Business Digest

September - October 2010 Page No. 1Business Digest

Vol. 17 Issue 10 Kochi September-October 2010 R.N.I. Registration No. 62545/94

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Risk factors forpainkiller addictionidentified

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Artificial bee eyecould improvevisual navigationin mobile robots

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The Union Governmentand the Reserve Bank of Indiawere trying to tighten easymoney availability by hiking

Inflation remains a headache for thecountry’s economy. Demand-supply gapin various sectors were attributed toprice rise. Although the price rise ofessential commodities were beingconsidered while dealing with inflation,the bigger factor of speculative activitiesin the real estate sector have beengetting little attention.

Business News Service

Real estate sectorfuels inflation

bank interest rates to containinflation. But these measuresfail to bring the expected re-sults. Choking off easy money

to the sector could check theinflation only if the RBI hadtaken into account every sec-tor with inflating prices, that is,every sector suffering from ademand-supply gap and otherdistortions. But the central bankhas no account of how pricesin the service sector have beenmoving and have they beenmoving up at a dizzy speed.

The real estate and hous-ing market has all the ingredi-ents of speculative overheat-

Sofitel Wanda Chengdu: Agreat oasis in Chengdu, China

Business News ServiceThe Indian businessmen

after reading the latest book byAuthor and a media magnet,Raghav Behl titled Superpower, (Penguin Books ISBN9780670064630) want to seeif China and India can co- op-

erate in the development of theworld and there is no betterway to do it than visiting China.Then the question comes,where to in China?

Businessmen are prudentand also want to combine busi-

Bertrand Courtois- General

Manager, Sofital Wanda

Chengdu

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Scientists have created animaging system that mimics ahoneybee’s field of view.Thelightweight system couldchange the way we build mo-bile robots and small flying ve-hicles. The artificial bee eye iscomplete with fully functionalcamera, to shed light on theinsects’ complex sensing, pro-cessing and navigational skills.It has a mirror-lens combinationattached to a USB video cam-era that allowed the research-ers to take unique imagesshowing the world from aninsect’s viewpoint.Their nextstep is to incorporate colourrecognition, which is importantto honeybees for flower recog-nition and discrimination andalso polarisation vision, whichbees use for orientation.

“Despite the discussedlimitations of our model of thespatial resolution of the honey-

Why are some peoplemore likely to become addictedto painkillers than others? Well,a new study has started to un-lock the puzzle.

Geisinger investigatorshave found that patients withfour common risk factors havea significantly higher risk ofaddiction.In addition, a historyof severe drug dependenceand drug abuse compounds

the risk.According to theGeisinger study, common riskfactors for painkiller addictionin patients with chronic painare: age (65 years or younger),a history of drug abuse anddepression, and use of psychi-atric medications.Currently,statistics find painkiller addic-tion as high as one in four (26percent) among these patients.

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Edited, Printed and Published by P.V. Radhamani, Printed at Printers Castle, Kochi - 16. Published at Journalist Nagar, Thrikkakara P.O., Kochi - 21.

Chief Editor: A. Madhavan (Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act). Tel: 98471 78836, 90482 11587, 0484-4025403/3240781. Fax: 0484-2357581

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Web: www.businessdigestmagazine.org

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Azeezia group of MedicalEducational Institutions is lo-cated in a setting of scenicbeauty at Meeyannoor village,18kms from Kollam city. Thesprawling campus has an areaof 50 acres and combined in-vestment of Rs.250 crores. Thepanoramic view from the cam-pus embraces hills and paddyfields, coconut groves and rub-ber plantations, typical ofKerala- Gods Own Country.The refreshing and re-vitalisingambience is conducive to

Azeezia: Unmatched facilities;beautiful location

comfort always- that is what aphysician can do. We will pro-vide a congenial atmospherefor the students for the devel-opment of curricular and extra-curricular activities. A Goldenthread running through theethos of the Azeezia Group ofMedical Institutions is socialresponsibility. The institutionsare fully committed to render-ing qualitative medical educa-tion and cost effective moderntreatment to the rural popula-tion without profit motive and

Gyneacology, Orthopedics,Paediatrics, ENT,Opthalmology, Dermatology,Psychiatry andAnaesthesiology. Cardiology,Radio diagnosis, Urology,Nephrology, Neurology, Neurosurgery,TB & Chest Disease,Surgical Oncology and Maxil-lofacial Surgery are the superspecialuties. Azeezia NursingCollege which was started in2006 is fully equipped to imparthigh quality graduate nursingeducation. Adequate resources

learning recuperation. AzeeziaInstitute of Medical Sciencesand Research is the first Medi-cal College established inKollam District. This Institutionis imparting training of medicalprofessionals who are sure, willbe socially oriented and ethi-cally principled. This institutionis giving personal attention inevery part of the training by wellexperienced teachers whohave vast experience in theirconcerned fields. Our mainobjective is to nurture the skillsof patient management andcommunication. We inculcatethe concept of our concern forour society considering the factthat life expectancy of nearlythirty years separates those inthe richest countries from thosein the poorest. To cure some-times, to relieve often, but to

this is expected to blaze a trailof CORPORATE SOCIAL RE-SPONSIBILITY in the field of“Rural Health Care” in theyears to come. Ably captainedby its Chairman M. AbdulAzeez, other board membersof the Azeezia Group of insti-tutions are Mrs. M. HafsathAzeez, Dr. Ansar Azeez, Dr.Hashim Azeez, MidhulajAzeez, Anaz Azeez andHassan Azeez. Azeezia Medi-cal College Hospital is a 500bedded hospital fully equippedfor the treatment of most of thediseases. The hospital is man-aged by a team of highly quali-fied and experienced doctorsand well trained and motivatedPara-medical staff. Generalafacilities in the hospital areGeneral Medicine, GeneralSurgery, Obstetrics &

have been made available tohelp the students to learn ev-ery aspect of nursing in its en-tirety. Azeezia College of Den-tal Sciences & Research is aneducational initiative byPodikunju Musaliar MemorialCharitable and EducationalTrust which was in turn startedin 2001 to cherish the vision-ary and philanthropic activitiesof Late Late. Shri. PodikunjuMusaliar (1912-1989).

Eligibility criteria for theManagement Quota will be apass in Plus Two (Kerala) orequivalent National Board Ex-amination with at least 50%aggregate marks in Biology,Physics and Chemistry andappearance in Common En-trance Examination conductedby the consortium of Self-fi-nancing Medical Colleges/CET

conducted by Government.Admission will be on the basisof marks obtained in the en-trance examination and marksobtained for Physics, Chemis-try and Biology in the qualify-ing examination. The marks willbe apportioned in the ratio of50:50. After the entrance test,the marks obtained for thePhysics, Chemistry and Biol-ogy at the qualifying examina-tion will be added to the marksobtained at the entrance testand a combined merit list willbe published. Separate meritlist also will be published forcategories, for which seats arereserved. Allotment to collegesand admission will be on thebasis of centralized counseling.For more informations: AzeeziaMedical College, MeeyannoorP.O. Kollam Kerala Kollam-37Telephone: 0474-3069200http://www.azeezia.com Dr.Y.MFazil Marickar serves as thePrincipal of the college and Dr.L. Reghu, Medical Superinten-dent.

If a new research is to bebelieved, then believing in luckis enough to boost perfor-mance. Scientists from theUniversity of Cologne designedfour experiments to test the ef-fectiveness of belief in good-luck superstitions.

According toPhysOrg.com, the supersti-tions were tested to seewhether or not they improvedsubsequent performance inmotor dexterity, memory, solv-ing anagrams, or playing golf.In the experiments, the partici-pants either brought their ownlucky “charms,” were givensomething they were told waslucky or had some other super-stition-based encouragement.The researchers found that in

Being superstitiouscan actually boostyour performance

all four experiments, the partici-pants who had a lucky charmor were given encouragementvia a common superstitioussaying performed significantlybetter than their control coun-terparts.

The participants performedbetter and faster on motor dex-terity tests, plus they had moreconfidence in their own abilitieswhen asked beforehand howthey thought they would do.Theresearch is the first time super-stitions associated with goodluck have been demonstratedto affect future performancebeneficially, reports DiscoveryNews.

The research is publishedonline in the journal Psycho-logical Science.

will be a strong addition to ourproduct portfolio. Adding furtherhe said, “The New Vento is anextension of our commitmenttowards the Indian consumersof providing the best quality

products at competitive prices.”The Vento is equipped with

a 1.6 litre engine with anoutput of 105PS @ 5250 rpmand a Torque of 153NM @3800 rpm.

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A revolutionary techniquedeveloped by scientists couldhelp cardiac patients rejuve-nate their failing hearts. Thenew technique could also cutthe need for transplants, withdiseased and worn out heartsusing their own reserves tomend themselves. It could pro-long and improve the quality oflife of tens of thousands everyyear, says a Daily Mail report.

The experiments, whichwere carried out on mice, arestill in the early stages, but theyoffer fresh hope for the future.They centre on the large mus-cular cells that allow the heartto beat and go about its vitalwork of pumping blood. Nor-mally, the body has little or noway of replacing any that die orare damaged. But researchersat the California basedGladstone Institute of Cardio-vascular Disease, have de-vised a cocktail of genes thattrick other heart cells called fi-broblasts into transforming intobeating muscle cells calledcardiomyocytes. The journalCell reports how fibroblaststreated with the cocktail in thelab turned into beating musclecells after being transplantedinto a mouse.

Masaki Ieda of theGladstone Institute said: ‘Scien-

Gene cocktail could helprejuvenate failing hearts

tists have tried for 20 years toconvert non-muscle cells intoheart muscle. It turns out wejust needed the right combina-tion of genes in the right dose.’Deepak Srivastava, seniorstudy author from Gladstone,said: ‘The ability toreprogramme fibroblasts intocardiomyocytes has manytherapeutic implications.’ Halfof the cells in the heart are fi-broblasts, so the ability to callupon this reservoir of cells al-ready in the organ to becomebeating heart cells has tremen-dous promise for cardiac re-generation.’ In time a drug thatworks in the same way as thecocktail of genes could be de-veloped. Injected into damagedhearts, it would drive the growthof new muscle.’ That’s our long-term goal,’ said Srivastava.

Every two minutes, some-one, somewhere has a heartattack. Many go on to developheart failure, in which the weak-ened heart gradually loses itsability to pump blood. Up to 40percent of these die within ayear of diagnosis - giving heartfailure a worse survival ratethan many cancers. Other or-gans could be patched up in asimilar way, the researchersbelieve.

G. Suseelan, ManagingDirector Nitta Gelatin India Ltd.said that the company is plan-ning to launch more consumerhealthcare products followingthe success of Gelixer-CollagenPep, an OTC productfor joint health/osteo-arthritissegment.

The next product will be afunctional food supplement forimproving the bone strengthtargeted at women above 40years. According to Suseelanthe product development activi-ties are in final stage and thecompany propose to introduceit by April 2011. The companyis also working on a number ofnew products such as woundcare products, nutritional prod-ucts etc. under the Gelixer brand.

Nitta Gelatin to launch more healthcare productsThe company plans to

launch the CollagenPep in thesouthern market starting fromTamil Nadu in the next twomonths and later on to all themetro cities by April 2011. Theproduct, which introduced inthe market in June, had re-ceived positive response fromconsumers forcing the com-pany to increase the productionby 3-4 times to meet the actualdemand.

During July, it had soldmore than 25,000 jars againstthe estimated 17,000 jars amonth during the first year. Outof about 2.40 lakh osteo-arthri-tis patients in Kerala, the com-pany has targeted a marketshare of 10 per cent to be us-ing the product on regular ba-

sis. The market is expected togrow by five per cent on yearon year basis. Based on thepositive feedback from con-sumers, the company is ex-pecting to achieve a turnoverclose to Rs.3 crore from theKerala market alone in the cur-rent fiscal, he said.

With the launch of the prod-uct in metros and rural areasin the country, the company, ajoint venture of Kerala StateIndustrial Development Corpo-ration and Nitta Gelatin Inc., isexpecting incremental revenueof Rs. 50 crore from sale ofCollagenPep alone, he added.The company had startedmanufacturing and marketingGelixer-CollagenPep with thetechnical knowhow from Nitta

Gelatin Inc., Japan. CollagenPeptide is already establishedfunctional food for the jointhealth in the US, Europe, Ja-pan etc. According to thecompany’s estimate, around 75lakh people are suffering from

degenerative joint diseaseosteo-arthritis in India.

It had also conducted aclinical study in India to com-pare the efficacy and safety ofits Collagen Peptide at threecentres in Chennai including

Apollo Hospitals. The studyconcluded that oral ingestion ofCollagen Peptide is safe andcan improve joint function andquality of life in patients withknee joint Osteo-arthritis,Suseelan added.

ing. Shortages in land andhousing units have pulled upprices and the distortions in theland market, in land acquisi-tions for instance, have per-petuated the rise.

External capital has beenflowing into the Indian real es-tate sector in a big way. Sincethese foreign investments werefor purely investment gains,property prices keep increas-ing. It has been estimated thatthe FDI in the country’s realestate sector grew 80-fold dur-ing the last 5 years. It wasRs.13,586 crore in 2009-’10 asagainst mere Rs.171 crore in2004-’05. The flow was Rs.737crore during April, May 2010.

The consumer price indexof housing in May 2010 rose to33% as against the increase ofjust 14% in the food sector. Thefact is that speculation in hous-ing-real estate sector is feed-ing or ‘talking up’ inflation inother sectors.

To control the capital flowof speculative kind to the realestate sector RBI can introducerisk weightages on real estateadvances.

Another factor that influ-enced the unprecedented infla-tion was the populistic policiesof the UPA. In 2004 UPA de-throned the NDA by giving theslogan of ‘aam aadmi’ andlaunching a number of

programmes that promised notonly free lunches but also freebreakfasts, free schooling, freehealth facilities and number ofwelfare measures for minoritiesincluding scholarships for thestudents from those communi-ties. The UPA repeated thesepopulistic policies with in-creased vigour in 2009 and re-turned to power. But good poli-tics can be bad economics.Free lunches, including ‘digand fill’ employmentprogrammes were inflationary.These programmes might havewon over the ‘aam aadmi’, butthey have destroyed the tradi-tional Indian ethos of hard workand frugality.

The National Bank for Ag-riculture and Rural Develop-ment (NABARD) has sanc-tioned Rs.740 crore as croploans to North Malabar GraminBank and South MalabarGramin Bank during 2009-10.

This amounted to a record200 per cent growth over theprevious year and both thebanks registered 100 per centutilisation, K.C. Shashidhar,Chief General Manager,NABARD, Kerala, said, in apress release.

The total disbursement ofthe bank that stood for provid-ing and regulating credit forpromotion and development of

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NABARD gives Rs.740 croreto gramin banks

agriculture during 2009-10crossed Rs.2,560 crore.NABARD, Kerala, sanctioned arefinance disbursement ofRs.914 crore to various banksin the State during the year forfarm and non-farm loans. Withthis, NABARD, Kerala,

achieved the third position ininvestment credit disbursementat the national level, he said.NABARD’s funding for ruraldevelopment in Kerala regis-tered an 82 per cent increaseduring 2009-10, compared tothe previous year.

bees compound eyes, we areconfident that it is useful formany purposes, e.g. for thesimulation of bee-like agents invirtual environments and, incombination with presentedimaging system, for testingbee-inspired visual navigationstrategies on mobile robots,”the researchers said.

From page 1

“These findings suggestthat patients with pre-existingrisk factors are more likely tobecome addicted to painkillers,providing the foundation for fur-ther clinical evaluation,” saidJoseph Boscarino, an epidemi-ologist and senior investigatorat Geisinger’s Center for HealthResearch.” By assessing pa-tients in chronic pain for theserisk factors before prescribingpainkillers, doctors will be bet-ter able to treat their patients’pain without the potential forfuture drug addiction.”

The study suggests thatthe same risk factors, oftennoted in a patient’s medicalrecord, may also influence drugaddiction in patients without a

history of chronic pain.For thisstudy, Geisinger investigatorsaccessed Geisinger’s elec-tronic data base to identify pa-tients with back pain and re-lated orthopedic conditionswho were prescribed painkill-ers (opioids) for more than 90days.They interviewed asample (705) of these patientsand collected and studied theirDNA.Specifically, investigatorsstudied a gene located on chro-mosome 15 that has been im-plicated in alcohol, cocaine andcigarette smoking dependen-cies. The data suggests an as-sociation of DNA variants in agene cluster on chromosome15 with opioid as well as nico-tine addiction.

From page 1


Adi Shankara Institute ofEngineering & Technology(ASIET), Kalady, the first newgeneration engineering collegeto get ISO 9001:2008 certifica-tion has been time and againproving its excellence.

Adi Shankara Institute ofEngineering re-affirmsits superiority

Business News Service

Dr. S.G. Iyer,Principal

Dr. B.S. Krishnan,Managing Trustee

The institute whichachieved overall pass percent-age of 95% consecutively fromthe first batch has created 5rank holders in the 2010 B.Techexaminations of MahatmaGandhi University. ShruthiManmadhan (first rank, Com-puter Science), RenjiniUnnithan (second rank, Elec-tronics & Communication),Ishwarya S. Nair (third rank,Electronics & Communication),Meenu Soosan Paul (secondrank, Information Technology),Sibia Mary Babu (third rank,Information Technology), werethe rank holders this time.

Dr. S.G. Iyer, Principal, AdiShankara Institute of Engineer-ing and Technology said that allthese rank holders were al-ready got jobs in Infosys andTCS through campus recruit-ment.

Established in 2001 andably run by the Sringeri Muttwith the benign blessings ofSree Sree BharathitheerthaMahaswamigal, Adi ShankaraInstitute of Engineering & Tech-nology has been keen in cre-ating excellence in every field.Located at a place, whichkindles vibrant memories of theserene presence of JagadguruAdi Shankara, the institution isengaged in a noble and holytask of creating a suitable andrich background of intellectualand spiritual atmosphere thatpromotes love and understand-ing for the awakening and flow-

ering of intelligence.In ASIET there is a true

blend of global values and In-dian spiritual values after AdiShankara’s teachings and phi-losophy.

The reins of ASIET are inthe able hands of the veteranlawyer, Dr. B.S. Krishnan, theManaging Trustee, who is fullycommitted to the overall devel-opment of the college. An ex-pert in Electronics, Dr. S.G. Iyerhas been at the helm as princi-pal. A team of highly qualifiedand dedicated faculty, underthe direct supervision of theprincipal, works untiringly forthe betterment of students in allrespects.

Affiliated to MahatmaGandhi University and ap-proved by AICTE, the collegeoffers B.Tech. Degree coursesin Applied Electronics and In-strumentation, Electronics &communication Engineering(two batches), Computer Sci-ence & Engineering Electrical& Electronics Engineering, In-formation Technology and Me-chanical Engineering. Apartfrom providing quality technicaleducation at the undergraduatelevel, ASIET provides excel-lent, world-class Managementeducation through its presti-gious 2 year, full time M.B.A.programme.

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M.V. Nair, Chairman &Managing Director, Union Bankof India said that the Bank hasdrawn up a medium-term finan-cial inclusion plan 2010-2013for systematic coverage of theunreached.

Speaking at the Great-Lakes Financial inclusion con-ference organised jointly byUnion Bank of India and GreatLakes Institute of Managementin Chennai, he informed thatthe Bank intends to cover32,000 villages over the next 3years, accounting for nearly5% of the total number of vil-lages in the country. During thisperiod the Bank expects to add6.2 million new customers, tak-ing its customers to 10 millionby 2013.

According to M.V. Nair,Union Bank is planning to cre-ate a loan corpus of Rs.500crore for farmers in AndhraPradesh, as part of its financialinclusion programme and isplanning to focus on the Surat-Ganjram (Orissa) corridor totarget the migrant worker remit-tances. The Bank has alsoplans to introduce mobile-based saving bank accounts.

Union Bank preparesmedium-term financialinclusion plan

The bank was also experi-menting with providing financeto the members of Primary Ag-ricultural Cooperative Societiesin Andhra Pradesh through Co-options Technologies Ltd(COTL). A pilot project was ini-tiated in February 2008 inNizamabad district of AndhraPradesh, with an initial corpusof Rs. 2 crore. Later, this wasextended to Chittoor and EastGodavari districts with a corpusof Rs.20 crore for crop loansand Rs.1 crore for vehicle loanscalled Kisan Chakra.

The other initiative relatesto a remittance product for ur-ban poor. “Financial inclusionis not only restricted to ruralareas, but the same is evidentin urban areas too,” he said. Hesaid the urban slum dwellers,most of whom are migrantlabourers, do not have accessto banking and other financialservices. The bank introducedremittance facility at affordablecharges and delivery termswere provided at the door-stepof the customer.

M.V. Nair


ness trips with pleasure. Thereare many such locations inChina, but how many of themcan easily blend with Indianthinking and show lesser cog-nitive dissonance in approach.Top of the line cities like Shang-hai, HongKong, Macau andShenzhen are still magnets for

tourists and businessmenalike. But do they have somegreat high growth possibilities?Do they have synergy with anyIndian city?

At that stage the choice be-comes very easy. The IndianIT capital of Bangalore todayis connected by Air China by a

non stop direct flight toCHENGDU. Suppose youhave selected Chengdu to ex-plore the possibility of doingsomething in Software, BPOand other services activities.India is still riding on the soft-ware success that has madeBangalore to be in the lips of

every MNC in the world. Sowhat can Chengdu do to en-hance that positioning? That iswhere the picture becomeslarger and clear. BANGA-LORE-CHENGDU corridor is awin-win corridor. Chengdu hasthe super infrastructure. Ban-galore has the skills. No won-der top Indian software compa-nies like WIPRO have setshops in Chengdu.

OK. You decided on loca-tion. What about your accom-modation? Like any interna-tional city, Chengdu alsoboasts many hotels and ser-viced apartments. WhySOFITEL WANDA CHENGDUis standing out? (http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-3717-sofitel-wanda-chengdu/index.shtml)

At Sofitel Chengdu, theylisten to what you want to en-sure to satisfy your require-ments. They have trainedthemselves to anticipate your

From page 1

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The export of coir and coirproducts from the country hasbeen growing consistently forthe last several years. The in-dustry achieved an all time highrecord in export with 2,94,508MTs of coir and coir productsworth Rs.804.05 crores ex-ported during 2009-10. In thecurrent financial year, 1,20,712MTs of coir and products worthRs.264.55 crores have beenexported during April to July,2010 as against a total quan-tity of 72,913 MTs valued atRs.226.33 crores exported dur-ing the corresponding period oflast year. In the current finan-cial year, there is an increaseof 47,799 MTs (65.56%) inquantity and an amount ofRs.38.22 crores (16.89%) invalue when compared to theprevious year. The achieve-ment assumes greater signifi-cance considering the fact thatthe coir industry is currently fac-ing a series of problems likeshortage of coir fibre, skilledlabour etc. V.S. Vijayaraghavan, Ex-M.P. Chairman,Coir Board at a press confer-ence said that the Board is tar-geting Rs.1000 crore exportduring the current fiscal.

The coir industry, particu-larly the export oriented pro-duction sector located in theAmbalapuzha and Cherthalataluks of Alappuzha district, isfacing problems related to thescarcity of raw material, short-age of labour etc. As of now,the industry is sourcing the coir

Coir Board targetsRs.1000 crore export

fibre required for the productionof value added products fromTamil Nadu especially Pollachi,Tenkasi, Cumbam, Teni andNagercoil. The inflow of fibrefrom these places to Kerala has

shrunk in recent times due to avariety of reasons includinglarge scale exports of coir fibreto China. As a remedial mea-sure, the Board extended sup-port to the Govt. of Kerala forreviving defunct defiberingunits located in the Malabarregion of Kerala and also iden-tifying new sources of supplyof fibre from Karnataka andAndhra Pradesh as well. Ac-cording to Vijayaraghavan, inMalabar region 60% of thehusks are being unutilised. TheBoard facilitated the Keralagovernment owned Coir Fed,the designated agency for pro-curement of fibre, in identifyingthe suppliers of coir fibre fromthese States. In addition, theBoard’s Central Coir ResearchInstitute (CCRI) at Kalavoor

developed a mobile fibre ex-traction machine which canprocess 5000 husks per shift.

The shortage of labour isan acute problem affecting thecoir sector. This is mainly dueto migration of workers to otherareas like construction indus-try and the ongoing NationalRural Employment GuaranteeProgramme (NREGP). Thishas resulted in huge productionloss in the coir sector. To over-come this, the Chairman, CoirBoard, has made a represen-tation to the Department Re-lated Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Industry to in-clude Coir spinning activity inthe activities covered by theNREGP.

Coir Board is celebratingthe year 2010 as “Year of Coir”by organising variousprogrammes aimed at promot-ing coir in the country throughaggressive and integrated mar-keting propaganda which couldmaximise awareness on vari-ous uses and eco-friendlyproperties of coir among vari-ous target groups. The celebra-tions were inaugurated by A.K.Antony, Union Minister for De-fence, at a function held atPalakkad on 16th May, 2010 byhanding over a celebrationbanner to G. Sudhakaran, Min-ister for Co-operation and Coir,Government of Kerala.

The celebrations of “Yearof Coir” would include introduc-tion of the technologies devel-oped by the Research Insti-

tutes of Coir Board in the fieldlevel and transfer the technolo-gies to the entrepreneurs un-der MoU, besides organizingseminars, work-shops etc. in acontinuous fashion in differentparts of the country. Advan-tages of natural products oversynthetic products will be high-lighted during this periodthrough aggressive publicityand propaganda. Coir productslike coir geotextiles, coir poly-mer composite boards, coir pithorganic manure etc. which hasgot direct impact on the protec-tion of environment from theevils of deforestation, soil ero-sion and depletion of top soiletc. will be promoted on thisoccasion.

The series of activities en-visaged during the “Year ofCoir” include Slogan Contestand Essay Competition for theSchool children, Field Demon-stration on the Application ofCoir Geotextiles, Coir Pith Or-ganic Manure and Coir Poly-mer Composite Boards, Envi-ronment Run to be organisedin major cities by inviting VIPsof the locality. It is also pro-posed to carry out capacitybuilding exercises through ap-propriate training programmesfor the workers and the execu-tives in the coir sector.

It is also planned to under-take aggressive publicityprogrammes at New Delhi atthe time of CommonwealthGames as part of the “Year ofCoir - 2010” Celebrations.

About 73 per cent of thefake medicines seized at theEuropean borders last yearwere routed through theUAE, a newspaper reporthas said. According to a Eu-ropean Commission Taxa-tion and Customs Union re-port, the last port of call for15 per cent of the 118 mil-lion articles seized in Europewas the UAE, The Nationalnewspaper reported.

The most recent figuresrevealed that 73 per cent offake medicines and 16 percent of fake tobacco prod-ucts came from the UAE, thepaper said. The Dubai Cus-toms, which declined to com-ment on the latest report,however, pointed out thatlast year it did not have thelegal authority to inspectgoods on ships that arrivedin its port en route to anotherdestination.

The number of fakemedicines arriving via theUAE rose from around750,000 in 2008 to almost5.5 million in 2009. DavidBoublil, a spokesman for the

73 % of the fakemedicines routedthrough UAE

Taxation and CustomsUnion’’s Directorate-Gen-eral, was quoted by the pa-per as saying that it is impos-sible for customs officials tosay with certainty where inthe world the goods weremanufactured before arriv-ing in the UAE. “We did nottry to distinguish betweencountries of origin and coun-tries of provenance thistime,” he said.The previousreport for 2008 also demon-strated that the UAE playeda major role in the transpor-tation of fake goods acrossthe world. The report noted,however, that “due to a morespecific registration of prod-uct categories, it is difficult tomake an exact comparisonbetween 2009 and the yearsbefore”.

Meanwhile, UAE officialshave been clamping downon fake goods in recentyears. Dubai Customsseized a stash of seven mil-lion sexual stimulant and fer-tility tablets from a ware-house in the dry port in June,the paper added.

V.S. Vijayaraghavan

Restaurant of Sofitel Wanda Chengdu

TA Associates, a leadingglobal growth private equityfirm, announced a minority in-vestment in Dr Lal PathLabs(LPL), one of India ’s largestchains of pathology laborato-ries, by purchasing half of Se-quoia Capital’s stake. SequoiaCapital has been an investor inDr Lal PathLabs since 2005.

Dr Lal PathLabs wasfounded in New Delhi in 1949by Dr. (Major) S.K. Lal as asingle laboratory in centralDelhi . Today, the company,under the stewardship of Dr.Arvind Lal, Chairman, and Dr.Om Manchanda, CEO, hasgrown rapidly to become oneof the country’s largest diag-nostic networks comprising twostate-of-the-art central labora-tories, 55 satellite laboratories,850 collection centers and2,500 pick-up points.

TA Associates has morethan four decades of investingexperience, focusing on profit-able growth companies. TA’sprior investments in thehealthcare sector include AlereMedical, AmeriChoice,CompBenefits, Invitrogen, MQAssociates, National ImagingAssociates, TriumphHealthCare and Twin Med. TA’s previous investments inIndia include GlobeOp Finan-

TA Associates makesminority investmentin Dr Lal PathLabs

cial Services, Idea Cellular andMicromax Informatics Limited.

TA Associates AdvisoryPvt. Ltd. provided advisory ser-vices to TA Associates in India. Ernst & Young served as fi-nancial advisors and Lexygenand Goodwin Procter providedlegal counsel to TA Associates. JM Financial served as finan-cial advisors, and Luthra &Luthra and AZB provided legalcounsel to Dr Lal PathLabs andSequoia Capital, respectively.

Sequoia Capital currentlymanages funds capitalized atclose to US $1.8 billion and in-vests across venture, growthand late stage opportunities inIndia . It takes a long term viewon investments and plays therole of an active, value addedpartner to entrepreneurs, busi-ness families and managementteams. Over the last nineyears, Sequoia Capital has in-vested in more than 50 Indiancompanies, including Café Cof-fee Day, Comviva (BhartiTelesoft), Dr Lal PathLabs,Edelweiss, Firstsource, GVKBiosciences, Idea Cellular, Ind-Barath Power, Just Dial,Shaadi.com and SKSMicrofinance. Sequoia Capitaloperates out of offices in Ban-galore, Mumbai and New Delhi.


Makaan.com, India’s fast-est growing online real estatewebsite by People group haslaunched country’s first Prop-erty Index. ChristenedMakaan.com Property Index(MPI) the tool is aimed at em-powering homebuyers and in-dustry players with up-to dateinformation related to move-ment in residential propertyprices. This tool will assist thehomebuyers to make an in-formed decision, when he/sheheads out to buy their dreamhome. MPI aims to provide adirection to the buyer so thatthey invest their hard earnedmoney in the right manner.

Makaan.com Property In-dex (MPI) is part of a biggerinitiative known as MakaanIQthat has been bringing outproperty intelligence & re-search reports for the benefitof homebuyers and real estateindustry.

Property pricesgrow by 18.6% in thelast one yearEmpowering homebuyers and industry players throughMakaan.com Property Index

Makaan.com Property In-dex Methodology

Coverage: Makaan.comProperty Index tracks propertyprice trends nationally and formajor metros and tier II citiesof India.

Frequency: Monthly –Starting Jan 2009.

Database: This index isbased on minimum databasesize of 20,000 data points ev-ery month and the analysis hasbeen drawn over a period start-ing Jan’09. The prices of prop-erties are obtained across mi-cro-markets through propertylistings on the website as wellas Makaan.com’s nationwidesales force.

Index Algorithm: The com-plex algorithm takes into ac-count the property prices asbase and then factors in thedemand and supply of residen-tial properties for each of thecities covered by it. Care has

been taken to give weight ageto cities in line with the size ofunderlying property market.

As per the latest release ofMakaan.com Property Index(MPI), real estate prices in In-dia have grown by 18.6% inJune’10 compared with thesame month last year. The in-dex for the month of June stoodat 1122 vis- a- vis 946 a yearago. The trend for June’10 de-serves a special mention as itwas around this time last yearthat the property prices startedto look up after 9 months pe-riod (Oct’09 to June’09) of con-tinues decline caused by glo-bal meltdown.

The rise in the national in-dex can be attributed to the in-crease in property prices of theunderlining markets likeKolkata (50.7%), Delhi(41.7%), Ahmedabad (36.2%),Mumbai (15.7%), Pune

Life Insurance Corporationof India is targeting to investRs.2 lakh crore across assetclasses by the end of the cur-rent fiscal. Last year the invest-ment was Rs. 1,92,000 crore.LIC Chairman T.S. Vijayan saidthat the insurance giant hasinvested Rs.39,000 crore, ofwhich Rs.10,000 crore in equi-ties during the first quarter.

LIC recorded a 10.99 percent rise in valuation surplus toRs.23,478 crore in 2009-10 ascompared to Rs.21,152 crorein 2008-09. Valuation surplus isthe money available with LICfor distribution after paying allexpenses and taxes. LIC paidRs.1,029 crore dividend to thegovernment.

First year premium incomerose 33.87 per cent toRs.70,891 crore fromRs.52,954 crore in 2008-09.

Its total assets under man-agement increased 31.88 percent to Rs.11,52,057 crore. Thepremium income rose 18.32per cent to Rs.1,85,985 crorefrom Rs.1,57,186 crore in2008-09 while total incomewent up to Rs.2,98,721 crore,a 49.15 per cent increase from

LIC to invest Rs. 2 lakh crore

2008-09.Also, first-year premium

collections doubled toRs.18,740 crore. LIC’s marketshare inched up to 73.43 percent in the first quarter of 2010-11.

The expense ratio last fi-nancial year was 13.10 percent as compared to 12.92 percent in the previous year, whichwas “within prescribed limits”and the lowest in the highlycompetitive life insurance space.

This financial year, the in-surer is targeting premium col-lection of Rs.2,01,000 crore.

Last year, the share of

Ulips in the total premium pieof Rs.1,85,000 crore was 75per cent and total equity invest-ments stood at Rs.61,000crore. “If the markets are good,people invest in ULIPs and ifinterest areas are good, theyturn to non-linked policies,”Vijayan said.

The largest insurer has 15lakh agents and expects a netaddition of 20 per cent this year.LIC is one of the few insurerspaying the least commission toits agents. While the averagecommission on Ulips is 12-15per cent, LIC pays aroundseven per cent.

T.S. Vijayan: Growth story

CSE Institute of CapitalMarket (CICM), the education& training wing of Cochin StockExchange Ltd is conducting a2-week certificate course onTechnical Analysis.

Classes will be held on18th, 19th & 28th September2010 at Hotel Pearl Continen-tal, Lissie Junction, S.R.M.Road, Kochi. Course fee isRs.6000/- + service tax.

The course will be helpfulto persons in shares, commod-ity and currency markets, in-vestors, traders, sub-brokers,employees of brokers, aspiringresearch analysists, researchstudents, management stu-dents and faculty.

Cochin Stock Exchange to conductcertificate course on Technical Analysis

Contact: CSE Institute ofCapital Market, 4th Floor, MESComplex, Judges Avenue,

Kaloor, Kochi - 17. Ph: [email protected]

Two employees ofMicrosoft Research inBengaluru, one of whom hassince left the company to startan NGO, are among 35 peoplehailed as “outstanding innova-tors under the age of 35” by theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology’s prestigious pub-lication, Technology Review.

Indrani Medhi, 31, was rec-ognized for her development of

Two Bengaluruinnovators get MIT pat

text-free user interfaces thatallow any illiterate person, onfirst contact with a computer, toimmediately deploy it to findjobs, get medical informationand perform banking transac-tions with minimal or no assis-tance.

Rikin B Gandhi, 28, nowwith the NGO Digital Green,created a solution to help farm-

>> Turn to page 6

>> Turn to page 6


The total gold jewellerydemand in India remained ro-bust in H1 2010. The volumeof growth increased 67 per centto 272.5 tonnes as comparedto 163 tonnes in H1 2009. InINR value terms, demand in-creased to Rs 45,700 crores anincrease of 94 per cent. Thevolume of gold in investmentswas very strong and grew by264 per cent to 92.5 tonnes inH1 2010 as compared to 25.4tonnes in the correspondingperiod.

In terms of value, invest-ments accounted for Rs. 14800crores in H1 2010 compared toRs. 3700 crores in H1 2009 anincrease of 300 per cent.

2010 has been a yearwhich has provided a clear in-dication of the diversity of gold.As the year has progressed,the Indian gold market hasgrown significantly. This hastherefore ensured in gold re-taining its intrinsic appeal. De-mand for gold in India rose by

Demand for gold soars 94%in the country during the first6 months of the current year

1500 participants fromIndia and across the worldhave registered for the sixthedition of Kerala Travel Mart2010 (KTM), to be held inKochi from September 23 to26, 2010.

To be organised at theBolgatty Palace Hotel, KTM2010 will have 370 stalls in-cluding mooring facility forhouseboats. This is 27 percent growth in participationthan the previous mart.

Supported by KeralaTourism, this year’s event willbe indicative of the State’spreparedness to attract tour-ists from countries just re-covering from global reces-sion.

Timed just ahead of thepeak tourist season, themeet is aimed at preparingthe stakeholders for a headstart as Kerala is facing un-precedented competitionfrom traditional rivals such asGoa and Rajasthan and alsoneighbouring Karnataka andTamil Nadu.

1500 delegates registerfor KTM 2010

94 per cent to 365 tonnes in H12010 as compared to 188.4tonnes in H1 2009 clearly indi-cating that there has been a re-bound in demand as comparedto the previous year. In valueterms, India’s gold demandgrew from Rs 27,300 crores toRs. 60,500 crores an increaseof 122 per cent. With the Indianmarriage season coming upand important festivals likeDhanteras, Diwali and Onamon the anvil, the future seemsto augur well for gold.

Ajay Mitra, Managing Di-rector, Middle East and India,World Gold Council said:”Todate, 2010 has provided a clearindication of the diversity ofgold demand. The Indian goldmarket has improved signifi-cantly compared to the previ-ous year, and in the process,has ensured that it has retainedits intrinsic appeal.

“Demand for gold in Indiarose by 94% to 365 tonnes inH1 2010 compared to 188.4

tonnes in H1 2009, clearly in-dicating that there has been arebound in demand. In valueterms, India’s gold demandgrew from Rs 27,300 crores toRs. 60,500 crores, an increaseof 122%. With the Indian mar-riage season coming up as wellas important festivals likeDhanteras, Diwali and Onam,we anticipate gold demand willremain robust throughout2010.”

Demand for gold will re-main robust during 2010 as aresult of accelerating demandfrom India and China, as wellas increasing investment de-mand driven by continuing un-certainty over public debt andeconomic recovery, the WorldGold Council (“WGC”)said.According to the WGC’sGold Demand Trends report forQ2 2010, demand for gold forthe rest of 2010 will be under-pinned by the following marketforces:India and China will con-tinue to provide the main thrustof overall growth in demand,particularly for gold jewellery forthe remainder of 2010. Retailinvestment will continue to bea substantial source of golddemand in Europe.

Over the longer-term, de-mand for gold in China is ex-pected to grow considerably. Areport recently published byThe People’s Bank of Chinaand five other organisations tofoster the development of thedomestic gold market will addimpetus to the growth in goldownership among Chineseconsumers.

Electronics demand islikely to return to higher historiclevels after the sector exhibitedfurther signs of recovery, espe-cially in the US and Japan.

Marcus Grubb, ManagingDirector, Investment at the

The college has a fullyfunctional placements cell un-der a dynamic placement of-ficer, Santha Ram Rao. Heregularly liaisons with the in-dustry giants within and outsidethe state and helps organisetraining programmes to suit therequirements of the compa-nies. The syllabus of the Fin-ishing School concept con-ceived by the ASIET placementcell has been widely acclaimedand recognised. This is a prac-tical oriented concept whichcan give an insight to bothB.Tech. and M.B.A. studentswho wish to pursue a career inmanagement. The campusconnect programme of ASIEThas been adjudged as the bestby Infosys.

Hi-Fi campus, highly quali-fied and dedicated faculty,state-of-the art laboratory, li-brary and workshop facilities,ultra modern class rooms withlatest teaching aids like P3 ce-ramics boards, public addresssystem and LCD projectors,fully-air-conditioned and wellfurnished seminar hall and con-ference rooms, ample provi-sion for sports, games and cul-tural activities, Edusat, EverronE-learning system, invitingfeedback from all stake hold-ers including parents, waterharvesting and biogas plant aresome of the special features ofASIET. ASIET is the only hi-tech technical education cen-tre where training in classicalmusic is being given on a regu-lar basis.

From page 3

The tourism sector ofKerala faces tough competitionfrom many stakeholders in theregion. In an effort to build upits war-ravaged economy, SriLanka has started a campaignto lure premium traveler to theisland nation. For Indians, SriLanka is a bargain tourist des-tination. Even Malaysia andThailand are not far behind intheir efforts to attract the dis-cerning tourist.Internationalbuyers from countries like Po-land, Mexico, South Africa, Ja-pan, China, Australia, Malay-sia, Singapore, the U.K., theU.S., Germany, France andthose from countries in SouthAsia have registered as del-egates. More than a thousandbuyers from other states of In-dia will also participate in thispopular travel mart.

Organised during the lastThursday, Friday and Saturdayof September biennial, KTM isthe only tourism event in thesubcontinent that brings to-gether the business fraternityand entrepreneurs behind the

tourism products and ser-vices of Kerala. Launched inthe year 2000 as KTM 2000,very successful Marts wereconducted in 2002, 2004,2006 and 2008 with the par-ticipation of buyers fromaround 50 countries andother parts of India. Prima-rily a buyer-seller meetwhere buyers fall in the cat-egories of tour operators,travel agents, airline, eventmanagers, travel writers,media personnel or anyonewho has the potential to buyservices that the tourism in-dustry of Kerala has to offer.All sellers are members ofthe KTM society coming un-der the service categories oftourism industry service pro-viders.

The Mart will be inaugu-rated on September 23,2010. On September 24 and25 there will be exclusive in-teractive sessions for thebuyers and sellers. Septem-ber 26 is open for the public.

WGC commented:”Economicuncertainties and the ongoingsearch for less volatile andmore diversified assets such asgold are likely to underpin in-vestment demand for gold inthe immediate future. Further,in light of lingering concernsover public debt levels and theeuro, European retail investordemand has increased signifi-cantly. Over the past quarter,

demand for gold jewellery inkey Asian markets has beenchallenged by rising localprices. Nevertheless, we areseeing a deceleration in thepace of decline in demand, pro-viding a strong outlook for on-going recovery in this crucialmarket segment.While manyinvestors turned to gold as a‘flight to quality’ in response tothe uncertain financial environ-

ment, this interest has provedresilient even though a senseof optimism has started to re-turn to some sectors of the in-vestment community. In addi-tion to the ETF market andphysical bar and coin market,the demand for gold throughinternet based investment plat-forms is likely to provide furthersources of investment de-mand.”

(12.5%) and Bangalore (3%)while dragging the index wasthe property prices in marketslike Hyderabad (-3.4%) andChennai (-2.8%).

If one were to look at theshort term (quarterly) trend andcompare the price index forJune’10 with that of March’10,one would observe consolida-tion in property prices. The na-tional index during this periodhas moved from 1117 inMarch’10 to 1122 in June’10 anear flat growth of just 0.5%.This indicates a short term fa-tigue in the property prices af-ter an upturn seen earlier in theyear. During this period, the in-dex has moved up in marketslike Delhi (15.1%), Ahmedabad(10.3%), Kolkata (5.8%) andHyderabad (2.7%) whereas ithas fallen in markets likeChennai (-10.6%), Pune (-8.6%), Mumbai (-4%) & Ban-galore (-0.8%).

Commenting on the find-ings, Aditya Verma – COO,Makaan.com says, “In the nearterm the mood seems to bethat of caution. The home buy-

ers seem to be in a wait andwatch approach. On one handthe property prices have gone-up too much too soon and onthe other there is excess sup-ply. Both these are acting likea headwind in the short term.The price movement over the

From page 5

next few months will determinethe next definitive trend”.

Makaan property index isa part of a bigger initiativeknown as MakaanIQ that hasbeen bringing out property in-telligence & research reportsfor the benefit of homebuyersand real estate industry.

From page 5

ers adopt better practices. Thesolution, first piloted in Hubliand now implemented in sev-eral locations in the country,has been demonstrated to be10 times more effective, perrupee spent, in convertingfarmers to better farming prac-tices than classical ap-proaches.

Narayanan Suresh, groupeditor of Technology ReviewIndia, told TOI this selectionindicated that young innovatorsin India were doing cutting-edge work like their counter-parts worldwide. “Many globalexperts have predicted that In-dians in India will play a majorrole in the technologies of to-morrow,” he said. The last time

an Indian in India featured inthis TR35 list was in 2002,when Ramesh Hariharan, co-founder of Bangalore-basedStrand Life Sciences, was rec-ognized for software tools hedesigned to efficiently analyzethe ever-increasing volume ofdata about gene composition.

“Many young innovatorswe’ve selected have gone onto be spectacularly successful,”Technology Review says. Pre-vious winners include LarryPage and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google; MarkZuckerberg, co-founder ofFacebook; Jonathan Ive, chiefdesigner at Apple; and MaxLevchin, co-founder of PayPal.


COMMENTS

It was strange that a min-ister in the Union Governmenthas been working in tandemwith the Maoists, who werekilling hundreds of policemenand civilians almost everydayin West Bengal, Chattisgarh,Jharkhand, Bihar and else-where.

Railway minister MamataBanerjee addressed a jointrally organised by her partyTrinamool Congress andMaoists recently in Lalgarh,West Bengal. In the rally she

Mamata-Maoistalliance

declared that the Maoist leaderAzad was killed in AndhraPradesh not in an encounterand it was a fake one. ButAndhra Pradesh Governmentand Union Home minister wererepeatedly stating that it wasnot a fake encounter. Homeminister Chidambaram de-clares war against Maoist andhis cabinet colleague supportsthe Masoists vehemently.When CPM alleged Mamata-Maoist tie-up earlier,Chidambaram had said that

there was no proof of anylinks between Maoists andTrinamool Congress. Afterthe Lalgarh rally how can hedefend Mamata further?Infact Mamata’s act was amorale booster for the Maoists,who were out to challenge thelaw and democratic fabric ofthe country. Prime Ministercontinues his silence on theincident. There were reportsthat Finance Minister PranabMukherjee would meetMamata and inform her thedispleasure of the Govern-ment on the Lalgarh incident.But after meeting Mamata inhospital, Pranab was sayingthat he met his cabinet col-league only to inquire abouthere health.

Apollo Tyres resumed op-erations at its Perambra facil-ity which had been locked outsince June 11, following asettlement with the workers.

Labour unrest at the facil-ity since April this year had costthe company about Rs.600crore in revenues.

According to the three-year-long term settlement(LTS) agreement, signed be-tween the management andthe workers, the company hasdecided to hire 200 morepeople and hike the monthlywages by an average ofRs.5,250.

“After long deliberationswith the workers, we signed theLTS. According to the agree-ment, we will increase the ca-pacity to an effective 330tonnes a day from the earlier308 tonnes a day,” the ApolloTyres Chief (India Operations),Satish Sharma said.

Apollo Tyres had recentlyinvested about Rs.100 crore inthe facility to enhance its in-stalled production capacity to340 tonnes a day. To operatewith the expanded capacity, thecompany will hire 200 more atthe plant. The unit currentlyemploys over 2,000 employ-ees.

“The workers have alsoagreed to have secondary orcontractual labourers, who willwork night shifts, weekends,holidays and periods of high

Rs.600 crore revenue lossfor Apollo Tyres due tolabour unrest

absenteeism. This was essen-tial since the Perambra plantwitnesses one of the highestabsentee rates in the country,”Sharma added.

He said the company willalso hike the monthly wages ofthe labourers by an average ofRs.5,250 against the Rs.3,550offered in the last LTS agree-

ment.The three-year LTS agree-

ment at the Perambra facilitywas to be signed by both theworkers and the managementin November, 2009. Workershad resorted to a go-slow agi-tation in April demanding bet-ter wages during renewal of the

LTS.The company had de-

clared a lock-out at the factoryon June 11 after failing to reachan agreement with the workers.

When asked about thelosses incurred by the unit dueto the entire period of labourunrest, Sharma said: “Till wedeclared the lock-out, the rev-enue loss was about Rs.250crore and after that, each daywe lost Rs.5 crore... The totalloss is about Rs.600 crore.”

Asked about the 33 em-ployees at the facility, who weresuspended for indiscipline,Sharma said: “There was nodemand for them by the unions.An enquiry is going on and wewill take action according to thereport.”

This is not the first time thatlabour unrest has haunted thedomestic tyre major. In Decem-ber 2008, Apollo Tyres had de-clared a lock-out at itsKalamassery unit when work-ers went on strike. It was re-opened after three months.

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The allegation of left par-ties, RJD and SP that the Con-gress had agreed to bail outGujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi in the Sohrabuddin fakeencounter case as a Quid proquo to the support of BJP forthe Nuclear Liability Bill wastotally irresponsible. The alle-gation was proved wrong asBJP opposed the bill when theGovernment made changes inthe agreed text to help thenuclear suppliers. BJP was firmto remove those clauses andfinally the Government relented.

In a healthy democracy, the

Irresponsible allegationruling party and the oppositionare expected to have identicalviews on certain issues involv-ing national interest. Opposi-tion parties have to opposeonly the unacceptable deci-sions of the Government, notthe good ones.

As left parties are blindagainst US and the corporatesfrom that country, the allegationby them can’t be taken as seri-ous. Left parties have beencriticising US consistently withthe intention of attracting Mus-lims of India to their side. ButMuslim voters were not

amused with the strategy andthey were deserting the leftparties in their strong holds ofWest Bengal and Kerala.

Criticising the allegation ofCongress-BJP secret under-standing by SP and RJD, whatBJP spokesman Rajiv PratapRudey remarked was notewor-thy. He said: “As far as givingclean chit by the CBI is con-cerned the RJD and the SP canexplain better how this arrange-ment of using the CBI can bemade with the Congress. TheBJP doesn’t know this art. Theyhave mastered this”.

At present the bank is cov-ering two money-moving corri-dors - Mumbai-Eastern UttarPradesh and Bihar and Delhi-Eastern UP and Bihar corridor.Around three lakh customershave enrolled and an amountof Rs.112 crore was remittedinvolving 2.4 lakh transactions.

“We will shortly replicatethis model in other money-moving corridors like Surat-Ganjram,” adds M.V. Nair.

From page 3

Avoid accepting Rs.1, 000/- note of series 2 AQ and 8AC.

More than 2 crore duplicate notes worth Rs.2,000 crorehave already entered India. RBI has issued a caution no-tice to the public regarding this.

Be cautious while acceptingRs. 1000 notes

Next time you check in ahotel, be prepared to shell outmore as domestic hoteliers areexpected to increase tariffs by10-15 per cent from Septem-ber.

In an attempt to cash in onthe peak winter season and theimproved economic scenario,“Hoteliers are planning to in-crease the average room rates

Hotel room tariffs may riseby 10-15%

(ARRs) by 10-15 per cent fromSeptember 2010 as they ex-pect tourist traffic to improve,”says a report by domestic bro-kerage Angel Broking. Al-though, the report didn’t talkabout their plans for the up-coming CommonwealthGames, it is expected that tar-iffs will increase from October3-14 on the back of strong de-mand.

Last two years proved dullfor the hotel companies as theywere forced to slash averageroom rates by 25-30 per centdue to terrorist attacks in thecountry that led to lower occu-pancy levels as people wereapprehensive to travel, the re-port said. Hotel industry, whichis inextricably linked to the tour-ism industry and its growth, in-creases rates before the cru-cial winter season every year.Reflecting a sign of improve-ment over last two seasons thehotel industry is inching closer

to the benchmark 2008-09 lev-els in terms of booking vol-umes. Although, demand in theleisure travel segment maytake longer time to revive butdemand from the businesssegment, besides local tourists,is likely to push up occupancyrates.

While occupancy rates areexpected to rise to 70 per centduring the upcoming season(October 2010-March 2011),thereby providing opportunityto hoteliers to firm up their av-erage room rates. On an aver-age, the room tariff in a pre-mium hotel in metros hoversaround Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000per day. But from September,you may have to pay in therange of Rs 9,200-Rs 11, 500.And going by the governmentestimates, in December, whichis the peak tourist season,rates often go up to USD 500(around Rs 23,300) in the five-star category hotels in Delhi.


THE LIFE Women are always clever

Man: “Haven’t we metbefore?”

Woman: “Yes, I’m the re-ceptionist at the V.D. Clinic.”

Man: “Haven’t I seen yousomeplace before?”

Woman: “Yeah, that’s whyI don’t go there anymore.”

Man: “Is this seat empty?”Woman: “Yes, and this

one will be too if you sitdown.”

Man: “So, wanna go backto my place?”

Woman: “Well, I don’tknow. Will two people fit un-der a rock?”

Man: “Your place ormine?”

Woman: “Both. You go toyours and I’ll go to mine.”

Man: “I’d like to call you.

What’s your number?”Woman: “It’s in the phone

book.”Man: “But I don’t know your

name.”Woman: “That’s in the

phone book too.”Man: “So what do you do

for a living?”Woman: “I’m a female im-

personator.”Man: “I know how to please

a woman.”Woman: “Then please

leave me alone.”Man: “I want to give myself

to you.”Woman: “Sorry, I don’t ac-

cept cheap gifts.”Man: “I can tell that you

want me.”Woman: “Ohhhh. You’re so

right. I want you...to leave.”Man: “Hey cutie, how

‘bout you and I hitting the hotspots?”

Woman: “Sorry, I don’tdate outside my species.”

Man: “May I see youpretty soon?”

Woman: “Why? Don’t youthink I’m pretty now?”

Man: “Your body is like atemple.”

Woman: “Sorry, there areno services today.”

Man: “I’d go through any-thing for you.”

Woman: “Good! Let’sstart with your bank account.”

Man: “I would go to theend of the world for you.”

Woman: “Yes, but wouldyou stay there?”

1) Don’t worry aboutknowing people just makeyour self worth knowing.2) Friends are those rarepeople who ask how we areand then wait to hear theanswer. 3) If you can buy aperson’s friendship, it is notworth it. 4) True friends havehearts that beat as one. 5) Ifyou cannot think of any nicethings to say about yourfriends, then you have thewrong friends. 6) Makefriends before you needthem. 7) If you were anotherperson, would you like to bea friend of yours? 8) A goodfriend is one who neitherlooks down on you norkeeps up with you. 9) Befriendly with the folks youknow… if it weren’t for themyou would be a totalstranger. 10) A friend is neverknown till he is needed.11) Friendship is a respon-sibility. ..not an opportunity.

How to be a friend12) Friendship is the cementthat holds the world together.13) Friends are those whospeak to you after others don’t.14) The reason a dog has somany friends is that he wagshis tail and not his tongue.15) Pick your friends, but notto pieces. 16) A friend is onewho puts his finger on a faultwithout rubbing it in. 17) Theway to have friends is to bewilling to lose some arguments.18) If a friend makes a mistake,don’t rub it in... Rub it out.19) Deal with other’s faults asgently as if they were your own.20) People are judged by thecompany they keep and thecompany they keep away from.21) A friend is a person whocan step on your toes withoutmessing up your shine. 22) Thebest mirror is an old friend.23) The best possession onemay have is a true friend.24) Make friendship a habit andyou will always have friends.

25) You will never have afriend if you must have onewithout faults. 26) Doingnothing for your friends re-sults in having no friends todo for. 27) Anyone can giveadvice, but a real friend willlend a helping hand. 28) Youcan make more friends bybeing interested in them thantrying to have them be inter-ested in you. 29) A real friendis a person who, whenyou’ve made a fool of your-self, lets you forget it. 30) Afriend is a person who listensattentively while you saynothing. 31) You can buyfriendship with friendship,but never with dollars.32) True friends are like dia-monds, precious but rare;false friends are like autumnleaves, found everywhere.33) A friend is someone whothinks you’re a good eggeven though you’re slightlycracked.

1. Yesterday is history.Tomorrow is mystery. Todayis a gift. That is why it iscalled the present.

2. Learn from the mis-takes of others. You can’t live

Yesterday is historylong enough to make them allyourself.

3. The most influential sen-tence which should always befollowed in life:-”the race is notover… because I haven’t won

yet…”4. Shoes that put on our

foot are sold inairconditioned showrooms.But vegetables we eat aresold on foot path.

He met her on a party.She was so outstanding,many guys chasing after her,while he was so normal, no-body paid attention to him.At the end of the party, heinvited her to have coffeewith him, she was surprised,but due to being polite, shepromised. They sat in a nicecoffee shop, he was too ner-vous to say anything, she feltuncomfortable, she thought,please, let me go home..Suddenly he asked thewaiter:

”Would you please giveme some salt? I’d like to putit in my coffee.”

Everybody stared athim, so strange! His faceturned red, but, still, he putthe salt in his coffee anddrank it. She asked him cu-riously: why you have thishobby?. He replied: “when Iwas a little boy, I was livingnear the sea, I liked playingin the sea, I could feel thetaste of the sea, just like thetaste of the salty coffee. Nowevery time I have the saltycoffee, I always think of mychildhood, think of my home-town, I miss my hometownso much, I miss my parentswho are still living there”.While saying that tears filled

Salty Coffeehis eyes. She was deeplytouched.

That’s his true feeling,from the bottom of his heart. Aman who can tell out his home-sickness, he must be a manwho loves home, cares abouthome, has responsibility ofhome.. Then she also startedto speak, spoke about her far-away hometown, her child-hood, her family. That was areally nice talk, also a beautifulbeginning of their story. Theycontinued to date. She foundthat actually he was a man whomeets all her demands; he hadtolerance, was kind hearted,warm, careful. He was such agood person but she almostmissed him!Thanks to his saltycoffee! Then the story was justlike every beautiful love story,the princess married to theprince, then they were living thehappy life... And, every timeshe made coffee for him, sheput some salt in the coffee, asshe knew that’s the way heliked it.

After 40 years, he passedaway, left her a letter whichsaid: “My dearest, please for-give me, forgive my whole lifelie. This was the only lie I saidto you—the salty coffee. Re-member the first time wedated? I was so nervous at that

time, actually I wanted somesugar, but I said salt It washard for me to change so Ijust went ahead. I neverthought that could be thestart of our communication!I tried to tell you the truthmany times in my life, but Iwas too afraid to do that, asI have promised not to lie toyou for anything..

Now I’m dying, I afraidof nothing. So I tell you thetruth: I don’t like the saltycoffee, what a strange badtaste.. But I have had thesalty coffee for my whole life!Since I knew you, I never feelsorry for anything I do foryou. Having you with me ismy biggest happiness for mywhole life. If I can live for thesecond time, still want toknow you and have you formy whole life, even though Ihave to drink the salty cof-fee again”.

Her tears made the let-ter totally wet.

Someday, someoneasked her: what’s the tasteof salty coffee? It’s sweet.She replied.

The lesson: Love is notto forget but 2toforgive;not tosee but to understand;not tohear but to listen; not to gobut to hold on !!!!

Confession Adultery

A married Irishman wentinto the confessional and saidto his priest, “I almost had anaffair with another woman.”

The priest said, “What doyou mean, almost?”

The Irishman said, “Well,we got undressed and rubbedtogether, but then I stopped.”

The priest said, “Rubbing

together is the same as puttingit in. You’re not to see thatwoman again. For your pen-ance, say five Hail Mary’s andput $50 in the poor box.”

The Irishman left the con-fessional, said his prayers, andthen walked over to the poorbox. He paused for a momentand then started to leave. The

priest, who was watching,quickly ran over to himsaying, “I saw that. You didn’tput any money in the poorbox!”.

The Irishman replied,“Yeah, but I rubbed the $50on the box, and according toyou, that’s the same as put-ting it.”

Jury Duty

A man was chosen forjury duty who very muchwanted to be dismissed fromserving. He tried every ex-cuse he could think of butnone of them worked. On theday of the trial he decided togive it one more shot. As the

trial was about to begin heasked if he could approach thebench.”Your Honor,” he said, “I must be excused from this trialbecause I am prejudicedagainst the defendant. I tookone look at the man in the bluesuit with those beady eyes and

that dishonest face and I said‘He’s a crook! He’s guilty,guilty, guilty’ So Your Honor, Icould not possibly stay on thisjury!” With a tired annoyancethe judge replied,

“Get back in the jury box.That man is his lawyer.”

Valuable Banking

Rajiv and Mona are flyingto Australia for a two-week va-cation to celebrate their 40thanniversary. Suddenly, overthe public address system,the Captain announces, “La-dies and Gentlemen, I amafraid I have some very badnews. Our engines haveceased functioning and wewill attempt an emergencylanding. Luckily, I see an un-charted island below us andwe should be able to land onthe beach. However, the odds

are that we may never be res-cued and will have to live onthe island for the rest of our lives!”

Thanks to the skill of theflight crew, the plane landssafely on the island.

An hour later Rajiv turns tohis wife and asks, “Mona, didwe pay our Rs 5 lakh depositcheque yet to Bank?” “No,sweetheart,” she responds.Rajiv, still shaken from thecrash landing, then asks,“Mona, did we pay our BankMaster card yet?” “Oh no! I’m

sorry. I forgot to send thecheque,” she says. “One lastthing, Mona. Did you remem-ber to send cheques for theauto loan to them too thismonth?” he asks. “Oh, forgiveme, Rajiv,” begged Mona. “Ididn’t send that one, either.”

Rajiv grabs her and givesher the biggest hug in 40years. Mona pulls away andasks him, “So, why did youhug me?”

Rajiv answers, “They’llfind us!!!!”

Wedding Rehearsal

During the wedding re-hearsal, the groom ap-proached the preacher withan unusual offer.

“Look, I’ll give you $100if you’ll change the weddingvows. When you get to me andthe part where I’m to promiseto “love, honor and cherish”and “forsaking all others, befaithful to her forever,” I’d ap-preciate it if you’d just leavethat part out.” He passed theminister a $100 bill andwalked away satisfied.

It is now the day of thewedding, and the bride andgroom have moved to that partof the ceremony where thevows are exchanged. When itcomes time for the groom’svows, the preacher looks theyoung man in the eye andsays:

“Will you promise to pros-trate yourself before her, obeyher every command and wish,serve her breakfast in bed ev-ery morning of your life andvow eternally before God and

your lovely wife that you willnot ever even look at anotherwoman, as long as you bothshall live?”

The groom gulped andlooked around, and said in atiny voice, “Yes.”

The groom leaned to-ward the preacher and whis-pered: “I thought we had adeal.”

The preacher put the$100 bill into his hand andwhispered back: “She mademe a much better offer.”


Toyota Kirloskar Motor’srecently launched Corolla AltisDiesel version is getting excel-lent response in the Keralamarket. Nippon Toyota, theKochi-based dealer of ToyotaKirloskar Motors in a press re-lease said that more than 300units were booked in its show-rooms.

1.4 litre, 4-cylinder, CorollaAltis has the unique world classD-4 D Diesel technology. Thecar is available in 3 models- HJ,HG and HL. The 6-speedmanual transmission of Altiswas the first in its category. Theflat torque of the car avoids fre-quent gear change, whichinturn helps reduced fuel con-sumption. Corolla Altis offers a

Booking for Corolla Altis Diesel atNippon Toyota exceeds 300 units

mileage of 21.43 kilometre/litre.In addition the car has excel-lent ground clearance andaerodynamic specialities. Thecar is available in 7 colours -Silver mica metallic, cham-pagne mica metallic, dark red

mica metallic, white pearl micametallic, light blue metallic, su-per white and black mica me-tallic.

Ex-room price of DieselCorolla Altis in Kochi isRs.10,93,800 to 13,72,500.

Casio India Pvt. Ltd., a100% subsidiary of CasioComputer Co. Ltd. Japan andthe market leader in India formusical instruments first timein World has launched World’sfirst 4 of its newest keyboardsSA 46, SA 47, SA 76 & SA 77with IndianTones &Rhythms in mini-keyboard seg-ment.

The newmodels are up-graded models of previouslyavailable keyboards with newerdesigns and more features.Ideally suited for early startersin music it comes with 4 Indiantones [Harmonium, Santoor,Sitar, Shenai], 5 Indianrhythms, 10 song bank [whichcontains 1 Indian song as well]and 5 musical pads with 2 In-dian percussions of Tabla.Moreover these keyboardshave enhanced sound qualitywith 8 note polyphony while theearlier models sported only 4.Also, it comes with 50 rhythmsas compared to 30 in the pre-vious generation. All the mod-els come with one button touchtone selection for Piano andOrgan instruments. However,

Casio launches new key-boards for kids

in SA 47 & SA 77 additionallyHarmonium tone can be se-lected along with Piano & Or-gan by touch of a button.

Kids who are new to musi-cal lessons would find themelody on / off function veryuseful as it helps set your own

rhythmat your own pace.

“Being market leader ourendeavor is to continuouslyprovide better solutions to ourcustomers. We learned fromconsumer interaction that mostof the kids start learning in In-dian music. Parents also wantto have instruments that areindianised. We identified thisneed & came out with these up-graded mini-keyboard modelsthat has Indian support.” saidK. Seth, Marketing Head, CasioIndia Pvt. Ltd.

The new ranges of Mini-keyboards are available inprice range of Rs. 2295/- to2795/- at all leading Music, Toy& electronics stores.

Barely three months afterTata Motors certified the Nanoas “absolutely safe”, in a firstin Delhi, a car went up in flamesat a parking lot in AurobindoMarg . The driver managed toget out on seeing sparks; in allof two minutes, only a charredframe remained. The car,which belonged to a SupremeCourt advocate, had just pulledinto the parking lot around11.30am when driver PatrickJohn noticed sparks comingfrom the rear, where the engineis located. “I was waiting in thecar, having just parked it, whensparks started coming out.Thankfully, I managed to leapout of the car in time. I shudderto think what might have hap-pened otherwise, since it wasall over so fast. The entire carwas destroyed in two minutes

Third Nano goes up in flames

flat,” said John.Two similar incidents were

reported in Vadodara andMumbai earlier this year follow-ing which Tata Motorslaunched an inquiry. In May, itsaid the accidents were due tounrelated reasons and that thecar was safe. The companyhas called a probe into Friday’sincident; a spokesperson fromMumbai said a Tata teamwould inspect the vehicle toascertain the reasons behindthe accident.

The sky blue Nano boughtby SC advocate RavinderNarayan in May, had done34,000km and was servicedonce. “On Friday, we were driv-ing from Connaught Place toHauz Khas, so had barely trav-elled 8-9 kilometres,” Johnsaid. The driver was travelling

safe car, with a robust designand state-of-the-art compo-nents.”

The latest setback comesat a time when Tata Motors islooking to open new bookingsfor the Nano after productionbegan at its new plant inSanand, Gujarat. Analysts saidrepeated incidents of fire on theNano could affect demand forthe budget car on safety con-cerns.

with the advocate’s managerbefore the accident occurred.Narayan was unavailable forcomment.

Automobile experts saidthe fire was possibly not en-demic to the Nano. “It is pos-sible that the car had beentweaked to add some featureslike power windows or a fancyaudio system where the wiringwas not done properly,” saideditor-in-chief of Zigwheels,Adil Jal Darukhanawala.

There have been incidentsof Nano catching fire right fromwhen deliveries began inMarch this year. While initiallythe problem was put down tothe combination switch towardsthe dashboard of the car, inci-dents later pointed to enginefault which prompted a com-pany investigation.

In May, Tata Motors as-serted that the Nano was “ab-solutely safe”. A companystatement issued on May 21said: “Tata Motors has under-taken a comprehensive inves-tigation related to the cause offire in two Tata Nanos. On thebasis of the findings of the in-vestigation, conducted by a 20-member internal team and anindependent forensic expert,Tata Motors assures all cus-tomers that the Tata Nano is a

Volkswagen, Europe’slargest car maker launched itsmuch awaited entry level pre-mium sedan the Vento . Thecar will go on sale from Sep-tember 6, 2010 across India inall Volkswagen dealers.TheVento will be available to cus-tomers starting at Rs 6.99lakhs, for the 1.6 litre petrolvariant and Rs. 7.99 lakhs forthe diesel variant, Ex. Show-room New Delhi.

Speaking about

Volkswagen New Ventopriced at Rs.6.99 lakhs

Volkswagen’s market introduc-tion of the Vento, Neeraj Garg,Member of Board and Director,Volkswagen Passenger Cars,Volkswagen Group Sales IndiaPvt. Ltd said, “The New Vento,

which stands for best in classfeatures and German engi-neering is poised to set abenchmark in its segment. De-signed for the Indian market it

>> Turn to page 16


HEALTH

For Your Good Health

Healthy Lifestyle is the“Mantra” for Good Health.

1. Watch your Weight —

Obesity or Overweight in-creases the Risk of Diabe-tes, High Blood Pressure,Heart Disease, Stroke, etc.

Be conscious about your

Healthy lifestyle can shape your health and body

Weight.2. Define your Diet —

Take More servings of FreshVegetables and Fruits andLess Fat.

A moderate quantity of Bal-anced Diet will keep yourWeight in check.

3. Exercise Everyday — 30Minutes of Moderate Physical

Activity Everyday is Must fora Healthy Life.

Make Time for any typeof Exercise which suits youand to your liking.

Walking, gardening orany house work with physi-cal activity is equally good.

- Dr. Sashikala Chandrasekar([email protected])

After Influenza A H1N1(popularly called swine flu) vi-rus that achieved mediasuperstardom in the last 12months before bowing out ofthe world stage unceremoni-ously last week, its place hasbeen taken by a new “superstar.” A new gene, New Delhimetallo-beta-lactamase orNDM-1 found in gut bacteria inpatients treated in some Indianhospitals is the new sensation.

In fact, a routine scientificpaper which will soon appearin the scientific journal Lancetby an international team of re-searchers including a Britonand Indian, is the cause of aregional alarm. The bacterialgene, found in 1 to 3 percentof patients withEnterobacteriaceau infectionsin India, has reportedly becomeresistant to all known antibiot-ics.

This has led to a flurry ofmedia articles, with such titles,“The End of Antibiotics,” andglobal scare that human racehas run out of options to treat“superbugs” such as NMD-1and a doomsday scenario thatawaits us. More importantly,the thrust of the articles onNDM-1 is that patients whoundergo medical treatments inIndia are prone to be infectedby this “superbug.”

More than 82 years ago,Alexander Fleming, made thechance discovery of antibioticsand penicillin became the won-der drug in the next few de-cades. In the six decades thatfollowed, medical researchershave developed a wide rangeof antibiotics to treat as manyinfectious diseases as pos-sible.

The “superbug” scare-mongeringBy Narayanan Suresh

However, in the last twodecades, many scientists andcommentators have started towrite premature obituaries ofantibiotics. In fact, the latestheadlines in newspapersbased on the NMD-1 reportshave a common theme: “Is itthe end of antibiotics?”But is it really so?

What is happening todayseems to be an exact replicaof the events more than 16years ago. In March 1994, thevenerable Newsweek maga-zine ran a report, “The End ofAntibiotics?” by Sharon Begley.The reference was to the dis-cussions at the annual meet-ing of the Association of Ad-vancement of Science in SanFrancisco that concluded nFebruary 1994. “We are facingnothing short of a medical di-saster,” the article quoted mi-crobiologist Alexander Tomaszof Rockefeller University assaying at the conference, warn-ing that “many common bacte-ria are evolving resistance tomore and more antibiotics.”

What was the trigger? Thedata for 1992 indicated that re-sistant infections killed 19,000patients in hospitals in the USthat year and contributed to thedeath 58,000 more outside.

What happened then? In2005, more than 2 millionpeople in the US were affectedby infections and 90,000 ofthem died. In the UK, therewere 300,000 infected patientswith 5,000 deaths, according toinformation compiled by sci-ence writer, Thomas Hausler inhis book, “Viruses vsSuperbugs.” The book waspublished in German in 2006.

Even after 16 years, anti-

biotics continue to thrive eventhough more resistance hasbeen reported regularly. Willthe August 2010 obituary onantibiotics also be another suchpremature exercise?

Majority of the hospital in-fections are caused by the Sta-phylococcus aureus bacteria.In fact, Dr Tomasz has foundthat 70 percent of the known3,000 strains of this bacteriafound all over the world be-longed to just five strains. Whatthis means is that it doesn’tmatter where the bacteriafound first. The source is not soimportant. These tiny microbeshave always had a way inspreading themselves to allparts of our Planet. So blam-ing a particular city, hospital orcountry does not help thecause of finding a quick cure.

It is true that most of thepharmaceutical companieshave given up their develop-ment efforts on new antibioticsdue to low margins. If antibiot-ics resistance becomes wide-spread, definitely human inge-nuity will once again ensurethat enabling environment isprovided to the experts to findthe necessary cure.

Phage therapy is one of themost promising cures aroundthe corner. Phages, the virusesthat kill harmful bacteria, is onesuch cure and the numerousresearch groups who are work-ing quietly in the backgroundwill get the fillip soon, just likethe lease of life that biofuels gotdue to the alarming price in-crease in fossil fuels.

It is certainly not the end ofantibiotics. And NMD-1 will notbe the “antibiotics killer” any-way.

Is your digestion as goodas it could be? According toAyurveda, the physical root ofall disease is improperdigestion.Therefore, maintain-ing good digestion is the keyto optimal health. The Sanskritterm for digestive fire is “agni”.There are many factors thatdecrease it’s capability, likestress and improper diet. Yetmany good habits can improveagni. Chief among them isstarting off the day with the per-fect breakfast.

Imagine you are living in ahome that is heated solely bya woodstove. To get it startedin the morning, it is necessaryto begin with just the right sizekindling to build the fire. News-paper might be used beneathsome twigs and thin strips ofwood. Then as that catches,you begin to add larger andlarger logs of wood until the fireis really roaring. The fire will

Ayurvedic view of optimal digestion- Dr. Sharada Hall -

now stay strong for the wholeday with the addition of morewood. Agni is like the fire in thewood stove. As the morningsun rises in the sky, our innerfire awakens as well. First thingin the morning, the agni needsjust the right size kindling inorder to be fueled. Eating onlyfruit for breakfast is like puttingpaper on the fire. The fire con-sumes it but is not made stron-ger. And eating a heavy break-fast of bacon and eggs cansmother the fire like placing abig log in the fire before the kin-dling.

The ideal kindling for ourdigestion in the morning is ahot, whole grain porridge.Whole grains nourish the Earthelement that is our digestion.When they are slowly cookedto unleash their inner vitality,they benefit digestion, increaseassimilation, and boost me-tabolism. Choose the appropri-

ate grains and seasonings foryour constitution. You will findyourself quite hungry within afew hours. Don’t worry aboutan increased appetite; truehunger is a very good sign thatyour digestive fire is alive andwell. Because you have al-ready burned through the kin-dling, by mid to late morningyou’re ready for more substan-tial fuel.

Most people are in thehabit of having coffee or teafirst thing in the morning, bothof which extinguish our appe-tite and our agni. I wouldn’tdare forbid anyone from hav-ing their morning coffee, forfear of having my head cut off,but it is wise to accompany thecaffeine with the porridge none-theless. It will still do it’s job offeeding our fire.So it turns out,as usual, that our mothers wereright all along. Breakfast Is themost important meal of the day.

Dr. K.O. Antony Kannankeril

1.Take supper two hoursbefore retire to bed 2.Go to bedat about 10 P.M and get up at5 AM 3. Immediately after get-ting up from bed go to thecloset for evacuation of blad-der and rectum then washteeth and mouth and take aglass of water .4. Morningwalk or exercise should bedone early morning .5.Morn-ing bath should be done be-fore brake fast .5.There shouldhave a schedule for days work5.Men should cut short theirhair at least once in a month.6.Daily drink 2. to 2.5 literswater .7. Take balanced diet .8.Try to include fiber food mat-ters in daily food 9. Make emptythe bladder before engaging inact of sexual intercourse.10.From the age of two maketoilet practice 11.Use chapelswhile walking on ground .12Wash hands using soap andwater after every use of toilet.13.While watching T V tryto sit minimum ten feet away.14.Bathing should be donebefore taking food. Those whowant to take bath after food doit two hours after it .15.Whiletraveling in a vehicle sit in thedirection of movement.16.While walking on foot lookten to fifteen feet away fromthe fig toe .17.While bathingwhole body first wet on thehead then put water on thetrunk and limbs .18.If possiblewhile sleeping at night keepthe head on eastern or south-ern direction.19.While walking

For sound health

on open air keep a cap orumbrella if it is a sunny day.20.Daily do some exercise oryoga for those who maintainsedentary life . If it is not pos-sible do walking minimum 30minutes at the speed of 15kmper hour . 21. If possible do sunbath about ten to fifteen min-utes after covering the head 22.Washing of teeth should bedone after supper aswell.23.Take thirty minutes restimmediately after mid day meal.24 Walk few minutes immedi-ately after supper .25. If pos-sible massage the body afterputting some oil once in aweek .26.The senior citizensshould take minimum one or 11/2 hour rest during day time27.couples should wash theirgenital organs before initiat-ing coition. 28.Drinking watershould be clean and free fromall germs .Boiled and cooledwater is preferable for this pur-pose . 28. Never hesitate topass urine when urgecomes.29.Don’t drink water

along with food. It can betaken ten or fifteen minutesbefore or after food .30.Avoidmore fat and sweets especiallyafter forty years. 31 .Don’tread or write in dim light.32.Don’t take fried items fre-quently especially after 45years 33.Dont use used oils forcooking in long use there ischance for developing cancer34.Don t take oil bath immedi-ately after exercise or physi-cal exertion .35.Don’t take anymedicine or even vitamin without the advice of a doctor.36.Never put any pointed in-struments into the ear for re-moving wax or some otherthings from the ear -Cotton budcan be used for this purpose37.Don’t continue breast feed-ing for children after twoyears.38. Try to avoid the useof high heel chapels If it isvery compulsory one and halfinch heel can be used39.Dont expose to shower.40.Don’t watch T.Vcontinously more than onehour 41.Don’t laugh loudlywhile taking dinner 42.Don’ttake tea or coffee along withor immediately after buttermilk.43.Avoid chewing , drugs,smoking etc .44.Don’ t do ex-ercise or yoga or such otherwork immediately after lunch /food .45..Don’t sleep or workin a place where there is soundpollution or dust pollution.46.Ifpossible avoid tin food orcanned or preserved fooditems.

>> Turn to page 12

The Kerala Government-owned Oushadhi (Pharmaceu-tical Corporation - Indian Medi-cine - Kerala Ltd.) is targetinga turnover of Rs.170crore by 2020. Dr. H.Nagesh Prabhu, IFS,Managing Director,Oushadhi said that bythat time the companywill become a leadingworld class Ayurvedamedicine manufactur-ing unit.

The Thrissur-based publicundertaking has invested Rs.6crore during the previous 2-3years to improve productionand marketing facilities. ‘We

Oushadhi: Scaling new heightshave plans to invest anotherRs.18-20 crore in the comingyears’, says, Dr. NageshPrabhu. Rs.1.5 crore will be

spent for computerising theentire business of the com-pany. The computerisation isexpected to complete in 2010itself.

‘In this tough world, we got

to be tougher to perform andsucceed. It is more so in anAyurveda industry which is fac-ing umpteen numbers of chal-

lenges year afteryear. We inOushadhi take everychallenge as an op-portunity to rethink,rebuild, grow andflourish. Despite stiffcompetition, acuteshortage of raw ma-

terials, coupled with interna-tional recession, company hasachieved a record turnover dur-ing 2009-10 with considerableprofit and we would like to


TELECOM

The mobile users in Indiaare not the only ones lookingforward to the introduction of3G by the Indian service pro-viders. A host of entrepreneursare toying with ideas to launchhundreds of value added ser-vices as well as value offerings.

“The Mobile VoIP valueadded service appears to bethe closest on the horizon. Andit promises to lead to the grandrevival of the 40-plus InternetTelephony Service ProvidersITSPs, (like Sify, Hathway,HCL, Net4India),” says SanjitChatterjee, Director global mar-keting and strategy, REVE Sys-tems, the Singapore basedMobile VoIP solutions company.

The roll out of 3G by mo-bile service providers (likeBharti, Vodafone, Reliance,Aircel) in the next 3 to 6 monthwill not only lead to spurt inusage of data services by theIndian consumers but also ex-pected to grow VoIP usageseveral fold. Thanks to intro-duction of Mobile VoIP applica-tions by ITSPs, mobile userswill take up 3G subscriptionsand replace high cost long dis-tance calling by making VoIPcalls for as little as one-tenthto one-eighth the cost. At theheart of this revolution is a lightsoftware application platformthat once downloaded on amobile phone subscribed to adata service from a mobile ser-vice provider. Developed byREVE Systems, the 100 KBapplication is usually offeredwith a calling card by ISPsworld- wide. And this is the op-portunity that any of the 40-plusISPs could cash in on for hav-ing nurtured their traditionalInternet business. For ex-ample, they could bundle theeasily downloadable iTel Mo-bile Dialer application into theirVoIP cards and market, say indenominations of say Rs 100,Rs 500 or Rs 1000 and offer50, 250 or 500 minutes of In-ternational Long Distance (ILD)calls.

While the iTel Mobile Dialerapplication is very light andeasy to download, the user ex-

Bonanza time for internettelephony service providers3G roll out may spell out grand revival of the ITSPs

- SanjivKataria -

perience with iTel Mobile Dialeris the same like making a regu-lar phone call from the mobilehandset. A typical voice callfrom an Indian mobile user’sphone can be made by dialingout a mobile or a fixed linenumber from the mobile phonebook using REVE’s mobile Di-aler. The call travels over thedata line of mobile service pro-vider or wifi network and ter-minates at caller’s desiredphone using last mile connec-tivity of his service provider, sayan AT&T in the USA or an Or-ange in Europe. An ILD call tosay a country like the USAwould normally cost Rs 8-10per minute can now be madeusing a Mobile VoIP service atjust Rs 1 per minute or lower.“It is an opportunity waiting tobe exploited.” says Chatterjee,whose confidence stems froma customer base of 1200 plusISPs in over 50 countrieswhere 3G services are beingoffered currently. And the 100KB iTel Mobile Dialer is power-ing an estimated 50 plus mil-lion mobile phones.

Global Acceptance

Mobile VoIP is gainingground globally. For example,in October 2009 AT&T in theUS allowed its iPhone users touse iPhone VoIP application onits 3G network, responding tosurging customer demand(earlier, iPhone users on AT&Tnetwork could use the mobileVoIP application only throughWifi connectivity).

Chatterjee cites two rea-sons why this service will fly.Firstly, India has traditionallybeen a high cost ILD or ISDcalling country until a few yearsago. And the drop of per minuteinternational calling rate fromRs 60 per minute to Rs 10 perminute itself was a big relief.Even thought the customersare not crying for a cheaper so-lution, it is a sweetener that ishard to resist. Secondly eventhough it is technically possibleto offer the service currently,the bandwidth availability on aGPRS subscription is less

than 30 Kilobytes Per Second(KBPS) and hence does notlead to a very good voice qual-ity. However, the voice qualitywill grow significantly once the3G services are launched andthe bandwidth availability isexpected to go up 20-25fold. ”The possibilities of offer-ing this service in the Rs 17,000Indian ILD (International LongDistance) market with 3G aretremendous”, says. Chatterjee.Expectedly introduction of Mo-bile VoIP may eat into ILD rev-enues for mobile service pro-viders. However, they can hopeto make good their revenueloss from ILD by growing num-ber of data subscribers. Inother parts of the world, Mo-bile service providers are re-porting increasing 3G adoptionand many of them will have theMobile VoIP service providersto thank for growing their datasubscriber base.”REVE’s mo-bile VoIP dialer is versatile, haseasy user interface and built intunnelling capability,” headded. REVE’s flagship prod-uct, iTel Mobile Dialer Express,is the category leader in Mo-bile VoIP, enables service pro-viders to offer seamless MobileVoIP experience to end users.iTel Mobile Dialer wasnamed product of the year byInternet Telephony magazine in2009.

The other applications thatthe mobile user can look for-ward to include:

Using 3G for Mobile Data– by connecting (by wire or wifi) the phone to the laptop –thereby eliminating the need fora separate USB data card.Music Downloads, Streamingmusic, video (better YouTubeexperience on the mobile),Internet Radio, Mobile TV. Ser-vice providers can introduce —3G wi fi router devices for Smalland Medium Businesses(SMBs) to use the same fordata connectivity for Home /Small office environment (thisdevice basically takes in a 3GSIM card and sends out wi fisignals, good for up to 10 us-ers).

You’re a Delhi-basedwannabe terrorist needing tocommunicate with your han-dlers. What do you do? Invis-ible-ink notes are passe, as arecarrier pigeons. You will, ofcourse, use electronic options.Like email. Walk into a

cybercafe, log into a Gmail orYahoo account. Don’t use anaccount in your own name. Anddon’t send email. Simply readinstructions left for you in anunsent mail, saved as a draftin your account. And then, toreply, just edit the unsent email,

and save it back as a draft. Ifemail isn’t traveling, it can’t beintercepted.Or, like SMS. Geta prepaid SIM card with fakeID, use it for a month, thendump it. Or make good oldphone calls using the SIM card,

Barking up the BlackBerry Tree - Prasanto K. Roy -

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Centre for Development ofAdvanced Computing (C-DAC)organized the one-day

Symposium on Public KeyInfrastructure (PKI) at Kochi.The symposium is organizedas part of the ‘PKI OutreachProgramme (POP)’ to createawareness on the importanttopic of PKI, a vital programmeto secure E-commerce, E-Gov-ernance and other activities ofthe Internet. Jacob Punnoose,IPS, Director General of Police,Kerala inaugurated theprogramme in the presence ofRajan T Joseph, Director Gen-eral, C-DAC, and senior offic-ers from various governmentdepartments, police & fire de-partments, industries, banking& financial institutions, profes-sionals and academia. Dr NVijayaditya, Controller of Cer-tifying Authorities (CCA), De-partment of Information Tech-nology, Government of Indiapresided over the event.

The programme empha-sizes on the importance of PKIin safeguarding the key pillarsof public infrastructure as PKIaddress the safety hazards ofinternet transactions by usher-ing in the element of authen-ticity and trust, through its ro-bust standards and policies.Technology has brought abouta flux, wherein we have wit-nessed the debunking of sev-eral older models of both inter-actions and transactions.Petabytes of data are beingshared, accessed and ex-changed daily on the internet,and the volume will only in-crease further. The need forPKI therefore is as much a re-ality as the pervasive nature ofthe digital revolution.

The objective of the na-tional launch on PKI is to cre-ate wide scale awarenessamong various user communi-ties across all segments, underthe auspices of the Controllerof Certifying Authorities (CCA),Department of InformationTechnology, Ministry of Com-munications & InformationTechnology, Government of In-dia.

The programme aims atproviding insight into the PKI foradapting secure communica-tions over the cyberspace onapplications pertaining to e-governance, online transac-tions, E-commerce, and so on.

C-DAC has always re-sponded to the challengingneeds of Information Security.Given the rapid spread ofInternet in the country and thevulnerabilities of the users, it isimportant for India to developthe eco-system for building se-cure E-Commerce. The broad-band revolution and next gen-

C-DAC organizes NationalPKI Awareness Programme

eration mobile revolution drivenby 3-G will fuel growth in thissegment and putting togetherPKI has to go hand-in-handwith broad-based participationand awareness to ensure safeand exponential growth. Byconducting this pioneering se-ries, C-DAC has been given animportant technology as well asa key responsibility.

Commenting on the PKIOutreach Programme, Dr NVijayaditya said that as a regu-latory and statutory body set upunder Section 17 of IT Act,2000, The CCA ensures rapidgrowth of secure e-commerce,e-governance and other as-pects of Internet Economy. Thisprogram being conducted byC-DAC is a key step towardsthe proliferation of PKI amongthe stakeholders who are in-volved in creating cyberspaceinfrastructure.

C-DAC is currently pursu-ing Research and Develop-ment in the areas of IntrusionDetection & Prevention, CyberForensics, Crypt-Analysis,Stegenography, Face Recogni-tion, Network Security andEnd-System Security at its vari-ous laboratories located acrossthe country.

With over two decades ofexperience in cutting edge in-novation, C-DAC has emergedas a multi-disciplinary, core re-search and development(R&D) destination for the de-sign, development and deploy-ment of advanced IT productsand technologies. C-DAC hasdefined the common method-ology towards building the con-cept of a premier R&D organi-zation and identified opportu-nities for establishing linkagesacross disciplines, to create abroad portfolio of technologiesunder one umbrella. This port-folio envisages a range of tech-nologies such as High Perfor-mance Computing and Com-munications (HPCC) includingScientific Modelling and Visu-alization, Multilingual Comput-ing, Software Technologies in-cluding Free & Open SourceSoftware, Professional Elec-tronics including EmbeddedSystems and VLSI, HealthInformatics, Cyber Security &Cyber Forensics, and Educa-tion & Training.

With a strong manpowerbase spread across the coun-try at its 10 R&D centres inBangalore, Chennai, NewDelhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata,Mohali, Mumbai, Noida, Pune,Thiruvananthapuram with acorporate office at Pune, thefocus is on consolidating theR&D work to enable a bettermarket reach.

C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram

houses the Resource Centrefor Cyber Forensics (RCCF)that is dedicated to the indig-enous development of Hard-ware and Software tools forCyber Forensics in the area ofDisk Forensics, Network Fo-rensics, Device Forensics, Pe-ripheral Forensics and provid-ing quality services in CyberForensics related cases. C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram hasalso contributed significantly tothe growth of the industry ingeneral and the electronicssector in particular through theindigenous development ofcommercially viable systemsand products, foreign technol-ogy absorption, adaptation andupgradation, consultancy andtraining and turnkey implemen-tation of contract projects. Withits rich experience in cuttingedge technology development,C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuramhas developed technologies inthe areas of Embedded Sys-tems, Real Time Systems,Hardware Products, VLSI De-sign, Control & Instrumenta-tion, Language technology, In-formation Technology, Broad-band Communication, e-Gov-ernance, Power Electronics,Cyber Forensics, UnderwaterSystems, Open Source Soft-ware, Acoustic Systems andextensive Training Activities inAdvanced Technologies.

Extending its area of op-erations, C-DAC has also setup a nodal centre at Cochin toextend its high-end capabilitiesin the form of advanced shortand long term trainingprogrammes. Currently, theCochin centre offers trainingcourses in .NET technologies,Java programming, Java En-terprise Edition and Web De-velopment using LAMP. A Soft-ware Development Division isscheduled to be opened shortlyat the Cochin Centre. In addi-tion, the centre also interfacesas an extended base for con-ducting corporate coursesbased on client requirement fordifferent Central and State gov-ernment organizations, whichincludes the Kerala Police.

For more information, contact:

Krishnakumar KSSr Scientific OfficerC-DAC,Electronics City,[email protected]: 080-28523300

Sunitha C SSr Administrative Officer,C-DAC,[email protected]: 0471-2372422>> Turn to page 12


Sets ambitious target togrow into a pan-India brand by2012.

Nippon Paint (India) Pvt.Ltd. announced the launch ofits marketing operations inPunjab. Through this move,the long-standing Japanbased paint major has high-lighted the strategic impor-tance of expanding into the In-dian market in a phased man-ner.

Speaking on the occa-sion, W.M.Yip, Managing Di-rector, Nippon Paint (India)Pvt Limited said, “Having setnew benchmarks of quality inIndia over the past 4 years,our dedication to innovation ofproducts and our excellentcustomer service has beenconsistently recognised.Nippon Paint has always un-derstood and worked towardsthe needs of its customers. Ourjourney towards a world full ofbeauty and colour continues.Nippon’s entry into Punjab, In-dia is in line with our globalplans.”

In India, Punjab is the firststate outside South India

Nippon Paint bets bigon Punjab

where Nippon Paint will havefull fledged presence. The paintindustry in Punjab has come along way from the days whenpaints were considered aluxury item. Today the aware-

ness levels of the importanceof paints to decorate and pro-tect the most expensiveposession of a family is veryhigh in the state, a develop-ment which has made it one ofthe biggest premium paint mar-ket.

Nippon Paint has over 129years of experience in the paintindustry. Nippon Paint has con-sistently been a leader in the

paint & coating industry withoperations diversified in auto-motive coatings, decorativepaints, industrial coatings, ma-rine coatings & fine chemicals.

Over the years, NipponPaint has perfected its prod-ucts by means of break-through paint technology,emphasis being on innova-tion and eco-friendliness.

The Nippon Paint Grouphas been meeting variedneeds by proactively devel-oping high-grade environ-mentally friendly productswith near Zero VOC content,leveraging its reliable qualitycontrol system.

Nippon Paint has devel-oped highly functional prod-

ucts and systems that keepbacteria and paint odour at bay,reduce the number of coatingprocesses and save energy. Ithas also successfully devel-oped water-based coatings fora variety of surfaces. The com-pany has an impressive rangeof high end textures for exteri-ors and interiors which can lastfor more than 10 years.

From page 10

From page 11

and dump it.There are other options.

And they have a commonthread: anonymity. You do notuse your own identity, and youuse a mode that is virtuallyuntraceable.Which is why aterrorist’s choice is not to usea BlackBerry that is linked tohis identity. Nor is a postpaidBlackBerry connection as dis-posable as a prepaid SIM card.Sure, you can get postpaidmobile connections too on fakeIDs, but because there is bill-ing involved, valid addressesare required. That’s not the onlyreason the terrorist would bewary of using a BlackBerry.First, he’s not really sure howsecure the mail is, once anagency is onto him. The mailis routed through servers inNorth America, and the USNational Security Agency re-portedly has the technology tocrack encrypted mail in a fewhours—with or without helpfrom RIM.

More worrying for the ter-rorist, not all of the mail is en-crypted. The headers, includ-ing the “to” and “from” emailaddresses, are plain text—elsethe Internet would not be ableto accept the email fordelivery.And finally, the maildoesn’t stay encrypted all theway. When it gets delivered toan external email system suchas Gmail or corporate mail, itgets decrypted—else the re-cipient wouldn’t be able to readit. The exception is when you’re

not using a Gmail or a com-pany mail ID, but are sendingpure BlackBerry mail. That’snot merely one sent betweentwo RIM devices, but whereboth From and To areBlackBerry IDs. That’s rare, buthere’s how it works.

Your RIM device wouldusually be associated with yourofficial address, [email protected]. Butyou’d also have a BlackBerryemail address, [email protected],which you’d use to originate aBlackBerry-only mail. Eventhen, RIM would record whothe mail was sent by, to, andwhen.So there are records withBlackBerry email, and they’relike mobile-phone call records(which store who called whom,when, and for how long, for bill-ing). RIM records who sentmail, when, and to whom. Thecontent, however, is stronglyencrypted.But our terrorist isn’tusing a BlackBerry. He’s usingGmail, and he’s not even send-ing the mail: he’s just usingdraft mode to read and reply.So our agencies don’t stand achance of “intercepting” thatmail. Even if they’re on to him,they don’t know what ID he’susing. And then they don’t havethe Gmail login ID. If they getthat, then getting Google orYahoo to give them access willtake months, with all the proto-col, Interpol, and the rest....bywhich time that account wouldhave been closed, and the

deed done.Which is why India is wast-

ing its time chasing BlackBerry.It should first figure out what todo with the mail systems ter-rorist do use, with foreign mailservers. Should it demand thatall such servers be based inIndia? Google and Yahoo won’tagree. So that would cut us offfrom the best of Internet mailsystems. In fact, why not gofurther down that path, likeChina...and cut off the Internet?Route everything through atightly-controlled gateway andfirewall, and ensure that allservers are within China. Andjail or shoot all dissidents, forgood measure.There are big-ger dangers down the road thatSaudi Arabi and India aretreading. One, government of-ficials are major users ofBlackBerry mail. Do they reallywant to push RIM into a cornerwhere it starts offeringdecryption to any governmentwhich asks? What then stopsit from offering to decrypt Indianemails for China or Pakistan, ifenough pressure is brought tobear on it?To no one’s surprise,countries most proficient atcracking down on dissents andcensoring local media havebeen the most active insqueezing RIM. Like China,Saudi Arabia polices theinternet, blocking access tosites with political and adultcontent.India, unfortunately,seems to be trying to join thisnot-so-elite club.

SHG (Self Help Group)credit linkage function wasorganised at the Pandalambranch of Indian OverseasBank. Loans were distributedto 15 SHGs amounting toRs.46.50 lakh at the function.The SHGs are undertakingvarious self employment ven-

IOB conducts SHG creditlinkage function

tures such as vegetable farm-ing, paddy cultivation, tailoring,baby food manufacturing andpickle manufacturing. SHGmembers were covered underthe IOB-SHG Family InsuranceScheme.

M.S. Ramani, Chief Re-gional Manager, IOB presided

M.S. Ramani, Chief Regional Manager, IOB speaking at the SHG credit linkage function held at thePandalam branch of the Bank. Thankappan, Senior Manager, Pandalam branch and M.V.Krishakumaran Unni, Sr. Manager, Regional Office are also seen.

over the function and distrib-uted loans to the beneficiaries.Thankappan, Senior Manager,Pandalam branch and M.V.Krishnakumaran Unni, Sr.Manager, Regional Office werealso present on the occasion.

maintain this tempo’, pointedout Dr. Prabhu.

Oushadhi is the largestmanufacturer of Ayurvedamedicines among the publicsector Ayurveda medicinemanufacturing units in India. Itis a profit earning public sectorundertaking and is regularlypaying dividend to Govt. ofKerala for the last 11 years.Oushadhi is supplying qualityAyurveda medicines to KeralaState ISM Department at 40%less market price. ISM Depart-ment in turn supplies thesemedicine to poor people ofKerala free of cost through its784 hospitals and dispensariesspread all over the state. Prob-ably, a unique service of thismagnitude is not being done by

any other state government inIndia. The company also sup-plies quality Ayurveda medi-cines to ISM Department ofother states like Punjab,Haryana, Chattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh, Orrisa, HimachalPradesh, Pondicherry, at a verycompetitive price.

‘We are inspired by the rec-ognition given to our hard worktowards achieving excellence.But we do not want to rest onlaurels. Ayurveda is gainingimportance all over the worldand in Kerala the turnover ofAyurveda industry is expectedto be Rs.1200 crores by 2020from the present turnover ofRs.600 crores. We enjoy anexcellent brand image all overthe country and today our

medicines are in short supplyin the market. With the finan-cial assistance and whole-hearted support of Govt. ofKerala and Dept. of AYUSH,Govt. of India, combined withgoodwill of our customers, weare sure to scale new heights’,adds Nagesh Prabhu.

During the previous 2-3years, with the assistance ofNational Medicinal PlantsBoard, Oushadhi raised anddistributed 8 lakhs quality seed-lings of medicinal plants to thefarmers to encourage cultiva-tion of medicinal plants whichare in short supply. It has alsoentered into buy back agree-ments with farmers to encour-age the cultivation of medicinalplants.

Manoj Arukandathil, Man-aging Director, Kumar Indus-trial India, Kozhikode andChairman, Shree MansonsCharitable Foundation won the

Manoj Arukandathil awardedRajeev Gandhi ShiromaniAward instituted by Delhi-based Integration Peace Soci-ety. Manoj has been chosen forthe award considering his phil-

Manoj Arukandathil receiving the award from Dr. Iqbal Singh, Governor of Pondicherry.Belram Jhakkar, former Speaker, Loksabha, Bhishma Narayan Singh, former Tamil Nadu Governor,Dr. G.V.G. Krishnamurthy, former Election Commissioner are also seen.

anthropic activities.Dr. Iqbal Singh, Governor,

Pondicherry presented theaward to Manoj at a functionheld in New Delhi.


Vivid dreams have a wayof boosting our memories,making us better problemsolvers. People who gothrough a dream-filled sleepcan recall information moreeasily and link facts uponawakening. The results addto the growing body of evi-dence that Rapid Eye Move-ment (REM) sleep (when ourmost intensely remembereddreams occur) is vital to thebrain’s ability to lay down andconsolidate memories, re-ports the Telegraph.

An average night’s re-pose includes four or fivespells of REM sleep, butthese bursts tend to be

Vivid dreams improveour memories

lengthier towards the end of thenight. It implies that adults whoget less than the recom-mended seven to eight hoursa night - and therefore insuffi-cient REM sleep - may be dam-aging their mind’s ability to formstrong memories. AlthoughREM sleep is not classified asa type of deep sleep, it is onlyreached after the brain haspassed through deep sleepstages.

Sara Mednick, sleep re-searcher at the University ofCalifornia in San Diego who ledthe study, said: ‘REM sleep isimportant for pulling together allthe information we process ona daily basis and turning it into

memories we can use later.’The research was presentedat the annual Convention ofthe American PsychologicalAssociation in San Diego.

It is now believed thatsleep acts as a sort of men-tal filing system, enabling thebrain to sort relevant infor-mation that needs to be re-tained from useless informa-tion which can be discarded.A Harvard Medical Schoolstudy published in Aprilfound that volunteers whoenjoyed dream-filled sleepwere up to 10 times betterat learning a complex taskthan those who stayedawake.

This is the story ofRobby. He was a young boywho lived with his elderlymother. His mother wantedhim to learn how to play thepiano because she longed tohear her son play for her.She sent her son to a pianoteacher who took Robby inunder her guidance.

However, there was onesmall problem becauseRobby was not musically in-clined and therefore wasvery slow in learning. Theteacher did not have muchfaith in the boy because ofhis weakness. The motherwas very enthusiastic andevery week she would sendRobby to the teacher .

One day Robby stoppedattending the piano lessons.The teacher thought that hehad given up and in fact shewas quite pleased since shedid not give much hope toRobby. Not long after, the pi-ano teacher was given thetask to organize a piano con-cert in town. She sent outcirculars to invite the stu-dents and public to attendthe event. Suddenly, she re-ceived a call from Robby

Principles for Successwho offered to take part in theconcert. The teacher toldRobby that he was not goodenough and that he was nolonger a student since he hadstopped coming for lessons.Robby begged her to give hima chance and promised that hewould not let her down. Finally,she gave in and she put him toplay last, hoping that he willchange his mind at the lastminute. When the big daycame, the hall was packed andthe children gave their bestperformance. Finally, it wasRobby’s turn to play and as hisname was announced, hewalked in. He was not in Properattire and his hair was not prop-erly groomed. The teacher wasreally nervous since Robby’sperformance could spoil thewhole evening’s brilliant perfor-mance. As Robby started play-ing the crowd became silentand was amazed at the skill ofthis little boy. In fact, he gavethe best performance of theevening. At the end of his pre-sentation the crowd and thepiano teacher gave him astanding ovation. The crowdasked Robby how he managedto play so brilliantly.

With a microphone infront of him, he said, “I wasnot able to attend the weeklypiano lessons as there wasno one to send me becausemy mother was sick withcancer.

She just passed awaythis morning and I wantedher to hear me play. You see,this is the first time she isable to hear me play be-cause when she was aliveshe was deaf and now Iknow she is listening to me.I have to play my best forher!”

Success Principles:This is indeed a touchingstory of love and excellence.When you have a passionand a reason to do some-thing, you will surely excel.You may not be talented orgifted but if you have astrong enough reason to dosomething, you will be ableto tap into your inner Godgiven potential.

Motivational Quote:“Find the good. It’s all aroundyou. Find it, showcase it andyou’ll start believing in it.”

During April-July 2010, atotal of 193,875 tonnes ofspices and spice products val-ued Rs.2084.96 crores (US$454.10 Million) has been ex-ported from the country asagainst 172,510 tonnes valuedRs.1775.39 crores (US$374.68 Million) in April-July2009 registering an increase of12% in volume and 17% in ru-pee terms of value. Accordingto a Spices Board press re-lease, in dollar terms the in-crease is 21%.

During April-July 2010, theexport of pepper, chilli, ginger,

12% rise in spices exportduring April- July 2010

celery, fennel, garlic, otherspices like tamarind, asafoe-tida, etc… has shown an in-crease both in volume andvalue as compared to April-July2009. The export of valueadded products like curry pow-der and spice oils and oleoresinhave also shown an increasingtrend.

However, in the case ofcardamom (small), turmeric,fenugreek, nutmeg and macethere is an increase in terms ofvalue only. The export of cori-ander has increased in termsof quantity only. The spices like

cardamom (large), cumin,mint products and other seedshas decreased both in volumeand value as compared to lastyear.

Compared to the spicesexport target of 465,000 tonnesvalued Rs.5100.00 crores(US$ 1125 million) fixed for thefinancial year 2010-11, theachievement of 193,875tonnes valued Rs.2084.96crores (US$ 454.10 million)during April-July 2010 is 42%in terms of quantity and 41 %in rupee value and 40% in dol-lar terms of value.

The Government ofKarnataka awarded the con-tract for the development andoperation of the Greenfield air-port at Bellary to MARG Lim-ited, India’s leading diversifiedinfrastructure developmentcompany.

In addition to terminalbuildings, runways and controltowers, MARG will also de-velop access facilities and buildutilities necessary to serve theairport during the operationalphase. MARG would plan andundertake the development offacilities, amenities and otherinfrastructure like an aviationacademy, exhibition / conven-tion centre, business parks,shopping mall, flying club,theme / entertainment parksetc. which would address the

Marg bags Bellary airport projectneeds of the local populationand tourists.

Speaking on the occasion,GRK Reddy, Chairman & Man-aging Director, MARG Limitedsaid, “MARG is happy to bepartnering with the Govern-ment of Karnataka in develop-ing a world class greenfield air-port at Bellary. This airport willbe a magnificent gateway tothe exotic second fastest grow-ing district in Karnataka afterBangalore. It’s a district rich inculture and heritage, and en-dowed with abundant mineralresources. We are proud to bepart of this venture, which onaccount of its strategic location,will be a giant leap towardsbridging the gap between thepotential growth centres andurban centres in the state.”

To develop the BellaryGreenfield Airport, MARG Ltdhas incorporated an spv in thename of MARG KrishnaDevaraya Airport Pvt. Ltd.MARG will develop the entirerequired infrastructure for theproject, which is expected to becompleted in 24 months fromthe date of signing of the PDA.

In December 2008, MARGwas awarded a 30-year con-tract by the Government ofKarnataka to design, develop,operate and manage theGreenfield airport at Bijapurunder the public-private part-nership (PPP) model. The de-velopment of Bellary airport isalso part of the Government’sefforts in developing airports inits districts through the PPPmodel.

The first documentary in3D Stereoscopy on “The Uni-verse” is ready to be released.This Documentary is the firstattempt in the science categoryeven though the films like “MyDear Kuttichathan” inMalayalam and Avatar in Hol-lywood were already released.

The Universe is scripted,edited and directed bySatheesh Gopal. He is fromBalussery in Kozhikode Dis-trict. He has completed his B.scfrom Devagiri CollegeKozhikode. He did Multimedia

“The Universe”: Documentary in3D Stereoscopy

and Digital Film Making Di-ploma from SAE CollegeChennai. The experience hegot on the latest technologyequipments and faculties fromSAE College helped him a lot.He worked as assistant Visualeffector under Satish KRR inmany Tamil, Kannada films.Satheesh has also done thevisual editing of the India’s firstclay modeling music album,another work is ‘MaranathinteKoottukaran’(Friend Of Death).Now he is working with a newTamil film, a short film and a

new musicSathish took a full one year

to complete this documentary.K.Pappootty Former Presidentof Kerala Sasthra Sahithyaparishad and the director ofKerala State Institute of Ency-clopedia Publication gave himproper guidance in this effort.“The Universe” is released inCD format so that it could beworked out either in TV or Com-puter.

An exclusive imported eyeglass is to be used for this docu-mentary to get more 3D effect.

ON Semiconductor, a pre-mier supplier of high perfor-mance, energy efficient siliconsolutions, introduced theNCS5650 - a new line driverdevice targeted at Power LineCarrier (PLC) communicationsapplications such as smartmetering, industrial control andstreet lighting. The NCS5650 isa high efficiency, Class AB, lowdistortion driver, specificallydesigned to drive powerline mains and capable ofaccepting a signal fromany power line carriermodem.

The NCS5650 con-tains an operational amplifierwhich can be configured as aunity gain follower buffer, or al-ternatively used to provide thefirst stage of a 4-pole low passfilter. The output stage has thecapacity drive up to 2.0 A peakinto an isolation transformer orsimple coil coupling to themains. At an output current of1.5 A, the output voltage isguaranteed to swing within 1.0V or less on either rail, ensur-ing optimal signal-to-noise ra-

ON Semiconductor IntroducesCompact Power Line Communication

tio (SNR) in harsh environ-ments. The NCS5650 drawsjust 150 µA while in shutdownmode. Power supply optionsare single-sided 6 V to 12 V anddual balanced ±3.0 V to ±6.0V.

With its unique full powerbandwidth, theN C S 5 6 5 0can

operatein any region of

the world while comply-ing with local PLC frequencyband regulations likeCENELEC.

The devices have an ex-tended junction temperaturerange of “40 °C to +125 °C.They are offered in a compactQFN package with an exposedthermal pad for enhanced heatdissipation and increased ther-mal reliability which providescost sensitive designers a fur-ther bill of materials cost reduc-tion.

The NCS5650 is offered ina compact 20-pin, 4 mm x 4mm x 1 mm, Pb-free, QFNpackage priced at US$3.73 perunit in 10,000 unit quantities.

“The advent of power linecommunications allows utility

companies to add greaterlevels of functionality totheir electricity distributionnetworks - thereby provid-ing consumers more con-trol over their energy con-sumption,” said Simon

Keeton, general manager ofON Semiconductor’s Audio,Video and Interface productsdivision. “When combined withan industry leading Spread Fre-quency Shift Keying (S-FSK)modem, like ONSemiconductor’s AMIS-49587,the NCS5650 acts as an adap-tive solution for PLC commu-nications with a desirable bal-ance of performance and price.Designs employing this solu-tion will benefit from high lev-els of integration which pro-vides a reduced componentcount and a decreased overallbill of materials.”


Sankar Chakraborti, Na-tional Head- Business Devel-opment, CRISIL Ratings,Mumbai said that Bank loanrating helps inculcate financialdiscipline in the borrower.

Speaking at a seminar on‘Basel-11 Accord & Bank LoanRatings’ organized by CRISILRatings, in association with theState Forum of Bankers’ Clubs,Kerala and Bankers’ Club,Greater Kochi, Chakrabortipointed out that rating is ben-eficial to the banks as well asthe corporates. CRISIL assignsBank Loan Ratings to varioustypes of facilities provided bybanks, such as working capital

Bank Loan Rating canimpart financial discipline

demand loans, cash credit,project loans, loans for generalcorporate purposes and non-fund-based facilities. Bank loanratings indicate the degree ofrisk with regard to timely pay-ment of interest and principalon the facility being rated.

Some time back, ReserveBank of India issued newguidelines on capital adequacyfor banks. These guidelinesrequire banks to link the mini-mum size of their capital to thecredit risk in their portfolios. Todetermine credit risk in theirloan portfolios , banks will needto use credit ratings assignedby approved External Credit

Assignment Institutions suchas CRISIL. Under Basel- 11Accord, banks will need to pro-vide capital for credit risk basedon the risk associated with theirloan portfolios. If a bank hashigh-quality credit exposure(for example, if the majority ofits credit exposures are in the‘AAA’ and ‘AA’ categories) it willsave capital on account ofcredit risk. Conversely, a bankwith relatively lower rated creditexposures will need to providemore capital.

Credit Rating is not man-datory under Basel 11. How-ever, by getting loans rated, a

Sankar Chakraborti, National Head- Business Development, CRISIL Ratings, Mumbai speaking on

‘Basel-11 Accord & Bank Loan Ratings’ at a seminar organized by CRISIL Ratings, in association

with the State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, Kerala and Bankers’ Club, Greater Kochi. K.U.

Balakrishnan, General Secretary, State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, L.R.R. Warrier, President, Thomas

Joseph, General Federal Bank, Dr. Kurian P. Abraham, Dy. General Manager, Corporation Bank and

K. Surendran, Secretary, Greater Kochi Bankers’ Club are also seen.

From page 4

needs and to respect yourneed for privacy, comfort andconvenience. When they striveto make your stay an unforget-table experience it makes youfeel that you are on the top ofthe world. This is true of all thestaff and officers of the Hotelstarting with the friendly Gen-eral Manager Mr. BertrandCOURTOIS.

His gentle and homely ap-proach to the guests to enquireabout them is something thatone should experience to un-derstand the fusion of a Frenchhospitality in a China town.

In the heart of the business

district, Sofitel WandaChengdu brings the latesttrends in hotel design toChengdu and sets a new stan-dard in combining classicFrench hospitality with Chineseculture. Easy access to Taipingairport, the convention centreand Zhongyang Dajie pedes-trian area are plus points. Of-fering hundreds of rooms, ClubSofitel executive floors, threeinspired restaurants, state ofthe art conference facilities,spa, fitness centre and indoorheated pool, the hotel has ev-erything one needs and more.

Chengdu is the vibrant

capital of Sichuan Province.2300 years old, it remains acenter of civilization, cultureand trade. The hotel is just a15-minute walk to the commer-cial center and a 20-minute rideto the International Airport.

Sofitel Wanda Chengdu’srooms and suites are stylishlydesigned and furnished with allthe modern conveniences, in-cluding broadband. Businessclients will feel at home in thefully-equipped ExecutiveRooms and Deluxe Suites.

At Sofitel, restaurants andbars provide the perfect settingfor relaxing and socializing andoffer refined French cuisinewith the latest in fusion dishesfrom around the world.

La Brasserie Restaurant aWestern Restaurant is locatedon the 2nd floor. Offers exten-sive buffets, delicious a la cartespecialities and all day dining.THE PALACE Chinese Restau-rant is located on the 3rd floor.Serves authentic Cantoneseand Sichuan cuisine. Fuji, aJapanese Restaurant is lo-cated on the 2nd floor andServes delicious sashimi andother exclusive specialties.HAUTE CUISINE Includes ac-commodation, full buffet break-fast in restaurant, a buffet din-ner at the hotel restaurant (in-cluding mineral water, exclud-ing alcoholic beverages), oneseasonal fruit platter per room.Subject to opening dates andhours of restaurant. Room ser-vice unlike the other conven-tional hotels offer a wide range

With a thrust on the retailcustomer, at Kozhikode,.Palghat & Cochin, Essar Steelis increasing its retail distribu-

Essar Steel to expand its Steelretail chain foot print in Kerala

tion network in Kerala by 44%.Essar Hypermart currentlyhas 3 Hypermarts and 15Expressmarts in Kerala is plan-

ning to increase itsExpressmarts numbers to 23by the end of the year 2011.

Girish Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Essar Hypermart at a press conference in Kochi. B. Ganesh Pai,

General Manager, Corporate Communication, Essar Group and K. Kadhiravan, Head- Sales, Essar

Steel are also seen.

of Hot and cold dishes 24 HRS.At Sofitel, there are several

international quality bars start-ing with CIGAR BAR whereone can enjoy the aroma of to-bacco and cognac in the barlocated in the lobby lounge and

Lobby of Sofitel Wanda Chengdu

relax after a busy day. TheEXECUTIVE LOUNGE is Per-fectly located on the 23rd floor.Continental Breakfast is servedfrom 06:30 AM to 10:30 AM.Complimentary tea and coffeeduring the day, complimentarycocktails from 6:00 PM to 7:30PM. POOLSIDE BAR is Lo-cated on the 5th floor by theindoor swimming pool. Onecan enjoy soft drinks, tea, cof-fee, healthy juices and beer.One cannot miss the RENDEZ-VOUS LOUNGE that is in thegreat French inspired lobby. It

is an ideal venue to meetfriends for afternoon tea orcocktails in the evening.

Businessmen keen onlarger MEETINGS ANDEVENTS will find a lot in SofitelWanda Chengdu’s extensive

banquet facilities that include a400-seat ballroom, an audito-rium with a multi-lingual trans-lation system and five otherfunction rooms for all types ofbusiness and social events.

For those who are inter-ested in getting married in thiscity of several thousands ofyears of history, Sofitel WandaChengdu wedding packageswill be very attractive. The idyl-lic setting, grand Ballroom andspecial wedding services areeverything one’s heart coulddesire. The eager wedding

planners will ensure that day istruly memorable.

The gym, indoor swimmingpool and sauna provide a ha-ven for weary Businessmenafter a long day of businessnegotiations or sightseeing.

Famous Chinese travelershave been visiting Indian frommany centuries to learn aboutthe culture. Now it is timeIndian travelers go to suchplaces like Chengdu to see themodern and merging Chinaand in the bargain enjoybusiness and pleasure in Greatfacilities like SOFITELWANDA CHENGDU. For thosewho still insist on Indian food,it is also available in this hotelwe are told. In Septemberdon’t miss the Indian foodfestival.

>> Turn to page 15

>> Turn to page 15


From page 14

bank can save capital on loansin the higher rating categories.According to Chakraborty,CRISIL expects pricing of freshloans to be strongly correlatedwith the credit ratings that suchloans carry. Higher-rated cor-porate in particular will benefitfrom this development. Underthe earlier framework, therewas no need for a borrower tohave its loans or bank facilitiesrated. This will change with theimplementation of the newframework. RBI has askedbanks to use ratings assignedby rating agencies like CRISILto arrive at risk weights andthereby compute capital re-quirements.

Based on the RBI require-ment, banks will require their

prospective borrowers (andcustomers for non-fund-basedfacilities) to get their facilitiesrated. Some banks may alsoprovide incentives (such aslower interest rate for loans) tohigher-rated facilities, sharingthe capital savings on suchexposures. Rating is not a pre-requisite for a loan sanction orrenewal of working capital fa-cilities. However, a bankcould insist on a rating for theloan /facility before sanction/renewal, as it would help thebank in saving capital and alsoprovide an additional input forthe bank in deciding on theterms of the loan, explains,Sankar Chakraborty.

According to Chakraborty,CRISL , so far rated 4700 com-

panies in the country, including100-odd from Kerala. The mar-ket share of CRISIL in thebanking sector was 53%.

L.R. RamachandraWarrier, President, State Fo-rum of Bankers’ Clubs, Keralainaugurated the Seminar. K.U.Balakrishnan, General secre-tary, State Forum of Bankers’Clubs, A. Surendran, Presi-dent, Greater Kochi Bankers’Club, K. Surendran, Secretary,Greater Kochi Bankers’ Club,Thomas Joseph, GeneralManager, Federal Bank. Dr.Kurian P. Abraham, Dy. Gen-eral Manager, CorporationBank and G. Balaji, RegionalManager- Business Develop-ment, CRISIL Ratings alsospoke on the occasion.

Girish Rao, CEO, EssarHypermart, at a press confer-ence in Kochi said that EssarHypermart is a pioneering ini-tiative of Essar Steel to makesteel available to end usersclose to the user point. Withmore than 500 retail outletsacross the country, this conceptof Essar Hypermart has revo-lutionized the marketing ofsteel in India. EssarHypermarts cater to customersranging from small manufactur-ers, local fabricators and gen-eral engineering firms in theSME segment. EssarHypermarts offers its custom-ers a comprehensive range offlat and long steel products fora variety of applications. In ashift from the slow and cumber-some methods of deliveringsteel, Essar Hypermartprovides immediate delivery,transparent pricing, custom-ized quantities and guaranteedquality to its retail customers.

“Essar Steel has alwaysproduced the best quality steelfor its customers. SMEs are anextremely important part of ourbusiness and with EssarHypermart we can now ensurethat the best products aremade available to them withoutthe intervention of any interme-diaries and without any restric-tive terms and conditions.”,points out Girish Rao. EssarHypermart also arranges forchannel financing thru banks todeserving customers. Its cus-

tomers are assured of materi-als from an ISO 9002 and14001 certified mill. Everysingle product that rolls out ofthe plants at Essar, guaranteesthat it has been produced inconcurrence with the higheststandards of manufacturingprocesses, state of the art tech-nology and precision.

“Kerala is a state which isprogressing at a great speedbe it infrastructure or industri-alization. Essar Hypermart ishappy to partner Kerala in itsquest for growth. I am sure thatthis is just the beginning of thegrowth cycle for EssarHypermart in the state.” Adds,Girish Rao,

The distribution model isbacked by world class ServiceCentre facilities and SupplyChain Management of EssarSteel and make available cus-tomized products to customersat their door step. Customerscan now buy steel as per theirrequirement with a guaranteefor right price, excellent qualityand timely delivery from withintheir town/city limits.

Bringing the conveniencefactor in buying steel, EssarHypermart customers in Keralacan also send an SMS ‘STEEL’to 53636 or call on the toll- freenumber 1800-22-5105 wherein they can get details of pricesand product offerings.

Essar Steel, global pro-ducer of steel, is a fully inte-grated flat carbon steel manu-

facturer—with presence inCanada, USA, India and Indo-nesia. It is the most versatileflat steel producer with inte-grated facilities from extra wideplates, hot rolling, cold rolling,galvanizing and colour coating,pipes with a full distributionbusiness with Service Centreand Steel Hypermarts. EssarSteel has a global steel produc-tion capacity of 8.6 milliontonnes per annum. It operatesseven Service Centres in India,Indonesia and Canada withaggregate capacity of over 3million tonnes. Essar has thelargest network distributionchannel with over 400 brandedEssar Hypermarts. Its productsfind wide acceptance in highlydiscerning consumer sectors,such as automotive, whitegoods, construction, engineer-ing and shipbuilding.

The Essar Group is amultinational conglomerateand a leading player in the sec-tors of Steel, Oil & Gas, Power,Communications, ShippingPorts & Logistics, Constructionand Minerals. With operationsin more than 20 countriesacross five continents, theGroup employs 60,000 people,with revenues of USD 15billion.

K. Kadhiravan, Head,sales, Essar Steel and B.Ganesh Pai General Manager,Corporate Communication,Essar Group were also presentat the press conference.

From page 14

The Indian information andcommunication technology(ICT) industry and Indian soft-ware professionals haveearned global kudos for excep-tional technical prowess, me-ticulous software developmentskills and quality processes forover two decades.

However, the highly re-garded industry with its three-million plus software profes-sionals, comes under attackevery now and then fromthe very nations that savecosts by outsourcing to In-dia — dubbing it as a na-tion producing ‘cyber coo-lies’, to being ‘Bangalored’(a term used when losing ajob to an Indian outsourcingcentre) and now to beingreferred to as ‘chop shops’. TheWest’s fear of losing jobs to anyIndian software developmentcentre not necessarily in thecity of Bangalore has given riseto another word: Bangalorephobia. The latest attack on theindustry from US DemocratSenator Schumer from NewYork raised several eyebrowsin India. To add insult to the in-jury, Indian software firms willhave to bear an additional bur-den of US$200-250 million inthe form of H1B and L1 visa feehike. By targeting Indian soft-ware firms and singling out aniconic firm like Infosys, the USsenator missed the ingenuity ofthe Indian mind.

To dub the work beingdone by the Indian softwareprofessionals as low-tech is notonly unfair but unwarranted.And to term the Indian IT ser-vices companies as ‘chopshops’ is a great disservice es-pecially when they have con-tributed to the development ofAmerican and Europeaneconomies. A recent Nasscom-Evaluserve study estimatesthat in 2009 the US and Euro-pean companies saved $25 to

Bangalore phobia will onlyhurt Western economies

By Sanjiv Kataria

$30 billion by outsourcing soft-ware development work to In-dian companies. The $130 bil-lion Indian ICT industry formsnot only one-tenth of India’sGDP but has built substantialknowledge capital too. It hastwo big components—the $78billion IT industry and the $63billion Telecom industry, as perrecent studies by Dataquest

and Voice&Data. Of the $78billion generated by the IT in-dustry, two-thirds come fromexport of IT services and one-third is contributed by the do-mestic IT sector. Within the ITservices exports of $52.6 bil-lion, exports to the US formnearly three-fifth and Europeadds up to nearly one-fifth.Even those who started by of-fering body shopping servicesto the American and Europeanclients in the 1980s today op-erate at the top end of the valuechain - IT consulting and busi-ness transformation services.

So it is software develop-ment and maintenance ser-vices valued at $17 billion thatis the biggest chunk of the soft-ware exports while new high-end projects in the IT consult-ing and package implementa-tion, software product develop-ment, telecom software andengineering services valuemore than $3 billion each.India’s strength lies in its ex-tremely robust higher educa-tion system with a strong focuson mathematical skills and En-glish language, which is a re-sult of a conscious investment

made by the government insetting up institutions like theIITs, IISc, RECs, ISRO andBARC to gain technical self-sufficiency. “Alumni of Indiangovernment-funded engineer-ing schools like IITs have cre-ated intellectual property for theUS and strengthened their abil-ity to offer a better standard forAmerican citizens,” said IDC In-

dia recently. “The US law-makers must recall thatH1B-L1 visa regime wascreated as a legally sanc-tioned means to allow USfirms to induct scarce skillsto benefit the US economy,”it states further. Even if wewere to empathize with theargument that the USeconomy needs to banish

unemployment, these coun-tries cannot overcome skillshortage in the long run. Thedrastic drop in the enrolment ofAmerican students in the sci-ence and engineering pro-grams is an indicator that thereis no quick fix for growing thelocal talent pool in the softwarespace. Both America and Eu-rope must thank the Indian soft-ware industry for coming totheir rescue and increasingproductivity of their major cor-porations. The Western worldhas to realize that by adoptingrestrictive policies on free ac-cess to talent-based services,they can only hurt their owneconomy. Moreover, they won’tbe able to top the list of coun-tries vying for a limited pool ofskilled professionals, and thuspower their economies, in theabsence of a reliable IT part-ner like India. As for Indian soft-ware companies the best ad-vice comes from Infosysfounder N.R. Narayana Murthy:they must continue to innovateand enhance their productivityso that the world looks up to thetechnical prowess of the Indiansoftware sector.

Etihad Airways, the na-tional airline of the United ArabEmirates, has announced thesigning of internationally ac-claimed, multi-award winningactress from India, Katrina Kaif,as the airline’s new brandambassador.Having won nu-merous national and interna-tional awards, Katrina hasgreatly contributed to the Indianfilm industry and is one ofIndia’s most sought-after ac-tresses.

Etihad Airways and KatrinaKaif will work on a series of ini-tiatives to promote the airlineacross India and around theworld, including addressing In-dian communities in Etihad Air-ways’ key markets such as theUAE, the United States and theUnited Kingdom. Etihad re-cently filmed a internet videowith Katrina Kaif dancing in theairline’s First class lounge inAbu Dhabi, under the directionof award winning Indian filmdirector and choreographer,Farah Khan. The video, whichhas been distributed onlineacross youtube and varioussocial networking sites, will beused to promote the partner-

Etihad Airways signsKatrina Kaif as BrandAmbassador

ship between Katrina andEtihad Airways throughout thecampaign.

Peter Baumgartner, EtihadAirways’ Chief Commercial Of-ficer, said: “Our partnershipwith Katrina Kaif will help buildEtihad’s brand name globallyand further introduce our world-class products and servicesacross India and to Indian com-munities around the world.”Katrina represents the best ofIndian cinema. By challengingthe industry as a highly talentednewcomer, she has success-fully reached the top of her fieldin a very short period of time.

These values ideally matchEtihad’s own ambition to be thebest airline in the world.”

Katrina Kaif, Etihad’s newbrand ambassador, said:“Since they first started flying,Etihad Airways has succeededin becoming one of the biggestnames in the airline industry. Ihave always loved flying withEtihad and I am extremelyhonoured to work closely withthe world’s leading airline.”

To view the video featuringKatrina Kaif dancing in Etihad’sFirst class lounge, go towww.whereiskatrinakaif.com.

Andrew Ward- Vice President, Marketing Etihad Airways, KatrinaKaif and Neerja Bhatia-Country Manager, India Srilanka, Etihadalong with the airline’s crew.


Edited, Printed and Published by P.V. Radhamani, Printed at Printers Castle, Kochi - 16. Published at Journalist Nagar, Thrikkakara P.O., Kochi - 21.Chief Editor: A. Madhavan (Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act). Tel: 98471 78836, 90482 11587, 0484-4025403/3240781. Fax: 0484-2357581

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Web: www.businessdigestmagazine.org

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Azeezia group of MedicalEducational Institutions is lo-cated in a setting of scenicbeauty at Meeyannoor village,18kms from Kollam city. Thesprawling campus has an areaof 50 acres and combined in-vestment of Rs.250 crores. Thepanoramic view from the cam-pus embraces hills and paddyfields, coconut groves and rub-ber plantations, typical ofKerala- Gods Own Country.The refreshing and re-vitalisingambience is conducive to

Azeezia: Unmatched facilities;beautiful location

comfort always- that is what aphysician can do. We will pro-vide a congenial atmospherefor the students for the devel-opment of curricular and extra-curricular activities. A Goldenthread running through theethos of the Azeezia Group ofMedical Institutions is socialresponsibility. The institutionsare fully committed to render-ing qualitative medical educa-tion and cost effective moderntreatment to the rural popula-tion without profit motive and

Gyneacology, Orthopedics,Paediatrics, ENT,Opthalmology, Dermatology,Psychiatry andAnaesthesiology. Cardiology,Radio diagnosis, Urology,Nephrology, Neurology, Neurosurgery,TB & Chest Disease,Surgical Oncology and Maxil-lofacial Surgery are the superspecialuties. Azeezia NursingCollege which was started in2006 is fully equipped to imparthigh quality graduate nursingeducation. Adequate resources

learning recuperation. AzeeziaInstitute of Medical Sciencesand Research is the first Medi-cal College established inKollam District. This Institutionis imparting training of medicalprofessionals who are sure, willbe socially oriented and ethi-cally principled. This institutionis giving personal attention inevery part of the training by wellexperienced teachers whohave vast experience in theirconcerned fields. Our mainobjective is to nurture the skillsof patient management andcommunication. We inculcatethe concept of our concern forour society considering the factthat life expectancy of nearlythirty years separates those inthe richest countries from thosein the poorest. To cure some-times, to relieve often, but to

this is expected to blaze a trailof CORPORATE SOCIAL RE-SPONSIBILITY in the field of“Rural Health Care” in theyears to come. Ably captainedby its Chairman M. AbdulAzeez, other board membersof the Azeezia Group of insti-tutions are Mrs. M. HafsathAzeez, Dr. Ansar Azeez, Dr.Hashim Azeez, MidhulajAzeez, Anaz Azeez andHassan Azeez. Azeezia Medi-cal College Hospital is a 500bedded hospital fully equippedfor the treatment of most of thediseases. The hospital is man-aged by a team of highly quali-fied and experienced doctorsand well trained and motivatedPara-medical staff. Generalafacilities in the hospital areGeneral Medicine, GeneralSurgery, Obstetrics &

have been made available tohelp the students to learn ev-ery aspect of nursing in its en-tirety. Azeezia College of Den-tal Sciences & Research is aneducational initiative byPodikunju Musaliar MemorialCharitable and EducationalTrust which was in turn startedin 2001 to cherish the vision-ary and philanthropic activitiesof Late Late. Shri. PodikunjuMusaliar (1912-1989).

Eligibility criteria for theManagement Quota will be apass in Plus Two (Kerala) orequivalent National Board Ex-amination with at least 50%aggregate marks in Biology,Physics and Chemistry andappearance in Common En-trance Examination conductedby the consortium of Self-fi-nancing Medical Colleges/CET

conducted by Government.Admission will be on the basisof marks obtained in the en-trance examination and marksobtained for Physics, Chemis-try and Biology in the qualify-ing examination. The marks willbe apportioned in the ratio of50:50. After the entrance test,the marks obtained for thePhysics, Chemistry and Biol-ogy at the qualifying examina-tion will be added to the marksobtained at the entrance testand a combined merit list willbe published. Separate meritlist also will be published forcategories, for which seats arereserved. Allotment to collegesand admission will be on thebasis of centralized counseling.For more informations: AzeeziaMedical College, MeeyannoorP.O. Kollam Kerala Kollam-37Telephone: 0474-3069200http://www.azeezia.com Dr.Y.MFazil Marickar serves as thePrincipal of the college and Dr.L. Reghu, Medical Superinten-dent.

If a new research is to bebelieved, then believing in luckis enough to boost perfor-mance. Scientists from theUniversity of Cologne designedfour experiments to test the ef-fectiveness of belief in good-luck superstitions.

According toPhysOrg.com, the supersti-tions were tested to seewhether or not they improvedsubsequent performance inmotor dexterity, memory, solv-ing anagrams, or playing golf.In the experiments, the partici-pants either brought their ownlucky “charms,” were givensomething they were told waslucky or had some other super-stition-based encouragement.The researchers found that in

Being superstitiouscan actually boostyour performance

all four experiments, the partici-pants who had a lucky charmor were given encouragementvia a common superstitioussaying performed significantlybetter than their control coun-terparts.

The participants performedbetter and faster on motor dex-terity tests, plus they had moreconfidence in their own abilitieswhen asked beforehand howthey thought they would do.Theresearch is the first time super-stitions associated with goodluck have been demonstratedto affect future performancebeneficially, reports DiscoveryNews.

The research is publishedonline in the journal Psycho-logical Science.

will be a strong addition to ourproduct portfolio. Adding furtherhe said, “The New Vento is anextension of our commitmenttowards the Indian consumersof providing the best quality

products at competitive prices.”The Vento is equipped with

a 1.6 litre engine with anoutput of 105PS @ 5250 rpmand a Torque of 153NM @3800 rpm.

From page 9

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