Seasonal Magazine

VOLUME 12 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2013

Must See

Kerala Destinations in 2013

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH KERALA CM OOMMEN CHANDY

Oommen Chandy started off with a bang in 2011, despite the narrowest of wins.

But towards the end of 2012, his government hit numerous controversies, so characteristic of UDF administrations. Will 2013 prove the saving grace for this 70-year old veteran and his team of veterans like KM Mani and PK Kunhalikutty?

In an exclusive interview to Seasonal Magazine, Oommen Chandy bares his mind on his plans for Kerala’s development.

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MAGAZINE

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EDITORIAL

Vol 12 Issue 1 January 2013

Managing Editor Jason D Pavoratti Editor John Antony Director (Finance) Ceena Senior Editorial Coordinator Jacob Deva Senior Correspondent Bina Menon Creative Visualizer Bijohns Varghese Photographer Anish Aloysious Correspondents Bombay: Rashmi Prakash Hyderabad: Iqbal Siddiqui Delhi: Anurag Dixit Director (Technical) John Antony Publisher Jason D

Will India Ever Prosper Without Solving This Issue?

Much is said to be done these days for improving the economy, with the limelight hogged by the case for FDI in multi-brand retail.

Government would also have us believe that they are addressing the issue of soaring fiscal deficit by its over-ambitious disinvestment program.

But what is the ground situation for the common man? Having been meted out shock-treatments like the diesel/LPG price hikes, and the resultant price surges in almost every commodity, his situation continues to worsen.

Successive governments have made us believe that they have been heavily subsidizing fuels and that this has to stop for fiscal deficit to be contained, and inflation to come down in a stable way.

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But even non-exporters comparable to India have been faring much better in retail fuel prices. The best examples are China and Brazil, where the burden from retail fuel prices compared with per capita income is multi-times better than in India.

And this filthy making-up even surpasses the infamous under-recoveries that IOC, BPCL, & HPCL are always cribbing about.

India and her states charge fuel taxes by way of customs, excise, and other duties, at a rate comparable to developed countries which have around thirty times our per capita GDP.

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Forget the oil exporters like Iran, Algeria, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Libya, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt & Venezuela, famous for their low fuel prices. Petrol prices range from Rs. 18 in Iran to Rs. 7 in Venezuela.

The reason is simple enough. How much hard our successive governments have tried to perpetrate this blatant lie of too-generous fuel subsidies, the fact of the matter is that governments have made up more money on fuel than they have lost, due to one of the highest tax regimes on fuel ever found on this planet.

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If this were the case, India should be having an attractive price profile for petroleum products in relation to our per capita income.

On a debate on this issue, India’s state economists would surely point out that India is nowhere in the top list of countries where fuel costs are the highest.

Sure, there are countries like Finland, Denmark, Israel, Iceland, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Greece, UK, & Norway, where diesel prices range from Rs. 100 to Rs. 150.

But that argument falls flat on two counts. One, of course, the comparison with per capita income, and the other the kind of social security delivered in many of those countries, using high fuel taxes.

Norway, for example, despite being the 5th largest petroleum exporter and having the fourth largest

per capital income in this globe, charges the highest fuel price in this globe so that it can easily deliver universal health care, subsidized higher education, and a comprehensive social security system.

India’s fuel-tax-masquerading-as-subsidy program might appear complex and difficult to decipher, but is in reality very simple. It becomes a subsidy only when international crude oil prices are near the lower band, and it is a blatant high-tax regime when international crude prices soar and trade near the upper end of the band.

What this all boils down to is a simple fact. We can’t be generous with anything we don’t have. We don’t have enough fuel. Period.

Everything else should spring from this core realization. Otherwise this nation would be taken to the brink by pricefixing cartels like the mighty OPEC as well as our own administrations that have found out this cash cow called fuel taxes to power all their excesses and inefficiencies.

If the issue of fuel is brought to the centre-stage that it deserves to be, numerous solutions to all vexing issues will readily emerge.

We will realize that long commutes to work doesn’t work out for us. We will realize that even short personal commutes wouldn’t work out for us. We will realize the importance of modern yet cheap mass transit like the metro. We will realize that our cities need to be better planned. We will realize why our city designs should facilitate walk-to-work or cycle-to-work.

We will realize why each district should produce its own food, as much as possible, like Gandhi envisaged. Companies would realize the need to have leaner logistics and wider geographical spreads, which in itself can boost economic activity to hitherto sleepy districts.

That is on the demand side, of reducing the demand for fuel. Of equal importance should be fixing the supply side, of producing more fuel, of producing more kinds of fuel.

This challenge is not something unique to India. One of the finest examples for fixing the supply side, during this past decade, comes from USA. Fed up with its reliance on the whims and fancies of OPEC countries, America invested heavily into developing nextgeneration drilling methods, and has recently come out a winner.

Analysts expect that when this year’s or next year’s production numbers are tallied, USA would become the largest oil producing nation in this world, ahead of No. 2 Russia and No.1 Saudi Arabia.

This is apart from USA’s world-leading research push into every imaginable form of alternative energy out there - from solar to hydrogen. They do that because, energy is so central to prosperity.

Today, India’s emergence to a superpower is mainly withheld by its energy deficiency. It is not something that run-of-the-mill steps like allowing Walmart or selling shares in Coal India is going to achieve.

John Antony

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8 Power Fruits

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The culprit is acrylamide, and foods high in this carcinogen include the re-constituted potato chips that children are so fond of...

Not Idealistic, Crusading, or Dominating, But Pragmatic, Helpful, & Fair He is not idealistic like Antony. Not crusading like Achuthanandan. Nor dominating like Pinarayi. Yet, on his simple personal charms like pragmatism, helpfulness, & fairness, Oommen Chandy has survived all odds. But will this be enough for Kerala? Oommen Chandy is evolving every day. From a leader who would earlier shy away from speaking his mind, in favour of keeping a fragile consensus, the Chandy you meet towards this fag end of 2012, is distinctly assertive, but not by speaking too much. The 70 year old veteran of Kerala politics, who looks almost a decade younger at close quarters, is now more measured and precise than he has ever been.

7 Challenges to Overcome in Scaling A Small Business to a Mega Business There’s a plethora of success stories of mega corporations - from Google to Apple to Infosys to Tata on their genetic code and on how they operate. There’s also a lot of glamorous coverage on start-ups..

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BUSINESS

6 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

Is there something like an entrepreneur who never failed? Most probably not. Most entrepreneurs have failed one time or other. The trick lies in learning from the specific mistake they made, and coming back vowing to commit no more common mistakes entrepreneurs are prone to.

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M

ost great ideas fail due to lack of vision and execution, writes Bharati Jacob, founder-partner, Seedfund, one of India’s leading early stage investors. While unique ideas are important, executing on follow through is far more important to success. And that is why venture investors spend more time assessing the team than obsessing about the idea itself.

Most start-ups don’t reach their destiny despite having the right vision, a tight strategy and a great idea. An idea doesn’t make a company and is just the start of a journey in creating a valuable company. With the benefit of hindsight, here are six mistakes commonly made by entrepreneurs.

Even a small company is waging many battles on many fronts. No small team of warriors can be everywhere and fight all battles alone. An early test of an entrepreneur is his team; they usually find true believers in the mission with the faith to persevere through the agony and ecstasy of a start-up. They choose co-founders who believe in the same destination and have similar value systems. They believe that it would be great to find a co-founder or team that complements your skills but it is far more important to choose the cofounder on congruence of beliefs and values.

2. Delegating to a Professional CEO Too Soon In the early stages, a CEO is the most important sales person - he has to sell his vision to investors, customers, and employees. Only passion and blind belief in the idea can sell it well. And you can almost never hire passion and belief. At the same time, the person who thrives in an unstructured environment of a start-up, like how most founders are, is very different from the person that thrives in a large company. It is best to

bring in the professional CEO when a company has found a business model for predictable cash flows.

out of money without results.

3. Launching Too Late

Every start-up must strike a careful balance between being spendthrift and frugal. Many expenses are investments, not all investments are physical assets.

These expenses may be in understanding consumers, creating IP, business development, brand building, salaries of experienced people and much else. But there are many expenses that often don’t create value like huge founder salaries, founder perks, fancy offices, gizmos etc.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be quick to the market so that you can accelerate your learning. Launch early instead of spending months creating and perfecting a product or adding bells and whistles that you believe your customer will want. Facebook was launched with the basic product; all else like photo sharing, apps, and timeline came much later. Launch as soon as the core product is ready, after that iterate, iterate, iterate.

4. Scaling Up Too Soon The most dramatic flame-outs happen when a company that hasn’t figured out its revenue or business model starts to expand to different geographies and customer segments.

Scale should come after the company knows which customer segment values the product, how to reach them, how much they are willing to pay, and how to get them to buy. It is better to concentrate on a smaller geography or specific customer segment in the early days. Scaling without understanding these elements creates the risk of running

5. Excessive Frugality

6. Plan in Poetry, Execute in Prose Serial entrepreneurs and good investors learn early that the journey from an idea to a company is often not one single marathon but a marathon made up of a series of 100 mt dashes. It is a walk where bucketing the pond is more important than boiling the ocean. Contrary to myth, execution is more important to early stage success than strategy or the idea, as both of those can be copied easily. In most ideas, it is execution that becomes the IP and sustainable advantage. To paraphrase Mario Cumo, entrepreneurs write business plans in poetry but execute them in prose.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

1. Starting with a Weak Team

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SEASONAL MAGAZINE

COVER STORY

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH KERALA CM OOMMEN CHANDY

He is not idealistic like Antony. Not crusading like Achuthanandan. Nor dominating like Pinarayi. Yet, on his simple personal charms like pragmatism, helpfulness, & fairness, Oommen Chandy has survived all odds.

But will this be enough for Kerala? Oommen Chandy is evolving every day.

From a leader who would earlier shy away from speaking his mind, in favour of keeping a fragile consensus, the Chandy you meet towards this fag end of 2012, is distinctly assertive, but not by speaking too much. The 70 year old veteran of Kerala politics, who looks almost a decade younger at close quarters, is now more measured and precise than he has ever been.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

NOT IDEALISTIC, CRUSADING, OR DOMINATING, BUT PRAGMATIC, HELPFUL, & FAIR

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SEASONAL MAGAZINE page 14

arching out from a recent weekly cabinet briefing, the Kerala Chief Minister didn’t mince words against India’s largest enterprise. “The state government will take stern action if IOC continues with their defiant stand on this issue,” Chandy openly threatened, referring to the shocking accident in Thiruvananthapuram in which an IOC gas tanker accident left 20 people killed and 35 seriously injured, as well as gutting 45 houses, 40 shops, & 11 vehicles. IOC had paid only a measly Rs. 1 crore as compensation to the victims. But some of Oommen Chandy’s recent assertions won’t come across as assertions at all.

Despite being shocked by long-time compatriot and mentor AK Antony’s recent outburst against him and his ministry during a public function, Chandy didn’t lose his composure, opting to just provide the briefest of explanations possible, that Antony was speaking about only a specific issue, which was an undesirable trade union movement in BrahMos Aerospace. For anyone who heard the speech, Antony was obviously not confining himself to that issue, but it was Oommen Chandy’s strategy that worked. Within days, his understated response stirred deep anger within the rank and file of Congress & UDF, as well as in sections of the media, virtually branding Antony’s remarks as the unkindest of political stabs, and forcing India’s Defence Minister to modify his remarks exactly as Chandy had briefly clarified earlier. Even heavens would have sided with Chandy in that affair,

The Brains Pla Develo

KM Chandrasekhar, Vice Chairman, Kerala State Planning Board

notwithstanding the merits of Antony’s outburst. Because, right from their KSU days, almost five decades back, nobody would have backed AK Antony - through thick and thin - as much as Oommen Chandy has backed. Even more importantly, Chandy was always the man doing the difficult jobs, the unglamorous roles, the politically sensitive tasks, for the sake of ensuring that AK Antony and the smaller ‘A Group’ that he headed in state’s

E Sreedharan

Congress succeed against all odds to unseat the larger and powerful ‘I Group’ led by late K Karunakaran.

Those fights would have been politically suicidal for Oommen Chandy, as he was equally trusted by Karunakaran who had included him in three of his ministries, in key portfolios like Home, Labour, & Finance. But even in the bitterest phases of that long drawn fight that spanned more than a decade, the fight was largely

Member, Kerala State Planning Board, Former MD, DMRC, Trustee, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust

Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Innovation Council, Chief Mentor for Kerala's Planning and Development Agenda

ideological for Chandy. Against the veiled arrogance and venomous humour of Karunakaran a.k.a ‘Leader’ who was known for his sharp tongue, what Chandy had to say was a repetitive phrase that caught the fancy of not just Congressmen but the Kerala public: “Our issue is with Leader‘s style of functioning. That should change.” Chandy was very very accurate on that. It was a period in which both Congress workers as well

as Kerala public was turning against Karunakaran and his coterie style of functioning as well as his unabashed lobbying for his own son & daughter.

Later, on an armistice between Antony and Karunakaran, the former would yield too much and offer Leader’s son the post of KPCC President on a platter, despite stiff opposition from Chandy and most of the A Group loyalists.

Thinking back about such setbacks, it is impossible to find another leader

who has survived more hurdles than Oommen Chandy to emerge as a productive leader for the state. But his each fight for Antony and the Group he headed, cast a shadow on his own political prospects as he was seen as a leader who was soft on allies like Muslim League, as a leader who compromised, unlike Antony who - by merit or strategy - went on to scale not only whiter and whiter images, but higher and higher designations. But in the final analysis, and as things stand now, Chandy’s patience, perseverance, and pragmatic nature has more than paid off. He has tamed Karunakaran, he has tamed Antony, he has tamed powerful allies, and most importantly, he has tamed the state’s formidable CPM and its iconic but poles-apart leaders Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan. The glory of his success is that though all of his foes and even friends like Antony have often spoke uncharitably about him, Chandy has refused to leave his value system of not hitting below the belt. Having completed this consummate political feat of a lifetime by the 2011 assembly elections, Chandy had set out to implement his vision for a better Kerala. Today, he is not daunted by any project. Despite formidable odds, Chandy is even pushing for his most ambitious low-cost carrier, the Air Kerala project, after being “really tired” with Indian flag carrier Air India’s attitude towards Keralites that Chandy has described in recent days as “indifferent”, “exorbitant”, and “sheer cruelty”. Will Oommen Chandy effectively use such pent-up natural anger for the benefit of Kerala?

Seasonal Magazine finds out:

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

nning Kerala’s pment

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CM Oommen Chandy answers Seasonal Magazine’s queries: What would you like to cite as the greatest achievement of your current ministry?

Before making any claims, let me clarify that, from the outset, we have had twin objectives for this ministry - which are, development and care.

As you know, we have made much progress in some of the largest developmental projects ever undertaken in Kerala like Smart City Kochi, Mono Rail at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, International Airport at Kannur, High Speed Rail Corridor, Vizhinjam International Deep-sea Container Terminal, and the Kochi Metro Rail Project.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

And what would be the biggest achievements on the care or welfare front?

Many welfare programs have been initiated, with the most important being offering 25 kg rice for Rs 1.

Another most ambitious welfare project would be the scheme to offer free generic medicine to all irrespective of BPL/APL status.

Though it is difficult to list out all such projects now, some that readily come to my mind are the Ashraya Project, Teacher’s Package, Aid for Endosulfan Victims, Rehabilitation of Moolampilly Victims, Cochlear Implantation for Children, and the Karunya Benevolent Fund. Through our welfare project we have proved that this is a government that cares.

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Still, do you think that your cabinet has lost the initial momentum that was there especially during the first 100 days?

That is not a correct assessment. We had a 100 days program which was dominated by our Mass Contact Program, and we had a 1 year program which was successfully concluded in mid June. But many of the programs I mentioned on both the development and welfare fronts have been initiated or concluded after both these programs. So, the momentum is continuing.

Power Players Han Should Rise Above Sectoral And Regional Concerns

Can He Surpass Communal Divides And Deliver Transparently?

KM Mani Minister for Finance, Law and Housing

PK K unhalik ut Kunhalik unhalikut uttty Minister for Industries and Information Technology

If he hadn’t left Congress in 1964, to join the new Kerala Congress, he would have been where Oommen Chandy or even AK Antony is today. But KM Mani wouldn’t complain. His desire was to do something specific exceptionally well, and not to be master of all trades. His first focus was Pala and his second focus was Kerala. Both have never let him down for services rendered.

Palai has not elected another candidate to represent itself, ever since its inception in 1965, i.e. for the last 47 years through 10 elections. And whenever Congress led UDF has come to power in Kerala, this former practising lawyer was the natural choice for Finance/Revenue/Law and has steered Kerala’s development through 10 budgets. His major contributions have been in the fields of agriculture, electrification, and the development of Kottayam & Idukki districts. Mani’s choices in life again became apparent when he gracefully declined to rejoin Congress in 2009 when Oommen Chandy invited him publicly. Though not a trained economist, Mani has put forth his own pragmatic economic theory, ‘Theory of Toiling Class’, on which he has addressed the famed Oxford University recently.

Handles Finance, Law, & Housing in the current Oommen Chandy ministry.

For those who had written him off - in LDF, UDF, & even in his own party - it has been shocks ever since he trounced his LDF-backed opponent in 2011 assembly elections, from Vengara, by over 30,000 votes, despite one of the most vicious campaigns ever mounted

by LDF in any constituency ever. The shocks at PK Kunhalikutty’s resurrection is continuing as he has bounced back both in Indian Union Muslim League as well as in Kerala Government. He has been a Minister thrice before - under K Karunakaran, AK Antony, & Oommen Chandy handling key ministries like Industries, IT, & Social Welfare. Kunhalikutty is credited with major initiatives in the state that continue to bear fruit today, like the Akshaya e-Literacy cum Social Entrepreneurship Project as well as KINFRA Parks. In his current designation as Minister for Industries & Information Technology, Kunhalikutty ably assisted CM Oommen Chandy in resurrecting the Smart City Kochi project promoted by an arm of the Dubai Government, and played a central role in the ‘Emerging Kerala’ investment meet.

dling Key Portfolios Should Focus on Performance and Not on Leading Feuds for Congress

KC Joseph Minister for Rural Development, Planning, Culture and NORKA

Ar Aryyadan Mohammed Minister for Power and Transport

One of CM Oommen Chandy’s trusted lieutenants in this current ministry, KC Joseph has been handling departments that would have been easy in any other state. Cultural affairs and Non Resident affairs are not exactly easy in Kerala where both are contentious issues. Joseph has also played pivotal roles in the negotiations for Kochi Metro at Delhi, discussions with bankers for easier education loans to students, and is heading state‘s stand against Air India.

The ongoing international cultural extravaganza, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, that started on 12/12/ 12 will test Joseph’s balancing skills further, as on one hand he has to support it and on the other hand curb state funding to it further due to serious allegations against the Biennale Foundation.

One of the most seasoned Congress camp ministers in the Chandy cabinet, Aryadan Mohammed is noted for his firm beliefs like his secular outlook, and his unwillingness to give a free hand to IAS officers in formulating policies. Aryadan as he is popularly referred to, scored a major success when he succeeded in ousting Tom Jose IAS from the post of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd, who is widely regarded as against ‘Metroman’ E Sreedharan’s and DMRC’s participation in the project. Aryadan is also the political powerhouse behind Chandy as Congress tames its powerful allies like Indian Union Muslim League and Kerala Congress (M).

Capability Apparent, But More Finesse Needed in Wielding Power Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan who took over Home from Oommen Chandy has not found the going easy. Still, the veteran Congress leader is doing the best he can in a state in which the police force too is sharply polarized along left and right wings. Radhakrishnan is putting to best use some of the finest police officers, known for their impartiality, to pursue problematic cases like TP Chandrasekharan’s murder, MM Mani’s detention, and the headaches caused from his own party and coalition like the police-station storming by K Sudhakaran and Balakrishna Pillai. Radhakrishnan’s reign, like Chandy’s, is also noted for no major mass riots or overt use of force.

Thiruv anchoor R adhakrishnan hiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan Minister for Home and Vigilance

Jacob’s Son has to Emulate Jacob’s Knowledge, While Limiting Jacob Group’s Bad Politics

Anoop JJac ac ob acob Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Protection & Registration From the outset, Anoop Jacob has had big shoes to fill. His late father, TM Jacob, whom he replaces in this ministry has always been one of the most knowledgeable and best performing ministers in any UDF cabinet he has been a part of.

The times are also a bit troubling for the young Civil Supplies Minister, as the new policy by Delhi that all subsidies will be transferred as cash through banks, is in direct collusion with the state’s ration dealers’ whose association is led by Anoop’s party. He is also faced with a challenging roles as Minister for Registration, as Kerala Congress (Mani) and Forests Minister KB Ganesh Kumar has been on a collision course on the approach to be taken for the sensitive Environmentally Fragile Land (EFL) issue, and Anoop’s department is expected to bring in a balancing act through new registration scheme.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

First-time Minister Trusted with Too Much Responsibility?

page 17

Looking back at the average response to Emerging Kerala, do you think that much more needs to be done in attracting big businesses?

Compared to the industrial status and unique socioeconomic status of our state, Emerging Kerala was a success. However, it has convinced us more on the importance of fostering entrepreneurship, especially home grown entrepreneurship.

I am sure the Kerala society as a whole is also awakening to this realization. The massive response we have been getting for schemes like Startup Village is an indication.

Though the immediate contributions from entrepreneurs and start-ups will be smaller, how do you think entrepreneurism will pan out in Kerala, and contribute to the state?

Keralites are known the world over as valuable professionals and skilled workmen. Under the next stage of entrepreneurial growth, we would be known more as job creators rather than job seekers. We are encouraging and facilitating entrepreneurs to start young - as young as in high school to systematically pursue their startup ambitions. Many of them are going to try and try again, and going to succeed.

Coming back to larger projects, what are the key takeaways from Emerging Kerala as well as this secondterm of yours as CM? Number one is that, availability of capital is no longer an issue. The whole world is willing to invest in Kerala if given the right opportunity. Forget the world, investors in India and in Kerala itself are ready to invest in projects. The second evolvement is that labour environment in Kerala is no more an issue. Earlier, if you remember, our workforce used to get much blame, often unjustly, for companies not investing in Kerala. This is simply not true anymore.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

Still, large private sector projects are shying away from Kerala…

I was coming to that point. As far as our assessment goes, which is based on feedback from investors, what Kerala is still lacking is modern infrastructure. We have improved a lot, but much more needs to be done. That is why, if you have noticed, this government has given utmost thrust to developing infrastructure. As soon as our road, rail, port, & air infra improves, we can expect a high momentum of investments. But having said that, Kerala does have its own constraints, the most important being low availability and high cost of land. That is something natural, something we can’t change, and something we shouldn’t change. Despite that, we will get projects suited to our situation.

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How do you see the emergence of Kerala as the wage capital of India, as far as labour is concerned? Casual and skilled labourers from Gujarat in the West to Bihar in the East is thronging to Kerala, even while these states are cornering major projects due to low wages there…

There might be states and industries that are exploiting lowwage environments, but as far as Kerala is concerned, my

Policy Setters Experienced or Fresh, Eager to Prove

PJ Joseph Minister for Water Resources

Dr Dr.. MK Muneer Minister for Panchayats and Social Welfare

VK Ebr ahim K unju Ebrahim Kunju Minister for Public Works

KP Mohanan Minister for Agriculture, Animal husbandry, Printing and Stationery

AP Anilk umar Anilkumar Minister for Tourism and Welfare of Scheduled Castes & Backward Classes

K Babu Minister for Fisheries, Ports and Excise

VS Siv ak umar Sivak akumar Minister for Health, Family Welfare and Devaswom

Shibu Bab Babyy John Minister for Labour & Rehabilitation

The Top Most Rung of Executors

Why can’t the state plan for creating a clutch of professionally managed big businesses in the public sector on NRK funds channelled through appropriate government bonds? A model that can be better than even CIAL’s?

That is on the assumption that capital is the issue, right? But let me assure you again, availability of capital is not the issue preventing Kerala’s development. At least not any more.

Any other factors that are discouraging investors from considering Kerala?

Well, I can see only one other cause apart from lack of infrastructure; which, as you know, is the propensity for making and celebrating controversies. That has been a big dampener for companies when considering Kerala. But it is something that our society can change overnight if there is a collective will.

Kochi Metro, for instance, was mired in controversies. Do you think there was organized efforts from some quarters to thwart DMRC’s or Sreedharan’s involvement in the project?

I can assure you that there was no such move from any quarters of the government, or the ruling coalition. We had awarded them the project, they had taken up significant works related to the project, they have set up a good base in Kochi, but even after all this, if some elements of our society thinks it is wiser to rake up unnecessary

Jose C Cyriac yriac Chief Secretary

Dr edit aP an Dr.. Niv Nivedit edita P.. Har Haran Additional Chief Secretary

K Jose Cyriac, a 1977 batch IAS officer, originally from the Kerala cadre, has been recently brought back by Kerala, from the Centre, where he was holding the crucial post of Secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals. As the new Chief Secretary, Cyriac’s breadth of experience in industry-related departments would aid Kerala as the state tries to interface with mammoth projects like Kochi Refinery (BPCL) expansion and the Kochi-Koottanand-Mangalore-Bangalore gas pipeline project by GAIL.

Nivedita P Haran, a 1980 batch IAS officer in the Kerala cadre, has a sterling track-record in controlling revenue and land revenue departments, when numerous controversies surrounding land encroachments erupted in various parts of the state. Now as Additional Chief Secretary, Haran handles the crucial labour and rehabilitation department, as well as heading Institute of Management in Government, when Kerala is embarking on next generation labour reforms for development.

V. Soma sundar an Somasundar sundaran Additional Chief Secretary (Industries & Commerce)

Elia ge Eliass Geor George Additional Chief Secretary Transport Department & MD of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd

V Somasundaran is another IAS officer prematurely brought back from Centre to aid the state in its development efforts. A 1979 batch Kerala cadre officer, he was lastly Additional Secretary Department of Defence Production at Centre. However, Somasundaran is a Kerala industries sector veteran, having headed KSIDC and Cochin Export Processing Zone earlier. Currently in his role as Additional Chief Secretary (Industries & Commerce), he is active in pursuing Kerala’s industrialization drive, as well as in trying to bring premier institutes like Footwear Design & Development Institute to Kozhikode.

Elias George IAS, is arguably occupying the most coveted as well as the most challenging post in Kerala today - Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd. The low-key 1982 batch Kerala cadre officer shot into limelight when a cabinet decision replaced Kochi Metro’s first MD, Tom Jose, with George. However, despite his low-key attitude, George has handled diverse departments in both Centre and State, like Steel and Communication in Delhi, and Power and Transport in Kerala. More than as an Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala will be expecting a high level of execution from George as the MD of Kochi Metro.

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view is that we should be taking pride in the higher wages here, as it reflects our socio-economic development. It is a great thing that our state offers more productive employment opportunities than many larger and more industrial states in India. It shouldn’t be a dampener at all for investments. We will still get ample industries suitable for our workforce.

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controversies, what can anyone do? As you know, I had done the maximum possible, in a transparent way, to ensure that the work is completed as early as possible under Sreedharan and DMRC itself, including meeting him in person multiple times, and using all our good offices with Delhi CM and Cabinet Ministers. The only hitch that cropped up was a concern raised by some members in DMRC’s Director Board whether they should be doing so many external projects. But such internal matters of that organization was blown out of all proportion here.

It is very commendable that you took Defence Minister AK Antony’s comments positively. But you haven’t replied specifically to the issues that Antony mentioned.

How would you like to respond to it, especially on his complaint that there is a lack of initiative from the side of you and ministers?

Again, this is a controversy blown out of proportion by some segments of media. Antony was speaking on a specific context. We should understand the background. He had taken enormous risks in bringing BrahMos Aerospace to Kerala. It is a defence sector company. Not an ordinary firm where anyone can run a trade union. So, when such unfortunate developments happened, he conveyed that specific message. That is all to it.

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Do you agree with Antony’s view that all containers transhipped at Vallarpadom needs to be scanned?

The recent relaxation in Cabotage law was a positive for our Vallarpadom Terminal, as it will increase volumes. But all security concerns of this land should be given ample importance. If Defence Ministry has assessed that all containers need to be scanned on security concerns, we should not be contesting it. But at the same time, we should look whether it would affect the competitiveness of the transshipment terminal. I am confident that if both sides sit together, there can be a solution that satisfies all. We can’t just brush away security concerns. They have to be addressed in full seriousness.

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How do you view the so-called green dissent from the part of young leaders like VD Satheesan, TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden? Do you plan to give them greater roles in formulating green policies?

This government takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. We have implemented several landmark green initiatives including Integrated Coastal Zone Management, which was a major achievement. Government will listen to all valuable opinions. None should forget that there is no party that has as much green credentials as the Congress.

And it is not a new concern either. Few can match the lasting effects of the environmental initiatives proactively set into motion by Congress leader and former PM, Late Indira Gandhi, at a time no other leader was even thinking about environmental concerns. My philosophy regarding the importance of environment is simple - development is what we do for this generation, protecting and enriching the

The Principal

VJ K urian Kurian Principal Secr etar aryy Secre Depar tmen ater R esour ces Departmen tmentt o off W Wa Re sourc (MD- C ochin In tional Airpor Cochin Intterna ernational Airportt LLttd.)

One of the architects behind the success of Cochin International Airport, VJ Kurian is a 1983 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer who has served Kerala for most part of his career, except for a 5 year term as Chairman of Spices Board. Currently, he is back in the helm at CIAL, which is undertaking several developmental projects, and Kurian also holds charge of Department of Water Resources.

Aruna Sundar ar ajan Sundarar arajan Principal Secr etar Secre aryy - I Social W elf ar e (W omen Empo wermen t) Welf elfar are (Women Empow erment) Aruna Sundararajan is best known in Kerala for the success of Akshaya, the first mass e-literacy program in the country. Sundararajan, a 1982 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, had a significant corporate exposure when she was made CEO of IL&FS in 2006. Later, she used business principles to roll out Akshaya in Kerala, even when no such public models were available to emulate. Currently she is heading another acclaimed mass project, Kudumbasree, a mass socio-economic empowerment program based on women self-help groups.

Rung of Executors

One of the most academically qualified and professionally experienced secretaries at the helm in Kerala now. Joy holds a BTech in Electronics & Communication, an MBA in Public Service & International Development from University of Birmingham, and a PhD in Energy & Environmental Policy from IIT Delhi. A 1987 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, he has held key posts at Centre like Director, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. Later in Kerala service, Joy has held key roles in diverse departments like Transport, Labour, Housing, Forest, Taxes, Finance etc and was also Chairman of KSEB.

PH K urien Principal Secr etar Kurien Secre aryy Depar tmen tion TTechnology echnology Departmen tmentt o off In Infforma ormation PH Kurian, a 1986 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer shot into national limelight as India’s Controller General of Patents, Designs, & Trademarks, a post which he held from 2009 to 2012. Kurian is credited with brilliantly overhauling the country’s Intellectual Property Governance with rapid moves, so much so that for the first time this designation of Controller General was noticed by the public. Later he returned to Kerala service, and is now Principal Secretary in the key Information Technology Department.

Sajen P eter Pe Principal Secr etar Secre aryy Depar tmen al A Departmen tmentt o off Cultur Cultural Afffair airss Sajen Peter, a 1982 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, has spent most of his service in Kerala, except for a notable stint as Chairman of Rubber Board from 2005 to 2010, but which was again in Kerala as Rubber Board is headquartered here. Peter is currently also doing something very intimate to Kerala, as a Principal Secretary in Department of Cultural Affairs, and in charge of NORKA.

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VP Jo Joyy Principal Secr etar Secre aryy Depar tmen inanc e Departmen tmentt o off FFinanc inance

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environment is what we do for the coming generations.

Though there are limitations to a coalition government, don’t you think Congress needs to be more assertive in controlling larger partners like Muslim League and Kerala Congress?

People of Kerala elected this coalition to power to achieve certain objectives. We remain united on all those objectives. As the Chief Minister, I am naturally at the thick of things in managing the coalition. I am confident that I have been fair to all, and will continue to be so. People on all sides who are not really managing this affair with central responsibility, can voice their opinions. But it will have only limited value, as they don’t really understand the challenges in keeping any coalition together for meeting the objectives for which this government was elected.

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Will there be any change in Kerala’s policy towards FDI in multibrand retail?

No. It is not that we don’t understand the value retail FDI can bring in. We believe that it can deliver better prices for farmers, and maybe create better jobs, and development too for the nation.

But, as far as Kerala is concerned, we have a thriving base of small retailers, and the welfare of them, their staff, and families, is of paramount importance. That is why this government is opposed to retail sector FDI in Kerala.

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Coming to something personal, what has life taught you during the 45 years of public leadership?

There have been many lessons.

Firstly, doing all possible good deeds is important. We will get surprisingly good results over the long run from such efforts.

Similarly bad deeds done by anyone would be repaid by bad

KSIDC & KINFRA:

Is it LLack ack o unding, off FFunding, Lack o tiv e, or off Initia Initiativ tive Lack o off Transpar enc ha ansparenc encyy TTha hatt is Holding TThe he se hese Institutions Back?

Tom Jose IAS, MD, KSIDC

TKA Nair, Chairman, KSIDC

S. Ramnath, MD, KINFRA

Emer ging P er Emerging Per erfformer ormerss Suman Billa Secr etar tmen ourism Secre aryy Depar Departmen tmentt o off TTourism Suman Billa IAS, currently holds the core designation of Secretary, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala. A 1996 batch Kerala cadre officer, he has served both the state and centre in diverse departments. Billa has been District Collector of Palakkad, Director of Tourism, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, and Officer on Special Duty at Kochi Metro Railway Project. His initiatives have greatly aided God’s Own Country not losing its tourism momentum.

Rani Geor ge George Secr etar tmen esiden er alit es Secre aryy, Depar Departmen tmentt o off Non- R Re sidentt K Ker eralit alite Affair dditional char ge o A&C oir) airss (A (Additional charge off NORK NORKA Coir) Rani George IAS is one of the youngest secretaries in Kerala Government, holding a key post. A 1996 batch Kerala cadre officer, she has handled key designations like District Collector of Kottayam, MD of Kerala State Cooperative Bank, Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Director of Tourism Department, and Special Secretary of Coir Development. Known for her dynamic nature, currently, she is a Secretary in the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) and also handles Coir.

developments. Secondly, to succeed and be productive as a leader, infinite patience is required. Many gossips would reach me. But it is important not to be swayed, but to keep the course.

There would also be many personal attacks. When attacked by anyone publicly or privately, I tend not to retaliate but to ponder deeply whether there is any merit in his arguments. If there is the slightest merit, I would be the first to patch up with him. Even if it was a totally baseless attack, it is important to remain patient, and to provide just the necessary clarifications only. Thirdly, we should realize that everything that happens, happens for the good. On negative developments, like anyone else, I too used to be disheartened. But life has time and again proved to me that all such setbacks are for the ultimate good. And based on that comes the final lesson, which is to remain optimistic always.

Ensuring Rule ooff LLaaw

KS Balasubramanian IPS, State Police Chief, Kerala

TK Manojkumar, Secretary, NORKA

MA Yusuffali, Vice Chairman, Norka Roots

NORKA & NORKA-Roots

NRK W elf ar e Should be Welf elfar are for the W eak est, Weak eake And No onge st Nott the Str Stronge ongest Noyal Thomas IFS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE & Ex-officio Director, Norka-Roots Kochi Metro & Kannur Airport

Doe heir TTrrack RRec ec or w TTha ha he Doess TTheir ecor ordd Sho Show hatt TThe heyy Ar Aree Up ttoo It?

Dr.Sudhir Krishna, Chairman, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd. Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development,New Delhi

V Thulasidas IAS (Rtd.), Special Officer & MD, Kannur International Airport Ltd.

Dr. Jayasankar Prasad C, Director, Kerala State IT Mission

KG Girish Babu, Chief Executive Officer, Technopark

Gigo Joseph, Chief Executive Officer, Infopark

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Spearheading IT T hrust Thrust

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INDUSTRY

Industrial relations in tough times

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Good rrela ela tions means being mor e open with the elations more book ewar ds in good time s, which bookss and giving due rre ards times, leads tto o rre eturned suppor d time supportt in har hard timess

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he divide between brick and click industries is no longer the topic of an intense debate like it was a decade ago. In late 1990s and early 2000s, this was a great debate among the HR professionals from service/IT/knowledge industry on one hand and manufacturing HR professionals on the other. A new generation of HR leaders who had cut their teeth in the new age industries post liberalisation had come to successfully occupy HR leadership roles and the rough and tumble of factory life was replaced by the paperless gleam of HR offices in IT parks. Years of strife, free economic growth continued and it seemed that industrial relations (IR) as a respected, specialised discipline within HR was a thing of the past. IR was merely seen as adherence to labour laws and helping organisations stay compliant. While the practicing IR professionals and seasoned HR leaders never came around to accepting this, the focus within the large sections of HR fraternity clearly moved to managing the ‘war for talent’.

Many large, multinational conglomerates were wiser as young professionals were still groomed by moving from a factory to a corporate role and thus developed into well-rounded HR professionals who drove a broader, more comprehensive agenda. But more often than not, the board room presentation

by HR leaders was about talent management than industrial relations.

Nothing wrong with that per se but the recent upsurge of industrial action in manufacturing industries is a reminder that the composition of employees in a manufacturing industry is diverse, requires sensitivity in approach, skillful handling and equal, pre-emptive focus on IR which if not done can simply destroy shareholder value.

Industrial relations, in early days, was broadly defined to include the relationships and interactions between employers and employees. By that definition, industrial relations covered all aspects of the employment relationship, including human resource management, employee relations, and labour relations. However, globally in the last 30 years, industrial relations

meaning has become more specific and restricted. It pertains to the study and practice of collective bargaining, trade unionism, and labour-management relations, while human resource development (often interchangeably called human resource management) is seen as a separate, largely distinct field that deals with nonunion employment relationships and the personnel practices and policies of employers.

This does not cause any issues in purely knowledge intensive organisations but manufacturing organisations have to ensure that both IR and HRD are treated as critical and overlapping components of their human resource strategy.

Industrial relations tensions in India had never really gone away from the work place but various factors have contributed to the increased trend of labour unrest in last couple of years.

Economic disparity, changing demographic profile of workers, post 2009 political climate and backlash from a squeezed workforce have been articulated as some of the factors. In the last 20 years, after the opening up of the Indian economy, militant labour unrest had been on wane as political and legal support for it dwindled. Some years ago the acceptance of the need for contingent workers unwittingly paved the way for large number of contract employees being brought on board.

These two factors coupled together became easy temptation for the management to push hard on discipline and productivity but the wages and dignity of workers did not rise in same proportion. Things began to change in last few years. A new, younger, more aspirational workforce which is connected with the world and wants to confront issues began to emerge.

Engagement with industrial workers as an instrument of political mobilisation slowly came back. While these economic, political and societal factors indeed play a significant role, an HR professional must focus, to begin with, on the basics. Maintaining the right balance between productivity versus engagement, trust versus legalese and short-term versus long-term are the three essentials of strife free industrial environment.

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IT INFRA

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Will This Global Am of Kochi Deliver?

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ris Gopalakrishnan, cofounder of Indian information technology giant Infosys, stares out from a wall-to-wall poster in a modern office building near Kochi. A caption reads: "We started Infosys in a room about this size; it's your turn now." His message is directed at aspiring entrepreneurs at Startup Village, a state-of-the-art glass and steel edifice tucked in a green corner of the port city, who dream of creating the next billion-dollar tech giant. But even three decades after Infosys, India's secondlargest software service provider, was founded by middle-class engineers, the country has failed to create an enabling environment for first-generation entrepreneurs. Startup Village wants to break the logjam by helping engineers develop 1,000 Internet and mobile companies in the next 10 years. It provides its members with office space, guidance and a chance to hobnob with the stars of the tech industry, including Gopalakrishnan, the project's chief mentor. But critics say this may not even be the beginning of a game-changer unless India deals with a host of other impediments - from red tape to a lack of innovation and a dearth of investors - that are blocking entrepreneurship in Asia's third-largest economy. India ranks 74th out of 79 nations in the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index, making it one of the worst places in the world to start a business. A World Bank report says it is easier to start a business in violenceafflicted Pakistan or poverty-stricken Nepal than in their giant neighbour, where everything from getting electricity to credit is time-consuming and fraught with paperwork. "Take Apple or take Google. If exactly the

same company had been started in India, its prospects would have been very different," said Erkko Autio, chair in technology venturing and entrepreneurship at Imperial College, London. "Basically, it would have not reached the potential it has as a start-up."

Indian-born entrepreneurs have been enormously successful in the United States, where they have the highest number of tech-start-ups by any immigrant group. But India has not been able to build itself a community like Silicon Valley where there is easy access to equity, a pool of creative talent and first-world infrastructure. "We were alone. We had no idea how to make a company, how to sell it ... We tried, failed, tried, failed," said Kallidil Kalidasan, a 23-year-old member who started a mobile app venture in Kerala two years ago and could not find a single investor. He is now one of the entrepreneurs at Startup Village, and is working on a product that could help the government detect illegal abortions in a country plagued by female foeticide.

BARE NECESSITIES The seven-month-old Startup Village provides would-be entrepreneurs with workspace at rents about a tenth of anywhere else in Kochi, computers, a high-speed Internet connection, legal and intellectual property services and access to high-profile investors. The village is still to be completed, but 68 people, would-be entrepreneurs and their teams, have already taken up two buildings at the site. Spread over 100,000 sq ft (9,250 sq m) - equivalent to 20 basketball courts - Startup Village will be completed in 2014. India has 120 other incubators, but they are mostly housed in academic institutions and have not drawn a strong network of advisers

from the private sector. Startup Village, the first such institution to be jointly funded by the government and private sector, has Gopalakrishnan as its chief promoter and has collaborations with companies such as BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and IBM. "One, the goal of this initiative is to create new companies and create jobs. Second, this will create new solutions and products," Gopalakrishnan told Reuters in an e-mail interview. He is excited about creating an ecosystem for entrepreneurs in his home-state, Kerala, which is famous for its tropical coastline and backwaters.

The Village team says it chose Kerala because costs are lower than New Delhi or Mumbai and it has 150 engineering colleges that can provide start-up enthusiasts. But for some, Startup

Village will not work because it does not provide the right environment for a budding tech start-up. "What does an entrepreneur need besides money? They need strong support in terms of advice," said Mukund Mohan, who has founded and sold three Silicon Valley start-ups and is CEO-in-residence at the Microsoft Accelerator. The institution helps start-ups in Bangalore, the city most associated with India's software industry that is about 550 km (340 miles) north of Kochi. "There are not that many entrepreneurs in India, and there are hardly any in Kerala who have the expertise to be able to build, scale and sell strong software companies," said Mohan. "If you have not been there and done that before, what advice will you give?" But Bangalore has not been able to nurture a start-up culture of any significance either. It has many aspiring CEOs and optimistic financiers, but they are also struggling with a maze of regulations and half-hearted government support.

LACK OF INGENUITY The newer start-ups in Bangalore or Kerala are eying products not services.

Many bring ideas catering to the booming market of domestic online shoppers, like Flipkart, the nation's most heavily financed e-commerce company.

But financial backers for such ventures are few and far between. "We are a fixed-deposit country," said Rajesh Sawhney, founder of GSF Superangels that provides angel and seed funding to start-ups. "Our investors are risk-averse.

They don't trust young people with their money." Fewer than 150 start-ups are promoted by venture capital or angel investors annually in India. There are over 60,000 angel investments, made in the early stages of a start-up, alone per year in the United States, according to an Indian government report. Experts believe India is handicapped by a lack of ingenuity. It ranks 64th on the Global Innovation Index, much below other BRICS nations. Indian graduates, largely trained in services, have difficulty innovating beyond that approach. Barely 700 technology product startups are launched every year in India versus over 14,000 in the United States, according to the Microsoft Accelerator database. For

India's risk-averse middle-class, entrepreneurship is the last recourse of the unemployed. "If you go to a function, and someone asks you where you are working, and if you don't say Infosys or Wipro, they say: 'Oh you did not get placement (for a job)'," said Startup Village member Sreekumar Ravi. Ravi is working on creating an affordable multi-touch computing surface that could change the way people window shop in malls or place orders in restaurants. Startup Village aims to pluck innovators from college campuses, and bring them into the fold after evaluating their business ideas. Many of its inhouse entrepreneurs are in their midtwenties. But critics are sceptical if Startup Village would be able to launch the next Infosys in India - or even be successful in its goal of incubating 1,000 online companies. "I will be thrilled if they do even a quarter of that number ...

But do I think they will do more than 100? No." said Mohan from Microsoft Accelarator. "I mean I hope they succeed. But hope is not a strategy, hope is only a prayer."

(From Reuters. By Diksha Madhok.

Additional reporting by Mark Bergen in BANGALORE; Editing by Ross Colvin and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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bition

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A

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T

O

LA Auto Showstoppers and Old Wines in New Bottles

aguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Mercedes, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Subaro, Volkswagen, Audi, & Chevrolet were among the firms unveiling new models at the Los Angeles Auto Show. While some were real showstoppers, many were old wines in new bottles.

Jaguar F-Type

Mercedes G-Force

Created by Jaguar design supremo Ian Callum the F-Type is being touted as the spiritual success to the iconic EType of the 1960s and 1970s. It will get a V6 supercharged engine producing 340PS and will go on sale next year from £58,500.

It looks like a toy car and was created for a design competition but the Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force concept car gives a strong hint at how the front end of the firm’s SUVs may look in future. Judge its unusual looks for yourself.

Toyota RAV4

Jaguar XFR-S

A once great car gets a much-needed update with a longer and wider version. It goes on sale next year with a 122bhp 2.0litre diesel engine expected as the biggest seller. Prices will start at around £22,000 but its looks won’t convince buyers Toyota has returned to form just yet.

The XFR-S heralds the start of new sporty era for Jaguar’s saloons as they move to rival the Audi S line and BMW

Honda 2014 Accord Plug-In Hybrid

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VW Beetle Cabriolet

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VW Beetle Cabriolet The Beetle was a common sight on California roads in the 1960s and VW is hoping to return to a stronger position of market share with the secondgeneration of the new Beetle in Cabriolet form. Its soft roof opens in seven seconds and it comes with a choice of seven petrol and diesel engines.

Subaru Forester

Range Rover The third-generation of Range Rover, Jaguar Land Rover’s most important vehicle, is shipping to its first customers now after being unveiled at the Paris Motor Show earlier this year and getting rave early reviews. It has just been awarded 5 Stars for Safety Performance by Euro NCAP.

M Sport models. It will be interesting to put up against the mighty BMW M5 in the New Year.

Audi Diesels

Toyota RAV4

2013 Ford Fusion

Porsche Cayman Far prettier than the model it replaces the Porsche Cayman, known for its rapid handling and performance will hit the UK in March with design cues nodding towards the 918 Spyder supercar, a new chassis and a midengine choice of a 2.7-litre flat-six which develops 271bhp or a 3.4-litre flat-six from the entry level 911. The latter will generate a hefty 320bhp and hit 62mph in five seconds flat.

Jaguar XFR-S

Subaru Forester The redesigned Subaru Forester has better fuel economy and more power in the turbo version. It retains a tallwagon profile, with some changes to the front and back. Fans of Subaru’s oddball styling may lament the passing of the hood scoop on the turbo model.

Audi Diesels As more American buyers choose diesel version of Volkswagen cars, the company’s luxury brand, Audi, rolled out a diesel engine option on four of its high-end models. The models

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Chevrolet Spark EV

Mercedes G-Force

Porsche Cayman

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getting turbo diesel variants are the A6, A7, A8, and Q5. All four will share a 3-liter turbocharged V-6.

Chevrolet Spark EV Hoping to ease consumer worries about the hassle of charging electric cars, Chevrolet offers a system on the Spark EV that officials say will charge to 80% capacity in just 20 minutes.

Honda 2014 Accord PlugIn Hybrid It has earned a class-leading EPAcertified 115 MPGe rating, the company announced at the LA show.

The car will go on sale in New York and California on January 15 with an MSRP of $39,780. It has been rated by the EPA with a maximum all-electric EV mode range of 13 miles, and a fueleconomy rating of 47/46/46 mpg (city/ hwy/combined). The Accord Plug-in is the first production car in America to

meet the more stringent new LEV3/ SULEV20 emissions standard, and it will also qualify for single-occupant carpool-lane access in California.

2013 Ford Fusion It has been named Green Car Journal’s 2013 Green Car of the Year. The Fusion emerged on top of a field of finalists

including the 2013 Dodge Dart Aero, Ford C-MAX, Mazda CX-5 Skyactiv and Toyota Prius c. The Fusion reduces petroleum use, CO2 emissions and overall environmental impact, but is priced to encourage the kind of sales volume that can truly influence environmental improvement, according to Green Car Journal.

Checkout Volvo V40 Cross Country, Soon in India Volvo is planning to bring the V40 Cross Country to India by the end of March next year. Volvo cars are overshadowed by the big three Germans in India and it's time that the Swedish manufacturer do something to step up its game. The awareness of Volvo's safety credentials are less prone in our country and the brand doesn't enjoy the snob value of Mercedes, BMW or Audi.

In order to make some dent in the Indian luxury car market, the car maker should come up with a product which would undercut all of its rivals while still offering a rich features list. Volvo is planning to bring the Volvo V40 Cross Country which was showcased at the Paris Motor Show last month. The car entered production at the company's plant at Ghent, Belgium. The V40 Cross Country became a safety star as the Euro-NCAP crash test results declared that it's the safest car in its class. The

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high riding hatchback has few off road add-ons like scruff plates and roof rails.

The car has a ground clearance of 173 mm. On the sidelines of inaugurating new dealership (Artemis Cars) at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, which is one of the Volvo's biggest showrooms in the country, Tomas Ernberg, managing director of Volvo Cars India said, that the car could be priced around Rs 25

lakh, ex-showroom. On the future targets for India, Ernberg has said in the past that Volvo would like to capture 15 per cent market share by 2020 and would sell 20,000 cars then. Volvo will expand its dealership network to 43 from the current 12 by 2020. Volvo's current market share is 1% and the car maker is relying heavily on the V40 Cross Country to bring in the sales numbers.

SPIRIT WARS

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Diageo v/s Pernod Ricard: The Global Spirits War, Now Playing in India

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ondon-based Diageo’s acquisition of United Spirits from Vijay Mallya will bring its confrontation with arch rival Pernod Ricard to the Indian shores. All over the world, the two snipe at each other’s market all the time. Diageo, the world’s largest spirits company, sold liquor worth $17.28 billion in 2011, which included brands such as Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker whiskey, Baileys liqueur and Guinness stout.

Paris-headquartered Pernod Ricard is second to Diageo in the global sweepstakes. Its 2011 revenue was at $11.09 billion, but it claims to be the leader in the premium segment. It owns brands like Absolut, Ballantine’s, Beefeater, Chivas Regal, Jacob’s Creek, Jameson, Kahlua, Royal Salute and Seagram’s. The slugfest will now happen in India. United Spirits sells 125 million cases (of 12 bottles each) in a year, more than half of the market of 240 million cases. Pernod Ricard’s volumes are lower, about 24 million cases, though it is second in the pecking order, ahead of local rivals like Radico Khaitan, Jagatjit Industries and Kishore Chhabria’s Allied Blenders & Distillers. So, Diageo will start with a huge lead over Pernod Ricard. The acquisition of United Spirits will give Diageo mass-market whiskies like Bagpiper, Royal Challenge, McDowell’s, Antiquity and Signature.

(India is largely a country of whiskey drinkers.) All told, United Spirits owns

22 “millionaire” brands — each sells more than a million cases. This could be critical. Diageo’s first innings in India ended abruptly in 2002, when it decided to focus on North America and Europe. But, observers had said the exit was prompted by the absence of popular brands in its portfolio — a gap the acquisition of United Spirits plugs perfectly. Diageo’s brands at that time included Gilbey’s Green Label, ranked among the top four whisky brands at that time. Among the international brands in its repertoire were Johnnie Walker, J&B and Smirnoff. Though Pernod Ricard sells less than a quarter of United Spirits, it has inherent strength. It is far more profitable than United Spirits because it has gone for premium pricing — 10 to 15 per cent above rivals. So, its volumes might be lower but the profit margins are fatter.

United Spirits, on the other hand, has gained volumes by offering discounts.

So, while United Spirits closed 201112 with a net profit of Rs 317 crore on sales of Rs 8,214 crore, Pernod Ricard, in India, recorded a much higher profit of Rs 500 crore on lower sales of Rs 3,000 crore. In case the fight with Diageo boils down to an all-out marketing war, Pernod Ricard can pack a lot of firepower. The chief executive of a liquor company who does not wish to be named says: “The trade normally gets a discount of 10-12 per cent on products sold by manufacturers. But United Spirits offers an additional 1015 per cent to retailers, depending on the market and brand. While this

Paris-headquartered Pernod Ricard is second to Diageo in the global sweepstakes. Its 2011 revenue was at $11.09 billion, but it claims to be the leader in the premium segment.

It owns brands like Absolut, Ballantine’s, Beefeater, Chivas Regal, Jacob’s Creek, Jameson, Kahlua, Royal Salute and Seagram’s.

Beam Global. The maker of the Teacher’s whiskey recently initiated a probe into allegations of unfair trade practices, apparently triggered by discounts and freebies being offered to retailers in a few markets. Beam’s India managing director, Harish Moolchandani, national sales head, Deepak Malhotra, and a few other executives were asked to stay away from work while the inquiry was going on. Where does that leave Pernod Ricard? A detailed questionnaire as well as repeated calls to Pernod Ricard did not yield any response. Opinion is divided on the French company’s prospects. Some feel Diageo would be

able to leverage United Spirits’s huge volumes to shut out rivals. So, Pernod Ricard will have to begin focusing on volumes a bit more than it does now if it has to hold its ground against the United Spirits-Diageo combine. “The profitability angle worked well as long as Pernod Ricard was fighting United Spirits; but, with Diageo in the picture, the dynamics change,” says a Mumbaibased analyst who tracks the sector.

The other argument is equally compelling. With rising income levels, Indian consumers are up-trading. As a result, the premium segment of the market is growing faster than the mass, or popular, segment. So, in the really long run, what will decide the winner in the market is the premium segment.

In other words, while United Spirits’s volumes will give Diageo a huge start, it will have to develop premium brands sooner than later. Pernod Ricard had got a foothold in the masstige category (mass + prestige), with the acquisition of Seagram’s more than 10 years ago; it added brands like Royal Stag (with 12.3 million cases, the “made for India” whiskey has become Pernod Ricard’s largest-selling brand anywhere in the world), Blender’s Pride and Imperial Blue to its portfolio.

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ensures retailers will push United Spirits’s products aggressively, margins for the company are thin.” In the absence of advertising, spirits makers have to rely on surrogate advertisements and retailer discounts to push their brands. However, the discounts offered by United Spirits may soon come down. With a bottom line-driven parent like Diageo, the company is likely to reduce its dependence on discounts.

Multinational corporations, by and large, don’t approve of such discounts they devalue the brand and rob the company of pricing power. Their intolerance to selling below price can be gauged from the recent example of

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U R B A N

Which are the Best and Worst Cities of the World for Living?

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Vienna, Austria's capital offers its residents the best quality of life of any city in the world and Baghdad the worst, according to the latest global survey from consultant group Mercer. The Austrian capital with 1.7 million residents came top of the survey for the fourth year in a row, boasting of a vibrant cultural scene alongside comprehensive health care and moderate but rising housing costs.

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ts opulent architecture from the time of the Habsburg empire makes it a tourist magnet. The reliable public transport system costs just 1 euro (81 pence) a day for an annual pass in a city governed by left-leaning Social Democrats and environmentalist Greens. "The city is so international...

I have been waiting for buses and heard over 10 languages being spoken at one stop," said American Dawn Gartlehner, 42, a law firm manager who has lived in Vienna for more than 15 years. "The city caters to all kinds of people, all ages and all walks of life. You can have a wonderful day here spending all the money in your bank account but have an equally great time spending nothing at all." Mercer conducts its annual survey to help companies and organisations set compensation for staff on international assignments. It uses 39 factors such as political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport. Anna Staribacher, a 24-yearold student, praised her home town's safe streets and abundance of parks and woodlands. "Austria is a wealthy country, we have low unemployment and free university access. Living is affordable and prices are still moderate by international standards. But I wonder why people are still so grumpy all the time?" Despite its sovereign debt crisis,

Europe has 15 of the world's top 25 cities in the 2012 survey. Germany and Switzerland each have three in the top 10. The lowest-ranking city in western Europe was Athens, gripped by deep economic woes. "Overall, European cities continue to have high quality of living as a result of a combination of increased stability, rising living standards and advanced city infrastructures," said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer.

"But economic turmoil, political tension and high unemployment in some European countries and high levels of unemployment have continued to be problematic in the region." Canadian cities dominated rankings in the Americas region, with Vancouver at number five retaining

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"The city is so international... I have been waiting for buses and heard over 10 languages being spoken at one stop.�

the top spot and Honolulu at 28 the most pleasant U.S. urban centre.

New Zealand's Auckland at number three is still atop the Asia Pacific region's charts, while Dubai at 73 gets best marks in the Middle East and Africa. But that region also has 15 cities in the bottom 20, including Lagos, Nigeria; Bamako, Mali; Khartoum, Sudan; and N'Djamena, Chad. Iraq's capital Baghdad was ranked lowest in the world. "The ongoing turmoil in many countries across North Africa and the Middle East has led to serious security issues for locals and expatriates," Parakatil said. "Many countries continue to experience violence through political demonstrations that have sometimes developed into massive uprisings and led to serious instability within the region." This is a far cry from Vienna, which has held the top spot in the Mercer rankings since 2009.

Yet the city is not without complaints.

Jennifer Stepper, an American designer who has lived in Vienna for 18 years, noted that visiting friends often comment about how unfriendly waiters and shopkeepers are. But it no longer bothers her. "Now I realise it is just the way of the Viennese. Like the rest of us, they have their quirks."

page 35

NUTRITION

8 Power Fruits

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Not all fruits have been created equal. What makes some fruits, power fruits? Their special antioxidant content, of course.

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Antioxidant foods rich foods have many health promoting properties like enhanced blood flow, boost healthy cholesterol levels, help reduce blood pressure, protect skin from aging and cancer, and protect eyes from free radical damage reduce inflammatory symptoms. Her are the top 8 fruits that are richest in antioxidants.

Pomegranate:

Watermelon:

Antioxidants in pomegranate help reduces cholesterol plaque buildup and increases nitric oxide production that reduces arterial plaque. Pomegranate juice contains anthocyanins that strengthen the walls of the tiny blood vessels that supply nutrients to the skin.

Watermelon is rich in antioxidants Vitamin C and Vitamin A / beta-carotene, lycopene that help reduce risk of heart disease as they prevent free radicals from oxidizing cholesterol. Cholesterol once oxidized sticks to blood vessel walls causing atherosclerosis, which may lead to heart attack or stroke.

Papaya:

Plums:

Papaya is rich in 3 powerful antioxidants Vitamin C, Vitamin E and carotenoids that help prevent the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Fiber in papaya helps reduce high cholesterol levels. Papaya also contains other heart healthy nutrients like flavonoids, Vitamin B5, folates, potassium and magnesium.

Plums rich in Vitamin C deliver help reduce risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer. Vitamin C helps neutralize free radicals that contribute to the progression of conditions like colon cancer, asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Guava: Guava is rich in natural antioxidants that play a crucial role in preventing cellular damage, which is a common reason for aging, cancer and several degenerative diseases. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant found in guava, tomatoes, watermelon, papaya, chikoo, figs, apricots, berries and pink grapefruit.

Mango:

Apple: Flavonoids in apples are powerful antioxidants. Flavonoids protect your heart by preventing cell damage caused by free radicals. Eat Apples with their skin or pulpy apple juice as flavonoids are found in the pulp and the skin of apple.

Pineapple: Pineapples are rich in Vitamin C that is a powerful antioxidant. Vitamin C helps reduce risk of heart disease as it prevents free radicals from oxidizing cholesterol.

Cholesterol once oxidized sticks to blood vessel walls causing plaques, which may lead to heart attack or stroke.

Antioxidant Vitamin C also helps reduce the severity of symptoms that occur in asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis by neutralizing free radicals.

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Mango is rich in many antioxidants. 0.5 cup of Mango gives about 0.7 mg of Vitamin E. Antioxidants like Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Vitamin B3, Selenium and Glutathione, help fight against oxidative stress caused by free radicals within our bodies which if not neutralized may lead to diseases such as atherosclerosis and cancer.

page 37

INTERNSHIP

Lessons for Students & Entrepreneurs, From a Young Entrepreneur

He is just 26 years of age. But the wisdom that Rishabh packs in is enormous. Meet the founder of blockbuster Indian startup, LetsIntern.com, that is not just making money, but helping tens of thousands of college students.

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ishabh Gupta is a young entrepreneur who is helping the country's graduates find jobs, internships and more.

Here, he offers advice to budding entrepreneurs and young graduates on how to make the most of their career.

Let'sintern.com is a unique platform that brings together three important stakeholders in the country - students, colleges and corporate organisations.

Founded in April 2010, the start-up was awarded the ET's Power of Ideas title the same year it was incepted. Recently, it also earned a grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Today, the organisation comprises an active team of 26 members with offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. In this interview, Rishabh Gupta, CEO and cofounder of letsintern.com, shares his experiences as a young entrepreneur and offers valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and fresh graduates.

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What motivated you to quit your job and become an entrepreneur?

I have always had the desire to start my own organisation. Add to this the herd mentality, poor innovation and boss pleasing that is prevalent in big organisations. After working for two years with three different media houses, I realised it was time to create something of my own. My partners and I wanted to turn our dreams into reality and make a difference to society. That's

how we decided to quit our jobs and start a business of our own.

Why did you decide on 'Let's Intern' as a business idea?

Well, there are about 12 million students and about two million organisations, with no dedicated platform for these two parties to interact. This proves that the opportunities in this field are obvious, huge and needs attention. We are glad we decided to cater to the needs of students because India's growth story depends on the youth. Through letsintern.com, we are able to be in the centre of it all.

What challenges did you face while starting a company at the age of 24?

When we started out, we had no money, no great backgrounds and no idea on how a business is done. We couldn't afford anything, so we begged, pleaded and persuaded people to do stuff for us for token money or free. We learnt everything step by step. I heard more NOs from clients and investors than I did from girls in school and college. In all, it was a very exciting but tough time.

We learnt to enjoy the rejections and kept moving forward. Movement is all that you can show when you are that young.

How has winning the 'Power of Ideas' impacted your business?

Winning the 'Power of Ideas' gave us the platform, money, recognition, investor interest and everything else. If

the IIM-Ahmedabad gives an average student immense opportunities in terms of a job, 'Power of Ideas' gave us the same thing in the business world. We had the opportunity to talk to the best investors, mentors and entrepreneurs.

The entire process was a good learning experience.

What role has social media played in the success of your product?

Social media is the only marketing tool that we had for the first nine months.

Social media is free, viral and present everywhere. Our entire target group, which is college students, is always on it. Therefore, it was a perfect match. We have 22,000 + followers on Facebook and Twitter, all of whom are genuine, obtained through word of mouth and without spending a dime.

Why should students opt for 'let's intern' over any other platform?

Do you remember your first internship experience?

Yes, it was with the Mudra Group and I do remember it well. I was 20 years old and I worked really hard for those two months. In fact, my bosses still remember me and are always willing to employ me. It was a fun time and the only thing I did was be desperate to prove myself, do more and learn more.

What should young students keep in mind while they're looking for internships?

There are three things students should keep in mind: Firstly, take an opportunity rather than sitting at home doing nothing. Nobody sat at home and became anything, doing the smallest job is better than doing nothing. Working for free is better than not working as a student.Secondly, be desperate to learn, to work across functions, and gather as much knowledge. Don't try to be specialists in internships - be generalists. Thirdly, try to do varied internships to understand what you are good at, what you like, etc. Experiment more.

Your advice to budding entrepreneurs...

Just believe in your instincts and start.

Always think of three things always with respect to your business: a) What value am I adding to the consumer? b)What is my cash situation? and c) How am I

different from my competition?

Please share some advice on how young graduates can make the most of their college life...

Firstly, start young. Sportsmen, musicians, and other similar professionals make a lot of money in their 20's as they have been practicing their art since they were five or seven.

So after 15 to 20 years of hard work, they make millions and it takes anyone that much time. Thus, spend time from day one to further your dream, career interest and be desperate for opportunities and learning. Secondly, indulge in good company. An organisation is defined by its people.

Similarly you alone can't succeed and will need people around you to challenge you, compete with, work along with and develop new ideas. The sharper the brains around you or better the people around you, the better the chances that you will also succeed. All leaders stress on surrounding oneself with the best talent around. Thirdly, learn to take the first step. Thinking how to make one billion dollars or be as famous as Richard Branson is daunting, scary almost. It keeps you lost in day dreams. Think of the first step your favourite idol took and take the first step start a student magazine, start an internship, start working, thinking and moving forward to your goal. The rest of the journey to your billions will unfold along the way. Next should come the realization that people make money, money doesn't make people. No amount of money will make you a different person. It will help you buy expensive clothes but cannot change your style.

Don't chase money - all the money in the world will take you nowhere as a person, it will just make you more insecure. Learn to be the person worthy of the money - and you will earn more and stay on top. And lastly, be friends with geeks. The most popular kid isn't the most successful. Be friends with everyone, you never know who could become tomorrow's CEO - people change a lot in a decade - look back at your last ten years and you will find out yourself.

(Courtesy: YouthIncMag)

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Which other platform boasts of internships from stellar start-ups plus SMEs (small and medium enterprises) plus blue chips like Times Group, HCL, Viacom, MTV, Channel V, Outlook, fashion designers, movie houses, advertising houses, etc? The variety and quality of opportunities provided by letsintern.com is unmatchable.

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P R O D I G Y

Meet the 9 Year Old Keralite Boy Attending College in USA

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hat Tanishq is a prodigy would be an understatement. The youngster it seems can't stop giggling even when he gives dense subject talks to students more than double his age.

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Tanishq Abraham, 9, has already completed one third of the credits needed for a college degree at the American River College in Sacramento, California. The college allows him only to be a part-time student, though he desperately wants to be a full-time student. Tanishq attracted intense media attention after he joined the Mensa programme for gifted children at the age of four-and-half years. He was recently featured on the premiere episode of Prodigies, a new bi-weekly YouTube series 'showcasing the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights.' "I like particle physics, antimatter, the fate of the universe and the Big Bang," he said in the video. It got a quarter million hits and lots of media publicity, both good and bad, according to his mother Dr Taji Abraham, a doctor of veterinary medicine. His father Bijou Abraham is a software professional. In the last two years since Tanishq started to attend college, he finished two subjects each semester. More subjects are not allowed. He has already completed astronomy, geology, and biotechnology. He sits with students twice his age and earns straight 'A's in all subjects. He topped the class in astronomy and geology. Of the 60 units needed for an associate degree, he has completed 24 so far. In the class, he sits with other students while his mother sits in the back. "Initially the students thought I am the student and Tanishq came with me," Taji said. "When they knew that Tanishq was the student, they were surprised and curious." When

By the time he was 7, Tanishq had published essays about astronomy on NASA's Lunar Science Website. some of the videos not fit for children to watch are shown in classes, she will ask him to close his eyes. Tanishq tapes the lectures as he is not good at writing by hand. He told that while writing essays was most difficult, typing is no problem. "Tanishq is a very sociable person and he is not shy. At 7, he was giving lectures to others," Taji said. By then he had published essays about astronomy on NASA's Lunar Science Website. The media is not always kind, Taji said. A recent New York Times article criticised her, asking why she was letting him take on such an academic load. Others said that children ought not to be in college. "We don't mind the criticism," Taji said. "We are parents and we should take care of our children. We know their needs. He is happy going to college and studying there." In Tanishq's case, rather than the parents pushing him, it is the other way around, said Bijou Abraham. The family does not receive any financial support, even though Tanishq's younger sister Tiara is also a child prodigy who got into Mensa at the same age as he did.

At times, Tiara tests Tanishq's knowledge in various subjects, the parents said. The parents saw their children's special skills when they were about two-and-a-half years old. At age 4.5, Tanishq was tested, and he scored in the 99.9 percentile on the standardised intelligence test and was inducted into Mensa - an organisation for people with an IQ of 148 and above, or in the top two per cent of the population. "He's a real asset," Professor Stephen Sterling, Tanishq's physical geology instructor, was quoted as saying. "He's the top student. The students love him and look up to him because they respect him (as they would) a peer." In a clip on USA Today's Web site, Tanisqhq is shown giggling when he says, "Once I was giving a geology talk, and at the end somebody asked me for my autograph!"

According to Dr Paulo Alfonso, another professor who taught astronomy and who is also in the video, "He ended up in the class being the student with the highest grade. How many people at the age of seven or eight can discuss the expansion of the universe? He is different in a positive way." Tanishq is at the middle school level though he and his sister have been home-schooled.

Their parents teach them and once a month the charter school officials come and check the status. The children do not want to go to school with other children. They tried it earlier, but found that neither other students nor teachers were kind to them. Home-schooling has not affected their social skills, Taji said, adding that she spends all her time with the children. Both children know Hindi and watch Hindi movies frequently. To their surprise, Tanishq knows his mother tongue, Malayalam, though they have not taught him nor use it frequently at home. Tanishq wants to be many things, though the preference is for being a scientist, discovering something big.

(By George Joseph)

By Carl Jaison

C R I C K E T

icky Ponting didn’t need anyone to tell him that he was in bad form. He knew it. But everything he did in the past was forgotten as an expectant crowd expected Punter to leave on a high. The ex-captain had announced that the Perth Test was his last and managed to score only four runs in the first innings.

In the second, he walked out to a guard of honour, treated us with one last cracking pull shot and then edged

Robin Peterson to Jacques Kallis at first slip. And before he crossed the boundary line, he looked back one last time, and when he walked back to the pavilion, he had every right to believe that he is one of cricket’s greats.

Ricky ‘Punter’ Ponting will forever be remembered as one of the toughest and shrewdest competitors of the game, with an eye for aggression and calculated risk-taking. He is widely acclaimed as one of the all-time triumphant cricket captains, having

Ricky Ponting's Test career ends with 8 runs in final innings-Picture.

RICKY Ponting's decorated international career is over after being dismissed for eight in his 168th and final Test.

admirably led Australia to a whopping 48 test victories, 162 ODI victories, with a victory rate as high as 75.74%.

He skippered the Kangaroos to a mindboggling 16 consecutive test victories and 25 successive matches in the ODI World Cup. He, enviably, holds the proud record of most ODI WC titles two - along with West Indian captain, Clive Lloyd.

Though his savvy character attracted countless foes, Ponting remains wellrespected around the cricketing circle for his unflustered acumen to prevail even during the trickiest situations. His caliber is unquestionable as the Australian maestro has accumulated runs all over the globe, amassing 13056 runs in 162 test appearances and 13288 runs in 359 ODI outings in the process of reaping a total of 71 centuries and 139 half-centuries. But, interestingly, India was never a happy hunting ground for the talismanic skipper.

Ponting is an aggressive competitor, as manifested in his on-field conduct.

According to former Australian captain Allan Border, what you see with Ponting is what you get, and “he wears his heart on his sleeve”. Border also noted that Ponting has an abundance of determination, courage and skill.

However, his competitive attitudes can be overly aggressive, pushing the boundaries of cricket etiquette.

Ponting has often been criticized for his lack of imagination in his captaincy, though many players who played under him say he is a good leader. According to former Australian opening batsman Justin Langer, “He is quite inspirational as a leader and I just never get all the detractors he has. Whether it’s in the fielding practice, the nets, the way he holds himself off the field - every time he speaks, these young guys just listen, they hang on to every word he says.

Ponting is an aggressive right-handed batsman known for playing a wide

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

Ponting Shows How to Retire Gracefully at 37

page 41

repertoire of shots with confidence.

However, he is sometimes technically questioned for shuffling across his stumps and being trapped leg before wicket, and thrusting his bat away from his body - especially early in his innings. Despite being widely renowned as the best player of the hook and pull shots in the world, Ponting is equally adept on both the front and back foot. He has been perceived to have trouble against quality spin, especially against Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has dismissed Ponting on 13 occasions in International cricket, as of August 2010, thereby being termed as the ‘bunny’ of the former. His fielding skills has received widespread acclaim from all quarters, many suggesting that he may be, arguably, rated as the best fielder in the world, usually stationed at slip, cover, and silly-point fielding positions. Ponting is known to be a live-wire on the field often inflicting run-outs with direct hits.

However, the only blot in a rather illustrious career was his dubious record of having captained Australia in 3 humiliating Ashes defeat; 2005, 2009 and 2011, the first instance being Australia’s first Ashes series loss since 1987. While his blade has sparkled, his stewardship is pock-marked by three Ashes defeats - two in England and one at home.

Nevertheless, it is only fitting that the star batsman is given a memorable adieu. Who can forget the hurricane century he scored in the 2003 WC Final against India, to deprive the latter of a second WC title, bludgeoning 8 sixes enroute to an unbeaten 140 of just 121 balls. At a venue - The Wanderers, Johannesburg - that the pundits call the Bullring, the Indians were well and truly gored.

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H E A L T H

Why Potato Chips and French Fries Might Cause Cancer?

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The culprit is acrylamide, and foods high in this carcinogen include the re-constituted potato chips that children are so fond of.

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starchy foods in the North American diet.

Their results were as follows: Put another way, the amount of acrylamide found in a large order of French fries at a fast food restaurant is at least three hundred times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency allows in a glass of drinking water. “I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americans,” said Clark University research professor Dale Hattis. Hattis, an expert in risk analysis, based his estimate on standard EPA projections of risks from animal studies and limited acrylamide is listed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a chemical known to cause cancer. Tests conducted by the Environmental Law Foundation indicated that these potato chip brands “far exceeded the levels requiring warning labels under California law.” Specifically, they noted that “Cape Cod Robust Russet potato chips exceeded the required warning level by 910 times, while Kettle Chips Lightly Salted chips exceeded the level by 505 times.”

Regardless of how this most recent legal battle goes, we are already well aware of the strong link between acrylamide consumption and risk of developing cancer. Please remember that raw or boiled potatoes test negative or very low for acrylamide. Acrylamide is formed in substantial quantities when starchy foods

Food

Serving

Acrylamide (mcg)

McDonalds French Fries, large Burger King French Fries, large KFC Potato Wedges, Jumbo Wendy’s French Fries, Biggie Ore Ida French Fries (baked) Pringles Potato Crisps Fritos Corn Chips Cheerios Honey Nut Cheerios Boiled Potatoes Water

6.2 oz.

5.7 oz.

6.2 oz.

5.6 oz.

3 oz.

1 oz.

1 oz.

1 oz.

1 oz.

4 oz.

8 oz.

82 59 52 39 28 25 11 7 6 less than 3 0.12 (EPA limit)

are fried or baked at high temperatures.

The bottom line is that we should minimize consumption of French fries and potato chips. So the next time that circumstances lead you to McDonalds, do yourself a favor and avoid French Fries.

Better yet, have a salad from their lighter choices menu.

Here are answers to a few common questions on acrylamide: What other foods are high in acrylamide and should be avoided?

According to a report written by a joint committee between the World Health Organization and the United Nations in February 2005, the following foods contain significant amounts of acrylamide, ranked from highest to lowest:

1. Coffee extracts 2. Coffee substitutes 3. Potato chips 4. Decaffeinated coffee 5. Breads and rolls 6. Pastries and cookies 7. French fries 8. Green tea made from roasted leaves 9. Ground, instant, or roasted coffee 10. Baby food (biscuits) 11. Baked potato 12. Breakfast cereals Should we avoid starchy foods that are fried or baked at a “high” temperature, such as french fries and potato chips. I wasjust wondering exactly what constitutes a “high” temperature. Is eating a baked potato, or ovenbaked potato wedges okay?

Significant amounts of acrylamide can be formed when foods - particularly plant foods that are high in carbohydrates and low in protein - are cooked beyond 120 degrees Celsius. It is better for your health to eat steamed and boiled potatoes with a healthy dressing than it is to eat any varieties of baked or fried potatoes. Please keep in mind that our bodies are exposed to harmful substances daily, and are equipped to deal with most of them and keep us as healthy as possible. The takehome message is to avoid eating French

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re French fries the worst item on the menu at fast food restaurants. Sure, coca cola, processed cheese, and factory farmed meats aren’t much better. But what is it about deep-fried potatoes that makes them so harmful to health? They are loaded with trans fats, known to cause immune system depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, sterility, birth defects, decreased ability to produce breast milk, loss of vision, and weakening of your bones and muscles. French fries are also high in acrylamide, a carcinogen that is found in starchy foods that have been fried or baked at high temperatures. The World Health Organization first began to look at the dangers of acrylamide in 2002 after the publication of a study in Sweden that linked acrylamide consumption with cancer. Since then, independent studies in the United States, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and England have confirmed the link between acrylamide consumption and risk of developing cancer. A few months after the original report came out of Sweden, The Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, DC did its own study on the acrylamide content of the most common

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fries, potato chips, and other foods high in acrylamide daily.

Administration released the results of its latest research on the acrylamide content of common foods. The top 20 foods by average acrylamide intake by the U.S. population are as follows:

Is it just the action of heating the starches themselves, whether they be baked or fried, that causes the acrylamide byproduct, or does it matter which starch it is, and if fried, what kind of oil it is fried in?

As of yet, not enough research has been done to answer this question definitively. What we do know is that the two most significant factors that influence acrylamide formation are length of cooking time and cooking temperature. Longer cooking time and higher cooking temperature increase chances of acrylamide formation.

Are the organic corn tortilla chips and the like made not by big corporations, but by smaller, known “good, healthy brands” any different? I know they mostly contain unhealthful polyunsaturated oils. But, what if they were made with, say, palm or coconut oil, would the acrylamide still be a byproduct?

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Reports by the WHO, UN, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest do not specifically list any numbers for corn products. Beyond cooking time and temperature, the amount of acrylamide that can be formed in carbohydrate-rich foods depends on how much sugar and asparagine (an amino acid) are present in the foods in question. Both organic and non-organic

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Dale Hattis

“I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americans,” said Clark University research professor Dale Hattis. corn contain significant amounts of both, so are definitely susceptible to acrylamide formation when heated beyond 120 degrees Celsius. The type of oil used to cook organic or nonorganic corn should not impact how much acrylamide is formed.

Does the same warning go for organic whole grain crackers that have surely been processed at high heat, and products like them, as well?

Unfortunately, organic and non-organic whole grain crackers that have been baked at high temperatures can come with significant amounts of acrylamide.

Certainly not as much as potato chips, French fries, and coffee do, but enough to cause health problems if consumed in large quantities and on a regular basis.

If you’re going to enjoy a handful of whole grain crackers a couple of times a week, try having them with a fresh, homemade salsa or guacamole. The phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals found in fresh vegetables and fruits can increase the strength of your immune system and possibly provide protection against the genotoxic and neurotoxic properties of acrylamide. In July of 2006, the United States Food and Drug

1. French Fries (made in restaurants) 2. French Fries (oven baked) 3. Potato Chips 4. Breakfast Cereals 5. Cookies 6. Brewed Coffee 7. Toast 8. Pies and Cakes 9. Crackers 10. Soft Bread 11. Chile con Carne 12. Corn Snacks 13. Popcorn 14. Pretzels 15. Pizza 16. Burrito/Tostada 17. Peanut Butter 18. Breaded Chicken 19. Bagels 20. Soup Mix Acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in animals. Exposure to large doses of acrylamide has also been shown to cause neurological damage in humans. Acrylamide tends to form when foods that are high in carbohydrates and/or an amino acid called asparagine are cooked at high temperatures.

Cooking methods that tend to require high temperatures - like frying, roasting, and baking - are more likely to cause acrylamide formation in food. Noncooked and boiled foods almost never contain detectable levels of acrylamide.

The top two food groups listed above French fries and potato chips - are two of the most damaging foods to human health. Despite the creation of “healthy” varieties of French fries and potato chips like New York Fries - Fried in 100% Non-Hydrogenated Sunflower Oil and Trader Joe’s Veggie Chips Potato Snacks, it’s important to know that all French fries and potato chips that have been deep-fried in oil are heavily laced with acrylamide and pose a significant threat to one’s health.

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C A R E E R

Don't Say These 10 Things, And that Dream Job Would be Yours Loads and loads have been said and written about what to specifically say in interviews. But more important, often, are what not to say. Here is a quick list:

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re you searching for a promising career option but find yourself struggling at the interview stage? Getting the right job isn't a cakewalk. Of course, you can't fully control the outcome of your prospective job interview, but you can definitely step up your preparations and use it to your advantage. Before appearing for the job interview, you must not only pay heed to the things you must do but also be aware of the things you must avoid for your own good.

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1. Avoid Giving Wrong Answers Sometimes, due to nervousness, a student ends up giving a lot of wrong answers. Many individuals land up giving wrong answers due to the mysterious and intimidating atmosphere created by the interviewer. This ruins your chances of getting the desired job.

But, if you have prepared well for the interview, the experience can actually be fun and informative. For that, you need to practice by giving a lot of interviews and getting accustomed to different scenarios that you might confront during a job interview.

Remember that being truthful, admitting your ignorance about a difficult question, is better than a wrong answer.

2. Never Show Your Interest in Money Money is of course one of the prime motivations. But you must never ask the interviewer about the salary that would be offered to you. Some candidates ask the salary question midway or even before their interview begins. This is a very discouraging, as it shows that all you are interested in is the money.

Instead, you must wait for the employer to open up the subject. Also you must ask around and check with other professionals, besides researching the salary that is being offered in your profession in your city and other organisations before even bringing it up on your own.

3. Never Ignore the Homework and Blurt Out Blunders About the Company It is highly unprofessional to appear for an interview without knowing about the company's background and its market presence. You must assimilate information from as many sources as possible. Read the company website and journals thoroughly beforehand.

4. Avoid Using Slang Words and Phrases You must never use slang words or

5. Do Not Say selfish Ideas Asking questions like - "What is the holiday policy or other incentives like bonuses or promotions?" - in the first stage of your interview is a sign that you are selfish. Interviewers like confident people but they do not like people who are selfish and give priority to perks and benefits. You must avoid asking these questions till the last stage of recruitment. No doubt, these questions are important but asking them in the initial stages of the interview can serve disadvantageous.

6. Never Blame Others You must never grumble. Whether it is being late for the interview or lower grades in your graduation, you must never blame others. This should be your policy even when facts are on your side.

Although every one loves a healthy argument, do not stretch it too far.

Companies value candidates who will move on responsibly forward without fixing blame on others. As a fresher, you must be able to convince the employers that you are a responsible person and

You must never grumble. Whether it is being late for the interview or lower grades in your graduation, you must never blame others.

can take credit for your failures.

7. Try Not to be Stereotypical About Others Never convey that you are stereotypical about certain issues. Therefore, while referring to a certain gender, nationality, religion or diversity, don't use any slangs or abusive terms. Rather, show respect towards all irrespective of caste, creed, colour or gender.

8. Your Communication Shouldn't be Passive Your words must reflect a passion and enthusiasm towards the job. If you are given an opportunity to ask questions, you must use it to your advantage. This is where you utilise your research and knowledge. Before appearing for the interview, ensure that you have prepared at least three questions for your prospective employer.

9. Don't Speak and Act Pushy The job might be your dream job and just perfect for you, but you must not waste time in proving to the employer that this is the job you always wanted.

Instead, you must try to prove to the employer that you are the right person for the job without being pushy. Show what YOU have to contribute to the job and not what the job has for you. Talk about your skills, strengths and achievements.

10. Don't Say You have No Weaknesses Questions on your strengths and weaknesses are part of every job interview. Whenever you are asked this question, you must never say that you don't have any weaknesses. If you say that, the employer assumes that you are either lying or you are not trying to improve or think about yourself.

Rather, when you talk about your weaknesses, also add what you are doing to overcome it. Similarly, you can always mention about the skills you are still learning and developing.

Besides the ones mentioned above, you must always try to be honest and appear confident, leaving an affirmative impression on the employer.

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phrases in an interview. Remember that it is not a casual conversation between friends or family. You must never appear informal in your conversation, rather always try to be formal and grammatically correct while communicating.

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STRATEGY

How Strategists are Different

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By being meaning-makers and by being the voice of reason, argues Cynthia Montgomery, Professor at Harvard Business School.

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n this article, Harvard Business School Professor Cynthia Montgomery discusses how a strategist leads. At the heart of her argument is a simple observation: it is the strategist who must make the vital choices that determine a company’s very identity, who says, “This is our purpose, not that.

This is who we will be. This is why our customers and clients will prefer a world with us rather than one without us.” Being a meaning maker plays out in the strategist’s role as a voice of reason in the face of overconfidence and when working as an operator, bridging the gap between strategy and operations. While Montgomery does not address CFOs specifically, these are roles that will ring true for these leaders, who bring hard data and sound analytics to the discussion. Of particular interest is her discussion of overconfidence, which she encounters among executive-level decision makers facing the bigger investments that help define the business—and that can make or break a company:

experienced ones, get tripped up: they become so interested in the potential of new ventures, for example, that they underestimate harsh competitive realities or overlook how interrelated strategy and execution are. I’ve also learned, in conversations between class sessions (as well as in my work as a board director and corporate adviser), about the limits of analysis, the importance of being ready to reinvent a business, and the ongoing responsibility of leading strategy. All of this learning speaks to the role of the strategist—as a meaning maker for companies, as a voice of reason, and as an operator. The richness of these roles, and their deep interconnections, underscore the fact that strategy is much more than a detached analytical exercise. Analysis has merit, to be sure, but it will never make strategy the vibrant core that animates everything a company is and does.

Seven years ago, I changed the focus of my strategy teaching at the Harvard Business School. After instructing MBAs for most of the previous quartercentury, I began teaching the accomplished executives and entrepreneurs who participate in Harvard’s flagship programs for business owners and leaders. Shifting the center of my teaching to executive education changed the way I teach and write about strategy. I’ve been struck by how often executives, even

I’ve taken to asking executives to list three words that come to mind when they hear the word strategy.

Collectively, they have produced 109 words, frequently giving top billing to plan, direction, and competitive advantage. In more than 2,000 responses, only 2 had anything to do with people: one said leadership, another visionary. No one has ever mentioned strategist. Downplaying the link between a leader and a strategy, or failing to recognize it at all, is a

The Strategist as Meaning Maker

dangerous oversight that I tried to start remedying in a Harvard Business Review article four years ago and in my new book, The Strategist, whose thinking this article extends. After all, defining what an organization will be, and why and to whom that will matter, is at the heart of a leader’s role. Those who hope to sustain a strategic perspective must be ready to confront this basic challenge. It is perhaps easiest to see in single-business companies serving well-defined markets and building business models suited to particular competitive contexts. I know from experience, though, that the challenge is equally relevant at the top of diversified multinationals. What is it, after all, that makes the whole of a company greater than the sum of its parts—and how do its systems and processes add value to the businesses within the fold? Nobel laureate Ronald Coase posed the problem this way: “The question which arises is whether it is possible to study the forces which determine the size of the firm. Why does the entrepreneur not organize one less transaction or one more?” These are largely the same questions: are the extra layers what justifies the existence of this complex firm? If so, why can’t the market take care of such transactions on its own?

If there’s more to a company’s story, what is it, really? In the last three decades, as strategy has moved to become a science, we have allowed these fundamental questions to slip away. We need to bring them back. It is the leader—the strategist as meaning maker—who must make the vital

The Strategist as Voice of Reason Bold, visionary leaders who have the confidence to take their companies in exciting new directions are widely admired—and confidence is a key part of strategy and leadership. But confidence can balloon into over confidence, which seems to come naturally to many successful entrepreneurs and senior managers who see themselves as action-oriented problem solvers. I see overconfidence in senior executives in class when I ask them to weigh the pros and cons of entering the furniture-manufacturing business. Over the years, a number of highly regarded, well-run companies— including Beatrice Foods, Burlington Industries, Champion, Consolidated Foods, General Housewares, Gulf + Western, Intermark, Ludlow, Masco, Mead, and Scott Paper—have tried to find fortune in the business, which traditionally has been characterized by high transportation costs, low productivity, eroding prices, slow growth, and low returns. It’s also been highly fragmented. In the mid-1980s, for example, more than 2,500 manufacturers competed, with 80 percent of sales coming from the biggest 400 of them. Substitutes abound, and there is a lot of competition for the customer’s dollar.

Competitors quickly knock off innovations and new designs, and the industry is riddled with inefficiencies, extreme product variety, and long lead times that frustrate customers.

Consumer research shows that many adults can’t name a single furniture brand. The industry does little advertising. By at least a two-to-one margin, the senior executives in my classes typically are energized, not intimidated, by these challenges. Most argue, in effect, that where there’s challenge there’s opportunity. If it were an easy business, they say, someone else would already have seized the opportunity; this is a chance to bring money, sophistication, and discipline to a fragmented, unsophisticated, and chaotic industry. As the list above

shows, my students are far from alone: with great expectations and high hopes of success, a number of well-managed companies over the years have jumped in with the intention of reshaping the industry through the infusion of professional management. All those companies, though, have since left the business—providing an important reminder that the competitive forces at work in your industry determine some (and perhaps much) of your company’s performance. These competitive forces are beyond the control of most individual companies and their managers. They’re what you inherit, a reality you have to deal with. It’s not that a company can never change them, but in most cases that’s very difficult to do. The strategist must understand such forces, how they affect the playing field where competition takes place, and the likelihood that his or her plan has what it takes to flourish in those circumstances. Crucial, of course, is having a difference that matters in the industry. In furniture—an industry ruled more by fashion than function— it’s extremely challenging to uncover an advantage strong enough to counter the gravitational pull of the industry’s unattractive competitive forces. IKEA did it, but not by disregarding industry forces; rather, the company created a new niche for itself and brought a new economic model to the furniture industry. A leader must serve as a voice of reason when a bold strategy to reshape an industry’s forces actually reflects indifference to them.

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choices that determine a company’s very identity, who says, “This is our purpose, not that. This is who we will be. This is why our customers and clients will prefer a world with us rather than without us.” Others, inside and outside a company, will contribute in meaningful ways, but in the end it is the leader who bears responsibility for the choices that are made and indeed for the fact that choices are made at all.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

7 Challenges to Overcome in Scaling A

Small Business

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to a Mega Business

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There’s a plethora of success stories of mega corporations - from Google to Apple to Infosys to Tata - on their genetic code and on how they operate. There’s also a lot of glamorous coverage on start-ups and start-up leaders. We hear of the best practices and management learning from successful large Enterprises, and we also have a plenty of advice for the Start-up leaders. However, the fact remains that only a miniscule number of all promising start-ups actually break-through to the big league. And for those who do, the script of their painful and paradoxical journey is often oversimplified or just plain uncovered. And one of the most important aspects of such successful transformations - from a successful start-up to a mega-business - lies in whether entrepreneurs are able to successfully transform the genetic code of the organisation. Entrepreneurs and start-up leaders that are successful in the jump-start phase are so because of certain effective habits that they either have or have developed during the initial phase. However, the same habits, if carried forward too long become counterproductive to scaling-up for their businesses. The main reason being that once the business is off the ground, it’s not about the entrepreneur any more, but about the engine that propels the business. Also, entrepreneurs may find it harder to adapt because of the early successes. It’s tempting to think that the same characteristics that brought them a string of successes can continue to play their part as the business grows. And unfortunately, they cannot just bring in a new leadership to take over and do this for them. They have to start with themselves - precisely for the tremendous zeal with which they brought the organisation to where it is - and, then infuse new leadership accordingly if needed.

Let’s look at 7 such habits, why they are great for start-up and how they become counter-productive for scaling.

1) Too Much Creativity Entrepreneurs and startup-partners are adept at figuring complex situations out, and to find simplistic “anything that works” solutions to keep going through the grind of early stages. That is one trait that’s critical early on when one has to contend with perennial set of challenges with minimal resources. However, this tendency, over time has to give way to intellectual freedom for others in the organisation and also a more systematic set of problem solving techniques for the organisation to scale. Consistency and Repeatability are important for scaling organisations. The ability to simplify the complex situations is a great trait in general. However, as the growth requirements demands scaling up, business faces more complex problems posed by variety of employees and customers across the spectrum. A process and systems driven approach is called for, and while that doesn’t have to yield to a

2) Too Much Adaptability Successful entrepreneurs and founderpromoters are masters at adapting on the fly. Early on, this is important because most times the foundations of the business are not validated with the real markets and real customers.

Ability to change the direction as required by the market is important in the early stages, even at the strategic level. This “Pivoting” is becoming even more critical in the fast paced technology environment, especially in the consumer markets where one cannot always be sure of the right combination of the product, pricing,

positioning and promotional approaches. This dynamic thinking, earlier on, helps validate multiple hypotheses built into the business model. One pivots as fast as one can, and as often as one can, until a successful combination emerges or until one runs out of resources.

However, once the business model is validated and organisation is set to run in one direction, this tendency to shout the marching orders down the hall becomes unproductive because other leaders find it difficult to fall in line at the drop of the hat. This can get chaotic pretty quickly. This argument against “too much agility”, however, should not be confused with the agility required to be watchful in a fast paced environment, where an empowered team would be able to pinpoint a change in trends and be able to adapt quickly to changing business conditions. The tendency that needs to be curbed is the one where the decisions are made at the drop of the hat without due consideration to how the organisation needs to change in

short term as well as longer term in response to a changing situations on the ground. And, more importantly, not to disrupt the process of building the operationally efficient organisation in the business that is on path to scale.

3) Too Much Ownership An entrepreneur and his or her partners takes pride in taking the winning shot.

It’s not just the pride or ego, but a sense of duty and sense of right, mixed in one. When the stakes are high, it’s abnormal to think of delegating the authority (looked upon as responsibility). However, this tendency gets deeply embedded in routine decisions. Unless a systematic transition to delegation and transfer of ownership happens, the organisation remains a single-cylinder engine. A scaling organisation requires empowerment and that cannot come from “just assignment of responsibility” but through the “true delegation of authority and freedom to take important decisions”. However, what also happens is that by the time the realisation to build an empowered team strikes, the entrepreneurs find themselves surrounded by other leaders who are too habitual to take the orders and are unable to devise the strategy on their own. It’s not a matter of competency in most cases, but the way the business leaders get wired into working in a certain way, and looking up for directions. They also get into a habit of kicking the issues and conflicts upstairs that makes the organisation slower to respond to urgencies on the ground. Scaling organisations require the founders to let go of the sense of control and ownership, and empower the team in true sense.

4) Too Little Branding The initial thrust in business comes from the reputation and credibility of the founders. This leads to a cycle of further boost of personal branding, further resulting into more business driven in such a manner and so on. It very quickly reaches a point where the Business and the Entrepreneur become

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more cumbersome and rigid process driven organisation, still a more structured approach to handling the commonly confronted situations is required so that people at various tiers can operate on their own at operational level. Hence, the “Jugaad” tendencies have to give way to more structured operations.

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synonymous to each other. While that is great initially, an organisation looking to scale into a mega-business needs to balance the company objectives against individual objectives earlier than later. In other words, the leaders need to put the organisational goals ahead of personal goals. Even as there is little doubt that success of the company is a passionate personal goal for start-up leaders, the way it happens most times is by putting their personal whims and fancies, and branding, in the back seat, and let the organisation harness the power of people at all levels. The earlier it is done the better.

Entrepreneurs that are more focused to the longer term scaling of the business need to ensure that the business or the product is branded explicitly with bigger intensity than the owners of the company. In fact, this is regarded as one of the five paradoxes of successful product business. And this remains one of the things that are difficult to fix quickly since branding takes time and change of stance in branding from personal to business is often tough unless done from the initial stages.

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5) Too Much Juggling

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An early stage of a start-up requires the founding-partners to juggle a lot of balls at once, making them habitual jugglers. It’s an invaluable trait to be able to juggle priorities, handle multiple things at ones across functions, to be able to venture into the unknowns and come out stronger.

Great start-ups are known to thrive on minimal resources and require the leaders to be able to act on multiple initiatives at the same time, almost to the point of craziness. This, however, gets deeply embedded in the habitual code as “uneasiness” and “impatience” with anything that requires systematic and long-term sustained focus. There develops a tendency to kick-off the new exciting projects on the periphery of the organisation, which is difficult to do without affecting the focus on core business. Normally, operational leaders are appointed to sustain and expand the businesses that are doing well, which is fine but a scaling business also require the continuing focus of

Start-up leaders themselves set examples of heroism that over time plays down a systematic, well-planned bricklaying approach that a scalable business is built upon. entrepreneurial mind in the core drivers of business. Successful large organisations have spun-off multiple businesses, but they do it upon the successful scaling of the core business, not at the behest of the core. Biting those bullets before the time comes is hazardous to the health of the business.

6) Too Little Networking Networking and relationships are the core strengths of a start-up business.

Focus on relationships gets the best out of the organisation in order to delight the first set of customers. Early-on in the life of the organisation, relationships and personal networks play a critical role across all the areas of the business - hiring, business acquisition, delivery, financing, marketing and PR, and so on. On customers front, there are two sides to this coin. Acquisition of new business, as well as sustenance of existing business are driven through relationships, which helps because of the lack of early credentials and referencible successes. The flip side is that these relationships tend to be personal relationships. The customers expect the leaders to show up at the drop of the hat. It’s not scalable for an entrepreneur to show the face and shake the hands at every opportunity to build new business or when there is fire at an existing one. This needs to go beyond the leader at the helm. The organisation needs to go beyond personal relationships into professional customer oriented relationship mindset - which is easier said than done once the organisation is already growing.

Similarly, entrepreneurs find it hard to confront the performance issues among

employees and partners due to the personal and emotional connects that hold most of these relationships together. These connections can quickly become a liability if the leaders (and hence organisation) lose the ability to make objective decisions in these relationships.

7) Too Much Heroism Entrepreneurs or founding-promoters tend to demonstrate heroism, and inadvertently (or sometimes intentionally) promote heroism. Startups are replete with stories of celebrated heroism - single-handedly acquiring a new customer, heroically defusing an exploding customer situation, over nightly launching an offering, and so on. Due to the nature of various functions, this heroism is found more in Sales, Marketing, and delivery of larger projects. Sometimes, plain pure planning and preparation an aspect that gets often overlooked in a start-up scenario, also necessitate such heroism. This is partially also acceptable to entrepreneurs because a start-up typically takes pride in informality (bordering on casualness unfortunately) and flat (or absent) structures. Start-up leaders themselves set examples of heroism that over time plays down a systematic, well-planned bricklaying approach that a scalable business is built upon. Many times, the heroism culture also inadvertently sabotages any chances of under-played sustainable success, because of the glamour and awards attached to such celebratory moments. However, it has been proven that the most sustainable and scalable businesses are built by behind-the-scene bricklaying executioners. It is important for entrepreneurs to make that transition in the genetic code of the organisation.

An emphasis on sustainable and repeatable success requires setting up the rewards and bonuses in line with a structured longer term approach, with due importance to the backend jobs in operations, deliveries and finances, while of course not losing sight of any heroics that really save the day in the true sense.

(By Ashish Bhagwat)

YOUTH POWER

The Young Indian Who Said No to Google Before I said no, I had a lot of sleepless nights," says Vineet Devaiah, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive officer of TeliportMe, about refusing an acquisition offer from technology giant Google. The Palo Alto, California-based company has developed the Android app called 360, which you explore places through images and panoramas taken by users.

" By age 13, he was well in programming. By age 15, he built the first application Optigrow, a weather forecasting app, used by farmers. He recalls that when he requested permission to operate the computer at the Antarctic Study Center at Goa, the officials granted him the permission, thinking they were just indulging him.

They were wrong. Devaiah says, "I used their data and built an application that helped forecast the weather."

Optigrow was bought by Infosys,

man who knew to operate the computer. He was very encouraging and I was always very curious to know how they built it." By age 13, he was well in programming. By age 15, he built the first application -- Optigrow, a weather forecasting app, used by farmers. He recalls that when he requested permission to operate the computer at the Antarctic Study Center at Goa, the officials granted him the permission, thinking they were just indulging him.

They were wrong. Devaiah says, "I used their data and built an application that helped forecast the

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sers can not only capture high-resolution 360 views (hence the name), but also share their images on Facebook and Twitter. Tech Crunch calls it 'Instagram in 360-degree mode.' Google tried to acquire the start-up last November, and Devaiah tells India Abroad he had to think hard because 'once you have said no, you cannot go back and ask them again.' 'Honestly it didn't take much time to come to that decision, but you always think what if things don't work out,' he says. 'It doesn't matter. If you are smart and hard working money will come to you.' 'I do not say money is not important; especially when you have a team, you have to think about your team. You may be OK with it, but lots of people with that much money... it's hard to take a decision. So it was tough, very tough.' The buzz is that others have also come sniffing around, but Devaiah is standing firm. Probably because he has travelled a long road to be here and is loving it. Devaiah, who was born and brought up in Goa, began his tryst with programming in his father's office in Goa. "I was 10 when I first saw the printer and was excited to see what a machine could do. It might sound stupid, in fact, that time I could see what I was creating in the form of a paper. It was really impactful for me," he recalls. "My father was into finance, but there was one computer in the IT department at his office, and only one

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weather." Optigrow was bought by Infosys, and he says, "One of my friend's father brokered the deal and helped me sell it. Infosys was not a big company then. So, when someone told me Infosys wants to buy your software, I didn't even know what the company was. It was not a big deal then." Devaiah shifted to the biomedical stream after he lost his father to cancer after the 10th grade; he decided to go into medical research. He completed his BTech in chemical engineering from the National Institute of Technology-Karnataka, before coming to the United States and earning a Masters in biomedical engineering from Cornell University.

But this wasn't his calling. IT was. He soon moved to Silicon Valley, a place he always wanted to be in. "I took a hard decision and moved to the Valley, enrolled at UC Berkeley to study marketing and took a course at San Jose State University to study entrepreneurship in finance. I thought I could do much more." When he finished, he had a job and an H-1B visa, that difficult techie dream. Devaiah quit his job as head, US and international business development, Terracycle Inc, named 'The Coolest Little Start-Up' in America by Inc Magazine, and moved back to India to join his friend Abhinav Asthana, co-founder, TeliportMe. Asthana and he had worked on small projects earlier. "There are two reasons when you build a company -- either you have a great team or you have a great idea. I had a great team, so I quit my job. It was a first foray into building publishing applications. We realised we are more product people and we could build world-class products." They created Bits360, a small service-based company. Focused on driving revenues for clients by bringing innovative marketing and branding strategies, its signature product is the panoramic virtual tour, where 2D pictures are converted into a virtual experience for customers. "That's how we later jumped

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Devaiah likens TeliportMe to Google Street View, saying, "It is what TeliportMe will be in the next 5 to 6 years. The only difference between the two companies is that Google is paying billions of dollars to create it and we are getting it done for free... It's kind of Wikipedia or crowd source imagery by people." into TeliportMe, my next application.

It's pretty much a mobile application where people create their own panorama and upload it," says Devaiah.

"What the PC did is what mobile phones are doing today. We know the PC completely revolutionised the way people connect and communicate.

Mobiles are doing the same.

Smartphones have become the PC that you carry, so the context of communication, context of connectivity is very different." "I do not think anybody has created an application, or a series of applications that have really harnessed the potential of smartphones.

I am sure in the coming years, that potential will be harnessed. In the next five to six years, there will be a massive

revolution." "Today every smartphone has a camera. The camera is becoming ubiquitous; there are billions of cameras that are capturing a lot of visual information," he says. "Today with the advent of mobile devices, touch as an input mechanism is slowly fading away, as typing is cumbersome.

The other two ways are voice and visual. Visual information is comparatively easier to process for a computer (voice has different languages and accents and a lot of noise) and this makes the camera a very important part of inputting information.

We at TeliportMe are building the API of geo-tagged visual information."

Devaiah likens TeliportMe to Google Street View, saying, "It is what TeliportMe will be in the next 5 to 6 years. The only difference between the two companies is that Google is paying billions of dollars to create it and we are getting it done for free... It's kind of Wikipedia or crowd source imagery by people." "TeliportMe is on Android and hopefully we will launch on iOS," he adds. Devaiah did not disclose the amount he has raised, but says, "Our investors are Dave McClure (500s), Bill Gross (Idealab), Alessandro Piol (Vedanta Capital), Great Oaks Venture, Dwipal Desai, Max Pellegrini, Rob Wang and other angels." And the company continues to scale. In terms of user base -- 700,000 users registered globally -- at TeliportMe, he says the US ranks first, with a wide presence in Europe as well. What about his home country? India, he says, ranks sixth. He is hiring people there now, and notes that the way entrepreneurship works in India and in the US is very different.

"In India there is not much of product focus," he says. "They focus more on revenue-based, simple transactionbased models like e-commerce. They will ask you, 'How much money can you make?' But in the Valley if you have a disruptive idea, even if it doesn't make sense, people will back you. This we realised very early on."

MANAGEMENT

Why Businesses & Consumers Take Irrational Decisions, And How They Can Wield More Self-Control

Much acclaimed Israeli American behavioural economist and author of the bestseller 'Predictably Irrational', Prof. Dan Ariely, talks about why managers need to think differently and be humble enough to doubt their own intuition.

Prof Dan Ariely

This realisation, ironically, dawned when the author was bound to a bed in the burns ward of a hospital for three years. What triggered it, were the nurses who used to rip-off his bandages in a jiffy, day after day, because they believed that "it pained less when bandages were pulled away in speed.' Prof Ariely challenged this deliberation. According to him, people make systematic mistakes and eventually believe they are the truth for want of not knowing the other side. In this interview, Prof Dan Ariely talks about his most famous book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions and how its principles relate to today's managers and MBA students.

Why and when did your interest in Behavioural Economics arise?

Years ago, I was injured very badly in an accident and spent three years in a hospital. Hospitals are places where you can observe lots of irrationalities. The question that troubled me every day was how to remove bandages from burn patients. Should you remove them quickly, ripping them off one after the other or do it slowly? The nurses in my department believed in the quick ripping approach and I didn't like it. They kept on doing what they thought was the right thing for quite a long time. When I got out of hospital, I started doing research on this question. I would bring people to the lab and I would hurt them in different ways and I would examine what actually caused them to have higher and lower version of pain.

And what did you find out?

That the nurses were wrong. Even though they thought that the ripping approach was the right approach, it actually created more pain. From that point onwards, I kept thinking of cases where people with

good intentions think they're doing the best for their clients, but in fact they're doing things that are not correct for them.

I looked at all kinds of cases where we have an intuition that points us in one direction but reality should point us in different direction.

How does this subject fit into the Bschool curriculum?

Managers in any capacity have very few opportunities to actually learn from their action. You have to make lots of decisions based on your assumptions about human nature, what your clients, employees, shareholders are going to appreciate. You have to make decisions based on your own assumptions with all kinds of other domains as well. So, understanding the true fundamentals of human nature is important for any manager. But the second thing is that having the humility of doubting your own intuition is also very important. I think that for b-schools, it's important to understand what really drives people and not what we think drives people. In fact, understanding when we should not trust our intuition and the extent to which we should try and do experiments.

You say a man's craze to derive maximum benefit from his environment leads to unrealistic expectations. Isn't that asking too much from a common man who is naturally aspirational?

I think that the decision to behave optimal is way too much for anybody. I understand what optimal behaviour is but we shouldn't really hold anybody accountable to that level. It is too much.

At the same time, I think that we could think about how to get people to improve

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rof Dan Ariely is the James B Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. He is also a visiting professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences. But what Prof Ariely has really earned eminence for, in recent years, are his books on irrational behaviour. Two of his books, namely Predictably Irrational and the Upside of Irationality were New York Times's best sellers. The Fuqua faculty member has written a couple of more books, and all, interrogate the bedrock on which human beings take decisions in their lifetime.

Prof Ariely has incessantly pushed readers to check time-honoured myths that humans take decisions based on rational thought - almost a complete lie.

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and that's not too much. I'm hoping that by showing people some kind of direction of what could be much better they at least can go on that path.

I don't think it means that marketing will not work. I think that it will have a different path that might actually have more benefits.

With regards to comparing one's life to others, isn't that what pushes people to do better in life when we see successful people and get closer to their level?

Much like lots of irrationalities, it's a mixture of good and bad. The fact that you're comparing yourself to people who are doing better is probably motivating to try and strive for the better. But it's also a cause for stress and unhappiness. I would not think that everybody should move and be around people who are much worse than them because that would make them always happy. After all, spending your life in front of the TV watching great programs might be a happy life in the short term but not with a lot of meaning. There's definitely no accomplishment which is not good for society. I think we need to learn about what's really driving our happiness and try to think about which cases affect us in the positive way and which ones affect us in the negative way. It's not always the case that we want to eliminate other successful people from our lives.

Can you provide some more cases of social norms entering market norms?

The simplest examples are our personal lives at home. If you're married to someone, you don't really ask them to do things for money. But we all understand that if you go on a date and you tell the person how much you spent on the date, it's not going to work out very well. For companies, I think it's somewhere between giving people salaries and asking them to do something for social benefits. As a company, if you provide your employee with lunch, you're doing something in the social norms. Providing medical and retirement benefits are all social norms but if you tell them how much it cost you, everything can backfire.

Discussing 'free' goods, you say that people do not bother to think about their benefits?

I think what you're asking here is that 'free' is a hot button. It gets people to think about purchases in a very different way.

The moment something becomes free, we think about the benefits and not the costs and because of that, we are directed to it.

Fighting this tendency for free requires a lot of understanding of human nature. As consumers, people should figure out what are our hot buttons, what gets us to misbehave and make the wrong decisions and how do we fight them. Then there's the question of how will marketing work.

Marketing is a profession that is supposed to think about consumers and what they want and try to convince companies to create things that are actually good for consumers. It is also about pricing, tricks, advertising and so on. I think that the world would be better if people in the marketing profession actually focused on how to get the product to be better rather than tricking people into buying them. So

Don't people at higher positions in life tackle arousing situations much more professionally?

If you think about people who are higher in life, you can think about Bill Clinton and all kinds of politicians. I think there's plenty of evidence that those people do not tackle things with less emotion and more professionalism.

If self-control is on the decline in the world, shouldn't motivators be in the person rather than external sources?

I think the answer is yes. People should figure out self control. I think we should think about how we can do it ourselves and how we can get better at it. At the same time, I don't think it's enough. I think we need to think about how to improve it. I don't think it's enough to just do that.

I think we need to learn to control both ourselves and the external environment.

Does not 'overvaluing' one possessions actually work well for self-esteem?

I think overvaluing what we own and create is incredibly important. It's one of those irrationalities that have both benefits and disadvantages. It's beneficial because we start valuing it to a higher degree and we care more about it. It's negative because there are cases where we are not giving it up when we should be giving it up. So I think it's one of those

irrationalities and many of them are like that, which have both benefits and costs.

We need to figure out when it is beneficial and when it's negative. In terms of business, I think the place that is most clearly seen in business is the idea of 'not invented here'. Once businesses fall in love with their own ideas, it's all of a sudden difficult for them to not see things that way.

Previous knowledge affecting our decisions is natural. You don't think so?

If you know a lot about the world, it's a shortcut. It's heuristic to say: Hey, I believe that this is just the same decision as the one before. If this is the case, it's a good thing to do. But it's not necessarily always good. What we show in experiments is that sometimes people use even irrelevant decisions because those decisions give them indications from the past. Even though they are irrelevant, people keep on using them. The question here is how do we make sure we use only relevant knowledge?

The placebo effect helps generally in life. Corporate life, too?

The placebo effect is a wonderful thing because it's about the power of expectation and reality. What the placebo effect shows in pain is that when you expect a medication to relieve you of pain, your body secretes an opiate, a substance that's pain reducing and because of that, the pain reduces. Expectation changes your physiology in making it into a selfconfirming prophecy. If you think about it, a lot of the world is like that. We have an expectation of how something would work.

Our physiology changes, our expectation changes. You think a vacation will be wonderful, your expectation changes and you interpret more things as being wonderful. You think a particular meeting will be terrible, you interpret everything in terms of terrible and in the end, it'll be more terrible than it had to be. All of those things happen and because of that, there is a question of how you create expectation and how it becomes reality later. The application for this is everywhere. It's in pain but it's also in every experience that people have. The moment you understand that the expectation drives the experience, you understand how you should think about planning expectations and setting them.

I N N O VAT I O N

Neha Juneja is surprised that her company Greenway Grameen Infra won the 2012 Intel Global Challenge at Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, receiving $50,000 from the Intel Foundation. he Intel Global Challenge is a joint project of Intel and the UC Berkeley Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. Started in 2005, it rewards student entrepreneurs for innovative ideas that can make a positive impact on society. The Intel Foundation awards a total of $100,000 in cash prizes $50,000 to the best team, followed by $15,000 each to the three best-of-category winning team, and $2,500 each to a social media challenge and an audience favorite contest.

Greenway Grameen Infra selected from ideas presented by more than 150,000 students from more than 50 countries was founded in 2010. The firm's biomass-based stove increases fuel efficiency and targets consumers in rural areas. The single-burner, high-efficiency cook stove uses 65 per cent less fuel and produces 80 per cent less smoke than traditional stoves called chulhas. In late 2011, the company won the Businessworld Young Entrepreneur Award. Juneja, 27, co-founder and chief executive officer, told India Abroad, "I was surprised because the other

participants were very good. All of them had unique ideas, so I was a little nervous. It's like getting a dream award.

This award is very important. Very!"

"Not only was it great exposure for us in terms of the platform and interaction with other participants, we also had an opportunity to better articulate our business proposition given the structure and stages of the competition." This award, she believes, will help her build credibility in India, especially because doing business there is very difficult for a young company. However, she adds, the system in India has become a lot better: "Had we started this five years ago, it would have been much tougher."

Juneja came up with the idea of developing the Greenway stove after a visit to a village in Wardha, Maharashtra, where she saw a small home with a television, refrigerator, mobile phones, and motorbike. Yet the lady of the house was cooking on a mud stove. "Watching her cook on a mud stove made me think what if we could offer them a cooking solution," Juneja said. She points out that people usually equate rural with poor, which is not true; many in rural India

have money and a desire to live a quality life. "Once we understood that, we thought if we develop a good product, it will sell. There is huge segment of the population that can afford consumer durables. We saw a great opportunity for us." To develop the product, Juneja travellled to 22 states in India, understanding cooking habits across the country. The more she travellled, the more she realised that this aspect of the lifestyle had not been addressed. "It took almost one year of travelling across the country and developing and testing nine distinct designs before the current version of the stove was finalised," she says. "My team with training and some experience in combustion systems design, believed that we could develop a biomass stove, but was unsure of the market potential initially given that no such stoves were being sold in the country even though the problem was essentially age old." The Greenway stove costs $23 and consumes one-third of the fuel a mud stove consumes. Unlike mud stoves, it does not produce carbon monoxide in the smoke. She says, "We have been selling it for the past seven months and have succeeded in selling 15,000 units till date." Pointing out that 152 million households in India still use mud stoves, she adds, "Apart from developing the product our biggest challenge has been that of developing efficient and far-reaching distribution."

Juneja says she and her team which started out with three members and now numbers five never thought of this as a social venture. They always considered it a business opportunity. "The whole idea was to go big or go home," she says, adding that they are working on adding more fuel-efficient products to the company portfolio by the next year for rural consumers. Juneja, who came to the event with co-founder and chief operations officer Ankit Mathur, says, "The prize money is certainly of great help, especially given that we are yet to raise funds for the enterprise."

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The Indian Household Idea that Won Intel's Global Entreprenurism Prize

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H E A L T H

Need Perfect Health Tomorrow?

Fight Metabolic Syndrome Today If there is a single step that you can take this moment to regain health and ensure peak performance for years, it is vowing to fight metabolic syndrome. Because, this dreaded condition is the precursor to a host of lifestyle diseases including diabetes, high BP, high cholesterol, and heart disease. The good news is that hints of looming trouble are visible years before, and that you can take charge of your health now.

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etabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic risk factors that come together in a single individual. These metabolic factors include insulin resistance, hypertension (high blood pressure), cholesterol abnormalities, and an increased risk for clotting. Patients are most often overweight or obese. Diet, exercise, and medications improve it. An association between certain metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease has been known since the 1940s. Metabolic syndrome is considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes that arises due to insulin resistance and an abnormal function and pattern of body fat. Insulin resistance refers to the diminished ability of cells

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Environmental issues such as low activity level, sedentary lifestyle, and progressive weight gain also contribute significantly to the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.

Choosing healthier lifestyles such as exercising; losing weight; lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels may decrease a person’s chance of developing metabolic syndrome.

to respond to the action of insulin in promoting the transport of the sugar glucose, from blood into muscles and other tissues. Metabolic syndrome is also known as syndrome X or the dysmetabolic syndrome. Based on the guidelines from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the American Heart Association (AHA), any three of the following traits in the same individual meet the criteria for the metabolic syndrome: #1. Abdominal obesity: a waist circumference of 102 cm (40 in) or more in men and 88 cm (35 inches) or more in women. For Asian Americans, the cutoff values are e�90 cm (35 in) in men or e�80 cm (32 in) in women. #2. Serum triglycerides 150 mg/dl or above. #3. HDL cholesterol 40mg/dl or lower in men and 50mg/dl or lower in women. #4. Blood pressure of 130/ 85 or more. #5. Fasting blood glucose of 100 mg/dl or above.

Which Diet to Prevent Metabolic Syndrome?

Metabolic Syndrome can be fought using a Mediterranean diet, one that is rich in “good” fats (olive oil) and contains a reasonable amount of carbohydrates and proteins (such as from fish and chicken). The Mediterranean diet is palatable and easily sustained. In addition, recent studies have shown that when compared to a low fat diet, people on the Mediterranean diet have a greater decrease in body weight, and also had greater improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other markers of heart disease — all of which are important in evaluating and treating metabolic syndrome.

Exercise to Fight Metabolic Syndrome A sustainable exercise program, for example 30 minutes five days a week is reasonable to start, providing there is no medical contraindication. (If you have any special concerns in this regard, check with your doctor first.)

There is a beneficial effect of exercise on blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and insulin sensitivity, regardless of whether weight loss is achieved or not.

Thus, exercise in itself is a helpful tool in treating metabolic syndrome. Fast walking, jogging, and other forms of more vigorous exercise may slash your risk for heart disease and diabetes, new research suggests. Many studies have suggested that regular physical activity, including walking for just 30 minutes a day at a moderate pace, may improve health. But the new research says it’s the intensity, rather than the duration, that makes the difference. Specifically, fast walkers and joggers who exercised for two to four hours per week were up to 50% less likely to develop what’s called metabolic syndrome.

Participants who walked at a casual pace for about an hour a day made no difference in their risk to develop the syndrome.

Why Weight Loss Surgery is No Solution Some people may ask, why not just have liposuction of the abdomen and remove the large amount abdominal fat, which is a big part of the problem?

Data thus far shows no benefit in liposuction on insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, or cholesterol. As the saying goes, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”

Mastering Metabolic Syndrome Diet and exercise are still the preferred primary treatment of metabolic syndrome. Choosing healthier lifestyles such as exercising; losing weight; lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels may decrease a person’s chance of developing metabolic syndrome. The final take home message is simple: Find a walk buddy. Take a walk during your work break, even if it is just around the building. Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables and decrease consumption of fats.

Shop at a healthy food stores. Evaluate what you feed your kids. Urge children to go outside and play. It all adds up.

Preventing metabolic syndrome really means having a healthy lifestyle.

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Metabolic syndrome is quite common.

Approximately 32% of the population in the U.S. has metabolic syndrome.

Around 25% of adults in Europe and Latin America are estimated to have the condition, and rates are rising in developing East Asian countries. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome increases with age, and about 40% of people over 60 are affected. As is true with many medical conditions, genetics and the environment both play important roles in the development of the metabolic syndrome. Genetic factors influence each individual

component of the syndrome, and the syndrome itself. A family history that includes type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and early heart disease greatly increases the chance that an individual will develop the metabolic syndrome.

Environmental issues such as low activity level, sedentary lifestyle, and progressive weight gain also contribute significantly to the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is present in about 5% of people with normal body weight, 22% of those who are overweight and 60% of those considered obese. Adults who continue to gain five or more pounds per year raise their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by up to 45%.

While obesity itself is likely the greatest risk factor, others factors of concern include: #1. Women who are post-menopausal. #2 Smoking. #3 Eating an excessively high carbohydrate diet. #4 Lack of activity (even without weight change).

Lifestyle modification such as the Mediterranean diet, exercise, and quitting smoking are the preferred treatment of metabolic syndrome

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S O C I E T Y

Is CSR More of a Marketing Tool?

Harish Bijoor and N Chandramouli debates on this emerging issue in the backdrop of Coca-Cola’s Support My School CSR program: Coca-Cola’s Support My School initiative in India has been touted as one of the biggest CSR initiatives by corporate India and is beamed on NDTV with a lot of fanfare. Coca-Cola is not the only company that has effectively bundled, branded and communicated its CSR efforts; too many companies have started communicating their CSR efforts too early in too conspicuous a way. While their intentions are lofty, the whole razzmatazz surrounding such efforts raises a question: is it a good idea for companies to communicate and get credit for their commitments?

Harish Bijoor CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults

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When companies put their profits back into the very same people who help them make money, the marketing cycle is complete.

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oca-Cola has got its act right. The guys behind the scenes, global chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent downwards, are a force to contend with in the world of corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing. Today CSR marketing is a new sub-science of the world of marketing at large. In fact, it is the best thing to do when you are a big brand with a footprint of consumption across the world. Brands such as Coca-Cola, Marlboro, Dettol etc that touch billions across the world use CSR in their marketing approach. Look at the the history of CSR. It began when companies first looked at their corporate bottom lines and discovered profit. Having discovered profit, and investing that profit or splurging it into everything that was possible, such as personnel training, corporate junkets, corporate jets, profit had to find its way into society. CSR is the last thing that a corporate enterprise does. For instance, visualise a large vat. Imagine the money going into CSR activities as money that goes out of a small little pipe vent right at the top of the vat, much beyond and after the Plimsoll line of profits has been breached.

Visualise this vat with a small vent opening right near the top brim. If you see it this way, you will also realise that if these profits did not find their way out (into society), the vat would itself be in danger. Therefore, CSR expenditures typically have been “safety valve expenditures”. At the outset, corporates look after their immediate physical environment as a CSR activity. If a company had a factory in Jamshedpur, it would look after the people in the eco-system around it. Then the mindset changed and companies started thinking beyond their geography by picking up causes.

They picked up causes adjunct to the industry they belonged to. For example, a company in the tobacco segment looked at health, a marketer to kids looked after the underprivileged kids. Subliminally, if not overtly, the connect always existed.

Then came the era of obscene CSR marketing. I have been witness to CSR efforts during the Tsunami that hit Indian shores some years back. I saw large trucks carrying water and supplies. Many of them chose to emblazon themselves with the brand names and logos. One corporation even had savvy ‘marketing-think’ where it had the top of the trucks emblazoned with their brand logo. This was for the media helicopters to catch when they hovered around the area under distress.

How far can one go? The latest is the Coca-Cola India ‘Support My school’ campaign with NDTV. I like this campaign as it picks a cause that is universal and big. It is about kids and their rights and the need to education.

It picks rural and small town schools.

It takes valuable resources to the points of need. It is not shy and does not use subterfuge as well. It talks to its audience without resorting to the inyour-face tools of advertising. It helps build future customers. In that way, it gives and takes. It gives resources today to support a nation of school-going children. It takes subliminally. It takes when it impinges its brand name all across, and plants a soft thought of an otherwise hard brand in the minds of impressionable kids. I believe no corporate organisation must invest its

N Chandramouli CEO, Comniscient Group CSR must be an extension of the organisation’s state-of-being and not just an activity that has to be ticked off in the check-box.

hile many organisations undertake their social responsibility as charity, many undertake it to fulfil their marketing needs or to give a positive disposition to their brands. However, all of them understand the personalsocial benefits that accrue from acts of altruism. When a corporation acts beyond the narrow areas of self-benefit and works for a larger, sociallybeneficial cause, you can describe it as CSR. This helps the corporate/ brand in two important ways — first, the innate value-system that gets espoused by the social action helps build ‘organisational culture’, and second, CSR showcases any organisation’s positive intention, an essential ingredient in building organic trust for it. Every organisation wants to impact the world that influences it.

In order to determine that it has to decide on the following factors: internalities (that which it thinks it is responsible for) and externalities (which are outside its sphere of responsibility). This boundary of responsibility-acceptance is arrived at by balancing the intent with the ability of the organisation and becomes a direct measure of the organisation’s integration (on human, cultural, emotional and physical fronts) with its external world. As organisations expand to include more external aspects creating a progressively larger responsibility circle, they become more and more relevant to their ecosystem. For instance, a responsible mining company may rehabilitate the people displaced as a direct result of its operations. If it considers more of its impact as its responsibilities, it may even replant trees to undo the damage caused by it to the environment. If it further increases its internality sphere, it may go further and invest actively in creating an ecological hub on the previously mined area. It is quite

natural for an organisation that exists for profit to seek direct or indirect benefit from all its actions including CSR. Seeking benefits, be it marketing, community, image or other subtle benefits from the CSR is acceptable, beneficial and even recommended. But if the benefits sought through the CSR are blatant or unreasonable, the action becomes counterproductive and is bound to have a negative impact on the brand.

When you think of the ‘real’ campaigns, Coca-Cola’s ‘Support My School’, Aircel’s ‘ Save Our Tigers’ or Tata Tea’s ‘ Jaago re’, most audiences will have a visceral calibration of where the campaign falls on their acceptability line. Yet, when starting CSR initiatives, the organisation has to understand that there is a significant time lag between the action and result expected from the CSR initiative.

Therefore when organisations engage in altruism they must do so without looking for quick results that they are so accustomed to. Further, to create a sustainable programme of CSR, one needs to balance two opposing forces.

First, the farther removed the corporate social responsibility is from the core of the business, the more trust it will generate. At the same time, the more direct the connection between the CSR and the business, the more sustainable it will be. Companies which get this balance right, accrue benefits that are highly resistant to erosion over time. CSR is a good strategy but only in the long-term.

Though it is used to develop markets or for image, it is far more useful when it is used to infuse the organisation with culture, vision and values - the core drivers of any business. The importance of CSR cannot be understated f or it shows the organisation’s integration with its society. It is, however, important to temper expectations from CSR. Most importantly, CSR must be an extension of the organisation’s state-of-being and not just an activity that needs to get ticked off in the check-box.

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money into CSR without purpose.

Corporate organisations are run by stakeholders - by shareholders and employees - among others. The organisations must aim at profit in their ventures, both commercial or CSR oriented. However, in making this profit happen, it is not wrong if good money can chase good causes such as this one. Coca-Cola has cracked this code with the campaign and other initiatives in South Africa where the company is aiming to be water positive.

CSR makes marketing sense as companies make money from people.

When they focus their profits back into the very same people who help them make money, the marketing cycle is complete.

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INVESTMENT

5 Lessons a Game Teaches Us About Finance And Investing Monopoly is no silly board game. Its diehard fans include a boy who mastered it early on in his life, and later went on to create the world's largest software company as well as the world's largest private philanthropic foundation. What can the game that mesmerized Bill Gates teach us? onopoly has been a classic board game for over 100 years. It's a real estate trading game that nearly everyone plays for fun and a chance to be a pretend real estate tycoon. But if you've played Monopoly long enough, you quickly realize that the game offers a lot of financial wisdom and lessons that can be applied to the real world of finance and investing. Below are five valuable lessons that not only help you increase your chances of winning the board game, but also increase your chances of having a better and useful understanding of prudent financial and investment principles.

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#1. Always Keep Cash on Hand

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By far, this is perhaps the most important lesson in the both the game and the financial world. To win in Monopoly you have to the be last player left, in other words, the last one to have money.

So if you aimlessly move around the Monopoly board buying up everything in sight, when the time comes to pay your financial obligations, you are likely to run out of cash. No cash means you have to start selling off the properties (assets) you acquired at a deep discount to what you paid for them. In the game, you are allowed to mortgage them at a discount to face value. Once this process happens, unless you get lucky, it's only a matter of time before you go bankrupt.

The same exact principle applies in realworld financial matters. The United States got a front row seat to the consequences that occurred during the

recession when cash is not available.

When the Great Recession hit, people had been spending cash like crazy, thanks to an addiction to credit. Yet when the housing market went bust and the U.S. banking crisis erupted, those without cash were decimated. The Monopoly effect took place: without cash, folks had to "sell-off" what they owned at steep discounts. Unable to make mortgage payments, people were

forced to sell their houses for significantly less than what they paid for them, or worse, the lender foreclosed on the property. Any equity was wiped out. The same consequences were suffered in the stock market to a staggering degree. When the credit markets seized, many investors scrambled to raise cash. The only option they had was to sell securities at any price. This need for cash created an avalanche of selling that created the huge market decline in 2008 and ultimately led to good, hardworking people losing most, if not all, of their investable assets. On the other hand, the people who had cash were given an opportunity to buy assets - stocks, real estate, bonds - for fractions of what they

#2. Be Patient To win at Monopoly you have to be patient and have a game plan. You just can't win by buying every piece of real estate you land on; you have to have a general approach of how you want to proceed. If you are impatient and start buying every piece on the board you land on, you will quickly find yourself out of money and, thus, unable to do anything but hope for the best.

Therefore, you have to be patient and know when to buy and when to take a pass. Similarly, if you just buy without discipline when investing, you will be placing your outcome on the hope that the market behaves nicely. Successful investors don't invest based on hope, they invest with a disciplined approach.

Patience is a very integral part of that approach. During the Internet boom of the late 1990s Warren Buffett was ridiculed for not investing in Internet companies while speculators around

him were capturing triple-digit gains.

A lucky few got in and out at just the right time; however, for the vast majority, the result was painful losses.

Buffett exercised patience for years while everyone else was chasing Internet stocks. In the end when the market and investors ran out of money, the bottom came crashing quickly, wiping out the majority of investors who weren't patient and disciplined enough.

#3. Focus on Cash Flow Monopoly is a simple game: you start off with some money and your goal is to be the last player standing with money. The way you win in Monopoly is by collecting rents on property, or cash flow. Not many people know this, but the most valuable properties on the Monopoly board, with the best cash flow, are the four railroads; if you can own all four of them, you have put yourself in a very good position. With each railroad costing $200, by owning all four you collect $200 in rent or a 25% return. I realize this may be a very bizarre way to look at a game, but this is precisely why Monopoly offers some valuable financial and investing lessons. Over time, assets increase in value based the cash flows they produce. Even something as simple as a savings account or savings bond becomes more valuable if it earning more cash, i.e., a higher interest rate.

In investing, the most successful investments come from those companies that can generate growing cash flows. Iconic companies like Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and IBM have been highly successful investments for decades because of the growth in cash flows.

#4. the Most Expensive Asset Is Not Always the Best Most monopoly players want to own Park Place and Boardwalk since they have the biggest payouts. But they are also the most expensive pieces to maintain. Many people lose at Monopoly by owning the most expensive pieces because they don't

pay attention to cost, only cash flow.

Focusing on the cash flow without taking into account the cost paid to attain those cash flows is to play the game with blinders on. Those who win at Monopoly, and investing in the long run, instead focus on the value gained for price paid. In investing, the best investments can often be tarnished companies trading at a bargain price.

Owning Boardwalk and Park Place is not how you win at Monopoly; you win by making the most money. In investing you win by buying low and selling high.

When you focus on the most expensive assets, odds are you are overpaying and setting yourself up for losses.

#5. Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket You won't win much in Monopoly by just owning one property on the board and loading it up with hotels. It's also hard to win if you try and buy everything on the board and spread yourself too thin. Occasionally you can get lucky and have every opponent land on your property, but usually the winner is someone who spreads out his or her properties throughout the board and has multiple chances at capturing rents. The same principle applies in investing. If you bet everything on one or two stocks, you are exposing yourself to a potential wipe out if something goes wrong. At the same time, you can dilute your gains by trying to own 100 different stocks.

Diversify intelligently - studies have shown that a portfolio gains no additional diversification benefits after 15 to 20 securities. So don't just bet on one or two assets or try and keep up with 50 assets.

The Bottom Line Of course, a board game like Monopoly shouldn't be taken as a thorough education in finance and investing, as it certainly has it's flaws. However, it does have some valuable lessons to teach, such as to spread yourself out across the board intelligently, keep cash on hand, focus on cash flows, be patient and pay attention to price. Use these five lessons as a guide post to more intelligent and successful investment decisions.

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were worth and, in the end, they won the game and made the most money.

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C R I C K E T

Why Indian Cricket is Suffering?

"Not in Our Nature to be Ruthless"

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here are quite a few youngsters who are knocking the doors.

India could have tried a few youngsters if they were 2-0 up in the series. We can't make wholesale changes, it creates uncertainty..."

Gavaskar said. "We have to look at the situations also. The selection committees are not keen to experiment or inject young blood. That has been the trend in the last couple of years and it has not changed." Gavaskar said the biggest bane of the Indian squad is

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Sachin Tendulkar

complacency. "Complacency has been the bane of Indian cricket. For decades it has been there, even when I used to play. "It has always let us down. When the opposition is 160 for 5 or six, we tend to relax, and then the wicketkeeper with tail-enders have added 200 runs.

"This is what hapened in the first Test and here (Mumbai) as well," he said.

The legendary opener said the approach has to be changed. "The only way is to be a bit ruthless. But it not in our nature to be ruthless." About growing pressure on an under-performing Sachin Tendulkar, Gavaskar said there is no

Sunil Gavaskar need of that kind of talk about a batsman who has done so much for Indian cricket. "Why are we in such a rush for someone who has been the heartthrob of India for so long. We react in extreme.

"When we love and the other way.

Australia have always been talked as ruthless but have they dropped Ricky Ponting for the third Test (against South Africa)," Gavaskar asked. Tendulkar has been out of form for a long time; he has scored just 153 runs at an average of 15.3 in his last 10 innings, which is the lowest by an Indian top-order batsman in the corresponding period.

Gavaskar said Tendulkar's approach towards improvement is okay and soon he will bounce back. "The way he has been applying himself, you can see he's applying his mind. In the first innings he took a leg-stump guard and when he has bowled, he took a middle-stump guard. "He'll comeback. He and Ponting are kind of players who will not go quietly; they'll go with a roar," he said.

INSURANCE

4 Steps for Much Lower Car Insurance Mostly, auto insurance is clubbed with huge discounts and freebies to lure more customers. The most attractive being ‘free insurance’. The word ‘free’ attracts maximum attention from buyers but there are hidden clauses in it, which are not disclosed at first.

Opt for Higher Deductibles Deductible is the amount of money borne by an individual and rest of the amount is paid by insurance company.

There are two types of deductible compulsory and voluntary. For instance, compulsory deductible of Rs 200 would mean that one has to pay Rs 200 of the claim amount and the insurance company pays rest of the amount. By bumping your deductible up from say Rs 200 to Rs 500, you can reduce their premium by 15 per cent to 30 per cent. And by increasing the deductible to Rs 1,000, one can decrease the cost by at least 40 per cent.

But this might also mean that one has to pay more when the loss occurs.

‘Those who are confident of their

driving ability could opt for a voluntary deductible to save on premium,’ says Vijay Kumar, President, Motor Insurance of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

Limit the Insured Declared Value The market value of car is known as insured declared value. So, by declaring a lower value for car can reduce premium amount. But it can act adversely too, in case of theft one gets lower amount as declared in the insurance policy.

Provide Useful Declarations Premium charged for a car might differ

For instance, compulsory deductible of Rs 200 would mean that one has to pay Rs 200 of the claim amount and the insurance company pays rest of the amount. By bumping your deductible up from say Rs 200 to Rs 500, you can reduce their premium by 15 per cent to 30 per cent. And by increasing the deductible to Rs 1,000, one can decrease the cost by at least 40 per cent.

from one car to another on the basis of the profile of the owner. Many times, the insurance companies do not disclose this but they evaluate the risk related to the vehicle on various parameters like age of the vehicle, type of fuel used, usage of car, age and occupation of the driver. For instance, it’s assumed that diesel-driven cars are used more than a petrol-driven one. So, the premium charged on those cars might be higher by 10 to 15 per cent.

But if you don’t plan to drive frequently, you may try requesting a revision. Premium charged from businessmen is also higher as they tend to use car more frequently. So, one should wisely declare the usage of their car and other details as it can help to reduce the premium amount.

Opt for Basic Coverage Instead of Bumper-to-Bumper This can drastically cut the premiums.

If you are confident of your careful driving habits, you can opt for a basic coverage plan instead of the bumperto-bumper plan that offers greater coverage for even the plastic parts. It can cut premiums by up to 25-30%.

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n such case, free insurance provided is only for a year and from second year onwards, it is policyholder’s responsibility to pay the premium and get their policy renewed. Normally, dealers recovers price of the premium by giving lower discounts. Most of the time, free insurance doesn’t cover various damages caused to the car by floods, etc so, it is important to go through the fine prints of the policy very carefully. Instead of opting for free insurance, buyers should go for higher discounts and buy the car insurance separately.

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NEW

TREND

How to Use Married Woman Property Act to Safeguard Your Family Finances

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Everyone wants to safeguard their family’s future, once they are no longer around. And, for that many buy life insurance policies as they ensure at least your wife and kids won’t have to struggle even if something happens to you. The Married Woman Property (MWP) Act is one such law you could use to safeguard your wife’s and kids future.

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n fact, the Act was put in place with the intention to safeguard a married woman’s property from creditors and family members. While the act covers a whole lot of things, from a personal finance point of view you need to know a few things. When you buy a life insurance policy on your life as a husband, you can actually buy the policy under the Married Woman Property Act. Of course, you will have to create a trust for that, but the advantage is huge. If you already have a life insurance policy and bring it under this act, call your insurer for more details. “When you buy life insurance under this Act, this ensures that your creditors, even the Income Tax Department does not get hold of this money,” says Suresh Sadagopan, a Mumbai-based Certified Financial Planner.

None of your creditors, neither banks, nor any kind of court attachments done, can get hold of this money. To buy a life insurance policy (in your name) under this act you have to fulfill a few criteria. One, you should be a married man, or a divorcee or a widower. “The life insurance policy has to be taken in your name, not your spouse’s name,” says Sadagopan. As far as the beneficiary goes, it could be your wife or children or wife and children together. Also, have to appoint a trustee; it could even be your wife. All you have to do is have the trustee sign an addendum, stating the permission of appointment of trustee to perform the duties of the trustee. In fact, you can change the trustee any time.

The most important thing to remember is that once you buy a life insurance policy under this Act, you will lose all control over the policy, since it will belong to the trust for the benefit of your wife and children, so it’s no longer part of your estate. However, you will need to pay the premiums. The best part is that you don’t need to pay anything extra to get a policy under this Act. Simply sign an addendum stating the same. Sadagopan says, “These days signing a separate addendum is not needed. We have seen many insurance

“When you buy life insurance under this Act, this ensures that your creditors, even the Income Tax Department does not get hold of this money,”

application forms themselves have the MWP option mentioned on them.” If you already have a life insurance policy and bring it under this act, call your insurer for more details. “This will work well, for those who are self employed or have their own business. But, even if you are salaried individual would to good to buy a policy under this act,” says Sadagopan. Now that you know a thing or two about MWP, we suggest you call your insurer or your Certified Financial Planner to take action.

The Latest Entrant to Tablet Wars, the Stunning Microsoft Surface he Microsoft Surface was one of the most anticipated tablet of the Holiday Season 2012.

The Surface was first unveiled in June this year. It was launched to customers last week at $499 for the 32GB tablet and an additional $100 for the touch cover.

Surface looks stunning with its kick stand and its 3mm thin keyboard cover.

It is as slim as Apple’s iPad 4 at 9.4mm or 0.37". It weighs in at 680g, a tad heavy. The outer shell of the Surface is encased in magnesium, which makes it 3x lighter than aluminium.

The Surface has a USB 2.0 port, with which you can transfer files using pen drives, etc. The Surface comes with a Touch cover which is 3mm thin and also serves as a Keyboard. If you are uncomfortable with the Touch Cover, you can buy a Type Cover with a mechanical keyboard which is only 6mm thin.The Surface has an integrated Kick Stand which is extremely useful. The Surface then stands like a photo frame. This tablet from Microsoft comes equipped with

two cameras. Both 720p front and rear. It can be used to take photos and videos as well as make video calls.

Surface has a ‘Quad-Core’ NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with 12 graphic cores.

Surface offers 2GB of RAM and storage of 32 or 64GB. It has a 10.6" HD Ready Display with a Resolution of 1366 x 768, an aspect ratio of 16:9 and 5-point multi-touch. The 16:9 aspect ratio is convenient for watching movies. It has 2 microphones and stereo speakers. The Microsoft Tab has a microSDXC card slot, a headset jack, a HD video out port and a cover port.

It also has a gyroscope, an ambient light sensor, a compass and an accelerometer. Surface has a 31.5 Watthour Battery which is charged by a 24W power supply. It also features WiFi 802.11 (a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.0.

Overall the Surface tablet is expected to be very productive. It can be used to create content, not only to consume it.

Acer, Samsung and Apple in the form of the Transformer Infinity, The Galaxy Tab and the iPad 4, respectively pose stiff competition to the Surface.

Will it be a Bolt for Cricket or Football?

World’s fastest man Usain Bolt may consider switching to cricket or football after the 2016 Olympics in Rio, his agent said Wednesday. The Jamaican, 26, held talks with Melbourne Stars captain Shane Warne but finally gave up on this idea. Bolt’s agent Ricky Simms told BBC: “Usain is currently an athlete focused on his preparations for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.” “He may try his hand at cricket or football when he retires from running but that would be after 2016.” Simms said: “I met with the Melbourne Stars in October and told them Usain is not available to play cricket this year.” Melbourne Stars media manager Jess Cook told BBC Sport that the team had held “lengthy discussions” with Bolt’s representatives over the summer but nothing came out of it. “From our end this has been done and dusted since mid-October,” she said. “We had lengthy discussions with Bolt’s management from June to August but his training schedule ahead of the World Championships unfortunately wouldn’t allow him to be involved with the Stars this summer. “We will remain close to Bolt and explore it again next season.” Bolt’s well-publicized ambitions in other sports is obviously keeping many guessing and causing some to jump the gun, even while many in the sporting world speculate that his physical make-up is unique and superior to other sportsmen in areas like muscle fibres.

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G A D G E T

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R E A L T Y

Home Buyers vs Builders: Whose Side are You on, Mr FM?

That realtors are lobbying hard with the finance ministry is now becoming clear with Finance Minister P Chidambaram asking the Reserve Bank of India to look at all possible options to finance the housing sector. Significantly, the move comes close on the heels of the realtors’ association urging companies to sell unsold houses at lower prices.

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recent report says the finance ministry has now asked the RBI to ease provisioning norms so as to free up more capital for lending towards the housing sector. The ministry also wants real estate being accorded infrastructure status. Many countries have accorded infrastructure status to real estate, which helps companies arrange funding from domestic as well as foreign market at cheaper interest rates. India’s real estate sector has been lobbying for this status for long, but the authorities have not yet budged. Even if it materialises, consumers will benefit only if it is used for affordable housing. If the finance minister is on the side of home buyers, he should first demand to see a serious drop in house prices before asking banks to ease credit. Again, the government’s stand is diametrically opposite to that of the RBI. The banking regulator has time and again warned lenders against their exposure to the real estate sector.

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In 2009, the RBI had increased banks’ provisioning for standard assets to 1 percent from 0.4 percent after house prices crashed in 2008 and builders found it difficult to repay loans. The central bank’s move was aimed at mitigating any asset quality risks for banks. Recently, a media report said the RBI has asked banks not to restructure real estate loans and push for recoveries instead. “If builders are forced to repay their debt then they will not be able to hold onto prices, which in the long term can help rein in the artificially high property prices and, in effect, take care of this key contributor to high inflation,” a Firstpost report said earlier.

Banks have, over the last few years, become more cautious about lending to the overexposed sector. But it looks like the finance ministry once again wants to hand-hold builders, who have been adamant at holding prices high. Realtors are in dire straits as private equity funding too is drying up. Four years back, when bank credit was easily available, builders diverted bank finance to buy acres of land, rather than completing projects. The net result: incomplete projects but rising prices due to inordinate delays.

This is because easy and cheap availability of money inevitably leads to a bubble. This is precisely why builders never reduced the inventory prices per unit. Viewed against this background, realtors association Credai’s recent exhortation to builders to sell unsold inventory at lower prices seems to be a classic case of you rub my back and I’ll rub yours. Developers have said that bringing down prices would be difficult unless liquidity

improves. However, it is far from clear that even if this happens, developers will bring prices down.

If the finance minister thinks easy bank credit will bring down prices, the reality is that it could just enable developers off the hook and hold prices for longer.

But as the chairman of a state-run bank told recently, “Easing the provisioning norms will free up more capital for banks and they may bring down interest rates for housing developers. But I doubt if that rebate will be passed on.

The housing sector is opaque and there will always be other reasons determining pricing.” In a nutshell, instead of taking such indirect routes to control the sector, the government should first create a regulator for the sector – a long pending consumer demand. The government has been dragging its feet. If the finance minister is on the side of home buyers, he should first demand to see a serious drop in house prices before asking banks to ease credit.

Milli Moonstone ki Wah bhai Wah With the film 2 Nights in Soul, Director Harish Sharma introduces fresh faces along with a British singer-actress Milli Moonstone. He says it was the girl’s dedication more than her nationality that got her this role.

The beautiful moon faced Moonstone who is one of the actresses in the movie had worked her charm on the entire unit of the movie “2 Nights in Soul Valley” recalls its screenplay writer Meenakshi Sharma. Everyone in the unit, right from the Director Harish Sharma to the spot boy, all were mesmerized by the beauty of this British actress and singer. The entire unit was just waiting for an opportunity to help this pretty lady irrespective of whether she wanted it or not. All the attention and care that she was receiving caused lot of smoke in the air. The smoke wasn’t because of some freak accidents but due to fuming hearts of the lady members of the crew. Even other female actresses were feeling inferior with royal

treatment that this pretty British girl was getting. Do not be mistaken that beauty alone was her plus point.

Even after being an international star the professionalism of Milli was something to die for. The director of the movie Harish Sharma says that the dedication and hardworking nature of this international star is truly commendable. “Not even once did she throw any sorts of tantrums during the making of the film. Milli is one of those actresses who’ll adjust to every situation and make life of the director very simple.”

It could be her magnetic charisma or the professionalism, but the entire crew fell head over heels for her.This is called Videshi kuddi da Tashan.

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L U X U R Y

8 Most Valuable LUXURY Brands of the World Luxury brands are the most popular brands that the richest shoppers talk about.

Louis Vuitton tops the list of the most valuable luxury brands in the world, according to Interbrand. The world’s largest brand consultancy, Interbrand has ranked companies based on its brand value. Europe leads the list, with America a distant second, and no representation from the rest of the world, even while it is rest of the world that gobbles up these Western brands.

Guc ci Gucci The house of Gucci is an Italian fashion and leather goods brand. The company features finely crafted leather accessories like handbags, shoes, clothing, watches and jewelry.

Brand value: $9,446 million

Louis V uit Vuit uittton The French fashion house, Louis Vuitton tops the list of luxury brands in the world. The company’s products include luxury trunks, leather goods, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, and books. Brand value: $23,577 million

Car tier artier

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Founded in Paris, Cartier is very well known for its exquisite jewelry and wrist watches. Apart from having a long history of selling its watches to royalty and celebrities, the company’s collections include leather goods and accessories.

Brand value: $5,495 million

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Tif o ifffany & C Co Pr ada Prada Prada is an Italian fashion label which specializes in luxury goods such as leather accessories, shoes, luggage and hats. Runway shows, boutiques, perfumes and LG Prada mobile phone is its business today.

Brand value: $4,271 million

Tiffany & Co is often referred to as Tiffany’s and is this luxury American multinational jewelry and silverware corporation sells china, crystal, fragrances, personal accessories and leather goods apart from its renowned diamond jewelry.

Brand value: $5,159 million

Ralph LLa aur en uren Ralph Lauren Corporation is an upscale American lifestyle brand which produces clothing, accessories, footwear, fragrances and furniture which are all marketed under a portfolio of brands. Brand value: $4,038 million

Burberr Burberryy The British luxury fashion house is distinctively known for its tartan pattern. Apart from its popular trench coat the company is known for its accessories, bags, shoes, watches and fragrance among other products. Brand value: $4,342 million

The luxury French brand, Hermes is very well known for its silk scarves, leather and perfumes. Hermes specializes in lifestyle accessories, ties, clothing, watches, stationery, footwear, gloves and decorative among other products. Brand value: $6,182 million

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Herme Hermess

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New Launches: Fresh, Luxe, & Duds Moët & Chandon introduces Grand Vintage 2004

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Champagne brand Moët & Chandon has introduced Grand Vintage 2004, the House’s 70th vintage. Joining the world’s largest collection of vintage champagnes across the ages, Moët & Chandon Grand Vintages are made only in remarkable harvest years, expressing a unique story to be retold with the pop of a cork. The vivacious Grand Vintage 2004 is the result of the year 2004’s plentiful harvest – a growing season that was unusually mild with thriving vines and exquisitely mature grapes. The Grand Vintage 2004 represents an evolution in the House’s philosophy of vintage wines. Beginning with the Grand Vintage 2000 and through to Grand Vintage 2004, the choice of assemblage – the relative proportions of the three grape varietals – now relies more on the particular qualities of the fruit rather than accepted convention, and the aging period has also been extended.

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A. LLange ange & Soehne

The Z odiac Grill, the fine Zodiac dining rre est aur an antt sta uran loc ated in TThe he TTaj aj Mahal loca Palac e Mumbai, in alace ating it d celebr elebra itss 23r 23rd anniv er sar anniver ersar saryy.

For the anniversary celebrations, chefs have designed a special menu, is available for INR 25,000 per couple for a 12 course menu. Take a taste of Escargot Nouvelle, Samon-ed Seabass, Burberry Duck Brulee, White Coffee, Nitro Poached Cherry Fondue and Camembert Dariole.

During these celebrations, The Zodiac Grill will also launch Zodiac Sign based exclusive cocktail menu, taking inspiration from constellations signs like Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, et al. The French influenced cuisine of The Zodiac Grill comprises of great presentation, delectable French flavours, dramatic décor and overwhelming services.

A. Lange & Söhne has again proven its value for serious collectors as its watches get acquired for record sums at Dr. Crott’s auction in Frankfurt on the Main. Two limited-edition watches made

by A. Lange & Söhne in 1996 and 2000 changed hands recently. One watch enthusiast from Europe bid 248,000 euros for a Tourbillon "Pour le Mérite" in platinum. Only 50 copies of this exceptional timepiece were made in the platinum version between 1994 and 1998. The price bid for watch number 20/50 was far higher than forecast.

This timepiece by A. Lange & Söhne reached more than three times its original selling price.

Another bidder worked hard for a pinkgold version of the 1815 Moonphase, highly prized among collectors. At 19,200 euros, he paid double the original selling price. Only 250 examples of this version were ever made.

The brand is indeed pushing boundaries!

Paul&Shark la unche launche unchess jack ets per or all jacke perffec ectt ffor sea sons seasons

Italian luxury sportwear brand Paul&Shark has now launched jackets which promise to aid and style you up in all seasons. The ‘Paul&Shark Winter-Summer Collection is signed by the brand’s traditional three colour or monochromatic logo or just a simple shark, the distinctive brand insignia.

The Winter-Summer collection comprises of reversible vests, also known as ‘Two in One’, having a lighter lining which ensures utmost comfort in variable weather conditions. Wear it only on chilly autumn evenings or layer it with the rest of your outfit.

Tod’s la unche e vver er sions o launche unchess inno innovvativ tive ersions off D Bag and Gommino ffor or A utumn-Win 12/13 Autumn-Win utumn-Wintter 20 2012/13 Tod’s, capturing the true essence of the winter weather, has launched unique versions of its two iconic products, D Bag and Gommino.

The D Bag Luxury, an evolution of the classic D Bag in a super-luxurious hide, features a full leather lining. Created with the highest levels of craftsmanship and technical expertise, the D Bag is soft, with a hand-cut finish and a contemporary silhouette ranging in precious tieand-dye crocodile and calf skin with bright sheep skin details, or more rectangular in coloured soft calfskin and sheep skin.

The colour palette ranges from flashes of mandarin to purple, petrol blue, dark olive green, cherry red, mustard and metallic gold, together with the natural hues of browns and beiges, black and white.

Mon tblanc la unche ed Writ er dition 20 12 Montblanc launche unchess the Limit Limited Writer erss EEdition 2012 Jona than SSwif wif er Jonathan wiftt Gulliv Gulliver

Jimmy Choo un unvveils collabor ation with ollabora tist R ob con ar onttempor emporar aryy ar artist Rob Pruit Pruittt

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Luxury fashion brand Jimmy Choo has unveiled the much anticipated capsule collection created in collaboration with contemporary artist Rob Pruitt. But wait a bit more as the products are set to debut in Jimmy Choo boutiques and online only in November 2012. Mr Pruitt has wielded his particular brand of iconoclastic humour and visual exuberance since he emerged on the New York art scene in the late 1980s.

From glittering panda bear paintings to large scale dégradé canvases with a scribble of human expression, to a silvered Andy Warhol monument on public view, Mr Pruitt is known for producing art that is both playful and profound.

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Luxury writing instruments brand, Montblanc, pays tribute to the distinguished British-Irish writer Jonathan Swift, writer, poet and essayist, and creator of the satiric

Patine la unche launche unchess Herit age Bridal Heritage Collec tion ollection Highlighting rich Indian embroideries with contemporary silhouettes, Patine launched its Heritage Wedding Collection for modern, discerning brides over an intimate high tea at The Oberoi, New Delhi. Leading models showcased the signature bridal creations. Ms Shon Randhawa, co-founder and creative director of Patine, said “At Patine, our biggest design challenge is to find a way of integrating traditions into everyday life [of our customers]. Keen to showcase the traditional heritage handcraft techniques the world over, we have selected the most talented embroiderers to create truly versatile yet timeless garments.” Inspired by the heritage crafts of India, the collection includes creations in fine silks and velvets, heavy brocades and flowing chiffons which are accentuated with traditional embroideries, colourful silk linings, and striking ethnic detailing.

masterpiece ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ with a new pen. The Jonathan Swift inspired Writer’s Edition instruments reinterpret the fantastical world created by Swift and inhabited by his hero Gulliver. The overall design draws inspiration from ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, and in particular the Lilliput episode, Gulliver’s first voyage.

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Developed and crafted in-house, the new Couture Précieuse collection by Piaget pays homage to feminine beauty. The jewellery sets borrow from the field of corsets and ribbons and accentuates shapes to perfection. A lace-inspired necklace enhances the exquisitely rounded curve of a neckline. The enchanting 5-carat pear-shaped diamond naturally draws all eyes to its dazzling brilliance. The delicate strap-inspired watch features alternating brilliant- and baguette-cut diamonds adorning the case and bracelet. The corset-inspired cuff watch in white gold and diamonds sculpts the wrist like a wasp waist.

Piage unche Piagett la launche unchess the C outur e Coutur outure Pr écieuse Précieuse collec tion ollection

Exhibit o onic off ic iconic piec es fr om piece from Flor enc e’s Guc ci Gucci Florenc ence’s Museo In an event worthy of awe and applause, Gucci recently opened its fifth store in India, and third in the Delhi NCR region.

Located at The Oberoi, Gurgaon, the new store spans more than 4,220 sq ft over two floors, making it the largest Gucci store in the country.

Sab Sabyyasachi Mukherjee la unche or e in launche unchess st stor ore Hy der abad Hyder derabad Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee has launched his new and first store in Hyderabad.

With hundreds of clocks on the walls, intricately embroidered lampshades, and curated artefact's from Sabyasachi art foundation, the store in Hyderabad presents another antique world which has the usual Sabyasachi signature. It is located on one of the best shopping streets - road number ten.

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Dom P erignon Perignon Jitish K alla d Geo oy tto o Geofffr fro Kalla allatt and Richar Richard celebr ate ‘P ower o ea tion’ o elebra ‘Po off Cr Crea eation’ off Dom Pérignon In an ode to quality and craftsmanship, Dom Pérignon’s ‘Power of Creation’ is a translation of the origins of Dom Pérignon and champagne as we know it. To celebrate the concept, this December, two iconic creators will present a rare treat at the magnificent Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. Dom Pérignon has orchestrated the creative combustion between acclaimed contemporary artist Jitish Kallat and Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon's Creator of Vintages, on December 1, 2012. This month, in fact, also marks Mr Kallat's 15 years in art. The occasion will thus see the unveiling of two of Mr Kallat’s recent video-installations.

Tag Heuer host hostss charit charityy even wY ork tto o entt in Ne New York suppor omen and supportt UN W Women NY C ar es’ Hurric ane Car are Hurricane Sandy R elie Relie elieff Ef Efffor ortt Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer hosted a glamorous soirée in the iconic Cullman Hall of the Universe on Central Park West, New York, which also saw the presence of its Hollywood brand ambassadors Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The exclusive event brought together prominent people for a double-pronged charity push: to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and raise awareness for gender equality and the empowerment of women worldwide.

Tumi la unche launche unchess a limit ed edition limited Tegr a-Lit e a-Lite egra-Lit Bulle tpr oo Bulletpr tproo ooff A Atttaché A stylized shield designed to perform, Tumi has introduced the limited edition Tegra-Lite Bulletproof Attaché. This attaché combines the highest levels of durability and impact resistance in a protective briefcase, tying back to the recently launched Tegra-Lite travel collection.

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Backpacking to Work You still think this is chic? Wearing a backpack to work is NOT trendy. If you’re a student, fine. But if you’re entering the work world, it’s time you upped your game and invested in a leather briefcase or messenger bag.

You will be taken more seriously, so ditch the backpack and make the change now.

Wearing Wrong Socks

Wearing Baggy T-Shirts Baggy t-shirts are so not in any more. They just make you look bulkier and fatter. You are not fooling anyone by wearing loose, ill-fitting clothes, trying to cover up all that flab and excess fat. Hit the gym pronto! Lesson to be learnt: wear fitted clothes that appeal to your figure.

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Dying Your Hair

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Dying, highlighting, or bleaching the hair is for girls ONLY! Why do manly guys feel the need to do such girly things? Ditch that and embrace your manliness. If in doubt, think George Clooney.

Fashion Blunders Men Make

Which person in their right mind would ever pair sports socks with formal shoes? It’s tacky and senseless. But if you are feeling tacky, sport a pair of flip-flops or something. Never wear white socks with formal shoes. Always remember that the colour of your socks should match your pants, not your shoes.

Whatever you do, some things are simply not acceptable. Wearing a never-ending tie or a pair of mismatched socks, are examples. Too Short or Too Long Tie When in the office, the length of your Check out the absolutely tie matters. Going into a meeting with a short tie or one that reaches unacceptable fashion blunders below your belt shows a lack of professionalism or care towards your that men commit. work. Measure yourself and be precise, and don’t make it too long or you’ll be committing a fashion crime. To save yourself from embarrassment, make sure your tie reaches your belt buckle or the waist band of your trousers.

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‘HAUTE COUTURE DESIGNS FOR THE MODERN ‘DRAMA QUEEN’ The world of haute couture fashion has a new muse in the form of ultraluxe designer and leading fashion entrepreneur Barkha Shewakramani.

The Middle East based Fashionista, whose label ‘Drama Queen’ came to international prominence at Dubai Fashion Week in 2007, combines her love of vintage inspired design with glamorous, A-list chic to create classic, timeless pieces that fuse Eastern trends with Western style.

The uber-stylish ‘Drama Queen’ label has enthralled Dubai’s trendconscious, socialite crowd since it launched five years ago, and has gone on to capture the hearts of style-savvy women the world over.

After four successful seasons of cutting-edge collections, ‘Drama Queen’ launched its debut Indian set in the fashion hub of Mumbai recently.

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When asked to elaborate on the roots of the brand, Barkha commented: ‘Every girl in her own way is full of drama and emotion. She has a longing to be treated like a princess, and every garment of mine makes her feel like a queen.’ Having dressed herself in her own creations since the launch of her label, Barkha knows what matters in the fashion stakes, and has regularly appeared on various ‘best dressed’ lists.

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The ‘Drama Queen’ label epitomises the modern woman and her search for affordable, versatile and welldesigned clothes. The signature collections feature an array of design elements, from beautifully tailored day classics to retro party wear with embellishments and brocade stitching. The fabrics used reflect each occasion, from soft chiffons to raw silks and on-trend lace.

Speaking about the Mumbai collection, Barkha says: ‘This season

you can expect lots of pop colours, party prints, wide legged jumpsuits, and of course the signature Victoria dress in different fabrics and embellishments.

A quintessential ‘Drama Queen’ woman is someone who is confident in her own skin, who loves fashion and is not scared to experiment’, explains Barkha.

Claiming to have created record by constructing a building in 48 hours, Synergy Thrislington, a SAS Nagar-based infrastructure company announced the completion of their "factory-made building"- Instacon, amidst the beats of dhol and cheers on Saturday.

The building that generated curiosity among residents is only a sample structure and the 48-hour deadline was only for raising the physical structure.

After assembling the building floor by floor, company's chief operating officer Yashjeet Gupta claimed that "by coming up with a 10-storeyed structure in 48 hours we have entered into the Limca book of records."

Red and grey walled Instacon came up on an industrial area plot in SAS Nagar and attracted many curious onlookers, thanks to the hype created about the project, to see how the building could be constructed in 48 hours. While the company announced the building to be complete after assembling the factory-made panels and other construction material, the glass panes on the windows and other fittings inside were still being put by the workers and engineers. It had taken the company to manufacture the entire construction material in a

period of over about two months.

This material was moved to the site and put together with the help of three cranes and over 200 skilled workers, technicians and engineers to come up with Instacon - a 48-hour wonder. The material used was manufactured in the past two months in a nearby factory. The building used pre-fabricated material, including 200 tonnes of steel.

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Building a 10-St or ey 10-Stor ore Building in 48 hour hourss

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http://www.magzter.com/IN/PeteCarlson-Solutions-Pvt.-Ltd/Seasonal-Magazine/Business/ or http://tinyurl.com/c6q92qz

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HEALTH CARE

Intelligent Insulin Pump Installed for First Time in India Kochi based leading diabetes consultant, Dr. Johny Kannampilly, who was a pioneer in the field of insulin pumps in the country, has recently achieved another first when he deployed a patient with the country’s first intelligent insulin pump. During low blood sugar events (hypoglycemia), the device will automatically stop pumping additional insulin for two hours. It is the world’s only intelligent insulin pump with this “low glucose suspend” feature. Dr. Johny Kannampilly was trained in diabetes at WHO Center, Zagreb, Europe. He is the first doctor from Kerala state to be trained and specialized in Diabetic Foot. He was also trained at Kings College London under Prof. Mike Edmonds who is a world famous authority in diabetic foot care.

After using the pump for over a month now, Mathew has not got any hypoglycemic episodes. His quality of life improved by leaps and bounds.

“Mathew is now the first patient using the intelligent insulin pump in India.

This latest advancement in medical technology brings us very closer to a device that would perform as an artificial pancreas,” Dr. Johny Kannampilly added.

Why Hypoglycemia is Serious A dangerous and often frequent occurrence in diabetes management, hypoglycemia can be one of the most frightening aspects of living with type 1 diabetes. If left untreated, hypoglycemia can cause loss of consciousness, seizure, coma, or even death. Research indicates that, on average, a person with diabetes will experience more than one low blood

nsulin pumps have been present in India for quite number of years. It is estimated that around 3000 diabetics are using insulin pumps in India. One of the shortfalls with the existing insulin pump is that, the pump lacks intelligence to respond and automatically stop pumping insulin to the body during low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Now intelligent insulin pumps with this capability are available in India.

Dr. Johny Kannampilly

insulin in case of high sugar or can reach for medical assistance.”

Mr. Mathew (name changed) from Kochi has been a diabetic for 18 years now. His blood sugar fluctuates widely, breaching low and high permissible levels. Aged 58, he is suffering from liver cirrhosis as well. Varying blood sugar has been a cause of major concern for him and his family. He was not able to sleep or work properly. His life was getting miserable. Dr. Johny Kannampilly suggested the latest intelligent insulin pump to Mathew.

sugar event every two weeks.

Additionally, each year, nearly one in 14 people with insulin-treated diabetes will experience one or more episodes of severe hypoglycemia, requiring urgent treatment by a healthcare professional. A third of diabetes patients suffer from hypoglycemia while asleep, which may impair their ability to recognize or act to prevent a serious episode. An estimated 33 percent of diabetes-related deaths are a result of acute complications such as hypoglycemia. While some patients

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Dr. Johny Kannampilly, a leading Diabetes Consultant, based at Cochin said, “The international study, ‘Accord‘, showed that hypoglycemia is one of the causes for death in diabetic patients. When a potential hypoglycemia episode is detected, the intelligent insulin pump will respond automatically by not pumping additional insulin in to the blood for two hours. This is particularly helpful when the patient is sleeping. Intelligent insulin pump would alert and respond during low or high sugar levels. The device will alert the patient by beeping and vibrating. The patient can respond by suspending the insulin pump in case of low sugar and pump additional

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can experience “warning signs” before a hypoglycemic event (such as feeling shaky, sweating, tingling in the lips, confusion and irritability), others may not experience any warning signs at all.

How Intelligent Insulin Pump Manages Hypoglycemia

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Intelligent insulin pump can automatically suspend insulin delivery when the device senses that glucose levels have fallen to or below a userselected threshold. This feature is intended to reduce the severity of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) in situations where patients ignore or are unable to treat hypoglycemia. The system includes an insulin pump with a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system (provided by means of a separate sensor and transmitter). The patient uses readings from the monitor in conjunction with occasional confirmatory fingerstick blood glucose measurements to understand their current glucose level. Based on these results, the patient then programs the insulin pump to deliver an appropriate amount of insulin. Insulin combats high blood sugar, a key cause of heart disease and other long-term complications in type 1 diabetes.

However, if data transmitted from the sensor show the patient’s glucose levels have dropped below a defined threshold, the device alarms to alert the patient. If these alarms are ignored, the insulin pump automatically suspends insulin delivery for up to two hours.

This helps to protect against potentially dangerous hypoglycemic events.

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“This latest technology is a significant breakthrough that will help people with diabetes to control their condition. In order to reduce the long-term risk of diabetes-related complications, which can cause blindness, kidney failure and heart attacks, patients should manage their glucose levels to as near normal as possible. Unfortunately, aggressive glucose control can increase the risk of severe hypoglycemia, which can render a patient unconscious - and if recurrent - can have very serious consequences,” says Dr. Johny

A dangerous and often frequent occurrence in diabetes management, hypoglycemia can be one of the most frightening aspects of living with type 1 diabetes. If left untreated, hypoglycemia can cause loss of consciousness, seizure, coma, or even death.

Kannampilly. “For the first time, a mechanical device can now warn the patient of this dangerous situation. The system alerts patients if their glucose levels drop too low, and stops the delivery of more insulin if they don’t respond to the alert. Having this safety feature may allow patients greater control over severe hypoglycemia.,” the leading diabetologist added.

For a diabetic, Intelligent Insulin Pump will, firstly monitor and record glucose levels 24/7 – so they can always see what is happening. Secondly enable the patient to make easy and appropriate therapy adjustments – because they know what their glucose levels are currently. And thirdly, warn them when glucose levels stray from target range – so they can have the peace of mind.

The intelligent insulin pump would especially help type 1 diabetics, chronic type 2 diabetics, and pregnant women with diabetes. No bigger than a mobile phone, the system can be attached to a belt, kept in a pocket or hidden under clothing – and it is the same size and weight as a mobile phone or MP3 player. Simple, intuitive navigation and on-screen instructions make it easy to use. At the touch of a few buttons, the system calculator uses the patient’s personal settings, blood

glucose readings, carbohydrate intake and active insulin duration to suggest a bolus amount. The system does all the maths. The device can be worn during work, while exercising or sleeping. Diabetics can manage their diabetes in a better way with the intelligent insulin pump.

How to Manage Diabetes Studies by WHO and ICMR indicates, there are more than 6 crore diabetics in India now. Diabetes once considered to be a rich man’s disease is now a problem affecting everyone. We would need drastic changes in our lifestyle and latest medical technologies to overcome this phenomenal health problem.

Dr. Johny Kannampilly said, “The much followed standard tests do not reveal wide fluctuations of blood sugar.

Studies show that majority of diabetic patients have widely fluctuating blood sugar levels and are at risk for developing diabetic complications affecting eyes, legs, kidneys and heart.

Neuropathic Pain in legs and Retinopathy are commonly found symptoms among people suffering from wide fluctuation of blood sugar.

The intelligent insulin pump would be of great help for such diabetic patients.”

Dr. Johny recommends the following four steps for a diabetic patient, under the guidance of a professional expert: “Periodic fasting and postprandial blood sugar tests should be done with appropriate medications. HbA1c test has to be done every 3 months and if result is above 7%, the patient is at risk for developing diabetic complications affecting eyes, legs, kidneys and heart.

If HbA1c result is above 7%, a CGMS test is a good option. 864 tests carried out in 3 days will indicate fluctuations in blood sugar on a graph. Oral medicines and insulin can be taken to control fluctuations. In cases of uncontrolled fluctuations, an insulin pump will be the best option for people seeking complete mobility while controlling their blood sugar.”

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Kerala Destinations in 20 13 2013

Where Tigers Prefer to Roam, And Where Adivasis are Your Guides

young couples working at new generation companies – Muthanga is their first taste of Wayanad, complete with forests, indigenous people (‘adivasis’), streams, elephants, wild boars, deer, tigers, and other wildlife.

But for Keralites, Muthanga is an unfortunate memory, where police opened fire to evict ‘encroaching’ adivasis, some years back. Anyway, Muthanga is peaceful land now and is a major tourist attraction in Wayanad. The sanctuary is spread over an expansive 345 sq km forest land, and comes under the Indian Government’s Project Elephant. This sanctuary is part of the protected Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, and is contiguous with Nagarhole National Park and Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka, and Mudumalai National Park of Tamilnadu. The main attraction of this Wayanad destination are the herds of wild elephants that roam

freely. While other species like deer, monkeys, birds etc are frequently spotted, more aggressive ones like wild boars and tigers can also be seen occasionally. The rich flora in Muthanga comprises of trees and plants that belong to the moist deciduous semi evergreen forests.

Scientific conservation is given high preference in these natural forests, complete with conserving the native lifestyle of the tribals. Rides on tamed elephants are arranged by the Forest Department. The nearest town is Sulthan Bathery of Wayanad District which is 16 kms away, while the nearest airport is Karipur International Airport, Kozhikode, which is 136 km away. The best time to visit Muthanga and Wayanad is between June and January when the monsoons nourishes and paints the forest the richest green you have ever seen.

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o marks for guessing Kerala’s most preferred destinations among international tourists – it is well-known tourist spots like Kumarakom Lake and Varkala Beach. But try to guess Kerala’s most preferred destination among domestic tourists these days, and you will be hard pressed for an answer unless you yourself haven’t visited Kerala as a domestic tourist from say, Bangalore or Chennai.

Enter Kerala by cruising down through the Mysore-Kozhikode National Highway No 212, and you will enter this destination – the one and only Wayanad.

And greeting you at the very Kerala border is Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary.

Now, Muthanga brings different memories to different people. For domestic tourists from Bangalore and Chennai – most of them groups of

Muthanga, Wayanad

Doe ayanad rreally eally ha st tiger-densit Doess W Wa havve the highe highest tiger-densityy in the ec en atally ecen entt WWF study tha thatt claims so so,, ffa world? Or is the rrec fla wed? But eexpec xpec o mee SCO W orld flaw xpectt tto meett tiger tigerss a att this UNE UNES World Herit age Sit e, and eexpec xpec o be guided bbyy A div asis who ar e on Heritage Site xpectt tto Adiv diva are official dut st in K er ala if no dutyy, which is a fir first Ker erala nott India. And don’t for ge o also visit the ne w ttable-t able-t op crick et gr ound a orge gett tto new able-top cricke ground att Sulthan Ba ther ands 900 me tr e abo Bather theryy which st stands metr tre abovve sea-le sea-levvel and is the coun tr y’s one among only ttw wo such ffacilitie acilitie s. ountr try’s acilities.

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Must See

Kerala Destinations in 20 13 2013

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Silent Valley, Palakkad

Will the Valley Hog the Limelight Now, Silently, Of Course?

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Funds are soon coming to Silent Valley. This most-known but leastvisited Kerala destination is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which ensures sizeable funds for its conservation. But don’t expect the valley to break its silence while hogging the limelight.

Popularized by renowned biologist Salim Ali, fought passionately for by recently demised CPM thinker P Govinda Pillai, and protected finally by none other than Indira Gandhi, there is something about this uniquely silent forest. magine a land where man has not dwelled till now. Yes, not even indigenous tribes. An ice empire like Antarctica was one such place – till exploration teams set base there. Another topography that makes dwelling tough for humans is the montane rainforests, which are high altitude rainforests. And what happens in a montane rainforest, when humans can’t invade? The rich flora and fauna thrive unhindered over the ages to create an invaluable region of unimaginable biodiversity. Kerala is home to such a paradise. Welcome to the one and only Silent Valley. Breathtakingly beautiful, disturbingly dangerous, and wonderfully virgin. This rainforest got its name from early British explorers & botanists, like Robert Wight, who in 1847 observed that the place was devoid of Cicadas, which contribute most to the non-stop noise in thick forests. Unlike popular tourist destinations in Kerala, Silent Valley is not for everyone. In fact, it is not a tourist destination in the classical sense – it is a mountainous rainforest which can’t be enjoyed fully without trekking. However, you can choose the extent of the trek – from a short 2 km downhill day trek to the sparkling ‘Kunti Puzha’ (River Kunti), to overnight treks, to treks that last 3

nights and 4 days with nights spent at camping spots deep in the forest! Because, there is so much to explore at Silent Valley that spreads over 22,121 acres, and over 80 km of trekking length. But don’t think this no man’s land is open for anyone and everyone – you have to get special prior permission from forest authorities, and, believe it or not, a forest guard cum guide will accompany each and every trekking group – whether it is a single day trek or multiple days trek. Because, Silent Valley is that precious; it is not just an uninhabited rainforest. It is a rare rainforest of national importance and international renown. Since 1983, it has been designated as Silent Valley National Park. One is not permitted to litter the place with plastic, disturb the animals & birds, or injure the plants & trees. This Noah’s Ark is home to numerous birds and animals, many of them endangered species. The Park is home to over 138 bird species, of which 16 are endangered.

Numerous animals including tigers, leopards, & elephants, are found here, with endangered species like lion-tailed macaque and Nilgiri langur hogging more limelight. The Park is also garden to a delightful collection of over 100 butterflies and 400 moths. However, one species will alarm the trekkers – the almost unavoidable leeches. Silent Valley

can be approached from two sides, with the popular route being Palakkad – Mannarkad – Mukkali – Sairandhri – Silent Valley. The Mukkali – Sairandhri segment is a 23 km stretch of steep winding roads. The destination of Sairandhri is the entry point of the Park, and walking is the only way to get around once inside the Park. Another interesting route to Silent Valley involves a heavy downhill trek of over 3 days - Bangitapal – Walakkad – Poochipara – Sairandhri.

However, 3 days of walking with 3 overnight stays at Bangitapal, Walakkad, & Poochipara is not for everyone, and is generally taken by adventurous tourists approaching Silent Valley from Ooty. This will be a surprise to many, but from the “Queen of Nilgiris”, Bangitapal is only a 75 km drive away. In fact, Silent Valley forms the most precious core of the Nilgiri International Biosphere Reserve. The names ‘Kunti’ and ‘Sairandhri’ (Draupadi) shed light on this region’s religious significance; Hindus believe Pandavas had visited this place while in exile. For Keralites, Silent Valley has always been an environmental issue too, with proposals for hydroelectric projects coming up every now and then. The newly designated buffer zone around the Park will help in pre-empting such projects as well as unlawful activities like ganja cultivation and illicit brewing.

he has many moods, and what you see here is not her wildest. Come the monsoon, and she can transform herself to a more voluptuous figure – plunging down multiple times the water that you now see in the main photo. She is the Athirappilly Falls, arguably Kerala’s finest waterfall.

She contributes to the river ‘Chalakudi Puzha’; better put, she is Chalakudi Puzha. Athirapilli is not wild just for its unhindered drop from over 80 feet of untamed black rocks; its location is right inside a wilderness – the dense Sholayar forest ranges. The lure of this waterfall is that you can spend a whole day here, and still don’t feel like leaving. There are many things you can do

Athirapilly, Thrissur

Athirapilly is where Silent Valley was in the 70s. Caught between a state government hungry for cheap electricity and environmentalists out to protect a million year old ecosystem.

Will Jayanthi Natarajan do an Indira Gandhi or allow its death?

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Meet this Mesmerizing Beauty Before She Withers and Dies

here. You can float around in the rockladen pure medicinal waters, almost a safe kilometre before Athirapilly takes the plunge (caution needed). Or you can climb down a lengthy forest trail to be where the million litres of water hit the river down with deafening rumbles and spraying mist (adventure needed). Or you can swim through the river to stand between the plunging waters and the rock columns (madness needed). Or back up through the forest trail, you can even tread, wade, and swim through the river to perch right next to where Athirapilly takes the plunge (not at all advisable). In fact, lurking dangers has always been Athirapilly’s biggest drawback. Many have lost their lives here, despite serious warnings put up by the local authorities and police.

However, for the less adventurous and for those who exercise sufficient caution, Athirapilly is a completely safe place even with kids. The water is cool and sparkling, and a few minutes of being in it invigorates one like nothing else can. The waterfall is best enjoyed in the monsoon season – with daytimes best suited for being in the water; and dusk suited for panoramic views of the larger picture. During scorching summers, water flow becomes less, but it remains surprisingly cool. Just 5 km from Athirappilli, there is another waterfall, Vazhachal, which is lesser in height but nevertheless competes in beauty. Some areas of Vazhachal are cordoned off from visitors, as it has proved much more fatal to the foolishly adventurous. However, tourists can enjoy the full scene through the wirenets here. Resorts and hotels are less in number at Athirapilly compared with many other destinations, while homestays have started to come up only recently. There are a couple of water theme parks, and a boating service, enroute to the destination. An ongoing proposal by the Kerala Government to establish a 160 megawatt hydroelectric power project on the Athirappilly River has met with stiff resistance from environmentalists who fear destruction of the river, waterfall, and ecosystem.

Athirappilli belongs to Thrissur District, and is 63 km away from the city. Nearest town is Chalakudy, 30 km away, while the nearest airport is Cochin International Airport.

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Must See

Kerala Destinations in 20 13 2013

Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram

More Global Than Kerala Itself?

God’s Own Country is truly international, if you take into account the worldwide tourist traffic it attracts, as well as the innumerable numbers of Keralites working in every nook and corner of this globe.

But this destination can even beat whole of Kerala in this regard.

There is no wonder this unique cliffhanger beach - Varkala - is the most popular beach among international tourists. But Varkala recently attracted none other than Dalai Lama. And also sent one of its most illustrious sons, Swami Sookshmananda of Sivagiri Madhom all the way to Vatican to witness Mar Baselios Cleemis, Catholicos of SyroMalankara Church, being elevated as a Cardinal of Catholic Church.

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erala’s most popular beach has always been Kovalam.

But with popularity comes the unavoidable evils like destructive development, overcrowding, lack of privacy, and safety concerns. International tourists – mainly the Europeans - started asking around for a second beach in Thiruvananthapuram where they could safely unwind, and that is how they stumbled upon Varkala. But Varkala and its beaches have always been there – in fact it is a location of significant historical and religious importance in Kerala. Also, it was not just the remoteness or privacy of Varkala that started attracting tourists here. Varkala is a magnificent beach in its own right, even rated ahead of Kovalam by many tourists, for its sheer beauty. The beach sands are expansive, uncluttered, clean,

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and beautiful, providing for ample space to relax in privacy. The waves are of right height – enough to overwhelm you, but not aggressive enough to topple you. Adding to the experience that is Varkala is a unique range of laterite cliffs that shine amber during sunrise and sunset. The high cliffs are next to the beach, can be climbed, and offer breathtaking views of the waves and sands down. Most of the hotels and resorts in Varkala are atop these cliffs.

The cliffs feature many natural spas and spouts. Technically called Varkala Formation, these cliffs are unique and have been declared a national geological monument by Geological Survey of India, the nation’s apex geological body. According to scientists, these cliffs have been formed by a long-drawn process termed tertiary sedimentation formation, and is a

unique feature of Varkala compared with the rest of Kerala’s long coastline.

The main beach of Varkala is the ‘Papanasam’ Beach which means ‘redemption of sins’ in Malayalam.

Varkala’s religious importance in Hinduism is closely related to this concept – thousands of Hindus come here every year to wash away their sins in the waters here. Varkala also features an ancient temple – the Sree Janardhana Swamy Temple, which is believed by many to be 2000 years old. The ‘Sivagiri Mutt’, a sprawling monastery established by the great Hindu social reformer Sree Narayana Guru is at Varkala and attracts thousands of pilgrims every year. Catering to the needs of the foreign tourists, Varkala is fast becoming an ayurvedic hub with many health resorts offering massages and other inpatient treatments. One of the most cost-effective destinations in Kerala, this seaside town also offers many homestays. Other attractions near Varkala include Kappil, a unique destination where the roaring seas and placid backwaters come together.

Varkala is 51 km south of Thiruvanathapuram City and 37 km north of Kollam City. While Varkala has a railway station of its own, the nearest airport is Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, 57 km away.

hat we see here is a view of Vembanad Lake.

Kochi (earlier Cochin) is on the Arabian Sea coast, but the city is also witness to the confluence of Vembanad Lake and Arabian Sea. But when lake meets sea, what can demarcate between them?

Kochi is the only city covered in this compilation of breathtaking Kerala destinations; all others are forests, valleys, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, & beaches. In fact, that is one of Kochi’s prime strengths – despite being a bustling city Kochi holds enough natural charms to rival any destination in Kerala. The geography is that unique. Kochi is made up of mainland, islands, backwaters, lagoons, seasides, and what not. Kochi can be rightly said as a destination of destinations. Beaches like Cherai & Fort Kochi; islands like Willingdon, Bolghatty, Vallarpadam, & Vypeen;

mega infrastructures like Cochin Port Trust & Cochin Shipyard; and heritage locations like Mattancherry and Tripunithura Hill Palace, are all destinations unto themselves. Kochi City belongs to Ernakulam District, while the mainland portion of the city is often called Ernakulam Town. Kochi has a generous coastline of 48 km, and is virtually at the sea level. The metropolitan limits of Kochi include a scattering of islands on the Vembanad Lake, ranging from tiny 250 acre islands to modest 1500 acre ones. Water bodies are the principal tourist attraction of Kochi, and the sea-lake confluence can be explored through various short and long trips in boats. Regular public ferry services are also available from the two ferry stations in the mainland Ernakulam Town. Popular ferry trips from the main boat jetty include the 15-minute trip to Willingdon Island; the 20-minute trip to Fort Kochi; the half-hour trips to Mattancherry & Vypeen; and the 2-hour

Kochi, Ernakulam

Kerala is racing to be the next Singapore. That is hyperbole, of course, but Kerala is trying anyway even if it is half-heartedly.

But whether Kerala becomes a Singapore or at least a Mumbai, Kochi will be its Central Business District. But that also means there are only very few years left to enjoy the Queen of Arabian Sea. Come to Kochi, before the Transshipment Terminal, Metro, & Smart City, changes this quaint port town.

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When Kerala Becomes Singapore, This Will be its CBD

journey to Varapuzha. Longer travels connecting all these spots, as well as timed pleasure trips to the lake, the sea beyond, and back, are also available.

There are also a wide variety of boats available – from small speedboats, to stately houseboats, to big commercial boats with food, dance, & music.

Exploring the expanse of Kochi Harbour in a boat is one of the most exhilarating experiences that Kerala can provide.

From gigantic ships to bright coloured yachts, all kinds of watercraft from all parts of the world dot the waters. One of the world’s largest luxury ocean liners, RMS Queen Mary II, carrying 2600 passengers had also visited Kochi.

However, Cochin Harbour was not always this attractive. Though a natural all-weather harbour now, prior to 1928 this was only an offshore harbour. Ships had to berth in the violent high seas, with barges carrying cargo to and from the shore. In 1920, Lord Willingdon, the then Governor of Madras, called in Sir Robert Bristow, an illustrious harbour engineer who had worked for Suez Canal, to Kochi. After careful analysis of the sea bed and water currents, Sir Bristow proposed the unthinkable – undertake massive dredging to cut open a dense sand column that was blocking entry to the big ships, thus creating a safe inner harbour, and using the dredged ocean bed (sand), create a new island to house a modern sprawling port! The special dredging ship for the purpose was custom built in England, and despite widespread scepticism, Sir Bristow embarked upon the impossible.

The dredging itself took 2 years (@ 20 hours a day!) and slowly, unbelievably the impossible became possible – the harbour slowly formed, while an island came up from the water! Later, the Willingdon Island came to house not only the Cochin Port, but also the headquarters of the Southern Naval Command complete with an airport!

The island also hosts some of the finest hotels in Kochi. Today, Kochi is fast expanding utilizing both its port infrastructure as well as mainland reserves. A mega international transhipment terminal and marina have come up on its seaside, while an integrated IT township, ‘Smart City’, is coming up on the mainland in collaboration with Dubai Internet City.

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Must See

Kerala Destinations

Kumarakom, Kottayam

in 20 13 2013

Houseboats are Passe, Here Comes the Seaplanes If the recent plan to introduce seaplanes for tourists kicks off, Kumarakom would be the biggest beneficiary.

The amphibian planes to be introduced can take off from land and land on a lake, and also easily do the viceversa. And that makes Kochi-Kumarakom trip less than 30 minutes affair. Kumarakom is also gaining attraction as the Spa Capital of Kerala.

hen it comes to backwater tourism, Kerala is a natural choice even for international tourists.

Fed by 38 rivers and linked by 1500 km of navigable canals, the state’s impressive backwater system of 34 lakes, many of them interconnected, is one of nature’s class acts. And when it comes to Kerala’s backwaters, one destination stands out – Kumarakom. The reason is simple enough – Kumarakom occupies a prized location on the banks of Kerala’s largest natural lake, the ‘Vembanad Kayal’. Measuring an unbelievable 49,421 acres, Vembanad Lake borders three Kerala Districts – Ernakulam, Alappuzha, and Kottayam.

Of these, the cluster of little islands that make up Kumarakom belongs to Kottayam District. Many major rivers including Periyar, Pamba, Muvattupuzha, & Meenachil flow into the Vembanad Lake. The boat ride from Kumarakom

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into the expanses of Vembanad Lake is awe-inspiring, and nobody can be blamed for asking the inevitable question – is it a lake or a sea? However, water is only one of the elements that made Kumarakom a tropical paradise. There are other goodies that water brought along – mangrove forests, wetlands, migratory birds, paddy fields, coconut groves, and a teeming aquatic population.

Kumarakom is structured around enchanting waterways and canals, where green weeds and white lilies make way for boats of all kind – canoes, country crafts, speedboats, and of course, the icon synonymous with Kumarakom – the houseboat or ‘kettuvallam’. The Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, spanning 14 acres, is home to over 90 species of resident birds and over 50 species of migratory birds from as far away as Siberia. The lake and the surrounding wetlands support what is perhaps the largest waterfowl population in India, and a boat ride around the sanctuary will be

enough to spot exotic birds like egrets, darters, herons, teals, cuckoos, wild ducks, and flocks of Siberian Stork. One attraction for these birds – the thriving aquatic life – is also a major attraction for tourists who relish freshwater delicacies like Pearl Spotted Fish (‘Karimeen’), Scampi (‘Konchu’), & Shrimp (‘Chemmeen’). Mouth-watering Kumarakom dishes include grilled ones like ‘Konchu Pollichathu’ and ‘Karimeen Pollichathu’. When it comes to accommodation, there are enough options in Kumarakom by way of homestays, and resorts by both private and public operators. Recently, some major resorts in Kumarakom have come under the government scanner for encroaching land by reclaiming lakes, and might face strict action including demolition and confiscation. Though many relaxing activities can be undertaken in Kumarakom including fishing, angling, hiking, getting an ayurvedic massage etc, the real value of Kumarakom might be missed unless one goes for a long trip through the backwaters to other destinations like Kochi, Alappuzha, or Kollam. The longest of these trips is the Kumarakom-Alappuzha-Kollam trip, which on a typical houseboat will last 2 days and 1 night, costing around Rs. 12,000 for single and Rs. 15,000 for double accommodation. Or if you prefer something short and sweet, the island of ‘Pathiramanal’ (Sands of Midnight) is just 40 minutes away. Kumarakom is 16 km away from Kottayam City and 92 km from Kochi International Airport.

very one of the 14 districts of Kerala is beautiful, but the Miss Kerala crown has always been on Idukki’s head.

How can it be otherwise, with her every feature and curve enticing? Who can compete with Idukki landscapes like Munnar, Thekkady, Peermede, Vagamon, or Kuttikanam?

Among these heaven-on-earth destinations, Thekkady used to be the favourite among tourists, but during the last ten years, Munnar has charmed more travellers than any other Idukki destination. Munnar has a town of the same name, but is used more commonly to denote a larger area – a destination of destinations. This greater Munnar includes Rajamalai, Anamudi Peak, Mattupetty, Devikulam, Echo Point, Top Station, Marayoor etc. Two wildlife parks - Eravikulam National Park at Rajamalai and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary - are also considered as part of the Munnar experience. Not all tourists who visit Munnar will visit each and every spot. Ironically, the most beautiful location in Munnar is often overlooked – the 5576 ft high Mattupetty, often called the Switzerland of Kerala, for its cool mountains, undulating green meadows, and lovely lake. Today, not everything is right with Munnar. Disturbed by mounting encroachments, Kerala Government had initiated an unprecedented demolition drive that brought down numerous resorts and hotels in different parts of Munnar. However, in this respect too,

Mattupetty has been largely undisturbed, thanks to the remoteness and virgin nature of the landscape. If you are planning to visit Mattupetty, don’t go without a few rolls of film or a few memory cards – the place is picture perfect. Literally meaning ‘cattle village’, Mattupetty has always been a haven for livestock, especially cows.

Migrant labourers from neighbouring Tamilnadu used to rear cattle here, abundant with endless green meadows which meant everlasting fodder for the cows. Mattupetty first shot into the national and international limelight in 1963 when the Indian and Swiss Governments decided to jointly set up a world-class cattle breeding farm at Mattupetty. Christened ‘Indo Swiss Project Kerala’ (ISPK), this one-of-itskind venture selected Mattupetty for two reasons – the unending meadows and the cool climate. Both were essential, as the Indo Swiss Project focused on crossbreeding with Swiss cows; they had to be at home here! The beauty of Mattupetty Village as well as the Indo Swiss Project, has been put to use in many movies, the most notable of which is the internationally acclaimed Malayalam award-winner, ‘Chidambaram’, by G Aravindan.

Mattupetty offers many activities for tourists. The village has high-altitude evergreen forests (Shola forests) surrounding, which offer the perfect space for trekking. Explorers will be pleasantly surprised by the many brooks and cascades here. Mattupetty also features a beautiful lake, which is in fact

a reservoir created by the Mattupetty Dam. The lake is exquisitely beautiful, especially when its blue is set against the lush greens of the meadows and the dark greens of the forests. Boating is available at economic rates for exploring the 13 km long lake and nearby forests, which features many rare birds and animals. The Mattupetty Dam is a neat picnic spot, and offers nice views of the lake. Inquisitive travellers would be surprised by the presence of locomotive rails put to odd uses at the dam. Rails at Munnar? The nearest major railway station is at Ernakulam, 130 km away! Intriguing, isn’t it? Unknown to many, Munnar – which was the summer resort of the British rulers - had railway service more than a century back. It used to run from Munnar to Top Station until 1924, when landslides caused by heavy rains and storms destroyed it. The Indo Swiss Project, started more than 4 decades back, has contributed immensely to the country’s and especially Kerala’s livestock breeds.

Today it is renamed and part of a bigger organization, Kerala Livestock Development Board Ltd (KLDB).

Though not an official tourist spot, and despite visits requiring prior permission, this unique farm that is home to numerous cows and over a hundred unique breeds, attracts tourists from all parts of the world. Few years back, Mattupetty again shot into the limelight when the Government started work on an ambitious project to promote a pet and farm tourism centre here.

Mattupetty, Munnar, Idukki

‘Life of Pi’ has been awarded

by India Tourism for promoting Munnar. And coming soon is a new shorter state-of-the-art tourism highway that will connect Kakkanad near Kochi to Kothamangalam from where the dizzying climb to Munnar begins.

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A New Road That Puts You Where Pi Was

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Must See

Kerala Destinations in 20 13 2013

Kuttanad, Alappuzha

Tropical Paradise for Tourists, An Unredeemable Treasure for Natives

For international tourists, Kuttanad is tropical paradise. But for its beleagured farmers, Kuttanad has been a treasure that they can’t redeem. The implementation of the famous Kuttanad Package to save the farming work and living conditions there on a sustainable basis, has so far moved at snail’s pace, with the required funds shooting up from Rs. 1840 crore to over Rs. 4300 crore.

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ost Kerala destinations have to ‘work hard’ to keep themselves beautiful. The waves at Varkala have to continually splash against the sands, to keep the tourists coming.

The river at Athirappilly has to continually jump down to depths to keep visitors amused. But there is one destination in Kerala that amazes all travellers by doing nothing – Kuttanad.

She can take your breath away, leave you speechless, and remind you of eternity – all in one stroke, a glance of her. She is the woman who wakes up beautiful.

Endless green fields, sunbathed water bodies, swaying coconut palms, and a labyrinth of waterways, are only some of the scenes that makes ‘The Rice Bowl of Kerala’ a tropical paradise. All destinations can be explained, but Kuttanad can only be experienced. Or, how will you explain that 2,71,700 acres of land is water-logged here? Or, how will you explain that a majority of this land is submerged under water for most of the

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year? Or, how will you explain that despite this, she is the most fertile land for the staples in Kerala? Quite difficult.

But even more difficult to explain is the incomparable geographic dynamics of Kuttanad. Believe it or not, around half of Kuttanad – around 1,23,500 acres – lie below the sea level! More precisely, 2.2 metre to 0.6 metre below sea level.

And sea is not far either; while only a narrow strip of land separates Kuttanad from Arabian Sea, Kuttanad is directly connected to Vembanad Lake which is connected to the sea! Amazing, isn’t it?

However, you have only scraped her surface until now. Kuttanad is nourished by four major rivers – Pamba, Meenachil, Achankovil, & Manimala – and her vastness is crisscrossed by numerous canals and waterways. Many of the inland waterways will astonish the first-time visitor – they flow above the land level!

During monsoon, the rivers bring freshwater to the region; and during summer, sea water enters Kuttanad making the water brackish. And Kuttanad

has a unique claim to fame – it is the only place on this whole earth where paddy is cultivated below sea level; and one among a few places in the world where any kind of farming is done below sea level! Now you should be beginning to appreciate the gumption of the people who call Kuttanad home, and who has toiled with land and water alike to survive. They are the people who once completed a dam (Thanneermukkam Bund) all by themselves, when Government action was stalled due to lack of finance. To this day, this earthen segment of the dam is in action, preventing salt water from entering the fields. Yes, the nearly 2 million people of Kuttanad and their unique lifestyle is something worth exploring for the discerning tourist. Where else will you find men in small boats shepherding a paddling of ducks? Where else will you find women waiting at canal shores for country boats that bring grocery and vegetables? Where else will you find flocks of parrots feeding from paddy fields, and flocks of darters flying across water? Get ready to also explore shrimp farming and at least half a dozen fishing methods. There are numerous ways to explore Kuttanad. You can use the roads, you can use the waterways, or better still, a combination of these. Don’t forget to stop at wayside or waterside eateries serving local delicacies like ‘Karimeen’ (pearl spotted fish) with Tapioca. The 2,71,700 acres of land that make up Kuttanad falls into three districts, Alleppey, Kottayam, & Pathanamthitta.

Kuttanad is also broadly classified into Lower Kuttanad and Upper Kuttanad.

While Lower Kuttanad is predominantly made up of areas in Alleppey & Kottayam, Upper Kuttanad consists of areas in Alleppey & Pathanamthitta.

Many Kuttanad villages have become legends of their own in Kerala’s social, cultural, historical, tourist, literary, and religious existence. Famous Lower Kuttanad villages include Kumarakom, Nedumudi, Kavalam etc, while Upper Kuttanad has celebrity villages like Niranom, Thakazhi, Parumala etc.

During the recent decades, Kuttanad has been affected by environmental problems like water pollution, drinking water shortage, & lake encroachments.

The most scenic views of Kuttanad are seen on the Alappuzha-Changanassery road that spans 31 km.

A Rs. 650 crore global blockbuster highlights a Kerala destination on the worldwide tourism map. But Kerala has equally compelling destinations as Munnar where Pi & Family had their vacation. Here are 8 best destinations of God’s Own Country.

Must See

Kerala Destinations in 20 13 2013

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Must See

Kerala Destinations in 20 13 2013

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Role Model Businesswomen Touching Thousands of Lives

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Pr ee tha R eddy Pree eetha Reddy Apollo Hospit als Hospitals If she hadn’t opted to head Apollo Hospitals that her father founded, Preetha Reddy would have chosen a career in fine arts.

But once opted in, there was no looking back. The 54-year old credits her ability to take bold decisions for her success in the hospital group, managed by the family, including her three sisters. The most impactful of such decisions was her objective to go for the tough JCI accreditation. Though Apollo had to go through a painful transformation to effect the same, the end result has been marvellous. Today, with 7 JCI accredited hospitals, Apollo holds the distinction of largest number of JCI accreditations outside USA. What gives her the energy to go on? It is natural she says, as witnessing the thrill of the saving a critically ill person’s life is the ultimate high in life.

Preetha Reddy should know as on a typical cardiac procedures, 50 neuro surgeries, and 400 dialyses going on.

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day at the Apollo hospitals, there are 120

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Role Model Business women Touching Thousands of Lives

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Shubhalak shmi A P anse Shubhalakshmi Panse anse,, CMD CMD,, Allahabad Bank At Vijaya Bank, she proved her real mettle as she was the only Executive Director. And that meant she had to handle all portfolios, which she did with elan as shown by Vijaya’s sterling performance during these two years. But that was no issue for Shubhalakshmi A Panse, as she has had exposure to almost all banking industry operational segments like recovery, credit, fund management, law, accounts, IT and business process re-engineering, during her 33 year old career with Maharashtra Bank. Panse is a Gold medalist in M.Sc.from Pune University and an MBA from Drexel University, USA, and Allahabad Bank is expected to banking veteran’s tenure.

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carry out a major turnaround under this much-awarded

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Role Model Businesswomen Touching Thousands of Lives

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Vinita Bali took over charge at India’s leading biscuit maker in 2005 after an impressive track-record at Rasna, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, & Zyman, in countries as diverse as India, USA, & Africa. But Britannia was exactly not in perfect shape.

Landing in Britannia as CEO, after Sunil Alagh’s tenure, Bali had crafted strategies that speak volumes about her keen focus on success and not anything else. Unlike many of her peers in top management, she took each step in a measured fashion, timid to undo strengths that her predecessor had built in, and cautious in each fresh step. Typical of her commonsense ideas was the decision to keep the brand positioning at ’Eat Healthy, Think Better’ itself. But beyond a mere claim, Vinita Bali decided to work on that in a real sense. But even here, she could have made bad mistakes, if many of her team’s initial ideas on new products were put into practice. All of them were complicated, like, a women’s drink for battling osteoporosis. Bali would later decide to keep ideas simple, on issues where educating people needn’t be necessary. Her first major success was using the NutriChoice brand to introduce biscuits for diabetic and prediabetic patients using low-glycaemic grains like oats and ragi. She is also credited with making Britannia more relevant for the consumer at more times of the day, and not just snack time. Bali considers this recurring relevance as a core strategy for any brand’s success. Under her tenure, Britannia introduced health foods like milk, curd, butter, cheese, bread etc to great acceptance. Her pricing strategies also have been too good, with she firmly refuting the idea that cheap spells poor quality. In fact, Tiger, one of Britannia’s cheapest brands is fortified with iron, nutrients etc. She is also a firm believer that healthy needn’t mean not-tasty, and has proved this by eliminating harmful trans-fats from many products.

Bali’s tenure till-now is also noted for how she shrugged off not only resurgent domestic competition, but entry of giant global brands. Never losing the macro picture too, decadesold brands like Milk Bikis and Marie Gold too were kept safe and growing. No wonder then that her tenure from 20042012 saw this Nusli Wadia company’s turnover tripling.

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Vinita Bali, Managing Director & CEO, Britannia Industries

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Role Model Businesswomen Touching Thousands of Lives Kir an Mazumdar-Sha w, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Chairper son, Bioc on Chairperson, Biocon Biocon is the Apple, HP, Yahoo, or Google of India, being literally a garage startup in Bangalore. And its founder Kiran MazumdarShaw is the epitome of adaptability. Trained as a Brewmaster, and keen to follow in her father’s footsteps, Kiran worked in various overseas breweries before finding her niche in the allied field of bio industrial enzymes and later adapting it further into bio pharmaceuticals. Her enthusiasm was so infectious that her Scotsman hubby would use his personal savings to buy back all the Biocon shares from its new owner Unilever, in Ireland. The going was not at all easy for young Kiran in India.

Unable to get a loan and unable to attract talent, she would have easily gone under, but her tenacity was something that bankers and top talents hadn’t anticipated on. Today, Kiran is riding the crest of R&D based success, with even an oral insulin candidate that has attracted the attention of Bristol-Myers Squibb. The Biocon Chief is also known to speak her mind SEASONAL MAGAZINE

fearlessly, unlike most of her peers who loathe coming into

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government’s firing line. She is also known to not delegate stuff that she is comfortably capable of, a recent example being a brand new office that she personally designed, keeping in mind convenience while working, more than anything else.

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Mr s. Mallik a Mohanda s, Mrs. Mallika Mohandas, Chairper son, MIO T Hospit als Chairperson, MIOT Hospitals Being spouse to an ace surgeon is challenging in itself. But being the spouse of a brilliant surgeon with contrarian views from his peers should be unthinkable. Mrs. Mallika Mohandas has done all that and a bit more. She had boldly taken on the management side of the pioneering hospital her surgeon-husband established.

Dr. PVA Mohandas was always deeply individualistic, like truly brilliant surgeons are. Despite obtaining his postgraduate degree in surgery from University of Liverpool, and despite being in demand from practically any hospital in the West, Dr. Mohandas returned to India to pioneer internal fixation of fractures and total hip replacement in his home country. And unlike other doctors, he became a doctors’ doctor, a surgeons’ surgeon, by training numerous surgeons in these new techniques - a feat for which he was awarded Padmashree by Government of India. But there was more contrarian

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moves coming. At the ripe age of 65, when

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Role Model Businesswomen Touching Thousands of Lives

most were planning to rest, Dr. Mohandas decided to start a new hospital by betting every penny he had made till that time.

And despite being a difficult decision to accommodate, Mrs. Mallika has never failed her husband ever since. Even more, she has surpassed all expectations. Under her Chairpersonship, MIOT Hospitals has travelled from strength to strength starting MIOT Keyhole Surgeries, MIOT Academy of Allied Health Sciences, MIOT Institute of Research, Children’s Heart Internationale MIOT (CHIME), & MIOT Organ Drive.

Ur vi Pir amal, Urvi Piramal, Chairper son o shok Ashok Chairperson off A Pir amal Gr oup o Piramal Group off Companie ompaniess She was just 32 when she lost her hubby.

But Urvi became more dedicated in the Piramal brothers’ joint family business ever since then. When the Group later went in for a three-way split - which she didn’t want or initiate - she and her 3 young sons were left with an old textile mill, two small engineering firms, a mall, a retail chain, and some real estate. The total assets were with negative networth and turnover was less than Rs 500 crore. But today Urvi Piramal and her sons Harsh, Rajeev, & Nandan - have turned around almost the entire group companies by taking high-risk decisions quickly. She sold off Crossroads to Future Group, Pyramid Retail

Role Model Businesswomen Touching Thousands of Lives

to Indiabulls, and focused on realty arm Peninsula Land, and textile firm Morarjee, besides their two tools and auto component firms. Already a Rs. 2000 crore group in turnover, the Harvard trained Urvi is aiming for Rs. 10,000 crore. Her ambition is for her companies to touch the lives of one in five perople in this globe. An avid nature lover and trekker, this 59-year old mother’s free time is spend on tiger conservation projects.

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C R I C K E T

By Carl Jaison

WHY DHONI & CO’S EMPIRE IS CRUMBLING India has been annexed and annihilated. The England team has scripted a historic victory in the test series, when India conceded a draw in the fourth test. he alarm bells had already rung for the Indians with some bold decisions being initiated by the BCCI, as against some irresponsible and impatient attitude of the home team.

Experienced pace-spearhead Zaheer Khan, middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh, and India’s once-upon-a-time prominent spinner Harbhajan Singh had been axed from the squad for the final test and the exit doors may well be shown to the remaining under-performers, going ahead.

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The series win augurs well for the visitors who have shown relentless hard-work and extraordinary temperament to receive glorifying praises from their ever hungry media and ex-cricketers alike. The comprehensive routing of India has indicated a hard truth - India is no longer a menace, even at home. All it takes to beat sub-continental teams is to give them a taste of their own medicine.

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India’s evergreen greats of the game and cricket experts have lashed out hard at their successors terming that the team looked unprepared and erratic even before the commencement of the 3rd test.

India has forgotten the art of playing test cricket which emphasizes the need to play stubborn and patient cricket, rather than exhibiting restlessness and quirkiness while occupying the crease.

The body language of the Indians depicted a sense of complacency and egotism which undid their reputation.

The scathing remarks from the cricketing fraternity is sure to keep the demoralized unit introspect about their wrong-doings and most importantly, deduce the right

way forward from this tricky situation.

How did India loose the plot after the convincingly winning the first test? Postmortem in sport is as difficult as it gets but there are evident differences from the 3 tests that India should definitely ponder upon. Usually India loves to win the toss, elects to bat first, and amasses a mammoth first innings score, preferably 500+. This is precisely what India failed to achieve in the 2 losing encounters. The Indian inability to muster a sizeable score has also been attributed to England’ change in team composition where the inclusion of Monty Panesar and Steven Finn has proved to be the turning point of the series.

potential defeats and have often swung the match in his team’s favour out of impossible scenarios. His past credentials ensured that he was given the “right to run riot” over the opposition bowling attack by his captain and coach which further enhanced his confidence level.

However, his past records notwithstanding, Sehwag has turned out to be an unreliable batsman who bothers little to play according to the situation of the game, exercising his right to demolition almost shamelessly.

His ton in the first test gave hints of the Delhi dasher playing with responsibility but the following 5 innings totally rubbished the indications of improvement. That century also saved Sehwag from the swipe of the selectors axe; otherwise he would be cooling his heels at his residence. Nevertheless, Sehwag is no more entitled to his absolute and exclusive right of playing ‘slam-bang cricket’ and this has been made evident by the selectors who have dropped him from the T20 series scheduled to begin at the end of the test-series.

Gambhir remained defiant in a handful of innings but India expected a Cook-like innings from this hard-working left-

If the wickets of Ahmadabad and Mumbai were rank turners, the placid track of Kolkata was sure to facilitate runscoring and provide a conducive environment for accumulating personal bests, like the timid innings of England skipper Alastair Cook. This invariably reflects our heavy dependence on the services of the openers to provide decent starts, which was aptly delivered in the fourth innings of the third test where Sehwag and Gambhir raced to 86 at the end of the first session. From the very next ball (which was the first ball of the post-lunch session), India famously collapsed yet again, starting with the fall of India’s impact batsman, Virender Sehwag. This effected the fall of quick wickets and India eventually folded up, conquered and subjugated.

Virender Sehwag is no more the ‘Save’wag of the memorable Indian past.

His rapid innings characterized by destructive and demolishing batting have time and again rescued India, staring at

Alastair Cook

Kevin Pietersen

Chetashwar Pujara is perhaps the only batsman in the current Indian test team who can confidently display his reportcard but it is necessary for a youngster like him to grab hold of the available opportunities as a few more innings of low scores may lead to his ouster. Such is the thankless nature of the cricketing system that a beginner, who fashioned a remarkable victory in Ahmadabad, courtesy a fine double century, needs just a short string of bad scores to be shown the back-door. That he has failed in only 3 of the 6 innings he has batted may defend his case but being the only apparent man-in-form, Pujara should soak in the responsibility of steering the team out of trouble, like he admirably did in the first two tests.

Sachin Tendulkar, on his part, just goes on and on. His former teammate and close friend Saurav Ganguly says a player knows when his body and mind will show signs of calling it a day, further adding

that Sachin is best suited to make a call on himself on retirement lines. However, this comment no longer holds value. Just recently, Ganguly exclaimed that if he were in Sachin’s position, he would call it a day abruptly, without further embarrassment. Indeed, embarrassing were Sachin’s dismissals. His reflexes have died out, the vigour has evaporated and his mindset captivated by uneasiness.

His sole existence in the team is because of his enviable historical record but the yardstick employed to measure performance is current form which he has woefully lacked. If not for his face-saving 70-odd score in the first innings of the third test, Indians may have awoken to one of the most shocking morning headlines ever: Sachin Tendulkar ‘rested’ due to poor form. Because it is Sachin, it will never be ‘dropped’, as he is the unquestionable and irrefutable of Indian cricket.

Virat Kohli’s promising talent may have found sympathy with selectors, making them shower him with excessive opportunities, but the fact still remains that if any batsman was to face the hard music - composed by the selectors - it had to be the U-19 World-Cup winning captain as he is yet to play an innings of significance in this series. Apart from being the only batsman in the team to be deprived of even a half-century in the ongoing series, Kohli’s on-field behavior has been pathetic, including his fist-up jibe at Trott after securing the winning runs in the first test and unnecessary reaction to Cook’s dismissal effectuated by his run-out.

Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma and

Sachin Tendulkar Manoj Tiwary have proven themselves to be indispensable for their respective Ranji outfits, and if Kohli continues with his spiteful attitude, with his bat remaining silent, then he may well feature in Delhi Ranji Trophy games in the near future and loose his spot to the aforementioned talented trio. But, with age on his side, as well as backed with a savvy instinct, Kohli represents only a handful of tough-minded cricketers who relies much more than their sporting proficiency to mute the most aggressive of opponents. But if only his bat could advocate his stance…

If it was past performance that saved Sachin him from the blushes, the same accelerated Yuvraj Singh’s ouster from the team. Known to be a predominantly limited overs cricketer, Yuvraj has been often dropped from test series midway owing to shoddy performance. The stylish left-hand batsman, who made a comeback into the team after being sidelined due to health issues, played with consummate ease in the first test making his way to a scintillating half-century.

But, his failure to replicate them in the next two tests has ensured that Yuvraj decided his own fate. But more than his incompetence with the blade, it was the manner of dismissals that prompted the selectors to crack the whip on the talented batsman. Clearly, he appeared unfit for

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hander. He began the series on a disastrous note but quickly found his touch in the process of notching up a couple of half-centuries. The blatant mistake he committed was the occasional prod at wide deliveries which has plagued his cricketing style. He is the sort of player who has the requisite temperament to play the long innings and blessed with the gift of grinding out runs. But the singular flaws he committed often led to his dismissal due to which Gambhir has under-performed. His recent pugnacious knocks and deep-fielding prowess will ensure him an extended run but Gambhir’s knack of converting the starts to big scores will decide his fate.

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team’s spinners, but Dhoni won the toss on all 3 occasions which provides him minimal scope for excuses. Only a captain who can assuredly tackle spin on spin-friendly tracks can have the right to ask for the preparation of the same.

Virendra shewag match appearances as he tired down easily, overhauled by fatigue as witnessed whenever he chased the ball to prevent the boundary.

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But the treatment he received from the selectors was vehemently opposed by Indian batting legend, Sunil Gavaskar who lambasted the decision of his omission questioning that if Yuvi was dropped due to poor performance, then others in the team deserved to be punished as well. Pity this Punjab lad who celebrates his birthday on 12-12-12, but numbers do matter in the eyes of selectors as well.

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Dhoni braved the post-match media conference in typical style suggesting that he is not going to shy away from taking up responsibility for the humiliating loss and rubbished rumors of him relinquishing the captaincy role. Surely, the Indian skipper’s stand is heroic and ethical, if not justifiable, but what goes against him is that it is not his captaincy skill alone that attracted criticism but his batting technique that has once again come under the scanner. Dhoni may have defended the googlies and doosras thrown at him by the media circle, but he failed to contain the spin twins of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann. He doesn’t have a reason like the one Tendulkar and Kohli have in their favor, instead Dhoni’s vindication is his role in the team itself.

One would find it dumbfounded that the current squad has no reserve wicketkeepers, thus Dhoni is safe for the time being but what remains to be seen is how long he can escape criticism, banking on his skipper-role, when his batting in the longest format is preposterous. Dhoni should face some tough and uncomfortable questions and formulate remedies to ensure a path of futuristic action. His stubbornness in wanting ‘first-day turners’ back-fired miserably as not only did India succumb to the visiting

R Ashwin, the off-spinner, excelled, but strangely, on the batting front. Before the brickbats are heaved onto him, a word of acknowledgment is pending for this courageous lad who single-handedly took the fight to the opposition and ensured India avoided an innings defeat and managed to ensure that his team lived to fight another day. The Indian frontline batsmen should pick a leaf from his book.

Not only did he develop partnerships with the tail-enders, thereby delaying the inevitable, but he also played his shots with extraordinary finesse and delicacy.

The unexpected batting hero deserves great admiration, beyond recognition, because he performed something which he wasn’t expected to.

However, Ashwin’s stubborn innings of an unbeaten 91 will be a thing of the past and a short-lived memory. His selection in the team was to pick wickets, which he hasn’t effectively delivered. The much-anticipated ‘surprise delivery’, which he prophesized that he would

experiment in this series, was hardly remembered. His opposite number, Graeme Swann, bowled with much more venom and thus, extracted good purchase from the pitch. Whatever the allegations may be, India should give a serious thought about elevating Ashwin to the top of the batting order.

Pragyan Ojha, was the hero with the ball for India but he was outclassed absolutely

by Monty Panesar. Though Ojha picked up wickets even when he looked less likely to, the left-arm spinner is being urged by former spin-greats to fasten his ball-release, similar to what Monty Panesar is doing. Also, his follow-through after ball-release is weak, compared to the strong follow-through of Monty, which has been attributed to his ‘queer slanting position’ during time of release.

As long as he is picking wickets, India would be well served but the problem is that the pace of his stock delivery is so predictable that the only way he can account for wickets is by forcing in the ‘arm-ball’, a left-arm spinner’s variation.

He does generate mouth-watering flight in varying angles but it is the speed of his delivery which needs enhancement.

On a mysterious note, it is bizarre that no conventional left-arm spinner, neither Panesar nor Ojha, attempts to employ the unconventional chinaman delivery, which is a decent variation for a left-hand batsman. Probably, Shadab Jakati, who plays Ranji cricket for Goa, is the sole exception to this strange case.

To put it plainly, Zaheer Khan’s days in the Indian squad were numbered. It was only a matter of time before the injuryprone bowler would be eventually shown the exit doors as his wicket-taking ability has dried up. The usual sting he generates in each delivery was badly missing due to which even debutant Nick Compton played the veteran bowler with relative ease. Known for his knack of dismissing left-handers, Zaheer seldom troubled Cook who played him with caution mixed with aggression. He is widely touted as a sophisticated craftsman of reverse swing but rarely produced them as opposed to James Anderson and Steven Finn who reverse swung the ball with great skill and control. His problems further compounded when he found himself left out from the T20 series, hinting at a possibility of the tactful pacer taking to retirement.