and have gone into it. We are also looking at formats and content that can travel in the global marketplace. We are clear that we want to hold the rights to some of our content. That is what keeps international content companies like Endemol and FremantleMedia in strong financial health; about 70 per cent of their turnover comes from 3-4 big shows.
Which is why you are interested in creating a property like Gandhi?Exactly. If you do not hold the IPR to the big properties that you create, you will never be able to cushion yourself from the cyclic downturns that every creative content company goes through. The current structure of the broadcasting business is such that there is no value model for the production houses. We are out to change that. As part of that ambition, we are producing Gandhi for India as well as the world.
How much will the fund requirement be for this project and are you planning to strike a deal with an international broadcaster ahead of production as a de-risk strategy?We will have to get there, no matter what it takes. We are creating an internal research team and will have a panel of Indian and international historians. Most of the creative team will not be from the television but the film industry. We will have writers from Bollywood and the West. Since we are sure that the content will travel, we are producing it in Hindi as well as in the English language. We are in talks with US and UK broadcasters.
Will you hold the IPR for the Indian market as well?We will hold the global rights while selling the Hindi version of the drama series to an Indian broadcaster. Once we have a definite fix on the story board and zero in on the cast, we will know about the costs. We haven't worked out the budget yet but are prepared to spend on the project. It is easy to go to the Middle East and South East Asian markets. We want our content to travel to the US, UK and European markets.
How will the basic revenue flow from the content supply to local broadcasters be taken care of?There is a business opportunity in soaps, reality, mythology and fantasy content. For starters, we have hit on the reality genre. We have set up the team for it and have produced EK Se Badhkar Ek for Zee TV. We will be replacing it with another reality show for the same channel. We will have Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina, a weekly dance reality show which has six leading cricketers as participants, on Colors. The game show, Cash Cab, has been developed by us on a licensed format, originally produced by Lion Television for ITV. Bindaas will be airing it from 15 September.
We see the reality genre having the potential to travel to overseas markets as well. Our aim is to produce six reality shows by the end of this fiscal.
Our next look will be in fiction and we will take a genre-specific approach. In fact, every six months we will get into a new genre and consolidate in that space.
What are the genres that carry an opportunity for UTV and could be tapped?We are definitely not looking at the saas-bahu genre as the audience for this segment is steadily diminishing. There are thriller, comedy, fantasy and mythology genres. There is enough scope for period dramas too.
UTV has got into co-production partnerships with different local production houses. Isn't this the beginning of a new trend, much like what has happened in the movie business?Our aim is to be among the top two TV content producers in the Indian market. One way of getting there is by creating partnerships with other production houses who have a distinct content flavour. We have equal joint ventures with three players and are looking at other proposals. We have JVs with Smriti Irani Television Ltd (SITL), Windmill Entertainment with Shekhar Suman, and another with Rajesh Beri. On the Gandhi project, we are doing it with SITL.
Going global, of course, is a key part of the scale up plan. We have another big project coming up which we feel we can take to the global arena.
Hasn't UTV recently started getting into TV content production in the southern languages?We were earlier doing only airtime sales for the Sun TV network. But recently we have got into production as well and are doing a show for Sun TV (Tamil) and Gemini (Telugu). It is not a big revenue earner for us, but is more of strategic value. Since we were doing airtime sales, it was a logical step for us to integrate it with our creative resources. Once we have 5-6 shows on Sun, it can be a big step for us.
How much of turnover growth do you expect from the TV segment this fiscal?We are looking at doubling our turnover. Our current slate of five shows will grow to ten by March. We are producing a documentary for National Geographic on the ONGC fire incident in the show titled Seconds From Disaster. We are also working with the UN on three non-profit projects.
In a unique deal, UTV paid a minimum guarantee to NDTV Imagine for Ramayan and syndicated it to the Sun TV network of channels. Will we see more such deals?We are close to signing up with a broadcaster for another mythology and syndicating that content down south.
Mktg - Latest Marketing Vehicle ;School Supplies
School supplies are expensive. Any parent and teacher can tell you that. That's why a number of companies are pitching in to offer free notebooks, markers, pencil sharpeners and the like to create some goodwill for their brands.OfficeMax on Oct. 1 will debut its second annual "A Day Made Better" program. The office supplies giant will honor 1,300 teachers at select schools with in-class ceremonies where it will distribute $1 million in school supplies.All By Students, meanwhile, is giving out $20 million worth of free, co-branded notebooks at college campuses including Arizona State, Harvard and MIT. The multisubject notebooks are divided by ads for 11 brands including Geico, AT&T, General Mills, Altoids and Sears.The college population is at an all-time high with 17.6 million students working towards their degrees, per ABS. They are expected to spend up to $17 billion in 2009.For OfficeMax it's less about advertising and more about giving back to the teachers. Bob Thacker, svp-marketing for OfficeMax, said, "The biggest learning we took away from doing 'A Day Made Better' last year is that people are passionate about the teachers that shaped their lives and they are enthusiastic about going the extra mile to show their gratitude. This year A Day Made Better is attracting a lot more support and excitement, particularly from unexpected sources."This week, when it unveiled its new design-focused office supplies at New York’s Fashion Week, "We fell into conversations with some prominent designers and fashion reporters about 'A Day Made Better' and they were eager to tell us who their favorite teacher is," said Thacker. "It’s truly wonderful to see how teachers affect people from all walks of life and these people’s unabashed willingness to throw support behind a cause like this.” Local OfficeMax retail and distribution centers will collaborate with schools in Boston, Los Angeles, New York and other cities to surprise the honored teachers at 10 a.m. in their time zones. Adopt-A-Classroom, which has raised more than $6 million for schools, handled the selection process. OfficeMax spent $20 million on traditional media last year in the U.S. and $6 million for the first half of this year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
India - How not to choose a Business School
India’s demographics and a rapidly changing socio-economic profile have turned into a big opportunity for the creation of an education industry, especially for professional skills. Sensing a sound profit opportunity, many education entrepreneurs have entered the sector, often with the prime motive of making money. Nothing wrong with it—and about time, actually—but those of you looking to select a business school ought to know how some parts of this business work.
Take, for instance, one business school with some 10 “campuses” across India. It has a simple strategy. Woo potential students with a huge number of advertisements—often full-page newspaper ads—that routinely take licence with the truth; give admission to whoever applies provided they are willing to pay the hefty fees; and keep operational costs low, especially by not investing on faculty.
The students come in droves, based on ads that talk up placements, a faculty that looks great on paper and state-of-the-art infrastructure. A public relations company engaged by the B-school is also well networked with a slew of journalists at both national and regional dailies who, in turn, regularly generate positive reports about the institution, especially in regional newspapers that reach the principal target: students from small towns. Occasionally, as it happened in 2008, a survey firm and a television channel helped out, pitching in with friendly rankings, putting the institute among the top 10 B-schools in India.
Another way it attracts students is the opportunity for global exposure. Again, sounds great on paper unless, as in this case, it usually means foreign junkets and exposure to buildings and sights—not necessarily full-blown university courses or overseas companies. After all, any self-respecting travel agency can arrange for such “global” exposure. A true global exposure for a B-school student ought to be in the form of honest exchange programmes where a student is sent to a foreign B-school for at least one full term, allowing the student to systematically attend classes there and interact, in a sustained manner, with legitimate faculty and other international students.
As to the institute’s Indian faculty, most of them are “visiting”, or fresh “graduates” from the same B-school, paid starting salaries of about Rs15,000 a month. A virtuous circle, if you will, that also helps with all those wonderful “placement” figures in the institute’s ads. It doesn’t mean companies haven’t hired anyone from there. A booming Indian economy has meant that students of the school have indeed been placed, including some in foreign jobs, though this accounts for half the graduating class. Often, some of these jobs are entry-level sales jobs with salaries that don’t come close to what a real master’s in business administration might get from a second-tier school.
Because this B-school hasn’t asked to be recognized by any government body—a route that in itself isn’t bad given all the issues this column has raised about the regulator, the All India Council for Technical Education—and is essentially self-regulated, there is no control over how many students it takes, what it teaches and its evaluations.
So, anybody who is willing to pay the stiff fee is admitted, irrespective of whether the student has even cleared the undergraduate or qualifying exam. Like rolling placements, it has rolling admissions even though, officially, the institute admits students only twice a year. The school gives degrees from a European “university” which is equally interesting and has a student intake of about 60. And, it would be very interesting to find out if this Indian B-school has a major stake in that European “university”.
By my estimate, the total number of students in all 10 campuses could be about 30,000, with annual revenue of about Rs1,200 crore. If some of my math adds up, we are talking about Rs600 crore to the bottom line.
Like many Indian B-schools, this one is also run by a “not-for-profit” trust. So what happens to all this money? The school has related entities that charge the school for different activities including one firm that bills the parent for renting out the same teachers that act as faculty. An “in-house” advertising firm that develops the ads, in turn, takes a commission from both the B-school and from various publications that run the ads. And the money flows out to the education entrepreneurs behind the school.
In a slowing economy, it will take a very long time for a student who has invested about Rs12 lakh in all to complete this school’s two-year course to earn that money back. All I can say is, buyer beware. And add that a complicit media needs to look at itself and ask whether it is helping mislead an entire generation of young Indians by going along for the ad money ride that this institute offers newspaper owners.
Editor’s note: Multiple attempts by Mint to discuss these and other related issues with the New Delhi-based business school (IIPM) that the columnist refers to weren’t successful, despite repeated promises by the school’s spokesperson, as well as its owner, to meet Mint editors and education reporters.
Take, for instance, one business school with some 10 “campuses” across India. It has a simple strategy. Woo potential students with a huge number of advertisements—often full-page newspaper ads—that routinely take licence with the truth; give admission to whoever applies provided they are willing to pay the hefty fees; and keep operational costs low, especially by not investing on faculty.
The students come in droves, based on ads that talk up placements, a faculty that looks great on paper and state-of-the-art infrastructure. A public relations company engaged by the B-school is also well networked with a slew of journalists at both national and regional dailies who, in turn, regularly generate positive reports about the institution, especially in regional newspapers that reach the principal target: students from small towns. Occasionally, as it happened in 2008, a survey firm and a television channel helped out, pitching in with friendly rankings, putting the institute among the top 10 B-schools in India.
Another way it attracts students is the opportunity for global exposure. Again, sounds great on paper unless, as in this case, it usually means foreign junkets and exposure to buildings and sights—not necessarily full-blown university courses or overseas companies. After all, any self-respecting travel agency can arrange for such “global” exposure. A true global exposure for a B-school student ought to be in the form of honest exchange programmes where a student is sent to a foreign B-school for at least one full term, allowing the student to systematically attend classes there and interact, in a sustained manner, with legitimate faculty and other international students.
As to the institute’s Indian faculty, most of them are “visiting”, or fresh “graduates” from the same B-school, paid starting salaries of about Rs15,000 a month. A virtuous circle, if you will, that also helps with all those wonderful “placement” figures in the institute’s ads. It doesn’t mean companies haven’t hired anyone from there. A booming Indian economy has meant that students of the school have indeed been placed, including some in foreign jobs, though this accounts for half the graduating class. Often, some of these jobs are entry-level sales jobs with salaries that don’t come close to what a real master’s in business administration might get from a second-tier school.
Because this B-school hasn’t asked to be recognized by any government body—a route that in itself isn’t bad given all the issues this column has raised about the regulator, the All India Council for Technical Education—and is essentially self-regulated, there is no control over how many students it takes, what it teaches and its evaluations.
So, anybody who is willing to pay the stiff fee is admitted, irrespective of whether the student has even cleared the undergraduate or qualifying exam. Like rolling placements, it has rolling admissions even though, officially, the institute admits students only twice a year. The school gives degrees from a European “university” which is equally interesting and has a student intake of about 60. And, it would be very interesting to find out if this Indian B-school has a major stake in that European “university”.
By my estimate, the total number of students in all 10 campuses could be about 30,000, with annual revenue of about Rs1,200 crore. If some of my math adds up, we are talking about Rs600 crore to the bottom line.
Like many Indian B-schools, this one is also run by a “not-for-profit” trust. So what happens to all this money? The school has related entities that charge the school for different activities including one firm that bills the parent for renting out the same teachers that act as faculty. An “in-house” advertising firm that develops the ads, in turn, takes a commission from both the B-school and from various publications that run the ads. And the money flows out to the education entrepreneurs behind the school.
In a slowing economy, it will take a very long time for a student who has invested about Rs12 lakh in all to complete this school’s two-year course to earn that money back. All I can say is, buyer beware. And add that a complicit media needs to look at itself and ask whether it is helping mislead an entire generation of young Indians by going along for the ad money ride that this institute offers newspaper owners.
Editor’s note: Multiple attempts by Mint to discuss these and other related issues with the New Delhi-based business school (IIPM) that the columnist refers to weren’t successful, despite repeated promises by the school’s spokesperson, as well as its owner, to meet Mint editors and education reporters.
World - When girl power grows up (G.Read)
Right at this moment, if we were to list the most powerful women in the world, two names from the US and India would surely be on it: Sarah Palin and Mayawati.
They appear a study in contrasts.
Is Sarah Palin like the Indian superwoman, and Mayawati the independent American career woman?
Overnight, vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has become America’s most famous working mother. Palin, the conservative governor of Alaska, brags about firing the governor mansion’s executive chef so she can whip up healthy meals for her own five children. The woman can hunt moose with one hand and pump breastmilk with the other. Her decision to take a business trip while in labour and give a speech has been dubbed “Broken- watergate”. Scrutinized on everything from her expenses to eyeglass frames, Palin Power has become the new phrase for girl power grown up.
And then there’s Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party president and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh — and a nation’s hope that an underclass really will rise. She dons a short haircut but no husband. She wears diamonds and flaunts her wealth. She is not afraid to promote herself with posters everywhere, lavish birthday party celebrations and self-congratulatory press conferences and signs.
She is the epitome of how going “masculine” can help a woman get what she wants. And Palin seemingly represents the opposite, a once beauty queen who dotes on her husband and children.
There’s role reversal going on every which way here. Palin’s Republican Party has always been seen as more conservative when it comes to women’s rights, such as opposing abortion and allegiances to “family values” campaigns. Ironically, in their quest to knock down Palin and presidential candidate John McCain’s chances of getting to Washington, the allegedly broad-minded and liberal Democrats are now the ones asking questions, such as, “Should a mother of five be running for office? How can she be a good mom and politician?”
Public reaction to Palin not rooted in criticism of her politics or track record is something women in the West excel at: Bringing each other down. In a recent New York Times essay, author Hannah Seligson wrote about her shock about being the new girl at work: “...some women, instead of helping a new female colleague, tried to undermine her. Rather than giving ‘the new girl’ the tools to succeed, they might try to sabotage her advancement.”
But let’s come back to the cultural U-turn. Indians are uniting behind a single career woman, while the Americans are questioning if a woman can really do it all? What happened to India being Western feminism’s biggest punching bag, arranged marriage to dowry to widows in white? When did the US forget its many women’s movements, glass ceilings to equal work for equal pay?
How did Palin become the modern Indian superwoman, and Mayawati the stereotypical independent American career woman?
I see Mayawati and Palin’s parallel rises as a shift in the mindset of feminist politics in their respective nations. It is a useful lesson for women here in the midst of rapid change and ungodly expectations — worst of all, from themselves.
Look closer: both have incorporated elements of masculinity into their dealings with the public. They are unapologetic, sarcastic, blunt, aggressive. They are not afraid of who they are. But here’s the main element that I think is resonating with their respective constituencies: They are not the wives or daughters of existing politicians, not perpetuating dynasty. (Americans might point to previous vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro on the Democratic nomination in 1984 but actually, her cousin handed over her first major political gig. Here, we also have Jayalalithaa but picture her ascent without a relationship with chief minister M.G. Ramachandran?)
Both these candidates lack something that perhaps the US and India are ready to shed: legacy. Many in India have often gloated over the democracy’s ability to elect national-level leaders, but Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi got there largely due to patriarchy.
While pundits have made much of Palin trying to steal the women’s vote that would have gone to Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton’s wife who lost to Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, I suspect another reason women are gravitating towards her is because she has paved her path. She is not touting her husband’s years of experience in office as her own. Mayawati, similarly, brings up every chance she gets to fashion herself as self-made, one of the people. (But her recent gimmick with a secret successor ran counter to the dynasty she mocks.)
And so the world’s two largest democracies see independent, ambitious female politicians eyeing national office. Each has made her own way. Whether you agree or disagree with their politics, that’s worth celebrating indeed.
They appear a study in contrasts.
Is Sarah Palin like the Indian superwoman, and Mayawati the independent American career woman?
Overnight, vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has become America’s most famous working mother. Palin, the conservative governor of Alaska, brags about firing the governor mansion’s executive chef so she can whip up healthy meals for her own five children. The woman can hunt moose with one hand and pump breastmilk with the other. Her decision to take a business trip while in labour and give a speech has been dubbed “Broken- watergate”. Scrutinized on everything from her expenses to eyeglass frames, Palin Power has become the new phrase for girl power grown up.
And then there’s Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party president and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh — and a nation’s hope that an underclass really will rise. She dons a short haircut but no husband. She wears diamonds and flaunts her wealth. She is not afraid to promote herself with posters everywhere, lavish birthday party celebrations and self-congratulatory press conferences and signs.
She is the epitome of how going “masculine” can help a woman get what she wants. And Palin seemingly represents the opposite, a once beauty queen who dotes on her husband and children.
There’s role reversal going on every which way here. Palin’s Republican Party has always been seen as more conservative when it comes to women’s rights, such as opposing abortion and allegiances to “family values” campaigns. Ironically, in their quest to knock down Palin and presidential candidate John McCain’s chances of getting to Washington, the allegedly broad-minded and liberal Democrats are now the ones asking questions, such as, “Should a mother of five be running for office? How can she be a good mom and politician?”
Public reaction to Palin not rooted in criticism of her politics or track record is something women in the West excel at: Bringing each other down. In a recent New York Times essay, author Hannah Seligson wrote about her shock about being the new girl at work: “...some women, instead of helping a new female colleague, tried to undermine her. Rather than giving ‘the new girl’ the tools to succeed, they might try to sabotage her advancement.”
But let’s come back to the cultural U-turn. Indians are uniting behind a single career woman, while the Americans are questioning if a woman can really do it all? What happened to India being Western feminism’s biggest punching bag, arranged marriage to dowry to widows in white? When did the US forget its many women’s movements, glass ceilings to equal work for equal pay?
How did Palin become the modern Indian superwoman, and Mayawati the stereotypical independent American career woman?
I see Mayawati and Palin’s parallel rises as a shift in the mindset of feminist politics in their respective nations. It is a useful lesson for women here in the midst of rapid change and ungodly expectations — worst of all, from themselves.
Look closer: both have incorporated elements of masculinity into their dealings with the public. They are unapologetic, sarcastic, blunt, aggressive. They are not afraid of who they are. But here’s the main element that I think is resonating with their respective constituencies: They are not the wives or daughters of existing politicians, not perpetuating dynasty. (Americans might point to previous vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro on the Democratic nomination in 1984 but actually, her cousin handed over her first major political gig. Here, we also have Jayalalithaa but picture her ascent without a relationship with chief minister M.G. Ramachandran?)
Both these candidates lack something that perhaps the US and India are ready to shed: legacy. Many in India have often gloated over the democracy’s ability to elect national-level leaders, but Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi got there largely due to patriarchy.
While pundits have made much of Palin trying to steal the women’s vote that would have gone to Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton’s wife who lost to Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, I suspect another reason women are gravitating towards her is because she has paved her path. She is not touting her husband’s years of experience in office as her own. Mayawati, similarly, brings up every chance she gets to fashion herself as self-made, one of the people. (But her recent gimmick with a secret successor ran counter to the dynasty she mocks.)
And so the world’s two largest democracies see independent, ambitious female politicians eyeing national office. Each has made her own way. Whether you agree or disagree with their politics, that’s worth celebrating indeed.
Business - Force India;Vijay Mallya Update
London: Force India owner Vijay Mallya has reminded feuding factions inside his Formula One team that, even if he sees no need to bang heads together, he pays the bills and calls the shots.
A year on from his purchase of Spyker, the team he then renamed, the aviation and drinks billionaire said that talks of a rift between his senior staff had been blown out of proportion and that he was in the sport for the long haul.
“Unfortunately, in the Formula One paddock there is a lot of rumour-mongering that goes on,” he said at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“Yes, there may be differences of opinion but these differences started even before I took over the team,” continued Mallya. “You know, disagreements are healthy also. They are not necessarily all negative. If there are disagreements between two members of a team, it cannot be blown out of proportion. Everybody knows I am the boss and I make the decisions.”
Force India, the first Indian-owned Formula One team, have yet to score a point this season and are unlikely to do so at Monza on Sunday in the Italian Grand Prix. They have not made the breakthrough into the second phase of qualifying that would give them a better chance of challenging for points and latterly there has been much talk of a breakdown between the technical department led by Mike Gascoyne and the management of principal Colin Kolles.
The hope is that next year will be different, with significant rule changes potentially levelling the playing field.
India is due to stage a grand prix in 2010 and by then Mallya hopes his Ferrari-powered team will be in a position to be fighting for the podium rather than running around as tail-enders.
They have made considerable progress this season, with the team far more competitive than in the past and now snapping at the heels of struggling manufacturer team Honda on the racetrack at least.
In Monaco, Germany’s Adrian Sutil could have taken an extraordinary fourth place had he not been dumped out in the closing laps by Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Ranked among the wealthiest men in the world, Mallya has attended most grands prix this season and keeps a close eye on his investment. “Team principal is a very general term,” he said of Kolles, the Romanian-born dentist who came into the sport when Midland bought the now-defunct Jordan team that then became Spyker.
“Titles don’t necessarily mean job content. Your understanding may be that a team principal is in charge of everything and has a completely free hand to do as he feels.”
“The answer is absolutely not. I am the chairman and managing director of the company and the team, so arguably I could be the team principal. Colin performs a role that I give him to perform and he’s accountable to me. He does what I tell him to do. I take the final decision.”
Mallya dismissed as “complete hogwash” suggestions that Force India were wasting precious resources on parties, image-building and marketing rather than improving performance on the racetrack.
He said the Silverstone-based team, with experienced Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella and Sutil, were now fully funded and the technical department had “not been denied one single cent”.
Parties were paid for by Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, his carrier which is also a team sponsor, and Mallya never had any doubts about what he had let himself in for.
“I have been around (in Formula One) for 12 years,” he said. “I had no illusions. I was a sponsor at Toyota and I know how much their budget is.”
“Prior to that, I was a sponsor at Benetton, and I know what their budget was. So I’ve come into this with my eyes wide open. The question of me suddenly becoming disillusioned because I face something I haven’t anticipated is rubbish. I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t anticipated what I was getting into.”
A year on from his purchase of Spyker, the team he then renamed, the aviation and drinks billionaire said that talks of a rift between his senior staff had been blown out of proportion and that he was in the sport for the long haul.
“Unfortunately, in the Formula One paddock there is a lot of rumour-mongering that goes on,” he said at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“Yes, there may be differences of opinion but these differences started even before I took over the team,” continued Mallya. “You know, disagreements are healthy also. They are not necessarily all negative. If there are disagreements between two members of a team, it cannot be blown out of proportion. Everybody knows I am the boss and I make the decisions.”
Force India, the first Indian-owned Formula One team, have yet to score a point this season and are unlikely to do so at Monza on Sunday in the Italian Grand Prix. They have not made the breakthrough into the second phase of qualifying that would give them a better chance of challenging for points and latterly there has been much talk of a breakdown between the technical department led by Mike Gascoyne and the management of principal Colin Kolles.
The hope is that next year will be different, with significant rule changes potentially levelling the playing field.
India is due to stage a grand prix in 2010 and by then Mallya hopes his Ferrari-powered team will be in a position to be fighting for the podium rather than running around as tail-enders.
They have made considerable progress this season, with the team far more competitive than in the past and now snapping at the heels of struggling manufacturer team Honda on the racetrack at least.
In Monaco, Germany’s Adrian Sutil could have taken an extraordinary fourth place had he not been dumped out in the closing laps by Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Ranked among the wealthiest men in the world, Mallya has attended most grands prix this season and keeps a close eye on his investment. “Team principal is a very general term,” he said of Kolles, the Romanian-born dentist who came into the sport when Midland bought the now-defunct Jordan team that then became Spyker.
“Titles don’t necessarily mean job content. Your understanding may be that a team principal is in charge of everything and has a completely free hand to do as he feels.”
“The answer is absolutely not. I am the chairman and managing director of the company and the team, so arguably I could be the team principal. Colin performs a role that I give him to perform and he’s accountable to me. He does what I tell him to do. I take the final decision.”
Mallya dismissed as “complete hogwash” suggestions that Force India were wasting precious resources on parties, image-building and marketing rather than improving performance on the racetrack.
He said the Silverstone-based team, with experienced Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella and Sutil, were now fully funded and the technical department had “not been denied one single cent”.
Parties were paid for by Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, his carrier which is also a team sponsor, and Mallya never had any doubts about what he had let himself in for.
“I have been around (in Formula One) for 12 years,” he said. “I had no illusions. I was a sponsor at Toyota and I know how much their budget is.”
“Prior to that, I was a sponsor at Benetton, and I know what their budget was. So I’ve come into this with my eyes wide open. The question of me suddenly becoming disillusioned because I face something I haven’t anticipated is rubbish. I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t anticipated what I was getting into.”
India - Banks sitting on Rs 1200 cr in Idle A/c
Commercial banks in the country are sitting on funds of over Rs 1,200 crore lying idle in about two crore accounts for the past 10 years.
This is despite a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India in November 1989 instructing banks to trace customers or legal heirs of the unclaimed accounts. The disclosure was made in reply to an RTI plea filed by Sidharth Misra, a resident of Cuttack, Orissa.
The reply said that an amount of Rs 1207,35,54,334.23 is lying idle with banks across India. This unclaimed amount belongs to 1,74,38,100 account-holders. According to the RBI reply, the quantum of unclaimed deposit is highest in the rural regional banks. It comes to Rs 1156,98,70,277.68.
“The banks take this order in letter, not in spirit, and wash their hands off by sending a simple letter to the account-holder,” an RBI official said on the condition of anonymity.
Misra, who said he had filed the RTI after many widows in Cuttack had complained that the banks were reluctant to give them their rightful dues, said, “This huge quantum of money is lying idle with the banks and will remain idle in the near future because the right heir to this money is not aware of it,” Misra said.
Nationalised banks account for the highest unclaimed amount, totalling Rs 794,17,41,124.18. The number of idle accounts in these banks in the past 10 years is 72,45,581.
“The bank should take serious note of these account-holders who do not fill up the nominee category in the bank forms. Despite rules which make it compulsory to fill the nominee form, many banks do not insist and then, when the account holder disappears/dies, the money stays with the bank for an indefinite period,” Misra reasons. The data given by RBI enumerates 10 years starting from the year 1996-2006.
“Claiming such money is a tedious task. There are a lot of procedures and formalities such as proving identity and sifting through old data which deters the genuine claimant of her/his legitimate money.
“Moreover, if the amount is equal to the fine charged by the bank, there is no point claiming such money,” a senior bank official said.
This is despite a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India in November 1989 instructing banks to trace customers or legal heirs of the unclaimed accounts. The disclosure was made in reply to an RTI plea filed by Sidharth Misra, a resident of Cuttack, Orissa.
The reply said that an amount of Rs 1207,35,54,334.23 is lying idle with banks across India. This unclaimed amount belongs to 1,74,38,100 account-holders. According to the RBI reply, the quantum of unclaimed deposit is highest in the rural regional banks. It comes to Rs 1156,98,70,277.68.
“The banks take this order in letter, not in spirit, and wash their hands off by sending a simple letter to the account-holder,” an RBI official said on the condition of anonymity.
Misra, who said he had filed the RTI after many widows in Cuttack had complained that the banks were reluctant to give them their rightful dues, said, “This huge quantum of money is lying idle with the banks and will remain idle in the near future because the right heir to this money is not aware of it,” Misra said.
Nationalised banks account for the highest unclaimed amount, totalling Rs 794,17,41,124.18. The number of idle accounts in these banks in the past 10 years is 72,45,581.
“The bank should take serious note of these account-holders who do not fill up the nominee category in the bank forms. Despite rules which make it compulsory to fill the nominee form, many banks do not insist and then, when the account holder disappears/dies, the money stays with the bank for an indefinite period,” Misra reasons. The data given by RBI enumerates 10 years starting from the year 1996-2006.
“Claiming such money is a tedious task. There are a lot of procedures and formalities such as proving identity and sifting through old data which deters the genuine claimant of her/his legitimate money.
“Moreover, if the amount is equal to the fine charged by the bank, there is no point claiming such money,” a senior bank official said.
World - India slips on business friendliness list
Other nations move faster on reforms than India, says IFC and World Bank report.
India has slipped two notches to 122 in a global list that ranks the ease of doing business in 181 economies. This, however, has more to do with newer countries being added to the list and performing better on some fronts in comparison with Asia’s third-largest economy.
The sixth ‘Doing Business Report 2009’, prepared by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, places Nepal and Pakistan above India despite these two countries undertaking no major reform in the last year.
Globally, Singapore retains its number one position, but the real surprise is the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan, which improved its ranking by a whopping 64 places and is this year’s top reformer. The report is released every September and carries the next calendar year in its title. The 2009 report is a review of the 12 months up to June 2008.
The report’s co-author and World Bank official Sabine Hertveldt said India’s performance did not imply that doing business here had become more difficult. It meant that other countries on the list performed better in comparison, he said.
“Over the past four years, India has improved 10 slots in the aggregate rankings and that is a positive thing. It is things like the efficiency of the legal system that are dragging it down,” she said.
Another reason for India’s decline is the addition of three more countries to the list this year. “A country like India will be assessed in the context of whether other countries have reformed at a faster pace on the 10 parameters that are used to evaluate the ease of doing business,” said Minakshi Seth, of the International Finance Corporation.
In 2007, India had moved to 120, up 12 notches from the previous year. This followed a concerted effort by the government to remove the bottlenecks related to rules and regulations.
HOW INDIA SCORES IN 2009 REPORT
10 parameters used to evaluate economies
Ranking(out of 181 countries)
Starting a business 121
Dealing with construction permits 136
Employing workers 89
Registering property 105
Getting credit 28
Protecting investors 38
Paying taxes 169
Trading across borders 90
Enforcing contracts 180
Closing a business 140
INDIA IMPROVED 16 PLACES OVER FOUR YEARS
Year Rank
2009 122
2008 120
2007 134
2006 138
Source: World Bank-IFC Doing Business Reports
The exercise to improve the perception about the business climate in India has continued since then, with the most recent being a move to usher in a separate law for faster enforcement of high-value business contracts.
At the same time, Indian government departments had pointed out that the findings of the 2007 report were based on just one sample — that of a warehousing facility in Mumbai. The latest report is based on a sample from India’s financial capital, a city bedevilled with infrastructure woes.
In fact, the latest report recognises that regulatory reforms in South Asia continued this year, with four of the region’s countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, easing regulatory burdens between June 2007 and June 2008.
“The Indian government has been taking excellent steps on this front. The point is that it takes a while for the changes to have impact,” said Seth.
India has slipped two notches to 122 in a global list that ranks the ease of doing business in 181 economies. This, however, has more to do with newer countries being added to the list and performing better on some fronts in comparison with Asia’s third-largest economy.
The sixth ‘Doing Business Report 2009’, prepared by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, places Nepal and Pakistan above India despite these two countries undertaking no major reform in the last year.
Globally, Singapore retains its number one position, but the real surprise is the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan, which improved its ranking by a whopping 64 places and is this year’s top reformer. The report is released every September and carries the next calendar year in its title. The 2009 report is a review of the 12 months up to June 2008.
The report’s co-author and World Bank official Sabine Hertveldt said India’s performance did not imply that doing business here had become more difficult. It meant that other countries on the list performed better in comparison, he said.
“Over the past four years, India has improved 10 slots in the aggregate rankings and that is a positive thing. It is things like the efficiency of the legal system that are dragging it down,” she said.
Another reason for India’s decline is the addition of three more countries to the list this year. “A country like India will be assessed in the context of whether other countries have reformed at a faster pace on the 10 parameters that are used to evaluate the ease of doing business,” said Minakshi Seth, of the International Finance Corporation.
In 2007, India had moved to 120, up 12 notches from the previous year. This followed a concerted effort by the government to remove the bottlenecks related to rules and regulations.
HOW INDIA SCORES IN 2009 REPORT
10 parameters used to evaluate economies
Ranking(out of 181 countries)
Starting a business 121
Dealing with construction permits 136
Employing workers 89
Registering property 105
Getting credit 28
Protecting investors 38
Paying taxes 169
Trading across borders 90
Enforcing contracts 180
Closing a business 140
INDIA IMPROVED 16 PLACES OVER FOUR YEARS
Year Rank
2009 122
2008 120
2007 134
2006 138
Source: World Bank-IFC Doing Business Reports
The exercise to improve the perception about the business climate in India has continued since then, with the most recent being a move to usher in a separate law for faster enforcement of high-value business contracts.
At the same time, Indian government departments had pointed out that the findings of the 2007 report were based on just one sample — that of a warehousing facility in Mumbai. The latest report is based on a sample from India’s financial capital, a city bedevilled with infrastructure woes.
In fact, the latest report recognises that regulatory reforms in South Asia continued this year, with four of the region’s countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka, easing regulatory burdens between June 2007 and June 2008.
“The Indian government has been taking excellent steps on this front. The point is that it takes a while for the changes to have impact,” said Seth.
Mktg - Bharti's 200-crore innovation fund
Telecom major Bharti Airtel today launched a Rs 200-crore innovation fund for promoting entrepreneurship in the telecom sector.
The objective of the fund is to provide opportunities to the entrepreneurs to undertake innovation in the field of telecom with regard to content, software and technologies, Bharti Airtel Joint MD and CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters here.
This is the first ever telecom innovation fund in the country, he said.
Bharti Airtel, market leader in the GSM base cellular telephony, has started the fund with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore.
The objective of the fund is to provide opportunities to the entrepreneurs to undertake innovation in the field of telecom with regard to content, software and technologies, Bharti Airtel Joint MD and CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters here.
This is the first ever telecom innovation fund in the country, he said.
Bharti Airtel, market leader in the GSM base cellular telephony, has started the fund with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore.
Mktg - A colossal endeavour
C hakka duniya ka ghoome sadhu sant bole, saare bole — aadmi machine bana haule haule (The wheel of life keeps rotating, so say the saints — man is slowly turning into a machine). So goes the line in the Himani Fast Relief ointment advertisement, what is touted as the most expensive campaign of the Emami group.
This Himani Fast Relief’s new ad campaign that went on air in the second week of August is its first non-celebrity advertisement.
The hustle and bustle of life has converted man into a physical machine. The hectic pace gives an individual very little time to recoup. In such a situation people look for quick solutions. The new advertisement campaign has been quite successful in capturing this particular aspect of today’s life.
The ad starts with a city coming to life in the morning. It then goes on to show a number of men grouping together to form human machines such as a bus, a car and other vehicles.
This Himani Fast Relief’s new ad campaign that went on air in the second week of August is its first non-celebrity advertisement.
The hustle and bustle of life has converted man into a physical machine. The hectic pace gives an individual very little time to recoup. In such a situation people look for quick solutions. The new advertisement campaign has been quite successful in capturing this particular aspect of today’s life.
The ad starts with a city coming to life in the morning. It then goes on to show a number of men grouping together to form human machines such as a bus, a car and other vehicles.
They also work as machines in factories. As the day reaches dusk the human crane starts coming down signifying the tiring day’s chores in the urban life.
The next shot shows a man falling out of the human bus with shoulder pain. He then takes out the Himani Fast Relief ointment tube from his pocket and rubs it on his shoulder for quick relief from pain.
The ad ends as he gets back in the human bus, which starts rolling again — signifying that life moves on!
“The ad is based on the premise that all machines have to go through some downtime,” says Aditya Agarwal, Director, Emami Group of Companies. It took about six months for the film to take final shape. About 350 people — mainly dancers and ‘malkhamb’ performers — were trained to perform in the ad film. They were trained for around four months, only to complete the shoot in as much as 10 days.
According to Agarwal, there was a huge risk involved in making this ad. “There is a possibility that it turns out to be a marvel, but it is also possible that a customer might not understand what we are trying to convey through this ad.
Having said that, we are happy that we have been able to make this ad visually different that anyone would want to take a second look at it,” he said.
“Typically, an ad goes on air within 30-45 days from the day the ad shoot begins. In this particular case, we finalised the script sometime in January and it took us about six months to prepare the ad. Finally, it went on air in the second week of August,” says Manish Goenka, Director, Emami Group of Companies.
The budget for the campaign was about Rs 1.8 crore. Ram Madhwani of Equinox Films directed the ad and Prasanna Sankhe and Ashish Khazanchi, National Creative Directors at Publicis Ambience, conceptualised the theme for the campaign. The music was given by Bollywood composers Vishal-Shekhar.
“We have received a good response from people on this campaign. The final proof of the success of the ad can, however, be deduced only after a month when we see the impact on the sales,” Madhwani adds. The tone of voice of the background singer has also been selected keeping the day-to-day activities in mind, he informs.
“From the technical point of view the ad campaign is absolutely stunning,” says ad film maker Prahalad Kakkar. “It is very well executed and imaginative, but we need to see how many people can relate to it,” he adds.
So, has Himani Fast Relief, which was always known for celebrity endorsements and other such themes, changed its strategy? Agarwal clarifies, “We have not moved away from celebrity endorsements.
In fact, this campaign will be followed by another campaign with Amitabh Bachchan endorsing the brand.” The ad campaign is expected to be launched in another 10-15 days and will run simultaneously with the present ad film, he adds.
The company expects the present ad film to attract a lot of consumer interest and then plans to follow it up with Bachchan simplifying the theme of the ad.
“The ad film has done wonders on the technical front. But some consumers might find it difficult to understand the product properly because of their knowledge and awareness level.
This is the reason why we plan to follow it up with Bachchan’s ad in order to simplify things and to reach out to our target customers,” says Agarwal.
The next shot shows a man falling out of the human bus with shoulder pain. He then takes out the Himani Fast Relief ointment tube from his pocket and rubs it on his shoulder for quick relief from pain.
The ad ends as he gets back in the human bus, which starts rolling again — signifying that life moves on!
“The ad is based on the premise that all machines have to go through some downtime,” says Aditya Agarwal, Director, Emami Group of Companies. It took about six months for the film to take final shape. About 350 people — mainly dancers and ‘malkhamb’ performers — were trained to perform in the ad film. They were trained for around four months, only to complete the shoot in as much as 10 days.
According to Agarwal, there was a huge risk involved in making this ad. “There is a possibility that it turns out to be a marvel, but it is also possible that a customer might not understand what we are trying to convey through this ad.
Having said that, we are happy that we have been able to make this ad visually different that anyone would want to take a second look at it,” he said.
“Typically, an ad goes on air within 30-45 days from the day the ad shoot begins. In this particular case, we finalised the script sometime in January and it took us about six months to prepare the ad. Finally, it went on air in the second week of August,” says Manish Goenka, Director, Emami Group of Companies.
The budget for the campaign was about Rs 1.8 crore. Ram Madhwani of Equinox Films directed the ad and Prasanna Sankhe and Ashish Khazanchi, National Creative Directors at Publicis Ambience, conceptualised the theme for the campaign. The music was given by Bollywood composers Vishal-Shekhar.
“We have received a good response from people on this campaign. The final proof of the success of the ad can, however, be deduced only after a month when we see the impact on the sales,” Madhwani adds. The tone of voice of the background singer has also been selected keeping the day-to-day activities in mind, he informs.
“From the technical point of view the ad campaign is absolutely stunning,” says ad film maker Prahalad Kakkar. “It is very well executed and imaginative, but we need to see how many people can relate to it,” he adds.
So, has Himani Fast Relief, which was always known for celebrity endorsements and other such themes, changed its strategy? Agarwal clarifies, “We have not moved away from celebrity endorsements.
In fact, this campaign will be followed by another campaign with Amitabh Bachchan endorsing the brand.” The ad campaign is expected to be launched in another 10-15 days and will run simultaneously with the present ad film, he adds.
The company expects the present ad film to attract a lot of consumer interest and then plans to follow it up with Bachchan simplifying the theme of the ad.
“The ad film has done wonders on the technical front. But some consumers might find it difficult to understand the product properly because of their knowledge and awareness level.
This is the reason why we plan to follow it up with Bachchan’s ad in order to simplify things and to reach out to our target customers,” says Agarwal.
Mktg - Sale is King
An unlikely hero, Akshay Kumar’s film Singh is Kinng has broken all box office records in India and abroad. I am no expert on Bollywood or the Hindi film industry but it does seem that the relatively low key Akshay Kumar, who seems to reel in hit after hit with such consummate ease, is now the No.1 star in India. Even to the uninitiated film fan like me it seems obvious that Akshay Kumar is no Khan. He has neither the histrionic ability nor the charisma of some of his competitors. But he seems to have the pulse of the Indian audience. Indian audiences seem to love this unpretentious star. In a similar vein, the ‘Sale’, which was the country cousin of strategies for marketers and the last, reluctant choice available to people in business has now assumed enormous importance to people who are in business. While it is not exactly Bangladesh winning the cricket world cup, it is almost like England winning it (Kevin Pietersen notwithstanding)! A recent research report suggests that sales, which used to account for 20 per cent of the annual turnover, now account for as much as 50 per cent. Yes, structural changes are happening in India. So, what are these changes and what do they mean for consumers, mall owners and the brands themselves?
Is se acha kya hai?
Sales, it seems, are now coming thick and fast for longer periods of time in all possible percentages in every possible format. And it is not nondescript brands that we are talking of. Every major brand has been on sale, whether it is Reebok, Van Heusen or Puma. Some brands have offered up to 50 per cent off, even if I did feel that too little of the merchandise on offer genuinely had high discounts. But brands like Reebok had a flat 40 per cent off.
Mind you, I am not complaining as a consumer because very often people like me who are hardly fashion-forward are waiting for the “end of season” sale. My nephew who is getting married in early January has already half finished his wedding shopping, taking advantage of the sales that are currently happening! Talk of long-range planning! But the real catalyst to this entire process has been the increasing influence and importance of organised retail, which, with its superior logistics and innovative schemes, has brought in increased footfalls into its air-conditioned premises.
Big Bazaar has become a prime mover of this phenomenon over the years and has branded its current effort as ‘Maha Bachat Sale’. Hometown branded its efforts as the ‘Mano ya na Mano offer’, giving people an opportunity to recreate their homes. Vishal Retail called its programme ‘Mera Bharat Mahan: Azadi Mehengai Se’ while Ezone the electronics special retailer called its effort the “blindfold sale”. Nor was this all. Big Bazaar offered life insurance cover to every customer who shopped during the days of the sale. Prices too were at an all time low for some if not all products. Big Bazaar offered a Sanyo 32-inch LCD TV for a lowest ever price of Rs 29,990! Ezone, on its part, was offering digital cameras at 40 per cent off. The results have been fantastic for all formats of retail. On a single day, Sunday August 17, 2008 the Future Group’s retail operations crossed a turnover of Rs 100 crore! Last year, the Future Group had recorded a turnover of Rs 250 crore during the duration of the sale period, not to forget footfalls of 1 crore!
Early indications are that this year the group could better this effort by 20 per cent at least. In a significant development for the entire sector, one must observe that while Big Bazaar had pioneered the concept a few years ago every other format, whether it was Shoppers Stop or Lifestyle, have all got their sale and footfall act together.
It is perhaps worthwhile to make an observation about this trend. Given the fact that consumers are expecting discounts and format owners are more than willing to oblige them, it becomes critical for marketers to brand their offerings and create properties that become theirs. It is really not so much about a clever line as it is about the smartness of the offer. I remember Scullers, a brand that I have some familiarity with, came up with the ‘Height Sale’ for its womenswear. The scheme was interesting, you had to come to the store with a tall lady (if you could find one) and you would get a discount equal to the height of the lady. If her height was 5’6” you would get a discount of 56 per cent! It was essentially the end-of-season sale, but customers were intrigued by this, it worked for the brand and the media found it interesting enough to write about it. Sadly though, most offers seem mundane and seem to have been worked out without too much strategy or creativity.The state of the economy
The reality is that the financial year 2008-2009 has hardly been great for the economy or not as heady as the previous years have been. Inflation, it seems, is here to stay. The stock markets seem to display the volatility of the Indian batting line up, alternating between highs and lows. The real estate market seems to be as flat as the Chepauk wicket in which the last test match against South Africa was played out to a dull, boring draw. Consumer sentiment is as circumspect as the rest of the world is towards the BCCI. In the words of a market analyst “the market lacks depth”. Yet there is an important learning from all these sales. That is, getting new consumers in with attractive offers is really the effect of all these sales. These consumers would not have come in otherwise. There is increasing evidence to suggest that people are waiting for sales and actually postponing or advancing their purchases to coincide with this period. I know for a fact that I hardly ever buy anything at full price and I wait for my brands to go on sale. I know I am not alone in this, as I believe I am brand-conscious, to put it mildly. As a prominent retailer told me, “Sales are here to stay! It is examination time for us where our strategies come under scrutiny. We wait with the same anxiety for the results, as a student might wait for his examination results!”But what is happening to the brand?
I think while all this is happening that is helping overall sales if not sentiment, brand owners have to worry about their own brands and what is happening to their equity. I am sure that mall owners would be happy to go on sale 365 days a year but what will be the impact of this on brands? Let us take a look at apparel as this is a major category which is simultaneously the beneficiary and the culprit of this entire ‘Sale’ phenomenon. Worryingly, both the top line and bottom line are pressure points for apparel brands. The industry seems to be struggling from a few problems not the least of which has been the declining percentage of full price customers, increasing real estate costs reflecting in poor first quarter results of all the big apparel brands and the companies that own these brands. Madura Garments, Raymond and the retail chain Shoppers Stop have all gone south. Even a strong brand such as Color Plus is struggling. Companies seem desperate for top line and are striving to beat the sale rush by being the first to offer sales or stay on later on sale after the sale period. Brand owners who are getting dragged willy nilly into the intoxication of the sale must step back and consider the implications for the brand.
Yet there is another dimension to this. A period of sale is a time to evaluate the true equity of the brand. A brand’s equity is judged during a sales period. Strong brands are the ones that will benefit most during a sale, as customers who are probably daunted by the brand’s original price despite its obvious attractions, can afford it now that it is on sale.Bring on the festive season!
We live in times of great opportunity, yet in times which are increasingly challenging. Retailers will be pushing brands and enticing footfalls with their offers. Brands need this incentive and yet run the risk of diluting their equity. Will they be able to hold their own or will they dilute their equity in their quest for top line?
This festival season will be unlike any other as it will really demonstrate how strong brands will emerge. Traditionally such seasons have been seasons of promotions and not discounts. It is a time for full price sale in a market that seems to have been suddenly pampered. Who will win the battle? The consumer who is waiting for offers, the retailer who drives footfalls or the brands that offer the attraction?
Maybe the only prediction that I can make is that the next Akshay Kumar film that will hit the multiplexes this Diwali will be another hit!
Is se acha kya hai?
Sales, it seems, are now coming thick and fast for longer periods of time in all possible percentages in every possible format. And it is not nondescript brands that we are talking of. Every major brand has been on sale, whether it is Reebok, Van Heusen or Puma. Some brands have offered up to 50 per cent off, even if I did feel that too little of the merchandise on offer genuinely had high discounts. But brands like Reebok had a flat 40 per cent off.
Mind you, I am not complaining as a consumer because very often people like me who are hardly fashion-forward are waiting for the “end of season” sale. My nephew who is getting married in early January has already half finished his wedding shopping, taking advantage of the sales that are currently happening! Talk of long-range planning! But the real catalyst to this entire process has been the increasing influence and importance of organised retail, which, with its superior logistics and innovative schemes, has brought in increased footfalls into its air-conditioned premises.
Big Bazaar has become a prime mover of this phenomenon over the years and has branded its current effort as ‘Maha Bachat Sale’. Hometown branded its efforts as the ‘Mano ya na Mano offer’, giving people an opportunity to recreate their homes. Vishal Retail called its programme ‘Mera Bharat Mahan: Azadi Mehengai Se’ while Ezone the electronics special retailer called its effort the “blindfold sale”. Nor was this all. Big Bazaar offered life insurance cover to every customer who shopped during the days of the sale. Prices too were at an all time low for some if not all products. Big Bazaar offered a Sanyo 32-inch LCD TV for a lowest ever price of Rs 29,990! Ezone, on its part, was offering digital cameras at 40 per cent off. The results have been fantastic for all formats of retail. On a single day, Sunday August 17, 2008 the Future Group’s retail operations crossed a turnover of Rs 100 crore! Last year, the Future Group had recorded a turnover of Rs 250 crore during the duration of the sale period, not to forget footfalls of 1 crore!
Early indications are that this year the group could better this effort by 20 per cent at least. In a significant development for the entire sector, one must observe that while Big Bazaar had pioneered the concept a few years ago every other format, whether it was Shoppers Stop or Lifestyle, have all got their sale and footfall act together.
It is perhaps worthwhile to make an observation about this trend. Given the fact that consumers are expecting discounts and format owners are more than willing to oblige them, it becomes critical for marketers to brand their offerings and create properties that become theirs. It is really not so much about a clever line as it is about the smartness of the offer. I remember Scullers, a brand that I have some familiarity with, came up with the ‘Height Sale’ for its womenswear. The scheme was interesting, you had to come to the store with a tall lady (if you could find one) and you would get a discount equal to the height of the lady. If her height was 5’6” you would get a discount of 56 per cent! It was essentially the end-of-season sale, but customers were intrigued by this, it worked for the brand and the media found it interesting enough to write about it. Sadly though, most offers seem mundane and seem to have been worked out without too much strategy or creativity.The state of the economy
The reality is that the financial year 2008-2009 has hardly been great for the economy or not as heady as the previous years have been. Inflation, it seems, is here to stay. The stock markets seem to display the volatility of the Indian batting line up, alternating between highs and lows. The real estate market seems to be as flat as the Chepauk wicket in which the last test match against South Africa was played out to a dull, boring draw. Consumer sentiment is as circumspect as the rest of the world is towards the BCCI. In the words of a market analyst “the market lacks depth”. Yet there is an important learning from all these sales. That is, getting new consumers in with attractive offers is really the effect of all these sales. These consumers would not have come in otherwise. There is increasing evidence to suggest that people are waiting for sales and actually postponing or advancing their purchases to coincide with this period. I know for a fact that I hardly ever buy anything at full price and I wait for my brands to go on sale. I know I am not alone in this, as I believe I am brand-conscious, to put it mildly. As a prominent retailer told me, “Sales are here to stay! It is examination time for us where our strategies come under scrutiny. We wait with the same anxiety for the results, as a student might wait for his examination results!”But what is happening to the brand?
I think while all this is happening that is helping overall sales if not sentiment, brand owners have to worry about their own brands and what is happening to their equity. I am sure that mall owners would be happy to go on sale 365 days a year but what will be the impact of this on brands? Let us take a look at apparel as this is a major category which is simultaneously the beneficiary and the culprit of this entire ‘Sale’ phenomenon. Worryingly, both the top line and bottom line are pressure points for apparel brands. The industry seems to be struggling from a few problems not the least of which has been the declining percentage of full price customers, increasing real estate costs reflecting in poor first quarter results of all the big apparel brands and the companies that own these brands. Madura Garments, Raymond and the retail chain Shoppers Stop have all gone south. Even a strong brand such as Color Plus is struggling. Companies seem desperate for top line and are striving to beat the sale rush by being the first to offer sales or stay on later on sale after the sale period. Brand owners who are getting dragged willy nilly into the intoxication of the sale must step back and consider the implications for the brand.
Yet there is another dimension to this. A period of sale is a time to evaluate the true equity of the brand. A brand’s equity is judged during a sales period. Strong brands are the ones that will benefit most during a sale, as customers who are probably daunted by the brand’s original price despite its obvious attractions, can afford it now that it is on sale.Bring on the festive season!
We live in times of great opportunity, yet in times which are increasingly challenging. Retailers will be pushing brands and enticing footfalls with their offers. Brands need this incentive and yet run the risk of diluting their equity. Will they be able to hold their own or will they dilute their equity in their quest for top line?
This festival season will be unlike any other as it will really demonstrate how strong brands will emerge. Traditionally such seasons have been seasons of promotions and not discounts. It is a time for full price sale in a market that seems to have been suddenly pampered. Who will win the battle? The consumer who is waiting for offers, the retailer who drives footfalls or the brands that offer the attraction?
Maybe the only prediction that I can make is that the next Akshay Kumar film that will hit the multiplexes this Diwali will be another hit!
Mktg - Stretching the 'rubber brand'
The mention of a brand name almost always evokes images that have long since been associated with it. For example, Lux with Hollywood-like complexions, Marlboro with rough-and-tough machoism, Sony with innovative technology, Rolex with a pioneering/ adventurous spirit, Pepsi with youthful exuberance and so on. And, consumers always aspiring for the proverbial “moon” usually lap up extensions of that imagery by buying a variety of products that have the same brand name or what are commonly known as brand extensions.
This brings us to the concept I like to call ‘rubber brand’ – brand names that stretch to similar categories to capitalise on the strong consumer franchise built up over a considerable period of time.
Examples of ‘rubber brands’ include Vicks, which extended itself from the well-known vapour balm to cough drops, lozenges and inhalers; Dove from toilet soaps to shampoos, Dettol from antiseptics to toilet soaps and Caterpillar from heavy earthmoving equipment to rugged all terrain cat boots! All these are based on fairly defined product categories such as bronchial medication, personal and household cleansing agents or coherent images of soothing relief, fresh feelings and heavy-duty manhood!
However, this exclusive brand aura that has so thoughtfully and painstakingly been built up over the years may not obtain the same consumer response when extended to different or even related product categories indiscriminately. In other words, the ‘rubber brand’ snaps in case it is stretched too far! Consumer associations of a well nurtured brand image with a particular product are so strong that to include another product in haste with the same brand name into his frame of reference may be akin to a foreign particle entering your eye — you desperately want to get rid of it!
One can, therefore, reasonably presume that this is what happened to a lot of also-ran brand extensions from a consumer point of view, without considering factors such as pricing and distribution. Thus, the consumer may think emotionally, but always acts rationally.
Corporations thus realised that there are limits to stretching the ‘rubber brand’. For example, in entertainment electronics National and Akai initially produced high-priced tape decks and amplifiers, but over the years, realising that the volume game was more lucrative, went on to tap the mass market for low-priced music systems and two-in-ones. However, in the process, unless you constantly innovate and are seen to be a pioneer in the category, the brand begins to be seen as being “for everybody” and the aura of exclusivity felt earlier tends to spread thin.
What happened, particularly in these two cases, was that consumers who desperately wanted to feel they were part of a select audience privy to the offerings of a superior brand felt part of a crowd they did not want to belong in. The ‘rubber brand’ snapped and the hunt was on for a new brand. Out of this changed scenario evolved the exclusive Cambridge Audio and Denon (amplifiers), Bose and Canton (speakers) of the world. And, so today, connoisseurs of music are extremely choosy during their buying process. For them price is not critical as they are willing to pay extra to belong to the inner circle of exclusivity.
Similarly, till recently, the evolved photographer rarely bought a Kodak, Konica or Fuji camera even if these brands were synonymous with film roll. For him a Canon, Minolta or a Nikon camera elevated his status to where he could look down upon the masses who shoulder these run-of-the-mill cameras
Today, however, the scenario has changed with the digital age and all brands vie for a slice of the pie.
To partly circumvent this, companies reacted by spinning off new divisions or buying exclusive labels to cater to these niche markets. Philips created Marantz and National formed Panasonic in entertainment electronics, while Colgate launched Palmolive soaps/shampoos. Similarly, both Unilever and Proctor & Gamble hitherto seen as the last word in mass marketing bought niche brands such as Elizabeth Arden and Old Spice rather than ride on their existing brand equities when entering the cosmetic market and now have a variety of high-end luxury brands.
It pays to be cautious while contemplating brand extensions. Research can shed light on consumer perception of brand names and their associated images, after which the limits of extensions can more or less be mapped out. This is essential so that marketers and brands do not overstep the line — given the euphoria of past successes — only to find themselves falling into the rubber brand “snapped” trap.
This brings us to the concept I like to call ‘rubber brand’ – brand names that stretch to similar categories to capitalise on the strong consumer franchise built up over a considerable period of time.
Examples of ‘rubber brands’ include Vicks, which extended itself from the well-known vapour balm to cough drops, lozenges and inhalers; Dove from toilet soaps to shampoos, Dettol from antiseptics to toilet soaps and Caterpillar from heavy earthmoving equipment to rugged all terrain cat boots! All these are based on fairly defined product categories such as bronchial medication, personal and household cleansing agents or coherent images of soothing relief, fresh feelings and heavy-duty manhood!
However, this exclusive brand aura that has so thoughtfully and painstakingly been built up over the years may not obtain the same consumer response when extended to different or even related product categories indiscriminately. In other words, the ‘rubber brand’ snaps in case it is stretched too far! Consumer associations of a well nurtured brand image with a particular product are so strong that to include another product in haste with the same brand name into his frame of reference may be akin to a foreign particle entering your eye — you desperately want to get rid of it!
One can, therefore, reasonably presume that this is what happened to a lot of also-ran brand extensions from a consumer point of view, without considering factors such as pricing and distribution. Thus, the consumer may think emotionally, but always acts rationally.
Corporations thus realised that there are limits to stretching the ‘rubber brand’. For example, in entertainment electronics National and Akai initially produced high-priced tape decks and amplifiers, but over the years, realising that the volume game was more lucrative, went on to tap the mass market for low-priced music systems and two-in-ones. However, in the process, unless you constantly innovate and are seen to be a pioneer in the category, the brand begins to be seen as being “for everybody” and the aura of exclusivity felt earlier tends to spread thin.
What happened, particularly in these two cases, was that consumers who desperately wanted to feel they were part of a select audience privy to the offerings of a superior brand felt part of a crowd they did not want to belong in. The ‘rubber brand’ snapped and the hunt was on for a new brand. Out of this changed scenario evolved the exclusive Cambridge Audio and Denon (amplifiers), Bose and Canton (speakers) of the world. And, so today, connoisseurs of music are extremely choosy during their buying process. For them price is not critical as they are willing to pay extra to belong to the inner circle of exclusivity.
Similarly, till recently, the evolved photographer rarely bought a Kodak, Konica or Fuji camera even if these brands were synonymous with film roll. For him a Canon, Minolta or a Nikon camera elevated his status to where he could look down upon the masses who shoulder these run-of-the-mill cameras
Today, however, the scenario has changed with the digital age and all brands vie for a slice of the pie.
To partly circumvent this, companies reacted by spinning off new divisions or buying exclusive labels to cater to these niche markets. Philips created Marantz and National formed Panasonic in entertainment electronics, while Colgate launched Palmolive soaps/shampoos. Similarly, both Unilever and Proctor & Gamble hitherto seen as the last word in mass marketing bought niche brands such as Elizabeth Arden and Old Spice rather than ride on their existing brand equities when entering the cosmetic market and now have a variety of high-end luxury brands.
It pays to be cautious while contemplating brand extensions. Research can shed light on consumer perception of brand names and their associated images, after which the limits of extensions can more or less be mapped out. This is essential so that marketers and brands do not overstep the line — given the euphoria of past successes — only to find themselves falling into the rubber brand “snapped” trap.
Business - Helping small businesses grow
As a young girl growing up in the Philippines, Yasmina McCarty would buy and eat a lot of green mangoes from a vendor named Malou. “She wanted to send her daughter to school,” says Yasmina, who says the woman still sells green mangoes, and that she’s exactly the kind of small businessperson that she and her partner at GreenMango.co.in, Nandini Narula, want to help.
The award-winning GreenMango is described as an affordable and accessible marketing platform designed to help small entrepreneurs in developing countries grow their business. The two founders, who met while working in the microfinance sector, constantly grappled with finding the answer to the question, why don’t small businesses grow? “Despite working so hard, they don’t get the income they need after all that hard work,” says Yasmina, who, along with Nandini, has work experience spread across more than a dozen countries. The lack of access to finance, to information that can tell them the prices of commodities and help them decide on the right market rates and make the market place accessible to them, in terms of a space to conduct business from, are the main stumbling blocks.
GreenMango is a Web site where small, local businesses and services such as plumbers, electricians, other handymen, cooks and henna artists can enrol to be listed for a fees of Rs 99 per year. The listings come replete with ratings and reviews from customers. “GreenMango centralises credible information and its multiple access points (Internet, in-person and SMS) uniquely reach all income segments in India. By bringing these small businesses online and giving them the power to market and promote themselves, it levels the playing field for poor entrepreneurs to compete with other local businesses,” says Yasmina.
Right now, GreenMango services only Hyderabad but would like to expand to other cities as soon as possible. “There is a big gap in the market for these kind of services. Many people, young professionals, middle-class families, want this kind of help but don’t know where to turn to for information, and these services, typically housed in poorer neighbourhoods, haven’t been able to promote themselves beyond putting up a signboard,” says Yasmina, who says brand-building activity for Green Mango is restricted to word-of-mouth right now.
GreenMango employs about 10 people who comb the city’s slums and low-income neighbourhoods to locate people who run such businesses. The number of categories and people listed is growing significantly, says Nandini, who is the technical brains behind this project, which was incubated in February 2007. One can search for the business by type, name and area. This is probably the only Web site of its kind in the country, says Nandini, who lives in the US and says India is a very different market. There are similar sites in the US but they assume that those businesses have Internet access. Here, even the average, middle-income Indian, may not have Internet access at home, only at work. However, they are comfortable with SMS and so GreenMango’s information is available through the mobile phone as well as through a call centre. Branded vans travel through various neighbourhoods, creating further awareness.
GreenMango is an experiment in social enterprise and believes in good financial returns both for the society it’s involved with as well as its investors. The founders do not part with much information on the financial aspects of the business other than to say the Web site is privately funded and believe it can be profitable. In October 2007, GreenMango was selected as the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Laureate for Asia. It is a unique entrepreneurship competition for women created by Cartier in partnership with the Women’s Forum, McKinsey and INSEAD. Nandini says the award is given for viable business opportunities which also have quite a bit of innovation built into their business models. This year, GreenMango was also selected for the Echoing Green Fellowship which supports socially minded businesses trying to create a new value offering, and bagged the third place in the global Big Idea competition.
The award-winning GreenMango is described as an affordable and accessible marketing platform designed to help small entrepreneurs in developing countries grow their business. The two founders, who met while working in the microfinance sector, constantly grappled with finding the answer to the question, why don’t small businesses grow? “Despite working so hard, they don’t get the income they need after all that hard work,” says Yasmina, who, along with Nandini, has work experience spread across more than a dozen countries. The lack of access to finance, to information that can tell them the prices of commodities and help them decide on the right market rates and make the market place accessible to them, in terms of a space to conduct business from, are the main stumbling blocks.
GreenMango is a Web site where small, local businesses and services such as plumbers, electricians, other handymen, cooks and henna artists can enrol to be listed for a fees of Rs 99 per year. The listings come replete with ratings and reviews from customers. “GreenMango centralises credible information and its multiple access points (Internet, in-person and SMS) uniquely reach all income segments in India. By bringing these small businesses online and giving them the power to market and promote themselves, it levels the playing field for poor entrepreneurs to compete with other local businesses,” says Yasmina.
Right now, GreenMango services only Hyderabad but would like to expand to other cities as soon as possible. “There is a big gap in the market for these kind of services. Many people, young professionals, middle-class families, want this kind of help but don’t know where to turn to for information, and these services, typically housed in poorer neighbourhoods, haven’t been able to promote themselves beyond putting up a signboard,” says Yasmina, who says brand-building activity for Green Mango is restricted to word-of-mouth right now.
GreenMango employs about 10 people who comb the city’s slums and low-income neighbourhoods to locate people who run such businesses. The number of categories and people listed is growing significantly, says Nandini, who is the technical brains behind this project, which was incubated in February 2007. One can search for the business by type, name and area. This is probably the only Web site of its kind in the country, says Nandini, who lives in the US and says India is a very different market. There are similar sites in the US but they assume that those businesses have Internet access. Here, even the average, middle-income Indian, may not have Internet access at home, only at work. However, they are comfortable with SMS and so GreenMango’s information is available through the mobile phone as well as through a call centre. Branded vans travel through various neighbourhoods, creating further awareness.
GreenMango is an experiment in social enterprise and believes in good financial returns both for the society it’s involved with as well as its investors. The founders do not part with much information on the financial aspects of the business other than to say the Web site is privately funded and believe it can be profitable. In October 2007, GreenMango was selected as the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Laureate for Asia. It is a unique entrepreneurship competition for women created by Cartier in partnership with the Women’s Forum, McKinsey and INSEAD. Nandini says the award is given for viable business opportunities which also have quite a bit of innovation built into their business models. This year, GreenMango was also selected for the Echoing Green Fellowship which supports socially minded businesses trying to create a new value offering, and bagged the third place in the global Big Idea competition.
Business - Infosys takes India's largest group life insurance policy with LIC
Infosys Technologies Ltd today anounced renewal of the group life insurance policy covering 97,000 employees with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). This is the largest group insurance cover given to any company by LIC in the country as the total sum assured is over Rs 24,000 crore.
Infosys currently covers all its employees with life and accident insurance with the insurance cover amount ranging between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1 crore per employee. Of this, the LIC cover varies between Rs 20 lakh to Rs 80 lakh per employee. The premium towards the insurance cover will be paid the Employees Welfare Trust of Infosys. While, the premium amount was not disclosed, the company will pay around Rs 200 per month at the highest level per employee, Mohandas Pai, member of the board, Infosys said.
"As a part of our HR policies, Infosys believes in providing adequate life, accident and medical insurance cover to its employees as a holistic measure," Pai said.
The policy between Infosys and LIC was initiated in 2002, with a uniform cover of Rs 10 lakh per employee covering 12,000 employees for a total sum of Rs 1,791 crore. This insurance amount went up to Rs 7,981 crore in 2006 and was Rs 11,792 crore in 2007.
Infosys currently covers all its employees with life and accident insurance with the insurance cover amount ranging between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1 crore per employee. Of this, the LIC cover varies between Rs 20 lakh to Rs 80 lakh per employee. The premium towards the insurance cover will be paid the Employees Welfare Trust of Infosys. While, the premium amount was not disclosed, the company will pay around Rs 200 per month at the highest level per employee, Mohandas Pai, member of the board, Infosys said.
"As a part of our HR policies, Infosys believes in providing adequate life, accident and medical insurance cover to its employees as a holistic measure," Pai said.
The policy between Infosys and LIC was initiated in 2002, with a uniform cover of Rs 10 lakh per employee covering 12,000 employees for a total sum of Rs 1,791 crore. This insurance amount went up to Rs 7,981 crore in 2006 and was Rs 11,792 crore in 2007.
Business - Etisalat close to buying 51% stake in Swan Tele
New Delhi, Sept 10 UAE’s telecom giant Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) is close to picking up a majority stake in Mumbai- based Swan Telecom.
Etisalat has been scouting for an Indian partner for more than 6 months and was earlier in talks with other players including Spice Communication and Videocon-backed Datacom. Swan is among the few operators which had recently bagged licences to offer telecom services in the country.
According to industry sources, talks between Etisalat and promoters of Swan are moving towards the latter picking up around 51 per cent stake in the Indian company. Shareholders
At present Mauritius-based Delphi Investments Ltd holds 9.9 per cent stake in Swan. This share was earlier held by Reliance Communications. 90.1 per cent stake in Swan Telecom is owned by Tiger Trustees Pvt. Ltd, which in turn is 99.8 per cent owned by Dynamix Balwas Ltd. The remaining 0.2 per cent of Tiger Trustees is in the name of Parrot Consultants Pvt. Ltd and Zebra Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Etisalat is the largest telecom operator in the UAE and provides telecommunications services in 14 countries in Africa, Asia and Africa including Pakistan, Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Etisalat Chairman, Mr Mohammad Omran, had earlier said that India was a very attractive market and the company was studying different market entry strategies to determine the most appropriate fit. Security concerns
However, security-related issues could be one of the concerns raised if Etisalat approaches the Indian authorities for approval once a deal is worked out. According to the Foreign Direct Investment rules, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board can refuse approval in the case of investments coming from companies operating in unfriendly countries.
Earlier when Egyptian company Orascom had expressed interest to acquire stake in Hutchison Essar, Indian security agencies had raised concerns on the grounds that the company had operations in unfriendly countries. Etisalat has operations in Pakistan which could become an issue at a later stage, though sources dismissed it as a non-issue.
With the Government opening up the fast-growing mobile segment to unlimited number of players, international operators such as AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Telenor are eyeing an entry into the market. Scouting for partners
Some of the other new licence holders such as Videocon and Unitech are also scouting for international partners, which makes them a possible entry point for the international giants.
According to analysts, India may see a spate of M&A deals in the next two months before the 3G auction takes place. They said that new Indian players will prefer to have a foreign partner, both for financial support and technological experience in rolling out third generation mobile services.
Etisalat has been scouting for an Indian partner for more than 6 months and was earlier in talks with other players including Spice Communication and Videocon-backed Datacom. Swan is among the few operators which had recently bagged licences to offer telecom services in the country.
According to industry sources, talks between Etisalat and promoters of Swan are moving towards the latter picking up around 51 per cent stake in the Indian company. Shareholders
At present Mauritius-based Delphi Investments Ltd holds 9.9 per cent stake in Swan. This share was earlier held by Reliance Communications. 90.1 per cent stake in Swan Telecom is owned by Tiger Trustees Pvt. Ltd, which in turn is 99.8 per cent owned by Dynamix Balwas Ltd. The remaining 0.2 per cent of Tiger Trustees is in the name of Parrot Consultants Pvt. Ltd and Zebra Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Etisalat is the largest telecom operator in the UAE and provides telecommunications services in 14 countries in Africa, Asia and Africa including Pakistan, Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Etisalat Chairman, Mr Mohammad Omran, had earlier said that India was a very attractive market and the company was studying different market entry strategies to determine the most appropriate fit. Security concerns
However, security-related issues could be one of the concerns raised if Etisalat approaches the Indian authorities for approval once a deal is worked out. According to the Foreign Direct Investment rules, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board can refuse approval in the case of investments coming from companies operating in unfriendly countries.
Earlier when Egyptian company Orascom had expressed interest to acquire stake in Hutchison Essar, Indian security agencies had raised concerns on the grounds that the company had operations in unfriendly countries. Etisalat has operations in Pakistan which could become an issue at a later stage, though sources dismissed it as a non-issue.
With the Government opening up the fast-growing mobile segment to unlimited number of players, international operators such as AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Telenor are eyeing an entry into the market. Scouting for partners
Some of the other new licence holders such as Videocon and Unitech are also scouting for international partners, which makes them a possible entry point for the international giants.
According to analysts, India may see a spate of M&A deals in the next two months before the 3G auction takes place. They said that new Indian players will prefer to have a foreign partner, both for financial support and technological experience in rolling out third generation mobile services.
Mktg - Keeping 236 year old champagne brand hip
Never mind what marketers tell you, good champagne doesn't really demand a 'special occasion'. And there's no such thing as 'the right time of day' to open a bottle of great champagne. Yet, sipping wine at eleven in the morning on a working Friday doesn't come naturally. "What if I was to say you would be the first Indian lady to be sipping Veuve Clicquot's new Rose?" says Madame Cécile Bonnefond, president & CEO of the House of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. It doesn't take more persuasion from Bonnefond - a 'special occasion' having been firmly established, inhibition saunters out of the door. Having successfully broken my resolve, the elegantly dressed head of the 236-year-old champagne brand - the hippest champagne in the world, let it be added - makes herself comfortable in the sofa, picks up the Riedal flute, holds it up to the light, admires the perfect bubbles rising inside and wonders aloud at the unique copper pink of the bubbly - apparently not an easy colour to get. That Bonnefond is the first woman to head the iconic company after the legendary Madame Clicquot herself, is a fact that sits lightly on the former's slim shoulders. In fact, Bonnefond emphasises a fact few know - that in the history of the champagne brand, there have been only ten people at the helm: two women and eight men. Not a bad ratio even by modern standards! It's this two century-old heritage of Veuve Clicquot that Bonnefond is particularly proud of; at the same time, keeping the brand contemporary is her biggest task. "Tradition can be very boring so the constant challenge is to make heritage interesting, very hip yet not flitty," Bonnefond describes her job in a nutshell. The 52-year-old, who has accumulated years of experience in companies as diverse as Danone and Diageo, knows there are no definite answers to these challenges, and admits that she's always walking the edge, driving everything simultaneously. Bonnefond draws her inspiration from the indomitable widow (Madame Clicquot; veuve means widow in French) who turned her husband's fledgling business into a global brand. "Madame Clicquot is the one who drives us every day. When she took over in 1805, she went international immediately and 70% of our produce went to Russia. She introduced new technology, had the best vineyard and put salesmen on the road, which is why she was called the Grande Dame, which actually means 'tall and great', though she was tiny in size. In the men's world of wine she was the Grand Lady. It was a great recognition," says Bonnefond. Such is Bonnefond's admiration that Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is the only champagne house to have a fulltime historian creating the longest, deepest archive of champagne. "After creating a Rose in 1775, she decided in 1810 to do away with Rose in favour of vintage. In 2001, we got our historian to dig out the old recipe and rediscovered it!" says Bonnefond, adding that a good Rose is dependant on great crop of grapes for red wine - if it's an awfully hot year, one can end up with too much concentration and no elegance. "Yes, legacies can be intimidating, yet one knew there was a reputation and my role was to be a caretaker of a legacy, which is also very inspiring," says Bonnefond.
Bonnefond, an alumnus of the European School of Business in Paris, says it was expected of her to be part of businesses like Danone, Kellogg, Diageo and Sara Lee. Wine, though, was an entirely different proposition. "There was the fact that I was not a wine-maker, which meant I was not 'in'. Yet, the biggest challenge was business and that is what prevails. The rule of the game is always success, and once the business is successful, all the questions disappear," she says in a very pragmatic manner. Where Bonnefond has succeeded really well is in creating brand spin-offs. "We as a brand are limited by our produce," she says, pointing out that being dependent on crops, the brand cannot simply build more capacities and increase production. "So we need to build a market around the brand, and there are obvious synergies with colour, design and service." Bonnefond, for instance, tied up with designer Karim Rashid for the Veuve Clicquot Globalight and Clicquot Loveseat. She also engineered the Veuve Clicquot association with luxury Italian motoryacht maker Riva to produce the Grande Dame Cruise Collection of coolers and accessories. And she commissioned Porsche Design Studio to create products like the champagne storage tower. "It began with Porsche a decade ago. I accelerated this and made it part of the DNA of the brand, and it is pretty successful as well," says Bonnefond, for once ready to talk figures. These spin-offs contribute as much as 5%-10% to the champagne house's coffers. The idea, of course, is not to hand it out to every channel of business. For example, the ice bucket has never been sold to the supermarket or to F&B, as it was meant for night clubs and is exclusive to them. The Karim Rashid-designed sofa was never created with the intent of sales in mind till a client from Italy ordered it for himself - today the company has sold 50 units of the sofa, each priced between Euro 8,000 to Euro 10,000. "But we are very careful as we have not developed it as a line of furniture," Bonnefond adds. In the four years that she has been at the head of the table, Bonnefond has seen new markets like Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia, Russia, old Central Europe, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Dubai, Singapore and Korea grow; China is still new and India is expectedly big, though it is hampered by the high duty structures. Bonnefond being unwilling to share figures, one can only gauge from LVMH's 2007 annual report that its wine and spirit division - which also includes Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon and Krug - made 3.2 billion Euros, up 7% on 2006. In total, the group sold 62.2 m bottles of champagne in 2007 up from 59.9m the previous year. The global slowdown is a reality, though, and Bonnefond is not one to run away from it. "Last year was a record year with sales, and yes, with the slowdown it will be harder this year - but definitely not dramatic. Will luxury see a slowdown like the stock exchange? No. Also for Veuve Clicquot, we are lucky as we have fiercely loyal consumers," she says.
Women of Substances One of the most interesting properties of the House of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman Award of the Year, founded way back in 1972. Considered 'revolutionary' at the time of its institution, the award is a much sought-after accolade: past recipients include the late Dame Anita Roddick (founder Body Shop), Pearson CEO Dame Marjorie Scadino and caterer Prue Leith. This year, for the first time, the award recipient was an Indian - Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. "We wanted to recognise the efforts of South America, Asia and Africa as well, so we began these awards in these countries," explains Bonnefond. "For India, I requested for help from the French government to identify the right person, and the one name which came up immediately was Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, an amazing woman. We are really proud that she is the first recipient of this award in India and she has raised the bar very high." The criteria or "qualities" that are sought in women, Bonnefond says, are success, corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethics, social awareness and care about using natural resources. "CSR is very important. Around 25-30 years ago, our vineyards began being environmentally driven and when I came in, I extended the same to the whole company. In everything that we use, whether it is the paint on the ice bucket or the colour, the material, I ensure that it we use bio-degradable materials. We are, in fact, the first company to put our consumption of water and power in our profit sharing agreement. Going forward, the luxury consumer too is going to make an ecological choice," says Bonnefond. And yes, just in case you wanted to know why Veuve Clicquot instituted a Businesswoman Award: "There are already lots of awards for men," Bonnefond explains in a matter-of-fact manner.
Bonnefond, an alumnus of the European School of Business in Paris, says it was expected of her to be part of businesses like Danone, Kellogg, Diageo and Sara Lee. Wine, though, was an entirely different proposition. "There was the fact that I was not a wine-maker, which meant I was not 'in'. Yet, the biggest challenge was business and that is what prevails. The rule of the game is always success, and once the business is successful, all the questions disappear," she says in a very pragmatic manner. Where Bonnefond has succeeded really well is in creating brand spin-offs. "We as a brand are limited by our produce," she says, pointing out that being dependent on crops, the brand cannot simply build more capacities and increase production. "So we need to build a market around the brand, and there are obvious synergies with colour, design and service." Bonnefond, for instance, tied up with designer Karim Rashid for the Veuve Clicquot Globalight and Clicquot Loveseat. She also engineered the Veuve Clicquot association with luxury Italian motoryacht maker Riva to produce the Grande Dame Cruise Collection of coolers and accessories. And she commissioned Porsche Design Studio to create products like the champagne storage tower. "It began with Porsche a decade ago. I accelerated this and made it part of the DNA of the brand, and it is pretty successful as well," says Bonnefond, for once ready to talk figures. These spin-offs contribute as much as 5%-10% to the champagne house's coffers. The idea, of course, is not to hand it out to every channel of business. For example, the ice bucket has never been sold to the supermarket or to F&B, as it was meant for night clubs and is exclusive to them. The Karim Rashid-designed sofa was never created with the intent of sales in mind till a client from Italy ordered it for himself - today the company has sold 50 units of the sofa, each priced between Euro 8,000 to Euro 10,000. "But we are very careful as we have not developed it as a line of furniture," Bonnefond adds. In the four years that she has been at the head of the table, Bonnefond has seen new markets like Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia, Russia, old Central Europe, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Dubai, Singapore and Korea grow; China is still new and India is expectedly big, though it is hampered by the high duty structures. Bonnefond being unwilling to share figures, one can only gauge from LVMH's 2007 annual report that its wine and spirit division - which also includes Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon and Krug - made 3.2 billion Euros, up 7% on 2006. In total, the group sold 62.2 m bottles of champagne in 2007 up from 59.9m the previous year. The global slowdown is a reality, though, and Bonnefond is not one to run away from it. "Last year was a record year with sales, and yes, with the slowdown it will be harder this year - but definitely not dramatic. Will luxury see a slowdown like the stock exchange? No. Also for Veuve Clicquot, we are lucky as we have fiercely loyal consumers," she says.
Women of Substances One of the most interesting properties of the House of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman Award of the Year, founded way back in 1972. Considered 'revolutionary' at the time of its institution, the award is a much sought-after accolade: past recipients include the late Dame Anita Roddick (founder Body Shop), Pearson CEO Dame Marjorie Scadino and caterer Prue Leith. This year, for the first time, the award recipient was an Indian - Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. "We wanted to recognise the efforts of South America, Asia and Africa as well, so we began these awards in these countries," explains Bonnefond. "For India, I requested for help from the French government to identify the right person, and the one name which came up immediately was Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, an amazing woman. We are really proud that she is the first recipient of this award in India and she has raised the bar very high." The criteria or "qualities" that are sought in women, Bonnefond says, are success, corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethics, social awareness and care about using natural resources. "CSR is very important. Around 25-30 years ago, our vineyards began being environmentally driven and when I came in, I extended the same to the whole company. In everything that we use, whether it is the paint on the ice bucket or the colour, the material, I ensure that it we use bio-degradable materials. We are, in fact, the first company to put our consumption of water and power in our profit sharing agreement. Going forward, the luxury consumer too is going to make an ecological choice," says Bonnefond. And yes, just in case you wanted to know why Veuve Clicquot instituted a Businesswoman Award: "There are already lots of awards for men," Bonnefond explains in a matter-of-fact manner.
Mktg - Changing preferences of customers
With ‘guyliner’ hitting the shelves at Superdrug, and Angelina Jolie replacing Tom Cruise as the action hero du jour, it is clear that the world is changing and that consumers are shunning macho approaches to marketing. The testosterone language and macho approach of the 80s no longer holds sway with today’s consumers. Knowing that men moisturise and women use power tools is no longer enough for brands, which must take note of the move toward a softer, more feminine approach to marketing. Whether the family-friendly, soft focus of David Cameron’s ‘Compassionate Conservatism’ or the all-inclusive gender and age-neutral stance of Nintendo, brands are quickly learning that it pays to get in touch with their feminine side. A clear example of this shift can be seen in politics - traditionally a barometer of worldwide public opinion. In the US race for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton’s strategists insisted that in order to win the vote she needed to demonstrate she could ‘man’ up to the job. Her campaign focused on communicating male attributes - competitive, ambitious, tireless, focused and highly skilled at the game. Funds were spent on dominating airtime, impressing voters with her omnipresence and broadcasting her leadership skills in top-down channels such as TV and billboards. The insight she and her advisers missed, however, was that US voters were tired and suspicious of traditional ‘authoritative leadership’ styles. They wanted someone who seemed to connect on their level and be on the level; someone who could represent real change from the cynicism they believed pervaded Washington. People wanted someone who was less of the macho and more of the empathetic. Clinton should have represented this sort of change, but she decided instead to stick to the masculine status quo - big mistake. In swept Barack Obama with what could be described as a classically feminine campaign. Instead of attempts to impress through TV dominance, there was dialogue at a grass-roots level through sophisticated use of the web and commitment to community meetings. The values he represented contrasted with Clinton in being more collaborative, more human, more feelings-led and people-focused. Clinton played at being a man, and Obama ended up using what should have been his rival’s strongest card: he recognised that feminine values and approaches promised the sort of change voters wanted. This same shift toward the feminine is visible in the strategy adopted for the Conservative Party. What could be more masculine than the on-your-bike/there’s no society individualism of old-style Conservatism? To have any chance of becoming electable, the party has had to develop fresh traits and talents with a conspicuously feminine character: more empathetic, more collaborative and with a clear strand of ‘hug a hoody’ sympathy.
Gordon Brown, in contrast, is suffering the consequences of a traditionally masculine approach - prioritising the linear and logical over feelings, eschewing collaboration for authority. In the commercial context, ‘the feminine’ is the most fertile place to achieve differentiation and growth. For years, it has been the case that women make 80% of purchase decisions in household categories, but now, in the high-value markets where they were once considered peripheral, women have astonishing power - both direct and indirect. In the US, women are believed to account for nearly 60% of new car purchases and 89% of new bank accounts. In the UK, nearly two-thirds of computer purchases are said to be made by women, and more than 40% in the automotive sector. Moreover, women make up 63% of online shopping customers. In every sector, the rising influence of the female consumer is dramatic; by 2025, it is estimated that women will account for 60% of the UK’s personal wealth. Nintendo is one such brand that has successfully embraced feminine traits. Three years ago, Sony PlayStation was the clear leader in gaming, defining the market with testosterone-driven games that had high doses of combat, guts and gore. Fast-forward to 2008 and Nintendo is streets ahead of its rival, which has concentrated completely on young male gamers. Through pursuing a strategy focusing on the family - epitomised by the Johnny and Zo‘ Ball Wii ads - Nintendo has drawn in the rest of the world’s gamers. In comparison to PlayStation’s masculine, technology-driven approach, Nintendo has embraced a strategy that reaches women, older men, family and social players. By recognising that PlayStation’s exclusively male-dominated imagery and approach effectively excluded anyone who wasn’t young or masculine, Nintendo found its niche. It went against the grain of competition and included women in its core audience. Welcomed women by introducing feminine aesthetics in product marketing - with light-filled, curvy, bright and peoplebased products. It focused on content that appeals to the motivations of both sexes, such as self-improvement (Brain Training), fitness (Wii Fit) and nurturing (Nintendogs), rather than simply on competition.
Gordon Brown, in contrast, is suffering the consequences of a traditionally masculine approach - prioritising the linear and logical over feelings, eschewing collaboration for authority. In the commercial context, ‘the feminine’ is the most fertile place to achieve differentiation and growth. For years, it has been the case that women make 80% of purchase decisions in household categories, but now, in the high-value markets where they were once considered peripheral, women have astonishing power - both direct and indirect. In the US, women are believed to account for nearly 60% of new car purchases and 89% of new bank accounts. In the UK, nearly two-thirds of computer purchases are said to be made by women, and more than 40% in the automotive sector. Moreover, women make up 63% of online shopping customers. In every sector, the rising influence of the female consumer is dramatic; by 2025, it is estimated that women will account for 60% of the UK’s personal wealth. Nintendo is one such brand that has successfully embraced feminine traits. Three years ago, Sony PlayStation was the clear leader in gaming, defining the market with testosterone-driven games that had high doses of combat, guts and gore. Fast-forward to 2008 and Nintendo is streets ahead of its rival, which has concentrated completely on young male gamers. Through pursuing a strategy focusing on the family - epitomised by the Johnny and Zo‘ Ball Wii ads - Nintendo has drawn in the rest of the world’s gamers. In comparison to PlayStation’s masculine, technology-driven approach, Nintendo has embraced a strategy that reaches women, older men, family and social players. By recognising that PlayStation’s exclusively male-dominated imagery and approach effectively excluded anyone who wasn’t young or masculine, Nintendo found its niche. It went against the grain of competition and included women in its core audience. Welcomed women by introducing feminine aesthetics in product marketing - with light-filled, curvy, bright and peoplebased products. It focused on content that appeals to the motivations of both sexes, such as self-improvement (Brain Training), fitness (Wii Fit) and nurturing (Nintendogs), rather than simply on competition.
Business - Indian hotels launch new chain 'Gateway'
Tata group-promoted Indian Hotels Co on Thursday said that it would target an emerging guest profile under a new brand "Gateway". The company has luxury hotels under the Taj brand and it also has value for money hotels under the brand Ginger.
The company is now aiming for 50 properties under the new brand in three years which will be a niche category between Ginger and Taj brand.
"The new brand will target the emerging guest profile," sad Raymond Bickson, the managing director of the company in a press conference in Mumbai.
Sixteen existing properties under the company will move to the new brand. The company will also have hotels under management control basis under the brand Gateway. It has already signed up ten such properties and is in an active negotiation for another fifteen.
The company did not share the financial investment detail for the project.
The company is now aiming for 50 properties under the new brand in three years which will be a niche category between Ginger and Taj brand.
"The new brand will target the emerging guest profile," sad Raymond Bickson, the managing director of the company in a press conference in Mumbai.
Sixteen existing properties under the company will move to the new brand. The company will also have hotels under management control basis under the brand Gateway. It has already signed up ten such properties and is in an active negotiation for another fifteen.
The company did not share the financial investment detail for the project.
Lifestyle - Wealthy possessions;Taste or Racial Affinity ?
Fashionable clothes, jewellery, flashy cars, they are all items of conspicuous consumption that give their owners status on the street. Some groups, such as blacks and Hispanics, seem to spend more on such emblems of success than others. Or is that just a stereotype? Comedian Bill Cosby has long condemned his own black community for spending too much on flashy goods at the expense of children's education. He has been roundly criticized by some and praised by others, but there hasn't been much evidence to show whether his claims are true. Those who believe spending patterns vary among racial and ethnic groups typically invoke cultural differences, but there hasn't been much solid evidence of that, either. "Blacks do spend more on these things - jewelry, clothing and cars - that have something to do with visibility," says Wharton finance professor Nikolai Roussanov. "Is it just taste? Or does it have to do with a social status component?" Economists have long accepted the explanation for conspicuous consumption presented by Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term at the end of the 19th century. Valuable possessions visible to all are a signal of one's wealth, success and status, Veblen said. Today, most people recognize that spending decisions are influenced by the desire to "keep up with the Joneses." In looking deeper at the subject, Roussanov and his collaborators, Kerwin Kofi Charles and Erik Hurst of the University of Chicago, found some truth to the ethnic stereotypes on spending, but they concluded that the explanation lies in economics, not culture. Their work is described in a paper titled, 'Conspicuous Consumption and Race'. "If you're a middle-class black, it seems like in order to be perceived by whites and other blacks as relatively well off, you have to show you have money," Roussanov says. "You have to spend more on things that are observable." To examine spending by racial groups, Roussanov and his colleagues studied data collected from 1986 to 2002 for the Consumer Expenditure Survey conducted by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Blacks and Hispanics spend up to 30% more than whites of comparable income on visible goods like clothing, cars and jewelry, the researchers found. This meant that, compared to white households of similar income, the typical black and Hispanic household spent $2,300 more per year on visible items. To do that, they spent less on almost all other categories except housing, and they saved less. Visible items are those others can see when one is in public. The researchers found that blacks and Hispanics do not spend more than whites on items, such as home furnishings, that could serve as status symbols but aren't seen by as many people.
ALABAMA VS. MASSACHUSETTS. While Roussanov and his colleagues acknowledge that cultural preferences may play a role in these spending choices, they tested that theory by subdividing blacks, Hispanics and whites by income level and state of residence. This caused the differences in spending patterns to disappear. What really matters, Roussanov, Charles and Hurst found, is not one's race but one's economic situation relative to the "reference group" - people in the immediate community. "This is not really about race in the end. It is simply about what we observe about you and what peer group you belong to," Roussanov says. Poor blacks and poor whites both spend more on visible goods if they live in poor communities, because such spending gives them more status relative to others in the community. But poor blacks and poor whites living among wealthier people do not devote extra portions of income to visible expenditures, since they are too far behind to get more status from the extra spending they can afford. Moreover, the very fact of belonging to a particular group provides observers with information about one's likely income (e.g. blacks are on average poorer than whites). A low-income white person in Alabama, for example, is likely to spend more on visible goods than a low-income white person in Massachusetts. That's because white people are generally poorer in Alabama; in wealthy Massachusetts, spending more on visible goods is a waste of money, since it does not boost one's status. Blacks and whites appear to have different spending habits only because blacks tend to be concentrated in poor communities more than whites, Roussanov says. Nationally, the poor white is likely to be surrounded by many whites who are not as poor, so he or she cannot afford to use conspicuous consumption to compete for status. But a black person of the same income is more likely to be surrounded by others of similar income, making this competition feasible. In all races, people of a given income become less and less likely to emphasize conspicuous consumption as they get farther and farther behind their neighbors financially. "The overall predominance of conspicuous consumption between blacks and whites is really not a black-white phenomenon; it is simply an artifact of the environment," Roussanov says. "Blacks are poorer in this country, and so are Hispanics." The research suggests that Cosby and others are wrong to blame cultural reasons for spending priorities - or are oversimplifying the matter. But that does not mean these critics are wrong about the consequences. Money spent on conspicuous consumption must be diverted from other uses, and many studies have shown that blacks and Hispanics save less toward goals like college expenses and retirement than whites with the same income. Roussanov and his colleagues find that blacks and Hispanics spend 16% and 30% less, respectively, on education than whites of similar income. They spend 50% less on health care. Spending on health and education is not as visible to as many people as spending on cars and clothes, so it does not contribute as much to one's status.
STATUS VS. FASHION The research indicates that spending habits are heavily influenced by a deepseated yearning for status rather than transient fashion following. That could make the behavior harder to change, assuming that education, health and savings should come before shoes and jewelry. Roussanov notes that spending on conspicuous consumption is not entirely counterproductive. In many communities, he says, it may be necessary to present a more affluent image to compete for jobs and to have a social life. This may explain the chief exception the researchers found in the data: Older people don't spend more on visible goods, even if their incomes are the same as those of younger people who do. Perhaps it's the wisdom of age, or the fact that older people grew up in different times. But it's more likely, says Roussanov, that older people, regardless of their community, don't need status symbols as much because they're not out hunting for jobs and mates. That reinforces the conclusion that spending for status is a deeply entrenched habit among those who do it. "It seems like health and education should receive more funding by individuals, but we can't simply force that on people and think it will make them better off," Roussanov says. "How do we promote going to an expensive college rather than buying an expensive watch? There's no simple fix to it." The research, he notes, may have some practical implications for government policy and marketing. This spring, for example, millions of American households are receiving government checks as part of the economic stimulus package approved earlier in the year. Policymakers' predictions about how people will spend the money may turn out to be far off the mark, given what this research shows about spending incentives among different income groups, Roussanov suggests. "We cannot just assume that the same money is going to be spent the same way by people in different groups." Marketers advertising cars, clothes and jewellery have long known of the higher demand for flashier products in poorer communities, Roussanov says. But the new insights might be useful, he notes, to companies marketing mutual funds or other financial services products that have yet to catch on in minority communities. The fact that saving and stock market participation is lower among minorities could be potentially linked to their greater spending on cars and other visible items. A mutual fund investment is not the kind of possession that can be displayed on the street, making sales difficult for a company trying to sell funds to people who prize visible emblems of prosperity but are less tempted by the financial rewards far in the future. Perhaps one (although costly) way to overcome this problem, according to Roussanov, would be to set up branch offices in poorer communities. One could then gain status by being seen visiting a financial advisor. "If you want to make [investing] behaviour more prominent," he says, "you have to make the behavior more visible." (Reproduced with permission from Knowledge @ Wharton © 2008 The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.)
ALABAMA VS. MASSACHUSETTS. While Roussanov and his colleagues acknowledge that cultural preferences may play a role in these spending choices, they tested that theory by subdividing blacks, Hispanics and whites by income level and state of residence. This caused the differences in spending patterns to disappear. What really matters, Roussanov, Charles and Hurst found, is not one's race but one's economic situation relative to the "reference group" - people in the immediate community. "This is not really about race in the end. It is simply about what we observe about you and what peer group you belong to," Roussanov says. Poor blacks and poor whites both spend more on visible goods if they live in poor communities, because such spending gives them more status relative to others in the community. But poor blacks and poor whites living among wealthier people do not devote extra portions of income to visible expenditures, since they are too far behind to get more status from the extra spending they can afford. Moreover, the very fact of belonging to a particular group provides observers with information about one's likely income (e.g. blacks are on average poorer than whites). A low-income white person in Alabama, for example, is likely to spend more on visible goods than a low-income white person in Massachusetts. That's because white people are generally poorer in Alabama; in wealthy Massachusetts, spending more on visible goods is a waste of money, since it does not boost one's status. Blacks and whites appear to have different spending habits only because blacks tend to be concentrated in poor communities more than whites, Roussanov says. Nationally, the poor white is likely to be surrounded by many whites who are not as poor, so he or she cannot afford to use conspicuous consumption to compete for status. But a black person of the same income is more likely to be surrounded by others of similar income, making this competition feasible. In all races, people of a given income become less and less likely to emphasize conspicuous consumption as they get farther and farther behind their neighbors financially. "The overall predominance of conspicuous consumption between blacks and whites is really not a black-white phenomenon; it is simply an artifact of the environment," Roussanov says. "Blacks are poorer in this country, and so are Hispanics." The research suggests that Cosby and others are wrong to blame cultural reasons for spending priorities - or are oversimplifying the matter. But that does not mean these critics are wrong about the consequences. Money spent on conspicuous consumption must be diverted from other uses, and many studies have shown that blacks and Hispanics save less toward goals like college expenses and retirement than whites with the same income. Roussanov and his colleagues find that blacks and Hispanics spend 16% and 30% less, respectively, on education than whites of similar income. They spend 50% less on health care. Spending on health and education is not as visible to as many people as spending on cars and clothes, so it does not contribute as much to one's status.
STATUS VS. FASHION The research indicates that spending habits are heavily influenced by a deepseated yearning for status rather than transient fashion following. That could make the behavior harder to change, assuming that education, health and savings should come before shoes and jewelry. Roussanov notes that spending on conspicuous consumption is not entirely counterproductive. In many communities, he says, it may be necessary to present a more affluent image to compete for jobs and to have a social life. This may explain the chief exception the researchers found in the data: Older people don't spend more on visible goods, even if their incomes are the same as those of younger people who do. Perhaps it's the wisdom of age, or the fact that older people grew up in different times. But it's more likely, says Roussanov, that older people, regardless of their community, don't need status symbols as much because they're not out hunting for jobs and mates. That reinforces the conclusion that spending for status is a deeply entrenched habit among those who do it. "It seems like health and education should receive more funding by individuals, but we can't simply force that on people and think it will make them better off," Roussanov says. "How do we promote going to an expensive college rather than buying an expensive watch? There's no simple fix to it." The research, he notes, may have some practical implications for government policy and marketing. This spring, for example, millions of American households are receiving government checks as part of the economic stimulus package approved earlier in the year. Policymakers' predictions about how people will spend the money may turn out to be far off the mark, given what this research shows about spending incentives among different income groups, Roussanov suggests. "We cannot just assume that the same money is going to be spent the same way by people in different groups." Marketers advertising cars, clothes and jewellery have long known of the higher demand for flashier products in poorer communities, Roussanov says. But the new insights might be useful, he notes, to companies marketing mutual funds or other financial services products that have yet to catch on in minority communities. The fact that saving and stock market participation is lower among minorities could be potentially linked to their greater spending on cars and other visible items. A mutual fund investment is not the kind of possession that can be displayed on the street, making sales difficult for a company trying to sell funds to people who prize visible emblems of prosperity but are less tempted by the financial rewards far in the future. Perhaps one (although costly) way to overcome this problem, according to Roussanov, would be to set up branch offices in poorer communities. One could then gain status by being seen visiting a financial advisor. "If you want to make [investing] behaviour more prominent," he says, "you have to make the behavior more visible." (Reproduced with permission from Knowledge @ Wharton © 2008 The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.)
Business - VW confident of doing well in India
"The Nano is a unique answer to the needs and aspirations of the vast majority of Indians. I think it's a wonderful move from the Tatas to give India its own version of 'people's car'." It isn't often that one is accustomed to hearing such effusive praise from a marketer, especially when the object of praise happens to have been concocted in a rival boardroom. But Detlef Wittig, executive vice-president and worldwide head of sales & marketing, Volkswagen, isn't shy of appreciating a smart idea and is visibly impressed with Tata Motors' disruptive innovation. Wittig adds that Volkswagen - which created the original people's car, the iconic Beetle - did toy with the idea of a similar 'price proposition-based' product, but dropped the idea as European markets are quite different from the Indian one: and doing something exclusively for India to replace the motorcycle market isn't one of the company's objectives at this moment. That said, the Indian market - where the group is investing close to Rs 3,600 crore - is obviously high priority for the Volkswagen Group, which owns seven marquee brands that include Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda and the flagship Volkswagen brand. Of the lot, Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen are already in India, and in the first six months of 2008, the group recorded the highest growth in volume sales from the country (69%), as compared to other emerging markets like Russia (63% growth), Ukraine (50%), China (23%) and Brazil (22%). In contrast, European sales had a marginal 1.3% increase, while sales in home turf Germany went up 4%. And with India billed to become the fourth largest car market (as against its current position of No 13) over the next 10 years, it isn't surprising that Volkswagen wants to get its India act together, despite having been a late entrant. Wittig clearly has the opportunities and challenges in mind, even as he admits that the company's entry into India was delayed due to "uncertain auto policies, the group's inability to find a suitable JV partner for a long time and the absence of the right product". But Wittig wants to put the past behind him and Volkswagen, and focus on the future strategy instead: and that includes putting together a crack marketing team under KK Swamy (managing director & vice-president, Volkswagen India), adding more dealerships and introducing new models in India. And, of course, the launch of the Beetle next year is expected to go a long way in helping Volkswagen "find an expression" in the Indian market, as Wittig puts it. "If you have to build a brand, you have to highlight its roots, else you are just a commodity," he adds. "We want to be more than that. The Beetle will work towards enhancing the brand heritage of Volkswagen in the country." Volkswagen is betting on the Beetle's global 'cult' status as a means of pitching itself to Indian consumers. "Beetle's followers have great memories attached to it. Punch buggy (a car sighting game generally played by young children in which participants hit each other upon sight of a Volkswagen Beetle) is only a sign of the 'fun car' status the Beetle enjoys around the world," says Wittig, adding that India being a young country, it certainly has space for the car.
Yet, the Beetle cannot be expected to drive volumes for Volkswagen: rather, it will serve as the master key in Volkswagen's plan to secure 10% of the burgeoning Indian market within five years (currently, Volkswagen has less than 1% share of the Indian market). Incidentally, Volkswagen entered China in 1984 and has been able to grow significantly: in the first six months of 2008, the company recorded sales of 531,600 cars, breaching for the first time the 500,000-units mark in China over a six-month period. The moot point is whether Volkswagen has squandered the opportunity to make a similar mark in India, given its late entry. Wittig concedes that India's potential had not been correctly estimated back at that point in time. "Yes, we are late in coming into this market, but may be not too late," he says, pointing out that even some of Volkswagen's European competitors, who came in earlier, "haven't been tremendously successful either". Wittig says that the company has adopted a top-down strategy for India. Case in point: Skoda, which is a budget brand in many countries, but opted to enter India with the premium Skoda Octavia. Even the Fabia is priced at a premium when compared to rivals occupying the same hatchback segment. "We launched the Passat, which targets the upper end of the market. Then we brought in the Jetta, which is one step down, and now we'll soon have the Polo - not the one the world knows of, but its derivative that would fit in the Indian market," says Wittig. Given the record sales achieved by Volkswagen in the first six months of 2008 on the back of demand in India, Russia and China, emerging markets are the area of focus for the company. While Wittig finds the situation in China and India as being very interesting, he is sold on Russia - the nation is all set to become Europe's biggest car market by next year. He says: "The dynamics of the Russian market had gone unnoticed, much like India." However, considering the demographics and increasing purchasing power here, he feels India is all set to be among the Top 5 car markets in the world in coming years. Defining the key value propositions for each of the Group's marquee brands - Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen - Wittig says that Audi is sophisticated and clearly stands for luxury. "It is meant for powerful people who are sporty, like to be leaders, like to show off, though not necessarily aggressive in their manners." Volkswagen, on the other hand, is for those with average income, but with a penchant for showing off. "It may not fit in where a Nano does, but is affordable for people who are looking for more value," he says. On the other hand, Skoda drivers are more rational in their thinking. "With the Skoda Fabia, we scaled down from the Rs 1.5-million bracket (Rs 15 lakh) to Rs 6 lakh to cater to this audience," says Wittig, who has spent well over three decades at Volkswagen. The group soon plans roll out the Up!, which the carmaker hopes will go down well, given the inflationary trends and the recession afflicting the auto sector. However, Wittig feels the impact of the recession is not a cause for worry in emerging markets as much as it is in the US and Europe. "The recession there has caused companies to concentrate on compact cars, less fuel consumption and, eventually, hype about hybrid cars. There is a shift in production and engine mix in Europe. However, emerging markets are too dynamic, giving everyone a lot of room for growth," he says, adding that India, particularly, is more interesting than any other market as the situation does not change overnight like in China. "You are not dependant on the US situation. I have seen India since the mid-90s and the strength you have gained is admirable," he says. It's a strength that Wittig and Volkswagen would like to juice to the fullest.
Yet, the Beetle cannot be expected to drive volumes for Volkswagen: rather, it will serve as the master key in Volkswagen's plan to secure 10% of the burgeoning Indian market within five years (currently, Volkswagen has less than 1% share of the Indian market). Incidentally, Volkswagen entered China in 1984 and has been able to grow significantly: in the first six months of 2008, the company recorded sales of 531,600 cars, breaching for the first time the 500,000-units mark in China over a six-month period. The moot point is whether Volkswagen has squandered the opportunity to make a similar mark in India, given its late entry. Wittig concedes that India's potential had not been correctly estimated back at that point in time. "Yes, we are late in coming into this market, but may be not too late," he says, pointing out that even some of Volkswagen's European competitors, who came in earlier, "haven't been tremendously successful either". Wittig says that the company has adopted a top-down strategy for India. Case in point: Skoda, which is a budget brand in many countries, but opted to enter India with the premium Skoda Octavia. Even the Fabia is priced at a premium when compared to rivals occupying the same hatchback segment. "We launched the Passat, which targets the upper end of the market. Then we brought in the Jetta, which is one step down, and now we'll soon have the Polo - not the one the world knows of, but its derivative that would fit in the Indian market," says Wittig. Given the record sales achieved by Volkswagen in the first six months of 2008 on the back of demand in India, Russia and China, emerging markets are the area of focus for the company. While Wittig finds the situation in China and India as being very interesting, he is sold on Russia - the nation is all set to become Europe's biggest car market by next year. He says: "The dynamics of the Russian market had gone unnoticed, much like India." However, considering the demographics and increasing purchasing power here, he feels India is all set to be among the Top 5 car markets in the world in coming years. Defining the key value propositions for each of the Group's marquee brands - Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen - Wittig says that Audi is sophisticated and clearly stands for luxury. "It is meant for powerful people who are sporty, like to be leaders, like to show off, though not necessarily aggressive in their manners." Volkswagen, on the other hand, is for those with average income, but with a penchant for showing off. "It may not fit in where a Nano does, but is affordable for people who are looking for more value," he says. On the other hand, Skoda drivers are more rational in their thinking. "With the Skoda Fabia, we scaled down from the Rs 1.5-million bracket (Rs 15 lakh) to Rs 6 lakh to cater to this audience," says Wittig, who has spent well over three decades at Volkswagen. The group soon plans roll out the Up!, which the carmaker hopes will go down well, given the inflationary trends and the recession afflicting the auto sector. However, Wittig feels the impact of the recession is not a cause for worry in emerging markets as much as it is in the US and Europe. "The recession there has caused companies to concentrate on compact cars, less fuel consumption and, eventually, hype about hybrid cars. There is a shift in production and engine mix in Europe. However, emerging markets are too dynamic, giving everyone a lot of room for growth," he says, adding that India, particularly, is more interesting than any other market as the situation does not change overnight like in China. "You are not dependant on the US situation. I have seen India since the mid-90s and the strength you have gained is admirable," he says. It's a strength that Wittig and Volkswagen would like to juice to the fullest.
Sport - Pedalling out of retirement
Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. That is the refrain of a ballad sung at the US military academy of West Point. Ageing pop stars don’t just fade away but announce their retirement through a farewell singing tour which sometimes turns out to be a marketing gimmick as the singer returns for yet another tour. Frank Sinatra staged any number of last performances, each ending with him singing “Scuse me while I disappear”. Tennis great Bjorn Borg announced his retirement after failing to win the men’s singles Wimbledon title for a sixth consecutive time in 1981 and returned 10 years later to play with a wooden racket. Borg was soundly thrashed by younger players using rackets made of hi-tech materials. And now cycling legend Lance Armstrong has announced his return to the sport from which he had retired in 2005. When Borg staged his brief reappearance, he was labelled as a unidimensional person who could not evolve beyond the tennis court. Armstrong’s announcement that he was coming out of retirement to try for an eighth Tour de France win in 2009 was appropriately carried in the American magazine Vanity Fair. However, Armstrong has tried to preempt criticism that vanity or ego is behind his return to professional cycling. He has stated on his website that “it is in order to raise awareness of the global cancer burden”. Armstrong had defied not just the odds in cycling but in life itself by winning the Tour de France seven times in a row after overcoming testicular cancer which had spread to his lungs and brain. All of which still doesn’t square up with the statement he had made 11 months ago in an interview carried in Men’s Journal: “I’m glad I’m not cycling any more. It was fun while it lasted and I liked it but I’m so focused on other things now that I never think about it.’’ All that remains to be seen is whether he goes on to win the ’09 Tour de France and then announces a last and final retirement!
Mktg - Nude women blind men to price tags
BRUSSELS: Advertisers have known this all along, but now it is scientifically proven: men who are exposed to naked women stop paying attention to prices. According to a report on Tuesday by Flemish broadcaster VRT , a study by the University of Leuven found an inverse relationship between testosterone levels and price awareness among males. The "naked women" effect is particularly strong among machos, the study found. "Machos usually tend to be tough negotiators, but advertisements featuring naked women turn them into gullible sheep," said Siegfried Dewitte, a professor of economics who carried out the study. The study also found a similar effect on women exposed to scantily-clad men. However, it also found that women generally tend to be more sensitive to the touch, rather than to such visual stimuli. According to Dewitte, the message for shopkeepers is clear: if you want to sell more products, put up a sexy picture in your shop. And for shoppers, keep your eyes off those pretty salesgirls or you may end up with burning a large hole in your pocket.
Mktg - Coming soon guilt-free chocolates
Your favourite chocolate may soon help you work, rest, play and even cut the calories, as the makers giving the delicious bar undergo a healthy makeover. The confectionery giant is set to remove artificial colours, flavourings and preservatives from Mars, Twix, Milky Way and Snickers bars. Chocolate experts insist the alterations will not change the taste but will improve the waistline. The move is part of Mars’ Raising The Bar campaign that aims to improve the health of its customers. After undergoing the makeover, funsize versions of Mars will contain fewer than 100 calories and nutritional information will be clearly displayed on products. “We’re constantly looking for ways to make the products better for the consumer,” The Daily Star quoted a company spokesman, as saying. “However, we’re still a treat food and should be seen as a small bit of pleasure in your day,” the rep added.
Lifestyle - Sex not top priority for men
Men want good health, harmony and a bit of social respect rather than sex, according to a new survey. It is widely believed that a satisfying sexual life is what men always want. However, the stereotype is contradicted by a new research that gathered responses from almost 28,000 randomly selected men, aged 20 to 75, from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Brazil about their attitudes to life and sex. The survey showed that men overwhelmingly rated attributes such as being seen as a man of honour and having the respect of your friends ahead of having success with women when assessing masculinity. When it came to quality of life, one-third of respondents said being in good health was the most important factor, followed by a harmonious family life and being in a good relationship with their partner or wife. During the study, just two per cent said that a satisfying sex life was their top priority. "Taken together, this body of research underscores the centrality to men of nonsexual aspects of the male identity (and) emphasises the importance of the couple relationship,'''' the Sun quoted German researcher Michael Sand, as saying.
Books - Bookest of them all
As we begin to drum up our roar of approval and self-congratulation for the inclusion of two Indians — the veteran Amitav Ghosh with his splendid, riveting maritime adventure, Sea of Poppies, and Aravind Adiga with his edgy, mordant debut, The White Tiger, — in the Man Booker Prize shortlist this year, we’ve missed something exceptional that has occurred in the world of literary prizes.
And it involves an Indian writer. It is fitting that Jhumpa Lahiri (or, rather, Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri) has quietly, unobtrusively won the world’s richest prize for a short story collection.
Although I can barely recall a murmur in the media about it, her triumph is resounding: for the first time in the history of the Frank O’Connor prize, the judges dispensed with the shortlist. With Lahiri on the longlist, they thought it would be a travesty to announce a shortlist when they were certain that her new collection, Unaccustomed Earth, was so infinitely superior to the competition that no one else would have even a sniff at winning the 35,000 euro prize. The award’s director, Pat Cotter, has been quoted as saying that the judges felt that “it would be a sham to compose a shortlist and put five other writers through unnecessary stress and suspense”.
This is appropriate for two reasons. First, because Unaccustomed Earth, in its poise and elegance, its finely calibrated, nuanced grasp of universal human emotions and its closely attentive, flawless prose is — at least for my money — by far the best collection of stories published this year. (I’d go so far as to say that it might be the best work of fiction published this year, and certainly that by an Indian writer.)
Second, because Lahiri’s writing mirrors the sort of response (or lack of it) that her unique award has drawn: deceptively self-deprecating, layered, detailed, calling no attention to itself, introspective and, above all, quiet. She is a magical miniaturist. Her books are devoid of the white noise that permeates the Big Indian Novel.
On publication in hardback in the US, Unaccustomed Earth went to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. It was a feat, as the Guardian reported, rare for any piece of serious writing, still less a collection of stories, something publishers are sniffy about because it isn’t likely to sell. (They have been doing this for as long as anyone can remember. When V.S. Naipaul handed his British publishers his first manuscript — a collection of stories — in the mid-50s, they insisted that he first write a novel. Which was why The Mystic Masseur preceded Miguel Street in its publication.)
Lahiri’s admiring reviewers in Britain and the US have most frequently compared her sensibility and approach to those of Chekov’s and Tolstoy’s. They have found similarities between her and the Canadian master, Alice Munro.
No literature, of course, exists in a vacuum though we often stupidly think so, assuming that a book appeared, fully formed, from merely the imagination of its writer. A book, particularly if it is any good, is always part of a canon.
Lahiri’s ancestry can be traced to a certain kind of Indian writing, the sort in which god is in the details: of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay in Bengali; of U.R. Anantha Murthy in Kannada; and of R.K. Narayan and Arun Kolatkar in English. It is a lineage to be proud of, and Lahiri is an outstanding keeper of the flame.
We tend to not think too much about this sort of writing when we think of Indian writing (especially in English) largely because Salman Rushdie — and his magnificent Midnight’s Children — created, from the early 1980s, a sort of template for the Big Indian Novel. It was assumed that fiction should aspire to capture the multilingual, chaotic, teeming, larger-than-life reality of India.
But the idea of the Indian novel (at least when written in English) as a rip-roaring, post-modern, post-colonial, baroque, multitudinous, chutneyfied (to borrow from Rushdie) epic is to focus on merely one strand of the writing that we have in our canon(s).
In his introduction to the Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature, Amit Chaudhuri drew attention to this. “A cursory glance at the ancient and modern literary traditions of India... will confirm that delicacy and nuance are... central to, and manifested with great skill and beauty, in all significant examples of Indian writing.”
We should be thrilled by Lahiri's triumph because it is evidence that that other great lineage of Indian writing is alive and flourishing. It is evidence also — along with Adiga’s novel, Indra Sinha’s 2007-Man-Booker-shortlisted Animal’s People — of the fact that Indian writing in English has grown capacious enough to defy the template of the post-colonial, baroque epic that Midnight’s Children had unwittingly set forth.
No literature can either thrive or break into the mainstream without heterogeneity. The thing worth rejoicing about, more than our writers getting on to shortlists or winning prizes, is the variety and breadth that inform and illuminate the work of Indians writing in English today.
And it involves an Indian writer. It is fitting that Jhumpa Lahiri (or, rather, Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri) has quietly, unobtrusively won the world’s richest prize for a short story collection.
Although I can barely recall a murmur in the media about it, her triumph is resounding: for the first time in the history of the Frank O’Connor prize, the judges dispensed with the shortlist. With Lahiri on the longlist, they thought it would be a travesty to announce a shortlist when they were certain that her new collection, Unaccustomed Earth, was so infinitely superior to the competition that no one else would have even a sniff at winning the 35,000 euro prize. The award’s director, Pat Cotter, has been quoted as saying that the judges felt that “it would be a sham to compose a shortlist and put five other writers through unnecessary stress and suspense”.
This is appropriate for two reasons. First, because Unaccustomed Earth, in its poise and elegance, its finely calibrated, nuanced grasp of universal human emotions and its closely attentive, flawless prose is — at least for my money — by far the best collection of stories published this year. (I’d go so far as to say that it might be the best work of fiction published this year, and certainly that by an Indian writer.)
Second, because Lahiri’s writing mirrors the sort of response (or lack of it) that her unique award has drawn: deceptively self-deprecating, layered, detailed, calling no attention to itself, introspective and, above all, quiet. She is a magical miniaturist. Her books are devoid of the white noise that permeates the Big Indian Novel.
On publication in hardback in the US, Unaccustomed Earth went to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. It was a feat, as the Guardian reported, rare for any piece of serious writing, still less a collection of stories, something publishers are sniffy about because it isn’t likely to sell. (They have been doing this for as long as anyone can remember. When V.S. Naipaul handed his British publishers his first manuscript — a collection of stories — in the mid-50s, they insisted that he first write a novel. Which was why The Mystic Masseur preceded Miguel Street in its publication.)
Lahiri’s admiring reviewers in Britain and the US have most frequently compared her sensibility and approach to those of Chekov’s and Tolstoy’s. They have found similarities between her and the Canadian master, Alice Munro.
No literature, of course, exists in a vacuum though we often stupidly think so, assuming that a book appeared, fully formed, from merely the imagination of its writer. A book, particularly if it is any good, is always part of a canon.
Lahiri’s ancestry can be traced to a certain kind of Indian writing, the sort in which god is in the details: of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay in Bengali; of U.R. Anantha Murthy in Kannada; and of R.K. Narayan and Arun Kolatkar in English. It is a lineage to be proud of, and Lahiri is an outstanding keeper of the flame.
We tend to not think too much about this sort of writing when we think of Indian writing (especially in English) largely because Salman Rushdie — and his magnificent Midnight’s Children — created, from the early 1980s, a sort of template for the Big Indian Novel. It was assumed that fiction should aspire to capture the multilingual, chaotic, teeming, larger-than-life reality of India.
But the idea of the Indian novel (at least when written in English) as a rip-roaring, post-modern, post-colonial, baroque, multitudinous, chutneyfied (to borrow from Rushdie) epic is to focus on merely one strand of the writing that we have in our canon(s).
In his introduction to the Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature, Amit Chaudhuri drew attention to this. “A cursory glance at the ancient and modern literary traditions of India... will confirm that delicacy and nuance are... central to, and manifested with great skill and beauty, in all significant examples of Indian writing.”
We should be thrilled by Lahiri's triumph because it is evidence that that other great lineage of Indian writing is alive and flourishing. It is evidence also — along with Adiga’s novel, Indra Sinha’s 2007-Man-Booker-shortlisted Animal’s People — of the fact that Indian writing in English has grown capacious enough to defy the template of the post-colonial, baroque epic that Midnight’s Children had unwittingly set forth.
No literature can either thrive or break into the mainstream without heterogeneity. The thing worth rejoicing about, more than our writers getting on to shortlists or winning prizes, is the variety and breadth that inform and illuminate the work of Indians writing in English today.
World - How 9/11 is connected to December 13
On December 13, 2001, I was on the National Security Council staff at the White House when news came in that five terrorists had attacked the Indian Parliament in New Delhi. They apparently planned to murder as many of India’s senior political leaders and officials as possible. Fortunately, their timing was off, both Houses of Parliament had adjourned and the top leaders had just left, and the guards reacted promptly and killed all five of the terrorists.
It was clear to me immediately that even by the standards of modern terrorism this was an extraordinary attack. By targeting the legislature of the world’s largest democracy, the terrorists were deliberately seeking to provoke India to strike back. Had they succeeded in killing, say, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the terrorists would have left India with few options but to use force against the terrorists’ sponsors.
As it was, of course, India was quick to find connections between the five and Pakistan’s infamous Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the ISI. The five attackers were Pakistani citizens and members of the ISI-supported, if not created, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror organisation. The JeM was founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, a long-time terrorist who was freed in December 1999 from an Indian jail in return for the release of the hostages from the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814 taken to Kandahar by Kashmiri terrorists backed by the ISI. The ISI took Azar on a victory tour through Pakistan to raise money to create the JeM.
The case linking the JeM and the ISI to the attack on the Parliament has been made convincingly by former Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and others in their memoirs of that December day. A former head of the ISI, Javed Ashraf Qazi, later admitted that the JeM was responsible for the attack, although at the time, the Pakistani spokesman suggested it was all a put-up job by India.
Did Pakistan’s leaders really think attacking the Parliament was in their national interest? Did they not understand that a successful attack would take the subcontinent to war? As it was, India mobilised the largest military operation in its history and demanded Pakistan break all links with groups like the JeM and hand over its leaders for trial. Pakistan refused and the two countries were eyeball to eyeball for the next year, on the brink of war.
Interestingly, Pakistan’s then military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, barely mentions the issue in his otherwise very chatty autobiography, In the Line of Fire. There is no discussion of the attack on Parliament and barely any discussion of the crisis that ensued. It is as if it never happened.
Musharraf privately told our Ambassador in Pakistan at the time that it was a very “dirty” business but never clarified what that meant. Did the ISI not tell him about the plan to attack the Parliament? Or did the ISI’s client operate outside its control for someone else?
I asked myself then and still do: who benefited from this attack? The answer is the JeM’s friend and ally, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. In December 2001, the al-Qaeda was on the run, even on the ropes. The US and allied forces had overthrown the Taliban Islamic Emirate
of Afghanistan in a lightning operation. Musharraf had switched sides, at least for the time, and reversed a decade of Pakistani support for the Taliban and was promising Washington that he would help catch bin Laden and the rest of the fleeing al-Qaeda gang.
By diverting Pakistan’s army to the east, to the border with India for the next year, the Parliament attack helped save al-Qaeda. Was that the purpose of the attack or only an unintended consequence? A full-scale Indo-Pakistan war would have been even better for bin Laden, creating chaos throughout the region and giving al-Qaeda revenge for Musharraf’s betrayal.
Perhaps it was all payback for earlier cooperation between the JeM and al-Qaeda. Jaswant Singh argues in his memoirs that the IC 814 hijack was the “dress rehearsal” for al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks because of the close contacts between the hijackers, the ISI, the al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Ahmed Rashid has noted that bin Laden was the behind-the-scenes mastermind of the hijack and pushed for the release of the JeM’s founder. Did the JeM pay back bin Laden for his help in 1999 in 2001 by diverting the Pakistani posse away from the chase? Did the al-Qaeda play a hand in the attack plan itself?
Unfortunately, the secret probably lies in the hands of the terrorist leaders who are still at large. But it is important to see the linkages between al-Qaeda and the others. The al-Qaeda is too often seen in the West only in its Middle East dimension; its roots in South Asia are often ignored or misunderstood.
That not only leads to a weak understanding of the group, but also to policies that fail to see the complexity of the challenge of defeating the world’s first truly global terrorist organisation.
It was clear to me immediately that even by the standards of modern terrorism this was an extraordinary attack. By targeting the legislature of the world’s largest democracy, the terrorists were deliberately seeking to provoke India to strike back. Had they succeeded in killing, say, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the terrorists would have left India with few options but to use force against the terrorists’ sponsors.
As it was, of course, India was quick to find connections between the five and Pakistan’s infamous Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the ISI. The five attackers were Pakistani citizens and members of the ISI-supported, if not created, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror organisation. The JeM was founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, a long-time terrorist who was freed in December 1999 from an Indian jail in return for the release of the hostages from the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814 taken to Kandahar by Kashmiri terrorists backed by the ISI. The ISI took Azar on a victory tour through Pakistan to raise money to create the JeM.
The case linking the JeM and the ISI to the attack on the Parliament has been made convincingly by former Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and others in their memoirs of that December day. A former head of the ISI, Javed Ashraf Qazi, later admitted that the JeM was responsible for the attack, although at the time, the Pakistani spokesman suggested it was all a put-up job by India.
Did Pakistan’s leaders really think attacking the Parliament was in their national interest? Did they not understand that a successful attack would take the subcontinent to war? As it was, India mobilised the largest military operation in its history and demanded Pakistan break all links with groups like the JeM and hand over its leaders for trial. Pakistan refused and the two countries were eyeball to eyeball for the next year, on the brink of war.
Interestingly, Pakistan’s then military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, barely mentions the issue in his otherwise very chatty autobiography, In the Line of Fire. There is no discussion of the attack on Parliament and barely any discussion of the crisis that ensued. It is as if it never happened.
Musharraf privately told our Ambassador in Pakistan at the time that it was a very “dirty” business but never clarified what that meant. Did the ISI not tell him about the plan to attack the Parliament? Or did the ISI’s client operate outside its control for someone else?
I asked myself then and still do: who benefited from this attack? The answer is the JeM’s friend and ally, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. In December 2001, the al-Qaeda was on the run, even on the ropes. The US and allied forces had overthrown the Taliban Islamic Emirate
of Afghanistan in a lightning operation. Musharraf had switched sides, at least for the time, and reversed a decade of Pakistani support for the Taliban and was promising Washington that he would help catch bin Laden and the rest of the fleeing al-Qaeda gang.
By diverting Pakistan’s army to the east, to the border with India for the next year, the Parliament attack helped save al-Qaeda. Was that the purpose of the attack or only an unintended consequence? A full-scale Indo-Pakistan war would have been even better for bin Laden, creating chaos throughout the region and giving al-Qaeda revenge for Musharraf’s betrayal.
Perhaps it was all payback for earlier cooperation between the JeM and al-Qaeda. Jaswant Singh argues in his memoirs that the IC 814 hijack was the “dress rehearsal” for al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks because of the close contacts between the hijackers, the ISI, the al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Ahmed Rashid has noted that bin Laden was the behind-the-scenes mastermind of the hijack and pushed for the release of the JeM’s founder. Did the JeM pay back bin Laden for his help in 1999 in 2001 by diverting the Pakistani posse away from the chase? Did the al-Qaeda play a hand in the attack plan itself?
Unfortunately, the secret probably lies in the hands of the terrorist leaders who are still at large. But it is important to see the linkages between al-Qaeda and the others. The al-Qaeda is too often seen in the West only in its Middle East dimension; its roots in South Asia are often ignored or misunderstood.
That not only leads to a weak understanding of the group, but also to policies that fail to see the complexity of the challenge of defeating the world’s first truly global terrorist organisation.
Lifestyle - Pregnant women who eat fish have better infants
LONDON: Pregnant women who eat fish are more likely to have healthier and more meritorious infants and also women who breastfeed their babies for longer periods, according to a study.
"These results, together with findings from other studies of women in the US and UK, provide additional evidence that moderate maternal fish intake during pregnancy... may be beneficial," said Emily Oken, co-author of the study and an assistant professor at Harvard.
The study was conducted by researchers of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark. These findings provide further evidence that the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and compounds in breast milk are beneficial for infant development.
The study team looked at 25,446 children born to mothers participating in the Danish Birth Cohort, a study that includes pregnant women enrolled from 1997-2002.
The children whose mothers ate the most fish during pregnancy were more likely to have better motor and cognitive skills. For example, among mothers who ate the least fish, 5.7 percent of their children had the lowest developmental scores at 18 months, compared with only 3.7 percent of children whose mothers had the highest fish intake.
Longer duration of breastfeeding was also associated with better infant development, especially at 18 months. Breastmilk also contains omega-3 fatty acids. The benefit of fish consumption was similar among infants breastfed for shorter or longer durations.
The study appeared in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
"These results, together with findings from other studies of women in the US and UK, provide additional evidence that moderate maternal fish intake during pregnancy... may be beneficial," said Emily Oken, co-author of the study and an assistant professor at Harvard.
The study was conducted by researchers of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark. These findings provide further evidence that the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and compounds in breast milk are beneficial for infant development.
The study team looked at 25,446 children born to mothers participating in the Danish Birth Cohort, a study that includes pregnant women enrolled from 1997-2002.
The children whose mothers ate the most fish during pregnancy were more likely to have better motor and cognitive skills. For example, among mothers who ate the least fish, 5.7 percent of their children had the lowest developmental scores at 18 months, compared with only 3.7 percent of children whose mothers had the highest fish intake.
Longer duration of breastfeeding was also associated with better infant development, especially at 18 months. Breastmilk also contains omega-3 fatty acids. The benefit of fish consumption was similar among infants breastfed for shorter or longer durations.
The study appeared in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Lifestyle - Smoke & coverup with laser therapy
Lip lightening latest rage among women to zap away the tell-tale signs
MUMBAI: Shakira might have crooned hips don’t lie, but Mumbaikars know lips don’t lie either. So, after puffing away, they are now rushing to remove the signs of excesses.Making a beeline for dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons are women smokers who want their lips lightened with laser therapy.“Patients, mostly smokers, develop dark lips, which they feel look unsightly. That is why there is a huge demand for lip lightening through laser treatment,” says dermatologist Dr Apratim Goel.Though laser treatment and other skin lightening options have been around for a while, it’s only now that targeted laser therapy for specific areas is gaining ground. Besides lip lightening, armpit, groin and elbow lightening are also sought after.“Seven years of smoking had taken a toll on my lips. I heard about this treatment from a friend who had opted for it,” said Ami Ghosh, 35 a fashion designer. Cosmetic surgeon Dr Purnima Mhatre says she treats over 15 patients, mostly smokers, a month. The treatment, of course, comes at a price — nearly Rs1,500 per session. Dr Goel says the therapy requires seven to 10 sessions with a one-week interval between each session. Explaining the procedure, she says topical anaesthesia is first applied on the lips, as they are sensitive to any kind of treatment. The lip is then treated with a special laser. “It’s a 15 minute-procedure. The lips look bee-stung for a few days after treatment. But the effect can be seen in a fortnight,” says Tanya Rodrigues, a chain-smoker who has completed three sessions. “Skin clinics already offer a variety of options for skin lightening — from laser photofacial to chemical peels, microdermabrasion and skin polishing treatment, laser lip lightening is just another advancement,” says dermatologist Dr Aniket Mishra, adding that though he has been offering laser treatment for over eight months, it is only now that demand has picked up. Besides smoking over a prolonged period of time, doctors says several other factors such as spicy Indian food, cheap brands of lipstick, exposure to the sun, heavy application of lipstick, drinking tea or coffee in excess, allergy and dryness could also cause darkening of lips. “Sometimes haemoglobin levels and even heredity have a role to play in how dark your lips can become,” says Dr Mhatre.
MUMBAI: Shakira might have crooned hips don’t lie, but Mumbaikars know lips don’t lie either. So, after puffing away, they are now rushing to remove the signs of excesses.Making a beeline for dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons are women smokers who want their lips lightened with laser therapy.“Patients, mostly smokers, develop dark lips, which they feel look unsightly. That is why there is a huge demand for lip lightening through laser treatment,” says dermatologist Dr Apratim Goel.Though laser treatment and other skin lightening options have been around for a while, it’s only now that targeted laser therapy for specific areas is gaining ground. Besides lip lightening, armpit, groin and elbow lightening are also sought after.“Seven years of smoking had taken a toll on my lips. I heard about this treatment from a friend who had opted for it,” said Ami Ghosh, 35 a fashion designer. Cosmetic surgeon Dr Purnima Mhatre says she treats over 15 patients, mostly smokers, a month. The treatment, of course, comes at a price — nearly Rs1,500 per session. Dr Goel says the therapy requires seven to 10 sessions with a one-week interval between each session. Explaining the procedure, she says topical anaesthesia is first applied on the lips, as they are sensitive to any kind of treatment. The lip is then treated with a special laser. “It’s a 15 minute-procedure. The lips look bee-stung for a few days after treatment. But the effect can be seen in a fortnight,” says Tanya Rodrigues, a chain-smoker who has completed three sessions. “Skin clinics already offer a variety of options for skin lightening — from laser photofacial to chemical peels, microdermabrasion and skin polishing treatment, laser lip lightening is just another advancement,” says dermatologist Dr Aniket Mishra, adding that though he has been offering laser treatment for over eight months, it is only now that demand has picked up. Besides smoking over a prolonged period of time, doctors says several other factors such as spicy Indian food, cheap brands of lipstick, exposure to the sun, heavy application of lipstick, drinking tea or coffee in excess, allergy and dryness could also cause darkening of lips. “Sometimes haemoglobin levels and even heredity have a role to play in how dark your lips can become,” says Dr Mhatre.
Entertainment - NDTV Good times celebrates good times in style
NDTV Group's lifestyle channel, NDTV Good Times celebrated its first anniversary this month. The channel claims to be selling aspirational and luxurious lifestyle content to upwardly mobile, affluent, English speaking viewers.Shibani Sharma Khanna, channel head, NDTV Good Times, defines the channel, “It is aimed at the elite class, celebrating all things good and bringing forth the upbeat, celebratory aspects of an aspirational lifestyle.”“It is an effort to cover a whole line of cross sectional consumer products, be it food, beverages, clothes, gadgets-gizmos or health and relationships. The idea being to establish oneself as the first lifestyle channel of the country,” she adds while talking to afaqs!.
Shibani Sharma KhannaThe channel was also the first of its kind to have added an advertiser’s brand premise to its name – NDTV Good Times (UB-Group owned Kingfisher’s tagline is ‘The King of Good Times’). This way, the brand DNA of a luxury brand was embodied with the channel.Besides roping in Kingfisher as a major brand partner, the channel has successfully integrated lot of other brands in most of its shows; for instance, Zip Pouch for Chake le India!; Apollo Tyres for HOMP; Pedigree for Heavy petting; Bertoli for Italian Khana; Geetanjali for Limited Edition; Reebok for Sweat; and Reid and Taylor for Cracking the Code. Talking about the larger integration of brands on the show, Rohit Gopakumar, senior vice president, NDTV Media, tells afaqs!, “The value of any brand association is based on various parameters, such as the rub-off a brand gets by being associated with the channel or a certain programme, the intensity of visibility across the channel, tenure of association and the impact brands derive from this association.” When asked about the price tag for such brand associations, Gopakumar declines to reveal. He says, “One cannot compare it with a 10-sec ad spot, keeping in mind the saliency. As per TAM Media Research, 60 per cent of the channel’s viewership comes from the age group of under 35; while the rest comes from 35+. Interestingly, the ratio of female-male viewership for the channel is 60:40. Khanna explains that although the channel is committed to offering engaging, entertaining lifestyle fare to men who have no major entertainment source besides surfing between news, sports or movie channels, the fashion and lifestyle content would be appealing the women viewers as well. In terms of television genre, the channel competes with the likes of Discovery Travel and Living. However, the channel executives don’t prefer this comparison; they claim NDTV Good Times to be a unique content channel. Khanna says, “Definitely, Discovery's channel too is a niche channel, with distinctive programming and being the older channel, it is well placed. But at the same time, we are the only player as of now, offering India oriented content on lifestyle and fashion.”
Jyoti BansalMedia observers such as Jyoti Bansal, executive director, West and South, MPG, gives further insight into the positioning and appeal of the channel. “For a marketer and media planner, both the channels could be slotted in the same category; because after all, the content offered by the two players revolves around lifestyle, entertainment and travel. The only difference being that content on Discovery Travel and Living is more global; and fare on NDTV Good Times comes loaded with an Indian flavor. Anyway, in the first year of the launch any channel, and more so a specialised channel, has to struggle to establish a definitive position, defining its TG.”The channel now hopes to cash on the boom in the new distribution system of Indian television – DTH and CAS. Rahul Sood, head - distribution & affiliate sales, NDTV, states, “Emerging platforms such as DTH and CAS will definitely help grow the overall subscription market. The two existing players already claim to have around 5 million subscribers put together; and with the entry of Reliance, Bharti and Videocon, the DTH subscription is said to hit anything between 15-20 million by 2010-11. CAS has had a slow start, but that will also pick up with the second phase of CAS implementation being in the pipeline. All these are good signs for existing and to be launched specialised channels.”Khanna concludes on a promising note, saying, “Keeping in mind the festive season ahead, we have plans to offer some real big shows to the viewers. Differentiated programming, coupled with frequent replacement of old shows with new ones, has been our USP so far. We will continue the effort, providing viewers with new shows in new formats and by launching the second season of some of our popular shows, such as My Big Fat Indian Wedding.”
Shibani Sharma KhannaThe channel was also the first of its kind to have added an advertiser’s brand premise to its name – NDTV Good Times (UB-Group owned Kingfisher’s tagline is ‘The King of Good Times’). This way, the brand DNA of a luxury brand was embodied with the channel.Besides roping in Kingfisher as a major brand partner, the channel has successfully integrated lot of other brands in most of its shows; for instance, Zip Pouch for Chake le India!; Apollo Tyres for HOMP; Pedigree for Heavy petting; Bertoli for Italian Khana; Geetanjali for Limited Edition; Reebok for Sweat; and Reid and Taylor for Cracking the Code. Talking about the larger integration of brands on the show, Rohit Gopakumar, senior vice president, NDTV Media, tells afaqs!, “The value of any brand association is based on various parameters, such as the rub-off a brand gets by being associated with the channel or a certain programme, the intensity of visibility across the channel, tenure of association and the impact brands derive from this association.” When asked about the price tag for such brand associations, Gopakumar declines to reveal. He says, “One cannot compare it with a 10-sec ad spot, keeping in mind the saliency. As per TAM Media Research, 60 per cent of the channel’s viewership comes from the age group of under 35; while the rest comes from 35+. Interestingly, the ratio of female-male viewership for the channel is 60:40. Khanna explains that although the channel is committed to offering engaging, entertaining lifestyle fare to men who have no major entertainment source besides surfing between news, sports or movie channels, the fashion and lifestyle content would be appealing the women viewers as well. In terms of television genre, the channel competes with the likes of Discovery Travel and Living. However, the channel executives don’t prefer this comparison; they claim NDTV Good Times to be a unique content channel. Khanna says, “Definitely, Discovery's channel too is a niche channel, with distinctive programming and being the older channel, it is well placed. But at the same time, we are the only player as of now, offering India oriented content on lifestyle and fashion.”
Jyoti BansalMedia observers such as Jyoti Bansal, executive director, West and South, MPG, gives further insight into the positioning and appeal of the channel. “For a marketer and media planner, both the channels could be slotted in the same category; because after all, the content offered by the two players revolves around lifestyle, entertainment and travel. The only difference being that content on Discovery Travel and Living is more global; and fare on NDTV Good Times comes loaded with an Indian flavor. Anyway, in the first year of the launch any channel, and more so a specialised channel, has to struggle to establish a definitive position, defining its TG.”The channel now hopes to cash on the boom in the new distribution system of Indian television – DTH and CAS. Rahul Sood, head - distribution & affiliate sales, NDTV, states, “Emerging platforms such as DTH and CAS will definitely help grow the overall subscription market. The two existing players already claim to have around 5 million subscribers put together; and with the entry of Reliance, Bharti and Videocon, the DTH subscription is said to hit anything between 15-20 million by 2010-11. CAS has had a slow start, but that will also pick up with the second phase of CAS implementation being in the pipeline. All these are good signs for existing and to be launched specialised channels.”Khanna concludes on a promising note, saying, “Keeping in mind the festive season ahead, we have plans to offer some real big shows to the viewers. Differentiated programming, coupled with frequent replacement of old shows with new ones, has been our USP so far. We will continue the effort, providing viewers with new shows in new formats and by launching the second season of some of our popular shows, such as My Big Fat Indian Wedding.”
Sport - Team India to sail the world independently
While India is definitely on the stopover destination list of the Volvo Ocean Race, in one of the firsts for the country, it will participate independently in the sport of yacht racing with IMOCA Formula1 Ocean Racing, scheduled to take place next year.IMOCA is the International 60 feet Monohull Open Class Association. It was established in 1991 and was recognised by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) in 1998. IMOCA is the governing body for the Ocean Racing World Championship, which includes events such as the Vendée Globe, the Route du Rhum, the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Transat. F1 yacht racing is carried out in Open60 Monohull yachts.
India competing on a private party basis is considered an achievement. Till now, India has never participated on a private party basis. The Indian Navy has participated in various international yacht races with the official support of the Government of India. The turning point comes at a time when India is on the brink of being tagged as a cricket crazy nation, even though other sports exist and survive with due credit to the endeavours of the respective players. The business of yacht racing is a multi-billion dollar industry and according to a report, is the third highest recipient of European sports sponsorship spending.
Bhavik GandhiTo focus on the prospects of sailing as a sport, the Elite Sports Management Group has stepped into India. It has appointed Bhavik Gandhi, an experienced yachtsman, as the spokesperson for its Indian counterpart as well as the Indian team which will participate in the F1 yacht race. The senior management team will be put into place in some time.Established in 1999, Elite Sports Management represents professional yachtsmen in world class sports. In India, Elite Sports Management is aims to provide brands with solutions to leverage yachting to achieve their brand communication and exposure goals through associating with the Indian team.The cost for the Indian team is US$ 10-15 million and the allotment could go up to US$ 20 million, which will take care of the team's expenses on designing the yacht and the cost of equipment, reveals Gandhi. The Volvo Ocean Race, too, allots US$ 15-17 million to each of the teams, he adds.Gandhi says that the sport has a broad appeal. Across the world, brands such as Audi, BMW, Rolex, Omega, IBM, Oracle, Intel, Virgin, Puma, Arcelor, UBS, ABN Amro, Motorola and Ericsson leverage the sport in the best possible manner to display their brands. For India, Gandhi says that with an all pervasive appeal, B2B and B2C companies would see it as a good medium, both to connect with their target audience as well as getting themselves placed globally. B2B companies such as Infosys and Wipro; conglomerates such as the Tata and the Aditya Birla Group; the FMCG, energy and the luxury goods (high end fashion and accessories) sectors could leverage the sport as a medium to garner visibility for their brands. Gandhi thinks of yacht racing as a 360 degree platform – it gets coverage on television channels, print media as well as radio. Brands, too, reap the benefits of the coverage. He says, “It's a very aspirational sport and the curiosity factor is what counts most. It is a sport which most brands could relate their advertising intentions with. If brands do not see it as a good medium to advertise, I could only say that they haven't been able to understand the sport and its potential well enough.”With the Indian subcontinent being surrounded by water, one sees no reason why the sport cannot pick up on popularity. But, just as we realise it hasn't, only time will tell if yacht racing will match the frenzy of cricket in India.
India competing on a private party basis is considered an achievement. Till now, India has never participated on a private party basis. The Indian Navy has participated in various international yacht races with the official support of the Government of India. The turning point comes at a time when India is on the brink of being tagged as a cricket crazy nation, even though other sports exist and survive with due credit to the endeavours of the respective players. The business of yacht racing is a multi-billion dollar industry and according to a report, is the third highest recipient of European sports sponsorship spending.
Bhavik GandhiTo focus on the prospects of sailing as a sport, the Elite Sports Management Group has stepped into India. It has appointed Bhavik Gandhi, an experienced yachtsman, as the spokesperson for its Indian counterpart as well as the Indian team which will participate in the F1 yacht race. The senior management team will be put into place in some time.Established in 1999, Elite Sports Management represents professional yachtsmen in world class sports. In India, Elite Sports Management is aims to provide brands with solutions to leverage yachting to achieve their brand communication and exposure goals through associating with the Indian team.The cost for the Indian team is US$ 10-15 million and the allotment could go up to US$ 20 million, which will take care of the team's expenses on designing the yacht and the cost of equipment, reveals Gandhi. The Volvo Ocean Race, too, allots US$ 15-17 million to each of the teams, he adds.Gandhi says that the sport has a broad appeal. Across the world, brands such as Audi, BMW, Rolex, Omega, IBM, Oracle, Intel, Virgin, Puma, Arcelor, UBS, ABN Amro, Motorola and Ericsson leverage the sport in the best possible manner to display their brands. For India, Gandhi says that with an all pervasive appeal, B2B and B2C companies would see it as a good medium, both to connect with their target audience as well as getting themselves placed globally. B2B companies such as Infosys and Wipro; conglomerates such as the Tata and the Aditya Birla Group; the FMCG, energy and the luxury goods (high end fashion and accessories) sectors could leverage the sport as a medium to garner visibility for their brands. Gandhi thinks of yacht racing as a 360 degree platform – it gets coverage on television channels, print media as well as radio. Brands, too, reap the benefits of the coverage. He says, “It's a very aspirational sport and the curiosity factor is what counts most. It is a sport which most brands could relate their advertising intentions with. If brands do not see it as a good medium to advertise, I could only say that they haven't been able to understand the sport and its potential well enough.”With the Indian subcontinent being surrounded by water, one sees no reason why the sport cannot pick up on popularity. But, just as we realise it hasn't, only time will tell if yacht racing will match the frenzy of cricket in India.