KOLKATA | WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE 2020 COMPANIES 3. <

Patanjali proposes,AYUSH disposesGovt asks the firm to stop Covid drug ads; seeks detailsARNABDUTTANewDelhi, 23 June

T akingcognizanceof thehigh-voltage launch of“Covid-19 medicines”

by Ramdev’s Patanjali groupin Haridwar on Tuesday, theMinistry of AYUSH issued anotice to the ayurveda giantseeking details of the drugs.

Hours after Ramdev, alongwith Patanjali groupMDAch-arya Bal Krishna, unveiled anumberofdrugsthattheyclai-med can prevent and cureCovid-19, the ministry deniedknowledge of the drugs andaskedthegrouptorefrainfrompublicising them.

Inanotification,theAYUSHministrysaid, it“hastakencog-nizance of thenewsbeing flas-hed in themedia about ayurv-edic medicines developed fortreatmentofCovid-19byPatan-jaliAyurved,Haridwar.Factsoftheclaimanddetailsofthestat-ed scientific study are notknownto theministry.”

It further saidPatanjali grouphad been infor-med that suchadvertisements ofdrugs, includingayurvedic medi-cines, are regulat-ed under the pro-visions of Drugsand Magic Rem-edies (Objecti-onable Advertise-ments)Act,1954.And,AYUSH’sapproval is imperative for allmedical research studies onCovid-19.

“PatanjaliAyurvedhasbeenasked to provide, at the earli-est, details of the name andcomposition of the medicinesbeing claimed for Covid treat-ment; site(s) or hospital(s),where the research study wasconducted forCovid-19; proto-col, sample size, institutionalethics committee clearance,CTRI (clinical trial registry-

India) registration and resultsdata of the studies,” the min-istry said.

Until the ministry exam-ines the drugs and Patanjali’sclaims, it has instructed thefirmtostopadvertisingorpub-licisinganyclaimsofcuringthedisease. It also requested thelicensingauthorityofUttrakha-nd to provide copies of licenceand product approval details

these medicines.The drugs

launched by thePatanjali groupincluded DivyaCoronil tabletand SwarasariVati, along withan immunityboost kit. Themedicines,devel-opedbyPatanjaliResearch

Institute, in association withNIMS University, Jaipur, havecured all patients during clini-cal trials,RamdevandBalKris-hna claimed. According toRamdev, the randomisedplacebo-controlled trials thatwere conducted on hundredsof patients across India had a100per cent success rate.

“We conducted two trials.The first clinically controlledstudy took place in Delhi andAhmedabad,amongmanyoth-er cities. Under this, 280

patientswereincludedand100per cent of them recovered.WiththehelpofNIMS,wecon-ducted the clinically controlstudy on 95 patients. Withinthreedays,69percentpatientsrecovered and within sevendays 100 per cent of themturnednegative,”saidRamdev.He claimed that all necessaryapprovals for conducting suchtrialsofmedicinesweresecuredfromcompetentauthorities.

According to its claims, acombinationofoptimumcon-centration comprising DivyaSwasari Vati, Patanjali GiloyGhanwati, Patanjali TulsiGhanwati and PatanjaliAshwagandha capsules alongwithPatanjaliDivyaAnuTailawas administered on Coronapositive patients to tackle theoutbreak.

The formulation consistsof active phyto-constituentsextracted fromAshwagandha, Giloy andTulsi. Swasari Vati, compris-ing other potential herbs likeKakrashringi, Rundati andAkarkara along with hun-dreds of efficaciousphytochemicals, phyto-meta-bolites and essential miner-als, also exhibited itsmiracu-lous benefits against thislethal disease.

(WithinputsfromSohiniDas)

Hours after Ramdev,along with Patanjaligroup MD AcharyaBal Krishna unveileda bunch of drugsthat they claimedcan prevent andcure Covid-19, theministry deniedknowledgeon the drugs

RamdevwithAcharyaBalkrishna (right) at the launchofCoronil andSwasari inHaridwaronTuesday PHOTO: PTI

Ambanikeepssalarycappedat~15crfor12thyearinarow

PRESS TRUST OF INDIANew Delhi, 23 June

Mukesh Ambani (pictured)kepthisannual salary fromhisflagship firm Reliance Indu-stries capped at ~15 crore for12th year on the trot in the fis-cal ended March 31 and hasdecided to forego the entireremuneration for the currentyear in view of the Covid-19pandemic.

Ambani has kept salary,perquisites, allowances andcommission together at ~15crore since 2008-09, forgoingover ~24 croreper annum.

Thisisatatimewhenremu-nerations of all whole-timedirectors of the company,including cousins Nikhil andHital Meswani, saw a hand-someincreaseinthefiscalyearendedMarch31, 2019.

“In light of the Covid-19outbreak in India, which hasexactedahugetollonthesoci-etal, economic and industrialhealth of the nation, MukeshAmbani, chairman and man-agingdirector, has voluntarilydecided to forego his salary,”the company said in its latestannual report.

TheBoardofDirectorsnot-edhisdecisionto foregosalary

until the impact of Covid-19abates, it said.

Ambani decided to foregohis remuneration at end-Aprilwhen the companydecided tocut the salary of most of itsemployees by 10-50 per cent.

“TheChairmanandMana-ging Director had his salarycappedat~15croresince2008-09 in order to set a personalexample of moderation inmanagerialcompensation lev-els.Andnow,he is forgoinghissalary until the company andall itsbusinessesare fullybacktotheirearningspotential,” thecompany said in the annualreport for 2019-20.

On a similar note, otherexecutive directors have alsoexpressed their decision todraw remuneration up to 50per cent of their remuneration

entitlement, it said.Ambani’s remunerationfor

2019-20included~4.36croreassalary and allowances, whichis marginally lower than ~4.45crore he got in the previous2018-19 financial year.

Commission has been un-changed at ~9.53 crore whileperquisites have risen to ~40lakhfrom~31 lakh.Retirementbenefitswere ~71 lakh.

Foregoesremunerationforcurrentyear Working to completecontours of Aramcodeal: Reliance CMDReliance Industries onTuesday said it is workingto complete contours of a$15-billion deal with SaudiAramco but did not give atimeline for its completion.“Relianceisworkingtocom-plete the contours of astrategic partnership withSaudi Aramco,” MukeshAmbani said in the firm'slatestannualreportwithoutgivingtimelines. AmbaniinAugustlastyearannouncedtalks for sale of 20 per centstake in theoil-to-chemicalbusiness, which comprisesits twin oil refineries atJamnagar in Gujarat andpetrochemicalassets, totheworld's largest oil exporter.

PTI

ApplebreaksupwithIntelafter 15yearsApple on Monday said it willswitch to its own chips for itsMaccomputers,sayingthefirstmachines will ship this yearand ending a nearly 15-yearrelianceonIntelCorptosupplyprocessors for its flagship lap-topsanddesktop.

Apple Chief Executive TimCooksaid itmarkedthebegin-ning of a major new era for aproductlinepoweredthecom-pany's rise in the 1980s and itsresurgence in the late 1990s.

Silicon isat theheartofourhardware," Cook said during avirtual keynoteaddress.

"Having a world class sili-con design team is a gamechanger. The silicon switch

brings the Mac into line withthe company's iPhone andiPads,whichalreadyuseApple-designedchips.Cooksaid thatApple expects the Mac transi-tiontotakeabouttwoyearsandthatApple still has some Intel-basedcomputersinitspipelinethat it will support for “manyyears.” REUTERS

Foxconn eyesmore IndiainvestmentTaiwan’sFoxconnisplanningfurtherinvestmentinIndiaandmayannouncedetailsinthenextfewmonthsastheworld'slargestcontractmanu-facturerviewstheoutlookthereveryfavourably,itschair-mansaidonTuesday.FoxconnalreadymakessmartphonesinIndiaforAppleandXiaomi,thoughinMarchsaiditsuspe-ndedproductionduetothecoronavirusoutbreak.Chair-manLiuYoung-waytoldFox-conn'sannualgeneralmeetingthatlookingahead,Indiawasabrightspotfordevelopmenteventhoughtherewasa‘certainimpact’atpresentduetothevirus. REUTERS

DoTformscommitteeonBSNL’s4GtenderSURAJEET DAS GUPTANew Delhi, 23 June

TheDepartmentofTelecomm-unications (DoT) is setting upaneight-membercommitteetorecommendintwoweekstech-nical specificationsfor thecon-troversial 4G tender ofstate-owned Bharat SancharNigam (BSNL). The order washandeddownonMonday.

Themove comes followingBSNL’s cancellation of its pre-vioustender,afterhome-growncompanies complained to thegovernment that the terms ofthe tender were prepared in away tokeep themoutandsup-port global players.

Theyalleged the tenderdidnot meet the norms of publicprocurement (preference tomake in India) order of 2017,which is applicable to BSNLalso.Aspartof the termsof ref-erence,thecommitteehasbeenaskedtorecommendcoredom-estic components that can be

deployedontheBSNLnetwork.Secondly, itwouldexaminethehardwareandsoftwareaspectsof the proposed upgrade byBSNLof 2Gand3GRAN to4G.

Thirdly, ithasbeenasked torecommend modifications tothetechnicalspecificationspre-pared by BSNL for the tenderand to help in refining the 4Gspecifications for it. The com-mittee, apart from threemem-bers of the DoT, includes thedirectors of IITMadras and IITKanpur, a representative of theNational Security Council

Secretariat, and adirector eachofBSNLandMTNL.Deployingthe 4G network (the govern-ment has said it will give themspectrum)iscrucialforrevivingBSNLandMTNLagainst toughprivate sector competitors.

Any delay, say analysts,could jeapordise that.

Themovetosetupthecom-mittee comes a fewweeks afterthe NITI Aayog held ameetingonthetenderwithofficialsoftheDoT, BSNL and home-growntelecom companies like TechMahindra, Tulip Software, and

C-DOT. The think tank recom-mendedBSNLgo foran indige-nouslydesigned,developedandmanufactured (IDDM) solutionfor its 4G network. The movecould,however,haveanadverseimpactonglobalgearmanufac-turersofChina likeHuaweiandZTE and European giantsEricssonandNokia.Theyfearit

mightkeepthemoutofbidding.The Aayog had recommendedthat a national-level technicalcommittee under a technicallycompetent wireless expertwouldbeformedtolookintothespecifications and the tenderhad to be redrafted and re-ten-dered in the IDDMmodewith-outanyrestrictiveclauses.

IIM-Arollsout~1K-crendowmentfund

VINAYUMARJIAhmedabad,23 June

Emulatingmajorglobalbusinessschools(B-schools), the Indian Institute ofManagement-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) haslaunched an endowment fund to raise~1,000crore in fiveyears.

With an initial commitment of ~100crore from 10 founding alumni, includ-ing InfoEdge Founder and ExecutiveVice-Chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani(Classof1989)andMakeMyTripFounderand Group CEO Deep Kalra (Class of1992), the IIM-A Endowment Fund isbeing claimed as the first by any man-agement school in India.

The fund is aimedat enabling IIM-Ainmakingalargerimpactinthefieldsofeducation, entrepreneurial leadership,managementpractice,andpublicpolicy.“Endowments form thebackboneof allgreat universities around the world.Theyarethegluethatbindtheuniversi-ty with its alumni. The greater the uni-

versity, the larger is the endowment.Withthisinitiative,themanagementandthe alumni have sowed the seeds forwhatwillonedaybealargeendowmentproportionate to the stature of IIM-A,”said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder ofWestBridgeCapital.

Globally, institutes like Harvard,Oxford University, and Stanford usealumni networks extensively forfundraising.

Under the guidance of the IIM-Aboardofgovernors(BoG),thefundwillbemanaged by an independent endow-ment committee comprising initialalumnicontributorsaswellasthedirec-toranddeanofalumniandexternalrela-

tions of the B-school in their ex-officiocapacity. IIM-A's BoG ChairpersonKumar Mangalam Birla said the fundwill play a “significant role in realisinglong-termgoalsoftheinstituteandretainits autonomy”.

Whileitsalumnihavecontributedinmanywaystosupporttheinstitute’spri-orities, the endowment corpus will be“impactful”; it isexpectedtosupportkeystrategic initiativesandinnovativeproj-ects, said IIM-ADirector Errol D’Souza.

“Such critical funding support hasbeen missing for most Indian educa-tional institutions.We are happy to cre-ateabenchmark,” saidD’Souza.

Apart fromBikhchandaniandKalra,

Sandeep Singhal and Kavita Iyer, co-foundersofWestBridgeCapitalandfor-mer co-founders of Sequoia CapitalIndia and trustees of SIFF (Class of1999), Ramesh Mangaleswaran andMeenakshi Ramesh, senior partner atMcKinsey &Company and co-founderofCitizenMatters, respectively (Classof1993),KuldeepJain, founderCleanmaxEnviroEnergySolutions (Classof 1999),V T Bharadwaj, co-founder, A91Partners (Classof2001),PeeyushMisra,partner, Growth Source FinancialTechnologies (Class of 1999), and G VRavishankar, managing director,Sequoia Capital India (Class of 2004)have committed to contribute morethan ~10 crore each.

Other significant contributors whohave committed to more than ~5 croreareArunDuggal,chairman,ICRA(Classof 1974) and S K Jain, co-founder ofWestBridgeCapitalandformerlySequoiaCapital India (Classof 2000).

The fund’s structure has been kepttransparent tohelptheB-schoolengagemore actively with its alumni, said itsDeanofAlumni andExternalRelationsRakeshBasant.

10alumnicommitinitialfunding of~100crore

17 guards of Maruti’splant missing aftertesting Covid positiveSeventeen employees of asecurity agency employed atMaruti Suzuki’s Manesar pl-ant have disappeared aftertesting positive for Covid-19.The employees, who belongto security agency SIS India,hadtestedpositiveforthedis-easeonJune17andweresup-posed to be quarantinedaccording to the law. PTI