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December 2015

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LETTERS MATTER

DATE COUNTRY DAY

December 1 Romania National day

December 2 Laos National day

December 2 United ArabEmirates National day

December 6 Finland Independence Day

December 11 Burkina Faso National Day

December 12 Kenya National Day

December 16 Bahrain National Day

December 16 Kazakhstan Independence Day

December 18 Niger National Day

December 18 Qatar National Day

December 23 Japan Birthday of H.M. the Emperor

MISSING HEALTH, VASTU, SPORTS, ETC. REGULARLYI am a regular reader of your magazine since last two years or so. I havebeen following the contents, photographs, advertisements, etc. quiteclosely in your magazine. Here I am mentioning something for your seri-ous consideration. First, that you have been totally ignoring sports part inyour magazine whereas every Indian living in any part of the world is al-ways having deep interest in sports, especially Cricket, Hockey, Wrestling,etc. Second, why have you stopped your regular column on Vastu. It wasvery informative & I think many of the readers like me must have beenmissing it. en your Health & Wellness column is not that regular. Youcan regularly promote Indian therapies like Yoga, Unani, Ayurveda, etc.

K. S. Gulati, New Delhi

IMMIGRATION CHANGES IN NEW ZEALANDI send this to you so that readers of your magazine may benefit.To help maximize the contribution of immigrants to the regions,following changes have been made to the Skilled Migrant Cate-gory (SMC) and Entrepreneur Work Visa Category in NewZealand: (1). Points available to SMC applicants with a job offer

outside of Auckland have been Increased from 10 to 30. (2). Re-quirement that SMC migrants who have been in a job for lessthan three months and were awarded bonus points for a job offeroutside of Auckland remain employed outside of Auckland for 12months. (3). Points available to Entrepreneur Work Visa appli-cants who intend to establish a business outside of Auckland havebeen Increased from 20 to 40. Suman Kapoor, New Zealand

àææ´çÌ ¥æñÚU ¥àææ´çÌ ·¤æ È¤·ü¤ÁÕ ×ñ́ ÎêÚUÎàæüÙ ÂÚU ‹ØêÁ¸ Îð¹Ìè ãê¡ Ìô ×éÛæð Øð Ü»Ìæ ãñ ·¤è Îðàæ×ð́ àææ´çÌ ¥õÚU âÎÖæß ãñ Îðàæ ÏèÚ-ÏèÚUð çß·¤æâ Öè ·¤ÚU ÚUãæ ãñâÖè ·¤éÀ âæ×æ‹Ø âæ ãè ãñ, çÈ¤ÚU ÁÕ ×ñ́ Âýæ§ßðÅU ‹ØêÁ¸ ¿ñÙÜÎð¹Ìè ãê¡ Ìô ×éÛæð ÂÌæ Ü»Ìæ ãñ ·¤è ÂêÚUð Îðàæ ×ð́ âæ´ÂýÎæçØ·¤ Î´»ð¿Ü ÚUãð ãñ́Ð çã‹Îê ×éçSÜ× °·¤ ÎêâÚUð ·¤ô ×æÚU ·¤æÅU ÚUãð́ ãñ́ÐÎçÜÌô´ ÂÚU ÖæÚUè ¥ˆØæ¿æÚU ãô ÚUãæ ãñÐ ·¤ÚUèÕ âæÚUð ÎçÜÌô´ ·¤èãˆØæ ãô ¿é·¤è ãñ ¥õÚU âß‡æü ß»ü ÎçÜÌô´ ·Ô¤ ƒæÚUô´ ·¤ô ÜêÅU ÚUãðãñU´Ð çã´ÎéSÌæÙ ×ð́ »ëã Øéh çÀÇ¸ ÚUãæ ãñÐ §ââð ƒæÕÚUæ ·¤ÚU ÁÕ ×ñ́Õ¿Ùð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ƒæÚU âð ÕæãÚU çÙ·¤ÜÌè ãê¡ Ìô ÂæÌè ãê¡ ·¤è ÕæÁ¸æÚU×ð́ Ìô âæ×æ‹Ø âè ãÜ¿Ü ãñÐ ·¤ãè´ ×éçSÜ× ß»ü ÂÍ â´¿ÜÙÂÚU ÂécÂ ßáæü ·¤ÚU ÚUãæ ãñ Ìô ·¤ãè´ »‡æÂçÌ ·Ô¤ Â´ÇæÜ ×ð́ Ù×æÁ¸ÂÉ¸è Áæ ÚUãè ãñÐ ·¤ãè´ ×´çÎÚU ·Ô¤ ¥´ÎÚU ×éçSÜ× ×çãÜæ ·¤èçÇÜèßÚUè çã‹Îê ×çãÜæ°´ ·¤ÚUßæ ÚUãè ãñ́UÐ ÂÌæ Ü»æ ·¤è âæÚUèâæ�ÂýÎæçØ·¤Ìæ ¥õÚU ¥àææ´çÌ ‹ØêÁ¸ ¿ñÙÜ ·Ô¤ SÅUêçÇØôÁ¸ ×ð́ ¥õÚU‹ØêÁ¸ °´·¤âüU ·Ô¤ çÎ×æ» ×ð́ ãè Íè, Áô ·¤è ÕýèÈ¸¤·Ô¤â ×ð́ ÖÚUð ãé°·¤æ»Á¸ ·¤è àæ€UÜ ×ð́ SÅUêçÇØôÁ¸ ×ð́ Âãé́¿æ§ü Áæ ÚUãè ÍèÐ

(°·¤ ÂæÆ·¤ ßæòÅU÷â°ŒÂ mæÚUæ)


6

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NRI ACHIEVERSVolume 04 Issue 03 December 2015

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RNI No. DELBIL/2012/45826

GLOBAL EVENTS TRAVELOGUE

HERITAGEOM NAMAH SHIVAY 54

ALL ABOUT IFFI AND THE FILM BAZAR AT GOA

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COVER STORY

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REAL ESTATE44NDA’S BIHAR DEBACLE

A BLESSING FOR REALTY?

DR. SHASHI KANT BALIYAN

FORGING A BLUEPRINT FOR SURVIVAL

HEALTH & WELLNESSTHE COST EFFECTIVE WAY 26

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INNOVATING INDIAN HEALTHCARE

OH KOLKATA

Editorial

7NRI AchIeveRs ÁèÌð ãñ´ àææÙ âð

december 2015

T he month of November, which began on a festive note in anticipation to thefestival of lights – Diwali, turned out in the end to be a mixed bag indeed – ofblessings interlaced with not so good tidings and disasters. e festive mood

from bygone October carried forward into November, and as the holiday season pro-gressed Indian e-tailors once again baited both urbanites as well as our upwardly mo-bile rural populations with disposable incomes via their mega-sales of white-goods,mobile phones, electronics, fashion garments and the like, notching up turnovers inthousands of crores of rupees yet again. Our Prime Minister went globetrotting againlast month, firstly for the UNGA to New York and San Francisco in the United States,then to the United Kingdom, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore, and lastly to France, totake part in the Paris COP-21 Climate Change Conference under the auspices of theUN, where he seems to have literally stolen the show.

Climate Change apropos seems to be catching up with us, even as we see Delhichocking with Smog and unable to breathe as air-quality deteriorates to very poor,while Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu swamped by floods.

In this particular issue of NRI Achievers, we are dovetailing Dossier into our CoverFeature, and profile an Indian origin UK doctor, who opted to come back to India andplay a part in improving the healthcare scenario in our country through a couple ofinnovative interventions. In Global Events, we look at the recently concluded 9thRPBD at Los Angeles, the Resurgent Rajasthan Investors Summit held at Jaipur recently.

Real Estate assesses the reforms push of the NDA government post its Bihar debacle,Photo Essay brings you some glimpses of Kolkata. Health & Wellness is back again,Silver Screen reports on the just concluded IFFI 2015, while news from myriad do-mains is featured in News Scan, Business & PSU Buzz, Diaspora News and Cineppets.For those of you missing Indian Achievers and Great Indians, do be assured that thegames afoot to bring out Indian Achievers as a fully fledged magazine as was originallyconceived, and it’s just around the corner. Apropos, while we are still on the subjectof content, I guess it is worth mentioning here that in forthcoming issues we will bebringing out state profiles regularly, considering most Indian states are as large as nu-merous nations of the world.

Many many warm wishes for the ongoing holiday season, for yuletide and the com-ing New Year! Do have a blast!

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‘CLIMATE’ IS CHANGING!!

News Scan


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News Scan

GOPIO, the Global Organizationof People of Indian Origin, joinedwith its many chapters in France,Francophone and other countries,as well as other organizations,agencies, groups and institutionsworldwide, in expressing itsstrong and unequivocal condem-nation of the series of killings andattacks in Paris, France on No-vember 13, 2015 that killed atleast 150 innocent people and leftmany more injured.

It is a matter of great pride that Indians,with their talent, skill and commitment,have attained important positions allover the globe, and the Government ofUttar Pradesh salutes sons and daughtersof this great country who by theirachievement, have made India proud byinstituting an award in appreciation oftheir endeavours and contributions. eUttar Pradesh NRI Samman Award (UPRatna Puraskar), is an award constitutedby the NRI Department of the Govern-ment of Uttar Pradesh to honour excep-tional and meritorious contribution byNRIs of UP origin in their chosen field

and profession. e first will be held inAgra on 4-5 January 2016, in which UttarPradesh NRI Samman Awards will beconferred by the Hon’ble Chief Ministerof Uttar Pradesh. Talking on this event,CM said, 'Our Government deeply ap-preciates the outstanding contributionmade by NRIs in carving a niche in theglobal arena. As we rejoice your success,we invite you to actively participate in thestate’s growth story. I extend my warmwishes to the UP NRIs residing all overthe globe and look forward to a muchmore meaningful engagement of UPNRIs with their motherland'.

GOPIO CONDEMNS PARIS MASSACRES

december 2015

External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj recently inaugurated the ‘Suriname Memorial’here to honour thousands of Indian workers who were forced to migrate to the South Amer-ican country as labourers for sugar plantations. "is memorial is not only in the honourof those who went to Suriname but for thousands of our forefathers forced to migrate toother countries as indentured workers,” said Swaraj at the inauguration. "ere are numer-ous heart-rending stories of Indian indentured workers who faced numerous hardships. Itwas their endurance, hard work and determination that they not only survived despite allodds, but went on to become successful in all fields. Two of Suriname’s presidents – Ram-sewak Shankar and Fred Ramdat Misier – are of Indian origin," she added.

SUSHMA SWARAJ INAUGURATES SURINAME MEMORIAL

Photo

: Raje

ev Tya

gi

Its learned that Prawasi Bharatiya Diwas 2016, which is being organized by Govt. ofIndia every year has been canceled. is information is yet to be confirmed officially.

PBD-2016 IS CANCELED Just In

1st 'UP PRAVASI DIWAS, 2016TO BE HELD IN AGRA


www.nriachievers.in10 december 2015

News Scan

NRI Achievers Desk

OLA RAISES US$ 500 MILLION IN SERIES FOla, India’s most popular mobile app for personal transportation an-nounced recently that it has just concluded another US$ 500 million inits Series F funding round. Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, TigerGlobal, Sobank Group, DST Global and Didi Kuaidi participated inthis round. Ola will use these funds to further accelerate its growth inthe Indian market, with a focus on building mobility for a billion peo-ple. Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder & CEO of Ola has this to say: “Aswe pursue our mission to build mobility for a billion people, we are ex-cited about bringing onboard partners who can help us get there faster.We will continue to build for the local market through innovative so-lutions like Ola Share, Ola Prime and Ola Money, as we grow the mobileecosystem in India.”

ROADSHOW ON FESTA DE DIU 2015

çâ´»æÂéÚU ·Ô¤ ÂýÏæÙ×´̃ æèÜè âèÙ Ü»ê´ Ùð Îðàæ ·Ô¤çâ¹ â×éÎæØ mæÚUæ¥·ñ¤Çç×·¤, çÕÁÙðâ, ÂçŽÜ·¤âçßüâ, ÁéçÇàæÚUè ¥õÚUÂæòçÜçÅU€Uâ Áñâð ÿæð˜æô´ ×ð´ çÎ° »°Øô»ÎæÙ ·¤è âÚUæãÙæ ·¤è ãñÐ ©‹ãô´Ùðçâ¹ â×éÎæØ ·Ô¤ çÜ° ¥æØôçÁÌÚUæç˜æÖôÁ ×ð´ ·¤ãæ ç·¤ çâ´»æÂéÚU âÚU·¤æÚU·¤§ü ÌÚUè·¤ô´ âð çâ¹ â×éÎæØ ·¤èâãæØÌæ ·¤ÚUÌè ÚUãè ãñ ¥õÚU·¤ÚUÌè ÚUãð»èÐ

e Administration of Daman & Diu, Government of India, is organ-izing the “Festa De Diu 2015” from 1st December 2015 to 15th Febru-ary 2016 in Diu. e CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) is the“Implementation Partner” for the same. e event will be inauguratedPranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble President of India, on 1st December atDiu. To showcase the festival, a Road show was organized on Monday,

23 November 2015 at the Oberoi, New Delhi,which was addressed by Amitabh Kant, Sec-retary to GOI in the Department of IndustrialPolicy and Promotion (DIPP) and AshishKundra, Administrator of the UT of Daman,Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli. is mega festi-val is poised to bring DIU on the Interna-tional Travel Map.

British high commissioner for India Sir James Bevan hasformally opened the UK & Ireland’s new visa applicationcentre (VAC) in Connaught Place, New Delhi. e newVAC is situated in the same premises as the SchengenVAC, allowing Indians planning a European holiday orbusiness trip the convenience of applying for both visasat the same time. “Following PM Modi’s successful visit,we hope more Indians will choose UK for their next hol-iday,” Bevan said. Other improvements to the visa serviceinclude the introduction of new services at selected VACsacross India, provided by UK Visas and Immigration’scommercial partner, VFS Global.

NEW UK VISA CENTRE IN CITY

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Business BuzzBusiness Buzz

Mahindra & Mahindra, India's largest util-ity vehicle maker, is planning to ramp up theproduction of its newly launched compactsports utility vehicle, the TUV 300. eramp-up comes within two months of itslaunch, spurred by good response from themarket. Having secured over 15,500 book-ings over the last two months, several ven-dors in the know told media that thecompany has intimated them of a bigger re-quirement in the coming three months,with plans of ramping up the production to5500-6000 units till February. Of the 15,500bookings, almost 40-45% of them are forthe AMT variant (automated manual trans-mission) variant. e vehicle currently hasa waiting period of 4-6 weeks depending onthe variant and region.

Luxury Italian sports-car maker Automobili Lamborghini launched its HuracanLP 580-2 in India, priced at INR 2.99 crore (ex-showroom Delhi). "We are de-lighted to unveil the Huracan LP 580-2 in India within just three days of itsglobal launch," Lamborghini India Head Pavan Setty said. The model, a two-wheel drive version ofthe Italian sports carmarquee’s popular Hu-racan coupe, is poweredby a 5,204cc engine andis capable of reaching atop speed of 320 km/hr.The Company claimsthat the new HuracanLP 580-2 can acceleratefrom 0-100 km/hr injust 3.4 seconds.

Diversified homegrown firm Videocon is aiming at an annual turnover of US$ 4billion (around INR 26,000 crore) in the next four years from its consumer elec-

tronics division, on the back of product launchesand exports growth. e company, which is expect-ing a turnover of INR 15,000 crore from the verticalthis year, is expanding the range of automatic wash-ing machine and frost free refrigerators in thecountry, which is today dominated by MNCs likeLG and Samsung.

VIDEOCON EYES US$ 4 BILLION TURNOVER OVER 4 YEARS

M&M TO RAMP UP TUV 300 PRODUCTION

NRI Achievers Desk

LAMBORGHINI LAUNCHES HURACAN LP 580-2 IN INDIA

A

Naresh Goyal led Jet Airways has an-nounced an order for 75 Boeing 737Max aircra at the Dubai Airshow lastmonth. is is the airline’s biggest-everfleet expansion order, a deal valued atover US$ 8 billion (over INR 53,000crore) at the list price. e order in-cludes options and purchase rights for

an additional 50 aircra as well. “enew aircra will support Jet Airways' re-placement strategy and ensure it main-tains a modern, environmentallyfriendly fleet,” said a Jet Airways state-ment. Jet is apropos the country’s sec-ond-largest airline by market share, andcurrently has a fleet of 115 aircra. De-

liveries from the latest order will beginin 2018. “e transaction will be com-pletely financed and managed through asale and leaseback arrangement whenJet Airways takes delivery of the air-cra,” the airline shared with media.

JET TO BUY 75 BOEING MAX PLANES FOR $8 BN


www.nriachievers.in 13december 2015

PSU

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has addedone more coal-based power plant to the grid by suc-cessfully commissioning a 500 MW thermal generatingunit in West Bengal. The 500 MW (Unit 3) was com-missioned at the upcoming Sagardighi Thermal PowerExtension Project of West Bengal Power DevelopmentCorporation (WBPDCL), located at Sagardighi in Mur-shidabad district of West Bengal.

e Alumina Refinery of National AluminiumCompany Limited (NALCO) has bagged the prestigious Business Excellence Star RecognitionAward. Appreciating the concerted efforts of the team of Alumina Refinery, T.K. Chand,CMD of the company, conveyed his congratula-tions to employees.

Appreciating the contribution ofevery member of the NTPC familyon the occasion of 40th RaisingDay of the company, A.K. Jha,CMD, NTPC said that perform-

ance of each player matters for suc-cess of any team. e celebrationwas graced by U.P. Pani, Dir (HR),K. Biswal, Dir (Finance) and K.K.Sharma, Dir (Operations).

Along with National Payments Corporationof India (NPCI), HDFC has last monthlaunched and put in place a new system thatwill be able to track fraudulent use of yourcredit or debit cards and cancel the transac-tion if needed. e application, called Zu-migo Assure, helps in identifying the

location of the HDFCBank credit or debitcard at the time of thetransaction. e sys-tem, designed by Sili-con Valley-basedZumigo, traces where

the card is being used and the location of thecard holder’s mobile phone. e systemsends an alert to the bank, which can cancelthe transaction if it feels something is wrong– for instance if the distance between thephone and transaction point is very large.

HDFC BANK, NPCI LAUNCH SYSTEM

TO TRACE CARD FRAUDS

Dr. M. Ravi Kanth, CMD, HUDCO presented the dividend cheque of INR 69.20 crore for the financial year2014-15 to M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation andParliamentary Affairs, in the presence of Dr. NanditaChatterjee, Secretary (HUPA), Madhusudan Prasad, Sec-retary (UD) and the Government Directors on HUDCOBoard, R.R. Mishra and Jhanja Tripathy. HUDCO hasdeclared a total dividend of INR. 120.50 crore.

HUDCO PAYS DIVIDEND OF INR 120 CRORE

A

BHEL COMMISSIONS 500 MW THERMAL UNIT IN WEST BENGAL

NTPC CMD ADDRESSES NTPC 40th RAISING DAY

NALCO’S REFINERYBAGS BUSINESS EXCELLENCE

STAR AWARD

NRI AchIeveRs december 2015ÁèÌð ãñ´ àææÙ âð


Cover StoryCover Story

DR. SHASHI KANT BALIYAN

About few years ago, a British citizen of Indian origin Dr. ShashiBaliyan, came on vacation to hishometown in Haryana, India, tospend some quality Diwali timewith his parents. is holiday in-spired him to take a new turn aerhe attended a medical symposiumthere with a friend. Moved by theinsight he gained during that event,he launched an initiative that pro-vides some score plus hospitalsacross the country with the latest inmedical equipment to make cancertreatment accessible and afford-able. Not merely that, he has subse-quently migrated back to India, tospearhead and take up myriad ventures that are aimed at innovat-ing healthcare in India. NRIAchievers profiles him and his workin this feature for our readers, totake inspiration from and considerparticipating like him in the resurgent India growth story andthe phenomenon of reverse brain drain ...

INNOVATING INDIAN HEALTHCARE



DossierDossier

Phot

os: R

ajee

v Ty

agi


16 www.nriachievers.in

Cover Story

r. Shashi Baliyan is a doctorof medicine who also holdsa Master's Degree in Hos-pital Management. With aproven track record of over

12 years advising and restructuring vari-ous NHS, private sector and some blue-chip company-run hospitals andhealthcare services in the United Kingdomand elsewhere, he brings to the table awealth of experience in managing health-care systems to India's medicare sector.Aer having worked with globallyrenowned management and consultinggroups of the likes of Accenture, et al.,while in India on a holiday late 2009, hestumbled across the stark fact thatHaryana did not have even a single pieceof quality high-tech Radiotherapy equip-

ment to help treat cancer patients in anyof its hospitals.

is insight led him to attempt estimat-ing the need for specialised medical devicesacross the country. Aer some footwork, healong with friends and colleagues in hispeer group mobilised their resources tokickstart an initiative which saw the birthof ClearMedi Healthcare in January 2010,which forged JVs between Medipass SrlItaly, KOS SpA Italy. "I realized that peoplehad to travel far to access cancer treatmentin India. Even then most hospitals insmaller towns were not equipped with theright equipment to treat them. I went backto Britain and brainstormed it with a fewfriends, aer which I started shunting be-tween London and Delhi to do somethingconcrete about this," Shashi says.

Since launch of its operations in Sep-tember 2011, this company of whom Dr.Shashi is the MD has provided a range ofcore technologies for cancer treatment tohospitals across the country. “Although inpercentage terms the cancer incidence inIndia has been as much as half that inWestern countries, but there is hardly anypenetration of Oncology services insmaller towns here,” he reasons. Dr. Shashihas also had keen focus in exploring pos-sibilities from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities likeGwalior, Vadodara, Patna, Madurai,Mysore, Coimbatore, Nagpur and Meerutto name just a few. And this commercialintervention by ClearMedi has helped Pa-tients treatment cut costs by 50 percent ormore. "Among equipment we partner withHospital for full Oncology departments,

D

(R to L)Dr. Shashi KantBaliyan, Dr SeemaBaliyan, Dr ShashiBhushan Ballain, Dr. Minisha Balain with their Kids



Cover Story

Nuclear Medicine (PET CT and GammaCamera) and Radiology department. Wefocussed on cancer as its incidence in thecountry is high and there is a latent de-mand for cancer treatment. Young peopleare getting affected by it and you cannotimagine the number of queries I get," saysDr. Shashi. e equipment is maintainedby ClearMedi on contracts that run 15-20years until the machines themselves out-live their lifecycle or become obsolete, saysDr. Shashi, who lives today with his wifeand two children in Gurgaon, Haryana.

In Jamia Hamdard's Imaging Centre atDelhi, ClearMedi has installed equipmentfor MRIs, CT scans, Mammography andDigital X-Rays, while the Ashwin Hospitalin the Coimbatore city of Tamil Nadu hasbeen equipped with a Linac (linear parti-cle accelerator used for radiation therapy)."Other than accessibility to diagnosis andtreatment, our initiative has also cut costsfor patients by 50 percent or even more ascompared to any diagnostic centre. AnMRI scan costs Rs.8,000 in a diagnosticcentre, of which half goes to the doctor.We remove those frills and charge thebasic cost," he said. "In Delhi, the cost ishalf. In Hisar, the cost is one-third. e pa-tient pays the hospital directly, not to us.So, there is no discrepancy." A CT scan ina ClearMedi aided hospital costs � 1,600.Elsewhere, it ranges between � 4,000 and� 5,000. Dr. Shashi also claims not to beled by medical equipment suppliers, intowhose trap many hospitals have admit-tedly fallen into, resulting in large scaleprocurement of non-upgradeable machin-ery. "We have a clear focus—of accessibleand affordable medical care to peoplemostly in tier-II towns, and are doing ourbest towards that endeavour. "

While the scope is indeed enormous,there are still some viability pitfalls for thissector. Consider this forecast from early

last year by Grant ornton India, “… theIndian medical device and equipmentmarket is expected to grow to around US$5.8 billion by 2014 and US$ 7.8 billion by2016, growing at a CAGR of 15.5 percent”.Consider also this analysis by Qmed oflate 2013, that posits the potential in Indiafor medical devices manufacturers: “Sincea significant part of India’s populationdoes not have access to adequate publichealthcare, the potential market for inno-vative medical device manufacturers ishuge. If they can find effective ways toleverage low-cost, high-value medical de-vices, India could prove a very profitablemarket.” Fact however remains that therearen’t enough domestic manufacturerscatering to gaps in healthcare.

Despite humongous scope and esti-mates, medical entrepreneurs like Dr.Shashi Baliyan do have to tread very pru-dently in the current climate and milieuprevalent in the Indian healthcare seg-ment. “We’ve worked at making the equip-ment affordable, we buy in bulk fromother geographies. In fact, we’ve reducedcosts by a third or even halved them.” Dr.



Dossier

Shashi Baliyan adds that funding is an-other challenge. “With the joint venture,the scalability of the model is massive. Butour projects are very capital-intensive.Banks want too much collateral, and I hadto begin with my own money,” he shares.For the entrepreneur in him, it’s all aboutpersistence in the face of great odds. Butfor now, let us just listen in to him in hisown words his journey, and what else hehas in store for us for the present and inthe future ...

“My whole journey began in 2009,when I had come home to spend Diwaliwith my parents in Haryana. While thereI had met up with my friend, a cancer spe-cialist. At that time Haryana state (outside

NCR) did not have a single Linear accel-erator facility for treating cancer in thewhole state. I was aghast. at set athought going in my mind that became anobsession. Upon my return to London, Iultimately decided to return to India to dowork toward bettering healthcare in ourcountry. Decision made, I began doingfootwork on identifying real-world gapsthat need to be plugged. Recognising thatthe task will be a huge if not insurmount-able one, I wanted to limit parameters sothat we could at least make a difference onone aspect to start with. us began myshuttling between London and Delhi formy research, which took me the betterpart of about six months or so. Once I had

a Plan A and Plan B outlined in my mind,I reached out to my peer-group, all seniorprofessionals based out of UK, US,Switzerland etc., and got them on-boardto create a start-up company: ClearViewHealthcare India came into being.

“It was indeed gratifying in a way withmy coming back to the very hospitalwhere I had started from. So we picked upthis one contract, and aer a short whilewe sort of realised... not that we did nothave an inkling of this so it was not like abolt out of the blue... that the whole mar-ket scenario is simply too big for us... andit would take too long to capture or to goto the interior of India without upscalingdramatically and fast. To be able to do thiseven reasonably, we first of all neededstrategic partners. So looking across theglobe seeking enterprises we could partnerwith, we zeroed in upon Medipass, a com-pany doing similar business in the UK andin Italy and roped them in.

“I permanently moved back along withmy family to India in 2012, and have so farbeen able to forge 16 cancer treatment &diagnostic centres across India that are allfully live and functional. Today we areprobably one of the fastest growing health-care companies in India. We are sited atmany Tier 2 locations like Madurai (TamilNadu), Nanded (Maharashtra), Mysore(Karnataka), Patna (Bihar), Gwalior (MP),to name a few. We are present in the NCRtoo, in Delhi & Gurgaon. In Paras hospitalGurgaon we operate their radiology de-partment. Besides lot of other firsts wealso have the distinction of putting up thefirst PET CT for the whole state of Biharin Paras HMRI hospital Patna.

Our current plans are to create at least50 more sites over the next few years. Notmerely through organic growth but also viainorganic means. is is the Clearmedistory so far. Apropos, as a family we are


20

Cover Story

now branching off into more related serv-ice areas for healthcare as well. Let me tellyou about this other eureka moment I hadwhile on the job at some of our partnersites... an insight that sparked another trainof thought about providing hospitals aservice that is as much direly needed as ourcancer-care initiative. We have called it“Shubhram.” Shubhram is being managedby my elder brother Dr Shashi BhushanBalain who has moved back from UKalong with his neonatologist wife Dr Mu-nisha. Dr Seema Baliyan my wife who is aqualified GP from UK is one of the direc-tors in Shubhram along with my brother.So now it is the whole family who is work-ing round the clock to make it a success.

Being both a Doctor and Hospital Man-ager, I was able to identify some key areaswith scope for innovation in Indian hos-pitals. Linen is something we all take forgranted, it is a low key item in our country,and consequently is also low priority formost hospitals. But in my view it is a veryvery critical area, as it is mostly the majorbane that is the source of hospital acquiredinfections. So we have launchedShubhram, designed to provide one of themost state-of-the-art laundry and Linenmanagement solutions for Indian hospi-tals. e need is very much there—as theonly facilities available are mostly in-house ones.

“Hospital acquired infections are amajor source of morbidity and mortalityin our hospitals. Infections are oen trans-ferred via used items of clothing, linen andthe environments in which they are laun-dered or stored. erefore effective laun-dry management is vital to preventcross-infection between patients and toprotect para-staff that transport and han-dle used linen. Good hygiene and cleanli-ness is a basic prerequisite for well-being,and this becomes all the more important

in a hospital setting. Patients expect aclean and hygienic experience in a safe en-vironment of care when they visit a hospi-tal, for which a high level of compliancewith policies of cleaning, disinfection, andsterilization is needed.

“Our experience and audits showed thatwhile in general these policies are rigor-ously followed for medical equipment andenvironmental surfaces, the same stan-

dards are either overlooked or are incon-sistently followed for laundry and linenservices. ough a few off-site laundryservices do exist, they are largely eithersmall sector or unorganised sector, thekind of quality they provide being far fromgood. One probable reason is that sociallythis work is considered 'dirty.' Aer lot ofresearch across India we found out that nohospital was happy with laundry serviceswhether in-house or outsourced. Ergo, Ismelled another opportunity and startedhunting for an appropriate strategic part-nership. We found another Italian com-pany, Servizi Italia, a large player andspecialist in the field, serving Europeanand Latin America economies and tied upwith them. Outsourcing is cost effective,and completely disinfected linen can beprovided to hospital users. Given the factthat high levels of dependence on antibi-otics in our country have given birth to socalled 'super-bugs' here, it is all the moreimportant that hospitals pay heed to their

“SINCE A SIGNIFICANT PARTOF INDIA’S POPULATION DOES

NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ADE-QUATE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE,

THE POTENTIAL MARKET FORINNOVATIVE MEDICAL DEVICEMANUFACTURERS IS HUGE. IF

THEY CAN FIND EFFECTIVEWAYS TO LEVERAGE LOW-

COST, HIGH-VALUE MEDICALDEVICES, INDIA COULD PROVEA VERY PROFITABLE MARKET.”


21december 2015

Dossier

laundry and linen cycles to combat hospi-tal required infections.

“Indeed there are really no standardsextant in our country for hospital linen, sowe took it upon ourselves to adopt world-wide best-practices to follow Risk AnalysisBio-contamination norms (RABC)norms, to set up our first one-of-its-kindstate-of-the-art facility in Delhi NCR, atSonepat. For us, cleanliness is more thanjust what meets the eye, so our expertiseand processes ensure that linen not onlyappears clean and smells hygienic, but isalso thoroughly disinfected. Our Sonepatplant maintains a clean, infection freecycle from the time dirty linen is taken offhospital beds till it returns as fully disin-fected linen. Our plant has capacity toprocess 60 tonnes of linen everyday.

“To put that into proper scale and per-spective, a leading public hospital in Delhiwith a bed capacity of around 2500 washessome 4 tonnes of linen every day. SoShubhram Sonepat can process linen for

say, for more than 30,000 beds every day. .On costs, again taking the leading publichospital as an example, we will be able tosave them a ballpark � 3 Crore every year ifwe process their linen and what's more, con-sider the enormous space this would release,they could easily put up lot more beds inthat freed up space. Another point on howwe operate—we generally buy and stock 6times the linen inventory of any hospital weserve so that they for one need not invest inlinen at all as they perforce have to do now.And our inventory is managed in such away that smooth flow to-and-fro of thelinen to the hospital is facilitated.

“A case in point is another trust Hospi-tal, whom we serve. In one stroke by tak-ing their laundry out, they now haveaccess to all the water needed for their newbuildings, and permissions will now beeasier. ey will also now be able to utilizeall that freed-up space as well to maybehave a cancer centre and a centralisedpharmacy, and put in a few score beds aswell. is will mean fund inflow ratherthan the fund outgo the laundry implied.So we have taken out that function andput it elsewhere at practically no cost tothem & freed up their space as well. Apartfrom all these cost and space saving ad-vantages, there is of course the entire pol-lution angle that is done away with,making the place a lot more clean-healthy.We have great expectations that this ven-ture will do well, and so far responses arevery encouraging indeed.

So much about my doings, now let metell you something about myself and mybackground.

“As far as medicine as a career was con-cerned, that was already cut-out for me,probably before I was born... my dad hadmade up his mind that I ought to becomea doctor. ough I did complete my med-icine from PGIMS (formerly Govt. Med-

ical College) Rohtak, a premier Institute ofIndia providing excellent medical educa-tion and patient care services, I did notpractice medicine very long. Because nosooner had I entered medical college, myinclinations veered to entrepreneurshiprather than doing surgeries. My father wasnot too happy about it. I started lookingfor options. When I was in my 2nd year Imade up my mind to get into hospitalmanagement, a very new field in India. SoI did manage to go abroad in 2000 oncompleting MBBS, and did my hospitalmanagement course from Nuffield Insti-tute of Health Sciences in Leeds, UK. Ithen worked with the NHS for few years,before founding my own consulting com-pany. I was reasonably successful, andmade reasonable amounts of money thatformed the corpus of what I had all alongwished to actually come back and investinto India. And even when I startedClearMedi it was not as if I had oodles ofmoney, but it was like you take a step andthen things just start falling into place andthat’s how it is even now.

“e vision is that you have to bringtrue world class services in India ... so itwas my thinking we should rather make itsomething big and so, we did it that way.at’s why I created the JVs. at’s why weare now planning to create structures notmerely in Delhi NCR but in four differentparts of India. Looking at Bombay Pune Expressway, Bangalore, Chennai,Hyderabad and Kolkata. ere is so muchto do, as almost this entire country of oursis lacking in world class healthcare sup-port services. We do not have anythingcomparable now.

Chakravarthi Suchindran

e writer is an technocrat who dabblesin journalism print & broadcast photogra-

phy & creative visual arts.

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Medi-Tourism



S o what's the profile of people trav-elling abroad for medical needs?Let's take a look at the customer

base that will fuel growth for “medicaltourism” into India before we move on tosee what's on the ground in terms of infra-structure, or advantages India offers to“medical tourists”.

Traditionally, people have travelledfrom less-developed countries to medicalcentres in developed nations for treatmentthat was not available in their own coun-tries. In contrast to this, current trendsshow people travelling from developedcountries to so-called “third-world” na-tions for medical treatment due to costconsiderations, though the traditional pat-tern still continues. Another reason formedical travel to foreign shores is becausesome treatments are illegal in home coun-tries, like fertility procedures. Some travelabroad to access surgeries or other treat-ments – dental tourism, fertility tourism,etc., also fall in this category. Patients with

genetic disorders travel to another countrywhere treatment of such conditions is bet-ter understood.

Main factors leading to increasing pop-ularity of medical travel are the highcost of healthcare in home coun-tries, long wait times for certainprocedures, ease and afford-ability of inter-national travel,and improve-ments in botht e c h n o l o g yand stan-dards of carein many coun-tries. Avoiding wait-ing time is a key factor for medical tourismfrom the UK, whereas in the US the mainreason is cheaper prices abroad. Many sur-gical procedures performed at MVT(medical value travel) destinations cost afraction of the price they do in other coun-tries. For example, a liver transplant costs

Healthcareormedicaltourism,oneofIndia’sfastestgrowingsectors,isbyconservativeestimatesaUS$2billionindustrythatcontinuestoshowimmensepromiseasasunriseindustry.Evenashealthcarecostscontinuetoskyrocketinthedevelopedworld—withtheUnitedStatesleadingthepack—moreandmorewesternersarefindingthattravellingabroadformedicaltreatmentisanincreasinglyappealingproposition.eConfederationofIndianindustry(CII)estimatedin2005that150,000suchpeoplecametoIndiaformeetingtheirhealthcareneeds,baseduponfeedbackfromitsmember-hospitals.AnotherapexIndiantradebody,theAssociatedCham-bersofCommerce&Industry(ASSOCHAM),putsthefiguresfor2011at850,000medicaltourists,whilepro-jectingthesenumberstorisetoatleast3,200,000by2015.Oureditorialteamtakesanunder-the-surfacelookatthisburgeoningsectorinthisissueofNRIAchievers...

MEDICARE ACROSSBORDERS—MEDICAL TOURISM

DESTINATION INDIA

Medi-Tourism

US$ 300,000 in the USA, but a mere US$91,000 in Taiwan. Convenience and speedare other USPs that are big draws forMVT. Additionally, patients in many firstworld countries are finding that their in-surance either does not cover orthopaedicsurgeries like knee or hip replacements, orlimit choices of facility, surgeon and pros-thetics. Some travel for assisted pregnancyas in in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy orfreezing embryos for retro-production.

Popular MVT destinations today areCosta Rica, Ecuador, India, Israel, Malaysia,Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan,ailand, Turkey, and of course the USA.For cosmetic surgery, countries like Ar-gentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, CostaRica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Turkey, ai-land and the Ukraine are big draws. Inthese countries health tourism providershave evolved as intermediaries uniting potential medical tourists with providerhospitals. Companies focussing on MVT typically provide nurse case-man-agers to assist patients with pre- and post-

travel medical issues. ey may alsohelp provide resources for fol-

low-up care upon the pa-tient's return.

Circumvention tourism is another areaof that has experienced growth. is istravel undertaken to access medical serv-ices that are legal in the destination coun-try but illegal in the home country, likefertility treatments not yet approved in thehome country, abortion, and even assistedeuthanasia. Abortion tourism is largely tobe found in Europe where travel betweencountries is simple. Ireland and Poland,two countries with very restrictive abor-tion laws, have the highest rates of circum-vention tourism. In Poland, it is estimatedthat nearly 7,000 women travel annuallyto UK where abortion services are freethrough the NHS. ere are also effortsmade by independent doctors and organ-izations like 'Women on Waves' to helpwomen circumvent draconian laws to ac-cess medical services. Women on Wavesuses mobile clinics aboard ships to provideabortions in international waters, wherethe law of the country whose flag is flownis the one which applies.

It must however be noted that the qual-ity of post-operative care varies dramati-cally depending on hospital and country.Travelling long distances soon aer sur-gery can increase the risk of complica-tions, and if they do surface, the patientmay need to stay in the host country for

longer than planned, or if they have re-turned home may not have easy

access to follow-up care.Long flights and de-

creased mobility carrydangers of develop-ing deep vein throm-bosis and potentiallypulmonary em-

bolisms. Also, healthfacilities treating med-

ical tourists may lack anadequate complaints policy to

deal appropriately and fairly with com-

plaints. But differences in healthcareprovider standards around the world havebeen recognized by the World Health Or-ganization, which in 2004 launched the'World Alliance for Patient Safety'. isbody assists hospitals and governmentaround the world in setting patient safetypolicies and practices that can becomeparticularly relevant when providing med-ical tourism services.

Why should medical tourists chooseIndia for their Medicare needs? Apartfrom cost, it is the availability of latestmedical technologies, a growing compli-ance on international quality standards,and no language barriers. Compelling rea-sons indeed. e Government of India toohas taken several proactive steps to ad-dress infrastructure issues in its Medicaresector, while simultaneously relaxing visanorms to promote inflow of paying cus-tomers for Indian healthcare.

Removal of restrictions on tourist visasto Arab Gulf nationals that earlier re-quired a two-month gap between consec-utive visits has been done away with, notto mention the launch of a new 'e-visa onarrival' regime for tourists from 113 listedcountries. Both steps are very likely to givea boost to medical tourism in the country.

With general tourism also on the rise, itis estimated that the volume of medicaltourists worldwide could reach up to 5million by 2016, attracting a lot more vis-itors into India. Healthcare tourism hasgrown fast in India thanks to a maturegrowing insurance market, strong phar-maceutical industry, cheap internationaltravel, and quality health care. Citizensfrom the US, UK, and Canada in additionto visitors from neighbours likeBangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China form abulk of the clientèle for the sector. emost popular treatments sought by med-ical tourists in India are alternative medi-





cine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac by-pass, eye surgery and hip replacement.

is MVT segment of the Indianhealthcare market also includes many sec-ondary players from the tourism industrywho benefit from visitors to India. It is es-timated that the growth of health-relatedservices will be more than 5 percent forthe next 10 years, and that should furtherattract more such visitors. Major corporateentities like the TATAs, Fortis, Max,Wockhardt, and Apollo Hospitals have allmade significant investments in setting upmodern hospitals and tourism-relatedservices to cater to this new breed of visi-tors from abroad.

Clearly there are sumptuous monetarysavings and other psycho-social advan-tages for foreigners choosing English-speaking India for their medicalprocedures. A heart bypass procedurewhich costs upwards of US$ 140,000sans insurance in the US, costs a mereUS$ 7,000 (INR 3 lakh) at any of India’sleading hospitals – one twentieth of theUS cost. Procedures like hip and kneejoint replacements, face lifts, tummy-tucks and bariatric (gastric-bypass) sur-geries are all far more affordable in India,with travel and accommodation costs in-cluded to boot.

India also has many top-notch centresfor open-heart and paediatric heart sur-geries equipped with latest in meditech,on par with anything the West has onoffer. Moreover, India is acutely aware ofthe quality perceptions of its visitors –many Indian hospitals meet all US healthstandards requirements like FDA andJCAH norms. Apart from all this, Indiais also home to several alternative indige-nous medical systems like Ayurveda, Sid-dha and Unani, institutionalised underIndia's Ayush Ministry; while infrastruc-ture for the practice of Yoga, Acupunc-

ture and Homeopathy, which too arepopular among foreigners, are abundant.Such a plethora of treatment opportuni-ties gives India a decisive edge over com-peting countries.

India Inc. too has not been tardy in rais-ing the bar when it comes to the deliveryof quality secondary and tertiary Medicareservices. ey have through their presencein the sector over the past few decadesdriven home the point that lower treat-ment costs do not necessarily mean lowerhealthcare standards. While in 2005 therewere but 2, today there are at least 21 JCIaccredited hospitals in India, and theirnumbers are growing. It is however im-portant for a patient travelling to India tozero-in on the most optimal Doctor-Hos-pital combination, where aer the patienthas been treated, he/she also has the op-tion of either recuperating in the hospitalitself or at a hospice type paid accommo-dation nearby. Many Indian hospitals alsooffer the option of continuing the treat-ment through telemedicine systems today.

Driven by a surging economy, a surplusof well-trained healthcare practitioners, lowinfrastructure costs and a proven nationalpenchant for international outsourcing ofcustomer service, India seems to have suc-cessfully harnessed itself to play the role ofthe world’s value leader for the internationalcost-conscious medical traveller. And thosepatients unafraid of facing India’s culturalchallenges are realising savings of up to 85%on high-acuity procedures such as heart andjoint work. Serving many hundreds of thou-sands of international patients annually, ourvast subcontinent welcomes internationalmedical travellers to its several large me-tropolises like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyder-abad, Mumbai and Delhi NCR.

Unlike many of our Asian counterpartsand competitors, who traditionally havebeen encouraging MVT by aggressively

recruiting top-of-the-line physicians fromother countries, India produces some ofthe world’s finest physicians and surgeonsin-house, with excellent in-country teach-ing hospitals and research centres. It is aknown and recorded fact that tens ofthousands of Indian doctors work in hos-pitals outside their homeland. Take the US– at last count some 35,000 Indian special-ists practice in the USA – and more thanone in every six US surgeons are Indian orof Indian descent! And in the UK's worldacclaimed NHS for instance, at least 35-40% of health professionals are of Indianorigin, not to mention private practition-ers and those serving in the top hospitalsand medical colleges.

India has a two-tier health delivery sys-tem. Large swathes of rural and non-urbanIndia still ails from the malaise of wide-spread poverty. So the Indian publichealthcare system offers medical care tothe poor at little or no cost, and few inIndia can afford the “big surgeries” andelective treatments that attract foreignershere. But large, private hospitals run byIndia's corporate sector are ploughing inprofits from their international businessesinto improved healthcare services for theindigent. So with both government andcorporate investment solidly behind itshealthcare system, more international hos-pitals and super-speciality centres aremushrooming every year. Heart care espe-cially has become an Indian-super-special-ity, with centres such as Fortis Wockhardtin Mumbai and Apollo in New Delhi andChennai leading the way. Success and mor-bidity rates are on par with those found inthe US and Europe, with major surgeriesat up to 15 percent of the cost. So whatmore do you need? Make your medicaltravel plans to India now...

NRI Achievers Bureau

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Medi-Tourism


25december 2015

You say you are committed to provide good medical facilities toDelhites, How?

Yes, I am very serious about it and forthis purpose I have studied the healthproviding system of USA, Canada andCuba. Since our Government has comeinto power in Delhi. I have kept in mymind, the famous quote of Dr. APJ AbdulKalam that “Dream is not that which yousee while sleeping it is something thatdoes not let you sleep.”I am relentlesslyworking to achieve it. We plan to changethe existing system. We plan to havethree tier system for patients e.g. PrimaryHealth Centre, Normal Hospital and su-perspeciality Hospitals. This will result inremoving the unnecessary work loss ofspecialists and they can provide qualita-tive treatment to other patients. FurtherI plan to provide additional facilities like blood bank etc. in hospitals so that patients do not run from

pillar to post in case of emer-gency. Recently a blood

bank has been set upat Bhagwan Ma-havir Hospital,Pitampura becauseof sincere efforts of

blood bank officerand active co-oper-ation of hospital ad-

ministration.

Recently you have launched “AAMAADMI MOHALLA CLINICS”. Is itnot another name for existing PrimaryHealth Centers and you want to getcredit for it?

Not so. We are committed for welfare ofpublic only. By means of Mohalla Clinics,we want to take health services to everydoor step. ese will be located in themidst of Mohalla and they will hardlyneed to travel large distances which willsave the time and money. Further each ofMohalla Clinics shall have one Doctor,Nurse, Laboratory services and Pharma-cist. Patients can get investigations done &get reports as well. We have planned tosetup 1,000 Mohalla Clinics by 2016.

You have around 200 old clinics, what is your plan for their proper utilization?

Yes, we will surely update and modernize these and convert them toPolyclinics. In each of these we shall apoint 4 to 5 specialists.

Some private hospitals have obtainedland from Government at concessionalrates but they deny treatment to the poor patients and earn money.What action you propose to takeagainst them?

We have identified 43 such hospitals.Delhi Government has asked five top pri-vate hospitals to explain before a com-

mittee appointed by Delhi High Court asto why action should not be taken fordenying treatment to poor patients. Sothat the money received out of thesepenalties may be used for upgrading theexisting facilities.

You have big plans to modernize & pro-vide additional services to Delhites,where from funds shall come?

We have increased budget for HealthCare to 1.5 times compare to last year.Furthermore our aim is a clean Govern-ment and we, therefore, can achieve moreservices at comparably lesser cost. FurtherI am myself an architect by profession andI take personal interest in economical de-signs of Hospitals / Clinics to save money.It is my dream to provide better medicalfacilities to Delhites and hence I am com-mitted towards this.

Finally what is your message for Del-hites, Doctors, and Paramedical staffand especially for paramedical staffand doctors working on contract?

To Delhites, I will say bear with us. Weare committed to provide much im-proved medical facilities, which you willsee in due course. Doctors & Paramedicalstaff should dedicate themselves to serv-ice of patients. Contractual Doctors andStaff should not worry as we are commit-ted to their continuance and they shouldalso dedicate themselves to the best of thepatients care.

Chander Mohan Arora

e author is a well known retired tech-nocrat who writes as a part time hobby.

A

“WE WILL PROVIDE BEST MEDICAL FACILITIES TO DELHITES”SatyendraKumarJain,HealthMinisterinDelhiGovernment,seemstobecommittedtowardsprovidingbetterhealthservicestoDelhiwalas.Rightfromthecomplexproblems,existingfacilities&futureplans,ourcorrespondenthadachatwithhimrecently.Herearetheexcerpts…

Health-Wellness



The main constraint against wide-spread use of this method in devel-oping countries like ours was the

cost of commercially available SILS ports.en came the technique of using multipleports through a single incision, which re-duced the cost. But this technique has hadits limitations and in our endeavor to passon the benefits of SILS at a much lowercost, we have started using indigenouslymade glove port. e technique of gloveport was developed by Dr. Elbert Khiangtefrom Guwahati and we use it to perform awide variety of laparoscopic surgeries at thesame cost using conventional laparoscopicinstruments.

OUR EXPERIENCEOver a period of 6 years from January

2010 to date, we have done more than 300cases by SILS. Although variables such asobesity, previous abdominal surgeries, an-ticipation of adhesions, and doubtful ma-lignancy do not preclude the performanceof SILS, only simple cases were selected. AsSILS is ergonomically challenging andtechnically demanding, optimal patientcandidacy has to be established. Even if thepatients demand SILS, it is only done ifhe/she fits into our selection criteria.Proper informed consent is taken for SILSand also for possible conversion to tradi-tional multi-port surgery, if required.

Glove port—this is the most cost effec-tive technique. Easily available materialslike surgical glove and flexible rings areused to fabri-cate this port. It provides upto 4 working channels through which one10mm and three 5 mm cannulas can be in-serted. ere is easy manoeuverability ofworking ports and no gas leakage. Speci-men retrieval is easy without contaminat-

ing the wound. A wide variety of laparo-scopic surgeries have been done in last 5years by single incision—from cholecystec-tomy, appendectomy, varicocelectomy andvarious other Gynecological and urologicalsurgeries.

DISCUSSION:SILS is still in its developing phase and

offers a number of challenges along the sur-gical learning curve, comparable to thetransition from open surgery to conven-tional laparoscopic surgery. e limitationsin performing SILS are due to loss of trian-gulation (the chop-stick effect) making in-strument manoeuvrability difficult andextra corporeal clashing of instruments(the sword fighting effect), which requiresinvestment of time, patience and a teambased approach. Learning this ergonomi-cally challenging technique may be lesstechnically demanding if starting out withsimple cases, use of low profile trocars andtelescopes with coaxial cables.

Despite gaining experience with severalSILS procedures, this approach remainsmore technically challenging compared toconven-tional laproscopy. Although wehave successfully performed various SILSprocedures with no complication and lowconversion rate, it is far from being a rou-tine standard of care. Prospective studiescomparing outcomes of SILS with conven-tional laparoscopy will be needed to deter-mine the future direction of this novelsurgical approach.

Dr. Manish Kulshrestha

e author is Senior Consultant andUnit Head of General & Laparoscopic sur-

gery at the Fortis Hospital, located at ABlock, Shalimar Bagh of Delhi.

Over the last one decade or sowe have witnessed a changefrom open surgery to multi-port minimal access surgery(MAS) which has become thegold standard for most opera-tions across surgical special-ties. SILS is a newly introducedvariant of MAS, aiming to reduce the number of incisionsand hence reduce postoperative pain, hasten recoverywith almost no visible surgicalscar. SILS has been performedanecdotally for decades in gynecology for tubal ligation.However it was not until 2008that surgical procedures wereroutinely being done. Sincethen, with substantial ad-vances in port technology andrelated optics and instrumen-tation, almost all laparoscopicsurgery can be done by SILS.

SINGLE INCISION LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY (SILS)

THE COST EFFECTIVE WAY

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F or people who want to look youngerthan their age, so far the only optionavailable were surgical interven-

tions and cosmetic surgery for facelisthat usually required a long healing pe-riod. And it is oen that many people lit-erally shrink away from the idea of goingthrough a surgery involving scalpels andcuts. us, those who are contemplating afaceli but want to avoid going under theplastic surgeon's scalpel may today con-sider a new breakthrough technique inskin anti-ageing called Ultherapy.

Ultherapy is a micro-focused ultrasoundtreatment for skin tightening. It is a 60-90minutes treatment that uses your body’sown regenerative response to gently andgradually restore memory to the skin andunderlying tissues. Skin is one of the mostdelicate parts of the body which requiresproper care as negligence can make the skinage at an earlier date and faster rates. Skincare requires both external and internalcare; facial massages can tighten skin mus-cles, improve blood circulation and cleardead cells, thereby maintaining a beautiful,glowing and younger looking skin. How-ever aer reaching a certain age the skin willanyhow begin to show signs of ageing andtherefore will require some extra efforts tokeep the skin looking younger for a longerperiod. Ultherapy uses ultrasound to workdeep within skin layers and eventually tight-ens it thus improving skin texture and tone.Aptly called the ‘lunchtime li’, Ultherapyprovides an immediate smoothing effect byslowing down the ageing process and bycreating new structural collagen.

e therapy is USFDA approved forskin tightening of the face and neck. Yousee improvement initially and the treat-ments continue for 6 months. Unlikelasers, which penetrate the skin from theoutside-in, Ultherapy bypasses the surfaceof the skin, specifically targeting the deep,

structural skin tissues where collagenlives. Ultherapy is thus different fromother non-surgical treatments in that it fo-cuses on pushing ultrasound pulse energyinto the tissue, working from the inside-out delivering thermal energy. is ther-mal energy revs up collagen producingengines within the tissues, resulting in theproduction of new collagen and markedlyimproving the elasticity of the skin. e ef-fect lasts for up to 2.5 years, aer whichyou may need a go through the treatmentagain since you are 2.5 years older.

Ideal candidates for this procedure willbe people between 35 and 60 of age, withearly signs of laxity. ese patients see re-

sults within three to six months with a sin-gle treatment. Patients over the age of 60may require a second treatment in sixmonths. Many patients looking to staycompetitive in the workforce, which theybelieve is tied to their appearance are primecandidates as well. Whether improvingtheir appearance to look more vibrant orfor the associated confidence boost, peopleperceive this to be important and theycome into the clinics looking for help.

Dr. Shahin Nooreyezdan

e author is Senior Consultant at theCosmetic Clinic at the Indraprastha

Apollo Hospital Delhi.

TAKING YEARS OFF YOUR FACEWITH NO-KNIFE THERAPYPeople age with time and the effects are most noticeable and manifestedon facial skin. e face sags and wrinkles appear due to gravity and thedestructive erosion due to sunlight. We can call all this simply 'ageing.'If we still want to look youthful despite ageing, we must be prepared totake some effective measures so that we can sport a younger looking skinfor a longer time. Various therapies and techniques are used for makingskin look and feel young, and have anti-ageing properties. Dr ShahinNooreyezdan of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals Delhi tells you more inthis brief article.

A


www.nriachievers.in 27

Health-Wellness

december 2015



Indiaspora

T his is the story of Manoj Bhargava,CEO of “5-hour ENERGY®.” Aged60, he today lives at Farmington

Hills in Michigan State, USA. His networth is in the region of US$ 4 Billion,which makes him one of the wealthiest In-dians in America. His activities as a suc-cessful serial entrepreneur are the mainsource of his wealth. In September 2012,

Bhargava joined 'e Giving Pledge,' offer-ing 99% of his wealth to charity, with anemphasis on a common sense approach tophilanthropy. Instead of simply givingmoney, Bhargava believes that personal in-volvement is necessary. His philanthropicfocus is on medical research and povertyalleviation in India.

Born in Lucknow in 1953, Bhargava re-

located to USA in 1967 when his father de-cided to pursue a PhD at Wharton. efamily, which was quite well off in India,had a tough time in the US and Bhargavastarted doing odd jobs and businesses dur-ing his teens, working at a variety of jobs—construction labourer, cleaning contractor,accounting clerk, printing press operatorand business manager. He excelled in

Big ticket philanthropy is a trend that is experiencing a manifold expansion in the emerging markets of Asia, andIndia is no exception to this trend, as both home-grown as well as Diaspora business barons and tycoons get onthe act to improve lives. e rapid economic transformation underway in these developing economies has spawnedsignificant wealth creation and the emergence of a vibrant philanthropy sector. In this piece, we of the NRI Achiev-ers team bring to you the tale of one such creative philanthropist who is applying his ingenuity and capital to makea difference to infrastructure-poor Indians in the rapidly changing Indian society ...

THE TALE OFMANOJ BHARGAVA

MONK, HARD-NOSED BUSINESSMAN, SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR, PHILANTHROPIST

mathematics and joined Princeton aerfinishing school, only to quit aer hisfreshman year when he decided to followhis 'own way' of education. 1974 he choseto move back to India, spending most ofhis next 12 years as a monk in monasteriesof Hanslok Ashram, where he spent mostof his 20s. It was more like a commune, hesays, but without the drugs. He did hisshare of chores, helped run a printingpress and worked construction jobs for theashram. According to him, he spent those12 years trying to master one technique—the stilling of the mind, oen throughmeditation. Bhargava would return to theUS periodically during his ashram years,working odd jobs before returning toIndia. For a few months he even drove ayellow cab in NYC!

Returning to the United States perma-nently in the early 1990s, he took over hisfamily’s plastics company, Prime PVC Inc.,which he grew to US$ 20 million in salesand then sold out in 2007. During thistime, he launched a business career whilestill in his thirties and has since built sev-eral successful companies, most notably'Living Essentials', maker of dietary sup-plement “5-hour ENERGY®,” which ineight years shot to US$ 1 billion in retailsales. Bhargava's stake in Living Essentialstoday is valued at over US$ 3 billion. Hisother myriad businesses include SenterraWater (desalination and water purifica-tion), ETC Capital and Oakland Energy &Water Ventures (investment companies),Stage 2 Innovations (additives for fuel effi-ciency), Micro Dose Life Sciences (med-ical devices), and US Rail (railroad andfreight terminal operations).

Bhargava's charity ventures include theKnowledge Medical Charitable Trust andthe Rural India Supporting Trust. esecharities have funded medical research inthe United States and over 400 charities in

India. Bhargava has already committedUS$ 1 billion to both these personal foun-dations of his. Much of Bhargava’s givingsupports hospitals for the poor and edu-cation for disadvantaged women in ruralareas. In the past five years, the Rural IndiaTrust has contributed INR 300 Crore (ap-prox US$ 48.1 million). In November2014, Bhargava committed another INR500 Crore (approx US$ 80.2 million) todevelop villages in Uttarakhand, India.

Bhargava has built a stationary bike topower millions of homes worldwide thathave little or zero electricity. His plan is todistribute 10,000 of these free electric-bat-tery-equipped bikes in India, which hesays will keep lights and basic appliancesgoing for an entire day with approximatelyjust one hour of pedalling. “e first 50bikes will be tested in 15 or 20 small vil-lages in Uttarakhand before a major roll-out in the first quarter of 2016. He saysthey'll be made in India but doesn't givedetails,” reported Wendy Koch in the Na-tional Geographic recently.

And that is not the only thing that hewants to do. e low-profile billionaire has

a hi-tech lab in Michigan where he lives.Among the projects it's working on are adevice that functions as an auxiliary heartby squeezing blood from the legs into thetorso and a device that will convert 1,000gallons an hour, of any kind of water, intopotable water. Bhargava's got a granderplan to solve the crisis of pollution and fos-sil fuels. His answer is to use geothermalenergy—the heat from deep beneath theearth's surface. But the way he proposes todo so is different from the ways geothermalenergy is currently tapped in places likeIceland or Indonesia or Russia. “Ratherthan using steam—mixed with chemi-cals—to bring the heat to the surface, hewould instead pull it up with a graphemecord. He notes grapheme, stronger thansteel, is an incredible conductor of heat,”writes Koch of national Geographic. “Youdon't need to burn anything ... once youbring [the heat] up, you don't change anyof the infrastructure,” explaining that util-ities could simply distribute it instead ofcoal, oil, or natural gas.

NRI Achievers Bureau



Dossier

A

Open Letter



Dear Sir,I am Radjkoemarie Sheorajpanday born

8th December 1957 in Suriname and atpresent living in the Netherlands duringthe past 41 years. For the past 7 years Ihave been searching for the village wheremy grandfather was born and the placewhere he has studied for Pundit. Aerdoing all the research in Kanpur,Hoshangabad, Gadarwara, Haridwar re-cently, my last aim is his “Kasi” accordingto my Nana ji had spoken.

My real motive is to search my grand-father’s (Nana ji ) from my mother’s sidevillage and relatives in India. It is mymother who is still alive and 74 years old,daughter of my Nana ji wish, to seewhere her father (bappa) was born, sothat she can come and visit the place. Sheis the youngest of the nine children hehad and one who is still alive. We don’thave any clue about his family in Indiasince he was recruited in 1908 by theBritish Empire from Varanasi “Kasi” astold to his children and deported in 1909from Calcutta to Suriname as laborer forworking in the sugar field.

My Nana’s name was Sheoraj son of De-bipersad Panday, born in Kanpur (UP) in

the year 1884-1889. According to myNana’s story he was doing a study for Pundit in Kasi. One day an Indian came tohim with the story that his mother wasvery ill and wanted to see him. He wentwith the person who was actually a re-cruiter. Instead of bringing him to hismother they put him in a Depot inVaranasi and kept him for months to-gether with more Indians who had thesame story as his. Aer staying months inthe Varanasi Depot set by the British, theybrought him and the others to Calcutta.

Arriving in Calcutta he was selected forSurinam as laborer (Kontraki) and againhad to stay for months in a Depot meantfor Surinam, named “Surinam Depot”.is Depot is still there in Kidderporenearby the Hooghly River where I havebeen in 2013.

On 25th March, 1909 he, with hun-dreds more Indians, boarded in the “Mutlah” and shipped for a long journeyof three months to his final destinationSurinam told and sounding as “SRIRAM”Desh. Before boarding he was registeredas: Sheoraj Singh son of Debi Singh, age20 years (Nana said he was 25 years old),caste Thakur, address District

Hosangabad, Village KHARAITI(KHIRIATI), thana Hosangabad. BecauseBrahmans were not allowed for thosekind of work the British change most ofthem their name caste and age.

It is my humble request to help mysearch in the old records before 1909 ofVaranasi, because Nana told his childrenthat he was in Kasi when he was re-cruited. When I was in Haridwar 3 weeksago (in September 2015) for the samepurpose, I have been told by a Punditjithat citizens are registered upon entry, mygrandfather’s document might be there inVaranasi too, because he was living andstudying there. He was saying any personwho entry unregistered his Purwajon,documents must be there. Unfortunatelyin Haridwar, there was nothing to find ofhim or his family.

So my only hope is Varanasi so that I can go further with my search his family in Kanpur his birthplace and Hoshangabad village KHIRIATI his last address.

I will be anxiously waiting for your reply.

Sincerely Yours,Radjkoemarie Sheorajpanday

Find My

Ancestors’

Info!



Diaspora News

Indian-Ameri-can politicianSwati Dandekarhas been nomi-nated as an Ex-ecutive Directorwith ambassa-dorial rank tothe Asian De-velopment Bankby US PresidentBarack Obama.

The first-ever Indian-American to be electedto the Iowa House of Representatives in 2003,Dandekar, 64, would replace Robert M Orr,who has held the position since 2010. Dan-dekar was the first Indian-born Americancitizen to win a state legislature seat in theUnited States. Obama announced his intentto nominate Dandekar to this top US posi-tion in the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

INDIAN-ORIGIN SWATIDANDEKAR AS ADB DIRECTOR

A 46-year-old Indian-origin com-munity campaigner in the UK has been named a “Point of Light” by BritishPrime Minister David Cameron for her “fantastic” charity work and empow-ering young people, including women. Muna Chauhan was recognised for herwork as a children's charity fundraiser and for empowering hundreds ofwomen and young people to get involved with their community as volunteers.“Muna has not only dedicated her time to raise a fantastic amount of moneyfor the causes she supports.

An Indian-American woman judge here has be-come the first recipient of a US public serviceaward in recognition of her contributions to thefield of law. Queens Senior Assistant District At-torney and newly elected Civil Court JudgeUshir Pandit-Durant was honoured with the'South Asian Public Service Award' by the Officeof Immigrant Affairs under Queens District At-torney Richard Brown.

Indian-origin South African freedom fighter AhmedKathrada has been awarded the Freedom of the City ofCape Town, becoming only the sixth such recipient inthe country's oldest city. Kathrada was a close confidanteof South Africa's first black president and global anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. Kathrada, 86, said in a

lighter vein that he wasawarded as a celebrated citizenbecause “all he had done wasserve 26 years as a politicalprisoner alongside Mandelaand others on Robben Island,which falls under the jurisdic-tion of the City, without payinany taxes.

INDIAN-ORIGIN MAN RECEIVESFREEDOM OF THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN AWARD

A Rs 55-crore wedding extravaganza got under way at Kollam'sAsramam ground as NRI magnate Ravi Pillai's daughter, DrArathi, tied the knot with Dr. Adithya Vishnu of Kochi.With a net worth of $2.8 billion (approx. Rs 1858.8 crore), Pillaiemerged the richest Keralite in a survey done by an Indian pub-lication house in June. His RP Group has a strong presence inthe Gulf in construction, infrastructure development, miningand edu cation, with over 80,000 employees across 26 companies.vate security personnel have been enlisted for the wedding.

INDIAN-ORIGIN CAMPAIGNER AWARDED FOR CHARITY WORK

INDIAN-AMERICAN JUDGE PANDIT-DURANT RECEIVES PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD

RS 55-CR WEDDING FOR NRI'S DAUGHTER IN KERALA

NRI Achievers Desk

A

1 992. International political responseto climate change gathers steam withthe Rio Earth Summit. is ‘Rio Con-

vention’ adopts the 'UN Framework onClimate Change,' sets out a paradigm foraction aimed at stabilising atmosphericgreenhouse gases to avoid “dangerous an-thropogenic interference with the climatesystem.” e UNFCC comes into force on21 March 1994, and has today a near-uni-versal membership of 195 parties. emain goal of the annual Conference of Par-ties is to review the Convention’s imple-mentation. e first COP at Berlin tookplace in 1995. Subsequently significantmeets since have included COP3—'KyotoProtocol' adopted, COP11—'Montreal Ac-tion Plan' created, and the DurbanCOP17—'Green Climate Fund' set-up. e2015 COP21—aka Paris Climate Confer-ence, for the first time in 20 years of UNnegotiations, aims to achieve a legallybinding and universal agreement with theaim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

In this conference, which has attracted50,000 participants including 25,000 dele-gates from governments, intergovernmen-tal organisations, UN bodies, NGOs andcivil society, our PM Narendra Modi seemsto have literally stolen the show—no smallfeat, considering nearly 150 sitting Presi-dents and Prime Ministers were in atten-dance, in by far the biggest gathering ofheads-of-state since 1948 in France. For

the weeks preceding this conference, andagain on its first day, PM Modi has success-fully positioned himself as the loudestvoice for the developing world—pushingthe axiom “Climate Justice.” To paraphrase,India stands firm that poor, developing

countries will not get bullied into payingthe price for the decades the US and Eu-rope have been polluting this planet.

While inaugurating the India pavilion atthe climate conference on 30th Novemberaernoon, PM Modi averred the display in-



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Even as we go to print with this issue, World leaders gather in Parisfor the COP21 climate change parleys. is conference of parties startstoday and will run till the 11th of December. It is indeed ferventlyhoped by citizens of our world that by the 11th November all nationswould come to a concrete agreement limiting emissions to preventglobal warming surpassing the 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels.Today—the first day of the summit—the Leaders Event saw Premiers,Presidents and leaders-of-state speaking their minds on ensuring oursurvival on this blue planet and what the future holds for posterity.Here is the NRI Achievers reportage from the Indian perspective...

FORGING A BLUEPRINTFOR SURVIVALPARIS COP 21, FRANCE



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tended to “look beyond climate change andfocus on climate justice.” Aer that, ad-dressing the full plenary of world leaders,he said: “e prosperous still have a strongcarbon footprint, but the world’s billions atthe bottom of the development pyramid areseeking space to grow.” Back home in India,this talk of redressing historic injusticesmakes big sense. To paraphrase an Indiandevelopment professional, “When Indianshear the maxim ‘climate justice,’ they nowcomprehend that there someone can actu-ally be held responsible for the problem...”And it is but natural Indians feel aggrievedand perceive with a keen sense of unfair-ness that they are now being asked to rollback their economic surge, while rich west-ern countries responsible for this state of af-fairs never did and are even today not doingany such thing. eir feeling of being bul-lied and unfairly treated is reinforced. De-veloping countries likewise feel that theyought not to be held responsible for pastsins of the developed world—purely be-cause it was the US and EU countries whoput more than 50% of the carbon emissionsinto the atmosphere in the first place.”

And PM Modi, in addition to wieldinga stick, had also brought some carrots toParis—he calls it the 'sunrise of hope.'Talking to a packed audience, Modi tolddelegates and the media how India wasspearheading a new International SolarAlliance to dramatically expand solar-power technology and distribution inpoorer countries. Solar power is some-thing these countries desperately need,even though many ironically are locatedin the sun-scorched tropics. “e vast ma-jority of humanity is blessed with gener-ous sunlight all year round, yet many arewithout any source of power,” Modilamented, outlining his plan for an allianceof countries—mostly African and LatinAmerican—but also including the US,

China, and France. egroup would share solartechnology and innova-tion, investing in ex-panding solar poweracross emerging mar-kets. Modi said Indiawould invest US$ 30million to create the alliance’s headquar-ters in Delhi, adding: “is day is the sun-rise of hope, not only for clean energy butfor homes still in darkness.”

at poetic flourish apart, subsumingthe leadership role of a new global solargroup is indeed one heck of a smart movefor Modi, which adds stature not merelyto his own international standing but alsopushes the Indian economy another notchup. Especially as India itself is in dire needof clean, renewable energy. About 200 mil-lion Indians, or every one in seven, livetoday sans electricity, and Modi hadpromised to tackle that nagging problemduring his election campaign early lastyear. How he fixes this problem could bequite crucial for our planet too.

India’s renewable energy sector ispoised for a big leap forward—when theNDA came to power in May last year,PM Modi had enhanced India’ solar-power generation targets from 30 Gi-gawatts to 175 Gigawatts by year 2022—adate chosen to coincide with the 150thbirthday anniversary of MahatmaGhandi. Now with this new modi-forgedsolar alliance, India can have a shot atboosting its own energy sector by devel-oping solar technology at home, ratherthan watch Chinese, European and USsolar companies carve up the market.Further, India would benefit more by ex-porting its own homegrown technologiesto other sunshine-rich countries—whatwith Modi having promised US$ 600million in aid to African countries

(where Indian companies lag far behindtheir Chinese rivals) at last month’sIndia-Africa summit.

Certainly, there are fortunes to be made.e Deutsche Bank last year had esti-mated that by 2030 solar power would ac-count for the biggest single part ofelectricity supply worldwide, and poten-tially be worth some US$ 5 trillion in rev-enues. But becoming a major solar powermight not be easy for India—despite thefact that solar power has plummeted inprice by about 70% since 2009. Already,giant-sized solar facilities are under con-struction in developing countries likeOman, whose national oil company haspartnered with California company Glass-Point to build one of the world’s biggest fa-cilities. And Morocco says its new solarfarm in the Sahara will be the world’sbiggest. So for Modi, solar power is a wayto boost business for India, increase Indi-ans’ access to power simultaneously, andcarve out for himself a major role in theworld’s energy transition. India’s environ-ment ministry in a working paper earlierlast month had described the Solar Al-liance as a way for tropical countries—largely developing nations—to “close their technological gaps by cooperatingwith each other,” and to share experiences.“ese countries need a voice on the international stage,” said the paper. On30th November, they found one: PMNarendra Modi.

NRI Achievers France Bureau

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T he OIFC Indian Diaspora BusinessMeet was held in Los Angeles,USA from November 14 to 15

during the Regional Pravasi BhartiyaDivas (RPBD) in collaboration with theConsulate General of India in San Fran-cisco and the Indian community organi-zations in USA. OIFC brought to LA abusiness delegation of 34 members led byDeep Kapuria, Chairman, Hi Tech GearsLtd., and comprising leaders from In-

fosys, TATA Consultancy Services,Wipro LLC, Fox Mandal & Co, Centre forInnovation, Incubation & Entrepreneur-ship, etc. The OIFC delegation also in-cluded Mr. Jupally Krishna Rao, Ministerfor Industry, Govt. of Telangana, Mr. IYRRao, Chief Secretary, Government ofAndhra Pradesh, and senior officialsfrom Haryana State Industrial & Infra-structure Development Corporation(HSIDC), Department of Industries,



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9TH REGIONAL PRAVASIBHARATIYA DIVAS (RPBD)

IN LOS ANGELES



Govt. of Jharkhand and Department ofNRI Affairs, Govt. of Kerala.

ere were three Panel discussions on: •Investment Opportunities in Clean & Re-newable Energy Sector in India • Technol-ogy Partnerships, Investments & Innovationthrough the Digital India Initiative • ImpactInvestments into Social Enterprises in IndiaOIFC facilitated several business meetingsbetween Overseas Indians & the membersof the official & business delegation fromIndia which are expected to pave the way foreconomic engagement of the Indian Dias-pora in the US with India. At the BusinessMeet OIFC launched the India CorporateInternship initiative which offers from sum-mer 2016, 60 paid internships at 23 top In-dian corporate to students of Indian origin.e internships are a window to the Indianwork culture, an opportunity to connect toroots and experience working in a multicul-tural environment.

e second programme that generatedinterest was the announcement of OIFC’sIndia Fellows Programme for young Dias-pora entrepreneurs at the Indian School of

Business (Hyderabad). e course, spe-cially designed by OIFC for the Indian Di-aspora, focuses on the Indian economy &doing business in India. e year-long en-gagement programme includes a special 10day residential programme in India, cu-rated networking opportunities with IndianEntrepreneurs, webinars, CEO speak webi-nars, meetings with senior govt. officials aswell as domain experts. OIFC will alsowork with partners in USA to organize vis-its to India by business delegations of over-seas Indians, under the ‘Business Connect’Initiative. Speaking on the occasion, Secre-tary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs,Government of India & Chairman, Over-seas Indian Facilitation Centre Mr. A KAgarwal, said “e Indian Government hasa keen desire to engage with the Indian Di-aspora and to invite them to participate inIndia’s economic Growth story.” He offeredthe services of the Overseas Indian Facili-tation Centre to facilitate Overseas Indians’investments from USA into India.

Mr Arun Singh, Ambassador of Indiato USA pointed out that the Indian Amer-

icans were contributing to the US econ-omy significantly and called on them toexplore opportunities to engage in the newfocus areas of the Govt of India viz DigitalIndia, Make in India, Start up India andRenewable energy. Mr Chandrajit Baner-jee, Director General, Confederation ofIndian Industry & Co-chair, OIFC notedthat the Indian Diaspora in the US hascontributed tremendously to shaping thebrand image of India in US and the storyof India is moving towards States of India.

e delegations from five States—Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand,Kerala and Haryana highlighted the in-vestment opportunities in their States andbusiness climate. e Overseas Indian Fa-cilitation Centre (OIFC) was setup as apublic private partnership between theMinistry of Overseas Indian Affairs(MOIA), Government of India and theConfederation of Indian Industries (CII)to enhance economic engagement of In-dian Diaspora with India.

NRI Achievers USA Bureaus

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I t is with in mind that the State held aspectacular event, the “Resurgent Ra-jasthan Partnership Summit 2015”, or-

ganised by the Rajasthan Government inassociation with the Confederation of In-dian Industry (CII). e two-day extrava-ganza was a big success, with 25 corporatetycoons flying in from across India andabroad to declare their willingness to gam-ble on the compelling old world environ-ment of Rajasthan being an idealinvestment destination for 21st centurybusiness projects.

e past, they say, oen holds the keyto the future. Held in a sprawling conven-tion complex on the outskirts of the famedPink City of Jaipur in the third week ofNovember, the summit proved to be notjust a mind-blowing cultural extravaganzawhere business magnates talked shop withpolitical heavyweights but also a platformfor hard commercial commitments anddone-deals. e total investments pledgedreached a staggering three lakh crore ru-pees. is was the quantum of an amal-gam of big ticket memoranda ofunderstanding (MoUs), new project an-nouncements, signed document ex-changes, serious expressions of interestand exploratory investment proposals onthe run-up to the actual Resurgent Ra-jasthan Partnership Summit.

e Resurgent Rajasthan summit beganon a balmy pre-winter ursday withChief Minister Vasundhara Raje proudlyannouncing that commitments for invest-ment in the State had surpassed the INR3,30,000 crore mark, with the potential togenerate 2.5 lakh jobs. Union FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley, chief guest at the in-augural session, put his finger on the USPof the Raje government that would mattermost too hard-headed investors. “In thepast two years”, he said with precision,“Rajasthan has already pioneered far-



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AN IDEAL INVESTMENTDESTINATIONRESURGENT RAJASTHAN PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT 2015

Rajasthan in our minds o invokes images of a vast land of kings andwarriors, palaces and forts and vast expanses of desert. It is perhaps be-fitting that the current chief minister is a former Maharani, belonging toone of the noblest royal houses of the country. Vasundhra Raje for longhas been fired up by a vision to provide a royal welcome to intrepid cap-tains of industry to come to her State to invest in big projects and hugeindustrial units. Leveraging the myths and legends of its hoary past, Ra-jasthan has now embarked on an ambitious mission to sell dreams to thecorporate world and attract huge investments not just from tourism butalso from modern industries and Greenfield projects. A report...

reaching Labour Reforms. All it needs todo going forward is to ensure Ease ofDoing Business. Global and domestic in-vestors will flock to this beautiful State”.Quick to take the advice, Vasundhra Rajepromised to accelerate the process of mak-ing the State a paradise for investors. As-serting that 2015 summit would not be aone-off event, she said: “e RajasthanModel of Development rests on the triadof ‘Effective Governance’, ‘Social Justice’and ‘Job Creation’.”

An estimated 25 of the top names of In-dian business were personally present. elist of tycoons included Adi Godrej, CyrusMistry, Anand Mahindra, Uday Kotak,Anil Ambani, Anil Agarwal, Pawan Mun-jal and Kumar Mangalam Birla. Each oneof them hailed the state government’s im-plementation of reforms agenda and pro-moting of ease of doing business. If AnilAgarwal of Vedanta said Rajasthan has thepotential of being “another Australia andanother Canada”, Anil Ambani of ADAGGroup made the big announcement thathis conglomerate had decided to make Ra-jasthan its main solar power hub.

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidupraised Rajasthan for being the first stateto sign a MoU to promote housing proj-ects. e proposed investment expectedfrom these 27 MoUs is INR 12,478 croreand direct employment expected is 38,950

jobs, he said. Union Minister for Chemi-cals and Fertilizers, Ananth Kumar, com-mitted to set up projects worth INR10,000 crore in the state. Railway Minis-ter Suresh Prabhu announced that theRailways would enter into a joint venturewith the State to develop infrastructure,adding that 24 new railway stations willbe developed in the state.

Among the global participants, Japansent a one hundred strong delegation.Japan’s long-standing business associa-tion with Rajasthan saw a defining mo-ment when representatives from bothsides signed MoUs worth INR 685 crore.During the country-specific session onJapan, four MoUs were signed in theAuto, Logistics and Air-conditioning cat-egories with Nagano Products, DaikinAir-Conditioning, Nippon Express,Sankyu Indian Logistics & Engineeringamong others. Japan is already the bene-ficiary of a country-specific investmentzone at Neemrana, Rajasthan, with a sec-ond one coming up nearby at Ghilot. Thedelegation, led by Takeshi Yagi, Japan’sAmbassador to India, comprised repre-sentatives of leading Japanese companieslike Daikin, Mytex Polymer, HitachiChemical, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi,and Mitsubishi Logistics.

Even before the summit, SB Solar Serv-ice, a subsidiary of Sobank, had signed

an MoU with the Rajathan Governmentfor setting up a solar power PV plant witha capacity of 10 GW in phases. e com-pany plans to make an investment of USD1 billion in phase 1.

Singapore Home Minister K Shan-mugam announced that Scoot, a groupcompany of Singapore Airlines, wouldsoon commence direct flights betweenJaipur and Singapore. Shanmugam alsodeclared that Rajasthan was one of onlytwo States in India that his country haddecided to partner with in wide-ranginginitiatives. A MoU has been signed be-tween Singapore Cooperation Enterpriseand the Rajasthan Housing Board for de-veloping the master plans of Jodhpur andUdaipur. Key areas of partnership thatSingapore and Rajasthan have identifiedand will be exploring going ahead arepotable water, sustainable urbanisation, af-fordable housing, waste management,cleantech, human resource development,smart cities and food & agriculture.

Another highlight of the meet was anMoU worth INR 10,000 crore that wassigned between the Public Works Depart-ment, Government of Rajasthan and theConstruction Industry DevelopmentBoard of Malaysia.

South Korea came in with two MoUsworth INR 67.8 crore that were signedbetween the State Government and South



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Korean firms. Rajasthan State In-dustrial Development and Invest-ment Corporation (RIICO) and theKorean water testing instrumentmanufacturer, HM Digital IndiaPvt. Ltd., have joined hands for aproject to produce water qualitytesting/measuring instruments withan investment of INR 7.8 crore.RIICO has also signed an MoU withthe Korean engineering plastic sheetmanufacturing company, SpolytechCo. Ltd., for the production of PC(Polycarbonate) and PMMA (PolyMethyl Methacrylate) sheet & filmproducts. Both the MoUs will gen-erate direct and indirect employ-ment for 150 people. South Koreaand Rajasthan are also working togetherin two other priority areas—Smart Citiesand Affordable Housing.

South Australia and Rajasthan haveagreed to establish a Sister States relation-ship. eir MoU will be supported by a Co-operative Action Plan which will bedeveloped to target specific trade and in-vestment opportunities and needs in thekey identified areas on mutually agreeableterms. Some of the areas of cooperation are:Water & Environmental Management; Re-sources & Energy; Agribusiness; Education,Skills & Training; and Tourism & Sports.

Italy, designated as a Partner Country,has sent a high-powered delegation to theSummit led by Mr. Lorenzo Angeloni,Ambassador in India, and comprising sev-eral senior diplomats, including the TradeCommissioner, Mr Francesco Pensabene.

If Day One was a resounding success ofBig Business pledging big money, DayTwo was a fitting finale with the emphasison medium and small-scale entrepre-neurs, without whom no comprehensiveindustrial policy can be complete.

e Valedictory session was attended by

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Ministerfor Commerce & Industry, Rajendra S.Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Group; Chandra-jit Banerjee, Director General, CII; Shree-kant Somany, CMD Somany Ceramics.C.S. Rajan, State Chief Secretary, VeenuGupta, Managing Director, RIICO. Nir-mala Sitharaman said, “Reverberatingwith the spirit of collaboration and coop-eration, the Resurgent Rajasthan summithas collaborated with stakeholders fromvarious industries across value chains,jointly exploring opportunities for indi-vidual and collective growth by exploringnew models of economic developmentand partnerships.” Smt. Sitharaman saidthere clearly was a revival of industries inRajasthan and acknowledged the efforts ofthe State government in strengtheningMSMEs. Going forward she hopes to seeRajasthan in the Top 3 in the Ease ofDoing Business ranking.

Sitharaman lived up to her own wordsand announced the launch of a new Na-tional Institute of Design (NID) campusin Rajasthan. “is institute will help ad-dress the technology design needs that

arise from increased industrializationand the growth of technology-inten-sive industries in the state.” Shesought the cooperation of the Gov-ernment of Rajasthan in setting upthe institute, which will initially be asatellite centre for the NID campus inAhmedabad. Later, this institute willprovide undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

In her concluding address, Va-sundhara Raje said: “Our Govern-ment alone cannot do what wedream for Rajasthan. Our partnersneed to be on our side at every smallstep, at very large strides. e re-sponse and excitement here duringthe summit was palpable and it is in-

deed a beacon of hope and boost in confi-dence that we are on the correct path andwe have friends in whom we can trust.”Talking about the way forward, Rajeadded: “e easy part is over now. enext steps shall involve us burning themidnight oil in implementing these in-vestments and creating jobs for our peo-ple”, reiterating that Job Creation is one thethree pillars of the Rajasthan Model of De-velopment, the other two being Social Jus-tice and Effective Governance.

e easy part is indeed over. e glitterand glamour of the Resurgent Rajasthansummit has come to a close. But now thereal show will have to begin. e MoUswill have to be converted into concretedeals. Investments will have to be begin-ning flowing in. e dream of mega solarenergy plants, skill development centres,water treatment units, smart cities, afford-able housing and, above all, the prospectof lakhs of new jobs and thousands ofmicro and small ancillary units will haveto transformed into a reality.

Jeevan Iyer

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In Focus

I t is to be noted that Prime MinisterModi's focus so far has sharply beenfocused upon economic develop-

ment activities right from the time hetook over. He is relying on foreign in-vestors so assuring them that economicreforms in India are well on track andthat the GST Bill will be passed in 2016is indeed important. At present, Indiaranks 130 on the World Bank's ease ofdoing business index. But modi is tryinghis best to pull India out of that quag-mirish situation so that ranking could goupwards. All of PM Modi's posturingabroad so far have been geared towardsthis objective, and his recent travels re-

inforce this. Sandeep Thakur writes forNRI Achievers on Modi's recent trip toUK and Singapore.

Indian PM Narendra Modi and hisUK counterpart PM David Cameron metin London on 12-13 November. The twoPrime Ministers celebrated the growingstrength, breadth and depth of relationsbetween the two countries. They emphasized that this enduring connec-tion between the UK and India plays avital role in safeguarding and promotingthe security and prosperity of both peo-ples. India’s economic development andits rise as a global power affords oppor-tunities to further deepen and extend

this partnership to foster economicgrowth and inclusive development, up-date and strengthen the rules-based in-ternational system, and counter globalthreats. The two Prime Ministers notedthe importance of preserving the envi-ronment and sustaining diverse ecosys-tems, and recognised the rise ofinternational criminal networks engagedin the illegal wildlife trade. They re-solved to work together to combat the il-legal wildlife trade and to improveprotection for both captive and wildAsian elephants. India endorsed theLondon Declaration and the KasaneStatement on Illegal Wildlife Trade.



It is to be noted that Prime Minis-ter Modi’s focus so far has sharplybeen focused upon economic development activities right fromthe time he took over. He is relyingon foreign investors so assuringthem that economic reforms inIndia are well on track and that theGST Bill will be passed in 2016 isindeed important. At present, Indiaranks 130 on the World Bank’s easeof doing business index. But modiis trying his best to pull India outof that quagmirish situation so thatranking could go upwards. All ofPM Modi’s posturing abroad so farhave been geared towards this objective, and his recent travels reinforce this. Sandeep akurwrites for NRI Achievers on Modi’srecent trip to UK and Singapore.

Economy

GOOD BUSINESSINDIA’s UK AND SINGAPOREPARTNERSHIPS

Narendra Modi with UKPresident David Cameron



Economy

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & FINANCE

e two PMs welcomed the strengthen-ing economic outlook in both the UK andIndia but shared their concern that globalgrowth is falling short of expectations andthat the risks to the global outlook have in-creased. ey agreed to continue workingtowards strong, sustainable and balancedgrowth, and agreed on the importance ofstructural reforms and pursuing crediblefiscal policies in order to raise living stan-dards. ey hailed the strength of the eco-nomic partnership between India and theUK: India already invests more in the UKthan in the rest of the EU combined, andthe UK is the largest G20 investor in India.

e two Prime Ministers recognised theimportance of infrastructure for sustain-able development and launched India’sfirst Low Income State Infrastructure Eq-uity Partnership with co-investment fromthe UK Department of International De-velopment and the State Bank of India.

is aims to provide equity partnershipsfor small infrastructure development insectors like water & sanitation, clean en-ergy and urban infrastructure. PrimeMinister Modi noted the partnership ofUK and India in efforts to improve theEase of Doing Business.

Prime Minister Modi appreciated theadvances made by UK in rail project man-agement and operations. e two Leaderswelcomed the MoU on Technical Co-op-eration in the Rail sector and acknowl-edged the potential business opportunitiesfor the rail industry.

The UK and India agree that corrup-tion is one of the greatest enemies ofprogress in our time. Both sides will worktogether, bilaterally and in multilateralfora like UNCAC and G20, in order tostrengthen the global response to corrup-tion, including through improving coop-eration among law enforcement agencies,strengthening procedures for the identi-fication and return of stolen assets, and

increasing transparency around the true(or "beneficial”) ownership and controlof companies.

MAKE IN INDIA & BUSINESSPrime Minister Cameron welcomed PM

Modi’s 'Make in India' initiative. Prime Min-ister Modi noted that this model of collabo-ration was already deeply ingrained in UKinvestments and partnerships with India.e two PMs welcomed initiatives taken byboth sides to deepen defence technology andindustry cooperation. ey also noted thedeep and fruitful business relationship be-tween the UK and India and welcomed theUK£ 9.2 Billion of commercial deals be-tween the two countries announced duringthe visit. e UK has accounted for 8.56%of total FDI investment in India during thelast 15 years. Indian companies employ110,000 people in the UK.

SMART CITIES & URBAN RENEWAL

e two Prime Ministers announcedthree UK-India city partnerships – Indore,Pune and Amaravati, to support India’sambitious urban development goalsthrough technical assistance, expertisesharing and business engagement.

EDUCATION, SKILLS, SCIENCEAND RESEARCH

Prime Minister Cameron offered to sup-port the Indian PM achieves his goal ofpreparing young Indians for the 21st Cen-tury. Under the new UK- India Skillspledge, 11 UK companies have committedto support skills development in India. To-gether, the UK government and UK busi-nesses will establish new "Centres ofExcellence” in key sectors, starting with acentre for Automotive and Advanced En-gineering in Pune. e UK will also sup-port the Indian Ministry of Skill

Modi with president of SingaporeMr. Tony Tan Keng Yam



Economy

Development and Entrepreneurship to de-velop new models of skills training and en-trepreneurship with a focus on digitaldelivery, women, the excluded and the dis-abled. e two Prime Ministers announcedthat 2016 would be the UK-India year ofEducation, Research and Innovation.

CULTUREe two Prime Ministers announced

that a UK-India Year of Culture will be organised in 2017 to celebrate ourdeep cultural ties and the 70th anniversaryof Indian Independence. e two PrimeMinisters committed support to the digi-tization of the shared archival collectionshoused in the British Library and the Na-tional Archives of India..

Prime Minister Modi thanked PrimeMinister Cameron for the warm hospital-ity extended to him and his delegation andinvited Prime Minister Cameron to visitIndia in 2016.

MODI IN SINGAPOREIndia and Singapore signed a joint dec-

laration on strategic partnership and ninebilateral accords on 24 November, 2015,

the second day of Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi’s visit to this city state. Modi andSingaporean Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong signed the joint declaration onstrategic partnership to elevate bilateral re-lations to a “strategic partnership todeepen and broaden engagement in exist-ing areas of cooperation.

Besides this, two agreements on defencecooperation and loan of artefacts fromIndia to Singapore, two executive pro-gramme/operationalization documents onarts and culture, and white-shipping, andfive memorandums of agreement (MoUs)on cyber security, civil aviation, knowl-edge exchange in the field of planning,urban planning, and combating drug traf-ficking were also signed. e agreementon defence cooperation enhances cooper-ation in the field by providing for defenceministers’ dialogue, joint exercises be-tween armed forces, and cooperation be-tween defence industries to identify areasof co-production and co-development, thestatement said. e second agreement “ex-tends the loan of Indian artefacts to theAsian Civilisations Museum of Singapore”.

e MoU on cyber security was signed

between the Indian Computer EmergencyResponse Team (CERT-In) and the Singa-pore Computer Emergency ResponseTeam (SingCERT). eMoU promotescloser cooperation and exchange of infor-mation pertaining to cyber security be-tween the computer emergency responseteams of the two countries by establish-ment of a broader framework for futuredialogue. e MoU on civil aviation “fa-cilitates mutual cooperation in a numberof mutually agreed areas of civil aviationservices and airport management begin-ning with Jaipur and Ahmedabad air-ports”. e third MoU promotesknowledge and information exchange inareas such as urban planning, waste watermanagement, solid waste managementand public-private partnerships betweenIndia’s NITI Aayog and the Singapore Co-operation Enterprise (SCE).

Modi arrived in Singapore fromMalaysia on 23 November on a bilateralvisit in the second and last leg of his four-day visit to south east Asia.

e writer is a vetren journalist havingmore than 20 years of working experience.

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C lose on the heels of its Bihar deba-cle, the government showered uswith a Diwali bonanza by easing

FDI norms in 15 major sectors includingthe construction sector, raising the FIPBapproval limit from INR 3000 Cr to INR5000 Cr. It removed entry and exit barriersin the construction trade, doing away witharea restriction of 20000 Sq.m. and capital-ization of US$ 5 million, and allowing for-eign investors to exit as well as repatriateinvestment before a project is completed,but with a lock in period of 3 years.

e government’s sense of the real es-tate industry is that it should not surviveon subsidies but on the strength of themarket economy. at’s why it’s focusingon realty reforms aimed at strengtheningfundamentals for a sustainable revival ofthe sector. e delayed reforms had af-fected the market sentiment and the gov-ernment has been receiving lot of flak forits inability to check retail inflation andgenerate employment. It also realises it

well that it is imperative to provide mo-mentum to reforms, if it has to leveragestrong domestic growth in the form of ahealthy 7 percent plus GDP growth in thecoming fiscal, besides a pickup in manu-facturing activity. e assessment of globalrating agencies like Moody’s weigh heavilyon government’s mind that reforms delaymay hit investment. e Organization forEconomic Co-operation & Development(OECD) has also emphasized that growthprospects of India remain relatively ro-bust, provided further progress is made onimplementing structural reforms.

So the government is focusing on trig-gering investment. By exercising tight con-trol over unproductive expenditure, it hasgreatly increased capital investment bypublic sector. And to give further push toit, a National Investment & InfrastructureFund has been set up to leverage public in-vestments. e government also plans tocome up with tax-free infra bonds, inorder to broaden the corporate bond mar-

ket with a view to provide long term fi-nance for infrastructure. It is also lookingat providing tax incentives to spur invest-ment in housing. FDI has considerably in-creased and private investment is pickingup. e government is also working onsimplifying FDI & ECB rules to speed upforeign investment. It plans to put 98 per-cent sectors for foreign investment underautomatic route. In order to help the fund-starved real estate sector to tide-over thecurrent crisis, the government is workingon allowing foreign investments in Alter-nate Investment Funds (AIFs) and in Infra& Realty Trusts via the automatic route.

e most crucial piece of legislationthat has big bearing on real estate is theGST Bill, expected to be passed in the cur-rent parliament session, especially as thegovernment has now adopted a more col-laborative and accommodating approach.e introduction of a single GST tax rateacross the country is aimed at dismantlinginter-state fiscal barriers and creates acommon market within India to boostcompetitiveness, and make it easier to dobusiness. It will result in simplificationand uniformity of taxes, putting an end totax inefficiency in the form of different

Real Estate

Contrary to the general impression, theBihar defeat has not really dealt any major

blow to the ruling NDA’s reform agenda.Rather, it seems to have proven to be a blessing in

disguise instead for the Modi government, which has had toperforce fast-track both legislative and administrative reforms.

Particularly the crucial reforms much anticipated and much by thereal estate sector, like the GST Act and Real Estate Regulation & De-

velopment Act, that are expected to get parliamentary nod in the currentwinter session. Vinod Behl shares his analysis with readers of NRI Achievers ...

NDA’S BIHAR DEBACLEA BLESSING FOR REALTY?

state-specific VAT and service tax laws.ough there are two main taxes for homebuyers – VAT and service tax, yet multipletaxes in the form of CST, custom duty, ex-cise duty etc, paid by developers result inprice escalation by about 25-30 percent. Alikely GST rate of about 20 percent (theCongress apropos is demanding a cap on18 percent), should be quite beneficial forthe sector in lowering current tax burdens,in turn resulting in a reduction in homeprices. Separately, the government pro-poses to provide tax relief to real estatesector in the upcoming budget.

e Decks seem to be already clearedfor the crucial Real Estate Regulation &Development Bill 2013, in the winter ses-sion even as the government acceptschanges to it proposed by the Rajya Sabhapanel. e passing of this bill will give amajor boost to the real estate sector, bring-ing in fair play and transparency in real es-tate transactions to safeguard the interests

of property buyers and investors.e government, which has already

streamlined environment clearances forimproving ease of doing business, is nowfast-tracking single window clearance sys-tem for multi-storeyed buildings thatshould come through by early December2015. e simplified process will consid-erably cut delays in granting approvals, inturn resulting in cost reductions that willbenefit property consumers. is will alsoprovide much-needed relief to debt-rid-den developers by way of faster projectcompletions and lesser interest outgo. Forits flagship programme – ‘Housing for all’,envisaging the creation of more than 30million houses, government is readying aplan to provide more funds for construct-ing rural houses and providing subsidizedpower and water. Under its AMRUT pro-gramme, the Centre has allocated INR11654 Cr for infrastructure upgrades.

e Bankruptcy Code (providing for

easier exits for businesses, safeguardingthe interests of lenders and investors) to-gether with proposed new Start-up Policy,will foster new enterprises and fast-trackwinding up of failed enterprises, with aview to strengthen the ease-of-doing-business. Further, labour reformsare aimed at removing rigidity and en-couraging employment. e govern-ment’s newfound aggression and resolveto push its reform agenda has alreadyseen reflection on the BSE Realty Index,registering the max rise in the last fort-night, and further reform measures to beunveiled in the budget will certainly serveto speed up the revival of the real estatesector that is facing a slowdown.

Vinod Behl

e author is a senior media profes-sional, with long-standing experience inthe real estate sector. he may be reached

at: [email protected]

Real Estate

AGEING GRACEFULLYLIVING WITH ELEGANCE

Ashiana Housing Limited is a realestate development company basedout of Delhi. It is involved in mid-dle to upper-middle income resi-dential housing projects in satellitecities and towns in India aroundindustrial hubs, predominantlyalong the Delhi-Mumbai indus-trial corridor being promoted bythe Government of India. Its resi-dential real estate developmentprojects range from apartments togroup housing society projects. Inaddition, it also develops limitedretail and commercial properties,including hotels. Under our realestate segment, we feature thisissue a project being promoted bythe developer.

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O ne of Ashiana Group’s latest of-ferings is in the domain of sen-ior living, in the shape and form

of ‘Nirmay,’ a bespoke lifestyle productthat is being created especially to suit theneeds of its prospective residents. With anincrease in life expectancies and a rise inthe standard of living among the urban In-dian populace, the expectations and needsof an increasing number of our ageingpopulations in the country are undergoinga sea change. However, in India unlike inthe western world, senior citizens in Indiado not have very many options available

to them. Besides, according to some ex-perts in the field, ‘retirement’ has been oneof the most misinterpreted words in theIndian context, with retirement generallybeing understood as people literally givingup on their active lifestyles to adapt a pas-sive, non-happening routine.

Now, imagine a life aer retirementwherein you do not need to surrender tosuch submissive ways of living. Imagine aday starting with an invigorating yoga ses-sion, followed by a quick dip in a pool fol-lowed by a sumptuous and deliciousbreakfast, made according to your specifi-cations at the café. A perfect start of theday, no ? Well, the best is yet to come.Imagine spending the rest of your day

chatting with your friends and people ofyour age group and outlook over a game ofcards, or carom, or just a cup of coffeewhile all your other requirements are beingtaken care of by a bevy of trained staff.

Our country has already risen to thisconcept of senior living, with several flag-ship projects launched by the AshianaGroup in Bhiwadi in the year 1999. egroup is known to be a pioneer in seniorliving with 3 completed projects and 1,200families already staying there. e grouphas been felicitated with the awards for thebest theme based township given by

CREDAI in 2012, and senior living projectof the year for Ashiana Utsav, Lavasa, givenby Realty Excellence Awards in 2014.

e residents of the group’s flagshipproject, Ashiana Utsav confirm the same.Residents who come from different profes-sional domains like medicine, banking, en-gineering, academia among others, areliving a blissful life in this project. eseresidents in Utsav are very different fromthe one which is generally seen. e elderlyresidents of Utsav are living their life to thefullest mingling with others with a similarmindset and pursuing hobbies which theynever had time for earlier. A visit to the ac-tivity centre at Utsav at any time of the daywill find retired people living a life full of

glory and fun. Endless conversations, dif-ferent games and multiple activities keepthe residents busy throughout the day.

A curated lifestyle that not only en-riches your days with wonderful activities,but also enriches your senses with thesheerness of nature is what is on offer atthe Ashiana Group’s latest outing in thesenior living domain. e group’s secondsenior living project in Bhiwadi, AshianaNirmay, near Gurgaon, is being launchedfor connoisseurs of life, who refuse to sur-render to the passiveness of life and vowto live a life which is fulfilling, grand & en-riching to the core. Nirmay is more aboutbespoke conveniences that we all aim forin the present day. Each aspect of this sen-ior living project has been finalized keep-ing in mind the needs of aged people whowish to spend their lives independentlyand actively without having to depend onothers for their chores.

To look well after the day-to-dayneeds of the people, each tower in Nir-may has a concierge desk. Residents cansimply call in and get their bills paidfrom there. Not willing to cook yourmeals? Not a problem. The wellequipped café in the project café servesday-long snacks along with freshly-cooked meals. One also does not need toworry about medical issues. Professionalaid is available round the clock as theproject has tie-ups with a number of hos-pitals in the city. The project also comeswith an activity centre where library, TVlounge, theatre and various hobby clubsare located. Prices start at INR 34.91 lakhfor a 1 BHK apartment. Free from theroutine life chores of everyday, the resi-dents of Nirmay, like those at Utsav, willonly be busy pursuing their dreams andhobbies. One can rest assured that life atNirmay will be cherished and the mostfulfilling for the residents. A

Promotional Feature



The government’s vision of provid-ing “Housing for All” by 2022 planwill get a boost where real estate

sector will play a major role. In achievingthe vision, India currently needs 25 mil-lion more dwellings. Thus, the scope forhousing supply is immense; AmrapaliGroup has taken it one more step furtherby announcing its ‘Amrapali AdarshAwas Yojna’only for serving/ retired gov-ernment employees.

Adarsh Awaas Yojna is a part of 100 acresof land in Greater Noida (West) in UttarPradesh with approximately 5000 numberof flats to be constructed of 975 to 1300 sq. onwards in 2-3 BHK formats at a very rea-sonable price of 22 lacs and above. e loanis available by all major nationalized banks.

e self-sufficient township covers allthe safety and regulatory norms alongwith many attractive features like a cricketstadium of its own along with M S Dhoni’scricket academy, 150 bedded multi- spe-cialty Hospital, 2lac sq. of commercialarea, 6 nursery schools, 2 secondaryschools and other basic infrastructures to

sustain its economy.According to Dr. Anil Kumar Sharma,

CMD, Amrapali Group, “We are quitepleased and proud of this offering to thepeople who are looking to have a home inthe middle of a modern and new society,this project is open to all who are lookingto buy a flat but the attractive buy would befor Government employees who can availattractive discounts on our existing prices.”

e project is a technologically ad-vanced masterpiece which is built byearthquake resistant precast technologytopped with aluminium form which pro-vides the best in class resistance to thestructures. e precast technology/ alu-minium form work is a faster way to finishprojects as compare to conventional tech-nology so it reduces delivery time andtotal cost of the project. e connectivityalso is a very alluring aspect of this projectwhich has a metro station at approx. 1kmfrom the project along with a 100m wideroad connectivity to sector 79, Noida.

As per Mr. Honey Katiyal, CEO, In-vestors Clinic, “It is indeed a very good

opportunity for us to promote the techno-logically advanced project of Amrapaligroup who is already a market leader in af-fordable housing segment.”

ABOUT ‘AMRAPALI GROUP’:Over a decade, Amrapali group has

grown into a brand to be reckoned withmore than 50 projects in 24 cities acrossIndia. Apart from being one of the largesthome providers in Noida & Greater Noida(NCR), Amrapali Group has erectedstructures in Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh,Kerala, UP, Rajasthan, Haryana & Maha-rashtra as well with a strong presence incities like Bhilai, New Raipur, Lucknow,Bareilly, Vrindavan, Jaipur, Udaipur,Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Muzaffarpur, Pur-nia, Gaya, Buxar, Katihar etc.

Amrapali Group has been the pioneer ofinnovations & has set up a humongous pre-cast factory at Kasna, Greater Noida whichis one of the largest precast units in Asia.e introduction of precast will greatly helpin accelerating the construction time, re-ducing the project cost, minimizingwastage & incorporating the green buildingdesign in its projects. eir creations strikea perfect balance between homebuilding &the sustainable environment. ey buildstructures & use processes that are environ-mentally responsible & resource efficientthroughout a building’s lifecycle: from con-cept to design, construction, operation,maintenance & renovation.

With commitment to build a healthy re-lationship with their buyers, deliver luxuryat palatable prices & make their homebuying experience a blissful one. Proud tohave M.S. Dhoni, Captain of IndianCricket Team, as their brand ambassador,the group goes extra mile to ensure timelycompletion and delivery of projects.

NRI Achievers Desk

Real Estate

AMRAPALI LAUNCHES“ADARSH AWAS YOJNA”Project is dedicated to serving and retired government employees at very affordable prices…

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·¤Öè ¥æÚUæ× âð ÕñÆ ·¤ÚU âôç¿Øð ç·¤ ç·¤â âð âÕâð ¥çÏ·¤ Âýð× ·¤ÚUÌð ãñ´¥æÂ? Øð ÕæÌ ¥»ÚU ¥æÂ ç·¤âè âð ÂêÀð´ Ìô ¥æ× ÌõÚU ÂÚU ÁßæÕ ¥æØð»æ ×ðÚUæÂçÚUßæÚU , ×ðÚUð Õ‘¿ð, ×ðÚUè Â%è ¥æçÎ. ¥»ÚU ¥æÂ »ãÚUæ§ü âð âô¿ð´ Ìô §â ÂýàÙ·¤æ ¥æÂ ·¤ô °·¤ °ðâæ ©žæÚU ç×Üð»æ çÁâð ¥æÂ ×éçà·¤Ü âð ãè Sßè·¤æÚU ·¤ÚUÂæ°´»ð. ¥õÚU ßô ÁßæÕ ãñ Ò¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âðÓ. Áè ãæ¡! §â ÎéçÙØæ ×ð´ âÕâð ¥çÏ·¤Âýð× ¥æÂ SßØ´ âð ãè ·¤ÚUÌð ãñ´. ¥»ÚU Îð¹æ ÁæØð Ìô ãÚU ÀôÅUð âð ÀôÅUæ ¥õÚU ÕÇ¸ðâð ÕÇ¸æ ·¤æ× ã× ¥ÂÙè ¹¸éàæè ·Ô¤ çÜ° ãè Ìô ·¤ÚUÌð ãñ´? ¿æãð ßô çßßæã ·Ô¤Õ´ÏÙ ×ð´ Õ´ÏÙæ ãô, ·¤ô§ü Ùõ·¤ÚUè ·¤ÚUÙæ ãô, ×æ¡ ÕÙÙæ ãô, ç·¤âè ·¤è ×ÎÎ ·¤ÚUÙæãô, ç·¤âè ·¤ô Îé¹è ·¤ÚUÙæ ãô ·¤éÀ Öè. ãæ¡! ¥´ÌÚU çâÈ¤ü ¹¸éàæè ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ dôÌ ×ð´ãôÌæ ãñ ·¤éÀ ·¤ô ÎêâÚUô´ ·¤ô ¹¸éàæè Îð ·¤ÚU âé¹ ç×ÜÌæ ãñ ¥õÚU ·¤éÀ ·¤ô ÎêâÚUô´ ·Ô¤·¤C âð. ×ãæˆ×æ »æ¡Ïè, ×ÎÚU ÅUðÚUðâæ ¥õÚU ÎéçÙØæ ·Ô¤ ·¤§ü â×æÁ âéÏæÚU·¤ €UØæ§‹ãôÙð´ ¥ÂÙè ¹¸éàæè ·Ô¤ ÕæÚUð ×ð´ Ùãè´ âô¿æ? çÙÑâ´Îðã âô¿æ, Øð ßð Üô» Íð çÁ‹ãð´ÎêâÚUô´ ·¤ô Âýâóæ Îð¹ ·¤ÚU ¹¸éàæè ç×ÜÌè Íè. ·¤éÀ Üô» SßØ´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙð ·¤ô¥Ùéç¿Ì â×ÛæÌð ãñ´ €UØô´ ç·¤ Üô»ô´ ·Ô¤ ×Ù ×ð´ ¥€UâÚU Øð ÏæÚU‡ææ ÚUãÌè ãñ ç·¤ ÁôÃØçQ¤ SßØ´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÌæ ãñ ßô selfish ãôÌæ ãñ ¥õÚU ÎêâÚUô´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚU ãè Ùãè´â·¤Ìæ. Ìô §â·¤æ ©žæÚU Øð ãñ ç·¤ ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙæ ·¤Öè »¸ÜÌ ãô ãèÙãè´ â·¤Ìæ €UØô´ ç·¤ Áô ÃØçQ¤ ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð Âýð× Ùãè´ ·¤ÚUÌæ ßô ç·¤âè ¥õÚUâð â‘¿æ Âýð× ·¤ÚU ãè Ùãè´ â·¤Ìæ. Áô ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð â´ÌéC Ùãè´ ßô ç·¤âè ¥õÚU·¤ô â´ÌéC ·ñ¤âð ÚU¹ â·¤Ìæ ãñ?

¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙð ·¤æ ¥Íü ãñ SßØ´ ·¤ô çÙ¹æÚUÙæ, ¥ÂÙð ¥‹ÎÚU ·¤è¥‘Àæ§Øô´ ·¤ô ¹ôÁÙæ, ¥ÂÙð çÜ° â�×æÙ Âýæ# ·¤ÚUÙæ, ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ ·¤ô ÂýðçÚUÌ·¤ÚUÌð ÚUãÙæ ¥õÚU ¥ÂÙð âæÍ ãé§ü ãÚU ¥‘Àè ÕéÚUè ƒæÅUÙæ ·¤è çÁ�×ðÎæÚUè ¹éÎ Âð ÜðÙæ.Øð ã×ðàææ ØæÎ ÚUç¹Øð ç·¤ ¥æÂ ÎêâÚUô´ ·¤ô Âýð× ¥õÚU â�×æÙ ÌÖè Õæ¡ÅU Âæ°´»ð ÁÕ¥æÂ ·Ô¤ Âæâ ßô ßSÌé Âý¿éÚU ×æ˜æ ×ð́ ãô»è. SßØ´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙæ ©ÌÙæ ãè SßæÖæçß·¤ãñ çÁÌÙæ ç·¤ âæ´â ÜðÙæ. Õæ§çÕÜ ×ð́ ·¤ãæ Öè »Øæ ãñ ç·¤ ã×ð́ ÎêâÚUô´ âð Öè ©ÌÙæãè Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙæ ¿æçã° çÁÌÙæ ã× SßØ´ âð ·¤ÚUÌð ãñ́. ÂÚU‹Ìé ·¤Öè-·¤Öè ã× ¥ÂÙð

¥æÂ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙæ ÖêÜ ÁæÌð ãñ́. ×àæãêÚU ×Ùôçß™ææÙè çâ»×´Ç Èý¤æØÇ Ùð ×ÙécØ ·Ô¤¥‹ÎÚU Îô Âý·¤æÚU ·¤ð ·¤èÇ¸ô´ ·¤æ çÁ¸·ý¤ ç·¤Øæ ãñ - °·¤ ÚU¿Ùæˆ×·¤ ¥õÚU °·¤ãæçÙ·¤æÚU·¤. ·¤éÀ Üô» ¥ÂÙè ÖæßÙæ¥ô´ ·¤æ ÂýÎàæüÙ ÚU¿Ùæˆ×·¤ ÌÚUè·Ô¤ âð ·¤ÚUÌðãñ́, ©Ù Üô»ô´ ·¤ô ¥‘Àð ·¤æØü ·¤ÚU·Ô¤ ÂýâóæÌæ ç×ÜÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ·¤éÀ Üô»ô´ ·¤ô çßÙæàæ·¤ÚU ·Ô¤ ¥õÚU ÎêâÚUô´ ·¤ô Ì·¤ÜèÈ¤ Âãé́¿æ ·¤ÚU. ¥»ÚU ¥æÂ ·¤ô§ü Öè ãæçÙ·¤æÚU·¤ ·¤æØü·¤ÚU ÚUãð ãñ́, ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ ·¤ô ©Îæâ ÕÙæØð ãé° ãñ́ ¥õÚU ¥ÂÙð ÁèßÙ âð çÙÚUæàæ ãñ́Ìô ¥æÂ SßØ´ âð Âýð× Ùãè´ ·¤ÚUÌð. Áô ÃØçQ¤ ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð Âýð× Ùãè´ ·¤ÚUÌæ ßôÎêâÚUô´ ·¤ô Ìô Âýð× Îð ãè Ùãè´ â·¤Ìæ €UØô´ ç·¤ ç·¤âè Öè Öæß ·¤ô ÁÕ Ì·¤ ¥æÂ¥ÂÙð ª¤ÂÚU ¥æÁ×æ ·¤ÚU Ùãè´ Îð¹ð́»ð, ©â·¤æ SßæÎ ¹éÎ Ùãè´ ¿¹ð́»ð ÌÕ Ì·¤ ÎêâÚUô´·Ô¤ âæ×Ùð ©âð ÕðãÌÚU ÕÙæ ·¤ÚU ·ñ¤âð Âðàæ ·¤ÚUð́»ð. SßØ´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙð ·¤æ ¥Íü Ò×ñ́ Óâð Ùãè´ ãñ ÕçË·¤ §â·¤æ ¥Íü ãñ ¥ÂÙè ¥‘Àæ§Øô´ ·¤ô Âã¿æÙ ·¤ÚU ©âð ÕæãÚUçÙ·¤ÜÙæ ¥õÚU âãè ¥Íü ×ð́ ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ ·¤ô çß·¤çâÌ ·¤ÚUÙæ. ×Ùôç¿ç·¤ˆâæ ×ð́ Öè¥ÂÙð ÁèßÙ âð çÙÚUæàæ ¥õÚU ©Îæâ ÚUôç»Øô´ ·Ô¤ ©Â¿æÚU ·Ô¤ çÜ° ©‹ãð́ ¥ÂÙð ÁèßÙ·¤æ ©gðàØ Éê¡É¸Ùð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ¥ÍüãèÙÌæ ·¤ô ÎêÚU ·¤ÚUÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ·¤ãæ ÁæÌæ ãñ. Á¸ÚUæâôç¿Øð ç·¤ ßô ·¤õÙ âè ×ÙÑçSÍçÌ ãôÌè ãô»è çÁâ×ð́ ×ÙécØ ¥æˆ× ãˆØæ ·¤ÚUÙðç·¤ ÆæÙ ÜðÌæ ãñ? °ðâè çSÍçÌ ·Ô¤ßÜ ¥õÚU ·Ô¤ßÜ ÌÖè ©ˆÂóæ ãôÌè ãñ ÁÕ ×ÙécØ·¤æ SßØ´ âð ·¤ô§ü Ü»æß Ùãè´ ÚUã ÁæÌæ. ßã ç·¤âè ßÁã âð ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð ƒæë‡ææ·¤ÚUÙð Ü»Ìæ ãñ ¥õÚU ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ ·¤ô Î´Ç ÎðÌæ ãñ. Ìô âôç¿Øð! ç·¤ ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âðÂýð× ·¤ÚUÙæ ç·¤ÌÙæ Á¸M¤ÚUè ãñ €UØô´ ç·¤ çÁâ çÎÙ ¥æÂ SßØ´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUÙæ ÀôÇ¸ Îð́»ð©â çÎÙ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¥çSÌˆß Öè Ùãè´ ÚUãð»æ €UØô´ ç·¤ Øã ¥â´Öß ãñ ç·¤Ö»ßæÙ âð ŒØæÚU ãñ Üðç·¤Ù ¥ÂÙð ¥æÂ âð ŒØæÚU Ùãè´ €UØô´ ç·¤ ¥ÂÙð ÁèßÙ ·¤èàæéL¤¥æÌ Öè ¥æÂ âð ãè ãñ ¥õÚU ¥´Ì Öè ¥æÂ âð. §âçÜ° §üEÚU âð ã×ðàææ ÂýæÍüÙæ·¤ÚUÙè ¿æçã° ç·¤ ßô ã×ð́ °ðâð ·¤æØü ·¤ÚUÙð ·¤è àæçQ¤ Îð çÁâ âð ã× SßØ´ ·¤æ¥æÎÚU ·¤ÚU Âæ°´. ·¤ãæ Öè »Øæ ãñ ç·¤,

Òã×·¤ô ×Ù ·¤è àæçQ¤ ÎðÙæ, ×Ù çßÁØ ·¤ÚUð´, ÎêâÚUô´ ·Ô¤ ÁØ âð ÂãÜð ¹éÎ ·¤ô ÁØ ·¤ÚUð´.Ó

Metaphysical Musings

SßØ´ âð Âýð× ·¤ÚUð´

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e shoot of FORCE2 is going on in fullswing in Budapest.Its lead stars, JohnAbraham and Son-akshi Sinha, arebonding big time onthe sets. e creditfor it all goes toTahir Raj Bhasin.During his stay inBudapest, Tahirwould take a tour ofthe city on a Segway.

Sonakshi liked Tahir’s idea and she joined him in sightseeing too. Later, when Johncame to know about it, he also joined the gang. e trio would get on their wheelsduring the break and take a tour.

AASHIQUI 2, Mohit Suri’s adaptation of theiconic ‘90s hit AASHIQUI, went onto be-come a blockbuster. e film also establishedAditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor asbankable stars. So when we heard the buzzthat AASHIQUI 3 was being made, we as-sumed Mohit would be helming the film. But apparently that’s not the case. Pro-ducers Bhushan Kumar and Mahesh Bhatt did meet Mohit but things didn’t workout. According to the grapevine, Mohit asked for a huge remuneration, which theproducers didn’t agree to. Last heard, Bhushan Kumar and Mahesh Bhatt werelooking for another filmmaker to move the franchise forward.

MOHIT SURI OUT OF AASHIQUI 3

In a casting coup, Sanjay LeelaBhansali has paired together forthe first time Sushant Singh Ra-jput with Priyanka Chopra. etwo will be seen romancing eachother in Bhansali Productions’GUSTAAKHIYAAN, to be di-rected by Ashi Dua. e film is abiopic of sorts on the life of leg-endary poet Sahir Ludhianvi andSushant will be essaying the titular

role. Apparently, Priyanka, who’llbe playing Amrita Pritam in thefilm, had given her nod long agobut the hunt for the male lead wason. It was earlier reported thatSonakshi Sinha and Fawad Khanwere signed for the film but thingsdidn’t work out. e film will goon floors next year.

SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT TO ROMANCEPRIYANKA CHOPRA

e makers of both films are trying to getmore screens than the other. ese days,once the filmmakers decide the releasedate, they don’t give it up even though it isslated to clash with another big-budgetfilm. While BAJIRAO MASTANI andDILWALE will cater to diverse segmentsof the audience, the buzz for the latter isslightly better since it is a mass enter-tainer, says a trade source.

BATTLE OF BIGGIES: DILWALEVS BAJIRAO MASTANI IN2015’S BIGGEST FRIDAY

JOHN ABRAHAM & SONAKSHISINHA BOND IN BUDAPEST

Cineppets

Mumbai Bureau

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TWO DIFFERENT DIRECTORS,TWO DIFFERENT FILMS

Indonesian director Angga DwimasSasongko, whose latest film FILOSOFIKOPI was featured in the InternationalCompetition section of the IFFI; and Is-raeli director Uri Barbash whose latestfilm KAPO IN JERUSALEM was alsoscreened as part of the IFFI, briefed usabout films being made in their coun-tries. Jakartan Angga Dwimas said thathis latest film FILOSOFI KOPI, whichwon nominations from Citra for Best Di-rector, Best Writing and Adapted screen-play, was about soul-searching andmaking peace with the past through cof-fee. “My film is based on Dewi Lestari’sshort story and has been dubbed as thefirst ever user-generated film in Indone-

sia. It was shot in 14 days with a budgetof around 2, 00,000 US dollars.”

Sasongko reiterated that Indonesia,with a population of 250 million people,has a mere 1000 cinema houses, far toomeager, and lamented that as there wereno outlets to showcase art-house films,only mainstream films were being made.He also added that for around 20 years, nomovie was being made in his country andsaid that he is happy when he saw the In-dian film lovers watching every film en-gaging them, laughing with the film andclapping when there were emotionalscenes, much unlike his country. JACKIE SHROFF TO BE BRANDAMBASSADOR OF MIFF 2016

For the first time in the annals of the bi-annual Mumbai International Film Festi-

val (MIFF), renowned actor Jackie Shroffhas been appointed as the Brand Ambas-sador for the festival, to be held betweenJanuary 28 and February 3 at the Films Di-vision Complex at 24, Peddar Road inMumbai. MIFF is a globally renowned In-ternational film festival of short, anima-tion and documentary films organized bythe Films Division of India for the UnionMinistry of Information & Broadcasting. FILM TOURISM SYMPOSIUM

NFDC Film Bazaar, 2015 hosted suc-cessful Film Tourism Symposium sessionswith different Government Bodies andFilm Industry Delegates from November21-24 to facilitate the ease of shootingfilms in India. Post the Ministry of Infor-mation & Broadcasting’s initiative to setup the Film Facilitation Office (FFO),



Silver Screen

ALL ABOUT IFFI AND THE FILM BAZAR AT GOAWith the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2015, India’s annual film extrava-ganza, having just come to an end, NRI Achievers brings you a bouquet of interestingnuggets from Goa, written specially for our readers by Jyoti Venkatesh, our cinemamaven. Sit back in your chair, and plunge headlong into it. You will enjoy it.



which has come into being as the one-stopshop for facilitating film shoots in India,the Ministry of Tourism in associationwith the Ministry of I&B and the NFDCheld a four-day Symposium, November21–24, 2015, on Film Tourism. e Sym-posium was designed to encourage dia-logue between members of the filmfraternity and government bodies, on thecurrent challenges facing filmmakers tofilm in India. SESSION WITH THE MINISTRYOF HOME AFFAIRS

A session with the representative ofthe Ministry of Home Affairs andthe Indian and Internationalfilm industry professionalswas held to discuss is-sues pertaining toissuance of ex-clusive visas

for shoot-ing in India

and faster clear-ances/ permissions

from the various author-ities under the aegis of the

Ministry. e Symposium con-cluded with a session with the Min-

istry of Railways, represented by Sh.Narendra A. Patil, CPRO, to discuss exist-ing issues while shooting in various loca-tions owned by the Railways anddeliberate on possible solutions for speed-

ier filming clearances. Eminent film fra-ternity members included ShyamBenegal, Ramesh Sippy, PrakashJha, Rakeysh OmprakashMehra, Sudhir Mishra,Raj Kumar Hirani,Anubhav Sinha,Kabir Khan,Vani Tri-

pathi Tikoo,Bharat Bala, Sanjay

Suri. Well-known Pro-ducers and line producers,

Iqbal Kidwai, Pravesh Sahni,Raman Lamba, Deborah Ben-

natar were also present for delibera-tions. e international community was

represented by Ruth Harley (Former CEOScreen Australia and New Zealand FilmCommission), Gisella Carr (Chief Execu-tive, Film New Zealand), James Weymanfrom Ontario Media Corp., German pro-ducer Michael Henricks, French ProducerMarc Irmer amongst others.

State Tourism bodies like e MPTourism, TN Tourism, Film Cell Gujarat,Daman Diu & Dadar Nagar Haveli, werealso present in these discussions. FILM BAZAAR

Started in 2008, the Film Bazaar hascome a long way and become a sought aerannual film market that connects filmmak-ers with producers, distributors and critics.

is year’s FilmBazaar marked many

new beginning besidescreating networking oppor-

tunities for mainstream as wellas new filmmakers and saw partici-

pation of more than 1100 Delegatesfrom over 38 countries.

With the focus on NFDC’s objective topromote India as a destination for film-ing, Knowledge Series had two sessionson Film in India with state focus on WestBengal and Daman—Diu & Dadra NagarHaveli. With State focus on West Bengal,Surajit Bose, Director of Tourism, theGovernment of West Bengal along withfilmmaker Sudhir Mishra spoke aboutshooting there. Talking about his experi-ence, Sudhir Mishra said, "I shot CAL-CUTTA MAIL a few years ago. It’s onlyin Bengal that a police inspector will tellyou a better angle for your shot." Withfocus on Daman—Diu & Dadra NagarHaveli, Vinod P Kavle, Secretary(Tourism), DD & DNH along with film-maker Karan Malhotra spoke aboutshooting there. Karan shot his debut film,AGNEEPATH in Diu and sharing his ex-perience he said, “30-40% of AG-NEEPATH was shot in Diu, which isactually a huge chunk of the movie. It’s adream for any film maker, who wants toconcentrate on film making.”

e writer is a well-known & established film critic.

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In Focus



Shaivism, or the worship of Lord Shiva is one of the mostwidely followed sects in Hinduism. Some claim that it is theoldest school of worship within Hinduism. In Different

parts of South Asia, Lord Shiva is worshipped in different forms,creating different schools within Shaivism. Few common practices,like use of Vibhuti (aka Bhasam) or the Sacred Ash is one such.But the most interesting aspect is that the popular image of LordShiva was not constituted in a single day. It rather took several cen-turies of intermixing of faiths, that popular adaptations were de-rived. Till then, and even now, Lord Shiva is worshipped asdifferent forms of Ishwar (eg Bhooteshvar, Chandeshvar, Bagesh-var etc.). Shiva today is commonly denoted as a God holding aTrident (Trishul), a cobra (Vasuki) around his neck, the third eyeof destruction on his forehead, adorning a crescent, river Gangaflowing through his hairlocks and sitting on Kailash Hill wearinga loincloth. It is said that these icons were developed with timeand is a composite of different deities/powers. Shiva is commonlyidentified with host of deities including Rudra, Agni, Indra, Vayu,Purusha and others. Shiva is one of the three supreme gods of Hin-duism and is responsible for maintenance and destruction.

Earliest forms of Shaivism were found in the Indus Valley Civ-ilization (2500-2000 BC). e Pashupati Seal and Shivlings hasbeen found across Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and other relatedsites. ere are claims that the Crescent (Half Moon) on Shiva’shead is an echo of the Bull’s Horn, adapted from Pashupati (Lordof Animals), a form of Shiva. Later, more organized forms ofShaivism started appearing. e form of Shaivism as we under-stand today began shaping up somewhere before 200 BC.Śvetāśvatara Upanishad (400 - 200 BCE) is the earliest known tex-tual exposition of Systematic philosophy of Shaivism. Even Patan-jali and Panini talk about Shiva worship in their legendary work.

During the Gupta Dynasty (320-500 AD), Puranic Shaivismstarted spreading rapidly. Singers, Narratives, Travellers, Mer-chants and settlers took it to across South Asia. Although Vaish-navism and other sects also started developing around this time,Shaivism held its unique position. e 16 Puranas were also de-veloped during this period and Lord Shiva can be seen as the cen-tral deity in Shiva Purana, Linga Purana, Matsya Purana, Kurmapurana, Skanda Purana, and Agni Purana. e Puranic corpus is

Did You Know?

OM NAMAH SHIVAYHinduism, one among the oldest practised religions of the World, with no single founding father, is the third largest religion on this planet.It never started as an organized religion and hasno founding father. It was more of a lifestyle, whichhailed from the Indus Valley Civilization. As people started migrating from one place to anotherand traders started mixing traditions and cul-tures, the present day Hinduism began shaping up.

In Focus

a complex body of materials that advancethe views of various competing cults.

When Huen Tsang, the famous Chinesetraveller visited India in 7th century, henoticed Shiva being worshipped across thecountry. He describes major Shiva Tem-ples in Kannauj, Karachi, Malwa, Kandharand Banaras. Shiva is also considered thechief patron for the Arts, Yoga and Tantra.Shaiva Siddhanta became popular inSouthern India and spread with Tamils toSri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and neigh-bouring countries. It provides the norma-tive rites and theological categories ofTantric Shaivism. e tradition was oncepractised across South Asia, however theMuslim subjugation of North India re-stricted it to South, where it spreadthrough the Bhakti Poetry of Nayanmars.ese were traditional poet saints, whosung devotional poems.

MAJOR SCHOOLS OF SHAIVISM ARE:Pashupata Shaivism: is is the oldest

‘named’ Shaivite group. While it was prac-tised in all major areas with Shaivism in-fluence, it spread majorly in the region ofGujarat, Nepal and Kashmir. In south, itsinfluence was weakened aer Shaiva Sid-dhanta was introduced. is form was alsodominant in Mahabharta Epic. Lakulisa,who is credited with the development ofinstructions for Pashupata Shaivism toldhis followers to bathe thrice in sand andlie in ashes daily, while singing devotionalsongs of Lord Shiva.

Shaiva Siddhanta: This is the norma-tive Tantric Shaivism. It spread acrossTamil regions and lays the basis forTantric forms of worship.

Kashmir Shaivism: It is the householdreligion, based strongly on BhairavTantra’s monistic interpretation. Practiceswithin Kashmir Shaivism, which becamepopular in the Kashmir region of South

Asia were derived from Shaiva Siddhantaand they even claim to have supersededthe Shaiva Siddhanta. This also provesthe presence of Shaiva Siddhanta innorthern regions.

Nath Siddh Sidhanta: Established by

Matsyendra Nath and expounded by GuruGorakhnath. Gorakhnath is also consideredas the Yogic incarnation of Shiva himself.Gurkhas of Nepal get their name from GuruGorakhnath. Guru Gorakhnath also findsreference in South Indian practices ofShaivism and has temples in West Bengal,Tripura, Assam and Odisha. e BengaliYogi Brahmins (aka Rudraja Brahmins) alsotake their name from Guru Gorakhnath.e major spread of Nath Tradition is inNepal, UP, Bihar and Bengal.

Lingayatism: is form is Shaivism isalso popular by name Veera Shaivism. Itrejects the authority of Vedas and Castesystem. It was founded in 12th century bysage Basava in Karnataka region. e fol-lowers are strictly vegetarian and do notconsume alcohol. ey wear a small Shiv-ling known as Ishta-Linga, which remainswith them before birth, till aer death.What makes Lingayatism most differentthan rest of the Hinduism is that insteadof cremating, the disciples are buried in ameditating position with their Ishta Lingain their le hand. is form of Shaivism ispopular in Karnataka and some parts ofAndhra Pradesh & Telangana.

There is so much to write about LordShiva and his forms. A two-page articlecan never justify the beliefs and practices.From Nataraja (Patron of Dance) toRudra (The ferocious), Shiva has manyforms. Somewhere he is depicted with 5heads, representing the 5 elements. Hisblue throat, Ganga running out from hishair lock, Matted Hair, Tiger Skin, Tri-dent and every other symbol wore by himhas a story associated with it and a mes-sage for society.

Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

e writer is a self-made IT entrepre-neur, who is also a passionate heritage &

history buff.



A

Heritage



Travelogue

OH KOLKATA

T he rolling syllables of “Calcutta” as the Brits calledit, or “Kaligata” as the Bengalis knew it in the past,or “Kolkata” as we call it today, evokes memories

of a glorious past in the mind's eyes of the city's myriadadmirers. is “City of Joy” of Dominic Lapierre thatserved as the capital of the British Raj in India until 1911,has also provoked some pretty nasty and acerbic com-ments—like Gunter Grass's “a bloody great mass that wasdropped by God and called Calcutta,” and Rajiv Gandhi's“a dying city.” But of course, in a way the city's stagnanteconomy, the poverty, squalor and disarray were all cen-tral to inviting such adverse comments.

Fashioned by the colonial British in the manner of agrand European capital—yet set in one of the poorest andmost overpopulated regions of India—Kolkata is a city



Travelogue

Ganga in Kolkata



Travelogue

of marked contrasts and many contradictions—a city that has had to assimilate strong Europeaninfluences and overcome limitations of its colo-nial legacy to find its own unique identity. islargest and most vibrant of Indian cities thrivesamidst seemingly insurmountable economic, so-cial and political problems, with its citizens ex-hibiting a great joie de vivre demonstrated intheir penchant for art, culture, intellectual vitalityand political awareness unsurpassed anywhereelse in the country. No other Indian city drawsthe kinds of crowds that throng its book fairs, artexhibitions and concerts. ere is a lively tradingof polemics on the city's walls as well, earning ityet another handle—the "city of posters."Kolkata's energy penetrates even to the meanestof its slums...

In a word, the city is an “enigma” to many Indians and most foreigners—continuing topuzzle newcomers while arousing an abidingnostalgia in the minds of those who have livedin or visited the city before.

e author is an experienced photojournalistwho once in writes with some flair in

accompaniment to his visuals.

A

Phot

os &

Text

: Raj

eev

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RNI No. DELBIL/2012/45826 Postal regd No. dn/297/2013-2015Date of Publication: 5th of every MonthDate of Posting: 8th & 9th of every Month

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