Business Goa May 2020

MAy 2020

VOL 6 ISSUE 5 panaji goa

goa’s only business magazine

RNI No.: goaeng/2015/59955

Postal license no.: G-2/RNP/Monthly/Goa-19/2018-20

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industry dossier

“our FOCUS IS ON REVIVAL OF GOA’S ECONOMY”

manoj caculo interview

powerland innovation

v m salgaocar in memoriam

pallavi lawande

professional dossier

‘tangentia talkies’ thought leader

innovating to fight covid-19 Sriram Natarajan

Sriram Natarajan is the founder-director of Molbio Diagnostics, a health-tech company that has come up with a quick and efficient way of testing people which is a practical platform especially in the face of the COVID-19 crisis

News Views Articles Interviews Profiles Focus Analysis Opinions Events Features

12

contents Cover Story 12

Molbio Diagnostics’ health tech innovation is a quick and efficient way of testing people in the face of the COVID-19 crisis

Focus Goa 16

‘Ideas for Goa’ steps ahead calling for ideas, big and small to kickstart the fallen economy

26

Trending 18

16

Forced implementation of the ‘work from home’ policy has made Video Calling Apps an indispensible business tool

Thought Leader 20

Tangentia Technologies has been a thought leader, be it with Jigyasa Corporate Quiz or ‘Tangentia Talkies’

In Memoriam 21

V M Salgaocar has been a doyen of industry. A leading mine owner, he has been a catalyst of landmark social change in Goa

Innovation 22

Powerland’s portable respirators and contactless sanitizer dispensers are innovations that have been achieved in record time

Enterprise 24

Dr Kiara Almeida, a dentist, manufactures and supplies hand sanitizers from her husband’s distillery based in Raia

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24

32

Interview 26

Manoj Caculo took over as president of Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry in June, 2019. He speaks about the challenges to revive Goa’s economy in the wake of COVID-19

Mining 28

GCCI has petitioned the State Governor with a detailed representation to restart mining activity in Goa

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36

COLUMNS

38 Light & Sound

Industry 31

CII Goa Council has addressed the issues of labour and tourism with the respective authorities via video conferencing

Professional Dossier 32

Kapil Surlakar ponders over the ethics v/s commerce debate in the field of architectural lighting

Profiling the colourful spaces that architect-interior designer Pallavi Lawande is so well known for

Sunil Dias speaks about adapting to a new environment, which can help in re-building your business

Various restaurants in Goa have chosen the home delivery model to stay in business with social distancing norms in place

39 Uncomplicate Business 40 Corporate Citizen

Daniel Albuquerque urges companies to sustain their employees and not to trample on their well-being during COVID-19

06 Editorial 08 Corpo Scan 30 Campus 30 BookShelf 34 Biz Bytes 36 Social Index 46 Newsmakers 46 BG Quiz 04 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Bon Appétit 42

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editorial Getting a hang of the ‘new normal’ may 2020

Publisher & Editor Harshvardhan Bhatkuly Co-Publisher & Group Head Urvija Bhatkuly Advisory Board Datta Damodar Naik Ralph de Sousa Rajiv D’Silva Swapnil Kamat Business Head Annalise Gouveia Reporters Sybil Rodrigues Nadine Monteiro Admin & Accounts Ashok Kolvekar Distribution & Logistics Mayur Santinezkar Pritesh Naik Contributors in this Issue Ameya Nayak Daniel Albuquerque Kapil Surlakar Sunil Dias

Editorial, Advertising & Administrative Office

Business Goa

409, Citicentre, EDC Patto Plaza, Panaji, 403001 Goa India Tel.: 0832-2437822 Email: businessgoa.media@gmail.com Unsolicited material may not be returned. The opinions in columns and other stories expressed in Business Goa Industry Dossier are not necessarily that of the publishers and the Publisher/Editor shall not be held liable for any inaccuracy or otherwise.

While great care is being taken to ensure accuracy of information, the publishers are not responsible for omissions or incorrect information. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the publishers.

One of the toughest periods of our lives and business is upon us. As Goa, along with the world, fights Covid 19, after the initial strict lockdown, businesses and entrepreneurs are now getting out of forced hibernation to restart their businesses.

After discussing ‘the way forward’ ideas with many business owners and entrepreneurs, the only common response that emerged is that the coronavirus is here to stay and that until such time that there is no definite medical innovation – in terms of a vaccine or some reliable medical relief – we would have to conduct business within the confines of the safety guidelines. Social distancing, sanitizing our surroundings, building our immunity and maintaining a healthy disposition are currently, and rightly so, the priorities of our lives and work.

One of the most inspiring observations during the lockdown period was that so many entrepreneurs who work in a community – like the BNI in Goa – latched on to their collective strengths and networks to stay focussed on their work. In fact, I learnt that since BNI is a global organisation, they were constantly receiving updates from their worldwide network and the Goa unit was already putting into practice strategies like video communication and work-fromhome, well before the compulsory lockdown was enforced in the state.

Planning on working from home in this new version of normality is something that I have missed, although I cannot help but marvel at and applaud those organisations, who foresaw that a new world order was coming; and took proactive actions to suit themselves and their businesses; so that despite some aspects of their businesses being unavailable in these trying times, they would not be rendered completely down and out.

Few years ago I had relied on the aspect of ‘momentum’ in one of my editorials – which was pertaining to the discontinuation of mining in the state. I had argued that it is very difficult to restart a business that has

06 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Harshvardhan Bhatkuly seen long periods of inactivity.

In the beginning of the lockdown, an area that needed considerable attention, particularly for entrepreneurs, is mental health and staying motivated in this time of economic uncertainty. People had started to lose business, revenue and what may have previously seemed like an assured transaction. Many people had taken huge financial risks in anticipation of such ‘assured’ business and were looking at an uncertain financial situation. True to their motto, many national and regional organisations stepped up to the challenge with various online webinars and sessions to equip businesses with ideas to combat the uncertainty that loomed large over the economic scenario.

It is heartening that people took to video apps like Zoom, Skype and Google Duo that allowed for face to face interactions with their business associates and colleagues.

Some evolved organisations also made sure that they did not let the work-fromhome situation impact their productivity, by systematically channelizing their value chain into a seamless flow of activity.

Of course, there are many businesses like restaurants, hotels, events and advertising who still don’t know when they will be able to regain their normal rate of churn. We, in the media business, have also been at the receiving end of this uncertainty as our revenues and physical reach have dwindled beyond hope. Some restaurants got into the act of delivery service and recouped a part of the revenue pie which may have otherwise been lost. There are some businesses which are already pivoting into other – sometimes totally unrelated – sectors, to keep the fires burning.

Looking at the scenario today, it may seem that the ‘old normal’ is somewhat of a mirage and to expect its return in terms of the same physical or economic format is rather far-fetched just now. We have to find ways to stay in business, stay relevant and bring some grist to the mill

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Corpo Scan

@businessgoa

Goa CM to meet up with bankers to discuss Central Relief Package Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant has, just days after Prime Minister Modi announced the magnanimous 20 Lakh Crore COVID relief package, convened an immediate meeting of Goan bankers in order to disburse maximum benefit of the schemes contained within the package. While elaborating further, Dr. Sawant said that he has called for State Level Banking Committee (SLBC) meetings to gain clarity on the package thus enabling Goa to

Dr Pramod Sawant

give appropriate directions to gain maximum benefits from the financial package.

GSIA gets approval to bring staff from across borders

Return of workers and staff of local units is presently underway in the state with the Goan industry gradually bringing in its stranded workforce from outside the state.

Goa Small Industries Association (GSIA), the industry body assigned with the responsibility of coordinating the return of these workers, informed that it has received permission from the government for the return of 1,200 workers and some of the workers have already arrived in the state.

President of GSIA, Damodar Kochkar has revealed that workers and employees coming in from across the borders are housed in government-certified quarantine facilities (mainly hotels) by their respective companies. The workers are being tested for COVID-19 and samples are sent to Mumbai for private testing.

The results come in after 48 hours and unit owners have to wait for the results before permitting the workers to join.

Kochkar further explained that although the state has facilities for COVID-19 testing, it is not enough to meet the demand from industrial units. Industries are provided a quota of 60 tests per day and hence unit

owners prefer to send samples outside the State for testing.

The Government has approved of 1200 applications out of 2200 applications which were processed by the GSIA. Meanwhile, the Goa Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (GPMA) is also co-ordinating for the return of staff of local pharmaceutical units.

Praveen Khullar, President, GPMA, said that pharma companies are closely checking the background of staff that would be coming in to the state.

Khullar elaborated that the industry is calling in staff living in the green zone to resume services. He further added that the GPMA has received approval to bring in about 150 pharma employees, who live across the borders while another batch of 300 applications are in waiting.

The local industry is heavily reliant on labour from out of Goa for functioning and unit owners were relieved when the Government announced the standard operating protocol (SOP) for movement of stranded workers from across the borders.

According to the industry estimate, about 5,000 staff members of local units are from out of Goa, who are

08 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

While the Prime Minister has not particularly announced a state wise strategy for the financial package, CM Sawant mentions sector-wise usage of benefits entailed within the schemes.

While ensuring highest effort on part of the Government for enhancement of sectors such as agriculture, industry and infrastructure, Dr. Sawant also mentioned promoting state contractors with the objective of motivating them to bid for

advanced projects. Moreover, the Chief Minister mentioned about 147 innovative suggestions that have been put across by the general public in order to reinvigorate the fallen economy and the state shall welcome such suggestions for another week or so. In the interim, Dr. Sawant also warned the public to avoid indulging in passing of unverified COVID related rumours, failing which strict action would be taken against offenders by the State

State unable to offer monetary backing due to sharp fall in revenue Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant has expressed immense regret over not being able to provide financial aid to those who have lost their livelihood in Goa due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. The primary reason for this is the sharp drop in state revenue of about 80% during the lockdown period. Dr. Sawant stated that he is indeed conscious of the fact that various taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers, motorcycle pilots and many others have had absolutely zero income during these tough times, and as much as he personally desires to extend a relief package to those affected, he wishes to do

the same for those who are in dire need of help and cannot afford even two square meals a day. However, due to sudden shut down of tourism and major tax slumps especially relating to GST and VAT on fuel and beverages such as alcohol during the lockdown, the state is powerless and is unable to grant any sort of relief at the moment.

Considering that the State has witnessed a major tax drop of about 90% or more, the States GST collection in April itself has fallen to about 32 Crores as against an expected figure of about 338 Crores, thus highlighting the major revenue crisis that Goa is facing

long-standing employees and live on the outskirts of Goa. As per the SOP laid down for across-the-border movement of employees, industry will have to collect information of the stranded staff. The information has to be shared with the District Collectors and while sharing information, industry must give an undertaking that the employees they propose to move to Goa are “healthy and comply with all MHA guidelines.�

Further, each staff entering the state will have to give an undertaking that he will be within home premises for 14

days and not in contact with any individual, who exhibits influenza-like symptoms. It is also necessary for the staff to register on the Arogya Setu app.

The SOP states that once the staff enters the state, they would be moved to a designated quarantine centre and be subjected to a COVID-19 test. The staff can move out of quarantine if the test comes negative. The quarantine centre must be identified by the employer and the cost of quarantine, testing and other arrangements be borne entirely by the concerned employer

Corpo Scan

@businessgoa

Joshua D’Souza: GSIDC to work only on priority projects

Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat bats for small entrepreneurs

The ongoing breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to forceful scarcity of funds especially where resources were disbursed for the completion of the South Goa District Hospital, it is reported that Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation is left with no choice but to prioritise its ventures. The infrastructurecentred projects which are almost complete shall continue on precedence while all other remainder projects which have not received work orders shall be put on hold.

GSIDC Vice Chairman, Joshua D’Souza stated that

brewers, and the Goa’s Leader leaseholders of the of Opposition, shops at KTC bus Digambar Kamat, stand, municipal while expressing markets and his concern over railway stations the deteriorating have also lost financial condition precious trade. of the State Demographically has urged the speaking, Government to K a m a t give out highest stated that there support in favour Digambar Kamat are currently of local Goan about 1,100 motorcycle entrepreneurs who contribute pilots, 1,200 rickshaw to almost 50% of Goa’s owners besides other small economy. operators who have already Kamat mentioned how registered themselves with local vendors in the State the Government. Elaborating such as those dealing in fish, further, he maintained that fruit and vegetables sales about 20,000 such business along with local hawkers, units must be provided with taxi drivers, motorcycle financial aid for a minimum pilots, farmers and daily wage period of 2 months. earners are in unfathomable Remarking that outlining difficulty; and further, an immediate strategy for the mounting EMIs and absence economic revitalization of the of monetary liquidity has only State will lead to financial gains added to their woes. to these local entrepreneurs, The former Chief Minister Kamat demanded that certain also pointed out that about minimal funds be disbursed 700 plus small entrepreneurs with immediate effect to them operating taxis, tempo and in order to curtail pushing private bus operators, kioskthem into debt trap owners, local urrak and feni

projects which are 90% complete and have just about 10% works to be done such as the construction of the High Court complex at Porvorim shall continue. However, other state projects such as the Mapusa and Margao bus stand will have to be temporarily kept in abeyance.

D’Souza said that the present priority shall be accorded to schools, hospitals and maintenance activities.

He also confirmed that quite a few bills continue to remain pending as funds were diverted towards completion of the South Goa District Hospital

20000 MSMEs eligible for Centre’s Loan Scheme: Dr Pramod Sawant Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant said that 20,000 micro, small and medium enterprises in the state are eligible under the central scheme for Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free ‘automatic’ loans announced

by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently.

Dr. Sawant had chaired a meeting with the State Level Bankers Committee and said that the Government has appealed to banks to enable the state to avail maximum benefit of various schemes and financial packages announced by the Centre.

This meeting was attended by Finance Secretary, Officials of the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India and other nationalized banks.

Dr. Sawant said that the bankers have agreed to give loans to traditional and rural businesses in Goa so as to bring about a change in the rural economy.

Regarding loans to the tourism sector, he further said that all loans, including the loans taken to buy vehicles for running taxi service, will get relief of three to six months.

Dr. Sawant also added that the loans taken by businesses will get a moratorium and will

not be converted into nonperforming assets.

Dr. Sawant further mentioned that the Bankers have given assurance that the 20,000 MSMEs which are eligible under the central scheme can avail 20 per cent more loans without producing any surety

RBI extends curbs on Madgaum Urban Co-op Bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the financial sanctions imposed on Madgaum Urban Cooperative Bank for another three months.

The bank’s Managing Director Kishore Amonkar said they were in the process of merging with TJSB (Thane Janata Sahakari Bank) but added that the current lockdown was hampering the process. Amonkar added that they had met up with TJSB on April 4th but with the current situation of the corona virus and more so in Maharashtra, TJSB’s board of directors has been unable to meet and take a decision on the merger. He also mentioned that although they have got a three month extension from the RBI, but if the merger falls flat they have

10 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

to be ready for a situation like the one that befell on the Mapusa Urban Co-op Bank.

He also said that the process for merger had begun soon after the bank’s last annual general body meeting where it was unanimously resolved to go ahead with the merger process but added that any formal decision or MoU had yet to be signed between the two. The Madgaum Urban Co-operative Bank was first hit with RBI sanction in May last year limiting depositors from withdrawals above Rs 5,000 for six months.

Following the six month limit in November, a relaxation was issued and was then extended from November 2019 to May 2020.

The RBI issued a statement directing that its directives

issued in May 2019 would still stand in place from May 2020 up to August 2020.

Initially, the plans were to merge with the PMC (Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank) bank, but were dropped after the RBI imposed restrictions on them as well making way for the TJSB merger.

Despite the three month extension, however, bank stakeholders are wary of the future and have reiterated their demand for an inquiry into the bank’s bad loans.

Some depositers feel that the government should appoint a liquidator and start a CBI inquiry into the bad loaning from 2007 to 2012.

The current cash crunch will also put depositers in an uncomfortable situation

Cover story Sriram Natarajan is the founder-director of Molbio Diagnostics, a health-tech company that has come up with a quick and efficient way of testing people which is a practical platform, especially in the face of the COVID-19 crisis

Sriram Natarajan

S

Innovation in the face of Covid-19

By sunil dias

riram Natarajan, a technocrat, is the founder Director and Chief Executive Officer of Molbio Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. Apart from holding M.Sc, M.Phil. degrees, he also has four years of academic research experience, in addition to 34 years of experience in developing, manufacturing and marketing

of diagnostic devices and kits. These products cater to worldwide markets in both the private as well as public sector.

The Truelab Real Time quantitative micro PCR system from Molbio Diagnostics brings PCR technology right to the point-of-care. At all the laboratory and non-

12 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

laboratory settings, primary centres essentially at all levels of healthcare including in the field i.e near the patient.

Molbio has decentralized and democratised access to molecular diagnostics. With growth in variety of infectious diseases, this rapid and portable technology enables early and accurate diagnosis.

This enables timely initiation

of correct treatment right at the first point of contact. The platform is infrastructure independent and provides a complete end-to-end solution for disease diagnosis. With proven ability to work even at Primary Health Centers and with wireless data transfer capability, this game changing technology brings in a paradigm shift to the

www.businessgoa.in

global fight in control and management of devastating infectious diseases.

The system works on disease specific Truenat microchips for conducting a real time PCR. The sample preparation (extraction and purification) is done on a fully automated, cartridge based Trueprep AUTO sample prep device.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved of the test kits, which can give results in an hour and half.

Sriram speaks about Molbio’s Covid-19 real time PCR test and further plans of expansion.

Sriram asserts that “This is an innovation which has happened from our company with complete Indian technology, which is called Point of Care Real Time macro PCR. PCR has always been the domain of Central laboratories. The nature of PCR itself is such that, only high ended, sophisticated central laboratories could do a PCR. Some of the reasons probably are that they could bring in very expensive equipment, they have extremely heavy laboratory infrastructure and highly skilled people, hence PCR was always limited to big labs.

Samples were collected from all over the country and brought to these big labs for testing. This was limiting access to PCR testing for most people and was also causing a delay in the report of results.

The highly suspected patients had to wait a long time before results could be confirmed and it has even taken a couple of weeks before this could happen.”

Molbio’s technology which is called the Truenat platform brings this PCR technology into a small, portable point-of-care, model. It has battery operated

and portable machines as well as kits that are stable at normal temperatures and can be deployed even at primary health care levels.

“It is completely user friendly and people can be trained quickly and easily to perform these tests. It can be deployed across the country and instead of samples having to travel long distances the technology itself is available at the point of contact. We do not have to waste much time and we do a single testing at a time unlike a central laboratory where they have to do loads of tests.

Reports are available within

an hour and this makes it a highly deployable and practical kind of a platform, especially in the case of a crisis like what we have right now,” adds Sriram.

He also points out that as soon as the lockdown is relaxed, and people get on the move again, the need for testing is going to be very important. “We are different from other technologies in this regard and much more practical, which is a real need of the hour,” says Sriram.

Regarding the roll out of these test kits, Sriram explains that they have already started deploying the test kits.

“Being our home state, Goa was the first to avail of this technology and at present we have five machines here.

Goa has already taken about two thousand test kits so far and are planning to order some more. The second state is Andhra Pradesh which already had our machines from the earlier TB installations. It was easier for the state to convert them into Corona Virus test machines.”

Sriram also adds that their machines are multidisciplinary platforms and can be used for doing all sorts of tests. “We have tests for TB, Dengue, Swine Flu, and Malaria and so on. Andhra

Molbio’s technology which is called the Truenat platform brings this PCR technology into a small, portable pointof-care, model

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 13

Cover story

Pradesh has around 240 of our machines in their state and it was convenient for them to start buying our test kits and using them. We have already provided them around fifty thousand test kits and they have placed an order for another fifty thousand.”

Sriram’s company has also supplied a smaller number of kits to Chhattisgarh, which has also placed an orderfor a larger number. “A lot of things are happening at the same time,” says Sriram of the rush for the kits in the wake of Covid-19.

Molbio has also received an order from the central TB Division, the Ministry of Health, for around 1500 machines to be deployed across India. That order was placed for TB diagnostics but as they were to commence their roll out, Covid-19 took the world by surprise.

@businessgoamagazine

“Now they want to use these machines to test for the Corona virus. We have to start deploying them as soon as possible. By the end of May we plan to deploy about around 500 of these machines across the country and they have already placed an order for 12 lakh test kits to be delivered over a period of time by end of May. At this point of time we have a commitment to the Central Government for 12 lakh test kits, we have Andhra Pradesh already using these test kits in a fairly large way and Goa, of course, is also using our tests. In the next two to three months we are going to see most of the states in India using our technology,” says Sriram.

This has been an extremely engaging and stressful period for the company. Ramping up production has its own

challenges. Especially with the lockdown being in force.

When asked about these challenges, Sriram says, “It’s a big challenge but we have also been able to find solutions. The Government of Goa has been very helpful in this regard and has given us all the required permissions to get our company going.

It has also been a challenge to get our people to come to work. It took about 10 days, to convince and get them to start working.

Besides this, we did not have any other issues with commencing the factory operations.

The bigger problem was procuring raw material and components.

That has been quite a challenge till date. But with everything in place now, we are fairly confident that we can get our materials in the state.

Deliveries are also a challenge,

and again we are searching for solutions to this challenge.

Things are improving step by step but it is not as easy as it was earlier, much before the lockdown has been in place.

Cost of materials has also gone up, transportation costs have seen a dramatic rise which adds to our cost. That is quite a strain as we do not want to change our pricing structure. We are trying to see how best we can manage the situation,” says Sriram about the changes that lockdown has brought in for the supply chain in the country. He also adds that “Scaling up is another thing that we have to do although we have built up this kind of capacity keeping the TB program in mind. It’s very clear that this scale is not sufficient, and we have to ramp up even more.

We are already working on this, with some activities planned in the operations.

The Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone (APMZ) is a very high end zone and it is a way for us to commence our activities there. We should be able to scale up significantly there too.”

When asked about Covid-19 and when the world will see the last of it, Sriram was point blank in saying that it would be a very long time in seeing the last of Covid 19. He was positive when it came to the severity of the infection. He stated, that the Government of India has taken appropriate steps in terms of lockdown and social distancing measures.

Molbio’s new facility at Verna

14 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

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he believes that the spread of the disease has been curtailed quite effectively. He does add that with the relaxation of the lockdown the risk will be significant as the virus is still lurking around and hasn’t disappeared. “Every day the number of cases is increasing and though the rise in India hasn’t been like other countries the numbers are still pretty high. The moment the lockdown is relaxed, and people start moving around, the chances that the virus will spread are pretty high. One has to be more careful,” he warns.

Sriram also stressed on the testing which needs to be done, so that cases can be tracked, and appropriate measures can be taken.

“People will have to take appropriate safety measures and follow social distancing.

Social distancing will be here to stay for a pretty long time and that’s the only way to minimize the spread.

Even after following all this, the virus will still be in circulation. It is just like Swine Flu. When Swine Flu came as a pandemic in 2009, it was a pretty big thing. But now it still exists in India as well as other countries. It has become a part of other diseases and viruses. In the same way Covid will become a part of us and we would have to get used to it. I don’t think we will see the end of it in the next few years,” he says.

As far as a vaccine is concerned, Sriram says that developing a vaccine is not an easy task. “The efficacy of a vaccine has to be proved, one has to go through clinical trials and much as people are optimistic in saying it will take one year for a vaccine, it might be well over a year or two before it is developed.”

He also added that viruses keep mutating and one has to see how effective a vaccine will be in this regard. “Many are working on a vaccine and much as they say that things

look promising, there’s a lot of work to be done and its effectiveness has to be proved.”

On being asked to voice his opinion on any viruses which will come up in the future, and if there’s any way to prevent them or handle in a better manner across the world like Covid is right now Sriram explains that there is no clear cut path as these viruses are highly unpredictable.

“They can mutate very fast, it’s difficult to predict how they will mutate, and new strains keep coming up very quickly. It is not possible to develop a vaccine which will eradicate everything as one can’t make a vaccine for what you haven’t seen. Constant monitoring of such outbreaks is very important. Like China didn’t inform the world about the virus till it got out of hand. The medical systems and infrastructure have to be strengthened across the world.

Especially in developing countries like India where we are able to identify as well as monitor responses and take quick action. This will help in

Truelab Duo Real time micro PCR workstation

taking preventive measures and controlling the spread of the virus.”

Sriram also mentions that the World Health Organisation (WHO) should have been more vigilant with regards to Covid and wasted time in announcing it as a pandemic. “People were still flying and travelling which led to the spread of the disease. I’m not blaming them, but they are the experts and they should have known how to act and understand what is happening. There has to be a good co-ordination between countries globally

Brief case with Truenat Real time PCR system

in the case of such outbreaks and should be reported on time to the WHO or any government in this regard.

Even small outbreaks should be reported at once and information should not be withheld from the authorities.

This will ensure that the spread is controlled; because once it spreads it becomes very difficult to subdue it. The same happened in Wuhan where the authorities didn’t keep track of the virus and took it lightly; due to which it was too late. We have to be vigilant, report everything so that timely action can be taken.”

Sriram states that this will happen as people are learning from this experience, but he also stresses on the strengthening of the health infrastructure in India. “We are very weak in our health infrastructure and now we are struggling, trying to organize a lot of things but everything takes time. We cannot do things overnight and we have to understand that such cases will keep cropping up in the future. We should be prepared to handle such situations.”

Sriram concludes with his coping mechanism during this time of stress. “There are a lot of things to be done but one has to do it. I’m comfortable with a lot of pressure and I’m used to it”

Disclaimer: This interview was conducted on 17th April 2020. The numbers quoted, with regards to test kits and truenat machines, are based as on that date.

The video of this interview is on https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sunildias_calm-leadership-pressure-activity-6659744267696775168-bFzv may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 15

focus goa

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‘IDEAS FOR GOA’

Every ‘idea’ counts!

‘Ideas For Goa’ steps ahead calling for ideas, big and small to kick-start the fallen economy

Received 370 ideas*

Tourism & Hospitality: 29% Local Food Ecosystems: 26% Learning & Knowledge: 10% Health & Wellness: 8% Creative Services: 4% Other Sectors which includes construction and real estate, water management, transportation, waste management, etc.: 23%

*on 15 May 2020

E

By ameya nayak

arl Nightingale, the American author, has said, “Everything begins with an idea.” Considering the fact that the globe has currently been hit with the COVID-19 catastrophe, the global economy has evidently been affected and most certainly has buckled down to a huge extent. Thus, ‘Ideas for Goa’ as a platform has been created with the prime purpose of reinvigorating Goa’s shrunken

“The Government and private sector are taking notice of these ideas and we are confident that many of these ideas will see the light of the day”

mayank pandya

Global Technology Leader

economy keeping in mind the belief that, actual changes can take place only with free flow of ‘ideas’ and outright civilian dispensation!

The ‘Ideas for Goa’ initiative intends to give rise to a space that can influence the desire of the people to step ahead and take part in the noble mission of achieving the greater good and ultimately giving back to the society in the most creative and innovative way possible.

This platform is open to each and every one in order to contribute their ideas irrespective of any other facet and is absolutely free of cost! What is even better is that, the ideas that are shared shall be made available to everyone for viewing at all times. ‘Ideas for Goa’ at its foundation, has a core team consisting of Mayank Pandya, Global Technology Leader; Rajesh Jog, Managing Partner, NexStage Ventures; D S Prashant, CEO, Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship; and Sanjiv Khandelwal, entrepreneur, investor and tech-mentor.

16 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

“Ideas for Goa is an opportunity to give a voice to the power of thought and ideas so that it can amplify with the support of the citizens and lovers of Goa into a wave which shall be the foundation for the economic revival of Goa post COVID-19”

prashant d s CEO, FiiRE

So, if you have an idea that can, in any way, make Goa more sustainable and affluent then this is your chance to make the most of this opportunity and choose from the many sectors that this initiative has to offer and make your idea count! ‘Ideas for Goa’ has six foremost and relevant sectors that include • Tourism and Hospitality: involving beach shacks, security, beach cleaning, wildlife tourism, medical

tourism, adventure tourism, hotels, guest houses, Bnb’s, water sports, casinos, vehicle rentals and so on.

• Local Food Ecosystems: focussing on agriculture, farm land utilisation, animal husbandry, stray cattle management, permanent and weekly markets, agro-forestry, fishing, restaurants, cafes, local product aggregation and distribution and so on.

• Creative Services: revolving around media, films, fashion, design services, art and sculpture, music, festivals, theatre, digital arts and the likes.

• Learning and Knowledge: involving schools, colleges, professional colleges, industrial training, institutes, vocational training, etc.

• Health and Wellness: including public hospitals, private hospitals, dental clinics, diagnostic centres, pharmacies, nursing homes, assisted living and senior citizen homes, ambulance and wheelchair services, yoga schools and retreats, salons and spas, animal rescue centres and so on, and lastly; • Other Sectors: revolving around construction and real estates, housing, retail, banking/ATMs, natural resources (mining), water management, transportation, religious congregation, religious festivals, waste management and so on.

That said, ‘Ideas for Goa’ urges people to share their tangible ideas that can swiftly be acted upon through contribution from credible entrepreneurs with nominal fiscal outlay. Further, those who visit the website (www. ideasforgoa.com) will be given the opportunity to vote for the ideas that have been provided in furtherance of which, the most popular ideas will be listed atop, giving due acknowledgment to the contributor of the idea!

Thereafter, based on the

@businessgoamagazine

number of votes that every idea bags, the ‘Top 100 Ideas’ will be published and shared with the general public at large, and also with the State administrative mechanism and impending operation and support agencies. In addition, the contributors of those respective ideas will further have the opportunity to layout and present their plan of action and assist in its execution in a systematised manner.

The ‘Ideas for Goa’ platform has put in place certain mandatory guidelines that need to be adhered to for smooth functioning and implementation of the initiative. These include: 1. Intellectual Property aspect: Contributors must undertake to contribute ideas without claiming any rights on the idea that they provide.

The aim is selfless partaking in the greater interest of the economy.

2.

Privacy aspect: The platform shall store only the contributors first name, last name and email ID. All other personal data that has been provided shall be erased upon collection and publication of ideas.

3. Ethical Conduct: Contributors are expected to participate with greatest reciprocal respect. Offensive and demeaning ideas will not be accepted. More importantly, ideas given must be free of political, religious or special interests agenda; and must be supremely connected to the objective of reviving the economy post the COVID-19 phase.

The idea must be capable of practical functioning and execution within a short span of time and must not be an advertisement for any form of profit or business-related activities.

4. Duration: The platform shall be open and invites ideas till 31st of May, 2020 following which an open letter consisting of the top 100 ideas along with the respective idea

“With enlightened minds and ideas coming from the common man, we truly believe that the Goan society can be enriched leading to greater prosperity”

rajesh jog

Managing Partner, NexStage Ventures

contributors’ names shall be published on the official ‘Ideas for Goa’ website post the abovementioned deadline.

As far as accomplishing this colossal makeover objective is concerned, the core team of the initiative shall moderate the ideas with the intent to ensure that every idea adheres to the guidelines that have been put down and will further market the platform on all forms of digital, social and print media.

Additionally, support from people and organizations such as the ambassadors is also being solicited in order to fuel more and more engagement and participation.

The ‘Ideas for Goa’ initiative has roped in a few prominent partners that includes Herald, Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry, FiiRE, Sensible Earth, Business Goa, Confederation of Indian Industry, Salt Water Associates, JumpCutGoa, Goa State Industries Association, Womens Wing-GCCI, Goa Humanitarian Helpline, Travel & Tourism Association of Goa, Goa Womania, Indigomusic.com and the Corporation of City of Panaji.

Moreover, the platform has received immense support from its incredible ambassador list that includes Sujay Gupta, Jose Manuel Noronha, Sheetal & Sunil Pai Kane, Pallavi Salgaocar,

Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Dean D’Cruz, Vijaya Josephine Pais, Gautam Mukerjea, Sinead McManus, Vivek Talwar, Bhagyashree Patwardhan, Aritra Mukherjee, Prajyot Mainkar, Manish Gosalia, Audrey Menezes, Nupura Hautamaki, Wilbery Egipsy, Govind Mukundan, Damodar Kochkar, Cecille Rodrigues, Darryl D’Souza, Subodh Kerkar, Shekhar Sardessai, Gautam Verlekar, Siya Shaikh, Lalit Saraswat, Robert Lobo and Rina Barretto Shankar.

Shedding light upon the response received by the ‘Ideas for Goa’ platform so far, core team member Mayank Pandya exclaims, “The response has been overwhelming where the platform generated close to 150 idea in the first 5 days itself! We have been getting fabulous ideas from far and wide. The Government and private sector are taking notice of these ideas and we are confident that many of these ideas will see the light of the day.”

Rajesh Jog says, “We believe that an entirely new set of ideas can serve as the bedrock on which a new Goan economy can be fashioned. With enlightened minds and ideas coming from the common man, we truly believe that the Goan society

“Given that some of the major sectors of the economy have been badly hit by the pandemic, the main objective was to revive hope amongst people and motivate them to think positively”

sanjiv khandelwal

Entrepreneur, Investor, Tech-mentor

can be enriched leading to greater prosperity for all Goans in the times to come.”

Sanjiv Khandelwal, another member of the core team says that “When the crisis came in, a large group of volunteers reached out to help and felt that it was time to start looking at the next big thing and figure out what can be done to kickstart the economy once again, given that some of the major sectors of the economy have been badly hit by the pandemic.

The main objective was to revive hope amongst people and motivate them to think positively!”

D S Prashant, while commenting upon what led to the formation of ‘Ideas for Goa’ says “We come across great discussions pertaining to solving pressing challenges for the Goan state almost everywhere, but, they generally just remain discussions. Thus, ‘Ideas for Goa’ is an opportunity to give a voice to the power of thought and ideas so that it can amplify with the support of the citizens and lovers of Goa into a wave which shall be the foundation for the economic revival of Goa post the COVID-19 phase!”

All in all, ‘Ideas for Goa’ appeals to every citizen of the State to come forward, log on to their website (www. ideasforgoa.com) and join the faction for the formation of a new-fangled Goa which they rightly call ‘Goa 2.0’ by contributing their precious ideas, voting for the ideas they like and spreading the word across terrains at large!

The next step of this initiative is to analyze the raw data to identify themes and sentiments expressed by the idea contributors and people who have votes and commented on the ideas.

These themes and sentiments will be shared in a visual and easy to understand manner with the public through the ‘Ideas for Goa’ website and the media

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 17

trending

@businessgoa

Camera... Video... meetings

Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has led to the forced implementation of the ‘work from home’ policy for majority employers and employees across the globe, easy-to-use video calling apps such as Zoom, Google Duo, Google Hangouts and the likes have come to their immediate rescue

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By ameya nayak

he Coronavirus is turning out to be an increasingly glaring catastrophe that has brought the world to a standstill. While it is viciously disseminating its upshot across the globe, the ongoing virus has forced various companies to implement work from home policies, thanks to the diverse restrictions on movement that have been put in place by the Central and State Governments.

Having said this, it is also true that most people today possess smart-phones which are perfectly well equipped to place video calls and conference calls with multiple people at various locations at the same time. To encourage users to further make use of these apps, most of them offer end-to-end encryption, thus securing the information that is being shared and stored within their devices.

Here are few such video calling apps that have been of immense assistance to companies, businessmen and employees across the world: 1.

Zoom (supported by Android, iOS, Windows, macOS) This popular video calling/ conferencing software allows up to a whopping 1,000 participants. This is practically a cloud-based app that can be

“As incoming President of Rotary Club of Panaji Riviera, I have used the Zoom app extensively.

The months of March to June would have been filled with training seminars for which travel to various places in Maharashtra & Karnataka would have been necessary. But with the lockdown, all these training seminars have moved to the virtual space. The Zoom app has helped us get trained as effectively as if we would have been in a physical classroom, yet by being in the safety of our homes. International speakers were also brought for the seminars, who otherwise would have sent a pre-recorded message played costa out at the venue. Today, our regular club meetings ryan President Elect, have also gone virtual on video apps” Rotary Club Panaji Riviera used by anyone and everyone to conduct virtual meetings.

Zoom permits unlimited

(supported by iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Chrome, macOS)

“Previously not many knew what an online meeting was.

But now with enablers like the Zoom app, people have got used to this new innovative ways of doing business and slowly but surely activities have started to gather momentum, largely because of video apps.

We have to ‘act on change’ by adopting new things immediately – as change is the only constant” mahesh pai

Financial Consultant / Business Coach

meetings; however, it limits group sessions to 100 people with a duration of 40 minutes.

2. Google Hangouts Meet

“We have been using various online video calling and conferencing tools to keep in touch with our clients and associates across the country and abroad. Maintaining social distancing and having online meetings and video conferencing to avoid in-person close contact are becoming more of a necessity; thus, we’ll soon have more such effective and safe-to-use tech tools” Denzil xavier

Real Estate Consultant 18 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Google Hangouts Meet is a free video conferencing platform that permits various teams to collaborate and carry out virtual business and official meetings through their smart-phones, laptops, tablet devices and so on.

This app supports up to 50 participants with high-quality video and audio. Additionally, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Google has given free access to its ‘advanced’ features for hangout meets for its G Suite and G suite for Education customers globally which means that such users can now carry out meetings through this app with up to 250 people, live stream the meeting to about 1,00,000

viewers within a single domain and further record the meetings and save them directly to Google Drive.

3. CiscoWebEX (supported by iOS, Android, Windows and macOS) This is another frontrunner video conferencing app that is particularly popular amongst the business communities, that is capable of providing High Definition quality videos. This app, although is a paid one, it has also has its free-tier version. The free WebEX plan enables users to have meetings in HD with up to 100 participants along with the feature of a personal room. This package also includes 1 GB of cloud storage, unlimited number of meetings and also enables meetings to be recorded in the MP4 format.

4. Google Duo (supported by Android, iOS, Google) Google Duo is yet another free to download video calling app that works with Android devices and iOS. This app enables users to have video calls with up to 8 people with a ingenious feature called ‘Knock Knock’ that lets users view a live video preview of the caller before you can attend the call.

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5.

Skype (supported by Android, iOS, Xbox, Alexa, Windows, Linux, macOS) Skype is yet another popular and probably the most widely used video calling app in the world. It is available for access across almost every platform and operating system. This app permits Skype-to-Skype calls free of cost with group calls/meetings of up to 50 people is supported.

That having been said, the Zoom app, in particular has been of maximum benefit to most business persons out there. With millions of employees being compelled to work from home, they are left with no choice but to rely on Zoom video conferencing

“I have been using Google Meet and Zoom for my business meetings and attending loads of work webinars! In my personal opinion, Google Meet is really great with better quality streaming. I believe digital is the new way out during this lockdown and online video conferencing platforms is the new ‘in’ thing! I wish we have better and faster internet to make these online business meetings better and uninterrupted”

shruti tiwari

Managing Partner, VLW Global

During these tough times where revenue crisis is at its peak, integrating video apps into the business workflow has managed to keep businesses going and will continue to be part of the business process going forward and virtual meetings to keep their businesses running!

The Zoom app was already quite trendy and favoured as against other apps and now with the outbreak of the virus, its popularity and demand has soared new heights thereby becoming the most downloaded app on both Google Play Store as well as iOS Apple Store.

Zoom has been gaining more and more mileage during these pandemic times simply because it is easy to use and serves the purpose in the most efficient way possible. Since the COVID19 pandemic is rapidly evolving, business persons are struggling to adjust to this sudden transition. With concepts such as lockdown, quarantine, self isolation, movement restrictions, travel ban, etc becoming the new normal, it is obvious that a lot of business routines are going to go for a toss and would be highly affected.

Fortunately, Zoom has proved to be an excellent online tool that has given business owners a faint sign of relief that they needed. The

Zoom app is principally handy when conducting sales related calls or services. Further, the video conferencing feature makes training sessions a possibility without the need for booking special venues or requiring participants to travel to those locations! Still better, customer grievance calls can be handled from anywhere across the planet and businessmen who have partnered with other people for running their businesses can conduct their meetings with one another virtually without having to sit across each other anymore. That aside, outstanding features such as live text chat and Q&A, sharing web links, enabling online polls, sharing and playing videos with high definition audio, transmission of content, etc has led to the rising reputation of this app.

According to Zoom, consumers who have switched to Zoom have reported a 92% increase in performance, 91% increase in sense of engagement, 85% increase in video conferencing usage and an 81% increase in the sense of trust among businesspersons and employees.

Thus, during these tough times where revenue crisis is at its peak, integrating video apps into the business workflow has managed to keep businesses going and has also enthused them to continue usage of these video conferencing apps even after the pandemic ends!

“The concept of video conference calling is not new. These apps are instant, easy, reliable, recordable and highly affordable.

Using these apps provides access to a full spectrum of clients placed at various locations across the globe. With instant connectivity and better bandwidth, this is already a huge management tool that is almost indispensible. My travel to at least 5 countries were all successfully wrapped up in about 8 to 9 Zoom video conferencing meetings” Amin ladak Vice Chairman, Goa Management Association

“Till a few months ago I had been hearing about the Zoom video conferencing app. I attended few such Zoom meetings using the free version. Soon thereafter, I signed up for a professional account and have been using it every day for at least a couple of hours. Its easy usage and navigation makes it a lot friendlier and better for a first timer! It’s great for conducting internal business meetings during these trying times when your team members can see you one-to-one and reciprocally you are available to them on a chat bar to answer work related questions and assure them that the Management and Directors are doing their best to steer the company out of this lock-jam, bring in revenue and save jobs” Vivek Mendonsa

Director Marketing, Lawrence & Mayo may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 19

thought leader

@businessgoa

tangentia talkies

Lockdown Inspired Conversation

Goa-Canada based Tangentia Technologies has always been a thought leader, be it with Jigyasa corporate quiz or the lockdown inspired ‘Tangentia Talkies’

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By ameya nayak

here the global COVID-19 outbreak has led to the partial collapse of most essential and non-essential business organizations, Tangentia has risen above the storm and introduced an unique remote employee engagement program namely ‘Tangentia Talkies’ to embark upon the stumpy self-esteem of its employees and ensure connectivity with one another.

‘Tangentia Talkies’ is a day-to-day online gathering that is conducted on the Google Hangouts platform wherein an employee is given an opportunity to make a presentation for a brief duration of about 10 to 15 minutes concluding with a quick Q&A session. This unique initiative as its name itself denotes provides a ‘talk show’ like experience” to the participants that begins with a theme song, goes on to start the presentation and concludes with the rolling of final credits and applause for the speaker of the session.

The range of topics that are discussed during these sessions is abundantly broad to an extent that it enables speakers to converse about their passion, enlighten the audience about their surreptitious talents or just articulate upon a topic that could spread awareness in society. Few issues that have been discussed so far through this one-of-a-kind forum are ‘Trust in the Digital Era’ presented by Rajhans Gupta (Sales Manager), ‘Importance of Mental Health’ presented

by Malav Kansara (Staffing Manager), ‘Msytery Called Dreams’ presented by Shweta Kandri and many more!

The objective of this initiative is to prompt employees and persuade them to step ahead and engage

in open dialogue, maintain every day interaction with their team mates and purge the barrenness of seclusion from their work-life!

It is indeed true that the current times are extremely uncertain and there is no assurance of what tomorrow will hold, nevertheless, Tangentia works tirelessly during these hard-hitting times to discover the balance between its partners, projects and most importantly, its people!

Speaking about this unique initiative from Toronto, Canada; Tangentia CEO Vijay Thomas said “We have been hosting ‘Tangentia Talkies’ every single day

20 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Tangentia has risen above the storm and introduced a unique remote employee engagement program with ‘Tangentia Talkies’ – a day-to-day online gathering that is conducted on the Google Hangouts platform wherein an employee is given an opportunity to make a presentation for a brief duration of about 10 to 15 minutes concluding with a quick Q&A session since the beginning of April, and I’m proud to say that we have not missed a single one.

It’s like an internal TED Talk and we have whole hearted participation from all our team members globally with subjects ranging from Mental illness, Yoga, IOT, Veganism to comedy spoofs on life and life situations. The only thing that is standard is that it ends

“Covid-19 has shown us new ways to work together as a company.

‘Tangentia Talkies’ will be a cornerstone of our new HR engagement strategy. Our team motivation and bonding has been strong during these tough times and one of our mantras for success is to communicate” Vijay thomas

Founder-CEO, Tangentia Technologies

within 15 minutes and it starts sharp at 6.45 pm IST i.e. 9.15 am ET. We have uncovered a lot of super talented people, especially among some of our new recruits in India.

With a lot of hiring in the last couple of months including a few during Covid-19, this was a perfect mixer for our distributed global WFH teams. We believe Covid-19 has shown us new ways to work together and as a company, Tangentia is going to embrace WFH globally in the long run. We don’t see more than 25% of our workforce going back to the office.

‘Tangentia Talkies’ will be a corner-stone of our new HR engagement strategy as our daily virtual water cooler and mini town hall. Our team motivation and bonding has been strong during these tough times and one of our mantras for success is communicate, communicate, communicate!”

in memoriam

For the love of Goa

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he late Vassudeva Mahadeva Salgaocar will always be remembered for his important role in the development of Goa in the post-liberation era. He was the founder chairman of the V. M. Salgaocar Group of Companies. The parent company, V. M. Salgaocar & Bro. Pvt. Ltd., started its business activity as a partnership firm in the year 1952 and was registered under the Companies Act in 1965.

The organization traces its humble beginnings to a small trading firm that first opened its doors in the city of Vascoda-Gama in the year 1942.

Starting with trading activities which covered a wide range from ships, provisions, consumer durables to light commercial vehicles and other engineering goods, the activities expanded into mining in early 1950s. The firm made its first shipment of iron ore to Japan in 1952.

Today, the V. M. Salgaocar Group is strongly positioned in diverse fields that include mining, hospitality, infrastructure and logistics.

The Group has emerged a leader in the internationally competitive business of mining and export of processed iron ore, with its fully integrated mining organization, setting high performance and quality standards in its products exported to Japan, South Korea, China and other countries. In keeping with late founder’s love for Goa and its environment, the Group has adopted the principles of sustainable development in its corporate environmental policy. All operators at the mines, processing units, transportation & transhipping as well as the Head Office are covered under ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001-2004 accreditations.

V. M. Salgaocar encouraged the spread of education which he felt was

V M Salgaocar (1916-84)

the base to ensure a dignified future. In 1972, he promoted an Educational Society named ‘Devi Sharvani Education Society’ which started the first Law College in Goa in 1973, now known as V. M. Salgaocar College of Law. The college has earned a name for itself all over India for quality education. In 1977, the Society started Goa Institute of Management Studies offering various management programs, affiliated to Goa University. V.M.Salgaocar was also instrumental in initiating and establishing the Institute of Shipbuilding Technology (Goa) at Bogda, Vasco. His assistance for those who pursued higher education was generous. Though he admired the performance of bright students, he had special consideration for those who were needy.

A great lover of sports, particularly football, he established Salgaocar Sports Club which has brought laurels to Goa. In order to provide best medical facilities to the people of Goa, he established the Salgaocar Medical Research Centre. The Centre now runs the ultramodern multi-speciality

V M Salgaocar has been a doyen of industry. A business leader, he has been a catalyst of landmark social change tertiary care V. M. Salgaocar Hospital.

He had special attachment for the people of Goa and fought for Goa’s unique identity during the historic Opinion Poll. A great lover of Konkani language, he promoted the development of Konkani literature.

A Goan to the core, he loved Goa and endeavoured throughout his life to give back to Goa and Goans as much as possible.

He supported all Goan social causes.

He helped establish orphanages, community and welfare societies, schools and institutions in villages and gave generously to needy and deserving Goans V. M. Salgaocar’s life story was beautifully penned by legendary adman and writer Frank Simoes in the biography Fare Forward Voyager...

One of the questions asked to V. M. Salgaocar was what does the future of the Goan mining industry now that Goa was in the Indian fold, where he replied without hesitation. The Goan mining industry had been the mainstay of the economy for many decades, he said.

Goan mine owners had worked against formidable odds wresting value for the people from the good earth...The mining industry had given them permanent homes, social and medical benefits, education, secure retirement. Thousands, by way of ownership of haulage equipment – trucks, barges – had become well-to-do entrepreneurs in their own right.

“How do you see the

future?” he was asked... V. M. Salgaocar talked of the immediate need. Goa should build on what she already had. The groundwork should be laid at once for ancillary units to feed the mining industry... In the long term, he felt that Goa’s future lay in soft industries... Salgaocar’s love for the beauty of the land was legendary. He was known to order his mining engineers to leave undisturbed a particularly lovely grove of mango or stretch of paddy located, much to their chagrin, at the heart of a prime mining concession...

“They should not be allowed to harm the environment,” he said...

As far as Goa’s economic growth was concerned, there was scope for agro-based industries, canning, fish and fruit farming, exports, soft industries such as pharmaceuticals, hotels of which there was a sorely felt need in all of Goa’s major cities...

“Goa must remain Goan,” he said. “A great deal has been spoken about our unique culture, our heritage, the beauty of our land, and the harmony in which our people live and work and play. But there is more. Thousands of years of conquest and reconquest have forged the Goan character on the anvil of history. We have prevailed as a good and gentle people, a singular people. For us, the future of the land and of our children is the most important reason why we live our lives the way we do.

We must be a proud and useful part of India, yet we must be distinctly ourselves.”

Perhaps this is what made him stick his neck out to defy the government in the State during the historic Opinion Poll and fight tooth and nail to keep Goa an independent Union Territory and foil the plan of the mergerists to make Goa a part of Maharashtra

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 21

innovation

@businessgoa

Powerland Agro Tractor Vehicles Pvt Ltd

Breathing easier during a pandemic

Ideas flourish during the pandemic with Tej Naik’s portable respirators and contactless sanitizer dispensers, making the situation comparatively easier to deal with

Contactless hand sanitizer dispenser

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By sybil rodrigues

owerland Agro Tractor Vehicles Private Limited (PATVPL), a private limited company started by Narayan Naik, aims at changing the landscape of the utility and farming industry in India by launching India’s first diesel multi utility all-terrain farm vehicle (ATV) at competitive price.

Tej Naik completed his education from Cardiff, Wales and returned to Goa to establish a unit that manufactured fibreglass auto components. Tej always wanted to add value to the lives of the Indian hinterland, namely the ‘farming sector’.

With Covid 19 having hit the world and India, Tej has come up with a prototype of a ventilator which is portable and can be used in times of emergency.

Tej completed his under graduation from M.E.S College, Vasco and did his masters in Business from Cardiff University UK. He was always passionate about cars; so on his return in 2012, he started his own company Kitart, to manufacture auto parts in Fiber glass.

In 2014, along side his father Narayan Naik, Tej set out on a journey to make all-terrain vehicles and as of today they are developing electric utility vehicles for logistics and farm segment for India and international markets.

Tej speaks about the current pandemic and his idea of the ventilator.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has spread globally killing close to 19000 people and more than 4,25,000 people infected as on 25th March 2020. There was 22 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Portable Respirator

a major shortage of ventilators with certain countries needing to make tough decisions like who will get the ventilator.

India also had seen growing number of cases with more than 500 people infected and 11 deaths as on 25th march.

There are no official stats but as per our study online India is estimated to have max of only 40000 ventilators for a 1.3 billion population. If the number of Covid-19 cases increase, the effect can be catastrophic. Seeing cases rise worldwide and realizing there can be shortage of ventilators, our team decided to do a study to see if we can make portable respirators with readily available components that can be utilized in times of emergency. So we came with the solution that delivers breath by electronically compressing the AMBU BAG (AB) with a pivoting arm, eliminating the need for human operator for the AB. This solution was also experimented by MIT and other universities worldwide as well.”

Regarding the response to the idea, Tej says that doctors have been giving them feedback continuously and encouraging them to do this project. “They believe this machine can be very helpful in ambulances and rural places where high end ventilators can’t be utilized and also we can eliminate the need of an operator to provide oxygen manually.” They also have support from the Health Minister’s office and are willing to help when required.

Ideas are aplenty but they also need contribution and support for the materialisation of the plan. Tej speaks

about his team who helped in making this idea a reality. “Our team of 2 engineers, Amit Santra who is the chief designer, Datta Prasad Naik who is the electronic master-mind and Narayan Naik (Director) brainstormed the entire project. We also had support from medical practitioners, Dr. Anish Lawande, Dr. Jatin Amonkar and Dr. Emanuel Gracias.

Baburao Desai, supported us with all the medical test equipments, with his inputs, which was highly encouraging and supportive throughout this endeavour.”

Tej then goes on to explain the process of building the prototype. “The prototype was built with all the components we had in the factory. We had to alter the design thrice to find an easier way to manufacture the same. We sourced a few components from our doctor friends, medical and components suppliers.”

Regarding roadblocks faced in acquiring raw material Tej adds, “We could develop the prototype with the resources available with our suppliers but there is still a scarcity of resources in Goa and for mass production we have to procure components from other states.”

As of now, they are still in the test phase and require an emergency FDA approval once testing is complete.

Tej then goes on to speak about his second innovation, that of contact-less sanitizer dispensers. “Powerland also has started manufacturing contact-less sanitizer dispensers which is extremely beneficial, to be installed in all public places. A working prototype was made

@businessgoamagazine

within 8 hours, and has aroused interest all across Goa and Maharashtra.”

He explains the purpose behind the idea and its mechanism. Every organisation like banks, Government offices; hospitals and corporate bodies have deployed hand sanitizer bottles as a precautionary measure. However while using these sanitizer bottles; they are constantly touched by too many hands increasing the risk of infection.

Thus, Powerland took the initiative to develop contactless hand sanitizer dispensers with the available resources and expertise it has in developing electric vehicles.

Due to total lockdown since 22nd March 2020, it was tough to design and put in production such a machine; but Powerland managed to launch these dispensers at a minimum cost, so that every organization, schools,

“Necessity is the mother of invention. If you have the solution for any problem or can help during this situation you can write to us, with regards to any relevant projects and we will definitely take it up”

Tej naik

public places etc. could make use of the same to fight Covid 19 collectively.

Powerland Contactless Hand Santizer Dispenser can be effectively placed at any area due to its convenient size – it can be wall mounted or positioned on the table.

These contact-less sanitizers come with motion sensor

dispensing, making it easy to use, has a fluid level indicator, controlled by their software, and comes with 1AMP AC to DC USB Adapter, this allows it to be used with power bank to power the device even during power failure. They come in attractive colors like Black/ Red, Black/Green and White/ Green and have a capacity of

5litre fluid with adjustable discharge rate of 1.25 to 2.5ml as recommended. Each dispensation cycle is timed at 3 second per discharge. These dispensers are economically priced at Rs.4130/inclusive of GST and comes with 1 year warranty on electronic components.

As a goodwill gesture, Powerland has installed 1 unit of its dispensers at the office of the Health Department, Government of Goa. To conclude Tej dishes out a few words of wisdom.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. If you have the solution for any problem or can help during this situation you can write to us, with regards to any relevant projects and we will definitely take it up. We will always work towards the welfare of Society and endeavour to provide constant support in order to prevent the spread of Covid 19”

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 23

Enterprise

@businessgoa

hand sanitizers by Dr Kiara Almeida

Keeping Goans Sanitized and Safe

An innovation by Dr Kiara Almeida, her idea of manufacturing and supplying alcohol based sanitizers is in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative

“We formulated the hand sanitizer based on WHO guidelines, obtained an approval from FDA, a license to manufacture and started testing various self-made products” dr kiara almeida

Dr Kiara Almeida

D

By sybil rodrigues

r Kiara Almeida is a practicing dental surgeon, having her own private practice, All Smiles Multi Speciality dental clinic, in the Old Market area of Margao. She has completed her BDS and is an alumni of KLE’s VKIDS, Belgaum.

Dr Kiara goes on to add about her professional life as a dentist. “I pride myself in comforting and providing a quality tailor-made treatment plan unique to each of my patients. I believe in educating and motivating my patients, more importantly elucidating the course of treatment they will be subjected to in order to allay any concerns or misconceptions.”

She explains the role of dentistry with regards to the patients as well as the technical aspects. “Dentistry has so much to offer. We develop strong relationships with our patients, work convenient hours, and have the ability to relieve pain or bring a smile back on to their face.”

Regarding the technicalities involved she elaborates on that front too. “The technical aspect of dentistry is extremely detailed. We work in a world of millimeters.

It is a blend of art, and science we have a lot more in common to surgeons than physicians because we fix problems with our hands. Dentistry is a challenge with so many opportunities to learn and grow.”

Dr Kiara goes on to elaborate on her idea of manufacturing hand sanitizers.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic plaguing

24 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

countries across the world, the demand for hand sanitizers is extremely high, and the supply chain has not been able to keep pace with the sudden surge in demand. The concern over a global shortage of hand sanitiser and personal protective equipment has been grabbing headlines lately. Countries worldwide have been encouraging those with the means and resources available to tap into these markets.

With the supply disruption of alcoholbased hand sanitizers in Goa, I thought I could step up in this time of need.”

Dr Kiara collaborated with her husband, Adriel Sequeira, proprietor of Spirit De Goa to manufacture and supply ‘Made in Goa’ hand sanitizers in line with the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

The response to her idea has been overwhelming and they will be ramping up production to meet the demand.

Support has poured in from all quarters and a lot of queries have been coming in with regards to availability of the product and where they can be purchased.

Dr Kiara and Adriel have engaged distributors across Goa and anyone looking to get their hands on one of these sanitizers may just need to visit a medical store or a supermarket nearby.

The sanitizers are also available at her clinic in Margao and her patients can avail of this facility or reach her by email. She expresses her happiness and satisfaction of doing her bit in these tough times.

Dr Kiara speaks about her husband’s business and in particular his contribution to the materialisation

of this plan. “My husband Adriel Sequeira is the proprietor of Spirit de Goa, a distillery located in Raia. As a manufacturer of IMFL, Adriel arranged for as well as procured all the required materials, and completely took care of the blending and bottling to make sure the hand sanitizer was perfect to combat COVID-19 while gentle on your skin.

Our hand sanitizer contains 70% alcohol She explains that the use of pure alcohol by itself can dehydrate the skin, causing inflammation and irritation.

These hand sanitizers have been specially crafted to provide one with the necessary moisturisation and skin care while effectively eliminating any pathogen including the novel coronavirus.

Dr Kiara elaborates on the process of manufacturing the hand sanitizers. “After a lot of research and study, we formulated the hand sanitizer based on WHO recommendations, obtained an approval from FDA, a license to manufacture and started testing various self-made hand sanitizers on ourselves before we distributed a few to close friends and family. A lot of positive and negative reviews motivated us to come up with the best. The process of manufacturing takes place at the Spirit de Goa distillery in Raia. We engaged a qualified lab assistant and experienced workers for the same.

Within a short span of time we managed to blend, bottle and dispatch hand sanitizers in large numbers. Our efficient sales team has made these hand sanitizers available at all supermarkets, grocery stores, and medical stores across Goa. We have also exported huge quantities

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to other states of India” Regarding the roadblocks faced by her and the production team Dr Kiara states that the only hindrance was the procuring of raw material as they had to be brought in from other states of India. “Due to the lockdown, borders were sealed and transportation was a major problem. I wanted a product which was efficient and safe, bottled in an aesthetic, easy to carry and convenient flip top dispenser.

We spent a lot of time uncovering various packaging options. I basically stepped up during this time on the need to deliver the best for the safety of our people keeping their comfort in mind.”

Dr Kiara talks about the supply as well as her plans to support health care workers and people on the battlefront against Covid19.

“We had shipped out the first

Hand Sanitizers

few deliveries to the local hospitals and health care workers. We also handed out hand sanitizers to the various Police Stations, free of cost, as a social initiative as these individuals are our frontline warriors in this fight against the virus and their safety should be our priority.

We also delivered hand

sanitizer cans free of cost to various government institutions so these can reach the most vulnerable sections of our society.”

They have supplied these hand sanitizers to various medical stores and other retail outlets across the state, so these are currently available to the public at large.

“Moving forward, we look to continue supporting our health care workers and police. That being said, we are also looking to ramp up production in order to be able to reach out to as many Goans as possible through a network of retail outlets across the states.”

To conclude Dr Kiara

shares a few words of advice to people who want to reach out to others in times of need. “During times like these every initiative is always welcome and we can all contribute in our own little way in order to alleviate the innumerable inconveniences we as a society are facing at large. After all, out of adversity comes opportunity.

Even the little things we do could have a significant impact in our fight against this invisible enemy. Hence I would advise everyone to continue to follow social distancing in public even with the relaxation in the lockdown measures. Also, personal etiquettes and hygiene – be it covering your mouth while sneezing or coughing or using a hand sanitizer, shouldn’t be interventions to be followed only during pandemics, these should be incorporated in our day to day life as well”

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 25

InterView

manoj caculo

president | goa chamber of commerce & industry

“our focus is on revival of goa’s economy” MANOJ CACULO is the president of Goa’s oldest trade and business organisation, Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Manoj brings to the table abilities of having successfully led various socio-cultural and business organisations like Goa Automobile Dealers Association, Clube Tennis de Gaspar Dias, Panjim Gymkhana, among others. Skills that will come in handy to navigate the discourse for the revival of Goa’s economy – in these unprecedented times of fighting COVID-19. He speaks to HARSHVARDHAN BHATKULY on his one year in office and the ‘way forward’ for Goa’s industry You will soon be completing one year as & Industry was indeed an honour and R.S Kamat who accepted my view point President of Goa Chamber of Commerce came with a lot of expectations and in making certain changes in the way of and Industry. What has been your experience responsibilities. I would like to start with working and whole heartedly supported during this first year in office? complementing the elected Managing me. Be it formation of committees or Being elected unopposed to head the Committee members and the GCCI re-designing of the monthly bulletin, prestigious Goa Chamber of Commerce secretariat headed by Director General there were constructive inputs from all 26 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

@businessgoa

concerned.

Interacting with various members has been truly enriching. I have also received very positive response in the numerous meetings, interactions, deliberations held with the government – be it bureaucracy or Ministers.

Overall, I would say it has been a very satisfying year, but for the unforeseen situation created by COVID 19 crises in the last few months.

When you took over as President, you must have had certain ideas to supplement the Government’s efforts to revive the State economy. Have you been able to take those ideas forward?

Being the GCCI President I have the privilege of being a member on the board of Goa Industrial Development Corporation, Town and Country Planning (TCP), Goa Investment Promotion & Facilitation Board, besides various other committees.

This gives me an opportunity to put forth the views of trade and industry directly to the decision making authorities.

Here I would like to complement our Industries Minister Vishwajeet Rane who has supported the cause of the industry wholeheartedly and taken our views very positively in functioning of Goa IDC. Whether it is amending the transfer and sub-lease guidelines or keeping a check on expenses or plots allotments, our views are upheld and respected. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done in this sphere which I am sure will continue after the current pause due to the Pandemic.

The Covid pandemic and the nationwide lockdown has disrupted global, national and Goan economy completely. How long do you think it will take for Goa’s economy to recover? What measures do you suggest for an early recovery?

This Tsunami of COVID-19 has engulfed the Goan economy completely thus

“The migration of some labour who had no means of livelihood is understandable but the mass exodus is something which is beyond reasoning” putting brakes on all sectors be it manufacturing, tourism, retail or services. It is going to be a while for things to normalise, timing for which will defer from sector to sector.

The manufacturing sector has commenced operations, but there are numerous problems on the supply chain due to the lockdown in patches all across the country.

Raw materials cannot reach the industry and finished products cannot reach their destinations. Unless the whole country opens up, this imbalance is bound to continue. Also, various restrictions of employees allowed to work together will cause efficiency issues and increases cost of production..

The biggest casualty has been the tourism sector which continues to be under shutdown even till today.

Since human sentiments play a major part in this segment it is unlikely to have a revival soon, as people will be wary of travel or dining out. Also the conferences, weddings and meetings that were held in Goa will get deferred, thus hurting Goa’s tourism economy adversely.

As all of us know, the Corona virus is here to stay with us for long until a medical remedy is found.

Hence, we cannot wait perennially to start the wheels of our economy, because if we don’t die of the Corona virus, we will die of hunger.

So by keeping all the checks and measures in place, it’s

time to start normal work activity across the sections of economy. The government plays a very important role in this and should decide speedily on various representations made over the last few weeks, which will help revive the economy faster.

Do you believe that mining can help in reviving Goa’s economy?

Mining has been the mainstay of the Goan economy for decades. However, due to some unfortunate instances and episodes the judiciary halted this activity. In the present state that our economy is in, there is no better alternative than to restart mining immediately.

With the re-starting of mining activity, besides the directly involved mining dependents like truck owners, barge owners, machinery suppliers, the ancillary businesses in the mining belt will restart; thus providing a boost to the economy directly in these areas and indirectly across the state. This rolling of mining wheels will have its ripple effect on general trade and commerce across the state. And most importantly, it will bring in revenue to the state government.

Your presidency has come during the biggest global crises of recent times. What do you feel about the business environment in the days and months to come?

What is your advice to Goa based industries and entrepreneurs?

I am a firm believer of the fact that with every problem

comes an opportunity; and that unprecedented times call for unprecedented decisions and actions.

The current business environment is very turbulent and likely to stay the same way for the next few months. During these difficult times it is best that every entrepreneur works on honing his skills, improving efficiency, controlling the unnecessary expenses and keeping mentally healthy.

Entrepreneurs have to remind themselves that they chose to be one over being salaried. And the element of risk in business was always there. Hence, it is time to remind oneself that tough times do not last forever.

Your comments on the migration of labour were not received well by some members of the civil society. What do you feel about the issue?

I reiterate that the migration of labour will harm the Goan economy in a big way. The migration of some labour who had no means of livelihood is understandable but the mass exodus is something which is beyond reasoning.

There were labourers who had jobs or works on hand with continued income and accommodation who have also joined the bandwagon of free travel. What logic is this? How can a labourer with Goan Aadhar card be a migrant?

I think this issue of migration of labour could have been better handled and disturbance to the functioning of the industry could have been avoided.

What plans do you have for the second half of your term?

Although I have lot of planned events, activities and actions, it is best that we take things as they come, since working towards revival of Goa’s economy takes precedence over everything else under the current situation and uncertainty

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 27

mining

Goa chamber petitions State Governor to resume mining

Manoj Caculo, President of GCCI along with Treasurer Chandrakant Gawas and Atul Jadhav, President of Goa Barge Owners Association met Governor of Goa Satya Pal Malik and submitted a memorandum requesting his help in convincing the Central leadership to take steps for immediate resumption of mining in Goa. Excerpts from the memorandum

L to R: Atul Jadhav, Manoj Caculo, HE Governor Satya Pal Malik and Chandrakant Gawas

G

oa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is an apex body representing trade and industry in the State of Goa. Founded in the year 1908, GCCI is one of the oldest Chambers of Commerce in the country with 550 plus members consisting of manufacturers in small, medium and large sectors, professionals, other sectoral associations etc.

We place before you the following facts on the Iron Ore Mining Industry in the state of Goa. Iron Ore Mining Industry in the state has been present for more than 100 years and is supporting the livelihood of lakhs of Goans. Mining Concessions were granted way back in 1905 by the erstwhile Portuguese Govt.

The Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, was made applicable to Goa Daman and Diu from October 1, 1963, except for Section 16 (Power to modify leases granted before October 25, 1949). In the interim, the Government sought information on the titles of concessions, and by various decrees collected levies, taxes and supervised extractions.

In the judgment of Vasudeva Mahadeva Salgaocar v/s Union of India & Others, the Hon’ble Supreme Court held that the Concessions

cannot be considered as Lease, thereby restraining the Union Government from enforcing the above notification and treating the Concessions as Mining Leases. It is also on record that the another provision of collecting taxes and levies was also retrospective but the Hon’ble Court struck down the said clause and held that act is always prospective and cannot be enforced retrospectively.

The said Mining Concessions operated by complying with the relevant regulations till May 1987, when Parliament by a Special law namely The Goa, Daman and Diu Mining Concession (Abolition and Declaration of Mining Leases) Act, 1987 abolished the Concessions and by legal fiction deemed the same to be Mining Leases governed by the provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.

Although the Abolition Act was passed in 1987, the lease period was declared retrospectively from Dec 20, 1961.

The challenge to the Abolition Act is presently pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India

by Special Leave Petitions.

The Supreme Court granted Leave and passed an interim order permitting

28 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

the concessionaires to carry on mining operations and business in the mining areas for which renewal applications have been made.

Necessary and appropriate applications were made for Second Renewal of the Leases in terms of provisions of MMDR Act and the Mineral Concessions Rules, 1960 under the requisite statutory Form J, twelve months prior to the 1st Renewal coming to an end i.e. before 22nd November 2007. The said applications remained pending with the State Government while mining in the said leases continued in accordance with the then concomitant understanding of Rule 24A(6) i.e. in the event of the State Government not deciding upon the application, the previous lease would be deemed to be extended till the date of decision by the State Government. The aforesaid understanding / interpretation of Rule 24A of the MCR, 1960 was restricted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Goa Foundation vs.

Union of India in 2014 only to situations pertaining to 1st renewals under MMDR Act. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India had by its order dated February 7th 2018 in the Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No. 32138 of 2015 quashed the State Government Order granting

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Second Renewal of Mining Leases in the state of Goa. In addition to the same, the mining companies in the state were given time only till 15th of March 2018 to wrap up their operations, thereby resulting in widespread anxiety within mining dependents in the State of Goa. Mining being the largest employment generator in the state of Goa, with close to 60000 persons earning livelihood through various avenues associated with the mining industry. The Supreme Court judgment had directly impacted a population of around 400,000 people in the state of Goa. Mining has played and continues to play a vital role in the economic development of Goa. The evolution of Goa’s Iron Ore Mining Industry and its manifold impact on the state’s socio-economic milieu has been well publicized in the past and has been one of the biggest earners of foreign exchange to the state exchequer.

The Mining Industry in its halcyon days: • contributed over 20% of the state’s GDP. • Over 80,000 p e op l e (15% of the Employable population) directly / indirectly employed in the state.

• Investments by individuals / families related to the mining sector included over 20,000 Trucks, 350 River Barges, 220 various Mining Machineries.

The mining industry in Goa has been the single largest contributor to state welfare for the past seven decades.

All over the state, mining companies have played a vital role in institution building (hospitality, healthcare, education, sports etc.) and infrastructure. Apart from this, several ancillary industries have flourished in the state only due to

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promotion and investment by the mining industry.

After the stoppage of mining activities in the state, the mining dependent population had resorted to various measures to highlight their plight and demand for immediate resumption of mining activities which included having corner meeting through the length and breadth of the State starting with mining belts which was to mobilize popular support to their demand for resumption of mining operation in the state.

Considering the larger public sentiment and benefit at large even all the members of the State Legislature in August 2018, cutting across party lines and political affiliations have unanimously urged the State Government to take up with the Centre for initiating appropriate steps,

including legislative measures to tackle the economic and social chaos that has befallen on the people engaged in the mining industry in Goa for their livelihood.

The industry has contributed towards the District Mineral Fund since its inception Rs.191.00 crores and to Goa Iron Ore Permanent Fund {(GIOPF) – a unique fund only existent in Goa} a further provision of Rs.399.00 crores.

The State Government has made several pleas to the concerned ministries at the Centre to take appropriate steps to bring about necessary legislative cure to synchronize and bring in a harmony between the two Acts – The MMDR Act and The Goa Daman & Diu Mining Concession (Abolition and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act 1987, such that

the date of grant of the lease for the Mining Concessions in Goa that were abolished is clearly clarified and be stated as coming into effect on 23rd May 1987, the date on which the Act was given assent by the President of India. Most importantly, the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 2015 provided a platform for the continuity of mining in Goa when harmonized with the Abolition Act. The Hon’ble Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant after taking over has made similar representations to the Centre. He also had attended the meeting with Group of Ministers on the subject matter and presented the case of Goan Mining Industry.

After the stoppage of mining activities in the state many people who were directly employed in the

industry have been retrenched and as a consequence have lost their jobs. Small entrepreneurs like truck, barge and machinery owners have lost their only source of income and are left clutching at the straws to safeguard their livelihood. Thousands of unskilled labourers, drivers, and mechanics have lost their only source of income.

The current lockdown due to pandemic Covid-19 has further aggravated the difficulties of the mining dependents in the state.

During these tough time we pray before you Sir, to request the Centre to play its legislative role and on an urgent basis and provide the necessary relief so that the mining activities are resumed which will give a much awaited relief to the major industry and also boost the economy of the state

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 29

campus

bookshelf

GIM Faculty conduct research analyzing societal reactions to COVID-19 pandemic

Writer: Harish Rijhwani Publisher: Penguin Random House UK

Dr. Divya Singhal and Prof.

Padhmanbhan Vijayaraghavan, professors from the B-school of Goa Institute of Management (GIM) held a study in order to examine the Indian public reactions to the latest scare in town being the COVID-19 pandemic. Ascertaining the psychological responses in terms of anxiety and coping mechanisms, resulted in the finding that most individuals are stressed over health status of their loved ones rather than their own well being.

“Majority of the respondents have become conscious of any bodily changes, sensations, a mild cold, cough, sneezing and experience concern and attribute those changes to the symptoms of Covid-19,” explained Associate Professor Dr. Singhal who is also the Chairperson, Centre for Social Sensitivity and Action at the institute.

This survey-based study based on the responses of 231 respondents across the nation made a couple of notable observations, few of which are enlisted below: • More than 50% of the participants reported that their social media usage has shot up considerably which includes time spent viewing digital content on various online platforms.

• A large cluster also

reported a feeling of depression upon reading COVID related forwarded messages and staunchly discouraged unverified forwarding of material relating to the pandemic.

• Majority respondents (41%) reported not indulging in any physical activities like Yoga during the lockdown while another 19% were not sure about engaging in physical activities. Further, 57% of them were unsure of participating in meditative practices. However, 71% of them reported spending their time just resting while 84% revealed their plans of learning a new skill during the lockdown.

• Importantly, it was noted that 60% of respondents enjoyed receiving, reading and forwarding humorous content across social media while 74% of them were happy that they have finally got an opportunity to spend extra time with their families.

All in all, the study indicated prolonged engagement with social media which could be viewed as an escape or avoidance coping mechanism. The study also reported that respondents have resorted to coping by seeking social and emotional support by connecting with friends and relatives. Further, findings also suggested that social support especially from family acts as a strong protective factor for anxiety and aids in reinforcing the belief that support resources are available at their disposal.

The demographic profile of the respondents showed that 145 (63%) respondents were male and 86 (37%) female out of the total 231 respondents.

Majority of them (42.86 % and 32.03%) exist in the age group of 18-31 years & 32-45 years respectively. Further, 9.09% exist in the age group of 46-51

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@businessgoamagazine

Technology to Business: The Invisible Gap

Harish Rijhwani’s book ‘Technology to Business’ bridges the gap between technology, business and marketing

Amidst the current global pandemic, Harish C. Rijhwani, a seasoned professional in the Healthcare IT field, academician and author, has given business enthusiasts a stimulating read to keep busy and motivated, via his second book titled Technology to Business: The Invisible Gap. The book’s e-launch was streamed live on Zoom amidst a global audience of renowned technologists, IT specialists, corporate experts and management enthusiasts.

The book is now available worldwide as a kindle e-book edition on Amazon.

The book’s online launch included a webinar that was hosted by Dr. Rahul Mirchandani, Chairman and Managing Director, Aries Agro Ltd. and Founder President of CommonwealthAsia Young Entrepreneur Alliance (CAAYE), who is also Harish’s mentor and a significant influence on this book. Dr. Mirchandani said, “There is a constant tug of war that technology professionals face when they enter managerial roles.

Harish has used this book to provide a very simple chronicle of his journey to bridge this gap. Drawing from ample examples, he weaves a simple narrative that allows every reader to assimilate years and higher age groups consisted of 16.01%. Out of total respondents, 60.17% are from non-metro cities and 39.83% are from metro cities.

With regard to occupation, 47.62% respondents are employed with private or Government; 12.55% own

core marketing and business principles.”

Styled as a simple and interactive personal journal, the book chronicles Harish’s own observations, learnings and takeaways through decades of experience as an IT expert, management professional and academician.

Using the examples of big corporations such as Facebook, Apple, Starbucks, DeBeers, Kellogg’s, Domino’s, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Accenture, ICICI Bank, among plenty others, as well, the book highlights how companies across sectors have achieved and maintained success, their failure or growth and how they overcome obstacles by using a combination of three important touchpoints: business, technology and marketing.

The book is targeted towards “technocrats, technologists, innovators, aspiring entrepreneurs, startups and even mid or large-sized companies, who wish to understand the business side of their idea/ solution,” says the author business, 22.94% are students and rest includes retired persons and homemakers.

This research idea stemmed from a motivation to know how people were feeling, reacting and coping with the pandemic www.businessgoa.in

industry

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CII Goa Council discusses labour and tourism issues

Members of CII Goa in discussion with Labour Minister Jennifer Monseratte

G

iven that the globe is presently battling it out with the COVID-19 pandemic, CII Goa has left no stone unturned in order to uphold their objective which is to work to create and sustain an environment that is conducive to national development and the civil society at large.

Through a special virtual online meeting with Minister for Labour and Employment, Jennifer Monserrate, CII Goa Chairman, Blaise Costabir along with Shrinivas Dempo, past chairman, CII Western Region and 30 other CII Goa members addressed its concern over the restricted movement of the labour force in the state of Goa in the months to come and how it would impinge on industrial functioning along with the dire need to mitigate this limitation with necessary amendments to the requisite Act. During this meeting, CII Goa members recommended deferment of revision of DA rates in wages, given that the industry is currently combating a situation for survival. Costabir further asserted that CII Goa would make a separate representation to the Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar who holds the portfolio of Factories & Boilers, addressing the issue of extension in the number of industrial working hours from 8 to 12 hours, parallel

CII Goa Council has addressed the issues of labour and tourism with the respective authorities via video conferencing, with a detailed plan of action to the Gujarat notification, thus stating that extra working hours must not be treated as overtime and must be paid proportionately.

They additionally suggested considering 12 hours a day, 72 hours per week and accordingly set work duration on a monthly and quarterly basis.

The glaring issue of tourism and hotel industry was also deliberated upon wherein there is almost little or no hope of income or revenue for at least the next 6 to 8 months; thus seeking Governmental intervention to handhold the sector with regards to wage payment.

Meeting to address Tourism issues In addition to this, a special virtual interaction of CII Goa was held with J Ashok Kumar, IAS, Secretary to CM & Secretary, Tourism, Government of Goa, along with Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, Goa Tourism, Development Corporation (GTDC). Hemant Arondekar, Convener, CII Goa State Panel on Tourism, chaired the meeting. Dipak Haksar, Chairman, and Arjun Sharma, Co Chairman, CII National

Committee on Tourism & Hospitality and 35+ Members from CII National Committee on Tourism & Hospitality and CII Goa State Panel on Tourism were present for the discussion.

Arondekar expressed concerns faced by the tourism industry in the State due to the effect of COVID-19 on the industry, not only in Goa but also nationally and globally, in terms of tourist arrivals and resumptions of tourism and hospitality activities.

Addressing various issues faced by the tourism Sector; Dipak Haksar stressed that tourism is the major economic activity in Goa which has a wide impact on economic growth, employment and social development. Tourism in Goa already being under stress over the last two years, the current COVID-19 pandemic has hit a double blow. The coming season has not just been wiped out, but the uncertainty has extended to the next season, too. This unprecedented situation has called for an urgent need to address these challenges with well thought-out policies and actions.

Arondekar discussed a three stage approach for a ‘Way Forward’ for the Tourism Sector in the State 1. How the tourism industry in the State can survive these tough times with the support of the Government, both at the State and Centre.

2. Revival of the tourism industry and related activities as soon as possible by taking the right pro-industry policies and precautionary measures.

3. Thereafter, thrive in a sustainable manner.

CII highlighted and addressed that the financial stress of payment of wages / salaries by the employer to the employees is a big challenge.

This is not sustainable to the industry and a request to withdraw the notification issued by the government was discussed.

While the tourism and hotel industry is in for a long haul with little or no hope of income, for the next 6 to 8 months, the industry sought government intervention and handholding during these critical times. The industry proposed complete waiver of the license fees for this year levied by the Government and to automatically extend the renewal for a year. With most hotels going empty, it was proposed that the GST be reduced to 5 or 6%, from the existing 12 and 18% based on room rate charged.

As regards the Standard Operating Procedures, it was stressed upon to the Secretary, in the interest of the tourism industry, the Government and stakeholders have to come up with a post COVID-19 ‘Tourism Operational Plan’.

This plan has to have complete details of every touch point and steps to be followed by each stakeholder in executing the services which consists of Entry Points like – airport, bus stands, railway stations, land entry gates, ports etc., taxi operators, hotels, guest houses, home stays, restaurants, eateries, nightclubs, guides, 2-wheelers and other rented vehicles, water sport operators, sites of tourist attractions – churches, temples, forts, beaches etc. and MICE, destination weddings, sport, events.

CII Goa also proposed to the Secretary that the Government should use this setback to go ahead and constitute the much needed Tourism Board for the State consisting of industry experts and think tank so that the industry can subsequently thrive in an efficient environment and sustainable manner. J Ashok Kumar assured that Government was already working towards supporting the industry and all the points raised would be taken up and addressed so that the tourism sector does not go into further crisis

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 31

professional dossier

www.businessgoa.in

Pallavi Lawande

“I believe that a personal connect with my clients is very important”

Pallavi Lawande, an architect and interior designer speaks about her professional journey, from being married young and getting back on the professional scene

A

By sybil rodrigues

fter graduating from Goa College of Architecture, Pallavi Lawande went on to do her internship in Margao, with Arch. Sameer Nadkarni.

After the internship she got married and wasn’t in a position to pursue her career at that point of time.

Given that Pallavi was a science student, she was always inclined towards a mathematical field. Much as she hadn’t thought of getting into architecture, at that time she had few options. “It was a choice between engineering and architecture. I had got admission in both colleges, but felt a pull towards architecture,” she says. Pallavi enrolled for drawing classes, answered the entrance exams and as she commenced college, she began taking more interest in architecture.

Pallavi says that she began as an architect, but her area of work also includes renovations and extensions along with interior design.

“People have houses which they want to renovate along with extensions, and since this involves a lot of civil and technical work, my architectural background has come in handy, as one needs to give in proper architectural drawings.”

Regarding her career as an interior designer, she feels that anyone with an interest in art and having an inclination towards creativity can be an interior designer.

“As an interior designer one has to look at the structural aspect of our work. We can’t just be breaking walls down without having the technical perspective in mind.”

Pallavi gets her inspiration from a lot of architects, past and present. “Architect Frank

Pallavi Lawande

Lloyd Wright is the first person who comes to my mind when it comes to people who have inspired me. His simple yet organic designs are something that has always inspired me.” Closer home, she makes a mention of Goa’s Charles Correa and Dean D’Cruz.

Pallavi attends a lot of trade shows like architecture and design exhibitions in Bombay, Delhi and other cities in India. “When I restarted my career, I attended a lot of exhibitions, so that I was aware of the new materials that have come in, which is important when it comes to designing for my clients”.

Her presence at different

32 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

“At the end of the day, our work is according to our clients’ needs, their personalities and taste. I just guide their thoughts, get them down on paper and then execute them on site”

Pallavi Lawande

exhibitions has assisted her in gaining knowledge of different materials available which is very essential in her line of work and which she had missed out due to her sabbatical from this field for so many years.

During those years she

did projects for her friends and family but was back professionally on the scene, about 4 years back.

Pallavi is also open to collaborations with other architects and interior designers. She stresses on the importance of an architect and interior designer working together to design a place.

“Whenever I have accepted a project for interior designing, I have noticed that are a lot of changes to be done, like the electrical and civil work, too according to our designs. At that time it does tend to get heavy on the pockets of our clients and it’s not something I would recommend to them.”

She believes in giving her clients the best at reasonable rates.

When it comes to her work, Pallavi believes that it’s the passion that drives her.

“I love what I’m doing right now. I am a people’s person and for me talking to a client, getting to know them and their likes and dislikes is very important”. As an interior designer she feels that the personal connect is very important. “At the end of the day, our work is according to our clients’ needs, their personalities and taste. I just guide their thoughts, get them down on paper and then execute them on site.

I am open to suggestions as finally, it’s the clients who will be living in that house and making it their home.”

Pallavi takes into consideration her client’s needs, while their choices is something that is open to change. The personality of her clients, their taste and liking reflects in all her projects.

“Their home is a reflection of them. Every one of my projects is different as per the

@businessgoamagazine

Projects completed

personality of my client.”

Speaking about her projects, Pallavi has been involved in designing many commercial and residential projects in Margao, Porvorim, Arambol and Panjim.” Pallavi visits her sites usually twice a week. She has a team which consists of a junior engineer, carpenters and two junior staff. Every evening she receives a report on Whatsapp from her team, regarding the work to be done at the site and work which has already been completed. “This helps

in co-coordinating the work to be done, as well as seeking feedback from the client. I have a separate Whatsapp group for every project undertaken, so that everyone is on the same page and is well aware of what’s happening at the site.”

Talking about her future plans, Pallavi wants to grow as an interior designer and continue turning in good work for her clients. “I want to expand my business but I strongly believe in quality over quantity. I handle 5 to 6

projects at a time, so I can give individual attention to each of these projects. The personal touch will take a beating if I handle more than I can.”

Pallavi attributes her success to the support she received from her family, especially her husband, Nilesh Lawande, a well-known entrepreneur. “I got married when I was very young and everything was so new to me.

One needs help from their family when there are kids and responsibilities to handle at home. My husband is my

guiding force and motivator and my in laws and parents are my support system. My son is 21 and daughter is 17 and they are always there for me, no matter the situation.”

Pallavi feels that she has a long way to go and feels she will achieve greater heights with her family by her side

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 33

biz bytes

@businessgoa

Production activities picks up pace at GSL & Raksha Mantri e-commissions ‘ICGS SACHET’ built by GSL

Ship production activities at Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), restarted on 4th May, after coming to a complete halt on 22 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Before resuming production activities, GSL has taken various measures as per MHA guidelines to minimize risk of spread of COVID-19 in the yard.

Production activities are gradually picking up pace and the manpower strength is being increased in a phased manner. All personnel are being screened at the entry gates by Health Wardens

deputed by the company.

Compulsory use of mask is being enforced and vehicles are being sanitized before entry to the yard. Further, a large number of hands-free sanitizer dispensing units have been placed at various locations and personnel are encouraged to use them frequently.

On the business front, GSL’s inherent strength in working on ERP based system, the shipyard has quickly adapted to paperless working. GSL has arranged transportation of its workers from various parts of Goa

and has discontinued canteen services for the time being.

At present, GSL is executing important projects for Indian Navy, Coast Guard and other customers, which are in various stages of completion.

In a unique and first of its kind ceremony, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh dedicated a state-of-the-art new generation Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), ICGS ‘SACHET’ to the nation during E-commissioning ceremony held at Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) on 15th May 2020. The ship has been designed in-house

and built by GSL and was delivered to Indian Coast Guard on 24 Feb 2020 as per contractual delivery schedule.

The E-commissioning was done through direct video link with Raksha Mantralaya in New Delhi and Raksha Rajya Mantri Shripad Naik was present at GSL for the ceremony along with very limited dignitaries.

ICGS ‘SACHET’ is fitted with the most sophisticated weapons, sensors and communication systems. The OPV, which will be based in Goa, will boost Indian Coast Guard’s capability in meeting the increasing requirements for undertaking ocean surveillance in Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and surface warfare operations to prevent infiltration and threats to critical offshore assets.

Speaking on the occasion DGCG K Natrajan, PTM, TM said “Joining of these three ships in our fleet will provide added strength to our surveillance capabilities on the Western and Eastern seaboards, especially during the ensuing Southwest monsoon”

BMW Extended Care+ service guarantees uninterrupted JOY BMW India has announced the roll-out of the BMW Extended Care+ Service campaign for its customers across the entire dealer network in the country. BMW customers can now avail comprehensive after-sales services, pre-monsoon and electrical function and ensure their BMW is road-ready at all times.

Arlindo Teixeira, acting President, BMW Group India, said, “At BMW, we are committed to provide our customers with services that deliver best-in-class care for their BMW vehicle along with uncompromising

driving experience. BMW Extended Care+ service is designed to ensure all-round vehicle safety and total readiness of customer’s cars at all times. Equipped with a wealth of experience, trained technicians, specialised workshop technologies and original BMW Parts, our

34 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

customers can count on absolute peace of mind and maximum driving pleasure at all times.”

BMW Extended Care+ is a 33 point check service designed to keep BMW vehicles in top condition and ready throughout the year.

Using the recently introduced

‘BMW Contactless Experience’, customers can select convenient date and time and book the extended care+ service with the nearest dealership from the comfort of their home. Service related payments can also be made online in a secure way.

Customers will receive their serviced car at the place of their choice after a thorough sanitisation process along with handover of all vehicle documents in a sanitised envelope.

Services and delivery will be done adhering to all local government directives post the lockdown period

@businessgoa

Dempo Sports Club unveils jersey to recognize Goa’s front line heroes

L to R: Shrinivas Dempo, IGP Jaspal Singh, Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and Chief Secretary Parimal Rai

Dempo Sports Club launched its new football jersey and announced that the Golden Eagles will proudly bear the words “Thank You Goa’s Covid Warriors” on their Home and Away jerseys for the upcoming 2020-21 football season.

The Dempo Group of Companies has already joined the fight against Covid 19, contributing `1 Crore, & `20 Lakhs to the PM Cares Fund and the CM Covid Fund respectively.

The Dempo Sports Club, has also contributed in its own small way, to acknowledge

and thank the service, commitment and courage demonstrated by the men and women who continue to fight the coronavirus with great vigour, sacrifice and success.

In a show of solidarity and respect towards these brave men and women, the Club will have the words “Thank You Goa’s Covid Warriors” in the space usually occupied by the main sponsor. The “Dempo” name will move to the back of the jersey.

Speaking at the presentation, Shrinivas Dempo, Chairman of the Dempo Group said: “This

is our way to say thank you and pay a tribute to Goa’s COVID Warriors who have done a fantastic job, be it health, police or various NGOs, that have, in this time of this pandemic, continued to achieve phenomenal results while working under immense stress. This will also serve as a message to every citizen of the state that we all need to play our part if we are to come out of this together.

This message will be displayed across all our teams, Senior

and Youth Development sides in the new season, yearround.”

Goa’s Chief Minister, Dr. Pramod Sawant said: “As you witnessed this inauguration, which is to say thanks to the front line warriors fighting Covid19, I would like to congratulate and thank Dempo for this initiative, who with Dempo Sports Club has always contributed to the state in various ways and today has done so in this unique way.”

Dr. Shivanand M. Bandekar, Dean of Goa Medical College added: “I would like to congratulate Dempo Sports Club for such a wonderful idea and my sincere thanks to Shrinivas Dempo for such a very heart touching gesture from the club, to forgo the front space which is meant for their publicity, and give this to the front line COVID workers, which I think is the greatest of sacrifice on behalf of a sports club”

Sprayers & Sanitization/Fumigation Chemicals available at Goa Tractors Tillers Goa Tractors Tillers & Agencies, the premier dealers for agricultural machinery in Goa have all types of sprayers which can used for sanitization / fumigation during Covid-19. They also deal with the sanitizing and fumigation solutions like hydrogen peroxide, sodium hypochlorite, and hand sanitizers, etc Alcohol either ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol are common disinfectants and rapidly kill vegetative forms of bacteria, fungi, and enveloped viruses. Their activity drops sharply when diluted below 50% concentration hence the optimum concentration should be in the range of 60-80% solutions in water (volume/volume).

Hypochlorite has a broad spectrum of antimicrobial

activity, are unaffected by water hardness, are inexpensive and fast acting.

Hydrogen Peroxide is a widely used antimicrobial chemical usable in liquid and gas form and often used as antiseptics to clean wounds.

It is useful for cleaning surgical sites after closure.

Silver Hydrogen Peroxide can be used to disinfect environmental surfaces and is high compatible with metals, plastics and elastomers.

Hydrogen peroxide has no residues after fogging as it decomposes into water and nascent oxygen making it safe for application indoors as well as outdoors. There is no requirement for de-fogging and cleaning of equipment and area to remove residues of this solution www.businessgoa.in

may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 35

social index

Covid-19 relief work by Rotary Club of Panaji Riviera

@businessgoa

Rotary Club of Panaji Riviera has always been at the forefront to serve the cause of humanity

Distribution of groceries to migrant labourers

Distribution of PPE Kits to DHS. L to R: Sairaj Dhond (Secretary, RC Panaji Riviera), Yogish Kulkarni (President RCPR), Gaurish Dhond (Chairman, Indian Red Cross Society, Goa), Dr Jose D’Sa (Director, Directorate of Health Services, Govt of Goa), Rajesh Salgaonkar (Member, RCPR) and Subhash Salkar (Gen’l Sec, IRCS, Goa)

O

ver the last couple of months, the entire world is in the grasp of a deadly virus, the Covid 19, which was declared a pandemic on March 11th by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

There has been a complete lockdown in India, due to which a large number of people were left without income and devoid of basics rations and groceries.

It is in this kind of crisis, that the true character of a Rotary Club and its Rotarians come to the fore.

The Rotarians of RC Panaji Riviera has stood true to the motto of Rotary “Service Above Self ” and have led the way in a relief task, in order to serve the needy.

From the very first day of the lockdown, RC Panaji Riviera members were on ground zero. They volunteered

to help the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) in delivering CCP’s groceries under home delivery scheme, to the residents of Panaji.

Later the Club arranged groceries and basic rations to the migrant labourers, homeless, slum dwellers, NGO taking care of HIV+ kids, old age homes, NGOs taking care of street children and children of single parents and so many other economically backward people of Goa. RC Panaji Riviera was frequently receiving calls from all quarters of Goa. The donation of ration boxes to Garbage Plant Workers, Panaji, was appreciated by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India Office, through their Twitter account.

“We have distributed over 850 boxes and around 1000 kgs of Rice & 800 kgs of wheat flour separately, thereby reaching out to nearly 5,000 people across the State”

yogish kulkarni

President, Rotary Club of Panaji Riviera

“The ration boxes contained 5kgs rice, 4kgs wheat flour, 1kg dal, 1kg onion, 1kg potato and 1ltr oil. These boxes were then distributed free of cost to the needy all over Goa. Till date we have distributed over 850 such boxes and around

1000kgs of Rice & 800kgs of Atta (Wheat Flour) separately, thereby reaching out to nearly 5,000 people in span of over 10 days. Indian Red Cross Society, Goa Chapter, was an active partner in this relief effort,” said Yogish Kulkarni, president of Rotary Club Panaji Riviera.

RC Panaji Riviera has raised an amount of Rs. 5 Lakhs to purchase and distribute groceries to the needy. RC Panaji Riviera donated 50 PPE Kits to the Doctors of Goa Medical College and Department of Health Services (DHS), Government of Goa. An amount of Rs. 1000 per every Rotarian of the club, has been handed over to District Governor of District 3170, as part of the Rotary India contribution to the PM Cares fund. The Rotarians of Panaji Riviera are always known to be frontline soldiers in times of crisis and once again they have proved this to be true

L to R: Donation to the needy in Vasco; donation to an NGO taking care of underpriviledged kids; Tweet by UNDP India lauding efforts of RC Panaji Riviera; distribution of groceries to slum dwellers

36 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

@businessgoa

Goa Sikh Youth Community service feeds 5,000 people a day!

D

uring these tough times where the globe has been struck with a catastrophic pandemic being COVID-19, the Goa Sikh Youth Community has come forward and taken charge of reaching out to the poor and the needy across the state.

The Goa Sikh Youth Community was started in the year 2017 by its founding members Sandeep Sartaj Gill, Karan Singh, Jagjeet Singh, Deep Singh, Jagdeep Khaira, Zeenat Soni, Gulab Singh and Laurina Sneha Caldeira Gill with the sole motto of providing ‘service to mankind’.

Speaking about what encouraged them to step forward and initiate the noble act of proving food to the needy during these difficult times, Laurina Caldeira alias Sneha Gill who happens to be one of the founders of the Goa Sikh Youth Community said that at the beginning, it was she, her husband Sandeep Sartaj Gill and another member Karan Singh, who decided to take the first step of getting their vehicles registered for the purpose of volunteering to reach out to the ones in need.

Laurina mentions that, after great difficulty, two of Karan’s vehicles were registered under his and Sartaj’s names and thereafter they started this noble ‘seva’ with the blessings of Supreme creator of the Sikhs, ‘Waheguru Ji’.

The Goa Sikh Youth Community flagged off their righteous initiative by serving food to about 400 people stranded across various areas in Goa right from Mulgao, Tivim station, Mapusa, Panjim, Assagao, Assanora, Old Goa, Bambolim, Miramar, Taleigao, Nerul, Merces and many more. With their core kitchen operating from the Mapusa-Guirim highway, the Goa Sikh Youth Community manages to serve more than a whopping 5,000

The organisation’s only aspiration is ‘let no person sleep hungry in Goa’ individuals everyday stranded at multiple locations across the state!

Speaking further about the variety of food that they offer, Laurina mentions that the Sikh Community supplies meals which mainly include staple food such as dal, rice, potato curry, jeera rice, mix vegetables, curd curry with rice, and various other combinations of nutritious vegetarian food items to those who are in need.

The community manages to prepare humungous quantities of te food ranging from 400 kilos of rice and at the very least, 200 kilos of dal and veggies every single day with the unconditional support and aid from every one of their teammates, who she says, are their pillars of strength. In addition, they also offer dry ration to certain households depending on their requirements.

Elaborating upon the working of the entire scenario, Laurina says that they had to initially start off by investing money from their own pockets. However, gradually as the cause gained momentum, they roped in financial sponsorship from Big Daddy casino, Vedanta, Rotary club, Round Table club, BNI chapter, Pinto Villa Housing Society and

numerous other contributors whose donation and assistance has made their noble act a possibility. Further, the community has also taken utmost care of following all the health and hygiene related COVID-19 guidelines that have been published by the state government right from the use of gloves, sanitizers and masks to being fully equipped with personal protection gears.

Fuelling such a selfless act of charity is obviously not an easy task. Thus, elaborating upon the difficulties that they faced with regards to their service, Laurina exclaimed that their primary complexity was arranging for basic groceries during the lockdown, as, during initial days, it was extremely hard to procure groceries due to the stringent rules pertaining

to the lockdown. However, slowly and steadily they managed to get the necessary food items with all the help and assistance from the neighbouring citizens and various other selfless people.

Regarding the community’s goal for the future, the Goa Youth Sikh Community pledges itself to come to the rescue of the needy and the poor in whatever capacity they can with the sole aim of relieving them of their obstacles. She further mentions that their only aspiration is ‘let no person sleep hungry in Goa.’ The community has reached out to a wide number of people selflessly and that is the spirit that needs to be maintained and the community looks forward to serving a lot more people with the same amount of zing!

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light & sound / Kapil Surlakar

Money can’t buy me love

The writer ponders over the ethics v/s commerce debate in the field of architectural lighting

P

aul McCartney passionately singing “Can’t buy me Love”; makes me verify the veracity of those sentiments in this present day as I attempt to contextually explore the truth in his words. The rules of engagement today differ from the past.

Business landscapes and strategies are changing. Probably money can buy love today. Money has become the primary goal and is shifting the focus from design and creativity in the profession of Architectural Lighting design. A more romantic view would be a design world free of the associated commercial encumbrances.

Human greed is exploited by the industry at large to define the language of design. Businesses with a primary focus on commerce are entitled to build strategies that will support their goals. It would be naïve to assume that design practices are not a business. But is business a core value that drives design or should design define and dictate how human lives and experiences are elevated? Who drives this discourse? Do we as a design community; have a strong voice? Do we even have an identity? Do we have the numbers? Are we defining the agenda for the development of the design paradigm or are we being manipulated and bludgeoned towards adopted agendas by manufacturers and business houses?

Working in a space with fast changing technologies, one must also learn to accept the changing values and business ethics. What is acceptable today? Is the new millennium significantly shifting the goalpost? Does awareness of this phenomenon of erosion of values exist?

Is it perceived as an erosion of values by most? It is important that various professional associations globally address this in the rightful manner. Are they in a position to do that in an unbiased and unprejudiced manner? It is important that some rules are laid down to ameliorate the constantly deteriorating terms of engagement.

This attempt to provide an insight into how the industry works today asks a few questions in order to hopefully clear the air about the grey areas in the professional ethics V/s professional business debate. Am I the only one seeing grey? Architectural Lighting design as a discipline is fairly new and considered important by few who have studied the

subject. What is of consequence is the realisation that light has the power to influence life and dictates human health and well being. This however is a fact that is scarcely regarded by the manufacturing industry. This knowledge however, is now being promoted as a newfound elixir under the topic of “human-centric lighting”, a term exploited to extract maximum commercial benefit. Should not this basic knowledge of light be the bedrock of every lighting company and shouldn’t every design by default be human-centric?

The lighting equipment manufacturing industry by its sheer size and volume, dominates the field of lighting design. They have a far greater reach and interaction with the end users, by virtue of their market penetration as well as the budgets available to them.

They can therefore be the educators of the masses for disseminating appropriate knowledge about what constitutes good lighting. They could decide to be responsible humans and look at how the whole business is run with sustainable practices. On the contrary, there is a far greater percentage of industry that focuses on cashing in on the confusion or lack of information and knowledge available to the consumers. Besides greed, the other reasons, one could argue, are lack of understanding of the subject and the disconnect between the financial and the technical goals of the company.

One could safely say that the financial goals dictate the technical goals and are manipulated to convenience.

Financial pressures or unrealistic financial goals by companies and individuals tend to deviate the conduct away from the ethical. The wavering ideologies open up different business models and encourage unscrupulous practices, which serve individual and company financial goals but completely destroy the quality and consistency of the product and the integrity of the people who deal with the same. This human trait today is being exploited by most companies with a detrimental effect on the profession. A single-minded focus on money or earning with no qualms has eroded the importance of the knowledge that we all hold dear to our heart. The lure of large pecuniary benefits far outweigh the ability to provide efficient

and meaningful solutions. The ignorance and incomprehension of the subject is further exploited to propagate confusion.

Glamour sells. It has become the cornerstone of influencing perception.

Money is needed to fuel this perception.

Therein lies the motivation to adopt nefarious means to accumulate more wealth. The influencers are financially induced to promote and sell convenient lies to the gullible public. The number of awards and magazines mushrooming are a case in point. There are very few awards constituted by recognised institutions and professional bodies with award given by peer review or due diligence. There are also awards constituted for money. The awarding agency makes money as you get your award and your spot in the limelight for a fee. This is also captured by media houses for a fee. Such media made stars then begin to dominate and dictate the professional landscape. They vitiate the professional environment and deviate the focus from the code of professional conduct with a single-minded approach towards commerce. The overshadowing of the profession and professional acumen by the perceptibly smooth businessman does indeed harm the profession and the quality of the results.

This is aided by the industry as it suits their quest for numbers. They are ready to ply you with various inducements to be in your good favour. Thus begins the corruption, that today is deep rooted in the profession.

Belonging to a transition generation, we have seen a lot of change and progress.

Digital technology is fast wiping out the analogue interfaces. We are also a generation of lighting designers that started with conventional lamp sources and have to now familiarize ourselves and work with LED and digital media.

Besides technology, we also see a quantum leap in human greed. The focus has shifted from the quality and ethical solutions to “quick wealth” with no qualms. Sustainability, is more used as a catch phrase and ethics is a virtue which is progressively fading into oblivion.

Success is measured by the net earning potential, with very scant regard to the rules of the game.

Whereas innovation and research comes with a cost, it also defines progress. This however translates into a

The writer is B.Arch, PGDM, M.ALD, Director of Design, Light@Work Design Consultants Pvt. Ltd., India. Email: k.surlakar@lightdesignconsultants.com 38 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Uncomplicate Business / sunil dias

6 actions to Corona-proof your business

The writer speaks about adapting to a new environment, which can help in re-building your business

T

here’s no doubt we will defeat the coronavirus. It will soon be a distant memory. Our lives will adjust to a new normal. We will fondly reminisce of the days we washed dishes and took out the garbage.

What’s the economic impact?

Depending on who you ask, experts predict a ‘V’ shaped or an ‘U’ shaped economic recovery. They’ll throw in a few scenarios for good measure. The more cynical talk about a prolonged ‘L’ shaped phase. The truth though is that nobody knows for certain. Probability dictates that some scenarios of some experts will be proved right. Yet, which alphabet shape the economy traces is an uncontrollable factor. Instead, we can plan for what’s in our control. This article gives you 6 powerful actions to coronaproof your business.

Action 1: Rethink your business model Whichever industry you are in, you’ll need to relook your business model.

For instance, online retail will grow at the expense of store retail long after we’ve seen the last coronavirus. In the hospitality industry, local tourists will become a larger chunk of customers. The product and go-to-market strategy for both sectors will change significantly.

It’s not just the service sector where business models will change. We’re quite likely to see a partial reversal of globalization. That means some reshoring of manufacturing. That’s good for India where a good portion of demand is internal. If your business is export dependent, identify alternate domestic customers. If you are importing, develop alternate domestic suppliers. Even if neither exporting nor importing, there are large opportunities reshoring will bring.

You just need to keep your eyes open to the opportunities. Smart thermometers,

meeting apps, logistics aggregation, disinfectants, online education – a few of many opportunities to do something new.

Action 2: Go digital before it’s too late The future is digital. Digital has become a key part of everything we do at work and home. This crisis is accelerating what was anyway happening. Companies without digital at their core are getting severely disadvantaged. Explore business areas to use digital technology. Don’t invest in high fixed cost software. Instead, exclusively use SaaS products. Most of them come with an extended free trialmake use of that while evaluating options.

Action 3: Streamline processes Streamlined processes make you more efficient and organised. It improves customer service and reduces cost.

Besides, you can’t really go digital without having streamlined processes.

Streamlined processes are required in any case. The coronavirus has just made the need more urgent.

Action 4: Modify marketing strategy and channels Using digital and social to market and sell online is already big. It’s going to explode in popularity. Which would you prefer to meet? A salesperson who travels 15 days a month sitting in a chair 1 meter away from you. Or a salesperson talking to you on a screen or on a phone with almost the same amount of clarity.

For the near future, the answer in most cases is the latter. And once we get used to it, it’s going to be difficult to revert to the traditional way. To make digital selling happen, there are infrastructure and behavioural changes needed. For instance, everyone will need to have a more structured workday if appointments

are to be honoured.

There are several positive aspects to this. For many businesses, it expands the geography you can sell to. It’s also going to reduce travel which means lower costs. And your salesperson could do 4 meetings in a day instead of 1. So, more efficiency.

Action 5: Conserve cash In periods of uncertainty, cash is not only the king, but the emperor. Look around for cost cutting opportunities. Whether its travel or rent or your mobile phone plan, every rupee counts. Yet, be careful to differentiate between cutting costs and not investing. You’ll need to invest smartly in some initiatives.

Action 6: Recharge employees This period has been emotionally draining for everyone. A little for some, a lot for others. It’s useful to check-in to employee wellbeing. And this goes beyond sending messages saying, “We’re there for you”. Or doing a Zoom team call and posting pictures on social media about how cool your organization is. It’s having a conversation with each employee and understanding their emotional state.

And helping them get back on track.

Closing thoughts Peter Drucker said, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence. It is to act with yesterday’s logic.” The pandemic has happened. It’s impacted us all. Let’s stop grumbling.

Let’s stop our doctorates on the coronavirus. It’s not going to make things change. Instead start making changes in the way you do business. Adapt to the new environment. You might well build a bigger, better business post-corona than you had pre-corona

The author runs iv-advisors, a consulting firm helping businesses become bigger and better. Email:sunildias@iv-advisors.com

cost to the end product. It thus becomes easy to merely copy and deliver solutions to the market at a much cheaper price.

Does the cheaper price constitute value?

Are you getting your worth for every unit of money spent? Is this within the framework of law?

The industry trend of working towards larger sales volumes has shifted the focus to mass consumer products. Premium companies who only offered premium

products, now also offer value engineered products to tap this market segment. This can be referred to as adapting to changing business environments but is also evident of the degradation of the values.

The “value engineered” products have very less engineering and even lesser value. They are curated by people with insufficient or no qualification and understanding with a single-minded commercial motive.

As a design professional today, it has become imperative to develop skills to negotiate the commercial currents to succeed. Traversing the everchanging boundaries of ethics and acceptability one must stay true to the profession and self. Commitment is the key. What are you willing to endure? Can money really buy you love or is it “Love lost” in the process? I am looking for the answers.

Perhaps they are available at a price may 2020 | Business Goa industry Dossier | 39

corporate citizen / Daniel Albuquerque

Law and Jobs Crisis under Covid-19

The author urges companies to sustain their employees and not to trample on their well-being in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic

I

n a celebrated judgment of the Bombay High Court, Firestone Tyre & Rubber Company versus Workmen (of that company) 1958, (see also 1959 IILLJ 124 Bom), the rights of the workers for salaries and bonus were upheld under Section 12 (5) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

While the company complained that the wages and bonuses paid to its workforces are adequate, the workers’ union placed before the court facts and figures of these which were far below the living wages; consequently they were mired in debts.

The Court concurred with the workers’ union and, although with some necessary changes, it specified the reward in definite percentages for wages and bonus.

In the face of Covid-19 pandemic, the companies are laying off their employees, cutting their salaries and bonus, furloughing more useful ones, that is cancelling the jobs temporarily, and some even desist from any payment at all. As expert figures put the unemployment rate at an incredible 27.5%, or as some others observe a 100 million job loss, employees are staring into the dark tunnel of hopelessness with no glimmer of light at its end.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Labour and Employment put out an advisory: In the backdrop of such challenging situations, all the Employers of Public/Private Establishments are advised to extend their coordination by not terminating their employees, particularly casual or contractual workers from job or reduce their wages. Note that it is an advisory and not a mandatory regulation! However, even in normal times, in every case of labour dispute the workers have similar complaints: the companies have been making enormous profits, but have been unfair to their employees by underpaying. Thus adversely affecting unemployed people.

As per the government advisories, directives, and several obligations imposed by the different central and state ministries the employers must ensure mainly these: 1. The employees cannot be dismissed, salaries reduced or furloughed.

2. All reasonable measures must be taken to prevent the viral infection by ensuring hygienic workplace as per the directives of the Ministry of Health and

Family Welfare and the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

3. Employers must rationalize travel of its executives; employees have the right to refuse travel.

4. Quarantine facilities must be set up.

5. Employers have the right not to allow a Covid-19 infected person within the company premises.

6. The companies have the right to protect their data and privacy related issues as they deem fit by prohibiting the use of private computers and other network systems and platforms.

Be that as it may. The companies, with the exceptions of a handful, in their effort to survive the risk of prolonged lockdown and its seen and unforeseen risks have taken serious measures of downsizing of the salaries, discontinuance of employees, dismissal of contract and casual labour, etc. What gasoline is for a motor vehicle, cash is for running a business.

A government that runs on taxpayers’ money worries less about cash flow, for it can always deficit its budget. A company does not have that luxury; it must earn first, invest it, conduct business, and only then is able to pay out. On the other hand the conundrum is vicious; without workers there is no industry, and without industry the economy of a country comes to a standstill. On behalf of the workers a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by Adv. Rajesh Inamdar and General Secretary of National Information Technology Employees Sens Harpreet Sluja in the Supreme Court of India. They pleaded that companies have completely disregarded the Government directives during Covid-19 and have undertaken mass job termination, salary cuts and other measures detrimental to the workers. The plea seeks a balance between the rights of the workers as well as those of the employers. The fundamental right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India is at stake if the livelihood of the employees is sidelined.

We proudly address them with epithets such as business leaders, captains of industry, Czar of something, even, kings and monarchs. These and the members of the board, further supported by experts and consultants just ignored

the Corona Virus emanating from Wuhan in December 2019; even a quarter down the New Year, they neglected to take notice and guard themselves against the imminent disaster!

Further, they failed to perceive the consequences of two emergency laws: 1) Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 which was enacted to deal with the deadly bubonic plague that decimated the population of Bombay in British India. 2) Disaster Management Act 2005, enacted with the objectives to deal with both natural as well as man-made disasters. The consequences of these laws consist in the emergency powers of the government, whereby every economic activity can be stilled and frozen. The company boards must decide at their earliest to face the problem head on, re-budget and reorient the company targets, even suffer temporary loss, which in reality would benefit the company with renewed motivation and confirmed loyalty of its workers and will be more than adequately compensated in the long term. What the companies need to understand is that their businesses are oriented for other things being equal or normal times.

However, if the company is a learning institution, that it is intelligent enough to foresee and understand when the times are not normal; when there are financial meltdowns or other market risks; they also must provide for unforeseen acts of natural and calamities beyond their powers to control. Whichever company is wise enough to provide for such emergencies would never complain when disaster strikes. Even a humble housing society in India has a ‘sinking fund’ for unforeseen eventualities, but the governing board of our companies does not believe in the proverb to save something for the rainy day. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed Indian companies of their unpreparedness, short-sightedness and lack of legal acumen to conduct themselves with equity and good conscience, the two pillars of Indian jurisprudence.

Finally, Industry looking for stimulus from the government which does so from taxpayers’ kitty tantamounts to demanding money from the very employees who have been retrenched and who may be trudging their way home towards a remote village of India The columnist is a writer with Oxford University Press and a published author. Email: albuquerque.daniel@gmail.com 40 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

bon Appétit

@businessgoa

Gourmet fare in lockdown

Various restaurants have chosen the home delivery model to stay in business with social distancing norms being in place Amey Naik, PEEP Kitchen

“No doubt the Pandemic has shaken the confidence of one and all – rich or poor, businessman or employed.

We feel that a lot of people may be apprehensive to step out so we are working on takeaway and home delivery model as we foresee these as the demand of the near future. We are trying to keep everyone in a positive state of mind and keeping them informed about the difficulty that the industry is facing.

Since employees are such an important part of the restaurant experience, most of our employees are

Amey Naik

home-bound following the lock down. However, we are constantly in touch with them, keeping them motivated and uplifting their spirits in these incredibly dark times. We are using this time to ensure our resources are all channelized

towards awareness and education of the best practices of hygiene and well being as well as immunity building for associates and guests through a thoughtful menu by procuring fresh and local produce.

During the last several

years, humanity has seen many pandemics, ups and downs, but the food & beverage business has always grown upwards. We will have to focus on daily hygiene protocols that would be followed by the staff with a supervisor to monitor the protocols. With social distancing being of utmost importance, crowding should be avoided at all costs and eateries should be managed effectively by planning proper spacing in the dining area. If such measures are followed, we can be pretty confident of a timely revamp of the industry”

extremely kind, loyal and supportive by providing us

with their regular orders and hopefully the situation will get better. At the Tato Group, we would like to urge readers and customers to support all their neighbourhood eateries and help them survive during this difficult time.

We assure our customers that we are taking all necessary precautions as per the guidelines laid down by WHO and doing the best we can to satisfy our customers with nothing but the best experience!”

Pranav and Saurabh Dhuri, Cafe Tato “The current global pandemic has drastically affected our business. After keeping all our outlets shut for the first 21 days of the lockdown, we have had to open 3 outlets around Goa due to lack of business. With customers having minimal spending power and elevated levels of cautiousness, we have had to face various difficulties such as paying off liabilities like rent, loans, paying staff wages and salaries. Also, overheads have been shooting up with

Saurabh Dhuri

Pranav Dhuri

no relief coming in from the side of the authorities.

Our strategy for now is to survive this phase keeping overheads in check. So far, our patrons have been

Pradosh Amoncar, Amoncar Classic Catering Services Pvt Ltd “The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly affected most businesses in some or the other way creating absolute chaos.

Catering related businesses such as ours will probably be one of the last businesses to settle as it demands large gathering of people and with social distancing being the prime necessity right now, such gatherings are nearly impossible.

The catering industry banks mainly on wedding seasons. However, with the outbreak of this virus, most of the functions stand cancelled thus leaving us with no choice

but to return the advances taken from customers. This in turn has caused huge losses to revenue generation.

Although there is almost no business and everything is at halt, life has to go on! Thus, in order to keep the business

42 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

running, we have started with the system of home deliveries by keeping all the requisite safety and hygiene standards in mind.

We have kept the menu simple so that preparation struggle becomes manageable.

Pradosh Amoncar

Work is done with lesser staff so hygiene and social distancing is easy. Although profits have hit a low point, we are so far able to sustain our staff with whatever revenue is generated”

bon Appétit

@businessgoamagazine

Atul Shah, Spice Goa

“Business is affected adversely but we are holding staff who we are taking care of. We have started with home deliveries and are doing quite well there.

As far as hygiene is concerned, we have our safety standards in place with sanitized kitchens which we have been practicing for almost 20 years. We are also tied up with one of the country’s best hospitality sanitization product company for many years, which our customers

and to control the pricing as the cost of almost every ingredient has gone up by 50 percent after lockdown, and

of course, to persuade and communicate that coming to us or ordering from us is the best option. As diners are thriftier than they were last month, with worries about their incomes and additional expenses we are trying to give additional benefits to the customers who are ordering by putting up posts on social media like Facebook and try to stay connected. It’s working at a moderate percentage and with time I feel it will work,” says Atul Shah of Spice Goa

and online marketing of our products. We have redesigned our menu to suit home delivery model. We are seeing decent results in terms of efficiency. Our operations have become leaner with a

possibility for scalability in the future. Use this pandemic as an opportunity to re-think, re-invent your business and learn from it. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can survive this, you will come out stronger, leaner, and definitely more efficient!

Conserve your resources and plan for the long haul and not short term. Do not get bogged down by challenges rather meet them with positive attitude and business sense.

Stop all wasteful expenditure and invest in technologies and lastly support your team members in whatever way you can, especially those who are high performers, motivated and loyal”

Aparna & Atul Shah

are aware of – and this is now paying us rich dividends.

The toughest challenge is to keep your staff in good spirits

Prahlad Sukhtankar, Black Sheep Bistro “Immediate revenues have fallen 100% during lockdown.

Our customers have been very sympathetic to our problems and support us with home delivery orders every few days which has been a big help.

Cash flow is severely affected since there is zero to minimal revenue coming into the business but expenses haven’t gone down by as much. Even post lockdown this industry will take a long time to recover, so many restaurants are thinking of keeping their operations closed even post lockdown as it costs more just to stay open with staff

Prahlad & Sabreen Sukhtankar

and overheads including rent and utilities. We revised our financial forecasts for the year and developed new strategies and re-planned the entire business model. We are investing in online technology

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NewsMakers

@businessgoa

Shrinivas Dempo receives the Tepper Achievement Award

Varad Karmali presents video of Goa under Lockdown

Ameya Audi becomes India’s latest International Master in Chess

Charmaine Godinho and her daughters to represent India in Ultimate Frisbee

Shrinivas Dempo received the Tepper Achievement Award in recognition of his influential roles as Chairman and Managing Director of the Dempo Group and in professional associations and civic organizations in India. Dempo assumed the leadership of the family business in 1998 as the third – generation head and gave a new direction to the conglomerate.

“I remain extraordinarily grateful to Carnegie Mellon University for empowering my professional success,” Dempo said. “I am pleased to continue to support the university and the Tepper School in educating future business leaders” Dempo received the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Programme Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award for India in 2014 and was named among the 50 most influential people in Indian sports in the 2010 Sports Illustrated Power list as President and Chairman of Dempo Sports Club

Ameya Audi put up a scintillating performance in the prestigious Aeroflot Open Chess 2020 B, which concluded in Moscow recently. Ameya achieved his final IM Norm, and is now the latest International Master of India and has won the 10th place for his splendid performance.

Ameya was the 53rd seed at the beginning of the tournament.

He showed great temperament and exceptional skill, as he defeated the first seed Ukrainian GM Bogdanovich Stanislav 2546 in the very first round, and was very consistent in his performance. There were in all 105 participants from 18 countries. Ameya had already achieved his 3 IM norms in the 41 Tenkes Cup, Hungary in 2017, in which he had also won his Championship, followed by the World Juniors International Open Chess, 2019 held in October 2019 in Delhi and the 18th Delhi GM Open, 2020, held in January 2020 in Delhi, in which he also won the Best Player under 2350 rating.

Ameya went on to win his final norm, and the most coveted International Master Title

Subodh Kerkar explores new artistic journeys with ‘Tales from the Seaside’

The lockdown period has enabled Goan artist Subodh Kerkar to depict the inseparability of the lives of fishermen and the ocean. For the last two months he has been constatntly practicing with the brush and ink, which gave him a lot of confidence to try out new forms. In the past month, his long walks on the beach have provided him with new visuals and ideas.

For the past 20 years Subodh has been creating installations and sculptures. He has got back to drawings which have opened up new avenues for him, in his artistic practice 46 | Business Goa industry Dossier | may 2020

Varad Karmali is one of the few photographers in Goa who uses drones and has used the lockdown period to showcase his skills.

In collaboration with Goa Police, Varad has captured an aerial view of the State, and the video is accompanied by poetry in the background describing the deep emotions of every Goan.

The Atal Setu, Bridges joining Savordem and Curchorem.

Varca Beach, Maruti Gad at Curchorem , Ambedkar Junction, Bud Bud Tali at Netravali, Basilica of Bom Jesus and St Francis of Assisi Church at Old Goa, San Jacinto Island, Nagueshi temple at Ponda, Municipal Graden at Margao, Aguada Fort, Reis Magos Fort, Miramar Circle, Immaculate Conception Church at Panjim, and a shot of a beach at sunset are some of the places depicted in this aerial video. Varad presented his idea to the Goa Police and with their encouragement went ahead to show the people of Goa places that were once teeming with people, now all calm and serene without the usual crowds

Charmaine Godinho, one time beauty queen and now full time mother, will represent India in the world master ultimate Frisbee championship in the masters category to be held on the Gold Coast in Australia in September.

Her daughter Rebecca (18) will represent the country in the Netherlands and Wynona (15) in Sweden in July.

Ultimate Frisbee is a team sport that is best described as a team sport which is a cross between Basketball and Football, with a flying disk (or Frisbee) as a substitute for the ball

131 1. ‘Be Prepared’ is the motto of Boy Scouts movement. Which soap also used it as its advertising slogan?

2. Which bank founded by the family of Devkaran Nanjee was the first bank to introduce credit cards in rural India?

3.Which US company founded and funded the Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) where the modern day IBM PC was developed?

4. Which brand name when literally translated into Spanish means ‘little bits of gold’?

5. The Credit Suisse Group has its headquarters in which European city?

6. In 2007, which media group bought The Wall Street Journal from the Bancroft family which held 60% shares?

7. Which is the first Indian company to have embraced Six Sigma for its projects in 1996?

8. Identify the writer of this book (in the picture) Answers to BG Quiz 130: 1. Alyque Padamsee 2. Sara Lee Corporation 3. Kwality Wall’s 4. Caclcutta Stock Exchange 5.

Onida 6. Satyam Infoway 7. Adidas 8. David Sassoon Email your answers to businessgoa.media@gmail.com First all correct entry will get 1 year’s subscription to Business Goa

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