Feb 2016

CM, Jharkhand, Raghubar Das with PM, India, Narendra Modi

WONDERFUL INFO ON DR. BALIYAN

I believe you have taken your publication to a much greater height. e article in your December issue about Dr. Baliyan was very good especially making the medical treatment of cancer economical and easily available I also liked the need for making hospital laundry free of infections both before and aer use I suggest that a copy of the issue may be sent to Medical Council of India as also to Health Minister of Delhi

I also liked the article about Manoj Bhargava - the real example of Phir Bhi Dil Hay Hindustani. Despite settling down so high in the USA, the urge to better India continues. His charity and battery equipped bikes for Energy is awesome. is Article should be sent to Mr Piyush Goel, Union Minister for Energy to support Mr Bhargava efforts for making simple the availability of electricity to the masses, more so in villages

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FILM MAKING EFFORT

I grew up in a small town in South India, and moved to the US for my studies. Aer working as a Soware Engineer for 12 ye ars, I le t he US and moved to Cambodia to follow my dream in filmmaking

4 ye ars l ate r I re c e nt ly f inishe d ma king my f irst fe ature “Mind C age ” . Ple as e have

a lo ok at t he stor y of t he f i lm s o f ar, an d wou l d b e g re at i f N R I Ach i e ve rs c ou l d t a l k ab out t his j our ne y.

e fi lm ne e ds a l l t he supp or t it can get, and it is unique stor y by an Indian in C amb o dia Wou ld re a l ly appreciate your help

ank you ver y much, Amit Dube y

February

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Naresh Bansal, Delhi

EDITOR: RAJEEV GUPTA

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VIEWS EXPRESSED IN ARTICLES ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS, & NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS THOSE OF NRI ACHIEVERS OR ITS EDITORS

ALL DISPUTES ARE SUBJEST TO EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OF COMPETENT COURT & FORUM IN DELHI © ALL RIGHT RESERVED

I NVEST I N DIA : STATES ARE TH E N EW FOCI

Anew paradigm shi is indeed taking place, as Prime Minister Modi and his mandarins reshape some selected ministerial landscapes just as promised by them during the run up to the 2014 general elections. While right at the beginning we did see some amalgamations, the outwards facing ministries of external affairs and overseas Indian affairs were largely le untouched, except that they both had Sushma Swaraj looking aer them Now the writing is on the wall, with the government announcing on new year ' s day that MOIA will once again merge back into MEA. But more on that later. For the past one 13 years, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, India's flagship diaspora outreach programme, has been a yearly event in India's Januar y calender While during the last 13th such PBD in Ahmedabad it was proposed to thereaer hold the event only once in ever y two years, it also saw an emerging trend of several Indian states gearing up to host global investors' summits all round the year adopting the practice of Vibrant Gujarat and we are now seeing states like B engal, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Har yana, Tamil Nadu etc., all hosting investor meets at different times of the year, as well as engaging with their respective diasporas

We at NRI Achievers too have taken note of this trend, and have been reshaping our structural content-base accordingly – you will note that our focus on states has now increased, and content on them is also on the uptrend. With more federalism will come a more decentralised approach to diaspora outreach, and states will more and more become the drivers that will give overall shape to national efforts So interesting days ahead, even as India gets into the news for all the wrong reasons sometimes in as large a countr y as ours, controversies will be galore, lets take all that with a fistful of salt ...

In the current issue, we continue to reflect the trend that is manifesting itself, of individual states in the Indian Union assertively vying for attention from global investors and the diaspora to push for inclusive cooperation leading to better growth and way of life is time, we bring you a main stor y from Jharkhand, and a picturesque profile of the Union Territor y of Daman & Diu. With the Forbes magazine releasing its list of “30 under 30” we pick some of the Indians and PIOs who have made the grade and them for you. Most of the rest of our segments are ver y much there, albeit in ransformed form Enjoy our new content mix, and write to us your views on gazine! Have a great month ahead

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

LOND ON: The British C ouncil is of fering 291 s chol arships for Indi an students of wor t h 1 5 million pounds in the 2016-17 academic years A total of 59 undergraduate and 232 postgraduate awards will be of fered for a range of subjects like engineering, law, ar t and design and information technolog y. Forty-five institutions across England, S cotland, Wales and Nor thern Ireland are participating in this programme To b e el i g ibl e, appl i c ant s must apply for u nd e rg r a du ate and p o st g r a du ate c ou rs e s and may a ls o ne e d to t a ke a sp e c i f i c E ng l ish l ang u age test Deadline to apply for scholarship varies according to universities

LON D ON : C omp anies in t he UK hir ing non-European Union workers like Indians are exp e c te d to face a ne w £1,000 annua l surcharge p er employe e. e UK's Mig rat ion Advis or y C ommitte e (MAC) us e d t he Indian infor mat ion te chnolog y sector as an example in its latest set of recommendat ions to ca l l for a re vie w of t he count r y ' s intercomp any t ransfer (ICT) route under the Tier 2 visa regime.

L E A R N E N G L I S H O R FAC E D E P O RTATI O N

LOND ON: The UK government warned that migrants on spousal visas who fail to speak English may face depor tation, as it announced a new £ 2 0 m i l l i on f u nd to i mprove E ng l ish l ang u age sk i l ls slim women “We will now say if ve your f luenc y that could af fect st ay in t he UK.” Pr ime Minister n wrote in a commentar y in The er The ne w r ules will mean that is ye ar, m i g r ant s c om i ng to t he year spousal visa with poor or no s will have to take a test after two f ye ars to show t he y are ma king ef for ts to improve their English

Idris Kabir Maska, a Nigerian resident was on the lookout for the place to under t a ke a co ch le ar implant pro ce dure for his child. His search ended when he hit upon Medi Connect India's contacts “ e adequac y of information and assistance I was provided with helped me zero in on India, “Maska s aid. As

he a lt hcare tur ns cost lier in de velop e d countries, cost arbitrage and availability of accre dite d faci lit ies are drawing thousand to India. e Indian medical tour ism market is exp e c te d to g row from $3 billion at present to around $8 bi l lion by 2020, as p er a CII Grant ornton white paper.

C H I N A R E A LT Y G I A NT S I G N S $ 1 0 B N P ROJ E C T

BEIJING: In what could turn out to be the largest foreign investment in India, Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group Co will spearhead a $10 billion project to build an industrial park in Haryana. e first phase of `Wanda Industrial New City', whose construction may begin this year, will span 13 sq km and house companies in sectors ranging from soware to cars and healthcare, a company statement issued said

HALEY: A POSSIBLE REPUBLICAN V-P CANDIDATE

WASHINGTON: Prospects of a first Indian-American in the White House died a few weeks ago with Bobby Jindal bowing out of the race but another member of the community is quietly seeing her hopes of breaking into the top echelons of US politics rise Not for the White House but the corner office whose occupant is just a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Speculation about 43year-old Nikki Haley as the Republican vice-presidential candidate has started. Her selection to deliver the opposition party’s customar y rejoinder to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address is intensifying the speculations doing the rounds

NEW DELHI: e ministry of external affairs has announced two major changes that will fasttrack the process for first-time passport applicants as well as make it more convenient to secure an appointment at local passport seva kendras. Citizens will be granted a fresh passport under the normal category in as little as a week if their applications are accompanied by three documents -copies of Aadhaar card, electoral photo identity card (EPIC) and PA card -besides an affidavit in the format of Annexure-I (declaration of citizenship, family details and no criminal record) Until now, the process would take a month, with the police verification eating up a lot of time Now, polic

cation of such applications will be conducted aer the passport is issued. Such a process was earlier reserved only for Tatkal. ere will be no extra charge for the service that has been introduced to cut the waiting time for passports, a statement issued by the ministry said e process is subject to online validation of the Aadhaar number at the time of processing and an approval from the grantfficer In addition, EPIC and PAN cards may also be validated, if required, through respective databases in real time, before the application is approved. Besides, passports may also be impounded and revoked later, in case of adverse police reports

NRI Achie vers Bureaus

TAI LOR YOUR RI DE TO YOUR MOOD

Taxi hai ling plat for m Ub er has announce d t he launch of a ne w API (application programming interface) fe ature for de velop ers in India and globally e new Uber API makes it possible for developers to build exper iences such as 10-minute play lists for a 10-minute trip including a five

minute news update for a five minute trip, local guides, insights and offers at your destination and even turning on t he he at ing b efore you re ach home “It is a global API launch that we are doing in B enga lur u, ” Ub er India business de velopment le ad Saad Ahmed said.

PREM JI STAYS MOST GEN EROUS I N DIAN

Wipro C hair man Azim Premji has been named the “Most Generous Indian” for the third cons ecutive year in a row. Premji’s cont r ibut ion for e ducat ion through his Azim Premji Foundat ion has double d f rom INR 12,316 crore in 2014 to INR 27,514 crore in 2015, according to China’s Hur un Res e arch Institute, w hich rele as ed its Indian philanthropy list for 2015 e list features Nandan and Rohini Nilekani at second sp ot while Infosys co-founder Narayana Mur thy stands third e Wipro billionaire, who has given away about US$ 8 5 billion of his wealth for charitable causes, had recently urged rich Indians to be more forthcoming in giving away their wealth to help rid the countr y of poverty.

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T h e p opu l a r v i d e o - on - d e m a n d s er vice ‘Netf lix’ has of f icially b een l au n c h e d i n In d i a , w it h p l a n s s t a r t i n g at I N R 5 0 0 D u r i n g t h e k e y n ot e at C E S L a s Ve g a s , Ne t f l i x E O R e e d Ha s t i n g s a n n ou n c e d t h e abi l it y of t h is s e r v i c e i n more t han 130 count r ies including Indi a Net f lix is of feri ng t h re e d i f fe re nt pl ans to Ind i an us e rs For I N R 5 0 0 p e r mont h , one c an a c c e ss SD c onte nt on a s i ng l e s c re e n By p ay i ng I N R 6 5 0 and I N R 800 p er mont h, you can watch HD content on two s creens at a time and 4 k c onte nt on up to fou r s c re e ns re sp e c t ively.

TATAS BACK IN BEAUTY BIZ

18 years aer the lakme exit, india’s largest conglomerate the tata group is re-entering businesses it exited years ago e US$ 100-billion plus corporate house that had created the L akme brand has returned to cosmetics with Studio West Group entity Trent has st ar te d ret ai ling t he Studio west range of ma keup products at its Westside departmental stores. In recent years, the tea-to-telecom major has re-entered aviation with AirAsia and Vistara as well as pharmaceuticals with Advinus erapeutics “Westside has a lways had its own range of lab els, b e it women ’ s wear or something else. But there have been a few areas w here we didn’t have a direc t pres ence, cosmetics for instance, “ said a Tata executive, adding: “So, we wanted to have our own range ” A

N E T F L I X I N I N D

BH EL COMMISSIONS SECON D TH ERM AL U N IT I N U P

2016 has started on a bright note for the state of Uttar Pradesh, with the commissioning of the 660 MW supercritical unit of L alitpur Super ermal Power Project (STPP) by Bharat Heav y Electricals Limited (BHEL) Significantly this is the second 660 MW unit commissioned by BHEL in Uttar Pradesh within a fortnight. Last month, BHEL has successfully commissioned the First Unit of 3 x 660 MW Prayagraj Super ermal Power Project (STPP) at Bara in Allahabad e commencement of generation f rom the unit will result in significant improvement of power availability in the state

CLEAN LI N ESS DRIVES I N CANTONMENT

Delhi Cantonment B oard (D CB) has star ted ematic Cleanliness Drives under Swachh Bharat Mission for making the cantonment cleaner, greener and healthier Delhi Cantonment B oard has taken this initiative with its staff to clean the entire Cantonment area by cleaning wards and public roads in maximum numbers.

BPCL TO BAG 'M AHAR ATNA' STATUS I N FY16

State-owned energ y firm Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is set to bag the coveted 'Maharatna' status by the end of this fiscal, joining the select league of seven C entral Public S ector Enterprises (CPSEs) as falling crude oil prices and reduced losses are likely to add significantly to its profitability With reduced debts too, the second largest state-owned refiner plans to invest Rs 1 lakh crore in the next five years, aer Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked India Inc to loosen the purse strings to step up investments.

POWER PACTS WITH TEL ANGANA TR ANSCO, NTPC, SCCL

e Telangana St ate Trans co and p ower ut i lit ies have entere d into p ower purchas e ag re ements wit h NTPC and Singareni C ollieries C omp any L imite d Whi le Telangana wi l l procure 1600 mw from NTPC Ramagundam thermal power project, it has inked pact to secure 1200 mw from the under-implementation thermal power plant of State-owned coal miner Singareni Collieries C ompany Limited, with the latter expected to be ready by MarchApr i l 2016. e ag re ements were sig ne d b etwe en Telangana Transco, NTPC and SCCL, in the presence of State Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar R ao

36TH FOU N DATION DAY FOR NALCO

“Despite the vagaries of the international market, Nalco’s consistent performance in terms of productivity and profitability is commendable,” says Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Steel and Mines, while addressing the Foundation Day C elebrations of the company, both at Bhubaneswar and Angul

MTN L

IMPROVES

B ROADBAN D SERVICES

MTNL has taken initiatives to improve the speed and quality of broadband ser vices being provided to its customers New DSLAM Nodes near to the customer premises are being continuously installed ese nodes are connected to main exchanges over optical fibre cables. Optical fibre connectivity and smaller copper cable loop leads to better and stable quality of high speed broadband ser vices to customers

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NRI Achie vers Desk

PIO DOC PULLS OFF KIDNEY TRANSPLANT USING 3D PRINTING

LOND ON: An Indian-origin surgeon in the UK has pulled off a complex kidney transplant on a three-year-old girl using 3D printing, believed to be among the world's first such operations. Dr. Pankaj Chandal came up with the idea of using 3D printouts to help with the highly complex transplant on Luc y Boucher, who received a kidney from her father “Our exciting new use of 3D printed models to help plan highly complex kidney transplant surger y in children brings all sorts of important advantages for our patients and the surgical team, Chandal said.

I N DIA HAS LARGEST DIASPOR A POPULATION I N TH E WORLD: UN

NEW YORK: India’s diaspora population is the largest in the world with 16 million people from India living outside their countr y in 2015, according to a latest UN sur vey on international migrant trends e sur vey, conducted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), said the number of international migrants persons living in a country other than where they were born reached 244 million in 2015 for the world as a whole, a 41 percent increase compared to 2000 With the 2015 Revision, data shows that nearly two-thirds of international migrants live in Europe (76 million) or Asia (75 million), according to the Trends in International Migrant Stock. “e rise in the number of international migrants reflects the increasing importance of international migration, which has become an integral part of our economies and societies,” said Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs “Well-managed migration brings important benefits to countries of origin and destination, as well as to migrants and their families,” Hongbo added India has the largest diaspora in the world, followed by Mexico and Russia. In 2015, 16 million people.

MUMBAI-BORN GIRL, 11, GETS TOP MENSA SCORE

LON D ON : A 11-year-old Indian-origin girl in the UK has achieved the top possible score of 162 on a IQ test by Mensa, becoming one of the youngest and brainiest students in the country. Mumbai-born Kashmea Wahi managed to notch up 162 out of 162, which puts her in the top one percent of the countr y ' s brightest e score also puts her in the league of scientists Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking both thought to have an IQ of 160. “It's over whelming to be compared with the likes of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein this comparison is implausible and I believe it would take loads of achievements for anyone like me to be able to get into the league of such legends Anyways, I am buzzing with excitement, “Kashmea said. Daughter of IT management consultants Vikas and Pooja Wahi, Kashmea took the test to prove a point to her parents

3 INDIAN-ORIGIN PEOPLE GIVEN HIGHEST CIVILIAN AWARD IN AUS

ELBOURNE: ree Indian-origin people have been awarded Australia’s highest civilian honour for their contribution in the fields of physics, engineering and medicine Chennupati Jagadish an eminent professor at e Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Jay Chandra an eye doctor in New South Wales, and Sanjeev Koshy a dentist in Melbourne, have been decorated with the “Order of Australia” medal for the year 2016, announced on the Australia Day Prof Jagadish was appointed a “Companion of the Order of Australia” for eminent ser vice to physics and engineering, particularly in the field of nanotechnolog y, to education as a leading academic, researcher, author and mentor, and through executive roles with national and international scientific advisor y institutions

NRI Achie vers Bureaus

JHARKHAND

ENTERI NG A GOLDEN AGE ?

J har khand ( “Bu shl and” ) i s one of In d i a ’ s n e w e s t s t at e s i n e a s t e r n India, which wa s car ved out of the s outhe r n par t of Bihar on the 15th o f No v e mb e r 2 0 0 0 . It i s c o nt i g uo u s t o t h e s t at e s o f B i h a r t o t h e nor th, UP and Chhatti sgarh to the w e s t , O d i s h a t o t h e s o u t h a n d We s t B e n g a l t o t h e e a s t . W h i l e R a n c h i i s i t s c a p i t a l c i t y, t h e i n d u s t r i a l c i t y o f Ja m s h e d p u r i s the mo st p opu l ou s .

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harkhand’s several towns and a l arge p ar t of it s r u r a l h i nte rl and are re asonably well developed in ter ms of civ ic amenit ies Ur b an i z at i on is 2 4 % while per capita annual income is US$ 726 8 The st ate has immens e minera l re s ou rc e s , r ang i ng f rom i ron ore ( l arge st d e p o s it s i n t he c ou nt r y ) c o a l ( 3 rd ) , c opp e r ( 1 st ) , m i c a ( 1 st ) , b au x ite ( 3 rd ) , Mang ane s e, l i me stone,

china clay, f ire clay, graphite (8th), kain ite ( 1 st ) , ch rom ite ( 2 nd ) , t hor iu m (3rd), sillimanite, uranium (1st, notably f rom t he Ja du g u d a m i ne s , Nar w a Pahar), e ven gold (6th, R ak ha Mines), silver and several other minerals. L arge d e p o s it s of c o a l and i ron ore supp or t concentration of industr y in centres like Jamshe dpu r, Dhanb a d, B ok aro and R anchi Despite this and large scale industrialisation in some belts, the state is predominantly agrarian.

Jharkhand can fairly lay claim to be one of the most picturesque tracts of the Indian peninsula e scenic beauty of Jharkhand’s main plateau is characterised by its undulating countr yside, abrupt detached hills and thick forest tracts Wide swathes of Sal (teak) forests that had once covered the plateau still sur vive on the hills and in broken ground. e palas tree, aka the ‘flame of the forest,’ with its red flowers at the advent of summer is also abundant. And last but not least of the attractions of the state are the Adivasis, who predominantly inhabit the Jharkhand plateau, a lovable, cheerful and hospitable race.

Hindi is widely understood throughout t he st ate, w hi le different Adivasi languages and dialects are spoken in different are as B enga li is pre va lent in t he eastern, and Oriya too is also widely understood and spoken in R ajkharswan and Sariekela (the southern) region. English is

understo o d largely in t he main cit ies Nagpur ia & Bhojpur i are ot her dia le c ts widely spoken and understood

e state is quite reasonably well connected, with the road network providing good to excellent connectivity to most parts of the state While railway connectivity is good along arterial lines, a wider last-mile connecting paradigm if implemented will do the state immense good. e great natural beauty of the state with most parts tending to be hilly and thickly forested has so far meant that the state remained largely agrarian, with little industrial development except for mining and processing of minerals and metals. But since attainment of statehood, its tourism potential, its rich cultural traditions at al , are being promoted and the need for broader manufacturing and ser vices industr y development is being direly felt.

Jharkhand’s economy is a very mixed bag

indeed while the state is one of the industrialised ones with two of India’s major steel plants, the public sector B okaro steel of SAIL and the private sector Tata Iron & Steel company located within, and a rich storehouse of India in terms of mineral wealth, home of almost 40% of the country’s mineral resources more than 70% of its people depend on subsistence agriculture for their livelihood, and there is prevalent poverty as well. Ironically, while the state is richly endowed by nature, large sections of its subjects are still quite poor

O ver the past decade and a half since statehood, efforts have sporadically been on by the various administrations that have ruled the state since its inception to alter this scenario, in their efforts to build much-needed inf rastr ucture, irrigation systems, roads and other social amenities. Political stability, or the lack of it, has so far been the bane of these initiatives, putting paid to any sustained implementation Meanwhile, the present Jharkhand government elected just a few years ago the first relatively stable government the state has had in the four teen years of its brief histor y, is placing extra emphasis on the development of inf rastr ucture in urban as well as rural areas and irrigation facilities, and also following it up. e government has identified roads, energ y, ed-

ucation, agriculture and health as key thrust areas.

Simultaneously, relevant state policies applicable in thrust areas for industrial development for example in agro-products and food processing, mining and processing of ores, industrial policy, land, labour, taxation, et al., are being tweaked to contribute to the ‘ ease of doing business’ in Jharkhand, and attract investment flow into the state Infrastructure development and institution-building for making this a reality is also happening apace today, as the state gears up to streamline power, water, land allocation etc., not to mention creation of industrial estates and growth centres

Chief Minister Raghubar Das seems to be a man on a mission one of turning his state into a ‘powerhouse of India.’ He avers that his government is on the job f rom day-one to end per vasive corruption, attract investments and boost development Here are some glimpses at his vision for Jharkhand, gleaned from the several statements, speeches and inter views he has given over the past few months, in the form of edited excerpts

Jharkhand Chief Minister R aghubar Das is convinced that ‘Make in Jharkhand’ would become an impor tant cog in the wheel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative He is of the view that multiple factors such as promoting micro, small and medium enter prises (SMEs), availability of a land bank, improved law & order and a single-window

clearance policy would help promote the state as a manufacturing hub. Opportunities for the state were “endless”, Das says “Jharkhand is known for its rich mineral resources, but no state can develop depending on a singular aspect So, we have given equal focus to agriculture, industr y and information technolog y. ”

Jharkhand, which had signed a record number of memoranda of understanding through the past decade, failed to take the projects for ward due to problems in land acquisition. Now, the state is trying to address this issue. “In just eight months, we have created a land bank that is available district-wise and you can see it online,” Das says While welcoming major corporate groups, Das makes it clear that priority would be given to SMEs. “e government wants to prioritise small- and mediumscale industries, as this is the sector that provides big gains with ver y low investment,” he says For starters, automobile major Tata Motors has been instructed to source material from the small and medium manufacturing units of Adityapur, the state’s largest auto ancillary hub Under the Jharkhand industrial policy, large public and private industries in the state are di-

rected to give preference to local smallscale industries while sourcing materials.

Das says that for greater facilitation of the sector, bi-monthly meetings are being advocated between SMEs and corporate bosses He also advises SMEs to pay attention to quality, as major industries are extremely quality-conscious, and rightfully so.

Acknowledging bureaucratic hurdles was a major reason why industrialists were sceptical of investing in the state earlier, Das shares that major steps are being taken to address this. “We have turned ‘red tape’ into a ‘red carpet’ for industr y, and as instructed by the central government, we have initiated a single-window clearance polic y for the state in just eight months Now, people don’t have to run from pillar to post for approval,” he says. Tr ue to word, the Jharkhand government has already launched a portal for single-window clearances, under the Jharkhand Industrial Facilitation and Single Window Clearance ordinance, 2015.

Asked about the law and order situation in the state, the CM said that a 24-hour highway patrol was being set up, with police pickets at every 20 km “Law and order in the state has improved significantly and

we have been able to curb terrorism,” he said, adding that he was open to suggestions from investors “I am reachable Any industrialist can reach me and his problem will be solved soon ”

In a nutshell, the Jharkhand government is pursuing an active course of economic planning and development Information technolog y, transpor tation and infrastructure, agriculture, and local cra production are among the prioritized sectors. With the central government’s launch of ‘Make in India’, the state government is today keen to promote “Make in Jharkhand’ as a subset of activities under its aegis In congruence with this, the state is gearing itself up to be an active participant in the upcoming “Make in India” Week being organised by the DIPP (Depar tment of Industrial Polic y & Promotion) and is being hosted at India’s financial hub of Mumbai during Februar y. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Make in India Week in Mumbai on Februar y 13, the mega event in which the government expects participation of over a 1,000 companies and delegates from over 60 countries. e theme of the event is ‘innovation, design and sustainability’ e main aim of the event is to attract more FDI into the countr y FDI in the last 17 months as compared to the previous 17 months has grown by about 35%, showing a growing confidence in the global investor community on India. Substantial investments have been committed in areas like electronics, automotive, food processing, textiles and garments, renew-

able energ y and construction, with several companies like Foxconn, Z enith, IKEA, and the Wanda group of China investing into India Understanding that the “key challenge” is to make India an easy and simple place to do business, the Government has taken up this goal and seems determined to achieve it Since last month, the DIPP has been holding a series of road shows to provide impetus and momentum

to domestic companies and push for their investments, and the department also intends to provide a push to startups.

Jharkhand has been invited and urged to participate in the Make in India Week, which falls pat with the Jharkhand CM’s thrust on “Make in Jharkhand”, so he has keenly accepted, and has asked the state machinery to gear up towards it, putting Chief Secretary Rajiv Gauba in charge of preparations Jharkhand will now share the dais with Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gu-

jarat the selected states where the investors will directly contact the governments and open up new routes of development.

e State has been allotted four hours f rom 10 am till 2 pm, whence the state government will showcase an exhibition on the achievements of different departments on the “Ease of Doing Business” in Jharkhand. A video film related with various endeavours by different departments is also scheduled to be screened All departmental secretaries have been asked to be available to talk directly with the investors. Surely Jharkhand is in mission mode to transition into a better future for its subjects A

NRI Achie vers Bureau

e Festa D e Diu, con sidered Asia’s temporally longest beach festival, takes place e ver y year in Diu. is time round, the festivities began on December 1 last year, and the celebrations and revelr y are slated to continue on until the 13th of Februar y this year. e entire place exudes a festive mood and there i s mu sic in the air, w ith a whole bouquet of cultural programmes, per formances and activ ities take place in the balmy littoral env irons. NRI Achievers brings you a repor t.

Daman and Diu are two small enclaves in Western India. Daman is a small city on the mouth of the Daman Ganga river bounded on all sides by the state of Gujarat, while Diu is a small island off the coast of Gujarat Natural beauty, serenity and peacefulness are attributes that define Daman Diu most aptly. Having been a Portuguese territor y for more than four centuries, the two enclaves became part of India in the year 1961 A place where histor y, heritage and cultural diversity comes together, it is proudly home to a variety of traditions. While Daman Diu is widely popular for scenic and mesmerising attractions, it has a rich significance in the chapters of history as well e Portuguese came here in 1539 and ruled until 1961, when the Indian army seized all

Portuguese enclaves – apart from Daman Diu, Goa and Dadra Nagar Haveli were also annexed in this operation. And Daman Diu was part of the larger union territor y of Goa, Daman and Diu until Goa was granted statehood in 1987 Portugal apropos did not recognize the Indian annexation of these territories until 1974.

Each enclave of Daman Diu constitutes one of the union territor y ' s two districts Daman and Diu are approximately 650 kilometres away from each other by road Gujarati, Marathi, English (not a colonial raj import here) and Hindi are the official languages used in the territor y English is increasingly accepted for official purposes Warli and Agri, dialects of Konkani, are also used. e use of Portuguese is on the decline and is today relegated to home use

or as a liturgical language It is also no longer taught in schools, nor used by the media or endorsed by the government.

e twin enclaves are home to virgin natural beauty and serenity ey also make for the second smallest union territor y in the country. e islands are situated in the west coast of India in the midst of Arabian Sea. During the four and a half centuries of Portugese control, myriad and subtle impressions of European culture and the religion of Christianity were le embedded on the islands to define what it is today. Studded with magnificent cathedrals and forts that tell stories of an European era, the isles take you back to another world indeed e sandy, secluded, pristine white beaches hark at the intrepid traveller, welcoming them with delicious seafood in the cradle

of a natural if not mystic ambience.

Travel to Daman Diu is quite convenient as the Mumbai Airport is a mere 180 kilometres away While Daman Airport itself is connected with some of the major cities across India, it is primarily a militar y aerodrome. S o the Chhatrapati Shivaji Air por t in Mumbai ser ves as the closest major commercial air por t for Daman e Diu air por t is located 5 kilometres away from the town and is north of Nagoa Beach. But if you don’t want to take a flight risk you could travel by rail to Vapi. Mumbai and Ahmedabad are the closest railway stations to Daman If you nare

more adventurous, you could always embark on a road-trip via Mumbai or Ahmedabad taking National Highway #8

Both Daman and Diu boast of a large number of resorts, hotels and guest-houses to accommodate the vast number of tourists who pour in all through the year. e weather here remains pleasant throughout the calendar, making it a perfect getaway or vacation for any seasons However, the best time to holiday here is known to be from the months of October to March. Surrounded by the azure waters of the Arabian Sea with its extravagance of natural beauty, and added to that Daman Diu being one of the

least populated places in India, there are plentiful opportunities for enjoying a quaint and relaxed holiday here

Now onwards to the Festa De Diu is is a three to four month long beach festival, touted to be the longest beach festival anywhere in Asia. is time, the Festa De Diu spans across three months, from December 2015 to Februar y 2016 With concer ts, carnivals, jam sessions and more than 300 ar tists like Shreya Ghosal, Vir Das, Indian Ocean and Milind S oman performing or set to perform, this beach festival is the epitome of fun and relaxation e festival village with its azure waters and picturesque surroundings make for an absolutely blissful experience. Tents which are a classic combination of luxur y and comfor t are pitched on the beach, with mouth-watering fine-dining options and relaxing spas as an added bonus Activities like hot air ballooning, zip lining and bungee jumping are also available, meant to add that little extra spice, zip and adventure to the stay of the visitors to the Fest

A Cover Stor y

THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF

DAVOS

Many of the scions of India’s best know n business families flocked to Davos (Sw itzerland) in mid-Januar y to attend the World Economic Forum as par t of the 100-strong Indian contingent. e delegation was led by the Union Finance Minister and the Reser ve Bank Governor along w ith other ministers, industrialists and economists. eir mission was to make a strong pitch to project India as the world’s fastest growing emerging economy, a potential dig ital paradise w ith modern sunrise industries and, therefore, the ideal destination for foreig n investment. NRI Achievers brings you a repor t...

Third and fourth generation tycoons w ho made a b e eline to D avos included Akash and Isha Ambani 25-year-old twins whose father is India’s r ichest man, Mu kesh Amb ani. Karan Adani, the son of Gautam Adani and the CEO of Adani Ports Rishad Premji, the heir app arent of Wipro Indust r ies Prashant Ruia, the CEO of Essar Global. R atu l Pur i, s on of Mos er B aer founder D e ep a k Pur i and CMD of Hindust an Power proj e c ts Dhe eraj Hinduja w ho heads Ashok L eyland Anant B ajaj, the son of Shekhar Bajaj and the MD of Bajaj Electricals. Sanjiv Bajaj, the son of R ahul B ajaj and MD of B ajaj Fins er v. Nid hi Tanti, daughter of Tulsi Tanti and the rising star of Suzlon

Hopes were high that their collective efforts will make a big splash and raise the countr y ’ s image higher than it already is.

Feedback from Davos is that they certainly made their presence felt despite the not so upbeat mood this year e world’s wealthiest and most powerful men and women were palpably preoccupied with the perilous state of health of the global economy In tune with the bitter 13° below zero cold of the Swiss mountain resort, a sense of foreboding and f rozen fear also clouded the deliberations over the four days of the prestigious event. Not to mention the unending flow of depressing news and trends China slowdown, free fall in stock markets from Stockholm to Shanghai, crude prices plummeting to US$ 28 a barrel amidst apprehensions that it could even drop to US$20

In theor y, cheaper oil should benefit oilimporting nations like India But from the larger perspective, it is feared that it would spell disaster across continents f rom

Venezuela to Saudi Arabia and Nigeria To make matters worse, Iran, aer liing of economic sanctions, is pumping more oil into the world market and adding to the glut. Even the chief organizer of the Davos event was worried and did not even tr y to hide his pessimism As the founder-chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus S chwab would have normally been expected to strike an optimistic note and say that there is no reason for gloom and doom Instead he painted a dire and gloomy picture When requested indicate on a scale of ten how worried he was about the global economy, Klaus S chwab said without any hesitation: “ Ten plus”.

He goes on to say : “I'm really worried because we have the consequence of so many challenges all at the same time It's not only one worr y. It's so many worries at the same time. Yes, it's serious. Look at

Europe. Look at China. Look at the developed countries. Look at the world.” When asked to name his biggest worr y, the one worr y that he was most worried about, the For um chief came out with a sur prising reply : “Glaring income inequality and lack of social inclusion”. What he was referring to was a ver y disturbing study published that ver y week by Oxfam International e findings were chilling Over the past five years, the world's richest 62 people, just 62 individual super-billionaires, have seen their net worth rise by half a trillion dollars to US$ 1 8 trillion at amount is the total wealth in the hands of the poorest 50 percent of the world's population. In other words, 62 individuals own as much as 3.5 billion people all over the world do It is well known that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer But this new data about the extent of income inequality is tr uly staggering. e total wealth of the bottom half of mankind, 3.5 billion human beings, is equal to what just 62 individuals have amassed Another cold statistic from the Oxfam study is that the top 1 percent of the world's population owns more than the other 99 percent combined.

e ED of Oxfam bluntly outlined the implications “Extreme inequality is really spiralling out of control Our report shows the f rightening pace at which wealth is being concentrated in a few hands. And nothing much is being done to change this Rich nations and even the United Nations just make statements of intent ere has to be some action” In other words, global leaders and polic y makers may be making the right noises, but the situation keeps getting worse e longterm risks are huge Billions of people are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty is sparks social unrest, rejection of mainstream politics, radicalisation and terror-

ism. e rich and the ver y rich as well as leaders of government must realize that tackling extreme inequality is vital in their own self-interest, even if they ignore moral and social justice issues

It was this grim reality that confronted the young and dynamic Indian industrialists who had flocked to Davos with the hope of selling India as an investment destination But it was R aghuram R ajan, Governor of the Reser ve Bank of India, who summed it up most aptly : “We are living in a world of make-believe”. Rajan described the mood at Davos in these words: “Ever y body is looking at ever ybody else and wondering what the other person is thinking. Ever yone is jitter y ” . is was true about almost all the movers and shakers of the world’s politics and business who congregated at Davos

Many were frank in their pessimism Some turned philosophical, speaking in complex sentences, replete with metaphors and analogies, clearly unable to spell out the reasons behind the gloom and doom and unwilling to point to any light at the end of the tunnel Many bluntly used the dreaded “R” word Recession. e world, they said, was in the grip of the mother of all recessions Oil prices have tumbled to below 27 dollars per barrel, unthinkable just a year ago when prices were soaring above 110 dollars.

China’s economy has slowed down alarmingly, also unthinkable a few years ago when the dragon economy looked seemingly unstoppable Big investors are in flight mode Financial markets are plunging, which could be normal cyclical behaviour, except that this time the pendulum is moving fur ther and fur ther in the negative direction with no sign of swinging back ere were, however, a few bankers and chief executives at Davos 2016 who valiantly tried to strike a note of

cheer. ere is nothing to fear but fear itself, said one investment banker bravely. Yes, things are not looking good right now, but we will bounce back by the end of the year, as we always do Such hopeful statements were on the whole greeted with scepticism. is is nothing but the Pollyanna psycholog y, the pessimists said (e Pollyanna Principle is the tendency to be unreasonably and illogically optimistic by refusing to accept grim reality). Even the International Monetar y Fund has confirmed that ver y hard times are ahead for the entire global economy e latest IMF forecast was just one of several pessimistic repor ts and statements announced during the Davos week. e International Energ y Agency used unusually strong language it said the world was “drowning in oil”

It is safe to say that the majority of the worl d’s r i ch and p owe r f u l w as wor r i e d ab out t he mu lt i - d i me ns i ona l natu re of t he c r is is t he r is e of I SI S , t he w ar i n Sy r i a , t he mass m i g r at i on i nto Eu rop e, e ven t he p olit ica l tur moi l in t he Unite d St ate s Ind e e d mo st p anel d is c uss i ons b e g an w it h t he oi l c r is is but s o on d igressed to ISIS and Donald Tr ump. Nob o dy c ou l d e x pl ai n w hy t he af f ai rs of nat i ons have c ome to su ch a p ass , whether things will get a lot worse before getting any better and, most impor tantly, what needs to be done to bring the world back f rom the brink of the abyss.

Raghuram Rajan told a panel - "Monetar y stimulus has largely r un its course, and we are no longer quite sure what the fundamental value of any asset is. We are groping for answers in a world of make believe" e RBI chief was not alone in warning that central banks all over the world “have reached the limit of their capacity” to provide any more stimulus to ailing economies. is view was echoed

by former chief of the German central bank Axel Weber, who said central banks “ no longer have any more room to manoeuvre ” . Virtually throwing up his arms, he added: “it is now up to politicians to put str uctural reforms in place to revive growth” Yet another central banker, the Governor of the Bank of England, simply said: “ e world has become weaker. Growth has slowed. Inflation has fallen further and is likely remain ver y low for much longer ese are signs of recession ”

A former IMF Chief Economist, Ken Rogoff, has painted a more complex scenario but also provided a positive spin. According to him, “It is really bad for oil producers and exporters But it's not all that bad for oil importers and consumers It can turn out to be good in many ways for Europe, for Japan and countries like India”.

All this can be ver y puzzling and disconcerting for ordinar y citizens. All they want to know from the economic experts and corporate leaders is Is my job safe? Can I continue to feed my family? Will my children be able to go through school and college, get jobs and feed their families? Nobody was prepared to give straight, reassuring answers to these simple, basic questions Instead, the rich and powerful at Davos either went around in circles, speaking economic mumbo-

jumbo and geo-political gobbledygook; or else spouted Pollyanna platitudes don’t worr y, ever ything will be alright soon, sab theek ho jayega.

To put this in perspective, one needs to see what Saudi Arabia says about all this? T he S au d i Ar abi a ' s fore i g n m i n iste r Ad el A l Jub e i r, w he n aske d w hy h is countr y was manipulating the oil market, gave this reply :

“We are not manipulating. We cannot manipulate even if we want to Oil price is determined by supply and demand ere was an oversupply because of overproduction in a number of countries that led to a drop in the price. And Saudi Arabia refused to cut its production in order to support high-price producers because this would have just set the stage for a drop in both prices and volumes down the road. And so we have let the market determine where the equilibrium should be and what we ' re seeing now is the market price finding its level ”

All said and done, the main crux of the problems confronting the world seem to be the oil scenario and the slowdown in China While opinions fly thick and fast on the oil price crash, on China a poohpoohing of the slowdown is what is being characterised: So what does China think about its own slowdown, which everybody

is blaming for the global crisis ? China's richest businessman, Wang Jianlin, CEO of Dalian Wanda Group, flatly denies that there is any crisis or slowdown: “Absolutely not. I do not only use the word ‘not’, but I have to stress ‘absolutely not’ It's true that there are difficulties in the Investment and Expor t sectors May be there's zero growth or even negative growth in these sectors. But the Ser vices industr y in China has great demand, especially in tourism, travel, sports, entertainment and catering So aer three or five years when the S er vices sector grows to become 60 percent of the China's GDP, then China's economy will be totally stable.”

In other words, whereas ever yone at Davos is blaming the China slowdown and the oil price fall for the global crisis, China does not think there’s any crisis and Saudi Arabia does not see anything wrong in pumping in oil in an already flooded market So maybe Raghuram Rajan hit the nail on the head We are living in a “make believe world ” ere is nothing to fear but fear itself. Sab theek ho jayega.

Raman Swamy e author is a veteran journalist, political commentator & satirist

Gautam Adani

Mukesh Ambani

Rishad Premji

Prashant Ruia

This is implicitly evident f rom the setting up of a dedicated Ministr y of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship a first in India’s histor y to harmonise vocational education and training (VET) initiatives. Government is also assiduously working towards fostering a skills culture through the establishment of a National Skills Mission chaired by the PM himself, which has been further strengthened by the announcement of an updated Polic y on Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to lay down roles and

BIG ROLE FOR N RIs I N

I N DIA’s SKI LLS ARENA

responsibilities of different stakeholders in the ecosystem

us we are able to see that the Government’s inter vention at each level of the skilling value chain is benefiting from creating awareness through advocacy, by putting in place common norms to be

followed across both public and private deliver y systems, to assessment, certification and facilitating placements rough actively engaging with businesses, Government has also been tr ying to rope in the private sector to play a bigger role in the ‘Skill India Mission’. e private sector is at the centre-stage as it is Industry which will benefit from a skilled workforce So Industr y is being encouraged to actively engage in the skill development ecosystem. Views of business leaders are being sought and international collaborations are being worked out to introduce best-inclass skills training practices in the countr y. e National Skill Development C or poration (NSD C), which is a PPP model in itself, has facilitated setting up of 41 Sector Skill Councils for various sectors with representation from Industr y members, Industr y associations, Business leaders, training providers to come up with Industr y relevant standards. As on date across 33 Sectors, standards for 1641 Job Roles and 9182 NOS (National Occupational Standards) have been defined by the Sector Skill Councils.

Since 2007 skill de velopment has caught the fanc y of the Indian gover nment and indu str y alike, spur red by C K Prahalad’s landmark India@75 paper, where he ar ticulated that we would need 500 million skilled workers by 2022. An average Indian w ill be 29 years old by 2020 and per World Bank estimates if we are able to harness this demog raphic div idend to our advantage, we can add 2-3% g row th to our GDP. e current Government under Modi’s leadership, well aware of our demog raphic situation, is r ightly focusing on putting in place a robust skills framework to address quantity and quality changes.

Youth are being encouraged to enroll at VET facilities through the launch of an attractive skill development scheme the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) that comes with the promise of a monetar y reward. As the world’s biggest skills training program, the PMKVY will lead to 2 4 million people getting skilled up in the first year of its introduction Simultaneously, Government is also engaging in promoting the concept of lifelong learning. e objective has been to

make our young men and women conscious of the need to continuously upgrade their skills in order to find jobs or become gainfully self-employed in a dynamic world where skill-sets which are in demand today, or sometimes may be so for months and years, may disappear in a single instant

Even as all these efforts start yielding results in the form of skills training initiatives becoming more focused, outcome-driven and linked to jobs and employability, there are still huge challenges confronting the Indian skills space One such is the lack of aspiration among youth toward vocational education, maybe attributable to prevailing notions that VET is meant for those who couldn’t make it in the formal education system But the primar y reason I feel, is that buyers of skills the employers/customers et al. - are reluctant to pay a premium for skilled workers. e solution to these issues is to effectively demonstrate to employers the value in quantitative and/or qualitative terms that a skilled workforce is better in productivity as well as quality compared to the unskilled, and hence so deser ve differential wages Only when businesses, not just the corporate titans but the millions of employers in the unorganised segment see gains in concrete terms by way of a measurable increase in productiv-

ity and efficiency, will they be open to the idea of hiring more skilled staff and work out attractive packages to retain this talent. Once this happens, the pursuit of skills would no longer be driven by any form of compulsion or government inducements but will happen voluntarily and out of choice. Lack of quality faculty is another problem that plagues the skills ecosystem. We need highly qualified skilled trainers, as well as world class skilling centres to provide skills training at par with International Vocational training providers

Solving these problems is where our NRIs can prove to be a big boon. Given their wide exposure to the way VET frameworks function overseas and their familiarity with the expectations of global employers, they are best placed to guide us on how we may go about the process of making employers here aware that promoting skill development makes for sound business sense Some of the specific ways through which the NRIs could help are as follows:

 Act as brand ambassadors by hiring youth trained in Indian VET facilities wherever possible in their own set-ups,

 Establish linkages with reputed VTPs, assessment & certification agencies overseas to make our youth on par with their peers worldwide,

 Provide introductions to global employers so that suitably trained Indian youth could be absorbed by such enterprises,  Act as Advisers to VTPs in India/ Establish skills training facilities in India,  Assist in the development of VET curriculum in India,

 Provide facilities wherever possible for undertaking skill development initiatives that would benefit India, and  Provide Adjunct faculty in the form of industr y exper ts f rom their own set-ups to aid and assist Indian VTPs to train faculty.

India’s non-resident population has always been at the foref ront whenever this countr y has turned to them for assistance in its process of growth and development. I am i nd e e d c on f i d e nt t hat as w it h nume rous ot he r issu e s w he re t he y have t a ke n t he l e a d i n t he p ast , ou r N R I brethren would also act as catalysts in realizing our aim to become the skill capital of the world.

A

e

S Ramadorai

author is Chairman of the National Skill Development Agency & National Skill Development Cor poration

Prime M inister Narendra Modi in group photo with the Skill trainees, who won international awards in different fields of Skill Development, at the launch of the Skill India M ission, on the occasion of the World Youth Skills Day, in New Delhi

3 0 TH E FORB ES’ LIST OF I N DIAN ACH I EVERS

U N D E R

e Forbes year 2014 list of achievers under the age of 30, who are “changing the rules of the game or creating entirely new playbooks” across varied fields is out this Januar y in 2016, w ith many Indians or Indian-orig in people featuring in it for ty five to be precise. is list features 600 women and men, who are the “most impor tant young entrepreneurs, creative leaders and br ightest stars” and are “chang ing the world” across 20 varied sectors such as consumer technolog y, education, media, manufacturing and industr y, law and policy, social entrepreneurs, science and ar t and science. NRI Achievers reproduces here a condensed version of what the Forbes’ published, for your reading pleasure.

n the past, youth was a handicap to professional success Getting older meant more resources, more knowledge, more money No more ose who grew up in the tech age have way-bigger ambitions perfectly suited to the dynamic, entrepreneurial and impatient digital world they grew up in. If you want to change the world, being under 30 is now an advantage,” says Forbes

“I

In the consumer tech s egment is 22-year-old Ritesh Agar wa l, founder and CEO of OYO Ro oms, bi l le d to b e t he Airbnb of India. “In a countr y that lacks a steady supply of budget hotel chains, O yo has de velop e d a network of 2,200 sma l l hotels in 100 cit ies across India,” Forb es s aid. O t hers in t he field are 28-ye ar old Gagan Biyani and Neeraj B err y who co-founded Sprig, a mobile app that lets one find and order healthy meals and have them delivered quickly ; and 25year-old Karishma Shah, the youngest hire at Alphabet’s Google X, a so-called moonshot factor y w here t he s e arch g iant places “ smar t p e ople to come up wit h far-out te chnolog ies t hat may b e applied to the world’s big problems ” In the Holly wo o d and enter t ainment field is 27-ye ar-old Canadian Lily Singh, writer-comedian and “part of a ne w generat ion of st ars t hat has us e d YouTube to gain a following”.

Among the persons of Indian-origin is Nila Das, 27, Vice President at Citigroup and a mortgage bond trader r unning the bank’s secondar y trading in agency collatoralised mortgage obligations, overseeing billions of dollars in volume each day. Others making a mark in finance are 29-yearold Divya Nettimi, an investment analyst at Viking Global Investors, who co-managed Har vard Business School’s Alpha Fund while getting her MBA; 29-year-old Vikas Patel, a senior analyst at hedge fund Millennium Management; and 29-year-old Neel Rai, an investment analyst at Caxton Associates where he is part of a three-person team managing an US$ 600 million portfolio at pioneering a macro hedge fund

In the venture capital segment, notable persons of Indian-origin are 26-year-old Vishal Lugani, a s enior ass o ciate at Gre ycro Par t ners; and 27year-old Amit Mukherjee, senior associate at New Enter pr is e Ass o ciates Me dia st ars include 27year-old Nisha Chittal, manager of social media and community at MSNB C; and Ashish Patel, 29, senior vice president of Social Media at Nowis Media Leading the manufacturing segment is 28year-old Sampriti Bhattachar y ya, an MIT gradstudent w ho has de velop e d under water drones that are capable of autonomously communicating and working together to scan the ocean to look

for lost planes, or measure oil spills, radiation etc., under the sea; and 29-year-old Saagar G ovi l, CEO of C emt rex w hich pro duces environment a l pro duc ts and electronics solutions

Among social entrepreneurs is 28-yearold Anoop Jain, Founding Director of Sanitation and Health Rights in India, which builds toilets, collects human waste and uses methane coming off that excrement to create clean water. In the law and

policy field are 26-year-old Ashish Kumbhat, a monetar y policy expert in the Federal Reser ve B oard; 27-year-old Dipayan Ghosh; privacy and public policy advisor at Facebook; and 28-year-old Anisha Singh, the former lead of the international policy division of United Sikhs, where she founded national anti-bullying campaign and won a historic case against US Army requiring religious accommodation on behalf of a 19-year-old Sikh who’d been re-

E-COMMERCE, RETAIL , CONSUMER TECH

jected from ROTC programs. In the science field is 29-year old Sanjam Garg, assistant professor at University of California B erkeley

Now that we have given you an over view of sorts, we are going to take up a handful of these achievers and profile them briefly for you, along the ver y lines of the mini-profiles we have been posting in the past under our ‘Dossier’ and ‘Indian Achievers’ segments. Here goes ...

Karishma was the youngest hire at Alphabet Inc.’s Google [x], the so-called Moonshot factor y of search giant Google. is is where smart people are placed to come out w far-out technologies that may be applied to alleviate some of the world’s biggest problems A UPenn grade, at the age of 21 Shah had founded a natural language processing project at Google [x], led operations for the Project Wing dronedeliver y ser vice in Australia, and is now the programme manager for Google [x]’s rapi prototyping team She has won the Mark Cub Movers & Changers competition with her startup in college, and has lead global partnerships for SolveforX.com.

SAtISh KANwAl, 29 DIRectoR PRoDuct S At ShoPIFy

is Toronto native of Indian-origin has been instrumental in launching the e-commerce soware firm’s biggest par tnerships, which include the one with facebook and the one with Pinterest’s ‘Buy’ buttons Shopif y apropos went public in 2015 and today has a market-cap of US$ 2.5 Billion.

RIteSh AgARwAl, 22 FouNDeR & ceo, oyo Ro omS

Ritesh, an Indian national, is one of the youngest people in his company Ritesh skipped out on college as part of the iel Fellowship, a programme founded by billionaire tech investor Peter iel, to provide grants to a handful of teens pursuing business ideas Ritesh, who used to help people in his small town of Rayagade design websites, founded his first company 'Oravel' in 2012. Billed to be the 'AirBnB' of India, the company pivoted to OYO. In a countr y that lacks a steady supply of budget hotel chains, Oyo has successfully evolved a network of over 4200 small hotels spread over 152 cities pan-India, collectively booking a million nights a month. Oyo provides the means of booking affordable and standardised rooms for the traveller in India. To date, Oyo has raised more than US$ 125 million in funding, including US$ 100 million in August 2015 led by Alibaba investors Sobank

KARIShmA ShAh, 25 PRo gR Amme mANAgeR R APID evAluAtIoN, go o gle [x]

MANUFACTURING

hyDRoSwARm

SAmPRItI bhAt tAchARyyA, 28 FouNDeR

Sampriti is an MIT grad student who has developed tech for under water drones that are capable of autonomously communicating and working together to scan the oceans for lost planes, ships et al., or measure oil-spills, radiation etc , under the sea Her company Hydroswarm won prize-money of US$ 50,000 this year at MassChallenge.

SAAgAR govIl, 29 ceo cemtRex

Govil has been the CEO of C emtrex, which trades on the Nasdaq, since the age of 25. his company produces environmental produc tronics solutions. C emtrex’ revenues ceeded US$ 47 m from US$ 13 6 milli

ShAShANK SAmAl A, 2 co-FouNDeR , temPo AutomAtIo

We have heard of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS (Soware-, Platform- or Infrastructure-as-a-Ser vice). But have you heard of EMaaS? Shashank’s company Tempo Automation aims to provide precisely that “Electronics Manufacturing-as-a-Ser vice.” His customers simply need to upload a design, and Shashank’s Tempo Automation does the rest manufacturing the products based upon the uploaded designs in their state-of-the-art automated factor y and turning around the finished products in just 3 days, ready for deliver y.

L AW & POLICY

AKASh chowgule, 26 Dy. DIRectoR oF PolIcy AmeRIcANS FoR PRoSPeRIt y

Akash’s AFP is the primar y policy organisation in the Charles and David Koch Network, where he has played a key role in the biggest state-level polic y debate of the decade whether states ought to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act Akash coordinates polic y advocac y for AFP’s 37 state level chap ters, with a focus o healthcare, education, labour, and tax policy He holds a Bachelors’ f rom B oston C ollege and a Masters’ f rom George Washington University

AShISh KumbhAt, 26 moNetARy PolIcy, the FeDeR Al ReSeRve boARD

Ashish helps i plement monetar y polic y at the Federal R e s e r v e t h e US equivalent of our Reser ve B nk (RBI), provid ng inputs to the B oard of Governors and the Federal Open Market C ommittee. Prior to joining the Fed in Washington, the George Washington University grad sat on the New York Fed’s on-site team for ldman Sachs

DIPAyAN ghoSh, 27 PRIvAcy & PublIc PolIcy ADvISoR FAcebo oK

It was but recently that Dipayan has moved to Facebook, where he is working on Privacy and Cyber Polic y. Prior to this engagement, he was ser ving as a White House Advisor on Technolog y and Economic Polic y Planning. Dipayan is a Cornell Ph.D in electrical Engineering, and is also an alumni of B erkeley’s S chool of Information as well as the Princeton’s Centre for Information Technolog y Policy

mugDhA goKhAle, 29 Ph D Schol AR , uNIveRSIt y oF NoRth cARolINA, chAPel hIll

Do new anti-diabetics increase the risk of pan creatic cancer? Maybe, according to this drug safety researcher Mugdha looks at large health databases to tr y and figure out how safe and effective medicines are in the real world, outside the hermetic world of clinical trials Mugdha is also deeply into Indian Classical Music, and holds a bachelors’ degree in

HEALTHCARE

FINANCE

RuchIt NAgAR , 22

FouNDeR KhuShI bAby

Plenty of healthcare entrepreneurs are working on medical records and wearables. Nagar is combining the two he is producing necklaces that can be nned by healthcare workers to pull-up the wearer ’ s medical records. His not-for-profit is currently conducting trials in 96 camps spread across Northern India

Vikas helps manage the big real estate investment trust book for this US$ 32 billion hedge fund. He joined Millennium two years ago aer having worked with C ohen & Steers, which specialises in RIET-dedicated mutual funds. He is apropos currently training for his first amateur boxing match

(Divya is influencing where billions of dollars of stock investments will go at Viking Global I vestors the US$ 30 billion hedge fund focussed on e-commerce and retail sectors. E arlier, she has spent four years working at Goldman Sachs’ internal hedge fund and has co-managed the Har vard Business S chool’s Alpha Fund while working on her way to an MBA there

Ramanan, Deutsche’s research analyst covering chemicals and agriculture, e an exceptionally good all on Axalta Coating Systems. He has been named on the Institutional Investors’ Research Rankings as a rising star. R amanan, who was a college lacrosse player, is ow into producing a sports mentar y on the side.

NIl A DAS, 27 vIce PReSIDeNt cItIgRouP

Nila is Citi’s bond trader r unning the bank’s secondar y trading in agenc y collatoralised mor tgage obligations, overseeing billions of dollars in volume each day. She has joined Citi two years ago aer a stint at RB C as a mor tgage trader.

vIKAS PAtel, 29 SeNIoR ANAlySt, mIlleNNIum mANAgemeNt llc

DIvyA Net tImI, 29 INveStmeNt ANAlySt, vIKINg globAl INveStoRS

R AmANAN SIvAlINgAm, 29 vIce PReSIDeNt Deut Sche bANK

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

ShAR AD SAgAR , 24 FouNDeR , DexteRIt y globAl

Sharad’s Dexterity Global is a system of educational platforms that ser ves under-graduate and high school students in S outh E ast Asia. His mandate is to make sure that the next generation can connect with the world Sharad has been named as one of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Next Centur y Innovators

B efore moving to Nowis, Ashish Patel was Global Head of Social Media at VICE, where he was part of a team that increased by more than 2500%. At Nowis, which pulls in 650+ million video views per month across channels, he manages the social data and insights team that interprets data around the videos.

NIShA chAt tAl, 27 mANAgeR So cIAl meDIA & commuNIt y, mSNbc

Chattal has long been the go-to expert on all things social media for MSNBC, where social media contributes to more than 30% of visits to the site Since joining the company in 2013, Nisha has helped relaunch msnbc com, establish its presence on emerging platforms like Snapchat and Kik, and has trained anchors, producers and executives on social media best-practices both for reporting as well as audience engagement

ANo oP JAIN, 29 FouNDINg DIRectoR SANItAtIoN & heAlth RIght S INDIA

s two problems about people defecate in the ut 100 million lack acdrinking water in India Health Rights India ets that collect human ste, later using the ethane released by the xcrement to power generators that filter water for use

ENERGY

Inspired by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, high school student Karan Jerath engineered an innovative subsea wellhead containment device that could capture oil and gas escaping from a blowout well, separate it into liquid and gases ans store it on surface vessels. Using modelling so ware, Karan d i l i g e n t l y laboured on his design for two long years before winning t Young S cientist award at the Intel ISEF 2015 competitions. He now hopes to work with an oil company for commercialising his invention

AShISh PAtel, 29

SeNIoR vP So cIAl meDIA Now thIS meDIA

MEDIA

KAR AN JeR Ath, 19 INveNtoR , uNIveRSIt y oF texAS At AuStIN

UT TAR PRADESH PRAVASI DIWAS

CON N ECTI NG N RIs

Dur ing the 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas held at Ahmedabad dur ing Januar y 2015, Uttar Pradesh was a par tner state. at time, UP CM Akhilesh Yadav had offered to hold the next PBD at Ag ra. ough this did not fructif y due to the GOI taking a decision to hold the PBD as a once in two years affair, Akhilesh seems to have draw n inspiration from the scope and possibilities offered by the event, and has gone on to host and organise his own event the UP Pravasi Diwas, which took place in Ag ra on 4-6 Januar y 2016. A repor t.

The UP government rolled out a red carp et welcome to s ome 250-o dd memb ers of the Indian diasp ora on 4th Januar y in the Taj city, as the maiden ‘UP Pravasi Diwas’ took off to an impressive start Addressing the NRIs and PIOs, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the meet was a beginning of a never-ending dialogue between them and the state government and assured them of all help He said that the whole idea b ehind the UP Pravasi Diwas was to reconnect the diaspora with their roots in the state and work on

a common and meaningful dialogue of development of the state “I am over joyed to s ee such large numb er of NRIs here and must admit that the gathering has exceeded my expectation,” he added

Announcing that the event would now onwards be an annual affair, Akhilesh Yadav said that while venues may change on a rotation basis among major cities of the state, the event will have a permanent place in UP “We are here not only to welcome you in the Taj city but also to make you partners, as the state endeavours

PRAVASI DIWAS UP AWARDEES

to get its rightful place in the countr y, ” he added to a round of applause

E arlier, Pris ons Minister B alwant Sing h Ramoowalia, who coordinated the NRI Diwas, heaped praise on Akhilesh Yadav, saying that it was for the first time that a chief minister of Uttar Pradesh had thought about the descendants of p eople w ho lived in the state many centuries ago Chief Secretar y Alok Ranjan detailed the various infrastructure and development projec ts under taken by the state government and said that the state was undergoing a ne ver b efore turnaround O ver the next two days, the NRIs and state ministers and officials interacted and had a comp osite dialogue on how and in which sectors investment can be explored, said Principal Secretar y (NRI) Sanjeev Saran

Later 16 eminent people with roots in Uttar Pradesh and now living abroad were given the ‘UP Ratna’ awards by the CM and his wife Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav, while 13 MoUs were also signed at the event Also present were members of Bollywood that included film directors Sudhir Mishra, Muzaffar Ali, veteran actor Sanjay Khan and Zayed Khan

Terming the UP Pravasi Diwas as hugely successful, the CM said “Ab Unse Judne aur Unko Jodne kaa Maukaa hai (now it’s time to reconnect with the NRI). “It’s time to reconnect with your roots UP is a big state and without a foothold here, it’s difficult to grow in any field UP is a huge market, let’s join hands to grow together For the last four years, the SP government initiated ambitious infrastructure development projects which has significantly

ANDHRA v2.0

changed the perception and the situation at the ground level,’’ said the Chief minister

Yadav said that besides the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Lucknow Metro, all major Indian companies and many MNCs have invested in UP. Other than this, several power projects have been commissioned and many are in the pipeline which will enable the state government to fulfil its promise of 16 hour power supply in rural areas and 22-24 hours in urban areas. “UP is the first state to celebrate the NRI day as it was organized by the Union government earlier e success of UP Pravasi Diwas (UPPD) has demonstrated that people from the state formed a big chunk of the Indian diaspora abroad and they were willing to return to their roots given a congenial environment for business and investment ’’

NAI DU’s RECI PE FOR AN EL DOR ADO

Naidu is one of the early reformer ch i e f m i n iste rs i n t he c ou nt r y, w ho to ok Hyd e r ab a d to ne w heights even before PM Modi as Gujarat CM, showcas ed his state as the most att r a c t ive i nve st me nt d e st i nat i on Nai du now w ant s to ma ke Visha k ap at nam t he d e st i nat i on for t he ‘Ma ke i n Ind i a ’ programme. He avers that the new greenfield riverfront capital city of Amaravati that is coming up will be world class and urged industr y captains present to open at least one of f i c e i n t he c it y “We w i l l g ive you excellent inf rastr ucture, 24x7 power, sk i l l e d l ab ou r and go o d gove r nanc e,

CM Chandrababu Naidu, who has taken up the daunting task of building a ne w state w ith a ne w capital prac tically f rom scratch, i s ready to lay out the red car pet for investors. True to his inimical style, he has set a g row th target of 14% to 15% for his state, and promises to fur ther improve ease of doing business and g ive all clearances w ithin three weeks. “In case of any problem, we w ill sit across the table and clear them,” he said at an investors’ meet organised by the Commerce ministr y and the CII at Vishakapatnam on 10 12 Januar y 2016.

just bring in your investments we want you to j oi n us i n d e vel opi ng t h is ne w state,” Naidu invited

However, he will have his work cut out i n w i n n i n g ov e r f a r m e r s , a s h i g h d e bt l e vels have l e d to an i nc re as e i n f ar me r

su i c i d e s . “ T h is is one are a he c an not i gn ore , it i s c r u c i a l f or ov e r a l l d e v e l opm e nt a n d g row t h , ” s a i d on e of t h e d e l e g at e s In du s t r y c apt ai ns an d p ol i c y m a k e r s , h ow e v e r, a re c on f i d e nt Na i du wou l d b e abl e to t r ans for m t he st ate. “In

to d ay ’ s c onte x t of A n d h r a Pr a d e s h , t h e c r is is has b e e n tu r ne d i nto an opp or tun it y, ” fe els An i l Amb an i

e Partnership Summit, which started in 1995 to mark the centenar y of CII, has since become one of the most important international business events in the countr y It aims to further partnerships, build ideologies based on shared dreams that bind societies together in this knowledge driven world. e Summit has established itself as an ideal ground for business networking and sharing of ideas to debate and deliberate, where corporates seek a collective view beyond bottom lines e Summit regularly features Heads of States and Governments, Ministers, polic y makers, CEOs, academicians and thought leaders f rom all over the world e meet traditionally sees over 1200 delegates with almost 40% attending f rom several countries including USA, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Canada, France, Australia, S outh Af rica, Italy, Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and UAE, amongst others

O ver the last one year, we have seen states compete for investments, and as an investment destination Andhra Pradesh has two great assets: a ver y high level of entrepreneurship of the Telugu people,

and the leadership focused, conscious of challenges but determined. It is a state moving ahead with determination, said Finance Minister Ar un Jaitley, speaking at the inaugural session e theme of the summit this year, apropos, was ‘Partnership for a Shared and Sustainable World Economy’ Appreciating the challenges that CMK Naidu faces and assuring him of Central support Jaitley said that AP is moving towards a scenario where people will see new institutions being built, greater ease of doing business, greater transparenc y and good governance, and that the state could well emerge as the engine of growth for India’s economy Chandrababu Naidu, in his address, spoke how they were working towards creating a business environment and the inf rastr ucture required for enter prises to prosper simplif ying policies and processes to reduce permissions, singledesk clearances, and giving all clearances within 21 days to set up businesses within the state is coupled with factors such as abundant land, skilled labour, lack of labour unrest, coastline/ports that the state offers, would help him realise his vision of making Andhra Pradesh among the top 3 states within India by 2022 and the best destination in the world by 2050

Speaking at the Summit, Chie f Minister Mamata Banerjee said West Bengal far exceeds India in ter m s of GVA, indu str y and ag r iculture g row th. e Big Bang theor y seemed to resonate as the Big Bong theor y in Bengal… A repor t.

Whether it was camaraderie sans comrades or globetrotter guests Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended a warm welcome to all the delegates from 25 countries who had converged upon Kolkata for the summit, including the Prime Minister of Bhutan.

Counting the growth in the state, she however did not forget to mention her achievements Mamata said, “In a federal structure, if a state progresses, the countr y also progresses; just like a joint venture. B engal has far exceeded India in GVA growth, industr y and agriculture Our per capita income is double that of the India average Our GVA growth is 10 5 percent while that of India is 7.5 per cent. India’s per capita income is 6 percent and ours is 12 per cent B engal’s tax collection has increased by 200 percent, Capital Expenditure (Asset Creating) has increased by 601 percent. B engal’s Agriculture and Rural Development Expenditure has increased 547 percent. B engal’s Plan Expenditure has increased by 311 percent, Physical infrastructure has increased by 330 percent We have given tax-free fuel for airlines and a new airport has come up in Andal. We have a land map, land bank and land use policy ere are 5000 acres of land available for industr y ”

Blame it on lack of industries that B engal has unconsumed power but

WEST BENGAL GLOBAL BUSINESS SUMMIT 2016

M A M ATA BAN ER J EE SEEKS AN D PROMISES SU PPORT TO BUSI N ESSMEN

Mamata Banerjee had a different perspective to it “B engal is a power surplus state We have a power bank. Out of a population of 9 crore people in the state, 7 crore will be covered by food security”

Interestingly she did mention the Prime Minister schemes but with a clause of praising her own government. “Prime Minister star ted Swachh Bharat programme. ree out of 4 top districts in India are from Bengal We have conducted 153 CMO to BDO meetings at grassroots Direct interaction is key to our success e increase in industr y in 2014-15 in West B engal stands at 8.34 per cent while that of India is 5 6 per cent Unity in diversity is our mantra ere is no communal tension in B engal Maoist violence has come down. A deep sea port is coming up in B engal in partnership with the Centre,”

she added With Union Finance Minister Ar un Jaitley, R ailway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Delhi Chief Minister Ar vind Kejriwal on the dais, Mamata Baner jee made a successful attempt in working over and above party lines

Leading Expor ter and MD of Patton Group Sanjay Budhia says, “the Direction, Vision and Passion of the CM and the perseverance of the Finance and Industr y Minister have paid off is Summit is not about B2B or G2G but more than that it is ‘H2H Hear t to Hear t’ It has energised, enthused, and encouraged Entrepreneurs, Investors and Industrialists both domestic and overseas alike It will be Catalyst in changing perception and projecting the true potential of our State e minutest details in preparation are of international standards in terms of clarity,

comfor t and convenience, without any scope for chaos and confusion for both delegates and dignitaries.”

Arun Jaitley too rose above party differences dur ing t he Summit to s ay, “ is summit is not just a r itua l e vent, it is of importance under current global trends Summits like this add to confidence of investors that this is now polic y direction of West Bengal government.” Well, with elections just a few months away it would be interest ing to watch st atements made from the dais impacting positively on the Diasp ora. As t he y s ay, t he pro of of t he pudding is in the eating, so let us see inflows happ ening in real terms b efore we become too euphoric !

B R AI N TUMOU R : FAQs

According to Dr. P K Sachdeva of For tis Hospitals, there is a lot of angst and misconceptions associated with brain tumours in the minds of the general public. NRI Achievers brings you this informative piece on brain tumours in the form of Q&As, as par t of the series we have initiated to bring our readers up-to-date on ilnesses and malaises, their treatment, and the techniques and technologies that have taken root in Indian medical science and healthcare.

What are brain tumours ?

Brain tumours are oen a mass either abnormal or normal cells that grows unnecessarily in the brain Some of these are labelled 'Benign' while some are designated as 'Malignant.' Benign tumours, which are noncancerous, grow slowly and rarely spread. Malignant tumours, which are cancerous, grow rapidly and attack brain structures very fast e severity of brain tumours varies It all depends upon the location and size of the tumour in the central nervous system.

How are tumours g raded ?

e grading of tumours is done on a rising scale according to increasing severity e grading system is most commonly used for malignant tumours. e more the grade, the more cancerous the tumour, the more dangerous, the less life expectancy

What is Metastasis?

When cancer originates in one par t of the body and spreads to its other parts, it is called metastasis Brain tumours are unique that they originate in the brain are unlikely to migrate and grow outside the central ner vous system, expanding only within the cranium. However metastatic tumours from other parts of the body do occur in the brain

What causes them ?

Primar y brain tumours originate within

the brain, and their causes are as yet unknown to contemporar y medical science. erefore, their prevention is moot and is not possible Metastatic brain tumours spread to the brain from other parts of the body such as f rom the lungs or the breast, etc. By definition, metastatic tumours are all considered malignant

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms are headache that may come and go, worse in the morning and when e xe rc is i ng or chang i ng p o s it i on . The advent of seizures (due to disr uption in the brain’s elec trical ac tivity) Naus ea and Vomiting, Drowsiness, Visual probl e ms , Me nt a l probl e ms , L o ss of c onsciousness, etc. S ome symptoms manifest according to area of the brain where the tumour is located

Who is at risk ?

In t he cas e of pr imar y brain tumours, t he ver y young and t he ver y old. In t he c a s e of m e t a s t at i c tu m ou rs , am ong adults As there is no established cause of pr i m ar y br ai n tu m ou rs n o sp e c i f i c r i s k fac tors are known.

Do brain tumours occur in children ?

Yes, as mentioned above, primar y brain tumours do occur in children Neuro Imaging: CT Scan, Plain and Contrast MRI Modality of choice PET, SPECT.

Multi disciplinar y approach for management: Physicians, Neurosurgeons, Radiologist, Pathologist, R adiation oncologist, Medical Oncologist

What is the treatment ?

Surger y (effective for many tumours), R adiotherapy, Chemotherapy, Gamma Knife R adio surger y, Cy ber Knife R adio surger y, Rehabilitation Stereotactic Biopsy, Small lesion, Deep location, Minimal mass effect.

Older patient: High medical or anaesthetic risk Neurological intact patient: Moderate to large lesion, Superficial location, Significant mass effect, Loculated or multiple cyst. Young low risk patient: Neurologically imparied, Highly vascular lesion, Cytoreduction before adjunctive therapy, Awake Craniotomy for eloquent areas of brain Endoscopic surger y

What is the outlook ?

Depends upon many factors like the location of tumour, whether benign or malignant Future Treatments will var y commonly, R adiosurger y, Gene therapy, Pill.

Dr P K Sachdeva

author is an Additional Director of Neurosurger y at the For tis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi

A

TAX & INVESTMENT PLANNING FOR 2016

Here are some impor tant items to take care of for the year 2016, from the point of v iew of tax and investment planning. Penned by one of India's foremost taxation exper ts, this checklist will serve you well for the coming financial year if you adopt them. NRI Achievers brings you yet another useful column that will be of immense utility to you in planning your financial obligations and ensuring compliance. Read on ...

1. Next Month’s Budget: e first agenda on the back of your mind should be with regard to the new Budget proposals For better tax planning and to achieve the best of all deductions and exemptions arising to you as a result of Budget Amendments, it is time for you to plan right now

2. Refund from the IT Department: e Income-tax Department has issued a note to inform tax payers that pending income-tax refund specially where said refund due is up to INR 50,000 will be promptly disposed off for Assessment Year 2013-14 and 2014-15 Tax payers who have claimed refund up to INR 50,000 may send a letter followed by a reminder aer fieen days to the Assessing Income-tax officer for getting a prompt refund

3. New Guidelines for Quoting Permanent Account Number: Provisions of the IT Rules relating to the compulsor y quoting of PAN have been amended, with the new guidelines are applicable from 1st Januar y 2016 Tax payers should understand the provisions concerning applicability of quoting PAN, which has been extended to many new items.

4. Avoid Cumulative Time Deposit Fixed Deposits: I recommend not going in for Cumulative Time Fixed Deposits because although the payment is received at the time of maturity, ever y year the income is required to be shown in the IT Return S o I suggest going in for Noncumulative Fixed Deposits when you make the Bank FDR

5. Get Ready for Smart City Investments: It is now high time for you to plan your funds and resources in advance so that you can get ready for making your investment in RIETs and the new Smart Cities and reap benefits of early entr y into the Smart City Market.

6. Sto ck Market or E quity Mutual Fund Investments: If till now you have not taken the route of increasing your wealth through the Stock Market or Equity Mutual Funds, it is now time for you to enter that market. Appreciation in Stock Markets as well as Equity Mutual Funds are likely to reach new heights Finally you can also think of taking the SIP route for your long term investments

7. Plan for your Spouse: In 2016 plan for your wife and put in some investments in her name. Do think of innovative ideas where the income is not going to be clubbed specially by investing in tax free bonds etc

8. Investment for your Young Girl Child: Plan your 2016 calendar to make investments specially for your young girl child If she is less then 10 years it make an investment in Sukanya Samridhi Scheme in her name and thereaer receive tax free interest income with no clubbing of the interest income and higher interest. Go on repeating the investment each year to give her security

9 Files for you and other Family Memb ers: Write down the names of all family members, specially the adult members and plan to see that ever y member has at least a separate income-tax file and separate income If there is no income-tax files now for these family members start them in the beginning in the year 2016. If you have a minor child it is worthwhile to start a separate income-tax file of it as well I suggest star ting a separate income-tax file for your minor child through the concept of 100 percent Specific Family Trust and then to see that income of your minor child is not added with the income of father or mother is is a wonderfully great idea and this will result into creating separate Corpus for your minor child.

11. Real Estate Transactions: You

should be little more careful for carr ying out Real Estate Transactions whether small or big, as from next year if you commit even some silly mistake you may be punished f rom tax angle For example never ever attempt making cash payment either for purchase of property or sale of the proper ty If you do so, then the amount received by you will be treated as your income Likewise, do ensure that always the purchase and sale transactions are carried out at the minimum Circle Rate of the property.

12. Time to star t your HUF: Now If you have not yet started a separate independent IT file for your Hindu Undivided

Return) to find out and check the various expenditure incurred by you.

14. High Jump for section 80C Deduction: Let the year 2016 be planned in such a manner that you are able to achieve the highest amount of deduction under section 80C, namely INR 1,50,000. Also plan right now to star t saving INR 50,000 by making additional investment in the NPS Scheme so as to avail a special deduction over and above INR 1,50,000. us, total of Rs. 1,50,000 plus special deduction of INR 50,000 can bring you tax deduction under section 80C to the extent of INR 2,00,000 Also take advantage of all other deductions and the housing loan interest

15. Term Insurance and other Insurance Policies: For those in particular who have taken housing loans it is worthwhile to go in for a big Term Insurance Plan Taxwise, increase your focus on taking out insurance policies for different members of the family to secure them, and you are able to face any calamity crisis if they arise unexpectly at any point in time

Family, it is time to do it now. You, your wife and children would constitute a separate HUF and a new Income-tax entity can be started in their name, even if you have no children or only a daughter –there is no requirement of either a son or a daughter. Your HUF file can be started and legally continued. So reap the fruits of separate HUF and let this be implemented in the year 2016

13 Be Fearful for your Black Money : B e careful in using your Black Money (if you have any) and carr ying out transactions using it Special care should be taken when purchasing articles or things costly in nature – do make sure that you are ver y careful because the Government has the power within AIR (Annual Information

16. Careful Marriage Celebration, Exp enses: Let your expenses be duly accounted for. Under the L aw Income-tax sur vey can take place even aer a marriage function Hence, whenever there is a marriage function plan expenses in such a manner that all expenditure is duly accounted for. You may spend as much as you like on the marriage of your daughter, but ensure that the fund is made available to prove sources of all expenditure incurred Also do plan lots of gis from relatives and f riends as unlimited gis are exempted on marriage occasions.

Subhash L akhotia

Author is a well-known Delhi-based Tax and Investment Consultant with more than 45 years of experience in the domain of taxation

INDIAN LAWS AND NRIs

With many thousands of Indians travelling to foreig n shores ever y year to explore possibilities of employ ment, entrepreneurship and business abroad, Income Tax liabilities are indeed an o raised question. Under what circumstances and norms do these liabilities apply, and what obligation s do Indian Laws vest on the overs eas Indian? Our column on banking w ill bring you answers ever y month to questions such as these, spelling clarity and helping you understand the system as well as ensure that you are clear as to compliance.

The residential status of a person is the primar y determinant of the income tax payable in India and an individual could either be a Resident, Non-Resident or a Resident but not ordinarily resident in India. e income tax liability in India is not dependent upon his/her citizenship and hence even a noncitizen of India is subject to Indian income tax if he/she is resident in India

An individual becomes non-resident for an assessment year, if in the previous year he/she meets the following criteria:

 If he/she has not been in India for 182 days or more

 If he/she has been in India for 60 days or more during the year, but has not been in India for 365 days or more during the four years preceding the previous year

As per the Income Tax Act 1961, tax is payable on the total income received or deemed to have been received in India or the income that accrues or is deemed to have accrued in India during the financial year is broadly means that only income earned or accrued in India for an NRI is liable to be taxed in India and no tax is payable on the NRI’s foreign income. So, if

a person is an NRI and has earned or accrued income from his investments or other sources in India, then he/she is required to file the income tax returns in India

What are the categories of income of an NRI that are liable for income tax in India?

 Income from bank accounts and deposits: e income tax liability in India for an NRI is dependent on the type of bank account and deposit Interest earned on Non Resident External (NRE) accounts and deposits is completely exempt f rom Indian income tax Interest earned on foreign currenc y non resident (FCNR) deposit is also exempt f rom Indian income tax. However, Non Resident Ordinar y (NRO) accounts and deposits are subject to a tax. Currently, the income tax is deducted at source (TDS) at the rate of 30% and an additional surcharge & cess of 0 90% totalling to 30 90% If the NRI is resident in any of the countries with whom India has a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA), then the TDS will be as per the DTAA agreement between India and that particular countr y e NRI will have to produce a tax residency certificate from the regulator y authority of the coun-

tr y of residence to claim for the reduced TDS For eg , If the NRI is resident in Kenya, then as per the DTAA between India and Kenya, the TDS on the NRI’s NRO deposits or accounts in India will be at 15%, instead of the usual 30.9%, subject to the NRI submitting the tax residenc y cer tificate An NRI should also be cognizant of the income tax applicability in his countr y of residence since in some countries like the USA, the global income is taxable. So, even if the interest on the NRE or FCNR deposit is exempt from Income tax in India, the interest earned on the deposit is to be declared to the tax authorities in the countr y of residence and applicable tax has to be paid.



Income from Property: NRIs are permitted to purchase immovable proper ty in India, exception being agricultural/plantation land or farm house, and are also permitted to hold or transfer immovable property that was acquired prior to the attainment of NRI status or if the same has been inherited f rom a resident Indian An NRI is eligible to claim all deductions available to a resident Indian for a residential property purchase.

An NRI can earn income either f rom capital gains of say, a residential house/property or can earn income by letting out the proper ty for rent Let’s now see what happens when an NRI makes a capital gain f rom a residential house or proper ty. If an NRI sells a residential house or property aer a period of 3 years from the purchase date, then a long term capital gains tax of 20% is applicable e capital gain is the difference between sale value and indexed cost of purchase i.e., the cost of purchase adjusted to inflation But, if the entire long term capital gains are reinvested in another residential house proper ty within 2 years aer the date of sale, then the entire long term capital gain is exempted from income tax in India. If the long term capital gain is more than the cost of the new property, then the excess of the capital gain over the purchase cost of the new property will be taxable. If the property is sold in less than 3 years from the purchase date, then a short term capital gain tax at 30% is applicable NRIs should also be aware of the restrictions on repatriation of such sale proceeds, which is restricted to a maximum of only 2 prop-

erties. Also, the amount that is being repatriated should not exceed the amount paid for purchase of the property

e other kind of income from property is when the property is rented out. e rental income earned by an NRI is taxable in India. e tenant is to deduct the tax at source while making the rental payment

T he te nant shou l d ma ke t he T D S at 30 9% (inclusive of surcharge and education cess) and also issue the TDS cer tif ic ate. N R Is c an ge t d e du c t i on of 3 0 % tow ards mai nte nanc e e x p e ns e s , re p ai rs etc Exemption is als o available for Municipal/cor poration tax paid If the proper ty has been purchased through a home lo an, t hen t he interest p aid towards t he home loan can also be deducted. An NRI can als o claim deduction for repayment of t he pr i nc ip a l amou nt of up to I N R 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 / - p e r an nu m and st amp duty, registration charges etc., paid at the time of purchase of proper ty. Since tax is to be deducted at source and the same income might also be subject to tax in the c ou nt r y w he re t he N R I is re s i d i ng , t he NRI might avail of the benef it of DTAA, if it is applicable, and avail of a lower rate

of T D S to cl ai m c re d it of t he t a xe s paid in India.



C apital gains From Shares & Mutual funds: Profits earned through sale of share, debentures, mutual funds and other securities are taxed as “capital gains” under the Income tax Act, 1961. If the profit is on shares of a company, equity or equity oriented mutual funds that are subject to securities transaction tax (STT) and are held for more than 12 months, then such profits are determined as Long term capital gain and are exempt from Indian income tax Dividends received on shares of domestic companies is also exempt from Income tax in India Long term capital gains from unlisted securities or debt mutual funds shall be taxed at 10%. If these have been held for less than 12 months, then such gains are termed as short term capital gains and are taxed at normal rates of tax as applicable to the total taxable income. Shor t term capital gains are taxable as applicable to the total income of the NRI In the case of shor t term Capital Gains due to sale of listed equity shares or units of an equity oriented fund which is subject to ST T, the tax rate applicable is 15%.

 Salar y: If an NRI or anyone on behalf of the NRI receives a salar y income in India, then the salar y paid to the NRI is taxable. A salar y paid in India in an Indian account will be treated as salar y paid for ser vices rendered in India. So, such salar y payment will be subject to taxation at the tax slab as applicable

Anand Subramaniam

Author is a Group Vice President of D CB Bank

organization’s

In a bid to push up sales and generate revenues, debt-rid- den, cash-strapped real estate developers struggling to clear huge inventories of homes have resorted to several customised and innovative marketing initia- tives this year with consider- able success. Here is a birds eye view of the strategems and ploys that they have adopted. An analysis.

HOT M ARKETI NG TREN DS OF

2015

BREAKING THE PRICE BARRIER

For the last 2-3 years, high property prices coupled with high interest rates yhad totally slowed down the sale of housing units across India, resulting in the piling-up of huge unsold inventor y at non-affordability was a key reason for muted sales was quite evident, in view of high demand for affordable homes As per market statistics, 7000 affordable housing units got launched in Q1 2015-16, over three times

from the same period last year And about 60 percent of this demand was from the speculative Delhi-NCR market, where prices were artificially inflated during the last few years. e Credai Cushman & Wakefield sur vey forecasts demand for affordable houses (with prices up to INR 20 lakh excluding Mumbai), rising to over 5 lakh units across NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune.

Since in the last few years, developers did

not make efforts to launch houses in the truly affordable range (within 20 lakh), and the net result was a drastic drop in sales, leading to the piling up of huge inventories, which according to the Knight Frank report, rose by about 13 percent in the June quarter Learning a lesson from this situation, which made the going tough for debt-ridden, cash-strapped developers, many players in the industr y took initiatives to create & launch genuinely affordable

homes. NCR’s leading developer, Amrapali Group, in association with the marketing firm Investor Clinic, launched a novel scheme of Adarsh Awas Yojana for retired and in-ser vice government employees Under this scheme in Greater Noida West, 5000 affordable flats were offered with an 895 s flat costing INR 22 lakh Aer an over whelming response, selling 3000 flats in three weeks, the price has been further reduced to INR 20 lakh, besides a number of flats on offer have now been doubled to 10000.

Under the Har yana government’s ‘Affordable Housing Scheme’, a number of NCR developers have offered 1BHK & 2BHK houses in S ohna (S outh of Gurgaon) at all inclusive attractive prices of INR 13 lakh & 18 lakh resp ec tively. e concept of time correc tion under which a developer sells stock at the old price, has als o gained ground e R aheja group had offered Aranya Independent Floors in its smart green city project on Sohna Road, Gurgaon for less than INR 2500 per s. Taking a cue, Gaursons is planning to launch affordable homes this 2016 in the price range of 1520 lakh, with sizes var ying between 450- 750 s In a one-of-its-kind marketing initiative, a Mumbai developer has come up with a scheme offering homes in a far off suburb at INR 6.3 lakh, with a sweetener in the form of a free helicopter joy ride and a job for one female member of the buyer’s family

C OM PAC T SI Z E D HOM E S & MICRO-APARTMENT S

In another marketing initiative to woo price-sensitive home buyers, many developers who other wise could not reduce apartment prices, came up with the idea of shrinking apartment sizes in order to reduce the ticket size (lower price) Leading budget home developer of Bengaluru, VBHC, came up with their Palm Haven project near the city with two types of I BHKs and four types of 2BHKs, in sizes ranging from 430- 900 s. Assetz is launching a project in North Bengaluru in sizes

ranging from 395-1000 s and prices from 25 lakh and above In Gurgaon, Suncity has launched over 600 2BHK units of sizes 518-532 s with prices of 21 lakh and above

One bed room homes have been trimmed to 400 s from 550-600 s. According to a JLL report, builders have reduced average flat sizes by 26 percent, with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region seeing the highest size-shrinkage of 26 4 percent with Kolkata, B engaluru and Chennai closely following at 24 percent, 23.7 percent and 22.2 percent respectively. is concept of compact homes was successfully tried for bigger 3BHK homes by budget home developer SARE is trend is manifesting itself not merely in the affordable housing segment, but may be seen even in the luxur y segment in the past Mumbai-based Omkar Developers has successfully tried this concept of multiple size homes in its 1973 Worli project All said and done, for cash-strapped developers and budget-sensitive home buyers, this marketing concept of compact sized homes has turned out to be a win-win proposition

SUBSIDISED HOME LOANS

For home buyers, it was a double whammy of high proper y prices and even higher home loan rates that forced them to take pull back on their home-buying plans, resulting in slowdown in property sales e interest rate cuts by RBI this year provided little relief to home buyers as banks onpassed merely a part of the interest rate cut to customers. So keeping this in mind, some developers, especially in the NCR which was the worst hit in terms of sales, launched special schemes offering home loans at subsidised rates e Raheja group came up with a scheme in Gurgaon offering home loans at 4 99 percent for 5 years e Satya group also gave an offer of subsidised home loans at 6 99 percent for its luxur y homes in Gurgaon Under this scheme the developers themselves bore the interest rate burden from banks in order to lessen the burden on buyers.

AT TRACTIVE PAYMENT PL ANS

C onsider ing t hat home buyers were hard pressed to pay EMIs in an environment of job i ns e c u r it y and l itt l e or no s a l ar y h i ke s , de velop ers came up with attrac tive payment plans w hich were constr uc tion-linked. Many developers across India lured home buyers in a bi g w ay by of fe r i ng subve nt i on pl ans by taking the EMI burden on thems elves S ome de velop ers went to the extent of of fering no E M Is t i l l 3 ye ars , or u nt i l t he t i me of p oss ession. Along with this, the y als o drastically c ut down the upf ront b o oking amount to b e p ai d by home buye rs to a s l ow a s 2 - 5 p e rc e nt T h i s s che me w a s l i ke d by m any home buye rs and d e vel op e rs we re abl e to considerably push up their sales.

DIGITAL MARKETING

T he ye ar s aw t he c om i ng of age of on l i ne prop e r t y p or t a l s , and w it h t h at t he c onc e pt of dig it a l/on line home market ing c aug ht up. Tat a Hou s i ng tu r ne d out to b e a pi one e r i n t h i s m arke t i ng c onc e pt E nc ou r age d by t he s u c c e s s o f t h e i r p a r t n e r e d w i t h G o o g l e ’ s G r e at O n l i n e S h o p p i n g Fe s t i v a l , t h e y n o t o n l y p a r t n e r e d w i t h l e a d i n g r e t a i l p o r t a l s , but als o to ok to an all-ne w concept of ‘S o cial S el l i ng ’ , by t y i ng up w it h Fa c e b o ok to m arke t t he i r l e i su re home s i n G o a Por t a l s l i ke Q u i k r and hd fc c om we re su c c e ss f u l i n s el li ng home s i n p ar t ne rsh ip s w it h d e vel op e rs H D F C w a s p a r t i c u l a r l y s u c c e s s f u l i n m a rk e t i n g r e a d y - t o - m ov e - i nt o h o m e s . T h e e ff e c t i v e n e s s o f t h e o n l i n e m e d i u m i n m a r k e t i n g h o m e s a l s o p r o mp t e d M C H IC r e d a i t o p a r t n e r w i t h h o u s i n g c o m t o l au nch a ‘Vi r tu a l Prop e r t y E x p o ’ w h i ch g arne re d a go o d re sp ons e.

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

BOLLYWOOD I N

With 2015 draw ing to a clos e, we take a look at how commercial Indian cinema of the Bolly wood var iet y fared dur ing the year gone by at the B ox of f i ce . O ur b ol ly w o o d mav e n , pre s e nt s hi s analy si s and v ie ws on the trail s and travail s of the cinema machine, who made it and who didn't … .

Whoever had envisaged that a s ma l l f i l m w it h ne w f a c e s like P yaar Ka Punchnama 2, ma d e on a bu d ge t of arou nd R s 1 8 C r wou l d e nd up ma k i ng arou nd 5 8 C r i n just 18 days ? But then that’s the vagar y of the box of f ice in B olly wood. While a B ajrang i Bhaijaan astou nd e d t he au d ience as well as the f ilm industr y by coll e c t i ng to t he tu ne of I N R 3 2 0 4 1 C r, a modest budget film like Tanu Weds Manu 2 ended up collecting around INR 146.86 Cr at the turnstiles. The Varun Dhawan Shradha Kapoor starrer ABCD 2 collected INR 107 09 Cr w hi le t he Ane es B azme e d i re c te d Welcome B ack romp e d home with a tally of INR 96.27 Cr. Hunter r also was a sleeper hit.

With close to 200 f ilms released by the Hi nd i f i l m i ndust r y du r i ng t he p ast t welve mont hs, it’s s afe to s ay t hat 2015 has been a productive year, notwithstandi ng t he tu r n ip s t hat have b e e n chu r ne d out so far. With the mo olah that cer tain

bi g b ox - of f i c e h it s have r a ke d i n , it has r ais e d t he b ar qu ite h i g h for f i l ms t hat must follow through on the act Though t he ye ar a ls o brou g ht a f ai r share of sho ckers and b ox-of f ice duds, as well as f ilms that are sitting in the middle, there have a ls o b e e n s ome su r pr is e s t hat achieved their success slowly but surely

e biggest hits of the year are of course Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Bahubali and Tanu Weds Manu 2, followed by films like Pyar Ka Punchnama 2, Kis Kis Ko Pyar Karun, Abcd 2, Piku, Gabbar Is Back, Baby, Badl pur etc, besides Dilwale and Bajirao M tani Bajrangi Bhaijaan was made on budget of INR 125 Cr, it collected whop ping INR 320.87 Cr.

ere were ot her fi lms w hich brought the smile back to the faces of dist r ibutors li ke Welcome Back, Talvar, D il Lagake Hai sha etc It is quite interesting to note that while all the versions of BAHUBALI was made on a budget of INR 130 Cr, it collected INR 500 Cr in Tamil, Telugu and Mala a lam and INR 103 71 Cr in Hin whereas it proved to a money spinner ever y other language

e industr y ’ s big names, however, failed to set off the fireworks at the box office R anbir was slapped with one more setback aer Besharam when the R anbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma-starrer Bombay Velvet proved to be the biggest debacle of the decade, as it was made on a humongous budget of over INR 130 Cr and could not recover even one-fih of it (INR 25 crore approximately)

e biggest flops were Shaandaar, Guddu Ki Gun, Titli, Main Aur Charles, Kuch Kuch Locha Hai, Calendar Girls, Guddu Rangeela, Haider, Shamitabh, All Is Well, Jazbaa, Katti Batti, Hero, Brothers, Singh Is Bling, Phantom And Welcome To Karachi while Dil Dhadakne Do barely

managed

Yet anot her out ing of t he Bhatts Khamoshiyaan starring newbies Gurmeet Chowdhar y and Sapna Pabbi als o didn’t click making it a horrible year as far as the Bhatts are concerned Even newbies who were ushered in with great promise failed to live up to the hype surrounding them. L i ke Suraj Pancholi and At hiya Shetty w ho were int ro duce d in HERO by producer Salman Khan

On the other hand, proving the fact that Kahani, e Dir ty Picture or for that matQUEEN weren’t just flashes in the pan, resses continued to rule the box office epika Padukone (Piku), Kangana R aaut (Tanu Weds Manu Retur ns) and Anushka Sharma (NH10) delivered big time and raised the bar for themselves, welcoming Anushka Sharma into the fold of new producers in B ollywood with NH10, in an otherwise ruled by males who matter, like the Khans and Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan. Deepika Padukone, nushka Sharma,Kangana Ranaut, Varun awan, Akshay Kumar etc are indeed the nners of the year

R aj sh r i ' s Pre m Ratan D han Payo , d ire c te d by Su r aj B ar j at y a , e nd e d up c olle c t ing over 224 19 Cr at t he b ox of f ice, t hou g h t he c r it i c s d i d n’t appre c i ate t he f ilm Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha disappointed the audiences at the box office while Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s BAJIRAO MASTANI c ol l e c t i ng 1 6 2 . 3 5 C r and Sha h Ru k h Khan-Kajol starrer DILWALE directed by R oh it She tt y, have prove d to b e ne ck to neck in the hit-list, collecting INR 187 25 Cr at the box of f ice.

A

e

film

to pass muster Ar jun Kap o or (Te var), Emraan Hashmi (Mr X and Hamari Adhuri Kahani) as well as veteran hors es li ke Amit abh B achchan (Shamitabh) failed to weave their magic.

Jyothi Venkatesh

writer is a well-known & established

critic

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COMPLEX

BATESHWAR TH E REBI RTH OF A FORGOTTEN TEMPLE

“Come to Red For t to meet me this Sunday”, said Sh. K.K. Muhammed, the then Superintending Archaeologist of Delhi Circle ASI. “Where in Red For t ? ” I asked. He said, “Just ask for me by name and the g uards w ill direc t you. ” e ASI (Archaeolog ical Sur ve y of India) i s the gover nment body respon sible for restor ing and con s er v ing her itage sites in India. Until this moment, all I knew was that K.K. Muhammed is an ASI officer whose permission I wanted to seek for Delhi Heritage Photography Club’s next event. But when I reached the Red For t to meet him, he turned out to be a legend, a g reat human being and a master of his work. His temporar y residence was an old building used as a Chapel by the British inside the Red For t. Sipping tea, he showed us his collection of photog raphs from the site of Bateshwar in Morena District of Madhya Pradesh. And when he narrated the stor y of this restoration, ever y line of his narrative gave me the Goosebumps. Here’s the secret of Bateshwar …

Bateshwar is a complex comprising of 200 Hindu Temples, situated deep in the ravines of Chambal, 40 Km off Gwalior city It was constructed 300 years before Khajuraho and is much bigger and more beautiful than the world famous erotica complex. KK Muhammed had been appointed as the Superintending Archaeologist of the Bhopal circle of the Archaeological Sur vey of India at that time, and this site fell under his jurisdiction. When he visited Gwalior, he asked about the most challenging Archaeological site in region He was told about Bateshwar, a site occupied by dacoits With help of some locals, Muhammed reached the site and saw several acres of land filled with debris, which once were par t of beautiful Shiva Temple C omplex He approached Nirbhay Singh Gujjar and Baburam Gadariya, the famous dacoits of Chambal.

e Dacoits were surprised to learn

that a Muslim, that too one named ‘Muhammed,’ wants to restore Shiva Temples ey were told that these temples belong of Gujjar Pratihar D ynasty, the forefathers of Nirbhay Gujjar & Baburam Gadariya. ey then allowed ASI to restore 1 temple out of 200. Time was decided when Dacoits were going away for few weeks for a loot As ASI started clearing debris and ear th, they realized that there was a pond hidden underneath.

During the process of restoration, water returned to that pond and meanwhile the dacoits had returned When they saw a beautiful small Shiva Temple along with an ancient pond, they were so happy that and told ASI to restore a few more. Muhammed requested that due to their presence in area, labour was unwilling to come and work in Chambal ey promised to not to harm any labourer of ASI, rather they assured protection to them. e dacoits also promised that during the course of ASI's work, they will not station themselves near the Temple Complex and explore other part of the ravines

ASI kept restoring one temple aer other. ere was an old tree with some stones stuck in its trunk. So they decided to clear por tions of the tr unk to get at those stones But ASI realized that there is something more to this than mere stones When they cleared the entire trunk, they realized that the tree had grown around a small temple, and the temple was completely hidden inside the trunk

One aer other, temples were being restored Most of the temples face east or west. Only 2 temples face Nor th, which belong to the Tantric sect of Shaivism. ere are also a few Vishnu and Sati temples here Interestingly, the Vishnu Temple has a Shiva symbol on its gate and the Shiva Temple has Vishnu symbols on its gate. ere are hundreds of Shiva Temples

and not even a single Shivling matches any other Shivling in the complex. What transpired aer this is nothing less than a Bollywood Epic In time, the State's STF (Special Task Force) which had been aer the dacoits for long, ambushed them and eliminated them altogether, shooting them down With the dacoits now gone, the mining mafia took over the Chambal valley With illegal mining, blasts and movement of heavy machiner y, the temples started falling down again. KK Muhammed approached ever y government officer and minister to prevent this, nut none did listen to him He then took his most audacious and rebellious step Against the government rules, he wrote to Sh. K Sudarshan, then head of the RSS. e RSS (R ashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is known to be a protector of Temples and Hindu faith Muhammed informed him about the Bateshwar temples and told him bluntly that his own BJP government in the state was illegally favouring mining, thus threatening the Hindu Temples Government lobbies were so shaken up within 24 hours that the SP and the Collector, along with a heavy force reached the temple site.

e mining mafia was forcefully shown the door consquently In retaliation, the mining mafia then started threatening ASI officials and causing physical harm to them

Police was also assaulted in the region. IPS Narendra Kumar, SP of the region, lost his life in such a clash Ministers in the Government of India took the issue ver y seriously e Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh filed a report telling that the mining is now stopped and peace has been maintained in region, but also wrote a complaint against KK Muhammed, stating that he should not have sent a letter to the RSS as a government official must not seek help from private bodies bypassing law. e Central Government could not figure out the law which stated that a Government Official cannot take help from outside bodies for good ey found out that there was no personal motive involved and he had no personal benefit of any kind from these temples Whatever he did was to fulfil his duty, which due to corrupt officials was hampered ey simply dismissed all charges against him and KK Muhammed continued to work, until he was transferred to Delhi where he got engrossed in changing the face of Delhi’s monuments for the then upcoming Commonwealth Games

Sh KK Muhammed retired as the Regional Director (North) of ASI and is current ly consu lt ing wit h t he Aga K han Foundat ion, restor ing t he Q utub Sha hi Tombs of Hyderab ad He is one of t he most famous legends of ASI and is wel l known for his humongous t asks across India. I wi l l t r y to wr ite more ab out his excavations in future articles. until then, do check the video on Youtube titled ‘Rebir t h of a Forgotten Temple C omplex Bateshwar’, which gives the detailed stor y of this episode.

A

KARNATAKA Beautiful

We have for long car r ied a travelog ue column on thes e pages, which has indeed become ver y popular w ith some of you. But change i s the spice of life, and s o it i s w ith the pers onali s ed travelog ue for mat we have car r ied s o far. But wait, we are not doing away w ith it, so do not get worried. e column now continues in a ne w f reefor m avatar, encompassing more long form travel, covering entire states, tour i st trail s, photoess ays and s o on. We begin with this profile of the seventh largest state of India Karnataka. Read on !

Endowed with diverse characteristics that evoke all the charm and beauty quintess ential to India, Kar nat aka beckons to the traveller with its delectable blend of palaces, wildlife trails, metropolises, ancient ruins and beaches. Its ver y ner ve cent re, B enga lur u is fi l le d to t he

Necessity is the mother of invention!

brim with the go o d life. All around this epic ure an city are s cattere d rol ling hi l ls dotted with spice and coffee plantations, the regal splendour of Mysore, and jung les te eming wit h mon ke ys, t igers and Asia’s biggest population of elephants. If all t hat s ounds to o mainstre am for you, t here is t he counter-c u ltura l enclave of tranquil Hampi with its hammocks, psy-

che delic suns ets and b ou lder-st re wn ruins Or the blissful beaches of Gokarna, and of course the stunning Islamic ruins of northern Karnataka

Southern Karnataka is home to the state's capital, Bengaluru – a bustling, busy ICT hub, offering shopping nir vana, a broad spectrum of culinar y adventures from street food to fine dining, not to mention its crazy traffic. Nearly ever y one speaks English, even if it’s only a smatter-

ing, and ever yone is aware of the privilege they're bestowed with Yes, ever y resident of Bangalore, regardless of where they're from, takes immense pride in their address Malls, parks, pubs, theatre, cafés, art galleries, palaces – at any given point, Bangalore is buzzing and alive with activity.

If all that gets too strenuous, limber up for some Ashtanga yoga at Mysuru, where a slower pace and tempo is diligently rewarded Mysuru is one of Southern India’s most famous tourist destinations, known for its glitteringly regal heritage, its magnificent architecture, monuments and buildings e Mysore Palace, a world heritage listed ensemble may be what brings most travellers here, but it’s also a thriving centre for the production of pre-

mium silk, sandalwood and incense.

S out h of My s ore, t he B and ipu r National Park includes the Nagarhole sanctu ar y G o w i l d and s e e just how t he r ap e ut i c it c an b e Tr a d e t ho s e c oncrete jungles for a f resh breath of green. Press the pause button on the rat race and r i d e an el e phant i nste a d Ta ke a bre a k

f rom bearding the lion in his corner off i c e and go l o ok i ng for t i ge rs T he B and ipu r Wi l d l i fe S anc tu ar y put s l i fe b a ck i nto p e rsp e c t ive. O r r at he r it put s the perspective back into life. If you are a hiker, mountain-gir t C oorg of fers excellent hiking oppor tunities – Mercara is a good option for planning treks and tours Hassan is a convenient base for exploring Sravanabelagola, the ver y peaceful town renowned for its 17.5m statue of Gomateshvara Atop the Vindhyagiri hill stands Asia's tallest monolithic statue, and yet, you need to toil up 600-odd steps for a glimpse of it. Shravanabelagola as a Jain bastion is home to many basadis and is a vital stop for the pilgrim in you e 52foot statue of Bahubali from its high perch has a gaze that takes in the lay of a rather scenic land – a treat you can partake, provided you make the arduous climb up.

Kudle Beach, Gokarna

Shravanabelagola

A View of Bhutanatha temple in Badami during monsoon

Chikmagalur in the past played host to an event thanks to which countless Indians wake up to brighter mornings C enturies ago, when the Sufi mystic Baba Budan smuggled seven coffee beans from Yemen into India, he probably didn't bargain for millions of coffee junkies unwittingly blessing his soul ever yday, with ever y sip of their coffee Chikmagalur, whose hills nurtured the coffee culture at its bosom, is a green slice of heaven on a permanent coffee high.

G ok ar n a , a s l e e py Br a h m i n tow n l o d ge d b e t we e n a c ons e r v at ive s o c i e t y an d a f ait h f u l h ippy f an fol l ow i ng i s a d re am d e s t i n at i on for m any d i f fe re nt re as ons Its ref us a l to fa l l into a cer t ain typ e caste d slot is just one of t hem O p en b e aches, undis covere d coves, epiphanic suns ets, jagged clif fs, quaint temples and an e v a s ive c u ltu re m a ke G ok ar n a w h ate ve r you w ant it to b e Su n , s an d and sur f is w hat you go to G okar na for, and t he s olitude it of fers is li ke a b onus t rack on a g re at music a lbum. C lif fs s epar ate e a ch of G ok ar an a ’ s f ive b e a ch e s f rom t h e ot h e r an d of fe r s p e c t a c u l ar vie ws far out into t he Arabian S e a You c an e it h e r t a ke a b o at r i d e to ot h e r b e aches or wa l k it down. Eit her way, t he Ku d l e, Par a d i s e, Ha l f - m o on an d t h e

G ok ar n a B e a ch e s are a l l wor t h a v i s it For t h e a dve ntu re s p or t s e nt hu s i a s t i n you, if whitewaters are your kind of rush, Kar n at a k a h a s s om e r at h e r go o d s p ot s s et in pic tures que lo cales Not t hat you'd b e fo c using on t he s cener y

Badami, the capital of the mighty Badami Chalukyas might have shr unk into a few scenic square kilometres in terms of touristy value But Badami still retains its majesty e locale of its famous cave temples, made up of two giant sandstone hills that flank the placid water of the Agastya Lake paint a stark picture of ear thy reds, muddy greens and stone browns set against a sky of acr ylic blue –burning an impression into the canvas of your mind. One that you aren't likely to forget in a hurr y.

Ta l k i ng t r ave l i n Kar n at a k a an d n ot mentioning Hampi would b e considered bl a s ph e my by s om e. Un re a l an d b e w itch i ng , t he forl or n r u i ns of Hampi d ot an e e r i e an d u n e ar t h ly l an d s c ap e t h at w i l l l e ave you s p e l l b ou n d t h e m oment you cast your e yes on it. He aps of g i ant b ou l d e rs p e rch pre c ar i ou s ly ove r m i l e s of u ndu l at i ng te r r ai n , t he i r r u st y hu e s of f s e t by j a d e - g re e n p a l m g rove s , b an an a pl ant at i ons an d p a d dy f i e l d s Wh i l e it’s p o s s i bl e to s e e t h e an c i e nt r uins and temples of this World Heritage Site i n a d ay or t wo, t h i s go e s a g ai ns t Hampi’s relaxe d g rain Plan on linger ing for a w hi le

A

NRI Achie vers

Murudeshwara Temple

Homestay in Chikmagalur

Mountain Coorg

Postal regd. No. G-3/DN/297/2016-2018

Date of Publication: 5th of every Month

Date of Posting: 8th & 9th of every Month