Seasonal Magazine June 2016

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VOLUME 15 ISSUE 6 JUNE 2016

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Editorial MAGAZINE

Seasonal www.seasonalmagazine.com

Managing Editor Jason D Pavorattikaran 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 Pavorattikaran

Anniversaries are for conveying congratulations for surviving so far, and for wishing the best for going on till the maximum possible. Be it wedding anniversaries, or anniversaries of governments.

That is, unless the ‘wishes’ are coming from the Opposition side. Then it degrades to third-rate politics, as any party in the opposition has only found bad stuff to say on any government’s anniversary. So such ‘wishes’ are better ignored.

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the next 3 years - time to be arrogant or time to be humble?

But what about the generally good words Modi Government has obtained from India Inc on its second anniversary? Well, don’t forget, anniversaries are for congratulating and wishing and blessing.

Also, despite what the socialists and leftists would make us believe, Modi has not been an awful PM or anything close.

There have been enough achievements to merit both congratulations and good wishes.

In this context, Modi’s biggest enemy is Modi himself, as what he is benchmarked against today is his tall poll promises from two years back. Whatever be his small, medium, or big achievements, everything is dwarfed by his taller promises like the Indian corrupt having enough black money stashed abroad, which if brought back would be enough to give 15-20 lakhs to each citizen!

But then, as Arun Jaitley deftly articulated it later as ‘said for only illustrative purposes’, or better still by Amit Shah who laughed it off last year, saying that it was only an election ‘jumla’ or idiom!

That kind of criticism against election tricks also can be safely ignored. After all, we have been hearing these ‘garibi hatao desh bachavo’ kind of slogans from Indira Gandhi’s days, but nothing much revolutionary has happened to those below the poverty line.

But the real tall promise that is troubling Modi now, and which will continue to

trouble Modi for the next 3 years is his promise of Acche Din, a sweeping promise that neither the electorate will forget nor something that Jaitley or Shah can explain away.

The all important question is whether Modi’s big achievements so far can take the sting away from at least such realistic promises and the expectations they spurted.

To be sure, Modi and his team have several big achievements to their credit like controlling fiscal deficit, bringing in record FDIs, the stock market performance, the insurance bill, Jan Dhan scheme, growth in Direct Benefits Transfer, the boost to affordable housing, and the definitive plans to improve infrastructure growth.

But are these achievements really enough to satisfy a population that had begun to worship Narendra Modi as a kind of saviour who would finally save them from the challenges of their daily economic existence?

Not by a long shot. That is the challenge called India. There is no doubt that Modi had grossly underestimated this challenge.

Building negative perceptions about the incumbent, and fostering positive sentiments about the contender can win elections in India, but do nothing more than that. To spur in real growth in a complex country like India it requires extraordinary creativity and extraor dinary hard work from not only the politicians but the bureaucrats.

To understand the kind of challenges involved in governing India, one needs to look no further than the three challenges crippling Indian economy today – falling exports, falling job growth, and the mounting bank NPA crisis.

To be fair enough to Modi, none of these crises are of his making. But again, that is the way crises will emerge in India.

While Indian exports that have fallen for

the last 16 months is a direct effect of the slowing down world economy; the worst jobs growth since 2009 is due to both the slowdown in exports and the bank bad loan crisis. The NPA crisis, in itself, is due to corporate debt excesses committed between 2003 and 2008 when the Indian market was in its greatest, most excessive, bull run ever.

Two successive election losses in states of Delhi and Bihar had humbled Modi, caused some introspection, and from that introspection came the last budget that once again recognized the need for rural and farmer prosperity, after a gap of two years.

But once again, we have a big election win for BJP in Assam, and will this win eventually make it arrogant enough to misjudge that its pro-capitalist reforms are what that will eventually bring prosperity to India?

For any government, it is easy to side with industrialists, as not only are they most vocal with their version of things, but they are the big funders of any party. But to behave as though industrialists have two votes against an aam aadmi’s one vote, will be inviting political disaster.

Capitalism is good, not because of the taxes industries pay, but primarily because of the jobs they create. After all, compared with gigantic taxes, cesses, and levies that the Indian public is required to cough up each day often unknowingly, corporate taxes are not of a serious significance.

That is why incentivizing industries should only be based on the scale of jobs they are able to create, in a country like India.

Everything else is crony capitalism for us, as it is a Western model intended for sparsely populated but resource-rich countries.

Modi has shown that he has the courage and stature to rub shoulders with the likes of Barack Obama, and he is today basking in a limelight showered on him by largely Western media that claims that India is an island of growth among all BRICS nations.

True, most of the BRICS nations are in trouble from a growth point of view. But that is the view of capital markets and financial media that support it. We cannot and should not rest on that laurel.

Because, ours is a country where per capita income is nowhere in comparison to incomes of our supposed peers – Brazil, Russia, China, & South Africa. Even in China, it is estimated that per capita income is at least 5 times that of India.

Even worse, one-third of all Indians are still living under extreme poverty, and more than two-thirds of all Indians are struggling for basic necessities like a proper home.

Also humbling is the undisputable fact that much of the improvement in the economy like the containment of fiscal deficit has been on the gains obtained from low crude oil prices, especially so as the benefit from it was not fully shared with the consumers.

Having realized all these harsh truths himself, about how high are India’s challenges, and how little can even a well-meaning government achieve within two years, it is high time that Modi and his colleagues turn to a more humble attitude for the remaining three years, and bring in radical reforms on all fronts, including the crucial jobs front, by working for a consensus with all involved.

John Antony SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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Contents Promised Turnaround, Half Full or Half Empty?

Come 26th May, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete his first two years in office. Just six more months remain for the BJP-NDA government to expend half the time accorded to them by the Indian public in 2014. It is high time to check whether the promised acche din have arrived. Whether the promised turnaround is half full or half empty.

KARUR VYSYA BANK

INSIDE INDIA’S EMERGING SME BANK

Some of the largest Indian banks in both the public and private sector are reeling from mounting losses from the corporate lending sector, and are increasingly looking at the hitherto ...

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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BUYING A READY APARTMENT? COLLECT THESE 12 DOCUMENTS FROM THE BUILDER

LONG WAY TO GO FOR EASE-OF-DOINGBUSINESS IN INDIA, SAYS SURVEY

At the time of buying a property, they may not be ‘the thing to do’ on your list. However, they matter a lot when you want to sell your property.

Majority of the respondents have rated the improvement in ease of doing business at only 4.6/10 in a survey conducted by PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry on the completion of two years of the NDA Government.

UNABLE TO SELL CATTLE, INDIAN FARMERS QUESTION BAN ON COW SLAUGHTER

INSIDE PANAMA PAPERS: WORLD'S SUPERRICH INCLUDING 500 INDIANS

Slaughter of cows considered sacred in Hinduism, has historically been banned in most states but was rarely enforced in India, the world's largest exporter of beef.

Documents leaked Sunday from a Panama-based firm, one of the world's largest creators of offshore shell companies, purport to show corruption and questionable..

BANK OF BARODA

A NEW BANK IN THE MAKING

India’s second largest PSU lender by assets is not just improving but transforming itself. Headed since the past seven months by a private sector banking veteran, Bank of Baroda is rebalancing its corporate loan portfolio, building sectoral intelligences, centralizing corporate services, cutting risk-weighted assets,..

SEGMENTS WHERE BLUE-COLLARS BEAT WHITE-COLLARS IN SALARY Blue-collar profiles which are vocationally trained are commanding a higher salary as compared to engineers and management graduates, according to a TeamLease Services report on ` professional education vs vocational skilling'.

LOUIS VAN GAAL TO JOSE MOURINHO. DOES MANCHESTER UNITED REALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

The rare consistency of persisting with a manager, amid disappointing performances, that Manchester United was boasting about so far has ended with the sacking of..

HOW MODI GOVERNMENT’S POLICIES HAVE IMPACTED 15 INDUSTRY SECTORS

Not every industry sector was fortunate under the first two years of Modi’s governance. While the biggest beneficiaries were housing, housing finance, life insurance, general insurance, coal, commercial vehicles, investment banking etc,

FRAUD SHARE TRANSFER SCAM MAY BE THE BIGGEST STOCK MARKET SCAM YET

Sources say the fraud is not possible without the connivance of employees at the share transfer agents. Since the unclaimed shares are in physical form, the fraudsters need the specimen signatures of..

WHY TESLA MODEL 3 IS HOT, AND HOW IT WILL BE PRICED IN INDIA

A sneak peek into the talk-of-thetown Tesla Model 3 that will mark the entry of Elon Musk’s car enterprise in India. The news about the India launch of the most sought-after electric car in the world, the Tesla Model 3 broke out on Friday, but was quickly..

INSIDE COMPLACENT EUROPE'S JIHADIST RECRUITMENT HEADQUARTERS

In Molenbeek, the rundown Brussels neighbourhood with the unenviable reputation as a haven for jihadists, residents are struggling to confront the threat of radicalism as recruiters increasingly go underground to prey..

TOP INDIAN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN

INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

As media house that keenly observes and encourages excellent practices in the private university sphere, Seasonal Magazine is taking this space to record that the past one year has been a mixed bag of performance for these selffinancing institutions. While more number of such institutions across India failed to live up to the hype, due to falling admissions and increasing competition, some among them are also experiencing..

Await in !

Next Issuiees – Overall

India’s Top Priva

te Universit

MANAPPURAM

NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY

GIC HOUSING FINANCE

During the last few years of economic turmoil, Manappuram Finance was one NBFC that took several strategic decisions to de-risk as well as diversify its loan portfolio. Today, in an environment where gold prices have firmed up and the green..

Despite a tough year of natural calamities for the general insurers, Kolkata based National Insurance Company has registered decent growth in most metrics.

If there weretwo sectors that were most favoured in this budget, they were affordable homes development..

MOVING UP SWIFTLY AS A DIVERSIFIED NBFC

EYEING BETTER GROWTH ON BETTER PRODUCTS, SUSTAINABLE PREMIUMS

ALL SET FOR A RERATING BY HOMEBUYERS& INVESTORS

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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AUTO

WHY TESLA MODEL 3 IS HOT, AND HOW IT WILL BE PRICED IN INDIA

ALL-GLASS ROOF: ROOF COMPLETELY MADE OF GLASS On the design front, the car's roof area is one continuous pane of glass, which drew a roar of applause from the audience during Elon Musk’s speech at the launch. The all-glass roof culminates into a semi-glass boot trunk at the rear. Tesla has established a pretty crisp and coherent design vocabulary with the Model S and Model X, and the Model 3 is a pretty clear development of those basic ideas. The absence of a grille on the front is a notable feature while the headlight-hood treatment seems inspired by luxury car brands. Overall the new 5-seater electric sedan looks a toned down version of the Model S. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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A sneak peek into the talk-ofthe-town Tesla Model 3 that will mark the entry of Elon Musk’s car enterprise in India.

The news about the India launch of the most soughtafter electric car in the world, the Tesla Model 3 broke out on Friday, but was quickly discarded as a Fool’s Day prank. Soon though, Elon Musk’s public statement confirmed the entry of Tesla in the sub-continent with its new sedan, soon after which, the bookings for the car were declared open. The Tesla Model 3, ever since, has been the talk of the town. Here we look at the top five facts about the car that make it really drool-worthy.

15 Inch Display: Big screen on the dashboard Inside the Tesla Model 3, five adults can fit comfortably. It features more cargo capacity than any petrol or diesel car of the same external dimensions. Tesla has reportedly tapped electronics company LG to make the giant 15-inch landscape touchscreen display on the inside of the car. This is just 2 inches smaller than the centre screen in Tesla’s flagship Model S sedan and Model X SUV.

Bookings Open: Could be priced in India at around Rs 37 lakh!

With a US sticker price of $35,000 (about Rs 23 lakh), the final on-road price in India would depend on how Tesla wishes to present this car in India. If the car is brought to India in parts and assembled here, the import duty would vary between 10 per cent and 30 per cent, depending on the level of assembling done in the country. However, if the car is launched in India as a completely built unit, the on-road price would rise by 60 per cent the import duty applicable for all imported cars priced below $40,000. At that level of tariffs, the Tesla Model 3 could land on Indian shores with a price-tag of around Rs 37 lakh.

Steep Booking Charge: Book it for Rs 66,000 in India!

With its rather steep pricing, the country’s customers have a chance to block their Model 3 with an equally large token amount of around Rs 66,000 (the rupee equivalent of $1,000).

But that hasn’t stopped early adopters like Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy to book their Teslas already.

STRONG POWERTRAIN: THOUSANDS OF SUPERCHARGERS The cars powertrain comes fitted with a total of 7,200 Superchargers, double the number available today, which can propel the car to from 0-60 mph (0-96km) in less than 6 seconds.

Supercharger support and a 346km range will be standard across all variants and like the Model S, the Model 3 will also come in both rearwheel drive and all-wheel drive versions. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter that the company will set up a pan-India supercharger network. Considering that the car will be available in early 2018, Tesla is expected to utilise this time to set up its infrastructure in the country.

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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SCIENCE

ONE MORE REASON WHY WE NEED MOON THE MOON MAY PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN MAINTAINING EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD THAT PERMANENTLY PROTECTS US FROM THE CHARGED PARTICLES AND RADIATION THAT ORIGINATE IN THE SUN, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY. another source of energy in their study.

Earth has a slightly flattened shape and rotates about an inclined axis that wobbles around the poles.

Its mantle deforms elastically due to tidal effects caused by the Moon. The researchers show that this effect could continuously stimulate the motion of the liquid iron alloy making up the outer core, and in return generate Earth’s magnetic field.

he magnetic field is produced by the geodynamo, the rapid motion of huge quantities of liquid iron alloy in the Earth’s outer core. To maintain this magnetic field until the present day, the classical model required the Earth’s core to have cooled by around 3,000 degrees Celsius over the past 4.3 billion years.

T

Now, a team of researchers from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Universite Blaise Pascal in France suggests that, on the contrary, its temperature has fallen by only 300 degrees Celsius.

The action of the Moon, overlooked until now, is thought to have compensated for this difference and kept the geodynamo active, researchers said.

The classical model of the formation of Earth’s magnetic field raised a major paradox. For the geodynamo to work, Earth would have had to be totally SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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molten four billion years ago, and its core would have had to slowly cool from around 6,800 degrees Celsius at that time to 3,800 degrees Celsius today.

However, recent modelling of the early evolution of the internal temperature of the planet, together with geochemical studies of the composition of the oldest carbonatites and basalts, do not support such cooling.

With such high temperatures being ruled out, the researchers propose

SINCE NEITHER THE EARTH’S ROTATION AROUND ITS AXIS, NOR THE DIRECTION OF ITS AXIS, NOR THE MOON’S ORBIT ARE PERFECTLY REGULAR, THEIR COMBINED EFFECT ON MOTION IN THE CORE IS UNSTABLE AND CAN CAUSE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE GEODYNAMO.

The Earth continuously receives 3,700 billion watts of power through the transfer of the gravitational and rotational energy of the Earth-MoonSun system, and over 1,000 billion watts is thought to be available to bring about this type of motion in the outer core.

This energy is enough to generate the Earth’s magnetic field, which together with the Moon, resolves the major paradox in the classical theory, researchers said.

Since neither the Earth’s rotation around its axis, nor the direction of its axis, nor the Moon’s orbit are perfectly regular, their combined effect on motion in the core is unstable and can cause fluctuations in the geodynamo.

This process could account for certain heat pulses in the outer core and at its boundary with the Earth’s mantle.

Over the course of time, this may have led to peaks in deep mantle melting and possibly to major volcanic events at the Earth’s surface.

This new model shows that the Moon’s effect on the Earth goes well beyond merely causing tides. The research was published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

NO FEES FOR A LIMITED PERIOD

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REAL ESTATE

BUYING A READY APARTMENT? COLLECT THESE 12 DOCUMENTS FROM THE BUILDER AT THE TIME OF BUYING A PROPERTY, THEY MAY NOT BE ‘THE THING TO DO’ ON YOUR LIST. HOWEVER, THEY MATTER A LOT WHEN YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR PROPERTY.

e do a lot of due-diligence while buying a property from an individual re-seller of a ready property, but almost do nothing while buying from a developer. The reason behind it is the comfort shared by the lender stating they have already scrutinised the title and it is 'clear' for you to go ahead and buy quickly.

Mostly, builders refer these lenders to you and the target of both is to conclude your business and move ahead.

What we fail to understand at this stage is that one day you will be a 're-seller' and your buyer and his lender will ask for whole lot of papers from you which neither your lender will give you nor the builder, as they will have no direct interest in the paperwork then.

"I don't have any papers. This is a property built by a renowned builder and banks have approved it. I never needed any of it while buying myself." - heard this many times from a potential seller.

At least 50% of them land up not being able to sell the house, because the new buyer wants to send one set of papers to his personal lawyer for clearance, plus his new lender (these days there are a lot of fresh lenders in the market who did not exist 5 years back) wants it too!

So, be wise and take all the relevant papers that your future buyer will seek from you. Here's the list: SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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1. COMMENCEMENT CERTIFICATE (CC):

When the building construction starts, the builder needs to get this document from the local authority, without this the construction cannot start.

2. APPROVED PLAN:

A plan submitted by the builder will be sanctioned by the authority again.

A copy of this plan with seal and signature will be provided by the builder.

3. JOINT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT (NOTARISED):

If the land on which the property constructed by the builder has not purchased outright by the builder but is a joint-development with the landowner, then this document will be available. This should be notarised in

registrar's office and stamp duty paid by the builder.

6. KHATA EXTRACT / MUTATION CERTIFICATE:

4. SHARING AGREEMENT:

Even after registration, the title may not pass to the new owner without this document.

If the property is under a jointdevelopment scheme, then some of the inventory will be with the landowner. The description and the unit numbers shared by the builder and the landowner will be detailed in this document.

5. CHAIN DEED OF LAST 30 YEARS: Acquisition of the land parcel will have to be from a legitimate source and any issues (cases pending, probate etc) will trigger issue in future. So, it is important to know the history of the land (all agreements that establish the change of ownership) and the documents through which the title has passed.

7. NO DUE LETTER: The builder should issue a 'no-due' letter to you to avoid any pending payments, levy, interest or penalty.

8. POSSESSION LETTER: Without this document you cannot even move your furniture in the house. It may sound to you that why will this piece of paper required by your future buyer, may be after five years, but you will be surprised to know that some lenders/lawyers do seek this paper as well.

9. NIL ENCUMBRANCES CERTIFICATE (EC) / SEARCH REPORT:

A lawyer's report that the property is not encumbered. This is done by a court-search by the lawyer. It is to confirm that the property was not sold to any other party in the meanwhile.

10. UPDATED TAX RECEIPTS: Builders often delay on the tax payments, especially when the project gets delayed. They generally do pay at the time of the possession/registration in your name. It is good to take the tax receipt from the builder so that your tax payments post that is effortless.

11. OCCUPANCY CERTIFICATE (OC): This is one of the most important documents. The builder receives this paper from the authority certifying the building to have been constructed as per the plan approved and is habitable without a demolition risk. This certificate is issued after installation of the water connection, sewerage and many other mandatory amenities a building should possess in recent times. Most lenders do not approve loans for properties not having this document, so please pay special attention to this.

12. COPY OF YOUR REGISTERED DEED:

Do not be surprised when I tell you that we have come across many people who do not even have this. The builder would have submitted the original directly to the lender in a hurry to receive the loan disbursement and did not send even a copy to the borrower.

So, please collect your copy-either from the builder or from the lender without feeling lazy and thinking you are safe. Do not omit the slight possibility of lender losing the original!

Hope the above checklist helps you complete your paperwork and you be content with the matter that it's going to a piece of cake for you while selling!

(By Sukanya Kumar, Founder & Director, RetailLending.com) SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?

2 YEARS

UNABLE TO SELL CATTLE, INDIAN FARMERS QUESTION BAN ON COW SLAUGHTER

SLAUGHTER OF COWS CONSIDERED SACRED IN HINDUISM, HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN BANNED IN MOST STATES BUT WAS RARELY ENFORCED IN INDIA, THE WORLD'S LARGEST EXPORTER OF BEEF.

ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter in India's richest state is threatening to push millions of farmers into penury, deepening distress in the countryside and fanning resentment against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

Slaughter of cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, has historically been banned in most states but was rarely enforced in India, the world's largest exporter of beef.

But over the past year, states ruled by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), such as Maharashtra, have broadened the ban to include other types of cattle, like bulls and bullocks, and Hindu vigilantes have stepped up attacks on traders to enforce the prohibition.

The stricter rules come as Modi and the nationalist BJP lay greater stress on India's Hindu faith, to which the majority of the population belongs.

Minority groups, including around 180 million Muslims, have expressed concern over the implications.

The impact of the beef ban has been significant. Prices of cattle have fallen across the country, India's meat exports fell 13 percent in the April-December period and rival beef supplier Brazil is gaining from India's loss.

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It has also left millions of farmers, already reeling from bad harvests due to back-to-back droughts and unseasonal rains, struggling to sell animals they can no longer feed or water.

"I wonder what the government wants - our survival or the cattle's?" said farmer Revaji Choudhary, standing next to a pair of bulls he has been trying to sell for weeks in a cattle market in Maharashtra.

Traditionally, farmers have sold cattle in a drought year to butchers, mostly Muslims, and bought new ones when their earnings rise after monsoon showers.

Traditionally, farmers have sold cattle in a drought year to butchers, mostly Muslims, and bought new ones when their earnings rise after monsoon showers. That cycle has been broken and could leave farmers with little money to buy seeds or fertiliser ahead of the next sowing season, starting in June.

Farmer suicides have nearly doubled in the drought-hit Marathwada region of Maharashtra.

Their predicament is causing concern within the BJP, which has been trying to bolster its credentials in the countryside, where most of India's 1.3 billion people live.

Rural distress contributed to an embarrassing defeat for the party last year in a state election, and more state polls are due over the coming year.

In the annual budget last month, Modi's government pledged nearly USD13 billion on rural development, aiming to double farmer's incomes by 2022.

Maharashtra BJP legislator Bhimrao Dhonde said the government's priority should be to support farmers, and they should be allowed to sell their cattle to whomever they want. "It is time to withdraw the ban," Dhonde told reporters.

Madhu Chavan, a spokesman for the BJP in Maharashtra, said Dhonde's view did not reflect that of the party.

"The party thinks the ban is necessary," he said, adding that more money would be made available to alleviate the effects of drought if needed.

Maharashtra, home to India's financial hub Mumbai, has been particularly badly hit by drought. In one district the government imposed rules that prevent assembly of more than five people around a water tanker or borewell to prevent riots.

Narayan Chandak, head of the Maharashtra unit of VHP's cow protection committee, said his organisation has been able to start only one facility that holds 150 cattle.

Cows and buffalos need 70 litres of water per day. Many farmers are simply abandoning their cattle. The state has opened hundreds of temporary shelters to house around 250,000 heads of cattle until their owners are ready to take them back, but experts say at least another 4 million animals need to be looked after in Maharashtra.

Traditionally, farmers have sold cattle in a drought year to butchers, mostly Muslims, and bought new ones when their earnings rise after monsoon showers.

Hindu groups such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) that had promised to build shelters said they, too, were short on cash and the government should do more. Laxmi

"Nearly 700,000 cows and bulls ... will starve to death or will be smuggled to slaughter houses. We have to save them," said Chandak. He added that only pure Indian breeds "that are

worthy of worship" should be sheltered.

Every Monday, hundreds of farmers like Choudhary travel to a weekly cattle market in Belhe village, around 200 km (124 miles) east of Mumbai, but with so few people buying, it is more in hope than expectation.

Cattle prices in the state have fallen 40 percent to 60 percent. Choudhary, who earns around 200,000 rupees (USD3,000) in a good monsoon year, said he has incurred losses as his crops wilted due to drought. He paid 40,000 rupees for his pair of bulls a year ago, and is willing to sell them for 20,000 rupees now.

He still cannot find a buyer. "We are forced to depend on tankers for drinking water. How can we supply water to cattle?" Choudhary asked.

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JOBS

SEGMENTS WHERE BLUE-COLLARS BEAT WHITE-COLLARS IN SALARY BLUE-COLLAR PROFILES WHICH ARE VOCATIONALLY TRAINED ARE COMMANDING A HIGHER SALARY AS COMPARED TO ENGINEERS AND MANAGEMENT GRADUATES, ACCORDING TO A TEAMLEASE SERVICES REPORT ON `PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION VS VOCATIONAL SKILLING'.

ccording to the report, the pay packages of blue-collar profiles are 10 to 27% higher than engineers and almost the same as management graduates indicating a clear preference for skills. What's more. Even the salary growth rates of blue collar profiles were far higher and consistent than most of the white collar profiles.

A

"A GAPING DEMAND-SUPPLY IMBALANCE AND AN ACUTE SHORTAGE OF SKILLED WORKERS ARE DRIVING THE TRANSFORMATIONAL SHIFT IN PAYOUT STRUCTURES. THE SKILL INDIA INITIATIVE SEEKS TO PRODUCE THE INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITY TO COACH A MINIMUM OF 40.2 CRORE SKILFUL INDIVIDUALS BY A 2022. `OUT OF THE THREE BLUE COLLARED PROFILES TWO FARED BETTER THAN ENGINEERS. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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The industry has understood the importance of skill development.

More analysis around the emergence of new job profiles would ensure students are guided in the right direction.

Rituparna Chakraborty, senior VP, TeamLease Services said, "A gaping demand-supply imbalance and an acute shortage of skilled workers are driving the transformational shift in payout structures. Apart from doubling on the supply side, engineers have suffered from poor quality of education and lack of employability (about 24%

of all graduating engineers being estimated as employable by industry), whereas the skilled blue collar talent has remained stagnant.

The growing parity in pay will draw hordes of youngsters to blue collar jobs and help in improving the social signaling value of vocational jobs."

"The Skill India initiative seeks to produce the institutional capability to coach a minimum of 40.2 crore skilful individuals by a 2022. Pay parity would ensure that there are adequate numbers of youngsters to fill this capacity," said Chakraborty.

From a sectoral perspective, barring BFSI majority of the sectors had at least one blue collar profile that stood out. The report said automotive industry topped the list wherein skills preceded over degrees. `Out of the three blue collared profiles two fared better than engineers. They were even on par with MBAs,'' the report said.

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BLACK MONEY

INSIDE PANAMA PAPERS: WORLD'S SUPERRICH INCLUDING 500 INDIANS DOCUMENTS LEAKED SUNDAY FROM A PANAMA-BASED FIRM, ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST CREATORS OF OFFSHORE SHELL COMPANIES, PURPORT TO SHOW CORRUPTION AND QUESTIONABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES OF THE WORLD’S POLITICIANS, BILLIONAIRES, ENTERTAINERS, ATHLETES, DRUG BARONS, AND OTHERS. t the heart of the nearly four decades of records from Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm, are the names of people in more than 200 countries and territories. The 11.5 million records reveal the offshore holdings of 12 current and former leaders-among them the Saudi king, the pro-Western president of Ukraine, and the leaders of Iceland and Pakistan.

The papers appear to show Mossack

Amitabh Bachchan SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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Fonseca helped its clients launder money, dodge sanctions, and avoid paying taxes. Offshore services are not always illegal, but the documents released appear to reveal a clandestine web of shell companies, their real owners concealed under layers of secrecy, and connections to firms in different tax havens. The individual or group behind the leak is unknown, but the documents were published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper, and

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

several news organizations around the world, including the BBC, after a yearlong investigation.

Here are some key takeaways: Bollywood's Amitabh Bachchan and martial arts movie star Jackie Chan are among celebrities who feature in a massive leak of documents, some of which reveal hidden offshore assets.

Bollywood legend Bachchan, simply known as the 'Big B' in India, was appointed director of at least four shipping companies registered in offshore tax havens and set up 23 years ago. The authorised capital of these companies ranged from just $5,000 to $50,000 but they traded in ships worth millions of dollars, according to the Indian Express newspaper. The Express is among more than 100 media groups which have investigated a massive leak of 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in 35 countries. Bachchan, who has long since resigned from the companies and has not commented on the documents, is not the only member of his famous family named in the leaks. His daughter-in-law, actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, was also director and shareholder of an offshore company, along with members of her

David Cameron

Vladimir Putin

Sigmundur Gunnlaugson

family, before it was thought to have been wound up in 2008, according to the newspaper. The documents, naming more than 500 Indians including real estate tycoons in Fonseca's list of offshore companies, foundations and trusts, come at a sensitive time in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has vowed to crack down on the "menace" of so-called black money - vast sums stashed abroad to keep them secret from Indian tax authorities.

is never named in the files. A Kremlin spokesman denied the allegations as “a series of fibs.” Roldugin, ICIJ said, did not respond to questions about his alleged actions.

his financial advisers said was because the holding company didn’t have any assets. “They said that the companies were part of a corporate restructuring to help sell Poroshenko’s confectionery business,” ICIJ reported.

A close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bank Rossiya, a Russian bank that has been blacklisted by the U.S. and the EU, laundered hundreds of millions of dollars, the documents allege. The associate in question is Sergey Roldugin, a classical cellist and conductor who is a childhood friend of the Russian president. “The records show Roldugin is a behind-the-scenes player in a clandestine network operated by Putin associates that has shuffled at least $2 billion through banks and offshore companies,” the ICIJ alleges. “In the documents, Roldugin is listed as the owner of offshore companies that have obtained payments from other companies worth tens of millions of dollars. … It’s possible Roldugin, who has publicly claimed not to be a businessman, is not the true beneficiary of these riches. Instead, the evidence in the files suggests Roldugin is acting as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists – and perhaps for Putin himself.” The Russian president

Among the world leaders named in the papers is Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s pro-Western president.

The documents allege that at the height of Russia’s invasion of his country in 2014, Poroshenko “scrambled to find a copy of a home utility bill for him to complete the paperwork to create a holding company in the British Virgin Islands.” A representative for Poroshenko denied the move was connected to “any political and military events in Ukraine.” The firm was not included in Poroshenko’s financial disclosure that year—a move

Jackie Chan

Also named is Sigmundur Gunnlaugson, Iceland’s prime minister, who was elected after that country’s financial collapse. The documents allege Gunnlaugson hid millions of dollars of investments in his country’s banks in an offshore company. Gunnlaugson and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, bought the company un 2007, but he failed to declare his interest in it when he entered parliament two years later. The documents show Gunnlaugson later sold half the company to his wife for $1. The prime minister denies any rules were broken, but he is facing calls for his resignation.

The documents also reveal offshore companies linked to the family of Xi Jinping, China’s president who was cracked down on corruption in the country. Mossack Fonseca, the papers allege, has “serviced enough Middle East royalty to fill a palace. It’s helped two kings, Mohammed VI of Morocco and King Salman of Saudi Arabia, take to the sea on luxury yachts.” The pape rs also appear to show secret offshore companies linked to the families and associates of Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, Moammar Gadhafi, the former Libyan leader, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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Society

TERRORISM

INSIDE COMPLACENT EUROPE'S JIHADIST RECRUITMENT HEADQUARTERS IN MOLENBEEK, THE RUNDOWN BRUSSELS NEIGHBOURHOOD WITH THE UNENVIABLE REPUTATION AS A HAVEN FOR JIHADISTS, RESIDENTS ARE STRUGGLING TO CONFRONT THE THREAT OF RADICALISM AS RECRUITERS INCREASINGLY GO UNDERGROUND TO PREY ON THE AREA'S YOUNGSTERS. olenbeek catapulted to global attention after it emerged the district had been home to several of the Islamic State attackers who took part in last November's Paris terror assaults, which killed 130 people.

The unflattering spotlight fuelled criticism that Belgian authorities had closed their eyes to the problems gripping the impoverished, immigrantheavy area, leaving its discontented youth vulnerable to jihadist recruiters.

Efforts to recruit were brazen until about two years ago, with longbearded extremists openly calling for jihad in the streets or outside mosques, until the authorities cracked down and made some high-profile arrests.

Since then recruiters have switched tactics, approaching youngsters more discreetly and taking their messages online.

Belgium, with a population of 11 million, is per capita Europe's biggest supplier of foreign jihadists to Syria, with more than 500 citizens leaving since SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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2011. Sometimes the recruiters stand on street corners hoping to engage Molenbeek residents in conversations in which they try to tap into frustrations about lack of opportunities or perceived injustices, locals say.

45000 4400

Sofian, 18, who is looking for work as a security guard, said he himself has never been targeted by recruiters but several of his friends have been approached on the street, in parks and in the apartment hallways where groups of youngsters sometimes hang out.

"At first, you think 'oh these guys are just like us and could be cool', but then you realise they have pretty extreme ideas," he told AFP. "They say: come with us to Syria, your life here is shitty," he said.

"And online it's the same thing, they're not hiding, with pictures on Facebook or messages or the videos they share."

"There is a sizeable Arab-Muslim community experiencing any number of difficulties," with 40 percent of Molenbeek residents under 25 unemployed, allowing recruiters to "play a

little on the youth's sense of hopelessness," says Vanderhaeghen.

When undercover police "come here to try to track (potential trouble-makers) they themselves are spotted in 30 minutes" by residents.

"It's very difficult to shadow them - and the recruiters know it."

But Vanderhaeghen says radicals are finding it "increasingly hard to recruit" in an area whose reputation now goes before it.

Sarah Turine, deputy mayor for Molenbeek with responsibility for youth affairs, said however that "a more underground, hidden, form of recruitment" has emerged.

Turine points out that various attackers behind the Paris and last week's Brussels attacks had never actually travelled to Syria. What they do have in common is a long list of convictions for minor crime and time spent behind bars.

Such was the case of brothers Brahim and Salah Abdeslam, both from Molenbeek.

Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up outside a bar, wounding one person, in the November 13 Paris attacks.

Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect in that operation, was arrested in Molenbeek on March 18, just metres from his family home.

"The lesson to be drawn from the attacks is that Daesh (IS) is mobilising

criminal networks who are not necessarily linked ideologically or who have gone to Syria ... who accept participating in organising attacks here," says Turine.

Often in the case of young radicals "we find it is in jail, in Belgium, where they have clustered and turned to radicalism, becoming a true danger to society," says Vanderhaeghen.

Social workers are battling to break the cycle of social rupture that leads to radicalism whereby a vulnerable youth will drop out of school, quit his soccer club and then withdraw altogether from his social sphere, having first questioned not just family authority but also their approach to Islam.

"It is the most fragile, the weakest spirits, who get drawn in," says Sofian, who grew up in a largely Moroccan area of Molenbeek.

One youth, Anis, felt a void in life which prompted his departure for Syria aged just 18.

He didn't return, killed in a February 2015 bombing raid on IS positions.

Geraldine Henneghien, his mother, is a stalwart with a Molenbeek parents' association, founded by families who have seen a child head to Syria.

"We simply must work with young people and tell them very clearly what their place is in Belgian society -- and stop saying they are the product of immigration," says Geraldine.

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HEALTH

WAIST SIZE BETTER PREDICTOR OF HEART DISEASE AMONG PATIENTS WITH DIABETES, WAISTLINE WAS A STRONGER INDICATOR OF SERIOUS HEART PROBLEMS THAN BODY WEIGHT OR BODY MASS INDEX.

re you an apple or a pear?

Having an apple-shaped body may increase your risk for heart disease if you already have diabetes, according to a study presented April 2 at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Chicago.

Researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City and John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore studied 200 men and women with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes who had not yet developed heart disease. Their research was designed to expand upon a previous study called faCTor-64, which showed that the greater a person's body mass index, or BMI, the greater the risk for heart disease.

During the latest study, participants had CT coronary angiography screenings to examine their left ventricular function - or how the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to the brain and body. Obesity can create stress on the heart, increasing the risk for congestive heart failure. People with an apple-shaped body- or abdominal obesity - are more likely to have this type of heart disease, despite BMI and total body weight.

According to Dr.Brent Muhlestein, Senior Author and co - director of Research at Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute, Salt Lake City, based on the prior research and study of other trials the estimate is that more than 20 percent of patients might have a ‘reclassification’ of their cardiovascular risk if their waist circumference SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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was measured along with their overall weight.

Other research has shown that people with apple-shaped bodies have a greater risk for disordered eating, fractures and kidney disease, compared to people with a similar BMI but a pear-shaped body.

The study will need to be confirmed, Dr. Boaz D. Rosen, principal investigator of the study and cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, said in a press release: "It will be important to see if these patients are indeed at risk of developing heart failure or coronary artery disease in the future."

About 610,000- or 1 in 4 - people die of heart disease in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the leading cause of death for men and women. According to the CDC, preventative steps include eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, aiming for 2 and 1/2 hours of moderate-intensity exercise every week, quitting smoking and limiting alcohol consumption..

T

HE STUDY WILL NEED TO BE CONFIRMED, DR. BOAZ D. ROSEN, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR OF THE STUDY AND CARDIOLOGIST AT JOHNS HOPKINS, SAID IN A PRESS RELEASE: "IT WILL BE IMPORTANT TO SEE IF THESE PATIENTS ARE INDEED AT RISK OF DEVELOPING HEART FAILURE OR CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE IN THE FUTURE."

GLOBAL

CRISIS IN ISIS AS OIL REVENUE PLUMMET BY 50%

FOR THE FIRST TIME, US OFFICIALS ARE SEEING CLEAR EVIDENCE OF THE FINANCIAL STRAIN ON THE GROUP'S LEADERSHIP, AS REPORTS SURFACE OF CLASHES AMONG SENIOR COMMANDERS OVER ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT AND THEFT. ISLAMIC STATE IS FACING AN "UNPRECEDENTED" CASH CRUNCH WITH THE TERROR GROUP'S REVENUE FROM THE LUCRATIVE OIL BUSINESS PLUMMETING BY 50 PERCENT AND OIL PRODUCTION CUT BY ABOUT A THIRD DUE TO US-LED AIRSTRIKES, ACCORDING TO A MEDIA REPORT.

or the first time, US officials are seeing clear evidence of the financial strain on the group's leadership, as reports surface of clashes among senior commanders over allegations of corruption, mismanagement and theft.

Islamic State is facing an "unprec edented cash crunch in its home territory", the report said citing US counter terrorism officials. Months of strikes on oil facilities and financial institutions have taken a deep toll on the group's ability to pay its fighters or carry out operations.

Cash shortages already have forced the group to put many of its Iraqi and Syrian recruits on half-pay and accounts from recent defectors suggest that some units have not received salaries in months, the report said.

as much as 50 per cent because of falling oil prices and a diminished capability to make and sell refined products such as gasoline, the officials said.

"For the first time, there's an optimistic tone," Daniel Glaser, assistant secre tary for terror financing at the Treasury Department, said of the financial war against the Islamic State. "I really do think we're having a significant impact."

But "they still make a lot of money, and we still have a long way to go," he added. Moreover, because of the group's territorial losses in recent months - military defeats have shrunk the size of the self-declared caliphate by about 40 per cent over the past year - the terrorists now have a significantly smaller population to exploit for cash, US officials and analysts said.

Cash shortages already have forced the group to put many of its Iraqi and Syrian recruits on halfpay and accounts from recent defectors suggest that some units have not received salaries in months

Civilians and businesses in the Islamic State's self- proclaimed homeland complain of being subjected to everhigher taxes and fees to make up the shortfall. US officials attribute the economic upheaval to a months-long campaign to destroy the group's financial underpinnings, including weeks of punishing strikes on oil facilities as well as on banks and other repositories of hard currency.

The strikes against oil fields, refineries and tankers have cut oil production by about a third, the report said citing several counter-terrorism officials.

Overall revenue from the Islamic State's oil business has plummeted by SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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COVER STORY

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TWO YEARS OF MODI PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? When Modi Government celebrates it's second anniversary, just six more months remain for the BJP-NDA government to expend half the time accorded to them by the Indian public. It is high time to check whether the promised acche din have arrived. Whether the promised turnaround is half full or half empty.

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t the extreme left wing there are segments that regard Modi’s first two years as utter failure, but they are people who rarely vote for anything except Congress, Left Parties, or the traditional UPA members.

At the other end of the spectrum, is the extreme right wing segments, that still regard Modi as the savior India was waiting for since Independence. But then, they rarely vote for anything but BJP or NDA.

Thirdly comes the stock market performance. Though the exuberance is long gone, Indian market continues to attract both foreign and domestic investments, driving up at least the performing segments of the market.

On the FDI front too, India has performed well under Modi’s stewardship, with inflows at record high.

It would be a waste of time to repeat that both these views are wrong or unscientific.

While extreme right wing and extreme left wing views shouldn’t count much in such a debate, the views of the bulk of Indian population who are just leftoff the centre or just right-off the centre should be respected.

In other words, India’s famous aam aadmi. People who vote based on performance. Will Modi and his team members pass that test?

Arun Jaitley

Among them, first to be appreciated is Modi’s and Jaitley’s commitment to their promise that fiscal deficit would be controlled and brought down. So far, they score full marks over here.

Secondly, Modi has come across as a person who learns from his mistakes, and the contrast between his government’s last and previous budgets is enough example. Rural economy and its growth have been included as important objectives in this year’s budget and this is likely to deliver great dividends in the coming years.

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If that all are on the positive side, there are enough to be said on underperformances too.

The most noted drawback from Modi’s two years of governance has been delay and resistance to improve Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of most agricultural produce. While this has been done ostensibly to contain inflation, this has so far only helped in shattering rural economy that has already been reeling from the onslaught of two droughts.

Secondly, while the government did the miracle of containing fiscal deficit, it was largely based on the windfall gains obtained from the widening disparity between global crude oil prices, and domestic petrol /diesel prices.

Rather than let the significant gains come to the consumers directly, Modi government cornered it for their own use in bettering fiscal deficit and the growth metrics. This has clearly left a bad taste in the mouth of consumers, who feel they have been robbed off their legitimate savings.

A recent sample survey by CMS, done to coincide with completion of Modi’s first two years in power shows that despite spending around Rs. 1000 crore to publicize 40 schemes launched by Modi, barely two have made reasonable impact in people’s minds – Swachh Bharat and Jan Dhan.

While that is only about perceptions, there is no doubt whatsoever that the Modi led Government has undertaken many steps that have led to a revival in the economy.

And lastly, on security issues too, Modi Government has scored reasonably, despite continuing issues from across the border, and in some internal pockets.

Rajnath Singh Nitin Gadkari

The jury is still out on whether India would have been far better off if the gains from falling crude prices would have reached the consumers’ pockets, leading to a huge boost in sentiments, and therefore spending, which would have offset even higher MSPs for agricultural products.

Thirdly, Modi Government’s handling – or better put, non-handling - of the Non Performing Assets (NPA) issue in banks has compounded an already sticky problem to unmanageable levels now. While clearly this is a legacy issue from earlier terms of both UPA and NDA, the Government should have given top priority to tackle this vexing issue from 2014 onward.

Instead, it dillydallied for long before coming out with a comprehensive solution recently, and there are enough skeptics who believe that even the

Sushma Swaraj

Harsh Vardhan

Ravi Shankar Prasad

Piyush Goyal

Narendra Modi

Ashok Gajapathi Raju SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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current framework for resolution is far from what is necessary, and that the Indian banking sector is yet to see its worst days.

Next in line among Modi’s failures, that could have been easily avoided, is all about BJP’s confrontationist tactics both inside and outside Parliament that have left the government without crucial legislations like the unified Goods & Services Tax (GST), and many large sections of the population smarting at the intolerant agendas of extreme right wing elements that Modi seems to have no problem tolerating.

Despite the ground situation in Rajya Sabha far from favourable, Modi and his ministers displayed scant regard for cooperatively building up a consensus on vital issues like GST, while totally inept handling of issues in several central university campuses finally resulted in Rohith Vemula’s tragic suicide that has become an intolerance blot that is difficult to wash off.

The recent Uttarakhand fiasco has only added to the concerns that under Modi and Amit Shah, this government and party would stoop to any lows to kill competition.

Finally, while Modi’s selected team in 2014 and later, was not known for having the best talents available in BJP-NDA, everyone was hoping that either they would improve or that Modi’s inspiring leadership would help them improve.

Neither has happened so far, and except for reasonable performers like Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar, Suresh Prabhu, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Piyush Goyal, the majority of cabinet ministers and ministers of state have underperformed or failed to make any impact whatsoever.

Even worse, many among them like Smriti Irani, Uma Bharati, Kiran Rijiju, Maneka Gandhi, Giriraj Singh, VK Singh, and a few more like them, have often hogged the limelight for wrong reasons.

Seasonal Magazine, which celebrated Narendra Modi’s assumption to power through a Special Issue in May 2014, brings out another Special Issue to take stock on whether the promised turnaround

by Modi is now half full or half empty.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

HOW MODI GOVERNMENT’S POLICIES HAVE IMPACTED 15 INDUSTRY SECTORS Not every industry sector was fortunate under the first two years of Modi’s governance. While the biggest beneficiaries were housing, housing finance, life insurance, general insurance, coal, commercial vehicles, investment banking etc, the adverse hits were taken by sectors like banking, premium real estate development, manufacturing, logistics, power, infrastructure etc. Several other sectors like ecommerce, startups, consumer durables, services etc are booming on their own, while NBFCs are making the best of the void created by the baking crisis.

Housing & Housing Finance: Modi Government's biggest achievement to date perhaps has been the fillip given to affordable housing companies and affordable housing finance companies. But the traditional premium real estate sector is still languishing due to oversupply and high debt.

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Banking: With Jan Dhan, extension of Direct Benefits Transfer scheme, and new banking licences, Modi Government's performance in banking should have been rock-solid, but reluctance to take on the NPA issue swiftly and boldly has upset all the other gains in this vital sector.

NBFCs: Modi Government has not done anything dramatic for the sector so far, but it has not upset the apple-cart either. The result is that NBFCs are today capitalizing on the big void created by banks pausing on even working capital loans and SME loans, and that explains why the sector is booming. Many are also eyeing the new on-tap bank licences.

Coal: One of the biggest beneficiary sectors of Modi regime, as things have finally started moving and that too through the auction route, making Central and a few State Governments richer.

But much of the credit also goes to Supreme Court.

Commercial Vehicles: Another beneficiary sector of Modi Government's economic revival plans. After a gap of around 5 years, commercial vehicle sales have started showing an uptick driven by the revival in mining industry. But there was such an uptick in 2011 too which fizzled away soon, and the industry is waiting with bated breath to see whether the revival will hold this time.

Manufacturing: Despite the big momentum by way of Make-in-India, it is an open secret that manufacturing sector has still not revived much. The sector is still bogged down by excess capacities created during the 2003-08 period’s high growth, high investment cycle on one side, and the huge debt piled up to create that kind of capacities on the other. The non-passage of GST hasn't helped the sector either.

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Logistics:

Another sector that is waiting to fly only if the Goods & Services Tax would pass Parliament. The slow growth in mining operations has also affected the sector, which is nowadays largely reliant on the boom in e-commerce.

Investment Banking: Clearly a sector that has benefitted from Modi Government's promarket reforms. Credit is also due to a more proactive Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), under which IPOs have become much more reasonably priced, driving a boom in the primary market, favouring investment banks.

Consumer Durables: While the government hasn't done much to boost the segment in any of its budgets, apart from finding new ways to milk it, the segment is on a roll due to consumer's penchant for high-tech but affordable durables like HD televisions, smartphones, laptops, washing machines, and refrigerators. Consumer durables financiers too are booming.

E-Commerce:

Another segment where neither Government's action nor inaction has occurred to influence the sector either way, but which is booming anyway thanks to the novelty factor like it happened in US between 1995-2005 and in China between 2005 to 2015. But with almost none of the Indian e-commerce firms making any kind of profits, and promoter shares in the companies dropping fast, it remains to be seen how many of them will survive after the novelty wanes off. Malls or shops aren’t dead in US or China!

Startups: While the startup phenomenon since 2008 has taken India by surprise including Governments, it goes to the credit of Modi that he has tried to support the phenomenon with funnily named morale boosters like 'Startup India Standup India'.

Too early to predict whether many startups will be benefitted by the program, or will continue to be driven solely by innovating on disruptions and unmet needs.

Insurance: A win for Modi Government that ranks as high as its win in affordable housing. Passing the Insurance Bill in 2015 opened up the life and non-life sectors to attract foreign equity investments up to 49% of the equity from the prevailing 26%. It will also cause the listing of major private sector insurers in the near future. Passing the Insurance Bill was a rare situation where Government approached Congress and they complied, despite stiff opposition from left-most and socialist parties.

Power: Power is one sector where Modi Government has apparently focused on a lot and done a lot, but is taking time to revive due to the daunting challenges like oversupply and continuing debt with no respite in the horizon. Government’s ambitious targets for solar and wind power on the other hand are likely to underperform with no major funding source opening up till now.

Infrastructure: A reasonable performance under Modi and Nitin Gadkari, but still way to go before they can even dream of catching up with Vajpayee’s term or UPA1. Still, one of the most promising sectors to watch out for within the next three years. Problem number one here is bloated balance-sheets of all the core players due to senseless equity expansion and even higher debt.

Services: Yet another sector which no government till now has managed to derail, and Modi is no exception.

A sector dominated by IT, BPO, & Financial Services, it goes on to prove the adage that India grows while the politicians sleep. However, external governments can call an end to the party, and a Trump win is likely to affect the outsourcing sector adversely which is already feeling the heat of automation.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

By Carl Jaison:

MODI'S HITS AND MISSES IN FOREIGN POLICY

In a world where impact of foreign policy is not only about security but increasingly about growth in bilateral investments and trade, Modi's performance is a mixed bag. While Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into India is at a record high now, aided also by Modi's high-profile visits to many countries; India's exports has been falling continuously for the past 16 months. While it may be too premature to speak of a “Modi doctrine”, the Prime Minister is leaving no stone unturned in his quest for projecting India as a leading power in global politics. By giving unbridled attention to foreign affairs, Mr Modi has virtually sidelined his de-facto External Affairs minister Ms Sushma Swaraj and laid emphasis on abandoning talk of a foreign policy based on nonalignment. This behavior is hardly surprising because as the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi showed unusual interest in other countries by paying visits to Japan, China and Britain and hosting gala investor summits in his state. And now as Prime Minister, it is safe to lay claim that he has put more energy into foreign policy than anything else.

However, like most PMs, Modi too has fallen prey to the “excessive style, little substance” syndrome.

The obvious deviation has been on the perception front, where his singular goal of being seen to play an international role has attracted global eyeballs. But the pertinent question to be asked is what has been the net result of Modi’s extravagant globe-trotting?

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the BJP’s election manifesto, one observes the propensity to project itself as being a ‘soft power’ determined to undo the “slip-ups” committed by UPA-II and redefining the importance of taking neighbouring countries into confidence: “BJP believes that political stability, progress and peace in the region are essential for South Asia’s growth and development. The Congress-led UPA [United Progressive Alliance] has failed to establish enduring friendly and cooperative relations with India’s neighbours. India’s relations with traditional allies have turned cold.

India and its neighbours have drifted apart. The absence of statecraft has never been felt so acutely as today.”

Fast forward to 2016, many political observers will conclude that what began as an inspiring neighbourhood policy with Modi’s glamorous tour of the region at the backdrop of an equally glittering swearing-in ceremony, has sadly manifested into an unimaginative diplomatic debacle which has done nothing more than

alienate the region. In fact, the disastrous outcome has not just managed to make more enemies than friends, but has sent unwanted signals of New Delhi being a bully inviting the ire of its neighbours.

India’s top diplomat S Jaishankar had quipped that “you cannot be a leading power if your neighbourhood is not with you, you need it to root for you”.

Agreed, India has made efforts to promote cross-border trade and a regional electricity grid, creating infrastructure on its borders, relaxing visas and offering relief aid to earthquake-hit Nepal and war-torn Afghanistan. But the perception that it meddles and bullies has clearly outweighed the good work demonstrated. Although the MEA has been steadfast and proactive in bringing back its stranded NRIs and harbouring aspirations for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, its bilateral priorities have indeed gone for a spin. India realizes its influence in the region, but there is an increasing likelihood that the government is drifting away from its core commitment towards regional

India’s top diplomat S Jaishankar had quipped that “you cannot be a leading power if your neighbourhood is not with you, you need it to root for you”.

stability and instead vying for the status of “Big Brother” with the dragon across the border. It’s a choice between adopting a mature and subtle diplomacy against a muscular and patronizing version of the same. India’s westward tilt is understandable but by antagonizing its neighbours, New Delhi runs the risk of harming its prospects in the region. While making foes along the way is an inevitable trend, Modi government could learn a thing or two by engaging in some genuine soul-searching. The friction caused hasn’t been massive but surely merits introspection. Well, there is always scope for some damage control. After all, the art of diplomacy is all about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

The Nepal Conundrum: Until the passing of the new Nepalese Constitution in September 2015, India and Nepal shared a remarkable relationship stemming from years of common cultural and strategic ties to a shared spiritual tradition. More recently, India played a leading role in the rescue efforts, after its landlocked neighbor had been devastated by an earthquake, by offering financial and humanitarian aid and even promising to help revive its crippling economy. However, New Delhi made its displeasure with the elements of the new secular constitution amply clear by backing the legitimate feeling among the people of Terai, especially the Madhesis and Tharus, living close to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who felt they got a raw deal. The problematic part was twofold: the manner in which New Delhi publicly expressed its displeasure with Nepal’s sovereign act of Constitution-drafting; and the manner in which India allegedly abetted the Madhesi blockade of essential supplies to Nepal. In response to the blockade, Kathmandu complained to the United Nations, prompting its Secretary-General to highlight “Nepal’s right of free transit, as a landlocked nation as well as for humanitarian reasons”. Some reports

even claimed that attempts were made by the Modi government to topple the K.P Oli regime, backed by mostly leftleaning parties.

Admittedly, Nepal has a long way to go in terms of delivering a more inclusive constitutional settlement.

But, India’s arm-twisting tactics will only have an adverse impact on how its other neighbours will increasingly come to view the subcontinental giant.

The joint statement issued by the EUIndia Summit in March 2016, cautioning the political leadership of Nepal to take urgent steps to defuse the tension in the affected regions hasn’t gone down well with the latter.

Due to this purportedly unwise move, Kathmandu enjoys an ever stronger bilateral partnership with China.

Lessons from Lanka: If Rajiv Gandhi’s ill-advised military intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war set an unfortunate precedent, the Modi government’ alleged interference in the island nation’s elections last year sparked fresh concerns over New Delhi increasingly meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.

New Delhi had proactively promoted the coalition led by Maithripala Sirisena to defeat the then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa whose anti-Tamil record and pro-China tilt was resented by New Delhi. Several reports at the time claimed that Colombo had asked New Delhi to withdraw the Research and Analysis Wing’s station chief in Sri Lanka for allegedly working to ensure the victory of the anti-Rajapaksa coalition.

By playing a discreet role in the regime change, the Modi government may have anticipated that the Sirisena administration would return the favor.

However, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while visiting India last year, shocked New Delhi by saying, “Sri Lanka is neither pro-India nor pro-China.” This came as a massive blow to India’s attempt at winning over a hitherto time-tested partner.

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up to Beijing for economic and infrastructural assistance, something it knows fully well that New Delhi can only provide in miniscule proportions.

Maldivian Malady: In 2013, while in the Opposition, Rajnath Singh mocked the Manmohan Singh regime for meekly surrendering not only to major regional players like China and Pakistan but also to smaller countries in a veiled reference to Maldives. Three years down the line, he finds his own government in an embarrassing position vis-à-vis Maldives.

New Delhi, being highly critical of how the pro-India former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed was jailed by the current regime under terrorism charges, publicly stated that “we are concerned at recent developments in the Maldives, including the arrest and manhandling of former President Nasheed”. The Maldivian government responded by saying it hoped that India would “adhere to the principle of Panchsheel and will not intervene in domestic politics of Maldives”.

Paranoid Over Pakistan:

problem that Pakistan poses. Modi gave the impression of following in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s footsteps but has so far only managed to remain under his shadow. The usual back and forth of diabolic dialogues and gross ceasefire violations have once again provided a very grim reminder of the frosty relationship between the nuclear rivals. Pakistan’s non-committal attitude, especially with respect to the investigation into the 26/11 attacks, has exacerbated the situation beyond repair while India’ continued refusal to bring the Kashmir issue to the table has antagonized Islamabad. En route to Delhi from Kabul on the return trip from Russia, the Prime Minister made an “impromptu” stopover in Lahore to wish Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. This evoked euphoric headlines in the Indian media. Not everyone, however, saw this as heralding a new chapter in India-Pakistan relations, with long-time Pakistan watchers well aware that the “path to Pakistan’s perfidy” is usually paved with good intentions on India’s part. The Gurdaspur and Pathankot attacks reaffirmed the apprehensions and the government witnessed widespread criticism over inviting the Pakistani Joint Investigation Team to the IAF airbase. Their embarrassment knew no bounds after the Pakistani JIT blamed India for ‘staging’ the terror attack.

The biggest foreign affairs challenge for any Indian Prime Minister is the

India has a SAARC-minus-one” strategy of integrating South Asia’s economies

During External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Maldives in October last year, Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen’s office issued a sharply worded statement that his “government will not tolerate foreign parties interfering with the country’s domestic issues”. To make matters worse, China has been aggressively offering economic and infrastructural assistance to Male thereby strengthening an otherwise indifferent bilateral relationship. Atleast in this case, New Delhi quickly realized its folly and has since remained mum about Maldives’ domestic affairs and made amends with the signing of a number of bilateral agreements during Mr. Yameen’s visit to New Delhi last month.

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over the next decade, working with the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation but isolating Pakistan. So far Mr Modi’s handling of the old rival has not been coherent: he welcomed Nawaz Sharif, its prime minister, to his inauguration in May last year, and then used some pretext to cancel talks between the two countries’ foreign secretaries. Relations deteriorated as the bloodiest border clashes in 11 years broke out in October, but this relationship looks unlikely to shift much for better or worse.

The Multi-directional West-Asia Policy: The chilling events panning out in the “Middle East” has been a matter of household discussion for quite some time now. As the ISIS aspires to leave its footprint in the multi-religious societies of Asia, India needs to develop strategic and military ties with its friends from the Gulf countries namely Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran.

There is a near consensus in foreign policy circles that maintaining vibrant ties with Saudi Arabia is crucial to serving India’s national interest: Today, Saudi Arabia is India’s largest supplier of crude oil. Besides, India is the largest recipient of foreign remittances from the Sunni kingdom, owing to the 3 million-odd NRIs working there.

However, of late, both countries have moved beyond economic partnerships

and looked to explore strategic options especially in the realm of counterterrorism and intelligence-sharing.

Riyadh also extradited several terror suspects to India in a clear departure from its established policy towards New Delhi. But what remains to be seen is if there will be a major overhaul in their South Asia policy vis-à-vis Pakistan. Although considered to be historic allies, Pakistan has been warming up to Iran post the lifting of sanctions, something which Riyadh hasn’t taken too kindly. Also, Pakistan’s refusal to be a part of the war-coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen showed signs of strain within their relationship. A delicate issue that should concern the Modi government is Riyadh’s abysmal human rights record and continued patronage for the Sunni-Wahhabi Islamic groups, which threatens stability in the region.

Saudi Arabia is not always a source of stability in West Asia, it is a disruptor too. India will have to factor these developments in its overall West Asia approach. The best way to do it is to restore the balance in its West Asia policy. This is where relations with the Shia-majority Iran gains relevance. The trilateral transport corridor project in Chabahar, inked in Tehran by Modi and the leaders of Iran and Afghanistan has the potential to alter the

geopolitical map of South and Central Asia and surely boost trade with the two countries. However, it is the strategic position of Chahabar, situated just 100 km from Pakistan’s Gwadar port (where China has invested $46 billion for the economic corridor) which will act as a gateway for India to Central Asia bypassing the ChinaPakistan arc. Also, the proposed free trade zone in the Chabahar area offers Indian companies a new investment destination at a well-connected port city. With Tehran becoming the new destination of global powers, India needs to energise its diplomacy to keep engagement with Iran on an even footing, irrespective of outside pressure.

The visit of an Indian Prime Minister to UAE after 34 years marks the beginning of a new and comprehensive strategic partnership between India and UAE in a world of multiple transitions and changing opportunities and challenges. The two nations reject extremism and any link between religion and terrorism. They condemn efforts, including by states, to use religion to justify, support and sponsor terrorism against other countries. They also deplore efforts by countries to give religious and sectarian colour to political issues and disputes, including in West and South Asia, and use terrorism to pursue their aims.

Proximity, history, cultural affinity, strong links between people, natural synergies, shared aspirations and common challenges create boundless potential for a natural strategic partnership between India and UAE. In an otherwise volatile region, UAE has won many friends for its commitment towards economic development while shunning requests for participating in sectarian violence.

Yet, in the past, relations between the two governments have not kept pace with the exponential growth in relations between their people or the promise of this partnership. However, the need for a close strategic partnership between UAE and India has never been stronger or more urgent, and its prospects more rewarding, than in these uncertain times. The key takeaway from the crucial bilateral meeting has been the enhanced cooperation in counterterrorism operations, intelligence sharing and capacity building.

Counting on Uncle Sam to Keep the Dragon at Bay: At the time when Shiv Shankar Menon called the shots as the Foreign Secretary, India was already drifting westwards as memories of the cold war faded, economic ties strengthened and Pakistan’s relations with the West became more strained. But India hedged, keen to avoid confrontation with China.

Under Modi the westward tilt has become more explicit. That was partly China’s doing. During a visit to India

by President Xi Jinping, Chinese soldiers crossed a disputed border and camped in Himalayan territory that India considers its own, humiliating a man who had boasted he would secure the frontier. Later, China twice sent a military submarine to Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. Mr Modi took offence.

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in and over the South China Sea, where China is needling its neighbours. The same visit delivered what Mr Obama called a “breakthrough in understanding” over the liability of suppliers to any civilnuclear power plants. Details remain fuzzy, but heavy American investment in energy would deepen ties.

Overall, the Prime Minister has steered the relationship with China with a steady hand. Some views have been expressed that the Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region throws the gauntlet before China. Although there are expressions of Chinese unease over this development, enunciated in the discussions between Modi and Obama was the fact that each country has its interests and compulsions in dealing with and transacting mutually beneficial relations with China. India’s Act East policy must envision how the visions of India and China are to be interwoven in the mapping of 21st century Asia. The United States as an Asia-Pacific power also has enormous stakes in the peace and prosperity of continental and maritime Asia.

Modi’s visit in June could turn out to be the last substantive interaction between the two leaders before Obama demits office early next year.

The previous three visits have been nothing short of splendour but the

upcoming visit would comprise of an address to the U.S Congress and a state banquet. Although both countries have underscored the importance of a mutually-beneficial relationship, certain thorns have been difficult to pluck out. Firstly, the recent decision to give Pakistan more F-16 fighter jets, remains an irritant in bilateral relations and there remains a dangerous gap in the high-level views on global economic issues, particularly trade.

Even so, India’s co-operation with the US will become closer as it buys less military hardware from Russia (and as Russia becomes friendlier with Pakistan). That co-operation extends even into space: last September India got a spacecraft to orbit around Mars, with some navigational help from NASA. Whatever the nature and depth of their relationship, the Chinese dragon would continue breathing heavily down their necks.

Renaissance in the Offing: Indo-EU Relations: Before Modi’s March visit to Brussels, where he attended the 13th European Union-India Summit in addition to a bilateral summit with Belgian officials, the last such summit took place in 2012. The meeting with his counterpart, Belgian PM Charles Michel had utmost significance in the wake of the devastating terror attack

in the Belgian capital. The world had taken note of Europe succumbing to terror attacks and the failure to effectively share intelligence inputs amongst EU states to counter terrorist operations. Modi placed perhaps a greater emphasis on counter-terrorism cooperation than he might have done at the EU summit had the attacks not taken place. Modi and EU leaders adopted a Joint Declaration on Counter-terrorism and renewed a 2010 declaration on terrorism. The joint statement alludes to increased cooperation between the EU and India “to counter violent extremism and radicalisation, the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, sources of terrorist financing and arms supply.”

On the trade front, the EU-India free trade negotiations received relatively little attention in the joint statement, with both sides noting that “both sides have re-engaged in discussions” on the matter. The EU and India began negotiations for a possible Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2007. Trade volume between the two sides stood at 72.5 billion euros in 2014. The EU remains concerned about trade barriers in India.

Notably and somewhat unsurprisingly, the EU-India summit failed to produce any resolution for a long-running dispute between India and Italy over the fate of two Italian marines accused of murdering two Indian fishermen.

The case remains in arbitration proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Italy has compensated the families of the fishermen who were killed and maintains that the marines were immune to prosecution as they were in international waters, escorting an oil tanker on a United Nations anti-piracy mission.

Although the marine dispute began as a bilateral spat between Rome and New Delhi, it has broader implications. For instance, without Italy’s acquiescence, India cannot join the Missile Technology Control Regime. Though challenges no doubt persist in the relationship, both sides see each other positively and sense opportunities going forward.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?

2 YEARS

HOW INDUSTRY CAPT AINS FEEL ABOUT CAPTAINS MODI GOVERNMENT NOW

LEADING BUSINESS HONCHOS AND LEADERS OF INFLUENTIAL INDUSTRY BODIES SHARE THEIR OPINION ON MODI GOVERNMENT.

Harsh Neotia, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and chairman of the Ambuja Neotia Group, is impressed with the emphasis on infrastructure, roads and railways. But he faults the government in two broad areas.

Firstly, in not being able to create a more friendly tax regimen, which he sees as "adversarial and sometimes aggressive". Secondly, in ease of doing business, Neotia says, "India is still way behind even though the government is in the right direction."

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), says the government must do more to spur domestic demand. "In addition to reforms, government must augment capital expenditure on key projects in sectors like roads, railways, irrigation, power and other infrastructure sectors to provide a fillip to domestic demand."

Harsh Goenka, industrialist says, "I believe achhe din is near. But a lot more has to be done in terms of execution to make it happen."

Adi Godrej, chairman of the diversified Godrej Group, spoke out on how right-wing and electoral compulsions are hurting the economy. "Some of the things are affecting growth, for example, the ban on beef in some states. This is clearly affecting agriculture, affecting rural growth," Godrej told.

"Prohibition is bad for the economy ," added the leader of the conglomerate that has a consumer products arm focused on rural growth, a meat joint venture with Tyson Foods of the USA (not beef), and a retail venture that offers, among other products, wines, cold cuts, meats and cheese.

Ratan Tata, former Tata Group Chairman said, "I hope Prime Minister Narendra Modi is successful in bringing companies to India because the country does need a refreshment of new manufacturing companies which will be a real shot in the arm in terms of supply-chain and research in India. Tata further said people would come to India if it makes business sense for them, either in terms of cost or closeness to the market and raw material and fair prices. "So the real test comes when they are making their due diligence to decide whether India is the place to invest, not just on the basis of Mr Modi's promise."

A recent study suggests a mixed record for Modi Sarkar on the corruption front.

The positivity is led by initiatives to rein in black money and conduct auctions for coal and spectrum allocation; yet, the perception that key ministers are keen to promote the interests of industrialist "friends" mars the record on the corruption front, as per this study.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

HOW INDUSTRY CAPTAINS FEEL ABOUT MODI GOVERNMENT NOW Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, says, “The Jan Dhan Yojana, MUDRA scheme, Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojana, crop insurance, Ujjwal Yojana for free LPG connections, etc., are all directed at improving the lives of the poor. Industry believes that such targeted social sector interventions will help alleviate poverty and improve human development.”

Ajay S Shriram, Chairman & Senior Managing Director, DCM Shriram, says, “The government has taken up a catalytic reform agenda across multiple domains since assuming charge - whether it is legislative as in the Bankruptcy Act, procedural as in direct benefits transfer, or systemic like transparent auction of resources. The power sector reforms for coal supply, financial health of discoms under the UDAY scheme and additional capacity building are bold and innovative.”

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YES Bank CEO Rana Kapoor, says, “The recent improvement in India’s ranking on World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Survey’ to 130 along with a healthy pickup in FDI inflows to an all time high is a validation of this positive beginning.

The transition from a state of ‘crisis of confidence’ in 2013 to a bright spot in 2016 is not by chance but by design. The past few months in particular, have seen even renewed energy from the government to enforce key reforms, and revive industrial sentiment.”

Rakesh B Mittal, Vice-Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, says, “In a welcome strategy, the government has targeted infrastructure construction through public investment, including roads and highways, railways, and urban facilities. Public-private partnership models in infrastructure and new financing routes have been initiated.

Infrastructure is the new sunrise sector in India today.”

Rajiv Memani, Country Managing Partner, E&Y, says, “The government recognises the fact that reforming the tax system is critical to improve ease of doing business, attract investments and spur growth. In the past two years, the Finance Ministry has taken several determined measures to simplify and rationalise the tax regime and improve the dispute resolution mechanisms. Most noteworthy has been the focus on encouraging innovation and domestic manufacturing as have been the initiatives to curb black money and bring transparency.”

PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

LONG WAY TO GO FOR EASE-OF-DOING-BUSINESS IN INDIA, SAYS SURVEY Majority of the respondents have rated the improvement in ease of doing business at only 4.6/10 in a survey conducted by PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry on the completion of two years of the NDA Government.

hough the respondents unanimously felt that there has been some improvement in the sentiments for doing business, still there is a long way to go for a visible change to be seen and felt at the ground level, said PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry which commissioned the survey.

More than 2000 responses were received from various businesses including micro, small, medium, and

Narendra Modi large enterprises.

While some parameters have been observed to have attained a good score from the respondents, including an improvement in the availability of adequate infrastructure (5.6/10) and improvement in investor friendly environment (5.4/10), yet survey points towards the urgent need for speedy reforms.

There is significant improvement in the bureaucracy and a score of 5.2/10 has been obtained in this parameter.

Bureaucrats are aware of changes in the policy environment and are serious to implement the policies.

However, improvement in interface with the bureaucracy (with a score of 4.2/10) is still not according to the expectations of the respondents.

There has been improvement in the availability of utilities including water, power, fuel and telecom. However, respondents unanimously felt that the government has to go a long way to

Arun Jaitley improve the distribution of utilities and a score of 5.2/10 has been assigned to this indicator.

The availability of credit, once considered a major hurdle in the ease of doing business has seen some improvement and has been given a score of 5.2 by the respondents.

However, the businesses, especially MSMEs face problems in procuring credit from banks.

The survey found that companies still face issues while dealing with tax

Piyush Goyal

Nirmala Sitharaman

Anant Geete

Narendra Singh Tomar

authorities and settling tax disputes.

The implementation of the GST is awaited with the utmost anticipation.

Majority of the respondents have expressed their annoyance at the lack of timely implementation of the GST and have desired its operation with immediate effect, said PHD Chamber.

The regulatory and procedural bottlenecks still remain a major concern and have not been able to reduce the time taken in the entire lifecycle of the business; the respondents have assigned a score of 4 to the indicator. It has been suggested that regulatory setup should facilitates the smooth and efficient functioning of businesses and markets.

The survey points out that there has been no significant improvement in 4 factors of production such as availability of land and the labour laws have not yet been simplified. There is still no clarity on the Land Acquisition Policy. Transaction costs still remains a major challenge for most businesses.

The survey has suggested the implementation of GST with immediate effect and ground level improvement in factors of production.

Rationalizing the interest rate scenario is the need of the hour as our costs of borrowings are still significantly higher as compared with advanced, emerging and developing economies, said the industry body.

Few respondents said that, Inspector Raj still persists in the economy which needs to be addressed at the earliest.

PHD Chamber suggest the speedy implementation of reforms and work towards speedy passage of pending reform bills that maximizes benefits for workers, businesses and economy.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

By Sindhu Bhattacharya

INDIA'S JOB GROWTH LAST YEAR IS LOWEST SINCE 2009 JOB CREATION HAS BEEN SUFFERING UNDER THE MODI GOVERNMENT AND FRESH DATA RELEASED BY THE LABOUR BUREAU SHOWS THE EXTENT OF WORRY ON THIS COUNT. SO, EVEN AS THE COUNTRY’S GDP GROWTH CONTINUES TO BE HEALTHY AND PREDICTIONS OF ABOVE-AVERAGE RAINFALL THIS YEAR BRING SOME CHEER, THE BAD NEWS ON THE JOBS’ FRONT NEEDS THE GOVERNMENT’S IMMEDIATE FOCUS. jobless growth does not help anyone. As per the Bureau, no new jobs were created but there was actually a decline of 20,000 jobs across eight labour intensive sectors in the December quarter of 2015.

IDEALLY, CHINESE INDUSTRY SHOULD BE LOOKING TOWARDS COST EFFECTIVE INDIAN MANUFACTURING WITH ABUNDANT AND CHEAP LABOUR TO GET ITS MOJO BACK.

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Remember, the September quarter of the same year had added 1.34 lakh new jobs across the same eight sectors and was still the slowest quarter in the previous six years (barring 2012 where quarter wise data was not available).

Now, with the December quarter data in, the total number of new jobs created across the eight sectors between January-December 2015 stood at just 1.35 lakh. This is the

Smriti Irani

slowest pace of new jobs being created since 2009.

Here's some easy math for grasping the enormity of this slowdown in jobs under the NDA: The Modi government took charge in mid-2014 and for that full year, 4.93 lakh jobs were added across these eight sectors. So job addition in the first full year of this government fell to just a fourth of 2014 and was only a tenth of the growth seen in 2009, when the UPA was in power.

BN Rai, All India President of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, pointed out that no government policy has been visible till now to arrest workforce reduction and generate new jobs. He said there has been a consistent

Bangalore to bolster his contention that textile sector has seen stagnation in jobs for many months now, adding the powerloom sector to this list.

This goes contrary to the quarterly data by the Labour Bureau where maximum job creation is shown in textile and IT/BPO sectors.

“Unless the purchasing power of people increases, exports increase, how can the job situation improve?

Government speaks of green shoots but on the ground, job creation is dismal,” Padmanabhan said.

Bandaru Dattatreya

Rajiv Pratap Rudy

demand from BMS for a National Employment Policy but the government has not been heeding to these requests.

clothing and footwear which are looking to set up manufacturing plants outside China because of labour issues.

A recent examples of job destruction, according to Rai: The closure of beedi making units for the last one month on pictorial warnings’ issue which is affecting 24 lakh workers. Remember, this is the BJP affiliated workers’ union and its disillusionment with the stance of the Modi government on job creation.

As per the NSSO data which is available till 2011-12, roughly half of India’s population (49 percent) is engaged in agriculture and Panagariya said he suspects there was a “fair bit of underemployment in agriculture too”.

Earlier this month, Niti Ayog vicechairman, Arvind Panagariya, had pointed towards a fabulous opportunity for job creation in India, saying China is slowing down. Wages in that country remain abnormally high and labour is becoming increasingly scarce.

Ideally, Chinese industry should be looking towards cost effective Indian manufacturing with abundant and cheap labour to get its mojo back. Will the Chinese opportunity be seized by Indians?

Panagariya admitted that job creation remains one of the biggest challenges for the NDA government and then went on paint a rosy picture of the possibilities the Chinese slowdown has created for the Indian job market.

He said that an average Chinese worker draws about Rs 5 lakh per annum in the manufacturing sector, which is obviously making Chinese manufacturing unviable. He also mentioned specific industries like

He went on to say that even when it comes to industry, firms with less than 20 workers in the unorganized sector employ almost three fourths (73 percent) of the total manufacturing sector workforce though these firms account for only 12 percent of the manufacturing output in India (as per the 2011-12 data).

A K Padmanabhan of CITU said regardless of what government’s own jobs’ data showed, there had been a serious loss of jobs in the engineering, automobiles and even textile sectors.

He cited the examples of Tirupur and

Ideally, Chinese industry should be looking towards cost effective Indian manufacturing with abundant and cheap labour to get its mojo back. Will the Chinese opportunity be seized by Indians?

During the second term of the UPA government from 2010 through 2014, far more jobs were created in the first nine months each year, across the eight sectors this survey tracks.

In the first nine months of 2010, 6.58 lakh jobs were added; in 2011 this number was 7.04, 2012 full year was 3.22 lakh and 2013 nine months it stood at 3.36 lakh.

In 2014, the nine month period saw 3.76 lakh jobs being created but a quarter wise breakdown shows the largest number of jobs were created between April-June at 1.82 lakh and then job creation kept declining to 1.58 in the July-September quarter before falling off to 1.17 lakh in the last quarter of the calendar year.

It must be mentioned here that this is by no means a comprehensive or even widely representative sample of jobs being created across the country, even though the survey tracks some labour intensive industries like textile, jems and jewellery, IT/BPO and automobiles.

And the government needs to map joblessness as well as creation of new jobs with a wider sample. But still, this is the only recent data available.

A new headache for the government could be the slowing funding in the fast-paced e-commerce sector. Here again, job losses are happening and could accelerate further.

Rai of BMS said 1.25 crore new jobs were expected every year and this was a promise successive governments made. It is obvious that the reality is nowhere near this number.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

By Mukesh Butani, Managing Partner, BMR Legal

WHY MODI GOVERNMENT SCORES HIGH ON LAW REFORMS, DESPITE SETBACKS As the Modi administration completes two years, it’s but fair to say that the government while tempering expectations, realizing the challenges on political and economic fronts, is laying a steady and robust foundation for economic reforms.

he Economist aptly sums up the Modi government’s achievements by underpinning the fall of “rent-seeking” trends in India’s bureaucracy. Improved rating in the 2015 World Bank report and World Economic Forum’s index on business competitiveness speak for themselves on achievements thus far. With sustained growth momentum, India is in a sweet spot, pulling its weight to positively influence growth trends in the region, given the slowdown in China.

Among crucial achievements, a proactive foreign diplomacy, unprecedented emphasis on attracting FDI

(foreign direct investment) and foreign institutional portfolio investors without jeopardizing prospects of a “Make-inIndia” pitch, progressive legislation and decisive executive actions stand out. Macroeconomic indicators project a clearer picture on fiscal discipline, with short-to-medium term GDP growth strategy range-bound between 7.5-8%. Structural reforms in the form of subsidy management and distribution, and social security platforms (Jan Dhan Yojana) combined with financial inclusion will certainly yield long-term results. Steady growth in foreign exchange reserves and benign inflationary trends are encouraging, as the government

Arun Jaitley reaffirms its commitment to growth in public spending, particularly on roads, ports, railways and rural electrification.– The government’s diplomacy has led to a rise in the country’s stature; India’s demands for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group now appear closer to realization. As the world takes note of India’s economic resilience, a gush of foreign investments has been witnessed over the past 24 months. Latest OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) statistics show FDI in India grew by 31% in 2015, as compared to a decline in major emerging economies including Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and Indonesia.

Independent surveys suggest an unprecedented climb in foreign inflows which permit tapping potential

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On structural reforms, a host of legislative and policy reforms with stress on innovation in sectors such as railways, roads, coal and energy seem to be the mantra of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s colleagues.

eurship and employment generation.

The government’s diplomacy has led to a rise in the country’s stature; India’s demands for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group now appear closer to realization.

Venkaiah Naidu

D. V. Sadananda Gowda

of key sectors such as insurance, defence, retail trade and pharmaceuticals. In tandem with equity market reforms, the charismatic central bank governor has shown the way for conservative though sensible monetary policy and debt market reforms. The government’s bold initiative for liberal foreign borrowing guidelines has allowed wider access to relatively cheaper sources of debt for infrastructure project development, given restricted ability of Indian financial institutions.

On structural reforms, a host of legislative and policy reforms with stress on innovation in sectors such as railways, roads, coal and energy seem to be the mantra of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s colleagues. Most recently, enactment of a comprehensive insolvency and bankruptcy law underlines credibility of the government’s endeavours to address balance-sheet woes of public sector banks, force delinquent borrowers to rearrange their balance sheets and kick-start stalled projects.

The legislation promises an entrepreneur-friendly legal framework for speedier, transparent and efficient resolution of corporate insolvencies, and will inspire confidence (of investors) in stalled infrastructure projects, innovation-intensive and risky start-up ventures. Amendments to the SARFAESI (Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and

Enforcement of Security Interest) law and debt recovery statute will allow investors time-bound exits, and recalibrate distressed and nonperforming investments. Amendments to the Arbitration Act will facilitate speedier resolution of commercial disputes. Enactment of a real estate law is a big leg-up for the industry to establish accountability and protect consumer interest.

New defence procurement procedures and a draft national civil aviation policy are milestone moves in India’s aerospace and defence industries which hold untapped investment potential and consumer interest. An overhauled hydrocarbon exploration and licensing policy regime heralds a change from a profit- to revenuesharing model and a way to avoid disputes that have historically plagued interests of international investors in this important sector. A regulatory framework for start-ups is expected to lay a strong foundation for a rapidly growing industry which holds potential for growth of entrepren-

Mukesh Butani

Tax policy and administrative reforms have been at the forefront with bold budgets and successive administrative announcements. Beginning from the 2015 budget, tax proposals and legislative amendments have been calibrated with a view to providing a predictable and transparent regime, both to domestic and foreign investors with focus on taxpayer service. While the government has been adhering to its promise to refrain from retrospective legislations, its announcements have instilled confidence in tax administration. With G20’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project led by OECD taking centre stage, it is clear that the tax policy stance on General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR), transfer pricing documentation, tax treaty abuse, transparency in information sharing, dealing with tax crimes, etc., will be to align domestic policies with global best practices. Recently introduced equalization levy for e-commerce enterprises, enhanced documentation requirement for transfer pricing, impending GAAR legislation and amendments to the India-Mauritius tax treaty are obvious fallouts of BEPS initiatives.

Though the goods and services tax (GST) legislation continues to hang fire, its passage never seemed as close as it appears now. Both GST and the land bill have been obvious casualties of the government’s lack of legislative majority in the Upper House.

However, the record of bills passed in last two Parliament sessions has given a sense of optimism to investors. The success factors for the future lie in keeping up the momentum to increase public expenditure, actualize reforms in public sector banks, implementation of several flagship schemes, and a thrust on infrastructure and social sectors.

The overall verdict will depend on a philosophical question: Does one see the glass half full or half empty? Considering where the economy stood in 2014, I certainly see the glass more than half full as the new government comes close to completing its first innings.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

HOW MODI GOVERNMENT PERFORMED IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Prime Minister’s ambitious plan to provide housing for all by 2022 has taken a good start in the right direction by the following measures taken during the past two years of good governance.The term affordability is now widely used to connoteavailability of houses/flats aroundRs.40.00 lakhs. However, real affordability differs from person to person according to his monthly income.Disposable income of the people remains the primary factor in determining the affordability.

of India’s population lives in rural India and out of this, 74.5% earn below Rs.5000 p.m.Theirs is a huge number. The affordability for this section of society is nil.Further about 17.18% earn between Rs.5000 to 10,000, and the affordability for this earning group is also almost nil, since this income level will not allow them to spare any portion towards acquiring a land or house for their living. These are all Below Poverty Line groups and their affordability should be treated as nill, and it has be covered under Social Schemes only by the Government.

Indira AwazYojana was started in 1985 for providing assistance worth Rs.70,000 in plain areas and Rs.75,000 in difficult areas for construction of dwelling units to BPL families, whoare already owningtheir own land.

73%

Now, thepresent Government hasmodified the Scheme and called it National GraminAwaz Mission (GRAM)and allowed increased amount of grant toRs.1,00,00 and Rs.1,25,000 and targeted 3.20 crore houses to be covered in a period of nine years with a target of 25.00 lakh houses in the first year with fund SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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requirements of Rs. 27,300 crores.

This Scheme was announced in the middle of 2015, and the progress will be known by the end of this year, and even if 10.00 lakhs houses are achieved, it will be a good beginning, and the shortfall can be made up in the coming years. This is an apt Scheme for the rural population group discussed above with income uptoRs.5,000, and from Rs. 5000 to Rs.10,000/. This Scheme will also enable upgradation of existing kutcha houses where there is a shortage of 200 lakh units in rural areas.Taking into account theescalation of prices ofhouse construction materials,in our view, the Government should consider increasing the grant under GRAMto Rs.1,50,000 for construction of new living place, andRs.1,00,00 may be continued for upgradation of kutchaliving places. This increased amount is essential to cover the construction of bath room lavatory etc.

There are more problems to overcome, since all the above said rural population group may not be owning any land.In addition there are landless labourers living in rural areas, with nil affordability and there is great urgency to provide lands to this

By R Nambirajan, Managing Director, DHFL Vysya Housing Finance Ltd.

section alsoso that they can also benefit under theGRAM Scheme.State Governments have to play a greater role in this regard by finding suitable land for allotment freely. Since this group is not having land, and during draught and difficult times, they tend to migrate towards cities in search of livelihood.There are six lakh villages in India and the present Government has proposed 500 Smart Towns to be developed along with existing cities.

This can create a strong hub and spoke model with around 1000 villages linked to each of these cities, so thatmigration to cities in large scale is averted.

The remaining section of people living in rural areas, i.e. 8.3%, have income above Rs.10,000/-,and the Government shouldhelp them withinterest subsidy scheme, asdone in the case of urban poor, fixingthe upper limit of income foreligibility. The Central Government will be more successful, ifthey work as a team along with the State Governments andwith the help of Gram Sabhas. Such a step will help the Government to achieve the ambitious goal of housing for all by 2022 in rural areas.

Now coming to urban areas, there is ashortage of 17.84 million units under EWS and LIG segment (as on 2012).

This has already increased due to more migration into urban areas. The EWS segment will have income ranging from Rs.10,000 to Rs.20,000

in urban areas. There are BPL families also living in urban centers, and for them, the affordability is nil, and the Central and State Governments should provide living place for them free of cost. Since there is lot of misuse ofliving place allotted to this group,it is better, iftheownership of the living place is kept with the Government, anda right toown thehouse isgiven to them over a period of 10 years time against a nominal payment, to be fixed upfront. This will avoid the misuse of selling such EWS living place by the beneficiaries.

LIG segment in urban areas will have income starting from above Rs.20,000/.Their affordability is slightly better, and with a little help of capital contribution or interest subsidy they can be helped to own their own living place (restricting constructed areas within their affordability) in urban centers. The present Government in the last two years, has increased the interest subsidy for urban poor to 6% when they avail loan for construction of living place in urban areas (the interest amount at 6% at discounted rate paid for the entire period of loan). This is a very attractive scheme for both EWS

and LIG segment and will help the urban poor to reduce their interest cost to a maximum extent.All living in urban areas are not possessing land.

Land should be made available by the State Governmentsat a lesser cost to individuals, or to Builders and the Builders should becompelled to earmark certain percentage of constructed area for EWS and MIGsections ata concessional price.

The remaining section ofpeople, other than theurban poor discussed above, in urban centers and havingmore income requireshousing loan at a reasonable interest.The Government has already provided,income tax benefitson interest on housing loans upto Rs.2,00,000 lakhs(under Section 24) and alsoa rebate onrepayment of principal amount in a year upto Rs.1,00,000, ( under Section 80c) andit will go a long way inhelping this section of the society.

The funding requirement for achieving housing for all by 2022 is huge, andyear after year it will increase.

NHB has to play a pivotal role andthe Central Government, and RBI should help NHB in sourcing funds at a cheaper rate, so that they canlend to Slums in Dharavi

HFCsat a lesser rate, andallow HFCs to have a level playing field in thecut throat competition with banks.In the first two three years, things will moveon their own. However,in the long run,things willimprove only if adequate financial arrangements are in place to meet the huge requirements ofthe lending institutions.

Mortgaged Backed Securities (MBS) is to be made more popular, andthe Governmentshould consider establishinga separate institution (like the model of Fannie Mae in USA) to purchase mortgage portfolios from HFCs and convert them into MBS stock and sell in the open market. The GovernmentTreasury can also consider buying such preferred stocks to replenish funding requirements. A long term perspective of funding requirement should beplanned and initiated.

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) can play arealistic role. While allotting land for industrial purposes and other commercial activities including under SEZ areas, a condition must be placed for building EWS/small houses for the workers in about10% of the space allotted.

Availability of long term funding at a reasonableprice is scarce in India.

Since all HFCs are not allowed access to ECB funds,the Government/RBI should permit NHBtosource more funds under ECB and make available these funds to HFCswho are not directly eligible to borrow under ECB.NHB should also be permitted togo forTax Free Bonds as one of the source of funding, toreduce the interest burden to theultimate borrowerswho borrow fromHFCs/ banks.

To conclude,the two year period of the Government hassucceeded inproviding momentum to achieve thegoal of housing for all by 2022. The regulators, i.e.the Reserve Bank of India, and National Housing Bank have alsoacted proactivelyfor the targetof housing for all by 2022.We are confident that the momentum willtake up speed in the coming years to take us all to the goal.

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NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY

EYEING BETTER GROWTH ON BETTER PRODUCTS, SUSTAINABLE PREMIUMS DESPITE A TOUGH YEAR OF NATURAL CALAMITIES FOR THE GENERAL INSURERS, KOLKATA BASED NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY HAS REGISTERED DECENT GROWTH IN MOST METRICS. WHILE THIS STEADY GROWTH WILL CONTINUE, IT’S NEW CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR K SANATH KUMAR, AN INDUSTRY VETERAN, IS HOPEFUL OF THIRD-PARTY MOTOR PREMIUMS GETTING MORE RATIONALIZED THEREBY MAKING THIS SEGMENT PROFITABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME. NIC STANDS TO GAIN THE MAXIMUM FROM THIS PROPOSED MOVE

BY IRDA, AS IT IS THE SECOND LARGEST PLAYER IN THE MOTOR INSURANCE BUSINESS. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA HAS ALSO DECIDED TO GO FORTHE IPOS OF PUBLIC SECTOR GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANIES LIKE NIC. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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K SANATH KUMAR, CMD

ndia’s oldest general insurer is still growing at a steady pace.

During 2014-15, its profit before tax was Rs. 1196.74 crore, up by 18.75%. This was on a total premium collected of Rs. 11,282.64 crore in FY’15.

And after new Chairman & Managing Director, K Sanath Kumar has taken charge, the company’s GDPI has crossed Rs. 12,000 crore in FY 15-16, which is a feat in itself.

Because, FY’16 is the year that went down in India’s general insurance history as the year that taught the industry about the impact of natural calamities of an unprecedented scale.

Yes, the Chennai floods.

Powered by the El Nino effect, the Coromandel Coast of South India, including parts of Andhra Pradesh,

Puducherry, and Tamilnadu especially its capital city of Chennai experienced incessant rains from early November 2015 to early December. Water level kept on rising and by December 2nd, Chennai was declared a disaster area.

While 500 people lost their lives and 18 lakh people were displaced, the estimate of losses ranged from Rs. 50,000 crore to Rs. 1,00,000 crore.

Because of this, Chennai floods of 2015 is regarded as one of the costliest natural disasters to have occurred worldwide in recent years.

One of the major components of these losses, at least from a general insurance company’s viewpoint, was the damaged vehicles. Very few vehicles in the affected areas escaped the wrath of rising waters – with most cars affected till the engine level, SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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many cars drenched till the dashboard level, and many fully damaged till ceiling or due to full submersion.

Being headquartered in Kolkata, National Insurance Company’s traditional strongholds are North and East Zones of the country. Still, it has a significant presence in South India and Tamilnadu.

NIC’s gross loss wasRs. 400 crore due to the floods, but fortunately, NIC had gone in for prudent re-insurance policies which limited the net losses to Rs. 80 crore.

Incidentally, the new CMD of NIC, Sanath Kumar in his last assignment was the Director and General Manager of General Insurance Corporation of India, nowadays better known as GIC Re due to its redefined role as the country’s leading reinsurer.

A general insurance industry veteran, Sanath Kumar has over 3 decades of experience, most of it in New India Assurance Company, the country’s largest, where he rose to be the Director & General Manager.

He has worked in various parts of the country handling Marketing & Sales, Claims Administration & Management, Technical Support, Finance, & Audit. He had been in command of the various states & regions of New India Assurance Company’s operations. In his last role there as Director & GM, he was in charge of IT, Business Reengineering, Liability, Miscellaneous Insurance, &Bancassurance.

Soon after taking over as NIC’s Chairman, Sanath Kumar came out in the open regarding how the Chennai floods will affect the company’s bottomline in FY’16, and assured that despite the Rs. 80 crore hit, NIC will be able to post decent growth.

NIC was also confident of growing its total premium income at least at par with the industry growth.And in FY’16, NIC has registered a total premium of Rs. 12,011 crore.

CMD Sanath Kumar is assured about this, taking into account the steady growth in health and motor insurance segments, which accounts for 80% of SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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trained insurance professionals.

NIC’s total premium income.

To tap this industry growth, National Insurance Company has created an updated portfolio of products with features that are at par or even better than the aggressive private sector players.

While in motor insurance, NIC caters to the entire segment with policies tailor-made for two-wheelers, cars, and commercial vehicles; on the health side, this public sector giant has mediclaim policies for insuring the individual as well as his or her entire family, including extended families.

NIC is also a comprehensive player in the general insurance industry in that it has almost all other general insurance products like personal accident insurance, fire insurance, householder insurance, overseas mediclaim, and micro insurance.

No wonder then that for some time now, NIC has been one of the largest non-life insurance providers in the country based on Gross Direct Written Premiums (GDWP).

In fact, it is number two in non-life’s largest segment – motor insurance – and even in 2016, it retained that edge.

One reason for NIC’s leading position in the general insurance industry, apart from its oldest lineage, is it surprising reach across the country and Nepal. NIC has around 2000 offices manned by around 15,000

And apart from its traditional channel of selling through individual agents, NIC is also selling significantly through its online portal – niconline.in – where all its products are available for taking a new policy as well as for renewals. It has also launched ‘office on wheels’ an unique concept of selling insurance at the door steps of the customers.

Apart from growing its health insurance business where it has good room for increasing its market share, the largest bounty that Chairman Sanath Kumar is eyeing these days is the rationalization of third-party motor premiums.

A third-party premium is mandatory for all motor vehicles in the country and covers damage to the life and property of third parties in case of motor accidents. General Insurance being a regulated industry in the country, the regulator viz. the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) wields the power to fix third party premiums.

Insurance companies including NIC have been appealing to the regulator for years for rationalizing third party premiums. As of now, for every Rs. 100 collected as premium from the market towards third party coverage, the insurance companies have to spend more than Rs. 100 as settlements due to an increasing number of accidents and resultant third-party claims.

Recently, IRDA has proposed to hike third-party premiums by a maximum of 30%, and Sanath Kumar is of the view that this will result in third-party motor insurance portfolio reducing losses.

Needless to say, as one of the largest motor insurance players in the country, NIC stands to gain the maximum if this happens.

It will be a sweet development for India’s oldest general insurer as the Union Budget has already proposed for the IPOs of all the public sector general insurers, and NIC can eventually go for the listing as a more sustainably profitable entity.

SOCCER

By Pete Jaison

LOUIS VAN GAAL TO JOSE MOURINHO.

DOES MANCHESTER UNITED REALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

The arrival of the Dutch coach two years ago lifted the expectations of the Old Trafford faithful especially after a forgettable campaign under David Moyes. he rare consistency of persisting with a manager, amid disappointing perfor mances, that Manchester United was boasting about so far has ended with the sacking of Louis Van Gaal. This move by the managerial board, following their first FA cup triumph since 2004, is seen as a welcome decision by most supporters. Van Gaal, who has often been criticised for slow sidewaysfootball by many former players like Paul Scholes, Roy Keane and Rio Ferdinand, admitted only days ago that he is adamant to see off his contract which runs till 2017. What is even

more interesting is the seemingly-true rumour that Jose Mourinho will take over the reins once the formalities are completed. Shown the door 7 months after leading Chelsea to the Premier League title, Mourinho is most likely to be back in English football with a bang. That too, with arch nemesis, Pep Guardiola at the helm of cross-town rivals- Manchester City- makes the prospect of having the world’s two best coaches in the league even more mouth-watering. But first let us figure out why and how Mr. Louis Van Gaal’s tenure has been disappointing.

The arrival of the Dutch coach two years ago lifted the expectations of the

Old Trafford faithful especially after a forgettable campaign under David Moyes. The first season didn’t turn out to be depressing as Manchester United qualified for Champions League football after finishing 7th in the previous season. Initially the football wasn’t all that drab but it was never close to the vintage United sides fans have witnessed over the past decade.

However, his critics point to the fact that even after spending an enormous amount of money (250+ million pounds), Van Gaal’s team still played with a makeshift centreback , a centreforward turned winger and a hoard of other misfits. This along with the SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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monotonous dull football which lulled spectators to sleep is being touted as one of the main reasons for his ouster.

However, he did manage to continue his run of winning a trophy in every country he has managed with a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in their FA cup final courtesy of a Jese Lingaard screamer.

Now a closer look at the team which he has left behind for the next manager will highlight the legacy he has built at Old Trafford. The emergence of 18 year old Marcus Rashford and the signing of unknown French prodigy, Anthony Martial will remain one of his biggest contributions to the Red Devils. Louis Van Gaal also gave first team opportunity to many academy players like Timothy Fosu Mensah, Cameron Borthwick Jackson, Guillermo Varela etc. Developing other young stars in the making like Memphis Depay and Luke Shaw further add to the purposefulness with which Van Gaal went about his job at Old Trafford. On a lighter note, there are a number of LVG moments one can recollect with fondness. Who can forget that comic ‘fall’ against Arsenal to the press conference statement that the players have to be more ‘horny’?

Clearly, LVG has left behind many unforgettable memories for the fans but with a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth. But enough said about LVG, what would be in stake for managerto-be, Jose Mourinho?

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NOW A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TEAM WHICH HE HAS LEFT BEHIND FOR THE NEXT MANAGER WILL HIGHLIGHT THE LEGACY HE HAS BUILT AT OLD TRAFFORD. almost every continent he has managed, Jose Mourinho is a winner in all aspects. You can love him, or you can hate him but you definitely can’t ignore him. It is jokingly rumoured that Mourinho has been diagnosed with a certain disease called the ‘third-year syndrome’. He has the uncanny gift of arriving at a new club with a big bang, winning and making a name for himself and then falling out of favor with his players and staff which eventually disrupts the entire team harmony. Although there are instances where he hasn’t fallen out and left like the champion he is, during his stint at Inter Milan for instance.

Roping in Mourinho is obviously a huge gamble as far as the club’s long term interests are concerned. But with the arrival of this personality, whose arrogance and ego matches up to his determination and commitment, success is considered inevitable.

Many United legends and pundits are concerned that the arrival of the Special One will greatly reduce the hopes of many academy graduates making the first team. Mou is not reputed with an image of someone who brings up players from the grassroot level and turning them into stars, instead he will pounce on already established stars and tune them to be an integral part of his team. Mourinho’s genius can be truly appreciated by

taking an example of his arrival to Chelsea in his second stint. In the very first season, he rightfully stated that his team would not win the title or for that matter even mount a serious challenge. In the following summer transfer window, Mou plugged the holes in the team by signing Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid and Cesc Fabregas from FC Barcelona. Chelsea turned into a formidable force in England and walloped to another English Premier League title under the Portuguese. When all was looking bright for the Blues, Mou and his team flattered to deceive in the following season and was only a point above the relegation zone. That was when the after effects of Mou-fever hit the team – the club doctor was fired after a disgracing confrontation with the man himself, the usual blame-game started and after a string of uninspiring performances, Mou declared that his players were cheating him. How a team which won the EPL with a handful of games remaining turned into a pathetic, dispirited unit is unknown but the champion manager had to take the blame. If winning the title was a result of his genius tactics, then the woeful title defence was his own faults being exposed.

All said and done, it is really quite unpredictable as to how a team run

by Mou will perform. They can be a ruthless compact unit or a lumbering aimless collection of legs. The biggest dilemma faced by the United board will be the decision over the club’s most decorated player, Ryan Giggs.

Giggs, who served as an assistant to Louis Van Gaal in his cut-short two year tenure has received appreciation for his dedication and hard work, according to many sources within the club. But overlooking him for another manager is quite certain to prompt Giggs to ply his trade elsewhere and leave his cherished boyhood club.

As the Red Devils eagerly wait for the announcement of Jose Mourinho as the manager, the whole world is certain to keep an eye out for his antics.

Manchester United is playing a dangerously close game of cards but only time will tell whether Mou is the river card they have been waiting for.

SOCIETY

RENEWABLE ENERGY SET TO CHALLENGE COAL & PETROLEUM BUSINESS IN INDIA A RISING SHARE OF RENEWABLES IN INDIA’S POWER SECTOR WILL POSE A SERIOUS CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL POWER GENERATORS, SAID A REPORT RELEASED ON MONDAY BY RATING FIRM MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE.

T

determined contributions (INDCs) to combat climate change.

“India has taken steps to support investment in renewable energy, and further traction in policy reform is key for the sector’s ongoing development,” said Terry Fanous, Moody’s managing director for project and infrastructure finance ratings in Asia Pacific.

He noted that though domestic banks will continue to provide significant funding for renewable energy projects, greater funding diversity is needed.

“MDBs (multilateral development banks) have already been involved in supporting renewable energy projects in India, but the scale of India’s growth plan for the renewable energy industry will necessitate greater participation by MDBs to crowd in institutional

he report also said that achieving 175GW of renewable power by 2022-a government target-will be challenging.

The report, Power Sector - India: Growth in Renewable Energy Capacity Will Challenge Fossil Fuel Operators, said that a rising share of renewables in India’s generation mix over the next 5-7 years will create challenges for conventional power generators.

Moody’s expects India to register a power surplus over that period, thereby pressuring the utilization rates of thermal power generators.

“At the same time, implementation of the aggressive renewable energy capacities - which are planned to grow to 175GW by 2022 compared to the current 37GW - will be challenging, given counterparty risk issues and the need for stable policy initiatives to support long-term investments,” the report said.

“The most pronounced impact of a rising share of renewables in India’s energy mix will be on unregulated power companies. These companies are directly exposed to the market impact of environmental regulationssuch as the clean energy tax-and do not receive the benefit of cost recovery from ratepayers,” said Abhishek Tyagi, vice president at Moody’s and senior analyst.

In June 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi increased India’s target for solar power by five times from 20,000 MW to 100,000 MW by year 2022.

In the run-up to the Paris Climate summit in December 2015, India announced the 175 renewables GW target as part its intended nationally

capital,” Fanous added.

The report also pointed out that around 35% of the new generation capacity (7.1GW) added during the first 11 months of financial year 2015-16 was from renewables-a marked shift from previous compositions of new generation capacity which were heavily dominated by coal.

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SCAM

FRAUD SHARE TRANSFER SCAM MAY BE THE BIGGEST STOCK MARKET SCAM YET

Sources say the fraud is not possible without the connivance of employees at the share transfer agents. Since the unclaimed shares are in physical form, the fraudsters need the specimen signatures of the original holder before they can send the shares for dematerialization. The recent instances of fraudulent share transfers , siphoning off of dividends by rogue employees at share transfer agent Sharepro Services may not be an isolated case. Moneycontrol has learnt from sources at share registrars that the problem is an industry-wide one. he issue has remained under wraps so far because in a majority of the cases, there are no claimants for the shares and dividends that were pilfered.

In quite a few cases, the shares have been already disposed of by the fraudsters by the time legal heirs came forward to stake their claim.

Also, these shares are in physical form and, in some instances, the share certificates (usually bonus shares) are lying with the registrar. That is because the original shareholder would have died and if there is nobody to collect the shares at the address mentioned in the company records, the shares/ dividend cheques are returned to the registrar by the postal department.

According to government records, unclaimed and unpaid amounts of around Rs 1,274 crore have been transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) from 2001-02 to 2015-16. When unclaimed for seven consecutive years, the dividend is transferred to the IEPF. Technically, unclaimed dividends do not always mean that the owners of the shares are untraceable. There are cases where the dividends are not directly credited to the shareholders’ bank SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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accounts, and instead sent as cheques.

If the dividend amount is insignificant, many shareholders do not take the trouble of depositing it. But there are many instances where unclaimed dividends have piled up to a few thousand or few lakh rupees, an indication that the original owners of the shares are no longer around, or have forgotten about the existence of the shares.

Considering an approximate dividend yield of 2 percent, it could mean there are roughly Rs 64,000 crore worth of unclaimed shares. But the value of unclaimed shares could be much higher.

Even if one were to discount the dividend unclaimed due to investor

MANY COMPANIES TRY TO PASS THE BUCK SAYING THEY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LAPSES OF THEIR SHARE REGISTRARS.

indifference, there would be instances where the dividend was being siphoned off by the fraudsters, and so would not show up as unclaimed. Also, there would be shares where the dividend would be small, or where the value of the original holdings would have increased manifold because of subsequent restructuring of the parent company.

And, when the shares are fraudulently transferred, the company may not get to know of it unless somebody comes forward to complain, or the company itself carries a periodic audit of the records relating to unclaimed dividend.

In the case relating to Britannia Industries, the value of shares fraudulently transferred is estimated to be around Rs 18-20 crore , and that in Asian Paints was around Rs 2 crore.

The fraud at Sharepro came to light because an employee there tipped off an investigating agency, which, in turn, alerted SEBI. Sources say the fraud is not possible without the connivance of employees at the share transfer agents.

Since the unclaimed shares are in physical form, the fraudsters need the specimen signatures of the original holder before they can send the shares for dematerialization. And that is most

likely to come from the records at the share registrar.

Asian Paints, Aptech and Britannia filed criminal complaints against the senior management of Sharepro when they got to know about the fraud. But not all companies are willing to take a tough stand even when there are strong grounds to believe that a fraud has been committed.

Many companies try to pass the buck saying they are not responsible for the lapses of their share registrars. And Sharepro is not the only registrar where these irregularities are happening.

CG (name withheld on request), a senior citizen, got to know very late that her father Nowroji Sorabji Sethna had owned shares in many listed companies. However, by the time she approached the companies for the details, she learnt that the shares had been fraudulently transferred and sold.

Sethna owned close to 10,000 shares of Balmer Lawrie, which along with a subsequent bonus issue are worth over Rs 80 lakh at today’s market prices.

In addition, he owned shares in Delhi Cloth & General Mills (the parent company from which DCM group companies were carved out in the 80s), CESC, Walchandnagar Industries,

CG COULD NOT GET HER HANDS ON THE CESC SHARES SHE WAS ENTITLED TO, AS THOSE TOO HAD BEEN SOLD OFF FRAUDULENTLY. among others. When CG wrote to Balmer Lawrie seeking details, she was told that Sethna’s name was no longer there in the shareholder records.

CG also got to know that there was a request for change in postal address, for issue of duplicate shares, and request for dematerialisation. The only hitch: these requests came in some time in 2011 whereas Sethna had died in 1975.

The details provided by Balmer Lawrie show that between May 2011 and February 2013, some 1700 shares held

by Sethna were ‘sold’. In the case of physical shares, the transfer deed accompanying the share certificate has to have the original shareholder’s signature.

In May 2013, Balmer Lawrie issued a bonus share issue in the ratio of 3:4.

Sethna received 5,805 shares. In September 2013, Balmer Lawrie received a ‘request’ from Sethna for dematerialization of the shares.

Six months later, the company again got a ‘request’ from Sethna for duplicate share certificates for 6,340 shares, and two months later, another ‘request’ for dematerialization of those shares. And now there is no trace of any of those shares.

Balmer Lawrie claims it ‘relied on representations made by the RTA and the respective depository participant as also the documents submitted by the transferor/transferees’ while processing the requests. It also wrote to CG saying that there was a sudden change in the address of Sethna.

“The company has been since asking the RTA for the aforesaid details and copies of each of the documents in their possession including the reason for which the registered address of the shareholders underwent change, but no satisfactory answer has been received till date,” Balmer Lawrie wrote to CG. CG could not get her hands on the CESC shares she was entitled to, as those too had been sold off fraudulently.

The Delhi Cloth and General Mills shares were jointly held by CG’s brother and mother, both of whom died in the early 80s.

The company has since been restructured into three arms. On writing to one of the three group companies, CG was declined details of the shareholding, saying the two original shareholders’ names no longer figured in the record books.

She luckily managed to get her shares in Walchandnagar Industries only because a letter she had written seeking details of her father’s shareholdings reached the company barely a couple of days after the fraudsters had written to the company informing about a change in registered address.

Sources say the fraudsters get information about unclaimed dividends from insiders at share transfer agents.

When dividends go unclaimed for years or even decades, it is safe to assume that the underlying shares may have no claimants. The next step is to send a SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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letter with forged proof of identity/ residence to the company, informing about a change in registered address.

The specimen signature is provided by an insider in the registrar, and so will match when the company forwards the request to the registrar to be processed.

This ensures that all future communication from the company/ registrar will be to that address.

The fraudsters will then start transferring small lots of the shares to themselves. If no red flags go up, they will transfer the remaining shares as well. Since the signature on the transfer deed tallies, this will not be a problem.

But the shares are in physical form, and need to be dematerialized. The fraudsters will now open demat accounts using another set of forged documents. They will then write to the company with the details of the fake demat accounts, requesting that the shares be dematerialized.

The FIR filed by Asian Paints at the Saki Naka Police Station mentions that the shares and dividends were transferred by opening false demat accounts, bank accounts, trading accounts and other documents. The fact that fake demat accounts can be opened goes to show rules relating to the opening of demat accounts are not being rigidly enforced by the depository participants.

Laxity in account openings had led to the initial public offering (IPO) scam of 2005. In that scam, shares reserved for retail investors in IPOs were siphoned by a group of market operators by opening multiple fake demat accounts.

And banks are not above blame either, considering that fake accounts could be opened despite stringent know your client (KYC) norms. In the 2005 IPO scam, the operators are estimated to have made around Rs 96 crore by depriving many retail investors of the shares reserved for them.

Unless SEBI tightens the operating procedures at share transfer agents and depository participants, the illegal gains from fraudulent share transfers would well dwarf it.

(By Santosh Nair, Editor, Moneycontrol.com) SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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INDIAN ELECTRIC VEHICLE SALES RISE STEADILY uring the last fiscal, 20,000 units of two-wheelers and 2,000 units of four wheeler electric vehicles (EVs) were sold, said SMEV. Electric vehicle sales rose 37.5% to 22,000 units last fiscal as against 16,000 units in the previous year.

During the last fiscal, 20,000 units of two-wheelers and 2,000 units of four wheeler electric vehicles (EVs) were sold, Society of Manufacturers of Electric ELECTRIC Vehicles (SMEV) said in a statement.

"We are quite delighted at the growing number, which reflects increased awareness among commuters and the fact that people are seeing a good value proposition in EVs," Sohinder Gill, SMEV Director - Corporate Affairs said.

VEHICLE SALES ROSE 37.5% TO 22,000 UNITS LAST FISCAL AS AGAINST 16,000 UNITS IN THE PREVIOUS YEAR.

He, however, pointed out that base number of EVs in the country remained low and the government at every level will have to do more to achieve the ambitious but desirable target of having 5-6 million EVs on Indian roads by 2020.

"Intentions at policy level abound but the government at every level, be it the Centre, state or municipal, now has to go extra mile to facilitate mass migration to green mobility," Gill said. Lack of basic infrastructure facilities like charging stations and difficulties in availing credit from banks for purchase of EVs are some of the major bottlenecks for large scale migration to green mobility, he added.

PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

CONTROVERSIES HOGGING THE LIMELIGHT UNDER MODI'S RULE APART FROM LALIT MODI AND VIJAY MALLYA ESCAPING THE HAND OF LAW, AND GOVERNMENT'S REFUSAL TO SHARE CRUDE OIL SAVINGS WITH CONSUMERS, THE BULK OF THE CONTROVERSIES REVOLVED AROUND THE THEME OF RISING INTOLERANCE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. August last year, MM Kalburgi, the Kannada writer and rationalist, who was critical of idol worship and Hindu rituals, was gunned down by unknown assailants.

Soon after, 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri village in Uttar Pradesh was lynched by a Hindu mob for allegedly slaughtering a calf and storing beef in his house.

The killings raised a furore that transformed into a movement called award wapsi (return the award) by prize-winning writers, moviemakers and artistes.

The moviemakers and artists were also protesting the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the director of Pune's Film and Television Institute of India making it a broad resistance to what was described in general as rising intolerance.

Former IPL boss Lalit Modi against whom evidences were mounting on financial irregularities escaped to UK, and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was accused of helping him escape.

26-year-old Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula killed himself unable to

GAJENDRA CHAUHAN

LALIT MODI

ROHITH VEMULA

KANHAIYA KUMAR

escape the "fatal accident of his birth".

Vemula, who hanged himself in a hostel room of the Hyderabad Central University wrote these enduring words in his suicide note: "The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number."

The enduring image of the year is of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, yelling 'freedom' with hand raised in defiance. He was arrested for sedition, the word and action stimulating memories of the distant seventies when under the then prime minister Indira Gandhi dissent was crushed along with the dissenters.

Vijay Mallya, the promoter of one of India's largest loan defaulting firms Kingfisher Airlines - against whom the government owned banks and various government investigation agencies

VIJAY MALLYA

were successfully building up a case, escaped to UK, raising allegations that Government has helped him escape.

The audacious attack on Pathankot Air Force Base by a group of Pakistan backed militants continued for longer than expected due to Indian forces being taken by surprise. Even worse, Modi Government took the unusual step of inviting a Pakistani investigation team to Pathankot to help in the probe, which backfired later as many

MM KALBURGI

MOHAMMAD AKHLAQ

including Shiv Sena had warned.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal raised suspicions regarding PM Narendra Modi's educational qualifications, and the PMO and Delhi University took a long time responding, and the issue still hasn't seen its end due to various alleged discrepancies in both the degree certificates.

Student unrest in several university campuses including IIT Madras, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad University, Jadavpur University, and NIT Srinagar, which were alleged to be handled in a harsh manner.

On the economic front, despite international crude oil prices plunging, and despite price control getting removed, Government steadfastly refused to pass on the majority of the savings to Indian population, but used it for its management of the economy.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

By ShyamSrinivasan, MD & CEO, Federal Bank

LOOKING FORWARD WITH HOPE It’s evident that the Government is not willing to merely band-aid the economy. Clearly the focus is to transform by changing the core horsepower of India. This means some determined and deliberate calls and actions. In that context, the two years, as one would expect, have seen its shares of ups and downs.

Initiatives such as Jan Dhan, Atal Pension Yojna, etc brought in radical changes in building an inclusive economy just as the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan augurs well for the country.

The Make in India initiative has the capability to bring about manufacturing momentum and interest to the country but only with continued and durable impetus.

ShyamSrinivasan

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The twin deficits (fiscal and current account) look a lot better now, while the growth projection of 7.7% is yet tracking below potential. Private consumption seems robust and is fast becoming a growth catalyst. Inflation has been reined in reasonably, while carefully balancing growth. FDI flows have been, for the most part, quite encouraging. The infrastructure sector needs much more work and money flow.

Yet, despite all favorable changes, we haven’t yet got to a point when the Government can sit back and say it has done all that needs to be done. Much remains to be done by the Government and we all look forward with hope.

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS s a media house that keenly observes and encourages excellent practices in the private university sphere, Seasonal Magazine is taking this space to record that the past one year has been a mixed bag of performance for these self-financing institutions. While more number of such institutions across India failed to live up to the hype, due to falling admissions and increasing competition, some among them are also experiencing acute financial distress. But even amidst this generally gloomy scenario, it needs to be stressed that there were around ten private universities across India that survived all odds during this past year and thrived. The real irony perhaps is that they were not fighting for survival, but rather doing the groundwork to take on a higher competition – the

government and government-aided universities, colleges, & institutions – so that they can thrive as some of the most respectable higher education institutions in the country and beyond.

The Founding Chancellors and current Vice-Chancellors of all these highperformance private universities took on the job holistically by emulating the best practices of best universities across the world. Thus came their focus on innovations and research. But in doing so, they inadvertently hit at the Achilles heel of publicly funded institutions in India, which was the absolute lack of innovations and research. Together with this dual focus, almost all these self-financing universities improved their placement performance, which was already an area where many government-funded institutions were not being proactive.

Today, when we assess the performance of these top private universities, it is heartening to note that they are not speaking about WiFi campuses, built up square feet, or amphitheaters; rather they have enough to be eloquent about their research citations, product patents, and impressive student projects that are tomorrow’s potential startups.

Seasonal Magazine brings to you the achievements of ten high ranking private universities – (in alphabetical order) - Galgotias University, GD Goenka University, JSS University, LNM Institute of Information Technology, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Nirma University, Nitte University, OP Jindal Global University, SRM University, and Symbiosis International University.

Galgotias University

GD Goenka University

JSS University

LNM Institute of Information Technology

MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences

Nirma University

Nitte University

OP Jindal Global University

SRM University

Symbiosis International University SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

MS RAMAIAH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Applied Innovation Bangalore headquartered private varsity, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (MSRUAS), has eight core faculties including engineering & technology, art & design, management & commerce, hospitality& catering technology, dental sciences, pharmacy, science, and humanities. Why then is it named an “applied sciences” university, many may wonder.

The answer lies in MSRUAS’ history as well as continued focus on delivering innovation that can be applied by the industry and society around. MSRUAS and its forerunner MS RamaiahSchool of Advanced Studies is the brainchild of its Chancellor MR Jayaram and Vice-Chancellor Prof. SR Shankapal. The institution is designed from the ground up to be an innovation university, “unlike any other”, and aspires to be a model for other universities. While its research projects are mindboggling for their complex achievements, the university also takes pride in the fact that even average students are groomed here for highly rewarding careers. ndian military and paramilitary forces, thanks to our long boundaries, belligerent neigh bours, and multiple insurgencies, often suffer serious injuries in battlefields. If left untreated for just the first 30 minutes, many of these injuries can turn fatal due to uncontrolled bleeding.

Haemostatic drugs need to be administered intravenously as soon as possible to stop this, but it requires the soldier to be transferred to a battlefield hospital where a medical practitioner can carefully locate the vein to administer the drug. In most locations and situations, especially in non-urban encounters, this is not possible within SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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the first half-an-hour and that explains why we lose many of our most valiant soldiers and commandos in combat.

But what if,an automated, precise, and mobile equipment can be designed for locating the vein swiftly and administering this drug, very near to the battlefield itself? What if the equipment can be operated by a soldieritself without the help of a medical practitioner? A pipe dream perhaps?

But a team of scholars at MSRUAS has designed and developed this very equipment – Automated Intravenous Haemostatic Drug Delivery System that works like a charm.

Now, development of such a complex equipment is impossible for any single department of a university. It requires the coordinated research & development skills of doctors, mechanical engineers, computer scientists etc. And that is what the core

5-member team behind this applied innovation did at MSRUAS. The plight of amputees is another area where India is facing serious challenges. According to some estimates, the country is home to over 10 million people who have lost one of their limbs, and their staggering number puts them above the entire populations of countries like UAE, Sweden, or Hungary!

Other successful R&D projects at MSRUAS include torque converter design software, futuristic monorail design, ragi de-husker, home automation system, battlefield communications system, optical flow based systems for unmanned vehicles, fluid thrust vectoring for combat aircraft, and various unmanned aerial vehicles including micro helicopter, quadcopter, fixed wing, and flapping wing drones.

In case anyone is searching for reasons, look no further than our high rate of serious road accidents, and high incidence of diabetes and vascular diseases. While the country has one indigenous innovation to its creditin this domain – the Jaipur Foot – nothing very modern has ever been used herehere except for costly imported prostheses.

The gold standard in prosthesis technology worldwide is currently the bionic limb, where actual brain signals are used to control a robotic arm or leg. While the amputees in developed countries like USA, UK, Germany, or Japan, have today access to sophisticated bionic arms, most Indians can’t afford it as it costs between Rs. 17 lakhs to Rs. 27 lakhs for just one such robotic arm.

But a multi-disciplinary team of five researchers led by none other than its Vice-Chancellor Dr. SR Shankapal has developed a bionic arm system that

Dr. M. R. Jayaram Chancellor can read the brain’s signals to the nonexisting limb and use it to move the robotic arm with a high degree of accuracy. The fact that they have developed it from the scratch and that too indigenously is giving high hopes that soon a low cost bionic arm can come to the aid of Indian hand amputees too.

Meanwhile, for those with walking disabilities including the elderly, another team of MSRUAS researchers have pioneered the ‘EasyWalk’, a revolutionary ambulatory aid that can double up as a walker and chair, is lightweight, foldable, and can be used indoors as well as outdoors. The research and development behind SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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‘EasyWalk’ followed world-class product development protocols including market research and user feedback.

Yet another innovation from MSRUAS research teams includean Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) called Kainos for military and anti-terrorist activities.

Equipped with self-decision making and self-navigation capabilities, Kainos which is a military robot also takes commands from its counterpart the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, and is equipped with sophisticated cameras and transmitters to send back live video.

In fact, there is no end to describing the multi-disciplinary research projects that have been developed successfully at MSRUAS in recent years.

They include torque converter design software (for automatic gear shifts in cars – first time in India), futuristic monorail design, ragi de-husker, home automation system, helmet mounted soldier adhoc network for real time av communications in battlefield, optical flow based systems for navigating unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, fluid thrust vectoring for next generation combat aircraft that can do extreme maneuvers, unmanned micro helicopter, and various unmanned aerial vehicles including quadcopter, fixed wing, and flapping wing drones.

Very few private universities in India, that too as young as MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, can dream of achieving these kind of projects.

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Prof. S. R. Shankapal Vice Chancellor

A multi-disciplinary team of 5MSRUAS researchers led by its Vice-Chancellor Dr. SR Shankapal has developed a bionic arm system that can read the brain’s signals to the non-existing limb and use it to move the robotic arm with a high degree of accuracy.

But the real beauty of all these achievements is that this has been done without denying access to even average students for all its courses.

In other words, even average students have participated and benefited from such development exercises in this private university.

How is this possible?

MSRUAS has done another innovation in this regard – the Centre for Learning Differences – aimed at helping out slow learners with extra coaching, during their first and second years of study at the undergraduate level. The Centre has 10 professors and lecturers from 10 departments, as coordinators, who are passionate about bringing up slow learners, and this system has worked wonders so far.

The kind of transformation that MSRUAS can cause in even average students will come across as surprising to everyone. Very ordinary students from Diploma and ITI backgrounds, after doingthe university’s course in Product Design, are today employed in top automakers’ facilities like the GM Design Centre in Bangalore, with salaries they couldn’t have imagined a few years back.

Prof. Govind R. Kadambi Pro-Vice Chancellor - Research

The university also appeals to highly performing students, especially at the postgraduate level. One reason for this is the university’s focus on industryspecific PG courses. As of now eight companies are collaborating with MSRUAS to run these types of courses.

For example, MSRUAS has an MTech course in Cyber Security and Information Assurance, designed by Paladion Networks. In some such programs, all the students are given by the specific company, whereas in some others a percentage of students are from outside, but they also get absorbed by the industry, as these are courses designed by the end user which is the specific industry itself.

When it comes to placements, MSRUAS is very particular that each and every one of its graduates are able to do the professional work he or she was trained for. Towards this, industry requirements are kept in mind, starting from the curriculum design stage itself.

Additionally, MSRUAS has deep connections with various industries as this private university is a leader in conducting training programs for various companies. Currently the university is doing such training programs for around 25 leading companies in India, in various sectors.

MSRUAS takes its research initiatives seriously, and encourages faculty and PhD students to focus on applied

MSRUAS has an innovation for slow learners – the Centre for Learning Differences – aimed at helping them out with extra coaching, during their first and second years of study at the undergraduate level.

The Centre has 10 professors and lecturers from 10 departments, as coordinators, who are passionate about bringing up slow learners, and this system has worked wonders so far.

research and get their study published in the best national and international journals.

CA. N. C. Shekar Registrar & CFO 6 professors from abroad come here for training the faculty every year.

Apart from its historical tie-up with United Kingdom’s Coventry University, it has tie-ups with six universities in Russia, while in UK it has relations with two more institutions.

MSRUAS is also unique in that they provide the best research students with financial support, from what the faculty gets for their research work with institutions like the DRDO.

The Undergraduate Programmes at MSRUAS are BTech, BDes, BHM, BPharm, PharmD, and BDS while its Postgraduate Programmes are MTech, MDes, MBA, MHA, MPharm, MDS, MCom, and MSc. It also offers Doctoral Programmes leading to PhD degree.

The faculty here can’t continue with their static knowledge as, every year, at least 15 ofthe lecturers are send for overseas training at good institutions.

MSRUAS also makes sure that at least

MSRUAS also offers three superspecialized MBA programs - MBA (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), MBA (Pharma Business Management), and MBA (Hospitality Management).

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

NIRMA UNIVERSITY

Staying Ahead of the Curve AS ONE OF INDIA’S OLDEST PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES, AND WITH A UNIQUE HERITAGE TO PRESERVE, NIRMA UNIVERSITY IS DOING EVERYTHING TO STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE. NIRMA UNIVERSITY’S STRENGTHS INCLUDE ITS HIGH QUALITY TOP LEADERSHIP, ITS SCHOLARLY DEPARTMENT HEADS, AND ITS INNOVATIVE COURSES THAT ARE IN DEMAND

BY THE INDUSTRY AND THE SOCIETY AROUND.

irma University is one of the oldest private universities in not only Gujarat, but in the whole of India.

Founded by Dr. Karsanbhai K Patel, one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs, Nirma University has steadily built up its success on the early-mover advantage and this unique pedigree.

Professionally managed by KK Patel as VP & CEO and Dr. Anup K Singh as Director General, Nirma University is structured as seven institutes, besides the Faculty of Doctoral Studies & Research, and the Centre for Continuing Education.

Dr. Anup K Singh is a nationally and internationally renowned management expert and researcher who was a visiting scholar at JL Kellog Graduate School of Business Administration in USA. The seven core institutes at Nirma University are Institute of Technology, Institute of Management, Institute of

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Pharmacy, Institute of Science, Institute of Law, Institute of Architecture & Planning, and Institute of Commerce.

university teams to emerge as winner in the 31st All India Inter-University Moot Court Competition by Bar Council of India.

A notable strength of Nirma University is its longstanding and notable department heads like Dr. PurviPokhariyal who serves as the Dean, Faculty of Law; and Dr. SomayajuluGarimella, Dean, Faculty of Management.

Earlier, a Nirma team has outpaced 32 teams to win the top prize in NALSAR Justice Bodh Raj Sawhny Memorial Moot Court Competition too.

For instance, under Dr. Purvi who has been the founding dean, Institute of Law ofNirma University (ILNU) has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Earlier this year, an ILNU team outclassed 45 other law

NIRMA UNIVERSITY’S LAW COURSES ARE UNIQUE IN THAT IT IS PERHAPS THE ONLY INSTITUTION OFFERING 10 INTERNSHIPS CARRYING A TOTAL OF 22 CREDITS. THIS ENSURES THAT NIRMA LAW STUDENTS GET THE MAXIMUM PRACTICAL EXPOSURE EVEN WHILE THEY ARE STUDYING.

ILNU law courses are unique in that it is perhaps the only institution offering 10 internships carrying a total of 22 credits. This ensures that Nirmalaw students get the maximum practical exposure even while they are studying.

Admissions are currently open at ILNU and the institute is also unique in that it offers generous scholarships on both merit as well as merit-cummeans basis.

Under Dr. SomayajuluGarimella, the Institute of Management ofNirma University (IMNU) too has been getting noticed on a national level. A noted author on management

education, Dr. Somayajulu has often been seen giving accurate advice to aspiring students on why someone should aspire for an MBA or PGDM, and also why-not.

Yet another noted department head at Nirma University is Prof. Utpal Sharma who serves as the Dean of Faculty of Architecture & Planning.

Recently, under his guidance, the Institute of Architecture & Planning ofNirmaUniversity, has started a Bachelors in Planning (BPlan) course which is unique in that it has the approval of Institute of Town Planners India (ITPI). Admissions will open soon for the 60 seats of the first batch of BPlan.

Even all the other department heads at Nirma University like Dr. PN Tekwani, Dean, Faculty of Technology & Engineering; Dr Manjunath Ghate, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy; and DrSarat Dalai, Dean, Faculty of Science, are all award-winning scholars with internationally recognized research work to their credit.

At the university level too, under the expert vision of Dr. Karsanbhai Patel, KK Patel, and Dr. Anup K Singh, Nirma University is forever innovating in everything they do, to stay ahead of the curve.

Recently Nirma University tied up with ISRO for research, under which the space agency will start a satellite communication receiver in the university campus and research scholars at Nirma will be able to study this data from this receiver in detail.

Dr Karsanbhai K. Patel, President

NIRMA UNIVERSITY IS INNOVATING NEW COURSES WHEREVER IT COMES ACROSS INDUSTRY DEMAND. THIS YEAR INSTITUTE OF COMMERCE OF NIRMA UNIVERSITY IS STARTING A BCOMHONOURS COURSE, WHILE THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING IS STARTING A BACHELOR IN PLANNING (BPLAN) COURSE WHICH IS UNIQUE IN THAT IT HAS THE APPROVAL OF INSTITUTE OF TOWN PLANNERS INDIA (ITPI).

This is part of ISRO’s project to have K.K. Patel, Vice President

Dr Anup K. Singh, Director General

our own global positioning system, rather than rely on the US sponsored GPS satellites.

The university is also innovating on new courses wherever it comes across industry demand. This year Institute of Commerce ofNirma University is starting a BComHonours course. The course will commence in July and will have an initial year intake of 60 students.

Next academic year, NU is planning to start a Bachelor in Design program with a batch size of 60. It will offer two specializations - graphic design and product design.

Nirma University conducted its 21st Convocation recently, and unlike the common practice of inviting politicians, the university had an international educationalist, John Anderson Fry, President of Drexel University, Philadelphia, as the Chief Guest.

Nirma University is also exploring various academic tie-ups with Drexel, including for the design course.

Nirma University over the years has become a huge campus and operation to manage and two noted administrators, DP Chhaya, as Director (Academic & General Administration), and G Ramchandran Nair, as Executive Registrar, keeps Nirma University’s administration side nitty-gritty running smoothly.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

SRM UNIVERSITY, NEAR CHENNAI, TAMILNADU

Leadership in Engineering Programs SRM University, home to over 55,000 students across its various campuses, offers a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs in Engineering, Management, Medicine / Health Sciences, Science, and Humanities. SRM University was accredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade in the year 2013, and it is also placed in ‘A’ category by MHRD.

cross its four main campuses, SRM has over 600 acres of developed infrastructure with facilities including state-of-the-art labs, libraries, Wi-Fi access, knowledge centre, 4000 capacity AC auditorium, over one hundred online smart classrooms, hostels with premium facilities, ATMs, bookstores, dining options, cafeterias, prayer halls, gym etc.

This leading deemed university arranges for on-the-spot sanction of educational loans from banks during counseling, as well as scholarships and fee waivers for toppers in state board examinations, SRMEEE, JEE, AIEEE etc.

SRM has a cosmopolitan culture as 80% of its students are from outside Tamil Nadu, with overseas students coming from even European nations.

While almost all its academic departments are known to excel, its most famous department is perhaps its engineering school. There are several factors that go into making SRM’s engineering programs like BTech coveted among students.

Firstly, SRM University is a leader in South India for campus placements, dominated by placements for its BTech students. The past year, SRM’s Kattankulathur campus near Chennai attracted over 6000 placements on Day 1, led by IT giants Wipro, TCS, Cognizant, & Infosys.

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Dr TR Pachamuthu chancellor, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, President

Dr. R. Shivakumar, Vice - President

Ravi Pachamoothoo, Chairman

Secondly, SRM University has one of the best industry interaction practices in South India, with a dedicated Industry Institute Interaction Cell (IIIC) that ensures visiting faculty from industry, industry visits, industrial research & consultancy, industry-institute exchanges, and continuing education for industry.

Thirdly, SRM University has one of the broadest ever international academic alliances that ensures that all its programs, especially its technology programs stay abreast of the latest developments. SRM’s academic advisory board and corporate advisory board are truly international, and it also has several foreign teachers on its rolls.

Dr TR Pachamuthu chancellor, with Rathan Tata

Next comesSRM University’s global outreach that offers several programs for international exposure like its Semester Abroad, Twinning, & Dual Degrees, with some of the most prestigious institutions like Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley etc.

Finally, SRM University is a leader in the private sector when it comes to research initiatives with extensive programs in both academic research and funded research by government initiatives, and has set up dedicated research institutes in cutting-edge domains like nanotechnology, environmental nuclear studies etc.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

JSS University

WALKING THE TALK Indian expectations from a university or college are pretty low. When the institution is not among the crème de la crème like IITs, IIMs, or AIIMS, the students’ expectations are even lower. A college or university degrades to a degree factory, or is at least thought about as such by the average student.However, this kind of low expectations have not prevented universities and colleges, especially from the

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private sector, from waxing eloquent about lofty ideals like international tie-ups, industry interactions, and, of course, research. Needless to say, very few institutions follow up these claims with actual practice.Here is where the value of a hardworking university like JSS University, headquartered at Mysuru, deserves special commendation. A deemed university in Karnataka from the private or self-financed sector, it is accredited by NAAC at A Grade and comes at leading positions in the NIRF ranking

by MHRD. But that is not why JSS University deserves special accolades.

he world over, the very best universities are much more than just universities. In other words, they are not just places where degrees are awarded to those who study reasonably. More than that, such elite universities are places where future leaders or even future organizations are groomed, who go on to make lasting societal impact through their innovations, inventions, or entrepreneurship.

This great ideal is achieved through not only an ongoing culture of knowledge creation or research, but by pursuing those knowledge creation pursuits that can be building blocks for the future society as well as industry.

JSS University, despite its relatively young age compared with India’s public universities, has bravely taken itself forward in this knowledge creation pursuit in tune with industry and society. It has been continually walking the talk when it comes to almost all facets of this knowledge creation – be it meaningful international tie-ups, quality research outputs, transformational industry interactions, real life projects and consultancy works etc.

B. N. Betkerur, Pro-Chancellor

B. Suresh,Vice-Chancellor

While many private universities boast about international tie-ups, only a very few among them take the next step forward to ensure that it is beneficial for their students and faculty.

Nevada, USA; Long Island University, USA; AIMST University, Malaysia; Howard University, USA; University of Illinois, USA; National Institutes of Health, USA; and Oman Medical College, Oman.

JSS University on the other hand has not only tied up with several prestigious universities and institutes abroad, but leveraging it for the benefit of its students and faculty. The university or its constituent colleges have tie-ups with La Trobe University, Australia; KhonKaen University, Thailand; University of Southern

In 2015-16 alone, two lecturers and four interns from JSS have undergone specialized training in USA and Australia by utilizing these kind of tieups, whereas many overseas institutes have send their faculty, research scholars, and students to JSS University for training.

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JSS stands for Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara, and is promoted

by JSS Mahavidyapeetha, one of Asia’s largest educational groups. Sri ShivarathriDeshikendraMahaswamiji serves as the Chancellor of the University, while BN Betkerur is Pro Chancellor, and Dr. B Suresh is the Vice Chancellor.

When it comes to research initiatives, it is hard to find another health sciences university in the private sector that is as hardworking as JSS. In academic year 2015-16 alone, faculty and research students of the university have done 307 research publications, which is a feat in in itself!

Of these, 51 were noted research articles in various national and international journals with the impact factor range of 0.74 - 3.34 by Thomson Reuters. JSS scholars also made 35 presentations, both oral and posters, in various national and international pharmacy conferences and seminars.

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In academic year 2015-16 alone, faculty and research students of the university have done 307 research publications, which is a feat in in itself!Of these, 51 were noted research articles in various national and international journals with the impact factor range of 0.74 3.34 by Thomson Reuters.

The quality of the research output was also impressive. Three among the JSS fraternity of faculty and research scholars succeeded in filing patents. JSS University’s ambition and diligence in this regard is evident from the formation of a Patent Cell that oversees the dimension of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and a Patent Review

Committee that includes external experts from such leading public organizations like CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, and National Research Development Corporation, DSIR, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.

JSS University’s industry interaction initiatives also shine with MoUs signed with leading international and national firms like AlfaGene Biosciences, Colgate Palmolive, Alveus Pharmaceuticals, Apex Laborites, EticaClinpharm, Tablets India, Fourttts India, Waters India etc. Going beyond just MoUs, JSS University has already undertaken research, pre-clinical studies, consultancy, or employee training for these organizations.

Leading experts also came in as guest lecturers from reputed organizations including Novartis, Biocon, and Himalaya, to JSS during the year.

Going beyond industry, JSS University has also worked with cutting-edge

frontline research organizations like World Health Organization (WHO), Eurasian Federation of Oncology (EAFO), Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) etc, and renowned scientists from these institutes have graced JSS campus as guest lecturers.

JSS postgraduate students have also undertaken their project works in leading corporations like Aurobindo, Biocon, Himalaya, Hindustan Unilever, Lupin, Micro Labs, Mylan Labs, Novo Nordisk, Orchid Healthcare, Philips etc.

JSS University is home to a Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology and Natural Products Research, which is spearheading the university’s efforts in

JSS students have also excelled in career placements during the past year with students from its various streams getting absorbed by numerous organizations including Dr. Reddys Lab, Micro Labs, Himalaya Drugs, Mylan, Biocon, Cipla, Novartis, Unilever, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca Pharma, NarayanaHrudayalaya, Columbia Asia Hospital, and many more.

knowledge creation and dissemination of the same to the society around.

JSS University, based on its success in research, is today in a position to attract research funding from various national and international bodies, and is also funding research projects on its own.

This research culture has enabled it to attract renowned scholars as faculty members. Recently, Professor Dr. SK Kulkarni, MPharm, PhD, FAMS, FNASci, FIPA, a distinguished Pharmaceutical Scientist & Educationist and Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Punjab University, Punjab has joined as Emeritus Professor at Department of Pharmacology, while Dr. SaravanaBabu Chidambaram, MPharm, PhD, FASc(AW), has joined as Associate Professor at Department of Pharmacology.

JSS students have also excelled in career placements during the past year with students from its various streams getting absorbed by numerous organizations including Dr. Reddys Lab, Micro Labs, Himalaya Drugs, Mylan, Biocon, Cipla, Novartis, Unilever, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca Pharma, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Columbia Asia Hospital, and many more.

JSS University offers programs ranging from Undergraduate Diploma to PhD level in various fields including medicine, dental, pharmacy, water &

health, health systems management, life sciences etc. The constituent colleges include JSS Medical College, JSS Dental College, and JSS College of Pharmacy, all at Mysore, and JSS College of Pharmacy atOoty. Courses offered include diploma, graduate, post graduate, post graduate diploma, MPhil and PhD programs.

JSS is always innovating by launching new courses that are in demand by the industry and society around it. New courses launched recently include PG Diploma in Medical Devices; BPharm (Pharmacy Practice) and Residency Program in Oncology; Oral Health Care Certificate Programme for Nurses; Certificate Course in Maxillofacial Trauma; and Certificate Course in Dental Implantology.

Today’s JSS University attracts research scientists from overseas countries, while its faculty and students often get international travel grants. JSS has hosted 13 national level conferences, and its students are often coming first in attracting noted scholarships like the Tata Trust Scholarships. JSS has granted doctorates for 13 scholars during the past year, and many of its research papers have garnered the achievement of being the best paper in conferences.

All in all, JSS University is growing along the fine international tradition of being much more than a university that just grants degrees.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

Want to Make a Difference?

There are universities that disseminate existing knowledge, and there are universities that create new knowledge. The former type is content with just granting degrees and attempting placements. The knowledge creators, on the other hand, are often eager that they use this newly created knowledge for the benefit of the community around them. Nitte University, headquartered near Mangalore, Karnataka, belongs to the latter category. A deemed university in the private sector, accredited by NAAC and MHRD at A category, Nitte University is the place to be if you dream of making a difference to the community around you, or even the world around you, especially in the health sciences field. But even if your field is totally unconnected, say, mass communication, architecture, or banking, if you want to make a difference, come here, as even such non-medical courses too have the Nitte seal of innovation. Here you will rub shoulders with world-class researchers, passionate teachers, innovative app creators, fiery-yetkind doctors, and a benevolent management exemplified by N VinayHegde, Chancellor, who oversees the over thirty-year oldNitte Education Trust.

he acid test when it comes to the quality of research undertaken at any institution is whether the society around it is served by such research. Nitte University and its various constituent colleges and hospitals are taking extra care to ensure such service so that their research activities are meaningful.

This deemed university in the private sector, recently got a shot in its arm when Dr. K Narayan Shetty, a renowned cardiologist based in Pittsburgh, USA, selected Nitte University to sponsor a world-class neurosciences research centre.

The Rs. 10 crorefacility, one of its kind in Karnataka and neighbouring states, was recently inaugurated at KS Hegde Charitable Hospital, the attached teaching hospital of KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), Deralakatte, a SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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KS Hegde Medical Academy

unit of Nitte University.

Dr. Shetty who sponsored it in the name of his wife Leela Narayan Shetty, revealed during the launch that he had selected Nitte University as “it has become famous nationally and internationally due to its excellent service.”

Nitte University Chancellor N. VinayHegde while explaining about the university’s passion for excellent service, revealed the real secret behind that success. According to him, their superlative service has everything to do with KSHEMA’s 280 postgraduate teachers across 23 superspecialities who treat 3000 patients per day in this charitable hospital.

He admitted that almost all of them can make more money by opening up their own clinics in big cities, but had taken the conscious decision to serve this rural charitable hospital and its research-oriented medical college.

Nitte University’s policies of continuous investment in latest technologies and all-out support for

research were attracting and encouraging these talented doctors.

N. Vinaya Hegde, Chancellor

The new neurosciences centre at KSHEMA will focus on neurological diseases, cancer, and early detection of certain neurological disorders that affect vision, much in tune with Nitte University’s focus on research that helps the community around it.

Despite coming from a background of social service and entrepreneurship, it is remarkable how the Chancellor of Nitte University, N VinayHegde has grasped the crux of impactful research activities. Nowadays, a sought-after speaker on such issues, Chancellor Hegde recently delivered a noted lecture in Mangalore University on the topic ‘Innovation in the Emerging Education Scenario’.

During the lecture, Hegde accurately diagnosed the current ills of higher education viz. degree-centric teaching / learning and institutions’ propensity to follow only one stream of knowledge be it medicine, engineering, or business. He urged all institutions to start delivering

education in maximum streams and help faculty and students in connecting between diverse streams like science, engineering, and commerce. Hegde also motivated teachers and students to focus on knowledge and its applications rather than just pursuing degrees.

As a noted edupreneur himself, Chancellor Hegde has been walking this talk for many years now. Despite Nitte University primarily being a

Pennsylvania State University of USA recently tied up with Nitte University’s KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA) to jointly undertake research on Plasmodium vivax, one of the parasites causing malaria, once thought as less harmful, but now proving to be very damaging to humans.

health sciences university, VinayHegde had directed it to start non-health schools like Nitte Institute of Communication,Nitte Institute of Banking and Finance, and Nitte Institute of Architecture, all of which are performing quite well now.

Among these, Nitte Institute of Architecture (NIA) has been the latest one, launched last year. From its ground up, NIA has been designed to deliver hands-on, practice-based architecture curriculum through mentoring by eminent Indian and international architects who will chip in as guest faculty. The institute is headed by Prof. VinodAranha, who is trained and qualified both from India and USA in architecture, urban planning, and sustainability.

A differentiating point of NIA is that it will allow students to undertake discipline-related work through constant internships with experienced professional architects.

NIA will also share Nitte’s passion for research in that it will have a Centre of Excellence in Tropical Architecture, covering the tropical belt globally.

There will be opportunities for interaction with architects working in these regions around the world.

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parent, Nitte Education Trust is home to several other colleges and institutes apart from this deemed university.

Today, the Nitte Education Trust comprises a medical college, a dental college, 5 paramedical colleges, a 720 bed specialty hospital, 2 engineering colleges, 2 MBA institutes, 2 MCA institutes, a college of hotel management, a 3-star hotel, an architecture institute, a communication institute, 2 technical training institutes, 2 first grade colleges, 2 pre-university colleges, and 5 schools – in all over 25 institutions with over 10,000 students, over 3,500 staff and nearly 20,000 alumni!

Such prowess in education and research by Nitte is not lost on international institutions too. For instance, Pennsylvania State University of USA recently tied up with Nitte University’s KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA) to jointly undertake research on Plasmodium vivax, one of the parasites causing malaria, once thought as less harmful, but now proving to be very damaging to humans.

The research will focus on Mangalore and surrounding areas and will fund the activities of four PhD students through sponsorship by US Government’s National Institutes of Health. The four research scholars will not only undertake their studies in India and Penn State University, but will be facilitated to transfer their knowledge to healthcare practitioners across the world.

Mangalore and its surrounding areas are particularly prone to the prevalence of this malaria parasite, and Nitte University’s success in bagging this international tie-up will go a long way in its vision of pursuing research that is beneficial for the community around it.

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A B Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences

hadundertaken a path-breaking fluoride mapping study with international experts which resulted in a spatial distribution map of drinking water fluoride levels in different zones across 29 districts of Karnataka.

Flouride in drinking water is a doubleedged sword, as both deficit and excess of fluoride can cause health problems. While deficit of fluoride can cause dental caries, excess of fluoride (fluorosis) is more serious as it can cause muscle, bone, and kidney diseases. There is also the added concern that fluoride excess affects the poorest sections of the society.

Nitte University had co-funded and undertaken a research study to predict how global warming will affect the cultivation of various shellfishes like Green Mussels and Oysters in South West India, in the years to come. The partners to this study where Swedish Research Council, Swedish International Development Cooperation, Gothenburg Centre for Marine Research, University of Gothenburg, and College of Fisheries Mangalore.

The Nitte study successfully identified fluoride deficit areas in the state, which were mainly in South Karnataka, like Mangalore Municipal Corporation area; and more importantly, fluoride surplus areas, mainly in North Eastern parts of the state like Pavagada where fluorosis has become a serious health concern.

The Nitte team led by Prof.

ChittaranjanChoudhry not only did the fluoride mapping but suggested detailed solutions for both deficit and excess and communicated the same to state and local administrations for further follow up action. The study was so impressive that it was published by the noted UK based high-impact journal, ‘Perspectives in Public Health’.

In fact, there is no end to the different initiatives by which Nitte University has been coordinating with various international agencies to further research that is beneficial to the society around it.

Nitte University had co-funded and undertaken a research study to predict how global warming will affect the cultivation of various shellfishes like Green Mussels and Oysters in South West India, in the years to come. The partners to this study where Swedish Research Council, Swedish International Development Cooperation, Gothenburg Centre for Marine Research, University of Gothenburg,

Vishal Hegde, Trustee, Nitte Education Trust

Prof. (Dr.) Shantharam Shetty, Pro-Chancellor

Prof.(Dr.) S. Ramananda Shetty, Vice-Chancellor

and College of Fisheries Mangalore, and it was presented at the Society for Experimental Biology’s Annual Meeting last year.

International Diabetes Federation appreciated it. This is the fourth smartphone app by Dr. Baisil, and one of his earlier apps, ‘Let Me Hear Again’ for deaf people had won the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology App Inventor’s ‘App of the Month’ award, making him only the second Indian to get it.

MPH (Master of Public Health), Medical Lab Technology , BDS, MDS, Ph.D, GNM, Post Basic B.Sc Nursing, B.Sc (Nursing), Post Basic Diploma in Critical Care Nursing, Post Basic Diploma in Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Nursing, Post Basic Diploma in Operation Room Nursing, Post Graduate Diploma in Dialysis Nursing, M.Sc Nursing, B.Pharm, Pharm.D, M.Pharm, BPT and M.PT.

The study found that higher temperatures and lower salinity of sea water in these areas were encouraging toxic bacteria and plankton species to over grow causing potential damage to shellfish and humans which are further up the food chain, and came with a dire warning to central and state governments to take corrective measures now itself.

An even more innovative step from Nitte University scholars, from the viewpoint of common public, had occurred recently in the form of a smartphone app. A group of doctors working with Nitte University, led by Dr. Sharon Basil, created the ‘Beat Diabetes’ android app which rapidly became the top free medical app in Google Play Store with over 1000 new users every day within its first week itself.

The team wanted to do something very unique and productive for celebrating ‘World Health Day 2016’, and being community medicine specialists, this app was their contribution.Nitte’s ‘Beat Diabetes’ app also won critical acclaim, with a 4.6/5 rating by users, and won worldwide acclaim when

Nitte University’s popular health science courses include MBBS, MD/ MS, B.Sc (Medical Imaging Technology), B.Sc (Operation Theatre Technology), B.Sc (Bio-Medical Science), M.Sc (Bio-Medical Science), M. Sc. Food Safety & Biotechnology, M. Sc. Marine Biotechnology (MMB),

A group of doctors working with Nitte University, led by Dr. Sharon Baisil, created the ‘Beat Diabetes’ android app which rapidly became the top free medical app in Google Play Store with over 1000 new users every day within its first week itself.

For furthering research activities, Nitte University runs 5 Centres of Excellence in health sciences and science education. These are Centre for Advanced Neurological Research (CANR), Genetics Research Laboratory, Nitte University Centre for Animal Research and Experimentation (NUCARE), Nitte University Centre for Stem Cell Research & Regenerative Medicine (NUCSReM), , and Nitte University Center for Science Education and Research (NUCSER).

They bring together collaborations with renowned universities like Oxford and Cambridge, and specialized institutes and researchers from developed nations like USA, Sweden, Japan, Korea, & United Kingdom. The focus of research at Nitte is mainly on how to benefit the Indian population by leveraging international expertise.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS OP JINDAL GLOBAL UNIVERSITY, SONIPAT, NCR-DELHI

LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL LAW PROGRAMS AND BEYOND

OP JINDAL GLOBAL UNIVERSITY (JGU) HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED BY NAVEEN JINDAL, CHAIRMAN OF JINDAL STEEL & POWER LTD, AND TWO TIMES MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. THE FOUNDING VICE-CHANCELLOR OF JGU IS DR. C RAJKUMAR, WHO HAS DONE HIS HIGHER EDUCATION FROM SOME OF THE WORLD’S BEST INSTITUTIONS INCLUDING OXFORD AND HARVARD.STARTING FROM LAST YEAR, JGU HAS ALSO BEEN ACCREDITED BY NAAC AT A GRADE.

tructured as five schools Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global Business School, Jindal School of International Affairs, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, and Jindal School of Liberal Arts & Humanities – this private university,spanning an 80-acres campus in Sonipat, Haryana, is most noted for its global academic and corporate alliances.

Unlike most of its peers JGU also does a lot of specialized courses and services for its students, as well as for executives of various organizations including several governments in India as well as abroad. These services are delivered through five institutes viz. Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Jindal Institute of Global Studies Abroad, Jindal Institute of Leadership Development & Executive Education, International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building, and Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

To start with, OP Jindal Global University (JGU) had established its Jindal Global Law School (JGLS)with a lofty vision of crafting world-class law professionals who are equipped to practice, lead, or research anywhere in the world. Towards this, JGLS has entered into collaborations, exchange programs, and research partnerships with elite universities and institutions from across the globe.

Secondly, JGLS has created one of the most comprehensive and most international Law Libraries in the

country through strategic collaborations with the Law Libraries of Ivy League institutions like Harvard Law School and Yale Law School, as well as other prestigious law institutions like the New York University School of Law. Thirdly, JGLS students are required to intern with top global law firms, leading lawyers, prominent judges, or a diverse collection of NGOs, either in India or abroad, thereby giving them the required skills to succeed in diverse domains, be it in

Starting from last year, JGU has also been accredited by NAAC at A Grade.

While each of JGU’s five schools are working hard to be at the cutting-edge of academics and training, its most successful school so far is its innovative law school. It is a de facto leader in delivering global law programs in the country, and it is interesting to note why this is so.

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Dr. C Rajkumar, Vice-Chancellor

India or overseas.

Next comes JGLS success in bringing together the most impressive team of Vice Deans and Associate Deans, drawn from across the world including North America and Europe, and includes legal luminaries like Susan R Lamb, VesselinPopovski, Ramin Jehanbegloo, and many similar leaders drawn from leading universities, law practicing firms, and international legal NGOs. Next factor is perhaps the most important, which is about its topmost leadership. The Dean of JGLS is the Founding Vice Chancellor of JGU

WHILE EACH OF JGU’S FIVE SCHOOLS ARE WORKING HARD TO BE AT THE CUTTINGEDGE OF ACADEMICS AND TRAINING, ITS MOST SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL SO FAR IS ITS INNOVATIVE LAW SCHOOL.

Naveen Jindal, Chairman itself, Dr. C Raj Kumar. A legal academician of international stature, Dr. Raj Kumar has studied at Oxford, Harvard, University of Hong Kong, and Delhi University. He is a noted speaker across the world’s finest universities and his recent speeches wereat Harvard Law School and University of California at Davis School of Law. Finally, JGLS students benefit from the numerous on-campus seminars and conferences on legal issues led by eminent legal academicians and practitioners from across the world.

In recent months such leaders or teams that have visited JGLS include organizations like Cornell Law School, Harvard Law School, University of New South Wales, Griffith University, Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) The Hague etc.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

THE LNM INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

GROOMING FOUNDERS, CEOs, & PROs aipur based The LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT) has too many unique values to claim, just due to its pedigree. For one, it is the first Deemed University under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in Rajasthan, and one among only a handful of such institutions across India.

Promoted by Government of Rajasthan and Lakshmi &Usha Mittal (LUM) Foundation, it started life in 200203 as an IT focused premier engineering college, and was converted to a Deemed University in 2006. It’s Founder and Governing Council Chairman is Lakshmi N Mittal, President & CEO of ArcelorMittal, world’s largest steel producer with annual sales of over $63 billion and annual profits of nearly $8 billion. A legendary entrepreneur and largely self-made billionaire, Lakshmi N Mittal has soared to this height within a lifetime dedicated to professional excellence and dreaming dramatically big. Spanning over 100 acres, on the outskirts of the Pink City, his educational dream, LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT), too is nothing less than impressive. While that is about the pedigree and infrastructure, LNMIIT would rather place its stress on its own real world achievements, which is even more compelling. In its relatively brief history

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Lakshmi N Mittal

While many private and public universities in the country pay lip service to next generation values like creating not job-seekers, but job-creators, LNMIIT is one institution that has created more startup entrepreneurs than most other institutions in the private sector. Noted startup founders and co-founders who are LNMIIT alumni include Vishal Jhalani and AnkitSinghavi (The ELITE Express), ViditPaliwal (Bigstep Technologies), Manu Yadav (Eunike Software), Saurabh Gupta (Nutrino IT Technologies), Utkarsh Jain (CodescapeCunsultant), and SanketModi (Lucideous).

static list. Every quarter or year, another LNMIIT alumnus is likely to be added to this list, as the university is a topper when it comes to new student startups currently looking for investors in Rajasthan, and even in the whole of India.

When it comes to professional careers too, LNMIIT students have come on top, and are found handling interesting jobs at giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Bank of Scotland, ST Microelectronics, Flipkart, Sapient, Adobe, Samsung, and many more such companies across the globe.

Academic placements or higher education is another domain where LNMIITians have left their mark worldwide.

Universities where they have undertaken postgraduation or research after studying at LNMIIT include, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Technical University of Munich, University of Minnesota, Aston University, MS

spanning less than one-and-a-half decades, LNMIIT has emerged as a leading engineering university in the country, not may be in quantity, but in the quality of its outgoing students. While BTech or MTech graduates bagging campus placements in private universities is no more a news these days, what differentiates LNMIIT is its sheer success in grooming leaders who have went on to call the shots in numerous domains. While many private and public universities in the country pay lip service to next generation values like creating not job-seekers, but job-creators, LNMIIT is one institution that has created more startup entrepreneurs than most other institutions in the private sector. Noted startup founders and co-founders who are LNMIIT alumni include Vishal Jhalani and AnkitSinghavi (The ELITE Express), ViditPaliwal (Bigstep Technologies), Manu Yadav (Eunike Software), Saurabh Gupta (Nutrino IT Technologies), Utkarsh Jain (CodescapeCunsultant), and SanketModi (Lucideous). And don’t ever think that this is a Prof. S. S. Gokhale Director University of Calgary, Technical University Darmstadt, MS Simon Fraser University, University of Illinois, University of Southampton, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, University of California, University of Colorado, and many more such elite institutions across USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, & New Zealand. The fact that all these premier universities of the world have accepted LNMIIT graduates speak volumes about the educational standards followed here. It starts from a transparent admission process based purely on merit, and that too the JEE-MAIN score, with no management quota or capitation fees. Thus quality of input is assured, and they are then groomed by one of the best engineering faculty in the country, led by its Director Prof. SS Gokhale. Admissions to its various BTech programs are currently open and the last date to apply is 15th June 2016. LNMIIT also offers various MTech and PhD programs, including doctorate programs in humanities.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

GD GOENKA UNIVERSITY

WHERE INTER-DISCIPLINARY LEARNING AND INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

FROM ITS INCEPTION ONWARD, GD GOENKA UNIVERSITY HAS BEEN NOTED FOR ITS FLEXIBLE, INTER-DISCIPLINARY, AND TRANS-DISCIPLINARY LEARNING SYSTEMS, WHICH ARE AREAS WHERE EVEN THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS INSTITUTES IN INDIA FALL SHORT. MOST OF THE KEY DEPARTMENTS OF GD GOENKA UNIVERSITY ALSO HAVE ROBUST ALLIANCES WITH WORLD-CLASS INSTITUTIONS THAT WILL PROVE LIFECHANGING TO ITS STUDENTS. GD GOENKA UNIVERSITY IS ACADEMICALLY LED BY ITS PRO VICE CHANCELLOR, PROF. DR. DEEPENDRA KUMAR JHA, A NOTED RESEARCHER AND ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATOR, WHO RECEIVED HIS DOCTOR OF ENGINEERING DEGREE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING FROM HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY, JAPAN. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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education, the GD Goenka Group has a formidable reputation in running institutions spanning from kinder-garten level to doctorate level. Established in 1982, the education division is dominated by GD Goenka Public Schools, GD Goenka World School, GD Goenka Lá Petite Montessori Preschools, and GD Goenka Toddler House, apart from the GD Goenka University. The size of the Group is overwhelming, with its flagship GD Goenka Public Schools alone numbering more than 60.

While there is no dearth of private universities in either NCR or Haryana, students as well as parents are starting to prefer not the noisiest institutions, but ones with strong roots and a larger vision, as well as the key leaders who are passionate to see to it that this vision is fulfilled in their students’ careers. Today that emerging niche in

NCR is dominated by institutions like GD Goenka University.

Situated on Gurgaon-Sohna highway in the GD Goenka Education City, sprawling over 60 acres, this greenfield private university that came into existence in 2011 is noted for its strong roots as well as strong leadership.

GD Goenka stands for Gayatri Devi Goenka in whose memorial the GD Goenka Group came into existence by the efforts of her sons AK Goenka who heads the educational institutions and BK Goenka who leads Welspun, the group’s industrial division which is a global leader in large diameter pipes and home furnishings.

While Chairman AK Goenka is ably assisted in his educational initiatives

by Renu Goenka as Vice-Chairperson and Nipun Goenka as Managing Director, the Group has early on realized that only visionary educationalists can effectively fructify their vision.

A.K. GOENKA, Chairman From its inception onward, GD Goenka University has been noted for its flexible, inter-disciplinary, and trans-disciplinary learning systems, which are areas where even the most prestigious institutes in India fall short.

Most of the key departments of GD Goenka University also have robust alliances with world-class institutions that will prove life-changing to its students.

For example the University’s School of Fashion & Design is in collaboration with the famous Politecnico Di Milano School of Italy; and its School of Hospitality is in collaboration with Le Cordon Bleu the world’s largest and most prestigious organization in hospitality education.

Recently, GD Goenka University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IBM to offer specializations in the area of Cloud Computing and Virtualisation, Business Analytics and Optimisation, Mainframe Technology, and Cyber Security & Forensics, for BTech Computer Science and Engineering program, to provide students with the needed skills and edge while seeking employment in the industry.

MRS. RENU GOENKA, Vice-Chairperson Japanese Government scholarship, Monbukagakusho, to pursue his postgraduate research (2006-10). He also received the honor ‘Man of the Year 2012’ for his distinctive accomplishments by the International Board of Research of the American Biographical Institute.

A noted researcher, he holds patents, and has also published in leading international journals in the fields of power system planning and operation, renewable energy- technology, power system reliability, smart-grids etc. Dr. Jha has also received Excellent Researcher Award for two consecutive years (2008 and 2009) at Hiroshima University, Japan for his outstanding achievements.

Dr. Jha brings the much-needed international perspective to the university as he has visited many countries including Switzerland, USA, Japan,

Thailand, India, Nepal, PR China, Canada, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia etc. to present research papers at various premier international conferences.

Also an able academic administrator, he has handled equally challenging assignments at peer universities. He has served as the Founder Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology of Galgotias University and as senior faculty and IR (International Relation) Coordinator at VIT University Vellore.

Prior to be appointed as Pro VC, he was Dean of School of Engineering & Dean Academics of GD Goenka University.

GD Goenka University is structured as 9 Schools in Architecture & Planning, Communication, Engineering, Fashion & Design, Hospitality, Humanities & Social Science, Law, Management, and Education.

Various undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctorate level programs are available from these departments.

The university is also noted among the student community for its promotion of industry interactions, cultural activities, sports, and trendy hangouts and eateries.

A highlight of this program is that the computer science faculty of the university will also be trained by IBM. GD Goenka University is academically led by its Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Deependra Kumar Jha, who received his Doctor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Hiroshima University, Japan.

Always outstanding in his academics he was the recipient of prestigious

MR. NIPUN GOENKA, Managing Director

Prof. Dr. Deependra Kumar Jha, Pro Vice Chancellor,

Despite its young age, the university has also excelled in career placements so far. Obviously, this achievement is only going to be better in the coming years, given the way in which GD Goenka University has been forging alliances with global majors in education and industry to create modern and industry-relevant programs in all its departments.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY, GREATER NOIDA, NCR-DELHI

SMART MANAGEMENT, SMARTER FACULTY, SMARTEST STUDENTS The success of Galgotias University is a case study in how an innovative management led by Chancellor SuneelGalgotia and CEO DhruvGalgotia has been able to stitch together an impressive faculty team led by Vice Chancellor Dr. BV Babu, Pro VC Prof.

Sham Tickoo, and Pro VC Admin Prof. (Dr.) RenuLuthra, which has inspired the students to progress and outperform their peers from other institutions. Galgotias Educational Institutions is today home to an innovation and incubation cell co-promoted

by Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprises, various other Central Government arms, and the UP Government. Many GU students have developed innovative products like All Terrain Vehicle, Smartphone Apps, and Mall Automation System. The university also ranks high in campus placement performance. Industry workshops, seminars, guest lectures, and conferences are not exceptions but a regular occurrence over here that makes this private university campus vibrant.

March, Galgotias University’s School of Computing Science & Engineering hosted a twoday workshop on ‘Big Data Hadoop’, one of the hottest new technologies in the IT world. The workshop was in collaboration with IIT Delhi, IEEE Student Branch, and training firm CETPA. While professionals from the industry with experience in Big Data and Hadoop trained the attendants, the top 3 attendees were specially honoured.

This initiative by GU assumes special significance, on realizing that Hadoop is used by not only tech giants like Facebook and Yahoo extensively, but by more than half of all Fortune 50 companies. Designed by Apache Software Foundation, it is an opensource software framework for SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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distributed storage and distributed processing of very large data sets on computer clusters built from commodity hardware, and is offered by almost all cloud service majors like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, IBM, and Oracle.

Galgotias University’s School of Business has recently organized two guest lectures for MBA students. The first one was by AC Chaturvedi, head of Power Management Institute (PMI), and a former veteran of NTPC with 35 years of experience in policy formulation and implementation in the human resources domain, with deep knowledge and experience in HR’s emerging frontiers like corporate social responsibility, resettlement & rehabilitation, safety, and industrial relations.

The second guest lecture was by Sachin Kumar Sinha, an experienced Chartered Accountant and Lawyer, currently CFO at India Expo Mart, and having expertise in management accounting system, budgeting & planning, MIS, consolidation of financial statements, fund management, improvement in customization in accounting systems and processes, restructuring activities, statutory and legal compliances etc.

GU students also fare high when it comes to innovation. Take the case of Naren, a 4th year Mechanical Engineering student here. He has already designed and built a robust All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), that has won over eyeballs at a national level engineering design competition.

Starting from scratch, Naren feels that he could achieve it only due to the

Suneel Galgotia and Dhruv Galgotia

wholehearted support to the project, extended by GU’s management and faculty members.

RohanGarg is another student innovator at GU, who designed a smartphone app for colleges that was so good that GU’s sister firm, Galgotias College of Engineering & Technology (GCET), implemented it as their official app. Rohan is a 3rd year Computer Science & Engineering student at GU, and this is his second app, and enables better integration between faculty and students, and among students themselves, and it also enables students to track metrics like attendance, academic performance etc. Rohan feels that apart from the support extended to him, there is generally a proactive attitude from the management and faculty towards allowing students time to pursue their innovative streaks.

An even more innovative product, that may even end up being implemented across malls and supermarkets, is by Pashupati Mishra, who has reached only his second year of BTech at GU. Pashupati’s software solves most of the time-consuming problems encountered in a supermarket or mall like finding the location of the precise item you need, comparing it with equivalent products, and even avoiding the queue with automated spot billing! Like Naren and Rohan, Pashupati too feels gratitude towards the GU management and faculty which have extended their support to his endeavour.

Galgotias University which was always known for its overseas tie-ups is facilitating its students to make best use of such arrangements. For example, it had signed anMoU with European giant, Goethe University of Germany in 2012, under which various activities like student exchange, faculty exchange, research partnerships, joint programmesetc, apart from pursuing the setting up of a Joint Centre of Excellence are being explored.

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of credit, course content, duration etc, and provides supporting documents for applying for visa. The exchange program comes with the facility to receive mark-sheet from the overseas university.

Earlier in the year, Galgotias University held its first annual convocation and distributed degrees to 2912 graduate and post-graduate students. The students from thirteen different schools in engineering, law, business, pharmacy, hospitalityetc were awarded degrees. Javeed Ahmad, Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh was the chief guest at the occasion.

The Galgotias management has also started Galgotias Centre for Technical Innovation & Incubation (GCTII), a technology driven business incubator & entrepreneurship cell within the premises of GalgotiasCollege of Engineering &Technology (GCET).

Co-promoted by Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprises, SIDBI, NSTEDB, DIT, DST, and UP State Government, GCTII is being run by a professional director board, chaired by Director of GCET Dr. SP Pandey and headed by Dr SK Verma.

GCTII is a visionary project by Chairman Sunil Galgotia and CEO DhruvGalgotia, and their vision is to grow it into a world-class technology driven incubator.

The story of GU’s success won’t be complete with the story of how this father-son duo has dreamed and executed a full-fledged university from the ground up within a short

span of a few years.

For someone who arrived in Delhi with all of 500 bucks, nobody can argue this Chancellor’s credentials in dreaming.

SuneelGalgotia had just graduated and had more ideas than joining his family’s bookstore business.

Delhi gave him his first job. But he had more plans for himself as well as for his new city. For someone who came from a book vending family, he decided to run up the stairs, two steps at a time, and became a successful book publisher in the academic world.

The new millennium was arriving, and SuneelGalgotia knew that it would transform Delhi from a laidback bureaucratic city to a buzzing metropolis with plenty of jobs for the youngsters, especially the new engineers and MBAs. This time around SuneelGalgotia took a high-speed elevator, and got into the then nascent private higher education space. That was the start of Galgotias Educational Institutions (GEI), which today also includes the sprawling Galgotias University of Greater Noida.

Anyone who has visited the two

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GCTII is a visionary project

by Chairman Sunil Galgotia and CEO DhruvGalgotia, and their vision is to grow it into a world-class technology driven incubator. never an accident, and has beentheconscious efforts by the concerted actions of this father-son duo that complements each other with their unique experiences and new-age thinking.

To illustrate, Founder and Chancellor SuneelGalgotia has played the seminal role in leveraging Galgotia’s unique academic heritage, as well as in ensuring better faculty standards and in developing own pedagogies.

campuses, however, would be quick to realize that this is not a university or professional college that has been designed only by a veteran edupreneur like SuneelGalgotia.

Because, the campus has the fragrance of youth right from the inviting gates to every nook and corner of the green campus where boys and girls feel equally at home.

That young brain is DhruvGalgotia, the Chancellor’s son, and for long GEI’s Chief Executive Officer.

Unlike his father who came to Delhi in search of a job and a dream, Dhruv was born and brought up in Delhi, and as such somebody who could readily stand up for the fresh values and soaring aspirations of the new millennial kids of India’s capital city and its surrounding NCR. Success at the scale of Galgotias is

That Galgotias University is by one of India’s most reputed academic publishing houses, Galgotia Publications, has been a strength that Suneel rightly leveraged. That makes GU one of the rare private universities that is really born from an understanding of higher education, for decades, in diverse subjects.

Interacting with higher educational institutions and universities of all types, the Galgotias had amassed a unique handle on university education in this country. This is precisely the kind of pedigree that is lacking in quite a few new generation private universities.

From the ground up, Suneel has also recognized that any university is only as good as its faculty. That is why GU has been proactive in attracting one of the most impressive academic teams in any Indian university, let alone any private university.

Creating own pedagogies has been another area where Suneel’s personal touch has been evident. The top

academic management as well as department heads at GU bring in diverse pedagogical inputs that shape up this private university’s integrated approach.

Similarly, CEO DhruvGalgotia has brought in quite a few lasting changes at GU that has made it one of the leading higher educational institutions in the country. These include forging international tie-ups, as well as in creating a powerful learning environment and ensuring quality of peer group.

While faculty quality is important, young DhruvGalgotia was quick to realize that what matters most at a university is the kind of peer group available for students.

To ensure this, Dhruv created a framework by which admission is given only to meritorious and outstanding students as the minimum eligibility criteria set by Galgotias University is among the highest in the country among private universities and allows only the better students to have the privilege of taking admission in the University.

The youthful touch of Dhruv is also evident in the campus as GU has undoubtedly one of the better and well-equipped campuses in the country.

IT giant IBM has partnered Galgotias University’s CS programs in the domains of Cloud Computing & Virtualization, Open Source Software & Open Standards, Business Analytics, Telecom Informatics, and in Mainframe Technology. IBM has set up labs at Galgotias University and has co-created syllabi and pedagogies in addition to contributing to teaching processes and faculty training.

Galgotia students have come as toppers in GATE 2015, and its placement performance last year too has been exemplary. Almost complete batches (98% to be precise) of its five CS-IBM programs were placed with over 120 top global corporates including Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra, with many receiving multiple offers.

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN INNOVATIONS, RESEARCH, & PLACEMENTS

SYMBIOSIS INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

STAYING AT THE CUTTING EDGE Symbiosis International University, as one of the oldest private universities in India, has a lot at stake each year to stay at the cutting edge of high quality higher education. This, they have been achieving with élan year afteryear, through proactive ideas like conferences, innovations, guest speakers, celebrities, corporate tie-ups, and a carefully calibrated expansion program to new regions. Founder President of SIU Prof. SB Mujumdar, and Dr. VidyaYeravdekar, Principal Director, of Symbiosis Society, are guiding the university in the right direction.

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ndia is home to over 4500 management schools of every kind, and this proliferation has been the factor behind the academic gossip that MBA is losing shine and would soon follow MCA to a slow death.

Yet, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), a constituent of Pune headquartered Symbiosis International University (SIU) received a record 52,000 applications this year against its modest 180 seats! So much so for the imminent death of MBA!

Padma Bhushan Dr. S. B. Mujumdar (M.Sc. Ph.D.) Chancellor

Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, Principal Director

Well, many low quality MBA institutes may eventually bow out in the coming years, but good management programs like by SIBM are going stronger than ever. Not only in admissions, but in core metrics like placement quality, SIBM has been steadily improving its position.

with national and international leaders and this one on liberal education, is supported by Yale-NUS, Singapore, and Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru.

During the latest concluded placement round, SIBM students recorded an average salary of Rs. 14.45 lakhs, and the number of corporates visiting the campus too has shot up, often leaving the graduates spoilt for choices.

One way that SIU continues to stay at the cutting edge of quality academics is by hosting a slew of national and international conferences. The latest in this series has been a conference on ‘Future of Liberal Arts and Science’ on May 16. Symbiosis usuallypartners

During the latest concluded placement round, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) students recorded an average salary of Rs. 14.45 lakhs, and the number of corporates visiting the campus too has shot up, often leaving the graduates spoilt for choices.

Key speakers includedShashiTharoor, MP, and FurqanQamar, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities (AIU), besides speakers from Yale-NUS, Raman Research Institute, Carleton University, OP Jindal University, Manipal Global, Claremont McKenna College etc.

Earlier, Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS), another constituent of SIU, had hosted the National Seminar in Hospital & Healthcare Management, Medico Legal Systems & Clinical Research, which wasac- credited by Maharashtra Medical Council. The keynote address at the event was by noted medical entrepreneur Thumbay Moideen, Founder President of Thumbay Group which runs the largest network of hospitals in theMiddle East. Also in attendance was ace lawyer Ram Jethmalani, besides several other dignitaries from the medical and legal sides.

Another workshop that was recently held at SIU was ‘Make in India: Role of Industry- University Collaboration in Creating Value’, to coincide with theWorld Intellectual Property Day. Conducted by the Intellectual Property Cell of Symbiosis International SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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University, the workshop was an eyeopener on the various aspects of intellectual property law with various interesting examples, simulations, and a strategy game, with special emphasis on how the IPR policies are crucial to the success of ‘Make in India’ program.

Noted corporates too are tying up with SIU for leveraging its expertise. For instance, Blue Dart, India’s most admired courier and logistics firm, and a part of the worldwide DHL Group, has tied up with Symbiosis to offer its employees an MBA program.

SYMBIOSIS IS BRANCHING OUT TO MADHYA PRADESH, WITH A CAMPUS IN INDORE, AND THE BRAND SYMBIOSIS CONTINUES TO BE A FAVOURED DESTINATION FOR TOP ACADEMICS WITH THE VC POST THERE GETTING OVER 500 APPLICATIONS.

In another development, SIU which is gearing up to take its research initiatives to the next level, has tied up with the software-to-SUV conglomerate Mahindra Group.

Singapore Management University is also a part of this tie-up and will explore solutions to meet the next generation of automotive skilling needs.

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Celebrities who have visited SIU campus recentlyinclude Aamir Khan, who had shot a part of one of his movies there, and the noted actor who is also known for his social messages was all in praise of the life’s work of Dr. SB Mujumdar, SIU’s Founder.

SIU units like SIBM also continue to innovate with great results. Their MBA with specialization in Innovation and Entrepreneurship is already a huge hit, and SIBM is now planning to focus on case studies and caselets, just like how Harvard Business School has made the concept famous.

Also, the IBM Research Grant in Predictive Analytics was given to SIBM this year, overcoming stiff competition from other B-Schools.

In a separate development, Symbiosis

College of Arts and Commerce (SCAC) has become the only college in Pune to be conferred the status of ‘Colleges with Potential for Excellence’ (CPE) by the University Grants Commission in the recently declared list. While SCAC is not part of SIU, but affiliated to a state university, the development has come as further proof for the academic standards of Symbiosis Group.

Dr. Rajani R.Gupte Vice Chancellor

Symbiosis is branching out to Madhya Pradesh, with a campus in Indore, and the brand Symbiosis continues to be a favoured destination for top academics with the VC post there getting over 500 applications.

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KARUR VYSYA BANK

INSIDE INDIA’S EMERGING SME BANK Some of the largest Indian banks in both the public and private sector are reeling from mounting losses from the corporate lending sector, and are increasingly looking at the hitherto neglected Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) sector for credit growth. But there is already a smaller player that is rightfully staking its claim as India’s first specialized SME bank. Under its MD & CEO K Venkataraman’s expert guidance, this medium sized private sector bank is tapping into its one hundred years of experience in serving the SME sector across South India. KarurVysya Bank is following up its claim by launching a slew of specialized products for the SME sector during the past fiscal and current.

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o call KarurVysya Bank an emerging bank in any specialization will be challenged by many KVB watchers as it is one of the oldest banks in the country in both the private as well as public sectors.

Founded in 1916, the past fiscal was the Centenary Year for the bank.

lending activities to every sector including retail and corporate.

To qualify KVB as an SME bank would also attract challenges, as the private sector lender is a full play bank doing every kind of deposit-taking and

The reasons are many. For one, despite it being a modern and fullfledged bank for decades now, from its very inception in 1916 to 2016, one

Yet, the Karur, Tamilnadu headquartered bank’s Managing Director & CEO, K Venkataraman, had boldly announced that KVB is being repositioned as a specialized SME bank, while launching its Centenary Year celebrations a few months back.

of the largest segments for KVB has been the thriving SME sector in Tamilnadu and South India.

Its headquarter district of Karur itself is a powerhouse of Small & Medium Enterprises. Located 370 kilometres southwest of Tamilnadu’s capital, Chennai, the district is known all over India and even abroad for its robust SMEs in various sectors, especially textiles, paper, and bus body works.

In textiles, its largest segment, the district is equally well-known for both power-loom and handloom textiles. It is a leader in India when it comes to home textiles, producing items like bed linens, kitchen linens, toilet linens, table linens, and wall hangings.

The textile industry in and around Karur is comprehensive in nature with allied industries like ginning &

Karur Vysya Bank started its life and grew itself admirably over the last 100 years by primarily serving the tens of thousands of SMEs in these diverse manufacturing and trading sectors.

spinning mills, dyeing factories, weaving units, HDPE mono filament yarn units etc. The district is also a leader in India in the manufacture of mosquito fabrics and fishing nets.

The size and scope of textile and allied industries in Karur is known from the fact that there are tens of thousands of such units employing nearly 5 lakh people. Karur is also home to one of India’s leading and most modern textile parks – the sprawling Karur Textile Park Ltd (KTPL).

K Venkataraman, MD & CEO

When it comes to bus body building industries, Karur is unbeatable in South India with over 50 such companies, and the district is also noted for the presence of large industries like paper giant TNPL, PSU SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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oil major BPCL-Karur, and Chettinad Cements.

The export focus of the district is also notable with Karur earning more than US$ 1 billion in foreign exchange every year.

Also, a major agricultural hub, Karur produces rice, cotton, sugarcane, oil seeds, coconut, banana, betel, mango etc, and is also a leading agri trading hub in Tamilnadu.

KarurVysya Bank started its life and grew itself admirably over the last 100 years by primarily serving the tens of thousands of SMEs in these diverse manufacturing and trading sectors.

But the reach of KVB to SMEs was never restricted to Karur District. In fact, its steady growth over the decades was due to the bank replicating its SME edge in other SME dense districts of TN like Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, and Salem.

Over and above this SME banking leadership in Tamilnadu, the bank from long back itself spread its wings to the SME hubs of neighbouring states. Notable among these operations are in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, &Ernakulam.

In recent decades, KVB has also strengthened its presence outside of South India. In such forays also, it was keener on establishing its presence in

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large SME centres like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad etc.

When the NPA crisis emerged in India post the global financial crisis of 200809, SME industries across the country was affected, and SME banking service providers like KarurVysya Bank too was affected.

However, there was a subtle difference in the way KVB addressed this issue and how larger public and private banks attempted it. KarurVysya Bank was more understanding of SME customers’ issues, and wherever there were genuine problems, the bank was patient and supportive with handholding measures within RBI norms.

But wherever the bank sensed issues of willful defaults, KVB went in for aggressive recovery measures.

That this level of discernment - which only an SME specialist can offer makes a world of difference is evident from KarurVysya Bank’s latest quarterly and annual results. On sharply improving asset quality and falling provisions, KVB’s net profit for the past fiscal was up by 22.3%, which is commendable in a quarter when many of its peers were struggling.

The total income growth could have been better, and KVB MD & CEO K Venkataraman attributes it to the sluggish demand in the economy as well as the negative impact from gold loans due to LTV cap and gold price fall during that quarter.

According to this veteran banker from the SBI stable, KVB’s loan growth improves in Q4 due to higher seasonal demand for warehouse loans from the

agricultural sector due to the harvest season.

After burning their fingers in corporate finance during the past seven years, and with corporate credit uptake still not improving, almost all the bigger players in banking are starting to look at SMEs in a serious way.

But this is where KarurVysya Bank has already a head-start, and that is why CEO Venkataraman is pushing ahead with his highly sensible plan of repositioning the bank as India’s first specialized SME bank.

And this has not been just a branding exercise or hollow promise. Under his expert guidance, KVB has unleashed 18 new products in the current fiscal, many of them catering exclusively to the SME segment.

These include KVB Commodity Plus,

Karur Vysya Bank was more understanding of SME customers’ issues, and wherever there were genuine problems, the bank was patient and supportive with handholding measures within RBI norms. But wherever the bank sensed issues of willful defaults, KVB went in for aggressive recovery measures.

for dealers of pulses, cereals, spices, and edible oils; KVB Food & Agro Plus for units engaged in the processing of food and agro products; KVB Construction Plus, for dealers of construction materials; and KVB MSME Easy Loan for units with turnover of less than Rs. 1 crore engaged in manufacturing or service.

To help the corporates and SMEs to manage their funds and receivables more effectively, two products, viz. Cash Management Solution and Supply Chain Finance were also launched.

Pushing the technology frontiers, the bank has also introduced EBook, a Mobile App to help the customers themselves to manage their accounts. The GPRS enabled POS machine without printer for merchants and automatic passbook printer for the benefit of customers to update their passbook at any time have also been introduced.

Apart from such SME focused offerings, all other new products launched by KVB in the Centenary Year were aimed at bettering its retail business and includes a variety of cards, insurance schemes, and deposit plans.

This is also in sync with the bank’s larger vision of tapping the full potential of its geographical reach as SMEs and micro enterprises taken together continues to be one of the largest employers in the country.

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PROMISED TURNAROUND, HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2 YEARS

IS MODI REGIME TURNING DEMOCRACY INTO A DEMAGOGIC MAJORITARIANISM?

BY SHIV VISVANATHAN, FORMER VISITING PROFESSOR AT STANFORD, PROFESSOR AT OP JINDAL UNIVERSITY, AND COLUMNIST

wo years is a long time in politics and sometimes longer in the life of a country. Two years of a political regime cannot be merely domesticated into a report card or banalised into a set of development indicators. To understand a period where little happens but a lot develops requires a different kind of storytelling.

At one level, the Narendra Modi regime is fast becoming a non-event at levels of overt policy. Yet, at a different level of culture, ecology, health and education, it has created ruptures that may take years to remedy. One sees this particularly in education where the BJP has played out its old wish list and created a cultural world that is like a Rorschach of its prejudices. There is a grammar to this juggling of educational categories that we must understand.

First, deep within the Modi regime , whether it is by the RSS, BJP or the Bajrang Dal, there is an attempt to articulate a hyper-nationalist regime with a programme. The BJP sees itself as simultaneously traditional and modern.

It articulates a position we can dub as techno-fundamentalist. It wants the latest in technology, whether in terms of weapons or energy, to evolve within a value frame of a "traditional culture". Its dream, as critics have put it, is to combine the best of Silicon Valley as a technological hub with Nalanda as a cultural tradition. In fact, it projects this postmodern combination on to a double, the NRI who is more patriotic and more of an Indian than any resident Indian.

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philosophy and narrows it to a Hindutva ideology. In this process, it has emasculated democracy into a demagogic and threatening majoritarianism. After shrinking a worldview, it has redefined the politics of the Constitution by creating a new official vocabulary of patriotism. Today it has made dissent, especially in ecology or history, an act of sedition. By adopting the old colonial model of sedition, it has made citizenship a brittle affair. As a result the dissenter, the marginal, the radical and an array of minorities are no longer treated as genuine citizens. They have to first run the gauntlets of suspicion before they are even regarded as superficially legitimate. By creating a uniform development agenda, the BJP has threatened the plurality of Indian culture.

In demanding a sense of everydayness, the Modi regime has decided to tinker with the syllabus. By altering the syllabus, the Modi regime has created new fictions around history. Its attempt to revive ancient science has ignored the creativity of traditional and local knowledge in agriculture, medicine, architecture. It also leads to idiotic claims where major scholarship in science and epistemology has been ignored. One wishes the BJP would re-read the work of the Gandhian historian Dharampal on Indian science in the eighteenth century.

SHIV VISVANATHAN

In fact, the Modi regime has been engaged not so much in syllabus reform but in the emasculation of cosmopolitan scholarship in history and science.

Modi's comments on science often equate it to technology, turning a culture of play into an instrumental idea of paisa vasool accounting. The damage it has done to science by facilely equating it with technology has to be still unravelled. Modi's epidemic of syllabus reform is more a form of policing ideas and behaviour and of controlling the university, one of the most recalcitrant and pluralistic parts of civil society. Its taming of environmental groups is on grounds of security and official development, and of university, through its definitions of sedition and its officialism of syllabus reform.

I wanted to state all this abstractly before looking at and listing all the scandals of a regime which talks of intellectual life and yet will not confront admission examination corruption which would make Dawood look modest. The role of the Bajrang Dal in violence and bullyboy operations across India must be emphasised and highlighted. If the RSS plays ideology, the Bajrang Dal and other associate groups unfold the brutality that accompanies the RSS ideologies of culture. Whether it is Rohit Vemula, JNU, the beef scandal, the murder of innocent Muslims or the the harassment of students holding hands on Manipal beach by self-styled cultural policeman, all these are symptoms of a deeper invasion and contamination of culture. The deeper disruption of culture, of the civilisational ideas of a pluralistic India, gets lost in the topical reports of the media.

What one is witnessing is more than cultural McCarthyism . To the witch hunt, we are adding a cultural uprooting, inquisition-style. To the overt brutality of violence, one has to add the deeper violence of cultural disruption.

All that Modi's cultural reform - through Make in India, syllabus reform and university downsizing - does is to hide the fact that it has little that is intellectual to offer. By stirring the cultural pot, the Modi regime has hidden its own mediocrity, temporarily. No government in recent times has had such an impoverished intellectual apparatus. In two years, the Modi regime has proved just how mediocre it is. (Credit: ET)

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BANK OF BARODA

A NEW BANK IN THE MAKING

India’s second largest PSU lender by assets is not just improving but transforming itself.

Headed since the past seven months by a private sector banking veteran, Bank of Baroda is rebalancing its corporate loan portfolio, building sectoral intelligences, centralizing corporate services, cutting risk-weighted assets, improving retail services, and planning to monetize non-core assets. Under former Citibank veteran PS Jayakumar’sleadership, the Mumbai based lender is literally a new bank in the making. In the latest released Q4 results, it has already recovered nearly Rs. 3200 crore in bad loans. here is no doubt that public sector lenders like Bank of Baroda have been going through one of the most challenging times ever, due to the NPA crisis. Most public sector banks closed FY’16 with historically worst P&Ls. But what needs to be stressed is that an eventual turnaround is imminent in BoB due to the various steps taken during the last two quarters. For instance, in the latest released Q4 results, BoB has recovered nearly Rs. 3200 crore in bad loans.

The full story begins more than seven months back. After many stalwarts from the public sector banking industry couldn’t make a dramatic improvement in the fortunes of PSBs, largely due to the NPA crisis, their majority owner Government of India started appointing experts from private sector banking to the posts of Chairman and MD/CEO. As fortune would have it, Bank of Baroda was one of the first of these experiments.

On October 13 th 2015, former Citibank veteran PS Jayakumar took over as MD & CEO of Bank of Baroda, while former Chairman of Microsoft India, Ravi Venkatesan assumed office as its Non-Executive Chairman.

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PS Jayakumar also holds a PGDBM from XLRI, and was with Citigroup for 23 years in Singapore and India.

Brilliant in both his academics and career, he also holds the distinction of being a CheveningGurukul Scholar through the London School of Economics and Political Science.

After leaving Citibank, Jayakumar cofounded Home First Finance Company, and later VBHC Housing where he was CEO. Both the companies were focused on the fast growing domain of affordable home loans for the middle or low incomes groups and the financially excluded segments of the society.

The new MD & CEO rapidly went to work at Bank of Baroda, but the transformation he was attempting was largely hidden from the external world. Unsurprisingly, the stock of Bank of Baroda continued its downward trajectory during those initial months, in sync with its peers.

Then came the chance that a nononsense leader like Jayakumar - who learned banking in the performanceoriented private sector - was looking for. It came in the form of Dr. RaghuramRajan’s demand for an Asset Quality Review (AQR) at all PSBs. The move by RBI was to preempt shocks to the banking system by predicting

future NPAs. For example if Client A was a defaulter to Bank 1 but not Bank 2, RBI directed Bank 2 also to consider it as an NPA and make provisions for it. There were other strategies too in RBI’s AQR which literally forced banks to come out in the open with their real NPA status. And RBI gave ample time – two quarters – to come clean.

This is where Managing Director Jayakumar and his senior team led by Executive Directors Bhuwanchandra B

Ravi Venkatesan

P. S. Jayakumar Managing Director & CEO Joshi and Mayank K Mehta, saw their chance to transform the bank more rapidly than anyone had anticipated.

Also, for the first time, PS Jayakumar and his senior team came out in the open and clarified the numerous doubts that were in the minds of analysts and investors alike.

While all their replies were rooted very much in the reality of NPAs and the resultant banking sector woes, some of their replies to the vexing questions revealed a bank that was not planning to turnaround if the economy

Bhuwanchandra B. Joshi

improves, but a bank that was already turning around despite the tough situation around, through tougher means.

For one, Jayakumar is rapidly rebalancing the bank’s portfolio of loans. Deep engagement or warm relationship is the new mantra while choosing to keep or forsake a corporate loan customer. BoB has also made it a point to not participate in any loan syndication opportunities that are floating around, just because they are available.

Under Jayakumar’s direction, the bank has also strengthened a specialized wing called BoB Caps that develops sectoral intelligences in various industry verticals so that there is not only better screening and better risk management but better conviction in the business whenever a credit is extended.

Another innovation has been centralization of corporate services in 15 major branches which are fully equipped to handle any complex requirements with better risk management, while the rest of the branches will utilize the resultant easing of pressure to better handle retail customers thereby improving quality metrics like turnaround time in consumer loans.

Coming from the private sector banking industry, this new CEO is also sharply focused on capital efficiency.

While BoB, like most PSBs, has a high level of risk-weighted assets, Jayakumar is bringing in greater efficiency by cutting such participation

Mayank K. Mehta

and redirecting the funds to customers who need it, thereby resulting in better spreads too.

BoB is also unblocking credit lines to numerous customers that are not utilizing the facility fully, and focusing more on sectors where the bank is under-represented like financials, real estate, and logistics, as well as in sunshine sectors like e-commerce. Traditionally known for its international operations too, BoB is also taking a hard look at its worldwide operations to see whether which country operations should be scaled down or exited, and which country operations should be scaled up.

The bank also has a one-year plan to monetize many of its non-core assets like stakes in stock exchanges, credit rating agencies, asset reconstruction companies, and UTI. Even with all these measures in place, Jayakumar doesn’t expect it to be a smooth ride, and has already chalked out alternate plans if the economy takes more time than anticipated to turnaround. In fact, he is candid enough to admit that his greatest learning since assuming this office is that the turnaround in public sector banking is directly linked to the economy’s turnaround.

That is why the market takes the Managing Director and CEO of Bank of Baroda seriously. A turnaround in a leading PSB like BoB is sure to unlock huge profits as the large provisions get reversed.

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]^

MANAPPURAM MOVING UP SWIFTLY AS A DIVERSIFIED NBFC ]^ During the last few years of economic turmoil, Manappuram Finance was one NBFC that took several strategic decisions to de-risk as well as diversify its loan portfolio. Today, in an environment where gold prices have firmed up and the green shoots of economic growth are appearing, ex-banker VP Nandakumar and his team, including the investors in his company, are reaping the rich harvest of a job well executed during the past few years. This first listed gold loan major has succeeded in de-risking its gold loan portfolio with the help of easy mobile payments, while its synergistic but non-gold diversifications into microfinance, home loans, commercial vehicle loans, and MSME financing is proving to be the game-changer for the firm and its investors. The stock is up by 85% within the past seven months, but still has a handsome dividend yield of 5.15%.

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VP Nandakumar, MD & CEO

hile NBFCs have become the flavor of the season in India’s capital markets during the past two quarters, not all of them have risen evenly. For instance, since its September 2015 low of Rs. 19.75, Manappuram stock has made a dramatic recovery during the past eight-nine months, rising by 182%.

Almost no NBFCs could match this performance.

Obviously, several factors contributed to this dramatic turnaround in Manappuram’sfortunes within such a short span of time. The firming up of gold prices in the face of a global rout in equities, oil, and other commodities helped. But it was only part of the riddle as its listed peer Muthoot Finance went up only by 54% from its 52-Week Low during the same period.

The bigger stories behind Manappuram’s performance on the bourses have to do with its recent success in diversifications, and its breakthrough in facilitating easier repayments for its gold loan customers. Both these aspects were evident from the latest set of quarterly numbers.

]^ AN ONLINE INTEREST PAYMENT SYSTEM THROUGH MOBILE PHONES WAS INTRODUCED, AND SUDDENLY CUSTOMERS COULD MAKE MONTHLY REPAYMENTS 24X7 FROM ANY PART OF INDIA OR EVEN THE WORLD.

]^

After hovering between Rs. 500-to550 odd crorefo four sequential quarters, its revenue shot up to over Rs. 616 crore in Q3 and nearly Rs. 653 crore in Q4. And its quarterlybottomline, which was moving between Rs. 60 crore to Rs. 80 crore during four sequential quarters, made a clean breakout and registered over Rs. 101 crore in the December quarter and nearly Rs. 131 crore in the March quarter.

From its earlier focus on 1-year gold loans, Manappuram shifted its focus to three-month loans as the customers too were preferring it. And instead of the usual practice of collecting interest at the end of the loan period, the already existing provision for monthly interest payments were strengthened.

But it wouldn’t have been possible without offering better convenience for customers to make such payments in a hassle-free manner. Here, SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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Manappuram took the help of technology. An online payment system through mobile phones was introduced, and suddenly customers could make monthly repayments 24X7 from any part of India or even the world. This has clicked big time for Manappuram thereby bettering its collections as customers took to the comfort of this feature which eliminated the need to visit a branch for the monthly repayment.

As a further innovation, Manappuram also started an online gold loan facility which enables customers to park their gold at any branch across India, but avail the loan at any later time from any other branch, which works out like an online overdraft facility. Now it is planning tie-ups with a few banks to facilitate loan amount withdrawal through ATMs, and for this a cobranded card is also being considered.

The shift to shorter-tenure loans and convenient monthly collection of interest have achieved a major plus for the company which is all about derisking the gold loan portfolio.

Traditionally, the key risk for gold loan companies arise from fluctuations in gold prices, but with these new steps, Manappuram has made its gold loan portfolio more resilient to the gold

]^ THE GOLD LOAN MAJOR WENT IN FOR FOUR DIVERSIFICATIONS, TWO OF THEM BY THE PARENT COMPANY ITSELF (CV & MSME), AND TWO BY ITS SUBSIDIARIES (MICROFINANCE & HOME LOANS) THAT WERE ACQUIRED DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS.

]^ price changes.

The general turnaround in gold loan sector is evident from the fact that this second largest listed player’s gold holdings have been consistently increasing over the last eight quarters.

Manappuram is also widening its customer base and has adding lakhs of new gold loan customers with total number of its active customers skyrocketing during the past two quarters.

Analysts and investors were also impressed by the quality of growth, as seen from the asset quality situation atManappuram.

Gross Non Performing Assets (GNPAs) remained stable. This was impressive as the gold

Manappuram Finance Ltd. has marked 20 years of listing on the BSE

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loan majorhas alreadyshifted to NPA recognition at 150 days as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.

While frequent news about theft from various gold loan companies were of concern to investors, Manappuram has clarified that in their case, NPA due to theft and spurious collateral is only 0.09% of AUM. During the fiscal, Manappuram also focused on raising funds at lower costs, with steady success in raisinglower cost funds from both banks and mutual funds.

In the world of gold loan companies, and even all NBFCs, Manappuram continues to be one of the most wellcapitalized lenders. Capital Adequacy Ratio is healthy at around 25% against the 15% stipulated by RBI for all NBFCs. This has given assurance to investors that a major equity raise and resultant dilution can be avoided by the company.

Buoyed by the firming up of gold prices, and the strengthening of disbursements as well as collections, Manappuram is expecting its gold assets under management (AUM) to register a 15% growth in FY’17. The net profit growth is likely to be better at around 20-25%.

Kapil Krishan, CFO

Finance, this MFI has grown swiftly and is expected to clock a loan book of Rs. 2000 crore in the next fiscal.

Manappuram has grown Asirvad MF admirably within a short span of time, by improving its geographical reach.

While it was a noted player in Tamilnadu before the takeover, its minor presence in Karnataka and Kerala was considerably strengthened

by Manappuram after the takeover.

And not resting there, the gold loan major leveraged its pan India presence to expand Asirvad’s geographical reach to key states like Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, UP, & Bihar.

Currently Asirvad is growing its loan book at a brisk pace of 30% quarteron-quarter.

Manappuram CFO Kapil Krishan has been recognized by CIMA as one among 100 Most Influential CFOs

While market welcomed the improvement in its gold loan business, it was more enthused about Manappuram delivering on its asset diversification promise at a faster pace than anticipated.

3.3X only, which is relatively low and augurs well for accommodating better growth in standalone businesses like gold loans, CV loans, and MSME loans, even while improving the return ratios.

Basically, the gold loan major went in for four diversifications, two of them by the parent company itself, and two by its subsidiaries that were acquired during the past couple of years.

The diversifications through the subsidiary route are even more promising, and one of them, microfinance, is through Chennai headquartered Asirvad Microfinance.

After its takeover by Manappuram

The parent company’s direct diversifications were into commercial vehicle (CV) loans and micro, small, and medium scale enterprise (MSME) loans.

The bigger among these two is currently the CV loans, which is expected to grow up to Rs. 400 crore in the next year.

The MSME loan portfolio too is not far behind, and is likely to create a book of Rs. 200 crore in the second year.

Manappuram’s leverage is around

]^ BASICALLY, THE GOLD LOAN MAJOR WENT IN FOR FOUR DIVERSIFICATIONS, TWO OF THEM BY THE PARENT COMPANY ITSELF, AND TWO BY ITS SUBSIDIARIES THAT WERE ACQUIRED DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS.

]^

The other diversification through the subsidiary route has been into home finance, and here the firm enjoys a high yield of 14%, and has the additional flexibility of offering products like Loan Against Property (LAP) and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loans that can better even this high yield in the years to come. The home finance business too has been growing at a reasonable clip.

While the microfinance business is a 91% subsidiary of Manappuram Finance, the home loan unit is a 100% subsidiary.

All the new non-gold businesses combined is contributing around 10% to the consolidated AUM of Manappuram. The company expects this non-gold contribution to reach 25% within the next three-years and 50% over the long term. The remaining 50% it always wants to be from its mainstay gold loan business where it has strong brand equity across India. The diversifications will enable it to grow even in those cycles when the gold prices remain stagnant or correct significantly.

Even after a swift rise of 182% within the last 9 months, Manappuram continues to be an attractive stock due to its very visible growth prospects, its low P/E ratio of 12.82, and also due to its consistent dividend paying policy which still ensures a handsome dividend yield of 3.34%.

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GIC HOUSING FINANCE

ALL SET FOR A RERATING BY HOMEBUYERS& INVESTORS If there weretwo sectors that were most favoured in this budget, they were affordable homes development and affordable home loan companies like GIC Housing Finance.Investors and analysts are today in a scramble to get into well-run housing finance companies. But almost all the frontline stocks in the sector have already run up and are trading quite expensively. This is where the value of a company like GIC Housing Finance is likely to take the limelight in the coming months and quarters. Lower cost of funds, and a strategic direction put in by MD & CEO WarendraSinha to raise cheaper funds whenever available, have also turned the company more attractive for homebuyers, even while reducing balance transfer issues going forward.

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quick look at the recent performance of GIC Housing Finance Ltd (GHFL) reveals a company that is ripe for re-rating. In the latest published quarter of Q4 and annual results, annual revenue is up by nearly 20%, while Q4 net profit is up by around 35%.

With the kind of budget that has arrived, and with the kind of strategies that GHFL has been following under the guidance of its MD & CEO, WarendraSinha, there is a high chance that the performance of GIC Housing Finance is set to improve in the current fiscal too.

With an average home loan ticket size of Rs. 16 lakhs, GHFL has been focused in the affordable segment of the market much before the stock market, the developers, and even the government honed in on this sector.

Headquartered at Mumbai, GIC Housing has built up significant expertise in serving home loans securely to a needy customer base in Western India.

This expertise is evident from the reasonable growth that the firm has been exhibiting in recent years, even while NPAs have been contained. This is commendable as their typical customers are working in the informal

sectors and are almost always firsttime homebuyers.

GIC Housing has several aces up its sleeve to drive growth, one of which is its focus on suburban markets of big metros like Mumbai, as well as on Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The budget’s provisions are likely to boost housing development and finance in these areas, rather than metros or rural areas.

GHFL has always expanded its branches prudently to thosemetro suburbs or cities/towns, and it even has special representative arrangements at certain suburbs where there is a high density of affordable home developments. For instance, it has been quite active in Mumbai suburbs like Kalyan and Virar for many years now.

And during the current fiscal, GIC Housing had opened its 57th branch office at Greater Noida in NCR (UP); its 58 th branch at Raipur in Chhattisgarh; and its 59th branch at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh – all recently booming cities for affordable home development.

The company has also been improving the product it offers to its customers with extra features. GIC Housing Finance has recently tied-up with Future Generali India Life Insurance to offer credit life insurance through

Alice G. Vaidyan

one of its products - Future Generali Loan Suraksha Plan. This is an affordable single premium term insurance plan which is specifically designed for financial institutions to provide life coverage to their new and existing borrowers.

Under this plan which ensures the protection of the borrower to the extent of the home loan amount, the borrower also has the option of increased insurance coverage in case of a top-up or additional loan. These schemes are essential during unexpected eventualities for providing life insurance cover to the extent of housing loan to borrowers.

In a non-core but strategic move, GIC Housing Finance recently acquired 16 percent stake in LIC Nomura Mutual Fund Asset Management Company for Rs 22.68 crore. The investment was against Nomura’s recent exit, and a co-investor to this deal was its larger public sector peer, LIC Housing Finance.

With regard to competition, while GIC Housing Finance is fully equipped to compete effectively against its peer HFCs, especially due to its longstanding expertise in delivering affordable loans securely, the same can’t be said of competition from bigger players like the public and private sector banks that resort to

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The GIC stock is also healthy in that it delivers one of the highest dividend yields in the entire listed housing finance sphere. taking over loans using the balance transfer provision. That was the situation until now.

But recently, with cost of funds coming down systematically, GIC is in a better position to keep its home loan customers with itself, and it is using all opportunities to raise cheaper funds from the market for staying competitive.

While banks are still timid to originate affordable home loans due to their higher overheads vis-à-vis lower tickets, they are eager to poach those loans with stable repayments.

But with lower cost of funds, customers are increasingly sticking to specialized affordable loan providers like GIC Housing Finance for the entire span of the loan.

From an investor’s point of view, there are several reasons why GIC Housing Finance merits a positive rerating by way of the price-to-bookvalue multiple expansion.

For one, GIC Housing’s portfolio has almost nil speculative home investors, and the company has been very diligent with recoveries during the past several quarters, thereby improving asset quality.

Over and above this, GIC has implemented provision coverage ratio of 100% which is not often followed in the industry, and it further guards against any unexpected asset quality issues.

Secondly, almost 90% of GIC Housing’s portfolio is made up of loans with floating provisions, which also guards against asset quality problems in the long run. While capital adequacy is already at reasonable levels, its profitability has steadily improved during the past several quarters.

However, even with all these positives, GIC Housing’s stock is still trading at a discount when compared to peers like Can Fin Homes or Repco Home Finance.

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While banks are still timid to originate affordable home loans due to their higher overheads vis-à-vis lower tickets, they are eager to poach those loans with stable repayments. But with lower cost of funds, customers are increasingly sticking to specialized affordable loan providers like GIC Housing Finance for the entire span of the loan.

No wonder then that one of India’s largest mutual funds company, Reliance Capital has been buying huge quantities of GIC shares from the market through bulk deals.

Normally, such MFs have a longerterm view of the markets.

The growth prospects are also excellent as GIC Housing Finance is focusing on the Low and Middle Income (LMI) segment which accounts for more than 65% of the housing shortfall in this country.

The GIC stock is also healthy in that it delivers one of the highest dividend yields in the entire listed housing finance sphere.

Huge funds are expected to flow into the housing development and financing sectors as the recent budget has also allowed for more fund flows from the mutual fund and insurance companies into these sectors.

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INDIAN INFOLINE HOUSING FINANCE LTD

KEEPING HOME LOANS SIMPLE, CONVENIENT, & TRANSPARENT IIFL Holdings Ltd, formerly India Infoline Ltd, founded by rankholder Chartered Accountant and IIM-Ahmedabad alumni Nirmal Jain way back in 1995 was one of the first independent equity research companies in India. Two decades later, the listed IIFL Holdings Ltd is a financial services powerhouse active in diverse financial sectors like capital markets, mutual funds, commodities, consumer finance, corporate finance, insurance, private wealth management etc. Its largest subsidiary IIFL Finance undertakes consumer and corporate finance activities including gold loans, SME loans, healthcare finance, and commercial vehicle loans, apart from housing finance which is under its step-down subsidiary IIFL Housing Finance Ltd (IIHFL). The housing finance arm started operation only in 2009 but has been growing at a blistering pace and has recently crossed a loan book size of Rs. 5000 crore. IIHFL is led by Monu Ratra as its Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer. A housing finance veteran, Monu Ratra has 16 years of experience in leading lenders like HDFC and ICICI Bank. Seasonal Magazine in conversation with Monu Ratra, CEO, India Infoline Housing Finance Ltd. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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any in the industry are hailing the union budget as a dream budget for the housing finance industry, especially its affordable segment.

What is your take on this budget?

It is truly a great budget for housing finance industry, especially for those HFCs that are focused on the affordable segment. I would further say that this is the first time such a transformational budget has come for the housing finance industry.

The budget has positive proposals for both home buyers as well as developers in the affordable segment.

Which is likely to be of a more meaningful impact from an HFC’s angle?

The housing finance industry basically has three stakeholders – the

homebuyer, the builder, and the lender. The beauty of this budget is that there are provisions in it that positively impact all these three segments directly as well as indirectly.

Can you start by mentioning the advantages to affordable housing developers?

The main proposal for the developers is that 100% deduction of the profits is proposed for assessing income-tax under Section 80IA. While there are some riders that need to be fine-tuned or clarified further, there is no doubt that this is going to be a big incentive for developers to build affordable projects. I say this because, as of now, many of them are not attempting affordable projects due to the lower profit margin, and this proposal offsets that margin impact.

What is the main advantage in the budget favouring the homebuyers?

Though there are quite a few measures in the budget favouring homebuyers like additional interest reduction under Section 80EE, expansion of deduction under 80GG, and a few such measures, I think the most important move has been continuation of the Credit Linked Subsidy (CLS) scheme where the interest rate for the affordable segments has been subsidized. Many homebuyers still don’t understand the impact of this provision that was introduced last year.

For instance, a 12 lakh home loan under this scheme will have an effective interest rate of only around 7.5%. The government has also expanded the definition of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG) Nirmal Jain, Founder

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segments that are eligible for CLS. While EWS is now under Rs. 3 lakh annual income, LIG is now under Rs. 6 lakh annual income.

And finally, what are the advantages for housing finance companies like IIHFL? Our advantages are indirect but very tangible. Whatever step increases the supply of affordable homes is good for us and this budget precisely aims for that. More than that, the 100% deduction in profits for developers ensures that the quality of collateral that we lend against is going to improve. This is because the better or larger developers are now going to come into the affordable segment. On the other side, that is the demand side, whatever step increases the demand for homes augurs well for us, and this budget’s various provisions that encourage homebuyers to take small home loans to medium sized home loans of up to 35 lakhs will definitely help housing finance companies like IIHFL. Another recent move that will be of great impact is the re-initiation of the move to digitize land records.

This single step when implemented will be a huge boost for the housing finance industry as verification of complex paper based title deeds is a major overhead for all HFCs. Is IIHFL a mainstream HFC or more focused on a niche like affordable housing?

We are clearly skewed towards the affordable segment, and we are moving towards 70% of our portfolio being in the affordable segment.

IIFL has transformed from a capital market focused NBFC to a housing finance dominated NBFC. What percentage of the total business of IIFL is contributed by your arm?

IIFL Holdings Ltd, which is our listed apex holding company, is still a much diversified NBFC having operations in capital markets, mutual funds, commodities, finance, insurance, private wealth management etc. Our immediate parent company IIFL Finance is a diversified lender having operations in gold loans, SME loans, SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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S. Sridhar, Chairman healthcare finance, and commercial vehicle loans, apart from housing finance which is under IIHFL. Our arm, going forward, will contribute around 50% of the business.

Is the housing finance segment getting overcrowded these days? How do you plan to differentiate IIHFL to better compete with bigger as well as smaller players?

It may appear to be overcrowded as last year there were only 65 HFCs and today you have 72 or 75. But if you look closely, barely 5 or 6 among them are national level players. The rest of the pack are purely regional players, and that makes the sector not at all overcrowded. On the other hand, the demand from homebuyers is growing at a steady pace, and this further reiterates this stand.

What would be IIHFL’s geographical reach? Are you following a purely branch-led model of expansion or any alternatives are being pursued?

IIHFL currently has 55 branches across 50 cities. So far we were utilizing our own branches, but now we are beginning to explore whether the branches of our parent companies can be utilized for cross-selling etc. Since home loans are a long tenure business

Rajashree Nambiar, Director we don’t intend to pursue any nonbranch led expansions.

What is your ticket size range and retail lending rate range? What would be the average values for both?

Our loan ticket size would range from Rs. 15 lakhs to Rs. 35 lakhs. The average would be around 25 or 26 lakh. Our retail lending rates range between 9.6% and 11%. It depends on the credit score, repayment capacity, loan size, and even other parameters.

IIHFL lays great stress on simplified documentation. Is part of the process undertaken via online mode?

We are currently incubating an online model by which at least a part of the process can be undertaken online. We start by checking whether the CIBIL score is ok, and proceed with the subsequent steps, and we are trying to simplify the whole process all the time.

What would be your TAT for typical customer segments?

For salaried customers we offer a turnaround time of 48 hours, and for the self-employed a TAT of around 4 to 5 days.

What is the maximum tenure offered

by IIHFL and what would be the

broad policies are you following?

Responsible lending starts from the sourcing person. We run different checks, 4 to 5 of them, including CIBIL and field checks. Then we have property approvals, and to speed up things we have pre-approved properties. The basic idea is that the loan must be 100% genuine – something that fits the customer’s requirement and which he can afford, and something that is productive for the company.

Are you troubled by the rising phenomenon of balance transfer?

What percentage of your loans is affected by it?

Monu Ratra, Executive Director & CEO average tenure?

The maximum tenure on offer is 30 years, while the bulk of our loans would be for tenures between 15 to 18 years.

Who would constitute your average or typical home loan customer? Is it the employee in the formal or informal segments, or is it the small businessman?

We have a mix with salaried customers constituting 65-70% of our pool, and 30-35% coming from the selfemployed category.

What kind of a NIM and RoA do IIHFL deliver?

Our Net Interest Margin is around 3.5% and our Return on Assets should be around 18%.

A lot of competition among HFCs today is by offering better services like doorstep delivery. Do you offer it?

Yes, we do offer doorstep delivery, and as of now, it is done by our in-house sales team of more than 500 professionals working from our 55 branches.

IIHFL claims to be a responsible lender. By that definition, what all

Like all HFCs, we too are affected by the provision for balance transfers. We have some guiding principles to deal with it. First is that we can’t be unreasonable to customers. Customers usually request balance transfers only for two reasons – one for getting lower interest, or for raising more funds. So, we have a retention team that examines balance transfer requests to see whether the request is genuine and whether something can be done about it. But having said that, we can’t retain each and every customer. Some customers with whom we can’t agree with on their balance transfer request, we have to forego.

Some HFCs are reporting slipping asset quality on Loan Against Property. Are you offering LAP, and how is the asset quality in this business?

Loan Against Property is a fast growing segment but is getting over exploited.

As you rightly said, NPAs tend to be higher in this segment. So we are very cautious or judicious about offering LAP. IIHFL wants to remain a pure play housing finance company.

Are you offering Loan Insurance, and is it mandatory for all customers to avail it?

Yes, we are offering home loan insurance. While it is not mandatory, we definitely advice all our customers to go for it, as most of them are first time homebuyers, and it pays to be insured against any eventuality.

Is there an IPO for IIHFL being planned? Are you attracting any PE funds or similar sources for better value unlocking before a public issue?

I think it is too premature to talk about the IPO plans of IIHFL. As of now we haven’t taken funds from any PEs or such institutions.

What would be your current loan book size? And at what pace are you growing it?

IIHFL’s loan book recently crossed Rs. 5000 crore. We are growing at a pace of 30-35% now, which may appear fast, but which is also due to the lower base effect.

Why should a prospective customer prefer IIHFL? What are the USPs that you are highlighting?

First of all, while many in the industry speak about their USPs and such, I tend to think that housing finance has become a me-too product. Our regulator decides almost everything for us. So the challenge is how to differentiate in such a scenario? Our approach is pursuing ideas like convenience, confidence, transparency, technology etc. We have recently launched a smartphone app for our customers. In one simple app they can see every needed detail and status of their home loan. The idea behind is that not only taking the loan should be easy, but continuing with the loan should be easy. So our differentiators are these – keep things simple, keep things transparent.

What is your vision for the home loan industry and IIHFL’s role in it?

Affordable home loans will continue to be a huge opportunity for years or decades to come in this country. But how do you scale up? Access is what scales up this business. So how do you increase access to customers even while keeping your operational expenses in control? That is why I believe that the next mid-sized HFC to break into the big league of panIndia giants will be an HFC that solves this access problem using a new platform probably using next generation technology. At IIHFL we want to be that HFC. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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WILL YOU CHOOSE THESE ?

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

Career Point

How Career Point University Fares in this Admission Season or what is Kota of Rajasthan most known for, these days? Is it for recording the highest temperature in Rajasthan at 41.5 degrees, this season? Or, is it for recording the highest number of student suicides during the past year? While police records put teenage suicides in Kota during the past year at 24, unofficial tallies speak about 56 or more youngsters ending their lives in this remote tier-2 city, around 250 kms from Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur. Once famous for its engineering and medical entrance coaching centres, today the city is infamous for student suicides due to the reckless pressure exerted by these coaching centres on the IIT and All India Medical aspirants. Starting out in the 90s with just a couple of institutes, this laidback city

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has spawned over 300 institutes during the past two and a half decades on the lure of minting big time money on ‘coaching’ lakhs of students from all over India with no respect for their aptitude for entering IITs or Medical Colleges. However, the bulk or cream of the coaching business is cornered by the so-called Big-5 in the ‘industry’ - Allen, Bansal, Career Point, Resonance, and Vibrant – which charge higher fee for better ‘success rates’. And there are no refunds in this business for those who drop out, unable to withstand the pressure. While Career Point founded by ex-IITian Pramod Maheshwari, and Bansal were the pioneers in this unique business of Kota, more ‘successful’ players like Allen have surpassed them in recent years. Intense competition among all these big as well as

smaller players has ensured that students are often put through grueling regimens lasting 18 hours a day or more!

While only the suicides in Kota grab the headlines, thousands of teenagers studying in Kota experience mental breakdowns and require months of treatment at psychiatrists and counseling centres to recover. Due to the tiny number of seats in IITs and leading Government Medical Colleges, compared with the huge number of aspirants studying in Kota alone, many students – between 40-45% - end up repeating the coaching classes, bringing in repeat business for these institutes. With billboards celebrating the success of each institute’s students adorning many vantage points in Kota, success in entrance becomes the only measure of success for both the institutes and students, and many institutes are known to shame and humiliate underperforming students, driving them to suicides or nervous breakdowns. After last year’s student suicides in Kota broke all records, the Kota District Collector took some action, and forced these institutes to conduct a screening test. However, most institutes have turned it into a mockery with a policy that even those who fail in the test would be offered coaching! When a promoter and an organization from this kind of coaching industry starts a private university, there are bound to be raised eyebrows. But Pramod Maheshwari who also serves as Chancellor of Career Point University (CPU) has so far tried to steer clear of such controversies by keeping the University a separate entity, and by not allowing the ‘coaching’ culture to seep in here.

However, when one takes a walkthrough in CPU’s brochures and publicity materials, we can’t help but feel some elements of the ‘coaching’ culture. For instance, the university stresses on middle-school like values viz.

Dr. Mithilesh Dixit, Vice Chancellor

Pramod Maheshwari, Chancellor "determining one to one contact" and "relentlessly monitors progress of every student". Many private universities in Rajasthan are bleeding due to inadequate admissions, and Career Point University has implemented some unique policies to fight this challenge like early admission benefit, repetition of entrance test, and a special provision to apply for the entrance test even just two days in advance! And unlike many of its peers, it accommodates engineering diploma holders in its BTech programs in a big way. Career Point University offers courses in domains like engineering, management, law, agriculture etc. Among its 70 faculty members, only 7 have doctorate level degrees. CPU is not accredited by NAAC. Being a young university, CPU is only gradually coming up in the placements scene. While CPU claims to have achieved 79% placements in the past academic session, the quality of recruiters and quality of pay leave much to be desired. While many of India’s largest recruiters like TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Accenture, IBM etc are missing, the list is dominated by second-rung or lower-rung companies, and many graduates and postgraduates have been recruited at very low CTCs ranging from Rs. 1.2 Lakhs Per Annum to Rs. 2.4 LPA. Career Point University may come up gradually due to the education and experience of its Chancellor Pramod Maheshwari and Vice Chancellor Dr. Mithilesh Dixit, but for now, the university may appeal more to students native to Kota.

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WILL YOU CHOOSE THESE ?

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

IEC UNIVERSITY

HOW IEC UNIVERSITY FARES IN THIS ADMISSION SEASON EC University Campus is at Solan District of Himachal Pradesh. The exact location is nearer to Kalka and Baddi, which are nearly 275 and 300 kms respectively from New Delhi along NH 1. The IEC campus location is a further 8 km from Kalka and around 10 km from Baddi, and as such, would appeal to those students who wish to study in remote locations. But don’t expect a sprawling campus despite the location being so remote. Maybe due to the hilly nature of the region, and most probably to cut down on the costs, the campus size is limited to

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just 14.5 acres, and would come across as a surprise to students who are familiar with 100+ acre university campuses even in less remote areas. IEC University has its roots in the informal computer institute franchising business, and later the group diversified to private professional colleges in Greater Noida, and still later into this private university in Himachal Pradesh. IEC Group of Institutions including IEC University was founded by RL Gupta, and Dr. Navin Gupta is currently serving as the Chancellor. The university is structured as 12 Schools, including

Dr. Navin Gupta, Chancellor

Dr. Mahavir Singh, Vice Chancellor popular ones like engineering, management, basic sciences, commerce etc. Like many of its peers, IEC University too claims to have a research focus. Around 8 members of the faculty, all doctorate holders, including the Vice Chancellor Prof. Mahavir Singh have some research citations. Three more lecturers too have some citations to back the research focus claim. But apart from these scholars, coming mainly from domains like physics, pharmacy, & engineering, IEC University doesn’t come across as a leading institution in research activities. Most notably, eight major departments of IEC don’t have a single PhD holder including their Heads of Department. These include Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, English, Fashion Design, Allied Health Sciences, and Architecture departments. Coming to placements, in academic year 2015-16, IEC claims to have placed 542 students. However, apart from TCS taking up 100 graduates, the rest 442 students were taken up by 107 recruiters, making up an average of only 4 recruits per company, which hints about the challenges faced by IEC students in campus placements. Some of the recruiting companies also come across as second-rung, third-rung, or lower rung companies. IEC University takes discipline seriously, and it can be seen from its stern but superfluous instructions to even teachers, like “Never eat lunch in classrooms” and “Never get overly involved with students” etc. While there may be teachers, parents, and students who prefer such tough attitudes, more students are likely to be wary of such an overly disciplined environment. IEC University is not accredited

by NAAC. On an overall basis, IEC University may appeal to students residing in Solan District or even neighbouring districts of Himachal as another private university to consider.

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n i t i a w A ! e u s s I t Nex

s – Overall ie it s r e iv n U rivate India’s Top P

SHORTLISTED CONTENDERS

AKS University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN MP FOR AGRICULTURE Amet University

Arni University

TOP EMERGING PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN HIMACHAL FOR DISCIPLINE Auro University, Surat, Gujarat

TOP DEEMED UNIVERSITY FOR MARITIME COURSES FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN GUJARAT FOR HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

ApeejayStya University

Avinashilingam University

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN PALWAL REGION

TOP DEEMED UNIVERSITY FOR GANDHIAN & AMBEDKAR STUDIES IN SOUTH INDIA

Apex Professional University

BabuBanarsi Das University

TOP EMERGING PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR VARIETY OF COURSES AzimPremji University,

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY FOR MA (EDUCATION) IN BENGALURU SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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In this issue you saw the winning private universities across 3 core parameters – Innovations, Research, & Placements.

But there are more universities to be featured in the next issue, as there are more categories across which they will be judged. These criteria include Leadership in Subject Domains, Faculty Quality, Breadth of Courses / Departments, Internships, Campus Strengths, Sunrise Subjects, Super Specializations, Regional Leadership (State / District / City), Emerging Leadership, Faculty-to-Students Ratio, Alumni Strengths, Quantum of Seats, Value Education, Green Commitments, Social Outreach, Girl Student Focus, Scholarships, Communication / Soft Skills, Campus Discipline, Sports Facilities, Choice Based Credits, International Student Facilities, Academic Alliances, Industry Interactions, Startups, Inter-disciplinary Studies, and a few more. Seasonal Magazine is in the process of short-listing contenders for each title, and share here some of the short-listed titles for reader feedback before we finalize and publish the final titles in the next issue.

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN UTTAR PRADESH FOR SPORTING FACILITIES Baddi University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR GIRLS IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bahra University

Dr. KN Modi University

Bhagawant University

Ganpat University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN HIMACHAL FOR HOSPITALITY & TOURISM MANAGEMENT

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN FOR DIPLOMA COURSES

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY WITH ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY CAMPUS IN RAJASTHAN

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN GUJARAT FOR SCHOLARSHIPS

BLDE University

Geetanjali University

Calorx Teachers University

Glocal University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR TEACHING HOSPITAL IN NORTH KARNATAKA

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR BA.BED IN AHMEDABAD

Centurion University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN ODISHA FOR AGRICULTURE & MINING Chandigarh University

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY FOR NUMBER OF COURSES IN CHANDIGARH REGION Chitkara University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN PUNJAB FOR SALES & RETAIL MARKETING DIT University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN UTTARAKHAND FOR FACULTY QUALITY

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR PARAMEDICAL PROGRAMS IN UDAIPUR REGION

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN UP FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE

ICFAI Foundation for Higher

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR ENGINEERING IN HYDERABAD

IFTM University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN NORTHERN UP FOR RESEARCH

Indus International University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN UNA REGION

Invertis University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN BAREILLY REGION SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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iversities – Ov

erall

ITM University

Lovely Professional University

Jayoti Vidyapeeth

MaharajVinayak Global University

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY FOR GWALIOR RESIDENTS

TOP WOMEN’S PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN FOR PLACEMENT QUALITY

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN JAIPUR FOR NON-MEDICAL PROGRAMS

JECRC University

Maharishi Markandeshwar TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN AMBALA REGION FOR NONMEDICAL COURSES

JJT University

Maharishi University of Management & Technology

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR INTERNSHIPS & PLACEMENTS IN RAJASTHAN

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN OWNED BY A PUBLIC TRUST

MATS University

KIIT University

Mewar University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN ODISHA FOR PLACEMENTS

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN FOR BHARTIYA VALUES

KL University

MGM Deemed University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN ANDHRA FOR FACULTY-TOSTUDENTS RATIO

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TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN CHHATTISGARH WITH MULTIPLE CAMPUSES

Kaziranga University

TOP EMERGING PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN ASSAM FOR MANAGEMENT STUDIES

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR PLACEMENTS IN JALANDHAR REGION

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN CHHATTISGARH

TOP DEEMED UNIVERSITY FOR MEDICINE IN WEST CENTRAL MAHARASHTRA

SHORTLISTED CONTENDERS KR Mangalam University

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN GURGAON FOR UNCONVENTIONAL COURSES

Noida International University,

Oriental University

Raffles University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN MP FOR FACULTY QUALITY

RK University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN GUJARAT FOR COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

Sangam University

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN BHILWARA REGION

SGT University

TOP YOUNG SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN GREATER NOIDA

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY FOR HOTEL MANAGEMENT IN RAJASTHAN

RKDF University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN MP FOR ACADEMIC ALLIANCES

Satyabhama University TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN CHENNAI BY MINORITY COMMUNITY Sharda University,

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR BAMS (AYURVEDA) IN HARYANA

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN GREATER NOIDA FOR NUMBER OF COURSES

Shiv Nadar University

Shoolini University

Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY FOR NUMBER OF COURSES IN BHUBANESWAR

Sir PadampatSinghania University

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY IN DADRI REGION

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR ENGINEERING IN SOLAN

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN FOR FACULTY QUALITY

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iversities – Ov

erall

Sri Sai University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN HIMACHAL FOR JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION Srinivas University

TOP DEEMED UNIVERSITY FOR HEALTH SCIENCES IN TUMKUR REGION

Suresh GyanVihar University,

University of Technology & Management,

VIT University

Dayananda Sagar University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH

TOP SELF-FINANCING UNIVERSITY FOR NUMBER OF ENGINEERING SEATS IN TAMILNADU

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN BENGALURU FOR ENGINEERING PLUS LIBERAL ARTS COMBINATION

Medi-Caps University

Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education & Research,

North Cap University

Parul University TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR ENGINEERING IN VADODARA REGION

Shridhar University

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR MBBS IN KANCHIPURAM AREA

Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR AYURVEDA IN TAMILNADU

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Sri Siddhartha University

TOP EMERGING PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN MANGALORE

BY AN ESTABLISHED HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN NORTH EAST FOR COMPUTER ENGINEERING SPECIALIZATIONS

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

SHORTLISTED CONTENDERS

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR ENGINEERING IN INDORE

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN GURGAON REGION FOR HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN RAJASTHAN FOR SCHOLARSHIPS AND LOAN ASSISTANCE

LUXURY INDIAN JEWELRY BRAND, MIRARI, BLUSHES FOR THE HOT SEASON eminine and spry, Mirari’s new pantone 2016 collection radiates in signature pink and blue shades. The Indian jeweler combines sparkly rubies and tanzanites, among other gemstones, to create intricate color motifs that convey a modern mood yet a timeless attitude.

NIRAV MODI COMPLETES FIVE YEARS IN DIAMOND JEWELLERY

F

GEMFIELDS GLAMS UP PIECES BY GEORG JENSEN AND FABERGE FOR BASELWORLD 2016 he world’s leading supplier of responsibly sourced colored precious stones, Gemfields, sparkles up the latest designs of two renowned watch and jewelry maisons – Georg Jensen and Faberge – which are to debut at this year’s edition of Baselworld.

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t was last year when we attended the grand inauguration of jewellery designer Nirav Modi’s stunning Mumbai boutique that revamped the quaint streets of Kala Ghoda with its sheen. This year, after numerous accolades—be it the million dollar sale at Christies in 2010 or joining the billionaire’s league on Forbes’ coveted rich list in 2013—the designer celebrates the fifth year anniversary of his eponymous jewellery brand under the grand domes of Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur.

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CUSTOMISED JEWELLERY PIECES BY FORTEDEMARMI o-owner and creative director of the Italian luxury jewellery brand, Fortedemarmi, when Alena Kupriyanova Lotti thinks of personalised jewellery her imagination combines exotic leathers and gemstones with gold. Bringing this idea to reality, the brand launched an exclusive range of jewellery and clutches that can be changed to match your look everyday.

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Designed using the finest materials sourced from around the world, the collection is synonymous with luxury in vogue. Although the company made a grand debut in 2015, its history dates back to 1963 when Otello Lotti, an Italian artist, launched a company that created metal clutches for luxury fashion brands.

The company, since then, has created a niche in the luxury accessories market.

A COLLECTOR’S PRIDE – THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH WATCH BY BACKES & STRAUSS ackes & Strauss—renowned for creating high-end luxury timepieces and jewellery and the world’s oldest diamond company established in the 18th century—has since been mesmerising the influential. Adding to its collection, the company has now designed a master timepiece, called the Princess Elizabeth, to pay a tribute to Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II on her 90th birthday.

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INSIDE MUMBAI’S NEWEST LUXURY RESIDENCE – EXCALIBUR real estate project that started last year in November will soon be seen adding to the beauty of Mumbai’s mesmerising skyline.

Nestled in Mahalaxmi, the city is all set to welcome a new luxury residence into its portfolio by 2018.

Titled Excalibur, the project being developed by the renowned Nahar Group, is set to change the course of luxury housing complexes with its international standard structure and design.

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LUXURY

CHOPARD’S HAUTE JOAILLERIE LINE PERFECT FOR SPRING hopard celebrates the colours of spring with a brand new collection-Fleurs d'Opales-that brings refreshing hues to the season.

Last year, the brand joined the Fédération Française de la Couture as a jewellery member and crafted highend bling. This year, Chopard breaks the conventional diamond route and adds a host of shades to its latest haute joaillerie at the Paris Haute Couture week. Take a look here:

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SOTHEBY'S WELCOMES SPRING WITH AN IMPRESSIVE JEWELRY AUCTION

otheby’s celebrates the onset of spring with its upcoming London Fine Jewels sale. To take place on March 15, the auction will feature 370 exquisite ornamentations – with an estimated range from £1,000 ($1,430) to £60,000 – that span the disparate design aesthetics of the last two centuries. The stand-out selection includes jewelries from renowned houses like Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier and Marcus and Co. The impressive collection also features a large array of precious stones – from 5.12-carat diamonds to lavish Burmese rubies, Colombian emeralds and Kashmir sapphire.

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EXQUISITE GENTLEMAN'S TIMEPIECES SPOTTED AT THE BASELWORLD 2016 nd it's a wrap! The world's most coveted watch and jewellery show-the Baselworld-has come to an end, leaving behind a beautiful treasure trove of awe-inspiring accessories for for the discerning.

Unlike every year, the exhibition boasted of a host of chronographic goodness. Missed it? Fret no longer as we present to you remarkable timepieces for the suave gentlemen.

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LOUIS VUITTON SETS ON A TROPICAL JOURNEY WITH ITS SUMMER 2016 COLLECTION ouis Vuitton jaunts on a tropical bash with its capsule summer 2016 collection. Entitled “Tropical Journey,” the collection revolves around two hot prints – Monogram Jungle and Monogram Vernis Jungle. While the latter evokes exotic animal furs, the former reminds of the Californian landscapes, beaded with palm trees.

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MANDARIN ORIENTAL IN MILAN OPENS TWO SPECIALTY SUITES ilan’s Mandarin Oriental unveils two luxurious suites – the crowning jewels of the hotel that opened just last year. Inspired by Milanese design masters, Piero Fornasetti and Gio Ponti, the new Milano Suite and Premier Suite overlook the Seta restaurant’s courtyard and the adjacent Vicolo Giardino (garden).

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EXQUISITE GENTLEMAN'S TIMEPIECES SPOTTED AT THE BASELWORLD 2016 43mm timepiece designed to celebrate the centennial of the first flight, especially Boeing, only 300 of these will be made.

Price: INR 5.05 lakhs

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