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Decoding Sahara Parivar Mastering Rescue of Failure FDI vs. Domestic Investments Why Re-Strategize on Demand Innovation: Disruptive & Reverse
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Contents
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Why Domestic Distributed Investments Should Match Foreign Direct Investments? There is a simple solution for the FDI issue that will win all Indians’ applause. This plan will more than compensate all affected parties. Yet our leaders and economists remain myopic to this obvious solution due to too much textbook thinking. It is pathetic.. that such win-win strategies are never attempted. Is it too much. awe towards WalMart and its ilk, or is it a lack of self-confidence in
"India Doesn't Like Foreign Investors:" Jim Rogers
Global Pills for Local Ills? Dr. Manmohan Singh is struggling to explain that it is not USA which is behind the recent spate of reforms. While he may be true in a direct sense, there is no doubt that he and Chidambaram as well as their fellow doctors like Dr. Vijay Kelkar, Dr. C Rangarajan, Dr. Raghuram Rajan, and Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are all Western educated economists. The recent medicines they are prescribing are also global - like more FDI, less subsidy, and more taxes. Success will depend on how suitable these global pills are for our local ills like systemic inefficiencies and rampant corruption.
Is Net Run Rate a Sham?
The all-pervasive relevance of Mathematics and Statistics in life came to the fore once more as even the T20 Super Eight stage was marred by permutations and..
Who was India's Best Cricket Captain of all Times? With the exception of the recent tours of England and Australia, where India suffered eight defeats..
Need for Disruptive Innovation If You Don't Disrupt Existing Business Models, Your Business Model Will be Disrupted, Says..
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India doesn't like foreign investors and keeps them away, says Jim Rogers, an American author, financial commentator and a successful international investor.. Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund with Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros and is the creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index, says India will find it difficult to grow in a dynamic way because it has a high debt-to-GDP ratio. The most promising country at the moment is Myanmar, according to Rogers.
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Why the Only Failure is
BOOK REVIEW
Kerala Tries to TiE Up with Best of Global Indian Entrepreneurship
FAILURE TO RESCUE
Entrepreneurship is the last thing Kerala is famous for. Can this be changed is what the state chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is trying now..
When Atul wrote an article on healthcare in 2009, in New Yorker magazine, Warren Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger immediately mailed a cheque for $20,000 (Rs. 10 lakh) as a mark of appreciation, together with a thank-you note carrying the words, “for providing something so socially useful”. Atul Gawande promptly donated the $20,000 to Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health. When President Barack Obama read this article, he said to his senators that “this is what we’ve got to fix”. For someone who started out as a surgeon, and then as an..
The Challenges Before the Leader Any discourse on the state of private universities in India should start with the state of affairs at one of the leaders - SRM University. Perhaps no other private outfit has as...
Magic Done at Wockhardt, Magic Awaits Wockhardt Hospitals Now
A Sharp Focus on Future Trends, Like Dhirubhai H Ambani Dhirubhai Ambani was already in a ship to Yemen, in search of a job, when his matriculation results came. Dhirubhai came to know about it from a Gujarati newspaper..
Sahara: Massive, Splashy, and Mysterious Like millions of Indians, Jag Ram Chaudhary invested with the Sahara conglomerate - 1,300 rupees a month in his case - to put away money for a rainy day..
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New Launches - Fresh, Luxe, & Duds Penthouses for Larger-than-Life Achievers
Mute Manmohan Watches as Coalgate Engulfs Congress from All Sides The Great Fire of Rome started on July 19, 64 AD, and burnt for six days. There are several varying accounts of it in history. One of the accounts suggests that Nero the king of Rome watched the fire destroy the city, from one of Rome’s many hills, while singing and playing the lyre, a stringed musical instrument..
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Dale Carnegie Training to Expand India Presence Dale Carnegie is looking at expanding its corporate world programmes, and the thrust will be on digital training Dale Carnegie Training is set to expand its presence in India. The company, noted for corporate training and skill training for students and faculty of institutes, is looking to offer more programmes to its users and forge additional partnerships in the country. Dale Carnegie is. already operating in India. It has..
From Porsche designed kitchens to roof-top spas, to glass-break detectors to motion sensors to exclusive private gardens, residential luxury in Bangalore is not climbing steps, but on a high-speed elevator, exemplified by the IT city’s new-generation penthouses. Here is a sampling of the new offerings:
Top 10 Type-2 Superfoods
Yes, variety is essential when it comes to diabetes. But these 10 tried-and-true staples are nutrient-
COVER STORY Global Pills for Local Ills?
Why FDI Should be Matched by Domestic Retail Investments, in India?
There is a simple solution for the FDI issue that will win all Indians’ applause, which is about offering the remaining 49% to not a domestic business house, but to affected parties like kirana store owners, its employees, land owners, small suppliers, and local producers. This plan will more than compensate all affected parties. Yet our leaders and economists remain myopic to this obvious solution due to too much textbook thinking. It is pathetic that such win-win strategies are never attempted or even experimented with. Is it too much awe towards Walmart and its ilk, or is it a lack of self-confidence in what is really India?
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Dr. Raghuram Rajan is in news for clarifying that FDI is what we really need and not FII funds. Though not an earth-shattering revelation, it is the kind of fundamental fact that need to be reinforced every now and then by economy’s top honchos. Dr. Rajan’s point was clear - some sections of the media - obviously due to bureaucratic cues - were unnecessarily glossing over the Rs. 9000 crore foreign funds that swiftly came in in September, as a reaction of the economic reforms like FDI in retail and aviation, as well as the diesel price hike. But as India’s new Chief Economic Advisor to Finance Ministry, added, FII funds were relatively unsafe for the economy, as they can be pulled back any moment. But strangely enough, Dr. Rajan entirely missed another equally relevant point that we are neglecting the power of Domestic Retail Investments.
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COVER STORY
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Global Pills for Local Ills? Dr. Manmohan Singh is struggling to explain that it is not USA which is behind the recent spate of reforms. While he may be true in a direct sense, there is no doubt that he and Chidambaram as well as their fellow doctors like Dr. Vijay Kelkar, Dr. C Rangarajan, Dr. Raghuram Rajan, and Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are all Western educated economists. The recent medicines they are prescribing are also global - like more FDI, less subsidy, and more taxes. On such medicines, PM is said to have transformed from a tragic figure to a roaring singham! But is the MMS makeover real? It will depend on whether Congress, Sonia, Dr. Singh, and Chidambaram have learned their lessons well, and whether their key executers and political backers have more integrity than what is generally perceived about them. It will also depend on how suitable these global pills are for our local ills like rampant corruption. whom he and Congress successfully forged ties to form two successive governments, a few years down the lane. So, issues, perceptions, and alliances will keep on changing.
Anyway, the phenomenon is not new to the economist who once considered his Prime Minister-ship as purely accidental. The economic liberalization program of the early 1990s - his first claim to fame in politics - had its harshest critics in Left Front, with
In fact, it is a miracle of all times that even while a cabinet colleague - whom Dr. Singh infamously justified during the spurt of the 2G scam - stood trial for massive corruption, Dr. Singh and the rest of his cabinet survived. While some of the credit for this goes to BJP
Time is Up for Sonia But Congress, its chiefs Sonia & Rahul, as well as Dr. Singh could do better by realizing that their time is up. Though perceptions may change once more, neither Dr. Singh or UPA as we know it now, will survive to live the glory or even to get a relief from the mess they are in. The 2G scam as well as the more recent Coal allocation scam have ensured that the nation is not going to forgive or forget for a long long time.
and other large opposition parties which are reluctant to face snap polls, it was also due to a kind of respect that the nation has always accorded Dr. Manmohan Singh for his personal integrity. The accuracy of the allegations by CAG about telecom or coal allocations is not the issue. Nor is it about whether Dr. Singh followed all propriety in his capability as Prime Minister. The issue is really about the perceived corruptibility of Congress. If the hands of Congress were pure, CAG’s allegations wouldn’t have been taken this seriously by the nation. It should be remembered that the current CAG had been handpicked by Dr. Singh for the role, and that too through an extraordinary extension of his official retirement. Many Congressmen at all levels have time and again proven that they are not averse to taking kickbacks. Is the Congress alone in this trait? Not by any means. Apart from a few Chief Ministers of regional parties, no other
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trange are the ways of public perception. Today, all except stock-market investors are up in arms against recent ’reforms’ from fuel price hike to FDI in retail. Some years back, when Dr. Manmohan Singh deprecated the value of the support of his allies, the Left Front, and took help from archrivals BJP to pass the IndoUS civil nuclear deal, the public perception was the same - unnecessary submission before American pressure. But today, that decision is being hailed as ‘decisive’ and as one of the only good things that Dr. Singh has ever did, at least in recent years. Will the same happen to FDI in retail, eventually? Only time will tell.
MANAGEMENT
Need for Disruptive Innovation
in the Republic of Korea in the 1970s. He still serves the church. Clay, as his friends call him was also a Boy Scout of America for 25 years as a scoutmaster, cubmaster, den leader, troop and pack committee chairman. The Harvard professor has just released his new book How Will You Measure Your Life? Unlike his earlier books, this one is about "experiences that have shaped Professor Christense's life and personal faith and in the church. What's your new book about? I have been pleased that people of all ages and stages of life have responded to this book because I wrote it with the help of my co-authors James Allworth and Karen Dillon at the request of my students. It's written for them and it's the culmination of years of discussions in my classroom. I desperately want them to leave business school with not just plan to have a great career, but also a plan to have a great personal life. I've
If You Don't Disrupt Existing Business Models, Your Business Model Will be Disrupted, says one of the world's leading innovation experts. You have to take risks and do something different to be a successful innovator, says global innovation expert and Harvard Business School's Professor Clayton Christensen. Seasonal ow does one best introduce Professor Clayton Christensen? Actually, does one have to? For one, he is the Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches how to build and sustain a successful enterprise to second year students. Two, he is one of world's top experts on ideas concerning innovation and growth, his ideas are being used extensively in active operations in companies all over the world. Three, he is the best-seller author of nine books and over a 100 articles. His book The Innovator's Dilemma bagged the Global Business Book Award in 1997 and fourteen years later, in 2011, The Economist named it as one of the six most important books about business ever written. In the same year, Christensen was named the most influential business thinker in the world, according to Thinkers 50, a ranking done every two years by the consulting team Crainer Dearlove. What is little known about Professor Christensen is that he is a very religious person who worked as a missionary for his church
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With the exception of the recent tours of England and Australia, where India suffered eight defeats in a row, hardly does a Test series pass without addition of a new feather in Mahendra Singh Dhoni's cap as a captain. With two successive wins against New Zealand, he is now inching closer to Sourav Ganguly as India's most successful Test captain. India has tasted a record 21 triumphs (11 abroad) under Ganguly in 49 Tests. At the end of the series against the Kiwis, Dhoni's score is 19 victories (5 overseas) in 39 Tests. Considering India's tight schedule with more Test series to follow, it may not be very long before Dhoni finally leaves Ganguly behind. Dhoni is at the pinnacle of his prowess and seems to be enjoying every moment of his cricket. He is equally relishing leading India. Team India has benefited immensely from Dhoni's batting, wicket-keeping and
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PREVIEW Who was India's Best Cricket Captain of all Times?
"India Doesn't Like Foreign Investors:" Jim Rogers
India doesn't like foreign investors and keeps them away, says Jim Rogers, an American author, financial commentator and a successful international investor. Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund with Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros and is the creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index, says India will find it difficult to grow in a dynamic way because it has a high debt-to-GDP ratio. The most promising country at the moment is Myanmar, according to Rogers.
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MANAGEMENT
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Why the Only Failure is
FAILURE TO RESCUE
Dr. Atul Gawande delivered the commencement address at Williams College this year, which is reproduced below: We had a patient at my hospital this winter whose story has stuck with me. Mrs. C. was eighty-seven years old, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, and she’d come to the emergency room because she’d suddenly lost the vision in her left eye. It tells you something about her that she was at work when it happened in the finance department at Sears. She’d worked her entire life. When her family left Nazi Germany, they narrowly avoided the concentration camps but ended up among twenty thousand Jewish refugees relocated to the Shanghai ghetto in Japaneseoccupied China. She was a teen-age girl and spent eight years there, helping her family just to live and survive, until liberation in September, 1945. Denied a formal education, she worked as a seamstress upon admission to the United States. She rose to head seamstress at Bloomingdale’s in Chestnut Hill, outside Boston. She married at twenty-three, had two sons,
and was widowed at forty-four. She herself remained in remarkably good health. At eighty-seven, she still lived independently in a second-floor apartment in Norwood, Massachusetts. She drove a Honda Civic. She did all her own shopping and cooking. And she still worked - three and a half days a week at Sears, doing office work, and her other weekdays volunteering at New England Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital. She was sitting at her desk at Sears when the vision in her left eye went completely black. It came back after three minutes. She dismissed the episode, but the next day the same thing happened again, only this time the vision didn’t come back. Her doctor sent her to our emergency room, where she was suspected to have had a stroke caused by a severe atherosclerotic blockage of the carotid artery in her neck. She needed urgent surgery to open the blockage. She thought hard before agreeing to it. She had great fear of the risks and what they could take away from her life. But she had greater fear of what her condition might take
away. Being able to remain independent, work, and contribute in some way was most important to her, and her best chance of preserving this was to act. The operation went remarkably well. There were no problems at all. She was weak afterward, but the next day she ate, got out of bed, felt fine. The day after that, she seemed ready to leave the hospital. But she complained that constipation was making her nauseated and uncomfortable. The team tried laxatives, but they did nothing, and her belly only became more painful. A young resident was the one who, looking at her, felt that something wasn’t right. In fact, this wasn’t constipation at all, but a disaster from a strange complication. Her stomach had twisted on itself, pulled up into her chest, and become trapped - a condition known as a gastric volvulus. Worse, an ulcer seemed to have formed in the lining of her stomach and ruptured into her chest. This is catastrophic for anyone, let alone an eighty-seven-yearold woman. The textbooks describe an up to eighty-per-cent fatality rate.
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hen Atul wrote an article on healthcare in 2009, in New Yorker magazine, Warren Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger immediately mailed a cheque for $20,000 (Rs. 10 lakh) as a mark of appreciation, together with a thank-you note carrying the words, “for providing something so socially useful”. Atul Gawande promptly donated the $20,000 to Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health. When President Barack Obama read this article, he said to his senators that “this is what we’ve got to fix”. For someone who started out as a surgeon, and then as an ace healthcare writer, Dr. Atul Gawande is now more famous for his original contributions towards Error Reduction in any field, ranging from personal life to healthcare to multibillion dollar businesses. His latest multi-domain book, ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ was a New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller and today has a cult following among professionals and corporations. A second-generation Maharashtrian in US, Atul has been a hardcore Democrat, who even discontinued medical school to be Bill Clinton’s healthcare lieutenant during the 1992 Presidential elections and later became a senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services, and also headed one of the three committees of the Clinton Health Care Task Force. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1987, was a Rhodes scholar earning a degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from Oxford in 1989, and later graduated from Harvard Medical School. He also has a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Is Net Run Rate a Sham? The all-pervasive relevance of Mathematics and Statistics in life came to the fore once more as even the T20 Super Eight stage was marred by permutations and combinations, in the form of a yardstick termed net run rate, which has suddenly complicated this relatively understandable game. In the penultimate Super-Eight encounter of Group-B, between Australia and Pakistan, one glaring evidence was that neither of the teams had victory in mind, but their qualification, which produced a drab spirit though the Pakistanis displayed outstanding charisma and energy to silence the Aussie juggernaut in the tourney. Australia began on the right note by restricting Pakistan to a moderate 149-6, and until then the statisticians were left workless as only with the completion of the first innings can the calculators and run-rate measuring tools be brought into action. The run-chase commenced in a tense fashion as even the in-form Aussies weren’t yet assured of a semi-final berth. The tactic of deploying a 5spinner bowling attack worked magic for Pakistan as the openers were strangulated, which necessitated cheeky shots leading to the ironically similar dismissals of Watson and Warner. At the nearing of 10 overs, when Australia were in shambles, and a ridiculous and potential life-saver message kept flashing on the giant screen which read that Australia required only 112 runs to book a semifinal spot. This caught the attention of one and all, including the statisticallyunaware audience, which abruptly destroyed the very need for the game’s result to be known. Now the target for the Aussies was only 112, which they made heavy weather of, if not for a focused innings of resistance from Michael Hussey who admirably crossed the premature finishing line, much to the amusement
of the crowd, which was followed by a roaring applause from the Aussie dugout. In the end, Pakistan galloped to a ‘convincing’ 32-run win which propelled their semi-final hopes. But, even after being crushed to a ‘humiliating’ defeat, which exposed their vulnerability in playing spin, the Australians were the happier lot of the two, a scenario which is puzzlingly rare in modern-day sport. Owing to their ‘commanding’ victory, Pakistan’s net-run rate improved drastically which made the last match between India and South-Africa an intriguing affair as it assuredly meant
As India fall victim to Net Run Rate, doubts arise on whether it is foolproof as touted, or a mere error-prone approximation.
that the latter was eliminated, before having even played their last game and that the former having the requirement to inflict a big-win in order to topple the arch rivals in the points table. With the discernment of having to win big in mind, India started off on a rather cautious note before overcircumspection took the better of them. India lost early wickets in irregular intervals to settle for a average score of 152-6. However, barely minutes after the Aus-Pak game, the statisticians’ prophesized that if India set a target of 160+, they have to win by a margin of 30 runs or more I.e. lesser the target they set, greater is the margin of victory being demanded. Thus, the dreaded message once again beamed visibly on the giant screen: India needs to restrict SA to 121 or less to qualify. The bowlers were up to the gigantic task in hand by causing the early downfall of two South African legends,
the wickets of Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis. Then, De Villiers and Du Plessis staged a fight-back which proved to be the turning point of the game in relation to the 121-figure India eyed on. However, considering the remarkable chokers they are, South Africa almost gifted India the muchneeded qualification due to some irresponsible stroke-play but they scrapped past the 121-mark leaving the Indians dismayed and heartbroken. However, the Indians dedicated the final ounce of their energy for winning on a finishing note by edging past their opponents by a solitary run. Factually, India emerged winners of the contest but on emotional grounds, both teams were left anguished, which was strikingly contrasting to the previous game where both Australia and Pakistan were left ecstatic with utter disregard for the result. These two games teach the cricketing world a very important lesson. There is more to cricket than just runs and wickets. Maths matters too! The giantscreen display of messages based on Net Run Rates reduced the charm and competitiveness of both the encounters
where teams were left to ignore the true ethos of the game: that is, playing hard to win at any cost. The net run rate however hasn’t received as much as sharp criticism unlike the Duckworth and Lewis method, which at one point of time, was close to termination. The involvement of complex numbers and footnotes has taken the normal cricketing fan into an utterly perplexing state of trying to comprehend the intricacies of the game. Technology, at the cost of assimilation,
will hugely destroy the popularity of the game. The net run rate, basically, is a statistical method used in analyzing team work and/or performance in the sport of cricket. It is by and large, similar to the goal-difference method employed in football. In its basic sense, it is the run-rate, in a single game, per over, that a team scores minus the runrate per over that is scored against them. Though its reliability is unquestionable, due to its defined
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formulas and methodology, the statistical gizmo has the obvious glitches which are expected out of any human-made apparatus. Firstly, in matches where DuckworthLewis revised targets are set due to interruptions which reduce the number of overs bowled, those revised targets and revised overs are used to calculate the net run rate for both teams, thereby projecting complete apathy to the proceedings of the game, before the rain-intervention. Instead, the happenings of that pre-rain stoppage period must be taken into consideration as otherwise the upper-hand consolidated by a team during that period is taken to be meaningless. This is possible by separately calculating this period and eventually, imbibing its effect on the final net-run rate. Secondly, the complication is that if a team is bowled out, it is not the balls faced which their score is divided by; instead the full quota of overs is used (e.g. 50 overs for a One Day International and 20 overs for a Twenty20 match) to ascertain the netrun rate, to which there is no justifiable reason. Complication further compounds when both teams are bowled out due to which the winning team secures only a miniscule gain in net run rate especially when the
The NRR is a purely a mathematical treat of application for stat-keepers, which because of its rapid calculations and assertion gives a premature end to the potential climaxes and thrillers that the game has so beautifully effectuated. difference in number of overs faced by the two teams is marginal. For example, India bats first, managing to set a target of 111 because they are bowled out in 17.3 overs. New Zealand falls short by accumulating only 108 runs after consuming only 17 overs. In this case, India generates a net run rate of +0.15, while New Zealand attains a negative for the same figure, which is a slight difference, considering the outright manner in which India won. Finally, when the game ends in a tie, runs and overs are added as in the examples above, with teams bowled out being credited with their full quota of overs. Thus, the net run rate will always be zero for both teams. For eg; if both India and New Zealand finish at 120 each, their run-rate will be a zero even if New Zealand has beaten India in the
Super Over tie. Thus, the effects on net run rate from Super-Over victories need to be made transparent and understandably palpable. The biggest flaw in all technologydriven calculations and man-made methodology is that the qualitative element or the non-tangible aspects doesn’t have room for accounting due to its difficulty in measurability. A substitute for the NRR can be hard to develop but remarks on matchwinning moments of the game need to be reflected in the points tally. For eg; an extraordinary catch or a towering six must be credited with grace points which are then incorporated into the NRR, through appropriate calculations. In the clearest of explanations, each “individual performance of brilliance� should be designated with a ranknumber from a series or range (i.e. 110 etc). This is then decimalized keeping a common base, after which it is readily inserted into the NRR. Through such a technique, individual players are rewarded even for their slightest of efforts (which however is defining in the context of the game). The NRR is a purely a mathematical treat of application for stat-keepers, which because of its rapid calculations and assertion gives a premature end to the potential climaxes and thrillers that the game has so beautifully effectuated.
What to Eat for a Super Mood Throughout the Day & Night If you are agitated and irritable and can't really blame your boss, spouse, colleague or client for it, maybe it's time to take a look at your eating habits. Your diet can affect the way you think and feel in at least two distinct ways. One is by influencing the chemical messengers in your brain and second, through its effect on your blood sugar level. So let's take a look at the kind of food that can keep you in a good mood. A good breakfast is the key to keeping you in a good mood throughout the day. A mood enhancing breakfast should have the right carbohydrates, such as whole wheat breads and breakfast cereals. Broken wheat (daliya) is an easily available whole grain. Whole grains are important because they are absorbed slowly and keep your blood sugar levels stable. Swinging blood sugar is a common cause of irritability. In addition, carbohydrates boost the supply of tryptophan in the brain, which in turn boosts serotonin synthesis. Another common cause of irritability and fatigue is dehydration. Keep a bottle of water handy and make sure that you drink
Ge Gettting High in Delhi: Terr ac e Cultur e TTak ak es O errac ace Culture ake Offf What is it about having a drink on the 63rd floor at the Sky Bar in Bangkok that makes drinkers feel their livers will forgive them? What I’ve gathered from the fortunate is that “it’s the spectacular all round view that makes it different from just having a drink.”
I feel then that I’ve achieved as much without having to go that far or up so high. From just three floors off the ground I’ve had a drink in the midst of greenery, had fantastic views of old and new infrastructure and relished conversations split over bites of lemonsprinkled roast. All on a Delhi rooftop. For those who live below the barsati (half terrace/half flat), a Delhi rooftop can be a mixed blessing. The thumping of a basketball about to make its way into a rooftop ring, or the shuffling of feet while smashing a shuttlecock over a terrace net are a given if one of the residents is a sport-loving teenager with high metabolism. But these days the rooftops of Delhi are being put to more use than the stomping grounds for teenagers burning up calories. In most colonies of Delhi, a residential house can have a maximum of four floors. Since most of the houses still haven’t build beyond the third, the
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CONTROVERSY By Vivek Kaul
Mute Manmohan Watches as Coalgate Engulfs Congress from All Sides PREVIEW Seasonal
The Great Fire of Rome started on July 19, 64 AD, and burnt for six days. There are several varying accounts of it in history. One of the accounts suggests that Nero the king of Rome watched the fire destroy the city, from one of Rome’s many hills, while singing and playing the lyre, a stringed musical instrument. India these days has its own Nero, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. As the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government gets engulfed in the coal-gate scam, Manmohan Singh has largely been a silent spectator watching from the stands and seeing his government being engulfed by the coal fire. And this is not the first time. Manmohan Singh has
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MAGIC DONE AT WOCKHARDT, MAGIC AWAITS WOCKHARDT HOSPITALS NOW
“The fact that larger corporate hospital chains are coming to Tier-II cities now is vindication of our strategy, that we took more than six years back,” says Zahabiya Khorakiwala, the young Managing Director of Wockhardt Hospitals. Her other strategies include pioneering the institutionalization of aesthetic surgeries using world’s latest technology, equipment, and a complementary talent pool of multiple specialists. When Wockhardt Hospitals completes its new 22-storied super-speciality hospital in a plush South Mumbai locality soon, it will be sweet revenge for the Khorakiwala family. A revenge not on any business rivals, but upon a ‘too fast’ expansion strategy that once took the entire Wockhardt Group to the brink.
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N U T R I T I O N
Top 10 Type-2 Superfoods
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Yes, variety is essential when it comes to diabetes. But these 10 tried-and-true staples are nutrient-rich, protect against chronic diseases, and are ideal foods for people with type 2 diabetes. Plus, they're delicious. Berries A smart substitute when you need to limit candy, berries offer sweet flavor, few calories, lots of fiber, and a hefty dose of antioxidants, chemicals that help protect against cancer and heart disease. Raspberries, strawberries, and pomegranates (yes, they're considered a berry) also have plenty of ellagic acid, an antioxidant that may have anti-tumor effects. Toss fresh berries in your morning cereal and noontime salads, and keep dried versions handy for snacking. High-fiber foods like berries help maintain blood sugar levels.
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Eggs are not only an inexpensive proteinsource, they may even help you lose weight. Research suggests that eating eggs at breakfast means you're likely to consume fewer calories the rest of the day. The American Heart Association says healthy adults can eat one egg a day. One reason is that they contain little saturated fat, the real culprit in high blood cholesterol. (To be safe, talk to your doctor about your cholesterol level.) Hard-boil eggs while you prepare dinner so they're ready for a quick breakfast.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil offers great taste plus type-2-diabetesfriendly monounsaturated fat. "Extra virgin" means the oil is minimally processed, which protects its more than 30 antioxidant and anti-inflammatory plant compounds. Drizzle it on salads and use it to sautĂŠ meat and veggies. But go easy. Like all oils, it packs a calorie wallop.
Kale If you're stuck on spinach, consider kale. It is an overall nutrition booster and one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. One cup offers a riot of antioxidants: 206% of your daily requirement for
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vitamin A, 134% of your vitamin C requirement, and 684% of your recommended intake of vitamin K (critical for blood clotting and bone health). It's also a top source of lutein and zeaxanthin, compounds that may help prevent agerelated eye diseases. Add chopped kale to soups, toss it with pasta and pine nuts, or tear the leaves into 2-inch pieces, spritz with olive oil, and bake until crisp for a bowlful of kale chips.
New Launches - Fresh, Luxe, & Duds
Rena ult Sc ala, enault Scala,
Samsung Gala Galaxxy No Notte 800 is Slick But Comes with a Luxury Price Tag The highlight of this tablet is its unique multi-screen option, which is a slick and convenient feature. In an age where all of us are mostly multi-tasking at any given point of time, the split screen does come handy. Two apps can visibly run simultaneously, each in its own window. The screen on the Note 800, although not Super AMOLED, is brilliant nevertheless. Watching media on the tablet was a fairly immersive experience. The Note 800 is also capable of making voice calls, though ear phones are preferred.
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Mahindr Mahindraa Quan Quantto
Panic Response to Ertiga & Duster, A Smaller Xylo
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The Mahindra Quanto is a sub-four meter MUV based on the Xylo platform; with 1.5litre diesel engine to get tax subsidies availed by the small cars. The Mini Xylo is actually a five-seater vehicle, but will get optional two butterfly-seats in the boot making it seven-seater if required. From the front, the Quanto looks exactly like the Xylo, but is lot smaller. The spare-tyre is mounted on the rear door to add some bulk to the vehicle. The engine is a threecylinder 1.5-litre diesel based on the mHawk, producing around 100bhp and 240Nm of torque. The pricing of the new Quanto is competitive starting between Rs 5.5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh. It will compete with the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the Renault Duster in the Indian market.
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Another Car Destined to Trail its Seasonal Cousin From Nissan and Other Peers
Leno arbon enovvo X1 C Carbon Rides the Ultrabooks Wave with High End Thinkpad The PC is back with a vengeance, and the new battle-front, Ultrabooks, is rapidly converting everyone who realized that little real work can be done with a tablet. The ThinkPad X1 comes with carbon fiber, and is powered by the latest third generation Intel Core processor. It weighs less than three pounds and packs a high resolution 14-inch display while also offering a multigesture glass surface touchpad, HD facetracking camera, dual array microphones and Dolby-tuned audio for crisp and clear sound. However, be ready to shell out Rs. 85,000 for the superb computing experience.
What is the difference between Scala and Sunny, especially as both are coming out from the same factory? For one, Scala is much costlier than Sunny. Sunny itself is costlier than many of its peers. Renault India has launched their fifth car in India, the Scala. Both the petrol and diesel come with two trims each. The base petrol (RXE) is priced at Rs 6.99 lakh while the top-end RXL retails at Rs 7.85 lakh whereas the diesel RXL and RXZ trims have been priced at Rs 8.69 lakh and Rs 9.57 lakh ex- Delhi. The Scala will compete with the Nissan Sunny, Skoda Rapid, Toyota Etios, Volkswagen Vento, Hyundai Verna and Honda City. Like the way the hatchback Pulse is derived from the Nissan Micra, the Scala is a rebadged Sunny. The front fascia is where the major transformation has taken place with Renault badge resting on the gaping mouth which incorporates the front grille and air dam give the car a more aggressive stance as compared to its Japanese sibling. From the side, the car is exactly the same as the Sunny except for the new alloys. The rear has minor changes incorporated into it, like the chrome strip connecting the tail lamps and the blacked out area in the fender. The interiors are the same like the Sunny exception being the availability of leather seats on the diesel RXZ trim. Both the100PS petrol and 86PS diesel engines have been carried over from the Sunny. Renault will also be offering an automatic gearbox later on for the petrol variant.
For dE coSpor ord Ec oSportt Will it be a Hit Like Figo or a Sales Dud Like the New Fiesta? Ford EcoSport looks insane. It claims to be a real SUV with 200 mm ground clearance, though small in size, and built on the sedate Fiesta platform. Launched before Brazil in India, the dramatic styling of the EcoSport is loud and extrovert. A massive, open-mouthed grille gives it a very different feel from the Fiesta, and the high bonnet line, machine gun-like fog lights and heavily raked windscreen enhance the radical image. Narrow headlights add further aggression, while the flared wheel arches and rising beltline give the car a well planted look. In Brazil it has been launched with a petrol-powered 1.6-
litre variant producing 113bhp and 115 lb ft of torque, though in India much will decide on what will be the diesel engine. And if it is costlier than Duster, Ford has a real problem coming up.
iPhone5
Lacks Features, But will Sell Like Hotcakes
Por tr onic’s ortr tronic’s Elec tr open Electr tropen is Sheer Magic, Would be a Hit if Done by Apple as iPen
Tata Sa Saffari St orme Storme
Coming Soon, Launches TV Ad to Prevent Everyone Buying Dusters & XUVs Tata Safari Storme has been coming soon, but for a long time now. Anyway, this time, it might be really coming soon. Tata Motors has launched a TV campaign as a desperate measure to stop people buying available SUVs in the bracket like Renault Duster and Mahindra XUV500. The 2012 Tata Safari Storme SUV was first showcased in January at this year’s Auto Expo. The SUV, which comes with significantly improved fit and finish levels along with upgraded interiors. The SUV, which is based on the Aria’s X2 platform, comes with a host of improvements like a smaller turning radius due to a wider steering rack, disc brakes on all four wheels, new suspension and projector
This is an intelligent pen that can capture your handwritten notes, store them in its memory, convert them to editable text and send them to a PC. The notes can be written on ordinary paper. You can even use the pen to trace or sketch images and then transfer them to your computer. The pen’s body is a transmitter and a clip is the receiver. You attach the clip to a stack of papers, notebook or diary, and it records your movement with the pen as you write or draw. The bundled software also lets you project whatever you’re writing down onto a screen in real time via a projector. Price: Rs. 7999.
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SEASONAL MAGAZINE
Finally, truth is out. iPhone 5 is not earth shattering. It has a smaller screen, its two cameras are not best in its class, and it lacks the key emerging networking and payment technology NFC. But still, being an iPhone, it will sell like hotcakes. For those who are not addicted to everything Mac, strong alternatives exist like Samsung Galaxy SIII, Google Nexus, & Nokia Lumia 920.
PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
DHIRUBHAI AMBANI INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
A Sharp Focus on Future Trends,
Like Dhirubhai H Ambani Dhirubhai Ambani was already in a ship to Yemen, in search of a job, when his matriculation results came. Dhirubhai came to know about it from a Gujarati newspaper that came in through a boat. He was glad that he passed, but sad that he was not studying further due to his father’s financial situation. But that didn’t prevent Dhirubhai from creating India’s largest private enterprise, Reliance, which despite being a firstgeneration business, rapidly beat generations old conglomerates like Tatas, Birlas, Mahindras, or Bajajs. However, lack of college education also didn’t prevent Dhirubhai from sending his son Anil D Ambani to the prestigious Ivy League institution, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business to pursue his MBA. Today, Anil, who needs no introduction in India Inc is making his father’s vision felt in the higher education sphere through a private university, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT)
at Gandhinagar. Founded and run professionally under former Officiating Director of IIT Bombay and former CTO of Global Telesystems Ltd, Prof. SC Sahasrabudhe, DA-IICT has many surprises in its offerings. Seasonal Magazine queries Prof. Sahasrabudhe, a distinguished teacher who has been awarded as the Best Teacher and for Life Time Achievement by IIT Bombay:
Seasonal
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DA-IICT doesn’t use the ‘university’ tag, despite being a full-fledged private university. Why is it so? Does IITs use that tag, even though they are entitled to such status. Our broad model has been IITs, and that is the main reason why we don’t use that often. We want to be known as a premium research oriented technological institute, just like the IITs. Comparing with the IITs is a difficult to believe proposition for a relatively new private institution. The obvious question would be whether
you are as quality oriented as the IITs when it comes to admissions? Absolutely. 100% of our admissions are on merit basis. We exclusively follow the AIEEE score, which is a national scale assessment that all the NITs and IIITs follow. There is no other test or interview from our side, so that admission is a completely transparent and fair process. That is impressive. Still, will any student who gets admission to any of the IITs prefer DA-IICT instead? When we started out, what you say was true. But in recent years, the situation has changed much. If a student doesn’t get his favourite stream of ICT at IITs, he or she will surely opt for that course at DA-IICT. There have been several such cases. The situation will improve even further during the next few years.
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PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
SRM UNIVERSITY
The Challenges Before the Leader Any discourse on the state of private universities in India should start with the state of affairs at one of the leaders - SRM University. Perhaps no other private outfit has as adeptly rode the buoyant wave of opportunities that our central and state governments offered edupreneurs, as Seasonal much as TR Pachamuthu did. And that transformed a simple self-financing SRM Engineering College in Tamilnadu’s Kancheepuram District and affiliated to Anna University, into today’s sprawling SRM University with five ultra-modern campuses - one even near Delhi - and with no need for Anna or any old-school universities for affiliation.
PREVIEW
There is no doubt whatsoever whether SRM deserves its laurels. It has been the sheer hard work of Pachamuthu who is now SRM’s Chancellor - as well as his core team that built up this private university at incredible speed. Otherwise, there would have been at least equal contenders. At five campuses, 1500 faculty, and 20,000 students, no other private university is likely to come close to SRM in size. If tallied also by the breadth of professional or science/arts streams offered, SRM should come in the first tier. It offers everything under the sun, from evergreen pro pursuits like engineering, medicine, & management, to almost all in-demand science and humanities including mathematics, biotechnology, bioinformatics, computer applications, languages, political science, commerce, economics, media studies, hotel management, education, and many more. The only problem critics might point out with this kind of highspeed vertical and horizontal growth is whether much of this was aided by
our legislators at state and central levels gifting edupreneurs like Pachamuthu with whatever they wanted, in a platter. Still, it goes to Dr. Pachamuthu’s credit - he has been awarded a honorary doctorate by UK’s Birmingham City University - that SRM has been in pursuit of quality at all fronts, as much as a new private university could strive for. No effort has been spared to create one of the most extensive educational infrastructures. Its main Kattankulathur Campus in Kancheepuram near Chennai is a 250 acres affair. A Central Library with vast resources, airconditioned auditorium that can accommodate over 4,000 people, information technology and Knowledge Management supporting over 5,000 computer systems and IT applications of the University, 32 megabytes per second Internet Connection, modern Lecture Halls & “Smart Classrooms”, wireless-enabled lab and campus, language lab specializing in English, German, Japanese, French & Chinese, around 40 Buses - AC & non-AC - that ply
Dr. Pachamuthu
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Sahara: massive, splashy
.. and mysterious Like millions of Indians, Jag Ram Chaudhary invested with the Sahara conglomerate - 1,300 rupees a month in his case - to put away money for a rainy day. "My wife had an accident some years back. I don't have much savings, so I thought I'll be able to save some money by putting in a small amount every month," said Chaudhary, an office helper at a construction company in Uttar Pradesh.
to buy a controlling stake in New York's Plaza Hotel. But its core client base is the towns and villages away from the shiny cities of modern India. There, Sahara sells investment products to often poor people in amounts as small as 2 rupees (4 U.S. cents) a day. The company is a household name in India through its
lead sponsorship of the national cricket team. "Banks take eight years to pay what I get from Sahara in five years," Chaudhary, 40, said in Khalilabad, a town in Sant Kabir Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. Like several Sahara customers interviewed nearly two weeks afterwards, he had not heard of the court ruling.
SPENDING POWER Critics, including activist groups, say Sahara's investment products are designed to evade oversight by financial regulators and that it lacks transparency
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On August 31, the Supreme Court ruled that finance schemes run by two Sahara companies were illegal and ordered it to repay as much as $4.5 billion to up to almost 30 million mostly small investors, plus interest. The final figures are still to be determined as some clients have already redeemed their investments, lawyers on both sides of the matter said. The case has shone a rare light on the unlisted giant whose interests range across finance, housing, media and entertainment. Sahara has accumulated a string of trophies in recent years, including a stake in a Formula One motor racing team and ownership of Grosvenor House hotel in London. In July, it agreed
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BOOK REVIEW
Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck What it takes to be an entrepreneur and build a great business
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? There are quite a few people who do think about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. There are countless entrepreneurial assessments that quiz you on specific behaviors or success traits. Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck: What it takes to be an entrepreneur and build a great business by Anthony K. Tjan, Richard J. Harrington, and Tsun-Yan Sheih takes the entrepreneurial personality profile to a whole new level. Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck was written with the purpose to leave readers with an increased self-awareness as it relates to starting and maintaining a successful business as well as some practical wisdom that you can use along the way. The first impression, after reading this book, is that it’s a sort of
“Even Steve Jobs Had to Re-Strategize Continually” ‘The Strategist’ by Cynthia Montgomery is making waves. Montgomery has worked with dozens of leaders - from Global 1000 executives to startup CEOs - on how to create successful long-term strategies, and compiled her insights into a new book, The Strategist: Be The Leader Your Business Needs. Here is a recent interview with Montgomery about her book, and the biggest challenges executives
“Know Thyself” primer for business owners. This book is written by a savvy team who have plenty of experience in
Likenomics
You don’t need to be told there’s a believability crisis. Whether you’re stuck buying a used car or listening to political ads, you know you have a hard time believing what these folks are saying. And you know why: for far too long, businesses of all kinds have focused on profit over good behavior. Rohit Bhargava, author of Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action, would probably love it if esveryone were altruistic enough to be likeable just because it’s the right thing to do. He’s sharp enough to know that we’ll take more notice if he points out one of the inevitable side-benefits of likeability: a more profitable, less stressful business. “Most people chose to work with the ‘Lovable Fool’ (low competence, high likeability) rather than the ‘Competent Jerk’ (high competence, low likeability.)” - Likeonomics, page 33. Harvard Business School professor Tiziana Casciaro and Miguel Sousa Unselfishness: Why We Are Selfish: Assuming a zero-sum game, wanting to get without giving, “Short-Termism”.
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Dale Carnegie Training to Expand India Presence Dale Carnegie is looking at expanding its corporate world programmes, and the thrust will be on digital training Dale Carnegie Training is set to expand its presence in India. The company, noted for corporate training and skill training for students and faculty of institutes, is looking to offer more programmes to its users and forge additional partnerships in the country. Dale Carnegie is already operating in India. It has been running a finishing school in the country since 2007. The company has also worked with educational institutions for student training and faculty training. “Since 2006, we have trained nearly 27,000 faculty and about 30,000 students,� says Peter Handal, chairman & CEO, Dale Carnegie Training. Handal says the company is looking at expanding its corporate world
Seasonal
PREVIEW programmes in India. The thrust will be on digital training. He adds that the firm will concentrate on live online training and interactive programmes.
World Turns to Reverse Innovation for Survival Though there are exceptions like Apple iPhone/iPad, industries across the world are relying more and more on reverse innovation techniques.
The online programmes cover areas such as information technology (IT), ITenabled services, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and
Typically, companies start their globalization efforts by removing expensive features from their established product, and attempt to sell these de-featured products in the developing world. This approach, unfortunately, is not very competitive, and targets only the most affluent segments of society in these developing countries. Reverse innovation, on the other hand, leads to products which are created locally in developing countries, tested in local markets, and, if successful, then upgraded for sale and delivery in the developed world. Reverse innovation or frugal innovation or trickle-up innovation is a term referring to an innovation seen first, or likely to be used first, in the developing world before spreading to the industrialized world. The term was popularized by
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