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 www.seasonalmagazine.com
Editorial
Seasonal

MAGAZINE
Vol 10 Issue 2 February 2011 indian economy’s dirty little secret:
Managing Editor
Jason D Pavoratti inflation is here by design
Editor
John Antony Despite repeated efforts to deflate, prices are getting inflated. Either it shows the
Director (Finance) incompetence of leaders like Dr. Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, & P
Ceena Chidambaram, as the Opposition says, or there is something else to the economy,
Senior Editorial Coordinator
Jacob Deva
something that remains hidden to most of us.
Senior Correspondent The secret might well be this - nobody in central policy-making really cares a damn
Bina Menon
Creative Visualizer
about inflation. But not necessarily because of apathy or ignorance. With almost
Bijohns Varghese half gone from its second-term, and considering the time taken to turn around
Photographer economics, UPA clearly cannot afford apathy. And anyone who knows the rudiments
Anish Aloysious of economics knows that inflation can very well be tamed by cutting down on
Correspondents government spending, or specifically in the post-2008 context, rolling back the fiscal
Bombay: Rashmi Prakash stimulus.
Hyderabad: Iqbal Siddiqui
Delhi: Anurag Dixit But the central policy makers aren’t willing to even consider these steps. Why?
Director (Technical) Because, they really don’t care a damn about inflation.
John Antony
Publisher Just recall what the other Singh told press recently, “Inflation is one thing I am least
Jason D worried about…” And it is not just Montek’s take on this. Kaushik Basu, FinMin’s
Chief Economic Advisor recently said, “We want to take steps to bring down inflation
Editorial & Business Office
Cochin: 36/1924 E, but we do not want to be so single minded in bringing down inflation…”
Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road, The political leadership, on the other hand, can’t be as clear as bureaucrats. But the
Near IGNOU, Kaloor, Cochin-17.
Ph:0484- 2345876, 2534377, 2340080
intentions should be clear to all. Now only the question of ‘why’ remains, given the
Mob. 09947141362, 09947258505 stark unpopularity of inflation.

Mumbai: 202, Woodland Heights

Chances are that this team, led by Dr. Manmohan Singh, want to go down in history
Building, St. Martins Road, Bandra as the men who finally guided India into the right economic track that a developing
West, Mumbai -400 050, Mobile: nation should take to become a developed nation.
9757076197
Ph: 022-26401362, 26401360, Why, don’t all of us want to live in a developed nation? Don’t we want India to be a
developed nation like US or UK? Yes, yes, yes. But, sadly, we haven’t yet understood
Bangalore: House No: 493, Block 3 that this transition, this growing-up is going to be intensely painful.
3rd Main, HBR Layout,
Bangalore-4209731984836, To give just a glimpse of this pain, it is enough to realize that there is still room for
Email:skmagazine@gmail.com more inflation. Because, for all of India’s high inflation rates now, realize once and
www.seasonalmagazine.com for all that the cost-of-living index in USA (computed as consumer prices including
UK Office: “CRONAN”,
Boundaries Road SOLVING THE INFLATION PUZZLE
Feltham, Middlesex, UK TW13 5DR
Ph: 020 8890 0045,
Policy makers not overly worried over inflation
Mob: 00447947181950
Email: petecarlsons@gmail.com
Government has opted for the high growth / high inflation model
Reg No: KERENG/2002/6803
Room for further inflation high in India
Printed & Published by Jaison D on behalf
Despite Indian inflation, US & UK living costs 170-230% higher
of PeteCarlson Solutions Pvt. Ltd. at
Cochin. Printed at Rathna Offset Printers, American Purchasing Power is only 98% higher than Indian
Chennai-14. All Rights Reserved by
PeteCarlson Solutions Pvt. Ltd. No part of British Purchasing Power is only 57% higher
this publication may be reproduced by any
means, including electronic, without the BRIC shows divergence between BR & IC
prior written permission of the publisher.
India & China following high growth / high inflation model
All India Distributor: India Book House, Mumbai
UAE Distributor: Malik News Agency & Equity market unimpressed by the high inflation model
Distributors Dubai

All health related articles are for first

Russian equities gained while Indian and Chinese indices nosedived
information purposes only. Always
consult your doctor before taking any Inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and corruption rampant
decison affecting your health.
MEMBER
rent) is still 177% higher than in India. In UK, it is 236% higher than in India!
Of course, Indians and Americans don’t earn equally. But not only is this difference smaller, but it is getting smaller by
the year. For example, the local purchasing power of Americans is now only 98% higher than Indians. And in the case
of Englishmen, local purchasing power index is even smaller - only 57% higher than in India now. These numbers are
even more significant, taking into account the better savings culture of Indians vis-à-vis Westerners.
Clearly, room for further inflation is there if we want to end up as a developed nation. And the only thing that can offset
inflation is earnings growth, and if earnings - of individuals, families, companies, governments, and ultimately of the
nation - doesn’t keep pace, any and all of these social units will be in deep trouble.
And for earnings to grow, productivity should grow, and that is why the team led by Dr. Manmohan Singh is madly after
GDP growth. That is how USA grew itself in the post-WW2 era, always striving to keep annual GDP at high single
digits, if not low double digits, and suffering high inflation as the outcome. And now, with USA and other developed
countries growing at low single digits, Dr. Singh and his team rightly thinks that if we continually grow at high single
digits, we can successfully play catch up.
In contrast, if growth is slowed down, inflation will in no doubt come down, but so will employment rate, and so will APL
percentage. In fact, studies have shown that with each declining growth percentage (that will tame inflation), the
country will see unemployment levels inching towards 20%, and the failure to raise another 100 million people from
BPL status.
Simply put, the secret is that India has voluntarily opted for high-growth / high-inflation economics. Amongst the BRIC
economies, while India and China are following this method, Brazil and Russia have opted for the low-growth / low-
inflation route. Only time will tell which route was best, but the bad thing is that our leaders don’t have the guts to
announce what they have chosen.
The pains arising from this non-disclosure is apparent. For one, if it were disclosed, people would at least try to earn
more rather than wait endlessly for onions to be cheaper. Only God knows what would be the overall hit if and when
diesel is de-regulated.
Behind the veil of apparent indecisiveness, the real decisiveness of this Government - may be its only decisiveness -
in ensuring a high growth / high inflation cycle is unnerving.
It is slowly becoming clearer that the ongoing equity market correction is not just about interest rates edging higher,
but more to do with Government’s subtle unwillingness to control inflation by curbing growth. The high growth / high
inflation cycle is clearly not favoured by FIIs, which is clear from the way Indian and Chinese indices have nosedived
while indices in other emerging markets like Russia have soared over the past two months.
Will Dr. Manmohan Singh and company eventually succeed as history makers? They may, but if, and only if, they are
also willing to admit that development is not only about economics, but about rooting out inefficiencies, bottlenecks,
and ultimately, corruption.
For example, despite being the world’s second largest producer of vegetables and fruits, 25% of our produce goes as
waste. Coming to cereals and pulses, the waste is smaller but still a sizeable 7%, enough to correct an ad-hoc price
hike due to any supply side crunch. It is also highly unlikely that our investigative agencies have uncovered and
busted the myriad ways in which hoarding and futures exploit the demand side which is getting stronger in the country.
And if growth is also about empowering the country’s largest profession, farming, the country’s track-record in this is
pretty poor, with Indian farmers struggling to get at least one-third of the final retail price.
It is economy that needs to grow, but often it is not only economics that is involved.
John Antony
 FEBRUARY 2011

Contents
10 Best Spas in India
The spa industry in India has seen some phenomenal growth in recent years.
Kerala, with its ayurvedic roots, has emerged as a hot destination for spa
tourism. You'll also find some wonderfully refreshing destination spas in the
mountains, and enticing resort spas in India. As well as skin treatments and
massages, most spas in India have now evolved to include a number of
different therapies, such as reflexology, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, and

Wealth Creating Stocks for 2011

They are India’s sleeping wealth creators. Once the gems of India Inc, or rather,
Investment Inc, that created multi-fold wealth not only for themselves, but for
their millions of retail investors. But that is history. It was in the last decade’s
early, mid, and until the stock-market’s 2008 peak. From then on, the limelight
was hogged by a different set of players, promising wealth in sectors like
infrastructure and banking. But with these new breed promises only partially

Is India Developing a Gun Culture?

Starting from the rich and the powerful, are Indian citizens starting to rely on
guns for self-defence and family-defence? Or are the guns used to bully or
silence enemies? NEW DELHI, India — Three years after two teenage boys
allegedly gunned down his 14-year-old son, Abishek, over a playground spat,
Gurgaon businessman Rajinder Tyagi

3 Ways Families Escape

from Poverty
MIT economist’s study shows how the poor in developing countries are
becoming wealthier, not often by family's teamwork, but by one family
member's unusual initiatives.

Indian Homes That Makes

Cities Immaterial
You hate to boast this, but you have seen the world. You can carry out
your work from anywhere, even in forests without Wi-Fi. Because work
will call you, report to you, or go on smoothly without your intervention.
Or you won’t work at all for days, and not because you can afford it.

Leadership Change, Google Style

"When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined even in my wildest
dreams that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has
quite literally changed people’s lives increasing the collective sum of the
world’s knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process. And our
emerging businesses display, Android, YouTube and Chrome are on fire.
 Cometh the Hour,
Cometh the Man!
VVS? Wo kaun hai? Is he the one who
scored that scintillating knock of 281*
against the Aussies at the Eden
Gardens?.....hard to believe ,ain’t it? Ah!
But that’s our very own VVS’s life. When he
Q3 RESULTS

Developers Hope Townships will

Change Fortunes
Ajay Arora, a multinational software company employee, commutes 2 hours daily to
work in rush-hour traffic. He spends as much time — sometimes more — on the
journey home. Driving is his passion, but given the gridlock going into Bangalore
almost the time, he recently hired a driver. Still, he is frustrated by the amount of
time he spends on road

LIC Continues to be Unbeatable in With Full Wind on its Sails

Life Insurance and Capital Markets
It has been 10 years since many of the largest private life insurers
started operating in the country. Though life insurers are expected to
break even starting from the 7th year of commencing operations,
according to IRDA assessments, it is striking that many
Hamriyah FZ Emerges
Stronger From Global
Slowdown
Did any nation escape the global slowdown
that started in early 2008? Not USA, not
India, and not UAE. But for Dr. Rashid Al
Leem and his team at Sharjah’s Hamriyah
Free Zone, it was a time for contemplation
and consolidation, and they went to work
As the SAIL FPO draws closer, retail investors are
evaluating whether the follow-on public issue of the
country’s largest steel-maker will fare as good as recent
We will Repeat Manappuram
Finance’s Success..
He transformed a 60-year old pawn shop his father founded
into a Rs. 6300 crore financial empire. He is VP
Nandakumar, former banker, entrepreneur extraordinaire,
and one of India’s most successful wealth creators for retail
5 Reasons Your Company
Website isn’t a Hit
After WikiLeaks, Comes
Anonymous

Canara Bank Moves Unfazed

Against Sectoral Challenges
Against fundamental and market challenges affecting the banking sector
since November, Canara Bank is moving fast and furious to sustain both
growth and margins through various initiatives. If they succeed, Chairman
S Raman would also automatically succeed in making this PSB India’s third
most-profitable and the third-most valuable by market cap. Investors are
also sure to cheer such a move, as recently Canara Bank had proven what it
is capable of if the environment is conducive.
 10 BEST SPA
IN INDIA
Seasonal Magazine
AS
The spa industry in India has seen some phenomenal growth in recent
years. Kerala, with its ayurvedic roots, has emerged as a hot
destination for spa tourism. You'll also find some wonderfully
refreshing destination spas in the mountains, and enticing resort spas
in India. As well as skin treatments and massages, most spas in India
have now evolved to include a number of different therapies, such as
reflexology, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, and meditation. All you need
to do is lie back and enjoy being pampered!
Here are the 10 best luxury spas in India.

Seasonal Magazine
 1 Wildflower Hall
Spa, Shimla
Set amongst cedar forests, with fresh air and a view of snow capped
mountains, the Spa Pavilion at the Oberoi's Wildflower Hall Resort is a
haven of tranquility. Twice voted "India’s Best Spa Resort" in the World
Travel Awards, the spa uses plant and flower essences in its aromatherapy
and Ayurveda based treatments.
Address: Oberoi Wildflower Hall Resort, Shimla in the Himalayas,
Chharabra, Shimla. Ph: (91 177) 264-8585.
Cost: $90-$130 for massages, $50 for body scrubs, $85 for body wraps,
Ayurvedic treatments from $80, spa programs from $130, $25 for yoga,
meditation, & pranayama.
What's Good: The luxurious Himalayan Retreat spa program, which
includes body scrub, Indian head massage, full body massage, and
Himalayan cedar bath.

2 Ananda In the Himalayas Spa,

Rishikesh
The Ananda In the Himalayas is
another award winning spa in India,
set against the soothing background
of the Himalayas. The spacious
destination spa is built on a Maharaja's
palace estate. It offers therapeutic
treatments based on traditional Indian
practices of ayurveda, yoga and
meditation. There's also an enticing
spa boutique, stocking everything
from music to organic food. A three
night minimum stay is required.
Address: The Palace Estate, Narendra
Nagar Dist. Tehri-Garhwal,
Uttarakhand. Ph: (91 1378) 227-500.
Cost: Accommodation and spa
packages start from around $500 per
person per night, and include special
Seasonal Magazine

cuisine and treatments.

What's Good: The five night Stress
Management Package will leave you
feeling relaxed and energized.
 3
Kaya Kalp - The
Royal Spa, Agra
Opened in March 2008 and declared the "World's
Best City Spa" by the UK's Tatler Magazine within
six months, Kaya Kalp is a spa like no other.
Spread over 99,000 square feet of unsurpassed
opulence, it could very well be the biggest spa in
Asia. However, it's the jaw dropping grandeur of
the spa that will take your breath away.
Address: ITC Mughal Hotel, Taj Ganj, Agra. Ph:
(91 562) 233-1701.
Cost: $35 for a 30 minute tension reliever
massage, $95 for a 90 minute facial, $105 for the
100 minute Royal Mughal Hamam Spa Journey,
$160 for the 150 minute Passage to India Spa
Journey. Three hour couples packages, $350.
What's Good: Passage to India Spa Journey,
which combines guided meditation with
ayurvedic treatments to restore the mind and body.

Seasonal Magazine
 4
Maya Spa, Kumarakom
Winner of "Best Resort Spa" at the
2007 AsiaSpa awards, Maya Spa
is located amidst the Kerala
backwaters on the shores of
Vembanad Lake. It's the largest
spa in southern India and has two
wings - one dedicated to
Ayurvedic treatments, and the
other to Oriental and Western
style treatments including
massage, skin treatments,
reflexology, and Shiatsu. The
resort also has a special
meditation and yoga pavilion on
Seasonal Magazine
an island in the lagoon.
Address: Zuri Resort & Spa
Kumarakom, Kerala. Ph: (91 481)
252-7272.
Cost: Accommodation & spa
packages from around $500 for a
double per night.
What's Good: The Cloud 9
massage, where you'll receive a
relaxing head massage while
floating on an enveloping water
bed to help relax tensed up
muscles.
 Taj Lake Palace Jiva
5 Spa, Udaipur
As if the alluring lake setting of the Taj Lake Palace isn't enough, the
Jiva spa takes it to a whole new level. Its exquisite treatment suites, with
hand painted heritage frescoes adorning their walls, are the perfect places
to relax and receive an unwind. What really makes this spa unique though,
is its Royal Spa Boat. It will take you gliding across Lake Pichola as you
soak in the spa bath on the deck or get an aromatherapy massage.
Address: The Taj Lake Palace, Lake Pichola, Udaipur, Rajashtan. Ph:
(91 294) 2528800.
Cost: Signature "Pehlwan Malish" Warrior Massage massage $90. Scrubs
& wraps $40. Royal Spa Boat packages from $300 for two.
What's Good: The Romantic Spa Escapade and Romantic Spa
Indulgence packages on the Royal Spa Boat.

6 Sereno Spa, Goa

Voted "World’s Number One Spa" and "Best Spa in the Asian and Indian Subcontinent" by the readers of
Conde Nast Traveller in 2006, Sereno Spa is a real delight for the senses. Located on a quiet Goa beach and
spread over 36,000 square feet, the stunning outdoor spa pavilions have breathtaking sea views. A delicious
range of ayurvedic inspired massage, skin, and body treatments is on offer.
Address: Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa, Arossim Beach, Cansaulim, South Goa. Ph: (91 832) 272-1234.
Cost: Around $600 for a one night spa package for two.
What's Good: The Synchronised Abhyanga "Four Hands Massage", designed to invigorate the body. The
Traditional Marma Facial, which includes a crown chakra massage, is excellent for mature skin types.

Seasonal Magazine
 7
Taj Malabar
Jiva Spa, Cochin
Conde Nast Traveller readers rated the Jiva Spa, at the Taj
Malabar Hotel, as one of their Top 10 favorite hotel spas in
Asia for 2008. Located on a peaceful island, the spa looks out
over a shimmering swimming pool that appears to merge into
the ocean. Guests can choose from in-depth Ayurveda programs,
traditional Indian massages, body scrubs, Ashtanga yoga and
meditation. Perfect for relaxation and rejuvenation!

Address: Taj Malabar Hotel, Willingdon Island, Cochin. Ph:

(91 484) 2666811/2668010.
What's Good: The signature Jivaniya energizing treatment
relives tension an improves blood circulation. It includes an
exfoliating herbal scrub, heat stimulating wrap, and massage.
The Narikela coconut scrub is a house favorite.
Seasonal Magazine
 8 Amatrra Spa, New Delhi
The sensuous Amatrra Spa defines itself as the only metropolitan standalone lifestyle spa in India. It was
awarded "Best Day Spa" by AsiaSpa India in 2007, and was recognized by Forbes as one of the "10 Best Spas
in India" in 2006. The spa is unique in that its treatments are based on the ancient study of "Astroveda" -- a
combination of Ayurveda and astrology.
Address: The Ashok Hotel, Diplomatic Enclave, 50 B Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Ph: (91 484) 2666811/
2668010.
Cost: Aromatic baths $35. Massages and detoxification treatments from $60. Spa & lunch package $65. Half
Seasonal Magazine

day packages $200. Full day packages from $350.

What's Good: Fully inclusive packages including wellness consultation, spa therapy, meditation, reflexol-
ogy, and food.
 9 Quan Spa, Mumbai
The opulent Quan Spa won Asia
Spa's "New Spa of the Year" Award
in 2006, and was one of Conde
Nast Traveler's Hot Spas for 2007.
This is a place where you can truly
indulge yourself. The spa has four
different types of treatments on
offer -- rejuvenating, detoxifying,
enhancing, and Indian style
massages. What's great is that you
don't have to be a hotel guest to
visit this spa.
Address: JW Marriott Hotel, Juhu
Tara Road, Juhu Beach. Ph: (91
22)6693-3610.
Cost: $40-$70 for body polish,
baths, or massages. $90-$120 for
facial therapy and body wraps.
$120-$220 for Ayurvedic rituals.
What's Good: The hotel offers
spa and accommodation packages
from $400-460, which include a
variety of spa massages. The spa
also has a lavish room for couples.

10 Amarvilas Spa, Agra

What could me more exquisite than
relaxing in a bath full of flowers,
with a view of the Taj Mahal out-
side? You can turn this dream into
reality at the Oberoi Amarvilas Spa.
The spa claims that it befits the self-
indulgence of royalty, and its not
wrong. Couples will find it impos-
Seasonal Magazine
sible not to feel romantic! Treat-
ments blend classic Ayurvedic tech-
niques with traditional Thai mas-
sage, and use exotic herbal oils and
creams of ancient Indian royalty.
Address: Oberoi Amarvillas, Taj
East Gate Road, Agra. Ph: (91 562)
223-1515.
Cost: Treatments start from around
$50 for a body scrub, and go up to
$220 for the most extensive spa
program.
What's Good: The three hour
Noor-e-Taj program, which com-
bines body scrub, wrap, massage
and bath.
Seasonal Magazine
Seasonal Magazine
INVESTING
Wealth Creating
Stocks for
2011
hey are India’s sleeping wealth creators. Once
the gems of India Inc, or rather, Investment
Inc, that created multi-fold wealth not only for
themselves, but for their millions of retail investors. But
that is history. It was in the last decade’s early, mid, and
until the stock-market’s 2008 peak. From then on, the
limelight was hogged by a different set of players,
promising wealth in sectors like infrastructure and
banking. But with these new breed promises only
partially fulfilled, will the old wealth creators come back
into the game in the New Year? Enterprises like Unitech,
Satyam, Suzlon, and many more of this genre? Will
Seasonal Magazine

they wake up in 2011? Seasonal Magazine finds out.

 WEALTH CREATING
STOCKS FOR 2011
Realty
Unitech’s
Universal Appeal
LF and Unitech are
perhaps so often
clubbed together
that the uninitiated
would think they are some sort
of cousins. But nothing could be
farther from the truth, when it
comes to sheer wealth creation
capabilities. Unitech was a listed
company when KP Singh was
still buying land for his flagship
Gurgaon project. But not the
DLF and realty style of listing,
of course, with an IPO price of
just Rs. 25 in 1991.
Highest share price of Unitech
in 2000 was Rs. 60. Today’s
closing price for Unitech was
63.40. But you would be fooled
Seasonal Magazine
only if you started investing in
2010. No, not the usual stock-
split stuff. That is there, of
course, with the current face
value at Rs. 2 and the then face
value at Rs. 10. That makes the
current price 500% of the 2000
price. But that is not all. Shortly
after the split came a 12:1 bonus
issue. That made it a 5 X 13 =
65 times appreciating stock. Not
complete, still. Next year came
another bonus, of 1:1. That made
the appreciation 5 X 13 X 2 =
130 times or 13,000% of the
original value. In other words,
if you had invested Rs. 77,000
in Unitech in 2000, the same
would be today worth over Rs.
1 crore. Still, the story is not
over. For the past six years,
Unitech has also been a dividend
paying company, with the
average dividend being 17% of
the prevailing face values. That
is why the Unitech story is
regarded as one of the most
profound wealth creation sagas
in India Inc. But all this is
history.
Today, Unitech’s year-to-date
price-performance is -20%.
Even if we discount it for the
recent correction, the
appreciation has been nil. In
other words, Unitech has been
trapped in a range, unable to
make a convincing close above
Rs. 100 for almost a year. Why?
A quick look at the P/E and P/
BV signals that even at Rs. 60
levels, the valuation is not cheap,
but not obnoxious either.
We can readily blame dilution
that happened due to the mega
bonuses, but better is to
remember that Unitech is a
company that had not only
maintained but increased its EPS
by nearly 10% in FY’07, a year
in which equity went up to
1300%. It has remained as a
performance benchmark that is
difficult to beat by any company
in any sector. So, dilution per se
was not the problem. The
company had grown its income
and profits even faster.
But when Unitech attempted to
do a repeat performance in
FY’08, disaster struck. Sales and
profit growth slowed, and the
equity doubling that year ensured
that EPS nosedived to 50%. Next
year, even Unitech didn’t have
the guts to attempt a repeat. By
fiscal 2010, the situation was so
bad that Unitech had to fortify its
equity - without any bonus, of
course - just to stay afloat.
Sanjay Chandra
Now, the question is has the ship
stabilized enough to go for
another battle? One hint is that
though sales is still struggling,
That made it a 5 X Unitech is now much leaner and
smarter. Operating profit margin
13 = 65 times has increased by almost 7%
appreciating stock. from FY’10 levels to reach
Not complete, still. nearly 62%. Net profit margin
has also improved by almost 2%
Next year came to reach above 30%. What this
another bonus, of means is that if housing demand
picks up again, Unitech is battle
1:1. That made the
ready.
appreciation 5 X 13
In a sector, where DLF can still
X 2 = 130 times or command a P/E of over 50 and
13,000% of the Godrej Property can trade on a
P/BV of over 5, a much more
original value. In diversified player like Unitech’s
other words, if you P/E of 27 and P/BV of 2 comes
had invested Rs. across as cheap. That is why, if
the sector turns around in 2011,
77,000 in Unitech Unitech might be the realty
in 2000, the same share to watch.
would be today Now forget all these, and to the
real reason. Unitech’s
worth over Rs. 1 capabilities in wealth creation
crore. will bring back all those old
memories, and expect a quite a
Seasonal Magazine
lot of investors, including
foreign institutional investors, to
join the fray, if and when
Unitech presents a true breakout.
 WEALTH CREATING
STOCKS FOR 2011
IT
Tech Mahindra
Satyam
ow, which will be
angering the
investor in you
most? That there
is no stock called
Tech Mahindra Satyam, or that
we dared to call this non-entity
a wealth creator, say, like
Unitech? Well, hold on till the
end of this.
If you are a Mahindra Satyam
or Tech Mahindra investor, have
no doubt, we understand your
anger. Ever since the much
celebrated takeover, both scrips
have not only failed to live up
to the promise, but failed
miserably causing serious
damage to many investors.
Seasonal Magazine
Now, before we proceed with
our case for this non-entity, a
word on what we really intend.
Are we asking you to invest in
Mahindra Satyam? Are we
asking you to invest in Tech
Mahindra? Are we asking you to
wait for the merger and invest in
Tech Mahindra Satyam,
assuming that would be the final
name? No, no, no. All these
would be wrong strategies.
What we are really advising is
to always look at both, if at all
you are considering one of them,
or for that matter, any IT stock
to invest in. In other words, say,
if you have 1 lakh to invest in a
new IT play - let 50,000 go to
Tech Mahindra and 50,000 go to
Mahindra Satyam. Why? Simply
because, as of now, nobody
knows what would be the
merger ratio, and whichever way
Mahindras decide, be it the 1:10
way the two shares are moving,
or the 1:5 way or 1:2 way
Satyam investors would like it
to be - your investment would
be safer this way.
Now, to explain the audacity to
call either of them a wealth
creator.
Looking at Tech Mahindra’s
rather short listed history, things
don’t look that bad. From a 2006
IPO price of around Rs. 525, this
late entrant into the listed IT
space had quickly zoomed to
around Rs. 2000 levels by the
next year, that is in 2007 itself.
Isn’t that a 300% rise? Of
course, later Tech Mahindra fell,
but still managed annual high
prices above Rs. 1000 in 2008,
09, & even in 2010. But it was a
kind of rollercoaster ride as low
prices went deep down even up
to Rs. 200 levels in 2008 & 09.
But impressively, in 2010, the
lows haven’t breached the Rs.
600 mark, which is comfortably
above the IPO price. The Satyam

buy was, of course, an important
stabilizer.
Coming to Mahindra Satyam, or
its former avataar, Satyam
Computer Services, it may now
look like a beaten down scrip at
Rs. 73, compared with its IPO
price of around Rs. 57 in 1995.
But reality is something quite
different. Two 1:1 bonuses and
one 10/5 split makes the current
share 2X2x5=20 times of the
original share. In other words, a
Rs. 57 Satyam share in 1995 is
now worth Rs. 1460. Something
that appreciates 25 times within
15 years is not bad, and that is
why, for all his misdeeds, Raju
indeed had capabilities in wealth
creation for retail investors.
But all that is history now. Why
any serious investor should start
looking at Tech Mahindra
Satyam is something else. If and
when the companies are
combined, with a combined
Anand Mahindra
sales of around Rs. 10,000 crore,
Tech Mahindra Satyam will be
double the size of India’s fourth
largest IT exporter, HCL
Technologies. And from then on,
What we are really interesting things can happen. If
advising is to always Satyam can win back many of
its major orders lost due to the
look at both, if at all
scam, and / or the combined
you are considering entity can succeed in synergistic
one of them, or for bidding in the financial,
that matter, any IT engineering, & telecom space,
its net sales can reach within
stock to invest in. In
striking distance of India’s third
other words, say, if largest IT exporter by sales, the
you have 1 lakh to one and only Infosys
invest in a new IT Technologies!
play - let 50,000 go Of course, margins will be a
to Tech Mahindra different story altogether, but
and 50,000 go to even if it improves to half of
Infosys levels, the market may
Mahindra Satyam. be ready to give Tech Mahindra
Satyam, near identical
Seasonal Magazine
valuations. That provides for an
upside that is twice or thrice of
the current prices.
 WEALTH CREATING
STOCKS FOR 2011
Realty
Suzlon Energy Ltd
t is doubtful whether
any other first-
generation Indian
company had more
wind in their sails
during 1995-2008, than Suzlon?
Without any family background in
power business or big business,
what Tulsi Tanti did was nothing
less than miraculous. Within a
short period of 15 years, Tanti
transformed what was a small
scale industrial unit - with 20
employees - doing a then not-
Seasonal Magazine
much-understood wind power
turbine manufacturing in Pune,
into the world’s third largest wind
power company, with 16,000
employees across 25 countries.
The scale at which Suzlon was
growing would have made even
Mukesh Ambani nervous. In
FY’08, Suzlon grew its income by
73%, and not only that, it was a
quality growth as it expanded its
wings across the world,
conquering each advanced market
with seeming ease - both
organically and through
acquisitions. The profit growth
was also decent at around 20%,
considering the cost of expansion.
Net profit went above Rs. 1000
crore for the first time. Buoyed
also by the stock market boom,
Suzlon scrip climbed to
unprecedented heights of Rs.
2300. It was a good appreciation
to 360%, from the 2005 IPO price
of Rs. 640. Within three years, it
was high-power wealth creation.
Enthusiastically, Suzlon also went
 The scale at which Suzlon
was growing would have
made even Mukesh
Ambani nervous. In
FY’08, Suzlon grew its
income by 73%, and not
only that, it was a quality
growth as it expanded its
wings across the world.

Tulsi Tanti, CMD, Suzlon Energy

for a 10/5 split.
However, the very next year,
FY’09, signalled trouble for
Suzlon. Many critics warned that
Suzlon was trying to grow too fast,
accumulating massive debt, even
in face of the massive slowdown
that was then coming up on the
world infrastructure space. But
Tanti went on with his
acquisitions, maybe in the hope
that demand would again pick up
soon, and by that time he can make
Suzlon the second-largest wind
power company, if not the first in
the world. Though he succeeded
in doubling sales to a whopping
Rs. 26,258 crore in FY’09, profits
nosedived to just Rs. 236.48 crore,
a 77% fall year-on-year. The
former year’s split also came to
bite on the EPS, which fell to a
measly Rs. 1.52, from FY’08’s Rs.
6.89 and 07’s impressive EPS of
Rs. 30.
Even worse was in store for
Suzlon in FY’10. For the first time
years, Suzlon had gone from Rs.
1000 crore annual profit to nearly
Rs. 1000 crore annual loss. EPS
was deep in red at Rs. -6.39. Even
Tanti’s strategy of growing sales,
come what may, didn’t help in
FY’10, as sales also dipped by
over 21%, which was also a first
in its listed history. Since then, the
company has not yet come out of
the doldrums, even though Tulsi
Tanti has started correcting many
risky strategies by divesting some
acquisitions and paring debt. Still,
with a debt of Rs. 12,000 crore and
a debt-equity ratio of around 1.5,
the apparent outlook remains
grim.
So, why should anybody be
bullish on Suzlon? Firstly, the
valuations are quite attractive. On
a consolidated book-value of Rs.
42.40 (as on March 2010), Suzlon
now trades at a P/BV of just 1.20.
In its official segment of
‘Engineering - Heavy’, this fares
quite attractive as 25 out of 29
peers have a P/BV above 1.20
sectors like ‘Power - Transmission
/ Equipment’ and ‘Power -
Generation / Distribution’, it is
rare to find a company with this
P/BV, as 30 out of 34 companies
in these sectors - including PSUs
- are trading well above these
levels.
Secondly, compared with many of
the feeble listed companies in the
power or engineering sector,
nobody can ignore the fact that
Suzlon is an international
franchise in wind power, that
makes it an attractive take-over
target for strategic investors, if not
for pure private equity players.
The recent speculative price - Rs.
71 - said to be offered by Spain’s
Gamesa for a 51% takeover of
Suzlon proves this. With the
growing focus on carbon credits
for large corporations across the
world, Suzlon’s core business
remains hot and will pick up wind,
once the international recovery is
in full swing. The recent Vedanta
Seasonal Magazine

in its listed history, the innovative order bagged by Suzlon for 150
company went into the red, as it times, with 10 majors even MW projects shows the
registered a disturbing Rs. 982.56 demanding valuations above 5 momentum is not lost, but
crore net loss. Within just two times P/BV. Even in related recovering.
 SOCIETY

3 Ways
Families
Escape from
Poverty
MIT economist’s families out of poverty, the
research reveals. Moreover,
study shows how advances in wealth are linked to
the poor in highest level of education obtained
by a household member, as well as
developing a willingness to try new ventures.
countries are The study, based on a unique set of
becoming data collected under the direction
of MIT economist Robert M.
wealthier, not Townsend, shows that among rural
often by family's households, 43 percent realized
significant and lasting gains in net
teamwork, but worth over a seven-year period, and
by one family that 81 percent of that wealth
accumulation was due to savings of
member's income, as opposed to gifts or
unusual remittances, that is, contributions
the family did not earn.
initiatives. “There is not a poverty trap in these
For all the detailed tools developed Thai villages,” says Townsend, the
to study finance in past decades, Elizabeth and James Killian
relatively few scholars have Professor of Economics at MIT.
brought those methods to bear on “There are strategies people can
a pressing social question: How do pursue to increase their relative
poor people manage their wealth.”
finances?
The findings are summarized in a
Now, a long-term study of the poor new working paper, “Wealth
in small villages in Thailand is Accumulation and Factors
shedding light on the issue. Having Accounting for Success,” written
Seasonal Magazine

a sound financial strategy, by Townsend and Anan Pawas

including a commitment to saving utipaisit of Thammasat University
money, has a large impact on lifting in Thailand, and slated to be
published in the Journal of Econometrics. The
conclusions are based on a pioneering survey of
household finances in 16 Thai villages that Townsend
initiated in 1997. This paper takes monthly data from
1999 through 2006, for 531 households, and
represents a unique view into the month-by-month
financial lives of rural villagers in a country that has
demonstrated substantial economic growth in recent
years, yet still has substantial pockets of poverty.
The Thai villagers in the survey tend to be farmers,
fishermen, laborers or run small businesses. Households
that do get ahead have some generally shared
characteristics. The heads of households tend to be
younger than in the families that do not increase their
worth. Additionally, gains in wealth correlate specifically
to the highest level of education obtained by a family
member, and not the family’s median educational level, Prof. Robert M. Townsend, MIT

as Townsend notes.

“There are strategies “It’s not the average wisdom of household members
pulled together,” says Townsend. Rather, he notes, “It’s
people can pursue to suggestive that it is the ability or talent of one individual”
that can change a family’s entire economic trajectory.
increase their relative
wealth.” Moreover, the data show financial success to be a
persistent feature of certain households, meaning it is
not the case that “successful entrepreneurs are those
that simply get lucky” due to one good crop or fish
harvest, as Townsend and Pawasutipaisit write in the
paper. But new ventures are sometimes behind the
accrual of wealth. In one survey village, the household
with the highest annual rate of return on assets (17
percent) was headed by a corn farmer whose wife
insisted that they try raising dairy cows instead,
sensing that owning livestock would be more
profitable in their area; the idea came in part after a
milk cooperative sent workers to educate villagers
about cows.
“This work really lifts the veil on the lives of low-
income people that had been hidden, largely because
we don’t usually collect data with this frequency,” says
Jonathan Morduch, a professor of public policy and
finance at New York University. “Once you do that,
you see that people are not passively accepting their
fates. We see a lot of consumption smoothing —
people’s incomes are going up and down, but they’re
borrowing, saving, insuring with each other and
reducing risk in an informal way. People are actively
Seasonal Magazine

seizing opportunities. That’s exciting and important

to know.”
Townsend has also summarized some of his research
 in a 2010 book, Households as
Corporate Firms (Cambridge
University Press), written with
economist Krislert Samphantharak
of the University of California, San
Diego. Now, as the survey
continues, Townsend and
Christopher Woodruff, another
economist at the University of
California, San Diego, are trying
to further define just what it is that
makes some households more
entrepreneurial-minded and able to
generate a higher return on assets
than others. Currently the survey
is asking questions about financial
literacy and risk-taking tendencies
in an attempt to create a more
detailed profile of the types of
households that escape poverty as
a result of trying new businesses.
How do small gains
feed a large economy?
In turn, another area of ongoing
research for Townsend and his
colleagues is the attempt to take the
microeconomic data from
“We already know
that households as
firms are a big
building block of
the national
economy,”
Seasonal Magazine
individual households and villages,
and use it to flesh out the
macroeconomic analysis of
Thailand’s economy as a whole.
“It’s easy to think of Thailand and
countries like it as producing GDP
[gross domestic product] from the
factories which line the highways
as you enter Bangkok,” says
Townsend, referring to firms like
Ford and Nike with large
operations in the area. But
multinationals and incorporated
businesses only account for 20
percent of Thailand’s national
income. “We already know that
households as firms are a big
building block of the national
economy,” he adds. “We want to
understand the evolution of that as
the economy itself gets bigger.
Where did the bigger, domestically
owned Thai firms come from? Did
they grow from some interesting
earlier existence?”
The financial activities of people
in the more rural areas of Thailand
are linked to the larger economic
situation in the country in other
ways as well. Households in many
Thai villages run businesses that do
not earn as great a rate of return
as, for instance, savings accounts;
some of the more financially savvy
Thai households put their savings
into banks.
“And then that money becomes
somebody else’s loan,” says
Townsend. “In the United States,
people talk about Main Street and
Wall Street as if they are separate.
But we think it’s really important
to understand how these financial
institutions and markets are put
together, and how that fabric is
woven into the national-level
economy. That’s a very big part of
our ongoing research.”
Some funding for the research was
provided by the John Templeton
Foundation, the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, and the
National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development.
 CRICKET
By Carl Jaison
Cometh the Hour,
Cometh the Man!
VS? Wo kaun hai? Is
he the one who scored
that scintillating
knock of 281 against
the Aussies at the Eden Gardens?
Hard to believe, isn‘t it? Ah! But
that’s our very own VVS’ life.
When he scores, the question is “
What?..unbelievable” ,but when
Tendulkar scores, people go about
saying,”Wow! Sachin’s the best,
better than Donald Bradman.” But
such is the comments VVS is
bound to receive in a rather
remarkable cricketing career.
Of late, Laxman has forced his
critics to alter their above
exclamations about him and that
too in style. He has played
numerous breathtaking knocks but
I feel his gritty unbeaten 73
against the Aussies, in the just
concluded home series, stands out
among the all-time best innings.
That innings personified the man.
It showed that he could do what
Tendulkar and Dravid couldn’t. It
showed why he was India’s crisis
man. That innings creamed an
astounding appreciation from the
cricketing fraternity. To say the
least, he really deserved such high
praises.
VVS, along with Ishant Sharma,
scripted one of India’s most
famous Test wins and through this
Seasonal Magazine
knock gave a thundering reply to
his ready-to-pounce-on critics. He
has faced criticism like nobody
else. Poor average, strike rate etc
were some blots on his cricketing
career. But that too he has erased
through this epic knock.
What makes VVS special? It’s
because he does special things.
Pulling off a rather improbable
win against the mighty Aussies
surely isn’t a piece of cake. He’s
the saviour of Indian Cricket . If
Tendulkar is God, Laxman
answers our prayers. His game-
plan is simple and logical. Get out
there and do it for the country. He
battled severe pain and difficulties
If Tendulkar is God,
Laxman answers
our prayers. His
game-plan is simple
and logical. Get out
there and do it for
the country.
during this knock but still kept the
flame burning (and the run-rate
ticking).
He is a kind of player who instills
confidence in his fellow-
teammates. When the chips are
down, there’s Laxman to the
rescue. But is it possible to carry-
out such rescue acts all the time?
Certainly yes, for a team that has
had a history of batting-collapses!
Not only that, the stats too show a
positive reflection of his
capabilities. An average of 67.61
and that too in the second-innings
is a fantastic feat.
VVS means “Very Very Special “
and was indeed very very special
against Australia, arguably his
favorite opponents. If he has it in
him to play and perform against
the best in business, then why is
Laxman India’s unsung hero?
Maybe he’s not the slam- bang
cricketer like MSD and Viru, but
he surely is flamboyant. Maybe
not a consistent performer like the
Master Blaster and he surely isn’t
a controversial figure like our
Bhajjis and Yuvis.
But these may just be the reasons
why he is India’s not-so-popular
player. But Laxman demands
respect. He’s not the kind of guy
who is content and joyful after
playing a few good knocks. He’s
hungry for more, which makes
him even more dangerous. His
recent inclusion in the IPL Kochi
Team just stands to show the belief
the franchisee has in him. They
realize that Laxman is the perfect
player to bail them out of
premature troubles and it won’t
come as a surprise to anyone if
he manages to do so. Such has
been the situations in which VVS
has been ‘born and brought up”.
 He’s hungry for more,
which makes him even
more dangerous. His
recent inclusion in the IPL
Kochi Team just stands to
show the belief the
franchisee has in him.

There has been numerous
occasions where he has raised his
hand and taken up responsibility
sorrows, then there is nothing that
can stop you. And that to me is
the greatest boon that God has
showered upon Laxman.
begged to differ. He knew this is
where he belonged. He was aware
of the improbabilities of this field,
but cricket is , and will always be,
Seasonal Magazine

of any mighty task. Laxman

enjoys playing under pressure. He was a genius during his school his true love.
When you feel free and confident days and everyone had visions of Laxman has gone through tough
during times of hardships and him being a doctor . But VVS times like any other sportsperson
 would have gone through. Even he
had had that lean phase in his
career but that didn’t stop him
from staying apart from his true
love. Many cricketing experts feel
Laxman wasn’t properly used in
the early parts of his career. He
was used as a “floater” meaning
he had no fixed designated batting
position in the Indian line-up.
Gradually, that led to his axing
from the ODI team.
Still the man didn’t lose hope. He
got together his shattered dreams,
learnt from his mistakes and was
back in the Test-outfit, as a
changed man. In spite of the
changes he had to undergo, there
were still ups and downs during
his second-coming. Evident from
his rescue-acts, Laxman is a
hugely popular player in the
dressing room.
He’s a treat to watch when he’s on
song. That stylish Hyderabadi-
flick from the off-stump is surely
VVS’s favourite shot from the
cricket manual. Although
criticised for his low-scoring rate
in one-dayers, Laxman scores at
reasonably good pace in Tests. If
the innings against Australia at
Eden Gardens is termed his best
in the longer version then his
century against Pakistan (102) is
clearly the most outstanding
Seasonal Magazine
Just switch on your television sets
and eagerly await for a historic
Indian batting collapse. Only then
can you sense the presence of
the real Vangipurapu Venkat Sai
Laxman.
innings he’s ever played in the
limited-over format.
Though he doesn’t have much to
boast about in the 20-20’s, he was
instrumental in the Deccan
Chargers winning the IPL 2 nd
edition. A lot will be expected of
him by the Kochiites and he’ll be
utmost pleased to live up to their
expectations. Laxman’s name has
been going rounds in many
households of Kochi with the
people excited about the latest
unfolding of their franchisee, who
having bought a well-balanced
team has stirred fear among the
other IPL outfits. Without doubt,
Laxman will be a main stay in the
batting line-up but now he only
has to let his bat do the talking.
Rusty performances for the
Deccan Chargers may have led
them to over-look VVS, but we
may soon find out if they’ll rue the
lost opportunity. Nevertheless,
Laxman has to prove his mettle in
the shortest format of the game.
One among the Fab 4, India will
find it hard to fill the shoes of this
batting sensation once he decides
to call it a day. But as for now
India will be hoping for many
more of VVS’s high-profile
knocks and will keep their fingers
crossed on his retirement
decisions.
Only if we could see him right
away to congratulate him on his
fabulous cricketing-career, that we
would be able to erase whatever
we’ve talked rough about him. But
alas it’ll be impossible to find him
at our eye’s distance. Just switch
on your television sets and eagerly
await for a historic Indian batting
collapse. Only then can you sense
the presence of the real
Vangipurapu Venkat Sai Laxman,
or as he’s fondly called, “Very
Very Sexy” Laxman.
 WEB PICK
A New Way to
and The First Way to
Get 95%
Discount
ave you ever
heard of Penny
Auctions? It is a new
online auction model
that is becoming
hugely popular. Penny
auctions allow
individuals to do just
what the name implies
– buy new popular
products for just
pennies.
One of the most interesting and
successful companies offering
penny auctions is called QuiBids.
This Oklahoma based company
auctions off brand new products
such as iPads, Macbooks, HDTVs,
Digital Cameras, Gaming Consoles,
Bid,
and more for steep discounts, often
as much as 85% off their retail price.
So how do they do it? In the case of
QuiBids it’s quite simple. You see,
whenever a prospective buyer
places a bid for an item on QuiBids,
the company collects a small fee.
This fee is really inconsequential to
the bidder, but based on the volume
of sales and bids, the company is
able to collect a substantial amount.
This revenue allows the QuiBids to
sell these expensive products to the
winning bidders even if their bid is
only a tiny fraction of the value of
the product.
Savvy bidders have recently been
able to buy a brand new Apple
Macbook Pro for $23.90, a Nikon
D90 Camera for $45.84, and Sony
Playstation 3 for $12.32. On
average, buyers pay just 25% of
retail for items they win in auction
on QuiBids.
The auctions are also insanely fun.
Each bid costs just 60 cents, and
each auction has a strict time limit.
When you place your bid, the system
adds a little time to the auction to
see if any other bids comein. If you
have the winning bid when the clock
runs out – you win the item for that
price. According to QuiBids CEO
Matt Beckham, “A huge part of our
growth is generated by word of
mouth and friends recommending us
to their friends – so we must be
doing something right.”
But the best part of QuiBids may be
the “Buy-It-Now” feature. This
allows bidders who did not win an
auction to still buy the product they
want and apply the cost of the bids
they placed as a discount on the
regular product price. So you still
get the item and the bids you placed
previously in the auction don’t cost
you anything!
Some customers have really made
out like bandits on the site. We
spoke with Cyril Bennet, a QuiBids
customer in Arizona who recalled a
recent auction that he participated
in, “As I was bidding, my roommate
was asking me how the auction was
going. At that moment, gazing at the
screen, I watched as the timer read,
"3… 2… 1…SOLD!" and I won this
VIZIO 32 HDTV for $2.60. True
story. I’ve really enjoyed using
QuiBids…its awesome!"
In today’s tight economy, it’s more
important than ever to seek out the
best possible deals on must-have
items. Sites like QuiBids give savvy
shoppers the opportunity to nab
products at ridiculously low prices.
Add in the element of fun, and the
fact that their “Buy-It-Now” feature
means that you can’t ever pay too
Seasonal Magazine
much – and it means there is simply
no reason not to try it out for
yourself.
 HOME BUYING

Indian Homes
That Makes
Cities Immaterial
ou hate to boast this, but you have
seen the world. You can carry out
your work from anywhere, even in
forests without Wi-Fi. Because work
will call you, report to you, or go on smoothly
without your intervention. Or you won’t work
at all for days, and not because you can
afford it. Cities have started meaning less
and less to you, and you are often lost for
words trying to explain why you sometimes
prefer Mumbai over NY. Because what you
Seasonal Magazine
look for in a home makes cities
immaterial. You prefer self-contained
setups, from where you call the shots,
and not just of the business kind. Home
for you is for unwinding yet socializing,
and whether it digital or real is blurred.
You want top-of-the-world comfort, yet
you would give greater marks to rapid
access to anywhere in the world. Design
and build quality won’t impress you, not
because they are unimportant, but
because you expect only the superlative.
For such Global Indians and Global
Citizens for whom India is another home,
Seasonal Magazine brings this
compilation of fine world-class projects
across the country.

Seasonal Magazine

Chennai Falls in Love,
With a Township
he developer who taught others how to
ship townships by transforming the
Mumbai suburb of Powai forever, is
back in the game in Chennai, on a higher
orbit. If Hiranandani’s selection of the traditional
city of Chennai stunned the entire industry a few
years back, the actual project - the first phase of
which is over - is proving to be a game changer.
Located on the outskirts of Chennai, at a 30-minute
distance from Chennai Airport, the strategic location
of Palace Gardens is appealing to the discerning
crowd as it lies between the NH 45 GST Road and
Seasonal Magazine
the NH 4 Chennai Bangalore Highway. Though the
Hiranandanis are known to offer excellent build
quality and luxury amenities, there are two
HIRANANDANI PALACE GARDENS
difference this time around. One is that Palace
Gardens is also eyeing the upper band of the cost-
conscious customers. Secondly, apart from
expected luxuries like the design and build quality,
Hirco, the Group firm behind Palace Gardens, has
packed in several extremely practical features that
make this township a truly live-work-play affair.
Embedded in Palace Gardens is a CBSE/IB school,
a Hirco hospital, as well as an extensive
Hiranandani Business Park that is sure to attract
several Indian and MNC corporates. Other enabling
features include a round-the-clock bus service to
and from various hubs of the city. Like its Powai
township, Hiranandani’s Palace Gardens is also
designed by celebrity architect, Hafeez Contractor.
 NAHAR TOWNSHIP, THANE (AMBARNATH)

Nahar Enters Affordable Housing at

Surprising Price Points
ahar Group, one of the
leading real estate
developers in the
country, has now
entered the affordable housing
segment and will be developing a
township of 1000 such houses at
Chikhloli, Ambernath, in a joint-
venture with Happy Home
Developers.
This is for the first time, the Nahar
Group which is known for
creating landmark premium
residential buildings including a
large residential complex,
Sarvodaya Nagar in Mulund and
the prestigious township, Nahar’s
Amrit Shakti in Chandivali, is
getting into developing affordable
housing.
Ms. Manju Yagnik, Vice-
Chairperson, Nahar Group says
“Our decision to enter this
segment was determined by our
customers who have been
persistently requesting us to
develop a township of affordable
housing. When we were on the
look out for an appropriate site,
we came across this wonderful
location at Ambarnath, which to located equi-distantly from play area for children, clubhouse
our pleasant surprise had the same Ambarnath and Badlapur railway and indoor games facility,
beautiful and scenic backdrop of stations, and is in the proximity swimming pool, conveniently
hills which our Nahar’s Amrit of medical centers, educational located shopping area with 56
Shakti has in Chandivali. The vast institutes and the upcoming shops, and common area power
expanse of land available makes corporate IT park. Sarvodaya back-up.
it possible for us to offer options Nagar will have 1000 space Starting with a price tag of just Rs.
of reasonably priced apartments efficient homes in sizes ranging 13 lakhs for 1-BHK flat, home-
with amenities for leisure, sports
Seasonal Magazine

from 1-BHK to 3 BHK in each of seekers can avail of the housing

and shopping.” the 6-storey 16 buildings. In loan facilities from HDFC, IDBI
The project at Ambarnath, addition to huge parking space, Bank & ICICI Bank who have
Sarvodaya Nagar, is conveniently the other amenities include ample approved of the Project.
 Indian Homes That Makes
Cities Immaterial
Busting Some Housing Myths
hennai is one of the
three cities Indiabulls is
focussing on besides
their home-turf of
Mumbai and the buzzing NCR
city of Gurgaon. If you have seen
any Indiabulls property in
Mumbai, it is sure you won’t
believe that this Group was
founded in just 2000. Within a
decade, what started off as a stock-
broking firm has become one of
India’s largest conglomerates with
major operations in finance, real
estate, power, & securities. The
Group has four listed companies,
with two of them being market
leaders in their segments. While
Indiabulls Financial Services is
India’s largest company by
market-cap in the ‘Finance -
General’ category, Indiabulls Real
Estate is the country’s fourth most
valuable real estate firm. What all
these has got to do with Indiabulls
Greens project of Chennai, you
may wonder. The connection is
simple - Sameer Gehlaut, Saurabh
Mittal and Rajiv Rattan had
shocked the brokerage scene in
2000 with a revolutionary new
online broking platform, thereby
busting the myth that brokerages
can’t be any more user-friendly.
Again, they had aggressively
grown their multiple businesses
against conventional wisdom on
Seasonal Magazine
INDIA BULLS GREENS, CHENNAI
speed, breaking into closely-
guarded bastions like home
finance, vehicle finance, and real
estate with a matter of years. In
short, the very philosophy behind
Indiabulls’ growth has been a sort
of myth-busting innovation. The
same applies for their Indiabulls
Greens in Chennai. This 900-
homes 15-acre township is
making a mark of its own in the
traditional city of Chennai by
breaking a few myths. Firstly,
comes the myth that luxury living
can’t be affordable. No luxury
amenities have been spared at
Greens - from outdoor and indoor
games, to fitness centre, to
swimming pool, to steam/sauna/
Jacuzzi, to jogging / cycling
tracks, to supermarkets, and to
premium apartment features like
full height windows, kitchen
balconies, special kids room,
integrated interior designing &
furnishing etc - nothing has been
spared. Yet, an apartment at
Indiabulls Greens wouldn’t cost
you a fortune. The magic is
created by scale and space - at 900
units in 15 acres, and sizes ranging
from a small 1050 sq ft to a
reasonable 1750 sq ft, Greens
would fit almost any branded
home aspirant’s budget. Secondly,
Greens busts the myth that
walking to work is a luxury.
Strategically located next to
ELCOT’s 345 acre IT SEZ, and
just 3 km off OMR, Greens is very
much in Chennai’s IT Corridor,
home to giants like TCS, Infosys,
Wipro, HCL, Satyam, Accenture,
Cognizant, Polaris, and many
more. And lastly, Greens busts the
myth that luxury living can’t be
sustainable living. True to its
name, this is one project that is
guaranteed to reduce your carbon
footprint in more ways than one -
by recycling, by using eco-
friendly materials, by energy
conservation, and by, of course,
discouraging the need for private
vehicles, and encouraging walk-
to-work or bus to work.

Limited Edition
Luxury
uravankara Projects is known for their
larger projects, be it in their home turf
of Bangalore, or in cities like Chennai
and Kochi. Even their luxury projects
have a sizeable number of apartments,
with recent examples being Purva Venezia and Purva
Highlands, both in Bangalore. But with Atria Platina,
Purva has done a contrarian play - a limited edition
offering of just 70 apartments. But how can’t they
this time, as the cheapest ultra-luxury offering here
would cost Rs. 1.2 crores. This is one apartment
complex that is destined to be occupied by not just
the successful but the discerning among them.
Created on a philosophy that ‘excess will undermine
your status’, with the excess here meaning not the
amenities but the number of units, Purva Atria Platina
is near to one of their larger and earlier launched
projects, Purva Atria. But Atria is, of course, cheaper,
starting at Rs. 80 lakhs. Anyway, the most striking
aspect about Atria Platina is its location in Rajmahal
Vilas, or specifically RMV Stage II or Sanjay Nagar.
While native Bangaloreans will readily appreciate
this advantage, here is the advantage explained for
Purva Atria Platina Elevation
PURVA ATRIA PLATINA, BANGALORE
newcomers to the Garden City. While cruising from
MG Road towards the direction of New International
Airport, past landmarks like Golf Club, Windsor
Manor, and Bangalore Palace, comes Mekhri Circle,
and RMV IInd Stage is right next to it, and Purva
Atria Platina is just a stone’s throw away. The magic
is that though it is enroute to the Airport, the location
is right inside the city, and RMV has always been
known for its posh status. The next impressive feature
here is that though it is a costly project to buy, Atria
Platina needn’t be a costly project to maintain. In
fact, Platina is designed from the ground up as a green
building, and as such, uses electricity and water very
efficiently, thereby reducing maintenance costs in the
long run. Coming to amenities, Atria Platina is being
built around the theme of rejuvenation from stress,
and all the notable amenities like the green walkways,
jogging tracks, swimming pool, spa, Jacuzzi, fitness
club, billiards, and table tennis, are aligned to this
theme. The super built-up areas of the apartments
show that it is not too crammed at the lower-end of
2000 odd sq ft, and is quite generous at the upper-
end of 3000 odd sq ft. In the backdrop of the inside-
city location and low number of units, these measures
come across as realistic. Institutions like MS
Ramaiah, as well as other colleges, schools, malls,
clubs, hotels etc. are all rapidly accessible.
Seasonal Magazine
 FAD

Is India
Developing a
Gun Culture?
Starting from the NEW DELHI, India — Three years after two teenage boys
rich and the allegedly gunned down his 14-year-old son, Abishek, over a
playground spat, Gurgaon businessman Rajinder Tyagi is dry-eyed
powerful, are as he describes the boy's senseless murder. A veteran of hundreds
Indian citizens of media interviews, he's made himself numb in an endeavor to
shield his wife and daughter from the press.
starting to rely on
"My son was walking down the stairs," recalls Tyagi, his face set
guns for self- with grim determination. "They shot him from the back. Four
defence and family- bullets. He died on the spot." India's first school shooting at the
posh Euro International School in New Delhi had claimed young
defence? Or are Abishek Tyagi's life.
the guns used to
bully or silence
enemies?
Seasonal Magazine
For now, schoolyard gunplay re-
mains rare. But thanks to a strange
coincidence of Americanization and
traditional machismo brought on by
rapid economic growth, India has
developed a gun obsession that
makes Charlton Heston look like
Gandhi.
Police say there has been an alarm-
ing rise in gun violence in and
around Delhi over the past few
years as weapons proliferate. Ille-
gal factories have become so com-
mon that country-made guns are
sold like candy in local bazaars. And
as more and more people seek to
obtain legal, licensed guns, an or-
ganization modeled on America's
National Rifle Association has
emerged with the mission to ensure
every Indian the right to bear arms.
Delhi is no Peshawar - yet - but it's
starting to look an awful lot like
South Central. Police say Abishek's
14-year-old classmates allegedly
followed him into a deserted stair-
well, where they shot him at point-
blank range with an imported .32
caliber Harrison pistol that one of
the assailants had brought to school
hidden in a sock. When Abishek
arrived at the nearby Pushpanjali
Hospital, he had two bullets in his
chest and one in his head.
"He was our only son," Abishek's
father said, holding up his boy's
school photo. "He was a good ath-
lete. He was good in his studies. He
was good natured. I remember ev-
erything from his childhood till the
day he died. I spent 14 years of my
life with him."
Every few weeks there's a new story.
A motorist pulls a pistol to clear a
traffic jam. An armed gang shoots
and kills a young woman returning
home late at night when she refuses
to pull over to be robbed or raped.
A man pumps a bullet into the skull
of his fiancee when she decides to
call off their marriage. Thugs gun
down a real estate broker over a
business deal. A businessman -
drunk and angry over losing his job
- shoots his wife, daughter and son
before he turns his gun on himself.
A middle-aged woman who berates
two roadside Romeos for harassing
her daughter is shot dead for her
trouble. Or the police shoot and kill
traders trying to escape with a stash
of smuggled guns. In north India,
and increasingly across other parts
of the country, it seems, the emer-
gent "India Shining" of election
campaign slogans may turn out to
be nickel-plated.
Nationwide, around 40 million fire-
arms - only about 5.5 million of
them licensed - are in civilian hands.
That's the second-highest total in the
world, after the U.S., though it
amounts to only four guns for ev-
ery 100 people in India, compared
with 90 guns for every 100 Ameri-
cans. And despite relatively strict
gun control laws, police and anti-
proliferation activists say the num-
ber of weapons on the street is
growing steadily.
"We have weapons ranging from
homemade guns, which are called
kattas, right [up] to [fire]arms as
sophisticated as the [American] M-
16 and Israeli Uzi," said
Binalakshmi Nepram, head of the
Control Arms Foundation of India.
"And in places like Uttar Pradesh,
they say gun shops are mushroom-
ing like public telephone booths."
India's most populous state - and
known as one of its most economi-
cally depressed - Uttar Pradesh has
around 900,000 licensed gun own-
ers, and several times that number
of illegal arms. According to the
National Crime Records Bureau,
Uttar Pradesh, and two other north-
ern "cow belt" states, Bihar and
Jharkhand, accounted for two-thirds
of India's gun-related homicides in
2008, the most recent year for which
statistics have been collected.
But the killing isn't confined to the
backwaters of these so-called "law-
less states." Just as in the United
States and other countries, gun
crime is an urban phenomenon.
Fearful city dwellers are clamoring
for gun licenses to protect them-
selves from criminals. And, increas-
ingly, the weapons of the mush-
rooming illegal rural factories of
states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
- along with the culture of the gun -
are finding their way into India's
cities.
"Everyone in our family has one.
Our family has the largest number
of guns in Gurgaon," said Rajje
Yadav, a real estate developer who
also owns a liquor store.
Yadav is a representative of north
India's new rich. Over the past sev-
eral years, the rapid economic
growth of the “National Capital
Region” (NCR) that surrounds New
Delhi - and an accompanying real
estate boom - has brought radical
social change to the traditionally
macho, honor-obsessed commu
nities of rural Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh.
Agrarian castes like the Jats and
Yadavs have been propelled to fan-
tastic wealth through the sale of
their farms to real estate develop-
ers. But many have failed to inte-
grate into the new urban society that
surrounds them. For every new rich
man there's a poor one who covets
what he has.
And social tensions have been ex-
acerbated as the educated members
of the lower castes who once
worked as bonded labor now lever-
age social programs to uplift them-
selves and overtake their one-time
landlords. Throw in an obsession
with izzat, or honor, and a fascina-
Seasonal Magazine
tion with guns, and you have the
perfect recipe for violence.
"We and our relatives who are in
the land and wine business have to
 handle enormous amounts of cash
every day, so in order to protect
ourselves we have to carry guns,"
said Yadav. But he admits that
there's more to the phenomenon.
"Guns have become a sort of status
symbol," he says. "Possessing a gun
takes a person to great heights."
Accidental deaths at NCR weddings
- where revelers show off by shoot-
ing into the air - have become so
commonplace that a council of lead-
ers from some 40 villages in Delhi's
hinterlands banned firearms from
marriage ceremonies earlier this
year. In arecent incident, for in-
stance, bridegroom Pankaj Kumar
was killed by a stray bullet at his
wedding celebration when his father
couldn't resist discharging his pis-
tol into the air to show his status.
No doubt today he feels much the
same pain as Rajinder Tyagi.
"We pray to the almighty that some-
thing of this sort never happens to
anyone, ever," Tyagi said. "The
tragedy of losing a child is the great-
est of them all."
But the rapid proliferation of guns
suggests such tragedies are likely to
grow more common. Already, in
Meerut, another burgeoning city on
the border of Delhi, guns accounted
for nearly a quarter of accidental
deaths in 2008.
"We and our relatives
who are in the land
and wine business
have to handle
enormous amounts of
cash every day, so in
order to protect
Seasonal Magazine
ourselves we have to
carry guns,"
"According to us, the reason behind
this is the rapid industrialization and
colonization in these areas,” an in-
spector general with the Meerut
police recently told an Indian news-
paper. “People are prospering and
where there is money involved,
there is always a fear of crime."
Because of that fear, it's not just
rowdies, politicians and criminals
who are arming themselves, and it's
not only the newly rich of India's
macho castes. It's doctors, lawyers
and journalists, from the purport-
edly bookish Brahmin caste on
down.
Consider Rakesh Singh, a native of
Andhra Pradesh who has been a
practicing doctor in Gurgaon for
nearly 10 years. A few weeks ago
at the private hospital he founded
in 2007, located in a row of prop-
erty dealers that hint at Gurgaon's
red-hot real estate market, he gin-
gerly pulled a licensed Indian-made
revolver out of his desk drawer. He
wasn't proud. He was angry.
"Deep down there's a sense of inse-
curity," he said. "Even in this city.
Or as such in the NCR — Noida,
Ghaziabad, Gurgaon. Even when
you're out with your wife on Satur-
days with the children, or driving
back [home] at 10:30, you have this
insecurity."
Not long before, a car had forced
him off the road while he was on
his way home. Seeing a gun in one
man's hand and realizing they
planned to rob him, or worse, Singh
threw his car in reverse as the man
opened fire, shooting three times.
Outside his clinic, he pointed out
the place where one of the bullets
hit the hood of his car. Next time,
Singh plans to shoot back.
"[It's] survival of the fittest. If you
want to live in Rome, you have to
live like how the Romans do," he
said. "I have a revolver. But I really
wish I had a more sophisticated,
easier-to-use weapon. Because I'm
really angry about the whole thing
and I wouldn't think twice about
shooting back. ... Somebody needs
to let them know, you're not going
to take it lying down. You can't go
around, get drunk and go shooting
people, bully people around who
are just doing their job."
Seasonal Magazine
 TRENDS
After
WikiLeaks,
Comes
Anonymous
s free speech negotiable?
It depends who you ask
and what country you
live in, but freedom of
speech is a touchy topic
these days. It's also considered an
inherent human right to state your
opinion in public without fear of
punishment or censorship. Sadly,
the reality of the situation is not so
obviously black or white. Instead,
free speech too often falls into
middle ground where, love them or
hate them, Anonymous dwells,
protests, or hacks in 256 shades of
gray. Free speech and information
is non-negotiable to Anonymous.
In America, the First Amendment
does not protect someone who
falsely yells FIRE in a crowded
theater according to the clear and
present danger test. Threatening
posts are not protected speech if
the message reveals a harmful
intent. Other non-protected speech
includes copyright protection,
actual malice in defamation (libel,
slander), and commercial speech
like advertising. Wikipedia
mentions other limitations to
freedom of speech by country with
exceptions as defined by the "harm
principle" or the "offense
Seasonal Magazine
principle" such as pornography or
hate speech. There are also free
speech zones. At times, it seems
that the Internet is moving closer
to being outside that zone.
Take for example: as soon as
WikiLeaks is mentioned, people
are all fired up either for or against
them. The U.S. government seems
to be debating if it should make
felons of us all for simply reading
WikiLeaks. To bring up
WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and
even Anonymous is risking a flame
war; people are hot on both sides
of the fence. Many folks do not fall
in the middle about Assange, they
either want to protect him or to kill
him...GoDaddy was hosting a site
called killjulianassange.com, but
made the website owner take it
down. Today, a British court set an
extradition hearing for February 7
and 8 for Julian Assange whom
Swedish authorities have accused
of rape.
The U.S. still wants to get its hands
on the WikiLeaks editor. One of
the things that I most dislike about
the entire situation is that the
government seems to resort to
scare tactics.
After the U.S. government got a
court order [PDF] demanding that
Twitter hand over information
about people connected to
WikiLeaks, and attached a gag
order that prevented the company
from telling anyone, Twitter didn't
just roll over and pony up the
information. Instead Twitter
challenged the gag order in court,
and then warned the targets that
their data had been requested,
giving them time and an
opportunity to try and quash the
order themselves. Twitter deserves
a standing ovation for standing up
for its users and the First
Amendment. As security and
privacy blogger Christopher
Soghoian pointed out, Twitter's
general counsel Alexander
Macgillivray was most certainly
behind this strong, pro-privacy
move.
After WikiLeaks tweeted,
"WARNING all 637,000
@wikileaks followers are a target
of US gov subpoena against
Twitter, under section 2. B,"
thousands of people stopped
following them. Then WikiLeaks
tweeted, "Too late to unfollow;
trick used is to demand the lists,
dates and IPs of all who received
our twitter messages."
Tweets are archived in the Library
of Congress and who anyone
follows is public information, so it
seems targeting all 637,000
WikiLeaks followers on Twitter
may be a scare tactic by the U.S.
government.
And that brings me back to
Anonymous because they believe
 in freedom of speech and freedom of information.
The group claims to be watching all governments
around the world, planning to hack and deface more
government websites if a government supports
censorship of information or disregards privacy in
favor of spying. Topiary, a representative of
AnonOps, "the elite arm of Anonmyous that
spearheaded recent attacks on Tunsia," told Forbes
that the group factors in corruption as well as
urgency in deciding which governments to attack
next. "We have the capacity to eliminate the
infrastructures of any and all government sites on
our watchlist," Topiary said. "We chose not to hack
PayPal, Visa and Mastercard because what they did
can't be considered corrupt, only cowardly."
Because everyone is anonymous, the group has some
problems with credibility as well as with rebels
among its anonymous ranks. Not everything that is
claimed to be done in the name of Anonymous was
OK'd by AnonOps. According to Forbes' Parmy
Olsen, "There was confusion and anger this morning
within the international hacking group Anonymous,
and its new operational arm AnonOps, after two
people purporting to represent the group hacked into
the web site of Ireland's main opposition party Fine
Gael."
Sure, there are things that I don't necessarily agree
with about Anonymous, but I do believe in freedom
of speech, privacy, and knowing what my
government is really up to. I see civil liberties and
freedom being slowly but surely stripped away in
America. Love them or hate them, the groups'
passion as "champions of the Internet" is somewhat
admirable. And that's not an endorsement for anyone
to attack anyone else.
What might be the scariest aspect is that no one
knows who Anonymous might aim their protest at
To bring up next Yet in playing devil's advocate . . . even their
WikiLeaks, Julian DDoS attacks are more like busting out a window
during a protest march. It's cyber protesting. Do you
Assange and even really think in those 256 shades of gray of that
Anonymous is Anonymous couldn't hack, break and steal from
those sites after busting out the window if they chose
risking a flame to do so? To those people who comment things like
war; people are Anonymous is only 4chan working from their
mother's basement, the group states "Why we
hot on both sides protest."
of the fence. In fact, Anonymous is asking people to "Join us on
Seasonal Magazine

January 15th for the first in a series of global protests

Julian Paul Assange in defense of WikiLeaks and freedom of expression.
Founder, Spokesperson, and Editor in Chief, WikiLeaks Stand with us to defend your freedoms."
 MANAGEMENT
Leadership
Change,
Google Style
When I joined
Google in 2001 I
never imagined even
in my wildest dreams
that we would get as
far, as fast as we have today. Search
has quite literally changed people’s
lives increasing the collective sum
of the world’s knowledge and
revolutionizing advertising in the
process. And our emerging
businesses display, Android,
YouTube and Chrome are on fire.
Of course, like any successful
organization we’ve had our fair
Larry will now lead
product development and
technology strategy, his
greatest strengths, and
starting from April 4 he
will take charge of our
day-to-day operations as
Google’s Chief Executive
Officer.
Seasonal Magazine
share of good luck, but the entire Posted by Eric Schmidt in Google Blog
team now over 24,000 Googlers
globally deserves most of the credit.
And as our results today show, the
outlook is bright. But as Google has
grown, managing the business has
become more complicated. So
Larry, Sergey and I have been
talking for a long time about how
best to simplify our management
structure and speed up decision
making and over the holidays we
decided now was the right moment
to make some changes to the way
we are structured.
For the last 10 years, we have all
been equally involved in making
decisions. This triumvirate approach
has real benefits in terms of shared
wisdom, and we will continue to
discuss the big decisions among the
three of us. But we have also agreed
to clarify our individual roles so
there’s clear responsibility and
accountability at the top of the
company.
Larry will now lead product
development and technology
strategy, his greatest strengths, and
starting from April 4 he will take
charge of our day-to-day operations
as Google’s Chief Executive
Officer. In this new role I know he
will merge Google’s technology and
 business vision brilliantly. I am
enormously proud of my last decade
as CEO, and I am certain that the
next 10 years under Larry will be
even better! Larry, in my clear
opinion, is ready to lead.
Sergey has decided to devote his
time and energy to strategic projects,
in particular working on new
products. His title will be Co-
Sergey has decided to Founder. He’s an innovator and
entrepreneur to the core, and this
devote his time and role suits him perfectly.
energy to strategic As Executive Chairman, I will focus
projects, in particular wherever I can add the greatest
working on new value: externally, on the deals,
products. partnerships, customers and broader
business relationships, government
outreach and technology thought
From left to right - Eric, Larry
and Sergey in a self-driving car
leadership that are increasingly
important given Google’s global
reach; and internally as an advisor
to Larry and Sergey.
We are confident that this focus will
serve Google and our users well in
the future. Larry, Sergey and I have
worked exceptionally closely
together for over a decade and we
anticipate working together for a
long time to come. As friends, co-
workers and computer scientists we
have a lot in common, most
important of all a profound belief in
the potential for technology to make
the world a better place. We love
Google—our people, our products
and most of all the opportunity we
have to improve the lives of millions
of people around the world."
Seasonal Magazine
 AUTO
Coming,
Electric Car
Breakthrough
t the time the announ-
cement was made that
Tesla was going to get
a large infusion of
cash from Toyota, we wondered
why.
In its whole existence, Tesla has
managed to sell only 1,500 cars,
and has never made a dime's profit.
The conjecture was it had to do
with Tesla's battery technology.
Conjecture over. It was the battery
technology.
Reuters reports that Toyota's
Takeshi Uchiyamada has stated
that by using Tesla's batteries, they
could cost as much as one-third that
of competitive battery packs.
The difference is that Tesla simply
Seasonal Magazine
uses thousands of tiny lithium ion
batteries that are normally used in
cell phones. These batteries are
mass-produced by the millions
which keeps their price down.
Other manufacturers from Nissan
to Chevy use expensive battery
packs designed and built in
(currently) small numbers for
individual cars. Each is a different
shape and weight which is matched
to the car.
"If (Tesla's battery structure)
works," Mr. Uchiyamada said, "we
won't have to wait for a
breakthrough in battery technology
to develop a relatively cheap
electric vehicle."
Currently, a battery pack can
account for up to half of an electric
vehicle's retail price. The pack in
the Leaf, for instance costs
$15,000
If Tesla's technology can bring
similar battery power in at $5,000,
now we're talking. The Leaf's price
would shrink to about $22,000 and
with the $7,500 rebate from the
government (and more in some
states) you're talking about a neat
city cruiser for 15 grand.
However, there's one thing that
puzzles us. In 2009, Mr. Musk, the
founder and CEO of Tesla said that
the replacement cost for their
Roadster would set you back about
$36,000.
Of course that's for a car that offers
0-60 in 3.9 secs and a 245 mile
range. Maybe if the battery is
scaled back for, say, a 100 mile
range RAV-4, we could be talking
a considerable saving.
Nonetheless, this is an interesting
development, and we'll have to
watch how it plays out.
 The Internet Is Ridiculously Huge
Tech company Pingdom just released some numbers about the internet in 2010.
And in case you doubted it - the Internet is huge.

107 trillion 255 million 88.8 million 1.97 billion 152 million
emails were sent in 2010. websites. .com domain names. internet users worldwide. blogs.

More than 3 billion 25 billion tweets 600 million 2 billion videos watched
photos uploaded per month sent in 2010 (!). users on Facebook. PER DAY on YouTube.
on Facebook.

Wow. The internet really is huge. Now Read This -

The Internet Is Still Ridiculously Small

The internet is huge, and getting bigger. But it's also ridiculously small. Especially when you compare it to the rest
of the world. Don't trust us?

PayPal processed $86

billion in online payments
in the twelve months
ending Q3 2010. That's
huge! How much did Visa
and MasterCard process
over that time? Several
trillion.

Online advertising is
about $40 billion. How much revenue did
That's huge! How big Amazon do in 2010?
Almost $25 billion.
Online Payments

relative to total
Online Advertising

advertising spending? That's huge! How much

Total Advertising Spending

Amazon Revenue

Still less than 10%. did Wal-Mart do? $405

Visa and MasterCard

Wal-Mart Revenue

billion.
Seasonal Magazine

Just a reminder of how small the internet still is. And of how much room we have to grow.
 ONLINE HELP
5 Reasons Your
Company Website
isn’t a Hit
And what you can do about it.
o, what are your big
Internet marketing
plans for the New
Year? Will you be
investing more in
social media? Will you start
blogging? Will you take a more
proactive stance with self-
promotion? Whatever your online
marketing plans, the end goal is
likely to attract more people to
your website in the hopes that the
influx of new eyes will translate
into new customers, new leads and
new opportunities for your
business. However, you won’t be
able to do any of that if your Web
site is turning people off, instead
of turning them on.
Below are some very common
reasons small and medium-sized
business (SMB) websites fail to
attract customers and how to avoid
falling prey to them.
1. There’s no conversion
path in place.
One criticism of many SMB sites
is that they don’t include a clear
conversion path for their
customers. If you want customers
to take a certain action, you need
to create a funnel intended to guide
Seasonal Magazine
them to do that. Simply stringing
together a number of content pages
won’t necessarily put someone on
the path to buy. Your conversion
path may be as simple as a solitary
landing page paired with a call to
action, or as complex as an entire
microsite. Either way, you are in
charge of designing the flow of
your website. Creating a clear
conversion path not only helps
customers feel more comfortable
on your site, it also gives you clear
data to track so that you can see
where people are abandoning,
where they’re engaging, etc. The
more data you have to act on, the
better you can design your site to
attract new customers.
2. There’s no sign of life.
Customers are discriminating. You
can bet that when they land on your
website they’re going to kick the
tires a little to see if they can trust
you. They’re going to check your
copyright date to see if it lists 2011
or 2006. They’re going to look for
old statistics or other signs you
haven’t taken the time to update
your content. They’re going to
3. It’s all about you.
check your company blog to see Customers don’t head to your site
how often it’s updated, if you reply to hear how awesome you are.
to commenters, if people are They’re there because they have a
talking back, etc. They’re going to problem they need you to fix or a
look for signs that you’ve created question they need you to answer.
a dynamic website, instead of one Your website should be designed
lying around in stagnant water. to help them quickly achieve
Before your customers get there, whatever it is they came for. Too
take a look around yourself. Would many references to “I” in lieu of
you hang out with you? “you,” too much sales talk instead
of helpful information, and too
much of you not addressing their
fears/wants/desires will turn
people away from your brand, not
on to it. Your customers don’t care
about you–they care about how
you can help them.
4. People can’t find you.
If you’re finding that customers
aren’t interacting with your website
at all, there are a few questions you
need to ask yourself.
* Is it accessible? With more and
more users searching via mobile
devices and on the go – is your
website mobile accessible? If it’s
not, users trying to find you may
hit a dead end. There’s nothing
worse than trying to find your
accountant’s website while on the
road and finding out his site only
renders in Flash and won’t load on
your phone. Not that I’m talking
from experience.
* Is it properly SEO’d? Have you
made it easy for users and search
engines to find your content? That
means using the right keywords,
linking properly, making your site
super crawlable for spiders, and
staying away from common SMB
SEO mistakes.
Sometimes before you can see
more traffic, you have to break
through the obstacles preventing
you from seeing any.
5. There’s no POD.
If you want to attract people, you
have to give them more of you. You
If you want to attract
people, you have to
give them more of you.
You have to stand out
from the crowd and
show them something
that they’ll want to
align themselves with.
have to stand out from the crowd
and show them something that
they’ll want to align themselves
with. Take a look at your own site
– what are you showing potential
customers? I don’t mean the
graphics or the videos you choose
to incorporate (don’t forget to SEO
those, too!), I mean the experience
that you’re creating. Are you using
your site to set yourself apart, or
do you come off like everyone
else? Are you talking to customers
in their own language or filling
your pages up with buzzwords and
jargon? The more powerful a POD
(point of differentiation) you can
create, the better you’ll attract the
right customers to your brand.
If you’re finding it difficult to
attract leads via your website, it
may be time to ask yourself some
hard questions. Before you can fix
the problem, you first have to
Seasonal Magazine
identify it. What are some struggles
you’ve had attracting new leads?
How have you fixed the problems?
 IN FOCUS

“We will Repeat Manappuram

Finance’s Success in
Manappuram Jewellery and
“
Manappuram Healthcare
Seasonal Magazine
 You have started the pilot
projects for your healthcare foray.
e transformed a 60-year old pawn shop Can you elaborate on their
his father founded into a Rs. 6300 crore functioning?
financial empire. He is VP Yes, what we have done is create
two centres - one dental clinic and
Nandakumar, former banker, one clinical lab - here at Valappad,
entrepreneur extraordinaire, and one of India’s most which will function as our pilot
projects for our dental and
successful wealth creators for retail investors, who diagnostics divisions. The latest
have seen their investments in Manappuram General infrastructure and equipments have
been provided, so that these
Finance & Leasing Ltd zoom 35,600% within 15 years. centres will serve as models for all
Despite having a posh office in Bandra-Kurla Complex involved. Once we have fine-tuned
these centres, we will replicate it
in India’s economic capital, and frequent overseas across the country.
travels, Nandakumar calls the shots sitting at his But what about the kind of
original office in his native Valappad, a nondescript doctors and dental surgeons who
will be required to handle all
village in Thrissur District of India’s southern-most these? Have they been roped in?
Kerala state. His former and current investors include We have already identified the
the who-is-who of international investing like Merrill main doctors who will handle each
division. For our dental chain, one
Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Capital World, & of the most reputed dental
Sequoia. Currently Nandakumar is plotting his next surgeons, currently based in
Thrissur has been entrusted the
success saga - two stories in fact - in jewellery retailing duty of Technical Director.
and healthcare, sitting at ‘Manappuram’ which is a Similarly, a renowned doctor, now
based in Thrissur, who is also a
namesake for the coastal villages including Valappad. highly successful diagnostic chain
His confidence stems from his experience that entrepreneur has been entrusted
with the duty of heading our
Manappuram’s core values of thinking-big, finest clinical labs division. They have
quality, and transparency will help them succeed in visited our facilities and have
expressed full satisfaction with our
their new verticals too. model, protocols, as well as
facilities.
Seasonal Magazine interviews VP Finance, our listed gold loan
Nandakumar, Executive Chairman business, but by some of our core What kind of a business model
of Manappuram Finance, and main promoters including myself. These will you be following for your
promoter of Manappuram Group. diversifications into healthcare and healthcare expansion? Is this
jewellery retailing are led by our going to be a franchise model or
Manappuram Group is now
firm belief that Manappuram are you planning to do it on your
attempting a major diversification
Group can add much value to these own?
into two new verticals. Is this any
sectors, and thus create new growth
kind of de-risking strategy for the Our initial plan was to expand on
avenues for the Group. The listed
gold loan business? our own, and not follow the
Manappuram Finance is doing fine
franchise route. But to fast-track
No, this is not about de-risking at by itself, with this year's profit
Seasonal Magazine

growth, we are now planning to

all, as the new diversifications into
jewellery retailing and healthcare
is not undertaken by Manappuram
growth expected to be around 140%,
follow the inorganic route too. By
and next year also the listed arm
inorganic, I mean not outright
might grow its profit by at least 75%.
takeovers of existing dental clinics
 or labs, but that interested
institutions will be brought into our
fold on very attractive terms.
Anyway, this won’t be a franchise
model. Also, wherever there are
opportunities to start new clinics
or labs, we will start on our own.
So, this is going to be a mix of
organic and inorganic expansion.
Your model seems unique. Do
you have any kind of role models
for these healthcare chains?
Manappuram Q3 Results
Show Potential of the Stock
ith Q3 results out,
Manappuram Gen-
eral Finance & Leas-
ing Ltd (BSE:
531213, NSE: MANAPPURAM)
has proved its sceptics wrong.
While the performance in June
2010 quarter was a bit troubling
due to the sequential dip, by the
September quarter Manappuram
Finance had rebounded, and now
with a good Q3 behind it, even
sceptics will be forced to take a re-
look at the company.
Whichever way one looks at
Manappuram Q3, there has been
outperformance. This is especially
important, as in this quarter, the
business environment was not ex-
actly conducive for NBFCs, espe-
cially for those like Manappuram
that focus on smaller ticket loans
to individuals and MSMEs.
Manappuram even voluntarily re-
duced its interest rates from 24%
to 21%, shrinking its margins. Gold
prices also started looking down
after a dream run.
Seasonal Magazine
But the strength of the company is
so much so that despite all these
negatives, it grew its business by
150%, and profits by 113%, YoY.
Well, there are many examples
lately I think, starting from Apollo.
Of course, our model won’t be an
exact replica of any of these, but
will be a kind of mix ‘n match of
these models to suit our vision. We
are impressed by quite a few
models, especially of Vasan Eye
Care Hospital.
Building up a healthcare
operation, especially on this scale
that you imagine, will also be
Even on a sequential basis, there
was no signs of growth decelerat-
ing. Income was up by almost 36%
and profits by 24%, QoQ.
And what this kind of consistent
growth means is that the market is
now ready to believe
Manappuram’s guidance even be-
yond FY’12. Already, it has given
a guidance for FY’12 that hints at
doubling its assets under manage-
ment (AUM). Considering the
AUM / Market Cap connection for
NBFCs, the FY’12 and FY’13
valuations thus look quite attrac-
tive.
Seasonal Magazine interviews
Manappuram Finance Chairman,
VP Nandakumar, on their strate-
gies to grow amidst the current
adverse environment - both in the
financial sector and the capital
markets:
You have mentioned in Q3 re-
views that Manappuram’s
networth has surged from Rs. 321
crore to Rs. 1880 crore, which is
nearly a 500% increase YoY. Af-
ter the dilution, what would be the
effect of this networth surge on
book-value of the share, by per-
centage.? And what is
about managing large teams of
doctors and other professionals.
Will your institutions be doctor-
led or manager-led?
Healthcare is one sector which
should be ideally doctor-led, I
believe. But having closely
watched various medical institu
tions expand, I have realized the
need for professional management
too. So our leadership style will
take good elements from both, with
Manappuram’s book-value as of
December 2010?
The book value has gone up from
Rs.37.24 (adjusted for bonus issue
and stock split) as on December
31, 2009 to Rs.45.13 as on Decem-
ber 31, 2010, representing a 21
percent increase.
You have also mentioned that you
have reduced your interest rates
by 3%. What warranted this - was
it due to increased competition, or
as a pre-emptive step considering
the kind of regulations hitting the
microfinance sector?
To begin with, let’s be clear about
this, the gold loan sector stands
apart from the microfinance sec-
tor because we lend to a different
segment altogether. We lend to
people who have assets (gold),
unlike the microfinance sector. The
reduction in interest rates has a
combination of factors at work.
Thanks to the record growth of our
gold loans portfolio this year, we
have managed to steadily bring
down our non-interest operating
expenses as a percentage of total
income, and so today we are in a
position to pass on these efficiency
gains. Of course, I am not ruling
the medical leadership led by
doctors, and the management run
by finance or management
professionals. The idea is to leave
each one with responsibilities that
they only know how to handle best.
This demarcation will solve
headaches for both, and achieve
the needed synergy.
You yourself are from a
banking background. And now
you have been an entrepreneur
for decades in the financial sector.
How difficult will it be for you to
manage doctors - who are unfor
tunately known for their egos - or
the medical business itself?
I think you are underestimating
doctors when you say this. In my
opinion, some of the best
management experts I have seen
are all doctors. By management
experts what I mean is experts in
their domain, especially in team-
out competition, but more impor-
tant is the fact that we are also very
keen to expand our volumes. This
certainly requires us to be competi-
tive in our offerings, but then, this
is a choice we are consciously
making and not as a compulsion
thrust on us. As for the regulations
in the microfinance sector, they
don’t really affect us because we
deal with an entirely different class
of people, and I see no reason for
us to be pre-emptive in any sense.
Though you have repeatedly
clarified that gold prices falling
won’t have an effect on
Manappuram’s performance, the
stock’s price-performance over
the past few weeks suggest that at
least a section of the market
thinks otherwise. How do you
plan to correct this perception?
I don’t think the recent perfor-
mance of our stock has anything
to do with a perception about fall-
ing gold prices. More relevant is
the performance of the financial
services sector in general which is
sensitive to hardening interest
rates. Here, you will notice that the
share prices across the sector have
fallen and Manappuram has been
no exception. And in this context,
I think I should also point out that
while higher borrowing costs are
certainly unwelcome, we do have
a greater capacity (should the need
arise) to pass on the increases to
our customers. This is because our
building activities concerning
doctors, nurses, and other
paramedical staff. The best
example that readily comes to my
mind is of the renowned cardiac
surgeon, Dr. V V Bashi, who is now
with MIOT Hospitals of Chennai.
I had an opportunity to watch he
and his teams perform once, and
the way he has built up the different
cardiac units with different kind of
specialists and nurses, and how
they all perform synergistically to
typical loans are small ticket loans
(average ticket size, Rs.30,000)
taken for short periods, say, three
months. In such cases, unlike as in
the big ticket loans, a marginal in-
crease in interest rates is less likely
to antagonize borrowers.
Your recent QIP price of around
Rs. 168 was widely perceived as a
firm support, but since the stock
is now trading much below this
level due to the general hit taken
by financial stocks, do you expect
this level to pose as a major resis-
tance in the short-term? Espe-
cially of interest to investors
would be to know what percent-
age of your recent QIP partici-
pants are long-only funds?
I am actually a little hesitant to talk
about how the stock market will be-
have. The fact is, I believe in de-
livering on the performance front,
and leaving the rest to the market.
Anyone who’s been in the market
long enough would know that
when the overall situation is ad-
verse, even good performance can
go unrecognized. So, if you ask me
questions about our performance
or our future prospects, I’ll be only
happy to oblige. But when it comes
to questions that would have me
speculate on likely share price
movements, I would have to say a
Seasonal Magazine
polite no. As for the QIP, I would
say at least 75 percent of the par-
ticipants are long-only funds.
 world-class standards is quite
inspiring. Again, we have the case
of Fr. Dr. Francis Alappat who built
up Thrissur’s Jubilee Mission
Medical College quite remarkably.
Similarly, there are so many
examples. I think the so-called
management experts have a lesson
or two to learn from these
remarkable team builders.
What about managing the
medical business itself?
As in all Manappuram ventures,
this too will be professionally
managed with a qualified and
experienced CEO in charge.
Though I am new to this line, I have
always had an above-average
interest in the healthcare sector. I
am also an honorary director in a
medical college.
Apart from dental and diagno
stics, are you planning any other
activities in the healthcare sector?
Yes, we also have a couple of
additional models in healthcare,
one of which is a unique concept
of Women’s Wellness Clinics.
While diagnostic and dental chains
have been attempted before by
other healthcare majors, Women’s
Wellness will be pioneered by
Manappuram. The concept is to
serve the wellness needs of women
through all core stages - pre-
pregnancy, pregnancy, post-
childbirth, and during the baby’s
growing up phase. Both
physiological and psychological
elements would be there in these
Wellness Clinics, as well as the
best elements from traditional care
and world-class developments in
gynaecology & obstetrics.
Now about your other divers
ification - into jewellery retailing
- which is already on in
Seasonal Magazine
Bangalore. How has been the
performance of Manappuram
Jewellery?
"By inorganic, I mean
not outright
takeovers of existing
dental clinics or labs,
but that interested
institutions will be
brought into our fold
on very attractive
terms."
Considering that we are a
newcomer to retailing, I think we
have fared quite good until now.
We have 7 showrooms now, 4 in
Bangalore and 3 in Kerala. Our
fifth shop in Bangalore is all set to
open in the New Year. We have set
a target of 50 jewellery shops
initially, all over India, but mainly
in the South, within the next few
years. Though our pre-operative
expenses have been high, we
should be able to break-even and
may be post a profit of Rs. 1 crore
this year itself. We are facing some
challenges in this business, as our
margins are lower compared with
competitors, as we are selling only
BIS Hallmarked gold at non-
hallmarked price points, and
because we pay 100% of our taxes.
How do you plan to overcome
this challenge?
I think this is only a matter of
awareness and time. Customers are
going to appreciate our real purity
proposition over competitors’
claims of purity. But until that
happens, we have to match the
prices. In any case we will not
budge from our stance of selling
only BIS Hallmarked gold. Sooner
rather than later, customers,
especially customers who value
gold’s investment value too, will
make the switch to hallmarked
gold, and then it will be a level
playing field for us. We shouldn’t
complain too much now, as our
mega campaign pitching
Manappuram Gold’s purity is yet
to commence in the media. You
will see a huge jump after that.
But anybody can sell BIS
Hallmarked gold, isn’t it? And
many are claiming too…
Well, there are two differences
here. Though most major jewellers
sell some BIS Hallmarked gold, it
is not their mainstay. They still
focus on plain non-hallmarked
91.6 gold because the margins are
high there due to the flexibility
possible in purity, if I can put it in
a mild way. Secondly, we have
already started on an initiative that
goes beyond even BIS. Using
sophisticated quality control
machines, we even double check
each of our hallmarked supplier
samples, and reject jewellery that
doesn’t live up to the standards.
There is going to be no compro-
mise on quality, and this is going
to be our differentiator in the
jewellery business.
Why this obsession with purity?
Are the gold generally available
that bad?
Yes, you should ask us, of all
people, this question. Nobody
knows the quality of gold jewellery
available in the market better than
the gold loan companies. Day in and
day out, at more than 1800 branches
across the country, Manappuram
Finance staff are testing ornaments
of all kinds for their real gold value.
Often, we have been shocked by the
quality of jewellery that passes off
as 91.6. We are obsessed with
quality because we foresee a day,
not very far, when customers too
will awaken to this purity cons
ciousness.
You mentioned a tax angle.
How much is it affecting your
retailing business?
I think we shouldn’t say affecting,
as in my opinion, all of us should
be paying 100% of our taxes. Of
course, if my competition doesn’t
pay tax, relatively I am affected,
but that is not going to prevent us
from being 100% transparent.
Sadly, the need for being
transparent is the last lesson
entrepreneurs learn, and often in
a hard way. They don’t realize that
Government is also a key
stakeholder in any business. After
our last QIP, by which we raised
Rs. 1000 crore, a few entre
preneurs enquired with me
whether they too can raise money
like this, and I said why not? But
when we look at their balance
sheet, it is another story altogether,
something that doesn’t match their
publicly successful status. But
with each passing year, you will
see the need for transparency
increasing from all stakeholders,
and we are anticipating a huge
advantage coming to us due to this
policy of transparency.
Do you plan to list your
healthcare and jewellery
retailing businesses in the
future?
Yes, definitely. Both will take a
few years to stabilize, and after
that we will definitely go for
public issues and listing. From day
one they are being built up to the
standards expected of public
companies.
Coming back to our first
question of de-risking the
Manappuram Finance business,
are there any plans for the same
in anvil?
The conventional wisdom of banks
is that the loan portfolio should be
diversified for de-risking. For
banks, this is true too, to an extent.
But when it comes to non-banking
finance companies, the reverse is
seen. Niche NBFCs have proven to
be the least risky due to their sharp
focus on a core competence.
"Considering that we
are a newcomer to
retailing, I think we
have fared quite good
until now. We have 7
showrooms now, 4 in
Bangalore and 3 in
Kerala. Our fifth shop in
Bangalore is all set to
open in the New Year."
Examples are too many, be it
Sundaram Finance Shriram
Transport Finance, or
Manappuram. This is because,
such NBFCs do one thing
exceedingly well. In our case, this
core competence is gold loans. We
know this business inside out. We
have kept with it through
recessions, gold booms, and gold
busts, and we have survived. I will
tell you a small instance of how this
core competence develops.
Manappuram Gold Loans is more
than 60 years old, and I have seen
this business up-close ever since I
was a six-year old kid, when my
father used to bring me here during
vacations so that I won’t be a
nuisance at home! Now, this
original core competence is what I
have taught my senior colleagues,
and what they have taught in turn
to this organization which today
has an employee strength of over
13,000. That is what enables us to
serve over 5 million customers
from our over 1800 branches
spread across 19 states of India.
But what if the gold prices were
to fall drastically?
The biggest gold price fall in
Seasonal Magazine
Manappuram's history happened in
the 90s when it fell by around 50%
from $430 per ounce to $220. We
were nervous at that time about our
 repayments falling. But none of
that happened. Later, we found out
the cause - customers are more
interested in getting their jewellery
back, even if it is only half the
original value. Simply because,
what we are lending against is not
just the bullion, but something we
call bullion plus. Household
jewellery has this additional
emotional value of bullion plus, as
nobody wants to lose household
jewellery. Ever since then, we have
been very cautious in lending
against only household or personal
jewellery. Having seen such drastic
falls, and having emerged stronger,
we don't see much risk from future
corrections, if at all it happens.
Another point is that we are
anyway insulated from long-term
corrections as majority of our loans
get repaid within 100 days.
You mentioned an impressive
probable growth rate of 140% for
this year and 75% for next. How
is such momentum possible?
The reason is nothing but the four years.
tremendous opportunity still left How do you view the recent
untapped. Even today, the We also have a couple stock market correction that also
organized sector including us took down your stock from nearly
controls only 25% of all gold loans of additional models in Rs. 190 , which is an all-time high,
in this country, with the rest of the healthcare, one of to Rs. 130 levels?
business dominated by the
unorganized sector comprising which is a unique Fundamentally, there was nothing
warranting this correction in our
mainly of moneylenders. But concept of Women’s scrip. But then markets often have
thanks to Manappuram's aware
ness campaign, customers are
Wellness Clinics. While a collective nature, and when all
banking and financial sector stocks
realizing that it is easier, profitable, diagnostic and dental corrected, we too lost some gains.
and safer to take gold loans from
the organized sector. Also, the total
chains have been That is an unavoidable side-effect
of being listed in the bourses. But
gold pledged today with both the attempted before by capital markets have been
organized and unorganized sector other healthcare generally very appreciative of our
is nowhere near the gold that is growth trajectory, and you should
available in households for majors, Women’s not forget that this is a stock that
pledging. Customers are also Wellness will be has appreciated by 35,600% in its
realising this fact that gold loans 15-year old history. Anyway,
pioneered by stability is coming back to the
Seasonal Magazine

are the easiest and safest of all

personal or MSME loans. We, in Manappuram. markets, and as you can see,
fact, expect Manappuram Finance Manappuram has regained much
to grow at 60% CAGR for the next of the lost ground.
 The First Weeks of Mobile
Number Portability
Momentum is yet to
gather, but customers
can expect unbeliev-
able offers as MNP
gathers steam.
Mobile phone operators often came
up with some mouth watering deals
in order to lure customers to their
network. However, some of these
operators had pretty bad network
and hence the mobile phone users
were caught in a soup when it came
to making phone calls. They
couldn’t switch to any other network
because their numbers were locked
to a single operator. Mobile num-
ber portability India or MNP has
been rolled out all over and through
this facility, you can switch net-
works without changing the phone
numbers. This facility was rolled out
by the Indian Prime Minister; Dr.
Manmohan Singh and service pro-
viders are scrambling with a ton of
attractive offers and freebies to
make sure that the customers don’t
desert them.
This mobile number portability In-
dia facility will also force the cell
phone operators to improve the net-
work and service quality and you
can also expect a lot of discounts
and innovative schemes.
Manmohan Singh said that through
this move, the network operators
can make bring in some new
schemes in order to retain its cus-
tomers and also bring in more cus-
tomers from other networks. It
would further enhance the growth
of the telecom sector in India. Kapil
Sibal, the telecom minister, also
endorsed this move and said that it
would redefine the competition in
this field. There were a lot of at-
tempts before this to bring number
portability in the country but they
were couldn’t materialize either due
to security complaints or because of
the operators who said that they
weren’t ready with the networks.
However, it was finally launched in
Haryana last year and MNP India
has materialized.
Mobile phone operators have al-
ready brought in some freebies for
retaining their customers for MNP
India. BSNL said that it will be wav-
ing the Rs.19 that their customers
would have to pay for changing the
operator and have also announced
free talk time of Rs.100 for the cus-
tomers who choose their network.
They are offering free 3G/GPRS
with 5GB free data usage for a
month. BSNL also said that there
will be a rebate of 50% on 1st month
charges and SIM would be given for
free. This brand is launching mar-
keting drives for highlighting the
quality of their network and is also
planning to introduce more schemes
in the future. Sistema, which has ser-
vices under the brand name MTS,
said they have tied a deal with a lot
of banks for offering the latest
Smartphones through EMIs or easy
monthly installments. Customers
who are buying these phones will
be offered some cool deals like
money back offer, free local SMS,
free local data, and free local calls
from MTS to MTS lines. The ser-
vice provider has also brought in a
popular tariff plan called MTS Half
Paisa; it is the first of its kind. Cell
phone operators who have huge and
strong network coverage all over the
country will benefit from mobile
number portability India offer. Thus
operators like Anil Ambani’s Reli-
ance Communications stand to gain
a lot from the introduction of MNP
India. Mahesh Prasad, the market-
ing president in Reliance Commu-
nications wireless department said
that this is a boon to the customers
and they are taking MNP as a posi-
tive thing.
Telecom companies are saying that
the MNP India offers will give them
a chance of grabbing new subscriber
base and customers but they are also
expecting a dip in margins and prof-
its. The margins will be hit at least
in the short run and only the mobile
phone operators have deep pockets
will be able to come out unaffected
from it. Some experts are saying that
Mobile number portability India
won’t be a game changer, it will just
make a bit initial impact and every-
thing will flatten out in the long run
eventually. At the moment, India
has about 700 million cell phone
users and this makes it one of the
largest mobile phone user-base in
the world beaten only by China.
Also, you’d be surprised to know
that this country adds 15-18 million
new connections each month to its
network. Officials say that the maxi-
mum waiting period for the MNP
India network transfer is 7 working
days and your current network will
be out of service for a maximum of
two hours while the porting takes
place. MNP is new in India but it is
has been around for a long time in
other parts of the world. A lot of
countries in North America and Eu-
rope and also Asian countries like
South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore
have had this since ages. A lot was
expected to happen on the first day
when the mobile number portabil-
ity India was launched but there
hasn’t been much buzz seen around.
Retailers say that a couple of mo-
bile phone users did come to switch
their networks but majority of them
were just curious about it; they asked
what MNP is all about and left.
 “Residential conditions in our
major cities are on an accelerated

Developers decline. There is a general

shortage of infrastructure,
increased air, water and noise
pollution, and a rash of illegal and

Hope unorganised structures cropping

up everywhere. Increasingly,
home-owners face problems
reaching emergency services,

Townships finding adequate parking and

traversing pothole-riddled roads,”
says Sanjay Dutt, CEO –business

will Change
at realty consultancy firm Jones
Lang LaSalle.

“Given this depressing scenario,

Fortunes
it has now been established that
townships are the most suitable
residential solution. The
government is now encouraging
the development of such
Ajay Arora, a multinational townships to reduce pressure on
software company employee, urban areas and to improve
commutes 2 hours daily to work infrastructure. Also, townships
in rush-hour traffic. He spends as attract foreign direct investment
much time — sometimes more —
on the journey home. Driving is
his passion, but given the
gridlock going into Bangalore
almost the time, he recently hired
a driver. Still, he is frustrated by
the amount of time he spends on
road.

Then, his firm took office space

in an integrated township in
Bangalore. “It was a dream come
true,” he says. “This township
includes my office and I am
taking a flat that is hardly 10
minutes away on foot. It has a
shopping mall, multiplex,
hospital, school and most of the
necessary amenities within
walking distance,” says Arora.

Realty players across India are

hoping there are many more
Seasonal Magazine

people like Arora and are betting

on the specialised real estate
model of integrated townships as
their next growth vertical.

and make overall economic
sense,” says Dutt.
Apart from FDI, integrated
townships can also access
extended commercial
borrowings.
Integrated township projects also
offer real estate developers an
opportunity to cash in on the
revival in demand for residential
and commercial space. These
projects are also part of an effort
by these companies to reduce risk
in their business model, as one
vertical provides a cushion to
another in case of tepid demand.
As many as 24 expansive
townships are being set up across
India and are due for completion
in the next couple of years.
“Integrated township projects are
slowly gathering steam as the
concept of walking to work is
picking up among city dwellers.
As a township project integrates
residential, commercial and retail
properties, this is the next phase
of growth in the real estate
Prestige Shanti Niketan, Bangalore
industry,” says Venkat K
Narayana, chief financial officer
at Prestige Estates Projects.
However, he pointed out that
developers with considerable
experience in the commercial and
retail verticals would have an
edge.
Prestige Estates recently
launched Shanti Niketan in the
Whitefield area of Bangalore.
“While most of our residential
space has been snapped up,
bookings have just begun for our
commercial space. We are also
planning to come up with another
integrated project in the next six
to eight months,” says Narayana,
adding that the operating margin
for an integrated project was
comparable with a purely
residential one.
Others like Sobha Developers
and Brigade Enterprises have also
come up with similar projects.
Seasonal Magazine
Top officials at Sobha said the
company has an integrated
housing project at Thrissur in
Kerala, and the company is

Sobha City, Thrissur
bullish about this emerging trend.
Brigade Enterprises recently
launched Brigade Gateway,
which comprises residential,
commercial and retail space.
Even city-based developers are
planning projects of this kind in
the near future. “We are planning
to come up with an integrated
township project in 2011 in
Bangalore. This space holds great
promise,” says Bharat Dhuppar,
chief marketing officer at Mantri
Developers. He said given the
slow development of infra
structure projects and traffic
congestion in cities, integrated
township projects would be the
next growth spot for the industry.
“The concept will not only be
popular in the metros, but also
Tier-II & -III cities,” he adds.
Seasonal Magazine
An analyst with a real estate
consultancy firm said the trend of
launching integrated projects
would continue in 2011 due to an
upside in demand for both
commercial and residential
space. He also said large real
Integrated
township projects
offer developers
an opportunity to
cash in on the
revival in demand
for residential &
commercial space
Brigade Gateway, Bangalore
Lavasa City, Pune
estate players would like at least
10 per cent of the total portfolio
in integrated space.
Anil Pharande, chairman,
Pharande Spaces, a Pune-based
realty player that specialises in
integrated townships, says,
“Townships counter the trend of
people living in smaller, isolated
pockets within larger cities,
thereby reintroducing the
possibility of community-based
neighbourhoods. Residential
properties in smaller, stand-alone
projects do not have the same
capacity to maintain and increase
property investment value as
integrated residential projects.”
What’s more, such townships

Rustomjee Global
also offer the prospect of higher
appreciation, as these projects
adhere to a pre-set development
plan with regard to open spaces,
communal amenities and
common areas. This means the
overall value of the location does
not take a hit because of
unrestricted developments that
may crop up later.
“Since such projects have their
own infrastructure, they do not
depend heavily on what the local
municipal corporation delivers
(or doesn’t deliver) in terms of
sewage management, water
supply and overall maintenance
of the immediate surroundings.
The maintenance of integrated
townships is centralised. Also,
since such residential projects
have various levels of security to
protect the entire project,
homeowners are assured of much
higher levels of safety for
As many as 24
expansive
townships are being
set up across India
and are due for
completion in the
next couple of years.
Godrej Garden City, Ahmedabad
themselves, their families and
possessions,” explains Pharande.
One more critical factor is that as
townships are centrally conceived
and executed, there are no
variations in construction
standards. In unplanned localities
that are so much a part of the
property markets of India’s main
cities, many developers with
different construction ideologies
and standards have projects
standing cheek by jowl.
“The substandard construction of
one project not only pulls down
its own market value, but also that
of those next to it. Two or three
poorly designed and constructed
buildings can cause the entire
location’s market profile to
collapse,” says Pharande.
Seasonal Magazine

Dubai's New Islands
are Sinking?
he islands were
intended as the
ultimate luxury
possession, even
for Dubai. But
the World, the ambitiously-
constructed archipelago of islands
shaped like the countries of the
globe, is sinking back into the sea,
according to evidence cited before
a property tribunal.
The islands were intended to be
developed with tailor-made hotel
complexes and luxury villas, and
sold to millionaires. They are off the
coast of Dubai and accessible by
yacht or motor boat.
Now their sands are eroding and the
navigational channels between them
are silting up, the British lawyer for
a company bringing a case against
the state-run developer, Nakheel,
has told judges.
"The islands are gradually falling
back into the sea," Richard Wilmot-
Smith QC, for Penguin Marine, said.
The evidence showed "erosion and
deterioration of The World islands",
he added.
With all but one of the islands still
uninhabited – Greenland – and that
one a showpiece owned by the ruler
of Dubai, most of the development
plans have been brought to a
crashing halt by the financial crisis.
Nakheel, the developer, was part of
Seasonal Magazine
Dubai World, the state-owned
conglomerate that had to be bailed
out of debts put at around $25 billion
at the end of 2009. The Dubai World
Tribunal was set up to hear cases
arising out of the restructuring and
separation of the companies
involved.
The low-lying islands represent a
vague shape out to sea when viewed
from Dubai's beaches, but are
visible by satellite or from the top
of the city's Burg Khalifa, the
world's tallest building, which
opened to the public last year.
According to the company, 70 per
cent of the World's 300 islands have
been sold. Nakheel is also behind
Dubai's famous Palm-shaped
offshore developments. Villas in the
only one near completion, Palm
Jumeirah, were given to or bought
by footballers including David
Beckham and Michael Owen.
Though few celebrity buyers were
found for The World, it was
rumoured – or joked – that Brad Pitt
and Angeline Jolie had considered
Ethiopia. Many investors who did
buy the islands proved unwilling or
unable to finance further work when
Dubai's property prices halved in the
space of a year.
Some were hit by troubles elsewhere
– the owner of the company which
bought Ireland for £24 million, John
O'Dolan, committed suicide, while
the man who bought Britain for £43
million, Safi Qurashi, is serving
seven years in jail in Dubai after
being accused of bouncing cheques.
The dispute being heard by the
property tribunal involves Penguin
Marine, the company which bought
the rights to provide boat travel to
the islands.
With little business, it is trying to
exit the contract, which involves
paying an annual fee of just under
£1 million to Nakheel.
Nahkeel say they will cash an
advanced payment guarantee worth
just over £1 million if that happens.
Penguin claim that work on the
islands has "effectively stopped".
Mr Wilmot-Smith described the
project as "dead".
Graham Lovett, for Nakheel, said
the project was not dead but
admitted it was "in a coma".
"This is a ten-year project which has
slowed down," he said. "This is a
project which will be completed."
He said Penguin would make money
eventually. "That's the price Penguin
makes to stay in the game," he said.
"They have the potential to earn
millions."
The tribunal found for Nakheel on
Thursday, saying it would give full
reasoning later. A spokesman for
Nakheel insisted the islands were
not sinking. "Our periodical
monitoring survey over the past
three years didn't observe any
substantial erosion that requires
sand nourishment," a statement said.
 SAIL FPO
With Full Wind on its Sails
s the SAIL FPO draws
closer, retail investors
are evaluating whether
the follow-on public
issue of the country’s largest steel-
maker will fare as good as recent PSU
IPOs/FPOs like Coal India and
MOIL.
Anticipating that government would
price the FPO very attractively, the
SAIL stock has been correcting from
Rs. 225 levels to reach the much-
speculated Rs. 165 price range.
At this level, there is no doubt that
SAIL FPO is attractive, as it amounts
to only a reasonable price-earnings
multiple of 11, and a reasonable price-
to-book-value of around 2 times.
But the real attraction in SAIL is its
size. In FY’10, SAIL registered a net
income of over Rs. 40,000 crore
which is 1.63 times its nearest
competitor Tata Steel and 2.23 times
the next nearest player, JSW Steel.
And there is no stopping this
momentum, with the latest December
quarter results also showing excellent
sales at Rs. 12,276 crore which is its
second-best quarterly sales ever, and
a record since March 2008. The sales
is up both sequentially and year-on-
year.
But then nobody is doubting SAIL’s
sales or production capacity that
easily dwarfs Tata Steel. Nor can
anyone fail to be impressed by its
100% adequacy in captive iron ores.
What this means is that SAIL has
already proven its edge in scalability,
which is of core importance in a
commodity business like steel, where
demand is booming. The current FPO
proceeds of Rs. 4000 crore from new
issue of shares is again going to
augment SAIL’s capacity in hot metal
products to nearly double the current
levels.
Though SAIL currently lags in the
other side of the equation, that is
profitability, this is something the
current management headed by CMD
CS Verma, has been working on
actively. If these initiatives succeed
eventually, SAIL and its investors
stand to gain much as the room for
margin improvement is quite
significant - while SAIL’s margins
hover between 10-20%, Tata Steel’s
margins are between 20-30%.
One of the most ambitious of these
initiatives is the joint venture being
planned with South Korea’s Posco.
This JV, coming up in Bokaro, and
whose DPR is now in the final stages,
is keenly watched as not only is Posco
the world’s second largest steelmaker
by market-cap, but the most profitable
steelmaker in Asia.
And Posco is not the only steel major
with which SAIL is probing value
additions. It is implementing the latest
ITMk3 technology for nuggets from
Japan’s Kobe Steel, working with
India’s BHEL for advancing CRGO
steel business, and partnering with
Brazil’s CBMM for developing
APIX-80 grade plates.
What all these mean is that SAIL is
moving fast from steel as a
commodity to the speciality steels
business, which is the right track to
take margins to 25% or beyond. For
example, CRGO sheets is a high
margin business due to high demand
from the power sector.
The real attraction in SAIL is
its size. In FY’10, SAIL
registered a net income of
over Rs. 40,000 crore which
is 1.63 times its nearest
competitor Tata Steel and
2.23 times the next nearest
player, JSW Steel.
Anticipating the recent price surge in
steel industry inputs like iron ore and
coking coal, SAIL was also quick to
enter this businesses by way of taking
stake in the high-profile International
Coal Ventures Ltd (ICVL), which is
all set to take over Australia’s
Riversdale Mining.
Speaking recently on the
partnership’s progress, Chairman
Verma opined, “ICVL has adequate
resources and experienced people and
has leading investment bankers to
assist in acquisitions.”
The insufficiency of coking coal has
been a trouble-spot for India’s steel
industry, and even SAIL’s Q3 profits
were affected because of this, despite
record sales.
Anyway, SAIL is also partnering with
the world’s largest steel maker
ArcelorMittal to use the domestically
available non-coking coal.
The way the steel industry has reacted
to SAIL’s aggressive Rs. 70,000 crore
capex plans is evident from Tata Steel’s
recent scramble for a quick FPO in
January itself.
But Government of India is also in no
mood to slow SAIL’s growth plans and
it has given the rare permission to file
RHP directly without filing DRHP.
Seasonal Magazine
SAIL is already a Maharatna, enjoying
the autonomy to invest more than a
billion dollars (Rs. 5000 crore) without
taking time-consuming approvals.
 Hamriyah FZ
Emerges Stronger
From Global
Slowdown
LAUNCHES AFFORDABLE E-OFFICE PACKAGES FOR SMEs

id any nation escape the global pitching for something new - HFZ’s new SME
slowdown that started in early E-OFFICE products. The ‘E’ stands for
2008? Not USA, not India, and not Executive, Economical, Efficient, & Electronic.
UAE. But for Dr. Rashid Al Leem A quick look at the features of E-OFFICE will
and his team at Sharjah’s Hamriyah be enough to swoon even the most cost-sensitive
Free Zone, it was a time for contemplation and SME entrepreneur. Imagine getting to start your
consolidation, and they went to work quietly but own office in UAE for as little as $6850! Now,
diligently, to make the free zone ready for the if you feel that this is only the upfront fee, you
global recovery. Today, just into the New Year, and are wrong. Included in this tiny amount - which
less than one year of global recovery behind them, works out to around Rs. 3 lakhs - are office rent
Dr. Leem was in India with some interesting
numbers. Over 1110 companies have started
functioning in HFZ in 2010, thus maintaining their
credentials as one of the world’s fastest growing
free zones for may years now. Not only that,
Hamriyah Free Zone - which was always a
regional leader in quality certifications - went for
some of the most contemporary and coveted
certifications during these two years. Today, there
is only one free zone in the whole world - of around
5000 free zones - that is certified SA8000 for
Corporate Social Accountability. Even more
Seasonal Magazine

importantly, HFZ is the first government body in

the world to achieve the coveted SA8000 standard.
When Dr. Leem was in India recently, he was also
for one year, license fee for one
year, service charges, initial
post box charges, name
approval charges, one
telephone line charges, and
believe it or not, allotment of
four visas! In short, everything
a commercial or service SME
would need to be up and
running in UAE is included
with the 10 square metre office
space. If an SME entrepreneur
is looking for a more flexible
general trading license, it is
available as another E-OFFICE
package that costs just $2740
more, but it also includes
allotment of one more visa. And
of course, the new E-OFFICE
packages comes with the four
‘100%’ advantages enjoyed by
bigger units in Hamriyah Free
Zone - 100% company
ownership, 100% repatriation
of capital and profits, 100% tax-
free environment, and 100%
exemption from all commercial
levies. Is there any wonder then
Hamriyah Free Zone is now
home to over 4900 companies
from nearly 125 countries,
employing over 60,000 people,
with a total investment of $6.5 Dr. Rasheed Al Leem, Director General, Hamriya Free Zone Authority

billion. There are only two more secrets to this

mammoth success. One is, of course, Sharjah’s
and Hamriyah’s strategic and infrastructural
advantages like three world-class sea-ports,
and an international airport connecting 230
cities, that make directly addressing 1.5 billion
customers across three continents, a snap for
HFZ companies. The other closely guarded
secret is Dr. Rashid Al Leem himself, who as
Director-General of both Hamriyah Free Zone
Authority (HFZA) and Sharjah Ports &
Customs, has imbibed in this free zone
Seasonal Magazine

organization a rare energy and passion, that

makes he and his team globe-trotters for this
vision.
 LIC Continues to be
Unbeatable in
Life Insurance and
Capital Markets
It has been 10 years since many crore is not the real achievement. LIC expects to mop-up a record
of the largest private life insurers LIC’s collection is up 52% year- Rs. 80,000 crore according to
started operating in the country. on-year, whereas all others Chairman TS Vijayan.
Though life insurers are expected combined could grow only by LIC also seems to have better
to break even starting from the 7th 13%, which signals that the LIC adapted to the new ULIP
year of commencing operations, juggernaut is growing 400% faster guidelines implemented by IRDA
according to IRDA assessments, than the rest of the industry. around three months back. While
it is striking that many private life In the last quarter of this fiscal, LIC could marginally improve its
insurers are yet to break even.
LIC’s steady performance of
delivering profits - often up by
10% year-on-year - assumes
significance in this background.
LIC excels on various fronts to
achieve this performance, notably
by cutting management expense
per premium, preventing premium
lapses, and controlling
procurement costs. Many private
insurers come across as stark
contrasts, with many witnessing
overall expense growth outpacing
premium growth.
But it is not only mere cost-cutting
that is delivering for LIC. The
sheer collection momentum
continues to amaze.
The figures speak for themselves.
For the month of November 2010
- the latest period for which details
are available - the total premium
Seasonal Magazine

mop-up by the industry was Rs.

77,000 crore. That LIC dominate
this collection with Rs. 55,500 TS Vijayan, Chairman
November performance month-
on-month despite the ULIP
changes, the private insurers
witnessed marginal decrease in
performance, with ULIP-heavy
insurers like ICICI Prudential’s
MoM figures down by 34%.
The contrasting performance in
the case of ULIPs is significant,
as this segment also fares as one
of LIC’s core growth areas. For
example in 2009-10, ULIPs
constituted the fastest growing
area for LIC, by absolute amounts.
However, the overall perfor
manceof LIC during FY’10 was
also good with the company
excelling in both emerging areas
like group insurance and
conventional segments like non-
ULIPs for individuals. In fact, the
only trouble-spots for LIC were
annuities and single-premium
policies, where it witnessed a fall,
but which was not enough to take
the sheen out of this
outperforming fiscal where LIC
grew its premiums by over 18%,
compared to the previous fiscal’s
5% growth.
In a sense, it is correct to note that
LIC is not only unfazed by compe
tition anymore, but is setting its
own growth benchmarks.
The beauty of LIC’s operations is
that the benefits of this
LIC excels on various
fronts to achieve this
performance, notably
by cutting
management expense
per premium,
preventing premium
lapses, and controlling
procurement costs.
Many private insurers
come across as stark
contrasts, with many
witnessing overall
expense growth
outpacing premium
growth.
outperformance is shared by even
the smallest of its agent army.
Even in a year of cost-cutting,
when the commissions paid to its
agents as a percentage of the total
outflow fell by 1.75% over the
previous year, the actual
commissions paid to its agents
went up by 20.7%.
The difference between LIC’s
inflow and outflow, which this
insurance giant considers for
investments in various instruments
like government bonds, equities,
and debt securities rose sharply to
Rs. 1,90,000 crore. LIC has been
a very efficient investor, as its
returns from such investments
during fiscal 2010 stands at a
comparable Rs. 1,12,395 crore.
The unrealized net value of its
investments as of June 2010 is also
impressive, at a whopping Rs.
8,67,935 crores.
Whenever needed, LIC had been
careful in assessing and re-
assigning fund managers so as to
maximize performance and
revenue.
The scale of LIC’s trading and
investment activities at the bourses
is mind-boggling to even the
largest of FIIs. Employing around
150 empanelled brokerages, LIC
undertakes around 120-150 trades
a day, many of them Block Deals
amounting to 5,00,00 shares or Rs.
5 crore in worth.
However, the insurance leader has
become more cautious in the even
bigger segment of Bulk Deals
where it buys or sells 0.5% of a
company’s listed equities, due to
the volatility in the capital
markets, and may be also due to
the fact that it is looking into
whether some alleged irregularities
were there in the transactions.
But as LIC Chairman TS Vijayan
and Managing Director in charge
of investments, Thomas Mathew
has repeatedly clarified, it is very
difficult to manipulate the LIC way
of doing investments, as no single
person is in charge. The investment
business is managed by the
Investment Committee which is a
sub-committee of the LIC Board,
and the Board looks into the
investment policies and their
outcomes every six months.
Serious investors around the world
are interested to know what LIC is
investing in, and unofficial estimates
show that India’s largest financial
Seasonal Magazine
institution won’t touch anything
beyond BSE 200 stocks, and is most
bullish on banks as a segment for
the long-term.
 Canara Bank Moves Unfazed
Against Sectoral Challenges
Against fundamental and market challenges
affecting the banking sector since November,
Canara Bank is moving fast and furious to
sustain both growth and margins through
various initiatives. If they succeed, Chairman
S Raman would also automatically succeed in
making this PSB India’s third most-profitable
and the third-most valuable by market cap.
Investors are also sure to cheer such a move,
as recently Canara Bank had proven what it is
capable of if the environment is conducive.
twin disasters struck. Overheated
by inflation, attracting low-cost
deposits became increasingly
difficult for banks, putting pressure
on their margins. At the same time,
ironically it might seem, the RBI
rate-hikes intended to tame
inflation, started to slow credit off-
take.
BSE Sensex which recorded its all-
time closing high on November 5th,
began to tank, the fall accelerated
by the steeper fall in Bankex / Bank
Nifty. When Sensex tanked 10%,
Bankex fell by more than 21%.
The massively successful 3G/Wi-

ndian Banking
sector has again
entered turbulent
waters, after a
dream-run for
over an year in
fundamental performance as well
as on the bourses. India’s third-
largest public sector bank by total
income as well as net assets, has
also been no exception.
On a year-on-year basis, Canara
Bank had increased its net profits
by 46% in FY’10, and on that firm
grounding went on to deliver good
profit levels on the first two quarters
of FY’11 too, which seemed to have
almost ensured that another
blockbuster annual results are
coming.
This fundamental performance was
also reflected in the capital markets,
with exuberant investors taking the
Canara Bank scrip from Rs. 350
Seasonal Magazine

levels in June 2010 to Rs. 850 levels

by November 2010 - a 143%
appreciation within 5 months!
But starting in early November,
Max auctions and huge PSU IPOs / FPOs like Coal
India, MOIL and Power Grid also contributed to the
liquidity crunch now faced by banks.
After the massive run-up, the markets too weren’t kind
to PSU Bank stocks. Canara Bank for example fell by
almost 38% to reach Rs. 530 levels.
But when it comes to recovery from these levels - both
on fundamental performance and on the bourses - it is
likely that Canara Bank will lead the sector. The reasons
are many.
On the fundamental side, the bank led by veteran
banker S Raman as Chairman, is leaving no stone
unturned to fight back the temporary setback.
Canara Bank is on the frontline when it comes to
lobbying with the Government to allow it to launch
tax-free bonds to finance infrastructure projects. Canara
Bank is likely to try for such a model pioneered by
IDFC that has been largely successful.
To tide over the liquidity crunch, Canara Bank has also
been aggressive in issuing Certificate of Deposit (CD)
and Short Term Paper. Recently it was successful in
raising CD of Rs. 300 crore with a coupon rate of
S Raman, Chairman
9.15%. CDs generally are of one-year duration, while
short-term paper is of 3-6 months duration. Canara allowed it to dampen growth. For example, recently it
Bank generally raise such instruments from large PSUs. tied up Rs. 1060 crore in debt for an infrastructure
Also, though many banks have become wary now to consortium of Ramky Infra and IL&FS Transportation,
lend to corporates, fearing the ongoing investigations that enabled the project’s financial closure.
by the regulators as well as CBI, Canara Bank hasn’t The bank also continues to be bullish on the retail front,
with its Home Loan Utsav attracting many customers.
The Utsav provides on the spot sanction for home loan,
concession in processing fee, attractive interest rates,
and home loan insurance at attractive rates.
Canara Bank’s joint ventures are also performing well,
with its JV with cousin PSB Oriental Bank of
Commerce, and MNC major HSBC Insurance, recently
entering the high-buzz child protection space with a
well-designed ULIP that is said to ensure a bright future
for your child.
On the bourses, Canara Bank is certainly one of the
banking stocks to watch out for, as it is now available
very cheap at just 6 P/E and 1.75 times its book on a
standalone basis. Though some high-profile funds like
Franklin Templeton has exited Canara Bank for now,
other majors like SBI Caps have entered the scrip
recently.
Canara Bank also has a challenging but glamorous title
before it to achieve, which can really take the stock to
Seasonal Magazine

all-time highs. Though it is the third-largest PSB by

income and assets, it is only the fourth largest by profit
behind BoB. If Canara Bank can correct this, it can
easily cruise past two others to become the country’s
third most valuable PSB by market cap.
 LIC Housing Proves
Naysayers Wrong
Jan 19th 2011 will go down in LIC Housing
Finance’s history as the day in which the housing
finance major finally proved so many cynics wrong.
t is also debatable whet-
her there was any other
day in recent months
when so many technical
analysts and traders were
caught on the wrong foot.
But in one way, they can’t be
blamed. After a worrying 53% fall
within four months, due to the loan-
for-bribe scam, many were
expecting to cash in on a deeper cut.
But obviously they had not counted
on a few things.
Firstly, as the LIC Housing Finance
management had repeatedly said in
its reassurance to its customers and
investors, the scam though serious
had been primarily a singular case
of bribery, and was in no way going
to affect the fundamentals of the
company.
But markets works not only on
fundamentals but sentiments, and
this reassurance went unheeded.
But proving the maxim that finally
fundamentals win, LIC Housing
Finance has bounced back now.
Seasonal Magazine
Though the 53% fall was not
without intermittent bounces, this
time it is going to be different for
the housing finance major, its
On a year-on-year basis, both
sanctions and disbursements are up
by 28%, loan book has grown by
36%, NII is up by 55%, and even
the toughest of the metrics to grow
- NIM - has grown by nearly 14%.
investors, and ultimately its
customers, for the simple reason Though the scam was all about
that, this time it is not the whether certain loans were
management doing damage- unqualified, and pessimists had
control, but live vibrant numbers their eyes and ears glued on
doing the talking. LICHF’s expected announ
Whichever way you look at it, you TS Vijayan, Chairman
can’t remain unimpressed with the
Q3 data. Income is up by nearly
54% year-on-year, while profits are
up by over 38%.
Though income and profit growth
is buoyed by a one-time special
income in this quarter by way of
equity sale of LIC Mutual Fund,
this effect is largely offset by the
special provisioning that was called
for in this quarter to cover the so-
called teaser loans.
Anyway when analyzing an NBFC,
analysts look also for the
underlying mechanics like
sanctioning growth, disbursement
growth, loan book growth, net
interest income (NII) growth, and
net interest margin (NIM) growth.
And what you find is pretty
amazing for a company which
almost got a major scam named
after it, and more importantly, in
that same quarter in which the
thunderstorm hit it.
cements on Non Performing Assets,
on this front too, the company came
up with a surprise.
While Gross NPAs dipped by over
53%, the bigger surprise was on the
Net NPA front which got trimmed
by nearly 77% to reach what is
perhaps the industry’s best Net NPA
level of just 0.18%.
Also of significance was the fact
that LIC Housing finally delivered
robust proof for its long-time claim
that the bone-of-contention in the
scam - developer loans - has never
been a risky business for them.
Compared with Gross NPA levels
of 0.67% in their overall business,
the developer loans only had a
Gross NPA level of 0.08%, which
is not only one-eighth of the overall
risk, but which is less than half of
the overall Net NPA.
LICHF’s new CEO and Director
VK Sharma, Director & Chief Executive
The company is now all
set to do a repeat
performance in the
ongoing quarter, so that
the fiscal can be ended on
a high note. Projections
for the quarter include
35% growth in business,
for which it would need to
raise around Rs. 10,000
crore.
VK Sharma is of the opinion that if
not for the side-effects of the scam,
the company could have posted
much better results. For example,
sequential profit growth (QoQ) was
affected as a nearly 9% dip.
CEO Sharma also announced that
despite proving that their developer
loans business was not risky at all,
the company had temporarily
stopped giving new loans to
developers. More than just a
perception booster, this is intended
as a temporary period during which
LIC Housing prepares tougher
screening for not only individual
developers, but for individual
projects.
When this business is finally
resumed, developers with a proven
track-record in timely repayment
can expect prioritised treatment,
but only if their new project also
qualifies in all respects. But in any
case, LICHF has now decided to
curtail its developer loan book to
just 10-11% of its overall loan
book.
The company is now all set to do a
repeat performance in the ongoing
quarter, so that the fiscal can be
ended on a high note. Projections
for the quarter include 35% growth
in business, for which it would need
to raise around Rs. 10,000 crore.
One of LICHF’s secrets to success
has been the fact that despite being
an NBFC, they have been almost
as successful as banks in raising
funds at lower costs. For example,
even in this scenario of interest
rates edging high and liquidity
getting squeezed, LIC Housing’s
average cost of funds have been
limited to 8.12%.
Coming to investor outlook, LIC
Housing has now become one of
the most attractive stocks to enter,
as it is now available at a price-
earnings multiple of 10 odd,
compared with HDFC’s 30 P/E,
Dewan Housing’s 12 odd, and Gruh
Finance’s 17 odd P/E. Book Value
wise also the scrip is attractive
Seasonal Magazine
trading at 2.43 P/BV, compared
with HDFC’s 6.38 times, Dewan’s
3 odd times, and Gruh’s 5 odd
times.
 Q 3 R E S U LT S
Godrej Properties Q3 Reflects
Realty’s Downturn
Godrej Properties has
announced its third quarter
results. The company’s Q3
consolidated net profit was
down at Rs 15.5 crore
versus Rs 17.6 crore, year-
on-year, YoY. Its
consolidated net sales were
up at Rs 48.2 crore versus
Rs 20.3 crore, YoY. The
stock’s price-to-earnings (P/
E) ratio was 31.46. The
latest book value of the
company is Rs 116.74 per
Hindustan Media Ventures Q3
Signals Stability, No Outperformance
Hindustan Media Ventures
has announced its results
for the quarter ended
December 2010. It has
reported net profit at Rs
11.7 crore as against Rs 4.3
crore, a growth of 172.09%
on year-on-year basis. Net
sales jumped to Rs 131
crore from Rs 41.3 crore
(YoY).
Magma Fincorp Q3 Strong, Proves
Price Fall Not Fully Justified
Magma Fincorp has
announced its third quarter
results. The company’s Q3
net profit was up at Rs 32.3
crore versus Rs 17.9 crore,
year-on-year, YoY. Its
income from operations
was up at Rs 212 crore
versus Rs 165 crore, YoY.
The company’s trailing 12-
month (TTM) EPS was at
Rs 6.36 per share. (Sep,
Seasonal Magazine
2010). The stock’s price-
to-earnings (P/E) ratio was
10.06. The latest book
value of the company is Rs
share. At current value, the
price-to-book value of the
company was 4.93. The
dividend yield of the
company was 0.69%.
27.18 per share. At current
value, the price-to-book
value of the company was
2.35. The dividend yield of
the company was 0.63%.
Q 3 R E S U LT S
HDFC Q3 Improves, But Still Below
Last Q4
Housing finance company unrealised profit on listed
HDFC has announced its investments stood at Rs.
results for the quarter 21,695 crore and it made
ended December 2010. It excess provision of Rs 300
has reported net profit at Rs crore on the book,” Mistry
891 crore as against Rs informed. HDFC’s tier I
671.3 crore, a growh of capital stood at 13%, tier II
32.8% on year-on-year capital at 1.1% and capital
basis. Net interest income adequacy was at 14.1%.
(NII) jumped 25.6% to Rs Going forward, Mistry is
1,328 crore in Q3 FY11 expecting loan book
from Rs 1,058 crore in growth of 20-15% for the
same quarter of previous year.
year. Disclosing the results,
Keki Mistry, Vice
Chairman and CEO of the
company said that net
interest margins (NIMs)
was at under 4% while
spreads for 9-month period
stood at 2.33%. The NBFC
managed to lower its non-
performing assets (NPAs)
as it declined to 0.85%
from 0.94%. Its loan book
grew 27%. It earned profit
of Rs 167 crore from sale
of investment as against Rs
51 crore. “HDFC’s
PFC Q3 is Strong YoY, But Profit
Slips Sequentially
State-run and finance
provider for power sector
Power Finance Corpo
ration (PFC) has declared
its results for the quarter
ended December 2010. It
has reported net profit at Rs
659 crore in Q3 as against
Rs 563.7 crore in Q3FY10,
a growth of 16.91%. Net
sales increased by 27.02%
to Rs 2,576 crore from Rs
2,028 crore (YoY).

Q 3 R E S U LT S
Zee Entertainment Q3 Strong,
EPS Dips
Zee Entertainment Enter
prises has declared its
results for the quarter ended
December 2010. It has
reported 23% growth in its
Q3FY11 net profit at Rs
155.5 crore as against Rs
126.3 crore in previous
quarter. Revenue jumped
16% to Rs 825 crore from
Rs 711.6 crore on quarter-
on-quarter basis. Adjusted
revenue was up 6% to Rs
755 crore versus Rs 712
crore. Operating profit
margin (OPM) improved at
27.2% in Q3 versus 26.5%
in Q2FY11. Adjusted OPM
declined at 20.4% versus
26.5%. The company
approved amalgamation of
2 WoS ZES Holding
Mauritius and ZEE
Multimedia Worldwide.
Adjusted margins dipped to
20.4% from 29.6% (YoY)
and 26.5% (QoQ). Total
expenditure was up 15% to
Rs 600 crore on quarter-on-
quarter basis, with
programming costs
increased by 20% to Rs
Zydus Wellness
Q3 - Steady,
Strong Showing
Zydus Wellness has
announced its third quarter
results. The company’s Q3
net profit was up at Rs 19.6
crore versus Rs 14.3 crore.
Its net sales were up at Rs
90.8 crore versus Rs 75.1
crore. The company’s
trailing 12-month (TTM)
EPS was at Rs 13.53 per
share. (Sep, 2010). The
stock’s price-to-earnings
(P/E) ratio was 44.05. The
latest book value of the
415.2 crore. Advertising
revenues rose 6.7% to Rs
440 crore from Rs 412.2
crore and subscription
revenues went up 3% to Rs
281.8 crore. Revenues from
DTH business were up by
4% to Rs 82 crore and
domestic cable business up
by 2.6% (QoQ). Sports
business revenue stood at
Rs 166.5 crore and
EBITDA loss at Rs 32.5
crore. (Numbers included
RGEC, 9x + ETC + Rs 70
crore one time fees on pre
matured termination of
Sporting Event Rights)
company is Rs 25.74 per
share. At current value, the
price-to-book value of the
company was 23.15. The
dividend yield of the
company was 0.5%.
Jaiprakash Power Q3 Good,
But Dips Sequentially
Jaiprakash Power Venture
has declared its third
quarter numbers. Its Q3
total sales were at Rs 181
crore versus Rs 119 crore.
Its profit was at Rs 22.7
crore versus Rs 16.8 crore.
The company’s sales
included sale of vetrified
crore versus Rs 50.5 crore.
emission reduction of 22.4
crore versus nil. Its interest Its forex loss (post tax) was
expenditure was at Rs 104 nil versus Rs 6.9 crore.
IndusInd Bank’s Strong Q3 Signals
Steady Outperformance
Private sector lender IndusInd Bank has announced its
results for the quarter ended December 2010. The bank
has reported net profit at Rs 154 crore as against Rs 88
crore, a growth of 75% on year-on-year basis. Net interest
income jumped 108.98% to Rs 363 crore from Rs 173.7
crore. Other income increased by 68.97% to Rs 196 crore
from Rs 116 crore (YoY).
L&T Q3 Good Showing, But
Nowhere Near Last Q4
Engineering firm Larsen &
Toubro (L&T) has
announced its results for
the quarter ended
December 2010. It has
reported a net profit at Rs
840.6 crore in Q3FY11 as
against Rs 768.8 in same
period of previous year, a
growth of 9.34%. The beating in third quarter of
company earned one time financial year 2010-11 -
gain of Rs 35 crore. OPM stood at 10.85% as
Revenues jumped 40.52% against 12.36% in
Seasonal Magazine
to Rs 11,413 crore from Rs Q3FY10. L&T has
8,122.2 crore in Q3FY10. received orders worth Rs
However, operating profit 13,366 crore in December
margin (OPM) took a quarter.
 Q 3 R E S U LT S
Axis Bank Q3 Signals Strong
Sustained Growth
Private sector lender Axis
Bank has announced its
results for the quarter ended
December 2010. It has
reported net profit of Rs 891
crore in Q3FY11 as against
Rs 656 crore Q3FY10, a
growth of 35.82%. Net
interest income (NII) grew
by 28.47% to Rs 1,733
crore from Rs 1,349 crore
(YoY). Other income also
increased to Rs 1,148 crore
from Rs 988 crore.
TCS Q3 Reiterates its Numero
Uno Position in IT
TCS has declared its third
quarter results. The
company’s Q3 conso
lidated net sales were up
4.05% at Rs 9,663.35 crore
Indiabulls Power Q3 Explains
Recent Price Fall
Indiabulls Power has
announced its results for
the quarter ended
December 2010. It has
reported consolidated net
profit at Rs 20 lakh as
against Rs 8.8 crore.
Consolidated net sales
Seasonal Magazine
stood at Rs 40 lakh and
other income declined at Rs
7.6 crore from Rs 22.9
crore.
versus Rs 9,286.39 crore,
quarter-on-quarter, QoQ.
Its consolidated net profit
was up 9.24% at Rs
2,369.83 crore versus Rs
2,169.21 crore, QoQ. TCS
Q3 US GAAP was as
follows: Its operating profit
was up 4.3% at Rs 2,713
crore, QoQ. Its operating
margin was up 7 bps at
28.1% QoQ. Its net profit
margin was up 144 bps at
24.1% QoQ.
Q 3 R E S U LT S
Essar Oil Q3 is 2010). The stock’s price-
a Positive to-earnings (P/E) ratio was
Turnaround 1,285.00. The latest book
value of the company is Rs
Performance 26.86 per share. At current
value, the price-to-book
Essar Oil has announced its
value of the company was
third quarter results. The
4.78.
company’s Q3 net profit
was at Rs 273 crore versus
loss of Rs 226 crore, year-
on-year, YoY. Its total
income was up at Rs
12,270 crore versus Rs
9,958 crore, YoY. The
company’s trailing 12-
month (TTM) EPS was at
Rs 0.10 per share. (Sep,
Rallis India Q3 Good YoY, But
Negative Turnaround QoQ
Rallis India has declared its
third quarter results. The
company’s Q3FY11
revenue was up 31% to Rs
271 crore versus Rs 207
crore, YoY. Its PAT was up
40% to Rs 33.69 crore
versus Rs 24 crore, YoY. Its
OPM was at 19% versus
21%, YoY.
Indiabulls Real Estate
Q3 - Better, But Sequential
Seesawing Continues
Indiabulls Real Estate has declared its results
for the quarter ended December 2010. It has
reported consolidated net profit at Rs 76.61
crore as against Rs 50.9 crore, a growth of
50.51% on quarter-on-quarter basis (QoQ).
Consolidated net sales jumped to Rs 399.7
crore from Rs 300 crore (QoQ). Other income
went up to Rs 18.2 crore from Rs 3.1 crore
(QoQ).
 Q 3 R E S U LT S
Bajaj Finance Q3 is a Exide Q3 Shows YoY Growth,
Blockbuster Performance But Another Quarter of
Sequential Degrowth
Bajaj Finance has declared
its results for the quarter Exide Industries has
ended December 2010. It announced its results for
has reported net profit at Rs the quarter ended
76.4 crore as against Rs December 2010. It has
27.3 crore (YoY). Income reported standalone net
from operations increased profit at Rs 124.42 crore as
to Rs 360 crore from Rs against Rs 130.48 crore
225 crore (YoY). (YoY). Standalone net
sales jumped to Rs
Cadila Healthcare Q3 Good YoY, 1,049.13 crore from Rs
But Alarming Consecutive Dips QoQ 912.57 crore (YoY).

Cadila Healthcare has

announced its results for
GAIL’s Strong Q3 Shows Shifting
the quarter ended Momentum Towards Gas
December 2010. It has State-run GAIL has stream as of December
reported consolidated net announced its results for 2010, will add additional
profit at Rs 162 crore as the quarter ended 1500 km pipeline by
against Rs 130 crore. December 2010. It has December 2011, and that it
Consolidated net sales reported standalone net has successfully completed
jumped at Rs 1,130 crore profit of Rs 968 crore as bond issue of Rs 500 crore
from Rs 960 crore. against Rs 860 crore, a recently.
growth of 12.56% on year-
MindTree Q3 Shows Sales Strength, on-year basis (YoY).
But Profits Weaken Further Standalone net sales rose
35.19% to Rs 8,365 crore
MindTree has decalred its third quarter results. The from Rs 6,187.8 crore
company’s Q3 consolidated net sales were at Rs 384.8 (YoY). In a press
crore versus Rs 384.4 crore, quarter-on-quarter, QoQ. Its conference GAIL said:
consolidated net profit was up at Rs 30.5 crore versus Rs Profit boosted by gas
23.2 crore, QoQ. The company’s trailing 12-month (TTM) trading, transmission, all
EPS was at Rs 46.83 per share. (Sep, 2010). The stock’s pipeline projects are on
price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 11.45. The latest book
value of the company is Rs 162.35 per share. At current
value, the price-to-book value of the company was 3.3.
The dividend yield of the company was 0.56%. Prism Cement Q3 - Alarming
Negative Turnaround

Prism Cement has announced its third quarter results. The

company’s Q3 net loss at Rs 38 lakh versus profit of Rs
51 crore. Its raw material cost was up at Rs 210 crore
versus Rs 150 crore. The company’s trailing 12-month
(TTM) EPS was at Rs 4.02 per share. (Sep, 2010). The
Seasonal Magazine

stock’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 12.50. The latest

book value of the company is Rs 23.23 per share. At current
value, the price-to-book value of the company was 2.16.
The dividend yield of the company was 4.98%.
 Q 3 R E S U LT S Q 3 R E S U LT S
NIIT Tech Q3 - Standalone Tata Elxsi Q3 Shows Sluggish
Troubles, Consolidated Strengths Sales, Profits in Downward Spiral
NIIT Technologies has
announced its third quarter
results. The company’s Q3
consolidated net profit was
up 35.3% at Rs 47.8 crore,
year-on-year, YoY. Its
consolidated revenue was
up 30.6% at Rs 300 crore,
YoY. NIIT Tech says, it will
continue to focus on Travel
& Tourism sector, focusing
on sales in US, European
markets, and that it has
seen comeback in travel &
tourism segment biz. Q3FY11 as against Rs 7.3
Tata Elxsi has announced
its results for the quarter crore in Q2FY11 and Rs
Container Corp Q3 - Confirms That 16.4 crore in Q3FY09.
ended December 2010. It
It is Back on Track in Sales, Profits Consolidated net sales
has reported consolidated
Container Corporation of increased to Rs 100.6 crore
net profit at Rs 5.6 crore in
India has announced its
from Rs 100 crore.
third quarter results. The
company’s Q3 net profit Coromandel Q3 - Sales
was up at Rs 228 crore
Disappoints, Profits Back on Track
versus Rs 201 crore, year-
on-year, YoY. Its net sales Coromandel International
were up at Rs 971 crore
has reported a sales
versus Rs 884 crore, YoY.
turnover of Rs 2,061.24
The company’s trailing 12-
month (TTM) EPS was at crore and a net profit of Rs
Rs 59.51 per share. (Sep, per share. At current value, 150.29 crore for the quarter
2010). The stock’s price-to- the price-to-book value of ended Dec ’10. For the
earnings (P/E) ratio was the company was 3.72. The quarter ended Dec 2009 the
20.83. The latest book value dividend yield of the sales turnover was Rs
of the company is Rs 333.61 company was 1.13%. 1,756.81 crore and net
profit was Rs 146.12 crore.
CMC Q3 Shows Good YoY Growth,
But Sluggish Sequential Geojit BNP Paribas Q3 -
Performance Subsidiaries Start Delivering
CMC has reported a sales
Geojit BNP Paribas
turnover of Rs 204.50 crore Financial has announced its
and a net profit of Rs 39.36 results for the quarter
crore for the quarter ended ended December 2010. It
Dec ’10. For the quarter has reported consolidated
ended Dec 2009 the sales profit after tax (PAT) of Rs
Seasonal Magazine

12.2 crore as against Rs

turnover was Rs 165.97
12.4 crore (YoY). Net sales
crore and net profit was Rs increased to Rs 76 crore
32.23 crore. versus Rs 71.3 crore.
 Q 3 R E S U LT S
Pfizer Q4 - Strong Sales and YoY
Profits, QoQ Profits Slow Down
Pfizer has announced its
fourth quarter results. The
company’s Q4 net profit
was up at Rs 43.6 crore
versus Rs 25.4 crore, year-
on-year, YoY. Its net sales
were up at Rs 236 crore
versus Rs 195 crore, YoY.
The company’s trailing 12-
month (TTM) EPS was at
Rs 48.59 per share. (Aug,
Sintex India Q3 - Strong Rebound
in Growth, Profits Still Sluggish
Sintex India has announced
its third quarter results. The
company’s Q3 consoli-
dated net profit was up at
Rs 112.8 crore versus Rs
72.5 crore, year-on-year,
YoY. Its consolidated net
sales were up at Rs 1,183.8
crore versus Rs 835.5
crore, YoY. The company’s
trailing 12-month (TTM)
EPS was at Rs 11.36 per
share. (Sep, 2010). The
stock’s price-to-earnings
(P/E) ratio was 14.72. The
latest book value of the
company is Rs 68.95 per
GRUH Finance Q3 - Sales Back to
March Level, Profit Growth Lag
GRUH Finance has
announced its third quarter
results. The company’s Q3
net profit was up at Rs 17.5
crore versus Rs 15.5 crore,
year-on-year (YoY). Its
total income was up at Rs
93.8 crore versus Rs 79.4
crore, (YoY). The
company’s trailing 12-
month (TTM) EPS was at
2010). The stock’s price-
to-earnings (P/E) ratio was
23.12. The latest book
value of the company is Rs
333.20 per share. At
current value, the price-to-
book value of the company
was 3.37. The dividend
yield of the company was
1.11%.
share. At current value, the
price-to-book value of the
company was 2.43. The
dividend yield of the
company was 0.36%.
value of the company is Rs
75.54 per share. At current
value, the price-to-book
value of the company was
5.35. The dividend yield of
the company was 1.61%.
Infosys Q3 Shows the Struggle
to Grow
India’s second largest IT
services exporter and IT
bellwether Infosys Tech-
nologies has announced its
results for the quarter
ended December 2010
(Q3FY11). The company
has reported consolidated
net profit at Rs 1,780 crore
as against Rs 1,737 crore in
previous quarter, a growth
of 2.48% (based on IFRS -
International Financial Re-
porting Standards). Operat-
ing profit also increased
just by 2.34% at Rs 2,147
crore as against Rs 2,098
crore on quarter-on-quarter
SAIL Q3 - Sales Growth Satisfactory,
YoY Profit Dip Signals Trouble
Steel Authority of India,
(SAIL) has announced its
third quarter results. The
company’s Q3 net profit
was down 34% at Rs 1,107
crore versus 1675 crore,
year-on-year, YoY. Its
revenues were up 14.5% at
basis. Company’s consoli-
dated revenues came in at
Rs 7,106 crore from Rs
6,947 crore, up just 2.29%
on QoQ. Infosys reported
revenues at USD 1585 mil-
lion, a growth of 5.94%
(QoQ). CEO & MD of
Infosys, S Gopalakrishnan
said, “The weaker eco-
nomic outlook in devel-
oped markets coupled with
high unemployment and
risk of sovereign default
could impact industry
growth.” Operating profit
margin came in flat at
30.2% on quarter-on-quar-
ter basis.
Seasonal Magazine

Rs 23.00 per share. (Sep, Rs 11312 crore versus

2010). The stock’s price- Rs.9878 crore. Its OPM
to-earnings (P/E) ratio was was down at 15.9% versus
17.56. The latest book 26.1%.
5 Quick Tips for a
Super Interview
You’ve landed that job
interview and have
polished your resume
in preparation. But
what should you do
once you are face to
face? Use these tried-
and-true tips:
1. Eye contact, a smile, a firm
handshake. They’re as important in
the reception area as in the big cor-
ner office.
2. If you’re applying for a service
position, let your voice and chin
“rise” at the end of each sentence
so you seem more agreeable. If it’s
a management position, use “the
credible voice pattern,” one that
has “a calm cadence, almost mono-
tone, with the chin dipping down a
bit.”
3. Sit up straight, and keep eye
contact “consistent but not con-
stant”—no need to creep anyone
out with too much intensity. Where
you look is important: Stay in the
“professional zone,” from the
bridge of the nose to the top of the
forehead.
4. When you hear that familiar
question, “Tell me about yourself,”
be ready, and be ready with some-
thing good.Tell the person what is
important to you, [and] tell it to
him/her in a story she can remem-
ber and relay to other people.
5. Most job candidates end the in-
terview with “Do you have any
questions for me?” Better is to ask
early on what the perfect candidate
looks like. That way, you can tai-
lor your answers accordingly. Be-
Seasonal Magazine
fore you leave, ask whether the in-
terviewer has any reservations.
Coming, New Secret Synthetic
Petrol at 50% Price
A UK company recently re-
vealed the results of a top se-
cret project it's been working on
for the past four years: a syn-
thetic fuel that could cause gas
prices to plunge to $1.50 per
gallon.
Developed at the prestigious
Rutherford Appleton Labora-
tory near Oxford, Cella Energy
CEO Stephen Voller claims that
his company's hydrogen-based
fuel produces no carbon emis-
sions when burned, and could
be the first step toward a trans-
portation market that's unaf-
fected by unstable oil prices.
"We have developed new mi-
cro-beads that can be used in
an existing gasoline or petrol
vehicle to replace oil-based fu-
els," Voller told Gizmag. "Early
indications are that the micro-
beads can be used in existing
vehicles without engine modi-
fication."
If Cella Energy is able to pro-
duce this gas alternative on a
commercial scale, it could be
the missing link millions have
been waiting for to help ease
the pain of transition away from
a fossil fuel-based economy.
Hydrogen, which produces
only pure water when burned,
is considered an ideal solution
to cutting carbon emissions
from petrol, which are esti-
mated to cause 25 per cent of
all carbon release. Until now,
attempts to store it have not
been consumer friendly so this
has not been a viable option.
Currently "the only way to pack
it [hydrogen] into a vehicle is
to use very high pressures or
very low temperatures, both of
which are expensive to do. Our
new hydrogen storage materi-
als offer real potential for run-
ning cars, planes and other ve-
hicles that currently use hydro-
carbons on hydrogen, with little
extra cost and no extra incon-
venience to the driver", said
Professor Stephen Bennington,
lead scientist on the project for
the UK's Science and Technol-
ogy Facilities Council.
 Stop Loss or SIP On?
BANKS
Q3 IDBI Bank Q3 Strong,
Bright Future Ahead
RESULTS
IDBI Bank has reported its results for the
quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest earned for the
quarter was Rs 4,712.33 crore and net profit
was Rs 454.08 crore. For the quarter ended Dec
2009 the interest earned was Rs 4007.80 crore
and net profit was Rs 287.15 crore.

R. M. Malla, CMD, IDBI Bank Ltd

Syndicate Bank Q3
Rebounds,
Valuations Very
Attractive
Syndicate Bank Q3 net profit was up at Rs 268
crore versus Rs 207 crore. Its NII was up at Rs
1,050 crore versus Rs 719 crore. The scrip
which has an yearly price-performance of over
23%, has corrected by over 17% in the past
one month, and is now trading very attractively.

Basant Seth, CMD, SyndicateBank

Karnataka Bank Q3
Income Strong, Profits
Need to Improve
Karnataka Bank has reported its results for the
quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest earned for the
quarter was Rs 603.14 crore and net profit was
Rs 38.59 crore. For the quarter ended Dec 2009
the interest earned was Rs 527.62 crore and net
profit was Rs 36.61 crore.
Seasonal Magazine

P. Jayarama Bhatt, MD and CEO, Karnataka Bank

 BANKS
Bank of Baroda Q3 Shows Overall Strength
Q3
Bank Of Baroda has reported RESULTS
its results for the quarter
ended Dec ’10. Interest earned
for the quarter was Rs
5,666.15 crore and net profit
was Rs 1,068.88 crore. For the
quarter ended Dec 2009 the
interest earned was Rs
4176.97 crore and net profit
was Rs 832.49 crore.

M D Mallya, CMD, BoB

Federal Bank Q3
Shows Sales Growth
Steady, Profit Growth
Slower
Federal Bank has reported its results for the
quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest earned for the
quarter was Rs 1,021.88 crore and net profit
was Rs 143.10 crore. For the quarter ended Dec
2009 the interest earned was Rs 944.64 crore
and net profit was Rs 110.25 crore.

S Sridhar, CMD, Central Bank of India

Central Bank of India

Q3 Confirms
Outperformance,
Stock Undervalued
Central Bank of India has reported its results
for the quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest earned
for the quarter was Rs 3,933.06 crore and net
Seasonal Magazine

profit was Rs 403.52 crore. For the quarter

ended Dec 2009 the interest earned was Rs
3131.30 crore and net profit was Rs 306.44
Shyam Srinivasan, CEO, Federal Bank crore.
 Stop Loss or SIP On?
BANKS Indian Overseas Jammu & Kashmir
Bank Q3 Shows
Bank Q3 Soars by
Q3 Income & Profits,
Turnaround from
Last Q4 Consistent
RESULTS
Stock Attractive Jammu and Kashmir Bank has reported its
Indian Overseas Bank has reported its results for the quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest
results for the quarter ended Dec ’10. earned for the quarter was Rs 934.66 crore and
Interest earned for the quarter was Rs net profit was Rs
3,101.65 crore and net profit was Rs 231.66 167.88 crore. For
crore. For the quarter ended Dec 2009 the the quarter ended
interest earned was Rs 2570.13 crore and Dec 2009 the
net profit was Rs 101.70 crore. interest earned was
Rs 857.36 crore
and net profit was
Rs 139.99 crore.

Mushtaq Ahmad, Jammu &

Kashmir Bank

M Narendra, CMD, IOB
IDFC Q3 Strong by
Sales, Profits Dip QoQ
Infrastructure Development Finance Company
has reported a sales turnover of Rs 1,162.15
crore and a net profit of Rs 304.23 crore for the
quarter ended Dec ’10. For the quarter ended
Dec 2009 the sales turnover was Rs 880.76
crore and net profit was Rs 240.11 crore.
Seasonal Magazine
Oriental Bank of
Commerce Q3
Shows Continued
Outperformance
Oriental Bank of Commerce has reported its
results for the quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest
earned for the quarter was Rs 3,032.76 crore
and net profit was Rs 408.25 crore. For the
quarter ended Dec 2009 the interest earned was
Rs 2671.59 crore and net profit was Rs 289.43
crore.

Nagesh Pydah, CMD, OBC

Dr. Rajiv B. Lall, MD &. CEO, IDFC
 BANKS
Karur Vysya Bank Q3 - Q3
RESULTS
Sales Steady, Profit
Rebounds Emphatically
Karur Vysya Bank has reported its results for the
quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest earned for the
quarter was Rs 575.49 crore and net profit was Rs
113.22 crore. For the quarter ended Dec 2009 the
interest earned was Rs 451.22 crore and net profit
was Rs 75.87 crore.

P.T. Kuppuswamy, Chairman and CEO, KVB

SIB Sales Good, Stock

Yes Bank Q3
Attractive After Correction
Strong, Stock
South Indian Bank has
reported its results for the of Long Term
quarter ended Dec ’10.
Interest earned for the Value
quarter was Rs 622.66
crore and net profit was Yes Bank has reported its
Rs 75.36 crore. For the results for the quarter ended
quarter ended Dec 2009 Dec ’10. Interest earned for
the interest earned was Rs the quarter was Rs 1,126.15
487.79 crore and net crore and net profit was Rs
profit was Rs 62.46 crore. 191.12 crore. For the quarter
ended Dec 2009 the interest
V.A Joseph, Chairman and CEO, SIB earned was Rs 626.36 crore
and net profit was Rs 125.93
crore.
Kotak Mahindra Bank Profit
Growth Slower, Stock Remains
Expensive Even After Correction
Kotak Mahindra Bank has
reported its results for the
quarter ended Dec ’10.
Interest earned for the
quarter was Rs 1,135.40
crore and net profit was Rs
187.87 crore. For the
quarter ended Dec 2009 the
Seasonal Magazine

interest earned was Rs

832.42 crore and net profit
was Rs 142.38 crore.
Rana Kapoor, Founder/MD & CEO,
Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman & MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank Yes Bank
 Stop Loss or SIP On?
BANKS
UCO Bank’s Positive
Q3 Turnaround is
RESULTS Decisive in Q3
UCO Bank has reported its results for
the quarter ended Dec ’10. Interest
earned for the quarter was Rs 2,894.23
crore and net profit was Rs 301.24 crore.
For the quarter ended Dec 2009 the
interest earned was Rs 2374.72 crore and
net profit was Rs 245.82 crore.

Arun Kaul, CMD, UCO Bank

Dena Bank Improves in Q3, But Allahabad

Loses Some Profit Momentum Bank Q3
Dena Bank has reported its
results for the quarter ended
Strong, Stock
Dec ’10. Interest earned for Should Go
the quarter was Rs 1,289.89
crore and net profit was Rs Places
155.21 crore. For the quarter
ended Dec 2009 the interest Allahabad Bank has declared
earned was Rs 1015.90 crore its third quarter results. Its Q3
and net profit was Rs 134.52 net profit was up at Rs 416
crore. crore versus Rs 345.4 crore.
The company’s NII was up at
D.L. Rawal, CMD, Dena Bank Rs 1,051.6 crore versus Rs
675.6 crore. Its provision
coverage ratio was at 80.22%.
The company’s net NPAs was
at 0.59% versus 0.35%, YoY
Andhra Bank is Back on Track and gross NPAs was
unchanged at 1.77%, YoY.
in Profits, Sales Growth Steady
State-run Andhra Bank
announced a 20.2% growth
in Q3FY11 net profit of Rs
331 crore as against Rs 275.4
crore in quarter ended
December 2009. Net interest
margin stood at 3.91% as on
Seasonal Magazine

December 31, 2010.

R Ramachandran, CMD, Andhra Bank J.P.Dua, CMD, Allahabad Bank

 BANKS
Union Bank Q3 Turnaround Impressive,
Stock Attractive After Correction
Q3
RESULTS
Union Bank of India has declared its results for
the quarter ended December 2010. It has reported
net profit of Rs 580 crore in Q3FY11 as against
Rs 534 crore, a growth of 8.6% on year-on-year
basis. Net interest income went up by 51.78% to
Rs 1,616 crore from Rs 1064.7 crore. Other
income increased to Rs 493.6 crore from Rs 440
crore. Gross non-performing assets went up to
Rs 3,580 crore from Rs 2,092 crore (2.68%
versus 1.96%). Net non-performed asset rose to
Rs 1,597.4 crore from Rs 613.1 crore (1.15%
versus 1.29%). Operating expenses were up by
38% to Rs 848.3 crore from Rs 615.2 crore.
Provisions increased to Rs 400 crore from Rs
160 crore (YoY). (Adhoc provision of Rs 120
crore for second pension liability (Rs 360 crore
provision made for 9MFY11)) MV Nair, CMD, Union Bank of India

ICICI Bank Q3 Shows
Acceleration, Stock Only of
Long Term Value
ICICI Bank has declared its
third quarter results. The
company’s Q3 net profit was
up 30.50% Rs 1437 crore
versus Rs 1101.1 crore. Its net
interest income was up by
12.32% at Rs 2311.7 crore
versus Rs 2058.1 crore.
Chanda Kochhar,
MD & CEO, ICICI Bank
Vijaya Bank
Profit
Recovers in
Q3, Stock
Attractive
Vijaya Bank has declared its
third quarter results. The
company’s Q3 net profit was
up at Rs 162 crore versus Rs
125 crore, year-on-year,
YoY. Stock is trading at
around 6 TTM P/E and less
than 1.5 times its book.
in same period of last year.
Gross non-performing asset
(NPA) slipped just at 4.75%
versus 4.84%. Net NPA
declined to 1.16% versus
2.19%. Other income jumped
to Rs 1,748 crore from Rs
Seasonal Magazine

1,673 crore. CASA was at

Provisions declined in 44.2% versus 39.6%. Capital
December quarter to Rs 464 adequacy ratio stood at
crore as against Rs 1,002 crore 19.98% versus 19.4%. Albert Tauro, CMD, Vijaya Bank
 Stop Loss or SIP On?
BANKS SBI Sales Growth Good, Profits Dhanlaxmi’s
Lacklustre Turnaround
Q3 State Bank of India, (SBI) has
announced its third quarter
857 crore, YoY. Impressive, Stock
Still Pricey
RESULTS results. The company’s Q3 net
profit was up 14.08 % at Rs Dhanlaxmi Bank has
2,828 crore versus Rs 2,479.1 announced its third quarter
crore (YoY) despite an results. The company’s Q3 net
increase in the provisions by profit was up at Rs 7.3 crore
Rs 1,797 crore (84.02%). Its versus Rs 1.3 crore, year-on-
net interest income (NII) year, YoY. Its NII was up at
stood at Rs 9,050 crore versus Rs 74 crore versus Rs 39
Rs 6,316.3 crore. The bank crore, YoY.
saw its total provisions go up
to Rs 2,051 crore versus Rs O P Bhatt, Chairman, SBI

Indian Bank Profits Good,

Sales Slow, Stock Cheap
State-owned Indian Bank has
declared its results for the
quarter ended December
2010. It has reported net profit
of Rs 491 crore as against Rs
441 crore, a growth of 11.34%
on year-on-year basis and
went up by 18.11% from Rs
415.7 crore (QoQ). Net
interest income jumped to
18.9% to Rs 1,038 crore from
Rs 873 crore (YoY) and rose
5.6% from Rs 983 crore
(QoQ). Net non-performing
assets increased to Rs 418
Punjab & Sind Bank Q3 Good,
Stock Price Among Cheapest
Amitabh Chaturvedi, MD & CEO
Dhanalakshmi Bank
SBBJ Q3 Sales
Good, Profits
Should Improve,
Stock Very Cheap
State Bank of Bikaner and
T M Bhasin, CMD, Indian Bank
Jaipur has reported its results
crore in Q3FY11 from Rs 90
for the quarter ended Dec ’10.
crore in same period of
Interest earned for the quarter
previous year.
was Rs 1,226.22 crore and net
profit was Rs 132.46 crore.
For the quarter ended Dec
2009 the interest earned was
Rs 978.36 crore and net profit
was Rs 51.25 crore.

Punjab & Sind Bank has announced

its results for the quarter ended
December 2010. It has reported net
profit at Rs 135 crore as against Rs
125 crore (YoY). Punjab & Sind
Bank was the last public sector bank
Seasonal Magazine

to list.

PK Anand, Punjab & Sindh Bank

Supratik Chatterjee, MD, SBBJ
 BANKS
Mahabank’s Recovery has Q3
Begun, Stock Attractive RESULTS

Bank of Maharashtra has

announced its results for the
quarter ended December 2010. It
has reported net profit at Rs 90.2
crore as against Rs 112 crore. Net
interest income jumped to Rs 522
crore from Rs 361.6 crore.

AS Bhattacharya, CMD, BoM

SBM Turnaround in Profits Good, DCB Proves

Stock Among Cheapest Positive
State Bank of Mysore has Turnaround
reported its results for the
quarter ended Dec ’10.
Can Hold,
Interest earned for the quarter Stock Very
was Rs 1,057.19 crore and net
profit was Rs 132.04 crore.
Expensive
For the quarter ended Dec
2009 the interest earned was Development Credit Bank has
Rs 900.66 crore and net profit reported its results for the
was Rs 141.31 crore. Dilip Mavinkurve, MD, SBM quarter ended Dec ’10.
Interest earned for the quarter
was Rs 140.22 crore and net
SBT Sales Growth Steady, profit was Rs 8.17 crore. For
Profits Recovering, Stock the quarter ended Dec 2009
the interest earned was Rs
Among Cheapest 109.05 crore and net loss was
Rs 18.09 crore.
State Bank of Travancore
has reported its results for
the quarter ended Dec ’10.
Interest earned for the
quarter was Rs 1,379.35
crore and net profit was Rs
176.01 crore. For the
quarter ended Dec 2009 the
interest earned was Rs
Seasonal Magazine

1116.23 crore and net profit

was Rs 164.96 crore.
P. Pradeep Kumar, MD, SBT Nasser Munjee, Chairman, DCB
 Stop Loss or SIP On?
BANKS Corporation Bank Remains
Strong & Steady, Stock Very
Q3 Attractive
RESULTS Corporation Bank has come out with
its third quarter earnings of FY11. It
has reported net profit of Rs 382
crore as against Rs 305 crore, a
growth of 25.25% on year-on-year
basis. Net interest income jumped to
40.57% to Rs 842 crore from Rs 599
crore. Provisions increased to Rs 250
crore in December quarter of FY10
as against Rs 113 crore in December
quarter of FY09.

Ramnath Pradeep, CMD, Corporation Bank

PNB Sales
Bank of India Profits Recover, Strong, Profits
Stock of Long Term Value Lacklustre,
Bank Of India has announced its third quarter results. The Stock Attractive
company’s Q3 net profit was up at Rs 653 crore versus Rs State-run Punjab National
405 crore. Its NII was up at Rs 1,986 crore versus Rs Bank (PNB) has reported net
1,494.8 crore. Its provisions was at Rs 498 crore versus profit at Rs 1,090 crore as
Rs 576 crore. against Rs 1,011.3 crore, a
growth of 7.78% on year-on-
year basis. Net interest income
jumped 44.80% to Rs 3,203
crore from Rs 2,212 crore.
Provisions increased to Rs
714 crore from Rs 282 crore
(YoY). Gross non-performing
asset (NPA) went up at 2.03%
versus 1.8% (YoY). The
bank’s capital adequacy stood
at 11.9% in Q3FY11 as
against 14.6%. Net interest
margin stood at 3.99%.
Seasonal Magazine

AK Misra, CMD, Bank of India KR Kamath, Chairman, PNB

 What Singh has to Learn
From Swami
Dr. Manmohan Singh doesn’t seem to
have much to learn from Subramanian
Swamy, but he seems to have much to
learn from an older, real Swami.
How far can honesty as a virtue
take you if you are also perceived
as ineffective and spineless? Does
that honesty then have any value?
Does it serve any purpose?
This is the tragedy of prime minis-
ter Manmohan Singh's clean image
post-Radiagate which
forced the UPA government
to eject tainted telecom
minister A Raja. Though
upright and honest, Singh's
image has eroded consider-
ably because of evidence
that he did not act decisively
in the 2G telecom
scamwhen it was brought to
his notice as early as 2008.
Singh was perhaps con-
strained by the compulsions
of coalition politics and the
collective wisdom at the highest
level in the Congress. But his com-
promise has come at a price.
Unless you belong to the Gandhi
family, the party always stands su-
preme. That is what prevented then
prime minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee from demanding the res-
ignation of Gujarat chief minister
Narendra Modiin the aftermath of
the 2002 Godhra carnage. As is
well documented, Vajpayee
wanted Modi to quit but had to re-
main silent because many seniors
in the party, including LK Advani,
differed with him on this issue.
The party asserted itself to repri-
mand Advani and Jaswant Singh
for praising the founder of Paki-
stan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. To
their credit, these two leaders stood
their ground courageously and paid
the price rather than buckle under
pressure.
Honesty in public life works up to
a point and not beyond if it is not
accompanied with courage. Indira
Gandhi is admired for her courage
in spite of her excesses such as the
Emergency. Her decisive role in
the creation of Bangladesh is the
most striking example.
Whistleblowers belong to the class
of people who may be honest like
the silent majority but stand apart
by showing extraordinary courage
in helping expose a fraud in the
public domain. Many newspaper
and TV expose' are a result of such
people in the system; although,
most leaks originate from corpo-
rate rivalry, political and bureau-
cratic jealousies.
To be sure, today's generation is
benefiting from the fruits of eco-
nomic liberalisation. But what's
needed is a greater willingness to
take risks; to do and dare- not just
for personal prosperity but also for
the larger good.
Such is the reality that parents are
gripped with fear at the time of
nursery school admission, during
board exams and admission to pro-
fessional colleges. As an IIT vet-
eran said, many fresh IIT gradu-
ates see themselves as failures if
their starting salary offer is as
"low" as Rs 10 lakhs per an-
num. "Why are we sur-
rounded by insecurity?
Where is the passion," he
asks, "to do something in life,
to do something for the coun-
try?"
Whether it is Manmohan
Singh or the man on the
street, we need to fix our
fears one way or the other.
We need to be unreasonable,
because, as George Bernard
Shaw explained, "all
progress depends on the unreason-
able man."
This year marks the beginning of
the 150th birth centenary celebra-
tions of Swami Vivekananda, one
of the greatest sons of India. Cit-
ing his own example of near-death
experiences, one of Vivekananda's
most powerful messages to his fol-
lowers was to get rid of their fears
and insecurities. As he put it: "Fear
is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear
is unrighteousness, fear is wrong
life. All the negative thoughts and
Seasonal Magazine
ideas that are in the world have pro-
ceeded from this evil spirit of fear."
It's time to ponder and revisit
Vivekananda.
 Musli Power to Power
Kerala’s First Formula
Racing Team
Kunnath Pharmaceuticals, makers of Musli Power X-Tra,
creates two-car formula car racing team with Ford
engines, motorsport veterans M&N Racing, and two of
India’s best drivers, Gaurav Gill and Arjun Balu.
or car racing synergistic with our own
enthusiasts in the corporate goal - of enhancing
state, it is a dream performance. Formula racing is all
come true. Though about peak performance, as much
their state of Kerala is a state of as our formulation, Musli Power
sports and auto enthusiasts, it X-Tra is about achieving peak
could never aspire to be a player personal performance.”
like Gurgaon or Chennai when it Dr. Abraham was speaking to
came to formula car racing. Forget Seasonal Magazine after the
even plans for a race track, the launch of the team in Kochi
state didn’t even have a team to recently. The whole team
compete in formula car racing, consisting of managers, drivers,
which is a younger sibling of the and support team was here on 29th
acclaimed Formula 1 format. January, together with team’s
But that didn’t prevent Dr. KC formula racing car.
Abraham, a Keralite businessman, Said Jose Pottamkulam, racing
to boldly go in for his own team enthusiast and promoter of M&N
when an opportunity presented Racing who coordinated the team
itself recently. Dr. Abraham is the for Musli Power X-Tra, “The
founder of Kunnath Pharma- synergy was apparent when I
ceuticals and the patent-holding informed our chosen drivers
inventor of Kunnath’s blockbuster Gaurav Gill and Arjun Balu about
ayurvedic performance Musli Power’s support. They told
formulation, Musli Power X-Tra. me that since Musli Power X-Tra
Said Dr. Abraham about his was about power, there was great
decision to create Musli Power X- synergy.”
Tra’s own team in formula car Jose is a long-term racing
racing, “Beyond our patronage for
Seasonal Magazine

enthusiast and has some wins to

various sports, ranging from his credit including one in Maruti
football to cricket to athletics, here Suzuki Cochin Autocross, which
was an opportunity that was is a tarmac race conducted in

Cochin International Airport.
With his initiative, Dr. KC
Abraham has succeeded in
overtaking several older home-
grown consumer brands in Kerala
in bringing a formula racing team
to the state.
No effort has been spared by the
team in selecting ace drivers for
the team.
35-year old Arjun Balu is one of
India’s best known rally drivers,
and has to his credit winning the
AZRC Rally Of China, and has
been five times national runner-
up. One of his recent wins has
been the K-1000 Rally of
Bangalore in 2009. Known for his
long experience and steady
driving, Balu hails from
Coimbatore.
Team Musli Power X-Tra’s other
driver, Gaurav Gill is one of
India’s leading rally drivers. The
29-year old from Delhi is a past
winner of India’s National Rally
Championship, National Road
Racing Championship and FIA
APRC Rally in Indonesia, and is
known as an aggressive driver.
Though both drivers are from
outside the state, both share a
special relationship with Kerala in
that both of them have won major
motorsports events in Kochi,
which is also the headquarters of
Kunnath Pharmaceuticals.
Musli Power X-Tra stands to gain
much from the formula race,
apart from the extensive brand
visibility, as it will be working
closely with world renowned auto
brands like Ford, which is
supplying the engines for the two-
car team.
Musli Power X-Tra Racing Team
will compete in the MRF Formula
Championship 2011 which is an
official support race to the 2011
Formula One Grand Prix of India.
The race will be held at Chennai
and is schedule to start on 5th and
6th of February followed by races
on 12th and 13th February 2011,
with a total race of six numbers.
The team is also participating in
two more races on 29th and 30th
October 2011 in Delhi, prior to
the Grand Prix.
Musli Power X-Tra has always
been associated with high value
sports promotions. Since its
beginning, Kunnath Pharma-
ceuticals has donated substantial
amounts to the promotion and
development of sports, youth and
cultural activities in the nation.
The company is sharply focused
on what will take Indian sport
ahead, and at helping individuals
realize their sporting ambitions.
Musli Power X-tra was the
Official Licensee for Health
Power in the 2010 Delhi
Commonwealth Games. Apart
from this, the brand is the main
sponsor of the Indian football
club, Churchill Brothers of Goa;
title sponsor of Sri Lanka based
Wayamba Elevens T20 Cricket
Seasonal Magazine
team; Kerala State Athletics
Association, and Kerala based
football team Viva Kerala.
 The Dark Side of India's
Mumbai, India — Sabid Ali Sheikh
stands on a prairie of trash - old
onions, excrement, animal bones -
slowly rotting its way back into an
earth riddled with rat burrows.
Sometimes the ground gives way
under his feet. It is after midnight,
and Sheikh is after the rats. He lis-
tens for them. He tries to catch their
red eyes in the sweep of his flash-
light. Some rat killers say they can
smell them in the dark. Sheikh, 23,
is a night rat killer, one of 44 em-
ployed by the city of Mumbai to
wage its long, losing war against
vermin. Barely taller than the kill-
ing stick he uses to ply his trade,
Sheikh is a clean man, dressed in
elaborately embroidered jeans and
a crisp shirt, who thinks himself
lucky to have even this dirty work.
When he goes home, he will scrub
his body down with soap. Sheikh's
father is also a rat catcher. His
brothers sell vegetables from a cart
and wish they could be rat catch-
ers too. If he ever has children, he
hopes they sit in an office from 9
a.m. until 6 p.m. But given what
modern India has to offer the
Sheikh family, the children may
well end up standing precisely
where Sheikh stands now: ankle-
deep in the soft earth of a stinking
Seasonal Magazine
dump, wearing old flip-flops. Even
as India's booming economy over-
flows with opportunities for the
educated and well-connected,
minting new millionaires by the
dozen, some 800 million people
toil on the dark side of the Indian
dream. India's boom has lifted
many people out of poverty, but it
has also worsened inequality. Put
aside for a moment those stories
about a great nation of engineer-
ing geniuses, billionaires and
youthful promise, whose economy
might one day outpace China's.
The Sheikh family does not live in
that India. Instead, they curl them-
selves, all 15 of them, into a 13-
square-meter (140-square-foot)
space with peeling paint, tattered
plastic bags to hold their clothes
and a fan that leaves everyone
sweating. In this India, a job with
the city, even if it involves killing
rats, is a thing to fight for. It means
security, more precious than
wealth. The competition for rat
catcher jobs in Mumbai is stiff.
Only men ages 18 to 30 need ap-
ply. They must be able to lift a 50-
kilogram (110 pound) sack and run
a few kilometers (miles). They
must demonstrate their ability to
catch and kill a rat in the dark
within 10 minutes. Each rat catcher
must kill 30 rats a night, six nights
a week. If he doesn't make the
quota, he doesn't get paid. Arun
Bamne of the city's insecticide de-
partment, which oversees the rat-
catching, says people badly need
jobs. The last time the city re-
cruited, he said, over 4,000 people
- some with university degrees -
applied for 33 rat catcher positions.
Joining the war on rats does not
lead, with time and diligence, to a
desk job in a fan-cooled adminis-
trative office. After half a dozen
years, a man might be moved to
the day shift, laying traps and set-
ting poison bait. But there is little
else to look forward to. As a daily
wage laborer, still hoping for a
permanent job with the city, Sheikh
says he makes 12,000 rupees
($271) a month, if he makes his
quota. That's slightly less than a
city bus driver, at 13,000 rupees
($293) a month, or an entry-level
call center worker, 15,000 rupees
($338). His father, Jahed Gabul
Sheikh, 56, has been a rat catcher
for 30 years. He makes 17,000 ru-
pees ($383) a month. "I am trying
my best to get the city to hire my
other sons," he said. "All my kids
know how to catch rats very well.
But the city doesn't employ them."
Sabid, his son, said his friends envy
him and his steady paycheck. "A
government job is a very secure
job," he said. "Everyone wants to
be famous and known. But this is
my destiny. Everything you wish
will not come true." India seems
to exist in multiple historical ep-
ochs simultaneously - nowhere
more starkly than here, amid the
crumbling stone walls and old goat

Economic Boom
bones of the Sathe Nagar housing
colony in a northern suburb of
India's financial capital, Mumbai,
formerly called Bombay. One side
of the neighborhood is edged by a
high, shining fence beyond which
lies 21st century India: the Bhabha
Atomic Research Center, the
country's premier nuclear research
facility. On this side of the fence,
people live in a vaguely medieval
place where need outweighs hope
and there is still talk of the plague.
To the south is a 50-acre slaugh-
terhouse, one of the largest in Asia.
To the north is a city dump. In other
words, rat heaven. The alleyways
between buildings are frothy with
trash. Look closer. In the faint light
of the windows, the ground is alive
with rats. A twitching nose peeks
from a crevice in the wall. A rat
tail vanishes down a hole. Sabid
Sheikh waits. The trick is to catch
the rat's eye and shine a flashlight
in its face. The rodent freezes like
a deer in headlights. Thwack! If
perfectly aimed, a single blow can
kill a rat. But most do not surren-
der meekly. Thwack! Thwack!
Thwack! And so it goes until the
rat lies windmilling its legs and ex-
pires in a final, furious shudder. If
the rat catcher's aim or courage
fails, the rat may scurry into a hole
or drain pipe, forcing the man to
reach in, barehanded, and extract
it by the tail. If the rodent ventures
By Erika Kinetz, Associated Press
too far in, the catcher may daub the
end of his killing stick with rat's
blood to lure it out. Sheikh's favor-
ite technique is to grab the rat by
the tail and twirl it above his head
like a whirligig before bashing its
head against a wall. If it still doesn't
die, he will grind its head into the
ground with his heel. By 1:30 a.m.,
Sheikh and two other rat catchers
have packed 94 dead and dying rats
into two bloodied sacks to be
carted away in a rickshaw, counted
by the city, and samplings taken to
be tested for bubonic plague. They
smell so bad that the rickshaw
driver pulls over and vomits.
Sheikh's youngest brother, Wasim,
tagged along and killed a few rats
too. He is about 14, and some
months back his father made a cell
phone video of him in action.
There is young Wasim, dragging a
rat as big as his forearm from a trap
and smacking it to death. His mom
giggles as she watches the video.
Such is the parents' pride, they
could be watching their son play-
ing the heroic lead in a school play.
"Now he's putting his hand in the
burrow," the father said, beaming.
"I'm never worried about disease.
I have faith in God." He sees him-
self as a public servant, ridding the
city of vermin for the greater good
of its citizens. Besides, he had no
choice. At age 8, he set forth on a
36-hour train ride, alone, from his
village to meet his father in
Mumbai. Before boarding he went
to a mosque. "I prayed to God for
a job in Bombay," he said. "I
prayed for money. I prayed for a
settled life." For 10 years he
hawked peanuts and puffed rice to
crowds at a commuter train station
while his father did odd jobs, bak-
ing the flat bread called roti or col-
lecting scrap metal. They slept on
footpaths. One day a woman came
up to Jahed Sheikh and asked if
he wanted to work for the city.
"She changed my life by giving me
that job I desperately needed," he
said. "Now it's my kids' turn."
Sometimes, drunks would tease
him for having nothing in life.
Once, he got beaten up. But he
knows he has more than nothing:
He has nine children and a daugh-
ter-in-law who makes excellent
biryani. He has a stick-thin wife
who sits quietly by his side. And
he has a job, which is not a gift
Mumbai gives easily to men like
Sheikh. All around him, as India's
richest city gets richer, Sheikh and
his sons remain trapped in a pain-
fully slow cycle of aspiration. He
only hopes his children get as
lucky a break as he did. "I'm happy
with what I have. I came to
Seasonal Magazine
Bombay. I had nothing. I got this
job," he said. "Now I pray to God
that all my sons get employed."
Seasonal Magazine