NRIS SHOWING INTEREST!
On reading this stor y it may be estimated that slowly-slowly black money is diminishing & the Govt understands the meaning of governance at’s why they are not only performing but they are looking concerned about the problems of their fellow voters You are suggested to focus more on other States as well & give more information on the sectors where FDI can be attracted. anks
Faizan Ahmed, Dubai, UAE
March 1 Bosnia National Day
March 3 Bulgaria National Day
March 6 Ghana National Day
March 12 Mauritius Republic Day
March 17 Ireland St Patrick’s Day
March 20 Tunisia Independence Day
March 21 Namibia Independence Day
March 22 League of Arab States Anniversary Day
March 23 Pakistan National Day
March 25 Greece Independence Day
VOLUME
2016
investment as well as business. In the last two issues I saw that you are giving more coverage on Indian States where as I think your main focus should be centered on NRIs
One suggestion: PIOs make a great number in this par t of the world Bring them in limelight ey are doing wonders. anks
Navanethem Jagessur, Nairobi, Kenya
LISTEN PLEASE!
Payal Kuk reja, Mumbai, India
Dear Sir,
e PBWT (Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust), was established in 2001 to work for the welfare of NRIs PBWT is educating Indian expatriates on the need of savings and investments in India We have conducted 359 financial awareness classes for Indian expatriates all over GCC countries and we have more than 10,000 active volunteers who help propagate this message to Indian expatriates. On behalf of PBWT, I am humbly submitting few suggestions for you to consider incorporating in your upcoming budget:
1 Find a way to utilise NRI resources for National Development: China successfully utilises the economic resources, knowledge, expertise, experience and business contacts of its diaspora for its national development India to the contrar y has somehow not managed to harness the potential of its own diaspora to a comparative extent, nor has the effective and optimum utilisation of their resources come about to contribute to our national development to any significant extent. We therefore request you to introduce some novel schemes to utilise the economic and intellectual resources, business networks et al , of the Indian Diaspora for the development of the countr y
2 Reduce tax on NRO account and bring it at par with Resident accounts: Once NRIs withdraw their money from NRE bank accounts, they cannot re-deposit that money into the same NRE account, instead they have to perforce open an NRO account and park that money in that account While tax deducted at source for interest from the account of resident Indians is 10%, the same TDS for interest from NRO accounts is 30%. In effect, instead of encouraging NRIs to keep their moneys in non-repatriable accounts, the present system is penalizing them by imposing on them triple the tax than those resident Indians have to pay We request you to kindly charge 10% tax for interest accruing to NRO accounts by bringing it on par with resident Indians
3. Permit NRIs to invest in Agricultural Properties: As per the prevailing law, NRIs are not permitted to invest in agriculture properties In states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, etc , illegal investment in agricultural properties by NRIs is legion and is very common Let us bring some sanity into this area We request the government to permit NRIs to invest in agriculture properties, with a condition that they utilise such property only for agriculture.
4 Change Baggage Rule according to inflation: We had a baggage rule passed in 1967 At that time, one male passenger could carr y in INR 10,000 worth of gold jeweller y, and a female passenger INR 20,000 worth. In 1967 the international price of gold for 'One Troy Ounce' was US$ 34 00 us in 1967, male passengers were able to carr y in from abroad 1300 grams of gold within the INR 10,000 limit and female passengers 2600 gram within the INR 20,000 limit. Continuous demand over the years saw the government of India subsequently increasing duty free allowance of gold jeweller y to INR 50,000, for males and INR 100,000, for female passengers In the meantime, Gold prices have also been rising, and given the current price of the precious metal, male passenger are able to carr y in a mere 16 grams of gold jeweller y while female passengers can carr y in a mere 32 grams with this allowance. Apropos, under the same baggage rules, all other items we can carr y in from abroad are mentioned by quantuity, while only gold is specified as per value If the government rationalises this and permits NRIs to bring in gold jewellery say, 50 grams for male passengers and 100 grams for female passengers, clearly mentioning the gold allowance by weight criteria rather than value in the rule, it will help all sides. By enhancing gold allocation of NRI passengers, a part of our countr y ’ s requirement of gold will easily be fulfilled without the countr y having to spend scarce forex for it
5 Change complicated system of secondar y market investment procedures: e present system of secondary market investment for NRIs is very complex and requires a Portfolio Investment Service Account with banks and RBI permission NRIs have been investing into the US and other advanced capital markets without any such procedures, whereas to invest into our own country there exist numerous restrictions on NRIs. India's domestic residents too are today able to invest very easily outside India, but NRIs still need RBI permission for investments into India. It is our request that NRIs be permitted to invest freely in the Indian capital markets like in any other country Presently, Capital Gains Tax is not deducted from resident Indians, while in the case of NRIs, the short-term Capital Gains Tax is deducted at source by the banks. We request you to rationalise this so that the same system is applicable to both resident as well as non-resident Indians And just as residents are filing their tax returns so should non-residents too be permitted to file tax returns if there is any tax liability
For Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust K V Shamsudheen, ChairmanAJAY SINGH
(Former High Commissioner, Fiji)
RAJEEV GUPTA
B K AGGARWAL
DR. KAMAL KUMAR
CH. SUNIL OHLYAN
SUSHIL TAYAL
VARSHA GOEL
CHAKRAVARTHI SUCHINDRAN
RAJ UPPAL (NORTH AMERICA)
SANJAY KUMAR (EUROPE)
AJAY AGGARWAL (U K)
PREMCHAND RAMLOCHUN (MAURITIUS)
RAJIV KUMAR (FRANCE)
RAVI KUMAR (FRANCE)
BALESH DHANKHAR (AUSTRALASIA)
SUMAN KAPOOR (NEW ZEALAND)
LOSHNI NAIDOO (SOUTH AFRICA)
JYOTHI VENKATESH (MUMBAI)
SANDIP THAKUR
BARKHA ARORA
AJEET VERMA
KRITI RASTOGI
AJAY SOOD
RAJEEV TYAGI
SUMIT SINGH
VINOD SHARMA
SURENDER SINGH
CHANDER MOHAN
NITIN AADVANSHI
AARTI BAGARKA
ISMAIL KHAN (NORTH AMERICA)
VIJAY MALIK (EUROPE)
DR. HARRY DHANJU (CANADA)
M S SHALI (UK)
MANJIT NIJJAR (UK)
MOHAN GUNTI (ASEAN)
RAJKUMAR YADAV
SUNNY VYAS
JOGINDER MALIK
SHIKHA CHOPRA
MUKESH SAINI
SANSKRITIKA COMMUNICATIONS
MUKESH KASHIWALA
AR. VIVEK KHURANA
ANJU GUPTA
CENTRAL NEWS
AGENCY PV T. LTD.
S.P. PANDEY
SUCHI
DINESH SHARMA
DR. RAJA VOHRA
EDITOR: RAJEEV GUPTA
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Aer the United States of America and Canada, Australia now joins the club with its new High Commissioner designate, PIO Ms. Harinder Sidhu arriving in India to take up her assignment e third NDA financial budget is behind us, which consolidates further on steps taken by the incumbent government to streamline the Indian economy. While there are still some rough edges that raised hackles of sections like the salaried class raging against a proposed tax on social welfare savings like provident fund for instance, the finance ministr y has assured all and sundr y that it is willing to take a relook into while debating the finance bill in parliament Other important developments that have been in the news include the vexing JNU affair that has fuelled a nationwide debate on ‘nationalism and seditious behaviour,’ and the impending elections to five key state assemblies of Assam, West B engal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherr y. Important for the NDA as doing well in them will mean they get more representation in the R ajya Sabha, and the images of Modi and Shah which took a beating with BJP losing both Delhi and Bihar getting shinier Apropos we had this mega Make In India week at Mumbai that saw India clinching investment commitments to the tune of US$ 222 Billion, but of course past experience and scepticism forewarn only time will tell how much of this figure actually fructifies into projects on the ground and increase in employment, given a past track record of a mere 20-30% maturation
We at NRI Achievers too continue to evolve, and one important information we would like to share with you is that we are now almost ready to position NRI Achievers in North America, with an imminent launch that we will soon announce! On the ongoing effor t to reshap e and restr ucture content within the magazine, you might have noticed the he is on the uptrend yes, you guessed it, we added more pages, though not too much is new on the spectrum of content being offered But that too will come sooner than later, so keep reading! As is always the case in India, it is once again interesting days ahead, even if India is today in the news for all sorts of wrong reasons ... in as large a countr y as ours, controversies will be galore, and rforce have to take it all with a proverbial fistful of salt... like your regular monthly routine, do take s ome time out and brows e gh, and please do not forget to write us your views on the magazine! Have a summer time ahead and enjoy festival of colours ‘Holi’
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AUS.: Whi le fo c using on exp or t ing minera l res ources to C hina, Aust ra lia is s ensing an opp or tunity in shipping puls es to India, a pro duc t w here India is heavily impor t reliant. “One of the target markets for trade and investment for Q ensland is India. About 18 months ago, I put Ausralian $5 million in a programme to invest in resilience of tropical pulses, recognizing that there is a st rong g row i ng marke t i n Ind i a We are looking at where we can improve that product. He said the state was par ticularly keen in chickp e as and ot he r pu ls e s as Ind i a w as rely i ng on anada to meet a large par t of its protein requireme nt , Q u e e nsl and t re asu re r and t r a d e m i n iste r Ti m
Nicholls told India imported pulses worth close to $2 billion last year, and with the mons o on rain b eing weaker than normal, the government is exp ec ted to impor t more pulses to keep prices under check.
NEW DELHI: The international prestige of Uzbekistan is constantly growing due to the dynamic development in all spheres, carried out by the state peace polic y and consistent ef for ts to a ch i e ve s e c u r it y and st abi l it y i n t he re g i on Uz b ek ist an , steadily growing under the leadership of President Islam Karimov on his own path of development & developed a strategic mechanism for achieving the high goals of joining the ranks of the developed states of the world. In this process, Uzbekistan pays special attention to the development of international cooperation, including in the f ramework of the authoritative international organizations One of them is the Shanghai C ooperation Organization (SCO)
US: A Sikh combat soldier sued the US defe nc e d e p ar t me nt , s ay i ng h is b e ard and turban had made him the subject of relig i ous d is c r i m i nat i on b e c aus e t he ar my was putting him through arduous helmet and g as mask te st s t hat no ot he r s ol d i e r go e s t h rou g h . T he c ompl ai nt , f i l e d i n fe d e r a l d ist r i c t c ou r t i n Wash i ng ton by Captain Simratpal Singh, a decorated West Point graduate, said unlike other soldiers he had been ordered to undergo three days of p e r for manc e te st s t hat “t arge t h i m solely because of his religious beliefs.”
UK: S e vera l Indian do c tors working in the National Health S er vice (NHS) who raised concerns about patient safety and unet hica l prac t ices s ay t he y are vict imis e d, oen resu lt ing in t heir care ers being terminated, besides facing considerable trauma and economic hardship
eir exp er ience was hig h lig hte d in the case of cardiologist Raj Mattu, 56, who
was sacked aer he raised concerns about p at ient s afety at Wa lsg rave Hospit a l in C oventr y. He was even accused of being a s exua l p er ver t, among ot her charges, but was cle are d and awarde d damages Mattu, who is among several Indian doctors (who either trained in India or are of Indian origin and trained in the UK) to face the wrath of hospital managers.
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A L I A S E E S G A I N I N
X P O RTI N G P U LS E S TO I N D I A
S I K H S U E S U S D E F E N C E D E P T F O R R E L I G I O U S B I A S
C onsidered as the gold standard in germ protection, Dettol has further strengthened its legac y of product innovation and commitment towards improving the health and hygiene of consumers by launching Dettol Gold, an innovative range which offers 100% better protection ever against germs and new age illnesses e range comprises of bar soap and liquid hand wash in two exciting variants - Classic Clean and Daily Clean. e product shields children from germs causing bacteria they encounter ever y day and also offers a world class sensorial experience
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unveiling it at the Auto Expo 2016, Renault India is finally set to launch the new Duster faceli in India Source close to the company have revealed that the new updated Renault Duster will be launched this March, marking the French carmakers first product in India for 2016 e new Duster faceli comes with some considerable cosmetic additions and 31 new features additions that include the all-new AMT gearbox as well.
A
e S out h Af r ican dr ug regu lator has hig h lig hte d maj or concer ns over R anb axy L ab orator ies’ folic acid t ablets ‘Rogue’, w hich were re ca l le d last ye ar, and has s oug ht a det ai le d rep or t f rom t he p arent comp any Sun Phar maceut icals. Folic acid tablets are the over-the-
counter vit amin dr ugs t hat are consumed by pregnant women and babies. L ast December, the discover y of potentially-dangerous Betacin, an anti-inflammator y dr ug, mixe d in t he folic acid tablets, had led to the recall of more than 18,000 containers in South Africa.
Vijay Mallya, the man who lost a lucrative liquor business in pursuit of an airline mirage, is tr ying to belatedly insulate himself from further losses for his follies with his grounded Kingfisher Airlines, now t hat many b an ks have declare d him a “wi lf u l defau lter.”
Mallya has resigned as chairman of United Spirits, now owned by UK maj or Diage o He wi l l b e p aid US$ 75 mi l lion (INR 515 crore) as a separation fee In his resig nat ion announcement, Mallya has also revealed his plans to move to the UK.
T he mobi l e app - b as e d g ro c e r y d el ive r y bus i ne ss i n Ind i a t hat had wit ness e d a st r ing of fai lures t i l l date, s aw its latest exit in Flipkar t Nearby. Flipkar t, India’s largest e-commerce p l at f or m , a n n ou n c e d s hut t i n g d ow n of it s re c e nt l yl au n c h e d pi l ot s e r v i c e ‘Ne ar by ’ . “F l ipk ar t Ne ar by w a s pil ot e d i n s e l e c t a re a s of B a n g al ore ( s i c ) .
T h e e x p e r im e nt w a s a t e s t for u n d e r s t an d i n g e f f i c i e n c i e s an d op e r at i on s of t h e hyperlocal business The project has now r un its course and t he l e ar n i ng s f rom t h is w i l l now b e us e d for f utu re op e r at i ons of t he c omp any, ” a st ate me nt s ai d.
e government will consider merging some of its more than two dozen state-run banks (27 PSU banks), as it seeks to improve efficienc y at the ailing lenders t hat dominate t he nation's banking s ec tor. B ankers have “strongly supported” the idea of consolidation, suggesting the government form a panel of experts to devise a merger strateg y, Arun Jaitley said aer a two-day annual brainstorming event of industr y leaders and officials from the central bank and finance ministr y. An exp er t committee, which will be soon set up to look into the issue, will closely work wit h t he B an ks B o ard Bure au (BBB) to ident if y t he r ig ht matches for consolidation
F L I P K A RT S H U T S I T S G R O C E RY D E L I V E RY B U S I N E S S
Government appointed Gurdeep Singh, currently head of Gujarat State Electricity Corp, as the chairman and managing director of NTPC Ltd, India’s biggest power producer. Singh, 51, will be the first person to be appointed to the top job at a Maharatna company through a search committee route Government head-hunters, Public Enterprise Selection B oard (PESB) normally selects board appointees to state-owned firms but in case of NTPC a S earch-cum-S election Committee was constituted aer Arup Roy Choudhur y was denied an extension of ser vice in August
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has achieved yet another landmark by successfully commissioning a 270 MW coal-based power project in Punjab. e unit has been commissioned at the upcoming 540 MW (2x270 MW) Goindwal Sahib coal-fired ermal Power Project of GVK Power & Infra Ltd (GVKPIL), located in the historic city of Goindwal Sahib in Tarn Taran district, near Amritsar in Punjab. e second unit of the same project is also expected to be commissioned shortly. For the same developer, earlier this fiscal, BHEL had commissioned 4 hydro sets of 82.5 MW each at Alaknanda Hydro Power Project in Uttarakhand
Outlining some interesting facts about the health of PSUs, the Economic Sur vey presented in Lok Sabha said the contribution of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to the exchequer decreased by nearly Rs. 20,400 crore to Rs. 2,00,584 crore in 2014-15. ONGC, Coal India, NTPC, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Power Finance Corporation were the top five profit-making CPSEs during 2014-15 On the other hand, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Air India, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals were the top five loss-making CPSEs e CPSEs had contributed Rs 2, 20, 981 crore to the central exchequer in 2013-14 "is was mainly on account of a decrease in their contribution to dividend, corporate tax and custom duty in 201415," as per the 2015-16 Economic Sur vey tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament. CPSEs contribute to the central exchequer by way of dividend payment, interest on government loans and payment of taxes and duties But there was a positive development too ere was an increase in the CPSEs contribution to excise duty, dividend tax, sales tax and ser vice tax. e net profit of profit making (157) CPSEs stood at Rs. 1,30,363 crore in 2014-15, whereas net loss of loss-making (77) CPSEs stood at Rs 27,360 crore Out of 298 CPSEs under the administrative control of various ministries/departments, 235 were in operation and 63 were under construction up to December 2015
INDIAN Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the next generation E-ticketing platform, has partnered with O yo Rooms to launch an IRCTC hotel-booking page offering its budget room inventor y to train travellers. e IRCTC Tourism website now lists a new tab titled 'IRCTC Oyo Hotels' is will redirect the user to a page on O yo Rooms's website where users can complete the bookings.
MAL AYSIA: An Indian-origin Sikh has been appointed the Police Commissioner of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, the highest police rank achieved by a Sikh in the Muslimmajority countr y Deputy Commissioner Amar Singh, in his late 50s,
UK: Noting that ‘bhangra’ and ‘tandoori’ had gone mainstream, the new Indian high commissioner Navtej Sarna paid tribute to the large Indian Diaspora that now has a significant presence in ever y field in contemporary Britain Speaking to leading members of the Indian community in the Gandhi Hall of India House over the weekend, Sarna reiterated the conception of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that even if overseas Indians had different passports, they had as much claim on India as Indians “is India House is as much yours as ours It reflects Indianness in every inch, since it was originally been built for India All community members must feel that this is their home and they are always welcome”, he said.
UK’S STUDENT VISA PLAN CREATING ROD FOR OWN BACK: KARAN BILIMORIA
UK: Kar an Bi l i mor i a , w ho ar r ive d as a stu d e nt f rom Ind i a i n t he 1 9 8 0 s , we nt on to e st abl ish a s u c c e s s f u l b e e r br a n d a n d n ow s it s i n t h e Hou s e of L ord s , h a s c r it i c i s e d t h e D av i d C a m e ron g ov e r n m e nt’s s t u d e nt v i s a p o l i c y that, he believes, is “creating a rod for their own b a ck”. O ne of t he ke y sp e a ke rs i n a d eb ate on student immigration, Bilimor ia demanded t hat t he gove r n me nt re move stu d e nt s f rom i m m igration f igures as in the US, C anada and Aust r a l i a s i n c e m o s t of t h e m l e av e a f t e r t h e i r stu d i e s . E xclu d i ng stu d e nt s f rom .
will replace Tajuddin Mohamed who will move to federal headquarters as the deputy director of commercial CID next month. His appointment as Kuala Lumpur police chief was announced along with several other transfers and promotions
e City-State (or Emirate) of Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf, it is one of the seven emirates that make up the countr y. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, apropos, are the only two emirates that have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the countr y ' s leg islature. Dubai city is sited on the emirate's nor thern coastline, and heads up the DubaiSharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. In this issue of NRI Achievers, we focus largely on Dubai, more specifically on the Indian Diaspora and India-Dubai trade.
ver the past fe w decades, Dubai has emerged to become a global city and the main business hub of the Midd le E ast Unt i l t he 1960s, D ub ai's e conomy was pre dominantly grounded on revenues from trade and to a smaller extent on oil exploration concessions It was in 1966 then that oil was discovered, and oil revenues started flowing into D ub ai first in 1969. is help e d accelerate e arly de velopment of D ub ai, but its res er ves are limite d and production levels low – today, a mere 5% (or less) of it's re venue comes f rom oi l Dubai's western-style model of business is the driver for its economy today, with main re venues now coming f rom tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial ser vices Dubai is iconic for the skyward t hr ust of its many hig h-r is e buildings, and the Burj Khalifa, said to be t he world's t a l lest bui lding, a met aphor for t his. e city's workforce is largely South Asian as is for the rest of the Emirates, const itut ing s ome 58% wit h t he five most p opu lous nat iona lit ies b eing: 25% Indian, 12% Pakistani, 9% Emirati, 7% Bangladeshi and 5% Filipino.
As of 2012, Dubai has been placed the 22nd most expensive city in the world, and
THE most expensive city in the Middle East. Dubai is also rated as one of the best places to live in the Middle East e International Herald Tribune describes the city-state as a "centrally-planned free-market economy. " ough Dubai's economy was initially built on oil revenues, petroleum and natural gas today account for less than 2% of the emirate's GDP Dubai today has become an important port of call for western manufacturers. Most of the new city's banking and financial centres were head-quartered in the port area.
Today, Dubai has focused its economy on tourism by developing real estate and building world-class hospitality centred properties. Port Jebel Ali, constructed in the 1970s, has the largest man-made harbour in the world, and is also increasingly being developed as a hub for ser vice industries like IT&C and finance, with the coming up of the new Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
Dubai has of late become a major player in the world market for diamonds and gold As the world's third largest diamond trading hub today, Dubai's trade in rough and cut diamonds has seen a meteoric rise since 2001. It is worth nearly US$ 35 billion in 2013-14 e emirate has been able to leverage its geographical position between major suppliers of mined diamonds in Af rica to the main cutting centres in India and further east in China. ere is also a perception of Dubai as a buying hub for consumers of diamonds jeweller y, thanks to the large number of jewellers in Dubai and its tax-free regime
Trade in gold grew during the 1940s spurred by Dubai's free trade policies that encouraged entrepreneurs from India and Iran to set up businesses at the Dubai Gold Souk Despite the general slump in the global gold market, Dubai's share of trade value in gold and diamonds to its total
non-oil direct trade increased from 18% in 2003 to 24% in 2004. In 2003, the value of trade in gold in Dubai was approximately Dh 21 billion (US$ 5 8 billion), while trade in diamonds was approximately Dh 25 billion (US$ 7 billion) in 2005. India is Dubai's largest buyer of gold, accounting for approximately 23% of the emirate's total gold trade Switzerland was Dubai's largest supplier of gold ingots, wastes and scrap. Similarly, India accounted for approximately 68% of all diamond-related trade in Dubai; Belgium's share in Dubai's diamond trade was about 13% in 2005
India apropos was Dubai's largest trade par tner until ver y recently, with a trade volume of US$ 37 billion, representing a 10% share of the total foreign trade of the emirate for the year 2013
For the same period, China came second with a value of US$ 36 7 billion, just a mite under India's figure, also accounting for another 10%, while the US took third place with US$ 23.4 billions or 6%, followed by Saudi Arabia and the UK with US$ 23 billion and US$ 15 2 billion
China's trade with Dubai for the last year has gone up by a margin of 29%, to Dh 175 billion in 2014 up from Dh 135.7 bn the previous year is increase was enough to push India off the top spot as Dubai’s major non-oil trade partner for the year 2014, with India's non-oil trade with Dubai totalling Dh 109 bn last year. e United States accounted for Dh 83 bn of trade, while Saudi Arabia was the UAE’s largest Gulf trade partner, with a total trade value of Dh 52 bn Later figures are as yet unavailable. is rise in Dubai-China trade also evidences a pivotal role being played by Dubai in the Dragon’s trading with the rest of the world, as well as reflecting the emirate’s capacity to successfully link European, African and international markets with the Chinese and East Asian markets.
India's exp or ts to Dubai is dominated by Jeweller y, Gold, Diamonds, Pearls and Precious Metal Scrap; Refine d Pet roleum and C o a l Tar Oi l; C lot hing and App arel li ke Knit TShir ts, Synt het ic Fi lament Yar n & Woven Fabr ics; Rice, Whe at & Te a; Iron Pipes, Fasteners & related products; Aviation products like Helicopters etc ,; Bro adcast ing E quipment; and ot her items li ke C hemica ls, Building Materials esp ecially Stone, B ovine Meat, Vegetable Oils and Wood.
India is also the largest source for UAE's workforce, with a ver y large percent of it skewed in favour of blue-collar workers ere are more than two million Indian migrants in the UAE, mostly from the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, accounting for more than 50% of the total UAE population A vast majority of them live and work in the three largest cities Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah India's trade and commerce connections with this region harks back to several centuries ago. But it was
only aer oil was discovered in the Gulf that UAE as well as other GCC countries have experienced a manifold exponential increase in the population of Indians who have migrated here seeking opportunities in petroleum, finance and other industries
While most Indian migrants support the financial, manufacturing, and transport industries, a sizeable minority of migrants are involved in professional services and entrepreneurship as well
Expatriates and foreigners have a key role to play in the economy of the Emirates,
what with them comprising roughly 80% of the UAE's labour force. Some of these people have lived in the country for generations Of the Indians, around 40% are white collar professionals, while the rest constitute skilled as well as semi-skilled and unskilled labourers. In addition to employmentbased migrants from India, many Indian entrepreneurs in the UAE have established successful national franchises, notable among them being the Landmark Group, Lulu Hypermarkets, Jashanmal, Ajmal Perfumes, Jumbo Electronics, Choithram's, the Varkey Group, the Alukkas and New Med-
ical Centre. Dubai-based Indian millionaires include Micky Jagtiani of the Landmark Group, Yousuf Ali of EMKE group, Ravi Pillai of the Ravi Pillai Group, the Chhabria family of the Jumbo Group, Sunny Varkey of GEMS Education, Tony Jashanmal of the Jashanmal Group and Joy Alukas of Joyalukas Jewellery Yogesh Mehta of Petrochem ME, Rizwan Sajan of Danube Group, Deepak Babani of Eros, Azad Moopen of Aster
DM Healthcare, Ramesh S Ramakrishnan of the Transworld Group, Santosh Joseph of Dubai Pearl and Lachmandas Pagarani of the Al-Maya Group are also on the list of Indian millionaires living in Dubai e Gulf Medical University founded by umbay Moideen is an Indian contribution to Higher Education in the UAE, where students from over 68 countries study in their Ajman campus Adnan Chilwan, Group CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank, one of the most respected banking professionals in UAE, and Kamal Puri, Founder President of Skyline University, are also some of the few well known Indians in the UAE e mass influx of Indians to the UAE especially into professional segments has had direct consequence of the reduction of wages and standard of living
A 2005 Merrill Lynch report put Indian millionaires living in the UAE at an estimated 33,000. Indian expats typically save most of their earnings through employment benefits on accommodation and transport, and income tax free provisions of the Emirates, remitting a sumptuous portion of their earnings back to India for the maintenance of their households in India. In 2005, an estimated US$ 7 billion was remitted, about half of which was sent through informal hawala channels About 70% of all remittances from the UAE (or US$ 5 billion) was sent to India, with 60% being remitted into Kerala alone. India Inc. too has a large presence in the Emirates today, with at least 800 leading Indian firms serving all key markets in the region out of JAFZA (the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area)
More on t hat later & lets’ now have a look on the next pages at some key Indian movers w ho are ma king India Proud in the UAE
sunil Vaswani
Wealth: (Us$ 7 Bn)
Industry : Industry Country : UAE dr raVi Pillai Wealth: (US$ 5 bn)
Industry : Construction Country : UAE yusuffali Ma Wealth: (US$ 4 bn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE the allana faMily Wealth: (US$ 3 bn)
Industry : FMCG Country : UAE
azad MooPen Wealth: (US$ 2 bn)
Industry : Healthcare Country : UAE
Pnc Menon Wealth: (US$ 1 bn)
Industry : Construction Country : UAE
Kabir Mulchandani
Wealth: (US$ 920 mn)
Industry : Property Country: UAE
rajen Kilachand Wealth: (US$ 895 mn)
Industry: Industry Country: UAE joy aluKKas Wealth: (US$ 845 mn)
Industry: Retail Country: UAE rizwan sajan Wealth: (US$ 750 mn)
Industry: Construction Country: UAE faizal KottiKollon Wealth: (US$ 720 mn)
Industry: Industry Country: UAE the KhiMji faMily Wealth: (US$ 625 mn)
Industry: Industry Country: Oman
aMit dhaMani Wealth: (US$ 500 mn)
Industry: Retail Country : UAE Vasu shroff Wealth: (US$ 455 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE thuMbay Moideen Wealth: (US$ 450 mn)
Industry : Healthcare Country : UAE Khurshid VaKil Wealth: (US$ 435 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE
jayant Ganwani Wealth: (US$ 420 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE
dr dhananjay datar Wealth: (US$ 375 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE
ajay bhatia Wealth: (US$ 320 mn)
Industry : Diversified Country : UAE
ashoK Goel & sudhir Goyel Wealth: (US$ 305 mn)
Industry : Energy Country : UAE
adVet bhaMbhani Wealth: (US$ 300 mn)
Industry : Healthcare Country : UAE deePaK arora Wealth: (US$ 285 mn)
Industry : Construction Country : UAE the chhabria faMily Wealth: (US$ 990 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE MicKy jaGtiani Wealth: (US$ 6 bn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE
br shetty Wealth: (US$ 3 bn)
Industry : Healthcare Country : UAE
sunny VarKey Wealth: (US$ 2 bn)
Industry : Education Country : UAE
raGhuVinder Kataria Wealth: (US$ 2 bn) Industry: Telecoms Country : UAE
surender sinGh Kandhari Wealth: (US$ 540 mn)
Industry : Industry Country : UAE
yoGesh Mehta Wealth: (US$ 525 mn)
Industry: Energy Country : UAE
shaMsheer Vayalil Wealth: (US$ 2 bn)
Industry : Healthcare Country : UAE lt PaGarani Wealth: (US$ 1 bn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE tony jashanMal Wealth: (US$ 1 bn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE
asGar shaKoor Patel Wealth: (US$ 890 mn)
Industry : Finance Country : UAE
nilesh Ved Wealth: (US$ 585 mn)
Industry: Retail Country : UAE
Manohar lahori Wealth: (US$ 520 mn)
Industry : Industry Country : UAE jacKy Panjabi Wealth: (US$ 500 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE adeeb ahaMed Wealth: (US$ 450 mn)
Industry : Finance Country : UAE
suresh subberwal Wealth: (US$ 450 mn)
Industry : Food Country : UAE
firoz Merchant Wealth: (US$ 440 mn)
Industry : Retail Country : UAE
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated a week-long jamboree in Mumbai, on the theme of “Make In India.” Positioned as a mega event aimed at attracting foreign investment as well as expertise into the various sectors of the Indian economy, Make In India is a central government effort to exponentially enhancing employment levels through increasing the share of manufacturing to GDP from its present levels of 16-17% to 25% over the next decade. Our economy, apropos, has for long been propped up by our services sector, which alone contr ibutes to more than 60% of GDP. We take a freestyle look at outcomes.
To put the net outcome into proper perspective right at the beginning in a nutshell, the week-long Make in India mega event that took place mid-Febr uar y f rom the 13th to the 18th of the month at Mumbai succeeded in securing investment commitments worth INR 15.2 Lakh Crore (15 2 trillion Rupees, or US$ 222 billion), with the host state Maharashtra alone garnering a little below INR 8 Lakh Crore, or a mite more than half the total investment commitments at the event Investment enquiries alone worked out to some INR 1 5 Lakh Crore
Amitabh Kant, the DIPP secretar y, called the event a grand success: “ e multi-sectoral Make in India Week has proven to be a great success. We’ve managed to get investment commitments to the tune of over 15 2 Lakh crore rupees from the event ” He was hopeful that the summit will create a favourable environment for investors from across the world, and what with Maharashtra walking away with more than 50% of this pie-in-the-sky, Kant was of the opinion that Maharashtra was indeed a gateway for the rest of the country. Out of this total commitment pie of 15.2
L akh Crore, 30% has come from foreign shores “We have already opened up our economy to the world across sectors progressively Now, we are showcasing, connecting and collaborating for manufacturing,” says Kant, adding that it is not about manufacturing alone, but about innovation and nurturing inventors as well Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural speech set out to woo global investors, highlighted India’s growth stor y and promised policy reforms to make busi-
ness easier, including a transparent tax regime. “C ome, make India your workplace is is the best time ever to be in India and it’s even better to Make in India,” said Modi inviting the audience of business and political delegates from 68 countries, including prime ministers and representatives from 1,000 international companies to participate in India’s growth, as he launched the Make In India Week 2016
“We have carried out a number of corrections on the taxation f ront. We have said we will not resort to retrospective taxation, and I reiterate this commitment We are also swily moving towards making our tax regime transparent, stable and predictable, with an all-round emphasis on ease of doing business,” he said. To captains of industries, the PM’s ‘friendly advice’ amounted to: “My f riends don’t wait, don’t relax Seize the opportunity and invest If you take one step, my government will take two.” Carpe Diem.
“We have already enacted a law for fast-
tracking arbitration proceedings. We are establishing dedicated commercial courts and commercial divisions in High Courts e transformation of the company tribunal is also in the final stages.” He revealed that an intellectual property rights policy is also in its final stages Stressing the theme of “minimum government and maximum governance ” , Modi said that to the advantages of largest democrac y, demography and demand, the government has added deregulation which industries should cash in on India, he said, has emerged the most favoured global destination “Investment growth has shown a 27% increase through new proposals.”
Quoting FDI inflow figures, he said that such investment has grown by 48% in 2015 the highest ever at a time when it was falling across the world due to recession. With a GDP growth of 7%, India is emerging as the fastest growing economy, with investments in sectors ranging from infrastructure to textile and agro-industries to manufacturing, he averred He also shared with the audience that the government has already set up a new ‘Investment Infrastructure Forum.’
PM Modi promised phenomenal growth in manufacturing, which he opines ought to contribute 25% to the GDP is is not the time for incremental changes but quantum jumps, he asserted. He also
mentioned and underscored the “Start Up India, Stand Up India” initiative, promising to reduce patent fees by 80% to promote young and promising entrepreneurs “Our government’s concept of Stand Up India, Star t Up India will ser ve the younger generation’s aspirations rather well and unleash greater employment and economic growth,” he said
To the global players, he had this to say : “ is is Asia’s centur y. I would like to invite all of you who are here and those of you not here, to participate and make it your centur y ”
e MII summit, despite good levels of participation from India Inc., and global conglomerates, had its own share of slips between cups and lips with less-thangood coordination between various agencies such as the DIPP, PIB and industr y lobby CII marring the event a mite. When asked about thin participation from many states, especially the North East of India, Amitabh Kant of DIPP had this to say : “Ever y state has different core competencies I for example belong to the Kerala cadre and I believe that Kerala is great for travel and tourism but not so great for industr y My personal view is that our north-eastern states need to be developed sustainabily and with innovation If we force industrialisation, we will mar the natural beauty of the region. S o let's not
As per available official data and records, more than 2,500 international companies and some 8,000 Indian firms have participated in the week-long multisectoral event, apart from foreign government delegations f rom 68 countries and business teams from 72 nations e opening ceremony was graced by Prime Ministers of Sweden, Finland, and the Deputy Premier of Poland, apart from many other foreign ministers and delegates As many as 17 states participated in the expo and there were over 50 seminars Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Har yana, Odisha and Punjab had dedicated state-centric sessions as well
In all, 17 states participated in the event However, many non-NDA states barring Karnataka r uled by C ongress, and Odisha ruled by the BJD, did not participate in the event.
T he op e n i ng c u ltu r a l e x t r av ag an z a at t he Girgaum B e ach w hich had t he entire s t at e g ov e r n m e nt i n at t e n d a n c e , aprop os, mor phe d unfor tunately into an emb a r r a s s i n g f i a s c o, w h e n a m a s s i v e f i re bro k e out ( p o s s i b l y du e t o a s h or t c i rc u it , of f i c i a l s s ay ) e a r l y i nt o t h e e v e nt Lu c k i l y, t h e a c t i on of t h e f i re br i g a d e and civic authorities was swift, and there we re no c asu a lt i e s .
force ever y state to be a Maharashtra or a Gujarat that will not be correct ”“Make in Maharashtra” i s a ne w initiative that has been star ted by the Government of Maharashtra to dovetail into the central gover nment initiated “Make in India” prog ramme of PM Narendra Modi. e main objective of this Maharashtra government initiative is to create and put in place a bu siness f r iendly env ironment in the state, by enhancing the ease of doing business here as much as possible. Target number one is to effect sumptuous increases in Foreig n Direc t Investment (FDI) inflow, and facilitate larger local investment inflows into the reg ion. As a corollar y, it is expected that the fur ther industrialization of Maharashtra w ill get on a faster track. Mumbai hosted the mega “Make In India” week between 13 and 18 Februar y, A Repor t.
Wh i l e the recently concluded “Make In India Week” at Mumbai has been called a considerable success, what with a figure of 15 L akh Crores of r upees doing the rounds as the nett yield in terms of committed investments into the countr y, host Maharashtra has not done too badly for itself either. Netting numbers that are the first such ever in its economic histor y, Maharashtra ended the week signing a total of 2,594 MoUs, wor th INR 7 94 L akh crore ey go into diverse sectors: from manufacturing to agro-industr y, from textile, energ y and inf rastr ucture to retail, tourism, real estate and IT parks, f rom skill development to medicine and MSMEs e government, which had set itself a target of bringing investments to the tune of INR 500,000 crore into the state aer coming into power, managed to
cross this target by the third day of the Make In India (MII) week
On the aernoon on the third day Maharashtra CM Fadnavis had announced: “ we have successfully signed MoUs worth INR 600, 000 crore so far with several international and national companies ey are set to bring some 28 Lakh jobs is is just the beginning ... there are three more days of MII and we are sure to seal several more MoUs.” he averred. e same day, Maharashtra also unveiled a slew of policies to make it easier starting and doing business in the state, encouraging backward classes to turn entrepreneurs, and boosting the manufacturing sector. “A seven-crore strong youth population in the state needs employment in the near future,” averred the CM He pointed out that while agriculture employs 50% of the people in Maharashtra, it contributes a mere 11% to the state GDP.
“is is not really gainful employment We need to change this and create employment in manufacturing,” Fadnavis said e first polic y to be unveiled was the “Maharashtra Retail Trade Polic y, ” which provides for online registration of small enterprises with less than nine employees, and also allows farmers to sell directly to ret ai lers, byp assing mandis and t heir swarms of middlemen. Also launched was a sing le window p olic y for business in general for seeking various permissions and licences, which will operate through an online portal A package dedicated to Dr. BR Amb e d kar to encourage SC/ST youth towards entrepreneurship was unvei le d, ap ar t f rom two s ep arate p olicies for maritime development and electronics/FAB manufac tur ing Al l t hes e ne w policies were launched at the Maharashtra Investment Seminar at MII Week 2016.
On the last day of the Make In India week, aer sharing the figure of INR 7 94 Crore it has garnered during the week, the government declared its intention to form an empowered task force to ensure that all these projects see the light of the day and are implemented e Investment Checklist includes an inflow of INR 1 50 L akh crore into Vidarbha and Marathwada the worst affected by drought and agrarian crises. e Konkan region will get INR 3.50 Lakh crore, Khandesh (North Maharashtra) INR 25,000 crore and Pune INR 50,000 crore Together, all these projects hold the potential to generate employment for at least 30 Lakh people.
“We are setting up a sector-wise task force to translate investments into implementations e process will be expedited with empowered teams of officers pursuing it to the logical end. Investments have been thoroughly vetted to ensure they are
realised and do not remain on paper, ” says CM Devendra Fadnavis Defining the event as historic, that has also paved the way for connecting with the “ aam admi” on one hand and simultaneously engaging with big names from the business world, the CM added: “I would like to reaffirm Make In Maharashtra this is indeed the real beginning of Make in India ”
Speaking further, he averred: “what is really hear tening to know is that the investments are flowing into the backward regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada, as our endeavour was to tap global and domestic investments beyond the golden triangle of Mumbai-Pune-Nashik. ese untapped regions which have opened up would automatically develop and attract greater investments ahead ” Fadnavis said the emphasis on textiles and food processing would help the government consolidate the value chains and help farmers.
“Maharashtra has always remained the Gateway of India and the economic growth of Maharashtra will naturally contribute to national growth,” he said
Big comp anies w ho have sig ne d on s o f ar are Ma h i n d r a & Ma h i n d r a ( I N R 8,000 crore), Merce des B enz (INR 1,200 crore), Ascendas (INR 4,571 crore), R aym on d s ( I N R 1 , 4 0 0 c rore ) an d Ste r l ite (INR 60,000 crore). The list also includes Pe p s i c o an d C o c a C ol a . A n d t h e s e are ap ar t f rom t ho s e a l re a dy prom is e d and committe d L i ke R eli ance aerosp ace inve s t i ng U S $ 1 bi l l i on for an a e ro s p a c e p ar k i n Mi h an n e ar Na g pu r, G e n e r a l Motors investing some US$ 1 billion into Talegaon, Pune and Foxconn’s US$ 5 billion invest ment over t he next f ive ye ars Br i n d l e y Te ch n ol o g i e s h a d a l s o e ar l i e r announce d t hat it wi l l s et up an IT/IteS of f shore d e vel opme nt c e nt re ( OD C ) to s er vice t heir g lob a l.
e State of Odisha seems to have emerged as one of the more favoured Indian destinations for investors at the recently concluded 'Make In India' week that took place mid Februar y (from the 13th to the 18th), where the state has succeeded in garnering investment commitments wor th INR 70,959 crore. Apar t from the flagship mines and minerals sector, the state government has attracted investors in areas like food processing, IT & electronics manufacturing, textiles and renewable energ y, not to mention gems & jeweller y. A repor t from our NRI Achievers Bureau.
Principal Secretary (Industries), Odisha, Sanjiv Chopra said: “Odisha has secured investment commitments to the tune of INR 70,959 crore Of this, around INR 30,000 crore investments are from the mineral sector while the rest are from areas like food
processing, electronics, textiles and renewable energ y ” An Odisha Investors' Meet that was also organised along the sidelines of the ‘Make In India Week’ in Mumbai received a response that was more than overwhelming, considering that this was the first ever time that the state
had organised a meet of this nature and magnitude for investors anywhere
In the metals sector, the state has received investment proposals from NALCO (the National Aluminium Company), the Vedanta conglomerate and from L&T (Larsen & Toubro). Nalco
has committed investments into the state to the tune of INR 20,550 crore primarily meant for expanding its alumina refiner y at Damanjodi and setting up an aluminium park at Angul Vedanta has proposed to invest INR 1,000 crore on an aluminium downstream park close to the site of its existing smelting facility at Jharsuguda While L&T has plans to plow in INR 12,000 crore into Odisha for the setting up an integrated alumina plant in R ayagada, ITC’s plans are to set up a food processing plant with an investment outlay of INR 800 crore.
e Adani Group, another big Indian player, plans to invest on an industrial park, an LNG terminal an LPG facility along with a solar power manufacturing plant e GMR Group has announced additional investments of INR 1,800 crore Looking at overseas investors, one as yet unnamed Indonesian major has committed investments worth INR 5,000 crores across multiple sectors In the electronics space, Sanmina C orporation has announced an investment of INR 1,000 crore for electronics manufacturing while a team from mobile handset maker Lava International is all set to do a field visit of Odisha soon, to explore possibilities of putting up a new manufacturing unit. In the renewable energ y sector, Panchavaktra Holdings has committed to invest
INR 8,350 crore and plans to generate more than 2,000 jobs.
During the mega 'Make In India' event, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik grasped the opportunity to unveil his 'New Odisha Industrial Development Plan ’ e Vision Document seeks to draw investments to the order of INR 2.5 lakh crore by the year 2020, and geared to generate employment for more than one million people in the state “For one and a half decades, Odisha has shown remarkable growth and commitment to progress along with political stability. We are growing at 8% and are poised to grow at 12% by 2020,” averred Mr. Patnaik while delivering his keynote address To achieve this level of growth, the state is working on expanding its industrial base e CM also met a wide cross-section of industr y leaders and business delegations from countries like China, Italy, Japan and Korea
Apart from Vision 2025, the CM also launched an e-Biz portal, a common inspection framework, and GOiPlus, a web-enabled land information system for conducting hassle-free business in Odisha Indian Industr y luminaries like Kumar Mangalam Birla, the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group; Y C Deveshwar, Chairman of ITC; Shashi Ruia, Essar group ’ s Chairman; G B S R aju, Business Chairman of the GMR Group; TV Narendran, MD of Tata Steel; and R ajesh Adani, MD of Adani Enterprises were present along with the CM’s for his launch event, lending their support Interestingly, the state managed to get investment commitments of around INR 40,000 crore during this event itself which took place on the second day
Shailendra Roy, L&T’s whole time director for power, heavy engineering and defence, said that the most notable investment of L&T in Odisha has been the development of Dhamra port, which is the largest deep-water port in eastern India. Mr. Narendran of Tata Steel averred that Tata Steel's association with Odisha is over 100 years old, from a time before the creation of the state itself “We have invested around INR 25000 crore over the years in the state,” he added e state is doing its bit to make things smoother. It has for instance, tied up with TiE Silicon Valley, a US-based not-for-profit organisation promoting entrepreneurship, and with OYO Rooms for setting up a startup hub at Bhubhaneshwar to boost the startup ecosystem in the state. e chief minister also mentioned that at least two percent of his annual budget will go towards development of information technology infrastructure in the state e chief minister also said that his government has decided to involve private enterprises in developing self-contained cities. “ e aim is to create Odisha as a one-stop destination for industries and I'm confident that the industr y would support,” he quipped in his closing remarks
DURING THE MEGA 'MAKE IN INDIA' EVENT, ODISHA CM NAVEEN PATNAIK GRASPED THE OPPORTUNITY TO UNVEIL HIS 'NEW ODISHA INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN.’
When a telev ision colossus like CNN restructures its worldw ide business coverage and re-launches one of its most popular business news features from Mumbai, it is bound to prov ide an insight into how the world v iews the Indian economy. e hour-long “Quest Means Business ” special on the newly re-branded CNN-Money did not disappoint, except for the fact that ver y few Indians could have seen it at the predaw n hour of 3 o ’clock on a Tuesday night in mid-Februar y ...
Content-wis e, Q uest Me ans Business provided a rich menu of India-centric comment and p ersp e c t ive inter vie ws wit h Ar un Jait le y, Amer ican cor p orate honcho John C hamb ers of CISC O, a blueblooded UAE minister with ambitious plans for t rade wit h India, as wel l as other features on traffic congestion in D el hi and w hat B omb ay brokers are
saying about the stock market. e underlying t heme t hroug hout t he fo c us on India was to find out whether the countr y wou ld b e able to t a ke f u l l advant age of all the positive factors currently favouring it and b e come t he most successf u l emerg ing market in t he world. As t he show’s host Richard Quest said, the search was the answer to the raw question of optimism versus pessimism, scepticism and c ynicism versus realism.
Perhaps India’s Finance Minister has ne ver b e en inter vie we d by a business j our na list li ke Richard Q uest wit h his quixot ic manner isms, s quaw ky voice, razor-shar p mind and witty word-play But the host’s unique personality is what has made the show such a success. Jaitley b ore up to t he ag g ressive quest ioning bravely, t houg h he was force d to admit t hat t he at mosphere was unpre dic t able, volatile and challenging.
QUEST: India is the fastest growing economy in the world at 7.3% last quarter, but there are serious worries about your ability to continue that rate of growth Worries about whether the reforms will be stalled and the country will go into reverse.
Jaitle y : We are learning to live with volatility almost by the day You have un-
predictability and it’s a great challenge for economies like ours.
QUEST: Isn’t that volatility now threatening India’s growth?
JAITLEY: In the context of the whole world, we ’ ve been able to show resilience. We’ve been able to use the current situation to our advantage But if I look at India in absolute terms, yes, I do believe we can do better
QUEST: Your policies clearly have to accommodate these realities.
JAITLEY: T he re a l it i e s pre s e nt a m i xe d b ag L ow pr i c e s of c om mo d it i e s , me t a ls and oi l g ive us s c op e of s av i ng s We c an chan nel i z e t ho s e s av i ng s i nto the social sector, and into inf rastr ucture. But t here are a ls o advers e g lob a l t rends w h i ch i mp a c t on ou r e x p or t s , ou r markets, and currencies
QUEST: Is the low oil price a win for India?
JAITLEY: It has cer tainly given us an opportunity and an advantage. But it’s also accompanied by a global mood which is adversely impacting on markets
QUEST: Would your message to business leaders and investors be don’t let the current environment deter you, hang on, stay the course?
JAITLEY: Well, I think we showed resilience in 2001, 2008 and 2015 to withstand many global crises. India is a much better place to invest in compared to any other economy in the world today.
e inter view over, the program ’ s host then came out with some food for thought “Forget BRICS, go for TICS ” India, he said, was the last remaining BRICS nation to still be afloat Brazil and Russia are currently in recession, China is slowing down and South Africa’s economy is in turmoil Ergo, he suggests, India should now be seen as among the TICS economies ailand, India, China and
INDIA IS THE FASTEST GROWING ECONOMY IN THE WORLD AT 7.3% LAST QUARTER, BUT THERE ARE SERIOUS WORRIES ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO CONTINUE THAT RATE OF GROWTH. WORRIES ABOUT WHETHER THE REFORMS WILL BE STALLED AND THE COUNTRY WILL GO INTO REVERSE
South Korea, new growth engines built on the back of technolog y and innovation.
Quest asked Chief Economist of JP Morgan, Sajjid Chinoy : Are the BRICs dead, long live the TICS?
SAJJID CHINOY: Well it is the TICS right now because India is a large commodity impor ter As long as commodity prices are low, oil prices are falling, that’s a massive positive that’s driving India But it is only a temporar y windfall of income. It won’t last beyond the next year.
QUEST: S o when Ar un Jaitley says India’s doing well and some say this growth number is fictitious or partially illusor y, what is your view?
CHINOY: B oth things are tr ue. India has been accelerating even as other emerging markets have been slowing But a lot of this acceleration has been because of the collapse in oil prices, which is a temporar y boost to growth. e challenge will be next year when all prices flatten out. Once the dividend from cheap oil goes away, other drivers of growth must kick into India
QUEST: is whole concept of the Indian renaissance, the Make in India, the entire hype of this countr y being a powerhouse, I’m getting the feeling you don’t buy it?
CHINOY: You have to be a disbeliever to survive in this business When the world has so much excess capacity and global trade is shrinking, can India become the next powerhouse in the next year or two? Unlikely But India has to focus on all the right things and if it does, it can emerge
QUEST: I’m not cynical but I’m slightly sceptical. e histor y of India is it runs a good race and slows at the final hurdle.
CHINOY: at is true but its also a fact that right now that it seems to be in mission mode So the government can create a focal centre to push through infrastructure creation, labour reform, education, it
will not matter whether that demand is consumed externally through exports or domestically in India. What matters is India becomes more competitive and productivity growth down the line will pick up even if some parts of Make in India are pushed through But there has to be some visible progress somewhere.
QUEST: Give our viewers a feeling on the question, the raw question of optimism versus pessimism, scepticism versus cynicism, realism
CHINOY: Well, I’m a realist. India’s has good policy and good luck. But the good
luck will wear out at some point as oil prices flatten out. e government’s heart is in the right place. ere’s been an intention to give a big push in public investment And we are looking to this next budget to provide the road map for the next set of reforms that replace the dividend from oil.
Conventional w i sdom has always taught u s B-Schools, or at the ver y least the ubiquitous colleges, are the breeding grounds of first-generation entrepreneurs. But this w isdom has, over the past few decades at least, been turned on its head as many iconic successes in the domain of business have increasingly been nurtured and steered by people who have never e ven s een the facade of a B-S chool, and in s ome cas es, haven’t e ven completed college. NRI Achievers brings you some choice v ig nettes ...
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg. Ever y internetsav v y Indian has no doubt heard these names of the wildly successful founders of two equally successful behemoths And while acknowledging their success, it is oen bandied that they were both college dropouts. With this trend continuing in our own Bharat, we took it upon ourselves to fathom what exactly makes them tick. Is it their passion, their out-of-the box thinking, their willingness to take risks and back them up by putting their money where their mouth is or what ? Or are they just one-off flashes in the pan ? Our digging brought out some nuggets. All of them college dropouts who turned entrepreneurs Drawn from the blooming Indian star tup ecosystem that has turned trends into torrents
S elf-taught programmer at 13 and an avid web designer, Var un took natural interest in developing web applications right from the word go. Even at an early stage in his transformative years, he foresaw a clear market gap for ‘easy-to-use’, user-centric approaches to web-based ticketed suppor t and visitor engagement. Convinced that this was the way to go, Varun dropped out of college to first set up Kayako Infotech in 2001 at Jalandhar, when he was just 17 Today, he is the CEO overseeing the business, providing overall direction to the enterprise as its leading product architect, and taking a proactive role in the design and development of the product line
Born in a small village at Rahimatpur in Maharashtra, Kailash Katkar worked his way to the top to become the Chairman and CEO of a 200 Cr business. is man behind Quickheal technologies started with a job at a local radio and calculator repair shop, later going ahead in 1990 to start his own calculator repair business. In 1993 he started a new venture, CAT computer ser vices, where around that time his younger brother Sanjay developed a basic model of antivirus soware which helped in solving the biggest problem of computer maintenance at that time. In 2007 this was renamed as Quick Heal Technologies, and since then, there has been no looking back
A computer s cience student of t he L B S C ol l e ge O f E ng i n e e r i ng w h o chos e to drop out in his 5t h s emeste r n e ar t h e e n d of 2 0 0 7 , D e e p a k n e ve r l e t h i s i d e a s b e b ou n d an d cage d by b o ok or sy l labi He chos e i ns te a d to i ns te a d bre a k out of t hes e binds imp os e d by our e ducat i on s y ste m an d fol l owe d h i s p a ssion for computers. This ultimately le d him dow n t he ent repreneur i a l p at hway, w here he founde d Q uest te chnolog ies, w hich let p e ople ans we r s om e on e e l s e ’ s qu e s t i on t h at h a d b e e n a s ke d v i a te x t m e s s a ge. Hi s pr i m ar y c omp any w a s In n oz Technologies, the one behind ‘SmsGy an , ’ h an d i ng Inte r n e t’s k n ow le dge to p e ople via texts
Ritesh Agar wal is the man behind India’s largest room-aggregator, OYO Rooms e startup is a network of technolog y-enabled budget hotels. is Gurgaon-based company, was founded by him in 2012. O yo, which today has 750+ hotels under its umbrella, is backed by Lightspeed Ventures, S equoia Capital and Green Oaks Capital A college dropout who founded Oravel when he was 18 has today received its share of accolades and has transformed (or rebranded) into OYO Rooms Ritesh is said to have merely completed his high schooling at St. Johns Senior Secondar y School.
Freecharge, the famous platform that revolutionized the online recharge system with three step recharges along with providing coupon offers for the same value, was the brainchild of Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon e company was founded in 2010 and has recently been acquired by Snapdeal. Kunal did his Bachelor of Ar ts in Philosophy f rom Wilson C ollege and later went to Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies to do an MBA, f rom which he dropped out sooner than later.
e or ig ina l brain b ehind housing com ’ s mete or ic r is e, R a hu l Yadav was one t he co-founders of t he comp any and a drop out f rom IIT-B, who called it a day in his four th ye ar is aprop os did not deter him f rom re aching for w hat he wante d to achie ve He knew that he was building a brand and working to solve a problem which no one ever tackled head on. G ett ing into t he fou lest quag mire of cont roversies, he has s o far playe d it pretty co ol, b e it resig ning or t hen t a king it b ack, or g iving away ha lf of his shares to employe es oug h now out of his own b aby housing com, he sure is a guy wit h an att itude, brash but wit h a whole load of confidence
Indeed there must be something wrong with IIT-D, with this is second dropout making ‘ news ’ . Azhar dropped out in his 4th year of engineering When we say he made news, he did it by introducing ‘News in Shorts,’ the only app that really cuts to the chase, delivering only the vital details in a news to all those lazy people and even to those who don’t have enough time to go through all of them e app makes sure that each news is conveyed in less than 60 words Got a minute to spare ? Keep up with the world with news in shorts While it all started as a Facebook page, news in Shorts has now garndered its share of fame so well that it has received INR 25 Cr in funding some three or so months ago.
For 29 long years, Mahesh Murthy spent his time helping build big brands through his marketing acumen He then moved on to help startups with marketing counsel and funding for another 13 years Out of these three odd decades, 19 of these years he spent in digital media. Mahesh is a dropout from Osmania University, who stated with selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Moving up the Ladder, he has won notoriety and awards in his later years as a Creative Director at Unilever, e Economist, Pepsi and MT V, for whom he wrote and shot a series of top award-winning commercials He is today the founder of adver tising company Pinstorm an ad firm offering a unique pay-for-performance solution to corporates across the world.
Co-founder of ‘adpushup,’ Ankit Oberoi’s startup provides ads optimization so that publishers and bloggers can benefit from their existing website traffic without the need for any coding skills. e company uses A/B testing to compare between different ad variations like different placements and different sizes. Ankit is a dropout from Maharaja Agrasen College because he found it was ‘ a waste of time ’ In his own words: “You don’t have to be at the college to learn something Internet can teach you better ” His fascination with the Internet made him found Tamranda Web Solutions, which provided web hosting, domain registration and more. He has ser ved as a director at Innobuzz before starting up his startup adpushup.
Abhishek is a quintessential entrepreneur who loves to code and bubbles with the passion to instill people with his new ideas is fizziness of his is flavoured with the desire to connect people through web and mobile, which resulted in his co-founding frankly me with Nikunj Jain. ‘Frankly’ is a platform that revolves around the the idea to expand the horizon of conversations that people take part in It has on boarded various celebs and many people have taken onto the platform to ask anything from them and getting video answers in back He is passionate about increasing the IQ of an average conversation on the Internet.
Bhavin Turakhia is the founder and CEO of Directi, an internet domain name registrar founded in 1998 by him and his brother, Div yank He has a vision about the internet industr y in India that seemingly only a few have rivaled. He is credited for the impressive growth of Directi into a global web products company, with a number of businesses and millions of customers worldwide ough he is an engineering dropout who cut it off f rom aer hisd 12th, he has never stopped dreaming big In his own words: “Ever ything the Byte touches should be our kingdom.”
Pallav Nadhani is C o-founder and CEO of Fusion Charts & RazorFlow, as well as the CEO of C ollabion A serial multi-tasker, Pallav started his first business at the age of 16 f rom his bedroom in the year 2001, when he found himself dissatisfied with Microso Excel’s charting capability while completing his high school assignments His company is a ser vice provider of data visualization products. Given the success it has garnered so far, it found its way into the list of NASSCOM EMERGE 50 leaders in 2009
Endos copic surger y u sing minimally invasive techniques has been the f rontier of medical innovation in the last two decades. With the stress shiing towards shor ter hospital stay, lower costs, improved cosmesis and earlier return to work, expanding the scope of endourolog y has been the natural consequence.
Retrograde Intrarenal Surger y (RIRS) is considered as a minimally invasive procedure for management of renal stones with minimal morbidity. Standard fibreoptic flexible ureterorenoscopes have a tip size in the range of 6 75 - 9Fr ey are actively deflectable (primar y deflection) with 120 to 170 degrees of deflection in one direction and 170 to 270 degrees in the other. Secondar y deflection will be passive or active; active secondar y deflection allows better maneuverability especially in the lower pole calyx ey have working channels of Fr 3 6 - 4 and standard instruments (e.g. baskets) are Fr 2.2 - 3 in size.
e Holmium: YAG laser is the lithotripter of choice for RIRS nowadays. It has a wavelength of 2100nm and tissue penetration of 0 4mm e laser energ y is delivered via quartz fibres to the stone surface, where it is absorbed and turned into heat energ y that pulverizes the stone into dust by a "photothermal" effect. us, stone f ragment retrieval with basket / grasping forceps would not be necessar y Laser lithotripsy can be carried out safely in patients on anticoagulants. e size 200 micron laser fibre used in flexible ureterorenoscopy will minimise the hindrance to scope deflection.
C o nt i nu o u s e v o l u t i o n a n d a d v a n c e m e nt of u re t e ro s c op e h a s m a d e it p o s s i b l e t o a cc e s s a l m o s t a l l l o c at i o n s i n t h e k i d n e y t h r o u g h i t s n at u r a l r o u t e s . D e c r e a s e d c a li b e r, i mprove d d e f l e c t i on s y s te m an d d e ve lo p m e nt o f a c c e s s o r y d e v i c e s f o r f l e x i b l e u re t e ro s c o p e h a s m a d e p o s s i b l e t o m a n a g e m o s t o f t h e i nt r a r e n a l p at h o l o g y w i t h l e s s
m o r b i d i t y t h a n p e r c u t a n e o u s s u r g e r y o r op e n s u rge r y
Our Experience: We had done around 1000 RIRS in last 13 years. Our experience demonstrates its effectiveness in management of large, multiple and staghorn stones We are doing RIRS for renal and upper ureteric stones from 2003 onwards for stone size upto 2 cm Now we are doing RIRS even for larger stone burden (for more than 2 cm. stone) since last 2 years.
O p e r at ive t i me r ange f rom 3 5 m i nute s 160 minutes and average time was 85 minutes Hospital stay ranges f rom 12 hrs 2 days and average stay was 28 hrs. Catheter was removed within 24 hrs. in almost all patients. Post operatively pain was minimal and was managed with mild analgesics
C onclusion: RIRS is safe, efficacious, and reproducible with minimal morbidity and faster recover y. RIRS is feasible even in large stone burden like partial and completestaghorn with minimal morbidity RIRS is replacing ESWL and PCNL in management of renal stones as first choice Our experience demonstrate its effectiveness even in larger stone burden (size>2cm.), with additional procedure required in < 3% patients. RIRS is feasible in larger stone burden like partial and complete staghorn with minimal morbidity
What is FATCA & CRS? Why is this declaration b eing taken now? What is t he imp ac t of giving this declaration? These are some of the questions that NRIs should be aware of by now. Given below is an over view of FATCA and CRS and how t hes e imp ac t an NRI customer
FATCA: e Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a federal law of the United States of America. e primar y aim of the law, enacted in 2010, is to detect the foreign accounts of US persons Since the global income of a US person is taxable in the US, the FATCA’s purpose is to detect the income that would have been evaded by a US person by hiding the in-
Since Aug’15, almost all NRI cu stomers w ith financial accounts in India, would have been contac ted by their respective banks, mutual funds, demat par ticipants, in surance companies and other financial in stitution s to prov ide their FATCA/ CRS declaration form. And, those NRIs who have applied for opening of their NRI accounts since 1st Nov’15 would have had to mandatorily fill up a “FATCA/CRS Declaration” as par t of the account opening process.
come outside the US (foreign account) and get foreign financial institutions holding the funds/ assets of a US person to declare this to the IRS Under the provisions of FATCA, Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) should agree to have an agreement with the US IRS (Internal revenue ser vice) to provide information about accounts held with them by USA persons or entities controlled by USA persons, failing which there would be a 30% withholding tax on remittances from a source in the USA that is made to the FFI Since there could be a conflict with the domestic laws of sovereign countries with regard to customer information privac y & confidentiality requirements, the USA has been signing
an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with many countries. India and the USA signed an IGA in July 2015, which provides for Indian Financial Institutions to provide information about the accounts & income of US Persons to the Indian Tax authorities, which may then be shared with the USA tax authorities Under the IGA, the US person has been defined as
An individual who is a Citizen or Resident of the USA this covers all Indian citizens who are working or residing in the USA, O verseas Citizens of India (OCIs) who are currently residing or were residing in the USA and other US citizens who are residing in India or who have estates or any income in India.
A partnership firm organized in the USA or under the laws of the USA
A trust with one or more US persons having a controlling interest or authority of the trust
e IGA for FATCA has come into force in India with effect from 31st August 2015 and India has agreed to report information with effect from 1st July’14
T he FATC A d e cl ar at i on is a d e cl ar ation or a form that is provided by an NRI customer to declare his tax residenc y status and if he is a US p erson or not The FATCA declaration is now a mandator y requirement for US persons who wish to hol d N R I a c c ou nt s & d e p o s it s , mutu a l funds, insurance policies, demat accounts etc. in India. Under FATCA, any non-resident Indian living in US and having investments and assets in India, is required to de cl are det ai ls of his/her e ar nings in India and pay tax in the US. Even if the income is earned in India and is exempt f rom income t ax in India as p er t he Ind i an t a x l aw s ( e g Inte re st on N R E d eposits or FCNR), it may not be tax free in U S and may b e subj e c t to l o c a l t a xe s . Und e r t he FATC A IG A , t he I R S of U S
will get these details directly from the Ind i an gove r n me nt and he nc e it is a dv isable for all US Persons having income in India to report this income to the US IRS and pay the applicable taxes
CRS : While FATCA specifically addressed the needs of the USA to get its citizens & residents to pay taxes on their global income, to address and combat the issue of offshore tax evasion at a global level, which requires cooperation amongst tax authorities of different countries, the G20 and OECD countries have worked out a process for automatic exchange of information (AEOI) through a common reporting standard (CRS) In addition to translating the CRS into domestic law, the
to receive information from almost ever y countr y in the world including offshore financial centres us, it will help to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance and thereby help governments to curb tax evasion and deal with the menace of black money stashed abroad.
As p e r FATC A & MC A A , re p or t abl e financial institutions have been classified as Custo dial Institutions, D ep ositor y Institutions and Investment Entities and all Ac c ou nt s ( S av i ng s , Cu r re nt , C a s h C re d it / O ve rd r af t ) , Te r m D e p o s it s (NRO, NRE, FCNR, Recurring deposits); Insu r an c e p ol i c i e s ( Te r m , E n d ow m e nt , A n nu it y, U L I P, Mon e y B a ck , or Wh ol e L i fe ) ; Por t fol i o Inve s t m e nt s ch e m e, D e m at or Tr a d i ng a c c ou nt s , Mutu a l Fund invest ments; B enef iciar y or C le aring Memb er Account or ot her accounts wi l l b e rep or te d
CRS is setting up an international framework that allows for the automatic exchange of information between jurisdictions
51 jurisdictions signed a Multilateral C ompetent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on 29 Oct’14 and India signed the MCAA on 3rd June, 2015. S eventy nine countries have already signed the MCAA by Januar y 2016 India will be exchanging information on financial accounts existing on 1st Jan’16 onwards and, unlike FATCA requirements which is applicable to US persons, the financial accounts of all NRIs residing any where in the world is reportable under the MCAA
When fully implemented, the MCAA will enable the signator y nations like India
e implementation of the FATCA and the CRS ushers in a new era of tax compliance. NRIs should hencefor th, if they have not already been doing so, ensure that they are aware of the tax compliance requirements in the location of their residence and be meticulous in compiling and repor ting the income that they have earned not only in the countr y where they are working, but also the income that they have earned or are earning, in India and other global sources. Given the stringent penalty provisions of these agreements and the global reach, the days of wealth hidden in overseas locations might be coming to an end, sooner than later
Much on the expected lines, though this year ’ s budget does not unveil any big bang measures to g ive a g iant push to the beleaguered real estate, yet the budget aimed at revitalizing economy, triggering investment through a series of reform measures, spurring infrastructure and boosting affordable housing, prov ides a sigh of relief to the sector. In the absence of any largesse and quick fix solutions, the budget may look disappointing, but it is per fectly in line w ith gover nment’s philosophy that real estate should g row on the streng th of economy and follow the path of long- term, sustained and inclusive g row th.
As inf rast r uc ture holds ke y to t he g rowt h of re a l est ate, as exp e c te d, the budget made a record allocation of Rs 2.31 lakh crore for roads, highways and railways, besides focusing on green field ports and up gradation of unused and underutilized airports and air strips As the trigger to start invest ment c ycle has to come f rom public sp ending, t he budget has r ig ht ly fo c us e d on spending on basic infrastructure construction through multi- pronged strateg y of establishing Rs 4000 crore National Investment & inf rast r uc ture Fund, a de dic ate d LIC Fund to provide credit enhancement to infrastructure projects, revitalizing PPP mode of infrastructure development and revamping dispute resolut ion me chanism The fo c us on public capital expenditure, is expected to help crowd in private investment
e budget is fully seized of the ground real(i)ty that while commercial office real estate is on recover y path, residential real estate is still under lot of stress erefore, it lays emphasis on strengthening housing sector in line with government’s mission of ‘Housing for All’ And since most of the housing shortage is in low cost housing, the budget rightly stresses on af-
fordable housing To boost supply, the budget has incentivized private developers by making provision for 100 percent service tax exemption for affordable homes with sizes up to 30 sq metre in metros and 60 sq metre in non- metros In order to encourage timely deliver y of homes, the government has put a condition that developers can avail tax benefit only if they complete construction within three years
On the demand side, the budget has provided additional rebate of Rs 50000 p a on housing loan interest for first time home buyers in affordable segment, with loans not exceeding Rs 35 lakh and property value not exceeding Rs 50 lakh (though it is on the lower side in metros to realize full potential). e hike in the limit of deduction for rent paid under Section 80 GG of IT Act, will positively impact rental demand for affordable housing e exemption of REITs from Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) will also give a fillip to affordable housing.
Considering that rental housing can play an important role in the success of ‘Housing for All’, the budget has provided a much needed boost to it by hiking the HRA limit from Rs 24000 to Rs 60000 crore per annum for rented accommodation. Further, with government
firmly sticking to 3 5 percent fiscal target, going for ward, the budget will provide enough head room for reduction in interest rates for home loans to boost housing. Already, in order to boost low cost housing, home loan takers are getting interest subsidy of 6 5 percent on loans up to Rs 6 lakh for EWS through credit- linked subsidy component of,’Housing for All’ And now in the budget, the lowering of corporate tax (for FY 18) for companies with below Rs 5 crore turnovers will boost housing finance companies focusing on LIG/EWS segment e budget has also addressed the important issue of bringing home prices within the reach of masses. ough, the government has not hiked the IT limit, yet hike in HRA limit and provision of standard deduction of Rs 24000 p a for those not availing HRA, will push up disposable income to enhance affordability e ser vice tax exemption to developers undertaking affordable housing will help cut down the housing cost e extension of excise tax waiver from Concrete Mix to Ready Mix Concrete will also reduce cost e abolition of DDT for REITs will help access cheaper funding, thereby resulting in cost reduction. All these measures will provide a fillip to housing, particularly af-
fordable housing. e corporate real estate, on the other hand, will get benefited with the announcement extending sunset date for exemption of fiscal incentives to SEZs to March 2020 e commercial office sector will further get propelled with boost to REITs.
Since liquidity crunch has been the biggest bane of real estate sector, it was expected that the budget will address this crucial issue But in view of the poor health of banks, it was not justified to accord industr y status to real estate to access cheap bank funding. However, with government taking effective measures on reviving ailing banks like allocation of Rs 25000 crore for recapitalisation of public s ec tor banks, one can expect inflow of bank capital to de velop ers in the times to come. But by making REITs attrac tive for investors, the budget provides opportunity to fund- star ved developers to raise capital e ser vice tax exemption to affordable homes will improve viability of such projec ts, making it easier for developers to attract private domestic and for-
eign investment. e decision to deepen corporate bond market will prove to be a shot in the arm of private developers
With this year ’ s budget, the government carries for ward its reform process to boost realty, that started with liberalising FDI norms to boost affordable housing, allocating huge funds for urban infrastructure projects, reviving SEZs and bringing housing for economically weaker sections and slum redevelopment under CSR to provide impetus to low cost housing. e provision made in this year ’ s budget for digitization of land records will improve transparenc y, thereby boosting the confidence of property buyers and investors is will also expedite the process of land acquisition, thereby checking deliver y delays and cost escalation e announcement to set up 300 Rubran clusters is another positive reform to boost realty e budget has however partially addressed the issue of introducing single- window system, to check long delays in project approval due to multiple authorities, by enacting
changes in Companies Act 2013 and revamping existing procedures and processes through tech inter vention e government is quite serious and focused on getting two crucial reform bills of Real Estate Regulation & Development Bill and GST Bill (currently stuck in Parliament) passed, in order to introduce single, uniform tax regime and empower property consumers and investors by providing a fair deal by setting up regulator y authority
All in all, it is a positive budget that is set to boost the sentiment of the real estate sector. ough the sector reeling under slowdown, had hoped for much more relief, yet, there is enough on platter to induce home buyers and developers, taking real estate for ward on road to revival and sustained growth.
Indian stars are ruling the international scene: Even as Deepika Padukone prepares for her role opposite Vin Diesel in xXx: e Return of Xander Cage, Priyanka Chopra, who has been in news for her American sitcom Quantico, is all set to present an award at the 88th Oscars. e actor recently presented an award at the 2016 SAG awards and also bagged top honours the People’s Choice Awards Priyanka will be India’s sole representative at this year ’ s Oscar ceremony e country’s official entry in the best foreign film category for the Oscars 2016, Court could not make it to the final five.
Ever since Yash Raj films have announced the fourth instalment of the famous ‘Dhoom’ franchise, there has been a buzz about the cast of the movie. So far, a lot of names have been doing the rounds for ‘Dhoom 4’ From megastar Amitabh Bachchan to south actor Prabhas to Greek-god Hrithik Roshan, a lot of celebs have been rumoured to be roped in for the movie. However, none of the rumours turned out to be true. And now we have another name to add on to the rumoured list If the gossip mills are to be believed, Parineeti Chopra is likely to play the female lead in ‘Dhoom 4’
Sonakshi Sinha was compelled to come out of her Twitter hiatus to clear the air surrounding her project 'Haseena' hitting a roadblock. e actress says she is trying to squeeze out time and dates to shoot for the film e 'Lootera' star, who also has Abhinay Deo's 'Force 2' up her sleeve, took to the micro-blogging site to share the update on the film, which is based on the life of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar.
S ONAKSH I S I NHA T RY I NG HARD T O WORK OU T DA T E S F OR 'HAS E E NA '
IS PARINEETI CHOPRA THE FEMALE LEAD IN 'DHOOM 4'?
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I, Rajeev Gupta, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
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Date: 1 March 2015
Katrina Kaif is all set to launch her signature lip colour with L'Oreal Paris La Vie En Rose - Katrina's Extraordinaire Mat Delicate Pink. Aishwar ya Rai, too has a signature lip colour of red, 'L'Oreal Paris Collection Star Pure Brick Lipstick' and Sonam Kapoor's signature lip colour is dark pink, 'L'Oreal Paris Collection Star Pure Garnet Lipstick' L'Oreal Paris signature lipstick collections, features autographed lipsticks by the most iconic women in the world and we ' re proud that Katrina Kaif, Aishwar ya Rai and Sonam Kapoor are representing the world famous brand from India.
Shahid Kapoor, who is all geared up for h has been in the prep mode recently and ha learning Japanese His next, Rangoon which rected by Vishal Bhardwaj, is set agains backdrop of World War II and will feature actor playing the role of an Indian Army offi in the film As it is set in the early era, 50 Jap ese artistes have been flown down to India add authenticity to the project To further ad a realistic touch, the actor has been taking Japanese lessons.
Radhika Apte recently shot with renowned magazine GQ and the end result was palpitating! e bold and beautiful Radhika, who is known for her dare to bare attitude and contribution to Indian Cinema with some phenomenal performances, looked undoubtedly hot! Radhika has garnered tremendous response from the industry as well as her audiences for her sensuous shoot for the magazine. e actress looks her best ever in the Hot avatar.
Hrithik Roshan has signed a movie under the Yash Raj Films banner and is titled as, ug. e best part about ug is that the film consists of all elements such as drama, action, humour and romance Hrithik Roshan's next, ug, would be directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya under the YRF banner A source close to the movie was quoted as saying, 'We are making a film with Hrithik in the lead. e film has all elements like drama, action, humour, romance, song It's an action adventure film
NOW KATRINA KAIF WILL LAUNCH HER SIGNATURE LIP COLOUR!SHAHID
O v e r a sumpt u ou s v e g e tar i an lunch at hi s of f i c e , the f i lmmake r p ar e x c el l e nc e P raka sh J ha , w ho ha s su c c e e d e d in creating hi s ow n ne w idiom of cinema, speaks about hi s journe y f rom DA M U L to JA I GANGA JAL ...
What do you feel when you look back at your illu str iou s jour ne y as a film-maker?
Frank ly sp eaking, I do not lo ok back at my c are e r f rom DA M U L to JA I G A NG A JA L as a j ou r ne y I fe el t hat | e a ch d ay i n my c are e r is a ne w d ay. As a f i l m ma ke r, I t h i n k I have a lw ay s l o oke d a he a d, not b a ck b e c aus e you cannot affords to live in the past I am e xc ite d ab out l i fe and happy t hat a l l e ffor ts put in by me continue to yield new results in my life.
What has been done and is in the public domain. How addic ted or immune are you to success or failure of your films?
I do not understand your question at all, because you never know what is going to succeed and what is going to fail I am of the belief that one has to take on appreciation as well as criticism alike. e same thing applies to success as well as failure in life or films If only I’d known what will succeed, I would have been God Even if my films flop, I make it a point to learn from my failure. So I am not worried at all
whether my film is going to click or fail at the box office. I feel that failures that you face are as important as success or else life will become uninteresting
How would you rate yourself as a film maker?
All I can say honestly is that I put in my best effor ts in ever y film that I make I’d not hesitate to say that probably people are kind and generous to me I feel that cinema is to communicate and for me the society is the main pivot and ever ything
revolvers around the society. Social histor y drives me as a film maker. Frankly I never look at myself as a great creator of art I am glad that people understand the inherent sincerity behind me
You have made films in different genres, whether it i s DAMUL or HIP HIP HURR AY or AAR AKSHAN or GANGA JAL. How do you decide on the format of your film?
T h e s u bj e c t a n d t h e c h a r a c t e r s dr ive t he for mat of any f ilm t hat I s et out t o m a k e I a m n ot s om e on e w h o i s b a c k e d by a s e t of p e op l e w h o w r ite t he s c r ipt for me I w rote 1 3 d r af t s of JA I G A N G A JA L , b e c au s e I w a s n ot h appy w it h t h e f i r s t 1 2 d r a f t s t h ou g h I my s e l f h a d w r it t e n t h e m My e f f or t i s t o s c a l e up t h e g r a m m a r of my f i l m and make it believable cinema within the re a l m of re a l it y. Ev e n I m a k e up a n out a n d out a c t i on f i l m s l i k e s ay
G A N G A JA L or JA I G A N G A JA L , y ou w i l l n ot f i n d ve h i c l e s f ly i ng i n my f i l m or t he he ro ju mpi ng on t he m i n t he cl im a x My c op s w ou l d n ot m out h d i al o g u e s w h i c h a re u n a c c e pt a b l e by t h e h i e r archy i n t he p ol i c e.
Does that mean that you do not set out to compromise as a film maker?
Why do you call it a compromise by a film maker when he sets out to cater to the audiences, when the whole idea is nothing but to reach the audiences in ever y which way? As a film maker, I have to engage my audiences in whatever manner It could be in the form of songs or item numbers or jokes or for that matter the enormity which a character in my film undergoes. If I tr y to engage at the cost of my stor y telling, you can call it an act of compromise, not other wise
Is JAI GANGA JAL a sequel of GANGA JAL?
I b eg to dif fer. JAI GANGA JAL do es not star t where GANGA JAL ended; it is not a s e qu el to G A NG A JA L It re v is it s the scene Instead of a male protagonist, you w i l l s e e a fe ma l e prot agon ist i n Priyanka Chopra. It was required to have a fe ma l e prot agon ist , b e c aus e i n su ch pl a c e s a hone st p e rs on is su m mar i ly t r ans fe r re d and a we a ke r p e rs on is brou g ht on But u n for tu nately for t he p ol it i c i ans , t hou g h t he y t h i n k t hat Pr iy an k a is we a k , to t he i r chag r i n she
proves to be tough as for her, duty comes f i rst and ma ke s l ive s m is e r abl e for c orr upt politicians and criminals
Ajay De v g n seem s to be your top favour ite. Yet how do you manage to strike the right balance between stars and the new faces in your films?
There are no stars in my f ilm as I cast a c tors w ho I t h i n k w i l l f it t he p ar t s to the team. I would not hesitate to state t hat I am ve r y for tu nate t hat bi g a c tors agree to work with me. Ajay Devgn, with whom I share a great rappor t and a fabul ous che m ist r y, has a c te d w it h me in my f ilms like GANGA JAL, APAHAR A N , A A R A K SHA N , DI L K YA KA R E , R AJ N E ET I e tc . , and Pr iy an k a has c ompl e te d work i ng i n my l ate st f i l m JA I G A NG A JA L I am fore ve r g r ate f u l t hat Aj ay D e v g n and Pr iy an k a C hopr a ag re e to work w it h me by s qu e e z i ng time out of their busy schedules and believing in me.
What next, aer JAI GANGA JAL?
I have line d up for rele as e t his ye ar itself f ilms like FRAUD SAYYAN, which is pro du c e d by m e an d L I P ST IC K WA L E SAPNE, which is directed by my assistant A l an k r it a w h o h a d e ar l i e r d i re c te d T U R N I NG 3 0 u n ch f i l ms l i ke S ATS A NG and R AJ N E ET I 2 . T hou g h t he re are s p e c u l at i ons t h at A m r it a R a o h a s b e e n s i g n e d to pl ay t h e l e a d i ng l a dy i n my f i l m S AT S A NG , t h e f a c t i s t h at t h e wor k i s goi ng on a s f ar a s t h e s c r ipt of S at s ang i s c on c e r n & we h ave n ot ye t sig ne d on any ac tor for it.
ou s s atra s (s cr iptures).
man who by the study of these maxims from the satras acquires a knowledge of the most celebrated pr inciples of duty, and understand s what ought and what ought not to be followed, and what is good and what is bad, is most excellent.
Î C Â%è, Ûæ Ææ çטæ, ÕÎ×æàæ Ùõ· Ú ¥õÚ â · âæÍ çÙßæâ âæÿææÌ ×ˆØ · â×æÙ ãÐ
Ev e n a p an dit c o m e s to g r i e f by g iv ing in st r u c t i o n to a fo o li sh di s c ip l e , by m aintaining a w i ck e d w ife , an d by e x c e ssiv e fami li ar it y w ith the mi s e rable.
A w i ck e d w ife , a fal s e f r i e n d , a s au c y s e r v ant an d liv ing in a h o u s e w it h a s e r p e nt in it are nothing but death.
 ÿØ × Î ¹ » Ð
ere fore w ith an e ye to the public good, I shall speak that which, when understood, will lead to an understanding of things in their proper perspective.
ÃØçQ · ô ¥æÙ ßæÜè × âèÕÌô â çÙÕÅ Ù · çÜ° ÏÙ â ¿Ø · Ú Ùæ ¿æçã°Ð ©â ÏÙ-â ÂÎæ ˆØæ»· Ú Öè Â%è · è â Ú ÿææ · Ú Ùè ¿æçã°Ð Ü ç· Ù ØçÎ ¥æˆ×æ · è â Ú ÿææ · è ÕæÌ ¥æÌè ã Ìô ©â ÏÙ ¥õÚ Â%è ÎôÙô · ô Ì ‘À â×ÛæÙæ ¿æçã°Ð
One should s ave hi s mone y again st hard times, s ave hi s w ife at the s acr if ice of hi s r iches, but invar iably one should s ave hi s s oul e ve n at the s acr if ice of hi s w ife and r iches.
D o n ot stay fo r a sing l e d ay w h e re t h e re are n ot th e s e f iv e p e r s o n s : a w e althy m an , a b rahmin w el l v e r s e d in Ve di c l o re , a king, a r ive r and a phy sician.
men should never go into a countr y where there are no means of ear ning one ' s livelihood, where the people have no dread of anybody, have no sense of shame, no intelligence, or a charitable disposition
He is a true friend who does not forsake us in time of need, misfor tune, famine, or war, in a king's cour t, or at the crematorium (smasana).
He who gives up what is imperishable for that which is perishable, loses that which is imperishable; and doubtlessly loses that which is perishable also
Ú ƒ æ Ú · è ¥ ç ß ß æ ç ã Ì · ‹ Ø æ â ç· â ßØ » ãôÙ · ÕæßÁ Î Öè çßßæã · Ú Ùæ ¿æçã°Ð ©â ç· âè ãèÙ ƒæÚ · è ¥ˆØ Ì â ‹ÎÚ S˜æè â Öè çßßæã Ùãè · Ú Ùè ¿æçã°Ð àææÎè-çßßæã ã× àææ ÕÚ æÕÚ è · ƒæÚ ô × ãè ©ç¿Ì ãôÌæ ã Ð
A w i se man should mar r y a v irg in of a respec table family even if she is deformed. He should not marr y one of a low-class family, through beauty. Mar r iage in a family of equal status is preferable.
§Ù z ÂÚ · Öè çßEæâ Ù · Ú Ñ v ÙçÎØæ, w çÁÙ ÃØçQ Øô · Âæâ ¥à˜æ-àæS˜æ ãô, x Ùæ¹Ù ¥õÚ âè» ßæÜ Âàæ, y ¥õÚ Ì (Øãæ â· Ì ÖôÜè âÚ Ì · è ÌÚ È ã, ÕãÙ ÕÚ æ Ù ×æÙ ) z Ú æÁ ƒæÚ æÙô · Üô»ô ÂÚ Ð
Do not put your tr u st in r ivers, men who car r y weapons, beasts w ith claws or hor ns, women, and members of a royal family.
Even f rom poi son extrac t nec tar, wash and take back gold if it has fallen in filth, receive the highest knowledge (Krsna consciou sness) f rom a low born person; so also a girl possessing vir tuous qualities (stri-ratna) even if she were born in a disreputable family
Women have hunger two-fold, shyness four-fold, daring six-fold, and lust eight-fold as compared to men.
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Source : www.hindisahityadar pan.in
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This stor y comes from the forgotten annals of the old Kingdom of Travancore a once independent land that became a princely state during the British Raj under the East India Company It also has the honour of being the first to accept an invitation to accede to India in the year 1947, when along with the Kingdom of C ochin it was incor porated into the Dominion of India as the state of “ Travancore-Cochin,” which formed the basis of what is today “Kerala ”
It is intriguing to understand why no foreigners ever attempted colonising this region. Even the East India Company had to await an invitation from the Travancore King to move in for protecting the kingdom from an attack by Tipu Sultan It was only later that the E ast India C ompany began involving itself in court affairs and
India’s histor y has o been tainted w ith much oppression of the lower castes. While horror stories of how upper castes subjugated lower castes and ensured they are never able to stand on their feet and come at par w ith the high society are leg ion, it i s also true that they were also deprived of oppor tunities for going in any form of education and/or economic streng th s. i s ar ticle i s about one such incident which might ju st force you to think how prosperou s we were and what we did to our ow n people. Read on.
got a chance to attempt a take over One major reason why no other countr y ever tried to occupy this region was that this was the major trade hub for Europe, the Arabian Gulf and the Eastern parts of the world is made the people of Travancore and Cochin the richest of all traders
e Travancore Kingdom was the second most prosperous princely state under colonial r ule. Even beggars were rich enough to live with comfort And this was bothering the upper classes the most e Brahmins were watching the lower castes getting richer thanks to ser vices they were rendering to traders and other people. In order to put a stop to all this, they planned a series of a few hundred horrible taxes
For example, lower class residents of Travancore were forced to pay a tax when they traded in pepper or spice. ey had to pay
heav y duties to wear jeweller y or for the men to flaunt a moustache which were symbols of prestige. e upper classes had exemptions f rom these and they were designed in such a way by the nobles that the lower classes stayed under a cer tain limit, never coming at par with them
Of all these absurd taxes the worst, most inhuman and utterly humiliating one was the Mulakkaram, or the Breast Tax. It was to be levied on all lower caste women who wished to cover their breasts, the amount of tax calculated according to the size of their breasts. As a result, the women of society had to roam bare-breasted and wear no jeweller y or fancy cloth, that becoming the identity of the Dalits in this southern region of our Indian Subcontinent. is taxation system was at its peak during the rule of King Avittom irunal
Varma, considered one of the weakest ever kings of Travancore, whose empire was practically governed by Brahmin nobles, who enjoyed lavish lifestyles at the expense of his court eir lust and greed forced them to implement such barbaric laws and taxes as this one with utmost strictness, to ensure enough money flowed into the royal treasur y and that the Brahmin class always stands out e year was 1803, when the Par vathiyar (village officer) approached a poor lady of the Ezhava clan living in the village of Cherthala for collecting this tax. e lady was called Nangeli (or Nancheli the Beautiful one) She tried to keep her dignity by covering her upper body, which was not acceptable to the Brahmins of her village they reported it to the Parvathiyar. Unfortunately, Nangeli came from a ver y poor family who were not le with any money to pay more taxes When the tax collector approached her, she showed monumental courage and took a rebellious step, which changed the course of histor y.
Nangeli, one fine aernoon in 1803, chopped off her breast and presented it to the Tax C ollector on a plantain leaf e officer got scared and ran away, leaving the young lady to die of bleeding. As her husband came home, he found Nangeli lying on floor, bled to death His emotions er upted as anger fuelled by sorrow, but coming f rom a lower caste society as he did, he could not fight. S o he took an equally aggressive and rebellious step. As Nangeli was being cremated, her husband could not suppress his pain and jumped into the funeral fire to be burned to death with her. He is seen as the the only example of Male-Sati in our histor y.
is news spread like forest-fire across the subcontinent People star ted talking against the tax system openly and the oppression of lower castes was criticized by many. Debates in the court reached a different level altogether and people f rom other kingdoms, as well as traders visiting Travancore were unhappy with the partiality being perpetrated in the state Even the land where Nangeli had lived became popular by the name ‘Mulachiparambu’
the plot where the woman of breasts lived It took the Kingdom of Travancore nine long years to finally understand the emotions of public and repeal the Mulakkaram tax in 1812. It was just one form of oppression that was abolished hundreds of other forms of equally absurd laws and taxes continued until the Indian Constitution took over
Even today small pockets of Indian society across the nation, look at lower castes with a derogator y eye But things are changing with education People are becoming more aware and some good strong steps are being taken for the betterment of all classes. It is our hope that in the nottoo-far future India will indeed be a society of equals and ever yone will continue to live with their heads held high in equality and dignity
Balarama
Maybe it s ju st the luxur y of me and my thoughts or maybe its me analysing the prev ious year ' s positive and negative moments or little superstition s. In sum, it i s an exercise to beg in my new year on a positive note w ith an auspiciou s v i sit to a holy place. i s year I chose Vrindhavan to walk in the footsteps of Lord Krishna. I have always s een people sway ing more in the footsteps of Lord Buddha, especially in most of the tourism promotion magazines and brochures. So, here let u s explore how it i s in the footsteps of Lord Krishna.
On 31st December, I took a train, the Taj Express, from New Delhi for Vrindhavan Aer an early morning journey of 2 hours, the train made its stop in the land of Vraj, where Krishna is said to have lived his life thousands of years before. With typical north Indian early win-
ter morning of December, I was wearing my woollens long coat and full-cover shoes. As I came out of the platform, I picked up a piping-hot cup of tea ser ved in a 'kullad' (small earthen pot) and it pumped some energy into me. I soon found a whole mob of rikshawalas tr ying to catch my custom as
their first rider of the day I somehow managed to smartly negotiate with one of them and rode to Vrindhavan approximately 15 kms from the station.
e rikshawala dropped me at a particular point as his rickshaw was not allowed beyond that point e smaller streets were crowded chock-full and it made me glad to obser ve that so many people were
of the same opinion of wanting to begin their new year with a visit to the holy city of Vrindhavan I had chosen the 31st of December for my visit just to avoid the New Year crowds, but it was vice versa.
The small streets, so many people, decorated markets, stalls offering mouth wate r i ng fo o d, t he f l owe r s el l e rs and t he all-per vading f ragrance emanating f rom
t he te mpl e s , t he cl amorous r i ng i ng of bells, prayers blaring through loudspeake rs it w as a lto ge t he r as i f I w as i n a new world. While walking a f riend cautioned me ab out my sp ectacles, aler ting me to t he habit of mon ke y s he re i n h ijacking specs and demanding food in lieu of returning them
I was surprised to know that this Vraj
land has as many as different 5000 plus temples and at a large area popularly known as 84 kro’sh Vrajmandal (the area of Lord Krishna) comprising Vrindhavan, Mathura and Govardhan
S o, star ted the process of Darshans. And soon aer the Darshans, my first choice was to sit and enjoy the tasty food on offer all around
Next morning we had to star t early, with the intention of visiting the ISKON temple and give an auspicious beginning to our new year. Soon aer stepping out on to the road, we realised that this town never sleeps I had heard about Mumbai never sleeping, but truly Vridhavan was all alive at 4 am an ever-frenetic crowd waving garlands, diyas, sweets etc., in their hands e food shops were all fully open
with freshly prepared food & tea etc
So, aer my breakfast, I started to follow the footsteps of Lord Krishna his birth place, his playing areas, his romance area with Radha and so many Gopis, e Govardhan Circumference, few other Ashrams including R ama Krishna Ashram, Prem Temple of Sudhanshu Ma-
haraj, the Ashram of Nee Karolimal and so many others. It was a day of amazing experiences, the obtaining of blessings, learning of new things and of course my devouring the favourite food and sweets offered in the market. I was happy with my decision to begin my New Year on a positive footing from the Land of Lord
Postal regd. No. G-3/DN/297/2016-2018
Date of Publication: 5th of every Month
Date of Posting: 8th & 9th of every Month