Seasonal Magazine July 2014 by John Antony

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Seasonal MAGAZINE

www.seasonalmagazine.com

Managing Editor Jason D Pavoratti Editor John Antony Director (Finance) Ceena Senior Editorial Coordinator Jacob Deva Senior Correspondent Bina Menon Creative Visualizer Bijohns Varghese Photographer Anish Aloysious Correspondents Bombay: Rashmi Prakash Hyderabad: Iqbal Siddiqui Delhi: Anurag Dixit Director (Technical) John Antony Publisher Jason D

One stock can change your life. But which one?

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Ever since, it became clear that BJPNDA will get a clear majority on their own, Indian markets have been on fire. Thousands of stocks that had been languishing since the early 2008 peak, quickly sprang back to life. Many of them are still far away from their lifetime highs, but many others have gone ahead and surpassed their all-time highs. And with them they brought back the eternal value of publicly listed companies in creating wealth for their public shareholders. One stock can change your life. For the good. Though one stock can change your life also for the bad, it rarely happens, unless with those investors who bet excessively on a single stock during their lifetime.

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Instead, those who get massively hurt in the stock market, to a point of no return, are more likely to be struck by a large portfolio, and more importantly by doing leveraged and/or time-bound investments or trades. But having said that a stock is enough to change one’s life, it is by no means easy to identify such a stock. In fact, the effort is so tough - akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack that most give up. Why is it so? Aren’t the good stocks readily visible? Sure, frontline stocks like the blue-chips in consumables, IT, pharma, or banking are readily visible, but the question is that whether you had entered it young.

Because, returns from mature frontline stocks can be steady and risk-free, but they can’t be life-changing anymore. They were profoundly life-changing for many, who entered them young, but they are unlikely to be wonderful multibaggers anymore. Most retail investors fail to understand the unbelievable compounding mechanics of multibaggers when entered young. Suppose you enter a stock when it is available for Rs. 50. You buy 2000 of them by investing Rs. 1,00,000. And it goes nowhere for many years. It may go even below your price sometimes. And you start lamenting that stocks are useless. But then comes along a bull market. And your Rs. 50 stock starts moving up from wherever it was when the bull market hit

it - Rs. 20 or Rs. 70. If the company continues reasonable performance and the bull market lasts, there will be no looking back. But still you may miss to understand the compounding dynamics, in the initial stages. Even if the stock reaches Rs. 150 within 5 to 7 years of your investment, you may continue to grumble. Because, it is difficult to imagine that the future would continue to be as rosy, or more importantly, to imagine what would be the emerging dynamics. So, here it is for you. If your stock continues to rise and starts trading around Rs. 500, what happens? If you think that what then happens is only that your 1 lakh becomes 10 lakh, you are missing the big picture. What really happens is that it becomes

very easy for your 10X multibagger to become a 11X multibagger. In other words, it becomes increasingly easy for your investment that has reached Rs. 10 lakh to become Rs. 11 lakh, and then more easier for it to reach Rs. 12 lakh and so on and on. Unbelievable? Here is the workout. For your Rs. 50 stock to move up to Rs. 100, a 100% appreciation is needed, which may take years altogether. But for your Rs. 500 stock to move up to Rs. 550, it needs just a 10% up-move, which can happen within a couple of days in a bull market. But within that 10% move, your investment has moved up from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 11 lakh! In other words, an amount equal to your initial investment of Rs. 1 lakh will get added by a 10% rise. Now, imagine the next orbit. After 10 or 15 or 20 years, what if your Rs. 50 stock is trading at Rs. 5000 a piece? Your Rs. 1 lakh initial investment has, of course, reached to be Rs. 1 crore, but the bigger story is that for your 100X investment to reach 101X, it would take only a 1% up move, which can happen within a day or an hour in a bull market. Imagine your initial investment getting added by one more time, with each 1% rise! Is it a very farfetched scenario? Of course not. Even the Indian market has hundreds of such stocks - wonders that have scaled from 50 to 300 times or more in their lifetimes. Entrepreneurs ranging from Bill Gates to Narayana Murthy and investors ranging from Warren Buffett to Rakesh

Jhunjhunwala made their billions this way. This is also how SD Shibulal came to own 700 apartments in various American cities! But how to identify such stocks? As someone joked, the best way is, of course, to start a company, make it successful, and take it public like Gates, Murthy, or Shibulal did. But for others, the retail investors, the task is less daunting, as Jhunjhunwala, Shivanand Mankekar, Ashish Dhawan, and hundreds like them proved. You just have to do meticulous homework. There are no less than two dozen parameters to look for. Small equity, non-dilution of equity, high promoter stake, low institutional stake, high standards in corporate governance, high growth rates etc are some vital statistics to look for. But there are certain summary stats that take into account most if not all of these parameters. In this issue, Seasonal Magazine presets two such parameters of around 65 companies - Return on Equity and Dividend Yield. But all said and done, it also requires a bull market to make the stocks start moving, and bull markets canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be started by companies, but only by a strong government and political leadership. That is what Modi has done. Now it is up to the companies and retail investors to make the best use of it, as long as Modi continues on his governance promise. John An Anttony

CONTENTS Now, Every Indian’s PM? Narendra Modi has a stated intention to be every Indian’s PM. But the ball is not entirely in his court to achieve this. Firstly, the 61% of voters who didn’t vote for him to be the PM this time, should show magnanimity and support his plans. Modi has already started working hard to become every Indian’s PM, and he may even succeed in soothing the concerns of all minorities, but the real challenge will be siding with the poorest of the poor among the society, against the excesses of some segments of the rich and the powerful.

In Full Force Behind Modi The Man Who Paved the Kiran Bedi is overflowing with Way for Modi emotion when speaking about Modi. But when speaking about former pals Arvind Kejriwal & Co, this former anti-corruption activist is at best only diplomatic.

Ask any politically literate person to name the one personality who facilitated Narendra Modi’s swift rise to power into the PM‘s seat, and there is likely to be a consensus.

Jaitley’s Quick Budget to Feature Directional Change

“Decision Making has Already Become Faster in Delhi”

Making Of The Modi Mythology BJP’s campaign managers brilliantly mobilized Indians around a belief in a piece of land and a deity, i.e, Gujarat and its presiding deity Modi – not unlike..

If Gujarat is a model, then the real toppers in development indicators, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, must be supermodels. I had earlier pointed out that Gujarat’s..

“Modi Does His Home work Well”

Will Modi Execute a More Powerful Security Policy?

When governments change, priorities change. However, Union budgets prepared immediately after a general election tend to be large on announcements about change..

KM Chandrasekhar was not only India’s top-most bureaucrat, but one of the longest serving topmost officers. This former Cabinet Secretary was thrice given extensions by amendment..

There were many who joined the Modi bandwagon after the exit polls. Suresh Gopi is not that type. Though his association with Modi is not very old either, he is one of the few celebrities down south who started chanting the Modi mantra during the run-up to the election..

Why Narendra Modi is India’s Best Hope

Solving the Unsolvable: Facing Realities in Kashmir

The Modi Promise is that Governance has No Ideology

Noted senior writer KL Mohana Varma argues that Modi’s win is not one of Hindu nationalism or polarisation, but a win for India’s ancient civilization that was practicing secularism long before it was written down in the Constitution.

Modi’s Kashmir strategy suffered a setback due to a junior minister’s goof-up, and subsequent over-reactions from Omar Abdullah and the RSS. But Modi has been quick to limit the damage by asking the minister..

How Developed is Gujarat, Really?

Hari S Kartha, well-known media personality and Executive Editor of Amrita TV, feels that Modi is set to prove that good governance won’t need any ideology like Right, Centre,...

He had promised it a lot during his election campaign. His appointment of Ajit Doval as NSA is also telling. What can be expected from Modi with regard to security issues with Pakistan, China, & Sri Lanka? And how..

ISIS and Not ISI Delivers Modi’s First Security Challenge

Narendra Modi’s first big overseas challenge comes not from Pakistan’s ISI, but from ISIS - the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The decade-old Al Qaeda offshoot’s unprecedented..

CONTENTS Taking Stock

Finally a new government is here. Rallies or downturns from now on will be decided not on euphoria but on business performance. No, not even on business performance alone. To be precise, any stock’s trajectory from now on will be set by real returns, like it has always been in the long term. Returns to shareholders. By way of Return on Equity (RoE). By way of Dividend Yield. Yes, it is time for taking stock. Taking stock of companies you have invested in. Taking stock of better companies, to invest in. Taking stock of your investments and possible investments, so that your portfolio doesn’t become a laughing stock in the coming months, quarters, and years. Based on the pouring in annual results, Seasonal Magazine takes stock of hundreds of buzzing stocks to test whether the buzz is justified or just unadulterated hype. We zero in on RoE and Dividend Yield, two metrics that indirectly includes all other quality metrics - lock, stock, & barrel.

India's killer roads: Unsafe for minister or commoner Senior cabinet minister Gopinath Munde's death in a car crash in the capital on Tuesday brought into

Volkswagen tries to play catch-up After losing market share, the German car maker wants to enter its competitor's turf of compact sedans and SUVs

Top 10 petrol cars for Rs 5 lakh It’s the most important price slab in India and there are over 20 options right to the variant. So which car would you buy? Here's our top 10

SOFTW ARE SOFTWARE

Think 4 Times Before Buying a New ERP System You shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t rush into buying a new ERP system as it is seen that companies frequently undertake large ERP replacement projects that are totally unnecessary. pharmaceutical company was convinced that it needed either to replace its current enterpriseresource planning (ERP) system with a totally different software package or install the major upgrade that the current vendor was pushing. This company is not alone in its thinking. Why? Dozens of spreadsheets, and manual workarounds had sprung up in the plant to help with production scheduling and handling make-toorder items that were new to the business over the past few years. The executives werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t getting accurate margin data on which to base decisions. Sales forecasting, new pricing and rebate schemes, sales management reporting, and periodend financial closing all required extensive manual intervention. The assumption was that the company had outgrown its current ERP system, and that a $5 million investment was required to implement an ERP package that would address the current issues. However, after a fiveweek deep-dive review of the sales, supply chain, finance processes and the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use of its current ERP system, it became apparent that the current software was more than adequate. The problem was that the company was not taking advantage of the existing functionality,

configuration options and businessintelligence (BI) tools. So rather than a high-risk, high-cost, 18-month ERP re-implementation, the company undertook a four-month project to: 1) Redesign key business processes around changes in master data and configuration settings; 2) Implement high-value BI sales, margin, forecast performance and financial reporting; and 3) Implement a finite scheduling package to make the best use of production scheduling. This company is not an outlier. Companies frequently undertake large ERP replacement programs that are totally unnecessary. Several factors lead to this misstep. While there are

While there are countless legacy ERP systems performing successfully throughout the world, there are typically several dynamics at work in companies that lead them to incorrectly believe a new ERP package will solve their businessprocess issues. Seasonal Magazine

countless legacy ERP systems performing successfully throughout the world, there are typically several dynamics at work in companies that lead them to incorrectly believe a new ERP package will solve their businessprocess issues. ERP software vendors are constantly introducing new features and versions, as they are a must to drive their growth. Whether cloud-based versions, different functionality or new industry-specific solutions, vendors are constantly suggesting reasons for their customers to upgrade An equally important reason is constant personnel changes in the executive ranks. New executives bring their past experiences and biases with them. Whether the current ERP system is Oracle, SAP, JDE, QAD or XYZ, a new executive can always find issues with the current system and justify why the package they prefer, or are simply more familiar with, is better.

CONTENTS Top 6 Weirdest Previous Jobs of Celebrities

As a rule, previous jobs of celebrities are noticeably different from their current occupations. They take great pains to hide their past experience, but I don`t understand why.

How Anxiety Changes Every Organ of Your Body No one likes to experience bouts of stress or anxiety - and when it becomes a chronic occurrence, its impact can go from a little annoyance to a health hazard.

Are Today's Kids the Luckiest Kids in History? Taking Stock From Britain

James Delingpole feels that kids never had it so good. But they are not very thankful to the society or universe or God for that. Though some of what

7 Mental Attitudes That Will Wreck Your Health Our personalities do more for us than determine our social circles. Temperament can impact a person's very physical health.

Over- sharing in Facebook Life, Lonely in Real Life Have Facebook friends who constantly post nearly everything about their personal lives to the

Nurturing Mindfulness in CHILDREN In the growing conversation around mindfulness, we're constantly hearing about meditation in the workplace and tech CEOs who swear by

What Really Causes High Blood Pressure?

A computer model of a 'virtual human' suggests that stiff arteries alone are enough to cause high blood pressure, scientists have warned.

Want to Prevent Sagging Muscles? Include Protein in Every Meal If you do not want those aweinspiring muscles in your biceps to fade with age, include a full serving of

How We End Up as Social Media Fakes I have never read a book by Maya Angelou. However I must confess when Maya Angelou died I immediately felt I needed to Google â&#x20AC;&#x153;inspirational quotes Maya Angelou.â&#x20AC;? I knew my social media

Why a Mother Dies Every 2 Hours in Rajasthan

How to create fanatically loyal customers

Despite increased health facilities in Rajasthan, even today one mother dies every

In this hyper-competitive world, where a consumer has a lot of options to choose

FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, or Neymar?

8 Tips to be an Android Power User Without Any Apps

As the football world races through the world cup countdown, here is a rundown on four likely contenders for the Golden

Android users install a plethora of apps to enrich their smartphone experience, but what many miss on are built-in Android features

SHAME

Why a Mother Dies Every 2 Hours in Rajasthan Despite increased health facilities in Rajasthan, even today one mother dies every two hours in the desert state due to delivery or delivery-related complications. An NGO has demanded the government to address the loopholes in the primary health centres (PHCs) and sub-centres (SCs), so that pregnant women can deliver the child here instead of going to community health centres (CHCs) and district hospitals. Save the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s state health and programme coordinator OP Singh said that on a survey conducted by the NGO on the situation of motherhood facilities, India ranked 137 out of 178 countries surveyed. In India, every 20 seconds a child dies due to diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea or malnutrition. The data of the state on safe motherhood is worrying. Singh said the state government made efforts to stop maternal mortality in rural areas, but only in about 7% of a total of 11,494 SCs do over three deliveries take place in a month. Similarly, only in 43.9% of the 1,100 24-hour PHCs do over 10

The data of the state on safe motherhood is worrying. Singh said the state government made efforts to stop maternal mortality in rural areas, but only in about 7% of a total of 11,494 SCs do over three deliveries take place in a month. Seasonal Magazine

deliveries take place in a month. The figure is the same for about 3.3% of the 417 PHCs. The remaining health centres are grossly under-utilised. Singh said the government should look into these PHCs and SCs and plug in the lacunas so that maximum deliveries take place here and pregnant women

do not need to go to the community health centres or district hospitals. He said that due to the lack of facilities in PHCs and sub-centres, pregnant women go to CHCs and district hospitals, and as the result, the patient load increases and proper care is not extended. According to the Annual Health Survey 2012-13, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Rajasthan has reduced by 37% from 331 to 208 per 1 lakh live births from 2010-11. However, there is still a long way to go to reduce the MMR, the official added. Save the Children advocacy and campaign coordinator Hemant Acharya said awareness is to be brought in rural areas about safe motherhood by launching a special campaign. He suggested that special schemes should be introduced to motivate and encourage health workers in rural areas.

HEAL TH HEALTH

What Really Causes High Blood Pressure? A computer model of a 'virtual human' suggests that stiff arteries alone are enough to cause high blood pressure, scientists have warned. igh blood pressure is highly age-related and affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. But doctors can't fully explain the cause of 90 per cent of all cases. "Our results suggest that arterial stiffness represents a major therapeutic target. This is contrary to existing models, which typically explain high blood pressure in terms of defective kidney function," said Klas Pettersen, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and first author of the study, published in PLOS Computational Biology. High blood pressure is a major source of morbidity and mortality, because it makes individuals more prone to heart failure, stroke and kidney disease.

intensively as they should and the body does not get the message to lower blood pressure. "With the stiffening of the wall that follows ageing, these sensors become less able to send signals that reflect the actual blood pressure. Our mathematical model predicts the quantitative effects of this process on blood pressure," said Pettersen. "If our hypothesis is proven right,

"With the stiffening of the wall that follows ageing, these sensors become less able to send signals that reflect the actual blood pressure. Our mathematical model predicts the quantitative effects of this process on blood pressure."

arterial stiffness and baroreceptor signalling will become hotspot targets for the treatment of high blood pressure and the development of new medicines and medical devices," said Stig W Omholt from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who was the senior investigator of the research project. With the use of existing experimental data and models of the ageing human aorta, the researchers were able to show quantitatively how the stiffening of the aorta with age causes the baroreceptors to misinform the central nervous system about blood pressure, thus preventing the system from downregulating blood pressure. The model predictions were compared with data from the NordTrondelag Health Study (HUNT2), which is composed of information on the health history of 74,000 people, including blood sample collection from 65,000 people.

When blood pressure travels down the aorta from the heart, a special group of cells in the aortic wall, called baroreceptors, sense the pressure in this stretch of the aortic wall and send signals with this information to the nervous system. If the blood pressure is too high, these cells send stronger signals and the body is able to lower blood pressure. However, if the aorta gets stiffer, as typically happens with age, this stretch of the aorta is not as sensitive as it once was in measuring blood pressure. Thus, although a person's blood pressure may have increased, the baroreceptors do not signal as Seasonal Magazine

MIND -BOD Y MIND-BOD -BODY

How Changes Every of Organ YourBody

Anxiety

No one likes to experience bouts of stress or anxiety - and when it becomes a chronic occurrence, its impact can go from a little annoyance to a health hazard. Whether you're experiencing an isolated, high-stress situation or you're one of the millions who suffer from anxiety disorder, your physical reaction to the emotion can affect you in more ways than you may have realized. Read on to discover how anxiety changes your body, whether it's your immediate reaction to stress or a long-term battle.

Short Term Effects of Anxiety: Throat Troubles: That croaky, squeaky voice that seems to have possessed your vocal chords is your immediate reaction to a stressful situation. When anxious feelings creep in, fluids are diverted to more essential locations in the body, causing spasms in the throat muscles. This results in tightness, making it dry and difficult to swallow.

Liver Reactions: When the body undergoes stress and anxiety, the adrenal system produces an excessive amount of the stress hormone cortisol. That hormone production leads the liver to produce more glucose, the high-energy blood sugar that engages your "fight or flight" reactions. For most people, this extra blood sugar in the body can be simply reabsorbed with no real damage. However, for those at risk for diabetes, the extraneous blood sugar could potentially cause health issues.

Skin Reactions: That cold, clammy sweat or your warm, flushed cheeks is the body's outward Seasonal Magazine

sign of immediate stress all due to a change in blood flow. When we experience anxiety, the body's "fight or flight" system pushes more blood to your muscles a useful reaction when there's an immediate need for it. However, a long-term, overexposure to this reaction has the potential to make the skin age faster. Other skin reactions include perspiration and even increases in histamine, which can result in swelling. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, severe stress and anxiety can also trigger eczema outbreaks.

Overactive Spleen: Anxiety doesn't just engage the obvious organs like our brains and our hearts, but it even affects internal functions like our spleens and blood cells. In order to distribute more oxygen to the body that may have been depleted during the stressful situation, the spleen discharges extra red and white blood cells. Your blood flow also increases by 300 to 400 percent during this process in order to prep the rest of the body for added demands.

Tense Muscles: When you start to feel anxious, the body naturally tightens up, creating strain on large muscle groups. Chronic

stress and anxiety can exacerbate this tension, which can result in headaches, stiff shoulders, neck pain and even migraines. People in a constant state of stress also are at a higher risk for chronic musculoskeletal disorders.

Long Term Effects of Anxiety: Heart Disease: Anxiety and chronic stress sufferers are more at risk for cardiovascular problems due to a constant increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and overexposure to cortisol. According to the American Psychological Association, long-term stress can also lead to hypertension, arrhythmias and an increased risk for heart attack or stroke.

Lung Disorders: Studies have shown that there is a relationship between those who suffer from anxiety disorders and asthma. People who suffer from asthma are also more likely to experience panic attacks. According to research conducted by the University of Sao Paulo, there could also be a link between anxiety, asthma and its effects on balance.

Brain & Nervous Issues: The most prominent reaction to anxiety is the psychological response to the condition. Chronic stress and anxiety can affect areas of the brain that influence long-term memory, short-term memory and chemical production, which can result in an imbalance. Additionally, chronic stress can constantly activate the nervous system which can in turn influence other systems in the body, triggering physical reactions, wear-andtear on the body, fatigue and more.

Insomnia: People who suffer from anxiety also often have trouble falling asleep due to ruminating over worrisome thoughts. Approximately 54 percent of people say stress and anxiety influences their ability to drift off and more than 50 percent of men and more than 40 percent of women have trouble focusing the next day as a result, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Immune Response: Exposure to stress can take a negative toll on the immune system, causing the function to become suppressed due to the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s "fight or flight" reaction. Studies have also found that when you're stressed, you're also more likely to catch a cold and more susceptible to infections and inflammation.

Stomach Problems: When your body experiences stress, it doesn't properly regulate food digestion. Chronic and extreme stress can also have long-term effects on your intestines and what nutrients they absorb, causing reflux, bloating, diarrhea and sometimes even loss of bowel control. Other recent research also discovered an association between adults who suffer from anxiety and physician-diagnosed ulcers.

Obesity & Diabetes: Long-term stress and anxiety can also alter the body's metabolism, which could lead to weight gain and possibly obesity. One study found that the constant release of cortisol in the bloodstream can reduce insulin sensitivity, leading to diabetes. Seasonal Magazine

LA UNCH LAUNCH

Heard it? A New Honda Mobilio is Honking Behind Honda has locked July for the launch of its eagerly awaited MPV, Mobilio in India. The company has already started trial production of the vehicle at its Greater Noida facility which confirms that Honda is on brink of launching the MPV in domestic market. he vehicle was first exhibited at the 2014 Auto Expo, held in Greater Noida in the beginning of February this year. Underpinning Brio, Mobilio is an extended version of the hatchback that has been metamorphosed to offer enhanced cabin space and boot space. This will be the Honda’s first stint in the MPV segment that has seen sea changes in the last couple of years. Battling with the likes of Maruti Ertiga, Toyota Innova and Chevrolet Enjoy, Mobilio MPV is expected to come with a competitive price tag. Mobilio’s extended dimensions are its USP, unlike most of its rivals that are categorized under the compact segment. The MPV is going to be literally huge with a length of 4,390 mm, width of 1680 mm and height of 1610 mm. A large wheelbase of 2650 mm will allow ample space for the passengers sitting at rear. Ground clearance of 185 mm will enable the driver to maneuver effortlessly through

The MPV is going to be literally huge with a length of 4,390 mm, width of 1680 mm and height of 1610 mm. A large wheelbase of 2650 mm will allow ample space for the passengers sitting at rear.

the tricky Indian roads. Honda cars are known to be styled meticulously and are also equipped well. Following the Honda’s tradition, the new Mobilio MPV is also expected to be inherited with the forenamed traits. In a bid to overpower its closest rival, Ertiga, Honda is working on making the third row more comfortable for the occupants. Mobilio will be made available in petrol as well as diesel engine options. The petrol variants will come housed with a 1.5 litre i-VTEC engine delivering a peak power of 116 Bhp. Diesel variants will be powered by a 1.5 litre i-DTEC powerplant that is good for 99 Bhp of maximum power. A five speed manual transmission will be paired with the petrol and diesel mills. Honda could also offer petrol variants with a five-speed automatic transmission.

Seasonal Magazine

SOCIAL MEDIA

Oversharing in Facebook Life,

Lonely in Real Life

Have Facebook friends who constantly post nearly everything about their personal lives to the point of becoming so annoying for oversharing? Don’t start getting irritated just yet, because a new study suggests they could be lonely.

he study, conducted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) researchers in Australia, intends to establish if there’s a relationship between being lonely and self-disclosure in social networking sites such as Facebook. The latest study is one of the several studies previously reported that similarly established a relationship between social media participation and loneliness or depression. The researchers gathered their data from 616 female Facebook users with publicly available profiles online, half of which was categorized as ‘connected’ and the other half as ‘lonely’ based on latest wall post that clearly stated such emotion. “The results of this study have shown that more ‘lonely’ people disclosed their Personal Information, Relationship Information, and Address than ‘connected’ people and more ‘connected’ people disclosed their religious or political views than ‘lonely’ people,” the study states. Study reveals that 98 percent of Seasonal Magazine

Facebook users who said they were lonely publicly listed their relationship status, with a certain number of users even sharing their home addresses. It also shows that 79 percent of these lonely Facebook users also divulged other personal information, for instance their favorite book or film, as opposed to less than 65 percent of the connected users. “It makes sense that the people who felt lonely would disclose this type of information," study’s co-author Yeslam Al-Saggaf, who is associate professor at the School of Computing and Mathematics in CSU, said. “They want to make it easier for others to initiate contact with them, which may help them overcome their feelings of loneliness.”

Study reveals that 98 percent of Facebook users who said they were lonely publicly listed their relationship status, with a certain number of users even sharing their home addresses.

He says that publicly revealing such sensitive, personal information on social networking sites is, however, a concern. “Coupled with other information, such as Relationship Status and Favourite Movies, which ‘lonely’ people also tended to disclose, the potential for harm from stalking and harassment, for example, is real and possibly serious,” he elaborates. Meanwhile, Facebook users who felt connected or who don’t openly state their loneliness on the social network tend to share their religious and political views as opposed to users who felt lonely. Al-Saggaf also believes all findings of their study are also equally applicable to male Facebook users. The study titled Self-disclosure on Facebook among female users and its relationship to feelings of loneliness was co-authored by Sharon Nielsen, director of the Quantitative Consulting Unit at CSU Research Office. The Computers in Human Behavior journal first published said study online and will come out in print by July 2014.

TREND

How We End Up as Social Media Fakes I have never read a book by Maya Angelou. However I must confess when Maya Angelou died I immediately felt I needed to Google “inspirational quotes Maya Angelou.” I knew my social media timeline would be flooded with them and I didn’t want to be caught emptyhanded with my cultural pants down as it were. How could I post a picture of my dinner in Kolkata on Facebook while the world was RIPing Angelou? What would they think of me? For the record the Google search yielded 513,000 results in 0.27 seconds. That’s a lot of Maya Angelou to choose from even for the most Angelou-ignorant. nce when a legend died, the problem was what to say if you hated him. Was it okay to say you always felt Jagjit Singh sounded like a lounge singer? Or Dev Anand did nothing for you? But to have an opinion, good or bad, about a legendary literary figure you had to read her. Now for instant and innocuous insight you can just Google her. Once you faked sorrow. Now you fake familiarity. Of course a few of us forget to do even that and trip in our haste to be the early mourner at this virtual wake. A good friend confessed she routinely confused Maya Angelou with Toni Morrison. Even worse others on Twitter thanked Angelou for refusing to sit in the back of the bus so people could be free today. I am not sure if Rosa Parks would have been shocked or amused. Apparently these feisty old black ladies all look alike. But most of us do our due diligence at least on Google search. My social media feed is flooded with Angelou quotes. I have no idea how many of my friends have actually read Angelou. Or like her. Or for how many of them an Angelou quote is just a social media must-have fashion statement. In the virtual world it’s almost impossible to tell the real from the pretender. When Gabriel Garcia Marquez died last month, Seasonal Magazine

it was much the same. Everyone wanted a piece of the Nobel prize winner to claim as their own. This is part of what The New York Times calls “faking cultural literacy”. “Data has become our currency,” writes Karl Taro Greenfield. “What matters to us, awash in petabytes of data, is not necessarily having actually consumed this content firsthand but simply knowing that it exists and having a position on it, being able to engage in the chatter about it. We come perilously close to performing a pastiche of knowledgability that is really a new model of know-nothingness.” It’s not unique to our age. But it’s never

Had Tagore died today, Twitter in India would have surely collapsed under the weight of “Where the mind is without fear” and “Ekla chalo re” retweets with @SrBachchan solemnly leading the virtual cortege.

By Sandip R oy Ro

been such a pandemic. And that’s largely because it’s never been easier to fake it. At one time it might have been embarrassing but unavoidable if we had to admit we had not read anything by an Angelou or a Premchand. We could try and save face by talking about a film like Sadgati based on Premchand’s work if we happened to make that connection. But there was no easy way to pretend. But now that “pastiche of knowledgability” is so temptingly close at hand, we can search it on our phone and be instantly able to nod our head and add our two bits to the conversation. Of course those are the only two bits we know. And we didn’t know them two minutes ago. But they will suffice for the brief period we need to stay culturally afloat as the Angelou wave washes over our social media timelines. It’s in fact almost a waste of time to actually read Maya Angelou since most of us will only need her for that one status update. But oh, the pressure to make that status update count. It has to be the most profound. The most poignant. The most throat-catching one. And it certainly has to be a rare gem, the one that will demonstrate to our friends and followers that our knowledge of Maya Angelou is not just Wikificial. A little knowledge is no longer a dangerous thing. It is a good thing. An essential thing. The barrage of information that assaults us from all sides has exponentially increased this pressure to always seem on top of it. As a journalist you don’t want to be caught in an editorial meeting clueless about the story everyone else is discussing knowledgably. So you nod along as you desperately and covertly search on your

annoyingly slow smartphone. When a legendary figure dies, everyone, from Jackky Bhagnani to Priyanka Chopra, has to have their Ravi Shankar or Nelson Mandela tribute handy whether or not anyone has asked them for it. So an Anupam Kher let us know that “Hope, courage, struggle, peace, compassion. With Nelson Mandela a part of these expressions also died today. Thank you for your life. RIP.” “I am the captain of my ship; I am the master of my soul... RIP Madiba. The greatest leader in the world,” tweeted Randeep Hooda fondly referring to Mandela by the name South Africans called him.

But Mandela, at least was a political figure. His life was writ large before us. We did not have to read books about him to be impressed and moved by him. Cultural figures however require a level of homework that no one needs to do anymore. I don’t know how many of us had actually read Chinua Achebe but we all RIPed him with enormous feeling when he died as if in our own worlds things had just fallen apart as well. It’s the relentless performance anxiety of being on social media that forces us to have an opinion on everything important. Had Tagore died today, Twitter in India would have surely collapsed under the weight of “Where

the mind is without fear” and “Ekla chalo re” retweets with @SrBachchan solemnly leading the virtual cortege. Except of course the more we do it, the more we are trapped in some hologram version of ourselves. Each bit of cultural literacy we fake gets added to the makebelieve intellectual gravitas of our persona. And it makes confessing ignorance the next time around that much more difficult. He who mourned Achebe cannot be clueless about Angelou. And so we tweet on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into our dissimulation. As Angelou said... Actually I don’t know what she said. I’d have to Google that first!

Seasonal Magazine

ENVIRONMENT

By Vandana Shiva

We are the Soil We are made up of the same five elements - earth, water, fire, air and space - that constitute the Universe. We are the soil. We are the earth. What we do to the soil, we do to ourselves. And it is no accident that the words “humus” and “humans” have the same roots. his ecological truth is forgotten in the dominant paradigm because it is based on eco-apartheid, the false idea that we are separate and independent of the earth and also because it defines soil as dead matter. If soil is dead to begin with, human action cannot destroy its life. It can only “improve” the soil with chemical fertilisers. And if we are the masters and conquerors of the soil, we determine the fate of the soil. Soil cannot determine our fate. History, however, is witness to the fact that the fate of societies and civilisations is intimately connected to how we treat the soil - do we relate to the soil through the Law of Return or through the Law of Exploitation and Extraction. The Law of Return - of giving back has ensured that societies create and maintain fertile soil and can be supported by living soil over thousands of years. The Law of Exploitation - of taking without giving back - has led to the collapse of civilisations. Contemporary societies across the world stand on the verge of collapse as soils are eroded, degraded, poisoned, buried under concrete and deprived of life. Industrial agriculture, based on a mechanistic paradigm and use of fossil fuels has created ignorance and blindness to the living processes that create a living soil. Instead of focusing on the Soil Food Web, it has been obsessed with external inputs of chemical fertilisers Seasonal Magazine

what Sir Albert Howard called the NPK mentality. Biology and life have been replaced with chemistry. External inputs and mechanisation are imperative for monocultures. By exposing the soil to wind, sun and rain, monocultures expose the soil to erosion by wind and water. Soils with low organic matter are also most easily eroded, since organic matter creates, aggregates and binds the soil. Soil is being lost at 10 to 40 times the rate at which it can be replenished naturally. This implies 30 per cent less food over the next 2050 years. Soil erosion washes away soil nutrients. A tonne of top soil averages 1-6 kg of nitrogen, 1-3 kg of phosphorous, 2-30 kg of potassium, whereas soil in eroded land has only 0.1-0.5 per cent nitrogen. The cost of these nutrient losses are $20 billion annually. Fertile soils contain 100 tonnes of organic matter per ha. Reduction of soil organic matter by 1.40.9 per cent lowers yield potential by 50 per cent. Chemical monocultures also make soils more vulnerable to drought and further contribute to food insecurity. Further, eroded soils and soils without organic matter absorb 10 to 300 mm less water per ha per year from rainfall. This represents 7 to 44 per cent decrease in water availability for food production, contributing to a decline in biological productivity from 10-25 per cent. No technology can claim to feed the world while it destroys the life in the soil by failing to feed it on the basis of the Law of Return. This is why the claim that the Green Revolution or genetic engineering

feeds the world is false. Intrinsic to these technologies are monocultures based on chemical inputs, a recipe for killing the life of the soil and accelerating soil erosion and degradation. Degraded and dead soils, soils without organic matter, soils without soil organisms, soils with no water holding capacity, create famines and a food crisis, they do not create food security. This is especially true in times of climate change. Not only is industrial agriculture responsible for 40 per cent of the Green House gases contributing to climate change, it is also more vulnerable to it. Soils with organic matter are more resilient to drought and climate extremes. And increasing organic matter production through biodiversity intensive systems, which are in effect photosynthesis intensive systems is the most effective way to get the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, into the plants, and then into the soil through the Law of Return. Soil, not oil, holds the future for humanity. The oil-based, fossil fuel intensive, chemical intensive, industrial agriculture has unleashed three processes which are killing the soil, and hence impacting our future. Firstly, industrial agriculture destroys living soils through monocultures and chemicals. Second, an oil-based paradigm intensifies fossil fuel inputs and creates a false measure of productivity which presents an unproductive system as productive. The trick lies in reducing creative productive work to “labour“ as a commodity, counting people as labour as an “input”, and not counting fossil fuels as an input. Intensive fossil fuel use translates into more than 300

“energy slaves” that work invisibly behind each worker on fossil fuel intensive industrial farms. People as an input means the less people on the land, the more “productive” agriculture becomes. Farmers are destroyed, rural economies are destroyed, the land is emptied of people and filled with toxics. The creative work of farmers as custodians and renewers of soil and biodiversity is replaced by deadly chemicals. Creative work in being stewards of the land and co-creators of living soil is not an “input” into a

food system, but the most important output of good farming. It cannot be reduced to “labour” as a commodity. Land, too, is not a commodity. Creating, conserving, rejuvenating, fertile and living soil is the most important objective of civilisation. It is a regenerative output. Third, displaced farmers flood cities. This is not a natural or inevitable phenomenon. It is part of the design of industrial agriculture. The explosion of cities buries fertile soil under concrete. The equivalent of 30 football fields are consumed by cement

and concrete every minute. The Save our Soils (SOS) movement, of which I am a patron, has been started by many organisations including FAO, IFOAM, Nature and More, to wake humanity to the soil emergency, which is also a human emergency. We need to measure human progress not on the basis of how much cement buried the soil, but how much soil was reclaimed and liberated. This is what “saugandh mujhe is mitti ki” should mean. Living seeds and living soils are the foundation of living and lasting societies.

The writer is the executive director of the Navdanya Trust

Soil, not oil, holds the future for humanity. The oil-based, fossil fuel intensive, chemical intensive, industrial agriculture has unleashed three processes which are killing the soil, and hence impacting our future.

Seasonal Magazine

TREND

Sunday Farming in Vogue Mumbaikars are adding a new dimension to their humdrum lives by becoming farmers over the weekend

“Those who haven’t smelt turmeric in their lives get ecstatic when I open the masala container in my kitchen,” says Pudukote R Seshan, a resident of Mulund in Mumbai. Seshan recently bought an apartment in Badlapur, a suburb on the outskirts of the city and drives with his wife from home to his farm in his ochre Nano. He is one of Mumbai’s new gentleman farmers, or more accurately, a hobbyist agriculturist. Like Seshan, there are other people in the group, most of whom are over 50 years old. “We may be hobby farmers but we take our hobby very seriously,” they say. Because they are engineers, marketing executives, chartered accountants, media and IT professionals, entrepreneurs, even an astronomer, most of them can assume the farmer’s avatar only on Sundays. Having planned on Saturday evening to congregate at the designated rendezvous at eight the next morning, they come armed with seeds, cans of organic fertilisers and notes for a new experiment. Then they take an early local train to Badlapur. From the station there, it is a further eight kilometres to their farm in Chon village. They jostle for seats on the state transport bus with villagers or take a ride in a jampacked autorickshaw to reach their destination. “I play with dirt, collect the fallen leaves or do a jig for my mango trees,” laughs lifestyle magazine editor Hiren Bose, a weekend farmer who goes by the name of Hiraman on sundayfarmer. wordpress.com, a blog which has built a dedicated following over the years. Owner of an orchard beside the Barvi river in Chon, Bose says, “After reading my posts, people often approach me

with queries related to sourcing of heirloom seeds, soil fertility, what to grow when and so on. I try to reply to them, and when I am unable to do so, I approach the research institutions, universities, farming groups or portals and seasoned farmers for a solution.” The Sunday farmers toil on their land for a day in a week, but that day is dearer to them than a near 200 per cent appreciation of their property. All they want is to be surrounded by plants, birds, rodents and the occasional snake. The neo-farmers aren’t restricted only to Badlapur. There are a few in Karjat, Vangani, Panvel, Kasara and other places on the outskirts of Mumbai where agricultural land hasn’t yet been gobbled up by the builder lobby. Fourteen farmers in Chon have even formed a cooperative, the Gajanan Organic Farmers Cooperative, which is registered with Maharashtra’s Department of Agriculture. Every third Sunday, members meet to discuss issues relating to organic farming,

“After reading my posts, people often approach me with queries related to sourcing of heirloom seeds, soil fertility, what to grow when and so on.

sourcing of seeds, collective buying of growth promoters and to organise talks by experts or visits to nearby farms. They are into organic and experimental farming and happily travel to meet other experienced farmers from whom they can learn new techniques and ways to improve their produce. Take, for example, Khar resident Kamal M, wife of a businessman. She grows seasonal vegetables and fruits besides raising a crop of paddy and groundnuts on her farm in Kusur village in the Maval district. Visiting her farm when her paddy field is lush green is an olfactory experience. There she has planted Ambemohur, a highly fragrant rice that usually grows only in the Konkan area. “As with vegetables and fruits, my paddy is also totally free of chemical fertiliser and toxic pesticides,” she says. She uses amrutjal (a mixture of cow dung, jaggery and urine), an organic alternative. These occasional farmers are more experimental in their farming, for they aren’t economically dependent on their produce. Praveen Dhuri, a reinsurance executive, and Bose, both Thane residents, recently undertook a six-Sunday-long bee-keeping course at Maharashtra Nature Park in Mahim. “Bees are excellent pollinators and help in doubling the produce,’’ says Seasonal Magazine

...Sunday Farming in Vogue Dhuri who is now preparing to set up a bee hive at his farm in Kutswara village in Vangani. Often, it is a problem of plenty for the farmers. “How much can you consume or gift to your friends and relatives?” asks Kamlakar Gharkhedkar who harvested over 400 Alphonso mangoes this year from his farm in Chon. Pratapchand Varma has a similar problem with his harvest of jackfruits and Kamal with her quintals of Ambemohur rice. Every alternate week, Bose’s banana tree yields nearly 120 fruits per bunch. Looking proudly at one such bunch, he admits, “My wife is tired of googling for new banana recipes!” A major bugbear is the lack of reliable farmhands to manage their farms in their absence. Bharat Adur, who till recently worked as a senior scientist with the Nehru Planetarium in Worli, has a farm-cum-observatory at Ambeship village in Badlapur. He now works on his farm single-handedly after the couple he had hired to look after the place left. “Most young men prefer to work in malls which have mushroomed in Mumbai and Thane where they toil for 12 hours, commute three hours and still earn what we offer them. But there is glamour in malls,” says Adur. The farmers also share stories of fruits being stolen, especially mangoes and jackfruits. Complaints to gram sevaks and police and letters to local papers have not helped matters. But they have learnt to take things in their stride. “We enjoy farming and believe in sharing, so what if some of our harvest gets stolen,” say one of them. These are irritants that the weekend farmers willingly suffer for being able to pick mulberries, collect earthworms after rains for the vermicompost pit, watch birds and hear them chirping in the trees, see the butterflies hovering over rattlepod flowers or have packed lunch under a mango tree heavy with fruit. Seasonal Magazine

Resveratrol Supplements Not Safe During Pregnancy A latest study has cautioned pregnant women against taking Resveratrol supplements, which is a plant compound that is found in the skin of peanuts and red grapes. According to the study, an extensively available dietary supplement that claims to provide anti-ageing benefits, and has been considered safe to use, caused developmental irregularities in the pancreas of babies of pregnant monkeys that were given this supplement. The compound is supposed to be an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, and some animal researches have confirmed some benefits. Moreover, all earlier studies had found the compound to be safe to use for humans. Researchers at the University of Colorado-Denver and Oregon Health and Science University's

Oregon National Primate Research Center were concentrating on some of the potential health benefits when they started researching the compound in monkeys. According to the research, resveratrol provided some health benefits to pregnant monkeys in the form of improved blood flow through the placenta to the fetus. It has been observed that placental abnormalities can lead to several complications in pregnancy along with health problems in babies of women suffering from obesity. However, the study surprised the researchers in a way that intake of resveratrol led to a negative effect on the development of pancreas in the fetus of monkey. The pancreas is vital for body's regulation of blood glucose.

Porn Cuts Reward Motivation and Response to Sexual Stimuli Men who report watching a lot of pornography tend to have less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation as well as response to normal sexual stimuli, says a new German study. However it is still not clear, for example, whether watching porn leads to brain changes or whether people born with certain brain types watch more porn, said Simone Kühn, the study’s lead author from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, in an email. But, she noted, the results provide the first evidence for a link between pornography consumption and reductions in brain size and brain activity in response to normal sexual stimuli. For the study, she and her colleague Jurgen Gallinat from Charite University, also in Berlin, recruited 64 healthy men between the ages of 21 and 45 years and asked them questions about their porn-watching habits. They also took images of the men’s brains to measure volume and to see how their brains reacted to pornographic pictures. “We found that the volume of the socalled striatum, a brain region that has been associated with reward processing and motivated behavior was smaller the more pornography

consumption the reported,” Kühn said.

Being Cynical May Not Kill You Earlier, But it May Cause Dementia

participants

“Moreover we found that another brain region, that is also part of the striatum that is active when people see sexual stimuli, shows less activation the more pornography participants consumed,” she added. What’s more, the researchers found that the connection between the striatum and prefrontal cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain associated with behavior and decision making, worsened with increased porn watching. Dr. Gregory Tau of the Columbia University / New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York, who was not involved with the study, agreed that more research should be done in this area and that longer studies would be needed to find out if porn leads to brain changes. “It is possible that there are individuals with a certain kind of brain that are more susceptible to these kinds of behaviors,” he said. “Or, it’s possible it’s the excessive use (of porn) that’s perpetuating itself to causing brain changes. Or, it could be both.” “Basically everything that people do very frequently can shape their brain structure and function,” said study author Simone Kuhn.

Dementia is a broad category of brain diseases that cause long term loss of the ability to think and reason clearly that is severe enough to affect a person's daily functioning. Now, a new study has revealed that people with high intensity cynical distrust were three times more likely to develop dementia than people with low levels of cynicism. Anna-Maija Tolppanen, PhD said that the results add to the evidence that people's view on life and personality may have an impact on their health. He further explained that it is important to understand how a personality trait like cynicism affects risk for dementia because it might help them to find an approach that could reduce risks for the disease. Researchers also looked at whether people with high levels of cynicism were more likely to die sooner than people with low levels, as initially high cynicism was associated with earlier death, however they concluded that there was no longer any link between the two factors. The study is published online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Seasonal Magazine

Nurturing Mindfulness in CHILDREN KIDS

In the growing conversation around mindfulness, we're constantly hearing about meditation in the workplace and tech CEOs who swear by the practice. But less attention is being paid to the quietly growing movement for mindfulness in the family, and the use of meditation to optimize the health, well-being and happiness of children. t's not just adults that can stand to benefit from cultivating a focused awareness on the present moment. Research is beginning to shed light on the power of mindfulness as an intervention for a number of behavioral challenges that children face. We're also starting to recognize that mindfulness practices could be beneficial for children for the same reasons it helps adults, contributing to reduced stress, improved sleep quality and heightened focus. At increasingly younger ages, kids are facing higher levels of stress, and it may be taking a significant toll on their health. Stressful events in childhood can increase the risk of developing health problems as an adult, but the impact may hit much earlier. A recent University of Florida study found that stressful events can impact a child's health and well-being almost immediately, and can Seasonal Magazine

contribute to the development of physical and mental health problems and learning disabilities. Sonia Sequeira, Ph.D., a clinical researcher specialized in Investigational Therapies and director of the Institute for Meditation Sciences, has been practicing yoga and meditation for nearly 20 years, and has practiced with her own children for years. Now in her work as a mindfulness researcher, she's brought contemplative practices to children ages 3-18 who are struggling with autism, cancer, and other physical and mental health problems. Currently, she's using meditation and chanting to help relieve pain in children with cancer. It may seem like a tall order to ask your kid to meditate - given that it can be a struggle just to get a child to sit down or eat breakfast - but Sequeira insists that in her years of working with

Recent studies have shown school mindfulness programs to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety among secondaryschool children for up to six months after the program.

children, she's found just the opposite. "There's an initial resistance, which I think is cultural, and usually it occurs in the presence of the parent," Sequeira told The Huffington Post. "But it extinguishes very quickly. Teaching mindfulness to children has always been the easiest for me because there's no set patterns, or at least they're not set in stone yet. With adults its much more difficult." Learning mindfulness practices - including meditation, breathing exercises, yoga asanas (postures) and chanting - can have a significant longterm affect on a child's development. "In my research, what really mattered was finding practical tools that were not an on-off or intermittent practice for children, but something they could really grow with and that could affect their physiology as they grow from their young childhood into adolescence," says Sequeira. Here's proof that children need mindfulness just as much as adults do.

Mindfulness can help kids to thrive at school: Most of the research on mindfulness for children has been conducted in the school setting. Recent studies have shown school mindfulness programs to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety among secondary-school children for up to six months after the program. Such programs can also help students focus during exams, as well as reducing stress and boosting happiness among high school students. Susan Kaiser Greenland, author of The Mindful Child, is one of increasingly many parents fighting for a "mindful revolution in education," explaining mindfulness programs can aid kids in developing good habits that will help make them happier and more compassionate. More and more of these programs are beginning to crop up. The Mindful Moment program in Maryland high schools has students start and end each day with a 15-minute yoga and meditation session, and provides a mindfulness room available for personal use throughout the day. The program Seasonal Magazine

aims to reduce stress among students and teachers, and to increase four-year graduation rates. It can be an effective intervention for autism: Recent research, conducted by Sequeira and colleagues and published in the journal Autism Research and Treatment, has suggested that meditation has a great deal of potential as a treatment option for children with autism. "Meditation is one of a few interventions that have been shown to effectively strengthen self-control and character development simultaneously, "the researchers write in a report. "There is much to be gained by exploring meditation as a strategy to override impaired brain synchronicity and debilitating symptoms arising in early years of persons with autism." In autism and many other psychological imbalances, the connecting thread is a lack of rhythm, says Sequeira. There's a challenge of balancing the inner and outer world, and this can distort relationships and interactions with others. In the case of autism, environmental cues become so augmented that the child shuts down from the world to protect themselves. Mantra meditation in particular (a type of meditation that involves the repetition of a word or sound) can help restore a sense of rhythm. "When you create internal rhythm, there's a harmonizing and balancing effect," explains Sequeira. "It facilitates communication, incubation of thoughts... it tells you that you're in a safe environment and there's no threat." "It truly is a top-to-bottom response, and with the children, it restores a natural ability to respond inside to rhythm." Children with autism respond well to mantra because it facilitates response, she says. It can help kids with ADD and ADHD: Being mindful is, at its core, the ability to sustain a focused awareness on the present moment, and practicing mindfulness has been proven to help boost our powers of focus and attention. Seasonal Magazine

When you create internal rhythm, there's a harmonizing and balancing effect," explains Sequeira. And it may be just as effective for children as it is for adults. A 2011 study published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies demonstrated the effectiveness of an eight-week mindfulness program for children ages 8-12 with ADHD, along with a mindful parenting program for their parents. The researchers found that the program reduced parent-reported ADHD behavior. It also increased mindful awareness among both parents and children, and reduced parental stress. Such programs may be a highly effective intervention either alongside or in the place of traditional ADD and ADHD medications, which come with side effects and may lose their effectiveness over time. “There are no long-term, lasting benefits from taking A.D.H.D. medications,” James M. Swanson, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, told the New York Times. “But mindfulness seems to be training the same areas of the brain that have reduced activity in A.D.H.D... “That’s why mindfulness might be so important. It seems to get at the causes.” It can help children with cancer and other serious health conditions: Sequeira has been hard at work for over a year now on a pilot program bringing mantra meditation to children with cancer as a way to reduce pain. While the study is still underway and the results have not yet been finalized, she's seen an overwhelming positive reaction from both the children and their parents. "Frequently the children remark that they want to continue beyond the time that's scheduled, even beyond the point where they had heightened pain," says Sequeira. "They wanted us to stay there chanting with them for a while. Parents from all over the world speaking different languages are united by mantra that doesn't have a language meaning but that touches their heart.

They felt an enormous sense of peace and did feel that they were contributing to the healing of their children." The kids Sequeira works with at SloanKettering also use what she calls a "worrywart waste basket," in which they make a practice of writing down their concerns on a piece of paper and throwing them away. "They know to do that, and to chant and resolve some of the tension that arises," says Sequeira. A mindful family upbringing encourages children to selfactualize: Mindful parenting, as defined by Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction founder Jon Kabat-Zinn, consists of "paying attention to your child and your parenting in a particular way: intentionally, here and now, and nonjudgmentally." As Sequeira puts it, creating a mindful family is about "healing the environment and healing the relationships." To begin to create a more mindful family and incorporate mindfulness into their children's lives, parents can start with a daily meditation, yoga or breathing practice. Family dinners can also become mindful by not allowing phones at the table and having a moment of gratitude for the food. Even simple things like positive affirmations and encouraging children to think before they speak can foster an environment of calmness, presence and compassion. "A child is imprinted with many influences... and all of this shapes a personality" says Sequeira. "When there's a mindfulness approach to living, it ultimately becomes the personality of the child to truly manifest and become who they are -- not trying to become a doctor or a lawyer, but trying to discover their gifts. At the same time, it allows the parents to wean themselves from this very analytical, competitive, linear thinking in life, trying to carry children towards certain goals, which ultimately is stressful for the parent." This "group healing," says Sequeira, will hopefully one day become the basis for a more mindful society.

From the Huffington Post

WORLD CUP

Indian Roads Safe For None

Senior cabinet minister Gopinath Munde's death in a car crash in the capital brought into sharp focus once again the alarming number of fatalities on Indian roads. Almost half the equivalent population of some countries like Iceland or the Maldives is wiped out on Indian roads every year. s per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under the ministry of home affairs, as many as many as 461 people died and 1,301 more were injured "every day" from traffic accidents in the country during 2012. This makes it 19 deaths every hour or more than one death every three minutes. Kamajit Soi, an international expert on road safety and vice chair of Punjab Road Safety Council, has incidentally written a letter to union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, seeking immediate steps to end what he terms as "massacre" on Indian roads. "Over 1.2 million innocent people died on the roads in the last 10 years, Soi, an advisor on road safety to the Asian Development Bank, said. "We have been banging our head against the wall. No one is bothered. Hundreds of lives are lost every day. It is like a jumbo jet crashing every day. I hope the Narendra Modi government takes steps to ensure Indian roads become safer. I've written to him too." Munde is among the several known people, including political leaders, who have died on Indian roads. The list includes former president Zail Singh, former central minister Rajesh Pilot, former Punjab finance minister Kanwaljit Singh, former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma and Telugu Desam Party leader Yerran Naidu. Little wonder the World Health Organisation (WHO) says India accounts for the highest number of

deaths in road accidents. China with 97,551, the US with 41,292 and Russia with 37,349 have much lower deaths on their roads but with much more cars.

the casualties have increased by 1.6%. Among the causes of accidental deaths in 2012, road accidents topped the list with 35.2%, while rail-road accounted for 7.4% of the deaths.

"Worldwide, over 1.4 million lives are lost annually; India is contributing 11% (to it)," Soi said. "The incidence of accidental deaths has shown an increasing trend during the period 2003-2012 with an increase of 51.8% in the year 2012 as compared to 2002," the bureau said in its report 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India-2012'.

"A total of 473,416 traffic accidents cases were reported during 2012, comprising 440,042 road accident cases, 1,762 rail-road accidents cases and 31,612 other railway accidents cases," said the report. In sheer numbers, as many as 168,301 people died in the country in 2012 from traffic accidents with road accidents accounting for 139,091 - this is almost half the population of countries like Iceland and the Maldives.

"The population growth during the period 2003 to 2012 was 13.6% whereas the increase in the rate of accidental deaths during the same period was 34.2%," the report added. At the same time, the report said, road accidents in the country may have come down marginally by 0.02% during 2012 compared to 2011, but

"It's not the killer roads alone where road safety is compromised. Even automakers continue to sell vehicles that are hardly safe. India's most successful car Maruti 800 alone has accounted for over 700,000 deaths since it was launched in 1985," said Soi. Seasonal Magazine

CONSERVATION

A GREEN Impossible

C K Ganguly was never one to conform to conventional norms, so much so that he didn’t even go to pick up his graduation certificate for BCom from Christ College (now Christ University), Bangalore, when the time came.

“

I decided I will not work for any organisation that asks for my qualification. I was clear from the very beginning that I wanted to do something different,” says CK Ganguly, also known as Bablu Ganguly among the locals of Anantapur district and surrounding villages where he established the Timbaktu Collective in 1990. Armed with the philosophy of the book, One Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka, Bablu, his wife M a ry Vattamattam and their friend John D’Souza bought 32 acres of barren land in Chennekothapalli village and transformed it into fertile land. “We bought the land for `1,000 per acre and the people who sold us the land were laughing at us, as it was wasted land. But we didn’t give in and were determined to turn it into the productive land it once was,” says Ganguly, who follows the producerowned business enterprise revenue model.

I didn’t know anything about farming. Then I started reading, trained in permaculture (ecological design and engineering) and absorbed the local knowledge of the villagers, which we then incorporated with what we knew. All these years have been a learning process for me, and the learning still continues,” says Ganguly, adding, “When I came to Anantapur, I never imagined that I would end up living here.”

On realising that the soil would be productive only if the trees and water bodies around the land were conserved, they began to create awareness among the local villagers, and thus began the journey of Timbaktu Collective. Starting with regeneration of forests, revitalising water bodies, developing a thrift cooperative alternative banking system for women, a farmers’ cooperative, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, education and organisation of Dalits, and networking with other community-based organisations, it has been a long and arduous journey for Ganguly and Mary. “When I first started,

The Timbaktu Collective started with a small group of developmental activists initially, and today it is a 100-strong team of members and volunteers who also undertake cultural activities and organise cooperatives for the disabled, youth, children and women. According to their website, the Collective had worked in about 112 villages of Chennekothapalli, Roddam and Ramagiri mandals of Anantapur district, serving about 33,000 marginalised people, by as far back as March 2006. The Collective focuses on the landless and small and marginal farmers, with special emphasis on women, children, youth and Dalits.

Seasonal Magazine

“These are the people who are most affected by situations like chronic drought, unproductive land, unemployment and poor infrastructural facilities. With local self-governance being the underlying theme of our work, we have formed numerous Community Based Organisations of the rural poor, to work in the areas of regeneration of forests and traditional water harvesting structures, revitalising fields, building awareness on self governance, establishing self help groups and so on,” says Ganguly. Slowly, over the years, not only the 32 acres of the Timbaktu Collective but also the surrounding hills have been greened, resulting in the reappearance of insects, birds and animals in the area. A small community of volunteers, committed to developmental and ecological regeneration, has settled here. The collective is funded by individual donors, funding agencies and the government. Fund-raising activities are also carried out from time to time. (Credit: Kota Saumya for The New India Express)

FAMILY

ARGUE OFTEN TO DIE FAST HAVING FREQUENT ARGUMENTS WITH PARTNERS, FRIENDS OR RELATIVES CAN INCREASE THE RISK OF DEATH IN MIDDLE-AGE, SAY DANISH RESEARCHERS.

riting in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they said men and those not in work were most vulnerable. Dealing with worries and demands from close family was also linked to a higher mortality risk, the study said.

as high blood pressure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, were most likely to explain the increased mortality risk. The study said: "Men respond to stressors with increased levels of cortisol, which may increase their risk of adverse health outcomes."

An individual's personality and ability to deal with stress is likely to play a role in the findings. Although the research team, from the University of Copenhagen, calculated that constant arguing increased a man or woman's mortality risk by two or three times the normal rate, they could not fully explain the factors behind it.

Data on 9,875 men and women aged between 36 and 52 was used to explore the relationship between stressful social relations and premature death. They had all taken part in the Danish Longitudinal Study on Work,

Previous research suggests people with high levels of anxiety and demands from partners and children, and those who often argue with close family members, could be at a higher risk of heart disease and strokes. Past studies also suggest that a good social support network and a wide network of friends have a positive impact on health, while personality determines, to a large extent, how we perceive and react to social situations and relations. In this study, the researchers said physiological reactions to stress, such

Although the research team, from the University of Copenhagen, calculated that constant arguing increased a man or woman's mortality risk by two or three times the normal rate, they could not fully explain the factors behind it.

Unemployment and Health, from 2000. The study found that frequent worries or demands generated by partners and children were linked to a 50%-100% increased risk of death from all causes. Being out of work seemed to increase the negative impact of stressful social relationships. Those who were unemployed were at significantly greater risk of death from any cause than those who had a job, the study said. Men seemed to be particularly vulnerable to the worries and demands generated by their female partners, with a higher risk of death than that normally associated with being a man. Dr Rikke Lund, from the University of Copenhagen's department of public health, said worries and arguments were part of life. But she added that people who were always or often involved in conflicts were at greatest risk, and could be helped. "Intervening in conflicts, particularly for those out of work, may help to curb premature deaths associated with social relationship stressors," she said. Prof Angela Clow, from the department of psychology and physiology at the University of Westminster, said the findings were "not surprising". "It would have been more interesting if they had looked at the biological pathways and shown why or how conflicts had an effect on mortality risk," she said. Seasonal Magazine

NUTRITION

5 Signs You Should Be Eating More Carbohydrates It's unfortunate how we treat the poor carbohydrate. Mistakenly associated with weight gain and empty calories, carbs are actually an essential part of a balanced diet - especially if you want to do any sort of physical activity - and often a tasty one, at that.

he Dietary Guidelines recommend that children and adults get about 45 to 65 percent of their daily calories from carbs. Of course, not all carbs are created equal. Those that come from refined sugars and flours may only cause more troublesome cravings. But carbs from whole grains or veggies don't result in the same dramatic blood sugar spike. So skip the sugary cereals and the second spaghetti helping, but get your fill of squash, beans, fruit, quinoa, oatmeal and so much more. Don't believe us? Here are a few good reasons you'll want to do just that.

1. You have a peculiar bad breath. The aim of low-carb diets, of course, is to burn the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stores of fat for energy instead of carbs, although most experts agree this does not lead to long-term weight loss. When the body burns fat, it does so by a process called ketosis, which releases chemicals called ketones. Ketones, unfortunately, have a less than pleasant smell, and are often released through the breath. The bad news for low-carb dieters is this isn't an oral hygiene issue, so all the brushing, flossing, and scraping of the tongue that you can do is not possibly enough to overcome this. Seasonal Magazine

2. Your workouts are slipping. When physically active people don't get enough carbs, the body can resort to using protein for necessary muscle function, including muscle building, which is why carbs are often called "protein sparing". Replenishing the body after workouts with the carbs burned during the workout can therefore speed recovery, better preparing you for tomorrow's routine.

3. You feel a little fuzzy. Just like the body, the brain also relies on carbs, broken down into glucose, for energy. And when the brain doesn't get the glucose it needs, it might not work to the best of its ability. A small 2008 study found that women on a low-carb diet scored worse on a series of memory tests than women on a lowcalorie but nutrient-balanced diet. When the low-carb women started eating carbs again, their brains quickly bounced back to normal.

4. You're cranky. People following a low-carb plan consistently report feeling more irritable, stressed and fatigued, even when their diet results in weight loss. One possible cause may be that carbs are essential to the body's production

of serotonin, a chemical in the brain that's responsible for lifting your spirits. But a low-carb plan, as compared to a low-fat plan, may also just feel like less fun, according to a 2009 study. The research followed 106 obese and overweight people on either a low-carb or low-fat diet for an entire year. While people from both groups who stuck to their diets lost weight, the low-carb dieters reported a worsening of their moods over time, and the moods of the lowfat dieters improved. Researchers surmised that being told you can't eat as much food as you want when you're eating smaller portions of those calorie-dense foods higher in fat and protein may just put a damper on the mood.

5. You're irregular. "One of the primary places where you are going to see metabolic changes on any kind of diet is in your gastrointestinal tract," Dr. Stephen Sondike, M.D., of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Most likely, those changes will manifest in the form of constipation, likely due to the fiber low-carb dieters miss out on when they cut back on grains. Eating more high-fiber vegetables can help.

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SCIENCE

By Nick Bilton

Meet Graphene, the Next Wonder Material Graphene is the strongest, thinnest material known to exist. A form of carbon, it can conduct electricity and heat better than anything else. And get ready for this: It is not only the hardest material in the world, but also one of the most pliable.

nly a single atom thick, it has been called the wonder material. Graphene could change the electronics industry, ushering in flexible devices, supercharged quantum computers, electronic clothing and computers that can interface with the cells in your body. While the material was discovered a decade ago, it started to gain attention in 2010 when two physicists at the University of Manchester were awarded the Nobel Prize for their experiments with it. More recently, researchers have zeroed in on how to commercially produce graphene. The American Chemical Society said in 2012 that graphene was discovered to be 200 times stronger than steel and so thin that a single ounce of it could cover 28 football fields. Chinese scientists have created a graphene aerogel, an ultralight material derived from a gel, that is one-seventh the weight of air. A cubic inch of the material could balance on one blade of grass. "Graphene is one of the few materials in the world that is transparent, conductive and flexible - all at the same time," said Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, a lecturer in nanomaterials at the University of Manchester. "All of these properties together are extremely rare to find in one material." So what do you do with graphene? Physicists and researchers say that we will soon be able to make electronics that are thinner, faster and cheaper than anything based on silicon, with the option of making them clear and flexible. Long-lasting batteries that can be submerged in water are another possibility. In 2011, researchers at Northwestern University built a battery that incorporated graphene and silicon, Seasonal Magazine

which the university said could lead to a cellphone that "stayed charged for more than a week and recharged in just 15 minutes." In 2012, the American Chemical Society said that advancements in graphene were leading to touch-screen electronics that "could make cellphones as thin as a piece of paper and foldable enough to slip into a pocket." Vijayaraghavan is building an array of sensors out of graphene - including gas sensors, biosensors and light sensors that are far smaller than what has come before. And last week, researchers at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, working with Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, said that Samsung had discovered how to create high-quality graphene on silicon wafers, which could be used for the production of graphene transistors. Samsung said in a statement that these advancements meant it could start making "flexible displays, wearables and other next-generation electronic devices." Sebastian Anthony, a reporter at Extreme Tech, said that Samsung's breakthrough could end up being the "holy grail of commercial graphene production." Samsung is not the only company working to develop graphene. Researchers at IBM, Nokia and SanDisk have been experimenting with the material to create sensors, transistors and memory storage. When these electronics finally hit store shelves, they could look and feel like nothing we've ever seen. James Hone, a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University, said research in his lab led to the discovery that graphene could stretch by 20 percent while remaining able to conduct electricity. "You know what else you can stretch by 20

percent? Rubber," he said. "In comparison, silicon, which is in today's electronics, can only stretch by 1 percent before it cracks." He continued, "That's

just one of the crazy things about this material - there's really nothing else quite like it." The real kicker? Graphene is inexpensive. If you think of something in today's electronics industry, it can most likely be made better, smaller and cheaper with graphene. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley made graphene speakers last year that delivered sound at quality equal to or better than a pair of commercial Sennheiser earphones. And they were much smaller. Another fascinating aspect of graphene is its ability to be submerged in liquids without oxidizing,

unlike other conductive materials. As a result, Vijayaraghavan said, graphene research is leading to experiments where electronics can integrate with biological systems. In other words, you could have a graphene gadget implanted in you that could read your nervous system or talk to your cells. But while researchers believe graphene will be used in next-generation devices, there are entire industries that build electronics using traditional silicon chips and transistors, and they could be slow to adopt graphene counterparts. If that

is the case, graphene might end up being used in other industries before it becomes part of electronics. Carmakers are exploring building electronic cars with bodies made of graphene that are not only protective, but act as solar panels that charge the car's battery. Aircraft makers also hope to build planes out of graphene. If all that isn't enough, an international team of researchers based at MIT has performed tests that could lead to the creation of quantum computers, which would be a big market of computing in the future. So forget everything else. There's a great future in graphene. Think about it.

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WORLD CUP

By Pete Jaison:

FIFA WORLD CUP GOLDEN BOOT

MULLER, NEYMAR? MESSI, OR VAN PERSIE As the football world cup races to its final stages, here is a rundown on four likely contenders for the Golden Boot. Who will it be - Mueller, Messi, Neymar, or Van Pesie, or someone else like Arjen Robben, Karim Benzema, or James Rodriguez? While reputation favours Lionel Messi, current form favours Mueller and Van Pesie, the host advantage is invariably with Neymar. A slightly higher overall chance might be with Brazil’s Neymar, due to, of course the team in which he plays. Anyway, one thing is highly likely. The Golden Boot is likely to be bagged by one of these four star players.

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Lionel Messi: Nicknamed as ‘The Flea‘ for his tiny figure, Lionel Messi who is considered to be one of the best players in this era looks all set to help his country skyrocket back to its prime days. The Argentine has been more than a nightmare for the opposition team’s defenders by scoring goals effortlessly. Messi, who has not had the best of domestic seasons with his club FC Barcelona will be viewing World Cup 14 as the perfect platform to make amends for his lacklustre performances earlier this season. Robbed of the FIFA Best Player award by his rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, he will be itching to show everyone that he still is the world’s best and what better way than by scoring goals and more goals. Messi who has often been compared to the legendary Diego Maradona for his style of play, has never won a major tournament while donning the national colours, except for the 2008 Olympic games. He also has a challenge in outscoring fellow countryman Sergio Aguero who has been very clinical for his club’s performance this season. Messi has often been blamed by the fans and the media that he doesn’t give his 100 percent while playing for his country and next month’s world cup is what Lionel Messi will be eyeing to silence his critics.

Thomas Mueller : Last World Cup's hero has been in outstanding form from right at the start of this year's tournament. He already netted 4 times and is looking good for more than a handful of goals. His country, Germany has been in pretty good form too and Mueller serves as their main goal scoring machine. He has an unbeleivable instinct of being at the right place at the right time and it does wonder for him and his country. Winner of last World Cup's goldem boot award, Thomas Mueller was very influential for his country until they were knocked out by eventual champions , Spain (in which Thomas Mueller didnt play due to the booking received in the previous match). Mueller on his day can be very devastating and may find the net a good number of times. Often regarded as a defender's nightmare , Thomas Mueller has what it takes to clinch the Golden Boot once again.

Robin Van Persie : Captaining the Holland team after a horrendous year for his club, Manchester United, it surely must be the perfect motivator for Van Persie. After 2 successive wins against defending champions, Spain and Australia, the dutch look like a formidable foe against which any team must be wary. Van Persie also called as the Flying Dutchman scored a spectacular stunner against Spain in his first game and the perfect leap he took to score it already has him being tagged as SuperPersie. Known for coming up with clinical performances, Van Persie is an asset to any team. The entire Dutch team looks good and it feels like this might be the perfect chance for them to avenge their final loss to spain in last year's World Cup.

Neymar: The Brazilian striker who has had a decent run this season with his club Barcelona will have a huge home-advantage over the rest of the contenders. Back at the Confederations Cup he was adjudged as the Best Player. Known for his defence-splitting runs and pin-point precision, Neymar will be one of the favourites to bag this award. The hopes of the entire nation will be on his young shoulders and it will be very interesting to see the manner in which he carries his team forward. Playing on home soil, the Brazilian team which boasts of a solid midfield will be feeding the ball to this youngster. However the youngster has been criticized for delays to strike the ball and unnecessary footwork to baffle defenders. But when on song, this talented lad has been more than incredible and Coach Scolari cannot demand anything less than a goal fest from him. Seasonal Magazine

HEALTH

Want to Prevent

Sagging Muscles? Include Protein in Every Meal

If you do not want those awe-inspiring muscles in your biceps to fade with age, include a full serving of protein at each meal, instead of having just one protein-rich meal in a day. The typical cereal or carbohydrate-dominated breakfast, a sandwich or salad at lunch and overly large serving of meat/protein for dinner may not provide the best metabolic environment to promote healthy ageing and maintenance of muscle size and strength, a study indicated.

volunteers consumed the evenly distributed protein meals, their 24-hour muscle protein synthesis was 25 percent greater than those who ate according to the skewed protein distribution pattern. The study appeared in the Journal of Nutrition.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;You do not have to eat massive amounts of protein to maximise muscle synthesis, you just have to be a little more thoughtful with how you apportion it,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; said Doug Paddon-Jones of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in the US. The potential for muscle growth is less than optimal when protein consumption is skewed toward the evening meal instead of being evenly distributed throughout the day. Age-related conditions such as osteoporosis (bone weakening) and sarcopenia (muscle wasting) do not develop all of a sudden. Rather they are insidious processes precipitated by suboptimal lifestyle practices, such as diet and exercise, in early middle age, the study showed. The researchers measured muscle protein synthesis rates in healthy adults who consumed two similar diets that differed in protein distribution throughout the day. One of the diets contained 30 grams of protein at each meal, while the other contained 10 grams at breakfast, 15 grams at lunch and 65 grams at dinner. When

The potential for muscle growth is less than optimal when protein consumption is skewed toward the evening meal instead of being evenly distributed throughout the day. Seasonal Magazine

AGRICULTURE

Whither Indian Agriculture: Will It Wither Away ? ndian agriculture is a strange sector of the economy – it contributes only 14% of the GDP, but directly supports more than half the country’s population (and all of us as consumers). Experts have been telling us for a decade that if the country’s economy has to grow in double digits, agriculture must grow at least at 4%. This is the real power of agriculture. And for this reason alone, agriculture deserves some serious attention. Unfortunately, the fairly stable foodgrains production levels of around 250 MT – good and drought yearsnow make a difference of + or – 5% only – has made everyone complacent, and we have started believing that everything is or would be gung-ho in agriculture. This is not true. The fact is that Indian agriculture is under severe stress and needs radical policy reforms. Let us disaggregate our agriculture a bit. From 123 million hectares (mHa) in early 1950’s our net sown area (NSA) increased to about 140 mHa by 1971, and has remained around this level for the last 40 years. Obviously, urbanisation and other needs have put limits on how much land we can use for agriculture. Irrigation helps increase productivity per heacteare and also helps cultivate the same land in more than one season, and net irrigated area (NIA) increased from 21 mHa in 1950’s to about 55 mHa by 2001, and has increased at a snail’s pace since then. The result is that our gross sown area (GSA) which includes NSA + area sown more than once has also remained fairly stable at around 196 mHa in the last decade. It is also well known that even if all surface and ground water irrigation is tapped, more

Dr Prakash Bakshi Former Chairman, NABARD

than half the cultivated land will remain dependent only on rain God. The simple conclusion we draw is that any higher production will have to come from increased yields as more land cannot be brought under cultivation. Post two consecutive most severe droughts of the century in 1966 and 1967, sincere efforts to increase area and production of foodgrains were undertaken – these efforts later got christened as the Green revolution – and resulted in the sharp growth witnessed from 1970’s until the beginning of this century in both area under wheat and rice (coupled with decrease in low paying coarse grains like bajra, jowar, etc.) and their production. But the harsh fact is that this fast increasing trend is now absent for the last 15 years, and the production levels are now crawling up

and not jumping up. In other words, a technology fatigue has gripped grains yields as seed research has been an important casualty. Let us also see that the graph for area and production of pulses is so flat over all these years – any wonder then why prices of pulses are rocketing upwards ?A similar trend is also seen in oilseeds – another important commodity in our our cooking ! During this period, another small and almost un-noticed positive change in the commodity mix of our agriculture is also taking place – we have very quietly become the largest producer of milk (remember the cute Amul baby ?), are one of the largest producer of eggs (remember Sunday hoya Monday …. ?), and the area under fruits and vegetables is continuously increasing, though at a snail’s pace, and at around 15 mHa (just 8%) of the GSA)is in no competition with the traditional grains dominated agriculture. The production of fruits and vegetables has however increased at a faster pace, and we now produce around 230 MT of them, quite close to volumes of cereals production. What does that mean for all of us, and especially for the farmers ? The adjacent table shows that only 8% area devoted to fruits and vegetables produces almost the same quantity, both in terms of weight in Metric tons as well as value in Rupees,as the 64% area under cereals and pulses! Given that area under agriculture, or various crops, will not, and perhaps cannot, increase, more fruits and vegetables for the country’s ever increasing population can be met by decreasing the area under cereals, pulses and oilseeds ! But that mayalso reduce the production of these commodities Seasonal Magazine

which millions need. We can however strike a fine balance fairly easily, and actually increase the production of both substantially if yields per hectare for all the crops increase significantly, just as they increased in the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s. The green revolution mantra was using better technology – better seeds (we have already mentioned seed research has become a casualty), appropriate and adequate fertilisers (let us check the disproportionate use of urea because it is heavily subsidised), better water-use (irrigated or otherwise), and proper ploughing, weeding, harvesting (appropriate technology). It is here that a silent structural change in our agriculture which is eating away the profitability and viability of agriculture as a deadly virus needs to be checked and reversed. And this deadly virus is fragmentation of farm holdings. We have seen that from 1970-71 onwards, the NSA has been fairly stagnant at 140 mHa (add another about 20 mHa for lands that remain fallow due to a variety of reasons, to get to area operated by farmers). The difference is that in 1971, this 160 mHaoperated area was shared by 70 million farmers, and now the same area is shared by 140 million farmers ! We are adding 10 million small and marginal farmers who operate less than 2 hectares of land every five years. In other words, in 1971, 50 million

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small (< 2 ha) and marginal farmers (< 1 ha) out of the 70 million total number of farmers cultivated 35 mHa, or one fourth of the cultivated area. Their number has swelled to over 125 million now, and they cultivate almost 80 mHa, or half of the total operated area. Conversely, in 1971, 20 million farmers operating more than 4 ha of land operated 125 mHa (or 78% of the total), and now almost the same number of these > 4ha farmers operate less than 90 mHa. What implication does this trend have on production, productivity and profitability of agriculture ? Let us see some examples to understand the issues. Farmers need good seeds. In 1971, if all farmers were to use good seeds, seeds had to be distributed to 70 million farmers, and now for the same cultivated area of 140 mHa NSA, seeds will have to be distributed to 140 million farmers. Does this have an implication on distribution costs ? Yes, the costs of taking the same quantity of seeds for the same cultivated area would now be higher, all other things remaining same. The logic would hold true for all other inputs and services. For example, if good cultivation practices were to be initiated through any training, one would have trained 70 million farmers in 1971, and one has to now train 140 million farmers for covering the same cultivated area. Would the total costs of training

increase? Yes. Does that increased cost result in more area under better practices ? No. The net result ? Delivery of services has become costlier. Let us take another example. Framers need to plough their land for sowing. It is clear that most of the small and marginal farmers operating less than 2 ha of land cannot afford to own a pair of bullocks or a tractor or a powertiller and so on. But the larger ones perhaps can, and do, and the smaller ones can perhaps hire the bullocks or tractors from the larger ones. But, as the number of small and marginal farmers swells and that of the larger ones reduces, even this possibility becomes more and more difficult. So how does the small farmer ensure even beginning of his farm operations if he cannot plough his fields in time

and at a cost he can afford ? And does he have to remain dependent on or even be at the mercy of the larger ones for all hisneeds ? Another similar aspect – farmers do not get anything at their door-steps. From seeds to fertilisers, to bank credit, they have to go to the outlets wherever these outlets are. What cost implications does this have ? In 1971, 70 million farmers had to travel and spend their time, energy and money to reach these outlets to get their inputs. Now 140 million do the same for the same operated area. Does this increase the costs?Yes. A farmer also does not get his income just by producing something. He gets his income only when he sells his

produce. So what implication has this on the farmers ? Suppose a 4 ha farm produces 80 quintals of wheat. When the same area is divided into 4 marginal farms of one ha each, each farmer produces 20 quintals. Therefore, to sell the same 80 quintals, 4 instead of one farmer now travel and spend their time, energy and money to reach the market. As finding transport for such small quantities may not be easy (he cannot afford to own such transport), he would most often not even visit the market but sell it to a local trader at a throwaway price, thereby further reducing his income or profitability. We have illustrated these simple examples only to show how fragmentation of land is making agriculture more and more unprofitable and unviable, not only from the farmers’ point of view, but also from the point of view of input and service providers, including the government. No wonder then that the 59th Round of the NSSO survey (2003) says that 27% farmers did not think that farming is profitable, and 40% said that if they had a choice, they would quit farming. Ten years down the line, the situation has only worsened due to the reasons mentioned above. This certainly is not a desirable situation. What is the solution then ? Can we stop fragmentation that is taking place, primarily due to inheritance ? Certainly not. People cannot be denied their inheritance and resulting ownership rights. But why should ownership come in the way of operations ? If a minimum viable operating area in a given context is 20 ha., and the area has only marginal farmers, each owning, say, 1 ha, should we all not ensure that 20 hectares owned by 20 different people is cultivated as one single profitable unit of 20 ha, without any of the 20 owners having any threat to their ownership? This requires a fundamental change in the land legislations as they exist today. Progressive states like Punjab and Haryana have solved this issue

by amending their land legislations and making leasing in and leasing out agricultural land totally legal. In a limited way, this can be done in Rajasthan also. In Andhra Pradesh also, land leasing is legal, but so are the conventions and apprehensions of farmers that they prefer to give and take oral lease without recording anything on paper so that the threat of losing ownership is somehow averted. Such oral lessees however lose all benefits of bank loans, crop insurance and any other governmental benefits as they go to legal cultivator, which, ironically, is the absentee owner !! Let us face the fact – in the absence of protection of ownership, the unviable marginal farmer continues to stick to his land, carries out unviable operations and remains poor. If he was given an assurance through legislation that he will not lose his rights irrespective of who cultivates his land, the land will be more profitably cultivated and he will have the o pt i o n of u s i n g h i s t i m e a n d energy in other vocations as well. The answer also lies in using one of t h e 4 C ’ s – Co o p e rat i v e , Collective, Corporate, or Contract. These are the only possible ways of aggregation that are critically n e e d e d fo r m a k i n g I n d i a n agriculture profitable – both in production as well as in postproduction activities including m a r k et i n g , p ro c e s s i n g , a n d reta i l i n g . W h i c h “ C ” w i l l wo r k better will depend on a whole lot of local contexts, and therefore, legislation must allow all of them. This is the first Reform required in Indian agriculture, and will be the key to all subsequent reforms required, including market reforms. Wwe can discuss the four C’s in greater detail, but let us do that some other time. Seasonal Magazine

CELEBRITY

Top 6 Weirdest Previous Jobs of Celebrities Br ad Pit ork ed a Brad Pittt w work orked ass a chick en ma sc ot chicken masc sco for El P ollo LLoc oc o Pollo oco

Can you imagine that the most handsome man in the world was advertising fast-food at El Pollo Loco? It`s hard to believe but it is true. Every morning he put on a chicken suit and nobody could recognize his face. But that was just a period in his life and only few people know about it, including you.

Christ opher Christopher Walk en w ork ed alken work orked as a lion ttamer amer Well, personally we are not surprised. Somehow we can easily imagine Christopher Walken training wild animals. This person is very strong-willed and charismatic, so without doubt it was a fascinating view when the stubborn man who never gives up went together with the king of beasts on the arena.

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Every person has to do some undesirable or unordinary jobs in life, celebrities are also people and there are some dark shades in their past that they don`t want to light up. Their life has changed immensely since their youth till now and they are to be grateful for that precious life experience. Did you have a weird or terrible job in your life? As a rule, previous jobs of celebrities are noticeably different from their current occupations. They take great pains to hide their past experience, but we don`t understand why. It`s understood that before their fame came they were ordinary people and had to earn money for living as all people do. But, we must admit, some of the professions, that celebrities were busy with, are really strange and unexpected, so here are some of them.

Whoopi Goldber g Goldberg ed a tuar work orked ass a mor mortuar tuaryy bea utician beautician Whoopi Goldberg is to be singled out among other extraordinary people as her previous job was really weird. Certainly she could choose working in a shop or in some kind of an office, but it was fine for her to make the deceased look nice. Personally we would ask Whoopi many questions about that and I`m sure you would as well.

Ma w Mc ughe ork ed Mattthe thew Mcccona onaughe ugheyy w work orked a chick en ccoop oop cleaner chicken We should be really happy that this was only a temporary job for him, otherwise the world didn`t have such a talented actor. At that time he was an exchange student and, being in need of money, worked in an Australian chicken farm. When you are a student and some extra financial resources are needed the opportunities to choose from are not numerous.

Geor ge Cloone ork ed a George Clooneyy w work orked ass a shoe sale sman salesman This job is quite ordinary if to compare it with other mentioned here. But who knows, how many people were lucky to be served by George Clooney!? Imagine having him place a shoe on your foot or give you precious advice. That pair of shoe might be more precious and valuable than you could imagine.

Rob St ewar Ste artt work ed a orked ass a gr avedigger gra This celebrity also worked with the deceased before his musical career. Rob Stewart was a gravedigger. I don`t think it somehow helped him to get into show business but it is great that it was just a transition period in his life, which Rob is not eager to mention. Seasonal Magazine

AUT O UTO

Volkswagen Forced to Re-strategize in India In developed markets like Europe, VW has clearly outsmarted most rivals. But in India, the situation is just the reverse. Now Volkswagen is gearing up to fight back by unique India-focus strategies like compact SUVs and sedans. erman car maker Volkswagen made two mistakes in India. One, it did not respond fast enough to a fundamental shift in the market from classic hatchbacks and sedans to compact (under 4 metres) value-for-money sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, and sedans. While the overall market is in a bind, the compact segment has grown handsomely. In 2013, compact sedan sales grew over 28 per cent, even while the industry remained stagnant. Ford sold over 45,000 units of its compact SUV, the EcoSport, in just one year. Two, Volkswagen did not launch new products with the same frequency as

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its rivals, which caused its market share to dip. Every new product, because of its novelty factor, produces a spike in sales. With others launching new products rapidly, the performance of Volkswagen’s bestseller products too was impacted. Mahesh Kodumudi, president and managing director of Volkswagen Group India, agrees hesitantly. “We have seen a sharp rise in sales of new models whenever they are introduced, followed by either gradual or precipitous fall. We cannot deny that some of these products have taken away volumes from the Vento (sedan) and Polo (hatchback),” says he. “You can conclude that a constant pipeline

of new products is necessary to maintain high volumes in the Indian market.” The numbers clearly tell the story. Domestic sales of Volkswagen fell 19.77 per cent in 2013-14 to just 52,528 vehicles. Polo sale were down and the Vento was outsmarted by the Honda City and Hyundai Verna in the executive segment. But the German car maker seems to be learning from its mistakes. It has decided to come out with compact sedans and might even look at a compact SUV. But this is unlikely to happen in a hurry: the first compact sedan will come only in 2016. Analysts say it could be too late by then because rivals like Maruti Suzuki with its Swift Dzire and Honda with its Amaze (compact sedans) will have grabbed this fast growing market because of their first-mover advantage. It also needs to get into the compact SUV category quickly. At the moment,

Mahesh Kodumudi Ford, with the EcoSport, has a free run in the market. The problem is that Volkswagen does not have any readymade product in this category. “Volkswagen considers the global market and demand. So it would always come up with products that can be sold in multiple markets,” says Kodumudi. But his competitors say the sub-4-metre category is unique to India and does not sell in other markets. Such product strategy could therefore prove costly for the company. Still, Volkswagen had showcased the concept for its compact SUV, the Tiguan, at the Auto Expo held earlier this year in Greater Noida. It is not yet ready in a sub-4-metre avatar for India. Experts don’t expect it to be launched before 2016. Meanwhile, others like Maruti Suzuki, General Motors and homegrown Mahindra & Mahindra are readying compact SUVs for India. Volkswagen has also realised it needs to create some excitement in its existing product range. So it will launch the revamped Polo this year. It is banking on the sportier exteriors and interiors of the hatchback, as well as its new more fuel-efficient engine, to revive its sales which fell to 30,878 in

2013-14 from 36,848 in 2012-13. Its market share stands at below 4 per cent. A small upgrade in the Vento too will happen this year and a major overhaul is slated for next year. It is also planning to launch a new revamped Passat in 2015. New revamped models are not the only area of attention. The car maker knows pretty well that indigenisation alone will help it prune costs and thus become more price-competitive in the market. Perhaps that is why it is investing Rs 1,500 crore in India, a part of which will go to build a diesel engine plant with a capacity of 100,000 per annum. This should go on stream by the end of this year. After all, about

the German car maker seems to be learning from its mistakes. It has decided to come out with compact sedans and might even look at a compact SUV. But this is unlikely to happen in a hurry: the first compact sedan will come only in 2016.

65 per cent of its cars are powered by diesel engines. This, Volkswagen executives say, will help the company increase indigenisation from 70 per cent to 80 per cent. It is also mulling setting up a gear box facility. Once that starts production, indigenisation will reach 90 per cent. The group is also keen to push exports. In fact, it was the overseas market that helped the Volkswagen factory in Pune stay afloat last year. For Volkswagen, it is a key strategy: in case the domestic market is not growing, as in last two years, it pushes the pedal on exports. In 2013, says Kodumudi, the Pune factory had produced 100,011 cars, of which 25 per cent were exported. This year, the plan is to sell 45 per cent of the total productionaround 50,000 cars - abroad. Volkswagen has successfully tapped the Mexican market where it plans to export about 40,000 Ventos this year. That apart, it is also selling parts and components of the Polo to its venture in Malaysia, in which 70 per cent of the car is built in India. That has kept its factory busy. But with this large export push and hopes that the domestic market might make a recovery with the new Narendra Modi-led government in place, won’t Volkswagen run out of capacity very soon? Won’t it have to put in more money to expand its Pune factory? Its current capacity of 130,000 per annum can be pushed up to 150,000 with some minor tweaking and by introducing a third production shift. “For us to achieve (annual production of) 200,000, we need not only an expanding export market but also an expanding domestic market. And for the domestic market to expand, we need another new model in our line up. We expect to reach (production of) 200,000 by 2018,” says Kodumudi. So will the new compact sedan, the revamped upgrades of old products and aggressive push abroad change its fortunes? What might help is that after a flurry of launches, other car makers have hit the pause button and may not launch too many new cars or upgrades in the next one year. Seasonal Magazine

SOCIETY

ARE TODAY'S KIDS THE LUCKIEST KIDS IN HISTORY? TAKING STOCK FROM BRITAIN James Delingpole feels that kids never had it so good. But they are not very thankful to the society or universe or God for that. Though some of what Delingpole writes is Britain-specific, most of it equally applies to middleclass and well-off children coming up in developing countries like India. o one likes being told they’ve never had it so good. When Lord Young of Graffham tried it three years ago, he was quickly forced out of his job as David Cameron’s enterprise adviser. And rightly so, you might think, for it was an affront both to the evidence before our eyes and to our most basic human instinct, that the past was golden and ahead of us lies only misery, penury, falling standards, overcrowding and the on-going destruction of our once green and pleasant land. This was the (hugely popular) theme of Danny Boyle’s London Olympics opening ceremony: The pastoral idyll of frolicking shepherds violated by the sinister phallic eruptions of the Industrial Revolution’s dark satanic mills. It’s also the inspiration of the Occupy Movement, of economics bestsellers from The Spirit Level to Capital in the 21st Century, of David Willetts’s The Pinch: How The Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future, and of dozens of impassioned articles by journalists on both left and right lamenting the fate of today’s Doomed Youth. As the author of several such whinges myself, I wasn’t particularly overjoyed to be asked to speak in a forthcoming Spectator debate in favour of the motion “Stop Whining, Young People, You’ve Never had It So Good”. In common with 54 per cent of respondents to a recent Ipsos Mori poll, Seasonal Magazine

I thought it was an absolute no-brainer that the kids of today are going to be worse off than their parents’ generation, for any number of obvious reasons. But as I researched the topic, I found something astonishing. Most of those reasons were false. Strip away instinctive pessimism, miserablist gut feeling and media-indoctrinated false consciousness and what you discover is something amazing and counterintuitive: On almost every available metric it turns out that the optimists have got it right. Today’s gilded generation is the most blessed that ever lived. Here are a few facts to help ease you from your state of appalled disbelief. Work: Over the last generation (i.e., 25 years), average pay is up by 62 per cent in real terms with more holiday entitlement (five weeks instead of four), fewer strikes, and higher employment rate for women. Today’s graduates are finding work at salaries that their parents could only dream about unless they walked straight into a merchant bank. So we’re all more likely to be working and are better paid and consequently more independent. Health: Life spans are going up. Between 1960 and 2010 a man’s average life expectancy increased by 10 years; a woman’s by eight. Cancer survival rates have improved

dramatically (yes, even under “our” sclerotic National Health Service); HIV is no longer a death sentence; advances in nutrition and health mean that people are getting taller (the average height for British men having increased by four inches over the last century). Home: Yes, it’s true that the current asset bubble is driving house prices unsustainably high, but otherwise news on the home front is good. Mortgages have never been cheaper, which more than compensates for higher prices. Outside London, property is more affordable now than a generation ago. Over 90 per cent of households now have central heating (in 1970 it was just a quarter), while fewer than three in 1,000 lack an indoor flushing loo (whereas as recently as 1961, one in seven houses only had outdoor loos; and one quarter didn’t have a bath or shower). We can all afford state-of-the-

art TVs and computers too, prices having dropped by 68 per cent over the last nine years for the former and 77 per cent for the latter. Travel: We can go further for less and are much more likely to do so. Britons have three times more holidays abroad than they did in the 1980s, and not just on Ryanair and easyJet flights to Lanzarote and Palma, but to destinations which before would have been beyond the reach of all but a privileged few. In 1980, a fare to Johannesburg would have cost a fifth of average earnings. Today, it’s closer to a 50th. Education: Of course it’s harder for graduates to find jobs but that’s partly because there are so many more graduates. In the 1960s just one in 20 people went to university; now around half of all young people get to know the joys of freshers’ week, essay crises, late-night kebabs on vomit-spattered pavements and other formative further education experiences. But just assuming for a moment that I haven’t made this stuff up and I haven’t, honest how come we’re constantly hearing otherwise? Well, one reason I’d suggest is that think pieces tend to be written by professional journalists. And if there’s one industry more likely than most to put a pessimistic complexion on things right now, it’s the crumbling fourth estate. The main explanation, though, I believe, has more to do with our species’ extraordinary inbuilt mix of ingratitude and amnesia which characterises our response to the advances of the capitalist system. Peter Foster in his excellent new book Why We Bite The Invisible Hand offers the perfect analogy when he imagines Adam Smith, 18th-century author of The Wealth of Nations, returning today to his native Kirkcaldy. He pictures Smith’s astonishment at the range of goods and services on offer “from fast food or financial services to a cellphone or a ‘Unisex Tropical Tan’” and his amazement, coming from an era where oatmeal, Seasonal Magazine

white bread and potatoes were the staple, at encountering the Large Mega Mac Meal. But what would surprise Smith at least as much, Foster suggests, is the way all the locals at best took these wonders for granted, at worst felt bitter and resentful that more wasn’t being done to improve their lives.

average British working man in 1957, when Harold Macmillan told him he had ‘never had it so good’, was earning less in real terms than his modern equivalent could now get in state benefit if unemployed with three children.” Not just that, but with his television, telephone, car and modern healthcare, that man has access to creature comforts which not even the richest of the 19th-century super-rich such as Cornelius Vanderbilt could ever have hoped to enjoy in their lifetimes.

Nowhere is this better exemplified in our own culture than in the way we have so casually absorbed the benefits of Internet technology. When I was at university, for example, I had what was at the time considered a pretty enviable record collection of perhaps 50 to 100 albums. My 15-year-old son, however, has access to a selection so vast perhaps 20 million songs that back in the 1980s it would have beggared the imagination even of a millionaire, audiophile obsessive collector like Tim Rice. The reason for this is not that my son’s dad is richer than my dad (au contraire) but simply because of a mobile phone app called Spotify, which anyone can now own, whether they live on Gazillionaire’s Row or whether they’re White Dee from Benefits Street, because the basic version is free. Free, as so many things are these days from sophisticated computer games (the kind that you would have paid a small fortune for in the early days of Xbox and would have been unthinkable in the days of Atari) to novels (certainly, all the classics) to specialist magazines to apps that make it easier for you to find a sexual partner (Tinder, Grindr) to funny little devices you never knew you needed but now find indispensible like Shazam, the one which enables you to identify unfamiliar pieces of music. This widespread outbreak of “freeness” (though, of course, it’s not really free: Invariably you’re being exploited some other way, either through advertising or the valuable information you’ve given about yourself) is one of the great overlooked phenomena of modern economics. That’s because, by its nature, it’s not a measured or indeed measurable part of GDP. Yet it’s in this invisible area that by far Seasonal Magazine

Poverty? Well yes, it’s always going to exist if you define it in relative terms even if we reach the stage where the haves ride around in Lamborghinis and the have-nots must make do with Porsches. the most dramatic lifestyle improvements have occurred during the past decades. So much so as to make a nonsense of what we hear from clergymen, Labour politicians and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the ongoing existence of “poverty” in Britain. Poverty? Well yes, it’s always going to exist if you define it in relative terms even if we reach the stage where the haves ride around in Lamborghinis and the have-nots must make do with Porsches. But not, surely, in absolute terms. Not when in Britain we’re already pretty much at the stage where no one is denied the opportunity to enjoy their leisure time with access to culture and entertainment only marginally less sophisticated than that available to Bill Gates. Or, as Matt Ridley put it in The Rational Optimist, “The

Of course, I can well understand why so many of us might be predisposed to overlook these realities. First, as Thomas Macaulay rather sourly noted in his History of England (1849), we seem often to be drawn to idealise the past at the expense of the present, It is now the fashion to place the golden age of England in times when noblemen were destitute of comforts, the want of which would be intolerable to a modern footman, when farmers and shopkeepers dieted on loaves the very sight of which would raise a riot in a modern workhouse, when men died faster in the purest country air than they now die on the coast of Guiana. We too shall be outstripped and in our turn envied.” And secondly, we have the evidence of our own eyes that the world doesn’t always improve. I think, for example, of those sleepy Turkish fishing villages I chilled out in one university summer vacation, which my children’s generation, and every one hereafter, will only get to experience as overdeveloped touristic hell holes virtually indistinguishable from the ones that ruined Spain in the 1970s. That Mediterranean coastline: We’re never going to get it back. But in broader terms, there’s no getting away from the counter-intuitive truth: No matter which metric you choose , health, longevity, education, earnings and spending power life continues to get better for more of us than at any time in history. Face it kids, you’ve never had it so good. Now shut up and start showing some gratitude.

AUT O UTO

Cars Catching Fire: Manufacturing Defects, Fake Parts, or Unauthorized Servicing?

Not too old cars, and even new ones, catching fire has become a regular phenomenon in Indian roads. Who is to blame?

hile the need for a mandatory vehicle recall policy has been upheld by many to safeguard consumers from possible manufacturing defects, retro-fitment and repair of components from service workshops in the unorganised sector could be a major causes of vehicles catching fire, say industry experts. “There could be issues of design in certain batches of vehicles. But it often happens that lack of proper maintenance or fitment of components from roadside workshops compromise the safety of vehicles. You cannot be assured about the quality of parts that are being used in such places and that impacts the safety of your car,” said Abdul Majeed, partner in the automotive practice of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, an audit, tax and consultancy firm.

is consumers opting for after-market accessories such as stereos, reverse parking sensors and security systems. The worker may snap a wire while fitting these accessories and this is usually the main source of sparks or short circuits in vehicles. Additionally, after the first few free servicing, customers choose to go to workshops in the unorganised sector that are not likely to have skilled labour. They may cut wires or not fit a bolt properly and this can lead to safety hazards.” Majeed and Gupta, however, agree that safety lapses can also stem from manufacturing defects too. “A mandatory vehicle recall policy will help address this problem as it would help in stepping up surveillance and put in

place a proper mechanism to determine how, when and in what time-frame vehicles should be recalled in the event of technical glitches,” Majeed added. Majeed’s contention is supported by SP Singh of the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT) who said, “Recently, a car that had been serviced on schedule, still went up in flames. There is no proper mechanism at present to determine whether or not the incident happened due to manufacturing defects. The police do not have the know-how to investigate. In absence of concrete evidence regarding the cause of such accidents, investigators tend to fix blame on the driver or owner. A mandatory recall policy, along with product liability laws, is required immediately to safeguard consumers against technical and safety glitches arising at the manufacturer’s end.” Manufacturers, however, recall vehicles voluntarily to fix defects. “There is sample checking done regularly by manufacturers to ascertain the quality and performance of vehicles. The specifications are pretty high and a lot of testing is done at every stage of fitment, especially for critical components like brake pipes, fuel pipes and brake drums to ensure vehicle safety is not endangered. If there are glitches after all this, companies recall vehicles and fix problems,” Gupta said.

According to industry estimates, as many as 54 vehicles caught fire in New Delhi alone over the past year, raising questions about the owners’, service workshops’ and manufacturers’ role in such incidents. Puneet Gupta, associate director of IHS Automotive, an automobile industry consulting firm, said, “The problem in India more often than not Seasonal Magazine

AUT O UTO

TOP 10 PETROL CARS FOR RS 5 LAKH It's

the most important price slab in India and there are over 20 options right to the variant. So which car would you buy? Here's our top 10

If you are an up and coming Indian with a good stable job, there’s very high possibility of a car purchase around the Rs 5 lakh mark. Things like practicality, efficiency, features, space and joy of driving are prime on your mind but you’d notice that if you weigh a car with one criterion heavily, it falls short in another. And the number of options available in the market are so varied that there is a very good chance you are pulling your hair by the time you sign the dotted line. So we’ve done some thorough research on the best cars right to the variant in our top ten list for cars priced between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 5.99 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi. Read this to save your trip to the trichologist. Since there are so many alternatives in this price bracket, we’ve split this list by fuel type. Next week, we will bring out the top diesel cars for Rs 5 lakh so stay tuned. If you have read our top 5 cars for Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, you will know the parameters by now. We’ve added one more parameter to this list – Interior Space and Boot space as this is essential in this price bracket. Here are the parameters again All cars were rated on a scale on 1-5 with 1 being poor and 5 being outstanding.

Engine and Gearbox: We considered everything from Seasonal Magazine

driveability to refinement to NVH before deciding on the rating for the engine, while for the gearbox, things like shift quality and ease and progression of clutch actuation was looked into.

Ride and Handling: In a market like India, wherein good roads are hard to come by, ride quality – at both low speed and high – is extremely important. But, just a plush ride isn’t enough; the ride shouldn’t be noisy or coupled with vibrations either. As for handling, we considered both ease of driving in the city and the car’s stability in a straight line, under braking, and around a corner.

Features: The more the features, the better. Well, for most part. We also looked into the ease of using these features and not all features were given equal weightages. Features that are more useful, naturally, got a higher rating.

But you want to carry five adults and two large bags on some days during your ownership so where would they go? Hence it makes for an important criterion in this price bracket. Less scores less, more scores more.

Fuel Economy:

Fun to Drive:

Easily the most important buying criteria, we simply took ARAI quoted fuel economy figures to arrive at a score. The higher the kmpl figure, the higher the score.

Fun to drive is the most subjective parameter here. But, also a crucial one. And for a car to be fun to drive everything from the engine and gearbox performance, to the steering feel and response, to the tyre grip and the overall handling prowess of the car were rated on. The cars that managed to put bigger smiles on our faces, scored higher.

Interior and Boot Space: Cars in the Rs 5 lakh range aren’t big on space, both on the inside and in the boot.

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Hyundai Xcent 1.2 MT S (O) SCORE: 23/30 The Xcent has emerged as the best car to put your money on. Hyundai has a knack for making good allrounders and when we drove the Grand i10, we knew its sedan version is going to be a good car. But car for price, it has turned out to be the best car in our list, which we didn’t fathom at the time. The Xcent is the best Hyundai we have driven in the budget segment, and in many ways, it’s more fun to drive than the Verna, its elder sibling. The Kappa engine under its hood is quite and eager unit and gives the impression of a lot more power on tap than it actually has. In S with the optional safety package, it is feature rich and has the biggest boot in this top 10 list at 407 litres. Where the Xcent aces is in the fuel efficiency department. It’s the most economical with an ARAI certified figure of 19.1kmpl and that takes it first across the finish line.

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Honda Brio VX MT Score: 22/30 It’s hard to not like the Brio. The tiny hatchback is worth a test drive at least. Because until you get into one and drive it, you will not appreciate the package Honda has managed to come up with. It may look small but on the inside, there is ample space to comfortably seat four adults. The 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine under the hood is refined and the slick shifting gearbox delivers all the 89PS of power when required making the Brio a hoot to drive. The Brio rides well and handles with almost cart-like precision. It’s efficient as well returning an ARAI certified figure of 18.4kmpl. The only drawback it has is a small boot. It’s the most fun city car to buy at this price point.

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Hyundai Grand i10 1.2 MT Asta (O) Score: 22/30 The Grand i10 was our car of the year for 2013. It’s an impressive hatchback from the Hyundai stable, inside, out and to drive. The Grand is thoroughly well engineered and gets the same smooth Kappa engine as in the Xcent. It rides better than it handles and that’s mostly to do with the inert steering wheel that’s devoid of any feel. As we’ve known of Hyundais, this one is no different on the features front. It comes kitted to the gills with features, is very efficient at 18.9kmpl (ARAI figure) and offers good amounts of interior space and decent boot space. This Hyundai scores same as the Brio but comes in third simply because we love driving and the Honda thrills us more in that aspect. Seasonal Magazine

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Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire VXi Score: 21/30 There’s a lot to like about the Dzire besides its oddball styling. It’s hard to find fault with the refined 1.2-litre Kseries engine under the hood or the quick short-throws gearbox. The Dzire gets beige interiors that atleast give a sense of more space than what the Swift offers and it sips fuel on par with other cars in this class at 18.6kmpl. What’s disappointing is the lack of safety features like ABS and airbags in VXi trim and a boot that’s not too larger than the hatchback. It’s the Maruti service network giving the Dzire a major boost. For peace of mind, affordable spares and accessibility of workshops, there’s no better car/company combination.

RANK Maruti Swift ZXi

5 Score: 21/30

What stands true for the Dzire stands true for the Swift. If the Swift loses on the space front, it gains in the features and it’s a better car to look at. But Indians love space, even if it’s a little bit more and that’s where the Swift loses out to the Dzire despite scoring the same. If you rate features high on your list, the Swift is a better option as it comes in the top-of-the-line ZXi trim. You get an entertainment system, ABS and front airbags and this trim also gets climate control and alloy wheels. The dark interiors feel a bit claustrophobic but the wide comfortable front seats are a good place to be in.

Nissan Micra

RANK XL Comfort

Score: 20/30

It’s a hard fought battle towards the bottom of this list. The cars aren’t far apart and if they lose in one criterion, they gain in another. The Micra scores same as the Figo and again, we’ve rated the better driving car higher. The Micra petrol loses out on the features front as the XL is a mid-spec variant. Yet, it’s about Rs 35 thousand costlier than the Ford. Nissan has done a good job with the facelift making the Micra less feminine than before. It’s got a lot of space on the inside and its light steering makes maneuverability in the city a breeze.

RANK Toyota Etios Liva V SP

Score: 21/30

Toyota’s first and only hatchback for India turned out to be a bit of a dampener. The looks aren’t quite right unless you opt for the pricier TRD Sportivo variants and the car is built to a price and that’s clearly evident once you sit in one. Yet it is the costliest car in this list at Rs 5.91 lakh ex-showroom Delhi for the top-spec variant. It’s why the Liva scores the same as the Dzire and Swift but is rated lower. What works for the Liva is its space and easy driving nature. For all its size, it is lighter than a Brio and has good low-end grunt making it a very agile city car. It’s also very efficient returning 18.6kmpl. The Liva is unexciting but practical, as most Toyotas are, and in India, there’s a market for that. Seasonal Magazine

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Ford Figo 1.2 Titanium Score: 20/30 If there’s a value for money petrol car you are looking for, there’s no better one than the Figo. The Figo is Titanium trim costs just Rs 5.09 lakh ex-showroom. This Ford is quite old though despite its facelift and its age will weigh into your buying decision. But drive one and you will realize how much fun the car is. Underpowered engine aside, the Figo’s very direct mechanical steering delivers ample feedback and its planted ride and solid built will put a smile to your face. The updated Figo gets a lot more features but it’s still not on par with likes of the Grand i10. Biggest drawback of the Figo is its fuel economy which at 15.6kmpl is the lowest in this list.

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Renault Pulse RxZ Score: 20/30

RANK Hyundai i20 1.2 MT Sportz

10 Score: 20/30

It’s the least fun to drive car in this list and it’s due for a generation change in a few months. So buying an i20 doesn’t make too much logic right now. It’s got a refined 1.2-litre engine and a smooth shifting gearbox. The soft suspension doesn’t compliment it though and coupled with the inert steering, makes the i20 a very boring car to drive. It doesn’t inspire confidence at high speeds and crashes into potholes without resistance. But you’ve got plush interiors made of high quality materials for its class and a lot of space on the inside. It’s best to use it as a city car only but we suggest you wait for the next generation model instead of investing in this one.

The Pulse is a badge engineering Micra and so gets the same score. The Pulse scores more on the features front in this top RxZ trim but is also costlier than the Micra. Light steering, aggressive styling, efficient engine (ARAI certified 18.44kmpl) and greater acceptance to the Renault brand than when it was launched are attributes working in favour of the Pulse. Note: Cars like the Toyota Etios, Volkswagen Polo and Honda Amaze failed to make the cut by a very small margin. Either the price or other parameters worked against them but the three score close to the cars in the bottom of this list. Other cars failing to make the cut are the Maruti Ritz, Tata Manza, Ford Fiesta Classic, Chevrolet Sail, U-Va, Beat and Enjoy and the Fiat Punto. The Enjoy despite scoring highest in terms of space, scored overall the lowest with a total of 15/30. Seasonal Magazine

Only Two Large Meals Give Better Health to Diabetics

Cathay Pacific Female Uniform Too Revealing, Says Staff

For controlling weight and blood sugar, people with type 2 diabetes should have two large meals (breakfast and lunch) rather than six small meals with the same total calories, a key study has suggested. "Eating only breakfast and lunch reduced body weight, liver fat content, fasting plasma glucose, C-peptide and glucagon, and increased OGIS (oral glucose insulin sensitivity), more than the same caloric restriction split into six meals," said Hana Kahleovรก from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic. The study involved 54 patients (29 men, 25 women) treated with oral diabetes drugs, aged 30-70 years. They were asked to follow one of two regimens of a restricted calorie diet, each containing 500 calories less than the recommended daily amount; in one programme the meals were six small meals and the other two large meals, breakfast and lunch. "The results suggest that for type 2 diabetic patients on a calorie-restricted diet, eating larger breakfasts and lunches may be more beneficial than six smaller meals during the day," the researchers noted. The study appeared in the journal Diabetologia.

Cathay Pacific flight attendants want the Hong Kong airline to redesign their uniforms because they are too revealing and may provoke sexual harassment, a union said on Monday. Female cabin crew members say the white blouses are too short and the red skirts too tight, leaving them uncomfortable at work, the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union (FAU) told AFP. "They are worried about the uniform being too short when they work," FAU vice chairman Julian Yau said, adding that it may be a "cause" of sexual harassment. He said the uniform had been a source of considerable complaint from female attendants since it was introduced in 2011 with some complaining that the shortness of the blouse left their midriff exposed when they bent down. "The uniform represents the company and (should) also make the crew feel comfortable and confident", Yau said. Female flight attendants are not asking for a complete overhaul of the uniform but want the blouse lengthened and the skirts to be more loose fitting, according to Yau. "We really hope that Cathay will do something," he said. A study by the southern Chinese city's Equal Opportunities Commission in February found that 27 percent of Hong Kong attendants had been sexually harassed on flights in the past 12 months. Eighty-six percent of the 392 participants who said they were sexually harassed were female. Harassment allegations involved "patting, touching, kissing or pinching," or "staring in a sexual way" or as "sexual jokes and requests for sexual favours", according to the survey. "We do not tolerate any form of harassment and take the issue of sexual harassment seriously," Cathay Pacific told the South China Morning Post, an English-language daily. "Crew are welcome to exchange their uniform any time if they feel the fit is not right," it added in the statement.

Seasonal Magazine

EDUCATION

By TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan

How Smriti Irani Can Revolutionise Education in 2 Moves or the last couple of weeks, Indians have been treated to an entirely local subject by Delhi-based TV news channels, namely, Delhi University's experiments with its undergraduate (UG) course, and its duration. The issue: should UG be of three or four years duration. But no one has asked one very simple question: why can't UG in liberal arts courses also be of two years duration? Why do elementary courses like these need all of three or four years? After all, the much harder postgraduate (PG) ones are for two years, and some even for one. I have been asking this question for over two decades without getting a satisfactory answer from anyone. Such answers, as one gets, have had nothing to do with the course content and the time needed to learn it. These answers are not entirely without merit, but if one were to assign weights to them, they add up to less than 20 on a scale of 100. In short, they are trivial. It has been taken as a given that at least three years are needed for a UG course. Four has probably become a need now because too many IAS officers want to send their kids to the US for a Master's degree and the US needs 16 years of education prior to it - 12 in school and four in college. Meanwhile, one oft-cited reason is that the students are too young at 18 to decide on their futures. But currently, by locking them into specific courses, that is precisely what we do. Hardly any switching is possible. Also, 18 is the voting age, isn't it? If they are clever enough to decide not to vote for Rahul Gandhi, they must be clever enough generally. You can join a fiveyear engineering degree programme but you are not old enough to be able to absorb history, economics, political science and so on at 18? And you can marry at 18, can't you?

College economics It quickly becomes evident that no one has really applied their minds to the economics of the issue. The facts, however, suggest otherwise. The first of these is that in all our universities, 75 to 80 per cent of UG classes are held in the morning only. This, if you think about it, is like a factory not working in the afternoons on almost five of the six working days. Many teachers go off in the afternoons for their second jobs, which could be anything from running their shops to taking tuitions and so on. Meanwhile, the classrooms remain empty which, given how much it costs to build them, is a waste of gigantic proportions. The overall result is low productivity of both the teachers and classrooms. Both are expensive and are affordable by the public universities only because they are not dependent on commercial finance and get money from the taxpayers. Private universities don't suffer from this problem. Their resource utilisation is almost double of that in publiclyfunded ones. But even they are following a three-year system perhaps because, by and large, they have more students in each class.

So here are two suggestions for Smriti Irani: first, think product differentiation and start (a time-bound) debate based on the economics of colleges on whether the UG courses can be offered for two, three and four years. Put out a discussion paper. Ask for views within six months. And then do as I am suggesting - have two, three, and four years UG programmes. The four year UG would satisfy the needs of those who want to go abroad because many foreign universities require 16 years of education for entry to a master's course; and the three-year course would be for those who want to have a good time and want to go to UK, and similar places that need only 15 years; and the two-year course would double capacity, with teaching hours per teacher increased from the current 18 per week to 21. (The rest of India by the way - barring farmers - works at least 48 hours a week. Women, whether employed or not, work at least 72 hours a week. So why should UG teachers be an exception?) The second suggestion is that Irani ask the most basic of all questions: have universities outlived their usefulness? Why not make all colleges autonomous, and free to award their own degrees? The curriculum and examination standards can be set every seven years by the central government and the colleges can follow these standards or not at their own risk. Eventually, if the standards are sensible, competition will force colleges to adopt them. How good a college is will be determined by placements of students for jobs, which would force a college to pay more attention to the teaching quality. These may sound like drastic steps, but we are in dire straits now because of a failed centralised system. The time has come to finally realise that we are in the 21st century now, where 20th century solutions must be discarded.

GADGETS

11 Great Uses For Your Old Smartphone or Tablet Bought a shiny new smartphone or tablet? Don't give your old one away for a pittance. We show you different ways you can put that old smartphone to work around the home, office or while you're on the move. Use it as a gift to a poor kid This should be one of the best possible uses for an old handheld device. Kids' educational and gaming needs are easily met by an old smartphone or tablet, and it will be an ideal gift to a poor kid who cannot afford one.

Use it as a wireless router Using the built-in WiFi Hotspot feature, you can easily use an old phone as a portable router. Plug in a 3G SIM card and choose a data plan with a good data limit. You can then carry the phone around in your pocket and connect all your other devices (laptop/ tablet/phones) to it for data access instead of using individual SIM cards for each device. Make sure to setup a secure access password or else anyone will be able to connect and use your hotspot.

Use it as a media player on your TV If your smartphone has TVout (via MHL or HDMI out), then you can easily convert it into a flash based media player for the TV. Get a high capacity memory card for your smartphone (we recommend getting a 32/64GB card depending on your budget and smartphone support) and copy your movies and music onto it. Next, just connect the TV and smartphone using a MHL or HDMI cable, connect the phone to a power outlet (constant media playing will consume a lot of Seasonal Magazine

battery) and enjoy your music/movies on a big screen. You can also stream multimedia wirelessly over DLNA or Miracast if your smartphone and TV both support it.

Use it as a test bed for apps The number of apps is growing exponentially on each smartphone platform, be it Android, BlackBerry, iOS or Windows Phone. However, it is not always easy to identify which apps are actually useful for you. Use your old smartphone as a test device to check out new apps before installing them on your main smartphone to save your device from bloatware. You can also test out various custom ROMs on older devices. Custom ROMs let you install the latest version of the OS, remove unnecessary bloatware/animation effects and even improve your device's battery life and performance.

Turn it into a wireless security camera or baby monitor There are a number of free apps that can convert your smartphone into a wireless security camera. Try IP Webcam for Android or iVigilo Smartcam for iOS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these apps use your phone's camera to stream live video that can be viewed in any web browser, any video player that supports streaming or on another smartphone/ tablet. You only need to set up the smartphone in place, plug in the

charger, install the app and make sure that it stays connected to your WiFi network. There is also the option of Mobiola WebCamera app (paid) that is available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Symbian.

Use an emulator to turn it into a retro gaming device Old gaming systems had very basic hardware compared to the phones and tablets of today. That's why you can use software emulation to run older games on a current phone. Some of the older systems that you can emulate include several versions of Nintendo and Sega systems (Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, GameBoy Advance, Dreamcast and so on). There are dozens of emulator apps that you can download from the Play Store but Nostalgia NES (by Nostalgia Emulators) is a good place to start it's free, fast, supports a variety of games and offers good response when playing with on-screen controls. Note that you also need to get game ROMs

(the data from those old game cartridges) to be able to play a game using a software emulator app.

Use it as a standalone GPS navigator Google Maps and navigation is free on your Android phone and you've probably used this while driving. If you prefer, you can also get Maps by MapmyIndia — in many situations, MapmyIndia has better localised maps with better house and street-level detail for India. This means that with an old Android phone, you don't need to buy a standalone GPS navigator for the car — just keep your old phone permanently mounted in the car. All you need is a car windscreen or dashboard mount for the phone and a generic micro USB 12V car charger to keep the battery juiced up (you can buy both

online for as less as Rs 300 each). To make things easier, you can also get an app called Car Dashboard (by Nez Droid) — this puts up a simple interface for in-car use with large, easy-to-see icons, a bunch of useful shortcuts and voice commands. You can customise it to your kind of use.

Use it as a PC remote If you have a desktop or a micro PC connected to a TV, you will probably prefer to sit a few feet away. An obvious way to control the PC would be a wireless keyboard-mouse, but this isn't too convenient if you're on a couch. The smartphone is handy in this case — especially if you're using the PC for web browsing or entertainment on the large screen. Get a free app called Mobile Mouse Lite (by RPA Technology) and download the server

software (the server software is an essential component, and is available for all versions of Windows & Macs). Both the smartphone and the PC need to be on the same WiFi network and the software will guide you through the rest. With Mobile Mouse, you can use the smartphone as a mouse, keyboard, universal remote (for many popular media players like VLC) and as a presentation controller.

Use it for data backup or extra storage on the move If you're out capturing photographs and you run of out storage on the camera's memory card, an old smartphone can come in handy. You can transfer the photographs over to it and even review them on the screen without draining the camera battery. To use your Android smartphone for data backup, it needs to have a micro SD card slot and USB host capability. You can get a 32GB micro SD card for as low as Rs 1,100 and you'll need a simple USB host cable (Rs 100, with micro USB on one side and a full size female USB port on the other side). Just plug the memory card reader directly into the phone and use a file explorer to transfer the photographs. You can also transfer stuff from a USB flash drive.

Get a HUD in your car A HUD or head up display projects an image onto the windscreen so that it appears to float in mid air. The primary advantage of a HUD is that your eyes don't have to refocus to see gauges and then refocus again to see the road ahead. While HUD technology is not entirely new (it's commonplace in fighter jets), with a smartphone, you can have a HUD in any car. Many apps are available, though we like Ulysse Speedometer. All you need is a nonslip mat on the dashboard and the app. Place the smartphone on the mat with the screen facing up. In the app, switch to HUD mode and the display will invert (so that it's correctly viewed in the reflection). The app uses a GPS signal to accurately calculate vehicle speed and display it in the HUD. (Credit: Hitesh Raj Bhagat and Karan Bajaj, Economic Times) Seasonal Magazine

MIND-BODY

7 Mental Attitudes That Will Wreck Your Health Our personalities do more for us than determine our social circles. Temperament can impact a person's very physical health. "The idea that behavior or personality traits can influence health is one that's been around for a long time. We're just now getting a handle on to what extent they do," said Stephen Boyle of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. While not every character trait will kill you fast, many can deteriorate your health more quickly.

Cynicism:

Cynic end tto o be suspicious and ynicss who ttend mistrustful o ther s, a char ac ait off o other thers, charac actter tr trait tha tist efer tto oa thatt scien scientist tistss rre ass hostilit hostilityy, ma mayy ha ea sed lik elihood o havv e an incr increa eased likelihood off de se he se devveloping hear heartt disea disease se.. "T "The hese en't nec essarily ho t-headed people aren't nece hot-headed people,, ar but people who ar e mor e lik ely tto o rread ead are more likely in vior a intto people's beha behavior ass some hostile mo tiv e," Bo yle said during a ttelephone elephone motiv tive Boyle in vie w. In a study o e than 300 intter ervie view off mor more Vie tnam vve eter ans who w er e healthy ietnam erans wer ere at the study st ar t, Bo yle ffound ound tha star art, Boyle thatt those who sc or ed high on mea sur es scor ored measur sure of hostilit er e about 25 per cen hostilityy w wer ere perc entt mor e lik ely tto o de se more likely devvelop hear heartt disea disease se.. Bo yle and his ccolleague olleague Boyle olleaguess think tha thatt hostile individuals might eexperienc xperienc e xperience ess, which ccan mor e str an cca ause spik es more stre spike in an immune-s em pr otein ccalled alled immune-syyst stem pro C3 tha ed with vvarious arious thatt ha hass been link linked disea se s, including diabe ac t, disease ses, diabettes. In ffac act, the par ticipan or es on participan ticipantts with higher sc scor ore hostilit wed an incr ea se in the se hostilityy sho show increa ease these pr oteins while the non-hostile men pro sho wed no such incr ea se show increa ease se..

Lack of Meaning:

If yyou ou lack a sense o our off purpose purpose,, yyour ar th ccould ould be trunc ated. A st ay on E sta Ear arth trunca study in e than 1,200 invvolving mor more elderly par ticipan participan ticipantts who didn't ha havve ar ound demen tia a dementia att the study's st star artt ffound tha ated ha ving a thatt those who indic indica having high purpose in lif e w er e about half life wer ere ely tto o die o likely ovver the study period, as lik which la st ed up tto o fiv e yyear ear s. TThe he ears. last sted five result s, published in the June 15 is sue sults, issue o f the journal P tic Pss y chosoma chosomatic Medicine egar dle son's dlesss o off a per person's Medicine,, held rregar egardle age x, educ ation and rrac ac e, along age,, se sex, educa ace with le e s sion and levv el o off depr depre neur o ticism. "P er sons with high neuro "Per ersons purpose rreadily eadily deriv e meaning fr om derive from and mak e sense o entts o off their make off the eevven liv es, and lik ely engage in beha vior live likely behavior viorss and ac tivitie activitie tivitiess tha thatt the theyy deem impor t," said study rre esear cher importtan ant," searcher Patricia Bo yle o Boyle off the Rush Alzheimer's Disea se C en ago Disease Cen entter in Chic Chicago ago.. Some other rre esear ch ha st ed tha search hass sugge suggest sted thatt people with a higher sense o off purpose ma en ess mayy ha havve dif difffer eren entt le levvels o off str stre hormone s, be hormones, bettter hear heartt health or impr oved immune ssyyst ems, though impro stems, mor e rre esear ch is needed tto o firm up more search any o se biologic al mechanisms, off the these biological she said. TThe he opposit e also holds: "T he opposite "The findings fr om our study sugge st ed from suggest sted

tha thatt people who no longer se sett and work ac tiv ely tto owar d goals or enjo activ tively ard enjoyy their da y-t o-da tivitie w the day-t y-to-da o-dayy ac activitie tivitiess (ho (how theyy spend their time) ar e those with are gr ea yle ttold old grea eatter mor morttalit alityy risk," Bo Boyle Liv eScienc e. LiveScienc eScience

Lots of Fretting

People who ar e highly neur otic are neuro const an tly w orried and an xious, and onstan antly worried anxious, pr one tto o depr ession — die sooner on prone depre aver age than their chill ccoun oun erage ountterpar erpartts. And a rrec ec en tly rrepor epor ecen ently eportted study o off nearly 1,800 men ffollo ollo wed o ear ollow ovver a 30-y 30-year period sugge st t's par tly bec ause suggest stss tha that's partly beca neur otic e also mor e lik ely tto o smok e. neuro ticss ar are more likely smoke Perhaps ha ving a cigar ette ea se having cigare ease sess an xie esear cher Daniel anxie xietty, said study rre searcher Mr ocz ek o due Univ er sit Mrocz oczek off Pur Purdue Univer ersit sityy in Indiana, adding tha t-t erm thatt such a shor short-t t-term pa or th it if it kills payyoff might no nott be w wor orth you do wn the line down line..

Lack of Self-Control

Late ffor or appoin tmen an't kkeep eep appointmen tmentts? C Can't your de sk or ganiz ed? No self-c on tr ol? desk organiz ganized? self-con ontr trol? The se seeming benign qualitie ould hese qualitiess ccould e a ttoll oll on yyour our health. A rre evie wo tak ake view off mor e than 20 studie more studiess and nearly 9,000 par ticipan evealed people participan ticipantts rre who ar e cconscien onscien tious — or ganiz ed, are onscientious organiz ganized, self-disciplined, a o ass opposed tto impulsiv e — liv e ttw wo tto o ffour our yyear ear impulsive live earss longer than o ther s. Study rre esear cher Ho war d ard other thers. searcher How S . FFriedman riedman o er sit off the Univ Univer ersit sityy o off Calif ornia, Riv er side suspec River erside suspectts the boost alifornia, in lif etime ccan an be a ed par tly tto o life atttribut tributed partly the ffac ac onscien tious actt tha thatt highly cconscien onscientious e le ely tto o smok e or individuals ar are lesss lik likely smoke o eexxcess, and liv e mor e st able drink tto live more stable and le essful liv es. TThe he study is lesss str stre live de sue o dettailed in a 2008 is issue off the journal Health P Pssychology chology..

People who are highly neurotic constantly worried and anxious, and prone to depression — die sooner on average than their chill counterparts.

Anxiety

The jit an put a str ain on yyour our jittter erss ccan strain noggin, rre esear ch sugge st s. C ompar ed search suggest sts. Compar ompared with the highly fr azzled, Individuals with frazzled, a mello w demeanor who ar e out going mellow are outgoing ma ely tto o de tia, mayy be le lesss lik likely devvelop demen dementia, which ccan an be cca aused bbyy Alzheimer's disea se and o ther illne s. TThe he claim disease other illnessse ses. is ba sed on a study tha ollo wed mor e based thatt ffollo ollow more than 500 elderly individuals ffor or fiv e five year s. Among the out going eexxtr over ears. outgoing tro ertts, demen tia risk w as 50 per cen wer dementia wa perc entt lo low f or par ticipan er e ccalm alm participan ticipantt s who w wer ere compar ed with those who w er e pr one ompared wer ere prone to distr ess. distre

Gloom and Doom

The gloomy ed per son is no gloomy,, inhibit inhibited person nott just a an att a disadv disadvan anttage socially socially,, but also phy sic ally eliminar physic sically ally.. A pr preliminar eliminaryy study o off e than 180 pa tien om mor patien tientts suf sufffering fr from more peripher al ar se (plaque peripheral artterial disea disease buildup in the ar s) sho w ed artt erie eries) show par alled ttype ype D ticipan so-called D,, or participan ticipantts with so-c distr e s sed, per sonalit sonalityy, had an distre personalit incr ea sed odds o increa eased off dying sooner than other people ype-D people ar e mor e people.. TType-D more are lik ely tto o eexperienc xperienc e nega tiv e emo tions xperience negativ tive emotions likely while a att the same time hold in their feelings. TThe he rre esear cher s, who de searcher chers, dettail their w ork in the A ugust is sue o work August issue off the journal Ar chiv es o ger st Archiv chive off Sur Surger geryy, sugge suggest the per sonalit ype is link ed with the personalit sonalityy ttype linked em a ell a body's immune ssyyst stem ass w well ass str ess rre esponse ssyyst em. stre stem.

Stress

Wha ou do Whattever yyou do,, don't le lett this list worr ou! R esear ch is sho wing tha orryy yyou! Re search showing thatt pr olonged str ess ccan an be deadly prolonged stre deadly,, and if it doe sn't do yyou ou in, w orkplac e str ess doesn't workplac orkplace stre can incr ea se yyour our chanc es o increa ease chance off hear heartt disea se yndr ome disease se,, flu virus, me mettabolic ssyndr yndrome and ha ving high blood pr essur e. A having pre sure study o 00 Isr er aeli w ork off nearly 7 700 Israeli work orker erss found tha xperienc ed job thatt those who eexperienc xperienced burnout (when w ork str ess bec ome work stre become omess unmanageable) w er e nearly ttwic wic ea wer ere wice ass lik ely tto o de ype 2 diabe likely devvelop ttype diabettes, in which a per son's body bec ome person's become omess re sist an o the sugar-r egula ting sistan antt tto sugar-regula egulating hormone ccalled alled insulin. And while a job pr omo tion might boost yyour our promo omotion inc ome e s se ou out. income ome,, it also str stre sess yyou British rre esear cher en tly ffound ound tha ec searcher ently thatt cherss rrec ecen when people ge omo gett pr promo omotted, the theyy suf age about 10 per cen sufffer on a avver erage perc entt e men ain and ar e le ely mor menttal str strain are lesss lik likely more to find time tto o go tto o the doc docttor or..

BRANDING

How Brands Win and Lose Customer Loyalty In the modern day context, brand loyalty is not about buying the same brand every time but allocating the maximum ‘share of wallet’ to a particular brand. The key to building a fanatically loyal customer base is to create an endearing customer-brand relationship. The journey starts with finding a metaphor from human relationships and evolving from the ‘casual friendship’ to the ‘marriage’, where customers become emotionally and behaviourally committed to the brand. Here are some key steps to building a strong customer-brand relationship: Ashita Aggarwal Sharma 1) Put the consumer at the centre of the relationship: To build a deep relationship, it is important to understand customers and have insights on their attitude and behaviour. Insights cannot be discovered from behind the laptop or through books but by meeting customers, spending time with them, by speaking to retailers and reading reviews. Insights inspire brands to follow a customer and not a product oriented approach. In its early days, Kellogg India failed to realise that the middle-class Indian family did not have the same things for breakfast on most days. They consumed milk, bread and regionspecific preparations like idlis, parathas etc. Kellogg’s wanted to change breakfast habits and banked heavily on the quality of its crispy flakes to do the job. To its surprise, Indians poured hot milk on the flakes which made them soggy and ruined the taste. The problem was Kellogg’s tried to build a relationship placing the product at the centre, rather than customers and their beliefs. In contrast, Maggi noodles understood that the Indian mother needed a quick snack for the hungry kid and introduced the product with a ‘2-minute’ preparation-time proposition. This placed the consumer Seasonal Magazine

at the centre of the brand strategy and created an instant connect. Identif tifyy wha whatt yyou Lesson: Iden tif ou ccan an oofffer in a rrela ela tionship elationship tionship,, no nott why the c onsumer should en entt er in intt o a ou. elationship rela tionship with yyou. 2) Offer relevant positioning: To build endearing customer relationships, brands need to offer a relevant and differentiated proposition. A brand that promises too many things is not able to perform exceptionally well on any one of them fails to occupy a special place in a customer’s heart. Titan, in 1980s and 1990s, was positioned on ‘gifting’. With the explosion of gifting options, Titan moved away from this proposition in 2009 to ‘Be More’, which denoted the various moods and personalities of its wearers. This positioning was strong

The problem was Kellogg’s tried to build a relationship placing the product at the centre, rather than customers and their beliefs. but to customers, it sent out confusing signals. So Titan is back with the ‘art of gifting’ proposition. fined Havve a clearly de defined Le s son: Ha ela tionship pla tf orm tto o en platf tform entter in intto a rrela elationship tionship.. 3) Weave your story around emotion: Products are built on facts but brands are built on emotions. A story build around emotion can bring the core brand values to life.

Johnson & Johnson is a leading brand of baby skin care products and is preferred by young mothers. The brand could build a strong relationship with its customers because it understands that ‘having a baby changes everything for a woman’. For years, it has been telling a story about the bond between a mother and her child. The brand story weaved around this emotion is so compelling that it resonates with mothers generation after generation. an find a plac actts ccan place Lesson: FFac ac e in the mind but emo tions find a plac e in the emotions place hear t. heart. 4) Include employees in your brand story: It is important to ensure that every employee of your company understands the values your brand represents. They interface with consumers and potential consumers and have the power to bring brands to life. While organisations spend millions on advertising, packaging etc, they often fail to include their employees in the brand building process. Mahindra, before launching its new positioning, ‘Rise’, undertook an internal branding programme to ensure that every employee within the organisation identified with the new positioning and the underlying principles behind the same. Lesson: C o-op omer Co-op o-optt in intternal cust customer omerss be e yyou ou rrope ope in eexxt ernal ore beff or consumer s. onsumers. Crea eatte ‘magic’ a att eevver eryy ttouch 5) Cr ea ouch poin t: point: A brand is as a brand does. The brand idea is brought to life at every customer touch-point. To create a consistent brand experience all consumer experience points should behave like an orchestra, in complete harmony to get across emotional essence seamlessly. Coke continues to build on its promise of happiness with the ‘smile’ campaigns. Apple is an uncluttered yet sophisticated brand that is the experience it communicates through products, packaging and the store layout. Lesson: Magic al eexperienc xperienc es inspir e; Magical xperience inspire; cr ea e engagemen o rre crea eativ tive engagementts help tto tiv etain. Seasonal Magazine

WORLD CUP

By Carl Jaison

The Indispensable Maestros 1. Neymar It ttak ak es unimaginable pr essur e tto o lead bbyy eexxample and an ake pre sure even indomit able tta ask tto o ccarr arr den o indomitable arryy the bur burden off a disillusioned na tion, gr appling with ec onomic and politic al is sue s. FFor or nation, grappling economic political issue sues. Ne ymar azil’s ne wf ound me esponsibilit ome Neymar ymar,, Br Brazil’s newf wfound sponsibilityy ccome omess with messsiah, rre the pa o eexxcel when the going ge ough. Living up passsion tto getts ttough. to the eexpec xpec oo tball fr aternit odigious xpecttations o off the ffoo ootball fra ernityy, the pr prodigious strik er ha o curr en tly per ch striker hass displa displayyed his unma unmattchable skills tto curren ently perch in the ttop op spo or er list, ha ving ne spott in the leading goal-sc goal-scor orer having nettted 4 pric ele utie s. If the opening game w as all about beautie uties. wa pricele elesss bea Ne ymar’s dribbling pr owess, his eexploit xploit amer oon Neymar’s pro xploitss against C Camer ameroon earned him the rreput eput ation o ound per eputa off being an all-r all-round perfformer ormer.. Going bbyy his curr en orm Ne ymar is w ell on ccour our se tto o bag curren entt fform Neymar well ourse the pr estigious Golden Boo t. pre Boot. Seasonal Magazine

3. Jorge Luis Pinto

2. Guillermo Ochoa Mexico have been well-served by this dynamic goalkeeper so far, having conceded only a late goal against Croatia. Currently a free agent, Ochoa is in line to earn himself a record transfer to a prominent European club after his outstanding stops against Brazil generated interests among managers on the look-out for promising players. He has consistently overcome set-piece situations by throwing up an impregnable wall at his post making it difficult even for Neymar to find the back of the net. Being compared to former England great Gordon Banks has left Ochoa clearly flattered but the world has taken note of this talented goalie who has been at the forefront of Mexico’s WC campaign.

4. Arjen Robben

If there has been one man who has instilled inspiration in his squad, then Jorge Luis Pinto, the coach of the rampaging Costa Rican team deserves accolades for the manner in which he has groomed his team into being giant-killers. Pitted against 3 former WC champions Italy, Uruguay and England, Costa Rica was dismissed as being there ‘just for the numbers’ before they silenced one and all by securing hard-fought victories against Italy and Uruguay. In the process, Costa Rica has qualified to the Round of 16 giving their charismatic coach plenty of options ahead of their inconsequential game against England. Though being livid at FIFA for putting his players through a doping test, Pinto has ignited hopes that even a lesser-known outfit can play spoiler if managed by the right man.

He has been a live-wire on the field, creating the chances that make Netherlands one of the best attacking teams in this edition of the World Cup. With 3 goals and an assist, Robben has once again proved why he is still considered one of the best forwards on the world stage. His sheer pace and dribbling skills have kept the defenders always on their toes as the Bayern Munich star aims to capitalize on his team’s outstanding performance going into the next round. He personified class against defending champs Spain after scoring a brace although his world-class experience came into play against Chile. Amid reports that the striker is being closely watched by Premier League giants Manchester United, Robben would focus on the mammoth task on his shoulders: to realize the first World Cup victory for the Dutch outfit.

5. Karim Benzema Having to settle with a Ribery-less squad would have sounded alarm bells for the French team but their Real Madrid playmaker has ensured a smooth passage for the Les Blues. Benzema, already the proud winner of two backto-back player of the match awards, proved his capability in a team comprised of inexperienced players. Benzema’s presence has indeed come as a solace for the 1998 champions who desperately want to end their trophy drought. His deadly strikes against Honduras knocked the stuffing out of the Caribbean team but his performance against Switzerland confirmed his supremacy as a remarkable playmaker. With 3 goals and 2 assists so far, Benzema has arguably been the most efficient player having filled the void left by Frank Ribery. With his experience France has emerged as serious title contenders and they will look to sustain their good run of form.

Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

Seasonal Magazine

John Antony

Now, Every Indian’s PM?

Narendra Modi has a stated intention to be every Indian’s PM. But the ball is not entirely in his court to achieve this. Firstly, the 61% of voters who didn’t vote for him to be the PM this time, should show magnanimity and support his plans. Modi has already started working hard to become every Indian’s PM, and he may even succeed in soothing the concerns of all minorities, but the real challenge will be siding with the poorest of the poor among the society, against the excesses of some segments of the rich and the powerful.

ust when every Indian in media and social media were getting alarmed about Modi turning very silent since becoming the PM, Modi spoke forcefully through a blog post on the occasion of his government completing a month in office. The post had a real surprise to share. Towards the middle of the reasonably well-written note, Modi shared this secret: “A big challenge I am facing in Delhi is to convey to a select group of people about our intentions and sincerity to bring a positive change in this country.” What exactly did the new Indian Prime Minister mean, will remain mostly a riddle.

But it is highly likely that those words reveal the man’s desire to be every Indian’s PM and not just the PM of the 31% of the voting voters who sided with BJP this time.

Because, even though religious polarisation contributed a great deal to Modi’s success in the Lok Sabha polls, it would be naïve to attribute the success entirely to polarisation.

If true, it is one of the nobler thoughts to have emerged from this highly popular yet a lingeringly divisive figure.

There are several evidences to show that Hindu polarisation was not the only force at play. For instance, during the height of the campaign, he has been quoted as saying the following:

But for this noble thought to get executed, the ball is not entirely in Modi’s court. The responsibility equally lies with the 61% of the voting voters who didn’t vote for BJP or any NDA party this time. Agreed that many of them still have grave misgivings about Modi’s overtly Hindutva stances of earlier times. But it is high time that such misgivings are suspended and Modi accepted warmly as every Indian’s PM, at least as long as he behaves as such.

“I am known to be a Hindutva leader. My image does not permit to say so, but I dare to say. My real thought is Pehle shauchalaya, phir devalaya’ (toilet first, temple later).” It was not very original as Mahatma Gandhi and even Jairam Ramesh had earlier shared similar thoughts. But that was not easy to say for an allegedly polarising leader, especially as one of the main planks of his BJP party in earlier elections has been a

Now, Every Indian’s PM? proposal to build a Ram Temple at UP’s Ayodhya. Eerily, Modi’s emphatic words turned prophetic recently when two minor Dalit sisters were found gang-raped and murdered when they went searching for a secluded place for their early morning call, in UP itself. Modi had also fought this election not just on the anti-pseudo-secular plank, but on a definitive development plank. His campaign speeches had many gems in this domain. “Swap vote bank politics for development. The solution to all problems is development. The whole nation has been destroyed by vote bank politics, what it needs is development. If there is development, there is much scope for a lot of improvement in the nation,” Modi had exhorted the voting public during the run-up to the election. Modi also made no bones about the fact that he was a pure capitalist, and that private business was his preferred route for development. “I believe government has no business to do business,” he had thundered, which can mean nothing other than the fact that if he can have his way, Modi will accelerate disinvestment in PSUs and statecontrolled corporations. It is time for the likes of LIC, BSNL, Air India etc to be on their toes. Instead, what Modi has been advocating all along was, “Minimum government, maximum governance.” And when it comes to governance, one of Modi’s main agendas has been to ensure that whatever is promised is delivered. “For any political party, its manifesto should be like the Gita, the Quran, and the Bible,” he had remarked on the seriousness of promises made. So, shouldn’t a leader who had the courage to speak against overt religious stands, and had the vision to put development first, be Seasonal Magazine

So, shouldn’t a leader who had the courage to speak against overt Hindutva stands, and had the vision to put development first, be supported by the remaining 61% of the voters who didn’t vote for BJP this time? They sure should, as India would stand a better chance to develop then.

supported by the remaining 61% of the voters who didn’t vote for BJP this time? They sure should, as not only would India stand a better chance to develop then, but it would enable Modi to not fall back upon Hindutva ideologies or further polarisation along religious lines. Because, if Modi

fails, someone more hard-line can usurp Modi’s role in the right-wing of politics. For his part, Modi has already started struggling against being every Indian’s PM. No, the challenge has not been so far to be a Muslim’s PM or a Christian’s PM, or a Sikh’s PM. Modi has been doing that reasonably well, at least in speeches which reveal intentions. “When I was young, a Muslim man used to repair my cycle, today his son is doing the same job. Why is this? We can’t leave them behind. If a limb is disabled, the whole body is disabled. We need to bring them into the mainstream,” Modi had spoken in Parliament. Modi’s real challenge to be every Indian’s PM, would be to first become every poor man’s PM. That is a daunting task before a party that vouches by market-economics and for its leader who thinks that development is the only way in which

poor can be uplifted. Struggles of Modi in this regard is already out in the open. The massive and across-the-board rail fare hike, and talks about other imminent hikes, signal this trend. Modi Government should have ideally spared the poor sections of the society from getting affected by these hikes.

MODIFYING

Governance, Accelerating Growth

It is also thought-provoking to consider what would have been Modi Government’s response if instead of 40 Indian workers, 4 Indian businessmen had been abducted in Iraq. But not that a UPA Government or any capitalist Indian government would have behaved in a different way. However, despite all such misgivings, and the stark reality that it is very difficult to think from poor Indians’ shoes for any leader, it is high time that every Indian should be wholeheartedly supporting Modi for fulfilling his stated intentions. ill yesterday he was BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Today, he is India’s Prime Minister. Till yesterday, he was an allegedly divisive figure. Today, he is a unifying force. You may still differ. But it is time to set aside differences. It is time to give this leader all the support all of us can give. To prove himself. Even more support for his team to prove themselves, as they are themselves. As Modi starts his governance, one thing is sure. This is not likely to be a revolution like the one promised by Arvind Kejriwal, but which unfortunately didn’t materialize this time. This is more likely to be a powerful modification of the economic liberalization flagged off by PV Narasimha Rao and Manhohan Singh in the early 90s, and accelerated by Vajpayee and Dr. Singh / Sonia combine later on. Modi fits like a T in this liberalized, capitalist mould, but there are also important differences. But before that, the most pertinent point is that this liberalized pro-FDI model is in shambles today. Modi inherits the mantle at this troublesome period. But here is also where Modi’s differences with preceding PMs - both from Congress and the BJP - will keep him in advantage. Modi is fast, decisive, confident, aggressive, and more development biased than all others. The team that he has stitched together may not be the best available in BJP and NDA today, but it is not the worst either. They, together with the babus Modi has handpicked for critical jobs, have a great opportunity before them to modify governance and accelerate growth. But are they up to this Herculean task? Will India progress as per these fresh, new, high expectations, or will crony capitalism and trickle-down economics take over, inevitably causing religious polarisation to again take centrestage? Only time will tell. But all Indians have a responsibility to wholeheartedly back Modi for now, to make this experiment work. Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

“Cabinet Choice is Prerogative of PM. If Modi is Satisfied So am I.” Seasonal Magazine interviews Subramanian Swamy, former Central Minister and legal activist:

Ho w did yyou ou vie w the elec tion How view election result on trunner in sultss? A Ass a fr fron ontrunner exposing many sc ams during the scams UP A rregime egime as it mor eo tiUPA egime,, w wa more off an an antiincumbenc ote or mor eo omore off a pr proincumbencyy vvo Modi manda mandatte? It was a combination of three factors - the Governance record of Modi, the anti-corruption campaign led by me, and the Hindutva galvanization of the party cadre of the Sangh Parivar. Ho w do yyou ou a How assse sesss Modi’s council o er as it up tto o off minist minister erss? W Wa your eexpec xpec xpecttations or abo abovve expec w it? below xpecttations, or belo Cabinet choice is the prerogative of the Prime Minister. If he is satisfied so am I. A JP leader who w ork ed the Ass a B BJP work orked de st tto o in flic ximum damage harde dest inflic flictt ma maximum har to the UP A-2 go UPA-2 govvernmen ernmentt and thus aid Modi’s vic ou ffeel eel le victtor oryy, did yyou lett do wn when yyou ou w er e no down wer ere nott included in the ccouncil ouncil o er ou off minist minister erss? Do yyou expec e tto o be ccorr orr ec xpectt this injustic injustice orrec ectted in the ne xpansion? nexxt eexpansion? I fought corruption not for a reward and therefore not let down. I feel a sense of vindication instead. Y ou ha eed with You havve no nott fully agr agreed ail ffar ar e hik e, ar guing tha are hike arguing thatt the rrail alt erna tiv ew ays tto o rraise aise funds alterna ernativ tive wa should ha xplor ed. C an yyou ou havve been eexplor xplored. Can

sugge st some specific alt erna tiv e suggest alterna ernativ tive me thods tha ou ha havve in mind? methods thatt yyou Not in a magazine interview. The PM can ask me whenever he wants. Y ou ha otest ed against You havve also pr pro sted an imminen e in dome stic LPG imminentt hik hike domestic pric es ar guing tha price arguing thatt somebody would file a PIL against it. A Ass a legal ac tivist who w as vver er tiv e eryy ac activ tive activist wa in the PIL spher e, w ould yyou ou sphere would your self do it? ourself As a member of BJP which is a ruling party I cannot file a PIL against the non-performance of statutory or constitutional duties of my own government. C oming again tto o the specific Coming specificss o off e, the plan no w is tto o do hike now the LPG hik a gr adual incr ea se o s. 5 per gradual increa ease off R Rs. mon th, lik e the R s. 0.50 mon thly month, like Rs. monthly incr ea se in die sel. Isn’t it a good increa ease diesel. str ategy e the abrup stra egy,, a ass unlik unlike abruptt and st eep rrail ail ffar ar e hik e, the impac steep are hike impactt o off this on the a age household will avver erage be minimal, and it also limit limitss the in fla tionar xpec ? infla flationar tionaryy eexpec xpecttations tions? Since the hike is not for discouraging the consumption of gas but as a revenue measure therefore I am against it. Crude is again soaring, and this ar gumen argumen gumentt ha hass been used bbyy suc cessiv e ccen en tr al go o succ sive entr tral govvernmen ernmentts tto

incr ea se dome stic pric es. But tta axes, increa ease domestic price which ar e char ged a cen perc enttage age,, are charged ass a per being a big par stic partt o off the dome domestic an’t the go pric es, why ccan’t price govvernmen ernmentt cut on the tta ax rra ate tto o limit the damage on it ens ? TThe he rre ever se itss citiz citizens ens? erse can be done when the crude pric e price goe wn tto o main ax goess do down mainttain the ne nett tta ther w or ds, why ar e in flo w? In o inflo flow other wor ords, are go adamantt tha thatt eevver eryy govvernmen ernmentts adaman time crude goe ax in flo w goess up up,, their tta flow inflo should soar ? soar? Unfortunately we are driven by wooden bureaucracy driven administration since 1947. No economist worth the name will view taxes as purely a revenue measure. Y ou ha You havve been a critic o off India’s Look E ast polic ollo wed bbyy Ea policyy ffollo ollow Nar asimha R ao ajpa Nara Rao ao,, V Vajpa ajpayyee ee,, and Dr Dr.. Manmohan Singh, and is inst ead instead ar guing ffor or a LLook ook W est A sia polic arguing We Asia policyy, and eevven ar guing tha arguing thatt India should side with the Shia Shiass against Sunnis in the W est A sian ccon on flic e in We Asian onflic flictts lik like Ir aq. Wha ationale and do Iraq. Whatt is the rra you eexpec o xpec xpectt Modi go govvernmen ernmentt tto follo w this advic e? ollow advice Our main vital imports of oil and export of manpower is towards the West. Our national security and civilizational threats are also from the West. Hence we need a new foreign and defence policy with focus on West of India. Y ou ha aunch critic You havve been a st sta

of the ttoo oo thle tur eo AARC oothle thlesss na natur ture off S SA ARC,, as w ell a tions well ass India’s alleged viola violations of S AARC norms, and is eevven SA adv oc ating a gr ea ole ffor or U SA & advoc oca grea eatter rrole US China in S AARC ou eexpec xpec SA ARC.. Do yyou xpectt Modi tto o ffollo ollo w this rrout out e? ollow oute I cannot say yet. But Modi obviously is focused on how to improve relations with our neighbours. FFrrom a vver er eryy secular leader bar barely ely a ffe ew yyear ear ou ha earss back, yyou havve tr ans our self dr ama tic ally trans ansfformed yyour ourself drama amatic tically to a Hindut guing Hindutvva leader ar arguing against Muslims and Christians using eevver casion. Wha an eryy oc occ Whatt ccan justif eme st and ffor or a justifyy such an eexxtr treme stand politic al leader in a div er se and political diver erse plur al socie e India? plural societty lik like Your definition of secularism has changed with the advent of Ms. Sonia

Gandhi. Not mine. Hinduism is the most secular religion since it’s based on books and treatises and not on the sayings of Prophets. It is the only religion which explicitly acknowledges that all religions lead to God. Since the arrest for a completely bogus charge of murder by the TN government against the Kanchi Shankarachrya, I came to the conclusions that we Hindus are under siege of foreign proselytizing forces. In estingly spit e yyour our str ong Intter ere stingly,, de despit spite strong pr o-Hindut and, yyou ou ar e rreally eally pro-Hindut o-Hindutvva st stand, are no JP’s ttop op inner cir cle nott in B BJP’s circle cle.. Why is e it so ?Y our critic gue tha so? Your criticss ar argue thatt ther there is a trust ffac ac ficit due tto o yyour our acttor de deficit fr equen wit ching o frequen equentt sswit witching off side sidess and after yyour our sc athing per sonal sca personal criticism o ajpa efuse off V Vajpa ajpayyee tha thatt rre fusess

to die do wn. Wha ealit down. Whatt is the rrealit ealityy? I joined BJP only recently namely August 2013. So no surprise. Y ou ha er o-China in You havve been vver eryy pr pro-China guing tha e for eign polic oreign policyy, eevven ar arguing thatt w we should go the eexxtr a mile tto o solv e all tra solve bor der disput es with China, and tha border dispute thatt we should limit our engagemen engagementts with US and eevven many FFar ar E ast na tions, Ea nations, o irk China ttoo oo much. Why ar e nott tto are no you such an ar den f? W er e arden dentt China buf buff? Wer ere you disappoin disappointted when Modi didn’t extend an in vit ation tto o the Chine se invit vita Chinese for his ssw wearing-in de spit e being a despit spite ne ? nexxt door neighbour neighbour? I am not pro-China but strongly concerned with securing India’s national interests. Recently a Congress Spokesperson called me a CIA agent and I took him to court, then he gave a written unconditional apology.

MODI SPECIAL

Making Of The Modi Mythology

By Rama Lakshmi:

BJPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign managers brilliantly mobilized Indians around a belief in a piece of land and a deity, i.e, Gujarat and its presiding deity Modi â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not unlike Ayodhya and Ram. s the dust settles on one of the most audacious election campaigns in India, we can now unpack some of the strategies that the BJP and its supporters deployed in creating the spectacular and untiring mythology of Narendra Modi. Analysts have declared the past few elections in our country as Bijli-SadakPani verdicts. When development is delivered, voters reward the politicians. But the the Bijli-Sadak-Pani issues played out quite differently in the 2014 elections. The three issues got mythologized this time. It was not so much about what the local candidate had done or not done for the voter; but this campaign had more to do with what was done in a faraway land called Gujarat -- projected in the voters' minds as the land of milk and honey, an earthly paradise, a Shangri-la of sorts where there are jobs and electricity for everybody, farmers live blissfully in a subsidy-less existence, highways that match the best in the world, and a place that is untouched by the epidemic of corruption.

Gujarat. Those who had not visited the state almost always said they knew someone who had visited the holy land of 2014 campaign. Or that they had heard from others and read somewhere. The yearning for Gujarat was carefully constructed through the stories and images created for the voters.? After all, the most powerful mythological stories that we believe in are not often the ones that we have actually witnessed but the ones we have been repeatedly told. In fact, the branding of Gujarat began even before the election campaign when Modi roped in another enduring icon, Amitabh Bachchan to act in an advertisement campaign in which the star tantalisingly invited Indians to visit the state, at least for a few days. Come, see and be conquered by the magic of Gujarat, the ad promised.

north Delhi this year, cheery Modivolunteers approached middle-aged women and told them tales about how Gujarati women laden with gold jewelry could stroll on the Sabarmati riverfront at night without fear of being robbed; about buses with women conductors that kept female passengers safe. To the elders, volunteers read out Swami Vivekanand quotes from Facebook pages of their Android phones predicting the rise of a messiah in the 21st century. This could be Modi, they helpfully informed voters. Have you ever met a beggar or a manual labourer from Gujarat in Delhi, one man asked me. The question was rhetorical, he did not wait for my answer.

Every supporter of Modi that I interviewed told me, 'Look at what Modiji has done in Gujarat."

The Gujarat-shining mythology was systematically built with the help of digital platforms, advertising campaigns, political speeches and volunteers' word-of-mouth. Many voters who had never visited Gujarat conducted calm, lengthy and passionate discussions with me about development in that state. Such blinding belief was astounding. It was the stuff of religion. The slogan of 'harhar Modi' moved him only closer to that rarified realm.

Most of them had never visited Gujarat but were beginning to imagine and yearn for an India that resembled

Back in 2004, BJPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s India-Shining campaign made the mistake of telling voters that they have it good. Gujarat-

Seasonal Magazine

During a door-to-door campaign in

Modi's Strategy #1: Shining campaign tells the voters, you are not there yet, but you can become Gujarat, but only if you hold Modi’s hand. Two decades ago, the BJP-narrative was entwined in another mythology – the kingdom of Ayodhya, the birthplace of the ideal king Lord Ram. This time too, the BJP’s campaign managers brilliantly mobilized Indians around a belief in a piece of land and a deity, i.e, Gujarat and its presiding deity Modi – not unlike Ayodhya and Ram. They constructed an aspirational frenzy around Gujarat and Modi in a manner that coalesced with the massive anti-Congress wave across India. Mythologies are fluid and ever-growing. The Modi-folklore is no different. Here is a man with a 56 inch chest, a frugal eater who needs less than 5

Take Difficult Decisions First Every supporter of Modi that I interviewed told me, 'Look at what Modiji has done in Gujarat." Most of them had never visited Gujarat but were beginning to imagine and yearn for an India that resembled Gujarat. Those who had not visited the state almost always said they knew someone who had visited the holy land of 2014 campaign.

hours of sleep, and does yoga and meditation at 5am. As a young boy, the heroic Bal Narendra reunited a baby crocodile with its mother, and saved a bird caught in a kite-string.

When he released the bird, it looked into Modi’s eyes with gratitude. If opponents from the Congress party questioned Modi’s paradise, a counter was posed – how could Modi win three elections if he had not delivered? The Congress party raised issues like low levels of education, malnutrition, toffee model of land acquisition in Gujarat. But in a hotly contested election campaign based on belief, throwing diminutive, inconvenient factoids, pdfs and Excel sheets at a towering largerthan-life figure often misses the mark. Rahul Gandhi told citizens not to wait for a man on a white horse. A few months later, Modi reached a holy shrine in the Himalayas on a white horse, generating countless memes online. But perhaps the most effective and enduring imagery in the 2014 campaign was that of a humble teaseller who set out to take down the ma-beta citadel, portrayed as a corrosive, feudal empire. In almost every stump speech, Modi dished out trend-worthy hashtags to his online devotees and offering fodder for the daily, gladiatorial TV prime time debates. As the election ended, the media was supplied with a data-sheet of his indefatigable nine-month election pilgrimage – traveling over 300,000 km, participating in 5,187 events, addressing 440 public meetings. The mythology was complete with the testosterone-inducing poll results. A day after, a joke began surfacing on Facebook. “Modi takes over. Buys Russia on day 1. Ukraine crisis over. Boko haram returns the girls and joins RSS.” Is the popular iconography of Modi beginning to sound like the other invincible mythic hero of our times, Rajnikant?

(Author Rama Lakshmi is a correspondent for The Washington Post, and has studied visual culture and museums. Credit: ABP Live.) Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

THE MAN WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR MODI Ask any politically literate person to name the one personality who facilitated Narendra Modi’s swift rise to power into the PM‘s seat, and there is likely to be a consensus. o, it is not Advani, who was earlier credited with Modi’s swift rise to become Gujarat’s CM. No, it is not Arun Jaitley or Rajnath Singh, two of the earliest Modi-for-PM voices. Nor is it Subramanian Swamy whose endless litigations against the UPA Government hurt it badly.

within a week, triggered by Anil Ambani’s mother-of-all-IPOs for Reliance Power to collect Rs. 11,700 crore, but which mopped up from the market Rs. 1,00,000 + crore temporarily on high-voltage speculation.

And no, it is not Anna Hazare, whose fasting for Lokpal stirred the middleclass imagination. Nor is it Arvind Kejriwal, who by deserting the Delhi CM’s seat, proved that there is no alternative to BJP for the time being. That one most important person who paved the way for Modi is not even Rahul Gandhi, whose poor political skills, however had helped Modi’s campaign.

But halfway into that period, on September 15th 2008, disaster struck in the form of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, and its aftermath, the global economic crisis. Still, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi survived.

That one person is undoubtedly Vinod Rai, ex-CAG. To understand that, one should rewind back to the January of 2008. Markets were on fire. The bull run that started during the late part of the NDA rule, and gathered into a storm during UPA1, was peaking. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi seemed invincible. Vinod Rai took charge as CAG on 7th of January 2008. The very next day, on 8th of January, the market touched its then all time high and started correcting. What started as a minor technical correction, turned into a huge landslide Seasonal Magazine

Still, Manmohan Singh survived. Elections were still 16 months away.

No, not even that, they thrashed the BJP in the 2009 elections, outmanoeuvring Advani’s ambitions and campaign manager Jaitley’s craft. Manmohan Singh became India’s only PM to return to office after a full term after Nehru, and he looked absolutely invincible. BJP was in shambles. Nobody, not even Modi was a prime ministerial aspirant then. BJP looked like it has lost the entire plot. It would continue like that for over an year. But then would come CAG Vinod Rai’s sensational 2G scam report on 10th November 2010 alleging that Rs. 1,76,000 crore loss has been made to the government. Instead of debating the CAG on that

being a presumptive loss found out on the hindsight on the super-successful 3G auction of 2010, Congress firefighters like Kapil Sibal went into overdrive citing the now infamous ’zero-loss’ theory to discredit the CAG report. It fell flat on its face. But more was to come from Vinod Rai. August of 2012 saw the tabling of CAG’s even more sensational coal scam report in parliament. Again, instead of debating the CAG on the fact that none of these beneficiary companies had extracted any worthwhile coal from their allocations, leaders like Dr. Singh and Chidambaram were caught on the wrong foot justifying it on the existing policy. Just four months later, in December of 2012, Modi was elected for a third time as CM of Gujarat. But his high degree of alertness as a political leader enabled him to not miss the two gaping holes Vinod Rai had created in UPA’s seemingly impenetrable fort. The holes were real and they were ever widening thanks due to the efforts of media, judiciary, and the Lokpal movement. Modi knew that the CAG had created his now-or-never moment in life to start the campaign for becoming PM. Of course, in what followed during the next two years - in how Modi tamed the dissent to his leadership and in how he used these two scams to full

Modi's Aim No1:

Waking Bureaucracy From Policy Paralysis

Ho w did yyou ou vie w the poll rre esult How view sultss? ote ffor or Was it mor eo more off a nega negativ tive tiv e vvo the allegedly sc am-ridden UP A scam-ridden UPA ote ffor or go t, or a positiv e vvo govvernmen ernment, positive BJP and Modi? I think it was both. There was obviously an anti-incumbency wave after 10 years of one coalition being in power, and there was also an equally strong pro-BJP or NDA wave based on the promises made by its leader Narendra Modi.

of a UP A-3 go ay o UPA-3 govvernmen ernmentt bbyy w wa off your sensa tional a udit rrepor epor sensational audit eportts, do you think Modi go oming govvernmen ernmentt ccoming to po wer ates yyour our st and in pow er,, vindic vindica stand the 2G and C oal sc am rrepor epor Coal scam eportts? No, it was not the CAG reports alone that wrecked the chances for a UPA3. I would attribute at least three movements for it. One is obviously the RTI provision getting popular, second is the citizens’ uprising led by Anna Hazare and others, and third is the crucial and bold role played by the media. Even the unfortunate gang rape and death of that lady at Delhi contributed to the increased vigil by the youth of this country which I think has been a good development. This vigil is for ensuring a high degree of transparency and probity in public life.

A or ce tha Ass the main ffor orc thatt er tly wr eck ed the pr ospec ently wreck ecked prospec ospectts inadver ertten inadv

Ho w do yyou ou vie w the Modi How view sbusinesss-a s-asministryy? Will it be busine ministr

effect in the election campaign should be left entirely to Modi’s credit. But it was undoubtedly Vinod Rai who paved the way.

Seasonal Magazine in conversation with Vinod Rai, Ex-CAG for Modi Special Issue:

usual led bbyy politicians, or do yyou ou ofessionals lik e Dr for esee mor e pr ore more pro like Dr.. Har sh V ar dhan and Gen. VK Singh, Harsh Var ardhan or eevven mor e independen more independentt pr ofessionals, ge o the pro gettting added tto ministr ministryy? I won’t say it is business-as-usual. There are several younger professionals in the ministry like Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, who both have rich corporate experience behind them. Then there is Dr. Harsh Vardhan as you mentioned. I do expect that more professionals will get added to this ministry eventually. Did yyou ou eevver ha om havve an in invit vite from vit e fr ok Sabha BJP ffor or ccon on onttesting the LLok polls or ffor or bec oming a ccen en tr al becoming entr tral vit ation minist er ? In cca ase such an in minister er? invit vita come s, will yyou ou ac cep ? omes, acc eptt the same same? No, I never had an invite from BJP for either contesting in the Lok Sabha polls

Seasonal Magazine

India Inc. Continues its Bets

or for becoming a minister. As I have always maintained, politics is not my cup of tea. Any future invitation too is purely hypothetical, but since you asked, if such an invitation comes, I wouldn’t take it up for the time being. Ho w ha AG a How hass been C CA ass an institution xit? faring so ffar ar our eexit? ar,, post yyour CAG has been faring excellently I would say. It is a great organization and it has got great leadership today.

A ccor ding tto o yyou, ou, ho w much Ac ording how VC, LLokpal, okpal, aut onomy will C AG, C utonomy CA CV CBI, & RBI enjo enjoyy under Modi? Well, I would say that CAG, CVC, & RBI will continue to enjoy full autonomy as today, as they have been designed and built as autonomous organizations. I expect the Lokpal too to follow suit as it is again designed in an autonomous style. Regarding CBI, there is always scope for reservations, as it is a part of the Central Government, and not really autonomous. Even the Supreme Court in its frustration had once expressed it as a ‘caged parrot‘. So for the CBI to be really autonomous, it should be taken out from the government’s control. Do yyou ou ha havve a per personal sonal friendship onsult yyou ou on with Modi? Did he cconsult any ma tion mattter erss during the elec election campaign or during the go govvernmen ernmentt tion? forma ormation? No, I don’t have a personal friendship with Mr. Modi. We know each other well, as officially we had to meet many times as CAG and CM. But nothing you can call a personal friendship. And no, he didn’t consult me on any matters during the election campaign or during the government formation. As C AG, yyou ou w ould ha CA would havve go gott ample tunitie o in ac opportunitie tunitiess tto intter erac actt with the oppor Modi Go at. Ho w Govvernmen ernmentt in Gujar Gujara How dif en as Modi’s Gujar at fr om from difffer eren entt w wa Gujara the rre est o ates fr om an a udit off the st sta from audit and ccorr orr ec tiv e-ac tion vie wpoin t? orrec ectiv tive-ac e-action viewpoin wpoint? Like most states, Gujarat too made many mistakes that we found out through our audit investigations. But they were very proactive when we pointed out these shortcomings, and Seasonal Magazine

on Modi

“A senior level secretary would have 35 years of experience behind him or her. Now, what happens when you put such a person under a GoM? His entire experience is wasted. That is why I welcome PM’s move to do away with varied GoMs and empower the bureaucrats directly.”

on pure merit, and that they are given one of the best training programs in the world. I do concede that some of them go corrupt or lazy, but what would be the percentage? I would say that 90-95% of IAS officers are very capable and they can do very well. But having said all these, let me also add that such a free hand shouldn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. They must be accountable for each and every one of their decisions. It is a balancing act, but it is not impossible.

more often than not, we could see cohesive action that resulted in corrective outcomes. But not all of our suggestions were accepted. Whenever they differed with our view, they could reasonably explain those decisions to us, as a policy matter of the government.

Wha e yyour our vie ws on Whatt ar are view Nehruvian Secularism? Is it any mor e needed in this ccoun oun tr more ountr tryy? Secularism is still very important. But aren’t we all very secular? Some of my best friends are Christians and Muslims. Isn’t Kerala secular? I think it is one of the most secular states in the country where Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and others peacefully coexist. I think secularism should be left to the people to practise. They have been doing that in this country for many decades now. Politicians should leave people alone rather than prompting them to be secular or anti-secular. It shouldn’t be an election plank at all.

A AG, yyou ou also had a close look Ass C CA at’s de t. Ho w do devvelopmen elopment. How Gujara on Gujar you a t? assse sesss tha that? Two areas where Gujarat has developed in my view, are infrastructure and power. There are very good roads. Development and reach of electric power to all could be facilitated also because they didn’t shy away from increasing the power tariff whenever needed. One o t’s off Modi Go Govvernmen ernment’s repea anc es ffor or bur ea ucr ats asssur suranc ance burea eaucr ucra epeatted a ha otec hass been tha thatt the theyy will be pr pro ectted fr om futur e vic timiza tions including victimiza timizations from future fr om the a udit st andpoin t. Ho w do from audit standpoin andpoint. How you vie w this tr end fr om an a udit view trend from audit and tr anspar enc spec tiv e? transpar ansparenc encyy per perspec spectiv tive I think it has been a good move by Mr. Modi. A senior level secretary would have 35 years of experience behind him or her. Now, what happens when you put such a person under a GoM? His entire experience is wasted. That is why I welcome PM’s move to do away with varied GoMs and empower the bureaucrats directly. I remember with pride the headway I and other IAS officers could make in Kerala, when we were given a free hand, long time back. There is no doubt that Indian Civil Service officers are the most objectively selected managers, based

Wha omp ou tto o ttak ak e up Whatt pr promp omptted yyou ake your curr en uditing asssignmen signmentt o off a auditing curren entt a the Sr ee P admanabha Sree Padmanabha admanabhasswamy temple ? Ho w challenging ha hass been emple? How the pr ojec ar ? projec ojectt so ffar ar? There were a couple of reasons for taking up this temple audit project. First was that the directive came from the Honourable Supreme Court, and I have the greatest respect for this apex institution of our country. Secondly, I have been a frequent visitor to Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, and I am also a devotee. So, if my service helps, so be it. But it has been much more challenging than I initially thought it would be. This is mainly because this is not just a classical audit, but I have to produce a set of detailed guidelines on how this temple is to be governed in the coming years. But I have stitched together a fine team of retired officers to help me, and hopefully we should be able to come out with the perfect guidelines.

Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

KM Chandrasekhar

“Decision Making has Already Become Faster in Delhi” KM Chandrasekhar was not only India’s top-most bureaucrat, but one of the longest serving top-most officers. This former Cabinet Secretary was thrice given extensions by amendment of service rules, and was equally at home with Congress and BJP Governments. Even after his final retirement from Central Service, his home state of Kerala was quick to bag this uniquely experienced officer to be their Planning Board’s Vice Chairman, a post he currently occupies. And in any assignment, one hallmark of Chandrasekhar’s work is that additional assignments come searching for him. Earlier it was cleaning up the Commonwealth Games mess, and now it is playing referee between two factions among Kerala’s civil servants, which has nothing to do with his Planning Board role, but which was entrusted to him by Kerala CM, Oommen Chandy. Perhaps it is Chandrasekhar’s flair for keeping balance, that brings him such delicate assignments. This balance is quite evident when he speaks to Seasonal Magazine for this Modi Special Issue. He is courageous enough to state that “the figures of ‘presumptive loss’ given in some of the reports of the CAG were exaggerated,” but at the same time feels that after Modi took over he finds “a great deal more urgency and vigour in the work of Departments, both at the Ministerial and official levels.”

KM Chandrasekhar, former Cabinet Secretary and current Vice-Chairman of Planning Board, Kerala, in conversation with Seasonal Magazine for the Modi Special Issue: A ne w go e, and new govvernmen ernmentt is in plac place as in char ge being the per son who w person wa charge of fformula ormula ting UP A-2’s fir st 100 Da ormulating UPA-2’s first Dayys Seasonal Magazine

Delhi for three days last week and met some of my erstwhile senior colleagues and Ministers. I find a sense of urgency and vigour in the work of Departments, both at the Ministerial and official levels, which is encouraging. A ccor ding tto o yyou, ou, wha on tribut ed Ac ording whatt ccon ontribut tributed to the alleged polic aly sis during policyy par paraly alysis ear ak e UP A-2’s la earss? Who should ttak ake UPA-2’s latter yyear mor e blame - the minist er more minister erss or the bur ea ucr ac ear burea eaucr ucrac acyy? Is it true tha thatt the ffear of C AG, CBI, and o ther pr osecuting CA other prosecuting agencie on tribut ed tto o the polic policyy agenciess ccon ontribut tributed par aly sis ? paraly alysis sis? pr ogr am in 2009, ho w do yyou ou eexpec xpec progr ogram how xpectt Modi Go t’s fir st 100 da Govvernmen ernment’s first dayys would turn out? The 100 day programme of UPA 2 was laid out in the President’s Address to Parliament in July 2009. I do not see any specific reference to such a programme in the President’s Address to Parliament this year. This indicates that the present Government does not perceive 100 days as a separate cutoff point. Y ou had been equally close and You welc omed bbyy the C ongr ess and B JP elcomed Congr ongre BJP camps, with ha ving a good rrappor appor having apportt with bo th V ajpa both Vajpa ajpayyee and Manmohan Singh. Ho w dif en yle o entt is the st style off How difffer eren func tioning o se riv al politic al functioning off the these rival political gr oups, or ar e the e or le groups, are theyy mor more lesss the same a eft and o ther rregional egional ass the LLe other par tie ? partie tiess allege allege? It is true that I worked with the Government of India during the entire tenure of the previous NDA Government from 1999-2004 and during 7 years out of 10 years of the UPA Government. However, during my tenure with the NDA Government, I was working entirely abroad and not at Delhi. As far as the present Government is concerned, I had visited

I am no one to apportion blame in respect of the so-called “policy paralysis”. It is my opinion that the figures of “presumptive loss” given in some of the reports of the CAG were exaggerated. Events which took place in different points of time, which cannot be compared, were cited to estimate presumptive losses. Fear among bureaucrats, in my view, arose because they found uncertainty and apprehension at higher levels of the political executive and a tendency to shift blame even to lower level civil servants who were not directly involved in the case but had to deal with it in files at some point of time or the other. A feeling was therefore prevalent that there would be no protection even if genuine mistakes are committed in good faith. It may be recalled that the CAG had produced a hard report on civil aviation also. However, this never came to the limelight because Sri Praful Patel, in whose tenure the irregularities allegedly took place, gave interviews to all news channels and other media representatives explaining his position in great detail. No such exercise took place in respect of other CAG reports. C oalition politic en tr e and Coalition politicss a att C Cen entr tre tional or rregional egional par tie strong non-national partie tiess str ong non-na er e said tto o be go ates w ere govverning the st sta wer

The FREE ano ther rrea ea son ffor or slo w decision another eason slow onsensus w as dif ficult tto o ass cconsensus wa difficult making a come bbyy, one o st eexxample off the be best ampless being the ccoal oal alloc ation fia sc o. With alloca fiasc sco BJP ccoming oming tto o po wer on it wn no w, pow itss o own now do yyou ou think much o w off tha thatt slo slow ? decision making will change change? I get the impression that decision making has already become faster in the Central Government. Even hard “unpopular” decisions are being taken, like the recent hike in Railway fares. However, these are early days and we have yet to see whether the same momentum can be maintained in future. Ho w much sc ope is ther e ffor or fineHow scope there tiv ene ficiencyy and eefffec ectiv tivene enesss tuning the eeffficienc of the bur ea ucr ac t, burea eaucr ucrac acyy? It is said tha that, while yyou ou w er ea ou had wer ere att the helm, yyou t o rre e sor o cr ea ting a 50-page sortt tto crea eating handbook ffor or all o er w tto o offfic ficer erss on ho how mak e eevven pr oper ccabine abine make proper abinett no nottes… I believe the bureaucracy has the capacity to rise to the occasion whenever objectives are clearly laid down, when there is clarity that these objectives have to be achieved within a given timeframe and that they will be shielded from undue harassment if some decisions taken in good faith go wrong. I have no doubt that the officers have the capacity and experience to take decisions and speed up matters. Do yyou ou think such a struc tur ed structur tured oach is needed among K er ala’s approach Ker erala’s appr IA S o er ec en tly e w er e IAS offfic ficer erss? R Rec ecen ently tly,, ther there wer ere serious allega tions tha ac tionalism allegations thatt ffac actionalism is incr ea sing among K er ala’s civil increa easing Ker erala’s ser tions lik e rre evengeservvan antts, with ac actions like taking eettc… It would certainly help if similar changes are effected in Kerala or, for that matter, in any other State. There are political and cultural differences between States that makes the adoption of a single pattern difficult in all States. These have to be taken into account when planning strategies for implementation of programmes in each State. I think the changes made in the Central Government, delivery of the promise of decentralization and close involvement of States in the governance of the country and increasing competition between States will automatically lead to systemic

HAND MODI ENJOYS. How Real Is It?

changes in other States too. A ormer C abine etar ou Ass a fformer Cabine abinett Secr Secre aryy yyou would ha havve go gott enough oppor opportunitie tunitiess tunitie to in ac ec tly and indir ec tly with intter erac actt dir direc ectly indirec ectly the then Gujar at CM, Nar endr a Modi. Narendr endra Gujara Ho w do yyou ou a ship and How assse sesss his leader leadership at? achievvemen ementts in Gujar Gujara his achie I have not interacted with Shri Modi on a one-on-one basis. I have only seen him at meetings of State Chief Ministers on development and internal security. At all these meetings, I was impressed by his ability to speak forcefully and make innovative suggestions on how to do things more effectively. He also preferred to speak ex tempore and not to read speeches. He seemed to have his own ideas regarding the manner in which business could be transacted faster and better. A st st ep Ass the PM, one o off Modi’s fir first step ds incr ea sing eefffec tiv ene as towar ectiv tivene enesss w wa ards increa easing t o pr omise a mor e fr ee hand tto o promise more free bur ea ucr ats bbyy a burea eaucr ucra asssuring them tha thatt the otec om futur e theyy will be pr pro ectted fr from future tions. W as this st ep nec essar litiga nece saryy litigations. Wa step and ho w ffar ar will this yield fruit? how Senior civil servants are bound to respond positively if they are given more responsibility and if they realize, at the same time, that they are accountable. They should also have the feeling that actions done in good faith will not get them into serious trouble. Ho w eeffficien w How ficientt will be Modi’s ne new er ewer minist off ffe minister erss and clubbing model o of lar ger ministrie larger ministriess? Clubbing of Ministries can work only if there is a simultaneous process of decentralization and delegation. Otherwise, Ministers will be flooded with files and Government work may begin to slow down. System change is therefore essential. Do yyou ou think tha ak e thatt Modi should ttak ake the be st ffea ea tur es fr om be ate best eatur ture from bettter st sta models lik e Mahar a shtr a, Punjab like Mahara shtra, Punjab,, Tamilnadu, & K er ala? Ker erala? I understand that Shri Modi has, in his reply to the debate in Parliament on the President’s Address, already referred to best practices in other States, including Kudumbasree in Kerala. I am sure the Government of India will adopt and disseminate best practices drawn from all parts of the country.

A c c or ding tto o yyou, ou, ho w much Ac ording how aut onomy will C AG, C VC, LLokpal, okpal, CBI, utonomy CA CV & RBI enjo enjoyy under Modi? The institutions mentioned by you are all governed either by Constitutional provisions or by Statute. They can exercise as much autonomy as is given to them under the Constitution or the relevant Statute. The political executive cannot abridge this autonomy. They will lose their autonomy only if they consciously choose to abdicate their powers and responsibilities. Y ou w er e in char ge when 26/11 You wer ere charge ell equipped is India ww How well happened. Ho in ccomba omba ting such emer gencie s, ombating emergencie gencies, especially in the back gr ound o backgr ground off the curr en aq host age crisis ? curren entt Ir Iraq hostage crisis? So far as coastal security is concerned, efforts had been started after 26/11 to strengthen our defence mechanism. The Coast Guard has been strengthened and the areas of responsibility of the Navy and the Coast Guard have been demarcated. A radar network along the coast line has been planned and, probably, much progress may have been achieved by now. State Governments have been closely involved and the Cabinet Secretary used to hold regular video conferences with State Chief Secretaries. NSG hubs have been started in some locations to facilitate quicker movement. The States have also set up marine police units and well trained commando forces. Awareness programmes for fishermen were conducted in most States. While progress has certainly been achieved, we must be conscious of the fact that the next attack, if it ever materializes, may not be in the same mode. I presume the Central security forces are working closely with the Armed Forces to work out response mechanisms in different kinds of terrorist situations. Wha e yyour our vie ws on secularism? Whatt ar are view Is it any mor e needed in this ccoun oun tr more ountr tryy? Secularism has served us well in keeping the country united in spite of differences in religion. Secularism will continue to be an essential part of governance in India, whichever is the political formation in place. Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

By Jean Drèze

How Developed is If Gujarat is a model, then the real toppers in development indicators, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, must be supermodels. I had earlier pointed out that Gujarat’s development achievements were hardly “model” class. This is pretty firm ground: the same point has been made by a long list of eminent economists. Yet confusion persists, so I decided to take another look at the data, just in case I had been carried away. Summar Summaryy Inde Indexxes This time I looked at a bunch of summary indexes based on multiple development indicators. One advantage of summary indexes is that they make it harder to “cheat” by focussing selectively on particular indicators that happen to suit one’s purpose. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a good starting point. The latest HDI computations for Indian states, presented by Reetika Khera and myself in Economic and Political Weekly, place Gujarat in the 9th position among 20 major States — very close to the middle of the ranking. In the same paper, we also looked at a summary index of child well-being, nicknamed Achievements of Babies and Children (ABC), which is based on four indicators related to child nutrition, survival, education and immunisation respectively. In the ABC ranking, too, Gujarat occupies the 9th position among 20 major States. Another useful summary index is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Briefly, the idea is that poverty manifests itself in different kinds of deprivation — lack of food, shelter, sanitation, schooling, health care, and so on. Starting with a list of basic deprivations, a household is considered “poor” if it has more than a given proportion (say one third) of these deprivations. There is some inevitable arbitrariness in the specification of basic deprivations, but nevertheless, the MPI is a very useful supplement to other poverty indicators. In the latest Seasonal Magazine

MPI ranking of Indian States, by Sabina Alkire and her colleagues at Oxford University, Gujarat comes 9th (again) among 20 major Indian States. A new entrant in this family of summary statistics is the Composite Development Index devised by the Raghuram Rajan Committee. This index has ten components related to per capita consumption, household amenities, health, education, urbanisation, connectivity, financial inclusion, and so on, based on the latest available data. Looking at the list of component indicators, an unsuspecting reader of the mainstream media might expect Gujarat to emerge pretty close to the top of the State ranking. Alas, not. Here again, Gujarat

Our perception of India is over-influenced by the large north Indian States the former “BIMARU” States, which have dismal infrastructure, awful public services, and abysmal social indicators.

scores 9th among 20 major States! There is something almost uncanny about this pattern, since the summary indexes are based on very different indicators. And it’s not that I am selectively focussing on particular rankings where Gujarat happens to rank 9th out of 20. I have reported all the recent summary indexes I know of. If you don’t like them, we can always fall back on the Planning Commission’s standard poverty estimates based on per capita expenditure. But then Gujarat slips from the 9th to the 10th position among 20 major States,

Can Modi Grow India Despite High Inflation and High Interest?

s Gujarat, Really? according to the latest estimates for 2011-12. The Raghuram Rajan Committee also devised another interesting index: the Performance Index, which captures the progress that States are making over time in terms of the Composite Development Index. This is an important indicator, because some proponents of the Gujarat model argue that what we should look at is not the level of Gujarat’s development indicators, but how they change over time. And that is precisely what this index does. Further, it focusses on performance in the decade of the 2000s, when Gujarat was supposed

to be at its best. Surely, Gujarat will fare well this time? On the contrary, it slips from 9th to 12th in the ranking of 20 major States. In short, whichever way we look at it, Gujarat looks less like a model State than a “middle State” — far from the bottom in inter-State rankings, but far from the top too. If there is a Gujarat model, then there must also be a Haryana model and perhaps a Karnataka model. Incidentally, Maharashtra does better than Gujarat on all the summary indexes mentioned earlier. Why, then, is Gujarat held as a

model and not Maharashtra? Your guess is as good as mine. If Gujarat is a model, then the real toppers, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, must be supermodels. Indeed, not only do Kerala and Tamil Nadu routinely come at — or near — the top in rankings of summary development indexes, they also surpass other States in terms of the speed of improvement. For instance, Kerala and Tamil Nadu do better than any other major State in terms of both level and change of the Composite Development Index. Of course, if you believe the touching story whereby Kerala’s achievements are actually based on the Gujarat model, then we are back to square one. Why this image ? image? An interesting question arises: how did Gujarat acquire an inflated image? No doubt, this optical illusion partly reflects Narendra Modi’s outstanding ability to confuse the public (with a little help from his admirers in the economics profession). But perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that our perception of India is over-influenced by the large north Indian States — the former “BIMARU” States, which have dismal infrastructure, awful public services, and abysmal social indicators. Gujarat certainly shines in comparison — but so do many other States. Mind you, the “G spot” (9th out of 20) may be auspicious. The number nine, according to Wikipedia, “is revered in Hinduism and considered a complete, perfected [sic] and divine number.” The Chinese, for their part, associate the number nine with the dragon, “a symbol of magic and power,” which also “symbolises the Emperor.” If the numerologists got this right, NaMo is well placed. (Jean Drèze is a development economist and creator of India’s NREGA Program Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

In Full Force Behind Modi iran Bedi is overflowing with emotion when speaking about Modi. But when speaking about former pals Arvind Kejriwal & Co, this former anti-corruption activist is at best only diplomatic. How did she change so drastically within a matter of less than one year? Is she being plain opportunistic? For her credit she joined the Modi bandwagon not after the exit poll results, but right before the elections. So, if this is not being opportunistic, what is it? That is what is called Modi Magic. The phenomenon of how a state’s CM marketed himself brilliantly into the PM’s post within a period of less than one year. But like the 31% of the voting voters who opted for BJP this time, Kiran Bedi started believing that UPA is hopeless and that AAP is finished, and, most importantly, that Narendra Modi’s promise of good governance may play out well for India. Speaking about governance, she knows a thing or two about good governance, because she had bagged her Magsaysay in 1994 for exceptional service in the government. In any case, Modi as well as all his supporters including Bedi are currently on the winning side. But Bedi might be guilty of going overboard in enthusiasm by announcing her unsolicited availability as BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi, which was promptly snubbed by the Delhi BJP unit. But that hasn’t made her change her stance on Modi again, and shows that her respect and regard for Modi is very true. It again came out in the open when Modi’s Government took the difficult decision of increasing railway fares substantially before the rail budget itself. She was perhaps the only voice from the activist/NGO sector to voice support for the very non-creative and across-the-board fare hike. But she is not afraid to be alone, as she had been alone many a time in her life, including when she became the first ever woman IPS officer in the country. But finally, can any development make her lose her faith in Modi? What if Modi ignores her completely for five years? Only time can tell. But one emerging area of likely conflict is a recent IB report that paints many in the NGO sector as anti-national for getting overseas funds, and the signals from Government that the report will be taken seriously especially if NGOs pose a hindrance to land acquisition and development. As a hardcore NGO-type activist who even took VRS from IPS to pursue that difficult life, that might be too much to accommodate for Bedi. Which activist with a track-record can digest such a report from IB and its backing from the government? Certainly not this woman crusader, who once transformed Tihar Jail positively, and who continues to transform jails across the country through her NGO activities. But as of now, she is staying put in the Modi camp, arguing that Modi and team needs all our support, which is a stand that can’t be faulted at all, because Modi is so young into the difficult job. Seasonal Magazine interviews Kiran Bedi for this Modi Special Issue: Seasonal Magazine

You have welcomed the steep railway fare hike. But won’t it worsen inflation? Why couldn’t the government spare even the unreserved and sleeper-class fares that would have helped the poorest passengers without affecting revenue growth much? And why not an incremental or staggered rise in freight fares to limit inflationary expectations, just like it is being practiced in diesel and now being planned for in LPG? It is time for tough decisions. Undo the wrongs of the past. And continue to live up to people’s trust. Tough decisions are taken by tough people. New Delhi being the capital of the whole country, don’t you think the current hike further alienates commoners who have to travel to the capital city from far-off places like Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, or Bangalore? Live in reality. It’s hard. But it [railway fare hike] has come 10 years late. What do you assess yourself as your greatest achievement? Was it being the first woman IPS officer, was it the prison reforms that you initiated, was it the Magsaysay award, was it your NGO activities, or was it your association with IAC? Being a worthy daughter of a worthy family. And [being] a proud Indian. Intelligence Bureau has recently come out with a damning report on NGOs getting overseas funds as an

Modi to Develop

IndiaThroughIndiaInc.

Seasonal Magazine

Modi is Too Young a PM to be Judged anti-national activity. You are uniquely qualified to address this issue as a former police officer as well as an NGO leader. Where do you stand on this issue? I have no access to details. Hence cannot comment. But NGO are unique. It’s not for positions or dependencies. As a founding leader of India Against Corruption movement (IAC) in 2010, whose flagship demand was Jan Lokpal, how important is that aim for you today? Why have you decided to side with BJP, which is not too keen on Jan Lokpal as Anna Hazare envisaged it? Good Lokpal has been legislated. Rules are being corrected by the current government which were left weak by UPA. What really caused the split between Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, according to you, since you were an insider in IAC operations during those days? Conversion of the movement into his political party. During the split, you obviously backed Anna Hazare’s ideology to remain apolitical and vehemently opposed Kejriwal’s strategy to turn political. Why did you change from this stance and decide to turn political by backing Modi and offering your candidature as Delhi CM? I have only said in case my services are needed I am open to [being] consider[ed]. Earlier I had said I am not available at all. Were you surprised by AAP’s performance in the Delhi Assembly polls? According to you, was it right for Mr. Kejriwal to form the government, and once formed, was it right for him to resign after 49 days? I do not wish to comment on his performance. I wish him well. Do you think there has been any Seasonal Magazine

I am sure I am not needed. They will have excellent candidates. I have offered to be a last resort if need be. change in day-to-day corruption at the level of officials interacting with the public, post Modi Government assuming office? If not, is an anticorruption movement like IAC still needed, according to you? Right now we need to support the government we have reposed our trust in. And not just oppose. This government has a very tough task at hand. Our duty is not just to vote in but now support it to succeed too. Of course it must perform in a manner that is for the best interests of the country. Present and future. If AAP, or even a new IAC like movement, creates civil disobedience or potential anarchy on the streets again, do you think Modi Government’s reaction will be as sober as that of UPA’s? Time will tell. Were you surprised by the resistance to your Chief Ministerial candidature, from within Delhi BJP? No not at all. I am sure I am not needed. They will have excellent candidates. I have offered to be a last resort if need be.

Transparent funding of election campaigns has been a major plank of IAC, and though it didn’t contest in elections as IAC, it was fair in its financial disclosures. Coming from such a lofty background, how can you rationalize with the opaque funding patterns of a mainstream political party? I am not too sure of the first part of your statement. Of course we have to move towards total transparency. In all public affairs. According to you, how much autonomy will CAG, CVC, Lokpal, CBI, & RBI enjoy under Modi? As a former illustrious police officer, do you think the law & order machinery in the country is enough to deliver justice to even the weaker sections of the society without fear or favour towards the mighty political class, or should the law & order setup be overhauled? Do you expect Modi to undertake the overhauling? India needs a social revolution. A new mindset of patriotism and national character. Lets see how Mr Modi leads it. And we too as people in our own respective areas of influence.

Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

Solving the Unsolvable: Facing Realities in Kashmir

By Carl Jaison

Modi’s Kashmir strategy suffered a setback due to a junior minister’s goof-up, and subsequent overreactions from Omar Abdullah and the RSS. But Modi has been quick to limit the damage by asking the minister to correct his statement. Now, can Modi systematically start addressing the Kashmir issue again, taking Kashmiris into confidence? India’s

political history after Independence had been consciously incorporated into the primary-level social science textbooks keeping an eye on ‘informing’ impressionable minds who would one day go on to become the future citizens of a Constitutiondriven India, at least in theory. Lessons from the bloody Partition, India’s tryst with the then largest democratic exercise in the world: the 1952 General Election, and the issues with respect to the creation of linguistic states all featured in the attempt towards knowledge imposition about the newbie nation’s life-long struggle given its inherent contradictions. Meanwhile Kashmir, apart from its share in the heart-breaking sorrow relating to the consequences of the Partition, was faced with a whole lot of questions that delayed its smooth transition from a royal and feudal state to one in which the people would govern themselves Seasonal Magazine

through a democratic political representation. The last ruler of the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, agreed to sign the Instrument of Accession (1948) whereby the Muslim-dominated state would ‘legally’ join with the Indian Union. The demographic composition of the state and the tumultuous Hindurule that it lived through over the years provide a contradicting picture of its hasty inclusion within the ambit of the Indian Constitution. Years of repressive colonial governance culminating in a regime under a puppet ruler like Hari Singh instigated local rebellions leading to rising cases of militant activities and later on increasing pressure from newfound enemy Pakistan to win over Kashmiri sentiments provided the motivation to steer India’s national selfinterests. While the Indian Constitution had been completed and approved by the

Constituent Assembly, local politics prevented Kashmir from fully acceding to India due to which a constitutionallyrecognized law, popularly called ‘Article 370’ came into being. By 1957, the temporary provision that it is, Article 370 was formally agreed upon by the J&K state assembly giving the state a quasi-autonomous status with minimal interference by the Centre except in certain areas like defence, communications etc. Sheikh Abdullah’s (who was later jailed) amicable relation with Nehru, who clearly followed a policy of appeasement towards the Valley, turned the tide in India’s favour. In 1963, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru spoke of a “gradual erosion of the autonomy of Kashmir”, slurring over the excesses of Indian governance, whereby the government of India slowly started to appropriate greater powers to itself than was permissible. Over the years, J&K would come to be

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known as the ‘crowning glory’ of India’s cartographic guise. Thus Article 370, in the words of present-day J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, would serve as the constitutional link between Kashmir and the rest of India. Kashmir’s telling past would then inadvertently claw into the pages of history books in which it is celebrated as India’s own property. State-sponsored propaganda, public opinion and dissemination of an incomplete historical understanding (thanks to the ill-equipped education system that compromised on historicity) shaped the way the new generation came to see the hilly state, as something that India always had to begin with. What is the lasting solution to the Kashmir issue? Dr. Karan Singh says by drawing parallels: “Hong Kong is an integral part of China, but has been given a special dispensation. Though

all talk of secession is totally unacceptable and uncalled for, the steam-roller approach is also not appropriate.” He continues: “Let us not forget that 50 per cent of the area of my father’s 84,000 sq miles State is in fact not in our possession. It has been under Pakistan control since the UN’s brokered ceasefire on January 1, 1949, and Pakistan has leased a considerable portion of this land to China. An interesting point is that in the three regions of the State that are with us – Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh – the bulk of public opinion differs sharply on this issue.” Renowned filmmaker Lalit Vichani, who has shot documentaries on the functioning of the world’s largest nonpolitical voluntary organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak, throws light on their ‘need’ and significance of

recruiting young swayamsevaks, who develop habit-formation right from the period between infancy and childhood and as the former RSS sarsanghchalak KS Sudarshan puts it, ‘whatever they are taught has a lasting impact in their minds.’ Somewhere midway through Vachani’s twenty-seven-minute film, The Boy in the Branch, Mohan Bhagwat, the current RSS supremo, explains the logic of a game called “Kashmir hamara hai,” which is played in RSS shakhas. In the game, some kids stand in the centre of a circle and try to push out others trying to occupy it. “The shakha is the life of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,” Bhagwat says in the film. “Now they don’t have too much information about the Kashmir problem -Article 370, acts, etc - but at least awareness is built in them that Kashmir is ours. It belongs to Bharat”. Right-wing influence dominated the Seasonal Magazine

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political discourse in the early 1950’s spearheaded by Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who was to make the struggle of the Dogras of Jammu his own aiming to devaluate the clamour for a ‘separate state’. The growing conflict between the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and the Hindudominated Jammu region was beset by uncertainty on two fronts: Firstly, the Hindus of Jammu retained a deep attachment to the ruling family, and to Maharaja Hari Singh in particular and vehemently resisted the efforts of Sheikh Abdullah to gain independence for the state (interestingly, Kashmir had once been ‘independent’ of both India and Pakistan; between 15th August and 22nd October 1947 after a tribal invasion ruined that possibility). Secondly, the state had been controlled by the Dogras of Jammu, who happened to be Hindu; now it was controlled by the Sheikh Abdullah-led National Conference, which was based in the Valley and whose leader and most of its members were Muslim. Despite the sincerity of the Sheikh’s secularist credentials, they could not nullify the legacies of history even as Nehru’s concessional attitude towards Kashmiri interests won the state a privilege not enjoyed by many at that point of time. India’s federalism is asymmetrical and dichotomous by nature. Some states are undoubtedly more favourably Seasonal Magazine

treated than others. This is self-evident from provisions in Article 370 (J&K), 371A (Nagaland), 371B (Assam), 371C (Manipur) 371D, E and J (AP), 371F (Sikkim), 371G (Mizoram), 371I (Goa).There are also special provisions for the North East in the Constitution’s Sixth Schedule where a strong independent local democracy exists. Tribal areas in other states are protected under the Fifth Schedule. All these provisions are sacral and any government that acts towards repelling or amending them would face rebellious elements who are always on the look-out for secession. Many Sikkimese now feel that they got a raw deal when Sikkim joined India in 1975 after much deliberation between the Union and the local leaders. Any hint of protest sniffed by the government is met with stern action and sedition charges are slapped on these ‘traitorous’ Indians. It is precisely this nationalistic understanding that the ideology of Hindu fundamentalism ascribes to and what would be the biggest challenge that the Modi-led government should brace itself for. Sadly, Modi’s silence (not even a mere tweet) on the horrible killing of a Muslim techie from Pune by a Hindu nationalist group has come at an untimely time only a few weeks after a junior minister in the PMO issued a goof-up statement pointing at a possible revocation of the much-

controversial Article 370. Though Tharoor’s ‘Modi 2.0’ showed that designer clothes and talk of economic development can fit perfectly well with hard-line Hindutva, there is an existential concern about how the Prime Minister would accommodate minority interests and view local insurgency, not as a threat but as a reason to ponder upon the ways to engage in dialogue with them, especially in a troubled state like Jammu and Kashmir. Does Modi understand the dynamics of Kashmir and the ongoing conflict between the military forces and armed insurgents? Why did the last BJP government in power not stick to their poll promise of revoking Article 370? Is it due to the aftermath of the Kargil War that changed their stance to a completely pragmatic and principled one? Even the current manifesto vows to ‘review’ the usefulness of the Article in the larger interests of the nation. BJP’s stand on Article 370 has always featured in the election manifestos leading to polls but remains to be seen if they can actually tinker with the existing legal provisions. RSS leader Indresh Kumar has pitched for a wide debate on Article 370, that grants special status for Jammu and Kashmir. According to him, Kashmir is an integral part of India and questions why Congress governments in the past did

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Shocked by India's CHALLE not make it permanent. He challenges the Congress party to a debate on its relevance as it was a “temporary” arrangement initially but it is still continuing and hence it needed a proper review. He said Congress wants to avoid debate on the issue because “it has nothing to tell people about its advantages.” In his path-breaking work on Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, lawyer and author AG Noorani argues that the there is too much ‘legal illiteracy’ about the whole debate surrounding the pros and cons of the Article. He states that the rights of the people of Kashmir to a plebiscite is an inherent right and came even before UN resolutions. It was a pledge Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made in a telegram to Pakistan’s Liaqat Ali Khan and he strongly believes that the solution lies in dealing with Kashmir as a matter of the people’s right to make a choice and not as a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. For attaining the long-desired peaceful solution, the stakeholders must include India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir, he said, adding he would not use “hideous lingo” like Indian-Occupied Kashmir or Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and would refer to both parts as East and West Kashmir. Noorani is also equally dismissive of any Indian government, let alone Modi’s, agreeing to cessation of Kashmir and that Pakistan government won’t accept the Line of Control (LoC) without a sound hearing of its case by its counterpart. Modi’s diplomatic niceties towards Pakistan may not sustain in the long-run and going by the scale of military damage inflicted on the people of the Valley, Kashmiris will only continue to demand self-rule. Noorani, then goes on to provide a possible option, a ready-formula that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and General Musharraf agreed upon on September 2006. According to Noorani, it would be a non-territorial arrangement, with neither side giving up its stand. The LoC would become lines on a map and people were free to move - there would be a lot of exchange. The self-rule would extend to the northern areas and Gilgit Baltistan, and troops would be

Dr. Karan Singh says, “Let us not forget that 50 per cent of the area of my father’s 84,000 sq miles State is in fact not in our possession. It has been under Pakistan control since the UN’s brokered ceasefire on January 1, 1949, and Pakistan has leased a considerable portion of this land to China.” withdrawn. The Chief Ministers from both sides would review this interim arrangement for 10 to 15 years and the greatest gainers would be the people. In the end, the solution lies in “seeking a congruence of interests.” Modi may have to set aside his preconceived notion about nationalism as a unifying force and instead emphasize on the Kashmiri people’s right to selfdetermination which existed before and after the obsolescence of the UN resolutions. It might be remotely farfetched to expect a firebrand leader like Modi to execute a proposal such as this but he should show signs of interests in resolving the problems in the terror-affected regions of the Valley. While the recent militant attack has weakened Omar Abdullah’s argument for the withdrawal of the dreaded AFSPA from the state, Modi should sincerely look into the excesses committed by the Indian Army on civilians as the government’s first step towards “reassuring the people of Kashmir about the willingness of government for delivering justice”. Spirited activist Irom Sharmila, who has fought unfailingly for repealing the AFSPA, has expressed her desire to meet Modi. It would be a promising gesture if Modi can acknowledge the seriousness of the issue as cases of home-grown insurgency reduces. Another immediate challenge for the Modi government would be to tackle the threats of cross-border terrorism which has also severely crippled civic life in the Valley. Modi has always believed that the strategy for countering terrorism is to be designed and enforced both at the national and state levels involving a new mechanism

by which IB and MHA would coordinate with the J&K state to strengthen its State Special Branch to pre-empt terrorist activities. He is expected to revamp the Multi-Agency Centre of IB for producing better actionable inputs against terror from home-grown outfits and Pakistan-based organisations. Lt. Gen. Javed Iqbal, president, NDU feels that Kashmir remained a critical factor in the way of achieving sustainable peace and harmony in south Asia. One-fifth of humanity living in this region had long awaited a conflict-free setting and it was important that scholars and experts renewed a search for approaches to a peaceful and viable solution consistent with the Kashmir people’s aspirations with full-fledged support from the government. Recognising the lack of any kind of cultural coherence and geographical distinctiveness between Kashmir with the rest of India, Modi should devote special attention to the economic and infrastructural development of the region. Promotion of tourism and interstate trade with Kashmir should be listed as priority areas of the government for spurring the domestic economy. Treatment of religious minorities like Muslims will be central to Modi’s agenda for inclusive growth and checking the influence of RSS ideology on the Kashmir question will ultimately allow the government to follow an independent and forward-looking policy on deriving a solution assimilating the concerns of all the stakeholders especially the Kashmiris who face the brunt of the region’s deep-rooted encounter with the harsh realities of modern existence. Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

“Modi Does His Homew o here were many who joined the Modi bandwagon after the exit polls. Suresh Gopi is not that type. Though his association with Modi is not very old either, he is one of the few celebrities down south who started chanting the Modi mantra during the run-up to the election itself. But post election results, the Malayalam superstar’s love for Modi went through the roof, with he even admitting his willingness to be Modi’s slave. What made this traditional Congress sympathizer and admirer of Left leaders like VS Achuthanandan turn to Modi and BJP? The beginning was a Modi outreach to various celebrities across India, several months back, in which Suresh eagerly participated. That one-on-one encounter with Modi changed Suresh profoundly. Seasonal Magazine chats up with Suresh Gopi for this Modi Special Issue: Ho w did it ffeel eel tto oa endr a How atttend Nar Narendr endra wearing-in ccer er emony eremony emony,, which Modi’s ssw many ccelebritie elebritie e Amit abh elebritiess lik like Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin TTendulk endulk ar endulkar ar,, Rajnik an t, LLa ata Mange shk ar ekha, ant, Mangeshk shkar ar,, R Rekha, ajnikan and V ija ouldn’t a spit e Vija ijayy ccouldn’t atttend de despit spite es just lik e yyou? ou? ha ving in vit having invit vite like Like many Indians I was waiting to see this. We were trying for something new every time we voted. In the last 7-8 years the people were being taken for granted. In fact, I had no interest to vote. I was telling the BJP leaders here that if they could get some people from Gujarat and put them before the public they would vote. I also told them that I would vote if Modi is here. I have so far been a loyal voter of Congress. This time it was like a last attempt. And now he has come with a huge mandate. With his charisma and trackrecord. Now let him exhibit his capabilities. Let them be translated to possibilities of the nation, expectations of the people, and blessings for the coming generation. Let the new Seasonal Magazine

generation feel proud to belong to Mahatma Gandhi’s India. To that extend he should perform. Ho w do yyou ou ffeel eel about the K er ala How Ker erala ate which didn’t elec JP ora electt any B BJP electtor elec c andida spit e the ob vious andidatt e de despit spite obvious Nar endr a Modi w a v e? E wa Evv en a Narendr endra r e spec JP politician lik e O spectt ed B BJP like Rajagopal with a pr oven tr ack-r ec or d track-r ack-rec ecor ord pro as a ccen en tr al minist er earlier entr tral minister earlier,, and who w ould ha ut oma tic havv e been an a aut utoma omatic minist er in the Modi ccabine abine t, w as no minister abinet, wa nott elec er alit es. Ar e Mala electted bbyy K Ker eralit alite Are Malayyali voter oolish? erss ffoolish? I don’t think Kerala stood away from Modi. It is just a slow process. It took years for the Centre to have a different mandate. In the early years, even when they won, the seats which the BJP got were lesser than now. There is a steep rise in the percentage of vote that Rajagopal got this time. Now it is the decision of the new generation that decides. You can no more fool them with the age old promises - the usual

verbal acrobatics typical of elections - that you never intend to fulfill. A look into the past will give them a clear picture of what had been happening all these years. See what Rahul Gandhi was trying to do. Grab another 5 years and waste away the time doing nothing that is needed. I believe that Manmohan Singh is not a politician. He was just being made to do things by others. Was‘nt Rahul Gandhi a witness to the Congress rule of these last few years? What has he got to say about it? And after all this he was still promising good governance. How could that be possible? What was his delivery? He was part of Lok Sabha. Even otherwise, he was the Congress Vice-President. He belongs to the Gandhi family. The grandson of Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi was the everything of Indian governance. So very capable. Anything we now see as growth has its platform in what was built strongly by her. Carried over with respect and proportion by Narasimha Rao and Vajpayee. And when we thought that India would emerge as ultimate world no:1 with Dr Singh, he didn’t perform. Y ou ha ongr ess You havv e been a C Congr ongre sympa thiser ffor or long, and ne nevver ha havve ympathiser been kno wn a eft FFrron known ass a LLe ontt ally ally.. Wha Whatt ar e the qualitie ou find in B JP tha are qualitiess yyou BJP thatt ar e no ound in C ongr ess and LLe eft are nott ffound Congr ongre camps ? Or is yyour our sswit wit ch mor e tto o do amps? witch more with Modi’s leader ship alone ? leadership alone? No, I am no supporter of Congress. I was dreaming of good governance. I am not a member of the party. I hold no party ticket. I belong to that class of people who kept hoping for the nation. To that lot of voters who are always hunting for new options. Since I had done movies with politics as subject I had to vibe very nicely with many politicians. In that way I was very tightly bonded to EK Nayanar, my heart held AKG very closely.

ork Well” Achuthanandan too.Yet I am no Marxist party member. When it is the nation I am a simple praja. I am close to Sonia Gandhi, was close to Karunakaran. All this does not mean that I cannot have other opinions. Y ou had a w ell-publicised 2½ hour You well-publicised ting with Nar endr a Modi earlier meeting Narendr endra earlier,, mee in which he rrepor epor sk ed yyou ou tto o eporttedly a ask sked ge tiv e politic s. But is it true gett in intto ac activ tive politics. tha sk ed yyou ou tto o ccon on ok thatt he had a ask sked onttest LLok Sabha elec tions fr om K er ala? W as a elections from Ker erala? Wa ed tto o yyou ou tha ou BJP tick et o ticke offfer ered thatt yyou polit ely rre efused? Did the win bbyy politely ou? Innoc en Innocen entt surprise yyou? I am inspired by Modi as well as BJP. Because BJP is led by Modi. Modi alone cannot do many things. He needs a cadre. If led by BJP I have a certain belief. I am not talking of party policies. They can have it but cannot push it where I belong. It does not concern me. I am not obliged to bear the ill sides of any party. My joining politics is all speculations. I don’t like to see myself there. Because my priorities are different. My chief interests are movies and singing. Let us see the delivery. Then we will decide. I believe in having a platform where I can communicate with the public. I am not interested in losing connectivity. Ho w did yyour our mee ting with Modi go How meeting go?? Modi is an ardent listener. He collects data. My visit was part of the homework he had been doing for a long time. What he has started delivering now is all based on this homework he had planned and been doing ever since. It is for the future. He gave me a lot of his time. Too many people as expected were waiting to see him. But he spent quality time with me - ample time listening to my ideas and opinions, then asking, enquiring, pointing out, explaining. We spoke at length about a lot of essential issues like the basic hygiene level of rural

Indian women. Including those of Kerala. How insufficient and unhealthy the sanitary methods of the women of remote areas are. Of providing indigenous sanitary napkins and avoiding the cancerous ones supplied in the market these days. He was receptive and positive to all my suggestions and opinions. In fact the Ministry for Development of Women and Children is my pet project. Modi will be the Ambassador to the whole of Asia’s development. Like how the European Union and US has developed clout. He must have been planning all this for the last couple of years. Working day and night. He had been in touch with all Asian premiers for quite some time. It did not begin since the win in the elections, nor on the eve of swearing in. He had planned it

“Modi is an ardent listener. He collects data.”

all much before and had established a rapport with all of them. His plan is to strengthen Asia. That was why all were invited. All came except Bangladesh PM who too will surely come eventually, no doubt. When we parted he said that if everything went well on 16th there will be the parliamentary party meeting on 17th and most probably swearing in between 18th and 21st. Such was his confidence and planning. That was when I decided that he should be our Prime Minister. In some o off yyour ecen entt public our rrec ec en tings yyou ou ha ak en an eexxtr eme meetings havve ttak aken treme mee st and tha ean e drug stand thatt miscr miscrean eantt s lik like peddler peddlerss should be bea beatten up publicly publicly.. But doe sn’t it amoun o ttaking aking la w doesn’t amountt tto law in wn hands ?W on’t it cca ause intto one’s o own hands? Won’t anar chy in the long tterm? erm? anarchy If the law is not doing what it should be doing what else should we do. It is to protect your children. To make them safe. Taking law into your hands is not an ideal situation but what if we are driven against the wall? Let the law Seasonal Magazine

enforcing groups decide on how far we can go. To avoid any kind of riots the law enforcing groups should keep acting and avoid such situations. If not the public will act on their own. Y ou ar e a fr equen aveller tto o You are frequen equentt tr tra s. various Indian and in tional citie intterna ernational cities. Wha Whatt is the most striking de ou ffound ound in devv elopmen elopmentt yyou ound in Ahmedabad, tha as no thatt w wa nott ffound Ne w Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalor e, New Bangalore Chennai, or Hy der abad? Hyder derabad? I couldn’t see the whole of Ahmedabad, but from what I saw it was different and far more developed than all other cities. The branches, capillaries, and micro-capillaries of Narmada are effectively used to help the vegetation in the most productive way. Seventy percent of Gujarat had pipe-line connection in 2008 itself. But for very remote places this facility is made available. Gujarat is far more developed than we can imagine. There are around 2800 Adivasi youth working in different government departments. Around 300 of them are studying in Canada and among them are those getting trained to be pilots. Rather than talking of Gujarat riots and its reasons and consequences it would be ideal if we study the development and try to develop in a similar fashion. Y ou ha epor er ala You havve rrepor eporttedly said tha thatt K Ker erala is lik ely tto o ge wo ccen en tr al minist er gett ttw entr tral minister erss likely soon. Is it yyour our op timism or do yyou ou optimism ha e havve any specific input inputss in intto it? Ar Are you lik ely tto o be one minist er ? likely minister er? This is something that can still happen. I believe that there will be two ministers from Kerala. Y ou ha ak en an in and You havve ttak aken inttense st stand ou ar e willing tto o be Modi’s sla thatt yyou are slavve, tha if Modi ccan an bring in de o devvelopmen elopmentt tto Ker ala… erala… What I meant was on an emotional level and not on a physical one. If he brings development to Kerala I am only too willing to be his emotional slave. Wha ou turn in Whatt made yyou intto an in o-de inttensely pr pro-de o-devvelopmen elopmentt man? Since independence we have not Seasonal Magazine

seen a single target. If you watch the progress of other countries like Japan and US in the meantime you can see a clear picture. We are larger and more huge and so our responsibility is greater. Every year NASA gets filled with more and more Indians. Dubai has millions of Indians. Their growth level is amazing. We have all resources for development. We should think 100, work 75 and deliver at least 50. The people of India will be happy. It is the responsibility of the rulers to give the people of this country the feeling that we are at par with China or US. It is a feeling that will inspire you to do better. Ho w do yyou ou vie w secularism a How view ass pr ac tic ed in this ccoun oun tr om ticed ountr tryy fr from prac actic

“I was very tightly bonded to EK Nayanar, my heart held AKG very closely. Achuthanandan too. Yet I am no Marxist party member. When it is the nation I am a simple praja. I am close to Sonia Gandhi, was close to Karunakaran. All this does not mean that I cannot have other opinions.”

Gandhi’s and Nehru’s da dayys tto o the esen t? Is it pseudo-secularism a pre sent? ass pr BJP allege e such secular vvalue alue Are aluess allegess? Ar needed any mor e? Ho w do yyou ou vie w more How view Modi’s and B JP’s agenda tha BJP’s thatt e Muslims and Christians minoritie minoritiess lik like should ccon on o a unif orm Hindut onfform tto uniform Hindutvva cultur e? Wha our ttak ak e on the culture Whatt is yyour ake Gujar at genocide ? Gujara genocide? India has been following a policy of pseudo-secularism ever since independence. If it was secularism in the right sense, what happened to the Pandits of Kashmir? Why were they not re-instated? Will they ever be? Why were they thrown out? Why do their children have to resort to prostitution in Delhi to make a living? Who were flying the flag osf secularism while all this happened? Did they address any of these issues? So it was all a matter of convenience. And the innocent majority of Indian people fell prey to this feigning of secularism. Now they have started to think and act. I believe in the very first statement that Modi made - every Indian should be treated equal - I stand by that. All are equal. All should be bound by one law. Addressing Indians as Hindus, Christians or Muslims is not desirable. We should learn to have a whole view of the world. A sensitive and collective empathy for all humanity. Should have the capacity to feel for everyone who is in need of care and concern.

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Why Narendra Modi is India’s Best Hope Noted senior writer KL Mohana Varma argues that Modi’s win is not one of Hindu nationalism or polarisation, but a win for India’s ancient civilization that was practicing secularism long before it was written down in the Constitution. here is no India. Winston Churchill once remarked. It is like the equator. It is true. The legends or history of India’s past are more fiction than facts. The geography is still worse. The internal and external boundaries of India were altered at will by more than 76 foreign invaders and 1000 times by local aspiring chieftains. They created boundaries by arms, sutras or ideas in all possible manners. The India map changed almost every century and even the strongest never could hold on for more than a few generations. The latest was the brutal carving of colonial territory happened when British left in 1947. But the idea of India was immortal. Till now, historians have discovered 49 pre-Christ civilizations world-wide. All these antiques and golden imageries are now unfortunately extinct and are preserved in museums except one. Ours, the Indian civilization is even now with us in real stone and they say, has survived in the purest form. Look at the 5000 year old Harappan stone carvings of our dear bullock cart. Even in AD 2014, we have made no changes and use it with same efficiency for the

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same purpose. Inter-village transportation in the interior rural areas is still predominantly done by these bullock carts. But the idea of India beyond political and religious divisions was becoming stronger in us during the last thirty years as was the case elsewhere in the world through the merciless inroads made by the technological inventions in our minds and society. Mobiles, television, and fast food are part of even our illiterate mass. Now the nations of the world are being united on a literally worldwide scale. The market economy, and the thrust by the incredible and sweeping scientific and technological inventions, have brought the world to a stage where the timeold prejudices of race, language and colour have almost been wiped out and the territorial aspirations of nations have become irrelevant. The entire existing equations in philosophy, sociology, politics, economics and every other social science have become meaningless and have to be re-cast. The world is incomparably richer than ever before and there is an unprecedented prosperity around us. But

simultaneously there is abject misery, extraordinary deprivation and staggering inequality among the nations as well as segments of the societies in the same nation. We, Indians, were upset. Where does Our India, fit in? Suddenly we saw it. In the billions of eyes watching television visuals of the oath taking ceremony at New Delhi of Naredra Bhai Modi as our Prime Minister, suddenly there was a spark. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Mauritius all coming together. Modi, the first ever Indian prime minister born in the post independence period did it. Narendra Modi had many other firsts. Most important one, I feel, is the strong churning he has given to our democratic system by showing that the days of democratic princes are ending. Our election system functioned more on emotions and the setup was a camouflaged continuity of royal hereditary rule. The system made it very difficult to select the best person to rule and institutions to groom political talent were never favoured. The caste psyche prevented anyone with talent and ability to come up. Even Marxists succumbed to the princes from JNU. This is where the chaiwala’s son, showed something can be done and it would be done. Narendra Modi’s victory needs to be understood beyond the two commonly heard positions. By pessimists as the march of Hindu nationalist fascism and the inevitable death of secularism in India. And by optimists as a sign of hope for India after years of corruption in high places, general ineptitude, and a sickening sense of venality in civic and public life. But the truth is that both positions only tiptoe around what his victory means to a modern India. I remember his

words. It was his first address after the electoral victory. In his Vadodara thanksgiving speech he in his uncanny simple and direct style said: You sometimes watch our two and three year old babies touch the i-pads and cell phones and try to find some colour, visuals, sound and movement on the small screens. They have many dreams. They are finding ways to make them real with their talents and finger touch. Our aim should be to give all of them the opportunity and infrastructure to achieve these dreams by the time they become 18. Now the Indian electorate has decisively rejected those whose politics have rested on the divisive and ugly identity-claims that underlie the sort of violence. India has rejected both pseudo-secularism, and jingoistic Hindu extremism. It has accepted a plank of good governance for all, which for young Hindus could also mean a repudiation of brazen, racist Hinduphobia, and for others might prove a reassurance eventually that India’s secular constitution will not be threatened, and may even be strengthened by recognizing the civilization on which this country’s many religions rest. This election was not really about choosing between secularism and religious extremism as it was made out to be. The choice was perhaps seen by people in India more accurately as one between Hinduphobia and an India for everyone. The mandate that Mr. Modi has won, in other words, is not just for either good governance, or for dismantling secularism, but for embodying a new, emerging idea of what it means to be Indian, in the world today. It is very different from the thinking of such victories as a mandate for Hindu nationalism of the kind we witnessed in the late 1980s and 1990s. This mandate, simply put, is about Indianism even more than Hindu nationalism, or secularism. It might sound paradoxical, but by running on a promise of universal good, rather than on divisive identityrhetoric, Modi has re-established a very Indian way of looking at the world. This is important to recognize, because the anointed secular position against Modi,

Till now, historians have discovered 49 pre-Christ civilizations worldwide. All these antiques and golden imageries are now unfortunately extinct and are preserved in museums except one. Ours, the Indian civilization is even now with us in real stone and they say, has survived in the purest form. has very little intellectual, emotional, or moral purchase in large sections of India’s young today. We need to recognize and respect that. Philosophy of life is simple. Based on a loose interpretation of karma, each individual is born into an orbit in which he will probably remain for the rest of his life. The world is a series of orbits, hierarchically stacked up with peons and clerks at the bottom and leading businessman and politicians at the top. To be successful, you must break out of your orbit and enter the one above. After a spin in the orbit, you must break, break into the next one, and so on until you reach the top. Even as a teenager, Modi knew that he would graduate into new orbits. But beware, this is only a beginning. Narendra Modi was a pure Indian leadership material converted and conditioned with the best of Indian thoughts and projected with the most modern communication expertise. He had his strength from the discipline and selfless commitment of RSS and the mental inputs of Vivekananda’s teachings. Vivekananda’s words were always before him. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it, dream of it, and live on it. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. The truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true. The Vedanta, the ultimate, recognizes no sin. It only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that. Narendra Modi should succeed. It is not the person. Person is unimportant in the final analysis. But the idea remains

and it gives path and direction. At the same time, we should remember that the present electoral mandate was the immediate result of the frustration of middle and lower middleclass youth in the BIMARU heartland of India -Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This can easily slip away in any fairly good political earthquake. We must not forget that even though the age-old caste vote banks in this area could be crashed to a great extent, the princely families held their own. In UP, of the 80 seats, Sonia and Mulayam families cornered all their contested 7 seats, when the rest of the 73 was won by Modi’s BJP-NDA. In Tamilnad, Odisha, and West Bengal, the ruling parties held their own, and the national trend could not be seen at all. The main competitor, Rahul Gandhi followed the same style of campaign technology and propaganda but he was outwitted. This may not repeat if a strong adversary comes up. Young people in India today, growing up in a rapidly globalizing environment, for the most part, accustomed to diverse, multi-religious coexistence in India and therefore not inherently hateful to other communities, find themselves as part of a great cultural heritage, and value it not just for its ancient glory, but also because they see its spirituality as being the core of their civilizational ethic of coexistence and respect for all religions. A country divided by language, custom, caste and history still share a land and history so deeply, they know it is not simply because of India’s secular constitution, but because of India’s ancient legacy of respecting all faiths. There is a new sense of wanting to be Indian, in India’s youth that is very different from the simplistic nationalist rhetoric we saw two decades ago. We are still burdened with colonial legacies in administration, judiciary, police and budgetary systems. Our development priorities are downloaded rather than uploaded. We are the top spenders in the world in arms market thus making us the top in world poverty graph. More than half of the world’s poor are Indians. We should hope, help, support and be with Narendra Modi who at the moment appears to be the best choice. Seasonal Magazine

MODI SPECIAL

Will Modi Execute a More Powerful Security Policy? He had promised it a lot during his election campaign. His appointment of Ajit Doval as NSA is also telling. What can be expected from Modi with regard to security issues with Pakistan, China, & Sri Lanka? And how will he create better security ties with USA? KSR Menon, veteran journalist and former PTI reporter in Dubai, shares his thoughts. t has often been said that India is a soft power that cannot or is not inclined to assert its military and economic might as it should in the face of provocation from Pakistan and aggressive posturing by other neighbouring countries. In its efforts to project itself as a peace loving country, is India being seen as a weakkneed nation that could be taunted and tormented by lesser powers? Has this policy started to affect the security and stability of the country? And, more importantly, after the thumping win in the recent Lok Sabha elections, will Narendra Modi be able to take different and bolder steps to reassert India’s status as the second biggest power of Asia after China? India’s security policy came under criticism after 26/11 when Pakistani terrorists attacked a few prestigious buildings in Mumbai for almost three days. Many years earlier, terrorists supported by Pakistan had hijacked an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar and the then Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh had escorted three released terrorists as ransom to the Afghan city to end the crisis. On both occasions, the handling of the country’s security was called into question. Then there was Kargil and more recently an incident where Seasonal Magazine

Pakistani troops beheaded an Indian soldier near the border. On the other hand, there have been continuing border violations by China, attack

against our fishermen by Sri Lanka, and defiant gestures by even a small nation like Maldives. All these have prompted calls for a more aggressive and proactive defense and security policy overall and particularly toward Pakistan. Modi during his successful election campaign had indicated the direction his security policy may take. He claimed that unlike the UPA

Are Indian Problems Too Tough for Even Modi? government, he would follow a “zero tolerance” policy toward terrorism and by extension toward Pakistan which supports terror. It is widely believed that India had conducted covert operations against Pakistan which were stopped by the former Prime Minister IK Gujral during his brief tenure. It is likely that India will resume covert operations against Pakistan through its Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). In a recent interview Modi pointed out that the US did not issue a press note before killing Osama bin Laden and that is how such issues should be handled. The appointment of Ajit Doval, one of the best intelligence men India has ever had, as the National Security Advisor by Modi is a clear indication that India may adopt a tit for tat policy against terror sponsored by Pakistan. That will certainly be a great deterrent for Pakistan against meddling in Kashmir, against encouraging troublemakers like Hafiz Sayeed, and against

ISIS and Not ISI Delivers Modi’s First Security Challenge By Carl Jaison:

Narendra Modi’s first big overseas challenge comes not from Pakistan’s ISI, but from ISIS - the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The decade-old Al Qaeda offshoot’s unprecedented June surge across Iraq has seen it capture large swathes of territory including major cities of Mosul, Tal Afar, Tikrit and closing in on Baghdad. For India, the worst to happen was the abduction of 40 Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, by ISIS militants. There is a chance that Indians are being specifically targeted. The Ministry of External Affairs has stepped up its efforts to rescue the workers, even while one of them escaped on his own with dire stories of captivity to share. The main duty of the government would be to safely extricate Indian nationals out of a country collapsing under a bitter sectarian war. This task is however not as daunting as the 1991 evacuation of 1,76,000 Indians from Iraq-occupied Kuwait but the reality of the civil war aggravates the problem. Another worry is the prospect of a longdrawn war driving up oil prices,

imposing unexpected new costs on the government’s promise of an economic recovery. At 25 million tones a year for $20 billion, Iraq is India’s second largest crude oil supplier. With spiralling prices, the Indian government is set to incur an additional loss of over 6,000 crore. The Iraqi crisis may also severely hit investor mood in India as the Shia-Sunni conflict could spread to nearby Afghanistan, where the demographics is tantalizingly divisive. This would raise defense expenditure exponentially in a country facing acute food inflation, a situation of ‘wage-price spiral’ very much in the offing. Even worse, al-Qaeda’s propaganda arm al-Shabab carried a statement by its Pakistani leader Asim Umar, urging Kashmiri Muslims to “follow their brothers in Iraq and Syria by waging war on Indian forces”, raising fears of fresh attacks in the Valley. Security forces have warned of resurgent militant groups attacking Indians after the US pullout from Afghanistan. An Iraq-on-the-brink has added a frightening new dynamic to an already volatile equation.

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India’s Struggles to Continue Under its New Leader? sheltering India’s most wanted men like Dawood Ibrahim. With China, Modi may adopt a carrot and stick policy as India cannot match its bigger neighbour in military might. He already seems to have good vibes with the Chinese leaders who described Modi as “an old friend.” The balance of trade with India is highly skewed in favour of China and Modi may leverage it not only to ask Beijing to pipe down on the border issue but also to rethink its ties with Pakistan which many consider a ‘failed state.’ As for the SAARC countries other than Pakistan, India has friendly relations with Bangladesh though the illegal migration of Bangladeshis to India and

the involvement in terror activities by some Bangladesh based organizations have been major irritants. Modi is likely to take stern steps to plug illegal immigration which is also a security issue for India but he may do that without estranging Dhaka beyond a point. He offered an olive branch to Sri Lanka by inviting President Mahinda Rajapaksa to his swearingin ceremony even at the risk of annoying his allies from Tamil Nadu. But it is very unlikely that he will allow Colombo to harass Indian fishermen anymore. Such a stern approach can also be expected against countries like Maldives. But closer home, by choosing Bhutan

for his first foreign visit, he has clearly signalled that he will reciprocate any friendly gesture from our neighbours. Apparently this was in return for Bhutan’s help in December 2003 when it launched Operation All Clear to throw out all India-specific insurgents. Modi may also offer his hand of friendship to Nepal which is strategically very important to India. Nepal is a conduit for terrorists and also counterfeit notes from Pakistan. It was the only Hindu country until recently and that too may have an emotional tug on Modi. Modi has said in his speeches that Maoism, counterfeit currency, and drug trafficking are the other major threats

to India’s national security. No development is possible without security, and the Maoist threat has been a big drag on states like Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa. Modi has enunciated a policy of development and deterrence to contain Maoists. It is perhaps as a part of this strategy that recently the Intelligence Bureau leaked information about foreign funding to many NGOs to weaken their moral authority. It may be recalled that a few NGOs have been in the forefront of campaigns in support of the Maoists. No discussion on security would be complete unless one factors in the relationship with the United States. Modi has shown statesmanship by not taking to heart the earlier stand of the United States in denying a visa to him. He has already finalized a summit meeting with President Obama when he goes to the United Nations later this year. That he did not opt for an informal meeting with Obama on the sidelines of the UN session speaks volumes for the importance he attaches to Washington. He will sew up close economic ties with the United States as he knows fully well that for Washington economic and defence ties are inseparable. This policy can in the long run result in a realignment of the policy of the United States with India with regard to Pakistan. Besides, India-Japan relations are likely to be further strengthened as Modi shares a good equation with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This could be a hedge against China in the overall defence strategy. As the US draws down its troops in Afghanistan, the security environment in India’s neighbourhood will only get more complicated. India will need a clearly thought-out policy as it has a major stake in ensuring the stability of Afghanistan. Modi’s campaign speeches, selection of Doval as National Security Advisor, and initial policy gestures make it very clear that a more powerful approach to terror and security related threats is coming.

Modi Will Nurture Security Relations with Russia, Despite Sale of Russian Attack Helicopters to Pak By C arl JJaison: aison: Carl

It was VK Krishna Menon’s, the then Defence Minister in Nehru’s cabinet, 8hour long epic speech defending India’s stand on Kashmir that convinced the Soviet Union to veto the UN Resolution that would’ve most certainly changed India’s geo-politics with arch rival Pakistan. Not surprisingly, successive Indian governments have been very grateful to their Russian counterparts for such a stance. With Russia, India has sustained a long-lasting relationship going back to the time of Nikita Khrushchev’s crucial visit to the subcontinent during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Following a serious fall-out with the US government over their arms supply to Pakistan, Indira Gandhi strengthened ties with Leonid Brezhnev, who in turn continued the support of India’s claim over Kashmir. Even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has remained the largest exporter of military technology to India, a recent case in example being the flagging off the warship INS Vikramaditya, which was a Russian naval vessel till 1995. Calling the former Communist ruled country as a “timetested and reliable partner”, Modi seems to be playing his foreign diplomacy card right ever since Russian Gazprom’s plan to construct a gas pipeline through China to the country

won approval from India. Apart from the overland transportation of hydrocarbons, India and Russia have held talks on some important securityrelated issues pertaining to Syria and Afghanistan and developing a combative anti-terrorism mechanism. Russia clearly realizes the importance of stability in the Indian subcontinent and has tried to nudge India and Pakistan to develop relations in areas of convergence. With the Eurasian Economic Union coming into force on January 1, 2015, there is immense potential to integrate the region stretching from Russia via Central Asia through Afghanistan and Pakistan into India. Moscow has also pushed for and supported the membership of India and Pakistan into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This increasingly influential security grouping is looking at ensuring stability in Central Asia in the wake of the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan. A stable Afghanistan is the need of the hour for all the regional players. However, India has objected to the proposed sale of Mi-35 Russian military attack helicopters by Russia to Pakistan. Russia has so far not sold any weaponry in the past to Pakistan out of regard for Indian concerns and sensitivities on the issue.

MODI SPECIAL

10 Roles Kerala Can Play

in Modi’s India Plans KSR Menon, veteran journalist and former PTI correspondent in Dubai, enumerates 10 roles Kerala can play in Modi’s grand development plans despite not sending a single BJP MP to parliament. Narendra Modi

has become the Prime Minister of India and it looks like he is here for the long haul. Having won absolute majority in the recent Lok Sabha elections on largely his own steam, he has an advantage and also a huge responsibility. He will not have to depend on any other party and thus make compromises as part of the so called ‘coalition dharma’. On the other hand, the expectations of people have been raised and Modi has to perform – and perform very well – or he stands the risk of losing power after the first term. Kerala is the only major state that did not send a single BJP member to parliament. The ruling Congress party has been reduced to less than 50 seats at the centre which may cost them the position of the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha. The CPM, which split the seats with the Congress in Kerala, fared much worse, its tally dropping to less than 10 and they may lose the status of a national party. Modi seems to have big plans for India. Looking at his track record, one can reasonably assume that he will take the country forward at least in three areas where Gujarat has done exceedingly well. Gujarat, once a powershort state, is now selling power big time. It has excellent transport infrastructure and has done well in promoting tourism. These are also critical areas for Kerala as for other states. There are at least ten areas where Kerala could be critical for Modi’s development plans. 1. Kerala can play a key role in Modi’s plans to make India an economic

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superpower. Kerala can be to Asia what Dubai is to the Middle East or Singapore to the Far East, a major export and re-export centre for the world. Kerala’s location is ideally suited to be Asia’s most important hub for aviation and shipping, far exceeding the advantages of Dubai or Singapore. Kerala could be a hub for the Far East, the Middle East, all of Africa and South Asia including the Indian subcontinent. If Kerala can sell this idea to New Delhi, the Kerala airports will be one of the busiest international aviation hubs in the world. It can also give a fillip to expansion of development of ports like Kochi and Vizhinjam. 2. Modi believes, and rightly so, in a militarily strong India. Only a militarily strong India can ensure an economically strong India. As India builds blue water navy, Kerala can be its nodal point. More ports can be developed in Kerala, say in Aalappuzha, for Indian Navy which will be called upon to secure our porous coastline to prevent incidents like the Mumbai terror attack, to protect our fishermen from adventurous foreign navies and also to fight piracy in the high seas. Kerala can also be a port of call for say, the US and other warships for bunkering and repairs which could be a major source of income in the long run. 3. One of the favourite ideas of Modi has been to conquer the world through the power of teaching. He has already opened a teachers’ university which will train and export qualified Indian teachers. This will help the less

developed countries to grow and earn us immense goodwill; it can also result in strong partnerships and bonding with the developed countries, where academics play an important role in governance. Kerala has for many decades provided teachers to schools and universities in Africa and also to some extent in the Middle East where they cater mainly to the NRIs. Keralites also hold positions of eminence in the universities in the West. But so far this has been achieved with little state help and the educated young men and women of Kerala can immensely benefit by being part of Modi’s scheme. 4. Tourism is another area where Modi has focused his attention. Kerala, like Lebanon, has the hills, the plains and the beaches. Besides, Kerala also has many backwaters and some 45 rivers, all of which have been laid waste by poor governance. The beaches are rendered unusable by walls of boulders erected to protect the coastal areas from erosion. Had these walls been differently laid, creating endless coves for tourists, this ribbon of a state would have been miles and miles of a tourist paradise. Nature’s bounty which could fetch millions of dollars in tourism revenue has been left to suffer a slow death. If corrective measures are taken, as Modi has done on the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad, Kerala could lead in tourist arrivals both domestic and foreign. Kerala could be a hub for tourism, including cruises, and all the other states could benefit from it. Interestingly, India’s share today is a dismal 0.64 per cent in world’s tourist arrivals. 5. As Modi belongs to very backward class, he is expected to do more for

the uplift of those belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), scheduled castes and tribes, and also dalits. According to various estimates 30 to 50 per cent of the Indian population is OBCs. It goes without saying that their lot has to be improved for any meaningful development of India at large. Unlike we are given to believe, what this segment of the population needs is opportunity and not just quota, as their DNA is as good as any other. To achieve this, for a beginning, all government schools should be made English medium. Initiatives to this effect have already been taken in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world English is the language of the powerful and well to do. More such schools should be opened in all backward areas. The NDA government has already declared that the allocation for education is being raised. Kerala should approach the centre with well thought out proposals in this regard. 6. Modi has already announced programs for cleansing the Ganga. In fact such cleansing programs should be announced for all water bodies in India. This is a very critical area for Kerala and the state should present well worked out projects to the Centre to restore our rivers, lakes and beaches. Keralaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rivers, which have been the lifeline for state for hundreds

Modi seems to have big plans for India. Looking at his track record, one can reasonably assume that he will take the country forward at least in three areas where Gujarat has done exceedingly well. of years, have become death-traps for youth because of unfettered sand mining and the major rivers have thick vegetation right in the center of the riverbed. The rivers are highly polluted and the fish wealth is drastically shrinking. The water is still used for drinking and bathing by the poorer sections of the society and this, along with lack of waste management on land, has created a severely sick society unable to meet the high medical costs. As Kerala needs to move from a curative health care system to a preventive regimen, it should also switch to CNG run vehicles on a large scale and announce tax free regime for electric buses, cars and scooters to reduce air pollution. The state can demand help from the Centre in these areas. The gas terminal in Kochi would come handy in this respect. 7. It is surprising that no trade bodies, employee organizations and NRI associations have welcomed the BJP move to abolish direct taxes. The

current complicated and illogical taxation system criminalizes the society. Kerala should openly welcome the move to tax only the very rich. Tax can be collected unobtrusively and indirectly as in the Gulf States. Easy tax system is a great mover of economy. 8. Kerala can count on Modi for making it power surplus. It is unimaginable that a state that gets heavy monsoon showers is short of power. Power is an area of expertise for Modi and the state will have to work with him to solve its power problem and also its inefficient management of power. 9. Gujarat has conceived and executed mega projects like the largest solar farm in Asia. Such experiments can be replicated in the urban sector in Kerala. If we had better roads, the distance from Ernakulam to Trivandrum could be covered easily in just two hours. Kerala should ask to be included in the quadrilateral highway project. Since railways in South India is a top revenue earner, Kerala can get more and better trains. 10. Kerala can help the Centre in privatizing (the other option is shutting down) Air India which is losing Rs 5 crores daily. Airline is a symbol of national prestige or national shame depending upon how it is run. Since Kerala has a strong NRI segment, they can offer suggestions and even financial participation for any meaningful recovery plans for Air India. Remember, the Maharajah was one of the most recognized logos in aviation until a few years ago. It remains to be seen whether the state government will have a positive approach to the BJP government at the centre to be part of Modiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development initiatives. If they fail, it is for the business bodies, the intellectuals and other community organizations to impress upon Modi that Kerala should be given top billing in his priority list. Modi may be favorably inclined to do that as it may also help the BJP open its account in the next assembly elections.

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MODI SPECIAL

The Modi ModiPromise Promiseisisthat that Governance has No NoIdeology Ideology Hari S Kartha, well-known media personality and Executive Editor of Amrita TV, feels that Modi is set to prove that good governance won’t need any ideology like Right, Centre, Rightof-Centre, or Left. Kartha also argues that, unknown to many, BJP’s and its predecessor Jan Sangh’s origins and history prove that the party has switched ideologies many times before, making Modi’s ‘governance first’ policy feasible for the party to accommodate. Narendra Damodar Modi has exploded a few myths. The first and foremost among them, though a recent one, was that in India, the days of single party rule was over and that only coalitions could come to power. He could earn for his party absolute majority on its own without having to be at the mercy of coalition partners. Yet another, which he shattered, is the traditional Himalayan myth in the six decade old Indian democracy, that none could ever dream of getting majority to govern without pampering religious vote banks, particularly the minorities. Modi has proved wrong certain misconceptions too. Almost every act of his on coming to power at the Centre suggest that Prime Minister Modi is quite different from Modi till then projected by his detractors in politics and media. The first ever decision by Modi as PM designate was to invite his Pakistani counterpart along with other SAARC leaders to his swearing in. The great diplomatic initiative boosted Modi’s image at home and abroad. The expectation was that Modi’s government would seize the earliest opportunity to wage war with Pakistan. The same was in regard to relations with China. Modi tends to prove that he is a man of conciliation and not confrontation. This exactly was the message to the Opposition, especially the Congress. In his maiden address to the Parliament, he spoke about the Team India, suggesting that he would follow the Seasonal Magazine

politics of cooperation and consensus in the country and not one of confrontation, contrary to earlier expectations. Modi clarified on day one itself that the Prime Minister will assert and not the Party. He demonstrated in letter and spirit that the choosing cabinet colleagues is the sole prerogative of the Prime Minister. Till the swearingin ceremony nobody other than the Prime Minister designate or the persons concerned had any idea as to who all would constitute the cabinet. This is not to deny that he had a series of consultations. There is also no denying that all regional and religious considerations influenced the ministry making process. Modi again proved wrong the predictions that ministry making would be a mess without veterans like LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi. Yes, Modi was asserting that he can. Modi’s beginning was indeed grand. What is now being eagerly watched by the entire nation and perhaps the whole world are the days ahead in Modi’s governance. It was no doubt a vote for Modi, and not a vote for BJP or the Sangh Parivar. More specifically, it was a vote for Modi’s governance. Therefore as it is said that the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, the test of Modi lies in his governance in Delhi. Speculations are as usual rife, that Modi will turn right or continue to be left of centre. But he has given no hint other than whatever was there

in the President’s address to the Parliament. The PM is tight-lipped even on the media hype on FDI in defence and media. The President’s address has no tall claims, no great promises and significantly no mention of controversial issues. Hence the Opposition also had little to oppose. They could only claim that most of whatever was said is in continuation of UPA’s policies. Modi’s thrust has been on governance and nothing else. That was his campaign plank during elections. To him, it seems, there is no room for ideology in governance. Whether this will be a boon to the nation and the people or a bane, time has to prove. Nobody in India, not even Indira Gandhi, ever distanced ideology from governance. There have always been ideological reasons or at least excuses for all that all predecessors of Modi did while in power. But can an Indian Prime Minister afford to bid goodbye to ideology, be it right, left or left of centre, is a million dollar question. Can Mahatma Gandhi’s India embrace the creed that it matters little whether the cat is black or white if it catches mice? The question may not be that embarrassing to Modi’s party. This is not to suggest that BJP is never ideology-driven. On the contrary it was the adherence to an ideology different from the Congress during the days of the freedom struggle that prompted Congressman Dr. KB Hedgewar to organize the RSS. His successor Guruji

Step No1: SelectingTeam, Setting Policy, Enforcing Rules Modi's

Golwalker as Sarsangh Chalak inspired the formation of Bharateeya Jana Sangh with Dr. Syamaprasad Mukherji at the helm. During the initial years Jana Sangh stuck to the ideology of Indianaisation of which the then party president Prof. Balraj Madhok was the exponent. There was Deendayal Upadhyayaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Integral Humanism in between. In the postemergency days, Jana Sangh merged with other non-left opposition parties to form the Janata Party. In due course, Janata Party disintegrated and Jana Sangh under Atal Bihari Vajpaye revived itself with a new name, flag

and emblem. Thus emerged Bharatiya Janata Party. The original ideology of BJP was neither Indianisation, Integral Humanism nor Hindutwa. It was Gandhian Socialism, an ideology that was not clear or categorical. BJP again shifted to Cultural Hindutva during the days of Ramjanmabhumi movement. The ideological history of BJP indicates that the party is not very adamant about ideology. More over it was Advani as Deputy Prime Minister in the Vajpaye Ministry who first said in an interview that governance had no ideology. Advaniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement that governance

had no ideology was when BJP was dependent on other partners in the NDA. That explanation was also interpreted by his rivals as an excuse to sideline the core issues of Hindutva like Ram temple at Ayodhya, article 370 and the common civil code. But before being elected Modi had gone on record as stating that toilets were more important than temples in this country. Like medium itself becoming the message, will art and craft of governance transform itself into the new ideology for BJP during Narendra Modi days?

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MODI SPECIAL

Jaitleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Quick Budget to Feature Directional Change When governments change, priorities change. However, Union budgets prepared immediately after a general election tend to be large on announcements about change rather than real changes in allocations and priorities. This is because there is very little time between election results and budget day to be able to comprehensively change the contours completely.

Seasonal Magazine

his time, the election results came on 16 May, and the formation of the central government took another 10 days as this was the first time a sitting state Chief Minister was elected Prime Minister. The delays related to the need for Narendra Modi to hand over power in Gujarat smoothly before moving to Delhi. Moreover, when the political order changes, as in this general election, the new ministers would not have had the time to familiarise themselves with their own ministries before dealing with the finance ministry on the budget. The net result is the previous interim budget tends to be the guiding document, with the big changes being largely cosmetic in nature or about things to come in future. Will the 10 July budget be any different? Will it be more or less what P Chidambaram presented on 17 February (the interim budget), with only the medium-term policy goals being different, and the budget proposals largely remaining tweaked versions of the last UPA

By R Jagannathan for Firstpost

budget? These are what I would expect in the budget to be presented by Arun Jaitley on 10 July: 1: Marginal changes in the minimum tax-free bracket (Rs 2 lakh now) to reflect higher inflation. 2: Some changes and increases in the 80C savings limit to boost savings. 3:: Special tax breaks for industry to start investing, including possible quicker depreciation. 4:: Scrapping of some centrallysponsored schemes and transfer of the resources to states – which will be explained as a push to greater state autonomy. 5: A restatement of Chidambaram’s fiscal deficit numbers so that the burden of lowering it this year is eased. 6: A higher disinvestment target than what Chidambaram proposed, thanks to a more buoyant market. 7: Very few changes to indirect taxes – both excise and customs. 8: A new deadline for the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), probably around mid-2015 or 1 April 2016. 9: Announcement of a new Direct Taxes Code effective from 1 April 2015 – with details to come later. 10: Higher allocations to education, skill-building, health, and urban schemes. All of Modi’s pet projects – toilets, rural housing, roads, special manufacturing zones - will find a mention in terms of intent, and there will be token allocations, but nothing major. The money and actual details will come later 11: Possible announcement of a changed, reduced, role for the Planning Commission, with the finance ministry itself being the nodal agency for dealing with state plan outlay. Maybe, even a scrapping of the 12th plan, with focus shifting to annual plans. The distinction between plan and non-plan outlays may be given up, and revenue and capital spending being the only distinction.

12: NREGA and Land Bills will be tweaked to make them more progrowth, pro-infrastructure development. But the bottomline is not much money will be shown for all the pet NDA schemes. In short, the Jaitley budget will probably draw on Chidambaram’s underlying budget because he has had no time to overhaul it. Over the last 23 years, from 1991 to now, we have seen big changes in the political orientation of new governments in 1991, 1996, 1998, 2004 - and now. But barring 1991, when within a month after the elections Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh simply changed the entire direction of the Indian economy – with external bankruptcy concentrating minds wonderfully – no new government has really managed to do all that it wanted to in its very first budget. There is simply too little time. The hiking of railway fares and freight hikes last week – which was a UPA government proposal – further confirms to us that NDA’s first budget math will not be too different from that of the UPA. In 2004, when UPA-1 replaced Vajpayee’s NDA, Chidambaram as finance minister paid lip-service to the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) agreed between

Chidambaram’s “innovation” was simply to buy time. On direct taxes, he simply shifted the changes to the next budget. “I am a votary of tax reforms but it would be unwise on my part to attempt to do tax reform in a hurried or piece-meal manner. Seven months from now there will be another Budget, and there will be an occasion to visit the subject of tax reform.”

the Congress, the Left and other alliance parties. But the budget made very few sweeping changes in its first attempt: the big changes related to just one or two areas, and not the whole budget. Chidambaram changed very little on direct taxes, and the key changes related to the introduction of securities transaction tax (STT) on stock exchange transactions and the abolition of long-term capital gains tax. An education cess of 2 percent on all taxes was also introduced for the first time. Chidambaram explained why he was not making big changes in his budget speech of 8 July 2008: “The government has to shift gears; and even if we are able to do so quickly, it would leave us only about six months to achieve our objectives for this year. We have, therefore, decided to adopt an innovative approach. The Planning Commission has advised the ministries and departments to redefine their priorities and redraw their programmes in accordance with the NCMP. Besides, new programmes or schemes may have to be launched, and old ones restructured. Under the circumstances, it was considered optimal to allow the ongoing programmes to continue until the Planning Commission completes an exhaustive review and reorients the expenditure pattern to conform to the NCMP objectives.” Chidambaram’s “innovation” was simply to buy time. On direct taxes, he simply shifted the changes to the next budget. “I am a votary of tax reforms but it would be unwise on my part to attempt to do tax reform in a hurried or piece-meal manner. Seven months from now there will be another Budget, and there will be an occasion to visit the subject of tax reform.” So, given the short time available, Jaitley is more than likely to do what Chidambaram did in 2004. Make big announcements in directional change, but make only small changes in the actual budget numbers. Seasonal Magazine

LUXURY Car tier la unche artier launche unchess the Amule ar tier Amulettte de C Car artier Luxury brand Cartier has launched the Amulette de Cartier pendant, which exudes beauty and a magical charm. A bejewelled capsule of mother-ofpearl, onyx or diamond paving, it enchants from the first click of its clasp, and continues to mesmerise with its openwork back and a host of hidden talents. Look closer and it becomes much more, a cluster of surprises, among them the arc of solid gold that literally opens like a padlock, leaving room for a wish and the option of attaching the piece to one’s person.

Michael K or or es in K olk ata and Mumbai, India Kor orss opens st stor ore Kolk olka Michael Kors has opened stores in Kolkata and Mumbai in India, thus expanding its footprint in the country at a fast speed! Located at Quest Mall in Kolkata, the store will carry a mix of accessories from the Michael Kors Collection and MICHAEL Michael Kors labels, as well as watches, jewelry, footwear and eyewear. The store will also carry a selection of the brand’s fragrances. The same holds true for the brand’s store in Palladium Mall in Mumbai too. Both the stores have been designed to echo the label’s casual-chic aesthetic, using elements like zebra-print furniture, sleek metal and mirrored surfaces and glossy, large-scale vintage photographs to evoke jet set glamour and timeless sophistication. Seasonal Magazine

Salv ator e FFerr err agamo la unche iamma Salva ore erragamo launche unchess the FFiamma Bag and financ es the rre est or ation o finance stor ora off halls in the Flor en tine Galleria degli Uf fizi Floren entine Uffizi Luxury brands Salvatore Ferragamo has launched Fiamma, a new handbag, which draws inspiration from different female generations of the Ferragamo family. Fiamma is named after Salvatore’s late daughter Fiamma Ferragamo, the house’s leather accessories and shoe designer for almost 40 years, who founded the iconic shoe Vara. The semi-circular top handle, designed in a range of five variant sizes, incorporates a functional pocket fastened with a lock that recalls the Gancio, the eternal symbol of Ferragamo’s history and dedication to modern design and luxurious craftsmanship. The bag showcases a series of luxe details: top-stitched ribbed handles, double zip hardware closure, removable and adjustable shoulder strap and elegant satin lining. Ferragamo also premieres a special collection of miniature styles, a range of limited edition variants, which

highlight precious mixed materials including: fringe embroidered nappa, two-tone fox fur hand stitched onto aged snakeskin, tweed with degrade Swarovski crystals and lizard skin handles, or calfskin with opulent stingray details.

Jaeger-L eC oultr e giv es tribut e tto o the aeger-LeC eCoultr oultre give tribute Geophy sic 1958 thr ough ttw wo ne w vver er sions Geophysic through new ersions Watch manufacturer, Jaeger-LeCoultre, has launched two new watches as a tribute to the legendary Geophysic 1958, which was a marvel in its time. It was in the mid-20th century when the scientific community, composed of researchers from many different countries, was preparing to undertake a program of major scientific explorations as part of the International Geophysical Year. JLC then decided to associate with this unique initiative by creating an exceptional precision instrument: the Geophysic watch. The two new exclusive watches – a model in steel and pink gold, and a model in platinum – give a brilliant ode to the 1958 masterpiece. These timepieces are driven by an automatic movement and feature a diameter of

38.5 mm, taking account of contemporary preferences while remaining entirely true to the design of the original model. The exceptional movement in these watches combines the best technology of the 21st century: a stop second for accurate time-setting; a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour for high precision; a balance with micrometric adjustment by means of screws set into the rim; kifparechoc for shockresistance; Spyr gears for smooth transmission of torque in the gear train; automatic winding with ceramic ball bearings that require no lubrication, and more, all without counting the softiron inner case that protects the mechanism from the effects of magnetism. Seasonal Magazine

LUXURY

ST Dupon unche he Dupontt la launche unchess TThe Humphr ollec tion Humphreey Bogar Bogartt C Collec ollection French luxury brand, S.T. Dupont has introduced a special collection dedicated to the quintessential screen icons Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn, named ‘Night Symphony’. The Night Symphony collection reflecting the persona of Humphrey Bogart includes a vintage bag inspired by the Bogie bag, which the actor personally ordered from S.T. Dupont in 1947. The ideation of the avant-garde bag comes from Humphrey Bogart’s need for a travel bag that would be elegant and lightweight. His search came to an end with S.T. Dupont's proposal of a doctor's bag in oilskin canvas which designed in the workshops of Faverges in eastern

France by master craftsmen, features a one-of-a-kind, ultra-chic bag in beige canvas. The corners of the cuttingedge product are reinforced in cognac leather to match the handle, and the beige canvas is finished with a red, white and blue band attributing to the colours of the French flag on which

appear the initials of the illustrious owner. Celebrating S.T. Dupont's 140year anniversary, The Bogie bag has been redone to accompany the ‘daytime version’, which preserves the colours originally requested by its owner with a slightly more rounded shape, giving origin to the Night Symphony Bogie available in deep black oilskin. The Night Symphony Bogie bag’s canvas with its reinforced corners in tone-on-tone leather, beautifully contrasts with a white band, set off by a palladium finish.

Mon appa Monttegr egrappa elé P ens la unche Pelé Pens launche unchess P

Fendi la unche launche unchess ne w vver er sions o new ersions off the Anna bag

Adding another authority in its line of Icons Pens, Montegrappa is celebrating the Brazilian footballer who changed the game for all-time: Pelé. One of the best players of all times in general, Pele received the FIFA Ballon d'Or Prix d'Honneur in recognition of his career and achievements in 2014. Named one of the “Top 20 Most Important People of the 20th Century” (Time Magazine) and “Football Player of the Century” (FIFA), Pelé today maintains his commitment to the sport and to society by fulfilling

Luxury brand Fendi has launched the Anna bag yet again in new colours, ranging from reds to blues. The Anna bag is created entirely by hand, and numbered in a series, according to Fendi traditions. It has 1,322 Selleria ton-sur-ton stitches that join together the different parts of the Roman leather. The two asymmetric lateral stitches have both a functional and aesthetic value, structuring the body of the bag while keeping a soft, feminine and ergonomic shape. It has both a short or long strap that gives this bag a great versatility.

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various roles as spokesperson, ambassador and philanthropist. Two designs have been created for the Pelé Icons Pen Limited Edition. The Heritage features models with solid gold or solid silver trim. The top of the cap is shaped to represent a football, atop a crown that reads ‘All Hail The King’. The colours of the Brazilian flag form the surface of the cap in yellow, with green surrounding the crown. Inspired by the original championship trophy, the spring-loaded clip features cabochons on each side.

Charlo asir aghi tto o be Charlottte C Ca siraghi the ffac ac eo w Guc ci ace off ne new Gucci Cosme tic ollec tion osmetic ticss ccollec ollection Gucci has announced Charlotte Casiraghi as the face of its new Gucci Cosmetics collection. Sensuous and feminine, the campaign starring Ms Casiraghi will be unveiled together with the launch of the Gucci Cosmetics collection in September 2014 in selected countries. The line includes Gucci Eye, Gucci Face, Gucci Lip, Gucci Nail together with luxurious brushes and preparation products for skin. Incredibly intimate, the print campaign for the Gucci Cosmetics collection photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot and digital film directed by Fabien Baron capture Ms

Casiraghi in a series of moments which bring the spirit of the Gucci Cosmetics collection to life. A shared passion for horse riding brought Frida Giannini and Ms Casiraghi together. Ms Giannini designed an exclusive equestrian wardrobe for Ms Casiraghi in 2010 to compete in the Global Champions Tour show jumping event. Ms Casiraghi has since been captured for the Gucci’s “Forever Now” advertising campaign series shot by famed fashion photographers Peter Lindbergh, Inez & Vinoodh, Mert & Marcus and Bruce Weber.

For est E tials ore Esssen sentials la unche een launche unchess a Gr Green Tea and Oudh body mist Indian luxury Ayurveda brand, Forest Essentials, has launched the Body Mist Green Tea and Oudh, which is apt to face the great summer! This refreshing body mist is a combination of herbal extracts and fragrant resin, and is crafted for a long lasting fragrance. It is an invigorating and balanced fragrance which can be sprayed directly on the body. The Steam Distilled pure essential oils of Oudh (Agarwood – a traditional precious fragrant wood resin) and Green Tea leaves the skin scented for hours. Cooling and hydrating, it is the perfect solution for the summer heat. Also containing fresh Aloe Vera leaf juice and Vitamin E, the mist assures extra benefits to your skin.

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LUXURY

Chanel pr esen pre sentts it itss 20 14/15 Cruise 2014/15 collec tion in Dubai ollection

Designer Karl Lagerfeld recently presented the much talked about Chanel 2014/2015 Cruise show on The Island in Dubai. At sunset and with the futuristic megapolis skyline as the backdrop, Mr Lagerfeld offered a cruise trip from the Orient to the Occident. In the emblematic colour palette of Chanel white, black and beige and even dark blue, with touches of fuchsia, midnight blue, red and floral prints - Mr Lagerfeld reinterpreted certain elements from oriental art with contemporary lines and forms. Three-piece suits and trompe l'oeil trousers, wide-legged and skinny trousers, long and mini tunics, short overalls, pleated blouses, jackets and boleros with three-quarter length sleeves, the collection exudes femininity, audaciousness and elegance. Adding glamour and minimal glitz to flowy silhouettes, Chanel catches the imagination through this collection. Offering a very middle-eastern inspiration, you will feel like a character of their tales.

Dior la unche w launche unchess a ne new watch in the Dior Gr and Soir ccollec ollec tion ollection Grand Adding another beautiful watch to its Grand Soir collection, Dior this time takes inspiration from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;petticoatâ&#x20AC;?. The tousled asymmetrical shape and corolla wavy movement of the bezel recall the swirl of an evening gown. The mother-of-pearl dial involves delicate inlay and engraving work while the patterns on the dial are inspired by embroideries on haute couture dresses. The dial is hand painted by a miniature artist and takes 20 hours of work. The baguette cut sapphire stones used are all natural and untreated.

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Louis V uit Vuit uittton pr esen pre sentts it itss Cruise 20 15 ccollec ollec tion 2015 ollection Louis Vuitton recently presented its Cruise 2015 collection which was an assortment of vibrant colours, patterns and boldness at the same time. The wardrobe is shaken up through and through, lending itself to the mixing of genres, peculiar layering, expert dissonance and pseudo-paradoxical juxtapositions. A cacophony of colours, the collection captures the mood effortlessly. Offering a fluid, light, casual outline, the collection is comfortable and smart at the same time. Fabric is worked hard, sharp, with a Bohemian allure. This Cruise Collection goes off the beaten track and explores transformation in clothing. Having said that, there are some classic pieces in there too!

Jaeger-L eC oultr e la unche aeger-LeC eCoultr oultre launche unchess the AMV OX2 TTrransponder w atch AMVO wa

Watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre has launched the new AMVOX2 Transponder watch which shows more than just time. Incredibly, it has the ability to start your Aston Martin and embodies a blend of high-end mechanics and ingenious electronics! Created in partnership with Aston Martin, in 2006 this cooperation led to an avant-garde horological innovation. In the first AMVOX chronograph, Jaeger-LeCoultre developed an entirely unprecedented mechanism to activate the chronograph start, stop and reset functions. In this timepiece, the traditional push-pieces on the right side of the case are replaced by a lever on the left enabling an instant check as to whether the sapphire crystal watch glass is “active” or not.

Furla opens a ne w st or e in K olk ata, India new stor ore Kolk olka Furla has opened a new store in Kolkata, India, expanding their presence in the country. The boutique measures over 643 square feet on a unique floor, which was styled to valorize the Furla universe, the brand’s creative spirit and sophisticated style. Among notable aesthetic features of the interiors are architectural elements inspired by the beautifully restored 18th century Villa in Bologna, which currently houses the company’s headquarters. Blending tradition with modernity, the space is imbued with natural tones and pastel shades, accented with soft and warm lighting and forged from valuable materials such as rosewood and Italian travertine marble, opalescent glass and brass finishing. Furla’s CEO, Eraldo Poletto, said, “Along with Mumbai’s store, this is our second retail location in India, one of the countries with the highest potential of growth for the brand. The Indian economy is ready and mature to keep on absorbing fashion and luxury products and, as a brand that underscores the values of

quality and contemporary design, ensuring timeless elegance and the made in Italy expertise, we are confident we will experience an excellent performance in the country.”

Amaly he LLeela eela Amalyaa aatt TThe Palac w Delhi un alacee Ne New unvveils a PPearls earls ccollec ollec tion ollection Amalya, the exclusive heritage and art store by The Leela Palace New Delhi, is showcasing a collection of pearl jewellery. Calling it a ‘Rhapsody in Pearls’, Amalya gives a tribute to the oldest known gem, that is an expression of femininity, purity and harmony. The exclusive pearl inspired collection includes earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Wrought in precious and semi precious stones, the handcurated jewellery line is suitable for every occasion and look. Seasonal Magazine

LUXURY Burberr esen Burberryy E Eyyewear pr pre sentts The TTrrench C ollec tion Collec ollection Burberry has launched The Trench Collection of eyewear which is, of course, inspired by the iconic Burberry trench coat. With trench coat being light and comfortable to wear, the eyewear collection follows the same principles, and reflects many of the coat’s signature design details. Temple tips are leatherwrapped with tonal stitching, taking inspiration from the distinctive leather-clad trench buckle. Nose pads feature polished metal supports which echo the coat’s metal hookand-eye neck fastening. The Burberry check is featured across the collection from the bespoke nose pads, to the enameled and engraved

details on the inner and outer temples. Designed in Britain and hand-made in Italy, each step is a custom process, starting with the mixing and colouring of acetate in a spectrum of trench shades. The nose pads are cast from a bespoke mould bearing the Burberry check pattern and are adjustable to ensure the frames comfortably fit all face shapes. Temple tips are hand-wrapped with leather. Frames are assembled by hand and the check is enamel painted on the inner temples Apart from sunglasses, the collection also offers optical frames for men with the same design philosophy.

The Anc estr tique Ance stryy An Antique tiquess Galler unched a Galleryy la launched att the Tarun TTahiliani ahiliani ccoutur outur e outure studio Dinsha and Munchi Shroff have opened The Ancestry Antiques Gallery within the Tarun Tahiliani couture studio in Chattarpur, New Delhi. The Ancestry Antiques Gallery showcases coveted objets d’art collected by Dinsha and Munchi Shroff, also known as the ‘Osler twins’ for their vast range of crystal furniture and chandeliers by F&C Osler. The two established the Ancestry antiques store in Mumbai in 1995 and have been supplying rare antiquities to elite establishments and homes around India and the Gulf since.

Fendi la unche launche unchess Bond Str ee or e with the Stree eett st stor ore Peek aboo pr ojec or eekaboo projec ojectt ffor charit charityy Fendi recently announced its Peekaboo project in collaboration with iconic women, a charity initiative to raise funds for Kids Company, on the occasion of the opening of its new London boutique in New Bond Street. In this initiative, a group of iconic women, who exemplify Great Britain’s creative and innovating spirit, were invited by Fendi to personalise their own Peekaboo handbag, thus allowing for a completely unique and fully interpreted creation. Seasonal Magazine

Goodear th pr esen Goodearth pre sentts Cabana Sea son Season 20 14 ccollec ollec tion 2014 ollection Home décor brand Goodearth takes note of the summer and presents the Cabana Season 2014 collection, which is a part of the ‘Ratnakara’ Design Collection 2013-2014. Not just featuring décor, take a peek at their sarongs, stoles, saris and craftans created in batik, ikat and kalamkari, hand woven in khadi and chanderi, block printed and resist dyed with Indigo and other natural dyes. The Serendib Gift Collection features photo frames, coasters, place mats and a tissue box crafted in glass with beautiful screen printed leaf motif in hues of grey.

IW C Scha usen IWC Schafffha fhausen la unche or launche unchess the P Por orttofino Chr onogr aph R ose Gold Chronogr onograph Rose A part of the acclaimed Portofino series, watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen has launched the Portofino Chronograph Rose Gold. The Chronograph’s striking chronograph push-buttons are reminiscent of the cockpit of 1960s Italian sports cars. In much the same style, the stopwatch displays bring a distinctly sporty touch to the entire Portofino family. The watch, which features a convex sapphire glass and appliquéd Roman numerals, is driven by the time-tested self-winding 75320 calibre with its 44-hour power reserve. The 18k red gold case is attached to the classical alligator leather strap. There is also a choice of cool but snug-fitting Milanese mesh bracelets that underscore the timeless character of the Portofino Chronograph.

Car tier la unche ous sain artier launche unchess the Jeanne TTous oussain saintt and ar tier ccollec ollec tions o ther bags the LLouis ouis C ollections off lea leather Car artier Luxury brand Cartier has launched two new collections of leather bags, for men and women, which will certainly appeal to lovers of fine craftsmanship. The Jeanne Toussaint collection for women is named after the Cartier muse whose celebrated taste made her a figurehead of modern jewellery. The bags in the collection feature half

crocodile and half smooth leather, while layering materials and style in a blend of beige tones. Boasting two handles, a generous full-leather design, hand-sewn bar tack and a base with a zipped compartment, it adds a touch of graceful allure as you discover clever ways it can be worn.

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Taking INVESTING

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Stock

Finally a new government is here. Rallies or downturns from now on will be decided not on euphoria but on business performance. No, not even on business performance alone. To be precise, any stockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trajectory from now on will be set by real returns, like it has always been in the long term. Returns to shareholders. By way of Return on Equity (RoE). By way of Dividend Yield. Yes, it is time for taking stock. Taking stock of companies you have invested in. Taking stock of better companies, to invest in. Taking stock of your investments and possible investments, so that your portfolio doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t become a laughing stock in the coming months, quarters, and years. Based on the pouring in annual results, Seasonal Magazine takes stock of buzzing stocks to test whether the buzz is justified or just unadulterated hype. We zero in on RoE and Dividend Yield, two metrics that indirectly includes all other quality metrics - lock, stock, & barrel.

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Taking

Stock

Murthy & Son Leave, Now Can Sikka be the Saviour?

In Inffos osyys, India’s second largest software services exporter, beat the street by reporting fourth quarter net profit at Rs 2,992 crore, up 4 percent compared to previous quarter in FY14. Year-on-year growth in net profit stood at 25 percent. It also surprised with its dollar revenue growth guidance of 7-9 percent (growth of 5.6-7.6 percent in rupee terms) for FY15. Net profit in dollar terms increased 5.2 percent Qo-Q (up 9.7 percent Y-o-Y) to USD 487 million in the quarter gone by. However, Infosys’ revenues in rupee terms fell 1.15 percent sequentially (up 23.2 percent on yearly basis) to Rs 12,875 crore and dollar revenues slipped 0.4 percent to USD 2,092 million. “I am pleased that we have been able to double our growth rate for the full year

compared to last year, though performance in the last quarter of FY14 has been disappointing,” said SD Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director. “We have guided for a revenue growth of 7-9 percent next year and remain firmly focused on building the growth momentum by making all the necessary investments in our business,” he added. For the year ended March 31, 2014, Infosys’ net profit grew 13 percent to Rs 10,648 crore and revenues jumped 24.2 percent to Rs 50,133 crore compared to last year. Net profit in dollar terms rose 1.5 percent to USD 1,751 million and revenues jumped 11.5 percent to USD 8,249 million in the year ended March 2014 that was inline with what the management has guided on March

Return on Equity: 28.02% Dividend Yield: 2.05% Seasonal Magazine

11. Consolidated earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,281 crore and EBIT margin rose 46 basis points to 25.48 percent during January-March quarter. The software services exporter has declared a final dividend of Rs 43 per share for the financial year 2013-14. “Our cash and cash equivalents crossed USD 5 billion during the quarter. We have increased the dividend payout ratio to up to 40 percent of post-tax profits effective FY14 to enhance returns for our shareholders,” said Rajiv Bansal, Chief Financial Officer. Infosys and its subsidiaries added 10,997 employees at gross level and 2,001 at net level during the quarter. For the year FY14, it added 39,985 employees at gross level. Meanwhile, Active clients increased to 890 from 888 sequentially and 798 on yearly basis. “Infosys and its subsidiaries added 50 clients during the quarter and 238 during the year,” the company said. “We continued expansion of Infosys Finacle globally with 7 new wins and 11 go-lives at banks across Europe, South America, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific,” it added. Number of USD 200 million clients fell to 3 in Q4, compared to 4 in Q3, and the number of USD 100 million clients slipped to 13 from 15 while the number of USD 5 million clients increased to 232 from 226. Chandrashekhar Kakal, senior VP and member of executive council, resigned on March 20 that was the ninth senior level exit since June 2013. Earlier in December 2013, Infosys director and chief financial officer V Balakrishnan had resigned. Meanwhile, the company, on April 11, says CEO SD Shibulal has expressed his desire to retire from the post and as a member of the board of directors either on the date of the last board meeting before his superannuation – January 9, 2015, or when his successor is ready to assume office, whichever is earlier.

Taking

Stock LIC Housing Finance

Increases Momentum, But Missing Bank Licence Hurts

State-run housing finance company LIC Housing Finance surpassed street expectations by reporting January-March quarter profit after tax at Rs 370 crore supported by other income, up 17 percent compared to same quarter last year. Net interest income increased 16 percent year-on-year to Rs 533 crore in the quarter ended March 2014. Total income of the company grew 19.4 percent to Rs 2478 crore from Rs 2075 during the same period. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In spite of the difficult environment we have delivered yet another year of strong performance in all the areas of operations- portfolio growth, margin expansion and continue to maintain industry best asset quality,â&#x20AC;?

Return on Equity: 20.22% Dividend Yield: 1.09% says Sunita Sharma, managing director and CEO. Other income jumped 73 percent on yearly basis to Rs 34.6 crore in the quarter gone by. Provisions / writeback during the quarter stood at Rs 22 crore as against Rs 3.48 crore in same quarter last year and Rs 7.45 crore in previous quarter. For the year ended March 2014, the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total income grew nearly 22 percent to Rs 9335 crore and profit after tax soared 28.7 percent to Rs 1317.19

crore year-on-year. LIC Housing says gross non-performing assets (NPA) stood 0.67 percent on March 2014 as against 0.61 percent on March 2013 while net NPAs increased to 0.39 percent from 0.36 percent during the same period. Net interest margin for March quarter stood at 2.40 percent as against 2.16 percent in Q3FY14. For the financial year 2013-14, net interest margin was 2.25 percent as against 2.18 percent in previous year. Seasonal Magazine

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DCB Bank Advances in Q4, Will Seek More Time for Promoter Stake Dilution

DCB Bank reported an almost 15 percent jump in net profit at Rs 39.07 crore in the March quarter. The lender had registered a new profit of Rs 34.11 crore for the corresponding quarter a year ago. For the entire fiscal year 2013-14, the private lender’s profit rose to Rs 151.36 crore as compared to Rs 102.06 crore in the previous financial year that ended on March 31, 2013. DCB Bank managing director and chief executive Murali M Natrajan attributed the increase in profit to diversification of the loan portfolio and cutting exposure to sectors such as micro, small, and medium enterprises and companies. The mid-sized bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) came down to 1.69 percent in the fourth quarter ended March 31 from 3.18 percent in the year-ago period. Net NPAs rose to 0.91 percent in Q4 from 0.75 percent due to slippage in a small and medium enterprise account, he said. The bank recast a corporate loan worth Rs 35 crore in the January-March period and for FY14, its total restructuring was Rs. 70 crore. With improved asset quality, the lender’s net interest margin (NIM) rose to 3.59 percent in Q4 from 3.52 percent. For FY14, NIM improved to 3.56 percent from 3.34 percent. Asked about the dilution of the promoter’s shareholding to

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10 percent by March 31 as per RBI direction, Natrajan said, “We are in touch with the Reserve Bank. Hopefully, we will get some more time to adhere to the norm.” DCB Bank’s promoters - the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and Platinum Jubilee Investments - held a 18.46 percent stake at the end of March. Provisions in the quarter stood at Rs 11.04 crore as against Rs 8.89 crore, while for FY14 it was Rs 37 crore as against Rs 24 crore in FY13. Deposits grew 7.6 percent in the quarter and loans were up 10.6 percent. In FY14, loan growth stood at 24 percent, while deposits grew 23.6 percent. Natrajan said the bank wants to increase its asset book by 23-25 percent and double the balance sheet in the next three years. He said the bank has received board approval to raise up to Rs 300 crore as tier-I capital. The money, to be mopped up in the next 1215 months, will help the lender lower the promoter holding.

Return on Equity: 15.09% Dividend Yield: 0%

MOIL Performs Well on Most Fronts Country’s top manganese ore producer MOIL reported 35.67 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 149.35 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, largely due to rise in sales and decrease in expenses. The Nagpur-based PSU had reported a net profit of Rs 110.08 crore during the corresponding quarter of 2012-13. Its net sales rose by 9.44 per cent during the quarter at Rs 292.01 crore vis-a-vis Rs 266.81 crore in Q4 of FY’13. Total expenditure of MOIL declined by 16.98 per cent to Rs 138.07 crore against Rs 166.31 in the corresponding period previous fiscal. Its net revenue from mining products for the fourth quarter of the last fiscal stood at Rs 285.84 crore against Rs 251.73 crore in a year-ago period whereas the net revenue from manufacturing and power stood at Rs 7.32 crore and Rs 2.32 crore for the quarter. For the financial year ended March 31, 2014, MOIL’s net profit rose by 18 per cent at Rs 509.56 crore as compared to a net profit of Rs 431.72 crore in FY13. Its net sales was up 5.67 per cent at Rs 1,021.28 crore in the last fiscal. MOIL operates 10 mines, six located in Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. MOIL fulfills about 50 per cent of total requirement of dioxide ore in India.

Gruh Finance Continues Building Their Gruh

Return on Equity: 18.42% Dividend Yield: 1.74 %

Gruh Finance, a subsidiary of HDFC, has reported a 16.7 percent growth in fourth quarter (January-March) net profit at Rs 73.6 crore as against Rs 63.06 crore in a year ago period. Net interest income of the company grew 23.8 percent to Rs 106.49 crore from Rs 86 crore during the same period. For the year ended FY14, the housing finance company has reported net profit of Rs 176.96 crore, a growth of 21 percent compared to previous year. The board of directors of the company has recommended payment of dividend for the financial year 2013-14 of Rs 3 per share. The board also recommended the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1 equity share for every 1 equity share held.

Return on Equity: 29.14% Dividend Yield: 0.88 % Seasonal Magazine

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TCS Grows Slowly and Steadily, Strong Rupee an Overhang

India’s number one software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) fourth quarter earnings was a mixed bag, with net profit exceeding consensus estimates, and revenues falling short. Net profit rose 0.5 percent sequentially to Rs 5,357.6 crore. Quarterly revenues came in at Rs 21,551 crore, up 1.2 percent sequentially. The company’s dollar revenues grew 1.9 percent to USD 3.503 billion. The company said the performance was driven by strong growth in Europe, particularly UK, and the Asia Pacific region. Earnings before interest and tax slipped 0.3 percent Q-o-Q to Rs 6,314 crore and margin declined 45 basis points to 29.3 percent in the quarter gone by. “Our strategic investments including those in Digital Technologies are providing a compelling value proposition as well as helping us anticipate and shape new market trends successfully,” N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD said. “We are upbeat that the next 12 months will bring many more opportunities for growth across multiple industries and markets,” he said. The company said it signed 9

Seasonal Magazine

large deals across verticals during the March quarter, saw a 2.6 percent growth in volumes, and managed to keep employee attrition rate to 11.3 percent. In all, it added 9,751 employees during the quarter. The company said its retention rate of employees was among the highest in the industry. The company hired 61,200 employees in FY14 and is looking to add another 55,000 employees this year. Chandrasekaran reiterated his view that FY15 would be a better year for the company, than FY14. He also expects the company’s domestic business to perform better this year, after a soft patch in FY14. He said the India business was hit by delay in deal closures last year. In any case, he does not expect it to get any worse. He said employees in India will get a 10 percent hike on an average. Employees in developed markets

would get a 2-4 percent raise, and those in emerging markets, a 4-6 percent. The wage hikes would impact first quarter margins, but it would even out later, Chandrasekaran said. He said billing rates were stable, and the company’s operating margin would be in the 26-28 percent range this year. He sees the banking, financial services and retail verticals as being the main growth driver. In constant currency terns, the company’s revenues grew 1.92 percent sequentially in the March quarter. Chandrasekaran said currency was not a worry for his company at this point. Most IT analysts do not expect any big gains from a weak rupee this year, like was the case last year when the rupee came close to hitting 70 to the dollar in August. For FY14, the company’s revenues grew 30 percent to Rs 81,809 crore and net profit by 37 percent to Rs 19117 crore.

Return on Equity: 50.02% Dividend Yield: 1.03%

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HCL Technologies Maintains Outperformance, But Still Far From the Big-Three

Return on Equity: 41.39% Dividend Yield: 0.90% India’s fourth largest software services exporter HCL Technologies reported third quarter net profit at Rs 1,624 crore, up 8.5 percent sequentially and 59 percent on yearly basis due to better operating performance. HCL says it continues to push the pedal on its new generation propositions including Digital System Integration while maintaining its profitable growth trajectory. Net profit margin expanded to 19.4 percent from 18.3 percent Qo-Q. Net profit in dollar terms stood at USD 264 million, up 9.4 percent compared to previous quarter and 39.9 percent compared to a year-ago period. The forex loss during the quarter was at USD 23.3 million as against USD 25.5 million Q-o-Q. “Our success with the industrialized delivery model, increasing number of contracts moving into steady state, and savings on G&A front, helped in improved net income margin of 19.4 percent this quarter, up from 15.9 percent in the

corresponding quarter of last year,” says Anil Chanana, CFO. Rupee revenue of the company grew 2 percent quarter-on-quarter (29.8 percent year-on-year) to Rs 8,349 crore while dollar revenue climbed 3 percent Q-o-Q (14.3 percent Y-o-Y to USD 1,361 million. Dollar revenue growth of the company was far better than its peers Infosys and TCS that have reported at 0.38 percent degrowth and 1.9 percent growth, respectively. “We continue on our growth momentum with a strong revenue growth of 3 percent Q-o-Q along with 10th straight quarter of margin expansion. Infrastructure services have continued to punch their weight in the market,” says Anant Gupta, president & CEO. Operating performance was very strong in the quarter gone by; in fact it was better than its peers (Infosys EBIT margin grew 46 basis points while TCS fell 65

basis points). HCL Technologies’ earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased 6.13 percent Q-o-Q (64.2 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 2,060 crore and margin expanded 100 basis points to 24.7 percent during the quarter. HCL Technologies has added 8291 employees (gross) during the quarter and the net addition was 1858 employees while its total headcount at the end of March quarter stood at 90,190. Blended utilisation rate stood at 84.2 percent, up 10 basis points quarter-on-quarter. HCL Technologies has announced a dividend of Rs 4 per share for the quarter. At the end of March 31, 2014, the company has cash and cash equivalents of USD 175 million. “Our focus on generating higher free cash flow continued during the quarter with free cash flow as percentage of EBITDA reaching 73 percent, up from 61 percent in the corresponding period last year,” Anil Chanana, CFO added. Seasonal Magazine

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Wipro Pushes Profits and Margins, But Forecasts Muted Growth in Q1

India’s third largest software services exporter Wipro’s IT services revenues and margins are decent but the guidance for June quarter is muted. Net profit of the company grew 10.5 percent sequentially to Rs 2,226.5 crore on revenue of Rs 11,703.6 crore (3.3 percent Q-o-Q) during the quarter. IT services revenue in rupee terms rose 2.8 percent Q-o-Q (up 24 percent Yo-Y) to Rs 10,619 crore and dollar revenue increased 2.5 percent (up 8.5 percent Y-o-Y) to USD 1.72 billion during the quarter. The guidance range for Q4FY14 dollar revenue was USD 1.712 billion to USD 1.745 billion and analysts had expected it at USD 1.720 billion and rupee revenue at Rs 10,541 crore. “Our focus on process simplification, automation and

platform-based delivery continues to deliver results and we are seeing the benefits through improved productivity, reduced timelines in execution and greater business agility,” says TK Kurien, executive director & chief executive officer. Wipro expects revenues from IT services business to be in the range of USD 1.715 billion to USD 1.755 billion during April-June quarter of financial year 2014-15. It says this guidance is based on conversion rate of 61.62 a dollar. Operational performance was very strong. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew 9.5 percent on sequential basis to Rs 2,605.4 crore and margin expanded 150 basis points to 24.5 percent in the quarter gone by. For the year ended March 2014,

EBIT came in at Rs 9,030 crore, up 29 percent compared to previous year and margin jumped 195 basis points to 22.6 percent. “We continue to systematically work on improving our operational efficiencies resulting in expansion of full year IT services operating margins by 195 basis points,” says Suresh Senapaty, executive director & chief financial officer. Full year IT services revenue rose 18 percent to Rs 39,950 crore and dollar revenue jumped 6.4 percent to USD 6.618 billion. Wipro says it added 59 new customers in Q4. Wipro has declared a final dividend of Rs 5 per equity share for the year ended March FY14. The payout date for final dividend is fixed as July 31, 2014. Meanwhile, the company says its IT products segment delivered revenue of Rs 1,111 crore for the quarter, up 3 percent compared to a year-ago period and revenue was Rs 3,880 crore, down 1 percent Y-o-Y.

Return on Equity: 29.51% Dividend Yield: 1.43% Seasonal Magazine

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RIL’s Sluggishness Continues, Now, Can Modi be the Saviour?

India’s largest petrochemical major Reliance Industries (RIL) has surpassed street expectations on the gross refining margin and operational fronts while the profit was inline during January-March quarter, but it disappointed on oil & gas business and other income. Net profit in Q4FY14 grew 2.2 percent sequentially (up 0.75 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 5,631 crore during the quarter (supported by refining business). Revenue came in at Rs 95,193 crore, down 8 percent compared to previous quarter but up 13 percent over a year-ago period. Net gross refining margin (GRM) jumped 22 percent (down 8 percent Y-o-Y) to USD 9.3 a barrel from USD 7.6 a barrel in previous quarter. GRM for the year 2013-14 was USD 8.1 a barrel as against USD 9.2 a barrel in previous year. Alok Agarwal, chief financial officer says gasoline demand led to GRM growth. Gasoline demand is expected to be firm going forward, he adds. Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman and managing director says, “FY2013-14 was a satisfying year for RIL. Refining business delivered the highest ever profits with a sharp recovery in GRMs towards the end of the year.” On the operational front, India’s second largest private sector company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 9.3 percent sequentially to Rs 8,331 crore and margin expanded 140 basis points to 8.8 percent in the quarter gone by. The top private sector company says its retail business has achieved record performance in sales and profits for the year. “Total revenue grew by 34 percent to Rs 14,496 crore and achieved PBDIT of Rs 363 crore for the year. This achievement was in spite of the continued challenging macroeconomic environment,” it elaborates. The company added 225 stores and 2.7 million operating square feet in the year. As of March 2014, Reliance Retail operated 1,691 stores

Return on Equity: 12.33% Dividend Yield: 0.80% across 146 cities, with 11.7 million of operating square feet. Reliance says its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), which is the only private player with broadband wireless access spectrum in all the 22 telecom circles of India, has finalised the key vendor and supplier partnerships that are required for the launch of services. RJIL is making rapid progress in building the critical infrastructure needed to launch

its services, it adds. Outstanding debt as of March 2014 was Rs 89,968 crore compared to Rs 72,427 crore in previous year, says Reliance. RIL has cash and cash equivalents of Rs 88,190 crore during the year, which were in bank deposits, mutual funds, CDs and Government securities/ bonds. It has announced a dividend of Rs 9.50 per share for the financial year 2013-14. Seasonal Magazine

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Crisil Continues to Grow, But is the Rating Agency Overrated? Ratings firm Crisil has posted a 38.6 percent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 68.71 crore for the quarter ended March, 2014. It had reported a net profit of Rs 49.57 crore during the corresponding (January-March) quarter of previous year. “Crisil’s consolidated income from operations rose 21.4 percent to Rs 308.98 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, compared with Rs 254.49 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year,” it said in a release. The company also declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per share for the financial year ended December 31, 2014. Revenue from ratings grew by over 16 percent over the corresponding quarter of 2013, it said, adding the loan ratings and SME ratings were the drivers of the ratings business. “However, there was limited activity in the bond and securitisation markets. Growth at Crisil Research was impacted by not-so-favourable macro factors in India,” it said. The company also declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per share for the financial year ended December 31, 2014.

Return on Equity: 56.30% Dividend Yield: 1.38%

OBC’s Profit Up Marginally, Asset Quality Stable

Public sector lender Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) reported net profit at Rs 310.3 crore in the quarter ended March 2014, up 0.8 percent compared to same quarter last year supported by higher other income and net interest income. Asset quality was stable but provisions increased during the quarter. Net interest income jumped 7.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,308.7 crore in the quarter gone by while other income shot up 63.4 percent on yearly basis to Rs 754.5 crore during the quarter. Net interest margin improved to 2.8 percent from 2.7 percent quarter-on-quarter. Asset quality was stable during the quarter. Gross non-performing assets (GNPA) climbed 12 basis points sequentially (79 bps on yearly basis) to 3.99 percent while net NPA declined marginally (up 55 bps Y-o-Y) to 2.82 percent in the quarter ended March 2014 from 2.91 percent in previous quarter. In absolute terms, gross NPA jumped 8.4 percent Q-o-Q (34.3 percent Y-oY) to Rs 5,617.86 crore and net NPA soared 1.9 percent quarter-on-quarter (34.5

Return on Equity: 8.92% Dividend Yield: 2.52% Seasonal Magazine

HDFC Bank Delivers as Usual, But is Now Relying on Other Income

IndusInd Bank Ups Profits, But NPAs Too Rise

IndusInd Bank reported net profit at Rs 396 crore in the quarter ended March 2014, up 29 percent compared to a year-ago period supported by other income. Net interest income too was up 18.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 781 crore during January-March quarter. Other income of the private sector lender jumped 42 percent to Rs 523 crore in fourth quarter from Rs 368 crore in same quarter last year. Net interest margin improved by 10 basis points sequentially to 3.75 percent during the quarter. On the asset quality front, gross non-performing assets (NPA) declined (up 9 basis points Y-o-Y) to 1.12 percent during March quarter from 1.18 percent in previous quarter. During the same period, net NPAs increased to 0.33 percent compared to 0.31 percent each in Q3FY14 and Q4FY13. In absolute term, gross NPAs climbed 35.61 percent (down 0.8 percent sequentially) to Rs 620.8 crore from Rs 457.78 crore year-on-year while net NPAs increased 34.6 percent Y-o-Y (up 11.6 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 184.05 crore during the quarter. Romesh Sobti, managing director and CEO said that the book quality of bank remains stable but vehicle finance is still showing a slow uptick. Provisions and contingencies slipped to Rs 120.6 crore from Rs 126.2 crore on sequential basis, but increased 47 percent compared to Rs 81.9 crore year-on-year. Sobti said the bank will pay 35 percent dividend for the financial year 2013-14 as against 30 percent last year.

Return on Equity: 18.45% Dividend Yield: 0.53%

HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector lender in India, saw its fourth quarter net profit rising 23 percent year-onyear to Rs 2,326 crore, driven by higher other income and fall in provisions. Net interest income grew 15.3 percent on yearly basis to Rs 4,952.7 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 due to average asset growth of 20.3 percent and higher net interest margin. Net interest margin was strong at 4.4 percent, a growth of 20 basis points on sequential basis that was better than expectations while other income shot up 11 percent yearon-year to Rs 2,001 crore in March quarter. The bank has managed to control its operating expenses that grew 1.2 percent on yearly basis (up nearly 10 percent sequentially) to Rs 3,174.72 crore during the quarter. Asset quality of the private sector lender was stable during the quarter. Gross nonperforming assets (NPAs) remained unchanged at 1 percent compared to December quarter as well as corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Net NPAs too was unchanged at 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter but rose 10 basis points compared to same quarter last year. In absolute terms, gross NPA increased 28 percent (down 0.94 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 2,989.3 crore year-on-year while net NPA jumped 75.6 percent Y-o-Y (up 2.8 percent sequentially) to Rs 820 crore during the quarter. Total restructured loans were at 0.2 percent of gross advances as of March 2014. Provisions and contingencies declined 4.8 percent year-on-year (down 26.4 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 286.13 crore in the quarter ended March 2014. For the year ended March 2014, HDFC Bank reported consolidated profit after tax at Rs 8,764.51 crore, up 27 percent compared to last year while net interest income grew 18.2 percent to Rs 19,109.57 crore, but net interest margin declined 10 basis points to 4.4 percent in FY14. It has recommended a dividend of Rs 6.85 per share for the year ended March 31, 2014.

Return on Equity: 23.92% Dividend Yield: 0.70% Seasonal Magazine

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Yes Bank Improves Bottomline, NPAs, CASA Growth Still a Struggle

Private sector lender YES Bank beat street expectations by reporting fourth quarter net profit at Rs 430 crore, up 18.8 percent compared to same quarter last year, driven by noninterest income. Net interest income grew 12.8 percent to Rs 719.6 crore on account of a cautious and steady growth in advances during the quarter while other income climbed 17.4 percent to Rs 445.52 crore year-onyear. For the year ended March 2014, profit after tax of the bank increased by 24.4 percent to Rs 1,617.8 crore and net interest income grew 22.4 percent to Rs 2,716.3 crore compared to last year. Non-interest income showed a robust growth of 36.9 percent to Rs 1,721.6 crore in FY14. “YES Bank has continued to deliver steady performance in FY14 maintaining asset quality in a difficult economic environment with expansion in net interest margin (NIM) in Q4FY14,” says Rana Kapoor, managing director and CEO. Net interest margin improved sequentially to 3 percent from 2.9 percent while it was flat compared to same quarter last year. On the asset quality front, net non-

performing asset (NPA) as a proportion of net advances declined to 0.05 percent in Q4FY14 from 0.08 percent in Q3FY14 and gross NPA improved to 0.31 percent from 0.39 percent during the same period. In absolute terms, gross NPAs jumped 10.7 percent Q-o-Q (85.46 percent Yo-Y) to Rs 174.93 crore while net NPAs declined 38.4 percent sequentially (up 273 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 26.07 crore during January-March quarter. Total advances grew 18.4 percent year-onyear to Rs 55,630 crore while deposits increased 10.8 percent to Rs 74,192 crore as of March 2014. Current and savings account (CASA) deposits grew 28.8 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 16,344.7 crore taking the CASA ratio to 22 percent in FY14 from 18.9 percent in last year. YES Bank says it continued to demonstrate strong traction in CASA on the back of an increase in branch network, enhanced savings product offerings and steady improvements in productivity. It has declared a dividend of Rs 8 a share for FY14. Meanwhile, the board of directors of the bank has approved raising up to USD 500 million via QIP and GDR issues.

Return on Equity: 27.74% Dividend Yield: 1.06% Seasonal Magazine

Biocon’s Profit Falls, But Adjusted Profit Up Return on Equity: 15.99% Dividend Yield:

1.07%

Biopharmaceutical firm Biocon’s consolidated net profit for the March quarter jumped 140 percent year-onyear to Rs 113 crore, and revenues grew 15 percent to Rs 746 crore. The company also said it was elevating its Chief Operating Officer Arun Chandavarkar as CEO and Joint Managing Director. Chandavarkar had joined Biocon as General Manager – Operations in 1990. The jump in net profit is after adjusting for a one-off gain of Rs 202 crore during the fourth quarter last year. The company’s core biopharma business clocked a 17 percent growth in revenues to Rs 442 crore. This included income from licensing molecules as well. Earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (EBITDA) or operating profit grew 56 percent to Rs 193 crore as the company was able to restrict rise in expenditure to 5 percent. For financial year 201314, the company’s revenues grew 16 percent to Rs 2933 crore, and net profit rose 36 percent to Rs 414 crore after adjusting for one-off income. The company’s operating margin for the fourth quarter and full year stood at 26 percent and 25 percent respectively.

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Punjab & Sind Bank’s Topline Grows, But Bottomline in Search of New Bottoms Punjab & Sind Bank has reported its results for the quarter ended Mar ’14. Standalone Net Interest Income (NII) for the quarter was Rs 2,136.06 crore and net profit was Rs 35.85 crore. Other income for the quarter was Rs 121.99 crore. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the Standalone Net Interest Income (NII) was Rs 1905.00 crore and net profit was Rs 124.44 crore., and other income Rs 138.90 crore.

Return on Equity:

6.53%

Dividend Yield:

3.36%

Union Bank’s Numbers Echo Peer Banks’ Turmoil State-owned Union Bank reported a nearly 27 percent fall in its net profit at Rs 578.88 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The public sector bank had reported a net profit of Rs 789.38 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year (2012-13). Total revenue of the bank stood at Rs 8,444.91 crore for the Jan-March quarter in 2014, as against Rs 7,500.59 crore in the same period last fiscal. The bank’s net NPA during the quarter rose to Rs 5,340.08 crore from Rs 3,353.38 crore in the same period, last fiscal.

Return on Equity: 9.58% Dividend Yield: 1.58% Seasonal Magazine

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Cairn’s Performance Turns Sluggish Private oil & gas producer Cairn India reported fourth quarter net profit at Rs 3,035 crore, up 5 percent compared to previous quarter, driven by higher other income. “The growth in profit was primarily due to increase in investment income consequent to realisation of gains on maturity of investible funds and one time charge of ESOP policy change accounted in previous quarter,” the company elaborates. Revenue (post profit sharing with the Government of India and the royalty expense in the Rajasthan block) increased marginally to Rs 5,049 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 5,000 crore in previous quarter, driven by higher entitlement revenue. Other income of the Londonlisted Vedanta Resources group company jumped nearly three times sequentially to Rs 407 crore in the quarter gone by while foreign exchange loss stood at Rs 243 crore during the quarter versus loss of Rs 129 crore in Q3FY14. Operating profit declined to Rs 3,683 crore from Rs 3,692 crore but margin improved 110 basis points quarter-onquarter to 72.9 percent. For the year ended March 2014, its profit after tax grew 3 percent to Rs 12,431.79 crore from Rs 12,056.39 crore in last year while revenues rose 7 percent to Rs 18,761.70 crore. The board of directors of the company has proposed a final dividend of Rs 6.5 a share, in addition to interim dividend of Rs 6 per share during the year 2013-14.

Return on Equity: 26.06% Dividend Yield: 3.30% Seasonal Magazine

L&T Finance’s Profit Grows Reasonably, But NPAs Soar L&T Finance Holdings, a subsidiary of engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro, reported consolidated profit after tax at Rs 186.5 crore in fourth quarter (JanuaryMarch), up 8.8 percent compared to same quarter last year on higher net interest income. Consolidated net interest income grew 24.3 percent to Rs 581.7 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 468 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Asset quality deteriorated during the quarter. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) climbed 25 basis points sequentially (115 bps year-on-year) to 3.18 percent while net NPAs increased 23 bps Q-o-Q (103 bps on yearly basis) to 2.29 percent in the quarter gone by, driven by slippages in construction equipment (CE), commercial vehicle (CV) and Corporate and restructured assets. “We remain cautious in lending to segments under stress such as CE/CV and corporates, while continuing to follow a conservative provisioning policy with contingent and voluntary provisions of Rs 195 crore over and above RBI norms,” says the company. Loans and advances grew 20 percent year-on-year (6 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 40,080 crore as on March 2014. Average assets under management (AAUM) rose 63 percent on yearly basis to Rs 18,255 crore while the wealth management business achieved average assets under service of Rs 5,012 crore as on March 2014. On the outlook, L&T Finance says, “While growth may be slightly muted in FY15, we expect to maintain overall book growth at 15-20 percent. Improved margins with a stable opex, lower credit costs and increase in gearing are expected to result in better return ratios for the business.”

Return on Equity: 9.56% Dividend Yield: 0.97%

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Mahindra Lifespace’s Numbers Reflect Realty Woes Mahindra group’s real estate firm Mahindra Lifespace Developers today reported 63 percent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 30.30 crore for quarter ended March 31 on lower sales. The company’s net profit stood at Rs 81.74 crore in the year ago period, Mahindra Lifespace Developers said. Income from operations fell by 48 percent to Rs 189.38 crore during the fourth quarter of last fiscal from Rs 362.14 crore in the corresponding period of previous financial year. During 2013-14 fiscal, the company’s consolidated net profit declined by 29 percent to Rs 100.63 crore from Rs 141.37 crore in the previous year. Income from operations, too, fell at Rs 705.26 crore last fiscal from Rs 738.34 crore in 2012-13. The Board of Directors recommended a dividend of 60 percent for the year. Commenting on the result, Mahindra Lifespace Managing Director and CEO Anita Arjundas said: “We have seen revenue growth of over 10 percent in the residential business backed by a continuous focus on execution”. The year overall was subdued as investment decision by households and corporates were postponed and approval cycle lengthened, she added. During last fiscal, the company launched two new housing projects and sold 706 units across eight projects. Arjundas said the company would focus on launching new projects across business segments. The Mumbai-based developer is present in nine cities and its portfolio includes 11.25 million sq feet of development in the ongoing and forthcoming projects.

Return on Equity: 8.51% Dividend Yield: 1.37%

UltraTech Cements its Profits, But on Lower Tax Expenses Aditya Birla Group company UltraTech Cement’s fourth quarter net profit rose 15.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 838 crore on lower tax expenses. Net sales grew 8.2 percent to Rs 5,832 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 5,389.2 crore in same quarter last year, driven by higher volumes. “The long term cement demand is likely to grow over 8 percent in line with GDP growth. The value drivers for growth will continue to be housing demand and infrastructure development,” said the company. Operational performance was subdued during the quarter. Operating profit of the company fell 4.7 percent on yearly basis to Rs 1,143 crore and margin declined 265 basis points to 19.6 percent. Finance cost declined to Rs 74 crore from Rs 47.6 crore while tax expenses dropped significantly to Rs 138.4 crore from Rs 362.6 crore year-on-year. Other income declined to Rs 58 crore from Rs 100.5 crore during the same period. For the year ended March 2014, profit after tax declined to Rs 2,144 crore from Rs 2,655 crore in previous year and revenues were flat at Rs 20,078 crore as against Rs 20,023 crore Y-o-Y. “The year witnessed continuing pressure on input and logistics costs, given the increase in railway freight and continuous hike in diesel prices. Although there was some relief on account of softening in prices of imported coal, the impact was negated by the depreciation in rupee,” said UltraTech. It further says optimisation of fuel mix and other initiatives helped in maintaining costs almost at the previous year levels. UltraTech Cement has recommended a dividend of Rs 9 per share for the financial year 2013-14.

Return on Equity: 14.53% Dividend Yield: 0.34% Seasonal Magazine

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State Bank of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Profit Down, But Stock Recovers in a Stately Fashion Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has reported fourth quarter net profit of Rs 3,041 crore, down 7.8 percent compared to Rs 3,299 crore in same quarter last year. Higher other income, improvement in asset quality and net interest income helped the net profit fall to be limited Net interest income grew 16.5 percent on yearly basis to Rs 12,903 crore in the quarter ended January-March while other income shot up 18.7 percent to Rs 6,586 crore during the quarter. Asset quality of the bank improved significantly on sequential basis with the gross non-performing assets (NPA) falling 78 basis points (up 20 bps Y-oY) to 4.95 percent and net NPAs declining 67 bps (up 47 bps Y-o-Y) to 2.57 percent in the quarter gone by. In absolute term, the bank also showed solid improvement in asset quality. Gross NPA declined 9.1 percent sequentially (up 20.3 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 61,605 crore and net NPA slipped 16.3 percent Q-o-Q (up 41.6 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 31,096 crore in the January-March quarter. Fresh slippages during the quarter were Rs 7,947 crore, down significantly compared to Rs 11,400 crore in previous quarter while it restructured loans worth Rs 7,636 crore in March quarter (2014) as against Rs 3,900 crore in December quarter (2013). Recoveries in the quarter ended January-March stood at Rs 3,389 crore compared to Rs 1,538 crore quarter-on-quarter while write-offs were Rs 5,698 crore as against Rs 5,077 crore Q-o-Q. Total provisions increased 42 percent sequentially (up 41 percent on yearly basis) to Rs 5,891

crore and NPA provisions jumped 71.6 percent Q-o-Q (up 48 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 5,884 crore in the quarter. Capital adequacy ratio (as per Basel III norms) improved to 12.44 percent in the quarter versus 11.59 percent on sequential basis. Provision coverage ratio (PCR) too improved on quarter-

Return on Equity: 11.59% Dividend Yield: 1.52% Seasonal Magazine

on-quarter basis to 62.86 percent versus 58.32 percent. PCR stood at 66.58 percent in Q4FY13. SBI says its domestic net interest margin was unchanged at 3.49 percent Q-o-Q. The bank has declared a dividend of Rs 30 per share for the accounting year ended March 31, 2014.

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South Indian Bank Improves Asset Quality, Efficiency, Plans Equity Raise for Growth Kerala based South Indian Bank (SIB) could maintain its Net Non-Performing Assets (NPA) at 0.78 per cent at the end of March 2014, unchanged from March 2013. On the gross NPA front, it outperformed many peer banks as its GNPA dropped to 1.19 per cent in 2014 from 1.36 per cent at the end of March 2013. The bank has obviously fine-tuned and perfected its recovery operations during this past fiscal to achieve this feat. At the same time, SIB, under its Managing Director VA Joseph’s guidance decided to stick to only the best proposals while sanctioning credit, rather than pursue high targets. For the entire 2013-14 fiscal, net profit of the bank rose by 1.04 percent at Rs 507.50 crore, while total income rose by 12.9 percent to Rs 5,383.53 crore. The bank improved operational efficiencies on various fronts, some of which were striking. For example, its

new e-surveillance on ATMs has started paying rich dividends. The centralized facility for this in Kochi has already foiled two serious burglary attempts at its ATMs. SIB’s e-surveillance mechanism using cameras are monitored 24X7, and covers 75% of its ATMs across the country. SIB is planning to extend it to all required ATMs as it enables them to have fewer security guards manning the ATM network. Though it followed a cautionary stance so far in pursuing credit growth this past fiscal, SIB is now planning big for growth. Its Board has recently decided to expand its paid-up capital by way of issuance of equity shares not exceeding Rs 70 crore in nominal value, in one or more tranches. SIB can afford such a move, without ruffling its institutional investors, as its equity share capital is only Rs. 134.39 crore now. The bank’s capital raising effort

is likely to be eagerly absorbed by the market. SIB’s total institutional holding - including FIIs and DIIs - stand at over 52%, and includes names like First Carlyle Ventures, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Deutsche Securities, Acacia Partners, and Morgan Stanley. This traditional private sector bank combines traditional values in business as well as modern outlook in efficiency, and is noted for exceptionally high returns since its IPO days. The bank has above average RoE and Dividend Yield compared with similar sized peers.

Return on Equity: 16.88% Dividend Yield: 2.35%

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Can Fin Homes Performs Well, Outperforms in the Bourses Can Fin Homes has reported a standalone sales turnover of Rs 161.67 crore and a net profit of Rs 20.11 crore for the quarter ended Mar ’14. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the standalone sales turnover was Rs 113.23 crore and net profit was Rs 15.54 crore. Can Fin Homes has had an outstanding run on the bourses, with its last 9 month’s price appreciation at around 210%.

Return on Equity: 19.31% Dividend Yield: 1.10%

Sobha Shines in Collections & Launches Realty player Sobha Developers reported a marginal increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 70.2 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31 from Rs 69.6 crore in the corresponding period of last f i s ca l . Tota l i n co m e fo r t h e January-March period stood at Rs 630.7 crore as against Rs 587.8 crore in Q4 FY13, registering a grow t h of 7 p e r ce nt , t h e B a n g a l o re - b as e d re a l es tate developer said. For the entire f i s ca l ( FY 1 4 ) , t h e co m p a n y reported a 8.19 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 235 crore from Rs 217.2 crore in FY’13. Total revenues stood at Rs 2173.4 crore as against Rs 1864.5 crore in the last fiscal, a growth Seasonal Magazine

of 16.56 per cent. “FY14 was filled with challenges for the Indian economy as also the real estate sector. Overall, the company’s performance in the fiscal has been better than the average industry performance,” Sobha Developers Vice - C h a i r m a n a n d M a n a g i n g Director J C Sharma said. Despite the challenges, the company was a b l e to co n s i s te nt l y g e n e rate positive cash flows on a quarter-onquarter as well as year-on-year basis, he said. “This financial year had been the best ever for Sobha as far as collections are concerned. During Q4 FY14, the company g e n e rate d Rs 2 41 c ro re of operational cash flows compared to Rs 162 crore in the previous quarter.

Our cash inflow for the year was Rs 2,689 crore compared to Rs 2,020 crore in FY13, which is a 33 per cent growth,” he said. In FY14, Sobha launched 10 new projects with 7.73 million sq ft of developable area and 5.57 million sq ft of saleable area and expanded operations in two new geographies - Calicut and Kochi. The company completed and handed over seven projects of 2.34 million sq ft of developable area in the fiscal. The realty firm’s debtequity ratio on consolidated basis for FY14 stood at 0.54.

Return on Equity: 10.93% Dividend Yield: 1.36%

Corporation Bank’s Main Relief is Total Income Growth

Return on Equity: 5.92% Dividend Yield: 1.67%

Corporation Bank reported a sharp 88.3 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 41.57 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013-14 due to higher provisioning and rise in bad loans. The Mangaloreheadquartered bank had posted a net profit of Rs 355.53 crore in the year-ago period. The total income of the bank, however, increased to Rs 5,032.62 crore during January-March quarter of 2013-14, from Rs 4,635.50 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. During the quarter, the bank made provisioning towards bad loans to the tune of Rs 824.53 crore, significantly higher than Rs 459.93 crore reserved a year ago. Also, bank’s net non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans jumped to 2.32 percent (Rs 3,180.56 crore) in the fourth quarter from 1.19 percent (Rs 1,410.87 crore) a year earlier. Gross NPAs increased to 3.42 percent (Rs 4,736.79 crore) from 1.72 percent (Rs 2,048.22 crore). Bank’s net profit for the entire fiscal also dipped to Rs 561.72 crore from Rs 1,434.67 crore in previous fiscal. Total income has increased from Rs 16,942 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013 to Rs 19,606.29 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014.

PNC Menon, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Sobha Developers Ltd, being conferred the Golden Peacock Lifetime Achievement Award for Business Leadership 2014 instituted by the Institute of Directors (IOD), by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy. Seasonal Magazine

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Adani Ports’ Profit and Other Income Down, But Nothing Prevents Stock From Soaring Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has reported a consolidated sales turnover of Rs 1,115.86 crore and a net profit of Rs 529.80 crore for the quarter ended Mar ’14. Other income for the quarter was Rs 172.92 crore. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the consolidated sales turnover was Rs 1,035.51 crore and net profit was Rs 710.31 crore, and other income Rs 46.18 crore.

M&M Financial Improves on the Bad Performance M&M Financial’s bad loans, which had worried the markets in the third quarter, receded considerably in Q4. The company in its fourth quarter ended March 31 posted better numbers with profit after tax (PAT) falling only 7 percent to Rs 311 crore. The financial services company’s gross non-performing loans (GNPLS) stood at 4.6 percent against 4.8 percent and net NPLs were at 1.9 percent against 2.2 percent on a quarter-onquarter basis. The net interest income grew 15 percent on the back of a 22 percent growth in assets under management. Though the net interest margins fell 85 bps on a year-on-year basis, they were up 66 bps Q-o-Q driven by improvement in yield. Speaking on the numbers, company MD Ramesh Iyer said that a rise in NPLs was not necessarily leading to a bad asset quality. It was due to a delay in cash flow from markets like MP, Maharashtra, etc. The company expects the crop money to flow in this quarter. “With derisking that we have done either through product mix or segmentation or customer mix, even application of product or geography mix, we believe it is the best from what we had sometime in last March (around 3 percent) and the worst — we never crossed the 5 percent threshold. Therefore, I would think we are comfortable that we have been able to address the asset quality issue that was being talked about in Q3,” he said.

Return on Equity: 21.07% Dividend Yield: 1.15% Seasonal Magazine

Return on Equity: 27.22% Dividend Yield: 0.40%

Karnataka Bank Reports Reasonable Improvement on Most Fronts Karnataka Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 81.2 crore, up 20.47 percent, against Rs 67.4 crore on a year-onyear basis in its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014. The bank even delivered an improvement in asset quality. Total income rose to Rs 1172.5 crore from Rs 1090.3 crore. Net interest income (NII) increased to Rs 250 crore against Rs 221.4 crore on a year-on-year basis. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 2.92 percent against 3.65 percent and net NPAs were at 1.91 percent against 2.23 percent on a sequential basis. Provisions declined to Rs 38.4 crore against Rs 40.4 crore on a quarterly basis and Rs 54.3 crore Y-o-Y. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio, according to Basel-III, stands at 13.20 percent against 12.86 percent Q-o-Q.

Return on Equity: 10.89% Dividend Yield: 2.73%

Adani Enterprises’ Revenue Grows, Profit Soars, Market Cap Rockets Up on Modi Connection Adani Enterprises has reported a consolidated sales turnover of Rs 16,171.01 crore and a net profit of Rs 2,847.82 crore for the quarter ended Mar ’14. Other income for the quarter was Rs 247.66 crore. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the consolidated sales turnover was Rs 11,512.90 crore and net profit was Rs 473.78 crore, and other income Rs 307.94 crore.

Return on Equity: 12.33% Dividend Yield: 0.28%

Gitanjali Gems Not Shining But Stock Sparkles Gitanjali Gems has reported a consolidated sales turnover of Rs 2,753.50 crore and a net loss of Rs 89.89 crore for the quarter ended Mar ’14. Other income for the quarter was Rs 11.84 crore. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the consolidated sales turnover was Rs 4,750.53 crore and net profit was Rs 118.88 crore.

Return on Equity: 0.95% Dividend Yield: 3.49%

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Karur Vysya Bank’s Profit Falls, But NII and Asset Quality Improve

Return on Equity: 13.92% Dividend Yield: 2.90%

Private sector lender Karur Vysya Bank ‘s net profit fell 25.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 119.6 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 due to lower other income and higher provisions but asset quality of the bank improved during the quarter. Net interest income grew 12.2 percent to Rs 348.3 crore in January-March quarter from Rs 310.3 crore in the year-ago period while other income slipped nearly 7 percent on yearly basis to Rs 145.71 crore. On the asset quality front, gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank declined 65 basis points sequentially (down 14 bps Y-o-Y) to 0.82 percent in the quarter gone by and net NPA dropped 7 bps Q-o-Q (up 4 bps Y-o-Y) to 0.41 percent. In absolute term, gross NPA slipped 42.4 percent Q-o-Q (down 2.3 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 279.18 crore and net NPA declined 11.5 percent quarteron-quarter (up 28.6 percent year-on-year) to Rs 139.91 crore during the quarter. Provisions for March quarter stood at Rs 110 crore, up from Rs 50.6 crore in previous quarter and Rs 89 crore in the year-ago period. Karur Vysya Bank has recommended dividend of Rs 13 per equity share for the year 2013-14.

Just Dial’s Search for Growth Continues Just Dial has reported a standalone sales turnover of Rs 124.21 crore and a net profit of Rs 34.15 crore for the quarter ended Mar ’14. The Other Income for the quarter was Rs 12.89 crore. In the corresponding March quarter of last fiscal, sales turnover was 98.27 crore, net profit was 21.37 crore, and Other Income was 6.41 crore.

Return on Equity: 28.31% Dividend Yield: 0% Seasonal Magazine

UCO Bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Profit Soars on a Low Base Public sector lender UCO Bank has reported a 5.75 times growth in fourth quarter net profit at Rs 285 crore as against Rs 49.5 crore in same quarter last year. Net interest income grew 15.9 percent to Rs 1,562 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 as against Rs 1,348 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Asset quality improved on sequential basis. Gross nonperforming assets (NPA) fell 88 basis points Q-o-Q to 4.32 percent and net NPA declined 68 bps to 2.38 percent in the quarter gone by.

Return on Equity: 15.60% Dividend Yield: 1.45%

Bank of Baroda Maintains Its Position as the Better PSU Bank State-run Bank of Baroda today reported 12.48 percent rise in net profit at Rs 1,157.27 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 1,028.85 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13 fiscal. The total income of the bank rose to Rs 11,614.85 crore during the March quarter of 2013-14 fiscal, from Rs 10,262.5 crore in the previous financial year. Provisions and contingencies during the March quarter stood at Rs 1,153 crore, down from Rs 1,598 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. Interest income in the fourth quarter of 2013-14 rose to Rs 10,288 crore, as compared to Rs 9,071 crore in the yearago period. For the full fiscal, BoB reported 1.35 percent rise in net profit at Rs 4,541.08 crore, as against Rs 4,480.72 crore in 2012-13 fiscal. The bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total income increased to Rs 43,402.45 crore during the 2013-14 fiscal, from Rs 38,827.28 crore a year ago.

Return on Equity: 14.82% Dividend Yield: 2.38% Seasonal Magazine

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Dena Bank Reports a Reasonable Turnaround Dena Bank has reported its results for the quarter ended Mar â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14. Standalone Net Interest Income (NII) for the quarter was Rs 2,594.37 crore and net profit was Rs 187.28 crore. Other income for the quarter was Rs 272.41 crore. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the standalone Net Interest Income (NII) was Rs 2304.26 crore and net profit was Rs 125.67 crore, and other income Rs 235.48 crore.

Return on Equity: 9.57% Dividend Yield: 2.37% Consumer electrical and electronics maker V-Guard Industries reported a 129 percent rise in net profit at Rs 20.5 crore in the three months to March, 2014, helped by cost control measures. Net revenues from operations rose to Rs 422.25 crore, up 12 percent from the comparable period in the previous year. For 2013-14, net revenue rose to Rs 1,517.14 crore, a growth of 11.70 percent, while net income gained 11.46 percent to Rs 70.13 crore. A highlight of FY 2014 was that the company for the first time crossed the Rs 1,500crore revenue milestone, said V-Guard Managing Director Mithun K Chittilappilly. The quarter under review saw V-Guard maintaining stable margins at 8.5 percent and it expects the same in FY 2015 too on softening in commodity prices, he said. The company is planning to invest Rs 2025 crore to increase capacity in water heaters business this fiscal. V-Guard nets 15 percent of income from stabilisers, 30 percent from cables, 14 percent from water pumps and 10 per cent each from inverters and water heaters. From the switchgear business, which it entered last year, the company netted a revenue of Rs 40 crore in Q4, said Chittilappilly. Seasonal Magazine

V-Guard Controls Spikes in Costs, Posts Soaring Profit Return on Equity: 26.84% Dividend Yield: 0.59%

PNB Concludes a Difficult Year With a Difficult Quarter

Return on Equity: 10.25% Dividend Yield: 0.98%

State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported a 28.69 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 806.35 crore for the quarter ended March 31, mainly on account of higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank had a net profit of Rs 1,130.80 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 12,498.23 crore during the fourth quarter of 2013-14, from Rs 11,552.84 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. Provisioning for bad loans rose 45 per cent to Rs 2,139 crore during the quarter, as against Rs 1,478 crore in the same period a year ago. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 5.25 percent for the quarter under review, up from 4.27 percent in the year-ago period. The net NPAs stood at 2.85 per cent at the end of the quarter. Interest income rose to Rs 11,101 crore in the January-March quarter as compared with Rs 10,378 crore in the corresponding period last year. For the full 2013-14 fiscal, PNBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s net profit dropped 29.6 per cent to Rs 3,342.57 crore, as against Rs 4,747.67 crore in the previous year. Total Income rose to Rs 47,799.96 crore in FY 2013-14, from Rs 46,109.25 crore in the previous financial year. Interest income for the full fiscal stood at Rs 43,223 crore, up from Rs 41,885 crore in 2012-13.

Bank of India Shows Strength in NII, Other Income Return on Equity: 11.42% Public sector lender Bank of India fourth quarter net profit fell 26.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 557.5 crore on lower other income and higher operating expenses. Net interest income grew 23 percent to Rs 3,047.3 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 2,476 crore in same quarter last year. Other income of the bank jumped 16.5 percent to Rs 913.68 crore while operating expenses shot up 31.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,964.94 crore in the quarter gone by. Asset quality deteriorated on sequential basis. Gross non-performing assets (NPA) rose 34 basis points quarteron-quarter (up 16 bps Y-o-Y) to 3.15 percent and net NPA rose 25 bps Q-o-Q (down 6 bps Y-o-Y) to 2 percent during January-March quarter. In absolute term, gross NPA increased 18.4 percent Q-o-Q (35.4 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 11,868.60 crore and net NPA climbed 20.7 percent Q-o-Q (24.7 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 7,417.23 crore in the quarter ended March 2014. Provisions and contingencies soared to Rs 1,547.3 crore during March quarter from Rs 1,403 crore in previous quarter and Rs Rs 1,510 crore in same quarter last year while provision coverage ratio declined to 58.68 percent versus 60.92 percent year-on-year. Tax write-back during the quarter was Rs 108.7 crore as against tax expense of Rs 154.4 crore in previous quarter. Capital adequacy ratio as per Basel III declined to 9.97 percent in January-March quarter as against 10.84 percent in December quarter.

Dividend Yield:

3.07%

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Ambuja Cements Builds Modest Growth

Ambuja Cements reported 6.57 percent increase in standalone net profit of Rs 520 crore during the January-March quarter mainly on account of higher income. It had clocked Rs 487.90 crore profit in the same quarter of last fiscal. During the quarter under review, total income of the company rose to 2,649.34 crore, as against 2554.83 crore in the same quarter of 2012-13. Expenses rose marginally to Rs 2,181.91 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs 2124.16 crore. Ambuja Cements said that during the quarter “High Court of Gujarat and Delhi have approved the scheme of amalgamation of Holcim (India) Pvt Ltd with the company”.

Return on Equity: 14.53% Dividend Yield: 1.56%

Indian Bank’s Main Positive is Central Bank of India Ends Fiscal Total Income Growth in Loss, on Higher Provisioning Central Bank of India recorded a 4 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 162.44 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31. The state-owned bank had posted a profit of Rs 169.15 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13. Total income increased to Rs 6,961.67 crore from Rs 6,403.57 crore. For 2013-14, the bank made a loss of Rs 1,262.84 crore, compared with a profit of Rs 1,014.96 crore in the previous financial year, due to higher provisioning. Total income in 201314 rose to Rs 26,350.13 crore from Rs 23,527.98 crore in 2012-l3. Provisions, other than tax, and contingencies surged to Rs 4,232.57 crore in FY14 compared with Rs 1,852.81 crore in FY13. The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, as a percentage of total advances, rose to 6.27 per cent from 4.8

per cent in the same quarter a year ago. Net NPAs increased to 3.75 per cent from 2.9 per cent at the end of March 2013.

Return on Equity: 8.14% Dividend Yield: 2.92%

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State-owned Indian Bank today reported 7.1 percent decline in net profit to Rs 271.28 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31. The bank had posted a profit of Rs 292.12 crore in the January-March quarter of 201213. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 4,234.83 crore from Rs 4,022.46 crore. For 2013-14, the bank recorded 27 decline in profit to Rs 1,158.94 crore from Rs 1,581.13 crore in the previous financial year. Total income in 2013-14 rose to Rs 16,620.88 crore from Rs 15,179.41 crore in 2012-l3. The bank’s gross nonperforming assets (NPAs), or bad loans, as a percentage of total advances, rose to 3.67 percent from 3.33 per cent in the same quarter a year ago. Net NPAs stood at 2.26 percent at the end of March 2013. The board of the bank has proposed a final dividend of 17 percent or Rs 1.70 per share of face value of Rs 10 for 20132014.

Return on Equity: 9.59% Dividend Yield: 3.56%

HCC Constructs its Turnaround Path Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) reported a standalone net profit of Rs 24.40 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, helped by rise in sales and lower costs. The construction major had reported a net loss of Rs 50.26 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2012-13 and is under corporate debt restructuring scheme. Net sales of the company rose by 20.54 percent to Rs 1,184.83 crore during the quarter as against Rs 982.92 crore of Q4FY’13. During the quarter, its total expenditure stood at Rs 1,017.49 crore, amounting to 85.88 percent of the net sales. During the fourth quarter of 2012-13, HCC’s total expenditure was nearly 95 percent of its net sales at Rs 932.58 crore. Besides, other income of the company rose by over 92 percent to Rs 45.78 crore in the last quarter, thereby helping HCC to report profits. Finance costs of the company stood at Rs 150.24 crore in the last quarter, up 11 percent. On a consolidated basis, the company reported a net loss of Rs 277.40 crore in FY’14 against a net

loss of Rs 482.46 crore in FY’13. The consolidated net sales stood at Rs 9,592.72 crore in the last fiscal, up 13.56 percent from FY’13’s levels of Rs 8,447.57 crore. As on March 31, 2014, HCC’s order book stood at Rs 14,249 crore. After two years of losses, the company improved its performance quarter by quarter to post a net profit. Efficient project management and tight cost control has helped to improve margins.Commenting on the results, company chairman Ajit Gulabchand said: “In an uncertain economic scenario, our focus remained on improving the operational efficiency. The company will continue to implement measures aimed at further improvement in all financial parameters.” He added that inflow of Rs 3,218 crore new orders will help the company in improving its turnover in the next few quarters. Return on Equity: NA (Standalone RoE: 6.94%) Dividend Yield: 0%

Andhra Bank Ends a Tough Year in a Tough Fashion State-owned Andhra Bank today recorded a 74.4 percent decline in net profit to Rs 88.08 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31 on account of rise in provision for bad loans. The bank had posted a profit of Rs 344.58 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 4,057.89 crore from Rs 3,713.03 crore. During the quarter, provisions and contingencies of the bank rose to Rs 711.42 crore against Rs 355.13 crore in the same period a year ago. Provision for bad loans during January-March quarter rose to Rs 666.65 crore from Rs 187.86 crore in the same period a year ago. For 2013-14, net profit slipped 66 percent to Rs 435.58 crore from Rs 1,289.13 crore in the previous financial year. Total income in 2013-14 rose to Rs 15,830.16 crore from Rs 13,957.11 crore in 2012-l3. The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total advances rose to 5.29 percent from 3.71 percent in the same quarter a year ago. Net NPAs increased to 3.11 percent from 2.45 percent at the end of March 2013.

Return on Equity: 15.11% Dividend Yield: 4.66%

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Jyothy Labs Shines Doubly Bright Jyothy Laboratories reported over two-fold increase in its net profit at Rs 29.16 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014, mainly on the back of robust sales in soaps and detergents segment. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 11.81 crore during the same period of previous fiscal. Net sales of the company rose by 21.23 per cent to Rs 329.91 crore in the fourth quarter, as against Rs 272.12 crore in the same period of previous financial year. Commenting on the result, JLL CMD MP Ramachandran said: “We have sustained our growth momentum despite inflationary pressures, rising input costs and moderation in demand. Going forward, we expect growth rate to sustain on the sales and margin front. We continue to enhance our market share in the urban market, without losing our focus in the rural market.” During the period under review, the company’s soaps and detergent business, which includes brands like Ujala and Henko, posted sales of Rs 227.77 crore, up 24.49 per cent as against Rs 182.95 crore in the same period of previous fiscal. The company’s home care business, which includes products such as mosquito coils, reported sales of Rs 99.06 crore for during the quarter under review, up 18.02 per cent from Rs 83.93 crore during the year-ago period.

IOB’s Profit Soars on a Low Base, NPAs Edge Up State-run Indian Overseas Bank has reported over four-fold jump in net profit at Rs 268.33 crore for the last quarter of FY2013-14 compared to the year-ago period. The Chennai-based bank had reported a profit of Rs 58.87 crore for the same period last year. Total income of the bank for the quarter ending March 31, 2014 grew to Rs 6,475.93 crore from Rs 5,898.15 crore registered during the same period of previous year. Gross NPA of the bank for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2014 stood at 4.98 percent as against 4.02 percent registered during the same period Seasonal Magazine

Return on Equity: 12.72% Dividend Yield: 1.38%

of previous year. Net NPA of the bank stood at 3.20 percent for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2014 as against 2.50 percent registered during the same period of previous year. For the financial year ending March 31, 2014, the net profit of the bank grew by six percent to Rs 601.74 crore from Rs 567.23 crore registered during the same period of previous year. For the financial year ending March 31, 2014 the total income of the bank grew to Rs 24,853.07 crore from Rs 22,649.63 crore, it said. Total business of the bank for the year ending March 31,2014 grew by 12 percent to 4,09,057 crore from Rs 3,66,501 crore registered during the same period of previous year. Total deposits for the financial year ending March 31, 2014 grew by 13 percent to Rs 2,27,976 crore from Rs 2,02,135 crore registered during the same period of previous year. Gross advances for the period ending March 31, 2014 grew to Rs 1,81,081 crore from Rs 1,64,366 crore registered during the same period of previous year.

Return on Equity: 4.47% Dividend Yield: 2.61%

Havells Performs Brightly in India, Sylvania Expenses Dim the Show Electrical equipment maker Havells India has reported a 25 percent growth in fourth quarter net profit at Rs 136.9 crore on standalone basis, supported by other income and higher revenue. Havells’ subsidiary Sylvania posted a net loss of euro 3.3 million during the quarter due to pension liability of euro 4.3 million. Profit in the yearago period was euro 6.1 million. Sales increased marginally to euro 115 million from euro 113 million while EBITDA fell to euro 1.8 million from euro 8.1 million and margin declined significantly to 1.6 percent from 7.1 percent year-on-year. Standalone total income from operations grew 12 percent to Rs 1,310 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 1,169.6 crore in the year-ago period while other income jumped to Rs 14.1 crore from Rs 2 crore during the same period. Core operating profit or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 15 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 168 crore and margin expanded 35 basis points to 12.85 percent in the quarter gone by. Cables business’ revenue rose 21 percent year-on-year to Rs 559.1 crore and its EBIT margin more than doubled to 12.9 percent versus 6 percent. Lighting & fixtures business grew 9.2 percent to Rs 199.3 crore and its EBIT margin expanded 350 basis points to 28.1 percent during the same period. Switchgears revenue increased 3 percent on yearly basis to Rs 320.4 crore but its EBIT margin fell 630 bps to 25 percent in January-March quarter. Revenue from its electrical consumer durables business jumped to Rs 231.3 crore compared to Rs 213.6 crore year-on-year. In the year ended March 2014, consolidated net revenue of Havells grew by 13 percent to Rs 8,186 crore compared to last year and net profit increased 15 percent to Rs 446 crore.

Return on Equity: 30.95% Dividend Yield: 1.36%

Federal Bank Grows Bottomline Decently, Asset Quality Gets Better

Return on Equity: 13.56% Dividend Yield: 1.46%

Kerala-based Federal Bank reported a rise of 24.94 percent in net profit at Rs 277.29 crore (YoY) for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014. The private sector lender had posted a profit of Rs 221.94 crore during the January-March quarter in previous fiscal 2012-13. Its total income during the last quarter of FY14 rose to Rs 2,017.12 crore, from Rs 1,780.31 crore a year earlier. Net non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank trimmed to 0.74 percent during the quarter, from 0.98 percent in the previous fiscal’s corresponding period. Gross bad loans or NPAs were also reduced to 2.76 percent during January-March of 2013-14, from 3.44 percent a year ago.

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SAIL’s Performance Not Stainless State-owned steel maker Steel Authority of India’s (SAIL) fourth quarter net profit rose 1.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 453 crore, impacted by weak operational performance. Total income grew 10 percent to Rs 13,509 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 12,284.7 crore in same quarter last year. Operating profit increased 39 percent on yearly basis to Rs 1,221 crore and margin expanded 210 basis points to 9 percent in the quarter gone by. Other income of the company fell 31 percent year-on-year to Rs 175.1 crore while finance cost increased 45 percent to Rs 312 crore during January-March quarter. SAIL during the quarter received minimum alternate tax credit of Rs 127 crore.

Return on Equity: 6.32% Dividend Yield: 2.13%

Power Grid Corporation Didn’t Trip Central transmission utility Power Grid Corporation reported nearly 6 percent jump in net profit at Rs 1,175.84 crore for the quarter ended March 31, aided by increase in income from transmission and consultancy services businesses. The

Return on Equity: 17.22% Dividend Yield: 2.08% Seasonal Magazine

company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,109.44 crore during the same quarter previous year. The company’s income from the transmission vertical rose to Rs 3,699.61 crore from Rs 3,191.34 crore in the same period last year (2012-13). Income from its consultancy services increased to Rs 147.34 crore from Rs 35.28 crore in the year-ago period. PGCIL’s total income from operations during the quarter was Rs 3,986.28 crore as compared to Rs 3,380.66 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. PGCIL posted a net profit after taxes of Rs 4,547.58 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014 as compared to Rs 4,312.61 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013. Total income has increased from Rs 13,727.12 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013 to Rs 16,146.12 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014. Board of directors of the company announced a dividend of Rs 1.31 per share in addition to interim dividend of Rs 1.27 per share paid in March, 2014.

IDBI Bank’s Quarterly Numbers Better Than Annual Performance IDBI Bank reported a 6.5 percent decline in net profit at Rs 518.23 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The bank’s net profit stood at Rs 554.45 crore in the year-ago period. The total income increased to Rs 7,866.52 crore for the quarter ended March from Rs 7,543.78 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2013. For the full-year ended March, the bank’s net profit dipped by 40 percent to Rs 1,121.4 crore from Rs 1,882.08 crore in 2012-13. The total income increased to Rs 28,283.81 crore for the entire year ended March 31, 2014, from Rs 19,359.49 crore in the previous fiscal.

Return on Equity: 8.99% Dividend Yield: 3.45%

BHEL Hit by Some Heavy Lifting State-owned power equipment maker BHEL today posted a net profit of Rs 1,844.59 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014. “Consequent to merger of Bharat Heavy Plates & Vessels with BHEL the financial results of the (BHPV) unit have been included in the above results. In view of this, figures for the current reporting period are not comparable with the figures in corresponding period of previous year,” BHEL said. The merger of BHPV with BHEL was approved by the Cabinet in February, 2013 and came into effect from August 30, 2013. BHPV, which was engaged in engineering and heavy fabrication, was declared a sick entity by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in October, 2005. BHEL took over BHPV as its 100 per cent subsidiary in 2008. BHEL had reported a net profit of Rs 3,237.53 crore in the corresponding period of the last financial year. Net sales of the public sector firm stood at Rs 14,754.89 crore as against Rs 18,850.16 crore in the same period a year ago. The company’s income from the power sector during the fourth

quarter of 2013-14 was Rs 12,210.81 crore. It was Rs 15,525.85 crore during the corresponding period in 2012-13. BHEL’s net profit after taxes was Rs 3,502.86 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014 where as the same

was at Rs 6,693.37 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013. Total income was Rs 41,192.43 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014 where as the same was at Rs 50,044.60 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013.

Return on Equity: 11.47% Dividend Yield: 2.26%

Seasonal Magazine

Why MANAPPURAM is Set to See Sharply Better Days Many stock watchers were confused when certain stocks didn’t participate in the Modi rally at all. Some of these stocks were fundamentally good ones, even while the broad rally could lift up even the worst 100 stocks in the market. A good example of this bizarre underperforming phenomenon was the first listed gold loan firm, Manappuram Finance. But this is all set to change. Why? here were several reasons for Manappuram’s relative underperformance in the market post the poll results. Firstly, Manappuram has had a sharp 160% run up from its yearto-date lows till mid-February when it peaked, with the rally attributed to RBI easing LTV norms again to 75%. It took only 7 months for that steep hike. So, in a way, the reality is that Manappuram stock just didn’t surpass this peak in the broad post-election rally. However, even this has been a minor cause for Manappuram’s strange pausing. The bigger reason is that the surge in equities coincided with a fall in gold prices, as it has often happened in the past. When gold falls, quarterly and annual numbers of gold loan companies suffer. While this has been bad for Manappuram’s stock so far, this is also Seasonal Magazine

the precise reason why Manappuram stock is set to see sharply better days, going forward. Why? The best and the largest investment houses - the cream of the FIIs and DIIs - always go in for highly balanced portfolios. They don’t expect equities or any other asset class to go on appreciating forever. For them equities is just another asset class, just like gold, or commodities, or real estate. The smartest among them remain invested in all key asset classes and go on accumulating or reducing specific asset classes, according to sectoral dynamics like demand/supply. But by definition, many of them can invest only through equities into the other asset classes. For example, they buy promising realty stocks instead of investing directly in Indian realty, which is often called a proxy play.

Similarly, gold as an investment class also requires a proxy in the equity world. If you thought gold retailers like Gitanjali or Thangamayil are the best proxies, you are mistaken. Gold retailers don’t do exceptionally well when gold prices go through the roof, because then retail consumption of gold dips. In contrast, the business of firms that lend against gold surges when gold price surges. Despite Manappuram underperforming the broad market during the past month, no major fund house has reduced its investments in Manappuram’s equity. That is why even today, the list of largest investors in Manappuram reads like a who-iswho of the global investment world Baring, Smallcap World Fund, Hudson Equity Holdings, BRIC II, Wellington Management, HSBC, Wellington Trust Company, Allard Growth Fund, Beaver Investment Holdings, Mousse Ganesh etc. And the total holding by these FIIs in Manappuram is one of the largest in the NBFC sector. Together, these institutional investors hold 39.34% stake in this Kerala headquartered gold loan player with a pan India reach. To put this stake in perspective, even Manappuram’s founder and promoter, VP Nandakumar has managed to hold

Gold loan companies are the only real proxy in the stock market for investing in gold. But gold loan companies are much more than a proxy to gold. For instance, between 2009 and 2011, when gold prices more than doubled, Manappuram stock had appreciated by 19 times! Manappuram is also the only gold-loan-only company with a proven track-record in wealth sharing to its institutional as well as retail shareholders. on to only 31.55% stake. Under Nandakumarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidance, Manappuram has prudently issued new shares through QIP etc in the past to raise capital for expansion, but which inadvertently caused the promoterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stake to reduce. So, what makes these global FIIs as bullish or even more bullish than even the promoter? Firstly, as their very eager participation shows, these FIIs/ DIIs trust this gold loan company more than other gold loan companies, due to the trust and transparency factors. Manappuram is also the only goldloan-only company with a proven track-record in wealth sharing to its institutional as well as retail shareholders. Secondly, - and we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say whether this is the more important or less important reason - gold loan business is not just a proxy for gold, but it has a significant compounding effect over gold prices.

VP Nandak umar Nandakumar

For instance, between 2009 and 2011, when gold prices more than doubled, Manappuram stock had appreciated by 19 times! Seasonal Magazine

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Vijaya Bank Concludes a Difficult Year

State-owned Vijaya Bank today recorded 39.3 percent decline in net profit at Rs 135.84 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, 2014. The bank had a net profit of Rs 224.15 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13 fiscal. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 3,029.34 crore in the January-March quarter, as against Rs 2,680.20 crore in the year-ago period. For the entire 2013-14, the bank’s net profit slipped by 28.8 percent to Rs 416.91 crore, compared to Rs 585.61 crore in the previous fiscal. However, the total income of last fiscal jumped to Rs 11,416.42 crore from Rs 9,658.88 crore in 2012-l3. As far as asset quality of the bank is concerned, the gross NPAs as a percentage to total advances rose to 2.41 percent from 2.17 percent in the same quarter an year ago. Its net NPAs also increased to 1.55 percent, from 1.30 percent at the end of March 2013. The board of the bank has proposed a final dividend of 10 percent or Re 1 per share of face value of Rs 10 for 2013-2014.

Return on Equity: 7.48% Dividend Yield: 3.64%

National Fertilizers Harvests Lower Losses

Return on Equity: Dividend Yield: Seasonal Magazine

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State-run National Fertilizers (NFL) today reported a substantial decline in net loss to Rs 9.80 crore for the quarter ended March 31 on the back of the company’s highest-ever urea sales. The firm had reported net loss of Rs 107.04 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal. Income from operations during the January-March quarter of FY’14 rose to Rs 1,991.53 crore from Rs 1,149.71 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal. For the entire FY’14, the company’s net loss has also come down to Rs 89.71 crore from Rs 170.71 crore in FY’13. The company’s income from operations during FY14 rose to Rs 8,029.09 crore from Rs 6,725.01 crore in the previous fiscal. “There was a substantial decline in our net loss on the back of best-ever urea production of 36.36 lakh tonnes and best-ever urea sales of 36.87 lakh tonnes, including carry-over stocks,” NFL Chairman and Managing Director Neeru Abrol said. He added that during the year, NFL’s capacity utilization was 102 per cent and the company is aiming to end 201415 with a positive bottom line. The mini-ratna fertiliser company has two manufacturing plants in Punjab and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana with a combined capacity of 35.68 lakh tonnes per annum.

United Bank Records Impressive Quarterly Turnaround Beleaguered United Bank of India has scripted a turnaround in the fourth quarter of 2013-14 by reporting an over 15 times jump in net profit to Rs 469 crore on the back of cash recovery and upgradation of accounts. The city-based lender, which suffered a loss in the quarter-ended December 2013, made a cash recovery of Rs 645 crore in the March, 2014 quarter as compared to Rs 130 crore in the corresponding previous quarter. In the January-March 2013 quarter, the bank had posted a Rs 31 crore profit. Announcing the results after the bank’s board meeting today, executive director of UBI Sanjay Arya said that the turnaround had been due to cash recovery and upgradation of accounts. Arya said for the full year 2013-14, the bank’s net loss stood at Rs 1,213 crore. Worried over capital adequacy concerns at the end of December, 2013, the bank at the behest of RBI slammed brakes on corporate advances. To a query, he said that there was negative growth in advances in the fourth quarter concerned due to controls on large credit. With the bank posting a turnaround, UBI would now seek relaxation from RBI for extending

credit to corporates, Arya said. He said the bank was always a viable unit as operating margins were comparable with other good performing banks. During the fourth quarter, operating profit of the bank stood at Rs 543 crore as against Rs 511 crore in the previous similar period. Commenting on the disturbing results of the bank during the December quarter, he said that most of the NPAs were small loans. In addition to that, there was some issue with the IT system which Infosys had fixed for it. “Now our system is perfectly okay,” he said. Arya said the main target of the bank at the moment was NPA reductions and prevention of slippages. Gross NPA of the bank at the end of December 31, 2013 stood at Rs 7118 crore (10.47 per cent of total advances) while Net NPA was Rs 4,664 crore (7.18 percent). Deepak Narang, executive director of UBI, said in the coming quarter, the bank was aiming to make a cash recovery of Rs 700 crore from asset upgradation. During the fourth quarter, NPA reduction was to the extent of Rs 2,592 crore. The bank was also making a

robust growth in savings, Arya said, adding that accretion per month was Rs 300 crore. Net interest income of the bank at the end of March 2014 stood at 2.45 percent. The bank was now Basel III compliant, he said.

Return on Equity

: NA,

Previous Fiscal’s RoE : 7.02% Dividend Yield

: NA

NMDC Mines Richer Treasures in Q4 and Fiscal State-owned miner NMDC reported 33.9 percent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 1,962.14 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, on the back of record production and sales. The company’s net profit in the corresponding quarter of FY13 was Rs 1,464.95 crore. Total income from operations during the quarter was at Rs 3,884.49 crore, registering an increase of 21.2 percent over Rs 3,204.25 crore in the year-ago period. The mining company achieved record production and sales of iron ore during the quarter at 9.86 million ton and 9.4 million ton, respectively, said NMDC CMD Narendra Kothari. For full FY2014, net profit increased to Rs 6,420 crore against Rs 6,342 in FY13.

Return on Equity: 23.31% Dividend Yield: 4.03% The turnover stood at Rs 12,058 crore in FY14 against Rs 10,704 crore in FY13. “We have for the first time this year crossed 30 million tons (MT) production and sales. The production and sales of iron ore during the last financial year stood at 30.02 MT and 30.50 MT respectively,” Kothari said. The PSU aims to achieve 31 MT of production and 32 MT of sales this year, he added. “Though NMDC is producing around 22 percent of the country’s iron ore production, it would

be our endeavour to touch 50 percent of the country’s production in the near future,” he said. Replying to a query, he said the miner will spend Rs 3,495 crore towards capital expenditure during the current financial year, of which Rs 2,280 crore will be spent on the steel plant being set by the company in Chhattisgarh. The capital expenditure incurred in last fiscal under various schemes was Rs 2,518 crore. NMDC Director (technical) N K Nanda said the company is doing due dilligence for four overseas assets. “We are doing due diligence for coal assets in Indonesia, some iron ore assets in Australia and also some assets in Mozambique. In Russia we are doing due diligence for Rock phosphate.” Seasonal Magazine

Taking

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Canara Bank’s Profit Down, But Asset Quality Improves State-owned Canara Bank recorded 15.8 percent decline in net profit at Rs 610.83 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, 2014. The Bangalore-based lender had a net profit of Rs 725.38 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13 fiscal. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 11,609.72 crore in the January-March quarter, as against Rs 9,471.57 crore in the year-ago period. For the entire 2013-14, the bank’s net profit slipped by 15.1 percent to Rs 2,438.19 crore, compared to Rs 2,872.10 crore in the previous fiscal. However, the total income of last fiscal jumped to Rs 43,480.37 crore from Rs 37,230.94 crore in 2012-l3. As far as asset quality of the bank is concerned, the gross NPAs as a percentage to total advances declined to 2.49 percent from 2.57 percent in the same quarter an year ago. Its net NPAs also came down to 1.98 percent, from 2.18 percent at the end of March 2013. The board of the bank has proposed a final dividend of 45 percent or Rs 4.5 per share of face value of Rs 10 for 2013-2014.

Return on Equity: 10.29% Dividend Yield: 2.60% Page Industries Continues to be Trendy in Bourses Jockey Maker Page Industries has reported a standalone sales turnover of Rs 282.82 crore and a net profit of Rs 35.12 crore for the quarter ended Mar ’14. Other income for the quarter was Rs 2.46 crore. For the quarter ended Mar 2013 the standalone sales turnover was Rs 210.25 crore and net profit was Rs 23.60 crore, and other income Rs 2.47 crore.

ONGC has a Tough Performance to Explain State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) fourth quarter net profit declined 31.4 percent to Rs 4,889 crore compared to previous quarter, dented by lower operational performance. Net sales increased marginally to Rs 20,881 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 from Rs 20,744.7 crore in December quarter 2013 while total expenses jumped 29.2 percent sequentially to Rs 16,707.6 crore due to higher depreciation & amortisation expenses, exploration cost written off and other expenses. Operating profit fell 27.2 percent to Rs 7,567 crore and margin declined significantly to 36.2 percent from 50 percent on sequential basis. Other income of the company more than halved to Rs 1,371.83 crore from Rs 2,662 crore while tax expenses dropped to Rs 2,088.31 crore from Rs 3,455.8 crore during the same period.

Return on Equity: 17.47% Dividend Yield: 2.27%

Seasonal Magazine

Return on Equity: 72.02% Dividend Yield: 0.82%

Syndicate Bank Hit by Provisions Public sector lender Syndicate Bank’s Q4FY14 net profit fell to Rs 409.3 crore against Rs 592.3 crore reported in the same quarter a year ago, due to higher provisions and contingencies. Its provisions rose to Rs 631.49 crore versus Rs 459 crore on a sequential basis and Rs 363.8 crore on year-on-year basis. Net interest income (NII) rose to Rs 1,432 crore in the quarter against Rs 1344 crore (Y-o-Y). Gross non-performing assets of the bank stood at 2.62 percent versus 2.80 percent (Q-o-Q). Its net NPA stood at 1.56 percent. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs.3 to each share.

Return on Equity: 15.63% Dividend Yield: 3.61%

Indian Oil Troubled by India Government’s Non Support

Return on Equity: 11.05% Dividend Yield: 1.55%

Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest oil firm, reported a 35 per cent drop in fourth-quarter net profit as refining margins shrank and the government did not fully compensate it for losses on fuel sales. Net profit declined to Rs 9,389.85 crore in the January-March quarter from Rs 14,512.81 crore in the same period a year ago. IOC, which owns eight refineries, earned USD 2.17 on every barrel of crude oil turned into fuel as against a gross refining margin (GRM) of USD 3.33 per barrel in Q4 of 2012-13. The company had got a lump sum cash subsidy for more than one quarter in January-March of 2013. Retailers such as IOC sell diesel and cooking fuels LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates, which are below cost. The difference, called under-recoveries, is made good through a combination of cash subsidy and assistance from upstream oil and gas producers, including Oil & Natural Gas Corp. While the upstream firms make quarterly payments, the government subsidy is not that regular and is often clubbed for more than one quarter. IOC said it got Rs 37,182.77 crore from the government as cash subsidy and Rs 34,673.59 crore from upstream firms, which were not sufficient to cover Rs 72,938.45 crore of losses on fuel sales. It absorbed losses of Rs 1,082.59 crore. The company, which posted losses in two of the previous three quarters after not getting timely subsidy, reported an annual net profit of Rs 7,019.09 crore for 2013-14, up from Rs 5,005.17 crore in 2012-13. It suffered a foreign exchange loss of Rs 3,190.92 crore in the previous financial year. IOC’s GRM was USD 4.24 per barrel in 2013-14, up from USD 3.16 in the previous year. Sales increased to a record Rs 4,73,210.09 crore, making IOC the largest company in India by turnover. In 2012-13, the company had a turnover of Rs 4,47,096.25 crore. Seasonal Magazine

An Affordable HTC HTC Desire 816 is an Android phone that brings in high-end specs to mid-range price points.

I was really looking forward to review the HTC One M8, which I thought was among the most innovative phones I had seen in a while. But that was not to be. However, I have got hold of an HTC Desire 816, an Android phone that brings in high-end specs to mid-range price points. The Taiwanese smartphone company seems to be banking a lot on this phone to improve its prospects in an important market like India. But does it have what it takes? Design: The Desire 816 is a sleek, stylish phone. But then you can expect that from HTC, which has always had an eye for design perfection. My review unit was all-black, with just the power and volume buttons on the left getting rings of metal. However, the rear flap was too smooth for my liking and there is high probability of the phone slipping out of your hand. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t open the rear flap, so the two nano-SIMs and SD card slot are behind a neat little flap on the right side. The phone also has speakers on both ends, appearing as perforations. Despite the 5.5inches, the phone is not hard to handle or grip. A bit of real estate is wasted with the HTC logo just under the virtual keys at the bottom of the screen. Screen: In this age of Full HD and even Quad HD phones, it is tough for a HD screen to make an impression. But the Super LCD2 of the Desire 816 does as good just even with the 720p resolution. The screen is very crisp and offers good viewing angles. It is also good for watching videos, something users will have in mind while buying a 5.5-inch screen. Performance: The performance, powered by the Snapdragon 400, is at par with the other phones in this range. But then this is no flagship phone and that shows in the benchmark results. However, a regular user will have no reason to complain. The apps open without a hint of a lag and multitasking is quite smooth. There were times we felt the phone was heating up a bit. Memory: At this price point 8 GB internal storage is pretty good. If you can spend also as much as the phone, there is the option to expand up to 128 GB, a feature most new phones are going to have. Connectivity: There are no issues with reception

Google to launch low-cost 'Android One' smartphone in India Google Inc is working with three manufacturers to develop a sub-$100 smartphone for the Indian market this fall, getting Android software into one of the fastestgrowing major mobile markets. Those 'Android One' phones would come with 4.5-inch screens, dual SIM cards and FM radio, Google Senior Vice-president Sundar Pichai told the crowd at the company's annual developers' conference on Wednesday. "We are going to be launching it around the world, but will launch in India first in the fall of this year," Pichai said. He added that Google was working with carriers in India to provide affordable telecom service packages to go with the smartphones. The Android One initiative sets out to work with smartphone makers and others in the "ecosystem" to pool resources and standardize hardware platforms to provide "turnkey solutions" for making handsets, according to Pichai.

Modi’s Emerging Challenges and Battle Pla On completion of his first 30 days in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have rued not having the luxury of an extended 'honeymoon period', but he and his ministerial colleagues are acutely aware that their problems are fairly serious. After a hike in railway fares and import duty on sugar, there has been a realisation among senior functionaries that it was important that people first believe in their capacity to deliver sweeteners before being forced to swallow bitter pills. After all one of its pre-poll catch phrase was Bahut Hua Mahengai ka vaar, abki bar Modi sarkar but prospects of delayed and deficient rains, and the fallout of the Iraq crisis on commodity and oil markets have already started aggravating the price situation. Containing inflation is now top priority for the government. The burden of popular expectations and Modi’s own promises to the people that advance planning can minimise hardships have enhanced the onus of delivery on the NDA government. This is why Modi has started preparing to tackle the fallout of a sub-normal monsoon situation and has chaired many meetings with his cabinet colleagues and top officials on the subject, A BJP leader said. Not just him, but finance minister Arun Jaitley has also chaired inter-ministerial meetings on the subject, he added. Modi has a lot on his plate right now: AP Ahead of budget presentation, the government is keen to be seen to be moving in the right direction. The decision to withhold a hike in gas prices for at least another three months was guided by this philosophy. The budget may also contain some sops for the middle class such as rationalisation in the tax structure, but there could also be tough measures to take care of long term

economic interests. In the interim, Modi wishes to complete the government’s preparation to handle prospects of a drought like situation in some parts of the country. He has now been briefed by India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials on the monsoon who told him that although the monsoon has been delayed, rainfall is likely to improve substantially in the months of July and August. The Prime Minister also reviewed the position of water reservoirs and fodder stock. He directed that maximum possible use be made of the existing water resources, and best practices followed in rainwater harvesting, an official statement said. Onion and potato, the two most commonly used items in kitchen has also given the government some food for thought. After the government somewhat succeeded in containing speculations on onion prices, it is now focused on doing the same with potato prices – by way of imposing a minimum export price (MEP), $450 per tonne. Annually around one to two lakhs tones of Potatoes and 15 lakh tonnes of onions are exported to various destinations. But with a view to check the rising prices and augment domestic supplies, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has decided to impose an MEP. The MEP for onion was earlier fixed at $300 per tonne. As per inflation for the month of May, 2014, there has been an increase of 40 percent in the wholesale price of the

Potato as compared to their prices in March, 2014. Similarly, there was an increase of 30 percent in the Retail price of the Potato for the same period. Further, modal rates of Potato saw an increase of 37 percent to 114 percent from March, 2014 till June, 2014 in four Metropolitan cities of the country. At the policy level, the Modi government is making a change in its planning approach. So far it is state centric and mostly left on the discretion of the states concerned to select affected districts. The ministry of Agriculture has prepared a contingency plan for more than 500 districts. “Modi has stressed on the need for both Centre and States to proactively mount a coordinated effort in implementing the advance action plan for the monsoon, with districts, rather than states, being the unit of planning”, an official said. Yesterday’s meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti along with Cabinet Secretary, his own Principal Secretary, Additional Principal Secretary and some other senior officials assumed additional significance. Apart from inter-ministerial coordination, successive meetings of this nature send a message to all concerned that the government is serious in dealing with

ICC Proves It is Worse Than BCCI Melbourne: The head of the organization which represents the world's top cricketers has described as "embarrassing" the appointment of Indian industrialist Narayanaswami Srinivasan as chairman of the International Cricket Council. Australian Paul Marsh, who is shortly to step down as executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations, said the election Thursday of Srinivasan to the most powerful role in world cricket was "very concerning." N Srinivasan is now the most powerful man in cricket. PTI Srinivasan is currently barred by the Indian Supreme Court from performing his duties as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and has been listed as one of 13 persons of interest in an investigation of corruption in the Indian Premier League. In a FICA statement on Friday, Marsh said "our strong preference was for the controversy involving Mr. Srinivasan in India to be resolved before the ICC made a decision on the chairmanship." Srinivasan's appointment followed changes to the structure of the ICC which awards virtual control of world cricket to India, England and Australia. India lobbied strongly for Srinivasan's appointment and his nomination was carried with strong support from both Australia and England. India provides almost 70 percent of cricket's international revenues and the election of Srinivasan and the revamped ICC structure, affording power to the sport's 'big three', are seen as measures to prevent India quitting the world body. Marsh bemoaned the concentration of political power into fewer hands. "It's difficult to see how cricket has got to this point," he said in an interview

with Australia's SEN Radio. "It's one of the saddest things I've seen in cricket.

would share a larger share of revenue at the expense of smaller nations.

"It's embarrassing for the game that we're in this position.

"I don't know how that helps build the world game," he said. "I don't see that cricket has a huge future if the game becomes about three or four countries.

"The process that they've gone through to get to this point is very concerning. Effectively what's happened here is the 'big three' boards of England, Australia and India have taken over the world game." Marsh said it was likely the big three

"What we've seen over the last few years is that the game has been run very much along selfish lines." Marsh will be succeeded as FICA chairman by Tony Irish of South Africa.

Murthy Plotting With Amazon to Bypass FDI Rules? NR Narayana Murthy, who is stepping down as the Executive Chairman of Infosys, is getting ready with his next big bet. NRN is giving finishing touches to his plans to make an entry into the e-commerce space with the global giant Amazon. NRN will route his investments through his firm, Catamaran Ventures. When contacted Catamaran confirmed the development.

Smriti Claims She Was Cursed as a Girl Child at Birth BHOPAL: On Friday, Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani revealed that at the time of her birth, she was cursed as a "burden" by someone. "I am sharing it for the first time that when I was born, someone hinted to my mother that beti to bojh hoti hai (daughter is a burden) and therefore, she should kill me. But my mother was brave and she did not do that because of which today I am standing here in front of you," Irani said when a student asked her about the menace of female feticide. Such a malpractice should be curbed and it was a priority programme for the government, she said.

Meet Bollywood’s Millionaire Beggers Actress Rani Mukerji, who is known for portraying strong roles in her films, would now be seen playing the role of a police officer in her upcoming film ‘Mardaani’. At the trailer launch of her first film post marriage in Mumbai, when Rani was asked whether she is deliberately choosing women-centric films (she had earlier done ‘No One Killed Jessica’) the actress said that she would love to be a part of womenoriented movies but feels that actors are like beggars as they can’t choose much. “It is great that female-oriented films are doing well. I wish more such films come up and work at the box office so more producers are inspired to make such movies,” Rani told the reporters. “We actors are like beggars. We never choose, but are chosen by creative people, including directors and producers. I will take up the subjects that are interesting and powerful, which is women-centric I will do it. I hope there will be better roles,” said the actress, who would be retaining her name as Rani Mukerji even post-marriage. Rani, who is quite excited about her next release ‘Mardaani’, also said that the movie is close to her heart. Talking about her film at the press meet she said, “This film is extremely close to us. It is the way of awakening the spirit of ‘Mardaani’. At young age I got to know about Rani of Jhansi and how strong she was. And strong doesn’t mean in terms of physicality, but in spirit. We women are descendants of Shakti. Through this film we are talking about the inner strength of women so that no one takes undue advantage of them.” The trailer of ‘Mardaani’ shows the actress as a bold, strong and fearless Mumbai Crime Branch officer Shivani Shivaji Roy who takes on a child trafficking mafia head on. What’s more, the film’s trailer showcases a serious social issue of child trafficking tackled

in a smart and gripping way and has already got 241,376 hits in just 24 hours! Produced by Rani’s husband Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj Films (YRF) banner, and directed by Pradeep Sarkar, ‘Mardaani’ comes across as a raw and gritty tale in which the actress seems to be displaying woman power at its best. The movie is slated to release on August 22 this year.

New Study Takes on Age-old Wisdom of Practice Makes Perfect While repetition enhances the factual content of memories, it can reduce the amount of detail stored with those memories and may even lead to false memories, a new study has found. University of California – Irvine neurobiologists Zachariah Reagh and Michael Yassa have found that with repeated recall, nuanced aspects may fade away. In the study, student participants were asked to look at pictures either once or three times. They were then tested on their memories of those images. (Read: Learning a lot during adolescence good for your brain) The researchers found that multiple views increased factual recall but actually hindered subjects’ ability to reject similar ‘imposter’ pictures. This suggests that the details of those memories may have been shaken loose by repetition. This discovery sup-

ports Reagh’s and Yassa’s Competitive Trace Theory – published last year – which posits that the details of a memory become more subjective the more they’re recalled and can compete with bits of other similar memories. The scientists hypothesise that this may even lead to false memories, akin to a brain version of the telephone game. (Read: Revealed – What happens to your brain when you’re learning) Yassa, an assistant professor of neurobiology & behaviour, said that these findings do not discredit the practice of repetitive learning.However, he noted, pure repetition alone has limitations. For a more enriching and lasting learning experience through which nuance and detail are readily recalled, other memory techniques should be used to complement repetition. (Read: Learning a new language during childhood alters your brain!) Source: IANS

MANAV RACHNA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

WHY THIS SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IS MORE BULLISH ON START-UPS Dr. OP Bhalla was a man who kept on searching throughout his life. Always searching for a bigger role for himself and his team, in this wide world. Originally a medical doctor, his quest for bigger and better opportunities led him first to real estate development, and then finally to self-financing higher education. When he started out, lakhs of NCR students were literally fleeing their homes for South India, every year. Today, Dr. OP Bhalla is no more. But like all great entrepreneurs, he has left behind an enterprise that has a robust life of its own - the Manav Rachna International University (MRIU). In India’s great tradition of family-owned businesses, there are also enough leaders to carry on the flame at MRIU. Chief Patron Mrs. Satya Bhalla is not

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just Late Dr. Bhalla’s wife, but an experienced teacher and educationalist in her own might. Their son, Dr. Prashant Bhalla, currently the Chancellor at MRIU, is also highly experienced in the field, having completed 14 years of leadership at various Manav Rachna Educational Institutions (MREI) that together is home to 20,000 students at a time, across Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida, & Sonepat, from pre-nursery to doctoral level. Dr. Amit Bhalla, also from the family, brings in young energy to the group in his current capacity as Vice President. However, like some of India’s largest and finest businesses, these edupreneurs too have left the day-today management of this educational enterprise to thoroughbred

professionals. Vice Chancellor Dr. NC Wadhwa (IAS Retd.) and Pro Vice Chancellor Prof. Victor Gambhir personify this professional touch. Today thanks to this great team of family-led as well as professional team, Manav Rachna students have been scaling great heights in various competitions. Manav Rachna College of Engineering students bagged the first, second and third positions at the national round of Microsoft Imagine Cup recently. They won in the innovation category with products such as Smart Skull, an automatic system to alert an accident victim’s relatives and emergency services; MovAid, perhaps the world’s first personalised solution to measure and monitor the recovery of an individual

Late Dr. OP Bhalla, Founder

Dr. Prashant Bhalla,

Dr. Amit Bhalla, Vice President

after orthopaedic trauma rehabilitation, surgery, injury or joint replacement; and Project Respiron which has a device and smartphone application for an out-of-range alarm, medication reminder, ‘puff counter’ and panic button for asthma patients. The students behind all these

innovations are at Manav Rachna’s Dr OP Bhalla Incubation and Innovation Centre. Manav Rachna Educational Institutions (MREI) boast of having filed for 34 patents so far. Now, under Chancellor Dr. Prashant Bhalla’s guidance, MRIU is planning to have its own venture capital fund to support the start-ups on its campus. These and several other similar achievements by Manav Rachna students are significant because MRIU is no IIT and these students were not even NIT grade, as otherwise they wouldn’t have chosen the costly self-financing option offered by institutions like Manav Rachna. Though placements are today adequate at MRIU, if tomorrow the situation changes on the jobs front, the Bhallas are trying to create a Plan B at least for their smartest students. “In the current environment, getting a job is a challenge. We are encouraging students to move towards entrepreneurship. Students have come up with innovative ideas which are being nurtured and mentored by the entrepreneurship cell,” says Prashant Bhalla, Chancellor of Manav Rachna International University. Seasonal Magazine

Honda, Mazda and Nissan issue car recalls over airbags Honda, Mazda and Nissan are recalling millions of vehicles globally for defective airbags manufactured by supplier Takata Corp. that could possibly explode. No accidents have been reported related to Mondayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recalls. Honda Motor Co. recalled 2.03 million vehicles for the airbag problem, including 1.02 million in North America and nearly 669,000 in Japan. It said they were manufactured between 2000 and 2005. That came on top of a million vehicles Honda recalled last year for similar Takata airbag problems. Nissan Motor Co. recalled 755,000 vehicles globally manufactured from 2001 through 2003, while Mazda Motor Corp recalled nearly 160,000 vehicles manufactured from 2002 through 2004. Like Honda, both

companies announced recalls last year, but in smaller numbers. The Honda Logo is seen in this photo. Reuters Takata recently realized that the earlier recall had not included all of the problem airbags, the automakers said. Toyota Motor Corp. announced an airbag recall earlier this month for 2.27 million vehicles, including some that were recalled last year. One fire was reported related to the defect, but no one was injured in that incident, Toyota said. Toyota, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s No 1 automaker, was also investigating a crash in Puerto Rico in which the driver suffered a minor cut on the forehead which may have been caused by an abnormal passenger-side airbag deployment.

Toyotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affected models include the Corolla, Matrix, Tundra, Yaris and Camry. The models recalled at Honda include the Fit, Element and CR-V, while those at Nissan are the Cube, X-Trail and some Infiniti models. Recalled at Mazda were the Atenza and RX-8. Tokyo-based Takata is a major manufacturer of airbags, seat belts, steering wheels and other auto parts.

TECH

8 Tips to be an Android Power User Without Any Apps Android users install a plethora of apps to enrich their smartphone experience, but what many miss on are built-in Android features that can make it even more fulfilling. These eight features come pre-loaded on Android phones running Jelly Bean and KitKat and not all of them may be available on older versions. 1. Android Device Manager: Losing your phone is one of the biggest fears in today's always-connected world. While we wish that you never lose your phone, but Android Device manager will keep you ready for any such eventuality. You can locate your device if your phone is stolen or lost and even remotely wipe the data if necessary. Go to Google Settings > Android Device Manager > Allow remote lock and erase.

2. Show Owner Info on Lock Screen: This simple but effective feature can actually increase your chances of recovering your missing phone. The "show owner info on lock screen" asks you to enter information which is then displayed on the lock screen. It is recommended to either enter your email address or an alternate phone number. This could be a great help in our password, pin, or pattern-protected phones. With this feature active, if someone finds your lost phone, the person knows whom to instantly contact to return the phone. Go to Setting > Security > Owner info to use this feature.

notified for during the day? Here is a way. A built-in Android feature lets you view all the past notifications in a single window even after they have been removed from the notifications bar. To make use of it, go to your Android apps listing screen and tap the widgets tab. Look for Setting shortcut in "Widgets". Once found, tap, hold and drag it to your home screen, and select Notifications. Now you can see an icon with the name "Notifications". Tap it to view your past notifications with a time stamp next to each one of them.

4. Add Contact Widget to Homescreen: There are few contacts in our phonebook that we frequently make calls, send messages or mails to. Isn't it better to place those numbers right on the home screen instead of going to your call logs, phonebook or other apps to communicate with them? A contact widget is added to your home screen from where you can contact that person by calling, messaging, emailing or WhatsApping. Go to your contacts, select any number and place it on the home screen.

5. Easily Access Punctuation Marks: Instead of switching to another keyboard layout for punctuation and other characters, when typing, you can simply tap and hold the full-stop button to use the commonly used punctuation marks and other characters, including hyphen, colon, exclamation and apostrophe. As you tap and hold fullstop, a small window with the commonly-used characters pops out.

6. Settings Shortcut: If there are particular settings that you check out or visit the most, it's better to have their shortcuts right on your homescreen. Your Android phone lets you create shortcuts for different Android settings including Apps, battery, Bluetooth, Data Usage, Display and WiFi. You need to follow the same process as described in the second point.

7. Take Photos Through Voice: Your Android phone also lets you capture a photo or record a video simply by giving some voice commands. Activate the mike in the Search app for Android and say "Take a photo" or "Take a video" to launch the camera app. This saves you the effort of going to the camera app and switch modes.

8. Power Button to End Calls: If you think swiping is a hassle to disconnect a call, here is another way for you. You can press the power button to end calls. To use this feature, go to Settings > Accessibility > Power button ends call.

3. View Your Old Notifications: On a busy day, you may not have the time to view all notifications as they come in, and therefore, to get rid of all that clutter in the notifications bar on top of the screen, you prefer to make a single swipe - and all notifications are gone. But what if at the end of the day, with a little time at hand, you want to take a look at what all you were Seasonal Magazine