India Crowned
मेरे देश की धरती सोना
उगले, उगले हीरे मोती,
हो मेरे देश की धरती
ON TIMES SQUARE:
The World's Largest
Stock Market NASDAQ
joins in celebration with The World's Largest Democracy,
India's Independence Day with a brilliant display of the
Tricolour at the Market Site in Times Square, New York.
Singh is KING,Singh is KING
, yep sing with me yaar
हमारे शेर ने phir कमाल कर dikhaya!!!
Abhinav Bindra,
became the first Indian to win the World Championships in
Zagreb with a superb 10.7 on his last shot - in the final series.
10 SATELLITES LAUNCHED INTO ORBIT
Superday in India’s space calendar
INDIA LAUNCHES 10 SATELLITES INTO SPACE to become technically THE FIRST COUNTRY in the world to achieve the difficult feat after Russia, which had put into orbit 13 satellites in April 2007. The 50-hour countdown, launched on Saturday, climaxed when all the satellites were placed in their orbits in 1,151 seconds on Monday morning. But ISRO officials pointed out that the total weight of Russia’s 13 was only 295 kg as against INDIA's 820 kg carried up by the four-stage iNDIA's PSLV on Monday.NASA’s attempt to do something similar had come to a nought। A proud ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair declared the mission successful and said there was “not even a slight deviation in the spacecraft’s trajectory and they (the satellites) were delivered at their doorstep’’।
Of the 10 satellites, two are from India — the 695-kg Cartosat-2a and the 87-kg Indian Mini Satellite-1 (IMS-1) — while the remaining eight are nano satellites from Canada, Japan, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands। The total weight of these nano satellites, six of which were clustered together with the collective name NLS-4, is about 50 kg.
Their primary role is scientific research for various laboratories and universities. Cartosat-2a, the 13th in the Indian remote-sensing satellite series, will be used for mapping and help in urban and rural infrastructure development. It is also providing a trial platform to a hyperspectral camera that will be used on Chandrayaan-1, India’s maiden mission to the Moon, tentatively slated for June-July this year.
More nano satellites are on the way
Space experts have stated that in the coming years an increasing number of nano satellites will be launched because they are “faster, better, smaller and cheaper।’’
These satellites weigh anything between one and 10 kg and are usually cubical in shape। Monday’s successful launch of eight nano satellites can encourage universities in India to work on similar projects in collaboration with ISRO, officials pointed out. They predicted that future satellite constellations will be “swarms’’ of hundreds of nano satellites.
ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair has been quoted as saying that the demand is picking up for launching nano satellites. He said many space science missions during the 11th Plan period can use nano satellites. According to NASA, nano satellites will revolutionize scientific investigations of key physical processes explored by the space and earth science communities.
The Global इंडीयन,
If corroboration is what you are looking for, the Forbes list of 40 richest Indians offers it.
- L N Mittal of ArcelorMittal remains the richest Indian with a net worth of $51 billion.
- Mukesh Ambani comes a close second with $49 billion,
- while his younger brother Anil is the third richest Indian with $45 billion।
- K P Singh, is the world’s richest real estate developer with a net worth of $35 billion, .
Between the four of them, their combined wealth is $180 billion. It’s the kind of number that makes them richer than the 40 richest Chinese put together. If the Indian stock market had reached the levels it is at today in March 2007 when Forbes compiled its annual list of the world’s richest people, then, says the magazine, these four people would have been among the Top 10.
Premji leads pack of 6 Bangalore billionaires
Mumbai has pipped Delhi as a city with the highest number of billionaires in the country. The latest list of richest Indians, compiled by Forbes magazine, has named 23 billionaires from Mumbai. Delhi accounts for only 12. Pune and Bangalore have six billionaires each.
Among top five richest Indians living in India, two are from Mumbai and two from Delhi. But Mumbaikars enjoy higher ranks than the Delhiites. The billionaires from Mumbai are led by Ambani brothers — Mukesh (2nd) and Anil (3rd). In Delhi, the richest person is Kushal Pal Singh of DLF (4th), followed by Bharti’s Sunil Mittal (6th).
The list of 40 rich Indians has 10 new entrants into the billionaire club. They include the Ahmedabad-based Gautam Adani, who built the Mundra Port; Anand Jain, who heads infrastructure project at Reliance Industries and is Mukesh Ambani’s close friend from his childhood days; Gautam Thapar of Ballarpur Industries, India’s largest manufacturer of paper; real estate tycoons Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani Constructions and Rakesh Wadhwan of HDIL, which listed on the stock markets in July.
To make the list of the 40 richest Indians, a minimum net worth of $1.6 billion was needed — roughly twice the $790 million that was needed last year. That is why Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways has fallen off the list despite his fortune rising 55% over the previous year to $1.5 billion.
Like Goyal, 13 billionaires came within a whisker of making it to the list. They include Jignesh Shah of Financial Technologies with a net worth of $1.37 billion. In roughly five years, he built India’s largest commodities exchange. Then there is Nandan Nilekani, cofounder, Infosys Technologies, with $1.26 billion in his account. Pradeep Jain of Parsvnath Developers follows closely with $1.25 billion.
Now the techies, the whose who of the IT industry
- Executive vicepresident Vyomesh Joshi heads the $26 billion imaging and printer division;
- Senior vice-president Prith Banerjee is Director of HP labs ($3।6 billion budget in 2006);
- Senior vice-president Satjiv Chahal, a former Apple and Palm whiz, tasked with global marketing
Last November, HP acquired Calgary, Canada-based VoodooPC, makers of high-end luxury and gaming computers (think Ferrari equivalent among computers). The founders of this garage start-up -- brothers Ravi and Rahul Sood.
Last week, they were the toast of HP's annual "Your Life is the Show'' event in New York, where their soupedup computers (some as expensive as cars at $ 14,000 apiece) were the cynosure of gaming aficionados, while the tech hoi-polloi feasted on new PCs, laptops, and mobiles.
There was a time when Joshi, called VJ in tech circles, was said to be in line to succeed Carly Fiorina as CEO, but that moment passed.
It will eventually come, if not in HP then someplace else. The tech world knows no boundaries or ceilings now, and much as election-season American politicians and perpetually paranoid Indian comrades will sow seeds of suspicion and doubt, the geeks shall inherit the Earth
Prahalad top management guru
India gave the world the word ‘guru’. And now, an Indian has been declared the world’s foremost management guru. C K Prahalad, professor at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M Ross School of Business, has been crowned the greatest management thinker alive by Thinkers 50, an annual ranking of Top 50 management thought leaders in the world.
In this year’s Thinkers 50 — to be released in London — Prahalad (No. 3 last year) has trumped the likes of former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, strategy guru Michael Porter and Microsoft founder Bill Gates to emerge as No. 1.
Apart from Prahalad, there are three other Indians in the Top 50: CEO coach Ram Charan at No. 22 (up from No. 24 last year), innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan of the Tuck Business School at No. 23 (No. 31 last year); and Harvard’s Rakesh Khurana at No. 45 (No. 33 last year).
“Not many management thinkers actually follow up important early ideas with genuinely groundbreaking future ideas. This is what C K Prahalad has managed to do. His work with Gary Hamel set the strategic agenda of the 1990s. Now, with The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, he has established the social, entrepreneurial and economic agenda of our times,’’ said Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove of Suntop Media, the organisation which brings out the Thinkers 50 ranking.
CK, as he is known in academic circles, is known to set the tone in whichever area he ventures into. In 1990, he coined the term “core competence’’ with Gary Hamel, an idea that emphasises that companies should stick to their core strengths. In 2004, with his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, he nudged multinational companies to look at the vast untapped opportunity that lies in serving the world’s 5 billion poor. And from there, CK set his sights on the idea of “co-creation’’ or how companies can involve customers in the innovation process in a book he co-wrote with his colleague Venkat Ramaswamy.
Stuart Hart, professor at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management and co-originater of the idea of the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, says: “He is a rare breed of academic; a contrarian who has shown an uncanny ability to turn things upside down।”
‘He challenges his own ideas’
Business strategist C K Prahalad — who has just been named the top management guru by Thinkers 50, an annual ranking of the Top 50 management thought leaders in the world — is on the leading edge of management thinking for well over two decades. “It’s a very difficult feat indeed,’’ says Stuart Hart, professor at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management.
It’s a feat, indeed. Jagdish Sheth, professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, says: “Just like Peter Drucker and Philip Kotler, Prahalad has the uncanny ability to sense emerging reality and conceptualise it into a major movement. Examples are core competency, co-creation of value with customers and most recently his focus on the bottom of the pyramid population.’’
One of CK’s biggest strengths is the practicality of his ideas.
“A lot of academics have a huge impact in the academic world and no practical impact. But CK has influenced management practice immensely,’’ says Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at London Business School. Adds Bala Balachandran, professor at Kellogg School of Management, “CK beautifully blends the two extremes of business relevance and academic elegance. (Some academics) have no clue of the changing corporate world and are more interested in mathematical rigour rather than business reality. There are other high-powered consultants who are more interested in strategy formulation and not strategy implementation or execution.’’
Unlike most thinkers who remain single-idea wonders, CK has the ability to move effortlessly from one theme to another, including his latest baby — the idea of global resource leverage.
Says Venkat Ramaswamy, professor at the Ross School of Business and also co-author of The Future of Competition, “He is constantly amplifying weak signals and challenging his own ideas. Once something takes root, he just moves on.’’
This is probably not the last we have heard from him. As Crainer and Dearlove put it, “There is a real feeling with CK that his best work is still to come. People regard him highly because he appears dedicated to making a difference rather than marketing himself relentlessly.’’
In this year’s Thinkers 50 — to be released in London — Prahalad (No. 3 last year) has trumped the likes of former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, strategy guru Michael Porter and Microsoft founder Bill Gates to emerge as No. 1.
Apart from Prahalad, there are three other Indians in the Top 50: CEO coach Ram Charan at No. 22 (up from No. 24 last year), innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan of the Tuck Business School at No. 23 (No. 31 last year); and Harvard’s Rakesh Khurana at No. 45 (No. 33 last year).
“Not many management thinkers actually follow up important early ideas with genuinely groundbreaking future ideas. This is what C K Prahalad has managed to do. His work with Gary Hamel set the strategic agenda of the 1990s. Now, with The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, he has established the social, entrepreneurial and economic agenda of our times,’’ said Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove of Suntop Media, the organisation which brings out the Thinkers 50 ranking.
CK, as he is known in academic circles, is known to set the tone in whichever area he ventures into. In 1990, he coined the term “core competence’’ with Gary Hamel, an idea that emphasises that companies should stick to their core strengths. In 2004, with his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, he nudged multinational companies to look at the vast untapped opportunity that lies in serving the world’s 5 billion poor. And from there, CK set his sights on the idea of “co-creation’’ or how companies can involve customers in the innovation process in a book he co-wrote with his colleague Venkat Ramaswamy.
Stuart Hart, professor at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management and co-originater of the idea of the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, says: “He is a rare breed of academic; a contrarian who has shown an uncanny ability to turn things upside down।”
‘He challenges his own ideas’
Business strategist C K Prahalad — who has just been named the top management guru by Thinkers 50, an annual ranking of the Top 50 management thought leaders in the world — is on the leading edge of management thinking for well over two decades. “It’s a very difficult feat indeed,’’ says Stuart Hart, professor at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management.
It’s a feat, indeed. Jagdish Sheth, professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, says: “Just like Peter Drucker and Philip Kotler, Prahalad has the uncanny ability to sense emerging reality and conceptualise it into a major movement. Examples are core competency, co-creation of value with customers and most recently his focus on the bottom of the pyramid population.’’
One of CK’s biggest strengths is the practicality of his ideas.
“A lot of academics have a huge impact in the academic world and no practical impact. But CK has influenced management practice immensely,’’ says Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at London Business School. Adds Bala Balachandran, professor at Kellogg School of Management, “CK beautifully blends the two extremes of business relevance and academic elegance. (Some academics) have no clue of the changing corporate world and are more interested in mathematical rigour rather than business reality. There are other high-powered consultants who are more interested in strategy formulation and not strategy implementation or execution.’’
Unlike most thinkers who remain single-idea wonders, CK has the ability to move effortlessly from one theme to another, including his latest baby — the idea of global resource leverage.
Says Venkat Ramaswamy, professor at the Ross School of Business and also co-author of The Future of Competition, “He is constantly amplifying weak signals and challenging his own ideas. Once something takes root, he just moves on.’’
This is probably not the last we have heard from him. As Crainer and Dearlove put it, “There is a real feeling with CK that his best work is still to come. People regard him highly because he appears dedicated to making a difference rather than marketing himself relentlessly.’’
M A N O F M E A N S - Anil Agarwal says ‘I will do anything for business’
Anil Agarwal started out as a scrap dealer and went on to build a fortune by turning around poorly run state-owned companies into mean profit-making machines. He shares a few tricks of the trade
There is something about Anil Agarwal that makes you want to take him lightly. It is difficult to put a finger on what it is. Perhaps, it is because the chairman of the London Vedanta Resources is an unassuming man. “I can’t hold a conversation for too long,” he confesses as we leave his office. “So I hire professional conversationalists at £500 a night to be around at my parties,” he says and laughs impishly.
Or maybe, it is the fact that he isn’t like the conventionally suave and articulate CEO that you encounter regularly. But don’t, even for a moment, imagine he isn’t articulate. He is. It’s just the way he talks about himself. A bumbling boy from Patna who came to Mumbai and fell in love with the city’s arc lights; and altogether incidentally happened to be the world’s 245th richest man.
He now spends most of his time in London and operates out of an office in Mayfair, a posh locality in central London. He drives around in a Bentley and has a battery of attendants and butlers to help him around. “I don’t know anything about brands. But I understand comfort,” he says.
Outside work, his interests appear completely banal. He does the usual things regular people do—hang around with friends, cracks a few mean jokes, and watches every Bollywood flick that hits the screen. He keeps insisting he’s had an easy time.
But the truth is this: He built his fortune by turning around poorly run stateowned companies into ruthless, profit making machines. His business has grown from Rs 3 crore in 1986 to Rs 26,000 crore. His flagship company, Sterlite Industries is the second most profitable private sector company in India and is also the second highest tax payer. Vedanta, the holding company for his group’s businesses, was the first Indian company to list in the London stock exchange. In Konkola mines in Zambia, Agarwal has one of the world’s largest deposits of copper. From starting out as a scrap trader in metal, Agarwal, clearly has come a long way. He has now trained his guns at becoming one of the largest mining companies in the world.
Or maybe, it is the fact that he isn’t like the conventionally suave and articulate CEO that you encounter regularly. But don’t, even for a moment, imagine he isn’t articulate. He is. It’s just the way he talks about himself. A bumbling boy from Patna who came to Mumbai and fell in love with the city’s arc lights; and altogether incidentally happened to be the world’s 245th richest man.
He now spends most of his time in London and operates out of an office in Mayfair, a posh locality in central London. He drives around in a Bentley and has a battery of attendants and butlers to help him around. “I don’t know anything about brands. But I understand comfort,” he says.
Outside work, his interests appear completely banal. He does the usual things regular people do—hang around with friends, cracks a few mean jokes, and watches every Bollywood flick that hits the screen. He keeps insisting he’s had an easy time.
But the truth is this: He built his fortune by turning around poorly run stateowned companies into ruthless, profit making machines. His business has grown from Rs 3 crore in 1986 to Rs 26,000 crore. His flagship company, Sterlite Industries is the second most profitable private sector company in India and is also the second highest tax payer. Vedanta, the holding company for his group’s businesses, was the first Indian company to list in the London stock exchange. In Konkola mines in Zambia, Agarwal has one of the world’s largest deposits of copper. From starting out as a scrap trader in metal, Agarwal, clearly has come a long way. He has now trained his guns at becoming one of the largest mining companies in the world.
The real McCoy:
Agarwal’s rise to the top was full of strife and riddled with controversies; more than perhaps any other businessmen in recent times. On practically every deal he got into, Agarwal has found himself at loggerheads with the local administration and the government. Not just that, he has a history of rubbing people the wrong way even as he smartly maneuvered his way to achieve his goals. And his contemporaries refuse to acknowledge either his success or his style of doing business. Put all of this to Agarwal and he says: “In the software business, you don’t touch the Earth, you don’t touch the bureaucracy, the machinery or the system. I do. It is in the nature of my business. So I’m an easy target to be pilloried.”
Push him a little further and ask him whether his reputation as a master at finding shortcuts in business bothers him. He fixes you with a steely gaze before answering. “I am a single man army. I am first-generation entrepreneur. Tatas are the best people. They will do it right. I do it with passion, tremendous passion.” He adds: “When I finish my new expansions, I really want someone to stand up one day and say, amazing.”
In the last two years, Agarwal has stepped on the gas. In the next three, he is investing $7.5 billion to increase his metal making capacities. In June this year, Sterlite listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and raised $2 billion for expansion programmes.
As early as 2003, much of Agarwal’s attention was focused on opportunities of doing business with the government. His fetish with the government goes a long way. His father was a scrap dealer and a contractor who had to deal a lot with government officers. “I learned a lot—the psychology of officers and politicians—because that was the business,” says Agarwal. After buying metal scrap from telecom companies, Agarwal found that there was a great opportunity in making cables for these companies. In those days, there was only one supplier—the stateowned Hindustan cables. A captive market led Agarwal to set up his first jelly-filled cable making plant. As days went by, thanks to Agarwal’s knowledge of the system, Sterlite remained the largest cable supplier.
Government orders went to the company that quoted the lowest prices and this in a way also moulded Agarwal’s manufacturing strategy. He always looked for cheaper ways to make his stuff. So, Agarwal’s facilities for making jelly-filled cables was on the back of a secondhand plant that he bought at a bargain from the US. Though Sterlite made cables more efficiently, competitors accused Agarwal of manipulating the system. It was a reputation that stuck with him for a long time. Having got a foot hold as a supplier, Agarwal focused next on making more and more of the raw materials that went into making cables. With his scrap business background, he was soon making copper rods and in the late ’80s, mooted the first big idea of making copper.
After setting up the smelter, Agarwal hit a setback. He was forced to shift his plant from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu after complaints from environment groups. Later, in Tamil Nadu, the smelter was shut for a few days after a few workmen died in a blast. “People get scared of the government, bureaucracy, union and various problems. That’s where entrepreneurship comes in and you say, let’s go ahead,” says Agarwal. “There wasn’t much choice in those days.”
Soon, aluminium got Agarwal’s fancy. First, he picked up an ailing Madras Aluminium, backed by big concessions from Tamil Nadu state government. He turned around the company but was yearning for more action. Unlike in copper, which was a state monopoly, there was the Kolkata-based Indian Aluminium (Indal) that was making the metal. Agarwal zeroed in on the company, finding its operations inefficient.
Out of the bureaucratic setup, Agarwal made an awkward move. He met Indal’s Canadian owners Alcan for tea, only to come back to India and pick up a stake in the former. Agarwal called the move friendly but soon launched a hostile bid to take over Indal. He lost the bid and later, was not even considered a buyer when Alcan sold the business to Hindalco, Agarwal’s competitor. Later, he bid 100% more than the next bidder to bag Bharat Aluminium, after the government divested its stake. “Indal was very close to my heart. I tried my best, but eventually we knew we didn’t have the money.”
It was by the turn of the century, that the big picture slowly started falling into place. Agarwal now said that he wanted to be among the biggest players in non-ferrous metals in the world. After buying out the government’s stake in Hindustan Zinc, he knew there was no more state owned metal companies available to be bought.
Opening up: Agarwal knew he had to scale up his ambition if he had to grow bigger. For that he needed big money of the kind the Indian markets were not willing to give him. As London was the biggest metal trading centre, for a year, Agarwal applied himself to studying the listing process in LSE. The UK media scoffed at the idea.
To get around the disdain, Agarwal did something smart. He got Brian Gilbertson, former chief of BHP, the world’s largest mining company, to come and certify his factories in India. Later, he hired Gilbertson as the chairman of Vedanta, an idea that worked to get his issue subscribed. To impress Gilbertson, a passionate cyclist, Agarwal rode with him from Oxford to London. He retired half way but got what he wanted. “I’ll do anything for my business,” he says. “If somebody asks me to ride a horse, I’ll do that. If they want me to swim or go to a night club, I’ll do it.”
The first of the expansion to go on stream was the aluminium project in Kalahandi, Orissa. Despite initial opposition from the green lobby, Agarwal has sunk in more than a billion dollars. But, there is small change in the way Agarwal is doing it this time. Kalahandi, being a backward district, Agarwal is spending a lot of money building amenities for people around that area. He has built over a 1,000 toilets in Chattisgarh. “We realise that in the mining business the local people are the key to a project’s success.”
The next round of growth, Agarwal feels may well come from a large acquisition overseas. Vedanta is also on the look out for mining companies that the Indian government is likely to put on the block.
Push him a little further and ask him whether his reputation as a master at finding shortcuts in business bothers him. He fixes you with a steely gaze before answering. “I am a single man army. I am first-generation entrepreneur. Tatas are the best people. They will do it right. I do it with passion, tremendous passion.” He adds: “When I finish my new expansions, I really want someone to stand up one day and say, amazing.”
In the last two years, Agarwal has stepped on the gas. In the next three, he is investing $7.5 billion to increase his metal making capacities. In June this year, Sterlite listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and raised $2 billion for expansion programmes.
As early as 2003, much of Agarwal’s attention was focused on opportunities of doing business with the government. His fetish with the government goes a long way. His father was a scrap dealer and a contractor who had to deal a lot with government officers. “I learned a lot—the psychology of officers and politicians—because that was the business,” says Agarwal. After buying metal scrap from telecom companies, Agarwal found that there was a great opportunity in making cables for these companies. In those days, there was only one supplier—the stateowned Hindustan cables. A captive market led Agarwal to set up his first jelly-filled cable making plant. As days went by, thanks to Agarwal’s knowledge of the system, Sterlite remained the largest cable supplier.
Government orders went to the company that quoted the lowest prices and this in a way also moulded Agarwal’s manufacturing strategy. He always looked for cheaper ways to make his stuff. So, Agarwal’s facilities for making jelly-filled cables was on the back of a secondhand plant that he bought at a bargain from the US. Though Sterlite made cables more efficiently, competitors accused Agarwal of manipulating the system. It was a reputation that stuck with him for a long time. Having got a foot hold as a supplier, Agarwal focused next on making more and more of the raw materials that went into making cables. With his scrap business background, he was soon making copper rods and in the late ’80s, mooted the first big idea of making copper.
After setting up the smelter, Agarwal hit a setback. He was forced to shift his plant from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu after complaints from environment groups. Later, in Tamil Nadu, the smelter was shut for a few days after a few workmen died in a blast. “People get scared of the government, bureaucracy, union and various problems. That’s where entrepreneurship comes in and you say, let’s go ahead,” says Agarwal. “There wasn’t much choice in those days.”
Soon, aluminium got Agarwal’s fancy. First, he picked up an ailing Madras Aluminium, backed by big concessions from Tamil Nadu state government. He turned around the company but was yearning for more action. Unlike in copper, which was a state monopoly, there was the Kolkata-based Indian Aluminium (Indal) that was making the metal. Agarwal zeroed in on the company, finding its operations inefficient.
Out of the bureaucratic setup, Agarwal made an awkward move. He met Indal’s Canadian owners Alcan for tea, only to come back to India and pick up a stake in the former. Agarwal called the move friendly but soon launched a hostile bid to take over Indal. He lost the bid and later, was not even considered a buyer when Alcan sold the business to Hindalco, Agarwal’s competitor. Later, he bid 100% more than the next bidder to bag Bharat Aluminium, after the government divested its stake. “Indal was very close to my heart. I tried my best, but eventually we knew we didn’t have the money.”
It was by the turn of the century, that the big picture slowly started falling into place. Agarwal now said that he wanted to be among the biggest players in non-ferrous metals in the world. After buying out the government’s stake in Hindustan Zinc, he knew there was no more state owned metal companies available to be bought.
Opening up: Agarwal knew he had to scale up his ambition if he had to grow bigger. For that he needed big money of the kind the Indian markets were not willing to give him. As London was the biggest metal trading centre, for a year, Agarwal applied himself to studying the listing process in LSE. The UK media scoffed at the idea.
To get around the disdain, Agarwal did something smart. He got Brian Gilbertson, former chief of BHP, the world’s largest mining company, to come and certify his factories in India. Later, he hired Gilbertson as the chairman of Vedanta, an idea that worked to get his issue subscribed. To impress Gilbertson, a passionate cyclist, Agarwal rode with him from Oxford to London. He retired half way but got what he wanted. “I’ll do anything for my business,” he says. “If somebody asks me to ride a horse, I’ll do that. If they want me to swim or go to a night club, I’ll do it.”
The first of the expansion to go on stream was the aluminium project in Kalahandi, Orissa. Despite initial opposition from the green lobby, Agarwal has sunk in more than a billion dollars. But, there is small change in the way Agarwal is doing it this time. Kalahandi, being a backward district, Agarwal is spending a lot of money building amenities for people around that area. He has built over a 1,000 toilets in Chattisgarh. “We realise that in the mining business the local people are the key to a project’s success.”
The next round of growth, Agarwal feels may well come from a large acquisition overseas. Vedanta is also on the look out for mining companies that the Indian government is likely to put on the block.
1st foreign company to take control of a Chinese steel maker.
Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker, raised its stake in China Oriental Group Co Ltd to more than 73 percent, becoming the first foreign company to take control of a Chinese steel maker.
Arcelor raised its interest in China Oriental from 28.03 percent, according to the stock exchange filing, but no financial terms were released.
Arcelor paid HK$6.12 per share for the 28.03 percent stake earlier this month. Based on that price, the 73 percent holding would be worth US$1.7 billion.
Arcelor bought the initial stake from China Oriental's former executive director for $647 million this month following Chen's unsuccessful bid to buy out the company in August.
NRI creates breed of super mice that can resist cancer
A former resident of Mumbai, now settled in the UK, has created the world’s first breed of super mice that are resistant to cancer, even the highly aggressive types.
Dr Vivek Rangnekar, professor of radiation medicine at the University of Kentucky, who spent over 25 years of his life in Matunga, a central Mumbai suburb, created the breed with a more active tumour-suppressor Par-4 gene.
Carrying this gene made them completely invulnerable to cancer. Not only did they not develop tumours, they even lived longer than the control animals, indicating that they have no toxic side-effects.
Reporting this breakthrough in the journal ‘Cancer Research’, Dr Rangnekar, who studied in Don Bosco School and Indian Education Society School in Dadar, said the gene offered a potential way, unlike most other cancer treatments, of destroying cancer cells without harming normal cells.
Rangnekar told “We found that these mice with the super protein kill cancer cells which were produced inside their body, both artificially and spontaneously. What’s most exciting is that through our cell culture studies, we know that this killer gene only destroys cancer cells. It does not harm normal cells at all and there are very few such molecules in both animals and humans.”
Rangnekar, who completed his bachelor’s from MV College Andheri, his masters from Harkishan Das Hospital and PhD from Bombay University before completing his postdoctoral studies from the University of Chicago, now plans to breed these super mice with other types of animals that are prone to cancers of the lung, breast and colon to see if the pups become resistant to these cancers.
In Kentucky since 1992 and working on creating these super mice for the past 5 years, Rangnekar says that this breakthrough gives hope that one day scientists could use this gene to make humans cancer resistant.
“We originally discovered Par-4 in the prostate, but it’s not limited to the prostate. The gene is expressed in every cell type. We are trying to expand on our research and are looking at the possibility of using bone marrow transplants to generate the activity of this killer protein Par-4 in humans without the toxic and damaging side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.”
Dr Vivek Rangnekar, professor of radiation medicine at the University of Kentucky, who spent over 25 years of his life in Matunga, a central Mumbai suburb, created the breed with a more active tumour-suppressor Par-4 gene.
Carrying this gene made them completely invulnerable to cancer. Not only did they not develop tumours, they even lived longer than the control animals, indicating that they have no toxic side-effects.
Reporting this breakthrough in the journal ‘Cancer Research’, Dr Rangnekar, who studied in Don Bosco School and Indian Education Society School in Dadar, said the gene offered a potential way, unlike most other cancer treatments, of destroying cancer cells without harming normal cells.
Rangnekar told “We found that these mice with the super protein kill cancer cells which were produced inside their body, both artificially and spontaneously. What’s most exciting is that through our cell culture studies, we know that this killer gene only destroys cancer cells. It does not harm normal cells at all and there are very few such molecules in both animals and humans.”
Rangnekar, who completed his bachelor’s from MV College Andheri, his masters from Harkishan Das Hospital and PhD from Bombay University before completing his postdoctoral studies from the University of Chicago, now plans to breed these super mice with other types of animals that are prone to cancers of the lung, breast and colon to see if the pups become resistant to these cancers.
In Kentucky since 1992 and working on creating these super mice for the past 5 years, Rangnekar says that this breakthrough gives hope that one day scientists could use this gene to make humans cancer resistant.
“We originally discovered Par-4 in the prostate, but it’s not limited to the prostate. The gene is expressed in every cell type. We are trying to expand on our research and are looking at the possibility of using bone marrow transplants to generate the activity of this killer protein Par-4 in humans without the toxic and damaging side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.”
NRI recruits dalits for US jobs
Michael Thevar, during his childhood days in rural Karnataka, Michael Thevar often trudged barefoot deep into the forest to collect firewood. He would sell the timber to pay school fees and support his family. Now a successful NRI, employs young dalits and tribals to work as professional social workers, counsellors and therapists for his flourishing USbased healthcare agency.Thevar came to the US in 1992 as an international exchange scholar with $18 in his pocket. He began as an alcohol and drug counsellor and went on to become a director of admissions at a Pennsylvania hospital. In 2000, he started Temp Solutions Inc that has become a rapidly-growing healthcare staffing agency in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. His wife Sushama, a dalit, is also a healthcare professional.
He recruits candidates by advertising in communitybased newspapers, by spreading the word through Yahoo social networking groups and through SC/ST college forums and campus interviews. “I try to identify the poorest of the poor from SC/ST communities who live in slums and in remote areas. I have rejected a lot of candidates whose parents are IAS officers or who came from the higher class of backward communities,’’ says Thevar, whose landless labourer-parents had migrated from Tamil Nadu.
Vivek Katara (22), from MP’s tribal Jhabua district, came to know of Thevar’s initiative through an online social network group for the marginalized. He faced discrimination during his college days in Chennai. “One was made to realize indirectly that being a tribal, one is less than equal, hence undeserving. We are identified as dalits or tribals. We are never looked at as good students,’’ says Katara, who was selected this summer for the job. Dalit intellectual Chandrabhan Prasad feels Thevar has come up with a very sensible and smart strategy: employ and then train ordinary dalits who have basic qualifications in masters of social work, irrespective of their academic grades and put them on the job in US hospitals.
Dinesh Dalvi, recruited by Thevar for Temp Solutions, has been working with multilingual and multicultural target groups, especially Hispanic, African-American, Caucasian and Asian.
At a time when most Indian corporates are resisting the idea of providing reservations to underprivileged castes and communities, proactive entrepreneurs like Thevar are showing the way. “Getting to work abroad is like a dream come true for me,’’ says Daisy, “due to people like Michael Thevar, doors are opening for us.
NRI is chief executive of Houston University
Renu Khator
At a time when Indian-Americans are going on board the space shuttle, getting elected to Congress and governorships, and heading financial institutions, a desi being selected as vice-chancellor and president of an American university may not be top drawer stuff.
But American academia has been a sweet spot for Indian immigrants, and so stirring is saga of Renu Khator’s improbable journey, that it has both the community and university circles in raptures.
On Monday, as the Board of Regents of the University of Houston (UH) officially confirmed Renu Khator, 52, as their next chief executive, her Farukkhabad (UP) to Florida (US), Kanpur-to-Houston journey was being milked by the media.
The story goes that when Khator first came to the United States in 1974 as a young bride following an arranged marriage, her English was so dodgy that her new husband, Suresh Khator, an engineering student at Purdue University, translated for her while she was interviewed by the dean for school admission.
She made the cut, earned high grades while learning the language from re-runs of ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, and never looked back. The couple moved to Florida in 1983 when Suresh received a teaching offer from the University of Southern Florida.
Renu Khator took up a temporary position, but in two decades worked her way to become provost at the university, where her success in attracting funds and top notch faculty drew UH’s attention.
On Monday, the ‘Houston Chronicle’ observed that “Khator spoke without using notes, and her easy eloquence seemed to impress all who met the university’s 13th president.” Her husband happily boasted that he was now the junior partner and happy to follow her.
Khator has a tough job ahead of her. The University of Houston system, with a faculty of more than 3000 and an student enrolment of 50,000-plus, is one of the nation’s biggest. But it has lived for long in the shadow of two other Texas flagships — the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. Khator is being tasked with making UH the state’s third flagship.
In her new job, she is expected to woo major donors and land top faculty, both of which should come readily to an Indian-American at a time when the community is hitting the high spots.
It was during Khator’s time as provost at USF that the university got a record $18.5 million donation from Dr Kiran Patel and his wife Pallavi.
Texas, by all accounts, has as many, if not more Indian-American moneybags as Florida. And they have reached a stage where giving to education has become routine.
But American academia has been a sweet spot for Indian immigrants, and so stirring is saga of Renu Khator’s improbable journey, that it has both the community and university circles in raptures.
On Monday, as the Board of Regents of the University of Houston (UH) officially confirmed Renu Khator, 52, as their next chief executive, her Farukkhabad (UP) to Florida (US), Kanpur-to-Houston journey was being milked by the media.
The story goes that when Khator first came to the United States in 1974 as a young bride following an arranged marriage, her English was so dodgy that her new husband, Suresh Khator, an engineering student at Purdue University, translated for her while she was interviewed by the dean for school admission.
She made the cut, earned high grades while learning the language from re-runs of ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, and never looked back. The couple moved to Florida in 1983 when Suresh received a teaching offer from the University of Southern Florida.
Renu Khator took up a temporary position, but in two decades worked her way to become provost at the university, where her success in attracting funds and top notch faculty drew UH’s attention.
On Monday, the ‘Houston Chronicle’ observed that “Khator spoke without using notes, and her easy eloquence seemed to impress all who met the university’s 13th president.” Her husband happily boasted that he was now the junior partner and happy to follow her.
Khator has a tough job ahead of her. The University of Houston system, with a faculty of more than 3000 and an student enrolment of 50,000-plus, is one of the nation’s biggest. But it has lived for long in the shadow of two other Texas flagships — the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. Khator is being tasked with making UH the state’s third flagship.
In her new job, she is expected to woo major donors and land top faculty, both of which should come readily to an Indian-American at a time when the community is hitting the high spots.
It was during Khator’s time as provost at USF that the university got a record $18.5 million donation from Dr Kiran Patel and his wife Pallavi.
Texas, by all accounts, has as many, if not more Indian-American moneybags as Florida. And they have reached a stage where giving to education has become routine.
Padmasree Warrior - Motorola mom to Cisco diva
A frisson of excitement ran through geekdom on Tuesday when it was announced that Padmasree Warrior, the chief technology officer at Motorola, was moving to Cisco Systems with the same designation.
Warrior, who is a graduate of IIT Delhi, is one of the few women to hold the CTO job in a top tech company in a domain generally regarded as a male preserve. Her move electrified the tech industry, coming as it did amid turmoil in the worlds third largest cell-phone maker, whose CEO Ed Zander also announced last week that he was leaving.
Warrior, 47, is also among the top ranking Indian female executives of a Fortune 500 company, after Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi. Cisco was quick to snap up Warrior and announce her appointment as CTO within hours of the news of her exit from Motorola, although she told AP that her talks with the San Jose-based Internet infrastructure giant had been going on from much before.
The industry scuttlebutt is that Warrior is more interested in working in the area of seamless mobility involving multiple connected devices, whereas Motorola was more intent on fixing its troubled cellphone business where Nokia, Sony-Ericcson and others are stealing the thunder.
In that sense, Cisco Systems, which makes routers, switches and other Internet infrastructure devices, may be a better match for her expanding interests. Warrior said she is excited about finding ways Cisco can benefit from video mobility or moving video among different networks and kinds of devices and the rise of social networking web sites.
Cisco CEO John Chambers echoed her interests. “We are headed into a new era that we define as the second phase of the Internet, driven by collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies where the network becomes the platform for communications and IT. It is an exciting time with new frontiers and opportunities for innovation. Padmasree’s new role as CTO will help to develop and promote Cisco’s future technology leadership,’’ he said in a statement outlining her new responsibilities.
Warrior will report directly to Chambers, who is a frequent visitor to India because of the company’s expanding footprint there। Cisco had been without a full time CTO since 2005. Warrior, who has a BS in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi, joined Motorola in 1984 after she earned a Masters degree at Cornell. At the pinnacle of her career at Motorola, she led a global team of 4600 techies, creating vast intellectual property for the company and influencing standards and roadmaps for the industry. Her accomplishments were recognized by the United States government when President Bush awarded her the National Medal of Technology at a White House ceremony in 2006.
Warrior, who is a graduate of IIT Delhi, is one of the few women to hold the CTO job in a top tech company in a domain generally regarded as a male preserve. Her move electrified the tech industry, coming as it did amid turmoil in the worlds third largest cell-phone maker, whose CEO Ed Zander also announced last week that he was leaving.
Warrior, 47, is also among the top ranking Indian female executives of a Fortune 500 company, after Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi. Cisco was quick to snap up Warrior and announce her appointment as CTO within hours of the news of her exit from Motorola, although she told AP that her talks with the San Jose-based Internet infrastructure giant had been going on from much before.
The industry scuttlebutt is that Warrior is more interested in working in the area of seamless mobility involving multiple connected devices, whereas Motorola was more intent on fixing its troubled cellphone business where Nokia, Sony-Ericcson and others are stealing the thunder.
In that sense, Cisco Systems, which makes routers, switches and other Internet infrastructure devices, may be a better match for her expanding interests. Warrior said she is excited about finding ways Cisco can benefit from video mobility or moving video among different networks and kinds of devices and the rise of social networking web sites.
Cisco CEO John Chambers echoed her interests. “We are headed into a new era that we define as the second phase of the Internet, driven by collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies where the network becomes the platform for communications and IT. It is an exciting time with new frontiers and opportunities for innovation. Padmasree’s new role as CTO will help to develop and promote Cisco’s future technology leadership,’’ he said in a statement outlining her new responsibilities.
Warrior will report directly to Chambers, who is a frequent visitor to India because of the company’s expanding footprint there। Cisco had been without a full time CTO since 2005. Warrior, who has a BS in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi, joined Motorola in 1984 after she earned a Masters degree at Cornell. At the pinnacle of her career at Motorola, she led a global team of 4600 techies, creating vast intellectual property for the company and influencing standards and roadmaps for the industry. Her accomplishments were recognized by the United States government when President Bush awarded her the National Medal of Technology at a White House ceremony in 2006.
Dial M for Murder naah Malini Dr.Malini
Meet the fascinating Dr Malini, who is Lady Nemesis for many criminals, who are brought to the Forensic Lab in Bangalore.
She is soft-spoken, has immense grace and wide eyes. No, she is not a dancer. She is Dr Malini, who is Lady Nemesis for many criminals, who are brought to the Forensic Lab in Bangalore.
The lady is in her early forties and can be easily mistaken for a classical dancer, with her grace and wide-set eyes. Ask any terrorist or criminal who has come under her ‘spell’ — he will have a different story to tell.
Under her scientifically analytical spell of 'Narco analysis' at the Forensic Sciences Lab at Madivala in Bangalore, several truths have tumbled out of hardcore terrorists. Dr Malini, who has been the assistant director of the lab since 1999, says as a teenager, she was influenced by the theories propounded by Sigmund Freud. “I was curious to know how our brain could carry out nearly 75 per cent of the tasks, most of the time unconsciously or in a partially conscious state!"
Malini did her M.Sc. in ‘Industrial and Clinical Psychology’ from Bangalore University and went on to obtain her Ph.D. with a four-year study on the subject ‘Alcoholism and wife battering’.
After Malini's marriage to Dr B K Muralidharan, Professor at UVCE, Malini did her 'residency' in Canada in the department of experimental hypnosis and learnt to conduct 'hypnosis' for both clinically analytical purposes and to study the psyche of criminals. In 1993, after her return to India, Dr Malini worked under Dr Mukundan at 'NIMHANS', Bangalore and was assigned the task of carrying out neurophysiological and electrophysiological studies on alcoholics.
In 1999, Dr Malini became the Assistant Director of the forensic lab. In the past eight years, she has attended on nearly 3,000 cases, from all over the country! For the last couple of years especially, the police officials in Mumbai, Calcutta etc have procured court orders to subject the accused to forensic science tests and thus Dr Malini's days have become hectic.
Malini recalls a few challenging cases which have assumed political significance such as that of Abdul Karim Telgi's multi crore financial fraud case. “ I spent nearly six to seven hours interviewing Telgi, even before the lie detection test so that I could analyse part of his psyche and the circumstances that led to the biggest ever stamp paper scam. Quite surprisingly most of the accused are very gentlemanly and answer all the queries! In fact it is so sad that most of the criminals have two sides to their personalities!"
Recalling another crime mystery solved by 'Narco analysis procedure', Dr Malini explains the brutal murder of an Indian born, Canadian gynaecologist Dr Asha in Mumbai. "In 2003, Dr Asha was asked to stay back in Mumbai for one more day by her brother. The lady, who had flown in to see her brother ailing from a kidney ailment, got murdered on the day of her extended stay! Mumbai police remained clueless and found it difficult to make any progress in the investigations since the lady doctor's brother and sister-in-law died of their ailments within six months of the lady's murder.
Revelation
The crime branch of Mumbai Police brought three persons working in the lady doctor's brother's house as suspects. Two of them confessed to the crime, when they were subjected to the forensic science tests. What was horrifying was the revelation that the ailing brother, along with his other sibling, had ordered for the lady's murder, so that those two brothers could get the lady doctor's property in Mumbai!
Malini feels that Narco analysis is a very scientific procedure and a far more humane approach in dealing with an accused's psychological expressions than the 'third degree treatment' meted out to extract truth. When an accused or the suspect goes into a 'trans state' of his mind after starting the slow intravenous infusion of pentothal sodium, Dr Malini starts questioning the person.
In the last one year, Malini's days have been hectic with the ATS (Anti Terrorism Squad) of Mumbai requesting for Narco-analysis test on Mumbai train blast and Malaegaon blast suspects and also on suspected terrorists arrested from Mysore and Bangalore. In the Mumbai train blasts, of the 22 persons who were subjected to the tests, 21 persons were found guilty.
Depending on the information revealed by them, huge amount of RDX was recovered in several places and the police were able to trace a location from where the terrorists were getting logistical support.
Dr Malini will soon head ‘The Centre for Brain Sciences’, which will shortly become operational within the premises of the lab। A true woman of substance and you don’t need a truth serum for anybody to agree to that!
The lady is in her early forties and can be easily mistaken for a classical dancer, with her grace and wide-set eyes. Ask any terrorist or criminal who has come under her ‘spell’ — he will have a different story to tell.
Under her scientifically analytical spell of 'Narco analysis' at the Forensic Sciences Lab at Madivala in Bangalore, several truths have tumbled out of hardcore terrorists. Dr Malini, who has been the assistant director of the lab since 1999, says as a teenager, she was influenced by the theories propounded by Sigmund Freud. “I was curious to know how our brain could carry out nearly 75 per cent of the tasks, most of the time unconsciously or in a partially conscious state!"
Malini did her M.Sc. in ‘Industrial and Clinical Psychology’ from Bangalore University and went on to obtain her Ph.D. with a four-year study on the subject ‘Alcoholism and wife battering’.
After Malini's marriage to Dr B K Muralidharan, Professor at UVCE, Malini did her 'residency' in Canada in the department of experimental hypnosis and learnt to conduct 'hypnosis' for both clinically analytical purposes and to study the psyche of criminals. In 1993, after her return to India, Dr Malini worked under Dr Mukundan at 'NIMHANS', Bangalore and was assigned the task of carrying out neurophysiological and electrophysiological studies on alcoholics.
In 1999, Dr Malini became the Assistant Director of the forensic lab. In the past eight years, she has attended on nearly 3,000 cases, from all over the country! For the last couple of years especially, the police officials in Mumbai, Calcutta etc have procured court orders to subject the accused to forensic science tests and thus Dr Malini's days have become hectic.
Malini recalls a few challenging cases which have assumed political significance such as that of Abdul Karim Telgi's multi crore financial fraud case. “ I spent nearly six to seven hours interviewing Telgi, even before the lie detection test so that I could analyse part of his psyche and the circumstances that led to the biggest ever stamp paper scam. Quite surprisingly most of the accused are very gentlemanly and answer all the queries! In fact it is so sad that most of the criminals have two sides to their personalities!"
Recalling another crime mystery solved by 'Narco analysis procedure', Dr Malini explains the brutal murder of an Indian born, Canadian gynaecologist Dr Asha in Mumbai. "In 2003, Dr Asha was asked to stay back in Mumbai for one more day by her brother. The lady, who had flown in to see her brother ailing from a kidney ailment, got murdered on the day of her extended stay! Mumbai police remained clueless and found it difficult to make any progress in the investigations since the lady doctor's brother and sister-in-law died of their ailments within six months of the lady's murder.
Revelation
The crime branch of Mumbai Police brought three persons working in the lady doctor's brother's house as suspects. Two of them confessed to the crime, when they were subjected to the forensic science tests. What was horrifying was the revelation that the ailing brother, along with his other sibling, had ordered for the lady's murder, so that those two brothers could get the lady doctor's property in Mumbai!
Malini feels that Narco analysis is a very scientific procedure and a far more humane approach in dealing with an accused's psychological expressions than the 'third degree treatment' meted out to extract truth. When an accused or the suspect goes into a 'trans state' of his mind after starting the slow intravenous infusion of pentothal sodium, Dr Malini starts questioning the person.
In the last one year, Malini's days have been hectic with the ATS (Anti Terrorism Squad) of Mumbai requesting for Narco-analysis test on Mumbai train blast and Malaegaon blast suspects and also on suspected terrorists arrested from Mysore and Bangalore. In the Mumbai train blasts, of the 22 persons who were subjected to the tests, 21 persons were found guilty.
Depending on the information revealed by them, huge amount of RDX was recovered in several places and the police were able to trace a location from where the terrorists were getting logistical support.
Dr Malini will soon head ‘The Centre for Brain Sciences’, which will shortly become operational within the premises of the lab। A true woman of substance and you don’t need a truth serum for anybody to agree to that!
Dola is world champion
India’s top woman recurve archer is now on top of the world. Dola Banerjee took the 4th World Cup crown in Dubai on Saturday after beating Korean Choi Eun Young by a single point (110-109) in the final. In the semifinal, Dola beat Olympic bronze medallist Natalya Erdyniyeva of Russia with a score of 108-106.
“I’m happy with my performance, especially against the Korean girl. We had alternate shots, and she needed to shoot 9 for victory but shot 8,’’ the ecstatic archer told from Dubai.
Dola trailed in the first round 27-28. Choi shot an 8-10-10 in the second to pile up the pressure on the Indian who shot a 9-9-10. With things tied after 9 arrows, it looked like Dola would have to settle for a bronze when she shot an 8 with her 10th arrow. The Korean, however, shot a 7, which took the fight to the final (12th) arrow.
“I was very surprised. She had to score a 10 with her last arrow to win.
“I expected her to do it but she only scored an eight and I won. I didn’t expect to win,’’ she said. “I did my regular practice for the World Cup. This win means so much to me. It will help my ranking tremendously, I just don’t know how much!’’ shrieked Dola excitedly before she was whisked away to a gala dinner.
Dola had came from behind in the fourth leg in Dover, England, to defeat Zhang in a nerve-racking match (111-110) and win the gold medal.
“I’m happy with my performance, especially against the Korean girl. We had alternate shots, and she needed to shoot 9 for victory but shot 8,’’ the ecstatic archer told from Dubai.
Dola trailed in the first round 27-28. Choi shot an 8-10-10 in the second to pile up the pressure on the Indian who shot a 9-9-10. With things tied after 9 arrows, it looked like Dola would have to settle for a bronze when she shot an 8 with her 10th arrow. The Korean, however, shot a 7, which took the fight to the final (12th) arrow.
“I was very surprised. She had to score a 10 with her last arrow to win.
“I expected her to do it but she only scored an eight and I won. I didn’t expect to win,’’ she said. “I did my regular practice for the World Cup. This win means so much to me. It will help my ranking tremendously, I just don’t know how much!’’ shrieked Dola excitedly before she was whisked away to a gala dinner.
Dola had came from behind in the fourth leg in Dover, England, to defeat Zhang in a nerve-racking match (111-110) and win the gold medal.
ये तेरा घर ये मेरा घर ...... Home sweet home
NRI doctors head home with training, technical experience
Cochler implants specialist Dr Suneel Narayan Dutt (40) and his wife Dr Chandrika Dutt had little reason to move out of UK. After all, the couple had exciting careers, fat pay packets and quality life. But last year, they returned to Bangalore.
“I moved to the UK in 1995 for training in cochlear implants and later started practising in Birmingham. My wife too found an equally exciting opportunity after training as an anaesthetist, intensivist and pain management expert. But we always nurtured a secret desire to come back to India, to our people and culture,’’ say the Dutts, who are working in Apollo Hospital.
The Dutts are not alone. Young NRI doctors joining the league of super-specialists in the IT city is no longer an exception.
Dr Ravindra Mehta has triple specialisation — critical care, pulmonary medicine and sleep medicine — from the American Board. But he is back in India and is heading the Wockhardt’s 90-bed critical centre unit in Bangalore. Prakash Vemugul, who has worked in Australia and Canada for the last eight years, is now heading the paediatric ICU at Wockhardt Hospital.
The brain-drain scare might continue to threaten the Indian talent pool, but Bangalore is witnessing a refreshing change, the homecoming of NRI doctors. Like the icing on the cake, the doctors are filling up crucial lacunae as they are flying in with training and experience in super-specialties - from emergency medicine, paediatric cardiology, critical care to pain management.
What is the lure? The desire to be close to one’s country and people, the growing medical infrastructure and surprisingly, the gaps in the Indian healthcare system, say the doctors.
“There is nothing to match the satisfaction you get in serving your own people. After working for 15 years in the UK and Ireland, I don’t regret my decision to return to India. I am happy to see my daughters grow up in a culture that is closer to my heart,’’ says Dr Shabeer Ahmed, a specialist in keyhole surgery at Wockhardt Hospital.
CEO of Wockhardt Hospitals, Vishal Bali has a mission on his mind. He wants to reverse the medical brain drain and over the last three years, the hospital has recruited 28 super specialist physicians from the USA, UK, Australia and Canada.The homecoming is not without compromises.
As Dr Prabhakar Reddy, head of emergency medicine at Wockhardt Hospital puts it, emergency medicine in India is still primitive. Ambulances get stuck in traffic, negating all that modern technology can do to save a life. And there is a need to evolve better practices and systems.Reddy, who has returned to India after his 16-year-long stint in the US, also finds the salaries to be a drawback as it does not match what the US offers.
For Dr Dutt, it is the three big ‘Ps’ - pollution, population and poverty, that is a put-off here। “The crowded city hits you hard as it is congested। But I am happy to find good schools for my kids.’’ (times network)
“I moved to the UK in 1995 for training in cochlear implants and later started practising in Birmingham. My wife too found an equally exciting opportunity after training as an anaesthetist, intensivist and pain management expert. But we always nurtured a secret desire to come back to India, to our people and culture,’’ say the Dutts, who are working in Apollo Hospital.
The Dutts are not alone. Young NRI doctors joining the league of super-specialists in the IT city is no longer an exception.
Dr Ravindra Mehta has triple specialisation — critical care, pulmonary medicine and sleep medicine — from the American Board. But he is back in India and is heading the Wockhardt’s 90-bed critical centre unit in Bangalore. Prakash Vemugul, who has worked in Australia and Canada for the last eight years, is now heading the paediatric ICU at Wockhardt Hospital.
The brain-drain scare might continue to threaten the Indian talent pool, but Bangalore is witnessing a refreshing change, the homecoming of NRI doctors. Like the icing on the cake, the doctors are filling up crucial lacunae as they are flying in with training and experience in super-specialties - from emergency medicine, paediatric cardiology, critical care to pain management.
What is the lure? The desire to be close to one’s country and people, the growing medical infrastructure and surprisingly, the gaps in the Indian healthcare system, say the doctors.
“There is nothing to match the satisfaction you get in serving your own people. After working for 15 years in the UK and Ireland, I don’t regret my decision to return to India. I am happy to see my daughters grow up in a culture that is closer to my heart,’’ says Dr Shabeer Ahmed, a specialist in keyhole surgery at Wockhardt Hospital.
CEO of Wockhardt Hospitals, Vishal Bali has a mission on his mind. He wants to reverse the medical brain drain and over the last three years, the hospital has recruited 28 super specialist physicians from the USA, UK, Australia and Canada.The homecoming is not without compromises.
As Dr Prabhakar Reddy, head of emergency medicine at Wockhardt Hospital puts it, emergency medicine in India is still primitive. Ambulances get stuck in traffic, negating all that modern technology can do to save a life. And there is a need to evolve better practices and systems.Reddy, who has returned to India after his 16-year-long stint in the US, also finds the salaries to be a drawback as it does not match what the US offers.
For Dr Dutt, it is the three big ‘Ps’ - pollution, population and poverty, that is a put-off here। “The crowded city hits you hard as it is congested। But I am happy to find good schools for my kids.’’ (times network)
ARMED FORCES FLAG DAY
Armed Forces Flag Day or the Flag Day of India is a dedicated towards collection of funds for the welfare of the armed forces personnel. It’s being observed on December 7 every year since 1949. The day is mainly observed to serve three basic purposes: rehabilitation of battle casualties, welfare of serving personnel and their families, and resettlement and welfare of ex-servicemen and their families.
Come December 7, it’s time to celebrate the spirit of the uniform. The Armed Forces Flag Day is time for every citizen to give a thought to the welfare of the brave soldiers who face the odds, yet shield the country from any external or internal threats.
Are the ex-servicemen given their due when they shed their uniforms after serving the nation? Not really, says Capt Raja Rao, former state secretary. That’s the reason why many youngsters are interested in joining the defence forces, he laments.
On the other hand, ex-servicemen who have made it big in various fields are great motivators for the youth to join the defence forces. This at a time when the Indian Army is facing an acute shortage of officers.
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