Dec 2015

L ET T E R S M AT T E R

MISSING HEALTH, VASTU, SPORTS, ETC. REGULARLY

I am a regular reader of your magazine since last two years or so. I have been following the contents, photographs, advertisements, etc. quite closely in your magazine Here I am mentioning something for your serious consideration First, that you have been totally ignoring sports part in your magazine whereas ever y Indian living in any part of the world is always having deep interest in sports, especially Cricket, Hockey, Wrestling, etc. Second, why have you stopped your regular column on Vastu. It was ver y informative & I think many of the readers like me must have been missing it en your Health & Wellness column is not that regular You can regularly promote Indian therapies like Yoga, Unani, Ayur veda, etc K S Gulati, New Delhi

IMMIGRATION CHANGES IN NEW ZEALAND

I send this to you so that readers of your magazine may benefit To help maximize the contribution of immigrants to the regions, following changes have been made to the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) and Entrepreneur Work Visa Category in New Zealand: (1). Points available to SMC applicants with a job offer

IMPORTAN T DAYS

December

December

December

December

December

outside of Auckland have been Increased from 10 to 30. (2). Requirement that SMC migrants who have been in a job for less than three months and were awarded bonus points for a job offer outside of Auckland remain employed outside of Auckland for 12 months. (3). Points available to Entrepreneur Work Visa applicants who intend to establish a business outside of Auckland have been Increased from 20 to 40. Suman Kapoor, New Zealand

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CHIEF PATRON

EDITOR

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

CHIEF ADVISOR ADVISORS

AJAY SINGH

(Former High Commissioner, Fiji)

RAJEEV GUPTA

B.K. AGGARWAL

DR. KAMAL KUMAR

CH. SUNIL OHLYAN

SUSHIL TAYAL MEENA GUPTA

VARSHA GOEL

CONSULTING EDITOR BUREAU HEADS

CHAKRAVARTHI SUCHINDRAN

JYOTHI VENKATESH (MUMBAI)

SANJAY KUMAR (EUROPE)

VINOD GOEL (NEW YORK, USA)

AJAY AGGARWAL (U K)

PREMCHAND RAMLOCHUN (MAURITIUS)

RAJIV KUMAR (FRANCE)

RAVI KUMAR (FRANCE)

BALESH DHANKHAR (AUSTRALASIA)

SUMAN KAPOOR (NEW ZEALAND)

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

SR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT SUB EDITORS

PHOTO EDITOR

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER AVP (MARKETING)

MANAGER-PR & MARKETING

BUSINESS ASSOCIATE (DELHI)

MARKETING EXECUTIVE MANAGER-MARKETING (MUMBAI)

OVERSEAS ADVISORS

SANDIP THAKUR

BARKHA ARORA

AJEET VERMA

KRITI RASTOGI

SUMIT SINGH

AJAY SOOD

RAJEEV TYAGI

SUMIT SINGH

VINOD SHARMA

ROBIN MALHOTRA

CHANDER MOHAN

NITIN AADHVANSHI

AARTI BAGARKA

VIJAY MALIK (EUROPE)

DR HARRY DHANJU (CANADA)

M.S. SHALI (UK)

MANJIT NIJJAR (UK)

MOHAN GUNTI (ASEAN)

OVERSEAS CO-ORDINATORS NORTH INDIA CO-ORDINATORS

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ART DIREC TOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER INDIA DISTRIBUTOR

CIRCULATION INCHARGE DIGITAL STRATEGISTS

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RAJKUMAR YADAV

SUNNY VYAS

JOGINDER MALIK

SHIKHA CHOPRA

GORAKH NATH CHAUBEY

SANSKRITIKA COMMUNICATIONS

AR. VIVEK KHURANA

ANJU GUPTA

CENTRAL NEWS

AGENCY PV T. LTD.

S.P. PANDEY

SUCHI

DINESH SHARMA

DR. RAJA VOHRA

‘CLIM ATE’ IS CHANGI NG!!

The month of November, which began on a festive note in anticipation to the festival of lights – Diwali, turned out in the end to be a mixed bag indeed – of blessings interlaced with not so good tidings and disasters. e festive mood from bygone October carried for ward into November, and as the holiday season progressed Indian e-tailors once again baited both urbanites as well as our upwardly mobile rural populations with disposable incomes via their mega-sales of white-goods, mobile phones, electronics, fashion garments and the like, notching up turnovers in thousands of crores of rupees yet again. Our Prime Minister went globetrotting again last month, firstly for the UNGA to New York and San Francisco in the United States, then to the United Kingdom, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore, and lastly to France, to take part in the Paris COP-21 Climate Change Conference under the auspices of the UN, where he seems to have literally stolen the show

Climate Change apropos seems to be catching up with us, even as we see Delhi chocking with Smog and unable to breathe as air-quality deteriorates to ver y poor, while Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu swamped by floods.

In this particular issue of NRI Achievers, we are dovetailing Dossier into our Cover Feature, and profile an Indian origin UK doctor, who opted to come back to India and play a part in improving the healthcare scenario in our countr y through a couple of innovative inter ventions. In Global Events, we look at the recently concluded 9th RPBD at Los Angeles, the Resurgent Rajasthan Investors Summit held at Jaipur recently.

Real Estate assesses the reforms push of the NDA government post its Bihar debacle, Photo Essay brings you some glimpses of Kolkata Health & Wellness is back again, Silver Screen reports on the just concluded IFFI 2015, while news from myriad domains is featured in News Scan, Business & PSU Buzz, Diaspora News and Cineppets. For those of you missing Indian Achievers and Great Indians, do be assured that the games afoot to bring out Indian Achievers as a fully fledged magazine as was originally conceived, and it’s just around the corner Apropos, while we are still on the subject of content, I guess it is worth mentioning here that in forthcoming issues we will be bringing out state profiles regularly, considering most Indian states are as large as numerous nations of the world.

y many warm wishes for the ongoing holiday season, for yuletide and the comw Year! Do have a blast!

editornri@gmail com panchhir@yahoo com w w w facebook com/nriachievers http://themediagurupanchhi blogspot com

Its learned that Prawasi Bharatiya Diwas 2016, which is being organized by Govt of India ever y year has been canceled. is information is yet to be confirmed officially.

1st 'UP PRAVASI

DIWAS, 2016 TO BE HELD

It is a matter of great pride that Indians, with their talent, skill and commitment, have attained important positions all over the globe, and the Government of Uttar Pradesh salutes sons and daughters of this great countr y who by their achievement, have made India proud by instituting an award in appreciation of their endeavours and contributions. e Uttar Pradesh NRI Samman Award (UP Ratna Puraskar), is an award constituted by the NRI Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh to honour exceptional and meritorious contribution by NRIs of UP origin in their chosen field

G O P I O CO N D E M N S PA R

IN AGRA

and profession e first will be held in Agra on 4-5 January 2016, in which Uttar Pradesh NRI Samman Awards will be conferred by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Talking on this event, CM said, 'Our Government deeply appreciates the outstanding contribution made by NRIs in car ving a niche in the global arena. As we rejoice your success, we invite you to actively participate in the state’s growth stor y I extend my warm wishes to the UP NRIs residing all over the globe and look for ward to a much more meaningful engagement of UP NRIs with their motherland'

U S H M A SWA

G O P I O, t h e G l o b a l O r g a n i z at i o n of Pe op l e of In d i a n O r i g i n , j oi n e d w it h it s m a ny c h apt e r s i n Fr a n c e , Fr an c op h on e an d ot h e r c ou nt r i e s , a s w e l l a s o t h e r o r g a n i z a t i o n s , a g e n c i e s , g r o u p s a n d i n s t i t u t i o n s w o r l d w i d e , i n e x p r e s s i n g i t s s t r o n g a n d u n e q u i v o c a l c o n d e mn at i on of t h e s e r i e s of k i l l i n g s a n d a t t a c k s i n Pa r i s , F r a n c e o n Nov e m b e r 1 3 , 2 0 1 5 t h a t k i l l e d a t l e a s t 1 5 0 i n n o c e nt p e op l e a n d l e f t m a ny m ore i nj u re d .

External Affairs Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj recently inaugurated the ‘Suriname Memorial’ here to honour thousands of Indian workers who were forced to migrate to the South American countr y as labourers for sugar plantations "is memorial is not only in the honour of those who went to Suriname but for thousands of our forefathers forced to migrate to other countries as indentured workers,” said Swaraj at the inauguration. "ere are numerous heart-rending stories of Indian indentured workers who faced numerous hardships It was their endurance, hard work and determination that they not only sur vived despite all odds, but went on to become successful in all fields Two of Suriname’s presidents – Ramsewak Shankar and Fred Ramdat Misier – are of Indian origin," she added.

I S M A S S AC R E S

S

R A J I N AU G U R ATE S S U R I N A M E M E M O R I A L

ROADSHOW ON FESTA DE DI U 2015

e Administration of Daman & Diu, Government of India, is organizing the “Festa De Diu 2015” from 1st December 2015 to 15th Februar y 2016 in Diu e CII (C onfederation of Indian Industr y) is the “Implementation Partner” for the same. e event will be inaugurated Pranab Muk her jee, Hon’ ble President of India, on 1st D ecemb er at Diu To showcase the festival, a Road show was organized on Monday, 23 November 2015 at the Oberoi, New Delhi, which was addressed by Amitabh Kant, Secretar y to GOI in the Department of Industrial Polic y and Promot ion (DIPP) and Ashish Kundra, Administrator of the UT of Daman, Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli is mega festiva l is p ois e d to br ing DIU on t he Inter national Travel Map

OLA RAISES US$ 500 MILLION IN SERIES F

Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for personal transportation announced recently that it has just concluded another US$ 500 million in its Series F funding round. Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, Sobank Group, DST Global and Didi Kuaidi participated in this round. Ola will use these funds to further accelerate its growth in the Indian market, with a focus on building mobility for a billion people Bhavish Aggar wal, Co-founder & CEO of Ola has this to say : “As we pursue our mission to build mobility for a billion people, we are excited about bringing onboard partners who can help us get there faster. We will continue to build for the local market through innovative solutions like Ola Share, Ola Prime and Ola Money, as we grow the mobile ecosystem in India ”

British high commissioner for India Sir James Bevan has formally opened the UK & Ireland’s new visa application centre (VAC) in Connaught Place, New Delhi e new VAC is situated in the same premises as the Schengen VAC, allowing Indians planning a European holiday or business trip the convenience of applying for both visas at the same time “Following PM Modi’s successful visit, we hope more Indians will choose UK for their next holiday,” Bevan said. Other improvements to the visa ser vice include the introduction of new services at selected VACs across India, provided by UK Visas and Immigration’s commercial partner, VFS Global

N E W U K V I S A C E NTR E I N C IT Y

Naresh G oya l le d Jet Air ways has announce d an order for 75 B o eing 737 Max aircra at the Dubai Airshow last month. is is the airline’s biggest-ever fle et exp ansion order, a de a l va lue d at over US$ 8 bi l lion (over INR 53,000 crore) at t he list pr ice e order includes options and purchas e rig hts for

an addit iona l 50 aircra as wel l “ e new aircra will support Jet Air ways ' replacement strateg y and ensure it maint ains a mo der n, environment a l ly f riendly fleet,” said a Jet Air ways statement Jet is aprop os t he count r y ’ s s e cond-largest airline by market share, and currently has a fleet of 115 aircra De-

VI DEOCON EYES US$ 4 BI LLION TU RNOVER OVER 4 YEARS

Diversified homegrown firm Videocon is aiming at an annual turnover of US$ 4 billion (around INR 26,000 crore) in the next four years from its consumer electronics division, on the back of product launches and exports growth e company, which is expecting a turnover of INR 15,000 crore from the vertical this year, is expanding the range of automatic washing machine and f rost f re e ref r igerators in t he countr y, which is today dominated by MNCs like LG and Samsung.

liveries from the latest order will begin in 2018. “ e transaction will b e completely financed and managed through a s a le and le as eb ack ar rangement w hen Jet Air ways t a kes deliver y of t he aircra,” the airline shared with media

Luxur y It a li an sp or ts-c ar ma ker Automobi li L amb org hini l aunche d its Hurac an L P 5 8 0 - 2 i n Ind i a , pr i c e d at I N R 2 9 9 c rore ( e x - show ro om D el h i ) " We are d el i g ht e d t o u nv e i l t h e Hu r a c a n L P 5 8 0 - 2 i n In d i a w it h i n j u s t t h re e d ay s of it s g l ob a l l au nch , " L amb org h i n i Ind i a He a d Pav an S e tt y s ai d. T he mo d el, a t wow h e e l d r i v e v e r s i on of t h e It a l i a n s p or t s c a r m a rq u e e ’ s p opu l a r Hur a c an c oup e, is p owe re d by a 5 , 2 0 4 c c e ng i ne and i s c ap a b l e of re a c h i n g a top sp e e d of 3 2 0 k m / h r. T h e C omp a ny c l a i m s t h at t h e n e w Hu r a c a n L P 5 8 0 - 2 c an a c c e l e r at e f rom 0 - 1 0 0 k m / h r i n just 3 . 4 s e c onds .

Mahindra & Mahindra, India's largest utility vehicle maker, is planning to ramp up the production of its newly launched compact spor ts utility vehicle, the TUV 300. e ramp-up comes within two months of its launch, spurred by good response from the market Having secured over 15,500 bookings over the last two months, several vendors in the know told media that the company has intimated them of a bigger requirement in the coming three months, with plans of ramping up the production to 5500-6000 units till Februar y Of the 15,500 bookings, almost 40-45% of them are for the AMT variant (automated manual transmission) variant e vehicle currently has a waiting period of 4-6 weeks depending on the variant and region

L A M B O RG H I N I L AU N C H E S H U R AC A N L P 5 8 0 - 2 I N I N D I A

H DFC BAN K, N PCI L AU NCH SYSTEM TO

TR ACE CARD FR AU DS

Along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), HDFC has last month launched and put in place a new system that will be able to track fraudulent use of your credit or debit cards and cancel the transaction if needed e application, called Zumigo Assure, helps in identif ying the location of the HDFC Bank credit or debit card at the time of the transaction e system, designed by Silicon Valley-based Zumigo, traces where the card is being used and the location of the card holder’s mobile phone e system sends an alert to the bank, which can cancel the transaction if it feels something is wrong – for instance if the distance between the phone and transaction point is ver y large.

Bh ar at He av y E l e c t r i c a l s L i m ite d ( B H E L ) h a s a d d e d on e m ore c o a l - b a s e d p owe r pl ant to t h e g r i d by su ccessfully commissioning a 500 MW thermal generating unit in West B enga l. The 500 MW (Unit 3) was commissione d at t he up coming Sagardig hi Ther ma l Power E xtension Proj e c t of West B enga l Power D e velopment C orporation (WBPD CL), located at Sagardighi in Murshidab ad dist r ic t of West B enga l.

D r M R a v i K a n t h , C M D, H U D C O p r e s e n t e d t h e d iv i d e nd che qu e of I N R 6 9 . 2 0 c rore for t he f i nanc i a l ye ar 2 0 1 4 - 1 5 t o M . Ve n k a i a h Na i d u , M i n i s t e r f o r Ur b a n

D e ve l opm e nt , Hou s i ng & Ur b an Pove r t y A l l e v i at i on an d Pa r l i a m e n t a r y A f f a i r s , i n t h e p r e s e n c e o f D r Na n d i t a

C hatte r j e e, S e c re t ar y ( H U PA ) , Ma d husu d an Pr as a d, S e cre t a r y ( U D ) a n d t h e G ov e r n m e nt D i re c t or s on H U D C O

B o a r d , R . R . M i s h r a a n d J h a n j a Tr i p a t hy. H U D C O h a s d e c l a re d a t ot a l d i v i d e n d of I N R . 1 2 0 . 5 0 c rore .

Appreciating the contribution of ever y member of the NTPC family on the occasion of 40th R aising Day of the company, A.K. Jha, CMD, NTPC said that perform-

ance of each player matters for success of any team e celebration was graced by U P Pani, Dir (HR), K. Biswal, Dir (Finance) and K.K. Sharma, Dir (Operations).

e Alumina Refiner y of National Aluminium C ompany Limited (NALCO) has bagged the prestigious Business Excellence Star Recognition Award Appreciating the concer ted effor ts of the team of Alumina Refiner y, T K Chand, CMD of the company, conveyed his congratulations to employees.

DR. SHASHI KANT B ALIYAN

I N N OVATI N G

I N DIAN H EALTHCARE

About fe w years ago, a Br iti sh citizen of Indian orig in Dr. Shashi Baliyan, came on vacation to hi s hometow n in Har yana, India, to spend s ome qualit y Diwali time w ith hi s parents. i s holiday inspired him to take a new turn aer he attended a medical sy mposium there w ith a f r iend. Moved by the insight he gained during that event, he launched an initiative that prov ides s ome s core plu s hospital s across the country with the latest in medical equipment to make cancer treatment accessible and affordable. Not merely that, he has subsequently mig rated back to India, to spearhead and take up my r iad ventures that are aimed at innovating healthcare in India. NRI Achievers profiles him and his work in thi s feature for our readers, to take inspiration from and consider par ticipating like him in the resurgent India g row th stor y and the phenomenon of re vers e brain drain

Dr. Shashi Baliyan is a doctor of medicine who also holds a Master's Degree in Hospital Management With a proven track record of over 12 years advising and restructuring various NHS, private sector and some bluechip company-r un hospitals and healthcare services in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, he brings to the table a wealth of experience in managing healthcare systems to India's medicare sector. Aer having worked with globally renowned management and consulting groups of the likes of Accenture, et al , while in India on a holiday late 2009, he stumbled across the stark fact that Har yana did not have even a single piece of quality high-tech Radiotherapy equip-

ment to help treat cancer patients in any of its hospitals.

is insight led him to attempt estimating the need for specialised medical devices across the country Aer some footwork, he along with friends and colleagues in his peer group mobilised their resources to kickstart an initiative which saw the birth of ClearMedi Healthcare in Januar y 2010, which forged JVs between Medipass Srl Italy, KOS SpA Italy. "I realized that people had to travel far to access cancer treatment in India. Even then most hospitals in smaller towns were not equipped with the right equipment to treat them I went back to Britain and brainstormed it with a few friends, aer which I started shunting between London and Delhi to do something concrete about this," Shashi says

Since launch of its operations in S eptember 2011, this company of whom Dr. Shashi is the MD has provided a range of core technologies for cancer treatment to hospitals across the countr y “Although in percentage terms the cancer incidence in India has been as much as half that in Western countries, but there is hardly any penetration of Oncolog y ser vices in smaller towns here,” he reasons Dr Shashi has also had keen focus in exploring possibilities from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities like Gwalior, Vadodara, Patna, Madurai, Mysore, Coimbatore, Nagpur and Meerut to name just a few And this commercial inter vention by ClearMedi has helped Patients treatment cut costs by 50 percent or more. "Among equipment we partner with Hospital for full Oncolog y departments,

Baliyan,

Baliyan, Dr Shashi

(R to L)

Dr Shashi K ant

Dr Seema

Bhushan Ballain, Dr M inisha Balain with their Kids

Nuclear Medicine (PET CT and Gamma Camera) and R adiolog y department. We focussed on cancer as its incidence in the countr y is high and there is a latent demand for cancer treatment Young people are getting affected by it and you cannot imagine the number of queries I get," says Dr Shashi e equipment is maintained by ClearMedi on contracts that run 15-20 years until the machines themselves outlive their lifecycle or become obsolete, says Dr. Shashi, who lives today with his wife and two children in Gurgaon, Har yana.

In Jamia Hamdard's Imaging Centre at Delhi, ClearMedi has installed equipment for MRIs, CT scans, Mammography and Digital X-Rays, while the Ashwin Hospital in the Coimbatore city of Tamil Nadu has been equipped with a Linac (linear particle accelerator used for radiation therapy) "Other than accessibility to diagnosis and treatment, our initiative has also cut costs for patients by 50 percent or even more as compared to any diagnostic centre. An MRI scan costs Rs 8,000 in a diagnostic centre, of which half goes to the doctor We remove those f rills and charge the basic cost," he said. "In Delhi, the cost is half. In Hisar, the cost is one-third. e patient pays the hospital directly, not to us So, there is no discrepancy " A CT scan in a ClearMedi aided hospital costs 1,600 Elsewhere, it ranges between 4,000 and 5,000. Dr. Shashi also claims not to be led by medical equipment suppliers, into whose trap many hospitals have admittedly fallen into, resulting in large scale procurement of non-upgradeable machiner y. "We have a clear focus of accessible and affordable medical care to people mostly in tier-II towns, and are doing our best towards that endeavour "

While the scope is indeed enormous, there are still some viability pitfalls for this sector. C onsider this forecast f rom early

last year by Grant ornton India, “ the Indian medical device and equipment market is expected to grow to around US$ 5.8 billion by 2014 and US$ 7.8 billion by 2016, growing at a CAGR of 15.5 percent”. C onsider also this analysis by Qmed of late 2013, that posits the potential in India for medical devices manufacturers: “Since a significant par t of India’s population does not have access to adequate public healthcare, the potential market for innovative medical device manufacturers is huge If they can find effective ways to leverage low-cost, high-value medical devices, India could prove a ver y profitable market.” Fact however remains that there aren’t enough domestic manufacturers catering to gaps in healthcare

Despite humongous scope and estimates, medical entrepreneurs like Dr Shashi Baliyan do have to tread ver y prudently in the current climate and milieu prevalent in the Indian healthcare segment “We’ve worked at making the equipment affordable, we buy in bulk f rom other geographies. In fact, we ’ ve reduced costs by a third or even halved them.” Dr.

Shashi Baliyan adds that funding is another challenge. “With the joint venture, the scalability of the model is massive But our projects are ver y capital-intensive Banks want too much collateral, and I had to begin with my own money, ” he shares. For the entrepreneur in him, it’s all about persistence in the face of great odds But for now, let us just listen in to him in his own words his journey, and what else he has in store for us for the present and in the future ...

“My whole journey began in 2009, when I had come home to spend Diwali with my parents in Har yana While there I had met up with my friend, a cancer specialist. At that time Har yana state (outside

NCR) did not have a single Linear accelerator facility for treating cancer in the whole state I was aghast at set a thought going in my mind that became an obsession Upon my return to London, I ultimately decided to return to India to do work toward bettering healthcare in our countr y Decision made, I began doing footwork on identif ying real-world gaps that need to be plugged Recognising that the task will be a huge if not insurmountable one, I wanted to limit parameters so that we could at least make a difference on one aspect to star t with us began my shuttling between London and Delhi for my research, which took me the better part of about six months or so. Once I had

a Plan A and Plan B outlined in my mind, I reached out to my peer-group, all senior professionals based out of UK, US, Switzerland etc , and got them on-board to create a start-up company : ClearView Healthcare India came into being.

“It was indeed gratifying in a way with my coming back to the ver y hospital where I had started from So we picked up this one contract, and aer a short while we sor t of realised... not that we did not have an inkling of this so it was not like a bolt out of the blue... that the whole market scenario is simply too big for us and it would take too long to capture or to go to the interior of India without upscaling dramatically and fast. To be able to do this even reasonably, we first of all needed strategic par tners S o looking across the globe seeking enterprises we could partner with, we zeroed in upon Medipass, a company doing similar business in the UK and in Italy and roped them in.

“I permanently moved back along with my family to India in 2012, and have so far been able to forge 16 cancer treatment & diagnostic centres across India that are all fully live and functional. Today we are probably one of the fastest growing healthcare companies in India We are sited at many Tier 2 locations like Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Nanded (Maharashtra), Mysore (Karnataka), Patna (Bihar), Gwalior (MP), to name a few. We are present in the NCR too, in Delhi & Gurgaon. In Paras hospital Gurgaon we operate their radiolog y depar tment B esides lot of other firsts we also have the distinction of putting up the first PET CT for the whole state of Bihar in Paras HMRI hospital Patna.

Our current plans are to create at least 50 more sites over the next few years Not merely through organic growth but also via inorganic means. is is the Clearmedi stor y so far. Apropos, as a family we are

now branching off into more related ser vice areas for healthcare as well. Let me tell you about this other eureka moment I had while on the job at some of our partner sites an insight that sparked another train of thought about providing hospitals a service that is as much direly needed as our cancer-care initiative We have called it “Shubhram ” Shubhram is being managed by my elder brother Dr Shashi Bhushan Balain who has moved back from UK along with his neonatologist wife Dr Munisha. Dr Seema Baliyan my wife who is a qualified GP from UK is one of the directors in Shubhram along with my brother So now it is the whole family who is working round the clock to make it a success.

Being both a Doctor and Hospital Manager, I was able to identify some key areas with scope for innovation in Indian hospitals Linen is something we all take for granted, it is a low key item in our countr y, and consequently is also low priority for most hospitals. But in my view it is a ver y ver y critical area, as it is mostly the major bane that is the source of hospital acquired infections S o we have launched Shubhram, designed to provide one of the most state-of-the-ar t laundr y and Linen management solutions for Indian hospitals e need is ver y much there as the only facilities available are mostly inhouse ones.

“Hospital acquired infections are a major source of morbidity and mortality in our hospitals Infections are oen transferred via used items of clothing, linen and the environments in which they are laundered or stored. erefore effective laundr y management is vital to prevent cross-infection between patients and to protect para-staff that transport and handle used linen Good hygiene and cleanliness is a basic prerequisite for well-being, and this becomes all the more important

in a hospital setting. Patients expect a clean and hygienic experience in a safe environment of care when they visit a hospital, for which a high level of compliance with policies of cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization is needed.

“Our experience and audits showed that while in general these policies are rigorously followed for medical equipment and environmental surfaces, the same stan-

A SIGNIFICANT PART OF INDIA’S POPULATION DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ADEQUATE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE, THE POTENTIAL MARKET FOR INNOVATIVE MEDICAL DEVICE MANUFACTURERS IS HUGE. IF THEY CAN FIND EFFECTIVE WAYS TO LEVERAGE LOWCOST, HIGH-VALUE MEDICAL DEVICES, INDIA COULD PROVE A VERY PROFITABLE MARKET.”

dards are either overlooked or are inconsistently followed for laundr y and linen ser vices ough a few off-site laundr y ser vices do exist, they are largely either small sector or unorganised sector, the kind of quality they provide being far from good. One probable reason is that socially this work is considered 'dirty ' Aer lot of research across India we found out that no hospital was happy with laundr y ser vices whether in-house or outsourced. Ergo, I smelled another opportunity and started hunting for an appropriate strategic partnership We found another Italian company, S er vizi Italia, a large player and specialist in the field, ser ving European and Latin America economies and tied up with them. Outsourcing is cost effective, and completely disinfected linen can be provided to hospital users Given the fact that high levels of dependence on antibiotics in our countr y have given birth to so called 'super-bugs' here, it is all the more important that hospitals pay heed to their

“SINCE

laundr y and linen cycles to combat hospital required infections.

“Indeed there are really no standards extant in our countr y for hospital linen, so we took it upon ourselves to adopt worldwide best-practices to follow Risk Analysis Bio-contamination norms (RAB C) norms, to set up our first one-of-its-kind state-of-the-art facility in Delhi NCR , at Sonepat For us, cleanliness is more than just what meets the eye, so our expertise and processes ensure that linen not only appears clean and smells hygienic, but is also thoroughly disinfected Our Sonepat plant maintains a clean, infection f ree cycle from the time dirty linen is taken off hospital beds till it returns as fully disinfected linen. Our plant has capacity to process 60 tonnes of linen ever yday

“ To put that into proper scale and perspective, a leading public hospital in Delhi with a bed capacity of around 2500 washes some 4 tonnes of linen ever y day. So Shubhram Sonepat can process linen for

say, for more than 30,000 beds every day. .

On costs, again taking the leading public hospital as an example, we will be able to save them a ballpark 3 Crore every year if we process their linen and what's more, consider the enormous space this would release, they could easily put up lot more beds in that freed up space Another point on how we operate we generally buy and stock 6 times the linen inventory of any hospital we serve so that they for one need not invest in linen at all as they perforce have to do now. And our inventor y is managed in such a way that smooth flow to-and-fro of the linen to the hospital is facilitated

“A case in point is another trust Hospital, whom we ser ve. In one stroke by taking their laundr y out, they now have access to all the water needed for their new buildings, and permissions will now be easier ey will also now be able to utilize all that f reed-up space as well to may be have a cancer centre and a centralised pharmacy, and put in a few score beds as well is will mean fund inflow rather than the fund outgo the laundr y implied S o we have taken out that function and put it elsewhere at practically no cost to them & freed up their space as well. Apart f rom all these cost and space saving advantages, there is of course the entire pollution angle that is done away with, making the place a lot more clean-healthy. We have great expectations that this venture will do well, and so far responses are ver y encouraging indeed

So much about my doings, now let me tell you something about myself and my background.

“As far as medicine as a career was concerned, that was already cut-out for me, probably before I was born my dad had made up his mind that I ought to become a doctor. ough I did complete my medicine from PGIMS (formerly Govt. Med-

ical College) Rohtak, a premier Institute of India providing excellent medical education and patient care ser vices, I did not practice medicine ver y long B ecause no sooner had I entered medical college, my inclinations veered to entrepreneurship rather than doing surgeries. My father was not too happy about it I started looking for options When I was in my 2nd year I made up my mind to get into hospital management, a ver y new field in India. So I did manage to go abroad in 2000 on completing MBBS, and did my hospital management course from Nuffield Institute of Health S ciences in Leeds, UK I then worked with the NHS for few years, before founding my own consulting company. I was reasonably successful, and made reasonable amounts of money that formed the corpus of what I had all along wished to actually come back and invest into India. And even when I star ted ClearMedi it was not as if I had oodles of money, but it was like you take a step and then things just start falling into place and that’s how it is even now

“

e vision is that you have to bring true world class ser vices in India ... so it was my thinking we should rather make it something big and so, we did it that way at’s why I created the JVs at’s why we are now planning to create structures not merely in Delhi NCR but in four different par ts of India. Looking at B ombay Pune Expressway, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata ere is so much to do, as almost this entire countr y of ours is lacking in world class healthcare suppor t ser vices. We do not have anything comparable now.

A

Chakravarthi Suchindran

e writer is an technocrat who dabbles in journalism print & broadcast photography & creative visual ar ts.

MEDICARE ACROSS BORDERS—MEDICAL TOU RISM

Healthcare or medical tourism, one of India’s fastest growing sectors, is by conservative estimates a US$ 2 billion industr y that continues to show immense promise as a sunrise industr y. Even as healthcare costs continue to sky rocket in the developed world w ith the United States leading the pack more and more westerners are finding that travelling abroad for medical treatment is an increasingly appealing proposition. e Confederation of Indian industr y (CII) estimated in 2005 that 150,000 such people came to India for meeting their healthcare needs, based upon feedback from its member-hospitals. Another apex Indian trade body, the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industr y (ASSO CHAM), puts the fig ures for 2011 at 850,000 medical tourists, while projecting these numbers to rise to at least 3,200,000 by 2015. Our editorial team takes an under-the-sur face look at this burgeoning sector in this issue of NRI Achievers ...

So what's the profile of people travelling abroad for medical needs?

Let's take a look at the customer base that will fuel growth for “medical tourism” into India before we move on to see what's on the ground in terms of infrastr ucture, or advantages India offers to “medical tourists”.

Traditionally, people have travelled from less-developed countries to medical centres in developed nations for treatment that was not available in their own countries. In contrast to this, current trends show people travelling f rom developed countries to so-called “third-world” nations for medical treatment due to cost considerations, though the traditional pattern still continues. Another reason for medical travel to foreign shores is because some treatments are illegal in home countries, like fertility procedures Some travel abroad to access surgeries or other treatments – dental tourism, fertility tourism, etc., also fall in this categor y. Patients with

genetic disorders travel to another countr y where treatme ter understoo

Main factor ularity of me cost of health tries, long wa procedures, ea ability of int national trave and improve ments in bot t e c h n o l o g y and standards of care in many coun tries Avoidin ing time is a ke from the UK, reason is chea gical proced (medical valu fraction of the tries. For exam

US$ 300,000 in the USA, but a mere US$ 91,000 in Taiwan. Convenience and speed are other USPs that are big draws for MVT Additionally, patients in many first world countries are finding that their insurance either does not cover orthopaedic surgeries like knee or hip replacements, or limit choices of facility, surgeon and prosthetics Some travel for assisted pregnancy as in in-vitro fer tilization, surrogac y or freezing embr yos for retro-production. Popular MVT destinations today are Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, ailand, Turkey, and of course the USA For cosmetic surger y, countries like Argentina, B olivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Turkey, ailand and the Ukraine are big draws In these countries health tourism providers have evolved as intermediaries uniting potential medical tourists with provider hospitals. Companies focussing on MVT typically provide nurse case man

Circumvention tourism is another area of that has experienced growth. is is travel undertaken to access medical ser vices that are legal in the destination countr y but illegal in the home countr y, like fertility treatments not yet approved in the home countr y, abortion, and even assisted euthanasia Abortion tourism is largely to be found in Europe where travel between countries is simple Ireland and Poland, two countries with ver y restrictive abortion laws, have the highest rates of circumvention tourism. In Poland, it is estimated that nearly 7,000 women travel annually to UK where abor tion ser vices are f ree through the NHS ere are also effor ts made by independent doctors and organizations like 'Women on Waves' to help women circumvent draconian laws to access medical ser vices Women on Waves uses mobile clinics aboard ships to provide abor tions in international waters, where the law of the countr y whose flag is flown is the one which applies. e noted that the qualcare varies dramatihospital and countr y ances soon aer surhe risk of complicao surface, the patient the host countr y for ned, or if they have reme may not have easy to follow-up care. g flights and deeased mobility carr y dangers of developing deep vein thrombosis and potentially pulmonar y emolisms Also, health ilities treating medtourists may lack an e complaints policy to and fairly with com-

plaints. But differences in healthcare provider standards around the world have been recognized by the World Health Organization, which in 2004 launched the 'World Alliance for Patient Safety' is body assists hospitals and government around the world in setting patient safety policies and practices that can become particularly relevant when providing medical tourism ser vices

Why should medical tourists choose India for their Medicare needs? Apar t f rom cost, it is the availability of latest medical technologies, a growing compliance on international quality standards, and no language barriers Compelling reasons indeed. e Government of India too has taken several proactive steps to address infrastructure issues in its Medicare sector, while simultaneously relaxing visa norms to promote inflow of paying customers for Indian healthcare.

Removal of restrictions on tourist visas to Arab Gulf nationals that earlier required a two-month gap between consecutive visits has been done away with, not to mention the launch of a new 'e-visa on arrival' regime for tourists from 113 listed countries. Both steps are ver y likely to give a boost to medical tourism in the countr y With general tourism also on the rise, it is estimated that the volume of medical tourists worldwide could reach up to 5 million by 2016, attracting a lot more visitors into India. Healthcare tourism has grown fast in India thanks to a mature growing insurance market, strong pharmaceutical industr y, cheap international travel, and quality health care. Citizens from the US, UK, and Canada in addition to visitors f rom neighbours like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China form a bulk of the clientèle for the sector e most popular treatments sought by medical tourists in India are alternative medi-

cine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass, eye surger y and hip replacement.

is MV T segment of the Indian healthcare market also includes many secondar y players from the tourism industr y who benefit from visitors to India. It is estimated that the growth of health-related ser vices will be more than 5 percent for the next 10 years, and that should further attract more such visitors Major corporate entities like the TATAs, For tis, Max, Wockhardt, and Apollo Hospitals have all made significant investments in setting up modern hospitals and tourism-related ser vices to cater to this new breed of visitors from abroad

Clearly there are sumptuous monetar y s av ings and ot her psycho-s o ci a l advant a ge s for fore i g n e rs ch o o s i ng E ng l i s hs p e a k i ng In d i a for t h e i r m e d i c a l pro c e du re s A h e ar t by p a s s pro c e du re w h i ch c o s t s upw ard s of U S $ 1 4 0 , 0 0 0 s ans i ns u r an c e i n t h e U S , c o s t s a m e re US$ 7,000 (INR 3 la k h) at any of India’s le ading hospit a ls – one twent iet h of t he U S c o s t Pro c e du re s l i ke h ip an d k n e e j oi nt re pl a c e m e nt s , f a c e l i f t s , tu m mytucks and b ar iat r ic (gast r ic-byp ass) surgeries are all far more affordable in India, with travel and accommodation costs include d to b o ot

India also has many top-notch centres for open-hear t and paediatric hear t surgeries equipp ed with latest in meditech, on p ar w it h any t h i ng t he We st has on of fer Moreover, India is acutely aware of t he qu a l it y p e rc e pt i ons of it s v is itors –many Indian hospitals meet all US health st and ards re qu i re me nt s l i ke F DA and JCAH nor ms. Apar t f rom all t his, India is also home to several alternative indigenous medical systems like Ayur veda, Sidd ha and Unan i, i nst itut i ona l is e d u nd e r India's Ayush Ministr y ; while infrastructure for t he prac t ice of Yoga, Ac upunc -

tu re and Home op at hy, w h i ch to o are popular among foreigners, are abundant. Such a plethora of treatment oppor tunities gives India a decisive edge over competing countries

India Inc. too has not been tardy in raising the bar when it comes to the deliver y of quality secondar y and tertiar y Medicare ser vices ey have through their presence in the sector over the past few decades driven home the point that lower treatment costs do not necessarily mean lower healthcare standards. While in 2005 there were but 2, today there are at least 21 JCI accredited hospitals in India, and their numbers are growing It is however important for a patient travelling to India to zero-in on the most optimal Doctor-Hospital combination, where aer the patient has been treated, he/she also has the option of either recuperating in the hospital itself or at a hospice type paid accommodation nearby. Many Indian hospitals also offer the option of continuing the treatment through telemedicine systems today

Driven by a surging economy, a surplus of well-trained healthcare practitioners, low infrastructure costs and a proven national penchant for international outsourcing of customer service, India seems to have successfully harnessed itself to play the role of the world’s value leader for the international cost-conscious medical traveller. And those patients unafraid of facing India’s cultural challenges are realising savings of up to 85% on high-acuity procedures such as heart and joint work Serving many hundreds of thousands of international patients annually, our vast subcontinent welcomes international medical travellers to its several large metropolises like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi NCR

Unlike many of our Asian counterparts and competitors, who traditionally have been encouraging MV T by aggressively

recruiting top-of-the-line physicians from other countries, India produces some of the world’s finest physicians and surgeons in-house, with excellent in-countr y teaching hospitals and research centres It is a known and recorded fact that tens of thousands of Indian doctors work in hospitals outside their homeland Take the US – at last count some 35,000 Indian specialists practice in the USA – and more than one in ever y six US surgeons are Indian or of Indian descent! And in the UK's world acclaimed NHS for instance, at least 3540% of health professionals are of Indian origin, not to mention private practitioners and those ser ving in the top hospitals and medical colleges.

India has a two-tier health deliver y system Large swathes of rural and non-urban India still ails from the malaise of widespread poverty So the Indian public healthcare system offers medical care to the poor at little or no cost, and few in India can afford the “big surgeries” and elective treatments that attract foreigners here But large, private hospitals run by India's corporate sector are ploughing in profits from their international businesses into improved healthcare ser vices for the indigent So with both government and corporate investment solidly behind its healthcare system, more international hospitals and super-speciality centres are mushrooming ever y year. Heart care especially has become an Indian-super-speciality, with centres such as Fortis Wockhardt in Mumbai and Apollo in New Delhi and Chennai leading the way Success and morbidity rates are on par with those found in the US and Europe, with major surgeries at up to 15 percent of the cost So what more do you need? Make your medical travel plans to India now

“WE WILL PROVIDE BEST MEDICAL FACILITIES TO DELHITES”

Satyendra Kumar Jain, Health Minister in Delhi Government, seems to be committed toward s prov iding better health s er v ices to D elhiwalas. Right from the complex problems, existing facilities & future plans, our correspondent had a chat w ith him recently. Here are the excer pts…

You say you are committe d to prov i d e go o d me di c al faci liti es to Del hites, How?

Yes, I am ver y serious about it and for t h is pu r p o s e I have stu d i e d t he he a lt h prov i d i ng s y ste m of U S A , C ana d a and Cub a. Since our G over nment has come i nto p owe r i n D el h i. I have ke pt i n my mind, the famous quote of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam that “Dream is not that which you s e e w h i l e sl e e pi ng it is s ome t h i ng t hat do es not let you sle ep. ” I am relent lessly working to achieve it. We plan to change t he e x ist i ng s y ste m . We pl an to have three tier system for patients e g Primar y Health C entre, Normal Hospital and superspeciality Hospitals This will result in re mov i ng t he u n ne c e ss ar y work l o ss of specialists and they can provide qualitative treatment to other patients Fur ther I pl an to prov i d e a d d it i ona l f a c i l it i e s l i ke bl o o d b an k e tc i n hospitals so that patients do not run from pillar to post in case of emer-

Recently you have launched “AAM AADMI MOHALL A CLINICS”. Is it not another name for existing Primar y Health Centers and you want to get credit for it?

Not so We are committed for welfare of public only. By means of Mohalla Clinics, we want to take health ser vices to ever y door step ese will be located in the midst of Mohalla and they will hardly need to travel large distances which will save the time and money. Further each of Mohalla Clinics shall have one Doctor, Nurse, Laborator y ser vices and Pharmacist Patients can get investigations done & get repor ts as well We have planned to setup 1,000 Mohalla Clinics by 2016

You have around 200 old clinics, what is your plan for their proper utilization?

Yes, we will surely update and modernize these and conver t them to Polyclinics. In each of these we shall a point 4 to 5 specialists.

Some private hospitals have obtained land from Government at concessional rates but they deny treatment to the poor patients and earn money. What action you propose to take against them?

We have ident if ie d 43 such hospit a ls Delhi Government has asked five top priv ate ho spit a ls to e x pl ai n b e fore a c om -

mittee appointed by Delhi High C our t as to w hy a c t i on shou l d not b e t a ke n for d e ny i ng t re at me nt to p o or p at i e nt s S o t hat t he mone y re c e ive d out of t he s e penalties may be used for upgrading the existing facilities.

You have big plans to modernize & provide additional ser vices to Delhites, where from funds shall come?

We have increased budget for Health Care to 1.5 times compare to last year. Furthermore our aim is a clean Government and we, therefore, can achieve more ser vices at comparably lesser cost Further I am myself an architect by profession and I take personal interest in economical designs of Hospitals / Clinics to save money. It is my dream to provide better medical facilities to Delhites and hence I am committed towards this

Finally what is your message for Delhites, Doctors, and Paramedical staff and especially for paramedical staff and doctors working on contract?

To Delhites, I will say bear with us We are c om m itte d to prov i d e mu ch i mproved medical facilities, which you will see in due course. Doctors & Paramedical staf f should dedicate themselves to ser vice of patients C ontractual Doctors and Staff should not worr y as we are committed to their continuance and they should also dedicate themselves to the best of the patients care

A

Chander Mohan Arora

e author is a well known retired technocrat who writes as a par t time hobby.

Over the last one decade or so we have w itness ed a change f rom ope n surge r y to multipor t minimal access surge r y (MAS) which ha s become the gold standard for most operation s across surg ical specialties. SILS is a newly introduced var iant of MAS, aiming to reduce the number of incisions and he nce reduce postope r ative pain, ha ste n recove r y w ith almost no v isible surg ical scar. SILS has been per for med anecdotally for decades in g y necolog y for tubal ligation. Howe ver it was not until 2008 that surg ical procedures we re routinely be ing done. Since the n, w ith substantial advances in por t technolog y and related optics and in str ume ntation, almost all laparoscopic surger y can be done by SILS.

SI NGLE I NCISION LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY (SI LS) TH E COST EFFECTIVE WAY

The main constraint against widespread use of this method in developing countries like ours was the cost of commercially available SILS ports. en came the technique of using multiple ports through a single incision, which reduced the cost But this technique has had its limitations and in our endeavor to pass on the benefits of SILS at a much lower cost, we have star ted using indigenously made glove por t e technique of glove port was developed by Dr Elbert Khiangte from Guwahati and we use it to perform a wide variety of laparoscopic surgeries at the same cost using conventional laparoscopic instruments

OUR EXPERIENCE

O ver a period of 6 years f rom Januar y 2010 to date, we have done more than 300 cases by SILS. Although variables such as obesity, previous abdominal surgeries, anticipation of adhesions, and doubtful malignancy do not preclude the performance of SILS, only simple cases were selected. As SILS is ergonomically challenging and technically demanding, optimal patient candidacy has to be established Even if the patients demand SILS, it is only done if he/she fits into our selection criteria. Proper informed consent is taken for SILS and also for possible conversion to traditional multi-port surger y, if required Glove port this is the most cost effective technique E asily available materials like surgical glove and flexible rings are used to fabri-cate this port. It provides up to 4 working channels through which one 10mm and three 5 mm cannulas can be inser ted ere is easy manoeuverability of working ports and no gas leakage. Specimen retrieval is easy without contaminat-

ing the wound A wide variety of laparoscopic surgeries have been done in last 5 years by single incision from cholecystectomy, appendectomy, varicocelectomy and various other Gynecological and urological surgeries

DISCUSSION:

SILS is still in its developing phase and offers a number of challenges along the surgical learning cur ve, comparable to the transition f rom open surger y to conventional laparoscopic surger y e limitations in performing SILS are due to loss of triangulation (the chop-stick effect) making instr ument manoeuvrability difficult and extra cor poreal clashing of instr uments (the sword fighting effect), which requires investment of time, patience and a team based approach. Learning this ergonomically challenging technique may be less technically demanding if starting out with simple cases, use of low profile trocars and telescopes with coaxial cables

Despite gaining experience with several SILS procedures, this approach remains more technically challenging compared to conven-tional laproscopy Although we have successfully performed various SILS procedures with no complication and low conversion rate, it is far from being a routine standard of care. Prospective studies comparing outcomes of SILS with conventional laparoscopy will be needed to determine the future direction of this novel surgical approach.

Dr. Manish Kulshrestha

e author is Senior Consultant and Unit Head of General & Laparoscopic surger y at the For tis Hospital, located at A Block, Shalimar Bagh of Delhi.

For people who want to look younger than their age, so far the only option available were surgical inter ventions and cosmetic surger y for facelis that usually required a long healing period. And it is oen that many people literally shrink away from the idea of going through a surger y involving scalpels and cuts us, those who are contemplating a faceli but want to avoid going under the plastic surgeon ' s scalpel may today consider a new breakthrough technique in skin anti-ageing called Ultherapy.

Ultherapy is a micro-focused ultrasound treatment for skin tightening It is a 60-90 minutes treatment that uses your body’s own regenerative response to gently and gradually restore memor y to the skin and underlying tissues Skin is one of the most delicate parts of the body which requires proper care as negligence can make the skin age at an earlier date and faster rates. Skin care requires both external and internal care; facial massages can tighten skin muscles, improve blood circulation and clear dead cells, thereby maintaining a beautiful, glowing and younger looking skin However aer reaching a certain age the skin will anyhow begin to show signs of ageing and therefore will require some extra efforts to keep the skin looking younger for a longer period Ultherapy uses ultrasound to work deep within skin layers and eventually tightens it thus improving skin texture and tone. Aptly called the ‘lunchtime li’, Ultherapy provides an immediate smoothing effect by slowing down the ageing process and by creating new structural collagen e therapy is USFDA approved for skin tightening of the face and neck. You see improvement initially and the treatments continue for 6 months Unlike lasers, which penetrate the skin from the outside-in, Ultherapy bypasses the surface of the skin, specifically targeting the deep,

TAKI NG YEARS OFF YOU R FACE WITH NO-KN I FE TH ER APY

People age w ith time and the effects are most noticeable and manifested on facial skin. e face sags and w rinkles appear due to g rav ity and the destructive erosion due to sunlight. We can call all this simply 'ageing.' If we still want to look youthful despite ageing, we must be prepared to take some effective measures so that we can spor t a younger looking skin for a longer time. Various therapies and techniques are used for making skin look and feel young, and have anti-ageing proper ties. Dr Shahin Nooreyez dan of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals Delhi tells you more in this brief ar ticle.

str uctural skin tissues where collagen lives Ultherapy is thus different f rom other non-surgical treatments in that it focuses on pushing ultrasound pulse energ y into the tissue, working from the insideout delivering thermal energ y. is thermal energ y revs up collagen producing engines within the tissues, resulting in the production of new collagen and markedly improving the elasticity of the skin. e effect lasts for up to 2.5 years, aer which you may need a go through the treatment again since you are 2 5 years older

Ideal candidates for this procedure will be people between 35 and 60 of age, with early signs of laxity. ese patients see re-

sults within three to six months with a single treatment Patients over the age of 60 may require a second treatment in six months. Many patients looking to stay competitive in the workforce, which they believe is tied to their appearance are prime candidates as well Whether improving their appearance to look more vibrant or for the associated confidence boost, people perceive this to be important and they come into the clinics looking for help.

Dr. Shahin Nooreyezdan

e author is Senior Consultant at the Cosmetic Clinic at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital Delhi.

THE TALE OF MANOJ BHARGAVA

MONK, HARD-NOSED BUSINESSMAN, SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR, PHILANTHROPIST

Big ticket philanthropy is a trend that is experiencing a manifold expansion in the emerging markets of Asia, and India is no exception to this trend, as both home-grown as well as Diaspora business barons and tycoons get on the act to improve lives. e rapid economic transformation underway in these developing economies has spawned significant wealth creation and the emergence of a vibrant philanthropy sector. In this piece, we of the NRI Achievers team bring to you the tale of one such creative philanthropist who is applying his ingenuity and capital to make a difference to infrastructure-poor Indians in the rapidly changing Indian society ...

This is the stor y of Manoj Bhargava, CEO of “5-hour ENERGY® ” Aged

60, he today lives at Farmington Hills in Michigan State, USA. His net wor th is in the region of US$ 4 Billion, which makes him one of the wealthiest Indians in America His activities as a successful serial entrepreneur are the main source of his wealth. In September 2012,

Bhargava joined 'e Giving Pledge,' offering 99% of his wealth to charity, with an emphasis on a common sense approach to philanthropy. Instead of simply giving money, Bhargava believes that personal involvement is necessar y His philanthropic focus is on medical research and poverty alleviation in India.

B orn in Lucknow in 1953, Bhargava re-

located to USA in 1967 when his father decided to pursue a PhD at Whar ton e family, which was quite well off in India, had a tough time in the US and Bhargava started doing odd jobs and businesses during his teens, working at a variety of jobs construction labourer, cleaning contractor, accounting clerk, printing press operator and business manager. He excelled in

mathematics and joined Princeton aer finishing school, only to quit aer his freshman year when he decided to follow his ' own way ' of education 1974 he chose to move back to India, spending most of his next 12 years as a monk in monasteries of Hanslok Ashram, where he spent most of his 20s It was more like a commune, he says, but without the dr ugs He did his share of chores, helped r un a printing press and worked construction jobs for the ashram. According to him, he spent those 12 years tr ying to master one technique the stilling of the mind, oen through meditation Bhargava would return to the US periodically during his ashram years, working odd jobs before returning to India. For a few months he even drove a yellow cab in NYC!

Returning to the United States permanently in the early 1990s, he took over his family’s plastics company, Prime PVC Inc., which he grew to US$ 20 million in sales and then sold out in 2007. During this time, he launched a business career while still in his thirties and has since built several successful companies, most notably 'Living Essentials', maker of dietar y supplement “5-hour ENERGY®,” which in eight years shot to US$ 1 billion in retail sales Bhargava's stake in Living Essentials today is valued at over US$ 3 billion His other myriad businesses include Senterra Water (desalination and water purification), ETC Capital and Oakland Energ y & Water Ventures (investment companies), Stage 2 Innovations (additives for fuel efficiency), Micro Dose Life Sciences (medical devices), and US R ail (railroad and freight terminal operations).

Bhargava's charity ventures include the Knowledge Medical Charitable Trust and the Rural India Suppor ting Tr ust ese charities have funded medical research in the United States and over 400 charities in

India Bhargava has already committed US$ 1 billion to both these personal foundations of his Much of Bhargava’s giving supports hospitals for the poor and education for disadvantaged women in rural areas. In the past five years, the Rural India Trust has contributed INR 300 Crore (approx US$ 48 1 million) In November 2014, Bhargava committed another INR 500 Crore (approx US$ 80.2 million) to develop villages in Uttarakhand, India.

Bhargava has built a stationar y bike to power millions of homes worldwide that have little or zero electricity His plan is to distribute 10,000 of these free electric-batter y-equipped bikes in India, which he says will keep lights and basic appliances going for an entire day with approximately just one hour of pedalling “ e first 50 bikes will be tested in 15 or 20 small villages in Uttarakhand before a major rollout in the first quar ter of 2016. He says they'll be made in India but doesn't give details,” reported Wendy Koch in the National Geographic recently

And that is not the only thing that he wants to do. e low-profile billionaire has

a hi-tech lab in Michigan where he lives Among the projects it's working on are a device that functions as an auxiliar y heart by squeezing blood from the legs into the torso and a device that will convert 1,000 gallons an hour, of any kind of water, into potable water Bhargava's got a grander plan to solve the crisis of pollution and fossil fuels His answer is to use geothermal energ y the heat from deep beneath the earth's surface. But the way he proposes to do so is different from the ways geothermal energ y is currently tapped in places like Iceland or Indonesia or Russia “R ather than using steam mixed with chemicals to bring the heat to the surface, he would instead pull it up with a grapheme cord He notes grapheme, stronger than steel, is an incredible conductor of heat,” writes Koch of national Geographic “You don't need to burn anything ... once you bring [the heat] up, you don't change any of the infrastructure,” explaining that utilities could simply distribute it instead of coal, oil, or natural gas

NRI Achievers

Find My Ances t or s’ Inf o!

Dear Sir,

I am Radjkoemarie Sheorajpanday born 8th December 1957 in Suriname and at present living in the Netherlands during the past 41 years For the past 7 years I have been searching for the village where my grandfather was born and the place where he has studied for Pundit. Aer doing all the research in Kanpur, Hoshangabad, Gadar wara, Haridwar recently, my last aim is his “Kasi” according to my Nana ji had spoken.

My re a l mot ive is to s e arch my g randfat her’s (Nana ji ) f rom my mot her’s side v i l l a ge an d re l at ive s i n In d i a It i s my mother who is still alive and 74 years old, d au g hte r of my Nan a j i w i s h , to s e e w h e re h e r f at h e r ( b app a ) w a s b or n , s o that she can come and visit the place. She i s t h e you nge s t of t h e n i n e ch i l d re n h e had and one w ho is st i l l a live We don’t h ave any clu e ab out h i s f am i ly i n In d i a s i n c e h e w a s re c r u ite d i n 1 9 0 8 by t h e Br it i s h E mpi re f rom Var an a s i “Ka s i” a s told to his children and dep or ted in 1909 f rom C a lc utt a to Sur iname as lab orer for working in t he sugar f ield

My Nana’s name was Sheoraj son of Debipersad Panday, born in Kanpur (UP) in

the year 1884-1889. According to my Nana’s stor y he was doing a study for Pundit in Kasi One day an Indian came to him with the stor y that his mother was ver y ill and wanted to see him He went with the person who was actually a recr uiter. Instead of bringing him to his mother they put him in a Depot in Varanasi and kept him for months together with more Indians who had the same stor y as his Aer staying months in the Varanasi Depot set by the British, they brought him and the others to Calcutta.

Arriving in Calcutta he was selected for Surinam as laborer (Kontraki) and again had to stay for months in a Depot meant for Surinam, named “Surinam Depot”. is Depot is still there in Kidder pore nearby the Hooghly River where I have been in 2013

O n 2 5 t h March , 1 9 0 9 he, w it h hu nd re ds more Ind i ans , b o ard e d i n t he “Mutlah” and shipped for a long journey of t h re e mont hs to h is f i na l d e st i nat i on Surinam told and sounding as “SRIRAM” Desh B efore boarding he was registered as: Sheoraj Singh son of Debi Singh, age 20 years (Nana said he was 25 years old), c aste T ha ku r, a d d re ss D ist r i c t

Ho s ang ab a d, Vi l l age K HA R A I T I (KHIRIATI), thana Hosangabad. B ecause Br a h mans we re not a l l owe d for t ho s e kind of work the British change most of them their name caste and age

It is my hu mbl e re qu e st to help my s e arch in t he old records b efore 1909 of Varanasi, because Nana told his children t hat he w as i n Kas i w he n he w as recr uited When I was in Haridwar 3 weeks ago ( i n S e pte mb e r 2 0 1 5 ) for t he s ame pu r p o s e, I have b e e n tol d by a P u nd itj i that citizens are registered upon entr y, my grandfather’s document might be there in Varanasi to o, b e c aus e he was liv ing and studying there He was saying any person w ho e nt r y u n re g iste re d h is P u r w aj on , documents must be there. Unfor tunately in Haridwar, there was nothing to f ind of him or his family

S o my only hope is Varanasi so that I can go fur ther with my search his family in Kanpur his bir thplace and Hoshangabad village KHIRIATI his last address

I will be anxiously waiting for your reply

Sincerely Yours, Radjkoemarie Sheorajpanday

INDIAN-ORIGIN SWATI DANDEKAR AS ADB DIRECTOR

I n d i a n - A m e r ic a n p o l it i c i a n Sw at i D a n d e k a r h a s b e e n n om in at e d a s a n E xe c ut ive D i re c tor w it h a m b a s s ad or i a l r a n k t o t h e As i a n D evel opme nt B an k by U S Pre s i d e nt B a r a c k O b a m a The f irst-e ver Indi an-Amer ic an to b e ele c te d to the Iowa Hous e of Repres entatives in 2003, D and ek ar, 6 4 , wou l d re pl a c e R ob e r t M O r r, w h o h a s h el d t h e p o s it i on s i n c e 2 0 1 0 D and e k a r w a s t h e f i r s t In d i a n - b or n A m e r i c a n c it i z e n t o w i n a s t at e l e g i s l at u re s e at i n t h e Un ite d St ate s . O b ama an nou nc e d h is i nte nt t o n om i n at e D a n d e k a r t o t h i s t op U S p o s it i on i n t he As i an D e vel opme nt B an k ( A DB ) .

A 4 6 - y e a r- o l d I n d i a n - o r i g i n c o mmu n it y c a mp a i g n e r i n t h e U K h a s b e e n n a m e d a “Poi

P r i m e M i n i s t e r D av i d C a m e ron f or h e r “f a nt a s t i c ” c h a r it y w or k a n d e mp owe r i ng you ng p e opl e, i nclu d i ng wome n . Mu n a C h au h an w a s re c o g n i s e d for he r w o r k a s a c h i l d r e n ' s c h a r i t y f u n d r a i s e r a n d f o r e m p o w e r i n g h u n d r e d s o f wome n and you ng p e opl e to ge t i nvolve d w it h t he i r c om mu n it y a s volu nte e rs “Mu n a h a s n ot on l y d e d i c at e d h e r t i m e t o r a i s e a f a nt a s t i c a m ou nt of m on e y f or t h e c au s e s s h e s upp or t s .

An Ind i an - Ame r i c an woman ju d ge he re has b ec om e t h e f i r s t re c ipi e nt of a U S pu b l i c s e r v i c e aw ard i n re c o g n it i on of he r c ont r ibut i ons to t he f ield of l aw Q ue ens S enior Assist ant Dist r ic t Att or n e y a n d n e w l y e l e c t e d C i v i l C ou r t Ju d g e Us h i r Pa n d it - D u r a nt w a s h on ou re d w it h t h e 'S out h Asi an Public S er v ice Award' by t he Of f ice of Im m i g r ant Af f ai rs u nd e r Q u e e ns D ist r i c t Attor ne y R i chard Brow n .

INDIAN-ORIGIN MAN RECEIVES FREEDOM OF THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN AWARD

I n d i a n - o r i g i n S o u t h A f r i c a n f r e e d o m f i g h t e r A h m e d Kat h r a d a h a s b e e n aw a rd e d t h e Fre e d om of t h e C it y of C ap e Tow n , b e c o m i n g o n l y t h e s i x t h s u c h r e c i p i e nt i n t he c ou nt r y ' s ol d e st c it y Kat h r a d a w as a cl o s e c on f i d ante o f S o u t h A f r i c a ' s f i r s t b l a c k p r e s i d e nt a n d g l o b a l a nt iap a r t h e i d i c on Ne l s on Ma n d e l a . Kat h r a d a , 8 6 , s a i d i n a l i g h t e r v e i n t h a t h e w a s aw a rd e d a s a c e l e br at e d c it i z e n b e c a u s e “ a l l h e h a d d o n e w a s s e r v e 2 6 y e a r s a s a p o l i t i c a l p r i s o n e r a l o n g s i d e M a n d e l a a n d o t h e r s o n R o b b e n Is l a n d , w h i c h f a l l s u n d e r t h e j u r i s d i ct i on of t h e C it y, w it h out p ay i n a ny t a x e s

nt of L i g ht” by B r it i s h

FORGI NG A B LU EPRI NT FOR SU RVIVAL PARIS COP 21, FRANCE

1992. International political response to climate change gathers steam with the Rio Earth Summit is ‘Rio Convention’ adopts the 'UN Framework on Climate Change,' sets out a paradigm for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric greenhouse gases to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system ” e UNFCC comes into force on 21 March 1994, and has today a near-universal membership of 195 parties. e main goal of the annual Conference of Parties is to review the C onvention’s implementation e first COP at B erlin took place in 1995 Subsequently significant meets since have included COP3 'Kyoto Protocol' adopted, COP11 'Montreal Action Plan' created, and the Durban COP17 'Green Climate Fund' set-up e 2015 COP21 aka Paris Climate Conference, for the first time in 20 years of UN negotiations, aims to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

In this conference, which has attracted 50,000 participants including 25,000 delegates from governments, intergovernmental organisations, UN bodies, NGOs and civil society, our PM Narendra Modi seems to have literally stolen the show no small feat, considering nearly 150 sitting Presidents and Prime Ministers were in attendance, in by far the biggest gathering of heads-of-state since 1948 in France. For

Even as we go to print w ith this issue, World leaders gather in Paris for the COP21 climate change parleys. is conference of parties starts today and w ill r un till the 11th of D ecember. It i s indeed fer vently hoped by citizens of our world that by the 11th November all nations would come to a concrete ag reement limiting emi ssion s to pre vent global warming surpassing the 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels. Today the first day of the summit the Leaders Event saw Premiers, Presidents and leaders-of-state speaking their minds on ensuring our sur v ival on this blue planet and what the future holds for posterity. Here is the NRI Achievers repor tage from the Indian perspective...

the weeks preceding this conference, and again on its first day, PM Modi has successfully positioned himself as the loudest voice for the developing world pushing the axiom “Climate Justice.” To paraphrase, India stands firm that poor, developing

countries will not get bullied into paying the price for the decades the US and Europe have been polluting this planet

While inaugurating the India pavilion at the climate conference on 30th November aernoon, PM Modi averred the display in-

tended to “look beyond climate change and focus on climate justice.” Aer that, addressing the full plenar y of world leaders, he said: “e prosperous still have a strong carbon footprint, but the world’s billions at the bottom of the development pyramid are seeking space to grow. ” Back home in India, this talk of redressing historic injustices makes big sense To paraphrase an Indian development professional, “When Indians hear the maxim ‘climate justice,’ they now comprehend that there someone can actually be held responsible for the problem...” And it is but natural Indians feel aggrieved and perceive with a keen sense of unfairness that they are now being asked to roll back their economic surge, while rich western countries responsible for this state of affairs never did and are even today not doing any such thing eir feeling of being bullied and unfairly treated is reinforced Developing countries likewise feel that they ought not to be held responsible for past sins of the developed world purely because it was the US and EU countries who put more than 50% of the carbon emissions into the atmosphere in the first place ”

And PM Modi, in addition to wielding a stick, had also brought some carrots to Paris he calls it the 'sunrise of hope ' Talking to a packed audience, Modi told delegates and the media how India was spearheading a new International S olar Alliance to dramatically expand solarpower technolog y and distribution in poorer countries S olar power is something these countries desperately need, even though many ironically are located in the sun-scorched tropics. “ e vast majority of humanity is blessed with generous sunlight all year round, yet many are without any source of power, ” Modi lamented, outlining his plan for an alliance of countries mostly Af rican and L atin American but also including the US,

China, and France. e group would share solar technolog y and innovation, investing in expanding solar power across emerging markets. Modi said India would invest US$ 30 million to create the alliance’s headquarters in Delhi, adding: “ is day is the sunrise of hope, not only for clean energ y but for homes still in darkness.”

at poetic flourish apar t, subsuming the leadership role of a new global solar group is indeed one heck of a smart move for Modi, which adds stature not merely to his own international standing but also pushes the Indian economy another notch up Especially as India itself is in dire need of clean, renewable energy About 200 million Indians, or ever y one in seven, live today sans electricity, and Modi had promised to tackle that nagging problem during his election campaign early last year How he fixes this problem could be quite crucial for our planet too

In d i a ’ s re n e w abl e e n e rg y s e c tor i s p ois e d for a big le ap for ward w hen t he N DA c am e to p owe r i n May l a s t ye ar, P M Mo d i h a d e n h an c e d In d i a ’ s ol arp owe r ge n e r at i on t arge t s f rom 3 0 Gigawatts to 175 Gigawatts by year 2022 a d ate cho s e n to c oi nc i d e w it h t he 1 5 0 t h bi r t h d ay an n ive rs ar y of Ma h at m a Ghandi. Now with this new mo di-forged s ol ar a l l i an c e, In d i a c an h ave a s h ot at b o ost ing its own energ y s e c tor by de velopi ng s ol ar te ch nol o g y at home, r at he r t h an w atch C h i n e s e, Eu rop e an an d U S s ol ar c omp an i e s c ar ve up t h e m ar ke t .

Fur ther, India would b enef it more by exporting its own homegrown technologies to ot her sunshine-r ich count r ies w hat w it h Mo d i h av i ng prom i s e d U S $ 6 0 0 m i l l i on i n ai d to A f r i c an c ou nt r i e s

(w here

t h e i r C h i n e s e r iv a l s ) at l a s t m ont h’s India-Af r ica summit.

Certainly, there are fortunes to be made. e Deutsche Bank last year had estimated that by 2030 solar power would account for the biggest single par t of electricity supply worldwide, and potentially be worth some US$ 5 trillion in revenues. But becoming a major solar power might not be easy for India despite the fact that solar power has plummeted in price by about 70% since 2009 Already, giant-sized solar facilities are under constr uction in developing countries like Oman, whose national oil company has partnered with California company GlassPoint to build one of the world’s biggest facilities And Morocco says its new solar farm in the Sahara will be the world’s biggest. So for Modi, solar power is a way to boost business for India, increase Indians ’ access to power simultaneously, and car ve out for himself a major role in the world’s energ y transition. India’s environment ministr y in a working paper earlier last month had described the S olar Alliance as a way for tropical countries largely developing nations to “close their technological gaps by cooperating with each other,” and to share experiences. “ ese countries need a voice on the international stage,” said the paper On 30th November, they found one: PM Narendra Modi

A

Indian comp anies lag far b ehind

NRI Achie vers France Bureau

REGIONAL PR AVASI BHAR ATIYA DIVAS (RPBD)

Me e

du r i ng t

e

i ona l

av as

ng l e a d e rs f rom

fo s y s , TATA C onsu lt anc y S e r v i c e s , Wipro LLC, Fox Mandal & Co, Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneursh ip, e tc . T he OI F C d el e g at i on a ls o i ncluded Mr. Jupally Krishna R ao, Minister for Industr y, Govt of Telangana, Mr IYR R a o, C h i e f S e c re t ar y, G ove r n me nt of And h r a Pr a d e sh , and s e n i or of f i c i a ls f rom Har y ana St ate Indust r i a l & In f r ast r u c tu re D e vel opme nt C or p or at i on ( H SI D C ) , D e p ar t me nt of Indust r i e s ,

G ov t of J hark hand and D e p ar t me nt of NRI Af fairs, Govt of Kerala

ere were three Panel discussions on: • Investment Opportunities in Clean & Renewable Energy Sector in India • Technology Partnerships, Investments & Innovation through the Digital India Initiative • Impact Investments into Social Enterprises in India OIFC facilitated several business meetings between Overseas Indians & the members of the official & business delegation from India which are expected to pave the way for economic engagement of the Indian Diaspora in the US with India. At the Business Meet OIFC launched the India Corporate Internship initiative which offers from summer 2016, 60 paid internships at 23 top Indian corporate to students of Indian origin e internships are a window to the Indian work culture, an opportunity to connect to roots and experience working in a multicultural environment

e second programme that generated interest was the announcement of OIFC’s India Fellows Programme for young Diaspora entrepreneurs at the Indian School of

Business (Hyderabad) e course, specially designed by OIFC for the Indian Diaspora, focuses on the Indian economy & doing business in India. e year-long engagement programme includes a special 10 day residential programme in India, curated networking opportunities with Indian Entrepreneurs, webinars, CEO speak webinars, meetings with senior govt. officials as well as domain experts. OIFC will also work with partners in USA to organize visits to India by business delegations of overseas Indians, under the ‘Business Connect’ Initiative. Speaking on the occasion, Secretar y, Ministr y of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India & Chairman, Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre Mr A K Agarwal, said “e Indian Government has a keen desire to engage with the Indian Diaspora and to invite them to participate in India’s economic Growth story.” He offered the services of the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre to facilitate Overseas Indians’ investments from USA into India

Mr Arun Singh, Ambassador of India to USA pointed out that the Indian Amer-

icans were contributing to the US economy significantly and called on them to explore opportunities to engage in the new focus areas of the Govt of India viz Digital India, Make in India, Start up India and Renewable energ y Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, C onfederation of Indian Industr y & Co-chair, OIFC noted that the Indian Diaspora in the US has contributed tremendously to shaping the brand image of India in US and the stor y of India is moving towards States of India

e delegat ions f rom five St ates Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jhark hand, Kera la and Har yana hig h lig hte d t he investment opportunities in their States and business climate e Overseas Indian Faci lit at ion C ent re (OIFC) was s etup as a public pr ivate p ar t nership b etwe en t he Minist r y of O vers e as Indian Affairs (MOIA), G over nment of India and t he C onfederation of Indian Industries (CII) to enhance economic engagement of Indian Diaspora with India

NRI Achievers USA Bureaus

It is with in mind that the State held a spectacular event, the “Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit 2015”, organised by the Rajasthan Government in association with the Confederation of Indian Industr y (CII). e two-day extravaganza was a big success, with 25 corporate tycoons flying in f rom across India and abroad to declare their willingness to gamble on the compelling old world environment of R ajasthan being an ideal investment destination for 21st centur y business projects.

e past, they say, oen holds the key to the future Held in a sprawling convention complex on the outskirts of the famed Pink City of Jaipur in the third week of November, the summit proved to be not just a mind-blowing cultural extravaganza where business magnates talked shop with political heavyweights but also a platform for hard commercial commitments and done-deals. e total investments pledged reached a staggering three lakh crore rupees is was the quantum of an amalgam of big ticket memoranda of understanding (MoUs), new project announcements, signed document exchanges, serious expressions of interest and explorator y investment proposals on the r un-up to the actual Resurgent R ajasthan Partnership Summit

e Resurgent Rajasthan summit began on a balmy pre-winter ursday with Chief Minister Vasundhara R aje proudly announcing that commitments for investment in the State had surpassed the INR 3,30,000 crore mark, with the potential to generate 2.5 lakh jobs. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, chief guest at the inaugural session, put his finger on the USP of the Raje government that would matter most too hard-headed investors “In the past two years ” , he said with precision, “R ajasthan has already pioneered far-

RESURGENT RAJASTHAN PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT 2015

AN I DEAL I NVESTMENT DESTI NATION

Rajasthan in our minds o invokes images of a vast land of kings and warriors, palaces and for ts and vast expanses of deser t. It is perhaps befitting that the current chief minister is a former Maharani, belong ing to one of the noblest royal houses of the countr y. Vasundhra Raje for long has been fired up by a v ision to prov ide a royal welcome to intrepid captains of industr y to come to her State to invest in big projects and huge industrial units. Leverag ing the my ths and legends of its hoar y past, Rajasthan has now embarked on an ambitious mission to sell dreams to the cor porate world and attract huge investments not just from tourism but also from modern industries and Greenfield projects. A repor t...

reaching Labour Reforms. All it needs to do going for ward is to ensure E ase of Doing Business Global and domestic investors will flock to this beautiful State” Quick to take the advice, Vasundhra Raje promised to accelerate the process of making the State a paradise for investors Asserting that 2015 summit would not be a one-off event, she said: “ e R ajasthan Model of Development rests on the triad of ‘Effective Governance’, ‘S ocial Justice’ and ‘Job Creation’.”

An estimated 25 of the top names of Indian business were personally present e list of tycoons included Adi Godrej, Cyrus Mistr y, Anand Mahindra, Uday Kotak, Anil Ambani, Anil Agar wal, Pawan Munjal and Kumar Mangalam Birla Each one of them hailed the state government’s implementation of reforms agenda and promoting of ease of doing business. If Anil Agar wal of Vedanta said Rajasthan has the potential of being “another Australia and another Canada”, Anil Ambani of ADAG Group made the big announcement that his conglomerate had decided to make Rajasthan its main solar power hub.

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu praised Rajasthan for being the first state to sign a MoU to promote housing projects e proposed investment expected from these 27 MoUs is INR 12,478 crore and direct employment expected is 38,950

jobs, he said. Union Minister for C hemicals and Fertilizers, Ananth Kumar, comm itte d to s e t up proj e c t s wor t h I N R 10,000 crore in t he st ate R ai lway Ministe r Su re s h Pr abhu an n ou n c e d t h at t h e R ailways would enter into a joint venture wit h t he St ate to de velop inf rast r uc ture, adding t hat 24 ne w rai lway st at ions wi l l b e de velop e d in t he st ate

Among the g lobal par ticipants, Japan s e nt a one hu nd re d st rong d el e g at i on . Jap an ’ s l ong - st and i ng bus i ne ss ass o c i at ion wit h R ajast han s aw a def ining mome nt w he n re pre s e nt at ive s f rom b ot h sides signed MoUs wor th INR 685 crore D u r i ng t he c ou nt r y - sp e c i f i c s e ss i on on Jap an , fou r Mo Us we re s i g ne d i n t he Auto, Logistics and Air-conditioning cate gor i e s w it h Nag ano Pro du c t s , D ai k i n Ai r- C ond it i on i ng , Nipp on E x pre ss , San kyu Indi an L og ist ics & Eng ine er ing among others. Japan is already the benef ici ar y of a count r y-sp e cif ic invest ment zone at Neemrana, R ajasthan, with a second one coming up nearby at Ghilot The d el e g at i on , l e d by Ta ke sh i Yag i, Jap an ’ s Amb ass ador to India, compr is e d representatives of leading Japanese companies l i ke D ai k i n , My te x Poly me r, Hit a ch i C he m i c a l, B an k of Tokyo - Mit subish i, and Mitsubishi Logistics

Even before the summit, SB Solar Ser vice, a subsidiar y of S obank, had signed

an MoU with

for setting up a solar power PV plant with a capacity of 10 GW in phases e company plans to make an investment of USD 1 billion in phase 1.

Singapore Home Minister K Shanmugam announced that S coot, a group company of Singapore Airlines, would soon commence direct flights between Jaipur and Singapore. Shanmugam also declared that R ajasthan was one of only two States in India that his countr y had decided to partner with in wide-ranging initiatives A MoU has been signed between Singapore Cooperation Enterprise and the Rajasthan Housing B oard for developing the master plans of Jodhpur and Udaipur Key areas of par tnership that Singapore and R ajasthan have identified and will be exploring going ahead are potable water, sustainable urbanisation, affordable housing, waste management, cleantech, human resource development, smart cities and food & agriculture

Another highlight of the meet was an MoU wor th INR 10,000 crore that was signed between the Public Works Department, Government of R ajasthan and the C onstr uction Industr y Development B oard of Malaysia

S out h Kore a came in wit h two MoUs wor t h I N R 6 7 . 8 c rore t hat we re s i g ne d between the State Government and South

the R ajathan Government

Kore an f i r ms . R aj ast han St ate Indust r i a l D e vel opme nt and Inve stment C or poration (RIICO) and the Kore an w ate r te st i ng i nst r u me nt manu f a c tu re r, H M D i g it a l Ind i a P v t . Ltd. , have j oi ne d hands for a proj e c t to pro du c e w ate r qu a l it y testing/measuring instruments with an i nve st me nt of I N R 7 8 c rore RIICO has also signed an MoU with the Korean engineering plastic sheet manufacturing company, Spolytech C o. Ltd. , for t he pro du c t i on of P C ( Polyc ar b onate ) and P M M A ( Poly Met hy l Met hacr y late) she et & f i lm pro duc ts B oth the MoUs will gene r ate d i re c t and i nd i re c t e mpl oyme nt for 1 5 0 p e opl e. S out h Kore a and R ajasthan are also working together in two other priority areas Smar t Cities and Af fordable Housing South Australia and Rajasthan have agreed to establish a Sister States relationship. eir MoU will be supported by a Cooperative Action Plan which will be developed to target specific trade and investment opportunities and needs in the key identified areas on mutually agreeable terms. Some of the areas of cooperation are: Water & Environmental Management; Resources & Energy; Agribusiness; Education, Skills & Training; and Tourism & Sports Italy, designated as a Partner Countr y, has sent a high-powered delegation to the Summit led by Mr. Lorenzo Angeloni, Ambassador in India, and comprising several senior diplomats, including the Trade Commissioner, Mr Francesco Pensabene

If Day One was a resounding success of Big Business pledging big money, Day Two was a fitting finale with the emphasis on medium and small-scale entrepreneurs, without whom no comprehensive industrial policy can be complete.

e Valedictory session was attended by

Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for C ommerce & Industr y, R ajendra S Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Group; Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII; Shreekant S omany, CMD S omany C eramics. C.S. R ajan, State Chief S ecretar y, Veenu Gupta, Managing Director, RIICO Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Reverberating with the spirit of collaboration and cooperation, the Resurgent Rajasthan summit has collaborated with stakeholders f rom various industries across value chains, jointly exploring oppor tunities for individual and collective growth by exploring new models of economic development and par tnerships.” Smt. Sitharaman said there clearly was a revival of industries in Rajasthan and acknowledged the efforts of the State government in strengthening MSMEs Going for ward she hopes to see R ajasthan in the Top 3 in the E ase of Doing Business ranking.

Sitharaman lived up to her own words and announced the launch of a new National Institute of Design (NID) campus in Rajasthan. “ is institute will help address the technolog y design needs that

arise from increased industrialization and the growth of technolog y-intensive industries in the state ” She sought the cooperation of the Government of R ajasthan in setting up the institute, which will initially be a satellite centre for the NID campus in Ahmedabad Later, this institute will provide undergraduate and post graduate courses

In her concluding address, Vasundhara R aje said: “Our Government alone cannot do what we dream for R ajasthan Our par tners need to be on our side at ever y small step, at ver y large strides e response and excitement here during the summit was palpable and it is indeed a beacon of hope and boost in confidence that we are on the correct path and we have f riends in whom we can tr ust ”

Talking about the way for ward, R aje added: “ e easy par t is over now. e next steps shall involve us burning the midnight oil in implementing these investments and creating jobs for our people”, reiterating that Job Creation is one the three pillars of the Rajasthan Model of Development, the other two being Social Justice and Effective Governance

e easy part is indeed over e glitter and glamour of the Resurgent R ajasthan summit has come to a close. But now the real show will have to begin. e MoUs will have to be conver ted into concrete deals Investments will have to be beginning flowing in e dream of mega solar energ y plants, skill development centres, water treatment units, smart cities, affordable housing and, above all, the prospect of lakhs of new jobs and thousands of micro and small ancillar y units will have to transformed into a reality

A

Jeevan Iyer

U K AN D SI NGAPORE

PA RTN E R S H I P S

It is to b e note d t hat Pr ime Minister Mo di's fo c us s o far has shar ply b e en fo c u s e d up on e c on om i c d e ve l opm e nt a c t iv it i e s r i g ht f rom t h e t i m e h e to ok ove r. He i s re ly i ng on fore i g n i nvestors s o assur ing t hem t hat e conomic re for ms i n In d i a are we l l on t r a ck an d t hat t he GST Bi l l wi l l b e p ass e d in 2016 i s i n d e e d i mp or t ant At pre s e nt , In d i a r an k s 1 3 0 on t h e Wor l d B an k ' s e a s e of doing business index. But modi is tr ying h i s b e s t to pu l l In d i a out of t h at qu a gmirish situation so that ranking could go upw ard s A l l of P M Mo d i ' s p o s tu r i ng abro ad s o far have b e en ge are d towards t his obj e c t ive, and his re cent t ravels re-

inforce t his Sande ep Tha kur wr ites for NRI Achie vers on Mo di's re cent t r ip to UK and Singap ore

In d i an P M Nare n d r a Mo d i an d h i s UK counterpart PM David Cameron met in L ondon on 12-13 Novemb er. The two Pr ime Ministers celebrate d t he g rowing st rengt h, bre adt h and dept h of relat ions b e t we e n t h e t wo c ou nt r i e s T h e y e mphas i z e d t hat t h is e ndu r i ng c on ne ct i on b e t we e n t h e U K an d In d i a pl ay s a vit a l role in s afeguarding and promot ing t he s e c ur ity and prosp er ity of b ot h p e oples India’s e conomic de velopment and its r is e as a g lob a l p ower af fords opp ortu n it i e s to f u r t h e r d e e p e n an d e x te n d

It is to be noted that Prime Minister Modi’s focus so far has shar ply been focu s ed upon economic de velopment ac tiv ities r ight f rom the time he took over. He is rely ing on foreig n investors s o assur ing them that economic re for m s in India are well on track and that the GST Bill w ill be passed in 2016 is indeed important. At present, India ranks 130 on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index. But modi is tr y ing his best to pull India out of that quagmirish situation so that ranking could go upward s. All of PM Modi’s posturing abroad so far have been geared toward s thi s objec tive, and hi s recent travel s reinforce thi s. S andeep akur w rites for NRI Achievers on Modi’s recent trip to UK and Singapore.

t h i s p ar t n e rs h ip to fo s te r e c on om i c g row t h and i nclus ive d e vel opme nt , upd ate and st rengt hen t he r u les-b as e d inte r n at i on a l s y s te m , an d c ou nte r g l o b a l t hre ats. The two Pr ime Ministers note d t h e i mp or t an c e of pre s e r v i ng t h e e nv ironment and sust aining divers e e cosyste ms , an d re c o g n i s e d t h e r i s e of international criminal networks engaged i n t h e i l l e g a l w i l d l i fe t r a d e. T h e y res olved to work together to combat the ill e g a l w i l d l i fe t r a d e an d to i mprove prote c t i on for b ot h c apt ive an d w i l d As i an e l e ph ant s In d i a e n d ors e d t h e L on d on D e cl ar at i on an d t h e Ka s an e St atement on Il lega l Wi ld life Trade.

Narendra Modi with UK President David Cameron

E C ONOM IC DEV E LOP M E N T &

FINANCE

e two PMs welcomed the strengthening economic outlook in both the UK and India but shared their concern that global growth is falling short of expectations and that the risks to the global outlook have increased ey agreed to continue working towards strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and agreed on the importance of structural reforms and pursuing credible fiscal policies in order to raise living standards. ey hailed the strength of the economic partnership between India and the UK: India already invests more in the UK than in the rest of the EU combined, and the UK is the largest G20 investor in India.

e two Prime Ministers recognised the importance of infrastructure for sustainable development and launched India’s first Low Income State Infrastructure Equity Partnership with co-investment from the UK Department of International Development and the State Bank of India.

is aims to provide equity partnerships for small inf rastr ucture development in sectors like water & sanitation, clean energ y and urban inf rastr ucture Prime Minister Modi noted the par tnership of UK and India in effor ts to improve the Ease of Doing Business.

Prime Minister Modi appreciated the advances made by UK in rail project management and operations e two Leaders welcomed the MoU on Technical Co-operation in the R ail sector and acknowledged the potential business opportunities for the rail industr y

The UK and India ag re e t hat cor r upt i on is one of t he g re ate st e ne m i e s of progress in our time. B oth sides will work to ge t he r, bi l ate r a l ly and i n mu lt i l ate r a l for a l i ke U NC AC and G 2 0 , i n ord e r to strengthen the global response to corruption, including through improving cooperation among law enforcement agencies, strengthening procedures for the identif ication and retur n of stolen ass ets, and

increasing transparenc y around the tr ue (or "b enef ici a l”) ow nership and cont rol of companies

MAKE IN INDIA & BUSINESS

Prime Minister Cameron welcomed PM Modi’s 'Make in India' initiative. Prime Minister Modi noted that this model of collaboration was already deeply ingrained in UK investments and partnerships with India e two PMs welcomed initiatives taken by both sides to deepen defence technology and industry cooperation. ey also noted the deep and fruitful business relationship between the UK and India and welcomed the UK£ 9 2 Billion of commercial deals between the two countries announced during the visit. e UK has accounted for 8.56% of total FDI investment in India during the last 15 years Indian companies employ 110,000 people in the UK

SM A RT C I T I E S & U R BA N RENEWAL

e two Prime Ministers announced three UK-India city partnerships – Indore, Pune and Amaravati, to suppor t India’s ambitious urban development goals through technical assistance, exper tise sharing and business engagement

E DU C AT ION , SK I L L S , S C I E NC E AND RESEARCH

Prime Minister Cameron offered to support the Indian PM achieves his goal of preparing young Indians for the 21st Centur y Under the new UK- India Skills pledge, 11 UK companies have committed to support skills development in India. Together, the UK government and UK businesses will establish new "C entres of Excellence” in key sectors, starting with a centre for Automotive and Advanced Engineering in Pune. e UK will also support the Indian Ministr y of Skill

Modi with president of Singapore M r Tony Tan Keng Yam

Development and Entrepreneurship to develop new models of skills training and entrepreneurship with a focus on digital deliver y, women, the excluded and the disabled. e two Prime Ministers announced that 2016 would be the UK-India year of Education, Research and Innovation.

CULTURE

e two Prime Ministers announced that a UK-India Year of Culture will be organised in 2017 to celebrate our deep cultural ties and the 70th anniversar y of Indian Independence e two Prime Ministers committed support to the digitization of the shared archival collections housed in the British Librar y and the National Archives of India..

Prime Minister Modi thanked Prime Minister Cameron for the warm hospitality extended to him and his delegation and invited Prime Minister Cameron to visit India in 2016.

MODI IN SINGAPORE

India and Singapore signed a joint declaration on strategic partnership and nine bilateral accords on 24 November, 2015,

the second day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to this city state Modi and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong signed the joint declaration on strategic partnership to elevate bilateral relations to a “strategic par tnership to deepen and broaden engagement in existing areas of cooperation

Besides this, two agreements on defence cooperation and loan of ar tefacts f rom India to Singapore, two executive programme/operationalization documents on arts and culture, and white-shipping, and five memorandums of agreement (MoUs) on c y ber security, civil aviation, knowledge exchange in the field of planning, urban planning, and combating drug trafficking were also signed. e agreement on defence cooperation enhances cooperation in the field by providing for defence ministers’ dialogue, joint exercises between armed forces, and cooperation between defence industries to identify areas of co-production and co-development, the statement said e second agreement “ extends the loan of Indian ar tefacts to the Asian Civilisations Museum of Singapore”.

e MoU on cyber security was signed

between the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the Singapore C omputer Emergenc y Response Team (SingCERT) eMoU promotes closer cooperation and exchange of information per taining to c y ber security between the computer emergency response teams of the two countries by establishment of a broader f ramework for future dialogue e MoU on civil aviation “facilitates mutual cooperation in a number of mutually agreed areas of civil aviation ser vices and airport management beginning with Jaipur and Ahmedabad airpor ts” e third MoU promotes knowledge and information exchange in areas such as urban planning, waste water management, solid waste management and public-private partnerships between India’s NITI Aayog and the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE)

Modi arrived in Singapore f rom Malaysia on 23 November on a bilateral visit in the second and last leg of his fourday visit to south east Asia

A

e writer is a vetren journalist having more than 20 years of working experience.

Contrar y to the general impression, the Bihar defeat has not really dealt any major blow to the r uling NDA’s re for m agenda. Rather, it seems to have proven to be a blessing in disg uise instead for the Modi government, which has had to per force fast-track both leg islative and administrative reforms. Particularly the crucial reforms much anticipated and much by the real estate sector, like the GST Act and Real Estate Reg ulation & Development Act, that are expected to get parliamentar y nod in the current w inter session. Vinod Behl shares his analysis w ith readers of NRI Achievers ...

N DA’S BI HAR DEBACLE A BLESSI NG FOR REALTY?

Close on the heels of its Bihar debacle, the government showered us with a Diwali bonanza by easing FDI norms in 15 major sectors including the construction sector, raising the FIPB approval limit from INR 3000 Cr to INR 5000 Cr. It removed entry and exit barriers in the construction trade, doing away with area restriction of 20000 Sq m and capitalization of US$ 5 million, and allowing foreign investors to exit as well as repatriate investment before a project is completed, but with a lock in period of 3 years.

e government’s sense of the real estate industr y is that it should not sur vive on subsidies but on the strength of the market economy at’s why it’s focusing on realty reforms aimed at strengthening fundamentals for a sustainable revival of the sector e delayed reforms had affected the market sentiment and the government has been receiving lot of flak for its inability to check retail inflation and generate employment. It also realises it

well that it is imperative to provide momentum to reforms, if it has to leverage strong domestic growth in the form of a healthy 7 percent plus GDP growth in the coming fiscal, besides a pickup in manufacturing activity e assessment of global rating agencies like Moody’s weigh heavily on government’s mind that reforms delay may hit investment e Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) has also emphasized that growth prospects of India remain relatively robust, provided further progress is made on implementing structural reforms.

So the government is focusing on triggering investment By exercising tight control over unproductive expenditure, it has greatly increased capital investment by public sector. And to give further push to it, a National Investment & Infrastructure Fund has been set up to leverage public investments e government also plans to come up with tax-f ree inf ra bonds, in order to broaden the corporate bond mar-

ket with a view to provide long term finance for infrastructure. It is also looking at providing tax incentives to spur investment in housing FDI has considerably increased and private investment is picking up. e government is also working on simplifying FDI & ECB rules to speed up foreign investment. It plans to put 98 percent sectors for foreign investment under automatic route In order to help the fundstar ved real estate sector to tide-over the current crisis, the government is working on allowing foreign investments in Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs) and in Infra & Realty Trusts via the automatic route

e most cr ucial piece of legislation that has big bearing on real estate is the GST Bill, expected to be passed in the current parliament session, especially as the government has now adopted a more collaborative and accommodating approach e introduction of a single GST tax rate across the countr y is aimed at dismantling inter-state fiscal barriers and creates a common market within India to boost competitiveness, and make it easier to do business It will result in simplification and uniformity of taxes, putting an end to tax inefficienc y in the form of different

state-specific VAT and ser vice tax laws. ough there are two main taxes for home buyers – VAT and ser vice tax, yet multiple taxes in the form of CST, custom duty, excise duty etc, paid by developers result in price escalation by about 25-30 percent. A likely GST rate of about 20 percent (the Congress apropos is demanding a cap on 18 percent), should be quite beneficial for the sector in lowering current tax burdens, in turn resulting in a reduction in home prices. S eparately, the government proposes to provide tax relief to real estate sector in the upcoming budget

e Decks seem to be already cleared for the cr ucial Real Estate Regulation & Development Bill 2013, in the winter session even as the government accepts changes to it proposed by the Rajya Sabha panel e passing of this bill will give a major boost to the real estate sector, bringing in fair play and transparency in real estate transactions to safeguard the interests

Ashiana Housing Limited is a real estate development company based out of Delhi. It is involved in middle to upper-middle income residential housing projects in satellite cities and tow ns in India around industr ial hubs, predominantly along the Delhi-Mumbai industr ial cor r idor being promoted by the Government of India. Its residential real estate de velopment projects range from apar tments to group housing society projects. In addition, it also de velops limited retail and commercial proper ties, including hotels. Under our real estate seg ment, we feature this issue a project being promoted by the developer.

of property buyers and investors.

e government, which has already streamlined environment clearances for improving ease of doing business, is now fast-tracking single window clearance system for multi-storeyed buildings that should come through by early December 2015 e simplified process will considerably cut delays in granting approvals, in turn resulting in cost reductions that will benefit property consumers. is will also provide much-needed relief to debt-ridden developers by way of faster project completions and lesser interest outgo For its flagship programme – ‘Housing for all’, envisaging the creation of more than 30 million houses, government is readying a plan to provide more funds for constructing rural houses and providing subsidized power and water Under its AMRUT programme, the C entre has allocated INR 11654 Cr for infrastructure upgrades.

e B an kr uptc y C o de (providing for

e asier exits for business es, s afeguarding the interests of lenders and investors) together with proposed new Start-up Policy, will foster new enterprises and fast-track winding up of fai le d enter pr is es, wit h a vie w to st rengt hen t he e as e-ofdoing-business. Fur ther, lab our reforms are aime d at removing r ig idity and encourag ing employment e gover nment’s newfound aggression and resolve to push its refor m agenda has a lre ady seen reflection on the BSE Realty Index, reg ister ing t he max r is e in t he last for tnight, and further reform measures to be unveiled in the budget will certainly ser ve to speed up the revival of the real estate sector that is facing a slowdown.

Vinod Behl

e author is a senior media professional, with long-standing experience in the real estate sector. he may be reached at: vbehl2008@g mail.com

AGEI NG GR ACEFULLY

LIVI NG WITH ELEGANCE

One of Ashiana Group’s latest offerings is in the domain of senior living, in the shape and form of ‘Nirmay,’ a bespoke lifestyle product that is being created especially to suit the needs of its prospective residents. With an increase in life expectancies and a rise in the standard of living among the urban Indian populace, the expectations and needs of an increasing number of our ageing populations in the countr y are undergoing a sea change. However, in India unlike in the western world, senior citizens in India do not have ver y many options available

chatting with your friends and people of your age group and outlook over a game of cards, or carom, or just a cup of coffee while all your other requirements are being taken care of by a bevy of trained staff

Our countr y has already risen to this concept of senior living, with several flagship projects launched by the Ashiana Group in Bhiwadi in the year 1999 e group is known to be a pioneer in senior living with 3 completed projects and 1,200 families already staying there. e group has been felicitated with the awards for the best theme based township given by

glor y and fun. Endless conversations, different games and multiple activities keep the residents busy throughout the day

A curated lifestyle that not only enriches your days with wonderful activities, but also enriches your senses with the sheerness of nature is what is on offer at the Ashiana Group’s latest outing in the senior living domain e group ’ s second senior living project in Bhiwadi, Ashiana Nirmay, near Gurgaon, is being launched for connoisseurs of life, who refuse to surrender to the passiveness of life and vow to live a life which is fulfilling, grand & enriching to the core Nirmay is more about bespoke conveniences that we all aim for in the present day. Each aspect of this senior living project has been finalized keeping in mind the needs of aged people who wish to spend their lives independently and actively without having to depend on others for their chores.

to them. B esides, according to some experts in the field, ‘retirement’ has been one of the most misinter preted words in the Indian context, with retirement generally being understood as people literally giving up on their active lifestyles to adapt a passive, non-happening routine.

Now, imagine a life aer retirement wherein you do not need to surrender to such submissive ways of living Imagine a day starting with an invigorating yoga session, followed by a quick dip in a pool followed by a sumptuous and delicious breakfast, made according to your specifications at the café A perfect start of the day, no ? Well, the best is yet to come. Imagine spending the rest of your day

CREDAI in 2012, and senior living project of the year for Ashiana Utsav, Lavasa, given by Realty Excellence Awards in 2014 e residents of the group ’ s flagship project, Ashiana Utsav confirm the same. Residents who come from different professional domains like medicine, banking, engineering, academia among others, are living a blissful life in this project ese residents in Utsav are ver y different from the one which is generally seen. e elderly residents of Utsav are living their life to the fullest mingling with others with a similar mindset and pursuing hobbies which they never had time for earlier A visit to the activity centre at Utsav at any time of the day will find retired people living a life full of

To l o ok we l l af te r t h e d ay - to - d ay ne e ds of t he p e ople, e ach tower in Nirmay has a concierge desk Residents can s i mply c a l l i n an d ge t t h e i r bi l l s p ai d f rom t h e re Not w i l l i ng to c o ok you r m e a l s ? Not a pro bl e m . T h e we l l e quipp e d café in t he proj e c t café s er ves d ay - l ong s n a ck s a l ong w it h f re s h lyco oked meals One als o do es not need to worr y ab out medical issues Professional ai d i s av ai l abl e rou n d t h e cl o ck a s t h e project has tie-ups with a number of hospit a ls in t he city. The proj e c t a ls o comes wit h an ac tivity centre w here librar y, T V lounge, t he at re and var ious hobby clubs are located Prices start at INR 34 91 lakh for a 1 B H K ap ar t m e nt . Fre e f rom t h e rout ine life chores of e ver yday, t he residents of Nir may, li ke t hos e at Uts av, wi l l on ly b e busy pursuing t heir dre ams and hobbies One can rest assured that life at Ni r may w i l l b e che r ishe d and t he mo st f u lf i l ling for t he residents. A

A MR APALI L AU NCH ES

“ADARSH AWAS YOJ NA”

opportunity for us to promote the technologically advanced project of Amrapali group who is already a market leader in affordable housing segment ”

AB OU T ‘AMRAPALI GROUP’:

O ver a decade, Amrapali group has grown into a brand to be reckoned with more than 50 projects in 24 cities across India Apart from being one of the largest home providers in Noida & Greater Noida (NCR), Amrapali Group has erected structures in Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, UP, Rajasthan, Har yana & Maharashtra as well with a strong presence in cities like Bhilai, New R aipur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Vrindavan, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Muzaffarpur, Purnia, Gaya, Buxar, Katihar etc

The government’s vision of providing “Housing for All” by 2022 plan w i l l ge t a b o o st w he re re a l e st ate sector will play a major role. In achieving the vision, India currently needs 25 million more dwellings Thus, the scope for hous i ng supply is i m me ns e ; Am r ap a l i Group has taken it one more step fur ther by an nou nc i ng it s ‘Am r ap a l i Ad arsh Awas Yojna’only for ser ving/ retired government employees

Adarsh Awaas Yojna is a part of 100 acres of land in Greater Noida (West) in Uttar Pradesh with approximately 5000 number of flats to be constructed of 975 to 1300 sq.  onwards in 2-3 BHK formats at a very reasonable price of 22 lacs and above e loan is available by all major nationalized banks e self-sufficient township covers all the safety and regulator y norms along with many attractive features like a cricket stadium of its own along with M S Dhoni’s cricket academy, 150 bedded multi- specialty Hospital, 2lac sq  of commercial area, 6 nurser y schools, 2 secondar y schools and other basic infrastructures to

sustain its economy

According to Dr Anil Kumar Sharma, CMD, Amrapali Group, “We are quite pleased and proud of this offering to the people who are looking to have a home in the middle of a modern and new society, this project is open to all who are looking to buy a flat but the attractive buy would be for Government employees who can avail attractive discounts on our existing prices.”

e project is a technologically advanced master piece which is built by ear thquake resistant precast technolog y topped with aluminium form which provides the best in class resistance to the str uctures. e precast technolog y/ aluminium form work is a faster way to finish projects as compare to conventional technolog y so it reduces deliver y time and total cost of the project. e connectivity also is a ver y alluring aspect of this project which has a metro station at approx 1km from the project along with a 100m wide road connectivity to sector 79, Noida

As per Mr. Honey Katiyal, CEO, Investors Clinic, “It is indeed a ver y good

Amrapali Group has been the pioneer of innovations & has set up a humongous precast factory at Kasna, Greater Noida which is one of the largest precast units in Asia. e introduction of precast will greatly help in accelerating the construction time, reducing the project cost, minimizing wastage & incorporating the green building design in its projects. eir creations strike a perfect balance between homebuilding & the sustainable environment ey build structures & use processes that are environmentally responsible & resource efficient throughout a building’s lifecycle: from concept to design, construction, operation, maintenance & renovation.

With commitment to build a healthy relationship with their buyers, deliver luxur y at palatable prices & make their home buying experience a blissful one. Proud to have M.S. Dhoni, Captain of Indian Cricket Team, as their brand ambassador, the group goes extra mile to ensure timely completion and deliver y of projects

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e shoot of FORCE

2 is going on in full swing in Budapest

Its lead stars, John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha, are bonding big time on the sets e credit for it all goes to Tahir Raj Bhasin

During his stay in Budapest, Tahir would take a tour of the city on a Segway Sonakshi liked Tahir’s idea and she joined him in sightseeing too Later, when John came to know about it, he also joined the gang e trio would get on their wheels during the break and take a tour.

MOHIT SURI OUT OF AASHIQUI 3

AASHIQUI 2, Mohit Suri’s adaptation of the iconic ‘90s hit AASHIQUI, went onto become a blockbuster. e film also established Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor as bankable stars So when we heard the buzz that AASHIQUI 3 was being made, we assumed Mohit would be helming the film But apparently that’s not the case Producers Bhushan Kumar and Mahesh Bhatt did meet Mohit but things didn’t work out. According to the grapevine, Mohit asked for a huge remuneration, which the producers didn’t agree to Last heard, Bhushan Kumar and Mahesh Bhatt were looking for another filmmaker to move the franchise for ward

BATTLE OF B IGGI ES: DI LWALE VS BA J I R AO M ASTAN I I N 2015’S B IGGEST FRI DAY

e makers of both films are tr ying to get more screens than the other ese days, once the filmmakers decide the release date, they don’t give it up even though it is slated to clash with another big-budget film. While BAJIRAO MASTANI and DILWALE will cater to diverse segments of the audience, the buzz for the latter is slightly better since it is a mass entertainer, says a trade source

SUSHANT SI NGH R A J PUT TO ROM ANCE PRIYAN K A CHOPR A

In a casting coup, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has paired together for the first time Sushant Singh Rajput with Priyanka Chopra e two will be seen romancing each other in Bhansali Productions’ GUSTAAKHIYAAN, to be directed by Ashi Dua e film is a biopic of sorts on the life of legendar y poet Sahir Ludhianvi and Sushant will be essaying the titular

role. Apparently, Priyanka, who’ll be playing Amrita Pritam in the film, had given her nod long ago but the hunt for the male lead was on It was earlier reported that Sonakshi Sinha and Fawad Khan were signed for the film but things didn’t work out e film will go on floors next year

JOHN ABRAHAM & SONAKSHI

SINHA BOND IN BUDAPEST

ALL ABOUT I FFI AN D TH E FI LM BAZAR AT GOA

With the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2015, India’s annual film extravaganza, hav ing just come to an end, NRI Achievers brings you a bouquet of interesting nug gets f rom G oa, w r itten specially for our readers by Jyoti Venkatesh, our cinema maven. Sit back in your chair, and plunge headlong into it. You w ill enjoy it.

WO DIFFERENT FILMS

Ind one s i an d i re c tor Ang g a D w i mas S as ong ko, w ho s e l ate st f i l m F I LO S OF I KOPI w as fe atu re d i n t he Inte r nat i ona l C ompetition section of the IFFI; and Isr a el i d i re c tor Ur i B ar b ash w ho s e l ate st f i l m KA P O I N J E RU S A L E M w as a ls o s c re e ne d as p ar t of t he I F F I , br i e fe d us ab out f i l ms b e i ng ma d e i n t he i r c ou nt r ies Ja kar t an Ang ga D w imas s aid t hat h is l ate st f i l m F I LO S OF I KOPI , w h i ch won nominations from Citra for B est Director, B est Writing and Adapted screenpl ay, w as ab out s ou l - s e arch i ng and making peace with the past through coffee “My f ilm is bas ed on D e wi L est ar i’s shor t stor y and has b e en dubb e d as t he f irst ever user-generated f ilm in Indone-

sia It was shot in 14 days with a budget of around 2, 00,000 US dollars.”

Sasongko reiterated that Indonesia, with a population of 250 million people, has a mere 1000 cinema houses, far too meager, and lamented that as there were no outlets to showcase ar t-house films, only mainstream films were being made. He also added that for around 20 years, no movie was being made in his countr y and said that he is happy when he saw the Indian film lovers watching ever y film engaging them, laughing with the film and clapping when there were emotional scenes, much unlike his countr y

JAC K I E SH ROF F TO BE BR A N D AMBASSAD OR OF MIFF 2016

For the first time in the annals of the biannual Mumbai International Film Festi-

val (MIFF), renowned actor Jackie Shroff has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador for the festival, to be held between Januar y 28 and Februar y 3 at the Films Division C omplex at 24, Peddar Road in Mumbai MIFF is a globally renowned International film festival of shor t, animation and documentar y films organized by the Films Division of India for the Union Ministr y of Information & Broadcasting FILM

TOURISM SYMPOSIUM

NFD C Film Bazaar, 2015 hosted successful Film Tourism Symposium sessions with different Government B odies and Film Industr y Delegates from November 21-24 to facilitate the ease of shooting films in India Post the Ministr y of Information & Broadcasting’s initiative to set up the Film Facilitation Office (FFO),

T WO DI F F E R E N T DI R E C TOR S , T

which has come into being as the one-stop shop for facilitating film shoots in India, the Ministr y of Tourism in association with the Ministr y of I&B and the NFD C held a four-day Symposium, November 21–24, 2015, on Film Tourism. e Symposium was designed to encourage dialogue between members of the film fraternity and government bodies, on the current challenges facing filmmakers to film in India.

SE S SION W I T H T H E M I N I ST RY OF HOME AFFAIRS

A session with the representative of the Ministr y of Home Affairs and the Indian and International film indu was held sues per issuance clusive vi for shootng in India faster clearances/ permissions from the various authorities under the aegis of the Ministr y. e Symposium conded with a session with the Ministr y of R ailways, represented by Sh Narendra A Patil, CPRO, to discuss existing issues while shooting in various locations owned by the R ailways and deliberate on possible solutions for speed-

ier filming clearanc ternity members

B enegal, R amesh S Jha, R akeysh O Mehra, Sudhir M

R aj Kumar Hira Anubhav Sinha, Kabir Khan, Vani Tri-

pathi Tikoo, Bharat Bala, Sanjay Suri. Well-known Proucers and line producers, Kidwai, Pravesh Sahni, L amba, Deborah B enlso present for deliberanational community was uth Harley (Former CEO

S creen Australia and New Z ealand Film Commission), Gisella Carr (Chief Executive, Film New Zealand), James Weyman from Ontario Media Corp., German producer Michael Henricks, French Producer Marc Irmer amongst others

State Tourism bodies like e MP Tourism, TN Tourism, Film Cell Gujarat, Daman Diu & Dadar Nagar Haveli, were also present in these discussions.

FILM BAZAAR

Started in 2008, the Film Bazaar has come a long way and become a sought aer annual film market that connects filmmakers with producers, distributors and critics.

year ’ s Film marked many ing besides king oppoream as well saw participation of more than 1100 Delegates from over 38 countries.

With the focus on NFD C’s objective to promote India as a destination for f ilming, Know le dge S er ies had two s essions on Film in India with state focus on West B engal and Daman Diu & Dadra Nagar Haveli. With State focus on West B engal, Su r aj it B o s e, D i re c tor of Tou r is m , t he G over nment of West B enga l a long wit h f i l m ma ke r Su d h i r Mish r a sp oke ab out shooting there Talking about his experie nc e, Su d h i r Mish r a s ai d, " I shot C A LCUT TA MAIL a fe w years ago. It’s only in B engal that a police inspector will tell you a b e tte r ang l e for you r shot " Wit h fo c us on D aman D iu & D a d r a Nag ar Havel i, Vi no d P Kav l e, S e c re t ar y (Tourism), DD & DNH along with f ilmma ke r Kar an Ma l hot r a sp oke ab out shooting there Karan shot his debut film, AGNEEPATH in Diu and sharing his exp e r i e nc e he s ai d, “ 3 0 - 4 0 % of AGN E E PAT H w as shot i n D iu, w h i ch is actually a huge chunk of the movie. It’s a dream for any f ilm maker, who wants to concentrate on f ilm making ”

A

e writer is a well-known & established film critic.

OM NA M AH SH IVAY

Hinduism, one among the oldest practised relig ions of the World, w ith no single founding father, is the third largest religion on this planet. It never started as an organized religion and has no founding father. It was more of a lifestyle, which hailed from the Indus Valley Civ ilization. As people started migrating from one place to another and traders star ted mixing traditions and cultures, the present day Hinduism began shaping up.

Shaivism, or the worship of Lord Shiva is one of the most widely followed sects in Hinduism Some claim that it is the oldest school of worship within Hinduism In Different parts of South Asia, Lord Shiva is worshipped in different forms, creating different schools within Shaivism. Few common practices, like use of Vibhuti (aka Bhasam) or the Sacred Ash is one such. But the most interesting aspect is that the popular image of Lord Shiva was not constituted in a single day It rather took several centuries of intermixing of faiths, that popular adaptations were derived Till then, and even now, Lord Shiva is worshipped as different forms of Ishwar (eg Bhooteshvar, Chandeshvar, Bageshvar etc.). Shiva today is commonly denoted as a God holding a Trident (Trishul), a cobra (Vasuki) around his neck, the third eye of destruction on his forehead, adorning a crescent, river Ganga flowing through his hairlocks and sitting on Kailash Hill wearing a loincloth. It is said that these icons were developed with time and is a composite of different deities/powers. Shiva is commonly identified with host of deities including Rudra, Agni, Indra, Vayu, Purusha and others Shiva is one of the three supreme gods of Hinduism and is responsible for maintenance and destruction

Earliest forms of Shaivism were found in the Indus Valley Civilization (2500-2000 B C). e Pashupati Seal and Shivlings has been found across Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and other related sites ere are claims that the Crescent (Half Moon) on Shiva’s head is an echo of the Bull’s Horn, adapted from Pashupati (Lord of Animals), a form of Shiva L ater, more organized forms of Shaivism started appearing. e form of Shaivism as we understand today began shaping up somewhere before 200 B C. Śvetāśvatara Upanishad (400 - 200 BCE) is the earliest known textual exposition of Systematic philosophy of Shaivism Even Patanjali and Panini talk about Shiva worship in their legendar y work

During the Gupta D ynasty (320-500 AD), Puranic Shaivism star ted spreading rapidly. Singers, Narratives, Travellers, Merchants and settlers took it to across South Asia. Although Vaishnavism and other sects also started developing around this time, Shaivism held its unique position e 16 Puranas were also developed during this period and Lord Shiva can be seen as the central deity in Shiva Purana, Linga Purana, Matsya Purana, Kurma purana, Skanda Purana, and Agni Purana. e Puranic corpus is

a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.

When Huen Tsang, the famous Chinese traveller visited India in 7th centur y, he noticed Shiva being worshipped across the countr y. He describes major Shiva Temples in Kannauj, Karachi, Malwa, Kandhar and Banaras Shiva is also considered the chief patron for the Arts, Yoga and Tantra Shaiva Siddhanta became popular in Southern India and spread with Tamils to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and neighbouring countries. It provides the normative rites and theological categories of Tantric Shaivism e tradition was once practised across South Asia, however the Muslim subjugation of Nor th India restricted it to S outh, where it spread through the Bhakti Poetr y of Nayanmars ese were traditional poet saints, who sung devotional poems

MAJOR SCHOOLS OF SHAIVISM ARE:

Pashupata Shaivism: is is the oldest ‘named’ Shaivite group While it was practised in all major areas with Shaivism influence, it spread majorly in the region of Gujarat, Nepal and Kashmir. In south, its influence was weakened aer Shaiva Siddhanta was introduced is form was also dominant in Mahabharta Epic L akulisa, who is credited with the development of instructions for Pashupata Shaivism told his followers to bathe thrice in sand and lie in ashes daily, while singing devotional songs of Lord Shiva Shaiva Sidd hant a: This is t he nor mat ive Tant r i c Shaiv is m It spre a d a c ro ss Tam i l re g i ons and l ay s t he b as is for Tantric forms of worship.

Kashmir Shaivism: It is the household rel i g i on , b as e d st rong ly on Bhai r av Tantra’s monistic interpretation Practices within Kashmir Shaivism, which became p opular in the Kashmir region of S outh

Asia were derived from Shaiva Siddhanta and they even claim to have superseded t he Shaiv a Si d d hant a T h is a ls o prove s t he pre s e nc e of Shaiv a Si d d hant a i n nor thern regions.

Nath Siddh Sidhanta: Established by

Matsyendra Nath and expounded by Guru Gorakhnath. Gorakhnath is also considered as the Yogic incarnation of Shiva himself Gurkhas of Nepal get their name from Guru Gorakhnath Guru Gorakhnath also finds reference in South Indian practices of Shaivism and has temples in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Odisha e Bengali Yogi Brahmins (aka Rudraja Brahmins) also take their name from Guru Gorakhnath e major spread of Nath Tradition is in Nepal, UP, Bihar and Bengal.

Lingayatism: is form is Shaivism is also popular by name Veera Shaivism It rejects the authority of Vedas and Caste system It was founded in 12th centur y by sage Basava in Karnataka region. e followers are strictly vegetarian and do not consume alcohol ey wear a small Shivling known as Ishta-Linga, which remains with them before bir th, till aer death

What makes Lingayatism most different than rest of the Hinduism is that instead of cremating, the disciples are buried in a meditating position with their Ishta Linga in their le hand is form of Shaivism is popular in Karnataka and some par ts of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana.

There is so much to write about Lord Shiva and his for ms A two-page ar ticle can never justify the beliefs and practices

From Nat ar aj a ( Pat ron of D anc e ) to Ru d r a ( T he fe ro c i ous ) , Sh iv a has many forms. S omewhere he is depicted with 5 he ads, repres ent ing t he 5 elements. His blue throat, Ganga r unning out f rom his hai r l o ck , Matte d Hai r, Ti ge r Sk i n , Tr ident and ever y other symbol wore by him has a stor y associated with it and a message for society.

Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

e writer is a self-made IT entrepreneur, who is also a passionate heritage & histor y buff.

OH KOLK ATA

The rolling syllables of “Calcutta” as the Brits called it, or “Kaligata” as the B engalis knew it in the past, or “Kolkata” as we call it today, evokes memories of a glorious past in the mind's eyes of the city's myriad admirers. is “City of Joy” of D ominic L apier re t hat ser ved as the capital of the British Raj in India until 1911, has als o provoked s ome pretty nasty and acerbic comments like Gunter Grass's “ a bloody great mass that was dropped by God and called Calcutta,” and Rajiv Gandhi's “ a dying city.” But of course, in a way the city's stagnant economy, the poverty, squalor and disarray were all central to inviting such adverse comments

Fashioned by the colonial British in the manner of a grand European capital yet set in one of the poorest and most overpopulated regions of India Kolkata is a city

Ganga in Kolkata

of marked contrasts and many contradictions a city that has had to assimilate strong European influences and overcome limitations of its colonial legac y to find its own unique identity. is largest and most vibrant of Indian cities thrives amidst seemingly insurmountable economic, social and political problems, with its citizens exhibit ing a g re at j oie de vivre demonst rate d in their penchant for art, culture, intellectual vitality and p olit ica l awareness unsur p ass e d any w here else in the countr y No other Indian city draws the kinds of crowds that throng its book fairs, art exhibitions and concerts ere is a lively trading of polemics on the city's walls as well, earning it yet anot her hand le t he "city of p osters."

Kolkata's energ y penetrates even to the meanest of its slums

In a word, t h e c it y i s an “ e n i g m a ” to m any In d i ans an d m o s t fore i g n e rs c ont i nu i ng to pu z z l e n e wc om e rs w h i l e arou s i ng an abi d i ng nost a lg ia in t he minds of t hos e w ho have live d in or visite d t he city b efore

A

Postal regd No dn/297/2013-2015

Date of Publication: 5th of ever y Month

Date of Posting: 8th & 9th of ever y Month