Passline business magazine Dec

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IN BOX Minister sceptic, people apprehensive

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he recent remark by Defence Minister A K Antony that he is sceptical about recommending any industry to Kerala is an eye-opener for the politicians and trade unions who try to torpedo the well-run and well-bred industries in the state.

Suburban trains—a better option

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CDA Chairman N Venugopal’s line of thinking (November issue) is contemporary, because what is needed for Kochi, and Kerala, is not the metro railway but a suburban rail as the people of Kerala suffer a lot because of its absence. A metro rail, if it comes into existence, even after much dust and fury, will not be an alternative for the commuting community who can only afford a cheap means of travel which a metro rail cannot provide.

The more the delay in its introduction, the more will be the cost of the project and the result will be exorbitant fare for the common travellers. Most of the passengers coming to Kochi are season ticket holders who resort to the long-distance express trains holding tickets of Rs 8/Rs 9 causing disturbance to the reserved passengers. Of course, such a journey in a metro train will cost them dearly. So, the best alternative will be the suburban train between Thrissur and Kochi for the north sector and Kollam and Kochi for the south sector. Look at Chennai and Mumbai where the suburban electric trains are dime a dozen for the easy reach of people to their places of work.

As the GCDA Chairman is very earnest about completing the projects he has envisaged during his tenure let us hope that he will do his best in delivering the suburban train service within the period.

Anitha, Pathanamthitta

Small cars wrong fit in US Suzuki has announced that it will stop selling automobiles in the US. Still, despite Suzuki’s retreat in North America, the company has made spectacular inroads into emerging markets over the last decade.

The low-cost compact cars sold by Suzuki’s Indian unit have the top share in the fast-growing automobile market, and the automaker has a growing presence in South Africa.

Back home in Japan, Suzuki is a leader in a category of small cars called kei vehicles that enjoy preferential tax treatment by meeting limits on length, width, engine size and horse power. The kei category has stayed

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Antony’s scepticism came to the fore when the state is touting various mega-meets focusing on NRI/NRK or foreign investments in Kerala. The outcome of such summits is yet to be known. In one respect, Kerala is proud of having some well-established growth companies. One of the notable among them is Kitex Garments, which is in the news today because of political interference in its day-to-day functioning. And the company is forced to move its expansion plan to other states or foreign lands. (November issue).

If the Defence Minister is apprehensive of attracting future industries to the state the people in general and those employed in Kitex in particular shudder at the plight of the company as it may affect a whole village and many other parts of the state. In Kerala’s history, it is trade unions that have often come as stumbling blocks to the smooth running of ventures.

The irony is that Kitex is contemplating a way out not because of the onslaught of trade unions but of political vendetta.

Out of this, Rs 4,000 crore has already been given to the State Bank of India (SBI). The main reason for the lacuna, Mr Chidambaram points out, is the increase in the NPA of the nationalized banks. According to him, the increase in NPA is about 0.28% more than in the previous year.

The major defaulters for banks may be the big guns, especially the corporate magnates who never fall in the wide net often strewn for small fry. Sharks can easily defile the net for small fishes.

J Premnath, Andheri

It is high time that our ministers (politicians) and trade unions learnt a lesson on how to bring new industries and to sustain the existing ones in the state by creating a climate conducive to growth of industries.

A retired employee, Thrissur

Helping the banking sector

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n the wake of a cash crunch in the banking sector, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has categorically announced pumping of Rs 15,000 crore into the public sector banking system to refurbish the banking business.

NEWS BUSTERS popular as a cheap option fit for navigating the country’s claustrophobic roads. One of the company’s kei cars, the long-selling Wagon R, is less than 14 feet long, about 5 feet wide and 6 feet high and its engine size is limited to two-thirds of a litre or a motorcycle calibre. Last month, almost as many units were sold in Japan as Toyota’s Prius hybrid.

The British distiller will pay Rs 1,440 per share to buy a controlling stake in India’s largest liquor company, which will help bolster its presence in the Rs 55,000-crore Indian liquor industry.

Mallya, however, will continue as the Chairman of the company, holding a minority stake of 14.9% after the transaction.

Friend in ‘deed’

Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines has been struggling for survival.

iageo plc, British distiller and the maker of Johnnie Walker Scotch, the world-renowned company trading in 180 markets all over the world, has entered into an agreement with liquor baron Vijay Mallya to buy 53.4% stake in his United Spirits for $2.04 billion, seeking to lever up its presence in the world’s largest whisky market.

The enigmatic oral care toothpaste Colgate has again grabbed the No 1 spot among the most trusted brands that tickle and tackle human taste brushing aside all other brands, both among males and females. The remaining nine are Nokia, Britannia, Parle, Horlicks, Clinic

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012 Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

Colgate tops 10 brands

Plus, Glucon-D, Dettol, Lifebuoy and Sprite among men. Pond’s , Tata Salt, Clinic Plus, Rin, Fair & Lovely, Complan, Britannia, Dettol and Tide are the trusted ones for women, according to the Brand Equity Survey-2012 conducted by Nielsen for The Economic Times.

Sectorwise the top ones are: Raymond apparel); Maruti Suzuki (four-wheelers); TVS (two-wheelers); Cadbury Dairy Milk (confectionery/ chocolate); Rin (fabric care); Britannia (food products); Pizza Hut (food services); Horlicks (health drinks); Good Knight (household care); Samsung (laptops); LIC (life insurance); Maaza (soft drinks); Clinic Plus (hair care); SBI (PSU banks); ICICI Bank (private sector/foreign banks); Vicks (personal care—OTC); Nokia (mobile handsets); Big Bazaar (retailers); LG (consumer durables); Tata Sky (DTH); Airtel (telecom); Bata (footwear); Titan (watches/ accessories).

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From the Editor Don’t taint builders with mafia tag

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Editor & Publisher

Varghese Paul Kochi Ashly Jose Ph: 9747736193

Chennai Augustine Joseph Ph: 09381000534 Banglore Jaya Chandran 0988699331 Manager-Marketing Sajan K 09895344485 Keethara Publications Pvt Ltd 38/125 1st Floor, Narakathara Road, Kochi-682 035, Kerala, India.

Phone

: +91 484 4027002

Editorial : +91 484 3043572 Marketing : +91 484 4010075

484 3043325

Marketing Office: G-238, K C Joseph Road, Panampilly Nagar, Kochi-682 036

he Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a criminal syndicate of the mid-19th century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct. Today it has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structures, methods and interests. The word is now widely used by the media while referring to dealings in land, sand, drugs etc which are carried out in violation of the law. Those who usurp land flouting the existing rules are described as `land mafia’. Ironically, real estate developers who are a part of our culture and tradition and earnestly develop land for dwellings are also included in the category of land mafia. The real estate business is really a social and financial activity carried on by the sector for all human beings who long for a shelter over their head and for developing infrastructure for the betterment of society.

Kerala is well known all over the world for its beautiful landscape. We have enough land, but most of it is ecologically and environmentally sensitive. A large portion of land in the state remains unutilized for the reason cited above and because of the outdated and obsolete Land Reforms Act. It consists of areas where there was farming once and which have been lying idle for the last 20 or 30 years. Maybe certain hamlets in two districts in the state—Palakkad and Alappuzha—are having virtual farm land having paddy cultivation as an avocation for some people. The others, also supposed to be farmers, are whitecollared gentlemen who scout for data on their cyber screens instead of weather forecasts for a good crop.

The result: Kerala has plenty of uncultivated fertile land lying fallow, marshy, barren or wet. Land lying idle for two or three decades should not be considered as agricultural land and should be used for other developmental projects like industries, real estate development and for infrastructural projects. That is why Central Planning Board Vice-Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia suggested at an investment meet in Kochi some time ago that Kerala must utilize idle land, though it may be agricultural, for developmental purposes.

Our rulers in the state often `regret’ the dearth of land for development and housing and recommend a `vertical concept’ of housing and industrial construction. Hence acquisition has become a grave problem and the momentum of growth seems stuck in limbo.

The Land Reforms Act curtails the people’s right to build houses and establishments on vacant plots as they are labelled agricultural land where actually no farming takes place.

Cities face land shortage and rules are relaxed to have houses even on 2-cent plots. One has to pay through the nose to acquire a piece of land there.

Back to Mr Ahluwalia’s suggestion. T he Land Reforms Act must be diluted so that conversion of paddy fields into other forms or relaxation of the norms for their utilization for realty purposes becomes possible. Large-scale acquisition of land by real estate players may have earned them the tagline `land mafia’, but it is unjustifiable considering the service they render to society. As mentioned in the beginning, ‘mafia’ is a term used for some criminal association. It is something of a misnomer to term real estate developers mafia or mafia gang.

Marketing : +91 484 4010075 e-mail : passline.com@gmail.com

Varghese Paul

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Passline News Service

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n the country’s political history Kerala has for the first time got a big representation in the Union Council of Ministers. Eight of its MPs are now Ministers, two of them of Cabinet rank, and the rest Ministers of State. This has created a celebration mood among Keralites and this was reflected at the investment meets held afterwards to lure foreign and non-resident investors to the state. A number of investment conclaves were held and a couple of new ones are in the pipeline. Since the UDF Government came to power in the state, it seems, a new season for development has descended over Kerala, many feel.

Will the dream of the people and those in power come true? There are many ` ifs’ and` buts’. An analyst reaches the conclusion that both the Central and State Governments are of the corporate bodies, for the corporate bodies and by the corporate bodies.

Ultimately, India will become a ‘corporate body’. That means it will be ruled by a government dominated by big corporate doyens. “Whatever our Government and politicians do will not be for the benefit of the majority of the people but for appeasing the MNCs. In short, the development of a state will depend on the number of corporate honchos it has, not on the number of members it has in the Council of Ministers,” he says. While all states are on a development agenda, there exists a climate of deprivation where the masses are remaining a discontented lot, unable to meet their primary needs. The people are on an agitating mood over things like LPG subsidy, petrol and diesel price increases and the overall price spiral of essential commodities. So the nation is sitting on a powder keg. Any time we can expect an explosion. Not a technological explosion, but a psy-

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chological one in the form of a mass uprising.

What do some other analysts feel about the new opportunities for the Kerala Government to carry the state further on the path of development and growth with the record number of its MPs having become Central Ministers?

Some point out that the opportunities are rare. The inclusion of more Kerala MPs as Ministers at the Centre is not going to change the state’s face of development significantly, they say. They argue that a single efficient and committed MP can effectively pursue the interests of the state and the constituency if he/she is interested in it. There is no position in Delhi which cannot be accessed and approached by an MP for implementing developmental projects. Once an MP becomes a Minister their time will have to be spent for the rest of the country also to push the schemes of their Ministry all over the country. So the time available for their state diminishes.

Moreover, the time left for the UPA Government before the next election is too short to initiate major projects and also the portfolios allotted to them have not much bearing on infrastructure development, they feel.

It was at this point that Congress stalwart and the number two in the Union Cabinet, Defence Minister A K Antony, in an opening salvo at a public function criticized or attacked the present UDF Government’s record on attracting Central defence projects to the state and eulogized the previous LDF Government’s, especially its Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s and Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem’s, splendid performance. Antony was actually taking the lead in breaking down barriers between Government and corporate functionaries and advocating the

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

need for Kerala to do more introspection. Though some concur with what Antony said, there are some others who are baffled by his statement. The latter point out that in 2011, during the state election campaigns, he (Antony) said that the LDF, Achuthanandan and Kareem did nothing for Kerala and now he says that he has no words to thank them for their brilliant performance!

With this statement Antony loses his own credibility. All Keralites know that the Marxists would block every project when the UDF is in power and make a show of doing things when they return to power. One thing is true. During the Marxist rule they are able to discipline their workers and force them to accept even measures like not having a union in the defence units. If a UDF Government had tried to sign such an accord with the Defence Ministry, Marxists never would agree. How cleverly they kept it a secret! But it may be noted that though the Marxists agreed not to have a union in the defence unit, they had managed to pack the Works Committee or Workers’ Advisory Committee set up in lieu of the union with CITU workmen. Now even after 18 months of the UDF Government they are not able to induct their own workmen into this committee. So the hapless INTUC worker had no option but to fight. Now the leadership has disowned them!

There are others who feel that Antony is quite right in pointing out the danger of starting new defence projects in Kerala because of the labour unrest here all the time. The projects will get badly delayed. But it is doubtful if he is right in saying that conditions under the last LDF Government were better.

According to many, ventures like ‘Emerging Kerala Global Connect2012’, held some time ago, to attract investment are not enough. The Gov-

ernment should demonstrate its determination by banning things like ‘nokkukooli’ and dismantling the stations on our main roads and junctions where the loitering so-called headload workers sit around and talk and run after the passing lorries to collect ‘nokkukooli’. The Government should vigorously press for better infrastructure projects and for four-lining of the Trivandrum-Mangalore rail line immediately, improving the signalling system and strengthening the rails, so that passenger trains from Thiruvananthapuram to Mangalore and from Mangalore to Thiruvananthapuram should start every half an hour and KSRTC buses should run feeder services to these railway stations and major power projects. At least one LNG-based station of 1,000 MW should get commissioned every year for the next 10 years on BOT basis. A big road network should also be commissioned. Fancy projects like the Rs 1-lakh-crore high-speed rail project should be dumped. Governance should be improved and made totally transparent.

It is not correct to say that industrial development was better under the LDF. They were not serious about new projects coming up. For example, if the LDF wanted they could have started implementation of the Kochi Metro project by 2008 and the project would have been in operation by now.

The Central Government had agreed to clear the project on BOT basis with a subsidy of 20%. The State Government could have put in its equity also.

But they insisted on the same pattern as Delhi Metro and lost four or five valuable years. The Hyderabad Metro was cleared on BOT basis and the renowned L & T took up that project on BOT basis in a tender and it is progressing well. They may say it is their policy to do such infra projects on

5 5 public sector basis only. If so why didn’t they accept the BOT pattern for the Vizhinjam port project? The clearance for the Kochi Metro on the Delhi Metro pattern was obtained from the Centre only after the UDF Government came to power. But valuable years were lost. Antony perhaps wants to build bridges with the Left with an eye on support at the Centre now and during the next Lok Sabha polls. Thus go the arguments put forward by some.

What is becoming increasingly apparent is that the opportunities for Kerala’s growth are not to be found but forged. For such opportunities to come, the state’s culture has to undergo fundamental change.

That hasn’t happened yet, but there are some promising signs like Antony’s reminder.

Educational reform is essential, many believe, if Kerala is ever going behave responsibly as a great state. “What is missing in Kerala is farsighted and creative leadership. Our students must be broadminded because this helps creativity. The present system of education kills innovation. Change must come with individuals,” they say.

Of course the state no longer appears to be the impenetrable fortress it once was and does have much to celebrate. There were recent reports that from a region which struggled to fulfil its sovereign commitments in 2000-01, Kerala has transformed itself into a state with manageable fiscal and debt worries by the end of the decade without sacrificing its welfare-state model. A study by economist Tapas K Sen for the Centre for Development Studies says the state’s fiscal indicators have started demonstrating a positive turn. The fiscal deficit, which ballooned to a high of 53% in 2002-03, fell to a healthy 2.74% in 2012-13. All the deficit figures improved after 200304 reaching the lowest values of the decade in 2006-

07, with primary deficits changing to a small primary surplus.

Investments are tricking in. Even in corporate Kerala change seems to be in the air. Rigid old rules of seniority appear to be breaking down as a new generation of executives nears the top. Small pockets of entrepreneurial activity can be found.

But all this seems to be only superficially true as far as the economy is concerned. Overall growth still appears to be eluding. When Kerala’s rulers decided to put the state under economic shock treatment, they expected a quick route to prosperity. The reality has been anything but. Today the economy is marked by unemployment, debts and a lack of investment.

The problem is that the Government vastly exaggerates the reality of what has been achieved. The anniversary celebrations and the Emerging Kerala and other similar meets that preceded and followed it aim to convince outsiders—and in particular increasingly sceptical domestic and foreign investors—that large-scale investments have already started to flow in.

Basically Kerala is trapped between a flashy corporate culture of fast, luxury cars, 3D LED TVs and other latest electronic gizmos and air-conditioners and a moribund political system that is beset with red tape and bureaucracy. Survey the terrain and it is easy to imagine why industrialization is having such a bad time taking root. Kerala is a small state, not even one-third or one-fourth the size of many other states in the country, with a population of 33 million.

Until a few years ago it was one of the most undeveloped states in the country. It does not produce much of its requirements of daily consumption of rice and other commodities and necessities. Of course it boasts a high literacy rate, the highest in the country,

The development kit Though a lot of investment summits have been held in Kerala envisaging the development and growth of districts and employment opportunities, many of the projects envisaged for the purpose, drawn up years ago, have not either progressed well or are yet to take off. Of course, a few have been completed though they face pestering problems. Some are still in the nascent stage, some inching towards completion and others remain on paper. What will be the state of these projects is anybody’s guess.

As everyone knows the number of Ministers matters little; what matters is the political will and mindset of the rulers. The following are some of these projects: Kasargod: New unit of Hindustan Aeronautics; Central University Kannur : Naval Academy, Ezhimala; approval for new airport; Coast Guard Academy, Azheekal Wayanad: Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF); one of the first districts selected for implementation of NREGA Kozhikode: Defence shipbuilding design unit; expansion of steel complex partnership with SAIL Malappuram: Campus centre for Aligarh Muslim University; pilot project of PURA Palakkad: New unit of BEML; rail coach factory Thrissur: Deemed university status for Kerala Kalamandalam; pilot project of PURA Ernakulam: International Container Transshipment Terminal, Kochi Metro Rail; LNG project; new unit of BHEL at Kinfra Hi-tech Park, urban development project through JNNURM Idukki: Special package for plantation crops Kottayam: New regional centre of Indian Institute of Communication Pathanamthitta: Sabarimala pilgrimage master plan Alappuzha: Kuttanad package Kollam : Kollam-Punalur broad-gauge project Thiruvananthapuram: Indian Institute of Space Technology;Indian Institute of Science Education and Research; Brahmos aerospace unit; expansion of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport; urban development project through JNNURM; National Highway development; redressal of farmers’ problems; coconut refarming, tsunami rehabilitation; NABARD loan; development of power sector.

but that is a rare bright spot.

For some time now it has followed the ‘Kerala Model’ of development though many think it has not gone down well here. By contrast, the present Government thinks private/free enterprise values will bring about results. And many investors, domestic and foreign, are interested enough in Kerala’s experiment in building democratic capitalization. Though attempts are being made to rebuild the state, there is a tendency among the youth to shun certain kinds of jobs which they consider ‘menial’. The state has to turn to the comparatively low-wage workers of other states who have come to seek jobs in Kerala. Here is a sect of resourceful and talented people turning their face to work. Without improving labour unrest, it does not help to suggest corrective measures to rekindle confidence. There is no chance of this happening. Kerala has the maximum number of daily demonstrations and protests anywhere in the world.

The people of Kerala work wonderfully outside but never when they are back home.

For those tempted to invest in the state, there is a warning: Kerala can be as treacherous as it is tantalizing. Many companies or investors do not forget harsh lessons learned in previous times. Despite all the changes taking place in the state, foreign and domestic investment remains abysmally low. That such a state of affairs looms so large is a potent reminder of what hasn’t changed.

This does not mean that there are no true opportunities for successful investment in Kerala, only that investors must learn to distinguish real transformation from wishful thinking or promises of the state being investor-friendly. It must be remembered that Kerala, for all its superficial changes, is still run by the bureaucrats of the powerful ministries like Industries. Many of these bureaucrats, while professing to be ‘international’ in their thinking and outlook, cling to notions that ‘excess competition’ is an inherent evil that must be controlled lest it should give rise to ‘market problems’. This is despite the fact that the rulers want business interests to dominate the scene and are trying to bring about such a situation.

Politically, too, less has changed than meets the eye. Certain parties in the UDF, despite their disgrace, still wield substantial power in the coalition Government and are likely to hold their ground during the remaining period of the tenure too. This is why several of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s detractors say that, though well-meaning and hardworking, he had lost his credibility the moment the fifth Muslim League Minister was sworn in. The announcement of the fifth Minister was made by the chief of the party the Minister represents. For that very reason the Chief Minister should have refused to allow him to be inducted into the Cabinet. No one knows how he can regain his credibility. Perhaps an equally tough stand on some other crucial issues involving the League alone will help him.

Oommen Chandy, they say, is certainly underperforming. He has to learn to talk and move around much less and devote more time to do his work. He is incapable of doing this. It is his nature and he cannot help it.

It is clear what Kerala requires: a leadership that genuinely, rather than selectively, embraces the logic of the market. But what is also needed is a government that knows where Kerala is headed. And this, unfortunately, is precisely what’s lacking.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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GROWTH COMPANIES-III

Geojit: making investors richer, aiding capital growth

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he person who invested Rs10 in the IPO has already received Rs 192.7 as dividend (investment received back 19 times) and the capital appreciation comes to Rs 954 (market price (MP) as on November 19, 2012 was Rs 23.85 on a face value (FV) of Re 1 per share).

If he had invested Rs 1,000, then dividend return was Rs 19,270 plus a capital appreciation of Rs 95,400. The most important part of the story is that the company made owners of 22,83,60,104 shares richer by Rs 95.4 on an investment of Re 1. Or, Geojit made 45,087 people richer by utilizing their (investors’) small amounts. This is a kind of capital growth.

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eojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd of Kochi, the stock broking firm founded by C J George as Geojit Financial Services Ltd in 1987, is one of Kerala’s top wealth creators, its present equity being Rs 22.84 crore and its face value Re1. The present book value is Rs16.6 with sales for the year 2011-12 at Rs 235.5 crore and NP Rs 39.8 crore. The present market capitalization is Rs 5,44,73,40,000.

This means that the company has already given around Rs 192.7 (dividend) returns repaid to those who invested Rs 10 in 1996 or Rs 19.27 (dividend) returns repaid to those who invested Re1 in 1996. In other words the original shareholders’ investment is free as they have already received their original investment by 19 times, only through dividend.

The person who invested Rs10 in the IPO has already received Rs 192.7 as dividend (investment received back 19 times) and the capital appreciation comes to Rs 954 (market price (MP) as on November 19, 2012 was Rs 23.85 on a face value (FV) of Re 1 per share).

If he had invested Rs 1,000, then dividend return was Rs 19,270 plus a capital appreciation of Rs 95,400.

The most important part of the story is that the company made owners of 22,83,60,104 shares richer

by Rs 95.4 on an investment of Re 1. Or, Geojit made 45,087 people richer by utilizing their (investors’)

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small amounts. This is a kind of capital growth.

In addition to this, the company helped owners of 22,83,60,104 shares to participate in the industrial growth of Kerala and helped others to get jobs. Geojit may be one of the few companies which gave profits or investor returns to Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC).

Geojit is today a leading retail financial services company in India with presence in almost all states. The company rides on its rich experience in the capital market to offer its clients a wide portfolio of savings and investment solutions.

The gamut of value-added products and services offered ranges from equities and derivatives to mutual funds, life and general insurance and third party fixed deposits. The needs of over 6,33,000 clients are met via multichannel services, a countrywide network of 546 offices, phone service, dedicated customer care centres and the internet. It has membership in, and is listed on, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). In 2007, global banking major BNP Paribas joined the company’s other major shareholders—C J George, KSIDC and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala—when

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

it took a stake to become the single largest shareholder.

The company has strategic presence in the Middle East with joint ventures and partnerships.

Barjeel Geojit Securities, its joint venture with the Al Saud Group, is headquartered in Dubai, UAE, and has branches in Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Al Ain, and Sharjah. Aloula Geojit Brokerage Co, the joint venture with the Al Johar Group in Saudi Arabia, is headquartered in Riyadh with branches i n Dammam and Jeddah. BBK Geojit Securities KSC, Kuwait, is a joint venture with Bank of

Bahrain and Kuwait and JZA. Geojit Qurum Business Group Financial Services LLC is the joint venture with QBG and National Securities Co and is based in Oman.

Evolution of the company It all started in 1987 when C J George and Ranajit Kanjilal started Geojit Financial Services, a partnership firm. In 1993 Kanjilal retired from the company and Geojit became the proprietary company of George. In 1994, it became a public limited company named Geojit Securities Ltd. KSIDC became a co-promoter of Geojit in 1995 by acquiring a 24% stake in the company, the only instance in India of a Government entity participating in the equity of a stock broking company.

The year 1995 also saw Geojit being listed on the leading regional stock exchanges. It was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in 2000. The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Geojit Commodities Limited, launched online futures trading in agricommodities, precious metals and energy futures on multiple commodity exchanges in 2003.

This was also the year when the company was renamed Geojit Financial Services Ltd (GFSL). The board consists of professional directors, including a Kerala Government nominee.

From July 2005, the company has also been listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). It is a charter member of the Financial Planning Standards Board of India and is one of the largest depository participant (DP) brokers in the country.

On December 31, 2007, the company closed its commodities business and surrendered its membership in the various commodity exchanges held by Geojit Commodities Ltd. Global banking major BNP Paribas took a stake in 2007 to become the single largest shareholder. Consequently, Geojit Financial Services Ltd was renamed Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd.

2010: Launch of FLIP (financial investment platform), a new advanced online investment platform and state-of-the-art mobile trading platform to empower clients to trade from anywhere; Barjeel Geojit Securities, joint venture with Al Saud Group, is headquartered in Dubai and owns branches in Abu Dhabi etc; Aloula Geojit Capital Co, joint venture with Al Johar Group, in Saudi Arabia is headquartered in Riyadh with branches in Dammam and Jeddah; BBK Geojit Securities KSC, located in Kuwait, joint venture with BBK and JZA; QBG Geojit Financial Services LLC, joint venture with Qurum Business Group (QBG) and National Securities Co. and based in Oman.

2011: Geojit BNP Paribas and JZ Associates LLC, Kuwait, signed a JV deal with Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait to form BBK Geojit Securities KSC; joined hands with Qurum Business Group and National Securities Company in Oman to form QBG Geojit Securities LLC, Oman.

Corporate office at Vennala, Kochi Geojit BNP Paribas has set many milestones including numerous industry firsts.

1986: C J George became member of Cochin Stock Exchange.

1987: C J George and Co was set up at Ravipuram, Kochi.

1988: Company was renamed as Geojit & Co. 1994: Becomes a public limited company named Geojit Securities Ltd. 1995: KSIDC acquires 24% equity stake; membership of NSE; public issue.

1996: Launch of portfolio management services with SEBI registration.

1997: Depository participant (DP) under National Securities Depository Limited.

1999: Membership of BSE. 2000: BSE listing; first broking firm in India to offer online trading facility; commences derivative trading with NSE; integrates the first bank payment gateway in the country for internet trading.

2001: Becomes India’s first DP to launch depository transactions through the internet; establishes joint venture in the UAE to serve NRI customers.

2002: First in India to launch an integrated internet trading system for

cash and derivatives segments.

2003: Geojit Commodities Limited, wholly owned subsidiary, launched online futures trading in agri-commodities, precious metals and energy futures on multiple commodity exchanges; national launch of online futures trading in rubber, pepper, gold, wheat and rice; company renamed Geojit Financial Services Ltd. 2004: National launch of online futures trading in cardamom.

2012: Qualified foreign investors (QFI) investment services launched.

7 Bonus announcements Year

Ratio

Ex bonus date

2005 1:1

29-3-2005

2000 1:1

12-2-2001

Dividend details Year 2012/03 2011/03 2010/03 2009/03 2008/03 2007/03 2006/03 2005/03 2004/03 2003/03 2002/03 2001/03 2000-03 1999/03 1998/03 1997/03 1996/03

Dividend (%) 75 75 75 50 70 40 40 20 25 5 5 8 25 15 11 10 7.5

Information provided by Mr Babu Vettoor. Contact No: 9895356723

Reserve Your Stall Call @ 9947733339

2005: NSE listing; Geojit Credits, a subsidiary, registered with RBI as a non-banking financial company; national launch of online futures trading in coffee.

2006: Charter member of Financial Planning Standards Board of India.

Adv.

2007: BNP Paribas takes stake in the company’s equity, making it the single largest shareholder; establishes joint venture in Saudi Arabia to serve Saudi nationals and NRIs. 2008: BNP Paribas Securities India (P) Ltd, joint venture with BNP Paribas SA for institutional brokerage.

2009: Launch of property services division and online trading in currency derivatives; On BNP Paribas becoming largest stakeholder in Geojit BNP Paribas, company is renamed Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd.

Jayaraj Plus Towers, Murinjapalam, Medical College P.O. Desk: +91 471 6065511 / 6065522 Mob: +91 9995139933 / 994733339 e-mail: info@oneroofindia.com / vyapaarexpo@gmail.com Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Travel and Tourism

Rlys can further boost tourism

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uring each budget the state is receiving new trains but because of inadequate tracks the trains are frequently late. The doubling of the Shornur-Mangalore line is yet to be completed and similar is the case of the Ernakulam-Kottayam line. A majority of the railway stations in the state including main junctions are not properly maintained and many of them are having limited numbers of platforms having shorter lengths and lack sufficient space and amenities for passenger and cargo handling. Major stations including tourist and pilgrimage importance like Kozhikode, Aluva, Shornur, Varkala, Trippoonithura, Kochuveli, Cochin Harbour Terminus, Vallathol Nagar, Munroe Thuruthu, Bekal Fort, Kadalundi, Wadakkanchery, Ernakulam Junction etc are to be developed and upgraded with modern facilities at the earliest. More Shatabdi trains and intercity express trains should be operated at frequent intervals. A triangular station should be implemented at Shornur in order to accommodate the trains passing through the nearby outer line. Passenger trains should be operated at regular intervals.

Abin K I

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ravel and tourism are closely related to each other and accessibility is one of the vital components necessary for tourism growth and development. Every form of tourism involves travel and it may be through road, rail, water or air. The history of rail transport in the state dates back to March 12, 1861, when the first train built by the Madras Railway Company ran along the Beypore-Tirur line covering a distance of 30.6 km. The Railways have played a pivotal role in the development and promotion of tourism, especially domestic tourism, in the state. Domestic tourists depend to a great extent upon the Railways for their travel needs. Being a cheap, relaxed and safe mode of transport the Railways are always preferred by even foreign tourists.

MAJOR LINES, STATIONS Kerala has a small rail network in comparison with other states and the total number of stations in the state is around 200. The major lines within and originating from the state include Trivandrum-Kanyakumari, TrivandrumErnakulam (via Kottayam), TrivandrumErnakulam (via Alleppey) famed as the coastal railway line, Kollam-Punalur, Ernakulam-Shornur, Thrissur-Guruvayur, Shornur-Palakkad, Shornur-Nilambur Road, Shornur-Mangalore etc.

Shornur-Nilambur Road and KollamPunalur are the two major scenic and eco-friendly rail routes of the state.

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The major railway junctions are Kollam Junction, Kayamkulam Junction, Ernakulam Junction, Palakkad Junction and Shornur Junction. Trivandrum is the one and only central railway station in the state from where the maximum number of trains are operating.

SHORNUR—‘RAILWAY CAPITAL’ Situated on the banks of the Bharathappuzha, the Shornur Junction station is a landmark of Shornur town.

Known as the largest railway platform of the state it is also the only junction having four diversions to different directions. Located almost in the centre of the state it acts as a hub because almost all trains pass through it and it is located in Palakkad district. In terms of number of trains running through it, Shoranur Junction stands first in the state. Currently the station has seven platforms.

The major trains passing through the state are Rajdhani Express connecting Trivandrum to New Delhi, Vivek Express from Kanyakumari to Dibrugarh, Duronto Non-stop Express to Delhi, Kerala Express from Trivandrum to New Delhi, Himsagar Express connecting Kanyakumari-– Jammutawi, Netravati Express connecting Trivandrum-– Lokmanya Tilak, Chennai Mail, Parasuram Express, Island Express, Mangala-Lakshwadeep Express, Sabari Express, Guruvayur-Chennai Express etc.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

Besides providing cheaper and reliable transportation, the Railways also act as a centre of providing tourist information. The tourist information centres of the Department of Tourism (DOT, Kerala) and IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd) are functioning at the major railway stations of Kerala. IRCTC promotes attractive and economical rail-based di-

verse tour packages, both pilgrimage and leisure. Kerala Tourism has effectively utilized Rajdhani Express for its tourism promotion mainly in North Indian states. The promotional campaign is tagged as Go Kerala or Chalo Kerala (both in English and Hindi). Besides it is also the first state from the country to use the external space of train coaches as a medium for tourism branding.

cient space and amenities for passenger and cargo handling. Major stations including tourist and pilgrimage importance like Kozhikode, Aluva, Shornur, Varkala, Trippoonithura, Kochuveli, Cochin Harbour Terminus, Vallathol Nagar, Munroe Thuruthu, Bekal Fort, Kadalundi, Wadakkanchery, Ernakulam Junction etc are to be developed and upgraded with modern facilities at the earliest. More Shatabdi trains and intercity express trains should be operated at frequent intervals. A triangular station should be implemented at Shornur in order to accommodate the trains passing through the nearby outer line. Passenger trains should be operated at regular intervals.

The picturesque state needs a form of tourism promotion that very well suits its native culture, rural tradition and values encapsulating a unique cultural identity. The exteriors of the coaches are displayed with beautiful photographs of the state displaying its unique tourism products such as scenic backwater stretches, greenish tea estates, mystic hill stations, serene beaches and traditional art forms like Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. Painting the Rajdhani Express is like having a giant moving billboard that goes through Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka on its way to Thiruvananthapuram and back. Promoting domestic tourism is the motive here and when the summer months begin in the north of India the train with its beaches, backwaters and green landscape will lure people to the state.

Hill trains Idukki and Wayanad districts are totally ignored by the Railways at present. Introduction of hill trains in these districts can attract tourists in large numbers. A tourist train on the model of the Golden Chariot or Deccan Odyssey should be started inside the state by linking major tourist spots in order to explore and exploit its fullest tourism potential. Nilambur-Shoranur and Kollam- Shenkottai are serene routes for operating tourist trains on a pilot basis.

Accommodation facilities offered at the railway stations have to be improved and a majority of the dormitories in the stations are not functioning properly. The functioning of the tourist information centres in many of the stations is not satisfactory because of the absence of trained and qualified personnel and many centres exist only in name. A pilgrimage information desk should be set up at Kottayam and Chengannur stations to meet the requirements of Sabarimala pilgrims.

Many tourist spots are situated in

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close proximity to railway lines and stations but unfortunately they are not highlighted and promoted through the Railways in a proper way. Nearby tourist destinations and products should be promoted through tourism video displays and images at the railway stations. Distances from the railway station to the tourist destinations should be clearly mentioned. A new station near Nedumbassery airport will be of great help for the airline passengers. A joint effort between DOT and the Railways is needed at the earliest in order to promote Kerala Tourism through the Railways.

Despite the shortcomings the Railways in the state are still doing an admirable work for tourism development and promotion by linking almost all the metro cities and tier-II cities of the country with an efficient network of uninterrupted transport services.

The Railways are perhaps one of the most important systems of transport in the state ensuring a smooth transition of passengers including tourists from one destination of the state to another and outside the state.

(Abin is Lecturer in Tourism, Department of Tourism Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam)

Projects delay The new route connecting Angamaly to Azhutha in Pathanamthitta district will be a great help for pilgrims visiting Sabarimala. The line from Nilambur to Nanjangaud if implemented will give a facelift to the tourist traffic coming to the state. The Kochi metro rail project connecting Kochi to the outskirts of the city will be of great advantage to the commuters as well as to the tourists.

The recently started two MEMU (mainline electrical multiple unit) trains connecting Ernakulam to Kollam via both Kottayam and Alleppey was able to reduce the travelling time as well as the crowd of passengers to an extent.

Barriers The Railways face severe challenges inside the state and the prime one is the nonavailability of adequate land for line expansion. During each budget the state is receiving new trains but because of inadequate tracks the trains are frequently late. The doubling of the Shornur-Mangalore line is yet to be completed and similar is the case of the Ernakulam-Kottayam line. A majority of the railway stations in the state including main junctions are not properly maintained and many of them are having limited numbers of platforms having shorter lengths and lack suffiNov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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STARTUP COMPANIES

The real world of the budding entrepreneur Passline News Service

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tartup ventures are designed to motivate the brightest, most creative and hardest-working individuals to improve the use of society’s resources, increase employment and provide a broader range of quality goods and services. Few mediapersons, print and visual, venture out to see firsthand what some of these men and women who run these companies are doing.

The five who tell their stories here have succeeded with innovative technologies, astute management, wits or luck. All may not have succeeded to the extent they desired, or they may likely be big tomorrow. Whatever it is, one will learn something useful from each.

what they can do than on what everyone else thinks can’t be done. These entrepreneurs have created wealth and jobs. And they expect to keep on doing so. At a small business, one can find a clearer sense of purpose—the unit knows what it is doing and where it is trying to go. The means of communication are short and direct, often because the owner himself/herself walks into the factory or office very often. Of course financing is hard to find, sometimes impossible.

An outstanding feature of the working of these units is that the setbacks they faced during their formation and later did not sap their determination.

They are simply focused more on

One reason why growth is slow is that most of them employ few people.

Bureaucracy and lawsuits can break a small company. Yet the entrepreneurial sector thrives.

PASSLINE did, speaking to five startup businessmen recently. They employ few people; all the five we write about have under 35.

AADHOCC SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD Variety of software solutions

lored applications is its key area of focus and it is a professional, software development, website designing and internet marketing company providing fullscale web services including B2B and B2C e-commerce solutions at affordable rates and is acting as an offshore development centre for overseas development firms. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve grown to 32 employees. My role as CEO involves recruiting and managing the executive team, leading the product/strategic visions and evangelizing Aadhocc and yummybay around the world. Our last-year turnover was Rs 1crore, “says Cherian.

An innovative company providing a series of webbased software applications that help customers create successful online initiatives, Aadhocc offers services to keep your business systems running and also ensures that the client needs are met in today’s ever-developing world.

Ketty Cherian

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ochi-based Aadhocc Software Technologies Pvt Ltd is a growing web designing company.

“The rapidly growing business and working atmosphere in Kerala inspired me to start a business in the state. It was in 2009 that I set up what are today Aadhocc Software Technologies and South India’s most popular online food ordering portal, yummybay. com,” says Ketty Cherian, founder Managing Director and CEO, Aadhocc Software Technologies Pvt Ltd and Amicitia Food Mark Pvt Ltd. After taking his MBA from De Montfort University (DMU), London, in 2001 Cherian started his career at Tressure World as marketing head. In 2009 he launched Aadhocc and Amicitia Food Mark with a capital of Rs 8 lakh. A rapidly growing web designing company, Aadhocc offers a wide variety of software solutions that range from software development, web development, internet marketing and SEO, covering almost all the fields in the best possible ways. “In the initial stages we faced many financial and functional problems such as creating awareness about these things among our local bodies and about creating our brand image. But we overcame these. With effective and time-bound completion of work and good relationships with clients we could make rapid progress,” says Ketty Cherian.

Aadhocc’s expertise in developing specially tai-

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

VINTEES TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED The way to safe parking

Surej P Kurian “All of us have experienced parking problems in crowded places. Finding a parking spot, parallel parking and the danger of running into other vehicles are the reasons that make you want to turn to go back home. This is what prompted me to start a parking sensor installation business in our city,” says Surej P Kurian, CEO, Vintees Technologies Pvt Ltd, Kochi.

Vintees Technologies was set up in 2011 with a capital of Rs 7 lakh. “Initially, we educated the people about the importance of installing the parking sensors. Customer satisfaction is the motto of our busi-

The enterprises cited are all IT units. According to the Kerala Government’s IT Policy 2012, there will be at least 3,000 technology startups by 2020. Achieving this target does not seem to be impossible because during the last couple of years many of our young, talented professionals have successfully started their own businesses. Most of these have a capital of less than Rs 10 lakh and they have successfully identified their functional areas as software development, security system creations, SEO management and so on. These budding entrepreneurs’ activities are quite inspiring for our upcoming entrepreneurs.

ness,” he says.

Vintees Technologies is one of the important parking sensor installation companies. Parking sensors consist of ultrasonic proximity sensors that are integrated into the bumpers of cars. The sensors are connected to the reverse gear which when engaged switches on the parking sensors that emit high-frequency sound waves, the echo of which is received and evaluated by the sensors.

Vintees parking sensors have visual LED or LCD screens that display readouts to indicate how close a vehicle is to an obstacle in its path. The beep also continues to provide audible warning to the driver at the same time. Vintees successfully connects both reverse parking sensors and reverse camera; it leads to greatly enhanced safety.

Vintees provides 100% customer service facilities. It has an annual turnover of Rs 25 lakh.

FINLANZA SECURITY SERVICES & SOLUTIONS Towards reducing cyber crimes

Arun T S “The increasing number of cyber crimes and security problems made me start Finlanza Security Services and Solutions, Kottayam, to ensure the availability of the benefits and rights offered by international cyber laws through the prevention of vulnerabilities, detection and handling of indescribable situations and creation of awareness about potential threats, as the world is built up and runs as a sequence of ones and zeros,” says Arun T S, the company’s CEO.

Finlanza LLP is an information security firm started by a team of young information security and programming experts under the leadership of Arun who, after taking his BTech, worked in an IT company. Finlanza was started in 2010 with a capital of Rs 6 lakh.

“Cyber security is the passion of our team members. We started our career as anti-virus creators.

We thought of a solution to reduce cyber crimes, and finally formed Finlanza. At the beginning we struggled to convince the people of the importance of the security management system. We took different examples from other countries. Today we have eight employees,” Arun says.

“Our tagline says Filanza aims at bringing in ‘a new dimension to security’ through a change in the way the world looks at the ever-evolving domain of information security in the 21st century. We entered this relatively new domain of IT development-cumservice by taking into account the future requisites and projected demand for information security as the world tends to rely more and more on information technology in every aspect of day-to-day processes.

Our turnover last year was Rs 11 lakh,” he says.

Filanza has been established with a vision to build a world empowered by the possibilities of technology and armoured against its challenges. Information security is slowly but alarmingly getting realized as the most essential and dynamic IT sector of the present day, thanks to incidents of security failures leading to financial losses and defamation of many industries, institutions and individuals.

Uniware Solutions

High-security software solutions

Deepak

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eepak, an ambitious businessman, started a software solutions company named Uniware Solutions Pvt Ltd at Thiruvananthapuram in 2010 with Rs 6 lakh as its capital.“Availability of enough manpower and the hard-working mentality of our people motivated me to start it. Launched in 2010, the company specialized in creating brand identities and software development. There are today 10 employees,” says Deepak, the company’s CEO. “Initially we had problems creating a brand image and client relationship. We introduced high-security software solutions, which came to be accepted by our clients. Today we are on the path of success,” he says.

After his BTech Deepak worked as CEO in E C Solution, Kochi. The idea of starting Uniware Solutions was to focus on creative internet-oriented business with innovative ideas. It specializes in software

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development, creating brand identity, website designing, web development, web hosting SEO (search engine optimization) and content management system. ”Our web development is SEO with a total project management structure. It has proved its presence in the international and regional internet marketing arena with quality and dedicated services,” says Deepak. Uniware Solutions has grown to become a leading search engine marketing, creative, conversion-friendly design company and has found a niche in the market by delivering high-end value to the broad base of clientele at reasonable rates.

Uniware had a turnover of Rs 15 lakh last year.

Fit Soft Solutions Website design services

Jayadevan T R

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stablished in 2010 Fit Soft Solutions is a popular website designer in Kochi. “I was employed in an IT company for some years for specializing in website design services. My working experience motivated me to start a business of my own in my field, and thus was started Fit Soft Solutions,” says Jayadevan T R, CEO of the firm. Fit Soft Solutions, started on a capital of Rs 2 lakh, is a professional IT solutions, website design and web application development company. “There were implementation difficulties in the initial stage but we boldly faced them.

We also had to face tough competition from other companies. But our plus point is that we offer more creative and dynamic software facilities. Fit Soft Solutions specializes in customer website design services, Joomla, CMS customization, dynamic website, website maintenance and redesigning, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, affordable law-cost small business websites etc.

“We’ve proven experience and expertise in designing websites that generate sales and are an asset to your business. As a website design company we offer a full-circle approach in website design and web development where the actual web design effort covers only 40% of the entire project pie. Our website designs include strategic planning, business intelligence, creative application development, product/service promotion and solution maintenance.

Most of our time goes in understanding your business objectives, defining the problem and finally designing the best possible solution. Your website can offer you the best return for your investment, if done correctly. We had a turnover of Rs 20 lakh for last year,” says Jayadevan.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Corruption

Scams’ own countr y why a particular value has been notified for each and every geographical location in the state for the purpose of calculating stamp duty. Despite this action which is intended to garner more revenue as stamp duty, it is still evident that the actual consideration passed between the buyer and the seller is many times the fair value fixed.

K C Joseph Varghese

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e are destined to witness the slow death of ancient Indian culture which places much importance on honesty, integrity and justice. The next generation too cannot escape the impact of this diminution in values.

A person who pays Rs 100 to a policeman for violation of a simple traffic rule and our ministers and politicians who swallow crores and crores of rupees commit the same mistake. The common man often wonders how this illegal wealth is warehoused, considering the mindboggling magnitude of this vice. The members of this big amorous league have many a method siphoning off this ill-gotten wealth for safekeeping into foreign countries. They also have methods of whitewashing this money which is often referred to as ‘money laundering.’ The Government is also aware of these techniques, but no serious action is taken, as both the parties in power and in the opposition would be called upon to defend themselves.

There is no wonder hence that the parties in power and the Government officials under them employ evasive techniques stalling any action in the right direction.

For the buyer of the immovable property, illegal benefit is derived on two counts. The first one is savings in stamp duty and the second is that the black money of the buyer could be used to pay the difference in the value according to the document and actual consideration.

The sellers of the immovable property also stand to gain. The important one is that the income tax payable on the capital gains arising out of the transaction is reduced to a considerable extent. However, the money received as ‘black’ cannot be deposited in a bank or introduced in the books of account. Therefore, such money is again invested in real estate, for meeting the ‘black’ consideration and the vicious circle continues. The so-called ‘black money’ is also used to buy luxury products such as new-generation motor-cars, electronic gadgets and the like. Introduction of this money into the general market for purchase of consumable items without bargaining has the effect of more money chasing less supply of goods which causes inflation.

There is no doubt that the ordinary consumer suffers but he meekly concedes this as an inevitable vice that should be lived with.

Another area where black money is used is for buying gold (bullion) in the shape of bars and coins which are kept in bank lockers. The space required for keeping this precious metal is much less than what is required for keeping the currency notes as such. This is one of the reasons why we witness unprecedented increases in gold prices.

As already said the common man is not fully aware of the magnitude of the problem which has created a parallel economy in our country and in this article let us have a peep at the bleak areas of our national conscience.

Real estate dealings Ordinary citizens are forced to create black money when they enter into real estate transactions. It is a public secret that the value of immovable property transferred is understated in the documents registered. Even the Government is aware of this. That is

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There is a danger awaiting those who accept unaccounted cash. Recently, there were reports of unprecedented infusion of fake currency notes into India. If these currency notes are used to settle illegitimate transactions, there is no way in which these can be converted into accounted money, and such currency notes rest in suitcases, iron boxes, bank lockers etc which will never come into the open.

Corruption There is no doubt that the amount received through corruption adorns the

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

character of black money. We are all privy to this when we buy some goods without a legitimate bill so that we may save on sales tax or VAT. The common man also pays bribes to speed up governmental procedures, to escape legal punishments etc. But the masses have now accepted this as a legitimate method of getting things done and it has to be stated that this mindset is a reflection of the general immorality that has affected our social fabric.

The Government officials belonging to lower cadres use the black money they receive by way of bribes for a good living and for conspicuous consumption as the amounts received are meagre and not enough to accumulate. But they represent only a small percentage. When the upper

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erated in their countries of residence.

However, these ‘kith and kin’ receive Indian black money through the ‘hawala’ route which is sent back to their mentors through normal banking channels as ‘gift’ which becomes purified money in India! There are people who are stalwarts in the game, who carry out the dirty tasks quite efficiently, of course for a commission! This method of ‘overcoating’ black with white paint is known among these circles as ‘NRI route.’ Not many of the enforcement agencies bother to investigate whether the sender of money in foreign exchange into India has genuine sources of income abroad. They are apparently satisfied with the bank passbook entries evidencing receipt of foreign exchange and with letters from the remitter confirming the transaction.

he common man often wonders how this illegal wealth is warehoused, considering the mindboggling magnitude of this vice. The members of this big amorous league have many a method siphoning off this ill-gotten wealth for safekeeping into foreign countries. They also have methods of whitewashing this money which is often referred to as ‘money laundering.’ The Government is also aware of these techniques, but no serious action is taken, as both the parties in power and in the opposition would be called upon to defend themselves. There is no wonder hence that the parties in power and the Government officials under them employ evasive techniques stalling any action in the right direction.

league members receive bribes and kickbacks, it is not possible for them to spend it away. Therefore, they are forced to convert this into legitimate wealth and there are many means to do this. Clandestine machinery is in place where ‘conversion agents’ help them out to achieve their goals.

Just go beyond and have a peep at the backgrounds of business tycoons and highly placed political bosses in our country. There are skeletons in their cupboards! Almost every one of them has kith and kin working abroad. But if one investigates further, it would be, in many cases, found that these people abroad do not have much income gen-

Threat to national security It is a well known fact that the menace of black economy which runs parallel to the national economy poses a serious threat to our national security as terrorist activities are known to be funded from this segment. When money and power join together, it becomes a formidable force to confront. When antinational elements within the country join this force it becomes all the more difficult to defend. The drug mafia also joins this caucus to make the situation worse beyond imagination.

Why black money?

In a developing country like India, there are various avenues for corrup-

13 tion and consequent generation of tainted money. Contracts from the Government, purchase of defence equipment, transfer of technology etc all require kickbacks to the ministers, politicians, and bureaucrats concerned. This is well known to multinational conglomerates and Indian business tycoons.

There are people who work as liaison agents who also get their share in the loot, furthering generation of black money.

ing the past 25 years or so, we would realize that there is no overestimation in these figures. But we all forget the past scams when a new scam comes to light.

India is a democracy and we boast of being the largest one in the world. A democracy rests on three pillars which are statutory bodies— Parliament, the executive and the judiciary. Parliament is supposed to be the supreme

public awareness. However, as in the case of the masses, the fourth estate also appears to forget past scams when news about new ones breaks out. The media also suffers from sensationalism camouflaged as investigative journalism.

Now let us look back at some of the important and shocking scams that have plagued this country.

Army. The alleged amount is Rs 8,000 crore.

6. Fodder scam: The alleged culprit is none other than Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Bihar Chief Minister and former Union Railway Minister. The year was 1996. The alleged amount involved in the corruption was Rs 900 crore only.

7. The hawala scam: Year 1996. The amount suspected is 16 million US dollars. Even BJP stalwart L K Advani is also accused of being a part of it. The mysterious part about the scam is that the funds, as reported by the media, had been diverted to the notorious Kashmir terrorist organization called Hizbul Mujahideen.

Further to come are recent scams relating to coal mining which will be discussed later as full facts are yet to be unearthed. Among those we have forgotten and the media has ignored is the late Harshad Mehta’s share market swindle (Rs 4,000 crore in 1992) which affected the share market only.

Numerous are the corruption cases against our honourable ministers and political leaders. Some have been convicted and some are facing trial. These are over and above those included in the foregoing paragraphs.

Examples are:

High tax rates, licences and permits, ‘hawala’, smuggling, drug trafficking, under-the-table donations to political parties, terrorism etc are the main reasons ultimately nurturing the black money economy. Even though ‘licence raj’ is said to be over, there are still grey areas where autocratic discretionary powers are vested with ministers and bureaucrats. It has to be understood that uncontrolled discretion without checks and balances breeds corruption and results in further generation of black money.

According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Public Policy, the black money in circulation is Rs 37,000 crore. This works out to more than 20% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. In the meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated this at 50% of GDP based on a survey conducted by it. These figures do not include black money stashed away in foreign countries including tax havens. The Government of India admits an astounding high figure at Rs 25 lakh to Rs 70 lakh crore of rupees as black money in India. We will take a long time to count the zeros! If we take a look at the scams that have come to light dur-

of the three entrusted with the power of enactment of laws of the land. But it cannot supersede the provisions enshrined in the Constitution unless the Constitution itself is amended which Parliament is empowered to do. The law-enactment procedures and the exercise of powers are subject to review by the judiciary which has, among other powers, the paramount power to strike down any legislation which is unconstitutional. The power of the executive flows from Parliament by virtue of the fact that the Council of Ministers is elected by Parliament. Even though not directly coming within the definition of the three pillars of power, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the Election Commission are independent autonomous bodies with statutory powers enshrined in them to stand vigil on the activities of the executive and other agencies. They are constitutional authorities who cannot be removed except through impeachment by Parliament as in the case of the judiciary.

I have briefly narrated the hierarchy of democracy in India in order to highlight the importance of the fourth estate, ie the media, which, though not a statutory body, brings to light the news within and outside the Government for

1. 2G Spectrum scam: The then Telecom Minister, A Raja, is under trial for this scam. According to estimates of the CAG, the scam involves a stupendous Rs 1,76,000 crore. However according to the CBI, it is only Rs 36,000 crore. Big relief!

2. Commonwealth Games scam: This points to Mr Suresh Kalmadi.

Suspected sum involved is Rs 35,000 crore.

3. Telgi stamp paper scam: Abdul Karim Telgi is accused of selling fake stamp papers worth Rs 20,000 crore in 12 states.

4. Satyam scam: It is considered to be the biggest corporate scam ever, though the Government appears to have lost nothing. However, Ramalinga Raju, the then Chairman of the company, is alleged to have manipulated the accounts of the company and the shareholders lost around Rs 14,000 crore, according to primary estimates.

5. Bofors scam: In the 1980s it was alleged that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was involved in the scam reported to have taken place in the purchase of Bofors guns for the Indian

Kripasankar Singh, former President, Mumbai Congress Chapter and Maharashtra’s former state minister, accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to declared income; Bangaru Lakshman, former BJP President; Prakash Singh Badal, former Punjab Chief Minister; Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab; Ashok Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra; Pinarayi Vijayan, former Electricity Minister of Kerala, in the SMC Lavalin case; Sukh Ram, former Telecom Minister; G Janardhana Reddy, Karnataka MLA; B S Yeddiyurappa, former Chief Minister of Karnataka; …The list goes on…

Our judicial system was considered as sanctum sanctorum once. This myth has been exposed by the comment made by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India that 20% of the Indian judiciary is corrupt. It is also disheartening to note that the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from Kerala is also alleged to be corrupt even though not yet proved.

(K C Joseph Varghese is a Kochibased chartered accountant)

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Job Culture

Walk-to-work: new IT Policy initiative

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S R Nair

he Kerala Government unveiled its IT Policy 2012 recently. Unlike the previous policies of 1998, 2001 and 2007, this year’s IT policy gives ample importance to creating ecofriendly measures conducive to the growth of the IT sector in the state like promotion of solar power for IT firms and green building norms for the sector. The policy also claims that it will address the long-pending complaint of the IT fraternity that the state lacks support facilities like recreational and quality life inside the parks. The highlight of the policy is that it envisages a culture called ‘walk to work’, allowing private infrastructure developers inside the Government IT parks.

The policy document says the employees of IT parks prefer to walk to work, instead of commuting long hours to their workplaces. The need for commercial amenities like malls, budget apartments, schools, hospitals, hotels, day-care centres, restaurants etc inside the park arises from this concept.

A striking point of the IT policy is the welcoming of private IT parks and the accessibility to Government-owned land for private IT infrastructure providers. No private players will finish the work in a time-bound manner. Smart City is a stark example of the failure of the PPP model of infrastructure development in the state. To everyone’s great surprise there is no mention of Smart City in the latest IT policy.

Criticism is pouring in against the Government move to promote a township culture in the IT parks enabling private players to use 50% of the park campus to set up commercial ameni-

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ties. The criticism gathers strength from the doubt that private investors are to burn their energy and money on real estate activities rather than on the development of the IT industry. In a way, it is true because in a state like Kerala land is scarce unlike in neighbouring states where land is abundant. Kerala can’t allocate land to private players even on lease basis. People from different sectors allege that the 2012 policy gives more encouragement to the IT outsourcing industry and infrastructure providers. Real estate firms posing as IT developers will eventually show their true colour as land grabbers.

The landlessness of the state and the realtors trying to grab IT land in disguise will certainly stay a sore thumb forever. While the state must try to steadily develop its earmarked land for IT business purposes (like the Technopark Phase 2, 3 and 4 plans), projects like Smart City swirl in rotten politics (a la Kochi Metro) and give little hope to Malayalees.

The fact that is widely accepted by investors is our state is ideal for industries like tourism and IT. But keen observers of the state’s development will contradict this. According to them, despite the state- of-the-art IT parks and human resources in the state our position in export earnings is miniscule compared with our neighbouring states. This is cited as a failure of the state. The IT industry should transform itself and cover areas like nanotechnology and other modern applications as is the case with the advanced countries. Kerala has also failed to attract major IT giants like Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Intel or HP for that matter. It shows the authorities’ failure to portray the state as an ideal destination, since those companies are the torch-bearers in the field and are doing business in mighty volumes.

Instead of getting into real estate development of land for industry the state could well develop manpower

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

for IT/high-tech business. So far, the state’s ventures in making the manpower of the state employable have not been hugely successful. From time immemorial, Kerala labour has migrated to greener pastures and we should accept this historical perspective, rather than trying to bring them all back into the state as employees and employers. Presently, 11% of national IT manpower happens to be Keralites.

It would be good if we developed our manpower more employable in doing jobs in the upper end of the IT value chain and made them available to enterprises of the country and the world.

The plan should be to make this percentage 15% soon and move it up steadily.

With almost two decades of my experience in Kerala in entrepreneurship, I could surmise that big instant creations inside Kerala are not possible whereas one can only follow the slow evolution of the state towards business (and that includes IT). That augurs well for the state’s miniscule IT billing potential. No acceleration would ever work for this highly politicized, litigating laity. Whereas we see outside the state huge business transformations, we have to accept our lack of fast growth for very many reasons, most of which cannot be set aside in a jiffy.

I think Kerala should concentrate on preparing high-quality manpower for new-generation industries and make them available globally, rather than trying to make them stay back within the state. If we hold them back, it would only be counterproductive for the population.

The state had gone vey much backward in making IT projects for better, faster and safer e-governance deliveries. The Akshaya project that every Government is tom-toming was the last of such initiatives and even that is on ICU mode for those entrepreneurs behind it. The innovation and creativity of Kerala planners, bureaucrats

and technologists in its institutions in launching great IT initiatives for the betterment of its citizen has practically come to cease. The IT policy must look up at this lapse seriously and put efforts through its institutions to create, develop and establish robust IT initiatives for delivery of services to its laity thereby improving the inclusivity of all its citizens.

Providing 5,00,000 jobs and enabling 30,000 startups to come up by the end of 2020 is certainly a silver lining in the policy but there is no road map for achieving the goal as mentioned. E-waste is a great menace faced by all advanced countries. If our state is seriously embarking on its journey to capture the number one position in IT, it is high time to ponder over the management of e-waste. Most of the advanced countries are yet to find a solution to recycling e-waste indigenously. They are treating the Third World countries as junkyards for that purpose.

However, with all its shortcomings, the new IT policy is very altruistic, covers all the wish lists and, therefore, if it comes into effect it will make Kerala a perfect IT state and IT business destination of the country. However, knowing the penchant of our Government (any Government, for that matter) for making announcements without being backed up by efficient implementation and upkeep, this could turn out to be yet another policy like those of yesteryear. The only saving grace is that the officer who has made it or who is responsible for running it is a genuine, sincere person who really dreams of taking Kerala into the forefront. To that extent, we have hope!

(Mr Nair is an eminent ITentrepreneur running Team Frontline and an analyst of repute)

15

subsidies

Direct cash transfer: a game changer in fiscal management The present system of subsidies involves a lot of waste and corruption. For instance, under the present PDS the total food subsidy spent by the Government shot up from Rs 2,850 crore in 1991-92 to Rs 72,823 crore in 2011-12.

But the bulk of this huge increase in subsidy has not gone to the people. Apart from the carrying cost, there are wastes due to open storage. Moreover, there are large numbers of bogus BPL ration cards. The ration dealers divert food grains from the ration shops and sell them in the black market.

Similarly, there is huge corruption in the distribution of kerosene.

In brief, PDS is a highly inefficient and corrupt system.

The direct cash transfer system is a sincere attempt to streamline and reform the present system. issued 21 crore ‘aadhar’ cards to Indian citizens. The figure is expected to touch 40 crore by 2014. Once aadhar becomes universal it has the potential to be a game changer as far as efficiency in public expenditure is concerned.

Dr V K Vijayakumar

O

nce Rajiv Gandhi created a flutter by saying that when the Government spends one rupee, only 15 paise reaches the ultimate beneficiary for whom the money was intended. Rajiv was not breaking news; the huge waste involved in Government expenditure was widely known. Rajiv only emphasized the gross wastage and sensationalized it a bit by quantifying the waste.

In this age of the welfare state, governments account for a major part of total expenditure in every economy.

Skyrocketing public expenditure is adding to the debt burden of governments, and in some cases like India, resulting in an unsustainable fiscal deficit. In a developing country like India where the Government has taken up ambitious social expenditure commitments, efficiency in public expenditure assumes great significance. Presently, in India, subsidies account for 2.3% of GDP; this is clearly unsustainable.

Attempts to target subsidies and improve the efficiency in public expenditure did not yield any worthwhile results in the past. But now modern technology has presented a great opportunity to drastically cut the wastes involved in government expenditure.

The UID (unique identity card) project headed by Nandan Nilekeni has so far

To start off, the Government has announced direct cash transfer to the beneficiaries in lieu of ration from January 1, 2013. The project will be implemented in 51 select districts in the country, will be extended to 18 states from April 2013 onwards and is planned to cover the entire country

by April 2014. The pilot projects run by the Government—for kerosene in Rajasthan, for LPG in Mysore and for food grains in Jharkhand—have been reasonably successful.

A corrupt and wasteful system The present system of subsidies involves a lot of waste and corruption.

Take, for instance, the case of PDS food grains. The total food subsidy spent by the Government shot up from Rs 2,850 crore in 1991-92 to Rs 72,823 crore in 2011-12. But the bulk of this huge increase in subsidy has not gone to the people. The carrying cost of food grains—costs incurred for transportation, storage and distribution—comes to around 20% of the total food subsidy bill. Apart from the carrying cost, there are wastes due to open storage.

Moreover, there are large numbers of bogus BPL ration cards. The ration dealers divert food grains from the ration shops and sell them in the black market. Similarly, there is huge corruption in the distribution of kerosene.

Kerosene illegally diverted from the ration shops is used for adulteration in diesel and petrol causing environmen-

tal problems. In fact there is a powerful kerosene mafia in certain states who have become a law unto themselves.

In brief, the present PDS is a highly inefficient and corrupt system. The direct cash transfer system is a sincere attempt to streamline and reform the present system.

Areas of concern There are some areas of concern.

If the new system is to be really effective, aadhar has to cover the entire country; this will take some more time.

Besides, since the subsidy is planned to be directly credited to the accounts of the beneficiaries, it is important that all beneficiaries should have bank accounts. There is a huge challenge of financial inclusion here. There are many districts, like Ernakulam in Kerala, which have achieved 100% or near 100% financial inclusion. But there are many districts in the country populated by tribals and similar marginalized sections of society where the banking habit is an exception rather than the rule. The Government hopes to overcome this hurdle with the ‘banking correspondents model’ where agents from banks go to the people instead of people going to the banks.

Another issue in the direct cash transfer system is that initially the beneficiaries will have to buy the goods from the open market. The amount will be transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries only after electronic verification of the actual purchase.

This can pose some problems since the poor will find it difficult to raise the money for buying the goods from the open market. These and similar teething troubles can be expected in the initial stages of the project.

Global experience Experiments with direct cash transfer have produced mixed results.

The US introduced the food stamps scheme as early as 1939. Under this system food stamps were distributed to the poor enabling them to buy food from the open market. Later the Government reimbursed the retailers. This system has been extended further to include items such as groceries to the poor. Now, the ETB system in the US which electronically transfers benefits to the targeted group is highly efficient.

A major success story in direct cash transfer in an emerging market is the Bolsa Familia system in Brazil. This is a conditional cash transfer system under which cash is transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries on conditions such as compulsory enrolment of students in schools, their school attendance, vaccination records etc.

Through the enforcement of these conditions, the system ensures the empowerment of the future generation while benefiting the present generation of poor people. This Brazilian model is regarded as a model worthy of emulation in developing countries. Similar experiments in countries like Nicaragua and Conga have not been very successful.

India with her proven competence in computer technology can handle the teething troubles of this ambitious project. From the fiscal perspective, there is no doubt that this scheme will be a game changer capable of unleashing profound beneficial consequences.

(Dr Vijayakumar is Investment Strategist at Geojit BNP Paribas)

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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16

Stock

Bearish days over ?

Passline News Service

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one are the bearish days as far as the Indian stock market is concerned. These are the words of market analysts. The market movement in the northerly direction underlines their comments. They attribute the reason to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s determination to put reforms back on track even at the risk of the UPA Ministry which he heads losing its majority. Experts forecast a buoyant market as the chances have brightened after the Manmohan team won the FDI vote in multi-brand retail.

The confidence of the market will swell if other bills including the Finance Bill waiting for nod in both Houses of Parliament will have a smooth sail. After a long wait certain IPOs are getting ready to tap the market. FIIs, the volume investors in Indian bourses, are expected to be present enthusiastically, their investment expected to be substantial.

Experts foresee the 30-share sensitive index Sensex to go above 21,000 and Nifty to reach 6,000 plus. Here are some market experts airing their views on the future of the market.

Mr Ignatius Kulirani, Regional Head-Kerala of Karvy Stock Broking Ltd, says Dr Manmohan Singh is trying to push economic reforms very fast and markets have started reacting very positively to this. The possibility of cor-

rections is always there and healthy corrections are always good for the markets. Sensex may touch 20,100 and Nifty may test 6,050 in this current rally. FII investment exceeded Rs 1lakh crore recording the highest after two years.

India’s GDP growth of Ignatius Kulirani 5.4% is still rated as one of the best GDPs in the current global situation and this is the main reason for continuing FII inflow. Based on the new procapitalist economic measures there is every possibility of more FII inflow in the coming years.

Fiscal deficit is a major concern for all in the capital market, but the Government is able to make some money by sale of certain company shares through the open market. It is also planning some more similar measures in the near future. This has created confidence in the markets and it is expected that fiscal deficit will end up within the budget estimates. We can’t say that the agricultural sector as a whole is showing good growth. Food price inflation is still a major concern.

Because of the weak rupee, last quarter exports may show a better picture.

Industry especially heavy engineering

is in bad shape. In some states power cuts are there for 8 to 10 hours in a day. The Government should focus more on power generation. Infrastructure is a must and a more transparent policy for bidding coal blocks will boost the morale of corporate bodies.

With the renewed economic reform measures and better corporate governance India`s big corporates with huge cash reserves may also come with new economically viable ventures. The rolling out of 4G in all states will also be a big game changer in the coming days. Direct credit of cash to the common man`s bank account against his subsidy due is also a new challenging measure taken up by this Government.

Introducing GST will also be a morale booster. Mr Kulirani expects that in the financial year 2013-14 Indian GDP may be at the 5.8%-6% level. The Q3 results of companies will be of a mixed pattern.

SBI is to get Rs 4,000 crore to improve its business, which will reflect in its share price. As the country`s premier bank SBI has its own advantages and disadvantages. We can’t expect a profit-centric business approach from SBI when we compare it with its competitors like ICICI Bank or HDFC Bank, still the leading private banks. Auto, pharma, bank, FMCG and retail stocks can be considered for investments.

The auto sector may outperform heavy engineering and power. The sugar sec-

tor may come out with a dismal show.

Compared to other asset classes equity is still at an advantage. Gold price has also come to the range of speculative level because of sharp price movements within a short timeframe.

After almost 20 years of aboveaverage or normal monsoon, India is going to face this summer season with a lot of anxiety and most of our dams are already more than half-empty.

A promising positive development in the country is the cutting down of interest rates. Most of the efficient private banks have already reduced the FD interest rate to 8.75%, and all leading banks are after retail investors offering them attractive home, car and personal loans.

Falling interest rates will help to bring back retail investors to the stock market.

Controlling inflation will help the RBI also Aravindakshan to bring down interest rates.

There are positive and negative factors always in our environment and which affect stock market investments too.

Mr V Raghavan, Regional HeadKerala, Nirmal Bang Securities, says the much-hyped foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail has given Manmohan Singh and team greater confidence and strength to implement more positive steps to leverage the economy. Moreover, the Government is contemplating taking measures to distribute cash subsidy to the eligible people through banks which will enliven the mood of the people to support the Government in its future steps.

In addition to this, the record inflow of foreign investment, the highest after two years (over Rs 1 lakh crore), impressed the stock market as the traders expect more inflow in the coming days, Mr Raghavan says.

Mr Raghavan asserts that India’s GDP growth of around 5.5% is better than that of many other countries, and the likely recovery of European countries as well as the US will give our economy a better outlook.

The Q3 results of companies are likely to be impressive and this will raise hopes of a buoyant market in the

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

17 coming days. Now the market has improved and the index has reached a 52-week high. Many shares have got 30% and more return within two-three months. The coming months will show further improvement. The RBI proposal to cut the interest rate will have positive notes on the market. Inflation will remain at a controllable level of 7.75%.

To a question how far the market will show the uptrend and whether there will be any chance of a correction, Mr Raghavan says, “Of course there will be.” “We are expecting the next Union budget to be a populist one offering more sops to the common people which will have a negative impact on the market. That may force a

Commenting on the FII investment surpassing Rs 1 lakh crore is a good sign and it has come around Rs 1,06,406 crore in December 2012 . So there are chances of more foreign inflow into investment during the coming months. The policy stipulates that FDI is permitted in areas where there is a population of more than 10 lakh and the goods that come for deals in malls or markets would be 30% of the indigenously produced or manufactured lot.

This was formulated to encourage the indigenous production of goods and small-time farmers. Naturally we can expect a cohesive growth rate of the economy which will give an impetus to the market.

Experts forecast a buoyant market as the chances have brightened after the Manmohan team won the FDI vote in multi-brand retail. The confidence of the market will swell if other bills including the Finance Bill waiting for nod in both Houses of Parliament will have a smooth sail. correction in the market by February.”

Which are the shares recommended for investment? Recently there was a statement by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram offering more liquidity amounting to Rs 15,000 crore for the banking system as the NPA is increasing. He has also announced Rs 4,000 crore to SBI, the largest bank. This will have a comparative edge on the banking shares.

Information technology scrips, one of the growth engines of the market, are not exV Raghavan pecting much takeaways in the third quarter. Infosys, the number two among Indian IT companies, has already cut the growth rate in the last quarter and Cognizant has reduced its growth trajectory recently from 26% to 16%. TCS is doing fairly well compared with its counterparts.

But in general, the outlook towards the IT sector may not be much commendable.

Mr Aravindakshan of Acumen Capital Market (India) Ltd points out that the passing of the FDI Bill is a significant step on the part of the UPA Government because there are likely chances of Manmohan’s economic policies to get life and blood. Moreover, the forecast on the index as envisaged by experts at 21,000 points may be a lower figure as the market may rally above that level.

In the 2014 election either the BJP or the Congress will come into power.

Both the parties are pro-reform and the chance of a third front is bleak. So the wide assumption of correction in the market during the pre-election period will be a mere speculation.

A notable feature of the Indian market is that it is the cheapest market in the world and a better place to do retail business. Stock prices are comparatively low in which the common man can invest. Out of 1.3 billion Indians merely 1% have accessibility to the stock market. So awareness is the need of the hour. At least 5% should come to the market. We have to edu-

cate the commoners about seeking the opinion of a sharebroker or a financial consultant before investing, whatever be the size of the investment.

According to the Rajiv Gandhi equity scheme, an IT exemption of Rs 25,000 is allowed for an investment of Rs 50,000. This gives wide scope for small investors to enter the market. Another notable area to invest in is the entertainment companies whose shares can have a quantum jump in the times ahead and growth may be expected in that sector.

The shares that call for investment are infrastructure, power, auto, PSBs and pharma.

Mr Jerome Joseph, Regional HeadKerala of Vertex Securities Ltd, is very optimistic about the market as the UPA Government won the FDI vote. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and team can now adopt very aggressive reform measures to tone up the economy which will surely boost the market sentiment.

He says that there is no possibility of a poll before the end of the term of the UPA-11 Government. And more recently investment by FIIs crossed Rs 1 lakh crore stimulating the investors’ mood to enter the market enthusiastically and there prevails a bullish trend in the market.

The frequent increase in the oil prices is the major hurdle that impedes economic growth.

It jacks up inflation, widens budget deficit and currency Jerome Joseph depreciation and These positive signs indiinflation, now under cate that there is no need for an control. Frequent immediate correction in the market and scams are another lacuna which pulls the market is rallying, Nifty reaching a down the economic graph that projects level of 6,300 points in six months. a grim profile of our economy that may draw out FIIs out of the market.

In the case of Sensex, it is noticed

that the FIIs’ investment runs to an average Rs 500 crore daily which works out to Rs 10,000 crore in 20 days of trading which may push up the Sensex to 21,000 points by six months and the investors have much hope in the 200 DMA (daily moving average) rally.

Moreover, the rating agency JP Morgan has upgraded India’s GDP at an appreciable level. The RBI’s next review meeting is to cut the interest rate which will retain the bullish trend of the market.

The bear may dominate the market unless the Government controls inflation and the price rise of essential commodities and the retailers opt to buy when there is a dip and control the selling spree when the market rallies.

Moreover the market now depends on the attitude of the FIIs.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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18

AVIATION

Air Kerala needs wings

It is totally erroneous to anticipate a roaring success for Air Kerala (AK), similar to that of CIAL, simply because of its board composition and its so-called PPP character. Currently, airline business, especially international airline business, is highly volatile and even speculative. It is absurd to think of an AK, operating in competition with AI or any other established airlines. What we need is an AK that will work as a joint venture with or as a subsidiary of AI. With the sort of enthusiasm for AK at every level, and the large contingent of Kerala Ministers in Delhi, this could be easily accomplished. drama enacted on a Kochi-bound Air India (AI) flight from Dubai and the hours of misery inflicted on some 200 AI passengers have further underlined the business sense and social relevance of the proposed AK.

A

K Vijayachandran

ir Kerala (AK) is the brainchild of Emerging Kerala 2012, engineered by Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty. Possibly, it was the only product of Emerging Kerala, which had caught the imagination of NRI Malayalees from the Middle East, who had patronized this three-day show in large numbers. Callousness and insensibilities of Delhi bureaucrats towards the simple travel needs of low-paid NRKs of the Gulf region have imparted AK a great deal of social relevance. The recent hijack

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There is plenty of loose talk, and there are also announcements, by Ministers and high-level bureaucrats of Kerala. But, how do we go about organizing the business of AK? This question needs to be examined and studied with the seriousness it deserves. There is a blind belief in Kerala that the organizational model taken by

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012 Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) is the best or most suited for any Government-sponsored infrastructure project. And CIAL is often quoted as a good success story for the PPP (public-private partnership) route for infrastructure development.

Based on such popular belief, the Director Board of AK has been constituted with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as Chairman and V J Kurien of CIAL as Managing Director. Four more Ministers— Kunhalikutty (Industries), K M Mani (Finance), K C Joseph (Information) and K Babu (Excise)—and two businessmen, Yusuf Ali and , have also found a place on the eight-member board.

This board, representing varied

public and private interests, has already met and has decided to ask the consultants, Ernst & Young, for updating the detailed project report they had prepared in 2006.

The Kerala Government has sought speedy approval from the Union Government for launching AK, which would primarily cater to the needs of Keralites living in the Gulf region. AK has to seek exemption from rules that stipulates a minimum of five-year domestic experience and ownership of 20 aircraft for starting international operations. These are difficult or nearimpossible conditions for a new private or joint-sector enterprise like AK whose promoters believe that this could be easily accomplished by exerting political pressure and mobilizing public opinion.

Kurien, Managing Director designate of AK, has said that the Kerala Government and public-sector undertakings will hold 26% share of the new company to be floated, and the remaining 74% will be allotted to the general public. The minimum lot size of shares for public issue will be of Rs 10,000 in value, and according to Kurien, some 2,00,000 Keralites are expected to invest in AK. Incentives are being promised to NRK shareholders by way of concessional airfares, details of which will be known, as the consultants finalize the project report. Government officials and their private collaborators are confident of mobilizing the required capital for financing their dream project. However, there are widespread doubts about the viability of AK as a business enterprise.

K Roy Paul, former Secretary for Civil Aviation and AI Chairman, does not see AK as a feasible proposition. He had promoted Air India Express, focusing on the lowincome NRK group of the Middle East. The proposal was to have an AI subsidiary and supporting services headquartered in Kochi and manned by staff who were keen to live and work in Kerala. Air India Express was flagged off on April 29, 2005, with a maiden flight on the Thiruvananthapuram-Abu Dhabi route. But the euphoria over this was short-lived. The company was supposed to be a Kerala-specific business entity; but as it got implemented, all these premises were violated, and the results were devastating. It was true that the concept was never implemented with any seriousness and in its true spirit. For this, Roy Paul squarely puts the blame on the so-called Mumbai lobby. He believes that this could be corrected, and Air India Express could function as a viable ancillary of AI.

now well-accepted policy and practice of Central public-sector undertakings. These are being floated everywhere, even where they are not needed and even least desirable.

A 50:50 or a 51:49 joint venture of the Kerala Government and AI would enable Kerala patriotism to work on the decades-long civil aviation experience of AI. Such JVs could be floated by AI in cooperation with any state or group of states if the situation in the region warrants it. Instead of pleading for any special concession for itself, Kerala could take the initiative for demanding such policy shifts by the Central Government. After all, for the first time in the history of the republic, Kerala is represented by eight Ministers at the Centre.

Central public-sector units (CPSUs) have rich experience in several sectors of industry and business.

Operating from “the commanding heights of the national economy�, they have been developing as technology generators for the nation for quite a few decades and

serving as depositories of technical expertise. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has developed, designed and constructed more than a hundred civilian airports, some of them even in foreign countries. When the Kerala Government decided to float CIAL for building Nedumbassery international airport, AAI was there to support it with its expertise and experience.

Even AI and the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) had helped CIAL with their technical expertise and finance. More than official protocols and MOUs, Malayalee patriotism was at work in these deals.

The political leadership had actively supported this formal and informal cooperation between these CPSUs and CIAL. A high-quality international airport at minimal cost at Nedumbassery was the net result of this excellent cooperation. In bringing out this cooperation, the Chief Executive and the Board of Directors of CIAL had played a key role.

While interpreting the CIAL success story, the impact of this cooperation between Central- and state-sector organizations is often

19

forgotten. The success is often erroneously attributed to the so-called PPP model and the structure and composition of the Director Board.

There were also other factors behind the instant success of CIAL. With regard to the domestic sector, CIAL was only replacing and expanding an already existing air travel business at Kochi. And, with regard to international travel there was a large pent-up demand, simply waiting to be shifted away from Mumbai.

It is totally erroneous to anticipate a roaring success for AK, similar to that of CIAL, simply because of its board composition and its so-called PPP character. Currently, airline business, especially international airline business, is highly volatile and even speculative. It is absurd to think of an AK, operating in competition with AI or any other established airlines. What we need is an AK that will work as a joint venture with or as a subsidiary of AI. With the sort of enthusiasm for AK at every level, and the large contingent of Kerala Ministers in Delhi, this could be easily accomplished.

Obviously, AK cannot be launched and run as a successful business entity, merely by patriotism, enthusiasm or even cleverness of Malayalees. There are several objective factors behind the premature demise of Air India Express, conceived by Roy Paul.

Joining hands with AI and floating AK as its subsidiary or joint venture would make immense sense. It will remove the several negative features pointed out by Roy Paul, and even help to counter the so-called Mumbai lobby. Expanding and consolidating business through joint ventures, subsidiaries and PPP is Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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20

infrastructure

Container terminal take-off delay stretched into infinity?

T

raditionally, Cochin port used to develop facilities to meet demands from trade, ie importers and exporters. During the 1930s, when traffic was about to grow to reach a million tons a year, quayside berths were built at Mattancherry wharf. Until then, cargo used to be taken in lighters to and from ships anchored at outer sea.

K V A Iyer

A container transshipment terminal is not like a local shopping mall, where local people are the customers of the mall.

In a container transshipment terminal, the customers are global shipping con-

glomerates, which operate huge container ships. They buy the services of the transshipment terminal to minimize the operating costs of ships and to maximize profits. Indian exporters and importers derive no benefits from a container transshipment terminal. Their cargo shipments get delayed to reach the destination port if transshipped on the way at transshipment terminals. Local residents have to put up with the din and dust of transshipment terminals that work all day and night. In short, a container transshipment terminal has nothing to do with a country’s development, especially for a large country such as India with a long coastline. The proof of this is for all to see in the US, where hardly any transshipment takes place.

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

During the 1970s when container ships arrived, ports in general were reluctant to spend huge amounts to meet their needs.

Nor did the ports respond to offers of partnership by shipping companies for equipping the ports for container handling. It was during those times that Colombo port accepted offers of partnership to develop as a container port. As there was no container port in India during those times, it suited the shipping companies to turn Colombo into a load centre for traffic originating from

by the private partner for the new terminal at Vallarpadam is Rs 700 crore. Upfront public investment for deepening the channel to 14.5 metres, basin dredging and rail/ road connectivity to the project area, which had already been spent, is Rs 1,700 crore.

Both parties have invested as aforesaid. But the core objective of turning Cochin port into a container transshipment hub has not yet been achieved.

What went wrong?

The basic flaw was that the project was touted as a nationally important project that justified public investment of Rs 1,700 crore.

Global shipping conglomerates utilized every opportunity to propagate this concept.

They have financial clout to shape public opinion by holding several seminars and promoting tendentious media reports. No

By the end of the 1990s container ports were already operational at JNPT, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin, Mundra etc. Some of these ports allow discounted tariff for direct call ships that carry cargo direct to destinations because India is poised to become a global manufacturing-cum-logistic hub. By 2005 several new container terminals were added by ports in India.

industrial tycoon would seek huge public investment merely because it would enrich his coffers. Public discourse is waylaid focusing on huge benefits that would arise for others, viz trade and Cochin port. How a trader in JNPT, where most traffic in India is centered, would be able to cut his transport cost if transshipment were to be done at Cochin port instead of at Colombo was never debated. That was how transshipment got accepted as a great development objective initially by Cochin port and now Vizhinjam port, another port in Kerala under the administrative control of the State Government.

It was during that year that Cochin port decided to join in partnership with DP World to develop the port as a container transshipment port/load centre. The project envisaged building three new terminals in a phased manner at Vallarpadam area over a period extending up to 30 years. After turning the port’s container terminal—RGCT—as transshipment terminal from 2006 onwards, the private partner was to build and shift operations to the new terminal at Vallarpadam by 2011. The estimated project cost to be borne

A container transshipment terminal is not like a local shopping mall, where local people are the customers of the mall. In a container transshipment terminal, the customers are global shipping conglomerates, which operate huge container ships. They buy the services of the transshipment terminal to minimize the operating costs of ships and to maximize profits. Indian exporters and importers derive no benefits from a container transshipment terminal. Their cargo shipments get delayed to reach the destina-

or destined for Indian ports. That was how Colombo became a transshipment port. It was just a business opportunity for Colombo port.

21 tion port if transshipped on the way to transshipment terminals. Local residents have to put up with the din and dust of transshipment terminals that work all day and night.

In short, a container transshipment terminal has nothing to do with a country’s development, especially for a large country such as India with a long coastline. The proof of this is for all to see in the US, where hardly any transshipment takes place.

The blame game The Cochin Port Trust had perceived that a strategic private partner was necessary to strike deals with shipping conglomerates to sell the service of the transshipment terminal. That was why DP World was chosen. Presently, shipping conglomerates are not in hurry to grab the opportunity at Cochin port because they have other options including their own container terminal at Colombo as well as in other ports in India. Therefore shipping conglomerates have started a bargaining game. As the first step, DP World got the Port Trust to drastically cut port dues for mainline ships to compete with Colombo. Additionally, discounted tariff was applied to foreign feeder ships also. Foreign shipping interests bargained for and got the Government’s decision to relax cabotage restrictions to enable foreign ships to carry goods between Vallarpadam terminal and other Indian ports. It is now evident that the private partner has not installed an adequate security system for container scanning. While this reduction of tariff was being done solely by the Port Trust, the private partner at periodic intervals regularly increased tariff for cargorelated services.

PPP in ports The game of private partnership in ports begins with bidders quoting

exorbitant revenue shares to the Port Trust to win the concession.

After getting acceptance of the financial bid by the Port Trust, the successful bidder seeks several amendments to the draft licence agreement, based on which the financial bid was submitted. This vitiates the bidding process. After securing the licence and on signing contracts incorporating several desired amendments, the licensee demands amendment to the Indian laws or relaxation of the law to maximize the profit of the licensee.

Often, the licensee interferes with the functioning of the Port Trust claiming monopoly rights. There have been several court cases that delayed port projects while the licensees took the claim of monopoly right to courts, where the claims invariably failed. At times, the licensee arrogates certain items of revenue, which are unauthorized charges levied on exporters and importers.

Claims of huge amounts of private foreign investment brought into ports, if corroborated with relevant data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), would prove to be a figment of ingenuity. Data available from public sources confirms that DP World financed the entire estimated project cost of Rs 700 crore for Cochin port’s container terminal almost entirely from the loan secured from Indian public financial institutions. Port projects by private partners fail to take off when they fail to secure loan finance.

This happened at Ennore port, where a consortium of companies from Britain and Spain was unable to secure loans from State Bank of India even after six months of securing licence to build a container terminal. Ennore port thereupon was said to have encashed a performance guarantee of Rs 14 crore and the consortium wrote off Rs 20 crore as loss. Likewise, a bidder

may fail to extract unjustified relaxations and concessions from the Port Trust. This happened in JNPT, where Singapore port wanted exemption from payment of stamp duty for signing the contract. This situation, according to press reports, forced JNPT to cancel the licence and encash a performance guarantee of Rs 67 crore.

fic. With 33.3% revenue share, the port’s revenue would not be affected if the private partner performed as envisaged.

Way ahead

on ships. Similarly the cost of basin dredging could be met from the berth hire levied on ships. As DP World failed to bring transshipment traffic and the failure has been continuing for the last 7 years the business plan did not succeed as envisaged.

The port authorities rarely take any stringent action against licensees except in extreme cases as aforesaid. Normally licensees flout terms of contract with impunity. Apparently this is happening at Cochin port.

In any discussion on Vallarpadam project the core objective of transshipment is never discussed.

Instead various extraneous factors come to the fore. Cochin port was handling about two lakh TEU a year before the terminal (RGCT) was entrusted to DP World in January 2005. It was envisaged that the private partner would at least bring six lakh TEU of transshipment traf-

When more traffic and mainline ships arrive, the cost of maintenance dredging of the deep channel was envisaged to be met from port dues levied by the Port Trust

If a party fails to perform, the licence needs to be terminated.

This is the only way forward to save Cochin port from this predicament. Once this is done, the port’s resources can be put to optimum use.

(The writer is Vice-President, Water Transport Workers Federation of India)

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

PASSLINE

22

News

US entrepreneur to set up startup school

K

erala will have a brush with the Silicon Valley culture with Freeman Murray, a legendary entrepreneur, angel investor and mentor from the US, announcing in Kochi recently that he would set up a startup school for young entrepreneurs in collaboration with Startup Village, India’s first telecom incubator.

Murray’s Startup School, the first of its kind in India, will come up at Startup Village in Kochi in partnership with the latter and Jaaga.in, a hub of digital creativity in Bangalore supporting design-

with better communication skills with a good command of English which, he said, was essential to be successful in this sector.

The Kerala Government, he said, was extending a lot of support to technology companies to grow in the state.

“This is a real opportunity in India”, he added.

Startup Village CEO Sijo Kuruvilla said the engineering colleges in the state had started leveraging the advantages of the Kerala Chief Minister’s recent statement about the Government’s new education policy, extending various concessions to engineering students with entrepreneurship skills to encourage them to set up their own ventures. “The results have begun to appear in the growing number of applications reaching Startup Village. Fifteen to Freeman Murray addressing the media 20 students are applying every week,” he said. ers, startups and digital freelancers of all types.

“Startup School is a large-scale Addressing the media at Startup Village, Freeman said the school would enrol 100 students initially for a six-month course of which four months would be devoted to a residential class on Startup Village campus from which the brighter ones with better ideas and entrepreneurship skills would be selected for the final two-month course.

Preference would be given to those

initiative to help young first-time entrepreneurs in India launch successful Internet companies. It is going to be a full-time residential programme. It will also review online classes. Students can participate in it to improve their startup skills,” Murray, who has been working with technology startups for the past 15 years in India and the US, said.

SNGCE students shine at Yi National Innovation Run

T

he team of MBA students from Sree Narayana Gurukulam College of Engineering (SNGCE), Kolenchery, represented

by Arun Kurian, Avanish M R, Renjith Padmanabhan and Divya K Joy won the Third Best Overall Award at The Young Indians (Yi) National Innovation Run-Road 2 Ideas held from November 1-4, 2012. The teams from Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, won the first and second prizes.

SNGCE won two more awards—most popular team and best case study presentation.

The Innovation Run passed through four states that have over the years demonstrated entrepreneurship and excellence. Twelve teams from various colleges across the country took part in this run wherein they got an opportunity to meet 12 innovators from Indore, Vadodara, Pune and Goa. Two teams from SNGCE and Toc H Institute of Science and Technology in Kochi had participated.

At Indore, the teams visited BIO GASIFIER, NVIS Technologies Pvt Ltd and AADHARSH PEN. In Vadodara, the participants met innovative farmers in Aries Agro, the Vadodara Traffic Regulation Trust, Police and RCBC, Sath Visarjan Rath and Godrej–Chotu Kool. In Pune they went to Eaton,

Cybage and SUZLON ONE EARTH GLOBAL VILLAGE and in Goa they interacted with innovators at the Incubation Center and Azulejous Tiles.

The participants had to interview these innovators and other stakeholders based on which they had to prepare five-minute videos and slideshows overnight and upload them online. The winners were selected based on the points gathered for the video and slideshows and the online polls which gathered popular opinion and

the opinions gathered from a select Yi next practices jury.

“The visits were very inspiring and it is amazing to see people who have risen from scratch and are now so successful. They are leading names in the country as well as the world. They inspire us to chase our dreams”, says Arun Kurian, Captain, team SNGCE. “The whole idea about Road 2 Ideas is to enable young minds to explore and meet individuals who have dared to think out of the box, to introduce them to entrepreneurship and also to gauge the impact of the innovation to the community and industry. It was an action-packed, nonstop learning journey celebrating the spirit of thinking differently and thinking big,” according to Ms Navita Mahajan, Chairperson, Road 2 Ideas, CII’s Young Indians.

Thaliath & Jacob in golden jubilee year T

he late Paul Thaliath was one of the few from Kerala on whom was conferred CA in 1949 when the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India came into existence by virtue of an Act of Parliament, The Chartered Accountants Act 1949. In 1962, Jacob Joseph, FCA, joined him to form a partnership under the name and style of Thaliath & Jacob, which was registered with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, on May 1, 1962. On the demise

PASSLINE

of Paul Thaliath, P A Felix joined the firm. K C Joseph Varghese, a former student of the firm, after qualifying in 1978 and practising independently, was admitted into the firm on January 1, 1988. Felix passed away in 1996 and Jacob Joseph in 2004.

In 2000, Ms Michelle Anil, granddaughter of Felix who was ranked in the CA examination, was admitted as a partner. P D Mathew, FCA, after retiring from the Cochin Shipyard as

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

Director of Finance, joined the firm.

New blood is coming into the firm shortly, to give the clientele better service.

Thaliath & Jacob, one of the oldest in Kerala, were central auditors to the then Bank Of Cochin, Catholic Syrian Bank, South Indian Bank, Federal Bank and Parur Central Bank. They have also been statutory auditors to almost all public sector undertakings in Kerala such as FACT,

TCC, FIT, TELK, United Electrical Industries, Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation, Kerala State Construction Corporation, United India Insurance Company Ltd, National Insurance Company Ltd, Cochin Shipyard etc. They had also been appointed auditors by the Archdioceses of Ernakulam and Verapoly, the Diocese of Kottappuram and churches and religious and charitable institutions coming under them.

23

Kunhalikutty’s stress on vertical-model development

“T

he State Government could not provide all facilities for industries on its own because the state is lacking resources like land. Hence, the projects the Government undertakes require private participation. Moreover, the Government is putting stress on a `vertical’ model of development because of the shortage of Government land ,” Industries and IT Minister P K Kunhalikutty said while inaugurating the other day the Standard Design Modules (SDM) facility, set up by Inkel, at Angamaly.

dustrial policy. “Even though Inkel was formed during the last ministry, we will give all support to the innovative ideas put forward by Inkel,” he said.

dividual modules of 5,000 sq ft each.

Entrepreneurs can lease or rent one or more of these 39 modules and use the modular facilities to suit their particu-

SDM Angamaly is well connected by and is in close proximity to road, air and sea routes. Besides, it is next to already well-established industrial majors like TELK. Coming nearby is a Logistics Park too. With a view to the future, Inkel is also getting a second SDM complex done over 3,00,000 sq ft, which will be ready for allotment by January 2014.

“The SDM facility has been built in such a vertical configuration. This is the trend all over the world, and we must also follow it. Such facilities will be able to host units which will create a lot of jobs,” the Minister said. ``The Government will promote only eco-friendly projects in the state and won’t encourage polluting industries. The Industries Department has also decided not to promote such projects,” he said. ``Screening of the project proposals presented at the Emerging Kerala meet is going on and the cleared list of the projects will be out by this month.

The list will contain only those proposals for projects which are non-polluting and those which do not harm our environment,” the Minister asserted.

Mr Kunhalikutty said there must be a larger political consensus on the in-

electronics, avionics, apparel, light engineering, printing and publishing, warehousing and logistics, IT/ITES, banking, financial and a host of other service sector businesses and units.

Mr Jose Thettayil, MLA, who presided, complimented the Minister on following the industrial policy of the last Government. “There must be continuity in our policies and Mr Kunhalikutty is striving for that,” he said. Mr Thettayil lamented that controversies, and not industries, grew more in the state.

This trend must be reversed. He also reminded those concerned about the bad state of the road leading from the NH side to the SDM.

lar business. As a major infrastructure provider Inkel wants to take the hassle away from starting a business and make it even exciting.

SDM Angamaly’s facilities are ideal for non-polluting industries like

Mr T Balakrishnan, Managing Director, Inkel, welcomed the gathering. Mr C K Varghese, Chairman, Angamaly Municipality, Ms Ajitha Teacher, Councillor, Angamaly Municipality, Inkel Directors P Muhammed Ali, Varghese Kurien, C K Menon and Sidique Ahmed Haji Panatharayil and Executive Director N Sreedharan Nair also attended the function.

SDM Angamaly provides 2,00,000 sq ft of space on five floors, with in-

Geojit launches mobile trading app for Windows 8

K

eeping pace with the latest development from Microsoft, the launch of Windows 8, on October 26, Geojit BNP Paribas announced the other day that ‘Flip Me’, its mobile trading application for Windows 8, was simultaneously launched. The application can be downloaded from the Windows Store.

‘Flip Me’ was the first mobile trading solution that offered clients the facility to place orders both on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). ‘Flip Me’ users who use Windows 8 will experience enhanced functionalities such as efficient navigation and user-friendly con-

tent management, especially multimedia content, along with the look, feel and touch capabilities of Windows 8.

Whether they are using a desktop or a mobile device, users are assured of the same functionalities.

‘Flip Me’ users can now obtain multiple market watch views with real-time updates, configure and place orders for all cash and derivative segments of the stock exchanges and view the order book and trade book in an optimum security environment. It also offers portfolio information with realtime updates and dynamic real-time charts. An offline order facility is also available through ‘Flip Me’, enabling investors to place orders outside market hours. While watching the market, customers can initiate and authenticate voice calls to the tele-trading centre of Geojit BNP Paribas.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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24

Tourism

Kerala Tourism wins CNBC AWAAZ Award

K

erala Tourism has bagged the prestigious CNBC AWAAZ Travel Award for this year. The ‘Best Travel and Tourism State’ award was presented to it recently at a glittering function held recently at Srinagar in which Union Health and Family Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of State for Tourism Chiranjeevi Konidala and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah par-

Union Health and Family Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad presenting the CNBC-AWAAZ award to Kerala Tourism Secretary Suman Billa in Srinagar.

Union Minister of State for Tourism Chiranjeevi Konidala and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah aare also seen.

K

ticipated. Kerala Tourism Secretary Suman Billa received the award.

“It is an honour to receive this prestigious award. It is recognition of the combined efforts of the private and public sectors in the travel and tourism sectors of Kerala to maintain the state as the best destination for both domestic and foreign tourists,” Mr Billa said.

The awards citation said Kerala Tourism was adjudged the ‘Best Travel and Tourism State’ for constantly striving to push the boundaries of excellence.

Kerala had won the ‘Most Preferred Destination’ prize at the CNBC AWAAZ Awards in 2010 besides bagging the ‘Best Tourism Board’ honour.

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation CEO and Managing Director Amitabh Kant and prominent Indian travel industry entrepreneurs Vikram Madhok and Ajeet Bajaj were members of the CNBC AWAAZ Awards jury this year.

Conde Nast Award

retary Parvez Dewan, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation CEO and Managing Director Amitabh Kant and the Ambassadors of Thailand, New Zealand and the Maldives were present at the ceremony.

Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Minister Nasir Aslam Wani was also present. Indian Hotels Company Managing Director and CEO Raymond Bickson, The new award category intro- IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh, Singapore Airlines General Manager (India) G M Toh, Thomas Cook India Managing Director Madhavan Menon, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts President Rajiv Kaul, The Oberoi Group Executive Vice-President Kapil Chopra, writer William Dalrymple and senior media personality Vir Sanghvi atKerala Tourism Director Rani George receiving the tended.

Conde Nast travel award in New Delhi .

Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anil Kuduced by the prestigious international mar described the award as ‘big rectravel magazine in its travel awards ognition’ of the state’s sustained global recognizes the significant contribution campaign pitching God’s Own Counby Kerala Tourism to the travel industry try as a ‘must-see’ destination in the and its important efforts to put India on world. Rani George said: “It is a great privilege for Kerala Tourism to be a sigthe global travel map. nificant part of the efforts to put ‘Brand Government of India Tourism Sec- India’ on the global map.” erala Tourism has won the Conde Nast travel award for putting India on the global travel map.

The Excellence in Taking ‘Brand India’ Global Award, instituted this year, was recently presented to Kerala Tourism Director Rani George in New Delhi attended by the who’s who of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

PASSLINE

Kerala pavilion a huge draw at London travel fair

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

T

he Kerala Tourism pavilion themed on the Western Ghats was a huge draw at the World Travel Mart (WTM), the leading trade event for the global travel and tourism industry, held in London recently.

The theme of the Western Ghats, which is one of the world’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mesmerized visitors, reports say. The Kerala delegation to the WTM was led

by Kerala Tourism Secretary Suman Billa. Sixteen co-exhibitors, including resorts, hoteliers and tour operators from the state, participated. “The Kerala Tourism pavilion, which was spread over 120 square metres, earned praise from the visitors for its breathtaking beauty. We were humbled by the remarkable response from the visitors to

our state’s pavilion,” Mr Billa said.

The co-exhibitors from the state were Abad Hotels and Resorts, Carnoustie Beach Resort and Ayurveda Spa, Intersight Tours and Travels, Jayasree Travels and Tours, Joys Resorts and Hotels, Lake Palace Resort, Lakesong Resort, Pepper Tours, Quilon Beach Hotel, Ramada Resort, Spiceland Holidays, The Raviz, Thomas Hotels and Resorts, Uday Samudra Leisure Beach Hotel and Spa and Vasundhara Sarovar Premiere.

“Kerala’s calm countryside, pristine beaches and majestic hill stations are hugely popular among British tourists. For Kerala Tourism, the UK is the biggest market in the world,” Mr Billa said.

Campaign to woo visitors to GKSF

K

erala has flagged off an intensive national campaign to woo tourists from across the country to the forthcoming Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF), a spring-board event to catapult the state to the status of an international shopping destination.

The colourful campaign, which will travel to eight major cities in the run-up to the mega-fiesta, was flagged off from the Kerala House in New Delhi by Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi the other day.

The campaign vehicle will have stopovers at Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore before culminat-

ing at Kannur in Kerala where the 48-day mega fiesta will get off on December 15.

The South Indian Bank-GKSF, already billed as the biggest fiesta of the kind in Asia, aims at transforming the entire Kerala into ‘one single shopping mall’ with highvoltage campaigns, promotions, tantalizing discounts, incentives from the Government and gifts and gold worth millions of rupees, coinciding with the peak tourism and pilgrim season.

25

SIB CARE for fixed monthly return retired people investing a part of their income in this scheme can ensure a fixed monthly income for a long period.

Thrissur-based South Indian Bank (SIB) has introduced a new fixed deposit scheme called SIB CARE which ensures a fixed monthly return for term deposits. For example, a senior person who deposits Rs 1 lakh at 9.25% interest for two years will get Rs 4,577 as equated monthly instalment from next month onwards.

If one deposits Rs 1 lakh plus with this, one is entitled to free accident insurance benefit to the tune of Rs 1 lakh. The benefit of the scheme is that

The scheme will benefit students of professional courses, NRIs, farmers, senior citizens and retired personnel.

DCB Bank welcomes NRKs with best services, products

W

ith its first-ever branch in Kerala having become operational in Kochi, DCB Bank is offering a wide array of attractive offers and products to the NRIs. Anand Subramaniam, the bank’s NRI Business Head, told PASSLINE recently that Kerala is a state where every home has at least one member who is settled or working abroad. “This factor is what attracts us to Kerala,” he said.

DCB caters to the needs of NRIs across the globe especially in East Africa, South Africa and Nairobi in Kenya where a strong presence of Keralites exists. The bank is now trying to boost its base in the Middle East also.

It operates in those countries by associating with other major banks.

According to Mr Anand, DCB offers all normal banking services like savings account and current account with better facilities for NRIs. “We charge lower amounts compared with other banks in cases of minimum balances,” he said. “The bank can provide better personalized services than other banks. Customers normally have to take a token and form a queue at respective counters but in DCB they can just walk in, have a coffee with the manager while their needs are being processed and walk out happy without struggle,” Mr Anand said.

“As far as fixed deposits are concerned we have the best interest rates.

We give 9.3% which is highly competitive compared with other banks,” he said.

For money remittance DCB has high-quality services, especially online services where NRIs can make transactions sitting at home through

their laptop even at midnight. DCB has a tie-up with ‘Remit 2 India’ where the customer needs only a one-time registration to be eligible for online transactions. There is swift wire transaction option also.

Though DCB was only less than six months old in Kerala, it had a rich

Appointments

Those who set apart a part of their income for their parents can also be a part of this plan. Deposits ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 crore are accepted under the scheme. The period of the deposit is for two to 10 years. Nomination facility is available.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy launched the deposit scheme along with the opening of the bank’s new branch at Puthuppally the other day.

Dr V A Joseph, bank MD and CEO, presided. Cine actor Mitra Kurian, Executive Director Abraham Tharian, Kottayam Zonal Head Francis Chacko and Grama Panchayat Member P R Sivarajan were present on the occasion.

The bank has a network of 82 state-of-the-art, customer-friendly and conveniently located branches across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi/NCR, Rajasthan, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

DCB has deep roots in India since its inception in the 1930s. Its promoter and promoter group, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and Platinum Jubilee Investments Ltd, holds over 19% stake.

AKFED is an international development enterprise. It is dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound companies.

Chairperson & MD

Mrs V R Iyer has taken charge as Chairperson and Managing Director of Bank of India with effect from November 5, 2012. She was Executive Director of Central Bank of India.

Kerala Feeds MD

CSB registers higher profit Thrissur-based Catholic Syrian

Bank (CSB) posted 186.77% increase in profit during the first half of the financial year as compared to the corresponding period last year. Total business increased by 22.18%, deposits by 22.11%, advances by 22.28% and net interest income by 4.80%.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio stands at 10.86%.

legacy in India, said Mr Anand. Built on over 78 years of trust, tradition and togetherness, DCB was converted into a scheduled commercial bank on May 31, 1995, in the wake of India’s economic liberalization. It was the only co-operative bank, which successfully crossed over and thrived in the face of change.

Bank of India

Dr Ani S Das has assumed office as Managing Director of Kerala Feeds Ltd, Thrissur. He had earlier served for eight years as Managing Director of Kerala Livestock Development Board.

Dr Das holds additional charge as Managing Director of Meat Products of India.

Varkey Pattimattom

M

HAL MD

r K V Varkey (Varkey Pattimattom) has been appointed Managing Director of Hindustan Antibiotics Limited, a Central Government enterprise, Pimpri, Pune, from November 2, 2012, according to a Presidential order from the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Department of Pharmaceuticals, New Delhi.

A BSc Engg (Hons) and MTech (Industrial Management) from IIT Madras, Mr Varkey was serving with Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited, Ambalamugal, Kochi, as the Chief General Manager and Head of the Management Services and Computer Division before joining HAL, Pimpri.

He has very rich experience in the industrial management and computer science disciplines and also working experience in a high-level management team for more than 32 years in various Industries in Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi including public sector companies.

Mr Varkey Pattimattom, former General Manager of Hindustan Organic Ltd, has assumed charge as Managing Director of Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd. He has also served as National Joint Secretary of ECOMMET and as expert panel member of the Kerala State Encyclopaedic Publications.

Mr Varkey has authored eight books on information technology under the pen-name Varkey Pattimattom.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

PASSLINE

26

health insurance

Untapped market: a matter of serious concern with only 15%-20% penetration.

This raises serious concern as it indicates that the health of a majority of our citizens is not protected.

Viswanathan Odatt

H

ealth insurance has created highly dissatisfied customers mainly due to mis-selling and unhealthy practices in the hospitals.

Many customers are not paid their claim. The members of the hospital staff are not adequately trained to manage cases of health insurance.

There are no specific training programmes for the insurance department in the hospitals. These things create a general aversion among the public to health insurance.

The TPA fails to give quality services to the clients.

Health insurance in India has recorded 30% growth and is the second largest in volume, constituting a major chunk of business of

the general insurance sector. It is also the fastest-growing segment.

It is however alarming that health insurance still remains untapped

PASSLINE

This calls for immediate attention because our country is at great risk with perhaps the highest number of diseases and mishaps occurring here. According to latest medical reports, a new breed of 20 major diseases is causing trouble.

Additionally, a new trend of lifestyle diseases has also raised its head owing to sedentary urban lifestyles and increased alcohol consumption and smoking. India has already got the unenviable reputation of being the diabetes capital of the world with 61.3 million people affected by it. Even its South Asian neighbours like Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have fewer diabetics. Only Pakistan fares worse.

According to the Global Atlas on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control 2011, the death rate due to ischemic heart disease (a condition which is characterized by reduced blood supply of the heart muscle) in India is 165.8 per 1,00,000. About 116.4 per 1,00,000 people in India die due to cerebrovascular diseases.

The prices of medicines are also shooting up with the companies establishing their monopoly in the market. Hospitals also charge exorbitant rates for diagnosis. It is against this background that the fact that our people are not protected by health insurance becomes a shocking matter.

The reasons are plenty and the blame must be shared by insurance companies as well as hospitals.

Health insurance was introduced in India in 1987.

But it is only by 2000 that private players were able to enter the market after liberalization. Health insurance is done by the TPA (third party administration), the third party

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

administrators for health insurance acting as a link between the insured and the insurance company. This TPA company typically files claims for the insured, and also certifies insurability for the insurance company. That means that the TPA works for both the insured and the provider, though the continued employment will typically depend on the satisfaction of the provider.

There are 30 TPA licensed companies and 4 stand-alone companies. The three major stand-alone companies are Apollo, Max Bupa and Star Health and the fourth in the wings Religare Health Ins Co which has kickstarted its operations in Mumbai Though a bleeding portfolio, health insurance has created highly dissatisfied customers mainly due to mis-selling and unhealthy practices in the hospitals. Many customers are not paid their claim.

The members of the hospital staff are not adequately trained to manage cases of health insurance.

There are no specific training programmes for the insurance department in the hospitals. These things create a general aversion among the public to health insurance. The TPA fails to give quality services to the clients.

There is a tendency among certain hospitals to exploit people’s lack of knowledge about health insurance. They let the patients undergo all kinds of costly diagnostic methods like scanning to give a high amount in the bill. This is a tricky situation for the customers as some hospitals are not interested in health insurance because they lack knowledge while some others who are keen on the insurance do it only to exploit it for their own benefits.

The overall claim ratio for health insurance is 140%-160% and the highest claim ratio is for group mediclaim. But most of the claims happen in the metros and in rural areas it is negligible. Thus the health insurance business is not a healthy proposition for an insurance company. It is a highly tapped sector in metros and customers in the metros use it wisely.

The discriminative face of health insurance shows its colour in the metros. Health insurance in hospitals in the metros is highly costly.

There is no clear mention of costs in the policy and hospitals exploit this loophole. As a result a highly

sophisticated ‘A-class’ hospital in the metros and a ‘B-class’ hospital in the suburban or rural area would have different costs for it.

Though health insurance is discriminative in nature the diseases are not. A disease or mishap can easily break the barriers and reach out freely into the elite upper class, the middle class and the deprived lower class of society. So health insurance should be modified in such a way as to cater to all the three classes giving them protection in the right way.

General awareness must be created among the public about the inevitability of health insurance and people must be taught that every family should be equipped with a health card and health insurance. Organizations, insurance companies and hospitals should come forward to spread awareness about health insurance. It must also be taught in schools and the Government must take the initiative for this.

One of the daunting problems is that the insurance regulator at present does not have control over hospitals and there is lack of standardized hospitalization rates across the country. This lack of strict regulation is the prime reason for exploitation in the sector which forces the public to shy away from taking health cover. As of now the only solution is to end the discriminative tendency to classify hospitals clearly mentioning the costs.

And finally the customers should be educated about the possibilities of health insurance. They must be taught that their health should be insured while they have steady incomes. There is no use in getting health insurance after you are diagnosed with a disease.

The mindset of the masses has also to be changed for there can’t be any returns for health insurance, but it can cover the hospitalization costs without burning a hole in the pocket. Health insurance is in the news and the Government has initiated various schemes like RSBY, CHIS etc to cater to different strata of the population. IRDA is in the process of implementing the recommendations of the committee set up on health reforms to streamline the sector and give a good deal to the customer and remove the lacunae in the existing system

27

GHS to help bring best healthcare solutions T

he Global Healthcare Summit (GHS) being conducted by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in Kochi from January 1-3, 2013 has drawn the attention of several India-based professional associations.

They include the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Kochi, the local or- Dr Narendra Kumar ganizer of the event, Medical Council of India (MCI), Association of Surgeons of India (ASI), IPS, American Psychological Association (APA), Association of Physicians in India (API), Indian Cooperative Oncology Network (ICON) and IOEA, besides several international healthcare industry partners, who are looking for opportunities at such events for greater collaboration on R&D and genuine philanthropic engagements.

The attendance is expected to exceed 800-1,000 delegates from all over the world, especially from the UK and the US. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), which is conducting the summit, has been actively engaged in harnessing the power of the Indian diaspora and has successfully gained the support of

several leading healthcare experts and professional physicians’ associations, including GAPIO and AKMG, to collaborate on the ground-breaking international healthcare summit, which is designed to bring the best, most efficient and cost-effective healthcare solutions to the people of India, according to Mr Narendra Kumar, current President of AAPI, who also holds the record of being the second Keralite to be the President.

and then pass them on to the Central Ministry for its perusal,” he says.

“Headquartered in Chicago, AAPI has projected member strength of 1 lakh and its active members would number more than 20,000. The objective of the summit is to bring the physicians of Indian origin under one roof.

All of them would share their thoughts and ideas on how to provide affordable healthcare to Indian cities,” said Mr Narendra Kumar.

The escalating medicine prices, one of the grave problems which the state now faces, will be a hot topic of discussion at the summit. “There is a CEO forum at the summit in which CEOs of reputed pharmaceutical companies, medical device and technology companies, hospitals and teaching institutions from all over the world will participate. We will raise the problem at the forum,” says Mr Anwar Feroz Siddiqi, Adviser to AAPI. This is for the first time at a summit in Kochi a CEO forum is conducted and they will explore potential opportunities of collaboration also, he says.

The event will be based Dr Jayesh Shah on knowledge sharing, not financial sharing, a mutual sharing of best practices among the experts from the US and those in India, says Mr Jayesh Shah, President-in-Waiting of AAPI. “We come together, discuss, come up with solutions to problems

“The Government has the history of taking our recommendations on a serious note. We had earlier initiated a smoking ban campaign which the Government was willing to endorse at any cost,” Mr Narendra Kumar says.

“India, especially Kerala state, is a place where we have a lot to contribute,” he adds.

“This forum is by invitation only,” Mr Anwar reminds. They will also meet the ministers thereby opening doors to follow-up at the ministry level.

“We partner with the IMA and it has the power to follow up whatever recommendations we make,” Mr Narendra Kumar says.

AAPI is aware of the ground realities of healthcare in India and it has already initiated some measures to speed up the distribution of healthcare facilities across the country. A website has been developed which has a solid database providing accurate information about what kind of service opportunities are currently available in India. Looking up this website doctors or other medical experts can volunteer to provide their knowledge and services to the needy. This is an innovative and efficient way of catering to the common people free of cost, says Anwar Feroz Mr Narendra Kumar.

A major initiative that AAPI could take pride in is its charitable clinic. The Rajasthan Government, on AAPI’s recommendation, had started generic clinics in the state and the effort helped to boost the image of the Government as it was a major initiative to provide affordable healthcare to the common people. “There were no charitable clinics in Kochi but we had recently started one here. We are not running the clinics but we partially finance the clinic,” says Mr Anwar Feroz.

International Convention Center,Le Meridien, Kochi, India. January 1-3,2013

GHS Cochin Office: IMA House, Behind Kaloor Stadium, Palarivattom P.O,Cochin 682 025 Email:drsskamath@gmail.com, cjpanicker@gmail.com Vimy Radha krishnan: 097441 75818 , aapighs2013@gmail.com Lathika Mathew: 9388158585 Email: ghsimacochin@gmail.com

AAPI ( American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin ) 600 Enterprise Drive, Suite 108, Oak Brook,IL 60523,USA. Phone (630) 9902277 Fax (630) 990 2281 www.aapighsindia.org chair@aapighsindia.org www.aapiusa.org

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Summit advantage to India, Kerala: Dr Dinesh

``Whichever way we look at the Global Health Summit (GHS) it is an advantage to India and Kerala too,” says Dr N Dinesh, President, IMA Cochin.

GHS will focus on ensuring the best practices, developing efficient and cost-effective solutions suitable for India and the opportunity to exchange practical knowledge Dr. N. Dinesh of doctors and medical practitioners with worldwide authencity and eminent personalities in cardiology, maternal and child health, diabetes, oncology, surgery, mental health etc. It will help our doctors to clear their doubts and rectify their mistakes, adds Dr Dinesh.

“We are also looking at the possibilities of sending our junior doctors to the US to experience advanced clinical practices for two or three months in their respective medical branches. We have already discussed such things with our US counterparts.

If a person who took a medical degree from India wants to practise in the US, he or she must pass the ECFMG entrance examination before commencing the practice. The exam board authorities are also attending the summit. It enables our doctors to learn and get the nitty-gritty of the exam directly from them.

The organizers have also invited 20 undergraduates from all the medical colleges to attend the summit free of cost. Invitations are being sent to the Principals of colleges. The CEO Forum is another milestone of the summit, in which CEOs of major healthcare sectors including pharmaceutical, medical devices and technology, hospitals and teaching institutions from all over the world will be participating and exploring potential opportunities for collaboration with Indian companies.

Certain medical colleges and hospitals have already arranged for workshops and seminars for their doctors in their hospitals with the visiting experts. Moreover our tourism industry is catering wide scope for fine-tuning certain products related to medical tourism and other areas of tourism,” Dr Dinesh points out.

A platform for interaction, exchange of views: Dr Kamath

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he Global Healthcare Summit (GHS) will be a meeting platform for global, national as well as state policymakers, administrators, bureaucrats and politicians to interact among themselves and review and exchange views on the various sectors of the medical science, according to Dr Sachidananda Kamath, the local Organizing Committee Chairman of the meet.

Dr Sachidananda Kamath

All participants can share the issues relating to the health industry. The highlight of the meet is that the AMA President and officials from AHS will be attending the meet. This is the first time such a big meeting is taking place in Kerala, says Dr Kamath.

The medical policies, protocols and general practices vary from one country to another. They are also different in Indian states. Our policies are different from those of UP or MP, even from our neighbouring Tamil Nadu, for that matter. So this meeting will be a convergence of ideas and views of different stakeholders. “I don’t say that the Indian health sector is bad or substandard. We can improve a lot in this area through these types of meetings and other exercises. At present in our state 60%-70% of the healthcare sector is in the hands of the private sector and only 30% is in the Government sector.

But in advanced countries health is in the priority sector and governments are providing adequate importance to people’s health by implementing legislative measures and sufficient funds. Unless the attitude of the Government changes in toto, including towards practitioners, the dedication of the medical fraternity will not improve, Dr Kamath says.

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

Summit will be based on knowledge-sharing: Dr Raju AAPI USA has been actively engaged in harnessing the power of the Indian diaspora and has the backing of several leading medical healthcare experts and professional physicians’ associations, including GAPIO and AKMG, to collaborate on a groundbreaking international healthcare summit, which has been simply designed to bring the best, says Dr N S D Raju, Chairman, Local Organising committee, GHS 2013 The summit will be based on knowledge-sharing, not financial sharing; a mutual sharing of best practices among the medical experts from the US and those in India.

Dr N S D Raju

One of the grave problems which the state now faces, the escalating price of medicines, will be a hot topic for discussion at the event. At present in our state 60%-70% of the healthcare sector is being handled by the private sector and merely 30% is by the Government sector, whereas in advanced countries health is in the priority sector and governments are providing adequate importance to the people’s health by implementing legislative measures and sufficient funds. Unless the attitude of the Government changes in toto, including towards practitioners, the dedication of the medical fraternity will not improve, says Dr Raju.

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CIMAR marches ahead in Infertility treatment Its achievements and excellence have put CIMAR on the global map today. At present CIMAR has an advanced genetic laboratory with computerized automated Karyotyping and FISH facilities, which have further enhanced the Fetal Medicine Department.

Having done more than 35,000 laparoscopic surgeries including sterilization, Dr Gopinathan is also the first laparoscopic surgeon of Kerala State Health Service. He has supervised over 1, 00,000 deliveries.

T

he biggest desire in the world is, perhaps, to have a child.

However, not all are fortunate enough to be blessed with such an experience.

At a time when infertility rates are on the rise in India, the need for effective treatment becomes all the more significant. Hospitals like CIMAR (Centre for Infertility Management and Assisted Reproduction) stand out in fulfilling this greatest desire ever—of conceiving and birthing a healthy baby.

CIMAR, the first IVF centre of northern Kerala, was launched in September 1996 as a project of Edappal Hospitals Pvt Ltd. Dr K K Gopinathan’s years of experience, and a great team of doctors, gradually led CIMAR to new heights. Dr Gopinathan and his son, Dr Parasuram Gopinath, emphasize that efficient teamwork plays a vital role in the success story of CIMAR. “Several doctors are involved in the entire process of infertility treatment.

Together, we analyse each and every case in detail and make sure that we don’t miss out on anything,” says Dr Parasuram, Consultant and Scientific Director at CIMAR, Kochi. Dr Gopinathan also considers teamwork as an imperative. “I cannot do it all alone. I lead a team that consists of doctors who are individual experts in their field; and that makes it a great team”, says Dr Gopinathan.

Dr Gopinathan, Head of the Department of OBG and Unit Director at CIMAR, Edappal and Kochi, began his career in Government service.

After

working at various Government hospitals for around 13 years, he started Edappal Hospitals as a 25-bedded hospital in 1990 at Edappal in Malappuram district. In 1996, his dream of a centre exclusively for infertility treatment turned into a reality in the form of CIMAR hospital, and there was no turning back. Today, Edappal Hospitals have grown to a ‘multispeciality hospital’ with more than 300 beds having all specialities, the main speciality being the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.

After a year of its launch, CIMAR was successful in producing the first ICSI (intra cytoplasmic sperm injection) baby of Kerala and the first recombinant FSH baby in India. For the first time in South India and the second time in the country, a healthy baby boy was born to a couple from Palakkad on June 26, 2001, with the help of PGD, which was available only in very few countries around the world at that time. Another milestone in the history of CIMAR was the conception and delivery of a baby by a 48-year-old, postmenopausal woman through the ICSI treatment using her husband’s sperm and donor oocyte. CIMAR has always made an effort to bring all the latest developments in the world in the field of infertility and in December 2010, it gave birth to the first IMSI baby of South India. It is the second centre in India to have the equipment for IMSI. It has been three decades since Dr Gopinathan made an incredible mark in the infertility treatment industry and he rightly believes that expertise in any field comes with experience. “One cannot just start off with infertility treatment all of a sudden even after being a gy-

naecologist for several years. Proficiency in the area is really important and that is why the knowledge I have gathered over the years becomes prominent in the treatments we provide at CIMAR,” says Dr Gopinathan.

Its achievements and excellence have put CIMAR on the global map today. At present CIMAR has an advanced genetic laboratory with computerized automated Karyotyping and FISH facilities, which have further enhanced the Fetal Medicine Department. Having done more than 35,000 laparoscopic surgeries including sterilization, Dr Gopinathan is also the first laparoscopic surgeon of Kerala State Health Service. He has supervised over 1, 00,000 deliveries.

Dr Gopinathan believes that his job is not done even after a baby is born.

“CIMAR hospital provides complete treatment and care to the patients, from the time of pregnancy to even months after delivery. From the time a patient approaches us, it becomes our responsibility to take good care of them and we make sure that the baby’s health is also well taken care of even after the delivery,” he says.

Today, doctors from different hospitals seek assistance from CIMAR hospital for infertility treatment; the team here is more than happy to help. Dr Gopinathan blames the rising infertility rate in the recent years on our current lifestyle. “Late marriages and busy lifestyle, where couples hardly spend any time together, is a matter of concern.

We provide counselling for such couples before heading into infertility treatment. We try our best to identify underlying problems before proceeding with any treatment,” Dr Gopinathan says.

Though technology has evolved very much and treatments of global standards are now available, the expense for infertility treatment has not changed much in the last 15 years.

So hospitals like CIMAR are indeed a blessing for couples who wish to bear children.

Dr Gopinathan with his wife

With more and more milestones heading CIMAR’s way, Dr Gopinathan and team have taken upon themselves the responsibility of providing the best infertility treatment available. Dr Gopinathan has trained many others in the field and he believes that it would come in handy when he implements his plans of setting up branches of CIMAR at other cities in India.

(Dr Gopinathan is Unit Director, CIMAR Hospital) Nov 30 30 -- Dec Dec 31, 31, 2012 2012 Nov

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E

El Lab test reports for better patient care

I Lab Metropolis (endocrinology and immunology lab), now a part of the multinational chain of labs Metropolis, conceived as a speciality laboratory for providing specialized test facilities for healthcare, endocrinology and immunology, was started in 1993 by Dr Ramesh Kumar, the highly experienced and enterprising biochemist with vision and determination for quality. His commitment to quality has been proved and his lab has become a stateof-the-art referral diagnostic centre in Kerala. EI Lab is the first medical laboratory to go for NABL accreditation in the state and has joined India’s largest chain of the laboratory group, Metropolis.

A pioneer in setting up a speciality lab in the state in the field of clinical investigation, El Lab started with hormone testing and today undertakes a wide range of tests for hormone and cancer markers, auto immune antibodies, alDr Ramesh Kumar lergy, torch antibodies, hepatitis, viral markers, drug assays and PCR tests for HBV, HCV, TB and western blot tests for HIV. EI Lab follows internationally documented protocols for radio immuno assay, chemi-luminescence immuno assay, micro-particle immuno assay and PCR methods for infectious diseases.

EI Lab Metropolis draws strength from its human resources and machines.

Only qualified and competent personnel operate the test equipment, while the experts in the field do the reporting. All pieces of equipment and reagents used for the tests including the routine investigations are state-of-the-art computerized auto analysers with bidirectional interfacing with barcode. Currently the Kochi lab is the hub for Kerala labs and conducts 4,000 different investigations for a large number of samples received directly from patients, laboratories, hospitals and medical colleges in the entire state. Metropolis, Mumbai, is the hub for the whole country and other international labs.

Dr Ramesh says the best result is achieved only by the best combination of men, machines, reagents and quality control practices.

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Realty expects better times ahead Passline News Service

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he real estate sector in the state is now looking forward to the future with great hope and enthusiasm. The United Front Government is contemplating taking certain rejuvenating steps by liberalizing regulations including FAR (floor area ratio) and other vexed issues which are pulling back the industry. The trauma of investors caused by the scams and fraudulent practices of certain players has almost ended. This, coupled with the economic resurrection in the Arab and western countries, has given more strength to the revival of the sector.

The recent IT policy of the State Government allowing access to private infrastructure providers in Government-owned lands, easing of interest rates on fixed deposits and the volatility in gold prices and the stock market are other factors favouring the growth of the sector. But one aspect is evident: investors will never fall for posey schemes and supernatural offers. Customers will only go by the track record and brand value of the builders.

According to people in the industry circle, the boom in the sector in tier-II and III cities is yet to take place though the demand for dwellings is sure to go up. The number of young employed people in Kerala, especially in Kochi, Kerala’s biggest city and its commercial capital, who are drawing Rs 50,000 -Rs 75,000 a month as salaries is rising. Observers of the recent placements in our professional colleges will agree with this fact.

Again, major players in the field feel that when the Kochi Metro takes final shape there certainly will be a boom.

They cite the case of the Smart City project, for example. When it was announced, they point out, the real estate sector had witnessed a boom. But when it became known that the project was not going to happen or that it would be delayed indefinitely, the sector also went down, though in the meantime many players had reaped benefits. The Metro project, they think, will not have the fate of the Smart City.

Of course there are some factors which deter growth like increase in labour and material costs coupled with

The United Front Government is contemplating taking certain rejuvenating steps by liberalizing regulations including FAR (floor area ratio) and other vexed issues which are pulling back the industry. The trauma of investors caused by the scams and fraudulent practices of certain players has almost ended. This, coupled with the economic resurrection in the Arab and western countries, has given more strength to the revival of the sector. The recent IT policy of the State Government allowing access to private infrastructure providers in Government-owned lands, easing of interest rates on fixed deposits and the volatility in gold prices and the stock market are other factors favouring the growth of the sector.

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indefinite delays in the completion of Government infrastructure projects.

Complete mechanization and application of most modern methods in the industry are out of the question since these will jeopardize the cost advantages. Promoters should build their projects according to the customers’ requirements and demands rather than building structures and frantically selling them.

The comfort level of the people is rising day by day. Unless promoters catch up with the trend, they may not survive in the industry. One factor that is slowing prospects of the industry is that there is no night life in Kerala. This makes people working in the IT and other new-era segments hesitant to invest in Kochi or any other places in Kerala.

On the other hand, metros like Bangalore and Mumbai have places and joints to spend night life. But the industry is in an optimistic mode because of the opening of more malls, restaurants, hotels and multiplexes to solve this problem.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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RDS—builder who embodies individualism T

he RDS Group as a leader in the ing to help us play our part in sustaining construction industry exudes the our Mother Earth, Effortless access to servirtues of quality and timely completion vices and facilities for easy maintenance, of projects, which have helped it earn the Incomparable quality that is ensured goodwill of its clientele and stakeholders. by construction via its parent company, Meeting of all deadlines in Started in 1968 and driven a timely fashion because of by its leaders with vision maximum mechanization of and a strong entrepreneurthe work involved. ial spirit, the company has RDS is one housing condiversified into various fields struction company which of construction. Its housing believes that meeting the wing was started in 1992 rigorous demands of its cliand has completed a numents and creating long-term ber of prestigious projects. relationship is the biggest A separate company named RDS Realties was formed in John K Manavalan. inspiration for it. The clients’ words of appreciation have 2008 to manage its realties been its best publicity and division.

Total satisfaction and value for money unique selling point. Its vision is to profor its clients have been the concern of vide ‘value for money’ for its clients by RDS since its ingress into the realty in- benchmarking the best practices and the dustry in 1992 with its first apartment highest levels of quality control. It does project, Paul Abrao Residency, in Kochi. not take the mantle of being pioneer in Every project is treated as its signature the construction industry lightly. Its parcreation and no client is too big or too ent company with its vast small to merit RDS’ undivided attention experience takes upon itself and consequent interaction. The huge the onus of assuring and endifference that RDS brings to its con- suring the latest technology, struction is that it does not depend on superior quality and on-time subcontractors to get its job done. This delivery as part and parcel of ensures superior quality delivered within every project it undertakes. the timeframe promised, every time. RDS For this, it does not depend projects are ideally located in prominent on subcontractors. All this, residential areas, which only go to en- RDS believes, builds up its rapport with its clients to the hance the ambience.

RDS’ motto, “In pursuit of perfec- extent where the concept of tion…”, says it all. RDS understands that brand loyalty comes in. “As while perfection is hard to attain in any a result, we have repeat clidomain, it strives to achieve the best pos- ents and many who come to sible. The company’s apartments offer us through referrals,” says its Director, Col (rtd) John K the following unique advantages: Aesthetics for elegant and quality liv- Manavalan.

RDS’ commitment to its ing, Natural lighting and ventilation that penetrate and infuse every nook and cor- end product clearly signiner in the house, A healthy environment fies that it believes quality is and surroundings that promote green liv- more important than quanti-

Anta homes for relationships

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nta Builders & Developers Pvt Ltd builds homes that have already created history in the concept of ultramodern living styles. Anta Builders strictly adheres to the international norms of quality standards in construction. A specialized team in planning, design and construction brings an effective approach to the entire design and building process which has value-addition at every stage.

Anta Builders’ new project is a premium waterfront apartment complex named River Valley at Tripunithura. A cluster of 50 apartments, it is a true blend of luxury and sophisticated city

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style with idyllic tranquillity.

Anta Builders’ other ongoing projects are Crown luxury apartments and Serenity premium apartments. The completed projects are Brooks Villa waterfront luxury villas, Kolenchery; Green Woods luxury villa, Muvattupuzha; Rose Dale Apartments, Trippunithura; and infrastructure project Nila Campus (Kalamandalam) PG course and Government tourist project Sarovaram Biopark, Kozhikode. At Anta, Home Care takes care of all the clients after the sale. Mr. Mithun kuruvila is the managing director of the company.

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

ty. Therefore, it makes it a point to take up only a specific number of realty projects at a time, upon which its top management can stamp its personal and professional imprint.

Its Directors consist of professional engineers and builders with decades of experience under their belt. Its senior technocrats have continued to be with it since the inception of its realty business.

This emphatically proves the dedication of its core team to its business.

All completed projects of RDS are well appreciated by the owners and still stand testimony to their quality and elegance.

‘RDS Rhythm’, located on Palarivattom-Kakkanad main road midway between the city and info park, close to all the city conveniences, is its most recently completed project. Constructed on an elevated ground, this magnificent 14storeyed building has been well appreciated by the owners as well as the visitors. The amenities like swimming pool,

health club, indoor games and party areas provided on the top floor have been a hit which the proud owners are utilizing to the hilt.

‘RDS Aura’, the ongoing project, is its latest apartment complex coming up on K P Vallon Road, Kadavanthara. ‘Aura’ is designed for a serene lifestyle in the heart of the city. The location is close to shopping arcades, places of worship, indoor stadium, hospitals and, above all, overlooks Bhavan’sVidya Mandir. The complex will have 46 3BHK apartments of 2100 sq ft each. The amenities provided on the first floor can match those in any similar complex. The construction is likely to be completed by the end of 2014.

Its upcoming apartment projects at Elamakkara, near Punekkal temple and Vidya Nagar, near Panampilly Nagar, are planned to be launched during early next year.

The address of RDS’ office is: RDS Realties Ltd, Shihab Thangal Road, Panampilly Nagar, Kochi 682036. Ph: (0484)4078900 (100 line). Email: marketing@rdsrealties.in www.rdsrealties.in

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Uni Homes brings style and status in living

ll people always dream of owning a home. And if that home brings status and style to the dwellers their dream is more than what they dreamt of. For such people homes built

by Uni Homes are the right ones. With over a decade’s steadfast experience in the construction field Uni Homes, promoted by United Realtors, has successfully completed a number of prestigious projects in and around Kochi.

The latest among them is Uni Residenz located in the heart of Kochi city in an affluent residential area at Judges Avenue, Kaloor, with luxurious amenities like swimming pool, home theatre and health club plus other hi-tech facilities present-day residents crave for. The location itself gives residents easy access to transportation, the upcoming metro rail, supermarkets, hotels, hospitals, colleges, schools and various public and private establishments. Uni Residenz has 2/3/4-bedroom apartments in G+11 floors and luxurious penthouse and personal balcony which makes way for waking up to happy mornings

and harmonious living for children, adults and seniors alike.

road. The unique design of each apartment is guaranteed to make you feel at home.

Uni Midtown is an ongoing project of Uni Homes at Aluva. Just as its name denotes, Uni Midtown adorns the very heart of the town. It is an apartment complex elegantly built in G+12 floors, and offers the best ambience for a happy and harmonious living.

Uni Midtown consists of 33 three-bedroom apartments. All modern facilities like swimming pool and health club are incorporated in this project. Uni Midtown’s uniqueness lies in its location which offers easy access to all avenues of life.

It is located just 200 metres from the National Highway and 20 metres from the main

The company’s accomplishment in this field is due to its strong policy of strictly following its commitments to using quality materials supplied direct from the factory, adhering to the best construction practices, innovative designs, choice of excellent locations and using a very skilled and experienced workforce for the timely completion of its projects.

M A Rafeeq

L Murugan

C V Jayalal

Uni Homes’ other projects are River Heights and Uni Square in Kochi. River Heights with 58 flats provides a distinguished status for the owners. It has everything that human beings long for in life. Uni Homes is proud to claim that it has an array of happy and satisfied customers who will remain steadfast friends for ever. Uni Homes is managed by a team of professionals who have combined their business ethics and other essential skills in the construction sector.

Educational qualification, knowl-

edge and experience make one a professional and work perfectly. Both these qualities mingle in the promoters of Uni Homes, managed by its two Managing Partners, Mr M A Rafeeq and Mr L Murugan. Mr Murugan and Mr Rafeeq are basically Chartered Accountants by profession. Mr Rafeeq’s father is an Advocate and was also a Government contractor. Mr Murugan hails from a business family. Mr Rafeeq and Mr Murugan have been together since their school days in Aluva.

Mr C V Jayalal who is also a Partner in Uni Homes has various other business interests and is also a Director of the company which manufactures the famous Aqua Tech Water Tanks

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Noel— the green building pioneer E

stablished in 1993, Noel Villas and Apartments is the pioneer in green building in Kerala. Providing eco-friendly projects conforming to the green concept that is rapidly catching on in the building industry, Noel has become one of the most acknowledged and credible builders in Kochi.

Noel aims at high standards of quality in design and architecture and in the use of the latest building technology.

It works on the philosophy of integrity, reliability and impeccable service to customers. Noel offers you a green living space where you will be calmed by the harmony of urban refinement and suburban style.

As part of this vision of creating quality life, its latest projects like Noel Serenia and Noel Greenature promise to be a green community designed for contemporary living in natural setting—a modern lifestyle in a haven of peace and tranquillity. Noel Greenature is the combi-

apartments. This green initiative is aimed at fulfilling Noel’s social and corporate responsibility in a meticulous manner,” say Mr John Thomas, Managing Partner, and Ms Geetha John, Executive Partner. Both are engineering graduates with over 25 years’ experience in the building industry.

nation of a sky-villa apartment at Kakkanad within 750 metres from the Civil Station. The project is designed with 2 FAR, providing more space.

Greenature is being constructed as a green building according to IGBC specifications.

The residents of the building can enjoy improved energy efficiency, increased water saving, toxin-free materials, negative environmental impact and improved asset value and marketability.

“Noel initiated the green living concept for the first time ever in Kerala by introducing Greeanture villa

Noel Villas & Apartments’ Managing Partner John Thomas and Executive Partner Geetha John receiving the Gold Certificate Award of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) for the project Noel Greenature from Mr Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman, IGBC, during the IGBC Congress held at Hyderabad the other day. Noel Greenature is the first residential apartment project and fourth in India to receive such an honour.

With an uncompromising passion for quality, Noel has re-scripted the dynamics of the builder-customer relationship by making the aspiring client an active participant in the art of housemaking. Unrelenting commitment to providing immaculate designs and unique projects has taken Noel a notch higher. Noel Casa Theera, Noel Ecotat, Noel Serenia, Noel Geernature ,Noel Arcadia and Noel Focus are Noel’s major ongoing projects

Enjoy pressure of shower

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Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

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Nest Infratech brings you ‘The world’ N

est Infratech is the realty and infrastructure division of the multinational billion-dollar Nest Group conglomerate. Established in 1991, the group has today become a multifaceted information technology company with headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia, and offices in Europe, Japan, India, the Middle East and Australia.

tegrated townships comprise villas and apartments, starting from Rs 20 lakh. The international model of inclusive development with Mediterranean and English styles and contemporary and traditional Kerala Nalukettu villas is its unique feature.

Presently ‘The World’ concept is being launched in Aluva and Thalassery and will soon be replicated in all major cities of India.

It was after setting The Electronics City benchmarks in all the arJehangir Javad Hassan coming up at Kalamassery eas it touched that it enis among Nest Infratech’s tered the realty sector with projects. The first special the launch of Nest Infrateconomic zone in the priech. Nest Infratech offers vate sector in Kerala, it is exclusive living spaces at a Rs 2,500-core state- ofplanned locations across the-art project with two milIndia. It is powered by the lion sq ft of notified space dynamic character and vifor electronic hardware sion of its directors, Dr manufacturing.

Another Javad Hassan, Chairman; Althaf Jehangir Shameir Marickar project, ‘Orchid Park’, will Jehangir, Managing Direcbe launched in 2013. This tor; F M Shameir Marickar, Director and CEO, Nest; and Althaf Jehangir, Ex- superluxury apartment complex is in the heart of Kottayam town at Kalathippady, and ‘Electro ecutive Director, Nest Group.

Ville’, the latest project, is a luxury apartment that Nest Infratech is pioneering the concept of takes shape at Electronics City, Kalamassery, Size 260x185 mm integrated townships in the name and style of which is one of Kochi’s most elite residential its projects, ’The World’. These world-class in- neighbourhoods

Chaithanya Paints for rich colours

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haithanya Paints Pvt Ltd started paint manufacturing when multinational brands were dominating this sector. Chaithanya, however, came to the forefront of the industry within a short span of time with its quality paints like Royal Duke Premium, Duke Pride Exterior Emulsion, Captain Duke Premium, Indoor Duke Interior Emulsion, Duromax Acrylic Distemper and other 24 paint products. Chaithanya has a long tradition of serving its clients with quality products. With a rich legacy and exL R Potti perience in paint production for more than two decades the promoters of Chaithanya possess a vision for colour and quality which is infused into the paints they manufacture. This increases the demand and trust for its paints in the market.

Mr L R Potti, Managing Director of Chaithanya Paints, says the reason for their success in the industry is the slogan `The products with quality mark can only exist in the future’ which has smoothened the way of its success.

Mr Potti says the greatest asset of every venture is its loyal and experienced workforce. It doesn’t make any difference with whatever the product. A company is as good as the people it keeps. If you honour and serve the people who work for you they will honour and serve you.

Chaithanya’s quality vision is approved and appreciated by all. Its getting the ISO Certification 9001-2008, the Consumer Protection Award 2009 and Best Customer Service Award are testimony to this

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Like us Opp.QRS,NH By Pass Road, Near Oberon Mall, Cochin-24. Cochin - 682024 Kerala

Contact Person: Midhun Mathew Mobile: 9895120711 | Email: md@manumax.net

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Trinity—symbol of world-class possession

wning a house is a dream. The dream is fulfilled if that house provides status, style and satisfaction. These triple virtues are assembled in Trinity homes. The Kochi-based builders’ group, Trinity Builders and Developers, successfully functioning from 2005, is a real estate developer of repute in Kerala. The company has presented and completed several presti-

lege within a distance of just 200 metres off Airport- Seaport Road, which has just been completed and is in the process of being handed over.

The project Trinity Mercury, also G+23 floors, located in the same spot at Kakkanad, having 268 units of simplex- and duplex-type two-bedroom flats, is fast progressing and is to be handed over in June, 2013. These projects at Kakkanad are meant to cater to a large chunk of the IT and IT investment crowd. Trinity Garden, a superluxury villa project at Aluva, is very close to the river Periyar. Out of a total of 43 villas in this project, work on 26 has been completed. A few have already been handed over and others are in the process of being handed over. The work on the remaining 17villas is in various stages.

The projects completed and handed over by the company include Trinity Castle, Trinity Crest, Trinity Coral and Trinity Crown, all located at Edapally; Trinity High Grove, located

gious real estate projects of innovative and meticulously planned residential enclaves with world-class premium lifestyles.

C J Mathew

The company ensures the concept of community living in all their projects by maintaining a legacy of long and outstanding experience in the field of property development enriched by its promoters.

Trinity has provided affordable dwelling spaces with imaginative and spacious layouts at prime locations in Greater Kochi and the proposed Kochi Metropolitan City areas.

Roy Joseph

MJ Louiz

Its latest project is Trinity Neptune, a ground+23-floor structure with 180 units of three-BHK apartments with all modern amenities at Chittethukara, Kakkanad, which has been launched.

The company having its corporate office Trinity House at Edapally, Kochi, is guided by its dedicated team of promoters—Mr C J Mathew, a former Income Tax Commissioner, as its Chairman, Mr Roy Joseph, Managing Director, and Mr M J Louiz, Director (Marketing).

The current and ongoing projects include Trinity Jupiter, a G+23-floor structure having 180 units of three-BHK apartments located at Kakkanad near Infopark and Rajagiri Col-

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near Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara; and Trinity Periyar Sands at Aluva on the banks of the Periyar

37 Kalpaka—committed to clients

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ommitted to excellence since 2000, Kalpaka is a globally recognized builder, which has been enjoying an unrivalled track record of consistent growth ever since. Incorporated under the leadership of Mr M V Sunith, Kalpaka Builders places great reliance on quality, using only the finest materials and craftsmen to create homes that are widely lauded as benchmarks. Kalpaka homes are located at the best and immaculate locations in and around Kochi.

Kalpaka has a qualified, efficient and dedicated crew behind its success led by Mr Sunith, Managing Director. “At Kalpaka, the relationship with the clients does not end with the structure of a house. We M V Sunith offer the clients an array of services so essential to every homeowner. This is just to reiterate the commitment to the clients,” says the MD who is an expert in the realty field with more than 25 years of experience.

Kalpaka Rangoli is a new offering in residential apartments near the International Stadium, Kaloor. It has all the requisite necessities and comforts to make living a pleasant experience for the whole family.

Yasoram for quality, affordable homes

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ith more than a quarter century of proud history behind it, Yasoram Construction Co started with a noble, yet highly productive, dream to provide quality housing to the general public at affordable prices. A R S Vadhyar, the mastermind behind the venture, has traversed a long way, both as a pioneering businessman and a visionary. His entrepreneurial skills have been marked by his determination to fight ARS Vadhyar against odds and to bring in path-breaking ideas. Highly innovative projects like Sky City are proof of his penchant for blazing a trail. Vadhyar is also famous for introducing the concept of terrace farming and gardening in India.

Breaking the perceived notion about a builder, Vadhyar has forayed into activities that might bring positive changes in society.

The extent of his social activities has cut across class and creed.

Vilayil Apartments, Aluva; Valluvaserry Enclave, Eranakulam; Haridas Apartment, Chottanikkara; Praseeda Apartments, Gandhinagar, Kadavanthra; and Lakshmi Apartment, Kochi; are the major ongoing projects of Yasoram.

Yasoram has so far completed Thejus Apartment, Indradhanus, Jaladarsini, Pancharatna Apartments, Victoria,Sivadas Towers, Triveni, Gosreepuram, Indraprastha, Himagiri, Shanthivan Apartments, Diamond Towers and Sreyas Apartment

Kalpaka Lakeside Villa Project, Kalpaka Florence Apartments, Kalpaka Virndavan and Kalpaka Castle are the ongoing projects of Kalpaka Builders. ISO certification and membership of CREDAI, Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and Kerala Management Association (KMA) authenticate the credibility of Kalpaka Builders.

Chaithanya Granite: a family business

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ou may buy granite and marble from anywhere, from any dealers, but the quality, durability and price may differ. Only when you buy from Chaithanya Granite and Marble will you realize what benefit you had missed in your previous dealings. Chaithanya Granite and Marble is a family-run enterprise floated by a family and its friends and relatives on a shoe-string budget under the proprietorship of Mr E M Abdul Salam.

Chaithanya is really an offshoot of a mosaic factory owned by Mr Abdul Salam at Vytilla Bypass, Kochi.

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Chaithanya mainly deals in Unicorn designer tiles. Indian and imported marE M Abdul Salam ble is available with Chaithanya, including vitrified tiles, ceramic tiles, sanitary ware and artificial marble, all in wholesale and retail. Even now Mr Salam does not order his inventories but directly buys them by bargaining so that he can pass on a part of the benefits of bargaining to his customers.

After making an imprint in the granite, marble and sanitary ware business Chaithanya is making its foray into the construction field.

Mr Salam believes education and social activities help one a lot to shine in business. He is an alumnus of Farooq College, Kozhikode; past President of the Rotary Club and a former President of Thrikkakara Residents Association. His son, Shifas, a graduate in engineering, is associating with his father’s business.

Fathima is Salam’s wife. Besides Shifas they have two childrem, Suhile and Farhan.

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Tubes & Tubings: making a mark in PVC conduits and fittings E

for designer tile and interlock manufacturing factories.

stablished in 1996, Tubes & Tubings is an ISO 9001-2000certified proprietorship company. Srijit V, a great visionary and pioneering businessman from a middle-class family, is the brains behind Tubes & Tubings.

A BE and an MBA, Srijit spent a few months as a sales representative of Onida, manufacturer of electronic products. It was after the real estate boom Kerala witnessed during the early and middle 1990s that Srijit started the PVC channels and fittings manufacturing factory at Perumbavoor, near Kochi, with a capital of Rs 23 lakh. “I had to face many difficulties in the initial period. My brother-in-law Suresh, Managing Director of Shaktiman PVC Pipes, helped me a lot to start the business. In fact it was his valuable suggestions and sagely advice that inspired me to venture into the field,” says Srijit.

Tubes &Tubings received the ISO 9001-2000 certification in 2004 from Moody International Certification Limited under UKAS accreditation, which is one of the prestigious accreditation

Kristal Group, Bangalore, Cochin Port Trust, Skyline Builders, Cochin Naval Base, CPWD, Government of India PWD, Government of Kerala Central Excise and Customs Co-Operative Housing Society Kochi, Technopark Thiruvananthapuram, Amrita Institute of Medical Science Kochi and BSNL are some of the major clients of Tubes & Tubings. present turnover is Rs 9 crore. The manufacture of high-voltage ducting PVC products and doubling of the turnover along with the company’s expansion are Srijit’s future plans.

activities, like manufacture and supply of chemical-resistant rubber moulds

Srijith is also a member of the director board of Millennium Rubber Technologies Pvt Limited, promoted by a team of engineering professionals with a common professional/educational lineage, viz Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT).

CAPTAIN Premium Interior Emulsion Paint

Srijit V boards worldwide. In that year Srijit shifted his office to Kochi.

With its brand ‘konseal’, Tubes & Tubings has carved a well-deserved niche for itself in the market for highquality PVC conduits and fittings, PVC channels and PVC tiling trims, and the

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Deepa is Srijit’s wife. They have two children—Nanda Kisore and Navaneeth Krishna

The company was formed in 2000 with a business plan to manufacture rubber and other polymer-based products, including speciality products for high-technology applications. Noby Joseph is the Managing Director of Millennium Rubber Technologies. The company currently has a wide range of

Nov 30 - Dec 31, 2012

Royal Duke Exterior Emulsion Paint

Duke Pride Exterior Emulsion Paint

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