Seasonal Magazine January 2018 Edition

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17 YEARS

VOLUME 17 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2018

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MAGAZINE

Seasonal www.seasonalmagazine.com

Managing Editor Jason D Pavorattikaran Editor John Antony Director (Finance) Ceena Associate Editor Carl Jaison Senior Editorial Coordinator Jacob Deva Senior Correspondent Bina Menon Creative Visualizer Bijohns Varghese Photographer Anish Aloysious Office Assistant Alby CG Correspondents Bombay: Rashmi Prakash Delhi: Anurag Dixit Director (Technical) John Antony Publisher Jason D Pavorattikaran

Will crony capitalism ever save India and have we lost faith in our conscience keepers?

Gujarat election result and the 2G court verdict had come as New Year gifts for India. For one, it proved that Modi and Amit Shah are not invincible.

Secondly, it proved that much more needs to be done for the country to have a viable, healthy opposition.

But as the Gujarat election wound up to its last stages, and jibes flew from both camps like ICBM tests from North Korea, there was one particular accusation from the Congress camp to which Prime Minister NarendraModi reacted sharply.

No, it wasn’t that customary obnoxious remark from Mani Shankar Iyer. That one Modi coolly utilized exactly like the political maestro he is.

But this other jibe from Congress evoked a strong reaction from Modi, so much so that he dedicated a good part of his further speeches to counter this allegation.

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The worry indeed showed.

The taunt that evoked this response was something that Rahul repeated in almost every one of his speeches during the last leg of the campaign – that it was crony capitalism that Modi& BJP have been following in Gujarat.

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Modi was visibly upset and even remarked that Rahul was not saying this once or twice or thrice, but continually repeating this ‘lie’, and therefore Modi in his classy emotional style asked the people listening to his speech to judge whether his policies were crony capitalism or not.

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To elicit the response he wanted from the crowd, he asked them to raise hands, and shout ‘No’ if they didn’t agree to Rahul’s allegation.

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In a politically partisan country like India, we are yet to see Congress fans going to watch a BJP leader speak, or vice versa.

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The bigger issue is why is Modi so worried over this allegation?

It is because, he knows a real threat when it emerges.

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No marks for guessing what was the crowd’s response.

But these are all non-issues at the ground level or the holistic level, which affects the common man.

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EDITORIAL

Despite being the Prime Minister of a vast country with limitless responsibilities, he had been virtually spearheading the BJP campaign like an incumbent Chief Minister of Gujarat. Is it because he has sensed that for the first time in the last 16 years of BJP rule, there is palpable discontent among the masses?

Because, the outcome of the Gujarat poll is also likely to be a report card on the Modi Government at the Centre, whether it is factually true or not in this highly polarized state.

But more importantly, for years, the BhartiyaJanata Party, and Modi especially, have been harping on the virtues of the Gujarat Model of Development. What if it fails this time, or falls short of expectations, and media in its post-mortem finds out that the Gujarat Model was all hype? It is a risk that neither Modi nor Amit Shah would be willing to take.

And this is precisely where, the new Congress President’s crony capitalism jibe strikes, and that may be the reason behind the exaggerated response

from Modi, who usually brushes aside Rahul’s allegations.

Now, every soul living in India knows that crony capitalism exists in this country. Modi too must be knowing it, and in any case, he must be knowing that even Rahul’s Congress had aided and abetted crony capitalists.

But Modi’s response was not a counter allegation at all.

Because an allegation of helping crony capitalism can never be politically countered that way. Just like corruption or any illegality, it has to be denied first, and denied to the end.

In fact, crony capitalism goes even beyond corruption as it is really the practice of whitewashing huge corruption as though it is the greatest thing a government could do for the people.

For those who are averse to reading denser definitions of crony capitalism, here is the Wikipedia entry: “Crony capitalism is an economy in which businesses thrive not as a result of risk taken for them, but rather, as a return on money amassed through a nexus between a business class and the political class.

This is done using state power to crush genuine competition in handing out permits, government grants, special tax breaks, subsidies, or other forms of state intervention over resources where the state exercises monopolist control over public goods, for example, mining concessions for primary commodities or contracts for public works.

Money is then made not merely by making a profit in the market, but by profiteering by ‘rent seeking’ using this monopoly or oligopoly.”

Rahul has been pretty intelligent in choosing this allegation of crony capitalism, as it is undeniable that during the past two decades there has been ‘visible’ development in Gujarat in the form of infrastructure and industries.

Much of this has been achieved by giving out land virtually for free (at even Rs. 1 per acre) to large industrialists, and unleashing one of the largest tax-breaks as well as industrial subsidy programmes ever attempted in India, which can only be ter med ‘corporate welfare’ and which have skyrocketed the state’s debt to nearly unmanageable levels according to Suresh Mehta, a former BJP Chief Minister of Gujarat, himself.

A jibe on crony capitalism indeed bites BJP and Modi, due to previous allegations against Adani on the SEZ issue and against Anil Ambani on the Rafael deal.

But crony capitalism also implies that its benefits never

reach the masses, and this is what encourages Rahul to attack on this front, and Modi to go all out on the defensive.

Indira Hirway, Director and Professor of Economics, Centre for Development Alternatives (CFDA), Ahmedabad, as well as other economists have shed light on the undeniable socioeconomic impact of the Gujarat Model in her recent works. Here are some of her findings: Gujarat’s agriculture sector has been reeling since the 2011-12 drought, with growth at just 3.7%. The Minimum Support Prices offered to farmers have been inadequate to meet even the cost of cultivation. Crop insurance has been poor with even the best covered areas having only 10-12% of coverage. Agricultural and other manual wages in Gujarat are among the lowest in the country.

After the huge incentives to corporate units, the government is left with limited funds for education, health, environment and employment for the masses. Gujarat spends less than 2% of its income on education (the Indian norm is 5-6%) with the result that 45% workers in Gujarat are illiterate or studied only up to the fifth standard with the quality of education very poor. Public expenditure on health is 0.8% of the state income, well below the country’s norm of 4-6%. As a result, Gujarat is decelerating very fast in almost all health indicators. Forty-five percent children in the state are undernourished and the decline of maternal mortality rate has decelerated, leading to the state’s poor ranking.

Only 6.8% of the workers are formal (this figure is declining as against a rising trend in most other states). Close to 93-94% workers are in informal and traditional sectors with low incomes and low social security. The wage rates for industrial workers in Gujarat too are almost the lowest in major states of India, with the rank declining over the past decade or so. The net result is that 40% population is below the multi-dimensional poverty line.

If this is the situation in the model state of Gujarat after 16 years of Modinomics, what is the whole of India expecting to achieve under Modi’s rule? New peaks for Sensex despite the job market and credit growth staying in the doldrums?

No wonder then that India ranks a sorry 9 from the top in Economist Magazine’s Crony Capitalism Index, for the last three years.

The stark misfortune for India is that while the list’s toppers are mostly developed nations, India has managed to reach there even while it is a poor, developing nation. As often, another instance of that Indian penchant for putting the cart before the horse.

John Antony

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CONTENTS

WHY DRUGS USE IN TEENAGERS IS MORE PROBLEMATIC Adolescent cannabis use may be an independent risk factor for future hypomania, and the nature of the association suggests a potential causal link. As such it might be a useful target for indicated prevention of hypomania.

GHANI CONDEMNS KILLING UNDER THE NAME OF ISLAM Afghan president tells insurgents that “Islam is not being threatened, it is your rebellion which is hurting Muslims.”

KERALA LAUNCHES INDIA'S LARGEST SOLAR POWER PLANT

10 Strategies CM Siddaramaiah is Banking on to Return to Power

INDIA SET TO LAND ON MOON It will be launched using a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk II) which includes a lunar orbiter, lander and rover, all made in India.

Constructed by the Thiruvananthapuram-based Ad tech Systems, the plant will generate seven lakh units of power in a year. The private firm has also offered to provide twoyears of free maintenance work at the plant.

THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT IT WOULD BE A TOUGH FIGHT BETWEEN THE INCUMBENT CONGRESS REGIME AND THE CONTENDER BJP. SEASONAL MAGAZINE DETAILS THE MANY STRATEGIES WITH WHICH CHIEF MINISTER SIDDARAMAIAH IS PLOTTING A SUCCESSFUL COMEBACK TO POWER. ZUMBA, DANCING IN THE DARK

WITH ISIS DEFEATED, IS RUSSIA AFRAID OF LOSING SYRIA?

If going to church called for sweatbands instead of prayer books, salsa music in the place of scripture, and a near-insane amount of neon, it might look something like this. I spent a week with 8,000 worshippers of the fake, fantastical cult of zumba.

The fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seems to have ended. Although the armed group is unlikely to disappear, its territorial control has been almost completely wiped out after its two "capitals" Mosul and Raqqa - were liberated and most of its territories in Iraq and Syria were recaptured.

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HOW WILL INDIA RESOLVE NISSAN’S $770 MILLION SUIT AGAINST TAMIL NADU? The Tamil Nadu government is working towards resolving the controversy over the payment of incentive refund with Nissan, a Japanese car maker, running a plant in Oragadam. Nissan has initiated international arbitration proceedings against the Indian government, seeking $770 million on the dispute.

UPCOMING ELECTRIC CARS IN INDIA As global warming rises to alarming levels, the government bodies are looking at curbing pollution in whichever way it’s possible, even if it calls for a complete de-fuelation of automobiles. Yes, the government has announced that the Indian automotive market will only have electric vehicles by 2030.

INDIAN NAVY'S BIG PLANS, INCLUDING WOMEN IN WARSHIPS If all goes as per schedule, in 10 to 15 years, the Indian Navy will have a strong fleet of 198 ships, 450 aircraft, and a good number of submarines as part of the expansion and modernisation plan. The Indian Navy is also finalising a policy for..

KOHLI & ROHIT: INDIAN CRICKET'S TWO LARGER THAN LIFE CHARACTERS Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have provided the stimuli for India’s phenomenal showing with the bat throughout this season.

While Rohit scored 1293 runs in 21 ODIs with the help of six hundreds, averaging 71.83, Kohli in 26 matches scored 1460 runs at an average of 76.84 and had six hundreds against his name.

‘INDIA’S GDP SHOULD HAVE BEEN BACK AT 9%

RONALDO AND MESSI: A DECADE OF DOMINANCE

With oil prices so low, India’s economic growth should have been back at over 9%, former chief economist at World Bank Kaushik Basu said on Sunday, expressing disappointment at the 6.3% gross domestic product

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo clinched his 5thBalon D Or award on Thursday that drew him level with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and completed an entire decade of football dominance from these two..

INSIDE THE NEW SERVICES FROM EPFO

TEXTING'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY

The retirement body which receives more than 1 crore claims every year including those related to EPF withdrawal, has been introducing a number of services. Here are latest EPFO initiatives you might be unaware of.

December 4th marked the 25th anniversary of the first text message being sent, the communication form that dominated how people across the world remained in touch for roughly two decades.

The 160-character messages became the staple for people in

BEHIND THE BITCOIN BOOM While it has delivered stellar returns over the years, the volatile nature of the trade is not for the feeble-hearted,

KITEX GARMENTS LTD NASA SUCCESSFULLY FIRES VOYAGER 1 THRUSTERS AFTER 37 YEARS NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft cruising interstellar space billions of miles from Earth - was back on the right track recently thanks to thrusters that were fired up for the first time in 37 years.

THE KITE CLIMBING UNDER CONTROL Seasonal Magazine recently visited Kitex Garments' factory in Kizhakkambalam, Ernakulam District, Kerala, for assessing the future growth prospects through an in-depth interview with its Chairman & Managing Director, Sabu M Jacob.

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CONTENTS

ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

ROOTS IN INDIA, BRANCHES ACROSS ASIA, WILL IPO CATCH INVESTMENT WORLD'S EYEBALLS? Seasonal Magazine takes an in-depth look into Dr. Azad Moopen’s master plan for a blockbuster IPO for his Aster DM Healthcare empire. Dr. Moopen, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, is one of the richest NRIs in the Middle East. Despite getting approval last year itself, Aster went back to the drawing board and came back with a reworked offer this year. Rarely do IPO aspirants do this and come back with a more manageable offer.

DEATH BY AIR How Pollution Has Reached Unprecedented Levels In India Air pollution levels in India are at an all-time high and accounts for a very high percentage of deaths based on the findings of a commission.

MEET INDIA'S 37.4 MILLION INVISIBLE & UNDERPAID HOME-BASED WORKERS They contribute immensely to the final product, but are invisible to companies and buyers.

Valliamma wakes up at 5 am to finish the trimming on T-shirts. She needs to hand them over to the contractor by 11 am – they’re part of an important order for a global..

STRESSED OUT? YOU MAY GAUGE DANGERS SLOWER THAN BEFORE A new study led by New York University neuroscientists reveals that being under acute stress diminishes our ability to pay attention to changes around us that might be threatening. That delay in recognition may put us at risk of not responding appropriately to new dangers.

TOTAL TRANSFORMATION IN 5 YEARS Hundreds of listed companies are hitting 52-Week Highs in India, while a few companies like NBCC are breaching life-time highs. IPO investors in the PSU construction major are sitting on 24 times their investment made in 2012, just 5 years back. What is driving NBCC's momentum?

HUMANS BETTER AT SURGERIES THAN ROBOTS Humans make better surgeons than robots, according to a study which suggests that machineassisted surgery for kidney removal not only takes longer to perform, but also costs more.

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INSHORTS

'PADMAVATI' OFFICIALLY RENAMED AS 'PADMAAVAT' Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming film 'Padmavati' has been officially renamed as 'Padmaavat', as confirmed by the film's Twitter handle. This comes after the Censor Board suggested the makers to change the film's title, along with some other modifications. Bhansali had earlier said that the film is based on the poem 'Padmavat' written in 1540 by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi.

INSULIN WAS FIRST USED TO TREAT DIABETES 96 YEARS AGO

Insulin was first used on a human to treat type 1 diabetes, on January 11, 1922. Biochemists Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and John Macleod discovered insulin and administered it to 14-year-old Leonard Thompson.

While the first injection gave Thompson an allergic reaction, a second improvised dose was successful.

Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

MAN CARVES ROAD THROUGH MOUNTAINS TO SEND SONS TO SCHOOL A 45-year-old tribal man in Odisha has carved a 15-km road through a mountain to connect his village Gumsahi to the main road in Phulbani town.

Jalandhar Nayak, who worked eight hours a day for the last two years, took up the initiative after noticing the problems faced by his three sons in crossing the hill to reach their school.

RENAULT-NISSAN-MITSUBISHI TO LAUNCH $1 BILLION VC FUND

French-Japanese group of automakers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi has announced it is launching a $1 billion venture capital (VC) fund called Alliance Ventures. The fund will invest in startups focussing on electrification, autonomy, connectivity and AI. It is set to be largest corporate VC fund in the auto industry over the period until 2022, the companies said in a statement.

MUMBAI CIVIC BODY TO SCRAP 156 BEST BUSES BY JANUARY 31 The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) management has decided to scrap 156 old buses by January 31, reducing its fleet size from nearly 3,500 to 3,337. The move is aimed at cutting the losses so that proper maintenance can be provided to other buses, officials said. Meanwhile, it has proposed hiring 225 buses, including 100 air-conditioned mini-buses.

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PAK ACCUSES INDIA OF DISTRACTING IT FROM ANTI-TERROR EFFORTS Pakistan on Wednesday accused India of distracting it from counter-terrorism efforts. It also claimed that an alleged nexus of India's and Afghanistan's intelligence agencies is "verifiably working to undermine Pakistan's internal stability". Pakistan also accused India of terrorism in the form of IED attacks against civilians on the Pakistani side of the LoC and the Wagha border.

ASTRONOMERS NARROW DOWN ON SOURCE OF MYSTERIOUS RADIO BURSTS

Astronomers have found evidence that repeated space radiation called fast radio bursts (FRBs) could be coming from rapidly rotating neutron stars located near black holes, as per a new publication in the journal Nature.

Sources previously considered for the signals include exploding stars and even beacons from alien spaceships.

FRBs were discovered in 2007 by Australia-based Parkes telescope.

INSHORTS

SWITZERLAND RULES LOBSTERS CAN'T BE BOILED WHILE STILL ALIVE

The Swiss government has banned the practice of throwing lobsters into boiling water while they are alive, amid concerns they can feel pain. The rule, which will take effect starting March, says lobsters must be stunned by electric shocks or "mechanical destruction" of their brains. Transporting live marine crustaceans like lobsters on ice or in icy water was also banned.

VIDYA BALAN TO PORTRAY INDIRA GANDHI IN UPCOMING PROJECT Vidya Balan has acquired the rights to a project in which she will be seen portraying former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The project will be based on journalist-author Sagarika Ghose's book 'Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister'. "I haven't decided yet whether it should be a film or a web series, but that'll take a while anyway," said Vidya.

THERE IS PLANNED CAMPAIGN TO MALIGN AADHAAR: EX-UIDAI CHIEF

Former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani has said that there is an "orchestrated campaign" to malign Aadhaar. Nilekani said this while reacting to a report by The Tribune relating to an Aadhaar data breach. He added that it would be better for people to have constructive views on the matter.

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HUNDREDS OF BATS DIE DUE TO 80-YEAR RECORD HEAT IN AUSTRALIA

Over 400 bats died in one colony alone as temperatures in Sydney soared to an 80-year record high of 47.3ยบC on Sunday. A Facebook campaign 'Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown' posted several images showing the corpses, after the animals died due to dehydration. The environmentalist group is trying to rescue the survivors besides providing water to koalas.

ANDHRA MAY REQUIRE MLAS TO SEND THEIR KIDS TO GOVT SCHOOLS The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to issue an order making it compulsory for the state's public representatives to send their children to government-run schools. The state government is reportedly in the process of digitising all schools and improving infrastructure before passing the government order. CM Chandrababu Naidu is keen on bringing the change, state minister Akhila Priya said.

STENT MAKER SAHAJANAND RAISES $36 MN FROM MORGAN STANLEY Gujarat-headquartered stent maker Sahajanand Medical Technologies (SMT) has raised $36.23 million (about ?230 crore) in a funding round led by financial services firm Morgan Stanley.

The company said that the private equity firm Samara Capital also participated in the round. Founded in 1998, SMT manufactures precision engineered cardiac products along with coronary stents and renal stents.

TN GOVT TO GIVE RS 750CR AS RETIREMENT DUES TO TRANSPORT STAFF

Amidst a strike by Tamil Nadu transport unions, the state has announced Rs 750 crore to clear the pending dues of transport staff who had retired by November 30, 2017. Settlement of the pending dues was one of the demands of the workers. Requesting the workers to withdraw the strike, CM E Palaniswami said the amount will be provided before Pongal.

THE BANGALORE GOLF CLUB GETS IN TOUCH WITH UNESCO, SEEKS HERITAGE STATUS

Bangalore Golf Club, said: “Bangalore Golf Club is the oldest golf club outside of the British Isles. We should rightfully get the heritage site status, if not for the building, then for the site. There is an area in Penang (Malaysia) and the entire area has been declared a world heritage site.

This was done by Unesco. We are hoping to get something like that.”

(Penang is a golf tourist’s delight; its capital Georgetown is a Unesco World Heritage site and has world-class golf courses and resorts.)

THE LUSCIOUS PIECE OF GREEN NEAR VIDHANA SOUDHA. BANGALORE GOLF CLUB HAS ASKED THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY, MUSEUMS AND HERITAGE TO PROPOSE ITS NAME FOR UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE STATUS. very time you whisked past the golf course on your way to the airport, did you ever realize that you were so close to history? That the golf course was 141 years old? That keen golfers like Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (former President of India who served from 1974-77) and many army generals have teed off here?

If approved, the 141-year-old club will become the first club in the country to acquire the Unesco honour. Also, this is the first time that a private club or building has asked the archaeology department to include it in the heritage list.

The archaeology department is currently preparing dossiers of three sites - monuments and forts of the Deccan Sultanate (Bidar, Vijayapura and Kalaburgi), sacred ensembles of Hoysala (Belur and Halebidu) and Srirangapatna - to be submitted to Unesco.

Normally, states recommend names of historic and heritage sites to the Archaeological Survey of India. The ASI then prepares a shortlist and sends the dossier to Unesco for its consideration.

If BGC’s name is to be recommended, the state will have to give a no-

objection certificate and the club can propose its nomination to the ASI, which is the nodal agency from India.

Alternatively, the club can approach Unesco on its own as a private entry.

The club is said to be considering this route too. Once the entries are received, Unesco conducts its own formalities, and declares a site as World Heritage based on various parameters, including its historical background, heritage status and threat levels.

Bangalore Golf Club was “established on a summer evening on June 24th of 1876” when “nine Englishmen met in the house of J.D. Gordon Esq., C.S.I. and passed the resolution ‘To start a Golf Club, to be called Bangalore Golf Club, in this station’”, says the club’s website. The land was previously used by an army regiment as a rifle range and training area. “The course started as a 12-hole design and was transformed many a time… It is now a Par 70, 18 hole course” spread over 60 acres.

The club still houses memoirs that are more than a century old, like trophies, sports equipment and other sport related articles of antique value at Karnataka Golf Club.

B Sreenivas Murthy, honorary secretary,

The club has many other firsts to its name too. In 1878, the Bangalore Golf Club and the Madras Gymkhana club started a tournament, which is the oldest inter-club annual match anywhere in the world.

“We have records of all the great people who have played here. In fact, we can create an exhibition out of them. In terms of antiques, there’s the M.P. Davis Gold cup tournament which has a cup made of pure gold. It weighs more than half a kilogram; we keep that in the bank locker,” Murthy said.

R Gopal, director, department of museums, Karnataka, said: “They have had talks with us. We will certainly consider giving them a no-objection certificate as they are a heritage site. The club management has been directed to consult experts in the field and prepare a dossier to take the proposal further.”

Preparing a dossier is one of the most crucial steps in getting a heritage site tag. An extensive and detailed presentation, including details of the historic site, justification for a monument, description, management, factors affecting the property, monitoring, documentation, and other explanatory notes have to be part of the dossier. The club still has the old building of 1876 vintage. “But the main thing is the golf course. It’s been in the same location for 146 years. It needs a leap of imagination to say this site is of heritage value,” said Murthy.

BGC and its patrons have taken that leap of imagination. They now have to take the leap of faith.

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IPO

ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

ROOTS IN INDIA, BRANCHES ACROSS ASIA, WILL IPO CATCH INVESTMENT WORLD'S EYEBALLS? India born medical doctor Dr. Azad Moopen has come a long way after starting his first clinic in Dubai in 1987. It spread its wings first in UAE, then in other GCC countries, India, and Philippines. Dr. Moopen, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, is one of the richest NRIs in the Middle East and is one of the most prolific philanthropists through Dr. Moopen's Foundation, the umbrella charitable organization which includes Aster DM Foundation and Dr Moopen's Family Foundation. He has earmarked 20% of his personal wealth for philanthropic activities across India, GCC countries, African nations, Afghanistan, & Philippines. Seasonal Magazine takes an in-depth look into Dr. Azad Moopen’s master plan for a blockbuster IPO for his Aster DM Healthcare empire. Despite getting approval last year itself, Aster went back to the drawing board and came back with a reworked offer this year. Rarely do IPO aspirants do this and come back with a more manageable offer. But Dr.Azad Moopen led Aster DM Healthcare, running 316 facilities across Asia, has done exactly that to account for the rising receivables from one of its key business providers, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia, and has reduced its number of shares on offer than earlier. Dr. Moopen is also planning big in its hitherto small market of India, despite being the 3rd largest in India by beds, by opening or expanding 5 new hospitals here. The Rs.1100 crore healthcare IPO is likely to be a blockbuster one, given the planning prowess that is visible in Aster Medcity, Kochi, one of India’s finest next-gen hospitals. Here are 10 reasons why Aster’s IPO will be compelling if coming at reasonable valuations.

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Dr.Azad Moopen

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ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

Recession Proof Sector hen world including India battles an enormous slowdown in growth, only a few sectors can be said to be truly recession proof, and healthcare ranks prime among them. In most scenarios, healthcare services can’t be postponed and even if some procedures are postponed, there will always be infections, accidents, emergency surgeries and other similar procedures. Rising health awareness and development of newer and newer procedures often at both higher convenience and higher costs add to the value growth.

Increased life expectancy and the

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emergence of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease are ensuring that practically every human being is a significant customer for hospitals and clinics.

Nearly full health insurance coverage in developed nations and steadily rising coverage in developing nations provide ample fuel to this growth.This recessionproof nature of the healthcare sector is the reason why stocks of wellmanaged healthcare companies have done very well in India, and elsewhere in the recent past.

10 REASONS WHY ASTER’S IPO IS COMPELLING

aster jubile centre

A Rare Healthcare Company ster DM Healthcare Ltd is not just another hospitals company having a few large hospitals in a country, as is common in the industry. Rather, Aster is present across 9 countries in Asia. In the Middle East, it is in UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, & Saudi Arabia. In South Asia, it is in India, and in Far East it is in Philippines. Across these territories, it has 18 major hospitals.

But Aster is not just about large hospitals. It also runs 96 clinics across these geographies. Not only that, it also runs a chain of 202 modern pharmacies. Aster is a huge

organization having nearly 2300 doctors and around 20,000 employees across its pan Asia network. The company is also home to different healthcare brands, all established in their respective geographies. In its prime market of UAE, it has brands like Medcare& Access, apart from Aster Hospital, Aster Clinic & Aster Pharmacy. In Oman it has the Aster AlRaffah brand, and in Saudi Arabia, it has the Sanad Hospital. In Qatar, Bahrain, Philippines & India it operates under the Aster brand itself, even though it has the Aster MIMS & DM WIMS brands too in India.

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ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

An Indian MNC hile Aster is a pan Asia multinational company serving patients from MENA region, South Asia, and Far East, it has its roots firmly in India. Aster has always been the brainchild of Indian medical doctor Azad Moopen, who started off in UAE with a single clinic in UAE, the Al Rafa Polyclinic in Bur Dubai in 1987, which is now the Aster Jubilee Medical Complex. And from early on itself, India and his home state of Kerala has been in the focus of Dr. Azad Moopen. By 2001, he had started the state-of-the-art MIMS Hospital in Kottakkal, Kerala, which was the first SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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multi-speciality tertiary care hospital in Kerala, which is now rebranded as Aster MIMS. By 2010, Aster had taken over Aadhar Hospital in Kolhapur, Maharashtraand rebranded it as Aster Aadhar Hospital. And by 2012, Dr.Moopen started Wayanad Institute of Medical Sciences or DM WIMS, the Group’s first Medical College in Wayanad, Kerala. But it was in 2013 that the Group proved its real commitment to India by starting the sprawling Aster Medcity in Kochi, one of the finest hospitals in India if not Asia.

Dr.Moopen also chose to list the Group in India rather than in Dubai or London, as per his vision for Aster as an Indian MNC.

10 REASONS WHY ASTER’S IPO IS COMPELLING

Expanding in India espite its significant focus and projects in India, Aster DM Healthcare derives around 84% of its revenue its Middle East hospitals. This leaves aside significant room for expansion in India, and under Dr.Moopen’s visionary guidance, Aster has been doing exactly that. Since 2013, the group has taken over more hospitals in India and rebranded them, including Aster CMI Hospital in Bangalore, Aster Prime Hospitals in Hyderabad, & Aster Ramesh Hospital in Vijayawada. It has also taken over a New Delhi based hospital chain recently. Today, Aster’s Indian hospitals are 11 in number, with an installed bed capacity of 3983, making it the third largest hospital chain by bed capacity, behind Apollo with 10,000 plus beds and Fortis with around 5000 beds.

Dr.Moopen’s further plans for India include building or expanding five Indian hospitals which will add 1372 beds across Bangalore, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram & Kannur, which will help it overtake Fortis and become the second largest hospital chain in India by bed capacity. Aster is building two hospitals in Kerala, Aster MIMS Hospital in Kannur and Aster Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, with the latter planned to be a huge 750 bed facility, bigger than its 670bed Aster Medcity in Kochi.

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ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

Aster Medcity Proves Capabilities ster Medcity of Kochi, the Group’s largest and most advanced hospital evolved from a vision Dr.Azad Moopen had after visiting the legendary Mayo Clinic in USA. The quaternary care hospital boasts of several firsts in the sector, with it having the first Da Vinci robot for minimally invasive surgery in Kerala, and the first robotic pharmacy.

Set in a soothingly beautiful 40-acre waterfront campus, Aster Medcity is a 670-bed quaternary care facility with aMultispeciality Hospital and eight separate Centres of Excellence in Cardiac Sciences, Neurosciences, Orthopaedics & Rheumatology, Nephrology & Urology, Oncology,

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Women’s Health, Child & Adolescent Health and Gastroenterology &Hepatology. Aster Medcity was the first quaternary care hospital in Kerala to achieve the coveted JCI (Joint Commission International) Accreditation - the gold standard in global healthcare, which opened the doors to medical tourism too. Anyone who has visited Aster Medcity’s services once, or even just visited it once, is sure to leave impressed. From an investor’s viewpoint, Aster Medcity Kochi is the kind of facility that proves Aster’s unique capabilities, and if this kind of a hospital can be replicated in other Indian cities, especially the Tier II cities, there will be no looking back for Aster in India.

10 REASONS WHY ASTER’S IPO IS COMPELLING

T.J Wilson, Executive Director & Group Head Governance & Corporate Affairs, Aster DM Healthcare

Alisha Moopen, Executive Director & CEO Hospitals & Clinics GCC, Aster DM Healthcare

Best of Professional & Entrepreneurial Leadership ster DM Healthcare is today a huge organization spread across 9 countries, and having 18 hospitals, 96 clinics, and 202 pharmacies. It couldn’t have reached this stage with either entrepreneurial management or professional leadership alone. In fact, right from the Director Board, Aster has the perfect mix of these two essential components. Founder Dr.Azad Moopen directly heads the show as Chairman & Managing Director, being the hands-on leader he has always been. Seasoned healthcare management professional TJ Wilson is the Executive Director & Group Head of Governance & Corporate Affairs. Alisha Moopen, from the family, is Executive Director & CEO for Hospitals & Clinics in GCC countries. Anoop Moopen, from the family, is another Director at Aster apart from his role as Chairman & MD of AZTEC Group. With its major footprint in Middle East and India, most of the other members of the Aster Board are of Indian or of GCC origin. However, the Board also has international participation by way of Daniel Mintz who is a Founding Managing Director of Olympus Capital Asia, which is a major investor in Aster, and Daniel James Snyder who is the CEO of Asia Pacific Health Partners.

Other notable names in the Director Board include Harish Mariwala, Chairman of Marico, and Madhavan Nambiar, Advisor to TCS.

Mr. Anoop Moopen, Director Chairman & MD – AZTEC Group SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

Sreenath P. Reddy, Group CFO Aster DM Healthcare

Prof. K.K. Varma, Group Chief Medical Officer Aster DM Healthcare

Dr. Harish Pillai, CEO – Aster Medcity, Kochi & Head – Kerala Cluster, Aster DM Healthcare

Management Team of Seasoned Professionals ster DM Healthcare’s day-today operations are led by a team of thorough professionals led by Dr.Azad Moopen, TJ Wislon & Alisha Moopen. Most of them are the finest of senior doctors, finance professionals, human resource managers, marketing professionals etc having worked in the best of corporate houses. Sreenath P Reddy, Group CFO was earlier with Narayana Hrudayalaya Ltd. Prof. KK Varma Group Chief Medical Officer is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and has been

Fara Siddiqi, Group CHRO Aster DM Healthcare

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with Aster since 2001. Fara Siddiqi, Group Chief Human Resources Officer is Wharton educated and was earlier with GEMS and Bank of America.

Dalia Aziz, Group Chief Marketing & Communications Officer is a BDS doctor from University of Alexandria as well as having rich experience in Sanofi. Mukta Arora, Group CIO was earlier working as Vice President at HCL Technologies Ltd, while Dr A Malathi, Group Chief Quality Officer, was earlier with Fortis and Manipal Hospitals. Another key figure in Aster’s impressive array of management

Dalia Aziz, Group CMCO Aster DM Healthcare

Mukta Arora, Group CIO Aster DM Healthcare

professionals is Dr. Harish Pillai, who heads the flagship Aster Medcity of Kochi as its CEO, and is also the Cluster Head for its Kerala operations. An expert in hospital administration, quality and brand management, business strategy, product launches and joint ventures, Dr. Harish Pillai was earlier the CEO of Egypt’s biggest private tertiary care hospital – As Salam International Hospital, Cairo, for over 7 years. The Aster team is further enhanced by thorough professionals heading each of the Group’s major hospitals in India, GCC, and Philippines.

Dr. A. Malathi, Group Chief Quality Officer Aster DM Healthcare

10 REASONS WHY ASTER’S IPO IS COMPELLING

Gone Back to Drawing Board Aster had floated its IPO plans a year earlier, and was in the last stages of obtaining approval for the same, when it decided on its own to take more time to go for it. The reason was an unexpected setback in its key Saudi Arabian operations, where its revenue was getting impacted by the financial difficulties faced by Saudi Health Ministry which was reimbursing much of the patient expenses being incurred.

This resulted in the receivables from its Saudi operations mounting, and Aster disclosed it to the regulators, and prudently went back to the drawing

board to rework its IPO figures. And during this past year when it happened, Aster went on overdrive in its other key market of India to reduce the impact from the Saudi slowdown. The result is an IPO of reduced size, not mainly from the reduced valuation, but from the reduced offer quantity of shares both by the promoter and one of the key investors. This willingness to go back to the drawing board is unseen in many companies and augurs well for the IPO especially when the Indian IPO market is showing signs of fatigue after some major issues barely scraped through.

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ASTER DM HEALTHCARE IPO

Solid Partners Dr. Moopen has solid partners in his company as well as for the IPO in which one of them is participating. According to market sources, Aster is planning to raise about Rs 1100 crore from the IPO. Aster DM Healthcare has a debt of nearly Rs 2,800 crore, mainly accumulated from its largescale expansion in India. Dr. Azad Moopen and his promoter firms hold 51.47 per cent stake in the company. Noted private equity firm Olympus Capital has 26.18 per cent stake while another renowned PE firm True North Managers (earlier known as IVF) holds 11.54 per cent. The offer comprises an issue of fresh shares worth Rs 775 crore besides an offer for sale of 11.67 million shares by promoter Union Investments Pvt. Ltd and 4.6 million shares by private equity backer Olympus Capital Asia Investments Pvt. Ltd. The firm plans to use the money to purchase medical equipment (Rs 110.31 crore ) and for repayment of debt (557.31 crore).

Homegrown PE player True North won’t be selling its stake in the IPO.

Impressive Growth Prospects

Daniel Mintz, Director Founding Managing Director – Olympus Capital, Asia

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Aster DM Healthcare has impressive growth prospects as it is not just a hospitals company but an integrated player having distinct verticals of hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. Its hospitals and clinics businesses have the important component of the booming diagnostic labs business too. In that sense, Aster’s IPO can be thought of as a combination of several healthcare businesses that have recently listed in the Indian market like Thyrocare, Dr. Lal’s Pathlabs etc, as well as earlier established models like Apollo and Fortis Hospitals. Moreover, the geographic risk for Aster is more spread unlike in all these companies, as Aster is already well established in 9 countries. And with each passing year, Aster has displayed better and better capabilities in launching market-beating hospitals, with its most impressive model being Kochi’s Aster Medcity which is not easily replicable by most of its competitors.

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LUXURY

FENDI'S NEW RUNAWAY BAG MAKES ENTRY INTO STORES Shown for the first time on the FENDI Women’s Fall/Winter 201718 catwalk, the Runaway is a modern bag with a geometric and light design. It has a clean structured shape with a magnetic closure.

Available in a regular and small version, the geometric size of the Runaway bag enables to keep all the essentials of a working woman: an iPad, working papers, iPhone and credit cards - thanks to the frontal and internal pockets. It also has an adjustable shoulder strap for a practical shoulder carry and a top

handle that reveals the versatile and fun side of the Maison’s new F is FENDI logo. The logo also works as an easily detachable spring clip, enabling to play and interchange with the FENDI Strap You and Mini Strap You! The metal accessories are created in a mix of palladium and gold-finish for an additional twist.

What rally defines the Runaway is its lightness – due to the internal lining in microfiber –becoming the best companion to be easily grabbed, jumping from one meeting to another, at any moment!

JEWELRY DESIGNER FARAH KHAN ALI LAUNCHES NEW COLLECTION - ELYSIAN DREAMS Indian jewelry designer, Farah Khan Ali, has created a new whimsical collection for the season, called Elysian Dreams. The collection takes its muse from the fluid gestures of a peacock to the beauty and elegance of a swan.

The collection expresses ecstasy through flamboyant silhouettes and colour palettes. Ornate and abstract motifs have been brought to life with sought after gems including natural flat diamonds in various shapes, radiant rubies, fiery green emeralds, rubellites, sapphires, citrine, kyanites and amethysts. The collection is a nature’s odyssey represented by a mix of intricate handmade necklaces, earrings, rings and cuffs.

MANDARIN ORIENTAL, LAS VEGAS ANNOUNCES ITS TECHNICAL AMBASSADOR: PEPPER Luxury hotel Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas has appointed Pepper, the humanoid robot, as its Technical Ambassador. The newest team member will primarily be based in the Sky Lobby on the 23rd floor, greeting guests, and complementing hotel services through engaging and playful entertainment. Endearing with large expressive eyes and lifelike movements and gestures, the four-foot (1.2-metre) tall Pepper can discern a guest’s gender, approximate age and mood. Interacting in natural and intuitive ways, Pepper provides personalised communication by detecting facial, body and voice cues. It can provide answers to property-specific questions, give directions, tell stories, dance and even pose for a selfie.

OVER 7,400 STRANGERS COME TOGETHER TO BUY FRENCH CHATEAU Over 7,400 strangers from around the world came together to purchase the 13th-century Chateau de la Mothe-Chandeniers in France. The crowdfunding appeal raised over •500,000 (Rs 3.8 crore) in 40 days, with the joint owners paying a minimum of •50. The co-owners will be offered shares in the company running the chateau, and have a say in its development.

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LUXURY VACHERON CONSTANTIN LAUNCHES SPECIAL OVERSEAS TIMEPIECES FOR INDIA AND MIDDLE EAST

Saluting the essence of India and Middle East, watchmaker Vacheron Constantin has unveiled exclusive Overseas timepieces dedicated to India and Middle East. These special editions blend the open-minded spirit of the Maison with inspirations from both the regions colors and sights.

Brown and gold are among the most mesmerising colors that characterise the unique and colourful regions.

While brown denotes strength, seniority, security and protection, gold is the color of elegance, sophistication, wealth, success and status.

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN UNVEILS LOUBITAG COLLECTION FOR SPRINGSUMMER 2018 Designer Christian Louboutin’s joyous and uncompromising approach to both life and work animates his Spring/Summer 2018 launch of Loubitag. A cross-category collection of women’s and men’s shoes, as well as leather goods, each style is printed or embellished with the designer’s iconic signature, as well as characters and messages that epitomise his spirit.

Mr. Louboutin’s personal appearances world over have a reputation for being fun and utterly unforgettable. He takes the task at hand seriously, chatting – and charming – clients, then personalising their pieces with not only his signature, but playful doodles, lucky charms SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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GUCCI'S MARCO BIZZARRI UNVEILS "CULTURE OF PURPOSE" SUSTAINABILITY PLAN

LOUIS VUITTON LAUNCHES SECOND COLLECTION WITH JEFF KOONS

Louis Vuitton has unveiled the second collection of bags and accessories designed with contemporary artist Jeff Koons. Based on the artist’s “Masters” series of paintings, this second chapter includes Reclining Girl by François Boucher; Delightful Land by Paul Gauguin; Luncheon on the Grass by Edouard Manet; Water Lilies by Claude Monet; The Triumph of Pan by Nicolas Poussin (exclusive for Maison Louis Vuitton Vendôme) and Ancient Rome by J.m.W. Turner. and even secret notes that reference the connection forged in their conversation.

Like a guestbook opening for the first time to the public, Loubitag compiles more than 25 years of designs, recounted through stories and emotion.

On the occasion of the International Day of the Girl and the 2017 Kering Talk at the London College of Fashion, Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri unveiled details of the company’s new tenyear “Culture of Purpose” sustainability plan with two significant commitments.

First, Gucci will join the Fur Free Alliance eliminating animal fur from its Spring Summer 2018 collection onwards; and second, that Gucci is contributing Euro 1 million as a founding partner of UNICEF’s Girls’ Empowerment Initiative.

LLADRO PRESENTS FRIDA KAHLO AS ITS LATEST MUSE Spanish art porcelain brand, Lladro, unveiled its sculpture of Frida Kahlo, which is exclusive to Mexico, a limited edition of 250 pieces to pay tribute to the Mexican painter, who was both subject and object of her own work. Lladró’s interpretation of the artist and universal icon was presented for the first time at Casa Azul in Coyoacán, Mexico, the place where she was born and died. The bust is the very expression of the exuberance of a groundbreaking woman who was ahead of time. The characteristic gestures and facial features, defined and underlined by makeup, the expression of her eyes and lips are recreated with a high degree of realism. The piece is made in glazed porcelain using several different decorative techniques.

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INSHORTS PUNJAB COUNCIL'S PRE-INDEPENDENCE RECORDS PROCURED FROM PAK As many as 43 volumes of preIndependence records of the Punjab Legislative Council have been procured from Pakistan and added to Punjab Vidhan Sabha library. The records include information about the Indian Independence Bill, views of the council members on partition, and key resolutions passed by them. A copy of the records will also be given to the Haryana Assembly.

IPL HIKES MINIMUM AUCTION RESERVE PRICE FOR PLAYERS The IPL Governing Council has increased minimum auction reserve price for players ahead of the 2018 season. The reserve price for uncapped players was escalated from Rs10 lakh, Rs20 lakh, and Rs30 lakh to Rs20 lakh, Rs30 lakh, and Rs40 lakh respectively. For the capped, new reserve prices are Rs50 lakh (previously Rs30 lakh) and Rs75 lakh (previously Rs50 lakh).

UK MUST APOLOGISE FOR JALLIANWALA BAGH MASSACRE: LONDON MAYOR It is time for the "British government to finally apologise" for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in which at least 379 people were killed, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said. The massacre took place on April 13, 1919, when troops of the British Indian Army fired guns on Indian nationalists meeting to protest the British government's forced conscription of Indian soldiers.

INDIAN DRONE INTRUDED OUR AIRSPACE: CHINA China's state media Xinhua News Agency on Thursday said that an Indian drone had "intruded" China's airspace and crashed. "The Indian move violated China's territorial sovereignty," said Zhang Shuili, the deputy head of China's Western Theater Command's combat bureau. However, Shuili did not divulge details regarding when and where the incident took place.

SHASHI BECAME SUICIDAL AFTER WIFE JENNIFER'S DEATH: SHARMILA While talking about late actor Shashi Kapoor, veteran actress Sharmila Tagore revealed that after the death of his wife Jennifer Kendal in 1984, he became suicidal. She added, "I don't think Shashi ever got over her death. It broke him and turned him reckless about his life." Sharmila further said Shashi was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

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56 OUT OF 60 DIG POSTS VACANT IN CENTRAL FORCES: REPORTS As many as 56 of the 60 sanctioned Deputy Inspector General (DIG) posts in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) are lying vacant, according to reports. The positions have been vacant for the past two years as IPS batches between 1999 and 2004 were smaller in size, reports added.

PETA NAMES INDONESIA'S 'SELFIE MONKEY' PERSON OF THE YEAR People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has named the Indonesian monkey who sparked a copyright case after snapping a grinning selfie from a British wildlife photographer's camera in 2011 as its 'Person of the Year'. The animal rights group said it was honouring the monkey to recognise that "he is someone, not something".

FITCH WITHDRAWS RCOM'S RATINGS FOR 'COMMERCIAL REASONS' Credit rating agency Fitch on Wednesday said that it has withdrawn ratings of debt-ridden Reliance Communications (RCom) for "commercial reasons". The firm will no longer provide analytical coverage or ratings for the Anil Ambani-led company. Earlier, Moody's Investors Service had withdrawn its credit rating on Reliance Communications after it defaulted on interest payment on its bonds.

CREATIVE LEARNING STARTUP FLINTOBOX RAISES $7 MN Chennai-based creative learning startup Flintobox has raised $7 million in a funding round led by Mumbai-based venture capital firm Lightbox. The startup had earlier raised $1.5 million from investors including angel investor Ashwin Chadha, GSF Accelerator and US-based Globevestor. Founded in 2013, the startup provides educational activity boxes for children between 212 years age group.

1ST MADE-IN-INDIA SCORPENE-CLASS SUBMARINE ENTERS SERVICE

PM Narendra Modi on Thursday commissioned India's first indigenous Scorpene-class submarine Kalvari into the Navy at Mumbai's Naval Dockyard. The 1,565-tonne INS Kalvari is India's first new diesel-electric submarine in 17 years and will be followed by five other Scorpene submarines under the Rs 23,000-crore "Project-75". It is equipped with acoustic silencing techniques and weapon launching tubes.

MET WITH NO AFTER NO FOR A WHOLE YR: DUNZO'S EARLY INVESTOR Aspada Investments, an early investor in task management app Dunzo has said that the startup, "Met with no after no for a whole year" before raising funds from Google last week. Aspada's Principal Sahil Kini said that Dunzo "wrote to every single investor in India" to raise funds. Kini added that the outsiders were also reluctant to lead a round.

US AIRLINE HONOURS VETERAN BY PUTTING HIS NAME ON A PLANE United Airlines honoured veteran Mark Lehman, who works as a lead ground service equipment technician with the American airline, by putting his name below the cockpit window of a plane. United surprised Lehman as part of its November salute to veterans. A senior United official said, "I really think veterans will appreciate seeing a veteran honored in this way."

US BREAKS 70-YR-OLD POLICY, RECOGNISES JERUSALEM AS ISRAELI CAPITAL US President Donald Trump has recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, breaking nearly 70-year-old US policy. The US has become the first country to recognise the status of Jerusalem which is claimed as the capital by both Israel and Palestine. Jerusalem's status is considered one of the biggest obstacles in reaching a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine.

OUR LAWYER'S BABRI CASE DEFERRAL PLEA WAS WRONG: SUNNI BOARD Sunni Waqf Board member Haji Mehboob has said Congress MP Kapil Sibal, who is representing the board in the Babri Masjid case, was wrong in asking the Supreme Court to defer the case till July 2019. Stating that Sibal is "related to a political party", Mehboob said that the board wanted a solution to the issue at the earliest.

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AUTO

UPCOMING ELECTRIC CARS IN INDIA As global warming rises to alarming levels, the government bodies are looking at curbing pollution in whichever way it’s possible, even if it calls for a complete de-fuelation of automobiles. Yes, the government has announced that the Indian automotive market will only have electric vehicles by 2030. And it has started to take steps in the similar direction and so have the automakers. So, let’s take a look at the soon-to-be-launched electric cars in the country.

1. SMALL TOYOTA EV Earlier this month, Toyota and Suzuki entered in a JV to manufacture electric cars in India. While the cars will be built at Suzuki facilities, the technical expertise will come from Toyota, the world’s leading alternate-fuel carmaker. As it’s in its initial phase, the details of the electric motor which will be powering the small Toyota EV is yet to be known. Its launch is expected by the year 2020.

2. RENAULT KWID EV Renault has confirmed that it’s working on a Kwid-based EV for the Chinese market. And if the low-cost EV is successful in the Dragon land, the carmaker will export it to other countries including India. The car is nearing its production over there and is likely to reach Indian shores by 2022.

The Renault Kwid is a successful product from the French automaker and with the electric badge, the small car will become more value for money with even lower running costs.

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5. TATA TIGOR EV Tata Motors stunned everybody by bagging the 10,000-cars order from the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) recently. The carmaker would be supplying the Tata Tigor electric vehicles under this contract. It is rumoured that the electric sedan will get an 85 kW electric motor and will weigh 200kg less than the standard sedan. However, there’s no confirmation on its mechanicals as of now. As there was a range limit of 130km per charge in EESL’s tender, the electric sedan will have more than 130km per charge capacity for sure. We expect the car to be available for the general public by the end of next year.

4. MAHINDRA XUV 500 EV As Mahindra and Mahindra promised to deliver two new electric vehicles by 2019, the other vehicle to get an electric battery is likely to be the XUV 500, since it is lighter and based on a monocoque chassis. After adding petrol variants to all its cars, the carmaker has pledged to launch electric versions of its entire lineup in the country.

The upcoming electric SUV will offer the highest range among the available Mahindra EVs (e-Verito has the maximum range of 170-180km per charge).

3. MAHINDRA KUV100 EV Mahindra is the only Indian carmaker that has been garnering news surrounding electric cars these days. After coming up with the Mahindra e2o and the e-Verito, the homegrown automaker is now gearing up to launch its first electric SUV - the KUV100 EV. The vehicle has been spotted testing recently, indicating an early launch. We expect the electric KUV100 to be on display at the forthcoming 2018 Auto Expo followed by its launch later in the year.

6. TATA TIAGO EV Sharing its platform with the Tigor, the Tiago hatchback is also getting an electric variant. Tata unveiled the full-electric version of the hatch at Millbrook, UK, in September this year. Powered by a liquid-cooled 85kW electric motor, it develops 200Nm of torque and has a top speed of 135kmph. A front-wheel drive car, it has a single-speed gearbox like all the other EVs. At 1040kg, it’s almost 20kg lighter than the heaviest Tiago variant of the standard car. It sprints from 0-100kmph in 11 seconds. We expect it to be on display at the 2018 Auto Expo with a subsequent launch later in the year.

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Amy X. Wang

TREND

Zumba, DANCING IN THE DARK IF GOING TO CHURCH CALLED FOR SWEATBANDS INSTEAD OF PRAYER BOOKS, SALSA MUSIC IN THE PLACE OF SCRIPTURE, AND A NEAR-INSANE AMOUNT OF NEON, IT MIGHT LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS. I SPENT A WEEK WITH 8,000 WORSHIPPERS OF THE FAKE, FANTASTICAL CULT OF ZUMBA. ight thousand men and women uniformly clad in blinding spandex have squeezed into a ware house-like basement space in Orlando, seemingly drawing from supernatural energy reserves to dance their hearts out on all sides of me fervidly yelling, cheering, following along expertly with the choreography being demonstrated by a dozen performers on the 360-degree stage in the middle of the vast room for hours on end, with the loudest roar yet when Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee finally appears, at long last for the show’s finale, to take the mic. His first few lines of “Despacito,” 2017’s most unlikely pop sensation, are nearly drowned out by the crowd.

For this is the 10th year of the Zumba Instructors Network Convention (“It’s just ZINCON,” most everybody in attendance insists, refusing to identify with anything so corporate-sounding as to have the word “network” in it), an official gathering of 8,000 zumba instructors from around the globe in the sweltering final week of July, all of SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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whom have convened, happily, ardently, to worship the utterly unreal.

It occupies not only Orlando’s 315,000sq-ft Hyatt Regency but three other venues as well, including the 2.1million-sq-ft Orange County Convention Center, which houses the convention’s crescendo: the “fitness concert,” headlined by Daddy Yankee. But all week beforehand, men and women sprint through hallways toting gold-andblack gym bags, ample sweat rolling down their cheeks, against a cacophony of mixed rhythms drifting out from the buildings’ every nook and cranny.

“We have more locations that teach zumba than McDonalds, Starbucks, and Dunkin’ Donuts combined.” Zumba, for the uninitiated or the somehow completely oblivious, is a type of dance or, as the fervent 15 million people that it draws to classes every week in 185 countries would prefer to call it, “dance fitness.”

“I was going to commit suicide, you know,” Yolie Cintron, a 54-year-old Puerto Rican woman with short cropped hair and steely eyes, tells me. She is calm

but casual, unpoised, when we meet up at a diner in the middle of the Hyatt a few days into the convention, sitting down to talk over a mountain of napkins and half-toppled ketchup bottles. We have to strain to hear one another, across the mix of uptempo dance music thumping in from rooms a few feet away.

Cintron tells me about her retirement from professional dance, then the car accident that halted her career as a dental hygienist, and finally the depression into which she spiraled afterward. She tells me it was like all the hope had been drained out of her life.

As she speaks, somewhere to our left, a

waitress seats half a dozen chattering women who sport tights in the same spectacular shade of canary neon; this diner operates 24 hours a day and has no windows, lit eternally by fluorescents in the ceiling, giving the odd illusion that it’s a space broken free from time.

Crowds trickle in, out, unstopping.

“And then,” Cintron whose full name is Iris Yolanda Martinez-Cintron, but she tells me at the start with a dry eyeroll that there’s no way in hell she’ll ever respond to that continues, her mouth curving up in a sudden smile, face abruptly transformed: “Then I found zumba.”

Okay, so, what is zumba? I ask Yolie Cintron, in the timeless, sunless hotel

diner. I want to know what the word means the literal definition. Cintron stops for a minute to think it over.

“SoulCycle gets a lot of press,” Alberto Perlman scoffs, with a dismissive jerk of the head, when we sit down together with Alberto Perez in their top-floor hotel suite in the Hyatt for an interview.

“You know how many studios they have?” Perez says, ready with the answer immediately: “Eighty. We have 200,000. We have more locations that teach zumba than McDonalds, Starbucks, and Dunkin’ Donuts combined.”

Perlman formerly a businessman in the tech world, now CEO of Zumba Fitness

LLC first met Perez, a Colombian dancer and choreographer, in the 1990s when Perlman’s mother took an aerobics fitness classes Perez was teaching. The thirty-somethings became fast friends.

One day, Perez forgot his regular music and had to make do with a random assortment of salsa and merengue, and it was then that he stumbled upon a potentially novel idea: dance instruction that didn’t have to fit into any existing performance category, but rather blended elements of various cultures into one amorphous style.

In the professional dance world where genres are as strictly divided as scientific fields of study such thoughts would’ve been blasphemy. In the realm of casual

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gym classes? Why not. It was already the hot age of buy-by-infomercial.

Perlman and Perez got together with one telephone in a garage and started selling DVDs and VHS tapes of Perlman’s new blended dance style, which brought together everything from salsa to martial arts. Perez’s videos, given the mysteriously zany name “zumba,” sold and sold. People started calling, asking how they could become teachers themselves. To be the Perez for their own friends and family. And so Zumba Fitness LLC was born.

The two Albertos had tapped into a profound realization: that the 80% of the population in the world who don’t exercise would probably do it if given the proper incentive. “Cheap fun” proved a good one. In the last several decades, zumba which is technically written with a capital “Z” given the legal trademark on the term, but we’ll refer to it lowercase here both in recognition of its sweeping cultural influence and to distinguish it from the Zumba LLC company itself has built up mindnumbingly large appeal by selling classes not to a wealthy bodybuilding elite, but to “normal” people who simply want to be happier. Classes don’t have designated brick-and-mortar locations, instead taking place only inside existing venues like gyms and local recreational spaces.

But cheap overhead costs aren’t zumba’s secret to success. As with most other radically powerful lifestyle brands, zumba curdles itself into the mainstream by selling an image rather than a product. And that image is community.

Via an opt-in, $35-a-month members network called ZIN, Zumba LLC ropes in thousands of instructors company executives refuse to reveal numbers, but hint that the majority people who get certified as zumba instructors choose to join it by offering exclusive music playlists for classes, business marketing tips, close-knit Facebook groups, choreography help, round-the-clock support, and an absolute abundance of local community gatherings. Those are vital. Other fitness brands like SoulCycle and CrossFit begin with a tightlycontrolled image, down to color schemes, and impose it onto obliging SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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professional instructors; Zumba LLC sits back and lets the cult flourish on its own, as ZIN members many of whom come into zumba as complete amateurs from office-job backgrounds bond with one another at barbecues and dance parties, master classes and concerts. The company organizes all the events, of course, but the infectiously eager instructors are the ones who have helped the pet project grow seemingly organically, earnestly into a multimillion-dollar empire.

company.” And: “We are like water.

Zumba goes everywhere, right? It just finds every place where it can be held.

The brand finds the location.”

The evidence of that insidious boom is right there, a few dozen floors below us. In its very first iteration in 2007, ZINCON drew only a crowd big enough to fill a single one of the Hyatt’s rooms.

This year’s convention, having hijacked four immense venues at the heart of

Today, Perlman and Perez are two of the “three As,” a team of three men who steer the Zumba Fitness LLC empire and incredibly enough are all named Alberto (the third one, Alberto Aghion, usually stays backstage handling “the finances or something,” Perez says to me with an airy wave of his hand). But even then, the two are known both across the 250employee company and to the vast devoted network by affectionate nicknames. Perlman is “A.P.”; Perez is “Beto.” Both sound more like names of rappers than corporate executives.

“Happiness! Giving!” A.P. yelps into a microphone at ZINCON’s first-day kickoff event in the Hyatt’s most immense ballroom, half-heartedly attempting to subdue the riotous audience before him. The energy isn’t merely palpable; it bounces straight off the walls of the place, sharp and wild and uncontrollable. Thousands squeeze into the space, scrambling madly over once-tidy rows of plastic chairs to get toward the front, where A.P. steps closer to the stage’s edge preacher to his waiting pulpit and continues ticking off what he sees as zumba’s most precious values: “Gratitude! Community.”

And after an intentionally weighted pause: “Exercise.”

While solemnity has no place in this congregation, devotion is another thing entirely. “There’s nothing like ZINCON. You guys are our inspiration. What do you tell people who change lives for a living?” he says to the roaring crowd.

Later, during our hotel suite interview, A.P. is less animated, as if putting on such a show has drained him. He’s a bit more cynical when he says to me: “By design, for many years, we hid the

Orlando already the land of makebelieve, home to SeaWorld, Disney World, Disney’s Animal Park, Universal Studios Florida, Typhoon Lagoon, Magic Kingdom, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a dozen other theme parks whose premises only get increasingly absurd from there is a five-day show of glitter-bombed grandeur, cramming in morning-to-evening programming of zumba classes led by superstar instructors, interspersed with hourly stage performances, prize giveaways, branding and advertising lessons.

The laminated welcome booklet alone totals 54 pages. At the two-hour kickoff event, company leaders spin through a mad whirl of zumba’s accomplishments; It’s forged partnerships with artists like Pitbull and Shakira, supported breast cancer research, made cameos in Hollywood blockbusters, even paid for cars and hospital bills of standout members who’ve undergone hardship.

In the chirping, ever-buoyant words of one Zumba LLC executive, zumba is a

movement in the left side, I had screws and all that, they retired me. I was so depressed. But zumba changed my life and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do it changed my life, it can change yours.

That’s how I became an instructor. I didn’t become a zumba instructor. I became more than that. It’s the stage for you to teach others they can do the same as you can do. It’s the freedom to try to change people to make somebody happy or smile or dance.”

can be as close to the stage as possible when Beto and his carefully selected dance crew come on, and later when Daddy Yankee makes his appearance as well.) “It’s the name of Beto’s hometown?” someone else guesses.

“I could not be more of a white girl, but I salsa like I’m Latin! When you do zumba you can transform into an African jungle queen. You can be Beyoncé. I can be Beyoncé.” “I thought it was African,” confesses John Brian Fuentes, a 35-year-old instructor originally from the Philippines but currently living in Frankfurt, Germany. Because Fuentes comes from a business background, he was a quick study on zumba’s artifice when he signed up to be an instructor— but even so, couldn’t discern the word’s origin.

Mario Lopez the 43-year-old television star most known for Saved By the Bell and Dancing With the Stars, who is briefly at ZINCON this year as a guest speaker has an enthusiastic, but even more misguided answer for me when I ask him: “I’m attracted to zumba because it has a large Latin influence,” Lopez tells me. “I think the Latin flavor is what makes it stand out.”

Actually, the word “zumba” is jumbled nonsense.

“stunning multicultural force for happiness in the world” but what that actually means is entirely unclear.

She thinks about it for quite a while.

“With zumba, you can go anywhere,” Cintron eventually answers, picking words carefully English isn’t her first language, as is the case with many of the instructors in attendance; a great number actually only speak Spanish. But Cintron is both earnest and eloquent when she tells me: “Zumba for me changed my life. I lost my job. I lost

Her words are lovely, blooming with inspiration. They still don’t answer my question. What’s the definition of zumba?

“It’s a Spanish word, something about a type of dance,” one attendee says to me with a bemused shrug, as I pose the question at large to a crowded clump of instructors sitting in a hall in the Orange County Convention Center, queued up tightly for that night’s fitness concert. (At the front of the line are several groups of friends who have been waiting for seven hours, they tell me, just so they

Perelman and Perez wanted “rumba” at first, a style of rhythmic dance from Cuba; it was already trademarked by another fitness group. “Zumba” was quite literally the result of the two men sitting in a Starbucks café, going down the alphabet until they hit upon the letter with the most intrigue. Co-opting other countries’ histories then packaging them as a new and improved lifestyle often raises cries of cultural appropriation, but in zumba’s case, nobody cares. Zumba isn’t promising anything as serious as peak athletic prowess; it only wants people to have fun and be well. A Harvard Business Review analysis in 2014 noted that successful brands “decipher where society is going in the long term and figure out how their brand adds value to that direction,” and zumba by tapping into fun, music, and now the world’s increasing infatuation with wellness has done that with a laser-like precision ironically at odds with how SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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loose and unstructured its classes promise to be.

Most zumba classes these days could be considered bastardized Latin dancing salsa, merengue, et cetera but zumba has sprawled out so much as a cultural empire that there are events on the 2017 ZINCON schedule with names such as “ASIAN INVASION” and “FOLK DANCES OF INDIA.” Visiting those courses, led by instructors not even necessarily of the dances’ ethnicities, I see the kinds of classes one would actually find in most mid-tier gym chains. The audience of the Bollywoodthemed class is about a third Asian, a third Hispanic, a third white. Latin doesn’t have much to do with it anymore: Zumba, as A.P. says, indeed has become “water.”

All the flavor sucked out, intentionally.

Starting from the product, and now, finally, in its very name.

“Zumba broke the mold on a what a dance class is,” Maggie Engels, a New York instructor with a story quite similar to Cintron’s, tells me a few days into the convention, sitting across from me in the (where else?) 24/7 Hyatt diner. “It took everything from all those styles and countries and brought them into one hour.

I could not be more of a white girl, but I salsa like I’m Latin! When you take the rhythms, when you do zumba you can transform into an African jungle queen.

You can be Beyoncé. I can be Beyoncé.”

A.P. shares with me another metaphor he favors: Not just water, but Kleenex.

“Nobody says ‘I want to go to dance fitness’ or ‘I want to grab a tissue’ it’s ‘a Kleenex,’” he explains. “We want to be the Kleenex of dance fitness. We chose some principles, like, local instructors have the freedom to choreograph their own routines, as long as they use the Zumba formula.” Zumba is happiness, after all; it’s not a 250-strong team of strategists who group together on a daily basis in a corporate office to push a product.

“We think of ourselves as open-source dance fitness,” he says, repeating that he and Beto “hid the company” at first.

That means aggressively pushing the substance itself and reeling back all commercial touches as much as possible, a point that has proven SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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especially crucial in Latin American countries, where many zumba instructors are located, and where individualistic attitudes are much more celebrated than corporate ones.

And, friendly and transparent as the “three A’s” pride themselves on being to their instructors, Zumba LLC as I’m reminded by its PR team, repeatedly, before the executive interview does not disclose the scantest of its financials. It is a tight-lipped private company, declining to reveal even the number of members it has in ZIN; its reported value is upward of $500 million but how upward is not publicly known.

In 2017, zumba is morphing once more.

The company has just decided to introduce “STRONG by Zumba,” an entirely new brand: a HIIT class, filled with quick, challenging bodyweight exercises, set to original music. A.P., Beto, and the press team all stress that the point is to step it up a notch, to offer a more intense rhythm-based experience for people graduating from zumba. But “STRONG” is essentially a typical gym

WE THINK OF OURSELVES AS OPENSOURCE DANCE FITNESS, HE SAYS, REPEATING THAT HE AND BETO “HID THE COMPANY” AT FIRST. class. Zumba, the company, has come full circle: It made something weird, subversive, and radically new by pretending it was rooted in the real; now it’s doing the exact reverse. Zumba has grown so much out of its origin that its followers its core of instructors, but also the 15 million people signing up for classes every week in the world do not see its “water”-like existence as a crisis of culture, but merely a fun activity that is its own brand-new culture. You buy yourself an hour of happy, mindless sweating, set to vaguely Latin-originating pulses mixed in with some of the top Billboard hits of the day, which rotate in and out, forgettable, easy, replaceable and in the madness of 2017, that is some sort of utopia.

By the time ZINCON’s Friday night fitness concert rolls around, one might expect the whole operation to have

collapsed instructors panting on the floor, peeling off shoes in defeat, music slowing down or at least being turned back to an appropriate, migraine-free volume. But not so. Beto and a dozen instructors, who’ve been carefully handpicked and trained for weeks beforehand while they lived together inside a single house, lead the thousands-strong room in hours and hours of ceaseless energy.

It’s more than three hours into the deafening spectacle when Daddy Yankee finally strolls out. He plays just a handful of songs, the final one being “Despacito” a Spanish-language pop song that shot up on music charts at record speed this summer and also became the mostwatched music video on YouTube. There is a resonance here that goes beyond how well the song’s thumping beats and guitar rhythms echo across the cavernous space: “Despacito” and zumba are both success stories equally astonishing and unlikely, built off what seems to be a desperate hunger for the existence of some kind of universal culture just not necessarily a real one. (And their achievements are entwined, too. The rapper himself gave a shoutout to zumba in an interview about the song’s rapid climb earlier this year.)

It’s a quick, pulsing melody, ending in an uproarious clash of notes. Daddy Yankee is irreverent, casual, seeming to not entirely comprehend or care for the very words that he’s pushing out from the microphone, perhaps unaware of them at times altogether, but it doesn’t very much matter; only half the people he’s singing to speak Spanish, anyway.

So really, what is zumba? I had asked Beto and A.P. directly, the morning beforehand. Beto took a second to muse over it, but it was A.P. who shrugged noncommittally and leaned forward to sitting just five feet away from me on the sofa in his suite unexpectedly give me the most elegant, starkly brutal answer of all: “Zumba? You can say it in every language. It doesn’t mean anything, so it has no meaning in any language, and it sounds like what it is.”

The song ends. Daddy Yankee gives a cool nod and leaves. The crowd in wrenchingly perfect harmony, of course SM goes wild.

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INTERNATIONAL

Ghani Condemns Killing Under The Name of Islam AFGHAN PRESIDENT TELLS INSURGENTS THAT “ISLAM IS NOT BEING THREATENED, IT IS YOUR REBELLION WHICH IS HURTING MUSLIMS.”

iscrimination against residents of the country is unacceptable and the government is to take action over the issue, president Ashraf Ghani said recently.

threatened, it is your rebellion which is hurting Muslims.”

Speaking at a ceremony at the Presidential Place on Milad-un-Nabi the Birthday of Muslims' Prophet Mohammad. Ghani said: “Our society doesn't need discrimination, it doesn't allow it,” Ghani said.

“Those bloodthirsty criminals who say that Islam is in danger, I want to tell them that Islam is not in danger, but it is the killings, crimes and treason which have devastated the Muslims,” said Ghani.

“Those who have anti-female sentiments and want to place obstacles on the way of the success of the Muslim women of Afghanistan, are in a real sense, undermining the development of the country and the progress of Islamic civilization,” said Ghani.

He also pointed to the insurgents and said that “Islam is not being

Ashraf Ghani

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“Killing of innocent civilians does not have any place in Islam and those who are killing the people under name of Islam are murderers,” he said.

Ghani’s second vice president, Mohammad Sarwar Danish, has said that those who are making allegations against the government officials and resort to creating division among the people are in-fact committing an act of treason on the future of people.

Meanwhile, the presidential palace has said in a statement that the president has offered an apology to the Afghan women over his recent remarks about the scarf.

“Today both the Shias and the Sunnis and all other tribes in Afghanistan live like brothers and they respect each others’ rights. They fight in a common trench against Daesh, Taliban and alQaeda under the leadership of the national unity government,” said Danish.

Recently, Ghani stated that those who cannot prove their allegations of the links between Daesh and the government officials should wear the scarf. But the remarks led to a strong backlash among Afghans, women in particular.

Danish said that the government strongly supports the political gatherings and accepts constructive criticism, but no-one should try to harm the national interests under the name of a political gathering.

SM

DIFENCE

INDIAN NAVY'S BIG PLANS, INCLUDING WOMEN IN WARSHIPS of 134 ships, over 250 aircraft, and 13 submarines, which are equally distributed between the two operational naval commands – Eastern Naval Command (ENC) and Western Naval Command (WNC), besides Southern Naval Command (Training Command) and Andaman and Nicobar Command.

“As of now, 34 ships are under construction at various shipyards in the country. If all goes as per schedule, in 10 to 15 years, the Indian Navy will have a strong fleet of 198 ships, 450 aircraft, and a good number of submarines as part of the expansion and modernisation plan,” he said.

The new air defence ship, INS Vikrant, being built in Kochi, would be assigned to the ENC and Visakhapatnam would be its base, he added.

If all goes as per schedule, in 10 to 15 years, the Indian Navy will have a strong fleet of 198 ships, 450 aircraft, and a good number of submarines as part of the expansion and modernisation plan. The Indian Navy is also finalising a policy for women officers to serve on select warships that have proper facilities for them. he women onboard the warships of the Indian Navy would work shoulder- to-shoulder with men in the coming years, Chief of Eastern Naval Command (ENC) Vice Admiral Karambir Singh told the media onboard INS Kamorta, here on Friday.

Over 50 women fighter pilots would be inducted into the Indian Navy soon, and some of them had been working with the force in various ranks.

“The living conditions in the warships are different, and the Indian Navy has been trying to create an environment for women to sail and work on the ships,” said Vice Admiral Karambir Singh.

Referring to the sacking of a sailor of the Indian Navy after he had undergone

sex change operation, Vice Admiral Karambir Singh said the Indian Navy’s regulations disallowed such persons to continue in service as India was part of a majority group of countries that did not allow gender reassignment during service.

A senior officer with the ENC said the Indian Navy would be modifying the warships and design them to suit the requirements of the women officers. The Shivalik Class ships had been designed to accommodate women officers, he added.

Vice-Admiral Karambir Singh said the Indian Navy had a long-term plan to strengthen the sea force in terms of ships, submarines, including nuclear submarines, aircraft, and manpower.

At present, the Indian Navy has a fleet

Explaining the growth of the ENC, ViceAdmiral Karambir Singh said it was established on March 1, 1968, and grew to be a force to reckon with in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean Region.

“The ENC is celebrating the golden jubilee year in the form of ‘Swarn Varsh Samaroh’. In the coming years, it will be the biggest sea force in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), dominating from the Gulf of Mannar to the East of Malacca Strait. The celebrations will conclude on March 1, 2018, when a special documentary on the growth of the ENC and Visakhapatnam city would be released,” he said.

Captain R. Sharma said the first of the six planned Scorpene-class (Kalvariclass) diesel-electric attack submarine (SSK), INS Kalvari, would be commissioned during the period 2017 and 2018.

Replying to a question on the Indian Navy’s joint operations with the Chinese Navy, Vice-Admiral Karambir Singh said both the navies were together operating in the Gulf of Aden to thwart the piracy attempts against Indian bulk carriers, he added.

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COVER STORY

10 STRATEGIES

CMSIDDARAMAIAH

IS BANKING ON TO

RETURN TO

POWER

THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT IT WOULD BE A TOUGH FIGHT BETWEEN THE INCUMBENT CONGRESS REGIME AND THE CONTENDER BJP. SEASONAL MAGAZINE DETAILS THE MANY STRATEGIES WITH WHICH CHIEF MINISTER SIDDARAMAIAH IS PLOTTING A SUCCESSFUL COMEBACK TO POWER.

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

A New KPME Favouring Patients hief Minister Siddaramaiah has been taking a slew of popular measures recently, and one of the most significant among them is the proposed amendments to Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act (KPME Act). While almost all other states in India had been so far unwilling to rein in the cutthroat practices that have emerged in this vital sector, Karnataka Government is boldly showing how to go about it.

While rates of all medical procedures are going to be standardised, gross unethical practices in the private sector like denying treatment without

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advance payment, withholding a deceased person's body unless balance is paid, and prescription of unnecessary surgeries, diagnostic tests, procedures, and medicines etc are all being targeted in this landmark legislation. The revolutionary nature of the proposed reforms as well as how it is going to be implemented is evident from the fact that influential private hospitals have already succeeded in instigating a strike of hitherto unseen proportions by private doctors in the state. CM on his part has maintained his stand that the matter will be duly discussed in the ongoing Winter Session of the Assembly.

Top Spot in Investment Intentions he Central Government maintains a State-wise break-up of ‘investment intentions’ in terms of Industrial Entrepreneur Memoranda filed for de-licensed sectors, Direct Industrial Licences granted and Letters of Intent issued. Karnataka, with investment intentions of ?154,173 crore had last year (January-December) wrested the numero uno spot from Gujarat that got investment proposals of ?56,156 crore. In 2015, Gujarat was the state with the maximum ‘investment intentions’ in value terms with ?64,733 crore, while Karnataka was only the fourth with ?31,668 crore.

Now, in this year too, Gujarat with

‘investment intentions’ worth ?65,741 crore obtained during the period January-September this year, is behind the national topper Karnataka that bagged ‘investment intentions’ worth ?147,625 crore in the period. Other States that Karnataka beat in ‘investment intentions’ during January-September 2017 were Maharashtra (?25,018 crore), Andhra Pradesh (?24,031 crore), Jharkhand (?13,002 crore), Telangana (?12,567 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (?9,443). India received investment proposals of ?332,266 crore till September this year. In all of 2016, the country had received intentions worth ?414,086 crore.

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

State's Stand on

Tipu Stands Vindicated ipu Sultan is perhaps South India's most famous king who valiantly fought the British rule. And Tipu did it in English style, importing firearms and ammunition.

Finally, when British realized that they couldn't overpower him straight, this brave Indian was treacherously ambushed and killed.

For more than 200 years since then, Tipu Jayanti has been a major remembrance festival in Karnataka.

That is history. But some BJP leaders in a newfound strategy of communal polarisation has been asking to ban Tipu Jayanti. The reason is simple.

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CM Siddaramaiah had made it an official celebration. But BJP's protests are showing every sign of fizzling out, with social media being bombarded

by BJP's own former ministers and leaders partaking enthusiastically in Tipu Jayanti celebrations of past years.

Also, recently, Karnataka High Court has refused to ban this year's Tipu Jayanti celebrations by dismissing a public interest lititgation filed on this issue. This has come as a major vindication of CM Siddaramaiah's stand that Tipu Sultan has always been a freedom fighter and that he will always remain so.

Deft Tackling of the Lingayat Issue or many decades now, the influential Lingayat community of Karnataka has been demanding that they be recognized as a separate religion, and not part of Hinduism. Though the community has several historical, philosophical, and theological proofs for demanding the same, most previous Chief Ministers have conveniently ignored this issue, unwilling to tackle the sensitivity of the matter. BJP especially has been opposed to the move, despite ironically having had a Lingayat Chief Minister in the past.

Even if state BJP is neutral on the matter, it can't invite the ire of RSS &

Amit Shah who would be averse to such an idea of an influential community parting with Hinduism.

But CM Siddaramaiah has boldly heard the Lingayat plea and has publicly announced that the Congress Government is committed to granting them separate religion status. Fortunately for him, the community's internal issues with Veerashaiva sect has virtually postponed this difficult decision, and the CM has asked the community leaders to sort this out among themselves, thereby getting enough time during this difficult election period.

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

Taking e-Governance to Next Level nder CM Siddaramaiah's guidance, the state government is planning to open 6,000 Bapuji Seva Kendras in every panchayat and the work has already begun in 514 panchayats. Such service centres will be opened in all other panchayats in the next three months. The CM had launched these kendras on July 1st to help farmers get copies of all official documents, such as record of right of tenancy and cultivation (RTC), and individual records such as caste and income certificates. When Siddaramaiah recently met Development Commissioners and Chief Executive

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Officers of all zilla panchayats, the CM directed them that since the elections may be held in April or May only, there are still five more months to complete all pending projects, including the revolutionary Bapuji Seva Kendras. At the same time, Siddaramaiah asked officials in all districts to recover government lands from encroachers and to use it for schools, colleges, anganwadis, community halls, hostels and cemeteries. Under his direction, a similar move by Bengaluru officials had yielded good results, and he directed all other district officials to follow suit.

Jumpstarting Access to

Food and Housing

hief Minister Siddaramaiah has made it clear in a recent meeting with concerned officials that the government wants Indira Canteens to be opened in all taluk headquarters soon. This follows the thumping success of the concept across Bengaluru. Clear guidelines were also given by the CM for rapid implementation. There should be one canteen for one lakh population. However, officials can take a decision on opening such canteens even if the population is less. The canteens should be opened at strategic places like bus stands, hospitals, APMC yards etc.

If government land is not available, officials can open mobile canteens or even take some places on rent to open canteens. The CM also made it clear that the government plans to build 15 lakh houses in five years. He directed officials to speedily allot sites to beneficiaries so that it will help them take up the construction and complete it on war footing. Siddaramaiah made it clear to the revenue officers that this ambitious housing project should be taken upon as a top priority.

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

Political Astuteness and Fair Play The animosity between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is no secret. Both in mainstream media and social media the leaders have openly criticized each other. With elections fast approaching, the verbal spats, claims, and counterclaims have only increased in both frequency and severity. That is why when Narendra Modi flew down to Bengalru's HAL Airport

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recently, he must have been expecting a normal reception.

But he was in for a grand reception, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself waiting at the airport with not just the customary garland, but with a grand crown and a shawl.

Modi was stunned for a moment, but a minute later was smiling and reciprocating the warmth. The Chief Minister personally adorned the Prime Minister with the traditional

Karnataka crown, with the shawl and the garland. Any keen political observer would have felt that the game was clearly advantage Siddaramaiah. He was clearly sending the message to voters who are still undecided that he is a man of fair play who would give respect where it is due; not just required respect, but even more, an offering of special warmth unseen in political circles.

Countering BJP's Nationalism with State's Kannada Love cross the Hindi belt, a trumpcard of Modi and Amit Shah had beeb fanning up nationalist fervor, and the tools of choice for the same have included the national flag, national language, national anthem etc. But BJP's efforts along the same lines have failed miserably in Karnataka, and the sole credit for which goes to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's strategies. He utilized the opportunity given by Centres's fervent imposition of Hindi in the state, by countering it with passion for Kannada language. The CM has made it compulsory for schools to teach Kannada, and have advised all those who don't know it yet to be conversant in it, and he made it clear that he regards it as a disrespect to the the state and its culture if some migrants to the state are averse to learning it. Even in a state which has warmly welcomed students and professionals from all over India, this has proved to be a winning move as far as votes are concerned. Siddaramaiah's calculation is that while native Kannadigas hate imposition of Hindi, all residents from other states who have stayed in Bengaluru for long to have a vote won't object to this move as they will either be already familiar with Kannada or would consider his directive as reasonable. He also took on efforts to impose Hindi head-on, by clarifying that Hindi is not national language but an official language.

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

Teams from @investindia and @WorldBank engaging with @investkarnataka , Karnataka Udyog Mitra & Govt of Karnataka to enhance preparedness of state IPA on Investment Promotion and Facilitation

Improved Rank in Business

Reforms Implementation Indian Government also ranks states rank states on implementation of business reforms as part of the ‘cooperative and competitive federalism’ approach. The competition is pretty intense as in 2016 it entailed an assessment of how each state had fared in implementation of the 340 business reform recommendations. This number keeps increasing and the business reforms action plan in 2017 includes 405 reform recommendations. In 2016, Karnataka occupied 13th position in India among 29 states, whereas Gujarat

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was ranked third. But in the 2017 ranking Karnataka has improved its position to eighth position, even overtaking Gujarat which has fallen to ninth position this year. Telengana has retained its top position from last year onward in this covetable rank list. However, since this scorecard is dynamic, these ranks can obviously change due to intense ongoing competition in various business policy implementation measures between the states, and Karnataka is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it steadily moves up in this national level ranking.

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ILL SUCCESS UCCESS SIDE IDE WITH WITH SIDDARAMAIAH IDDARAMAIAH? WILL

CONGRESS HIGH COMMAND AND SIDDARAMAIAH WORKING IN UNISON FOR A WIN

Facing major setbacks elsewhere in the county, Congress Party’s new leadership under Rahul Gandhi is determined to back Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to the end in the Party’s bid to return to power in this major southern state.

he newfound clout of the Karnataka Chief Minister at the AICC and its High Command was evident from the way Rahul Gandhi greeted the CM when he called on him recently. The incumbent President of Congress warmly hugged Siddaramaiah before having a fruitful discussion with him later on.

The Karnataka CM is not just the most successful mass politician Congress has today, apart from Rahul. His trump card is that he is also fiercely loyal to the party leadership, and has no national ambition beyond governing the state unlike the Shehzad Poonawallas of the party.

And unlike also the Mani Shanker Iyers of Congress, Siddaramaiah is an astute politician who is never caught with his foot in his mouth, despite being quite outspoken on most issues.

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various Congress leaders about BJP’s taunts regarding how Rahul was elected as the Party President, it was Siddaramaiah who gave the best reason – “Who will expect BJP to appreciate it?”

The message was clear as well as truthful – if BJP fears anything in Congress or UPA today, it is the rising popularity of Rahul Gandhi among the masses. While, even today, he is no match for PM Modi and his popularity, the likes of Amit Shah know pretty well that when BJP comes to face antiincumbency in Centre, even the small popularity of the Gandhi scion will be a definite threat, and that is why RGV is trashed at every opportunity.

But the unfortunate situation in Congress today is that there is absolutely no one in the party who would keep on countering BJP’s intelligent aggression with equal

intelligence. While there are enough leaders in Congress with above average intelligence and aggressive articulation, like P Chidambaram, the BJP has succeeded in putting him in the defensive for the time being with cases against his son.

For every party facing elections at the state level, the greatest problem has been dissidence, and Karnataka is no exception. Both BJP and Congress are plagued with this issue, with BJP having two power centres in the state, whereas the ruling party has at least three ambitious leaders in Siddaramaiah, KPCC’s President Dr. G Parameshwara, and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

While the iron hand of Amit Shah has temporarily ruled in favour of BS Yedyurappa, it is no secret in Karnataka political circles that major dissidence is still brewing strong in the state BJP. This

is all the more troubling for the state level leaders as Shah has an uncanny ability to project someone during elections, and unilaterally decide on a totally different candidate when selecting CM as was seen in Haryana and later in Uttar Pradesh.

This is where Siddaramaiah holds a distinct edge. Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have ruled unflinchingly in favour of the current CM as the next CM candidate too, and it is rare for Congress to project someone and decide on another later. Rahul has effectively checked in Dr. Parameshwara’s well-known ambition in the state for the time being by allowing him to continue in the post of KPCC President, while Mallikarjun Kharge is more loyal to the leadership to plan any dissidence.

That is why even while differences remain between the CM and KPCC President over minor issues like whether Siddaramaiah’s son should be given a ticket, all the larger issues remain solved. The main achievement has been that Congress has unanimously decided that all sitting MLAs would be given tickets.

The Chief Minister and the state Pradesh Congress Committee have also been sharing the massive responsibility for the campaign in an admirable way.

While CM Siddaramaiah has taken upon himself the task of visiting and conducting rallies in each and every sitting constituency of the Congress, the KPCC Chief and other ministers in Siddaramaiah’s cabinet have been entrusted with the task of visiting the other constituencies held by BJP, JDS and others.

The AICC observers led by KC Venugopal have also been doing a more than stellar job that usual. The young leader from Kerala has gone indepth into the various issues that will decide the ballot this time, and assessed that the anti-incumbency factor is strong in several sitting constituencies of the Congress. Venugopal has moved one step more and even named the Ministers and MLAs responsible for this development, and asked the CM, KPCC Chief, and Rahul Gandhi himself to intervene in this issue.

CM Siddaramaiah has personally taken this challenge seriously, and admonished these MLAs and Ministers publicly, and asked them to fast forward the various Government initiatives in their respective constituencies.

Siddaramaiah has also taken on BJP’s hard Hindutva stance effectively, asserting publicly several times in recent meetings that he too is a Hindu having the name of Lord Ram in his name as

well as worshipping Ram, Ganesha and others, as well as following the country’s and the state’s greatest spiritual and social leaders like Buddha and Basavanna. At the same time, he has come down heavily upon the alleged remarks by Amit Shah to go in for aggressive protests, and has continued his stance that communal harmony will always be Congress’ stance, which has always been Rahul Gandhi's stance too on recent controversies.

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SCIENCE

SCIENCE GALLERY TO OPEN IN BANGALORE IN 2018 Bangalore, often referred to as science and technology hub of India, is all set to host a unique science gallery where science and the arts will interact. alled Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB), the unique venture is a partnership between the Dublin-based Global Science Gallery Network and the Karnataka government as well as leading scientific institutions.

The global network has Trinity College Dublin, King’s College London and University of Melbourne among its members. The gallery in Bangalore will be the first one in Asia. The Indian Institute of Science, the National Centre for Biological Sciences, and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology are partners for the Bangalore gallery.

The Science Gallery Bengaluru is not going to be another science museum as such as “we do not and will not have our own collections,” insists Jahnavi Phalkey, a historian of science and technology, who has been appointed Director of the gallery.

Jahnavi Phalkey

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“You can think of it as a participatory laboratory where artists and experts from across disciplines engage with each other and with students to come up with interesting questions, and interesting solutions to them in the long run. This engagement will produce material that will become part of the exhibitions at SGB,” said Phalkey.

The gallery will promote cross-linking of disciplines and social issues in novel ways, and will try to engage young people in the age group of 15 to 25.

“We will not only change how we view often-disparate areas but also see how we might work together. I am particularly keen on students learning alongside scholars through tinkering and experiments,” said Phalkey.

She said the galley activities will engage young people - higher secondary school onwards into the last university years.

“The goal is one of engagement with

science and not science communication alone.”

“Activities in our own building will start in 2021. In the meanwhile, we hope to use public and institutional spaces in the city to begin with our programming,” Phalkey said. “We will produce events and exhibitions to nurture a creative and critical appreciation of science – and its relationship to nature and culture – in Indian public life.”

The gallery would also serve as a yearround public engagement platform for research carried out in the three participating research institutions, around key research themes of local interest.

Science Gallery International (SGI), the charity established to develop the Global Science Gallery Network, hopes to establish eight university-linked galleries worldwide by 2020.

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INVESTMENT

How Will India Resolve Nissan’s $770 million suit Against Tamil Nadu?

THE TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT IS WORKING TOWARDS RESOLVING THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE PAYMENT OF INCENTIVE REFUND WITH NISSAN, A JAPANESE CAR MAKER, RUNNING A PLANT IN ORAGADAM. NISSAN HAS INITIATED INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT, SEEKING $770 MILLION ON THE DISPUTE.

In 2015, the government, taking a cue from Maharashtra, amended rules on VAT, by which the claim on ITC was barred. The government’s order has been challenged in the Madras High Court. The Centre too held a series of meetings with the State government on the issue.

Nissan has claimed the incentive of ?

2,900 crore in VAT refund, whereas the State government says it has paid ? 1,600

issan has initiated international arbitration proceedings against the Indian government, seeking $770 million on the dispute, according to reports.

Explaining the State government’s version of the row, a senior official of the Industries department says the dispute has two dimensions. While one is over the refund of value added tax (VAT), another deals with the pace of refund of VAT accruals.

While the government is talking to the company, it is also apprising the Central government of the factual position as the company has raised the matter with the Centre, making a reference to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the official says.

In March 2010, Nissan along with its joint venture partner Renault established the plant after signing a memorandum of understanding with the then ruling DMK government in February 2008.

The venture has invested ? 6,100 crore in the following seven years with annual production capacity of 4.80 lakh vehicles.

taken place with the marketing entity, for which it claimed refund of 14.5% VAT. The refund would be allowed till the accruals reached the level of investment. The marketing entity was, in turn, also claiming input tax credit for its transactions, which the government found objectionable.

Through this arrangement, the company, according to those who handled the matter in the recent past, could get back its investment faster than otherwise.

For setting up plant, usually the state government offers financial incentives in the form of valued added taxes among others based on certain conditions.

The company’s contention was that there was nothing illegal about the way it was carrying out its business and this was why its claims should be settled.

“The issue pertains over differences in value added taxes refund claimed under the incentive. The incentives are spread over a period of 21 years,” the official said.

The dispute arose about four years ago when the government felt that the company was attempting to “claim double benefits” out of the project. The government contended that the company, by promoting a marketing entity, had shown that all its sales had

For setting up plant, usually the state government offers financial incentives in the form of valued added taxes among others based on certain conditions.

crore including ? 600 crore in the last six months.

“We are committed to working with the Government of India toward a resolution. Nissan is proud to play a role in the Make in India effort and we have created over 40,000 jobs in India, directly and indirectly, and contributed to the economic growth of Tamil Nadu where we have invested around a billion dollars,” Nissan spokesperson said in a statement.

Nissan taking the matter for international arbitration comes at a time when there are concerns in certain quarters about the investment climate in the state.

Last year, the state slipped to the 18th rank in the state-wise ease of doing business ranking released by the Centre’s Department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). It is to address this issue and attract greater investment that the State government, in late October, came out with an ordinance, envisaging single window clearance for industrial projects.

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INTERVIEW

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THE KITE CLIMBING UNDER CONTROL

KITEX GARMENTS LTD

SEASONAL MAGAZINE RECENTLY VISITED KITEX GARMENTS' FACTORY IN KIZHAKKAMBALAM, ERNAKULAM DISTRICT, KERALA, FOR ASSESSING THE FUTURE GROWTH PROSPECTS THROUGH AN IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH ITS CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, SABU M JACOB.

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recent study on Indian stock market’s most appreciating stocks within the last 10 years had a surprise small-cap stock from deep down Kerala, which is a state not known for its industries, let alone listed stocks, barring just a handful.

Yes, Kitex Garments Ltd was that stock which recorded a 6254% appreciation in price or 62.54 times growth during the past 10 years.

Based at Kizhakkambalam in Ernakulam District of Kerala, the firm specializes in the little-known and niche area of infant-wear expor ts to USA, but grabbed national eyeballs by coming up 8th in this list of wealth creators during the last decade.

Kitex rubbed shoulders with some of the most reputed wealth creators in India Inc, like Avanti Feeds, Ajanta Pharma, Relaxo Footwear, Eicher Motors, Somany Ceramics etc, and even beat some of the much bigger companies like Kajaria Ceramics, Bajaj Finance, Page Industries, TTK Prestige, Cera Sanitary etc, in this same period.

At around Rs.2055 crores in current market capitalization, Kitex was one of the smallest companies by mcap in this 20-stock list, signaling that growth is still wide open to Kitex, unlike many companies that had attained saturation points and slowing down.

A recent visit to the Kitex factory at Kizhakkambalam by Seasonal Magazine’s team also came back impressed at the sprawling facility from which every day one container of infant-wear is shipped daily to the United States. Kitex is a manufacturing powerhouse specializing in making millions of pieces a day, that SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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too according to the exacting standards of its US clients that include some of the most reputed brands like Gerber, Toys”R”Us, Lamaze, Walmart, Amazon, JC Penney, Target, TCP, Sam’s Club etc.

KItex Garment’s Chairman and Managing Director Sabu M Jacob has always done things differently, and it may be the main reason why Kitex has ended up as such a stupendous wealth creation success story from little-known Kerala Inc and a sleepy hamlet like Kizakkambalam.

Back in 1995, Sabu Jacob attracted some laughs from well-entrenched players in India’s then booming textile export hubs like Tiruppur and Bangalore, when he star ted building one of the largest ever dormitories inside the factory campus for accommodating the workers. It will surge the costs and never work out, was the general wisdom.

But today, Sabu is having the last laugh on this issue, as labor

MR. DONNIE HODGE PRESIDENT & COO OF KITEX USA LLC Mr. Donnie Hodge is an accomplished executive with 40 years of experience in apparel industry. He is currently the President and COO of Kitex USA LLC. Mr. Hodge’s previous executive positions includes President and COO of Knights Apparel , Senior Vice President – Strategic Planning and Executive member of J.P Stevens and its successor West Point Stevens , with his most recent position serving as the COO of Gerber Childrenswear. With his understanding of business dimensions like operations, manufacturing, marketing and supply chain Mr.Hodge helped orchestrate in the advancement of these companies.

While in Knights Apparel Hodge had initiated the book “Sewing Hope” a publication based on the Alta Gracia that was recently released by the University of California. A regular guest speaker in Business Schools across the US, he was recently named “Leader in Residence” at Emory University. Hailing from South Carolina, Mr.Hodge holds a BA degree from Erskine College, Due West, USA.

shortage did indeed prove to be the greatest risk in the textile exports industry, thereby forcing almost all the major players in Tiruppur, Bengaluru and elsewhere to start building accommodation for workers. But the Kitex CMD is way ahead in the game as he has the only secured dormitory fit for women, with all modern amenities. No wonder then that workers from over 22 states, including textile majors like Tamilnadu and Karnataka are living and working in Kitex.

Always a visionary who thinks ten years ahead of competition, Sabu again attempted such a feat last year when he hired a US firm to fully mechanize or automate the Kitex factory. It would have made history, SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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as Kitex would have ended up as the first fully mechanized textile unit in the country.

But unfortunately, the mechanization effort didn’t succeed in converting the entire factory in one stretch.

The market which was pinning high hopes on this venture too, panicked, and that was how Kitex stock suffered a major fall during last year.

However, Sabu has not called off mechanization efforts at all; rather he has retained the same US firm, and they are mechanizing one unit after the other systematically, across the Kitex plant. But unlike earlier, Sabu is taking no chances, and is also growing the manufacturing capacity by way of non-mechanized growth too, and one day soon, he is dreaming of converting Kitex into a fully mechanized unit that reduces its reliance on adding more and more workers for effecting growth.

Like all textile exporters to US, Kitex too is faced with a market that is getting tougher day by day due to the low inflationary expectations for consumer goods, and intensifying competition on price, that has been

pressuring its profit margins.

But based on his past 22 years of experience of doing business in USA, Sabu has formulated his own strategies to remain and thrive in this game. Under his expert guidance, Kitex has tied up with Lamaze as a licensed brand, and also introduced Kitex’s own brand in the US, named as Little Star.

Earlier, Kitex’s business in USA was only by way of the reputed private labels like Gerber and supermarket chains like Walmart, but under this new strategy, Kitex’s sales team in USA is better positioned to tap each customer fully as it has three product lines to offer – private labels, licensed brand Lamaze, and its own brand Little Star.

Sabu Jacob has also taken care to hire world-class professionals to run the show at Kitex. Kitex’s Vice President (Manufacturing) is Christian Strahm, a Swiss national with over 45 years of global experience in textiles and apparels. He is based here in Kizhakkambalam, Kochi, and has been with Kitex since 2009.

Similarly, the company’s President & COO for Kitex USA LLC is Donnie

Hodge having decades of experience in marketing, merchandising, and allied work in the apparel industry. He was earlier a Senior Vice President with Gerber, one of Kitex’s largest clients.

To reduce the time required to design and win new major clients, Kitex has also started its own Design Studio in US, and has thus become one of the few Indian companies to do so. Kitex’s US design and marketing team is very strong, many of them coming from the best companies and brands.

Most of Kitex’s key managers and employees in Kochi have completed more than 15-20 years with the company. It is no wonder really as Sabu himself has been involved with the operations ever since he was 12 years old!

Kitex is currently undertaking a huge expansion plan amounting to Rs.242 crores. The new investments would go into three areas funding mechanisation of existing facilities, addition of new buildings and new machines, replacement of old machines, and hiring of more workers. Kitex is also investing into beefing up safety standards, and other connected works.

Kitex is also preparing a detailed roadmap for the next 8 years, that is until 2025. By 2022 the company expects to double its capacity.

Towards this it has roped in one of the world’s most reputed consulting organizations. While their report is expected to be tabled by this December, their role will be end-toend in that they will be in charge of the implementation of the plan as well as monitoring. Their consultants will be working with Kitex staff on a continuous basis.

Sabu M Jacob and Kitex also shines

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Kitex Garments’ Design Studio in USA

Kitex is also preparing a detailed roadmap for the next 8 years, that is until 2025. By 2022 the company expects to double its capacity. Towards this it has roped in one of the world’s most reputed consulting organizations. above most companies their size when it comes to their CSR activities. Their CSR arm Twenty20 has captured national imagination last year when it competed in the local panchayat elections and was voted into power by the people. Recently, the Twenty20 organization and Kitex got a shot in its arm when Union Minister for Roads, Nitin Gadkari came in to Kizhakkambalam to inaugurate their new revolutionary store for food items. The Minister was all praise for Kitex and Twenty20, exhorting all companies and founders to learn from Kitex, and promised a Rs.40 crore package to better the roads in Kizhakkambalam.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE IN CONVERSATION WITH SABU M JACOB, CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, KITEX GARMENTS LTD: You have recently announced a $1 million additional investment into your US arm. What will this be used for?

Yes, but this is not an additional investment, but something which is according to the plan for Kitex USA LLC. This is basically for completion of work of our own design studio there, as well as for beefing up our supply chain management.

With almost all your business coming in from USA, how do you assess the growth prospects there?

First of all, it is not easy to get into the US market. But we have managed

it for the last 22 years. We know indepth the market, the brands, the distribution network, the competition etc. It is also very challenging to keep competing in the American market.

Unlike in India, the inflation rate in daily use items like apparel or food or electronic items is very low. If a dress sells for 5 dollars this year, the customer expects it to go down to 4.50 dollars the next year, and it happens too, as the big brands and supermarket chains battle it out with each other. If Wal-Mart is selling something for 10 dollars, Target or JC Penney would try to sell it for 9.90 or 9.80, and this competition continues, pushing prices down. Often we find the same dress getting rebranded in two different labels to manage the price SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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expectations of different large department store chains. Naturally, such pricing pressure reaches manufacturers like Kitex too.

What are your strategies for remaining competitive in such a market?

MR.CHRISTIAN STRAHM VICE PRESIDENT – MANUFACTURING & TECHNOLOGY KITEX GARMENTS LIMITED Christian Strahm is the Vice President for manufacturing and technology at Kitex Garments Limited. Mr.Strahm has been associated with Kitex from 2009 onwards and brings to his position a well established background in technology, production, quality and process engineering.

Strahm is a Mechanical Engineer by qualification from High-tech University of Engineering, Aargau, Fachhochschule . With 45 years of global experience in engineering, Christian Strahm is the Founder, of Santex AG, a market leader in the manufacture of textile finishing machines. During the period he served as the CEO and President of the board. He is also the co-founder of Strahm Textile Systems AG which seeks to develop and produce installations for textile industry. Among his significant previous positions, Strahm served as consultant to textile machine factories in Germany. He is also the dignified winner of Branco Weiss Prize and Switzerland’s Entrepreneur of the Year award .

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We have grown with the US market for over two decades now, and we were surely expecting the competition to intensify to such levels as seen now.

So, what we had been doing since the last few years is to keep building a strong foundation in the US. We don’t want to be dependent only on the major private labels that we supply to.

That is why we have tied up for a licensed brand like Lamaze, as well as started our own private brand, Little Star. When our sales team approaches a department store, they now have three different options to offer. These three are at different price points. The store might take one of these options, and there have been customers like Toys”R”Us that take in all three of our product ranges. Starting our own design studio in USA is also helping us in speeding up the processes behind offering these three product lines. We also have to balance these three groups of products as one’s growth shouldn’t come at the expense of the others.

Did the bankruptcy of Toys”R”Us in America affect you in any way?

Not at all. This is because bankruptcy in the Indian context and bankruptcy or the Chapter 11 filing in US, are two different concepts. Here, bankruptcy means the company has turned fully insolvent, incapable of salvaging.

There, a Chapter 11 filing means the debts are going to be restructured under authorization of courts and that lenders are going to refinance the business. Especially after the global economic crisis of 2009, banks need to go for court’s oversight before restructuring and refinancing. In a way, some companies who file a Chapter 11, emerge stronger over the long run.

A recent study on Indian stock market’s most appreciating stocks within the last 10 years had a surprise small-cap stock from deep down Kerala - Kitex Garments Ltd - which recorded a 6254% appreciation in price or 62.54 times growth during the past 10 years.

What do you assess as the main risks for this business, in the shortterm as well as the long-term?

I have always maintained that the key risk of the apparel business, be it in India, China, Bangladesh, or even the US, is labour and its shortage.

Starting in 1995, Kitex has been the only textile company in India which went in for large scale accommodation facilities for its staff.

Back then, other industrialists at hubs like Tirupur and elsewhere used to laugh at me, saying I am mad. But

now, facing acute labour shortage they all are doing the same. Still, they are attracting only male workers primarily, whereas Kitex due to its secured dormitories are attracting so many female workers from every nook and corner of the country. You will be surprised to know that we have workers from 22 Indian states now.

What are the further challenges that you see on the labour front?

I would say that an operation like Kitex, due to its foresight, is risk-free

on the labour front for the next 10 to 15 years. But we are not taking any chances, and are always exploring ways and means to reduce the risk from labour issues. For example, one trend that we have been observing is younger workers’ desire to have white collar jobs even when they can have better paying blue collar or factory jobs. This is not a major issue now, but it will become for sure in the long run. We have to face this reality. How we are tackling this is by going in for mechanization in a phased manner.

Kitex Garments’ Design Team in USA

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What is the capacity utilization of your current production facility?

Are you planning any capacity expansion within the next 1 to 2 years?

Capacity utilization in an apparel unit is a very subjective metric.

Someone might say we are running on 100% capacity utilization, but they will be making only 2000 pieces a day. I would stress more on the overall efficiency of the plant. The global plant efficiency for 365 days in this business is around 50%, whereas Kitex has achieved a plant efficiency of around 75%. Which means we are already operating at 50% more efficiency than even our best competitors. And still, we are trying to improve. So, capacity is not machine dependent alone. And in that sense, we are adding capacity every day. Having said that, we are also augmenting the machine capacities too.

Are you engaging any big consulting agencies for producing such efficiencies?

Believe me, this is no rocket science. But it demands long years of experience and a lot of commonsense.

We have previously engaged with a few international consultants, but the results were mixed. One reason is that it is very rare to find consultants with experience in exactly our line of

Kitex is a manufacturing powerhouse specializing in making millions of pieces a day, that too according to the exacting standards of its US clients that include some of the most reputed brands like Gerber, Toys”R”Us, Lamaze, Walmart, Amazon, JC Penney, Target, TCP and Sam’s Club etc. business. They will be experienced in some other mainstream sectors, and they will try and apply that knowledge into our niche domain, and the results won’t be adequate. Instead, we rely on our hard-won experience. I have been in this field for more than two decades. We also hire the best professionals. Our Vice President (Manufacturing) is Christian Strahm, a Swiss national with over 45 years of global experience in textiles and apparels. He is based here in Kizhakkambalam, Kochi, and has been with us since 2009. Our President & COO for Kitex USA LLC is Donnie Hodge having decades of experience in marketing, merchandising, and allied work in the apparel industry. He was earlier a Senior Vice President with Gerber, one of our largest clients. Our US

design and marketing team is very strong, many of them coming from the best companies and brands. Many of our key managers and employees here in Kochi have completed more than 15-20 years with us. So between us, we are the real experts in this field, and now we are even developing an ERP system that can literally plan anything in this line of business.

Can you elaborate the expansion of physical or machine capacities, and the kind of investment that is going into it?

During our last board meeting, we have obtained approval for capacity expansion and other works amounting to Rs.242 crores. Now, if you look at a garments company like Kitex, capacity can come in only three ways – one is additional machines, the other is additional labour, and the third is mechanisation. Our investments would go into all these three areas, that is, it will fund mechanisation of existing facilities, addition of new buildings and new machines, replacement of old machines, and hiring of more workers. We are also investing into beefing up safety standards, and other connected works.

With India being a huge market, are you planning to launch Kitex’s own brand, Little Star in India?

I think it is a misnomer that India is a huge market for garments, let alone our niche domain of infant wear.

Demographically India is of course a huge market, but when it comes to purchasing power we lag advanced markets like US by a long gap. For SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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example, an average Indian, a common man, might use a shirt for 15 years. But in US, a shirt won’t be worn for even 15 months. Apart from purchasing power, there are also other factors like the four distinct and extreme climates there, during a year.

They need separate clothes for summer, winter etc. Often, our experience is that the average use of a garment in US is not more than 3 or 4 months. So, it is a huge market which can take in a million pieces a day from a manufacturer like Kitex, and even many others like us from say China, or Bangladesh. There is no other market like the US in the world, not UK or EU. But if Indian market matures by way of purchasing power and replacement frequency, will you consider it?

It remains to be seen, as there are other factors too that makes Indian market not very attractive to a company like Kitex. Here, there is no guarantee for your money or your trade receivables. Here the credit period is too long, and even a large cheque may bounce and there is little that a manufacturer can do about it.

In US, companies enjoy a secure business and payments environment.

Then there are the labour, distribution, and even the legal and political systems that should be tackled to do retail business in India. I understand that there are ways and means around all such hindrances, as many retail success stories are there in India too, but as of now I am not willing to consider it as it requires a different mindset that will distract us from our core competencies.

Toys”R”Us recently launched its operations in India. Are you supplying to their Indian operations too?

See, for almost all our big private label clients in USA, we are global suppliers. This means our products are reaching some major markets outside US too, like Canada, China SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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etc, so maybe our products are reaching India too.

Have you added any new clients or private labels in US or elsewhere during the last two quarters? Are there any new clients to be added this fiscal, in the pipeline?

First of all, let me clarify that winning new clients doesn’t happen on a quarter to quarter basis in this business. We are asked to deliver trial orders first. Some brands repeat trial orders for three times or more, before deciding. So it is a time consuming affair. Since we have three different product lines now, usually we get confirmation in at least one. Even in such a tough business environment, it is to Kitex’s credit that we could win over two of the largest players, WalMart and Amazon. We have also won over other majors like Target, Ross Stores, and Jet.com which is a WalMart subsidiary. All these wins were after lengthy processes. Similarly, we have ongoing approval processes with several big wholesalers, retailers, brands etc. While I can’t name them as the deals haven’t been concluded, I am hopeful of adding 10 more stores or labels this year.

"We are in concrete discussions with some of the best US brands and stores, and they are in various stages of approval before hopefully progressing to the conclusion stage. We have big plans for some of them and we are getting strong signals from these interactions, and we are hopeful of announcing certain deals within the next two months."

Where do you see the volume growth coming in during this fiscal and the next? Is it your conventional large private labels, Lamaze, or your own brand? What would you peg as an achievable revenue growth target?

As of now, our older private label business is the largest segment and still our major growth driver. It will remain so too. However, I expect our own brand as well as Lamaze to catch up in the longer run. We are not providing any revenue guidance any more as in case we are not able to meet the guidance the stock overreacts.

How has been your profit margins performing? Do you think that they can be improved in the near future?

Our profit margins are stable now, as can be seen in the last fiscal’s as well as the last two quarters’ figures.

We are targeting better profitability now on various strategies like selling to large retailers directly instead of going through wholesalers or distribution companies.

How do you view the new protectionist business environment in USA as President Trump completes his first year? Was it as adverse as expected, especially for Indian textile / garment exporters like Kitex?

Actually, nothing much has changed under President Trump. I am speaking this as a garments exporter. I know that he is following protectionist policies in various business segments, and I think he is right in doing that as a lot

of US manufacturing has been shifting to China, Korea, and other countries.

He is doing what is right for America.

And I feel that his policies will succeed in bringing back many large industries like automotive, IT, heavy manufacturing etc back into US. Already, companies like MercedesBenz are making cars cheaper in USA than in many other countries. But there are automatic limits to such protectionist policies. He has to balance the interests of American businesses with those of the American public when it comes to the crucial issue of bringing down living costs. This is where Indian textile exporters like Kitex enjoy a huge advantage. It is just impossible to bring back mass production textiles back into US due to the cost advantages in Asia.

Can you quantify this claim with an example?

Sure. See, Kitex may be supplying a typical infant wear at 70 cents to a wholesaler in US, who may be selling it to a retailer at a reasonable margin, and the retailer will be selling it to the end consumer at 2 dollars. If you try to make the same infant wear in US, it will come to at least 5 dollars to manufacture it, and the retailer will have to sell it at 8 to 10 dollars. This is unthinkable in the US, as it will be a body blow to the common man there.

This happens because our average wage cost per worker per day is around Rs.400, whereas the same for a US worker will be somewhere between Rs.8000 to Rs.10,000. Then there is the issue of labour shortage.

Even if US Government were to force all textile companies to produce in US itself at these high costs, where will the workforce come from? Given the SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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high level of garment consumption in the US, almost all Americans would need to work in textile sector for this to happen! That is why, I always say that even in the face of protectionist policies, this business has no such risk for the next 10 to 15 years.

Has the GST implementation affected your operations in any way? Has it been of a negative impact?

I know that GST would be a longterm positive for this country as the system assures that there is no escape from tax. But, as of now, the situation is really fluid, and no concerned department can fully explain the confusions businesses are having.

Whenever a new system or product comes into our lives, this confusion is there, be it a new ERP, a new car, or a new phone. There will be a difficult teething period, a learning curve. For the textile sector, there is no doubt that GST implementation has been challenging as taxes have gone up.

This sector also face the double whammy from the withdrawal of the earlier drawback/benefits mechanism.

Even with all these challenges, Kitex has maintained profitability in the recent quarter. And I also expect Government to aid textile exports as this is a major sector that is vital for the economy in more than one way.

While there was great promise in the Kitex stock, are you

Kitex is currently undertaking a huge expansion plan amounting to Rs.242 crores. The new investments would go into three areas - funding mechanisation of existing facilities, addition of new buildings, new machines, & replacement of old machines, and hiring of more workers.

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disappointed the way the price had run ahead of performance, and tanked since then?

When our performance is high, market tends to have higher expectations. But then something happens that is beyond our control. For example, last year, we were betting big on implementing mechanisation in one go. It was handled by a US company. But it didn’t work out as expected. And immediately the stock market responded. This doesn’t mean that we have forsaken mechanisation.

We are still implementing it with the help of that US vendor, but now in a phased manner. They have implemented mechanisation in some segments in the plant. However, since growth or expansion plans can’t wait for mechanisation to be completed, we are pursuing conventional growth plans in parallel. This is the commonsense approach, the correct business strategy. We are committed to mechanisation, despite the challenges and investment, as we realize that in the long run it will derisk this business.

To what do you attribute the recent surge in the share price? Is it because the market is sensing a new liberal dividend policy?

Market always reacts differently than expectations. Last year also the dividends were there, but there was no such reaction. I think it has more to do with our good Q2 performance in revenue and profit on both year-onyear and quarter-on-quarter basis.

Also, the general market sentiment is up, and dollar was showing strength which is good for export businesses.

When are you planning a merger with Kitex Childrenswear, as this has been an overhang on the stock for some time now?

We have different options to go about it, and whichever option we finally choose, it will only be in 2020.

I would prefer a listing of Kitex Childrenswear through an IPO first, and then a merger with Kitex Garments. This is to avoid any doubts regarding valuation and provide maximum clarity as it is a closely held

company by promoters. But we still haven’t decided finally. The next 3 years are really important for us from a growth perspective, and only in 2020 we will decide finally.

Since you have proven capabilities in the garments line as well as familiarity with major US clients, are you looking for licensing agreement with any major US brand for India, just like how Page Industries have done for Jockey?

Already a few of our US customers have discussed this with us, whether we would be interested in taking up such a licensing model for India. But each time we have declined the offer.

Page Industries is also a distribution and retailing company that markets to consumers, whereas our core competence is high volume manufacturing. Page has also benefited from poor competition for Jockey products in India, which is not the case for the brand elsewhere especially in US. In our case, for the last 22 years, I have been involved in garments

manufacturing, ever since my college days, and thus I have become an expert in this. I view diversification with scepticism, as my philosophy is that we should stick with our core competencies. For argument’s sake, I can say we can start even an IT company, and I agree I can hire specialists to head that company, but I believe the man at the top should fully understand the intricacies of that business for it to succeed. So, Kitex doesn’t have any such plans as of now, and also for as long as growth prospects are sound in this business.

But if the situation changes, well no one can predict what each of us will get into!

What are your plans for Kitex Garments in the next 2 to 3 years?

To tell you frankly, we are moving away from this kind of short-term planning. What we have found is that when we invest for 1 year, we get results only in 3 years. By then it is again time to reinvest. So, from this year onward we are making a detailed roadmap for the next 8 years, that is

When Union Minister Nitin Gadkari came in to Kizhakkambalam to inaugurate the new revolutionary store for food items, he was all praise for Kitex and Twenty20, exhorting all companies and founders to learn from Kitex, and promised a Rs.40 crore package to better the roads in Kizhakkambalam. until 2025. Again, it will be in a phased manner, with the first phase being of 3 years – years 2018-20, and the second phase being of the next 5 calendar years. By 2022 we expect to double our capacity. We have roped in one of the world’s most reputed consulting organizations for the same.

I can’t disclose their name as of now.

We expect to get their report soon.

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Their role will be end-to-end in that they will be in charge of the implementation of the plan as well as monitoring. Their people will be working with us on a continuous basis.

How do you expect your marketing initiatives in US to bear fruit in the near future?

We are in concrete discussions with some of the best US brands and stores, and they are in various stages of approval before hopefully progressing to the conclusion stage. We have big plans for some of them and we are getting strong signals from these interactions, and we are hopeful of announcing certain deals within the next two months.

You have been the rarest of rare business leaders in India, for having grown a CSR operation – Twenty20 - into a political party that won the local panchayat elections. How far up to your expectations has been your experience with the panchayat administration? Why do the local roads continue to be in a bad shape?

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Since we won the elections beating all the major political parties in Kerala, they have been utilizing every opportunity to tarnish our image. We don’t counter their trolling in social media channels as the people of Kizhakkambalam who voted us into power know the truth. The good people here are even surrendering their lands free of cost to the panchayat for widening 16 roads that we are rebuilding. Regarding roads, as you

"I think the recent improvement in Kitex share price has more to do with our good Q2 performance in revenue and profit on both yearon-year and quarter-onquarter basis. Also, the general market sentiment is up, and dollar was showing strength which is good for export businesses."

will be knowing, there are three or four different types of roads. As a panchayat, we can only take care of the panchayat roads, and not the NHAI, PWD, or KSTP roads. Those are the responsibility of the the Central and State Governments.

The roads that are in the worst shape are the KSTP and PWD roads. We have already announced that we are open to maintain those roads in Kizhakkamblam too if we are entrusted with that. It is up to the State Government to agree or not to this proposal. With regard to our panchayat roads, all the planning and acquisition have been done, and work will be in full swing when the rain stops. Apart from the NHAI roads, most roads are in a bad shape across India due to unscientific construction and maintenance. We are re-laying the foundation of our panchayat roads, re-designing the roads with possible widening, and also constructing proper drainage. It will take time, and no overnight wonder is possible.

But without these factors, there is no point in re-tarring roads, that will be in bad shape within months. We will also be doing the most modern method of tarring.

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4 INDIAN STARTUP IN “LAUNCHPAD ACCELERATOR”

BY GOOGLE THIS YEAR

GOOGLE RECENTLY REPORTED THE FOUR SHORTLISTED INDIAN NEW COMPANIES FOR ITS HANDS-ON MENTORSHIP PROGRAM ‘LAUNCHPAD ACCELERATOR’. WITH THIS GROUP, AN AGGREGATE OF 30 INDIAN NEW BUSINESSES HAVE SO FAR JOINED THE CLASS.

KERALA LAUNCHES INDIA'S LARGEST SOLAR POWER PLANT CONSTRUCTED BY THE THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-BASED AD TECH SYSTEMS, THE PLANT WILL GENERATE SEVEN LAKH UNITS OF POWER IN A YEAR. THE PRIVATE FIRM HAS ALSO OFFERED TO PROVIDE TWO-YEARS OF FREE MAINTENANCE WORK AT THE PLANT. ndia's Largest Floating Solar Power Plant in Kerala to Start Operations Today The total cost of the Banasura Sagar dam project is Rs. 9.25 crore.

State power minister MM Mani will inaugurate the plant at the Banasura Sagar dam in Wayanad at 3pm.

"The solar power plant that floats on the surface of water has a capacity of 500 kilowatts (KW). This is the country's largest floating solar plant," the official release issued by Kerala State Electricity Board read.

The solar plant consists of 1,938 solar panels with a capacity of 260 watts, a 500 kilo volt ampere (KVA) transformer and 17 inverters.

he shortlisted new companies – BabyChakra, m.Paani, NIRAMAI and SocialCops – will join a gathering of new companies shortlisted from everywhere throughout the world at the Google Developers’ Launchpad Space in San Francisco in the US. Class 5 of the mentorship will commence on January 29 and will incorporate two weeks of all-costs paid preparing, as a component of the full half year program.

“These new companies have been shortlisted in light of their one of a kind offer and utilization of most recent advances like machine learning and computerized reasoning,” Roy Glasberg, Global Lead, Google Developers Launchpad, said in an announcement.

"The unique feature of this plant is the anchoring mechanism used by the overwhelming technology to maintain the plant with the alteration of the water level," the official statement read.

Constructed by the Thiruvananthapuram-based Ad tech Systems, the plant will generate seven lakh units of power in a year. The private firm has also offered to provide two-years of free maintenance work at the plant.

The total cost of the project is Rs. 9.25 crore.

The power produced will be transmitted to the 11-kV line of the KSEB and the Board will further consider installing two windmills with a capacity of 500 KW each on the dam top. A detailed project report for the proposed plant SM is being prepared.

BabyChakra is a trusted care partner to Indian guardians, from pregnancy to child rearing. m.Paani controls continuous, direct to buyer engagement, showcasing, faithfulness and bits of knowledge for mass market shoppers and retailers.

NIRAMAI is a healthtech startup that has built up a novel bosom disease screening arrangement while SocialCops engages associations to settle on better choices through information.

Launchpad Accelerator is Google’s half year program that incorporates a concentrated two-week training camp in San Francisco and coaching from more than 30 groups crosswise over Google and master tutors from top innovation organizations in Silicon Valley and universally.

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MIDDLE EAST

WITH ISIS DEFEATED,

IS RUSSIA AFRAID OF LOSING SYRIA? THE FIGHT AGAINST THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND THE LEVANT SEEMS TO HAVE ENDED. ALTHOUGH THE ARMED GROUP IS UNLIKELY TO DISAPPEAR, ITS TERRITORIAL CONTROL HAS BEEN ALMOST COMPLETELY WIPED OUT AFTER ITS TWO "CAPITALS" MOSUL AND RAQQA - WERE LIBERATED AND MOST OF ITS TERRITORIES IN IRAQ AND SYRIA WERE RECAPTURED.

Syria, besides the few remaining areas under ISIL control, there is Idlib province which is dominated

by Ha'yet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front). Russia, Iran and Turkey are likely to launch a joint operation against the HTS there and then divide the province into spheres of influence.

The rest of Syria is either under the control of the regime or the US-allied Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

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important to Syrians than problems of power and the future political order.

As Syria enters a new de-escalation phase of the conflict, the role of Russia in it comes into question. Soon the Syrian regime will no longer need military backing as much as financial support. And that Russia might not be able to provide.

Russia, however, does not have the financial capacity to invest heavily in Syria after the end of the conflict.

Russia's post-conflict strategy in Syria Today, Bashar al-Assad can consider himself the "winner" in the civil war very much thanks to Russian backing and its military intervention. Yet, this does not necessarily guarantee Moscow a comfortable presence in post-war Syria.

In the course of the armed conflict, the value of Moscow for Damascus was the military assistance and deployment of its forces which played a key role in the military advances of the regime. But with the transition to the post-conflict period soon to begin, the significance of the military factor would steadily decrease, giving way to the financial and economic aspects of cooperation.

Russia, however, does not have the financial capacity to invest heavily in

Syria after the end of the conflict.

Iran has already declared that it will assist Syria financially. In a recent telephone conversation with Bashar alAssad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani assured him that his country "is prepared to actively participate in Syria's reconstruction".

Russia, however, does not have the financial capacity to invest heavily in Syria after the end of the conflict. In this context, its positions in Syria no longer seem so convincing. This has forced Moscow to realise that alliances with Tehran and Ankara in Syria might not be so beneficial in the future and that it needs to find new allies for the postconflict period. As a result, the Russian government has upped its efforts on keeping the negotiating process under its control to make sure it is not ousted from its position as kingmaker in Syria.

It is the desire to demonstrate its exclusivity and irreplaceability that dictated the latest Russian initiatives on Syria: from Vladimir Putin's statement about the need to hold the Congress of the Syrian people in Sochi to a series of meetings that the Russian president held last week with the leaders of Middle Eastern countries.

Particularly revealing in this respect was the "unexpected trick" with Bashar alAssad showing up in Sochi. This was Assad's second trip out of his country

since 2011; in 2015 he went again to Russia to meet Putin. For Moscow, the Syrian president is a kind of a "liquid asset", which the Russian leadership is trying to convert into diplomatic success. His visit was meant to reinforce Russia's monopoly over the Syrian file.

It sent a clear message to the international community that Moscow holds the keys to Damascus and is the only patron of the regime able to push it to the negotiations table.

Immediately after the meeting, Putin hastened to share its results with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the United States. And two days later, at a meeting with Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he demonstrated his "leading and guiding" role in the Russia-Iran-Turkey triangle.

The danger for Moscow is that at some point Damascus might stop responding to Russian pressure.

Despite its crucial role in the Syrian

The danger for Moscow is that at some point Damascus might stop responding to Russian pressure.

negotiating process, its resources and capabilities are clearly not enough to hold it. Russia needs another partner in Syria which is able to guarantee funds for reconstruction in the post-conflict period. And that partner needs to be willing to route the financial flows through Moscow.

The bigger problem is that Russia doesn't have much time to do this.

Assad's regime could become even more intransigent as its "victory" solidifies and it might be even more difficult for Moscow to push it to sit down for negotiations.

Presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban and Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal alMikdad have already expressed their scepticism about the negotiation process under the auspices of the UN. The initial refusal of Damascus to participate in the negotiations in Geneva under false pretences signals that the Syrian regime is playing a waiting game.

The regime ultimately wants to hold negotiations only after the opposition is completely disarmed and after it makes sure that there is no interference "in the internal affairs of the country". Basically, it wants the opposition to capitulate and it is patiently waiting for it.

The danger for Moscow is that at some point Damascus might stop responding to Russian pressure. That would be a major loss for Russia.

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TREND

By Mayank Kumar and Apoorva Shankar

WHEN TRADITIONAL IT JOBS DIE, HERE ARE THE ALTERNATIVES DRIVERLESS CARS MAY PUT DRIVERS OUT OF BUSINESS AND RECRUITMENT AUTOMATION MAY TAKE AWAY THE JOBS OF SOME HR PROFESSIONALS, BUT WE MUST REMEMBER THAT WHILE ‘ROUTINE’ WORK GETS AUTOMATED WITH MACHINE LEARNING AND AI, ‘KNOWLEDGE’ WORK WILL STILL REQUIRE HUMAN INTERVENTION.

e’ve all heard and read enough if not actually seen the impact in our day-to-day lives to figure out that artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the world as we know it. From driverless cars and automated recruiting processes to connected machines and voice assistants, these developments are rapidly boosting our productivity at home and at work.

The late 1990s to early 2000s was the age of the Indian IT sector, which gave rise to an empowered Indian middle class. The IT movement brought the country recognition for identifying and SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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grabbing a global opportunity just by keeping up with industry trends. The sector employs almost 4 million people directly and indirectly. However, of late, the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution has hit, leaving data and digital-enabled start-ups, young companies and rebooted traditional organisations in its wake.

and BT fell by 65% in 2015-16 from 2014-15. Between 2015 and 2017, more than 30,000 employees have been laid off by giants like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, L&T, IBM, Flipkart, eBay, etc. IT companies are claiming that layoffs are part of the organisation’s technology transformations to keep up with the changing business needs.

So, where do all these new trends leave the Indian IT? Unfortunately, the sector has been unable to keep up this time around. For instance, even though Bangalore is known as the hub for all digital-first reboots, Karnataka’s revenue from export of electronics, IT software

In the Indian IT industry, revenue from digital technology projects is growing 7x faster than from traditional projects, and by 2020 both sectors together will be generating $225 billion in revenue.

This is naturally enabling a transformation of the traditional roles

IN THE INDIAN IT INDUSTRY, REVENUE FROM DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IS GROWING 7X FASTER THAN FROM TRADITIONAL PROJECTS, AND BY 2020 BOTH SECTORS TOGETHER WILL BE GENERATING $225 BILLION IN REVENUE.

within IT as well. Systems administrators are turning into system and network architects, web designers are more focused on user experience, data centre specialists now seek to specialise in information insight enabling, and once a project manager is now a product manager.

Driverless cars may be putting drivers out of business and recruitment automation may make the job of some HR professionals redundant; however, we must be cognisant of the fact that where some ‘routine’ work gets automated with the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, ‘knowledge’ work will continue to require human intervention.

Even if technology can give us the answers, human beings will always be the ones to know which questions must be asked. Dave Wright (CIO at ServiceNow) recently said in an interview that the biggest misconception was job loss due to new technologies, “Machine learning and AI do not take jobs away; they augment the skills of IT professionals.”

The narrative of fear around job losses has known to repeat, periodically, over the years when industries are poised for change the impact of power loom on textile workers, washing machines on professional hand-washers of clothes, etc. But each time more jobs have been created as these technologies have built capabilities, requiring talent to manage

them and freeing up time for knowledge work. This time around, too, the gloom is superseding the optimism on the number and types of opportunities emerging due to new technologies.

Where traditional IT roles are facing extinction, new roles like data scientists, mobile app developers, compliance officers, social media architects, cloud integration specialists and many more are emerging.

However, these opportunities will only make themselves truly available to those who take charge to upskill themselves for the careers of tomorrow.

It is unrealistic to expect the knowledge we derive on educational campuses to remain consistent and relevant for years after and on the job. One must continue to unlearn and relearn as they go along to tap into new and upcoming industry trends. Employers say that 65% of the IT workforce is not even re-trainable!

No wonder the fear factor on job losses is so high.

As mentioned earlier, there are many new roles that are being carved out due to the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Some of the structural changes taking place within businesses and organisations in the future could also relate to the usage of chatbots to facilitate communication between staff and management as well as between IT teams/firms and the client; and the learning based on the type of issue.

Roles of CIOs will be augmented by the

appointment of chief artificial intelligence officers, and data analysts will increasingly manage artificial intelligence, which, in turn, will drive innovation and evolution for software developers because of an increased focus towards data science. Other support functions such as HR, recruitment, administration and finance will also be revolutionised.

Some of these new-age buzzwords for a professional can be confusing. But that is not the intent what’s needed is an embracing of these new skill areas.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning etc are nothing but interdisciplinary areas that combine management, statistics and computer science, augmenting and improving upon what one can do with data enhancing efficiencies and predictive elements. In the face of a faster, more agile working world, it is necessary for working professionals to upskill themselves in order to avoid redundancy machine learning and artificial intelligence are not just making us smarter at chess or replacing real-life assistants, but are redefining whole industries and functions. Those who don’t embrace and ride the wave, run the risk of being left behind.

(Mayank Kumar is co-founder and CEO, UpGrad, the provider of online education programmes. Apoorva Shankar is head of UpGrad Online Scholarship and head of Content SM Marketing at UpGrad) SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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INVESTMENT

Behind the Bitcoin Boom WHILE IT HAS DELIVERED STELLAR RETURNS OVER THE YEARS, THE VOLATILE NATURE OF THE TRADE IS NOT FOR THE FEEBLE-HEARTED, s the price of the bitcoin leapt past $10,000 this week, marking a tenfold gain in 2017, many investors seemed to nurse a ‘missed-out’ feeling. The financial press ran ‘how-toinvest-in-bitcoin’ tutorials right alongside unflattering comparisons of the bitcoin boom to the Tulip mania. If you are among the Indian investors who are rueing their decision to skip bitcoins in favour of the stock market, here are some bitcoin facts that may make you feel better.

Scarcity premium In the financial markets, asset bubbles are spotted by comparing the traded price of an asset to its fair value. For stocks, the valuation metric may be the price-to-earnings or book value multiple. For oil or gold, there’s the cost of producing each barrel or ounce. The rupee is assessed on real effective exchange rate. But it’s hard to say if there’s a bubble brewing in bitcoins because it has no such valuation measure. Its price is therefore decided mainly by demand-supply dynamics.

No one knows yet, if Bitcoin’s pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto was a computer engineer, academic or Silicon Valley geek. But one subject that Nakamoto certainly understood was economics. He knew that when unlimited demand chases finite supply, the result is sky-rocketing prices.

So, while creating the original algorithm to ‘mine’ blocks of bitcoins (new bitcoins are created when you use computers to solve complex mathematical problems set by the system), he set a finite limit on the bitcoins that could be mined for all time SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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to come. He also ensured that the algorithm got more complex over time and that the bitcoin yield shrank in geometric proportion with each new block.

This has effectively set a hard limit of 21 million on total bitcoin supply, of which an estimated 16.7 million (80 per cent) has already been mined. Mining new blocks now entails gigawatts of electricity and computing power.

To make things interesting, there’s uncertainty about the existing bitcoin supply as well. About a million bitcoins are said to have been spirited away by Nakamoto himself, a few million have gone missing due to lost hard disks and forgotten passwords, and a good number are out of circulation because they’re stockpiled by investors.

This scarcity factor and the lack of a fair value measure makes the bitcoin a great playground for speculators, but a very uncomfortable one for

long-term investors.

High on volatility Looking back today, bitcoin returns for the last five years are drool-worthy. The rupee-equivalent price of a bitcoin has zoomed from under ?600 in November 2012 to more than ?6.8 lakh by November 2017, a cool 300% annualised return. In the same period, the BSE Sensex has produced a staid 11.5% despite a bull market.

If this is making you regret choosing stocks over bitcoins, do note that you would have needed nerves of steel to stay invested in bitcoins. While delivering stellar returns, the bitcoin has subjected its investors to an extremely rocky ride.

Over the last five years, the maximum loss made by the BSE Sensex on any given day was 5.93%. Its biggest singleday gain was 3.8%. The rupee, with which the bitcoin competes as a virtual

currency, saw a biggest single-day depreciation (against the dollar) of 3.6% and gained 3.4% on its best day.

But the bitcoin, on its bad days, has proved five times as volatile as the Sensex. On its worst day in the last five years, its price tanked by 28% in dollar terms. At its most euphoric, it shot up by 41% in a single session.

Also, 10% single-day losses were not unusual for the bitcoin, with 36 such occasions in the last five years.

The short history of the bitcoin has been punctuated by quite a few stomach-roiling events too. In 2014, thousands of bitcoins were stolen from the leading exchange Mt Gox which had to be shuttered. The event saw a two-year lull in the bitcoin bull market. In August, a breakaway faction Bitcoin Cash, ‘forked’ off from the main bitcoin blockchain. This week, global bitcoin exchanges reported outages and flash crashes unable to handle the sharp surge in traffic.Due to such volatility, though it has proved a blockbuster investment, the bitcoin hasn’t really made headway as a global alternative to conventional money.

Regulatory approval When originally introduced, virtual currencies, backed by the ultra-democratic blockchain technology, were expected to offer a border-less alternative to fiat currencies, which were being systematically debased by governments in the developed world. There was clamour for a globally-accepted medium of exchange that was free of political hegemony.

‘INDIA’S GDP SHOULD HAVE BEEN BACK AT 9%’ With oil prices so low, India’s economic growth should have been back at over 9%, former chief economist at World Bank Kaushik Basu said on Sunday, expressing disappointment at the 6.3% gross domestic product (GDP) expansion in the September quarter.

“India’s growth rate is now 6.3%. It had reached a rate of 9.5% from 2005-2008,” Dr. Basu, who was also Chief Economic Adviser during the UPA Government, said in a tweet.

“Now, with oil prices so low, the growth should have been back at over 9%. This massive slowdown needs to be properly diagnosed,” he added.

The GDP growth in the second quarter of 2017-18 was 6.3%, compared with 5.7% in the April-June period the lowest growth rate since the NDA Government took office.

It was 7.5% in the September quarter of last fiscal.

But trading volumes in cryptocurrencies have tended to become quite concentrated in a few regions lately.

They’ve also proved quite sensitive to governmental actions. After galloping fivefold between January and September 2017, bitcoins suffered a 30% blip this September after the Chinese government, wary of capital flight, ordered the shut-down of leading bitcoin exchanges. In April, markets cheered Japan’s decision to officially recognise bitcoins as legal tender and license 11 exchanges.

Trading volumes have also flown from one region to another depending on how favourably disposed regulators have been towards bitcoins. Chinese exchanges dominated bitcoin trading a couple of years ago with a more than 80% volume share. But after the clampdown, Japanese and U.S. exchanges now control over two-thirds of volumes.

In India, the RBI is still undecided on the issue of how and if at all it will regulate virtual currencies.

Meanwhile, it has issued disclaimers that it hasn’t authorised bitcoins as a medium of exchange, warning investors of potential ‘financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security-related risks’ if they dabble in them.

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NEWS-IN-FOCUS

SRM University Amaravati:

FOCUSING ON HOLISTIC EDUCATION THROUGH LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES India’s representation in the higher education segment is at best paltry. And, if you take out IITs and IISc, Indian universities’ performance is nothing to speak about. Besides, there are hardly any liberal arts universities that are sought after abroad. However, SRM University’s Amaravathi campus has recently inaugurated its School of Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences (SLABS) and the expectations are sky high on its potentiality. The varsity is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that it attains the desired levels of research and internationalization few years down the line.

he inaugural function was graced

by Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, President of SRM University in the presence of the Honorary Pro Chancellor of SRM University, AP Amaravati, Prof. Nicholas Dirks (Chancellor Emeritus, University of California, Berkley), and Dr. D Narayana Rao, Pro Vice Chancellor of SRM University, AP – Amaravati.

It will have its first intake of students in 2018 and will offer BA, BBA, BCom and BSc programmes across 12 departments - economics, English, history, journalism, psychology, business

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studies, commerce, physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology and computer science. However, the challenge will be to impart cutting-edge liberal arts education in a country where the higher education system is tilted towards the social sciences. At the undergraduate level, the highest number (40%) of students are enrolled in arts/humanities/ social sciences, followed by science (16%), engineering and technology (15.6%) and commerce (14.1%), according to human resource development (HRD) ministry data.

The university’s focus is on developing

into an inter-disciplinary institution combining academic rigour, excitement of discovery, creativity and entrepreneurship that delivers cuttingedge research based education, creating new knowledge and innovations. The multidisciplinary approach of SRM University’s liberal arts programme and the interactive manner in which classes would be conducted, develop in students a spirit of inquiry, critical thinking and analysis as well as verbal and written communication skills.

“In our programme, students will learn the skills of critical thinking and

knowledge creation in a range of fields in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. They will have an innovative multi-disciplinary education, in close proximity as well to breaking new teaching and research in areas ranging from machine learning and data science to public policy and social analysis says Prof Nicholas Dirks, Honorary Pro Chancellor, SRM Amaravati.

“I am very pleased to be involved with SRM Amaravati as it establishes its School of Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences. As we launch SLABS, we are working to ensure that our undergraduate students will be the full beneficiaries of the best set of undergraduate experiences available anywhere, in the larger context of building a leading research university with aspirations to become world-class in every possible sense.” says Prof Nicholas Dirks.

While the country hopes that SLABS can provide the sense of prestige to the liberal arts education that India so desperately needs, SRM already envisions to emerge as a world-class university in creating and disseminating knowledge and providing students a unique and holistic learning experience in their chosen field of scholarship that would best serve the society.

"SRM is committed to offering a distinctive form of learning empowering young students and thinkers with historical and cultural perspectives, as well as language,

critical thinking, and communication skills- ideal traits to survive the modern world. The multi-disciplinary focus of SLABS will ensure that the students would have both breadth as well depth of knowledge about a wide range of subjects” says Dr D Narayana Rao, Pro Vice Chancellor, SRM Amaravati.

While concerns still remain about the job prospects of a liberal arts graduate, the industry has realised the importance of creativity and imagination, communication skills and problemsolving abilities and they have started looking towards liberal arts - subjects that help individuals take part in an active civic life and make a convincing case for the importance of the liberal arts education for a more just and reflective society. SRM Amaravati’s SLABS initiative is a step in that direction.

“In-class discussions, field trips, presentations, movies and hands-on assignments are some of the ways in which students are exposed to multiple facets of an issue and encouraged to explore. This multidisciplinary approach of a liberal arts programme and the interactive manner in which classes are conducted will develop in students a spirit of inquiry, analytical capabilities as well as verbal and written communication skills, thereby making them work-place ready” says Dr D Narayana Rao. Take, for instance, the five-year Integrated Programme in Management offered by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore since 2011.

Students who join after their Class XII cover subjects such as math, statistics, economics, philosophy, Shakespearean literature, computer languages, and performing arts in the first three years.

In the remaining two years, they study MBA subjects. SRM University’s SLABS venture will aim to replicate a similar model however with the added advantage of funding opportunities.

"Today, we face increasingly complex issues and challenges, and tackling these, calls for multi-dimensional thought processes and problem solving skills. Education needs to focus on this and much more. We aim to help students develop such skills through the liberal arts and basic sciences education offered at SRM SLABS. For this, we are looking at hands-on guidance from Prof Nicholas Dirks, given his background as a renowned anthropologist, and his rich experience in Liberal Arts. SRM SLABS also has a strong faculty base of international caliber who will bring a global perspective to liberal arts education. They will assist in creating a holistic approach to education, which will become, we hope, the calling card for SRM Amaravati's SLABS” says Dr P Sathyanarayanan, President, SRM Amaravati.

With an air of optimism regarding the idea of liberal arts higher education in India, SRM university will be aiming for the sky. The last two managing directors of McKinsey Worldwide were from liberal arts students. This should be the case in India too and there’s no reason why SRM university can’t lead the way.

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FEAT

NASA SUCCESSFULLY FIRES VOYAGER 1 THRUSTERS AFTER 37 YEARS ASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft - cruising interstellar space billions of miles from Earth - was back on the right track recently thanks to thrusters that were fired up for the first time in 37 years. The unmanned spaceship was launched along with its twin, Voyager 2, more than 40 years ago to explore the outer planets of our solar system, traveling further than any human-made object in history.

But after decades of operation, the "attitude control thrusters" that turn the spacecraft by firing tiny "puffs" had degraded. The small adjustments are needed to turn Voyager's antenna toward Earth, allowing it to continue sending communications.

"At 13 billion miles from Earth, there's no mechanic shop nearby to get a tuneup," NASA said in a news release.

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Experts at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California decided to turn to four backup thrusters that were last used on November 8, 1980.

"The Voyager flight team dug up decades-old data and examined the software that was coded in an outdated assembler language, to make sure we could safely test the thrusters," said Chris Jones, chief engineer at JPL. The engineers fired up the thrusters on Tuesday and tested their ability to turn Voyager using 10-millisecond pulses.

Then they waited 19 hours, 35 minutes for the test results to arrive at an antenna in Goldstone, California.

"The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test. The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all," said Todd

Barber, a JPL propulsion engineer.

Being able to use the backup thrusters means the lifespan of Voyager 1 has been extended by two or three years, added Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager.

NASA plans to switch over to the formerly dormant thrusters in January.

They will likely also conduct similar tests on the backup thrusters on Voyager 2. Scientists still hear from the Voyager spacecraft daily, and expect to get data for about another decade.

Astronomy textbooks were rewritten on a wide scale thanks to the Voyager spacecraft, which zoomed past Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. The plutonium-powered spaceships will continue until they finally run out of fuel, and will then orbit in the center SM of the Milky Way galaxy.

India set to land on Moon IT WILL BE LAUNCHED USING A GEOSYNCHRONOUS SATELLITE LAUNCH VEHICLE (GSLV MK II) WHICH INCLUDES A LUNAR ORBITER, LANDER AND ROVER, ALL MADE IN INDIA.

ndia is set to create history by joining the league of moon landers with is ambitious Chandrayaan II project. This is India’s second lunar exploration mission after the famous Chandrayaan-1 launched in October 2008.

Considered as the most ambitious moon exploration project by the Government of India till date, the mission has been developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and is likely to take place in the first quarter of 2018.

It will be launched using a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk II) which includes a lunar orbiter, lander and rover, all made in India.

India will be the first country in the last four years to attempt the mission. The last successfully landing on the moon by any country was in 2013, when China’s unmanned ‘Yutu’ rover was launched for a month-long walk.

With successful completion of Chandrayaan 1 mission, India became only the fourth country to plant its flag on the moon after the US, USSR and Japan. Chandrayaan 2 will be an

advanced version of Chandrayaan 1.

Like Chandrayaan 1 mission, Chandrayaan 2 will also be an example of ISRO’s “frugal engineering”. Chandrayaan 1 mission cost India just about $80 million while a similar SELENE mission undertaken

by Japan cost it $480 million.

Chandrayaan 2 is likely to cost a meagre $91 million.

Chandrayaan 1, launched on 22 Oct 2008, faced numerous technical difficulties and ISRO lost contact with the craft on August 29, 2009 well before the intended mission length of two years.

However, the craft had fulfilled almost 80% of its designated tasks before it lost contact with ISRO. SM SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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KARNATAKA

Thrust for Millet Cultivation a Priority for State Government Karnataka Government is plugging millets as nutri-cereals that are good to eat and grow and kind on the planet. State agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the perception of ragi (finger millets) and jowar (sorghum), the principal millets of the state, as food of the poor is changing mainly among those with lifestyle diseases.

blended. These are issues that the Karnataka government wishes to address.

Since taste is often acquired, catching them young through mid-day school meals could help. The Karnataka government is offering a bonus of Rs 400 per quintal in addition to the minimum support price of Rs 1,7001,725 per quintal of jowar and Rs 1,900 for ragi. The procured millets are supplied through ration shops. Union agriculture secretary Shobhana

on-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension have replaced infectious diseases as major risk factors. In some states, this transition happened as early as 1986. In others, it took as late as 2010. Karnataka has developed a brand called “Siri,” which means “rich” in Kannada, and is calling millets siridanya or rich grains. It is trying to expand the market for them through awareness about their healthand environmental-benefits and working with food companies and the hotel industry to create novel products and dishes.

The expectation is that demand will drive supply by persuading farmers in less-endowed areas to grow them and also give the crops better care with protective irrigation for enhanced yield.

According to the Indian Institute of Millets Research, the yield of jowar is one tonne per hectare in dry land conditions, but with one or two irrigations, it can rise to 6-8 tonnes per hectare. Gowda was recently in Rome to get the United Nations, through the Food and Agriculture Organization, to declare 2018 as the International Year of Millets. Bengaluru is hosting an international fair in January for organics and millets. Both converge as millets do not need chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

The Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (Icrisat) said it did face-toface interviews with 15,500 shoppers at malls in seven cities and surprisingly, about half of them said they were eating millets daily, or even weekly. It is possible that the interviews were not SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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done randomly, and there was a selection bias towards those who were older, because 42% of about 4,000 persons interviewed in Delhi for the survey cited health complications as a reason for consuming them. Millets have low glycemic value, which means they release energy slowly and, therefore, keep blood sugar levels stable. Besides, they are nutritious.

According to the National Institute of Nutrition’s food composition tables, 100 grams of ragi have 364 milligrams of calcium; buffalo milk has 121 mg/ 100 grams. Millets are also rich in fibre.

Only 8% of those interviewed for the Icrisat survey said they liked the taste, so palatability is a hurdle that will have to be negotiated. Millets like bajra do not keep long; so they cannot be

Pattanayak said efforts are being made to supply them to soldiers. If the armed forces agree, a big market would open up. Recommendation by doctors and trainers was also cited as reason for consuming millets in the Icrisat survey.

Curiously, though 89% of the interviewees said they were reasonably or very health conscious, only 31% were aware that millets were healthy.

This calls for an awareness campaign.

The consumption of millets has declined in countries that saw the Green Revolution, which gave food security through high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat. These and maize are now the big three cereals that, according to Joanna Kane-Potaka, director (strategic marketing), Icrisat, provide about 50% of the world’s protein intake to humans.

Rice alone soaks about 45% of the crop research money. Icrisat calls millets smart foods of the 21st century because they are “good for you, the farmer and the planet.” They are the last crops standing during droughts; bajra, it is said, can tolerate 10 degrees C higher heat than wheat.

Millets are also good for animals.

Millet fodder sells for the same price as millets, says Gowda because they raise milk yield. Since the dairy industry is thriving, millet producers should hitch on to it. In North Karnataka, Gowda says it is a practice for farm-owners to retain the fodder and let tenant cultivators keep the grain for own use or for sale.

Through Icrisat, Karnataka is mapping the genomes of millets of interest to farmers. Knowing the properties of various genes will help shorten the time taken for creating new crosses with qualities like better palatability, improved shelf life and higher yield through marker assisted selection.

Karnataka is linking millets to the organic food movement, which it is promoting. At the January fair the two will converge. Chemical fertilisers are not applied to millets because they will not respond with higher output when grown in poor soils without irrigation. Chemical pesticides are used, but can be replaced with biopesticides if the organic tag fetches a higher price. Small farmers therefore need to be organized into producer organizations, so that their small lots can be aggregated and marketed.

Karnataka has 14 farmer federations and is giving a thrust to producer companies. Gowda says the state is not hung up on organic farming. It is an alternative that is being offered to farmers. High output Green Revolution agriculture should be practised, he says, with judicious use of chemical fertilizers combined with compost and farm yard manure to improve soil quality and texture.

“India is a reckless abuser of the environment,” he says. It will have to learn to tread lightly on earth.

Standards will have to be evolved and enforced for low- or residue-free chemical-based agriculture.

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Karnataka To Get its First Forensic Science University in Bengaluru The university is likely to come up in Bengaluru, Mysuru or Hubballi. The investment for the proposed university will be allocated in the 2018-19 state budget.

Consider this: One policeman for around 700 people in Bengaluru. Now add VIP duties and special occasions such as festivals or election bandobust.

Then take into account rudimentary policing skills and/or lack of training to upgrade their crime detection capability. Mix these well. What you’ll get now are the 46,000+ pending cases in Bengaluru alone.

Our modern day police official, despite his/her best intentions, is clearly no match for the modern day criminal. And to fix this problem, the state government has decided to set up a forensic university that offers specialized courses to serving police officials and officers in resolving complex crimes.

Home minister Ramalinga Reddy opines that experts and senior police officers had suggested that a full-fledged forensic university be set up in Karnataka. “Of late, there have been changes in the nature of crimes and conmen have been increasingly adopting technology to escape from the clutches of the law. If we equip and train our police personnel in similar technology, such culprits can easily be traced and brought to book. On Thursday too we had an informal meeting with the DG&IG about setting up the forensic university. We are working out on the cost and required infrastructure for the project so that it can be included in the forthcoming budget for the year 2018-19,” said Reddy.

The forensic university will be open to general students too. “It will be like any other university but entirely dedicated to forensic technology with advanced equipment. It will also offer courses besides supporting the home department in detecting some of the complex cases. Police personnel, from the ranks of constables to IPS officers, will be sent to the University for training

in modern day forensics,” Reddy said.

In Bengaluru, police are increasingly relying on forensics to crack crimes and build a watertight case against criminals.

In 2009, the forensic laboratories in Bengaluru and five other ranges dealt with 1,373 cases that had 63509 exhibits; by 2016, the corresponding numbers had zoomed to 20,031 cases with 1,19,307 exhibits.

While many universities (like Osmania University, Hyderabad, Amity etc.) offer a degree in forensic sciences, there are institutes (like Institute of Forensics, Mumbai, and Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, Delhi) which offer specialized courses as well. In 2008, Gujarat Forensic Sciences University became the first university in the world dedicated solely to forensic science and crime investigation. During a discussion on the proposed university in the legislative council on Thursday, BJP MLC Thara Anooradha drew the attention of the government to the lack of technical expertise among state police. “Our police can crack a crime only if the criminal is carrying a mobile.

If the criminal hasn’t used a mobile, the police fail to investigate the case. Many officials have also forgotten the traditional techniques of investigation.

It is high time that the police must train them in the latest technology and help crack modern day crimes,” she said.

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KARNATAKA

KARNATAKA CONGRESS SHOWS THE WAY IN LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA WHILE THE PARTY PREPARES TO KICKSTART ITS PRE-POLL CAMPAIGN IN KARNATAKA, A TEAM OF 25 CONGRESSMEN AND IT PROFESSIONALS ARE QUIETLY CREATING A STORM ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN FAVOUR OF THE CONGRESS. THE CHIEF MINISTER’S SON, DR. YATHINDRA, HAS ALSO BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF THIS RESURGENCE. ith a well-conceived fourlayered structure, a target of 55,000 digitally empowered volunteers and a hierarchical process for information dissemination, the social media team of the Karnataka Congress is conquering the digital space with campaigns that have been quite successful in the recent past.

While the party is keen on engaging workers at booth level with micro committees, the social media team is parallelly building an army of digital ninjas for every booth across the state.

“The idea is to have a digital youth for every booth. Our approach is fourlayered with convenors at state, district, constituency and booth levels. The support we have been receiving from the party has added strength to the team,” said Srivatsa Y B, who heads the party’s social media cell in Karnataka.

The party even has a fixed channel of communication that decides what leaders’ stance on issues should be and there is no room for confusion, those working with the social media cell said.

While the Congress’ state unit has an IT cell, the social media cell works as an independent entity. The content is locally created, relevant to state issues.

The four-layered digital structure is mandated by the AICC to ensure a geographical spread of information. The party aims to enrol 55,000 digitally empowered volunteers who are capable of handling Whatsapp groups, Facebook pages and Twitter handles before the assembly elections in 2018.

The well manned and managed team was non-existent until September this year but is here to stay for a long time, say Congress leaders.

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the party does not intend to make the same mistakes. “Today the party is revitalised, full of energy and younger leaders are emerging at state and national levels. Confidence levels are great in Karnataka thanks to the Chief Minister and the government’s performance. Our social media team, campaigns and their success is reflective of the same,” Dinesh Gundu Rao added.

LOCAL RIDE-HAILING APP LAUNCHED IN CITY, WITH NO SURGE PRICING PROMISE City-based start-up TYGR, a technology-based transport solution company, has launched its app cab services in Bangalore.The service, called Namma TYGR, promises not to have surge pricing.

“The BJP used social media very well in 2014, not just for their propaganda but also to promote misinformation and misled the people. We had to change the narrative and ensure that truth was conveyed. Ours is an organic team that is made up of volunteers and they are here to stay. We have 2019 coming up too,” said Dinesh Gundu Rao, working President, KPCC. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s son Dr Yathindra too has been working with the social media team, said a Congress leader. While the party has hired professionals to create content, handle design and graphics, it is the volunteers, according to the party, who handle operations and take the campaigns forward. Starting December, the social media cell will begin highlighting the achievements of the Siddaramaiah government.

Its lackadaisical approach to social media campaigns in the 2014 general elections cost the Congress dearly and

Further, it will charge “only half of what competitors charge as commission on each ride from the drivers” in a bid to offer competitive pricing to riders and lure drivers on its platform.

“We will not have surge pricing on our platform. Surge pricing is a big issue in Bangalore and we have addressed it on our platform,” said Dipanjan Purkayastha, who co-founded TYGR along with Aditya Poddar. Namma TYGR - launched on November 29 will charge only 12 per cent as commission on each ride from drivers

when the competition charges 30 per cent. “And instead of doling out subsidies to drivers, we are going to give them value-added services such as health insurance for the driver and his family, life insurance for the driver and accident coverage. We will also pay his road tax, service his car and pay for car washes. We will also subsidise his children’s study books,” said Dipanjan.

All these benefits, he feels, will create a strong loyalty to the platform.

Since the time of the launch, Namma TYGR has 12,000 listed drivers on its platforms. “We are getting 25,000 ride requests a day and we are able to service 10 per cent of them,” said Purakayastha. He aims to have 20,000 vehicles on his platform by the monthend and service 10,000 rides a day.

Bangalore is one of the largest markets for app cabs with 100,000 such vehicles in the city. Each cab does at least 10 rides a day, said Dipanjan. Namma TYGR wants to create its space by offering what Dipanjan said the competitors had failed to ensure - safe and affordable rides for passengers and a decent earning for drivers. “We will comply with every government regulation. We will not have a single driver on the platform without verification,” said Dipanjan.

“We will also have on-road assistance with four of our cars plying the streets of Bangalore to attend emergency calls from passengers or drivers,” said Dipanjan. The launch of Namma TYGR was attended by former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda and former chief minister of the state H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Karnataka Government to Setup 25 Science Centres in a Bid to Maintain the State’s Leadership in the Field The Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government is enabling greater impetus to scientific advances by proposing 25 science centres with 3D planetariums across the state. a bid to boost the scientific temper amongst the students and recraft the image of the city, that he referred to as the ‘Knowledge of India’, Mr M.R. Seetharam, minister for Planning, Statistics, Science and Technology announced at the 9th edition of Bengaluru India Nano that the state government has planned to establish 25 Science Centres along with 3D planetariums across the state.

“We are establishing the first 3D planetarium with state-of-the-art projection systems in Mangaluru at an estimated cost of Rs. 35.69 crores. This planetarium will be open to the public

by January 2018. Jawaharlal Nehru planetarium has been upgraded with a modern projection system at a cost of Rs. 12.00 crores,” he added.

Citing the example of Israel where scientists made a breakthrough in nano science by developing ‘nano nose’ which can be used to diagnose breast cancer, Bharat Ratna awardee Professor CNR Rao hailed the contribution of nano-technology in the field of medicine. “Any new thing grows from a seed to a tree then it becomes a forest then it becomes a continent.

NanoScience is like that,” Prof CNR Rao said.

The two-day Conference where Prof.

Ashok K. Ganguli, Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali, Punjab was accorded with the Prof.

C.N.R. Rao award, will address the latest trends in Nanotechnology focusing on Nano-sensors, Nano in Energy Sector, Nano Manufacturing &

Scalability and Nano-Medicine.

While explaining to the gathering about the importance of nano technology in the world of neuroscience, Prof. Paul S. Weiss, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, mentioned, “With the help of neurotransmitter it can be found how different cells talk to each other.”

Attending her first event after being becoming Chief Secretary, K Ratnaprabha, assured the scholars and researchers that the government would extend all support to them in R&D sector.

The conference has registered 10 international delegates representing their area of expertise alongside 500 students.

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WHY DRUGS USE IN TEENAGERS IS MORE PROBLEMATIC Adolescent cannabis use may be an independent risk factor for future hypomania, and the nature of the association suggests a potential causal link. As such it might be a useful target for indicated prevention of hypomania. f usage of cannabis is frequent among your adolescent son or daughter, he or she may be at high risk of developing hypomania often experienced as part of bipolar disorder, a research has warned.

THE ‘SIDDARAMAIAH APP’ FOR THE STATE’S PEOPLE TO CONNECT WITH THEIR CM Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has launched an app called ‘Siddaramaiah app’ to connect with people

Hypomania is periods of elated mood, over-active and excited behaviour, and reduced need for sleep that are often experienced as part of bipolar disorder, and have a significant impact on day-to-day life.

“Cannabis use in young people is common and associated with psychiatric disorders. However, the prospective link between cannabis use and bipolar disorder symptoms has rarely been investigated,” lead author Steven Marwaha, psychiatrist, at the University of Warwick in the UK. “Adolescent cannabis use may be an independent risk factor for future hypomania, and the nature of the association suggests a potential causal link. As such it might be a useful target for indicated prevention of hypomania.” For the study, appearing in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, the team included 3,370 participants who used marijuana at least twothree times in a week.

Conversely, the findings suggested that marijuana should be considered part of the prevention schemes aimed at minimising the risk of young people developing bipolar disorders It is because cannabis use was found to mediate the association of both childhood sexual abuse and hypomania, and male gender and hypomania. “As such it might be a useful target for indicated prevention of SM hypomania,” Marwaha added.

In a bid to give stiff competition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is quite active on social media, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has launched an app called ‘Siddaramaiah app’ to connect with people.

This app came into being from Wednesday and was seen as an effort to be in close touch with citizens in the runup to the 2018 Assembly polls. The app has different sections like ‘infographics’, ‘speeches’, ‘delivered promises’, ‘videos’, ‘interviews’, ‘Pratibimba’, ‘CM schedules’, ‘interact with CM’, ‘Media report’, ‘blog’, ‘biography’ and ‘social connect’.

The app would be managed by a team in the Chief Minister’s Office. Titled ‘I will talk to everyone’, the application has provided a platform to citizens to send their queries and the CM would respond to them.

A separate section ‘social connect’ will display all tweets made by the CM everyday. For the convenience of the general public, a section, ‘CM schedule’ would inform he was in town or not.

Sources close to the CM said that this app had been specially created to keep the CM active in social media which is catching fast up among Gen Y. Since it would be not possible for the general public to meet him with complaints this app would come as handy to interact with the Chief Minister.

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TECH

TEXTING'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY December 4th marked the 25th anniversary of the first text message being sent, the communication form that dominated how people across the world remained in touch for roughly two decades. The 160-character messages became the staple for people in the 1990s and 2000s, till instant messaging apps like WhatsApp took over with the advent of smartphones. he first-ever SMS was sent on December 02, 1992 for Vodafone by a 22-year-old engineer named Neil Papworth. Interestingly, the first SMS was sent from a computer, and said “Merry Christmas.” The recipient was Richard Jarvis, a Vodafone director at the time.

PAYTM MALL EMERGES AS MOST POPULAR APP ON GOOGLE PLAY STORE Online Shopping has emerged as one of the most popular apps of 2017 on Google Play Store. Google has announced its Google Play’s “Best of 2017” app list, which reveals the most popular apps, games, movies, books, and music on the platform in India. Paytm Mall is the only e-retail app that has made it to Google India’s top app list.

of the 1990s and early 2000s, it was the go-to way of communicating with others. The character limit made people come up with innovative ways to beat it, resulting in ‘txt spk’ becoming common.

It was in 1993 that Nokia introduced the SMS feature on its handsets, with a 160-character limit. In 1999, the text messages could be exchanged over different telecom networks, and the first emojis were created in Japan.

Papworth says about the SMS, “In 1992, I had no idea just how popular texting would become, and that this would give rise to emojis and messaging apps used by millions. I only recently told my children that I sent that first text. Looking back with hindsight, it’s clearer to see that the Christmas message I sent was a pivotal moment in mobile history.”

In the years since its introduction, text messaging has enjoyed immense popularity though it has been relegated since apps such as WhatsApp and iMessage came. But in the heady days

Other technology landmarks of 1992 include the founding of Palm Inc., the maker of the successful Palm Pilot PDA, and the launch of the first IBM ThinkPad.

he Paytm Mall app is fastest growing online marketplace for all shopping needs. The platform, owned by Paytm ECommerce Pvt Ltd, works on O2O (Offline-to-Online) model that contributes towards the growth for every stakeholder in the retail ecosystem including shopkeepers and brands.

Paytm Mall helps local offline stores grow their business and acquire new customers by bringing them online on its platform. This enables customers to place their orders conveniently and receive faster deliveries from their trusted neighbourhood stores.

Apart from benefitting local retailers, Paytm Mall offers a wide range of shopping choices to its customers by partnering with large brands across categories, including Apple, Samsung, LG, Oppo, Sony, HP, Lenovo, JBL, Philips, Puma, Allen Solly, Lee, Pepe, Van Heusen, Woodland, Catwalk, Sketchers, Levi’s, Vero Moda, Red Tape, Crocs, and Fossil among others.

Paytm Mall delivers to more than 17,000 pincodes across India; and is currently on an expansion mode. The company is committed to bring several offerings and initiatives so that Paytm Mall app continues to be a favourite among Indian shoppers.

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FOOTBALL

Pete Jaison

RONALDO AND MESSI A decade of dominance

REAL MADRID’S CRISTIANO RONALDO CLINCHED HIS 5THBALON D OR AWARD ON THURSDAY THAT DREW HIM LEVEL WITH BARCELONA’S LIONEL MESSI AND COMPLETED AN ENTIRE DECADE OF FOOTBALL DOMINANCE FROM THESE TWO GLOBAL SUPER BRANDS.

he decade long rivalry of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is soon coming to an end but before that inevitable happens; we football fans must thank our stars we were able to witness the greatest individual rivalry in the history of football, if not sports.

Never before has two elite superstars been constantly breathing down the neck of the other. Never before has any two footballers been consistently driving their team to the summit year SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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after year. This kind of dominance especially in a team sport like football is unheard of. It almost makes these two look inhuman!

It was Cristiano who drew first blood when he helped his former team, Manchester United pip Barcelona in the 2008 Champions League semi-final 10 (courtesy of a Paul Scholes screamer) and went on to beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties. The then 23-year-old Ronaldo was awarded the Balon D Or for the first time in his career after helping the Red

Devils become champions of England and Europe. However, Messi did not have to wait long for his revenge as the very next year, (the stars aligned and) Barcelona whopped Manchester United 2-0 in the 2009 Champions League final with Messi scoring a looping header over the petrified United goalkeeper to seal the victory.Messi won the ‘09 Ballon D Or for his sublime performance for Barcelona as they achieved the first Treble (La Liga, Champions League and the Spanish

Cup) in Spanish football history.

While Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid the following summer in a world record deal of £80 million, Messi and Barcelona began their dominance of Spanish and European football. Pep Guaridiola’s Barcelona team of 20092012 climbed to the pinnacle of world football as they established themselves as one of the greatest teams in history of football. Guardiola won a staggering 14 of the 19 tournaments they had entered in his 4-year spell and gave debuts to 22 academy players. Having won every tournament (6 titles) in the 2009 season, Barcelona went on to reclaim the league the next year but fell short in the semi final of the Champions League to Inter Milan 3-2 (aggregate), the eventual winners. However, Messi won his second Ballon D Or after scoring anastonishing 60 goals for club and country in 2010.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo was plundering goals at will at the Spanish capital (33 goals) but his first season at the Bernabeu went trophy-less. The century long Real Madrid- Barcelona rivalry further increased the spotlight on the Messivs Ronaldo debate and it was the Argentine who frequently outshone his fellow rival during the Portuguese’s initial years in Spain.

Real Madrid roped in the current Champions League winner, Jose

JOSE MOURINHO'S APPOINTMENT AS HEAD COACH IN SPAIN SPARKED RONALDO AND REAL MADRID'S TROPHY RUN AND ENDED BARCELONA'S HOLD ON THE SPANISH LEAGUE

WHILE RONALDO MOVED TO REAL MADRID, MESSI'S BARCELONA STARTED THEIR LEAGUE DOMINATION WITH THE FAMED TIKI-TAKA BRAND OF FOOTBALL.

Mourinho as the head coach prior to the 2010-11 season. Mourinho, fresh from his successful champions league run signed players - Angel Di Maria, MesutOzil and Sami Khedira who will go on to establish themselves as key players for the club in the coming years.

Although, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho could not inspire Madrid to a Liga title, they finished the season as the winners of the Copa Del Rey beating Barcelona 1-0 (with Ronaldo firing in a bullet header) and ending Real Madrid’s 18-year-long Copa del Rey drought in the process. They progressed beyond the round of 16 in the Champions League for the first time in 5 years but faltered to their great Spanish rivals, Barcelona in the semifinals. Barcelona picked up where they had left of in 2009 and swept Manchester United 3-1 once again in the finals with Messi scoring a powerful low shot to take his count of Champions

Leagues to two in three years. Needless to say, Messi won his 3rdBallon D Or as hefinished the season with 53 goals and 24 assists in all competitions, becoming Barcelona’s all-time single-season top scorer and the first player in Spanish football to reach the 50-goal benchmark. Ronaldo wasn’t too far behind in terms of personal statistics but failure to land a major trophy resulted him in finishing second in the Ballon D Or voting.

The 2011-12 season began in marauding style for Ronaldo and Real Madrid as they smashed 121 league goals (the most league goals scored by a team over the course of a season) and raced their way to their first league title in 4 years.Ronaldo earned himself the distinction of being the first player to score against all 19 opposition teams in a single season in La Liga. However, the Champions league was a different story as both Madrid and Barcelona got SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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FROM A 1-4 DEFICIT, RONALDO BOUNCED BACK TO WIN FOUR BALLON D ORS IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS AND EQUALLED MESSI'S TALLY OF 5.

knocked out in the semi-finals. Ronaldo personally had a near perfect year but was again outshone by Messi who scored a staggering 91 goals in all competitions for Barcelona and Argentina. Ronado finished second in the Balon D Orvotings yet again as Messi swept home his fourth one in four years.

Ronaldo picked up from where he had left off the previous season and the 2012-13 season started as brightly as ever for the Portuguese. He scored 46% of Real Madrid’s goals and amassed 53

goalsand 13 assists in all competitions in 2013. Messi fell short of his counterpart’s tally this year (37 goals and 11 assists) as injuries plagued him for a good part of the season. Although Ronaldo could not lead Madrid to a successive league win and Champions League glory, he regained the Ballon D Or award which he first won back in 2008, denying Messi his 5th consecutive Ballon D Or. The following season 2013-14 was a legendary one for Real Madrid as they finally won their much coveted 10th Champions League crown

after a gap of 12 years by beating derby rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1 in extra time.

Ronaldo was clinical throughout the season as he scored 17 goals to become the tournament’s top scorer. Real Madrid also won the Copa Dey Rey by topping Barcelona 2-1 in the finals via a herculean solo effort from Gareth Bale. Although Real Madrid failed to challenge for the Liga crown, Ronaldo’s total of 51 goals made him the obvious winner for the year’s Ballon D Or. On Jan 2015, Ronaldo was awarded his third Ballon D Or and only one behind Lionel Messi’s record of 4.

The 2014–15 season was one of the most successful seasons in Barcelona’s history as they clinched the Treble by winning La Liga, Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. The famed forward three (MSN) – Messi, Suarez and Neymarscored a mammoth - 121 goals to become the trio with most goals

RICARDO KAKA, THE BRAZIL LEGEND WAS THE LAST STAR TO BE AWARDED THE BALLON D OR BACK IN 2007 SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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in Spanish football history. Barcelona won the league by 2 points and scored a total of 110 goals across the season.

Lionel Messi scored a total of 43 goals in the league, 5 goals in the Copa deyrey and finished it off with 10 goals in the Champions League campaign as they edged Juventus 3-1 in the final.

Messi regained his trophy as he collected a record 5thBallon D Or and reestablished his status as the best in the business once again. Barcelona carried this form into the next season and clinched their second straight La Liga by a single point above Real Madrid scoring 112 goals throughout the season but it was Real Madrid who claimed the Champions League crown by edging Atletico Madrid once again in the finals via penalty shootouts with Ronaldo scoring the decisive penalty.

Ronaldo and Messi finished the season with 51 and 41 goals respectively.

Ronaldo, however also found success with his national team in the Euro 2016 as Portugal beat France 1-0 at extratime. Ronaldo who was stretched off during the finals due to a knee injury emotionally broke down during the fulltime whistle as he avenged his country’s

Euro finals defeat to Greece back in 2004. The 2016 Ballon D Or was a no brainer as Ronaldo claimed his 4thBallon D Or award for leading his country and club to European glory.

Real Madrid and the evergreen Ronaldo repeated the feat in 2016-17 season as they became the first team ever to win back to back Champions League crowns with Ronaldo scoring 3 goals in the quarterfinals and the semifinals and finished his run with a brace in the finals. To top it off, Real Madrid also claimed the league having finished with 3 points above Barcelona and became the first team to have scored in every single league match of the season.

Ronaldo finished with 42 goals that season compared to Messi’s 54 but the two team trophies that Ronaldo helped his team win tipped the 2017 Balon D Or votings in his favour.

Ronaldo clinched his 5thBalon D Or award to equal Messi’s tally and thus an entire decade of football was dominated by these two superhumans.

What is interesting over the last ten years is how constantly both the players improve themselves and re-break all the records that they themselves once set.

Year Player

Club

2008 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Lionel Messi Lionel Messi Lionel Messi Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo

FC Barcelona FC Barcelona FC Barcelona FC Barcelona Real Madrid Real Madrid FC Barcelona Real Madrid Real Madrid

While pundits and fans all over the world still debate which one of them is the better player, one thing is certain – There will never be a football rivalry as great as the Ronaldo-Messi one. So instead of the engaging in the neverending ‘Ronaldo or Messi’ debate, we should be talking about Ronaldo AND Messi – The greatest footballers the world has ever seen.

SM

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CRICKET

By Carl J

KOHLI & ROHIT: INDIAN CRICKET'S

TWO LARGER THAN LIFE CHARACTERS Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have provided the stimuli for India’s phenomenal showing with the bat throughout this season. While Rohit scored 1293 runs in 21 ODIs with the help of six hundreds, averaging 71.83, Kohli in 26 matches scored 1460 runs at an average of 76.84 and had six hundreds against his name. The duo have been involved in match-changing partnerships, including the record-breaking 230-run stand against New Zealand in the series-deciding 3rd ODI at Kanpur. The partnership ensured that they achieved the coveted milestone of being the duo with the most number of double-century partnerships in ODI cricket to their credit (4).

Against Sri Lanka earlier this year, the two run machines put up another mesmerizing display with a partnership stand of 219 runs.

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K

ohli, during the course of yet another satisfying season with the bat, became the fastest player to reach 9000 ODI runs in just 194 innings and surpassed Ricky Ponting’s tally of 30 centuries to underline his prowess. Add to that, he is currently perched at the No. 1 spot in the ICC ranking for batsmen in the T20 & ODI format and one notch below Steven Smith, who leads the pack in Tests. Rohit, on the other hand, slammed his 3rd ODI double hundred in the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka becoming the only player to achieve this feat. With Kohli rested owing to personal reasons, he successfully captained India to their 8th consecutive ODI series to affirm his leadership skills.

The list of individual and partnership records shattered by the duo is endless and they only seem hungrier for more. However, both players have had contrasting trajectories in their respective careers.

The careers of both these batsmen can be divided into two phases — one till the end of 2012, and another since 2013. A comparison of their statistics will show

how Rohit lagged behind while Kohli romped to greatness by the end of 2012.

However, it has really been 2017 that has helped him to catch up with Kohli’s exploits. Both have scored runs at the same incredible rate and have left opposition gasping for breath. The numbers speak for itself and so do the impact of the performances on the matches.

Kohli’s recent ascension as India’s captain in all formats of the game is a testimony to his growing maturity as a cricketer. He has transitioned into this challenging role without much handholding and has evolved into an unstoppable force with the bat.

On the contrary, Rohit has seen more ups and downs in his career. From being touted as the most ‘talented’ batsmen in India to receive comparisons with cricketing greats, Rohit has always been the classic will-he-won’t-he guy in world cricket today. That is to say, consistency has been eluding him until recently when he emerged as a behemoth in the limited overs game.

Rohit cemented his spot in the ODI squad only after years of experimentation with his batting position. He has now made the openers slot his own in ODI and T20 internationals but still faces stiff competition for a place in the Test team.

It’s also an open secret that Rohit was being keenly considered as a potential frontrunner for the captaincy role, but Kohli has overtaken him with rapid strides.

But in the last two years, there has been very little to differentiate between these two superstars of Indian cricket. Both have scored 11 hundreds each since 2015, just one behind Australian David Warner. But Rohit has taken just 47 matches to score 11 tons while Kohli has done it in 56 ODIs. During the same period of time Rohit has amassed 2665 runs at an average of 63.45 with 11 half-

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centuries while Kohli, having played 9 more ODIs than Rohit, has scored 2822 at 64.13 with 12 fifties.

Kohli is the epitome of the modern-day cricketer given his impressive fitness levels and with the reputation of being the best chaser in the limited over format. Rohit on the other hand, is easy on the eye given his wide repertoire of shots and is at his best when India bats first because when the pressure is less on him to play with his natural freedom.

Rohit beats Kohli in terms of runs scored after crossing the three-figure mark in ODIs since 2015. The Mumbai batsman has amassed 812 runs in 16 innings while Kohli has 665 runs in 32 innings. Therefore, Rohit has proved that he can bat patiently while curbing his free-flowing instincts. Kohli is more productive when he finds his rhythm early on in his innings and backs himself to take calculated risks.

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of their critics, media attention and fandom, where the skipper seems to have an edge. While Kohli has taken a no-holds barred, uber-cool approach in silencing his detractors, Rohit blamed the unwanted hype around his ‘talent talk’ being a negative influence on his batting. He also rued the fact that he had to force himself to play against his natural game, which he admitted is “anything but blocking the ball”.

But, Rohit has often found himself stuck between his eye-catching picturesque style of batting and his depressingly inconsistent performance. He can equally demonstrate his skilful ability to ‘make batting look easy’ but can also succumb to the consequences of failure. Fair to say, his supporters have consequently felt both exasperated and enthralled by his ‘lazy elegance’ which fetches him those big scores and the basis of his inconsistent run of form.

Kohli, on the other hand, revels in hearing criticisms of his batting or

attitude. Of course, he would choose to ignore it like any wise person should but he has himself credited how it brings out the best in him. It is therefore no wonder that he ‘enjoys’ when the opposition teams have a go at him.

Kohli is a living example of how one shouldn’t lose focus of the primary task at hand while standing up to any perceived or real threat to one’s goals.

This strong-minded and disciplined approach has rightly earned him all the accolades that have come his way.

While Kohli seems to have an edge over his deputy, it is unfair to overlook Rohit’s contribution in setting a foundation for the skipper to play with fearlessness. Since Rohit is an opener, it makes his job with the bat far more difficult. Most of the times, Kohli has walked out to bat when the openers have batted out the first 10 or 20 overs.

While Kohli has garnered most of his runs during the middle and final overs of the innings, Rohit has scored his runs

both during the tough initial overs and also towards the middle and final overs.

So, Rohit’s exploits with the bat sound more impressive as compared to Kohli's, considering the general situations in which they bat.

But, it is their synchronisation that bodes well for the team. Earlier, Rohit was always susceptible playing a loose shot and throwing away his wicket while Kohli would fail to

convert some good starts into big scores. In the current scenario, both of them give equal amount of headache to the opposition captains. While Rohit’s temperament and confidence have received an uplift following a string of high scores, Kohli has adopted a more expansive style to his test batting, something that has worked for him brilliantly in the shorter formats.

Since they work very hard on every aspect of their game, there is always the pressure of living up to expectations when one fails to get the job done and the other is called upon. In short, greatness follows them around and it is unfair to say that one triumphs over the other. The fact that they complement each other so well is what gives hope to India about its chances when the team embarks on some tough overseas assignments in the coming future.

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HOW VIRAT KOHLI IS ABOVE THE REST Kohli’s biggest test yet will come in the form of the marathon tour in South Africa starting from January. The tour will comprise of a 3-match test series, 6-match ODI series and a 3-match T20 series. With the just concluded series against Sri Lanka ending on a high, Kohli and his team will take this confidence going into one of the most difficult overseas assignments for subcontinental nations. The humongous task at hand can be gauged from the fact that India have never won a Test or ODI series in South Africa in 6 attempts. Before departing, Kohli stressed the importance of embracing the local culture in South Africa and had a few tips to share with India’s U-19 squad, who are heading to New Zealand for the World Cup. nspiring his team to their ninth consecutive test series win after the draw against Sri Lanka in the third and final test at Delhi, Virat Kohli has etched his name into the history books as one of India’s most accomplished captains in a relatively short span of time. Kohli is the third most successful Indian captain in history with 20 victories from 32 matches. Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads the pack with 27 victories from 60 Tests as captain. Sourav Ganguly is second with 20 wins from 49 Tests as captain. Kohli has been in phenomenal nick this year in the longest format of the game, accumulating 1059 test runs from 10 matches including five centuries – three of them being double tons.

He also climbed to the No. 2 spot in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen in a remarkable season that saw him slam two back-to-back double centuries in the just concluded series against Sri Lanka. Unsurprisingly, he won the manof-the-series award, courtesy a cumulative total of 610 runs with the SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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bat. The weight of his achievements can be gauged from the fact that he currently holds the numero uno position in the ODI and T20I rankings.

But, the records don’t just end there. In the course of the year, Kohli also overtook Brian Lara to hold the record for the most double hundreds scored by a Test captain. To put things into perspective, the only other Indians to score more than him are Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

However, Kohli’s rich vein of form in test matches can be attributed to a change in his playing style and mental attitude. He is more carefree in his batting exploits, something which he has adopted quite recently. Kohli began 2017 on a high with an outstanding double century against Bangladesh but this was followed by quiet period where he struggled to find his muchvaunted poise. But the series against Sri Lanka has once again shifted attention to Kohli’s remarkable rise in stature, capped by his influence as the skipper.

Many have been left wondering what

has changed about Kohli in the past few months that merit a different perspective. Here are a few possible reasons:

On the Job Learning If Kohli had decided to rest on his laurels, he may have had only a moderate impact on the team’s cause.

However, there is something fascinating about the Indian skipper’s attitude towards the game. One often finds Kohli kicking himself when he gets dismissed in an unusual fashion or if he is unable to get his team past the finish line. But, one can be sure that these moments have become a rarity with his ability to dictate the course of the game and even emerge victorious against the

opposition’ bowling plans. Kohli is a learner; he not only perfects his existing know-how but attempts to put it into practice. Most batsmen can almost immediately diagnose the reason for a certain flaw in their technique or hit the nets soon after a disappointing innings.

But what makes Kohli stand out from the others is that he can guarantee success nine times out of ten owing to

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his grit and determination. He has shown the knack for piling up huge runs on the board but this comes from his acquired capability to test his limitations on the cricket field. He learns quickly, but he effectively practices it even quicker.

Pushing his Limits Kohli relishes challenges and he always seems to be on the top of his game in such situations. Although it might simply boil down to his never-say-die attitude, Kohli also displays impeccable ability to raise his own playing standards. Every time he walks into bat, there is a sense that he prepares himself for the task with a renewed purpose.

Kohli has often been lauded for his sheer cricketing skills, but this could be a lesson straight from the management books. His ability to deal with adverse situations with a completely untested game plan makes it difficult for the opposition to find a chink in his strategy.

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However, one aspect of his game which Kohli consistently employs with great gusto is the ability to stretch his boundaries when the task seems well and truly out of reach. Kohli resembles a chess player in the act, calculating every move and executing it with precision. But, if there has been a major take-away about his game from the last few months, it would undoubtedly be his burning desire to push harder even when the physical toll of the task can frighten mere mortals.

Humility and Greatness Go Hand in Hand Everyone loves to attach a macho image to Kohli, both on and off the field. He is the most valuable Indian sportsperson by a mile. Not to forget he even pips Lionel Messi in brand endorsements.

Kohli’ fitness and physique are the result of his unquestionable perseverance and hard work. While this has undoubtedly

contributed to his new avatar, there has been a visible change in his demeanour in recent times. Kohli knows he that is hot property wherever he sets foot or that he can attract eyeballs for whatever he does. But, the dashing cricketer has now revealed the softer side of his personality. For instance, Kohli never misses an opportunity to seek help from former skipper MS Dhoni, who he has gone on to defend steadfastly whenever the media has been out to attack the latter. He admits that he needs guidance in the early stages of his captaincy career. Frankly, that is something which was hard to see in Dhoni’s transition as captain. He is also full of praise for his teammates and pointed out that Pujara’ batting approach is the model he follows to play the long innings. In an age where showing gratitude can be taken for granted, Kohli has never shied away from crediting his girlfriend and would-be wife Anushka Sharma for standing by him through the toughest times.

Kohli has surely offered a valuable lesson in humility and it is no surprise that greatness follows him around.

By Carl J SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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India's Tour of South Africa 2018:

VIRAT KOHLI & ROHIT SHARMA'S UNSPOKEN COMPETITION THE SERIES AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA IS BOUND TO PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES AS WELL AS CHALLENGES FOR INDIA’S DYNAMIC DUO. VIRAT KOHLI AND ROHIT SHARMA HAVE PROVIDED THE STIMULI FOR INDIA’S PHENOMENAL SHOWING WITH THE BAT THROUGHOUT THIS SEASON AND THE TEAM WILL BANK ON THEIR STAR BATSMEN TO DELIVER THE GOODS IN THE UPCOMING TOUR TO SOUTH AFRICA.

ife would have taken a different turn for one of India’s most prolific run scorer this season if he had opted to become an off-spinner during his formative years. The man in question is Rohit Sharma, who captained his side to a thumping 3-0 victory over the hapless Sri Lankans in the recently concluded T20 series. Today, Rohit is the proud record holder of the joint-fastest T20 century en route to his blistering knock of 118 off just 43 balls in the second T20 match against the same opposition. In doing so, he also recorded the fastest ton by an Indian across formats and became the first from his country to score two centuries in T20Is. The knock, which included 12 fours and 10 towering sixes, helped him to secure yet another record: the most international sixes hit in a given year by any batsmen. Rohit ended the year with 65 hits over the boundary ropes to beat AB De Villiers’ tally of 63 sixes that he had achieved in 2015.

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potential or talent. But, Rohit Sharma elicits stark opinions unlike any other cricketer, at least in India. You either absolutely love him or detest his very approach to the game. There is no credible middle ground position. Rohit, or “Hitman” as he’s fondly called by his ardent fans for his nonchalant ability to hit big shots, has had a rocky journey so far. He became an overnight sensation after his unbeaten 50 helped his side beat South Africa and progress to the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2007, which India famously won under Dhoni’s debut captaincy assignment.

However, over his 10-year cricketing career, Rohit has faced incredible odds and unfortunate circumstances, although compounded by his lackluster performances when the selectors had given him plenty of opportunities to redeem himself. Back when he struggled to cement his place in the team, many

were left scratching their heads wondering why have consistency and the luck factor been eluding this immensely talented Nagpur-born lad.

Rohit’s baby steps in international cricket was promising. In just his third international series, Rohit demonstrated his maturity by coming up with crucial cameos and composed fifties under pressure in the CB series in 2008. However, his subsequent performances didn't match up to that level (his average was a pedestrian 22 and his strike rate was below 70) and he failed to cement a place in the side. To make matters worse, his inconsistency kept him out of the 2011 World Cup squad.

In another missed opportunity, he was named in the Test XI that was scheduled to take on South Africa in the first Test of the 2010 home series in Nagpur.

However, Rohit injured himself while playing football on the morning of the

Test and was subsequently ruled out of the series.

Although he impressed in the home and away ODI series against West Indies, in which he bagged the Man-of-the-Series awards, Rohit couldn’t carry on the momentum in the crucial CB series against Australia in 2012. Following this he had a disastrous outing in the tour to Sri Lanka, where he generated a string of poor scores that makes for an unenviable reading. The frustration of the fans was understandable as Rohit had a remarkable outing in the IPL in the same year.

However, these setbacks didn’t deter the fighter in him. The turning point came when he was asked to open the innings at Mohali against England and he responded with a fluent 83. The decision to make Rohit open the innings was a masterstroke and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The swashbuckSEASONAL MAGAZINE

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ling opener alongside Shikhar Dhawan proved to be the answer to India’s opening partnership woes after the void left

by Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

Currently, Rohit is one of the most explosive openers in the ODI format. Rohit has 14 ODI hundreds since he started to open the innings for India from January 2013. He is only behind South African Hashim Amla in the same time span coming out to bat at the same spot. His records speak for themselves, none more illustrious than the three double centuries to his name. Rohit’s change of temperament and approach to the game is noteworthy. He has overcome some pesky technical issues and endured strenuous training drills to emerge fitter than before. Suddenly, Rohit has receive adulation from across the board and he has undoubtedly proved his indispensability to this Indian team. Here is a brief look at what has contributed to his phenomenal run of form.

ABILITY TO PLAY THE LONG INNINGS IN ODI Rohit Sharma is a delight to watch when he is on song. There are few players who can demoralize an opposition like he can. If playing those silky cover drives or piercing the gap square off the wicket weren’t enough, Rohit has now presented opposition captains with a fresh headache because of his newfound ability to bat for longer hours. He has put this mantra to good effect in the ODIs SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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courtesy the three double centuries to his credit. Earlier, he would be circumspect with deliveries teasing him outside the off stump. He also had the tendency to plunge his front foot forward far too early making him a potential LBW candidate. But if you have closely observed his technique recently, it is evident that Rohit has mastered the art of playing the ball as late as possible. This has allowed him to punish deliveries outside the off stump over the third man region with minimal risk and flick the ball off his pads to deep mid-wicket. The benefit?

It has enabled him to patiently negotiate the spinners when they usually begin their spells after the first power play overs. Before, he would barely survive beyond the 10th or 15th over. Rohit has the finesse to hit the ball through the line because of his stupendous timing but he makes it a point to wait for the right moment before he unleashes his quick fire hands. Therefore, there is a technical aspect to his ability to bat for the full quota of overs. Rohit has 16 ODI hundreds now, the fourth most by an Indian batsman after Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly and 5 of those knocks have been for 150 runs or more. It is anybody’s guess what he is capable of doing if he adopts a similar methodology in the Test format!

MENTAL STRENGTH It’s not by pure magic that Rohit plays the long innings with artistic ease. The swashbuckling opener has developed a more resilient mind over the years. It is

not unfair to point out that he is the one player who is always singled out for unsavory treatment every time the team bites the dust. While he is partly to blame for throwing away his wicket at crucial junctures, Rohit has worked out the mental aspect of his game rigorously.

He puts a price on his wicket and now bats with tremendous authority and surety. Notwithstanding the fact that successful IPL seasons have helped him to a great extent, Rohit is a thinking cricketer. Previously, he would have a game plan but would fail to show up in big games. Here, there can be a fitting comparison made with Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil, who can mesmerize fans by his boundless talent. But like Rohit, Ozil “disappears” when the team expects the most out of him. However, Rohit 2.0 has built his confidence levels up with a string of match-winning performances and this has enabled him to beat the opposition even at a subconscious level.

SHOULDERING RESPONSIBILITY IS THE PERFECT ANTIDOTE Rohit was the natural pick for assuming the captaincy role when Kohli decided to take a break from the ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka. This was no mere accident. Apart from the fact that he was the senior-most player in the team, Rohit has also shown his captaincy capability in successive IPL tournaments. He is the only player to win the IPL trophy three times as captain, including the previous edition. Therefore, there is little doubt that Rohit was geared up for the task of leading the Kohli’s army in his skipper’s absence. But what should interest everybody is how his leadership skills have reflected in his batting approach. Previously, he would play a quick fire cameo and lose his wicket playing a rash shot only for the likes of Kohli, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Raina to finish off the task. But Rohit has assumed responsibility of the finisher’s role more frequently than before and that is the hallmark of a matured cricketer who has improved his game by leaps and bounds by doing something that doesn’t come naturally to him.

By Carl J SM