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STOCKS • FINANCE • SOUTH ASIAN MARKETS • TECHNOLOGY
Top 10 Indian Women Leaving their Mark in the Corporate World
By Binu Paul BANGALORE (SI): Although the Indian corporate world is ruled by men, there are a few powerful women leaders heading some of the major business houses in India as well as across the globe. Here is our take on the top 10 Indian women in the corporate world. 1. Chanda Kochhar Beginning her career at ICICI as a management trainee in 1984, Chanda Kocchar has conquered the steps of ranks ladder and has reached the post of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank in
May 2009. Under the leadership of Kochhar, ICICI Bank won the the ‘Best Retail Bank in India’ award from 2001 to 2005 and ‘Excellence
in Retail Banking Award’ in 2002 by The Asian Banker. She was also awarded “Retail Banker of the Year 2004, “Business Woman of the Year 2005” and “Rising Star Award” for Global Awards 2006 by Retail Banker International. She has been consistently figured in Fortune’s list of “Most Powerful Women in Business” since 2005. She was also ranked at number 20 in the Forbes “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list” in 2009. She was honored with Padma Bhushan Award by the Government of India in 2010.
2. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw A successful entrepreneur, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon, the biotechnology company delivering bio-pharmaceutical solutions. She also holds the post of Chairperson of Syngene International Limited and Clinigene International Limited. She started Biocon in 1978 and spearheaded its growth to an internationally recognized bio-pharmaceutical company that focuses on diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases. She was awarded the Padmabhushan for her
services and contributions to the biotechnology in 2005
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Shantanu Narayen: A Flash of Inspiration
The Adobe CEO and president hasgravitated towards whatever felt right and worked his way up this one company By Arun Janardhan (Mint) The lobby of the Grand Hyatt hotel in Mumbai is buzzing with suits, men in dark jackets who have gathered for the Nasscom India Leadership Forum. Feeling inadequate, I pull my shirt collar together, tug my rolled-up sleeves down and head to the business centre, which is surrounded by more suits. In a large room, Shantanu Narayen waits, precisely on time, comfortable in the setting of a boardroom in a way only the head of a $17 billion (around Rs. 77,350 crore) company would be. The handshake is warm, the smile easy, the manner friendly and again, precise. The 47-year-old president and CEO of Adobe Systems Incorporated—the company that makes Photoshop, Flash video operating system and Acrobat programmes—seems the sort who would always be in between appointments. This meeting comes after the day’s sessions at the forum, held earlier this month, and was to be followed by a felicitation and dinner at the same venue. He is busy enough to constantly have something on the agenda, but when he listens, it’s with complete attention. “Innovation has been near and dear to my heart and the software industry in India has been a matter of pride, to see how it’s transformed itself in the past 20 years,” says the Palo Alto, California-based Narayen, who was to collect the Global Innovator Award at Nasscom’s 7th Annual Global Leadership Awards. As someone who left Hyderabad about 25 years ago to study in the US, the immediate assessment of change is typical. “The traffic is now 10x, your antibodies are not what they used to be, (and I) can’t eat at roadside vendors like I used to be able to and loved.” Narayen’s story is as typical as it is unusual. He got an engineering degree from Osmania Uni-
versity in Hyderabad because in always like: If it feels right, it those days one did only engineering should work out.” or medicine, and the sight of blood In retrospect, there is an “scared the heck out” of him. irony to the fact that he One of thousands of young men worked in Apple. More on who packed mom’s pickles in a that later, but that company suitcase and headed to the US in gave him a mentor, Gurshathe 1980s—“it was a little bit of folran Singh Sidhu of Apple lowing your father’s and brother’s Talk, who taught him the footsteps, sort of a ‘Go West, young notion of challenging others man’ thing”—he went through the and oneself. grind of getting a master’s degree “People amaze you with in computer science from Bowling their ingenuity and as a manGreen State University, Ohio, and agement style rather than a master’s in business administraset arbitrary boundaries on tion from Haas School of Business, what can and can’t be done. University of California. At Apple, you really beSo far so good; then he decided lieved that you are going to join a start-up—Measurex Autoto change the world. The mation Systems in 1986, instead of statement at that point was, picking an established multinationthe journey was the reward. al firm during campus recruitments It felt like that. I was deliveras some others would have done. ing this software to millions “I didn’t start a company, I was of people and it’s hard not to part of a start-up,” he emphasizes. get excited about that.” “It was a well-funded (start-up) “It was the same thing (at called Measurex. In your first job, Pictra, which he co-foundyou are looking for some good ed), I learnt all about how to experience. It’s much more rapidplan for the upside and react fire learning when you are at a Narayen, who loves golf, to the downside, aspirations start-up.” Narayen says his career has already played at St and ambitions, big-picture progression was never calculated. Andrew’s in Scotland, thinking. In a start-up you After his first job, he was never and says it’s now off his learn a lot. You are drinking recruited or interviewed for one. ‘bucket list’. Photo: Jayfrom a firehose frankly. At The changes came through people achandran/Mint Adobe, I have learnt the he knew. “I have always been one whole notion of thinking on the impact we have for whom the job has to feel right,” he says. had on communication in the written form, on “After my MBA, even then the conventional media. It’s been phenomenal.” Narayen moved wisdom was to switch from engineering to to Adobe in January 1998, as vice-president and product management; I never did that. I was general manager of its engineering technology
group, moving up the ladder to president and chief operating officer in 2005. Narayen is currently done with the subject of Apple, which is all he has had to deal with recently, after the computer giant barred Adobe’s Flash from its invention of the year, the iPad (and earlier, the iPhone too). According to The Telegraph, UK, (Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen believes he doesn’t need Apple or the iPad, 14 August) some 23 of the top 25 European companies, as measured by Forbes magazine, use Adobe products, as do 23 of the top 25 global banks. Today, Photoshop has become a verb, placing Adobe in a position of enviable command in the market but also concerned about competition. Narayen, who was instrumental in the $3.4 billion takeover of Macromedia (which developed Flash) and the $1.8 billion acquisition of Omniture in 2009, says they need to keep innovating because “there’s always two people in a garage somewhere in the world”—a reference to the kind of ingenuity that can come from anywhere and invent the next big thing. “Unless you are nimble…as a colleague says, failure is not an option. It makes you paranoid if anything.” Yet Narayen sleeps reasonably well at night, provided it’s in his own bed. He travels about three months in a year, so when on the road—like on this trip to India, where he has been “run ragged”—he gets sleep deprived. After the Nasscom dinner, he was to catch the late night flight back to California. He quotes some research at Stanford that found people with teenage children tend to be more grounded. His sons Shravan, 20, and Arjun, 16, are technology-savvy, giving Narayen more tips on which direction his work needs to go. “It’s a fascinating experiment to see what they do, how they consume their media.”
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10 Indian Women who Run Powerful Businesses She is an entrepreneur, a spiritualist, an educationalist, a patron of art and culture and a humanist. She also holds the post of the Chairperson of The Times Group. She addressed the United Nations in 2000 at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders
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3. Naina Lal Kidwai BeingthefirstIndianwomantograduate from Harvard Business School, Naina Lal Kidwai began her career at ANZ Grindlays (1982-1994). During 1994-2002, she worked at Morgan Stanley as Vice Chairman of JM Morgan Stanley and Head of the Investment Bank in India. In 2009, she became the Group General Manager and Country Head, HSBC India. She was repeatedly ranked in the Fortune global list of Top Women in Business, 12th in the Wall Street Journal 2006 Global Listing of Women to Watch and listed by Time Magazine as one of their 15 Global Influentials 2002. She received the Padma Shri for her work in the promotion of Trade and Industry. 4. Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi Named #1 on Fortune’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women” and #6 on Forbes’ list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2010,
Indra Nooyi was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She is the Chair Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo. She is regarded as the primary architect of PepsiCo’s growth strategy from the time she took over as it’s President and CFO in 2001. She is a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation. She serves as a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, International Rescue Committee, Catalyst and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She was also considered as one of “The Top Gun CEOs” by Brendan Wood International in 2009.
5. Indi Jain Indu Jain is the Chairperson of India’s largest and most powerful media group, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., which owns the Times of India and other large newspapers.
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6. Swati Piramal Dr.Swati Piramal who has a medical degree from the University of Bombay, a degree in industrial medicine and a master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard Univer University USA, is the Vice Chairperson of Piramal Life Sciences Limited and Director of Piramal Healthcare Limited. As Director of Nicholas Piramal, she is responsible for research and development, strategic alliances, communication, knowledge management, public policy, clinical research, planning and implementation of a new clinical research organization. She has been the Vice President of Assocham in 2008 and was elected as its President in 2009.
span of 2 decades, she accelerating its revenue turnover from 85 crores to 2900 crores.
8. Preetha Reddy Preetha Reddy is the Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals, one of the largest healthcare conglomerates of India. She is also one of pioneer businesswomen of India in the segment of healthcare industry. Under her leadership, the Apollo Specialty Hospital grown to a level of being known as a major oncology referral centre in Asia. Apollo is also considered to be one of the few places with facility to offer bone marrow transplantation. The hospital was first to perform cord blood transplantation in India. She was graduated in Chemistry from the University of Madras and has a post graduate degree in Public Administration.
10. Sulajja Motwani Sulajja Motwani is the Managing Director of Kinetic Motor Company who looks after the company’s over overall business developmental activities. She also heads the Kinetic Marketing ServicesLimitedandKineticFinance. She has been widely acknowledged for single-handedly designing and developing the marketing strategies to spearhead the company’s growth forward. She completed B.Com from Pune University and MBA from Car Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg after which she joined Barra Inter International, California, an investment consulting firm in the U.S. She was rewarded with the Young Achiever’s Award for Business in the year 2002, Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2002 and was named the “Face of the Millennium” by ‘India Today’.
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7. Mallika Srinivasan Mallika Srinivasan is the Director of Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE). Upon completing her MA in econometrics from Madras University, she went to the U.S. and did her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Joining the family business in 1986, she gradually converted TAFE into a hi-technology company and within a
9. Priya Paul Priya Paul is the Chairperson of Appeejay The Park Hotels chain of boutique hotels. She joined the company at the age of 22 after finishing her studies in Economics at the Wellesley College. With just two years of experience working under her father, she had to take charge of the hotel chain when her father Surrendra Paul was gunned down by the ULFA militants in Assam. She has been recognized by Forbes online as one of India’s 100 most powerful businesswomen. She also got many other recognitions such as Young Entrepreneur of the Year award 1999-2000, Businessperson of the year 2002-2003 etc.
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The Plight of the Hindu Minority in Malaysia
IA News © 2011
Date: Sunday, April 3, 2011 Time: 3:00 – 3:30pm Social Hour 3:30 – 5:00pm Presentation Location: India House 8888 West Bellfort Street Houston, TX 77031-2406 (713) 929-1900 Contact: Jay Kansara – (512) 909-7250, jay@hafsite.org or Vivek Natarajan – (281) 306-0891 nvivekshankar@gmail.com
Keynote Speaker: Waytha Moorthy
- Malaysian Human Rights Activist and Founder of Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF)
Waytha Moorthy is a lawyer and human rights advocate for minorities in Malaysia. He is the leader in exile and founder of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF, www.hindraf.org)
In November 2007, HINDRAF organized a mammoth rally of 50,000 Hindus and ethnic Indians in a peaceful protest against the Malaysian government for its mistreatment and marginalization of Indians. This was brutally responded to by Malaysian security forces and he was jailed a number of times along with hundreds of other protesters. He has been living in exile in London since the Malaysian government revoked his passport. Though HINDRAF was banned, it continues to raise various human rights issues including stopping demolitions of Hindu temples; advocating for freedom to convert to Hinduism and raise children as Hindus; advocating for educational rights, jobs and economic opportunities for Malaysian Indians because Malaysia’s apartheid policies favor the Muslim Malay majority; and an end to police brutality against Hindus and Indians. For more information, visit http://www.hafsite.org/Waytha_Moorthy_Tour INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, MARCh 11, 2011• ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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Bandra Blaze Leaves Over 2,000 Homeless, 21 Injured
crowded slum went up in flames. Rubina was an eight-year old during the making of the rags-to-riches blockbuster which won eight Oscars in 2009. “We all were at home watching TV, when a neighbour came to alert us about the fire. We all rushed out. We spent the entire night at the railway station. I have lost everything including books and precious belongings like awards, photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia from the success of the film,” the child artiste said. “So far nobody has come to help us,” she rued. Rubina’s father Rafiq said, “We feel relieved to see that all our family members are safe. But all the good memories of my daughter’s fame have been reduced to ashes. We have lost everything.” The fire was reported from the Garibnagar area around The child star said the fam8:45pm. Garibnagar slum has a famous resident -- Rubina, ily was yet to move into a who starred in Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. new apartment paid for by a “A total of 21 persons including four firemen trust set up by the film’s director, Danny Boyle. were injured while fighting the flames which The fire broke out in Garib Nagar slums near broke out last night. They have been admitted Bandra (East) railway station at around 2020 to the Bhabha hospital here,” a fire official said. hours yesterday after which 34 fire engines The fire was controlled a little past midnight, and 16 jumbo water tankers were rushed to the official added. However, no fatalities were the spot. The flames were doused around 12.30 am. reported so far, the official said, adding over 2,000 people have lost their homes as hundreds The exact cause of the fire has not been established but initial reports say five gas cylinders of shanties were destroyed in the blaze. The family of 12-year-old Rubina, who exploded in the slums due to which the fire played the role of young poverty-stricken Lati- spread quickly, the official said. In June 2009, a ka in Danny Boyle’s celebrated film, watched similar fire broke out in the vicinity of Behramhelplessly as their tin-roofed shack in the pada, claiming several lives.
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MUMBAI (Outlook): At least 21 people were injured and over 2,000 people, including Slumdog Millionaire child actor Rubina Ali, rendered homeless in the big fire which was controlled in the wee hours today in suburban Bandra.
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What if Pakistan Implodes?
India would do well to consider its options in light of its national interests. Loose nukes are certainly a concern, but talk of taking them out is cavalier, and we must put the brakes on that By Firdaus ahmed (IT) Nuclear safety and security in the subcontinent have been among India’s concerns. Recently, the National Security Adviser had this to say: “there is an increasing danger of terrorism spreading from those parts of Asia, like Pakistan and Af Afghanistan ... The security of nuclear materials and weapons in those same parts of Asia is another example of the sort of problems that we face.” (Indian Express, “Towards a New Asian Order”). These fears have been around ever since the United States commenced military action in the region against terrorists and their supporters. In international fora, the spectre of a ‘failed’ Pakistan, and the resulting threats to nuclear safety have been played down, generally, but they cannot be ignored altogether. The answer so far has been to pressure Pakistan to maintain vigilance, with the US providing more substantial material and technical support. With the assassination of Salman Taseer, the personnel reliability program has come under cloud. Various scenarios of Pakistan going under finally, although still farfetched, have also gained life in light of uprisings in Arab lands. Take out the nuclear weapons? A government-funded think tank believes it has the answer to the development of such a threat. In its view, “in case there is ever a successful coup led by radical extremists with the support of disgruntled elements in the Pakistan army, nuclear warhead storage sites will need to be bombed so as to render the warheads inef ineffective. For this contingency, India must consider providing military and logistics support to the US and its allies” (see this link). We only need to remind ourselves of Chernobyl, while mulling over this advice. Of the population of about six million in the affected area stretching
from Ukraine to Belarus, an estimated 5000 died of radiation effects according to WHO figures. In a country of 175 million people with another 100 million or so Indians in close vicinity, the possible casualty figures are mind-boggling. In case this advocacy
websites for a contingency. India would do well to search for alternatives. The risks of intervention It is readily accepted that India needs to intervene in some manner on the side of the besieged rational-secular
was part of internet cacophony, it could have been easily ignored. But coming from a military-linked think tank, it calls for closer scrutiny. The ‘allies’ the writers refer to include Israel, referring to drills in the Negev desert between Israel and the US on how to ‘take out’ Pakistan’s or perhaps Iran’s crown jewels. The levels of cooperation they suggest cannot emerge out of a vacuum. The interoperability developed through multiple exercises, some involving Special Forces, indicates that a capability has been built. The somewhat nebulous military relationship with Israel, built around technology transfer, indicates that Israel can call collect. The grounds are being prepared through such writings on think tank
element in Pakistan, in case the challenge of radicals goes beyond limits. But the scenarios for such intervention are also dismissed too quickly, since, as a noted Pakistan watcher Sumit Ganguly put it, “Pakistan is not Egypt”. Nevertheless, this alternative is something we must discuss, lest the advocacy for intervention assume dominance by default. Assuming Pakistan slides into its oft-predicted but perpetually eluded ‘failed state’ status through a civil war, the Indian interest would be to ensure that the secularists in that country prevail. Towards this end India may choose to be supportive. However, the opposition can be expected to cash in on the backlash of that group associating with India. In
case this backlash is more powerful than Indian exertions, the secularists are unlikely to be saved. It would be best, therefore, for India to keep any support it provides covert. As for allowing other countries to use its national territory for more proactive uses, India must be prepared to end up as a ‘frontline state’if it makes this choice. Given the dubious benefits of this distinction for Pakistan over two periods in the eighties and last decade, the price India would have to pay can be easily imagined. Those desiring a closer engagement with the US and Israel may not mind such a development, but the historical record is quite clear - countries have not benefited from an overly close asymmetric relationship with the United States. A secular soft-landing If the secularists find support within Pakistan itself, they could hold out for long against the Islamists, but in that case the civil war would be both brutal and prolonged. To some that is not such a bad thing - since keeping the instability restricted to Pakistan would be better than permitting its spread to the region in case of an Islamist victory. However, there is no guarantee of a secularist victory. That the secularists have themselves brought on such a catastrophe through policies such as ignoring land reforms, education etc. implies they are not necessarily the better side. But staying out of Pakistan’s affairs would have one benefit, in case the secularists are displaced. India would be better positioned to engage with the opposition, even if Islamist, in power. Engagement can help socialise the new regime, whereas efforts at containment are likely to make it expansionist in reaction. Reassurance
may be a better strategy towards normalising the regime. This would serve the larger Indian interest in regional stability. What does this imply for the crown jewels - the nuclear weapons? Taking them out of circulation may prove possible with the help of secularists guarding the facilities and assets. However, firstly such action can be expected to instigate fighting over their possession, endangering them further. It is better instead that the victor be allowed the spoils without turning the sites into dangerous battlefields. This way there would be greater hope of central and local authorities continuing control. Secondly, there is no guarantee of taking out the complete inventory. The threat from those remaining in the wrong hands would be considerably more. India, being closest at hand, would be in the line of fire, more so than the US or Israel. India would therefore do well to consider its options in light of its national interests. That the US is threatened by loose nukes is cer certainly an international concern. The response to this threat is not necessarily through intervention, but by defusing the ‘pull factors’ that cause the threat, such as the violence of the Islamist opposition. American support for authoritarian regimes is as much to blame for this as anything else. If there is a message from the Arab revolt, it is that democracy is the best safeguard against radicalism. Preventing a collapsed Pakistan and ensuring its soft landing in secular hands is therefore a better strategy. It is important to refute the irresponsible advocacy not only so that taxpayers’ money is not ill-spent, but to prevent the group-think that may result from such ideas being posted as the ‘only option’. There are always other options, if we choose to think first.
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‘We Need to Invest in the Criminal Justice System’: Meeran Chadha Borwankar
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City’s first woman Commissioner of Police Meeran Chadha Borwankar shares her views on the security in the city, changing profile of the police force and the need to sensitise the cops towards increasing crimes against women
PUNE (Mid-Day): Meeran Chadha Borwankar, an IPS officer of the 1981 batch, is the first woman police commissioner of the city. Even as she made crimes against women her priority, she admits that her staff needs sensitisation. In an interview, she talks about the need for overhauling the criminal justice system, shortage of staff and other issues. Does the threat of terror attacks still persist? If we read the minds of terrorists, we understand that they not only have particular targets like Chabad House, Osho Ashram or Jewish Synagogue, they want also want to create panic. Crowded places like malls are also possible targets of terrorists and hence we are alert there too. Infact the whole city needs to be on alert. How do you plan to crackdown on sleeper modules of terrorists’ organisations? When I was Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Crime Branch, we had found out that many sleeper cells are present in Pune, Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. We have specially trained two policemen from each police station. Are you making efforts to improve intelligence gathering?
Annam
In our monthly conferences, we keep on imagining different scenar scenarios. Having a special cell or creating an anti-terrorism cell is not enough. We have to also make all police stations aware about collecting intelligence. All the staff is being managed by the Maharashtra Intelligence Academy. Is there a shortage of staff? We need to invest in the criminal justice system. Also, we need to change the ‘chalta hain’ attitude, pay our taxes regularly so that we get more cops, judges and prosecutors. According to international standards, there should be 1 constable for 250 citizens but we have 1 for 653. Eight thousand policemen are not enough for a population of 55 lakh. A police chowky has only one constable posted. That’s bad policy. Are establishments still reluctant to follow security measures? Hotels and malls have responded well but where there is lack of revenue, people are not responding. Do mock drills help us in any way? We are trying to improvise our response time after every mock drill. We are keeping a space between two drills so that the policemen do not
relax during the drill. Are women comfortable going to police station alone? I admit that my staff is not fully sensitised. With funds coming from the Women’s Commission, a seminar for women, police and lawyers has been organised. It’s a sensitisation programme, which would prove useful to us. Any efforts to improve image of the police? I think image is a wrong word to use. A lot of changes have taken place. Many people are coming ahead to help us for giving training on soft skills. Moreover, now we have 10 percent women police staff. Is the profile of the police changing? Yes, today’s recruits are mostly graduates and they are also pursuing their studies further. We are also starting two gymnasiums keeping in mind the fitness of our officers. What is the status of the CCTNS project of making police stations paperless? It is a very ambitious project. Planned funds of Rs 200 crores every year is being pumped in. Accountability of police officers will increase and also monitoring will improve.
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Indo American News • Friday. March 11, 2011
en t e r t ain m en t
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Fatakra Launched at India International Film Festival
By Tamara Levine HOUSTON: Watching independent filmmaker Soham Mehta’s latest release, Fatakra, is akin to attending a master class for storytellers. This rich, poignant film chronicles the struggles faced by a young family reuniting after a three-year long separation. When Naveen, an optimistic tailor leaves his wife and toddler son to immigrate to the United States, he says he’ll send for them in “six months or a year, tops.” But Naveen arrives during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the months stretch into years. By the time his wife, Pauravi, and their six-year-old son, Aakash, join him in America, the family unit is broken and Naveen must find a way to heal their wounds so they can be a family once more. Fatakra, for those who do not speak Gujarati, means firecracker. Co-written by Mehta and Jenny Connell, the inspiration for Fatakra came from Soham’s personal life. Although the film is in no way biographical, Fatakra captures the uncertainty, excitement and anxiety Soham felt during his long-distance courtship with his wife. The script for Fatakra took approximately one year to write. The casting process lasted six weeks in duration, with Soham conducting casting sessions in Austin, New York and Los Angeles. That was how New York film and television actor, Samrat Chakrabarti, (She Hate Me, Kissing Cousins) came to play the role of
tenderness between the characters that’s charming. Another noteworthy element in the film involves references to a story from the Mahabharata about Arjuna, the greatest archer in the world and his son, Abhimanyu. The utilization of the story-within-the-story device works exceptionally well, especially when juxtaposed with the universal theme of the broken family. Much like the way the four elements of air, earth, fire and water join to form the magical world in which we live, the sublime combination
Serious moment on the set of Fatakra with actor Ritik Goyal (pictured left) and director Soham Mehta. Photo: Patrick Rusk
Naveen, while the roles of Pauravi and the Dancer are played by Los Angeles based actress, Meena Serendib. Fatakra was filmed in Texas, in various towns outside of Austin such as Round Rock, Manor and Giddings. The nineteen-minute film took twelve days to shoot. Fatakra debuted at the India International Film Festival on February 19th in Tampa, Florida. In midMarch, the film will play in two more festivals, The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Not only is SXSW one of the largest independent film festivals in the nation, having Fatakra chosen as an official SXSW selection is a tremendous accolade.
Enough cannot be said about Fatakra’s talented cast. Their brilliant performances draw the viewer in so completely, it’s easy to forget they are actors portraying characters instead of actual people sharing very real and intimate moments in their lives. Besides playing the role of Naveen, Samrat Chakrabarti also composed Fatakra’s mesmerizing soundtrack. Along with many beautiful moments, this film boasts a list of elements that work, including outstanding dialogue, stellar performances, wonderful yet flawed characters, strong symbolism, excellent cinematography and directing, fabulous art direction, delightful comic relief and superb Indian dance. Besides ample chemistry, there’s an intimacy and
of elements seen in Fatakra elevate the film and make it an important, multidimensional work deserving of critical acclaim. Through a partnership with Comcast and The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, Fatakra will be available for purchase through Comcast’s On-Demand feature from March 10–20, 2011. This meaningful and unforgettable film can also be seen for a limited time on the Center for Asian American Media’s website: http://caamedia.org/ interactive/sfiaaff29-online-festival/
Punjabi Music - Flavor of Bollywood
(SIFY): Punjabi numbers like ‘Sadi galli’, ‘Rola pe gaya’, ‘Laung da lashkara’ and ‘Ainvayi Ainvayi’ are sitting pretty on Bollywood music charts and are also a rage at weddings and discotheques. ‘The craze for Punjabi music has always been there because they are mostly foot-thumping and groovy. They catch up very fast with people of
all age groups. Earlier Punjabi music was big on the pop scene, but gradually Bollywood also got a good taste of it,’ Krsna, who composed ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ music, said. The Punjabi flavor in songs - be it lyrics or beat or melody - has been around for as long as one can think, but lately there has been a rush of them in Bollywood. Popular singer Mika said: ‘Punjabi songs have always ruled the roost in Punjab, the UK and Canada...and in India, my elder brother Daler paaji (Daler Mehndi) started the trend with ‘Bolo ta ra ra ra’. The rest, including me, followed him.’ The music of ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ has became a hot favourite with songs like ‘Sadi galli’ and ‘Jugni’, while the ‘Patiala House’ music won hearts with numbers like ‘Rola pe gaya’ and ‘Laung da lashkara’.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, March 11, 2011• ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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technology
Indo American News • Friday, March 11, 2011
India to have 400 million 3G Connection by 2015 NEW DELHI (MM): The number of third generation (3G) subscribers in India will reach 400 million by 2015 , said a Wireless Intelligence study. “India’s 3G connections are set to grow threefold between 2011 and 2015 as operators ramp-up rollout of new 3G networks,” said the study titled “India 3G rollout”. According to the report, the telecom operators are likely to invest $2.5 billion in building the new networks and rolling out 3G services in 2011. “Indian operators spent a combined $15 billion in acquiring Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) 3G spectrum at auction last year and are forecast to jointly invest a further $2.5 billion in building the new networks and rolling out 3G services in 2011,” it added. The study notes that over 80 per cent of 3G connections will be based on WCDMA in five years, with the remaining 20 per cent on CDMA-based 3G networks. However, 2011 has already seen a succession of rival launches, including Bharti (in January), Aircel (February) and Vodafone (March) and it forecasts that all new WCDMA-based operators will have launched services by June 2011. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is expected to command the largest 3G share with 18 per cent followed by Reliance Communications and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd with 15 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. Even though initial 3G rollouts are concentrated in the metro areas including cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata they will soon be outstripped by fast-growing demand for 3G in more populous regions such as Punjab, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. Pricing 3G services appropriately in a market where around 200 million prospective users live on less than $2 a day is also a major challenge. “Indian operators are betting on 3G services to stabilise ARPU (average revenue per user) and increase non-voice revenues to around the 30 per cent mark in the coming years,” added Gillet.
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Indo American News • Friday, March 11, 2011
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MARK THE BALL • Contest # 9 WIN A DINE-IN GIFT CERTIFICATE!
• Mark the spot of the missing ball in the photo. • E-mail us a scanned version with the spot of the missing ball marked as an X on photo. Indoamericannews@yahoo.com OR Mail / Drop your entry to: 7457 Harwin Dr, Ste: 262, Houston, TX 77036. • Win a dine-in gift certificate for dining up to $50 in value. Send in your entry today!. One entry per family! Value of gift certificate will be decided by Indo American News. Hurry in with your entry. Do send us your contact details as well. We will announce the contest # 9 Winner by March 23, 2011 (cut-off date). No phone or fax entries will be encouraged, they will be considered void. You can still enter for contest # 8 till March 14, 2011. WINNERS: • Contest 1 - Suresh Bidare $40 Dine-in Gift Certificate at Great W’kana Cafe • Contest 4 , 5, 6, 7 - Entries received, No qualifying winners announced.
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Indo American News • Friday, March 11, 2011
Sports
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India go Top Gear with Five-Wicket Victory
NEW DELHI (CricInfo): India defeated Netherlands on a sluggish track at the Feroz Shah Kotla with nearly 14 overs to spare though the margin of victory couldn’t mask a lacklustre performance from the home side. The Indian bowling was just about tidy against some dour Netherlands batting, and their bunch of big hitters came unstuck for a while against the left-arm spin of Pieter Seelaar in a low-intensity match. Chasing 190, India raced out of the blocks with Sachin Tendulkar becoming the first man to reach 2000 World Cup runs with a hat-trick of boundaries in the fifth over, and Virender Sehwag backing that with three more fours in the sixth. The flurry of hitting had the Delhi crowd buzzing, and when Sehwag carved Seelaar over extra cover for six and then dabbed him to third man for four, India were 69/0 in the eighth over and Netherlands looked set for a hiding. Seelaar, though, ensured it wasn’t another embarrassingly one-sided match, like many of those involving the Associates in this tournament. He had Sehwag slicing to point, and then dismissed both Tendulkar and the promoted power-hitter Yusuf Pathan in the 10th over to rein in India. Virat Kohli didn’t last too long before being bowled by Peter Borren, but Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh steadied the innings as Netherlands’ limited bowling struggled to make more inroads. They added 40 trouble-free runs before Gambhir was bowled round his legs. It was left to Yuvraj and MS Dhoni, India’s
finishers over the past few years, to calmly steer India to victory with a 61-run stand, with Yuvraj getting his third half-century in a row. India would have had a tougher test had it not been for a Netherlands middle-order collapse, which was
going for Netherlands. Piyush Chawla, surprisingly retained after a horror match against Ireland, finally got the breakthrough in the 16th over with his favourite weapon, the googly, which bowled Szwarczynski after he read it too late. The next dismissal came from the most impressive bowler in the Ireland game, Yuvraj, whose wicket-to-wicket bowling got Barresi lbw. Tom Cooper and Ryan ten Doeschate, two batsmen with career averages in the mid-60s, thwarted India for 10 overs, surviving two tough caughtand-bowled chances but dispatching the odd loose ball served up to put on 35. Netherlands were 99 for 2 after 29, not quite top gear, but the platform was in place for some big hits later on. It wasn’t to be though, as both batsmen were dismissed in Yuvraj Singh got his second successive successive overs to spark Man-of-the-Match award a collapse that cost them 5 for 28. sandwiched by a solid start and a Bas Zuiderent had alerted the flourish at the end. On choosing to world to his talent with a half-century bat, Eric Szwarczynski, playing his against England in 1996, but of the first match of the tournament, com- 16 innings he has played in World bined well with Wesley Barresi to Cups since, 12 have been single-digit put on 56, equalling Netherlands’best efforts. Today was another failure for opening partnership in World Cups. the experienced batsman, done in by There were only six boundaries in the Zaheer’s swing. first two Powerplays but aside from There were a couple of avoidable a couple of half-chances, it was easy run-outs as well, but the dismissal
that was most embarrassing for Netherlands was Alexei Kervesee’s; he swiped a long hop from Chawla, expertly picking out Harbhajan Singh at deep midwicket. The Netherlands captain, Peter Borren, had spoken of playing brave cricket before this game, and it was his adventurous hitting that lifted his side towards 200. He warmed up by lashing Yuvraj for a couple of powerful fours in the 42nd over, before taking the batting Powerplay
and damaging Chawla’s figures with a couple of muscular hits over longon. Mudassar Bukhari joined the fun, swinging two sixes over the leg side before both he and Borren were dismissed by Zaheer in the same over to wrap up the innings. The win puts India top of the table, but they are through with their easy outings in the tournament, with only South Africa and West Indies remaining in the league phase before the knockouts.
Smart Stats
Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to score 2000 runs in World Cups. He has scored 432 more runs than Ricky Ponting, who is in second place with 1577. Yuvraj Singh’s unbeaten 51 was his third successive 50-plus score in ODIs, a feat he has achieved for the second time in his career. He had done this earlier in November 2007. India won with 81 balls to spare, which is their fifth-best in terms of balls remaining, in a World Cup match. The 56-run stand between Wesley Barresi and Eric Szwarczynski equalled Netherlands’ highest for the first wicket in World Cup matches. The only other instance when they achieved this was in 1996, against South Africa. Pieter Seelar took three wickets in an innings for the second time in this World Cup - he had taken three in Netherlands’ match against West Indies Both India and Netherlands have got only one review right out of seven in the World Cup so far. In today’s match, neither team got one right, though Netherlands tried twice and India once. Highlights: India 191 for 5 (Yuvraj 51*, Seelaar 3-53) beat Netherlands 189 (Borren 38, Zaheer 3-20) by five wickets
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I am a Malay, says Malaysian ex-PM with Indian Roots
KUALA LUMPUR (MM): “I am a Malay...in sentiment and spirit,” Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose roots are partly Indian, has asserted in his autobiography that is just out. Although he has South Indian roots, he says: “I am a Malay and am proud of it. I am a Malay not just on paper. I am also a Malay in sentiment and in spirit”, The Star reported. “A Doctor in the House: The Memoirs of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad” comprising 62 chapters and spanning 809 pages was Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister, launched here Tuesday. Malaysia Mahathir was the prime minister from 1981 to 2003. He has talked about his Malay-Indian heritage -- a branch of the family hailed from Kerala -- that he had sought to play down during a long political career. Multi-racial Malaysia is home to 2.1 million ethnic Indians, one of the largest Indian diaspora - a bulk of them Tamils, settled here during the British era. Mahathir’s book comes eight years after he stepped down. During this period, he was critical of his hand-picked successor, Abdullah Badawi, but has made friendly references to the present incumbent, Najib Tun Razak. Mahathir has devoted two chapters to Anwar Ibrahim, his deputy prime minister and finance minister, whom he sacked in 1998, after Ibrahim was charged with sodomy. Ibrahim is currently fighting a fresh charge of sodomy that was leveled against him in 2008 by a young aide. The case is before a trial court. In the book, Mahathir has dealt with the 1998 sacking, saying that police surveillance provided “evidence, including pictures and the confessions of the people involved” in Anwar’s alleged sexual activities. He also gives more details on the first sodomy allegations involving Anwar, who is now heading the Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition alliance that won 88 seats and wrested control of four states in the 2008 election.
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horoScope
Indo American News • Friday, March 11, 2011
WEEKLY HOROSCOPE ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20: A hectic week lies ahead of you with daily activities taking up most of your time and leaving you exhausted. But it is also the time that will bring you honour and appreciation. You will spend time with your loved ones and there will be lots of fun and frolic as quite a few outings, picnics, gatherings, are in the offing. You will enjoy every bit of it as you are a fun-loving person. Since you are prone to mood swings, watch out for your intense emotions. Antagonistic forces are at play, and you need to maintain a clever balance. Your health stars seem unfavorable. TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21: This period begins with it a lot of duties and responsibilities cast on your shoulders. Gone are the enjoyable days of last week ? now is the time for hard labor. You will have to catch up with incomplete projects and documentation work at your office. The work will be inexorable, while constricted cash reserves and workplace tensions could be the result of the overpower overpowering energies unfolding during this phase. Inter-personal communications could go awry this week, and it could cause a lot of heartburn and resentment. Hold your cards close to your chest and proceed with a great deal of caution. GEMINI May 22 - Jun 21: These times of wild fluctuations make you nervous. Lots of hectic activity will mark this phase, where your involvement in professional matters increase. The love in your family life ? though it will be present in good measures ? will be tainted with some jealously. You will evoke love-hate emotions among your peers too. Your introverted tendencies will be aroused in this phase of rigorous activity, and your ego will have to take a back seat. You will be pulled in different directions; stay put, only time will provide the right answers. CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 23: The flow of the last few weeks continues and, as the moon passes through your sign, you will profit considerably in relationships. You will put in devoted work in all your projects which are in the pipeline. But as the limelight shifts from office to home now, extensive planning will be needed for the pur purpose of refurbishing and additions to your properties. You will develop strong bonds with your near and dear ones with whom you spend quality time. This period will see the completion of all unfinished projects and unpaid debts, especially those that have been blocked. Tackle awkward issues with tact.
LEO July 24 - Aug 23: You will operate from intuition rather than from your mind, and along the way gather the secrets of life. You will keep on redefining your life. You are filled with greater zest for life and become more receptive of familial experiences. Uranus will be in your 9th angle from March for another eight years, and it features travel and even a spiritual journey with the masters. You may be initiated into spiritual practice by a guru, which is a blessing. As you attempt to clear up the clutter in your life, there may be some remodelling required. This compelling journey will be spread over the next eight years. VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23: You are abruptly brought down to earth and, so to speak, torn away from your illusions. Calling for your attention are domestic matters, as work and money have their own importance which cannot be denied. You will embark on a new project enthusiastically to strengthen monetary security, but not at the cost of your domestic duties. Money dominates your sub-conscious mind, not only because it buys the bread and butter for the family but also because it can buy freedom and prestige. It is for your family that you take all the pains, and stay put as there are better times ahead. LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23: UncerUncer taintyprevailsduringtheweek.People around you make several demands, and you try to find some direction in your dealings that will help you fulfil them, but don’t seem to. Surrounded by problems, you seem to find no way to somehow wriggle out of the tight spot. On the other side, you are attracted by materialistic motives and want to lead a happy domestic life. However, the coffers are empty and there are domestic problems too. But nothing lasts forever, and this too will pass. Just hang on, better times will follow these bad times. SCORPIO Oct 24 - Nov 22: You have realized that good communication is your weapon to achieve your grand plans. Expenses involved are heavy, and they may put you in a dilemma, making you unsure whether to move ahead or not. Since you are bogged down by the issue of expenses, which are only mounting, The potential for growth is vast. Besides, your spiritual interests give you peace of mind. You will try to learn as much as possible from the spiritual masters that you seek out or meet. To gain peace, you will also conduct religious ceremonies and rituals. This appears to be a step in
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www.GaneshaSpeaks.com the right direction.
SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22:
You will communicate with ease with all the people you come in contact with. Expenditures will rise, but it does not worry you as you are confident of making up for it soon. You will feel that you can relax a bit and give more time to your family and loved ones, with whom you will develop powerful bonds. The association with your elders will provide a lot of tranquillity. Children will be a source of joy. Ganesha blesses you with an unusually generous mood, and you will go out of your way to help those in need. CAPRICORN Dec 23 - Jan 20:
There is a great deal of action as you have been engaged in frantic communications this week. Domestic and other affairs occupy your mind. You should guard against unnecessary interference from people not directly connected with your affairs. You have been moving too fast, don’t go scattering your energies; instead prioritize your work. Since the office is more or less taken care of, it is domestic affairs that call for your attention. Therefore a shift of attention is needed. You also play around with new ideas which are not exactly pragmatic, so it is better you avoid them. AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19:You have so many friends and associates that this week they could be a source of great distraction. Your many meetings with them will be rather a waste of time. You get more embroiled in other peoples’ problems at the cost of your own work, which gets piled up. Demanding as much of your attention will be family affairs, and you will have to effectively divide your time between home and office. Unexpected expenses and sicknesses may be there this week. When you know of something in advance, it is easy to prepare for it, correct? PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20: You use all your diplomatic skills and intellectual abilities to emerge a winner this week. The Fish enjoys making friends and avoids making enemies. You meet up old folks and together empathise for all the evils in the world. You enjoy the attention that you get from them as you are soft and sober. Also, your ego is vulnerable to attacks and you abjure situations that can lead to it. It does not mean that you are a coward. On the contrary you know just exactly what is advantageous for you. It suits you perfectly fine to tread the middle path, without taking sides.
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book review
Indo American News • Friday, March 11, 2011
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Know India: Learn The Alphabet By Heart The raised-as-American Giridharadas has a steady eye, but his set-pieces are a patchwork in a big book When Giridharadas talks to divorcing couples, or Mukesh Ambani, it’s as an outsider looking in, but who looks like an insider.
By Manjula Padmanabhan (Outlook) Barely have we strapped ourselves in to read Anand Giridharadas’s rollercoaster ride of thoughts, experiences and interviews about being an Indo-American who returns to India, when whoosh! It’s over. But in its brisk way, the book covers a broad area while sparing us the mandatory visits to slums, brothels
and palaces. It should appeal to the thousands of so-called ABCDs— American Born Confused Desis— who struggle with feelings shading from guilt and confusion to joyous surrender to their ethnic homeland. Amongst the most corrosive results of emigration is the loss of a past without the benefit of gaining a present. For the Indian diaspora, the typical
cultural dislocation of all immigrants is multiplied many times over by the fact that, as a culture, we’re not homogeneous and the shared citizenship is an illusion. We might find ourselves being thrown together with others of our nationality only to realise that we have neither food, language, religion nor social experience in common. We would be better off with complete aliens, who would at least have no expectations, than with one of our “own”, who might be inclined to penalise us for being non-standard. Giridharadas’s story is just one amongst the countless multi-dimensional histories that this diaspora has begun to write. His parents left during the peak “brain-drain” years. They fell in love in India and married across the Punjab-Tamil Nadu cultural divide. Once in the US, they assimilated quickly, raising their two children as Americans, rather than as Indians-in-Exile. In this way, Giridharadas had less confusion to contend
with than many others. His face and genes are Indian, but the organisation of his thoughts is American. When he talks to Ravindra the Roller Skating King or the hapless divorcing couples at the Bandra Family Court or the god-emperor-industrialist Mukesh Ambani, it is as an outsider looking in, but with the advantage of looking like an insider. The thing that wasn’t clear to me by book’s end was whether the author set out to tell us more, then decided to hold back. He weaves the personal narrative of his parents’ departure from India, his own upbringing and the stages by which he revisits India as an adult in between the stories he gathers from a handful of others. The result is patchy, as if he has selected from a rather slender stock of options. Of his own story, the most intimate glimpse he offers is of the account left by his paternal grandmother, a 32-page document entitled ‘Our Marriage’. Though the author tells us that “it conjured a world that was unrecognisable in twenty-first-century India,” I would say the exact opposite. Not only has very little changed in the way marriages are arranged but in his descriptions of personal life, Giridharadas is just as reserved a writer as his grandmother was. He refers to his parents’ love-match and to his own shadowy girlfriends in the manner of a chef who mentions chillies but doesn’t use them.
Trained as a management consultant, the author moved to Bombay in 2003, working for McKinsey & Company for two years. Having previously interned with the New York Times at the age of 17, he returned to journalism in 2005, reporting from Bombay for the NYT and Herald Tribune for four years. The stories he tells best are those which work as set pieces in a column, such as the scenes at the Family Court and the tragicomic account of his stay in a Ludhiana home belonging to two brothers, where climbing the stairs from the ground to the first floor is like time-travel from the fly-blown hospitality of the past to the cellphone-enabled future. I wondered how his subjects would respond to their depiction in this book, whether they felt violated rather than showcased. But perhaps that’s always the case with documentary footage? I also found myself being reminded, oddly enough, of both Geeta Mehta’s Karma Cola (1979) and Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City (2004). Both were huge best-sellers, but one was written as infotainment and the other as dispatches from an urban war-zone. Giridharadas is cooler, younger and more detached than either of these writers. He writes with the confidence of the marathon runner, who knows he has many miles to cover before he truly finds his way home.
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