POINT OUT

POINT 

OUT 

pointoutnews.com 

FEBRUARY 2014 

VOL-1 ISSUE-1 

50 

I N S I D E 

BY INVITE: 

APJ Abdul Kalam on 

Media & Development 

VILLAGE 

ROOTS: 

Punsari, 

transforming 

lives 

MODI 

ON COURSE 

GENERAL ELECTIONS 2014



2 

FEBRUARY 2014





pointoutnews.com 

FEBRUARY 2014 

Vol-1 Issue-1 

50 

I N S I D E 

BY INVITE 

APJ ABDUL KALAM ON 

MEDIA & DEVELOPMENT 

VILLAGE 

ROOTS: 

Punsari, 

transforming lives 

COVER STORY 

Modi juggernaut 

on course 

Surveys conducted by three major 

media groups in January 2014 to 

know the mood of the nation if general 

elections were to be held now have 

pointed out a major gain for the BJP 

and the NDA that it leads 

P 16 

15.00 

1500 

MODI 

ON COURSE 

GENERAL ELECTIONS 2014 

www.pointoutnews.com 

Editor-in-Chief – Dr. Shiv Kumar Rai 

Consulting Editor – Surya Gangadharan 

Feature Editor – Suman 

Editor-South – Vijay Grover 

Special Correspondent – Aarti 

Principal Correspondent – Bipin sasi 

Correspondents – Ranjith Pasam, 

Abhay Kumar 

Design – Manaswi 

Photo Editor – Sanjeev 

Editorial researcher -Tanya, Kriti 

AD/SALES & CIRCULATION 

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Volume 01 Issue 1 

For the month – February 2014 

Total No. of pages 64+Covers 

Head Office 

1201, Nirmal Tower, Barakhamba Road, 

Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 

Phone- 011-23320740 

INTERVIEW 

Transparency can 

limit corruption 

‘Core values and culture 

start first in the family. 

It is the family, the 

parents, who impart 

certain values such as 

honesty and humanity. 

Nobody can teach you 

that in school or 

college’ P 11 

POINT OUT 

GALLERY 

BY INVITE 

P 36 

MUST READ 

Movers & Shakers P 40 

Redefining Governance P 41 

Village Roots P 42 

Flying High P 47 

Test Drive P 54 

Gadgets P 56 

Forecast P 58 

Success Mantra P 59 

Art and Culture P 60 

Book Review P 61 

Health P 62 

Spiritual Touch P 66 

Media and theme of a developed India 

Grassroots journalists should have a big aim of the concern 

of a billion people. Fortunately, India has a vision and 

has the youth power which is the engine that can give 

the thrust to the movement towards growth 

Vidya – Actor 

with a difference 

P 45 

STATE REPORT 

An Albatross 

For Akhilesh 

P 63 P 8 

3



• Arup Roy Choudhury, 

CMD, NTPC 

‘Power sector 

is the key 

enabler of India’s 

economic 

growth. The sector 

consists of generation 

, transmission 

and distribution utilities 

and is a crucial 

component of India’s infrastructure. 

Power sector leads the investment in 

infrastructure for the XII th plan. The 

energy deficit increased marginally on 

a year –on year- basis in financial year 

2012-13 to 8.7% from 8.5% in financial 

year 2011-12. Overall the sector 

is characterized by acute shortages of 

power. In terms of consumption patterns 

India ranks amongst the lowest in 

the world. The per capita consumption 

of power in India has increased from 

631 units in financial year 2005-06 to 

879 units in financial year 2011-12 as 

per CEA. This is many times less than 

the electricity consumption in the developed 

countries of the world giving 

enormous scope of capacity addition in 

India. 

• S L Bansal, CMD, 

Oriental Bank of Commerce 

‘In view of the 

present economic 

slowdown, 

banking 

industry is facing 

serious challenge on 

maintaining asset 

quality & profitability. 

The quantum of 

non performing assets has increased 

substantially over the last 2 years and 

Banks have moved towards early resolution 

& monitoring of borrowal accounts. 

As credit demand from large 

projects is muted, the banks are now 

focusing on augmenting retail credit, 

MSME and Mid Corporate segments 

towards de-risking their balance sheets. 

The other challenges are compliance 

to BASEL III capital requirements, 

competition from opening of new private 

sector banks and on Human Resources 

front. As a professional banker, 

I would always like to foresee inclusive 

growth for our 1.2 billion population 

and dream of an Indian society void of 

any financial exclusion. It is with this 

objective of financial inclusion, major 

banks were nationalized in two phases 

in 1969 & 1980, which was also considered 

as the beginning of the era of 

social & mass banking. In plain terms, 

this means banking for all the segments 

of the society in general and especially 

for those weaker sections who are at the 

bottom of the pyramid. You will appreciate 

that all public sector banks have 

played a key role towards economic upliftment 

of a vast cross section of people 

by making banking accessible to the 

rural masses. 

• T.V. Mohan Das Pai, Chairman, 

Manipal Global Education 

‘India’s gross 

enrolment is 

22% in the 

age group 

of 18-23, growing 

at 7% per annum. 

We have 3 crore 

students in our colleges 

with around 

90 lakhs completing every year. We 

have solved to a great degree the challenge 

of access to higher education 

but the challenge of quality remains. 

This can only be solved if we have 

autonomy for our universities. We 

are over regulated and under governed. 

Our democracy, our diversity, 

our unquestioned acceptance of everybody’s 

right to the freedoms promised 

in our constitution. The fact that 

our economy has all the necessary 

factors to grow on a sustained basis 

at 8%+ per year! that our population 

is fast stabilising and the fact that we 

have a very young population. Our 

disregard of merit and the mad rush 

to mediocrity in our politics and in 

our society. The lack of leaders with 

a vision of the India of the future and 

the strategy to achieve it. The lack of 

focus on execution and the growing 

belief that rhetoric is equal to execution 

in our politics and lastly the lack 

of empowerment in governance of 

our cities. 

YOUR VOICE 

• Harish Bijoor, Marketing Guru 

‘Brands are 

growing bigger 

and bigger. 

As the brand 

movement grows 

bigger, it is important 

not to neglect the 

commodity-movement 

at the other end 

of the spectrum. I do believe we in the 

realm of brands need to POINT OUT 

the importance of this movement as 

well. Small is indeed beautiful and will 

always be. Niche brands need as much 

support as the big ones. If the true-blue 

mixed fabric of society needs to be retained, 

and if the variegated nature of life 

needs to be celebrated, it is important to 

support movements that are small and 

still beautiful. 

Therefore I would support the 

small hole-in-the-wall bookshop as 

it gets rampaged by the large brand 

book shop. I would support the small 

vegetable vendor and his cause as his 

offering gets vandalized by the biggie 

at the corner. Time to POINT OUT all 

this I guess! 

• Ashwini Kumar, Social Worker 

‘There is a need 

in the country 

to re-evaluate 

the social service 

parameters. The 

process of registration 

of NGO’s and 

the CSR activities of 

the Indian Corporate 

sector should get more transparent. 

We have seen and continue to see 

that most of what is spent in the name 

of Social Service hardly reaches the 

deserving masses. If that leakage can 

be plugged, there will be no illiterates, 

no unemployment, no malnutrition 

and no poverty and country would become 

a superpower. Indian masses have 

shown that in the most adverse conditions 

also they have the instinct to not 

only survive but try and excel. Despite 

limitations of resources, we are able to 

come up with the best possible solutions 

because I believe that it is genetically 

ingrained into us to meet the challenges. 

That I feel is the biggest strength 

that the society has that we are “Great 

Survivors” but limit it to self. 

4 

FEBRUARY 2014

POINT OF VIEW 

USING THE 

RIGHT WORD 

Word speaks for itself; words stir thoughts and play a major role towards 

positive transformation in any society. From time immemorial mass 

media have been using words to disseminate information and keep people 

informed of happenings around them. However, if not used properly, the same words 

lead to chaos and anarchy. Thus, it makes the role and responsibility of media critical 

in any society. Keeping this in mind we are unveiling the first issue of POINTOUT 

magazine, at a time when our country, society, polity, governance and lifestyle are 

undergoing a transformation. Through this magazine, our endeavor is to be a part of 

this transformation. Ours is an effort based not to cash only on negativity but to look 

beyond it. The large pool of youth, life in rural areas and aspirations of youth all would 

be presented through use of right words to reach out to a larger audience. It’s a conscious 

attempt to not just call attention to ills around us but also to seek solutions from the 

stakeholders and salute where the credit is due. While growth and modernization is a 

must, we also need to look beyond life in our metros. Ours is a country where majority 

live in rural areas and villages. Yearning for a better change, villages too are undergoing 

a transformation and it is this that would be captured and presented to you through our 

Village Roots column. It will be a permanent feature that would bring about positive 

changes happening in rural India and salute the heroes behind them. While the general 

notion is to blame bureaucracy and governance for all ills plaguing the country, we 

believe there are some great innovators who struggled against odds and came up with 

effective delivery mechanism using available resources to benefit the larger population. 

Redefining Governance column will be a tribute to such brilliant bureaucrats, politicians 

or others. Being the youngest nation in the world, Indian youth are using their energies 

in shaping up their destiny. With unlimited dreams they are chasing their passion in 

diverse fields, be it science and technology, information technology, medical science, 

creative arts, dance and drama and the tinsel world. The High Flying column would 

dedicate space to such outstanding achievers and their initiatives. It goes without 

saying, that the magazine will also offer spiritual touch for lowering stress levels for 

the pressured honchos and articles on health and gossips from the Bollywood. With 

general elections to Lok Sabha scheduled in April-May, this inaugural issue also 

throws light on the state of the nation and political parties. With pollsters predicting 

a drubbing for the Congress-led UPA, its chances appear bleak. But will Narendra 

Modi wave take BJP and NDA combine close to or beyond the 272 mark, required 

for a simple majority? It is a big question only time would answer. With no party 

or combine in sight of a majority, as of now, regional satraps including leaders of 

Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), AIADMK, Telugu Desam, Trinamool Congress 

are all fancying their chances. This forms our cover story for the month. 

Dr. Shiv Kumar Rai 

Editor In Chief 

5



TWITTERATI 

• Anupam Kher@AnupamPkher 

I prefer people who sell 

comb to Bald people 

or give them a hair cut 

then people who have 

been just 

selling 

dreams for 

years.:) 

#Rahul 

Gandhi 

• Digvijaya Singh@ 

digvijaya_28 

Gujarat is a 

developed 

State 

because 

of the 

Enterprise 

and Entrepreneurship 

of People of Gujarat not 

Modi. 

• Manohar Parrikar@ 

manoharparrikar 

No matter how different 

our ideas of governance 

and policy may be, we 

still have to work 

within the 

frame work 

of the Indian 

constitution. 

• Omar Abdullah@abdullah_ 

omar 

To be 

demanding 

special 

privileges 

for “VIPs” in 

this political 

atmosphere 

takes a special kind of 

disconnect with reality. 

• Shekhar Kapur@ 

shekharkapur 

When the noise inside 

Parliament drowns 

the thunder of People’s 

aspirations outside, 

Parliament is no longer 

an effective tool 

of Democracy 

• Narendra Modi@ 

narendramodi 

What happened to 

the youngster from 

Arunachal Pradesh in 

Delhi is saddening & 

shocking. 

No place 

for such 

gruesome 

acts in our 

nation. 

• Sushma Swaraj 

@SushmaSwarajbjp Feb 3 

The problem is that it 

is a lame duck Government. 

Neither their 

allies, nor 

their 

Chief 

Minister, 

not even 

members - 

nobody listens to them 

• Arvind Kejriwal @ 

ArvindKejriwal Feb 4 

Anil Ambani 

playing 

politics 

wid delhi’s 

electricity? 

Whose politics 

is he doing? 

• Farhan Akhtar @FarOutAkhtar 

Jan 31 

Look forward to meeting 

the deservedly honoured, 

Padmashri Vidya Balan. 

Nice when good things 

happen to 

good people. 

• Satya Nadella @satyanadella 

first commitment 

as CEO...i 

won’t wait 4 

years between 

tweets! 

6 

FEBRUARY 2014



STATE REPORT UTTAR PRADESH 

An Albatross For 

Akhilesh Yadav 

» POINT OUT BUREAU 

The young chief minister of Uttar 

Pradesh would have hardly 

thought that Muzaffarnagar riots 

would turn out to be an albatross 

around the neck for him and his party, 

the Samajwadi Party. Eager to portray 

himself on the right side of a particular 

community, he ordered the start of riot 

camps. But those very camps are now his 

biggest problem. 

From allegations of lack of proper 

8 

FEBRUARY 2014



facilities, rehabilitation, poor sanitation 

and insensitivity of the district administration 

and state government to growing 

opposition jibes, the Yadav senior (Mulayam 

Singh) and junior appear to be 

cornered. 

Confusion is so confounded that after 

denying irregularities at the riot-camps, 

the state is now clueless. The issue has 

remained alive all through with a senior 

officer, Anil Gupta, Principal Secretary 

(Home), while refuting deaths of children 

due to cold wave at the relief camps suggested 

that “no one can die of cold.” 

The statement of Gupta drew flak 

from the opposition political parties and 

the NGOs in the state and even before 

the brouhaha over it could stop came 

reports that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists 

tried to recruit men from riot-hit 

families. The reports have been attributed 

to two Muslim clerics, who were arrested 

by the Delhi Police. 

Amidst the controversy, SP chief 

Mulayam Singh Yadav, too did his bit by 

accusing people living in the riot camps 

as agents of the Congress party. His 

comments sparked off unsavory duel 

with the Congress. The handling of the 

Muzaffarnagar riots and subsequent situation 

has also led to unease among the 

Samajwadi Party. Maulana Tauqir Raza, 

an adviser to the UP Handloom Corporation, 

who has been accorded the status 

of a minister of state has questioned 

Mulayam asking for an inquiry why he 

failed to visit Muzaffarnagar during or 

after the riots. 

Similarly, the Darul Uloom, Deoband 

has termed Mulayam a friend of the 

Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS). 

The annual Saifai Mahotsav organized 

by the chief minister in his backyard, 

too has come under flak for the festivities 

and expenditure incurred on it while riot 

victims were suffering. Amidst reports of 

Bollywood stars making a beeline at the 

fortnight long festival, Chief Minister 

The annual Saifai Mahotsav 

organized by the chief minister 

in his backyard, too has come 

under flak for the festivities and 

expenditure incurred on it while riot 

victims were suffering 

Akhilesh Yadav lashed on to the media 

for giving negative publicity to the government. 

“Saifai Mahotsav has been organized 

to boost tourism, infrastructure 

and invite investments to the backward 

area. We have been holding the festival 

for the past several years, whether we 

were in power or not,” he said. 

“Local people in and around Saifai 

have been waiting for this event for the 

last one year. They have prepared for it,” 

he added. 

Like the Saifai festival, a junket of legislators 

including minister Azam Khan to 

Europe claimed as a ‘study tour’ also led 

to a furore. So much so, that the visiting 

team had to cut short its visit and return 

home. An angry Azam on his return paraded 

some of the MLAs who travelled 

with him and tried to defend the junket. 

But the junket too has been linked with 

the sufferings of the riot-hit. An angry 

Khan alleged that “by linking the tour 

with the plight of Muzaffarnagar riots 

victims, a section of the media was playing 

up to the fascist forces.” 

With general elections to the Lok Sabha 

just few months away, Chief Minister 

Akhilesh Yadav wants the camps to be 

wound up, as swiftly as he started them. 

10 

FEBRUARY 2014

INTERVIEW VINOD RAI 

» FORMER 

CAG 

TRANSPARENCY 

CAN LIMIT 

CORRUPTION 

Former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, Vinod Rai needs no introduction. A retired IAS 

officer of Kerala cadre, Rai is known as one of the few bureaucrats who stood up and red-flagged corruption and 

misappropriation. As a young officer, he was the one who laid the foundations for development of Thrissur district 

in Kerala that earned him the title of sakthan thambran (powerful ruler) when he was posted as district collector. 

As the CAG, Rai was instrumental in unearthing some of the biggest scams in the history of India perpetuated by 

government agencies – like the Commonwealth Games scam and the 2G spectrum allocation scam – through his 

audits. These issues continue to embarrass the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government and its ministers. 

Though Rai retired from service in March 2013, he is leading an active life as chairman of the United Nations Panel 

of External Auditors and member of the Governing Board of the International Organization of Supreme Audit 

Institutions (INTOSAI). He spoke candidly to Dr. Shiv Kumar Rai about his life, work and dreams. Some excerpts: 

11



You were of the view that 60% 

government funding is not audited 

and advocated all PPPs (Public 

Private Partnerships) and PRIs 

(Panchayati Raj Institutions) be 

brought under the CAG ambit. Could 

you elaborate? 

The CAG draws mandate to conduct 

audit by the CAG Act of 1971. Now, the 

audit act talks only of the government 

departments and government enterprises. 

When it was enacted, there were 

no such things as PPPs, joint ventures, 

NGOs, self help groups, etc. The 73rd and 

74th amendments gave a lot of powers to 

the PRIs and urban local bodies. Obviously, 

the 1971 law which has not been 

amended as yet, did not bring PPPs or 

PRIs within the ambit of CAG. So, all 

that I have been seeking to do is to emphasise 

the need to amend and update 

that law because most of the government 

spending now is through these sources, 

through these channels, especially the 

PRIs. 

The UPA government has termed 

the figure of loss in the 2G spectrum 

scam as arrived upon by the CAG as 

highly exaggerated? Do you feel the 

same? 

I said it throughout my service that 

figures we gave were right and the audit 

report explained in detail how we had 

arrived at such a calculation of loss. The 

entire audit department stands by the 

figures and I have no hesitation in saying 

that those figures are accurate and 

realistic. 

Is there any way you think the 

selection of CAG can be more 

transparent? 

Certainly! I would suggest to the government 

to take the appointment route 

for CAG as followed in the case of the 

Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) 

or the Central Election Commissioner 

(CEC). A collegium approach for CAG 

too, will be helpful. 

How can functioning of CAG be 

improved? 

Well, I think the Indian Audit & Accounts 

department is a very professional 

organisation. They are very 

professional in their approach, are 

apolitical and objective, and totally 

transparent in the way they 

conduct their audits. I think any 

department must keep updating 

‘Core values and culture start 

first in the family. It is the 

family, the parents, who impart 

certain values such as honesty 

and humility. Nobody can teach 

you that in school or college” 

‘I have been fortunate and 

have not had anything 

which I would call the worst. 

Everything has been good, 

generally good, for me” 

‘Government officials 

must recognise that in 

Parliamentary democracy the 

boss is always the minister. There 

should be no doubt about it in our 

mind because he is the one who is 

accountable to the public, 

and the Parliament” 

its knowledge base to keep improving 

its professionalism. This is a continuous 

process and that should apply to the audit 

services also. 

You have made an interesting 

observation that government must be 

seen as supporting enterprises, and 

not become an entrepreneur itself. 

Could you talk about it? 

The government’s role is to motivate, 

nurture, and incubate enterprises, 

industries and people to set up revenue 

generating or employment generating activities. 

Now, the government should not 

play favourites. For example, the government 

should motivate the textile industry, 

automobile industry, pharma industry 

and not start promoting individuals 

from the industry. The government’s intention 

should be that of a facilitator and 

monitor and nothing more. 

In a landmark judgement, the 

Supreme Court said that the 

bureaucrats should not take oral 

instructions from netas (politicians). 

What is your advice to young 

bureaucrats and youngsters? 

The SC is absolutely right. It will bring 

in more accountability. India is a Parliamentary 

democracy and we are all very 

proud of it. Democracy has been 

able to give us an almost double 

digit economic growth. This 

economic activity has to 

be supported. This could 

only be done through 

good governance. Good 

governance is provided 

by bureaucrats or government 

officials. 

Government officials 

must recognise that in 

12 

FEBRUARY 2014

a Parliamentary democracy, the boss is 

always the minister. There should be no 

doubt about it in our mind because he is 

the one who is accountable to the public 

and the Parliament. As the boss, he may 

make oral orders but it is for the officials 

to take it in writing. There is nothing 

wrong with it, the minister is well within 

his right to make an order and the official 

can demand it in writing. A minister, of 

course, has every right to overrule an official 

or agree with him, so that is the way 

Parliamentary democracy works worldwide. 

A bureaucrat, whether he agrees or 

disagrees with an order, has the freedom 

to pen down his views even if he or she is 

overruled and they should have no hesitation 

in doing so. 

You are considered a symbol of the 

anti-corruption movement. What is 

your take? 

No, not at all. This is not an anti-corruption 

movement. See, the last five-six 

years, I have seen the culmination of a 

large numbers of factors. Number one, 

there are citizens in India who came to 

the centrestage, citizens became very 

demanding and very rightly so, they 

wanted participative governance. Number 

two was that the media played a very 

positive role. I sincerely feel that they 

have been alert and constructive as far 

as the audit department is concerned. 

Third, just by chance a few irregularities 

in government functioning came to light 

and got projected alongside the citizen 

movement. I am very confident that this 

would lead to a cleansing of the Indian 

society and system. 

What was the best and the worst 

thing to happen to you in your 

bureaucratic journey? 

Nothing really bad happened. Life is 

cyclical, it goes up and comes down. And 

in the up and down process, there are 

some good things and there are not very 

good things. But, I have been fortunate 

and have not had anything which I would 

call the worst. Everything has been good, 

generally good, for me. 

Commitment and courage have been 

core values in your life, particularly 

while you were the CAG. How can we 

transfer these qualities to the youth? 

Core values and culture start first in 

the family. It is the family, the parents, 

who impart certain values such as honesty 

and humility and nobody can teach 

you that in school or college. It comes 

from the family itself. Of course, I owe 

a lot to my parents in that sense. More 

importantly, when you get into the job 

then you have to ensure that your focus 

is on the mandate that has been given 

to you. Even if the path is thorny, rocky 

and turbulent at times, if you steer clear 

of any partisanship then you will come 

out good. I am fairly confident about 

the youth and the Gennext as these values 

have been ingrained in them very 

strongly. This is a very good sign for the 

country’s future. 

Tell us about your family 

background? 

I belong to a district called Gazipur 

in UP. My grandfather was a daroga 

in the village. My father studied initially 

at the village. Later, he went to 

the Allahabad University from where 

he did his MA in Philosophy and also 

studied law. After he finished his law 

degree, he had the intention of becoming 

a professor. So he did his PhD in 

Philosophy. While he was doing his 

PhD, the Second World War broke 

out. Somehow in a fit of patriotism, if 

I can say, he and a couple of his friends 

joined the army. He joined the army 

as a sipahi. After joining the army, he 

sent a postcard to my grandmother, 

saying “I joined the Army as a sepoy 

at a salary of Rs 18 and during training 

we also have to clean horses.” My 

grandmother got very upset upon 

reading this because being a daroga 

my grandfather had two horses in our 

house and he had never attended to 

them personally. But the good thing 

was when my father’s paper reached 

his company commander, he realised 

this sepoy was very educated and he 

immediately got him an emergency 

commission. He became a Captain and 

was made a psychologist in the Service 

Selection Board (SSB). 

How can the society eliminate 

corruption? 

The society can eliminate corruption 

only by one simple way and that is when 

we conduct everything transparently. If 

every public activity (decision, collection 

and spending and conduct) is known to 

all, there will be less scope of pilferage. 

13



AUGUSTAWESTLAND DEAL 

GROUNDED 

With general elections due 

soon, the UPA seems to have 

washed its hands off the 

partially completed purchase 

of VVIP helicopters 

14 

FEBRUARY 2014

» File photo of Defence Minister, A K Antony at the cockpit of Dhruv Helicopter. (For representational purpose only) 

» SURYA GANGADHARAN 

OOn the face of it, AgustaWestland’s 

bid to supply VVIP helicopters to 

India is now over and done with. 

But it’s not yet the end of the story. 

For one, the Defence Ministry did not 

indicate if AgustaWestland (AW) was being 

blacklisted. The reluctance to do so 

probably stems from the need to maintain 

the three VVIP helicopters delivered so far 

(for which money has been paid and AW’s 

cooperation is essential). 

It is also intended to safeguard projects 

that the Defence Ministry has okayed with 

AW’s parent firm Finmeccanica and its 

other subsidiaries. These include MBDA 

which will supply weapons for the MMR- 

CA Rafale, also MICA and Meteor missiles. 

Then, Selex EKS is supplying the air 

surveillance radar for India’s indigenous 

aircraft carrier. WASS has to upgrade 

all lightweight torpedoes for the Indian 

Navy’s fleet of submarines. And NH Industries 

is bidding to supply maritime 

helicopters for the navy. 

The Defence Ministry has therefore 

appointed a retired judge “to safeguard 

our interests” as the ministry stated in the 

arbitration proceedings that the AW has 

initiated. This comes at a time when the 

government remains opposed to any arbitration 

(and is moving to secure the 250 

mn Euro guarantee money that the AW 

had deposited). 

On the other hand, AW continues 

to deny any wrongdoing. In fact, despite 

the barrage of publicity surrounding the 

government’s prosecution of bribery allegations 

case, nothing has turned up. The 

word is that the CBI has not touched the 

Tyagi brothers after the initial round of 

interrogations last year. The investigation 

agency says that the bribe money was paid 

(according to Italian reports 6 mn Euro to 

politicians, 6 mn to IAF officials (read Tyagis), 

and 8.4 mn to bureaucrats) but has 

not been able to trace where and to whom 

the money went. 

This is where the Swiss businessman 

Guido Haschke’s notings made in 2008, 

seized by the Italian investigators while 

probing an entirely different case, could 

prove interesting. For instance, the notings 

This is where the Swiss 

businessman Guido Haschke’s 

notings made in 2008, seized by 

the Italian investigators while 

probing an entirely different case, 

could prove interesting 

refer to an “AP” in the “POL” list. ‘POL’ 

could mean politician although there’s no 

certainty about this. Then there’s a reference 

to “FAM” that some have interpreted 

to mean family. There are also references 

to “DS, JS Air, AFA, DG Acquisitions” in 

the list titled “BUR” (bureaucracy?). The 

CBI will get to question Haschke in Italy 

once the trial there wraps up. 

So, what happens to the VVIP helicopter 

fleet? The original plan was to buy 12 

helicopters and AW is ready and willing to 

supply the balance nine still pending. Will 

the government bite the bullet and buy 

them? Not this government for sure. With 

the general elections due, the UPA has 

washed its hands off the matter by leaving 

it to the next government to decide. With 

so much already invested, including training 

of pilots and infrastructure, it would 

appear that the practical thing to do would 

be to complete the buy. 

Such a move maybe politically difficult 

for any government. In that case, 

Sikorsky which was No.2 in the VVIP 

tender, gets a chance. Sikorsky has invested 

in joint ventures in India including 

building the S-92 helicopter cabin in 

Hyderabad. Perhaps, building a VVIP 

chopper in India, a venture which will 

create jobs here and ensure that money 

stays in the country, could be a better bet 

in the long run. 

15



COVER STORY GENERAL ELECTION 

MODI JUGGERNAUT 

ON COURSE 

16 

FEBRUARY 2014

Surveys conducted by three major media groups in January 

2014 to know the mood of the nation if general elections 

were to be held now have pointed out a major gain for 

the BJP and the NDA that it leads. The BJP’s prime 

ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also leads the race 

for the popular choice of Prime Minister, way ahead of 

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief 

Sonia Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP 

» POINT OUT TEAM 

After assembly elections in five states in 

November 2013 and the dramatic rise 

of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in New 

Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal was billed as the 

counter to Narendra Modi. But the recent 

turn of events, including the Delhi government’s 

dharna against Delhi Police and 

utterances of Delhi Law Minister Somnath 

Bharti coupled with the expulsion of 

dissident MLA Vinod Kumar Binny, has 

left a bad taste, projecting the party as a 

group of anarchists. Will the Aam Aadmi 

Party (AAP) be able to pull up its socks 

before the Lok Sabha elections? 

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 

mission 2014 seems to be on 

course and its prime ministerial 

candidate Narenda Modi is leading 

the race by a fair margin, if the recent 

surveys conducted by three major media 

houses – the ABP News-Nielsen, India 

Today-C Voter and CNN-IBN-CSDS, are 

taken into account. 

Judging by the mood of the nation, if 

elections to the Lok Sabha are to be held 

now, the Congress Party is all set to face 

a drubbing and possibly end up with its 

lowest ever tally in two-digits. Likewise, 

given the situation, the BJP is likely to 

end up with its highest tally and is likely 

to cross the 200-seat mark on its own, out 

of the total 543 seats, according to the 

surveys. 

The ABP News-Nielsen survey has 

given the Congress 81 seats and the ruling 

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 

combine 101 seats. The National Democratic 

Alliance (NDA), according to this 

survey, will end up with about 226 seats 

and the BJP 210 seats. The others are 

expected to get 130 seats with the Left 

bagging about 30. The survey gives AAP 

about 11 seats. 

Likewise, the India Today-C Voter 

survey predicts that the BJP is likely to get 

about 188 seats on its own, about double 

than its rival Congress party that may end 

up with about 90 seats. The NDA is likely 

to get 207 to 217 seats while the UPA will 

end up with about 98 to 108 seats. Others 

and Left parties are likely to get 223-233 

seats. 

The CNN IBN-CSDS survey states 

that the NDA is likely to get about 211 to 

231 seats with the BJP would get anything 

between 190 and 210 seats on its own. It 

suggests that the UPA will get 107-127 

seats with the Congress getting about 

92-108 seats. Left parties and others are 

likely to get about 204 to 225 seats. 

The common thread in all the surveys 

is the fact that none of the alliances is in 

a position to form the government on 

its own. A party or alliance requires 272 

seats to be in a position to stake claim 

to form the government. With the BJP 

and NDA’s improved performances, it is 

expected that smaller parties might align 

with it after the polls. 

Narendra Modi leads all the surveys 

17



as the popular choice for the Prime 

Minister’s post with more than half 

of the respondents favouring him as 

against the Congress vice president 

Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Sonia 

Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal of the 

AAP who gets about 5% to 3% of popular 

votes. Similarly, a majority of the 

respondents, almost 61%, have refused 

to give the UPA another opportunity 

while 69% rated the UPA government’s 

performance as poor or very poor. 

From the surveys, it is clear that if 

elections are held at present, the Congress 

is likely to suffer huge losses in 

Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya 

Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and the 

southern states of Andhra Pradesh and 

Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra too, the 

Congress party appears to be on the 

downslide. In the two non-Congressruled 

states of Tamil Nadu and West 

Bengal, J Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK 

and Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool 

Congress respectively are expected 

to do well. Surveys have predicted 

about 15 to 23 seats for Jayalalithaa and 

20 to 28 seats for Mamata. 

The surprise package has been the 

two big Hindi speaking states of Uttar 

Pradesh and Bihar. In UP, the Samajwadi 

Party (SP) of Mulayam Singh 

Yadav in unlikely to make major gains 

and is likely to end up with 20 to 24 

seats, something similar to its bêtenoir, 

the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 

of Mayawati. The Congress that has 

21 members from UP may end up in 

single digit. The BJP is likely to make 

major gains in the state by securing 

about 30 seats. 

Likewise in Bihar, the Nitish 

Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) that 

broke away from the NDA over naming 

Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, 

is likely to suffer losses. The 

surveys suggest that the BJP is on the 

ascendant in the state while the JD (U) 

is on the decline. 

The mood of the people suggested 

that if elections were held in 

January 2014, the UPA would have got 

28% votes, while the NDA and others 

would have managed to get 36% 

votes each. It is to be seen whether the 

Congress Party that has named Rahul 

Gandhi as the head of its campaign for 

the Lok Sabha polls makes a dramatic 

turnaround in the next three months, 

before the country goes to vote. Likewise, 

the surveys are a wakeup call for 

the regional parties like the SP, JD (U), 

BSP and the DMK. 


NaMo Factor 

Whether one agrees or not, the 

fact is that there is a positive 

mood in favour of Narendra 

Modi across the country. So 

much so that the BJP might end up getting 

its highest ever number of MPs – 

more than what it could achieve during 

the Ayodhya movement of the 1990s. 

The Modi factor has been debated 

threadbare by his supporters and critics, 

but it has been very clearly demonstrated 

in the five states that went to the assembly 

polls in November last year. The decimation 

of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, 

Rajasthan and Delhi, besides its inability 

to encash the Jhiram Ghati massacre in 

Bastar that wiped off almost the front 

Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh, is 

a clear indication of the Modi factor that 

prevailed upon the voters. Whether one 

agrees or not, the fact remains that in 

Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, 

the BJP was expected to do well – but the 

results exceeded far beyond the expectations 

of even die-hard BJP supporters. 

In Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh 

Chouhan, with his ‘son of the soil’ image 

among the rural masses was always 

expected to win. But Chouhan, who was 

seeking a third term, led the party to victory 

in 165 out of a total of 230 seats in 

the state assembly – at a time when most 

opinion polls had ruled out any wave in 

the state. 

Likewise in Rajasthan, the Congress’ 

rout was expected, but the BJP eventually 

ended up with a tally 162 in the 200-member 

house. The Congress managed to get 

only 21 seats, down by 74 seats from the 

previous term. In Chhattisgarh too, there 

was a keen battle between the Congress 

and the BJP but in the end, the BJP managed 

to win a simple majority and form 

the government – third time in a row. In 

the tribal region of South Chhattisgarh 

and Bastar, the BJP which had done exceedingly 

well in 2008 elections, lost out 

possibly due to the sympathy wave following 

the massacre of Mahendra Karma 

and other senior Congress leaders but the 

losses were minimised by BJP’s improved 

position in Central Chhattisgarh. 

In Delhi too, the Congress was not 

expected to win but the surprise was 

AAP that spoiled BJP’s party and stopped 

it from getting to a simple majority. The 

18 

FEBRUARY 2014



AAP formed the government with support 

from the Congress. 

The results of four states also give a 

clear message. Though local issues and 

strong regional leaders like Shivraj Singh 

Chouhan, Dr Raman Singh and Vasundhara 

Raje gave BJP an upper hand in 

these states, there still was an undercurrent 

that helped the party in sweeping the 

polls. This had surprised many pollsters 

and senior leaders. Now, they too admit 

the presence of a wave in favour of Modi. 

Modi’s public meetings were well attended 

in all these states and an analysis 

shows that candidates won by huge margins 

wherever his meetings were held. 

The effect was such that several candidates 

in constituencies falling near the 

places where he addressed the people 

won handsomely. 

In Madhya Pradesh, Ratlam has been 

a good example. The region has tribal 

seats of Jhabua and Alirajpur, which 

traditionally have been Congress strongholds. 

But after public meetings by Modi 

and the Congress vice president Rahul 

Gandhi, the result was that the BJP swept 

all the seats for the first time. 

A senior BJP minister from MP and 

Modi supporter summed it up: “Shivraj’s 

contribution cannot be ignored in BJP’s 

win in MP, but the win turned into a 

landslide only due to Modi. BJP candidates, 

some really weak ones, won from 

constituencies falling in the districts or 

divisions where Narendra Modi’s public 

meetings were organised. Isn’t that a 

Modi wave? ” 

In Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje had 

admitted that the landslide victory for 

BJP in the state was aided by Modi. 

“There was a positive sentiment among 

the voters about Narendra Modi and that 

ensured the victory for BJP candidates 

across the state,” she had stated. 

Even his critics and die-hard fans 

would admit the tenacity of Modi for 

having made his way through the rank 

and file of the saffron outfit with his development 

agenda and image of a strong 

leader. His pitch for the Prime Minister’s 

post has somewhat been bolstered by a 

Gujarat court verdict exonerating him 

from the charges of mass massacre in Gujarat 

during the 2002 riots. 

As BJP gets into the poll mode for 

the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it will have 

to do much better than what it did in the 

November 2013 assembly elections. If it 

has to get any close to even thinking of 

forming a government at the Centre, the 

BJP will have to win comprehensively 

in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, 


MODI QUOTE 

UNQUOTE 

Nation has had enough of Bills, 

it now needs a will to act” 

You have given 60 years to the 

rulers to rule the country, I 

request you to give 60 months 

to this servant. Country today does 

not need rulers but servants” 

I have been a Chief Minister 

and have administrative 

experience, I know the 

difference of having a favourable 

government at the Centre, when 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime 

Minister and a hostile government 

with UPA I and II. I can feel the 

pain of Chief Ministers and would 

like to assure that I will take along 

all towards the development of the 

country” 

TEA BOY CONNECT 

Modi has also not let go of the 

opportunity to rake up his humble 

background and taken a dig at the 

Congress for raking up the ‘tea 

boy’ issue and thereby connecting 

with lakhs of poor and underprivileged 

people in the county. Today, 

the Congress chief is shielding 

her son from directly contesting 

against a tea boy, he said, adding 

that the fear of defeat was keeping 

the mother from pushing her son 

to the forefront. 

Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Goa which are 

its strongholds. Besides, it will have to do 

well in Maharashtra, a state where it is in 

alliance with the Shiv Sena, and in the 

Punjab where it has an alliance with the 

Akali Dal led by Prakash Singh Badal. 

Apart from these states, the BJP will have 

to do well in the two big northern states of 

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that send 80 and 

40 MPs to the Lok Sabha respectively. The 

120 seats from these two states are crucial 

future prospects for the BJP and the National 

Democratic Alliance (NDA). 

Despite his public posturing, Narendra 

Modi knows well that without getting 

a minimum of 200 seats on its own, the 

BJP won’t be in a position to form the 

government at the Centre. Backing, however, 

can come in the form of friends like 

Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP (Telugu 

Desam Party) in Andhra Pradesh and 

some other smaller parties. 

His effectiveness in motivating the 

people across India to vote for the BJP 

is yet to be seen, but one thing is certain 

that he has passed his first test towards 

the goal with flying colours. 

The Modi vision 

If he has to get to the Prime Ministerial 

seat, Narendra Modi would know 

better than all that the BJP will have to do 

much more than what they have done in 

the four big states in the recent assembly 

elections. Besides improving the party 

tally in these states, the BJP will have to 

do exceedingly well in the two crucial 

Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh 

and Bihar. It is with this aim that Modi 

is targeting the two states and theories 

are being floated that Modi might contest 

from a Parliamentary constituency in UP. 

It is precisely keeping this in mind 

that Modi used the platform at the BJP 

national executive meet in Delhi to address 

party workers and leaders and 

turned it into an address to the nation, 

throwing light on a gamut of issues and 

his vision for the development of the 

country. He was apt in saying, “Earlier, 

elections were held to uphold the family, 

under the shadow of the votebank. 

But elections are now being fought on 

the plank of development.” He said the 

country needed good governance and 

delivery. 

To the younger audience, he said, 

“Brothers, can you imagine 65% of our 

population is under 35? India is the youngest 

nation in the world and every youth 

has been given intelligence and skill. Yet, 

the demographic dividend, which could 

have become an asset, is a demographic 

20 

FEBRUARY 2014

disaster. Youth should be taught the 

skills and they will themselves find 

their way.” He advocated the need for 

centres of excellence that would train 

the youth in need-based skills and the 

necessity to have Indian Institutes of 

Technology (IIT) in all the states. 

Speaking on the GDP of the country, 

he said that if it had to be raised, 

our productivity had to be raised. 

Without improving agricultural production 

growth could not be achieved. 

He assured that backward regions of 

the country would get greater attention 

if the BJP was voted to power. 

Bihar, Bengal, eastern UP, Jharkhand, 

Orissa and the North-East would get 

special attention. Regional aspirations 

were not a challenge but an opportunity 

and the states and the Centre could 

work together to take development to 

new heights. He assured to strengthen 

federalism and work together. He suggested 

the idea of the twin-cities by 

which some 100 cities could be developed. 

These cities would be modern 

and self sufficient – a reasonably good 

idea to stop migration from smaller 

towns and villages to metros where 

civic infrastructure was under strain. 

His emphasis on capitalising the 

vast railway network in the country 

by strengthening and improving it for 

economic development also had many 

takers and it made sense. Moreover, 

the idea to create a few universities exclusively 

to cater to the needs of manpower 

for Indian Railways was also 

a good move. Similarly, to improve 

healthcare facility and make it affordable, 

he advocated having AIIMS-like 

institutions in all states of the country. 

Outlining a rainbow model of development, 

he spoke about the constitution 

of a price stabilisation fund to 

keep a check on inflation and to build 

a national agriculture market to help 

the farmers get proper value of their 

yield and prevent exploitation. 

Though, one may not agree in 

totality with the model suggested by 

Modi, the fact remains that he has 

opened his thoughts on the most immediate 

problems afflicting the country 

– whether it is security, unemployment, 

corruption, poor infrastructure 

or inflation. While touching upon 

these issues, he suggested some mechanism 

to address them, but what needs 

to be answered is how many people in 

the country are aware of the vision of 

other contemporary leaders on these 

critical issues. 

RaGa to lead 

the Congress 

Like in the past, the grand old party 

of the nation – the Congress has 

failed to look beyond the Nehru- 

Gandhi dynasty. After the drubbing 

in the assembly elections, the clamour to 

name Rahul Gandhi as the party’s prime 

ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha 

polls has only grown. However, while the 

party leadership backed naming Rahul 

Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate, 

party chief Sonia Gandhi nipped 

any such move in the bud. Much to the 

disappointment of Congress workers, she 

said that he would lead the party campaign 

in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 

The excruciating defeat in the November 

2013 assembly elections has 

forced the Congress to take the veil off 

its ‘heir apparent’ -- Rahul Gandhi and 

make him appear in public more frequently. 

The party has projected him as 

an unassuming, honest leader who wants 

to make a difference and who is at variance 

with several decisions taken by the 

UPA government during its two terms. 

After Prime Minister Manmohan 

Singh’s public statement that he would 

not accept a third-term, Rahul’s elevation 

in the Congress was a foregone conclusion. 

Sensing the mood in the party, Rahul 

too has come out of his shell and is more 

21




actively voicing his concerns on national issues 

and policies. To make an impression 

that he is serious in his fight against corruption 

like in the case of the Lokpal Bill, 

Rahul differed with the views of Congress- 

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Maharashtra 

government that had rejected the 

Aadarsh scam report. However, that his 

party-led government made a symbolic 

gesture and accepted the report only partially 

is another story. So whatever RaGa 

may think, the message that has gone to 

the public is that his party can hardly tackle 

corruption. 

It is too late for Rahul or Sonia Gandhi 

to undo the damage caused by the 10 

years of UPA rule highlighted by some of 

the biggest scams in independent India, 

like the 2G spectrum allocation, Coal 

Sensing the mood in the party, 

Rahul too has come out of his 

shell and is more actively 

voicing his concerns on national 

issues and policies 

mine allocation and the Commonwealth 

Games scam among others. For greater 

part of the decade, the mother-son duo 

hardly spoke on these issues and with rising 

inflation, and fuel and LPG prices, the 

common man has developed a distaste for 

the Congress party that is seen as corrupt 

and inefficient. 

Moreover, till recently, Rahul Gandhi’s 

stoic silence on issues relating to governance 

and policies had left the masses confused. 

If he can take some effective steps, 

given the little time left for the Lok Sabha 

elections, he might only be able to arrest the 

party’s slide at best. Rahul has woken up to 

the situation too late and finds himself in a 

tight spot with AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal toppling 

him and the Congress to emerge as 

the main challenger to Narendra Modi. The 

fact that Rahul’s presence had hardly made 

any difference to the Congress prospects 

in the recent assembly elections makes his 

task all the more daunting. 

His sudden belligerence supported by 

the advertisement blitz launched by the 

Congress party has come a bit too late. 

Only time would tell the exact fate that 

awaits RaGa. 

22 

FEBRUARY 2014

Kejriwal – Aam 

Aadmi to anarchist 

Arvind Kejriwal, wrapped up 

in his traditional muffler 

and wielding a microphone, 

looks like a rebel challenging 

the system and fighting for the rights 

of the common man. In his zeal to be 

on the right side of the ordinary man, 

Kejriwal, who scripted history with a 

stunning performance of the Aam 

Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi assembly 

election in 2013, often forgets 

that he is now the Chief Minister 

of the National Capital. The fighter 

within him always prevails making 

him the first Chief Minister to go on 

a dharna demanding action against 

some Delhi Police officers, bringing 

the capital to a grinding halt for two 

days. So much so, that his dharna 

23



threatened to derail this year’s Republic 

Day celebrations. His backing of his law 

minister Somnath Bharti’s vigilantism and 

utterances and his own speech on R-Day 

focusing on Delhi Police’s functioning and 

the dharna at the Rail Bhawan, besides jibes 

of his trusted aide Kumar Vishwas, have left 

a bad taste in the mouth of his admirers 

across India. 

Through his electoral success in Delhi, 

Kejriwal had taken the national capital and 

the nation by storm and appeared to be 

rewriting rules of the game by addressing 

the concerns of the aam aadmi (common 

man). His zeal to rid the capital off VIP culture, 

and his unilateral focus on clean politics 

and corruption-free governance had 

endeared him to the masses across India 

– urban or rural, irrespective of caste, creed 

or religion. As he called it a new struggle for 

independence, the youth connected with 

him for the change. 

After winning the vote of confidence 

in Delhi Assembly and taking crucial 

decisions regarding water and electricity 

tariff, the AAP started making the right 

noises. Its support across India swelled 

up – from Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune 

to Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chennai and 

Trivandrum – giving a clear wakeup call 

for conventional political parties to change 

the way they functioned. Delhi’s message 


to the politicians was very clear, “If you 

don’t change, people will change you.” 

Top honchos like Adarsh Shastri, 

grandson of former Prime Minister Lal 

Babahur Shastri, left his lucrative job with 

Apple Inc to join AAP. Meera Sanyal, India 

head of the Royal Bank of Scotland, V Balakrishnan 

of Infosys and Capt G R Gopinath, 

who gave India low fare air flights, too 

joined AAP. With such a large number of 

prominent people with a clean record, from 

social sector, corporate world and bureaucracy 

joining AAP in the hope of making a 

difference in politics, the going was billed to 

be tough for the two major political outfits 

AAP was being seen as the only 

party that was in a position to 

stop the Modi juggernaut. That 

was until the first fortnight of the 

AAP government in Delhi. Within a 

month’s time, internal squabbles, 

revolt and overzealous ministers had 

ensured that they had little to show 

on governance 

– the Congress and the BJP. The ascent of 

AAP had even eclipsed brand Modi on the 

social media for a while. 

AAP was being seen as the only party 

that was in a position to stop the Modi juggernaut. 

That was until the first fortnight 

of the AAP government in Delhi. Within 

a month’s time, internal squabbles, revolt 

and overzealous ministers had ensured 

that they had little to show on governance. 

People began to think that AAP had been 

thriving only on rhetoric. 

It will be a sad day for the Indian 

democracy when AAP and Arvind Kejriwal 

lose the plot to the egos and overzealousness 

of some of his men. For the 

common man across India, the ascent 

of AAP was the beginning of the muchneeded 

change in Indian polity – something 

that the educated youth, middle 

class and the lower middle-class always 

dreamt about but had never been able 

to achieve. Instead of getting worked 

up and red-flagging everything right or 

wrong, it would be desirous of Kejriwal 

to muzzle the fighter within him and 

work towards making Delhi a model 

state. Even if he achieves a little bit of 

that, it will be his greatest contribution 

to the country and support and votes 

will follow. Then, he will not have to play 

the votebank politics. 

24 

FEBRUARY 2014

» AIMING HIGH: Narendra Modi, 

the BJP mascot 

» AGENT OF CHANGE: Arvind 

Kejriwal, out to rid corruption 

» GREAT EXPECTATION: Rahul 

Gandhi, Congress’ sole solution 

NARENDRA MODI 

STRENGTHS 

» Good administrator and a master 

strategist 

» Good orator and communicator 

» Market-friendly and has good 

rapport with the corporate world 

» Has a lot to showcase about his 

development agenda 

WEAKNESS 

» Carrying the burden of 2002 

Gujarat riots 

» Being seen as arrogant and an 

autocrat 

» Not acceptable to all regional parties 

» Pan India appeal untested, 

especially in southern and northeastern 

states 

ARVIND KEJRIWAL 

STRENGTHS 

» Carries no burden from the past, 

started with a clean slate 

» Ability to connect with the common 

man, leader of the common man 

unlike traditional politicians 

» Not a polarising figure 

» Ability to experiment and yet 

come up with unpredictable 

solutions 

WEAKNESS 

» Vision/stand about national/ 

international issues unknown 

» Untested 

» Stubborn and not flexible 

» Carries the weight of expectations 

of majority of Indians 

RAHUL GANDHI 

STRENGTHS 

» Young and determined 

» Political lineage 

WEAKNESS 

» Poor orator and bad communicator 

» No administrative experience 

» Hardly anything to showcase 

» Carrying the burden of UPA’s bad 

governance 

» Untested 

25




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Bharat Nirman: 

A Theatrical Drama 

» MEENAKSHI LEKHI 

A 

MY 

OPINION 

happy and prosperous New Year 

to one and all. After being subjects 

of such an oppressive regime 

as the UPA for the last 10 years, 

finally the time has come to uproot and 

cleanse this great nation of Congress tyranny. 

The year 2014 will witness history, 

when after a gap of over 30 years India will 

see government with a handsome majority 

in the general elections. Indian voters 

have decided the BJP way. Congress dummies 

like the SP, BSP, JDU, DMK and AAP, 

who constitute a coalition of misfits and 

oppressive governance will be exposed and 

decimated for good. 

If we look at the eagerness with which 

the Congress party and its dummies including 

the Owaisi brigade work for the 

communal violence bill, then it is clear that 

India’s majority community is under severe 

attack. They will be subject to persecution as 

worse as during the times of Aurangzeb and 

Tughlaq. The BJP’s majestic isolation will 

therefore become the cornerstone of India’s 

unity in its diversities where all communities 

can prosper peacefully. The BJP-ruled states 

are a testimony to such a phenomenon. Be it 

sections of the media, academics, state machinery 

or the constitutional institutions, the 

Congress party has ruthlessly abused every 

available avenue in its command to intimidate 

its political opponents. 

The ‘Bharat Nirman campaign’ is a Congress 

party propaganda being undertaken 

by the government of India to mislead the 

people of this country. It is a piece of fiction 

which is imaginary and erroneous. 

Funds for public service information are 

wrongly used in commercial advertising. 

Every claim made by the Congress party in 

Calendar played important role: Tewari 

Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Manish Tewari said calendar as a tool 

of communication played an important role in disseminating information regarding 

the policies of the government. The government of India’s wall calendar for 2014 

was released and theme of calendar is based on “Bharat Nirman and other flagship 

schemes of the Government”. 

This was despite the fact that media platforms were enhancing their reach 

through digital means of communication. Calendars have a special place in the 

Indian context. The calendar ensured that the awareness of the flagship schemes 

reached the doorstep of the every citizen especially as the objective was to 

showcase images of rights, “ Haq for the common man”. 

This initiative of the Government was a step to make the people aware of policies 

that aimed to achieve inclusive growth in the governance process. The people 

residing in rural areas always have the passion for wall calendars. The calendar 

brought out by the Government could serve as an important source of information 

for them. As a publication, it integrated information on key Flagship Schemes of 

the Government. It was published to cater to not just the corridors of Delhi, but 

also cater to the information needs of every Panchayat in the country. 

28 

FEBRUARY 2014

this propaganda is too good to be true. The that forced the Congress party to legislate to fair investigation, the better it will be. De- 

MNREGA, NRHM, rural electrification, 

loans to vote banks and many such fraudulent 

schemes add up to over Rs 8.2 lakh 

crore taken from the middle class tax payers 

in the last nine years. Their own leader, 

late Rajiv Gandhi had admitted 25 years 

ago that 85% of all money is pilfered before 

it reaches the beneficiary. Now it can 

be imagined how much loot the Congress 

party and its allies caused to India in the 

last nine years, let alone in 45 years prior to 

that. It is the responsibility of media not to 

succumb to financial intimidation by supporting 

the Bharat Nirman campaign. 

As part of the crores of public money 

being spent for the Bharat Nirman campaign, 

the Congress party has come up 

it, the latter is now claiming its ownership. 

The Metro Rail project was one of NDA’s 

achievements when Atal Bihari Vajpayee 

had inaugurated its construction on October 

1, 1998, but the Congress party shamelessly 

claims undue credit for it. The people 

of India aren’t naïve to understand such a 

brazen attitude and arrogance seen in the 

falsehood called ‘Bharat Nirman’. 

The theme of the 2014 Bharat Nirman 

wall calender is: ‘Bharat Nirman - Sabka 

Hit, Sabka Haq’, which actually sounds more 

like ‘Congress ka hit, mera haq’. It looks like 

a failed attempt to sweep many of Congress 

party’s scams and loot under the carpet. The 

sooner they admit and subject themselves 

spite people’s verdict in the recent elections, 

the Congress is still living in a denial mode. 

This pre-election multi-media ad blitz 

and the print media tamasha to showcase 

its "achievements" of the past nine years 

in government is as much a drama as the 

UPA itself. What happened to the great 

promise of Manmohan Singh, that his 

government will control price rise in 100 

days of his government formation? The 

reality of a worst inflationary economy 

stares at India after nearly 3,000 days of 

Congress governance. No power, no jobs, 

no security, no honest governance and 

no accountability and nothing inspiring 

enough to write home about. The policies 

and schemes advertised in this Bharat Nirman 

campaign are but instruments of loot 

with a 2014 wall calendar of lies and 

complete falsehood. Every month of 2014 The theme of the 2014 Bharat 

and plunder of tax-payers’ money by the 

on this calendar will signify one big lie. Nirman wall calender is: ‘Bharat Congress party and its friends. 

If MNREGA is riddled with corruption 

and Aadhar is the plan to legalize Bangladeshi 

Nirman - Sabka Hit, Sabka Haq’, 

migrants, the Right To Education 

which actually sounds more like 

(The author has been a socio-political 

has proved a big disaster. When credit for 

activist for over 20 years. She is a practicing 

lawyer and national spokesperson 

Right To Information should be given to ‘Congress ka hit, mera haq’ 

the BJP, Anna Hazare and many NGOs 

of the Bharatiya Janata Party.) 

29



Will India get its first Prime 

Minister from Tamil Nadu? 

The AIADMK has made it clear that Amma is no longer 

interested in being just a kingmaker, but a king 

» VIJAY GROVER 

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and 

chief of the All India Anna Dravida 

Munnetra Kazhagam (AIAD- 

MK) J Jayalalithaa has also thrown 

her hat in the ring by projecting herself 

as the prime ministerial candidate for the 

2014 Lok Sabha elections. Jayalalithaa has 

joined hands with the Left parties in a bid 

to rake up a third front. 

Prakash Karat of Communist Party of 

India (M) has said that the other regional 

parties will join them to form a non-Congress 

BJP alternative as Lok Sabha elections 

approach. 

Jaya was always ambitious, rather too 

ambitious as political observers would 

say, but the timing of her announcement 

to take pot shot at the top post has rattled 

the BJP and its PM nominee Narendra 

Modi. The BJP was and still is banking on 

Jaya’s support to make his dream come 

true. 

The 39 Lok Sabha seats of Tamil Nadu 

and the single Pondicherry seat have traditionally 

played a crucial role in the government 

formation at the Centre for several 

decades now, ever since the Congress 

fortunes waned with the rise of regional 

parties. Since 1970s, Tamil Nadu has 

been a non-Congress-ruled state and the 

ruling party in the state has managed to 

play, or rather dictate terms, to the Centre. 

That has been the case from the time 

of MGR when he forced former prime 

minister late Rajiv Gandhi to accept conditional 

support to LTTE for keeping the 

Tamil political sentiments on his side, to 

the present political crisis in Tamil Nadu 

over injustice to the Sri Lankan Tamils in 

the island nation. 

The competitive efforts of the Dravidian 

parties in Tamil Nadu to champion 

the Sri Lankan Tamils’ miseries and forcing 

the Centre to abandon its ties with 

the Sri Lanka government clearly reflect 

Jaya was always ambitious, rather 

too ambitious as political observers 

would say, but the timing of her 

announcement to take pot shot at 

the top post has rattled the BJP and 

its PM nominee Narendra Modi 

the mood and highlight the issue that will 

decide the winner for the parliamentary 

seats in the state. 

For over a year, the aggressive stance 

of the present government led by Jayalalithaa 

managed to drive a wedge between 

the DMK and the Congress, forcing 

the DMK to desert the UPA ship for 

two crucial reasons – the singling out of 

A Raja on the 2G spectrum scam and the 

ambivalent stance of the UPA on Sri Lankan 

affairs. 

The DMK - Congress split has not 

come as music to the BJP ears but increased 

its worries. The BJP leaders, who 

on every visit to Chennai used to make 

the customary visit to Poes Garden residence 

of Puratchi Talaivi Jayalalithaa, 

have skipped the stop. The BJP, in a 

stronger Jayalalithaa, has been quick to 

calculate not just her rise as another 

prime ministerial candidate but also one 

who could question its PM aspirant Narendra 

Modi. 

Sensing an opportunity to play a 

crucial role in the government formation 

in 2014 where many regional parties 

harbour the ambition to take on the role 

of kingmakers could be decisive. The AI- 

ADMK sees Amma (Jayalalithaa) as the 

king and not just kingmaker, especially 

if the BJP does not breach the 150-seat 

mark. Sources in the AIADMK indicate 

that given the present situation in Tamil 

Nadu, Jaya could romp home with at least 

30 of the 39 seats in the polls. An alliance 

with the BJP may not give her any added 

strength, but could on the contrary prove 

futile. The 2004 experiment of an alliance 

with the BJP saw a large section of the minority 

dumping her, forcing both the BJP 

and the AIADMK to snap ties just after 

the poll debacle. 

This time around, Jayalalithaa has 

been very clear and ruled out any possible 

truck with the BJP which has been 

a very small player in the state. An alliance 

with the BJP and projecting Modi 

for the PM plank may force her to share 

credit with Modi, which she wants to 

avoid. Her strategy is to keep the minority 

Christian and Muslim voters 

happy. 

Interestingly, her fans and supporters 

address her as ‘Varangaala Pradhamar’ 

which translated into English 

means ‘future prime minister’. The AI- 

ADMK has been projecting her as the 

next Prime Minister of the country at 

every public/ party meeting which Jaya 

has addressed. The question remains 

whether a collective Tamil sentiment 

will dominate the voting patterns and 

vote to get a first Prime Minister from 

Tamil Nadu for the country over a 

Gujarati Modi. 

30 

FEBRUARY 2014

The Y- Factor of Karnataka 

Will the return of 

BS Yeddyurappa 

into the BJP fold 

be the game changer 

in the state? 


Exactly 14 months after he left the 

BJP, B S Yeddyurappa was back in 

the party on January 2, signaling the 

end of his “14-month Vanvaas”. A 

delegation led by arch-foe and senior leader 

Ananth Kumar and Eshwarappa called 

upon him and requested the Karnataka Janata 

Paksha (KJP) president BSY to merge 

his fledgling unit with the BJP. 

The bonhomie was visible as Yeddy’s 

aides and BJP leaders were more than 

happy at the development at a five-star 

hotel in Bangalore. For months, Yeddyurappa 

had been eager to get back in 

to the BJP fold but strong opposition by 

the party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani 

had delayed the re-entry. Pressures from 

within the BJP state unit found an ear 

with the PM aspirant Narendra Modi, 

making backdoor intervention that 

paved the way for BSY’s return to the 

party. The brave public posturing by Yeddyurappa, 

of not merging his party with 

the BJP may only have been a bargaining 

tool for the Lingayat leader. 

Still, the battle of wits was clearly won 

by Yeddyurappa on the strength of his 

ability to keep his vote bank intact in the 

last assembly elections. And the public 

statements of supporting “Modi for PM” 

finally paved the way for his re-entry. “I 

have joined without any preconditions 

and it is my dream to see Modi as the 

Prime Minister, and that is the reason 

why I have joined the BJP,” said Yeddyurappa, 

while talking to Point Out. 

But, the truth is that several rounds of 

negotiations and backdoor talks between 

Yeddyurappa and many of his ex-BJP colleagues 

finally brought about the truce. 

The first one being that the post of the 

leader of opposition in the state assembly 

would be offered to Yeddyurappa as 

with him and his four MLAs’ re-entry, 

the BJP will now emerge as the principal 

opposition party, upstaging the Janata 

Dal (Secular), whose leader H D Kumaraswamy, 

will now have to make way for 

Yeddyurappa. 

The question, however, on top of 

every mind is whether the re-entry of 

Yeddyurappa will be the game changer 

for BJP in Karnataka? “No, I do not think 

that the Yeddyurappa factor will work for 

the BJP. The same man who was shown 

the door by the party is now being given 

a red-carpet welcome. What will the 

BJP tell the voters about its fight against 

corruption?” asks Danish Ali, national 

general secretary, Janata Dal (Secular). A 

sentiment that the Congress too echoes 

in Karnataka. 

“The BJP got 20% votes, it thinks 

that Yeddyurappa’s 10% vote share will 

The question, however, on top of 

every mind is whether the re-entry 

of Yeddyurappa will be the game 

changer for BJP in Karnataka? 

COURTESY: KJPKARNATAKA.ORG 

» In November 2012, Yeddyurappa resigned from Karnataka Assembly. He wade 

through his supporters to submit his resignation to Speaker (File photo) 

add to it and give it more than 30% votes 

and some seats in the state. But the BJP 

should remember that polls are not just 

always an arithmetic of the vote share. 

The chemistry between the BJP and Yeddyurappa 

is no more the same as before 

and he may not be accepted as their leader 

by several BJP leaders and workers,” 

says R Roshan Baig, Information Minister 

in the Siddharamaiah government. 

Even Yeddyurappa knows and understands 

well that he has to prove himself 

once again to the people of the state and 

also to the very party that he brought to 

power in 2009 in the state. “I will tour 

the state the next three months and will 

try and win 20 out of 28 seats in the Lok 

Sabha,” says Yeddyurappa. But he himself 

realizes that the task is herculean and that 

he will need to do the same for safeguarding 

his own future and also of his loyalists 

who have stood by him through the 

turbulent times. 

Will the Modi magic save Yeddyurappa 

in 2014 general elections or will 

Yeddyurappa have to weave it on his own 

to fulfill the dream which forced him to 

return to BJP? 

31




DECCAN 


Tamil Nadu 

Stalin want 

charge of DMK 

Karnataka 

Fitness of rail coaches 

E 

very vehicle be it bus / auto / car or truck which is run commercially, has to 

get a fitness certificate every year,. But what about a railway bogie? Have you 

ever thought about it. A lawyer with Karnataka high court is asking specifically 

the same question in an RTI application that he has filed on January 20, 2014 

following a spate of train accidents involving the air-conditioned bogies catching 

fire. Disturbed by the tragedies, advocate A Umesh has sought answer from Railway 

Board as why no fitness certificates are mandated for railway coaches like for 

commercial road vehicles. Well by the time Umesh Kumar gets his reply, there 

may be another minister at helm of the ministry, but an answer which every rail 

passenger will await eagerly. 

P 

ower struggle in the Karunanidhi 

family once again threatens to 

come to the fore. With Lok Sabha 

general elections round the cornor, M K 

Stalin, heir apparent to Dravida Munnetra 

Kazhagam (DMK) patriarch M 

Karunanidhi is trying to take charge. 

With an eye-northward on Delhi hoping 

to emerge a major bargainer with 

12-15 MPs in a hung Parliament, Stalin 

wants to position himself as the kingmaker. 

In the tussle he has trampled 

his elder brother M Alagiri, who has 

been suspended from the party for indiscipline 

and the party’s face in Delhi 

M Kanimozhi, in the dock over her involvement 

in 2G spectrum allocation 

scam. 

Stalin wants the nonagenarian 

leader to name him in charge and is 

planning to make frequent trips to New 

Delhi to tap the third front leaders. Like 

most of his supporters in the party, Stalin 

too feel Alagiri and Kanimozhi are 

liabilities to the DMK. The way things 

are shaping up in Tamil Nadu politics 

it will not be a surprise if Stalin starts 

frequenting Delhi from February mid. 

Kerala 

Smart Drinking 

Application 

T 

his app is in Malayalam. So “non- 

Malayalees, please don't install.” is 

a statutory warning on this new 

android mobile app called “Kuppi” 

which means bottle in Malyalam. The 

designers of the app probably are catering 

to the Malyalees in Kerala, who 

consume the highest amount of liquor 

per capita with 8 litres per year. The app 

helps the person know the price of foreign 

liquors in Kerala State Beverages 

Corporation outlets (BEVCO). 

An interesting feature of the app 

‘What u get?“. In this option, the user 

enters the available money in hand and 

makes his choice. By pressing the ‘Get 

List’, the app shows the choice of liquors 

which can be bought using the money 

user currently has. Kuppi also shows 

the number of “Dry Days” in the state. 

A user can search for the nearest Beverages 

Corporation outlets by choosing 

the Beverages outlet menu. The designers 

clarify “we created this app only for 

fun and we do not promote drinking”. 

Well maybe this is what is called Smart 

Drinking. 

Andhra Pradesh 

Hyderabad, 

most googled 

T 

he Telangana agitation and the 

proposal of the Centre to bifurcate 

the state into two has made 

Hyderabad , one of the most googled 

words on the google tool bar as 

per the Google Zeitgeist 2013 report. 

Google Zeitgeist is a google report for 

most popular online searches . The city 

raced past Mumbai and Delhi in the 

last quarter of 2013 when the interest 

in the news from the city peaked as the 

bifurcation of the state into Telangana 

and Seemandhara was seen not just in 

India but overseas as well. 

32 

FEBRUARY 2014



Manmohan 

Singh’s 

Confession 

“I do not believe that 

I have been a weak 

Prime Minister. That 

is for historians to 

judge. The BJP and 

its associates may say 

whatever they like. 

But if by “strong 

Prime Minister”, 

you mean that you 

preside over a mass 

massacre of innocent 

citizens on the streets 

of Ahmedabad, that 

is the measure of 

strength, I do not 

believe that sort of 

strength this country 

needs, least of all, in 

its Prime Minister.” 

34 

FEBRUARY 2014

» POLITICAL BUREAU 

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, 

in his last address to the press 

before passing over the baton to a 

new incumbent, spoke on a range 

of issues and his governance during the 

last ten years. The move by Dr Singh was 

ostensibly aimed to publicly announce his 

unwillingness to accept a third-term and 

to pitch for Congress vice-president Rahul 

Gandhi’s projection as party’s prime 

ministerial candidate. Dr Singh’s address, 

coming after the drubbing the Congress 

party received in the November assembly 

elections and presiding over a series of alleged 

scams, was hardly convincing and 

appeared more like a confession. 

His statements: “I have full confidence 

that the next Prime Minister will be from 

the UPA coalition,” and that, “It will be disastrous 

for the country to have Narendra 

Modi as the Prime Minister,” has put the 

spotlight back on the BJP’s prime ministerial 

candidate Narendra Modi. 

The masses, professionals and the 

corporate world expected much more 

from their economist Prime Minister, but 

he appears to have failed mostly on this 

count. With a sliding growth rate, slump 

in manufacturing sector, decline in exports 

and depreciation in Rupee against 

the US dollar besides high inflation and 

spiraling food and fuel prices, the common 

man is feeling the pinch and blames 

Dr Singh’s government for the mess, even 

though some of the issues may well have 

been beyond his control. 

The biggest problem appears to be 

impression among the people about UPA 

heading a corrupt bunch and involved 

in corruption throughout. Some of the 

scams the magnitude of which no one 

ever imagined took place under the UPA 

government strengthening the public belief; 

the Prime Minister and the Congress 

party chief failed to address the same in 

time. 

On corruption 

Referring to the charges of corruption 

against his government, he said, “Most 

of these charges relate to the period of 

UPA-1. Coal block allocation as well as 

2G spectrum allocation were in the era of 

the UPA-1. We went to the electorate on 

the basis of our performance in that period, 

and the people of India gave us the 

mandate to govern for another five years. 

So, whether these issues which have been 

raised from time-to-time by the media, 

sometimes by the CAG, sometimes by 

court, one must never forget that they 

belong to a period which was not the period 

of UPA-2, but the period relating to 

the previous five years, and the people of 

India entrusted us with new responsibilities. 

So, the people of India do not seem 

to have paid heed to all these charges of 

corruption which are levied against me 

or my party.” 

“I feel somewhat sad, because I was 

the one who insisted that spectrum allocation 

should be transparent, it should be 

fair, it should be equitable. I was the one 

who insisted that coal blocks should be 

allocated on the basis of auctions. These 

facts are forgotten. The Opposition has 

a vested interest. Sometimes the media 

play into their hands as well, and therefore, 

I have every reason to believe, that 

when history is written of this period, we 

will come out unscathed. This is not to 

say that there was no irregularity. There 

were irregularities. But the dimensions 

The Opposition has a vested 

interest. Sometimes the media 

play into their hands as well, and 

therefore, I have every reason to 

believe, that when history is written 

of this period, we will come out 

unscathed. This is not to say that 

there was no irregularity 

of the problems have been overstated by 

the media, by the CAG sometimes, and 

by other entities.” 

On price rise 

“What is going to happen in the 

months to come, I would not like to speculate 

– certainly not in this forum. But I 

will be honest enough to say that, it could 

be that price rise was a factor in the people’s 

turning against the Congress party. 

And I have explained that the reasons 

why price rise took place are reasons beyond 

our control, because international 

commodity prices are rising, because international 

energy prices are rising. These 

were the factors which made it difficult 

for us to control prices as effectively as we 

could have done. But having said that, I 

would also like to say that we have taken 

enough measures to protect the weaker 

sections of our economy and our society 

against rising prices. The Public Distribution 

System has been stabilized. Prices of 

public distribution food grains have not 

been increased since 2003. What is more, 

through instrumentalities like the MN- 

REGA, we have ensured that the rural 

wages earned by the agricultural labourers, 

are indexed at the rate of inflation 

– they provide a certain measure of protection 

to these segments of our society. 

These factors should not be lost sight of.” 

On AAPs ascent 

Corruption is an issue and certainly 

the AAP has been able to make a success 

of its concern for the eradication of corruption. 

Whether it will succeed or not, 

“I think that only time will tell. I have a 

feeling that dealing with corruption is not 

an easy process. Even though there may 

be opportunities as well as challenges, we 

must collectively grapple with the task 

of dealing with corruption. This is not a 

matter which only one party can accomplish. 

Various political parties have to 

work together to deal with this monster.” 

On Indo- Pak relations 

“I have tried to improve relations 

with all our neighbours to the best of 

my ability. At one time, it appeared that 

an important breakthrough was in sight. 

Events in Pakistan, for example, the fact 

that General Musharraf had to make way 

for a different setup, I think that led to 

the process not moving further. But I still 

believe that good relations between India 

and Pakistan are very essential for this 

sub-continent to realise its full development 

potential, to get rid of poverty, ignorance 

and disease, which has been the 

inevitable lot of millions and millions of 

people in this sub-continent of ours. 

I would very much like to go to Pakistan. 

I was born in a village which is now 

part of west Punjab. But as Prime Minister 

of the country, I should visit Pakistan 

if conditions are appropriate to achieve 

solid results. I have thought of it many 

times, but ultimately I felt that circumstances 

were not appropriate for my visit. 

I still have not given up hope of going to 

Pakistan before I complete my tenure as 

Prime Minister.” 

Report card 

“It is for you to judge. As far as I am 

concerned, I feel I have done reasonably 

well. The growth process that we sustained 

in the last ten years despite the 

global financial crisis , despite the Eurozone 

crisis, and considering also what is 

happening in other emerging countries 

like Brazil, like South Africa, like Indonesia, 

I don’t think ours is a story which 

can be described as non-successful or 

eventful.” 

35



GALLERY 

GALLA 

GALLERY 

GAL 

GALLE 

1 

A Festival Of 

Democracy 

» Different moods of election campaign 

1: Indira Gandhi wearing a traditional Maratha 

nose ring during an election campaign. 

2: Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao during 1983 

election campaign.3: Mamata Banerjee during 

election campaign at Bhabanipur. 4: Election 

campaign towards 8th Left Front government. 

5: Narendra Modi at Lal Bahadur Stadium, 

Hyderabad. 6: Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri 

with party leaders - June 1964 New Delhi. 

36 

FEBRUARY 2014

RY 

GALLA 

GALLERY 

GAL 

GALLERY 

GALLA 

ALLERY 

2 3 

4 

6 

5 

37



Coal Scam: CBI to 

quiz Parakh, Birla 

IN FOCUS PSUs 

» POINT OUT BUREAU 

Noted businessman Kumar Mangalam 

Birla and former coal secretary 

P C Parakh are likely to be 

questioned by the Central Bureau 

of Investigation (CBI) in connection with 

irregularities in allocation of coal blocks 

without proper bidding. Coal scam, as 

it is known, came to forefront after the 

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) 

of India report last year objected to allocation 

of coal blocks to individuals and 

others without competitive biddings and 

estimated that the process had led to losses 

to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh crore. 

In its FIR on allocation of Talabira 

II and III coal blocks in Odisha during 

2005, CBI has named Parakh, Birla and 

Hindalco for criminal conspiracy and 

criminal misconduct on part of government 

officials. The FIR states that the 

25th screening committee meeting of 

coal ministry headed by Parakh had rejected 

applications of Hindalco and Indal 

Industries for mining in Talabira II and 

III “citing valid reasons”. 

Under pressure from the Supreme 

Court, monitoring probe in the 

case, CBI wants to wind up 

investigations soon 

It adds, “ The coal blocks were allocated 

to Mahanadi Coalfields and 

Neyveli Lignite Corporation, both 

PSUs, on the recommendations of the 

committee and letters of allocation 

were issued to the PSUs on June 16 and 

July 15, 2005. Within days, a meeting 

took place between Parakh and Birla 

in which the industrialist requested for 

the allocation of Talabira II coal block,” 

the FIR said. The said coal blocks were 

» Kumar Mangalam Birla (top) and P 

C Parakh (above) 

thereafter allotted to Hindalco Industries, 

the FIR adds. 

Under pressure from the Supreme 

Court, monitoring probe in the case, CBI 

wants to wind up investigations soon. 

Meanwhile, stung with criticism, 

Union government last month said it 

will cancel coal block allocations made 

without bidding to private and other parties. 

Stating this before Supreme Court, 

Government of India said 41 coal block 

allocations made between 1993 and 2009 

will be cancelled. 

Besides, UPA government said that 

in case of 61 allocations, private companies 

have been asked to clear deficiencies 

within 4-6 weeks. Meanwhile the 

The CBI is investigating 195 coal 

block allocations between 1993 and 2009 

The agency has alleged that for several 

years, the government gave away mining 

licences arbitrarily, without a transparent 

bidding process, at the cost of thousands 

of crore to the country. 

Recruitment Scam at 

Bokaro Steel Plant 

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) 

has registered two cases against certain 

officials of Bokaro Steel Plant, Bokaro 

including then Managing Director, then 

Executive Director and others on the allegations 

of fraudulent recruitment at 

Bokaro Steel Plant, Bokaro. 

It has been alleged that around 13 candidates 

were favoured and got selected for 

the posts of middle management/junior 

management level at Bokaro Steel Plant by 

adopting fraudulent recruitment & selection 

process. In this connection CBI sleuths 

carried out searches at the office and residential 

premises of the accused persons at 

around 36 places, situated at 10 cities i.e. 

Bokaro, Ranchi, Patna, Arrah (Bihar), Ghaziabad, 

New Delhi, Bhilai, Bhopal, Mumbai 

and Bhubaneshwar on January 28. 

Among those searched include senior 

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and 

former Union Minister Satyanarayan 

Jatiya. Searches at Jatiya’s residence in 

Bhopal came just a day after he filed his 

nomination for the Rajya Sabha from 

Madhya Pradesh. It is learnt Jatiya’s son 

Rajkumar is also named as a suspect who 

benefitted from the recruitment scam 

at Bokaro Steel Plant during 2008. He is 

presently posted at SAIL Bhopal’s customer 

contact division as junior manager. 

The case has been registered U/s 

120-B IPC r/w 420, 468 & 471 IPC & Section 

13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of P.C. Act, 1988 

against the then Executive Director & 

seven other officials (working/retired) of 

Bokaro Steel Plant/SAIL and second case, 

U/s 120-B IPC r/w 420, 468 & 471 IPC 

& Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of P.C. Act, 

38 

FEBRUARY 2014

1988, against then Managing Director 

& fourteen (working/retired) officials of 

Bokaro Steel Plant, Bokaro. 

NSPCL officials, private company 

in dock 

CBI carried out searches at office and 

residential premises of officials of National 

Thermal Power Corporation 

Limited (NTPC), NTPC-SAIL Power 

Corporation Ltd (NSPCL), Bhilai and 

office locations of M/s Bhatia International 

Limited at Indore and other parts 

of the country in connection with supply 

of low quality imported Indonesian 

coal. The search operations carried out 

in January were held at additional general 

manager and deputy manager of 

NTPC Unchahar district, Raibareily, 

senior manager and chemist, both of 

NTPC-SAIL Power Corporation Ltd 

(NSPCL), Bhilai apart from various 

premises M/s Bhatia International Limited 

at Indore and private laboratories 

based at Mumbai, Kolkata, Gandhidham 

and Jamnagar. 

Regarding alleged supply of low 

quality imported Indonesian coal by 

a private company to different power 

plants of National Thermal Power 

Corporation(NTPC) and NTPC-SAIL 

Power Corporation Ltd.(NSPCL) respectively 

in conspiracy with certain officials 

of the concerned power plants, CBI has 

registered two FIRs. The first case has 

been registered U/s 120-B r/w 420 of IPC 

and Sec 13(2) r/w 13(1) (d) of PC Act 

1988 against Additional General Manager, 

head of NTPC Power Plant Lab, Unchahar; 

Dy. Manager, NTPC Power plant 

Lab, Unchahar ; Indore-based private 

company ; Singapore based company; Jakarta 

Timur, (Indonesia) based company; 

Kolkata based private company ; Chemist 

of Kolkata based private company and 

Unknown others. 

CBI sources said it is alleged that the 

accused persons during the period 2011- 

13 entered into criminal conspiracy with 

an intention to cheat NTPC. In pursuance 

of the said criminal conspiracy, inferior 

quality non-cooking coal of Indonesian 

origin, shown to be of good quality on 

papers, was purchased from Indonesia by 

Singapore based company, overseas supplier 

and sister concern of Indore based 

group of companies. Thereafter, the said 

inferior quality coal was brought to India 

in different vessels, vide different Bill of 

Entries, having gross calorific value, far 

less than technical specifications of the 

CBI sources said it is alleged 

that the accused persons during 

the period 2011-13 entered into 

criminal conspiracy with an 

intention to cheat NTPC 

agreement and thus liable to be rejected, 

and was supplied to NTPC power plant 

at Unchahar, which has resulted in a 

wrongful loss of Rs. 23,16,38,574/- approximately. 

Second case has been registered U/s 

120-B r/w 420 of IPC and Sec 13(2) r/w 

13(1) (d) of PC Act 1988 against Sr. Manager, 

Head of NSPCL Power Plant Lab, 

Bhilai; a Chemist, NSPCL Power Plant 

Lab, Bhilai ; Indore based private company 

; Singapore based company ; Mumbai 

based private Laboratories ; Branch Head 

& other Asst. Manager (Marketing) both 

of Mumbai based private Laboratories 

and Unknown others. 

It is alleged that the accused persons 

during the period 2011-13 entered into 

criminal conspiracy with an intention 

to cheat NSPCL, Bhilai Power Plant. In 

pursuance of the said criminal conspiracy, 

inferior quality non-cooking coal of 

Indonesian origin , shown to be of good 

quality on papers, was purchased from 

Indonesia by Singapore based company, 

overseas supplier and sister concern 

of Indore based group of companies. 

Thereafter the said inferior quality coal 

was brought to India in different vessels 

, vide different Bill of Entries , having 

gross calorific value, far less than technical 

specifications of the agreement 

and thus liable to be rejected, and was 

supplied to NSPCL, Bhilai Power Plant, 

which has resulted in a wrongful loss of 

Rs 92,91,55,588/- approximately. 

39



GOVT WATCH MOVERS & SHAKERS 

• Rajagopal appointed MD, 

NAFED 

The Appointments Committee of the 

Cabinet has approved the appointment 

of R Rajagopal to the post of Managing 

Director, National Agricultural 

Cooperative Marketing Federation of 

lndia Ltd. (NAFED) (JS level), under 

the Department of Agriculture 8 Cooperation. 

Rajagopal is a 1984 batch 

IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre. His 

appointment is for five years. 

• D Ravi appointed JS, 

Commerce 

Dammu Ravi, an Indian 

Foreign Service 

officer of 1989 batch 

has been appointed 

as Joint Secretary 

in the department 

of Commerce for a 

period of three years. 

• Deo appointed CVO, RITES 

Appointments Committee of the 

Cabinet has approved the proposal 

of appointment of Prabhat Ranjan 

Deo, IPS (HY:86) as Chief Vigilance 

Officer in the Rail lndia Technical 

Economic Services (RITES), 

Gurgaon. He will be placed in the 

pay scale of Joint Secretary to the 

Government of lndia. 

• Ram Singh is Director, 

Textiles Ministry 

Ram Singh, IPS 

(PB:1994), who was 

recommended for 

central deputation 

by the Ministry of 

Home Affairs, has 

been selected 

for appointment as Director in the 

Ministry of Textiles, Delhi under the 

Central Staffing Scheme for a period 

of five years from the date of his taking 

charge of the post. 

• Barnwal, 3 others promoted 

as PS in MP 

Ashok Kumar Barnwal has been 

among the four IAS officers of 1991 

batch of MP cadre who has been promoted 

as Principal Secretary. He has 

been appointed as Principal Secretary, 

Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer 

Protection. Others promoted include 

Manu Shrivastava promoted as Principal 

Secretary grade on the upgraded 

post of MD, Madhya Pradesh Power 

Management Company Limited, 

Jabalpur, Vishwa Mohan Upadhyaya 

OSD-cum-Commissioner, OBC 

Welfare and S K Mishra, who has been 

appointed as Principal Secretary, PHE 

and PS to CM with additional charge of 

MD, MP Water Corporation Limited. 

• Sanjog Kapoor appointed First 

Secretary, Tokyo 

Sanjog Kapoor, an officer of Indian 

Revenue Service officer of Income 

Tax department has been appointed 

as First Secretary, ITOU, Embassy of 

India at Tokyo, Japan. 

• Srinivasan is Member 

(Finance), Space Commission 

Sudarsanam Srinivasan, 

Special Secretary 

and Financial 

Adviser, Department of 

Space as Member (Finance), 

Atomc Energy, 

Space, Earth Commissions 

in the rank and pay of Secretary. 

He is an IAS officer of Orissa cadre, 

1980 batch and will replace A.P. Joshi, 

IAS (KN:78) who retired. 

Meanwhile, A. Vijayanand, IRS 

(C&CE.80), Joint Secretary, Department 

of Space has been posted as 

Additional Secretary and Financial 

Adviser, Departrnent of Space in the 

place of Srinivasan. 

40 

FEBRUARY 2014

REDEFINING GOVERNANCE 

Midas Touch 

» BIPIN 

Pratyaya Amrit, Secretary, Road 

Construction department, and 

Information and Public Relations 

department with the Bihar government, 

has become a household name in 

the state. He is better known as the man 

who transformed the road infrastructure 

in Bihar, dubbed as the worst in India not 

long back. He is the one in whom Bihar 

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has great 

faith and has been entrusting with crucial 

responsibilities. 

Amrit, who was on deputation to the 

Centre, was called to his cadre state Bihar 

in 2006 after Nitish Kumar took over as 

Chief Minister. He returned to Bihar to 

take up the challenge as Managing Director 

of the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam 

(BRPNN), a corporation on the verge of 

liquidation. Riddled with corruption and 

no work, the corporation was waiting to 

be wound up as a loss making unit of the 

state government. As head of the corporation, 

he was supposed to supervise its 

liquidation. 

However, Amrit, 44, had a different 

idea. When he went through the causes 

that led to the collapse of the corporation, 

that he felt was vital for Bihar’s growth, he 

found there were hardly any orders and 

new work and even the engineering staff 

was not willing to take up new projects. 

He started interacting with his staff and 

encouraged them to start work on some 

Amrit simply led his staff to work 

on fixed deadlines and deliver. 

As projects started taking shape 

and completion before deadlines 

became the norm, the confidence 

of the staff grew and so did that 

of the people who started realising 

the benefits of a good road 

infrastructure 

Meet Pratyaya Amrit 

» Delhi University topper in History 

» An IAS officer of the 1991 batch, 

Bihar cadre 

» Both the parents are lecturers 

» As DM of Chapra, he banned 

sleaze shows at the famous 

Sonpur fair (Asia’s largest cattle 

fair) and made it mandatory for the 

installation of CCTVs in theatres 

of the unfinished projects that had been 

virtually written off. Meanwhile, he convinced 

the Chief Minister and the state 

government and got some new projects 

that could improve Bihar’s road connectivity. 

Amrit simply led his staff to work on 

fixed deadlines and deliver. As projects 

started taking shape and completion 

before deadlines became the norm, the 

confidence of the staff grew and so did 

that of the people who started realising 

the benefits of a good road infrastructure. 

Gradually, contractors small and big, 

who had deserted Bihar and migrated to 

other states, started coming back. Some 

undertook road projects in the state and 

found the environment in the government 

department entirely different – the 

bureaucracy was responsive, sympathetic 

and was acting as a facilitator wanting to 

get projects through within stipulated 

deadlines. 

Thus, the story of bridges and roads 

was scripted in Bihar. As infrastructure 

improved, employment avenues too increased 

and investments started flowing 

in. Suddenly, Bihar had woken up and 

was ready to shed its backward tag. 

An elated Amrit told POINT OUT, 

“The change has been possible due to 

confidence reposed in us by the Chief 

Minister. He backed us fully when all 

had written off the department and the 

state as well. It feels great to be part of a 

team that is rewriting Bihar’s development 

history.” He adds, “At the Bihar Rajya 

Pul Nirman Nigam (BRPNN), I was 

allowed to function without a change for 

over three-and-half years and this stability 

ensured that I could drive the staff and 

take the best out of them. To be fair, the 

employees too toiled hard and the results 

are for all to see.” 

He also promoted the concept of 

public-private partnership that is driving 

several crucial projects in the state. Road 

density in Bihar has gone up from 111 km 

per lakh population in 2008 to 127 km. 

Though, it is still way below the national 

average of 322.7 km per lakh population, 

the state is among the best performers 

and catching up fast. Under his leadership, 

road length in Bihar has seen a 

roughly 25% increase in the past year. 

As the road infrastructure has improved, 

Prataya Amrit is dreaming big – he 

is now planning for overhaul and is driving 

the building of tunnels and basic infrastructure, 

apart from roads and bridges in rural 

areas through outsourcing. 

With success have come awards and 

recognition. His biggest moment came 

in 2012 when he became the only IAS officer 

in the country picked up by the Government 

of India for the Prime Minister's 

Excellence Award in Public Administration 

2011. His citation sums it up well: 

“Bridging the gap: For turning around 

a dying Bihar State Bridge Construction 

Corporation into a profit-making unit.” 

41



: VILLAGE ROOTS 

» PUNSARI, GUJARAT 

Showing the way 

» AARTI 

Can you dream of a village with well 

laid out roads, its own public transport 

system, equipped with solar 

lamps, with Wi-Fi connectivity, 

CCTVs at all important places and air-conditioned 

classrooms for children. Forget 

village, most of the metro cities in the country 

cannot boast of such amenities. This is a 

real story of Punsari village in Gujarat. 

The village, an obscure village like any 

other in the country, got together when 

it elected a young educated and exuberant 

Himanshu Narendra Bhai Patel as the 

village sarpanch. Himanshu told POINT 

OUT, “My mantra was simple governance 

and effective utilization of resources from 

the Centre and state.” 

People entrusted me with leadership 

at a young age, says Patel, in his early 30s, 

adding that “I wanted to make it a model 

» Punsari Village: Gateway towards Development 

42 

FEBRUARY 2014

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43



1 

2 

4 

3 

» Pictures showing a remarkable progress in Punsari Village : 1. Classrooms with e-Education facility. 2. Village with solar 

lamps. 3. wi-fi and optical fiber broadband network. 4.Classrooms with CCTV cameras 

village. People are migrating from village 

to cities, so I thought we must create an 

infrastructure and an environment where 

people start migrating to Punsari village. 

Towards this dream of mine, I received 

wholehearted support from each and 

every villager, the elders and children.” 

Personal toilets are a must and we encouraged 

each household to have one and 

today there are hardly any houses in the 

village without toilet facility, says a villager. 

Besides, a reverse osmosis plant in the 

village provides clean and safe drinking 

water to all. Safe water comes at a nominal 

cost of Rs 4 for a 20-litre jar. This has 

improved health situation and reduced 

issues related to water-borne diseases in 

the village. 

The village has its own efficient 

mini bus that connects the village to the 

5 

nearby villages and also facilitates the 

school going children. Children study at 

the government school under the watch 

of CCTVs. The cameras allow us to keep 

a tab on the school activities and also 

ensure that no untoward incident takes 

place there. School Principal Bhagwatiben 

Patel, says, "Cameras help us to monitor 

the activities in a better way and the 

children too are conscious of the fact that 

they are being watched.” 

Internet is free for the villagers as 

a Wi-Fi tower facilitates data exchange 

round the clock and every villager is 

insured for an accidental cover of Rs 1 

lakh and a mediclaim of Rs 25,000. The 

village has also invested in a good sound 

system, used to play devotional songs and 

to double-up as a public address system 

through which new welfare schemes of 

government of India and the state are announced 

so that people take benefit of it. 

As the panchayat huddles together 

to scripting new highs, people are also 

happy- for they are using technology like 

any others living in the metros and have 

transformed their lives. 

44 

FEBRUARY 2014

Media and theme of 

a developed India 

BY INVITE 

» DR APJ ABDUL KALAM 

Journalists should interact with 

grass-root social reformers and 

bring out their core competence, 

dedication and experience in serving 

rural communities, which can become 

a model for our youth to follow. 

I have interacted with students and 

people from rural areas wherever possible. 

I have also addressed the State 

Legislatures wherever possible. In my 

addresses, the central message has been 

how the State can be economically developed 

with high Human Development 

Index, and how to increase the per capita 

income of the State? I normally give 8 to 

10 missions. These missions have been 

developed based on the inputs from the 

Planning Commission, consultation with 

State ministries, the core competence of 

the State and the rural development profile 

of the State which are mapped to Vision 

2020 targets. I would suggest that the 

I am sharing this experience with 

you, which is very important for the 

media to be a partner in national 

missions. Government has also 

passed an act called the “Right 

to Education Act’ for providing 

compulsory and free education to 

all children between 5 to 13 years 

grass root media personnel should study 

these missions and contribute to the development 

of the corresponding States. 

I am sharing this experience with 

you, which is very important for the media 

to be a partner in national missions. 

Government has also passed an act called 

the “Right to Education Act’ for providing 

compulsory and free education to all 

children between 5 to 13 years. All these 

programmes are very important national 

programmes and particularly the grassroot 

media should take interest, highlight 

the positive aspects and provide solutions 

to difficult aspects through nationwide 

consultations. This will certainly make a 

difference in the implementation of the 

programme and bring smiles to the faces 

of our billion people. 

Providing Urban Amenities in Rural 

Areas (PURA) is the integrated method 

which will bring prosperity to rural, 

which envisages four connectivity: the 

physical connectivity of village clusters 

through quality roads and transport; 

electronic connectivity through telecommunication 

with high bandwidth 

fiber optic cables reaching the rural areas 

from urban cities and through internet 

kiosks; knowledge connectivity through 

education, skill training for farmers, 

artisans and crafts persons and entrepreneurship 

programmes. These three 

45



Grassroots journalists should 

have a big aim of the concern of 

a billion people. Fortunately, India 

has a vision and has the youth 

power which is the engine that can 

give the thrust to the movement 

towards growth 

connectives will lead to economic connectivity 

through the establishment of 

enterprises with the help of banks, micro 

credit and marketing of products. We 

need to establish approximately 7,000 

PURA complexes in the country encompassing 

over 2 lakh village panchayats. 

I have a suggestion particularly to 

the members of the media consisting of 

editors, journalists, correspondents and 

reporters. In our country, it is essential 

to have research wings in academic institutions 

developing media personnel in 

reporting news, event analysis and highlights. 

This will enable our journalists to 

carry out original research on topics of 

national interest and provide solutions 

to medium and long term problems. The 

owners of newspapers should encourage 

research being carried out by experienced 

and young reporters for acquiring 

post-graduate qualifications which 

will improve the quality of content of the 

print media. 

Participating media members must 

realize that continuous updating of 

knowledge in research environment is 

essential for all media personnel. For 

example, before any issue is discussed 

in foreign newspapers, they send it to 

an internal research group where data is 

studied, verified and factual news is generated 

and sent for publication. When 

there was a critical comment about outsourcing 

to India, a US journalist stayed 

in India and studied the issue and found 

out that the companies engaged in Business 

Process Outsourcing (BPOs) were 

carrying out business using imported 

equipment from USA and Europe. Thus, 

they found that the BPO industries provided 

an indirect market for the hardware 

industries of the USA and Europe. 

Immediately this was reported in the Indian 

media in a big way. 

Similarly a Discovery Channel media 

person wanted to study India’s growth 

in Information Technology, Thomas 

» President APJ Abdul Kalam with the group of children undergoing treatment for 

blood Cancer, at Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2007 (File photo) 

46 

FEBRUARY 2014

Friedman came to India and stayed for 

a month and visited Bangalore and other 

places. Based on his news analysis he wrote 

a book titled “The World is Flat”. This book 

has become famous not only in India but 

throughout the world. Such is the power of 

research. I would suggest our Indian newspaper 

agencies should encourage research 

being carried out by our correspondents 

and journalists within India in academic 

research institutions, which will definitely 

improve the quality of our reporting and 

enhance the participation of journalists in 

national development missions. 

In the present development context of 

the nation, I would like grassroots journalists 

to take up the theme of a Developed 

India by 2020 as their primary mission. To 

achieve this the journalists must become 

development partners in the programme of 

PURA, energy independence mission, celebrate 

every aspect of success of the nation 

particularly in rural areas, work towards 

promotion of a corruption free society, help 

in the creation of enlightened citizens and 

promote harmony in the nation. 

Grassroots journalists should have a 

big aim of the concern of a billion people. 

Fortunately, India has a vision and has the 

youth power which is the engine that can 

give the thrust to the movement towards 

growth. Ignited minds of the youth are 

the most powerful resource compared to 

any other resource on the Earth, above 

the Earth and under the Earth. The Indian 

youth faces the twin problems of provision 

of quality education to a large number of 

people, that means in institutions of higher 

learning such as engineering, medical and 

specialized sciences. We have to ensure that 

The real mission of the media is 

to be where there are sweet tears 

and salty tears. While tears are 

sweet, spread the happy messages 

throughout the country 

a large number of seats are made available. 

This mission can be achieved by the publicprivate 

partnership. In this connection I 

have developed a system of global human 

resource cadre. In the 21st century, India 

needs large number of talented youth with 

higher education for the task of knowledge 

acquisition, knowledge imparting, knowledge 

creation and knowledge sharing. I 

am working for it. At present India has five 

hundred and forty million youth under the 

» Kalam and Vajpayee at Pokhran Nuclear test Site 

age of 25, which will continuously be growing 

till the year 2050. 

Keeping this resource in mind, the Universities 

and educational systems should 

create two cadres of personnel a global cadre 

of skilled youth with specific knowledge 

of special skills and another global cadre of 

youth with higher education. These two 

cadres will be required not only for powering 

the manufacturing and services sector 

of India but also will be needed for fulfilling 

the human resource requirements of 

various countries. Thus, the universities 

will have to work towards increasing the 

throughput of the higher education system 

from the existing 6% to 20% by the year 

2015, 30% by the year 2020 and 50% by the 

year 2040. 

The other Indians who are not covered 

by the higher education system should all 

have world class skill sets in areas such as 

construction, carpentry, electrical systems, 

repair of mechanical systems, fashion design, 

para-legal, para-medical, accountancy, 

sales and marketing, software and 

hardware maintenance and service, software 

quality assurance personals etc. No 

Indian youth should be without either a 

world-class higher education or without 

COURTESY: COLORLIBRARY.BLOGSPOT.COM 

world-class skills sets. 

The second problem which the youth 

faces is that of the generation of employment 

for about 40 million people. That 

means our education system has to become 

entrepreneurial oriented, both in schools 

and colleges, so that we can create employment 

generators and not employment 

seekers. I have discussed these important 

subjects in my national address on education, 

employment generation and energy 

independence. 

The real mission of the media is to be 

where there are sweet tears and salty tears. 

While tears are sweet, spread the happy 

messages throughout the country. While 

the tears are salty, critically analyze and 

spread the message with possible solutions. 

The grassroots journalists can certainly provide 

a positive direction for development by 

becoming the multiple sails of the ship. 

I have always believed that the first loyalty 

of a media must be towards the people the nation. 

A media should be independent from 

any individual, party and organisations. 

The author is former President of India 

and an acclaimed scientist 

47



: FLYING HIGH 

AROUND THE WORLD 

ON SEA WATERS 

» SURYA GANGADHARAN 

The other day an email caught 

my eye: It was a release from the 

Navy PRO’s office, informing that 

the Indian Navy had “launched” 

a young woman officer on the sail ship 

Mhadei. She is the first of a planned all 

woman crew, that hopefully will “sail the 

seven seas” before long. 

It reminded me of the question asked 

by none other than Lt. Cdr. Abhilash 

Tomy, who sailed 

non-stop around the 

world only last year. 

“Why would anyone 

spend half a year 

at sea, all alone?” 

His answer: “That’s 

a perfectly natural 

question, from someone 

who’s never sailed. 

I have friends who asked 

me that. I’ve taken them out 

to sea for a while and they always 

come back completely 

changed. Look at me, 

I’ve always thought of 

“After I came back, Tinkle comics 

put a photo of me on their 

latest issue. It was their first 

photographic cover ever. That was 

cool” 

it the other way around. How would I ever 

have lived, without sailing on this trip.” 

As Tomy described it, “You go out to 

sea to be wowed by the magical force of 

nature. To appreciate how small you are 

before it. You go out to sea to enjoy the 

ride. And if you come out alive, be thankful 

for it.” 

Tomy, in his early 30s, is actually a 

navy pilot flying the Dornier aircraft. Otherwise, 

he’s like the others of his generation. 

He’s into Facebook and Twitter, a voracious 

reader, picking up everything from 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred 

Years of Solitude to Will Durant’s Story of 

Philosophy, Maxim Gorky’s The Mother 

and Black Swan, even Tinkle comics, 

which are the “companions” on his voyage. 

“After I came back, Tinkle comics put 

a photo of me on their latest issue. It was 

their first photographic cover ever. That 

was cool,” he recalled and there’s more 

happening in his life. 

“There’s a documentary being talked 

about, with an international TV channel,” 

Tomy said. “A book, perhaps in the next 

two-three years. There are kids out there 

who now know the Indian Navy does 

some really far out stuff. They’re going to 

want to join the Navy themselves.” 

So this navy guy is a celebrity although 

an understated one. He doesn’t live his 

celebrity-hood, nor is it something he 

talks about all the time. The way he sees it, 

he has sailed around the world but there’s 

a whole life waiting to be lived with lots 

more to do. This is just a beginning and he 

enjoys that feeling. 

So until the next adventure, wherever 

it takes him, Tomy is content being the 

Indian Naval officer, flying his Dornier, 

enjoying the camaraderie of the uniform. 

And when he’s at home in Cochin, he 

sleeps late and wakes up to the smell of his 

mother’s coffee. 

Life couldn’t be better. 

48 

FEBRUARY 2014



OPINION STATE OF ECONOMY 

Capital Market & Growth 

» ASHISH KUMAR CHAUHAN 

India has a large middle class population 

which serves as a potent job force 

and spurs consumption in the country. 

A recent publication of the National 

Intelligence Council, titled Global Trends 

2030: Alternative Worlds, projects a high 

growth rate for India, piggybacking on its 

huge young middle class work force and 

its consumption pattern. The report says: 

“All the analyses we reviewed suggest that 

the most rapid growth of the middle class 

will occur in Asia, with India somewhat 

ahead of China.” 

To achieve and maintain the high 

growth rates required for India to surpass 

China as the leading economy of 

the world in the next 20-30 years require 

massive investment in the infrastructure 

sector. 

Power, transport, distribution of 

water, utilisation of scarce resource and 

other infrastructure projects will be the 

focus for India in this decade. The public 

spending on these projects, along with 

various public-private partnerships will 

spur growth across many sectors, while 

simultaneously fulfilling the primary objective 

of creation of infrastructure. 

To achieve and maintain the high 

growth rates required for India 

to surpass China as the leading 

economy of the world in the next 

20-30 years require massive 

investment in the infrastructure 

sector 

Thus, while infrastructure remains a 

massive challenge for the growth of India, 

at the same time, it offers tremendous opportunities 

for the growth across sectors, 

across classes. 

India, in the next two-three decades, 

will benefit hugely from the large young 

population entering the work force. 

While India is in a better position, benefiting 

from higher growth, it will still 

be challenged to find jobs for its large 

youth population. India will need to create 

15-20 million jobs every year for the 

next 10 years, a challenge which can be 

converted into an opportunity, especially 

in the manufacturing sector, which has 

been lagging behind the service industry 

in India. 

Shares Of Global Middle-Class Consumption, 

2000-2050 

100 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

2000 

2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 

India 

EU 

Other Asia 

Others 

Japan 

China 

USA 

India is a consumption-based economy 

and it is set to be the world’s largest 

consumer by 2050. While the growth 

in consumption is impressive, it is set to 

grow exponentially in the near future. 

Indian stock markets have representations 

from a wide variety of sectors 

vis-a-vis most emerging markets. This 

allows the Indian stock markets to be a 

sound gauge for the country’s economy 

and thereby provide a fairly transparent 

instrument for the foreign investor. 

In recent times, the valuations of the 

main stocks in India, i.e. the BSE Sensex 

components, have been seen to be cheaper 

than their counterparts in emerging 

markets. Fund managers believe that 

India looks attractive based on its valuations, 

an analysis which is supported by 

‘overweight’ ratings by most FIIs. 

Indian markets have a strong and robust 

structure, with an able and competent 

regulatory body, the SEBI (the Securities 

and Exchange Board of India) supervising 

the markets. Foreign investors can 

feel confident that Indian markets will 

not subscribe to wild speculatory swings 

which hurt the liquidity in the market. 

Capital Market Structure 

India scores highly in the existence of a 

robust and ever-evolving regulatory framework. 

The securities market is regulated by 

the SEBI, a progressive regulator with primary 

functions of regulation and development 

of capital markets in the country. 

The country also has an active Ministry 

of Finance, which recognises the need 

for a developed capital market — instrumental 

for capital generation in the economy. 

The Ministry of Finance has thus 

been creating policies conducive to the 

development of capital markets and an 

investor-friendly climate in the country. 

India is blessed with an independent 

central bank in the form of the Reserve 

Bank of India, which has the critical responsibility 

of ensuring financial stability. 

Some of the individual markets 

r¬emain underdeveloped, but the Indian 

capital market ranks amongst the best in 

the world as far as technological advancements 

and robust regulatory framework 

is concerned. 

Listed below are some of the advantages 

of Indian capital markets: 

a. Screen-based trading 

b. Two of the largest exchanges in the 

world 

c. Speed and scalability in top 10 in the 

world for both the exchanges 

d. Real Time Risk Management systems 

employed by the 2 largest stock exchanges 

e. Settlement Guarantee through Central 

Clearing Party 

f. Robust depository framework 

g. Derivatives framework - amongst the 

largest in the world 

h. Skilled manpower 

i. Huge training facilities 

j. Investor class spread throughout the 

country 

BSE in 2014 

With a view to improve its services, the 

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has recently 

changed its trading system with a New 

Trading Architecture (NTA) sourced from 

the Deutsche Boerse AG, BSE’s strategic 

shareholder and partner. The new trading 

engine has been successfully employed 

by the BSE since its Currency Derivatives 

launch in November 28, 2013, making 

BSE the fastest platform in India with a 

response time of 200 microseconds. It is 

several times faster than other exchanges 

50 

FEBRUARY 2014

operating in the country. 

The BSE is planning to improve the 

speed from current 200 microseconds to 

25 microseconds within the next three 

years. With the introduction of this system, 

India has joined the ranks of the 

leading exchanges in terms of latency and 

throughput. 

We expect this new system to be a key 

element in attracting more foreign participants 

to the BSE and Indian markets. Today, 

over 90% of the volumes come from 

algorithmic trading. The trading strategies 

involve putting a large number of orders 

and the exchange system needs to have the 

capability to process. In near future, the 

share of algorithmic trading is expected to 

grow even more and the order handling capability 

will become one of the differentiators 

among exchanges. With the execution 

of the NTA’s superior order handling capabilities 

and throughput, BSE can handle 

more than 100 times of its current orders, 

with an option to add even more capacity 

in a seamless manner. 

The BSE will continue to remain the 

market leader in terms of product development 

and introduction. BSE is committed 

to keep trading costs manageable by being 

the lowest cost trading destination for investors 

in the country. 

The BSE plans to introduce cash settled 

Interest Rate Futures on 10 Year G-Secs in 

the last week of January. This product will 

also be launched on the NTA, the fastest 

trading platform in India. BSE has been 

working on many innovative products in 

the Equity as well as Derivatives Segment 

and other products which are hugely popular 

and highly traded in the developed 

markets; for some of those products, the 

BSE is in the process of soliciting feedback 

from the international market participants. 

BSE has more than 80% market share in 

India in various products – including Offer 

for Sale, Mutual Fund Distribution 

through exchanges, SME platform, E-IPO, 

and distribution of corporate debt through 

exchanges among others. The BSE would 

work towards market leadership in other 

products as well. 

The BSE remains committed to providing 

the investors with the largest basket of 

securities across segments to trade on – the 

newly created Debt Segment by SEBI will 

be one such initiative. 

With the recent strategic tie-up with 

S&P Dow Jones, BSE and its indices, led 

by premier brands like SENSEX and BSE 

100, will acquire the global footprint they 

have been lacking until now. This venture 

would mark the shift of SENSEX being 

the benchmark India tracks, to the Indian 

» Ashish Kumar Chauhan: A Visionary MD & CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange 

benchmark that the world tracks. The JV is 

going to launch new Government of India 

Bond Index in 2014. 

The BSE has recently also entered into 

an arrangement with the Deutsche Boerse 

for the marketing of BSE data products internationally. 

The BSE has also entered into 

an MoU with the Ministry of Corporate 

Affairs and the Indian Institute of Corporate 

Affairs for the development of India’s 

first CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) 

Index. This CSR Index shall be viewed by 

all market participants to track the leaders 

in CSR activities in India. Top performers 

of this CSR Index shall be drivers for 

other corporates in India to perform and 

meet the expectations of all stakeholders 

in the society. As capital market gets more 

aligned to the international norms, longterm 

investors with very sizable amount 

of investible money such as pension funds, 

insurance companies and funds with mandate 

of ‘Responsible Investment’, would 

look at such index and its top performers 

to decide their investments. Globally, it has 

been observed that indices based on CSR 

or ESG themes have outperformed the 

benchmark indices. 

The BSE had earlier provided free of 

cost browser-based access to the Real Time 

Risk Management System (RTRMS) for 

member brokers to help them manage 

their own risk; as also the browser-based 

collateral management system. 

The BSE has also released a state-ofthe-art 

front-end order placing engine, 

Bolt+, free of cost to its members. The 

front-end software such as BOLT, FOW 

and FasTrade were already available to 

members for no cost and BSE was successful 

in providing browser-based back office 

solutions to members free of charge. With 

all these online, browser-based systems, 

the members no longer need to invest 

heavily in technology and can still compete 

with the big members with huge setups. 

To facilitate effective surveillance 

mechanisms at their end, the BSE has 

launched the e-BOSS (Member Surveillance 

System). The new e-Boss software 

has a variety of alerts and reports (downloadable), 

uploads, user management 

and other such facilities for Equity Cash 

segment as well as Equity Derivatives segment. 

It is available to all BSE member brokers 

for zero cost. 

The BSE is in the process of bringing 

several such innovations to reduce effective 

cost for member brokers and at the 

same time continues to provide the best in 

class service in exchange eco system infrastructure. 

Since its inception in 1875, the BSE 

has promoted long term capital formation 

vis-a-vis trading and speculation. The 

BSE is the largest exchange in the world in 

terms of number of companies listed. It is 

the 8th largest in terms of trades per day, 

16th largest in terms of market capitalisation 

with more than 1.1 thousand billion 

USD market cap listed on it, and 5th largest 

exchange in the world in Index options 

trading. 

(The author is MD & CEO of the BSE 

Ltd., Asia’s first stock exchange. He also 

serves on the Board of ICCL, CDSL, BSE 

Training Institute, BFSI Sector Skill Council 

and Marketplace Technologies Limited. 

He is also a member of the Board of Governors 

of IIIT D&M) 

51



CSR INITIATIVES 

ONGC: Touching lives 

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation 

(ONGC) had started in 1956, 

with a dream to make India energy 

independent. Today, that vision 

has become an unstoppable force. It’s a 

force one can feel in every moment, as it 

energises the lives of more than a billion 

Indians. 

As ONGC has grown, so have its 

initiatives to pay back to the society and 

make lives of people better through various 

welfare measures adopted through 

the ‘stakeholder participation approach’. 

Some of the projects involve communities 

in and around the ONGC operational 

area, which are seen as important stakeholders, 

and therefore their development 

is seen in alignment with the development 

of the company itself. Through CSR 

initiatives, the ONGC is touching lives of 

millions of Indians across the country. 

From community service, healthcare, 

environmental protection, education and 

preservation and promotion of culture 

and heritage, our efforts are focussed on 

bringing about a positive change in the 

society. 

Swavlamban Abhiyan 

This unique initiative undertaken by 

the ONGC in the healthcare sector focuses 

on persons with physical disabilities, 

reaching out to millions of people 

across India, especially in far-flung and 

backward districts of our country. The 

pan-India project is in collaboration with 

the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation 

of India (ALIMCO) and aims to 

cater to the needs of people with orthopaedic, 

hearing and visually challenging 

disabilities by providing aids and appliances 

in 100 backward districts of India. 

The project was conceptualised with the 

intent to reach out to the poorest of poor 

people with disabilities, who do not have 

access to such facilities. 

Akshaya Patra 

The ONGC is supporting The Akshaya 

Patra Foundation which aims at 

setting up a centralised, fully automated 

mechanised kitchen. It will provide midday 

meals to two lakh school going children 

enrolled in government schools in 

Surat, Gujarat. The kitchen has already 

started feeding about 75,000 students 

from an interim kitchen. It will become 

operational in phases and intends to 

reach its full capacity of two lakh children 

per day within two years. 

Varisthajana Swasthya 

Sewa Abhiyan 

The project carried out in collaboration 

with HelpAge India aims at providing 

healthcare facilities to the doorsteps 

of the poor, needy and elderly population 

across eight states and one union territory 

in India. The project has reached out 

to 4.5 lakh elderly patients through 20 

mobile medicare units. 

Another project, carried out in collaboration 

with the Wildlife Trust of India, 

envisages conserving of the eastern 

swamp deer within its sole habitat – the 

Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The 

objective is to understand the species and 

the ecology of the region and develop a 

strategy to save it from extinction. The 

main achievements have been the completion 

of two successful population estimations, 

radio collaring to track data of 

the male swamp deer, collection of data 

on behaviour of the swamp deer, identifying 

food plants and veterinary interventions 

in rescue cases. 

In collaboration with the National 

Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development 

Corporation, the ONGC 

Hathkargha Prashikshan aims at cluster 

development in Jorhat, Sibasagar, Majuli 

and Golaghat districts of Assam. The 

project envisages upgrading the existing 

skills of tribal handloom artisans by providing 

them with vocational training and 

entrepreneurship options. 

The ONGC Specialist Palliative and 

Geriatric Care out-patient clinic initiated 

in 2012-13, in association with the 

Dean Foundation, helps the terminally 

ill cancer patients in Chennai by providing 

palliative care. It supports patients by 

comforting them and relieving them of 

pain during the final stage of their lives. It 

also provides counselling to the patients 

and their families. 

Udaan is a special initiative taken up 

by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government 

of India, for the educated youth of 

Jammu & Kashmir, in association with 

the National Skill Development Corporation 

(NSDC). The project aims to train 

graduates and post graduates from the 

state to improve their technical knowledge 

and soft skills and enhance their 

scope for employability. 

Apart from these, the ONGC Hope 

Foundation has provided for the bandage 

of ulcers of leprosy patients every day for 

one year in the village of Hope situated 

on the outskirts of Delhi. The Antyodaya 

Prakalp, implemented through the 

Bhartiya Kushtha Niwarak Sangh and the 

Adivasi Development Initiative, aims to 

undertake eradication of malnutrition, 

especially among children. The ONGC 

Adharshita Entrepreneurship and Skill 

Development Initiative are aimed at providing 

vocational training to students 

from the slums of New Delhi in the fields 

of healthcare, beauty, cutting-tailoring 

and computer education. 

52 

FEBRUARY 2014



TEST DRIVE 

» BUSINESS BUREAU 

PLEASURES 

OF THE ROAD 

Style Statement 

» Mercedes-Benz S-Class 

» Availability: First quarter of 2014 

» Estimated Price: Rs 90 lakh – Rs 1.10 crore 

Global premium car market leader, Mercedes-Benz is 

rolling out its new model in India, the Mercedes S-Class 

that is known as the best car in the world. The car has been 

redone as far as external appearance and interiors are concerned. 

With a large grille and LED lights, it looks aristocratic 

while the interiors have been revamped with a mix of 

quality leather, wood and plastic. Heated seat with a wooden 

steering having two spokes gives driving a new pleasure, 

while the instrument cluster has been totally changed. 

A report in ‘Overdrive’ says that the 2014 Mercedes- 

Benz S-Class is now available for pre-booking on an amount 

of Rs 25 lakh. The company expects to start with 125 unit 

supply of the S500 limited edition. 

The petrol variant of Mercedes Benz S-Class has an 

8-cylinder V-engine. The petrol engine with 338 kW (459 

hp) embodies refinement, driving pleasure and responsibility. 

Thanks to twin turbo-charging and intercooling, the 

S500 has huge reserves of power and can accelerate from 0 

to 100 km/h in only 4.8 seconds. The engine may give off 

its typical, unmistakably sonorous and cultivated sound, but 

fuel consumption stays unusually low. 

The new S-Class is fitted with the latest-generation, enhanced 

AIRMATIC suspension system as standard. Working 

in combination with a stepless damping control system, 

this air suspension system ensures superlative road roar and 

tyre vibration characteristics and driving dynamics. The 

damping is adjusted on each wheel to the actual driving 

situation and can be set to comfortable or sporty, as desired. 

54 

FEBRUARY 2014

Great looks 

» Honda City Diesel 2014 

» Price: Rs 8.81 lakh - 11.35 lakh 

(approx) 

The diesel variant of the City sedan 

unveiled in November 2013 is now available 

across the country. The new City gets a 

sporty outlook with an increase in the interior 

cabin space. Armed with solid wing 

An automatic 

success 

» Hyundai Grand i10 Diesel AT 

» Expected Launch: 2014 first quarter 

» Expected Price: Rs 7 lakh – Rs 

7.50 lakh 

Riding on the success of its Hyundai 

Grand i10, the Korean automaker 

is coming up with auto transmission in 

diesel variant. Hyundai Grand i10 diesel 

AT, much like its petrol counterpart, 

is expected to be available only in the 

Sportz and Asta variants and will have 

all the features and specifications that 

the parent model offers. Hyundai Grand 

i10 diesel automatic will be powered by 

the same 1.1-litre three-cylinder CRDi 

diesel unit that produces 70bhp and 

160Nm of torque. Power will be transmitted 

to the front wheels via four-speed 

automatic gearbox that is used in a variety 

of vehicles ranging from the previous 

generation. It will also come with safety 

face chrome grille with brilliant premium 

headlamps, the new City looks great. The 

rear license chrome garnish and spoke alloy 

wheels add to the new exterior. 

Honda is now offering the new City 

with 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine that 

powers the Amaze sedan. It is expected 

to have the same output as the Amaze – 

98bhp and 200Nm of torque. The Diesel 

Honda City will have five variants: MT 

Diesel priced at Rs 8.81 lakh, SMT at Rs 

9.45 lakh, SVMT at Rs 9.88 lakh, VMT at 

Rs 10.40 lakh, and VXMT at Rs 11.35 lakh. 

features like dual airbags, ABS, reverse 

parking assist system and reinforced 

body structure. 

Market watchers say that Hyundai is 

likely to price the Grand i10 diesel AT Rs 

1 lakh more than its petrol AT variants, 

which went on sale recently. 

55



GADGETS 

» BIPIN 

What To Expect In 2014 

Apple iPhone 6 

The new iPhone will reportedly measure only 6 millimeters 

thick. For comparison, the current iPhone 5S 

has a depth of 7.6 mm and the old-school iPhone 3GS 

is a seemingly clunky brick by 2014 standards, measuring 

in at over 12 mm thick. 

The iPhone 6 release date could be delayed until 

September, and an iPhone phablet is also rumored to 

be released to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note 

3 in May, according to new reports out this week. 

The report indicates that the iPhone phablet will 

not come with Apple’s upcoming A8 SoC, but instead 

will feature the iPhone 5S’s 64-bit A7 processor. 

It was also rumored that the iPhone phablet will 

feature a massive screen to rival that of the Samsung 

Galaxy Note 3, which has been receiving rave reviews 

across the globe, and could land with a screen of 5.7 

inches or larger. 

Another report from a Chinese Web site said that 

there would be two iPhones coming in 2014 – one with 

a 4.7-inch screen and another with a 5.7-inch display, 

or bigger. Apple has of course, remained silent on all 

rumors concerning future devices as usual, but most 

analysts assume any future smartphones released this 

year will retain the TouchID fingerprint sensor as seen 

on the iPhone 5S. Other rumors suggest Apple will 

continue down that route, and also offer an eye scanner 

as additional security. 

Apple iWatch 

What time is it? If you check your smartwatch, 

you may find that it’s a text message 

past a Twitter notification but if you check 

the zeitgeist, you’ll find that it’s wearable 

tech time. 

After more than a year of relegation to 

‘next big thing’ status, the smartwatch is finally 

breaking out into the mainstream with 

the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Gear and 

Sony Smartwatch 2 following where Kickstarter 

phenomenon Pebble led. 

Rumors of an Apple smartwatch have 

abounded since Pebble first hit the big time. 

The so-called iWatch has so far failed to materialise 

in but will we see Apple get in on 

the wrist-worn game in 2014? 

The iWatch price is misery. Nobody 

but one anonymous analyst who had a stab 

at pricing reckons somewhere between 

$149 and $229 (£100 to £150 / AU$167 - 

AU$250) as the likely tag. 

Affordable 3D Printers 

Like anywhere else in the world, 3D printing in India is really picking 

up for making prototype as well as for making mainstream products 

in the market. There is a lot of research by Z Corporation and CADD 

centre in India for making sophisticated printing machines. This technology 

is slowly coming up in India and is being used by the research 

team in manufacturing, architecture, education, geographic, information 

system, healthcare, etc. The 3D printing technology can help provide 

identical sets of three dimensional physical model at any stage of 

production without much hassle. This has greatly helped in improving 

communication, eliminate any errors or miscommunication and 

thereby save a lot of money and time. 

Three-dimensional is proving to be an attractive new business 

for technology entrepreneurs also. Indian entrepreneurs are trying to 

manufacture 3D printers for as low as Rs 20,000. Global brands that 

are imported by India range from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. 

56 

FEBRUARY 2014

New Launch 

DUOLINGO 

It’s a free language learning tool. If you 

want to learn Spanish, French, German, 

Portuguese, Italian, and English the 

fast, fun, and free way, there’s no better 

choice than Duolingo. In 2013, Apple 

chose Duolingo as its iPhone App of 

the Year, the first time the honour was 

awarded to an educational application. 

Duolingo offers extensive written lessons 

and dictation, with less practice 

speaking. It has a gamified skill tree that 

users can progress through, and a vocabulary 

section where learned words 

can be practiced. 

You can download the iOS app 

through the iTunes App Store The 

app can be downloaded for free and 

is compatible with most iPhone, iPod, 

and iPad devices. The Android version 

of this App can be downloaded from 

Google Play Store. 

» Price: Free 

» Requires Android: 2.2 and up 

» Installs: 10,000,000 - 50,000,000 

» Rating: 

UMANO 

Listen to our ever growing catalogue of 

articles from the world’s best publishers 

and bloggers narrated by professional 

voice-actors. Whether commuting, working 

out at the gym, or cooking at home, 

let Umano accompany you and enrich 

your day. Umano, an app 

that provides a curated 

selection of articles read 

by voice actors is available 

to iPhone and Android 

users, too. You can download 

articles for listening offline, make 

playlists and personalise the kinds of 

stories you’re interested in. The Android 

app includes some platform-specific features, 

including Google+ integration and 

57 

rich notifications, allowing users to access 

playback controls directly within their 

app notifications. 



» Installs: 10,000,000 - 50,000,000 

» Rating: Four-and-a-half star 

RUNTASTIC APPS 

Runtastic offers a suite of training apps 

designed to improve your fitness in 

several different areas. These are the 

newest apps in the suite focus on running, 

push-ups, pull-ups, and squats – 

arguably the most important full-body, 

calisthenic exercises in popular use. 

However, Runtastic does have other 

downloads available for activities like 

biking and hiking. To get started, you 

must create an account or sign in with 

Facebook. 

My biggest issue with Runtastic is 

that it is divided up into so many different 

apps, which is obviously an inconvenience. 

It’s a fair assumption that 

many who are interested in one of the 

Runtastic exercises will also want to 

try at least a few more. Plus, the user 

interfaces of different apps appear to be 

very similar. So, why not combine the 

functionality of at least four calisthenic 

exercises into a larger, paid version? 

The Runtastic apps are available for 

free download now on Google Play. 

There are also paid Pro versions, which 

offer premium features such as voice 

feedback and more advanced training 

regimens. For iOS users, the apps are 

available in the App Store as well. 


» Requires Android: Varies with the 

device 

» Installs: 10,000,000 - 50,000,000 

» Rating: ½ 

» Lava Iris Pro 30 

Lava Mobiles has launched the Iris Pro 

30 smartphone in India. The Lava Iris 

Pro 30 is the first in the family and the 

company’s new flagship. The Android 

smartphone measures only 7.5mm 

thick and weighs 114g in total as it 

uses magnesium alloy body, which was 

achieved in part thanks to the slim 4.7” 

IPS LCD from Sharp. 

The screen has 720p resolution 

(312ppi) and puts out 500 lumens of 

brightness. It’s a ‘One Glass Solution’, 

meaning the Gorilla Glass is laminated, 

making the assembly thinner. 

The battery is fairly thin too and packs 

2,000mAh capacity. The phone has 

CABC (Content Adaptive Backlight 

Control) screen brightness regulation 

technology that automatically reduces 

screen brightness for 30% more battery 

life. It has an 8-megapixel rear camera 

with dual LED flash and a 3-megapixel 

front-facing camera. It has a range of 

software features such as flip to mute, 

lift to answer and call, video PIP, sound 

and shot, voice and face unlocking. 

Must-have Android apps for newbies 

and enthusiasts. 

» Priced: Rs 15,999 

» OS: dual-SIM Android 4.2.2 

» Rating: ½ 

Real Racing 3 

As the name suggests, Real Racing 3 

delivers an impeccably realistic driving 

experience – for a touch-based mobile 

game, that is. It features real-world 

cars, offers smooth controls, and obviously 

shows off some sweet graphics. 

But be aware that this game, while free 

to download, does employ a freemium 

model, which charges you real-world 

cash for some in-game upgrades. 


» Installs: 10,000,000 - 50,000,000 


» Rating:



TAROT FORECAST 

» NANDITA PANDEY 

• ARIES (22nd March- 21st April): Matters of heart 

shall be pleasant throughout the month. Professionally, you 

hear good news. Help from your juniors shall come 

in handy at the right time. Financially, this is an 

average month for you when your needs are met 

with, though gains have yet to show signs of rising. Emotional 

anxieties are on the higher side affecting your health in this 

phase of your life. LUCKY COLOUR: Orange 

• TAURUS (22nd April - 21st May): Financially, you shall 

benefit from your investments and shall enjoy the attention 

being diverted to you. Legal matters shall turn in your 

favour and you shall be able to overcome obstacles 

in life easily. Clinging on to what took place in the 

past does you no good, being futuristic in your approach is the 

key to professional success. Minor health issues might crop 

up; especially the health of a child might cause some concern 

during this phase. LUCKY COLOUR: Peach 

• GEMINI (22nd May- 21st June): Professionally, a man 

with a dominating personality helps you in your endeavours. 

Patience and wisdom are the key to gain through 

financial transactions. Health issues might crop up, 

especially those related to bone or muscle aches, 

or minor gastric problems. Health of a woman is a cause of 

concern during this phase. LUCKY COLOUR: Pink 

• CANCER (22nd June - 21st July): Focus is the key to 

professional success during this month. Travels and proactive 

decisions taken in your projects give you an upper 

edge on the work front. Matters of heart remain 

pleasant and any outings, holidays or changes in 

lifestyle patterns turn in your favour as the month advances. 

LUCKY COLOUR: Blue 

• LEO (22nd July - 21st August): A woman helps you in 

your professional endeavours during this month. Financial 

benefits shall be good and rewarding by and large. 

Matters of heart shall remain positive. You will think 

of you relationship seriously and would want to take 

it to the next stable level. Health keeps you in a fit shape as 

the month progresses. LUCKY COLOUR: Blue 

• VIRGO (22nd August- 21st September): Matters of 

heart shall be pleasant and enjoyable. Financially, you shall be 

in a celebratory mood as investments start giving 

you expected returns. Health keeps you in a jovial 

and happy phase of life. You might be interested 

in a number of health activities during this month. Wedding 

celebrations in the family are a strong possibility. LUCKY 

COLOUR: Emerald Green 

• LIBRA (22nd September- 21st October): 

Professionally, strong transitions take place in your life. 

New work patterns emerge and bring in success 

and growth. Financially, investments will move 

northwards in a subtle yet steady manner as the 

month progresses. Being too possessive about your love 

might create a sense of claustrophobia between the two of 

you. LUCKY COLOUR: Green 

• SCORPIO (22nd October- 21st November): 

Financially, you gain from two or more resources. Things 

will shape up as per your expectations and new 

investments, if made by following your gut instinct 

help you in gaining rewards out of them. Health 

keeps you in a fit shape and any group health activity helps 

you in rejuvenating mind, body and soul. Professional 

restlessness will be on the higher side and any activity away 

from your comfort zone might cause you anxieties. LUCKY 

COLOUR: Orange 

• SAGITTARIUS (22nd November- 21st December): 

Financially, whatever transitions that take place during this 

phase of your life, give you an upper edge and shall 

also turn out to be quite rewarding. A woman with 

a dominating and aggressive streak helps you on 

your work front and in finishing targets on time. You will 

be disappointed in the matters of heart and issues related 

to children might build up unnecessary stress in your life. 

LUCKY COLOUR: Pink / Peach 

• CAPRICORN (22nd December- 21st January): You 

will be showered with a lot of love and attention throughout 

this month, especially in the matters of heart. Legal 

matters turn in your favour and you will benefit from 

your pleasant and harmonious nature. Financial 

setbacks are high as there might be some sudden property 

related stress or disappointments related to shifting or 

renovation. LUCKY COLOUR: Electric Blue 

• AQUARIUS (22nd January- 21st February): You 

shall find yourself in favourable situations in the matters 

of heart. A lot of situations are improving, giving 

you an upper edge as the month progresses. 

This is the time to take a back seat and enjoy the 

progress of your projects. Matters of heart remain positive 

and harmonious throughout the month. A woman with whom 

you share excellent rapport helps in creating good inner peace 

and harmony and this helps in improving upon your health. 

LUCKY COLOUR: Peacock Green 

• PISCES (22nd February- 21st March): this is an 

excellent time for you to take up fresh projects and explore 

new avenues. This is an excellent time and a 

partnership shall give you an upper edge. Office 

matters resolve easily and thoughts about redoing 

your office shall become the highlight of the month. Finances 

indicate ups and downs but the balance will be an upward 

movement by the end of the month. Health might be a cause 

for concern – you may experience gastric problems or those 

related to bone and muscle aches. A family member helps you 

in your endeavours as the month progresses. 

LUCKY COLOUR: Magenta 

(Nandita Pandey is an internationally renowned and acclaimed Astro Vaastu Tarot Consultant, Spiritual healer and Past Life 

Regression Therapist based in Delhi. Email soch.333@gmail.com ) 

58 

FEBRUARY 2014

SUCCESS MANTRA MY STRUGGLE MY LIFE 

Hardships strengthened 

me to do better 

» MAHASHYA DHARAMPAL 

Give to the world the best you can, 

and the best will come back to 

you automatically. That is the 

philosophy I imbibed from my 

parents and followed, and it has made me 

stand good and be successful. 

Like any other person, I’ve also had a 

roller-coaster journey in my life with a lot 

of twists and turns, right from the Partition 

to resettlement and even involving 

family disputes. But I never gave up and 

with every adversity, I worked that much 

harder. The results are before all – we are 

the number one spice brand in India and 

the world. I can say with conviction that 

my hardships were instrumental in my 

success and that there are no shortcuts to 

success. 

I was born in a religious family on 

March 27, 1923 in Sialkot (now a part 

of the Punjab in Pakistan). My father 

Mahashya Chunnilal and mother Mata 

Chanan Devi were simple, religious and 

philanthropic people who followed the 

teachings of Arya Samaj. At Sialkot, my 

father sold spices from a shop called Mahashian 

Di Hatti, started in 1919. I was 

born and raised there. I started working 

at a very young age and gave up schooling 

before my fifth standard exam. 

At the time of the Partition in 1947, 

we saw massive caravans of Sikhs and 

Hindus heading to the other side of 

border from the present day Pakistan. 

I distinctly remember that until then 

there was never any problem between 

the Hindus and Muslims who co-existed 

peacefully in Sialkot. But when the Partition 

was decided upon and we heard 

that Sialkot would remain in Pakistan, 

panic spread among the Hindus, who 

started feeling unsafe as news of religious 

violence spread. We knew it was time to 

leave our hometown. 

On September 7, 1947, I reached a 

refugee camp in Amritsar with my family. 

I was just 23. From Amritsar, I left 

with my brother-in-law and came to 

Delhi looking for a job. We felt Amritsar 

was too close to the border and in the riot 

zone. Having travelled to Delhi several 

times before, I also knew that it was also 

cheaper than the Punjab. 

We moved to a flat in Karol Bagh that 

belonged to my niece. The flat had no 

water supply, no electricity and no toilet 

facilities. When I moved to Delhi, my father 

gave me Rs 1500. With that money 

I purchased a tonga, a horse-drawn carriage, 

which cost me Rs 650. I used to 

charge two aana (equivalent to 1/16th of 

a rupee) for a ride from Connaught Place 

to Karol Bagh. The meagre income made 

it difficult for me to sustain the family. 

Then came the day when I had no 

passengers. I shouted the whole day but 

no one came. People often ridiculed and 

insulted me. 

It was then that I decided to let go of 

the tonga. Coming from a family of businessmen, 

I believed I could achieve much 

more. I sold the tonga and built a small 

shop along Ajmal Khan Road 

and started a business in 

my domain, i.e. spices. 

After a few years spent 

grinding spices from 

our tiny store, we 

were finally making 

enough money to say 

goodbye to our breadand-butter 

worries. 

Word started spreading 

around the city about 

the spice makers from 

Sialkot. 

We had established 

the foundations 

of MDH in 

Delhi. In 1953, 

we rented another 

shop in Chandni 

Chowk and in 1959 

we purchased a plot 

in Kirti Nagar to 

set up our own 

factory. As I saw 

our business 

grow, so did Delhi. These were the times 

when Delhi only reached Pusa Road and 

the area beyond Shadipur Depot was a 

village. Areas like Greater Kailash and 

South Extension were rocky hills and 

south Delhi was non-existent. 

My favourite places in Delhi were the 

Qutub Minar and India Gate, where my 

friends and I used to sit for long stretches 

of time. We also went for walks in Nehru 

Park and Buddha Garden, places that 

continue to remain among my favourites. 

Today, even as I’ve seen Delhi’s rocky hills 

being transformed into urban areas and 

my business growing into an empire, I 

sometimes remember my tonga-riding 

days, when I was still exploring the new 

city and shouting out “two aanas for a 

ride, two aanas for a ride.” 

The thought of visiting our old hometown 

in Pakistan never crossed my mind. 

I sometimes dream of the little town 

where I spent my childhood, but Delhi is 

our home now. 

I don’t have any secret formula behind 

my grand success. I just follow a 

traditionally established principle of honouring 

the commitments and serving my 

customers pure and quality product. My 

commitment to community activities 

shines in many spheres of life. Towards 

this, I rise above the confines of religion 

and community and never hesitate 

to serve the mankind, no matter 

what the cause. MDH is a name 

that is synonymous not only for 

quality spices but also for its 

contributions towards the 

welfare of society and upliftment 

of the needy, by 

way of establishing educational 

institutions, 

hospitals and trust. 

(Mahashya 

Dharampal is the 

founder of MDH 

and its oldest 

brand ambassador) 

59



ART & CULTURE 

A synonym of Krishna 

Birju Maharaj has captivated with his soulful dance 

» SASWATI SEN 

Being the foremost disciple of Pt. Birju 

Maharaj ji, it is really difficult for me 

to write about the living legend, about 

a personality who is an institution in 

himself. But, I am trying this with a lot of 

courage. 

A measure of his genius is the fact that 

at the young age of 28, he received the Sangeet 

Natak Akademi Award. He went on 

to receive several other prestigious awards, 

like the Kalidas Samman, Nritya Choodamani, 

Andhra Ratna, Nritya Vilas, Adharshila 

Shikhar Samman, Soviet Land Nehru 

Award, Shiromani Samman, Rajiv Gandhi 

Peace Award and many more. He has also 

been conferred with Honorary Doctorate 

degrees from the Banaras Hindu University 

and Khairagarh University. 

Pt. Birju Maharaj was born on February 

4, 1938 in Lucknow. Initially his name 

was Dukh Haran, which was later changed 

to Brijmohan, a synonym of Krishna. Surrounded 

by a musical atmosphere, his 

inborn talent surfaced at the early age of 

three years, when he would playfully sit on 

his father’s lap and recite Tihais and Tukras, 

oblivious to the fact that they were complex 

musical pieces. 

The sound of music and dance emanating 

from the taalimkhana (classroom) was 

enough inspiration for young Birju to devote 

himself wholeheartedly to dance. Though he 

was too young to receive formal training, he 

would watch carefully when his father, the 

renowned Acchan Maharaj, taught his disciples. 

His father recognized the talent and 

took him under his guidance. 

Acchan Maharaj performed at musical 

conferences all over India and by the age of 

seven, Birju Maharaj had accompanied him 

to Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, 

Dehradun, and even far off places like Madhubani, 

Kolkata and Mumbai. He got the 

opportunity to share the platform with his illustrious 

father, who allowed him to present 

a few pieces before he himself came on stage. 

Soon, his father shifted to Delhi to teach 

at Sangeet Bharti. Birju Maharaj, then eight 

years old, enthusiastically imbibed all activities 

at the centre. Acchan Maharaj shifted 

back to Lucknow with the family due to 

communal riots, which raged all over the 

country during the pre-Independence period. 

His father died soon after, leaving 

nine-year-old Birju under the guidance of 

Shambhu Maharaj. Though a young Birju 

was deprived of his father’s blessings at a very 

tender age, Acchan Maharaj had left an indelible 

mark on him. 

The following years were full of struggle 

and household goods were sold to make 

ends meet. He spent about ten months in 

Mumbai learning from his uncle Lacchu 

Maharaj. At the age of thirteen, he was invited 

to join Sangeet Bharti in Delhi to teach 

Kathak. Soon, he established himself as a 

good dancer and a dedicated teacher. 

Birju Maharaj’s mother Ammaji continued 

to live at the family’s ancestral house 

in Lucknow. Having lost his father at a very 

young age, he was very devoted to his mother. 

Even after shifting to Delhi, he spent summer 

holidays with her, patiently listening to 

tales of the days gone by, of his childhood 

and the brief period spent with his father. 

As was the custom of the times, the 

women stayed in purdah and had nothing 

whatsoever to do with dance. Since the 

sounds of music and dance were a part of 

her surroundings, Ammaji remembered a 

surprising number of musical compositions 

of those times. Coaxed by her son, she sometimes 

came forward with uncommon and 

previously unheard of lyrics, singing them 

coyly. In this way, Maharaj ji came in possession 

of some invaluable 

compositions and got 

glimpses of his childhood, 

through his 

mother’s eyes. 

Pt. Birju 

Maharaj is a superb 

drummer, 

playing nearly 

all drums with 

ease and precision; 

he is especially 

fond of playing the Tabla 

and Naal. He can play all 

string instruments – Sitar, Sarod, Violin, 

Sarangi – with ease, though he never underwent 

any formal training. 

He is a sensitive poet, writing modern 

poetry as well as songs, dance compositions, 

Thumris, etc. He is also a singer par 

excellence, having command over Thumri, 

Dadra, Bhajan and Ghazal. He sings from 

the heart, words flowing out effortlessly. His 

deep resonating voice brings out the feeling 

and emotion behind every word. 

A master storyteller, Birju Maharaj interlaces 

his performances with incidents from 

his life, narrated to captivate the audience. 

Also being keenly observant, he always has 

something to say about day-to-day incidents, 

keeping people around him entertained with 

realistic imitations and vivid descriptions. 

Pt. Birju Maharaj has given a new dimension 

to Kathak, by experimenting with 

his technique in the application of dance 

dramas, which has today become a very successful 

medium for mass propagation. As a 

choreographer, he is the finest in the country 

today. His bold and intellectual compositions 

in traditional themes are brilliant, 

whereas his contemporary works are also 

refreshing in concept, crisp and entertaining. 

(The author 

is a veteran 

Kathak 

danseuse) 

60 

FEBRUARY 2014

BOOK REVIEW 

A peep into manager’s mind 

» MANAGEMENT BY IDIOTS 

Author: Dr Arup Roy Choudhury 

Publisher: Tata McGraw - 

Hill Education (I) Limited 

Language: English 

ISBN-10: 9351342972 

ISBN-13: 978-9351342977 

Paperback: 132 pages 

Price – Rs 295 

(Paperback) 

Horn Please! Your drive up the 

corporate ladder is not complete 

at least in India without making 

your presence felt. Even a mother 

doesn’t feed her baby till it cries out loud 

so how do you expect you will be heard 

till you make your presence felt. So, says 

Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman and 

Managing Director of NTPC, largest 

power generator company in India and 

writer of Management by Idiots. 

Dr Roy Choudhury should know 

having become the youngest CEO of a 

public sector company at the age of 44. 

He says, “Indian manager should also 

proactively let the superiors, peers and 

subordinates to know of his intentions, 

his strategies and his destination as well 

as the timeline.” And needless to say 

honking needs to be done for not just 

your juniors or peers but for your superiors 

too. 

Published by McGraw Hill, this book 

has many tips for managers working in 

the Indian milieu. Author delves deeply 

into his personal experience and workings 

of the Indian corporate world. His 

premise is that the concepts and values 

preached by the western business schools 

need to be learned but we need to unlearn 

them sooner than later to succeed 

in the Indian corporate world. And this 

unlearning helps in dealing with business 

situations with spontaneity. 

The book has a common sense approach 

to management which comes 

from the unique Indian experience of life 

and films. Jo Dar Gaya Samjho Mar Gaya 

might be a filmi dialogue and a chapter 

title in the book ,but greats like Rabindranath 

Tagore and William Shakespeare 

had also given gems of wisdom to 

the same effect. So, risks have to be taken 

in decision making and one has to be 

fearless. And it is experience which helps 

one draw the thin line between fearlessness 

and misadventure. 

Many of us have grown up listening 

to the dictum Kal Kare So Aaj Kar Aaj 

Kare So Ab but we still procrastinate. And 

this could be professional hara-kiri for an 

efficient manager. The book suggests one 

needs to sort out ones priorities and clear 

up ones desk as good professional tools. 

Another suggestion which seems all so 

obvious that one forgets to implement it 

in not just professional but in our personal 

lives too is saying well done! Appreciating 

the good work done through a pat 

on the back would work as magic and as 

a manager it would get more out of one’s 

subordinates. 

Dr Roy Choudhury believes a good 

manager shows what he means by his 

actions rather than his words and like 

a cricketer, a manager is also as good 

as his last innings. Thinking out of the 

box, being innovative and experimental 

and finding a jugaad takes you far. 

Author’s one of top tip to the readers is 

what he calls writing your own obituary. 

Seems shocking when one reads this but 

This is a book for all those who are 

joining the work force hoping to 

be future managers, employees, 

people with humility to learn and 

managers themselves who want to 

perfect the art of management 

it makes a lot of sense when one realizes 

what the prescription really means- think 

about how you would be judged for your 

actions and this will give you an opportunity 

to reflect upon yourself. Keep yourself 

open to feedback and keep yourself 

grounded and then only you will be able 

to take the big jump professionally, says 

Management by Idiots. 

Humility, loving your work, dreaming, 

having a good plan and being good 

are some of the other mantras prescribed 

in the book. All of these have been presented 

in lucid and easy language: It is 

guru gyan made easy. Dr Roy Choudhury 

has been deeply influenced by 

Guru Maharaj Sree Sree Mohananand 

Brahmachari and so there is one chapter 

where he takes his guru’s mantras as basis 

to achieve goals in the cut throat corporate 

world. The advice is to “never hurt 

anyone’s feelings, utilizing everyone’s potential 

through handholding, operating 

from a ‘nurturing parent’ state impartially 

and with affection, expressing appreciation 

through positive strokes.” 

Management success also, accept it 

or not, comes with blowing a bit of your 

own trumpet and by living as if you will 

die tomorrow and learning as if you will 

live forever, says the author. 

This is a book for all those who are 

joining the work force hoping to be future 

managers, employees, people with humility 

to learn and managers themselves who 

want to perfect the art of management. It 

is a jargon free, easy to implement book of 

ideas borne out of authors own rich and 

vast experience. An experience worth 

partaking of considering BIT Mesra educated 

civil engineer, Dr Roy Choudhury 

did his post graduation and doctorate 

from IIT Delhi and was responsible for 

the remarkable turnaround of loss making 

NBCC where salaries couldn’t be 

paid and now heads NTPC -- acknowledged 

globally for its size and efficiency. 

Written for today’s leaders who 

is hard pressed for time, the book has 

short and lucid chapters with enriching 

thoughts and striking illustrations driving 

the message. 

So, if your intentions are pure then 

you are bound to succeed and this book 

will just help as a guide in your path to 

success. 

61



HEALTH DIABETES 

The silent killer 

» DR. ANOOP MISRA & 

DR. SWATI BHARDWAJ 

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of 

the most common non-communicable 

diseases (NCDs) globally. 

Over the past 30 years, the status 

of diabetes has changed from being a mild 

disorder of the elderly to one of the major 

causes of morbidity and mortality affecting 

the youth and the middle-aged people. 

It is the fourth or fifth leading cause 

of death in most high-income countries 

and there is substantial evidence that it is 

epidemic in many economically developing 

and newly industrialised countries. 

What makes Indians more prone? 

For years, we have heard that Indians 

are at a greater risk for diabetes. Clearly, 

Indians have a higher predisposition to 

syndrome X (clustering of various risk 

factors, a first step towards diabetes), type 

2 diabetes and coronary artery disease, as 

compared to other ethnic groups. These 

phenomena cannot be ascribed to a single 

factor, but to multiple factors. 

Most importantly, Indians have more 

accumulated fat in their bodies from the 

time of birth, nearly 1.5 times more than 

the white race. This can be accumulated 

in many places, but when it gathers at the 

abdomen, it interferes with the body’s 

metabolism and becomes a health problem. 

As a rule, Indians tend to have greater 

waist circumference and waist-to-hip 

ratio. Why Indians have higher body fat 

is not clear, however it has been suggested 

that during centuries of famine, body developed 

a mechanism that enables it to 

store energy in the form of fat (‘best storage 

form of energy’) to be used at times 

of food scarcity. Now that the food is in 

excess, this accumulated fat has increased 

rapidly. We have also researched that 

this excess fat gets deposited in peculiar 

places in the body; nape of neck (akin to 

‘buffalo hump’) and below chin (‘double 

chin’). In fact, these markers could easily 

be recognized and lend increased risk for 

the development of diabetes. 

Secondly, there is an inherent tendency 

amongst Indians for insulin to act 

slowly and in an ineffective manner. This 

could be dictated by the genes. 

Next, our livers (‘prime site of glucose 

metabolism’) are also full of fat and 

the metabolism is markedly sluggish as 

shown by recent data on Indians. 

Besides, these risk factors are aggravated 

by the social and economic outcomes 

of urbanisation, industrialisation and globalisation. 

In India, rapid urbanisation 

and changing lifestyles are contributing to 

widespread onset of diabetes. More people 

are leading relatively sedentary and highly 

stressful lives, combined with regular intake 

of fast foods with high quantities of fats, refined 

carbohydrates and sugar. 

Migration increases Adiposity (fatness) 

and Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) amongst Indians. 

Migration, whether inter-country, or 

intra-country, appears to be a risk factor for 

diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases. 

Adiposity and insulin resistance in migrant 

Indians tended to be higher than either 

urban or rural-based dwellers in India. Indians 

are metabolically dysfunctional. We 

can be classified as ‘metabolically obese’ or 

more appropriately dysfunctional, i.e. we 

have multiple metabolic derangements but 

are ‘non-obese’ by conventional body mass 

index standards. These ‘non-obese’ people 

usually have high body fat, abdominal adiposity 

and thick truncal subcutaneous fat. 

These body composition characteristics 

individually, or in combination, contribute 

to insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and 

hyperglycemia. According to our view, it 

seems that the ‘switch” for metabolic control 

slowed down several centuries ago. 

This ‘switch’ continues to work in the same 

mode, even when more control is needed. 

A hypothesis emphasising on the fact 

that fetal under-nutrition leads to altered 

metabolic programming in adult life has 

been proposed but lacks firm evidence. Indian 

babies born small and with low birth 

weight were found to have higher systolic 

blood pressure and adiposity at the age of 

eight years. These data have prompted the 

concept that the syndrome X originates in 

the mother’s womb and that at this time, 

key metabolic activities may get modulated. 

Lifestyle and diabetes 

Presently, the Indian population is 

going through a phase of dietary transition; 

leaving the traditional diets, people 

have now started opting for commercially 

available packaged foods or quick homemade 

foods. These snacks, often regarded 

as ‘comfort foods’, are quickly prepared or 

are easily available commercially and include 

fried foods that are high in energy 

and fats (saturated and trans fats) but low 

in nutrients. The increase in the intake 

of energy dense foods together with low 

levels of physical activity are leading to 

increased incidence of obesity and other 

related lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, 

cardiovascular disease and 

the metabolic syndrome. Sedentary habits, 

especially watching TV, are associated 

with significantly higher risks for obesity 

and type 2 diabetes. 

Given the current dietary patterns 

of Indians and increasing prevalence of 

lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular 

diseases, etc., it is important to generate 

awareness about good nutrition and 

health for the prevention of obesity and 

diabetes. These shall not only promote 

good health, but also help in the prevention 

of non-communicable diseases such 

as diabetes, heart problems and other 

related diseases. In the long run, such 

programmes shall help in reducing the 

burden on the country’s economy. 

(Dr. Anoop Misra is 

Chairman, Fortis-C-DOC 

Centre of Excellence for 

Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases 

and Endocrinology 

& Dr. Swati Bhardwaj 

is Head, Nutrition and 

Fatty Acid Research, National Diabetes, 

Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation) 

62 

FEBRUARY 2014

VIDYA BALAN – 

ACTOR WITH A 

DIFFERENCE 

» RANJITH 

Success has not come the easy 

way for this revolutionary actor 

of Bollywood, who has broken 

the stereotype roles of Hindi 

film heroines. Having started early in 

her teens, working in a highly successful 

TV comedy serial, stardom in Hindi 

film industry had been a tale of struggle 

and conviction. 

63



t was in Mumbai that she 

developed the passion to work in 

films. She got her initial break as a 

teenager when she was signed for 

a popular comedy TV serial, Hum 

Panch directed by Ekta Kapoor 

64 

FEBRUARY 2014 

My work is an extension of my 

beliefs. I don’t think I am an activist 

at all. I am an actor first and I try 

using that to leverage attention to 

some of the causes I am associated 

with. I think I am a humanist 

Vidya Balan, written off after her initial 

few films, came back to rule box office and 

become heartthrob of millions and the darling 

of critics. She gave a glimpse of her talent 

through Parineeta, Paa, Ishqiya, No One 

Killed Jessica and The Dirty Picture. 

These strong and unconventional roles 

earned her a national award, five film fare 

awards and five screen awards in the last few 

years. But the top of these awards would surely 

be Padma Shri awarded to her by Government 

of India on the 65th Republic Day, on 

January 26, 2014. 

Overwhelmed with the honour, Vidya 

termed the award very special and dedicated 

it to her family who has been her support 

through the ups and downs. 

Born in Palghat, Kerala, Vidya’s parents 

re-located to Mumbai where she had her 

early education at St. Anthony Girls’ High 

School and later did her masters in sociology 

from Mumbai University. It was in Mumbai 

that she developed the passion to work in 

films. She got her initial break as a teenager 

when she was signed for a popular comedy 

TV serial, Hum Panch directed by Ekta Kapoor. 

After the early stint with TV serial getting 

a role in Hindi films became difficult 

and when they came she could hardly make 

an impact. However, she was confident about 

her talent and continued her struggle relentlessly, 

modeling with top brands, till Parineeta 

happened. The film got her the first Film 

Fare award. There was no looking back. She 

churned out some scintillating roles in Paa, 

Ishqiya and The Dirty Picture that got her 

more awards and established herself as the 

best Bollywood actor. 

Besides, her tight schedule in films, Vidya 

has espoused a strong interest towards social 

causes — especially relating to empowerment 

of women and their education. She 

has also been appointed by the Indian 

government as the brand ambassador in 

the drive to improve sanitary conditions 

in the country. 

Vidhya says, “My work is an extension 

of my beliefs. I don’t think I am 

an activist at all. I am an actor first 

and I try using that to leverage attention 

to some of the causes I am 

associated with. I think I am a humanist.” 

She says, Shabana Azmi has 

been her greatest inspiration. 

Even at this stage of her career, 

Vidya is very choosy about her 

roles and likes to play roles that are 

different. 

She is willing to take up the challenges 

and also keen to live up to 

them.

CINEMA 

Aishwarya voted the world’s fourth most beautiful woman 

In a recent poll conducted by an online magazine, ‘Hollywood Buzz’, 

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been voted the world’s fourth most beautiful 

woman. According to the poll results, Aishwarya ranked fourth on the 

list of ‘Top 30’ Most Beautiful Women, coming right after Monica Belluci, 

Kate Upton and Angelina Jolie. Belluci is an Italian actress, Upton is an 

American model and actress while Jolie, a Hollywood actress, needs no 

introduction. 

The poll saw more than four million people sending in their votes to select 

the most intelligent, desirable and successful women in 2013 – 2014. 

Aishwarya, who recently turned 40, said she was overwhelmed by the 

honour and thanked her fans and well-wishers. Although Aishwarya has 

maintained a three-year-long break from films till now, she has maintained 

a public presence through endorsement deals, comeback plans 

and family issues that keep cropping up from time-to-time. 

Dhanush’s new Hindi film gets going 

Shahid Kapoor scared of the 

likes of ex-flame Kareena 

Dhanush – best known for his song ‘Kolaveri Di’ – has begun 

shooting for his new Hindi film. He features opposite Akshara 

Haasan while the film also casts Big B Amitabh Bachchan in a 

prominent role. 

The shooting schedules have begun at Igatpuri under the critically 

acclaimed director Balki, who has such well-known films like 

‘Cheeni Kum’ and ‘Paa’ among others, to his credit. The movie 

is being produced by Hope Productions. PC Sreeram has been 

roped in as director of photography and Ilayaraja as the music 

composer. 

Tamil actor Dhanush had proved his mettle in Bollywood with the 

highly successful ‘Ranjhanna’ for which he even won a Filmfare 

award recently. 

Farhan Akhtar enjoyed his comical break 

Farhan Akhtar says that of all the films he 

has done as an actor till now, his upcoming 

‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects’ gave him the chance 

to do maximum comedy. He appears opposite 

Vidya Balan in this film. 

“I got to do a lot of comedy in the film. The 

dialogues and the situations are very funny. 

I think out of all the films that I have done as 

an actor till now, this is probably the most 

humourous I ever did,” the 40-year-old said 

recently at a promotional event The actor also says that ‘Shaadi 

Ke Side Effects’ has the elements of a basic rom-com. 

Shahid Kapoor has opened his heart 

about his past affairs on a chat 

show and quipped about 

how he is scared of dating 

actresses now. He said 

that those were bad 

memories and he 

was not interested in 

remembering it. 

When he was asked 

whom he wanted 

to date, the hunk 

promptly replied, “Not 

an actress. I am done 

with that. I am a little 

scared of dating an 

actress for sure.” 

In the past, Shahid’s 

name has also been 

linked with actresses like 

Nargis Fakhri, Bipasha 

Basu, Anushka Sharma 

and Huma Qureshi. 

65



SPRITUAL TOUCH 

Towards a stress-free life 

» SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR 

Once Mullah Naseeruddin met with 

an accident and he landed in a 

hospital. He had band-aid all over 

the face, only his eyes were visible. 

In every part of the body something was 

broken. One of his friends came and asked 

him, Mullah how are you doing? He said,” 

I am fine. Only it hurts when I laugh.” The 

friend then asked Mullah, “How can you 

laugh being in this condition.” Mullah 

then replied, “If I don’t laugh now I have 

never laughed in my life.” 

Undying enthusiasm is one aspect of 

being in perfect health. The word health 

in Sanskrit means an enlightened being. 

‘Swasthi’ means one who is established in 

self. What are the signs of being in oneself? 

First is enthusiasm - one who can 

laugh and say “today nothing worked.” 

To be able to say that you need a state of 

mind that is stress-free and tension proof. 

There are 2 conditions of the mind. One 

is body and mind together. And the other 

is body and the mind looking in different 

directions. Whether it is schools or in hospitals, 

attention deficiency syndrome is so 

prevalent today. So mindfulness, being alert 

and aware is the second sign of good health. 

Sometimes when you are stressed, you are 

also alert, but that is not good. You need to 

be alert as well as relaxed and that is what 

you call enlightenment. 

Half of our health we spend in gaining 

wealth and then we spend that wealth 

to gain back our health. This is not economical. 

We do not take care of our mind 

and our spirit. There are 7 layers to our 

existence- body, breath, mind, intellect, 

memory, ego and self. It is the breath that 

connects the body and the mind. Self is 

the subtlest aspect of our being, our existence. 

Everything goes on to change, the 

body undergoes a change and so does our 

mind. Mind is thoughts and the sense of 

perception in your consciousness that 

changes all the time; intellect, understanding, 

judgements, intellect changes, 

memory, ego. 

But there is something that doesn’t 

change within you. And that is called 

self- which is the reference point of all 

the changes. Unless and until you are in 

touch with this subtlest aspect, you are 

not called a healthy person according to 

the ancient system of Ayurveda. 

Nature has provided us with an inbuilt 

mechanism. Every night we sleep. 

Sleep is very important as that is when 

the body releases stress and energy gets 

recuperated. To some extent, sleep takes 

care of the fatigue. But most of the times, 

stresses remain in the system. For tackling 

these kinds of stresses, there are 

techniques of pranayama and meditation 

which focus on how the rhythm of breath 

is linked to the state of the mind. 

For every emotion there is a particular 

rhythm in the breath. Slow, long inhalation 

indicates pleasure and forceful 

exhalation indicates stress. So our breath 

is linked to our emotions. The emotions 

are definitely one of the factors of stress. 

Emotional instability causes stress. 

Your body language indicates your 

state of mind and energy in the system. 

We are encapsuled in a cloud of energy 

Half of our health we spend in 

gaining wealth and then we spend 

that wealth to gain back our health. 

This is not economical. We do not 

take care of our mind and our spirit 

which is called consciousness. You have a 

candle and a wick. When you light, put a 

match stick to the candle, what happens? 

The wick gets the glow around that. The 

same hydrocarbon is there in the candle, 

wick is also there. But once it is ignited 

the glow comes on top of the wick. Same 

way body is like the wick of the candle 

and what is around the body is the consciousness, 

which makes you alive, which 

keeps you alive. 

Have you seen animals when they 

get wet or when they play in the dust? 

What they do when they come out? They 

shake their full body, shake their hands 

and their body. Get all those things out 

of them. But we human beings hold onto 

everything, all the stress. Just looking at a 

dog or puppy or cat we should know how 

you should shake everything off. When 

you come to office, you should shake the 

home off. When you go back home, you 

should shake the office off your back. 

All the yoga postures, exercises are 

made by nature. If you observe a baby, from 

the time it is born to the age of 3, he or she 

does all the yoga asanas. You need to observe 

their breathing patterns too. The way 

a baby breathes is much different from the 

way an adult does. It is stress that causes the 

breathing pattern in adults to change. 

When you are stressed you frown. 

Whenever you frown, you use 72 nerves 

and muscles in your face. But when you 

smile you use only 4. So you give more 

work to your face every time you frown. 

More work means more stress. Stress also 

makes your smile disappear. 

Never mind if some failure happens 

here and there, so what? Every failure is 

a big step for success. That’s it, pump up 

your enthusiasm. If you have the skill can 

turn any situation around and induce little 

humour in it. Humour is very good 

greasing for avoiding stress. 

Avoid getting stressed. And what is 

that you can do avoid getting stressed, 

that is meditation. That is seeing life from 

a broader perspective. Meditation is not 

concentration. It is not doing something. 

Its deep relaxation. For meditation we 

have three golden rules. I want nothing, I 

do nothing and I am nothing. 

www.artofliving.org 

66 

FEBRUARY 2014

Available 

Now 

Touching Every aspect of the nation 

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FEBRUARY 2014

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