1991: When India made history

Born in the United Kingdom, growing up in Sudan, residing in Hong Kong and investing in India. His father was an Icelandic and probably the only one in Sudan, which must have made him stand out, quite a bit in the community! But what memories of Sudan that stick with Jon Thorn is the dire poverty and the famine, which left an indelible impression on him.

He went back to the UK, when he was around 9 years old and studied there. He got his doctorate from the London School of Economics. So, when he finally started working in the 1980s in the US, there were investing big-names like Michael Milken and Sir John Templeton gauging the global markets and investing in unknown markets and asset classes.

Managing Director & CIO of India Capital Fund, Jon Thorn told CNBC-TV18, "Mike Milken is somebody who invented a whole class of securities - junk bonds. He invented it as an investable class, and it's very rare - there were only 4 or 5 people in the century - who have truly claimed to invent a whole asset class."

Templeton saw potential in India but in the 1990s, it was undeserved as a lot needed to be done in the country to attract foreign investments. As Thorn describes it, it was more of an "intellectual conviction that there was potential and possibility. But none of is actuality yet."

"So in our view anyway, it could so easily have happened. So it was a very a tough decision - it was quite a difficult to sell. We had a lot of problems convincing people, that India had possibilities."

He's also had experience of writing for a food and beverage industry magazine, which also gave him a bird's eyeview of how managers managed and sold their products, and made money for their shareholders.

Thorn says that his convictions paid off and India is destined for greater things. So much so, that in 2005, his fund, India Capital Fund won the best 'Single Country Fund' award in 2005 from Asia Hedge.

His investment philosophy is "extraordinary change leads to extraordinary crises, which leads to extraordinary opportunity." And he was proved right, when in 1991, India's Reserve Bank of India ran out of gold and the World Bank came to the rescue on the condition that India liberalised its economy.

Thorn feels that when China and India decided to join the economy, that was a truly momentous moment in history, as opposed to the breakup of the Soviet Union or even the fall of the Berlin Wall.

He explains, "The thing about China is that they industrialised or re-industrialised I may say, much earlier than India. But more importantly, this has been a very single political structure to get things done and that makes things happen faster. I don't think one is certainly better than the other, but that's how it happened. The other thing is, investing capital in China has created the manufacturing base."

"In 2003, China was the largest single recipient of investment capital in the world -more than US - and there has not been any other country apart from the US since 1880 which has received so much investment capital. Now this fact alone, changes similar assumptions about what the future will be like for China and for India as well."

India being a democratic country, and with as many rules and regulations, beginning a new business or setting up a plant, was tough going for the foreigners, who came in during the first wave in 1991.

Thorn explains, "I personally always felt that the theoretical prospects were unbeatable for India. The labour force, the language, the sheer demographic profile being among the youngest population of the world, all these things I profoundly believed would pan out and would actually be successful in the end."

"But I believed that the timeframe would be much shorter but it extended. I won't say that we became desperate, but we did rather wonder and become a little impatient. I believed these things were fundamental and would ultimately come right."

Thorn says that his convictions paid off and India is destined for greater things. So much so, that in 2005, his fund, India Capital Fund won the best 'Single Country Fund' award in 2005 from Asia Hedge. But he believes more must be done on the privatisation front - to ensure that competition pushes GDP growth higher, thereby giving people higher standards of living.

Thorn concludes, "The government should govern and not manage the companies. I think it's very clear that when you get the government away from running economies, GDP increases. But it's a political decision for the citizens of India and the government of the day to make."

Written for moneycontrol.com

Pitching India to foreign funds the Quantum way

Chief Executive Officer, CEO and chief investment officer, Quantum Advisors, Ajit Dayal seems to have known what he wanted from life, very early on. Though, his father was a doctor and it was expected he would follow his footsteps, he chose to play the equities game because he didn't find the prospect of making house-calls at 3am in the morning very appealing! So he went off to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to get an MBA degree.

He did have the option to work on Wall Street but gave that up to work in India. He sure has made the most of his time here. For instance, he's written the Quantum Year Book and some lighthearted stuff as well - well, like comic books on the stock exchange!

Pre-liberalisation market scenario
He felt there was excitement in the air, of working in a nascent market like India, which in 1984, had yet to see big-ticket players like Franklin Templeton and Alliance come in.

The person who gave him his first break was Ashok Birla. Dayal told CNBC-TV18, "I met him in 1984, and he took me on. He was setting up a company then, with SG Warburg called Mercury Asset Management. The fund was called Birla Mercury Funds and I was the director of the fund. Our role was to get money from non-resident Indians, NRIs, to invest in the Indian stock markets, to help the company develop.

"That was an idea, which was way ahead of its time, maybe 10 years ahead of its time because the first foreign funds actually were launched in India in 1993-94. That's when Franklin came down to India, Alliance came down to India."

But India wasn't ready for such radical business practices then. So, between 1985-89, Dayal did the rounds in New Delhi, meeting with the finance minister and other mandarins who could move the pace of the financial market reforms along.

But, at that point India was fighting shy of allowing foreign capital into the country because the real fear was that the Birlas were gearing up to take over companies and also because of the Swraj Paul episode in 1981.

Dayal recounted, "So people were scared of the foreign flows of money and here we were, trying to sell the idea that NRIs had a lot of capital and India as a country needed capital, there was a perfect match and the bridge for the two was the mutual fund route."

The irony was, that even as early as 1985, foreign funds were eager to come in despite the 40 per cent cap that was prevalent, for any fund launched by NRIs.

He wasn't successful in getting mindsets to change about foreign inflows but he did move to Unit Trust of India, briefly to help them raise money when they ventured into the US market.

He recalled, "I actually joined at the tail-end of the marketing exercise. I helped them to choose stocks for portfolios in India and then I left UTI and went back to the stock exchange, where I was a sub-broker on the floor of the exchange."

But research reports was what he really wanted to do. He admits, "The idea was to get information flowing, to as many people as you could about India and also to begin to let people know, 'what's a share, why should you buy shares', not because it was owned by the Tatas, Birlas or Ambanis but because there is a P/E ratio, price to cash-flow ratio, dividend yield and there is earning."

A time of change...
When the 1991 balance of payments crisis forced the then Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh to throw open the economy, he was ready with his homework. He explained, "That was a day that we were actually waiting for, we started the Quantum Year Book in January 1990 - a year and half before the rules were announced for foreigners to buy shares - so on July 2, 1991 when the rules were announced for foreigners to buy shares, we were just waiting. Every single foreign group came down to India and they met us and we finally did a joint venture with Jardine Fleming."

Working with Jardine Fleming "was fantastic in many ways because they helped me to make Quantum from a 12 person team of research analysts to Jardine Fleming Quantum Enterprise with 180 people, in the course of a year. It was a JV and when I first met with them, they asked me, 'what's your dream for India and what's it going to cost?' when I told them what I had dreamt up and said it would cost $3 million, they gave me a cheque with no questions asked."

This proved a boon for his team's research purposes because now he had access to data flow from across the world. He elaborated, "We could, sort of, position ACC and Ambuja with respect to Holcim of Switzerland and in relation to Lafarge of France. So the data-flows were great. It's not that we actually went and wrote research reports on those companies but we read a lot of stuff on these companies."

There was a lot of action happening on the stock market, around the time, he inked his deal with Jarding Fleming - it was witnessing the Harshad Mehta led spike, so he cautioned Jardine Fleming, telling them. "There will be a collapse but don't worry, the fundamentals of the economy are still solid and they believed it."

Selling India to foreign funds
After his Jardine Fleming stint, he became a local advisor to funds looking to come into India. One of them was a UK fund called Prolific Asset Management and the other one was the California-based Walden Group. He and the Walden Group established the second venture capital fund for India. It was around this time, he had the opportunity to meet his guru and someone who inspired him.

Sir John Templeton
He reminisced, "I met Tom Hansberger in July 1998. He's an absolute genius, he was the co-founder of Templeton, Galbraith, and Hansberger. The first thing Tom told me is that I am going to make you unlearn all the nonsense you have learnt and I am going to teach you real long-term investing and real long-term research and he just changed the time horizon - the way we look at companies, the way we studied managements, the way we look at anything in the market - is really born out of what is happening with, what Sir John (Templeton) and Tom had done in their own enterprise, right from 1979.

"I actually moved to Florida in 1998 and then I was shuttling between Florida and India for the last six years, but I had my team in India. So my team and I, would chose Indian stocks for the portfolios that we ran on Tom's behalf."

Tom Hansberger
"In fact, when I went to Hansberger, Tom liked my work a lot and he actually made me the deputy CIO of the company in March 2000 and I know that he was running a fund valued at about $5.4 billion, till I left last year. Included in that, was the fact that I ran a large fund for one of the largest money managements groups in the world called Vanguard International Value Fund."

Personal investment fundas
His personal investing philosophy is to look at long-term five-year plans and how the management plans to achieve it. He's also a stock picker and does not believe in playing by the index approach. He explained, "When I say value, it means that I must buy a stock which has got profit power or the EPS power more than the market at a P/E ratio, that is equal to the market."

His future goals include running money for large institutions and becoming a wealthy individual! He reiterated, "It is about getting long-term money into India. It's what I always wanted to do - to get equity capital from the hands of big institutions and big pensions in the US to India, not short-term momentum money."

There are some things he cautions about. He stresses on being disciplined about when you plan to get into the market and how long you plan to hold onto the stock. Otherwise, it just hints at the fact that you don't believe in the numbers yourself.

He elaborated, "We are value guys, so by definition we buy shares that no one else wants, and we tend to buy them when they are going down. So it's like catching a falling knife, which is always dangerous. And at the other end when shares go up, we are disciplined. We are not willing to pay what the growth momentum guys are willing to pay."

And what's his advice to upcoming market analysts? "I would tell them that irrespective of nationalities, you can find good and bad people anywhere in the world and don't get fooled by the fact that foreign money, per se, is sort of, angelic in nature because it's not", he concluded.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Trendy & earthy handicrafts for your home

Your home deserves the best and almost everyone does go around hunting for that perfect hand-knotted carpet, or intricately woven wall tapestries in vivid colours. Want wrought iron candle sconces or lovely Warli or Madhubani artwork - anything that shouts India and flaunts its rich heritage?

Then head to Nirmitee in Mumbai. Your search for that perfect artifact should end here. This store was set up in 1997 and products are sourced from all corners of the country, which find their way to this store and then into many of the superbly done up Mumbai homes.

Many artists get a chance to showcase their talent and in diverse mediums like wood, clay, metal and other materials here. One will find Odissi brass statues, copper handicrafts from Maharashtra, wrought iron statues from Madhya Pradesh and many other artifacts from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

You can browse and take your pick - so do leave home with plenty of time to kill - as you wouldn't want to rush this shopping experience. All of these handicrafts are lovingly created masterpieces - one gets a hint of tradition being maintained with a family working to keep their skills alive.

At the store, handicrafts are not priced beyond a maximum of Rs 25,000. Apart from metal work, there are palm leaf paintings, Warli art and Madhubani art. If art doesn't excite you, you could just buy the handcrafted chess pieces from Rajasthan - to get some practice for those boardroom battles.

Nirmitee
4/5 Khosravi Estate, SK Bole Road, Dadar (W)
Tel no: 24229139
Open: 11.00 am - 8.00 pm

Written for moneycontrol.com

Global Giants Wade Through Middle East Franchise Deals

The Middle East is a cesspool of political turmoil and missed opportunities.

Every political manoeuvre is equalled by a reaction having huge economic repercussions. For instance: Oil-rich Iraq continues to have sanctions imposed 11 years after it invaded Kuwait. Formerly one of the more highly developed countries in the region, it is now dependent on economic handouts. But the obstacles apart, some Middle East countries have opened their markets to western transnationals. So how did these global giants adapt to the business climate and work around bureaucratic red-tape? The answer is they have involved local businesses - i.e., franchising.

Understanding the nuances is a different ball-game altogether.

Says Reema Ali, managing partner in a Washington DC firm Ali & Partners, which handles commercial law via affiliates around the Middle East: “A franchise deal in the Middle East is a marriage with very high alimony. If the franchiser and franchisee disagree, it is very difficult to come out of the relationship without having to pay compensation.”

But that doesn’t mean franchise operations are not opening in that region. According to Ms Ali, the most lucrative markets are Egypt and Saudi Arabia. She adds, “For the franchiser, the overriding strategy is to build the cost of a potential disagreement into the business plan.” But she and other lawyers who handle franchise deals in the region suggest that some additional general legal strategies are beneficial.

Opening franchises in the Middle East have gained popularity because many Middle Easterners perceive this business as ‘prestigious and lucrative’ says John E Xefos, managing partner of the Baker & McKenzie office in Riyadh. “The franchisee, especially the smaller operator, has probably been hearing get-rich stories for years. He is primed for disappointment.” Many aspects of running a franchise operation in the Middle East is more difficult than in Europe or the US. For eg: more of the component product may need to be imported and - at least in Saudi Arabia construction costs could be higher.

Another setback that a franchisee overlooks is that the franchiser expects to pocket his royalty under any circumstances. Mr Xefos recommends “that the franchisee understand upfront that there are no guaranteed profits and the franchiser expects the royalty will be paid regardless of what happens to the bottomline.” This kind of disclosure tends to keep misunderstandings at bay. He also suggests that franchise agreements be adhered to because it is not possible to apply the franchise’ parent country’s laws in the Middle East. Problems too could arise if the franchiser comes out with a new logo or marketing campaign and expects his Middle East partners to tote the line. If they don’t, then shutting down the operations or removing the sign may not be an available option.

Among Middle Eastern jurisdiction, Israel is a case unto himself. Its legal system is similar to the United States and is based on British rather that French, Turkish and Islamic law.

Andrew P Loewinger of Buchanan Ingersoll in Washington DC says: “Israel does have antitrust laws, although my experience is they don’t create problems for franchisers.” He adds, “ There are no laws specifically circumscribing the franchise relationship, its pretty much contractual.”

But the biggest difference between Israel and many Arab countries is that Israel has no commercial agency laws. Mr Loewinger says,”The main purpose of these laws was to protect the agent through a compensation arrangement. If the agreement is terminated by the foreign party, the agent is entitled to some compensation by statute or regulation - that is separate form the contract.” The compensation varies from country to country. It could be more than a year’s net profit or payment for unused inventory. But in any form, it can have a major effect on the franchise deal and should be incorporated as cost of doing business.

Of course there are ways to sidestep this as well. Some franchisers don’t register the transaction. A relationship that is not registered is not enforceable. But more common is adding a “foreign choice-of-law “ clause. This means one could set up a franchise in Turkey and specify in the contract that New York law will apply. This is by no means fool-proof because “ for certain kinds of issues that come up, no matter what you say, Turkish law will apply.”

Mr Loewinger added, “There is a tendency in Middle Eastern countries for courts to either assume jurisdiction, or as a matter of policy not to recognise the awards of foreign bodies.” So to sort out problematic issues in such situations, agree to local arbitration but select an impartial arbitral authority and specify the arbitration venue in the initial agreement itself.

In countries such as Bahrain and the UAE, there is more willingness to accept and enforce foreign awards. But pushing the envelope too far may not be a good idea. So if the franchiser is US-based, then it might be better to specifically request a European arbitral authority, rather than a home-based one.

Written for The Financial Express

Shining Silver...and its many charms

When image promotion is the name of the game, as it is evidently these days, silver is putting a high gloss on its aura, with a little bit of help from its producers.

According to silver producers, the white metal has something for everyone: jewellery for the wife, artefacts for the home, medical bandages for the kids and futuristically designed, germ resistant homes for the environment buff.

Your chemist around the corner may soon be selling silver coated, quick healing medical bandages imported from the US. Aiming to increase consumer use of these medical adhesives, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) recently approved over-the-counter sales of silver based, antimicrobial bandages, manufactured by Westaim Biomedical Corp., which will be a lower dose version of the company’s successful ‘Acticoat’ burn and wound dressings.

Scott Gillis, president of Westaim Biomedical Corp., says: “Consumers will be able to use a lower dosage form of the same powerful technology employed in burn units to treat the most severe, life-threatening infections humans can face.”

Westaim’s clinical tests have shown that the proprietary silver coating has proved to be effective against more than 150 pathogens, including antibiotic resistant pathogens such as the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE).

Westaim is in talks with over-the-counter bandage producers and hopes to introduce the product in the market by 2003. “We believe there is a significant market opportunity for a proven antimicrobial consumer bandage,” adds Mr Gillis.

Well, that’s one use. Now for those who want to remove a permanent tattoo. The commonly used infra-red rays leave scars that may turn infectious. But silver enhanced bandages will promote healing and fend off infection after a tattoo has been removed.

Speaking last month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in Los Angeles, Dr Tolbert Wilkinson stated that a modified infrared coagulator—a device similar to a laser beam—is a cost effective way to permanently remove colour tattoos. Mr Wilkinson noted that this method was more affordable, but needed more intensive post-operative care. The use of an infra-red light source for tattoo removal has been in use since 1991, but it causes severe burns. By using lower settings in combination with the silver impregnated bandages, however, it produces excellent results. The silver ion bandages also help to shorten healing time and reduce the risk of blister breakage, infection and scarring.

Now for the germ resistant home, which uses silver in high contact areas. The plans for this home have earned designer David Martin an award from the American Institute of Architects for design excellence. “This ground breaking project sets the stage for the home of the future,” says Richard Wardrop, chairman and CEO of AK Steel, which will build the 11,000 square foot home, ‘Camino de Robles’ (‘Path of Oaks’) in California, in collaboration with upcoming biotech company AgION Technologies. The home will be an amalgamation of AK Steel’s carbon and stainless steel, coated with AgION’s proprietary silver based anti-bacteria compound.

AK Steel’s Mr Wardrop says: “The AK Steel concept home will be striking in appearance, while offering the benefits of steel construction. Using our steels coated with AgION’s antimicrobial compound, this project also introduces a new way to help combat germs on key surfaces in the home.”

The home’s skeletal framework will be constructed of steel, which should make it fire and earthquake proof. The silver embedded areas will include those that are considered “high touch”, such as handrails, faucets, kitchen areas and door knobs. The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning duct work will also be made of AgION-coated steel, as will some non-steel products, such as refrigerator trays and counter tops. This endeavour is part of a recent trend towards replacing wood with steel in home building because of environmental concerns.

Meanwhile, the Japanese, reeling under the burden of the recession and the shaky yen, are aiming to attract jewellery connoisseurs by producing ‘Art Clay Silver’. Aida Chemicals Industries of Japan plans to market its Art Clay Silver, which is already a rage with Japanese consumers, in the US soon.

Art Clay Silver is a pliable, liquid clay, which you can mould into jewellery of any kind and then fire in a kiln at a high temperature. Professional jewellery makers and skilled amateurs are already using this clay, but the company plans to broaden its appeal to end-consumers.

Company officials claim that intricate designs that would be difficult to make using traditional silver working techniques, are quite simple with Art Clay Silver. And the clay displays minimal shrinkage, so, Art Clay Silver retains the finer details of a design. Even rubber stamp impressions are retained after the firing.
The jewellery can then be given an “antique” finish with a dash of sulphur.

How’s that for a personal touch? So the next time you think of buying jewellery, try an Art Silver Clay kit from your friendly jeweller. Anything for exclusivity.

Written for The Financial Express

Tips from gurus to succeed in your career

Being good at anything takes effort but when one wants to master the world and come out on top in competitive sports or a chosen career it becomes a whole new ballgame.

So what has been former World Billiards Champion, Geet Sethi secret to success? He told CNBC-TV18, "You can't start in a game and say that I am going to be a world champion in seven years, you may not have the talent, you may not have the dedication to pursue the whole thing, you may get distracted in between.

"So you've just got to take it one day at a time, one week at a time and just keep improving your benchmark, I think it's very important to keep raising your own standard, till you reach a point where you are just below a world championship standard, and then you just kind of step into it."

So where does this inflection point come for companies, when they feel the need for change that is more in keeping with the times. Chief executive officer, CEO, & MD of Aptech, Pramod Khera explained, "Definitely, there is a right time for these sort of things. But I think in addition to that, one needs to have the conviction and the passion that yes one wants to do something, one wants to really take on the world and if that sort of conviction exists, then there is no reason as to why one can't do this."

He added, "You definitely do need to do some sort of planning, you do need to set out a goal, the only thing is that you have to do it stage-wise right through. When you are successful in the Indian market, then you start looking at the international market and you see which are the markets, where your product or your company can succeed and then you plan it out in such a way that you become a global player."

It does help that Aptech had a business that had proved successful in the domestic market. So when it began its international operations in 1993, it found a lot of takers in the expat market. Khera elaborated, "Indians living in the Middle East were interested and said that if you start something in the Middle East, we would be interested in taking such courses and that's how we really started off and we did well in the Middle East and then we started looking at the rest of the world."

That's the story of India, where the country has suddenly embraced the latest technology and built globally successful businesses - Infosys, Wipro instantly comes to mind. In sports too, it's not just cricket, which can claim its fair share of champions but chess, tennis and even billiards has its own share of heroes. So how come India is producing champions in non-core sports and business?

Sethi has a theory about this phenomenon. He said, "I believe it's got to do with tradition. And when I say tradition, I mean that when I was playing billiards, I had a Michael Ferreira to look up to, and when Michael Ferreira was playing, he had Wilson Jones to look up to.

"There is always one pioneer, one revolutionary person or a company, who comes on the scene, breaks all the rules and wins and becomes a world leader. I think that one pioneer has great inspirational value, he inspires the whole generation, which is following him and inspires the generation, not only to be world class but he, kind of, gives a subconscious belief to the youngsters and he is interacting with the youngsters, so the youngsters say that 'hey he is a world champion and I am playing with him and I almost beat him the other day, so maybe I can be a world champion too.' I think that is very important."

Sethi added, "I don't think I ever had a goal to be a world champion when I started in the game. This was way back in 1974-75, but I think, I just progressed from one step to the other and from the district level to state level and one day I just won the national title and winning the national title meant that I had an opportunity to represent my country at the world championship.

"And really at that time, the thought of even winning the world title never came up. So it was only after 1980-83, when I had defeated Michael Ferreira in the national championship, that thought came up. Otherwise, it was just work all the time."

Khera agrees, "Well to some extent, what Geet is saying is true but in a business, it's slightly different because today the world is becoming highly globalised and if, for example, Aptech has to succeed in India, it has to be globally competitive in India itself because there is global competition over here and the best way to prove that you are globally competitive, is to succeed outside the India.

"It makes a lot of sense for Indian companies, which are doing well to start looking at the international markets, and that's what Ranbaxy is doing. That's what large organisations, which are succeessful in India, apart from IT, are doing."

"While, there will always will be somebody who is a pioneer and that definitely motivates others to follow suit and excel. I think as far as IT is concerned, in India, people had the inherent skills. TCS was there much before Infosys, Satyam or Wipro came up and they were doing a lot of projects in India for the Indian government and also outside India and they also realized that if they have to do well, they have to succeed globally and that's how really the Indian IT industry has grown up today."

Another concern is allocating resources or even raising enough finances to venture abroad. Both corporates and sportspeople have to worry about it but that's where the similarities end.

Businesses go to the capital market while sportsman don't have the same luxury. They have to literally scrounge for sponsors, since they don't play the nation's favourite sport - cricket.

Sethi knows the feeling. He reiterates, "Absolutely, I think for every sportsperson from India specifically in individual sport, it's a big hindrance if I can call it that. Professionalism in sport has still not come into India in the same manner as it has in the more developed countries and today I think with media and globalization coming in, I find that resource crunch slowly easing away.

"So today, you have Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Narain Karthikeyan whose is getting millions of dollars to show his skills at Monte Carlo and at all the other races, but 10 years ago, he wouldn't have been able to do this, so he is at the right time at the right place."

Khera said that setting up Aptech abroad was as much of challenge because when they set up their training centre in the US, they were paying salaries in dollars and earning in rupees. But money questions apart, he says that learning about the local customs also pays, so you can customise your products.

He elaborated, "For example, our course material is translated into Chinese for the China market. But the examples that we are giving in those books also have to be changed into Chinese names, Chinese cities, Chinese customs etc. In the Middle East, we need to have a prayer room for the people, where they can go and pray, so these types of local sensitivities also need to be kept in mind."

Some sports are treated like stepchildren but not the IT industry, which has a strong industry body and the least amount of government interference. Khera has his tongue firmly in his cheek when he says, "In fact, we say that the greater service that the government has done, is stayed away from the IT industry!"

At the end of the day, it's one's convictions that the right thing is being done, that carries people on to greater heights. Khera explained, "One has to strike the balance and one has to look at the interest of the shareholder, stakeholder as well as the customers and the employees, who are working in your organisation, and not lose sight of the vision and the direction that you have set for yourself, that's a challenge."

Written for moneycontrol.com

Her sweets business is a big hit

Vrinda Rajgarhia is a young woman from a conservative community who knew what she wanted since she was a young girl. She's now achieving her goals and has not confined herself to the restrictions on the fairer sex, perceived or otherwise, that she may have encountered.

Vrinda Rajgarhia, Director, Sweet World, brought a bewildering range of imported candies to India that has enticed adults and children alike. "Ever since I was little, I always wanted to do my own things and I always thought of having my own business. I guess coming from a business family, it was just business in the blood," Vrinda told CNBC-TV18.

She added, "I think that's what most Marwari women do. They just take over the family business. I think doing my own things give me a lot of satisfaction than just joining the existing family business because the value-addition in the existing business is much less. Here you started something right from scratch. . . it's like your baby and when your baby starts crawling and running, it gives you immense satisfaction."

Although she did see herself as a budding entrepreneur from a young age, she didn't know what she wanted to do. She had her share of looking for the right business to be involved in. She said, "I won't say that ever since I was a kid I wanted to open a candy store or something like that. That's not true. But I am doing something completely different from what I studied. Actually, I should have been number crunching in a bank probably. But I think that I somehow didn't see myself doing that."

So she began with garments, as she puts it. "It was not really garments. It was more like a hosiery manufacturing set-up, but in the manufacturing thing, it has its own share of problems. . . plus it didn't work out because Indian yarn at that time was not of the (right) quality, neither was there state-of-the-art machinery (present in India). The (existing) machine snapped. Now that was something completely beyond my control, because obviously I couldn't be spinning my own yarn."

"We also did leather planners. That again is a very unorganised market. Stationery is a pretty unorganised market and if you want to pay all your taxes and do it honestly, you can't compete with the unorganised sector."

She continues, "I wanted to do candies for about four years but the export duty at that time was 70%. So at 70%, the pricing would have been prohibitive and, of course, you have to cap the price because you want to be accessible to the mass public and didn't want to make it so elitist."

"A child is not supposed to know that he can or he can't afford it, he is supposed to preserve his innocence for sometime. So it's not fair to do that. Then luckily duties came down to 30% and that's when we started working on the project. Here we are constantly innovating, trying to do things in our store that is so much fun."

She's found an ideal audience to cater to. Children who usually get what they want and candies are right up there on their list. Adults have not been able to resist the range available and so kids are excused for feeling tempted!

But did she still have to incur a high cost to bring these goodies into the country?

She replied, "We are in the 30% basic import duty bracket, 16% Cenvat duty and we have very high sales tax, always in the highest bracket. In some states, it's like 9%, and 12% in Delhi, and in Mumbai it's 15.6% and up to 21% in Chennai. And then there is entry tax and so on. So most of the money goes in paying duties."

The fact is that there is competition from the local unorganised sector and kids may prefer domestic branded sweets. She reiterates, "But I am not looking at them as my competitors. We are giving them (children) a bunch of different items, which are not even made here, like jellybeans or gummy sweets, etc. We don't get those here at all and today kids are more exposed. We have a huge market of young adults, teenagers etc and they all know what they are buying. So people don't mind paying slightly more for something that they like."

The sheer variety of sugary treats has pulled in more crowds than she expected. She said, "I started more on a gut feel. I didn't sort of base it (the business) on any hi-tech strategy or anything. I still remember the day we were stocking up our Lokhandwala store. We were still filling the shelves and customers just started walking in, and it was very hard because we weren't geared to sell at that moment. In the first week that we opened, I had no place to enter my own store, I was actually on the street!"

She avers, "I don't want to grow very rapidly until I set up a system in place. Hygiene is a huge issue for us, in all our stores and we have to maintain hygienic standards in all our stores. None of the candies are handled by hand till it reaches the stores and even then, my staff only handles them with disposable gloves. So we try to maintain very high quality of hygiene in our stores, plus we have to maintain refrigerated storage, etc."

"So to set up all those systems, obviously takes a lot of time and effort. It's not nice to sort of expand and then have problems in your stores because it's not fair to the customers if you are not giving them the quality that you promised. Also one wants to know, if it (candy sales) was cyclic or if it was around-the-year trend. Then we realised that the sales are around-the-year. We have decided that we would go the mall route because there is a mall mania happening in India."

She added, "Candies are basically a feel-good thing. So I don't really think I am just in the business of selling candies. I am in the business of spreading and sharing happiness and joy and that's why I have inculcated that culture in my staff as well, and my sales staff has been very supportive."

Finally, she sees big things for her stores and the Sweet World concept.

"Sweet World is again a thing that can be taken across confectionary candies. So that the first goal is to make it synonymous with confectionary candies, which we hope we should achieve in the next couple of years. In the next 4-5 years, I think Sweet World would become a brand in itself, which could be used for things like an amusement park. It is a sweet world out there! So you want to sort of do things which can spread joy and bonhomie, which is what we are looking at and doing," she said.

Written for moneycontrol

He made the movie 'The Elephant Can Dance' & believed it

He's an entrepreneur with three decades of experience in the heavy metal industry. An innovator who is seeking excellence in the manufacturing and forging of steel. That is Baba N Kalyani for you, who is worldwide known as Baba Sahib.

Baba Sahib joined the family business in 1972 and became the chairman of the group's flagship company, Bharat Forge in 1998. This was a time, when the companies core business of auto components was badly hit in the economic recession. Kalyani came in to the rescue and bailed out the ailing business and turned Bharat Forge into the world's second largest forging company.

His son, Amit Kalyani joined the group in 1997. Deputed to a sister company in the US to oversee the technology transfer to the Group's new ventures. He returned to Bharat Forge in 1998. The father-son duo since then has transformed Bharat Forge into an undisputed market leader and made it the first name in India's steel forging industry.

This transformation didn't happen overnight but took 15 years after Kalyani found that the company had become inward looking company. Baba Kalyani told CNBC-TV18, "It was a situation, where we saw our domestic market going downhill. We didn't see a recovery of the business in a short period of time. We didn't really read it as a recession the way normally people would read it. We read it as a fairly structural change in the market. We had come down to working only 2.5 days, it was really a bad situation."

He adds, "Bharat Forge is almost a 40 year-old company. Every time we have been through difficult situations, we have converted them into opportunities - to do something new and something different and come out winning."

His son, Amit came into the company, when revamping operations were essentially over. But he plugged into the company's vision right away - of taking the company to the number one or two slot in every segment. He picked up fast and he credits his father for it. Amit Kalyani says, "Working with my dad everyday is a learning experience. It has been tremendous. You're learn how to react to different situations. Working with him has made me more proactive and made me think about what is going to happen two steps down the road."

It's fact that Baba Kalyani has faith in the Indian manufacturing sector and knew that this sector could get competitive but he was way ahead of his time and in 1996-1997, no one believed him. He says, "I didn't have one believer in me in corporate India, whether it was CII or anybody else. I made a film when I was President of CII Western region - 'The Elephant Can Dance'. That was all about how the manufacturing industry in India can become competitive."

He explains, "In India, the business model in the manufacturing sector has always been of the lowest capital investment - use low cost labour force, lower-to-medium cost technology and use that as a competitive advantage. We had this phobia, where we thought that the labour force is your competitive advantage, but this is wrong. We were doing this till early 1990's and we were never competitive. When I say competitive, I am talking about being competitive globally but not domestically. It just struck me one day that we have to change this business model and use high technology and skilled people."

This hunger for moving forward into uncharted terrain gave rise to acquisitions being made in USA, Scotland and Germany. It was about getting more marketshare and more customers and therefore more business from abroad. In 2003, they started looking at either partnering with or going and acquiring global companies because that reduces the risk for the customer and it gave them access to technology, as well as new manufacturing locations.

The result has been, as Baba Kalyani says, "Bharat Forge is exporting products now almost in every continent. We were exporting to North America, China, Europe, Asia." He targeted Germany for acquisitions because that is where the new development, new cars and new technology was happening. So there was a need to be in that market. There were reverse culture shocks - where the whites saw a brown guy coming to the rescue of their bankrupt companies.

So, Kalyani had to convince the management, the employees and the customers. The customers were the first to be convinced and they communicated their support to the company. There was another reason why they fell in line - a lot of the companies were in the process of bankruptcy. So, when the customers liked the deal, the employees also picked it up very quickly and soon the management also fell in line.

He doesn't see any big differences in managing foreign employees as he says, "People have the same sensitivities, the same emotive needs and I think it's the job of the leadership and management to nurture that and bring out the best in them."

But Kalyani has been at the helm for 37 years now and he's begun to step back from running the company in 1993, when he started to put together a team, who would carry on the show. But he's also given this team a goal: to become the world's largest forging company by 2008!

This need not be through acquisitions only. But there is plenty of opportunity out there. Kalyani explains, "If you look around the world, especially in Europe and North America the automotive supply sector is in a fair amount of stress. Therefore, it is going to get restructured and therefore acquisition opportunities, strategic alliance opportunities are plentiful. But the younger Kalyani cautions and says, "It has to be a strategic feat - it has to either add customers, new technologies, new products or new processes."

That, is after all, the bottomline.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Sheila Dixit: Florence Nightingale of Delhi

She looks like everyone's idea of a favourite grandmother - the kind who would read you bedtime tales and tuck you in. But appearances can be deceptive and this is no exception.

She's Sheila Dixit, the chief minister of the capital of India, New Delhi. She has made New Delhi a green belt with parks and roundabouts gracing this historic city. She's also been the first to enforce that vehicles plying in Delhi convert to the more environment-friendly compressed natural gas, CNG. She's a progressive leader and with an ability to charm the voting public into re-electing her into office, the second time around.

But she didn't come into politics with any burning ambitions, she happened to be married into a political family and as a result, was immersed in the hurly-burly of events. Being the daughter-in-law of the freedom fighter, Uma Shankar Dixit, she was asked to contest the election from East Delhi, which she did and lost by 40,000 votes.

So the girl who studied history at Miranda House and who wanted to become either a writer, an artist or even Florence Nightingale was thrown into the poltical battlefield. She admits, it has not been easy for even someone with her kind of background and connections.

Preparing yourself for defeat is always tough on novices, and she was no exception. But she was inspired by Indira Gandhi and the ideology she stood for, so she persevered. Later in 1984, when she was formally inducted into politics, she saw another young leader emerge - who could lead India to greater heights - Rajiv Gandhi.

Studied history at Miranda House.
Wanted to be either a writer, an artist or Florence Nightingale!
In 1984, inspired by Indira Gandhi, she joined politics.

Sheila Dixit does understand the importance of being a woman leader. She finds it easier to appeal to women voters on economic issues because they would give her a patient hearing, rather than a male politician. But there are not many women who chose to get into this profession. She told CNBC-TV18, "Politics is really rough and tumble and there are highs and there are lows. There is a lot of uncertainty and perhaps very often, if I am not using too strong a word, the indignity and the unsurety of this career does not attract many women."

"That is why even though I was a little skeptical on whether 33% (reservations for women) ought to be given or not. I do feel now, it should be given because if you really want that segment of a civil society, to get into areas where decisions are taken, where futures are determined, I think it is necessary for women to be there."

Initially, she claims she didn't give the women's reservation idea any thought - either for or against it - but now "after this experiment with the panchayats and the nagar palikas, where women have come into public life, I have evolved my thoughts on this."

She has implemented some programmes like the Resident Welfare Associations, RWA and the people participatory programme called Bhagirdari. She advises people to be a little patient to see results and good communication is the key.

She explained, "Councillors should not feel threatened by them (RWAs). This is a kind of socio-political movement rather than any power grabbing movement. I remember the last time when we went in for elections, our opposing parties also tried to grab these RWAs - that this party seems to have reached out to people so let’s also do it - and they asked them over to teas and dinner but nobody got taken in!"

About the Bhagirdari project, she says there is awareness spreading about it. She elaborated, "People understand what bureaucracy is, you can’t tell a bureaucrat 'I want this and I don’t care how you get it', because the bureaucracy works with certain regulations and disciplines. But to understand those disciplines is important for the community, and it's important for the bureaucrat to understand what the community wants. So we called it governance through partnership."

She has had to reach out to people from across the social strata and deal with their problems, but women still find Delhi a problematic city, in terms of their safety. The irony not being lost on many, that Delhi is the capital of India and with a woman chief heading it!

She acknowledges, "There are two aspects to this problem, one is social and the second is the policing. People must have confidence in the policing system. I am afraid, somewhere we have not been able to bring around that confidence. Unfortunately, the police does not happen to be with the state government. We are trying now through our Women's Commission and other things to make women aware of what they need to do. Girls need to protect themselves. The immediate thing the government is thinking of, is to have more women in the police force."

So many issues that need sorting out, with every day bringing more challenges. So is she looking at a third term? She said, "No, I am far too preoccupied with seeing that we achieve things in this term." But she's had to prove herself to get the success she's currently enjoying because she admits, "The expectations from you are much more somehow because the skepticism about a woman’s capability is there."

Even now, women are given the softer portfolios like health and education or social welfare. There has been a woman prime minister but never a woman defence minister. That is what's so contradictory about the Indian polity. So when Sheila Dixit makes a mark, as a woman CEO of a city-state, it's time to take a bow.

Written for moneycontrol.com

When dire straits is not the end of the road

She came back from an elite girl's school in the US and walked straight into a slum to make a difference in the lives of the slum children. She began by teaching a small group of kids and today, this has evolved into a basic 7-year education course. At the end of which, the children learn to speak almost faultless English.

They also suddenly see a bright future in front of them, out of the poor circumstances of their birth. Shaheen Mistri has done this single-handedly. Well, with some help from her friends who were the first teachers to the kids and now a host of people who volunteer their time with Akanksha, the NGO that educates slum children, which Mistri set up.

Its beginning was very arbitrary - with money coming in from friends and family, the name was chosen by a college student and they all liked it, while the logo was designed by yet another collegian. She feels that all this has come together so perfectly because young people believe that they can make a difference.

So this is one place where you might just find privileged children making the time to teach their much-less privileged bretheren. The curriculum is almost the same as in formal schools but Mistri says that the methodology is very different because it should be able to engage their attention. So, the kids are taught through stories, games, quiz shows, and songs. To keep them coming back, there are many positive reinforcements given to them.

Akanksha may have started on a wafer-thin budget and with word-of-mouth publicity but today, it has a healthy corpus of Rs 8 crore and it's looking to move to other cities apart from Mumbai and Pune. Akanksha has also begun to work with municipal schools to reach out to more children.

There are teachers who are trained and employed by Akanksha but who go out and teach in government schools, and they also train the teachers there. At the moment, this initiative is in the pilot phase but the idea is to extend the same benefits that children get at Akanksha, to a formal school setup. Akanksha is also looking to share its resources like their curriculum, teaching expertise etc with everyone, who is willing to borrow and use them.

As NGOs go, this one has been around for 15 years and now is self-sustainable for the next 3-5 years. Mistri has managed to do this by matching projects to resources. She says that each Akanksha centre is adopted by a business house. Also, there are other measures like where the kids co-create a painting or do a sculpture with a famous artist or sculptor, which is then auctioned off.

The companies that sponsor each centre have been amazingly supportive and generous. Mistri explains that Akanksha goes to corporates with 15 options that they could chose from, to get involved with them. It could be an outright financial assistance or even a mentor programme, where the kids get to interact one-on-one with someone in these sponsoring corporates. Each kid gets to spend a day with one person - be it a CFO or mid-level executive of a company.

Today, Mistri has the satisfaction of having bettered so many lives. Carrying her work forward are Akanksha's alumni, who do unto others what was done for them. They visit the paedetrics ward at Bombay Hospital thrice a week, to cheer up the children there and spread good cheer, love and enlightenment.

Written for moneycontrol

India Inc steps in to ignite young minds

India is the land of the Vedas, Upanishads, the country which gave the world the number zero and the oldest language Sanskrit. We also gave the world treatises on Hindu law and how society should be governed (Manu Smriti) and ofcourse sex (Kamasutra). But in the 21st century, all these great achievements pale in the face of an ugly reality - that there are children who still don't know how to read and write and are just not prepared to face the ruthless and hyper-competitive future in store for them.

This is a cruel fact in a country, where the IITs and IIMs are considered temples of excellence. This was confirmed in a Time magazine survey this month, which ranked IITs and IIMs, as being on the the list of Top 100 educational institutes in the world. A list that includes schools like Harvard, Cambridge and many other ivy league schools.

Private education in India is comparable to the best in the world and now the emphasis is not so much on rote learning but on making the classrooms more interactive, on public speaking, general knowledge personality development. The internet and cable TV have become the world to millions of urban Indians.

But how proud can India be with almost 34% of Indians being illterate? In India, around 50 million children between the ages of 6-14 are out of school. Only half this number manages to get to Std 5 and only a mere 7% get all the way to college. Here are some more numbers - the National Literacy Mission says that the national literacy rate has gone up from 18% in 1951 to 65% in 2001. But are these government schools doing their best to awaken curious, young minds?

There seems to be a big disappointment in store, when kids finally show up in some of the rural schools, as they lack infrastructure and/or teachers who are not paid or motivated enough to teach. That is where India Inc has stepped in - with the likes of Bharti Foundation and Wipro setting up schools. The Bharti School which is part of Bharti's social arm is the promoter's way of giving back to society.

The Mittal brothers have not forgotten their youth and Ladowal, a village just 12 kms away from Ludhiana city is proof of that. Education was not available to everyone here but now the youth of this village will get that - thanks to Bharti Enterprises.

As Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Mittal told CNBC-TV18, "Our vision is ready to support the underprivileged children and youth of our country, so that they can achieve their mission in life. We picked up education as our core theme because we believe that if we could contribute in our own way through the Satya Bharti programme, I believe we would be contributing to supporting the underprivileged and children and youth of the country."

Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, Rakesh Mittal explains, "The family and the associates have committed a corpus of Rs 200 crore to Bharti Foundation and the interest income of that will fund these schools - in capital expenditure, in building up the structure and meeting the running expense in perpetuity."

Bharti's school has spread practical knowledge among the kids of Ladowal and they are actually hopeful of a brighter future. Bharti Foundation has plans to start 200 schools with 100 schools in the villages of Ludhiana and the balance in other northern regions of the country. The Satya Bharti school starts from pre-primary to the primary level and follows the state curriculum but the Bharti Foundation takes care of infrastructure, study material and mid-day meals while land has been leased for the local panchayat. The school's fees are nominal and in some cases, is even waived. But the small amount makes the villagers value the education provided even more.

Doing something similar is the Azim Premji Foundation, which is hoping to use technology to transfer knowledge to the underprivileged children. This Foundation is run entirely on the contributions made by Azim Premji personally. CEO of the Azim Premji Fondation, Dileep Ranjekar explains, "What we are trying to contribute to is how do we create solutions for a systemic change? And what it really means is raising the level of a lake by 1 or 2 inches than filling a glass up to its brim."

The Foundation has designed CDs in various languages that plays on a child's basic inquisitiveness, and these CDs take the place of traditional text books and entice children to study. The Foundation has introduced programmes like the Learning Guarantee Programme, Child-friendly School Programme and Education Management Programme, which shifts the onus onto the families, society and the government to create an enabling environment.

The Azim Premji Foundation has been able to reach 27,52,000 children through their 16,600 schools. Apart from the government, the Foundation partners with Unicef, Microsoft and the MS Swaminathan Foundation.

Though contributions mostly come from Premji's pockets, Wipro's 'Applying Thought' and 'Wipro Cares' programmes also are involved. 'Applying Thought' provides intensive training to teachers and principals, so that they can in turn ignite young minds.

With corporate India doing what the government of India has abysmally failed to do - let us doff our hats to these corporates with a conscience.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Dream the impossible: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Meditation comes highly recommended. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told CNBC-TV18,"Meditation is food for our soul. If we don't meditate, we would be starving our soul. Meditation brings inner wealth." And praying is a path to meditation. However, he says people who say that it's important to be a good human being by being helpful to the needy and to do good deeds but not to meditate, are not helping themselves.

That's because meditation removes fixed and preconceived impressions and drains away the stresses of day-to-day living and only when that occurs, will a person be in a frame of mind to do compassionate deeds for his fellow being. So, without the beneficial cleansing nature of meditation, he won't be able to carry out kind deeds. And the reason people have such notions is because "many people don't understand meditation. They think it's about concentration and you have to focus your mind. Or it's another ritual or it's so difficult. So, these kind of wrong ideas have come up about meditation."

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar equates meditation with sleep because they are both rejuvenating. In fact he says, it's a 100 times more refreshing because it helps you live in the present moment and and also frees you from anger and past hangups. The biggest bonus is ofcourse, is the extra zing - the energy - it brings.

There is also the heightening of intuition, which comes about because of meditation and this especially helps when you are confused and need to make some decisions. So, when one surrenders with confidence and leaves things to God, that's when your intuition will usually be right about any situation. And has it been a correct decision or not, only time will tell.

He adds, "Confusion happens when there are choices to be made. And the choice is usually between good and better or between bad and worse. It's never between good and bad. You have to see what gives you long term betterment. So, if for a short-term loss, you can get a long-term gain - this kind of clarity is essential and is the only criteria to be kept in mind. And to get this clarity, having only intuition is most essential."

So, in the end, he suggests that if you've chosen a path, then stick to it. Over-analysing past mistakes will lead to people regretting their decisions, and he would rather they relax, take some time out and continue on their journey through life. He also encourages people to dream the impossible and work their way towards it.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Ishmeet Singh: Candle in the Wind

I'm not a television buff but one day, while skipping channels, I came across the Voice of India show by accident. I've not been following any of the reality shows with any amount of dedication but just as I switched on to STAR Plus that day, Ishmeet Singh came on. I was about to switch channels but I was destined to hear this honeyed voice that's hushed forever now.

And I became rooted to the spot. I couldn't move because he sang so wonderfully. It was obvious, this young man was going to go places. He reminded me of two of my favourite singers - Marc Anthony and Bryan Ferry. He had screen presence, confidence, amazing amount of comfort in front of the mike and the camera and was note perfect. In addition to all this, his brilliant smile simply lit up the stage.

That voice is no more and that the tragedy happened to one so young and who was at the cusp of life - this is what makes it all the more painful. He had so much to live for and I can't even put myself in the shoes of his grieving family because I can understand that it's not something that an outsider can ever experience in the same depth.

I often wonder why God chooses to take people away just when we need them the most. Ishmeet's voice would have provided entertainment to millions in this country. It would have soothed people after a hard day's work. It would have made sick people sit up and listen and forget their pain. His voice was made to work its magic on us.

Now, only God gets to listen to it. That's not fair. I feel cheated out of something that's priceless.

He made his family proud of him in the few short years that he was graced with - and that's an immense legacy. How many parents can boast of a child like him? Ishmeet Singh was a candle in the wind. His spark fluttered briefly but brightly. Let him rest in peace.

This captain maps his own destiny

Captain Nair is very fortunate to get the right advice at every step of his life and one person who has played a key role, is his wife Leela. All his ventures are named after her. When you see the 84-year-old Captain CP Krishnan Nair, all charged up like a young cadet discussing his hotel expansion plans, you would wonder where he gets his energy from.

May be, it comes from his many years in the army. Captain Nair seems to prove the rule that a good soldier never retires. That is evident when you see him behaving like an army captain at his workplace - guiding his men around, explaining how to strategise and work towards a business plan.

Not only does his work impress you, but what strikes you immediately is his sharp and agile mind, his meticulous planning and eye for detail. All these qualities show in the chain of hotels he runs. His group, Hotel Leela Venture owns properties in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Kerala and many more are coming up. So, how did he plunge into this business or who advised him? Well, here's his story in his own words.

"I was having a successful army career. At that time, my wife's father was running a very large handloom complex in North Kerala. They were having some marketing problems. My wife Leela thought if I quit the army and join the handloom industry - with my experience in Bombay and my knowledge of the Textile Commissioner and many people here - would help it immensely."

He continues, "Gandhiji was my inspiration. He said handloom and khadi will be the mainstay of the nation. So, when Leela suggested this thing, I took it up as a great opportunity to serve the people."

He made his wife's handloom inheritance into a Rs 300 crore success story and decided to leave everything and become spiritual. But he was advised against it by Swami Sivananda, who told him to go back to the people and be of service to them because he had an active and probing mind. So he did just that and more.

At age 60, when people think of retiring, he thought of starting a new venture and also made it successful - the Hotel Leela Venture. So, how did he dare to dream so big, so late in life? He explains, "I was a part of a trade delegation to Germany in 1957. At that time, Morarji Desai was the Commerce Minister and he nominated me on that trade delegation. Trade was very crucial for Germany and for India also. We were the guests of the German federal government and we were put up in the best hotels in Germany."

"They provided us with the ultimate in luxury. Although, it was a war-ravaged country, their hotels were all in good conditions and they were resplendent. That inspired me. Why should India not have these kind of hotels. I decided one day, if I have an opportunity, I will build hotels like these in India. That was my dream in 1957, only after 1984 could I make it happen."

His wife has a influence over him like no other. She also managed to convince him to set up the first lace factory and helped him with production, whenever he was abroad for marketing the product. So, he has the distinction of setting up the first lace factory in India. But he gives credit to some other people who guided him.

Captain Nair says, " I go for advice to only those who are personally and intimately involved with me. In business, Leela is my advisor, I do not go to many other people. In the hotel business, I never went to anyone. It's only our intuition. But I did go to Vasantdada Patil, who laid the foundation stone for this (Mumbai) hotel, who was very sagacious. He gave me great confidence. Until his death, I wanted to get some permission from the Maharashtra Government and he did not have any problem with that."

Even today, this octogenarian's spirit is as young as ever. And true to this zeitgeist, he says, if he was given advice to start a fresh venture, he may take it up! As he puts it, "My guidance is from old Indian scriptures, Indian ethos, Indian culture or basic Indian psyche. Once the wisdom comes from an elderly person or a child, you must accept it with grace."

So says the the great old man of Indian hospitality - which is another quintessential Indian trait - to make sure your guests are well looked after is an Indian tradition that he's living up to.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Eternal and ethereal Kashmir

Kashmir – the word conjures up images of unparalleled beauty and the reality more than lives up to those images. If anything, it’s so mind-blowingly lovely that when the locals quip about not wanting to leave ‘jannat’ to even visit Mumbai, I know the feeling. After just 10 days there, Kashmir has now entered like a narcotic in my bloodstream.

The people are very polite and their blend of Kashmiri-Urdu-Hindi patois is pleasant on the ears. And they seem genuinely happy to have people come visit Kashmir because tourism and selling of handicrafts is the only income stream for them as of now, as things are slowly coming back to normal there. In fact, since the Prime Minister has promised a rehabilitation package of Rs 4,000 crore for Kashmiri Pandits to go back and - resume their lives, there is hope springing up there. 

Everywhere, I went – Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Udhampur, Anandpur, Jammu, Srinagar - had a lot of military presence, so ironically instead of creating an environment of fear, I never felt more safe in my life, than when I was there! There are five different paramilitary forces there maintaining law and order – the Army, the Indo-Tibet Force, the CRPF, the BSF and the Jammu & Kashmir police force. So, with so much show of force, it is advisable for tourists to respect the effort that is being made by them to adhere to rules and any spot checks that they may conduct. For instance, there were some places where we were told to not shoot photographs, in other places, we were told to keep our bus windows shut.

In many places, we were told to get out, so the bus could be searched because if a local Kashmiri is found travelling with us, we could find ourselves in prison! One is not allowed to stop on the National Highway 1 and dilly-dally and even near Dal Lake in Srinagar, we had to be prepared with our belongings and wait in the aisle before the bus stopped, so we could get out as soon as possible. It’s patently clear that the army rules there and I for one saw the difference! The roads were far better maintained – much cleaner and broader. In the mountains coming from Jammu down to the valley, the roads are frequently washed away by massive landslides and the armed forces painstakingly rebuild it again and again.

If one sees the massive boulders that have been flung down into the Tawi river, one knows that the task is very commendable. And ofcourse, there are men standing in full combat gear even high up on those mountain ledges, where as far as I could make out, they just had clouds and some stray goats for company! Hats off to you guys - you are doing a fabulous job there and I didn’t hesitate to tell this to a soldier who was only too pleased and touched. He said he was glad that their contribution to the country was being recognised by us. I did also ask him how things were going between the civilians there and the armed forces and he said that trust was being built slowly and they were offering help like medical facilities to them. He did admit that to dispel suspicion that has accumulated over so many years was not an easy task because so many families have been at the receiving end of strong arm tactics from both sides – the terrorists looking to recruit locals through an atmosphere of fear and intimidation - and the armed forces who had to get information out of these recruits once they were nabbed.

This is really the Catch 22 situation that Kashmiris find themselves in. But with unemployment levels being high – I saw a lot of men loitering around in front of abandoned shops, market junctions, bus stops on weekdays, when they should have been at work. So, it is really obvious why such men are ripe for the picking by terrorists. I wish Indians would start investing in their own way, in Kashmir’s future and not wait for the government to do it all. I mean, do something simple like start travelling to Kashmir and create opportunities for people there to start earning money.

Even, if you did something enjoyable like booking a holiday on a houseboat (and I know this is a memorable experience because I tried it and loved it.) and follow it up with some shopping (which everyone loves doing) and you’ve spread your money around in a state, which needs it, despite the massive subsidies. At the moment, Kashmiris get a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per family member, so if people are not weaned off this, they will have no incentive to work. 

The women have a hard life but since they live in such a beautiful place with such wonderful climate, they hardly seem worse for wear. During the spring-summer season, they farm and maintain vegetable gardens, apple orchards, flower beds, kesar (saffron) fields and during the colder autumn-winter season when tourism dries up almost completely, they bring out their sewing kits and do the intricate resham work on dress materials. They embroider everything from large bedcovers, complete saris to tiny kurtis for children. The Pashmina shawls and Kashmiri carpets which are handwoven are expensive but worth every penny. Pashmina shawls can be priced as high as Rs 15,000. Pashmina saris are also available.

I also tried Kashmiri pulao and qahwa, which is a drink that has no milk in it but an amazing amount of other ingredients like green tea leaves, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, honey and all of this boiled in hot water and served and I loved it. Especially, in the cold (we Mumbai-ites considered it cold but it was really spring there in April, but the temperature in Srinagar hovered at 17 degrees and it never gets much hotter than that!) weather, this was a really ideal way to soak up some warmth. And what’s more, I had this in the home of a Kashmiri. They welcomed us with open arms and let us wander through their beautiful lakeside home, which we people in this city can only fruitlessly dream of ever owning. 

I thought to myself, that this was the real irony....that this family which makes money by taking tourists out water skiing during only few months of the year made less money than the Shahrukh Khans and Anil Ambanis of the world. But neither Khan or Ambani can ever boast of a beautiful home in paradise, which is exactly what Kashmir is. That home was a simple but spacious wooden cottage but it just might have been a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Actually, because it’s our, own dear Kashmir, it’s even more precious to me than Switzerland will ever be. 

Facts Jammu & Kashmir is separated by the Jawaharlal Nehru tunnel, which one has to pass through to get to either place. This tunnel is strictly manned by security personnel. So, on one day, traffic movement is allowed in one direction on the next day, it moves the other way. This is pretty standard practice all over J&K and something that Mumbai should mull over. Jammu and Kashmir is administered from two different places. 

In the winter months the administration setup is in Jammu and in the warmer months from Srinagar. And yes, our indefatigable armed forces escorts files and bureaucrats across the state during this transition.

During that time as well, civilian and tourist movement is kept minimal, so the date of such a move is announced in advance. Flying to Kashmir takes 3 hours and by train, it's a 36 hours journey from Mumbai and a 2 days-2 nights voyage from Pune! But I heard that the Konkan Railways may be building a line all the way to Srinagar. As of now, the only way for outsiders to live permanently in Kashmir is to marry a local (and the men are delicious and a sight for sore eyes but most are unemployed!) But with Kashmiri Pandits being asked to return, there is hope that Kashmir will soon start pulling its weight and contributing to India's GDP - then nothing can hold us back except shortsighted politicians. 

Written for the Spark Magazine. Photos are the author's personal ones and hence copyright protected.