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www.economictimes.com | Bangalore | 28 pages | `10
June 22-28, 2014
The Online
vs Offline
Retail
Slugfest
p.16
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Its Raining Tourists
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p.26
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Rides into
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an Electric
2-Wheeler
p.12
The El Nio
Cloud of
Uncertainty
p.04
p
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8
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inance minister Arun Jaitley has
strongly defended the steep hike
in rail fare and freight rates, say-
ing the railways can survive only if us-
ers pay for availing facilities.
Passenger services have been sub-
sidized by the freight traffic. In recent
years, even freight fares have come
under pressure, he said in his first re-
action to the 14.2% increase in passen-
ger fares and 6.5 % increase in freight
rates announced on Friday. It is a dif-
ficult but correct decision, he said.
The choice before the government
was to allow the railways to bleed and
eventually walk into a debt trap or
raise fares, according to Jaitley. India
must decide whether it wants a world-
class railway or a ramshackled one.
The railway minister has taken
a difficult but a correct de-
ci sion...The Indian
Railways for the last
few years have
been running at a loss, he said in a Fa-
cebook post on Saturday.
He said the Railway Board had pro-
posed a 5% increase in freight and
10% increase in passenger fares on
February 5, 2014 when the United
Progressive Alliance government was
in power. The proposal was to ration-
alize freight rates with effect from
April 1, 2014 and the passenger fares
with effect from May 1, 2014, he said
adding that the proposal was en-
dorsed by the then prime minister
Manmohan Singh.
Jaitley pointed that the Railway
Board accordingly notified the in-
crease on May 16, 2014, on the day of
election results, but the then railway
minister countermanded the order.
By withdrawing the countermanding
order, the present Railway minister DS
Sadananda Gowda has taken a chal-
lenging decision, he said.
Our Bureau/New Delhi
whats news
JUNE 22-28, 2014
02
Washington: Prime minister Narendra
Modi, once denied a visa to enter the United
States over massacres of Muslims, is expect-
ed to receive the honour of address-
ing a joint session of the US Congress
during a visit to Washington in Sep-
tember.
California Republican Ed Royce,
chairman of the House of Represent-
atives Foreign Affairs Committee,
wrote to House Speaker John Boeh-
ner on Friday and asked that he in-
vite Modi to address a joint session of the
House and Senate during his trip.
In every aspect whether it be in politi-
cal, economic or security relations
the United States has no more
important partner in South Asia,
the letter said. It is not an over-
statement to say that the US-India
relationship will be one of the de-
fining partnerships of the 21st cen-
tury.
Boehners office did not imme-
diately announce a response to the letter,
which was also signed by North Carolina
Republican Representative George Holding.
Congressional aides said they expected
an invitation would be issued to the Indian
leader.
The administration of President George
W Bush denied Modi a visa in 2005 under a
1998 US law barring entry to foreigners who
have committed particularly severe viola-
tions of religious freedom.
The United States, which sees India as a
natural ally and potential counterbalance to
China in Asia, is eager to expand business
and security cooperation with the Modi gov-
ernment. However, the relationship has
failed to live up to that billing, due to bureau-
cratic and regulatory obstacles in India to
expanded business ties and a political dis-
pute over US treatment of an Indian diplo-
mat accused of mistreating her nanny,
which some analysts blamed on a lack of
policy focus by the Obama administration.
Reuters
US lawmakers seek to honour Modi with address to Congress
Govt says it knows
identity of Indian
kidnappers
New Delhi: The government has
said it has established the identity of
the captors who have kidnapped 39
Indians in Iraq, but stopped short of
revealing their identity and indicat-
ed that some contact may have been
established with the kidnappers. On
Saturday, the external affairs minis-
try spokesperson reiterated that all
the 39 Indians are safe. Sources said
negotiations are ongoing with cap-
tors through regional powers and
players that wield influence with the
captors. Though the government re-
fused to name the group, it is widely
believed that ISIS is behind the kid-
napping. The ministry has also re-
ceived details about the wherea-
bouts of several Indians of the
10,000-strong community across
Iraq. As many as 49 out of 1,300 In-
dian staff in a Turkish company in
northern Iraq want to return. And
20 out of 1,000 Indians in a factory
from southern Iraq are also keen to
return and government is in touch
with company management.
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
Russian forces on
combat alert
Moscow: Russi an presi dent
Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered
military forces in central Russia on
combat alert as well as a drill of air-
borne troops, a day after Ukraine
ordered a cease-fire with pro-Rus-
sian rebels. Nato said earlier this
week that Russia has resumed a mili-
tary build-up on the border with
Ukraine where pro-Russian separa-
tists have been fighting government
forces for weeks in a conflict that has
left about 300 people dead and dis-
placed over 34,000. AP
Suspense over
Gogois exit
Guwahati: Amid indications that he
might be replaced, Assam chief min-
ister Tarun Gogoi has refused to con-
firm the move to replace him and
said any such decision will be taken
by the Congress high command only.
I wont say yes, I wont say no, Go-
goi told a press conference here
when asked if his replacement was in
the offing. It is going to be a high
command decision only... I am going
to Delhi tomorrow, he added. As-
sam senior minister Himanta Biswa
Sarma, who is leading the dissident
camp of the party in the state, is likely
to meet the Congress leadership
soon. In a separate development, Go-
goi opposed a fresh proposal from
the external affairs ministry on grant-
ing visa-free entry for Bangladeshi
nationals below 10 years and above
70 years.
PTI and Bikash Singh
Sebi calls for tax
clarity on trusts
and securities
New Delhi: Market regulator Securi-
ties and Exchange Board of India has
sought clarity in taxation on real es-
tate investment trust, infrastructure
investment trusts and debt securi-
ties in the forthcoming budget that
would draw investors to the mar-
kets. Sebi will soon finalize norms
for REITs, but is awaiting clarity on
taxation issues, Sebi chairman UK
Sinha said on Saturday. The regula-
tor wants a pass-through status for
investment trusts and a uniform
withholding tax rate for all catego-
ries of bonds. A pass-through tax
status would mean that the trust it-
self does not face any tax but inves-
tors are taxed on their profits indi-
vidually. He said Sebi was ready with
guidelines that would be announced
immediately after tax clarity from
the government. Sinha also high-
lighted the issue of certain anoma-
lies in withholding tax on debt secu-
rities and hoped for a quick resolu-
tion. Currently, tax rates vary for
different categories of debt. All that
we have asked the government is
that try and reconcile it because if
you are looking for long term and
big money, especially for infrastruc-
ture companies, so long as the
anomalies exist people will hesitate
to invest. That is the point we are
making, Sinha said. Sinha also
stressed on the need to encourage
small and medium enterprises to
get listed.
Our Bureau
FM defends sharp
rise in rail fares
The residents of Worlis Campa Cola society in Mumbai stalled the demolition of the illegal apartments
yet again by disallowing the authorities from entering the compound on Saturday. Santosh Bane
India must
decide
whether it
wants a
world-class
railway or a
ramshackled
one
Arun Jaitley,
finance minister
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s a procession of governors pays
courtesy calls to newly elected prime
minister Narendra Modi and home
minister Rajnath Singh, their excel-
lencies cannot escape the scrutiny
which surrounds the question of
their continuance in their respective
Raj Bhavans. Many are former chief
ministers, or once ac-
tive politicians, or gov-
ernment servants re-
warded by a particular
regime. The current
government, as the last
one did in 2004, wants
them out; its list of those
who they want to pack
off to these gubernato-
rial retirements is as
long as an arm.
Seasoned political
watchers consider this
unseemly nudging of
governors and other ap-
pointees of a previous
regime at the head of constitutional,
statutory and even some executive
bodies as par for the course. All re-
gimes do it, is a common consensus,
and yet, the ugliness this engenders at
the beginning of a new government in
that pink afterglow of an electoral vic-
tory is not a good portend. Is there a
way out? Should India, like the United
States, institutionalize partisanship in
appointments; a change of regime au-
tomatically leading to a change in
these posts?
The Indian System
In 2004, when the UPA
government took charge
they lost no time in pack-
ing off governors from
the NDA regime from Raj
Bhavans across the coun-
try. A court case, the
judgement for which was
delivered in 2010, then
enshrined certain rules
under which a governor
could be removed before
his/her tenure is up.
These included flouting
of rules of conduct. This
pretty much means that the govern-
ment has to depend on the incum-
bents own decision on whether or not
they want to quit their posts.
It is true that the UPA [govern-
ment] removed governors before
their term was up. It is also true that in
1977 the Morarji Desai government
dismissed at least nine state govern-
ments when the Janata Party came to
power. All this is now water under the
bridge. We have a court judgement
which is very clear, says Congress
spokesperson Raj Babbar.
The matter is, however is not so sim-
ple, according to Sanjaya Baru, ex-
media adviser to former prime minis-
ter Manmohan Singh and director for
geo-economics and strategy at the In-
ternational Institute for Strategic
Studies. The appointments of gover-
nors and others are political and have
been so since Indira Gandhis time.
There is no justification for people to
stay on once the government chang-
es, he says. Look at the roll call of
governors, mostly former chief minis-
ters or loyal government servants like
ESL Narasimhan and MK Narayanan.
Why would the new government want
to keep them on?
Amitabh Mattoo, director of the
Australia-India Institute and govern-
ance expert, agrees that the time has
indeed come to make certain changes
A way out is for
a convention to
be built that
governors resign
on their own
once the
government that
appointed them
is no longer in
power
Amitabh Mattoo,
governance expert
in the way these posts are dealt with in India.
The judgement by the Supreme Court in the
2010 case states that the president can remove
the governor from office anytime without as-
signing any reason, but this power cannot be
exercised in an arbitrary, capricious or unrea-
sonable manner, he says. The fact, however,
is, that more often than not, governors are ap-
pointed for partisan reasons by the govern-
ment of the day, he adds.

The Way Out
The way out is for a convention to be built that
governors resign on their own once the govern-
ment that appointed them is no longer in pow-
er, says Mattoo. Such a situation will take years
and may not exactly be followed by all in faith
though. Mattoo says that failing this, and look-
ing at the way the whole controversy over the
tenure of governors is brewing, an amendment
to the Constitution becomes inevitable. Two
things need to be added as amendments to the
way in which governors are appointed. One,
governors should be appointed only on the ba-
sis of the recommendations of a panel which
includes the prime minister and the leader of
the opposition. Secondly, the tenure of the gov-
ernor is made co-terminus with the government
that appoints the governor, he says.
The embarrassment of waiting and nudging
Constitutional post holders to vacate these
seats has occupied much of the weeks news
cycle and needs a more settled solution.
India follows the Westminster model, but
this very American institutionalization of par-
tisanship seems to be the way to go. Especially
after the comprehensive breaking of the Con-
gress dominance and a genuine two coalition
political system that seems to be emerging.
When a Cold Chair
Becomes a Hot Seat
Governors are no more than ornamental office bearers, but a new government at the
Centre invariably kicks up a storm by nudging incumbents to resign. Is there a way out?
Governor of Rajasthan Margaret Alva with prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday

:: Nistula Hebbar
A
news analysis
JUNE 22-28, 2014
03
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he first big challenge to Narendra Modis
prime ministerial skills is now possibly in
plain sight and its developing not in India
but thousands of miles away off the coast of
Peru, South America. The now-notorious
El Nio weather phenomenon is not yet
fully developed it will reach its full frui-
tion around September and October, but
already it is being linked to a weak mon-
soon, soaring prices of vegetables and the
possibility of poor agricultural output. The
BJP fought this election around the inabili-
ty of the previous government to rein in in-
flation and the rising prices of essential
commodities. Now it is faced with the very
real possibility that inflation could well
head higher in the coming months.
The signs are hardly positive. The mon-
soon shortfall is currently around 42% and
with land temperatures high and little sign
of rain in a number of regions, crop plant-
ing is delayed. During the 2009 drought,
one of the worst India faced in many dec-
ades, rainfall deficit in June was running at
similar levels. Delayed planting of key
crops such as onion has already forced
prices upward.
What is El Nio and how will it affect the
monsoon? The big problem here is one of
uncertainty about the future path of the
monsoon, about the extent of any weak-
ness in rainfall and even the extent of the El
Nio phenomenon. It has been, and still
is, very difficult to predict the monsoon
and the effect of the El Nio on it, points
out Balaji Rajagopalan, professor at the
University of Colorado in Boulder (US),
who has researched the links between the
Indian monsoon and the El Nio.
The El Nio Cycle
Indeed El Nio, and the role it plays in peri-
odic droughts which hit the Indian subcon-
tinent, was one of the foundational ques-
tions that drove modern weather research.
In his book on Victorian famines, writer
Mike Davis calls the El Nio Southern Oscil-
lation (or ENSO to give it its full name) the
elusive great white whale of tropical mete-
orology for almost a century. And despite
more than a century of research, it still, in a
sense, remains that way.
El Nio arises in the eastern Pacific,
along the coast of South America. In nor-
mal years, there exists both a tempera-
ture and air pressure difference between
the oceans there, and the western Pacific,
thousands of miles on the other side, near
Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The waters
of the eastern Pacific near South America
are colder, and are associated with higher
atmospheric air pressure over them, as
compared with the waters of the western
Pacific which are warmer, and are associ-
ated with lower atmospheric pressure.
As we learnt in high school geography,
wind always blows from a region of high
pressure to a region of low pressure, and
this is what happens over the Pacific, with
winds blowing from the east to the west. In
turn, the air over the western pacific rises
into the atmosphere and then cycles back
east, and the whole process starts again.
During El Nio, the sea temperatures
off the coast of South America are much
warmer than in other years. Along with
this, the air pressure over it is much weak-
er as well. This sharply narrows the differ-
ence between the western and eastern
Pacific, making the cycle much weaker. In
a sense the region of low pressure moves
away from Asia and towards South Ameri-
ca. The Indian monsoon too is affected by
this movement of low pressure air away
from the Asian region into the middle of
the Pacific and is dragged away from the
Indian land mass. The result: rains and
winds over India which are far lower than
normal. Indeed, large parts of South and
Southeast Asia become drier. Conversely,
the Pacific coasts of South America, in-
cluding countries such as Peru, become
much wetter and see much higher rainfall.
This, very broadly, is how El Nio
works. In actual fact though, its hardly
that simple.
An Old Puzzle
As the chart on the next page (El Nio and
the Indian Monsoon...) shows, strong El
Nio conditions (the shaded region to the
right) usually occur along with a weak
monsoon. But note that there have been
cases, most notably in 1997, when a very
strong El Nio was accompanied by a nor-
mal monsoon. We were anticipating a
major disaster in 1997, as El Nio devel-
oped, but nothing happened, says K
Krishna Kumar, a meteorologist currently
consulting with the meteorological de-
partment in Qatar, but who has been with
the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorol-
ogy since 1982. Kumar and Rajagopalan
were co-authors on a paper in 2006 which
pointed to a simple fact: ...severe
droughts in India have always been ac-
companied by El Nio events. Yet El Nio
events have not always produced severe
droughts.
The reasons for this complex relation-
ship are still unclear. In 1997 for instance,
one possible reason for the normal mon-
big story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
04
Here Comes
:: Avinash Celestine
El Nio could lead to a weak monsoon,
posing the most serious challenge yet
to the new government
Monsoon shortfall is
currently around 42%.
Land temperatures are
high, there is little sign
of rain in a number of
regions, and delayed
planting of key
crops such as onion
has already forced
prices upward
Trouble
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inance minister Arun Jaitley has
strongly defended the steep hike
in rail fare and freight rates, say-
ing the railways can survive only if us-
ers pay for availing facilities.
Passenger services have been sub-
sidized by the freight traffic. In recent
years, even freight fares have come
under pressure, he said in his first re-
action to the 14.2% increase in passen-
ger fares and 6.5 % increase in freight
rates announced on Friday. It is a dif-
ficult but correct decision, he said.
The choice before the government
was to allow the railways to bleed and
eventually walk into a debt trap or
raise fares, according to Jaitley. India
must decide whether it wants a world-
class railway or a ramshackled one.
The railway minister has taken
a difficult but a correct de-
ci sion...The Indian
Railways for the last
few years have
been running at a loss, he said in a Fa-
cebook post on Saturday.
He said the Railway Board had pro-
posed a 5% increase in freight and
10% increase in passenger fares on
February 5, 2014 when the United
Progressive Alliance government was
in power. The proposal was to ration-
alize freight rates with effect from
April 1, 2014 and the passenger fares
with effect from May 1, 2014, he said
adding that the proposal was en-
dorsed by the then prime minister
Manmohan Singh.
Jaitley pointed that the Railway
Board accordingly notified the in-
crease on May 16, 2014, on the day of
election results, but the then railway
minister countermanded the order.
By withdrawing the countermanding
order, the present Railway minister DS
Sadananda Gowda has taken a chal-
lenging decision, he said.
Our Bureau/New Delhi
whats news
JUNE 22-28, 2014
02
Washington: Prime minister Narendra
Modi, once denied a visa to enter the United
States over massacres of Muslims, is expect-
ed to receive the honour of address-
ing a joint session of the US Congress
during a visit to Washington in Sep-
tember.
California Republican Ed Royce,
chairman of the House of Represent-
atives Foreign Affairs Committee,
wrote to House Speaker John Boeh-
ner on Friday and asked that he in-
vite Modi to address a joint session of the
House and Senate during his trip.
In every aspect whether it be in politi-
cal, economic or security relations
the United States has no more
important partner in South Asia,
the letter said. It is not an over-
statement to say that the US-India
relationship will be one of the de-
fining partnerships of the 21st cen-
tury.
Boehners office did not imme-
diately announce a response to the letter,
which was also signed by North Carolina
Republican Representative George Holding.
Congressional aides said they expected
an invitation would be issued to the Indian
leader.
The administration of President George
W Bush denied Modi a visa in 2005 under a
1998 US law barring entry to foreigners who
have committed particularly severe viola-
tions of religious freedom.
The United States, which sees India as a
natural ally and potential counterbalance to
China in Asia, is eager to expand business
and security cooperation with the Modi gov-
ernment. However, the relationship has
failed to live up to that billing, due to bureau-
cratic and regulatory obstacles in India to
expanded business ties and a political dis-
pute over US treatment of an Indian diplo-
mat accused of mistreating her nanny,
which some analysts blamed on a lack of
policy focus by the Obama administration.
Reuters
US lawmakers seek to honour Modi with address to Congress
Govt says it knows
identity of Indian
kidnappers
New Delhi: The government has
said it has established the identity of
the captors who have kidnapped 39
Indians in Iraq, but stopped short of
revealing their identity and indicat-
ed that some contact may have been
established with the kidnappers. On
Saturday, the external affairs minis-
try spokesperson reiterated that all
the 39 Indians are safe. Sources said
negotiations are ongoing with cap-
tors through regional powers and
players that wield influence with the
captors. Though the government re-
fused to name the group, it is widely
believed that ISIS is behind the kid-
napping. The ministry has also re-
ceived details about the wherea-
bouts of several Indians of the
10,000-strong community across
Iraq. As many as 49 out of 1,300 In-
dian staff in a Turkish company in
northern Iraq want to return. And
20 out of 1,000 Indians in a factory
from southern Iraq are also keen to
return and government is in touch
with company management.
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
Russian forces on
combat alert
Moscow: Russi an presi dent
Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered
military forces in central Russia on
combat alert as well as a drill of air-
borne troops, a day after Ukraine
ordered a cease-fire with pro-Rus-
sian rebels. Nato said earlier this
week that Russia has resumed a mili-
tary build-up on the border with
Ukraine where pro-Russian separa-
tists have been fighting government
forces for weeks in a conflict that has
left about 300 people dead and dis-
placed over 34,000. AP
Suspense over
Gogois exit
Guwahati: Amid indications that he
might be replaced, Assam chief min-
ister Tarun Gogoi has refused to con-
firm the move to replace him and
said any such decision will be taken
by the Congress high command only.
I wont say yes, I wont say no, Go-
goi told a press conference here
when asked if his replacement was in
the offing. It is going to be a high
command decision only... I am going
to Delhi tomorrow, he added. As-
sam senior minister Himanta Biswa
Sarma, who is leading the dissident
camp of the party in the state, is likely
to meet the Congress leadership
soon. In a separate development, Go-
goi opposed a fresh proposal from
the external affairs ministry on grant-
ing visa-free entry for Bangladeshi
nationals below 10 years and above
70 years.
PTI and Bikash Singh
Sebi calls for tax
clarity on trusts
and securities
New Delhi: Market regulator Securi-
ties and Exchange Board of India has
sought clarity in taxation on real es-
tate investment trust, infrastructure
investment trusts and debt securi-
ties in the forthcoming budget that
would draw investors to the mar-
kets. Sebi will soon finalize norms
for REITs, but is awaiting clarity on
taxation issues, Sebi chairman UK
Sinha said on Saturday. The regula-
tor wants a pass-through status for
investment trusts and a uniform
withholding tax rate for all catego-
ries of bonds. A pass-through tax
status would mean that the trust it-
self does not face any tax but inves-
tors are taxed on their profits indi-
vidually. He said Sebi was ready with
guidelines that would be announced
immediately after tax clarity from
the government. Sinha also high-
lighted the issue of certain anoma-
lies in withholding tax on debt secu-
rities and hoped for a quick resolu-
tion. Currently, tax rates vary for
different categories of debt. All that
we have asked the government is
that try and reconcile it because if
you are looking for long term and
big money, especially for infrastruc-
ture companies, so long as the
anomalies exist people will hesitate
to invest. That is the point we are
making, Sinha said. Sinha also
stressed on the need to encourage
small and medium enterprises to
get listed.
Our Bureau
FM defends sharp
rise in rail fares
The residents of Worlis Campa Cola society in Mumbai stalled the demolition of the illegal apartments
yet again by disallowing the authorities from entering the compound on Saturday. Santosh Bane
India must
decide
whether it
wants a
world-class
railway or a
ramshackled
one
Arun Jaitley,
finance minister
T
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he first big challenge to Narendra Modis
prime ministerial skills is now possibly in
plain sight and its developing not in India
but thousands of miles away off the coast of
Peru, South America. The now-notorious
El Nio weather phenomenon is not yet
fully developed it will reach its full frui-
tion around September and October, but
already it is being linked to a weak mon-
soon, soaring prices of vegetables and the
possibility of poor agricultural output. The
BJP fought this election around the inabili-
ty of the previous government to rein in in-
flation and the rising prices of essential
commodities. Now it is faced with the very
real possibility that inflation could well
head higher in the coming months.
The signs are hardly positive. The mon-
soon shortfall is currently around 42% and
with land temperatures high and little sign
of rain in a number of regions, crop plant-
ing is delayed. During the 2009 drought,
one of the worst India faced in many dec-
ades, rainfall deficit in June was running at
similar levels. Delayed planting of key
crops such as onion has already forced
prices upward.
What is El Nio and how will it affect the
monsoon? The big problem here is one of
uncertainty about the future path of the
monsoon, about the extent of any weak-
ness in rainfall and even the extent of the El
Nio phenomenon. It has been, and still
is, very difficult to predict the monsoon
and the effect of the El Nio on it, points
out Balaji Rajagopalan, professor at the
University of Colorado in Boulder (US),
who has researched the links between the
Indian monsoon and the El Nio.
The El Nio Cycle
Indeed El Nio, and the role it plays in peri-
odic droughts which hit the Indian subcon-
tinent, was one of the foundational ques-
tions that drove modern weather research.
In his book on Victorian famines, writer
Mike Davis calls the El Nio Southern Oscil-
lation (or ENSO to give it its full name) the
elusive great white whale of tropical mete-
orology for almost a century. And despite
more than a century of research, it still, in a
sense, remains that way.
El Nio arises in the eastern Pacific,
along the coast of South America. In nor-
mal years, there exists both a tempera-
ture and air pressure difference between
the oceans there, and the western Pacific,
thousands of miles on the other side, near
Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The waters
of the eastern Pacific near South America
are colder, and are associated with higher
atmospheric air pressure over them, as
compared with the waters of the western
Pacific which are warmer, and are associ-
ated with lower atmospheric pressure.
As we learnt in high school geography,
wind always blows from a region of high
pressure to a region of low pressure, and
this is what happens over the Pacific, with
winds blowing from the east to the west. In
turn, the air over the western pacific rises
into the atmosphere and then cycles back
east, and the whole process starts again.
During El Nio, the sea temperatures
off the coast of South America are much
warmer than in other years. Along with
this, the air pressure over it is much weak-
er as well. This sharply narrows the differ-
ence between the western and eastern
Pacific, making the cycle much weaker. In
a sense the region of low pressure moves
away from Asia and towards South Ameri-
ca. The Indian monsoon too is affected by
this movement of low pressure air away
from the Asian region into the middle of
the Pacific and is dragged away from the
Indian land mass. The result: rains and
winds over India which are far lower than
normal. Indeed, large parts of South and
Southeast Asia become drier. Conversely,
the Pacific coasts of South America, in-
cluding countries such as Peru, become
much wetter and see much higher rainfall.
This, very broadly, is how El Nio
works. In actual fact though, its hardly
that simple.
An Old Puzzle
As the chart on the next page (El Nio and
the Indian Monsoon...) shows, strong El
Nio conditions (the shaded region to the
right) usually occur along with a weak
monsoon. But note that there have been
cases, most notably in 1997, when a very
strong El Nio was accompanied by a nor-
mal monsoon. We were anticipating a
major disaster in 1997, as El Nio devel-
oped, but nothing happened, says K
Krishna Kumar, a meteorologist currently
consulting with the meteorological de-
partment in Qatar, but who has been with
the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorol-
ogy since 1982. Kumar and Rajagopalan
were co-authors on a paper in 2006 which
pointed to a simple fact: ...severe
droughts in India have always been ac-
companied by El Nio events. Yet El Nio
events have not always produced severe
droughts.
The reasons for this complex relation-
ship are still unclear. In 1997 for instance,
one possible reason for the normal mon-
big story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
04
Here Comes
:: Avinash Celestine
El Nio could lead to a weak monsoon,
posing the most serious challenge yet
to the new government
Monsoon shortfall is
currently around 42%.
Land temperatures are
high, there is little sign
of rain in a number of
regions, and delayed
planting of key
crops such as onion
has already forced
prices upward
Trouble
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soon, despite a strong El Nio, was
another phenomenon, which oc-
curred independently of El Nio.
The mechanism involved was simi-
lar to El Nio (a difference in pres-
sures and temperatures between
two different parts of the ocean
which sets up a cycle of wind move-
ment), except that this time, the cy-
cle didnt occur in the Pacific, but
between the western and eastern
Indian Ocean. This so-called Indian
Ocean Dipole (IOD), effectively
acted as a counterweight to El Nio,
dragging the Indian monsoon back
towards the Indian landmass.
This tug-of-war between the El
Nio phenomenon, and other sep-
arately occurring weather phe-
nomena, makes the complex prob-
lem of forecasting a monsoons
strength much more so. A positive
IOD [such as that which occurred
97] can nullify the impact of El
Nio, points out a senior govern-
ment scientist. Forecasters will be
looking to see how the IOD will be-
have this time around as well.
The 2006 paper pointed to an-
other possible indicator of how
strongly El Nio affects the Indian
monsoon. It argued that Indian
droughts are much more likely to
occur in years when the warming
effect of El Nio in the Pacific ex-
tends far beyond the eastern Pacif-
ic and into the central Pacific Ocean
as well. If true, this means that just
knowing the existence of an El
Nio phenomenon isnt enough
its also important to understand
exactly which parts of the Pacific
Ocean are getting unusually warm.
However, currently our El Nio
prediction models dont have the
ability to account for this factor,
says Kumar.
Adding to the problem is that El
Nio doesnt occur before the
monsoon it evolves along with it.
El Nio is not a predictor of the
monsoon, says the government
scientist. It co-evolves along with
it. They are not two independent
systems interacting apart from
each other.
Rajagopalan says: El Nio is
firmly established around Septem-
ber and thats when the correlation
between Indian monsoon patterns
and El Nio is the strongest.
Unfortunately of course, govern-
ments and farmers dont have the
luxury of waiting till then to under-
stand the nature of the effect.
Reading the Signs
So what will scientists be looking at
in the coming weeks? Apart from
the direct indicators of the drift in
El Nio, as captured through vari-
ous indices and measures, they will
also look for possible phenomena
like the IOD that could counteract
the adverse effects of El Nio. On
that front, the news isnt good
earlier this week Japanese weather
forecasters pointed to the possibil-
ity of an IOD which could actually
reinforce the impact of El Nio,
and force monsoon winds and rain
away from the Indian subconti-
nent. I would also look at inci-
dents like the occurrence of rainfall
over the eastern Pacific, says Ku-
mar. Once that happens, it dis-
turbs the monsoon circulation
which gets displaced away from the
Bay of Bengal. However this has not
happened as yet.
Ultimately though, as Rajagopa-
lan points out, there is no getting
away from the complexity. I dont
see monsoon forecasting getting
much simpler any time soon. We
will have to learn to manage our
risks much better in this context.
The stakes are high enough. As
Sulochana Gadgil and Siddhartha
Gadgil pointed out in a paper some
years back in the Economic and Po-
litical Weekly, despite agricultures
share in GDP declining substantial-
ly over the past several decades,
the impact of severe droughts has
remained between 2% and 5% of
GDP. The 2002 drought they found,
lead to a 15% impact on food grain
production. And ironically, they
found that while the adverse effects
of a drought on GDP remained rela-
tively unchanged, the positive im-
pact of a good monsoon on GDP
had actually declined since 1980.
The new government has its
work cut out.
big story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
05
India
Australia
South
America
Trade wind drops
In
creased convectio
n
When trade winds drop,
warm surface water may ow eastwards
Warm sea currents replace the cold
water and establishes a deep layer
of warm water along the coast
Normal Year
Walker Circulation*
India
Australia
South
America
Warm surface water piling up
* Walker circulation is an ocean-based air-circulation system that inuences the Earths weather
Cold water pressing upwards,
replacing the warm surface water
Trade winds blowing westwards
El Nino Year
El Nio
Phenomenon
An El Nio arises when the temperature
and pressure differences between the
Western Pacic (Asia) and Eastern Pacic
(South America) weaken. This causes
a displacement of low pressure areas
towards the central and eastern Pacic,
weakening the monsoon
El Nio years (the shaded
region) have not always been
accompanied by drought.
Severe droughts however, have
occurred in El Nio years.
Note: El Nio strength is as per
NINO3 index. Monsoon strength
measured as deviation from
the mean. Dotted line is a trend
line of the relationship. Chart
adapted from Unravelling the
Mystery of Indian
Monsoon Failure During El
Nio, by K Krishna Kumar et
al, published in Science, 2006.
Underlying data courtesy Balaji
Rajagopalan, a co-author.
Monsoon status as per IMD.
2.0
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
-0.5
-0.5
-1.0
-1.0
-1.5
-1.5
-2.0
-2.0
-2.5
-3.0
M
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S
O
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N

S
T
R
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N
G
T
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EL NIO STRENGTH
1961
1917
1878
1994
1970
1973
1964 1872 1889
1946 1945
1908
1879
1949
1938
1954
1886
1922
1924
1903
1948
2010
1999
1984
1937
1960
1885
1880
1962
1995
1912
1895
1929
1932
1891
1913
1907
1939
2001 1952
2000 1876
1985
1873 1974
1966
1928
1968
2004
1986
1911
1920
1979
1904
1915
1991
1957
1902
1951
1941
1982
1965
1905
1987
2002
2009
1918
1972
1899
1877
1997
1983
1901
1871
1881
1943
1977 1921
1897
1887
1936
1934
1884
1990
1926
2008
1953
1914
1900
1919
1993
1940
1963
1969
1923
1896
1888
1930 1925
1894
1958 1933
1892
1874
1942
1916
1893
1975
1959 1947
1988
Drought
Status
Flood
Normal
El Nio and the Indian Monsoon (1871-2012): Its Complicated
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n February 23, 1900 The Times of India
ran a brief item on the increase in
exports of hides, bones and horns from
drought-devastated Gujarat. A govern-
ment inspector had taken totals from
all the railway stations in the region
and come to a total of 139,984 maunds
of hides.
Assuming that six hides go to an Indi-
an maund, it is pointed out in the official
note that the figures under review must
represent a mortality of cattle of more
than 800,000, wrote the Times, noting
that two years back, in 1898, the amount
exported was just 6% of this total. The
hides went to tanneries and the bones
were ground and exported, along with
the horns which were used to make glue.
It is hard to underestimate the quan-
tity of misery that underlies this brisk
note. Cattle had always been a critical
resource for farmers in Gujarat, provid-
ing them with dairy proteins in their
diet, labour and manure for their fields
and perhaps even some surplus income
through sale of butter and ghee. In
famines many farmers tried to keep
feeding their cattle and only let them die
in utter extremis.
Tropical Scourge
This is the rare fact that Mike Davis does
not cite in Late Victorian Holocausts: El
Nio Famines and the Making of the Third
World (2002). There can be few other
relevant ones not included in this data-
driven, yet passionate book. It is packed
with tables and maps, and hops from
India to China to Brazil and other places
in-between, yet makes for gripping
reading due to the controlled rage that
drives Davis exploration of how a global
climatic event combined with capital-
ism as practiced by European empires
to kill well over 60 million people from
1876 to 1902.
Davis acknowledges that the El Nio
Southern Oscillations (ENSO) impact
is now being seen as so huge and wide
that it is tempting to go back in history
and link it to many historical events, like
the French Revolution. But he points
out that ENSOs real impact is felt in a
fairly well-defined tropical area, and
much less in temperate regions beyond
(like France). But his point is that it isnt
ENSO as much as the response to
it which caused a disaster of truly plan-
etary magnitude, with drought and fam-
ine reported as well in Java, the Philip-
pines, New Caledonia, Korea, Brazil,
southern Africa and the Maghreb quite
apart from the epicentres in China and
India. ENSO was an enabler, but Euro-
pean empires ruthlessly took up the
opportunity.
Davis starts with India where ENSO
seems to really flex its muscles first,
with failure of the southwest monsoon.
From here the effects fall eastwards,
reaching the northeast coast of Brazil as
much as two years later. In 1876 the vice-
roy, Lord Lytton, was a particularly bad
choice to deal with problems. He hadnt
wanted the job, had no knowledge of In-
dia and may have been addicted to opi-
um. But this didnt prevent him being
quite focussed on enforcing the eco-
nomic doctrine of the day, which was a
fervent belief in free markets, as long as
they worked to the benefit of the British.
Capitalist Conspiracy
This wasnt quite how it was expressed.
In the nearly 20 years since the Rising of
1857 the British had been at pains to
paint their raj as a force for the benefit of
India, compared to the undisciplined
looting of the East India Company days.
This was why the telegraph and railways
had been built, both of which would as-
suredly prevent such things like famine
deaths by first informing the authorities
of the problem and then helping them
rush aid there. Indian peasants were be-
ing helped to move beyond a subsist-
ence economy by growing cash crops,
like cotton, for which Britain provided a
ready market.
In 1876 these arguments were shown
to be not just hollow, but hypocritical.
Growing cash crops helped the British
recover land revenue efficiently, and
benefitted traders and moneylenders.
But in a pattern which can still be seen to
this day in crops ranging from onions to
mangoes, farmers often fail to get the
benefits traders take the bulk of the
profit, moneylenders most of whats left
big story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
06
Social Darwinians
argued that human
beings had to struggle
and losers were
weak and deserved
to lose. Famine relief
was seen as a waste
because the people
who needed it
didnt deserve it
:: Vikram Doctor
O
In The Shadow of
El Nio
Todays leaders are better equipped
to handle the meteorological
phenomenon unlike their Victorian
predecessors who preferred
profiteering to famine relief
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and farmers are left more vulnerable for
no longer growing even their subsist-
ence crops.
Lytton wasnt just expressing an eco-
nomic doctrine, but also a broader phi-
losophy that would later try to gain
some scientific standing by allying itself
with the late Victorian eras great scien-
tific hero, Charles Darwin. Applying his
vision of the natural world evolving
through a struggle for survival, the so-
cial Darwinians, as followers of Herbert
Spencer and Francis Galton (Darwins
cousin) would be called, argued that hu-
man beings had to struggle and losers
were weak and deserved to lose.
Famine relief was seen as a waste be-
cause the people who needed it didnt
deserve it. The Gujarati is a soft man...
accustomed to earn his good food easi-
ly. Very many, even among the poorest,
had never taken a tool in hand in their
lives, wrote one bureaucrat.
A Few Good Men
The older school of British administra-
tors, like the Duke of Buckingham in Ma-
dras, tried to resist such policies, but were
overruled or eventually fell in line. A strik-
ing example was Sir Richard Temple who
in Bengal in 1873-74 stopped a famine with
rice imported from Burma and doled out
in adequate amounts along with dal for
protein. But after a viceregal reprimand
he changed tacks so completely that when
sent as Famine Delegate to South India he
decreed a famine ration so small it pro-
vided less sustenance for hard labour
than the diet in the infamous Buchenwald
concentration camp.
This was in the camps that the govern-
ment finally opened. Lytton was forced
into this by bad publicity back in the UK.
This came from journals like The States-
man, which deputed a correspondent to
cover the famine, but Davis also notes
the impact of foreign observers, partic-
ularly Americans as missionaries or
travellers like the ex-President Ulysses
Grant, whose world tour of 1877-79 en-
sured his group, including journalists,
saw the effects of ENSO in almost every
tropical country they visited. They
werent deferential to the British and
were truly appalled by what they saw
and reported.
The late 19th century ENSO events
also resulted in an even more impor-
tant long-term change the rise of In-
dian activists to challenge British rule.
Davis points out how the words of crit-
ics like Dadabhai Naoroji, whose paper
The Poverty of India came out in
1876, were given weight by the famine,
while institutions like the Poona Sarva-
janik Sabha, which came up to deal
with famine in the Deccan, were radi-
calized by the poor response of the
British into taking a more radical route
than first envisaged. AO Hume, a Brit-
ish administrator who retired during
Lyttons tenure, was moved to help
start the Indian National Congress after
seeing first hand the negative effects of
the hypocrisies of his peers.
Communists Were no Better
Much of this was linked to the relief
camps. Pushed into starting them, the
government made sure these provided
little real relief. The camps became very
efficient as places to die, thanks to the
diseases that spread among the weak-
ened people and the lack of hygiene (an-
other person Lytton ignored was Flor-
ence Nightingale, who had long lobbied
for better hygiene in India). Lytton re-
tired in 1880, but his legacy was contin-
ued by successors like Lord Curzon,
who also had to deal with drought stem-
ming from an ENSO event around 1899-
1900, but again allowed thousands to
die due to inadequate relief and unre-
stricted food trading.
Davis is careful to focus blame on the
British and not on ENSO. It is easy to as-
sume and some of this can be seen as
we gear ourselves for the current ENSO
that such an unstoppable force inevi-
tably brings death in its wake. But Davis
counters this by looking at ENSO-linked
droughts before 1876, going back to
Mughal times. All these caused hard-
ship, but not on the same scale since
farmers were more self-sufficient, fol-
lowed traditional water conservation
techniques and grew grains like
drought-tolerant millets.
Davis may be a bit too lyrical in lauding
traditional rural practices. They might
have withstood drought better, but prob-
ably at the expense of weaker sections,
like women and Dalits. And it is Amartya
Sen despite being vilified as a doctrinaire
leftist, who gently criticized Davis in a
generally admiring review of his book.
Sen pointed out that capitalism alone
cant be blamed for famines, since some
of the worst of the 20th century took
place under communist regimes. And he
points out that technology like railways
can be a force for good it could, and
sometimes did bring food to famine hit
areas, so it redoubles the blame on the
British that often it did not.
Some Winners
If Europeans were directly enabled by
ENSO, Americans gained indirectly.
North America benefits from ENSO with
better rains, and in the period covered
by Davis the US recorded bumper har-
vests. Railroads helped take these to
ports, from where they were exported,
undercutting grain markets across the
world. This contributed to agricultural
depression, though some of this grain
did come to India as food aid from
American churches (much to their fury,
the British taxed it).
Perhaps the most important result of
the chaos of this period was that it finally
helped meteorologists understand ENSO.
Davis details how by the late 19th century
the British had weather stations across
the world and the data they produced
started to be analyzed by scientists like
Gilbert Walker who was appointed direc-
tor-general of observatories in India in
1904. Explaining the recent monsoon fail-
ures was high priority and Walker slowly
started to identify the patterns of ENSO,
though it would take decades before Ja-
cob Bjerknes at UCLA would put most of
the pieces in place.
This understanding is what can
change our experience of ENSO today.
Its vast scale is unstoppable, but unstop-
pable should not mean we are unable to
respond. Knowing that it is coming
makes it all the more important to be
prepared. If Indias leaders still fumble
in their response to ENSO today their
fault will be even worse than the failings
of those late Victorian viceroys so devas-
tatingly detailed by Davis.
Cattle had always been
a critical resource for
farmers...In famines
many farmers tried
to keep feeding their
cattle and only let
them die in utter
extremis
As the Bengal famine of 1943 showed,
the British governments argument that
their raj was for the benefit of India
was not just hollow but also hypocritical.
Over 3 million people died
big story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
07
GET T Y I MAGES
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ighteen kilometers off Ahmedabad airport, two
tall buildings rise out of literally nowhere. The twin
towers with cobalt blue glass faades are anomalies
in the otherwise brown, dusty landscape. At 122 me-
tres and 28 floors high, the towers are the tallest
in Gujarat. But height isnt really their claim to
fame. The towers are the first buildings to go up in
Narendra Modis dream project: the Gujarat Interna-
tional Financial Tec (GIFT) City. GIFT City, in all like-
lihood, will be Indias first smart city to be built
from scratch.
At GIFT City, the action is happening on the
ground and under it. An army of workers is
sweating in the sweltering sun, pounding
roads and erecting buildings for a
school, a fire station and a cooling
plant. Workmen are also burrow-
ing underground, digging what
will eventually be a 12-km long
maze of utility tunnels, through
which everything from power ca-
bles to fibre optic cables to water
pipelines will be routed.
When GIFT Citys cooling tow-
ers will become operational,
buildings wont use air-condition-
ing but district cooling technolo-
gy, a far more energy-efficient
process that circulates chilled wa-
ter through buildings to cool
them. Solid waste will be sucked
out from homes and offices at 90
km/hr using pipelines leading di-
rectly to a waste processing plant.
When fully functional, GIFT
City will have a command centre
with information and communi-
cation technology (ICT) infra-
structure spread across the city
which will manage everyday
chores like traffic movement. The
closest most Indians have been to
experiencing anything like this is
inside a cinema hall, for the price
of the latest Hollywood sci-fi flick.
But, that may change.
A Hundred Cities
In its election manifesto, the BJP
had promised to build 100 hi-tech
cities. The NDA government
seems to be keen to fulfil that
promise. You cannot build cities
overnight. It takes 20-30 years
to build a new city. Instead
of just making new cities, our
idea is to make our exist-
ing cities smart, Union
minister for housing and
urban development Ven-
kaiah Naidu told ET a cou-
ple of days ago. There
will be a mix. One, to con-
vert an old city into a smart
one. Two, to build new
cities wherever possible,
said Naidu.
cover story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
08
:: TV Mahalingam
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Indian cities dont decide their own destiny.
That needs to change
Ajit Gulabchand, chairman, HCC
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dia. Currently IBM is working on
2,500 smart city projects globally. At
the heart of the smart city is a vast
and all-pervasive ICT network that
serves three broad purposes: im-
proving a citys economic efficiency;
promoting a better quality of life for
citizens; and thereby promoting a
sustainable urban environment.
Like Kant puts it: In the new smart
cities like Dholera [in the DMIC], we
have planned for ICT as another layer
of infrastructure along with roads,
sewage. It is embedded right in the
planning stage of the project.
So, how different are the new smart
cities likely to be from other cities?
For one, most of them are not expect-
ed to be large urban sprawls like the
existing metro cities. Take GIFT City,
for instance. GIFT City has two main
features: a smart city and a global fi-
nancial hub, says Ramakant Jha,
managing director, GIFT City. We
see nearly 30,000-40,000 people
working out of GIFT City by the end of
next year. In 10 years, GIFT City will
create 5 lakh direct jobs and anoth-
er 5 lakh indirect jobs, says Jha,
adding that 60,000-80,000 peo-
ple will be living in GIFT City by
2024. But then, is GIFT City re-
ally a city? Or is it just a well-planned
central business district (CBD) with
fancy technology?
After all, when it is fully built up,
GIFT City will be about 900 acres in
size less than a tenth in size of Dubais
International Airport (8,500 acres).
But then, consider this: the two most
talked about smart cities in the world,
Songdo (South Korea) and Masdar
(UAE), are just about 1,500 acres each
in size larger than GIFT but much
smaller than Dubais airport.
Reluctant Urbanizer
GIFT Citys planners have moved
away from the notion that Indian plan-
ners traditionally suffered fromto
build long, sprawling green cities
which frankly isnt going to work, ar-
gues Angshik Chowdhury, director,
operations, of Smart+Connected Com-
munities at Cisco India. Increasingly,
most economic activities are going to
happen in cities that are compact,
where there is primary emphasis on
transport and job creationGIFT is
not a very, long sprawling city and the
ability to manage the city is built in,
a dds Chowdhur y. Ci s c o s
Smart+Connected portfolio includes
remote access to city infrastructure
For instance, seven new smart cities
are being developed from scratch
along the proposed Delhi-Mumbai In-
dustrial Corridor (DMIC). We expect
the first phase [40-50 sq km] of three
smart cities Dholera [Gujarat], Shen-
dra-Bidkin [Maharashtra] and Global
City [Haryana] to be delivered by
2019, says Amitabh Kant, secretary,
department of industrial policy and
promotion (DIPP). Kant, a former CEO
and managing director of DMIC (hes
still a director on the board), expects
these cities to be home to 2-2.5 million
people by 2040.
India is not the only country build-
ing such cities (see Whats Happening
Beyond India, pg 11). Brand new smart
cities are mushrooming in China, the
UAE and South Korea. Meanwhile,
cities like Barcelona in Spain and
Montpellier in France are implement-
ing smart city solutions to deliver bet-
ter services to their citizens. In fact,
over the next 20 years, over $41 trillion
is expected to be spent on smart city
projects. Given this, it is not surprising
that everybody from the computing
giants like Cisco, IBM, Oracle to
surveillance solutions vendors are
licking their chops in anticipation.
About 10% of the overall cost to build
a smart city [or upgrade a current city]
will be the cost for implementing
surveillance solutions, says Sudhin-
dra Holla, country manager, Axis
Communications India, the Indian
arm of the Swedish manufacturer
of network cameras.
Whats Makes it Smarter
So, what is a smart city all
about? Smart cities are
not about just e-govern-
ance. A smart city is one
that uses technology to
transform its core systems
to optimize the best use of its
finite resources, says Rahul
Sharma, executive director
and partner, global busi-
ness service, IBM In-
JUNE 22-28, 2014
09
We see nearly
30,000-40,000
people working out of
GIFT City by the end of
next year
Ramakant Jha, MD, GIFT City
All about Gujarats GIFT City
cover story
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management solutions
for connected parking,
traffic, safety and security.
On the other hand Dhol-
era, which is planned as a manu-
facturing hub, is spread across 900
sq km twice the size of Ahmedabad.
Does India really need such cities?
If there is one thing everybody agrees
on, it is that India is urbanizing and really
fast. A 2010 McKinsey report throws up
numbers that are any urban planners
worst nightmare. By 2030, 590 million In-
dians will live in cities, up from 340 million
in 2008. It took almost 40 years (1971-
2008) for Indias urban population to grow
by 230 million. The next 250 million city
dwellers will be added in half that time.
The report suggested that India build near-
ly 25 satellite cities near large tier I and tier
II cities, each accommodating up to a mil-
lion people.
India has been a reluctant urbanizer
but urbanization is inevitable, says Kant.
When America was urbanizing, both land
and gas prices were cheap. As a result, the
cities were built as large urban sprawls,
adds Kant, pointing out that Indian cities
dont have that luxury. The use of ICT is an
opportunity for Indian cities to leapfrog to
the level of cities in developed countries,
says Kant.
From Scratch or Not?
What is likely to be the Indian govern-
ments approach? Given that building cities
from scratch is time and capital consum-
ing, retrofitting smart technology in exist-
ing cities may be the way forward. It is
easier to do it in a greenfield project as you
start with a clean slate. Also, in a greenfield
project, you can offer all services togeth-
er, says Aamer Azeemi, managing direc-
tor, Cisco Consulting Services, India who
has spearheaded the American network-
ing giants ICT master planning efforts for
Dholera. However, brownfield projects
(building on sites that have
been developed before) are
more expensive and tend to be
painful to implement. Just imagine the
hassle of laying fibre in any part of Mumbai
city, says an industry executive.
Kant says that the cost of ICT in the
proposed DMIC greenfield cities is just
3-4% of total project cost. However, retro-
fitting cities with smart technologies can
cost 1-2% more. In brownfield projects,
cities first tend to offer services that have a
revenue potential. How do I make parking
smart so that it generates revenue to sus-
tain other activities, asks Ciscos Azeemi.
In greenfield projects, city managers tend
to leverage the greatest asset they have
the right of way for the information
highways they have built. A lot of cit-
ies invest in putting fibre on the
ground and lease that out as it is used
to offer common services, he adds.
Building cities smart or otherwise
from scratch is easier said than done. The
most important part of building a city is to
focus on its economic centre, says Ajit Gu-
labchand, chairman, HCC, whose con-
struction company is developing a hill
city called Lavasa in Maharashtra.
A good starting point is to ask: what is the
anchor identity of the city? What is the soul
of the city? says Vinayak Chatterjee, chair-
man, Feedback Infra, a consulting firm. Is it
a refinery city or a university city? That an-
swer will tell you where the city must be lo-
cated and its master-planning contours.
For instance, refinery cities have to be based
near ports, and a university town could be
based in the hills, he adds.
That will also determine how large or
small a city is spread. That explains why
Dholera, which is focused on manufactur-
ing, will be almost 250 times larger than
GIFT City, which is focused on financial
services.
Then comes, what Chatterjee calls, the
anchor magnet of the city. For instance,
in Jamshedpurs case it was the Tata Steel
factory.
New or Renew
I will be glad if we have the economic plans
and financial models tied up for five new
smart cities in the next five years. That
would be a considerable achievement, says
Chatterjee. My suggestion would be that
the government, in addition to developing
these five cities, pick five towns from each
region in India and improve basic and core
infrastructure, governance in these towns.
These could become a model for rejuvena-
tion of existing towns, adds Chatterjee. Its
a point of view others see merit in.
The greater wave of urbanization is
happening in tier II and tier III Indian cit-
ies, says Ayona Datta, senior lecturer in
Citizenship and Belonging, University of
Leeds. The government would serve peo-
ple better by focusing its resources by
building schools, colleges and hospitals in
these cities rather than creating large, ex-
pensive cities from scratch that serve the
interests of very few people.
Another industry watcher ET Magazine
spoke to put it more bluntly, Today, we
have over 4,000 towns that are badly in
We expect the DMICs first
phase [40-50 sq km] of 3
cities Dholera, Shendra-
Bidkin and Global City to
be delivered by 2019
Amitabh Kant,
secretary, DIPP & director, DMIC
cover story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
10
Dadri-
Noida-
Ghaziabad
Investment
Region, Uttar
Pradesh
Manesar-Bawal
Investment Region,
Haryana
Khushkhera-
Bhiwadi-
Neemrana
Investment Region,
Rajasthan
Pithampur-
Dhar-Mhow
Investment Region,
Madhya Pradesh
Ahmedabad-Dholera
Investment Region, Gujarat
Shendra-Bidkin
Industrial park city near
Aurangabad, Maharashtra
Dighi Port
Industrial area,
Maharashtra
WHAT ARE THEY?
There is no widely accepted
definition for the term smart
city. Mostly, it describes cities
that use networked
infrastructure to improve
business friendliness, quality of
life and promote sustainable
urban development
WHY IS EVERYBODY
GLOBALLY TALKING ABOUT IT?
As of 2008, half of the world lived
in urban areas. By 2030, 60% of the
worlds population is expected to
live in cities and towns.
Governments worldwide from
South Korea to China to the UAE
are building smart cities
ground up
HOW BIG IS THE
OPPORTUNITY?
Globally, investments in
smart cities are likely to
touch $41 trillion in the
next 20 years.
WHATS THE
BIG DEAL IN INDIA?
By 2030, Indias urban population
is expected to soar from 340 million
in 2008 to 590 million. A McKinsey
report says: Took India nearly 40
years [between 1971 and 2008] for
the urban population to rise by
nearly 230 million. It will take only
half the time to add the
next 250 million
Specs and the City
Everything you need to
know about Smart Cities
WHATS THE INDIAN
GOVERNMENT DOING ABOUT THIS?
Plans to build a 100 smart cities
something that the BJP had
outlined in its election manifesto.
Union minister for housing and
urban development Venkaiah Naidu
told ET that along with building new
cities, old ones will be converted
into smart cities
The DMIC
Blueprint for
Seven Cities
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need of urban renewal. Do we really want to
put financial resources and bureaucratic
bandwidth behind creating brand new cities?
The choice is this: do you want to have anoth-
er baby or adopt an orphan?
Beyond the Hype
Globally, greenfield smart cities are still
experiments in progress. Their financial
models are untested and breakevens a long
time away. There has been considerable de-
bate on whether smart cities are a passing
fad. In a debate in The Economist last year,
Anthony Townsend, a researcher who spe-
cializes in new technology in cities, had this
to say about smart cities: in their rush to
leap into a well-planned digital future, the
designers of these prototypes have ignored
historical experience, how people shape cit-
ies, and the messy and organic nature of ur-
ban development. Sterile utopian enclaves,
they have failed not only as real estate devel-
opments but also as incubators of future ur-
ban lifestyles.
Simply put, researchers are asking if smart
cities put technology as the prime catalyst of
change and not people. My fundamental
problem with the smart city model is the as-
sumption that a city can be built with technol-
ogy and...technology alone. Cities are built
and shaped by people, says Datta.
Land acquisition is another problem that
new cities are likely to face. In Dholera, farm-
ers from 22 villages have already formed
groups to protest the acquisition of fertile farm
land for industrialization, says activist Sagar
Rabari of Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat.
More importantly,
even if India builds
new cities, can it
manage them effec-
tively? For that, India
may have to get some
structural fixes in
place. India has two
tiers of governance
central and state which work in parallel.
There is no concept of city level governance
in India. City mayors are not powerful in In-
dia unlike the rest of the world. Indian cities
dont decide their own destiny. That needs
to change, says Gulabchand.
A hundred smart cities may sound like a
woolgatherers wishlist, but the good news is
the intent behind that vision and the gov-
ernments realization that India badly needs
to overhaul its urban infrastructure. As one
analyst who did not want to be named sums
it up: If we manage to renew even 10 of our
tier II cities in the process, it would mean a
great deal for India.
arita, 35, is not keen to move out of Rakhi village locat-
ed within Naya Raipur, the new capital city of Chhat-
tisgarh being built on an area of 8,013 hectares. Sarita
and her husband, a vegetable vendor, are not quite
sure about living a life in one of the tiny 400 sq ft flats
built by the Naya Raipur Development Authority
(NRDA) in a newly constructed resettlement colony
within the new capital city.
We have nothing against the compensation package per se. But can we
get this kind of fresh air in a closed flat, asks Sarita. Her friend Leela and
most others from her village have already moved out
of the village, and are now living in government-built
houses located a kilometre away. Leela says her family
received a compensation of `6.9 lakh per acre for
their two acres, with a written commitment from the
authority that her family would receive `15,000 per
acre for the next 20 years with an increment of `750
added annually.
Naya Raipur, which will be fully functional only in
2031 and is expected to house 5.6 lakh people by then,
may offer the new government a few lessons as it goes
about translating its vision for 100 smart cities into real-
ity. There are reasons to believe that
the new governments plan to build
100 new cities has its origin in Naya
Raipur. Prime minister [then chief
minister of Gujarat] Narendra Modi
visited the city in 2012 and he tweeted
about it too, in the context of Varana-
si, says N Baijendra Kumar, principal
secretary to the Chhattisgarh chief
minister and chairman of NRDA.
As the Naya Raipur experience re-
veals, the biggest hurdle to building a
new city in India is the process of ac-
quiring land and resettling existing vil-
lagers. We made a conscious decision
of not disturbing 44 out of 45 villages
located inside the city. We have up-
graded their infrastructure without
dislocating the villagers. In case of one village [Ra-
khi], the rehabilitation was necessary, as the village
is located too close to the new mantralaya [secretar-
iat], Kumar adds.
As world-class amenities including star hotels, an
18-hole golf course, a convention centre, an IT spe-
cial economic zone, shopping malls and university
complexes are being built in the new city, villagers
with land are turning into crorepatis overnight.
Meet Jodha Ram Sahu who happily moved into a 1,000 sq ft home after
surrendering 18 acres of land that he and his family had in Rakhi village. Sa-
hus compensation: a cool `1.25 crore. I utilized part of my compensation
to buy 28 acres of agriculture land, 30 km away from here. Those are interi-
or areas, but with this new city becoming fully functional here, that land too
will fetch higher prices, Sahu says.
Officers and ministers have fully operational offices in the new city. The
Jindal Group has acquired 34 acres of land in the new city and is building its
state corporate office. Among the public sector companies, Container Cor-
poration of India (Concor) that comes under the administrative control of
Indian Railways has bought land to build an office in the new city. As more
infrastructure gets created an underground electricity and telecommuni-
cation network, amongst other projects more companies will follow.
Inside Naya
Raipur, the new
capital city of Chhattisgarh
that is still a work in progress
:: Shantanu Nandan Sharma
A

B
R
A
V
E

MASDAR CITY SONGDO
N
E
W

W
O
R
L
D
S
cover story
JUNE 22-28, 2014
11
Whats happening beyond India
These cities are being built from scratch
WHERE IS IT? 17 km east of Abu Dhabi, near
Abu Dhabi Airport
HOW BIG IS IT? 6 sq km
WHO OWNS IT? Masdar, a 100% subsidiary of
Mubadala Development Company, an Abu
Dhabi government vehicle
WILL BE READY BY: Construction kicked off in
2008. The cost of the city is expected to be
upwards of $19 billion and will be ready
some time between 2020 and 2025
USP: Mazdar city will be the hub of a
cleantech city. The International Renewable
Energy Agency, Siemens, GE and Mitsubishi
have already signed up as tenants
HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL LIVE IN IT?
Over 40,000 will live in Masdar and 50,000
will commute to work when it is completed
WHERE IS IT? 65 km southwest of Seoul
HOW BIG IS IT? It was built on 1,500 acres
of reclaimed land
WHO OWNS IT? Gale International, Posco
and Morgan Stanley Real Estate are
developing Songdo
WHEN WILL IT COME UP? Construction of
the $35-billion project began in 2004;
expected to be completed by 2017
USP: Likely to become Koreas premier
international business district and one
of Asias largest green business districts
HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL LIVE IN IT?
By 2017, 65,000 residents are expected
to live in the city. Three lakh people
are expected to commute to the city
for work
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vs
From Don McLean, who drove his Chevy to
the levee as he said bye bye to Miss American
Pie, to Bruce Springsteen, who loved a girl
for her Pink Cadillac with crushed velvet
seats, to Tracy Chapman, who asked her
man if his fast car was fast enough so they
could fly away, cars have been
celebrated in more songs
than the humble two-
wheeler (though folks
like Arlo Guthrie did
kick bike tyres). Oh,
not to forget the com-
memoration in a dozens
of movies, including the
animated Cars, in which
they star in the main role.
But somewhere down the road, it
appears the American auto indus-
try has hit a bump, dislodging a
few shibboleths in the pro-
cess. It has been coming
for years, but it has gotten
noticed only in the past
year or two.
In 2012, analysis of cen-
sus data by the University
of Michigans Transporta-
tion Research Institute
showed that 9.2% of US house-
holds didnt have a car, compared
with 8.7% in 2007. Just the year before, Fed-
eral Highway Administration data showed
bjects in the American auto industrys windshield
may be smaller than they appear, ran the opening
line of a recent story on the United States auto indus-
try. The narrative centred on the prospective decline
of the sector following the cooling of Americans love
affair with cars. Which is why, if you havent noticed,
Americans and indeed auto companies from the
rest of the developed world have begun flooding
India with their wares. By the way, this is not the first
sector where Americans have bequeathed their ex-
cess to the Third World: from smoking to consump-
tion of junk food, Americas hand-me-down gifts are
many, even as the US tries to clean up its own air and
body. Now thats a whole different story well tackle
another time.
But what if the object in the American auto indus-
trys windshield is not merely a shrinking domestic
market, but an even smaller foreign-minted vehicle
like say, an electric-powered two-wheeler? Would it
sell, and ride, in a country that is not only addicted to
gas, but has had a century-old love affair with the car?
As the Americans would say, geddouttahere! But
thats what this outrageous, audacious story is about:
An Indian company that thinks its elec-
tric two-wheeler can spark off a revolu-
tion in the US. Dream on, did you
say? Mahindra does.
Slowdown on the Highway
America is car country. From
the time Henry Ford knocked
together the first automo-
bile and it broadly coin-
cided with the discovery
of a vast trove of oil and
gas, America has been a
country on the move
on f our or more
wheels. Never mind
if only one or two
people were in it,
and never mind if the
vehicle was idle and
parked in a garage or
parking lot or the
street for 95% of its life
span (imagine an air-
plane being parked
for 95%; the airline
would go bust in no
time). No one ever
questioned thi s
model. Assembly
line production +
easy f i nance +
cheap gas + expansive
road network = auto
heaven. Whats there to
complain?
Driving, and first car owner-
ship, has been a rite of passage in
America. More songs have been written about cars
and driving in America than two-wheelers and riding.
going global
JUNE 22-28, 2014
12
:: Chidanand Rajghatta | Washington, DC
O
Mahindra in Michigan
Can the Indian automakers launch of an electric two-wheeler spark a change in
consumer behaviour in a country that has had a century-old love affair with cars?
The electric two-wheeler is targeted
at urban commuters and students
Anand Mahindra (centre) at the launch of
GenZe in Michigan in May this year
vs
going global
JUNE 22-28, 2014
13
that the percentage of people acquiring a
drivers licence in the age group 20-24,
when most Americans start to get behind a
wheel regularly, had fallen to 80%, down
from 87% in 1995. Several other data points
indicate that Americans, particularly teen-
agers, are driving less, getting their licences
later, and waiting much longer to purchase
their first car. The stigma about not having a
car is evaporating. In fact, it is entirely pos-
sible that over the next decade, owning a
car will constitute a new kind of stigma.
The reasons are not hard to find. From the
growing trend of urban living to rising price
of gas, from improved public transit to new
sharing paradigms like Zipcar (a car-sharing
company), individual car ownership is ex-
pected to continue declining. Unlike in In-
dia, where two-wheeler ownership picked
up the slack of four-wheeler unaffordability,
Americans have never embraced the hum-
bler vehicle, although the biker culture is al-
most as old as car craze. But high-end bikes
cost as much as a car. So is there a market for
a low-end two-wheeler, an electric driven
one, that addresses the needs of the college
crowd or urban sophisticate who dont have
to go roaring down Hwy 66?
Plugging Into US
The folks at Mahindra in India were working
on a new electric bike for an overcrowded
domestic market when the thought struck
its chief honcho Anand Mahindra: If we are
going to do it, why not do it in a completely
new way, like a start-up, and why not in
America? In some ways, it was counter-in-
tuitive an electric two-wheeler in a coun-
try of fast cars, cheap gas, and wide roads?
But as narrated above, this paradigm was
being undermined by newer develop-
ments, and what better way for a young up-
start Indian company to get a piece of action
at low cost, and stay ahead of the curve, par-
ticularly when the domestic economic envi-
ronment was so tough?
So we shipped off a young, bright team
from India to Silicon Valley to get a sense of
the ecosystem there, Mahindra recalled
in a recent interview, as the first Mahindra
GenZe was unveiled at a new facility in Ann
Arbor, outside Detroit, ground zero of the
American auto industry. We figured that
if we were to sell in America, the product
had to be conceived, designed, and Made
in America.
It was an outrageous
idea, but Anand Mahin-
dra is not short of au-
dacity. A gracious and
charismatic man who
can switch from desi
lingo to Amerispeak in
a jiffy, he is, after all, a
product of both the
American and Indian
system, having gradu-
ated from Harvard Col-
lege and Harvard Busi-
ness School before tur-
bo - c ha r g i ng t he
company founded by
his Ludhiana forbears
into a $16-billion enter-
prise. He has the Punjabi-American appe-
tite for risk, and few ventures have proved it
more than bringing his tractor manufactur-
ing operation to the home of Caterpillar and
John Deere. Mahindra, he boasts, is the
best-known Indian brand in rural America.
Touristy Indians may not see it in New
York or San Francisco, but trawl around in
middle America and you are
more likely to see billboards
for Mahindra tractors than
Tata products, although the
latter is regarded as the In-
dian titan in America. We
are selective in the way we
approach the market, says
Ruzbeh Irani, Mahindras
chief group communica-
tions and ethics officer,
pointing to their advertising
on the conservative Fox net-
work and sponsorship of
events like Nascar and Na-
tional Bull Riding, stuff ur-
ban America may turn its nose up at. Its
the kind of smart, discriminating approach
Mahindra hopes to bring to the marketing
and selling of the GenZe, which will be
manufactured at its 37,000 sq ft facility in
Ann Arbor, down the road from Detroit. A
companion North American Technical
Center in Troy, employing more than 100
engineers, will develop a range of vehicles
for Mahindra Global Automotive, although
GenZe is the immediate focus.
Targeted mainly at students and urban
commuters, the GenZe is an electric pow-
ered two-wheeler that Vish Palekar, CEO of
the spin-off, calls a pick-up truck on two-
wheels. It has a specialized storage com-
partment (useful for students and spacious
enough for three grocery bags) and a de-
tachable lithium-ion battery that can be
charged from any standard electrical out-
let. Which means that although its range is
only 30 miles (around 50 km), you can
charge the battery while in class or library,
if your overnight charge has taken you more
than you anticipated.
Ticking the Right Boxes
The really nifty part is GenZes weather-
proof 7 Cruise-ConnectTM screen, which
is much more than an instrument panel. It
shows your speed, energy consumption,
battery status, estimated range, as well as
how much carbon dioxide you helped re-
duce by riding a GenZe, something which
its executives think will appeal to an envi-
ronmentally conscious generation. You
can even charge your laptop and phone
along the way, boasts Mahindra. With the
top speed set at 50 kmph, most states in
the US will not require a motorcycle li-
cence to operate it.
Initial reviews and inquiries have been
promising, particularly considering the
price point and Mahindras efforts to tie up
financing for students through banks and
local credit unions. Company officials
would not discuss the exact price but the
market scuttlebutt is that it will be around
$3,000 half the price of a Segway (a two-
wheeled, self-balancing, battery-powered
electric vehicle) which is typically what a
college student might spend on a decent
used car, with the added burden of gas, re-
pairs, insurance and the like.
Cooool! When did you say it is being
launched? a nephew who studies engi-
neering at Texas A&M asked me, when told
about the new toy in the offing (Mahindra
has since opened its first showroom in Palo
Alto, near Stanford University, and has be-
gun accepting bookings). I hope you have
booked one for us, said the wife, who, de-
spite two cars at home, prefers to metro to
her yoga class and from there on to her of-
fice, to escape traffic and parking issues.
Still, it is far from certain that the product
and its initial appeal will meet both the ex-
pectation and requirement without further
tweaks, including the mileage issue. But
Mahindra is evidently looking beyond just
GenZe and beyond even further editions of
the product. The company clearly wants to
erase a derailed 2010 foray to sell its India-
made pick-ups and SUVs in America amid a
dispute with its distribution partners. This
time, it wants to enter from the ground up.
The cachet of a product conceived in Cali-
fornia and made in Michigan is some-
thing few companies can boast of, and at a
fraction of the cost it would have taken to
set-up a four-wheeler facility, Mahindra has
got its nose in the Michigan tent. Theres
more than a sniffing chance it will make
something out of it.
With a top speed of 50 kmph, the GenZe wont require a licence in most US states
Mahindra has an
appetite for risk,
and few ventures
have proved it
more than
bringing his
tractor
manufacturing
operation to the
home of Caterpillar
and John Deere
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15 14
JUNE 22-28, 2014 JUNE 22-28, 2014
5 - 1 4 - 0
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&
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2014
2010
2
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414
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325
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(GER)
PAULO WANCHOPE (CRC),
TOMAS ROSICKY (CZE),
MIROSLAV KLOSE (GER), TIM CAHILL (AUS),
OMAR BRAVO (MEX), DAVID VILLA (ESP)
GABRIEL HEINZE (ARG),
CLINT DEMPSEY (US),
STEVEN GERRARD (ENG)
AND 22 OTHERS
2014
3
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THOMAS MUELLER
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goals
ANALYS I S BY GRAMENER. COM At the end of first 16 matches in the group stage; comparing all the World Cups from 2002 Novice countries are those making their World Cup debut
2014
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DRAWS 1-0 WINS HIGHER THAN 1-0 WINS
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t a recent round table meet in Delhi, the top management
of one of Indias largest marketplaces, Snapdeal.com,
were all smiles conveying how product categories sold
online are increasing and next on their list is selling bath-
room fixtures on the web store. The 30,000 sellers on
their platform will soon burgeon to more than 1 lakh. The
expanding online seller and buyer base is also revamp-
ing the website, from English only to offering Hindi and
Tamil interfaces as well. Around 60% of our sales are
beyond the top 10 cities. Our reach is more than that of
organized brick-and-mortar retail. We believe online
shopping business will be bigger than offline retail by
2015, said Kunal Bahl, co-founder, Snapdeal.com
whose list of investors include eBay, Temasek, Black-
Rock, PremjiInvest and other venture funds. Bahl feels
this growth will be driven mostly by tier II shoppers and
beyond. In these areas (like Mysore, Nagpur) organized
retail has limited or no presence.
In Mumbai, Kishore Biyani, founder CEO, Future
Group, one of the countrys largest brick-and-mortar
retailers, is unfazed by competition from online start-
ups. Online selling, the way venture funded start-ups
are doing it, is a gross margin negative business and
not sustainable. I dont see ourselves competing with
online sellers as both models online and offline
will converge. Not everything will be sold only online
or only offline.
In the $490-billion India retailing business organized
brick and mortar retail and online shopping account
for less than 10% or about $35-40 billion of the pie at
present. In a decade, consultancy firm Technopak esti-
mates organized retail both online and offline will
be a little over $200 billion and both formats are trying
equally hard to get a larger share of the buyers wallet.
The likes of Jabong, Flipkart, Amazon are honing algo-
rithms to sharpen their knowhow on what the shopper
is looking for; and the likes of Future Retail, Croma and
Shoppers Stop are moving to omnichannel models
selling both on and offline while improving the expe-
rience of shopping within their stores.
Says Ajit Joshi, MD and CEO, Infiniti Retail (which runs
Croma stores): In India people are yet to experience
good shopping [a mall experience and large stores]. Its
not that people will buy everything online. While there is
growing competition from online retailers, the brick-
and-mortar stores are also expanding. Croma has 97
operating stores, down from 101 six months back. Four
non-profitable stores were shut down.
Online vs Offline
In an expanding market both models have room to
grow, each offering its unique strengths and weakness-
es. Online scores on reach, shipping products to re-
mote corners of the country, while offline is a largely
urban, big city phenomenon. According to
Technopak, 56% of the business of organ-
ized retailers comes from top 24 cities.
While for webstores the buyers are
across the country.
Says Sachin Bansal, co-founder
and CEO, Flipkart.com: E-com-
merce solves the problem of ac-
cess by making millions of prod-
ucts available to shoppers with a
few clicks. Besides, online shop-
pers dont have time and place lim-
its. On the other hand people going
to shops get instant gratification, can touch and feel the
products; and for some brands, like Zara, buyers have
no choice but to purchase them offline. Adds Bansal:
Those who prefer to touch and feel products, and that
is still a majority of shoppers, will go to the shops.
Biyani of Future Group believes any product
that can be identified by a model number
will be sold more online than offline. For
instance, the Google Moto phones
were sold online by Flipkart and not
in any retail outlet.
While there is room for both
models to exist and expand, each
is looking at new ways to increase
clicks and footfalls. Online sellers
are adding new categories what
started with books and music now
includes furniture and jewellery. For
spotlight
JUNE 22-28, 2014
16
Brick & Mortar
The arrival of a slew of
nimble e-commerce
startups is making
traditional retailers rethink
their model and move
towards an omnichannel
strategy, of selling goods
both offline and online
I dont see ourselves
competing with
online sellers as both
models online and
offline will converge
Kishore Biyani,
founder CEO, Future Group
All brands like
Zara, to name
just one, are not
available online
Makes more sense
for perishable items
like grocery
Provide warranties on
big-ticket items,
something that you
dont always get online
Provides an
opportunity to
touch, feel, try
Delivery is
Immediate
The Offline Advantage
A
:: Shelley Singh
$34bn
in 2013
$147bn
by 2023**
Total retail*
business in
India in 2013
$490 bn
Size of organized retail
vs
*organized, unorganized and online
**projections

their part offline retailers, worried about business being

hijacked by online start-ups, are selling via their own web-
sites as well.
Omnichannel Strategy
In Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore buyers can shop on the
Croma website and get products delivered the
same day (if the order is placed before 2 pm).
The price they pay is similar to what they
would if they walked into a Croma outlet.
Croma products also get sold on mar-
ketplaces like Amazon.in and eBay.in.
Says Joshi: We have an omnichannel
strategy. Online is another arm of
Croma. But the prices on our site and
in our stores will be the same.
Adds Biyani: We see a convergence
of models physical and digital stores
will converge. Thats the next round in
retailing. There are some products that will be sold online
only [like computers, smartphones and books]. We will
unveil our omnichannel strategy in September. Sites like
Jabong.com also sell Future Group products.
However, when selling from their own sites retailers like
Croma and Future Group will not offer discounts over their
shopfloor prices and this is where pure online
marketplaces have an edge.
Says Pragya Singh, assistant vice-presi-
dent, retail and consumer products,
Technopak: E-tailers will overtake of-
fline retailers in some product catego-
ries. The challenge for brick-and-mor-
tar is high rentals 1.5x to 2x more
than the global average. Offline
scores in experience, touch, feel and
instant gratification. Products like gro-
cery [about 55% of retail] are more
likely to be sold offline.
Online marketplaces are new to India, the trend having
picked up only in the past 12-18 months. Global trends fa-
vour traditional retailing more than online shopping. For
example in the US, China, South Korea online selling is less
than 15% of the total retail business. In India it is 0.2% of
organized retail and despite a 50% growth rate per year
(according to Technopak) online retailing will account for
just about 5% of organized retail by 2023.
In the US Dixons and Best Buy continue to be large retail-
ers of electronic products. Says Joshi, They did close un-
profitable stores and thats the strategy we will follow in
India. In mature markets penetration of online is not more
than 10-11% and we see a similar trend here.
Adds Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst,
Gartner, an advisory firm: The price advantage is with on-
line marketplaces. Offline retail cannot afford to sell at
lower prices [due to high real estate costs and overheads].
However, there are products which will be sold more of-
fline [like high-value items] rather than online.
Big Ticket Items Sell Offline
Even as the two models coexist and brick and mortar retail-
ers go in for convergence, a differentiation is set to emerge
on the type of products that can be sold on either platform.
For example buyers are less likely to purchase a curved or
flat TV or a sofa set or a car online. And recent notices by
companies cautioning customers on buying certain prod-
ucts online could deter purchases from webstores. For ex-
ample recently Chinese smartphone maker Gionee cau-
tioned customers about buying online.
Says Arvind Vohra, country head, Gionee India: Theres
no price sanity online. A `14,000 phone in a shop could be
`12,500 on one site and `9,000 on another! We do not au-
thorize websites to sell our products. They pick smart-
phones directly from the market and sell online. There is
no service warranty arrangement with online sellers.
Late last month, carmaker Renault cautioned buyers on
shopping online. A Renault public notice in newspapers (on
May 29) stated: Renault only sells via authorized dealers.
Online marketplaces are not a part of our authorized dealer
network. A Renault India spokesperson told ET Magazine
that the company does not sell online Although 15-18% of
lead generation does happen online, via our sites, actual car
sales happen only though our authorized dealer network.
Adds Praveen Bhadada, director, Zinnov, a consulting
firm: For standard products [like diapers or pen drives]
buyers will go online. For others [like designer clothes]
they will go offline. Despite the growth of marketplaces
there are concerns among buyers on what they get, partic-
ularly for expensive items.
At present both models are working on their strengths and
increasing the appeal of their webstores, apps and physical
stores. Snapdeal has 250 people in its engineering and prod-
ucts team, which manages the online platform. This team is
set to double. Meantime the likes of Infiniti Retail and Future
Group are looking at models that will increase footfalls. Says
Joshi: Technology is moving fast and so is the consumer
we need technology to improve the shopping experience.
Online sites like Jabong.com and CaratLane.com are us-
ing digital models, avatars and videos online to show pro-
spective buyers how designer clothes and jewellery will
look when worn. Offline retailers are looking at smart mir-
rors (that do away with the need to try out multiple clothes)
and augmented reality to make it easy to navigate around
stores and check out multiple items. Says Joshi: Retailing
is a sunrise industry. Theres plenty of room for all models
to co-exist. At least in the short term.
spotlight
JUNE 22-28, 2014
17
Click & Order
Around 60% of our sales are
beyond the top 10 cities. Our reach
is more than that of organized
brick-and-mortar retail
Kunal Bahl,
co-founder, snapdeal.com
Choice is wider Multiple
payment
options
Can reach consumers
in areas where no
physical stores are
present
It is convenient,
as orders can
be placed on
smartphones
Delivery
is at the
doorstep
The Online Advantage
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K
o
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e
a
E-commerce as
% of total retail
0.5
8
10
14
Estimated no. of
online buyers
18 mn
$1bn in 2010
$56bn
by 2023**
Online Retail
vs
Source: Technopak & industry
**projections
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t is not often that brands name a product after a cus-
tomer. But what if the customer happens to be a
popular chief minister? What if the chief minister
goes on to become prime minister? The brand
would not be content just naming the product after
the customer, it would want to milk the association.
The story of Jade Blue, a clothing retailer based in
Ahmedabad, is similar. Jade Blue is prime minister
Narendra Modis favourite shop. It is from this store
that Modi buys his trademark kurta, labelled Modi
Kurta, which the store has registered (with Modis
permission) under its name. If Modi is today being
hailed as a fashion icon by the American media
for his dressing sense and style, some of the credit
should go to this store.
The reverse too holds true. From one flagship
store, Jade Blue has grown to a retail chain of 28
stores, expanding through a mix of a fran-
chise and ownership model. Reve-
nues have been climbing steadily
and are expected to hit `230
crore in the next fiscal year.
Jade Blue is located in
Ahmedabads busy CG
Road, which is chock-a-
block with hundreds of
clothing retailers. Cus-
tomers the loyalist
and the whimsical
have a wide variety of
outlets to go shopping.
Jade Blue stands out be-
cause of the association
with Modi.
Old Relation
It is a long association. Modi visited the store for the
first time one evening in 1989. Store and customer
were then of modest backgrounds. Modi was no
more than a RSS pracharak. Jade Blue hadnt yet
shifted to the posh CG Road locality. (It was then
known as Supremo Clothing and Mens Wear and
located at Ellis Bridge, to the west of Ahmedabad).
It was actually Modis idea to make the kurtas
that bear his name. He preferred kurtas (which usu-
ally have full sleeves) with half sleeves. We then
perfected the idea, said Bipin Chauhan, managing
director of Jade Blue.
Modi Kurta is made of two fabrics linen-polyes-
ter and linen-cotton. Both are easy to wash and
iron, which were the two prerequisites Modi sought
from his choice of clothes, according to Bipin. Kha-
di has been only a recent addition to the
prime ministers wardrobe.
Modi prefers to wear crisply
ironed clothes, according to
the Chuahans. The prime
ministers choice of col-
ourful attires is also a re-
cent fad, which started
mainly during the cam-
paign for the general
elections.
Bipin said Modi, in
the early days of their
associ at i on, woul d
change clothes twice a
day. But during the elec-
tion campaign, he changed
entrepreneur
JUNE 22-28, 2014
18
:: Vishal Dutta
I
The association with Narendra Modi for kurtas has
done wonders to the growth of Ahmedabads Jade Blue
Power
Dressing
Key Product
Expected sales of
Modi Kurtas this year
25,000
2007
Launched
Modi Kurtas
2012
Got the brand Modi
Kurta registered,
after taking Modis
consent
No. of Modi Kurtas
sold by Jade Blue
in 2013-14
18,000
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entrepreneur
JUNE 22-28, 2014
19
his clothes at least five times a day, he said.
Modi has since stayed loyal to the brand. But as his
work and political roles increased, the number of vis-
its by him reduced. Once a frequent visitor, Modi be-
gan to visit the store only twice a year.
In recent years, Bipin and brother Jitendra Chau-
han, chairman of Jade Blue, have been making the trip
to Modis house. During the visits, the Chauhans carry
different fabrics and after Modi takes his pick, they
take his measurement.
Loyal Customer
Despite going a long way back, Jade Blue started pro-
ducing and selling the Modi Kurtas only in 2007 (the
brand was registered in 2012). In 2013-14, it sold 18,000
such kurtas. This year, sales are expected to hit 25,000.
Jitendra Chauhan does not deny that the associa-
tion with Modi has been good for the store, in terms of
fame and more importantly, sales. Bipin said: We
are proud of it. We are now well known in our com-
munity and in India.
But the Chauhans said they havent taken any un-
due advantage of the relationship. It is strictly profes-
sional, said Jitendra.
Jade Blue has other high-profile clients too, includ-
ing top industrialists in Gujarat such as Pankaj Patel
of Zydus Cadila, Karsan Patel of Nirma, Gautam and
Rajesh Adani of Adani Group and even Sanjay Lalbhai
of Arvind Mills.
Vikram Kothari, managing director of Rotomac, the
pen maker, was one of the first customers of the
Chauhans. Though Kothari is based in Kanpur, he
frequently visits Jade Blue because he runs a
manufacturing plant in Ahmedabad (Kotharis
daughter is married to Pranav Adani, the neph-
ew of Gautam Adani of Adani Group).
I am a Jade Blue fan because I like Bipins
design aesthetics and his keenness to under-
stand a clients needs, he said. Kothari said he
experimented with other fashion designers
from Delhi and Mumbai, but has never found
the same level of satisfaction as he has with
Jade Blue.
Rajeev Chhajed, who runs RC Event India Pvt
Ltd, a wedding planner and event management
company, is another old customer of Jade Blue, with a
relationship running back to 1988. Indeed, he used to
frequent Jade Blues earlier avatar, Supremo Clothing &
Mens Wear. Bipin is a perfectionist and always comes
up with new ideas and the latest trends, said Chhajed.
Chhajed said that his wardrobe has
at least two dozen sets of clothes
from Jade Blue. His only grouse is
that the clothes from the store
are a tad costly. Talent comes
with a premium, but Bipins work
is value for money, he said

Spectacular Growth
The Chauhans are Chalava-
di Darjis, a community of tai-
lors. The family hails from
Limbdi, a town in the Saurashtra
region of Gujarat.
In 1981, the brothers opened
Supremo Clothing & Mens Wear.
The early days were full of
bumps. They toyed with a read-
ymade shirt business with a few
other partners in 1986. The busi-
ness bombed.
It was a good lesson. Few from the
Darji community had made it big as en-
trepreneurs and here were the Chau-
hans experimenting with a business
and a large-scale format at that.
We thought we need to stand
apart from other tailors and thus fo-
cused on our signature style mens
fittings, said Bipin. Soon, the
brothers launched their own pri-
vate label shirts, D Pickpoint.
They divided work between
themselves. Jitendra started focus-
ing on business development and
growth while Bipin focused on the
execution and operational part of
tailoring. They focused on person-
alized fittings, which were wel-
comed by their clientele.
In 1995, the Chauhans moved to
CG Road and opened their first
large showroom. They looked for
a more trendy and globally ac-
ceptable brand name. They finally zeroed in on Jade
Blue the first letters of each word bearing the first
words of the brothers names.
As business picked up, they felt the need for more
commercial space. In 1999, they took a loan of `50 lakh,
a big amount in those days and certainly a risk for a
single-shop retailer, to purchase another 5,500 sq ft
space in the same building. That also paved their entry
into the multi-brand outlet segment.
Jade Blue embarked on an expansion spree from
2004, starting with a second store in Vadodara. The
Chauhans havent looked back since.

What Next?
But the brothers havent let success go to their head.
Jitendra still carries a measuring tape in his briefcase.
He said he gets orders during his travel from high-pro-
file individuals who come in contact with him. Need-
less to say, Modi Kurtas make up the biggest chunk of
orders.
The company is now bracing to raise funds either
through private equity or the IPO route. We are tar-
geting a pan India presence in the next three years,
said Bipin.
In the works are variants of the Modi Kurta. Bipin said
a Modi Jacket would hit the market soon. Unlike the so-
ber Nehru Jacket, Modi Jackets will be colourful.
Jitendra Chauhan,
chairman, Jade Blue
`180 cr
Turnover in
2013-14
Total no. of
stores
18
No. of
employees
850
`150 cr
Turnover in
2012-13
`230 cr
Expected
turnover in
2014-15
A Lot Up
Their Sleeve
2005
Opened store in Baroda
1995
Store under new brand
name Jade Blue
opened in Ahmedabad
1981
First store Supremo
Clothing & Mens Wear
opened in Ahmedabad
2006 & 2007
A store each was
opened in Rajkot
and Surat
Another store opened
in Ahmedabad, bringing
the total number of stores
to 5 in Gujarat
2008
Ventured out of Gujarat with
a store in Indore in MP
2010-11
Opened stores in Vapi, Raipur,
Nagpur, Bhavnagar,
Hyderabad, Nagpur and Surat
2012-13
Another store in Ahmedabad and first in
Gandhinagar. Also started franchise stores
We are proud of it [association
with Modi]. We are now
targeting a pan-India presence
in the next three years
Bipin Chauhan, MD, Jade Blue
2009
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rime minister Narendra Modi lit an on-
line fire when he invited the Tibetan
prime minister-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay,
to his swearing-in ceremony, setting in
motion a more pronounced element of
his geo-political view than was foreseea-
ble: a tough line on China.
In the process, Modi has smacked Ti-
betan nationalism, a tender, idealistic
and locked-in-its-own-innocence phe-
nomenon, into some kind of unexpected
turmoil. The 150,000 strong Tibetan di-
aspora, spread primarily in India, Nepal
and Bhutan, is not a number that would
streak into news pages.
And yet, the Tibetan diaspora has man-
aged to showcase a very strong and
unique counter to politicized exile activi-
ty compared to any other displaced na-
tion in the world. And that makes the rare
Tibetan immigrant a model one. She is
rarely a disturbance to any countrys law
and order concerns.
Matron-like India
However, the original exodus from Tibet
that the Dalai Lama led in 1959 and even-
tually found a home for has spread into a
fairly large swathe of the Indian country-
side. The Tibetan cultural and religious
values being very much in tune with In-
dias, the community had only weather
and food, besides accents, to battle with.
And they have flourished, by many ac-
counts, in India, peacefully and in alarm-
ing safety.
But that safety, guaranteed by the ma-
tron-like nation that India has been since
Nehru for the Tibetans, might have sof-
tened the community to burrow further
into their monkish ways, more than is
safe for any one community in todays
globalizing world. With emphasis on pre-
serving their indigenous and unique cul-
ture, the Tibetan diaspora, especially the
young men and women, may be begin-
ning to feel the pinch of being caught un-
der-prepared in a changing world.
Already, many young Tibetans are
moving away from India to distant lands
with greater promise of economic pros-
perity. The image of a peace-loving peo-
ple and the unrelenting tragedy of their
dispossession resonates throughout the
world, giving them a degree of credibility
that is rare for migrants to First World
countries. The Tibetans avowed non-
militarism is in stark contrast to all other
freedom movements and conscientious
exiles fighting for the liberation of t heir
home countries.
Nearly fifty years after the Dalai Lamas
dramatic escape from Lhasa reports now
suggest that these migrants might jeop-
ardize the early sympathy that Tibets
sorry story evokes.
Integration Issues
The Tibetan refugees are in a tremen-
dously difficult situation. They are celeb-
rity refugees with zero cultural attach-
ment to the place, says Tasmanian-born
writer and critic Jane Rankin-Reid.
Tasmania has had up to 500 Tibetan
settlers over the years, and the group is
seen as an ideal target migration group
for the cool climate island with an ageing,
shrinking population. Tasmania has ref-
ugee settlers from other countries too,
she adds.
According to Rankin-Reid, the Bur-
mese and Hmong Vietnamese have reset-
tled fairly successfully in Tasmania, part-
ly because of their temperate climate
culture counter
JUNE 22-28, 2014
20
Exile and the World
P
:: Harish Nambiar
Young Tibetan refugees are at a crossroads:
should they stick to their traditional
lifestyle or merge into a globalizing world?
Fifty years after the Dalai
Lamas dramatic escape
from Lhasa, reports now
suggest that these
migrants might
jeopardize the early
sympathy that Tibets
story evokes
Tibetan children at a school in Dharamshala
run by Tibetan Childrens Village
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backgrounds; one would imagine Tibetans
are fairly comfortable here too, but the Aus-
tralian government agencies are often un-
prepared for these refugees way of living,
the historical trauma theyve endured and
the emotional fall out of seeking refuge so
far away from Asia.
Tibetan refugees are sometimes hosted by
local Buddhist groups, who, like most reli-
gious organizations, can be somewhat naive
about the integration needs of the incoming
families. Support benefits are paid to newly
arriving UN refugees, although the younger
people are required to work. Skill training is
available, but certain types of menial jobs
are regarded as demeaning by Asian immi-
grants, whereas the locals hold these roles in
far more respect.
It takes tremendous commitment to in-
tegrate these families successfully, particu-
larly middle-aged adults, as well as dedica-
tion from the individuals themselves. Sadly,
the women often stay at home and fail to
learn English which is very isolating in our
community. They lean hard on their kids to
keep conforming to the Tibetan cultural tra-
ditions, says Rankin-Reid.
The young adults can tend to be a bit vul-
nerable, naive, materialistic and somewhat
less engaged with their host societies.
Young Tasmanians would benefit from
more diversity, but it is hard to get young
Tibetans involved with local Tasmanian life.
You get the feeling they want more free-
dom from their traditional way of life when
they come to live in Australia but it isnt easy
for them. In Tasmania, one of the main
growth areas for employment is in aged
care which requires a diploma rather than a
degree, so it is theoretically easier for an im-
migrant to train and be employed in this
field; but many Tibetan men simply cannot
imagine themselves doing this kind of
work, says Rankin-Reid.
She is concerned about the low integra-
tive index of refugee groups like the Tibet-
ans to Tasmania. We lose a lot of resettled
refugees to the mainland, where there are
more established communities, but we
need the population growth and cultural
diversity badly here, so its worth putting
the effort into helping Tibetans integrate,
she goes on to add.
Relearning the Lyrics
It is good to hear the views of the most fa-
mous Tibetan singing star in the United
States. Jhola Techung is a 50-something
man, unusually tall by Tibetan standards,
has the looks of a rakish monk and is still
panting from the effort of surviving in the
cutthroat music industry of the US.
As a youngster, he studied in one of the
many schools run by the Tibetan Childrens
Village (TCV) before graduating from the
Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in
Dharamsala, the only school of its kind in
the world. The Tibetan community, with
the primary aim of preserving indigenous
culture and language, runs the TCV schools.
Currently the TCV has 16,726 children un-
der its care in India.
The Central Tibetan Schools Administra-
tion under Indias human resources minis-
try runs 71 schools with a similar emphasis
on Tibetan language and culture and a
school course integrated with CBSE and
NCERT curriculum.
Techung moved to the US in 1987 as a
theatre and music performer. Despite his
talents, for he was trained in Tibetan music
and stagecraft, it took him years to integrate
himself into the new society. Techungs
family, his Tibetan wife and four daughters,
have all become US citizens and are now liv-
ing in the Bay Area of San Francisco. He
himself taught at Emory University for two
years, when he was not making music or go-
ing on his rare tours.
On a long languorous walk through the
tea gardens of Himachal Pradeshs Go-
palpur, I asked Techung what his biggest
challenge was in getting into the American
music industry. Techung, I gathered, was a
meditative man, but never calculating.
I realize that I did not understand things
in the right way. Early on, when people
asked things like what do you want? or
how can I help? I should have said more
gigs, better marketing. Instead, I would get
confused at the enormity of these ques-
tions. They were sincere when they asked
and offered, I was just not able to under-
stand the concepts and the world that musi-
cians operated in there.
This cultural chasm that yawns between
every Tibetan and whichever country, cul-
ture or community they might be in, adds
an unnerving element of alienation.
A post-religious West sees, understands
and tolerates religion only as a mode of pri-
vate consolation or public spectacle. That is
the reason why a lot of Islamic terrorism is
easier to deal with; by stressing Islam and
softening terror; always a secular concept.
Imagining the Future
My friend Tenzin Tsundue, the face of the
Tibetan freedom movement here in India,
explains his countrys peculiarly Macondo-
like situation in a 2003 interview to a Bang-
ladeshi paper.
Before the [Chinese] invasion, Tibet was
that peaceful country where spiritual pur-
suits were dominant activities in peoples
lives. They were nomads and farmers who
lived far from the politics of the capital Lha-
sa. Occasionally, they would see a govern-
ment babu collecting taxes. Otherwise,
there was no relationship between the cen-
tre and the periphery.
These Tibetans were suddenly struck by
the tragedy of foreign invasion that too
inexplicably from their neighbour and
friend, China. Even todayafter 45 years of
grooming the exiled Tibetans into a demo-
cratic, participative community, the nation-
building often fails to touch their individual-
istic lifestyles.
At one level, Tibetan nationalisms fight is
a very archetypal one; the fight between the
innocent, pious hill people against the
rude, scheming people of the plains. The
metaphor extends admirably in the case of
the Tibetans whose spiritual master has
conquered the imagination of the plains
with his innocence, piety and, above all,
wisdom, charm and compassion.
Unfortunately, wisdom and charm cant
necessarily be expected of every single Ti-
betan from the mountains. That would be a
consumerist conspiracy.
But hope and aspiration is re-tuned every
generation. I had the good fortune to volun-
teer as a teacher at the TCV, Gopalpur, for
two weeks in January. I was one among sev-
eral teaching a group of children who could
not go home to their parents in the winter
vacation. They were children of Tibetan
parents from China who had sent them
across the border so that they could learn
about their culture in Indias TCVs.
I taught a medley group of children
clubbed together between the ages of 6-12
and 13-18. When I left after my stint, I got
one of the biggest rewards of my life in this
note from a young student that was evi-
dence of the re-tuning of hopes and aspira-
tions. She exhausted her considerable vo-
cabulary, among other things, on being
thoroughly complimentary: Day by day I
learn so many things from you. Like new
words, manners, reading, speaking and to
be clever. And listening.
That girl, Tenzin Lhadon, made my year
for this year. But she does not know it.
culture counter
JUNE 22-28, 2014
21
By inviting Lobsang
Sangay (below right) to
his swearing-in, Modi
has implied a stronger
line on China. The Dalai
Lama-led Tibetan
diaspora has showcased
a unique counter to
politicized exile activity
While the Tibetans non-violent freedom movement is
appreciated, host nations are worried about the exiles
failure to integrate. It took Jhola Techung (below)
years to become part of the US society
The writer, a former
journalist, now travels
and writes
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he night of carnage is over. The next even-
ing, at a bar in Copacabana, the sound of
waves crashing on the beach is punctured
by the strains of bossa nova. Several heads
are shaking to Tom Jobims velvet voice,
but a lonely man is in the mood to talk
about The Beatles. Unmindful of Jobim
and alcohol-fuelled revelry on tables,
Alonso Perez reminisces about the last
days of the band, when it was crumbling
and its fans were desperately praying for
them to make one last song. A day after
Spains loss to Chile at the Maracana,
Perez is on a nostalgia trip, making paral-
lels between the Fab Four and La Roja.
We will not see this team again. But just
like The Beatles gave us Let It Be before it
all ended, I wanted the team to play tiki-
taka with perfection one last time, says
Perez, a 47-year-old teacher from Barce-
lona. I went to the Maracana to listen to
the music, but it didnt play. With their
pace, the Chileans broke our rhythm.
In any other city at any other time,
mixing football with music may sound a
bit odd, but this is Rio in the time of the
World Cup. Its a city which constantly
bounces on an invisible beat. It has musi-
cal memories. During the month of the
carnival here, a beer-guzzling crowd
gathers on a street to make a Beatles
party, where I Want to Hold Your
Hand morphes into a samba.
Since the ball started rolling on June 12,
the mood in the city has been such its dif-
ficult to know if its preparing for the
World Cup final on July 13 or a samba
parade. All streets are adorned with the
Brazilian flag; roads have been painted
with Rumo ao Hexa (Get the sixth cup)
slogan; flags are fluttering from the win-
dows; and every night, people gather in
their neighbourhood boteco (bar) to beat
drums and dance. The World Cup has
come and it will go. If we win, its good.
But football is going to stay with us, said
Joao Mendonca, 54, sipping a drink in a
roadside caf. Football has come home
and we are celebrating it.
If Brazil is the home of football then Co-
pacabana is its capital these days. On this
4.5-km-long beach, with blue waters on
one side and a promenade with palm
trees on the other, the world gathers here
every day to celebrate football. At the Fifa
Fan Fest, set up in the cool sand of the
beach, more than 25,000 people turn up
every day to watch the World Cup action
live on giant screens. The day Brazil plays
in some part of this country, the number
swells to double.
A Melting Pot
In the streets of this tony area, Chilean
families have parked their trailers in
which they have travelled for days to
reach Rio. On several spots, Argentinian
groups have set up their camps. A bunch
of Canadians, who have travelled 18,000
km over 65 days to reach Rio, have
parked their World Cup Bus in a lane.
This is the capital of the universe, says
Michael Finke, an American tourist. I
have met people from so many countries
here, not just those who are playing in
the tournament. Its a real meeting of lan-
guages and cultures.
A melting pot it is, but its Brazils small-
er neighbours who dominate the scene
here. Last week, when Messi and his team
played Bosnia at the Maracana, more
than 30,000 Argentinians were in the sta-
dium, dancing and singing before and af-
ter the game. During the Chile-Spain
game, the red of Spain was drowned by
the Chilean shade of the same colour.
Days before the game, the city was
swarmed by the Chileans who went
around the city blasting horns and shout-
ing Chi, chi, chi. Le, le, le. Chile, Chile.
On Wednesday, before the kick-off,
40,000 Chileans descended on the Ma-
racana, filling the area around the historic
arena with raucous singing and rounds of
firecrackers. Our team is playing in the
World Cup so close to home. We have to
cheer them so that they win the cup, said
Milena Carlos, who travelled all the way
from Santiago to Rio by road with her hus-
band and two kids. We want the team to
feel they are playing at home.
This is what happened. During the
singing of national anthem, while a few
Spanish lips moved, thousands of Chile-
ans continued to sing even after the mu-
sic stopped. The cheering went on for the
90 minutes of play, as the Chileans were
joined by Brazilians and other South
Americans. As Vai Chile, Vai Chile (Go,
Chile) echoed through the stands of Ma-
racana, the Spanish were battling the
ghosts of the past in the same stadium:
1-6 loss to Brazil in 1950; 0-3 loss to Brazil
in last years Confederations Cup. The
decline of tiki-taka began last year after
the Brazilians swept the floor with us
here, says Peres. It has not been the
same team since then.
The demise of tiki-taka couldnt have
happened at a more appropriate place
than the Maracana, which once again
lived up to its reputation of being the
graveyard of great expectations. For a
day, it made the Brazilians forget their
own pain of losing the 1950 final to Uru-
guay at this arena. The Wednesday night
mayhem caused by Chile created a night
of South American camaraderie as they
were joined by Brazilians, Uruguayans,
Argentinians and Colombians in a night-
long bash that filled the city streets with
dancing, howling people. As the chants
of Ole, ole rippled from Maracana to
Copacabana, the few Spanish fans still
on the street removed their red T-shirts.
Its all over. There wasnt meant to be a
Let it be this time, says Perez, recall-
ing how 184,000 people had gathered at
this stadium in 1990 to listen to Paul Mc-
Cartney sing that song.
That was more than 20 years after the
Beatles had fallen apart and stopped
making music together.
cup fever
JUNE 22-28, 2014
22
The Wednesday
mayhem after
Chile beat Spain
created a night of
South American
camaraderie as
the Chileans were
joined by Brazilians,
Uruguayans,
Argentinians and
Colombians in
the celebrations
Let it be, La Roja
The tiki-taka era comes to an end at the Maracana as South
Americans turn the World Cup into a local bash at Copacabana
:: Shobhan Saxena I Rio de Janeiro
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everal years ago in Toronto there used
to be a quite clever and original native
theatre ensemble called The Turtle
Gals. One of their first
shows was a collec-
tive production called
The Scrubbing Project.
The title was a refer-
ence to an unfortu-
nate practice that oc-
casionally occurred
decades ago in the
Aboriginal communi-
ty. In this society,
dominated and con-
trolled by white peo-
ple, it was not unheard of for some na-
tive people who felt life would be a lot
simpler and less unfortunate if they
could scrub the darken hues from
their own skin, and enter the less op-
pressive world of the dominant cul-
ture. Fashionably speaking, this
makes sense, because as we know,
white goes with anything.
Its interesting how much things can
change in a few short decades. It
seems the reverse is now true. Dark is
in. I know from personal experience as
somebody who flirted with a career in
acting that for native theatre and film,
the darker you are, the better youll
show up on stage and screen. Us blue
eyed, light-browned haired guys
didnt have much of a chance. And I
have met a few native women who
wont even consider having a child
with anybody fair skinned. They want
their babies brown and beautiful. Who
can blame them? They can be quite
adorable. Luckily my mother was of a
different opinion.
Not Just Teeth
Even the major populace of Ontario is
getting in on the act. Our once descrip-
tive and borderline racist term for all
the expatriate Europeans, pale skin, is
now actively becoming a thing of the
past. Recently, the Ontario government
passed a law preventing teenagers from
going to tanning salons. Evidently they
were spending too much time in those
contraptions and endangering their
skin and potentially lives. Great, now
well have to find a new term.
The reason I have broached this topic
is the result of my recent trip to India.
There, my whole perception of this
skin-tinted issue has been turned on its
head. And quite severely. India, which
is awash in a broad hue of people, has
its own fixation with whitening more
than just their teeth. And its part of a
national cosmetic industry. It seems
theres a lot of money in decolourizing.
During my sojourn, primarily along
the western coast of the country Gu-
jarat, Kerala and Goa I couldnt help
but notice incentives and opportuni-
ties in the media and in the hotel room,
extoling the virtues of a snowy com-
plexion. Commercials litter the televi-
sion channels, claiming their skin
creams, with titles like White Beauty,
will lighten your skin. One actress,
during the 30-second commercial for
such a product, was noticeably
blanched by its end. Several of these
products are by well-known cosmetic
companies.
Dark & Unappealing?
Men are not exempt. They are part of
the white is right movement too. One
commercial promised its moisturizer
would make your skin ten shades
lighter. Another was called, simply,
Fair and Handsome. What more need-
ed to be said?
In some of the hotel bathrooms, right
next to the complementary shampoo
and conditioner, I found a face cream
stating its virtues as a flawless lighten-
ing agent. Meanwhile, I was trying to
get a darker tan. So for both political
and aesthetic reasons, I opted not to
make use of the cream. Heaven forbid I
come back from tropical India whiter
than when I left Canada.
Things got worse. People in the spas
here, when getting a facial, are routine-
ly asked if they want bleaching with
that. It also seems you can bleach your
whole body here if you want, and fairly
cheaply too. For a facial bleaching,
practically pocket change. A measly
thousand rupees. Your arms, a little
more at fifteen hundred. Now a
full body bleaching might set
you back a cool `2,500, which
translates into an easily afford-
able C$50 approximately. It
sort of answers the question
what do you get a man/wom-
an who has everything? A full
body bleaching.
I am of mixed feelings when
I write about things like this.
Its difficult and occasionally
rude to comment negatively
on other cultures practices. As
a First Nations person I know
this and hate it when other
people do that to us. Why should I
care that some people in Japan have
surgery on their eyelids to try and
make them more North American?
Some black people straighten their
hair. We all do something of that na-
ture, to some degree.
Several years ago I saw a small news
item about a famous porn star who
went to a plastic surgeon in LA for
something called anal bleaching. It
was for business reasons. I wonder if
she could write that off on her taxes.
Luckily, I did not see that offered at
the resort spa.
The writer is one of
Canadas leading
Aboriginal playwrights
Ad watchdog ASCI
may have frowned
on fairness cream
ads, but Indias
obsession with
lighter skin only
mirrors other
cultures fascination
with the dark
C O L O U R C O D E
:: Drew Hayden Taylor
S
take two
JUNE 22-28, 2014
23
People in the
spas, when
getting a
facial, are
routinely
asked if they
want
bleaching
with that
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The traveller sees what he sees. The
tourist sees what he has come to see

ore than a century after English writer GK
Chesterton penned this proverb, the Indi-
an middle-class vacationer, armed with
disposable income and purchasing power,
appears to be keen to make the transition
from wide-eyed tourist to a more receptive
traveller. And thats translating into an eye
for, and a ticket to, the roads less travelled.
Often those roads exist in countries that
have been traditional magnets for Indian
tourists England (which had 361,000
visitors from India last year), the US
(859,156), Germany (615,617) and Australia
( whi ch i s s ued over
100,000 tourists visas to
Indians in the July 2013-
June 2014 period).
Consider, for example,
Turakhias experience. On
their recent 14-day Austral-
ian vacation, Sejal and her
husband Satyen, who is
part of a family business in
Mumbai, steered clear of
the popular tourist haunts
like Sydney, Melbourne
and Adelaide. Instead the
Turakhias along with their
two sons Keshubh (10) and
Shantanu (5) zeroed in on
Cairns, a regional city in the
far north of Queensland that
is home to a number of herit-
age sites.
We wanted our holiday to
be offbeat and adventurous
as well as child-friendly. We
planned it ourselves and
were on a self-drive trip,
says Sejal. The family didnt
have a fixed itinerary, pre-
ferring to spend the maxi-
mum time at the places they
liked most in Cairns the is-
lands, rainforests and reefs.
My sons enjoyed
swimming, snor-
kelling, diving and
sailing and a visit to
the crocodile park,
adds Sejal.
To be sure, Tour-
ism Australia is seeing
a rise in demand for
new experiences and
destinations from the af-
fluent segment of Indi-
an travellers. We have
been promoting
newer destina-
ti ons promi -
life & leisure
JUNE 22-28, 2014
24
Flush with disposable incomes, more and more
Indians are seeking out unusual destinations
and experiences during their vacations abroad
Roads Less
Travelled
M
:: Ishani Duttagupta
SATYAJIT LAHIRI
WHERE: 62 countries.
Favourite offbeat
places so far are
Albania and Kosovo
WHY: Mainly for people
and food
Finding lesser
known locales
in the more
conventional
countries is one
way to go about
it; another is to
head straight off
into countries
that are off the
mainstream
SANKARA
SUBRAMANIAN
WHERE: Sulawesi,
eastern Indonesia
WHY: Loves adventure
travel, unique cultures
and exotic wildlife
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nently and are seeing a surge in the number
of Indians travelling to places such as Hamil-
ton Island, Kangaroo Island, Tasmania, and
the Northern Territory, says Nishant Kashi-
kar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tour-
ism Australia. The Northern Territory, which
is the third largest Australian federal division
but sparsely populated, has an archaeologi-
cal history that goes back 40,000 years when
indigenous Australians settled in the region.
Likewise New Zealand, too, has seen a
considerable number of Indian tourists pre-
ferring to take the road less travelled this
summer. Self-drive tours are becoming in-
creasingly popular amongst Indians as it al-
lows them the freedom of not being con-
fined to a restricted itinerary, says Mischa
Mannix-Opie, regional manager, South and
Southeast Asia at Tourism New Zealand.
Some of the lesser known destinations
that well-heeled Indians are exploring in
New Zealand include Lake Wanaka, nestled
below towering mountains, and Coroman-
del, cloaked in a native rainforest with un-
spoilt white sand beaches.
Exploring New Terrains
Finding lesser-known locales in the more
conventional countries is one way to go about
it; another is to head straight off into coun-
tries that are off the mainstream such as
Iceland, Chile, East Europe and Fiji.
Sankara Subramanian, a travel evangelist
and founder of travel blog Be On The Road,
can easily be called an offbeat and extreme
traveller. Passionate about experiencing
unique cultures, he recently made a trip to
the island of Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia
because he was interested in learning about
the ethnic culture of the people of Tana
Toraja in south-central Sulawesi province.
Unconventional demographics will be
the pick of the season for Indian travellers,
with youth, married and unmarried, being
the core target segment that is preferring to
explore newer and offbeat destinations,
says Shivani Gupta, managing director,
Strategic Partners Group, Asia, which re-
cently released an India outbound travel
report for 2014.
According to Gupta, some of the offbeat
destinations that young Indian travellers are
increasingly visiting include Chile with its
diversity of deserts, islands and rainforests;
theres also Croatia because of its amazing
weather and endless ocean views; Iceland
which has unique features of hot springs,
glaciers and smouldering volcanoes; Viet-
nam for a foodie experience and architec-
ture; and Taiwan for its beautiful landscapes
and exotic food.
Vishal Suri, CEO, tour operating, of travel
company Kuoni India, points out that more
and more Indian outbound tourists are us-
ing social media to find out about unex-
plored destinations that offer unique expe-
riences. They seek the freedom of explor-
ing the destination at their own pace and
do not mind extending their vacations by a
few days. Mono destinations have emerged
as the preferred choice of travellers seeking
to explore exotic locations such as Fiji,
Scandinavia and the Caribbean at their
own pace, says Suri.
Subramanian explains that those who
opt for unconventional destinations tend
to be in the 25-35 age group; and are indi-
viduals who are well-travelled, either on
work assignments or on holidays. They
wish to do more than just relax in their
hotel, shop at malls and see the top tourist
attractions. Instead, they may want to
learn scuba diving in Thailand, climb volca-
noes in Indonesia, go dune bashing in
Oman or learn cooking in Chiang Mai,
adds Subramanian.
Even when visiting conventional destina-
tions, Indian tourists are now looking for
offbeat things to do or seeking out spots
which are not on popular tourist itinerar-
ies. When visiting the US, Indians very of-
ten travel independently and not as part of
large groups and do self-drive summer va-
cations. While California has always been
on top of the tourist map, this summer
many Indian tourists are driving to places
in California that are off the beaten track,
like Monterey and Yosemi-
te, says Ravishankar, CEO,
Vacations Exotica.
Hrish Thota, a photo-
blogger from Bangalore
whose day job is as a senior
manager of social comput-
ing at technology firm Hap-
piest Minds, recently went
on a holiday to Newcastle
upon Tyne (commonly
known as Newcastle) in the
UK. It has a lot of history,
wonderful food and drink
but is yet free of the tourists
who throng more popular
places like London. Nature
is also bountiful there with spectacular
views of the North Sea, Thota told ET Mag-
azine. In the UK too self-drives are becom-
ing popular along coastal or countryside
areas like Devon and Cornwall.
Germany is also promoting unusual desti-
nations among Indian tourists with a great
degree of success. From the stunning Alpine
scenery at Berchtesgaden National Park to
the perfect blend of nature and culture in
Konstanz, we have Indian tourists trying out
a variety of unconventional experiences in
Germany, which has emerged as a popular
destination over the past few years, says Ro-
mit Theophilus, director, sales and market-
ing, German National Tourist Office, India.
Relating with History
This summer, Flanders in Belgium is prov-
ing to be a popular destination, coinciding
with the World War I Remembrance 2014-
2018 and the Great War Centenary project
by the Flemish government. There were
74,000 soldiers from the Indian Army who
died fighting for the Allies in World War I
nearly 100 years ago. The landscape of Flan-
ders Fields still tells the story of the war and
we have a lot of interest among Indian tour-
ists, including many from the extended
families of the soldiers, to visit this sum-
mer, says Sunil Puri, managing director at
the representative office of Tourism Flan-
ders and Brussels in India.
Other destinations too are
emerging in Europe that are
relatively off the beaten track.
Poland is now a popular
st andal one dest i nat i on
among Indian tourists with
many Bollywood films being
shot there and showcasing
the spectacular landscape
and amazing traditional Euro-
pean architecture which have
been largely unexplored by
Indian tourists, says Piotr
Klodkowski, ambassador of
Poland in India. Some of the
most popular and unique at-
tractions, according to him,
are the traditional European old towns in
Krakow, Torun and Warsaw, the salt mine in
Wieliczka, the Gothic castle of Teutonic
knights at Malbork and Bialowieza Forest. In
the past five years, at least 30,000 Indians
have visited Poland, including many who
are residents in the UK.
Of course, not everyone believes that In-
dians have put on their adventure shoes
and taken to offbeat travel in a big way. I
have seen busloads of Indian charter tour-
ists in Switzerland and Paris and in other
big cities. But I have not met a single Indian
backpacker on a low budget in all my trav-
els anywhere unless they are holders of US
or European passports, says Satyajit La-
hiri, who quit his job in Delhi as a communi-
cations professional in 2011 and has since
travelled across Southeast Asia, Europe,
the US and Central America.
When on overseas vacations, Indians
tend to travel in groups for the comfort factor.
They wont do things like sleep on the side of
the road like I have had to do once or twice or
spend nights at airports to save E50, adds
Lahiri , who has so far travelled to unconven-
tional destinations in 62 countries. In de-
fence of the affluent Indian traveller, you
could argue that she does not need to sleep
on the side of a road or slum it out to save a
few euros. After all, her priority is to travel as
far and as off the beaten path that her bur-
geoning disposable income can take her.
life & leisure
JUNE 22-28, 2014
25
SEJAL & SATYEN
TURAKHIA
WHERE: Cairns, Australia
WHY: Wanted an offbeat,
adventurous and
child-friendly vacation
Fiji, Chile,
Croatia,
Vietnam,
Iceland and
Taiwan are
some of the
destinations
finding favour
with Indian
travellers
HRISH THOTA
WHERE: Newcastle
upon Tyne, UK
WHY: It has a lot
of history, good
food and drinks
but is yet free
of tourists
T
H
E

T
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M
E
S

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F

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e
P
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he rains were once a deal breaker for tour-
ists. Who could fault them? The prospect
of staying indoors after paying through
the nose for a tour package didnt make
sense. But that is history.
Tourists seem to have finally discov-
ered the romance of the rains. There is an
indescribable joy in watching the rain,
listening to it rattling off pebbles and tak-
ing in the musky odour that it leaves be-
hind. Compare these scenes with the
scorching heat of a place like Delhi. Where
would you be?
No wonder the monsoon in Kerala is
drawing tourists like never before. June
and July, when rains lash the state, were
the perennial lean season for tourism in
Kerala. Raghu Dasan, additional director,
Kerala Tourism, the nodal agency for tour-
ism in the state, says the monsoon months
were clubbed with peak summer months
and written off as a lean patch for the
states tourism industry. Not anymore.
June and July are now seen as standout
months in terms of the potential for tour-
ist arrivals, according to Dasan. Kerala
Tourism is marketing these months as a
dream season. As part of a promotional
campaign, Kerala Tourism has been offer-
ing deals at a 30% discount, he said.
Go, Rain or Shine!
These deals invite travellers to prepare
their own itinerary at economical rates.
The itinerary will then be sent to accred-
ited tour operators, who in turn will sub-
mit their quotes on rates to customers.
Kerala Tourisms efforts to promote
monsoon tourism have been generating a
good response, said Abraham George
Johnny, chairman and managing director,
Intersight Tours and Travel, a tour opera-
tor based in Kochi.
Besides the promotion, the state has
chipped in with other friendly measures.
The government has cut the luxury tax to
5% from 12% during the monsoons.
This has been done with an eye on com-
petition. Kerala Tourism has been facing
severe competition from Sri Lanka, espe-
cially in the sale of ayurveda package holi-
days. Though the flow of tourists from
West Asian markets has been rising in
Kerala, Sri Lanka has been aggressively
marketing ayurvedic holidays. The tax
rebates will help the industry to slash the
prices of tour packages, said Johnny.
Such initiatives have become critical for
the states tourism industry due to a mis-
match in supply and demand. The supply
of rooms in Kerala has increased by at least
50% in recent years. But demand has not
kept pace, growing at a snails pace of 10%.
The entry of low-cost airline AirAsia,
which announced flights to Kochi earlier
this week, against this backdrop could not
have been more propitious, according to
industry stakeholders.
All of a sudden, hotel chain operators
like Jose Dominic, CEO of the CGH Earth
group of hotels, see a tremendous scope
for monsoon tourism in Kerala. The state
has a two-month advantage over many
travel guide
JUNE 22-28, 2014
26
The romance of the
monsoon is luring tourists
to Gods Own Country like
never before
Tourist inflows
The rains are no
longer a
dampener on
tourism in
Kerala
Foreign Tourists Domestic Tourists
Tourist inflows
during the
lean season
(monsoon)
7
,3
2
,9
8
5
1
0
8
,5
7
,8
1
1
7
,9
3
,8
9
6
8
,5
8
,1
4
3
6
7
,6
6
9
1
4
,6
8
,8
2
5
7
1
,2
5
7
7
5
,5
4
4
2
0
1
1
2
0
1
1
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
3
2
0
1
3
Source: Dept of Tourism, Kerala
Its Raining
Tourists in
Kerala
T
1
2
1. Kerala Tourism
is marketing
June and July as
a dream season
2. Munnar is a
big draw for
tourists
3. Thekkadys
wildlife
sanctuary is a
hot destination
too
3
:: PK Krishnakumar & S Sanandakumar
1
0
0
,7
6
,8
5
4
1
3
,7
5
,1
1
2
9
3
,8
1
,4
5
5
1
2
,9
7
,7
2
2
SPLASH
SEASON
T
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P
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tourist hotspots, according to Dominic.
Tourists from north India are increasingly
flocking to Kerala from end May to mid-July
to escape the heat.
The industry must keep the demand go-
ing through innovative products and better
marketing, he said.
Big Draw
One key attraction of Kerala during the
monsoon is ayurvedic rejuvenation treat-
ment. Ayurvedic physicians believe that the
monsoon season is the best time for such
treatment. Judging by the rush, tourists too
seem to agree. They combine these treat-
ments with sightseeing.
We have got a lot of enquiries from Arabs
in the Gulf. It is so hot there that they prefer
to come for treatment to Kerala during mon-
soon, said Dr AM Anvar, chairman and MD
of Punarnava Ayurveda Hospital. Punarnava
has four centres in Kochi and the booking is
around 80% this year. Dr Anvar is surprised
that there is a rise in the number of people,
particularly those above 30, seeking treat-
ment for lifestyle diseases. This year, there
is an increase in flow of customers from
Bangalore and Hyderabad. They come for
treatment of neck pain, back pain, digestive
problems and obesity, he said.
The hospital of Vaidyaratnam Oushad-
hasala, a leading ayurvedic treatment cen-
tre, in Thrissur, is nearing its peak capacity.
People book two months in advance and
spend a minimum of 14 days for rejuvenation
therapy. Those seeking treatment for obesi-
ty spend around a month, said Dr Suresh,
deputy superintendent of the hospital.
The results are already showing. Tourist
inflow during the monsoon months ( June-
July) has been increasing year on year (see
Splash Season). According to Dominic, Ker-
ala is lucky that foreign and domestic tour-
ists are waking up to the experiential holi-
days. The lush greenery during the mon-
soon months, ayurvedic packages, organic
food and love for nature are good alterna-
tives for vacationers, he said.
The pioneer of monsoon tourism in the
state is Wayanad, a district in north Kerala.
At a time when the state was yet to warm up
to the concept of monsoon tourism, a group
of resort operators in Wayanad took the
bold initiative of inviting tourists to cele-
brate the rains. An annual monsoon tour-
ism event called Splash launched by the
Wayanad Tourism Organisation (WTO) is
now into its sixth year. It has become so
popular that resorts in Wayanad are hard-
pressed to accommodate all the visitors.
The average occupancy through the
year has increased from less than 10% to
over 60%. In some resorts, it is 90%, said K
Ravindran, secretary of WTO. Splash is held
for three days in the second week of July.
Activities Unlimited
Splash boasts a diverse spread of events like
mud football, kayaking, bamboo rafting,
elephant rides, archery, swimming con-
tests and tribal village tours. This is in addi-
tion to visits to nearby tourist locations like
Edakkal caves, Kuruva Island, Muthanga
Game Sanctuary and the like.
The demand is not confined to Splash
alone. Resorts are flooded with enquiries
for the entire south west monsoon season
extending up to September.
The 50-odd major resorts registered with
WTO have a combined capacity to accom-
modate 300 visitors. However, this time the
demand has outstripped room availability
by nearly two times. Wayanad is today a
popular destination for tourists from all
over the country, especially for IT profes-
sionals from Bangalore and Mysore. The
place also draws plenty of high-end tourists
from Gujarat. Homestays sprouting around
Wayanad have to a certain extent catered to
the spike in the number of tourists.
Even so, Ravindran lamented the lack of
support from state agencies to promote
Wayanad. Wayanad has become a popular
destination almost entirely due to our ef-
forts, that too without sufficient connectiv-
ity, he said.
The nearest airport is located in
Kozhikode, which is three hours away. The
place is accessible only by road. (A surge in
tourism has pushed up land prices in Way-
anad as new investors from outside the
state look for an opportunity to pump in
money in the hospitality business.)
The poor access has kept foreign tourists
away. Thankfully, the overwhelming inter-
est from domestic tourists has compensat-
ed for their tepid response. Foreigners
also seem hesitant to visit because of all the
negative news about rape and violence in
India appearing in the newspapers. Many
are not aware that Wayanad is situated in
the southern part of the country, Ravin-
dran said.
Wayanad apart, the backwaters in Alap-
puzha continue to be a big draw for domes-
tic travellers. People from north India are
keen to take a ride in the houseboats to
watch the rains and taste the local food,
said Joji Mathew, director of Rainbow Cruis-
es, a company operating several house-
boats in Alappuzha.
Other Attractions
The houseboats offer 10-15% discount to en-
tice tourists during the monsoon (luxury
cruises charge up to `10,000 a day). Opera-
tors see heavy bookings from Delhi, Mum-
bai and Gujarat, according to Mathew. Judg-
ing by the bookings this season, the tourist
inflow is far better than last year, he said.
The prospect of romancing in the rain
has also attracted a raft of honeymooners
to Kerala. There is good demand from
families and couples on honeymoon for
our cars, said Gaurav Aggarwal, founder
and CEO of Savaari Car Rentals, which op-
erates nearly 150 cars in Kochi and Thiru-
vananthapuram.
This season, Aggarwal said there has
been a 250-300% spike in bookings. The
cars are hired for three to five days, with
Munnar, Kumarakom and Alappuzha turn-
ing out to be the popular destinations.
The monsoon is finally beginning to rain
money for the tourism industry in Kerala.
travel guide
JUNE 22-28, 2014
27
2011 2012 2013
Keralas Tourism Kitty
20,430 22,927
4,572
5,561
19,037
4222
Total Revenue (`/cr) Forex (`/cr)
Source: Dept of
Tourism, Kerala
4. Foreign and domestic tourists are now
waking up to experimental holidays
5. Tourists celebrate the rains in Thekkady
4
5
J
I
P
S
O
N

S
I
K
H
E
R
A
J I PS ON S I KHERA
T
H
E

T
I
M
E
S

O
F

I
N
D
I
A

e
P
A
P
E
R
D
O
W
N
L
O
A
D
WHOS HE?
Mexicos goalkeeper at
the World Cup.
SO, WHAT HAS HE DONE?
What? You didnt watch the
Brazil-Mexico match?
TOO LATE AT NIGHT...
Ah, Mammas boy early
to bed types.
YEAH, YEAH TOUGH GUY.
NOW TELL ME WHAT
OCHOA HAS DONE.
Played the game
of his life. One-
man army against
the Brazilians.
WHATS THE BIG
DEAL? THATS HIS
JOB.
You shouldve
seen those saves.
And hes become a
hero overnight. His
Twitter following
has shot up to 900,000-plus. Social
media are awash with Ochoa
memes.
LIKE WHAT?
Ochoa as Christ the Redeemer,
Superman, an antivirus, as
Neo from The Matrix, on the
cover of Time...
HOW COOL! HE SEEMS TO BE A
REAL FIND.
Doubt if anybody had heard of him
before the Brazil match.
WHICH CLUB DOES HE
PLAY FOR?
Plays for Ajaccio in the
French Ligue 1.
AJACCIO WILL HAVE A
TOUGH TIME KEEPING HIM NEXT
SEASON.
Interestingly, his contract hasnt
been renewed and hes a free
agent at the end of the month.
THE EUROPEANS CLUBS
ARE GOING SWOOP
DOWN FOR HIM.
Yup. Liverpool and
Arsenal have already
shown interest. At 28,
hell be a good buy.
A
b
o
u
t
...
T
a
l
k
S
ony's new smartband comprises two
parts a comfortable and sleek band
(available in multiple colours, two sizes in-
cluded in the box) and a removable core. The
core has a built-in battery, LED indicator lights
and it tracks your fitness. A good thing about the
smartband is that it works with any Android smart-
phone on Android 4.4. Download the free Sony
Smartconnect and Lifelog apps, pair the band with the
phone using NFC/Bluetooth and you're good to go. It offers
dedicated day and night modes the day
mode tracks your fitness while the night
mode tracks sleep. All data is collated
in an easy-to-view graphic interface
on the Lifelog app. With a single
charge, the band gave us
roughly four days of battery
life, which is impressive. If
you only need something
that works as a good fitness
band (and not a complete
smartwatch), the Sony Smart-
band is your answer.
Karan Bajaj
Bored of the usual running games?
Dark Lands is like a breath of fresh
air. It combines running, combat
and survival to give you the best of
all three in a mobile game. You play
as an assassin and have to keep run-
ning while avoiding traps and fight-
ing enemies. Even though the over-
all graphics theme is silhouetted
(black characters against a coloured
background), the details and game-
play are impressive. The control
scheme takes some time to master
since there are various commands
that require you to use both hands.
However, this is not one of those
simple, tap-to-play games. The
more you play, the more crystals
you can collect and these can be
used to upgrade your armour or
weapons. By default you get the sur-
vival mode but an additional adven-
ture mode is available as an in-game
purchase (`88).
Karan Bajaj
If you own an Android smartphone
but want an iOS like interface, try
the free Espier Launcher 7 from the
Google Play Store. It completely re-
places your Android interface to
make it appear similar to iOS. All
your apps are
placed on
multiple
home screens
with function-
ality like
swipe down
to search and
swipe up to
access run-
ning apps.
You can
download ad-
ditional widg-
ets to get an iOS style contacts/dial-
er, lock screen and control center
widget. You even get multiple notifi-
cations for each app in the same
style as iOS. There are no visible ad-
vertisements on the interface, but
within the settings of the app, ads
appear as new notifications.
Hitesh Raj Bhagat
Game for Android
Get it for: Free
App for Android
Get it for: Free
GET
Dark Lands
Espier Launcher 7
JUNE 22-28, 2014
28 feel smart
PEOPLE, PLACES AND IDEAS MAKING HEADLINES
GUILLERMO OCHOA
WATCH DO BROWSE LI STEN
Get it for: `5,990
Sony Smartband SWR10
PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. By Mr. R. J. Prakashan at 40/1, S&B Towers, M.G. Road, Bangalore-560001. (Phone: Office: EPABX- 080-42200000, Fax: 080-42200100) and
printed by him at Bennett, Coleman & Co. Limited, No. 9/10/11-A, 4th Main Bommassandra Industrial Area, Hosur Road, Bangalore-560099, Ph: 080-42200500. Registered Office: Dr Dadabhai Naoroji Road,
Mumbai-400001.
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RNI No.: KARENG/2014/55880. VOLUME 01 NO. 23.