Seasonal Magazine January 2014

VOLUME 13 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2014

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EDITORIAL

MAGAZINE

Seasonal www.seasonalmagazine.com

What is kejriwal’s real message?

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

How did this 45-year old diminutive aam aadmi upset the entire calculations of the established political class to become the CM of Delhi? In his tasteless and over-sized shirts as well as his ordinary glasses, this common man wouldn’t have attracted a second look from most in a city like New Delhi. So, it was obviously on the promise of rooting out corruption and implementing good governance that he succeeded. But to think that that is all there to Arvind Kejriwal would be a major mistake.

What is Kejriwal’s real message? Is it rooting out corruption? Not really. Is it about better accountability? Again, not really. Is it about extending RTI? Nope. Is it the freebies like free water and subsidized electricity? They were just popular strategies. Is his message Jan Lokpal?

No, not even that.

To understand the man’s ambition, one should read ‘Swaraj’, probably the only book he has ever authored. Despite being published in 2012 - during the height of the Jan Lokpal movement that Anna Hazare and he spearheaded - Lokpal is not even 1% of the book.

Swaraj is not a dense read. In fact, if there is one small book that every Indian should read in 2014, it is this book by Kejriwal. In his characteristic style, he doesn’t collect any royalties from the book, and the short work is even available on the web as a free download.

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But a word of caution. It is not an interesting read like ‘India 2020’ by Dr. Kalam or ’Imagining India’ by Nandan Nilekani. Those are denser, more passionate works, and they served their purpose too; it is often thought that both these works were instrumental in making the ruling class - read BJP & Congress - appreciate the passion and innovative ideas that Dr. Kalam and Nilekani had for a prosperous India. It is noteworthy that these books preceded both of them being bestowed with high responsibilities - Dr. Kalam as President and Nilekani as Chairman of UIDAI/Aadhar.

Swaraj is of an entirely different genre. Shabbily edited - at least the English version is - the seemingly unglamorous work by Kejriwal doesn’t tout any magical ideas for a Superpower India like Dr. Kalam or Nilekani proposes. The current Delhi CM doesn’t even mine any ideas from his IIT/IRS backgrounds to impress the aam aadmi, unlike Kalam and Nilekani who uses ideas from their uniquely rich professional experiences.

Yet even while being so inferior, Swaraj is the book to be read by every Indian for a simple reason - it challenges the status quo like no other. While thinkers like Kalam and Nilekani starts from the premise that India is now fairing ok, and then goes on to explain how India could be made much better, Kejriwal starts from the position that India is absolutely not ok now. “Is This Democracy?”, Kejriwal asks in the book after demonstrating that it is not. He goes on to call India’s democracy as nothing but a deception.

In other words, Swaraj is not about business-as-usual. It is a bold attempt to turn the political system upside down, and the beauty is that when Kejriwal explains it in his simple style, we realize that it is very much possible. Not in 2020 or 30, but right now, if we all could take a stand.

Rooting out corruption, and bringing in accountability, good governance, Jan Lokpal etc all find mention in Swaraj, but the central premise of Swaraj is, well, as the title suggests, Swaraj or Self-Governance.

Kejriwal proposes a revolutionary way to turn the current administrative system - of Centre>States->Panchayats - upside down. In the new regime, power will flow from the Panchayats to the States to the Centre!

Yet, the beauty of it is that such a revolution wouldn’t need even one constitutional amendment.

In other words, the Indian Constitution already accommodates for this kind of governance.

To be precise, the Constitution’s 73rd Amendment Act that came into force in 1993 had formally institutionalized Panchayati Raj or democratic decentralization of power. Though the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee’s recommendation regarding the same had been approved in 1958 itself, it took Rajiv Gandhi to evangelize it again, and sadly it took Congress his death to approve it finally in 1992-93.

Incidentally, Rajiv Gandhi is the only past or present politician Arvind Kejriwal is willing to

whom people elects - once in 5 years - knows the best.

Swaraj even proposes a powerful mechanism for the cities, where the 3-level Panchayati Raj is not available. Kejriwal proposes that the Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) which are highly active in Delhi and other large cities be given legal status equivalent to Gram Sabhas, and that RWAs should be encouraged in each and every city.

Swaraj is not entirely original. It is obviously inspired from Mahatma’s passionate idea of Gram Swaraj or Village SelfGovernance that he proposed as the ideal foundation of India’s political system. But as Kejriwal argues, the concept is even more old.

Here is he writing passionately on this history in Swaraj:

acknowledge as someone who fought for decentralization of power, post-Independence.

But even after 1993, the political class - be it Congress or BJP or both of their powerful allies - have succeeded in relegating Panchayati Raj to where it always has been since Independence at the last rung of governance, toothless and spineless.

This is what Arvind Kejriwal wants to change. In fact, this is his biggest ambition, the seminal idea of his book Swaraj, as well as his life. One can only marvel when Kejriwal explains how each and every problem facing this nation - from corruption to poverty to education to healthcare to land acquisition to governance to natural resource allocation to economic development - can be addressed in a revolutionary way through a decentralized democracy.

His is not an armchair theory, but grounded in his activist work, of travelling across India and meeting with a wide variety of people and systems at the grassroots level. In that respect, his work has that feel for the whole of India, much like Nehru’s ‘The Discovery of India’.

Kejriwal has no kind words for the rot he identifies everywhere, spare for the green shoots of hope he cites in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, & Delhi. He also proves that democratic decentralization is very much possible citing examples from Brazil, USA, & Switzerland.

His revolution is as grassroots as grassroots can be. He even wants to turn the current 3-level Panchayati Raj upside down. Currently it is District Panchayat -> Block Panchayat -> Village Panchayat, with District Panchayat calling most of the shots. In Kejriwal’s model of Swaraj, he wants the Village Panchayat or Gram Sabha to control everything local, and even contribute to everything at the district, state, & central level.

Kejriwal proposes that Gram Sabhas hold frequent public meetings where everything local can be debated by all villagers and consensus arrived at. The majority of the funds should be directly allocated to Gram Sabhas with no riders, and before making any payment to the contractors, it should have the Gram Sabha’s majority approval. Swaraj aims at controlling the powers of Sarpanch, BDO, and the Collector. By that move, independence from State and Central administrations can be arrived at.

Swaraj is indeed built upon the powerful idea that people knows what is best for them, instead of the status quo idea that those

“Lord Metcalf, the Governor General of India, wrote in 1830 that the foundation of this country is its Village Sabhas. The people of village meet at a common point and take joint decisions. In 1860 the British brought in a law that destroyed the Village Sabhas because they had understood that until this foundation is destabilized, they cannot rule India effectively. A law was enacted to bring in the Collector Raj. All rights that the people had or the Vllage Sabhas had, were snatched from them and given to the British Collectors. All areas of life and living were now controlled

by British through one or the other government department. On top of all the government departments was a white man who was known as “The Collector” or “Burra Sahib”. It is bad luck that though we got independence in 1947 yet the rights of the people were not returned. The rights of Village Sabhas were not returned.

We replaced the British collector with an Indian. We kept all the paraphernalia of the British government as it is: Its arrogance, its un-approachability, its mentality of being a ruler. The Indian collector, nay a bureaucrat, is still the Burra Sahib.”

To those of you who are wondering, the role of Kings, back then, Kejriwal continues: “King’s son used to succeed the king. There were no election to choose the King but at the same time the King did not have absolute power. All decisions were taken by the Gram Sabhas. Whatever the people of the village wanted the Gram Sabha wanted the same.

The King had no options but to accede to the wishes of the people.

Today we elect our King once in five years but the King is not in our control. In ancient times people did not choose the King but the King was under their control.”

Kejriwal takes up from where Gandhi left the idea due to his unfortunate assassination. He presents Swaraj not only in its correct historical perspective, but in its nitty-gritty details of implementation that are very much needed for a deployment now.

Kejriwal also comes across as a spiritual inheritor of Mahatma, having worked as a volunteer with Mother Theresa, Ramakrishna Mission, and as a practitioner of Vipassana meditation.

While Ramlila Maidan played host to Kejriwal’s swearing-in ceremony, a huge crowd of aam aadmis were chanting non-stop, “CM today, PM tomorrow”. Yes, shouldn’t we give this remarkable guy a chance at governing this country?

Today, Congress, BJP, and the so-called Third Front led by the Left are researching that secret formula for success in the upcoming Parliament elections. But the best formula is not a secret anymore.

Ally with Aam Aadmis and make Arvind Kejriwal the coalition’s PM candidate. It will be a game-changer for any coalition.

But it would require some spine.

John Antony

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Contents

Time and Space Running Out For Owning Oceanfront Homes

Indra Nooyi Among 10 Most Humble CEOs A latest research of US CEOs has reportedly tried to analyse how many of the business company chiefs are least narcissistic and found that three of the top ten CEOs are..

Finally, after much debate and floor fights, Lokpal or People's Ombudsman is ready. While not everyone including..

One of South India’s most exclusive realty micro-market just got more exclusive. Because, the urban authority planning for the expansion of this waterfront locale is now planning to back off from the second phase development that would have created more land for development through reclamation.

A World of Antibiotic Excess What are the biggest future dangers faced by the world?

If asked that question, most people might mumble "terrorism", "climate change", "debt crisis" or "cybercrime".

Two Habits That Can Affect Even Your Genes, Positively and Negatively Several lifestyle habits hold the potential to either improve your health or wreck it. But what if the effects are..

Our Brains Designed for Rural Tranquillity, Not Urban Euphoria Humans may be hard-wired to feel at peace in the countryside and confused in cities even if they were born and raised in an urban area.

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22 Provisions That Won Broad Support for Lokpal

Should You Have a Secretary or Not? A generation ago, having a secretary was a middlemanagement perk. These days you are unlikely to get a PA..

Sleep Loss + Ageing = Diabetes?

Researchers have showed that stress in pancreatic cells due to sleep deprivation could contribute to the loss or..

8 Reasons Why AAP is Still Angry Aam Aadmi Party has dismissed Lokpal Bill as "sarkari jokepal", while National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) of RTI fame has welcomed the bill, even while..

Top 4 Executive Perks of 2013 Multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses, stock options, special incentives, profit sharing and advisory payments are fine for most, but for the really special exec..

Meet One of the Noblest Men of this Globe 73-year-old Palam Kalyanasundaram, a Tamil Nadu librarian and social activist has donated Rs 30 crore to the uneducated poor.

He remained a bachelor so that he could dedicate his life..

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Contents The Sheer Magic of Being Madiba Best Age to Start Exercising?

Middle Age!

Apples Found to be as Good as Statins, For Preventing Heart Attacks & Strokes

You must be kidding, eh?

Well, not really. The best time to start exercising was, of course, when you were in school. But don't worry even if you haven't exercised regularly till middle age.

What were the real leadership qualities of Nelson Mandela that makes him one of the greatest leaders of all times?

Madiba's life holds profound lessons for everyone from politicians to entrepreneurs to business managers to activists of all hues.

What to Do if Your Baby or Toddler Chokes Choking on food is a major cause of accidental deaths in children younger than 5, and is estimated to cause 1 death every 5 days. Here are a few measures to avoid as well as rescue a choking child.

Honda Drives in Diesel City With Amaze's Engine Just when we thought 2013 was full to the brim with fabulous new models, in drives the all-new Honda City with the biggest surprise of all – a mileage of 26 kilometre per litre.

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4 Simple Meditations That Can Change Your Life The advantages of meditation are profound – from health benefits to unleashing creativity to reducing stress to enabling success, to the simple practice of relating more calmly to the people and situations around us.

Congress, BJP, or AAP, Money Still Calls the Shots?

Not everyone in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is ‘aam’ it seems. Of its 28 MLAs who tasted victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, 12 are crorepatis. The richest among them is Veena Anand, who defeated the Congress’s Rajesh Lilothia to win the Patel Nagar seat.

She has assets worth..

A Terrifying Story on How Big Pharma is Making You Sick Ace journalist Alan Schwarz exposes for The New York Times, how large pharmaceutical companies ganged up with unethical medical researchers, doctors, paediatricians, and advocacy groups, to over-diagnose millions of kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), to make billions of dollars in dirty money.

An apple a day can actually keep the doctor away by protecting against heart attacks and stroke, according to a new Oxford study, which validates the 150-year-old..

10 Destinations Indians Can Visit Without Visas, And How Much It Will Cost Indian travellers may rue the declining rupee but there are other perks to being an Indian citizen. Holders of Indian passports have visafree and visa-on-arrival

Before You Bite the Next Apple Are iPhones & iPads designed for planned obsolescence, forcing fan boys & gals to buy newer versions as soon as they are released?

Y ORY C OVER SSTTOR

TIME AND SPACE RUNNING OUT FOR

OWNING OCEANFRONT HOMES One of South India’s most exclusive realty micro-market just got more exclusive. Because, the urban authority planning for the expansion of this waterfront locale is now planning to back off from the second phase development that would have created more land for development through reclamation. Yet, this location is arguably the largest beneficiary of several newly approved infra projects in Kochi, if not Kerala. The city in question is ranked 6th in the country by CII for Liveability. The micro-market in mention is unique in the country for being a seaside yet next to a central business district. Customers looking to buy homes here belong to what Nielsen ranks as the 7th most affluent city in the country, thanks also due to the large NRI population. With the scenario being such is it surprising that Kochi’s famed Marine Drive is in high-buzz during this NRI season of Kerala? But not all who wish for Marine Drive, and can afford it, are going to have an address here.

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uthorities overseeing Kochi Marine Drive’s equitable growth are at loggerheads. On one side is Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) which has been planning for long for the second-phase development of Marine Drive.

According to GCDA, it is still a dream project with massive tourism potential. But not everyone is agreeing.

Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) is spearheading the movement to block GCDA’s move.

As per KCZMA’s view, the secondphase development will involve massive reclamation of backwaters.

But that is not a fool-proof argument, as even the first-phase development that widened Shanmugham Road and created Marine Drive from the waters, during the 80s, was through massive reclamation.

But times have changed, environmental concerns now eclipse every other concern, and at least for the time being, KCZMA appears to be winning. Their strategy of forcing GCDA to invest in a full-blown environmental impact study seems to be working. GCDA has recently expressed the stand that ‘wasting’ Rs. 4.5 crore for such a study alone, that too with an indefinite outcome, is not feasible. Though the final decision has

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not been taken, GCDA is clearly backing out.

While the authorities are fighting such, those who are smiling at the outcome include all those who have a current stake on the picturesque Marine Drive Walkway, which is really a 1.5 km stretch from Subash Chandra Bose Park in South to the first Goshree Bridge to Bolghatty Island, in the North. These stakeholders include malls, restaurants, offices, and, of course, luxury homes housed in the apartment complexes along the waterfront walkway.

Very few are blessed to live by the sea.

For the rest of us, seashores are where we go as tourists, fill our hearts with breeze, and come back with nostalgia.

Most seasides in India are also not fit for modern day living - except for perhaps some exorbitant Mumbai locales - as they will be far away from the nearest central business district (CBD). But what if a seacoast is just 1 km away from the CBD? If you have even a little knowledge about real estate, we can see your enthusiasm turn to dismay. You are right; such a place won’t be available now, as upmarket customers including NRIs would have made a beeline for it already. Even a re-sale at such a location would command a fortune.

That is how Mumbai’s sea-facing locales like Malabar Hill and the apartments there came to cost a bomb.

Because, there is no more land supply in such Mumbai seasides. High desirability coupled with low availability created this magic. Make no mistake, even Kochi’s Marine Drive has practically no more land.

The timeless Arabian sea on one side, and the CBD at MG Road within a distance of 1 km have ensured it.

That is why the remaining few ultrapremium apartments - if there are any left - make immense sense. They are practically the last chance to have a residential address at Marine Drive.

The final call to live by the sea. NRIs, should take special note. Bangalore headquartered Puravankara Projects, for instance, has two projects here the premium offering Purva GrandBay and the ultra-premium Purva Oceana which has a few more luxury units left.

In fact, due to the ongoing NRI season in Kerala, such projects are already witnessing many site visits by nonresident families. They are exposed to the world’s finest living in North America, Europe, Middle East, Far East, Australia and elsewhere, and it is such customers that readily appreciate the painstaking design, planning, and execution seen in such projects. When it comes to the matter of a new home, these non-resident Keralites don’t mind spending over the top to get what they want.

Site visits at such projects are also set

Marine Drive Walkway, is now more beautiful than ever, stretching 1.5 km from Subash Chandra Bose Park in South to the first Goshree Bridge to Bolghatty Island, in the North. On one side is the Arabian Sea, while lining the other side are malls, restaurants, offices, and, of course, luxury apartment complexes.

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to increase thanks to the numerous high-profile events being planned at Marine Drive for this tourist season.

Prime among them is the India International Aqua Show, organised by the State Government, once every two years. The latest Aqua Show will be inaugurated at Marine Drive on January 24, 2014, and will last for five days. This year’s theme is ornamental fishes, which is a buzzing hobby among the upmarket crowd.

Incidentally, don’t ever think Marine Drive is going to be an out-of-focus issue for either GCDA or Kerala Government, even if the second-phase expansion plan is dropped due to environmental concerns. In fact, Marine Drive is the one Kochi location that is going to be maximally benefited by some of the new Kochi projects proposed recently.

First among them is the Tunnel Marine Aquarium and Entertainment Park project that was recently approved.

Coming up on Marine Drive near the first Goshree Bridge to Bolghatty Island, the Rs. 80 crore project will span 1.30 acres of GCDA land and will be a seven-storey air-conditioned complex. Being planned on a PPP model, the project aims to replicate the highly popular tourist attraction of a Tunnel Aquarium found at destinations like Singapore and Malaysia. Apart from the tunnel Seasonal Magazine

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marine aquarium, the Complex will have a skywalk, research and seminar centre, 7D theatre, underwater restaurant, children's play area, snack bar and fish sale counter. The tunnel marine aquarium will consist of a 30metre-long acrylic walkthrough tunnel, which will have an automatic travelator with a 180-degree view of an ocean habitat with about 1,000 varieties of fish. The project is expected to be fast-tracked as there was no need for environmental clearance for the project, thanks to the location not falling under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Act. However, separate permission required for bringing in marine species such as piranha, seahorse and penguins, will be sought for in the second phase of the project. The skywalk on the sixth floor will connect one end of the plot to the other, and will depict the cultural heritage of the state.

The second most important project is perhaps a new Coastal Road connecting Vallarpadam Container Terminal Road with Pachalam Road via Vaduthala. Cochin Port Trust too is interested in this project as it can be used to decongest the Container Road. As such, it is likely to be included in the development plan of Cochin Port, thus speeding up processes like environment clearance

Purva Oceana is reportedly a hot-selling product among corporate world’s who-iswho as well as high-profile celebrities. When contacted, however, Purva officials declined to disclose the identity of these celebrity buyers citing their need for privacy.

Actual view of the sea and Bolghatty Island from a Purva Oceana luxury home.

and funding. GCDA is also looking to rope in support of the residents along the way, who will be benefited the maximum by this new road.

Marine Drive at night, as seen from the sea.

Roominess of Purva Oceana extends through the large French windows to the kingsized balconies, which open up to the limitless Arabian Sea, with yachts from the world over sailing past, and a breathtaking view of the Bolghatty Island & Palace.

Another project directly benefiting Marine Drive is the newly proposed Kochi Fast Ferry Service. The new service will also connect both ends of the Marine Drive Walkway, through water. The project is being jointly promoted by Kerala State Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC), and GCDA, with the feasibility study done

by Cochin University. The buildings to be constructed along with this project will have various facilities, including passenger/tourist amenities, ticket counters, jetty office, maintenance office etc. The new jetty has been designed in such a way that it can accommodate bigger vessels.

Every agency is in fact doing its part to leverage the natural strengths of Marine Drive. Kochi’s District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) is in fact all set to mount a befitting challenge to more established backwater tourist routes like Alappuzha and Kumarakom in neighbouring districts. The new service by Kochi DTPC will start from the Cruise Terminal at Marine Drive, and will go to the islands located far off from Kochi like Thanthonnithuruthu, Pizhala, and Moolampilly, and conclude at Chathanad. The tourists would also be given the opportunity to conduct brief visits into the islands during these stopovers. The new route will give a firsthand exposure to traditional cultivation of ‘Pokkali’ rice and prawns, as well as the working of intricate Chinese fishing nets.

The tall luxury residential projects of Marine Drive has also an added attraction on the other side. If one side is the enchanting sea, the other side is equally or perhaps more beautiful, due to the one and only Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary, an ecologically sensitive and protected area. Basically a dense mangrove, Mangalavanam is noted for its large migratory bird population with an extensive survey identifying 194 birds belonging to 72 Seasonal Magazine

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species. The virgin vegetation of Mangalavanam has attracted the sobriquet, the ‘Green Lung of Kochi‘.

Can Marine Drive projects be good investments too? The dramatic way in which rupee has depreciated during the last couple of years is also helping NRIs to consider premium offerings on Marine Drive with renewed interest. For instance, ever since many of such projects were launched, rupee has depreciated against the dollar and dollar-pegged currencies like UAE Dirham, by more than 33%. The position of rupee against other major currencies like British Pound and Euro has been equally or even more advantageous for NRIs working in Europe or United Kingdom.

While that is about the quality and cost sides, NRIs who are accustomed to the big-city way of living, equally appreciate the proximity of such projects to Kochi’s CBD. Because, the locations of such projects are second to none. Marine Drive has basically two segments divided in

almost equal halves by the prominent junction with Banerjee Road. On one side is Marine Drive’s high street where there are not much new residential projects. And on the other side is the newer segment, where almost all national level developers including Puravankara, have created their mega projects.

Completed projects command a premium here, like anywhere else. For example, Purva Oceana is one fully completed project that is ready for move-in. Seeing is believing.

Touching is believing. And no debates, there is nothing like a finished product in today’s tough realty market.

While Purva Oceana spans 1.24 acres to house 95 ultra-premium apartments, Purva GrandBay occupies 2.65 acres to accommodate 265 premium apartments. Oceana excels in extraordinary spaciousness, with all homes being 3-BHKs ranging from 2466 sq ft to 3417 sq ft. Roominess extends through the large French

Marine Drive is very accessible to India’s only International Container Transshipment Terminal - built by Dubai Ports World - at Vallarpadam, through the Goshree Bridges.

Vallarpadam Island is also famous for the Basilica of Our Lady of Ransom (Mary, Mother of Jesus), an internationally renowned pilgrimage centre.

International Container Transshipment Terminal, Vallarpadam Seasonal Magazine

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The three Goshree Bridges near Marine Drive connect serially to three islands - Bolghatty, Vallarpadam, & Vypeen.

windows to the king-sized balconies, which open up to the limitless Arabian Sea, with yachts sailing past from the world over, and a breathtaking view of the Bolghatty Island & Palace. It is a far cry from local developers who cram in 2-BHKs into 1100 sq ft and 3-BHKs into 1300 sq ft and call it super-luxury apartments.

Purva Oceana

where you can get everything - exotic dry fruits from Middle East to latest gadgets from China. If in doubt, visit Broadway during this Christmas season during evening, and it is sure to blow away one’s mind due to electrifying shopping buzz.

But even Broadway is gearing up to shed its old world systems and embrace the modern, like Marine Drive has done. A recently approved Rs. 25 crore project would revamp the historic trading area and landscaping of Broadway.

Outstanding amenities at Oceana include an exquisite terrace pool with a stunning view of the sunset, the exquisite marble and granite lobby with high ceiling reminiscent of star hotels, and a generous landscaped garden complete with a jogging track, despite land being at a premium at Marine Drive. No wonder then that Purva Oceana is reportedly a hotselling product among corporate world’s who-is-who as well as highprofile celebrities. When contacted, however, Purva officials declined to disclose the identity of these celebrity buyers citing their need for privacy.

Purva GrandBay, on the other hand, achieves a fine balance between efficiency and spaciousness. Home sizes at GrandBay range from 1885 sq ft to 1937 sq ft - but still significantly larger than most offerings from local developers. Also, all units in GrandBay too are 3-BHKs, thus not compromising on convenience. GrandBay too features most of the luxury amenities found at Oceana, including a premium swimming pool and a magnificent entrance lobby that is well-lit with a high ceiling and marble floors.

Luxury projects here can appreciate like anything, not just due to land scarcity, but thanks to many recent strategic developments.

How about a new railway station

within less than one km? Marine Drive will soon have that. What if it is a metro station? That is what Kochi Metro’s planned station for MG Road at Madhava Pharmacy Junction is going to achieve for Marine Drive and its residential projects. Imagine a state-of-the-art metro station within walking distance! It is no utopia as the project is headed by Metro Man E Sreedharan and scheduled to be commissioned by 2016, less than three years from now.

There is also no dearth of malls near such projects. While earlier the nearest retail destinations were Broadway, Bay Pride Mall, Penta Menaka, and GCDA Complex, with the recent opening of Centre Square Kochi by retail giant Future Group at MG Road‘s nearer end, shopping alternatives are getting too many. Lulu Mall, the biggest of them all, is also not far, and access to Lulu is going to get lightning fast from Marine Drive when Metro is going to be commissioned.

Kochi’s Broadway - which is in reality one of its narrowest ways! - is the place to be if you don’t mind getting your hands and feet dirty in lieu of some great deals. This traditional mega market of Kochi is very near to Marine Drive, and is visited alike by the rich and the middleclass not only for its economy but for its collection of numerous speciality stores from

Marine Drive excels in not only access to shopping destinations, but in access to educational institutions like St. Theresa’s College, Government Law College, Chinmaya School, Maharajah’s College, as well as several reputed professional colleges, premium schools etc.

Access to other distant areas of Ernakulam District as well as to even neighbouring districts like Thrissur, Kottayam, Alappuzha & Idukki, is easy due to the new expressway connecting Vallarpadam to Edappally, which makes both NH 17 and NH 47 less bothersome to reach. Cochin International Airport is also easily accessible from Marine Drive.

Demand for premium housing at Kochi is also steadily on the rise due to various reasons. India’s only International Container Transshipment Terminal has come up at Vallarpadam, easily accessible from Marine Drive through the Goshree Bridges, and even visible with naked eyes from projects like Purva Oceana.

Built and managed by Dubai Ports World (DP World), only the first phase of the Rs. 3200 crore project is now over, and it has already caused a spike in demand for premium housing.

Petronet LNG’s second terminal in India has also been commissioned in Kochi recently.

Incidentally, Vallarpadam Island, which is also quite near to Marine Drive, is traditionally famous for the Basilica of Our Lady of Ransom (Mary, Mother of Jesus), which has been designated a Major Pilgrim Seasonal Magazine

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Centre by Indian Government and a National Pilgrimage Centre by Roman Catholic Church, attracting thousands of devotees and tourists every week.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has ranked Kochi at the 6th position in India for Liveability, while Nielsen has ranked it as the 7th most affluent city in the country.

Another major project that is coming up at Kochi is Smart City, a mega IT Pa r k , b y a n a rm o f t h e D u b a i administration, and is sure to add to quality housing demand.

Already, there is a growth in IT professionals in the city due to the high growth at the state-promoted Info Park. New wide roads connect Marine Drive to Info Park and the upcoming Smart City.

Despite being a bustling city, Kochi holds enough natural charms to rival any destination in India. The geography is that unique.

Marine Drive has also appealed to buyers native to other parts of India, as well as NRIs, due to Kochi’s heady mix of traditional as well as modern strengths. Buyers from outside Kerala include those who have fallen in love with Kochi’s natural beauty as well as investors looking for a second or third home elsewhere in the country.

For such customers, this city becomes a natural alternative, as

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Kochi is made up of the mainland, islands, backwaters, lagoons, seasides, and what not. Beaches like Cherai & Fort Kochi; islands like Willingdon, Bolghatty, Vallarpadam, & Vypeen; mega infrastructures like International Transshipment Terminal, Cochin Port, Cochin Shipyard; and heritage locations like Mattancherry and Tripunithura Hill Palace, are all destinations unto themselves. Even the famed hill

Kochi Marine Drive will soon have India’s second tunnel aquarium

station of Munnar is quite near, less than 130 km away, and a new planned road will cut even this distance by a third.

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 mesmerising sea-lake confluence can be explored from premium projects like Purva Oceana and Purva Grand Bay. Because, these two are projects that have benefited the most from the recent expansion of Marine Drive Walkway towards the north side from High Court Boat Jetty to the Goshree Bridge to Bolghatty Island. In fact, the uniquely beautiful Kettuvallam Palam (Houseboat Bridge) is adjacent to Oceana.

But time and space are definitely running out for owning such oceanfront homes.

T REND

Top 4 Executive Perks of 2013

Multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses, stock options, special incentives, profit sharing and advisory payments are fine for most, but for the really special exec, sometimes the company needs to dig a little deeper to land a leader. Here are 10 of the more lavish extras dropped into CEO's laps lately.

3. Country Club Membership

1. Private Jet Long a prerequisite for the heaviest hitters in the corporate world, no top CEO package is complete if it doesn't include generous use of the company jet. An exceptionally select few, such as Steve Jobs, are actually given jets. The majority just get to borrow them. Pepsi CEO Indira Nooyi, for instance, racked up nearly $500,000 in corporate jet costs for personal use in recent years.

2. Personal Security With fame and wealth comes risks, it seems. To protect their top execs from those of threats you seldom hear about in the U.S. or Canada, but conceivably exist, some companies now swaddle their bosses in protective layers worthy of a president. Lockheed Martin, for example, provided CEO Robert Stevens with US$1.66million in private security.

The sport of kings, and commerce, it only makes sense that CEOs get a chance to escape the pressures of the office with a trip to the links on occasion. And needless to say, it can't be on a muni course. In the U.S. it would almost be easier to list the Fortune 500 companies that didn't include a tony golf & country club membership in the CEO's compensation package.

Though even then, no many rival the US$125,000 that California's Pacific Mercantile Bancorp gave to its CEO Raymond Dellerba recently.

4. Luxury Hotel Suite If a golf membership is a bit too off the shelf, a luxury hotel suite is a nice way to distinguish your exec from the pack. That may be the thinking of Wynn Resorts which leases a Las Vegas villa for founder Steve Wynn, at a cost of $452,000 a year.

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ATION NSPIRA I NSPIR

Meet One of the Noblest Men of this Globe

73-year-old Palam Kalyanasundaram, a Tamil Nadu librarian and social activist has donated Rs 30 crore to the uneducated poor. He remained a bachelor so that he could dedicate his life to the poor. hin, frail, emaciated and sporting a shy smile, Palam Kalyanasundaram looks like your next-door neighbour’s old, but affectionate grandpa. Once you get to talk to him, the fire and determination in him shines forth through his words.

He speaks in a childlike manner, and his voice, too, is high-pitched, but as you listen, you are awestruck at the yeoman service he has done for humanity. He has received several awards and has donated Rs 30 crore of prize money he got from these honours.

Born at Melakarivelamkulam in Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, Kalyanasundaram lost his father at a very young age. It was his mother who inspired him to serve the poor.

A will to serve humanity has been 73year-old Kalyanasundaram’s guiding principle throughout his life. A gold medalist in library science, he also holds a masters degree in literature and history. During his 35-year-long career Seasonal Magazine

at Kumarkurupara Arts College at Srivaikuntam, he diligently and willingly donated his salary month after month towards charity and did odd jobs to meet his daily needs. Even after retirement, he worked as a waiter in a hotel in exchange for two meals a day and a meagre salary so that he could continue to donate to orphanages and to children’s educational funds.

He was amply rewarded for his service to humanity. The Union government acclaimed him as the best librarian in India. The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, has honoured him as one of the ‘noblest of the world’ and the United Nations adjudged him as one of the most outstanding people of the 20th century. He also received Man of the Millenium award and Life Time of Service Award from Rotary Club of India in 2011.

“People think that I started doing charity when I was young by donating clothes and helping people study, and they attribute it to a public cause, but I insist

it was for a private one. The place where I lived was a tiny village with no provision for roads, buses, schools, electricity, and there was not even a shop to buy a matchbox from. I had to walk 10km to school and back and walking all that way alone can be a pretty lonesome experience. Hence, I had this thought that if I could motivate most of the children to come with me to school, it would be great fun as well.”

Kalyanasundaram says with a twinkle in his eye. “In those days, children could not afford to pay school fees which were around Rs5. I offered to pay their school fees, got them books and clothes as well.” Kalyanasundaram says money does not impress him at all. “One can get money in three possible ways. First, through earnings; secondly, through parents’ earnings, and thirdly, through money donated by someone. But there’s nothing more fulfilling than being able to donate money for charity out of your own earnings.”

Palam Kalyanasundaram lives a simple life all on his own in a small house in Saidapet, Chennai. He never married for the simple reason that he did not want to spend all that he earned on charity.

Even today, he comes to office at Adyar regularly and does whatever he can for the uplift of the underprivileged people.

GEMENT ANAGEMENT M ANA

SHOULD YOU HAVE A SECRETARY OR NOT?

A generation ago, having a secretary was a middle-management perk.

These days you are unlikely to get a PA until you are much further up the ladder. As a result, many people starting senior jobs that come with an assistant are used to doing administrative tasks themselves. ven though Alex Cheatle runs a company that employs 350 people in 11 countries, he does not have a personal assistant.

"When it comes to things like booking meeting rooms and organising my diary I do it myself," explains the founder and chief executive of Ten Group, a concierge service. "I tried using a PA and it took me longer because I was used to doing these things very quickly." Mr Cheatle says he is probably an "extreme example" but his experience points to a long-term trend in the workplace. A generation ago, having a secretary was a middle-

management perk. These days you are unlikely to get a PA until you are much further up the ladder. As a result, many people starting senior jobs that come with an assistant are used to doing

"Treat your PA like a business partner," says Sue France, author of The Definitive Personal Assistant & Secretarial Handbook.

administrative tasks themselves.

So, how do you use a 21st-century PA? The first thing is to get in the right frame of mind. Rather than view him or her as a 1950s secretary, you should be thinking of a more holistic executive assistant (which is also what most secretaries were until the 1930s). "Treat your PA like a business partner," says Sue France, author of The Definitive Personal Assistant & Secretarial Handbook. "Allow them to be your right-hand person and your second brain." They are likely to be up to the challenge: the past decade has seen the rise of executive assistants whose duties are more akin to being chief operating officer of their boss's working life.

Next, you need to let go. "It can be terrifying but you need to allow this person to be in charge of your day," says Angela Mortimer of the eponymous support staff recruitment consultancy.

If only your PA controls your diary and calendar, there will be one point of contact and no double bookings.

As for the rest, says Ms Mortimer, the tasks you delegate should be decided through discussion: "Open up and talk about your objectives over the next four to six months." What you should be aiming for is someone who can not only interpret the briefest of instructions but also anticipate much of what you need.

In fact, your PA should be sufficiently au fait with your thinking and the business that they can perform an ambassadorial role. "Trust your PA to represent you when required and be your 'face' or stand-in," says Ms France.

Virginia Merritt, a leadership adviser, says PAs can "keep an eye out for people who should be on your radar".

Moreover, they can feed back what the rank and file sentiment is: "A PA can walk the floor for you." But perhaps the most important thing is to build absolute trust. Not only will a senior PA be privy to sensitive information, but many executives use them as sounding boards and someone they can confide in. "I asked one MD what he valued the most in the role," says Ms Mortimer. "He replied, 'I want someone who is more loyal to me than the company.'"

Seasonal Magazine

S ELF-HELP

4 SIMPLE MEDITATIONS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

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he advantages of meditation are profound – from health benefits to unleashing creativity to reducing stress to enabling success, to the simple practice of relating more calmly to the people and situations around us. Like most good things, meditation requires practice and can be hard work, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. In fact, by finding the type of meditation that's right for you, the process can be very enjoyable indeed. We recommend trying each of these meditations for 10 minutes to begin with, then extending the time gradually as you get more comfortable with the practice that suits you.

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1. Mindfulness WHAT: Also known as Vipassana or insight meditation, mindfulness practice entails focusing bare awareness on the object of meditation – be it the breath, physical sensations, outside sounds or all of the above.

HOW: 1. Assume a comfortable but alert upright position.

2. Gently bring your attention to the breath, and note each inhalation and exhalation – without trying to change anything or breathe in any specific way.

3. When you notice your mind wandering (as it most certainly will, over and over!) gently bring your attention back to the breath and start again.

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WHY: According to the teachings of the Buddha, applied mindfulness meditation – along with strong concentration and appropriate moral conduct – leads to enlightenment, or liberation from suffering. As an added bonus, mindfulness meditation has been found to lower stress and fight mental health issues.

2. Mantra Meditation WHAT: Mantra meditation is similar to mindfulness meditation, with the addition of a repetition of a simple word or phrase.

HOW: 1. Pick your mantra – it could be a simple word like "relax," "serene" or

"peace," or something more spiritual like "ohm" or "so-hum" (ancient Sanskrit words meaning "nothingness" and "I am that").

2. Assume a comfortable but alert upright position, and spend 30 seconds just sitting with your eyes closed before starting your mantra.

3. As effortlessly and silently as possible, begin repeating your mantra to yourself (not aloud), over and over.

There's no need to try to change or stop your thoughts in anyway – just keep whispering the word silently to yourself.

WHY: The repetition of a mantra quiets the breath and as a result the mind, according to New Age guru Deepak Chopra, bringing the meditator into the field of "pure consciousness." From a beginner's perspective, using a mantra can help focus and sharpen a mind prone to wandering during meditation.

foot to foot naturally creates a meditative state, calming the mind and cultivating sharper awareness. Walking meditation can be a fantastic stepping stone to bringing mindful attention to every part of the day – from walking to work to cooking or doing the dishes.

3. Engage all of your senses by imagining how your peaceful place looks, feels, sounds, smells, and even tastes. The more vividly you capture your imagined location, the greater the healing effects of the technique, according to practitioners.

4. Guided Visualizations

4. To enhance the experience, you can listen to ambient sounds related to your imagined environment (such as a recording of ocean waves if you're visualizing a beach). You can also try out these recordings and scripts to guide you through the exercise.

WHAT: Guided visualizations or imagery bring the meditator into a deeply relaxed state, to imagine a particular scene.

HOW: 1. Find a quiet area and sit in a comfortable position.

2.Close your eyes and breathe deeply, and begin to visualize yourself in a calm environment – perhaps an empty beach, a meadow, or even just a backyard hammock.

WHY: Guided visualizations have been found to lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels, by quieting the body and the mind. Specific visualizations can also be used to help achieve specific goals, by picturing success and confidence before the event.

3. Walking Meditation WHAT: Walking meditation can be just as profound as sitting meditation, and helps bring strong awareness to the body and to physical sensations.

HOW: 1. Choose a small, flat path on which to walk back and forth, preferably no more than 10 paces in each direction.

2. Before you start moving, stand still for a few moments and consciously bring your attention into the body.

Notice the sensations of your feet on the ground, clothes on your body, and sun and wind on your skin.

3. Begin walking as slowly as you can while still feeling natural, keeping your attention within the body. When the attention drifts to outside sights or thoughts (and it will!) gently bring it back to the movement in the lower half of your body – the soles of your feet on the ground, the bending and extending of the knee and the curl of your toes.

WHY: The simple exercise of stepping from Seasonal Magazine

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C RISIS

A WORLD OF ANTIBIOTIC EXCES What are the biggest future dangers faced by the world? If asked that question, most people might mumble "terrorism", "climate change", "debt crisis" or "cybercrime". But if Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, is correct, there is another terrifying issue looming over all of us: the growth of antibiotic resistance. n her recent book The Drugs Don't Work, Davies explains that seven decades ago western doctors started using antimicrobials such as penicillin on a large scale to combat infections. Since then, we have all become accustomed to relying - unthinkingly - on these wonder drugs. But although they have transformed our lives, there is a catch. Since the drugs are so widely used - if not abused - the bacteria they fight are now mutating and becoming resistant.

I

The drugs companies, meanwhile, are not creating new antimicrobial medicines that could beat the bugs. As a result, we are moving towards a world where, within a generation, the drugs simply may not work any more.

Modern medicine could lose the ability to combat many illnesses or infections. This sounds so horrifying it seems hard to imagine, and most people rarely ponder this issue at all.

But the problem is not merely theoretical. Davies calculates that about 25,000 people a year are already dying from drug-resistant bacteria in Europe - and the toll is similar in the US. "That is almost the same number as die in road traffic accidents," she points out. The only thing more startling than this is just how little response it has sparked among governments and voters. The figures that Davies is citing are hardly a dark secret: data are routinely being published on health websites.

And Davies could hardly be described as a maverick - she has written her book while sitting in Whitehall, at the very heart of British government. Even from that elevated position, the vivacious, no-nonsense Davies admits that she is Seasonal Magazine

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Professor Dame Sally Davies

SS

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finding it extraordinarily difficult to get people to care. She recently won one small victory, persuading the UK government to put the antimicrobial issue on the official "risk registry".

And next week, a host of bureaucrats and ministers will be holding international meetings to discuss the problem in places such as Doha and Rome. There have also been some initiatives to change behaviour. British hospitals have recently cut reported incidences of MRSA - one drugresistant bug - by improving hygiene on wards (for example, by insisting staff wash their hands).

Countries such as France have reduced antibiotic usage through a public health campaign. The use of antibiotics in agriculture is being curbed in countries including Denmark and Norway. This area is critical, since overuse of these drugs is linked to the fact that western farmers routinely feed vast quantities of antibiotics to animals and fish in order to make them grow faster and more healthily. (Astonishingly, agriculture accounts for some 80 percent of antibiotic usage in the US.) However, in Norway, fish-farmers have recently stopped tipping antibiotics into their tanks; apparently they are Seasonal Magazine

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Everyone in medicine knows that there is a problem but many seem wearily resigned to the fact that change will not occur until there is a real crisis - that is, a drastically higher number of deaths. In that sense, it all seems horribly reminiscent of the way that problems built up in the financial system a few years ago. now immunising the fish individually instead. While these moves are laudable - even if the idea of injecting individual fish boggles the mind - they remain slow. The problem that dogs the antimicrobial fight also overshadows finance and the climate change debate: namely the "agency" dilemma, or the fact that individual actors have little incentive to clean up their act if no one else is doing the same. Drugs companies don't want to develop new antibiotics because these tend to lose their efficacy so fast.

Or as Davies notes: "No new class of anti-bacterial has been developed since 1987 . . . partly because companies can no longer make enough money out of antimicrobials to justify investing in the research needed." Individual hospitals and doctors face pressure from patients to dole out the wonder drugs or, in some countries, lose business.

Separate governments seem reluctant to impose curbs without co-ordinated moves (after all, borders do not contain drug-resistant bugs). And voters are not demanding reforms now, since the issue is complex and considered "tomorrow's problem", as Davies says, with an "inherent tension between the generations". Today's adults want the drugs but it is future generations who will suffer most from overuse.

Everyone in medicine knows that there is a problem but many seem wearily resigned to the fact that change will not occur until there is a real crisis - that is, a drastically higher number of deaths.

In that sense, it all seems horribly reminiscent of the way that problems built up in the financial system a few years ago. And that is a chilling point to ponder; particularly as we all brace ourselves to deal with this winter's wave of cold and flu bugs.

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OG Y CHNOLOG OGY T ECHNOL

BEFORE YOU BITE THE NEXT APPLE

Are iPhones & iPads designed for planned obsolescence, forcing fan boys & gals to buy newer versions as soon as they are released?

t first, I thought it was my imagination.

Around the time the iPhone 5S and 5C were released, in September, I noticed that my sad old iPhone 4 was becoming a lot more sluggish. The battery was starting to run down much faster, too.

But the same thing seemed to be happening to a lot of people who, like me, swear by their Apple products.

When I called tech analysts, they said that the new operating system (iOS 7) being pushed out to existing users was making older models unbearably slow.

Apple phone batteries, which have a finite number of charges in them to begin with, were drained by the new software. So I could pay Apple $79 to replace the battery, or perhaps spend 20 bucks more for an iPhone 5C. It seemed like Apple was sending me a not-so-subtle message to upgrade.

Of course, there are more benign explanations. The new software and recent app updates offer fancy new features that existing users want; maybe the battery is sealed with tiny five-point screws for aesthetic considerations.

Perhaps, but this isn’t the first time that tech analysts and random crazies on the Internet have noted that breakdowns in older Apple products can often coincide with when upgrades come onto the market. Many have taken this as evidence of “planned obsolescence,” a term that dates to the Great Depression, when a real estate broker suggested that the government should stimulate the Seasonal Magazine

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economy by placing artificial expiration dates on consumer products so people would buy more.

To conspiracy-theory-hungry observers (and some of the rest of us), it might make sense that Apple would employ this business strategy. The tech giant, after all, has reached near-saturation levels in the U.S. smartphone market.

If iPhones work forever, people who already own the devices- won’t buy new ones. Furthermore, selling products

with finite life spans can be good for consumers, depending on their tastes and how informed they are. The fashion industry, whose entire mission is to essentially render products obsolete long before they cease to be functional, does this regularly. I buy clothes from H&M and other low-cost, trend-driven stores knowing full well that the pieces might fall apart after a year’s worth of washes. And if the clothes won’t be fashionable next year anyway, who cares? Improving the durability and

thereby cost of the clothes would probably just drive away pricesensitive shoppers like me. Apple has similar considerations. Would the additional longevity of the battery be valuable enough to its core consumers to justify the inevitable higher price?

Economists have theories about market conditions that encourage planned obsolescence. A company has strong incentives to degrade product durability when it has a lot of market power and when consumers don’t have good substitute products to choose from. (That’s what happened with the international light-bulb cartel of the early 20th century, which penalized its members for manufacturing bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours.) When Apple started making the iPhone in 2007, its product was so innovative that it could have deliberately degraded durability without fear. But in the last couple years, the company has faced stiffer competition from Samsung and HTC, among others, which should deincentivize planned obsolescence.

“Buyers are smart, and if they start figuring out that one of the costs of

The tech giant, after all, has reached near-saturation levels in the U.S. smartphone market.

If iPhones work forever, people who already own the deviceswon’t buy new ones. buying Apple’s products is that they’re constantly nickel-and-diming you, they’ll switch,” said Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Well, maybe. A company could still be encouraged to engage in planned obsolescence if consumers perceive large “switching costs” associated with going to a new brand. There are plenty of economics textbooks to choose from, for instance, and yet publishers still artificially make their old editions unusable by changing pagination or scrambling homework questions because they know teachers don’t want to deal with learning a whole new book.

Similarly, iPhone users have probably purchased complementary products, like apps, that won’t transfer to Android phones. They also probably have a network of iPhone-using friends with whom they can chat free using Apple’s Messages app (instead of paying for text messages). These switching costs increase Apple’s incentives to force its existing customers to upgrade by making older models gradually become more dysfunctional.

There is, however, a simple way to effectively render an old product obsolete without fleecing your existing customers. Instead of degrading the old model, companies can offer

innovations in the new model that make upgrading irresistible. Apple succeeded at doing this for a while, offering new iPhones that included major improvements. In the past, consumers were so excited about the cool new features, like Siri, the voiceactivated interface, that they may not have minded (or even noticed) if their old phones started to deteriorate; they planned on upgrading anyway. This time around, that’s less true. The iPhone 5S and 5C offer fewer quantum improvements. Consumers are more likely to want their old phones to continue working at peak condition in perpetuity, and to feel cheated when they don’t.

When major innovations remain out of reach, and degrading durability threatens to tick off loyal customers, companies like Apple can still take a cue from the fashion industry. If you can brainwash consumers into developing new tastes that make the old stuff look uncool for aesthetic rather than functional reasons, you still have a shot at harvesting more sales from your existing customer base. But it seems Apple may have already figured this out too. Just check out the wait times for the iPhone 5S in that shiny new gold color.

(By Catherine Rampell for The New York Times) Seasonal Magazine

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AL IGITAL D IGIT

What is Common Between These Legendary Photos?

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Take a look again. They are not photos at all. They are fully computer-generated pictures, drawn by professional artists from scratch, with cutting-edge computer graphics tools. Talented artists and state-of-the-art computer graphics are taking photo-realism in drawn pictures to a new level.

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L EADERSHIP

THE SHEER MAGIC OF BEING MADIBA Seasonal Magazine

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A

hat were the real leadership qualities of Nelson Mandela that makes him one of the greatest leaders of all times?

Madiba's life holds profound lessons for everyone from politicians to entrepreneurs to business managers to activists of all hues.

T

he “old man” was angry.

His lips were pursed, his head held high, his Olympian gaze stony.

When Nelson Mandela finally started speaking, his words were even more clipped than usual. This was not an irrational fury.

Rather, it was the admonitory wrath of a headmaster. It was infused with the empathy of one who appreciated all too well the rage of his audience, yet knew that if South Africa was somehow to emerge intact from the ravages of apartheid it had to be tamed.

the dock when on trial for his life, and a grainy picture of him in the exercise yard on Robben Island prison in Cape Town’s Table Bay. As the day of his release in February 1990 had drawn near, some confidants worried he might disappoint. Many in the African National Congress were outraged he had been negotiating with the apartheid rulers and feared he had gone soft. Business people fretted he would be a Rip van Winkle figure clinging to the socialism he had espoused before being imprisoned. He had, after all, a record as something of a firebrand.

It was August 1993. Three and a half blood-soaked years had passed since that diamond-bright afternoon when Mandela was released after 27 years in prison under apartheid. The first allrace elections set for the following April seemed impossibly distant against the backdrop of threats of secession from the white Afrikaner right and daily bloodshed in the townships. Before Mandela in a ramshackle stadium in one of Johannesburg’s desolate townships, thousands of “comrades” rattled makeshift weapons and bayed for revenge. Scores had died in the previous few days in street battles against a rival party. Yet the silverhaired septuagenarian gave no ground.

How wrong they all were. Far from embittering or ossifying him, captivity had steeled him for the challenges ahead, he made clear. While unbending when he wanted to be, as his sometime adversary FW de Klerk ruefully recalls, and deeply loyal to ANC traditions, he had the vision and courage time and again to break with his party’s orthodoxies – in particular over negotiating with his jailers, and jettisoning socialism. He was to be even more remarkable than the ANC had suggested. His history as a freedom fighter and political prisoner was merely the warm-up act to his greatest role of all: the apostle of reconciliation who would seduce the Afrikaners into relinquishing power and lead South Africa back into the world.

“If you have no discipline, you are not freedom fighters and we do not want you in our organisation,” he said in his distinctive reedy tones. “I am your leader. If you don’t want me, tell me to go and rest. As long as I am your leader I will tell you where you are wrong.” He stared, they muttered, shuffled their feet – and backed down.

For long years Mandela had been a shadowy symbol of hope, known only from his fiery record in the 1950s and 1960s, his inspirational speech from

In the bleak years between his release and democracy he was an itinerant prophet of reconciliation, delivering homily after homily intended to bind his divided nation together. He could be a ponderous speaker. Yet the force of his leadership far outweighed his oratory. One day he would lecture enraged radicals. The next he would address white irredentists. Time and again, all but the most embittered

would balk at confronting him as he worked his magic: one moment grand and aloof, every inch the descendant of his family’s chiefly clan, the next joking and teasing, the ultimate street politician yet always a model of oldfashioned courtesy. Now that the country has safely navigated 19 years of democracy it is too easy to forget there was nothing inevitable about South Africa’s fairy tale.

His unwavering style of leadership has led many to regard him as a modern Gandhi. Yet while he at times revelled in the rapture, this description irked him. He was the first to say he was not a saint. He after all championed the ANC’s adoption of the “armed struggle” – even if this was initially a largely symbolic move. He neglected his family in pursuit of his drive to end apartheid, a source of deep sadness later in his life. He was to the end an immensely human figure who loved life and laughter and was subject to the same weaknesses and foibles as the rest of us.

Desmond Tutu, his friend and fellow Nobel Peace laureate, was one of the first to question the world’s sanctification of “Madiba” – his clan name, and how he liked to be known.

Archbishop Tutu appreciated long before it became a commonplace that the cult of Mandela risked blinding people to the colossal problems facing South Africa. “He is only one pebble on the beach, one of thousands,” he said halfway through Mandela’s term in office. “Not an insignificant pebble, I’ll grant you that, but a pebble all the same.”

The “Arch” was right. The otherworldly image of Mandela may have been what the world wanted to believe but, great humanitarian and moral authority as he was, he was foremost a brilliant politician.

Reconciliation was not a spontaneous miracle, as some imagined, emanating from the magnificence of his soul.

Rather, the seduction of the Afrikaners was plotted in his cell as a way to win power. He pondered many times that his long imprisonment gave him the time to reflect on how he should lead.

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It was there that he urged fellow prisoners to learn Afrikaans, on the theory you could better defeat your enemy if you spoke their language.

“I knew that people expected me to harbour anger towards whites,” Mandela later wrote when recalling the morning after his release. “But I had none. In prison my anger towards whites decreased but my hatred for the system grew.”

Twenty-three years later, the “rainbow nation”, as Archbishop Tutu exuberantly labelled the postapartheid society, is still a work in progress. While relations are transformed, South Africa remains riven by racial and socioeconomic inequality. It was always going to take more than an inspirational leader to overcome the legacy of centuries of discrimination. Yet by force of personality and example, Mandela encouraged the belief that reconciliation really was possible.

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Who else could telephone the Queen and address her as “Elizabeth”? to his drive, such as when he invited the widows and wives of former Afrikaner Nationalist leaders to tea at his residence. Some in the ANC suggested he had gone too far when he travelled to a remote whites-only settlement to visit Betsy Verwoerd, whose husband Hendrik had provided the ideological underpinning of apartheid and enacted some of its most repressive laws. A wrinkled 94-yearold, she spoke with a quavering voice as she offered him coffee and syrupy

koeksisters. At an impromptu press conference on her stoep in searing heat, a black journalist pointedly insinuated that Mandela was frittering away his time in office. He replied testily that his drive had cost him little time and yet bound the nation together.

Mandela knew how important it was to keep Afrikaners loyal. He also knew South Africa could ill-afford what had happened at independence in neighbouring Mozambique: a mass exodus of whites with their skills and capital. So he masked his anger over the past. His campaign reached its zenith in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a project of astonishing ambition aimed at exorcising the troubled past. Then there was the 1995 Rugby World Cup when he won the hearts of so many Afrikaners with his adoption of “their” game, rugby, inspiring the Springboks to victory against the favourites, all but by his exuberant passion alone.

So what was the secret to the “Madiba

magic” and his seduction routine?

Intrinsic to his genius was his Protean persona. One day he came across as an old-fashioned aristocrat, another as an impassioned revolutionary leader, and the third as a world statesman.

While like any experienced politician he knew how to play an audience, unlike so many leaders in the age of television there was little artifice about his guises.

Rather, they were rooted in his extraordinary life. In his lectures to angry “comrades”, his genes as the scion of chiefs were to the fore. It was as if he were upbraiding a rowdy village assembly, as his forefathers must have done in the past.

Drawing on the precepts he learnt as a child, and also from his missionary teachers, he had an old-world charm.

He could be a stickler for protocol. He chided MPs in the German Bundestag for not wearing ties and lectured his ministers and ANC members on punctuality. Yet this was the man who launched a sartorial revolution with his loose-flowing “Madiba shirts” and who was famous for his abhorrence of

pomposity and love of the gentle tease.

Who else could telephone the Queen and address her as “Elizabeth”?

The ability to make people like you is merely the first lesson for aspirant politicians. But even so, Mandela had a particular genius for the glad-handing side of politics, primarily because his warmth seemed genuinely uncontrived.

His smile and laugh exuded the joy of one who appreciated every day as a boon.

His presidency was not an unalloyed golden age, as his friends concede. He had an autocratic streak. He neglected key policy areas, most critically the fight against HIV/Aids, an omission for which he berated himself in retirement.

He had concluded on Robben Island that when in power he should adopt the consensual politics of his forebears’ royal household. This eased the smooth running of the ANC, an amalgam of races, classes, religions and politics, but he was too loyal to underperforming ministers.

There were other blemishes. As the years passed it emerged he had had to make his share of compromises. His close relationships with business people were from time to time called into question. He also displayed an almost naive tolerance for the fawning of celebrities. To the distress of some advisers, the first big celebration of his 90th birthday occurred on a London stage alongside the scandal-wracked Amy Winehouse.

Yet as South Africa falters at confronting some of the messy issues of the post-apartheid era, his record rightly appears if anything more magical even than when he was president. His ANC generation has a mythical status: Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and so many more. Amid the intermittent stumbles of his successors, the benefits of South Africa’s having embarked on democracy under a man who led with such clarity and principle were all the clearer.

The failure of leadership is arguably the greatest curse to have afflicted sub-

Saharan Africa since it won independence. The history of the continent in the second half of the 20th century is littered with the examples of “big men” independence leaders who came to power vowing to liberate their people from the tyranny of the colonial past and then never left office, invariably deploying the rhetoric of liberation to justify misdeeds. The lesson was clear: once undermined, the independence of democratic institutions is hard to recover.

So Mandela’s unflinching support for the independence of the courts, the media and state institutions set a vital precedent. He respected their rulings even when white judges from the old era ruled in favour of apartheid leaders. He himself appeared in court when subpoenaed in a dispute over the national rugby squad – and more agonisingly when petitioning for divorce from his second wife, Winnie.

For such a private man it was patently painful to have to testify about the intimacies of their relationship. Yet there he stood, stiffly upright in the simple courtroom, testifying in a quavering voice, as the law required.

Strikingly, he did not indulge in the ruinous relativism that had led to so many abuses in Africa passing unrebuked in the continent. But most important of all, he believed in leading by example. He was the last of Africa’s liberation leaders to take charge and was acutely aware of the need to buck their trend by serving just one term. It was a parting gift of incalculable value to a fledgling democracy. He was indeed the father of the nation.

Don’t put me on a pedestal, I am human, he liked to say. He once bemoaned his image as a demigod.

Yet who could dispute that he presides over the pantheon of great leaders of the 20th century?

(By Alec Russell, Financial Times’s news editor, who was a correspondent in South Africa from 1993 to 1998 and 2006 to 2008. From Financial Times) Seasonal Magazine

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L ANDMARK

22 PROVISIONS THAT WON BROAD SUPPORT FOR LOKPAL Finally, after much debate and floor fights, Lokpal or People's Ombudsman is ready. While not everyone including Lokpal crusader Arvind Kejriwal is appreciating the current Lokpal, it has the broadest support possible from other activists like Anna Hazare, Aruna Roy, Kiran Bedi, Santosh Hegde, and other such luminaries. Hazare has termed the bill as enough to catch even a lion! The bill is a bit terrifying as even a seasoned politician like Mulayam was willing to go down in history as the only major politician to oppose it in parliament. Following are some important features of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, passed by Parliament, that won broad approval.

1. Lokpal members shall not be affiliated to any political party.

Organisations or NGOs remain outside its ambit.

2. Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and a maximum of eight members, of which 50 per cent shall be judicial members.

7. All entities receiving donations from foreign source in the context of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in excess of Rs 10 lakh per year are brought under the jurisdiction of Lokpal.

3. 50 per cent of members of Lokpal shall be from SC/ST/OBCs, minorities and women.

4. The selection of chairperson and members of Lokpal shall be through a selection committee consisting of Prime Minister, Speaker of Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Chief Justice of India or a sitting Supreme Court judge nominated by CJI, eminent jurist to be nominated by the President of India on the basis of recommendations of the first four members of the selection committee.

5. The Prime Minister's Office will be under the Lokpal's purview.

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8. Lokpal will have power of superintendence and direction over any investigation agency including CBI for cases referred to them by Lokpal.

9. For people wanting to lodge complaints against group A category officials and equivalent, numbering around 150,000, they would now have two options: Either to go to CVC or Lokpal. For complaints against Group B, C and D, CVC has no jurisdiction while Lokpal will admit complaints against all classes of government employees.

10. There are about 65 lakh central government employees, other than military. So all of them would in effect be covered by the Lokpal Act, which also cover s the Prime

Minister, ministers etc.

11. A high powered committee chaired by the Prime Minister will recommend selection of the Director, CBI. 12. Transfer of officers of CBI investigating cases referred by Lokpal with the approval of Lokpal.

13. The bill also incorporates provisions for attachment and confiscation of property acquired by corrupt means, even while prosecution is pending.

14. The bill lays down clear time lines for preliminary enquiry and investigation and trial and towards this end, the bill provides for setting up of special courts.

15. Inquiry has to be completed within 60 days and investigation to be completed within six months. Lokpal shall order an investigation only after hearing the public servant.

16. Inquiry against the prime minister has to be held in-camera and approved by two-thirds of the full bench of the Lokpal.

17. A maximum punishment of 10 years for those convicted under the Act. 18. Provides adequate protection for honest and upright public servants.

The bill also incorporates provisions for attachment and confiscation of property acquired by corrupt means, even while prosecution is pending.

The new bill says a government servant will get a hearing before a decision is taken by the Lokpal.

19. Each state must have a Lokayukta within one year of the notification of the Lokpal Act. 20. False and frivolous complaints will attract imprisonment up to one year and a fine of up to Rs.1 lakh.

21. Supreme Court can probe Lokpal member on reference from President of India after a petition signed by at least 100 Members of Parliament.

22. President can suspend a Lokpal member on the recommendation or interim order of the Supreme Court.

A Lokpal member can be removed by the President after a Supreme Court inquiry.

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TERS WEE T ITTERS TERSWEE WEET B IT

8 Reasons Why AAP is Still Angry Aam Aadmi Party has dismissed Lokpal Bill as "sarkari jokepal", while National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) of RTI fame has welcomed the bill, even while terming it half-baked without accompanying bills like Whistle Blowers' protection Bill and Grievance Redress Bill. Kejriwal has termed the bill as not enough to catch even a mouse!

So, why is Kejriwal, AAP, & friends still angry? Here are those 8 reasons: 1. Lokpal's Appointment

6. Citizen's Charter

Under currently passed bill, majority of those who will select Lokpal will be from the political class who will have a vested interest in a weak Lokpal. Jan Lokpal had recommended a 7-member committee including 2 SC judges, 2 HC judges, one nominee of CAG+CVC+CEC, PM and Leader of Opposition.

This was part of the resolution passed

by Parliament in August 2011 and must be adhered to.

2. Lokpal's Removal Under currently passed bill, removal of Lokpal Chairman and members under political control. Jan Lokpal said any citizen can complain and seek any Lokpal member's removal.

3. Investigating Machinery CBI officers' transfers, postings will be under govt control compromising independence of the investigative machinery. CBI should be under the Lokpal's administrative control.

4. Ambit of the Lokpal Include all public servants including judges and MPs in discharging public duties.

5. Whistleblower's Protection Protection for whistleblowers must be addressed in this law or a separate one.

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7. Lokayuktas

Bill should have been a model legislation for states to adopt mandatorily.

8. Frivolous Complaints Penalty for frivolous complaint should be only Rs 1 lakh; no imprisonment.

T RIVIA

Did Snowden Learn to Hack in India?

A New Delhi based company claims so.

Edward Snowden, the CIA contractor who revealed the scale of America's internet surveillance around the world, may have learnt the hacking skills to leak thousands of files on a $1,200 course he attended in India.

Recently, the company said that the rogue analyst contacted it in 2009 to join the course.

He later paid the fee for his tuition and extra for his boarding in Karol Bagh, a grimy market district of the Indian capital.

"He was an intelligent, quiet and co-operative student."

"He was an intelligent, quiet and cooperative student," Mr Sharma said.

"A thorough hacking professional, who preferred to maintain a low profile and not share details about (his) personal life.

"He made the initial payment through PayPal and the rest through his credit card. It was a self-sponsored course.

"He mostly spent time at the institute and used to go out rarely."

Mr Snowden had been a quiet student who stayed in his hostel room and focused entirely on his course.

Mr Sharma added: "Certainly his course here included some elements which may have helped him in what he did. But overall he was a very intelligent student and good learner."

Hema Sharma, Koenig's Delhi training centre manager, said that the hacking course was paid for by Mr Snowden personally.

The course allowed Mr Snowden to become a "Certified Ethical Hacker", and an EC-Council Certified Security Analyst.

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THC ARE ALTHC THCARE H EAL

Apple ound ttoo be aass Appless FFound Good aass St Staatins, For Pr ting Hear Preeven enting Heartt ok Attack Strok okees ackss & Str

n apple a day can actually keep the doctor away by protecting against heart attacks and stroke, according to a new Oxford study, which validates the 150-year-old saying.

Prescribing an apple a day to adults aged 50 and over would prevent or delay around 8,500 vascular deaths such as heart attacks and strokes every year in the UK - similar to statin use, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The study takes into account people who are already appropriately taking statins to reduce their risk of vascular disease Seasonal Magazine

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Statins used for cholesterol control are pharma world's best-selling drug class.

New research proves that the humble apple may be as effective as the side-effects prone stains for the same purpose.

Side-effects from statins include developing diabetes and muscle disease.

to everyone aged over 50 years in the UK. The researchers assumed a 70 per cent compliance rate and that overall calorie intake remained constant.

and therefore the researchers stress that no-one currently taking statins should stop, although by all means eat more apples.

They calculate that offering a daily statin to 17.6 million more adults would reduce the annual number of vascular deaths by 9,400, while offering a daily apple to 70 per cent of the total UK population aged over 50 years would avert 8,500 vascular deaths.

Using mathematical models a team of researchers at the University of Oxford analysed the effect on the most common causes of vascular mortality of prescribing either a statin a day to those not already taking one or an apple a day

However, side-effects from statins mean that prescribing statins to everyone over the age of 50 is predicted to lead to over a thousand extra cases of muscle disease (myopathy) and over ten thousand extra diagnoses of diabetes.

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AK THROUGH REAK AKTHROUGH B RE

THE NEXT REVOLUTION IS HERE The Internet of Things represents a paradigm shift from how information is recorded currently on Internet. From manual, things are going to be automatic from now on, that too in real time as it happens. he Internet Of Things represents a major departure in the history of the Internet, as connections move beyond computing devices, and begin to power billions of everyday devices, from parking meters to home thermostats.

Estimates for Internet of Things or IoT market value are massive, since by definition the IoT will be a diffuse layer of devices, sensors, and computing power that overlays entire consumer, business-tobusiness, and government industries. The IoT will account for an increasingly huge number of connections: 1.9 billion devices today, and 9 billion by 2018. That year, it will be roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined.

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communicate with the other gadgets in our lives. In the consumer space, many products and services have already crossed over into the IoT, including kitchen and home appliances, lighting and heating products, and insurance company-issued car monitoring devices that allow motorists to pay insurance only for the amount of driving they do.

Some of the top business-tobusiness and government applications for IOT include the following: Connected advertising and marketing. Cisco believes that this category (think Internet-connected billboards) will be one of the top three IoT categories, along with smart factories, and telecommuting support systems.

Intelligent traffic management systems. Machina research, in a paper prepared for the GSM Association, sees $100 billion in revenue by 2020 for applications such as toll-taking and congestion

penalties. A related revenue source will be smart parking-space management, expected to drive $30 billion in revenue.

Waste management systems. In Cincinnati, residential waste volume fell 17% and recycling volume grew by 49% through use of a "pay as you throw" program that used IoT technology to monitor those who exceed waste limits.

Smart electricity grids that adjust rates for peak energy usage. These will represent savings of $200 billion to $500 billion per year by 2025, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.

Smart water systems and meters.

The cities of Doha, Sa~o Paulo, and Beijing have reduced leaks by 40 to 50% by putting sensors on pumps and other water infrastructure.

Industrial uses including Internetmanaged assembly lines, connected factories, and warehouses, etc.

S HOCKER

Congress, BJP, or AAP, Money Still Calls the Shots?

ot everyone in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is ‘aam’ it seems. Of its 28 MLAs who tasted victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, 12 are crorepatis. The richest among them is Veena Anand, who defeated the Congress’s Rajesh Lilothia to win the Patel Nagar seat. She has assets worth Rs 15.52 crore.

According to an analysis by ADR (Association of Democratic Reforms), the average assets per candidate for the Congress in Delhi was Rs 14.25 crore, followed by Rs 8.16 crore for the BJP and Rs 2.51 crore for the AAP. As far as all the winning MLAs are concerned, the analysis by ADR found that nearly three- fourth of the elected MLAs in Delhi have assets running into crores of rupees.

More than half of Delhi’s newly elected crorepati MLAs are from the BJP and the rest from Congress and the debutant, AAP. Value of the assets include both movable and immovable ones and data also revealed that the maximum proportion of the assets of these MLAs are immovable.

Incidentally, the chief ministerial candidates from both the AAP and the BJP Arvind Kejriwal and Dr Harsh Vardhan fall in the category of crorepati MLAs. While 12 AAP MLAs are crorepatis, there are many MLAs in the party who are aam admi.

The 10 MLAs having the least assets belong to the debutant party.

Dharmender Singh Koli of the AAP

from Seemapuri constituency has declared the lowest assets worth Rs 20,800 followed by Rakhi Birla of the AAP from Mangolpuri constituency with assets worth ` 51,150. Akhileshpati Tripathi from Model Town has declared assets worth Rs 1.59 lakh.

The richest winning MLA of Delhi, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, belongs to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). He has won from the Rajouri Garden constituency in west Delhi area and has assets worth Rs 235.51 crore.

Thirty (97%) of the 31 BJP MLAs are crorepatis. There are 7 crorepati MLAs from Congress and one MLA from SAD. The only Independent MLA is also a crorepati.

On criminal background of MLAs, the report by ADR said that the AAP has three MLAs with criminal cases. While the Congress has two, one each of SAD and JD(U) and an Independent had declared criminal cases against them.

The analysis has come after the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Delhi Election Watch ( DEW) analysed the selfsworn affidavits of all the 70 newly elected MLAs in the Delhi 2013 Assembly elections.

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T RAVEL

10 Destinations Indians Can Visit Without Visas, And How Much It Will Cost Indian travellers may rue the declining rupee but there are other perks to being an Indian citizen. Holders of Indian passports have visa-free and visaon-arrival access to about 52 countries and territories around the world. At least 28 of these nations allow Indian passport holders to visit without a preissued visa. Given below are some of the most naturally stunning international tourist destinations among these visa-free countries for Indians. Do note, however, that getting to some of these destinations might involve a significant air travel cost. So go on, make your travel plans, after reading the rates too.

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1. BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Most Indians need to look up the British Virgin Islands on a map. They lie in the Caribbean Sea, and include over 60 islands and keys, of which about 43 are uninhabited. Indian citizens are granted a 31-day visa-free stay in the British Virgin Islands for tourism purposes. One of the best ways to visit the islands is by cruise ship, as many cruises operate from the United States to the nearby US Virgin Islands. There are no direct flights between India and the British Virgin Islands. Approximate cost of round trip flight: INR 1,60,000 (via Paris and Saint Maarten).

2. COOK ISLANDS The Cook Islands lie in Polynesia, off the coast of New Zealand.

They are named after Captain James Cook, who discovered them for the western world in 1770. Since 1965, the islands have been self-governed with free association to the government of New Zealand, which controls the islands' defence, foreign affairs (including passport control) and currency. Immigration is strictly controlled. Indian citizens are allowed to stay for up to 200 days without a visa, but must show proof of reserved accommodation and are not exempt from paying the departure tax of NZ$55 for adults and NZ$15 for children. Rarotonga International Airport, the main port of entry to the Cook Islands, is connected to Auckland via daily flights and weekly flights from Sydney, Fiji and Los Angeles. Approximate cost of round trip flight: INR 1,60,000 (via Singapore and Auckland) Seasonal Magazine

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5. GRENADA 3. DOMINICA Not to be confused with the Caribbean nation known as the Dominican Republic, the island of Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by the British. It has beautiful hiking trails, rainforests and beaches with great opportunities for snorkelling. Indian citizens are allowed to stay for 22 months without a visa. Approximate cost of round trip flight: INR 2,00,000 (via Paris and Saint Maarten)

The beautiful Caribbean islands of Grenada offer much to tourists in the form of beaches, waterfalls, historic forts and spice gardens. Indian tourists can travel visa-free in Grenada for up to 90, but must show proof of sufficient funds to cover the cost of their travel.

Approximate cost of round trip flight: INR 1.60,000 (via London and Miami)

4. EL SALVADOR El Salvador, the most densely populated country in Central America, lies between Guatemala and the Honduras. Volcanoes, mountains and cloud forests offer plenty of nature discovery and hiking opportunities.

Old colonial towns and UNESCO World Heritage Sites beckon heritage tourists. Indian nationals are permitted to stay for a maximum of three months without a visa. Approximate cost of round trip flight: INR 1,44,000 (via Paris and Miami)

6. HAITI Haiti is off the travel map for most tourists owing to the devastation left by the 2010 earthquake. One of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, its current political situation and concerns over the safety of tourists has prompted many countries to issue strict travel advisories. That said, Indian tourists are welcome without a visa for a maximum stay of three months.

Approximate cost of round trip flight: INR 1,52,000 (via Dubai and New York)

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7. JAMAICA Jamaica is the most populous of the English-speaking Caribbean countries and its easygoing culture, cuisine and music, besides its many beaches, are attractive to tourists. Indian tourists can stay without a visa on producing a passport valid for six months and sufficient proof of funds and onward travel. Approximate cost of round trip flight: 1,53,000 (via Dubai and New York/ Toronto).

8. MONTSERRAT Not to be confused with the Spanish region of the same name, Montserrat is an island in the Caribbean southeast of Puerto Rico and once a popular resort. Since 1989, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions forced its closure but the island is slowly limping back. Indian citizens must show proof of citizenship but can travel visafree on furnishing proof of onward travel and adequate funds. Approximate cost of round trip flight: 1,30,000 (to Antigua, via London) and a 15-minute air-hop from Antigua to Montserrat (about INR 5,000).

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10. BHUTAN Bhutan, the happiest little nation in the world, is among the most sought-after Himalayan destinations for tourists but the Himalayan mountain kingdom is very conservative when it comes to tourism. Travel writer Pico Iyer mentioned it in his book, Falling off the Map, as one of the world's remotest places. Until recently, Bhutan restricted tourist numbers. Though that has changed, the country still requires foreign tourists to pay for their entire holiday in advance and travel on a preissued tourist visa. Flying into Bhutan's solitary airport at Paro is possible only through the national carrier Druk Air, which operates flights from Delhi, Kolkata, Bangkok and Yangon. Indian citizens, however, have it easier. On production of a valid passport or voter's identity card, a permit is issued that is valid for two weeks.

9. MICRONESIA The far-flung Federated States of Micronesia are a group of 607 islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, comprising the states of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae.

It is considered one of the most remote and beautiful places in the world, with pristine coral reefs, quaint cultures, exotic food and picturesque islands. Indian citizens can travel visa-free for 30 days upon producing proof of sufficient funds, onward travel and accommodation. Approximate cost of round trip flight: 2,04,000 (via Hong Kong, Guam and Truk).

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MY S T E R Y

Our Brains Designed for Rural Tranquillity, Not Urban Euphoria Humans may be hard-wired to feel at peace in the countryside and confused in cities – even if they were born and raised in an urban area. ccording to preliminary results of a study by scientists at Exeter University, an area of the brain associated with being in a calm, meditative state lit up when people were shown pictures of rural settings. But images of urban environments resulted in a significant delay in reaction, before a part of the brain i nvo l v e d i n p r o c e s s i n g v i s u a l complexity swung into action as the viewer tried to work out what

they were seeing.

The study, which used an MRI scanner to monitor brain activity, adds to a growing body of evidence that natural environments are good for humans, affecting mental and physical health and even levels of aggression.

Dr Ian Frampton, an Exeter University psychologist, stressed the researchers still had more work to do, but said they may have hit upon something significant.

“When looking at urban environments the brain is doing a lot of processing

because it doesn’t know what this environment is,” he said. “The brain doesn’t have an immediate natural response to it, so it has to get busy. Part of the brain that deals with visual complexity lights up: ‘What is this that I’m looking at?’ Even if you have lived in a city all your life, it seems your brain doesn’t quite know what to do with this information and has to do visual processing,” he said.

Rural images produced a “much quieter” response in a “completely different part of the brain”, he added.

“There’s much less activity. It seems to be in the limbic system, a much older, evolutionarily, part of the brain that we share with monkeys and primates.”

The effect does not appear to be aesthetic as it was found even when beautiful urban and “very dull” pictures of the countryside were used.

Professor Michael Depledge of Exeter University, a former Environment Agency chief scientist, said urban dwellers could be suffering in the same way as animals kept in captivity. He said the move to the cities had been accompanied by an “incredible rise in depression and behavioural abnormalities”.

“I think we have neglected the relationship that human beings have with their environment and we are strongly connected to it,” he said. “If you don’t get the conditions right in zoos, the animals start behaving in a wacky way. There have been studies done with laboratory animals showing their feeding is abnormal. Sometimes they stop eating and sometimes they eat excessively. How far we can draw that parallel, I don’t know.”

The study was part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund Programme and European Social Fund Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Dr Frampton was one of the coordinators of the research, which was carried out

by Marie-Claire Reville and Shanker Venkatasubramanian, of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at Exeter University.

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H AZARD

Personal Care Products Harm Infants & Kids the Most ersonal care products such as lotions and shampoos are exposing infants and toddlers to potentially harmful substances, called parabens, at an even higher level than adult women, scientists warn.

Parabens, a class of chemicals widely used as preservatives by cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, have been linked to reproductive and other health issues. In a study published in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology, researchers Kurunthachalam Kannan

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and Ying Guo pointed out that the substances called phthalates and parabens are used in a wide range of products , from medical devices to children's toys, as well as Personal care products.

Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that over 90% of the population is exposed to them. The body breaks them down quickly, but both have been detected in urine, breast milk and blood. Research suggests a link between these substances and health issues like sperm damage, breast cancer and high risk for asthma.

H EALTHCARE

Sleep Loss + Ageing = Diabetes?

Researchers have showed that stress in pancreatic cells due to sleep deprivation could contribute to the loss or dysfunction of these cells important to maintaining proper blood sugar levels, and that these functions may be exacerbated by normal ageing. irinjini Naidoo, Ph.D., research associate professor in the Division of Sleep Medicine, said that the combined effect of aging and sleep deprivation resulted in a loss of control of blood sugar reminiscent of pre- diabetes in mice.

She said that they hypothesize that older humans might be especially susceptible to the effects of sleep deprivation on the disruption of glucose homeostasis via cell stress.

Working with Penn colleague Joe Baur, Ph.D., assistant professor of Physiology, Naidoo started a collaboration to look at the relationship of sleep deprivation, the UPR, and metabolic response with age.

Naidoo and Baur asked if sleep deprivation (SD) causes ER stress in the pancreas, via an increase in protein misfolding, and in turn, how this relates to aging.

The team examined tissues in mice for cellular stress following acute SD, and

they also looked for cellular stress in aging mice. Their results show that both age and SD combine to induce cellular stress in the pancreas.

Older mice fared markedly worse when subjected to sleep deprivation. Pancreas tissue from older mice or from young animals subjected to sleep deprivation exhibited signs of protein misfolding, yet both were able to maintain insulin secretion and control blood sugar levels.

Pancreas tissue from acutely sleepdeprived aged animals exhibited a marked increase in CHOP, a protein associated with cell death, suggesting a maladaptive response to cellular stress with age that was amplified by sleep deprivation.

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T

EST DRIVE

HONDA DRIVES IN DIESEL CITY WITH AMAZE'S ENGINE Here comes the all-new Honda City with the biggest surprise of all – a mileage of 26 kilometre per litre. Yes, you read that right; the Honda City finally has a diesel engine under the hood, and now, the iconic car is also the most fuel efficient car in India. Well, if mileage is the need of the hour, City now offers the most of it. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Let’s discuss in detail.

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DESIGN Although every body panel has gone under the knife, the fourth generation City looks very familiar. Perhaps, Honda didn’t want to tamper with an already perfect design. But a closer look at the car reveals some remarkable design choices. The three-slatted signature grille has given way to a larger, chrome-heavy grille linking sharper headlamps. Two bold creases run down the bonnet, seamlessly converging into the grille. Thanks to the sportier and forward-reaching bumper styling, the new City looks poised to devour the road ahead.

Contrary to the lackluster profile of the outgoing model, the new City gets a prominent character line that gracefully rises towards the rear to meet the elongated, wraparound taillights. The new taillight design works well with the overall styling and the shark fin antenna completes the picture.

INSIDE THE CABIN Honda has always been stingy when it comes to City’s features. Even when the competition grew too intense, the City’s cabin remained very basic. The new model is a huge leap forward over its predecessor and offers a host of innovative and segment-first features.

The centre console now boasts a 5 inch LCD display with audio, Bluetooth and rear camera settings. The rear camera offers three angles – normal, top down and 180 degree wide. The touchscreen climate control looks super cool but bright sun bleaches it out, making it difficult to read.

The CR-V inspired steering wheel is leather-wrapped and offers plenty of grip. It also houses Bluetooth, audio and cruise controls. Instrument panel gets a new theme, too. All these are well appointed on a flowing and cohesive dashboard.

No one ever cribbed about the City’s cabin space, yet Honda has increased the wheelbase by 50mm, shoulder room by 40mm and height by 10mm to make it as roomy as the D segmenters. The overall length and width, meanwhile,

Power is transferred through a newly developed 6-speed manual gearbox, which helps the City achieve better fuel economy than the Amaze. remain unchanged. Rear AC vents further enhance the rear seat comfort.

The new City doesn’t fall short on other contemporary features such as push start button, keyless entry, four power outlets, 8 speakers, auto folding mirrors and sunroof on top trim levels.

PERFORMANCE The diesel City has borrowed the 1.5 L i-DTEC engine from the Amaze with the same tuning and the performance figures remain unchanged 100ps@3600 rpm and 200 N-m@1750 rpm. Power is transferred through a newly developed 6-speed manual gearbox, which helps the City achieve better fuel economy than the Amaze.

The i-DTEC motor feels more refined under the City’s bonnet because Honda has further reduced friction of all moving components. Moreover, the car benefits from as many as 14 new noise insulation methods that make the cabin brilliantly quiet. Power delivery is very similar to the Amaze, however, top

speed is not limited to 145 kmph on the City and it can travel up to 190kmph, the company says.

Similar to the Amaze, the diesel City offers smooth and effortless power delivery. Peak torque is delivered 1750rpm onwards, but there’s enough torque (up to 80%) available from a low 1200rpm. That means low-end response is impressive and there’s very little turbo lag. The engine pulls strongly till around 3500 rpm and is relaxed at highway speeds. If handled prudently, the diesel City is certain to return over 25kmpl.

RIDE AND HANDLING Honda City had an Achilles’ heel – poor ground clearance. At 165mm, it remains unchanged in the new City as well. However, Honda has reworked the exhaust pipe layout to improve the ‘ground contact factor’ that avoids frequent underbody scrapes. Revised suspension geometry ensures a more comfortable ride and the aforementioned noise insulation keeps NVH levels well under tolerable limits.

New suspension setup, increased wheelbase and kerb weight haven’t taken a toll on handling either.

Honda’s desperate attempt to achieve higher fuel efficiency sees the car still ride on 175mm tyres, especially when all other C segmenters use 185mm or above. If only Honda considered broader tyres, the handling and overall appearance of the car could be even better.

SAFETY Like its predecessors, the new City gets dual front SRS airbags along with ABS with EBD across all the variants.

CONCLUSION All said and done, pricing has to be aggressive for the new Honda City Diesel to deliver, as there are too many options now under the sub-10 lakh range.

(By Clint Thomas for Full Throttle) Seasonal Magazine

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S ABITS H ABIT

Two Habits That Can Affect Even Your Genes, Positively and Negatively Several lifestyle habits hold the potential to either improve your health or wreck it.

But what if the effects are so profound that it can affect you at even the genetic level?

Negative Gene Changer - Smoking: moking can cause changes in several genes, increasing the risk of developing cancer and diabetes, a new study has found.

Researchers from Uppsala University and Uppsala Clinical Research Center in Sweden found that smoking affects genes which increase the risk for cancer and diabetes, or are important for the immune response or sperm quality.

They examined how the genes are changed in smokers and users of non-

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smoke tobacco. The study identified a large number of genes that were altered in smokers but found no such effect of non-smoke tobacco. "This means that the epigenetic modifications are likely not caused by substances in the tobacco, but by the hundreds of different elements that are formed when the tobacco is burnt," said Asa Johansson, researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University

and Uppsala Clinical Research Center, who led the study. "Our results therefore indicate that the increased disease risk associated with smoking is partly a caused by epigenetic changes.

"A better understanding of the molecular mechanism behind diseases and reduced body function might lead to improved drugs and therapies in the future," said Johansson. It has been previously known that smokers have an increased risk of developing diabetes and many types of cancer, and have a reduced immune defence and lower sperm quality.

Positive Gene Changer - Mindfulness Meditation: t’s no secret that mindfulness meditation a practice that encourages focusing attention on the present moment can ease emotional stress. And evidence is mounting that mindfulness also may have key benefits for your physical health from lowering blood pressure to helping curb addiction. But a new study conducted by researchers working in Wisconsin, Spain, and France shows that mindfulness can even affect your genes. Specifically, the study shows that mindfulness can limit the “expression” of genes associated with inflammation. “The changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of antiinflammatory and analgesic drugs,” study co-author Dr Perla Kaliman, a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona in Spain, said in a written statement. “Our findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic

inflammatory conditions.” For the study, a group of experienced meditators practised mindfulness over the course of an eight-hour period.

During that same time period, another group of people simply engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. What did the researchers find? After the sessions, they noticed a so-called

The genes that we found to be downregulated with mindfulness mediation practice are those implicated in inflammation.”

Dr Perla Kaliman

“down-regulation,” or a suppression, of inflammatory genes in the meditators compared to the other group. Go figure, there was no difference in the tested genes between the two groups at the start of the study. “The product of genes, example, the proteins that they manufacture, will vary with the extent to which the gene is turned on or off,” study author Dr Richard J Davidson, psychology professor and founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “We can think of genes possessing a molecular volume control that ranges from low to high that will govern the extent to which the gene produces the protein for which it is designed. The genes that we found to be down-regulated with mindfulness mediation practice are those implicated in inflammation.”

Davidson said in the statement that this new research is the first of its kind to show changes in gene expression within mindfulness meditators.

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ATION DUCA E DUC

SMARTPHONES & FACEBOOK MAKE STUDENTS UNHAPPY, UNPRODUCTIVE If you are constantly on your mobile phone, most onlookers might think you have lots of friends and a busy social life. However, those attached to the phone are likely to be less happy than those who can resist a ring or a message alert, says a study.

Avid mobile phone users also suffer from higher anxiety while students see their class work suffer with lower marks than those who are able to switch off.

Researchers studied more than 500 students to look at their daily phone usage and gauge how it affected their outlook on life.

They found that far from making people feel more connected to friends the phone only heightened their anxiety as many felt obligated to keep in constant touch. Others had trouble disconnecting from social Seasonal Magazine

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media sites such as Facebook.

The study by scientists Jacob Barkley, Aryn Karpinski and Andrew Lepp is in stark contrast to previous research that found mobile phones improve social interaction and help reduce feelings of isolation. But the latest study by Kent University in Ohio found constant phone use was linked to greater stress.

One student said: ‘The social network

The latest study

by Kent University in Ohio found constant mobile and Facebook use was linked to greater stress.

Such students also had poor exam scores.

sometimes just makes me feel a little bit tied to my phone. Another complained that having a mobile phone meant that he could always be contacted at any time. Students also said using social networking sites such as Facebook made them feel as though they had 'other obligations' in their lives.

The researchers used a clinical measure of anxiety and each student’s level of satisfaction with their own life in the analysis. 'Also, a few of the students we interviewed reported sending texts constantly throughout the day from morning to night that in itself might be stressful.'

Researcher Andrew Lepp added: ‘There is no me time or solitude left in some of these students’ lives and I think mental health requires a bit of personal alone time to reflect, look inward, process life's events, and just recover from daily stressors.'

Those taking part, aged from 18 to 22, allowed the study team to access their exam results, known in the US as a grade point average (GPA), from university records.

THC ARE ALTHC THCARE H EAL

Diabetes Patients Might Benefit From Just One Large Meal Lar ge meal be or diabe tien arge bettter than smaller meals ffor diabettes pa patien tientts, oga ttold old it long back. sa w study yur Yoga sayys ne new study.. A Ayur yurvveda and Y

or patients with diabetes, it is better to eat a single large meal than several smaller meals throughout the day, a new study has found. Researchers at Linkoping University in Sweden studied the effect on blood glucose, blood lipids and different hormones after meals were compared using three different macronutrient compositions in patients with type 2 diabetes. The three diets were a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate diet and a Mediterranean diet. The scientists included 21 patients that tested all three diets in a randomised order. During each test day blood samples were collected at six time points. The low-fat diet had a nutrient

composition that has traditionally been recommended in the Nordic countries, with about 55 per cent of the total energy from carbohydrates. The lowcarbohydrate diet had a relatively low content of carbohydrate; approximately 20 per cent of the energy was from carbohydrates and about 50 per cent of the total energy came from fat. The Mediterranean diet was composed of only a cup of black coffee for breakfast, and with all the caloric content corresponding to breakfast and lunch during the other two test days accumulated to one large lunch.

Furthermore, the total caloric content included energy from 150 ml (women) to 200 ml (men) of French red wine to ingest with the lunch. The food in the Mediterranean diet had an energy content from carbohydrates that was intermediate between the low-fat and the low-carbohydrate meals, and sources of fat were mainly olives and fatty fish. "We found that the lowcarbohydrate diet increased blood glucose levels much less than the lowfat diet but that levels of triglycerides tended to be high compared to the lowfat diet," said Doctor Hans Guldbrand, who together with Professor Fredrik Nystrom was the principal investigator

of the study. "It is very interesting that the Mediterranean diet, without breakfast and with a massive lunch with wine, did not induce higher blood glucose levels than the low-fat diet lunch, despite such a large single meal," said Nystrom. "This suggests that it is favourable to have a large meal instead of several smaller meals when you have diabetes, and it is surprising how often one today refers to the usefulness of the so-called Mediterranean diet but forgets that it also traditionally meant the absence of a breakfast," Nystrom said. "Our results give reason to reconsider both nutritional composition and meal arrangements for patients with diabetes," Nystrom said.

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TH S CAM ALTH SC H EAL

A TERRIFYING STORY ON HOW BIG PHARMA IS MAKING YOU SICK ACE JOURNALIST ALAN SCHWARZ EXPOSES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, HOW LARGE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES GANGED UP WITH UNETHICAL MEDICAL RESEARCHERS, DOCTORS, PAEDIATRICIANS, AND ADVOCACY GROUPS, TO OVER-DIAGNOSE MILLIONS OF KIDS WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD), TO MAKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN DIRTY MONEY. Seasonal Magazine

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fter more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating.

Severely hyperactive and impulsive children, once shunned as bad seeds, are now recognized as having a real neurological problem. Doctors and parents have largely accepted drugs like Adderall and Concerta to temper the traits of classic A.D.H.D., helping youngsters succeed in school and beyond.

But Dr. Conners did not feel triumphant this fall as he addressed a group of fellow A.D.H.D. specialists in Washington. He noted that recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the diagnosis had been made in 15 percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990. He questioned the rising rates of diagnosis and called them “a national disaster of dangerous proportions.”

“The numbers make it look like an epidemic. Well, it’s not. It’s preposterous,” Dr. Conners, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Duke University, said in a subsequent interview. “This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels.”

“Thanks for taking out the garbage.”

The rise of A.D.H.D. diagnoses and prescriptions for stimulants over the years coincided with a remarkably successful two-decade campaign by pharmaceutical companies to publicize the syndrome and promote the pills to doctors, educators and parents. With the children’s market booming, the industry is now employing similar marketing techniques as it focuses on adult A.D.H.D., which could become even more profitable.

Sources of information that would seem neutral also delivered messages from the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors paid by drug companies have published research and delivered presentations that encourage physicians to make diagnoses more often that discredit growing concerns about overdiagnosis.

Few dispute that classic A.D.H.D., historically estimated to affect 5 percent of children, is a legitimate disability that impedes success at school, work and personal life. Medication often assuages the severe impulsiveness and inability to concentrate, allowing a person’s underlying drive and intelligence to emerge.

But even some of the field’s longtime advocates say the zeal to find and treat every A.D.H.D. child has led to too many people with scant symptoms receiving the diagnosis and medication.

The disorder is now the second most frequent long-term diagnosis made in children, narrowly trailing asthma, according to a New York Times analysis of C.D.C. data.

Behind that growth has been drug company marketing that has stretched the image of classic A.D.H.D. to include relatively normal behavior like carelessness and impatience, and has often overstated the pills’ benefits.

Advertising on television and in popular magazines like People and Good Housekeeping has cast common childhood forgetfulness and poor grades as grounds for medication that, among other benefits, can result in “schoolwork that matches his intelligence” and ease family tension.

A 2002 ad for Adderall showed a mother playing with her son and saying,

The Food and Drug Administration has cited every major A.D.H.D. drug stimulants like Adderall, Concerta, Focalin and Vyvanse, and nonstimulants like Intuniv and Strattera for false and misleading advertising since 2000, some multiple times.

Many doctors have portrayed the medications as benign “safer than aspirin,” some say even though they can have significant side effects and are regulated in the same class as morphine and oxycodone because of their potential for abuse and addiction.

Patient advocacy groups tried to get the government to loosen regulation of stimulants while having sizable portions of their operating budgets covered by pharmaceutical interests.

Companies even try to speak to youngsters directly. Shire — the longtime market leader, with several A.D.H.D. medications including Adderall — recently subsidized 50,000 copies of a comic book that tries to demystify the disorder and uses superheroes to tell children, “Medicines may make it easier to pay attention and control your behavior!”

Profits for the A.D.H.D. drug industry have soared. Sales of stimulant medication in 2012 were nearly $9 billion, more than five times the $1.7 billion a decade before, according to the data company IMS Health.

Even Roger Griggs, the pharmaceutical executive who introduced Adderall in 1994, said he strongly opposes marketing stimulants to the general public because of their dangers. He calls them “nuclear bombs,” warranted only under extreme circumstances and when carefully overseen by a physician.

Psychiatric breakdown and suicidal thoughts are the most rare and extreme

results of stimulant addiction, but those horror stories are far outnumbered by people who, seeking to study or work longer hours, cannot sleep for days, lose their appetite or hallucinate. More can simply become habituated to the pills and feel they cannot cope without them.

Tom Casola, the Shire vice president who oversees the A.D.H.D. division, said in an interview that the company aims to provide effective treatment for those with the disorder, and that ultimately doctors were responsible for proper evaluations and prescriptions.

He added that he understood some of the concerns voiced by the Food and Drug Administration and others about aggressive ads, and said that materials that run afoul of guidelines are replaced.

“Shire and I think the vast majority of pharmaceutical companies intend to market in a way that’s responsible and in a way that is compliant with the regulations,” Mr. Casola said. “Again, I like to think we come at it from a higher order. We are dealing with patients’ health.”

A spokesman for Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which makes Concerta, said in an email, “Over the years, we worked with clinicians, parents and advocacy groups to help educate health care practitioners and caregivers about diagnosis and treatment of A.D.H.D., including safe and effective use of medication.”

Now targeting adults, Shire and two patient advocacy groups have recruited celebrities like the Maroon 5 musician Adam Levine for their marketing campaign, “It’s Your A.D.H.D. – Own It.” Online quizzes sponsored by drug companies are designed to encourage people to pursue treatment. A medical education video sponsored by Shire portrays a physician making a diagnosis of the disorder in an adult in a sixminute conversation, after which the doctor recommends medication.

Like most psychiatric conditions, A.D.H.D. has no definitive test, and most experts in the field agree that its symptoms are open to interpretation by patients, parents and doctors. The Seasonal Magazine

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American Psychiatric Association, which receives significant financing from drug companies, has gradually loosened the official criteria for the disorder to include common childhood behavior like “makes careless mistakes” or “often has difficulty waiting his or her turn.”

The idea that a pill might ease troubles and tension has proved seductive to worried parents, rushed doctors and others.

“Pharma pushed as far as they could, but you can’t just blame the virus,” said Dr. Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif.

“You have to have a susceptible host for the epidemic to take hold. There’s something they know about us that they utilize and exploit.”

Selling to Doctors Modern marketing of stimulants began with the name Adderall itself. Mr. Griggs bought a small pharmaceutical company that produced a weight-loss pill named Obetrol. Suspecting that it might treat a relatively unappreciated condition then called attention deficit disorder, and found in about 3 to 5 percent of children, he took “A.D.D.” and fiddled with snappy suffixes. He cast a word with the widest net.

All. For A.D.D. A.D.D. for All. Adderall.

“It was meant to be kind of an inclusive thing,” Mr. Griggs recalled.

Adderall quickly established itself as a competitor of the field’s most popular drug, Ritalin. Shire, realizing the drug’s potential, bought Mr. Griggs’s company for $186 million and spent millions more to market the pill to doctors. After all, patients can buy only what their physicians buy into.

As is typical among pharmaceutical companies, Shire gathered hundreds of doctors at meetings at which a physician paid by the company explained a new drug’s value.

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Such a meeting was held for Shire’s long-acting version of Adderall, Adderall XR, in April 2002, and included a presentation that to many critics, exemplifies how questionable A.D.H.D. messages are delivered.

Dr. William W. Dodson, a psychiatrist from Denver, stood before 70 doctors at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Spa in Pasadena, Calif., and clicked through slides that encouraged them to “educate the patient on the lifelong nature of the disorder and the benefits of lifelong treatment.” But that assertion was not supported by science, as studies then and now have shown that perhaps half of A.D.H.D. children are not impaired as adults, and that little is known about the risks or efficacy of long-term medication use.

The PowerPoint document, obtained by The Times, asserted that stimulants were not “drugs of abuse” because people who overdose “feel nothing” or “feel bad.” Yet these drugs are classified by the government among the most abusable substances in medicine, largely because of their effects on concentration and mood. Overdosing can cause severe heart problems and psychotic behavior.

Slides described side effects of Adderall XR as “generally mild,” despite clinical trials showing notable rates of insomnia, significant appetite suppression and mood swings, as well as rare instances of hallucinations.

Those side effects increase significantly among patients who take more pills than prescribed.

Another slide warned that later in life, children with A.D.H.D. faced “job failure or underemployment,” “fatal car wrecks,” “criminal involvement,” “unwanted pregnancy” and venereal diseases, but did not mention that studies had not assessed whether stimulants decreased those risks.

Dr. Conners of Duke, in the audience that day, said the message was typical for such gatherings sponsored by pharmaceutical companies: Their drugs were harmless, and any traces of A.D.H.D. symptoms (which can be caused by a number of issues, including

lack of sleep and family discord) should be treated with stimulant medication.

In an interview last month, Dr. Dodson said he makes a new diagnosis in about 300 patients a year and, because he disagrees with studies showing that many A.D.H.D. children are not impaired as adults, always recommends their taking stimulants for the rest of their lives.

He said that concern about abuse and side effects is “incredibly overblown,” and that his longtime work for drug companies does not influence his

opinions. He said he received about $2,000 for the 2002 talk for Shire. He earned $45,500 in speaking fees from pharmaceutical companies in 2010 to 2011, according to ProPublica, which tracks such payments.

“If people want help, my job is to make sure they get it,” Dr. Dodson said.

Regarding people concerned about prescribing physicians being paid by drug companies, he added: “They like a good conspiracy theory. I don’t let it slow me down.”

Many of the scientific studies cited by

drug company speakers involved Dr. Joseph Biederman, a prominent child psychiatrist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2008, a Senate investigation revealed that Dr. Biederman’s research on many psychiatric conditions had been substantially financed by drug companies, including Shire. Those companies also paid him $1.6 million in speaking and consulting fees. He has denied that the payments influenced his research.

Dr. Conners called Dr. Biederman

“unequivocally the most published psychopharmacology maven for A.D.H.D.,” one who is well known for embracing stimulants and dismissing detractors. Findings from Dr. Biederman’s dozens of studies on the disorder and specific brands of stimulants have filled the posters and pamphlets of pharmaceutical companies that financed the work.

Those findings typically delivered three messages: The disorder was underdiagnosed; stimulants were effective and safe; and unmedicated A.D.H.D. led to significant risks for academic failure, drug dependence, car accidents and brushes with the law.

Dr. Biederman was frequently quoted about the benefits of stimulants in interviews and company news releases.

In 2006, for example, he told Reuters Health, “If a child is brilliant but is doing just O.K. in school, that child may need treatment, which would result in their performing brilliantly at school.”

This year, Dr. Biederman told the medical newsletter Medscape regarding medication for those with A.D.H.D., “Don’t leave home without it.”

Dr. Biederman did not respond to requests for an interview.

Dr. Conners of Duke, in the audience that day, said the message was typical for such gatherings sponsored by pharmaceutical companies: Their drugs were harmless, and any traces of A.D.H.D. symptoms which can be caused by a number of issues, including lack of sleep and family discord - should be treated with stimulant medication.

Most of Dr. Biederman’s critics said that they believed his primary motivation was always to help children with legitimate A.D.H.D. and that risks of untreated A.D.H.D. can be significant. What concerned them was how Dr. Biederman’s high-profile and unwavering promotion of stimulants armed drug companies with the published science needed to create powerful advertisements many of which cast medications as benign solutions to childhood behavior falling far short of legitimate A.D.H.D. “He gave them credibility,” said Richard M. Scheffler, a professor of health economics and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written extensively on stimulants. “He didn’t have a balance.

He became totally convinced that it’s a good thing and can be more widely used.”

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Building a Message Drug companies used the research of Dr. Biederman and others to create compelling messages for doctors.

“Adderall XR Improves Academic Performance,” an ad in a psychiatry journal declared in 2003, leveraging two Biederman studies financed by Shire. A Concerta ad barely mentioned A.D.H.D., but said the medication would “allow your patients to experience life’s successes every day.”

Some studies had shown that stimulant medication helped some elementary school children with carefully evaluated A.D.H.D. to improve scores in reading and math tests, primarily by helping them concentrate. The concern, some doctors said, is that long-term, wider academic benefits have not been proved and that ads suggesting they have can tempt doctors, perhaps subconsciously, to prescribe drugs with risks to healthy children merely to improve their grades or self-esteem.

“There are decades of research into how advertising influences doctors’ prescribing practices,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who specializes in pharmaceutical ethics. “Even though they’ll tell you that they’re giving patients unbiased, evidence-based information, in fact they’re more likely to tell you what the drug company told them, whether it’s the benefits of the drugs or the risks of those drugs.”

Drug company advertising also meant good business for medical journals the same journals that published papers supporting the use of the drugs. The most prominent publication in the field, The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, went from no ads for A.D.H.D. medications from 1990 to 1993 to about 100 pages per year a decade later. Almost every fullpage color ad was for an A.D.H.D. drug.

As is legal and common in pharmaceutical marketing, stimulants’ possible side effects like insomnia, irritability and psychotic episodes were printed in small type and dominated by other messages. One Adderall XR Seasonal Magazine

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brochure included the recording of a man’s voice reassuring doctors: “Amphetamines have been used medically for nearly 70 years. That’s a legacy of safety you can count on.” He did not mention any side effects.

Drug companies used sales representatives to promote the drugs in person. Brian Lutz, a Shire salesman for Adderall XR from 2004 to 2009, said he met with 75 psychiatrists in his Oakland, Calif., territory at least every two weeks — about 30 to 40 times apiece annually — to show them posters and pamphlets that highlighted the medicine’s benefits for grades and behavior.

If a psychiatrist asked about issues like side effects or abuse, Mr. Lutz said, they were played down. He said he was told to acknowledge risks matter-of-factly for legal reasons, but to refer only to the small print in the package insert or offer Shire’s phone number for more information.

“It was never like, ‘This is a serious side effect, you need to watch out for it,’ ” Mr. Lutz recalled. “You wanted to give them more information because we’re talking about kids here, you know? But it was all very positive.”

A Shire spokeswoman said the company would not comment on any

What helped ADHD theory acquire a cult status among paediatricians is the work of medical researchers like Harvard's Dr. Joseph Biederman, a child psychiatrist, and speakers like Dr. William W. Dodson, a psychiatrist from Denver.

However, a 2008 Senate investigation revealed that ADHD drug firms had paid Dr. Joseph Biederman $1.6 million for coming up with favourable research. Dr. William W. Dodson was also found to have made $45,500 in speaking fees in 2010-11 period, from ADHD drug companies.

specific employee and added, “Shire sales representatives are trained to deliver fair and balanced presentations that include information regarding the safety of our products.”

Mr. Lutz, now pursuing a master’s degree and hoping to work in mental health, recalled his Shire work with ambivalence. He never lied or was told to lie, he said. He said he still would recommend Adderall XR and similar stimulants for A.D.H.D. children and adults.

What he regrets, he said, “is how we sold these pills like they were cars, when we knew they weren’t just cars.”

Selling to Parents In September 2005, over a cover that heralded Kirstie Alley’s waistline and Matt Damon’s engagement, subscribers to People magazine saw a wraparound advertisement for Adderall XR. A mother hugged her smiling child holding a sheet of paper with a “B+” written on it.

“Finally!” she said. “Schoolwork that matches his intelligence.”

When federal guidelines were loosened in the late 1990s to allow the marketing of controlled substances like stimulants directly to the public, pharmaceutical companies began targeting perhaps the most impressionable consumers of all: parents, specifically mothers.

A magazine ad for Concerta had a grateful mother saying, “Better test scores at school, more chores done at home, an independence I try to encourage, a smile I can always count on.” A 2009 ad for Intuniv, Shire’s nonstimulant treatment for A.D.H.D., showed a child in a monster suit taking off his hairy mask to reveal his adorable smiling self. “There’s a great kid in there,” the text read.

“There’s no way in God’s green earth we would ever promote” a controlled substance like Adderall directly to consumers, Mr. Griggs said as he was shown several advertisements. “You’re talking about a product that’s having a major impact on brain chemistry.

announcements and pamphlets, some of which tried to dispel concerns about Ritalin; one Chadd “fact sheet” conflicted with 60 years of science in claiming, “Psychostimulant drugs are not addictive.”

A 1995 documentary on PBS detailed how Chadd did not disclose its relationship with drug companies to either the Drug Enforcement Administration, which it was then lobbying to ease government regulation of stimulants, or the Department of Education, with which it collaborated on an A.D.H.D. educational video.

Chadd subsequently became more open in disclosing its backers. The program for its 2000 annual convention, for example, thanked by name its 11 primary sponsors, all drug companies.

According to Chadd records, Shire paid the group a total of $3 million from 2006 to 2009 to have Chadd’s bimonthly magazine, Attention, distributed to doctors’ offices nationwide.

Parents are very susceptible to this type of stuff.”

The Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly instructed drug companies to withdraw such ads for being false and misleading, or exaggerating the effects of the medication. Many studies, often sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, have determined that untreated A.D.H.D. was associated with later-life problems. But no science determined that stimulant treatment has the overarching benefits suggested in those ads, the F.D.A. has pointed out in numerous warning letters to manufacturers since 2000.

Shire agreed last February to pay $57.5 million in fines to resolve allegations of improper sales and advertising of several drugs, including Vyvanse, Adderall XR and Daytrana, a patch that delivers stimulant medication through the skin. Mr. Casola of Shire declined to comment on the settlement because it was not fully resolved.

He added that the company’s current

promotional materials emphasize how its medications provide “symptom control” rather than turn monsters into children who take out the garbage. He pointed to a Shire brochure and web page that more candidly than ever discuss side effects and the dangers of sharing medication with others.

However, many critics said that the most questionable advertising helped build a market that is now virtually selfsustaining. Drug companies also communicated with parents through sources who appeared independent, from support groups to teachers.

The primary A.D.H.D. patient advocacy group, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or Chadd, was founded in 1987 to gain greater respect for the condition and its treatment with Ritalin, the primary drug available at the time.

Considerable funding was provided several years later by Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals, Ritalin’s primary manufacturer. Further drug company support helped create public service

Chadd records show that the group has historically received about $1 million a year, one-third of its annual revenue, from pharmaceutical company grants and advertising. Regarding his company’s support, Mr. Casola said, “I think it is fair to call it a marketing expense, but it’s an arm’s-length relationship.”

“We don’t control what they do,” he said. “We do support them. We do support broadly what they are trying to do in the marketplace in society maybe is a better way to say it.”

Advocates Answer The chief executive of Chadd, Ruth Hughes, said in an interview that most disease-awareness groups receive similar pharmaceutical support. She said drug companies did not influence the group’s positions and activities, and noted that Chadd receives about $800,000 a year from the C.D.C. as well.

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to sort of get peer counseling, and we said no, won’t do that, not going there,” Dr. Hughes said, adding, “It would be seen as an endorsement.”

A.D.H.D. patient advocates often say that many parents resist having their child evaluated because of the stigma of mental illness and the perceived risks of medication. To combat this, groups have published lists of “Famous People With A.D.H.D.” to reassure parents of the good company their children could join with a diagnosis. One, in circulation since the mid-1990s and now posted on the psychcentral.com information portal beside two ads for Strattera, includes Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Galileo and Socrates.

The idea of unleashing children’s potential is attractive to teachers and school administrators, who can be lured

by A.D.H.D. drugs’ ability to subdue some of their most rambunctious and underachieving students. Some have provided parents with pamphlets to explain the disorder and the promise of stimulants.

Susan Parry, who raised three boys in a top public school system on Mercer Island, outside Seattle, in the 1990s, said teachers pushed her into having her feisty son Andy evaluated for A.D.H.D. She said one teacher told her that her own twins were thriving on Ritalin.

Mrs. Parry still has the pamphlet given to her by the school psychologist, which states: “Parents should be aware that these medicines do not ‘drug’ or ‘alter’ the brain of the child. They make the child ‘normal.’ ” She and her husband, Michael, put Andy on Ritalin. The Parrys later noticed that on the back of the pamphlet, in small type, was the logo of Ciba-Geigy. A school official told them in a letter, which they provided to The Times, that the materials had been given to the district by a Ciba representative.

“They couldn’t advertise to the general public yet,” said Michael Parry, adding that his son never had A.D.H.D. and after three years was taken off Ritalin because of sleep problems and heart palpitations. “But somebody came up Seasonal Magazine

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with this idea, which was genius. I definitely felt seduced and enticed. I’d say baited.”

Although proper A.D.H.D. diagnoses and medication have helped millions of children lead more productive lives, concerns remain that questionable diagnoses carry unappreciated costs.

“They were telling me, ‘Honey, there’s something wrong with your brain and this little pill’s going to fix everything,’ ” said Micaela Kimball, who received the diagnosis in 1997 as a high school freshman in Ithaca, N.Y., and is now a freelance writer in Boston. “It changed my whole self-image, and it took me years to get out from under that.”

Today, 1 in 7 children receives a

diagnosis of the disorder by the age of 18. As these teenagers graduate into adulthood, drug companies are looking to keep their business.

The New Frontier: Adults The studio audience roared with excitement two years ago as Ty Pennington, host of “The Revolution” on ABC, demonstrated how having adult A.D.H.D. felt to him. He staged two people struggling to play PingPong with several balls at once while reciting the alphabet backward, as a crowd clapped and laughed. Then things got serious.

A psychiatrist on the program said that “the prison population is full of people with undiagnosed A.D.H.D.” He told viewers, “Go get this diagnosis” so “you can skyrocket.” He said that stimulant medication was effective and “safer than aspirin.”

No one mentioned that Mr. Pennington had been a paid spokesman for Shire from 2006 to 2008. His Adderall XR video testimonials the medication “literally changed my life” and “gave me confidence,” he said in a 2008 ad had drawn an F.D.A. reprimand for overstating Adderall’s effects while omitting all risks.

Mr. Pennington said through a spokeswoman: “I am not a medical

“Pharma pushed as far as they could, but you can’t just blame the virus,” said Dr. Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif. “You have to have a susceptible host for the epidemic to take hold. There’s something they know about us doctors that they utilize and exploit.” expert. I am a television host.”

Many experts agree that the disorder was dismissed for too long as affecting only children. Estimates of the prevalence of adult A.D.H.D. in the United States derived through research often backed by pharmaceutical companies have typically ranged from 3 to 5 percent. Given that adults far outnumber children, this suggests that the adult market could be twice as large.

Because many doctors and potential patients did not think adults could have A.D.H.D., drug companies sold the concept of the disorder as much as their medications for it.

“The fastest-growing segment of the market now is the new adults who were never diagnosed,” Angus Russell told Bloomberg TV in 2011 when he was Shire’s chief executive. Nearly 16 million prescriptions for A.D.H.D. medications were written for people ages 20 to 39 in 2012, close to triple the 5.6 million just five years before, according to IMS Health. No data show how many patients those prescriptions represent, but some experts have estimated two million.

Foreseeing the market back in 2004, Shire sponsored a booklet that according to its cover would “help clinicians recognize and diagnose adults with A.D.H.D.” Its author was Dr. Dodson, who had delivered the

presentation at the Adderall XR launch two years before. Rather than citing the widely accepted estimate of 3 to 5 percent, the booklet offered a much higher figure.

“About 10 percent of adults have A.D.H.D., which means you’re probably already treating patients with A.D.H.D. even though you don’t know it,” the first paragraph ended. But the two studies cited for that 10 percent figure, from 1995 and 1996, involved only children; no credible national study before or since has estimated an adult prevalence as high as 10 percent.

Dr. Dodson said he used the 10 percent figure because, despite several studies estimating adult rates as far lower, “once a child has A.D.H.D., he does for life. It doesn’t go away with age.”

The booklet later quotes a patient of his named Scarlett reassuring doctors: “If you give me a drink or a drug, I’ll abuse it, but not this medication. I don’t consider it a drug. Drugs get abused.

Medication helps people have satisfying lives.”

Shire’s 2008 print campaign for adult A.D.H.D. portrayed a gloomy future to prospective patients. One ad showed a happy couple’s wedding photo with the bride airbrushed out and “DIVORCED” stamped on it. “The consequences may be serious,” the ad said, citing a study by Dr. Biederman supported in part by Shire. Although Dr. Biederman’s study showed a higher rate of divorce among adults with the disorder, it did not assess whether stimulant treatment significantly deterred such consequences.

Questionable Quizzes Adults searching for information on A.D.H.D. encounter websites with short quizzes that can encourage normal people to think they might have it. Many such tests are sponsored by drug companies in ways hidden or easily missed.

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“Could you have A.D.H.D.?” beckons one quiz, sponsored by Shire, on the website everydayhealth.com. Six questions ask how often someone has trouble in matters like “getting things in order,” “remembering appointments” or “getting started” on projects.

A user who splits answers evenly between “rarely” and “sometimes” receives the result “A.D.H.D. Possible.”

Five answers of “sometimes” and one “often” tell the user, “A.D.H.D. May Be Likely.”

In a nationwide telephone poll conducted by The Times in early December, 1,106 adults took the quiz.

Almost half scored in the range that would have told them A.D.H.D. may be possible or likely.

About 570,000 people took the EverydayHealth test after a 2011 advertisement starring Mr. Levine of Maroon 5 sponsored by Shire, Chadd and another advocacy group, according to the website Medical Marketing & Media. A similar test on the website for Concerta prompted L2ThinkTank.com, which assesses pharmaceutical marketing, to award the campaign its top rating, “Genius.”

John Grohol, a Boston-area psychologist who licensed the test to EverydayHealth, said such screening tools do not make a diagnosis; they merely “give you a little push into looking into” whether you have A.D.H.D. Other doctors countered that, given many studies showing that doctors are strongly influenced by their patients’ image of what ails them, such tests invite too many patients and doctors to see the disorder where it is not.

“I think it is misleading,” said Dr. Tyrone Williams, a psychiatrist in Cambridge, Mass. “I do think that there are some people out there who are really suffering and find out that maybe it’s treatable. But these symptoms can be a bazillion things. Sometimes the answers are so simple and they don’t require prescriptions – like ‘How about eight hours of sleep, Mom, because four hours doesn’t cut it?’ And then all their Seasonal Magazine

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“I think it is misleading,” said Dr. Tyrone Williams, a psychiatrist in Cambridge, Mass.

"These symptoms can be a bazillion things.

Sometimes the answers are so simple and they don’t require prescriptions – like ‘How about eight hours of sleep, Mom, because four hours doesn’t cut it?’ And then all their A.D.H.D. symptoms magically disappear.”

A.D.H.D. symptoms magically disappear.”

Because studies have shown that A.D.H.D. can run in families, drug companies use the children’s market to grow the adult one. A pamphlet published in 2008 by Janssen, Concerta’s manufacturer headlined “Like Parent, Like Child?” claimed that “A.D.H.D. is a highly heritable disorder” despite studies showing that the vast majority of parents of A.D.H.D. children do not qualify for a diagnosis themselves.

A current Shire manual for therapists illustrates the genetic issue with a family tree: three grandparents with the disorder, all six of their children with it, and seven of eight grandchildren, too.

Insurance plans, increasingly reluctant to pay for specialists like psychiatrists, are leaving many A.D.H.D. evaluations to primary-care physicians with little to no training in the disorder. If those doctors choose to learn about the diagnostic process, they can turn to web-based continuing-education courses, programs often subsidized by drug companies.

A recent course titled “Unmasking A.D.H.D. in Adults,” on the website Medscape and sponsored by Shire, featured an instructional video of a primary-care physician listening to a college professor detail his workrelated sleep problems. After three minutes he described some attention issues he had as a child, then revealed that his son was recently found to have the disorder and was thriving in college on medication.

Six minutes into their encounter, the doctor said: “If you have A.D.H.D., which I believe you do, family members often respond well to similar medications. Would you consider giving that a try?”

The psychiatrist who oversaw the course, Dr. David Goodman of Johns Hopkins and the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland, said that he was paid several thousand dollars to oversee the course by Medscape, not Shire directly, and that such income did not influence his decisions with patients. But as he reviewed the video in September, Dr. Goodman reconsidered its message to untrained doctors about how quickly the disorder can be assessed and said, “That was not an acceptable way to evaluate and conclude that the patient has A.D.H.D.” A Shire spokeswoman declined to comment on the video and the company’s sponsorship of it.

Mr. Casola said Shire remains committed to raising awareness of A.D.H.D. Shire spent $1 million in the first three quarters of 2013, according to company documents, to support A.D.H.D. conferences to educate doctors. One this autumn found J. Russell Ramsay, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, who also serves as a consultant and speaker for Shire, reading aloud one of his slides to the audience: “A.D.H.D. – It’s Everywhere You Want to Be.” “We are a commercial organization trying to bring health care treatments to patients,” Mr. Casola said. “I think, on balance, we are helping people.”

STMENT NVES I NVE

Indian Investors Own More Stocks Directly, Than Any Other Nations Stock market penetration among Indians may be much lower than in developed markets, but when it comes to owning stocks directly - and not through mutual funds - Indians are at the top of the world.

The number of individuals owning stocks directly in the Indian stock markets - instead of through mutual funds - is about nine times higher than any other equity market across the globe, said Tarun Ramadorai, Professor at Said Business School, University of Oxford while delivering his keynote address at the India Finance Conference (IFC) organised at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), recently.

Quoting data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) - a depository for the equity market in India - obtained for a period between 2004-12, Ramadorai says, "About 1018 percent of the NSDL equity value is held in individual accounts (excluding

beneficial owners), while mutual funds account of 3.5-5 percent of NSDL equity value - MFs are even less important that these numbers suggest because, 60 percent of mutual funds were held by corporations in 2010, and 65 percent of individual stockholders in 2009 owned no mutual funds."

He was however not clear about the reason why individuals preferred to own stocks directly in India.

Speaking on the topic, "Getting Better: Learning to invest in the Indian stock market', at the two-day IFC organised jointly by IIM-A, IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta, the professor from Oxford University said, that there is, however, an increasing trend towards

directing investments through mutual funds.

Tellingly, Ramadorai who analysed 20 million individual accounts from NSDL said rookie investors in India tend to choose "high momentum stocks" unlike investors with 7-8 years of experience. There is also a greater tendency among rookie investors to hang on to stocks that are losing in the market, and selling the stocks that are performing well.

"From the data analysed, the older investor in the Indian stock market tend to get better returns than a rookie investor by avoiding promoter driven stocks, staying away from IPOs, investing in smaller stocks, favouring institutionally owned stocks," says Ramadorai who goes on to state that the older investors in the stock market had churned out returns that are higher than the average returns, while the rookie investors have substantially underperformed in the market.

"If you stick around the market you are going to get better," he says adding that performance of an individual investor improves after spending 5-6 years in the equity market. "This rate of improvement is significantly affected by his own investment experience," Ramadorai added.

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ARCH SEARCH R ESE

Indra Nooyi Among 10 Most Humble CEOs A latest research of US CEOs has reportedly tried to analyse how many of the business company chiefs are least narcissistic and found that three of the top ten CEOs are women, including Indian-origin PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.

Dean of Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Alex Frino used natural language technology to scour quarterly earnings call transcripts of the 100 largest American companies to calculate the ratio between how frequently CEOs use the pronouns "I," "me" or "mine" versus "we," "our" or

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"ours." According to the Washington Post, Frino was able to compile a list of apparent CEO humility that named Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, Gregg Steinhafel, CEO of Target, and Omar Ishrak, CEO of Medtronic, as the three least narcissistic by that metric. Women featuring on the list include TJX CEO

Gregg Steinhafel

Carol Meyrowitz, Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. Other less narcissistic CEOs include casino magnate and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.

Omar Ishrak

SS ITNES F ITNE

Best Age to Start Exercising? Middle Age!

You must be kidding, eh? Well, not really. The best time to start exercising was, of course, when you were in school. But don't worry even if you haven't exercised regularly till middle age. This is also a best time to start, as the benefits are too many.

new study has suggested that regular exercise in middle age is a protective factor against sarcopenia and effective in maintaining muscle strength and physical performance.

Sarcopenia is a disease associated with the ageing process, resulting in loss of skeletal muscle mass and muscle strength and function in the elderly. The multiple adverse health outcomes include physical disability, poor quality

of life and premature death. The crosssectional study by investigators from Tokyo University assessed the prevalence of sarcopenia and its association with physical performance in 1000 elderly Japanese participants in the Research on Osteoarthritis or Osteoporosis Against Disability (ROAD) Study.

Handgrip strength, gait speed, and skeletal muscle mass were measured and other information collected, including exercise habits in middle age.

The prevalence of sarcopenia was 13.8 percent in men and 12.4 percent in women, and tended to be significantly higher with increasing age in both sexes.

Analysis showed that exercise habit in middle age was associated with low prevalence of sarcopenia in older age and was significantly associated with grip strength, gait speed, and one-leg standing time after adjusting for age, sex and BMI.

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Y MERGENCY E MERGENC

What to Do if Your Baby or Toddler Chokes Choking on food is a major cause of accidental deaths in children younger than 5, and is estimated to cause 1 death every 5 days. Here are a few measures to avoid as well as rescue a choking child. n October, Maja Djukic was rollerblading in Greenwich, Connecticut, US, when she heard a woman screaming for help. Djukic, an assistant professor at New York University College of Nursing, rushed to a nearby house to find 19-month-old Griffin Greene limp and blue. He had inhaled a Goldfish cracker, and his mother’s attempts to dislodge it by holding the toddler upside down and slapping his back had failed.

While the child’s father called 911, Djukic performed chest compressions, she recalled in an interview. By the time the ambulance arrived about four minutes later Griffin was breathing again and crying. Although he needed treatment to extract the cracker, which had become lodged in his lungs, Griffin is now fine thanks to the quick action of a passer-by.

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dies after choking on food.

The trachea, or windpipe, of a young child is about the width of a drinking straw, and if food or a small object is inhaled instead of swallowed, it can block the airway. Even when something is swallowed and becomes lodged in a child’s throat or oesophagus, it may compress the trachea enough to impair breathing.

After just four minutes without oxygen, a child’s brain can be permanently damaged.

Nearly every day,I see a statistic in the making among small children in my neighbourhood. Under the care of a parent, grandparent or nanny, they are routinely given all manner of snacks and allowed to run back to their activities while still chewing. It is a disaster waiting to happen, and sometimes I can’t resist saying aloud that the child should not get up until his food has been thoroughly chewed and his mouth is empty.

A child should not eat in a moving

vehicle, either. If the driver stops short or the vehicle is bumped from behind, the sudden lurch may cause a child to inhale food or to swallow it unchewed.

Nearly a third of choking cases in children are caused by objects. The paediatrics society lists these among the most common offenders: coins, buttons, marbles, small balls, deflated balloons, watch batteries, jewelry, pen caps, paper clips, arts and crafts supplies, small toys and detachable toy parts.

Toys and games that are safe for an older sibling may not be for a younger brother or sister. And while it may be hard to believe, some infants have choked on pacifiers.

It is critical to know what to do if a child appears to be choking. If the child can cough, speak or cry, the airway is not completely blocked.

Encourage the child to cough, and if that fails to dislodge the object, call an ambulance. Caregivers should

always have a cellphone on hand.

If a choking baby can make little or no sound, ask someone to call the ambulance. Place the baby face down over your arm with the head lower than the chest and support the baby’s head with your hand. Then give five quick blows between the shoulder blades with the heel of the other hand. If no object is dislodged, turn the baby face up on a firm surface, place two fingers in the middle of the breastbone just below the nipples and give five quick thrusts. Repeat this sequence until the baby begins breathing or help arrives.

If breathing is not restored within a few minutes, begin CPR. For a child over 1 who is choking, stand or kneel behind the child and wrap your arms around her. Make a fist and place it just above the navel.

Grasp the fist with the other hand, and make quick upward thrusts with it.

Repeat until the object is dislodged or the child begins breathing.

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TH ALTH W EAL

Tech & Investments Remain Mightiest Wealth Creators: 8 Billionaires Who Made the Maximum Gains In 2013 Technology and investment sectors remain the favourites for wealth creation across the globe.

Warren Buffett made about $37 million a day in 2013. Many familiar faces make an appearance on Wealth-X's list of the billionaires who made the most money this year. Businessmen like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who have dominated wealth rankings for years, continued to add billions of dollars to their already sizable fortunes. Here's the full list - in reverse order - ranked by billions made from January 1 to December 11, 2013:

8. Carl Icahn made $7.2 billion

6. Sergey Brin made $9.3 billion

The corporate raider had a big year after bets on Netflix and Herbalife yielded Icahn Capital Management $800 million and $500 million profits, respectively. He tweeted his thanks to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Kevin Spacey, star of the streaming service's hit show, "House of Cards."

Brin, Google co-founder and head of special projects with Google X, made $2.9 billion in the October stock surge. As of December 11, Brin is worth an estimated $30 billion, a 4.8% percent increase over the year.

7. Larry Page made $9.3 billion Google's co-founder and CEO made $3 billion in 24 hours when Google stocks hit an all-time high in October, breaking $1,000 for the first time.

Android became the world's most popular mobile operating system, running on 81% of the globe's smartphones.

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5. Masayoshi Son made $10.3 billion The founder of Softbank, Asia's top Internet and telecommunications corporation, lost $70 billion in the dotcom crash, but he's surging back in a big way. The purchase of Sprint and a large investment in Finnish gamemaker Supercell are highlights in a year that saw Son's personal net worth more than double, growing from $8.8 billion to $19.1 billion.

4. Mark Zuckerberg made $10.5 billion Facebook stock hit an all-time high in October, and revenue continues to grow despite questions about the longevity of the product.

2. Bill Gates made $11.5 billion The world's wealthiest man ended the year with a personal net worth of $72.6 billion, up nearly 19% from $61.1 billion in 2012.

3. Jeff Bezos made $11.3 billion The founder and CEO of Amazon, which made $17.1 billion in net sales in the third quarter, raised some eyebrows when he bought the Washington Post for $250 million this summer.

1. Warren Buffett made $12.7 billion Berkshire Hathaway's CEO personally made about $37 million a day in 2013, a year that saw the company's acquisition of Heinz and Nevada's NV Energy.

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OCU S N-FOCU OCUS I N-F

MEET THE TURNAROUND SPECIALIST AT KERALA SIDCO The achievements of Kerala SIDCO under the leadership of Dr. Saji B is getting noticed nationwide. Small scale entrepreneurs of Kerala should take special note as SIDCO and Dr. Saji are ever ready to help. hen Dr. Saji B took over as Managing Director of Kerala’s Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO) in August of 2006, the organization was not in a great shape. Though many luminaries from the IAS and non-IAS cadre had held the helm at SIDCO since its inception in 1975, the organization was not what it could have been. By 2006, let alone doing its prime duty of assisting small industries, SIDCO was finding it difficult to manage its own operations. Annual losses were to the tune of Rs. 5 crore back then.

Saji Basheer had two advantages when taking over at SIDCO. Firstly, he was quite young. Secondly, he was a business professional, being an MBA to boot. The talented young leader quickly identified the root cause of most problems at the organization - it was working like a classic government-owned organization. Well, what could be wrong with that, some might argue.

SIDCO is fully government-owned.

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were to satisfy the aspirations of its entrepreneurial clientele, he had to transform SIDCO from a PSU style operation to a professional style operation.

That is what Dr. Saji B did, and the results were there for everyone to see, soon enough. By 2010-11 itself, Kerala SIDCO achieved an unprecedented turnover of Rs. 127.81 crore, making it the largest SIDCO by revenue among all South Indian SIDCOs. By 2011-12, turnover had soared to Rs. 204 crore, while profits stood at Rs. 2.39 crore. The effort didn’t go unnoticed. Dr. Saji was given additional responsibility as Vice Chairman, Council of Small Industries Corporations, based in New Delhi, for the year 2012-13.

But rather than getting distracted due to the additional responsibility, in that very year, i.e. 2012-13, Dr. Saji would galvanize the entire organization of Kerala SIDCO to achieve the impossible. While turnover soared to Rs. 260 crore, profits would double to Rs. 5 crore. No wonder then that

the State Government’s award for best corporate CEO was given to Dr. Saji.

From Rs. 5 crore loss to Rs. 5 crore profit, and with turnover soaring multi-times, it was a dramatic turnaround at SIDCO, within 7 years.

How did this young leader manage to execute it? Dr. Saji was very particular that SIDCO shouldn’t resemble a government office even in looks. So, naturally when it came to actual works undertaken, the professional touch was even more. Today, unlike in any government or PSU office, there are no narrow visitors’ hours at Kerala SIDCO. Any client entrepreneur is welcome to walk-in with his or her problems anytime. Dr. Saji has also made it a policy that if a case requires his personal attention, he would attend to that entrepreneur personally. Under Dr. Saji’s guidance, SIDCO also overhauled their website with comprehensive information regarding all their services, and has even started a dedicated customer care number where every service would be detailed.

Kerala SIDCO primarily undertakes

9 broad services for its small scale industrial clients, with each service being delivered by a dedicated division. These are Marketing Division; Production Division; Industrial Estate Division; Industrial Park Division; Raw Material Division; Construction Division; IT&TC and Trading Division; Export, Import & Project Division; and Consultancy Division. It is to be noted that the services of the Consultancy Division is entirely free to client entrepreneurs.

SIDCO

assists

Today, unlike in any government or PSU office, there are no narrow visitors’ hours at Kerala SIDCO. Any client entrepreneur is welcome to walk-in with his or her problems anytime. Dr. Saji has also made it a policy that if a case requires his personal attention, he would attend to that entrepreneur personally.

small-scale entrepreneurs from the conception stage through consultancy, project report preparation, raw material procurement, market deployment, and lots more.

During Dr. Saji’s tenure, the organization has come into the assistance of entire industrial segments more than once during crisis periods. Two examples are the crises that happened due to the steep hike in raw materials for the candle industry and the furniture sector. How SIDCO intervenes in such situations is through bulk purchasing or even imports.

Those aspiring to mould entrepreneurs should be good entrepreneurs themselves. In tune with this principle, SIDCO is also running many thriving businesses. The best example is their bottled water business which is already a hit in Kerala, and which is all set to be scaled up to a pan-India operation. SIDCO is also planning it as a massive employment generation scheme for women.

Dr. Saji B, Managing Director

Dr. Saji credits SIDCO’s achievements to the massive teamwork of its over 1000 employees as well as the entrepreneurial spirit of thousands of its small-scale businessmen. For the next financial year, Dr. Saji Basheer is planning for SIDCO a blockbuster turnover of Rs. 500 crore.

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LUXURY M.A.C la unche ep + launche unchess Pr Prep Prime BB Bea ut Beaut utyy Balm Compac ompactt SPF 30 shade extensions Most international beauty brands tend to unveil very few shades in their BB cream range. More often than not, they lean towards the fairer shades. MAC, thus, sees the gap and leads the next generation of BB creams with new shades in its Prep + Prime BB Beauty Balm. The cream evens out skin tone, blurs imperfections and enhances skin’s natural luminosity while shielding it from harsh UV rays. Now in six new shades, the extended colour spectrum ranges from light to medium to beige, and on to caramel bronze.

JW Marriott launches first hotel in Vietnam

Tod’s la unche launche unchess special edition bag ffor or Christma Christmass For Christmas, Tod’s has launched a limited edition of the Tod’s Sella bag that signifies understated luxury, impeccable taste and high quality. Taking inspiration from a dressage saddle, the Tod’s Sella Bag is fashioned from a strip of fine leather, gently curved like a saddle that follows the beautiful line of the back of a thoroughbred. It displays sinuous lines, as if moulded to an imaginary mount ready to run fast. The inspiration from horse riding extends to the metal details, which reference bridles and their joints and brass rings. There are also welts and tubular stitches. The bag, thus, is both beautiful and functional. The colour range varies from mild cream to brown, to the classic night blue.

Marriott International is all set for expansion into Southeast Asia with the unveiling of JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi.

The property is the JW Marriott brand’s third to open in Asia within the past two months (others in Bengaluru and New Delhi), signifying investment in the region by the luxury hotel brand.

The 450-room, 75,000 sq m JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi is a 'reverse skyscraper' which was inspired by the country’s magnificent coastline and evokes characteristics of a dragon. The hotel will have a total of six restaurant and bar outlets. Dining venues include the French Grill, serving fresh seafood and prime cuts of steaks along with a variety of premium wines and spirits; and a Chinese restaurant specializing in Cantonese fare.

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LUXURY Ravis san er vissan santt un unvveils silv silver lapis LLazuli azuli ccollec ollec tion ollection Ravis san t, the luxur er war e br and, ha vissan sant, luxuryy silv silver erw are brand, hass un er lapis LLazuli azuli ccollec ollec tion which unvveiled silv silver ollection consist er nut bo wl, bar se t, jug se t, onsistss o off silv silver bowl, set, set, tea se t, ric e dish, soup tur een and mor e. set, rice tureen more The se pr oduc e cr afted fr om st erling hese produc cra from sterling oductts ar are silv er and lapis lazuli st one which adds a silver stone luxurious ac cen chen. acc entt in the kit kitchen.

The de finitiv e por tr ait definitiv finitive portr trait of JJane ane A ust en sells ffor or Aust usten £164,500 a theb y’s att So Sotheb theby’s London A rare, original portrait of famous author Jane Austen has been auctioned by Sotheby’s London for £164,500. The watercolour, by James Andrews, an engraving of which will appear on the Bank of England’s new £10 note from 2017 (the author’s bicentenary) was purchased over the telephone on behalf of an anonymous private collector. Rarely seen in public, the portrait had been offered for sale directly from the Austen family.

Chanel ac quir es the Bodin-Jo anner acquir quire Bodin-Joyyeux ttanner anneryy Luxury brand Chanel has acquired the Bodin-Joyeux tannery located in Levroux (Indre) in the central region of France. Founded in 1860, the BodinJoyeux tannery has a long-standing family tradition of fellmongery, and thus, is a key partner for the luxury industry. The flagship product of Bodin-Joyeux is the exceptionally supple Lambskin Plongé. The company manages the entire tanning process from beamhouse operations to skin dyeing in countless colours. With a workforce of 100 employees, it produces 450,000 skins per year. Mr Frédéric Bodin will remain President of Bodin-Joyeux and the tannery will continue to work for all of its clients with no exclusivity. Chanel uses the Lambskin Plongé extensively for its famous, classic quilted handbags.

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The Dior VIII Bague Baguettte 33 mm no w in st or es now stor ore Continuing with its Dior VIII collection, the Dior VIII Baguette is an exceptional timepiece with a ruby set bezel. Its rich red colour pays tribute to the codes of the house of Christian Dior and stays true to a Haute Couture inspired cocktail dress. The exclusive timepiece is engraved with sapphire crystal oscillating weights matching the colours of the baguettes. The dial is sparely designed with faceted hour markers, and a circle of diamonds delicately sitting on the centre circle. The bezel of the timepiece is adorned with natural untreated stones.

So theb y’s Ne wY ork tto o Sotheb theby’s New York hold Magnific en wels Magnificen entt Je Jew auc tion uction

Giuliano Mazzuoli sione pr esen smissione pre sentts the TTrrasmis Mec canic a chr onogr aph Mecc anica chronogr onograph Following the success of their Trasmissione Meccanica line, Giuliano Mazzuoli has introduced a new chronograph version of it. The new timepiece is a new expression of Tuscan creativity that stems from artisanal tradition, and is enriched with equilibrium and elegance.

Always being inspired by everyday objects, the designer Giuliano Mazzuoli takes his inspiration from the world of automobiles for Trasmissione Meccanica.

After coming out with the famous “Manometro” watch, which originates from combining a watch to the idea of a pressure gauge, followed by the much talked about “Contagiri” that takes inspiration from a tachometer of a race car, the emotions that sound of the engines makes, and the simplicity of the instrument found on every car’s dashboard, it is the turn of Trasmissione Meccanica.

Sotheby’s Is hosting an auction of Magnificent Jewels which will be held on December 11, 2013 in New York, with a public exhibition beginning December 7 in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries. The auction is distinguished by a number of true masterpieces, including five rare Art Deco Egyptian-revival jewels designed by Cartier, and an iconic Boucheron bracelet of African inspiration. Two important private collections are also on offer: one from the family of an American heiress, whose jewels have spent most of the last 60 years secreted in a bank vault and testify to a glamorous lifestyle in the first half of the 20th century, and the other a contemporary collection of sensational emerald jewels and fancy vivid yellow diamonds. collection.

A. LLange ange & Soehne tions a auc uctions att Christie’s for a pr emium pric e premium price

Chanel opens it itss annual st or e in C our che chevvel stor ore Cour ourche For the fourth year running, Chanel is opening its elegant 200 sq m boutique in the heart of Courchevel for the winter.

Adding another twist, Mr Karl Lagerfeld makes his mark on the ski resort and decorates 36 of the 72 Jardin Alpin cable cars with his sketches. The designer will move his tools to create symbols, iconic elements and silhouettes from collections by Chanel, portraits of Mademoiselle Chanel as well as selfportraits of the designer himself. The boutique space is divided into four modules. In pale oak and gold metal followed by lacquered beige and then bronze and walnut, each room showcases ready-to-wear pieces and accessories from the 2013/14 Cruise collection. The fourth module is also home to shoes.

Recently at Christie’s ‘Important Watches’ auction in Geneva, an exceptional timepiece from A. Lange & Söhne changed owners for the equivalent of nearly 380,000 euros: the only Double Split with a stainless steel case. The double rattrapante chronograph was the first mechanical watch to allow comparative lap measurements of up to thirty minutes.

The impressive auction result was far more than the estimated 96,000 to 140,000 euros. The watch – sold in 2008 – went under the hammer for more than four times the original retail price of the series-production model made of platinum. At the same auction, a Lange Zeitwerk “Luminous” from a limited edition of 100 pieces was sold for the equivalent of 122,000 euros, at about 75 per cent increased value compared to the original retail price. It was probably the first time that this model has ever been auctioned. This watch, with the luminescent jumping numerals display and the innovative constant-force escapement, was introduced in 2010 and is one of the most popular models of the brand.

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LUXURY Bobbi Br own la unche ola ollec tion Bro launche unchess Rich Choc Chocola olatte C Collec ollection Inspired by the richness of warm chocolate shades, Bobbi Brown has launched the Rich Chocolate collection. The Rich Chocolate Eye Palette offers a range of brown tones in an array of textures and finishes, from matte to soft shimmer to sparkle.

These shadows are designed to be worn alone or layered for a smouldering look.

The palette also includes a Dual Ended Eye Shadow, Eye Liner Brush and mirror for easy, on-the-go application. Choose between shades such as Cocoa, Stone, Frappe, Champagne Truffle, Caramel Sparkle and more.

Guc ci pr esen omen’s Gucci pre sentts W Women’s Pr efall C ollec tion 20 14 Pre Collec ollection 2014 Gucci has presented its Prefall 2014 collection which symbolizes an upfront woman who is always on the go with her luxuriously bare ‘Gucci essentials’.

Crisp and concise, the unembellished collection places emphasis on volume, shape and physicality. The silhouette is sleek and features solid lines. The clean lines provide a masculine undertone while the black leather inserts define the collection’s shapes and edges. Lengths are kept short for low-waisted straight pants or the minimal mini-dress with geometric precision. Urban outerwear, such as double-breasted coats and cabans, features roomy proportions with buttons as the only details.

Johnnie W alk er Blue LLabel abel and Alfr ed Dunhill un Walk alker Alfred unvveil limit ed edition ccollec ollec tion limited ollection Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Alfred Dunhill have unveiled the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Limited Edition Collection designed by Alfred Dunhill, celebrating a strategic alliance between two iconic British luxury brands. Both the brands are game changers who have changed the game in their chosen fields. Springing from the great British craft traditions of dedication and commitment to quality, both were true to their heritage and set their eyes distinctly on the future. Combining the pioneering spirit of Johnnie Walker and Alfred Dunhill’s love for travel, the two worlds converge to empower the celebration of shared journeys representing the perfect blend of heritage and modernity.

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MA C in tr oduc es ne w MAC intr troduc oduce new a Glam tto o rramp amp up Viv iva it S fund itss AID AIDS In 1994, M.A.C had introduced Viva Glam, an out spoken deep red, which was universal in appeal and glamour. It was the first lipstick created to raise money and awareness for AIDS. To continue with the MAC Aids Fundraising efforts, M.A.C is introducing Viva Glam 1 lip glass. Hundred per cent proceeds of every Viva Glam product will go directly to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Longine s opens a ongines shop-in-shop in Kochi Longines has opened a new shop-in-shop in Kochi, India - a city not so known for luxury consumption yet - in Lulu Mall. On the occasion, the brand presented Conquest Classic, a collection dedicated to horse lovers. Longines Ambassadress of Elegance Aishwarya Rai Bachchan inaugurated the shop. The new shopin-shop has an elegant environment which personifies the Longines’ design philosophy in every detail. The Conquest Classic collection of models is fitted with self-winding calibers and is designed to be contemporary and perfectly timeless. After the inauguration Mrs Bachchan, commented, “Kochi is one of the most beautiful cities of India. I am very happy that Longines is spreading its wings to new upcoming towns. I am sure the citizens of Kochi will enjoy wearing Longines just as I do”.

The ne w LLouis ouis V uit new Vuit uittton Townhouse la unche launche unchess a att Selfridge s, LLondon ondon Selfridges, Luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton has recently opened Townhouse, a new urban retail destination set within Selfridges, London’s historic department store. Built over three inter-connecting floors, buyers can journey through a new retail concept which signifies a dialogue between modernity and tradition. Following a new architectural concept by the French-born, Japan-based designer, Gwenaël Nicolas, the Townhouse is a retail theatre. On entering, visitors are taken aback by a spiral structure that penetrates through the historical Selfridges building.

This structure wraps itself around a circular elevator that connects the different Louis Vuitton universes. The short travel in the glass elevator will surprise as it begins to gently revolve in tandem with the movement of the spiral.

The interiors are simple and modern.

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LUXURY JW Marrio elebr ates the Marriottt ccelebr elebra opening o st ho off it itss fir first hottel in Ne w Delhi, A er ocit New Aer erocit ocityy JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts celebrated the official opening of JW Marriott Hotel in New Delhi Aerocity with a grand celebration. The crème-de-la-crème of Delhi society were in attendance to celebrate it. The evening was hosted by Sushil Gupta, Chairman & MD, Asian Hotels (West), Sandeep Gupta, Executive Director, Asian Hotels (West) and Balan Paravantavida, General Manager, JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity. The 523 room hotel marks a great milestone for the Marriott International group. The hotel aims to offer guests a luxury experience paired with elegance and approachability, designed to reflect sophistication.

The LLeading eading Ho orld Hottels o off the W World celebr ates 85 Y ear Year earss elebra The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), which launched with 36 hotels in 1928 and has now grown to over 430 hotels, has curated and championed an exclusive collection of independent luxury properties. It is an umbrella of hotels where each member hotel is unique, with its own individual style, is a source of great pride, and is a hallmark of the LHW brand. The mission of LHW has been to preserve and enhance the importance of independent, often family-owned, hotels. Today’s affluent traveler continues to embrace new cultures and that is exactly where an independent hotel, a truly wonderful one, acts as a temple of the local way of life and celebrates the unique rather than smoothing it over. Staying at an independent hotel can even change the way an individual perceives the world.

Samode Ho Hottels announc es announce allianc e with R elais alliance Relais & Cha ux Chattea eaux Samode Hotels, a heritage hotel group from Rajasthan, announced their strategic alliance with Relais & Chateaux, an association of the world’s finest hoteliers, chefs and restaurateurs.

This alliance has been signed for Samode Safari Lodge Bandhavgarh (Madhya Pradesh), a luxury property of Samode Hotels. The Samode Safari Lodge at Bandhavgarh is a luxury retreat located adjacent to the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve known to have the highest density of tigers in the world. The property consists of 12 villas and two main lodges with spacious lounges that open onto wooden decks.

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The Claridge s, Ne w Delhi announc es Claridges, New announce it itss Sunda Sundayy Brunch Presenting a lavish, relaxed experience, The Claridges, New Delhi has announced its Sunday brunch from 12 noon to 3 pm. A warm winter afternoon will be enhanced with live counters of gourmet classics from Europe, the Orient and India, and an interactive flaring bar where patrons can mix their own drinks. A selection of morning bakeries, fresh juices, cold cuts, cheese platters, salad bar, live counters serving grills, sausages, pasta, tawa paranthas, dim sums, Indian curries and scrumptious desserts will be available to please the palate.

Viller oy & Boch la unch illero launch e ccollec ollec tion the My Na Natur ture ollection tur Using natural materials, gentle colours and authentic shapes, combined with flexibility and functionality, Villeroy & Boch has launched the bathroom collection My Nature. With its delicate and simple design, My Nature is harmonious, organic and straightforward. The central element of My Nature is the curved washbasin with a narrow body. The WC and the bidet also have well-proportioned designs. The WC, which is fitted using an invisible mounting system, uses only 4.5 litres of water while maintaining high flushing efficiency. Two user-friendly functions complete the WC: Quick Release, which makes the seat easy to remove and

then replace, guaranteeing more thorough cleaning; and Soft Closing, which ensures the lid lowers noiselessly.

Lladr o la unche w cr ea tions ffor or the Lladro launche unchess ne new crea eations festiv e sea son stive season Taking stock of the coming festive time, Lladro? has launched a selection of sculptures that capture the spirit of celebration and love. This handpicked offering highlights fine craftsmanship and attention to detail. The sculpture ‘The Night Approaches’ captures two mysterious and graceful beauties rushing into the night, in billowing dresses. A flawless work of art, this sculpture adds a sense of enchantment to the environment. A sculpture inspired by the beauty and personality of the women of Andalucia, ‘The Spanish Beauty’ is a well-crafted sculpture that personifies the easy grace of a sensual woman. The work on the Manila shawl with its wealth of floral decoration enhances the Spanish flavor of the sculpture.

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