Seasonal Magazine - Latest Issue - Modi 2.0 Cover Story by John Antony

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VOLUME 18 ISSUE 7 JULY 2019

MAGAZINE

Seasonal www.seasonalmagazine.com

Managing Editor Jason D Pavorattikaran Editor John Antony Director (Finance) Ceena Associate Editor Carl Jaison Senior Editorial Coordinator Jacob Deva Senior Correspondent Bina Menon Creative Visualizer Bijohns Varghese Photographer Anish Aloysious Office Assistant Alby CG Correspondents Bombay: Rashmi Prakash Delhi: Anurag Dixit Director (Technical) John Antony Publisher Jason D Pavorattikaran

IS INDIA REALLY READY FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER? As the storms of protectionism and automation sweeps across the world, the country really needs to get its act together, or risk getting sidelined, and the real solution is that we have to define what our real priority is. There was a time when most of us would have regarded something staying the same without much improvement as a risky scenario. But what if things get even worse? The world as well as key business sectors seems to be facing such a scenario. The emerging wave of protectionism for example. Nobody could have predicted Trump would have taken things with China and India, this far. Neither could anybody foresee that Brexit would turn this ugly, pitching former allies Britain and rest of Europe in such a dirty battle.

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EDITORIAL

China too is showing unusual belligerence in dealing with USA and rest of the world. Not only did it reply tit for tat with each of Trump’s trade moves, thereby sending world markets into a tizzy, but at the same time it has shown that it too can bully where it can by taking over a huge port that it financed and constructed in Sri Lanka, thereby sending shivers down the spine of countries like Pakistan that is relying greatly on Chinese support to develop itself. Indian hopes that we would be able to capitalize somehow on the USChinese fallout has fallen flat on its face due to more than a couple of reasons. For one, Indian exporters are not exporting the same kind of products as the Chinese, and besides that, Trump has also turned the heat on India, in what he perceives as high import duty for costlier American durables.

While it can be argued that China’s Belt & Road Initiative is a major anti-protectionist project, reality is that China is already bracing for a future that it envisages where it will lose most of its markets in North America and Europe due to the Western protectionist wave. BRI is thus an ambitious move to replace those Western markets with numerous smaller markets in Asia and Africa.

will lose jobs. That is, just to start with. Because, nobody thinks competitors will leave Tesla alone to bask in this glory. Even more mightier forces in the corporate world from Google to Microsoft to Uber to at least half a dozen car companies will have their own driverless cab fleets within years, if not months. And drivers may be destined for extinction.

The situation is even worse when it comes to the wave of automation driven by artificial intelligence that is gathering storm in developed markets and soon to reach developing ones like India. Limitless capital has finally found the perfect partner in disruptive start-up innovations and the result is an obnoxious bully child called automation that can vaporize jobs before you can complete reading this sentence.

Not only drivers, many of us are destined for extinction if we allow these unholy alliances between mammoth capital and disruptive innovators to have a free run. Needless to say, China and India are top target markets for Tesla’s global driverless dreams.

Take the case of the so-called greatest entrepreneur living today, post Steve Jobs. He says the technology for his next great idea is already in place. It is a beautiful idea really. An electric car that can double up as a cab for others when you are not using it. And no, you don’t need to employ a driver for using it as a cab. Because, it drives itself. You just summon it using your smartphone or smartwatch or your Alexa, and it comes for you, and when you don’t need it, you make it available for the taxi pool using another voice command, and from then on it obeys the commands of your anonymous customers, until you need it again!

And this is precisely where India needs to exercise immense caution. Opening doors to such innovators may be the latest fad, and even if we don’t open our doors, there will be immense pressure from their financing giants to get our doors opened somehow, even with the lure of inbound capital. This will be India’s acid test in the coming years – whether India will fall for such capital and ‘innovation’ driven fads that evaporate jobs for our masses, or stand our ground and choose or opt out of each and every new innovation that comes our way. A great way to start will be to start prioritizing and even incentivizing job creators rather than investors or innovators as it is being done now.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Wait till you hear the scale. Elon Musk is planning to put 10 million of such Tesla cars on road. Not by 2030 or 2025, but by as near as 2022! Of course he is saying this publicly so that capital would just accelerate flowing into his dream project. And sure it will flow, from everyone from Softbank to Sequoia or their likes.

This is all the more important in the emerging protectionist scenario, as we are all set to be forced into looking inwards into our own consumer market for growing sustainably. The silverline in the clouds is that we have an enviable market size that can be leveraged for choosing only massive job creating deals that our nation so badly needs now.

There is only one catch. 10 million cab drivers worldwide

John Antony SEASONAL MAGAZINE

CONTENTS 5 ADVANTAGES AND 5 CHALLENGES FACING INDIA IN MODI 2.0 India is the third largest GDP in the world next only to China and USA. We are the second fastest growing large economy in the world. India’s consumer market is second only to China. And unlike China, we are a proven democracy earning the trust of the world. Narendra Modi’s second term will get to capitalize on all these inherent strengths of India. However, Modi’s second stint has enough challenges too to address. Indians continue to suffer from low per capita productivity, income, wealth & Human Development Index (HDI). Recent figures show that our jobs growth has been uninspiring, while GDP growth has hit a a 5-year low. Also, India's income inequality between its rich and poor has been rising alarmingly. And solutions are tough to come by as we still lack mega scale planning and strategies to manufacture for the whole world. Seasonal Magazine takes an in-depth look at these advantages and challenges that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues need to be working upon.

CHINA DOESN'T WANT TO REPLACE AMERICA AS "BOSS OF WORLD" "China has no intention, no power, to be the boss of this world, and against the United States to fight for this status," Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said as trade friction grows between the world's biggest economies.

WILL KEJRIWAL'S FREE TRAVEL PLAN FOR DELHI WOMEN WORK?

TRUMP ADVISES BRITAIN ON HOW HE WOULD SOLVE BREXIT

The proposed free Travel For women In Delhi Buses and Metro is for ensuring their Safety, says Arvind Kejriwal. Detractors say it is for his own government's safety.

Donald Trump has urged Britain to go for a no-deal Brexit from European Union, saying that he would have done it that way.

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GET UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE Rahul must lead the Congress, but his office needs to be dismantled and a new team put in place. As a political commentator, I have no hesitation in saying that the idea of Congress is like the idea of India. Just like

USA & CHINA TAKES TRADE WAR TO EDUCATION China warned students and academics recently about risks involved in studying in the United States, pointing to limits on the duration of visas and visa refusals, amid a bitter trade war and other..

ESAF SMALL FINANCE BANK

WHO SAID THERE ARE WORLD CUP FAVORITES? With India, England, Australia and New Zealand looking like the teams to beat after the first round of action in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, there is a natural tendency to write off the other contenders. While India convincingly beat South Africa in their tournament opener in what was a brilliant display of team efficiency, England demolished the same opponents in a fitting statement of their remarkable capability but came short against Pakistan. Australia romped home to victory against Afghanistan while New Zealand added to Sri Lanka’s miserable woes in this format. But, do these few matches offer a reflection of where teams..

THE ARMS RACE IN THE VIDEO CONSUMPTION SPACE IS HEATING UP The American video-on-demand giant, Netflix has made its fastest content Investment in India in just a few years but their propitious plans for the country indicates that they are just warming up. Netflix understands that to keep..

Thrissur, Kerala, headquartered ESAF Small Finance Bank’s financial results for its second full year as a bank has delivered surprisingly strong numbers. While every growth metric, from interest income to advances to deposits to profits to loan book, has soared, its asset quality has sharply improved and its capital adequacy ratios have been fortified. ESAF SFB is proving that impressive growth and good asset quality can go hand in hand, even when its major focus is on furthering financial inclusion. ESAF Small Finance Bank has entered its third year of operation as a bank, while 27 years of existence as a microfinance institution is powering its expansion across India. Within just two years, the 5000 member strong ESAF team,

3 STEPS TO BETTER FOCUS IN LIFE Focus and concentration can be difficult to master. Sure, most people want to learn how to improve focus and boost concentration. But actually doing it? We live in a noisy world and constant distractions can make focus difficult.

HAS FLYING BECOME RBI SHUTS BANK DANGEROUS? LICENCES FOR 3 YEARS MORE Even while 4.3 billion travelers, the The central bank wants all the new players who have got licences in the last 3-4 years to stabilise, and see how they are progressing before giving out new ones.

IMPRESSIVE GROWTH, IMPROVING ASSET QUALITY

equivalent of more than half the world’s population, flew safely in 2018, aircraft accidents occurred more frequently in almost..

REVA INTERNALISES THE TRUE ESSENCE OF EDUCATION: BALANCING RELEVANCE AND HIGHER PURPOSE Dr. P. Shyama Raju is one of Bengaluru City’s most prominent industrialists, the Founder of DivyaSree Developers, the iconic name behind many Tech Parks and commercial spaces and award winning residential projects in the south. As the Chancellor of REVA University, recognised today as one of the best educational destinations of the Country, he has forged exceptional industry connections. Apart from a great future in the industry, REVA also ensures an ecofriendly campus life for its students. With its unshifting focus on environmental causes, REVA was placed among the top in the Swachh Bharat nationwide Ranking by MHRDC.

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GOOGLE AND JIO ARE INDIA'S TOP RANKED BRANDS IN 2019 A survey by French consulting giant Ipsos has come out with India's top brands.

ther than Google and Reliance Jio who bagged the first and the second spot respectively, the list also features Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded digital payment platform Paytm as the third winner. Mukesh Ambani’s telecom Reliance Jio is the second most popular brand in India but is beaten by the globally used search engine Google, a recent survey says. In the previous year’s survey, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio stood at 3rd position and was left behind by both Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.

Other than Google and Reliance Jio who bagged the first and the second spot respectively, the list also features Vijay company Shekhar Sharma founded digital payment platform INDIA TOP-10 Paytm as the third winner.

BRANDS 2019 Google Jio Paytm Facebook Amazon Samsung Microsoft Airtel Flipkart iPhone

Also, Bharti Airtel, one of the chief competitors of Reliance Jio in India, stood at eighth position. All of the top ten spot grabbers on the list belong to technology category, with the likes of Paytm, Samsung, and Amazon included, 2019 survey by Ipsos said.

Speaking on homegrown brands, Vivek Gupta, Managing Director (Business Head, Mumbai), Ipsos India, said that it is difficult for local brands to obtain and retain a top 10 ranking. “Jio, a homegrown brand has shown SEASONAL MAGAZINE

resilience and has moved up a notch in the ranking. While brand relevance is important, it is difficult to hold on – influence is hard to get and easy to lose,” Vivek Gupta added.

Following it is Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce behemoth Amazon. Also, “The top 5 spots in the survey have been taken by a mix of global brands as well as local (native) brands - homegrown mobile service provider to handset marketer, Jio, and the digital wallet to e-commerce company PayTM,” Ipsos survey said.

Four out of ten popular brands are homegrown - Reliance Jio, Airtel, Paytm and Flipkart. Flipkart, which overshone Apple iPhone, grabbed the ninth spot. Apple’s iPhone was also outranked by South Korean mobile and tech giant Samsung which was on the sixth spot on the Ipsos survey. Bill Gates’ Microsoft was spotted at seventh position.

ANDHRA TO HAVE 5 DEPUTY CMS FROM SC, ST, OTHER MINORITY CASTES Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS? Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday decided to appoint five Deputy Chief Ministers under him, one each from SC, ST, BC, minority and Kapu communities. Reddy announced his plans at a legislature party meeting. He said the Cabinet would be reconstituted two and a half years later after a mid-term review of the government's performance.

AMAZON'S NEW ROBOTS CAN AUTOMATICALLY SORT DELIVERY PACKAGES

Amazon unveiled two robots, called Pegasus and Xanthus, which are designed to speed up the automatic sorting and movement of delivery packages in its warehouses. Xanthus is a redesign of Amazon's primary robots, which have been core to its strategy since it acquired Kiva Systems in 2012. Pegasus has been specifically designed for individual packages, Amazon revealed.

AFTER NAMES FOR MARS, NASA ASKS PEOPLE FOR MUSIC FOR MOON JOURNEY

NASA has asked people to suggest songs to add to the playlist of astronauts of its planned 2024 Moon mission. "Just like any road trip needs a soundtrack, so does a spaceflight," NASA said on the non-stop journey of approximately 3 days each way. NASA had earlier also asked people to give names that will fly to Mars in 2020.

WELFARE

Will Kejriwal's Free Travel Plan For Delhi Women Work? THE PROPOSED FREE TRAVEL FOR WOMEN IN DELHI BUSES AND METRO IS FOR ENSURING THEIR SAFETY, SAYS ARVIND KEJRIWAL. DETRACTORS SAY IT IS FOR HIS OWN GOVERNMENT'S SAFETY.

oman in Delhi can soon travel free on public transport, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced recently, days after his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was wiped out in all seven Lok Sabha seats in the recent national election. The move, which is yet to be cleared by the centre, will be launched in three months, said Kejriwal, adding that it would cost the Delhi government Rs. 700 crore this year. On whether he needed to run the plan by the Centre, given Delhi's partial statehood status, he replied in the negative. Officers have been given a week to prepare a detailed report after which a proposal will be brought in the cabinet, he said. The Delhi Metro is partly run by the central government. "Those who want to buy tickets are free to do so, they need not take the subsidy. Several women can afford these modes of transport. Those who can afford it, can buy tickets and forgo subsidy so others could benefit," he explained. The Delhi Chief Minister said his government would bear the cost of free rides for women on the Delhi Metro and public buses. "Delhi is the only government that is honest and is spending your money on facilities and is still running on profit," Kejriwal said. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

ANOTHER REASON WHY WE NEED SUNSHINE SPENDING TIME IN SUNSHINE MAY DECREASE RISK OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE. It turns out, spending an hour a day outside in the sun reduces children's risk of inflammatory bowel disease. More than 800,000 people live with the two life-long disorders which make up IBD - Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis. "Taking children to play outside in the sun could be life-changing. It doesn't have to be all at the same time," researchers said.

"Right now our concern is the safety of women. There are questions regarding the metro, but we will let you know how the proposal evolves at every step," he added. Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi government will also focus on women's security in public transport. Taking another populist step, the AAP chief also said his government was in touch with the city's power regulator to bring down the fixed charge component of electricity bills. On Twitter, many shared their doubts about the Delhi government plan. "Metro is from certain point to another point - we have to take auto / bus in the night to reach home," a user pointed out, questioning the logic of free Metro travel. An AAP leader replied: "It incentivises women who cannot afford to take the Metro to start using it, which is a safer option for them than using ride sharing, autos, and private buses at night." Mr Kejriwal's AAP, which has been ruling Delhi since 2015, was badly jolted by the national election result in which it failed to win even one of the seven Lok Sabha seats. The BJP retained all the seats, a sign that AAP may be in trouble as Delhi goes for assembly polls next year. AAP was number three in four of the seats and placed behind the Congress, an alarming decline for a party that swept the last assembly polls with 67 of 70 seats.

They found children who were outside and exposed to the sun for an extra half hour a day in total, had a lower risk of developing IBD by almost 20 per cent, said lead researcher of the study Robyn Lucas, from the ANU College of Health and Medicine. The team of researchers found even short periods of sun exposure were associated with a lower risk of children developing IBD. The findings were published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. They found every 10 minutes of sun exposure was associated with a lower risk of developing inflammatory bowel

disease by six per cent.

FOREIGN TRADE

INDIA'S DISAPPOINTING RESPONSE TO REMOVAL OF TRADE PRIVILEGES BY USA INDIA IS TRYING TO PLAY DOWN THE AMERICAN DECISION TO REMOVE US TRADE PRIVILEGES, BUT WITH NO EFFECT.

It added: “We are confident that the two nations will continue to work together intensively for further growing these ties in a mutually beneficial manner.” An earlier version of the statement had used the words “it is hoped” rather than “we are confident” but was subsequently withdrawn and replaced.

Narendra Modi

he Indian government said recently it will continue to seek to build strong economic ties with the US despite a decision by President Donald Trump to end preferential trade treatment for India from June 5. In a relatively tame response to the announcement from Washington on Friday, the Indian government said it was “unfortunate” that its attempts to resolve significant US requests had not been accepted. Indian officials had previously raised the prospect of higher import duties on more than 20 US goods if Trump dropped India from the program but there was no mention of that in the response.

“India, like the US and other nations shall always uphold its national interest in these matters,” the Indian government said in a statement issued through India’s trade ministry. The privileges come under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which had been allowing preferential duty-free imports of up to $5.6 billion a year into the US from the South Asian nation. India is the biggest beneficiary of the GSP program. The Indian government said that India viewed the issue as part of its ongoing economic relationship with the US and “will continue to build on our strong ties with the US, both economic and peopleto-people.”

The US had put on hold a decision to withdraw the GSP benefits to India until May 23, the day the results of the country’s 39-day general election that began April 11 were announced. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi only took the oath office recently and has named Piyush Goyal his new commerce and industry minister – the official who will handle trade matters. New Delhi was making efforts to avoid withdrawal of the GSP benefits over the past few months, a senior government official said, adding that the US move was sudden and without communication. Washington has been particularly irritated by India’s tightening of regulations that have undermined major US companies but favored domestic entities in the past year. In particular, tighter e-commerce rules that came in earlier this year hurt Amazon.com and Walmart, which last year bought Indian online retailer Flipkart for $16 billion. Trump, who had first announced his intention to take away the privileges in early March, said in a statement recently that New Delhi “has not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets”. Twenty-four members of the US Congress sent the administration a letter on May 3 urging it not to terminate India’s access to the GSP.

Piyush Goyal

Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

A spokesman for India’s opposition Congress party, which took a drubbing in the general election, said the US move has “grave trade and economic implications” for India and demanded Modi issue a comprehensive statement addressing the problem. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

SAFETY

BILL GATES, UBER CEO BACK AI CHIP STARTUP LUMINOUS COMPUTING

US-based AI chip startup Luminous Computing has raised $9 million in a seed round of funding led by Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates. The round saw participation from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Uber Co-founder Travis Kalanick's fund 10100, among others. Luminous is aiming to create AI chips which use light to move a dense amount of data quickly and efficiently.

BOEING FINDS NEW ISSUES WITH TROUBLED 737 MAX & 737 FAMILY

Boeing has said some 737 Max aircraft may have faulty parts on their wings. The troubled plane maker has sent out a service bulletin and the FAA will issue an airworthiness directive requiring airlines to inspect and repair its slat track assemblies within 10 days. lanemaker Boeing has said some of its 737 planes, including many 737 Max aircraft, may have faulty parts on their wings.

It's the latest problem Boeing faces as it tries to get its most important and popular airplane, the grounded 737 Max, back in the air. Working with the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing said it has reached out to airlines that fly 737 planes, advising them to inspect their slat track assemblies on Max and NG aircraft. The 737 NG series includes the 737-600, -700, -800 and -900 planes. Leading edge slats are an aerodynamic control surface that extend from the front of the wing. Some tracks may not meet manufacturing standards and may need to be replaced, Boeing and the FAA said. They said if the parts are found to be defective, airlines should replace them before returning the planes to service. The faulty parts could fail prematurely or crack. The FAA said a part failure would not bring down a plane, but it could damage an aircraft while in flight. Boeing has sent out a service bulletin and the FAA will issue an airworthiness directive requiring airlines to inspect and repair its slat track assemblies within 10 days. The company discovered the problem recently, when Boeing was meeting with the parts supplier. Boeing SEASONAL MAGAZINE

employees noticed some of the parts were not heat treated, which led them to believe there might be a safety issue. The development comes as Boeing seeks to get the 737 Max back in the air. The plane was grounded worldwide after a fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet in March, which followed a fatal crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia in October. Crash investigators have focused on an automatic safety feature on the jet as a possible contributor to the crashes. The newly-discovered issue affects 148 slat tracks produced by a single supplier, Boeing said. The company said it believes 20 737 Max and 21 737 NG planes may have defective slat tracks. But the FAA advised airlines to check an additional 179 Max planes and 133 NGs to determine if there parts are also faulty. Of the group that needs to be inspected, 33 Max and 32 NG planes are in the United States. The company and the FAA said it has not been notified of any incidents related to the tracks on operating flights, and the fix should take a couple days to complete. "We are committed to supporting our customers in every way possible as they identify and replace these potentially non-conforming tracks," said Kevin McAllister, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in a statement.

AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST TROLLS RAVI SHASTRI OVER PIC WITH TWO WOMEN

Australian journalist Dennis Freedman trolled Team India head coach Ravi Shastri over his picture with two women. Freedman shared the picture on social media with the caption, "India's World Cup preparations appear to be going well." Reacting to it, a user wrote, "Probably that is why they are not attending official press conferences."

SINCE SALAH JOINED LIVERPOOL, HATE CRIMES IN AREA DROPPED 19%: STUDY

Hate crimes in Merseyside county, which is home to Liverpool Football Club have decreased by 19% since Mohamed Salah joined the club, as per a study by Stanford University. Further, the study found that Liverpool fans halved their rate of posting anti-Muslim tweets since the Egyptian's joining. These results may be driven by increased familiarity with Islam, the study noted.

CHINA DOESN'T WANT TO REPLACE AMERICA AS "BOSS OF WORLD"

EARTH RECYCLES OCEAN FLOOR INTO DIAMONDS, FINDS STUDY

Australia's Macquarie University researchers-led study revealed salt traces trapped in many diamonds show they are formed from ancient seabeds that got recycled after being buried deep beneath Earth's crust. Researchers carried out experiments at extreme pressures and temperatures found 200 km underground. At 120-180 km depth, results showed salt balance similar to that found in natural diamonds.

"CHINA HAS NO INTENTION, NO POWER, TO BE THE BOSS OF THIS WORLD, AND AGAINST THE UNITED STATES TO FIGHT FOR THIS STATUS," DEFENSE MINISTER WEI FENGHE SAID AS TRADE FRICTION GROWS BETWEEN THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ECONOMIES. hina doesn't seek to surpass the U.S. as the globe's dominant power but is prepared to "fight to the end" if needed, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said, as trade friction grows between the world's biggest economies. "China has no intention, no power, to be the boss of this world, and against the United States to fight for this status," Wei said recently at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major regional security conference. "Confrontation, including between China and the United States, is inconsistent with the interests of the two countries' peoples and is not in the interest of the people of the world." Wei added at the event in Singapore that China still wants to resolve escalating tensions through dialogue, but it won't be bullied. "If the U.S. wants to talk, we will keep the door open," Wei said. "If they want to fight, we will fight to the end."

On Huawei: "Huawei is a private company. China is opposed to the attempt of other countries to impose sanctions on private companies. Huawei is not a military company."

On Xinjiang: "The policy in China's Xinjiang is absolutely right because over the past more than two years, there is no single terrorist attack in Xinjiang and the living standards of the local people have improved."

TILES WITH GANDHIJI'S PICS FOUND IN SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN TOILETS An official of Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr administration has been suspended after tiles bearing Mahatma Gandhi's pictures and Ashok Chakra symbols were found installed in 13 out of the over 500 toilets built under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Icchawari village. The tiles were brought to the administration's notice by villagers on Monday. They were allegedly installed a week ago.

On South China Sea: "First, who on earth is threatening security and stability in the South China Sea? Over 100,000 ships sail through the South China Sea each year. None has been threatened. The problem, however, is that in recent years some countries outside the region come to the South China Sea to flex muscles, in the name of freedom of navigation."

A day earlier, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told the same gathering that the U.S. and China would eventually resolve their differences, downplaying the significance of escalating trade tensions even as he ripped Beijing's leaders for behavior that "sows distrust" in Asia.

On Taiwan:

The trade conflict between the U.S. and China took a dramatic turn for the worse in May when President Donald Trump hiked tariffs after accusing Beijing of reneging on commitments in negotiations. Here are some key comments from Wei's speech and Q&A session:

"This is a political storm and a political unrest. The central government took decisive measures, and the military took measures to stop it and calm the turmoil. This is the right way. It is the reason of the stability of the country has been maintained."

"If anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese military has no choice but to fight at all costs for national unity. No attempt to split China will succeed."

On Tiananmen:

MAN FINDS INSECT IN MCD BURGER, GETS RS 70,000 COMPENSATION 5 YRS LATER

The Delhi consumer redressal commission has asked McDonald's to pay a Delhi man Rs 70,000 within 60 days for finding an insect inside a burger. The incident took place in July 2014 when he went to the McDonald's outlet in GIP Mall in Noida. After he took a bite, he found an insect in his McAloo Tikki burger and began vomiting.

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INTERNATIONAL

Donald Trump

TRUMP ADVISES BRITAIN ON HOW HE WOULD SOLVE BREXIT DONALD TRUMP HAS URGED BRITAIN TO GO FOR A NO-DEAL BREXIT FROM EUROPEAN UNION, SAYING THAT HE WOULD HAVE DONE IT THAT WAY.

hoever takes over as Britain’s next Prime Minister should not be afraid to “walk away” from negotiations with Brussels and should refuse to pay the agreed divorce bill. The intervention comes after Trump declared that former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would be an “excellent” replacement for Theresa May. Britain had rolled out the red carpet for the President's second visit, which started with a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth II and a state banquet at Buckingham Palace. But large protests are also planned over what London Mayor Sadiq Khan described as Mr. Trump’s “divisive behaviour”, while Opposition politicians are boycotting the banquet. Trump shocked May with outspoken remarks on Brexit during his first visit to Britain in 2018. And now, he again urged the next government to follow his own negotiating rule book. "If you don’t get the deal you want, if you don’t get a fair deal, then you walk away,” he said. May has already agreed to pay £39 billion (•45 billion, $50 billion) to cover Britain’s liabilities as it moves to sever four decades of EU membership. But Trump said: “If I were them I wouldn’t pay $50 billion. That is me. I Boris Johnson

to 48% to leave the EU in 2016, the government and lawmakers are still wrangling over the issue.

Theresa May

would not pay, that is a tremendous number.” May agreed a divorce agreement with Brussels in November 2018, but British MPs have rejected it three times and she has had to delay Brexit twice. She has now been forced out and her Conservative party is beginning the process of finding a new leader, with 13 candidates already declared. Johnson, one of the frontrunners, is among several to say Britain should leave the EU on October 31 with or without a deal. They are under pressure from the Brexit party, the latest political vehicle of antiEU populist leader Nigel Farage, which came top in European Parliament elections last month. Trump said he believed Farage should play a role in negotiating Brexit with the European Union, saying he had a “lot to offer”. Three years after Britons voted by 52% Nigel Farage

Brexit day was originally set for March 29. But May delayed it twice to avoid a damaging “no deal” exit, under which Britain would separate from its closest trading partner with no new arrangements in place. Her own Conservative MPs had blocked the deal because they feared it would leave Britain too closely tied to the EU. Many candidates to replace her want to renegotiate the text on EU withdrawal, although the EU has explicitly ruled that out. If they cannot, several say Britain must leave anyway. However, one frontrunner, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, was reported recently to be ready to delay Brexit again to avoid a “no deal” scenario. Meanwhile voters across the country are divided. Although Farage won the most votes in European elections, the Liberal Democrats, who want a new referendum to reverse Brexit, came second. Britain’s future trading relationship with the United States will be crucial to its post-Brexit success and was discussed during Trump’s talks with May at Downing Street this week. But some Britons fear Britain would be steamrolled by the far bigger US into accepting an unbalanced accord, especially given Trump’s “America First” stance in shaking up trade ties with Mexico, Canada, Japan and China. U.S. Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson told recently that Washington was already preparing the way for a trade deal and it would be done “as expeditiously as any agreement we’ve ever had”. He said he would expect Britain to be open to US agricultural products, and when asked about access of US firms to Britain’s cherished staterun health service, said “all things that are traded would be on the table”.

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NATION

ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES FACING INDIA IN MODI 2.0 SEASONAL MAGAZINE

India is the third largest GDP in the world next only to China and USA. We are the second fastest growing large economy in the world. India’s consumer market is second only to China. And unlike China, we are a proven democracy earning the trust of the world. Narendra Modi’s second term will get to capitalize on all these inherent strengths of India. However, Modi’s second stint has enough challenges too to address. Indians continue to suffer from low per capita productivity, income, wealth & Human Development Index (HDI). Recent figures show that our jobs growth has been uninspiring, while GDP growth has hit a a 5-year low. Also, India's income inequality between its rich and poor has been rising alarmingly. And solutions are tough to come by as we still lack mega scale planning and strategies to manufacture for the whole world. Seasonal Magazine takes an in-depth look at these advantages and challenges that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues need to be working upon.

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5 ADVANTAGES & 5 CHALLENGES FACING INDIA IN MODI 2.0

WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S 3RD LARGEST GDP ndia produces the third largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) behind, China and United States. With $10.5 trillion as our GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), we are only behind world leader China with $25.3 trillion and USA with $20.5 trillion. Just thirty years back, this was an unimaginable goal. The economic liberalization program unleashed by then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is to be credited with this achievement, even though it came at least three decades late. Also to be credited are almost all the Prime Ministers since then, notably Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr. Singh himself and Narendra Modi, and their finance ministers like Yeshwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, and Arun Jaitley, who ensured that there was continuity in

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economic reforms. This is not a simple achievement by any measure. India has overtaken economic powerhouses like Japan, United Kingdom, France, Germany and South Korea, while it has distanced itself fast from all its BRICS peers, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, with only China remaining far ahead of us. Today, due to the huge size of the Indian economy, India is taken seriously by large trading partners, foreign institutional investors, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, global consumer companies and brands. The best global services, products, innovations and technologies arrive faster in India due to this, and India has also come to hold good bargaining power in international trade and climate negotiations. But the greatest advantage has been on the poverty alleviation front, with millions getting lifted from poverty into the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s burgeoning middleclass.

WORLD’S 2ND FASTEST GROWING LARGE ECONOMY ndia’s economic sprint during the past three decades was due to its fastest growing status during the early half of this period. But with the rising base has come the inevitable slowing of growth, but it goes to India’s credit that we are still the fastest growing large economy. Well, it was so until this past quarter of JanuaryMarch when China again overtook India to become the world’s fastest growing large economy. While China’s achievement is commendable even when it is deep inside one of its largest trade wars with United States, it does not belittle India’s achievement too in this regard. This is an achievement that opens the doors to the inbound flow of international capital into our country. This is because the world’s largest investors like public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and the largest institutional investors like massive mutual funds and private equity funds are not just looking for growth, but massive opportunities to invest in as their kinds of huge funds can only be invested in massive infrastructure projects and large-scale companies with the

biggest market capitalizations. Countries like China and India offer this unique opportunity and that is why such capital is rushing to India from such funds from USA, Japan, Europe, Singapore and elsewhere. And this is not only into equity but into debt, and the low cost nature of this debt ensures that the largest Indian companies and public sector projects have today access to international lending support. Even if India is unable to regain back the status of being the ‘fastest growing large economy’, a close second position is not bad, especially given the global wariness regarding China’s autocratic potential.

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5 ADVANTAGES & 5 CHALLENGES FACING INDIA IN MODI 2.0

HUGE CONSUMER MARKET ue to the sheer size of our population and our fast economic growth, each year millions are acquiring purchasing power in this country. This power ranges from simple branded food & toiletry products that most Indians can afford, to scooters & smartphones many can afford, to luxuries like cars & air-conditioners that only less than 10-25% of Indians can afford. But due to our huge population, even this 25% is a huge figure and thus India is one of the largest consumer markets for all kinds of goods and services. For instance, this 25% is greater than the entire population of USA! Traditionally, the companies which understood and capitalized on this opportunity were all multinational corporations like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and the like. Since then, most Indian companies have awakened to this opportunity of our huge consumer market, including even traditional domestic industrial giants like Reliance, as can be seen from their Jio venture. Jio proves that Indian

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market is enough for justifying a new massive company. Also, a huge consumer market ensures that government can spur economic growth by increasing demand by various measures including cutting tax rates without affecting tax revenue as the increased volumes automatically compensate. But in reality, India is yet to capitalize fully on the huge size of our own consumer market. So far only the low-hanging fruits have been plucked by companies. The remaining potential is especially evident in extrapolations like into Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public transport. For example, most Indian cities deserve to have metro rail systems, from which much growth can occur, if any private or public company or a consortium can manufacture the huge number of metro coaches required with the participation of a technology partner. Same goes with airlines, if any Indian company can do an Embraer like in Brazil, manufacturing lighter airplanes that can connect every Indian city by low cost flights.

LARGEST DEMOCRACY ll nations can make mistakes and democratic nations too can make them. But one distinct advantage with democracies is that mistakes tend to get corrected sooner rather than later. Today, Trump is following a radically protectionist policy that many in US approve and many disapprove. While some say it is good for US economy, others swear by the opposite. The evidence for either is mixed as of now. But, the coming quarters and years are going to prove whether this is right or wrong, and based on that US voters are going to decide soon whether they should continue with Trump or elect someone else. Unfortunately, no such power vests with the people of Venezuela or North Korea or Syria, and

the unfortunate results of their autocratic rule are for everyone else to see. Such a thing will never happen in India, like it will never happen in USA. The case of China is often said as an exception to the virtues of autocratic rule, but which on close inspection proves false. Even while being a theoretical autocracy, the Chinese communist party has not only embraced free market economy like democracies and has furthered inparty democracy and elections, as well as cracked up hard on the highest levels of corruptions much like democratic nations. Today, China is giving a run for money for all democratic nations in social welfare. This has happened because Chinese communist party has valued democratic principles, and not because it has shunned democracy more and more. China has come a long way from Tiananmen square, and this distance travelled in in-party democracy and social welfare is what has helped the party in controlling power largely peacefully. Still, the global perception on China is that of an autocratic nation, which even if partially untrue, is advantageous for India as we can always capitalize on our vibrant democracy and resultant fair judicial review for corporate investments.

REGIONAL INFLUENCE THROUGH BIMSTEC ndia’s biggest leverage in Prime Minister Modi’s second term would be the revival of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) regional grouping as a viable alternative to the directionless SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) initiative. Although originally envisioned to aid India’s Look East policy and promote connectivity and cooperation in trade, the clear absence of Pakistan provides India with the necessary wherewithal to stamp its influence in the extended neighbourhood. While SAARC was impeded by policy incoherence and lack of political willingness primarily owing to India-Pakistan bilateral issues, BIMSTEC would enable India to resume its diplomatic and strategic imperatives in the larger Indo-Pacific context. With the recent appointment of Dr. S Jaishankar as the Minister for External Affairs, a seasoned diplomat credited with the astute handling of the Doklam crisis involving China, India would aim to steer its regional ambitions in the sphere of trade and investment, energy, technology, counter-terrorism etc. Given how the goals have mutual benefits – BIMSTEC would boost Thailand’s Look West policy while smaller member states will benefit from access to India’s open markets – considerable investment and attention can reap benefits for its members especially India who can hedge against Chinese BRI initiatives. However, there is much work to be done to impart both financial and strategic value to a regional grouping that India has so far considered merely as a “rebound relationship” to the failed SAARC. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

5 ADVANTAGES & 5 CHALLENGES FACING INDIA IN MODI 2.0

LOW PRODUCTIVITY, INCOME & HDI he greatest Indian challenge is that despite our huge GDP size which is third in the world, we are still a very poor nation by way of productivity, income & wealth. And compounding our poverty challenge is our rising income inequality. Per capita productivity is measured by GDP per capita, which is basically the GDP divided by the population. In GDP Per Capita terms, India, the 3rd largest GDP in the world, falls deeply to an abysmal 119th position! In contrast, ‘comparable’ economies China and USA stand at 73rd position and at 10th position, respectively. Against India’s modest GDP Per Capita of just 7874 dollars, China stands at a handsome 18,110 dollars and USA at a whopping 62,606 dollars! In other words the average Indian’s annual productivity in economic terms is multi-times lower than US or Chinese citizens. But our citizens are not to be blamed as when these same citizens work in USA or Europe, they are as economically productive as the natives there. So, what is to be blamed is our ineffective economic policies that still haven’t boosted the economic value of our goods and services. The biggest component of this is, of course, that only

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a minisclue percentage of our goods and services are for the developed world that offers better prices. This inferior productivity has resulted in inferior income and inferior wealth levels for Indians. By median personal wealth, India is ranked at a troubling 126th position in the world. Median wealth refers to that dividing wealth level where 50% of the population are above it and 50% below it. India’s median wealth is just 1289 dollars, or 90,000 rupees. Mind you, not income, but total wealth of a lifetime! Which means, over 50% of our population has a total lifetime wealth of not even 1 lakh rupees. As a country with high income inequality, our mean or average wealth (total wealth divided by total population) is better, but still only 7024 dollars or 4,87,500 rupees! That is after including the wealth of all our numerous billionaires and countless millionaires. It is no wonder then that we trail all comparable economies in the vital metric of Human Development Index, where we are at the 130th position among all nations, trailed by only the poorest underdeveloped nations of Africa and Asia. In contrast, comparable GDP leaders, China ranks at 86th position and USA is far ahead at 13th position, in HDI.

LACK OF JOBS GROWTH fter a lot of delays and controversies, India’s Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation has produced its latest jobs report for the financial year FY’18 which puts unemployment level at 6.1% which is at a 45-year high. While finance ministry officials are justifying this figure as due to a new methodology that the government adopted in assessing unemployment, it will be months before experts arrive at the most fair assessment of the prevailing jobs situation. Government’s contention is that the decades-high figure is due to switching from the assessment metric of household expenditure to the new metric of education levels, the moot question is why would a government switch to a potentially catastrophic metric in an election year. Even if what the government says is partially true, the feedback from multiple industry bodies as well as higher education institutions especially engineering colleges point out that industrial hiring is not growing substantially if not dipping. Engineering colleges have been closing down across India due to the job market growth being lackluster and colleges being unable to find placement opportunities for students. Moreover, low credit offtake by corporates and slowing corporate growth in recent quarters also hint that there is a jobs crisis in the market. Lastly,

GDP figures that came in recently point out that growth is at just 5.8% in the last quarter, which is a 5-year low. Even if the jobs growth is not as worse as Statistics Ministry’s figures point out, India has systemic jobs issues to sort out. For instance, over 90% of Indians are still employed by informal sectors resulting in virtually no social security for most Indians. It is high time that India moved from incentivizing investments into incentivizing jobs creation. Also to be addressed is the income inequality between the rich and the poor which is widening in India, since the last many years now. The richest 1% of Indians own 58.4% of the country’s wealth, whereas the richest 10% owns 80.7% of the total wealth of India! In disturbing contrast, the bottom half or 50% of the Indian population – mind you, not the bottom 1% or 10% owns merely 2.1% of the country’s wealth. Whichever government has ruled India, the rich have been getting richer and the poor either stagnating or getting better at snail’s pace if at all. India’s income inequality is all the more disturbing, as despite having more billionaires and millionaires even rich countries like US, UK, Japan and even China fare much better in distributing wealth between the rich and poor much more reasonably.

LACK OF MEGA PLANNING hile PV Narasimha Rao was India’s Prime Minister, Singapore’s legendary leader Lee Kuan Yew visited our country for a state visit. On a press interaction back then in the 90s, Lee articulated perfectly on what ails our country. India is planning its projects for a future that is 20 years ahead, whereas countries like Singapore is planning for a future that is at least 100 years ahead. Sadly, Indians heard it and appreciated it, but did nothing to address this issue, whereas the Chinese implemented exactly the same strategy during approximately the same time period. Even today, even under a most ambitious Prime Minister like Narendra Modi, who has been greatly inspired by China after his visits there as Chief Minister of Gujarat, India is yet to plan on a mega scale. Maybe we have started doing it, but the chasm is still widening between China and India because China has literally gone over its roof in large scale planning by implementing awesome international projects like

the Belt & Road Initiative. India needs several new mega infrastructure projects in industries, urban planning, multi modal transport, housing and education. For instance, what really needs to be done is creation of new mega cities on idle non-agricultural land, which would require a level of planning that has simply not been done in India ever, and most probably not anywhere else in the world too, except in China. It would require deep and integrated knowledge of economics, business, urban planning and sustainability.

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5 ADVANTAGES & 5 CHALLENGES FACING INDIA IN MODI 2.0

FAILURE TO MAKE FOR WORLD ne of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s thrust areas during his first term was the ‘Make in India’ initiative, aimed at boosting Indian manufacturing sector. While the success of this program is widely disputed between ruling and opposition parties, what needs to be realized is that we need is much more than ‘Make in India’. What we really need is ‘Make for World’, because there are practically no economic models that have prospered sustainably without addressing the whole world market. US growth was based on it, Japanese growth was based on it, Korean growth was based on it, and since the last two decades, Chinese supremacy is solely based on this model. If our economy is to improve, our companies need to address a much wider market which is in fact available across the world. Interestingly, the ongoing trade wars between US and China, US and India and the protectionist policies followed by UK and other developed countries offer a clean slate for a fresh start in export oriented production for late starters like India. This is because, economics and commonsense will ultimately call an end to all trade wars and when trade quotas and tariffs will be dynamically renegotiated, Indian companies will be having a more level playing ground internationally, that is, only if they are interested in it. But it is up to the government to incentivize and facilitate this move as ultimately only this will solve India’s jobs crisis as well as income, wealth and HDI challenges too. Here too, a lesson from the Chinese government will come in handy. There was a time when Chinese products had only one claim to fame – low cost. And one big claim to notoriety – poorest quality. When this blew up into a crisis around 10 years back, China made a radical move. It mandated that Chinese products should be known for their superb quality and it enforced this policy by fining cheap products and incentivizing high quality brands. The result is for everyone else to see – companies like Xiaomi, OnePlus & Oppo that are creating the high quality smartphones at one-tenth of inflated Western brands like iPhone. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

MANAGING SUPERPOWER RELATIONS s far as India’s bargaining position is concerned, much will rest on whether India can maintain its strategic autonomy with respect to relations with the West and China. As the US has withdrawn India’s GSP status and threatens to slap the CAATSA sanctions if Russia’s S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile system is preferred over its own THAAD system, the task before India’s foreign policy establishment cannot be understated. Add to this, India has also been threatened with punitive action if it continues to import oil from Iran, with who the superpower is at the cusp of a military confrontation. Many analysts have pointed out that given US President Donald Trump’s transactional nature of conducting foreign policy it is imperative that India play by similar rules of the game. However, a more nuanced assessment of India’s response to US threats should

make it amply clear that the way forward is to utilize India’s diplomatic heft and manage relations with both US and China without antagonizing either party. While the Quad initiative to counter Chinese maneuvers in the Indo-Pacific has not projected its potential yet, India would be wise to throw caution to the wind and engage with China on the basis of existing power differentials. India’s response to the US-China trade war should be to find mutually beneficial issues where it must seek to offer what the other side cannot provide. It would not be in India’s interest to carry out the US’ attempts to unsettle China in the Indo-Pacific. Instead, India must leverage its ties with internal stakeholders in U.S Congress such as the India Caucus in the House and Senate to lobby the President to offer concessions on Iranian oil imports and other priority issues.

DEBATE

MINISTER SIDHU'S BEFITTING REPLY TO CM AMARINDER

We also tapped our own revenue sources. In Ludhiana, for instance, just 90,000 house owners paid property tax. Through satellite mapping, we have found the figure to be 4.2 lakh. Our new advertisement policy has fetched Rs 34 crore from Ludhiana alone while the previous government mopped up Rs 17 crore from pan Punjab. Our revenue will cross Rs 200 crore annually from ads alone,” Sidhu says. The dossier shows the local bodies department that survived on annual value added tax (VAT) of Rs 1,600 crore from the state exchequer is now flush with funds and development projects worth Rs 10,000 crore are in the pipeline. It shows that water supply and sewerage projects worth Rs 2,397 crore have been tendered or in the process of being tendered out for 16 cities and towns, under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme against Rs 817 crore on March 31, 2017, when the Congress came to power."

lush with funds, Sidhu’s department puts out report card for Capt Amarinder Singh. The simmering Amarinder- Sidhu tussle had escalated soon after the results of Lok sabha elections after the Congress won eight of 13 seats in state. The CM had hinted that he would seek a change in Sidhu’s portfolio from the party high command, blaming the minister for lack of development in urban areas. To counter Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s tag of “nonperforming” minister, state local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has prepared a comprehensive report card showcasing how he captained a “rudderless ship” to a self-sustaining department. It also lists achievements of the last two years and vision for coming three years. Apparently isolated in the cabinet after several Amarinder loyalists chided him for his subtle jibes at chief minister, Sidhu got support of a section of Punjabi NRIs recently. In a statement, Sydney-based NRI World

Organisation said Punjabis worldwide will protest any move by the Congress high command to change his portfolio. Its convener Amarjit Tanda said Sidhu was being targeted “unfairly” over his performance and credited him for making the Kartarpur corridor a reality. He also demanded that other ministers also come out with their report cards. But Sidhu says he will speak only on work of his department and not of other ministers. “My department is self sufficient now. In first six months of taking over, we stalled all old projects with irregularities and began afresh. The previous SADBJP regime was not putting state’s share to avail funds under." "We started leveraging central funds.

THE SIMMERING AMARINDERSIDHU TUSSLE HAD ESCALATED SOON AFTER THE RESULTS OF LOK SABHA ELECTIONS AFTER THE CONGRESS WON EIGHT OF 13 SEATS IN STATE.

Another Rs 4,571 crore is underway for 24-hour water supply in four cities — Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar and CM’s home turf Patiala — which got Rs 699 crore, from both the schemes. Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar are also getting a makeover worth Rs 758 crore under the smart city project while sewerage and treatment plants worth Rs 1,540 crore have been sanctioned for all 117 assembly segments in the state under the loan procured from HUDCO. Another Rs 298 crore has been earmarked under the Punjab Urban Environment Programme. He also countered the allegations that files were not moving in his department. “Only 36 CLUs were cleared in 2016 when Akalis were in power. We cleared 92 CLUs last year and this year, 22 CLUs have been cleared and the figure is likely to reach 100. Punjab topped the list in Swachh Bharat Survey last year in the north zone and finished in the ‘Top 10’ states. All 167 urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state have been declared open defecation-free in March 2019. To fight corruption, 68 services have gone online. Till May, 8,823 applications for online building plan approval have been filed, of which 4,000 have been sanctioned,” he added. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

THE LNM INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, JAIPUR

Excellence Our Motto, Discipline Our Way he LNM Institute of Information Technology, a ‘deemed-to be’ university was established in 2002 with the profound motto of nourishing young talents to path of excellence and integrity. Set up in a sprawling campus in the outskirts of the Jaipur city, this institute firmly believes in cherishing merit and channelizing them to the larger causes of our society. Since its inception, therefore, it has been following the principles of uncompromising scholarship and holistic development of our upcoming generation. Quite significantly, this institute is the first private-public venture in the state of Rajasthan. While the LNMIIT had its humble beginning with the department of Information Technology (Computer Science & Engineering, Communications and Computer Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering), it soon started offering courses on B.Tech, M. Tech and Ph.D. programmes in other areas of engineering and technology. No less, M.Sc and Ph.D. programmes were initiated in departments of Mathematics and Physics. The institute also has a fullfledged Humanities and Social Sciences department that fosters an interdisciplinary academic climate and also committedly strives to enrich the communicative and creative skills of the students. Befitting such an academic flourish, the institute is placed 4th Rank in North Zone among Non-government Technical Universities (The Week Ranking 2019) and 2nd Rank in Rajasthan among Private Engineering

Institutes (Education World Ranking 2019). Keeping in view, the accelerating demand for jobs and engineering talents, LNMIIT offers a favorable atmosphere in which the students have wonderful laboratories to hone their working skills. There are co-branded laboratories from IBM, Microsoft, ARM, Intel Intelligent Systems, MATLAB, SAP and many more. Besides this, the students are also provided with opportunities to have real-life work experiences during their internship

period. Apart from this, the institute library provides access to numerous eresources and online periodicals. The institute aspires to nurture promising young talents, both in assuring them good careers and also building up their individual personalities. There are various committees such as Class Committee (CC), Quality Assurance Research Committee (QARC), Quality Assurance in Teaching Committee (QATC) and Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) – that rigorously work in maintaining the quality of education. Besides having dignified and experienced faculty members from the premier institutes

such as the IITs and NITs, there are ties with MNCs’ like Microsoft and IBM which aid in disseminating corporate training to the students. The institute endeavors wholeheartedly to ensure 100 % employability to its students. The placement statistics reflect that 95% of the students are absorbed by good companies with the highest package going up to 36 lakhs per Annum (as on May 2019). Simultaneously, the institute also encourages students’ engagement in social issues and causes in diverse forms, so that they not only have prospective careers but also emerge as valuable individuals to our country. Overall, the institute thus endorses the technical as well as the critical skills of the students. It facilitates a vibrant environment in which the students learn to enjoy academic freedom, face challenging situations as well as come up with marvelous innovations. No wonder therefore, the alumnus often have their name enlisted as successful entrepreneurs, prospective managers and dedicated academicians. Saket Modi, is one of such glowing alumnus who was nominated by ‘Forbes India in 40 under 40 category’ for his exceptional entrepreneurship and contribution in the field of technology. Similarly, Dr. Hemant Purohit stands out as another illustrious alumnus who is an Assistant Professor in George Mason University, USA. The LNMIIT hopes and looks forward in inspiring many such prospective entrepreneurs and researchers in the coming days who would not only be successful in their domains but would be known across the world for their noble contribution to humanity at large.

IPO

STERLING & WILSON SOLAR's IPO

HOW ATTRACTIVE WILL BE STERLING & WILSON SOLARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S INITIAL PUBLIC OFFER? WITH A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT IN PLACE AND MARKETS BOOMING, LARGE IPOs WILL BE BACK SOON. AS SOLAR POWER EPC PLAYER, STERLING & WILSON SOLAR HAS FILED FOR ITS RS. 4500 CRORE IPO, HERE IS A QUICK LOOK AT HOW ATTRACTIVE IS THE OFFER FOR INVESTORS.

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STRONG PROMOTER GROUP Sterling & Wilson Solar is a company that was demerged from the diversified power sector player, Sterling & Wilson, promoted by Daruvala family and Shapoorji Pallonji, with the latter being one India’s largest conglomerates in the construction sector. As such, Sterling & Wilson enjoys a strong promoter group. Daruvala family led by Khurshed Yazdi Daruvala holds 33.33% stake and manages the firm, while Shapoorji Pallonji Company holds 65.77% stake. The rest 0.90% minority stake is held by various family members and associates including Cyrus Mistry, scion of Shapoorji Pallonji and former Chairman of Tata Sons.

STRONG LEADERSHIP IN SOLAR Sterling & Wilson Solar is India’s largest solar EPC player. As an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, its main focus is on the development of solar farms for power producers, and not on running or producing solar power by itself. It controls between 10-15% of India’s solar EPC sector. It is also a global major in solar EPC sector, being the largest player outside of China. . It has built the largest single-location Solar PV plant in the world in Abu Dhabi and is now building the world’s largest solar installation in Africa. It has presence in over 26 countries across most continents and thus in a strong leadership position.

MIXED BENEFITS FROM IPO

Sterling & Wilson’s upcoming IPO is large by Indian standards at Rs.4500 crore, but being a pure Offer for Sale (OFS), none of this money will be coming in to the company for its expansion directly. Only the two promoters – Khurshed Yazdi Daruvala and Shapoorji Pallonji Company - are selling a part of their existing shares, which makes the IPO money flow to them. This is a dampener as far as funding the expansion plan goes. But if the company can manage to expand by way of other means, a pure OFS has the advantage of eliminating equity dilution. Moreover, the company has disclosed that the two promoters may repay the loans they have taken from the company using part of the IPO proceeds. So, the benefits to the company from the IPO may be a mixed bag.

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MIXED BENEFITS FROM GROWTH Generally, companies tend to go for their IPOs when they are on a strong wicket on the growth front. Sterling & Wilson Solar too is no exception to this pattern, as the company’s revenue from operations in the first nine months of 2018-19 went up by 83% to Rs. 5,915 crore while net profit has jumped 98% to Rs. 343 crore during the same period. While this is seemingly attractive, this may end up in the company commanding hefty valuation in the market, which increases the risk to prospective investors. This is because when growth plateaus down in the coming years, valuations and therefore stock prices may tumble down.

MIXED ORDER BOOK POSITION As of December 2018, Sterling & Wilson Solar had an order book of Rs 4,309 crore, which comprises definitive engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts minus the revenue already recognized from those projects. While the number seems to be attractive compared with many of its peers, it may not be enough to keep up with the current growth rate of the company. This is because for the financial year 2017-18 itself, the company’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 6,871.70 crore, and for the nine-month period of FY2018-19 it was at Rs 5,915 crore, which means the current order book is not enough for even one year of operations.

TROUBLING LITIGATION A recent litigation in court involving Sterling & Wilson Solar has revealed that not everything is gung-ho with the solar power sector, especially in India. The company had dragged Canadian renewable power major, Skypower, to Delhi High Court alleging that it had defaulted on payments to the tune of $65 million for constructing two 50 MW solar power projects in Madhya Pradesh and Telengana respectively. Skypower had won these two projects in 2015, along with five other 50 MW projects, SEASONAL MAGAZINE

all obtained by offering record low tariffs for power to Indian electricity authorities. To construct projects for such audacious offers, Skypower had roped in EPC contractors like Sterling & Wilson Solar which is now claiming that it did the whole work without any advance from Skypower! This doesn’t augur well for the healthiness of the solar sector in India, and this may be the situation in many developing countries across the globe.

MIXED FUTURE PROSPECTS As the country’s leading solar EPC player and as the largest player in the world, outside of China, Sterling & Wilson Solar appears to be on a strong wicket of capitalizing on growth opportunities in India and abroad. The company is

especially strong in its domestic territory as well as in Middle East. However, its global footprint has been increasing steadily and now stands at over 65% of its revenue, which may emerge as a risk, given the ongoing trade war US is waging against China, India and several other nations. The supporting technologies for the solar farms are also evolving rapidly and now include robotised cleaning of the panels, suntracking farms, floating farms and containerised storage solutions. It is highly likely that emergence of such innovative technologies will also see the emergence of innovative companies, either new start-ups or divisions funded by large conglomerates. Already, some of the biggest Indian conglomerates including Tata, Mahindra and L&T have sizeable operations in the solar EPC sector.

AS CHENNAI WATER CRISIS WORSENS, RESIDENTS SHIFT HOMES Bengaluru set to witness the same by next year.

s the reservoirs supplying water to Chennai nearly go empty, the city residents have started to move out of the city or shifting to other locations hoping to get better water supply.

A PLAN TO REPLACE FEE SUBSIDIES IN IITS WITH DONOR FUNDS?

GOVERNMENT MAY SCRAP FEE SUBSIDY IN IITS, AND ASK FOR DONATIONS TO SPONSOR STUDENTS SAYS A REPORT. ‘EACH ONE, TEACH ONE’ IS SAID TO BE A PLANNED NATIONWIDE MOVEMENT WHICH URGES EACH FAMILY TO HELP AT LEAST ONE STUDENT.

he Centre may scrap fee subsidy in top educational institutions like IITs and enable a direct transfer to eligible students. The government is also planning to set up a national crowd-funding platform to help students and colleges raise funds. One of the programs the government is evaluating for this feat is “Each One, Teach One”, a nationwide movement which urges each family to help at least one student. Donations via this project will be facilitated through a national digital platform to connect interested people with students and institutions. It aims to raise Rs 25,000 crore to support over 10 lakh students. Ten expert groups from the Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry's Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP) have recommended these projects. At the helm of these groups were people like former revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Rediff founder Ajit Balakrishnan and former Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan. EQUIP was designed to improve higher education institutions in India. It already has the approval from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and may be taken up by the Cabinet within the first 100 days of the government.

The failed monsoon in 2018 and insufficient rainfall in 2017 have led to depletion of ground water thereby causing severe water crisis in the city. The state government declared nearly 17 districts including Chennai and Kancheepuram as droughthit earlier this month. According to newspaper reports, these two districts reported insufficient rains between 19 percent and 59 percent last year. A city resident said he moved to KK Nagar hoping to get steady supply of water. "We were getting water for just three hours a day. We couldn't handle it because we would sometimes not be at the homes," the report quoted 50-yearold Ashok Kumar. The four reservoirs supplying water to the city have nearly gone empty. Chennai resident K Gopal left the city for a relative home in Kerala to evade water crisis. But he was again back to the city facing the crisis. As the temperature rises across the country, Bengaluru also faces similar water crisis. According to reports, groundwater in Bengaluru will not be available by the year 2020. As the locals of Bengaluru are struggling to fight the dry spell, the administration seems to be inefficient in managing the water crisis. According to activists, the government needs to come up with a strong water policy. Once known as the Garden City of India, Bengaluru is now struggling to provide water to its residents. TV Ramachandra, a professor at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), told that there is no way one can reach the groundwater resources. Ramachandra blamed 88 per cent reduction in green cover and 79 per cent reduction in water bodies to be the root cause of the ensuing water crisis.

The Draft National Education Policy, released last week, also sees a lot of issues EQUIP is trying to address. The draft advised a fee regulation in schools and institutes of higher education but also mentioned that scholarships and policies were necessary to help disadvantaged students. One of EQUIP's expert groups has recommended huge government funding linked directly to students. It recommends reimbursing a student's fee directly in his account through a direct benefit transfer instead of subsidising the institute. The group has also called for a full tax exemption for donations, made through these portals for education, to encourage more people to take it up. It has also advised for philanthropy offices to be established in all colleges and easier rules to be set up for foreign donors. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

IN-FOCUS

K Paul Thomas SEASONAL MAGAZINE

ESAF SMALL FINANCE BANK

IMPRESSIVE GROWTH, IMPROVING ASSET QUALITY Thrissur, Kerala, headquartered ESAF Small Finance Bank’s financial results for its second full year as a bank has delivered surprisingly strong numbers. While every growth metric, from interest income to advances to deposits to profits to loan book, has soared, its asset quality has sharply improved and its capital adequacy ratios have been fortified. ESAF SFB is proving that impressive growth and good asset quality can go hand in hand, even when its major focus is on furthering financial inclusion. ESAF Small Finance Bank has entered its third year of operation as a bank, while 27 years of existence as a microfinance institution is powering its expansion across India. Within just two years, the 5000 member strong ESAF team, under the guidance of its Founder, MD & CEO, K Paul Thomas has expanded its network to 440 branches spread across 14 States and 113 districts across India, with Rs.3900 crore deposits and total business of Rs.8900 crore. Despite the unprecedented flood in its home state of Kerala, ESAF SFB has the lowest NPA among its comparable peers. No wonder then that ESAF SFB was adjudged as the finalist in the prestigious European Microfinance awards which had contestants from 22 countries. Earlier, ESAF was one among the three finalists for the European Microfinance Award in 2014 for its ‘Clean Energy for the Poor’ initiative. ESAF SFB was also the only bank selected from India for the ‘Global Alliance for Banking on Values’. ESAF SFB is now all set to introduce robot-aided banking and its IPO is likely to be by June 2021. Seasonal Magazine identifies five strategic ways in which ESAF SFB has performed like a leader within its first two years as a bank.

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Performance in Financial Results Any new bank’s initial years may tend to be tough as the bank focuses on transition rather than topline or bottomline growth. ESAF’s first two years as a small finance bank was additionally tumultuous for the banking sector as well as the microfinance sector due to dynamic changes like demonetization, loan waivers and GST implementation. However, none of these factors have prevented ESAF from producing excellent financial results quarter after quarter. Its most recent numbers, for the fourth quarter and the full financial year of FY-18-19 continues this excellence in performance. Net profit has zoomed by over three times or 234%, from Rs. 26.99 crore in FY’18 to Rs. 90.28 crore. While Other Income has improved reasonably, the core Interest Income has nearly doubled. Advances have shown a steady growth, while deposits have zoomed from Rs. 2523.08 crore to Rs. 4317 crore. Total Assets, dominated by loan assets, have also risen impressively from Rs. 4724.13 crore to Rs. 7057.48 crore. But the greatest surprise has been the sharp improvement in asset quality with Gross NPA improving from 3.79% in FY’18 to 1.61% in FY’19 and Net NPA improving from 2.69% to 0.77% in the same period, thereby maintaining ESAF SFB’s leadership among peers when it comes to asset quality. Prudent fund raises and equity infusions over the past year saw its capital adequacy ratios improving from 16.92% last year to 27.59% now, which makes it ready to face all growth needs if the economy starts growing faster after the elections.

Performance in CASA Products When the microfinance institution ESAF switched to being a bank, the ESAF Small Finance Bank, most industry watchers were saying that the new small finance bank’s biggest

challenge would be building up its Current Account Savings Account (CASA) franchise. This was true too as this had to be done from the scratch, as an MFI is a nondeposit taking entity, and as such ESAF SFB didn’t have any deposits, including CASA to start with. But two years later, this young SFB has proved all such industry watchers wrong with sterling growth in CASA accounts, especially its Savings Bank segment. This segment has a dual challenge as it is both driven by interest rates as well as ease of use features. ESAF SFB attacked the first challenge by offering up to 7% interest rates on SB accounts, thereby making itself noticed on a pan-India stage. Secondly, it addressed the ease of use challenge in a two-pronged way – by relying on technology as well as by making customized Savings Account and Current Account offerings. Within just two years, ESAF SFB has implemented almost all technologies that the best-in-class private banks have implemented and even more, including net banking, mobile banking, any branch banking, sms banking, missed call banking, e-mail statements, relationship officer, banking correspondent / agent points, utility bill payments, charge-free ATM card for one year, and lots more. Realizing that savings bank is never a onesize-fits-all affair, ESAF SFB launched 6 different SB products – Regular, Premium, Senior Citizen, Mahila, Student & Jan Dhan accounts. A similar strategy was also used to crack the Current Account market, which is more demanding as it is used by business customers. Recognizing that businesses come in all sizes from the individual proprietor to partnerships to large scale entrepreneurs, ESAF SFB provides 4 types of Current Accounts – Basic, Classic, Premium & Diamond, all with temporary overdraft facility. All these accounts offer all the technology features available for SB accounts plus additional facilities like inter-branch transfers and RTGS. Being headquartered in Kerala, ESAF SFB has also utilized the huge overseas inflows coming into the state by offering competitive NRE and NRO accounts.

ESAF Small Finance Bank Ties up with IFFCO-Tokio to offer General Insurance Products SEASONAL MAGAZINE

ESAF Small Finance Bank Ties up with PNB Metlife to Offer Life Insurance Products

Performance in Fixed Deposit Products Along with CASA, the second most important challenge faced by ESAF SFB was how to grow its deposit products. As it was a non deposit taking entity as an MFI, it didn’t have any fixed deposit base too. Unlike in CASA products, here interest rates alone call the shots, with ease of use being of only secondary concern for customers. Here too, ESAF SFB didn’t lose any precious time but went straight in for capturing customers’ hearts by offering an industry leading interest rate of 8.75% per annum. ESAF SFB also proved that it knows the pulse of the fixed deposit customer by offering a premium product for one of FD’s largest segments – senior citizens. Generally, in any country and especially in India, senior citizens shun alternate savings channels like equity, mutual fund, gold and real estate, as they give priority for security. At the same time, they are very interest rate sensitive as many of them depend upon their FD interest earnings for their livelihood. For such

senior citizens, ESAF SFB is offering a product that delivers 9.25% per annum, which is superlative return in today’s banking market, and it can even give intense competition to India’s mutual funds business. The bank also successfully targeted another segment of Fixed Deposit customers, who rely on such products for primarily tax saving purposes, with their Tax Savers FD product. ESAF SFB also took care to ensure that optimum technologies and features are provided in their fixed deposit products. These include reinvestment option, auto renewal, premature withdrawal with conditions, marking of lien on request, overdraft facility, monthly / quarterly interest payout option, and fixed deposits without accompanying savings accounts. ESAF SFB also has powerful products in the emerging growth avenue of recurring deposits (RD) that are used by more and more salaried customers to save monthly for the long-term. These include Regular RD, Flexible RD and Group Based RD. Among these, Flexible RD removes a great concern with Regular RD in that a flexible amount (in multiples of a pre-fixed amount) can be deposited from month to month. This opens up the RD market also for non-salaried people like self-employed, professionals, housewives etc. With these kinds of powerful fixed deposit products, ESAF SFB has been able to build quickly a deposit base of Rs.3900 crore.

Performance in Non Microfinance Loans

ESAF Head Office

After CASA deposits and Fixed Deposits, the next challenge facing ESAF SFB was said to be how it would grow its nonmicrofinance loans. Needless to say, when ESAF SFB started out two years back, it had a robustly growing portfolio of microfinance loans, as it was basically a microfinance institution. But a bank needs to balance its loan book for derisking its operations over the long term. While microfinance loans deliver better returns to the bank, it is also more prone to systemic NPA problems in the form of policy shocks like farm loan waivers or demonetization hits. Even an year of adverse monsoon can render a microfinance portfolio susceptible to asset quality challenges. That is why even a SEASONAL MAGAZINE

ESAF Small Finance Bank is the Finalist at the European Microfinance Award 2018 microfinance powered bank like ESAF SFB needed to develop its non-microfinance loan segments like retail loans and corporate loans fast. Here too, the bank has performed well, beating all expectations. Unlike the savings and deposit domains, the loan segment is more prone to intense competition from all banks, from the smallest to the largest, from the private to the public sector players. This is most evident in retail loans’ largest segments like auto loans and housing loans. Realizing this, ESAF SFB has taken a different path to grow its non-microfinance loan segment. While it has launched practically any kind of retail and corporate loans usually offered by a bank, it has also decided to focus on certain niche segments where it was confident of performing well. And two years later, it indeed has done well in these products. These include Clean Energy Product Loans, Agricultural Loans, Loan Against Property (LAP), Business Loans and Micro Housing Loans. ESAF SFB’s Clean Energy Product Loan is for purchase of solar-based power generators, biomass-based power generators, non-conventional energy based public utilities viz. lighting systems, solar inverter etc. ESAF SFB’s Haritha Loan is for all agricultural activities including ancillary activities like purchase of implements, developmental activities undertaken in the farm, vermicomposting, undertaking farm work for farmers on contract basis etc. ESAF SFB’s LAP product is, as the name implies, provided against the documents of an owned property, and which can be used for any purpose like business, education, marriage, asset purchase etc. ESAF SFB’s Business Loans can be availed for any income generation activity including but not limited to purchase of assets, business expansion, working capital requirements, any long term requirements manufacturing, trading, service segments; and production, processing and trading of agriculture allied agricultural products. ESAF SFB’s Micro Housing Loan is an affordable home loan product that can be used for purposes like purchase of constructed house/flat, new house construction, renovation and extensions including incremental and progressive constructions. ESAF SFB is also getting good growth in gold loans through its Swarna Sri Gold Loan product. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

Performance in Micro Banking If anyone thought that diversification into banking would take ESAF’s focus off its core microfinance franchise, that has also proven to be wrong. ESAF SFB has successfully converted its huge microfinance franchise to a more respectable microbanking model. ESAF has been an established name in Microfinance, having launched their Micro Enterprises Development (MED) program in 1995. Since then ESAF has successfully expanded the program across the country, bringing social and economic prosperity to several low income and unbanked segments of society. Having been converted into a bank, ESAF continues this leadership through its Micro Banking vertical that provides a broad package of financial inclusion products and business development services to the socially and economically challenged. In ESAF SFB’s Micro Banking, all banking services are provided right at your doorstep through group based models. Continuing its longstanding tradition, ESAF SFB gives women the priority when it comes to Micro banking activities, and the bank now has over 1.20 million women enjoying the benefits of microbanking services. ESAF SFB has also launched mobility banking in order to serve their micro-banking customers faster & better. Providing much more respectability to all customers under their Micro Banking scheme, a PM Jan Dhan account with Debit cum ATM Card is also provided. However, where ESAF shines really in micro-banking is their decades-old experience in understanding the microfinance customers, which has enabled them to launch several customized products like Income Generation Loans, Business Loans, Ultra Poor Loans, Vidya Jyothi Loans, Nirmal Jeevandhara Loans (for toilets / sanitation needs), Micro Energy Loans and General Top Up Loans. ESAF SFB is also performing well on the asset quality front in micro-banking. Despite the unprecedented flood in its home state of Kerala, ESAF SFB has the lowest NPA among its comparable peers. No wonder then that ESAF SFB was adjudged as the finalist in the prestigious European Microfinance awards which had contestants from 22 countries.

TAKES NASA'S CURIOSITY ROVER TRUMP AMERICA'S FIGHT CAPTURES MYSTERIOUS WITH HUAWEI TO UK US PRESIDENT HAS WARNED BRITAIN ABOUT INVOLVING MARTIAN CLOUDS THE CHINESE TECH MAJOR IN ITS 5G EXPANSION. While traversing across rocky plains in the shadow of Mount Sharp, the Mars Curiosity rover captured wispy clouds hovering in the sky. There is no known water on Mars, from which clouds normally form!

president Donald Trump urged Britain to be "very careful" about involving Chinese tech giant Huawei in its new 5G network, during his state visit to London. Asked about reports that Britain is planning to give the firm a limited role, Trump told, "Well, you have other alternatives and we have to be very careful from the standpoint of national security."

The US President then added: "You know we have a very important intelligence gathering group, that we work very closely with your country (Britain) and so you have to be very careful." The US has long voiced suspicions that Huawei is controlled by the Chinese government and thus a global security threat - charges strongly denied by the firm and by Beijing. Prime Minister Theresa May's government has insisted a decision has not yet been made on Huawei's involvement in building a 5G network in Britain. Trump said he believed "things will all work out, you'll see".

he car-sized robot - which landed on Mars in 2012 - captured these lofty clouds on May 17, 2019, which translates to the 2410th sol, or Martian day, of its mission. From millions of miles away, NASA scientists suspect these clouds hovered some 19-miles above the red Martian surface. NASA also notes the clouds are "noctilucent," meaning they're high enough for sunlight to pass through the floating mass of water and ice. When the rover isn't gazing up at the Martian atmosphere, it's primarily interested in the ground. In May, the rover spent time drilling into soil of particular interest, because it's rich in clay minerals - and clay forms in water-rich environments.

STRETCHER WITH 74-YR-OLD WOMAN SPINS MID-AIR DURING CHOPPER RESCUE A stretcher carrying a 74-year-old woman who was rescued after suffering an injury while hiking spun uncontrollably mid-air while she was being lifted into a helicopter in US' Arizona. Officials said that a line intended to prevent the stretcher from spinning malfunctioned. The lady suffered nausea and dizziness and was transported to a trauma centre, without any serious injury.

NASA scientists suspect this area (on the lower slope of Mt. Sharp) once supported a watery, Earth-like environment. There's still zero evidence that primitive life ever existed on Mars, or anywhere other than Earth. But life - as we know it, anyway - needs water to survive. But Mars certainly has an abundance of Earth-like clouds, sailing high overhead.

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POLITICS

GET UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE RAHUL MUST LEAD THE CONGRESS, BUT HIS OFFICE NEEDS TO BE DISMANTLED AND A NEW TEAM PUT IN PLACE

s a political commentator, I have no hesitation in saying that the idea of Congress is like the idea of India. Just like there can be no one idea of India, similarly the Congress, like the Ganga, has room for everyone and every point of view. But how did a party that was the original Hindu nationalist party with room and equal opportunity for everyone, go on to become an “anti-national” and “minority appeasing” party? The answer lies in the office of Rahul Gandhi and those who surround him. For starters, let me put on record that I very firmly believe that Rahul Gandhi is a very well read man with his heart in the right place and a desire to lead the party to glory and bring reforms that transform our nation. I do believe that he must continue to lead the Congress, but there is not an iota of doubt in my mind that his office needs to be dismantled and a new team must be put together. In simple plain speak, the office of Rahul Gandhi (RG), as it’s often referred to, has juvenile, immature, and non-serious people who have no political understanding and are out of touch with realities. I often refer to them as a bunch of clowns, who bring entertainment to our lives, but beyond that have no contribution and are not taken seriously even in the political circles. If one is to limit the analysis to what went wrong in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, let us look at the office of RG and their performance. Entertaining dead-wood like Sudheendra Kulkarni and Arun Shourie. What value do these two bring? If they were so capable, would they not have made Advani ji the PM? Narendra Modi discarded these dead-woods whose weight the Congress dragged. The Congress Communication department is headed by a man who SEASONAL MAGAZINE

came third in by-elections, despite being known as RGs closest aide. How many spokespersons in Congress are aware of the party history in detail? They keep getting bashed day in and out. The messaging of the party is childish and frankly, no one knows what the party wants to communicate. On TV, the party comes across as a rich entitled party, with no respect for institutions, throwing tantrums without a roadmap. And honestly, if one is to run MGNREGA advertisements in a premium multiplex chain, this party and it’s communication department simply don’t know the art of speaking the right thing at the right place to the right audience. The Congress was the original Hindu Nationalist Party, with

secular and equal opportunities for everyone. Yet today, so bad has been the Congress strategy in both communication and it’s own brand building, that the party of Indira Gandhi that broke Pakistan into two, the party of not one, but two martyr prime ministers, is known as anti-national! The question to ask these advisors is this: would Indiraji or Rajivji stand next to a Kanhaiya Kumar or Jignesh? You could have sent your party secretary to support them, but sending Rahul Gandhi there was a disaster. Then you gave Jignesh a Congress-winning seat in Gujarat and he came and campaigned in Delhi for AAP, whereas Kanhaiya and Prakash Raj ensured that your best candidates in Bihar (from RJD) and

Bangalore, both Muslim candidates who deserved to be in Parliament, lost! And on the issue of Muslims, the BJP managed to brand the Congress as a “Muslim appeasing party”, whereas wherever the Muslims have an option apart from the Congress, like UP or West Bengal or Tamil Nadu, they dump the Congress! Then the technocrats in Rahul Gandhi’s team. A fraud of a data scientist from the US claimed 2014 was a “black swan” event and Modi won’t be PM again. Well, the black swan just got fatter and is sitting on your head. Where did this data come from? He said Maharashtra was the angriest state. Well, the Congress got wiped out from Maharashtra.

ONEPLUS PREPARING FOR SMART TV FORAY ONEPLUS’ SUCCESS WAS NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE. IN SMARTPHONE MARKET DOMINATED BY SAMSUNG AND APSPLE, A NO-NAME STARTUP DARED TO CHALLENGE THE PREMIUM SMARTPHONE AT HALF THE PRICE. FOUNDER PETE LAU, HOWEVER, THINKS NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME TO BRINGS ITS MAGIC IN THE MARKET FOR TVS.

And that brings me to my last point. Congress was conceived in my home state of Maharashtra. Its first session was to take place in Poona but was shifted to Bombay. Today the Congress has no leadership in a state that sends the second largest number of MPs to Parliament after UP. That Tilak, Agarkar’s party, that Nehru’s Congress had to depend on a bigoted Raj Thackeray to campaign for them is a matter of shame! How can one use Raj, synonymous for violence against the North Indians, and expect votes from UP and Bihar? And what was the contribution of Kumar Ketkar, sent to Rajya Sabha by one of these joker technocrats, in these elections? Would it not have made more sense to send Rajeev Shukla or Milind Deora, both of whom could network and contribute to the party, both in the state and at the Centre. Rahul Gandhi needs to wake up and smell the coffee. He is surrounded by incompetent fools who need to be shown the door. They are arrogant and have no touch with ground reality. If Rahul does want to see a Congress in power at the Centre, he needs to replace his team with competent political animals and an office that mirrors the PMO, who have their pulse on everything in the country. The leader must stay, but his team must go. Congress is the soul of India, her survival and growth are essential to the survival of India.

here is no shortage of smart TVs. In fact, almost every new premium TV these days have some “smart” feature or another, from Internet streaming to integration with smart assistants. Lau, however, thinks TVs, even smart ones, are all still too traditional and that there’s a missed opportunity to truly rethink the TV. Recently, Lau enumerates some of the advantages he believes the OnePlus TV will be able to offer. That ranges from casting photos and videos from smartphones, showing calendar events and departure times, and more. There also will be Google Home, Google Assistant, and Google Chromecast. There are even some smart TVs with Google Assistant built-in via Android TV. For Lau, however, those aren’t enough and wants to make the OnePlus TV the center of the household rather than as an extension of a smart speaker. The big question is whether it will be able to perform the same trick it did in the smartphone market. After all, OnePlus wasn’t exactly known for some industry-leading innovation. It is best known, instead, for taking those existing innovations and packaging them in an affordable product. That said, if it is indeed able to pull that off without cutting corners on screen resolution the way it did with the OnePlus phones, it could very well make lightning strike twice indeed.

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MOST PREFERRED UNIVERSITIES

REVA UNIVERSITY

REVA INTERNALISES THE TRUE ESSENCE OF EDUCATION: BALANCING RELEVANCE AND HIGHER PURPOSE

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Dr. P. Shyama Raju is one of Bengaluru Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most prominent industrialists, the Founder of DivyaSree Developers, the iconic name behind many Tech Parks and commercial spaces and award winning residential projects in the south. As the Chancellor of REVA University, recognised today as one of the best educational destinations of the Country, he has forged exceptional industry connections. Apart from a great future in the industry, REVA also ensures an ecofriendly campus life for its students. With its unshifting focus on environmental causes, REVA was placed among the top in the Swachh Bharat nationwide Ranking by MHRDC.

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one are the days when a mechanical engineer or an automobile engineer saw his first contemporary automobile engine after being inducted as a trainee by some car manufacturer. Or are such days really a thing of the past? Only if you are studying in Bengaluru’s REVA University. Here, students study about automobile engines with a cut section assembled model of a real life Innova Diesel engine that powers Toyota Innova. It is still the dominant MUV on Indian roads and worldwide. REVA University has strayed away from the well-trodden path many educational institutes take these days. Here, students have the entire supporting infrastructure to be trained

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in part modelling by learning to disassemble the engine fully and learning to reassemble it. The learning goes beyond engine design. The REVA-Toyota Centre of Excellence was established in association with Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt. Ltd, under a scheme of India’s Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), to educate engineering students in the area of automobiles in particular with working of engines. The direct impact of such an in depth study with an industry leader is the immense expertise it brings to the table, which in turn makes students more sought after by other leaders in the same industry. Needless to say, REVA University students who have obtained exhaustive training on a real

contemporary engine, stand apart with a huge advantage for top recruiters. REVA University’s Founder and Chancellor, Dr. P. Shyama Raju is a prominent industrialist in the country. A leader in the city’s real estate development sector, he heads DivyaSree Developers. As a major player in IT Parks, DivyaSree has extensive connections with almost all major industrial majors in the city. This great treasure trove of experience and ties with the Industry comes in handy in the educational set up, for experiential learning for students. Industry expertise and connects enable REVA to understand the needs of the same better and accordingly tailor the programmes offered at the University. Industry leaders and experts are closely part of curriculum

This forethought of incorporating industry requirements in everyday learning stems from the FounderChancellor, Dr. P. Shyama Raju’s passion for practical education and outof-the-box thinking. REVA University has outshined others in campus placements, earning undivided attention from prospective students and recruiters. The average package that students at REVA are offered is between 5-7 L.p.a and the highest has been 14 L.p.a to 21 L.p.a.

A good percentage of placements at REVA happen at the internships level, with internships successfully converting into job offers! Each department and School at the University are deeply involved in the coordination of the internship programs of its students. The various unique aspects of each student like interests, skills, performance, aptitude and so on, are mapped thoroughly to choose perfect internships. The progress of the internships are monitored closely by the respective Schools, exhibiting a vested interest in individual students and their future. REVA University’s placement program is all-inclusive as it encompasses softskills training, employability training and training for every kind of test and assessment that companies use

nowadays to screen candidates for coveted job assignments. The University has a full-fledged in-house Training & Placement Centre that also ropes in industry experts and recruitment specialists to update students and make them industry ready. The University also looks beyond mere job opportunities to develop those, who are destined for great careers in research, knowledge creation and academics, for a wider impact across the globe, especially in leadership positions. Today, REVA is an emerging entity in research, home to over 400 research scholars who are pursuing their Ph.D. programmes in diverse specialisations. REVA’s research initiative is noted for its well qualified

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construction and development along with academicians, to keep it relevant. Additionally, many of DivyaSree’s ongoing project sites have become strong platforms for empirical learning for REVA’s students, especially in Civil, Architecture & Electrical engineering, making them really industry ready.

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guides and state-of-the-art research centres. Senior researchers mentor the aspirants, while scholarships are extended to meritorious and motivated scholars. The University is listed in NIRF in the band 150-200 and awarded the silver band in QS ranking, for their research initiatives. REVA University effortlessly marries modernity to ancient value systems. The University embraces technological advancements and utilizes the same for furthering ageold and trusted principles. The perfect example for the same is seen in the University’s dual wins in pioneering paperless exams and coming top in the cleanliness index. One of the first Universities in India to make their admission process and other official interactions digital and online, REVA yet again stepped up to quickly change the fabric of existing regenerative ideas. Tab based examinations are practiced at REVA, earnestly seen in only a handful of Universities in India, and aligned with the best overseas University ethics. REVA Campus came in the national and international limelight when it won the 6th rank in the Swachhata Ranking Award 2018 for the Cleanest Higher Education Institution in the University (Residential) Category on October 1, 2018 in Delhi. Chancellor Dr. P. Shyama Raju accepted the very prestigious award on behalf of the institute from the Honorable Minister, MHRD, Sri. Prakash Javadekar and Hon’ble Minister of State for Higher Education Dr. Satya Pal Singh. The University has a carbon free environment, waste water management system, recycling plant, rain water harvesting and composting, while the extensive greens and lawns of the campus stands as visible grandeur that justifies such national acclaim. But no cleanliness is possible without discipline, and the award speaks volumes about this aspect of REVA University, an internalisation of a sincere effort.

Seasonal Magazine in conversation with REVA University’s Founder & Chancellor, Dr. P Shyama Raju: SEASONAL MAGAZINE

The university just conducted a TEDX talk on fables. Can you tell us how it came about and the response? The students of our University are extremely proactive. We sow an idea and then watch it grow to its full potential right before our eyes. The same thing happened with TEDx. When I was told that TEDx was soon to be part of the campus and students had taken the lead on this, I knew the outcome will be noteworthy. And they did not disappoint me. TEDx being the humongous entity it is, we were all excited to have them among us. With an array of some great speakers, like Prakash Belawadi, we knew that it will be a day where wisdom will be imparted unhindered. Fables, a seemingly lesser used word these days was given a very contextual, global yet localized understanding and interpretations. An elite crowd of speakers and listeners had gathered, discerning and critical. Such platforms contribute immensely to the growth of our University as a locus of relevant discussion and also aim to enhance students’ learning experience. The students of our School of Management Studies really came into their own, preparing diligently for month to showcase of this mammoth stature. Today we are proud to say that TEDx has found another permanent spot, here in the flowing world of REVA, to exchange ideas fluidly and the response has been overwhelming. REVA University has conducted paperless exams. Were all exams conducted this way, or only for selective courses? How has been the experience and are you planning more widespread adoption of this technology? Digitization was always at the forefront of every educational, technological and procedural activity at REVA. We have been working towards it, making it possible bit by bitand covering larger ground each day. Initially, our admission process and other official procedures were online and paperless. Then we introduced a strict no paper policy in campus, to cut down on

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Dr. P Shyama Raju Founder & Chancellor

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wastage and augment our effort towards ecological balance. As of today, all First Year, under graduate and post graduate programs, across all disciplines are tab based and completely san paper usage. Not only will this contribute to the ecosystem but also make students more conscious about green technology, a burgeoning field that has taken the centre stage in all research, innovation and developmental engagements globally. In keeping with our goals that we have perfectly aligned with international discourse and actions, next academic

year we will see every exam go digital and heavily lighten our paper usage. The University has been graded by QS recently. Can you tell us more specifics of the grades you have obtained and what it implies? What are your further objectives in this regard? QS rating has been a feather in our cap considering the fact that our University is a fledgling University. We have been given a GOLD Band and category based we have achieved 3 Diamond badges, 3 Gold Badges and 2 Silvers. Also, we are perhaps the

only University country wide to have fetched a Diamond in Art and Culture. This goes to speak volumes about the balance maintained between scholastics and co-scholastics at REVA University apart from the academic rigour and progress made by the University which has fetched us the GOLD Band REVA is planning to conduct a major international conference on advances in computers and information technology. Can you provide us a brief overview of the kind of attendees and programs that are being planned? The School of Computing and Information Technology at REVA is hosting â&#x20AC;&#x153;International Conference on Advances in Information Technology (ICAIT 2019)â&#x20AC;? The conference presents an open forum for scientists, researchers and engineers to exchange the latest innovations and research advancements in the areas of nextgeneration computers, communications protocols and algorithms, high performance computing, data science, software engineering, IT services and applications. The conference will include plenary sessions and invited talks from eminent researchers on the state-of -the -art in related areas. Contributions describing original research, surveys and applications are invited from Ph.D. scholars, B. Tech and M. Tech students from India and Abroad. With many engineering colleges and even some universities experiencing lull in admissions due to a lacklustre job market for engineers, what all have been REVA Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts to offer more job oriented courses in engineering as well as in other emerging disciplines? REVA is sensitive to the market trends and as a policy our team of Directors are very prudent when it comes to student needs and demands from the industry. Our curriculum undergoes change as per the industry standards and all effort is channelized to ensure

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You being a major developer who is also into IT Parks, does it help you in assessing the employment pulse and changing trends in human resources especially in Bengaluru? As developers, we are passionate about adding value to the cityscape whichever city we go to. However, what is notable is that we stretch this passion to building the youth as well. In our parlance, quality, structure, process and time management are crucial for our deliverables. We apply the same parametres to Education as well and ensure all these parametres are met with. Our industry expertise and connect enables us understand the need of the industry and accordingly tailor the programmes offered at the University. This expertise of ours also has us involving the industry in a bigger strength with the curriculum design. Especially when it comes to Civil Engineering, Electrical and Architecture our ongoing sites become a strong ground for experiential learning for the students leading to strengthening of the programme to suit the requirement of the industry Toyota has set up its Centre of Excellence inside REVA University. What led to this tie-up and how has this been benefiting the students and faculty as well as this global car manufacturer? REVA-TOYOTA Centre of Excellence is established in association with Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt. Ltd under CSIR scheme to educate engineering students in the area of automobiles in

REVA-TOYOTA Centre of Excellence

particular with working of engines. It is indeed an initiative to train the students to know the working of an Engine through the cut section assembled model of Innova Diesel engine. The practical knowledge on Internal Combustion Engine with parts associated like piston, connecting rod, crank shaft, fuel injection system valve operating system , power transmission, clutch operation, gear box working etc. are given hands on. In 8th SEM the students are given Automobile as Elective subject, all of them will be trained in making part modelling by disassembling the engine and again trained to assemble it back. This in turn motivates students in taking up Car Design and building cars to represent the School in various competitions. This association has greatly benefited students and their interaction directly with the subject matter. This training contributes greatly to the preparation to their Industry Readiness. The Global Manufacturers, akin to many quality quests in the new generation, is on a lookout for talent that answers to the industry’s requirement. This is an excellent opportunity for Industry big wigs like Toyota to train these young minds in a desired direction with hands on relevant education. REVA campus has come on top in Swachh rankings. What all were

your major cleanliness initiatives that led to this prestigious ranking? REVA found itself stamped on the country’s map by winning the 6th rank in the Swachhata Ranking Award 2018 for the Cleanest Higher Education Institution in the University (Residential) Category on October 1, 2018 in Delhi, one day shy of Gandhi Jayanti. Dr. P. Shyama Raju, Honorable Chancellor, REVA University accepted the very prestigious award on behalf of the institute by Honorable Minister, MHRD, Sri. Prakash Javadekar and Hon’ble Minister of State for Higher Education Dr Satya Pal Singh. Dr. S. Y. Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor, Dr. M. Dhanamjaya, Registrar, REVA University were also present at the occasion.

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that industry-academia interface is taken care of before we finalize the curriculum. Industry inputs are taken periodically and we have a dedicated UIIC (University Industry Interaction Cell) which takes care of the certification and add on skills programmes leading to certification and value added programmes that is the need of the industry. Interdisciplinary courses and modules is our focus and students benefit immensely from these offerings which forms a part of the learner pack at the University

The award comes at an opportune time. The University is gaining a sturdy recognition for being constantly associated with excellence in all facets of learning. Taking remarkable strides in academics, being a conscientious community was the natural outcome of its continued work in creating awareness. It started with the vision of reaching out globally and intermingling with the international civic of thinkers and doers. Those tiny steps culminated into bigger actions with an assembly of small and large contributions. In order to personally SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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pervade a moral conscience and accountability to the environs among the students and faculty, it has been imparted at all levels. The Swachhata Campaign is a call to arms, a serious message for the nation. It started with fervor getting to all the alleys and annals of our country. REVA, understanding the need to answer to this calling, where a single step in making the environment livable, will have echoing effects through generations, became a precursor of this thought. The University has a carbon free environment, waste water management system, recycling plant, rain water harvesting and composting. The lawns of REVA need a special mention, what with just the range of flora and fauna at display that is not only a sight to behold but also provides foliage to the nurturing eco system that is uniquely part of the University. REVA heralds change by hosting planting trees awareness processions across the city. Just as we go back to revitalizing nature, getting some semblance to how things were before we tainted it, REVA also progresses hand in hand with the new world to add a fresh dimension. The University has gone through a complete digital makeover, where all processes are online, substantially reducing the usage of paper. Festivities too are

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celebrated with aplomb but with zero harm to the environment. REVA’s residential student housing stands as an example for clean and green living. How has been your performance in campus placements in recent years? What has been the average CTC for your engineering graduates? REVA University has an all-inclusive placement program that engages students with pre placement training early on. Commencing in the first semester, the program progresses along with mainstream studies. This facilitates learning for ‘industry readiness’ provided by the University Training and Placement Centre. The Centre has an exclusive in-house Soft skills training program for students, imparted by experts in the field. This course at REVA helps students develop competencies and capabilities. It course involves developing interpersonal, communication, team building and leadership skills, for greater productivity and performance and above all ‘employability’. The Soft Skills training sessions covers everything that will enable a student to stand out in a crowd of career builders. It is designed to help them gain personal insight and practical skills to develop and implement a mental framework for a good and

professional approach to their career. Their drill also includes company specific training, aptitude training and a strengthened foregrounding approach for Coding, Aptitude and programming languages such as C, C++, Core Java and Advanced Java for technical exposure. Every student’s interest/skills/performance mapping is thoroughly done Internships are coordinated by respective Schools and monitored, in most of the cases internships gets converted into Final Placements. The very intrinsic module of placement training at REVA includes; Career Planning, Cross and Self Introduction, Self-Assessment, Grooming, Etiquettes, Types of Communication skills, Extempore, Presentation Skills, Group discussion, language focused training with Reading Comprehension, Email writing, GD Practice. Assessment and training also include session where Psychometric test and Personality traits are conducted, Motivational and Success Stories are shared, Problem solving and Decision Making are harnessed and students take Perception Test. At later stages the focus is heavy on Interview skills and types, how to prepare for Interviews, Giving feedback and Taking feedback,

Research has been one area where REVA has been placing great thrust in recent years. Can you outline the achievements of the university in this regard? The University is committed to excel in research and stand as a unique innovation and research centre in coming years. Therefore the University aims to promote, to inspire and to inculcate research culture among faculty members, research scholars and students. Faculty mentoring initiative has begun wherein senior faculty mentors within respective schools guide young faculty in research and enable them to identify research topics for their Ph.D. The University is striving to mobilize funding from various funding agencies, industries and such others to excel and thrive in accomplishing quality research and make its mark on the research map of the country. Efforts are being made to explore funding from VGST, DST, CSIR, DBT, UGC, DRDO, ICSSR, UNESCO, UNIDO, IDBI etc. The faculty members also explore funded projects from ISRO, NAL, BEL, HAL, Microsoft and such other organisations, institutions and industries. Interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary, collaborative research is the order of the day, to transform basic research into applied and socially relevant areas. In view of this, the University from the beginning has ventured into collaboration with industries, premier institutions and R&D organisations. The University has also established Centres of Excellence to promote interdisciplinary research. RU conducts annual research conclave to help scholars interact with experts and seek guidance. The conclave will showcase the aspirations and accomplishments of various research scholars of REVA University. The event

will benefit scholars as a platform which will connect all of them with the industry directly. Industry and research scholars will also get an opportunity to exchange views about their existing and upcoming research projects to make the research more viable for industrial perspective. It is a part of our initiative to create a sustainable ecosystem for Research and Innovation in the University. Research and Innovation club is started to identify and nurture young talents to take up interdisciplinary projects. Students across schools are encouraged to work on projects of interdisciplinary nature under the guidance of faculty mentors. Promotion of Scientific temperament and multidisciplinary research among students is the main agenda of Research & Innovation club. Motivated students mentored by faculty across all disciplines come together on a common platform with a mission to take up tasks of common interests. Students participate in competitions like Hackathon, Android development, IOT applications, SAEcompetitions and have won accolades in various national championships. One of the benchmarking qualities of a world class University is the number of ongoing interdisciplinary research/ projects taken in the university. With a view to encouraging the interdisciplinary research, the club is formed comprising senior members to guide young researchers into interdisciplinary research.

Highlights Over 400 research scholars Well qualified guides State of art research centers Research circles mentored by senior researchers Scholarships to meritorious and motivated scholars Listed in NIRF in the band 150-200 Recognized in silver band in QS ranking under research

Being a university based in Bengaluru, you have a mix of day scholars as well as resident students. Do you think this is an issue in ensuring discipline inside the campus? In this day and age where threat comes to you in any form and face, safety for all our students and faculty is our topmost priority. Since the campus is home to many, we do not compromise on safety and discipline. We have a strict anti-ragging policy in campus that is adhered to at all times. Time management is another ethic that is placed high here. No one, whether student or faculty is spared on this. A standard dress code is established for all at REVA, no inappropriateness is tolerated. A dress code, and a uniform approach creates a harmony, and dissolves differences, and that is the main principle behind it. Littering, plastic usage, explosives for festivities are all prohibited in the campus. The most striking aspect of the Architecture of the campus is the use of staircases to connect. These networks promote walking, which in turn instills health discipline.

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Creative thinking, Time management and Team work and Mock Interviews. The average package that students at REVA are offered is between 5-7L. p. a and the highest has been 14 L. p. a to 21 L. p. a.

To imbibe a sense of pride and honour, our day begins with the National Anthem, followed by the REVA Anthem. We believe basics strengthen your growth. The simple principles and routines followed at REVA, like saving electricity, no food wastage, time management, honouring national sentiments and so on, underwrites your personal growth as an individual, and REVA wants every student to have a good life not just a good job. Most of all we respect differences here. And ensure, discipline and security forms the core of life at REVA University. Do you have plans to enter medical education? What all are the immediate expansion plans of the university? Yes, we do have provision and land which is the biggest requirement to enter medical education; however as of now our focus is on consolidating our existing programmes. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

AVIATION

HAS FLYING BECOME MORE DANGEROUS?

EVEN WHILE 4.3 BILLION TRAVELERS, THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN HALF THE WORLD’S POPULATION, FLEW SAFELY IN 2018, AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS OCCURRED MORE FREQUENTLY IN ALMOST EVERY REGION WORLDWIDE IN 2018. FLYING HAS BECOME DEADLIER THAN IT HAS BEEN FOR YEARS AND IS IT SOLELY DUE TO BOEING CO.’S INFAMOUS 737 MAX?

ircraft accidents occurred more frequently in almost every region worldwide in 2018 as the death toll climbed to a four-year high of 523, according to the International Air Transport Association. The fatal crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Aeroflot Flight 1492 ensure that this year will be another bad one. So what happened to the safest form of travel? It’s one of the biggest questions hanging over airline and aircraft executives as they congregated recently in Seoul at IATA’s annual meeting for the industry’s largest gathering since the two Boeing 737 Max disasters. What’s clear is that demand for air travel is growing so fast - IATA expects it to double in the next 20 years - that airlines, plane makers and regulators are struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, the pressure to keep costs low has intensified with the proliferation of no-frills carriers catering to travelers prioritising ticket prices. And the reality is that safety, whether it be the training of pilots or add-on features in planes, costs money and there’s a limit to how much the industry can spend on better and better safety. “You get what you pay for," said Geoffrey Dell, a safety scientist at Central Queensland University in Australia who’s been an air-safety investigator since 1979. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

“Everyone is moving back to a minimum regulatory standard. It’s designed to give you the best outcome for the cheapest price." To be sure, flying is still relatively safe. Some 4.3 billion travelers, the equivalent of more than half the world’s population, flew safely in 2018. The chance of an accident is little more than one in a million. And it’s been more than a decade since fatalities topped 1,000 in a given year, something that would regularly happen from the 1960s until the turn of the century. Yet that didn’t stop Montreal-based IATA, whose member airlines represent more than 80% of air traffic worldwide, from painting an unusually bleak picture in its safety report for 2018, which was released in April. While the industry has made huge advances, it’s been too slow to address catastrophic events such as the loss of control in mid-flight, according to the association. Safety is also under pressure because airlines are increasingly asking manufacturers for specific aircraft to tap demanding travel trends. That’s placing a burden on Chicago-based Boeing and European rival Airbus SE to deliver aircraft on time and on budget, said Ian Thomas, a senior aviation consultant at CAPA Consulting in Sydney. He noted Qantas Airways Ltd.’s public

request to both manufacturers to make a plane that can fly Sydney to London nonstop by 2022. “Safety and quality are important but price continues to be the main driver," said Thomas. Other pressure points too have emerged. The surging demand for flights means that the world will need about three-quarters of a million new maintenance technicians and about the same number of new pilots by 2037 just to keep pace, according to Boeing’s projections. In the twin Boeing Max tragedies, preliminary probes exposed some of the risks associated with the complexities of modern aircraft. In both the October crash in Indonesia and the March disaster in Ethiopia, which killed 346 people, evidence emerged that an on-board system known as MCAS took control of the aircraft from the pilots and repeatedly forced both planes to dive. The 737 Max — Boeing’s fastest-selling jet ever — has been grounded globally since the second crash. Then there’s the issue of pilot training. Flight-handling errors, such as incorrect power or flap settings, contributed to about one third of the 339 fatal and nonfatal accidents between 2013 and 2017, according to IATA. Flight-simulator time is so expensive that piloting skills at some airlines that don’t have their own machines have eroded, according to Central Queensland University’s Dell. While training levels vary depending on the airline, there’s a clear need to prepare pilots to handle situations beyond syllabus items like landing-gear failure, according to Dirk Dahmen, Airbus training manager at Qantas and an A380 captain. As he puts it: “We need to train our pilots to deal with the unpredictable stuff." Reversing the deadly trend of accidents is likely to require progress on multiple fronts, beyond recreating unusual scenarios in simulators. Regulators around the world also need enough resources to do their jobs, isolated from unnecessary influence from plane makers, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Fairfax, Virginiabased Teal Group. There’s one tragic indicator when safety margins get too thin. “You’ve got a pile of wreckage that tells you you went too far," said Dell.

BANKING

RBI SHUTS BANK LICENCES FOR 3 YEARS

HOW ARE YOU, TIM APPLE? INDIAN STUDENT ASKS APPLE CEO TIM COOK

Palash Taneja, an 18-year-old Delhibased student attending Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in California, jokingly asked the company's CEO Tim Cook, "How are you, Tim Apple?" As people burst into laughter, Tim responded, "I am good and aware of what you mean to convey." Taneja's question was a reference to US President wrongly addressing Tim Cook as Tim Apple in March.

The central bank wants all the new players who have got licences in the last 3-4 years to stabilise, and see how they are progressing before giving out new ones. n another departure from its past policies, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to "shut the tap" on on-tap bank licences, people aware of the development said. The central bank has decided not to issue a single new bank licence in the next 2-3 years, sources said. "RBI's Board of Financial Supervision has taken 'in principle' decision to not issue any new bank license for now," a source said. The central bank wants all the new players who have got licences in the last 3-4 years to stabilise, and see how they are progressing. If the progress is satisfactory and banks do well, then RBI may do a rethink, sources said. Though RBI won't communicate the same view officially to new licence applicants. The thinking within the regulator is that banks who got universal licences in the past could not do well on their own. IDFC Bank had to do a merger with Capital First to consolidate its position, while Bandhan Bank acquired Gruh Finance to scale up its operations. Most of the small and payments banks are struggling to make their presence felt. Similarly, many old private banks could not do well, so they are exploring mergers with big NBFCs or waiting to be acquired by some big banks. Even in PSU bank space, consolidation is on the cards. While RBI won't be issuing new bank

licences, the old private banks which are exploring merger of NBFCs will be free to apply for approval. RBI will decide on such requests on a case-to-case basis. In 2015, the then RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had come up with an on-tap policy for banking licences. Under the policy, window was open any time for applicants, and if found suitable RBI would issue licences. Two universal banking, 11 payments bank and 10 small finance bank licences were issued in 2015. The idea behind small finance banks was to help in financial inclusion to un-served and deserving sections of the society, mainly to small business and low-income households. Similarly, the payment bank licences were issued to help low income and migrant workers in remittances. As per RBIs Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2017-18 released in December 2018, nine out of 10 small finance banks were earlier NBFCs, so due to NPA legacy issues they had to make high provisions, resulting in losses. Similarly, seven payment banks are operating and total consolidated balance-sheet of payment banks showed net losses during 201617 and 2017-18. Even operating profit of these banks remained negative. UAE Exchange had applied in June 2017 for a banking licence, but it is still pending with the regulator.

SWIGGY MAY RAISE $1B WITH UP TO $500M FROM SOFTBANK: REPORT

Bengaluru-based Swiggy is in advanced talks to raise up to $1 billion including a $300-500 million investment from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank itself, Livemint reported. Reports in January had suggested SoftBank has dropped plans to invest in Swiggy's rival, Gurugram-based Zomato. SoftBank's decision to prefer Swiggy had reportedly come after it raised $1 billion from Naspers in December 2018.

PILOT'S WIFE WAS ON ATC IN ASSAM WHEN IAF JET VANISHED FROM RADAR

The wife of IAF pilot Ashish Tanwar, Sandhya, was on Air Traffic Control duty at Assam's Jorhat when IAF's AN32 aircraft with 13 on board including Ashish vanished from the radar. Ashish's uncle Udaivir Singh revealed Sandhya called them an hour later to tell them what had happened. He added that Ashish's father has gone to Assam to meet authorities. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

SELF HELP

3 STEPS TO BETTER FOCUS IN LIFE

Focus and concentration can be difficult to master. Sure, most people want to learn how to improve focus and boost concentration. But actually doing it? We live in a noisy world and constant distractions can make focus difficult.

ocus; whether it's school, college or even your career. Focus is the deciding factor in the race to success. All of us have the same seven days in the week and the same 24 hour in a day. The people who become successful aren't the ones who have worked the hardest , theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the ones who can maintain maximum focus in the minimum minutes of their work. If you want good marks, if you want good money in life, it's about how focused you can be. If you want to be focused in life, first understand what breaks focus. Focus is about staying in one place switching off from all the distractions in your life, and staying glued to one spot in one thought, in one work task. But while you try to stay focused the enemies of focus will creep up on you - the break ups, the bad marks, the insults; we all have pain in our lives; the insecurities, the performance pressure, the anxiety of the future. We all have the same worries in our lives. Pains and worries are your biggest enemies in the process of being focused. They keep you ungrounded. The more grounded you are the more your ability to stay in one place. The more focus you have in life. So to SEASONAL MAGAZINE

be more focused, first work on your grounding. But how do you improve your grounding?

Step 1:

Good Fitness You have to follow some type of fitness routine. Your body is built to move. If you don't work it enough, you'll be left with an excess amount of energy and an excess amount of energy will make you 'ungrounded'. Tire your body a little. The hormones released and the energies balanced within you will keep you mind sharp.

Step 2:

Good Diet Choose the correct food. Your body is a collection of everything you eat. We've evolved from cavemen who've spent centuries eating clean, fresh food. And only in the last 100-200 years, our eating habits have changed. Now we fill our bodies with packaged poison. The more FOCUS IS ABOUT STAYING IN ONE PLACE SWITCHING OFF FROM ALL THE DISTRACTIONS IN YOUR LIFE, AND STAYING GLUED TO ONE SPOT IN ONE THOUGHT, IN ONE WORK TASK.

additives and processed sugar there is in your diet, the more ungrounded you'll feel in your life. So choose wisely, eat fresh, and then witness the change in the state of your mind.

Step 3:

Work Your Mind Muscle The most important step. Work your mind muscle. Those biceps curls might make your biceps stronger, but your mind is also like your bicep. It can be trained to be focused. It can be trained to be grounded. It can be trained to become stronger. The easiest way to ground your mind, is a breath-based meditation. Sit comfortably with your back erect, and only try focusing on your breath, nothing else. If your mind wanders about, that's normal. You've got to bring your attention back to your breathing. That's all. That's where your focus muscle is being worked. You're teaching your mind to come back to one thought - and one thought only.Your career requires you to focus on your work tasks, your meditation requires you to focus on your breath. If you are serious about improving focus, and maximizing human potential, this is your answer: put in 20 minutes of work to train your brain muscle, and once you open your eyes, use that stronger muscle to get some work done.

OVERSEAS EDUCATION

series of discriminatory measures the U.S. took against Chinese students and can also be seen as a response to the U.S.-initiated trade war,” Hu wrote on his Twitter account in English. The warning quickly became a top trending topic on China’s Weibo microblogging site, with some people expressing concern about going to the United States and others saying they would just go to other countries. “This is really scary,” wrote one user. “The world is so big, why do you have to go to the United States?” wrote another. Last year, China’s embassy in Washington issued a security advisory to Chinese nationals traveling to the United States, warning tourists to be aware of issues including expensive medical bills, the threat of public shootings and robberies, and searches and seizures by customs agents.

elations between China and the United States have nosedived because of their trade conflict, U.S. sanctions on Chinese tech firm Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and tension over the disputed South China Sea and U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan. The Ministry of Education, in a short statement, said that recently some students seeking to study in the United States had encountered problems with the duration of their visas being limited and an increase in visa refusals. “This has affected Chinese students going to study in the United States or smoothly completing their studies,” it added. “The education ministry reminds students and academics of the need to strengthen risk assessment before studying abroad, enhance prevention awareness, and make corresponding preparations.” However, state television cited ministry spokeswoman Xu Mei as saying despite the trade tensions, the “general situation” for Chinese students going to the United States remained stable, and

U.S. institutes of higher education welcomed Chinese students and cooperation with China. The ministry declined to offer any other details when contacted by Reuters. At stake is about $14 billion of economic activity, most of it tuition and other fees generated annually from the 360,000 Chinese nationals who study in the United States. Hu Xijin, editor of the widely read Chinese newspaper the Global Times, linked the warning to recent discrimination against students faced and the trade dispute. “This warning is a response to recent

The education ministry reminds students and academics of the need to strengthen risk assessment before studying abroad, enhance prevention awareness, and make corresponding preparations.

A group of U.S. President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress introduced legislation last month intended to prohibit anyone employed or sponsored by the Chinese military from receiving student or research visas to the United States. FILE PHOTO: Students shield themselves from the sun as they line up at a job fair at a university in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China November 29, 2018. Tan Qingju/ Southern Metropolis Daily via REUTERS The bill would require the U.S. government to create a list of scientific and engineering institutions affiliated with China’s People’s Liberation Army, and prohibit anyone employed or sponsored by those institutions from receiving the visas. The bill comes as some U.S. officials have expressed concern about the possibility of the theft of intellectual property or even espionage by Chinese nationals at U.S. universities and other institutions. Many U.S. and university officials also warn about over-reacting, however, arguing it is important to acknowledge the important role Chinese scholars and students play at U.S. institutions while being aware of security risks. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

M&A

Though presented as a merger, this is clearly a buyout of the distressed Lakshmi Vilas Bank by the multi-times bigger NBFC Indiabulls Housing Finance, and as such, a marriage of convenience that may click for the shareholders of both companies in the long-term, because there are not much options before both, but may not be beneficial for LVB's employees. While both are private entities, regulator RBI needs to focus also on the safety of the deposits of LVB's huge public depositor base.

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private sector, Indiabulls Housing Finance has been ndiabulls Housing Finance Ltd had facing the headwind of higher cost of funds which has applied for a banking license a couple made banks gain a huge advantage over HFCs like of years back, but the banking sector Indiabulls in the home loan business. So, why can't regulator RBI didn't approve of its they apply for a banking license afresh? Maybe because desire to be a bank, most probably that will make it more difficult for RBI to grant their because it was a pure home loans and wish. While the regulator has changed a lot from the construction financier and India's central bank time it was led by globally acclaimed economists like didn't want any new bank to have even Dr. Raghuram Rajan and Dr. Urjit Patel, it would still reasonable exposure to real estate business, be difficult for RBI to do a volte-face and grant a forget the kind of exclusive exposure Indiabulls universal banking license to Indiabulls that was denied Housing Finance had. The other protagonist in in the Rajan-Patel era citing the company's exclusive the story, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, a traditional exposure to the risks of real estate speculations and private sector lender has run into serious rough downturns. So, it is clear that Indiabulls Housing weather during the past few years. A few years Finance is intelligently opting for some distress of pursuing aggressive growth had finally resulted shopping for an existing banking in LVB running up not only license, and leaving some ground huge NPAs and losses, but Even a QIP for nearly for RBI to reconsider their decision caused the bank to breach Rs.460 crore that the indirectly, through a merger almost all safeguards put in by bank concluded well proposal with an existing bank. The the regulator RBI, including was not enough to very fact that the strange merger Capital Adequacy Ratio contain the worsening proposal has come up during a (CAR), Asset Quality and general election season hints that Return on Assets (RoA), for CAR. If the bank the merger might have political continuing to operate as a doesn't do anything patronage too. If the merger goes bank. Even a recent QIP for quick, it is almost sure through, for every 100 shares of nearly Rs.460 crore that the that it will fall under Lakshmi Vilas Bank, its bank concluded well was not RBI's Prompt shareholders will get 14 shares of enough to contain the Indiabulls Housing Finance. While Corrective Action worsening CAR. If the bank it is said to be a merger by both doesn't do anything quick, it (PCA) framework parties, it is clear that it is a buyout is almost sure that it will fall which will impose of LVB by Indiabulls as both by loan under RBI's Prompt severe additional book and market capitalization, Corrective Action (PCA) restrictions on Indiabulls Housing is a giant framework which will impose operations, especially compared with LVB. Indiabulls severe additional restrictions Housing has a loan book of Rs. in new lending. on operations, especially in 1,24,000 crore against LVB's Rs. new lending. To escape from 24,000 odd crore, while in market cap, Indiabulls PCA, the bank needs significant additional capital dominates even more with Rs. 35,500 crore against which is hard to come by, given that the bank LVB's Rs. 2900 crore. No wonder then that LVB's, as has been struggling and is not expected to turn well as the banking sector's union, AIBEA is staunchly around fast, even on adequate capital infusion. opposed to the deal, citing that LVB should be merged But LVB still has some most valuable assets, with a PSU bank. However, all said and done, both the mainly its longstanding banking license as a protagonists are private sector players, and while the universal bank and its ongoing brand and deal may be detrimental for employees, mainly of operations as a decades old bank. Cutting back LVB's, it is highly likely that the deal would be beneficial to the other protagonist in the story, two years for the shareholders of both the companies in the long down the lane too, Indiabulls Housing's desire run, if not for any other reason, for the simple reason for a banking license has only increased, not that both the companies have no better alternative to decreased. This is because, despite being an face the future. The ball is now in regulator RBI's court, aggressive player, and one of the fastest growing as it needs to focus also on the safety of the deposits of Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) in the LVB's huge public depositor base. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

BEWARE, POULTRY TOO CAN UP BAD CHOLESTEROL

A NEW STUDY SAYS THERE IS NO EVIDENCE FOR CHOOSING WHITE OVER RED MEAT FOR REDUCING CVD RISK.

When it comes to curbing meat intake for better health, red meat is something that tops the chart in almost every case study. Consumption of red meat has been linked to increased chances of heart disease, rise of bad cholesterol, cancer and also type-2 diabetes. White meat such as chicken was considered a healthier option, but a recent study claims it’s not. Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study raises questions about poultry and links it to cholesterol. “When we planned this study, we expected red meat to have a more adverse effect on blood cholesterol levels than white meat. But we were surprised that this was not the case. Their effects on cholesterol levels are identical when saturated fat levels are equivalent,” said the study lead author Ronald Krauss, Professor at the University of California in the US. The study was conducted on 113 adults and each of them were assigned three diets for one month – rich in lean cuts of beef, lean cuts of chicken or turkey or plant protein. After a month’s time, their diets were reshuffled to check how their body responded to each of these three diets. After each month, the researchers measured the participants’ levels of LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol. “The results of the present study support current dietary recommendations to adopt dietary patterns with high vegetable content, but do not provide evidence for choosing white over red meat for reducing CVD risk on the basis of plasma lipid and lipoprotein effects”, said the study. However, the study didn’t include results of grass-fed beef or processed products like bacon or sausage; nor did it include fish. The scientists also said that plant proteins were the healthiest for blood cholesterol. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

TRUMP HAILS QUEEN ELIZABETH'S MECHANIC ROLE IN WORLD WAR II

AT THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR II IN 1939, MANY CLOSE TO THE ROYAL FAMILY WANTED THE QUEEN MOTHER AND HER DAUGHTERS, PRINCESSES ELIZABETH AND MARGARET, THEN 13 AND 9 YEARS OLD RESPECTIVELY, TO EVACUATE TO CANADA, BUT THEY DIDN'T. ELIZABETH LATER SERVED AS A MECHANIC IN WAR EFFORT. uring a lavish banquet at Buckingham Palace on Monday, President Donald Trump noted the coming 75th anniversary of DDay and the British royal family's steadfastness and dedication during World War II. At one point, he said: "In April 1945, newspapers featured a picture of the Queen Mother visiting the women's branch of the Army, watching a young woman repair a military truck engine. That young mechanic was the future queen - that great, great woman." Now, as Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler can attest, Trump is not always accurate with his claims. With this one, though, he is spot on. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, many close to the royal family wanted the Queen Mother and her daughters, princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, then 13 and 9 years old respectively, to evacuate to Canada. But the Queen Mother refused. She rode out the war in Buckingham Palace, though it was bombed repeatedly, and shuffled the princesses around several palaces before settling them into Windsor Castle. By February 1945, the war was still raging, and

Elizabeth had turned 18. At her own insistence, according to the Royal Collection Trust, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a subaltern and trained as a truck mechanic and driver. And yes, as Trump said, the Queen Mother visited her daughter in the field, along with Elizabeth's father, King George VI. By the end of the war later that year, Elizabeth had reached the rank of junior commander. To this day, she is the only female member of the royal family to have served in the military. She is also the last remaining head of state to have served during World War II, according to the BBC. And if you're thinking, "Wait, I don't remember this on 'The Crown,' " well, that's because the Netflix show begins with the engagement of Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, which happened after the war. They married in 1947. But in the very first episode, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference. While on a trip to Kenya, Elizabeth and Philip's entourage struggles with a stalling car engine. Annoyed, the princess, played by Claire Foy, hops out of the car and tells them how to fix it. "It's all right, I was a mechanic during the war," she says.

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WORLD CUP

Carl Jaison

WHO SAID THERE ARE WORLD CUP FAVORITES?

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ith India, England, Australia and New Zealand looking like the teams to beat after the first round of action in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, there is a natural tendency to write off the other contenders. While India convincingly beat South Africa in their tournament opener in what was a brilliant display of team efficiency, England demolished the same opponents in a fitting statement of their remarkable capability but came short against Pakistan. Australia romped home to victory against Afghanistan while New Zealand added to Sri Lanka’s miserable woes in this format. But, do these few matches offer a reflection of where teams stand and are likely to finish? Heading into any sporting tournament, pundits and commentators like to heap praise on the select few teams who they believe stand a better chance than the rest. This category of teams is branded ‘favourites’, undoubtedly so due to their technically superior personnel, skill-set and ability to quickly adapt to varying match situations. They are

considered the teams to beat, even as the opposition risks of being decimated themselves if things do not go according to plan. However, there is something amiss about this term in the modern-day game. On what basis are teams chosen as favorites? In spite of their enviable record in world tournaments, there is little reason to believe that the ‘favorites’ would go through unscathed and live up to their expectations. Just ask the German national football team following their ignominious exit from the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Although it must be said that results in cricket don’t spring a surprise as much as it does in other sports (wildcards or ‘darkhorses’ might achieve the odd, hard-fought victory but rarely steamroll their rivals), it is safe to assume that the ‘favorite’ teams might want to shed that tag for their own good. Here are three reasons why that might be the case as the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup kickstarts in the UK and especially after what everyone witnessed post the first week of cricketing action:

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1. HEIGHTENED PRESSURE AND THE MEDIA In the past, teams rarely exposed themselves to outsider attention and this helped them to deliver the goods on the field. However, this was to change after the influx of media coverage on every aspect of a team’s preparation ahead of an important tournament. Press conferences and media briefings affirmed the significance of information sharing to the public through various news platforms and teams could have little control over what was being written or said about them. Cricketers, especially team captains, have had a history of infamous run-ins with a hostile foreign media. This by no means suggests that the home country’s media would simply watch on as the team capitulates without putting up a fight. After India’s humiliating exit from the 2007 ICC World Cup, the native media were quick to slant their superstars, who had brought upon national shame losing at the hands of their neighbours, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The point that deserves attention here is that as much as the influence of media has benefited the status of national teams, it has also acted as a potent weapon that unleashes mayhem on the psyche of teams struggling to find their feet. While it is understandable why the media trains SEASONAL MAGAZINE

their guns on the fancied teams, what is less talked about is the jarring effect it can have on their preparation for a tournament like the World Cup. The current English side seems to have relished the media glare like no other with their captain Eoin Morgan even confirming their tag as ‘tournament favorites’. It might be hard to fathom that teams would cave into outside pressure especially when the on-field work pressure is seemingly more hectic but history has shown that teams rarely do well once they are the receiving end of media pressure. Add to this heady mix the advent of social media and one can begin to see why the ‘favored’ teams rarely handle pressure well. No other team has developed a love-hate

THIS CATEGORY OF TEAMS IS BRANDED ‘FAVOURITES’, UNDOUBTEDLY SO DUE TO THEIR TECHNICALLY SUPERIOR PERSONNEL, SKILL-SET AND ABILITY TO QUICKLY ADAPT TO VARYING MATCH SITUATIONS.

relationship with the media as much like India: the scribes can catapult the nation’s superstars simply with the proverbial stroke of a pen but tear into them if expectations are not met. In spite of the round-the-clock media obsession, the Virat Kohli-led team has effectively steered clear of any major controversies barring the infamous exit of former coach Anil Kumble over his differences with the skipper. Contrast this with Dhoni’s reign where the skipper often engaged in combative verbal exchanges with journalists and even famously sat through an entire press conference in utter silence following BCCI’s gag order to players preventing them from speaking about the 2013 IPL matchfixing scandal. Dhoni was certainly an astute captain, but hardly kept his famed composure when addressing the media. Kohli, on the other hand, always wore his heart on his sleeve even off the field and almost relish justifying his team combination to the media. However Kohli (and coach Ravi Shastri) seem unperturbed by media obligations, which was most evident when they decided to send India’s reserve bowlers – Deepak Chahar and Avesh Khan – for the press interaction on the eve of India’s opening WC match against South Africa. The incident left journalists miffed and they organized a boycott.

2. THE NATURE OF WORLD CUP MATCHES Tournament favorites are expected to qualify to the succeeding round with ease, except that this is easier said than done. While a section of the cricketing fraternity rightly criticized the current WC format for taking the sheen and context out of certain matches in the tournament, the opening few matches have put such complaints to rest. Although the fancier Aussie and English teams dominated their respective first matches, the latter succumbed to what many termed as a ‘shocking’ victory for the unpredictable Pakistani outfit. While the better team prevails on their day, it is unrealistic to state that the Pakistani team is the only surprise package in every tournament whereas one knows what to expect from the other teams. Here is a spoiler: teams rarely play according to their billing and the fancier teams are doomed to fail if they do not turn up when the situation demands. The inference to be drawn is that almost all teams are unpredictable by way of the chasm between expectations and reality. While South Africa’s experience of being labeled as ‘chokers’ certainly do

not help their cause, the manner of their defeat at the hands of a spirited Bangladeshi side only suggests one thing: world cup tournaments care little about past achievements or strength of a team’s line-up on paper. By any rate, this South African side may not be the favorites, but they certainly aren’t pushovers. But that is exactly what they endured against Bangladesh, who showed why terming the win as an ‘upset’ should be a thing of the past. One only had to take stock

NO OTHER TEAM HAS DEVELOPED A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MEDIA AS MUCH LIKE INDIA: THE SCRIBES CAN CATAPULT THE NATION’S SUPERSTARS SIMPLY WITH THE PROVERBIAL STROKE OF A PEN BUT TEAR INTO THEM IF EXPECTATIONS ARE NOT MET.

of Bangladesh’s stellar display against New Zealand, although in a losing cause, to appreciate why world cup matches are incredibly hard to predict. Bangladesh refused to give up on the fight and took the match right down to the wire when it appeared as though New Zealand would canter through. While a lack of bowling discipline costed them the match, the positives for Bangladesh would be to take heart in yet another spirited performance. On their day, both Pakistan and Bangladesh can defy odds to prevail over their fancier opponents but the key to these supposedly surprising outcomes lay in the nature of world cup matches. While the argument can be made that the 50-over format neutralizes the impact of shock defeats with a longer window of opportunity to claw back into the game (as opposed to the T20 format where winning certain sessions of play is guaranteed to win you matches), teams like Pakistan and Bangladesh are a living example of how the World Cup is a great leveler and has a poor taste for historical records.

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3. WINNING THE RIGHT MOMENTS IN THE MATCH While this might very well be an outcome of the first point raised in this article, the following analysis should justify its inclusion as a standalone reason for the futility of assigning ‘favorite’ tags to teams. Let’s dwell into the current World Cup for an understanding of who are the ‘favorites’ and who are not. During the build-up to this cricketing spectacle, much has been made of the might of teams that have world class batsmen and bowlers in their ranks. While this is a tried and tested policy to win tournaments (many believe that the fate of a team rests in the hands of the selectors), it rarely reflects on the actual performance on the field. While the world cup stage and the added pressure of being the top batsmen or bowler in your team can bring out the best in certain players (read Joe Root and Mitchell Starc), their ability to consistently play out of the ordinary is limited. This is due to the psychological impact of playing in a long-drawn tournament like the World Cup where every match has a different dynamic and requires the ability to adjust to the situation at hand. It is probably by overstating the importance of ‘momentum’ that pundits believe that teams that are on a winning run stand a SEASONAL MAGAZINE

better chance of lifting the trophy. However, the psychological ask in every match is bound to be different as individual form and team momentum would not count for much. Rohit Sharma’s splendid yet cautious knock of 122 off 144 balls against South Africa validates this further. He knew that the first phase of play, with Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris steaming in and peppering him with short ones, required a steady approach. This was possibly the most important moment or phase in the entire match yesterday but Rohit showed that he had the gumption to triumph. Given that the South African

DHONI WAS CERTAINLY AN ASTUTE CAPTAIN, BUT HARDLY KEPT HIS FAMED COMPOSURE WHEN ADDRESSING THE MEDIA. KOHLI, ON THE OTHER HAND, ALWAYS WORE HIS HEART ON HIS SLEEVE EVEN OFF THE FIELD AND ALMOST RELISH JUSTIFYING HIS TEAM COMBINATION TO THE MEDIA.

bowling attack proved to be of little threat as the match went on goes to show how winning that initial phase of play decidedly puts a team in the driver’s seat. Even the Australian team of yesteryear had their unbeatable aura simply because they knew how to deliver in the most crucial phase of the match. In a tournament like the World Cup, teams need to display the mettle to outperform their rivals in the most pressure-inducing moments. As Rohit himself admitted, the knock was not typical of his natural, free-flowing style of play but he grinded out one of the most valuable innings of his career where he dominated in the right moments. While it is too early to say anything about the fortunes of teams in this tournament, it could be predicted that teams that hold their nerves in the crucial moments of the match would fare exceedingly better than teams that bank on couple of in-form individuals or are having a good run. As the match between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka revealed, the key to success in tournaments like the World Cup is to deliver when it matters the most and Sri Lanka’s performance seems to have shown the importance of staying in the game at a psychological level.

IMPACT

INTERNET IS CHANGING YOUR BRAIN Switching between Google, Instagram, email and Twitter and being online all day could have an effect on your memory and your brain. increasing #Instagramification of society, has the ability to alter both the structure and functioning of the brain, while potentially also altering our social fabric. “To minimise the potential adverse effects of high-intensity multi-tasking Internet usage, I would suggest mindfulness and focus practice, along with [the] use of ‘Internet hygiene’ techniques.” A study co-author from Oxford University, Dr Josh Firth said the internet has also altered the way we interact with other people.

eavy internet and social media use could alter the structure of our brains and have an influence on how we think.

“Additionally, the online world now presents us with a uniquely large and constantly-accessible resource for facts and information, which is never more than a few taps and swipes away.

An international team of experts, including from Oxford, Harvard and Western Sydney University, have published a major study on the way the internet can impact our brains.

“Given we now have most of the world’s factual information literally at our fingertips, this appears to have the potential to begin changing the ways in which we store, and even value, facts and knowledge in society, and in the brain,” he said.

The research, published in the Journal of World Psychiatry, has found that the internet can change how we remember things, focus on tasks, and interact with people. The study's lead author Dr Joseph Firth, who is a senior research fellow with the NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University said highlevels of Internet-use could have an impact on many functions of the brain. “For example, the limitless stream of prompts and notifications from the Internet encourages us towards constantly holding divided attention – which then, in turn, may decrease our capacity for maintaining concentration on a single task,” Dr Firth said in a statement.

The research has found it takes a long time to alter the brains' structures, but MRI scans showed changes in brain activity between people with heavy online usage and those with less usage. A senior author of the report, Professor Jerome Sarris from Western Sydney University is concerned over some of the potential impacts of heavy internet usage. “The bombardment of stimuli via the Internet, and the resultant divided attention commonly experienced presents a range of concerns,” Professor Sarris said in a statement. “I believe that this, along with the

“It’s now critical to understand the potential for the online world to actually alter our social functioning, and determine which aspects of our social behaviour will change, and which won’t.” The researchers said the widespread adoption of phones, tablets and computers, along with social media, is also of concern to some teachers and parents. The World Health Organization’s guidelines recommended that young children between the age of two and five should sit in front of screens for only one hour per day or less. Dr Firth said while more research is needed on the effects of screens on children, parents and carers could do simple things, such as ensuring that children are not missing out on social interaction and exercise. "To help with this, there are also now a multitude of apps and software programs available for restricting Internet usage and access on smartphones and computers – which parents and carers can use to place some ‘family-friendly’ rules around both the time spent on personal devices, and also the types of content engaged with,” he said. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

HEALTH FOOD

TOMATO JUICE FOR HIGH BP?

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE IS A TRICKY CONDITION TO SPOT, BUT LEFT UNTREATED, SERIOUS AND EVEN LIFE-THREATENING HEALTH COMPLICATIONS CAN OCCUR. ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO KEEP BLOOD PRESSURE IN CHECK AND TO LOWER HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE IS TO MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR DIET - YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER DRINKING A CUP OF TOMATO JUICE DAILY.

from the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. But Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said more research is needed to accurately represent the health benefits of tomato juice.

igh blood pressure can be difficult to spot because symptoms are rarely noticeable. The best way to find out your reading is to have your blood pressure checked by your GP or pharmacist or to use a blood pressure monitor at home. If high blood pressure is left untreated, the arteries will begin to harden and thicken, leading to heart attack and stroke. But the condition can often be prevented or reduced by eating a healthy diet. The NHS recommends cutting down on the amount of salt in your food and to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. When it comes to the best fruit and vegetables to eat for blood pressure, new research has shown the positive effects of tomato juice. Tomato juice was found to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol in people at risk of heart disease. The 481 Japanese participants in the study were provided SEASONAL MAGAZINE

with as much unsalted tomato juice as they wanted for a whole year. They kept "tomato juice diaries" in which they recorded exactly how much they consumed each day, in addition to any health changes they noticed. Blood pressure dropped by three per cent on average in 94 participants with untreated pre-hypertension or hypertension, according to the findings published in the journal Food Science and Nutrition. High blood pressure: Drinking this juice daily could help lower your reading High blood pressure: Drinking a certain juice daily could help lower your reading (Image: GETTY) Among those with high cholesterol, 125 experienced a 3.3 per cent average fall in the fatty substance which can block blood vessels causing heart attacks and strokes. The beneficial effects were similar among men, women and different age groups, according to the research team

She said: "The Japanese population is likely to be different to that of the UK, so we shouldn't generalise. "The study also fails to look at what else participants were eating or whether they had consumed tomatoes in other forms and it does not take lifestyle factors into account which could have affected their blood pressure and cholesterol levels." Ms Taylor said increasing your daily intake of fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, helps maintain a healthy heart and circulatory system. But she warned against drinking more than one 150ml portion of fruit or vegetable juice per day due to the high sugar content. Another way high blood pressure can be prevented or reduced is by keeping active. Regular exercise has been shown to keep the heart and blood vessels in a good condition and can help you lose weight, which can also help lower blood pressure. Experts advise adults do at lest 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, such as cycling or fast walking every week.

SCOOTER RENTAL STARTUP VOGO RAISES RS 25 CRORE LED BY ALTERIA

GADGET

APPLE IS GETTING ROASTED FOR ITS $1,000 STAND FOR A MONITOR

THE 32-INCH PRO DISPLAY XDR MONITOR ITSELF STARTS AT $5,000, BUT THAT PRICE DOESN'T INCLUDE THE STAND - WHICH COSTS ANOTHER $1,000. THE REVEAL OF THE STAND'S HIGH PRICE AT THE APPLE EVENT WAS MET WITH AUDIBLE GROANS, AND OTHERS WERE QUICK TO ROAST THE COMPANY ONLINE FOR THE LOFTY COST. n stage at WWDC 2019 on Monday afternoon, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus, had just re-appeared in front of the audience.

on the event's livestream, as was what sounded like the sole clap from someone in the audience. Even Ternus seemed to notice the murmurings, but he soldiered on with the rest of the announcement, including that the $999 computer screen stand would be available to purchase this fall.

For the past 20 minutes, various Apple executives had taken the stage to show But the reaction on social media to the off the new features of the Mac Pro, $999 stand echoed the Apple's most powerful THE ANNOUNCEMENT sentiment inside the computer ever, and one intended for professionOF THE PRICE POINTS conference auditorium, with those following als. Now, Ternus was FOR THE MAC PRO via the livestream back to reveal how AND THE PRO DISPLAY along quickly chiming in to much they were selling XDR MONITOR the beast of a computer voice their displeasure. STARTING AT $6,000 for. The announcement Users on Twitter and Reddit were taken aback of the price points for AND $5,000, RESPECby the $1,000 price tag the Mac Pro and the Pro TIVELY - WERE MET for a stand to hold an alDisplay XDR monitor WITH CHEERS AND ready-$5,000 monitor starting at $6,000 and APPLAUSE. $5,000, respectively (for the full package shown in the picture bewere met with cheers low, you'd have to fork over at least and applause. But when it came time to $12,000). Unsurprisingly, Apple's Pro debut the cost for the monitor stand, Stand was quickly given the meme treatTernus's announcement received somement across social media. thing rare for an Apple event - groans. That's because the new Pro Stand is priced at $999, which is as much as an iPhone XS. The murmurs rippling through the crowd were audible even

Bengaluru-based scooter rental startup Vogo has raised Rs 25 crore in a debt round led by Mumbai-based Alteria Capital. In October 2018, Alteria Capital had invested about Rs 8 crore in the startup. Vogo, which is backed by Ola, Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal's investment arm BAC Acquisitions, among others, is operational across 500 points in five cities in India.

ODISHA MAN BUILDS BRIDGE ACROSS RIVER WITH HIS PENSION MONEY

A retired employee of the Veterinary Department has invested his pension money in completing a half-finished bridge over Salandi river in Odisha's Keonjhar. The authorities left its construction midway due to shortage of funds. "I thought if I don't build it, no one else will," he said. The 270foot-long bridge connects Gangadhar Rout's village Kanpur to Daneipur across the river.

8 PEOPLE DIE WHILE COLLECTING 'HIMALAYAN VIAGRA' IN NEPAL

At least eight people have died in one week in Nepal's Dolpa district while collecting rare medicinal fungus Yarsagumba, popularly called 'Himalayan viagra'. Six people, including a toddler accompanying his mother, died of altitude sickness while two others fell off a cliff. Yarsagumba is supposed to have aphrodisiac and medicinal properties and is found in Himalayan mountains above 10,000 feet.

We'll have to wait until the fall to get a sense of how many people buy the Pro Stand, or whether they'll opt for cheaper alternatives without the Apple logo. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

TECHNOLOGY

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DECIPHERS WHY BABIES CRY EACH TIME

SCIENTISTS USE AI TOOL TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL REASON FOR THE CRY OF A BABY. very parent knows the frustration of responding to a baby’s cries, wondering if it is hungry, wet, tired, in need of a hug, or perhaps even in pain. A group of researchers in USA has devised a new artificial intelligence method that can identify and distinguish between normal cry signals and abnormal ones, such as those resulting from an underlying illness. The method, based on a cry language recognition algorithm, promises to be useful to parents at home as well as in healthcare settings, as doctors may use it to discern cries among sick children. The research was published in the May issue of IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica (JAS), a joint publication of the IEEE and the Chinese Association of Automation. Experienced health care workers and seasoned parents are able to pretty accurately distinguish among a baby’s many needs based on the crying sounds it makes. While each baby’s cry is unique, they share some common feaSEASONAL MAGAZINE

tures when they result from the same reasons. Identifying the hidden patterns in the cry signal has been a major challenge, and artificial intelligence applications have now been shown to be an appropriate solution within this context. The new research uses a specific algorithm based on automatic speech recognition to detect and recognize the features of infant cries. In order to analyze and classify those signals, the team used compressed sensing as a way to process big data more efficiently. Compressed sensing is a process that reconstructs a signal based on sparse data and is especially useful when sounds are recorded in noisy environments, which is where baby cries typically take place. In this study, the researchers designed a new cry language recognition algorithm which can distinguish the meanings of both normal and abnormal cry signals in a noisy environment. The algorithm is independent of the individual crier, meaning that it can be used in a broader sense in practical scenarios as a way to recognize and classify various cry features and better understand why babies

are crying and how urgent the cries are. “Like a special language, there are lots of health-related information in various cry sounds. The differences between sound signals actually carry the information. These differences are represented by different features of the cry signals. To recognize and leverage the information, we have to extract the features and then obtain the information in it,” says Lichuan Liu, corresponding author and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Director of Digital Signal Processing Laboratory whose group conducted the research. The researchers hope that the findings of their study could be applicable to several other medical care circumstances in which decision making relies heavily on experience. “The ultimate goals are healthier babies and less pressure on parents and care givers,” says Liu. “We are looking into collaborations with hospitals and medical research centers, to obtain more data and requirement scenario input, and hopefully we could have some products for clinical practice,” she adds.

GADGET

Xiaomi Pioneers Under-Screen Front Camera XIAOMI DETAILS HOW ITS UNDER-SCREEN CAMERA TECHNOLOGY WORKS, EVEN AS OPPO AND HONOR ALSO CONFIRM THEY ARE ALSO WORKING ON IT.

KOHLI FINED RS 500 FOR USING DRINKING WATER TO WASH CARS IN GURUGRAM Gurugram Municipal Corporation has imposed a fine of ?500 on India captain Virat Kohli after his domestic helps were spotted washing his cars with drinking water supplied by the corporation. Kohli's neighbours had complained to the corporation regarding wastage of drinking water at the cricketer's Gurugram house. The 30-year-old reportedly has six-seven cars including two SUVs at his Gurugram residence.

BRADLEY COOPER, IRINA SHAYK SPLIT AFTER 4-YR RELATIONSHIP: REPORT

iaomi confirmed last week it Screen Display coexisting with a front is working on an under camera. When not in camera mode, the screen front camera that transparent display works like a normal finally eliminates the need of one, allowing content to be displayed a notch, a hole-punch, or even a popin full. up slider. The camera hides underneath The display embedded camera combo a special low-reflective glass that allows more light into the lens, resulting doubles up as a camera lens on top as in clearer and crisper selfies than the well. This technology is still punch-hole solution, under works, and Xiaomi Xiang explains in one of Senior VP Wang Xiang has The display embedded his slides. now detailed on how this camera combo allows Oppo has also confirmed technology will work. He more light into the lens, that it is working on a says that the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Xiaomi's resulting in clearer and similar technology to Under-Display Camera crisper selfies than the enable notch-less Technology could be the punch-hole solution, smartphones without any ultimate solution for a Full Xiang explains in one motorised parts. Xiaomi Screen Display coexisting of his slides. first teased its underwith a front camera'. display selfie camera Xiang has tweeted several slides earlier this month. explaining how this under-display Honor President George Zhao has also camera technology works. The company confirmed in an interview with CNMO is working on a custom display that that the company is also working on an features a small transparent area made under-display camera of its own. He said of a special low-reflective glass with high that a prototype has been built, but they transmittance. When the selfie camera need to iron out some issues before it is activated, the display area over the goes commercial. He didn't pin down camera lens becomes transparent in an on a timeline for the launch of the instant, allowing light to enter. This technology either. could be the ultimate solution for a Full

Actor Bradley Cooper and supermodel Irina Shayk have split up after a fouryear relationship, as per a report in People Magazine. The couple will share custody of their 2-year-old daughter Lea De Seine, the report further stated. They started dating in 2015, after Cooper broke up with model Suki Waterhouse and Shayk ended her relationship with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

THAROOR GETS BAIL IN CASE OVER 'SCORPION ON SHIVLING' REMARK

A Delhi court granted bail to Congress' Shashi Tharoor on a personal bond of ?20,000 for his alleged 'scorpion' remark referring to PM Narendra Modi. BJP leader Rajiv Babbar had filed the case after Tharoor referred to an old quote allegedly by an "RSS source". Tharoor had said, "The man says Mr Modi's like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling."

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VIDEO STREAMING

Pete Jaison

THE ARMS RACE IN THE VIDEO CONSUMPTION SPACE IS HEATING UP

The American video-on-demand giant, Netflix has made its fastest content Investment in India in just a few years but their propitious plans for the country indicates that they are just warming up. Netflix understands that to keep such a large and diverse country like India locked in, they need to create diverse and appealing content based out of the country itself. So far, the platform has released eight original films from India. Among these, Lust Stories, which is a compilation of four stories (each directed by a different director), has set the record for the most watched original film in percentage terms in any individual market in its first month. They aim to finish another 14 films by the end of next year.

efore we go deeper at the various strategies OTTs are exploring, let’s understand how on-demand video got so popular in a country which was always very traditional when it came to movie consumption. To make it simple – As Indians took to cheaper smartphones with faster data (triggered by Reliance Jio), watching live cricket matches and latest Bollywood movies on the go became so common. In fact, it was only when the Star India owned OTT – Hotstargrabbed global broadcasting and digital rights for the popular IPL for $2.55 billion, that the majority of the Indian mass started getting more comfortable with the concept of digital video consumption. The bid of $2.55 billion, was considered a record for the sport while beating rival Sony Network, which had held the rights for the previous 10 years (ever since the IPL was launched).To put things in perspective, the IPL has become a cultural phenomenon in India, even more so than the NFL in the U.S. or the EPL in the UK, popular not just because of its brand of high octane and flashy cricket, but also its fusion with India’s other major obsession, Bollywood.

Netflix, which has been in India since 2016, has collected data points and SEASONAL MAGAZINE

insights that suggest that the market has a huge appetite for films. As a percentage of the overall time spent on Netflix, film viewing in India is the highest and 70 per cent of its subscribers see at least one film in a week, it says.The focus on providing diversity also shapes Netflix’s content acquisition strategy in India. While there are platforms that have signed slate deals with local studios, Netflix believes in taking one project at a time. ‘We want to make sure that Netflix has something for everyone. Diversity of content is the key. India is a diverse market and it is important to have good quality content that can be enjoyed by various kinds of viewers. Of course, it is important to stay true to the concept and tell the best stories in the best way possible. In that, we have been lucky to have collaborated with some of the best creators,’said SrishtiBehl Arya, Director - International original film, Netflix India. When it comes to the streaming industry, the cliché is true:

For a service to be successful in India, the ‘Indianisation’ of the service is a must. Their competitor - Amazon prime, on the other hand, is more focused on acquiring the rights to theatrical projects of multiple Indian studios like T-Series, Excel entertainment, Dharma productions etc. Hotstar still remains a market leader in this space due to their focus on cricket and Bollywood movies whereas players like Netflix believes that creating original movies based in India is the way to go. Among all this, India continues to be one of the fastest growing entertainment and media markets globally. With a potential target audience of over 300 million smartphone users, it is the second largest smartphone market in the world and is expected to reach 500 million very quickly leading to the growth of the OTT industry. Maybe, the winner can be determined then.

INDIAN BANK & CORPORATION BANK MAY MERGE INTO ORIENTAL BANK OF COMMERCE ith a heavy mandate to push reforms, the BJP-led government may soon kickstart the next phase of consolidation in the public-sector banking space with an amalgamation of three lenders - Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Indian Bank and Corporation Bank. Banking sources said that OBC has sought the finance ministry’s approval to combine with Indian Bank and Corporation Bank. The ministry will consider OBC’s proposal and take a view soon, one of the sources said. However, there is no formal announcement from the finance ministry on the matter yet. Another source said the government may infuse `40,00050,000 crore into public-sector banks (PSBs) this fiscal, having already provided `1,06,000 crore in FY19. The news of potential merger seems to have spooked Indian Bank investors, as its share price tanked 5% on the BSE on Tuesday, far worse than a 0.5% fall in the Sensex. However, OBC shares gained 2.85% and those of Corporation bank rose 1.21%. The merger, if implemented, will be part of the government’s efforts to create a few but strong banks with much larger balance sheet to support the rising credit appetite of the fast-growing economy and enable optimum utilisation of resources. The successful experience of merging State Bank of India with five of its subsidiaries and Bharatiya Mahila Bank, and the amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena bank have given the government confidence that more such consolidation exercises can be handled without any hiccups. OBC - which was facing restrictions under the central bank’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework until early February - recorded a net profit of Rs 201.5 crore in the March quarter from a net loss of Rs 1,650.22 crore a year earlier. Even sequentially, the profit

surged 39%. However, Corporation Bank’s losses zoomed to Rs 6,581.49 crore during the fourth quarter of FY19, against Rs 1,838.39 crore a year before. Indian Bank saw a net loss of Rs 190 crore in the March quarter, against a net profit of Rs 132 crore in the same period last year. While the headquarters of OBC is in Gurugram, those of Corporation Bank and Indian Bank are in Mangalore and Chennai, respectively. Earlier, there were reports of Punjab National Bank (PNB) amalgamating with OBC and some other smaller banks, such as Punjab & Sind Bank, Allahabad Bank and Andhra Bank. However, given that PNB is still not out of the woods, any such plan may wait until the bank’s results for the first quarter of this fiscal are out. PNB recorded losses of Rs 4,750 crore in the March quarter, against a net loss of Rs 13,417 crore in the same quarter last fiscal when the Nirav Modi fraud came to light. It, however, had recorded a net profit of Rs 247 crore in the third quarter of FY19. Upon amalgamation, the merged entity will have a combined deposits of `6.6 lakh crore and advances of Rs 4.8 lakh crore, said the sources. The net NPA ratio of OBC stood at 5.93%, while that of Corporation Bank and Indian Bank was 5.71% and 3.75%, respectively at the end of March. The interim Budget 2019-20 had said: “Amalgamation of banks has also been done to reap the benefits of economies of scale, improved access to capital and to cover a larger geographical spread.” SEASONAL MAGAZINE

NEIGHBOURHOOD

AN APP TO MANAGE MIGRAINE RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED A SMARTPHONEBASED RELAXATION APP WHICH MAY HELP REDUCE THE FREQUENCY OF HEADACHES IN PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM MIGRAINE.

THE APP, CALLED RELAXAHEAD, GUIDES PATIENTS THROUGH PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION, OR PMR. the therapy even after a doctor’s recommendation because of the expense and inconvenience, said Minen. “Oftentimes they end up only taking medications,” she said. To see if an app might increase compliance, the research team analysed app use by 51 confirmed migraine patients, all of whom owned smartphones. Participants were asked to use the app for 90 days and to keep a daily record of the frequency and severity of their headaches, while the app kept track of how long and often patients used PMR.

igraine sufferers who used the technique at least twice a week experienced on average four fewer headache days per month, said researchers from the New York University School of Medicine (NYU) in the US. The app, called RELAXaHEAD, guides patients through progressive muscle relaxation, or PMR. In this form of behavioural therapy, patients alternately relax and tense different muscle groups to reduce stress. The study, published in the journal Nature Digital Medicine, is the first to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of an app for treating migraine, and adding an app to standard therapies such as oral

medications under the supervision of a doctor. “Our study offers evidence that patients may pursue behavioural therapy if it is easily accessible, they can do it on their own time, and it is affordable,” said Mia Minen, an assistant professor at NYU. “Clinicians need to rethink their treatment approach to migraine because many of the accepted therapies, although proven to be the current, best course of treatment, aren’t working for all lifestyles,” Minen said. Primary symptoms of migraine include moderate to severe head pain that is often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. Patients are often prescribed drug treatments and behavioural therapy, but do not pursue

IN A FIRST, US AIR FORCE ALLOWS SIKH AIRMAN TO WEAR TURBAN ON DUTY

The US Air Force has for the first time allowed a Sikh airman to serve with a beard, turban and unshorn hair, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) said. Bajwa had joined the Air Force in 2017. The US Army had for the first time allowed a Sikh soldier to wear his articles of faith in 2016. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

Study participants, on average, had 13 headache days per month, ranging between four and 31. Thirty-nine per cent of patients in the study also reported having anxiety, and 30 per cent had depression. PMR therapy utilising the RELAXaHEAD app dropped to 51 per cent after six weeks, and to 29 per cent after three months. The researchers, who anticipated a gradual decrease in the use of the app, next plan to identify potential ways to encourage more frequent sessions. They also plan to study the best ways to introduce the app into their clinical practices. Minen said the study results suggest that accessible smartphone technologies “can effectively teach patients lifelong skills needed to manage their migraines.

HEALTH

SLEEP 8 HOURS TO LIVE LONG GETTING EIGHT HOURS SLEEP MAY BE CRITICAL FOR YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE - AND YOUR HEART. bad night’s sleep can result in a spike in blood pressure that night and the following day, according to the results of new research released Wednesday. The study, to be published in the latest edition of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Psychosomatic Medicine and led by scientists at the University of Arizona, offers one possible explanation for why sleep problems have been shown to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and even death from cardiovascular disease.

Some 300 men and women, ages 21 to 70, with no history of heart problems were given portable blood pressure cuffs for two consecutive days. The cuffs randomly took participants’ blood pressure during 45-minute intervals throughout each day and also overnight. They also wore “actigraphy monitors” on their wrists that measured movement to help determine their “sleep efficiency.” Those participants who had lower “sleep efficiency” showed an increase in blood pressure during that restless night. They also had higher systolic blood pressure - the number in a person’s blood pressure reading - the next day. The researchers said getting a good night’s sleep is important for good long-term health, but so is getting quality sleep, and recommended keeping your smartphone in another room, and pulling down the shades if your bedroom faces east. “Blood pressure is one of the best predictors of cardiovascular health,” said lead study author Caroline Doyle, a

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graduate student at the University of Arizona’s Department of Psychology. “There is a lot of literature out there that shows sleep has some kind of impact on mortality and on cardiovascular disease, which is the No. 1 killer of people in the country. We wanted to see if we could try to get a piece of that story - how sleep might be impacting disease through blood pressure.” Short sleepers had a 48% increased risk of developing or dying from coronary heart disease and a 15% greater risk of developing or dying from stroke, according to a 2011 study published in the European Heart Journal analyzed the sleep patterns of almost 475,000 people over 25 years. Scientists have also said a lack of sleep over a prolonged period of time can lead to calcification of arteries, hypertension (higher blood pressure), the release “Creactive protein,” which is connected with stress and inflammation, and reduce insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. “Patients with sleep apnea often have compromised heart health,” according to the National Sleep Foundation. “This is because without long, deep periods of rest, certain chemicals are activated that keep the body from achieving

Short sleepers had a 48% increased risk of developing or dying from coronary heart disease and a 15% greater risk of developing or dying from stroke, according to a 2011 study published in the European Heart Journal analyzed the sleep patterns of almost 475,000 people over 25 years.

extended periods in which heart rate and blood pressure are lowered.” This 2008 study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine concluded that individuals with severe sleep apnea are at increased risk for coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and stroke. There are other ways to reduce hypertension. A diet that helps people reduce high blood pressure or hypertension may also reduce the risk of heart failure in people under the age of 75, according to separate research recently published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and led by doctors at Wake Forest School of Medicine, which is part of Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C. An observational study of more than 4,500 people over 13 years showed that those individuals under 75 who most closely adhered to the Dash diet had a significantly lower risk of developing heart failure than those who were least likely to keep to the tenets of the diet. (Dash is an acronym for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.) The study recommends cutting five things out of your diet: This Dash diet recommends eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, poultry, fish and lowfat dairy products, while reducing consumption of three main components: salt, red meat, sweets and sugarsweetened beverages. It is very similar to the Mediterranean diet, but the Dash diet recommends cutting out two more things: full cream (in favor of low-fat dairy products) and alcoholic beverages.