Seasonal Magazine Latest Issue - IDFC First Bank - Cover Story

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MAGAZINE

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

7 WAYS TO RESURRECT THE ECONOMY As India reels under a spreading contagion of weak growth and rising job losses across the sectors, here are seven ways to resurrect the economy immediately.

Bring Back the Consumption

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To energize the economy, successive governments have been trying to push public spending in the vain hope that it will eventually spur private investments. But time and again it has been proved that this has not happened, and will not happen in the future too for some simple reasons. Capacity utilization across industries in India stands at just 70%. Why should entrepreneurs and companies invest again in capacity augmentation now? It doesn’t make sense at all. Companies will invest heavily only when they sense once again that demand is going to outpace supply.

Expecting supply to lead demand is irrational. This is not a chicken-or-egg problem with any ambiguity. It is a horse-or-cart issue. Trying to promote private investment before demand kicks in is putting the cart before the horse, which has never worked.

Instead the horses of demand should be unleashed by enabling consumption.

Bring Back the Corporate Credit Growth

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SEASONAL MAGAZINE

While we Indians and all our leaders have glossed over our GDP growth rate post economic liberalization, a sobering fact for all of us is that India’s GDP is still dominated by consumption. And in consumption too, private consumption has been the major component of our GDP with estimates on its contribution varying between 60% to 70%. Private consumption is the consumption of goods and services by you and me and our companies, and not the governments. India has fared well in consumption primarily because of our world-leading population, of which a rising percentage was uplifted from poverty to lower middleclass and middleclass post economic liberalization. In fact, India withstood the global economic crisis starting in 2009 and the ensuing and lingering NPA crisis solely based on the growing consumption economy.

Bring Back the Demand

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EDITORIAL

While capacity utilization is only 70%, it is important to realize that it is an average figure across industries and that there are still some pockets of growth. In addition, there is the start-up environment where budding entrepreneurs are trying new products and services. It is imperative that these segments get adequate credit, which the banks are now unable or not willing to provide due to the never-ending NPA crisis. While different measures have been tried by successive governments and RBI governors, the crisis still looms greater than ever before. The writing on the wall should be clear to all. The NPA crisis can be solved only by both parties – defaulting companies as well as banks – taking significant haircuts. Government, as the main promoter of wholesale banks, should encourage their banks to do this, so that this crisis is solved once and for all, and banks return to a track of significant credit growth.

Bring Back the Retail & MSME Credit Growth India’s consumption story was not just driven by rising incomes in the lower-class and middleclass populations, but by the easy credit that became available to them, mainly from the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). While banks were unwilling to lend to these consumers, it was these NBFCs that extended loans to them and thus indirectly spurring on the demand for everything from smartphones to TVs to bikes to even cars and affordable homes. The same goes for the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for which these non-banks were a major source of debt. The NBFC crisis starting from IL&FS and extending through DHFL has shattered this sector as refinancing has become a major problem for even well-run NBFCs. While banks pay lip service to growing their retail & MSME loan portfolios, except for one or two private banks, no bank is willing to lend aggressively to these sectors. That is why the NBFC sector needs to be revived urgently.

Bring Back the Jobs Growth The first hint of increasing trouble in Indian economy, post 2014, came from the jobs front. Job growth has decelerated to multi-decade lows. This was to be expected as corporate earnings growth was getting muted, with insufficient capacity utilization and lack of credit for even growing sectors. While successive governments have done much to incentivize overseas investments, little was done to incentivize jobs growth. It was assumed that one will automatically result in the other, which has proved to be untrue. This is because the biggest overseas and Indian companies are resorting to a high-level of automation driven by artificial intelligence, which is enabling them to make bigger profits with fewer jobs. As this trend is only likely to grow exponentially, it is imperative that highly populous countries like India stop incentivizing investments and start incentivizing jobs creation.

Bring Back Wage Growth Whenever consumption suffers in any country, the first culprit that economists look for is wage growth. This time and our country too is no different. Studies show that per capita disposable income in India fell to 9.5% between 2015 and 2018 from a high of 13.3% between 2010 and 2014. Falling disposable income is primarily why Indians, especially the poor and middle-class, have cut down on or delayed buying discretionary items and even essentials and staples. India’s economic growth has not proportionally contributed to wage growth for the masses, say successive studies from International Labour Organization (ILO).

Powerful tools like MGNREGA that put significant amounts of money in the hands of masses should be revived and grown systematically so that consumption is boosted from the lowest of rungs, even when productive work of nationbuilding gets done. MGNREGA is credited with boosting consumption from 2007 to 2014. Government should also implement the findings of a study it commissioned in 2017, which recommended that a minimum wage of close to Rs.10,000 should be paid across all sectors.

Bring Back Rational Taxes While implementing the Goods & Service Taxes was a long pending reform, sector after sector, starting from automobiles to FMCG foods are showing tremendous stress from the rise in tax rates. Tax rates should be made much more rational in such a way that the government gets higher and higher taxes from growth of the sectors rather than higher tax rates. When rates are kept low, it will spur growth and will eventually deliver much more sustainable revenues for the government. Otherwise, it will be like killing the proverbial golden goose for short-term gains. Also, government should come to the rescue of the masses by cutting taxes on petrol and diesel when oil prices run high, as the higher prices in itself compensates the government.

Otherwise, the jobs loss that started with the automotive sector with an estimated 3.5 lakh people losing jobs, and then to FMCG foods, will propagate to other sectors and become a contagion.

John Antony SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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CONTENTS

IDFC FIRST BANK

THE BANKER-ENTREPRENEUR IS PLOTTING A RAPID TURNAROUND

THE MYSTERY OF THE 'MISSING' RS. 1.7 LAKH CRORE Days after the Union Budget was presented, questions have surfaced over a nearly Rs. 2 lakh crore 'fiscal hole' in India's financial accounts.

CAN THIS BUDGET HELP INDIA GROW INTO A SUPERPOWER? Capital expenditure, too, has been squeezed - by one estimate, from Rs. 9.2 lakh crore ($134 billion) last year to Rs. 8.7 lakh crore this year.

V Vaidyanathan has done it before at Capital First – transform a sluggish wholesale lender into a high-growth retail lender, and the market believes he can do it again at IDFC First Bank. He is perhaps the only banker who turned into an entrepreneur by betting everything he had including his house and his stake in Capital First through a (personal) leveraged buyout, then successfully turned it around, and took over the company through India’s first ever management buyout in the financial sector, and later turning into a bankerentrepreneur through the merger of Capital First with IDFC Bank to form IDFC First Bank which he leads as MD & CEO.

THERMAX LTD

INDIA'S GLOBAL CAPITAL GOODS PLAYER Thermax has concluded an excellent year with a blockbuster Q4 which saw its topline and bottomline surging, driven by faster execution even in an SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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SPICEJET TECHNICIAN'S DEATH PUTS LABOUR SAFETY IN FOCUS A SpiceJet technician died recently in a freak accident while carrying out regular maintenance work on an aircraft at Kolkata airport, officials said. The incident happened at around 1:45 am..

BIG TAX SAVINGS POSSIBLE ON AFFORDABLE HOME & ELECTRIC VEHICLE? IS DESPERATION CREEPING INTO INDIA'S POLICY MAKING? The government is targeting foreign investors, high-earning employees and companies to plug its fiscal gap. Such overreach never ends well..

The Budget 2019 delivered little joy in terms of income tax relief as India’s first woman Finance..

TRUMP REPEATS THAT INDIAN TARIFFS ARE UNACCEPTABLE Trump’s comment came just days after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, where the two leaders aired their concerns over bilateral trade disputes..

SAVINGS, NOT FDI, WILL ENSURE TRILLIONDOLLAR TARGET Modi government’s ambitious $ 5 trillion in five years goal needs to be achieved through macro variables like savings and investment rather than FDI-led growth, argues R. Nagaraj

INDIA, KASHMIR AND A RTICLE 370: THE COSTS OF SECURIT Y MAXIMIZATION “Nobody in the government is talking. They say it’s a case of national security” is a famous line from The Spy Files: A Brent Marks Legal Thriller authored by Kenneth Eade.

The sentiment captures the tense moments leading up to the Modi government’s landmark decision to abrogate Article 370 and reorganize the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Almost a fortnight after the historic move, the region continues to keep the world community interested particularly considering the involvement of two nuclearpowered states – India and Pakistan. While India has chosen to call its action as an ‘internal matter’, the

CHANDRAYAAN 1: AIMING FOR THE MOON

The tragic case of Jaypee Infratech has taken another twist as court has again intervened to protect the interests of homebuyers of this firm, as its probable liquidation by banks would only serve the banks' interests.

The court has asked the government..

Kohli recently remarked that Rohit is the best ODI player in the world. However, this poignant piece by Samiuddin details how the two actually bring out the best in each other..

WOMEN WHO QUIT ALCOHOL, REGAIN MENTAL HEALTH

As Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) starts the countdown for its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, here is a recap by Nikhil Menon on how we reached the Moon a decade ago.

32,000 HOMEBUYERS RS 14,000 CRORE PAID BUT NO HOMES DELIVERED

THE ROHIT-KOHLI SAGA

Quitting alcohol can improve mental health in women, says new study.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: OF CRICKET, CRICKETERS AND COACHES The new cricket season has started with aplomb. Ever since the sport’s marquee event – the ICC Cricket World Cup final – divided the planet between those who were stickler for rules and those who ridiculed the same rules, sanity has finally been restored. In what, arguably, was the only instance when the ire towards England had nothing to do with Brexit (although people lambasted it by citing the

NEW INDIA ASSURANCE

PROVING ITS METTLE IN THE CENTEN ARY YEAR Completing 100 years is no simple achievement and anyone would think that a centenarian company, which would automatically be a sector leader, would have its 100th year as easy as a piece of cake. Far from it, New India Assurance Company’s 100th year was one of its toughest in recent years, with not only multiple natural calamities but also with automobile sales sagging like never before and its

IS THE BUDGET TRYING TO DO A CHINA? The economic vision of Modi 2.0 is increasingly beginning to resemble that of China, Singapore and South Korea, where compliant citizens conform to a grander economic idea that is larger than them.

INDIA'S KILLER EXPRESSWAY Yamuna Expressway has claimed about 900 lives in over 5,000 accidents since 2012. The foremost reasons of the accidents on the expressway have been over-speeding encouraged by..

INDIA'S FIRST ELECTRIC SUV HYUNDAI KONA LAUNCHED Internationally, the Kona receives a 64 kWh lithium-ion battery pack combined with a 150 kW motor, which is capable of delivering close to 557 km on a single..

FAIRFAX-BACKED CSB BANK PLANNING IPO? Kerala-based private lender CSB Bank, earlier known as The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd, is set to file its draft initial public offering (IPO) papers, said two people aware of the development.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN NORTH EAST Guwahati based Assam down town University (AdtU) is experiencing excellent demand during this admission season.

Thanks to Assam’s leading private universities like AdtU, the state’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is..

SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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CONTENTS

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN DEMAND NOW There was a time in India when if you didn't get your preferred course at your preferred public university or college, you waited till the next year to try your luck again. Today, the situation has changed dramatically and you can get your preferred course at a private or deemed university, without losing a precious year. And some of these private universities are as good as their public peers, and in some facets like campus placements and startup incubation, even better. Such private

PROMOTER FEUD AT INDIGO ESCALATES, SEBI STEPS IN, SHARES PLUMMET

LOWER TV SALES DURING WORLD CUP SHOWS A SLOWING ECONOMY

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, parent of the country’s largest airline IndiGo, slumped 17% on a single day after its co-founder raised corporate governance issue with market..

Bajaj Finserv's Sanjiv Bajaj says lower TV sales during Cricket World Cup a signal of slowing economy.

WHY RAHUL SHOULD LEAD CONGRESS Quit the sulk, Rahul Gandhi, or quit politics. The party has to gear up for a slew of assembly elections, not to speak of staving off toppling efforts in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh..

THE TALE OF THE OUT-PERFORMERS Performing at the World Cup is akin to appearing for an exam for which the syllabus is unknown.

Hours of practice at the nets before the match or even scoring well in the earlier exams might instill a sense of..

POLICY UNCERTAINTY HAUNTS BUSINESSES STILL While the Economic Survey sought to allay fears that the business and investment climate is becoming less ambiguous, Chikermane opines that this is not as clear as it may seem.

Banking is one of the mostprofitable industries in the world.At the same time, it is one of the least disrupted industries and the most unpopular one amongst consumers and businesses. Enter Neo banks.

The official YouTube app is now available for the Amazon Fire TV platform while Prime Video is now on Android TV and also supports the Google Chromecast platform.

APPLE COFOUNDER STEVE WOZNIAK SAYS PEOPLE SHOULD QUIT FACEBOOK Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak advised that most people "find a way to get off Facebook". He said he quit the site last year.

WHY DO COMPANIES PREFER DIRECT LISTINGS OVER THE TRADITIONAL IPOS HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NEO BANKS

TECH GIANTS GOOGLE & AMAZON EXTEND VIDEO PARTNERSHIP

A private company decides to go ‘public’ when it wants to list its shares in one or more stock exchanges. Additionally, taking a company public reduces the overall cost of capital and gives..

INDIA MULLS DESALINATION PLANTS India's NITI Aayog is planning to set up desalination plants along the country's 7,800-km coastline.

The plants will desalinate sea water which would then be supplied to population centres through a pipeline network.

ALL THE GOOD IN THIS BUDGET Sumit Singhania and Gaurav Barchha of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, lists out all the good moves in the budget.

Mainly, they find that Budget 2019 has delivered many quick fixes and addressed several policy gaps.

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AUTO

THERE ARE LUXURY CAR BRANDS, AND THEN THERE IS BUGATTI THE BUGATTI CENTODIECI WILL COST $9 MILLION AND ONLY 10 WILL BE MADE.

his car is an homage to the Bugatti EB110 supercar of the early 1990s.

Centodieci means 110 in Italian. The EB110 was built in Northern Italy's "Motor Valley," not far from where Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maseratis are made. It was an attempt to revive the Bugatti brand, which had been dormant since the 1950s. The Centodieci's design recalls the EB110s low, aggressive appearance.

That business ultimately failed, but the automobile it created is still regarded as one of the greatest supercars ever made.

The prototype for the EB110 was designed by Carlo Gandini, the same man who designed the Lamborghini Countach. The final production versions of the car were designed by Giampaolo Benedini, who was also an avid racing driver.

Volkswagen Group purchased the Bugatti brand name in 1998 and built its modern production facility at Bugatti's ancestral home in Molsheim, France. With the backing of one of the world's largest automakers, Bugatti now makes fast cars for the extremely wealthy, much as it did in the first decades of the 20th century.

Until recently, the modern Bugatti factory produced only one car model at a time. The Veryon was offered from SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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2005 to 2015, with various changes and improvements made throughout its life.

Then the Chiron entered production in 2016. Both cars were designed to be astonishingly fast but comfortable and easy to drive, thanks to massive turbocharged 16-cylinder engines mounted behind the two seats.

When it was first introduced, the Bugatti Veyron cost about $1.5 million. The Bugatti Chiron costs more than $3 million.

The Centodieci is Bugatti's latest attempt at branching out. During last year's Monterey car week, a series of automotive events leading up to the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August, Bugatti unveiled the Divo. It started at almost $6 million and, Bugatti promised, only 40 would be made.

Then, at the Geneva Motor Show last March, Bugatti unveiled another special car of which only one would be made.

At almost $19 million, including taxes, Bugatti claimed that La Voiture Noire was the most expensive new car ever sold. Much of that car's value stemmed from its extraordinary exclusivity being that the owner, whose name was never revealed, will have the only one.

All three of these new Bugatti models are substantially similar, in terms of their underlying engineering, to the Chiron.

All have Bugatti's turbocharged 16-

cylinder engine although, in the Centodieci, it's specially tuned to produce up to 1,600 horsepower, 100 more than the Chiron. This car is also slightly lighter than the Chiron. It can go from a full stop to 60 miles an hour in just 2.4 seconds. But its top speed is limited to 236 miles an hour, which is lower than the Chiron's.

The body of the Centodieci is designed to be reminiscent of the low, wide stance and wedge-like shape of the EB110.

"Transporting this classic look into the new millennium without copying it was technically complex, to say the least," said Bugatti designer Achim Anscheidt.

The Centodieci's horizontal headlamps set into the hood mimic those of the EB110, but they're narrower and more aggressive thanks to modern LED technology. Instead of the Chiron's swooping C-shaped lines around the big side vents, the Centodieci has openings with straight edges and a cluster of round holes. The Centodieci also has a permanently raised rear wing, unlike the Chiron's wing, which can be lowered so that it lays against the car's body. Both those features - the vent holes and raised rear wing - were drawn from the Bugatti EB110 SS, a very high performance version of that car. All 10 of the supercars have already been pre-sold. Customers were able to order their Centodieci in, literally, any color they like.

LEADERSHIP

THE LEGACY OF JRD TATA As we recall the legacy of this great man, perhaps the best tribute we can pay him is to pursue a similarly high standard of excellence in whatever we do Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian of Tata Sons, and author of “Tata Log”, remembers JRD Tata.

In addition, JRD also brought to bear the intellect of the finest technocrats – Sir Ardeshir Dalal, AD Shroff and Dr John Mathai, who went on to become Finance Minister of India.

he pursuit of excellence drives positive and transformative change, because it sets our sights very high, well beyond what we are achieving today, and expands the boundaries of what is possible.

JRD Tata, whose birth anniversary we celebrate this month, lived and practised this principle. As Chairman of the Tata Group for over five decades, he pushed for excellence in all quarters. This enabled him to make remarkable contributions to Indian industry.

JRD’s philosophy of excellence is summed up in a letter that he wrote in 1965 to an educationist in Kolkata, where he laid out the guiding principles of his life.

One of these principles was - “That one must forever strive for excellence, or even perfection, in any task however small, and never be satisfied with the second best.”

How small could such a task be, where excellence must be sought at all times?

Some stories from the early days of Air India, which JRD Tata had originally founded as Tata Air Lines, provide us a glimpse. He was then the Chairman of this magnificent enterprise, India’s first international airline.

Whenever he flew Air India, he would observe everything around him, and write back to the Management with his comments. Once, after traveling on an Air India flight to Europe, he wrote a memo to the General Manager of the airline: “The tea served on board from Geneva, is, without exaggeration, indistinguishable in colour from coffee. I do not know if the black colour of the tea is due to the quality used, or due to excessive brewing. I suggest that the Station Manager at Geneva be asked to look into the matter.”

He goes on to say: “I found that some of the seats recline much more than the others…. I suggest that all our seats be adjusted for a

into preparing the Bombay Plan, some of India’s best known and most gifted industrialists joined JRD. This stellar team included GD Birla, Kasturbhai Lalbhai, Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas and Sir Shri Ram, apart from JRD Tata himself.

maximum reclining angle, except, of course, the rearmost seats which are limited by bulkheads.”

He then goes on to deal with the matter of shabby armrests which need replacement. He was Chairman of the Company, but no subject was too small to be ignored, in his quest for perfection.

JRD’s larger purpose in pointing out these small details was to inculcate a mindset of excellence across the organisation, in its quest to achieve global standards.

No wonder Air India was, in those days, preferred by international travellers for its superior customer experience. If Indian Institutions have to achieve world-class standards, this pursuit of excellence in every detail, big or small, continues to remain an imperative. The culture of “Chalta Hai”, which permeates many sectors of our country, has to change.

JRD Tata also realised that driving big, fundamental change at a broad social or national level requires breakthrough ideas from all quarters. Here, excellence is often determined by the sheer quality of ideas, and broad-based support for such new concepts. In such areas, he therefore developed a very inclusive approach. One example of this is the Bombay Plan, published in 1944.

This was perhaps the first comprehensive plan created for the development of India.

It envisaged a fifteen-year plan, with a road-map for investments in key areas such as power, roads, railways and mining.

To develop the powerful ideas which went

This resulted in a remarkable document which The Economist magazine termed “a commendable piece of enterprise”. It created a stir in those days, and impacted economic thinking in the years leading up to Independence. In many ways, the roadmap contained in the Bombay Plan anticipated that of the five-year economic plans of independent India. This happened because the best minds were brought together, to ensure excellence in a seminal piece of work.

JRD Tata also firmly believed that the pursuit of excellence requires the best leadership, with very high levels of ownership and commitment. Only such leadership can drive transformative change on a sustained basis. Therefore, much of his energy was invested in nurturing extraordinary corporate leaders, such as Sumant Moolgaonkar, Darbari Seth and Russi Mody – each of them became legends in their own right.

To institutionalise the process of leadership development, he conceived of the Tata Administrative Service, the central management cadre of the Tata Group, which has produced stalwarts such as Dr. Freddie Mehta, Xerxes Desai and R K Krishna Kumar. Sixty years later, the TAS remains a preferred choice of management graduates across the best business schools in the country.

This year, the Tata Group marks the 25th year of its highest in-house award, created to pay tribute to JRD Tata’s quest for excellence. It is called the JRD-QV award, and only those Companies which reach a very high threshold of business excellence can aspire to win this honour.

As we recall the legacy of this great man, perhaps the best tribute we can pay him is to pursue a similarly high standard of excellence in whatever we do, whether big or small, in our own lives.

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V Vaidyanathan MD & CEO. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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IN-FOCUS

By John Antony, Jaison D

IDFC FIRST BANK

THE BANKERENTREPRENEUR IS PLOTTING A RAPID TURNAROUND V Vaidyanathan has done it before at Capital First – transform a sluggish wholesale lender into a high-growth retail lender, and the market believes he can do it again at IDFC First Bank. He is perhaps the only banker who turned into an entrepreneur by betting everything he had including his house and his stake in Capital First through a (personal) leveraged buyout, then successfully turned it around, and took over the company through India’s first ever management buyout in the financial sector, and later turning into a banker-entrepreneur through the merger of Capital First with IDFC Bank to form IDFC First Bank which he leads as MD & CEO.

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nvestors and analysts who were taken aback by the huge losses at IDFC First Bank should realize one thing – if this merger hadn’t happened, both IDFC Bank and Capital First would have been in far worse shapes, as both their sectors had taken direct hits in the IL&FS crisis and its aftermath. But at the least, while Capital First was highly profitable, IDFC Bank with core losses and high NPA would have had a more serious problem without the merger. It was the perfect merger at the perfect timing, and the impressive way in which the combined entity’s retail franchise is expanding, is promising a rapid turnaround in the fortunes. The bank is moving rapidly to grab opportunities like it did with Fastag 2.0, and it has unleashed its new brand proposition, #AlwaysYouFirst which was highly visible on social media due to its powerful influencers including Soha Ali Khan, Harsh Bhogle and others.

The bank serves 7.2 million customers through 203 bank branches, 129 ATMs and 454 rural business correspondent centres, and is now a renowned institution for their core CSR activity that enables students from poor backgrounds to pursue their dream MBAs. When IDFC Bank and Capital First merged, no one knowledgeable in the financial sector expected a quick

miracle. But a couple of quarters down the line, the challenges have become deeper as is seen from the Q4 FY 19 and Q1 FY20 numbers, as the bank has posted losses for four quarters in a row now.

But the silver lining is that the bank is outperforming on certain core fronts like retail loans and CASA that will help the bank to turnaround sooner than the headline numbers suggest. Most importantly, the bank seems to have found a clear direction on which way it will go forward.

A lesser known fact about the entrepreneurial side of CEO V Vaidyanathan is that he pledged his home and the acquired stock with lenders with the idea that he could turn around the company and get out at a profit. As per information filed at exchanges, in March 2017, he sold 1.5% of Capital First at Rs. 688 a share to close the loan he had availed to acquire the stock in the first place. It is called a Leveraged Buyout in western circles.

The newly minted bank is also moving quickly on emerging opportunities, especially digital ones. Recently, when government re-launched Fastag, the automated smart toll card as Fastag 2.0 with support for cashless fuel purchase across the petrol pumps in highways, IDFC First Bank became the first bank to partner with this initiative.

RBI has approved the bank’s move to issue such cards, which are expected to be a great convenience and time-saver for truck drivers. The approval is for ‘onus’ transactions only, which means transactions done on RFID cards issued and acquired by IDFC FIRST Bank.

The move symbolizes the speed with which IDFC First Bank’s V Vaidyanathan has been leading the bank since its merger. And insiders say there is clarity on approach in the bank.

IDFC First Bank has rightly judged the significance of the expanded Fastag as a recent development is likely to jumpstart this highway smartcard’s widespread adoption from now on.

From December 1, in all national highway toll plazas, all lanes except one must accept electronic payments which are currently dominated by Fastag.

While Fastag in itself is not a major business for a bank, every month or quarter throws up such opportunities, which banks should rapidly embrace as banks are expected to be a one-stop shop for all financial services, especially digital services, in this new age.

In another recent move signifying how much the bank understands the emerging banking services scenario, IDFC First Bank roped in Madhivanan Balakrishnan, the Chief Technology

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Dr. Rajiv Lall, Chairman

IDFC Bank and Capital First had brought in different strengths and weaknesses to the table when they merged. While IDFC Bank had the strength of a banking licence which is a premium in India, Capital First as an NBFC had a retail loans franchise, consistent growth, low NPA and profitability.

Officer (CTO) of ICICI Bank to be their Chief Operations Officer (COO). This move reveals the pragmatic mind of MD & CEO V Vaidyanathan, as banking operations are turning more and more technology based.

Even more importantly, it reveals his ability to attract talent and build leadership teams given his past successful track record. Vaidyanathan himself has had a long and highly successful stint with ICICI Bank, and is credited with growing this pioneering private sector bank’s retail banking from scratch to a dominant position among peers, embracing all emerging technologies during those years, that resulted in ICICI Bank claiming most firsts in the industry, especially in tech-led retail banking.

The new COO, Balakrishnan has been credited with most technology based initiatives during the past many years at ICICI Bank, and he brings in additional expertise to the table at IDFC First Bank.

This is because, almost on a weekly basis, all banks are approached by financial service start-ups with newer and newer ideas that can take growth to the next orbit. Every bank needs a go-to person to assess the viability of associating with such start-ups, which is a role the new COO is quite well versed in.

With such recruitments, Vaidyanathan SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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has shown his entrepreneurial side and his strong ability to attract quality talent.

In fact, IDFC First Bank’s MD & CEO is perhaps the only top honcho at an Indian bank now who has proved his mettle as a top executive as well as an innovative entrepreneur, and is the only banker turned entrepreneur turned banker-entrepreneur.

Following his successful career at ICICI Bank where he rose to a Board position at just 38 years of age, Vaidyanathan had tried his hand at entrepreneurship, by skilfully executing a ‘Management Buy Out’ of Future Capital with PE backing, after showing his vision that he could build a large retail NBFC on the platform.

It was the first management takeover in the Indian financial sector. Few would expect an executive member of a Board of an established group to leave to take a stake in an NBFC, that too by personal leverage.

A lesser known fact was that he pledged his home and the acquired equity stock with lenders, with the idea that he could turn around the company and get out at a profit.

As per information filed at stock exchanges, in March 2017, he sold 1.5% of Capital First at Rs. 688 a share to close the loan he had availed to acquire the stock in the first place. It is called a Leveraged Buyout in western circles.

He thus bailed out when the stock rose 7X after he completed the turnaround of the company to a large retail lender.

There are few parallels for such stories.

But unlike other NBFCs who were happy being an NBFC for regulatory ease, he explored all the options for a

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banking license and always made his plans to apply for a banking licence very clear.

In fact at a CRISIL conference in 2014 he was quoted as saying “We need access to a banking licence; we will try for it. I have always wanted one, will keep trying for one.”

Interestingly, why most discerning investors are betting on Vaidyanathan to turn around IDFC First Bank is because, the role cut out for him here is quite similar to the role he had successfully completed at Capital First, which was transforming a financial institution from being a corporate or wholesale lender to being a much more lucrative and competitive retail lender, with the distinct advantages of better growth and better asset quality.

His stated strategy in his annual report to shareholders in 2019 is extremely simple: “Place the Capital First lending machine on an IDFC ‘bank’ platform.”

It is as good as saying Capital First on a banking platform, and a repeat of the excellent work done at Capital First.

Analysts say it is the clarity in its approach and its future plans, more than its fundamentals, that is holding up the stock at 1.2X book, else why should this merged bank that is posting losses, with lumpy loans and low CASA, command these valuations.

IDFC First Bank has also undertaken a new transformative brand proposition #AlwaysYouFirst. To promote this new customer-first approach and its 7% p.a. savings account, a campaign was launched in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube to create an influencer marketing campaign.

By roping in social influencers like Soha

IDFC First Bank roped in Madhivanan Balakrishnan, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of ICICI Bank to be their Chief Operations Officer (COO). This move reveals the pragmatic mind of MD & CEO V Vaidyanathan, as banking operations are turning more and more technology based.

Ali Khan, Karan Kundrra, Anusha Dandekar, Mohsin Khan, Siddharth Nigam, Prince Narula and Harsha Bhogle to ensure the brand was always first in consumers’ minds, the campaign supported several social conversations through interesting content around Game of Thrones (GoT), Avengers: Endgame & ICC World Cup 2019.

Capitalizing on the growing trend of celeb reaction videos, #AlwaysYouFirst was promoted through India’s first ever Television Commercial (TVC) Reaction video series, featuring the influencers.

The TVCs showed people putting the needs of others first and the influencers shared similar moments from their lives in the films. The series created a huge impact and consumers started sharing their own #AlwaysYouFirst stories.

The bank today serves 7.2 million customers through 203 bank branches, 129 ATMs and 454 rural business correspondent centres.

IDFC Bank and Capital First had brought

in different strengths and weaknesses to the table when they merged. While IDFC Bank had the strength of a banking licence which is at a premium in India, Capital First as an NBFC had the retail loans franchise, consistent growth, low NPA, and profitability.

Madhivanan Balakrishnan, COO

On the other hand, IDFC Bank had the weakness of its legacy infrastructure lending business which was reeling under NPAs, whereas Capital First had the weakness of not being a bank and therefore not having the security and access to low cost funds.

In fact, if this marriage of convenience had not happened, both IDFC Bank and Capital First would have found themselves in far worse shapes, as IDFC Bank would have been severely affected by the IL&FS crisis, whereas Capital First would have faced the subsequent liquidity issues much like most other NBFCs. Not that the IL&FS crisis has not affected the combined entity, and in fact the troubling Q1 numbers – with the bank reporting a loss of Rs. 617 crore – is mainly due to this on-going crisis in the infrastructure and realty lending market.

The bank took high provisions in Q1 for two accounts – DHFL and Reliance Capital – to which erstwhile IDFC Bank had significant exposure.

Not that the new bank does not have other challenges either. CASA is low at 15%, branch count is low, and even preprovisioning profits are low. The Cost to Income is high at 78.60%, though lower than the previous quarter’s 82.79%.

But today, the combined entity is greatly equipped to weather this storm, as the retail franchise of IDFC First Bank is growing admirably both on the lending front and the deposit front.

While the bank has confidently guided for a 25% growth in its retail loan book including MSME, its CASA has jumped 64% and Net Interest Margin (NIM) has moved up to 3.03%, and CEO Vaidyanathan has guided to take this to 5% in five years.

The bank is also not looking for any equity raise in the near future, as it is carefully synchronising a growth in retail

book with a de-growth in wholesale infrastructure loans.

All eyes will be on MD & CEO, V Vaidyanathan who had achieved remarkable retail and MSME growth in Capital First which saw it growing by 40% year-on-year for nearly 8 years before the merger happened.

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, IDFC FIRST Bank now provides financial assistance to meritorious students from poor socioeconomic backgrounds and enables them to pursue an MBA degree or its equivalent.

The ‘MBA Scholarship Program’ is the Bank’s flagship programme in the education space. Besides this, the Bank also provides scholarships for people pursuing higher education or teaching in the mental health space, for students with autism, for students enrolled in the Young India Fellowship programme of Ashoka University, and for youth from shelter homes and underprivileged backgrounds.

Over 350 students have benefited from these programmes over the last four years. The programme was initiated by the erstwhile Capital First for meritorious but economically backward families, and has been carried over into the merged entity after merger of Capital First and IDFC Bank.

The Bank’s flagship MBA Scholarship Program provides access to eligible applicants who do not have the financial means to meet their educational goals. It makes some of the best colleges and universities in the country accessible to such students, regardless of their financial situation.

About 150 scholarships will be given out by the Bank this year.

This scholarship is different from most mainstream scholarships because it does not focus only on leading colleges. Instead, it supports students from over 150 B-Schools across India.

The Bank has managed to cover around 22 states and also to support students from urban and rural India.

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HEALTH

A DEADLY DISEASE DUE TO E-CIGARETTE USE, APPEARS

A deadly and mysterious lung illness linked to e-cigarette and vaping has started appearing with nearly 100 cases suspected in USA alone. At least 31 cases have been already confirmed, officials said, and dozens more are under investigation. Medical authorities say it is unclear whether patients will fully recover. tate and federal health officials are investigating almost 100 cases of mysterious lung illnesses linked to vaping and ecigarette use in 14 US states, many of them involving teens and young adults.

A large number of those stricken ill have been hospitalized, with some in intensive care and on ventilators.

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authorities say it is unclear whether patients will fully recover.

Officials are warning clinicians and the public to be on alert for what they describe as a severe and potentially dangerous lung injury. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, shortness of breath or chest pain before hospitalization. Health officials said patients have also reported fever, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that officials are working

with health departments in at least five states with confirmed cases - California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin - to determine the cause of the condition after "a cluster of pulmonary illnesses linked to e-cigarette use" was reported among adolescents and young adults in recent weeks. In a call with state health authorities, CDC officials said they were probing 94 possible cases in 14 states.

To date, there is no consistent evidence that an infectious disease is the culprit,

CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said.

While some of the cases appear similar, officials said they don't know whether the illnesses are associated with the ecigarette devices themselves, or with specific ingredients or contaminants inhaled through them. Health officials have said patients have described vaping a variety of substances, including nicotine, marijuana-based products and do-it-yourself "home brews."

Underscoring the growing level of concern, CDC officials say they are notifying health-care systems and clinicians across the country about the illnesses and what to watch for. State health departments have also issued warnings.

E-cigarettes have grown in popularity over the past decade despite little research on their long-term effects. In recent years, health authorities have warned of an epidemic of vaping by underage teenagers. The leading brand, Juul, said it is monitoring the reports of illnesses and has "robust safety monitoring systems in place."

"We haven't had that kind of history with vaping to be able to assure anyone - teens included - that this is a safe practice," said Emily Chapman, chief medical officer at Children's Minnesota, a health system headquartered in Minneapolis, which has cared for four teens with the illness, ages 16 to 18.

In the past month, the teenagers presented with symptoms that appeared manageable and consistent with a viral infection - shortness of breath, coughing, fever and abdominal discomfort, Chapman said. But the teens continued to deteriorate despite treatment, including antibiotics and oxygen support. Some of the teens suffered respiratory failure, requiring the use of ventilators, she said.

Chapman said physicians eventually made the connection to vapingassociated acute lung injury. When the patients were treated with steroids, among other therapies, they showed improvement. Clinicians don't know whether the patients will suffer longterm consequences, she said.

"These cases are extremely complex to

But many medical authorities believe there isn't sufficient data to know their full effects, especially on young people.

diagnose, as symptoms can mimic a common infection yet can lead to severe complications and extended hospitalization," Chapman said.

"Medical attention is essential.

Respiratory conditions can continue to decline without proper treatment."

E-cigarettes are a diverse group of products containing a heating element that produces an aerosol from a liquid that users can inhale via a mouthpiece.

Millions of Americans use e-cigarettes, with the greatest use among young adults. In 2018, more than 3.6 million U.S. middle-school and high-school students said they had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to the CDC. A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report in January found that while e-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes, which produce a raft of toxic substances when burned, they still pose health risks. Among nonsmoking adolescents and young adults, the report said, "their adverse effects clearly warrant concern," among them "moderate evidence for increased cough and wheeze" and increased incidence of asthma.

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report in January found that while e-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes, which produce a raft of toxic substances when burned, they still pose health risks.

Dylan Nelson, of Burlington, Wisconsin, who has asthma and has been vaping for about a year, was hospitalized with pneumonia last month after he started having trouble breathing. The 26-yearold described feeling as if he were breathing through a straw. He said he was coughing, his heart was racing and his breathing was hard and fast.

Nelson said he spent days in the hospital, some of that time attached to a ventilator. His mother, Kim Barnes, said when a nurse told her it might be related to vaping, it was a wake-up call for her.

Now, she wants to convey that sense of urgency to other parents: "You need to sit your kids down and tell them the dangers of this stuff. If you're an adult, wise up - this is not good. Look into it before you decide to pick this stuff up and start using this."

Wisconsin had 15 confirmed cases, including Nelson's, and another 15 under investigation, all of whom were hospitalized, the health department said.

The first cases were among teens and young adults, but newer ones include patients in older age groups, officials said. All the patients reported vaping in the weeks and months prior to being hospitalized, but officials said they do not know the names and types of products used.

Minnesota's health department, meanwhile, urged providers to be on alert "for vaping as a cause for unexplained breathing problems and lung injury and disease." It is asking clinicians to look for similar cases and report them.

"There are still many unanswered questions," said Ruth Lynfield, Minnesota state epidemiologist and the health department's medical director.

"But the health harms emerging from the current epidemic of youth vaping in Minnesota continue to increase."

Doctors had seen "scattered cases" of lung illnesses tied to vaping before, but they had not identified a pattern until now, said Chapman of Children's Minnesota.

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ANIMAL ABUSE

70 YEAR OLD SKINNY ELEPHANT WAS PARADED, AND DEAD NOW A 70-Year-Old bony elephant was paraded in Sri Lanka for a festival. She later collapsed and died.

Sri Lanka has ordered an investigation after a skeletal 70-year-old elephant was paraded at a high-profile Buddhist pageant in a move criticised as cruelty to the ailing animal.

SLEEP LOSS AND SCREEN TIME: TWIN CULPRITS BEHIND IMPULSIVE KIDS

Tourism and wildlife minister John Amaratunga said he ordered wildlife authorities to investigate how the elephant known as Tikiri was forced to take part in a lengthy parade despite her poor health.

Nine to eleven hours of sleep and no more than two hours of recreational screen time a day is what can save your children from becoming impulsive and make poorer decisions in life, find researchers.

Animal-lovers slammed the authorities for forcing the aged animal to participate in the annual Esala Perehara (pageant) wearing elaborate clothing at the hugely popular night festival in the central city of Kandy earlier in the week.

After the howl of protests over social media, festival organisers withdrew the aged animal from the grand finale.

"I have been informed that the elephant collapsed yesterday," the minister said in a statement.

"Considering what has transpired, I have ordered officials to initiate an inquiry and ascertain how and why an elephant in such poor health was used in the perehara (pageant) and to take necessary action against those responsible."

The minister said he had also instructed wildlife authorities to ensure there was no repetition of such cruel treatment to some 200 elephants in captivity and

Animal-lovers slammed the authorities for forcing the aged animal to participate in the annual Esala Perehara (pageant) wearing elaborate clothing at the hugely popular night festival in the central city of Kandy earlier in the week.

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routinely paraded at Buddhist temple festivals.

Officials of the Temple of the Tooth which organised the Esala festival in Kandy - said Tikiri was not a temple elephant, but they withdrew her from Wednesday's finale which involved dozens of other jumbos.

Asian elephant expert Jayantha Jayewardene described the animal's treatment as inhumane.

"Obviously the animal is severely undernourished, it is close to death," Jayewardene told.

"Owners parade their elephants to gain merit for themselves and not for the animal. This should never have been allowed," he said.

Lek Chailert, the founder of the Save Elephant Foundation, said on social media that spectators did not realise how weak Tikiri was because she was covered in an elaborate costume.

"No one sees her bony body or her weakened condition, because of her costume," Chailert said. "No one sees the tears in her eyes, injured by the bright lights that decorate her mask, no one sees her difficulty to step as her legs are short shackled while she walks."

The Temple of the Tooth, Buddhism's holiest shrine on the island, holds the annual festival with traditional drummers and dancers as well as nearly 100 tame elephants.

Many rich Sri Lankans keep elephants as pets, but there have been numerous complaints of ill treatment and cruelty.

Impulsive behaviour is greatly linked to sleep and screen time, found Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO) at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa.

"Impulsive behaviour is associated with numerous mental health and addiction problems, including eating disorders, behavioural addictions and substance abuse," said Dr Michelle Guerrero, lead author from CHEO Research Institute and University of Ottawa.

The paper, published in the journal Pediatrics, analysed data for 4,524 children from the first set of data of a large longitudinal population study.

In addition to sleep and screen time, the study also captured data related to physical activity - at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise daily.

The ABCD study allowed Guerrero and her team to look at the three pillars of the movement guidelines against eight measures of impulsivity, such as one's tendency to seek out thrilling experiences, to set desired goals, to respond sensitively to rewarding or unpleasant stimuli, and to act rashly in negative and positive moods.

The results suggested that meeting all three pillars of the movement guidelines was associated with more favorable outcomes on five of the eight dimensions.

ECONOMY

WHY RELIANCE IS CUTTING DEBT? DOES MUKESH AMBANI SEE DARK CLOUDS GATHERING ON THE HORIZON? FROM HIS MESSAGE TO SHAREHOLDERS, IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE INDIA'S RICHEST TYCOON IS WORRIED. BUT HIS ACTIONS MAY REVEAL MORE THAN HIS WORDS. At Monday's annual general meeting, the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. was brimming with optimism. Not only did he endorse Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of bumping up annual GDP by 80 per cent in five years to $5 trillion, he even forecast a $10 trillion Indian economy by 2030. It's not only possible but "inevitable," he said.

Something doesn't add up. If the outlook is so rosy, why is Mr Ambani hitting the brakes on a seven-year, $100 billion investment spree across refining, petrochemicals, telecom and retail?

While a breather after such frenzied activity may be understandable, why does he want Reliance to be a zero-netdebt company in 18 months? What will it mean for the more than 100 banks and financial institutions around the world that provide India's largest company and its subsidiaries with billions of dollars and yen, and rupees - in financing and refinancing? Above all, what will Reliance's deleveraging mean for India?

In retrospect, I tackled the last question prematurely in October 2016 when Reliance was shouldering 13 per cent to 14 per cent of the entire investment

by India's top 1,250 listed companies as well as Indian Railways and state-owned electricity boards. My conclusion then was that if Mr Ambani took a yearlong vacation, India's growth outlook could dim. What I didn't anticipate was that starting a 4G mobile network with lifetime free voice calls and dirt-cheap data was just the beginning rather than the end of Mr Ambani's telecom ambitions. The goal of Reliance Jio was to acquire at least half of India's 1 billion-plus mobile customers, and that required continued spending.

Now that he's reached 340 million subscribers, though, the endgame is probably not more than a few quarters away. And that's problematic for the economy. The rest of India Inc. is paralyzed by debt and self-doubt; consumers are overstretched; and so is the government. A holiday for Reliance would remove from play the only domestic balance sheet with unspent firepower.

The investment cycle for the Jio network is complete, Mr Ambani told shareholders. In other units, too, there's little left to do. Mr Ambani is selling 20 per cent of the family jewel - Reliance's refining and petrochemical operations to Saudi Arabian Oil Co. even though the goal is more strategic than just shedding debt. As my colleague David Fickling wrote, the $75 billion enterprise value at which Aramco is investing is a lot higher than the business is worth.

Saudi Arabia wants takers for its surplus oil in a world of electric vehicles, and if Reliance's refinery can provide a profitable outlet for 500,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude by converting it into jet fuel and polymers, then Mr Ambani is doing the right thing by taking Aramco's money.

INDIA ACHIEVING GOALS IT ONLY DREAMT ABOUT: PM TO INDIANS IN FRANCE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Indian community in France on Friday during the first leg of his three-nation tour. PM Modi stated, "India is now achieving goals that it only dreamt about." He added that the India-France friendship is unbreakable and there is a huge support for the French football team in India.

URGE PEOPLE TO ADOPT SHELTERLESS COWS: YOGI TO VARANASI OFFICIALS

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday instructed officials in Varanasi to motivate citizens to adopt shelterless cows, during a meeting to review developmental projects in the town.

Adityanath, who is on a two-day visit, also instructed the officials to complete the developmental projects within their deadlines.

JAWAN MARTYRED AS PAKISTAN VIOLATES CEASEFIRE ALONG LOC IN J&K An Army jawan was martyred on Friday in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The martyred jawan was manning a forward post in Kalsian village that had come under unprovoked firing, following which the Indian Army launched an effective retaliation.

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INTERNATIONAL

WHY TRUMP WANTS TO BUY GREENLAND, TWO-THIRDS THE SIZE OF INDIA Leading realtor turned US President Trump is said to be eyeing a new real-estate purchase for America - Greenland, world's largest island, which is two-third the size of India. In conversations with aides, the president has — with varying degrees of seriousness — floated the idea of the U.S. buying the autonomous Danish territory which is strategically located near USA and which already hosts America's northern most military base as well as NASA's facilities. But Greenland and/or Denmark seem to be in no mood to sell for now. resident Trump made his name on the world’s most famous island. Now he wants to buy the world’s biggest.

fascination that will never come to fruition. It is also unclear how the U.S. would go about acquiring Greenland even if the effort were serious.

The idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland has captured the former realestate developer’s imagination, according to people familiar with the discussions, who said Mr. Trump has, with varying degrees of seriousness, repeatedly expressed interest in buying the ice-covered autonomous Danish territory between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

With a population of about 56,000, Greenland is a self-ruling part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and while its government decides on most domestic matters, foreign and security policy is handled by Copenhagen. Mr. Trump is scheduled to make his first visit to Denmark early next month, although the visit is unrelated, these people said.

In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea.

The White House and State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Officials with Denmark’s Royal House and the Danish embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did officials with Greenland’s representative office in Washington and Greenland’s prime minister’s office.

Some of his advisers have supported the concept, saying it was a good economic play, two of the people said, while others dismissed it as a fleeting

U.S. officials view Greenland as important to American national-security interests. A decades-old defense treaty between Denmark and the U.S. gives

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the U.S. military virtually unlimited rights in Greenland at America’s northernmost base, Thule Air Base.

Located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it includes a radar station that is part of a U.S. ballistic missile earlywarning system. The base is also used by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The U.S. has sought to derail Chinese efforts to gain an economic foothold in Greenland. The Pentagon worked successfully in 2018 to block China from financing three airports on the island.

People outside the White House have described purchasing Greenland as an Alaska-type acquisition for Mr. Trump’s legacy, advisers said. The few current and former White House officials who had heard of the notion described it with a mix of anticipation and apprehension, since it remains unknown how far the president might push the idea.

It generated a cascade of questions among his advisers, such as whether the U.S. could use Greenland to establish a stronger military presence in the Arctic, and what kind of research opportunities it might present.

Though it has vast natural resources across its 811,000 square miles, Greenland relies on $591 million of subsidies from Denmark annually, which make up about 60% of its annual budget, according to U.S. and Danish government statistics.

Though Greenland is technically part of North America, it is culturally and politically linked to Europe. Following World War II, the U.S. under President Harry Truman developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland and in 1946 offered to buy it from Denmark for $100 million. But Denmark refused to sell.

And that was the second failed attempt— the State Department had also launched an inquiry into buying Greenland and Iceland in 1867.

At a dinner with associates last spring, Mr. Trump said someone had told him at a roundtable that Denmark was having financial trouble over its assistance to Greenland, and suggested that he should consider buying the island, according to one of the people.

“What do you guys think about that?” he asked the room, the person said. “Do you think it would work?”

The person described the question less

Though Greenland is technically part of North America, it is culturally and politically linked to Europe. Following World War II, the U.S. under President Harry Truman developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland and in 1946 offered to buy it from Denmark for $100 million.

as a serious inquiry than as a joke meant to indicate “I’m so powerful I could buy a country,” noting that since Mr. Trump hadn’t floated the idea at a campaign rally yet, he probably wasn’t seriously considering it. The person believed the president was interested in the idea because of the island’s natural resources and because it would give him a legacy akin to President Dwight Eisenhower ’s admission of Alaska into the U.S. as a state.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was scheduled to visit Greenland in May with the aim of discussing long-term peace and sustainable economic developments, particularly since “we’re concerned about activities of other nations, including China, that do not share these same commitments,” a senior State Department official said at the time.

Mr. Pompeo was also scheduled to visit the New York Air National Guard in Kangerlussuaq, which supports U.S. scientists conducting research on Greenland’s ice cap.

His trip was called off at the last minute because of escalating tensions with Iran.

Kenneth Mortensen, a real-estate agent in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, said that the running joke in Greenland currently is that Mr. Trump is traveling to Denmark with the sole intention of buying their island. But he said Mr. Trump might run into some trouble.

“You can never own land here,” Mr. Mortensen said, as all land is owned by the government. “In Greenland, you get a right to use the land where you want to build a house, but you can’t buy.”

“Of course, buying Greenland is a different issue altogether,” he added.

“I’m not sure about that.”

GOOGLE ASSISTANT CAN SEND REMINDERS TO OTHERS NOW YOU CAN USE GOOGLE ASSISTANT TO SEND REMINDERS TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY. YOU CAN SEND REMINDERS ON PHONES OR GOOGLE HOME DEVICES VIA ASSISTANT. Google is adding a new feature to its Assistant that lets people send reminders to their friends and family on phones or Google Home devices.

The feature is designed mostly for families and it would function via the Family Group feature so that the parents can send reminders to their children or spouse and the reminder will pop up on the mobile phone or Google Assistant-powered Smart Display, The Verge reported on Thursday.

For children under 13 to use assignable reminders, they must be granted access to the Assistant on Google Home by adults in the household and all users could block someone from sending them Assignable Reminders.

In addition, users can also create a reminder for anyone who has their account linked to the same smart display or speaker.

The new update would soon roll out in English in the US, the UK along with Australia and the feature would also be available on the Google Nest Hub Max when it becomes available next month.

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Carl Jaison

INDIA, KASHMIR AND AR THE COSTS OF SECURIT “Nobody in the government is talking. They say it’s a case of national security” is a famous line from The Spy Files: A Brent Marks Legal Thriller authored by Kenneth Eade. The sentiment captures the tense moments leading up to the Modi government’s landmark decision to abrogate Article 370 and reorganize the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Almost a fortnight after the historic move, the region continues to keep the world community interested particularly considering the involvement of two nuclear-powered states – India and Pakistan. While India has chosen to call its action as an ‘internal matter’, the complex interplay of factors deem the situation to be otherwise. Predictably, Pakistan sounded the alarm bells by fashioning a range of responses – including a closed-door United Nations Security Council meeting, mobilized protests involving its diaspora outside Indian embassies in Western countries, unabated tweeting on the part of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan calling out the Modi government’s ‘fascist’ tendencies. Amidst this unfolding drama, the otherwise outspoken US President Donald Trump decided against stoking tensions with his statements – a reference to his ‘Kashmir mediation’ remark that had infuriated the Indian leadership. The US’ position evolved from one of ‘moderate support’ to ‘strong acceptance’ of the bilateral commitments to talks between India and Pakistan. Despite the occasional warnings to preserve the human rights of the Kashmiris under lockdown, the US has steered clear of wading into a political controversy. Recently, Trump opined that the Kashmir conflict is a ‘religious one between Hindus and Muslims’ and he hoped that the two sides would come together for meaningful dialogue. Although most of his statements need to be taken with a pinch of salt, the communalization of the conflict has serious consequences to India’s regional security and counter-terror efforts. Moreover, the sheer persistence with which Trump occasionally brings up Kashmir suggests that the US is playing a larger game in its South Asia strategy. In spite of India’s strong conviction that the Kashmir issue is its own national interest, the motivations of other actors are hard to ignore. By inviting renewed attention to the region, India has not only upped the stakes for itself but also other actors. The spiral of conflict and interests would inevitably increase the costs of security maximization. As the world slowly comes to terms with the events in Kashmir, India have a task on their hand to mitigate the adverse impact of its security maximizing policy.

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RTICLE 370: Y MAXIMIZATION

The strategic significance of Kashmir is well known to India’s political leadership. While it involved a decision regarding India’s own sovereign territory, it was fashioned in a way that warrants a Crimea-like understanding due to its security implications for the whole region.

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In 2014, Russia had annexed Crimea, which was a part of Ukraine’s eastern territory. Formerly part of Soviet Russia, the Crimean Oblast was transferred in 1954 to the Ukrainian SSR by the then General Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev. However, since the fall of the USSR, it had been assigned strategic and historical value

by Russia. Putin’s annexation of Ukraine’s sovereign territory had invited criticism from the US and NATO and has since soured relations between the two former Cold War rivals. Almost 3500 kms away, in five years time, another geopolitical hotspot would attract similar attention. The strategic significance of Kashmir is well known to India’s political leadership. While it involved a decision regarding India’s own sovereign territory, it was fashioned in a way that warrants a Crimea-like understanding due to its security implications for the whole region. Despite the nationalistic overtones of the move that India considers an internal matter; the underlying strategy has wider regional security implications. For starters, Pakistan erroneously stakes claim over the “disputed” territory. Therefore, India’s latest move has put them in a tight spot.

According to Stephen Walt’s ‘balance of threat’ theory, India’s action can be considered as a counterweight to the growing US-Pakistan alliance in the context of Afghanistan. The imminent

withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan is predicated on Pakistan’s promise to engage with the Taliban in matters of its neighbour’s internal security. The political urgency of the U.S move shifted the regional power balance in favour of Pakistan at the expense of India’s strategic interests in Afghanistan (via the Chahabar port in Iran).

Moreover, India failed to gain any foothold in the ongoing peace talks with the Taliban. With Taliban set to call the shots in Afghanistan’s political future, aided by Pakistani backing, the loss of strategic influence vis-à-vis Afghanistan dealt a major blow to its regional security aspirations. The decision to tighten the screws on Kashmir was

Therefore, today’s surveillance-obsessed Chinese state is a product of internal balancing. India, given its exposure to cross-border terrorism, justifies security measures in Kashmir based on the logic of internal balancing.

India’s way of sending a strong message to Pakistan that it will not allow Islamabad to undermine its core regional objectives.

FLUCTUATIONS IN REGIONAL POWER DYNAMICS What are the broad regional implications of the move to abrogate Article 370? Firstly, India defines its security interests based on regional power dynamics. Over the years, any move that potentially undermined Indian interests was met with proportionate or disproportionate responses. For example; India’s intervention in East Pakistan in 1971 was primarily determined by the unprecedented migration of Bangladeshis across the border. The flow of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka was similarly the cause of India’s tacit support of the LTTE in the early years

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of the war, which later backfired miserably leading to a change of stance.

As Afghanistan attracts the attention of the world, India could not leave its destiny in the hands of the PakistanTaliban alliance.

Secondly, introduction of internal security measures ensures rapid troop mobilization in the event of an uncertain external environment. Once again, history is replete with examples of regional powers undertaking internal balancing to determine its course of actions. China’s harsh clamp down of protestors in the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre introduced a series of laws and reforms to strengthen internal security.

Therefore, today’s surveillance-obsessed Chinese state is a product of internal balancing. India, given its exposure to cross-border terrorism, justifies security measures in Kashmir based on the logic of internal balancing.

The continued communications blackout is only going to worsen the already deteriorating situation. As argued by Iyer-Mitra, ‘the communications blackout is the surest sign of an un-industrialised state, which despite its alleged IT prowess understands nothing about information and its use in security, leave alone crowd control or the psychology of population control.’

The political costs and opportunities are obvious, but the external strategic implications need to be discerned.

While India has regained the strategic advantage in Kashmir, it is unlikely that the move would serve to enhance India’s influence in Afghanistan and by extension the regional power politics.

If the decision on Kashmir is linked to Afghanistan or annoyance with foreign interference on internal matters (read: Trump’s Kashmir ‘mediation’ remark), India has achieved little ground in projecting its ambitions beyond Kashmir. At best, India may have managed to convince the world about its sovereign right over Kashmir but whether it can assure them about longterm regional stability is another matter.

This, not Kashmir’s self-autonomy, will dictate the interest of great powers. The longer the current security situation persists, the harder it would be for India to assure the likes of US, Russia and

China of regional stability.

Can India’s decision to deploy forces in Kashmir complicate the power dynamics in the region? Pakistan has certainly been caught off guard but would weigh their options desperately.

While the FATF sanctions might serve as a short-term deterrent to their backing of a terrorist strike against India, there is already talk of the Pakistan army training Pashtun and Afghan fighters to enter J&K. If Pakistan’s preoccupation with Afghanistan prevents any response to India’s swift act on Kashmir, then it unsettles the stakes for other regional actors invested in the long-term future stability of Afghanistan. Following their talks with the Taliban, the US, Russia and China had identified Pakistan as the lead player. If Pakistan were to be left in the lurch regarding developments in Kashmir, it would necessarily nudge

them to abandon and, much worse, allow Taliban to call the shots in Afghanistan. Regional security is a situation of one-upmanship where state interests fluctuate based on external threats to power. It would be premature to term India’s decision as changing the regional geopolitical landscape with Pakistan still holding the Afghan card.

The other regional actors, especially China, would wish that Pakistan remains invested in their Afghan duties with potential BRI investments for the taking.

CHALLENGES OF INSURGENCY AND TERRORISM As mentioned earlier, it is almost taken as a given that power maximization guarantees security objectives. Despite SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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the soundness of a state’s power maximizing policy, it often fails to account for one of the cardinal laws of physics: Newton’s Third Law of Motion, which states that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’. A move that clearly seeks to wrest away Kashmir’s autonomy is bound to increase incidences of insurgency and terrorism. As argued by political scientist Paul Staniland, the bid to depoliticise Kashmir has severe consequences – one that India had already witnessed during the troubled1990s when insurgency was at its peak.

While the additional troop deployment serves to counteract any possible fallout from the move, it also sets in motion the vicious cycle of ‘security-terrorisminstability’. One can argue that this has always been the standard operating principle in Kashmir and in most conflict-ridden zones but the current scenario throws up a complicated outcome.

Firstly, with little international legitimacy for its Kashmir stance, Pakistan’s ISI won’t hesitate to continue sending jihadists to disrupt any SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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semblance of stability in the Valley. In fact, Pakistani motivation would be stronger given that Kashmir is a matter of prestige for its military. Hiding behind the cover of US’ dependence over its active role in Afghanistan, Pakistan would feel emboldened to strike India hard and engage in disruptive politics.

Although the Indian strategic leadership can easily pre-empt Pakistani propensity for indulgence in Kashmir whenever the stakes are high, this time around the difficulty lies in defining the new ‘red lines’ over its counter-terror policy.

Would low-intensity attacks attract a Balakot-like response? With Kashmir now regarded as ‘an integral part of India’, would India respond with equal vigour as before? Would the response involve the opening of diplomatic channels of communications with

The revival of the Taliban would instigate local elements prone to terrorism to enlist the actor’s support in the fight for Kashmiri independence.

Pakistan? Based on the assumption that Pakistan-sponsored terror is ripe for escalation, how would New Delhi manage to recalibrate its range of options available?

Secondly there is a strong possibility of spike in the level of home-grown insurgency and terrorism with Kashmir’s jihadist fighters deriving inspiration from an essentially ‘pan-Kashmiri sentiment’. While this isn’t something new, the latest ground reality suggests it could destabilize the region far more potently than before. In seeking security, India effectively opened the possibility of escalation with the disaffected section of the Kashmiri population. This would have farreaching consequences for any comprehensive strategy to maintain peace and stability in the Valley. The application of the recently promulgated UAPA Amendment Bill is another contentious issue that would complicate the handling of counter-terror operations. With ISIS claiming to have established a ‘Hind Province’ to wage jihad against India, the allure of terrorism would receive a facelift. The revival of the Taliban would instigate

local elements prone to terrorism to enlist the actor’s support in the fight for Kashmiri independence. While insurgency looks poised to rise, the lack of security infrastructure might hamper India’s counter-terror (CT) efforts.

Unlike Israel, which has put in place a holistic CT approach that responds according to the nature of threat, the Kashmir’s state police force has limited capability to deal with large scale offensives. Moreover, Israel’s strong surveillance infrastructure has succeeded in preventing the rise of the “Knife Intifada” of 2015-2016. As the situation in Kashmir unfolds, India might do well to take precautionary measures on the CT front. Mere increase in troop deployment only serves to mitigate the impact of a terror strike but rarely seeks to prevent the same.

THE BURDEN OF ‘RETURNING THE FAVOUR’ When India sought the securitymaximizing approach in Kashmir, it opened up two possibilities: its impact on regional security (discussed above) and the reaction of external actors like the US, Russia, China etc. While the regional security prospects remain uncertain, India left no stone unturned in its quest to mobilize international backing of the move. It was reported that India had already communicated its course of action to the P5 countries (US, UK, Russia, China and France) including a recent mention of it by S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs to Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State.

In the absence of the violation of any international treaty or agreement, India decidedly expected that none of the major countries would wade into the issue. Positioning it as a matter of internal security, India succeeded in its strategy. Barring Pakistan, none of the major states voiced immediate criticism for India’s action. Even China’s strong response came a day later after Home Minister Amit Shah clarified that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin region are also part of J&K. While India certainly proved its diplomatic heft, it remains to be seen

whether it bodes well for strategic interests. Despite India’s strong reservations against any foreign dabbling on the Kashmir issue, major powers generally do not concede a geopolitical opportunity without the promise of a ‘return gift’. In relaying an internal matter such as the abrogation of Article 370 to major powers, India might be obliged in return to act on areas where they had previously fallen short on performance and expectations.

This is to be most expected from the US, which is led by a President with a transactional approach to foreign policy. This could manifest in two ways: Firstly, India could be called on to take actionable steps in its bilateral commitments and security arrangements with major powers (for example, in the Quad). India has been the most reserved of the four member countries of the Quad, a stance borne out of prudence given that there is nothing to be gained from openly ganging up against China. By procuring US acquiescence on the Kashmir move, India needs to manage the fallout of its possible refusal to partake in multilateral groupings such as the Quad in the near future. In short, the expectations of

Even China’s strong response came a day later after Home Minister Amit Shah clarified that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin region are also part of J&K.

burden-sharing on India would be stepped up.

Secondly, India could be expected to pick sides on issues where it would otherwise exercise restraint and take the diplomatic route (for example on 5G, missile defense systems etc). Although India would prefer to choose from the array of options available, it would be difficult to wriggle out of this conundrum by merely citing national interests. In the realm of technology it is increasingly becoming clear that 5Genabled AI systems would need to be sourced from technologically superior countries who in turn engage in hostilities and trade wars with each other. Such software is increasingly being integrated into military technologies as well. We are already seeing a potential showdown between the US and China as their tech software war heats up. This could have consequences on India’s technical capabilities and strategic choices.

At a theoretical level, the move to abrogate Article 370 by the Indian government seeks to maximize state security in an unstable regional environment. However, in practical terms, the quest for security is a never ending process where objectives shift based on evolving circumstances. In international relations, brute use or the threat of force by states is often construed as necessary to maximize security. This logic, however, doesn’t account for the consequences of security maximization for the future interests of the state, both for its own national and wider regional security.

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NEW INDIA ASSURANCE

PROVING ITS M THE CENTEN A

Not all PSU players put up an equally weak performance in FY'19. To the credit of New India Assurance, it was the only PSU insurer in 2019 who could post a profit. NIA turned in a profit of Rs 605 crore.

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METTLE IN ARY YEAR

Completing 100 years is no simple achievement and anyone would think that a centenarian company, which would automatically be a sector leader, would have its 100th year as easy as a piece of cake. Far from it, New India Assurance Company’s 100th year was one of its toughest in recent years, with not only multiple natural calamities but also with automobile sales sagging like never before and its auto premiums getting affected. Still, like a true leader, NIA has proved its mettle by more than making up the fall from other sectors like fire, marine, aviation & engineering, to post 16% growth in the recent Q1.

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oing forward too, that the general insurance sector is more than likely to throw up further challenges is evident from the overall FY’19 numbers from this segment.

What it will take to survive these tougher times to come will be nothing but a company’s experience in weathering such storms successfully, multiple times in the past, which is something in which New India Assurance is second to none.

The general or non-life segment of the industry has four PSU players including New India Assurance and 23 private insurance companies.

Together, they posted a net loss of Rs. 44 crore in FY’19, signalling the tough times facing the overall industry. This is a sharp negative turnaround from the Rs 6,341 crore profit registered by these 27 companies in FY’18.

While it can be argued that the PSU sector is responsible for this fall, this view is not fully correct as these 4 companies are still the dominant players with 52% market share in nonlife premiums, whereas the 23 private players together account for only 48% premiums, with the bulk of it dominated by the three largest private players. The private players also focus more on high margin policies rather than serving the mass markets.

Secondly, not all PSU players put up an equally weak performance. To the credit of New India Assurance, it was the only PSU insurer in 2019 who could post a profit. NIA turned in a profit of Rs 605 crore, even though it was a sharp fall from the previous year’s excellent performance.

Thirdly, it is the four public sector insurers who are called upon to wholeheartedly support all public interest schemes promoted by the governments at Centre and States, which are almost always lower-margin businesses.

What these all point to is the fact that SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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the general insurance sector in India is facing significant and multiple headwinds, which will require the best of the companies to overcome, across this year and probably the next two years. While all insurers – public and private – are gearing up to meet these challenges head on, New India Assurance as the largest player is better equipped to overcome the multiple issues and emerge successful.

The greatest headwind facing the general insurance industry today is the slump in auto sales. Since motor insurance is the largest business segment for general insurers, anything affecting automotive sales affects them.

This is a direct correlation as all motor vehicles running on Indian roads are required to have third party motor insurance, and hence whenever sales of automobiles hit a slow lane this impacts policy sales.

While New India Assurance too has been affected by this unprecedented storm in the automotive sector, it has weathered it better by compensating for it by new insurance policies from other sectors like fire, marine, aviation & engineering.

The growth achieved by NIA in these emerging areas proved timely, as some other core sectors of general insurance have also started underperforming. For example, crop insurance which was a good performer in FY’18 has turned to be problematic, with the unpredictable weather.

Similarly, and perhaps to a higher degree, losses have mounted in the property insurance business due to the multiple natural calamities that occurred across India in FY’19. This proved to be a double whammy for all insurers, including NIA, as reinsurance charges shot up.

The general insurance industry as a whole is facing issues at the underwriting level itself and not just the operational level. An underwriting loss is the excess of claims over

premium. Insurance companies can function healthily in a sustained fashion only when they can register underwriting profits, which is excess of premium over claims, for which sale of new policies, say in automotive and health, are essential.

This is because, claims tend to be much lower in the initial years, and especially in the first year, due to natural reasons as well as statutory controls in place to avoid immediate bogus claims. That is why the serious slowdown in auto sales has hit the general insurers hard.

Other factors too combined to act as an additional headwind in the general insurance industry. Even when insurance companies make underwriting losses, they usually make up for it using investment income.

Almost all general insurers are major institutional investors in the Indian equity market.

But this too was not much possible in FY’19 as the equity markets underperformed seriously as it was an election year. This is a headwind that is continuing as the stock markets have further tanked after the first full budget after the elections. This generally

While New India Assurance too has been affected by this unprecedented storm in the automotive sector, it has weathered it better by compensating for it by new insurance policies from other sectors like fire, marine, aviation & engineering.

affects the larger players like NIA more.

However, this sector leader has been fighting the slowdown by rapidly ramping up of the distribution force, bundling its offerings, competitively pricing its products, adopting newer technologies and embracing alliances and newer channels of distribution.

However, the real silver lining in the clouds is that almost all of the headwinds facing the general insurance sector today can vanish overnight on just policy measures by the government. For instance, the auto

sector is awaiting a much needed stimulus after months of sagging sales and job cuts, and the government is more than likely to act on this front.

Similarly, much of the pain in the industry today, especially the automotive sector, has had to do with missing rationalization in premiums.

India being a country with lax adherence to traffic rules, the accident rates tend to much higher than in developed nations, and therefore need a much more rationalized premium structure to avoid underwriting losses even when auto sales sag.

While the government has repeatedly

been sympathetic to this cause, the fact that almost all general insurers – public & private combined – except for three private insurers had to post underwriting losses, show that much more rationalization needs to be done in the industry’s largest segment, motor insurance. And this is likely to be another call that the government is set to take soon.

Such policy measures can achieve overnight miracles in the sector as historically speaking, premium from non-life companies has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 17.5% since 2007. So once again given a conducive environment, the whole sector can post reasonable growth while leaders like New India Assurance can outperform.

For instance, coming to Q1 of this fiscal, even without much policy help, all general insurance companies taken together, posted a 9.91 percent yearon-year (YoY) increase in gross written premium collection. However, New India Assurance has outperformed the market, having collected gross premium of Rs 7,138.78 crore in the June quarter, showing a 13.62 percent YoY growth.

Over the longer term, general insurance sector also has significant room for growth in India. This is because due to under-penetration of the market, the non-life insurance industry in India accounts for only 30% of the total insurance industry premium, which is much lower than the global share of close to 50%. The room for growth is in fact much bigger than this, as the life insurance sector is still growing at a much higher clip still, in the country.

Atul Sahai, CMD

Apart from growth in gross written premium, New India Assurance saw a 4.6 percent YoY growth in net earned premium at Rs 5,406.05 crore in Q1.

However profitability has taken a hit again as there was a a 56.2 percent year-on-year (YoY) drop in standalone net profit for the June quarter at Rs 278.11 crore. This was on account of SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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a 53.8 percent YoY increase in its underwriting losses to Rs 1,097.78 crore in Q1.

As with almost all comparable players in the industry, NIA’s combined ratio rose 116.28 percent compared to 111.03 percent, during the same period last year. A combined ratio below 100 percent indicates that the insurer is making underwriting profit.

All business segments, including fire, marine, motor, health and crop, posted underwriting losses. This meant that the claims paid exceeded the premiums collected. This was most likely due to the impact of natural calamities like Cyclone Fani that hit Odisha in April/May 2019 and contributed to high claims subsequently.

Crop insurance posted an underwriting loss of Rs 5.86 crore in Q1FY20 compared to an underwriting profit of Rs 43.98 crore in Q1FY19. Motor insurance saw a 192.1 percent rise in underwriting loss to Rs 323.34 crore in the June quarter, due to the declining auto sales and therefore dipping third party premiums.

New India Assurance continues to be the country's largest general insurer

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International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).

New India Assurance has outperformed the market in Q1, having collected a gross written premium of Rs 7,138.78 crore in the June quarter, showing a 13.62 percent YoY growth. with 14.07 percent market share in FY19, despite the entry of private players from the likes of HDFC, ICICI and SBI. If Indian economy again starts to perform well, NIA can achieve near miracles. For example between FY12 and FY’17r, the annual premiums at NIA has doubled from Rs.10,000 crores to Rs 20,000 crore.

New India Assurance also has a reinsurance operation through a special unit. In October 2016, New India was the first insurance company to open a unit at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat

Through this, the company has been able to provide global insurance services and facilities to Indian and international customers. Further, it was also able to offer re-insurance business to Indian companies operating in offshore locations.

While New India Assurance is the only listed public sector general insurer, its stock has recently underperformed the market. But many analysts have a longterm buy call on the stock as nobody expects India’s largest general insurer who has completed a century to underperform for long. At these low levels, it also offers reasonable dividend yields.

The future may be even brighter for New India Assurance. Government is known to be mulling a mega merger of all state-owned general insurers with the aim to create one large public sector general insurance company that will be comparable to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). If the new proposal is considered, the three unlisted general insurers – National, Oriental & United - will be merged with New India Assurance, thereby creating a general insurance behemoth.

E C O N O M Y

PAIN SHIFTS TO TOP GEAR

the company’s office here, Lucas TVS had already announced non-working days last month.

Indian automotive sector's slowdown pain is spreading to more companies with Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, and Hero halt production for various days. About 15,000 workers, mostly temporary and casual, are out of work in auto making firms over past 2-3 months, and 200,000 heads roll across dealerships.

“As the lull in the industry is continuing, a situation has come to reduce the number of working days,” the notification shared with the employees said. Following the development, the company said it has declared nonworking days for August 16 and 17.

s slowdown in the auto industry continues, more companies have decided to halt production temporarily.

These include Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp as well as TVS Group companies Sundaram-Clayton Limited (SCL) and Lucas TVs, among others.

Already, Mahindra, Suzuki, Toyota and Ashok Leyland have announced production cuts due to the prevailing market demand scenario. Tata Motors has decided to halt production at the company’s Jamshadepur facility, which produces commercial vehicles, for two days.

The factory will remain closed on August 16 and 17, owing to decline in demand in the market. Tata Motors went for a day’s closure on August 1. It went for three block closures from August 8-10 and the third block is from August 16.

“The external environment remains challenging, leading to demand contraction. We have aligned our production to actual demand and adjusted the number of shifts and contractual manpower,” said the company’s spokesperson.

Ashok Leyland, which has closed some of its facilities for nine days in the last couple of months, has issued notice to employees that it is declaring August 17 and 19 as non-working days.

The measure is in line with the continuing sluggishness and contraction in the commercial vehicles market and the need to continue the corrective actions to safeguard the interest of the company, it said in the notice. The company did not respond to Business Standard’s query.

India’s largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp, has decided to close its manufacturing facilities for four days.

“In line with this trend, our manufacturing facilities will be closed from August 15 to 18. While this has

“A decision will be taken on how to offset the job losses on the non-working days. Employees are requested to extend their cooperation,” added the notification.

been part of the annual holiday calendar on account of Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan and the weekend, it also partly reflects the prevailing market demand scenario,” said the company.

Hero MotoCorp has five plants in India and construction of its sixth manufacturing facility, at Sricity in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, has reached an advanced stage. After this facility starts ops, the company’s total installed capacity will be around 11 million units per annum.

Sundaram-Clayton Limited (SCL), the holding company of two-wheeler and three-wheeler maker TVS Motor has declared August 16 and 17 as nonworking days for its Padi factory near Chennai.

“This is due to business slowdown across sectors,” said the company. Part of the $8.5 billion TVS Group Company, SCL is the leading manufacturer and supplier of aluminium die cast products to domestic and global automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMS).

Auto component manufacturer Lucas TVS, part of the TVS Group, declared non-working days for its employees owing to overall industry slowdown.

According to the notification posted by

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has already announced the closure of its plants for 8-14 days in July-September.

Similarly, Tata Motors has announced closure for eight days, Maruti Suzuki will close for three days, Toyota Kirloskar also for eight days, Bosch for 10 days, Jamna Auto for 20 days, and Wabco for 19 days, according to reports.

During April-July, total production of the auto sector dropped by 10.65 per cent to 97,24,373 units against 10,883,730 units a year ago. During the same period, total domestic sales dropped by 13.90 per cent to 7,910,554 units from 9,187,965 units, a year ago.

Among the worst hit was medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) production, which dropped by 22.35 per cent to 110,224 units against 141,958 units, a year ago. Passenger vehicles dropped by 13.18 per cent to 12,13,281 units from 13,97,404 units, a year ago.

Two-wheeler production dropped by 9.96 per cent to 7845675 units from 8713476 units, a year ago.

According to auto industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), almost 15,000 jobs, mostly temporary and casual workers, have been lost in the automobile manufacturing sector over the last two to three months.

Meanwhile, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations or FADA said around 200,000 jobs have been cut across automobile dealerships in the country in the last three months.

(Credit: TE Narasimhan, Business Standard) SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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C R I C K E T

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: OF CRICKET, CRICKETERS AND COACHES The new cricket season has started with aplomb. Ever since the sport’s marquee event – the ICC Cricket World Cup final – divided the planet between those who were stickler for rules and those who ridiculed the same rules, sanity has finally been restored. In what, arguably, was the only instance when the ire towards England had nothing to do with Brexit (although people lambasted it by citing the multicultural mix of the team led by an Irishman); the contest was one that will be etched in the memories for a lifetime. Despite bringing together the island (with the exception of the Scottish) for one last time before a likely no-deal Brexit sends people once again into a tizzy, the narrative matters for the first-time World Cup winners. Can they solidify their claim as the no.1 team in the world? History suggests that most teams flatter to deceive in the aftermath of a colossal victory like the World Cup. Maybe an Ashes series victory would help settle the matter. England, whether they like it or not, is cricket’s newest villain.

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tribute to the World Cup final notwithstanding, it is what lies ahead in the foreseeable future that should excite one and all. The introduction of the Test Championship is being touted as a revolutionary step for cricket (less so, the display of names and numbers behind the jersey). However, would it live up to its hype or is it just another hoodwink by the ICC over cricket’s unassuming devotees?

There have been endless debates about who is the better batsman – Kohli or Smith - but to no avail.

Perhaps the answer lies in recognizing that they are more than just men – they are smart and efficient AI machines.

Before one questions the wisdom of equating hard-working sportspersons with AI-efficiency, it would be poignant to reflect on what makes them more humane than we would

otherwise give them credit for.

Lastly, in the most predictable script ever made in the poorly directed ‘Search for Team India’s Next Coach’, Ravi Shastri has had the last laugh. But will he have the lasting impact on a system that is increasingly turning into an unprofessional setup where achievements and philosophy matter less than self-adulation and prophecies? These aspects are worth addressing because what makes the sport tick are its cricketers and coaches and most importantly the evolution of the sport itself.

Cricket is perhaps the only sport that could simultaneously embrace the idea of a two-year long league format and play two consecutive World Cups in a format that is detrimental to the success of the former.

The ICC World Test Championship: Survivability in Testing Times Cricket is perhaps the only sport that could simultaneously embrace the idea of a two-year long league format and play two consecutive World Cups in a format that is detrimental to the success of the former. While a novel idea, the ICC World Test Championship is fraught with flaws and looks destined to reduce, rather than increase, the appetite of the average cricket fan. Without doubt, the push for a league-based format in Test cricket is revolutionary in many ways.

It adds to the relevancy of cricket’s oldest format at a time when an overdose of T20 franchise cricket attracts eyeballs, moneyball and winner-takes-all cash bounties. By adding context to every bilateral test series, the ICC has sought SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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to replicate the success of the very best sporting leagues based on the points system. In a way, it summons order into an otherwise wildly organized cricket format in which most fans (at least the lazier lot) have given up watching.

However, the race for the Test Championship is going to be nestled between two consecutive T20 World Cups – one in Australia in 2020 and the next edition in India in 2021 – which calls into doubt whether the league can sustain itself. To be sure, although the two formats compete for attention, the same set of players doesn’t necessarily participate in both. This would offer room for flexibility, team rotation and infusing fresh blood. However, the choice between winning silverware and garnering points over the course of two years shouldn’t be difficult to make (especially for teams which obviously don’t stand a chance in the Championship).

An even more pressing flaw is how the matches have been arranged – suiting the usual favorites like India, England, Australia – while marginalizing the

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An even more pressing flaw is how the matches have been arranged – suiting the usual favorites like India, England, Australia – while marginalizing the have-nots.

have-nots. It is not surprising if this very logic was used to decide fixtures but it is detrimental to the spread of the game.

As Andy Bull argues, ‘the system the ICC is about to bring in seems so Byzantine that it makes the Constantine’s bureaucracy look straightforward’. As for the format, the 12 Test-playing nations would be split into two groups, one of nine, another of three. In the first of these, the nine teams would each agree to play six series, three home, and three away, every two years. At the end of the two-year cycle, the two top teams will play a final. But the refusal to add

‘promotion’ (for teams in the bottom three ie; outside the league) and ‘relegation’ (of teams that finish in the bottom three in the league) has taken the bite out of the context. While competiveness levels would remain the same (without much incentive for lower rung teams), it is the gimmick of Test cricket’s threat-to-survival that highlights the ongoing negligence of the ICC authorities to the sport’s growth. While seemingly a step to bring parity across formats, the imperfectness of the league stems from how it would be won by a team that won’t even have played all the other contenders.

Kohli and Smith are AI Machines with a Heart There is efficiency. And then there is consistent efficiency. This has come to become the hallmark of two of the most audaciously talented batsmen of modern times. Indian captain Virat Kohli and former Aussie skipper Steve Smith are absolute run machines, which was never in doubt. What makes them stand out

from the rest is the sheer consistency with which they efficiently go about oiling their engines and churning out end products in the form of effortless centuries and breathtaking concentration levels. Despite this, as with every mass-produced good, it tends to erode the value of its individual constituents (here: centuries). But that is only in the eyes of the beholder. In sport, quantity matters and that is why they will remain the envy of their counterparts. However, it is their AI-like craftsmanship that makes each of those knocks mind-bogglingly unique.

Contrary to popular perception, the best batsmen in the world don’t score runs for fun and dominate bowling attacks – they simply improve with every innings they play. While their diminutive characters often mask their stable temperament, Kohli and Smith represent the efficiency of an AI machine. With fresh data and deeper experience, an algorithm-based AI system can progressively move towards efficiency levels hitherto not witnessed in other smart technologies. Similarly the two batsmen are not just capable of feeding in new information to hone their existing skill, they also learn to adapt quicker in lesser time than their peers. Like all

efficient machines, they work with a pattern developed over years of finetuning but are smart enough to know where they are lacking. Mere humans could never attain performance levels of this magnitude; that is what makes the duo smart and efficient machines.

However, there is something inherently human-like about the two that deems the machine-like comparison incomplete.

Kohli has transformed into a leader of men and man-manager; although the lack of international trophies would continue to haunt his legacy. What led to this transformation? Incidentally, he was dismayed at a section of the Indian fans during India’s WC match against Australia who were giving Smith a raw deal and requested them to cut the

While their diminutive characters often mask their stable temperament, Kohli and Smith represent the efficiency of an AI machine.

player some slack. It is easy to brush this off as being something that anybody would have done but it is the personality of the man who did it which earned him the respect of the cricketing community.

Kohli had previously suggested that some of the Australian players were not his ‘friends’ in an outburst that seemed to reinforce the beliefs of many that he was simply a hot-tempered person.

Through his kind and compassionate act towards Smith, Kohli offered us a lesson on how to develop a machine-like resilience and yet remain ethical and principled.

As for Smith, his warrior-like traits came to the fore as he strode onto the field following a short interval after getting hit on the head off a nasty Jofra Archer bouncer in the second Ashes test match.

Having endured boos and jeers from the unruly English fans throughout the World Cup and the ongoing Ashes series; Smith’s body language represented a steely determination to right some historical wrongs on his part. If anything, at the conclusion of this series, Smith should be remembered not for those outstanding centuries or that uncompromising batting technique of his but for how even a runmachine like him can achieve redemption from self-inflicted pain.

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Ravi Shastri’s Prophecy Mistaken for Philosophy As Ravi Shastri was announced as Team India’s cricket coach until the 2021 T20 World Cup, almost no one would have been taken aback by the impending decision. After a disappointing exit at the ICC World Cup in the semi-final stage, Shastri added salt to the wound claiming that the team didn’t deserve criticism after finishing first in the league phase.

While most of Indian cricket’s die-hard supporters would agree that it was just ‘that 45 minute-passage of play’ which cost them the match, it was still a bitter pill to swallow when Shastri fumed with an arrogant streak of defensiveness.

Over the course of the last few months, many have questioned Shastri’s credentials as a coach, having failed to inspire the team to victory in any ICC competition across formats.

For those who did not know or wish to recall their memory, the 57 year old was most remembered for his performance in the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia during which he scored 182 runs and took eight wickets in five matches. More interestingly, he was awarded an Audi 100 sedan for his exploits and was even exempt from SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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heavy import duty by a special order of then PM Rajiv Gandhi. Despite his instant fame, Shastri’s legend was not etched in cricketing folklore through his on-field performances but his thunderous quips as a commentator and TV host. Who can forget the nowfamous line “Dhoni finishes off in style” which endeared him to India’s passionate cricket fans? In spite of such rich memories, Shastri’s connect with fans soon fell by the way side after his rhetorical statements, ad nauseam, about the team’s progress under Kohli’s captaincy and his own mentorship.

Soon after his re-appointment, Shastri thanked his stars and ‘promised to continue the good work from where he and the team left off’. He went on to state that the Test Championship would be the team’s ‘top priority’ along with the two ICC T20 tournaments over the next two years and added that grooming youngsters and strengthening the bench will be a key objective too. When the CAC revealed the selection criteria of Team India’s coach to the public, ‘coaching philosophy’ got the first mention; the other factors were ‘experience of coaching’, ‘achievements in coaching’, ‘communication’ and ‘knowledge of modern coaching tools’.

Out of the five, Shastri’s imprint was felt indelibly in the ‘communication’ parameter having personally backed Mohammed Shami after the pacer suffered from career-threatening injuries and personal difficulties.

While it is important to give credit when due, it is also necessary to call out inconsistencies when glaringly evident. His prophecies and predictions are couched as philosophy, evidenced from his now infamous remark calling the Kohli-led team as the ‘India's best travelling team in last 15 years’. Before his stint with the team, Shastri had no formal coaching experience, which many cite as the main reason why he merely serves as only a ‘yes-man’ to the skipper.

Without coaching achievements to his name, Shastri was precariously chosen for simply ‘having spent two years with the team and his closeness to the working of the dressing room’. To have a philosophy would be to strongly influence the mindset of the team one coaches; Shastri seems to get away with hollow prophecies and flowery rhetoric. If this trend continues, Indian cricket will be heading for their goals without any clear direction.

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H E A L T H

WHY WOULD-BE MOMS SHOULDN'T TOUCH ALCOHOL Drinking alcohol during pregnancy alters genes in infants, says study.

regnant women are advised to stay away from alcohol, according to a new study shows drinking moderate to high levels of alcohol might alter the DNA of their babies. "Our findings may make it easier to test children for prenatal alcohol exposure and enable early diagnosis and intervention that can help improve the children's lives," said lead author Dipak K. Sarkar, a Distinguished Professor and director of the Endocrine Program in the Department of Animal Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

drinking may trigger a long-lasting genetic change in adults.

The findings of the study were published in the journal 'Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research'.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders can include physical or intellectual disabilities as well as behavioural and learning problems.

An earlier study done by Rutgers University found that binge and heavy SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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In this study, researchers found changes in two genes - POMC, which regulates the stress-response system, and PER2, which influences the body's biological clock; in women who drank moderate to high levels of alcohol during pregnancy and in children who had been exposed to those levels of alcohol in the womb.

Heavy drinking is described as four or

more drinks on at least five occasions in a month whereas moderate drinking in women is about three drinks per occasion.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders can include physical or intellectual disabilities as well as behavioural and learning problems. While there is no cure, early intervention treatment services can improve a child's development, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study also found that infants exposed to alcohol in the womb - which passes from the mother's blood through the umbilical cord - had increased levels of cortisol, a potentially harmful stress hormone that can suppress the immune system and lead to ongoing health issues.

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DIPLOMACY

Carl Jaison

INDIA’S ‘BUDDY COUNTRIES' MIRZA GHALIB, ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS URDU POETS DURING THE LATE MUGHAL PERIOD, GIFTED THE WORLD QUITE A FEW COUPLETS NONE MORE PROFOUND THAN THE FOLLOWING: “BAAZICHA-E-ATFAL HAI DUNIYA MERE AAGEY; HOTA HAI SHAB-O-ROZ TAMASHA MERE AAGE [THIS WORLD IS LIKE A CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND IN FRONT OF ME, WHERE I SEE A NEW

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SHOW (OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR) DAY AND NIGHT].” HE ALLUDES TO THE NOTION THAT DAILY LIFE IS COMPRISED OF MUNDANE ACTIVITY AND MERRYMAKING RATHER THAN SOMETHING OF GREATER VALUE. IN A WORLD ‘PLAYGROUND’ DESPERATE FOR SHORTTERM GAINS AND AFFLICTED BY SHORTSIGHTEDNESS, WHAT COULD BE OF GREATER VALUE THAN ATTAINING EVERLASTING BONDS WITH PEOPLE? FOR SURE, A COUNTRY LIKE INDIA THAT PRIDES IN THE SANSKRIT PHRASE ‘VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM’ (THE WORLD IS ONE FAMILY), IT SHOULD NOT SEEM DIFFICULT TO FIND BROAD ACCEPTANCE AND PERHAPS EVEN SOME SYMPATHIES FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD. HOWEVER, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT INDIA’S WORLD ‘PLAYGROUND’ IS ABOUT.

The Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was the Chief Guest at India’s 2017 Republic Day following which the much anticipated bilateral summit witnessed the signing of MoUs in various fields including defense, entry visa exemption, energy etc.

f international relations between countries are conceived as a playground setting, one could essentially encounter two kinds of players: ‘bullies’ and ‘buddies’. In a broad sense; India’s international playground is populated by these two categories of countries. Of course, there are always those countries that pretend to not know the rules (Pakistan?). The ‘bullies’ would include the highly competitive and capable countries like U.S, China, Russia (who dictate the rules of the game) and those which blindly support the ‘bullies’ no matter what the occasion such as U.K, Saudi Arabia, Australia (U.S); North Korea, Pakistan (China); Iran, Belarus, Serbia (Russia) etc (alternatively, they can viewed as the gang leader’s main accomplice).

Although India engages with this category of countries on areas of mutual interest like defence, trade, technology etc, there is a sense of circumspection while dealing with them and most especially the major powers.

Furthermore, New Delhi has recently been rapped by U.S, the meanest of the bullies, for continued import of Iranian oil. While dealing with the ‘bullies’, India has had to either compromise on her national interests or, in the case of Pakistan and China, wage wars for territorial reasons. Even India’s onceupon-a-time all-weather ally Russia has been increasingly accommodative of Pakistan and China given India’s gradual

embrace of Washington in recent years.

Having championed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), India now finds itself in a flux and increasingly having to choose sides.

Although the ‘bullies’ dominate the playground scene and gain unprecedented attention from foreign policy onlookers, there are also those countries that behave as ‘buddies’.

‘Buddies’ would comprise of those countries that might possibly have no on-field squabbles with each other because of the potential of nurturing a healthy partnership in the long-term.

Apart from the obvious fact that this category of countries simply want to just ‘get on with the game’, they usually look for ways to cooperate not just on the playground but also outside off it. They sometimes (just like India) flirt with the idea of aligning with one of the ‘bullies’ but the difference is that they do not allow this to hamper ties between one another and remain fairly independent in strategic terms. For the longest time, India has been in search of friends (not allies) who can comprehend its international objectives and not become answerable to any of the ‘bullies’. Here are four ‘buddy’ countries with which enhanced ties could be in India’s longterm interests.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E) It should not come as a surprise that U.A.E qualifies as one of India’s most SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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critical ‘buddies’ in the neighbourhood and beyond. Interestingly, this relationship can be assessed even independently of New Delhi’s prudent strategy of engaging with its Gulf neighbours and Israel on an equal footing. Modi’s visit in 2015 heralded a new chapter in India-UAE relations with the highlight being the inking of the Comprehensive and Strategic Partnership. The Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was the Chief Guest at India’s 2017 Republic Day following which the much anticipated bilateral summit witnessed the signing of MoUs in various fields including defense, entry visa exemption, energy etc. In one of his most impressive diaspora outreach, Modi addressed the Indian community at Dubai Opera House and unveiled a model of the first Hindu Temple in Abu Dhabi, which UAE helped to fund.

It was UAE that handed an invitation to India to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and overlooked Pakistan’s protestations to the same. Following U.S sanctions threat against India for purchasing Iran’s oil, it was UAE that stepped in to fulfill India’s

While Latin America once fascinated the post-colonial Indian minds, it was shortly neglected from strategic perspective following the ascendancy of the North American and European nations. energy needs. This was given a boost with the agreement signed between Indian Consortium (OVL, BPRL & IOCL) and ADNOC for acquisition of 10% participating interest in the offshore Lower Zakhum Concession. UAE also happens to be the few countries, which actively seek out investments in Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Jharkhand & Maharashtra. UAE

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo stormed to victory in his re-election in April. After a month, Modi presided over one of the most stunning electoral verdicts in the history of independent India.

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currently emerged as the single largest destination for the NRI population with over three million Indians, which is a whopping one-third of UAE’s total population. Furthermore, UAE is the largest source of NRI deposits to India standing at $33 billion and also the leading destinations (along with U.K and U.S) for overseas direct investment accounting for a third of the projects between 2003 and 2012.

INDIA’S ‘BUDDY COUNTRIES' BRAZIL

While Latin America once fascinated the post-colonial Indian minds, it was shortly neglected from strategic perspective following the ascendancy of the North American and European nations. However, foreign ties between the governments of India and Brazil have taken place on a consistent basis, which attained its pinnacle in 2006 when both countries decided to strike a bilateral strategic partnership. The strategic partnership also pointed the need to start a dialogue on regional and international issues like energy security and international terrorism, as well as to undertake closer coordination in international fora like the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Security Council.

While the BRICS initiative provided the impetus, there has long been an understanding that India and Brazil have more commonalities than most – emerging economies, young populations and dynamic leaderships. While India has relied heavily on West Asia for its security needs, Brazil provides the scope for New Delhi’s demands for raw materials and energy security with the availability of petroleum products and crude oil. Apart from energy, the two countries have also leveraged their expertise in areas like the production of

pulses in Brazil, investment in the poultry sector in India, research and development of second generation biofuels, and the joint development of chemical and biological products to make the treatment of tuberculosis, cancer and HIV/AIDS more affordable and accessible. Despite the recession in the Brazilian economy since 2015, India’s exports to Brazil were US$2.94 bn and India’s imports from Brazil were US$4.66 bn with India having a trade deficit of US$1.7 bn. The two countries have also signed the bilateral ‘Defence Cooperation Agreement’ in 2003 that calls for cooperation in defence related matters, especially in the field of

research and development, acquisition and logistic support. The 11th BRICS Summit in November 2019 in Brasilia sets the stage for taking the relationship to the next level.

INDONESIA

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo stormed to victory in his re-election in April. After a month, Modi presided over one of the most stunning electoral verdicts in the history of independent India. Therefore, it is only natural that both leaders can use this opportunity to take the relations to an unprecedented level. From having a shared vision for maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific to historical cultural-religious connections, India and Indonesia have come a long way since their respective independence from the colonial yoke.

The friendly relations began with President Sukarno of Indonesia becoming the Chief Guest of India’s first Republic Day celebrations in 1950. Both countries were critical in the formative years of the Non-Aligned Movement leading to its adoption in 1961.

However, in the early years of their independence, both countries were more invested in their respective neighbourhoods and therefore sought to limit their power projection as the regional behemoths in their respective zones of influence.

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developed a common understanding of interests and threat perceptions. During Modi’s visit to Jakarta, both leaders strengthened cooperation in crucial areas by establishing a New Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships, including in defence cooperation, technical cooperation in railways etc.

Indonesia has emerged as the largest trading partner of India in the ASEAN region. Bilateral trade has increased from US$ 4.3 billion in 2005-06 to US$ 20.4 billion in 2017-18. In a show of the burgeoning ties between India and ASEAN, New Delhi hosted the ASEANIndia Commemorative Summit in 2018 in which Joko Widodo was invited as the Chief Guest. It is interesting to note that apart from Sri Lanka, India has signed a Free Trade Agreement with only ASEAN. Recently, India launched a massive operation called ‘Operation Samudra Maitri’ to provide assistance to the earthquake and Tsunami victims in Indonesia dispatching two aircrafts and three naval ships carrying relief material to the country.

SOUTH AFRICA

India’s engagement with the Rainbow nation has been a mixed bag. Soon after

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independence, India was the first country to severe ties with the apartheid government in South Africa and maintain its moral stand in international forums like the UN, Commonwealth and NAM. Following the victory of Nelson Mandela and the end of the apartheid regime, India re-established ties in 1993. Mandela’s affection for India and his Gandhian philosophy of non-violent resistance was well known and he endeared himself to the Indian leaders in the country’s early years of democracy. Following the signing of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries in 1994, the India-South Africa bilateral graph has steadily been on the rise.

India is South Africa’s fifth-largest export

India’s engagement with the Rainbow nation has been a mixed bag. Soon after independence, India was the first country to severe ties with the apartheid government in South Africa and maintain its moral stand in international forums like the UN, Commonwealth and NAM.

destination, and fourth-largest import origin. Bilateral trade between India and South Africa currently stands at $10 billion. India Inc has taken a special interest in the African nation with close to $4 bn investment by around 140 Indian companies. Interestingly, South Africa is home to the highest number of Indian diaspora in the African continent, with a total strength of 1,218,000, which contributes to 3% of South Africa’s total population. During his visit to SA in 2016, Modi and Zuma signed MoUs in the field of ICT, tourism, science and technology along with the desire to collaborate in defence sector. During President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit as the chief guest of India’s 70th Republic Day Parade, both leaders addressed the India-South Africa Business Forum, indicating the high level of inter-commercial linkages between the two countries. In a significant development, the South African National Defence Force participated in the First Multi-National India-Africa Field Training Exercise (IAFTX) in Pune. The extension of the Strategic Programme of Cooperation till 2021 further affirmed the nature of future ties between the two countries.

INFRASTRUCTURE

India's Killer Expressway

“There are hardly two rest points in the entire expressway. If any commuter misses one, s/he has to drive for several kilometres to arrive at the next one. for several kilometres to arrive at the next one. Also, these available rest points are not affordable to all kinds of commuters such as truck or bus drivers.

Such hindrances adds to the existing stress borne by the drivers who repeat these trips throughout days and nights to make as many pennies possible.”

Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IITD), under its Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme, was commissioned to study the reasons for the accidents on the highway in 2018.

YAMUNA EXPRESSWAY HAS CLAIMED ABOUT 900 LIVES IN OVER 5,000 ACCIDENTS SINCE 2012. THE FOREMOST REASONS OF THE ACCIDENTS ON THE EXPRESSWAY HAVE BEEN OVERSPEEDING ENCOURAGED BY THE DESIGN OF THE EXPRESSWAY, DRIVERS DOZING OFF AND TYRE BURSTS. bus accident on the Yamuna Expressway recently killed 29 of the 50 passengers, including women and children. This is not the first or a rare instance when the highway has claimed lives.

The foremost reasons of the accidents on the expressway have been overspeeding (also encouraged by the design of the expressway), drivers dozing off and tyre bursts, said Subhash Chand, Head of the Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES) division of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI).

Going by a Right to Information (RTI) reply to SaveLIFE Foundation and data accessed from Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), about 883 people have died on the 165 km-long expressway between August 2012 and May 2019.

“While there are speed cameras, I am not sure if anyone regularly monitors the over-speeding vehicles or if there is a fear among the people of being monitored,” Chand told.

In the 5,738 accidents that occurred during the period on the expressway connecting Greater Noida with Agra, the total number of casualties (deaths and injured combined) have stood at 10,253.

After registering the maximum number of accidents in 2016 at 1,658, the expressway gradually saw a decline in mishaps and casualties.

“There must be awareness among the drivers that high speeding vehicles with old tyres are not the right fit for this kind of a stretch. Over-speeding on such concrete roads with old tyres will only burst them and hurt people.” Monday’s accident reportedly occurred after the driver fell asleep and lost control of the bus.

Chand said, “There are hardly two rest points in the entire expressway. If any commuter misses one, s/he has to drive

The report, titled ‘Safety Audit of Yamuna Expressway’, advised removal of dividers with flush medians. Chand suggested that high-speed corridors such as the expressway must have flush medians of minimum 7-metre width against the existing less than 5-metre dividers. Flush medians are painted demarcations on roads alternative to the raised dividers that often become reasons for accidents when hit by drivers.

The IIT-D report has not been made public yet. However, according to sources, the institute recommended replacing the median kerbs with thrietype guardrails, replacing metal beam crash barriers with impact attenuators (crash cushions), using of thermoplastic (for its elevated nature) and audible markings, adding retro-reflective signages and doubling speed cameras.

It has also suggested adding speed calming measures like rumble strips (also called as sleepy bumps or wakeup calls) and speed breakers, removal of sign boards from side lanes to avoid vehicles hitting them and plantation of 1.5m-high hedges near underpasses to avoid that becoming a temporary stoppage and spots for accidents.

The report, authored by Professor Geeta Tiwari along with others, has taken into consideration the hotspots of the accidents that have occurred in the last five years.

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BUDGET 2019

IS DESPERATION CREEPING INTO INDIA'S POLICY MAKING? THE GOVERNMENT IS TARGETING FOREIGN INVESTORS, HIGH-EARNING EMPLOYEES AND COMPANIES TO PLUG ITS FISCAL GAP. SUCH OVERREACH NEVER ENDS WELL.

Andy Mukherjee

esperation is creeping into India’s economic policymaking. Having lost the fiscal plot, bureaucrats are trying to marshal resources by squeezing taxpayers, foreign investors, firms planning buybacks and even the central bank.

Such overreach never ends well.

Tax collections last year were a full 1 percentage point of GDP lower than the 7.9 per cent the government had hoped to obtain. Rathin Roy, director of the New Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, describes the situation as an “unstated fiscal crisis.”

Instead of confronting the sober reality, revamping a flawed goods and services tax, and taking steps to pull the economy out of a synchronized slowdown in consumption and private investment, bureaucrats are trying to make up the revenue shortfall by taxing everything that moves.

What else can explain an increase to 42.7 per cent from 35.8 per cent in the tax rate on annual earnings over Rs 5 crore ($730,000)? Such a steep jump sends a damaging signal to globally mobile professionals. Why should they put up with Mumbai’s poor infrastructure, New Delhi’s unclean air and Chennai’s acute water shortage when they can just as easily ply their skills from low-tax Singapore? The chilling effect won’t stop with individuals. Since many foreign funds investing in India are structured as noncorporate trusts or associations, they, too, will get caught unless they can lobby their way out.

Even if investors get a reprieve, the companies they buy won’t. Cash-rich firms looking to buy back shares will be subject to a 20 per cent tax that until now was applicable only to dividend

distributions. The Indian government may be patting itself on the back for closing a loophole, and for nudging firms to invest more in the real economy.

But if the viability of new projects is doubtful, then those investments will still prove elusive. Or they will be wasteful. Embedding a valuation discount in some of the country’s most successful firms is hardly a sensible strategy to boost capacity creation.

Then there’s the Rs 1 trillion the government expects to collect in dividends from financial institutions, a staggering 43 per cent increase from last year. Since an undercapitalised stateowned banking system can’t reasonably be expected to contribute much, the bulk of the demand will fall on the central bank. If the monetary authority’s

TAX COLLECTIONS LAST YEAR WERE A FULL 1 PERCENTAGE POINT OF GDP LOWER THAN THE 7.9 PER CENT THE GOVERNMENT HAD HOPED TO OBTAIN.

current profits are insufficient to meet the bureaucrats’ target, they will again clamour for a return of its “excess” capital, even if that means weakening the institution’s operational independence.

While the equity market is nervous, bond investors are ironically chuffed.

Their happiness stems from New Delhi’s decision to issue dollar-denominated sovereign debt, giving up a long-held aversion to subjecting fiscal policy to foreign-currency risk. To the extent such dollar bond sales are strictly capped at a low and stable ratio of India’s overall borrowing, they will help set up useful benchmarks for the private sector to tap overseas investors. However, a more important priority is for India to emulate China and seek inclusion of its localcurrency bond market in global indexes. The government should not lose sight of that goal.

As with its tax grab, India’s desperate focus on short-term fiscal fixes risks doing greater damage in the long term.

(By Andy Mukherjee for Bloomberg) SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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BUDGET 2019

SAVINGS, NOT FDI, WILL ENSURE TRILLION-DOLLAR TARGET MODI GOVERNMENT’S AMBITIOUS $ 5 TRILLION IN FIVE YEARS GOAL NEEDS TO BE ACHIEVED THROUGH MACRO VARIABLES LIKE SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT RATHER THAN FDI-LED GROWTH, ARGUES R. NAGARAJ

t a NITI Aayog meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a clear and bold economic target — to grow India into a $5 trillion economy by 2024. It is now for ‘Team India’, as the meeting was bannered, to translate this target into a plan and policies and programmes. Historically, such goals by popularly elected leaders have voiced the aspiration of voters and energised nations to realise their potential.

HOW REALISTIC? What does the targeted $5 trillion economy mean in familiar economic terms? It is Rs 350,00,000 crore of gross SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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domestic product (GDP) at current prices, at Rs 70 to a U.S. dollar exchange rate. India’s (provisional) GDP in 201819 at current prices is Rs 190,10,164 crore (or $2.7 trillion), which means the annual per capita income is Rs 1,42,719, or about Rs 11,900 per month.

The target implies an output expansion by 84% in five years, or at 13% compound annual growth rate.

Assuming an annual price rise of 4%, in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s inflation target, the required growth rate in real, or inflation-adjusted, terms is 9% per year. To get a perspective, India officially grew at 7.1% per year over the last five years, but the annual growth rate never touched 9%. Hence, the target

seems ambitious. Is it doable?

HOW ASIA FARED How does the target compare with the Asian experience? China, with a historically unprecedented growth record in its best five years, during 2003-07, grew at 11.7%; South Korea, between 1983 and 1987, grew at 11%.

So, Mr. Modi’s target is smaller than the best historical records and may seem realistic.

What would it take to grow at 9%? No country grew at such a pace without mobilising domestic saving and raising fixed investment rates.

In the last five years, on average, the

domestic saving rate was 30.8% of gross national domestic income (GNDI), and the investment rate (gross capital formation to GDP ratio) was 32.5%. Assuming the underlying technical coefficients remain constant, a 9% annual growth rate calls for 39% of domestic saving rate and 41.2% of investment rate. Correspondingly, shares of private consumption need to shrink to about 50% of GDP from the current level of 59% of GDP at current prices, assuming foreign capital inflow remains at 1.7% of GDP. In other words, India will have to turn into an investment-led economy as it happened during the boom last decade (2003-08) before the financial crisis, or like China since the 1980s.

Granting that rapid technical progress or changes in output composition could reduce the required incremental capital-output ratio (ICOR), it nevertheless will call for a nearly 8-9 percentage point boost to saving and investment rates.

If, however, the economy has grown at a much slower pace than the officially claimed rate — as the ongoing GDP debate suggests and at 4.5% as the former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has pegged it — then Mr. Modi’s growth target would become even more daunting.

LOW DOMESTIC SAVING RATE These stark facts call for a re-thinking in the ruling dispensation that seems to hail India as a consumption-led growth story. the ruling dispensation that seems to hail India as a consumption-led growth story. There is a belief that greater foreign capital (FDI) inflow would fill in the investment gap, as evident from the NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman’s various pronouncements. History shows that no country has succeeded in accelerating its growth rate without raising the domestic saving rate to close to 40% of GDP. Foreign capital can fill in some vital gaps but is not a substitute for domestic resources. Even in China, FDI inflows as a proportion of GDP never exceeded 5-6%, most of which was in fact round-tripped

Gross FDI inflow into India peaked in 2008-09 at 2.7% of GDP, decelerating thereafter. capital through Hong Kong for securing better property rights at home.

Gross FDI inflow into India peaked in 2008-09 at 2.7% of GDP, decelerating thereafter. As it increasingly consists of private equity (PE) with a three- to fiveyear tenure, mostly acquiring capital assets (contrary to the textbook FDI definition as fixed capital formation for the long term) net FDI rate is lower than the gross inflows, standing at 1.5% of GDP in 2017-18. Hence, there is a need for caution against the exuberance (or opportunistic bias) that FDI will help to get to the $5 trillion GDP target.

What is serious is that the economy has slowed down for a while now. The domestic saving rate has declined from 31.4% in 2013-14 to 29.6% in 201617; and gross capital formation rate from 33.8% to 30.6% during the same period. The banking sector’s ability to boost credit growth is limited by nonperforming assets (NPAs) and the governance crisis in the financial sector.

Export to GDP ratio has declined rapidly, with a looming global trade war on the horizon, as has been indicated by the Baltic Dry Index. The highly regarded leading indicator of global trade, currently trading at 1354 is forecasted to decline to less than 1,000 index points by the year-end (a decline from its historic high of 11,793 points in May 2008, just before the financial crisis set in).

Given the foregoing, the $5 trillion target appears daunting. It may yet be doable, provided policymakers begin with a realistic assessment, by willing to step up domestic saving and investment, and not by the wishful thinking of FDI-led growth accelerations in uncertain economic times.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/ opinion/op-ed/not-by-wishful-thinking/ article28264404.ece

INDIAN PILOTS TAKING TO RAFALE AMAZING: FRENCH AIR FORCE CHIEF Following the Indo-French Garuda VI exercise held at a French air base, French Air Force Chief of Staff General Philippe Lavigne said, "Indian pilots taking to Rafale jets during the Indo-French Garuda VI exercise was amazing."

Lavigne added, "After two or three flights, it feels very comfortable and the feedback I've gotten from the squadron says 'Wow'."

PAK REMOVES PRO-KHALISTANI FROM KARTARPUR PANEL AFTER INDIA OBJECTS Ahead of the second round of IndiaPakistan meeting on Kartarpur Corridor on Sunday, Pakistan's federal cabinet removed pro-Khalistani leader Gopal Singh Chawla, a Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) member, from his post. The cabinet reconstituted PSGPC, thereby dropping Chawla from the panel. The talk was originally scheduled for April 2 but India objected to Chawla being part of the project.

STUDENT STABBED AT KERALA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, TRIGGERING PROTESTS A third-year BA Political Science student named Akhil was stabbed inside the Kerala University campus in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.

Akhil and his assailants reportedly belonged to Students' Federation of India, which is a student organisation affiliated to CPI(M). Following the incident, Akhil was rushed to the hospital while students held protests demanding justice.

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TECHNOLOGY

TECH GIANTS GOOGLE & AMAZON EXTEND VIDEO PARTNERSHIP The official YouTube app is now available for the Amazon Fire TV platform while Prime Video is now on Android TV and also supports the Google Chromecast platform.

I PUKED WHILE AUDITIONING, FILMMAKER THOUGHT IT WAS BRILLIANT: RANVEER Ranveer Singh revealed he once puked during an audition after his debut film 'Band Baaja Baaraat' released. "The scene was that a character...a teetotaller happens to drink one night, and starts dancing. I performed and danced my heart out. Such was the intensity that I puked at the end," he said. "The filmmaker thought it was sheer brilliance," Ranveer added.

SUED EX-TESLA EMPLOYEE ADMITS TO STORING AUTOPILOT SOURCE CODE Former Tesla employee Guangzhi Cao has admitted that he stored the source code of the electric carmaker's Autopilot on his iCloud but refuted allegations of trade theft, as per court documents. Cao, who joined Tesla-rival Xiaopeng Motors in November 2018, argued he made "extensive efforts to delete and/or remove any such Tesla files".

Tesla had sued Cao in March.

t is indeed good to note that Cube, Fire TV Stick Basic Edition, Amazon and Google are and all Fire TV Edition smart TVs. serious rekindled friendship It is expected that the YouTube TV and and are also delivering on the YouTube Kids apps will also be made promises made to consumers. available on the Fire TV platform later The good news for everyone is this year. The official YouTube that the official YouTube app Amazon has app supports 4K HDR videos at is now available for the also made the 60 fps on supported TVs. The Amazon Fire TV platform while Prime Video app also works with Amazon Prime Video is now on Android Alexa, which means you can streaming TV and also supports the use voice commands to watch app available Google Chromecast platform. videos on YouTube. for the In April, the two companies Amazon has also made the Android TV decided to let bygones be Prime Video streaming app platform. bygones. At the time, Amazon available for the Android TV had promised to make the platform. This means that any Prime Video streaming available for the televisions or streaming media players Android TV smart TV platform and also that run Android TV can download add support for the Chromecast Prime Video from the Play Store. platform.

Additionally, Prime Video apps will also support Google Chromecast and As things stand, Google had made the Chromecast built-in platforms via the official YouTube app available for the smartphone and tablet apps.

Amazon Fire TV devices worldwide.

The YouTube app can be This is indeed great news for customers downloaded on the Fire TV Stick who may have been missing this (2nd Gen), Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV functionality on any of these platforms.

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OVER-QUALIFICATION IS DISQUALIFICATION FOR GOVT JOB: MADRAS HC The Madras High Court on Thursday ruled that if overqualified applicants are employed for Group-4 services and basic services, the quality of public administration would be brought down. Stating that over-qualification is also disqualification for a job, it dismissed two petitions of engineering graduates who were rejected for posts of metro train operator and revenue department assistant.

TECHNOLOGY

Carl Jaison

THE ROHIT-KOHLI SAGA

Kohli recently remarked that Rohit is the best ODI player in the world. However, this poignant piece by Samiuddin details how the two actually bring out the best in each other

Rohit, poised between becoming the next Tendulkar and the first Kohli.

For however unknowable he must be and however many fathoms deep the real Kohli might live, other batsmen often bring out in him a glimpse of what appears to be real (as does a good confrontation). You've probably seen footage of Kohli's reaction to that oldschool MS Dhoni six at The Oval against Australia: he stopped dead after starting for a run, stood as awkwardly as he has ever stood on a cricket field, before looking round to Dhoni. "Oh teri‌ b****d" is my non-lip-reading guess or hope perhaps - of what he said, fanboying, because millions probably did the same. n March 2, 2008, Rohit Sharma was playing his 13th ODI for India. It was the first game of the triseries final against Australia in Sydney. He made 66 that evening, an innings that confirmed why most everyone was getting all giddy about Rohit. He had already featured prominently in India's 2007 World T20 triumph a few months earlier. A couple of weeks before this game, he was sold for US$750,000 at the first IPL auction, off a base price of $150,000. And now here he was, scoring runs in Australia when it still meant something to score runs in Australia.

Like on so many before it, on this particular evening Sachin Tendulkar had written his name, but no matter: Rohit's time was coming. He was already a world champion, and days later he would become part of India's first tri-series win in Australia - at 20, his shoulders were being broadened to carry those billion hopes and aspirations.

Meanwhile in a time zone not very far away and on the same evening as that first final, Virat Kohli was leading India's

U-19 team to a World Cup win. He had had a big tournament and there was some buzz around him too but Rohit was already the made guy.

Years later, in a disarming interview on Gaurav Kapur's YouTube show Breakfast with Champions, Kohli would speak of that time, when he was a contemporary of Rohit's but in his shadow. They were born 18 months apart, had made their first-class debuts four months apart and their List A debuts a week apart. Naturally he had heard about this young genius Rohit that everybody was name-checking. And he was curious because he wasn't being talked about in the same way - partly because he was still in U-19, for example, Kohli had gone for only $50,000 at the IPL. Then he saw Rohit bat on TV at the World T20, shrank back into his sofa and resolved not to wonder any more why he wasn't seen or valued the same way: "When you saw him play, you understood what people were talking about." He didn't have a second more than anyone else at the crease, Kohli corrected Kapur, he had one and a half more. The IPL was about to change things forever, not least for

This happens with Kohli often, so his summoning of awe at watching Rohit is believable. More importantly it is relatable, because we have all shrunk back into our sofas watching Rohit. Such a moment comes nearly every game he bats. Just in the game before that Oval one, against South Africa, for instance, there were two shots off Kagiso Rabada in the eighth over, not only great shots in themselves, but two that were knife jabs into the bubble of tension India's chase found itself in at the time.

The second - a thunderous square cut was lesser only because it wasn't the first and the first was a pull: Rohit leaning inside the line of a shortish ball and pulling it off just above his waist for a flat six over deep square leg. The little swivel maintained his balance though he looked, for all the world, at the point of impact like he might overbalance and tumble over. He never does, and neither does he have a pull shot - he has a pull playlist. He can pull anywhere in an arc between long-on and a very fine square leg. He can pull length balls, short balls, slightly short balls, back-of-a-length balls. He can pull off his front foot, his back, off a little side step, short-armed, with full extension, deflect a pull off the SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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bat, smash one off it, like Ponting, like a West Indian. It's dependent on him entirely, whether he wants to pull, and not dictated by the bowler.

But to home in on the pull is to risk ignoring so much else. An example from a different format, from the first morning of the Adelaide Test last December.

India struggling at 66 for 4. Cheteshwar Pujara scoreless at one end for an eternity, and Pat Cummins bearing down on Rohit with the rich legacy of Australian fast bowling past and its historic dominance of subcontinent batsmen.

One hundred and forty-three clicks an hour, wide, yes, but short enough of a length to make driving the less smart, more difficult option. Rohit, nearly outside the crease already and on his mark, Rohit with a light half-step, get ready, and Rohit with another slight step, go: tock, six over cover. Massive gap between bat and pad, head not close to being over ball, feet looking textbook despite not being near the ball at all. Put all the potential responses to this delivery from all the batsmen in the world to one side: maybe one leaves it (at that score especially), one punches it off the back foot through - not over - cover, maybe many play it far squarer, with horizontal bats. Then put Rohit on the other.

Shot of the day? No. Shot of the year?

Keep going. Shot of a lifetime? Not if you're Rohit, but yes if you're not Rohit.

The shot that beats amnesia? Yes. Kohli had already gone by then, but up in the dressing room you can imagine him, mouth open, shrinking back into his seat. Kohli owned every inch of that Test series and the entire Australian summer and Rohit would only play one more Test, but this here was a solitary but immoveable flag on a moment Kohli couldn't own.

The most viral piece of content from that summer was the video of Kohli netting.

Once you've clicked on it, it's impossible not to watch all the way through. A wonder of editing yes, but the wonder of Kohli the batsman too - it's an awardwinning short if somebody wills it to be.

The internet is home to a few videos of Rohit netting as well. They're not winning an Oscar anytime soon. They are art, though, in the overall lightness SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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of the way Rohit moves, on his toes, skipping, easing into his movements like he's Muhammad Ali and doesn't want to scar the sanctity of the earth beneath him. Kohli is far from inelegant. But when he moves, he's claiming incontestable ownership over two of the classical elements found in cricket: earth and wind.

On the field Kohli is as one would imagine Kohli is off the field: with intent, alive equally to threat or opportunity, sans doubt. Rohit comes alive not at the crease, but almost only at the moment of impact between bat and ball - that extra half-second, you see. At the nonstriker's, Kohli will be in constant motion, twirling his bat, looking around, air-shotting, talking to his partner, pointing something out. In so many of Kohli's movements and actions it is possible to recognise the front foot

INDIA CHOSE TO SEND ROHIT TO THE PRESS CONFERENCE BEFORE THE GAME AGAINST AUSTRALIA. KOHLI CAME TO THE PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER THE WIN. modern India is parked on in this world.

Rohit is not exactly in repose, but he could be lost in thought, perhaps in his own world - not knowing that Kohli owns that world.

India chose to send Rohit to the press conference before the game against Australia. Kohli came to the press conference after the win. The contrast was unmistakably perfect: Rohit a rougher, more organic presence, a man who accepts mornings aren't always great; Kohli more manicured, born ready and waiting, to own the day, morning, afternoon or evening. Kohli's cheeks and jaw are a sculptor's dream; Rohit's cheeks are like my ten-month-old's. Kohli, who had a swig of what was probably some very healthy shake, looks like the Novak Djokovics of this world are the physical ideal to strive for. Rohit is not fat but invariably finds himself floating around the edges of conversations about who in cricket might be fat.

Kohli's eyes are so fierce - and they need to be, to take in all the attention of the world, all of the glare, and stop it dead when he wants to. Rohit's eyes serve no purpose other than, presumably, to help him see a cricket ball really well.

Kohli is hyper-articulate, with a gift for conversation. Rohit is not; not to that degree anyway. Kohli's contribution to the match was to make everyone forget about it with his plea (was it a request, or even a demand?) to Indian fans to not boo Steve Smith, Kohli won the day.

Rohit hit an unremarkable fifty few will remember.

As much as they are bound together by their contemporaneity, one inescapable way to look at Kohli and Rohit is by their being bound together by these contrasts.

You could, if you wanted, see tension in it. Rohit liking a tweet that could be seen as a dig at Kohli (but which he later un-liked), for example. Or through the brief ruckus created by a story last year that Rohit had unfollowed Kohli on some social medium (either he never did, or one unfollowed the other, nobody is sure). Or from the natural equation of being captain and vice-captain and the deputy coming with a body of opinion that says he is the better captain (and body of work, having led sides to four IPL titles, a Champions League title, and most recently, the Asia Cup). On the other hand, there has been no bigger backer of Rohit in the Test side than Kohli.

If there was any tension, its core would be the batting: that they aren't just the two best batsmen in the side but that they are one GOAT and one great who could've been GOAT (that Test record...); that if you drew an imaginary line from the end of India's Fab Five era (Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly), you could place Rohit on it, whereas Kohli would be the endpoint of that line by being the sum total of all their genius.

Before that game against Australia, Aaron Finch casually put forward the opinion that Steve Smith was the best batsman in the world across formats.

Rohit was asked to respond to that proclamation later, the questioner leading him on in the expectation that he would plump for Kohli. Rohit turned the question back to him: this keeps coming up, it will keep coming up, and it is up to the media to decide.

Is it probably reading too much into it to imagine Rohit might, momentarily, have thought to answer with his own name, or blue sky of Kohli?

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COVER STORY

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2019

5 CORE WAYS NEP 2019 WILL CHANGE INDIAN HIGHER EDUC

68

CATION It has been over 50 years since India formulated its first National Policy on Education, under then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1968. However, most pillars of this Education Policy preceded the Policy itself, as under the leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru itself, institutions like UGC and IITs came into being, and even NCERT came into being before the first policy by Indira Gandhi. Eighteen years later, in 1986, India had its second National Policy on Education under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Both these policies, especially the second one had revolutionary changes that impacted the quality of educational institutions for decades to come.

Just 6 years later, in 1992, under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s leadership, this second policy come.

Just 6 years later, in 1992, under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s leadership, this second policy was significantly modified and improved without going in for a new policy. Further modifications were introduced by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2005, again without creating a new policy. Now, in 2019, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, India is formulating a fresh National Education Policy (NEP 2019), which will have sweeping and far-reaching effects. While the policy is for everything from pre-primary to research, here is a look at five of the most profound ways in which NEP 2019 will impact Higher Education and Higher Education Institutions in the country.

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Who Will Regulate the Higher Education Sector?

For decades now, the higher education sector in the country have been regulated by eminent independent bodies like University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) and various professional councils like Medical Council of India, Bar Council of India etc, as well as Ministry for Human Resource Development of the Government of India. These academic bodies were generally constituted of eminent academicians and professionals. While there was always room for improvement in the output of these bodies, they served their purpose well and good as is evidenced by the worldwide good reception our graduates, postgraduates and research scholars used to get. Moreover, multiple bodies were required as each domain of knowledge was vastly different. The New Education Policy 2019 (NEP 2019) however proposes a sweeping change in this governance and regulatory structure. Education governance is to be headed from now on by a new body, National Education Commission or Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog, which will be an apex body for

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education, to be headed by the Prime Minister.

This body will be responsible for developing, implementing, evaluating, and revising the vision of education in the country on a continuous and sustained basis. It will oversee the implementation and functioning of several bodies including the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) at the school level, the newly proposed National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) at college / university level, and the newly proposed National Research Foundation for research purposes.

What Will Happen to UGC, AICTE, NAAC, & Professional Councils?

Sweeping changes are awaiting most of these apex bodies if and when all the proposals in National Education Policy (2019) are implemented. University Grants Commission (UGC), the most venerable body controlling Indian higher education for decades, had already seen much erosion in its powers during the past few years. This erosion in its powers will accelerate now under NEP 2019 as National

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2019

5 CORE WAYS NEP 2019 WILL CHANGE INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is being demerged from it, and the only major role remaining for the University Grants Commission (UGC) will be providing grants to higher educational institutions. Similarly, the role of all professional councils such as AICTE and the Bar Council of India would be limited to setting standards for professional practice. NEP 2019 has proposed this as the current higher education system has multiple regulators with overlapping mandates. While this reduces the autonomy of higher educational institutions, it remains to be seen whether a new single regulator like NHERA will cause too much centralization of power.

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is perhaps the only old body that will get a new lease of life. Currently, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is an accreditation body under the UGC. The draft Policy recommends separating NAAC from the UGC into an independent and autonomous body.

In its new role, NAAC will function as the top level accreditor, and will issue licenses to different accreditation institutions, who will assess higher educational institutions once every five to seven years. All existing higher education institutions should be accredited by 2030. Even the Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD), is going to witness major changes. NEP 2019 has suggested that the Ministry of Human

Ramesh Pokhriyal HRD Minister

Prashant Bhalla, president, Manav Rachna Educational Institutions, and head of the education committee at Assocham:

Prashant Bhalla

It does look forward-looking, but what the final draft needs to do is differentiate between deregulation and liberalisation. The incentive for the private sector to invest, grow and stand on quality parameters needs to be clearly articulated,�

P.S. Yadapadithaya, Vice-Chancellor Mangalore University:

Deliberations should be on whether the draft policy postulates are implementable. The recommendations in the draft should be properly analysed and should not suffer from past hangovers.�

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NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2019 Dr. Vinodh Bhat, vice chancellor of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education:

5 CORE WAYS NEP 2019 WILL CHANGE INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Resources and Development must be renamed as the Ministry of Education in order to bring focus back on education.

Who Can Approve Creation of New Universities?

Although the KR Committee strongly recommends the internationalisation of India’s higher education system, its draft report is somewhat vague on several critical aspects of internationalisation. For instance the report is silent on the issue of inviting international faculty to teach in Indian HEIs. Moreover, though some references have been made in the committee’s report about an International Education Centre, no details are provided about its activities or mandate. There is also no mention of international collaborations for research purposes, although the KR Committee advises the HRD ministry to sign MoUs with specific countries for collaborations. However, details of how to enhance collaboration between universities in different regions of the world are not mentioned,”

G.Viswanathan Founder-chancellor VIT,

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Until now, approval for new universities – both public and private - came under the powers of either Parliament or State Legislatures as a new law or act specifically drafted for each public, deemed-to-be or state private university was necessary for creating them. But not anymore. One of the most fundamental and sweeping changes in the new National Education Policy (NEP 2019) is that when it is implemented, the power to set up new universities will be vested in the new apex body, National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA).

The draft NEP Policy proposes that these institutions could be allowed to be set up through a Higher Education Institution Charter from NHERA. This Charter will be awarded on the basis of transparent assessment of certain specified criteria. All such newly constituted higher educational institutions must receive accreditation as mandated by NHERA

Mousumi Mukherjee, an associate professor and deputy director of the International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building at O. P. Jindal Global University:

“It is a welcome document. It has done a good job in thinking out of the box to reform Indian higher education by progressively seeking to dismantle the ‘two-boxed’ system of separate research institutes and universities … There has been little creation or circulation of new knowledge within universities. Over the years, the universities became increasingly distanced from societal needs and have been reproducing graduates without necessary skills required in the workplace, including academics with Ph.Ds. without necessary research skills.”

Dr. Atul Chauhan | Chancellor, Amity University Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan

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NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2019

5 CORE WAYS NEP 2019 WILL CHANGE INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

within five years of being established. It is not clear from the policy whether the Parliament and State Legislatures will continue to have the power to create new universities, both public and private.

However, for all practical purposes it seems that private edupreneurs would make a beeline only NHERA from now on as it bypasses the checks and controls possible by Parliament and State Legislatures. While this measure has been taken to make it easier to set up new universities, if it is not properly implemented, this can end up in acute centralization of powers in NHERA with regard to who can start new universities, with no regard for the opinion of legislators at central and state levels.

Same goes with the objective of transparency, as usually transparency suffers when legislators are kept outside of such core nation building activities.

Ranjan Banerjee, Dean of SP Jain Institute of Management Research (SPJIMR):

What is the New Restructuring of Higher Educational Institutions?

Until now higher education institutions have been classified as numerous entities like colleges, institutes, universities, deemed-to-be universities, private universities, as well as by the domains they focus on, like engineering colleges, medical colleges, b-schools, law academies etc. While the current varied structure has largely aided in conveying the specific role of each entity, it can be argued that this varied structure has been confusing to many. National Education Policy 2019 (NEP 2019) has proposed a new restructuring of all higher education institutions, not by the domain they occupy or their aspirations, but by the primary role they play in education and research. As per this new formula, higher education institutions will be restructured into three types: (1) research universities focusing equally on research and teaching; (2) teaching universities focusing primarily on teaching; and (3) colleges focusing only on teaching at undergraduate levels. A sweeping change seen in NEP 2019 in this connection is that all such institutions will

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This is a document with vision and futuristic thought and there are many aspects within higher education that are progressive, such as the emphasis on taking a longer term view of skills to be developed (as opposed to job readiness)," “Management education should also include: systematic industry integration to create continuing curriculum relevance; a scope to have multiple points of entry for faculty (PhDs as well as industry executives), and inculcating social consciousness through innovative experiential learning. How can we do more India specific and relevant research, and develop models of teaching and research that build on India's unique strengths? We have to become world class in our own way. This (document) is a statement of lofty intent, which is laudable. A component of specific direction to move from the current state to the desirable end state can be fleshed out more. It will build greater confidence in the intent being translated to executable direction on the ground.�

gradually move towards full autonomy - academic, administrative, and financial. Apart from freeing up research universities to focus more on research, NEP 2019 also proposes establishing a National Research Foundation. As the total investment on research and innovation in India has been declining, with the country lagging behind many nations in number of researchers (per lakh population), patents and publications, this National Research Foundation, will be set up as an autonomous body, for funding, mentoring and building the capacity for quality research in India.

The Foundation will consist of four major divisions: sciences, technology, social sciences, and arts and humanities, with the provision to add additional divisions. The Foundation will be provided with an annual grant of Rs 20,000 crore (0.1% of GDP).

What are the New Academic Directions in Higher Education?

Moving with the rapid strides in technology and the growing need for interdisciplinary professionals well-versed in different domains, National Education Policy 2019 (NEP 2019) proposes

sweeping changes on two academic fronts – technology in education and interdisciplinary education through a liberal arts approach. On the technology front, NEP 2019 proposes to set up two Technology Missions. The first one will be the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. This Mission will encompass virtual laboratories that provide remote access to laboratories in various disciplines. A National Education Technology Forum will also be setup under the Mission, as an autonomous body, to facilitate decision making on the induction, deployment and use of technology. This Forum will provide evidence-based advice to central and state-governments on technology-based interventions. The second Technology Mission proposed by NEP 2019 is the National Repository on Educational Data. Under this, a National Repository will be set up to maintain all records related to institutions, teachers, and students in digital form. Further, a single online digital repository will be created where copyright-free educational resources will be made available in multiple languages. Coming to the interdisciplinary front, NEP 2019 is moving higher education to a liberal arts approach, which has been gaining ground in developed nations too. The policy recommends making undergraduate programmes interdisciplinary by redesigning their curriculum to include: (a) a common core curriculum and (b) one/two area(s) of specialisation. Students will be required to choose an area of specialisation as ‘major’, and an optional area as ‘minor’. Four-year undergraduate programmes in Liberal Arts will be introduced and multiple exit options with appropriate certification will be made available to students. Further, within the next five years, five Indian Institute of Liberal Arts must be setup as model multidisciplinary liberal arts institutions.

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THE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY (NEP 2019):

MISSING THE BIGGER PICTURE?

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In every sphere of human activity, there is always a raging debate as to what constitutes a reasonable policy. From a country’s defence to social welfare; economics to religion; law to industry it is often noticeable that a ‘debate’ ensues regarding the form and substance of respective policies in almost every field.

Even in sport, team selections are a highly subjective exercise, which is bound to split opinions regardless of the selection criteria. Such disagreements in critical areas of national importance, however, are not limiting. Firstly, it augurs well for a robust democracy to facilitate diverse interests and views.

Secondly, there is a discernible value in a ‘trial-and-error’ approach to solving issues as less scientific methods could be phased out gradually.

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nfortunately, with an absence of consensus on whether to adopt a scientific approach or not, the scope for misuse of policy is farreaching. In other words, the above fields have a political component that sometimes compromises on scientific inquiry. However, it is a misbalance of the two that often evades sound policy – political intervention must be scientifically grounded as much as scientific/empirical approach should accommodate political realities. Take the recent promulgation of the draft National Education Policy (NEP 2019) that seeks to revamp the field of education in India. For a field as ‘benign’ as education, how do politics and science not square up to generate actionable policy?

Most praises and criticisms of the government’s draft NEP are simply an exercise of selectivity. Those that support the ‘three-language’ policy and promotion of classical languages like Sanskrit at the primary school level do not account for the futility of the same with regard to employment generation whereas those that argue against privatization of higher education simply do not accept the government’s laggardly approach. There is a lack of cohesion between scientific and political component in India’s education policy.

With every political endeavor, the end goal must be to steer reforms in the interest of the country. India’s education agenda has lacked the political capital to keep the policy makers interested in its implementation.

Further, the dearth of scientific understanding of what stalls India’s education reforms are borne out of an overreliance on ‘narratives’ rather than ‘numbers’. If emphasis is shifted from narrative-framing to process-framing, it becomes easier to account for the areas of improvement and offer a scientific rationale for policy. How does India’s NEP create political capital for policy makers on education while at the same time hold and measure such policies against scientific standards?

GER comparison across countries (2014) Primary (Class 1-5)

Upper Primary (Class 6-8)

Upper Secondary (Class 9-12)

Higher Education

India

101.4

89.3

62.5

23

China

103.9

100.4

88.8

39.4

USA

99.5

101.9

93.2

86.7

101.6

104.6

65.5

Germany 103.3

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Dr B Suresh Pro Chancellor JSS University

Total Public Investment in Education

Country

Investment in 2017 (as % of GDP)

India

2.7

USA

5

UK

5.5

Brazil

6

Enrolment Ratio (GER) across various levels of education among India, China, USA and Germany. These figures must be disconcerting to any Indian policy makers who decide to frame policy based on the country’s historical GER figures. If Germany’s numbers count as the benchmark from the primary to upper secondary level – maintaining the 100 percentile mark – India’s numbers flatter to deceive by comparison. While marginally betteroff at the level of primary education, India’s drop-out rate thereafter worsens at every successive level. This is partly due to the success of the RTE Act as children in the primary school age category are enrolled at a suitable stage.

No country can derive a plan of action without being exposed to relative comparisons with policies of other countries. Although it is possible through blissful as well as willful ignorance; however every policy is increasingly measured against global criteria. Notwithstanding the allegations of ‘aping’ policies of other countries, the draft NEP precisely misses the larger picture vis-à-vis how India fares against other countries in its education policy.

Although the planned proposal for the introduction of the semester system at the school level is one of the many attempts to ‘westernize’ India’s educational landscape, there is a concerted effort to ramp up ‘domestic selfreliance’ at the cost of global competitiveness. By domestic self-reliance, India’s HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal suggested that Indian institutions must be judged on the basis of domestic ranking systems such as the ATAL Ranking of Institutions on Innovations Achievements and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Accordingly, it shouldn’t matter that our relative position vis-à-vis other countries, based on global ranking and country-level statistics, has a massive scope for improvement. In fact, such a posture would only reverse the gains of previous educational policies as effectiveness must be measured based on a country’s relative position with respect to other countries rather than its own national trajectory.

For example, the below table (Table 1) depicts the Gross

However, the worrying stat is the steep drop in enrolment from the upper secondary level to higher education, pointing to the lack of financial resources needed for children to pursue the latter stage of education.

Moreover, the US does remarkably well in this level of analysis due to the state largesse received by higher education public universities. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, the GER in higher education in India has increased from 20.8% in 2011-12 to 25.8% in 2017-18. But, the real issue lies in the non-literacy of a large section of the youth: as per the 2011 Census, India still had over 3.26 crore youth non-literates (15-24 years of age) and a total of 26.5 crore adult non-literates (15 years and above). Any improvement in the GER should be necessarily linked with literacy rates. If a significant section of the youth continues to remain outside the job market, it hampers India’s growth numbers with a resultant rise in welfare expenditure.

Secondly, the much debated point about India’s investment in education as a share of its GDP. From the below table (Table 2), it is not difficult to gauge why countries like the US and UK attract the most students in terms of intake into their higher education institutions.

Both these countries have invested significant amounts into their university infrastructure and also fare exceedingly well at providing financial resources to students. However, it would be naïve to imagine India catching up with these two countries in the near future.

Brazil, on the other hand, stacks up well with India on

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Dr. Mariazeena Johnson, Sathyabama

attention to investment in education is a direct result of the literacy rate, which is steadily improving. To boost investment, the privatization of education has been mooted as a possible step. But where is the incentive for private players (who perish or survive based on tangible results) when the government’s apathy to education persists? Before private investment, the Indian government must increase spending in public education and create a conducive environment for the entry of other players.

Thirdly, the lack of attention to research and innovation has continued to scar the credibility of India’s higher education institutes. While the above two tables offer a glimpse of the abysmal state of India’s education levels, this one (Table 3) points to a larger issue concerning the country’s lack of research output and successful patents.

With a spending rate of only 0.7% on research and innovation, it is only natural that India’s institutions fail to feature prominently in any globally accredited ranking.

China’s surge in the field of technology innovation is reflective of their quantum of patent applications. This is an area that warrants maximum attention, as the next technological revolution will be determined on the basis of a country’s innovation capacity.

most economic parameters.

Despite their apparent commonalities, Brazil still invests around 6% of its GDP in education compared to India’s meager 2.7%. It is, therefore, no surprise that Brazil’s literacy rate at 92.05% in 2015 is far superior to India’s 72% during the same year. It is estimated that the global literacy rate for people aged 15 and above is about 86 percent. Beyond any doubt, India’s lack of political

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India’s bright young minds need to be encouraged to file patents of their innovations. This could potentially start with an increased number of researchers per lakh population, who can produce valuable research output.

Currently with just 15 researchers per one lakh population, India can learn from Israel’s experience in this arena. The country may have filed fewer patent applications, but the robustness of their research and innovation is directly proportional to their 4.3 % spending. By offering greater scope for expertise (with close to 825 researchers per lakh population), Israeli society continues to project sound numbers in the field of research innovation,

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COVER STORY

TOP Private Universities in Demand Now

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T

here was a time in India when if you didn't get your preferred course at your preferred public university or college, you waited till the next year to try your luck again. Today, the situation has changed dramatically and you can get your preferred course at a private or deemed university, without losing a precious year. And some of these private universities are as good as their public peers, and in some facets like campus placements and startup incubation, even better.

Such private and deemed universities are in high demand this admission season, and Seasonal Magazine brings a choice list of such high quality alternatives for higher education.

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SATHYABAMA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

7 WAYS SATHYABAMA MAINTAINS LEADERSHIP

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dmissions are on in full swing at Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology, and the demand for this deemed-to-be-university's diverse courses spanning engineering, management, science, pharmacy, dental and other professional domains are due to its 32-year old unique pedigree, being founded by (Late) Col. Dr. Jeppiar who was a successful politician, bureaucrat, entrepreneur, industrialist and edupreneur. This zeal is today carried forward by its Chancellor Dr. Mariazeena Johnson and President Dr. Marie Johnson, which has resulted in a consistent performance of being ranked among India's Top 50 Universities for the past four consecutive years by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of MHRD, Government of India.

Seasonal Magazine identifies seven strategic ways by which Sathyabama maintains leadership among its peers, and attracts students from all over India and abroad, year after year.

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SATHYABAMA’S BREADTH OF COURSES Recruiting companies, and therefore students, increasingly prefer universities with a breadth or diversity in courses, rather than dedicated engineering colleges, business schools or law schools. This emerging trend is due to the rapidly changing dynamics of the modern workplace where interdisciplinary knowledge is perhaps more important than domain expertise. With a sizeable portion of today’s recruiters being highly successful start-ups, this trend will only gather momentum, as these firms often need not just a brilliant engineer, but an engineer who can think the business side of an innovation as well as understand the potential legal implications of it.

Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology, a deemedto-be university in Chennai, excels in this regard. It is structured as 10 broad schools, including 5 in engineering and one each for business, law, science/humanities, pharmacy, & dental. Sathyabama’s engineering schools are School of Computing, School of Electrical & Electronics, School of Mechanical, School of Bio & Chemical, and School of Building & Environment.

However, these five broad schools deliver 15 engineering degrees including in emerging areas like Mechatronics at the graduate level, while at the post graduate level there are 12 courses including in latest domains like Internet of Things (IoT), Medical Biotecnology, Artificial Intelligence etc. Sathyabama’s School of Science & Humanities similarly delivers 13 graduate programs including in buzzing domains like visual communication, Interior Design and 6 post graduate programs including sunrise sectors like data science, Robotics, Material Science.

Research programs are also offered in most domains.

Combining these with Sathyabama’s School of Management and School of Law, there is clearly the potential for interdisciplinary work, and students stand to distinctly benefit from this breadth of courses.

SATHYABAMA’S ONLINE COURSE MATERIALS Course delivery in almost all academic domains is moving away from classrooms and textbooks, and into real world scenarios. While the demand for innovation drives this, the advent of technology has made this truly possible in recent years. Today, it is not uncommon to find innovations and breakthroughs being discussed in classrooms, while regular study is often undertaken by students in hostels and elsewhere in the campus. This is only possible when course materials are fully digitized and freely made available to students. That is why some of the best universities in the world, especially in the West, are making SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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THE FIVE BROAD TECHNOLOGY SCHOOLS DELIVER 15 ENGINEERING DEGREES INCLUDING IN EMERGING AREAS LIKE MECHATRONICS AT THE GRADUATE LEVEL, WHILE AT THE POST GRADUATE LEVEL THERE ARE 12 COURSES INCLUDING IN LATEST DOMAINS LIKE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT), MEDICAL BIOTECNOLOGY, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ETC.

Dr.Marie Johnson, President & Dr. Mariazeena Johnson, Chancellor Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology,.

BESIDES LECTURE NOTES, THE MATERIAL PROVIDED ONLINE BY SATHYABAMA INCLUDE ILLUSTRATIONS OF CONCEPTS, QUESTIONS FOR PRACTICE, QUESTIONS & ANSWERS OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT TESTS, ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDENTS, AND EVEN RELATED WEB LINKS AND BOOKS FOR REFERENCE. available their entire course material in web for free.

There is also another driving factor behind such moves, which is the democratization and liberalization of higher education, to even students who are unable to study at such Ivy League kind of institutions. This has led to the advent of revolutionary concepts like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Unfortunately, forget MOOC, universities and institutes in India have so far failed to provide their own students with their own online course material, apart from a handful of institutions including Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology. This deemed university has not only been a pioneer in providing online course material, but does this in a most comprehensive way. Besides lecture notes, the material provided online include illustrations of concepts, questions for practice, questions & answers of continuous assessment tests, assignments for students, and even related web links and books for reference! This proactive approach in course delivery ensures that Sathyabama students have 24X7 access to their entire course content through phones, tabs or laptops.

SATHYABAMA’S ROBUST RESEARCH PROGRAMS There was a time, not too long back, when research or doctoral level studies were only useful for academic and scientific jobs. But together with the proliferation of knowledge, especially technological knowhow, research has moved more mainstream, and today in some select industrial domains, especially in R&D, it is not uncommon to see PhD degrees being looked upon as a higher requisite, much like how MTech was considered earlier.

Secondly, the number of working candidates in government as well as private sector, opting for PhD degrees for career advancement is rising steadily.

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their name have therefore started providing research SATHYABAMA'S courses. But the unfortunate scenario with many private and SCHOOL OF COMPUTING deemed universities is that HAS MORE THAN 90% OF many are under-equipped to ITS FACULTY HOLDING offer research programs due to lack of suitable faculty to act as DOCTORATES HANDLING research guides and lack of the ALMOST ALL SUNRISE requisite infrastructure for TOPICS IN COMPUTING research studies. Sathyabama Institute of Science & RESEARCH. Technology is an exception to this, as they have both ample number of research guides and all required technical infrastructure. The very nature of research is superspecialization in a niche area, and this is why most universities struggle to provide enough research guides.

The guides not only need to be PhD holders themselves, but they need to have a deep interest in at least a few emerging super-specializations in their domain.

Sathyabama excels in this regard. Almost all of Sathyabama’s schools in engineering, business, & science/ humanities offer PhD programs and that too with ample number of research guides in almost all buzzing topics.

For example, the School of Computing has more than 90% of its faculty holding doctorates handling almost all sunrise topics in computing research. And in many niche topics, aspiring researchers are spoilt for choices as multiple guides have the required expertise.

SATHYABAMA’S EFFECTIVE PLACEMENT CELL

It was Sathyabama’s Founder Chancellor, (Late) Col. Dr. Jeppiar who revolutionized placements with his slogan,

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‘Entry is not important, but exit is important’. At a time when some companies were making fuzz about candidates’ high school and matriculation marks for campus recruitment, Dr. Jeppiar stood his ground, argued and prevailed that it is the final product – the graduating student – that mattered and not his or her childhood marks. And at another time when job market was dry and only BPO companies were recruiting mainly, Dr. Jeppiar was firm that Sathyabama students should shun such low-paying jobs and those careers unconnected with their professional training. He even encouraged bright candidates to consider teaching positions in his university and colleges rather than going for irrelevant and low paying jobs. Following in these revolutionary steps, Sathyabama has fine-tuned its placement strategies and

processes over the years, to produce some spectacular achievements in placements year after year. Over 230 renowned companies, both Indian and multinational, have so far recruited from Sathyabama. These include Indian majors like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Prudential, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, HCL, Fortis, Godrej etc and MNC majors like IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Cognizant, Dell, Citibank, American Express, EDS, Alstom, Deutsch Bank, Fidelity, Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, Hyundai, and many more. This impressive achievement was made possible by making Sathyabama students to be in tune with the needs of diverse industries. For this, the university went out of its way to sign MoUs with leading companies to get their inputs in updating the curriculum. Sathyabama has so far made such MoUs for ongoing industry connect with eight global majors including Accenture, Cognizant, CSC, Emerson, FL Smidth, Infosys, Virtusa and Wipro.

The university also makes sure that its candidates are imparted training in all the value added skills that companies are looking for these days.

SATHYABAMA’S IMPRESSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE Sathyabama’s sprawling campus is noted not only for its impressive infrastructure but for the well-planned systems that make the whole Sathyabama team comprising of staff and students work with clockwork precision and effectiveness. For instance, while Sathyabama accommodates both hostellers and day scholars, it is compulsory that day scholars come to the university by

the university’s own buses. Sathyabama has a modern fleet of over 100 buses that can lift and drop students from every nook and corner of Chennai. Such a system is followed so that classes can begin on time, every day, even in a traffic-clogged city like Chennai. The Sathyabama family’s food is also taken care of in a comprehensive manner. All students - hostel students as well as day scholars - and staff members are provided lunch, tea and snacks every day. The food and snacks are hygienic and of excellent quality as it is made in a large modem kitchen with steam cooking, attached to the mess hall, and is complete with a modem bakery and ice-cream making unit, that makes sweets and ice-creams an everyday affair for students and staff! The large mess halls with a capacity of 2000 people are impressive as it enable all staff and students to dine together, with separate floors for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Even while being in Chennai, a city noted for its water shortage, the Sathyabama campus has no issues as a large Reverse Osmosis plant takes care of the entire needs. But it is in academic infrastructure that Sathyabama really shines as no expense has been spared to ensure that its students get the best of classrooms, labs, libraries and auditoriums.

The classrooms are spacious and modern with excellent student seating and facilities, and are provided with LCD

THE SATHYABAMA FAMILY’S FOOD IS TAKEN CARE OF IN A COMPREHENSIVE MANNER. ALL STUDENTS - HOSTEL STUDENTS AS WELL AS DAY SCHOLARS - AND STAFF MEMBERS ARE PROVIDED LUNCH, TEA AND SNACKS EVERY DAY. SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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projectors and smart boards. The lab facilities starting from the first year of all courses through to the final years are all modern and without cutting any corners. For instance the School of Computing’s multiple lab facilities include network programming lab, computer graphics and multimedia lab, digital signal processing lab, VLSI simulation and system design lab, linear integrated circuits lab, microprocessor and microcontroller lab, production drawing and cost estimation lab, cluster computing lab etc. Science labs are also comprehensive, including biochemistry lab and plant cell and tissue culture lab. The internet infrastructure is also impressive with a dedicated Internet Leased line of 155 Mbps and a redundancy link of 100 Mbps, connected to all the terminals throughout the campus. Students and faculty are free to access internet over Wi-Fi from locations like library, hostels etc.

SATHYABAMA’S ENRICHING CAMPUS LIFE The privilege to enjoy the best of Sathyabama’s sprawling campus is reserved for the hostellers. Truly designed as a home away from home, hostellers don’t have to step outside the campus for any of their daily needs. The campus has 5 boys hostels of around 10,00,000 lakh square feet and 5 girls hostels of around 5,50,000 square feet with mess, laundry, ironing, separate gyms / fitness centre, saloon, yoga centre, dance classes, ATMs, sports facilities, medical rooms, emergency vehicles, computer labs, parlour / beauty spa, stores, utilities, courier service etc. The hostel rooms are spacious with attached bathrooms, in both boys and girls hostels. The sports facilities are extensive with both indoor and outdoor facilities being provided. Sathyabama has been a powerhouse in certain sports including volleyball, basketball and football, having produced national level players who often came from its hostels. Apart from a 400 metre track, the campus has multiple indoor and outdoor courts for volleyball, basketball, badminton, football, tennis, hockey and several other sports. And far from the typical medical rooms in hostels, here at Sathyabama, there are two full-time doctors, free medicines to students, as well as a medical lab for tests.

Pure drinking water from the reverse osmosis plant in the campus is provided to all hostel rooms. A separate generator has been installed for hostellers so that they can study uninterrupted even during power failures.

Hostellers also get to utilize free computer time for their studies even after college hours, and Wi-Fi facility is also provided for them. And it is not just studies as hostellers are entertained at the Open Air Theater where programs are conducted on weekends, and popular movies screened. The thoughtfulness of Sathyabama SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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TRULY DESIGNED AS A HOME AWAY FROM HOME, SATHYABAMA'S HOSTELLERS DON’T HAVE TO STEP OUTSIDE THE CAMPUS FOR ANY OF THEIR DAILY NEEDS. THE CAMPUS HAS 5 BOYS HOSTELS OF AROUND 10,00,000 LAKH SQUARE FEET AND 5 GIRLS HOSTELS OF AROUND 5,50,000 SQUARE FEET WITH ALL CONCEIVABLE AMENITIES. management is also evident from pleasant policies like birthday cakes presented to hostel students on their birthday from the campus bakery!

SATHYABAMA’S CONSISTENT RATING Most public and private universities in India have traditionally been shy when it came to accreditations and ratings. However, rising competition has prompted many

of the top line institutions to go in for accreditations and ratings by government bodies as well as international rating organizations of repute like Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). One reason for the traditional shyness in getting rated was the methodology of rating that relied heavily on a university’s research output as measured by citations of works by its scholars. But when this culture of accreditations and ratings came up, Sathyabama was one of the pioneers in embracing it, as its confidence in its research output was rising. Today, Sathyabama has all accreditations, both statutory and voluntary, that are most coveted. Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology, earlier known as Sathyabama University, is a deemed-to-be university coming under India’s University Grants Commission (UGC). It is accredited by UGC’s National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) at Grade A. And unlike some of its peers, Sathyabama is also approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Sathyabama has put up a consistent performance all through its history, and especially so during the last few years. For the past four consecutive years, Sathyabama has been rated as one of India’s Top 50 universities by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), the ranking methodology of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of Government of India. And from this year onward,

FOR THE PAST FOUR CONSECUTIVE YEARS, SATHYABAMA HAS BEEN RATED AS ONE OF INDIA’S TOP 50 UNIVERSITIES BY NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL RANKING FRAMEWORK (NIRF), THE RANKING METHODOLOGY OF MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (MHRD) OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

Sathyabama has participated in the prestigious international rating by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), and has bagged an overall 4-Star QS Rating, with 5-Stars for three criteria – Teaching, Facilities & Inclusiveness – and 4-Stars for Employability and Innovation. Sathyabama has been awarded with Diamond rating by QS I-GUAGE for overall excellence, the rating for Indian universities by QS. Sathyabama is ranked among top universities in the world by Times Higher Education under the category World Ranking, Asia Ranking and Ranking by Subjects.

No wonder then that Sathyabama has been attracting even students from overseas, for many years now.

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KARUNYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCES

MICROSOFT'S AI DIGITAL LAB IS THE LATEST ATTRACTION HERE

ven as admissions are in full swing here, Microsoft has chosen Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences (KITS), a deemed-to-be-university to be one among 10 universities to start its AI Digital Labs, with some others being technology and management leaders like BITS Pilani and ISB. The world's largest software company, Microsoft is ambitious when it comes to pushing the next frontier in software - artificial intelligence (AI) in a key software market like India, which produces some of the world's best programmers. The tech giant has now launched a 3-year program to train 1.5 lakh Indian students in Artificial Intelligence and it is partnering with 10 reputed technology and management institutes including BITS Pilani, ISB Hyderabad and and Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences (KITS).

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access to cloud, AI services and developer support. This collaboration with colleges and universities will ramp up institutional set-up along with educator capability, and provide relevant educational choices for students, helping them acquire the required skills, according to Microsoft.

The move makes immense sense for premier institutes like Karunya because, as AI becomes mainstream, organisations will require talent with skill sets that are very different from what exist now. Only with the right technology infrastructure, curriculum and training, students can be empowered to compete in an AI dominated workplace.

The program will also benefit Karunya faculty, as training programmes for faculty will include workshops on cloud computing, data sciences, AI and internet of things. Additionally, the faculty of the institutions will get assistance in strategising content and curricula for project-based and experiential learning,.

Positioned in the verdant valley of the

Siruvani Hills, at a distance of 25 km from Coimbatore city is Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (KITS) a Deemed to be University and a Christian Minority Residential Institution in a sprawling 720 acres of land, amidst the green vegetation and misty mountains.

The origin of Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences dates back to the year 1986, when it functioned as an Engineering College affiliated to Bharathiyar University. Since then there has been a phenomenal progress –with the institution being granted Autonomy in October 1999 and eventually

conferred the Deemed to be University status in 2004.

True to its name, Karunya which means ‘Compassion’ is an institution with social concern to address the problems of

The recent accreditation of the Departments of Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering by NBA is a testimony to the quality of education at KITS. It should also be stated that all B. Tech and M. Tech programs as well as the MBA programs have been approved by AICTE in April 2018.

Accepting the recommendations of the UGC and AICTE, the MHRD Government of India, has granted extension of Deemed to be University status to KITS on 8th June 2018.

Participating in QS Star Rating, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences has entered into the International Rating System. The QS Intelligence unit has through independent data collection and analysis of performance metrics, rated KITS as a Three Star Institution, awarding Four Stars for Teaching and Five Stars for Facilities and Inclusiveness.

Dr. Paul Dhinakaran, Chancellor humanity through technical education, research & development, products, patents and extension. The Faculty and students of Karunya are nurtured in character, ethics and spiritual discernment to serve the society with fervour and zeal.

Owing to the excellent education imparted by the institution in engineering, biotechnology, food processing, agriculture sciences, arts, media, commerce and management, the accreditation by NAAC is without doubt an acknowledgment of its stature and reputation.

In recognition of its contribution to academic excellence and for taking a stand to resolve the societal and technological problems in the areas of food, water, energy and health, KITS has been consistently ranked amongst the top 100 institutions in the past years by NIRF, MHRD GoI. In the year 2018, the institution bagged the 72nd position under the Engineering Colleges category and was placed in the 89th position under the University Category by NIRF. In the School of Engineering and Technology, programs such as Aerospace, Biomedical, Civil, Computer Science, Electrical and Electronics, Electronics and Communication, Mechanical Engineering and Robotics & Automation are offered.

In the School of Agriculture and Biosciences, programs such as Biotechnology and Food Processing Technology extend the spectrum of engineering applications to the vital thrust areas of the University- water, health, food and energy, thus integrating Engineering with Sciences.

Moreover, Karunya distinguishes itself from other institutions by offering a unique set of Agriculture programs such as B.Sc. (Hons.) in Agriculture, B.Sc. (Hons.) in Horticulture and B.Tech in Agricultural Engineering.

The School of Sciences, Arts, Media and

Management encompasses the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Nanosciences, Information Technology, Commerce, Management and Media. With the introduction of programs such as M.A Media &Communications, B.Tech ECE with specialization in Electronics and Media Technology, B.A Criminology, B.Sc. & M.Sc. Information Security and Digital Forensics, KITS has gained recognition for offering unique and distinctive programs.

Furthermore, Postgraduate programs in basic sciences such as Physics, Chemistry, Nanoscience (5 year integrated program) and Mathematics are also offered. The MBA is a flagship program of the institution. KITS also hosts program in the domain of commerce (B.Com. accredited by ACCA, UK) Karunya has carved a niche for itself by introducing a wide array of interdisciplinary and departmentspecific postgraduate programs, such as Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Aerospace, Biotechnology, Biomedical Instrumentation, Communication Systems, Cyber Security, Embedded Systems, Engineering Design, Environment and Water Resources Engineering, Food Processing Technology, Geotechnical Engineering, Renewable Energy, Structural Engineering, Thermal Engineering and VLSI Design.

The institute takes immense pride of its faculty comprising of learned academicians, avid researchers, eminent scientists and inspiring teachers. Most of the faculty members in KITS have doctorate degrees and continue to undertake research in their areas of specialization transforming the institute from being a Center of learning to a Center of research and change.

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ASSAM DOWN TOWN UNIVERSITY

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN NORTH EAST

Guwahati based Assam down town University (AdtU) is experiencing excellent demand during this admission season. Thanks to Assam’s leading private universities like AdtU, the state’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is projected to touch 30% by the next year.

The demand for admission at Assam down town University is driven by the university ticking all the key requirement boxes perfectly. Despite being a relatively young university, AdtU has quickly moved up in number of taught streams as well as their quality. Today, AdtU is known for offering almost all in-demand streams like Management, Nursing, Engineering / Technology, Science, Humanities and Allied Health Sciences including Pharmacy. Besides this, it also offers some rare courses that are in much demand now, as well as niche management programs in association with capable corporate players.

The university has also made several tie-ups with foreign and Indian institutions of repute, including Guwahati’s research leaders like Dr. Bhubaneswar Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI), Guwahati Biotech Park, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER-Guwahati), Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Guwahati), and North East Cancer Hospital and Research Institute (NECHRI). The private university hosts and conducts high-profile scientific conferences in cutting-edge domains like translational drug discovery which is often said to be the future of modern medicine. In tune with the times, AdtU is very active on the start-up front with its own incubation centre and funding for seed capital.

However, where AdtU really shines is on the placements front, as every year it conducts the largest on-campus placement drive in North East, which is open not only to its own students but for any students from North East.

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ssam down town University (AdtU) recently conducted its sixth convocation.

Assam Governor Prof.

Jagdish Mukhi who is also a Visitor at the university was the chief guest. The governor conferred various degrees to 581 students, including PhD degrees to 11 research students. He congratulated leading private universities in the state including Assam Down Town University for significantly improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of Assam, which is now projected to touch 30% by 2020. GER is a metric showing the percentage of students who opt for college education after plus-two.

North East being a special region with unique challenges and potential, Assam Down Town University is focusing on thinking together with other institutions of repute in the region, as much as it does with its international peers.

The university has made several tie-ups with Guwahati’s research leaders like Dr. Bhubaneswar Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI), Guwahati Biotech Park, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERGuwahati), and Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST).

Taking this forward, a few months back, AdtU signed more such key pacts with two leading institutions in Guwahati – Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) and North East Cancer Hospital and Research Institute (NECHRI), Guwahati.

The multi-year MoUs signed with all these research institutions will help AdtU students, faculty and research scholars to jointly address knowledge creation which is also relevant to the North East region.

Dr. N. N. Dutta, Chancellor

This leading private university of Assam is also at the forefront of developing and popularizing key sunrise knowledge domains together with all major players.

Some months back AdtU played host to a prestigious national conference on such a domain – translational medicine – that is taking the world by storm.

A distinct innovation from traditional biomedical research that is timeconsuming, translational drug discovery is also known by its descriptive name – bench-to-bedside research – denoting that results from research benches are seamlessly translated to patients who require it, by effectively managing preclinical and clinical trials.

The National Conference on Translational Drug Discovery: Current Trends and Future Interventions – was held at Assam Down Town University, in association with the Society of

Biological Chemists India North East Chapter and Tea Improvement Consortium, Assam.

The conference was organised by the Faculty of Sciences at Assam Down Town University and Director of Research at Assam Down Town University, Dr BG Unni was the Chairman of the Conference, which saw participants from different regions of the country taking part. Dr. T Ramamurthy, National Chair and Head, Centre for Human Microbial Ecology, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Gurgaon, delivered the keynote lecture at the conference.

Speakers from reputed institutes, research & development (R&D) institutions and universities like Gauhati University, Indian Institute of Technology- Guwahati (IIT-Guwahati), Guwahati Biotech Park, National SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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outskirts of Assam’s capital city, Guwahati. Officially accredited by the University Grants Commission, India, Assam Down Town University offers courses and programs in Management, Nursing, Engineering and Technology, Allied Health Sciences including Pharmacy and Humanity Studies, and thus caters to a wide spectrum of students.

Assam down town University (AdtU) also offers some unique programs which are not widely available in India, like Trauma & Disaster Management, Radiography Technology, and Dialysis Technology in addition to skill oriented programs in Hotel Management, Nursing, Nutrition and Diet Sciences, Biotechnology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Social Work, etc. Assam down town University also has a top ranking Pharmacy College, a College of Management offering unique programs, and also a highly ranked Engineering College.

Apart from excellent academic infrastructure, AdtU also has a team of highly qualified faculty, with several PhD holders and other such higher qualifications. The university also encourages its faculties to undertake research projects and sponsors their paper presentations at National and International forums.

Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER-Guwahati), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - North East Institute of Science and Technology (CSIR-NEIST), Jorhat, Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat, delivered lectures on various themes at the conference.

Founded in the year 2010, Assam Down Town University is a private higher educational institution located amidst beautiful greenery on the SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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There is also an independent Department of Research headed by a dedicated Director to focus in this area. Sponsored Research Projects of DBT & ICMR are being conducted here at AdtU; and it is one of the few private Universities in the country to have been selected for such prestigious research projects.

The University also offers Distance Education Programmes in BBA, MBA and B.Sc (IT). Full-time diploma

courses are offered to produce skilled workforce in the region as part of its efforts to actively participate in Government sponsored skill development programs under dedicated faculty.

Assam down town University hosts a regional level business idea contest titled ‘Manthan’ in association with Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Young Indians and Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship.

The contest is a month long process aiming at identifying potential business ideas which results in the growth of the North East Region and to nurture them in the business incubator ‘down town Venture Labs’ with necessary infra and seed funding.

The process also includes a capacity building session for the potential entrepreneurs by the experts from CIIE, GIZ, AdtU and successful regional entrepreneurs.

The University also conducts Northeast India’s largest on-campus placement drive for the entire NorthEastern Region students. Placement drives are commonly used for entry level recruitment but in AdtU the drive is open to all.

The placement drive is also a medium through which AdtU endeavours to educate the young minds participating from various educational institutions and organisations of North East India and make them aware of the various prospects of jobs in different sectors. The drive is therefore not only an employment platform for the students but also make them competitive, thus bringing out the best in them in sync with the national or global talents.

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JSS ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION & RESEARCH

5 WAYS JSSAHER IS STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE emand for admissions continues to rise at JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, year after year, thanks to the way in which this deemed-to-be university has been led in all core areas including adoption of emerging technologies, pursuit of value additive tie-ups with industries, research bodies and other institutions, progress in international engagements, deployment of several academic and research innovations, and high performance in placements. JSSAHER is ranked impressively by global agencies like QS and THE, and has further improved its position in NIRF. JSSAHER is now ranked 34th overall in NIRF; while its Medical College is ranked 17 and its two Pharmacy Colleges are ranked 8 and 10, nationally. Seasonal Magazine identifies five ways in which JSSAHER is staying ahead of the curve.

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Dr. B Suresh Pro Chancellor

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT JSSAHER Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its associated domains like robotics and automation are taking the world by storm.

AI is now rapidly changing how many complex tasks were undertaken since the computerized and digitalized ages.

The healthcare sector too, especially in the West, is embracing Artificial Intelligence to better perform many of its complex tasks. The situation has come to such a pass that if researchers, doctors, faculty and students are not trained in artificial intelligence and associated technologies, they will be at a disadvantage in their careers. Sensing this, JSSAHER, which has always embraced all emerging technologies, has now pioneered artificial intelligence in India’s medical education sector.

The deemed university has entered into a collaborative research agreement with iMERA.ai Ltd., a London-based healthcare company, to establish a Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Health Sciences in Mysuru. Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play a key role in revolutionising the healthcare delivery in the coming days, as much of healthcare technology is expected to be linked to AI in the future. Some areas, which may see a major change, are automated image diagnosis, virtual assistants for patients and healthcare workers, and robot-assisted

surgery, among others. This centre, which will function from JSS Hospital, will be one of the few dedicated centres for AI in health universities in India, and will work with technical assistance from JSS Science and Technology University. One of the main focus areas of the centre will be sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms from medical images and patient data to provide tools for clinicians to speed up and improve diagnosis and care across a number of patient pathways. The centre will also collaborate with industry partners working on AI and technology in healthcare sector to develop new medical technology-based tools.

Centre For Artificial Intelligence In Health Sciences At JSS AHER

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RESEARCH ENABLING TIE-UPS BY JSSAHER No university is an island, not even the best universities in the world. This is because knowledge creation or research is almost always collaborative in nature. Universities thrive by way of partnerships with renowned institutions including other universities, research institutions and companies. With the dynamic changes happening in technology by way of automation and the disruptive changes happening in management by way of the start-up movement, the need for meaningful tie-ups is rising exponentially. JSSAHER presently has 54 Collaborations with nationally and internationally acclaimed academic institutions, Industry partners, health service providers and research centres. Recent partners with whom JSSAHER has tied-up to strengthen the academic and research capabilities, include, GlaxoSmithKline, Philips, USA’s Pacific University and Texas Southern University, UK’s Edge Hill University and University of Bolton, Malasia’s UCSI University.Seragen Biotherapetics, Accreate Additive Labs, Triphase Pharmaceuticals, Scitus Pharma and Jagdale Industries. These tie-ups will help JSSAHER students, researchers and faculty to gain world-class and industry ready knowledge in pharma sciences, stem cell research, stem cell banking, therapeutics for regenerative medicine, 3D printing, bio-printing for 3D tissue printing, drug transportation studies, developing smart devices & solutions, biotechnology, prebiotic / probiotic research, medical devices, data analytics, clinical research, generic drug development, pharma research, formulation development for drugs and several other such industry relevant areas. Such tie-ups are helping JSSAHER emerge as a leader in health

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International Workshop On Water Management Begins

sciences research output in the country with 58 H index coming out of 6268 Publications in the last 10 years. It has filed 20 Patents and has commercialised two technologies/ products.

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENTS AT JSSAHER Leading private and deemed universities in India are pushing for internationalization. The first way forward before most of

them is international tie-ups and MoUs with overseas institutions. But only a very few Indian universities have enough to show for true international engagement.

JSSAHER belongs to this select group of institutions with excellent international engagement. To start with, despite being a deemed university focused more on health sciences, rather than higher volume streams like engineering and management, JSSAHER is home to more than 500 international students. They come from over 20 countries, thereby contributing to the global ethos of the campus. Coming to faculty side, there are more than 80 international faculty and research scholars working at JSSAHER. Proving that overseas MoUs have progressed much beyond signing ceremonies, over 200 students and over 30 faculty members in JSSAHER have participated in overseas Student Exchange and Faculty Exchange programs with institutions of repute. Global partnerships have also delivered for JSSAHER when it comes to research. Till now, JSSAHER faculty and research scholars have produced over 200 joint publications with international partners. The university also has some unique infrastructure facilities that further global partnerships. For example, JSSAHER’s JSS Medical College has an international web-streaming centre of the prestigious Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. Known for setting global standards for medical education, faculty and students, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (RCPE) is one of the premier institutions in UK, which has set up sixty such global web-streaming centres. The RCPE Centre at JSS Medical College is helping students to get the best of the educational resources & events at the Royal College at their doorstep.

Dr. H. Basavana Gowdappa, VC

INNOVATIONS AT JSSAHER From the ground up, JSSAHER has been built up as a university that will pursue innovations with full momentum. The university has pioneered many innovations of its own, as well as adopted many innovations from the world over. The deployed innovations at JSSAHER include academic innovations, research innovations and technological innovations. The university has major on-going initiatives to drive innovations like Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CINE) and Science Promotion through Advancement of Research & Knowledge for quality of Life and Entrepreneurship (SPARKLE). Major academic innovations implemented at the university include inter-disciplinary approach, inter-professional classes, Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE), Objective Structured Practical Evaluation (OSPE), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), Flipped Class Room, Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD), Dynamic Assessment, Learning through Events, Evidences and Narration, Mind mapping, Flashcards, Quizlets, Seminars, Internships, Field Trainings, Projects, Simulation Labs, Center for Continuous Learning and Professional Education (CCLPE) etc. Such a wide array of innovations are not possible without collaborations, and the university has gone all out to sign strategic agreements with industries, research organizations and other institutions to realize this approach. The end result is that JSSAHER students study topics experientially or in an active learning mode. When it comes to research, the innovations deployed by JSSAHER include Translational and Transformational Research that benefits the society, Centre of SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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Excellence in Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Centre for Clinical Research Excellence, Centre of Relevance and Excellence in Herbal Drugs, National Center for Pharmacovigilance, and many more of such initiatives. The university is also a pioneer when it comes to technological innovations. Major initiatives include ICT integrated teaching and learning process, Online Intranet Portal named JSSUOnline and eLearn supporting teaching, learning and assessment, Video assisted teaching etc.

JSSUOnline enables course delivery over any suitable digital device by student and monitoring by parents.

PLACEMENTS AT JSSAHER Despite being mainly a health sciences university, with many graduates opting for further studies or hospital placements, JSSAHER continues to witness robust placements by the corporate sector especially in the pharma sector. Students from here are found in some of the finest multinational and national pharma giants. The university has a dedicated training and placement cell which have been delivering promising human resources for the life sciences industry.

Around 75 per cent of JSSAHER students opt for enrollment in the training and placement cell and are suitably employed in leading pharma, Ayurveda and biotech firms as well as leading hospitals across the country. The key advantage for the life sciences industry when recruiting from here is that all JSSAHER constituent colleges are ISO certified institutions and are part of the NAAC accredited JSSAHER. The office of the training and placement cell imparts hands-on training and provides placement opportunities to the students of Pharmacy, Management, Life Science, Medical, Dental and

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Biomedical Sciences. The office of the Training and Placement is headed by Deputy Director – Academic since 2014, signalling the importance JSSAHER gives to this initiative. The office coordinates the meetings with constituent colleges thrice annually in order to understand the requirements of the students for the employment and the projects. The training and Placement office reports to the Vice Chancellor, JSSAHER. Each coordinator from the constituent college is responsible to collate data of the students who are interested to pursue careers in life sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Hospital Administration.

Thanks to such a comprehensive approach, recruiters from JSSAHER for the latest placement year 2018-19 include health science giants like Novartis, Covance, Dr. Reddy’s, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Jubilant, Navitas, Micro Labs, Strides, Bioclinica, Aztrazeneca, Himalaya, Alcon, Cognizant Technology Solutions, etc.

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NITTE (DEEMED TO BE) UNIVERSITY

RAISING STANDARDS IN EVERY REALM

Admissions are witnessing strong demand at Nitte (Deemed to be) University near Mangaluru, Karnataka. A primarily health sciences university, it has also diversified impressively into science education, architecture and communication studies in recent years. Nitte Deemed University continues to be a leader in introducing rare courses in emerging areas of high demand. It’s recent international and national MoUs continue to be with the best institutions in their fields like Gothenburg University, Sweden and Bangalore Bioinnovation Council. The deemed university continues to invest heavily in infrastructure and has come out in flying colours in this year’s NIRF rankings.

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Vinaya Hegde, Chancellor

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

Vishal Hegde Pro-Chancellor, (ADMIN)

Nitte (Deemed to be) University has for the third successive year been ranked among the top 100 universities of the nation by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), an initiative of the Ministry for Human Resources Development, Government of India.

Nitte Deemed University has improved its position this year, by climbing seven places from last year, and is now ranked 70th among the over 900 universities that were ranked by NIRF. The National Institutional Ranking Framework was launched in 2015 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to rank higher educational institutions based on objective criteria.

The rankings consider parameters like teaching-learning resources, research productivity, student outcomes, outreach, inclusivity and peer perception.

Apart from the composite NIRF rank, there are also ranks based on individual parameters as well as on constituent colleges of each university. On both these fronts, Nitte Deemed University performed even better.

For instance, Nitte University is ranked among the Top 15 in the outreach and inclusivity parameters, while it is ranked in the Top 25 group in the teachinglearning resources parameter.

One of the prominent constituent colleges of Nitte Deemed University, the Nitte Gulabi Shetty Memorial Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (NGMIPS), has been ranked 33rd in the discipline

Prof. Dr. Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, Vice Chancellor

of Pharmacy among 301 participating institutions. This is the third successive year in which NGMIPS has been ranked in the Top 30s of Pharmacy Colleges of the country.

Nitte Deemed University is a group of eight premier institutes - K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, A.B. Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, Nitte Usha Institute of Nursing Sciences, Nitte Gulabi Shetty Memorial Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nitte Institute of Physiotherapy, Nitte University Centre for Science Education and Research, Nitte Institute of Architecture, and Nitte Institute of Communication.

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education. The deemed university is noted for introducing rare courses that are emerging in demand.

From last academic year, Nitte Deemed University had introduced three new career-oriented MSc programs in the health sciences sector. These are rare courses in South India and even in the whole of the country. At the same time, job opportunities for candidates with these degrees have been rising significantly.

These Master of Science programs introduced last year are MSc in Anaesthesia & Operation Theatre Technology, MSc in Medical Imaging Technology and MSc in Medical Laboratory Technology (Haematology & Blood Transfusion).

These two-year master’s degrees equip candidates to work in teaching and technician posts in allied health sciences institutions and hospitals in the country and abroad. At hospitals, they will work as the assistants of surgeons and physicians and Nitte has carefully chosen these specializations so that these are in rising demand in the hospital sector.

The rising demand for such courses are attributed to the increasing reliance by hospitals as well as doctors on state-ofthe-art equipment for both diagnostics like scans & MRI as well as for advanced surgical procedures like pinhole surgery and robotic surgery. Diagnostic labs and operation theatres in hospitals have underwent a revolution in recent years, which is causing the demand for such SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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trained technicians.

Bioinnovation Centre (BBC).

Nitte Deemed University continues to push the frontiers in knowledge creation too through tying up with international universities of repute. While every private and deemed university is claiming to do this, often such MoUs are with younger and average institutions in the West.

Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre is an initiative of Karnataka Innovation and Technology Services (KITS), of the Department of IT, BT and Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka, and is noted for providing a strong base for entrepreneurship in bioinnovation.

In contrast, a few months back, Nitte Deemed University signed a comprehensive MoU with Gothenburg University, Sweden, a very reputed University that has produced Nobel laurettes and several medical innovations that have entered clinical practice.

There was already a history of collaboration between these two Universities as Nitte University has been implementing joint research projects funded by the Swedish Research Council. Gothenburg University, particularly its renowned Sahlgrenska Academy is home to six renowned institutes in the area of health sciences.

Nitte Deemed University has also moved quickly to get into pacts with emerging centres of excellence in both the public and private sector. A few months back the deemed university inked a pact with Bangalore

These two-year master’s degrees equip candidates to work in teaching and technician posts in allied health sciences institutions and hospitals in the country and abroad.

The MoU signed by Nitte with BBC focuses on facilitating translational research, development of entrepreneurship, training of students and researchers in Chemo Informatics, drug development and advanced instrumentation.

The pact also envisages the exchange of students for the purpose of knowledge sharing. And going forward this agreement will also explore the possibility of recognising Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre as a doctoral study centre of Nitte (Deemed to be University).

Nitte Deemed University continues to invest heavily into upgradation of the campus infrastructure. A few months back the new widened block of A B Shetty Memorial Dental College here was commissioned. The area of 1,20,000 square feet is increased by another 50,000 square feet enabling it to serve the patients better.

The new seven storeyed building has special dental clinics, most modern implant division, public dental health division, department for children’s dental health, department to identify sicknesses of the mouth with modern equipments and a conference room.

INITIATIVE

INDIA MULLS DESALINATION PLANTS INDIA'S NITI AAYOG IS PLANNING TO SET UP DESALINATION PLANTS ALONG THE COUNTRY'S 7,800-KM COASTLINE. THE PLANTS WILL DESALINATE SEA WATER WHICH WOULD THEN BE SUPPLIED TO POPULATION CENTRES THROUGH A PIPELINE NETWORK.

DELHI HC REJECTS PLEA AGAINST FREE METRO FOR WOMEN; FINES MAN RS 10,000 Delhi High Court has dismissed a man's plea against AAP government's proposal of free Metro rides to women and instead fined him Rs 10,000. The court said the plea had no substance, adding that it's for the authorities to decide on giving concession to a particular class. The court also rejected the prayer in the petition seeking a reduction in fares.

FAST-TRACK MALDIVES' READMISSION AS MEMBER: INDIA TO COMMONWEALTH External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has called to fast-track the process of readmitting the Maldives as a member of the Commonwealth. The Maldives had quit the Commonwealth in 2016, accusing it of interfering in its domestic affairs. ExMaldives President Abdulla Yameen had taken the step after the Commonwealth asked to address the deteriorating human rights issue in the country.

NITI Aayog is working on a plan to setup desalination plants along India’s 7,800-km coastline, according to a recent news report. The plants will desalinate sea water which would then be supplied to population centres through a pipeline network.

This comes at a time when severe water shortages have been observed in major urban areas such as Chennai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has made countrywide sufficient clean water supply by 2024 a top priority.

According to the report, the plan is to set up floating desalination plants in

Territorial waters of a sovereign country extends up to 12 nautical miles from its coastline.

India’s marine waters or build plants along the coast.

Territorial waters of a sovereign country extends up to 12 nautical miles from its coastline. The maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ) can be up to 200 nautical miles.

India’s maritime EEZ is estimated to be 1.63 million square km. The plants will seek to use solar energy or ocean energy for operation, making them energy efficient.

The Aayog is expected to come up with a detailed plan about various technologies that can be used in different states to help set up commercially viable plants, the report suggests. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

N KOREA REVISES CONSTITUTION TO MAKE KIM JONG-UN HEAD OF STATE North Korea has revised its constitution to declare Kim Jong-un as the official head of the state. The revised constitution states that the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission (SAC) serves as its supreme leader that "represents the country".

Previously, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly represented the country as the constitutional head of the state.

The government’s policy think tank will handhold the newly formed Jal Shakti Ministry and provide it with cost analysis and project viability report for these plants, the report adds.

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ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE)

BUSINESS SCHOOL WINS AMERICAN AWARDS, TECH STUDENTS WIN TOP PLACEMENTS

dmissions are entering the final leg at ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), Hyderabad, even while its Business School won two prestigious awards in USA and its passing out tech students won top placements in India and overseas in sunrise subjects like IoT and Blockchain technology.

Collaborative Governance Initiative is a major international initiative of Syracruse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. This project recently conducted its prestigious annual E-PARCC (Programme for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration) Teaching Case and Simulation Competition. Noted B-Schools from the world over participated and ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad has won two awards for two in-depth case studies done by four of its research scholars and faculty.

While this has come as the latest feather in its cap for ICFAI Business School (IBS) and ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), for those who know IBS up-close, this is no surprise as this flagship B-School of the ICFAI Group has long been a major and renowned SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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producer of business, governance and social entrepreneurship case studies in India and abroad. This culture of case studies have been benefiting management students at ICFAI greatly as they are exposed to a diverse and contemporary stream of complex business scenarios, even before they are placed in a rewarding career.

ICFAI Tech students are also benefiting much from IFHE's proactive stance in including all the latest knowledge domains in technology into its engineering courses. Technology students here already learn in-depth about Block Chain, Machine Learning and IoT, while from this year onward more cutting edge domains like Mechatronics, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence have been included.

The pleasant side-effect of this dynamic curriculum is that ICFAI Tech students are landing excellent placements. Shafaque Ahmareen, a passing out B.Tech student of 2019 from ICFAI Tech, Hyderabad was recruited by Ministry of Education, United Arab Emirates as a Junior Researcher in Internet of Things (IoT) with an annual package of 1,92,000 Dirhams (Rs.36 lakh).

Her training at ICFAI Tech included a special project on advanced topics. Two more students of the same batch, Puranam Karthik Sai RadhaKrishna and Mani Chandra Teja Gaddam got offers as Block Chain Applications Lead Developers from Nvest Global Enterprises Inc., Bengaluru with an annual package of Rs.7.5 lakh, and all of them as well as other winners have benefited from the internal projects as well as internships.

It is rare to see any private university in India excel both in quantity as well as quality. ICFAI Group has undoubtedly been a leader in scale with 11 universities across India, including its flagship deemed-to-be university, the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), at Hyderabad. Besides this, ICFAI Group has 9 B-Schools across India.

ICFAI institutions excel in campus placements as its focus has always been on bridging academia's gap with industry. The greatest testimony for this remains ICFAI's world-class reputation in generating hundreds of business case studies each year.

Universities in India, both in the public and private sector, have been following a strategy of beings all things to all students. As a result of this trend we see

a large and well qualified faculty pool comprising of mostly doctorates with rich industry experience. Apart from teaching, the faculty members are proactively involved in research, case development and industrial consultancy.

Most engineering colleges and universities in India are now awakening to the importance of internship programs. But at IFHE’s IcfaiTech, internships has been a way of life. So much so that, today, IcfaiTech students spend as much as 30 weeks or 7.5 months in multiple internship programs during the course. Internship programs of all students are closely monitored by the university because the university has from long back realized that only internships help in producing more practical oriented and innovative engineering graduates. Each student’s performance is also finally and formally assessed as a part of their final degree. the same universities teaching everything under the sun from humanities to science to technology to medicine, all under one roof. ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), the most prestigious deemed university from the ICFAI Group has steered clear of this trend and opted to focus only on the best non-medical professional courses for students. This shows the deep industry connect IFHE is having from the ground up.

The university focuses mainly on engineering, business, law and architecture, and has designed these professional programs so well due to this sharp focus. IFHE's main constituents are ICFAI Business School (IBS), ICFAI Tech School and ICFAI Law School. The integrated campus of these three schools at Hyderabad is a 91 acre lush green affair with built-up area of over 16 lakh sq.ft. The campus is fully residential, WiFi enabled and equipped with state-ofthe-art facilities. All lecture theatres and classrooms are wireless networked and fitted with audio visual tools to enhance the teaching-learning experience.

The complete academic monitoring and control is done through the intranet comprising of the Campus Net and the Faculty Zone. All the three schools have

Engineering is all about innovation and IcfaiTech provides students with flexibility to chart their own academic courses from a wide range of electives offered to them. The objective is to groom engineering graduates, postgraduates and research scholars who are critical thinkers, creative leaders and holistic problem solvers. IcfaiTech follows innovative methods of teaching, a strong curriculum and extensive cocurricular programs like conducting workshops, conferences and seminars.

Engineering being a future oriented and increasingly global domain, the intellectual and global outlook of students are nurtured through these multifaceted programs.

At the same time the university recognizes the need for having wellrounded engineering professionals who will also become global citizens and leaders of the society. Towards this, many supporting courses are offered like principles of management, soft skills training, Indian heritage etc.

The best B-Schools across the world have differentiated themselves from the rest of the pack by how well they teach real life business and management scenarios in the classroom. The best method that B-Schools have invented for incorporating such industry input is

through the pedagogy of business case studies. While no business school today can survive without case studies, the edge is definitely with those B-Schools that are producing the most diverse set of business case studies from different industry sectors and incorporating varied business challenges and solutions.

ICFAI Business School (IBS) had recognized this need early on and has put maximum efforts into furthering industry interactions so that a vast pool of case studies can be developed by the faculty members. This effort over the years has paid rich dividends, and ICFAI Business School has been recognized not only nationally but globally for being a leader in developing an impressive number of diverse business case studies. Each year, IBS faculty and research scholars interact with industries in-depth to develop hundreds of business case studies.

While industries are sharply focused on Return on Investment (RoI), ICFAI Business School has proved and taught to many of them that what ensures RoI is really Return on Knowledge (RoK), as management education is really lifelong.

Towards this, IBS has articulated a vision to develop lifelong resources to the industry by integrating Teaching, Research, Institution building, Community development and Knowledge sharing (coined as IBS TRICK). IBS has a pool of faculty members with a blend of strong academic and industry experience which ensures richness in implementing IBS TRICK. The ICFAI Business School has also implemented Syndicated Learning Activity (SLA) which ensures that students get trained on mock group discussions, mock company tests and mock interviews with involvement of industry experts. These activities improve the students’ ability to get placed by aligning their knowledge, skills and attitude which are the key requirements of the job market. IBS also takes the Summer Internship Program (SIP), quite seriously so that students get exposure to the dynamics of the professional corporate culture which develops the further cognitive skills of their students.

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SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

A MATURE VARSITY IN EVERY DIMENSION

As usual, there is a big rush for admissions at SRM Institute of Science & Technology (SRMIST), a leading deemed-to-be university, which has rapidly emerged to be a mature varsity in every dimension. Home to over 38,000 students and 2600 faculty, across its three campuses near Chennai and one each in NCR-Delhi, Amaravati & Sikkim, SRM has been successfully achieving one milestone after the other, with recent ones being its first deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) through a tie-up at SRM Medical College Hospital, and India’s first deployment of the world-class Minerva Project of Active Learning at its Amaravati Campus.

The deemed university continues to excel in overseas student exchange to renowned institutions and in excellent campus placements. Accredited by NAAC at the highest A++ grade, the sprawling campuses of SRM are also second to none. ll private and deemed universities are signing MoUs with international and national institutions, but unfortunately only very few universities reap the full benefits from such agreements for academic and professional collaborations.

Then, there is SRM Institute of Science & Technology (SRMIST), near Chennai, a leading deemed-to-be university

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which has been reaping unparalleled dividends from such tie-ups, due to its DNA of setting larger-than-life goals of global standards.

SRMIST, formerly known as SRM University, had earlier entered into an MoU with Gleneagles Global Health City of Chennai, a leader in multi organ transplants and a part of Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare, which is Asia’s largest private hospital network.

Recently, this MoU had a phenomenal

achievement when doctors from Gleneagles Global Health City performed the first deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) at the state-ofthe-art SRM Medical College Hospital in Kattankulathur, which is around 50 kms from Chennai.

The patient, a 46-year-old male from Andhra Pradesh was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease and was under medical management initially but later this failed. Due to the decompensated

liver disease status and failure of medical therapy, doctors at SRM medical college hospital advised the patient and family members the urgent need for liver transplantation.

As the patient did not have matching liver donor from his family he was listed for deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) and was kept on optimal medical management. The 6-hour-long procedure was performed by Dr. Vivek Vij, Director – Liver Transplant & HPB Surgery, and his team from Gleneagles Global Health City. Post-transplant the patient made remarkable recovery and was discharged from the hospital The achievement is remarkable in that a demanding procedure like a liver transplant has come to a relatively rural population and locale, Kattankulathur where the SRM campus is located, and also because only state-of-the-art hospitals like SRM Medical College

DOCTORS FROM GLENEAGLES GLOBAL HEALTH CITY PERFORMED THE FIRST DECEASED DONOR LIVER TRANSPLANTATION (DDLT) AT THE STATE-OF-THE-ART SRM MEDICAL COLLEGE HOSPITAL IN KATTANKULATHUR, NEAR CHENNAI

Ravi Pachamoothoo Chairman

Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan President

Hospital can even dream of facilitating such a transplant, even when the best surgeons are available.

setting up a Heart Failure Clinic and getting ready to do their first Heart Transplant in the coming months.

Encouraged by the success of this complex DDLT procedure, SRM is strengthening its organ transplant program by soon launching a new dedicated Operation Theatre Complex with ICUs in SRM Medical College Hospital, which will be exclusively for multi-organ transplants. SRM is also

The larger-than-life way in which SRMIST is making its tie-ups productive is also seen in its international engagements. Thinking beyond just international universities or institutions, this deemed university is laying the groundwork for forging alliances with entire nations.

There are a few nations in Africa that still have a robust democracy and a very low crime rate. Namibia is a perfect example on both counts, and recently the Namibian High Commissioner to India, Gabriel P. Sinimbo was a guest at the sprawling SRMIST campus near Chennai.

A slew of probable deals emerged from this visit as, among other things, the High Commissioner Gabriel was most impressed with the SRM Medical College Hospital, as Namibia is still a country with only one medical university. According to the High Commissioner this opens up the possibility of Namibian patients coming to India for medical treatments, as well as Namibian students studying in SRMIST for their medical and health science degrees.

He was also all praise for the talents of engineering students from SRMIST and nine other Indian universities as seen in the five-day Smart India HackathonSEASONAL MAGAZINE

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Hardware Edition, 2019 at the SRMIST campus, which he had come to inaugurate.

Founded by noted American entrepreneur, Ben Nelson, Minerva is a transformational system of education built upon several years of research on the learning processes of the brain. The focus here is not on dissemination of knowledge but on how students think through a topic. This boosts their critical and analytical capabilities.

There was no wonder in this international diplomat being impressed, as Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is a mega even hosted this year by SRMIST and promoted by Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Inter Institutional Inclusive Innovations Center (i4c) and software major, Persistent Systems.

Moreover, the students attending the SIH are not attempting academic or lab level projects, but real-world challenges posed by various participating industries. This year’s corporate participants were Apollo Hospitals, Aurobindo Pharma, Tata Steel Processing and Distribution Ltd., and Hindustan Unilever.

While admitting that such a technology event is not there in Namibia, he was confident that this Indian model can be

Dr. TR Paarivendhar MP, Founder-Chancellor readily emulated in Namibia with the help of key Namibian Ministries and Chambers.

As a leading deemed university of India, SRM continues to pioneer in the country the latest in educational resources and technologies, from the very best in the world. Recently, SRM Amaravati campus has become the first in India to pioneer the revolutionary Minerva Project from San Francisco that promotes Active Learning as against the conventional learning based on lectures and exams.

SRM AMARAVATI CAMPUS HAS BECOME THE FIRST IN INDIA TO PIONEER THE REVOLUTIONARY MINERVA PROJECT FROM SAN FRANCISCO THAT PROMOTES ACTIVE LEARNING AS AGAINST THE CONVENTIONAL LEARNING BASED ON LECTURES AND EXAMS.

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Minerva’s goal is to provide an Ivy League kind Active Learning technology at a fraction of the price. Fully assisted by technology, students, in groups, work on specific problems. As they engross themselves in it, the input by each one and the step-by-step process in arriving at the solution comes to the knowledge of their professor in real time.

Even while bringing such world-class technologies to its campuses, SRM continues to display its humane edge too. SRM Institute of Science and Technology has recently given scholarships to 300 students from the Perambalur constituency, from where SRM Founder TR Paarivendhar has become a Member of Parliament in the 2019 elections.

The recipients of the scholarships were selected on the basis of their performances in the board exams as well as on whether they were from economically weaker sections of the society.

BUDGET 2019

THE MYSTERY OF THE 'MISSING' RS. 1.7 LAKH CRORE DAYS AFTER THE UNION BUDGET WAS PRESENTED, QUESTIONS HAVE SURFACED OVER A NEARLY RS. 2 LAKH CRORE 'FISCAL HOLE' IN INDIA'S FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS. he anomaly was first picked up by Rathin Roy, a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.

Writing in the Business Standard, he studied both the Economic Survey and the Budget and found that the revenue estimates for 2018-19, in other words how much the government has earned, is a percentage point lower in the Survey than cited in the Budget.

That percentage point amounts to a whopping Rs. 1.7 lakh crore, a massive shortfall in earnings.

The Budget uses what is called the Revised Estimates (RE), a projection of how much the government was expected to earn, while the Economic Survey uses what is known as provisional actuals (PA), an updated, more accurate estimate of government accounts.

The Revised Estimates used in the Budget show earnings of Rs. 17.3 lakh crore in 2018-19, while the updated, provisional accounts in the Economic Survey show that the government has earned far less, Rs. 15.6 lakh crore, a shortfall of Rs. 1.7 lakh crore.

In percentage terms (total revenue as percentage of GDP), the Revised Estimate in the Budget pegs the figure at 9.2 per cent, while the updated number in the Economic Survey shows this as a whole percentage point lower at 8.2 per cent. This discrepancy is also reflected in government spending.

Spending was shown in the Budget at Rs. 24.6 lakh crore in 2018-19, while the more accurate figure in the Economic Survey shows that the government only spent about Rs. 23.1

INDIA'S NEW E-COMMERCE RULES REGRESSIVE: WALMART TOLD US GOVT

Walmart, which acquired Flipkart for $16 billion, told the US government in January that India's new FDI rules for e-commerce were regressive. The rules, implemented from February 1, barred companies from selling products via firms in which they have an equity interest. Walmart argued that the policy discriminated against foreign firms and not just in favour of small local players.

WHATSAPP MAY LET USERS EDIT SENT, RECEIVED PHOTOS WITHIN APP lakh crore, about Rs. 1.5 lakh crore less.

The source of the shortfall: a drop in tax revenue. While according to the Budget, it was expected that the government would earn about Rs. 14.8 lakh crore from taxes last year, the Economic Survey's more updated figures tell us that they only earned about Rs. 13.2 lakh crore.

WhatsApp is testing a new feature to let users edit images that have already been sent or received by them, WABetaInfo revealed. The editing tools will reportedly be the same as the ones available before an image is sent. The new 'Edit' button will be introduced next to 'Share' and 'Favourite' buttons, as per screenshots shared by WABetaInfo.

Pronab Sen, former Chairman of the National Statistical Commission and India's First Chief Statistician, told NDTV: "This is very much a matter of concern."

"As I make out, the figures in the Economic Survey are much closer to the (actual) figures. The figures in the Budget are way, way higher. Now the problem this causes is if you have to meet your fiscal deficit target, you're going to have dramatic cuts somewhere in the Budget.

This really sends the plans of the Ministry haywire", he said.

"If the provisional actual figures are correct, then the only (solution) is to present a new Budget", said Jayati Ghosh, professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, JNU.

(By Sreenivasan Jain)

KARTIK BUYS SAME FLAT IN MUMBAI WHERE HE ONCE LIVED ON RENT: REPORTS

Actor Kartik Aaryan has bought the same flat in Mumbai where he stayed as a paying guest during his struggling days, as per reports. He paid Rs 1.6 crore for the flat and stamp duty of Rs 9.6 lakh, reports added. As per documents sourced by a newspaper, Kartik bought the property in May and the papers also mention his mother's name.

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LNM INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

LNMIIT'S EDGE IS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE LNMIIT is witnessing rush as ever for

admissions, especially for its computer science and information technology programs. Aspiring computer science students want to study the subject at a university that is dedicated to the teaching of everything computers, with specialist faculty and advanced labs, like LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur.

Promoted by the family foundation of billionaire industrialist Laksmi N Mittal and Rajasthan Government, and headed by renowned specialist in advanced computing domains like IoT & Big Data, Prof. Rahul Banerjee, the success of this deemed university's students are seen in the kind of pay-packs offered to them - with an average of 6.39-7.27 LPA with the highest being 29.5 LPA, last year.

LNMIIT provides all-out support for talent development in their students.

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And the results show for themselves. In the recently held Smart India Hackathon 2019, organized simultaneously at 48 nodal centres across India, by India’s Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry in association with the country’s Research & Development heavyweight Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), LNMIIT students came out with flying colours sharing the first prize with two other premier institutes, one of them being the prestigious BITS, Pilani.

More than 200 students from across 13 states of India had participated in the mega event. And that is not all to it.

Smart India Hackathon is not any ordinary competition but attempts to solve real world problems of India. It is a unique initiative to identify new and disruptive digital technology innovations for solving the challenges faced by our country. As such, this is

also a nation-building initiatives by HRD Ministry and arguably the world’s largest such program. This year the winning teams, from including LNMIIT, successfully solved six of ISRO’s problems. By actively encouraging its students and supporting them by all means, LNMIIT is not only developing talents, but proving to the world how good their students are.

While LNMIIT itself has several options for higher studies in computer science and engineering, like its MTech, MS and Integrated MTech programs, it also provides proactive support for those wishing to study at premier institutes in the public domain in India, as well as at the world’s best universities. In fact, several students from almost all batches of LNMIIT have went on to prove that the professional education as well as grooming they received from LNMIIT faculty were enough to land plum

postgraduate or research positions in premier universities.

In India, you can find LNMIIT graduates in premier institutes like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI) and almost all such renowned institutions. And overseas, you can find LNMIITians in reputed universities across the world, in countries including USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Singapore and many more countries. And these include heavyweight universities like USA’s University of California and University of Illinois; Germany’s Technical University of Munich; and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

Since LNMIIT is focused on computer science, it handles emerging computing domains remarkably well through its

dedicated centres for specific technologies. These include LNMIIT Centre for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (C-RAI), The Centre for Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics, The Centre for Cryptography, Cyber Security and Digital Forensics, LNM Centre for Smart Technology (L-CST) and Centre for Next-Generation Communication & Networking (C-NGCN).

The creation of such specialized knowledge centres enables LNMIIT faculty and students to group together according to their interests and pursue such interest together. The university goes out of its way to ensure that all such centres are adequately funded so that they have the best laboratories, machines, software, knowledgebase, books, networks and other resources.

Each such centre also interfaces with all other requires departments to meet their objectives.

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SYMBIOSIS INTERNATIONAL

READY FOR INDUSTRIAL

Yet another year of fast admissions are happening at Symbiosis International, and the deemed-to-be university is upping the game by equipping both its technology and management students to be ready for the emerging wave of Industrial Revolution 4.0 by incorporating into the curriculum sunrise domains like AI, IoT and Business Analytics with R programming language.

une headquartered Symbiosis International is one of India’s earliest deemed universities in the private sector.

Home to students from the world over, Symbiosis has used this early mover advantage to good effect by making a positive difference in the life of their students. Under the visionary leadership of its Founder and Chancellor Dr. SB Mujumdar and operational excellence of its ProChancellor Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, the university continues to scale heights by following many emerging as well as ancient principles in grooming global winners out of the students who have put their faith in the Symbiosis name.

As a pioneer in the higher education

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REVOLUTION 4.0

space of India, and as a pioneer in embracing the latest trends as and when they happen across the globe, Symbiosis International has been implementing this interdisciplinary approach since a few years now. An engineering student at Symbiosis not only studies core engineering subjects but seemingly unconnected ones like liberal arts and foreign languages.

A lot of stress is also laid on acquiring hands-on knowledge rather than just theoretical knowledge. Symbiosis does this through a never ending stream of guest lectures, workshops, buddy sessions, industry visits and niche courses. When interdisciplinary knowledge couples with hands-on know-how, the students become lifelong learners who are complete professionals – complete engineers,

complete lawyers, complete managers – as demanded by today’s world.

As a pioneer in technology adoption among all Indian universities, Symbiosis International implemented a revolutionary new idea – of digitising the conduct of exams. Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), a constituent of Symbiosis International, went paperless for their exams. Towards this, SIBM provided every student with a tablet with inbuilt question paper as well as a stylus to write on. As many as 200 students appeared for the mid-term exams and the benefits were immediately evident.

Symbiosis International, when it decided to establish an entrepreneurship and innovation centre, decided to do it in an inimitable class, which is typical of this

pioneering deemed university in the private sector. Last year this centre came into being, funded by, a grant of Rs. 20 crore from the Indian Government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), with matching funds from Symbiosis Society.

The centre hit the ground running with a few start-ups already working from it at the time of launch, with several other business proposals by start-up founders in the pipeline. The entrepreneurship centre caters not only to Symbiosis students but to outsiders who have the idea but not the infrastructure to make it into a viable business. While start-ups in many domains are housed here now, the centre’s specialization is in artificial intelligence and healthcare based start-ups.

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SCSVMV DEEMED UNIVERSITY

EMBRACING AND LEADING IN SUNRISE CAREER DOMAINS he university has no challenge in attracting high quality students year after year, and this admission season too is not different at SCSVMV. Knowledge is expanding at the speed of light and many universities and colleges are finding it challenging to cope up with pace and develop their students into required candidates in the global workforce. Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu based Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya (SCSVMV), a deemed university has been taking this challenge head-on by aiming for developing not just graduates fit for jobs, but global influencers in science, technology, research, entrepreneurship, finance, management, human resources, marketing and all the largest growth avenues for today’s youth.

SCSVMV is able to achieve this by having a firm foundation in centuries old values as embodied by the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, even while pushing on at the forefront of sunrise domains like Automation, Big Data, Digital Image Processing, Smart Manufacturing, Open Education Resources, Social Entrepreneurship and lots more. The university is headed by Prof. Dr. S Jayarama Reddy as Chancellor, Prof. Dr. S Vishnu Potty as Vice Chancellor and Prof. Dr. G Srinivasu as Registrar.

Admissions are now open for graduate and post-graduate programs in engineering, science, business, commerce, arts, computer applications, education, ayurveda, as well as research programs like MPhil and PhD in over nine subjects.

Students from the university are more often than not recruited through campus placements by Indian as well as MNC majors like TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, HCL, HDFC, ICICI, Axis Bank, PSU companies, public sector SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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banks, emerging start-up and technology companies etc.

Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Education, English, Tamil and Sanskrit.

SCSVMV achieves this by forging ahead in the higher education scene with a highly proactive culture of applied learning through international and national conferences, seminars, and workshops on diverse subjects. Through such professional events, students get to learn next-generation trends like Automation, Big Data, Digital Image Processing, Smart Manufacturing, Open Education Resources, and much more.

There are no marks for guessing the greatest threat to employment generation in the coming years. Every student, or at least every engineering student, knows it is automation which is taking the manufacturing world by storm. But at SCSVMV, rather than being bogged down by that challenge, experts are finding ways and means to exploit this new trend to get their students ready for jobs in the automation field.

Admissions are now open for BE, BTech, BSc, BA, BCom, BCA, BAMS, BEd, MCA, ME, MTech, MSc, MCom, MBA, and MA in various subjects. Research programs like MPhil and PhD are offered in nine subjects including Computer Science, Management,

SCSVMV University’s radar is tuned to pick up signals from all emerging areas that are prospective for Indian industry, and therefore its students.

Such a focus is helping the university to focus on such a field, Digital Image Processing, with students getting

exposed to this sunrise domain.

And it is not only in the technology domain that SCSVMV has been successfully exploring employment and growth avenues for its students. A couple of years back, under the leadership of Dr. Ramanakumar, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, SCSVMV embarked upon specialized MBAs which has proven to be highly successful. Among these are MBA (social entrepreneurship), MBA (textile marketing), MBA (banking) and MBA

(integrated finance) as specialisation subjects.

SCSVMV has a sprawling campus of 50 acres at Enathur, four kilometres from Kancheepuram and 80 kilometres from Chennai. The university is structured as different schools - School of Management, School of Education, School of Engineering and Technology, School of Science, School of Social Science and Humanity, School of Health and Life Science, School of Languages and School of

Sanskrit and Indian Culture.

Well appointed accommodation facilities are provided. Separate men's and women's hostels provide oncampus accommodation for students and a mess which provides food for day-scholars and hostelers. The university has a reverse osmosis plant to cater to the pure drinking water needs of the campus. Solar Water heater facility is available in each hostel. There is 24 hours uninterrupted power supply and a medical centre in the campus provides medical care to students and staff.

SCSVMV is a fully Wi-Fi enabled campus. The web centre has high end servers and is connected by NKN (National Knowledge Network) 1 Gbps Intranet / Internet connectivity via NIC. Internet connection is available campus wide, through the campus network, to enhance research and teaching activities. The Computing and development centre has high end client systems which are used by staff and students for research and development activities.

For entertainment and leisure purposes common TV viewing room is provided for each hostel. English, Telugu, Hindi and Tamil newspapers and other magazines are also provided in each hostel. Other common facilities include laundry facility, well-equipped gym and extensive sports facilities both indoor and outdoor.

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VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

COVETED FOR ENGINEERING, MANAGEMENT AND MORE

VIT continues to be one of the most

coveted universities in the private sector this year too, with strong demand for admissions. VIT is a seasoned institution with 35 years of stellar track-record behind it. It has come a long way since its first campus was opened in 1984 at Vellore, Tamil Nadu. It has been 18 years since it attained the deemed university status.It has been 10 years since VIT started its second campus at

Chennai, and two years since its campuses in Amaravati, AP and Bhopal, MP were started.

VIT is still led by its Founder & Chancellor Dr. G. Viswanathan, and ably assisted by Sankar Viswanathan and Dr. Sekar Viswanathan, as Vice Presidents, Professor Anand A. Samuel, as Vice Chancellor, Dr. Sandhya Pentareddy as Executive Director and Professor S. Narayanan as Pro- Vice Chancellor. VIT

has emerged as one of India’s premier institutions providing world class education in the areas of engineering, management, agriculture and law.

In the recently published QS World University Rankings by Subjects 2019, VIT has emerged with flying colours. For three subjects - Computer Science and Information Systems, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Chemistry VIT has been ranked within the top 550 of the world, which is an impressive achievement given the kind of worldclass universities applying for QS rankings from across the globe. While the two engineering subject areas were ranked within the top 500 of the world, Chemistry emerged in the top 550.

QS rankings are respected as it takes the ‘h index’ and citations of research publications as a criteria for subject ranking, besides perception about the subject areas by academic and industry leaders. Thus QS subject ranking indicates strength of the research output of a university in terms of both quality

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in IITs, and the recent QS ranking it obtained for Chemistry is further endorsement for this strength in this subject.

and quantity. VIT could achieve this since the subjects taught at VIT are research oriented. The up-to-date curriculum is on par with global standards, while effective teachinglearning processes enhance the knowledge of the students.

In overall research output too, VIT occupies a leading place in terms of the number of research papers submitted among all Indian educational institutions, surpassing even some IITs, NITs and other Central and State-funded premier institutions. Over 400 delegates, including young researchers, academicians, and experts from United States, France, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan in addition to the host nation India took part in the three-day conference.

In a recently concluded national level hackathon by international technology

G. Viswanathan, Chancellor major Honeywell, VIT students put to rest that old legend that students from premium public institutes and universities fare much ahead of their private university peers. The 36-hour hackathon, WEHACK 3.0 was conducted as part of the Honeywell Automation Challenge 2019, with participation from two publicly funded institutions – IIT Hyderabad and Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai – and only VIT from the private sector. Surprisingly for many, but not for those who know VIT up-close, it was students of VIT who cracked the maximum number of problem statements presented at WEHACK 3.0.

VIT had conducted an international conference on Chemical Sciences and Nanomaterials. The Chemistry department at VIT has been legendary with the number of faculty in the Chemistry Department of this deemed university surpassing the strength even

QS rankings are respected as it takes the ‘h index’ and citations of research publications as a criteria for subject ranking, besides perception about the subject areas by academic and industry leaders.

Over the past few years, VIT has graduated its focus from quantity of placements to quality of placements.

Over 400 companies visit VIT campus every year. When the VIT students start their seventh semester, companies start visiting the campus. Prestigious international companies that have visited the campus for recruitment include Google, Microsoft, Flipkart etc.

Packages of more than Rs.40 lakh were offered to outstanding students.

VIT has been continually making incremental changes into its curriculum in tune with the emerging international and national trends in technology, management, law and other subjects.

From the second semester onward, engineering students at VIT have the freedom to choose many of their courses, and this has also resulted in VIT faculty always staying updated in the emerging domains of technology.

Starting with this year, VIT may launch a new engineering curriculum, with immersive learning methodologies and multi-disciplinary degrees.

From its early days as an engineering college in the early 80s, Vellore Institute of Technology has always tried to differentiate by way of its infrastructure too. Needless to say, this focus on superior facilities and infrastructure for the VIT students and staff, has turned world-class over the past decade. Today, VIT campus is ragging-free and disciplined, as well as having a state-ofthe-art biometric attendance system which is linked to the parents’ phone number.

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SASTRA DEEMED UNIVERSITY

LEADERSHIP IN PLACEMENTS & RESEARCH emand for admissions continues to be strong at Sastra Deemed University, which is noted for its engineering programs as well as other domains. Sastra has been improving its ranks not only in India, but in world rankings, outpacing most of its peers.

The private sector university's edge lies in pursuing global thinking that is at par with the best in the world, which has resulted in some outstanding achievements, not only in placements, but in research and development of cutting-edge products for the industry.

Bluechips like TCS, Microsoft, Infosys, Cognizant etc have recruited from Sastra and it is also a leader in industrydesigned courses in emerging domains.

With all major recruiting companies looking for all-rounders rather than the purely academic or studious types of students, Sastra’s support for holistic development of its students is helping the university to excel in job placements.

In its last year's placement drive, Sastra

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students bagged 1800 placements from several blue-chip companies including some of the largest MNCs. Among these, 1400 offers were made by four major software companies on the first day of the 10-day event, which was reserved exclusively for them - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant.

The largest single recruiter was TCS, which has been preferring Sastra students for many years now. The remaining 400 job offers were made by international majors like Paypal, Symantec, Cypress, Microsoft, Freshworks and Rockwell Collins, as well as Indian majors like Zoho, Tata Communications, Bajaj, TVS Motor and other reputed product companies.

There is also a social development angle when it comes to Sastra placements. The deemed university’s admission policy ensures that 20% of its seats are reserved for students from Trichy and Thanjavur, which are relatively economically backward

compared with big metros like Chennai.

Due to this unique reservation policy, around 260 local students also got placed wonderfully in the best companies. Each year, Sastra thus facilitates the upliftment of over one thousand families belonging to lower and middle-class strata of the society.

The Sastra family is also known for extending free education, healthcare

facilities, medical surgeries, food and other such essential services to the needy around it.

A few months back it tied up with networking and broadband leader Tata Communications to set up CyberSecurity Lab. This lab will act as a catalyst to spark student interest in specialising in cyber security.

The university shines when it comes to research and development. While many universities in the country are mulling the purchase of 3D printers, Sastra faculty and students have designed a 3D Bioprinter that can produce even tissues.

Tata Communications and SASTRA have also jointly built a curriculum in cybersecurity focused on training, developing and strengthening the practical application of cyber security, encompassing the process and technology elements of cyber threat detection and mitigation.

Signalling the might of this achievement it was Niti Aayog member VK Saraswat who launched ‘Srishti,’ designed by the Tissue Engineering and Additive Manufacturing (TEAM) lab at Sastra.

Supported by the Nano Mission of the Department of Science & Technology, the bio-printer will reach the market through industry partner and leading technology manufacturer AIMIL. Srishti aligns well with the ‘Make in India’ mission of the Union Government to deliver next generation solutions for healthcare with a focus on tissue and organ regeneration and replacement.

Interestingly, Srishti was dedicated to the memory of former President APJ Abdul Kalam who seeded this idea during one of his visits to Sastra in 2008. The R&D achievement marks a major milestone

Prof. R. Sethuraman not just for Sastra, but for the whole academic research community as it marks the coming of age of nationbuilding research as against individualistic research.

Sastra is also making waves by pioneering in-depth industry tie-ups to create next generation courses and labs.

Since this launch, Sastra has already begun to see huge interest among their graduate and post-graduate students.

The new facility will help our students gain hands-on knowledge with access to mentors and guest lectures from senior Tata Communications staff, and real life case studies on how to mitigate cyber security risks with the latest cutting edge technologies.

The investment, active involvement and support from Tata Communications will also help Sastra faculty members get better exposure to the latest updates in cyber security which will be go a long way in making their classroom lectures more interactive.

According to industry studies, there are currently 30,000 cybersecurity vacancies in India. Globally, this number is likely to go up to3.5million by 2021.

Apart from funding the lab, Tata Communication has also invested its technology and resources in this partnership. The course curriculum is being developed in conjunction with Tata Communications’ senior cyber security engineering team.

Senior leadership and domain experts from the organisation will visit the lab as guest faculty, and the university will receive extensive training on how to manage, operate and run the lab from a technical perspective. Apart from SASTRA, Tata Communications has only tied up with another university, Singapore University of Technology and Design, signalling the importance of this tie-up.

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BUDGET 2019

TO REACH $5 TRILLION, INDIA NEEDS INVESTMENTS: WHERE WILL THEY COME FROM? There was hardly any increase in public expenditure that would match the claims made on public investment.

Some other proposed solutions were even more distant: the problem of the non-bank financial sector, which is still reeling from the collapse of IL&FS, is apparently to be dealt by a committee to suggest changes in regulatory structure for such entities.

There are simply no numbers to match the ambitious claims.

But in the final analysis, the budget is about numbers, not statements of grand intent. And this is where it turned out to be extremely lacking, for there are simply no numbers to match the ambitious claims. inance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech on July 5 clearly recognised one key problem facing the Indian economy right now: inadequate investment.

The word “investment” was mentioned at least 30 times in the first hour of the rather lengthy speech, reflecting its importance. In addition, the Narendra Modi government set a new goal to take the Indian economy to $5 trillion (Rs343 lakh crore) in five years, which makes investment an even more urgent priority.

However, what the government plans to do to boost investments remains tantalisingly vague.

Most of the proposals in the budget speech relate to regulatory changes, such as further opening up of the financial sector to deepen capital markets in the (false) expectation that this will somehow kickstart private investment on its own. It is hard to see how liberalisation of foreign capital inflows into insurance would generate more real domestic investment, for example, but this is apparently what the government believes.

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There was hardly any increase in public expenditure that would match the claims made on public investment. In the overall fiscal deficit, the share of capital spending is projected to be only 1% of GDP, a decline from the already small level of 1.1% in the previous year.

Macroeconomically, that is not a level designed to generate a higher growth path through the crowding in of private investment. Even the so-called focus areas of this government got short shrift.

For instance, roads and transport infrastructure, which are known to have strong linkage effects that generate investment and growth over time, have been focus areas of the Modi regime.

But the budget allocations for these sectors were increased only by Rs4,390 crore, or 5.6% over the revised estimate for the previous year. This is barely above the expected inflation rate, so it is likely to mean no real change over the coming year.

The most important category that needs investment revival is that of micro, small and medium enterprises that have suffered massively due to policy mistakes of the past few years. Some urgent measures were required to revive

Jayati Ghosh such enterprises. But there was really nothing for them, besides the usual pious statements.

Most of all, investment in India is being held back due to the lack of aggregate demand, so that needs to be fixed in order to revive domestic investment. Big Indian capitalists currently find it more profitable to invest in other countries; while smaller companies either cannot invest because of the difficulties in getting credit, or do not want to invest because they do not anticipate a growing market. The government needed to address these issues in the budget if it really wanted to increase investment rates and achieve the glowing future it is projecting.

An attempt to boost consumption was made before the election when the government announced cash transfers to farmers, which would put some more spending power into their hands. But that by itself is simply not enough to address the magnitude of the demand problem, especially if other factors continue to make the viability of farming a concern.

A big public investment push is definitely required, one that would embrace both physical and social infrastructure to solve the major physical and social development deficits that India is known for.

Not only is the central government not doing enough on its own to address this, it is also effectively preventing the states from doing so. This is because each successive budget centralises the revenues further, raising more and more revenues from cesses and surcharges that do not have to be shared with state governments. In the current budget, at least 16% of tax revenues are in this form, representing a clear violation of the spirit of fiscal decentralisation.

So Sitharaman’s budget was definitely a disappointment from the point of view of reviving investment. The government seems to think that—just as for agriculture and employment—if it keeps its head in the sand long enough and simply ignores the problems, they will eventually go away on their own.

(By Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at JNU)

ECONOMY

LOWER TV SALES DURING WORLD CUP SHOWS A SLOWING ECONOMY BAJAJ FINSERV'S SANJIV BAJAJ SAYS LOWER TV SALES DURING CRICKET WORLD CUP A SIGNAL OF SLOWING ECONOMY. ales of television units reach a peak level during big events but it is very unusual this year that, despite the ICC Cricket World Cup, TV sales were lower than last year, said Sanjiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Finserv.

"The economy is slowing down any way whether it is HDFC numbers or whether our own numbers, we have lower growth and this both consumer space, consumer demand is low. this has nothing to do with the NBFCs lack of ability to lend in the last couple of quarters. That is probably further adding to it but the slowdown is quite apparent," said Bajaj.

The Reserve Bank of India needs to strengthen the regulation of big NBFCs, but the regulator should also give some facilities that are offered to banks, he said. If both are lending to the same consumer or corporate or SME then their loans should be treated in the same way and this is one step towards that, Bajaj added.

“I hope that the RBI takes this clue to significantly strengthen the liquidity support to these large NBFCs in the same way that it is provided to banks," he added. Having a reasonable amount of margin money for a liquidity buffer for NBFCs would create confidence in the underlying entities in the market and that is what is important because it was loss of confidence and not a real NPA

State Bank of India Managing Director (MD) Anshula Kant has been appointed as the MD and Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group. Kant is a graduate in Economics Honours from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and holds a masters degree in economics from Delhi School of Economics. The 58-year-old joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1983.

HARD KAUR SUPPORTS KHALISTANI GROUP, BACKS PRO-KHALISTAN REFERENDUM

"So that is a signal," said Bajaj.

It is not only that non-banking financial companies' liquidity crisis hurting the rural and SME lending, but the economy is also slowing down, said Bajaj in a recent interview.

STATE BANK OF INDIA MD ANSHULA KANT NAMED MD AND CFO OF WORLD BANK

issue with NBFCs so far, he said. "We, as an industry, have been talking for some time now that large NBFCs which have been playing a significant role for the economy and are today larger than most banks need to be regulated differently from the 10000 NBFCs," said Bajaj.

Even the classification of systemically important NBFCs includes firms with assets over Rs 500 crore but these large NBFCs have gone way beyond that, said Bajaj, adding that the top 10 NBFCs in the country have assets over Rs 10,000 crore and the larger ones have even Rs 1 lakh crore and above.

When asked about the partial credit guarantee scheme, Bajaj said there is no stress in the NBFC sector on quality of loans because NBFCs lend for one, two, three years and they are able to borrow for that period of time.

"We have not seen big defaults in housing space, in HFCs – the only trigger has been the large defaults with IL&FS,” he added. “So the measures are not required so much on the solvency side, on quality of business side but the measures are clearly required on the liquidity side,” he said, adding that the finance minister had mentioned to jump start this and so they have provided the necessary support to restart the cycle.

Weeks after being booked for sedition, rapper Hard Kaur shared a video in which she extended her support to pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and their demand for a separate homeland for Sikhs in Punjab. Kaur is seen supporting their 'Referendum 2020' and urging people to vote for Khalistan.

India banned SFJ for its alleged antinational activities last week.

5 TN FISHERMEN, 12-YR-OLD CHILD ARRESTED BY SRI LANKAN NAVY Five Tamil Nadu fishermen and a 12year-old child were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly straying into its nation's waters, an official said. The Sri Lankan Navy personnel also registered cases against the fishermen for catching fish in their territory, the official added. On June 27, over 3,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen were chased away by the Sri Lankan Navy.

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IN-FOCUS

MS Unnikrishnan, Managing Director & CEO SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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THERMAX LTD

By Jaison D, John Antony

INDIA'S GLOBAL CAPITAL GOODS PLAYER hermax has concluded an excellent year with a blockbuster Q4 which saw its topline and bottomline surging, driven by faster execution even in an election year that saw significant slow down in new orders across the capital goods sector. And for the first time in its history, Thermax has crossed the Rs.2000 crore revenue mark in a quarter, signalling that it can even do Rs. 8000 crores turnover in a perfect year. Operating in 86 countries with over 29 international offices and 14 manufacturing facilities worldwide, Thermax has a value proposition to industries that becomes even more attractive under tougher competitive situations - maximize profits through energy efficiency even while minimizing impact on environment through next-gen solutions. Serving diverse industries like

energy and chemicals, Thermax is a true global operation with both exports from India as well as large manufacturing facilities overseas. Four of its 14 manufacturing facilities are in four countries across Europe and Asia - in Germany, Denmark, Poland and Indonesia. Thermax is perhaps one of the few Indian capital goods player that has globalized successfully and due to this it still commands a premium in the stock market by way of higher price earnings multiples.

The Thermax team, led by Chairperson Meher Pudumjee and Managing Director & CEO, MS Unnikrishnan, is proving that the Energy, Environment & Chemicals major is exploring all possible avenues for growth and expansion, including the emerging Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) business, whose market size is pegged at Rs.20,000 crores.

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Seasonal Magazine in conversation with MS Unnikrishnan, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax Ltd. Thermax has concluded Q4 and FY'19 well, beating estimates on most fronts. What all factors contributed most to this performance?

First and foremost, we had a very healthy order carry forward into Q4 of last fiscal. Secondly, we could accelerate execution significantly in this quarter.

Our project management capabilities went up and we could achieve a very high level of productivity across all core departments, including manufacturing and supply chain management. All these resulted in a significant revenue boost and naturally, it also resulted in better profit growth.

Are you satisfied with this performance and how will this help Thermax in the coming quarters?

We are very satisfied, especially because for the first time in our history, we could cross the Rs.2000 crore mark in revenues in a single quarter. Thus, we have proved that we have the innate capability to do even Rs.8000 crore annual revenue with the current capacity itself. This has been a major confidence boost.

A new majority government has certainly brought in economic stability in the country. But that is the domestic situation alone. Almost all the global cues are bad due to trade wars and other reasons. Even inside India, the economy is battling serious issues like the NPA crisis in banks, and recently even the NBFC sector is showing great stress. Due to such issues, credit availability is still low. Many such issues are not controllable by any government, however well meaning they might be.

When do you expect an economic revival in the country?

I think it will take more time than expected. It is people who vote governments into power, and not industries. Hence, for any new government, the top priority would be to reward this core constituency of theirs. It will result in populist moves that will reward the people, in this initial period. But in the second half of this fiscal, I expect the government to start focusing on industries again, as only that will result in jobs. But for this to translate into significant new orders for companies like us I think it will take

Do you think FY'20 can be another year of fast execution of orders, enabling you to repeat the FY'19 performance?

Unfortunately, we have entered the current financial year, that is FY’20 with a lower order carry forward than in the previous fiscal. This has happened due to the slower order booking in the second half of last fiscal. But if we get enough short cycle orders soon, I think we can put up with a decent performance this year too. It depends on how the short cycle orders are going to pan out now, post the uncertainties of the election days. There has been a major slowdown in ordering during the past six months due to the elections. If this situation doesn’t change soon, especially with a revival in short cycle orders, the growth may decelerate going ahead.

With a majority government back in office, do you think the industrial sector is going to improve substantially, thereby resulting in better prospects for Thermax?

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"We are perhaps one of the few capital goods companies from India that could successfully globalize. Today, one-third of our business is from outside India through a mix of exports and overseas plants. Our products are available in 86 countries, we have 14 manufacturing plants, with four of them across Europe and Asia."

another six months. In other words, I am expecting a revival only by the beginning of FY’21.

The order intake in Q4 and the order book position have gone down annually. Why has this been so, and do you think this is a major concern?

It is indeed a major concern for any capital goods company. Order booking is more serious than revenue for us because, if the order flow is healthy, we can always shore up revenues with better and better execution capabilities.

Now, Indian market was very promising in the first half of last fiscal, but then suddenly due to multiple factors it went dry for orders. Mainly it was the election uncertainties and to add up to that came the trade war threat Unfortunately, on the global front too, this period was marred with trade wars, Brexit and the threat of real international wars. This has resulted in a grave situation where both global and Indian orders had gone down for us in H2 of last fiscal.

Margins have declined in Q4 and what all contributed to this? Do you think margins can be improved if there is a better product mix?

There were two specific reasons why margins were affected in Q4. First, we executed two large projects in the energy sector, which were low margin affairs, due to their relatively large size.

Secondly, our European subsidiary, Danstoker Group was in loss during this period. This second reason is a one-off situation and hence our margins won’t be affected due to Danstoker, going forward. But the pressure from the first factor is likely to continue, as this is no longer a seller’s market for capital goods

Thermax has a value proposition to industries that becomes even more attractive under tougher competitive situations – maximize profits through energy efficiency even while minimizing impact on environment through next-gen solutions.

manufacturers. There is intense global competition for winning orders and often large orders are also decided by clients depending on the pricing, which affects our margins. So, even while we seek every possible avenue to increase margins, as long as the need to win orders are there, some kind of pressure is likely to remain.

A few years back, a key strength and growth prospect of Thermax was said to be its environmental products and services. Why has this sector not performed as per expectations for the company yet?

I don’t think, we as a company has ever thought like that or projected such a picture. Even while our environment business is key for us, it can never aspire to be bigger or comparable to our much bigger operations in energy and chemical industries. The growth in our environment business is not too bad either, as it has grown by 19% last year and profitability too has improved to 6.9%. One reason why there is a limited scope for environment business is that Thermax is more into the developing world, rather than the developed world.

Environment norms and the resultant spend on such solutions is more prevalent in the developed markets.

back when Parliament passed stricter emission norms by factories using coal.

We are already in this business, with technology transfer from American firm Marsulex. There are two kinds of FGD plants, one is the small scale ones used by steel, cement and captive power plants. Such FGD work will amount to just Rs. 2-5 crores. The second and much bigger FGD requirement is by large thermal power plants run by NTPC, State Electricity Boards, and large private thermal power producers. Such FGD work will be worth a few hundred crores per plant. When the first round of bidding came up for such FGD projects, we didn’t participate as the commercial terms were bad. But this year, the terms are much better and we have participated. This will be a significant business for our environment division as currently it is doing a revenue run rate of Rs.800 crores, whereas the current FGD bidding in total is for figures like Rs.20,000 crores. However, I will be realistic and honest with you, as there is an overhang on this business

as most of the FGD clients are State Electricity Boards that are already so financially besieged. Naturally, opting for a costly environmental system is unthinkable for them, except when they are forced to do so by regulation, and I think more needs to be evolved in the sector to have clear revenue visibility.

Even though Thermax has been operating in 86 countries, are you satisfied with the way most of these international forays have gone for the company, as some of them are still in losses or in low margin businesses?

What would be the revenue and profit shares coming in from overseas?

When we say we are operating in 86 countries, it should also be clarified that there are basically two kinds of overseas markets for us. The majority of these countries are where we export from our multiple plants in India. This business is doing extremely well, and is even better than our domestic operations as profitability is better. So, we cannot say in a blanket fashion that overseas forays haven’t been working well for Thermax.

However, yes, in the other type of overseas foray, that is where we operate a manufacturing facility overseas, the

Thermax is said to be getting into a new business - FGD - and can you tell us about the prospects of this foray?

We are already in FGD that is Flue Gas Desulphurization. The burning of coal produces Sulphur Dioxide, and FGD reduces the amount of Sulphur Dioxide that is emitted by the chimneys. This business came to be only a few years SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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situation has been challenging. This is because when we go through a cycle of investments, employing local people, setting up plants etc, takes significant time, to the tune of 5 to 10 years. We are not setting up a chocolate factory but a capital goods manufacturing facility that takes immense time and efforts. We have four such international operations – in Germany, Denmark, Poland and Indonesia. Except Indonesia, all others were existing operations that were taken over. Indonesia is a greenfield facility. I am confident that all the operations will break even and perform healthily for us within years. We take such long term views. Now, such forays were never our first choice, but just like how our Prime Minister is saying ‘Make in India’ to overseas companies, they are also saying ‘Make in Indonesia’. So, there was no real choice before us, if we were to tap such markets.

The Thermax stock has been trading much below its 5-year average valuations. According to you what needs to improve with the economy, your sector and your company to effect a positive change here?

I don’t agree with this view. The Thermax share of Rs. 2 face value is trading at over Rs. 1000 today. This proves that we are commanding good appreciation and valuation. You should think of this in relative terms. We are among a few capital goods companies that are commanding good valuations.

Our stock still command a high price earnings multiple.

What would be your major request or your major need for the government to come up with for your sector?

Firstly, the government should focus on investments in capacity creation in all core sectors like cement and steel. There

is significant room for improvement here. Secondly, government should give all-out support to consumption oriented industries. Thirdly, the government should support internationalization efforts of Indian companies. Today if you see Thermax is competing with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and even American companies. All of them are approaching a client with credit support provided by their Sovereigns. Some of these countries are offering their companies’ clients long term credit for 20 years at just LIBOR+1, and Japan is even offering 20 years credit at LIBOR -1. In contrast, Indian companies only have the support of EXIM Bank that offers only

"For the first time in its history, Thermax has crossed the Rs.2000 crore revenue mark in a quarter, signalling that it can even do Rs. 8000 crores turnover in a good year."

7 years credit at high interest rates like 10-11%. This should change if our exports are to improve. And our exports need to improve significantly as we have a massive trade deficit of 130 billion dollars. We are also not utilizing our trade deficit as a gateway to open up overseas markets for our companies. For example, we have a huge oil import bill annually, but when these Middle East countries shop for capital goods they look at European firms. This should change and our government should ensure some kind of barter system if we are to buy oil from them. Something like this was done earlier with Russia, via the Rupee-Rouble route when we were importing military hardware from them.

Lastly, there should be consistency in favorable policies towards the industries by the central as well as state governments. Industries should not be looked down as exploiters but as wealth creators for the nation. If industries are not creating wealth, then who else will do that for the masses of this country?

What are the Thermax USPs when it comes to the capital goods segments that you are operating in?

We are perhaps on of the few capital goods companies from India that could successfully globalize. Today, one-third of our business is from outside India through a mix of exports and overseas plants. Our products are available in 86 countries, we have 14 manufacturing plants, with four of them across Europe and Asia. Our products are driven by innovation and we always remain customer focused and this is evident from the significant number of repeat orders we receive.

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TECHNOLOGY

PROMOTER FEUD AT INDIGO ESCALATES, SEBI STEPS IN, SHARES PLUMMET Shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, parent of the country’s largest airline IndiGo, slumped 17% on a single day after its co-founder raised corporate governance issue with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

9,500 BUSES TO PLY ON DELHI ROADS BY MAY 2020: SISODIA Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said that

by May 2020, Delhi will have as many as 9,500 buses plying on the roads. He added that 4,000 buses will be added in the current fleet of 5,500 buses in Delhi.

Sisodia further said, "The first batch of the buses will start coming in July 2019 and it'll continue till May 2020."

ED ATTACHES MEHUL CHOKSI'S ASSETS WORTH RS 24.8 CRORE The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 24.8 crore of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, who is an accused in the Rs 14,000-crore PNB fraud case. The assets attached comprise three commercial properties in Dubai, a Mercedes-Benz E280, valuables, and a fixed deposit. The agency said assets worth Rs 2,534.7 crore have been attached till date. he fight between two founders has added to the uncertainty of the performance of the business going forward", said analyst with a condition of anonymity.

Rakesh Gangwal has written letter to Sebi’s alleging several violations at IndiGo including those pertaining to

already been ailing and the shareholders suffering. This too is seen going the same way resulting in trust deficit from the investors going forward, as corporate compliance is increasingly becoming a bone of contention", analyst said on a condition of anonymity.

In his letter, Gangwal who holds

The charges, however, were denied by Bhatia, saying that the Companies Act gave the powers to the board of the company related-party transactions; appointment of senior management personnel, directors and the chairman, who has always been an independent director by convention.

Analyst expects the fight between the two founders could potentially impede IndiGo’s strategy to expand its presence to overseas destinations and consolidate its dominance of Indian skies.

"The conflict between the two promoters will throw open issues of governance from which India Inc has

36.68% stake in Indigo has sought permission to hold an extraordinary general (EGM) meeting, alleging that the company has participated in objectionable related-party transactions (RPTs) and has not complied with corporate governance standards. The charges, however, were denied by Bhatia, saying that the Companies Act gave the powers to the board of the company to decide its functioning, who accused Gangwal of trying to dilute the controlling rights of his holding company InterGlobe Enterprises Pvt. Ltd (IGE) in the low-fare carrier, IndiGo.

RELIANCE INFRA'S 16 LENDERS SIGN PACT FOR DEBT RESOLUTION Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) has said its 16 lenders have signed Inter-Creditor Agreement (ICA) for the resolution of its debt worth over Rs 6,000 crore. The company said it's confident of implementing the resolution plan well before the 180-day deadline.

RInfra earlier announced the sale of Delhi-Agra Toll Road for enterprise value of Rs 3,600 crore to cut debt by 25%.

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LAUNCH

INDIA'S FIRST ELECTRIC SUV HYUNDAI KONA LAUNCHED Internationally, the Kona receives a 64 kWh lithium-ion battery pack combined with a 150 kW motor, which is capable of delivering close to 557 km on a single charge.

yundai has finally brought its all-electric crossover the Kona to India at an introductory price of Rs 25.3 lakh (ex-showroom).

This will be the first-ever all-electric crossover in our market and comes via the CKD route allowing Hyundai to price the car fairly aggressively.

Delving straight into the powerplant, the Kona is the first car to get three electrified powertrains in a single platform. The standard range offers over 300 km on a full charge. The long and performance range both offer over 500 km on a full charge, but the latter comes included with better driving dynamics.

Safety features include six airbags, ABS with EBD, electronic steering control and a rear camera. The Kona also gets multiple drive modes along with shift on the fly transmission. The Hyundai Kona has no direct rival in the market as of now, but in terms of price competes with the likes of the Jeep Compass, Honda CR-V and the Volkswagen Tiguan. the Kona has been bought here as a CKD (completely-knocked-down) unit, but with a small level of localisation to keep the price in check.

Internationally the Kona receives a 64 kWh lithium-ion battery pack combined with a 150 kW motor, which is capable of close to a 557 km range. India, however, will receive a 39.2 kWh battery pack with a range of over 450 km on a full charge. Power comes in at 134.13 bhp at maximum and a peak torque of 395 Nm. Charging on this variant can be completed in about six hours. Making the transition to electric easier, Hyundai is collaborating with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to set up DC chargers at select fuelling stations.

In terms of appearance, the Kona EV looks more or less identical to the conventionally-powered model. The only differences are the lack of a front grille and exhausts, unique 17-inch alloy wheels and the badging. The SUV also features automatic LED headlights, LED tail-lights, plastic body cladding and roof rails. Hyundai's first all-electric model for India will be available in 4 solid colour options (white, silver, blue and black) and one dual-tone exterior (white with a black roof) option, which costs an extra Rs 20,000.

In terms of equipment, the Kona gets multiple displays providing you with sufficient information for better driving, a 17.77 cm touchscreen infotainment

Inside, there’s a 7.0-inch digital dashboard, head-up display, wireless charging, automatic climate control (the the option to have just the driver's side

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unit with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, wireless charging for cell phones, steering mounted controls, voice recognition among other features.

vents functioning) and an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility. Through the display, one can also change drive modes and manage the EV's charge setting, and get information on the power consumption.

The front seats are heated and ventilated, as well as 10-way electrically adjustable.

In addition, Hyundai provides leather on the seats and steering wheel, a powered sunroof, heated wing mirrors and an electric parking brake. Standard safety kit on the Kona Electric includes 6 airbags, ABS with EBD, ESC, traction control, hill-start assist, rear parking sensors and a rear camera, a tyre pressure monitoring system, Isofix child seat mounts and a rear defogger. The brand also lists its Virtual Engine Sound System (a device that mimics the sound of an internal combustion engine) as a safety feature for other road users.

Powering the Kona Electric is a permanent magnet synchronous motor that produces the equivalent of 136hp and 395Nm of torque, helping it to do a claimed 0-100kph time of 9.7sec. It comes with a 39.2kWh lithium-ion battery that is said to provide an ARAIrated range of 452km. A point to note: on the WLTP (the European Union's Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure), this battery pack is said to go up to 289km on a single charge.

The lithium-ion battery pack can be charged to 100 percent capacity in as little as 57min using a 50kW DC fast charger, or 6hr 10min from a standard AC source. The model also comes with adjustable regenerative braking via the paddleshifters and three drive modes – Eco, Comfort and Sport.

Hyundai will provide a home charger with the EV and also install charging stations at its dealerships for customers.

Along with this, the Korean brand will also install EV charging points at select Indian Oil petrol pumps in four major Indian cities. The Kona Electric will come with a 3-year/unlimited wearranty as standard along with an 8-year/1.6 lakh kilometre warranty for the battery.

Although there are no direct rivals to the Kona Electric right now, it will face competition from the MG eZS allelectric SUV that is scheduled to arrive at our shores in December 2019.

TRADE WAR

TRUMP REPEATS THAT INDIAN TARIFFS ARE UNACCEPTABLE Trump’s comment came just days after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, where the two leaders aired their concerns over bilateral trade disputes.

President Trump terminated India’s designation as a beneficiary developing nation under the key Generalized System of Preference (GSP) trade programme from June 5, after determining that New Delhi had not assured the U.S. that it will provide “equitable and reasonable access” to its markets.

The GSP is the largest and oldest U.S. trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.

The Trump administration wants India to lower the trade barriers and embrace “fair and reciprocal” trade.

Last February, India slashed the customs duty on imported motorcycles like Harley-Davidson to 50% after Mr. Trump called it “unfair” and threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian bikes to the U.S.

resident Donald Trump said India has long had a “field day” imposing tariffs on American products, which is “no longer acceptable” to the U.S. Mr. Trump’s comment came days after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, where the two leaders aired their concerns over bilateral trade disputes and agreed for a meeting of their Commerce Ministers to sort out the issues.

“India has long had a field day putting tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

Later this week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Energy Secretary Rick Perry are scheduled to address a major India-centric conference in Washington D.C. President Trump, championing his ‘America First’ policy, has been a vocal critic of India for levying “tremendously high” duties on U.S. products and has described the country as a “tariff king“.

Though trade is an important part of the booming bilateral relationship, a row

over market access and tariffs has escalated in recent months, leading to fears of a protracted dispute.

Before his meeting with Mr. Modi, Mr. Trump tweeted, “I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the tariffs even further. This is unacceptable and the tariffs must be withdrawn!”

India has raised tariffs on 28 items, including almond, pulses and walnut exported from the U.S., in retaliation to America’s withdrawal of preferential access for Indian products. Mr. Trump has also criticised India’s high import tariff on the iconic Harley Davidson motorcycles as “unacceptable”.

THE GSP IS THE LARGEST AND OLDEST U.S. TRADE PREFERENCE PROGRAMME AND IS DESIGNED TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BY ALLOWING DUTY-FREE ENTRY FOR THOUSANDS OF PRODUCTS FROM DESIGNATED BENEFICIARY COUNTRIES.

The government on June 21 last year decided to impose these duties in retaliation to the U.S. decision to significantly hike customs duties on certain steel and aluminium products.

America, in March last year, imposed 25% tariff on steel and a 10% import duty on aluminium products.

Many U.S. companies like Google, Mastercard, Visa and Amazon have raised concerns over the issue of data localisation and its impact on their operational cost.

In April last year, the Reserve Bank of India had issued a directive on the ‘Storage of Payment System Data’. It had advised all system providers to ensure that, within a period of six months, data relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in a system only in India for effective monitoring.

India has also dragged the U.S. to the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of import duties on steel and aluminium.

India’s exports to the U.S. in 2017-18 stood at $47.9 billion, while imports were at $26.7 billion. The trade balance is in favour of India.

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FINANCE

Pete Jaison

WHY DO COMPANIES PREFER DIRECT LISTINGS OVER THE TRADITIONAL IPOS

intermediary for the undertaking, and sells its existing shares directly to the public (without issuing new ones). In an IPO, SEC rules (Securities and Exchange Commission) typically restrict shareholders from selling shares until six months after the first offering. A direct offering makes it much easier for employees and early investors to cash out as soon as the first day of trading.

This can be a big help for investors and early employees in companies that have

This means that a large chunk of the capital raised through the IPO goes to compensate intermediaries, sometimes totalling in hundreds of millions.

A private company decides to go ‘public’ when it wants to list its shares in one or more stock exchanges. Additionally, taking a company public reduces the overall cost of capital and gives the company a more solid standing when negotiating interest rates with banks. However, the main reason companies decide to go public, is to raise a lot of money and spread the risk of ownership amongst a larger group of shareholders. Spreading the risk of ownership is especially important when a company grows, with the original shareholders might wanting to cash in some of their profits while still retaining a percentage of the company. he traditional way of going public is through an IPO or Initial Public Offering. Here, the company works very closely with one or more investment banks who manages the underwriting of the IPO and also arranges for the shares to be listed on the stock exchanges. The underwriter also decides the initial offer price of the shares, helping with regulatory requirements, buying the available shares and then selling them to investors through their various distribution SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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networks. Through this process of going public, also known as floating, a privately held company is transformed into a public company. Underwriters charge a juicy fee per share, which may range anywhere from 2% to 8%. This means that a large chunk of the capital raised through the IPO goes to compensate intermediaries, sometimes totalling in hundreds of millions.

Of late, we see more and more ‘unicorn’ companies opting for direct listings rather than an IPO. Direct listing is when companies who want to go public, does not work with a

waited to go public for years. However, the zero to low cost advantage also comes with certain risks for the company, which also trickles down to investors. There is absolutely no guarantee for the share sale, no promotions, no safe long-term investors, no possibility of options like selling more shares than originally planned and no defence by large shareholders against any volatility in the share price during and after the share listing.

Then why do companies like Spotify and Slack prefer going for Direct listings ?

Spotify and Slack had more or less, become household names and did not have a need to beat their chest and generate public attention. They also didn’t want to go through the lengthier roadshow and pay a fat chunk of fees for their underwriting. Thus, the success of the companies who opt for direct listings is largely due to factors like - no urgent need to raise additional capital and having a large and diverse shareholder base that can provide sufficient liquidity in the first day of listing. Being a familiar company with a fairly understandable business model, too, helps the case.

The practice of direct listing has the potential to catch on more widely after this week, after Slack’s recent success. If this works out in terms of volumes and volatility, then we can be assured that more companies would follow this path.

SAFETY

SPICEJET TECHNICIAN'S DEATH PUTS LABOUR SAFETY IN FOCUS A SpiceJet technician died recently in a freak accident while carrying out regular maintenance work on an aircraft at Kolkata airport, officials said. The incident happened at around 1:45 am.

MARY KOM IS AN UNBELIEVABLE STORY, SHE INSPIRES ME: CHHETRI Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri has called six-time world champion boxer Mary Kom "an unbelievable story", adding that she inspires him. "She has been a world champion even after being a mother of three. If she doesn’t inspire India, who else will," Chhetri added. The 34-year-old further stated that he is Kom's "biggest fan".

THEY GAVE YOU NOBEL PRIZE FOR WHAT: TRUMP ASKS ACTIVIST NADIA MURAD

fficials at the airport described the incident as a "freak accident", adding that the technician got trapped in the landing gear door of the aircraft while carrying out maintenance work. His body was removed from the landing gear with the help of fire department personnel.

"The technician was carrying out maintenance work on the landing gear of a Bombardier Q400 plane belonging to SpiceJet, when the landing door accidentally got closed and he got stuck," a senior airport official told news agency Press Trust of India.

In a statement issued this morning, SpiceJet said, "Extremely saddened to share that our technician Rohit Pandey passed away last night in an unfortunate incident at Kolkata airport. He was doing maintenance work in right hand main landing gear wheel well area of a Q400 aircraft which was parked in Bay No. 32 at airport." Details of how the door accidentally shut is being examined by the police. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will also carry out an inquiry into the accident, an official at Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport said.

A case of "unnatural death" has been filed at the Kolkata Airport police station,

Our officers have reached the spot. We are talking to other staffers of the airline who were present there.

US President Donald Trump asked activist Nadia Murad what did she win the Nobel Peace Prize for when he met her at the White House on Wednesday.

Murad, a Yazidi who was tortured and raped by Islamic State militants, met Trump along with other survivors of religious persecution. She further pleaded Trump to help the Yazidi community in Iraq.

a senior police officer said, adding that a police team has already visited the site of the accident.

Forensic experts are there to collect evidence, based on which a report will be prepared, the officer said.

"Our officers have reached the spot. We are talking to other staffers of the airline who were present there. We are trying to understand whether it was a technical glitch or the result of someone's callousness," the officer said.

The landing gear door of an aircraft is a mechanism which is supposed to cover the landing gear during a flight. It comprises of three parts - a hydraulic opening system, a gravitational opening system, and a hydraulic closing system.

APPLE OPENS 1ST CHINA APP DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT ACCELERATOR Apple has opened the first app design and development accelerator for China in Shanghai to help local developers create better apps. Apple said over 2.5 million developers from Greater China have earned over $29 billion since App Store's China launch in 2010. The accelerator is similar to the one that the technology giant had opened in Bengaluru two years ago.

The aim of the landing gear door is to guarantee both protection of the landing gear, while also maintaining the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft. These doors are located below the aircraft and ensure that the minimum area opens while the landing gear extends out for the aircraft to land safely.

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CRICKET

Carl Jaison

THE TALE OF THE OUT-PERFORMERS PERFORMING AT THE WORLD CUP IS AKIN TO APPEARING FOR AN EXAM FOR WHICH THE SYLLABUS IS UNKNOWN. HOURS OF PRACTICE AT THE NETS BEFORE THE MATCH OR EVEN SCORING WELL IN THE EARLIER EXAMS MIGHT INSTILL A SENSE OF CONFIDENCE, BUT RARELY PREPARES ONE FOR THE VARIED UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES DURING THE BIG TEST. HARD-WORK AND KNOWLEDGE COULD STILL HELP ONE DEVELOP A KNACK OF CRACKING THE EXAMINATION CODE, BUT DELIVERING ON THE FIELD REQUIRES A DIFFERENT SET OF ATTRIBUTES. PERFORMING IN THE MOST CHALLENGING CONDITIONS, WHERE IT’S NOT JUST YOUR TECHNICAL SKILLS THAT ARE TESTED BUT ALSO YOUR MENTAL STRENGTH OFTEN PRODUCES THE MOST COMPETENT SPORTSPERSONS.

hen players are thrust into situations they have hitherto not factored in during the preparation stage, it is a fairly sound marker to judge their capabilities. To that extent, the usual toppers like the Kohlis, Rohits, Warners and Starcs always perform to their potential and are heavily criticized when their grades (standards) drop. At the same time, there are always those students who punch above their own weight and deliver in the most critical junctures. In this light, a tournament like the World Cup has proved to be the biggest of tests for any youngster coming through the ranks. Also, the World Cup tournament is also the perfect platform for those willing to go the extra mile and re-write their destiny. This edition is no different.

They may not receive the top accolades and are often not the envy of the class, but everyone is usually content with their performance. They don’t run the risk of being emulated or threaten to become subjects of ridicule from the world of pen wielders. This category of players, for convenience sake, is called the ‘out-performers’. Not only do they defy expectations and remain consistent for longer durations, they tend to be match winners in their own right sometimes even eclipsing the contributions of the toppers. The basic SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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premise is that every examination throws up the usual high and low performers, but it’s those who perform beyond their capability who become indispensable to their team’s cause.

SHAKIB AL HASAN THE BANGLADESHI SAVIOUR Shakib Al Hasan is a household name.

And that perhaps is his biggest baggage.

For the most part of his career, Shakib has flattered to deceive. Perhaps, all the hype around his caliber had tied him down. He had been banned from the national team following disciplinary issues and even threatened to quit following a public feud with the team coach. Being a young and indispensable cricketer for his team who had gone through the ultimate highs and ugliest of lows, Shakib could have been sympathized with for finding himself caught at the wrong end. For someone as talented as him, it was no surprise that he became a national obsession.

However, in this World Cup, the Bangladeshi all-rounder seemed to have hit all the right chords. For a team like Bangladesh that has historically relied on a talisman, Shakib exemplified the dynamism and confidence of a resurgent nation that he represents. When everyone supposedly wrote them off in the lead-up to the tournament, the

Shakib Al Hasan is a household name. And that perhaps is his biggest baggage. For the most part of his career, Shakib has flattered to deceive.

Bangladesh team sought to dispel such notions by delivering a shock victory over the South African outfit. It was Shakib who orchestrated one of Bangladesh’s most famous world cup wins (their best still remains beating India in the 2007 edition in which Shakib played a crucial part) contributing both with the bat and ball.

While Bangladesh kept the tournament lively, the attention was on Shakib’s stellar performance during which he went on to become the first player in World Cup history to score 1000 runs and pick up 30 wickets (achieved across 4 editions).

While his elevation to the No. 3 batting position gave him the onus to shoulder responsibility, it was his temperament that stood out. Most cricket viewers were taken by surprise by his remarkable consistency, which manifested in him equaling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of scoring the most 50+ runs in a single World Cup tournament. Furthermore, he emulated India’s Yuvraj Singh by becoming only the second player in World Cup history to score a half century and pick up five wickets in the same match (against Afghanistan). But mere stats don’t reflect the intensity of his approach. In most situations, Shakib came on to bat in no time courtesy the inconsistency of their opening pair and the inability of their main strike bowlers to peg back the opposition batsmen. In both instances,

Shakib delivered despite his teammates not able to play second fiddle.

That he seized the opportunity with both hands lays testimony to his adaptation as a batsman who can play according to the situation and a bowler who not only chokes runs but also attempts to outsmart his opponents. His performances were not enough to inspire his team to qualify to the next round, but his contributions reflect on how he outperformed and more importantly, how he fought his own demons. If you thought achieving the honour of being the no.1 all-rounder in all formats would be his high point, Shakib certainly wants to strive for more success as he is currently in a space where he believes that he can continue his good streak. That not only bodes well for Bangladeshi cricket, but for every youngster who was pilloried for sticking to their gut in their formative playing years.

NICOLAS POORAN THE WEST INDIAN WONDER KID When Pooran announced his arrival into international cricket, it was a relief that he was not bracketed as the next ‘Lara’ of West Indies batsmanship.

Notwithstanding that his batting approach was in stark contrast to the

cricketing legend, he also hailed from Trinidad and Tobago which has produced some of the most exciting talent over the years. The unbridled expectations on youngsters have been the biggest reason for the downfall of West Indies cricket and it would be safe to say that since Lara’s exploits, no single star from the Caribbean world had dominated the charts (the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle could not maintain the same level of consistency). The first glimpses of Pooran resembled the flair of Shivarine Chanderpaul and the big hitting ability of Pollard. His stint with Kings XI Punjab in the IPL had given him the reputation of a pinch-hitter but Pooran brought out a very different avatar of himself during West Indies’ campaign in the World Cup. If he looked like the archetypal nonchalant and unpredictable West Indian middle order batsman during the lead up to the tournament, his innings against Sri Lanka where he registered his first ODI century was full of class and intelligence. Having recognized his team’s vulnerabilities in the middle overs, Pooran took it upon himself to ferry them through. He finished as West Indies’ leading runscorer (367 runs) with an outstanding average of 52.42.

While his talent has been unquestionable, his coach laments that it has taken him longer than usual to break through the first team. Pooran, however isn’t new to stardom. He made headlines when he became the youngest ever to play in the Caribbean Premier League – at the age of 16 and went on to score a blistering 54 off just 24 balls.

Following his premature yet stunning record at the domestic level, Pooran delivered his most memorable innings of 143 against Australia in the U-19 World Cup that earned him the attention of the selectors. However, just when he had begun to settle in, he suffered a chronic ankle injury in a car accident, which ruled him out of cricketing action for almost two years. His remarkable resilience ensured that he fought back hard to recover his fitness and in that season scored heavily in the CPL. Later, he would be banned from playing for West Indies after he chose to play in the Bangladesh Premier League over the SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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domestic season.

For an emerging star like Pooran, his career trajectory could have certainly been a lot better. But what sets him apart from his peers is his ability to assume leadership in a given situation. If one were to glance through their batting order, barring Shai Hope, West Indies have very few ‘reliable’ batsmen who can play both the long handle and rotate strike. Given his leadership qualities, Pooran is certainly one for the future but West Indies cricket will need to ensure his rise is on his own terms.

ALEX CAREY THE CALM IN THE MIDDLE

Carey has probably been Australia’s most important batsman in this World Cup after Warner and Finch. That is saying a lot considering the rest of the batsmen – Smith, Khawaja and Maxwell – are the more experienced and even batted ahead of him. His useful knocks are a reminder that Australia has finally found their ‘perfect’ wicket-keeping batsman after the legendary Adam Gilchrist. The likes of Haddin, Wade and Paine were not as dependable as their playing longevity would suggest – it was more a reflection of Australia’s lack of a solid and dependable middle order glovesman. Like most ‘dependable’ cricketers from Down Under, Carey broke into the senior team at an age where he is probably going to be at his best. They can easily extract five good playing years from the 27 year old from Southern Australia, including SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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Tests. With Carey coming good, Australia has by far the most menacing middle to lower-order batsmen amongst the top teams and the newcomer has adjusted to his role in spectacular fashion.

From playing professional Australianrules football to being made the vicecaptain of the Australian T20 side, Carey has seen a phenomenal rise in his career trajectory. One can argue that he is being criminally under-utilized at no. 7 but Carey has shown the requisite traits to bat with the tail, something that could come in handy after a top-order collapse as was witnessed in the match against West Indies. For a player still taking baby steps in the unforgiving ecosystem of Australian cricket, Carey has exhibited remarkable skill and perseverance to cement his place in the long run.

While comparisons to former greats is the price one pays for hitting the ground running early in one’s career, Carey’s calm exposition is a refreshing change from the inconsistency of the Australian middle order over the years since Gilly hung up his boots. With Carey’s presence, teams would be doomed to write off Australia even if their top order doesn’t fire and that is an indication of how brilliantly he has been able to perform beyond expectations.

BABAR AZAM CRAFTSMAN IN MOTION

Babar Azam’s performance at this World

Cup has been everything opposite of Pakistan’s legacy at World Cups: the sheer predictability with which he scores his runs. Although culminating in yet another ‘nearly-made-it’ World Cup campaign, Pakistan will go home feeling happier than their previous early flights back home. For starters, Babar has been exceptional for a side that has historically not shone with the bat on a consistent basis. He finished with 474 runs, including a match-winning century against the Kiwis along with three fifties.

In the process, he became the leading run-scorer for Pakistan in a single World Cup beating the 27-year-old record of Javed Miandad, who had 437 runs to his name in the 1992 edition. On paper, the record doesn’t seem as stellar as the other batting records that are being broken.

A batsman like Babar is what Pakistan has been crying for almost a decade. In a fitting tribute to his rise as their batting warrior, Osman Samiuddin described him thus: “…we’re now in the age of Babar and that you can say that about any Pakistani batsman is an incredulous thing to be able to say”. In terms of career run progression, Azam is notches above his cricketing idol and Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli and even holds the record for being the second fastest to 3000 ODI runs in his 68th innings behind Hashim Amla. While numbers do lie, the fact remains that Babar has long given the impression that he belongs at this level. From missing out on selection into Pakistan’s national cricket academy to becoming the no. 1 T20 international batsman, Babar’s story is kinder than most. However, he comes with his own diminutions but not entirely of his own making.

While comparisons with Kohli can’t be stymied, Babar has some distance to go before he is talked about in the same league as his idol. Granted, his rise to the no.3 position in the batting charts is telling but he will be judged by how much it has helped his team’s cause.

Technically blessed, Babar’s most jarring drawback is that he plays for a team whose remaining batsmen don’t inspire much confidence. It might seem like a tall order for a 24 year old, but it is becoming increasingly clear that his best is yet to come. How can he take his game to the next level? Maybe

THE TALE OF THE OUT-PERFORMERS captaincy? Perhaps the most challenging job is that of captaining a side having individuals with an inferiority complex and inflated egos. But a sorted individual like Babar could rally both the junior and senior players and could trigger a Kohli-like revolution in his side’s batting department. The mistake people make about defining Babar is that he’s competing with Kohli when his immediate task would be to inspire others around him. That’s what Kohli did but can Babar do the same?

JONNY BAIRSTOW THE ENGLISH TRANSFORMER For the English, it’s been a while since they’ve had an opener who not only let his bat do the talking, but also gave it back to his critics in equal measure. As far as English batting personas are concerned, most of their aggressive and larger-than-life figures have featured in the middle order – Sir Ian Botham, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and more recently Ben Stokes. Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook have been exceptional for England over the years, but they lacked the spirit emblematic of the previous list of players. So where does Jonny Bairstow fit in? In a recent public spat with former England captain Michael Vaughan, Bairstow tore into the English media and

some former players for ‘wanting the team to fail’. This, as Bairstow himself knows all too well, isn’t reserved only for the cricket team. For decades, English football was at the receiving end of a barrage of criticism from their national media until their classy showing in the recently concluded World Cup. Most English sportspersons have stopped worrying (and caring) about what the critics have to say, but here is where Bairstow is cut from a different cloth. The unassuming opener relishes being pushed against the wall and that makes him so non-English. He has the fighting attitude of an Aussie, the belief of a Pakistani and the assuredness of a New Zealander. That, if one were to

pardon this writer for the obvious stereotype, makes for a deadly combination. Along with Jason Roy, Bairstow has righly dispelled notions of the ‘weak-minded and tentative’ English opener. He is not elegant like Rohit nor entertaining like Gayle, but that is what possibly defines Bairstow’s role in England’s scheme of things. He is the typical modern version of an opener who ‘looks at the ball and gives it everything’.

Although he is still edgy when it comes to playing on spin-friendly tracks, Bairstow’s biggest strength is not his brute force but his ability to psychologically overpower the opposition. When Bairstow tears into a hapless spinner, like Chahal experienced in India’s only loss in the league phase, he also expresses his intent to go after every other bowler. This style of batting, it could be deduced, did not come naturally to Bairstow. The West Yorkshire bighitter has been tried in various positions: his best average (41.97) is at the no. 6 position where he has batted for the most part of his career.

Given the hugely talented but underachieving English middle order, Bairstow has had to wait for his opportunities. But even when he was handed a long rope in the middle, Bairstow didn’t live up to his billing.

His transformation into a hard-hitting opener is something that England had been missing and now there is no looking back.

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SPACE

CHANDRAYAAN 1: AIMING FOR THE MOON AS INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION (ISRO) STARTS THE COUNTDOWN FOR ITS SECOND LUNAR MISSION, CHANDRAYAAN2, HERE IS A RECAP BY NIKHIL MENON ON HOW WE REACHED THE MOON A DECADE AGO.

istances in space are brain-meltingly vast.

Compared to the stars and planets billions of light years away, our Moon is barely 4 lakh kilometres from us—a simple Uber ride, in interstellar terms. And with things getting increasingly hairy on Earth thanks to freak weather, scary resource shortages, and environmental messes of every description, the Moon is looking more appealing than ever: as Earth’s first space outpost, a transit stop and fuelling station for journeys to other worlds... perhaps even a future human colony!

But despite being one of the most explored celestial bodies out there, the Moon still harbours many mysteries.

This has led to renewed efforts by global space agencies to study and explore it.

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quest to reach the Moon was more than merely symbolic. Now, as Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) starts the countdown for its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, let’s recap how we reached the Moon a decade ago.

CHANDRAYAAN-1 IN A NUTSHELL In 2008, India launched its first deep space mission, Chandrayaan 1. It was a historic moment for ISRO, which launched its first satellite, Aryabhatta, six years after the US Apollo 11’s crew landed on the moon. Considering its delayed entry into the space club, India and ISRO has made a remarkable progress in space exploration over the last three decades.

Chandrayaan-1’s story is well known. In a nutshell, India’s first deep space mission lasted approximately a year from its October 2008 launch to its abrupt end in August 2009. Its biggest claim to fame was helping find water

ice at the Moon’s poles. Perhaps all that sudden fame was hard to handle, because in August 2009, the satellite lost contact with its controllers at ISRO. However, Chandrayaan-1 was rediscovered by NASA in 2017. While it has long been defunct, it is probably still silently orbiting the Moon, perhaps waiting to hail its compatriot, Chandrayaan-2, with a cheery ‘namaste’ when the latter swings by later this year.

THE MISSION Humankind has sent probes to the Moon for six decades now. The first lunar flyby happened in 1959; the first touchdown in 1966, and the first crewed landing (Neil Armstrong’s big moment) in 1969.

Between 1959 and 1976, the race to the Moon was dominated entirely by the US and Soviet space agencies. But as technology and wherewithal spread, Japan, Europe and China stepped in with their own lunar missions in 1990, 2003

UNFORTUNATELY, AFTER MAKING 3400 ORBITS OF THE MOON, EQUIPMENT FAILURE FORCED THE MISSION TO BE ABANDONED AFTER AUGUST 28, 2009— NEARLY A YEAR PREMATURELY. and 2007 respectively. India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission, also its first lunar mission, was announced by the government in 2003. The objective was to map the chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic features of the Moon and create a 3D atlas of its near and far (dark) side. As the precursor to Chandrayaan2, the first lunar mission would also test conditions for an eventual soft-landing on the Moon’s surface.

Over the next 5 years, ISRO rapidly developed the spacecraft’s components: the PSLV-C11 rocket that carried it into space, an orbiter, and a Moon Impact Probe (MIP). It was a budget spaceship, built at a cost of Rs.386 crore, or US$76 million, only 4% of ISRO’s (then) budget over 3 years. (For comparison, China’s Chang’e 1 lunar mission, launched in 2007, cost $180 million. Chandrayaan2 will cost about $143 million. India’s upcoming human space flight programme? An estimated $1.46 billion.)

Coming back to Chandrayaan-1, the orbiter was based on Kalpana-1, a meteorological satellite launched by India in 2002, and carried a phalanx of instruments, from sophisticated cameras to equipment for studying the external and internal features of the Moon. A 32kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP), meanwhile, was designed to crash into the surface after taking videos of the surface and studying the lunar atmosphere during the descent process.

In addition to five Indian instruments, Chandrayaan carried equipment from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria most notably, a Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument from NASA. The 1.4 tonne (at launch) Chandrayaan1 blasted off on October 22, 2008, meeting all takeoff and Earth orbit success parameters. Then, on November 8, Chandrayaan moved into lunar orbit.

And that’s where the real mission began.

JOURNEY AND RESULTS After orbiting the Moon for a few days,

Chandrayaan eventually reached a height of 100 km above the surface. On November 14, the Moon Impact Probe left the orbiter and crashed near the lunar South Pole. As it free-fell for some 25 minutes, the probe reportedly took readings that suggested the presence of water vapour in the moon’s atmosphere.

However, that data is apparently inconclusive.

More significantly, the probe sent readings back to the orbiter that indicated the presence of water on the surface and the sub-surface (“tens of metres deep”) under the north and south poles of the Moon. In parallel, NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), which remained in the orbiter, also found data that eventually confirmed the presence of solid water ice in the shadows of craters near the poles, where temperatures hover around -157°C. These findings made huge waves in the space community and global media. To be clear, this wasn’t the first time evidence of surface ice was found on the Moon—the Soviets claimed they found water in moon rocks brought back in 1976. NASA’s own probes have analysed reflected radio waves that showed the signature of water ice.

However, the findings were inconclusive, and as NASA admitted, could have been explained by other phenomena, such as “unusually reflective lunar soil”.

In 2009, the US sent a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and impact probe (LCROSS) that complemented Chandrayaan-1’s discovery of water at the lunar poles.

And in 2013, the same M3 team from NASA also detected ‘magmatic water’, i.e. water from beneath the Moon’s interiors, on the surface of a crater yet another feather in the mission’s cap.

Unfortunately, after making 3400 orbits of the Moon, equipment failure forced the mission to be abandoned after August 28, 2009 nearly a year prematurely. However, ISRO says that 95% of mission objectives had been met by then. Chandrayaan-1 enabled the confirmation of water on the Moon. In the process, it also enhanced humankind’s thirst for interstellar adventure. There’s no looking back.

SC ALLOWS CALLING OFF RESCUE OPS FOR TRAPPED MINERS IN MEGHALAYA The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Meghalaya government to call off rescue operations to retrieve the remains of 13 coal miners who were trapped in an illegally operated rat-hole coal mine in December 2018. Families of the trapped miners had given their consent to call off the rescue operations in May. Two bodies had been recovered so far.

US OFFICER MISTAKES 17-YR-OLD GIRL'S FAKE GUN AS REAL, SHOOTS HER DEAD US' California police on Friday released body-camera footage showing an officer shooting dead a 17-year-old girl after he mistakes her fake gun as real. The video shows the girl pointing the fake gun at the officer after he chased and stopped her from driving her vehicle at high speed. The video shows her pleading for help after being shot.

HACKERS STEAL OVER RS 222 CRORE FROM TOKYO CRYPTO EXCHANGE Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint has suspended its services after it discovered hackers have stolen about 3.5 billion yen (over Rs 222 crore) in various digital currencies. About 2.5 billion yen (about Rs 159 crore) of the missing currency was customer funds while the rest was owned by Remixpoint, which operates the exchange. Remixpoint said it would compensate customers for the losses.

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BUDGET 2019

BIG TAX SAVINGS POSSIBLE ON AFFORDABLE HOME & ELECTRIC VEHICLE? The Budget 2019 delivered little joy in terms of income tax relief as India’s first woman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman didn’t increase tax slabs or 80C deduction limit, but imposed additional surcharges instead on taxable income of over Rs 2 crore. owever, introduction of two new sections to provide tax deduction on interest paid on loan taken for buying an electric vehicle (EV) and additional deduction on home loan taken to buy an affordable house would result into considerable tax savings for tax payers, who avail the benefits.

Under the proposed section 80EEB, deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh may be claimed on interest paid on auto loan taken to buy an electric vehicle, provided that the loan has been sanctioned during the period beginning on the April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2023 by a financial institution including an NBFC and the assessee shouldn’t have another electric vehicle on the date the loan was sanctioned.

Similarly, under the proposed section 80EEA, additional deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh may be claimed, along with the provision of existing deduction limit of Rs 2 lakh u/s 24 of the Income Tax Act,

on interest paid on home loan taken for buying an affordable house of value up to Rs 45 lakh, provided that the loan has been sanctioned by a financial institution during the period beginning the April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 and the assessee doesn’t own any residential house property on the date of sanction of loan.

Moreover, the carpet area of the residential unit shouldn’t exceed 60 square meter in metropolitan cities or 90 square meter in cities or towns other than Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR (i.e. Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad), Mumbai (whole of Mumbai Metropolitan Region), Hyderabad and Kolkata.

On fulfilling the above conditions, the buyer of an affordable house may claim deductions up to Rs 3.5 lakh by combining the benefits u/s 24 (Rs 2 lakh) and 80EEA (Rs 1.5 lakh), in case total interest paid on home loan in the financial year is Rs 3.5 lakh or more.

MCAFEE MAY GO PUBLIC AGAIN, GET $1 BN AT $5-BN VALUATION: REPORT Cybersecurity software firm McAfee is planning to return to the public market, The Wall Street Journal reported, adding that an IPO could raise at least $1 billion at an over $5-billion valuation.

This comes weeks after McAfee CEO said going public again could widen the firm's options. McAfee responded to the report saying it "does not comment on rumours".

TMC MP PLAYS FOOTBALL IN LOK SABHA, APPEALS PM TO PROMOTE IT TMC MP Prasun Banerjee on Thursday began playing football in the Parliament premises in a bid to promote the game.

The retired international footballer said he will appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote the game nationally as well as internationally. "I hope India will play football in the World Cup...We will try to achieve it," Banerjee said.

MISSING US SCIENTIST FOUND MURDERED IN NAZI BUNKER IN GREECE The body of Suzanne Eaton, an American scientist who went missing over a week ago, has been found in a bunker used by the Nazis during WWII on the Greek island of Crete, authorities said. Eaton was attending a conference in Crete and is believed to have disappeared during a run. A post-mortem examination found that she was asphyxiated.

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SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook are worth the loss of privacy," Wozniak recently said.

"But to many like myself, my recommendation to most people is, you should figure out a way to get off Facebook."

When discussing potential ways social media companies like Facebook could keep user data private from advertisers while still making money, Wozniak suggested offering users the choice to pay for an extra layer of security.

It's not the first time Wozniak, who famously cofounded Apple in a garage with Steve Jobs, has spoken publicly about the topic of social media and privacy. Last year, he told USA Today that he was leaving Facebook over privacy concerns, also adding that he would rather pay for Facebook then have his personal data shared with advertisers.

APPLE COFOUNDER STEVE WOZNIAK SAYS PEOPLE SHOULD QUIT FACEBOOK Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak advised that most people "find a way to get off Facebook". He said he quit the site last year. ozniak says he does not think using Facebook is worth the trade-off when it comes to personal privacy.

He also expressed concern over the notion that our mobile devices may be listening to us, an accusation that Facebook has long denied.

in recent months, particularly during its developers conference. But Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak isn't convinced that Facebook is keeping our personal interactions confidential.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stressed the company's focus on privacy

"There are many different kinds of people and some the benefits of

Wozniak recently suggested that "most people" should "figure out a way to get off Facebook" in a recent interview.

When asked generally about whether our electronic devices are listening to us, a concern that CBS This Morning's Gayle King raised when speaking with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently, Wozniak said it's something he's worried about but doesn't think there's a way to stop it.

"I worry because you're having conversations that you think are private ... you're saying words that really shouldn't be listened to because you don't expect it," he said. "But there's almost no way to stop it."

Wozniak's comments come as Facebook has been embroiled in a slew of privacy-related controversies in recent years. The biggest of such privacy scandals came to light in 2018 when The New York Times and The Guardian reported that Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm with ties to President Trump's campaign, had unknowingly harvested data from the Facebook profiles of 50 million users.

Facebook, along with other tech giants like Google and Twitter, have come under scrutiny in recent years over how they handle consumer data and the role their platforms have played in political campaigns.

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POLITICS

WHY RAHUL SHOULD LEAD CONGRESS QUIT THE SULK, RAHUL GANDHI, OR QUIT POLITICS. THE PARTY HAS TO GEAR UP FOR A SLEW OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS, NOT TO SPEAK OF STAVING OFF TOPPLING EFFORTS IN KARNATAKA, RAJASTHAN AND MADHYA PRADESH. THIS IS NO TIME FOR THE PARTY’S LEADER TO WALLOW IN SELF-PITY.

ahul Gandhi says that he will work as an ordinary Congressman and tour the country to revive the party.

Ordinary workers stay put in their place and work for the party there. A foot soldier in politics cannot have vastly more degrees of freedom than what a foot soldier has in chess.

The fate of anyone appointed as party president, even as Rahul Gandhi prowls the land doing his own thing for the party, will be that of the palace clown ordered to wear the sceptre and the crown: shown token respect by the courtiers who constantly look over their shoulders at the king.

It is welcome that Rahul Gandhi has expressed the desire, on more than one occasion, to remove the Gandhi dynasty from atop the Grand Old Party. The way to do that is to lead the party to coherence, electoral success the party has known for generations at a time of its existential peril. The present course is irresponsible.

I stood alone, says Rahul. No, you did not. Like Rajiv Gandhi, you showed contempt for the party’s seasoned elders, and put your trust in a clutch of political novices, whose algorithms and powerpoint presentations you mistook for political savvy.

Sure, the conduct of politics has changed and you must change alongside. But politics ultimately has to do with people, mediating between them and the State.

You need leaders who know the people and know how to marshal their aspirations into support for the party.

You came up with a decent election manifesto. But you campaigned on the slogan, chowkidar chor hain, which had no traction and whose negative, disrespectful tone put people off. The average Indian does not revel in calling a leader who has done some public good names.

The Modi government has delivered on assorted welfare measures and carried forward and massively

expanded the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme started by the UPA government, which reduces corruption in the delivery of State benefits.

The real problem with the Modi government was the assault the Sangh Parivar mounted, under its protection, on traditional Indian values of coexistence and acceptance of theological diversity, and gave militant intolerance the legitimacy of nationalism. It is a whole lot more difficult to campaign on this than on a simple charge of corruption. But if you insist on looking for a lost coin under the streetlamp rather than where you lost it, why blame others for not joining in the search? As Congress president, it was your duty to strengthen the state governments the party wrenched from the hands of BJP and its allies. Instead, you failed to put down the irresponsible ambition of a Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan and indulged the tomfoolery of a Sidhu in Punjab.

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Look at the election results. Congress still enjoys the support of nearly a fifth of Indian voters. You were a personal hit in Kerala and your popularity, along with your sister’s, played a role in your party’s sweep in the state. You show disrespect to the voters who put their trust in you and the party you led, when you allow your personal anguish to prevail over the wounded party.

KARAN SINGH ASKS CONGRESS TO TAKE RAHUL'S DECISION SERIOUSLY A month was wasted by partymen for pleading with Rahul Gandhi to take back his resignation, says Karan Singh.

Will your self-removal from the party’s helm help it or harm it, in the short run? And who are the ones aspiring to replace you? A dynast, in every single case, and one without the pan-India appeal that you still enjoy, thanks to your illustrious forebears.

Karan Singh said the longer the present uncertainty remains, the more Congress workers and voters will be demoralised. “The negative cycle must be reversed before it is too late,” he said. He called for the urgent Congress Working Committee meeting to take decisions including appointment of an interim party president till the next organisational elections.

Try to understand what worked for your party in Punjab in the north and in Kerala in the south. A party that comes alive just before an election and seeks votes merely in the name of past glory would be given the boot.

Congressmen must be inspired to work for Congress ideals, round the clock, without being paid for it, just as they did during the freedom movement, or as they do in Kerala, where they have to compete with the Communists and now, RSS volunteers, in taking up the common man’s cause.

Congress’s old warhorses are not the problem. They are part of the solution.

Marshal them to put up a good fight in the forthcoming assembly elections. Start rebuilding the party in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where a political vacuum has opened up, with caste-based parties exhausting their utility and appeal for the castes that once needed these parties for voice and agency.

You are right about the heavy odds against which the party has to fight. The response must be reaffirmation of the ideals and values of democracy, their articulation not confined to the thrust and parry of debates in Parliament and the media but extended in every facet of popular culture, particularly in what people see and read in their WhatsApp groups.

Even as you claim to be a foot soldier, you know that is not your role. Afterall, no pawn sacrifices itself: it takes aplayer to do that, for a specific gain.

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ahul Gandhi, 49, had stunned his party’s top leadership at the 25 May meeting of the CWC when he first spoke about his decision to quit from the top post after the party’s crushing defeat in the national elections.

Former Union minister Karan Singh on

He also suggested four working presidents and vice-presidents each for North, South, East and West zones.

“This would enable the introduction of younger people into positions of authority,” he said.

Karan Singh’s remarks came a day after two young leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora announced that they have resigned from their posts, taking moral responsibility for the Congress’s Lok Sabha poll debacle.

The spate of resignations in solidarity with Gandhi has plunged the Congress into a deep leadership crisis.

Monday called for an urgent meeting of Congress’s highest decision-making body under former PM Manmohan Singh’s chairmanship to take “necessary decisions” in view of Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as the party chief.

Karan Singh, 88, said he is “aghast” at the disorientation into which the party has fallen since Gandhi’s resignation on May 25. “Instead of honouring his bold decision a month was wasted pleading him to take back his resignation which, as a man of honour and integrity, he should not have been pressurised to do,” he said in a statement. He said there is still no alternative structure in place.

The spate of resignations in solidarity with Gandhi has plunged the Congress into a deep leadership crisis.

Rahul Gandhi along with his mother, Sonia Gandhi, separately attended a training programme for the Congress Parliament’s members at the party’s ‘war room’ in Delhi.Congress leaders Rajeev Gowda and Jairam Ramesh and former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Acharya held the programme.

Congress parliamentary chairperson Sonia Gandhi also met party’s Lok Sabha members as part of her weekly interaction.

REALTY

32,000 HOMEBUYERS RS 14,000 CRORE PAID BUT NO HOMES DELIVERED The tragic case of Jaypee Infratech has taken another twist as court has again intervened to protect the interests of homebuyers of this firm, as its probable liquidation by banks would only serve the banks' interests. The court has asked the government to suggest uniform solutions in such cases.

he Supreme Court has asked the Centre to come up with a “uniform” solution to protect the interests of homebuyers who have failed to get possession of their flats despite paying huge amounts to real estate builders.

A Bench, led by Justice AM Khanwilkar, suggested that the government must step in and consider a uniform proposal to help the stranded homebuyers as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was inadequate in serving the purpose.

“Can some other arrangement be suggested by the Union of India (UoI) without disturbing the ongoing process?” the Bench asked additional solicitor general Madhavi Divan.

“We want suggestions from the UoI, which could be uniform for all such cases…this issue will be bothering lakhs of homebuyers. Within the IBC, we cannot do anything. But outside it, you (Centre) can suggest something. We can consider that,” the Bench said, adding that “the policy issue has to be resolved by the UoI.” The Bench was hearing an application

by Chitra Sharma, an aggrieved homebuyer of Jaypee Infratech (JIL), who has sought a direction that the debtladen company be not sent into liquidation, although the deadline for the corporate insolvency resolution was over in May. Homebuyers have also sought an “independent and thorough

forensic audit of JIL” since its incorporation so as to track diversion of funds.

The apex court while resuming the insolvency proceedings against JIL before the National Company Law Tribunal, Allahabad, had also asked resolution professional (RP) Anuj Jain in August last year to seek fresh bids for takeover of its incomplete projects.

According to the application filed through counsel Ashwarya Sinha, the liquidation of JIL will not subserve the interests of homebuyers, who have invested their hard earned money in the residential flats. It also said while the apex court had made a conscious effort to avoid liquidation of JIL, the events subsequently have frustrated the efforts.

“Liquidation of the company will only be in the interest of banks who will be able to recover the money lent by them to the debtor,” the application stated, adding that liquidation would defeat the purpose of safeguarding the interest of 32,000 homebuyers who had paid around Rs 14,000 crore to JIL. “The provisions stipulate that in case of distribution of the proceeds, secured creditors will be given preference over an unsecured creditor.

PAKISTAN VIOLATES CEASEFIRE IN J&K'S POONCH, RAJOURI DISTRICTS Pakistan violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district and Nowshera sector of Rajouri district on Friday. No injuries have been reported so far, while the Indian Army has launched an effective retaliation. On Wednesday night, Pakistan had violated ceasefire in Poonch district's Digwar sector.

93 LAKH CASH, GOLD FOUND AT HOME OF TELANGANA OFFICER WHO WON AWARD Telangana's Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested a tahsildar, V Lavanya, after over Rs 93 lakh cash and 400g gold was recovered from her house. Lavanya had received the Best Tahsildar award two years ago from the Telangana government. The ACB raided Lavanya's house after the arrest of Village Revenue Officer (VRO) Antaiah for taking bribe from a farmer.

RAFALE-SUKHOI POTENT COMBINATION AGAINST PAK: AIR MARSHAL BHADAURIA

After taking a sortie on a Rafale aircraft at a French air force base, IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria said, "Once the Su-30MKI and the Rafale start operating together, it will be a potent combination against our adversaries, be it Pakistan or anybody else." He added, "The attrition that we will inflict would be very very high."

“However, since no amendments have been brought forth in the definition of secured creditors to include homebuyers, they continue to be regarded as unsecured creditors,” it said.

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BUDGET 2019

CAN THIS BUDGET HELP INDIA GROW INTO A SUPERPOWER? raditionally, India's finance minister carries the annual budget to Parliament in an old-fashioned briefcase; photographs of him holding the briefcase up are usually splashed across the front pages the next day. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the first woman to hold the post, broke tradition by carrying her budget in a folded red cloth cover, of the sort used by some trading communities in India to store their accounts.

Having provoked the flurry of media attention the gesture was intended to generate, Ms Sitharaman's deputy was happy to explain: The new finance minister meant to break with a tradition inherited from the British. It was, he said, "a step in the direction" of becoming a "superpower."

That statement left me wondering if the official in question knows what a superpower is. The budget made me wonder the same about the government.

Consider, for example, the treatment of the country's armed forces. Ms Sitharaman barely mentioned defense spending (indeed, for much of the first half of her speech, she barely mentioned any numbers at all). Perhaps that was because the defense outlay has barely kept up with inflation for years, and under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached record lows as a percentage of gross domestic product. Not since China humiliated India in a traumatic border war in 1962 has any government allowed defense spending to fall so low. Last year, it came in at less than 1.6 per cent of GDP. Perhaps you think that, instead of defense, India is investing in its own people, as a 21st-century superpower should do?

Well, only 3.4 per cent of total federal spending was budgeted for education down from 3.74 per cent the previous SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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year and from 4.3 per cent when PM Modi took over in 2014. And the federal government and state governments together spend less than 1 per cent of GDP on health, a fact which this budget did little to change.

Capital expenditure, too, has been squeezed - by one estimate, from Rs. 9.2 lakh crore ($134 billion) last year to Rs. 8.7 lakh crore this year. What has grown in the budget is subsidies: The government and public-sector corporations are borrowing in order to fund a direct transfer of cash to the country's farmers.

THAT STATEMENT LEFT ME WONDERING IF THE OFFICIAL IN QUESTION KNOWS WHAT A SUPERPOWER IS. THE BUDGET MADE ME WONDER THE SAME ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT. It's true that the country's farmers need help. But what they really need is agricultural reform that would allow them to access national and world markets instead of depending on government procurement. There was no sign that such changes are on the agenda, even though the country's procurement program is controversial at the World Trade Organization and one of the major stumbling blocks towards moving forward on multilateral trade negotiations.

India at the moment faces both a cyclical and a structural slowdown. The former is because credit and investment have frozen up, with new project launches at a 14-year low last year. The latter owes more to the fact that manufacturing and exports are both facing a crisis thanks to sustained weakness in skills and competitiveness.

Ms Sitharaman's budget offered hope of addressing the first problem. India's

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE, TOO, HAS BEEN SQUEEZED - BY ONE ESTIMATE, FROM RS. 9.2 LAKH CRORE ($134 BILLION) LAST YEAR TO RS. 8.7 LAKH CRORE THIS YEAR. troubled non-banking financial companies - its shadow banking sector will be thrown a lifeline. Public-sector banks will be recapitalized and small businesses will be able to borrow at cheaper rates and get their money quicker. Start-ups have for years been complaining about harassment by tax officials; in her speech, Ms Sitharaman promised crucial changes to the rules to reduce this persecution.

The government has also announced that it will start issuing dollar-denominated bonds, something previous governments have been terrified of doing. That should hopefully mean it will appropriate a smaller proportion of domestic Indian savings, allowing some of those to be used for private-sector investment instead of government spending. That's cheered the bond markets and might create some space for the Reserve Bank of India to continue to cut rates, perhaps more sharply than expected. I'm a little more optimistic about the short to medium-term now.

But, if anything, I am more pessimistic about the long-term. The failure of the government's skilling program was glossed over in the budget and, instead of looking to integrate into global supply chains in order to grow exports, the finance minister continued with the Modi government's practice of arbitrarily raising tariffs to protect domestic industry. Who would want to set up an export-focused factory in the country when tariffs are changed constantly and arbitrarily?

Investors can take solace in the fact that India will almost certainly recover from its cyclical slowdown. But I still don't see it taking any steps in the direction of being a superpower - or even a comfortable, upper-middle income country.

(By Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg columnist and author of 'Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy'.)

BUDGET 2019

IS THE BUDGET TRYING TO DO A CHINA? THE ECONOMIC VISION OF MODI 2.0 IS INCREASINGLY BEGINNING TO RESEMBLE THAT OF CHINA, SINGAPORE AND SOUTH KOREA, WHERE COMPLIANT CITIZENS CONFORM TO A GRANDER ECONOMIC IDEA THAT IS LARGER THAN THEM.

Zero Credit. So, nothing needs to be down about farmer indebtedness either.

Mind you, the government doesn’t really believe that farmers will actually change their farming behaviour. Otherwise, budgetary allocation for urea subsidy wouldn’t have gone up by 19 percent.

But, that is nothing compared to the subsidy on LPG. The government spent a little less than Rs 25,000 crore on subsidised gas cylinders. It plans to spend nearly Rs 33,000 crore this fiscal.

That’s a jump of 63 percent. Much of it will probably go to poor rural households under the Ujjwala scheme, which has given great electoral returns to PM Modi.

The plan is to provide each rural household an LPG cylinder, electricity connection, and piped water. The Har Ghar Jal scheme hopes to provide piped water to each home by 2024. This year, the allocation for the National Rural Drinking Water Programme has gone up by 70 percent, from about Rs 5,400 crore to Rs 9,150 crore. Along with this, Modi 2.0 has also launched the second phase of PM Awas Yojana, promising to build another 1.95 crore rural homes.

here was something significantly symbolic in Nirmala Sitharaman’s decision to jettison the briefcase, that finance ministers have traditionally used to ferry Budget papers for decades, in favour of a red silk bahi-khata.

It prompted Chief Economic Advisor, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, to call it a departure from the ‘slavery of Western thought’. Subramanian’s Eco Survey, the previous day, had already given glimpses of ‘Indian tradition’ by invoking religious tracts to nudge changes in the Indian tax-payer’s behaviour.

Perhaps, it is this urge to go ‘back to basics’ that made the finance minister talk about neo-traditional farming techniques like Zero Budget Farming, as a means to double farm incomes by 2022.

It is a method inspired by the Japanese philosopher-farmer Masanobu Fukuoka, who farmed his paddy fields without chemicals and artificial fertilisers, but still achieved yields that rivalled Japan’s most productive farms.

In India, the controversial technique has

Add to this, the Rs 6,000 that each farming family will get as part of PM Kisan scheme, and you have the broad contours of the Modi government’s economic plans for the rural poor. While the UPA’s strategy was to set up a system of rights, the Modi version of NDA has been setting up a system of ‘contingent handouts’.

After all, the 2019 Lok Sabha results have already shown that handouts that

In India, the controversial technique has been implemented by farmers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra with varying degrees of success. been implemented by farmers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra with varying degrees of success.

are marketed as ‘gifts’ from the prime minister yield more votes than impersonal employment-generating projects.

The important policy implication here is that it more or less absolves the government of spending much on building agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation. Zero Budget also means

In fact, the total allocation for MGNREGA is down from Rs 61,000 crore last year to Rs 60,000 crore in this budget. The outlay for investment in NHAI is down from Rs 37,300 crore to SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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documented and recorded even before you report them. Second, the imposition of super-high taxes on the super-rich.

Those with a taxable income of more than Rs 2 crore will pay 38 percent in taxes, while those earning more than Rs 5 crore, will pay at an effective tax rate of 42 percent. It is a move aimed at curbing the massive income inequalities in India.

There is a third indicator that was mentioned in passing by Nirmala Sitharaman. It is a scheme to get large

These are schemes that directly generate jobs, especially for the rural poor. The Modi government doesn’t think they are worth spending on.

MNCs to manufacture in India, by setting up ‘mega-manufacturing plants’ to produce advanced technology products, from semi-conductors to laptops. And, to attract them, the government will give them ‘investmentlinked income tax exemptions’, and other ‘indirect tax benefits’.

This conjures up images of Chinese mega factories, which employ thousands of workers over multiple shifts that go on 24x7.

less than Rs 37,000 crore. Adjust these numbers for inflation, and the drop is even sharper.

These are schemes that directly generate jobs, especially for the rural poor. The Modi government doesn’t think they are worth spending on.

Even the key source of income for farmers, crop prices, finds no mention in the Budget. Perhaps, that’s because the latest round of MSP hikes took place just a couple of days back – the MSP for paddy was raised by a paltry 3.7 percent, not enough to keep pace with inflation.

But, the Budget points to something bigger as well. Along with the Economic Survey, it points to a paradigm shift in SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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the economic administration of India.

Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, spoke about it, when she said it is time to talk not just of rights, but of duties. It signals a partial reversal of the ‘doctrine of choice’ introduced in the 1990s along with liberalisation.

The economic vision of Modi 2.0 is increasingly beginning to resemble that of China, Singapore and South Korea, where compliant citizens conform to a grander economic idea that is larger than them.

There are a few key pointers here. First, the move towards an all-knowing centralised tax administration, where all your economic activities are already

The workers not only work, but also live in dormitories in these giant industrial complexes. That is, perhaps, the key reason why one of the first things the the Modi government announced was labour law reforms, to weaken unions and ease ‘hire and fire’ norms. It could also be a partial ‘solution’ to the jobs crisis that India faces today.

At first glance, the first Budget of Modi 2.0 appears to be lacklustre, devoid of direction. But, it might have laid the foundations for a new way of looking at the economy, where the government regains the commanding heights, not for socialist planning, but to foster arrested capitalist development.

(Credit: From The Quint, by Aunindyo Chakravarty, Senior Managing Editor, NDTV)

BUDGET 2019

S

ALL THE GOOD IN THIS BUDGET

UMIT SINGHANIA AND GAURAV BARCHHA OF DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU INDIA, LISTS OUT ALL THE GOOD MOVES IN THE BUDGET. MAINLY, THEY FIND THAT BUDGET 2019 HAS DELIVERED MANY QUICK FIXES AND ADDRESSED SEVERAL POLICY GAPS.

Budget 2019 has delivered quick fixes; govt seems to have made attempt to address several policy gaps There are several steps taken towards capital markets reforms too, both for debt and equity components. For one, proposal to raise free float requirement for listed companies to 35 percent holds the promise of channelling domestic savings as well as inviting additional portfolio capital to the Indian equity market.

Doing away with foreign portfolio investment (FPI) cap within the permitted FDI sectoral limits lends better fungibility to fund-raising. Measures announced to deepen corporate debt market is a welcome policy thinking, and can help catalyse sizeable investments over the next few years.

n the back of a massive mandate, the first Budget of Narendra Modi government's second term has several reasons to cheer about. The maiden Budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, perhaps the longest in recent years, witnessed a flurry of policy announcements, both for rural and urban India.

What’s more encouraging is, these policy announcements were woven around certain themes central to the government’s policy agenda, e.g., mega spending programme for physical and social infrastructures; last mile foreign direct investment (FDI) reforms, e.g., for aviation, insurance and single brand retailing; enhanced defence procurements to reinforce internal security; push to digital economy initiatives, banking and financial services sector reforms; providing impetus to technology/innovation-led businesses; long overdue labour laws reforms; sanitation and electricity for all, and aligning tax policies to many of

these macro objectives. Government’s policy outreach to make India a $5trillion economy and more particularly to develop India as a mega manufacturing hub, under a competitive bidding framework, is a huge step towards reinvigorating the growth in otherwise slowing manufacturing sector.

It is also a step in the nick of time when sizeable investments are expected to migrate out of China and relocate to neighbouring Asian countries, an opportunity India absolutely cannot afford to miss out on!

Similarly, a policy roll-out to create a conducive ecosystem for aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and developing international financial services centres (IFSCs) for aviation leading and financing would catapult India into becoming a major aerospace hub in the region, and creating new jobs, a key promise of the incumbent government.

Delivering on these two policy promises will be quite the key for the government, to avoid falling into the vicious cycle of over-ideation.

Turning to tax proposals in the Budget, for one, the government seems to have bitten the bullet on higher tax for ultrarich individual taxpayers, by rolling out a steep hike in the surcharge rates, which would entail an increase in effective tax rate by 3 to 7 percent for income earners in the highest tax brackets. In several ways, the levy justifies itself, partly to fund the tax relief granted to marginal taxpayers. The impact, however, makes India one of the highest tax countries, even by global standards (US, effective maximum marginal tax rate of 39 percent).

From corporate tax rate standpoint, on anticipated lines, 25 percent tax rate benefit is available to corporates with sales below Rs 400 crore (earlier, Rs 250 crore) during the financial year 201718. Sitharaman did mention that such widening of relief is targeted towards medium and small enterprises subsuming 99.3 percent of companies.

Whilst this allays some concerns, the industry was much rather expecting across-the-board cut to 25 percent.

Maybe, this wish off the long list will take a few more years to fulfil.

Absence of rationalisation measures in respect of dividend distribution tax (DDT) and the minimum alternate tax (MAT) is a clear miss; these two levies cut deeper than it might look, and a lot of investments, particularly from foreign SEASONAL MAGAZINE

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POLITICIAN, JOURNO AMONG 26 KILLED IN TERROR ATTACK ON SOMALIA HOTEL A local politician, a journalist, three Kenyans, two Americans and one Briton were among 26 people killed in a terror attack on a hotel in Somalia, officials said. Gunmen stormed the hotel in the Kismayo city after a suicide bomber rammed a car loaded with explosives into the building on Friday.

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

sources, feel the sore. Besides, after many policy flip-flops in the past, clarifications on ‘angel tax’ for eligible startups bodes quite well, and will pave way for next wave of angels and accredited investments in technology and innovation-led ventures.

Insofar as M&A transactions, the Budget proposals are quite the mixed bag. On positives, realigning conditions for tax neutral demerger to Ind-AS requirements is a quick fix yet a massive step in allowing businesses to reorganise without a tax cost. On the other hand, the proposal to levy buyback distribution tax on listed shares now would be possible to add certain cost to many instances of shareholding reorganisation, and make profit repatriation a touch expensive.

From tax policy direction standpoint, there are several cues. Proposal to roll out faceless tax e-assessments is a wellmeaning step in the right direction; a phased roll-out is a great idea indeed.

The worry, however, would be whether such faceless tax proceedings would allow adequate opportunities to taxpayers to explain their complex business dynamics adequately, and thus, seek a more contextual application of

Insofar as M&A transactions, the Budget proposals are quite the mixed bag. On positives, realigning conditions for tax neutral demerger to Ind-AS requirements is a quick fix yet a massive step in allowing businesses to reorganise without a tax cost.

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FROM CORPORATE TAX RATE STANDPOINT, ON ANTICIPATED LINES, 25 PERCENT TAX RATE BENEFIT IS AVAILABLE TO CORPORATES WITH SALES BELOW RS 400 CRORE (EARLIER, RS 250 CRORE) DURING THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2017-18. tax principles. Least to say, the companies were keen to listen to a road map for unveiling the next big thing— the new direct tax code (DTC). Perhaps, with the revised due date of 31 July round the corner for issuance of a new draft for the DTC, all eyes are now looking forward to the approach followed.

On the Goods and Services Tax (GST) front, the finance minister did well in announcing a set of administrative steps to enable implementation ease. These include the introduction of a single monthly return, electronic invoice system that shall capture the invoice details to be used for invoice matching, and detection of tax evasion.

Overall, a well-rounded effort by the government to address several policy gaps. Budget 2019 certainly has delivered many quick fixes, and most likely will help the government pluck low-hanging outcomes without much effort. At the same time, majority announcements are only to set out policy intent, and what will be key is to see how well the administration follows through on many of these, in the coming months, especially given that we are less than six months away from the second Budget of the re-elected government.

18-YR-OLD KASHMIR CRICKETER GETS HIT ON NECK BY BALL IN MATCH, DIES Jahangir Ahmad War, an 18-year-old cricketer, died after being hit by a ball on his neck while batting during a match between Baramulla and Budgam under19 teams. War, a Class 11 student, was attempting a pull shot when he got hit and collapsed. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has announced Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia to War's family.

MAN ASKS FOR MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE AFTER 16 YEARS, TOLD TO WED AGAIN A man seeking an attested marriage certificate from Sub-Registrar's office in Kerala's Kozhikode 16 years after he got married was asked to marry once again by officials. State Registration Minister G Sudhakaran revealed the officials made fun of him and asked him to wait for three days. The minister added that he has suspended four officials for the same.