Unique Times February 2021

Vol 9 Issue No.113 Feb - Mar 2021 USD 0.70`50AED 5BD 0.500

GOLD: OUTLOOK FOR 2021 AND THE COMPETITION FROM CRYPTO CURRENCIES Shri V.P. Nandakumar, MD & CEO, Manappuram Finance Ltd.

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH THE MAN OF POSSIBILITY! MR. N K MUHAMMED

Jebitha Ajit Director & CEO Editor Jebitha Ajit Legal Advisor Latha Anand

B.S.Krishnan Associates bskrishnanassociates@gmail.com Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the Sub-Editor Vignesh S.G key to success. If you love what you are doing, you Associate Editor Ravi Saini will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

Rajeev Kumar An inspiring story about N K Muhammed, the

Director and special editor kollur Chairman and Managing Director of Vythiri Village Correspondents Dr. Thomas Nechupadam Resort is the cover story of this edition. It is extremely

Vivek Venugopal- Quarter Mile inspiring, and explains the importance of hard word,

Amrutha V Kumar determination and dedication.

Creative Design PEGASUS This edition, Manappuram Finance Limited MD Cover Photographer PEGASUS and CEO V P Nandakumar tells us his opinion on does Marketing UAE the growing strength of cryptocurrency challenge the

Phygicart.com safe haven status of gold.

P.O. Box: 92546, Al Karama Dubai As usual, this time also, a beautiful travel article is Mr. Anish K Joy

offered. It explores a small sovereign state in the con Mob: +971528946999 tinent of Europe, Luxembourg, which is known for its info@phygicart.com architecture and natural beauty.

Plot No 19A, 9th Floor, The review of MG Gloster, which is the flagship

Green Building, Film City, SUV of MG for India, appears in the auto section. Our

Sector - 16A, Noida - 201301 professional expert explains every minute characteristic Maharashtra

of this SUV.

Jayasankar M, a/101, Apart from the aforesaid articles, the edition offers

New Prathamesh Niwas, all our regular articles from beauty, movie review and

OPP. Laxmi Park, Thakurli East, book review to motivation and business.

Dombivli post, Thane District, 421201 ‘The easiest way to open your mind to new ideas

Mob: 9820708662 and concepts is to open a book and read.’

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chennai, Mob: 9840018929 Enjoy Reading!

Unique Times, No.6/31,

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Chennai – 600093 Thank You Karnataka

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Editorial “

Printed at St. Reddiar & Sons, P.B. No: 3627, Veekshanam Road, Cochin Published at Pegasus Global Pvt. Ltd. L5-106, Changampuzha Nagar Kalamassery, Ernakulam-682 033 e-mail: editor@uniquetimes.org uniquetimesindia@gmail.com Ph:0484 2532040, 2532080 Mob:9288800999

Cover Photograph Mr. N K Muhammed

Printer & publisher Pegasus Global Pvt. Ltd. Cochin (682033) on behalf of Ajit Ravi. Printed at S.T.Reddiar & Sons, Cochin-18.

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CONTENTS

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Nothing Is Impossible with the man of possibility!

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Gold: Outlook for 2021 and the competition from crypto currencies

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On Management Creativity

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Union budget 2021 a perspective – part-1

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Full-fledged palliative care centres and home care need to increase

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48 50 52 58

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Gadgets Natural ways to treat dry hair Luxembourg: A small sovereign state in Europe MG Gloster

UNIQUE DIARY

China overtakes the US as the world’s top destination for new FDI

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he Asian country of China has overtaken the North American country of the United States of America as the top destination for new Foreign Direct Investment in the world. Nonetheless, the world’s most powerful country still holds its top position as the world’s most favourite Foreign Direct Investment destination. Beijing is at present not in a good relation with Washington. Recently, the US launched a trade war with China, expressing disappointment in the unequal trade relation that the latter maintained with the former. Recently, a controversial report predicted that China would emerge as the economic superpower and unseat the US from its top spot by the year 2028.

US to reenter Paris Climate Treaty

“Diversity is the engine of invention. It generates creativity that enriches the world.”

Justin Trudeau

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he North American country of the United States of America has decided to reenter the Paris Climate Treaty, from which it walked away few years back under the leadership of Donald Trump. The decision to rejoin the group, working to bring down the emission rate of green house gases, has come shorty after Joe Biden, who had defeated Mr. Trump in the US Presidential Election, took the charge of the Oval Office of the US. The new United States administration, under Mr. Biden, has also decided to rethink the controversial pipeline project the country reached with its close neighbour, Canada.

UNIQUE DIARY

Farmers’ protest turns violent

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he peaceful protest, launched by a group of farmers under Samkyukta Kisan Morcha demanding the withdrawal of the three controversial farm laws – the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, has turned violent. The unfortunate incident has left as many as 300 police personals injured.

The umbrella organisation of farmers’ unions leading the protest has condemned the violence, which has erupted in the national capital, Delhi, on the Republic Day of the year. The incident has invited serious criticism.

Okinawa to introduce electric two wheelers for delivery firms

“Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth.”

Yoshihide Suga

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kinawa, which is a renowned electric vehicle manufacturing company, has publicised its decision to introduce a B2B electric two-wheeler, which is named as Okinawa Dual, in the Asian country of India, where the demand for electric vehicles has been steadily increasing for last few years. The vehicle is priced at around Rs. 58,998. The vehicle can be used for the delivery of gas cylinders, water cans, medicines, groceries, food items and many more. It can support those industries which operate in the aforesaid areas. Notably, the vehicle is customised to meet the various needs of companies.

The concept has triggered a serious debate in the social media platform.

Leisure segment jumps back to the track of growth

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fter a brief slowdown, the leisure segment of the country, which can gift a new impetus to the growth process of the economy of the country, has jumped back to the track of growth and stability. Oriental Hotels Ltd., which is an associate firm of The Indian Hotels Company, has acknowledged the aforesaid fact. The company has expressed its confidence in the potential of the economy of the country, which is slowly recovering from the injuries inflicted by the Covid-19 outbreak. The leisure segment is one of the important areas of the Indian economy, which aims to achieve an enviable growth in the near future.

CIL ready to step up production to meet growing demand

“The evil of corruption reaches into every corner of the world.

It lies at the heart of the most urgent problems we face.”

David Cameron

C

oal India Ltd., which is a state-owned company, is set to step up its production capacity to meet the growing demand for coal in the country. In the recent past, the power demand of the country has touched an all-time high. Not less than 67 per cent of the total coal-fired power generation in this part of the world depends on the CIL. The company has assured that it could handle any hike in the demand for coal in the market. What the latest development in the sector indicates is that the country is slowly marching towards the track of growth and stability.

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Joe Biden takes up the charge of US Oval Office

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oe Biden, the Democratic leader who defeated Republican leader Donald Trump in the United States Presidential Election, has taken up the charge of the Oval Office of the United States of America, which is the most powerful country both in terms of economy and military strength.

The development has made Mr. Biden the 46th President of the United States of America. The march of Mr. Biden to the White House has not been an easy one. Hours before the inauguration, in a shocking development, supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the US Capitol to stall the certification of the victory of the Democrat leader.

Biden decides to take the US back to Paris Climate Treaty

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oe Biden, the newly appointed United States President, has decided to take the country back to the Paris Climate Treaty. It is one of the decisions the new President has taken in the initial hours of his regime. The treaty aims to bring down the concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere.

It also targets to address the issue of climate change. The US had been an active member of the treaty until Donald Trump, the former President of the US, led the country out of the treaty citing certain flimsy grounds. Notably, the development has set the course of the new regime of the US led by the Democratic Party.

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Russia arrests opposition leader Navalny

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he Russian government has arrested opposition leader Alexei Navalny when he has returned to his country from Germany, where he was taken for treatment after he had been left poisoned during a domestic flight trip to Moscow. The development has triggered a serious protest across the country. The government has launched a brutal crackdown against the protest. Numerous supporters of Mr. Navalny have been arrested in connection with the protest. Mr. Navalny is a powerful critic of the Russian leader. The development indicates that the Russian regime, which is currently dominated by Vladimir Putin, fears the growing prominence of the opposition leader.

EU Parliament passes resolution against Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong activists

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he European Union Parliament has passed a strong resolution against the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong democratic activists. The resolution has demanded selective sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials. The EU lawmakers have warned the union against the investment deal the union reached with China in the recent past. The resolution has left the Chinese government in a disturbing situation. Beijing has condemned the resolution passed by the EU lawmakers through a virtual session. The development has come shortly after China inked an investment deal with the European Union. China at this moment shares a cordial relation with the EU, and is less likely to launch a trade war against the union over the resolution.

For more info: europetimes.co

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COVER STORY COVERSTORY

Nothing Is Impossible

with the MAN OF POSSIBILITY! Dolly Neena

His story will definitely make you stand up in wonder. Let’s listen to this jaw-dropping, as well as engaging, narrative of Mr. N K Muhammed. He is the Chairman and Managing Director of Vythiri Village Resort, SpiceBowl Hotels Pvt. Ltd.

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hen we talk about successful entrepreneurs, we usually get motivated by people who started from garages and made it big in life. However, today we are going to get inspired by one magnificent life – someone who was born in an affluent family, but who has an astoundingly diverse twists and turns of life, someone who always found a way or made one! His story will definitely make you stand up in wonder. Let’s listen to this jaw-dropping, as well as engaging, narrative of Mr. N K Muhammed. He is the Chairman and Managing Director of Vythiri Village Resort, SpiceBowl Hotels Pvt. Ltd., SpiceCoast Hotels Pvt.Ltd, Chairman & Managing Trustee of Oriental Group of Hotel Management Institutions, Stage Pragathi Charitable Trust, Oriental Educational Charitable Trust, Chairman to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Ramanattukara, Golden Village, Wonder Wayanad, Wellness Wayanad, Managing Trustee to N K Muhammed Senior Engineer Foundation, and President of Malabar

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COVER STORY COVERSTORY Tourist Boat’s Operators Welfare Association.

The fundamental roots

Nambiponnilathu Kunjammu Muhammed was born in an affluent Muslim family at Mathilakam near Kodungallur. Those times it was common for a Muslim to marry more than once, and his father Nambiponnilathu Kunjammu married Khadija, after he had his fourth child in his first wife Beevathu. N K Muhammed was born on 15th July 1944 as Khadija’s eldest son amongst her 5 children. Besides Agriculture, his father was engaged in the wholesale of coir, tobacco and spices and seasonings. He also owned acres of lands, houseboats, sewn boats and other vessels.

The foundation phase of life – his childhood

Kodungallur is a historically significant town in Kerala, one of the earliest trading ports in the world, which was a strategic entry point for the naval fleets. Mr. N K Muhammed fondly remembers that during his childhood, they always relied on boats or floats as a means of transportation. All commodities were ferried through the waterway.

The first Christian church and the first mosque in India was built in Kodungallur. It is also prominently famous for the Bhagavathi temple.

Mr. N K Muhammed proudly adopted his land’s secularism into his blood. He fondly remembers that may be he was the only Muslim boy who would have been frequenting so much to the temple festival grounds and sacred groves around his vicinity. Kodungallur was a land of festivals. He thrived and indulged in the multi colors that festivals threw around – music, ‘kathaprasangams’, drama, starry lights, elephants, the vibrant crowd, the carnival mood, the oracles and ritualistic chants.

The temple grounds loudly articulated the camaraderie and secularism, and the strong cultural heritage of his native place.

Muslim art forms like Moulood (social gathering) and Arabanamuttu were a visual treat for his eyes which he thoroughly enjoyed while he was a child. Arabanamuttu is very popular art form among Muslims. Arabana

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muttu is performed by striking the Arabana (a hand held, one sided flat tambourine or drum-like musical instrument of Arabia), with the hand.

The instrument is made of wood and animal skin. Frenzied devotees used to drip blood from their foreheads amidst the frantic drumbeats. As his Baappa was a prominent figure in the society, all Islamic events were done under his supervision, Muhammed took much pride in it. VettumKuthumRatheeb (KuthuRatheeb) was one such ritual which took place in an open field after the harvest festival in Makaramasam. This involves piercing the body, immunity to snake and fire and riding of wild animals. Piercing affects the tongue, the ear and the stomach. Knives and steel tools were used. The followers of the ritual believe that even though injuries are inflicted on the bodies of the performers by weapons, these do not cause pain or damage to the body. They believe that since the ritual is performed by devotees who have received permission from their Lord, it will not cause injuries.

Muhammed remembers the decorated platform built under the shed, in the middle of the field. Religious scholars and Usthads attended and chanted verses of the Quran, while people gathered up in large numbers with family. His father was the main sponsor of the event. The performers shout ‘Ya Allah Huhaib’ while piercing their own body parts, which was horrifying for kids and people who watched it for the first time. Small Muhammed, with a bold heart, learned early life lessons from it, that the performer risked the act because of his devotion and passion – and with strong determination you can make any daring dream come true. All these episodes were framing and preparing his mind for the tumultuous life ahead.

Those days coconuts were also given as wages for coconut tree climbers. It used to be two anna for a coconut then. And Muhammed’s father had enormous extents of land and coconut farms. So when he passed tenth grade in 1961 with flying colors, his father rewarded him by allowing him to take 10 coconuts a month. The mischievous small

Muhammed in fact took double the number of coconuts though, which he sold for pocket money. The interesting fact is that small Muhammed who furiously hated going to school till 6th grade had a sudden change of heart when he fell in love with a girl named Sreedevi in his school and all the rest of the valiant efforts on studying was only to impress her! On another reminiscence, those days they were completely dependent on boats to travel - he used to swim onto the other side of the river, not only because of his love for swimming, but also that he can pocket the boat fare his Baappa gave him.

He used to frequent the scared groves in solitude, they used to be notorious for poisonous snakes and eerie spirits. However, he used to love being there all alone, with the soft breeze caressing his hair, listening to the rustling sound of leaves and wind whistling through the bamboos, lying on the sands staring at the mesmerizing moonlit night – he was enchanted by the spell-binding scenic beauty of his native place, and which was one of the reasons he named his resort, “Kadavu” (which translates to ‘Ferry’)

Dreams, delays, success & sorrow

After his tenth grade, he joined Christ College, Irinjalakkuda, for Pre-University course which was a year-long programme, where he sadly remembers he was confined to the four walls of boarding which forced rigorous rules and regulations on him. He was eagerly tolerant to complete this somehow and had decided to become an entrepreneur like his father was. However, his father had already decided his destiny for him beforehand – Engineering!

He had no courage to speak his heart to his father and thus joined Thrissur Engineering College for a five year course named Pre-professional, on Civil Engineering. He had been a star athlete from his school days and continued to excel to win trophies at the university level in all the athletic events he participated in.

Even though his father was a terror-figure for him in his early days, Muhammed realized that it was all because of his great affection and

During his successful journey as a PWD Engineer he says, “I took a lot of risk during my career. The projects others left half-way through, I used to take it up with a lot of courage and finish with hard work and determination. I was a very stubborn, persevering individual who never gave up on difficult situations. I never compromised on professional ethics, a stubborn attitude which might have annoyed a lot around and won me many enemies.”

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COVER STORY COVERSTORY

Mr. N K Muhummed always had a heart for business. Buying a hundred acre rubber plantation at Nilambur was his first real estate business.

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love for the family. He just didn’t know to express his emotions openly. This realization made him go serious on his studies halfway through his college and eventually graduated his final year with high marks.

And, thus, he successfully embarked on his 29-year-long Engineering career. His first on-the-job training was at Thumbormozhi dam site in Chalakkudy. The area was dark and dense and you could rarely see a human being around. One amusing occasion he remembers while he was posted there was when a movie crew came by for a month and half for shooting, for Navodaya’s ‘AgniMrugam’ starring Prem Nazir and Sheela. Those days you could rarely see stars that close, and the fanboy in Muhammed was super-excited to interact so close with Nazir for the first time, as Muhammed was the one who supervised the dam site and made arrangements for them. After a year of training at ThumburMozhi, he left for Madras as job was awaiting him there. However, before he could commence, he was called back as he got through PSC in Kerala; he decided to return to Kerala and joined Government service at PWD. He worked at Kannur and Kozhikode extensively during his career, and more closely with Medical College later.

It was around then he married Aisha, who was the daughter of the Central Excise Customs Superintendent; she was doing her final year MBBS then at Kozhikode Medical College. They are blessed with three daughters – Thasneem, Safrina and Vinni. He proudly states that all of them were rank holders at their academic strides. His son-in-laws are also into noble medical profession.

During his successful journey as a PWD Engineer he says, “I took a lot of risk during my career. The projects others left halfway through, I used to take it up with a lot of courage and finish with hard work and determination. I was a very stubborn, persevering individual who never gave up on difficult situations. I never compromised on professional ethics, a stubborn attitude which might have annoyed a lot around and won me many enemies.” He handled Special Buildings Department, Irrigation Department and then the Roads Department, and feels proud about Kozhikode mini bypass, Mavoor road etc which passed the test of time because of high quality construction, was made during his service period.

He remembers the trauma he and his mother went through being a second wife to his father, when he was one of the first to fight against these atrocities. He remembers that long back people used to fight insensibly

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COVER STORY COVERSTORY over money and possessions, one of the reasons that they despised to have step-brothers/sisters that they never wanted to divide their assets with more heads. He says, later after the factful strides of bitter truths of life, all of them realized that money is not everything. Life changes people. He himself had changed a lot through years of living. His mother is happy and is at her 106th age now.

Embarking into business

Mr. N K Muhummed always had a heart for business. Buying a hundred acre rubber plantation at Nilambur was his first real estate business. It was also his dream to build the first 21 storeyed multiplex in the heart of Kozhikode city, which unfortunately he had to dump due to political hostility; Today that project stands in the name of R P Mall.

He still didn’t give up. It was for his

father he became an engineer, and once he was to retire, he decided to fulfil his own heart’s burning desire and to have a new beginning to life, a second innings to his already adventurous life. That’s when he decided on starting Oriental Hotel Management institute at Lakkidi, which is India’s best today. He remembers no one encouraged his dream back then, but he boldly risked it all.

He traded his lands to make the 5 crore initial investment needed to kickstart this business idea of his.

He used to travel a lot across the globe for leisure, later for business across 60 plus countries. Once he fixed on hospitality business, he then started traveling to learn hospitality, a thrilled 55 year old student in Switzerland, Netherland, China and many other parts of the world attending hospitality courses. “ Ka-

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi at Kadavu Resort

Reciving best Entrepreneur of Kerala award from then Cheif Minister Oomman Chandy

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davu “ was another dream project of his, a plot he had bought before starting Oriental School of Hotel Management, but nurtured in his heart every single day – he went by the land and watered the plants and trees regularly even before laying the foundation stone; the construction started in 1997. Even though the initial years were really challenging, it eventually grew out to be a profitable one with guests from different ethnicities pouring in; eminent business magnets, distinguished leaders, celebrated artists, prominent politicians, people from the world of cinema have had their luxurious stay at Kadavu. Sad to say, after an unfortunate encounter about a deception and swindling by his own brother, Mr. N K Muhammed decided to give away his dream project and sold it out to Ravi Pillai. Life goes

Oscar Winner Dr. A.R Rahman at Kadavu Resort

on and the toughest one survives he proudly owns and manages the breathtakingly beautiful Vythiri Village resort today.

About overcoming the challenges in entrepreneurial life

"There is always rivalry, jealousy and obstacles in business. I used to react on certain situations while growing up. However, now I realize that it is utterly unnecessary to fret over others’ opinions about you and lose your sleep. This will only deteriorate your own health. Hence, the best way is to ignore. Let them badmouth; you should just mind your own business. Your dignity is not in someone else’s hands. Make sure you solve your issues as and when it

comes a trouble to you. Remember, there are issues you cannot solve too – try to find alternate ways to go around it. You cannot live with zero problems – In this life, you’ll need to confront with some or the other complications. I’ve been antagonized with life or death issues, however, you should be bold enough to survive it. Life is a teacher – you should always be a student until you die. A human being is never perfect, we err; we keep developing over the phases of life. I am now focusing on my last lap. Money alone will not satisfy your heart. Responsible luxury is what you need to focus on - what purpose is a golden washbasin for. Tie up your life to goals, not to people. People might not stand for

you or with you, but your dreams are yours alone. I have heard a lot of people talking behind my back.

When they started seeing you growing successfully, you will find a lot of enemies who somehow want to pull you down. You need to anticipate these tests and trials in advance if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. You always need to be prepared and expect the unexpected. I survived as I was ready to take risk."

You should always stand close with your team. My team is my strength and reason for my success here. There are staff who has been working with me for more than three decades and are my close confidantes. I can trust them with my life. On the other hand, there also

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COVER STORY COVERSTORY had been several others who didn’t rise up to my expectations. For example, there was a GM whom I helped with lakhs for his son’s hospital expenses and later to my utter shock I got to know that he was doing harmful things over my shoulders; I dismissed him, later he came pleading guilty and forgiveness and I decided to give him another chance again, only to take the brunt of betrayal again from him. There are more than a dozen examples of this sort.

Some people do not change. Your kindness can be taken for granted. These things happen in business. Most of the times, blind trust can be foolishness, and cause you harm. An entrepreneur should be mindful, aware and analytical about such wrongdoings so that others should not end up taking advantage of you nor should you get cheated.

Value that you hold close to your heart

“You always need to respect Time. If you have given time for someone, respect his and your time and make sure you be there on time.

Punctuality is one quality that you always should adhere to. Do not let anyone else disrespect you by not keeping time with yourself as well. Always be honest with what you do. If destiny is in favour for you, no matter what-

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ever happens, you will win what your heart wants. So be persistent and move forward with much courage and determination. Never falter from your step. Believe in Karma. If someone has done some grave hurt to you, he/she will get what they deserve in this life itself. So do not be weakened by any struggles, setbacks, challenges, back-stabbing – do your job well, and the universe will reward you generously for your effort.”

In our times, we used to experience life and take lessons directly from it. It was never theoretical; practical lessons gave us great wisdom and sheer strength. Today parents are making a grave mistake by isolating children from confronting and tasting life directly. Today, success is evaluated by the highest grades printed on certificates, which is baseless. I believe this makes the youth vulnerable, they are left with no armour, ammunition nor fuel needed for the battle waiting ahead for them. The competition in today’s world is scary; so is wrong parenting.

Pearls of wisdom you have for the new generation

“Today, the new generation is more into just flaunting stuff than what they really have. Most of them, I see that they do not want to save for the rainy days, but to live a luxurious life now without being accountable to their family or surroundings tomorrow. Long back, we used to grow ample roots first, found water source enough to survive a drought, before we grew over the surface. Thus, we had enough experience, people and resources to back us up in case of a setback. I also want to suggest the new generation to be more patient. There’s no such thing as free lunch! Everything takes its own time to grow; inorganic growth is fast perishable. Commitment and hard work always help you win the game, always. Be responsible for your life, rather than relying too much on your parents. Being too greedy about money and success can be detrimental. Extreme hastiness and impatience lead to accidents on roads and life. So be calm, composed and focused on your work until it yields plenty of fruits. Give

love unconditionally – because if you expect things in return, that might prove to be very disappointing later for you.”

The dreamy last lap of this life’s journey

This is the Highlight of all – His dream project – GOLDEN VillAGE! Mr. Muhammed has indeed kept the best towards the last. He wants to make a better place of this Earth.

This dream project is now taking shape at the incomparable serene greenery of Vythiri, Wayanad and KrishnaGiri, Karnataka. Golden Village is a one of a kind of project which accommodates senior citizens, protects and cares for them.

He has survived and sustained innumerable barriers and struggles in his life and has come out victorious, and still persists to endeavor new projects and dreams. He is indeed a moving lesson and inspiration for all of us. The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going!

This is a peaceful dwelling place to live the rest of their lives, whoever who has crossed 55 years can choose to live here. The amenities are five-star quality, completely safe, and with all facilities for living happily. There are various options of physical exercises – indoor gyms, physicians, swimming pool, water games, Yoga, zumba, spa, massage, indoor games like snooker and other activities for healthy living. Caretakers and helpers are available round the clock. There will be hospitals, supermarket, clubhouse etc. An exclusive butler cum caretaker for each occupant. Organic, non-toxic healthy produces from own farms

will be served. Birthdays are celebrated with all residents with the family members online from different parts of world. Routine and periodic complete checkups and round the clock availability of inhouse nurses and doctors. There are temples, mosques and churches inside the premises – everyone will have their own religious freedom and provision to offer prayers as per their individual beliefs, and have the convenience to worship for people belonging to any cast or religion. The dusk of life is supposed to be lived in peace and happiness. Inhouse vehicle service will take you in and out of the Golden Village. There are annual international, national, local trips which will keep you amused and relaxed all throughout. This can be accumulated. Training sessions to enhance your creative skills can be opted. Evening will have musical and performing nights for entertainment. Children who are away or abroad can always witness how happy and safe their parents are via internet. You can also pursue your profession living here. In short, you have everything to relish life in absolute luxury and comfort.

Never confusing a single defeat with a final defeat, he is proving yet again that age is just a number - today even at his 77th age, Mr. NK Muhammed is very active and getting things done, one after another. He is working on a mall project at Kalpetta of 200 crores now and there is an ongoing 300 crore project restarting at Kodungallur.

Golden Village accounts to be a 150 crore one. He determines to make the most out of his last lap – resolves to be healthy, is a vegetarian lately, wakes up at 4.30 am every morning, does Yoga on a daily basis, keeps a minimal diet with organic food from his own farm, and supervises all his ongoing projects personally within all his organizations. He has survived and sustained innumerable barriers and struggles in his life and has come out victorious, and still persists to endeavor new projects and dreams. He is indeed a moving lesson and inspiration for all of us.

The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going!

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BUSINESS

Shri V.P.Nandakumar MD & CEO Manappuram Finance Ltd.

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old was one of the best performing major assets of 2020, which will go down in history as the year of the great pandemic. Its rise was driven primarily by the flight to safety and diminished risk appetite in the face of the worldwide economic slump.

Gold is, after all, known as a safe haven asset. Once the pandemic began to wreak havoc, its rise was only to be expected.

Gold has historically performed well amid equity market pullbacks as well as in periods of high inflation when currencies depreciate or lose value. In the years when global inflation was higher than 3%, gold’s price increased by 15% on average. Moreover, studies show that gold would do well in periods of deflation too. Such periods are typically characterized by low-interest rates and high financial stress, all of which tend to enhance the safe haven demand for gold. Further, gold has been more effective in preserving its value over the past decade when global money supply has surged. During this period, gold has delivered returns well in excess of US T-bills, thereby helping investors preserve capital.

For the current calendar year 2021, economic growth in the world is expected to recover from its dismal performance in 2020 though it may remain anaemic (relative to its potential) for some time to come.

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Investors are becoming uncomfortable with the surge in money printing by central banks and that has also led to the ongoing rush of investments into digital cryptocurrency. The balance sheet of the US Federal Reserve has jumped from $4 trillion to around $7 trillion in 2020, a 75% growth in a single year, thereby expanding the supply of dollars at an unprecedented pace. The debasement of the US dollar has been a major source of support to gold prices. However, the returns on gold during the year have been far outstripped by the multi-fold rise in digital cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the most famous of the cryptocurrencies, rose 700% in 2020 and, over the course of the last 5 years, it has given returns of 85 times!

With weak economic growth and the high price of gold, global consumer demand for gold is likely to remain subdued. At the same time, in keeping with its safe-haven status, gold did attract investment interest from central banks and the gold exchange traded funds (ETFs). Furthermore, the weakness in the US dollar and falling yields on bonds have also acted as a catalyst in maintaining a broad upward momentum for gold prices.

Gold and India

India is one of the gold capitals of the world, with a third of the world’s gold passing through its borders. In 2005, some 2,470 metric tons of gold were produced worldwide which increased steadily to an estimated 3,300 metric tons in 2019. China leads the world in the production of gold with about 420 metric tonnes produced in 2019, while Australia comes second with a production of 330 metric tonnes. India produces little gold of its own, yet it holds perhaps the largest stock of gold in the world. This stock of privately held gold (owned by households and religious bodies) is estimated at about 30,000 tonnes. It is more than the combined gold held by the central banks of the United States, the Eurozone, and China.

A good chunk of this gold would have been passed down for generations, but it is also supplemented by

regular imports. India is a large consumer of gold, with official imports averaging 800 tons per year between 2012-2017, worth an estimated annual value of $30 billion. But then, contrary to the common belief that most gold imports are consumed by India’s large domestic market, our trade data shows that an average of 156 tons of gold jewellery—worth about $8 billion—exits India each year. Gold jewellery exports from India represent about one-fifth of the total amount of gold imported to India each year. In other words, for every 5 kg of gold that comes in, nearly 1 kg goes out as exported jewellery.

Outlook for 2021

One would expect that an improving world economy rebounding from the pandemic induced disruptions and expectations of a predictable international trade regime (compared to the Trump era of constant upheaval in trade relations) would tend to keep gold prices on the defensive. However, that would be a simplistic assessment.

In the medium to the longerterm, gold will draw support from the continuing accommodative monetary policy being followed by most central banks in their quest to support the economic recovery. The low interest rate regime that follows loose monetary policies (some developed economies are seeing negative

Gold: Outlook

for 2021 and the competition from crypto currencies

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BUSINESS

China leads the world in the production of gold with about 420 metric tonnes produced in 2019, while Australia comes second with a production of 330 metric tonnes. India produces little gold of its own, yet it holds perhaps the largest stock of gold in the world.

interest rates) would incentivize investments into gold because the opportunity cost of holding gold comes down. Further, in the aftermath of the pandemic, governments across the world have stepped up their spending to record levels at the cost of ballooning fiscal deficits, giving rise to fears of a resurgence in inflation.

Forecasters believe that gold prices are headed higher for the next year with targets of $2,150 and $2,390 (per ounce) on concerns about slower-than-expected global economic recovery and the increased injection of money into the economy as part of stimulus measures. Credit Suisse expects gold to continue its upward trajectory and average $2,100/oz in 2021, peaking at $2,200/oz in the third quarter, but a tad low from their previous estimate of $2,500/oz. Goldman Sachs holds a $2,300-per-ounce price target for gold, implying prices higher by 20%+ from current levels.

Cryptocurrency, an emerging contender for safe haven status?

Investors are becoming uncomfortable with the surge in money

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printing by central banks and that has also led to the ongoing rush of investments into digital cryptocurrency. The balance sheet of the US Federal Reserve has jumped from $4 trillion to around $7 trillion in 2020, a 75% growth in a single year, thereby expanding the supply of dollars at an unprecedented pace. The debasement of the US dollar has been a major source of support to gold prices. However, the returns on gold during the year have been far outstripped by the multi-fold rise in digital cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the most famous of the cryptocurrencies, rose 700% in 2020 and, over the course of the last 5 years, it has given returns of 85 times!

As a result, investors are considering shifting a part of their portfolios from gold to bitcoins. Unlike fiat currencies like the dollar or the rupee, the supply of a cryptocurrency cannot be increased by any government or central bank, a fact that gives great comfort to its investors.

JPMorgan claims that the red-hot cryptocurrency could rally as high as $146,000 as it competes with gold as an “alternative” currency. Bitcoin’s market cap currently stands at $600 billion. According to JPMorgan, it

would have to climb by 4.6 times to match the $2.7 trillion of private sector gold investment.

While Bitcoin leads the Cryptos, it is followed by Ethereum with a market cap of $150 billion, and Steller, XRP, Tether, Chainlink with $25 billion market capitalization. All put together, the top 20 cryptocurrencies have a combined market cap of $900 billion. Today, the size of the crypto market has reached a third of the private sector gold investments (a third of this gold is held by Indian households) in just a decade. (Bitcoin, the first ever crypto currency, came into existence in late 2009.)

A pertinent question that comes to mind is, what would have been the price of gold today had Bitcoin (and other crypto currencies) not come into existence? It’s a question that has no hard and fast answers.

However, one can be sure that had Bitcoin not emerged as an alternative, gold prices would have continued to march on to new record highs (V.P. Nandakumar is MD & CEO of Manappuram Finance Ltd. Views are personal.)

BUSINESS

The beauty is you can mix tools for the tasks and you can seek to understand problems by the iterative use of these tools. The holy grail of creativity is to look quizzically at situations and think from multiple angles and not ‘follow’ the written down code always. It is OK to question - better questions will get you to the right answer!

Rajesh Nair Associate Partner, Ernst & Young LLP

A

s we build organisations and scale them up into institutions of scale and stature, typically two of the following happen.

We overrate efficiency and we underrate creativity and adaptability. The concept of organisation structures for delegation of work pre-supposes the fact there will be minimum change of externalities and that these changes and the subsequent changes are most anticipated and are organic.

But the recent times have shown how different this premise is. A pandemic taught us that no amount of planning can help us be prepared for the vagaries of the future, and there is no scientific mechanism which can help us predict things even at a basic 50 % accuracy. And yet we insist on structure and frameworks which drawn upon the vents of the past and we sugar coat these by calling them – management experience.

Adaptability as a management competency is here to stay. The pace of change is coming in at a tremendous pace, and the trajectory of change is steeper as well.

Changing behaviour is extremely difficult.

There are a few tips and a few guidelines about how to do that, but anybody who is very optimistic about changing behaviour is just deluded. It’s hard to change another people’s behaviour. It’s very hard to change your own. Adaptability is often manifested in organisations with creativity. As a concept, creativity is about thinking differently and not looking at everything in a linear or logical fashion. It is also about understanding processes differently. Process is probably one of those things that is fundamental to the running of organisations. One may even ascribe any entity as a collection of processes.

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There are three kinds of process. There’s a kind of process that makes things that were previously impossible to do, possible.

Then there’s a kind of process that makes something that was previously possible significantly simpler, which is also good.

Like make it 10x better. Ideally make a process that makes an entire thing that previously took days, make this simpler.

And of course, then is the kind of process which is quotidian and most of the processes fall in this category.

In most firms, creativity is nothing but lip service. A mundane suggestion scheme, just a cluster of cross function teams does not ensure ideas cropping up.

The environment also plays a key enabler.

The organisation way of doing this would be to have a crappy cubicle farm and then paste motivational posters everywhere saying quoting clichés like, “Idea is the new currency”, “Always question status quo” etc are not of much use. Richard Thaler in his Nobel winning legacy of the concept of ‘Nudge’ insists that – the nudge is always required to make people think differently. The nudge also means that there is a culture of appreciation of ideas which bring in a surfeit of change from the normal and there also needs to be a culture of constant benign questioning and not the smirks which meet the new ideas. Nassim Taleb in his seminal concept Antifragile puts this across very interestingly. Nassim Taleb believes that if you want an organization that lasts, you need to be okay with bad things happening. And in fact, the quality of an organization is not how good it is at preventing bad things from happening, although it’s a useful skill. But that’s necessarily the quality of an organization. The quality

On Management Creativity

February - March 2021

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BUSINESS

of an organization is how quickly it does react to bad things happening.

Creativity also will breed a culture of idea meritocracy.

An idea meritocracy is when the best ideas win out, and the way that you need to have it. There are three steps that could instil this. First, you must put your honest thoughts out there. A lot of people have problems doing that, but you must welcome others doing it and you must do it, so you have to put your thoughts on the table to look at them. Second, you must have thoughtful disagreement.

In other words, the ability to take in and have a back-and-forth in a quality way, so that you can make better decisions than you could make individually. Then third, you must have ways that if disagreements remain, that you think are fair, appropriate, agreed-upon ways of getting past that disagreement.

The other aspect especially for business is the way management education is structured. It’s that business schools do not teach the fundamental problems of business. What they teach are finance, what they teach is marketing, they teach us HR. The management thinker Peter Drucker said, “There are no marketing problems, there are no finance problems, there are no accounting problems, there are only business problems.” These are problems that sloppily span across a bunch of domains and business education has abdicated, doesn’t even try to teach how you think across domains. The thought across domains itself opens avenues in the mind to soak in ideas and make holistic decisions.

It’s consistent with a lot of the huge problems in the world, is thinking that you can decompose things into little pieces and somehow add them up together, and they’ll add up to the whole that you wish, doesn’t happen. Business education is a critical and unfortunate impediment to that, as it currently stands. Creativity also comes with integrative thinking, by coagulating frameworks, seeking meaning in a complete picture and not necessary solving puzzles by

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Adaptability is often manifested in organisations with creativity. As a concept, creativity is about thinking differently and not looking at everything in a linear or logical fashion. It is also about understanding processes differently. Process is probably one of those things that is fundamental to the running of organisations. One may even ascribe any entity as a collection of processes. breaking them down. It also helps to think of creativity as a box of tools.

Think about a business education’s aim is visualize, like one of those little tinker boxes in your garage, you use to sort multiple tools in.

You come in as a student with that empty, and you get a bunch of tools.

You get a sharp knife to cut, get a hammer, and you get pliers, and you get a screwdriver, and whatever put in your toolbox, and you’re taught to size up a problem and ask the question, is a hammer best for this? Or is the knife best for this? Is a screwdriver best for this? Is a wrench best for this? It’s this job of matching a bunch of narrow models to real world problems. The beauty is you can mix tools for the tasks and you can seek to understand problems by the iterative use of these tools. The holy grail of creativity is to look quizzically at situations and think from multiple angles and not ‘follow’ the written down code always. It is OK to question – better questions will get you to the right answer!

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HEALTH

Nizar Abdul Majeed Kutty Senior Lecturer Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia.

Covid-19 tends to affect older patients more severely. Those who survive are at high risk of sarcopenia, malnutrition, depression, and delirium. Post-covid-19 chronic pain may affect patients of any age but seems to be commoner in elderly patients. Physical symptoms add to the psychosocial impact of disrupted access to health care (such as arrangements for obtaining regular medication), core personal routines (such as walking to local shops), social interactions (such as meeting friends), and lay and professional support networks.

E mail: nizarkualalumpur@gmail.com

W

e’ve passed the one year mark of living with the Covid-19 pandemic. For those who have been recovering from Covid-19, returning to “normalcy” in everyday life can be a challenge.

Exercise remains a key component of rehabilitation for patients recovering from Covid-19. However, Covid-19 survivors need to be cautious about resuming exercise as you recover and consulting with your physician before you start exercising again is highly recommended; regardless of your age and however mild or severe your case was. How safe is it to embrace physical activity and fitness, especially when so much is still unknown about how the virus affects one’s overall health?

Why do we need return to exercise after Covid-19?

After being in hospital for a period of time, your muscles will be

much weaker than normal and you will certainly be less fit than you were. The health benefits of being physically active, from cardiovascular to mental health are well established. Conversely, the harms of physical inactivity mean it is a major risk factor for non-communicable disease worldwide, alongside others such as cigarette smoking or obesity. There is evidence of a decline in physical activity since the start of the pandemic for people with chronic conditions such as obesity and hypertension. Current data suggests that approximately 10% of people experience prolonged illness after Covid-19. Many such patients recover with holistic support, rest, symptomatic treatment, and gradual increase in activity. Research reports revealed that at 4 weeks (1 in 7 patients), and 8 weeks (1 in 20 patients) are still suffering from at least one debilitating covid-19 related symptom. This includes fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, muscle pains,

amongst other multisystem symptoms that can last for many months.

The burden of these symptoms can be significant to patients, both physically and economically, as many patients are left unable to work, and at risk of losing their livelihoods.

Advising covid-19 survivors to undertake periods of prolonged rest, risks physical deconditioning. This is particularly important for patients with pre-existing long-term conditions or those living in low/middle income countries disproportionately affected by covid-19 due to fewer healthcare resources.

The guidelines for exercise are different for Covid-19 survivors with hematologic or blood symptoms, those who had respiratory problems like pneumonia and cardiac symptoms. Individuals who had musculoskeletal symptoms like joint and muscle pain should also embrace a gradual return to exercise before they go back to their pre-covid-19 workouts.

How to start being active again?

• Start slowly and build up your level of activity over time.

• Try to do little and often, allow rest between activities and don’t overdo it.

• Reduce sitting time. Try standing up every hour and marching on spot.

• Set yourself small goals that you can do in the day. You can start with small tasks such as mak-

ing a drink or something to eat.

• Aim for a daily walk. Do walk with someone until you are confident to go out on your own.

• Try making a walk part of your daily routine to give your day structure.

• Don’t worry if you need to stop and rest, that’s a normal part of recovering and getting strong again.

• If you have an exercise bike at home this might be a good alternative to walking, particularly on wet days.

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EXERCISE FOR

COVID-19 SURVIVORS

Back to Physical Activity

As of now, there is no clear, evidence-based way to guide return to physical activity, but a prudent approach is that it should be gradual, individualized, and based on subjective tolerance of the activity. Once a patient has been risk stratified and symptom-free for at least seven days, a phased approach can be used to

increase physical activity levels to either baseline or guideline levels or beyond. If the person was not physically active before covid-19, this can be an opportune moment to discuss becoming more active. Return or new development of symptoms including cough, abnormal breathlessness, fever, and anosmia indicate the need to stop, seek medical advice if

required, and restart the process when symptom-free. A graduated progression includes increases in volume (time doing the activity) and load (intensity).

Stage-1: Rest from exercise

The rehabilitation of covid-19 survivors aims to bring together time and progress-based intervals during rehabilitation, alongside ho-

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33

HEALTH

listic advice to address sleep, nutrition, social support strategies, and mental health complaints. The rehabilitation and “Return to Exercise” guidance should focus on activities of daily living (ADL), return to function, and then exercise.

“Return to Exercise” guidelines are likely to adopt a more cautious and prolonged timeline in non-athletes, which takes into account their baseline health, premorbid function, rehabilitation and occupational needs.

Exercise clinicians and physiotherapists may be able to co-ordinate individualized rehabilitation plans for covid-19 survivors. This could involve undertaking biomechanical assessments, prescribing exercise and reviewing patients holistically in a multisystem approach. All exercises focused on aerobic or strength training should stop while patients are symptomatic in the acute phase of infection. Where available, pulse oximetry can help to guide ambulation. Controlled and paced breathing techniques can be used to aid ambu-

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lation and ease breathlessness.

Stage-2: Graduated return to function

Initially, limit aerobic exercise to walking and carrying out ADL’s.

Begin low level stretching and strengthening exercise. Flexibility and strength exercises can minimize further physical deconditioning.

Gradual increase in aerobic exercise is recommended. Even modest improvement in fitness can reduce symptoms of breathlessness and can aid recovery after Covid-19. For patients who are unable to tolerate aerobic exercise due to respiratory muscle weakness or chronic lung disease should consider consulting Pulmonology specialist for supervised respiratory muscle training.

Stage-3: Graduated return to exercise

During this stage, increase the volume of aerobic exercise with shorter intervals (30-60s) or continuous bouts of exercise working toward the WHO recommended levels of physical activity. Aim to increase

muscle strength as well as function; resistance training load can be increased gradually up to 8-12 repetitions to increase muscle strength.

Progression may take longer for patients who have low baseline fitness (premorbid condition) or those demonstrate significant post infection deconditioning.

Stage-4: Health promotion and patient centered goals

People at risk of significant deconditioning such as those who were bedbound may benefit from an individualized exercise prescription to prevent further deconditioning. Exercise programs online or via apps may be used to promote continued physical activity and improve motivation through progress tracking. Targeted interventions such as exercise prescription, nutritional supplementation, or specialized physiotherapy may improve long-term outcomes.

Covid-19 may adversely affect the mental health of patients both directly and indirectly. Appropriate psychological support and good

sleep hygiene practices will help to reduce the burden.

Breathing techniques

About 80% of the work of breathing is done by the diaphragm. After illness or general deconditioning, the breathing pattern may be altered, with reduced diaphragmatic movement and greater use of neck and shoulder accessory muscles. This results in shallow breathing, increasing fatigue and breathlessness, and higher energy expenditure. The “breathing control” technique is aimed at normalizing breathing patterns and increasing the efficiency of the respiratory muscles (including the diaphragm) resulting in less energy

expenditure, less airway irritation, reduced fatigue, and improvement in breathlessness.

The patient should sit in a supported position and breathe in and out slowly, preferably in through the nose and out through the mouth, while relaxing the chest and shoulders and allowing the tummy to rise. They should aim for an inspiration to expiration ratio of 1:2. This technique can be used frequently throughout the day, in 5-10 minute bursts (or longer if helpful).

The Older Patient

Covid-19 tends to affect older patients more severely. Those who survive are at high risk of sarcope-

nia, malnutrition, depression, and delirium. Post-covid-19 chronic pain may affect patients of any age but seems to be commoner in elderly patients. Physical symptoms add to the psychosocial impact of disrupted access to health care (such as arrangements for obtaining regular medication), core personal routines (such as walking to local shops), social interactions (such as meeting friends), and lay and professional support networks.

Support should be personalized with input from the multi-professional team (for example, general practitioner, physiotherapist, social worker, psychologist, and occupational therapist as needed) 

Key points: • Take it slow and gradually reintroduce physical activity to your routine.

• Consult your physician to devise the best-tailored plan for easing back into exercise.

• Return to exercise may help to prevent physical deconditioning and reduce disability after

Covid-19.

• Only return to exercise after at least seven days free of symptoms, and begin with at least two weeks of minimal exertion.

• Avoid the temptation to compete with your pre-Covid-19 self.

• The guidelines for exercise are different for Covid-19 survivors with kidney diseases, hematologic or blood symptoms, those who had respiratory problems like pneumonia and those with cardiac symptoms.

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FINANCE

Adv Sherry Samuel Oommen This article is authored by Adv Sherry Samuel Oommen. Adv Oommen, who specializes in constitution, tax and corporate laws has also cleared the final exams of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the Institute of Cost Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has also completed his Masters Degree in Commerce, apart from obtaining a Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Corporate Laws from Symbiosis Pune. The views expressly are personal and should not be construed as a legal opinion.sherryoommen@nashcp.com.

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Unfairness The Economic Survey 2021-22 projected a V-shaped recovery in growth of 11 percent for the economy. Further, the Survey states that though the economy is expected to contract by 7.7% in 2020-21, the growth projection comes in the backdrop of International Monetary Fund’s recent forecast that India would be the fastest growing major economy in the world of 11.5 percent in 2021-22 and 6.8 percent in 2022-23.

Prima-facie, the Budget lacks a stable fiscal policy-One would not deny that a stable fiscal policy is to a nation what a stable family life is to an individual!

A

ll eyes were on the Hon’ble Finance Minister on how she would deliver the necessary thrust considering that most sectors of the economy are still reeling under the economic damage caused by the pandemic. It is indeed trite that the pandemic has resulted in an unfathomable disruption of the economy that has affected different stakeholders in varied proportions. The Dickensian nightmare that most sectors are facing, which one cannot deny, for some reason has had no bearing on the way stock markets have been performing. In this article, I wish to pen some of my views on the Union Budget 2021.

The Economic Survey 2021-22 projected a V-shaped recovery in growth of 11 percent for the economy. Further, the Survey states that though the economy is expected to contract by 7.7% in 2020-21, the growth projection comes in the backdrop of International Monetary Fund’s recent forecast that India would be the fastest growing major economy in the world of 11.5 percent in 2021-22 and 6.8 percent in 2022-23. Prima-facie, the Budget lacks a stable fiscal policy – One would not deny that a stable fiscal policy is to a nation what a stable family life is to an individual!

In my view, as an immediate comment, the thrust of the Finance Minister has been boosting growth through spending, the unidimensional approach in collecting more taxes and plugging the so-called “loopholes” owing to an errant few

would turn counterproductive.

One must remember that in order to boost private investment in the country, an entrepreneur does indeed have choices of investing in other jurisdictions such as Vietnam and Thailand. The question that one does need to answer, Why India? Is it solely the ready market of 130 crore people the attractive proposition? It appears that the market of 130 crore people appears to be only attractive proposition of the Government, which would pithily be summarized, as counterproductive.

Viewed in the above perspective, one does raise doubts on the need to have a “faceless” Tribunal.

Is the government being supercilious in the interest of doing fast-track justice with the burial of a physical hearing if the parties so request or is the new beginning of paper harassment in the guise of a “faceless” mode. Further, the need to disband the Authority of Advance Ruling with the composition of a so-called “Board for Advance Rulings” comprising members from the administrative wing, ie, the Executive clearly lacks intent and clarity. To believe that such members would not been driven by the targets of the Government is in the words of renowned jurist, Late (Shri) Nani Palkhivala is as reasonable as “trimming a lawn with nail scissors”.

I would have thought that it would augur well for the Government to strengthen the system of Advance Ruling with the presence of competent individuals, as is seen in

UNION BUDGET 2021

A PERSPECTIVE – PART-1

most developed countries. Nonetheless, for the benefit of the readers, I wish to briefly summarize some of the key direct tax proposals as stated in this Budget. Senior citizens (above 75 years and above) earning pension and interest income will now be exempted from filing an income-tax return.

This would indeed reduce the compliance burden of such individuals. Interest, on loans for affordable residential house property (subject to the specified conditions)

sanctioned up to 31 March 2022, eligible for additional deduction of INR 150,000 per annum. Interest accrued on employees’ contribution to provident fund in excess of INR 250,000 would now be taxable. Maturity proceeds from the unit-linked insurance policy (ULIP) issued on or after 1 February 2021, would now be taxable, if the aggregate annual premium exceeds INR 250,000 in any of the financial year during the term of any of those poli-

cies. Further, such taxable ULIPs would be considered as capital asset and subject to capital gains on redemption. No deduction would now be allowed to employer relating to employees’ contributions to any provident fund or superannuation fund or any other relevant fund, if employer does not credit it into such funds before the due date under respective Acts. Further, the due date applicable to deductions on payment basis i.e. return filing due date will not ap-

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FINANCE ply to this transaction. Tax deduction available to startups has now been extended to startups incorporated before 01.04.2022. Further, the Time limit for investment of net consideration from transfer of house property in startups extended from 31 March 2021 to 31 March 2022. The Budget has clarified that the presumptive taxation scheme available for professionals would be applicable to an individual, a Hindu Undivided Family or a partnership firm and NOT to a Limited Liability Partnership.  The time-period for reopening of assessment has been reduced to 3 years from the current limit of 4/6 years.

Further, such reopening can be undertaken only with the prior approval of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax.

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Further, only in specific cases, where the income escaping assessment (represented in the form of an asset) exceeds or is likely to exceed INR 50 Lakhs, the time-limit for reopening of assessment would stand increased from 3 years to 10 years. Needless to state, such extended period can be invoked only with the prior approval of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax. In the context of reopening of assessment, provisions have been inserted requiring enquiries by the Assessing Officer and a prior opportunity of personal hearing before issuance of a notice. It is now proposed that goodwill will no longer be regarded as a depreciable asset.

The objective of this amendment appears to be the apparent overruling of the judgment

of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Smifs Securities Limited (2012) 13 SCC 488 which has held that goodwill being an intangible asset is eligible for depreciation.

As I conclude, the intention of the Government in abolishing the Settlement Commission is clearly retrograde. I would think that Governments should be interested in settling disputes and hence the scope of the Settlement Commission ought to have been strengthened and widened. However, the Government thinks otherwise!

In the next article, I will be sharing my views on the indirect tax proposals along with my concluding remarks. I ask myself this question – Is India still a tax friendly jurisdiction?

To me, the copper-bottomed response – A definite NO 

HEALTH

Dr Arun Oommen MBBS, MS (Gen Surg), Mch( Neurosurgery), MRCSEd, MBA Consultant Neurosurgeon, VPS Lakeshore Hospital Kochi, India

Palliative care remains the only and indeed the most appropriate form of treatment for the patients presenting at incurable stages. Pain and palliative care units touch the lives of those who are in need of care and attention. In Kerala, the tremendous developments made in palliative care in the State have made the endof-life phase of the terminally ill more bearable. Around 80% of all palliative care services in the country are delivered in Kerala, reaching nearly 30% of the needy patients, whereas these services reach only to around 2% in India. Kerala’s attempts at caring for terminally ill patients have been regarded as a model for the rest of the world.

P

alliative care is a holistic care which fulfils the requirements of chronically ill or terminally ill patients. It has become an emerging need of the day as the existing healthcare facilities play only a limited role in the care of the chronically ill people in the society. Patients with terminal illness in most cases spend their lives in the community among their family and neighbours, so there is the need for a multi disciplinary team for their constant care. General practitioners working with palliative care teams stated that home care was the preferred option for most people with a terminal illness, and providing home care relies on good community-based services, a general practice workforce competent in palliative care practice, and willing to accommodate patients.

Palliative care volunteers are primary care givers who originate normally from the same locality with local knowledge and good public contact through which they can make significant contributions in a team work by bridging the gap between the patient community and outside world.

Palliative care is a prerequisite for a complete medical care. The existing healthcare facilities are more attuned to caring for acute health problems and they play only a limited role in the care of the chronically ill in the society. At least in India, the present medical and hospice systems do not have the capacity to guarantee quality of life for the majority of people with life-limiting illnesses.

Patients with terminal illness need a multidisciplinary team and constant care

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leading to a mounting need for palliative care.

Palliative care remains the only and indeed the most appropriate form of treatment for the patients presenting at incurable stages. Pain and palliative care units touch the lives of those who are in need of care and attention. In Kerala, the tremendous developments made in palliative care in the State have made the end-of-life phase of the terminally ill more bearable. Around 80% of all palliative care services in the country are delivered in Kerala, reaching nearly 30% of the needy patients, whereas these services reach only to around 2% in India.

Kerala’s attempts at caring for terminally ill patients have been regarded as a model for the rest of the world. The Kerala government is the only state government in Asia which has introduced a palliative care policy in the state for the first time.

There is a need to advocate adequate policy development and effective program implementation in the area of palliative care. Over 50% of the beneficiaries of palliative care services are cancer patients. The remaining groups included post stroke survivors, Alzheimer’s, terminal renal and liver diseases, chronic arthritis, old age with severe malnutrition etc. Huge medical expenditure is the major financial problem faced by the patients resulting in intractable debt.

The major medical care provided by the doctors is prescribing medicines. They also help the patients to reduce their sufferings through emotional bondage and empathy. Trained staff nurses help in administering medicines as well as catering to basic daily needs in addition to love

Full-fledged palliative care centres and home care need to increase

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HEALTH and compassionate care.

Necessity for a full-fledged palliative care service

Too many patients die an undignified death with uncontrolled symptoms Resources should be made available to enable patients to die with dignity in a setting of their choice Diagnosing dying is an important clinical skill One of the key aims of specialist palliative care is to empower generic healthcare workers to care for dying patients Core education objectives related to the care of dying patients should be incorporated in the training of all relevant healthcare professionals National indicators for care of the dying patient should be identified and monitored The impact of death in our society is easily underestimated. Evidence based guidelines now exist to help with the care of people who are

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dying, including guidelines for symptom control, psychosocial support, and bereavement care. Nonetheless, highly publicised cases continue to occur of patients dying in distress with uncontrolled symptoms and relatives being unsupported at this vulnerable time in their lives. Ensuring a good death for all is therefore a major challenge not only for healthcare professionals but also for society.

However, diagnosing dying is often a complex process. In a hospital setting, where the culture is often focused on cure, continuation of invasive procedures, investigations, and treatments may be pursued at the expense of the comfort of the patient. There is sometimes a reluctance to make the diagnosis of dying if any hope of improvement exists and even more so if no definitive diagnosis has been made. When recovery is uncertain it is better to discuss this rather than giving false hope to the patient and family. This is generally perceived as a strength

in the doctor-patient relationship and helps to build trust.

Recognising the key signs and symptoms is an important clinical skill in diagnosing dying.

It is usually preceded by a gradual deterioration in functional status. The patient becomes bedbound The patient is semicomatose The patient is able to take only sips of fluid The patient is no longer able to take oral drugs The most important element in diagnosing dying is that the members of the multi-professional team caring for the patient agree that the patient is likely to die. If the team members are in disagreement then mixed messages together with opposed goals of care can lead to poor patient management and confused communication.

Healthcare professionals are sometimes reluctant to diagnose dying, as they have not been trained to care for dying patients and there-

fore feel helpless. One example of this is the practice of transferring the patient to a side room and withdrawing from the patient and family, a strategy that has been used for many years, particularly in hospitals.

However, this is the very moment when the hospice model of “intensive palliative care” should come into action, providing physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care for the patient and the relatives.

Change from definitive care to palliative care

As patients become weaker they find it increasingly difficult to take oral drugs. Non-essential drugs should be discontinued. Drugs that need to be continued, such as opioids, anxiolytics, and antiemetics, should be converted to the subcutaneous route and a syringe driver used for continuous infusion if appropriate. As required, subcutaneous drugs should be prescribed according to an agreed protocol (including those for pain and agitation). Inappropriate interventions, including blood tests and measurement of vital signs, should be discontinued. Evidence is limited

but suggests that continuing artificial fluids in the dying patient is of limited benefit and should in most cases be discontinued. Patients who are in the dying phase should not be subjected to “cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” as this constitutes a futile and inappropriate medical treatment. The patient may have an advance directive that can be used to facilitate discussion about care at this sensitive time Regular observations should be made and good symptom control maintained, including control of pain and agitation. Attention to mouth care is essential in the dying patient, and the family can be encouraged to give sips of water or moisten the patient's mouth with a sponge. If urinary incontinence or retention is a problem, catheterisation may be needed. Invasive procedures for bowel care are rarely needed in the dying phase.

In the community, as required drugs need to be readily accessible in the patient's home. Twenty-fourhour district nursing services should be made available, and with the development of general practitioner

cooperative out of hours services the continuity of patient care must be ensured. Innovative models are being developed in the community to support patients dying at home and to prevent inappropriate admission to hospital.

The family's insight into the patient's condition should be assessed and issues relating to dying and death explored appropriately and sensitively. The family should be told that the clinical expectation is that the patient is dying and will die.

Use of ambiguous language such as “may not get better” can lead to misinterpretation and confusion. A constant source of frustration and anger voiced by bereaved relatives is that no one sat down and discussed the fact that their loved one was dying. If relatives are told clearly that the patient is dying they have the opportunity to ask questions, stay with the patient, say their goodbyes, contact relevant people, and prepare themselves for the death. Relatives of patients dying in the community should be given contact telephone numbers so that they have access to help and advice on a 24 hour basis

MOTIVATION

Dolly Neena Dolly Neena is founder of THE IGNIST, a training company born out of a noble cause and spirit.

She holds a decade long experience being a passionate mentor and entrepreneur.

We all are associated with a family, group, company, society or organization. It is important you should understand people’s feelings and perspectives clearly before you reach your conclusive perspective. Also, you represent yourself as an individual. Your tone of voice, thus, represents yourself.

It tells other people what message you want to send them.

“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

Benjamin Franklin.

W

e are onto 2021, and the importance of exhibiting tactful communication is increasing year by year. Assertive communication is the key to successful relationships and partnerships, may be at workplace, public or with family. It all usually comes down to attitude – choosing the right tone of voice, for a first, decides where your conversation will lead you to. Have a look at your own conversations – you have the same voice, but according to situations your tone changes. So, let’s have a look at why you should get it right, rather why you ‘must’!

The world is in the palm of our hands over the last 2 decades communication skills have dropped down drastically with instant messages, social feeds and the like. Everyone likes to be known as bosses in their own regime and entrepreneurs, musicians and architects and pilots and doctors and engineers and more such disciplines to which even a cobbler has a grand statement made through any of these feeds.

On the contrary, communication has become so easy that we mostly

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forget to talk sense and say many things at the same time. Let me cut to the chase - the way of ascertaining your statements in a rigid fashion could get you into trouble and get you blacklisted too. Hence to strategize a lingo to make your part of the dialogue mean business, you need to use the right kind of words at the right time and at the right place.

We all are associated with a family, group, company, society or organization. It is important you should understand people’s feelings and perspectives clearly before you reach your conclusive perspective.

Also, you represent yourself as an individual. Your tone of voice, thus, represents yourself. It tells other people what message you want to send them. It is how you talk and convey your emotions tells people how passionate you are, how serious, polite, angry, arrogant, innovative warm, humble, lively, pleasing or blunt you are. If you have noticed, if you do not take much heed into understanding the whereabouts of the other person or client. Things can easily go down south – much faster. It becomes very difficult

then to save the relationship, before much damage is done. What might be a genuine open feedback in your perspective might not be that fair for the other side. Hence it is very important to be sensitive about generating awareness about the matter at hand in deep understanding, so that you can convey the message in hand without losing respect. We do not have to be only submissive to please the other party – rather, we can choose the right words and tone, to handle issues assertively and tactfully. This ability is what makes you different. It indeed helps to build trust, openness and in turn helps to develop a healthy relationship between the two.

We are in the business of delighting customers. Today, it is a customer’s world. Our clients have many other options to choose from otherwise, if we don’t give them the right service. Tactful communication is the key here. In customer support world, we have heard you communicate the most through body language, may be 55%. There are ways to show that you mean business non-verbally. Eye contact is one - the

Stepping on someone’s toesbut tactfully!

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MOTIVATION most powerful tool when you need to make a statement in the most polite but assertive way is to look your person in the eye and make that first contact with a fixated glance which will straightaway give the indication that you mean what you say and which will make the other person say what they mean. When you look straight in the eye, it also means that you are not lying. The folded arms across your chest says you are listening but defensive but you will have your own opinion. The hands clutched in front of you about the waist line indicates you are open to what the person is about to say without being defensive, but receptive. Open hands shows you are friendly. Body language studies are again subjective to gender, situations etc. However, the idea is to have a non-hostile body language when you want to win a partnership, conversation or deal.

Two people cannot be agreeing on everything all the time. There will always be difference of opinions.

Assessing your current skill sets is significant. Do people have regular complaints about you for not listening, for not understanding, about your tone being rude and unpleasant? To understand as to be under-

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stood - it's quite imperative that one must listen twice as much as he/she speaks as you are gifted with 2 ears to listen and one mouth to speak.

Always listen intently to what your person states as this makes it easier for the two of you to understand and be understood. Sometimes, we tend to get distracted with other things around us but if you need your views to be appreciated and regarded you must give importance to what the other tries to communicate, and get the meaning of the message impeccably clear. This will in turn become a fruitful conversation when you both are understood, be it good or bad it's all about communication that's understood. This clears confusions, doubts, ambiguity and will lead to a rewarding longer term relationship and results. Be mindful to choose your medium clearly.

Sometimes you message or WhatsApp a message because you’re lazy enough or mentally blocked to pick up the phone and call. This might lead the other person to misread your message and the emotions in it and may interpret it wrongly. Proactiveness is advised while choosing the medium of communication thus. Make sure you have clearly defined the goals, expectations and

offers set beforehand to avoid any conflict at a later stage. Even when a conflict arrives, you can use your excellent skill of tactful communication to resolve it and avoid further escalations. Always strive for a winwin outcome. Being self-centered doesn’t help you in the longer run.

Be ready to forgive. A compromise might give you a larger profit and make you much happier than a onetime win. Showing empathy always take you to the next level easily. Putting vulnerable feelings and emotions into words can easily get you onto an argumentative mode. Getting onto fuming debate and fights can get more critical, which might get you more defensive step by step, which in turn might get uncontrollable. When a conflict is mismanaged, it can cause great harm to an individual, business or relationships.

Choosing the right tone in the beginning itself and sustaining it will ensure that you don’t incur unpleasant situations it the end, or you lose a valuable relationship, with a customer or in life. This takes a lot of patience, skill and practice; but it is worth a lifetime. Knowing to control your emotions at the right time will definitely give you a more stress-free relaxed life ahead

GADGETS

Xiaomi Poco M3

Rs. 11,090 (Approximately)

Android v10 (Q) OS

6.53 inches Display

48 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP Primary Cameras

8 MP Secondary Camera

4 GB RAM

64 GB Internal Memory

512 GB Expandable Memory

6000 mAh Battery Capacity

Oppo A55

Rs. 17,990 (Approximately) Android v11 OS 6.5 inches Display 13 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP Triple

Primary Cameras 8 MP Secondary Camera 6 GB RAM 128 GB Internal Memory 1 TB Expandable Memory 5000 mAh Battery Capacity

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Samsung Galaxy M02

Rs. 7000 (Approximately) Android 10 OS 5.7 inches Display 13 MP + 2 MP Primary Cameras 8 MP Secondary Camera 3 GB RAM 32 GB Internal Memory 3500 mAh Battery Capacity

Motorola Edge S

Rs. 22,590 (Approximately) Android v11 OS 6.7 inches Display 64 MP + 16 MP + 2 MP

Primary Cameras 16 MP + 8 MP Secondary Cameras 6 GB RAM 128 GB Internal Memory 512 GB Expandable Memory 5000 mAh Battery Capacity

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BEAUTY

Natural ways to

treat dry hair P eople are very conscious about the health of their hair. The majority of us believes that the beauty of our hair plays an important role in our overall beauty. Not only women but also men are very sensitive, when it comes to the beauty of their hair. Hair care products are as popular as beauty care products. The said fact clearly explains how much interested people are when it comes to the health of their hair. Notably, in this part of the world, healthy hair is a part of our traditional fashion concept, which is still relevant even in this age of cosmopolitan fashion.

Generally, people experience numerous hair related ailments. The majority of these ailments depends on various factors, from climate to diet. Dry hair is one of the serious heath issues people generally experience in connection with their hair. People don’t like dry hair.

There is a general notion that people with dry hair are not healthy in terms of physical strength. Though there are only few evidences to substantiate the said notion, it is true that people with dry hair look older than people with normal

hair.

In the present world, the issue is almost unavoidable. People, in their day to day life, consciously or unconsciously go through several factors which can led them to this issue. Improper diet, UV rays, chlorinated water, hair wash, styling products and chemical hair care products are some of them.

It is a less discussed truth that there are numerous natural tricks or tips available to address the issue of dry hair effectively. Unfortunately, probably due to the easy availability of chemical remedies, people usually prefer chemical option over the other one – natural option.

It is needless to say that natural option is in no way similar to chemical option. In a sense, natural is entirely opposite to chemical. Though, compared to chemical, natural can offer a permanent as well as assured solution, it takes at least a year or two more than what chemical takes for the recovery.

In this edition, certain highly effective natural remedies to fight dry hair are discussed.

Coconut Oil

Coconut is an easily

Dr. Elizabath Chacko, MD-Kalpana International

Mob: 9388618112

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available natural substance – especially in this part of the world. It is a rich source of Vitamin E and anti-oxidants. It is the high concentration of these elements in this substance makes it the most suitable product for the health of hair. Another main attraction towards this substance is its cost; it is very economical.

Slightly warm a few spoons of coconut oil. Pour the oil on your hand and rub the oil lightly. Apply the oil on your hair. Massage your head for few minutes. Leave the oil there for a few minutes. Shampoo the hair and wash it off with clean lukewarm water. Repeat the procedure every day for maximum result.

Egg

It is a common substance. It is available in every kitchen. It is easy to procure.

It is known for its health benefits. It is a rich source of several vitamins and minerals. What makes the substance suitable for hair care is the fact that it is a rich source of protein.

Take an egg. Separate the egg white

from the egg. Mix the egg white well. To dilute the mixture, add a few drops of water. Mix the mixture well. Apply the mixture on the hair. Massage the head well.

Shampoo the hair and wash it off with lukewarm water. Repeat the procedure at least once in a week for better result.

Avocado

It is a nutrition rich fruit. It is a rich source of numerous vitamins and minerals. It is a bit expensive, but worth the amount that is paid. It contains Vitamin E, Vitamin A, saturated fats and minerals.

Take an avocado. Peel the fruit. Mash it with a spoon of egg white. Apply the mixture on the hair. Let it rest there for few minutes. Shampoo the hair and wash it off with lukewarm water. Repeat the procedure once in a week for better result.

Dry hair is not a serious issue. It is curable. The aforesaid natural methods can fight this issue effectively.

Stay Healthy! Stay Positive!

Stay Beautiful!

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TRAVELOGUE

The country, though is tiny, is a giant in terms of its financial capability. It is a developed country and is one of the strongest economies in the continent. Steel production, chemical manufacturing, rubber and agriculture are the main strength of the Luxembourg economy.

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Luxembourg: A small sovereign state in Europe

L

uxembourg is a beautiful country situated in the continent of Europe. It is a small landlocked country situated between Germany, France and Belgium. Notably, Luxembourg City, one of the four capitals of European Union, is the capital of the one of the least populated country in the continent.

The country, though is tiny, is a giant in terms of its financial capability. It is a developed country and is one of the strongest economies in the continent. Steel production, chemical manufacturing, rubber and agriculture are the main strength of the Luxembourg economy. Still, what makes this economy indestructible is its private finance sector. It is one of the popular safe heavens in the continent. A recent study ranks the country just behind Switzerland. Anyway, the pressure is high over the country to relook its private banking rules. Recently, the matter has been raised in the G20 meeting too.

The country has recently hit headlines in India. B Medical Systems, which is a Luxembourg based vaccine cold chain and medical refrigeration service, has inked a crucial deal with Adani Group, which is powerful conglomerate based in the Asian superpower of India. The deal proposes to set up manufacturing facility and technology initiatives in India. It also focuses on a technological collaboration to bring solar powered vaccine logistics solutions to the Asian country.

Few months ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a virtual meeting with his Luxem-

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TRAVELOGUE

bourg counterpart, Xavier Bettel.

During the meeting, the leaders discussed several important topics.

The development implies that India is looking to step up its bilateral relation with the European country with mutually beneficial trade deals.

Luxembourg is a founding member of the European Union. It is also the member of the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Organisation for Economic

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Cooperation and Development.

It was a member of United Nations Security Council. It was the first time that a tiny country from the continent of Europe entered into the top seat in the UNSC. Luxembourg is not less than a true heaven. It holds low Unemployment Rate, high Human Development Index and high Income Per Capita. Its passport is the fifth powerful passport in the world. It enjoys visa-free access to at least

187 countries.

The history of the country is as dark as the history of every European country. The country has gone through several twists and turns. Interestingly, it is the world’s only remaining sovereign grand duchy. The country is headed by Henri, who is the eldest son of Grand Duke Jean and Princess Josephine Charlotte of Belgium and a first cousin of King Philippe of Belgium.

Though it is a constitutional

The Old Quarter of Luxembourg City, The National Museum of History and Art, The Bock Casements, The Grand Ducal Palace and The Walls of the Corniche are the five tourist attractions in the country.

monarch, it upholds a powerful democratic value system with a sound representative democracy structure.

In the recent past, Luxembourg has emerged as the most attractive tourist destination in this part of the Europe. It Is blessed with several beautiful attractions. It is a true natural beauty. The country is known for its castles and fortresses.

The Old Quarter of Luxembourg

City, The National Museum of History and Art, The Bock Casements, The Grand Ducal Palace and The Walls of the Corniche are the five tourist attractions in the country.

The Old Quarter of Luxembourg City is a historic destination in the country. It is home to several amazing historic buildings, homes, roads and bridges. The Adolphe Bridge is the most popular among the bridges situated in this part of the country.

The destination is popular for its fortification. It is the best place to start a Luxembourg trip. It is a true heaven to history lovers.

The National Museum of History and Art showcases the rich history of the country. It displays numerous art objects, archaeological findings, coins and documents which can speak volumes about the rich history the country holds. The museum is located near a historic market,

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TRAVELOGUE which is a popular tourist attraction in the region. The museum focuses on the Gallo-Roman period. A visit to the museum is truly informative.

The Bock Casements is the iconic place to visit in the country.

It is a 21 KM long underground passage. It is a part of the fortification. It can provide shelter to thousands of defenders. The architecture speaks volumes about the defence structure of the fortification. The destination offers foot trips.

The Grand Ducal Palace is one

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of the most popular landmarks in the country. It is a renaissance building.

It was the official residence of Grand Duke Henri. It is a prime tourist attraction in the country. It is still the official palace of Duke.

The Walls of the Corniche is one of the most beautiful balconies in the continent of Europe. It is home to numerous aristocratic refugees. St. Michael’s Church is an important destination in the region. The region is known for its historic importance.

The country stands out from the

rest of the Europe for its culture, tradition, language, art, music, architecture and its cuisine. Luxembourgish is the official language of the country, though French and German are also popular. The Luxembourg cuisine reflects its geographical position, as it is a fine blend of German, French and local cooking styles. The Luxembourg culture, tradition, art, architecture and music have a Roman influence.

Let’s plan a trip Today itself.

AUTO REVIEW

Vivek Venugopal is one of India’s top automotive writers with over a decade’s experience in road-testing and reviewing cars.

He is currently the Editor of Quarter Mile magazine and a columnist in several leading magazines and newspapers. He is also a highly sought after consulting engineer and market analyst for many automobile manufacturers.

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It The Gloster feels heavy and ponderous at first, but has surprisingly good road manners for a heavy car. It rolls a fair bit, but for a ladder frame chassis, it has good amounts of grip and composure. The steering has decent levels of feel and is accurate, the big SUV can change directions with relative ease. The ride quality is quite good for something so heavy and not overtly soft in its suspension setup.

T

he MG brand in India has been off to a great start with the Hector, adding the ZS EV and the Hector Plus to its line-up in a short span of time. The Gloster is MG’s flagship SUV for India and goes against the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour, Mahindra Alturas G4 and Isuzu MUX. With the Gloster, MG is taking the value proposition of the brand even more forward by not being cheaper than its rivals, but by offering a lot more features from several segments above. Let’s find out if it’s any good.

Most car brands today - be it Honda, VW, Audi, Mercedes - they all have this corporate design identity wherein all their cars have the same design, especially the front end; but not MG Motors. That’s because MG India sources each of its cars from various brands under the SAIC group. The Gloster is

based on a Maxus/LDV D90, which is based on the T60 pickup. Like the other cars in this segment, it is a rugged ladder frame platform with a body on top. Where it stands out from the competition, is in the size department and you have to see it for real. At 4985mm length, 1926mm width, 1867mm height, 2950mm wheelbase, it is massive! Only the Mahindra Alturas is slightly wider. The Gloster has massive presence although the rest of the design isn’t that special.

We hate the tacky Internet Inside badge and the Gloster name spelled out in caps on the tailgate and the fake quad tail pipes ends under that. The chrome embellishments look decent against the black paintwork on our test car and those 19-inch wheels although they look small with the huge body, are detailed enough.

Open the doors and the cabin

feels inviting. The dashboard is remarkably similar to a BMW’s in design which from a customer point, isn’t a bad thing. The tan leather trim lifts the interior ambience a lot, it has a 12.3 inches touch screen unit along with another 8 inches for the instrument console.

The infotainment system has voice commands, a 360-degree parking camera, android auto, a built-in sim card for internet connectivity, live weather updates and music streaming. There are acres of space both in front and rear. The seats are individual chairs for the first two rows and a reasonably big bench for the

third. The seats themselves are quite hard and the front seats have excessive support in the lower back region. The driver seat has 12-way adjustments with memory, massage, ventilating and heating functions. The middle row is easily the best in class, with ample space all around and is perfect to be chauffeur driven in. The rear most row is spacious too, with decent headroom and knee room, although you are seated low with not much space under the seat in front, to tuck your feet below. The Gloster comes loaded with panoramic sunroof, three zone climate control, automatic

headlamps, wipers, wireless charging, 12 speaker audio system, tyre pressure monitoring, auto parking assist, driver fatigue warning, adaptive cruise control, auto emergency braking, lane departure warning, blind spot detection system etc. The blind spot warning works really well, as does the adaptive cruise control system which can maintain a safe distance with the vehicle in front and bringing the Gloster to a halt if necessary. Our test car had worn, grabby brakes and they were kind of letting the whole experience down.

Also, the parking sensor beeps were annoyingly loud and we couldn’t find

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AUTO REVIEW

If size and presence is your thing, the MG Gloster has that in spades. It can look imposing next to SUVs that cost twice as much, has acres of space to match and loads of tech to shame them too. It is refined, comfortable and has good highway manners too. We didn’t like the way the engine is tuned and how big and ponderous it feels around town. That middle row is where you want to be in this one.

a way to turn them off.

The MG Gloster is powered by a 2.0L four-cylinder diesel that, in this twin-turbo variant, puts out 215bhp and 480Nm. These are class leading figures but the engine feels gutless under normal driving, especially when you move off. It is very lazy to pick up revs, wakes up around 2000rpm and quickly loses steam just under 4000rpm. It is mated to an 8 speed ZF automatic but the tuning is all wrong. The gearbox gets confused at times and you feel there are few flat spots in power delivery. But when you go all out and do a launch, it does 0-100kmph in a very respectable 11.1 seconds – not bad for something that weighs 2.5 tonnes! Wish that its performance was more usable. The lazy nature of the engine along with its unwieldy dimensions, is not something you enjoy in the city. Get it out on the

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highway and you will appreciate it.

There is also a 163bhp, 375Nm single turbo variant of this engine in the lower spec Gloster but we have no idea how it would handle all that weight.

The Gloster feels heavy and ponderous at first, but has surprisingly good road manners for a heavy car. It rolls a fair bit, but for a ladder frame chassis, it has good amounts of grip and composure. The steering has decent levels of feel and is accurate, the big SUV can change directions with relative ease. The ride quality is quite good for something so heavy and not overtly soft in its suspension setup. There is some bulkiness at low speeds, but it gets better as speed picks up. Brakes on our test car weren’t all that great and seemed to have been abused a lot.

We didn’t take it off-roading, so we don’t know how capable it is out

there. The four-wheel drive has a locking electronic differential. The system uses different drive modes - Sand, Snow, Rock and Mud, but that’s all you have control over and you can’t select 4WD or Low Range manually like in its rivals. The low chin of the front bumper and the overall classy nature of the car, left us thinking if we should get it dirty at all. May be another time.

If size and presence is your thing, the MG Gloster has that in spades. It can look imposing next to SUVs that cost twice as much, has acres of space to match and loads of tech to shame them too. It is refined, comfortable and has good highway manners too. We didn’t like the way the engine is tuned and how big and ponderous it feels around town. That middle row is where you want to be in this one. Best SUV to be chauffer driven in? Absolutely

MOVIE REVIEW

Pathan

I

t is an action film directed by young filmmaker Siddharth Anand, who is also a talented writer.

The film tells the story of a dangerous criminal, who heads a powerful drug mafia, and an undercover cop, who takes up a tiring task of dismantling the mafia. The film offers several stunning action sequences.

Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham appear in the lead roles. Apart from the stylish actors, Deepika Padukone and Dimple Kapadia act in the main roles. The film can emerge as the most stunning action film from Bollywood. The film can appeal those who love action and style.

Tuesdays and Fridays

I

t is a romantic film directed by young filmmaker Taranveer Singh, who is also a talented writer.

The film tells a heart-warming story of two young lovers, who are allowed to meet each other only on Tuesdays and Fridays. The film stands out from similar films for its making. Anmol Dhillon and Jhataleka Malhotra play the central characters. Apart from the two, Niki Walia, Zoa Morani, Nayan Shukla, Kamini Khanna, Sammy Jonas Heaney, Reem Shaikh and Eklavey Kashyap act in the lead roles. The film can appeal those who love to watch romantic movies. It has the potential to emerge as an extraordinary romantic film.

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Bliss

I

t is a psychological film directed by American filmmaker Mike Cahill, who is also a talented screenplay writer. The film depicts the story of an unfulfilled man and a mysterious woman. Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek appear as the central characters. Apart from the quintessential actors, Bill Nye, Nesta Cooper and Madeline Zima act in the main roles.

What makes the film special is its story, which portrays a stunning fight between real and unreal. The film can excite all kinds of audiences. It can emerge as the most powerful psychological film from Hollywood. The film is produced by James D Stern.

Coming 2 America

I

t is a comedy film directed by American filmmaker Craig Brewer, who is also a producer and screenwriter. It is the latest film from the Coming to America series. The screenplay is done by Kenya Barris, David Sheffield and Barry W Blaustein. The film is produced by Eddie Murphy and Kevin Misher. Eddie Murphy, Shari Headley, James Earl Jones, Arsenio Hall and Wesley Snipes appear in the lead roles. The film is special for its stunning comedy sequences. It can appeal all kinds of viewers. The film is expected to become the most interesting comedy films from the Hollywood film industry.

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BOOK REVIEW

The Right Choice: Resolving 10 Career Dilemmas for Extraordinary Success Author Price

: Shiv Shivakumar : Rs. 319 (Hardcover)

H

ow can we achieve success in our career? It is a very disturbing question, which needs a serious rational introspection. Not many studies have successfully addressed this sensitive question. This book makes a courageous attempt to address the topic of ‘success, choice and career’.

It discusses some common dilemmas which we can expect in our career.

The author is one of the longest serving CEOs of India Inc. His wisdom and experiences are clearly visible in each and every paragraph. The book states that it is important to make right choices at right time. The book is highly suitable for business enthusiasts.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know Author Price

W

: Adam Grant : Rs. 2,282 (Hardcover)

hat is intelligence? It is a tricky question. In a general sense, intelligence is the ability to learn and think. Don’t you feel that this definition needs to be upgraded? Actually, the existing definition is inconsistent with the reality of this day. To make the definition relevant for this day, we must add certain new concepts into the definition. Today, intelligence is not just the ability to learn and think, but is also the ability to unlearn and rethink. The book discusses the topic in detail. The writer is an organisational psychologist. The book showcases his experience enormously. The book is suitable for all kinds of readers.

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BOOK REVIEW

India’s First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975 – 77 Author Price

: Christophe Jaffrelot, Pratinav Anil : Rs. 719 (Hardcover)

I

f one asks what is the darkest period in the Indian history, it is not unfair to name the emergency period, between the year 1975 and the year 1977. The reason is simple. During the period, the rights of people were limited, and the country witnessed numerous system-sponsored atrocities, such as human right violations. How we responded to the atrocities?

It is the big question. The book explores the sensitive topic of the 1997 emergency. Particularly, it focuses primarily on the aforesaid question.

The book rightly points out that the country has not yet recovered fully from the emergency hangover. It provides a deep insight into the topic and is suitable for everyone.

The Shudras: Vision for a New Path Author

Price

W

: Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, Karthik Raja Karuppusamy : Rs. 559 (Hardcover)

ho are the Shudras? Where they stand in the Indian political hemisphere? What is their importance in the Indian political structure? Dr. B R Ambedkar is the first person who has address these questions rightly. The writers, with this book, attempt to bring the discussions around these questions back to the political hemisphere of the country. The book appeals for the social, political, economic and spiritual progress of the Shudras. It emphasises the importance of bringing this section back to the middle of the political stage of the country. Importantly, it speaks for spiritual equality. The book is suitable for everyone.

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Printed On 09/ 02/ 2021

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