PasslineMagazine 2013

Prince Pallikunnel

Dr G P C Nayar

Dr Azad MoopenK P Abdul Hameed

PASSLINEPASSLINE Dec 31 - Jan 31, 2013Dec 31 - Jan 31, 2013

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Gujarat Chief Minister Na-rendra Modi has been in

the news media for a few months in view of his development activi-ties in Gujarat. The grapevine has it that Modi, sitting in Gujarat, is eyeing Delhi where the Prime Min-ister’s office is. He was sworn in as Chief Minister for the fourth time in Gujarat at a function witnessed by saffron-clad winners with the lotus symbol in the backdrop.

His prime ministerial urge has been beefed up by the presence of sev-en non-Congress-ruled state Chief Ministers at the venue. Among them, he met Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa first, who greeted him even before the elec-tion result was fully

out. It was a meeting not between a bachelor (sic) and a spinster but between two likeminded contempo-raries at the helm of affairs.

Will it mean to be the frontrun-ner of a BJP-led coalition at the Centre? It may or may not ma-terialize. Modi has outrun other states’ CMs in development, not only with more industries but with

a popular rule sans power-cuts when other states are reeling

under power and water shortages. Will Modi’s

new mantra—Vikas, Viswas and Vijay—get the `V` votes

in next year’s elections to enable him to

sit in 7, Race Course Road?

Why not a Minister forprojects execution?

I read your cover story, ‘Will the magical 8 work to Kerala’s advantage?’ (Dec issue). A small

state with just 20 MPs, Kerala has eight Ministers at the Centre. On the surface it seems like this jumbo team can do wonders for the state in matters of de-velopment. But in actual practice no one thinks they can do much as experience has shown. Nor can one be sure of them being able to do much in the future.

In my opinion what Kerala needs is not more Min-isters at the Centre but just one Minister in the state who can be put in charge of planning, implement-ing and monitoring developmental projects. And he should be someone with a clear vision, a vibrant, dynamic person who knows the ills that plague the projects that are already on stream or have been planned. His task—sole task—will be planning and organizing various development committees con-sisting of eminent and experienced personalities who have zeal and commitment to service. Good and efficient bureaucrats of yesteryear and techno-crats (of the calibre of ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan) who have served both Government and big private organizations should be empanelled and involved actively.

All aspects of development should be reviewed and monitored by these committees under the over-all supervision of the Minister appointed for the pur-

pose. He should, in turn, report to the Chief Minister about the progress of the developmental projects from time to time. The committees should point out to the Minister what bottlenecks are there for de-lays in execution of work and what steps should be taken to speed up things.

This, I hope, will bring about cohesion in the ministries and better coordination among all, lead-ing to speedier action in completing projects. One dedicated Minister exclusively at the state level can achieve greater results than several at the Centre who have to work for the entire nation.

A Girijavallabhan, Thrissur

PDS hoax

The public distribution system (PDS) is entire-ly a hoax. There is corruption in the system

from top to bottom, with the media coming out with reports about bribes, raids and seizures and allega-tions against bureaucrats at the top and ration deal-ers at the bottom. News of bogus BPL cards and rotten rice supplied through the outlets is not out of knowledge of the common people. The present administrative set-up cannot rectify the system. It is known that the Rs 2 rice distributed from the FCI godown is of fine quality but what a ration buyer gets is a mixture of black and coarse grain.

It would be a great relief if the cash subsidy scheme is introduced in a foolproof manner. But the common people do not have great expecta-tions about the scheme as it may end as a political gimmick. In order to successfully implement it, the authorities should study the success story of direct cash transfers in emerging markets, like the Bolsa Familia System in Brazil, as pointed out by Dr V K Vijayakumar in the PASSLINE December issue.

E G Subran, Vazhuthacad

`SIB CARE’ ambiguity

The South Indian Bank’s `SIB CARE’ (Dec issue) seems to be an attractive scheme

among many fixed deposits. But there are some doubts about the scheme, like whether the deposi-tor is eligible to get back the deposit back after ex-piry of two years.

Also details are not available about the cover-age of accident insurance and the period of deposit for it.

A reader, Doha

N E W S B U S T E R S Tata Group new bossCyrus Pallonji Mistry, who comes

from outside the family, on De-cember 31, 2012 took over the reins from Ratan Tata (Tata has no children) as the sixth Chairman of the group. India’s most trusted business conglomerate compris-es over 100 businesses and $100 billion in revenues. Born on July 4, 1968 Mis-try graduated from the Imperial College, London. He is a BE in Civil Engineering and has a master’s in Management from London Business School and is a Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineering, UK.

Mistry has served as Director of Tata Sons and Tata Elxsi (India). He also serves as a Director on the board of sev-eral other companies, including Shapoorji Pallonji & Co, Forbes Gokak, Afcons In-fra and United Motors (India). Mistry is the younger son of construction tycoon Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, who holds an 18.5% stake in Tata Sons, the single largest shareholder. Mistry joined the board of Shapoorji Pallonji & Co as Di-rector in 1991. Three years later, he was

appointed Managing Director of the group. Under his steward-ship, Shapoorji Pal-lonji’s construction business grew from a turnover of $20 million to almost $1.5 billion. The Tata Group was founded by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata in 1868. His elder son, Sir Dorabji Tata, later took over the con-trol of the business. J R D Tata, nephew of Jamsetji, entered the Tata Group as an unpaid apprentice in December 1925 when Dorabji was the Chairman of the Group.

Ratan Tata took over as the Chair-man in 1991 and in the last 21 years has steered the com-pany through tur-bulent times and is credited with taking the group global.

`Vikas, Viswas and Vijay’ Modi

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From the Editor

Editor & Publisher

Varghese Paul

KochiAshly JosePh: 9747736193

ChennaiAugustine JosephPh: 09381000534

Bangalore

Jaya Chandran0988699331

Manager-MarketingSajan K09895344485

Keethara Publications Pvt Ltd38/125 1st Floor, Narakathara Road, Kochi-682 035, Kerala, India.Phone : +91 484 4027002Editorial : +91 484 3043572Marketing : +91 484 4010075 484 3043325

Marketing Office:G-238, K C Joseph Road, Panampilly Nagar,Kochi-682 036Marketing : +91 484 4010075e-mail : [email protected]

Varghese Paul

NRIs—non-required Indians?

Lakhs of Indians have moved overseas in hot pursuit of opportunities. Every year the Union Gov-ernment convenes a meet of these Pravasis for interaction with them and for discussing the prob-

lems they face both at their workplaces abroad and in the home country. It is the 11th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), as the meet is called, that is being held in Kochi, from January 7 to 9, 2013. This should be an opportunity and a challenge for Kerala. It is an opportunity because Pravasis from Kerala, or non-resident Keralites/NRKs, can air their grievances at the meet from their own soil. The state officials con-cerned and representatives of NRKs can present their problems more lucidly and with greater force than from anywhere else if the meet were to be held there. They must remember that Kerala sends the largest number of people to foreign lands and that their remittances, huge as they are, sustain the economy of the state and facilitate its overall growth.

The Kochi meet is a challenge because some problems Pravasis encounter are stupendous. Many of our men and women go abroad not to live a cushy life. They do not have good jobs, if they are employed, or proper accommodation and must squeeze into small apartments. There are several other problems that beset them though they may have been there for long periods. These need solutions. The force driv-ing the exodus to the overseas destinations is still compelling: while India is still stuck on slow-to-modest growth tracks, these developing nations, the Gulf region in particular, are primed for rapid and sustain-able economic expansion. The skills of our people are still in hot demand overseas. So the exodus is sure to continue for many more years.

Many of the pioneers who had gone to foreign lands ended up doing business and starting enter-prises of their own. Some of them have grown very big and have turned forces to be reckoned with. But not all the old and certainly the new pioneers are entrepreneurs. Even entrepreneurs face a lot of challenges. Every summit or major meet today is hyped up as something to attract investment and is a venue for both high-spirited NRI entrepreneurs, which small and medium NRI players usually keep away from. Moreover, the agenda of and proceedings at the Kochi PBD may turn out to be all Greek to them. The result is that only a fragment of the Indian diaspora become part of the gathering. They think they have no role to play in the elite and high-net-worth India. This is the major lacuna of such meets. This is because, as mentioned above, not all the non-residents are entrepreneurs or employers. A majority of them are employees. An official figure of NRI entrepreneurs is yet to be available. The exact number of Pravasis from each state is also not clearly known. Kerala however estimates that it has about 25 lakh NRKs and their remittances amount to Rs 50,000 crore. It is believed that this has made the state rich and caused its development and progress. In other states also the case is similar, producing the same pattern of growth.

Besides investment, the main agenda of NRI summits, the Kochi meet may also shed light on the plight of Pravasis who toil outside their place of birth. The Central and state governments, Government agencies and local self-government bodies impose innumerable restrictions on different aspects of the lives of NRIs starting with their emigration, visas, travel, employment, earnings, remittances, accommo-dation, accident, death, family, children and even their voting rights while in an alien land and on native soil.

There is a state proposal in Kerala for an insurance scheme for NRKs. But how long it will take to come into being is anybody’s guess. Likewise, there should be a pension scheme for NRIs who will be out of employment or who will be incapable of doing any work after a certain period. They should enjoy the benefits that other natives have in their neighbourhood. Above all, the so-called summits meant to woo NRI investments must also be meant to ameliorate the conditions and remove the woes of all NRIs, irrespective of whether they are employees or entrepreneurs. This is what is needed today. NRIs are non-resident Indians; do not treat them as not-required Indians.

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Year after year the non-resident Indians from Kerala (NRKS) working in the Gulf and the

other regions like South-East Asia, America and Eu-rope have been sending large amounts of money into the state. By 2012, this amount had crossed the magic figure of Rs 50,000 crore. A sizable portion of this money has flowed into the NRE deposits in the banks in India, only because the interest earned by them is 8% or 9%, a rate which is unheard of in the countries of their residence. Another chunk of the NRI remittances goes for consumption by their de-pendants living in Kerala. These money orders com-ing in regularly every month are keeping the services sector of Kerala’s economy steadily growing.

In fact, this is the key to the riddle of the much-discussed Kerala model of development, where the GDP growth and the quality of life indices have been very impressive, despite the dismal show by the ma-jor sectors of the economy, viz agriculture and indus-try. A third part of the remittances by the NRKs goes into investments in gold, house construction, real estate purchases and speculative share-trading. By and large, these investments do not contribute to any growth in infrastructure, or agriculture or industry, at present. Why is this money not getting invested in productive ventures in Kerala?

What Kerala needs now is a massive flow of mon-ey into the infrastructure sector. The facilities in our ports and airports are much below the requirements. Our roads are major bottlenecks instead of being the highways of growth and development. Our electric-ity generation, transmission and distribution systems are crying for expansion and modernization.

The power generation capacity available is not enough; transmission facilities require upgrading and the inefficient electricity distribution infrastructure re-sults in very high line-losses. No wonder, certain in-dustry sectors like the manufacturing and marketing of voltage stabilizers, inverters and captive generator sets are thriving! In these circumstances, we should be able to channelize the NRK money into these in-frastructural sectors, where the scope for new proj-ects is very bright.

No doubt, the strengthening of the infrastructural facilities like power, roads, ports, water supply etc will in turn certainly lead to steady growth of all sec-tors, including agriculture, industry and the services sector and a whole host of ventures in information technology, tourism and value-added production in agricultural processing industries. But will the NRKs seize this opportunity and invest?

Many of our NRKs are either unskilled and semi-skilled workers or wage-earning managers. Entre-preneurship has never been in their blood and many of them will fight shy of leaving a secure employment in favour of facing the uncertain and challenging en-vironment as an entrepreneur. And Kerala tradition-ally has been lacking in the entrepreneurial culture prevailing among the people of some states like Gu-jarat. Moreover in Kerala, an entrepreneur generally gets dubbed an exploiter-capitalist and his tribe is looked down upon. Kerala does not have a history of having produced many successful entrepreneurs. Thankfully the Gulf boom has produced stalwarts like Sobha Group’s P N C Menon, M K Group’s Yusuf-

fali, Behzad Group’s C K Menon, Joy Alukka, George Nereparambil, Galfar Group’s Mohammed Ali, Ravi Pillai and a few other NRK investors. But the invest-ment culture has not spread widely here and people do not perceive Kerala as a safe place to invest. The stories (many of them true) of unhelpful bureaucratic attitudes and militant trade unionism in Kerala have spread so much that extraordinary and sustained campaigns, supported by real change in attitudes only can hope to undo the damage already done. And till now the Government of Kerala has not been able to build a credible organization for industrial in-vestment into which ordinary NRKs can make invest-ments with confidence that their hard-earned money will be productively utilized, giving them reasonable levels of returns and bringing benefits to society.

In spite of all this, we have the unique success story of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), which is an eminently successful venture set up in the public-private participation (PPP) pattern. The NRK investors responded massively to the state’s call and this project became a reality. The project was completed within time and without any cost over-run- An unprecedented performance in Kerala. All praise

to V J Kurian, the Managing Director! It has been in operation for a few years now, rendering excellent service and cutting costs and earning huge profits, often coming up to even 50% of the total income! On the strength of this extraordinary record of per-formance, will not the Kerala Government be able to rake in huge NRK investments in the other infrastruc-tural sectors here?

CIAL was a project which was extremely critical for them. The old Cochin airport attached to the Na-val Base was already bursting at the seams. After the Arabs increased the oil prices suddenly from $3 a barrel to $30 in the mid-1970s, the flow of money into the Gulf region increased manifold and with it they embarked on a massive investment phase, opening up new avenues of employment opportunities there. And an exodus to the Gulf region of unskilled and semi-skilled people began from the Malabar region of Kerala. By the 1990s the opportunity for a new life in the Gulf region began knocking at the doors of the more educated middle-classes and professionals of Kerala, across all regions of the state. All this sud-denly swelled the number of air travellers in Kerala. The old Cochin airport could not handle this traffic and there was chaos. The naval authorities started pressing the Government to release their airport for themselves citing strategic and defence priorities. Obviously a new civil airport had to be constructed to handle the ever-increasing passenger traffic from the Gulf region and elsewhere. It became a crying need for the NRKs. They simply had to invest in that project. This was the backdrop which made CIAL an attractive and essential investment prospect for the NRKs.

But this story may not get repeated in the other infrastructure projects being proposed by the Ker-ala Government for investment. Is not the Air Ker-ala project now in the news an ideal one from the NRKs’ point of view, given the type of insensitivity with which the Air India establishment is treating the Gulf NRI passengers? It is true that Air India’s inef-ficiency and lack of commitment to serve the pas-sengers cause a lot of resentment. Though the poor and often not-well-educated Keralite Gulf passenger contributes a large amount to Air India’s revenues, he is treated with contempt by the staff. This step-motherly treatment gets reflected in every aspect of the performance of Air India, including fixing of un-fairly high flight ticket charges. Whenever an aircraft has to miss a flight, invariably it is one of the flights to Kerala that is the casualty. Many are the instances when the highly paid crew of Air India have walked out upon the passengers causing enormous discon-

IF an NRK opts for locating his project in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu or Karnataka try-ing to avoid the innumerable hurdles he has to face in his home state, no one can blame him. So, the ball is in the Kerala Government’s court. It has to take certain firm steps that will convince the NRKs that the old order is in for a significant change; that firm measures are in the offing to change the attitude of the Government functionaries and that the people will be made to realize that there is no free lunch anymore. The NRK will also rise to the occasion then and contribute his best by investing for Kerala’s development.

Will Air Kerala be another such success? Experts give a firm no as the answer. They are unanimous in declaring that for an airline project to succeed in today’s competitive atmosphere, there should be econ-omies of scale by attaining a mini-mum size which Air Kerala will not be able to dream.

P C Cyriac


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tent. All this has strengthened the cry for setting up Air Kerala, an airline of Keralites, by Keralites and for Keralites travelling to the Gulf and back. At the recently concluded ‘Emerging Kerala’ conference, the very mention of this project elicited a lot of inter-est among the NRKs and many offered to subscribe to the shares on the spot.

CIAL’s airport project is rightly hailed as one of the success stories of the PPP model. Will Air Ker-ala be another such success? Experts give a firm no as the answer. They are unanimous in declaring that for an airline project to succeed in today’s com-petitive atmosphere, there should be economies of scale by attaining a minimum size which Air Kerala will not be able to dream of especially when the eco-nomic growth also is not picking up. By running a few flights between the Gulf and Kerala, an airline cannot hope to survive. It is another fact that ac-cording to the rules in force now, an airline should

complete five years of operation in the domestic sector before it is al-

lowed to fly on the international routes. It may not be feasible to get an exemption from this rule for Air Kerala. In short, Air Kerala is a proposal where the chances of survival are uncertain despite the emo-tional support of the much-suffering NRKs and de-

spite the availability of the charismatic leader,

V J Kurian, to lead the company.

The solution to the problem

may lie in strengthen-ing Air India Ex-press and reforming it to pro-

vide a better qual-ity of service. Now that serious efforts have been made to shift the opera-tional headquar-ters of Air India Express to Kochi, let us hope that our Gulf travellers will be able to get a better deal. This discussion about the Air Kerala pro-posal incidentally reminds one of the importance of se-lecting only viable projects for NRK investment after a proper assess-ment and appraisal

of their financial viability and feasibility.

And as everyone knows, capital is a shy dog and not a lion which will charge in. A lot of consider-ations come into play when an investment decision is taken. A sense of being welcome, the stability of the Government and its policies and the business climate in the state are other important factors. Edu-cation, intelligence, skill and discipline levels of the potential workers are also very important. How does Kerala fare in all these areas?

Are we making the NRKs happy and proud when they visit the state? Many of them complain about harassment beginning right at the airport from the customs officials to the taxi operators. The efficient pre-paid taxi counters at the airport and at our major railway stations have started addressing the second issue to some extent. Whenever the NRK has to deal with Government functionaries in the various departments during his stay in Kerala, he finds he is not treated with the respect that a customer de-serves. An attitudinal change on the part of the Gov-ernment functionaries is essential to create a sense of being welcome and only with this will the ice of discontent start melting.

The path of an entrepreneur wishing to set up a unit in Kerala is really tortuous. Single-window clearances exist, but only on paper. Very often, the local bodies like the panchayats and the mu-nicipalities refuse approvals to projects unless they are propitiated adequately. Even if your proposal is a big project with substantial Government participa-tion, the authorities may not look at you more kindly. Any amount of environmental impact assessment studies and mitigation measures will not satisfy the activists and the self-proclaimed ‘Greens’. Trans-parent and robust decision-making processes have to be installed in this area in our local bodies and the Government. And what about the availability of land for your project? Land for industry is very scarce indeed in Kerala and its price is prohibitively high. What about the other infrastructural facilities

like power, water and roads? They are all woefully inadequate. Even for successfully running a project in the much-favoured tourism or IT sectors, all sorts of impediments will arise and tackling them one by one and commissioning your project in time will be a remarkable achievement in Kerala, calling for sub-stantial investment in time, patience and money.

The workforce, though intelligent, is not very committed or disciplined. In Kerala, the entrepreneur is always seen as an exploiter thanks to the relent-less socialist propaganda carried out during the last 60 to 70 years. He has to work overtime to establish his credentials and win the loyalty of his employees. And the management, if it wants to be successful in Kerala, must make the terms of employment so at-tractive that the employee should want to keep the job at any cost. And the management should also be ruthlessly strict so that the employee should be fearful of losing the coveted job in the event of any displeasure in the minds of the bosses. A very tall order indeed.

There are many other circumstances which pre-vent Kerala from claiming to be the best destina-tion for project investments. One of them is the very infamous and obnoxious ‘nokkukooli’ system under which some organized labour groups collect money without doing any work. Even when sand and metal are unloaded by a tipper lorry, you have to pay the local headload workers’ outfit. They have the mo-nopoly to unload every other load like cement, steel or tiles at terms fixed by them. All this will add to the construction cost of projects in Kerala. In a highly competitive environment, it is important to control costs strictly. If the Kerala Government is deter-mined to attract investments, it has to step in and abolish all these vestiges of the past and dismantle all types of monopolies, including that of the head-load worker.

An NRK, though committed to the development of Kerala, will contemplate seriously whether he should tackle the insurmountable hurdles one by one and passionately attempt to set up his unit in Kerala, often incurring additional costs and accepting lon-ger construction periods. If he opts for the cheaper alternative of locating his project in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu or Karnataka and try to avoid at least some of these problems, can we blame him? So, the ball is in the Kerala Government’s court.

It has to take certain firm steps that will convince the NRKs that the old order is in for a significant change; that firm measures are in the offing to change the attitude of the Government functionar-ies and that the people will be made to realize that there is no free lunch anymore. Every sector has to be permitted to price their products or services in an economic manner. This will make any efficiently run public utility service to earn reasonable returns. A combination of all these measures will certainly cre-ate conditions encouraging further investments. The NRK will also rise to the occasion then and contrib-ute his best by investing for Kerala’s development


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Kerala is for the first time host-ing the Bharatiya Pravasi Divas and we have a considerably large number of NRIs. As we gather for the meet, what is the message that Kerala wants to communicate this year?

While NRIs should do whatever is in their best interest, they should not lose sight of their roots. Kerala will continue to be their homeland and will welcome them with open arms when-ever they want to do anything good for their own benefit as well as for their homeland.

In which sectors would you like to invite investment/participa-tion from the NRI/PIO community? Are we also looking at attracting investments in the tourism sector in Kerala?

Kerala is blessed with pristine natural beauty and therefore attracts a large number of tourists. We want to keep Kerala beautiful and sustain its natural attractions by keeping them clean and green. At the same time we want the state not to become a des-tination for tourism alone. There are economic activities other than tourism, which flourish in the state. The global connect event, ‘Emerging Kerala’, was intended to position the state as a suit-able destination for all such environ-ment-friendly economic activities. We would like the state to be seen as eco-nomically vibrant, green and healthy. Though there is no conscious effort to re-brand the state, this may perhaps be the result of the efforts taken by us to transform Kerala.

Do you expect NRI participation in the Air Kerala project’s comple-tion? Can NRIs take shares in the project? What is the status of Canannore Airport? The fourth pro-posed airport at Aranmula has come into controversy mainly for environ-ment concerns. How is the Govern-ment going to solve the issue?

Airports play an important role in the development of a region. Kerala is the only state in the country which has three international airports. For the new Kannur airport, work on lay-ing the airstrip will start immediately after we receive the environmental

clearance, expected soon, from the Union Government. We have received overwhelming investor response for participating in the equity of this airport and therefore money is not going to be a constraint in building this airport. NRIs can buy shares of this project at a nominal price of Rs 10,000.

We have already constituted a new company to begin the new airlines from Kerala. For international opera-tions, the airline needs exemption from two stipulations of the Union Govern-ment. These are stipulations regard-ing operating 20 aircraft and being in operation for five years. If the Union Government grants us exemption from these stipulations, the airline will be able to operate within the next one year. If these exemptions are not granted, the new company will decide how and when to start their domestic operations.

In which sectors does Kerala have an edge over other states for investments? Which are the main investments made so far?

People hold the perception that Kerala is not an investment-friendly state. But this is not the case. We are open to investments across different industries. Our main focus is tourism. We are also looking at high-quality education, IT and infrastructure. To be fair, we have had success in education and healthcare, but we have to catch up with infrastructure. To bridge this gap, we are open to the PPP model. In Kerala, we have a new slogan of four Ps—public-private-people’s-participa-tion (PPPP).

As part of the Air Kerala project, we are looking forward to people’s participation.

Are you looking at organizing any events in the state on the line of ‘Emerging Kerala’ or in other states or other parts of the world to attract diaspora investments in the state?

‘Emerging Kerala’ is not a one-time event. It is a concept and an effec-tive means for realizing definite goals. ‘Emerging Kerala’ will be a continuous exercise the outcome of which is going to augur well for the future of the state.

Is Kerala emerging as more

investment- and industry-friendly as NRIs from other states will also come as delegates at the Pravasi meet and might be interested in contributing to the state’s develop-ment? Are the mindset and work culture of people changing?

There is no doubt that Kerala has become more investment- and industry-friendly. Statistics show that the mandays lost because of industrial strikes are negligible, an ample proof of this change. However, it takes time for the mindset and the perceptions about Kerala to change. Intrinsically, the work culture in Kerala cannot be found fault with. The people of the state have been found to be more hardworking if they are given the op-portunities and the right environment. It was only in times when there was large-scale unemployment and lack of opportunities that perceptions about bad work culture were spread around. The often-quoted perception that the people of Kerala work harder outside but not within the state is one of the myths which are spread not only about Kerala, but about people in general everywhere.

Are our political parties and leadership gradually realizing that promoting development is the best politics today?

I have always believed that it is the responsibility of the leadership to promote development. It has been my politics before and will continue to be so in future. I am sure other political parties also realize that people want development and no political party or leadership can grow if they don’t fulfil this desire of the people.

Is bureaucracy changing with the times and empowered to deal with the demanding business environ-ment?

I do not think that in India or in Kerala there has been any serious complaint by business about the lack of responsiveness by the bureaucracy.

Major projects like Kochi Metro Rail and Smart City are surrounded by controversies and delay, threat-ening the viability of the project and missing tremendous opportunities.

Do we need to evolve a better way to bring key development projects to reality?

It really makes me very sad that very important infrastructure develop-ment projects do sometimes get stuck by needless controversies. I believe in giving a chance to everyone to air their views. I would not call every-one giving their opinion as creating a controversy. What bothers me is the effort by a small number of people to stall the whole project just because it is not in accordance with their views. People should express their concern and the Government should take every possible action to get these concerns addressed. At the same time, a project which has been found to be beneficial to a large number of people in the state should not be allowed to be stalled only because it does not satisfy the concern raised by a handful of people.

The lack of proper infrastructure and its quality is limiting develop-ment efforts and often making new investors hesitant to come in. What are the Government initiatives to address the issue in a time-bound manner?

Building infrastructure is the topmost priority of this Government. We have already taken a number of initiatives to attract private investments in building public infrastructure. The Government is also spending a large part of its Plan budget on building roads, ports, airports, and metro and mono rails etc. A number of power projects are also at an advanced stage of planning. We will soon be launch-ing a large number of solar panels to tap alternative sources of energy. With the completion of the southern grid, availability of power and its quality is certainly going to improve significantly. The new package introduced for reha-bilitation of project-affected people will ensure that the bottlenecks in the form of land acquisition for national high-ways etc will be removed or reduced to a great extent. The laying of the gas pipeline will be another boost to the available infrastructure. We plan to achieve all these things within the next one year

We will welcome NRIs with open arms: CM

On the eve of the first-ever Pravasi Bharatiya Divas being held in Kerala at Kochi from January 7 to 9, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has assured NRIs that the

state will welcome them with open arms whenever they want to do anything good for their own benefit as well as for their homeland. In an interview given to PASSLINE, the Chief Minister discusses the investment climate in the state and several projects suitable for investment. Excerpts:


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Does the Kerala Government have any plan to utilize NRK money for the state’s development? If yes, could you explain how it is being planned?

Yes, through the State Planning Board.

Why is the State Government not utilizing the expertise of successful NRK businessmen in policymaking or in turning the fortunes of debt-ridden Government departments such as KSRTC, KWA and KSEB?

This is being considered at different policymaking forums.

What plans does the Kerala Gov-ernment have to protect the rights of Malayali employees abroad?

Our present plan is to deal with in-dividual issues through the diplomatic mission.

One of the objectives of NORKA-ROOTS is to ensure safe migration and facilitate/secure gainful and legal employment abroad for our people. NORKA-ROOTS takes up the prob-lems relating to NRK employees through the Government of India.

Could you brief us on the status of a unique identification system for NRKs?

Aadhar card is being introduced as a national identity and will carry a unique 16-digit number affiliated to each individual connected to the cen-tralized data base. This data base in-cludes biometric, demographic and other relevant information necessary for identifying a person. Earlier, the provision of Aadhar card was only for Indian residents. Recently, the Gov-ernment added a special provision for issuing this card to non-resident Indi-ans as well.

Steps for fulfilling Aadhar card for NRI formalities: Verification of docu-ments: The Aadhar card-issuing centre will first go through all your documents that are to be submitted for establish-ing your identity as an NRI. Along with

documents such as the birth certifi-cate, school certificate and photo iden-tity card, an NRI will also have to pro-duce such documents to prove his/her connection with any foreign country (America or other countries of which they are holding the Green Card). Other documents related to their stay and service in the foreign land can also be expected to be produced in case of any query.

Fingertip biometric scanning: The officials will perform biometric scan-ning of all the 10 fingers which would be considered important for establish-ing perfect identity. For this, the person will have to come down to the Aadhar card enrolment centre personally. No formalities will be completed online in this regard.

Biometric scanning of iris: Apart from fingertips, your iris will be scanned for further making a perfect identity.

Photograph: Lastly your photo-graph will be taken by the web-cam and added to the overall Aadhar card documents.

Therefore, it seems that Aadhar authorities (UIDAI) should make ar-rangements with Indian embassies or other agencies for starting enrolment centres abroad.

What, according to you, will be the benefits for NRKs if they invest in the Kannur International Airport?

Opportunity for investment in Kan-nur International Airport is open to ev-ery citizen. NRKs will get all the ben-efits a shareholder is entitled to.

Many Indian CBSE schools re-cently raised the tuition and trans-portation fees, which middle-class families can’t afford. Will the Gov-ernment take any measures to regu-late the fees?

This matter is within the purview of the Government of India.

Will you start the NRKs’ long-term demand for the Pravasi Medi-

cal Insurance Scheme and, if so, when?

NORKA-ROOTS is considering a new proposal for introducing a Pravasi Medical Insurance Scheme for assist-ing the distressed NRKs on their medi-cal needs. The scheme after approval by the Government will be launched during the FY 2013-14.

Many bogus job agents (domes-tic and international) work in our state without proper licence. Why is the Government not taking stringent action against them? Why can’t ac-creditation for such firms be intro-duced?

NORKA-ROOTS has launched awareness programmes against visa cheating and fraudulent recruitments. Wide publicity is given through the print/audio and visual media against illegal recruitments and visa cheat-ing. Stringent action is being initiated against those agencies involved in such cases through the NRI Cell of the State Police Department.

Why can’t NORKA think of con-ducting job fairs in the state involv-ing the parties concerned where people can be recruited so that fraudulent practices in the field can be prevented?

As a prelude to the conduct of job fairs NORKA-ROOTS has started a job portal. NORKA-ROOTS is plan-ning to conduct a job fair and the reg-istration of employers and job-seek-ers has started through the portal, www.jobsnorka.gov.in

What are the future projects of NORKA - Roots?

a. PLAC (Pravasi Legal Aid Cell): The NORKA Department pro-poses to support innocent Keralites who are imprisoned abroad for no fault of their own and for minor offences leading to imprisonment through the scheme. It is intended to address the Indian missions to identify the genuine cases in which assistance is required, and legal services could be provided

through the panel of advocates in the Indian embassies abroad. The Indian missions with the support of the panel of advocates/legal interpreters in the embassies may identify the cases in which innocent Keralites are impris-oned abroad for no wilful default of their own. It is proposed to offer travel assistance to Keralite women to find asylum in the shelter of the embassy.

b. NORKA Business Facilitation Centre (NBFC): It is intended to start an NRK Business Facilitation Centre for advisory and hand-holding services for business and investment to reduce transaction costs and risks. It is pro-posed to start the centre as a single-window entity within NORKA-Roots for facilitating NRK investments.

c. Swapnasaphalyam: The Gov-ernment has announced the extension of the scheme called ‘Swapna Saph-alyam’ in the budget of 2012-13. This scheme aims to provide free air tickets to those persons released from jails and are not able to afford the tickets and also to persons who are in dis-tress.

d. Rehabilitation of returnees: The Government of Kerala in associa-tion with NORKA-ROOTS has concep-tualized a project for the rehabilitation of returnees:

• To enable them to become an entrepreneur on a modest scale by giving suitable guidance and standard capital subsidy

• To explore the possibility of existing agencies accepting the return-ees as special customers and handhold them to comply with the Government procedures to start any new business.

• To develop a sustainable busi-ness model for the livelihood of return-ees.

• To provide financial incentive/capital subsidy to a returnee who has already started a venture/intends to modernize/expand the existing unit.

It is intended to launch this scheme during the FY 2013-14

K C Joseph lists Govt steps for NRKs’ welfareThe Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, an annual event, is a celebration of Indians living abroad. It provides a unique platform for

overseas Indians to interact among themselves and with the Union and State Governments. This year it is being held in Kochi, for the first time in Kerala.

PASSLINE thought fit to contact Mr K C Joseph, Minister in charge of NORKA, the department of the Kerala Government mandated to provide for the welfare of overseas Keralites, and ask him about the activities of the department and its future plans. In a very candid email interview the Minister very lucidly reveals what the Government is doing for non-resident Ker-alites and what it intends to do for them. The following is the text of the interview:


8


Non Resident Keralites’ Affairs Department, Government of

Kerala, is mandated to redress the grievances and safeguard the rights of Keralites residing/working outside the state within India and outside. Established in 1996, NORKA has been playing a vital role in the lives of non-resident Keralites (NRKs) by extending all sorts of support and as-sistance in every possible way.

NORKA-ROOTS, set up in 2002, is the field agency of the Department of NORKA. It acts as a nodal agency for all matters relating to the NRKs and the mission is to establish a ro-bust and vibrant institutional frame-work to facilitate and support the Government of Kerala in addressing the NRKs’ grievances, safeguarding their rights, rehabilitating the return emigrants, enabling them to invest in and benefit from the opportunities in Kerala.

NORKA-ROOTS is controlled by the Director Board chaired by the Chief Minister and has the following

objectives and mandate in advertis-ing the various issues of NRKs.

Ensuring safe migration, facili-• tating/securing gainful and legal employment abroad

Facilitating rehabilitation and re-• integration of return emigrants

Conducting skill upgradation pro-• grammes for emigrants/prospec-tive emigrants

Extending financial assistance to • needy and sick return emigrants

Providing capital subsidies to • business ventures of return emi-grants

Promoting philanthropic activi-• ties

Creating database of emigrants•

Initiating appropriate interven-• tions in policy matters regarding emigration, protection of migrant rights etc

Conducting economic/social en-• gagements/NRK meets

The major activities of NORKA-ROOTS are certificate attestation, apostille attestation, social security/insurance schemes, NRK ID card/Pravasi ID card, financial assistance schemes/projects, pre-departure orientation programme, integrated training programme, awareness programme among overseas job as-pirants about general job situations abroad and imparting essential infor-mation relating to passport, visa, emi-gration rules, employment contract laws/agreements, travel formalities, financial literacy, legal money trans-fer, language and culture of the for-eign land, etiquettes, customs etc.

There is a job portal, www.job-snorka.gov.in, an online platform for employers to hire quality talent and for job-seekers to land their dream job, a skill upgradation training programme, a call centre to give information/guid-ance on the various offices, services, schemes and activities of the NORKA

Department/NORKA ROOTS (toll-free number 1800-425-3939 (within India); NRKs abroad may use: 0091 471 2333339).

Upcoming schemes: The follow-ing are the upcoming schemes of NORKA-ROOTS: Pravasi Legal Aid Cell (PLAC); NRK Business Facilita-tion Centre (NBFC); NORKA Depart-ment Project for Return Emigrants (NDPREM); Swapnasaphalyam.

The NORKA-ROOTS has its head office at Thiruvananthapuram:. NORKA CENTRE, Thycaud, Thiru-vananthapuram-695014.Phone: 0471-2332416, 2332452. Fax: 0471-2326263, URL: www.norkaroots.net; e-mail: [email protected]

There are regional/satellite of-fices at Kozhikode, Kochi, Kottayam, Chennai, Mumbai, Vadodara and Delhi.

(Mr Noyal Thomas is Director and Chief Executive Officer of NORKA-ROOTS)

NORKA-ROOTS, set up in 2002, is the field agency of the Department of NORKA. It acts as a nodal agency for all

matters relating to the NRKs and the mission is to establish a ro-bust and vibrant institutional framework to facilitate and support the Government of Kerala in addressing the NRKs’ grievances, safeguarding their rights, rehabilitating the return emigrants, en-abling them to invest in and benefit from the opportunities in Kerala.

NORKA-ROOTS: at the service of NRKs

Passline News Service

Kerala is looking at the upcom-ing Pravasee Bharatiya Divas

with great enthusiasm and interest, obviously because more than 10% of the state’s population bears the NRI tag and nearly Rs 500 million is be-ing pumped by them into its different banks. It is for the first time that Ker-ala is organizing the meet, the 11th in the series.

NORKA Secretary Rani George is very optimistic about the opportunities the state may derive from the meet. Says she: “Though the meet is a Cen-tral Government-sponsored event, we have the maximum number of NRIs

compared with other states. Naturally we will be the greatest beneficiary. At least one person from a house is a non-resident, especially if we look at the northern part of the state. So it is obvious that the meet will bring in a lot of opportunities for the state and our NRI brethren.

First and foremost, we can show-case the investment opportunities we have in IT, ITES, health and of course tourism and the hospitality industry. Since I am in charge of the state’s tourism sector, I can confidently say that the event will boost the indus-try. NRIs from other states are also attending the meet and there will be

people who will be visiting our state for the first time.”

Ms Rani George says that since a majority of our people are in the Gulf region there will be special sessions at the meet meant for them. “These forums will address their problems including travel agonies, rehabilita-tion packages, Government support during amnesty schemes, insurance etc,” she says.

Ms Rani George says NORKA-ROOTS will start a business centre ex-clusively for the returnees. Those who want to start small business ventures will get assistance from the centre for different modalities like single-window

clearance, financial assistance, skill development and training.

For the safe passage of our people using the amnesty scheme, says Ms Rani George, the Government has already sent an officer to the UAE. “We are in constant touch with the In-dian Ambassador for hassle-free exit for our people, a few of whom don’t have even a passport. For them the Government will bear the cost of tem-porary documents. The Government will also bear the ticket fare of those people who are coming back as des-titute”.

Rani George: business centre for Gulf returnees soon

Rani George

Noyal Thomas


9

Dr A Sreekumar (MBBS; DLO; FACNEM) is Chairman and

Managing Director, Wellness Solu-tions, Kochi. The centre engages itself in wellness management and helps in the overall wellness of people, includ-ing patients suffering from cancer and heart disease and also lifestyle prob-lems. Dr Sreekumar is also President of the Indian Nutritional Medical Asso-ciation.

In an interview with PASSLINE, Dr Sreekumar, who is the Chairman of the Anti-Ageing International Confer-ence and Expo, being held in Kochi from April 26 to 28, 2013, answers questions relating to lifestyle diseases. Excerpts:

Do you think that medicines have a significant impact on one’s general health?

Conventionally medicines are meant for fighting diseases and not for any normal human life process. Medi-cines could only counter the causes and effects of diseases. Hence medi-cines are only useful after contracting diseases and not for any health promo-tion.

Some children become hyper-active after eating foods or having drinks that contain artificial ingredi-ents or are very ‘colourful’. How do such eating or drinking habits affect children?

Artificial colours contain a lot of chemicals that will interact with various molecules in our body that are respon-sible for addiction and craving. This will cause derangement of metabolism leading to various physical and mental disorders. Excessive milk/dairy prod-ucts and gluten-containing foods like wheat, oats etc interfere with digestion and can contribute to autism, hyper-activity and other related disorders in children. Bronchial asthma, allergy and autoimmune disorders also could be due to these foods.

Working out is said to increase our heart’s strength and stamina, lowers hypertension and ‘bad’ cho-lesterol and improves blood cir-culation, lowering the risk of heart

attacks. Is this applicable to women also? Do you suggest any alterna-tives to exercise for them to main-tain their health?

Exercise is an unavoidable and this is applicable to women also. The ef-fect of exercise is improving health in modern lifestyles that indirectly helps in controlling lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol problems, cancer etc. Yoga, breathing exercise, dancing etc are alternatives to conventional exercise.

The American Diabetes Asso-ciation recommends adding insu-lin earlier in one’s treatment plan. Doesn’t insulin have side effects like sudden lowering of blood sugar levels especially in aged people? Is it all right for people with type II dia-betes to depend on insulin?

This is true. Insulin is better than any oral medicine in anti-diabetic treat-ment. But insulin alone is not a good treatment plan as excess insulin can reduce blood sugar by converting sug-ar into fat. In old age onset anti-diabetic treatment may be started only if dietary and nutrient therapy fails. Diabetes is considered as a disease of sugar, but in fact it’s a disease of insulin or pan-creas. Hence blood sugar control alone is not sufficient to contain diabetes. We find the best way to prevent and treat diabetes is a holistic approach of mind, body and spirit.

Do you think that heart attacks can be prevented?

Heart attacks are the most com-mon cause of death in the age group of 30–50. Other lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cancer, chronic degenerative disorders and autoimmune diseases also can be prevented. Long-term pre-vention is possible with genome study, identifying single nucleotide polymor-phism, nutrigenomics and pharmacog-enomics. This is going to be the future of disease management. The ideal pre-vention should be personalized care involving physical exercise for at least half an hour in empty stomach, which should be prescribed by a doctor and pre-exercise nutrient intake for proper

glucose metabolism; exercise for a minimum of four days in a week; yoga, music, meditation etc are of great im-portance in preventing modern diseas-es; diet: avoid sugar/dairy products as far as possible; gluten-containing food should be restricted; eating at regular intervals; eat more fibre, whole grains and vegetable salads by rotation; mi-cronutrients are of great significance.

Women are found to have less risk of developing heart disease and doctors find it trickier to diag-nose heart disease in women than in men. How true is this?

Today more and more women are diagnosed with heart disease because of very high incidence of hormonal imbalance. Preventive and treatment measures in women are little different as hormonal control is different from man. Special regimen follows hormone care after careful evaluation.

Overweight is also a silent killer. But eating more than what a person needs is not the only culprit. Is in-sufficient physical activity the rea-son?

You are what your genes express and there is obesity gene polymor-phism identified. This may explain the fallacy between eating and overweight. In the modern world there are no ade-quate co-factors and nutrients required for proper energy formation. Hence the calories consumed will be converted to fat. Insulin is the storage hormone and other hormones will play their role. Though overweight is a silent killer, the real villain is the underlying hormonal imbalance. Physical inactivity has a role, but this should be judiciously done with proper medical advice.

Over-exercise is dangerous and moderate physical activity burns more fat than high-intensity exer-cise. Is it so?

Moderate exercise is definitely bet-ter than severe exercise.

Walking is recommended as the best recipe for all-round wellness. Can people do it in ‘instalments’—that is, instead of walking at a

stretch for 60 minutes, can they have three 20-minute sessions?

Walking as an exercise can vary ac-cording to individual requirements. The duration of walking is not of concern, but the metabolic activity generated is important. This depends on the speed and method.

Practising yoga is hyped up as a panacea for all ills. Is it recom-mended in the case of patients hav-ing high BP?

Yoga has been proved a good and scientific method of controlling BP and other diseases. It should be followed according to the directions of a quali-fied expert rather than anyone who does yoga.

Do you think that the Anti-Ageing International Conference and Expo being held in Kochi under your chairmanship will create aware-ness about graceful ageing, which is lacking in Kerala?

The main purpose is to prevent premature ageing and make old age a memorable one that can be more creative. But one has to be reminded of the fact that wellness is not luxury, but a necessity today. Lifestyle diseas-es, once thought to be the rich man’s diseases, now involve anyone. In fact treatment is very expensive and once you are sick you are always sick and financial and productivity losses are unimaginable.

Latest evidence shows that we have to live with nature rather than artificial surroundings. This can be accessible to the common man, but awareness is the most important thing. Real health lies in the ideal balance of mind, body and spirit

‘Sustainable health within reach of all’

Dr A Sreekumar


10



We are familiar with Malayalees imbibing Western cultures and lifestyles easily.

But it is very hard to find a Malayalee who could create his own culture on alien land and make the people there adapt to it. Here is one who has been making the summer festival in Vienna, Austria, an unforgettable experience not just for Austrians but for the entire population of the city—Prince Pal-likunnel hailing from Malappuram.

When the temperature reaches its nadir dur-ing summer in Vienna, its streets will be agog with great excitement and revelry for two days. This has been so for the past 12 years under the in-spiring leadership of Prince. Performers and art-

ists from all parts of the world converge there turning the festival into a mini-global gala.

To add spice to the whole affair, cui-sines of various countries will be

on display. The festival called Strasensfest fills the minds of the people of Vienna with sparkles of joy.

Prince Pallikunnel is the Managing Director of PROSI Exotic Supermarket & Cos-metic World, the first exotic supermarket in Vienna, start-ed in 1999. Though it is not easy to succeed in a foreign country, PROSI is an ex-ample of how devotion, perseverance, polite-ness, respect, obedi-ence, service and in-timacy can achieve one’s goal.

Born in an ordinary farmers’ family, Prince got a chance to pursue higher studies in Austria while he was teaching at a higher secondary school at Balussery in Kozhikode after passing his MCom. In 1992 he started a grocery shop with a partner to sell Indian spices and vegetables and also newspapers. Initially it was profitable but the eat-ery started later with it went into losses, leaving the entire business in the doldrums. Prince then tried a travel agency which also turned out to be a fiasco.

After landing in a foreign country as a student and tasting failure in business one would naturally curse that country and its people and decide to leave the place for good for one’s motherland. But destiny had something strange and different in store for Prince. In 1994 he got a job in a Vi-enna insurance company. The entrepreneurship trait in him had not died down. In 1999 Prince started PROSI. What is meant by PROSI? Before christening the name Prince had pondered over the special features that his supermarket should have. So he adopted for inclusion in the name the virtues that are vital for the success of a business venture. They were a mix of human qualities which he had nurtured during the time he had to pass through difficulties. He decided that his venture should imbibe these valuable human attributes and choose the first letters of these—Politeness, Respect, Obedience, Service and Intimacy. And thus was born PROSI.

But fine qualities alone won’t make a venture complete. It required money. His dream project materialized when his father offered $100 as capital. This was of course a small amount, he knew. But with it he opened a shop in a 120-sq m room. Sticking to the principles on which the store was based, he worked hard and made PROSI the

Cover story

Prince Pallikunnel


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Missionary of charity

Back in India, the tribals of Semili village in Madhya Pradesh can never forget

Prince’s charity—he lived with them for three weeks to build houses for them in place of their dilapidated, leaky shelters. What inspired him to do this was a chance meeting he had with the Bishop of Indore Mission diocese, Mar Chacko Thottumarikkal, from whom he came to know of the plight of the tribals there. Prince decided to make Semili village his centre of activity.

Semili village is a mission centre of In-dore diocese which is inhabited by about 150 tribal families, 15 of them Christian. There is a church in the name of St Arnoldenar and a boarding house for boys in the area. Various mission activities take place there. It also has a dispensary. Fr Cyril Koottino, an SVD congre-gation member, is the parish priest. Sisters So-fia, Josaartho and Andro, members of the Fran-ciscan Clara Congregation in Bhopal province, serve as missionaries.

Prince could build houses only for five de-serving tribal families from the fund set apart from the PROSI Charitable Project. He is said to be longing to build more such houses.

largest exotic international culinary joint in Vienna in just 11 years!

When he left his village Karuvakundu in Malap-puram for Vienna the PG degree in Commerce was the only material possession he had. Later he mus-

tered the courage and self-confidence to face any eventuality that he might have to face later in life. It was this mental prowess that added glitter and glitz to his life. From the bitter experiences he had in life Prince had learnt how to turn failures into successes and converted the first exotic su-permarket in Vienna into a busi-ness empire called PROSI Exotic Supermarket & Cosmetic World.

PROSI is the largest and finest Asian, African and Latin Ameri-can food store in Austria. PROSI’s specializations include many vari-eties of rice, exotic sauces, exotic drinks, imported fresh vegetables and fruits, cosmetics, ayurvedic products, chips and many other items. PROSI also carries an ex-

cellent range of imported fish to suit all international tastes.

PROSI today is a vital part of the people of Vienna. It offers for sale 6,000 items from 60 countries. The staff include, besides Indians, people from the Philip-

pines, Nepal, Bangladesh and Africa. PROSI serves recipes that suit the tastes of customers from dif-ferent parts of the world and simultaneously holds cooking and yoga courses weekly for Viennese cus-tomers who warmly welcome these programmes now. For the last four years PROSI has been con-ducting cooking classes on its premises. There are a maximum of 14 students in a batch, mostly Austri-ans. Chefs from different countries take classes.

PROSI is also running a restaurant on its prem-ises where both vegetarian and non-vegetarian deli-cacies are served. South Indian snacks like uzunnu-vada, parippuvada and samosa are also available. Indians’ choice masala dosa is one of the hottest and most favourite dishes among Austrians and ex-patriates from other countries. By offering delicacies that immigrants like, PROSI creates an atmosphere of nativity among all. Moreover, foreigners get a chance to know the Indian mode of cooking.

This year PROSI launched its new food restau-rant with take-away service known as ’PROSI Food Magic’ for its customers who cherish Indian cuisine.

PROSI Exotic Supermarket has been organizing an international Street Festival popularly known as PROSI Exotic Festival for the past 11 years. ``We are proud to say that these festivals are toned up every year with the help of the loyal customers. These annual festivals help us to attract more and more customers. In addition to PROSI Exotic Fes-tival and International Food Festival in 2010 and

2011 PROSI also organized an ‘Interreligious Confer-ence Programme’ in partnership with Viennese district authorities. The events were attended by more than 6,000 visitors and were very well appreciated,” says Prince.


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The biannual street festival is hailed by Vienna’s people as a global festival. Artists from different parts of the world take part in the cultural programmes held with this festival. Foreigners get acquainted with Indian culture through the food festival, and yoga and dance classes.

A protagonist of arts and cultural programmes, Prince has formed an organization called `Kala Vienna’ to promote

international arts and culture in Vienna. This the first time an Indian community is organizing an Exotic Ball in Europe. Ex-otic Ball, otherwise called A Journey Around the World, is an event to beef up the philanthropic activities of PROSI. The collection from the Ball is utilized for building houses for the selected homeless in the South American country of Peru. With the idea of spotting the homeless PROSI Managing Director Prince Pallikunnel had visited Peru. It is the mis-sionary Malayali fathers of CMI in Peru who helped Prince to spot the most impoverished homeless in Peru. PROSI

had begun its in-

ternational charity mission by building five houses for the poor tribals in an Indore village in India. In the beginning of the year 2012 five houses were built in Africa.

There is an arts and cultural centre as a wing of PROSI, the objective of which is to encourage cultural activities of different countries. Indian dance forms are also a major at-traction during the cultural fete.

The curtain downed recently for Europe’s first PROSI Exotic Ball that thrilled Vi-enna for a whole night. Thus, an ensemble of exhil-arating music and enchanting dance came to the end. The show had be-gun with the chief patron of the pro-grammes, PRO-SI supermarket Managing Direc-tor Prince, intro-ducing the guests to the audience and welcoming the gathering. Austrian envoy in Paragua Hora-sia Noguves was the chief guest. Top embassy of-ficials from South

America, Africa and Asia in Austria were also present. This is the first time an Indian community is organizing an Exotic Ball in Europe.

In the fashion show staged after the inaugural function, Ms Salomi Reetha from Switzerland became the first win-ner. Yaya Diana from Senegal was the runner-up. Ms Julus Mechonsho from Cameroon came third.

The fusion dance staged by the Malayalis along with artists from Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and other continents were major attractions of the Ball. The traditional dance of South America, acrobats of Africans and the Bol-

lywood Live of Alex Joe were other highlights of the programmes. In the exciting `Thambola’ that-

followed, nearly 100 winners got prizes. Fr Okkieke, Fr Davis and Fr Prosob

gave away the prizes to the winners

Family—the driving forcePrince was born to George and

Mary at Karuvakundu in Malappuram as their eldest son. After completing MCom from N S S College, Manjeri, he started his career as a VHSC teacher at Balussery. Later he came to Austria as a computer student and got a job in a Vienna insurance com-pany in 1994. In 1999 Prince started PROSI Exotic Supermarket & Cos-metic World.

There is always a force behind ev-ery individual’s success. In Prince’s case it was his wife, brothers and sis-ter who gave him unstinting support for his venture. His wife Shiji, young-er brothers Siji and Sirosh and sister Betty are always with him, helping him in his efforts. With the marriage of his brothers and sister PROSI grew in strength and manpower. Siji’s wife Shiny, Sirosh’s wife Rani and Betty’s husband Shaji also play vital roles in enabling PROSI to scale heights.

Prince handles the complete ad-ministration of the business, public relations and also conceives new ideas. He of course discusses ideas and problems with his brothers before implementing them. Shiji is in charge of the cosmetic section and Siji and Sirosh manage the purchase depart-ment. Betty and Shiny are in charge of the restaurant, PROSI Food Mag-ic. Rani looks after the total accounts of the business. Shaji oversees the counter sales of the supermarket.

Prince is also actively engaged in different cultural and social activities in Vienna. He is an office-bearer of WMC European region. Kala Vienna is a prestigious and the largest or-ganization of Malayalees in Europe. Prince is its patron and soul.

Prince has served as the Austrian representative of the World Chamber of Commerce, President of the WMC Austrian Province and WMC Europe President. He has bagged the best businessman award and the best achievement award

Prince with his brothers (from left ) Sirosh, Siji and brother-in-law Shaji

PASSLINE Dec 31 - Jan 31, 2013


13

Mr Yusuffali M A, Managing Director of Emke Group, ranks today among the top NRI busi-

ness personalities. The group has diversified into many significant areas under his dynamic steward-ship, retail being the most prominent of them.

His astute business vision and strategic mind have evolved ambitious growth plans for the group and ensured their materialization through a team of people who share his drive and dynamism. Head-quartered in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, the group is best known in the Gulf through a chain of popular shopping malls, hyper-markets, supermarkets and department stores which serve the widest segments of multi-ethnic residents in the region. Foremost among them is the Lulu Chain of outlets, followed by Al Falah Plaza and Emirates General Market. The group’s formidable position in retailing is ably supported by an integrated network of import, distribution and wholesale marketing op-erations, apart from a cross-continent network of out-sourcing operations.

Emke Group, with its 27,600-strong workforce from 29 different nations and operational bases ex-tending over the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bah-rain, Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Benin and Tan-zania, is one of the most successful corporates of the times with a steadily ascending growth curve over the years. With an annual turnover of $3.75 billion glob-ally, the group employs more than 22,000 Indians.

Apart from his busy business involvement, Yusuf-fali is equally active on the social front and is associ-ated with various organizations.

In recognition of his remarkable achievements in business and industry and his distinguished ser-vices in the field of social work, he was conferred the prestigious Padma Shri award by President Pratibha Patil, President of India, on May 5, 2008. He was the first non-resident Indian from the Gulf and the Mid-dle East countries to be honoured with this coveted award by the Government of India.

Taking into consideration his valuable contribution to promoting the honour and prestige of India, his ef-

forts in fostering the interests of overseas Indians and his outstanding achievements in the field of busi-ness, he was given the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest Indian Government award given to non-resident Indians, by President A P J Abdul Kalam in January 2005 at Mumbai.

His crowning glory came when the business community in Abu Dhabi elected him Director Board member of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industries (ADCCI) in 2005. He was also unanimous-ly elected Vice-Chairman of the prestigious Trade Committee of the ADCCI. In 2009, the UAE business community re-elected him to the Director Board of ADCCI.

Very closely involved in many social, charitable and humanitarian activities both in India and in Gulf countries, Yusuffali plays a vital role in fostering the interests of non-resident Indians and keeping intact the communal harmony among them in the Gulf.

His earnest and dedicated efforts have helped in securing cremation grounds for Hindu brethren in the Gulf. Through his close association with the authori-ties in the Gulf he has been able to arrange free land for the Christian community to construct churches.His proximity to the rulers and local Government authori-ties in the Gulf countries has contributed to strength-ening the bilateral ties between India and the Gulf countries. As a true son of India, Yusuffali has always strived to bring in foreign investments and expertise to India especially to Kerala for various infrastructural development projects, prime among them being the first and only international airport with private partici-pation, in Kochi, of which he is a Director. Recently he won big applause for playing the mediator in the Kochi Smart City venture, Kochi’s dream project.

The philanthropist in him has always come to the forefront in organizing huge and timely relief mea-sures from the Gulf during many natural calamities in India, viz Lathur and Gujarat earthquakes, the tsu-nami tragedy etc. He was the first to contribute to the rehabilitation of the Kozhikode market fire victims when thousands lost their livelihood. During the am-nesty period in the UAE he was in the forefront by providing free air tickets including other facilities to hundreds of hapless Indians who could not even af-ford a ticket back to their motherland.

Modest beginning: Yusuffali arrived in Dubai in 1973 and initially began in trading frozen foodstuff and related products. He gradually branched out to the retail sector with presence in supermarkets, de-partment stores and big-format hypermarkets. Today the group has strong presence in the traditional sup-ply chain from manufacture to import and export to wholesale and finally to retail of consumer products giving it a competitive edge in understanding the needs of consumers and serving them better. The group operates with a firm philosophy of ‘right prod-ucts in the right place at the right time’

Yusuffali tops among NRI businessmenYusuffali tops among NRI businessmen

Positions Yusuffali is Managing Director of EMKE Group; Chairman of Lakeshore Hospital and

Research Centre Ltd, Kochi; Managing Director of Lulu International Shopping Mall, Kochi; and Managing Director of Lulu International Convention Centre, Thrissur; Member, Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council; Member, Central Wakf Council, Government of India; Member, Security Advisory Council to Civil Aviation (SACCA), Government of India; former Director of Air India; Trustee, The India Development Foundation and Overseas Indian Fa-cilitation Centre; Director Board Member, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI); Director Board Member, Zakat Fund; Director, Cochin International Airport Ltd. (CIAL): Director,Air Kerala International Services Ltd; Director, Kerala State Industrial De-velopment Corporation Ltd (KSIDC); Vice-Chairman, Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Com-mittee (NORKA-ROOTS), Govt of Kerala; former Special Invitee to the Board of Directors of Air India and Indian Airlines Ltd; and Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Founder, Patron or Trustee of many social, educational and charitable institutions.

Yusuffali

The EMKE Group today comprises the following companies

Retail: Lulu Hypermarket, Khalidiyah Mall, Al Wahda Mall, Al Raha Mall, Lulu Centre, Lulu Supermarket, Mazyad Mall, Al Falah Plaza, Emirates General Market.

Manufacturing and export: PTEK Prima Ek-spor (Indonesia), EK Prima Exports (Thailand), EK Prima Exports (China), EK Prima Exports (Hong Kong); EMKE Commodities Limited, Fair Exports (India) Ltd, Amroon Foods, Benin Trading.

Import and distribution: EMKE Stores, EMKE General Trading, Al Tayeb Cold Stores, Al Tayeb Meat Est.

Business services: Line Investments & Prop-erty, Syscoms Information Tech; Space Intl Travels.

New projects: Al Foah Mall, Mushrif Mall, Rak Mall, Ramli Mall, Madinat Zayed, Al Khor, Al Wakrah, Boushar Mall, Al Wahda Mall, Kuwait, Riyadh Avenue.


14


Celebrating its glorious silver jubilee year, DM Healthcare, started as a small clinic in Dubai in

1987 by Dr Azad Moopen, a doctor turned entrepreneur, has grown exponentially to provide quality healthcare at affordable cost to over 20,000 customers daily from across five countries through 118 establishments and 5,500 dedicated doctors, nurses, pharmacists, para-medics and support staff. Every year it touches the lives of over 7 million patients.

DM Healthcare cares for the lives of millions of peo-ple in India and the Middle East now. In the next five years DM will be almost quadrupling its presence bring-ing compassionate care closer to the homes of its cus-tomers through its brands ASTER, MEDCARE, MIMS, WIMS and ACCESS, in a much wider geography.

Expansion plan: The Dubai-based company says it will invest over Rs 2,100 crore for developing several health-care facilities at multiple locations in Kerala. Kerala is a

high-priority destination for investment in view of the demand for advanced healthcare facilities, DM

Healthcare Chairman and Managing Director Azad Moopen said in a recent statement.

The DM Aster MedCity at Kochi, a green-field venture, costing $300 million when completed, will be attracting patients from the world over. Built across 1 km water-front on 38 acres already acquired by the group, it will have 540 beds in phase-I, 500 in phase-II, a 500-seat medical conven-tion centre, 100-room hotel and luxurious accommodation facilities and 9 centres of excellence with state-of-the-art tech-nologies, all at a cost of $150 million. This iconic project will have many centres of excellence in various specialities, cater-ing to national and international patients. MedCity is envisioned to become a major destination for medical value travel in the world. Moopen said Medcity would also provide a venue for medical tourism to

the country from abroad.

The DM MIMS Medical College at Wayanad is anoth-er major greenfield project of medical education which will have a 500-bedded hospital in two years and shall signal the entry of the group into medical education. The 600-bedded MIMS Hospital at Kozhikode and 150-bed-ded MIMS Hospital at Kottakkal, associate hospitals of the group, are the preferred tertiary referral centres in North Kerala, and run by a public limited company under the chairmanship of Dr Azad Moopen, with a 30% stake by DM Healthcare.

Another Rs 300 crore is being planned for invest-ment to set up three Aster cluster hospitals in the state. In addition, the company also plans to invest Rs 550 crore in various projects including medical colleges and hospitals across the state, it said.

According to company estimates, most of the projects are expected to be operational in the next five years. In-dia with a population of 1.3 billion is a huge opportunity with a large demand-supply gap in quality healthcare with an increasing number of people belonging to the middle-income group. It is the home ground of the group which has strong roots in the mother country.

The group will add over 3,000 beds to its hospital network in India after completion of its various projects in the next five years, the company said.

DM Healthcare will establish clusters of ‘hub and spoke hospitals’ in the tier-II and III cities, aiming to have about 4,000 beds under its ownership by 2015 in India. Most of the hospitals will be acquired or established as brownfield projects. The group is already active in Ma-harashtra with hospitals at Kolhapur. Ophthalmic cen-tres in NCR Delhi, IVF centres in South India are some other niche areas being explored.

``There are different schemes of healthcare services provided in India for those who are in the low-income group and not everyone has insurance, whereas in the UAE, health insurance is essential and mandatory,” says Dr Moopen.

The expansion in the GCC will be achieved by aug-menting the number of facilities in already represented countries and entering the unrepresented. A major part of the growth is envisaged in the hospital sector with 12 hospitals in various Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) locations by 2015. Kuwait and Bahrain will also have the Aster network soon. Thousands of experienced employ-ees who toiled day in and day out to build DM Health-care from a single-doctor clinic to the largest healthcare chain in the GCC is the bedrock of success.

Dr Azad Moopen believes firmly that quality must be the corner-stone of an organization and profit should be a byproduct. While technology and infrastructure are important, the man behind the machine is much more important than the machine in delivering compassionate care with the human touch.

The group is in the midst of fast-track expansion in the GCC and India with the number of units set to grow to 300 by 2015. The hospital, clinic, diagnostic and phar-

DM HEALTHCARE

Catalyst for care and cure

Dr Azad Moopen


15macy verticals of the group are being consolidated under a single brand—Aster

Dr Moopen subscribes to the view that quality is the outcome of all activities that take place within the orga-nization. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a discipline and philosophy of management.

``There are different schemes of healthcare services provided in India for those who are in the low-income group and not everyone has insurance, whereas in the UAE, health insurance is essential and mandatory,” says Dr Moopen.

Qatar: DM Healthcare expanded its operations to Qa-tar in 2003. With the rapid expansion of the country, DM Healthcare too expanded with clinics in Industrial Area in 2007 and Medcare Clinic in 2009.

As part of its Vision 2015, DM Healthcare is all set for a major expansion. The plan is to establish a 50-bedded Aster Hospital, 5 Aster medical centres and 12 Aster phar-macies at an investment of $30 million in major towns like Al Khor, Al Rayyan and Al Wakra soon.

Saudi Arabia: Major investments are planned in Saudi Arabia which has a huge potential for healthcare estab-lishments.DM Healthcare, which has already registered a company under the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), is forging partnerships with local com-panies. The overall plan is to establish 5 hospitals, 15 clin-ics and 15 pharmacies in the Kingdom, at an investment of SR 250 million by 2015. The population of Saudi Arabia is slated to grow from 24 million to 30 million by 2016. The private healthcare sector is poised for tremendous growth because of the entry of health insurance.

Sultanate of Oman: The blueprint of Aster expansion for Oman is impressive considering the large size of the country.

DM Healthcare currently has one operating hospi-tal Al Raffa in Muscat along with 4 medical centres and 4 pharmacies. The Aster Hospital in Sohar is a high-end superspeciality hospital, part of DM Healthcare’s network in Oman.

DM Healthcare is the first private sector organization to be recognized by Government organizations, all major oil companies, corporates and embassies. The Vision 2015 of the group includes 3 hospitals, 15 medical centres and 15 pharmacies under the Aster vertical with an additional investment of $27 million.

UAE: With a vision and a mission to bring quality healthcare within everyone’s reach, what began from a single clinic has grown into one of the largest healthcare

groups in the UAE with a current investment of $50 mil-lion. An additional investment of $90 million is envisaged soon.

DM Healthcare has its maximum presence in the coun-try. The group already has 2 hospitals, 29 medical centres and 42 pharmacies in the UAE, with a consultancy and IT division. It has been a 360-degree approach across pri-mary, secondary and tertiary care.

DM Healthcare recognizes social responsibility as one of its top business priorities. As one of the fastest-growing healthcare companies, DM Healthcare’s CSR efforts focus on all. Today, DM Healthcare has emerged as a gateway to good health with its various community good health programmes (CGHP) and other CSR initiatives like health camps.

The excellent team of doctors, medical staff who un-derstand diverse patients needs, hospitals to cater to high-end secondary and tertiary care, modular clinics, innova-tive pharmacies and advanced diagnostics have made DM Healthcare a leading name for quality and trust, a commitment that has earned DM Healthcare international recognition through numerous quality accreditations and awards.

Meritorious service may never go unnoticed. Awards and accolades will however come its way. This has been evidenced in the case of Dr Azad Moopen. He has been honoured with the Padma Sri title, he has bagged the Pravasi Award and the Arab Health and Medshop Dubai Award and the JCI Accreditation has been conferred on him

Plan for IPODM Healthcare is looking at

an initial public offering (IPO) in the next `two or three years’’, Dr Azad Moopen said.

The Dubai-based firm will seek to list shares on the London Stock Exchange, a bourse in the UAE or one in Mumbai, the Chair-man added.

“In the next two or three years we’re looking at an IPO, either in markets like London or maybe here (the UAE) if the market im-proves... or maybe in India where the multiples are very good actu-ally,” he said.

“We can do it in London, In-dia or the Middle East depending on the market situation,” Moopen hoped.


16



Kerala has many NRK businessmen. All are outstanding. But few have the

unique virtues that C K Menon possesses. C K Menon, the prominent non-resident Kerala industrialist of Qatar, is secular, philanthropic and industrious, and belongs to the flock of eminent NRK business doyens like Captain C P Krishnan Nair, M A Yusaffali, Rajeev Chan-drasekhar, Dr B Ravipilla, P N C Nenon, M P Ramachandran and Galfar Mohammed Ali who have also won the prestigious P V Sami Memorial Industrial and Socio-Cultural Award instituted by the PVS Group in memory of the great business doyen, the late P V Sami. Menon bagged the award in September.

Menon was recently honoured by Doha International Center Inter-faith Dialogue (DI-CID) for his outstanding contributions to the promotion of religious harmony in his native state. What makes the DICID honour unique and relevant is that no Indian or other expatri-ate in Qatar so far has received such recog-nition from any such recognized and respect-able organization as this institute.

A philanthropist who believes that charity is not being merciful to the less fortunate, but is their right, Menon earmarks 2.5% of the net profit of his companies for ‘sakkat’ (help or money given to poor people). He built and

handed over 100 houses to the slum-dwellers of his birthplace Thrissur some time ago. He has played a major role in constructing hous-es in the ‘Laksham Veedu’ (one lakh houses) Colony at Puthupally and the M N ‘Laksham Veedu’ restoration project announced by the Government of Kerala. Menon is the patron of ‘Adarsh’, a model institution that epitomiz-es compassion and love. Children from vari-ous religions are studying at this charitable venture functioning at Thrippunithura, Kochi. ‘Adarsh’ is dedicated to the rehabilitation of children having symptoms of cerebral palsy and other motor-sensory childhood develop-ment disorders like autism, on purely charita-ble basis. That he is a role model for commu-nal harmony is proved by some of his deeds. The most striking of these is the masjid he has built for his Muslim brethren at Nocholi in Kozhikode district, where 400 people can offer prayers at a time. It could very well be the first time after Cheraman Perumal in the late eighth century that a Hindu believer was getting a masjid built.

Menon has also erected a life-size statue in memory of Sister Alfonsa, the first Catholic saint from India, at the new bypass junction in Changanassery. Besides, he is deeply in-volved in the establishment of the School of Bhagavat Gita at Thiruvananthapuram.

A philanthropist and secularist to the core, C K Menon earmarks 2.5% of the net profit of his companies for ‘sakkat’ (help or money given to poor people). He built and handed over 100 houses to slum-dwellers in Thrissur and helped in constructing houses in the ‘Laksham Veedu’ (one lakh houses) Colony at Puthupally and the M N ‘Laksham Veedu’ restoration project. Menon is the patron of ‘Adarsh’, a model chari-table institution at Thrippunithura dedicated to the rehabilitation of children affected by cerebral palsy and autism. He built a masjid for his Muslim brethren at Nocholi in Kozhikode district, where 400 people can offer prayers at a time and erected a life-size statue in memory of Sister Alfonsa at Changanassery. He is deeply involved in establishing the School of Bhagavat Gita at Thiruvananthapuram

C K Menon and wife Jayasree


17Menon was also instrumental in saving four Ma-

layali youths in Saudi Arabia from capital punishment when it (the punishment) was relaxed following the initiative taken by him and the then Opposition Lead-er, Mr Oommen Chandy. Fazalur Rahman of Kan-nur, Mohammed Musthafa of Mannarkkad, Zakeer Hussain of Thiruvananthapuram and Mohammed Musthafa of Perinthalmanna had been awarded cap-ital punishment following the death of Muhammed Ashraf of Mangalore in an altercation. All of them were friends. After the members of the families of the four Malayalis approached Mr Oommen Chandy, he took the matter up with the authorities concerned and also talked to the families of the deceased, who finally agreed to pardon them if a blood money of Rs 80 lakh was received. The amount was contributed by Menon and the four were given relaxation in the punishment.

Menon is the Managing Director and Chief Ex-ecutive Officer of the Behzad Group of Companies

with headquarters in Doha, Qatar. When he joined Behzad Transports, the company had owned a fleet of 450 lorries of which 200, along with their drivers, were remaining idle because, he soon found, they needed minor repairs. It was here that he put to good effect his knowledge of vehicles and also his intel-ligence by suggesting that either the company sell all the 200 unused ones or at least demolish 50 of them and use their parts to repair the other 150. The owner chose the latter suggestion and, to his great surprise and satisfaction, the 150 vehicles which were repaired were soon back on the road and the company back to profit.

After a few years with the company, its owner, Ali Hussein Behzad, wanted to sell it and asked Menon if he was interested in buying it. He was of course interested but had no money to pay. The owner con-sented to being paid in instalments as he had by now cultivated great trust in Menon.

Retaining the name Behzad (meaning ‘money’) Menon began to build the company. Although he seemingly found his niche, it took a keen marketing sense to expand it so successfully as Menon did. He methodically started adding to his fleet, the compa-ny’s focus being on fuel transportation by land and sea.

Menon has also entered the steel manufactur-ing sector. Today he has built his group into a Rs 4,000-crore-a-year conglomerate, his commercial in-

volvement stretching from Qatar to the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, South America, the US and the UK. The group employs 2,000 people, almost 95% of them Keralites, and the rest mainly Sri Lankans and Nepalese. His keen marketing sense, business acu-men and ingenuity were evident in his 1994 takeover of a loss-making bakery, Oriental, in Doha. It was of 40 years’ standing employing 400 people and work-ing 24 hours a day. It is now the biggest of its kind in Qatar.

His wife Jaya (Jayasree Menon) is his constant companion and support. Menon has three children—two daughters and a son. Anjana and Sreeranjini, the daughters, are married to doctors. The husband of the elder one now looks after the group’s steel fabricating unit in Sudan. Jayakrishnan is the son with engineering education in the UK and involved in Menon’s business.

Numerous awards and positions have come Menon’s way for his contributions to society. In 2009

the Government of India bestowed on him the coun-try’s highest civilian title Padma Shri in recognition of his charitable and social activities. In 2006 he had won the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman of the Union Government. He has also an Honorary Membership of Rotarian conferred on him. Menon is a Director of

the Kerala Government’s expatriates’ welfare associ-ation, NORKA-ROOTS, and a Director of Infrastruc-ture Kerala Ltd (INKEL), set up by the Kerala Gov-ernment in 2007 for the development of infrastructure in the state. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs

has nominated Menon as a member of the Board of Trustees of the India Development Foundation on a directive from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The foundation is a non-profitable trust to channel-ize philanthropic activities by overseas Indians. He is also a Director of Jai Hind TV and Symphony TV in addition to his directorship of a number of edu-cational institutions in Kerala and outside. A notable recognition is his nomination as Vice-Chairman of Al Barakah Financial Services Limited, a joint-venture financial institution formed by the Kerala Govern-ment with private-sector participation.

Despite being a ‘world citizen’—he holds visas for the UAE, the US, the UK, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, besides Qatar—Menon is essentially an out-and-out Keralite, rooted to the state’s soil. Another of his proj-ects for the state is a Rs 250-crore five-star hotel, coming up at Edappally bypass, Kochi. This remark-able man, perhaps, owns the largest chain of com-panies among Keralite entrepreneurs.

Apart from these he holds many positions in public like member of the Board of Trustees for In-dia Development Foundation (IDF), governed by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs; Director of Modern Indian School (a Delhi public school), Doha; Chairman, Bhavan’s Public School, Doha; Direc-tor, Gurukul School, Thiruvananthapuram; Founder Partner, Sree Narayana Educational Trust School, Thrissur; Founder Member, Adi Sankara Charitable Trust, Thrissur; and Director, Symphony TV, Thiru-vananthapuram.

Socio-cultural activities: Patron, Thrissur Jilla Souhreda Vedi, Doha, affiliated to the Indian Embas-sy; Patron, Qatar Malayali Samajam, Doha, affiliated to the Indian Embassy; Patron, Kerala Socio-Cultural Association, Doha; Patron, ‘INCAS’, Doha, affiliated to the Indian Embassy; Life Member, Indian Cultural Centre, Doha (under the Indian Embassy); and Life Member, Indian Community Benevolent Fund, Doha (under the Indian Embassy).

The following are C K Menon’s companies: Be-hzad Transports, Doha; Oriental Bakery, Doha; Be-hzad Information Technology; Dubai; Behzad Fuels UK Ltd; United Kingdom; Sowparnika Group, Kochi; Ali Bin Naser Al Misnad Transport & Trdg W L L, Doha; Behzad International Transport Co, Kuwait; Behzad Petroleum Services Est, Jubail KSA; Be-hzad Steel & Engg Ltd, Sudan; Behzad Transport, Kochi; Ali Bin Naser Al Misnad Steel, Kochi

Numerous awards and positions have come Menon’s way for his contributions to society. In 2009 the Government of India bestowed on him the country’s highest civil-ian title Padma Shri in recognition of his charitable and social activi-ties. In 2006 he had won the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman of the Union Government. He has also an Honor-ary Membership of Rotarian con-ferred on him.


18


imited


19

The IBMC Group, the international financial professionals, specialized in Indian investments for NRIs, spreads its wings to foreign nationals with the newly launched QFI Services.

IBMC begins new era in financial services

“The Investors across GCC are better informed and exposed to the international markets. Compared to the rest of the world, we understand the opportunity called India better. The QFI route makes investments in Indian shares and bonds hassle-free and provides added confidence from service providers like IBMC with their multi-country presence and ex-pertise. This initiative will boost the Investment relations between the countries to a great extent”

His Excellency Hazza Mo-hammed Al Dhaheri—the first QFI account holder to India from the UAE

India, which is currently among the world’s top three investment

destinations, holds tremendous invest-ment opportunities and with the launch of QFI Services by the IBMC Group, foreign nationals can now invest di-rectly in the Indian market. Earlier, only pension funds and similar entities were allowed direct access to India’s bourses. Qualified Foreign Investors shall include individuals, groups or as-sociations and this is the new route of investments announced by the Gov-ernment of India.

Launched with a specific focus, the IBMC Group now holds the credit of being India’s first exclusive investment

service provider to NRIs and QFIs. Dif-ferentiating itself from the large group of investment service companies to

whom NRI services are confined just one among the divisions, the IBMC Group started its services exclusively for NRIs. Promoted by international fi-nancial professionals with Indian and international exposure, the group ser-vices are designed to meet the expec-tations of NRIs to international stan-dards.

Identifying the need to quality awareness on investment opportuni-ties in India, IBMC initiated over 400 professional awareness sessions out-side India for the NRI community. The sessions were designed to give NRIs a better understanding of the Indian le-gal and regulatory framework that pro-

tects their investments connected with the insight on the fast-growing invest-ment opportunities in India. The great-

est bottleneck that forced many NRIs to stay away from the Indian capital markets was the lack of awareness of the initiatives from RBI protecting NRI investors through the PIS route of in-vestments. The initiatives from CDSL and NSDL ensuring the highest level of transparency and safety add to the confidence of NRI investors.

IBMC Group Indian investments op-erations are linked through one among the leading regional exchanges in In-dia, Cochin Stock Exchange, through its subsidiary, Cochin Stock Brokers Limited, to offer investment products through NSE and BSE. The profes-sional expertise that the IBMC Group holds in India and abroad helped the group to launch the QFI services, help-ing foreign investors from 45 countries to invest directly in India.

For the foreign investors and NRIs, expert advice at all times is required on the international market movement especially on the Indian currency, a change which makes a big impact on their investment portfolio. The group through its group company JRG Inter-national Brokerage DMCC provides NRIs and QFIs with the opportunity to hedge their Indian rupee exposure with Dubai-based international exchange, DGCX, the biggest international ex-change outside India where the Indian rupee can be traded without tax on profit.

Apart from Indian investments, the market information and hedging/trad-ing facilities provided by JRG Interna-tional on the Indian rupee is helping the import-export community to a great extent as the currency fluctuation risk can be covered without tax burdens. JRG International also provides inter-national investment opportunity in pre-cious metals, energy, international cur-rencies and industrial metals through DGCX. Considering the service quality and contributions to the overall eco-nomic development, JRG International received the highest level of national recognition in the UAE, the Moham-med Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Business Award, in 2012.

The group has contributed sig-nificantly to the international financial services industry which includes the global client segregated bank account system and global cash management and transfer system protecting the in-vestors in the highly volatile market conditions.Along with international in-vestors, the Indian community was the largest to enjoy the benefits of Emirates

Investor Savings Plan launched by the group as a CSR project with the objec-tive of creating systematic investment habits and culture among the public through memorabilia gold coins of the UAE. Proving systematic investment options just by paying 1/12 price fixing gold, the scheme got mass attention from the labour to the millionaire class.

Being the exclusive service provider with international exposure with strong social values, IBMC becomes the most-sought-after service provider for NRIs and foreign nationals, truly making it their gateway of investments to India. The IBMC Group’s Indian corporate of-fice is located at Infinity Metro Tower, Koch, with three regional offices in the state. IBMC has its overseas head-quarters in Dubai with regional offices in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah and market-ing contacts in the UK, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

Mr P K Sajith Kumar, CEO and Director- IBMC Group.

“NRIs and their families back home see us as the exclusive ser-vice providers to all their Investment Needs in India with service sup-port in Home Country and Abroad. With added services through QFI route we are focusing to increase the Foreign Investments to India in a bigger way, benefiting Indian Economy and Foreign Nationals alike adding value to the relations between the respective countries. Currently Nationals from 45 coun-tries are permitted to Invest in In-dia through QFI route”

“India’s strong and transpar-ent regulatory system connect-ed to the professional set up of BSE,CDSL,NSDL and NSE has great influence in building confi-dence level for Foreign Investors and NRIs in Indian Markets”

The IBMC Group holds the credit of being India’s first exclu-sive financial service group for NRI and QFI investments

IBMC GROUP

PRODUCTS FOR NRIs Shares - Through PIS Route

• Equity shares in primary markets, • Equity shares in secondary markets,

Mutual Fund Units • Equity schemes • Debt (Infrastructure) Schemes

Corporate Bonds Insurance Products

IBMC GROUP PRODUCTS FOR FOREIGN

NATIONALS THROUGH QFI ROUTE Shares

• Equity shares in primary markets, • Equity shares in secondary markets,

Mutual Fund Units • Equity schemes • Debt (Infrastructure) Schemes

Corporate Bonds



20


Industrious K P Abdul Hameed landed in Doha, Qatar, in 1967

and within seven days of his arrival secured a job with Jaidah Motors and Trading as Secretary to its Managing Director until he moved to Ahmed Hus-sain Ahmed Khalf Trading Company to work in its Sales Department in 1971. It was at this time that the idea of starting a business occurred to him. The plan was to launch a business of his own in partnership with his brother-in-law, A K Usman, who had arrived in Doha ear-lier.

It was the car rental business that the duo started—in 1971. At that time, the very concept of hiring cars was nov-el to Qatar. The few cars that were seen on the roads were either owned by af-fluent Qataris or by companies that had a presence in the country. The first ve-hicle that they rented out was a hired one, a Buick.

Today Al Muftah Rent A Car, the firm Hameed and Usman launched and which had such a humble and mod-est beginning, has grown into one of great reputation in the whole of Qatar. Indeed they have created one of the most successful businesses of the kind in the Gulf states with more than 2,000 vehicles—luxury cars, passenger cars, buses and others—in their kitty.

Born on June 15, 1938, in the small village of Kochannur, Vadakkekkad, in Thrissur, as the second son of K P Moi-dunny Master, a school Headmaster, and Chekkayumma, Hameed gradu-ated from Government Victoria Col-lege, Palakkad. He worked in the Kerala Government’s Forest De-partment from 1956 to 1961 and in Lakshadweep from 1961 to 1967. It was after his marriage to Amina, a gold medalist in secondary educa-tion from Puthuma-nassery, Pavaratty, also Thrissur, that he was advised, rather forced, by Usman, who is his wife’s brother, to try his hand at getting a job in the Gulf. Hameed suc-cumbed to Usman’s coercion and landed in Doha in 1967, af-ter a week’s journey by ship.

Qatar was then almost a barren land, a typical desert. There were hardly any build-ings in the areas where now stand palatial con-structions. Roads were few and far between, and what-ever existed were in very bad condition. However he quickly recovered from that early shock, and picked up the job with Jaidah Motors and then Ahmed Hussain Ahmed Khalf Trading Company.

K P Abdul Hameed land-ed in Doha in 1967. In 1971 the idea of start-ing a business occurred to him. The plan was to launch it in partnership with his brother-in-law, A K Usman, who had arrived in Doha ear-lier. It was the car rental business that the duo started. At that time, the very concept of hiring cars was novel to Qatar. The first vehicle that they rented out was a hired one, a Buick.

K P Abdul Hameed

A K Usman

Fazil Hameed

Ziad Usman


21

Hameed now guides the fortunes of Al Muftah Services and Rent A Car as its Managing Director. The company also has interests in real estate and auto and building maintenance. It was to meet the growing demand for office and residential accom-modation with the influx of more and more expatri-ate residents that Al Muftah launched its General Services and Real Estate Division in 1971.

The Al Muftah Transport Division specializes in goods-moving services for householders as well as commercial establishments. The division’s respon-sibility begins with packaging the goods carefully in boxes and special crates, sealing them to ensure safety of the contents in transit and transporting them to the new location. The division, working virtually round the clock, can do the packing and moving any time convenient for the customers be-fore or after working hours and even on holidays.

For people leaving Qatar for good for their home countries, Al Muftah has arrangements with international cargo movers to deliver consign-ments overseas. The company also rents out luxu-ry coaches with different passenger capacities.

With more than 1,000 people working in its var-ious divisions, Al Muftah’s HRM style has ensured that there are no employer-employee conflicts, with flexible working hours, periodic incentives and gifts and a congenial working environment which en-sure that the staff are committed to the success of the company. The company has won a number of laurels, including the MENA Travels Award for four consecutive years from 2006 and the Trade Lead-ers’ Award and the International Quality Crown Award, London. It is also the first ISO-certified car rental company in Qatar.

Hameed rates his marriage to Amina as a turn-ing point in his life and feels that his success is due to the support he got from his partner, besides, of course, to the Almighty’s blessings.

The Hameed-Amina couple have two sons. The elder, Dr Najeeb, is a paediatrician with Hamad Medical Corporation and is married to Fouzia, a master’s in Economics and daughter of Hameed’s brother-in-law and business partner Usman. The second son Fazil, married to Abida, a computer science engineer and granddaughter of Thangal Kunju Mussaliar, Kollam, assists him in his busi-ness.

Hameed sees the world getting over the lean days, and Qatar establishing itself as a booming economy in which tourism will be a major activity. A car rental company could hardly ask for anything better than that. He is the founder of the M E S

Indian School, Doha, founded in 1974. It is the first Indian school in Qatar and the largest expatriate one. Besides, it is also the first ISO 9001-2008-certified educational institution in the country with 10,000 students, 450 teachers and 300 non-teach-ing staff. The school provides quality education for children of the Indian community in Qatar.

Director of Al Rafa Polyclinic, Doha, Hameed plays an active role in society, including being President of the ICBF, Doha, and Advisory Mem-ber of the Indian Cultural Centre and the Malay-alee Samajam, Doha, and the Chairman of CIGI Qatar Chapter etc. He is also associated with sev-eral other educational institutions in Thrissur and Kozhikode. Among these stands out the Sal Sa-beel Central School at Mundur, Peramangalam, Thrissur, of which he is the Chairman. The school has produced 100% results for the Plus II exams. Situated on a 12-acre site amidst idyllic and tran-quil surroundings, it is full of greenery and is a veri-table Shantiniketan. The plan is to develop it into a residential school and it is targeted at attracting children of NRKs.

Recently he took over charge as President of thye IES Engineering College, IES BEd College and IES Senior Secondary School (CBSC), Thris-sur Chittelappilly.

Hameed has been honoured with a number of awards of excellence:

1. The World Malayalee Council Awards for out-standing contributions and for educational growth of Indians in Qatar, presented at the WMC Global Conference in Doha.

2. Nehru Award for outstanding performances in the field of education and social services.

3. NRI Pravasi Bharat Samman for outstanding work in the social and educational fields.

4. Pride India Leadership Award by H E Sir An-erood, President of the Republic of Mauritius, in recognition of outstanding services and contribu-tions to the Indian community.

5. Award of Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF), Doha, for outstanding performance in the social and educational fields among Indians.

6. Kerala Kalakendram Golden Award.

Ziad Usman, son of Mr Usman, a qualified MBAdegree holder, and Fazil Hameed, son of Hameed, qualified as an International Chartered Accountant, also look after the affairs and opera-tions of the company, both local and global

K P Abdul Hameed


22


ANDREW PAPPACHEN

Davis Edattukaran started his career as a commissioned officer in the Indian Army. Af-

ter having served the 18th Battalion of the Madras Regiment for eight years he resigned as a Captain in 1981 to join his wife Daisy in Austria.

A master’s in Commerce, Davis worked in the United Nations Industrial De-velopment Organization (UNI-DO) as Finance Officer initially and is now Programme Officer in the Montreal Protocol branch of the organization. It was Dai-sy who started the first South Indian restaurant, ‘Kairlay’, in Vienna, the Austrian capital. Later, they opened another one called ‘Himalaya’. However, they sold both later. Davis was a member of the hotel industry or-ganization in Vienna when he was associated with the restaurants.

“I have great dreams about Kerala—a Kerala with good roads, a Kerala with drinking water facil-ity available to all, a clean Kerala with waste pro-cessing facility, a Kerala with disciplined people, a Kerala where we have security for our lives and property, a Kerala where women can move around without any fear of harassment, a Kerala with low carbon emission and environmentally green and a Kerala where all people respect one another,” says Davis about his home state.

Davis thinks Kerala has a lot of opportunities to grow tremendously. “Our land is blessed with ev-erything possible. Unfortunately we are not making use of many such opportunities. We should go for solar and wind energy as well as small hydro-power generation projects. The Government should invest some money in those projects. We do not have good roads and it is time to go for them. We should opt for at least 45-metre-wide roads. The people affected should be handsomely paid and motivated to give their land for a greater Kerala. I think the Vallarpa-dam terminal will change the entire shape of Kerala.

We should plan projects like that. We should go a long way in our IT field. We need greed-free politi-cians. I think they should be highly paid so that they will not have any greed for money,” he says.

About new ventures by NRIs, Davis says that this seems to be difficult under the present condi-tions. The bureaucrats and the Government should respect the law of the land and treat others as hu-man beings, he adds.

Davis says any comparison between Austria and Kerala is very difficult. “Here all respect one another and are disciplined. The bureaucrats deal with peo-ple gently adhering to rules and regulations. The police behave like friends and guides. The dealings are transparent. There are no unnecessary delays for anything. We will get a yes- or no-answer im-mediately. The business community is also treated very well. My experience in Kerala is just the op-posite,” Davis says.

The strength of Kerala is also its weakness, says Davis. “We have vast human resources. We should use them properly. Kerala produces a large number of engineers, doctors, nurses and other professionals. Many of them leave the country for better job opportunities. The money they send back home is not utilized in Kerala, it is being used by others. Unfortunately we spend a lot of money to build individual houses. We are lazy by nature while in India. We do not respect rules. It is true that we keep ourselves clean but do not care about the sur-roundings and the environment. We are a selfish lot. Individually we may be good, but collectively we are bad. But if we individually do our best in all things, Kerala will climb the ladder of success very easily,” he says. “Let us make our weakness our strength. So let’s work together without ego, without selfishness for a better future for the next genera-tion,” concludes Davis, who is looking forward to a retired life in Kerala. Though he has no business ventures in the state now, he has plans to launch one. The Davis-Daisy couple have two sons—Paul and George

DAVIS EDATTUKARAN

His dream: a clean, green Kerala Pioneer in forming WMCAndrew Pappachen, one of the founders of the

World Malayalee Council (WMC) and its for-mer Global President and Global Chairman, is very well known among the Malayalees and other Indians as also among the American community in the US

because of his record of social, political and community activi-ties for the past more than three decades. As a pioneer, Andrew played a key role in the formation of various cultural, social, political and religious organizations like the Kerala Association of New Jersey, Asian American Political Coalition, Asian American Heri-

tage Council of New Jersey, Mar Thoma Church of New Jersey, Federation of Kerala Associations and the WMC.

Andrew migrated to the United States in 1973 at the age of 25 with a master’s in Chemistry. He took another master’s in Environmental Engineering from the famous Sevens Institute of Technology, New Jer-sey, and became a certified public manager in New Jersey. Having worked for the City of Newark, New Jersey, for a long time, he is now the Director of Op-erations of Newark Watershed Corporation. He has authored three books in English under the pen name Andreos published by the Authors House, US: A Jour-ney Through Generations, an autobiography, and two novels, Secrets of Passion and Love with the Ghost, which have been translated into Malayalam, and one novel in Malayalam, Thalamurakalethedi, published by Prabhat Book House. His second Malayalam novel, Theerthadanathinte Katha, also published by Prabhat Book House, was released some time ago.

As a renowned social worker he believes that to make money or enjoy luxuries is not the most impor-tant thing in life but to share our wealth and experi-ence with those who need them. The WMC’s Liberate Kerala from Pollution and Poverty project is a brain-child of his. Its first plan is to educate the people on the need for and benefits of a clean environment and how to achieve it

It so happens that some job-seekers in the Unit-ed States turn entrepreneurs and random entre-

preneurs turn job-seekers. Only a small percentage of expatriates have found themselves excelling in both entrepreneurship and professional careers. Vin-son Xavier Palathingal belongs to the latter category.

Armed with a BTech degree in Civil Engineering from the Uni-versity of Calicut, Vinson went to the US in 1992 and took his MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada there. His rise to the position that he occupies today has been me-teoric.

Vinson carried with him to the US the immense experience he gained back home at KITCO Ltd, Kochi, where he worked as Project Engineer and

Consultant from 1989 to 1992.

In 1995, Vinson joined Maryland State Highway Administration, Frederick, as Civil Engineer (Inspec-tions). There he provided engineering inspection services on various interstate highway construction projects and was involved in job scheduling.

While working as IT Analyst/Programmer at the Metro Washington Council of Governments (COG) in Washington DC, Vinson played a key role in a team that redesigned, developed, implemented and fine-tuned COG’s existing water quality and waste water databases into a relational Oracle database, an envi-ronmental data depository for the DC Metro region.

It was his stint at FannieMae, a Fortune 500 com-pany, as Business Systems Technologist that perhaps paved the way, some time later, for his launching in 1998 of his own Amaram Technology Corporation at

Falls Church. At FannieMae he provided software development, testing and test automation services. In 2000, he played a key role in a testing effort, one of the most extensive in corporate US.

As a highly successful and result-oriented entre-preneur, Vinson has been heading the operations since 1999 of Amaram as President and CEO. The firm provides systems design, embedded systems and socket programming, Web/software develop-ment, software testing, test automation, quality as-surance, data warehousing, data analysis and data base management consulting to major corporations in the Washington DC Metro area. Its major clients include FreddieMac, FannieMae, the Department of Labour, MCI Worldcom and Manugistics. Amaram has a back office at Kadavanthra in Kochi.

Vinson was Secretary of the Kerala Association of Greater Washington (KAGW).

Asha is his wife. Xavier and Stephen are their children.

VINSON XAVIER PALATHINGAL He combines entrepreneurship, work


23

Polly Mathew Arampankudy, Chairman of Somatheeram

Ayurvedic Beach Resorts near Kova-lam in Thiruvananthapuram, has cre-ated the rare mix of health, business and care for the environment.

A businessman to the core, Polly Mathew took upon the daunting task of erecting a resort of world-class standards at the little-known place with hardly any support from others.

Even before the Gov-ernment explored the tourism possibility of such ventures, he established a resort that would ‘’restore natural body and mind rhythms.’’ Polly’s straightforward, sociable ways and shrewd business head raised it to prosperity, respect and international acclaim.

How did he embark on such an adventure? While life was progress-ing as a successful supermarketer in Germany, he chanced upon an adver-tisement by a Sri Lankan firm claim-ing magical cures through ayurveda. It made him think about the scenario where others were exploiting our in-digenous medicinal system for want of proper publicity and information.

So he decided to journey back to the old ways and principles: to the indigenous solutions and the reju-venating therapy which thrived here long ago. It was not an attempt to fuse the old with the new but doing things precisely the same way it has been done for several centuries.

Soon he started sending patients to Kerala on a regular basis. As the numbers began to swell, the system prevalent in Kerala during that period showed its inherent flaws. The doc-tors and the infrastructure were not equipped to cater to European taste and refinement, many European cli-ents openly showing their displea-sure which translated to heavy finan-cial loss.

This forced him to have a fresh look at his approach and business strategy, which finally culminated in the establishment of Somatheeram

in 1990. He packaged ayurvedic therapy by blending the essentials favoured by Europeans like beach and avenues for relaxation, including yoga and a calm and quiet locale in addition to traditional setting by keep-ing brick and mortar structures to a

bare minimum. They were presented with a truly invigorating and intoxicating adventure, which was lapped up wholeheartedly and he began to reap the re-wards of his unconven-tional approach.

The resort now boasts a super-deluxe granite bun-galow (Sidhartha), four deluxe tra-ditional Kerala houses (Illam, Mana, Arappura and Tharavadu), ordinary traditional Kerala houses (Nalukettu) and several cottages catering to bud-get tourists.

But, even the large-scale demand did not alienate him from the taste of European tourists. Wherever pos-sible, he used wooden structures. Every single cottage or suite on the premises of Somatheeram has a unique legacy behind it. Most of them are careful reconstructions of tradi-tional homes of Kerala.

By employing the guardians of ayurveda (Paramparya Vaidyars) and ayurvedic doctors alike, he created a truly international resort. By consis-tently fostering close, long-term re-lationships with clients, his business continues to succeed and grow. The core competence and competitive advantage of Somatheeram span several continents, finding thousands of takers.

To cater to the wide taste he launched another ayurvedic-beach combination, ‘Manaltheeram,’ close to Somatheeram, some time ago. And to showcase ayurveda to the world, Somatheeram has brought a comprehensive CD on the system, the first in India.

The State Government has rec-ognized the efforts of this resort to-wards propagating and preserving ayurveda and presented it with the Kerala State Tourism Award

POLLY MATHEW

Self-made businessman Star Printing Press is one of the most modern printing presses

in Saudi Arabia. The secret of the com-pany’s success is its visionary leader-ship and the personal and cordial rela-tionship it has with its customers.

The man who made all this pos-sible is David Luke, who quit a presti-gious university job and joined a Saudi sponsor to start Star Printing Press in Riyadh. He persuaded the sponsor to start a small-scale printing press with two GTO single colours, a small cut-ting machine, Polar 78 and a pre-press department.

David Luke was born on May 22, 1954, in a village in Kerala. After com-pleting his primary school education in his village, he shifted to Mumbai for his high school education and to Al-lahabad for his university course. He specialized in printing technology from Mumbai.

In 1978 he joined King Saud Uni-versity of Riyadh in the Department

of Printing and Publishing. But he quit the job to start his own busi-ness. Today Star Printing Press is a leading printing press, equipped with state-of-the-art printing technology and employing more than 50 expatriates and many Saudi nationals.

The Star team formulates designs and produces delightful presentations on paper. At present Star operates 20 hours a day. It is one of the quality print-ers in the kingdom. Star has opened a press in Dubai, called CMS Printing Press, with all modern machines from Heidelberg.

David’s wife Annakutty supports him in managing his property and es-tates. The couple has two children—Jim and Jeena

DAVID LUKEMaster printer

Chairman and Managing Direc-tor of G A Group Pvt Ltd, which

organizes country-focused seminars, conferences and publications, and Global Indian Business Network Ltd, which assists cross-border trade and investment within Singapore, India and other regions, George Abraham serves on various Government, civic and community organizations and launched the Global Indian Summit in 2006.

Born and brought up in Singa-pore, George Abraham has served in various capacities with the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Singapore Federation of Chambers of Commerce and the ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

As the Regional Representative and Adviser of the Federation of In-dian Chambers of Commerce and In-dustry (FICCI), the apex private sector body in India with over 500 regional chambers and more than 2,50,000 of the largest Indian corporate compa-nies as members, he has promoted FICCI’s interests in Singapore and the region. As the representative of the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and

Industry, Geor-gia, he was re-sponsible for the develop-ment and in-tensification of economic and trade relations between Georgia, Singapore and the region.

He is also Charter Member, Direc-tor and Company Secretary of Indus Entrepreneurs Limited, Singapore, an organization for effective networking and mentoring of budding entrepre-neurs linked to the parent body in TiE in Silicon Valley, US. Abraham bagged the GOPIO Award 2007 for rendering public service to the Indian diaspora.

His wife is Grace, a medical practi-tioner. The couple have four children. Of them Anne Marie is a BA in Jour-nalism from Manash University, Ajit is working for Singapore Airlines, Aimee has completed a course in Globaliza-tion Studies at Gettysburg College, US, and Ajay has completed a Busi-ness Administration course from Sin-gapore Polytechnic. Abraham’s father hails from Kozhenchery

GEORGE ABRAHAM

He promotes trade, investment


24


Jolly Thadathil is running four old-age homes and two nursing

homes in Germany where he migrated in 1981 after obtaining his MSc degree in Botany and MA in Sociology. Hailing from Thottakkara, Muvattupuzha, Jolly had worked in the Federal Bank in

Kerala before going to Ger-many where he specialized in the healthcare management field.

An active social worker, Jolly is a mem-ber of the Chris-

tian Democratic Union (CDU), the rul-ing party in Germany. Twice elected a municipal councillor in Schwelm town, he worked for several years as Presi-dent and Chairman of the World Ma-layalee Council’s Europe Region. He was also instrumental in starting the WMC Provinces in Europe since the very beginning of the WMC in 1995. At present he is the organization’s Global President.

According to Jolly, globalization has brought forth tremendous changes all over India and Kerala. All modern fa-cilities with regard to technology, medi-cine and communication are available now in Kerala. The state has great po-tential for development but has many inherent and intricate hurdles to over-come for making progress.

“The main obstacles to development are our so-called leaders. Whereas all

over the world politicians are called politicians we call them leaders. What is a leader? There are many definitions. But according to a layman’s thinking, a leader is a person who guides others towards a common goal, showing the way by example. Most of Kerala’s so-called political leaders have no vision or mission. They need not have any basic qualifications,” says Jolly.

To develop business, says Jolly, one needs the support of the Government and also the support and cooperation of the employees. The question is if these are available in Kerala. Anyhow most non-resident Keralities are yet to believe that the soil of Kerala is ripe enough for business. Many successful Kerala business people from outside India may not take the risk of losing all their savings in Kerala through busi-ness entrepreneurship.

Jolly’s wife Mercy is a teacher by profession and is certified in Healthcare Management. She administers their institutions. They have three children, of whom Nicole, the elder daughter, is an MBA (London) running her own IT consulting firm with her husband, Libin Karuvallil, who has a master’s in IT. Jolly’s son Nelson is an engineer from the University of Dortmund in Germany and the younger daughter is Nancy.

Whatever Kerala’s weaknesses, Jolly, his wife and children love their home state, its people and its tradi-tions. “In spite of all the disparities, discriminations and hartals, we all visit Kerala at least once a year,” says Jolly.

JOLLY THADATHIL

Active social workerFor Kattikulam Bharathan,

France, nay, its capital Paris, is home from home. He frequents the world’s fashion city so often that it has become part of his psyche.

When Bharathan, son of Pu-rathissery (Irinjalakuda) Kattikulam Kumaran and Kalyani, ventured into business more than four decades ago the going was not smooth. He never went to a business school. Nor did he have any college education. He had nothing, really, except the will and de-sire to build something that he could call his own.

Thus was born ‘Kumar Diffusion’, the outlet for Bharathan’s legend-ary drive (‘diffusion’ in French means ‘distribution’). Named after his father and situated in the heart of Paris, the showroom displays and sells the gar-ments that French, Italian and German professionals design for Bharathan.

In the modern, palatial house Bharathan has built at Kizhuthani, an Irinjalakuda suburb, you feel the pres-ence of clothes designed in Europe and manufactured entirely in North India. Why North India, not Kerala? “These cannot be made in Kerala, es-pecially the printing is difficult. Cost also is very high in our State. Moreover fashion stuff cannot be delayed. They have to be in Paris within 60 days of receipt of orders. And delivery in Ker-ala is not prompt”, he says. He has his distribution outlet too, supplying goods to others and arranging exhibitions in France.

B h a r a -than came to Paris in 1972. Ku-mar Diffu-sion was the first and e x c l u s i v e s h o w r o o m that import-ed readymade dresses, especially wo-menswear, from India.

An active worker of the Sree Narayana movements, he is an ar-dent follower of the Guru’s teachings, spreading them as and when the op-portunity arrives. No wonder he was the instant choice for the award in-stituted by the Sree Narayana World Council, New York, for services ren-dered in the field. He also manages the Karalam Vocational Higher Secondary School, near Irinjalakuda, which was earlier not functioning well. Now it has more than 1,000 students and offers courses in various trades.

Bharathan is also associated with the activities of the Unnayi Warrier Smaraka Kalanilayam, Irinjalakuda, and is connected with a host of other organizations including the Malaya-la Manorama Balajana Sakhyam of which he was Convener of the Madhya Mekhala Sahakari Forum. Besides, he was State President of the All-Kerala Aided Schools Management Associa-tion.

His family consists, besides wife Sudha, of daughters Linta and Lucky and son Lal.

KATTIKULAM BHARATHAN

Man with legendary drive

Francis and Elizabeth Kalarickal are the founders of www.GlobalMedi-aInsight.com, a full-fledged digital in-teractive agency currently in its 12th year. Since its inception, Global Media Insight (GMI) has been the pioneer digital agency in the Middle East re-gion with a 50+ professional team from nations like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Canada and Lebanon.

The GMI team from various profes-sions ensures a pragmatic approach to digital media campaigns for any busi-ness. With client relationships grow-ing stronger each year and growing into successful partnerships, GMI has been instrumental in increasing sales with exceptional return on investment

(ROI). Since growing and establishing as a leading digital agency in the Mid-dle East, the company is on the way to a major expansion plan in Kochi during 2013.

The digital agency focuses on all aspects of the digital media including digital media branding, online reputa-tion management, digital media strat-egy, social media management, web analytics, social media advertising, search marketing, corporate presenta-tions, video content generation, Google adwords and search engine optimiza-tion, CMS websites, email marketing and SMS marketing.

The agency has various Govern-ment clients including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE, Dubai Eco-

Francis and Elizabeth Kalarickal

GMI on expansion plan in Kochi

nomic Department, Bahrain Invest-ment Authority and Kuwait Telecom Authority.

The multinational brands which have used the agency’s services in-clude Nestle, Nido, Philips, MilkMaid, Autodesk, Kaspersky, Emirates, Emir-atesSkyCargo, Mercator, Holiday Inn,

Marriott Hair-clinic, Sadia etc. The regional brands which have used the services of GMI include Emmar, Na-kheel, GEMS Education, health clinics

and many SMEs in the Middle East.

Francis and Elizabeth have two sons, Joseph and David, who are studying in Dubai. Francis is the son of K P Joseph, former Food and Agricul-ture Organization (FAO) Consultant in Iraq and Rome,

and Leela Joseph. Francis was also GM Finance of Cochin Shipyard and is the author of Notes on the Era and Other Poems and many other books including the autobiography of K P Hormis, founder of the Federal Bank.

Elizabeth hails from the Palamat-

tom family and is the daughter of P V Mani and Rosamma Mani. Mani had served Cochin Refineries as the Chief Chemist. Jerry Kalarickal, brother of Francis, is an American Diplomat and is serving as the Vice-Consul at the American Embassy in New Delhi


25

THOMAS CHACKO

Investor status in Ethiopia

M V P Babu of Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district reached Bah-

rain in 1977. Babu was honest, sincere and ready to work under any condi-tions—the recipe, perhaps, for his en-viable success. “Today’s Bahrain has no resemblance to what it was then. It was literally a desert. There was only one high-rise building, the Hilton Hotel”, says Babu. “I left home with an offer of a secretarial job but when I reached here I was appointed in a construction company. The promised salary was 200 Bahrain dinars. But I got only 50 BDs.

There was no drinking water. We were using salt water for everything. Humidity was at its peak during those days and there were no air-condi-tioners. My first appointment was as a supervisor at a construction site, for which I was totally unfit”, he remi-nisces.

“In 1978, I joined another company, which was engaged in cleaning and maintenance for which the Gulf coun-tries had a penchant. Our boss was a foreigner and the Managing Director a Bahraini, Fahad Hassan Tharradah. Incidentally, he (Fahad) is the Director of my present company, Star Clean-ing and Maintenance Services”, says Babu.

Babu soon learnt all the intricacies of the business. But the company was not sailing smoothly. “We had a dras-tic financial crunch. Our initial capital was a paltry 2,000 BDs. The hard-ships we faced those days were inde-scribable. My director quit and I alone had to manage the company for more than a year”

“But slowly we flourished”, remem-bers a beaming Babu. “We added interior decoration, landscaping, pest control etc to our services”.

The company now has three apartments which it took on lease and lets them on daily and monthly rental basis. According to Babu, apartment and villa rental business is lucrative in Bahrain since the country is a tourist destination having few restrictions.

The Star Group of Companies now provides employment for 600 people, 75% of whom are Malayalees. It has also forayed into human resource out-sourcing. Its major clients include Cit-ibank, Gulf Air and American Express. The group’s HR division scrutinizes the CVs of candidates and submits the list to companies. The group does not charge anything from candidates for its service. A service charge is col-lected from the companies.

Unlike other NRI businessmen, Babu is positive about investment in Kerala. He is waiting for the right time.

His wife Shyla is from Thrissur. The couple have two children, Sherin and Shana

M V P BABU

Enviable success in Bahrain

Johnson Joseph M a n j o -oran’s Rainbow Catering LLC

in Sharjah is unique. It caters for Arab tastes, that is, Arab weddings. No room service, no 24-hour front desk—just catering, tailored mainly to a particular class. But his business is billed as one of the hospitality indus-try’s hottest properties.

Arab marriages are unique, with plenty of colour and music accompa-nying them. They are traditional and performed in temporarily built air-con-ditioned halls. Peculiarly, Arab wed-dings are attended only by women.

It is Johnson who literally is the main organizer of the function, build-ing air-conditioned tents, furnished with carpets, providing everything else, including catering, under one of the most popular brand names in the Arab world.

Rainbow Catering is the only In-dian firm doing this business in the UAE. Johnson, who hails from the fa-mous Manjooran family of Njarackal, near Kochi, came to Sharjah in 1975

after getting a year’s experi-ence in the hotel industry in Mumbai. He worked in Sharjah for three years. In 1978, he started Rain-bow Steak House, along with a Ker-alite partner. In 1991, they parted company and Johnson launched his own venture with the same name.

Johnson’s success in the field en-abled him to launch three more ven-tures in Sharjah—The Grand Buffet, Rainbow Catering and Camah Veg-etarian Restaurant. He also started two ventures in Abu Dhabi—Al Fanan Mills and Training LLC and Al Fanan Foodstuff and Training LLC. Al Fa-nan imports Basmati rice from India and Pakistan for local sale.

Johnson is ably supported by his wife Sobha and two daughters, Maya and Deep

JOHNSON JOSEPH MANJOORAN

Catering for Arab tastes

Thomas Chacko, his wife and children have in-vestor status in Ethiopia, where Thomas came

in 1982, but they are Indian passport-holders. Thomas graduated from Marthoma College, Tiruvalla, which is also his birthplace.

A businessman of standing in Ethiopia with import licences, he represents foreign companies mostly from Dubai and India and supplies items to United Nations missions and diplomatic offices. He is also running a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.

A member of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Com-merce, Rotary International and Addis Ababa Golf Association, Thomas Chacko likes to make a ‘small investment’ in Kerala though he does not have any idea about the state’s growth potential. Mrs Santha Elizabeth Thomas is running a school of theirs. Their son is Jacob and daughter Santha Elizabeth

Among the numerous eminent Pravasis, the name that one

can’t omit is that of Dr Joy Cherian. He is the man who received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman on January 8, 2008 at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi from President Pratibha Patil. The award was for guiding US business missions to India and for public service. Later in the year he also got the high-profile In-dia Abroad Lifetime Award for Service to the Community in New York.

Dr Joy is the first Asian American and the first Indian American Com-missioner at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He was appointed by Presi-dent Ronald Regan in 1987 in what was seen as a milestone. After serving his term as Commissioner, he founded and was President of a consulting firm, J Cherian Consultants Inc (JCC), es-tablished in September 1993. JCC is a Government relations firm special-izing in international trade in services with its focus on corporate activities of insurance companies abroad.

He is a former Director of Interna-tional Insurance Law at the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), Sub-

Cabinet-Level Pres ident ia l appointee in the United States Gov-e r n m e n t , Chairman of the Committee on Internation-al Insurance Law of the Section of International Law and Prac-tice, American Bar Association (ABA), founder and President of the American Council for Trade in Services (ACTS), a non-profit trade association, and the founder and President of the Associa-tion of Americans for Civic Responsibil-ity (AACR), a non-profit organization.

He has five university degrees, in-cluding two master’s in legal studies, and a PhD in International Business Law with a minor in Political Science and a collateral concentration on Asian countries.

Cherian is also the author of a number of published works including two books, a law manual and dozens of articles on various topics relating to the international insurance business

DR JOY CHERIAN

Business consultant


26


A core industry researcher, Dr Karippur Nanda Kumar involves himself actively

with the World Malayalee Council’s activities. He was General Convener of the Sixth WMC Global Conference held in Singapore in 2008. As a se-nior executive in the public sector in Singapore, he works closely with Singapore’s research insti-tutes, universities, industrial players and industrial associations.

Dr Kumar strongly believes in the culture of creating self-help groups for the development of society and industry. In his official capacity he was involved in the formation of two associations in Singapore called Broadband Media Association, an association of broadband media companies and Internet access providers, and Association of Information Security Professionals, an as-sociation of professionals practising in IT security.

Dr Kumar graduated from the elite Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with a Master’s and a PhD in computing. He has more than two decades of experience in R&D, software development, project management, IT training and industry development. He was the Vice-President of the Organizing Committee of the first-ever Asia Pacific Malayalee Conference in Singapore in 2004 and has been associated with WMC for more than a decade now, having once held the post of Regional President of the council (Asia Pacific and Australia Region).

Dr Kumar is married to Usha, an accounting professional. They have two children

KARIPPUR NANDA KUMAR

Active public sector executiveThe spirit of doing something

good for society is ingrained in Gopala Pillai’s blood. This is not sur-prising because the former World Ma-layalee Council (WMC) Global Presi-dent’s love for social activities started at an early age when he was a school-boy through the All-Kerala Balajana Sakhyam. It is no wonder, again, that he later came to occupy positions that would be the envy of many. Though he successfully manages an own home healthcare agency in Dallas, Texas, in the US, Pillai is associated with a le-gion of organizations there.

Born and brought up at Thekke-mala, Kozhenchery, Pillai graduated in Economics from Dayal Singh Col-lege and in Journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, both in Delhi. Later he took a degree in Computer Science from Wayne State, Detroit, Michigan, US.

Gopala Pillai came to the US in 1975. He was in Detroit for five years; in Houston, Texas, for two years; in Sara-sota, Florida, for another two years; and in Dallas, Texas, for 22 years. Starting his career as a Computer Op-erator in 1975, he became a Junior Programmer in 1978 and worked in all departments—systems design, devel-opment, programming, implementation and data warehousing. Pillai had been associated with the Delhi Malayalee Association while he was in that city, the Kerala Association, Detroit, the Houston Malayalee Association, the Kerala Association, Dallas (of which he was President twice), and FOKANA in the early stages and the WMC in vari-ous capacities since its inception.

He is associated with the Dallas In-dians’ Lions Club, Board of Trustees of India Association of North Texas, which serves 60,000 Indians in the area, and the Asian American Chamber of Com-merce.

Gopala Pillai is keenly interested in Kerala’s growth. “I could see consid-erable growth in the state politically, socially and economically. The WMC itself has undertaken a project to de-velop and build a global village in Ker-ala that will accommodate the needs of non-resident Keralite repatriates and I would definitely have my stake in it”, he says.

Gopala Pillai, however, says that

Kerala has to catch up with the rest of the country as it has been left far be-hind other states. “Our Government should give unconditional support to foreign investors and promise them security to stay in business without la-bour union troubles”, he adds. His wife Santha is a registered nurse. Their daughter, Dr Saji, is married to Kesa-van Nair, a computer consultant from Palakkad. Dr Sanjay is their son

GOPALA PILLAI

Dedicated to social service

A psychotherapist, practising psychiatry in Houston Metro

area, US, Captain George Kakkanatt is the CEO of Georgian Health Con-cepts, a healthcare organization pro-viding services in different areas in be-havioural health. He had also served as a Captain of the United States Air Force.

Hailing from Kallooppara, Tiruval-la, he is an MA (Literature) and MSW and later enrolled for PhD in Clinical Psychology.

Very active in the socio-political arena in the US, he has organized,

conducted and led many activities. A Board-certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work, he is the World Malay-alee Council’s Global General Sec-retary and is a former Chairman for

Houston Province and Chairman of the WMC’s World Malayalee Business Directory and Mail. He had also held the position of Global Vice-President Administration of WMC and of Gen-eral Secretary, Pushpagiri Medical Foundation. Azhchavattom, the na-tional news weekly of Malayalees in the US, is brought out under the chief editorship of George.

A founder member of the Board of Directors, American Association of Indian Social Workers (AAISW), a founding member and first Regional Secretary, WMC America Region, George is the recipient of several awards and recognitions for his out-standing service in the field of profes-sional and community activities.

George thinks that Kerala has great potential for development, but has in-herent and intricate hurdles to over-come. He believes that even though Kerala has got many strong points like human resources, culture and re-ligious harmony, the weak points like laziness, unwillingness to change, po-litical interventions etc hinder its de-velopment. People everywhere easily adapt to changes and that is the core point of development and growth.

He resides in Sugar Land with his wife Sally and children Rejoy, Richie and Renji

GEORGE KAKKANATT

Healthcare specialist

The Pillay Group of Hotels and Restaurants owns four hotels and two restaurants in Australia, where Ray-

mond Pillay, the group’s Managing Director, came in 1990. Today his is one of the leading business houses among Ker-alites in that country.

Pillay, who hails from Changanassery and has a Hotel Management degree, and his wife Shyla, who is a partner in the business and is also ‘well equipped’ for the profession, assert that their business is running very well. Pillay is a Mem-ber of Commerce of Hawkesburg Sydney and several other organizations.

“I am greatly interested in Kerala’s progress but nothing works out either from banks or the sellers. The latter overprice their products and I can’t make up my mind. I have been trying to buy something for the last six years”, says Pillay to a question whether he is interested in investing in Kerala. ”I already have some investments in the state and in Mumbai (worth about Rs 3.5 crore), but would like to expand this”, he adds. ”I am looking for the right move on any business, preferably hotels, as, you see, that is my profession”.

Says Pillay: “My future plans include the opening of a hotel in Kerala and expansion of my business in Australia”

RAYMOND PILLAY

Hospitality is his forte


27

There are two types of forecast-ers: one, those who do not

know; two, those who do not know that they do not know.”—John Kenneth Galbraith

Economic forecasting is a hazard-ous exercise. There are many unknown factors that might intervene and wreck the forecasts. There are ‘known un-knowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’. For example, the European sovereign debt

crisis is presently a known unknown. But how it will pan out in 2013 is an unknown unknown. These unknown unknowns can dramatically alter the scenario and render the forecasts irrel-evant. With this anticipatory bail, here goes my forecast for 2013.

The crisis and the painful recovery

The last five years have been ex-tremely challenging for the global economy. The Great Recession of 2008 was the worst economic crisis after the Great Depression of 1930s. The global economy contracted by more than 1% in 2008 and internation-al trade contracted by more than 10%. The European sovereign debt crisis and the devastating Japanese tsunami aggravated the problem and prevented an early recovery.

Emerging Asia responded to the crisis reasonably well. Countries like India, China and Indonesia did not ex-perience any recession. They only ex-perienced an economic slowdown. Re-cession is defined as the contraction

in GDP for two consecutive quarters. In India, GDP did not contract; GDP growth slowed down from above 8% to 6.8% in 2008-09. This is technically called a slowdown, not a recession. Anti-cyclical monetary and fiscal poli-cies helped Emerging Asia cope with the Great Recession.

Crisis management in India

The Indian economy grew at a scorching pace of 8.5% during 2003-08. The Great Recession brought down the growth rate to 6.8% in 2008-09. But the monetary and fiscal stimu-lus packages restored the growth rate to 8.4% for 2009-10 and 2010-11. Stimulus programmes have limitations: fiscal stimulus will increase the deficit and monetary stimulus will cause in-flation. In India both happened forcing the Government to discontinue the fis-

cal stimulus and the RBI to raise the interest rates to combat inflation. This resulted in the growth rate slumping to 6.5% in 2011-12. For 2012-13, the Indian economy is likely to clock only 5.6% growth. This will be a 10-year low. However there is a saving grace: in this time of growth scare and growth scarcity globally, this is one of the best performances in the world. According to the IMF, in 2012, only five among the large economies of the world will grow at more than 5%. India is one among them.

Which is why India has been the largest recipient of foreign portfo-lio investment—$24.2 billion—in the world in 2012. India’s corporate sec-tor responded reasonably well to the slowdown and rising interest rates. Among emerging markets, India holds out the best prospects for growth and corporate profitability. However, 2013 will be a challenging year for the Indian economy. India’s twin deficits—fiscal deficit and current account deficit—are in dangerous territory. The reforms ini-

tiated after P Chidambaram became the Finance Minister have to be taken forward. Tough, unpopular decisions will have to be taken.

The global scene

The global economic scenario will be influenced by the economic recov-ery in the US and the lingering crisis in

the Eurozone. At the time of writing, it appears that some compromises have been reached on the US fiscal cliff is-sue. Some minor tax increases have been passed by the Senate preventing a return to the pre-recession tax rates. Spending cuts have been postponed by two months. This will prevent the US from going over the cliff; but the larger issue of high debt burden remains. On the positive side, green shoots of eco-nomic recovery are visible in the US and, if sustained, will certainly help a global recovery in 2013. The Euro-pean scenario is far from reassuring. Europe, particularly the Eurozone, will be in recession in 2013 also. What ev-eryone is hoping for in Europe is some form of stability that pre-empts another round of debt default threats and the consequent financial crisis that can de-rail the global economic recovery.

Global scenario 2013

The global economy is likely to stage a mild recovery in 2013, assuming that the US would not go over the cliff and Europe would slowly move towards a fiscal and banking union thereby avert-

ing a possible default by a member of the so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain). Without doubt, the recovery will be a mild recovery; certainly not a robust one. A stronger recovery is possible only in 2014 by which time many stressed economies can be expected to regain economic health.

Crucial events in India

The events to watch for in India in 2013 will be the Union budget and the political developments running up to the elections in 2014. Normally, the last budget before the election is likely to be a populist one crafted with the ballot box in mind. But this time, Chi-dambaram does not have the luxury of going in for a populist budget since the economy is extremely challenged and any departure from fiscal prudence will invite a credit rating downgrade from the rating agencies. It remains to be seen how Chidambaram will manage this contradiction.

An eventuality that India cannot af-ford in 2013 is major political instability leading to early elections. This calls for clever political management. The mil-lion-dollar question is whether the UPA will succeed in blending good econom-ics with good politics. If they do that, India will do well in 2013.

(Dr Vijayakumar is Investment Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas)

A year of hope

For 2012-13, the Indian economy is likely to clock

only 5.6% growth. This will be a 10-year low. However

there is a saving grace: in this time of growth scare and

growth scarcity globally, this is one of the best perfor-

mances in the world. According to the IMF, in 2012, only

five among the large economies of the world will grow

at more than 5%. India is one among them.

Dr V K Vijayakumar


28


Emigration, remittances from Kerala

Emigration, remittances from Kerala

According to the Census Commissioner of In-dia, Census 2011 came “at a time when In-

dia is perhaps at an inflexion point in history”. The same could be said about Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2011 conducted by the Centre for Develop-ment Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram. It came at a time when emigration from Kerala to Gulf coun-tries is perhaps at an inflexion point in history. Gulf emigration from Kerala seems to be edging towards a peak.

This short note, embodying the results of KMS 2011, on the whole supports this conclusion. Emigra-tion from Kerala in 2011 is indeed more or less at the same level as it was in 2008 indicating that 2011 is not far from the inflexion point in the history of emi-gration from the state.

KMS 2011 is the fifth in the series on migration monitoring studies being undertaken by CDS. It was conducted 13 years after the first migration survey conducted in 1998, and three years after the fourth one in 2008. As with KMS 2008, KMS 2011 also received financial support from the Kerala Govern-ment’s Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs and the Union Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. The KMS 2011 survey was canvassed among 15,000 households throughout Kerala and distributed among 300 localities in 63 taluks and the 14 districts.

Emigration: short-term trendAn estimate of the number of emigrants from

Kerala as of March 2011 is 2.281 million. The cor-responding number was 2.193 million in 2008, 1.838 million in 2003 and

1.362 million in 1998. These numbers indicate that emigration from Kerala has experienced an in-creasing trend since 1998 (Table 1). However, each succeeding period showed a decreasing trend in the increases in the number of emigrants. At this rate,

the increase in the number of emigrants from Kerala would disappear (zero increase) in less than two years. Emigration from the state could reach inflex-ion point before 2013. In that case, it is unlikely to exceed 2.5 million (Figure 1).

Table 1: Emigrants, return emigrants and non-resident Keralites, 1998-2011

Year Emigrants Return emi-grants

Non-resident Keralites

2011 22,80,543 11,50,347 34,30,8892008 21,93,412 11,57,127 33,50,5382003 18,38,478 8,93,942 27,32,4201998 13,61,919 7,39,245 21,01,164

Per 100 household2011 29.1 14.7 43.72008 29.0 15.3 44.32003 26.7 13.0 39.71998 21.4 11.6 33.0

The number of emigrants who returned and are living in Kerala (REM) in 2011 is estimated to be 1.15 million. There was a small decrease in the number of return emigrants during 2008-11. It was 1.16m in 2008, 0.89m in 2003 and 0.74m in 1998. Non-resi-dent Keralites (NRK=EMI+REM) numbered 3.43m in 2011, 3.35m in 2008, 2.73m in 2003 and 2.10m in 1998.

A surprising aspect of this ratio is that although the number of emigrants increased by 24% between 2003 and 2011, the proportion of households with at least one emigrant or one NRK remained fairly con-stant. At the same time, the corresponding proportion varied considerably by religion and by districts.

Destination of emigrants The Gulf countries remain the principal destina-

tion of Kerala emigrants (table 3), their proportion there remaining at the same level in 2011 as it did in the past, about 90% of the total. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) which attracted 38.7% retained the first position with respect to emigration among all countries. However, its relative share declined from 41.9% in 2008 to 38.7% in 2011.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia improved its relative position accommodating 25.2% of the emi-grants from Kerala. Kuwait and Qatar are the other Gulf countries that have improved their relative share of Kerala emigrants. Among the countries outside the Gulf region, the principal ones are the United States and the United Kingdom.

Remittances: Remittances to Kerala have contin-ued to grow ever since Keralites started migrating to the Gulf region. Total remittances to the state dur-ing the 12-month period ending on March 1, 2011 were Rs 49,695 crore. This amount was about 15% higher than that in 2008. These numbers indicate that the rate of growth of remittances has slowed down in recent years in tune with the slowing down of emigration from the state since 2008. While remit-tances increased by 134% during 2003-08, it grew by just 15% during 2008-2011. While remittances per household increased from Rs 24,000 in 2003 to Rs 57,000 in 2008, the corresponding increase was just Rs 6,100 between 2008 and 2011.

Table 2: Total remittances to Kerala

Year CrorePercent

increasePer household (Rs)

1998 13,652 21,4692003 18,465 35.3 24,4442008 43,288 134.4 57,2152011 49,695 14.8 63,315

Remittances by districts: Total remittances by districts are obtained by pro-rating household remit-tances by them. The results are given in Table 6. As mentioned above, the total for the state is Rs 49,695 crore. Out of this Rs 9,040 crore came to Malap-puram district which is 18.2% of the state’s total. This amount is Rs 1,14,319 per household in the

An estimate of the number of emigrants from Kerala as of March 2011 is 2.281 million. The correspond-ing number was 2.193 million in 2008, 1.838 million in 2003 and 1.362 million in 1998. These numbers indicate that emigration from Kerala has experienced an increasing trend since 1998. However, each succeeding period showed a decreasing trend in the increases in the number of emigrants. At this rate, the increase in the number of emigrants from Kerala would disappear (zero increase) in less than two years. Emigration from the state could reach inflexion point before 2013. In that case, it is unlikely to exceed 2.5 million.

K C Zachariah S Irudaya Rajan


29

district. The share of remittances to Malap-puram district has increased from 15.0% in 2008 to 18.2% in 2011. The average amount a household in Malappuram received also increased from Rs 1,03,585 in 2008 to Rs 1,14,319. These numbers represent an in-crease of Rs 10,734 per household in the state during 2008-2011.

The other districts that received large amounts of remittances are:

Ernakulam (12.3%), Kannur (10.4%t) and Thiruvananthapuram (9.5%). The share of total remittances in most districts in South Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram to Idukki) de-clined between 2008 and 2011.

Macro-economic Impact: Workers’ remit-tances to the state have a major impact on Kerala’s economy. Remittances were 31.23% of the state’s net state domestic product (NSDP). The state’s per capita in-come was Rs 52,084 (2010), without taking into consideration remittances to the state, but it stood at Rs 68,375 if remittances were also included. Remittances are 1.6 times the revenue receipt of the Kerala Government and 6.2 times what the state gets from the Centre as revenue transfer. It is more than

twice the Government’s annual expenditure and more than 60% of the state’s public debt (Table 3).

Households with an emigrant or return emigrant tend to possess better-quality houses than those without an emigrant. The proportion of households possessing ‘luxurious’ or ‘very good’ houses shows a steady increase with the number of NRKs in the household, and is 24.2% for household without an NRK and 41.3% for households with one NRK, 50.3% for households with two NRKs and 65.2% for households with more than two NRKs. Similarly, the propor-tion of households that use LPG for cooking increases from 28.6% for households with-out an NRK to 34.6% for households with one NRK to 38.2% for households with two NRKs, to 58.8% for households with more than two NRKs. The presence of an emi-grant or return emigrant has indeed made a very positive impact on the quality of life of a household

Table 3: Macro economic impact of remittances on Kerala economy, 2011Indicators 1998 2003 2008 2011Remittances 13,652 18,465 43,296 49,695NSDP 53,552 83,783 1,40,889 1,59,144Per capita income 16,062 25,764 41,814 52,084Modified NSDP 67,204 1,02,,248 1,84,185 2,08,839Revenue receipt of Government 7,198 10,634 24,936 31,181Transfer from Central Government 1,991 2,653 7,861 7,982Government non-Plan expenditure 5,855 9,908 18,934 22,546State debt 15,700 31,060 61,653 78,239Receipt from cashew export 1,317 1,217 1,198 1,636Receipt from marine products 817 995 1,431 1,670Modified per capita income 20,157 31,442 54,664 67,994Remittances as percent of NSDP (%) 25.5 22.0 30.7 31.2Remittances as ratio of revenue receipt 1.9 1.7 1.7 1.6Remittances as ratio of transfer from Centre 6.9 7.0 5.5 6.2Remittances as ratio of Government expenditure 2.3 1.9 2.3 2.2Remittances as ratio of state debt 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.6Remittances as ratio of receipt from cashew export 10.4 15.2 36.1 30.4Remittances as ratio of receipt from marine export 16.7 18.6 30.3 29.8


30


Availability of land is an essential prerequisite for any develop-

mental economic activity, for creation of infrastructure. Land, labour and capital are the classical factors of pro-duction. However, the extent of land cannot be increased physically, but its conversion/alteration in deployment/utilization is possible. Presently a ma-jor part of land (other than forests) is used for agriculture, particularly in rural areas. This is understandable because farming is still the major occupation of the country’s population. Further, production of food grains in adequate quantity has to be ensured for food se-curity of our steadily increasing popu-lation—1,210 million according to the 2011 census. It is another matter that presently the country is able to heave a sigh of relief on this count thanks to the high level of production recorded during the recent years. However, it cannot be assured that the happy po-sition is of a long-time nature. Climate changes and natural calamities (scant rainfall this year) might topple the ap-ple cart any day.

Conceding that agriculture should continue to be a thrust area, the need for development of other segments of the economy, namely the industries and services sectors, also deserve due importance and consideration to ensure overall development and the country’s economic stability. These two sectors, particularly the industrial

sector, too need large areas of land for creation of infrastructure, mainly plant and machinery. The area of land required for development of for the secondary and tertiary sectors cannot be created from thin air; conversion/re-deployment of the land available is the only solution. The first priority should be to utilize barren, uncultivable land for this purpose. However, availability of such unused land or its suitability for the purpose sometimes poses prob-lems. Further, land is also an essen-tial factor for development of public infrastructure like highways, laying and augmentation of railway tracks etc to facilitate development of hassle-free communication and transport systems in our vast country. Especially for de-velopment of tourism, the sunrise in-dustry in various parts also needs land in strategic areas to set up resorts, hotels, restaurants etc. It is common knowledge that the much-needed wid-ening of the two national highways passing through Kerala—NH 47 and NH 17—conforming to the standards set by the National Highway Authority of India has not been possible for sev-eral years now because of land acqui-sition problems.

Lately the farmers themselves, at least in some parts of the country, have been losing interest in continu-ing farming activities on their land be-cause of rising costs of inputs and un-remunerative prices of farm products. The inadequate supply of labour and the prevailing high wages have been another deterrent factor. The farm-ers are often compelled to leave even their cultivable lands barren, to avoid losses that may be incurred by pursu-

ing the farming activity. This phenom-enon is very much evident in Kerala. While travelling by rail, one notices the depressing sight of long stretch-es of land on either side of the track either barren or infested with wild

growth of weeds/bushes. Probably, the realization of this fact prompted the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Com-mission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, to make the seemingly controversial statement during his recent visit to the state in connection with the launching of ‘Emerging Kerala’, that Kerala need

not produce food grains any longer. What he probably meant was that the scarce land in the state should be put to better uses, for development of sec-tors of the economy other than agricul-ture. Though this statement obviously evoked bitter criticism from several quarters, the fact remains irrefutable for the dispassionate observers.

The spate of problems created in various parts of the country during the last few years on account of acquisi-tion of land for non-agricultural pur-poses, mainly for setting up special economic zones (SEZs), compelled the policymakers to sit back and real-

ize the adverse impact of such seem-ingly thoughtless measures on the hapless victims The anger and disgust of those landowners who were forced to part with their land which had been their livelihood for generations together often turned violent—the fate of Tata’s Nano car project in Nandigram and Salim Brothers’ chemicals project in Singur (both in West Bengal) as also Posco’s Asia’s largest steel project in Odisha is still green in memory. Many ambitious projects involving acquisi-tion of thousands of hectares of land

in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra were among a few which had to be abandoned because of stiff resistance of the landowners. In Kerala too, the after-effects of forcible eviction of a few scores of households on the outskirts of Kochi for the International Container Terminal at Vallarpadam are still haunt-ing the victims. This is a bad example of land acquisition without ensuring adequate compensation and rehabili-tation/resettlement measures by Gov-ernment agencies.

These unpleasant incidents evoked sharp criticism from all quarters which eventually led to a relook by the Union

Land acquisition for development

The final draft of ‘The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill’ was very recently discussed and ap-proved by the Union Cabinet. The bill has been framed on the model of the legislation recently enacted in Haryana, which is acclaimed as a sensible effort for tackling the ticklish problem which eluded a solution acceptable to all concerned in most parts of the coun-try. This issue which was proved to be an impediment to industrial and infrastructural development in various parts of the country has ultimately found an amicable solution. The new legislation is now proposed to be passed in the present session of Parliament.

P D Johnny


31Government into the strategies which backfired and sent panic messages to the prospective entrepreneurs. None other than Sonia Gandhi, the Chair-person of the ruling UPA and National Advisory Committee, stepped in and put her foot down against such forcible land acquisitions and ordered a grind-ing halt to the acquisition process which till then was moving at lightning speed.

The highest policy-framing body, Na-tional Advisory Committee, added new dimensions to the process—resettle-ment and rehabilitation (R & R) of the victims as also liberal compensation packages for the acquired land.

Wisdom dawned, though belatedly, on the policymakers and Ministries of Agriculture (MOA) and Rural Develop-ment (MORD) stepped into the shoes of the Commerce and Industries Min-

istry which was held responsible for hasty and compassionless processes of acquisition with meagre financial packages. The role of MOA and MORD is relevant as the land being acquired is mostly agricultural land in rural ar-eas and the affected people belong to those areas.

The existing legislation for acquisi-tion of land, the Land Acquisition Act

1894, proved to be too inadequate and outdated in the present context. Firstly, this statute was enacted for acquisition of land only for public purposes—the same for public-private partnership (PPP) projects or purely private ones was out of its purview. Secondly, this archaic law provides for very low and unrealistic financial compensation packages. The process of acquisition under this Act often leads to wide-

spread irregularities and corruption on the part of the implementing bureau-cracy, compelling the landowners to take legal recourse to get a fair deal. The essential aspects of rehabilitation and resettlement of the victims have not been envisaged at all in the exist-ing Act.

The move to frame an acceptable legislative framework consistent with time and need began during the last couple of years. In September 2011, the first draft of the modified law came up for consideration of the ministries concerned. Again, Sonia Gandhi took the initiative and made valuable sug-gestions to make it people-friendly and acceptable to both (victims and own-ers) as also beneficiaries of acquisi-tion (entrepreneurs). The consent of a majority of the landowners has been built in and compensation packages made more attractive—linked to mar-ket prices.

These proposals were examined by the ministries concerned and further vetted by a Group of Ministers (GOM) which went into the draft bill thread-bare as differences arose among the ministries over its main provisions. Re-ports suggest that the GOM headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar finally arrived at a consensus mainly on the extent of consent of owners re-quired for acquisition. The final draft of the bill, which is renamed ‘The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Re-habilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill’ was very recently discussed and approved by the Union Cabinet. The salient features of the bill are:

• Except under very extreme circumstances, land acquisition will not be resorted to for private enterprises

• For acquisition of land for both private enterprises (wherever found extremely necessary) and for PPP projects, the consent of at least two-thirds of the landowners would be required

• Besides financial compensa-tion to the extent of four to six times the market value, provision for land for resettlement as also employment to the affected people in the project is also envisaged

The bill has been framed on the model of the legislation recently enact-ed in Haryana, which is acclaimed as a sensible effort for tackling the ticklish problem which eluded a solution ac-ceptable to all concerned in most parts of the country. This issue which was proved to be an impediment to indus-trial and infrastructural development in various parts of the country has ulti-mately found an amicable solution.

The new legislation, which is pro-posed to be passed in the present session of Parliament, should not only bring about a favourable environment for development, but also is expected to minimize the pain and agony of the displaced people, mainly farmers in the rural areas. Hopefully, this revolu-tionary step would provide an impetus for the development process and ac-celerate its pace which, in turn, would ensure all-round progress of the na-tion’s economy


32


The Union Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOAI) is celebrating Pravasi Bharatiya Divas every year to cher-ish the contributions of non- resident Indians (NRIs) to the development of the country. Kerala, with the largest

number of NRIs, is hosting the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)-2013 at Kochi from January 7 to 9. On the eve of PBD, it will be a fitting tribute to NRIs to remember their great contributions to the Indian economy.

Their contributions include foreign di-rect investment (FDI), foreign remit-tances in the commercial banks, im-provement in the quality of the life of the citizens, the transfer of expertise and technology and investments in production and service sectors.

FDI reforms in India have been pro-gressive and successful in attracting the much-needed foreign exchange, especially in a period of negative bal-ance of payments. Between 2000 and 2012 India received

$2,53,502 million as total FDI inflows, of which the contribution by NRIs was $83,216 million. The percentage con-tribution of NRIs was 33% of the total. In 2009 the inflows from NRIs stood at 6% of the FDI whereas in 2010 it fell to 1.37%.

The Government has not been able to analyse the reason for the shortfall in NRI inflows. The major reason was that the Government and society be-gan to ignore them for inflow of foreign capital. The Government may frame effective policies that encourage chan-nelization of NRI funds.

According to the Reserve Bank of In-dia, India is one of the largest receivers of foreign remittances by NRIs. The cumulative remittances were in excess of $66,130 million by the end of 2011-12. “If the World Bank is correct, every dollar remitted contributes $3 to the GDP growth—which means that NRIs are contributing almost $2,00,000 mil-lion to the growth of India’s rural econ-omy…”.

The NRI funds seem to disseminate better into the rural areas than many of the FDIs. NRIs have a very strong sense of bonding with the motherland and this helps India. Most of the capital sent

to India by NRIs was personal trans-fers to family and friends. The remit-tance was largely utilized for improving the quality of life by way of access to good housing, quality water, modern amenities, good health practices etc.

The Quality of Life Index of India, by the end of December, 2012 was 80.23, which is comparable to international standards. The major contributor to this was the inflow of financials of NRIs.

NRIs offered three potential advan-tages: expertise in the frontier areas, a rich professional network with the West and high-net-worth individual capital. The sect of people has access to the latest technology, especially in the IT sector. This has prompted them to ven-ture enterprises in our country.

NRIs need to channelize their money into their homeland, thereby becom-ing part of the development process of the nation they actually belong to. They need to focus on setting up India-based businesses that leverage the skill sets available locally and be ready to compete against Indian business-men on equal terms. India badly needs attention in sectors such as educa-tion and healthcare in smaller towns and rural areas. These are a few ar-eas where NRIs need to focus instead of looking for the Indian Government to give them concessions in taxation and other sops. Such an outlook will help them to give back to society and community and earn the goodwill and respect that they were used to ear-lier. After the liberalization policies of the 1990s, many NRIs have invested in the Indian economy considering its huge potential of growth.

NRIs help the economy to raise foreign currency funds, develop various

sectors of industries, im-prove quality through

competition and

create new opportunities in India. Thus NRIs have been helpful in the growth of the economy and development of infrastructure apart from indirectly rais-ing the standards of living of Indians.

When we discuss the contribution of NRIs, we should also acknowledge the important role played by Keralites. The number of Keralites living abroad had increased steadily even in the econom-ic recession experienced the world over including the so-called favourite em-ployment paradise of the Middle East. Remittances to Kerala have continued to grow ever since Keralites started mi-grating to the Gulf region. In 2011, it was estimated that 22.80 lakh people migrated, up from 21.90 lakh in 2008, 18.40 lakh in 2003 and 13.60 lakh in 1998, according to a recent study re-port on Kerala Migration Survey-2012 by the Centre for Development Stud-ies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram. The total remittances of NRKs in the com-mercial banks of Kerala touched Rs 49,965 crore in 2011 as against Rs 43,288 crore in 2008, registering an increase of 15% over in three years. These numbers indicate that the rate of growth of remittances has slowed down in recent years in tune with the slowing down of emigration from the state since 2008. The total deposits by NRKs in the commercial banks of Kerala touched Rs 58,150 crore by the end of September 2012.

The remittances of NRKs constitute slightly more than 40% of the total de-posits in the state’s banks. This shows the great contribution of NRKs. The credit to deposit (CD) ratio of the state had crossed 75.5% for the first time ever in 2010-11. This means that the major junk of the deposits are being channelized as credit to the state’s de-velopment.

The remittances of NRks in 2011 were equivalent to 31.23% of the state’s net state domestic product (NSDP). NRK

NRKs and their contributions to economy

No matter where they may be living, most NRKs would like to stay connected with the land of their birth in some way or another. The remittances received by Keralites from emigrants to the Gulf, popularly known as ‘Gulf money’, are the most dynamic contribution to the economy of the state. The desire among the NRKs to stay connected with Kerala makes them very ‘high contributors’ to Kerala’s economy.

Prof Job K T

continued on 35

PASSLINE Dec 31 - Jan 31, 2013


33


The SCMS Group of institutions, one of the foremost names in

the country’s higher education sec-tor, had its beginning with Prathap Foundation for Education and Training launching the School of Communica-tion and Management Studies (SCMS) at Kalamassery in Kochi in 1976. SC-MS-COCHIN, as its business school is known today, has since grown to be one of the very few B-schools in the country with all the credentials and ac-creditations that most others look for-ward to with awe.

Besides the B-school, the founda-tion has established numerous other institutes of global standards, par-ticularly in the fields of engineering, technology, mass communication and biotechnology. “SCMS stands out from institutions because of its quality, at-tainments and high performance lev-els. It is the only accredited B-school in the state. According to the All In-dia Council for Technical Education (AICTE), accreditation is the final test of quality for a business school. Most of the PGDM (Postgraduate Diploma in Management) B-schools claim that their PGDM is equivalent to MBA (Mas-ter of Business Administration). This claim is illegal as long as they do not have an order from the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) to that effect. We are the only autonomous B-school in Kerala which has got MBA-equiva-lent recognition from the AIU for our PGDM programme. We are, again, the first B-school to get ISO certification for quality management and teaching system. We are also the lone recipient of a grant from the AICTE for our ex-cellent performance record,’’ says Dr G P C Nayar, Chairman of the SCMS Group. “We provide an ethical dimen-sion to management teaching with em-phasis on good behaviour and social responsibility. Ethics is taught as a full course at SCMS,’’ Dr Nayar adds.

The foundation has expanded its reach and opened its new centre in Bangalore—SCMS COCHIN Banga-lore Centre. The group has also ap-plied for university status for it. “We do not deviate from the moral and ethi-cal principles that are dear to us. We will, perhaps, be the only group which does not charge capitation or levy any amount other than that prescribed for our programmes,” says Dr Nayar.”

In Karukutty, near Kochi, is situated the group’s engineering college on 32 acres of land. There is a plan to start a new engineering college there.

A feature that makes SCMS unique as a business school is its tie-up with great foreign institutions like La Trobe University, Deakin University, the Uni-versity of Canberra, University of Ap-plied Sciences-North-Western Switzer-land, North Carolina Central University and the University of Colorado. “Pres-ence of faculty members from across the globe provides our students with a global perspective. Professors from foreign and other universities take classes as part of this tie-up. SCMS has also established a chair on climate

change with Professor Cleo Pascal of Chatham House, UK, as consultant professor and Dr C K Rajan as profes-sor,’’ says Dr Nayar.

According to him, SCMS is the only institute which had achieved 90% placement even during the recession. “Almost 95% of our students have been getting placement, in reputed companies, ever since SCMS was established in 1992. Curriculum in-novation and periodic upgradation of the teaching and training system make SCMS different from other B-schools. Our academic committee reviews the curriculum every six months and brings in innovative areas,’’ he adds.

“SCMS aims at grooming lead-ers of tomorrow who will uphold the philosophy of social commitment and ethical behaviour while creating wealth for the nation. Specialized training is provided at SCMS to improve stu-dents’ communication skills, public speaking and presentation skills and interpersonal relations skills. Students shed their shyness and inhibitions so

that they can get on with all sections of people,’’ he says. SCMS also focuses on development of the analytical abil-ity of individuals so that they take in-telligent business decisions. All these programmes aimed at personality de-velopment are conducted by special experts who come from different parts of the country. SCMS has an annual budget of Rs 1.5 crore for this pur-pose.

To further extend its social re-sponsibility, SCMS has established a charity foundation, the ‘G P C Nayar Foundation’, with an initial corpus of Rs 1.5 crore for offering scholarships to financially poor students who join in-stitutions under the SCMS Group.

SCMS-COCHIN offers MBA-equiv-alent PGDM, and one-year postgradu-ate diplomas, recognized by the Kerala Government, in Marketing Manage-ment, Human Management, Materials Management, International Manage-ment, Foreign Trade Management, Public Relations, Advertising and Jour-nalism.

The other institutes that constitute the group are SSET-Cochin (SCMS School of Engineering & Technol-ogy); SSTM-Cochin (SCMS School of Technology & Management) offering MBA and MCA; SSET Bioscience and Technology Division SCRCT-Cochin (SCMS Centre for Research, Consul-tancy and Training); NSIPADS-Cochin (NORKA-SCMS Institute for Paramed-ical and Development Studies); SSHM & CT-Cochin (SCMS School of Hotel Management & Catering Technology); SAAMS-Bangalore (SCMS Academy for Animation and Media Studies); SSIS-Cochin (SCMS School of Inter-national Studies) and SCMS-Cochin Trivandrum Centre

SCMS—a cluster of institutes of global standards

Academic complex on

Smart City campus

The SCMS Group plans to devel-op an academic complex on Smart City campus at Kakkanad in Kochi with an investment of Rs 150 crore, says Group Chairman G P C Nayar. The project will be unveiled at the `Emerging Kerala’ event in Kochi.

“The Kakkanad region has about 50,000 people working in various in-dustries and the number is expected to touch 4.5 lakh by 2020. SCMS will render state-of-the-art academic service to the working executives of this fast-developing information technology hub of Kerala,” says Dr Nayar.

The plan is to start a higher sec-ondary school and a management and technology training institute to cater to the children of the execu-tives working in Smart City. The first phase of the project will be complete by 2016.

Dr. G P C Nayar


34


34

Doha, the capital city of Qatar, witnessed in December this

year two United Nations (UN) confer-ences. The first was for arriving at a consensus on issues related to global warming and climate change, and the second was aimed at the global re-or-dering of the rapidly expanding internet system. Both were of great relevance to human progress and development. However, despite several rounds of discussions, there was no consensus, and the comity of nations has agreed to disagree for now, and hoping to meet again next year, under the auspi-cious of the UN.

The global divide on both issues was on expected lines and the US was put on the defensive, jointly by a vast majority of nations. On the climate is-sue, the US was virtually isolated by the G77 initiative on Kyoto Protocol and Russia sticking to its good old reservations on the theories of global warming that predicted all-round di-saster and the elaborate schemes and massive projects aimed at the salva-tion of humanity. On internet manage-ment, the divide was between the US and the UK on one side, with Russia, China and several developing counties on the other, and fighting for a regu-latory role for the UN and the national governments.

A notable change in the Doha Cli-

mate conference was the re-assertion of the World Meteorological Organiza-tion (WMO) on the issues related to cli-mate and climate change. Ever since the formation of the Intergovernmen-tal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, WMO was mostly sidelined on matters concerning global climate and climate research. The IPCC was sponsored as a joint venture of WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which was pa-tronized by the US and other Western countries as part of their global environ-mental politics. The US was, for long, the breeding ground for environmental pessimism, and it had started distanc-ing itself from the extremist predictions of IPCC, ever since the formulation of Kyoto Protocol on the containing of carbon emissions.

In 2006, President Bush had pro-posed a Global Nuclear Energy Part-nership (GNEP) for containing carbon emission by replacing fossil fuels with

nuclear fuels, but the proposal proved controversial in the US and internationally. Even its allies had looked at GNEP as a clever move for re-enforcing the global hege-mony of the US, using its near-mo-nopoly control over nuclear power. Initiatives by the European Union on solar and other renewable en-ergy as well as cleaner and more efficient fossil fuel technologies continue to face resistance in the global energy markets. The US had played the GNEP card, taking into account these market realities.

It is evident today that solutions need to be sought for the much-debated problems of environment, even beyond the framework of mar-ket and market relationships. ‘Last-Chance-to-Save-Earth’ was the alarm raised, 20 years ago in RIO, by the Green Movement in the first

Earth Summit of 1992. That slogan got vastly discredited in the course of two decades, and the recently held RIO+20 was an all-round disappointment for en-vironmental fundamentalists. Delibera-tions in Doha were naturally a repeat of RIO+20 and have clearly indicated that the world was on the look-out for a more sobre and healthier response to the environment problems. WMO com-ing to the forefront of climate research and beginning to communicate directly with global communities on issues cli-mate change are indicative of a newly emerging healthy trend on climate ne-gotiations.

The other global conference under the auspices of the UN, the one on in-ternet, was also a trendsetter in many ways. Internet technologies were an offshoot of the Star War research pro-gramme, sponsored by the US Gov-ernment, in response to the massive

communication capabilities of the So-viet military, an inevitable byproduct of the more advanced Soviet space tech-nology. The global internet system, as

it exists today, has developed unchal-lenged, under the monopoly control of the US. The growth and consolida-tion of monopoly corporations are now frightening even the ardent supporters of global capitalism. The London Econ-omist has very recently expressed its concern about the growing clout of the internet giants but has cautioned against hasty antitrust watchdogs.

In the lead article of December 1-7, titled ‘Battle of the Internet Giants’, The Economist comments on the ‘four ex-traordinary creatures—Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon: “Never before has the world seen firms grow so fast or spread their tentacles so widely. Ap-ple has become a colossus of capital-ism, accounting for 4.3% of the value of S&P 500 and 1.1% of the global equity market. Some 425m people now use its iTunes online store, whose virtual shelves are packed to the gills with music and other digital content. Google, meanwhile, is the undisputed global leader in search and online ad-vertising. Its Android software powers three-quarters of the smartphones being shipped. Amazon dominates the online retail and e-book markets in many countries; less well known is its behind-the-scenes power of cloud computing. As for Facebook, if the so-cial network’s one billion users were a country, it would be the world’s third biggest.”

Salient operational information about these four giants as compiled by The Economist is reproduced in the table elsewhere. The data and the facts presented by this learned journal reveal a picture of shared monopoly of the most important and vital medium of communication developed by mankind in public interest and using public funds. These monopolies are resisting any

form of regulation by national govern-ments and the UN system in the name of protecting intellectual freedom and encouraging competition. They try to

UN, climate change and internet

K Vijayachandran

The UN is being increas-ingly called upon to play not only in its traditional conflict resolution and peace-keep-ing role, but also in develop-mental and regulatory roles. This trend was obvious at the Doha meets, climate change as well as internet. The UN is slowly but steadily devel-oping as an instrument for global governance, despite the challenges thrown up by the developed nations led by the US.

Global IT: Profile of Corporate Giants

Company Year Founded Employees *Market Value $bnth

# R e v e n u e $bn

Apple 1976 76,100 548.2 150.5

Amazon 1994 81,400 110.7 57.3

Google 1998 54,600 222.8 47.5

Facebook 2004 4,500 56.9 4.6

* As on 30th Sept 2012 # Year ending 30th Sept.


35suppress the fact the different modes of communications, the radio, the tele-vision as well as the telecommunica-tion systems including cell telephony have developed and technologically matured not through competition but through global cooperation and regu-lation which had helped to contain the massive wastage of resources in the name of competition.

The World Conference on Inter-national Telecommunications (WCIT) that concluded on December 14 at Doha had witnessed much heated debate which had simply overlooked the big technological advantage by

switching over to the state regulation and international cooperation mode from the present competition mode forced on by the private monopolies based in the US. A majority of the countries saw it as an opportunity to liberate the Internet from the domina-tion of US monopoly corporations by bringing in UN regulation based on inter-governmental consultations, as in the case of other means of global communication. Using the Orwellian tactics and logic, this approach was interpreted as a conspiracy against free speech and democracy and the so-called intellectual freedom through content-control.

The more relevant question, why and how intellectual freedom had es-caped the tyranny of UN regulation in the case of telephony, broadcasting and other communication systems, was seldom asked or debated even by Indian intellectuals, who preferred to strike an ambivalent position and hide behind as the freedom of speech argument.

The Indian IT industry and its spokespersons supported the stand of

the US and EU in the internet debate at Doha, in the name of protecting in-tellectual freedom and opposing con-tent control by the state. Delegations from Russia, China and most Latin American and Arab countries, on the other hand, took a stand against the continued domination of the internet by the US and the corporate monopo-lies under its control.

The UN is a new experience in the development of mankind. It is the successor of the League of Nations which was founded on the termina-tion of the First World War. The short-lived global truce and peace under the auspices of the League of Nations had demonstrated the value of inter-national cooperation in development, and the benefits arising out of peace-ful coexistence of diverse cultures.

It did not take much time for the diverse nationalities to establish the new charter of the UN, which has giv-en birth to more than 50 international organizations, spanning almost the entire spectrum of human endeav-our—material, cultural and even spiri-tual.

Nevertheless, the more advanced nations or the developed countries, led by the US, continue to have res-ervations about making full use of the possibilities of the UN system. Even at the time of the formation of the World Bank (IBRD—International Bank for Reconstruction and Devel-opment) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the two known as the Bretton Wo0ods institutions, the rich countries had refused to accept their counterparts of the developing world as equal partners. In fact, the US had manoeuvred the formation of these global institutions in such a way that it could exercise veto power on the strength of its equity participation.

These two global institutions as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO) are autonomous organizations legally outside of the UN system and the UN General Assembly has no right to overview their operations. How-ever, the situation is rapidly changing, thanks to the ongoing global econom-ic crisis.

The UN is being increasingly called upon to play not only in its traditional conflict resolution and peace-keep-ing role, but also in developmental and regulatory roles. This trend was obvious at the Doha meets, climate change as well as internet. The UN is slowly but steadily developing as an instrument for global governance, de-spite the challenges thrown up by the developed nations led by the US

Remittances per household Rs 63,315from page 32

The US had manoeu-vred the formation of these global institutions in such a way that it could exercise veto power on the strength of its equity participation. These two global institu-tions as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO) are autonomous organi-zations legally outside of the UN system and the UN General Assembly has no right to overview their op-erations.

remittances were 1.6 times the rev-enue receipt (Rs 31,181 crore), 6.2 times the money that the state got from the Centre (7,982 crore) as reve-nue transfers and 2.2 times the entire Government expenditure (Rs 22,546 crore).

Malappuram topped in overall remit-tances with Rs 9,040 crore account-ing for 18.2% of the state’s total re-mittances. Close on the heels were Ernakulam (12.3%), Kannur (10.4%) and Thiruvananthapuram (9.5%).

There are other NRK remittances to households through different chan-nels for different expenses such as for buying cars and land, gold and for construction of buildings, for meet-ing medical and educational expens-es, paying dowry etc. It is estimated that Rs 15,129 crore was remitted for these in 2011.

The inflow of about Rs 49,695 crore by way of remittances should have a very significant effect on the state’s economy and the living condition of its people. For a total population of 3.339 crore, the remittance of Rs 49,695 crore means an average per capita remittance of Rs 14,883. The corresponding per capita remittance in 2008 was Rs 12,840. The increase during 2008-2011 was thus Rs 2,043.

For an average household in Kera-la, remittances were Rs 63,315 per household in 2011. The correspond-ing average was Rs 43,288 in 2008, Rs 18,465 in 2003 and Rs 13,652 in 1998. Remittances, thus, form a very significant component of the income of Kerala households.

The per capita income in the state would be Rs 52,084 without taking into account the remittances, but would be Rs 67,994 if remittances were taken into the calculation.

Emigration followed by remittances amounting to more than Rs 49,000

crore should have a considerable im-pact on the disposable income of Ker-ala households. This increase in turn should be reflected in the consumption pattern of the Kerala households. The possession of consumer durables by Kerala households is one indicator of the impact of emigration on the Kerala economy.

The remittance has a positive impact on the quality of houses, use of fuel used by households, ownership of land/house, possession of television, refrigerator, motorcycle, mobile phone etc. Households with emigrants and those without emigrants are com-pared with respect to the possession of these common household consum-er items in Kerala.

No matter where they may be living, most NRKs would like to stay con-nected with the land of their birth in some way or another. The remittances received by Keralites from emigrants to the Gulf, popularly known as ‘Gulf money’, are the most dynamic con-tribution to the economy of the state. The desire among the NRKs to stay connected with Kerala makes them very ‘high contributors’ to Kerala’s economy.

Being these are the contributions of the NRKs to the development of the state, have we given our due share to them? After putting their best part of their life abroad and returning to the state, are we providing the support to continue their living? Without suf-ficient income, they feel destitute and the rest of the life is miserable. Com-prehensive rehabilitation packages are to be evolved for the repatriates to ensure they feel at home.

(Prof Job K T is a senior member of faculty at the Centre for Management Development, Thiruvananthapuram. He can be contacted at [email protected] or mobile 9847135571.)


36


We have been hearing about Petronet’s LNG terminal,

Kochi, for a pretty long time. We are all dreaming of getting LNG (light natural gas) through pipelines and getting gas perpetually all 24 hours a day at much cheaper rates than the hard-to-get LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). Petro-net has completed the terminal at a cost of about Rs 6,000 crore and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) has pro-cured Rs 4,000 crore worth of pipes. What the housewives have in mind is that they are going to get permanent relief from the long wait for the gas cyl-inder, its haunting price increases and

the attendant risks of leak.

Not only that, the Kayamkulam NTPC project and the Brahmapuram diesel power plant which are not op-erating viably now can get LNG from Kochi and produce cheaper electric-ity. Once LNG comes handy, FACT can have many expansion plans and enhance its capacity of production

and also have its own captive power plants.

Pipelines are planned to be laid up to Mangalore, and another line branch-ing off from Kootanad in Palakkad district goes via Coimbatore to Ban-galore. Once this materializes, many petrochemical complexes and power plants will sprig up in those areas also sharing the benefits with us. In short, this project will eventually change the economic scenario of the South.

But it appears all this is likely to still remain a distant dream, because the pipelines are to be laid. You know our people well enough. That public mon-ey worth Rs 10,000 crore has already been spent is none of their concern. “Who asked you to spend it? You did not ask us!”

About the inordinate delay in laying the pipelines, Mr Jose P Philip, Man-aging Director of Tec-Pro Infra- Proj-

ects Ltd, the company which has received the commission for the work, says that up to the Naval Armament Depot (NAD), Kalamassery, there was no problem. After that problems started brew-ing up. A group of people from somewhere (not lo-cals) appeared suddenly and objected to the lay-ing of pipelines. None of these people were losing land and rights in this area. The police and politicians refused to intervene saying it was public protest. Tec-Pro then tried to dig the land

in another area several km away.

There also the party arrived pos-ing as affected locals. According to Mr Jose Philip, it was the same group. He says they have been retained by some vested interests, which might be affected in some way if this project comes through.

Their grievances are:

1. Twenty-metre-wide land in the pipe route is frozen until the laying of the pipeline is over. Only 1/10th of its market value is given as compensa-tion. The owner of the land is responsi-ble for the safety of the pipeline which goes 2m below the ground. Buildings and trees are not permitted on this land. So that land is as good as lost.

2. Agricultural land is being deplet-ed. This line could have been drawn under the sea or through the sea-shore.

3. Serious accidents can result if the pipeline bursts for any reasons. This has happened even in developed countries like the US.

4. The area between Cheruthu-ruthy and Chalissery in Thirumittak-kod–Nagalassery panchayats has been declared quake-prone with De-samangalam as the epicentre.

The people in this area have orga-nized a ‘Gas Pipeline Victims Forum’ and are up to intensifying their fights.

Mr C R Neelakantan, the environ-mentalist supporting the agitation, says his main objection is in taking away so much of land from agricultur-ists without adequate compensation. He asks why GAIL is not trying to draw the pipe through the already existing Petronet Cochin-Combatore–Karoor (CCK) link.

It is learnt that since both GAIL and Petronet CCK Ltd are under the same ministry, it would be easy to take a de-cision on the issue.

Such agitations are not new to us. We have to skilfully and intelligently handle them. Politicians are scared to go against ‘public opinion’. The police also will take a neutral stand until they get strict orders from above.

GAIL and TEC-PRO rightly started with an awareness campaign. The fol-lowing facts were brought to light:

• The strip of land 20m wide spread out on both sides of the pipe-line will be handed back to the original owners. The pipe is 2m below ground. There is no embargo on agricultural activities over this land. But buildings, big trees etc are not permitted. It is the responsibility of the owner to see that no physical damage is caused to the pipes. They can even sell that land.

• The pipes are made of spe-cial steel containing more than 10 elements made by a state-of-the-art technology and welded and hydrauli-cally tested according to Am Standard for Mechanical Engineers B-31.8. Not only that, to prevent these pipes from getting rusted, a small electric current will be passed through them to provide cathodic protection.

• LNG is not as dangerous as LPG. When LNG passes through pipes at low pressure normally no ac-cidents can happen. Suitable precau-tions against earthquakes and land-slides can also be taken.

• There is a point in their objec-tion to inadequate compensation for land use.

• The allegation that a lot of agricultural land will be depleted is only partially true, because once the pipeline has been laid, the land can be used for cultivation of paddy and plan-tains and other tuber crops.

Mr Jose Philip says the state minis-try concerned has decided to enhance the compensation threefold as a result of his continuous efforts for the past 10 months. With this it appears a lot of re-sistance will get diluted. Of course we cannot do anything with people who have hidden agendas.

Gujarat has already achieved phe-nomenal growth mainly because of the LNG terminal at Dahej. People feel that we cannot lose any more time fighting each other and that the au-thorities should discuss matters with the affected parties and find a viable solution so that the project will be fin-ished soon

What is happening to LNG terminal?

It appears that the completion of the project is likely to remain a distant dream because the pipelines are still to be laid. There are hur-dles in the way. That public money worth Rs 10,000 crore has already been spent is none of some people’s concern.

G Rama Mohanan Nair

Jose P Philip


37

K Chittilappilly Foundation, incor-porated under the chairman-

ship of Mr Kochouseph Chittilappilly for undertaking charitable activities, has envisaged a new scheme for promot-ing organ donation and awareness.

Voluntary organ donations are few because of ignorance, fear and various other factors. Therefore we are unable to save many precious lives in time. There is commercial trade in human organs. Mr Kochouseph Chittilappilly has announced that the `K Chittilap-pilly Foundation Organ Donation Pro-motion Scheme` has been envisaged to change the scenario.

The scheme contemplates two kinds of awards for donors. The first is intended to be given to those who have facilitated the donation of organs of their relatives, on brain death. The next award is intended to be given to those who have donated their own or-gans voluntarily, while also promoting organ donation. The awards would be conferred on those who have donated their organs voluntarily, with humani-tarian objects, without any consider-ation as to caste, colour or creed.

The awards would be conferred only in respect of those organ dona-tions that took place within Kerala since January 1, 2012. Eye donation or any other organ donation which may not necessarily enable life-saving would not fall within the ambit of the award. The award scheme shall be in force till December 31, 2013.

Award to relatives of brain-dead: The awards to the relatives who fa-cilitate the donation of organs of the brain-dead shall be based on the age of the brain-dead according to the fol-lowing:

Age of the brain dead Up to a maximum amount of

Up to 40 years Rs 5 lakh40 to 60 years Rs 3 lakh60 years and above Rs 1 lakh

The foundation may consider the dependent spouse, children, parents or siblings of the brain-dead for the award. In case of more than one rela-tive found to be eligible, the award amount may be distributed among them or conferred on any one among them, at the discretion of the founda-tion.

Award to those who voluntarily do-nate organs: Many a time, a patient’s `near-relative` may be unable to do-nate to the patient because of medical

incompatibility, illness or other factors. In such cases, a distant relative or a non-relative may come forward and donate voluntarily to the patient, as a result of which any of the `near-rela-tives` may be inspired to donate volun-tarily to someone else. In such cases, the distant relative or non-relative who has come forward to donate at the first instance may be considered for the award according to the following:

Category Maximum eligi-ble amount

Donor who is a non-relative Rs 5 lakh

Distant relative Rs 2 lakh

The foundation considers wife, husband, son, daughter, father, moth-er, brother and sister to be a `near-rel-ative for these purposes. However, the foundation may waive the condition that the donation of the distant rela-tive or non-relative should inspire the `near-relative` of the patient to donate for being considered for the award, in appropriate circumstances.

The foundation may be contacted, either on one’s own, through social or-ganizations or charitable institutions, for selection for the award. The ap-plication should be accompanied by all medical certificates and such other relevant documents as the foundation may prescribe.

The foundation shall decide on the question of conferment of the award after evaluating all relevant circum-stances and suitable enquiries. The final decision on the award shall vest with the foundation. The foundation may be assisted by social organiza-tions, clubs and charitable institutions for selection of awardees and for dis-tribution of the awards.

To encourage organ donation, the foundation may train volunteers in various districts of the state to promote awareness among the people and con-duct awareness programmes.

Mr Kochouseph Chittilappilly has observed that the scheme and the award may be helpful in encouraging organ donation, enabling poor and needy patients to receive donated or-gans, and in preventing commercial trade in human organs. More informa-tion can be had at: 0484-2973955 or [email protected]. Website: kc-foundation.in

K Chittilappilly Foundation on an organ donation campaign

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurating ‘India MSME Summit 2012’ in Kochi

Inaugurating the ‘India MSME Summit 2012’ in Kochi the other

day, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Department of Industries, Government of Kerala, Mr Oommen Chandy applauded the efforts of the MSMEs in Kerala and described them as a silver lining for the state. He said that this summit was a post-initiative of the ‘Emerging Kerala Global Connect-2012’, whose theme was ‘Growth: Op-portunities & Challenges’.

Mr Tom Jose, Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, stressed the vital contri-bution of MSMEs to employment gen-eration and their role in bringing to the economy economic viability and stabil-ity. “This summit is a part of a series of initiatives that the State Government is taking to boost the development of the state,” he said.

Mr V K Mathews, Chairman, CII Kerala, said MSMEs had a positive im-pact as more than 25% of the whole country was directly or indirectly de-pendent on them. He also highlighted a few issues plaguing the MSME sec-tor in Kerala such as lack of appropri-ate technology, financing schemes or options for them and lack of skill devel-opment initiatives. He, however, hoped that they would rapidly develop in the future.

Mr Shyam Srinivasan, Chairman, India MSME Summit 2012 and Man-aging Director and CEO of Federal Bank, described MSMEs as the in-novation engines for corporate India. He stressed the importance of quality and passion as driving forces that de-termined the success or downfall of an MSME.

Mr P Nandakumaran, Co-Chair-man, India MSME Summit 2012 and

Managing Director, State Bank of Travancore, congratulated the Kerala Government on introducing MSME-friendly initiatives to boost the growth and expansion of the sector in the state. Mr Nandakumaran mentioned the success of Kerala State Entre-preneurial Development Mission and suggested more such initiatives to pro-mote MSMEs.

Several other Government and in-dustry leaders and renowned experts from across India from companies such as IBM, Tally, Federal Bank, SBI, Mobme Wireless Solutions, AVT Ltd and Terumo Penpol addressed the summit.

This initiative of CII was also being supported by other industrial chambers and organizations such as KSIDC, K-BIP, Kerala Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), TiE, CREDAI Kerala, GTECH, KSSIA AND KMA which had agreed to be partners for the summit. Moreover, CII in association with Ernst and Young, the knowledge partners for the summit, released a white paper on MSMEs inKerala: Growth and Challenges.

The summit covered various im-portant aspects relating to MSMEs like ‘affordable IT solutions for MSMEs’, ‘fi-nancing options for MSMEs’ and ‘entre-preneurship and Its Impact on growth

of MSMEs’ and was a great platform to learn and interact with some of the top entrepreneurs of the state and the country who also shared their success stories. It was designed as a concert-ed effort of CII and the Government of Kerala to boost the growth and expan-sion of MSMEs in the state, focusing on enabling MSMEs to become more efficient, investor-friendly and growth-oriented.

MSME SUMMIT 2012Kerala may emerge as MSME hub: CM


38


Fiscal cliff, RBI and Union budget: With the fiscal cliff deal in place, we feel that global factors will take a back-seat for some time as India starts looking forward to the loosening of the mone-tary policy (RBI) later this month and the Union bud-get (from arguably the stock market’s most popular FM) in February.

While many may argue that populist measures will dictate the last budget of the UPA Government before the 2014 polls), it may not be so. The budget will have its huge dollops of populist measures, the Finance Minister will perform a good balancing act and announce measures to kickstart the economy, but continue to work on reining in the fiscal deficit.

Our view is that if the UPA hopes to return to power in 2014, it will have to be very lucky as far as the state of the economy is concerned. If by elec-tion time, the Indian economy is clearly back on the recovery path, it will be the single-largest trump card for the Government. Therefore, we don’t expect the economy and the stock markets to be ignored by the Finance Minister.

The liquidity factor: While India saw huge inflows from FIIs in 2012, which contributed largely to the stock indices yielding

a 26% return, this was mainly at the cost of China. Therefore, if China shows any semblance of recov-ery in the current year, it could divert some inflows away from us.

Interest rates will come down: Some preconditions for a rate-cut—lower rate

of price increases and a decline in fiscal deficit— are emerging. However, the magnitude of decline in interest rates will depend on crude oil and other commodity prices remaining stable, or falling. Also, it needs to be taken into account that lower funding (interest) costs could translate into higher imports, weakening the currency. This remains a worry.

2013—the challenges ahead: the rupee:India’s current account deficit widened to a record

high of 5.4% of GDP in the September quarter as ex-port growth slowed more sharply than imports, and with a similar gap expected in the December quarter, the weakness in the rupee is likely to be prolonged. A sharp rise in gold imports, a hefty oil bill and falling exports due to the global slowdown have kept India’s current account deficit at persistently high levels.The rupee was the third worst performer in Asia in 2012, even though net inflows into Indian stocks were the highest in the region.

Market outlook and equity strategyIt is a time when everybody in the capital market makes predictions on

what lies ahead in the year. This year they have come out with a very

optimistic view. But the fact is predicting the markets for 2013 is challenging.

However, what seems possible for our markets is that we should start on a

strong footing and hopefully make an attempt to scale the November 2010

high (NIFTY 6,312, Sensex 21,005) in the first quarter itself.

Europe crisis—far from over: Even as financial markets are calmer and the

chances of the euro disintegrating have diminished, it has come at the cost of highly indebted Eurozone states committing themselves to spending and tax increases. This could ultimately lead to the 17-na-tion Eurozone contracting further in 2013 as deficit-cutting measures bite deeper. Rising unemployment and falling tax receipts would make it harder for gov-ernments in countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece and even France to meet their budgeted targets.

That could unsettle financial markets again, par-ticularly in countries where political instability is add-ing to the uncertainty.

Conclusion: We do believe that the Indian markets will start

on a firm footing and possibly make a new high in 2013. However, global equity markets are unlikely to do well as macro-factors look terrible and one could see a sharp growth slowdown as we move into the year. And, while India will show great out-performance in 2013, it can’t remain immune to a bad global situation and, therefore, will suffer some hiccups going ahead.

Stock selection: We have identified 15 scrips (5 among large-caps

and 10 belonging to the mid-cap space) for invest-ment in 2013.

Large-cap ideas:1. Bajaj Auto (present price: Rs 2,131):

High focus on exports, new launches going for-ward and diversified product profile should help Bajaj Auto perform relatively well in the domestic 2-wheeler segment, where Honda Motors is growing at the cost of ‘India-focused’ players.

The company’s focus on doubling exports, lead-ership in certain key segments and new model launches should help it navigate through the present slowdown in the automobile segment.

2. Financial Technologies (present price: Rs 1,129):

The company’s 26% stake in MCX should reap rich returns for investors.

3. HDFC Bank (present price:Rs 679 ): HDFC Bank could very well be regarded as the

best-managed bank in the country. The premium valuations very well justify the consistency which it has been reporting for quite some years now. The bank has grown its net profit consistently at a CAGR of +30% over the last several years. We feel that the best for HDFC Bank is yet to come.

4. Lupin (present price: Rs 613):

Lupin from the pharma sector in H1 FY’13 posted a net profit of Rs 570 crore (an increase of 20%) on net sales of Rs 4,458.4 crore (an increase of 35.7 % y-o-y). The company has seen a few launches in

CAPITAL MARKET:


39the US market over the last couple of months and we expect them to start contributing from Q3 FY’13 onwards. We expect an improvement in overall mar-gins on the back of pick-up in the US business and stable growth from India and rest of the world.

5. Apollo Tyres (present price: Rs 89): We believe Apollo Tyres is the only Indian com-

pany capable of emerging as a global-tyre

manufacturer (presently exports to 115 countries). The increased natural rubber price should lead to an improvement in operating profit margins.

Midcap ideas: 6. Delta Corp (present price: Rs 73):

Over the last 12 months, the share has consoli-dated in the range of Rs 55 and Rs 87. Considering the four major developments taking place in terms of setting up a hotel and a floating hotel in Goa, gaming facility at Daman and a new vessel at Goa, we ex-pect exponential growth in the earnings from FY’14E onwards.

7. Hi-Tech Gears (present price: Rs 85):Hi-Tech Gears Limited manufactures automotive

gears and shafts at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, mainly for 2-wheelers like Hero Honda and Escorts. It posted an EPS of Rs 22.4 in FY’12 compared to Rs18.7 dur-ing the previous year and has a policy of distribut-ing more than 20% of the earnings in the form of dividends.

8. IFB Industries (present price: Rs 103): A consumer durables company with attractive val-

uations, it is the leader in the top-door washing ma-chine segment. Being the first entrant into the dish-washers segment should augur well for the company going forward. IFB Industries has a clean Balance Sheet with net cash and cash equivalent totaling up to Rs 88.1 crore. With the rupee showing stability, IFB, being net importers, should be benefited.

9. India Cements (present price: Rs 91): Management’s efforts to ramp up the captive

power generation making the company self-reliant in power, coupled with efforts to ramp up mining, should reduce the overall cost structure for the company.

10. IndusInd Bank (present price: Rs 416): Under the able leadership of Mr Romesh Sobti

and his team, the bank has grown its net profit 10-fold over the last four years from Rs 80 crore in FY’08 to Rs 810 crore in FY’12. The bank’s asset quality continues to be robust.

11. Jammu & Kashmir Bank (present price: Rs 1,295): One of the best-managed quasi-PSU banks, it has posted strong growth in net interest income and ex-pects the PAT to grow also. The asset quality is ro-bust.

12. Karnataka Bank (present price: Rs 167):Karnataka Bank clearly stands out in the lot with a

book value of Rs137.9 and EPS of Rs13.1 in FY’12. The bank, with a decent asset quality, is available at attractive valuations. During H1 FY’13, it reported an interest Income of Rs1,838.3 crore, an increase of 27.3%.

13. MRF Limited (present price: Rs 12,807):

MRF Limited is one company with a consistent track record. With its decent management and lead-

ership status in the domestic market, we expect MRF to perform well.

14. NIIT Technologies (present price: Rs 242): NIIT Technologies has a strong order book and its valuations are compelling. During H1 FY’13, it has clocked a turnover of Rs 969.7 crore and a PAT of Rs 100 crore. The stock has a decent dividend yield of approximately ~3.5%. It has had an excel-lent dividend payment track record. We expect this payout policy to continue in the future.

15. Sun Pharma Advanced Research (present price: Rs 135): It’s a high-conviction stock idea considering that its core focus on research should start paying off with it filing wrap matrix formulation of Levetiracetamcin in the US in Q1 FY’13. This should be a turning point as far as its financial per-

formance is concerned. The company has a strong pipeline of around 19 products, which can start yielding benefits going forward. The stock should yield excellent returns over a slightly longer time-frame.

(Disclaimer: This document has been prepared by Nirmal Bang Research (A division of Nirmal Bang Securities Pvt Ltd). It, at best, represents Nirmal Bang Research opinion and is meant for general information only. Nirmal Bang Research, its directors, officers or employees shall not in any way be responsible for the contents stated herein. It expressly disclaims any and all liabilities that may arise from information, errors, or omissions in this connection. This document is not to be considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securi-ties).

PASSLINE Dec 31 - Jan 31, 2013 RN 65561/94 Reg. No. KL/EKM/116/2009-2011

Printed and Edited by Varghese Paul for Keethara Publications Pvt Ltd. 6802, Convent Road, Kochi-35 Tel 3043572 Email:[email protected] and Printed at Ayodhya Printers Pvt Ltd., Cochin-26 Design by Unnikrishnan

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