Indian Glimpses

Drinking Water To Be Metered: Gujarat will meter drinking water supplied to all cities, towns and villages from April 2004. Villagers will be charged a flat rate of Rs.14 per head per year, while local self-governments in other places will set their own charges. The Gujarat Water Supply Board provides drinking water to 18,000 villages. The board will maintain a minimum daily supply of 50 litres per head in villages and 120 litres per head in towns and cities. For irrigation the board charges 50 paise for 1,000 litres and for industries Rs. 4 for 1,000 litres.

Beauty Soap Statistics: Believe it or not, males make up 50 % of the users of beauty soaps in India. Research conducted by Godrej Consumer Products suggests too that men secretly desire to be fair. The study was done in 20 cities. Earlier research by the Media Research Users Council has indicated that 68 % of the users of fairness creams, a market estimated at over Rs. 6 billion annually, are men. Of course, these figures will not change the way that soaps, fairness creams and other cosmetics are marketed in the country because these are products where it is the women who are the decision makers in 70 % of the households.

NRI Label For Students Abroad: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to treat Indian students studying abroad as Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). They will be entitled to all the facilities available to NRIs under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The measure will allow students the flexibility (available to NRIs) in repatriating funs out of India. The students will be able to receive up to $1 million per year out of sale proceeds of assets in the country or balances in their account maintained with a bank in India.

Chinese Warm To Indian Films: India's Information & Broadcasting Ministry is taking a close look at the Chinese cinema market because that country is warming to Bollywood films. From old favourite Awaara to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Chahta Hai and Lagaan, Hindi films are becoming increasingly popular with the Chinese. China has 140,000 theatres and India is looking at co-distribution deals with some of them.

Private Operators For Public Transport: The Gujarat government has decided to allow private operators to enter the public transport system in big cities and towns. The recent successful privatisation of bus services by the municipal corporations of Bhavnagar and Jamnagar has prompted the state to take the decision. This decision was taken after many corporations and municipalities were unable to effectively manage their bus services. For instance the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service just does not have the resources buy new buses or to even manage its existing fleet of 500 buses.

Ban On Baby Food Ads: Effective January 2004, baby food manufacturers will be prohibited from advertising their products on TV, radio, newspapers or any other form of mass media. The Indian government has imposed this ban since mothers are getting increasingly influenced by such advertising and resorting to tinned baby food instead of breastfeeding their babies. The ban will be implemented through an amendment to the Infant Milk Substitutes Act of 1992.

Surat Diamond Park: Work on the gems and jewellery park at Surat has started. The district administration has begun the process of acquiring 2 million square metres of land in Surat. Over 100 diamond processors and jewellery manufacturers have already registered themselves for setting up their base in the proposed park. The Surat Diamond Association (SDA) is currently charging Rs. 500,000 as the deposit for seeking membership in the project. A total investment of Rs. 50 billion is envisaged in this project over the next two years. It is expected to provide employment, directly and indirectly, to about 200,000 persons. With more than 10,000 diamond cutting, polishing and processing units in Surat, the industry already employs over 800,000 people.

Forhans For Sale: Forhans, one of India's oldest toothpaste brands, is up for sale. In a recent notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, pharmaceutical major Wyeth, which owns the brand, said that the board of directors had approved a proposal to divest the Forhans business. Forhans was earlier owned by Geoffrey Manners. It came into Wyeth Lederle's portfolio after the two companies merged in July 2002. Intense competition from Hindustan Lever Ltd. and Colgate has pushed the brand into a market share of just 4 per cent.

12,000 Weddings In A Day: No one can certify whether it is a record of sorts, but New Delhi saw 12,000 weddings on November 27. That's 24,000 persons getting married on a single day. Here is how the associated people may have added up: 48,000 parents; 1.2 million friends and relatives (assuming 100 attended each marriage); 120,000 marriage professionals (10 caterers, etc., per wedding). A grand total of over 1.4 million people!

Data On Cars Sold: From April 2004 car dealers all over India will have to submit to the finance ministry a list of all those who have purchased cars in the current fiscal. The filing of such an information return will be institutionalised as an annual feature. Such information will have to be furnished to the government not only in the case of cars, but also for a host of movable and immovable property and shares.

Water Use Pattern In Gujarat: Gujarat's groundwater caters to 82 per cent of the requirements of the industries in the state, and of this 70 per cent is converted to effluent. Eighty per cent of the ground water in the state is used for domestic purposes, while the remaining 20 per cent is used by industry. In a water scarce state like Gujarat, more importance should be given to reusing the effluents, thereby preventing the water table from depleting further. If effective measures are not implemented to preserve the delicate soil balance, then 70 per cent of the state's land will turn into a man-made desert. These were some of the facts highlighted at a recent National Land Conservation Week seminar in Baroda.

Prahalad Jani's Incredible Ability: This 76-year-old man says that he has consumed nothing, either liquid or solid, for over 60 years. It seems that he lives in the caves of Ambaji. His claim is so remarkable that members of the 400-strong Association of Physicians of Ahmedabad are trying to check it out scientifically. A battery of specialist doctors (physician, cardiologist, neurologist, neurosurgeon, gastroenterologist, diabetologist, etc.) has been observing him for 10 days at Ahmedabad's Sterling Hospital. The doctors testify that Jani has not taken anything during these 10 days, and also that he has not passed urine or stool in this period. Yet, he continues to be absolutely normal. Sterling Hospital has sponsored the project and Jani has signed an affidavit as suggested by the hospital's ethics committee. The toilet has been sealed in his special room and a closed-circuit camera monitors him round the clock. The laboratory of the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) is also involved in this project.

'Millennium Car': Anil Vaishnav and Vishnu Panchal have made a prototype of a solar powered car – which they call the 'Millennium Car' – which has been chosen to represent Gujarat in the National Science Fair in Delhi this year. Both of them are teachers at the Shree Mahatma Gandhi Vinay Mandir at Mandal in Ahmedabad District. The working model is made of acrylic, weighs 400 gms and cost them all of Rs. 3500! It works on 3.5-volt battery which is charged by solar panels on its roof. It has an automatic gear system and brakes, and it can turn and accelerate. The model has been praised by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association. Vaishnav and Panchal now have plans to develop a 4-seater version that may cost Rs. 100,000 and do 80 kmph.

Garments That May Heal: Ahmedabad's National Institute of Design (NID), the Indians Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and some ayurveda and alternative medicine practitioners are trying to develop garments that can help to deliver small, measured doses of medicine to people suffering from ailments like bedsores, diabetes, blood pressure and arthritis. The fabric is coated with medicine which gets trapped within the yarn. Excess medicine is washed off and the garment is made wearable. The micro-impregnation of the garment can be repeated depending on the doses required. Readymade apparel can also be similarly made. The process is still at the experimental stages.

'Memorial' Diamonds: The Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) wants to make 'memorial gems', that is, diamonds made from the carbon in a human being's mortal remains. The idea is apparently to cash in on the high bonding factor among Indians. IDI may import the technology from the USA. According to an IDI official, "A life gem is a high-quality …. one-of-a kind diamond (which) can be preserved as a memorial. It can also be a treasured heirloom in one's family for generations to come and inscriptions can be etched on it." The technology is similar to the high pressure-high temperature system used in developing synthetic diamonds in the laboratory. In the USA and Canada similar 'services' are available by joining a select group of funeral service providers. A quarter-carat size memorial gem may cost $3,000 and a one-carat diamond may be worth $15,000. It seems more than 50 diamonds of one carat each could be created from a body.

Download 'Supari': The Hindi film 'Supari' claims to be the first Bollywood film whose internet viewing rights have been sold. Shanaya Telefilms has given the rights to one of the biggest media and entertainment portals in Australia, Kazaa. Web surfers can download and see the film by paying online charges of US $ 2.99 via credit card. Shanaya will receive 40 per cent of the revenue earned from every download of the film.

Carnegie Institute: Dale Carnegie Training, an institution dedicated to honing business and leadership skills, has announced the launch of its India operations in Bangalore. Founded by the author of 'How to win friend and influence people,' the institute will have its headquarters at Mumbai, with other offices planned for Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Mumbai Dabba Delivered To Prince Charles: When Prince Charles was in Mumbai recently, his food dabba was delivered to him by the city's world famous dabba system. The Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust pick up, deliver and take back over 175,000 tiffin boxes everyday, on time and without mixing them up. This incredible system has been in operation for 113 years. They have never had a strike and management students from local colleges and the Indian Institutes of Management visit the organisation to study how they manage their affairs so efficiently. The system thrives on enviable teamwork. Most of the dabbawallahs are from western Maharashtra. There are no middlemen. The system relies heavily on Mumbai's suburban rail service. The 5,000 dabbawallahs operate in a relay system with clusters of 20 to 40 men. They pick up dabbas from homes or catering services and carry them to the railway stations on cycles, where they are loaded onto the trains on long wooden crates. At the destinations other dabbawallahs sort them out and others move them in handcarts, taxis and cycles to offices. After lunch, the same procedure is repeated in reverse. The dabbas are identified by a special colour and number code, which was designed in the 1970s. The efficiency of the service is so great that it has received a 6 Sigma rating from Forbes Magazine; what this means is that they make just one mistake in six million transactions. The dabbawallahs charge up to Rs. 300 a month and earn Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000 a month. All of them contribute Rs.15 to the association, which organises annual yatras, settles disputes and provides a support system.

Indian Building Gets Prestigious US Rating: The CII Godrej Green Business Centre at Hyderabad, designed by Baroda architect Karan Grover, is the first building to receive the United States LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) Version II Platinum rating. This rating of the US Green Building Council (US-GBC) is meant to encourage more sustainable buildings. The CII building is nearing completion. To make it environmentally friendly, the design uses cooling towers instead of air-conditioners for cooling. Where air-conditioners have been used, they are CFC-free. The paints and carpets are non-toxic. All the electrical fixtures have been automated to save power.

'Green' Buildings: India's Ministry of Environment and Forests may soon issue a notification that will require every new large construction project – residential or commercial – to get environmental clearance. Each such building will require a primary treatment plant in its premises to take care of the waste generated. It will apply to any building that will be used by 1,000 people or that costs at least Rs. 500 million. It will apply to schools, medium-size hospitals, public places like railway stations and airports and large housing colonies or apartment blocks with about 200 flats. The notification is expected to be gazetted soon.

Pandurang Athavale Passes Away: Founder of Swadhyaya Parivar, social thinker and philosopher, Pandurang Shastri Athavale, passed away at his home in Mumbai on 25th October. He was 84. He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 1996 and the $1.2 million Templeton Award in 1997. He is revered in Maharashtra and Gujarat as a modern day thinker and a social reformer. Also a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, he strived to fight inequality and casteism in society. The Swadhyaya movement has a following of millions of people. Dadaji, as he was popularly known, has left behind around 80,000 followers in and around Baroda.

CAs May Tie Up With Lawyers: The central council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has decided to allow partnerships between CAs and lawyers, company secretaries and cost accountants. The CAs will have to register a new partnership firm for this purpose and ensure that multidisciplinary firms do not provide any services that are exclusive areas for chartered accountants such as statutory audit and attestation of financial statements of companies. The fructification of such partnerships is, however, subject to the Bar Council, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and Institute of Cost and Works Accountants (ICWA) agreeing to pass similar resolutions and, if necessary, amending the relevant legislation.

Jewellery Park For Surat: The Gujarat government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth Rs. 46 billion with the Gujarat Hira Bourses' Association (GHBA) for the creation of a state-of-the-art Jewellery Park at Surat. The park will be developed by GHBA, a non-profit body of gems and jewellery dealers of Surat who have come together for the purpose. As per the project plan, 200 units will be set up at a cost of Rs. 30 billion for export of Indian jewellery from a special economic zone to be created inside the park. Another Rs. 15 billion will be spent on setting up 300 units to cater to the domestic market. The park will have a research and development unit and training centre, to be built at a cost of Rs. 1 billion. The planning process will take about two years, and the park should be ready in five years' time. The MoU is only a guarantee that the government has extended to the GHBA ensuring that the state will extend support in making the project a reality. It does not define the exact role of the government or the kind of financial support the government proposes for the project.

Fuel Prices From October 16, 2003: Rs./Litre
PETROL	OLD	NEW
Ahmedabad	35.55	34.81
Vadodara	35.39	34.65
Rajkot	35.62	34.89
Surat	35.74	35.00
DIESEL
Ahmedabad	23.70	23.03
Vadodara	23.11	22.44
Rajkot	23.33	22.66
Surat	23.89	23.22

Reader's Digest: The Reader's Digest magazine will now be published in India under an agreement with India Today publisher, Living Media India Ltd. According to the Reader's Digest Association, the agreement will bring it increased access to the Indian market through Living Media's multilingual publishing and multi-channel media interests.

Surat Airport Proposal Cleared: India's civil aviation ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government for an airport at Surat. Surat may possibly be the only city in the world with a population of over three million without an airport. The airport is expected to be operational in another 18 months. The state government will provide land and other basic infrastructure facilities while the AAI (Airports Authority of India) will take up the construction work. The central government will provide Rs. 370 million during the first phase of construction, which is expected to be completed in 18 months. At the end of the first phase, the airport will be capable of handling Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.

New Phone Scheme: In order to attract low-income groups, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has announced a new scheme – 'Sulabh' – for basic phone subscribers with the facility of only incoming calls at rentals ranging from Rs. 99 to Rs. 160 per month. The rental will depend upon the size of the network. Customers will also be able to make outgoing calls, including long distance, using the India Telecom card at Rs 1.10 per unit. This scheme will also be extended to existing customers who want to change over to it. The company has tied up with major vendors like Nokia, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Alcatel and Siemens and Indian company Navtec for offering cellular handsets to its post-paid subscribers at an easy monthly instalment starting from Rs. 185.

UK Citizen Comes To Ahmedabad For Medical Treatment: James Campbell, a British citizen, has had to come to Ahmedabad for knee replacement surgeries. He was asked to wait at least three years if he wished to avail of the National Health Scheme of the UK that provides free medical aid to its citizens. Since the pain was rather unbearable, Mr. Campbell was advised by his NRI friends in UK to come to Ahmedabad for the treatment. Without the NHS benefits, his cost would have been £ 18,000 at a private facility. According to his wife, the total expenditure incurred at Krishna Heart Institute in Ahmedabad, will be £ 6,000, including airfares and stay here. One knee has been operated upon, and the other knee will be operated upon this week. He will then undergo physiotherapy with friends in Baroda and return home in November. The hospital treating Mr. Campbell has operated upon more than 500 NRIs from the US and Canada, 150 from the UK and 100 from Africa.

11 Cities To Go Euro-3: The Indian government has announced that new vehicles in 11 cities will have to conform to Euro-3 emission norms from April 1, 2005. The cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra. Vehicles at present conform to Euro-2 norms in these cities. They will graduate to Euro-4 norms from April 1, 2010. The rest of the country will have Euro-3 emission norms by 2010.

Grassroots Innovations: Mansukhbhai Patel, a farmer from Viramgam in Gujarat, has received a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for developing a cotton stripping machine that mechanises the process of taking out cotton from balls. His idea was helped along by Ahmedabad based NGO Sristi. The NGO also helped Sukhraj, a resident of Uttaranchal, who invented a method of manufacturing concrete tiles at a much cheaper rate, and Ashok Kumar Singh, a villager from Uttar Pradesh, who developed a motor, which lifts water in hilly regions without the use of fuel. Many such grassroots innovations from different parts of the country await the assistance of research laboratories, angel investors and partnering industries to give their creativity the missing links so that the products finally make it to the market. The number of innovations accepted by India's National Innovation Foundation has gone up from 1,164 in 2001 to 21,500 in 2003.

India Among Top 10 Destinations: India has, for the first time, entered the top ten tourist destinations of the world, according to the latest research by Conde Nast UK Readers Travel Awards. India is preferred even above Greece, Malaysia and Switzerland by Europeans and Americans. India may cross the figure of 2.5 million foreign tourists this year. During January to August, tourist arrivals increased by 14.2 per cent as compared to last year, totaling 1.674 million arrivals.

Women Constructions Workers: The Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) and the Mahila Housing Trust, an affiliate of SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association), have collaborated to promote a National School for Women Construction Workers. The school will provide training to women in the construction industry and will begin its operations in Gujarat. To draw up a blueprint of action and deliberate on building the partnership, SEWA, CIDC and industry groups recently held a two-day seminar on 'Skill Upgradation of Women Workers in a Globalising Construction Industry'. The seminar was designed to encourage women to join the school to improve their employment opportunities and incomes.

World's Largest Higher Education System: After 56 years of Independence, almost 50 per cent of India's population above the age of 25 has no formal schooling, 25 per cent has incomplete primary education, barely eight per cent has completed primary education, only eight per cent has completed secondary education and some have had higher education. The literacy rate is 65 per cent, which includes even those who have learnt only to sign their names. India has over 230 universities, deemed universities, institutes of national importance and over 11,000 colleges. The student population in these higher education institutions is over 10 million. This in itself makes it perhaps one of the world's largest higher education systems.

One Upon A Time, There Was Calico: A prominent Ahmedabad landmark, which was also an important of the city's – and India's – history will soon be no more. A team of textile traders and ship-breakers from Bhavnagar and Kolkata is taking apart the 123-year-old Calico Textile Mill, a once robust 'institution' which earned Ahmedabad the name of Manchester of India. Following a recent order by the High Court, the Calico mill is being dismantled by Mahavir Ghantakaran Enterprise, who won the bid by quoting Rs. 256 million for all the immovable items within the premises of the mill. There was once a time when 8,000 workers turned out over 100 miles of cloth every day at Calico, and 12,000 agents marketed the final products across the country and Asia. The lockout of the mill was declared in 1995.

Unequal Rights For Air-Hostesses: However glamorous their career may seem to others, the 753 air-hostess at Air-India aren't particularly thrilled about their professional scope in comparison to male colleagues. Because the rights are unequal.

Consider the following:
…. Air-hostesses must retire at 50, their male colleagues at 58.
…. They are considered junior to all male cabin crew, regardless of the number of years they      may have served in the airline.
…. They are not eligible for the top crew position of Flight Supervisor, even though they are      trained in training schools.
…. From age 35, they must undergo a biennial medical examination, while there is no such      requirement for the men.
…. Both men and women must have regular weight checks, but only the women are      grounded on account of excessive weight.
…. Only men are eligible for the monthly bar loss allowance of 30 pounds a month. This      allowance is a compensation for any losses due to non-payment by passengers buying      liquor. Interestingly, this allowance is also paid to the assistant flight pursers and      supervisors – all male – even though they do not handle the cash.

7.6 Million Invitations: The Gujarat government has sent out 7.6 million e-mails to attract possible investors to the Vibrant Gujarat summit scheduled to start on September 28. The number of participants expected for the business meets at Ahmedabad and Surat is between 5,000 and 8,000, but it is difficult to predict how many will come forward with investment proposals.

Mass Mailing Madness: A branch of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in Punjab sent 3,000 letters to a policy-holder, reminding him that his premium payment would soon be due. LIC spent Rs. 15,000 on postage in the process. Narendra Kumar, the policy-holder, said that LIC's Mohali office had flooded him with 3000 reminder in 6 days. The postman had been delivering hundreds of reminders a day, and that too for the next premium payment. LIC officials said that a computer glitch might have triggered the mailing madness. Asked why the error had not been detected, he said, "We have a mass mailing arrangement".

Birthday Gift For Lata Mangeshkar: On 28th September Mumbai will witness one of its biggest birthday celebrations at a function to honour Lata Mangeshkar. The tribute concert will bring together India's most famous names in playback singing at the Andheri Sports Complex. Artistes will render Lataji's biggest hits at the diamond jubilee celebrations, choosing just 35 melodies from a repertoire of 30,000 songs. Sonu Nigam will host the live show.

Easier Liquor Permits For Outsiders: Gujarat's liquor permit rules for foreigners and for those from outside the sate will be simplified. Foreigners with valid Indian visas will be issued the liquor permit as soon as they land at the airport, and the permit will be attached to their passport. While foreigners will get the permit free of charge, Indian citizens visiting Gujarat from outside the state will need to pay only Rs. 220 as against Rs. 650 charged now. A list of shops from where liquor can be sourced by the visitors will attached to the permit.

Domestic Violence In India: Oxfam, an international development organisation, recently conducted a study on the attitudes and perceptions of men and women about domestic violence. The study covered metros, small towns and rural areas and included men and women from all socio-economic segments and income profiles. The key findings of the study were presented at a workshop in New Delhi. Some highlights:

…. Most people seem to look upon violence as endemic to      life.
…. Women feel that they are never safe from violence.
…. All the respondents condemn acts of violence and in practice tend to treat them as a      family matter.
…. Men believe that male domination is both natural and socially sanctioned, particularly      those who have grown up watching women being physically and verbally abused.      Referred to as the 'Male Privilege', these men have clear do's and don'ts for women.
…. Then there are other men, dubbed as the 'Victims of Circumstance', who resort to      violence out of frustration when they find that 'women do not give them the respect they      deserve'.
…. Yet another category of perpetrator, termed as the 'Moral Masquerader', is a      self-righteous male who sees himself as the custodian of the social and moral order.
…. Another category, the 'Outlaw', sees himself as above social and moral codes, who sees      masculinity as the right to instant gratification of primal emotions. He revels in brutality.

Disinvestment Of Gujarat's PSUs: The Gujarat government has announced the setting up of a panel to work out disinvestments in 54 PSUs (public sector undertakings). The government has already wound up loss making PSUs like the Gujarat State Construction Corporation, Gujarat Dairy Development Corporation, Gujarat Film Development Corporation and Gujarat Small Industries Corporation. Some others have been merged. The bigger PSUs that continue to operate despite losses are Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation (GIIC), Gujarat State Financial Corporation (GSFC), Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals (GSFC), Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation and Gujarat Export Development Corporation. Among the major profit making PSUs are Gujarat Maritime Board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC), Gujarat Narmada Fertiliser Company (GNFC), Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals Ltd. (GACL). GSFC, GNFC, GACL, GIPCL (Gujarat Industrial Power Co. Ltd.), GMDC and NCPL (Narmada Chematur Petrochemicals Ltd., a subsidiary of GNFC), the six major listed companies controlled by the government, would fetch the state about Rs.10 billion if it were to sell its entire stake in them at today's market prices.

Spider-Man Rights For Mobile Phones: A tiny start-up founded by a Mumbai entrepreneur has won world rights to sell a mobile phone game based on Spider-Man. Vishal Gondal, a 27-year-old heading more than 100 software programmers and designers at privately held Indiagames Ltd., believes the deal with Marvel Enterprises Inc. and video game publisher Activision Inc, is the door to a fortune. The game developed by Indiagames features Spider-Man rescuing New Yorkers kidnapped by his enemy, the Green Goblin. Under a licence from the US firms, Indiagames will also sell ringtones and screensavers based on the Spider-Man character to telecom giants including Nokia Corp. and Hutchison. The deals do not include South Korea. The game will be released in eight languages including English, German, Chinese and Italian. Indiagames has so far developed more than 40 games for some of the biggest Hollywood studios and phone makers such as Nokia. Gondal started his firm with about $ 1 million venture funding in 1999. His rivals now include French video games maker Gameloft and Japanese commercial game machine maker Taito Corp.

Foreign Stake In Business Standard: The British daily Financial Times has signed an agreement with Business Standard to pick up 13.85 per cent stake for Rs.141 million. The Financial Times will pay this amount to the Indian daily based on a valuation of Rs.1,030 million. A foreign media company can buy unto 26 per cent in a domestic print venture. The Financial Times will join the Kotak Mahindra Group and Great Eastern Shipping as the leading investors in the Indian financial newspaper. Last month, the Hindustan Times confirmed that UK based Henderson Global Investors had bought a 20 per cent stake in Hindustan Times Media Ltd., floated for its proposed Mumbai operations.

'Hottest' Veggies: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Czech-born supermodel Yana Gupta have won the 'Hottest Vegetarian Alive' contest conducted by the NGO People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) at Mumbai. Bachchan retained his crown from last year, edging out actor Richard Gere, top model John Abraham, southern heartthrob Madhavan, industrialist Anil Ambani and cricketer Anil Kumble. President APJ Abdul Kalam was a very popular nominee too. The first-time winner Yana Gupta finished ahead of Liv Tyler, Shania Twain, Pamela Anderson and last year's winner Esha Deol in the online contest, which drew a total of over 37,000 votes at Peta's website.

Indigenous Motorised Hand: A team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, have developed India's first indigenous artificial hand. They have been able to limit the cost of the hand Rs.10,000. The imported motorised hands cost over Rs. 300,000 each, which is rather prohibitive for most hand amputees. Funded by the ministry of social welfare, the project has been started in 1999 with the aim of developing an affordable prosthetic hand. Earlier efforts in this direction has failed because researchers tried to imitate a design of a German manufacturer, Otto Bock, and used imported motors. The current design uses simple, indigenous motors, similar to the ones used in autorickshaw wipers. Users have tested the motorised hand for over two years now and they say that it is working well. A single motor helps the fingers and thumb to move in co-ordination, while another motor turns the hand at the forearm. The hand is controlled by switches placed inside the socket at the joint of the artificial hand. The muscles and the slight movement in the residual limb of the amputee are used to control the switches. The advantage of the switch-controlled hand over the imported hand is that it works better in the humid Indian conditions. Presently, the strength of the hand is pre-set, but the next batch will have a system where the user can change the force of his grasp, depending on the function he wants to perform.

BMW-Hero Venture: The German luxury car maker BMW Ag may tie up with the Hero Group to sell its 3, 5 and 7 series cars in India. The Hero Group will have no equity participation in the venture, but will help BMW in sales and marketing. BMW will only concentrate on the cars venture in India and will not introduce its bike range.

Joint Venture Companies For Airports: The Indian government has decided to set up separate joint venture companies with 74 % private equity for the creation of world class airports at Delhi and Mumbai. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will hold the remaining stake. The selected private partners will not be allowed to bid for both the airports together. AAI will continue to be responsible for air traffic services and civil aviation security. The two airports will be given on concession to the joint venture partner for a period of 30 years with provision for extension by another 30 years subject to mutual agreement. The private partners could be a consortium which could include foreign players.

Fighting Noise Pollution: The Supreme Court of India made it abundantly clear on Wednesday (10th September) that festivities and noise need not and cannot go together regardless of the religion involved. During the upcoming festivals of Diwali and Dussehra, noise pollution would not be tolerated. The court also rejected the plea by the firecracker manufacturers' counsel for a relaxation of the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. ban on the bursting of crackers

Air Sahara In Gujarat: Air Sahara has started its Ahmedabad-New Delhi flight and plans to connect Vadodara and Bhuj with New Delhi and Mumbai by December. The airline is also planning to start flights from Jamnagar and Rajkot. The airline has also introduced an Ahmedabad-Mumbai flight and connecting flights to Kolkata, Bangalore and Goa from Ahmedabad.

Primary Schools Without Toilets: The Gujarat assembly has been informed by the concerned minister that 15,230 of the 40,000 primary schools in Gujarat do not have the basic facility of a toilet, while 11,352 have no drinking water facility and 12,180 have no electricity connection. These numbers included the primary schools run by the municipalities. The highest number of such schools are in the tribal Panchmahals and Banaskantha districts.

SFIs Attract Gujarat Money: Self-Financed Institutes (SFIs) in Karnataka and Maharashtra are successfully wooing students away from Gujarat. Parents from Gujarat are paying around Rs. 1 billion as fees for admissions in medical SFIs outside Gujarat. There could be another Rs. 500 million going for admissions into other courses. Karnataka has as many as 180 engineering and 50 medical SFIs. It seems that about 12,000 students go to Maharashtra and Karnataka every year from Gujarat.

2,500th Performances Of Solo Play: Noted Marathi theatre personality Laxmanrao Deshpande recently presented the 2,500th show of his humorous solo play 'Varhad Nighale London La' (Marriage Party Going To London). Deshpande, a former professor of Dramatics at Marathwada University, portrays as many as 52 characters in the play. He has won an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for staging the largest number of shows of a solo play.

Safe Substitute For Gutkha: Sitaram Parmanand, a perfume dealer in Ahmedabad, has introduced 'sukhda' (something which gives happiness) for those who find it difficult to give up the gutkha habit. The powder – a mixture of laung (clove), elaichi (cardamon), sauf (aniseed), some ayurvedic herbs and saccharine – is now being promoted by the Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute (GCRI) as a healthy alternative to gutkha. It seems that sukhda was prepared after an intensive study of 'Aryabishak, an ancient treatise on Ayurveda. After studying this book Parmanand identified 10 herbs and prepared the formulation. At present he distributes the formulation free but soon people will have to pay for it, probably at Rs. 2 per pouch.

Elite Commando Force: The Indian government has cleared an Indian Air Force proposal to raise an .elite commando force to protect its operational air bases and other strategic assets. Named after the mythical bird Garuda, the force will have 4,800 men drawn from the IAF and trained in unarmed combat and use of close quarter battle weapons. The proposed Garuda force will select men from the existing ranks based on their physical fitness and ability to meet the demands of the new job. Presently the air force stations are guarded by the Defence Security Corps (DSC), a force comprising of ex-servicemen and air force personnel.

New Name For Mumbai Landmark: The Oberoi Towers, the multistoreyed hotel on Mumbai's Marine Drive will be known as the Hilton Towers. The renaming follows a recent franchising agreement between the East India Hotels (EIH) and Hilton International for its Trident brand of properties. The adjacent old Oberoi Hotel will continue with its name unchanged. The agreement, valid for 15 years initially, will see nine East India Hotels proprieties being co-branded under the Trident Hilton brand.

Herbal Pesticide: Banidan Gadhvi, a farmer from Kapadvanj, has concocted a mixture of lemon and tamarind juices with water which seems to be an effective herbal pesticide to fight the menace of the hairy caterpillar which attacks castor crops. This simple and useful herbal formulation has won him a prize awarded by India's National Innovation Foundation. Gadhvi claims that he also adds some herbs, but the exact formula is a secret. Farmers have traditionally used herbs as pesticides, but the special advantage of Gadhvi's formulation is that the ingredients are cheap and easily available. He began distributing the pesticide free, but he now charges Rs. 200 per litre. He is able to make 4 litres in 2 hours.

E-Filing Of Income Tax Returns: The Indian government has launched the electronic filing of income tax returns in seven cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Electronic filing will be done through select banks – HDFC Bank, UTI Bank, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, IOB and Bharat Overseas Bank. Electronic filing will be done initially through intermediary banks as individuals will have to secure digital signatures first for the filing of electronic returns directly. The banks will charge Rs. 100 to Rs. 400 for the filing of returns, depending upon the services they provide.

Joint Flights By Lufthansa & Air-India: Lufthansa German Airlines and Air-India will operate joint flights from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi to destinations in the Untied States from December 1. An MoU will soon be signed between the two airlines for this joint venture. The idea is to get an equal share of revenue on these markets, which amounts to over Rs. 4000 million per year. Lufthansa will fly three flights a week out of Bangalore, while Air-India will operate four flights a week directly into the US. Air-India will operate into cities like Chicago and New York from Bangalore. Similarly, Lufthansa will operate three flights from Hyderabad, while Air-India will operate four flights a week. From Kochi, Lufthansa will operate four flights a week and Air-India will operate three flights a week. Lufthansa will give a prime slot at Frankfurt airport for Air-India flights.

Bottled Coconut Water: The Kerala State Rubber Co-operative (Rubco) is collaborating with an Oman based company to market coconut water in bottles. The company has also tied up with Coconut Pacific of Australia for transfer of technology that will enable production of virgin coconut oil directly, without going through the copra route. It is also negotiating with a UK-based company to make activated carbon from used coconut shells. For coconut oil extraction, Rubco will import machinery from Australia and supply it to local co-operatives to extract oil. The residues from the extraction process will be useful as bakery inputs. It planned to have at least 500 co-operative units using the Australian technology to extract oil

Foreign Funds For NGOs: In 2001-2002, various Indian associations received a total of Rs. 48,720 million by way of foreign contributions. This figure was Rs. 45,352 million in 2000-2001 and Rs. 39,246 million in 1999-2000. The top donor countries in 2001-2002 were USA (Rs. 16,583 million), Germany (Rs. 7,023 million), UK (Rs. 6.793 million), Italy (Rs. 3,046 million) and Netherlands (Rs. 2, 374 million).

Foreign funds (Rs. Million)
Top Recipient Associations	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	TOTAL
World Vision,Tamil Nadu	550.6	854.2	883.9	2288.7
Bochasanwasi APS Snaatha, Gujarat	282.8	641.4	1074.8	1999.0
Foster Parent Plan International, Delhi	637.2	676.7	673.1	1987.0
Gospel For Asia, Kerala	323.4	580.9	989.8	1894.1
Rural Development Trust, Andhra Pradesh	501.5	643.9	631.0	1776.4

Sachin's Ferrari – Another Perspective: Everyone now knows about the proposed duty exemption for Sachin Tendulkar's Ferrari. But few people know that the government has refused to waive customs duty on imported fire-fighting vehicles and equipment for the Mumbai municipal corporation. The corporation had to pay Rs. 25 million as customs duty to bring in equipment such as snorkels which are used to reach the top storeys of high-rise buildings during fire-fighting operations. According to corporation officials the Custom Act, 1962, clearly states that goods intended to benefit the public could be exempted from duty. Still, the civic body has to pay up to 47 per cent of the cost of the imported equipment. Other fire-fighting tools include pneumatic lifting bags which are used to extricate victims of rail accidents, air crashes and building collapses, and a detector which helps to determine the concentration of explosive gas in an area where it has leaked.

Jasminder Singh Buys UK's May Fair: Jasminder Singh, one of Britain's richest Asian businessmen, has bought the prestigious May Fair Inter-Continental London hotel for £ 115 million. Singh, who is of Indian origin, owns the Radisson Edwardian, a luxury hotel chain. The 289-room May Fair Inter-Continental was opened in 1927 by King George V. Its clients have included the pop stars Michael Jackson and Madonna and members of the British royal family.

London's Punjabis & Gujaratis: A large proportion of students in London's schools speak languages of the Indian subcontinent such as Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali, according to a recent survey. Pupils from families with origins in the Indian subcontinent form the largest linguistic minority communities. Punjabi speakers are the biggest of these South Asian groupings and they outnumber Welsh speakers. Children attending London's schools speak 30 or more different languages. The survey covered 850,000 children in schools. Many teachers are in favour of dropping French and German in favour of Punjabi or Bengali. There are two main groups of Punjabi speakers – Sikhs from the state of Punjab in India and Muslims from the Mirpur district of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Jewellery Designing Courses: To meet the growing demand for qualified jewellery designers, India's Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has announced that it will start a training programme. GJEPC will introduce certificate and advanced courses in jewellery designing and manufacturing at the Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery (IIGJ) at Mumbai.

Sea-Chain To Boost Cruise Holidays: To take advantage of the growing popularity of cruise holidays the Indian government plans to develop special terminals at five ports along the west and east coasts. There is a big demand for destinations like the Andaman and Lakshwadeep islands. In 2001, 22,000 Indians spent over Rs. 1,000 million on just Star Cruises holidays to Southeast Asian destinations. The development of special cruise terminals will enable India to offer better facilities for international liners that skip India in the absence of such facilities. Under a mega seaport chain project called 'Sagar Mala', the government hopes to invest Rs. 1000,000 million to improve existing ports and create new ports. The cruise terminals project is one component of this project. The five ports selected for setting up cruise terminals are at Kochi, Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore and Tuticorin. All these five ports have had historical links with European traders in the past.

Private Coaching Is Big Business: Machhindra Chate, 38, is the man behind Maharashtra's most successful chain of private coaching classes. Business has been so good that he has diversified into films, media, and even politics. As an engineering student, he taught 15 students in Aurangabad to support his family. In1996, he started looking beyond Aurangabad, and within a couple of years he had touched Mumbai and the rest of the state. Today he has 100 branches, 4,000 staff and 40,000 students. His annual turnover is Rs. 450 million, and he spends Rs. 50 million on advertising every year. He owns Devyani Movies, a film production company, and also Dainik Lok Sanket, a Marathi daily published from Mumbai and Aurangabad.

Female Race Jockey: N. Rupa, 20, got her jockey's licence in 2002. Based in Chennai, she is the only female race jockey of Indian origin in the entire country. Though born and brought up in Chennai, Rupa's family is from Rajasthan. She is the third professional jockey in her family. Her father, Narpat Singh, and brother, Ravinder Singh, are both jockeys. Her grandfather, Ugam Singh, was in the British army and also a professional horse trainer.

Beer & Wine In Gujarat: The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd. (TCGL) is recommending a partial relaxation in the state's prohibition policy, a move that may allow beer and wine to be served at selected places such as certain star hotels and beaches and areas frequented by foreigners. The proposal awaits consideration by the state cabinet. The move is still in a fluid stage and may apply only to foreigners, and non-resident Gujaratis and those who come to Gujarat to attend business conferences. Another proposal is to open special counters at Mumbai and Delhi to provide permits to drink in Gujarat, the only state in India where prohibition is still in force.

Indica In Europe: From September this year, Britain's MG Rover Group will import Indicas from the Telco (now Tata Motors) plant at Pune and sell them to its European customers. The orders could be as high as 100,000 units in the next five years, depending on how customers accept the car. The Indica has been renamed the City Rover for its European customers. Incorporating certain Rover-specific modifications, it will be marketed through Rover's own dealer network in the UK and Europe. The changes: Engine output will be upped by 10 bhp to 85 bhp; Cosmetic touches to the front, Rover logo; Airbags on the driver's side will be standard; Interiors spruced up, leather optional; Better suspension and chassis, lighter steering.

An Ambassador Variant, At Last: Hindustan Motors has launched a variant of its old workhorse 'Ambassador' and it hopes to increase sales of the car by about 18,000 units this year. Called the 'Ambassador Grand', the car will be offered with both petrol and diesel engines sourced from Japan's Isuzu Motors. The 1.8-litre petrol engine model has been priced at Rs. 420,000, while the 2-litre diesel model has been priced at Rs. 445,000. The car has features like power steering, power brakes and remote shift gear, new grille, transparent headlamps, body coloured bumpers, and a new HM logo. The car will be targeted at niche buyers like the government, professionals and luxury hotels, as well as the export markets.

Urawade's Carpets For Queen Mary: The large cruise liner Queen Mary 2 is being refurbished at a cost of $ 500 million and some of that budget is being spent at a carpet making facility in Urawade village of Mulshi taluka, some 30 km from Pune. The carpets for the guest rooms of the 16-deck ship are being woven at Urawade. This village unit turns out 400,000 square feet of carpets every year for American households, and 500,000 square feet of carpets for British cinema houses and multiplexes. It also supplies to five-star hotels all over the world, including Singapore, Dubai and Indonesia. Even restaurants in China use its carpets. The unit is part of the $ 150 million UK based Brintons Fine Carpets, and it has an annual turnover of Rs. 500 million. It manufactures 15 per cent of the group's production. The carpets are made of 80 per cent wool and 20 per cent nylon yarn. The wool is imported from New Zealand and Australia but the yarn – 2 million kg per year – is spun locally.

Air Deccan Flights: Air Deccan, India's first low-cost no-frills airline, will launch its inaugural flight from the HAL Airport in Bangalore on August 25, according to a top official of Deccan Aviation, the promoters of the airline. The first flight will cover Bangalore-Hubli-Mumbai, while the second will cover Bangalore-Belgaum-Mumbai.

Organic Farming Institute: To tap the huge export potential in the $ 26 billion global market for organic farm products, the Indian government has decided to set up a national institute of organic farming. The institute, to come up at Ghaziabad, will have an allocation of Rs. 1000 million during the 10th five-year plan period. The institute, a part of the national programme for organic production, will have its offices across the country and appoint certifying agencies for organic farm products for the domestic market.

National Gallery Will Offer Digitised Paintings: The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) at New Delhi is digitizing a select group of paintings so that it can offer reproductions on demand. NGMA has about 17,000 paintings and it will become Asia's first art gallery to offer a print-on-demand service of digitally reproduced paintings. The project is supported by hardware major HP and India's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). In the pilot project stage, 200 paintings by Rabindranath Tagore and Amrita Shergill will be digitised. The digital library will also be accessible to a global audience via the Internet.

Coke & Pepsi – Dhandha Thanda: Universities all over Gujarat plan to ban the sale of soft drinks on college and university campuses. The decision follows reports about the presence of pesticides in soft drink samples tested in New Delhi. Gujarat University has decided to send circulars to all its 216 affiliated colleges to this effect. Saurashtra University, North Gujarat University, South Gujarat University, Bhavnagar University and MS University of Baroda will do the same. In MS University, the deans of faculties have been told to put up notices in canteens that the students were consuming soft drinks 'at their own risk'.

Medicinal Rasgullas: Experts from Jadavpur University in West Bengal are helping a manufacturer of sweets in Kolkata to develop 'medicinal' rasgullas and samosas. Five products are planned, with the ingredients including medicinal herbs, fruits and leaves of trees with high anti-oxidant propensities and minerals like zinc and iron. The university has for long been conducting research on how to mix ingredients like carrots, tomatoes, Indian jamun, mango leaves, stone-apple leaves and holy basil leaves with cottage cheese and traditional foods to get a product that is both palatable and nutritious.

Health Checkup For 9 Million Children: The Gujarat government has launched a state-wide 'healthy child' campaign under which 1,823 teams of doctors and paramedical staff will examine the health condition of over 9 million children in 35,000 primary schools. The campaign, being conducted by the state's health and family welfare departments, involves over 82,000 primary school teachers, 1,376 doctors and 222 experts. They will visit schools in 19,456 wards and villages. The health checkup for children not going to schools will be held at 1,044 primary health centers and 247 community health centers in rural and semi-urban areas. Panchayat-run anganwadis will be also covered. More than 8.3 million children were examined similarly last year and 1.4 million were give on-the-spot treatment.

Astrological Embargo On Marriages: The vast industry promoted by marriages is going through a massive recession thanks to the fact that the current times are considered astrologically inauspicious. So many weddings have been postponed to next year that, let alone the intending bride and groom, the people employed in the industry are going through tough times. The demand for gift items, jewellery, ready-made garments and consumer durables has taken a hit. Also affected are hotels, caterers, marriage venues and ceremonial bands. Bin Shaadi Barbaadi.

Mobiles May Overtake Landlines In New Delhi: Cell phones in New Delhi will outnumber landline telephone connections by mid-August. While the landline connections numbered 2.25 million as of June, the cellular subscriber base touched 2.1 million.

A Me-Too Mahabaleshwar: Tucked away in the Western Ghats at 1,372 metres above sea level, Mahabaleshwar is an unrivalled tourist paradise. However, the Maharashtra government plans to tie up with the private sector and invest Rs. 6,800 million to develop an identical hill station nearby. The 'New Mahabaleshwar' will overlook the Krishna and Koyna valleys, an area abundant in peaks, prominent hilltops, valleys, waterfalls, forests, lakes, dams and historic spots. The plan will be executed by the New Mahabaleshwar Development Company (NMDC). NMDC will have public and private sector participation, and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will be the project's nodal agency. The area covered will be 372 sq km.

BMW Considers India: German luxury car manufacturer BMW has initiated talks with a couple of manufacturers in India to set up a joint venture firm for producing its cars in India. A decision is expected in six months. It plans to enter India in view of the strong growth that the car market has been showing of late. In the first phase, the firm intends to commence sales of fully built imported cars. It has already sent a 3-series model to India for tests and approval.

Subway Enters Ahmedabad: Subway Systems Private Ltd., the wholly owned subsidiary of the US fast food chain, has entered into a franchisee agreement with Ahmedabad based Kameshwar Foods to set up a restaurant in Ahmedabad. Subway has replaced McDonald's as the largest fast food chain in the US and it has planned an investment of Rs. 1,500 million in India to set up around 200 outlets across the country in the next seven years. It is also looking for franchisees in other cities of Gujarat like Vadodara and Surat.

Six Major Gujarat Roads To Be Upgraded: The Gujarat government has invited tenders to modernise six important roads, including the 101 km stretch between Bagodra and Vallabhipur and the 68 km Ahmedabad-Dhansura stretch. In all, 244 km will be strengthened and widened as part of a World Bank aided project at a cost of Rs. 1000 million. The other roads to be modernised are: Tilakwada-Rajpipla(38 km), Jambusar-Amod (10 km), Umreth-Dakor (7 km) and the Jamnagar bypass. Gujarat has a network of 2,382 Km of national highways and 19,129 km of state highways, besides 79,619 km of internal and approach roads.

Sahara's Ahmedabad Township: The Sahara Group has acquired 500,000 square yards of land for about Rs. 200 million in Shela village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad to develop a fairly large residential township. The site, located about 10 kms off the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway, falls outside AUDA (Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority) limits. This is considered to be one of the biggest land deals in recent times. The group also plans to develop residential zones in other cities of the state like Vadodara and Rajkot as well as elsewhere in India.

Henning Holck-Larsen Passes Away: Padma Bhushan Henning Holck-Larsen, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Larsen and Toubro Ltd., passed away in Mumbai on 27th July after a brief illness. Born on 4th July 1907, he spent over 60 years in India. In recognition of his contribution to Indian industry, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2002. Holck-Larsen came to India as a young engineer to set up a cement factory for his company. Wanting to launch out on his own, he joined hands with fellow Dane Soren K. Toubro in 1938 to import dairy equipment from Denmark. Today, that beginning has been transformed into one of India's largest construction and engineering companies, with a turnover of Rs. 96,000 million.

Anthropometric Study On Salwar-Kameez: An American consultant has mapped the vital statistics of Indian women through an anthropometric study for a standard fit and size of the salwar-kameez, the idea being to mass produce this traditional dress. The study has been conducted for apparel manufacturer and exporter TCNS Clothing for its 'W' range of salwar-kameez. Its market has been estimated at Rs. 17,000 million annually across eight Indian cities. About 2,000 women in 40 metros were measured in India to analyse the shape and size of the salwar-kameez. It seems that the planned sizes will generally be suitable for 96 % of the universe in India. The basic design of the Indian salwar-kameez has remained the same for centuries. TCNS will attempt to infuse global styling and design functionality in this dress to provide a contemporary design range for working women. It exports garments to leading brands across the world – Levi's, GAP, Old Navy, May Department, Banana Republic, Saks Inc and JC Penney, etc.

Rasna's Bollywood Bites: Ahmedabad's Rasna is wooing the international market with its ready-to-eat Indian snacks under the brand 'Bollywood Bites'. Indian snacks do have takers abroad with players like Haldiram's and Bikaji being quite popular with their ethnic Indian flavours. Rasna plans to enter into USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, markets that have a sizeable and affluent Asian population. Rasna presently is mainly in the Middle East, with pickles, jams and chutneys under the Rasna brand. With 40 million Indians living abroad and the host of other Asian nationals, the market is more or less ready to be grabbed by the enterprising exporter. Rasna has no immediate plans to enter into the domestic snack foods market as this market is price sensitive and the international style canister packaging that the company has settled on for its snack foods does not permit a lower prices.

Charter A Train: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has come out with a proposal for either chartering trains or special coaches in a train for large groups of tourists. Simultaneously, a 'Value Added Tour (VAT)' package for individuals has also been finalised. IRCTC provides tour operators, corporates, institutions or a group of individuals the facility to hire or run special chartered trains as per their desired composition and routes. For large groups, exclusive carriages and coaches can be attached to regular trains according to the group's convenience. Prospective tourists will have to book 70 days in advance. A group of five is the minimum acceptable for such bookings.

Growth Of Branded Hotels: There are 282 branded hotels in 2003, up from 153 in 1997. In the 5-star and 5-star deluxe category, the number of hotels has gone up from 129 in 1997 to 172 in 2003. In the 3-star or the budget hotel category, the number of branded hotels has grown from 24 to 90. The growth percentage in the 3-star segment is more than in the 5-star segment because of low capital expenditure and the former's presence in smaller cities. A 3-star hotel can cost between Rs. 200 and Rs. 400 million, while a 5-star or 5-star deluxe hotel costs over Rs. 3,500 million.

Electricity Is Expensive In Gujarat: Power rates in Gujarat are the second highest in India. The average cost is Rs. 3.78 per unit, while in Delhi it is Rs. 4.15, in Maharashtra Rs. 3.48 and in Uttar Pradesh Rs. 3.48. Still, Gujarat Electricity Board's accumulated loss at the end of 2001-02 stood at Rs. 49,510 million. The last rate revision was in October 2000, and prior to that in 1994. Regarding agricultural consumption, the average cost to the electricity board was Rs. 3.36 per unit in 2001-02, while the realisation from the customers was only Rs. 0.16 per unit.

An Indian's Arabic Album: A collection of songs in Arabic, rendered by an Indian, will be officially released in the UAE in August. Kerala-born K.P. Jayan, now living in Dubai, said that his maiden album titled 'Zain' (meaning 'good') will be released by the UAE-based Al Jazeera Company.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, From Skopje, Macedonia: Better known as Mother Teresa. Her beatification, scheduled at St Peter's Basilica in Rome on October 19, will be shown live at a huge ground in Kolkata. On that day hundreds of schoolchildren will march through Kolkata's streets to Mother Teresa's tomb at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the group that she founded. A separate mass and commemoration will be held in her honour in the city on November 8. Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. She came to Kolkata in 1929 and was widely regarded a living saint for dedicating her life to caring for the city's impoverished and sick. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Last December, Pope John Paul 2 approved a miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, paving the way for her beatification. A second miracle would make her eligible for sainthood. The Missionaries of Charity have 650 centres in 123 countries run by 4,000 nuns and sisters.

Chicken Facts: Did you know that Tamilians eat three times more chicken than everyone else in India, including the Punjabis? Part of the reason could be that the cost of a Chennai chicken is half that of one in Ludhiana. India's consumption of poultry touched 1.2 kg per person per year in 2002, up from just 500 grams in 1990. We are the world's fastest growing consumers of poultry meat. All the southern states together consumed 520 million kg of chicken in 2002, which is 30 % more than the 325 million kg eaten in north India, and 255 million kg in eastern states. Western India consumed 175 million kg. South India is the only meat market where poultry dominates. In the north and west, mutton is equally popular, and in the east fish is first.

Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Tube Railway: Gujarat has asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to prepare a detailed project report for a tube railway between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The proposed metro system will have two corridors: 32 km from Vasna to Gandhinagar via Sabarmati, and a 14-km east-west stretch from Kalupur railway station to Vastrapur-Thaltej, via Relief Road and over the Sabarmati river. The system will cost Rs. 34,000 million and can be completed by 2009. A third corridor, 8.5 km long from Kalupur to Naroda is also possible, and it can extend right up to Kalol, 44 km away.

Bumper Kharif Crop Expected: Gujarat is having a reasonably good monsoon most of its 25 districts have recorded twice the average rainfall so far. A bumper kharif crop, with the agricultural production expected to be Rs. 200,000 million (compared to Rs. 130,000 million last year). Sowing operations have been completed in 6.4 million hectares out of the 8.1 million hectares of cultivable land in the state. Groundnut, the main kharif crop, has been sown in 1.85 million hectares, cotton in 1.64 million hectares, and foodgrains like maize, millet and paddy in 2.09 million hectares. Even the Kutch and Saurashtra regions have recorded heavy rainfall.

India's Largest Dam: Assuming that all the necessary approvals are forthcoming, India may go about building its largest dam, bigger even than the Bhakra Nangal. It may come up on the Manipur-Mizoram border. The 15,000 MW Tipaimukh Hydro Electric project on the Barak River has been given the techno-economic clearance by the Central Electricity Authority. First proposed in 1955, the dam needs to get further clearances from the Public Investment Board, the Environment Ministry and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The project will require an investment of over Rs. 51,000,million. The cost of the power from it may be Rs. 2.38 per unit. The present storage capacity of the Bhakra Nangal Dam is 9.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) and the that of the Narmada Dam is 12.2 bcm. Tipaimukh Dam's storage capacity could be 15.5 bcm. It has committed 12 per cent of its generated power to Manipur and Mizoram. The biggest buyer of its power will be the Power Trading Corporation, which in turn will supply it through the Southern and Central grid to Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. Of the total project cost, Rs. 1,000 million is for national highway diversion and Rs. 2.000 million for flood mitigation. It will displace 1,000 families and submerge 27,000 hectares of forest. The Government of India will finance 30 per cent of the cost, and the rest will come from loans.

Six Million Women Entrepreneurs: Several groups of women in Andhra Pradesh have set themselves up as successful exporters of products such as shirts, pickles and crochet caps to West Asia, South-East Asia and USA. The women have formed self-help groups (SHGs), and they have been effective enough to merit the attention of some FMCG companies that seek to utilise their selling power. The women began work under the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas' (DWACRA) programme. There are about 450,000 SHGs that involve the participation of a staggering six million women.

Postal Department Shifts Focus: With postcards and money orders fast becoming obsolete in the email and courier age, the postal department is exploring alternative revenue sources. It is using its vast and widely dispersed manpower base for data surveys for the corporate sector and bulk mail operations. Also, its long experience in dealing with people is proving to be of immense value to companies seeking people and locality profiles. The department has lost almost half of its revenue due to the inroads made by new technologies over the past six years. Another innovation is that it now allows paid advertisements on postcards and envelopes.

LPG Cylinders For Iraq: Empty gas cylinders are in short supply in post-war Iraq and the United Nations has put the supply of cylinders on top of its priority list, along with humanitarian aid. India has already supplied 176,600 empty gas cylinders and another consignment of 134,950 cylinders is on the way. The cylinders are being supplied by Faridabad based manufacturer Mauria Udyog, India's largest exporter of LPG cylinders. The company had already delivered 600,000 cylinders before the war.

Digital Signature Certificates: The National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi, has launched a facility for issuing digital signature certificates to central, state government and district administration officials in order to promote e-governance. NIC had been awarded the licence to operate as a Certifying Authority (CA) in May. Apart from NIC, Sify's Safescrypt, Tata Consultancy Services and IDRBT are also licensed CAs, and CBEC and MTNL are due to be licensed soon.

Medical College Professors Allowed Private Practice: The Gujarat government has decided to allow specialist doctors and professors in medical colleges and government hospitals to have their own private practices after duty hours. Many primary health centres and hospitals in the rural areas face a shortage of doctors due to the ban on private practice. Over 500 professors and an equal number of specialists and super specialists will benefit from this decision, and the government may save Rs. 30 million by way of not having to pay non-practicing allowances.

Rajkot's Doll Museum: Rajkot will soon have a doll museum, the second in India (after New Delhi). The Rs. 12.5-million museum, which will exhibit about 3,000 ethnic dolls representing different cultures from 150 countries, is coming up with the help of Shri Arvindbhai Maniyar Charitable Trust, Rotary Club Midtown and Rajkot Nagrik Sahakari Bank. The museum's promoters have written 23,000 emails to 15,093 Rotary clubs worldwide with a request to send ethnic dolls of their respective regions and they have already received 1,000 dolls.

Mobile Archaeological Display: Nagpur's Deccan College is working on an archaeological museum on wheels which will showcase the many ages that mankind has passed through. It is expected to roll out by January 2004. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has sanctioned Rs. 2.5 million for this novel project. A bus is being modified for the purpose. The exhibits will include objects and implements from the Stone Age, proto-historic, early historic and medieval periods. Deccan College is one of the premier Indian institutes for studies and research in archaeology.

Tax Forms On Internet: India's finance ministry has launched a software – Sampark 2003-04 – for preparation of returns on income which would enable to taxpayers to fill in their returns in a prescribed format on the net and take a printout. The software, launched on June 30, can also be downloaded from the website of the Income-Tax Department (www.incometaxindia.gov.in). In case of difficulty, the taxpayer can contact the taxmen by emailing queries at dit@nda.vsnl.net.in.

Billimoria Gets E&Y Award: India-born Karan Billimoria, a chartered accountant and a law graduate of Indian origin from UK, had launched Cobra beer in London in April, 2002. Today, Cobra is a 55-million-pound brand in the UK and Billimoria has been recognised as London's Entrepreneur of the Year 2003 for Consumer Products at the Ernst & Young regional award banquet.

Desert Storm Brewing For Indians: The Saudi Arabian government has asked its private and public sectors to replace 'foreign' workers in 21 different job categories with locals. The aim is to create at least 200,000 jobs for Saudis. According to information available with the Indian government, there are about 1.5 million Indians working in Saudi Arabia, of which 600,000 work in and around Jeddah. More than half of the total Indians employed there are in unskilled categories, while 25 % work in the banking, education, medical and other 'white collar' sectors. The remaining expatriates are in the semi-skilled category.

Cell-Mania In Gujarat: The cellular market in Gujarat has grown by 35 % in the last 3 months. The number of mobile subscribers has now touched 1.354 million. Over 350,000 subscribers were added in the last three months alone. All the six operators of GSM, CDMA and WLL mobile services – Hutch, Idea, Reliance, BSNL, Airtel and Tata Telecom – have gone all out and initiated a war of sorts by offering freebies and value-added services. Market leader Hutch has 600,000 subscribers.

SPU To Launch FM Station: The Sardar Patel University (SPU) at Vallabh Vidyanagar is planning a community (FM) radio station along with the lines of the one at Jammu University. SPU has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prasar Bharti for this purpose and it has also obtained the necessary approval from the Gujarat government. It is now awaiting the final clearance from India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The radio station will have a 50-watt low-power FM transmitter. SPU has been quick to seize the opportunity being provided by the Indian government to grant community broadcasting licenses to well-established universities and institutions. With Prasar Bharti giving the technical expertise, SPU believes that the radio station will serve the needs of Vallabh Vidyanagar, a university town with a population of around 100,000 (of which 50,000 are students and teachers).

The Large Fry Discover Isabgol: The isabgol processors in the Unjha-Sidhpur belt in the Gujarat district of Mehsana are the biggest producers in Asia of this natural laxative. Made from the husk of psyllium seeds, isabgol acts as a fibre that aids easy bowel movements. Big names such as Morepen Laboratories, Dabur and Hindustan Lever are getting increasingly interested in this sector because a large part of the domestic market is still untapped and new markets are opening up abroad. The 70-year-old Sidhpur Sat Isabgol Factory is among the pioneers of the isabgol business. The isabgol market is presently bigger in states that consume more red meat and fish.

Simulators For Armed Forces: Mahindra & Mahindra has decided to manufacture training simulators for weapons, vehicles, aircraft and ships. The company wants the Indian government's permission to locally produce these simulators in a tie-up with Lockheed Martin Information Systems and AIS of the UK. Its defence arm Mahindra Defence Systems is currently marketing these products to the Indian armed forces. It seeks to provide a whole range of simulators, including the ones for small-arms training, advanced infantry weapon training, missile training and force-on-force simulators. It is also considering flight and cockpit simulators for the Indian Air Force and submarine simulators for the Indian Navy.

Gujarat's First Private Petrol Pump: Reliance's first petrol pump in India – and the first in the private sector in Gujarat – will be inaugurated at Hazira near Surat on July 5, thus marking the entry of the petrochemical giant into retailing. The company is designing its petrol pumps in line with international specifications and will offer a number of other services apart from vehicle fuel. A majority of them will be connected through an optical fibre network. They will mostly be Construction contracts have been awarded for 48 other outlets across Gujarat. Reliance has so far avoided setting up petrol pumps in the six major cities – Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar – in the first phase of the project because of high land costs. Most of the petrol pumps on the drawing boards are located on the highways or in smaller towns. The plan is to eventually have 5,000 petrol pumps across the country.

Hike In Power Tariff For Farmers: The Gujarat government has decided to increase the cost of electricity for the agriculture sector with effect from June 1. This has been done in order to reduce the monthly power subsidy of over Rs. 550 million. The rates were raised from Rs. 350 to Rs. 1,050 per HP per year for pumps below 7.5 HP, and from Rs. 500 to Rs 1,200 per HP per year for pumps over 7.5 HP. Farmers will also have to pay five per cent electricity duty. This decision will also help to convince the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to release another tranche of $ 50 million for the government to go in for power sector reforms. An increase in the power tariff and the installation of meters in the agriculture sector were the main conditions of the ADB for sanctioning the $350 million loan. Of 680,000 connections in the agriculture sector, 120,000 have had meters installed. The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) had in fact directed the government to levy a uniform power rate of Rs. 1,600 (plus five per cent duty) on the farmers.

Low-Cost Hearing Device: There are 40 million people in India who are deaf. Many of them can hear if they undergo a 'Cochlear Implant' (CI) surgery. Ahmedabad based ENT surgeon Dr. Vinod Khandhar, author of a research paper on 'Low-cost Cochlear Implant for Developing Countries', has recently received the prestigious fellowship of British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology. Dr. Khandhar has been involved in developing the low-cost Cochlear Implant, a device used to help the deaf hear again. Most patients in India cannot afford to spend Rs. 400,000 to Rs. 800,000 for the multi-channel Cochlear Implant device that is available in the market. Dr. Khandhar has developed a single-channel device that costs Rs. 75,000. Of course, it is not as elaborate as the multi-channel device and therefore not able to process all sound frequencies.

New Delhi's Gutsy Lady: Sunita Chaudhary, 25, is the first woman autorickshaw driver in New Delhi. Hailing from a small village near Meerut, Sunita has been involved in social service and helping women get free legal support against dowry and other atrocities. She also freelances for Hindi dailies, and her articles focus on women's issues such as sexual harassment, dowry and physical torture. She is among the 10 women being trained by the Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) to drive commercial vehicles.

Hospitality Scene: More than 15,000 rooms were supplied in the Indian hotel industry last year, of which 5,000 rooms were added in the approved (one- to five-star) category hotels, registering a growth of 6 % over 2001. The Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI), says that prior to the addition of these 5,000 rooms, in 2001 the Indian hotel industry had 82,181 rooms in the approved categories, of which five-star and five-star deluxe categories comprised 146 properties.

India's Edible Oils Market: Did you know that India has more multinationals investing in its edible oils than in cell phones? Popular brands such as Rath, Dalda, Sundrop and Fortune now have a bit of the foreign tag attached to them. Edible oils are an attractive business proposition because the Indian market uses 10 % of the total fats consumed worldwide and buys 15 % of the oils traded globally. The growth potential seems to be enormous because India's per capita consumption is still only 10 kg per year. The international big-leaguers are already in India: Bunge Agribusiness, Cargill Foods, Archer Daniel Midlands, ConAgra, Wilmar, Felcra Berhard, Premier Vegetable Oil, Felda Palm Industries, Acalpo Wilmar, Kuok. The multinationals are setting up international-sized refineries (1,000-tonnes-per-day) and buying up local brands to gain a foothold. Bunge has recently shelled out Rs. 900 million for a piece of the Dalda pie.

Small Plastic Carry-Bags Banned: The manufacture and sale of plastic carry-bags less than 8 inches by 12 inches in size has been banned across India. Bigger carry-bags, more than 20 microns thick, may still be used. India's environment ministry has finally taken this step to deal with the mounting problem of carry-bags thrown into drains and garbage dumps or littering the landscape. The new rules also require all manufacturers of carry-bags and containers to register with state pollution control boards. The ministry did consider a complete ban, but this may have to wait until the country is ready with viable alternatives and an effective implementation strategy.

More People Pay Income Tax Now: In March 1992, the year the (tax) reforms began, there were 7.8 million (income tax) assesses; this rose to 14 million by 1998 and climbed to 34 million by March 2003. In a nation of 1000 million, this may seem small, but if you subtract 65 per cent of the population that is rural and exempt from tax, it leaves 350 million urban people; divide this by 5.2 persons per home, and you get 68 million urban homes. Assume one taxpayer per family, and divide 68 by 34, you realise that this is every second urban family. Even after subtracting corporate and multiple taxpayers per family, it still means more than two out of five families are on the tax rolls – and this is the best testimonial to our economic reforms! …. From an article in The Times of India by Gurcharan Das

Ordinance For Industrial Parks: The Gujarat government has finalised two draft ordinances for setting up industrial parks in the private sector and establishing special economic zones (SEZs) with 'deemed foreign territory' status in Gujarat. The ordinances, to be put out after the state governor signs them, are meant to attract industrial investment to Gujarat. The developer will have to put up all the infrastructure facilities in the park, including water, electricity and roads. The park will be free from the usual labour laws to which the industries in the state are subject – as in the SEZs. The SEZs will be freed from chapter 5-A and 5-B of the Industrial Disputes Act that seek to regulate layoffs, retrenchments, closures, etc. The Bombay Industrial Relations Act 1946 will not be applicable in the SEZs. The SEZ territories will be free from stamp duty and registration fees on credit deeds, mortgage, land transfer, etc., nor will there be excise or sales tax, luxury tax and entertainment tax.

Assistance For Bismillah Khan: As a special gesture from a grateful country, India's Prime Minister Vajpayee has granted Rs. 200,000 by way of assistance from the national relief fund for the treatment of shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan. The maestro, in his late 80s, now lives in Varanasi and has been ailing for some time.

Dalda's American Owner: Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) will sell its edible oil business in India and Nepal, including the popular vanaspati brand Dalda, to US-based Bunge Ltd., an oilseeds processing company. The proposed Rs. 900 million sale needs the approval of the company's shareholders. HLL will continue to sell and distribute Dalda for a fee. Bunge is an integrated global agribusiness and food company operating in the farm-to-consumer segment with worldwide distribution capabilities and a turnover of $14 billion. In India Dalda has for years been a generic brand for any cooking medium or vanaspati, and HLL was once known largely as the maker of Dalda, the common man's ghee. One of HLL's oldest brands, it was introduced in 1937. The sale is part of HLL's strategy to exit from loss-making businesses. The proposed transfer to Bunge will include the manufacturing facility at Trichy in Tamil Nadu.

World's Largest Mango Producer: India has become the world's largest fruit grower with an output of nearly 100 million tonnes of fruit and vegetable. The country may also be the world's largest mango producer, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the world's output. Nearly a quarter of India's total area under fruit cultivation is set aside for mangoes, which also account for 25 per cent of the total fruit production in the country. Mangoes are becoming increasingly popular in the USA, but the US government does not allow the import of mangoes from India. Indian trade officials have taken up this matter with the US authorities.

Banking At Railway Stations: Several leading banks have won contracts from the Western and Central Railway networks to install ATMs on the railway stations in Mumbai. The first ATM belonging to UTI Bank was inaugurated recently at the Churchgate station. UTI Bank, Punjab National Bank and Corporation Bank will install 35 ATMs along the suburban railway line from Churchgate to Virar, a distance of 80 km. In addition to carrying out banking transactions, customers will also be able to book railway season tickets at the ATMs. Western Railway will earn Rs. 13.8 million annually by way of fees from the banks. Central Railway too has set up ATMs of banks on an experimental basis. The two railway lines together carry over six million commuters everyday.

Every Indian Owes Rs. 4,700: India's 1000 people have a foreign debt of $105 billion. This means that every Indian carries a foreign debt burden of $105 (roughly Rs. 4,700) on his or her head. India's population moved past the one billion mark in the middle of 2001.

Maharashtra Bans Paan Masala: Maharashtra has totally banned the possession and consumption of gutkha and paan masala from July 1. Offenders can be imprisoned from six months to three years. Maharashtra thus has the distinction of being the only state to take effective measures to end the menace of gutkha and paan masala. Even if a small pouch is found on a person he will face imprisonment. There is no provision of a fine for offenders.

India's Animation Industry: The global animation industry may be worth $50 billion by 2005. India may become a major base for animation production services because of the lower costs of production and the availability of technical manpower. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) expects the Indian animation production business to touch $1.5 billion by 2005. Major Indian software services companies have begun entering this business and this may trigger the increase of outsourcing work to India. Currently, the export demand comes largely from 2D animation projects for television programmes and 3D animation for feature films. The future demand is expected to be driven by 3D animation and gaming segments. The industry will also receive a boost because of the demand from domestic television channels, the formation of new animation studios and training centers, the ready supply of content developers and the large base of English-speaking manpower. The production costs of a 30-minute animation film in the USA or Canada are about $300,000, whereas it would cost roughly $60,000 in India.

Mumbai's Highest Tax Payers: Mumbai's 100 highest individual taxpayers for 2003 includes industrialists, film stars and professionals. Hrithik Roshan at No. 3 is the highest among the film stars, followed by Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Karishma Kapoor and Urmila Matondkar. Amitabh Bachhan, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle also figure in the list. Mumbai's No. 1 taxpayer is retailer Dilipkumar Lakhi and stockbroker Radhakishan Damani occupies the second position. Also in the list are Rakesh Roshan, Dhirubhai, Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Ratan Tata, Uday Kotak, Narottam Sekhsaria, Noshir Soonawala, Kunal Dasgupta and Nanoo Pamnani. Lakhi and Damani pay enough income tax to equal the annual turnover of a small to medium sized firm. Mumbai accounts for 35 per cent of the total income tax collected every year ion India. Only three per cent of the entire Indian population pays taxes, an improvement over last year's two per cent.

Gandhi's Tolstoy Farm: The long abandoned Tolstoy Farm in Johannesburg, South Africa, established by Mahatma Gandhi to promote the philosophy of satyagraha, peace and harmony, is to get a fresh lease of life with a group of Indian origin youth volunteering to restore it. Situated about 45km east of Johannesburg, the farm has become run down after its new owners took it over in the 1960s. Tolstoy Farm and the Phoenix Settlement in Durban are two of the most important features left behind by Gandhi in South Africa, after he spent over 22 years in the country in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

Idlis Cross The Chinese Border: A leading Indian restaurant in Beijing has started serving a range of South Indian dishes for the first time in China. This is because more and more Indians – especially the IT variety – are traveling to China now, and the idli is sought after by anyone who takes his or her time getting accustomed to foreign fare.

Santi, The Motorcycle Tractor: Mansukh Jagani of Gujarat's Amreli district has put together a motorcycle tractor, named Santi, which can be used for weeding, ploughing and sowing – and it works out to be cheaper than maintaining the pair of bullocks which are traditionally used for the purpose. About 40 Santis are already in use in the district. The cost: Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 18,000 for the attachment to a diesel powered Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle. The Santi can weed, plough and sow an acre of farmland at about Rs. 8. To plough 10 hectares it takes around eight hours and uses about seven litres of diesel. The Santi is a Bullet with the rear wheel replaced by a trailing two-wheeled attachment. Ploughing, weeding and sowing devices are attached as required. Jagani received some help for his invention from Shrusti, an Ahmedabad based voluntary group that supports innovation in sustainable technologies. He has won an award from the National Innovation Foundation, a group run by the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. Last year Jagani demonstrated his innovation at the Commonwealth Summit in South Africa. Education wise, he has not moved beyond Standard 5, but who bothers? The problem he is working on right now is how to devise a gear to get the Santi to move in reverse too.

NID's Design Business Incubator: India's National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad will, in a few months, start a Rs. 25-million Design Business Incubator (DBI) to enable budding entrepreneurs to convert concepts and ideas into final products and market them. The DBI will help incubate concepts into physical shape. "The system will take bright concepts to their logical conclusion as many ideas die at the concept stage," says NID executive director D.O. Koshy. "Every year, we will invite designers to present their concepts from which we can choose the incubatees and each will get 18 months to work on a concept. The incubatee will have his own office, a common business centre and conference room. We will also look for venture capitalists for the incubatees. As for marketing, NID will have the first right of refusal and then the designer is free to look for a buyer for his product. The DBI can also, at a later stage, set up marketing offices elsewhere. And, the incubatee will have to plough back a part of the royalty to the DBI".

British Banks Shifting Jobs To India: Major British banks and insurance companies are planning to shift up to 200,000 administrative, processing and clerical jobs to India. Adecco, a leading recruitment firm, has predicted the transfer of 100,000 jobs in call centers alone from the UK to India by 2008, but many union officials believe the final figure could be twice as big. Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Prudential are all experimenting with overseas operations and have plans to move more staff abroad. By the end of this year, HSBC Bank will have moved a further 3,600 jobs – in addition to the 5,400 it has already exported – to offices in China, India and Malaysia. Britain accounts for 10 per cent of all outsourcing to Asian economies.

RKC Rajkot Goes Co-ed: Rajkot's Rajkumar College (RKC), India's first public school, was established in 1868. Its 135-year alumni list would include many maharajas and illustrious persons such as Ranjitsinhji, Duleepsinhji and Ajay Jadeja. However, you would not find any ladies on the list. RKC has always been male turf. The old order will soon change. The school has decided to go co-ed with the next session, beginning June 18.

Darbhanga's Electricity Entrepreneurs: As Bihar tries to live with a massive shortage of electricity, the running of private generators to supply power has become a lucrative business proposition in many of its small towns. Darbhanga, which gets power for only four hours a day, now has about 400 'entrepreneurs' who rig up private generator sets to supply electricity. One of the businessmen has three 5-KV generators and supplies to 110 customers. The charge: Rs. 200 for one bulb and one fan connection. The power 'distribution network' is engineered with cables running from roof to roof. The 'production and selling of electricity needs a license from the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), but not many care for this formality. BSEB's electricity plants at Barauni and Muzaffarpur produce barely 20 % of the state's 680 MW electricity demand; the balance is supposed to be met from India's central power sector units. Transmission and distribution losses in Bihar are a whopping 43 %. A full 30 % of the total power losses is on account of theft. BSEB's annual losses add up to Rs. 5,000 million. Not surprisingly, 26,500 if India's 80,000 non-electrified villages are in Bihar.

TIFR Now A Deemed Varsity: India's premier fundamental research institute, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, has been elevated to the status of a deemed university from the current academic year. TIFR, which was affiliated to Mumbai University for over 40 years for its Ph.D degrees, is now empowered to give its own doctoral degree.

Wedding Enriches Army Welfare Fund: A top official of India's external affairs ministry accepted only cheques in favour of the Army Welfare Fund as gifts at the wedding of his son in New Delhi recently. J.C. Sharma, secretary in the ministry, requested guests not to bring any gifts or bouquets to the wedding. In case anyone still felt obliged to give a gift, the marriage invitation card said that the host would only accept cheques in favour of the Army Welfare Fund. Sharma fought in the 1971 war and received the Sena Medal. The bride is the daughter of a retired colonel in the army. Thanks to Sharma's commendable stand the Army Welfare Fund is now richer by over Rs.150,000.

Age Limit For Company Directors: The Indian Companies (Amendment) Bill 2003 proposes that no can hold a board position after the age of 75 years. The amendment will however protect the existing terms of the directors even if they have already attained this age. Businessmen are disturbed and oppose the proposal. They say that if politicians who are this old can remain in office then the businessmen should also be allowed to continue if they are mentally fit and alert. They maintain that the retirement age of the directors should be the prerogative of the shareholders. The Prime Minister and his deputy are over 75, and so also the Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackarey.

American Ships Adapt Ancient Tamil Methods: Without traditional Indian know-how, would the Iraq war have lasted longer? The United States adapted ancient Indian catamaran making technology to construct fast ships that were used with dramatic effect in the Iraq war. Among the equipment the Americans used in the war were 100-ft catamaran ships to ferry army tanks and ammunition from Qatar to Kuwait. The ships, built with technology adapted from ancient Tamil methods to make catamarans, can travel over 2,500 km in less than 48 hours, which is twice the speed of the Pentagon's regular cargo ships. They can carry enough equipment to support about 5,000 soldiers. This information was revealed by the Wall Street Journal recently. Because they have a shallow draft, the boats can unload in rudimentary ports, allowing troops to land closer to the fight. The Pentagon now has only three of these ships but a dozen more are expected to be ordered soon.

Gujaratis Are Antwerp's Biggest Diamond Traders: The European traders who established the world's most famous diamond district at Antwerp are facing stiff competition from Indians, especially Gujaratis. In the global diamond world Indians have been so successful that about 80 % of all polished diamonds sold worldwide pass through Indian hands. In Antwerp, the Indian share of the $ 26 billion-a-year diamond revenues has grown to roughly 65 % from about 25% in the past 20 years. Antwerp, a port city of 500,000 people, is the most important diamond-trading center in the world. About 90 % of the world's uncut diamonds, and half of its polished diamonds, are sold here each year. The city is home to 1,500 retail and wholesale diamond companies and four diamond exchanges. Indian traders began arriving here in the 1970s, drawn by the lucrative diamond business and Belgium's liberal immigration laws. Indians gained a commercial edge over the traditional European traders by sending their rough diamonds for finishing work to family owned factories in Bombay and Gujarat where labour costs are as much as 80 % lower than in Antwerp. The Indians have also proved canny at polishing and cutting the lower quality rough diamonds that the traditional traders typically overlooked, squeezing higher profit margins than their competitors and pumping the profits into their businesses. "We turned cotton into silk", says an Indian trader. In Antwerp, the traditional traders and the Indians are so embedded in each other's lives that many of the Indian dealers also speak Hebrew and Yiddish.

Food Retailing In India: Food retailing accounts for 40% of all retail outlets in India. The estimated annual revenues are about $16 billion. Most of the revenues come from the traditional thelas, kiosks and small shops. 'Modern' retailing of food and grocery is merely 0.5 % of the total food retailing business. Food retailing in A and B cities constitutes over 55 % of the retail market, with a growth rate of 6 %. The proportion is higher than the 40 % level for the country as a whole because of the dining-out culture and more number of options available to the residents of affluent cities. In the metros, the average size of a shop has increased by 50 % in the last 15 years, to about 800 sq ft. In Chennai, more than 20 % of the branded food market is with the organised sector.

Gujarat's New Highways: The state will have a share of the 3,300 km long East-West corridor project connecting Porbandar to Silchar. The Gujarat leg will be from Palanpur to Porbandar. The 1375 km Mumbai-Delhi section of the Golden Quadrilateral project will also cut through the state from Ratanpur to Kajali near Surat. The road from Halol to Godhra is almost complete, and there are plans to extend it to Udaipur via Lunawada and Shamlaji. The Vadodara-Halol 32-km highway is already in use and some people make the trip in 20 minutes. The Ahmedabad-Nadiad expressway is ready, and drivers are already enjoying the new Ahmedabad-Rajkot and Ahmedabad-Mehsana roads.

Digitalised Heritage: You may soon be able to view ancient Indian manuscripts from all over the world in digitalised form at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi. India's Department of Culture at New Delhi has begun a project – Mission Manuscript – to digitalise all Indian manuscripts that are available in India and around the world. Jammu & Kashmir has been appointed the nodal state for this mission. Experts from New Delhi will visit various centres around the world to carry out the digitalisation process. There are 5 million such manuscripts in India. Europe has 60,000 manuscripts and South Asia has 150,000. Of the total, 67 % are in Sanskrit and 25 % in other Indian languages. Some of the manuscripts date back to the sixth century.

Women Commandos: The National Security Guards (NSG), India's elite commando force, have decided to induct women too. Names of possible candidates for special training are being forwarded to it by the feeder agencies – Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and state police forces. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal already have women commandos.

Kolkata Has No Birthday: The Calcutta High Court has accepted the views of an expert committee of historians rejecting the hitherto accepted 'facts' that Kolkata was founded by the English trader Job Charnock and that the city's birthday was on August 24, 1690. The committee was set up by the court after a public interest litigation filed in the court in August 2001 by Sabarna Choudhury Parishad, an organization named after the Calcutta zamindar from whom the East India Company bought three villages – Kolikata, Sutanuti and Govindapur – in the 1690s. The committee's report maintains that Kolkata does not have a specific 'birthday' and that its origin is a part of a general process of rural settlements. The authorities have now been asked to change the history books accordingly.

Counselling Tax Evasion Is Wrong: The Gujarat High Court recently ruled that the publishing of a book on methods of tax evasion by a chartered accountant is a professional misconduct and approved disciplinary action against him by the regulatory authority. The court enhanced the period of the punitive action recommended by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) against the author of 'Tax Planning For Secret Income (Black Money)'. It directed the removal of the chartered accountant from the ICAI membership for five years.

The President's Train Journey: India's President APJ Abdul Kalam will travel by train to Harnot in Bihar to inaugurate a railway depot there this month-end. This will be the first train journey by a head of state in 26 years. The President's train has three coaches and also accommodates railway and Rashtrapati Bhawan officials and security personnel. The presidential coach has a drawing room, a dining room, a study and cabins for his secretary, military attaché and other key staff.

IARI Develops New Spirulina Strain: Scientists at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) have developed a new strain of spirulina, a minute plant which is known to have several health benefits, and they claim that it has high protein and beta carotene in comparison to normal strains. The new strain was developed by inducing mutation in the usual spirulina strain. It has 80% protein, according to the project director at the National Centre of Conservation and Utilisation of Blue Green Algae.

Vikrant As Museum: The Indian government has agreed to give Rs. 50 million to the Maharashtra government for a project to preserve India's first aircraft carrier Vikrant, now decommissioned and berthed in Mumbai Port, as a naval museum. The project has proposed that the ship will have, among other things, a museum, souvenir sales counter, conference hall, viewers' gallery and a restaurant. Vikrant had played a stellar role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

World Heritage City: Chandigarh may soon be the first city from Asia to feature on the list of World Modern Heritage cities. UNESCO has written to the city administration saying that they are considering the idea.

A Beggar's Mite: The Charminar Urban Co-operative Bank which collapsed due to a liquidity crisis, has among its depositors a beggar whose bank balance totals Rs. 196,000.

USA's Millionaires Of Indian Origin: Investment firm Merrill Lynch estimates that of the 1.8 million persons of Indian origin in the US, 200,000 are millionaires. Which is to say that one in every nine Indians in the US is a millionaire. The US has about 2.1 million millionaires, which is less than one per cent of its population compared to the nearly ten per cent for Indian-Americans. The median American NRI income is $60,000, compared to the national average of $38,885. Indians are by far the richest immigrant group in the US. There are 200,000 Indians in Silicon Valley, and their wealth was worth $60 billion in late 2001. The Merrill Lynch survey is based on statistics obtained before the IT bubble had burst.

Surat Soars: The 2001 census shows that Surat's population shot up in 10 years from 1.5 million to 2.8 million. Leaving Vadodara and Rajkot far behind, it may one day nudge past even Ahmedabad, which today is at 4.5 million. Population apart, here are some indicators of the way Surat is headed:

It accounted for 24.58 % of the total investments made in Gujarat in small-scale industries.
It welcomes the world: an estimated two-thirds of its population today consists of 'outsiders'.
Though the unorganised sector has been its traditional strength, it also plays host to gigantic projects of major companies – Reliance, Kribhco, L&T, Essar, ONGC, Cairns and Shell.
Its textile and diamond industry are witnessing a boom.
An apparel park and a jewellery park are on the anvil.
It will soon have a Rs. 550-million airport.
And, of course, there always was and always will be the great Surti food.

Cellular Subscriber Base: The Cellular Operators' Association of India reports that by the end of April 2003 the number of cellular subscribers in the country was 13,335,153. Gujarat heads the state-wise list with 1.07 million subscribers, followed by Maharashtra (1.04 million), Punjab (0.99 million), Andhra Pradesh (0.94 million) and Karnataka (0.89 million).

Half Of British Indians Are UK Born: Just under half of Britain's Indian population was born in England and Wales, according to latest census data. The discovery that a sizeable proportion of Britain's one-million-strong Indian community is British by birth may help mitigate the stigma of foreignness. For the next 10 years these will be the official figures on which Britain's key policy decisions are made. More than half the Pakistani group - 54.5 percent - were born in England or Wales. More Bangladeshis (46.2 per cent) than Indians (45.6 per cent) were born in Britain. The data also reveals that British Indians and other South Asians retain the sub-continental trend of more males per 1000 females.

Dual Citizenship: Indians residing in eight countries – Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, UK, USA – will be eligible for dual citizenship under the long awaited amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 approved by the Union Cabinet recently. They will have no voting rights, may not hold a constitutional post and they may not joining the armed forces. The legislation will be tabled in Parliament at the end of the budget session.

Promotion Of Food Processing: The Ahmedabad based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) has been appointed as a new nodal agency by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, to promote new ventures in the food processing sector in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. EDI will co-ordinate and implement projects for grooming potential entrepreneurs and helping them set up enterprises in the food-processing sector.

Goa's Feni Goes Global: Entrepreneurs in Goa, wanting to give feni a global flavour, have applied for a Geographical Indication Licence (GIL) for the drink which apparently conforms to standards laid down for whisky by the Indian Standards Institution. A GIL stamp identifies agricultural, natural or manufactured produce originating specifically from a particular geographical area. For such a license to be awarded, the product should have a special quality or characteristic or reputation based upon the climatic or production characteristics unique to the geographical location. Such a licence would give legal protection to feni as a produce of Goa, India, and prevent its unauthorised manufacture. It will also offer legal protection in other WTO member countries and mean that feni would be rated along with tequila of Mexico, cachaca of Brazil, soju of Korea and sake of Japan as a regional white spirit. Feni is popular in Europe and West Asia and is already being exported to countries in these regions. It is also being served in Indian restaurants in European countries.

'Sir' Ravinder Maini: Ravinder Maini, a Ludhiana doctor who is now a British national, is the man who developed a treatment for knees made painful by rheumatoid arthritis. In January, he was honoured as a distinguished Pravasi Bharatiya by the Indian government. He has just achieved a rare feat: he has been knighted by the British Queen, following the footsteps of his father who was knighted 46 years ago. Britain has records of its knight bachelors going back to 1257, but no one can remember a knight's son becoming a knight as well. Knighthoods follow no hereditary principle. 'Sir' Ravinder is a professor of rheumatology, the first knight to be working in this subject.

Gujarat 2003:Gujarat Day is being celebrated on 1st May. Here is a statistical bird's-eye view of the state:

White Revolution: Did you know that India produces more milk than the annual output of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Pakistan and the Russian Federation put together? India will become the fastest growing milk economy in the world this year, its output expected to rise by 3 million tones in 2003 to reach 85 million tones. India contributes roughly 15 % to the world total of 600 million tones. While the global milk production is rising by 1 %, India's output will be up by 3.5 %. With this growth surpassing the 2 % annual increase in population, there will be a net increase in the per capita availability. India's increased milk output is largely due to the better feeding of cattle and genetic improvements rather than herd expansion.

Kerala's Palace On Wheels: The Indian Railways' 'Palace on Wheels', the luxury train which takes tourists through the heritage of Rajasthan, has been a runaway success. However, since the train idles away the summer months between April and September, the Rajasthan tourism officials hit upon the idea of allowing the train to ply in Kerala during this lean season. Kerala is ready and willing, and the train may soon have a new route.

Green Gandhinagar: Islamabad, with 325 trees per hectare, is supposed to be the world's greenest national capital. Gandhinagar in Gujarat is now reported to have 425 trees per hectare. The state capital has 3.2 million trees for a population of 150,000 people, which works out to about 21 trees per person. It has 35 different kinds of trees, including neem, gulmohar, banyan, pipal, mahua and rhine.

India Is World's 30th Largest Exporter: With merchandise exports of $ 50 billion during 2002, India ranks as the world's 30th largest exporter. This is according to statistics released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The growth in exports during the year was 15 %, the second highest after China's 22 %. In imports, India ranked 24th (with merchandise imports of $ 56.3 billion; the growth was 12 %, compared to China's 21 %. India now has a 0.8 % share in global exports as well as imports. With its 22 % export growth, China has become the fifth largest exporter in the world, overtaking the UK. In the services sector, India's exports are estimated at $ 20.7 billion during 2002, with a growth of 8 %. WTO has placed India as the 21st largest exporter of services, with a share of 1.3 % in global exports. India was ranked 27th in terms of service imports, with a share of 1 % in global imports.

NID May Tie Up With Apparel Companies: The National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad is planning to collaborate with apparel companies and marketers like Madura Garments, Arvind Brands, Wills Lifestyle, Raymonds and Gokuldas in an attempt to reposition its apparel design course as 'apparel design and merchandising'. This is because the global market needs the twin skills of design and merchandising and the course should therefore offer designers-cum-merchandisers to the industry. The idea is that professionals from the companies should visit the campus and students should be given practical training at the companies. The course proposes to offer specialisation in menswear, womenswear, kidswear and designer wear. Design students will hopefully study subjects like apparel merchandising, retailing, research methodology and supply-chain management. Retail consultant KSA Technopak and market research agency A.C. Nielson will teach trend forecasting and retail branding to students.

Private-Sector Petrol Stations: Reliance will soon launch India's first private-sector retail station for petroleum products. The first outlet is expected in the vicinity of the company's Jamnagar refinery. In 2003-04, Reliance may set up 100 stations in Gujarat out of the 800 planned all over the country. Essar Oil should have eight outlets ready soon in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Reliance and Essar stations will also offer ATMs, cyber cafes, video parlours, entertainment, supermarkets and car and truck repair services. Broadband connectivity will be provided to all these outlets. The focus is along the highways since land is cheaper and diesel is the main product sold. Diesel accounts for 85 per cent of automotive fuel sales (Rs. 920,000 million). Petrol or motor spirit sales are less (Rs. 230,000 million). The overall Reliance plan: 8,768 petrol pumps and 15,007 diesel pumps at 5,849 retail outlets. Investment per outlet will be Rs. 10 to Rs. 40 million. India's existing network of 18,500 petrol stations is shared by four public-sector undertakings: Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and IBP. Besides Reliance and Essar, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has the permission to set up 650 stations and Numaligarh Refinery 500 outlets.

Thermometers From Bangalore: A Bangalore based firm has bagged huge orders to supply digital thermometers to Singapore after the city-state made it mandatory for its citizens to check their temperatures in its battle against SARS. The company, Opto Circuits Ltd., is an electronic components manufacturer and the only producer of digital thermometers in India. The order may touch one million units.

Islands On lease: In order to step up tourism the Andaman and Nicobar administration has decided to lease one island and over a dozen sites (from its basket of 572 islands) for the purpose of developing resorts. The sites identified for the resorts include Goodwill Estate, North Passage Island, Long Island, Smith Island, Neil Island and Brookshabad. The administration may offer a five-year tax holiday and a revenue sharing arrangement similar to the mobile phone industry. The islands presently attract over 80,000 domestic tourists and 10,000 foreigners every year. The airport at Port Blair can handle Boeing-737s.

Housing In India: The recently released census data on housing reveals some interesting changes between 1991 and 2001.

The population grew by 21.3 % while the number of houses grew by 27.7 %, from 195 million to 249 million.

The number of households grew 27 %, from 151 million to 192 million, which suggests that Indian families are getting smaller.

The proportion of households living in permanent structures rose from 41.7 % to 51.8 %, while the number of permanent houses increased from 63 million to 99 million.

The number of households living in semi-permanent structures grew from 47 million to 58 million.

38.5 % of households live in one-room structures, down from 40.5 % in 1991.

16 million houses remain locked up and were not let out.

The number of households who own their dwelling rose 27.6 % to 166 million from 130 million.

The proportion of households who own their houses was unchanged at 86 %.

The number of households with attached latrines nearly doubled to 70 million.

Over 60 % of households do not have a latrine on the premises.

The number of households that depend on wells for drinking water decreased from 49 million to 35 million.

The number of households that depend on hand pumps and tube wells for drinking water increased from 45 million to 79 million.

Hazardous Waste Sent Back To USA: In the first ever case of 'reverse dumping', 1,416 drums filled with 290 tonnes of hazardous mercury wastes from a thermometer factory at Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu will be sent back to the USA. Environment activists and Greenpeace India maintain that mercury vapours released from the factory (owned by Hindustan Lever Ltd. and now closed down) affected the health of workers and the community and caused lasting damage to the environment during its 18 years of operation. Hindustan Lever has arranged to ship the hazardous mercury and related wastes from the factory back to USA, to a hazardous waste recycling firm, Bethlehem Apparatus in Pennsylvania. The factory had been transplanted to India in 1983 after it was shut down in Watertown, New York. The factory imported its mercury, primarily from USA, and finished thermometers were exported back to USA for distribution to markets abroad. Following protests the factory was closed down in 2001 by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

Silent Radar: India has developed a low-probability intercept radar that cannot be detected by an incoming aircraft and can escape from an anti-radiation missile attack. Developed for naval applications by scientists at Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore, its main features are: minimum personal hazard, high resolution, fully solid state and low power consumption.

Birla Group's International School: The Aditya Birla group is setting up a public school with international affiliation, for which it has acquired 67 acres in Bannerghatta, near Bangalore. It is in the process of getting affiliation from the Geneva based International Baccalaureate, enabling students to enroll in foreign universities straight after the 12th standard.

CNG In Gujarat: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) may make a big entry in Gujarat by the year 2004. The plans are to set up about 85 CNG stations in Ahmedabad. Nearly 75,000 autorickshaws and 700 city buses, the biggest pollution sources, will be covered. The Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) will set up a chain of 246 CNG filling stations along the highway between Hazira and Mehsana. The concerned government departments are working to follow the Indian Supreme Court order which brackets Ahmedabad with eight other most polluted cities where its implementation is a must.

IIT To License Its Patents: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has decided to form a separate company to license its patented innovations for corporate use. IIT has constituted a committee to set up the corporate body. This company will market innovations under the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). IIT Director M.S. Ananth stated this recently while delivering a lecture at Chennai on 'University as a Business Enterprise'. The committee members will include IIT professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala and Infosys Deputy MD Gopalakrishnan.

First Video Conference Trial: India's first judicial trial through video conference began this week in a Mysore court with one of the witnesses in a copyright infringement case deposing from Los Angeles in the USA. The case has been filed by Veda Nayak, promoter of the Mysore based NRI Film Productions Ltd., against Hollywood firm Twentieth Century Fox. Nayak has alleged in his petition that Twentieth Century Fox had infringed the Copyright Act provisions by producing the Hollywood blockbuster 'Independence Day' based on his film script, 'Extra Terrestrial Mission (ETM)'. This is the first legal trial to be held through video conference after a recent Supreme Court ruling that evidence in criminal trials in the country could be recorded through video conference.

McDosa & McDhokla May Be Next: Product innovations made by McDonald's India will soon benefit customers in China, Hong Kong, UK and the USA. The success of Indian-born McDonald products like Pizza McPuff, McAloo Tikki, Crispy Chinese Burger and Paneer Salsa will surely spill over to McDonald's outlets in other countries. A team from the USA parent company has visited India and gathered the prototypes of the delicacies. Will McDosa and McDhokla be next? Incidentally, Deesa – a small town in Gujarat's Banaskantha district – is the single sourcing point for McDonald's potato requirements in India, currently at 1,000 tonnes per year.

Remittances From Indians Abroad: According to the World Bank's latest report on 'Global Development Finance' Indian workers working abroad have remitted $10 billion in 2001, the highest anywhere in the world. Second: Mexico ($9.9 billion). Third: Philippines ($6.4 billion). In 2001, workers' remittance receipts of developing countries were $72.3 billion. The remittances to the developing nations are 42 per cent of the total FDI flows. Some of the countries from which the workers are bringing in the money: USA ($28.4 billion), Saudi Arabia ($15.1 billion), Germany ($8.2 billion), Belgium ($8.1 billion) and Switzerland ($8.1 billion).

Important Supreme Court Ruling: Adding a new chapter to criminal jurisprudence in India, the Supreme Court has ruled that evidence of witnesses staying in foreign countries could be recorded by trial courts through video conferencing. Recording of evidence by video conferencing satisfies Section 273 of the Criminal Procedure Code which provides that it be done in the presence of the accused.

NRI City: Real-estate major Omaxe Construction says that it will develop a Rs. 4000 million township at Greater Noida near Delhi for non-resident Indians. The 85-acre township may be as 'NRI City' – what else? – and the project will be completed in three years.

India's Most Powerful Computer: On 1st April India became the fifth nation in the world (after USA, Japan, Israel and China) to have a next generation high performance scalable supercomputing cluster with a peak computing power of 1 teraflop. Named Param Padma, India's most powerful computer is housed at C-DAC's Terascale Supercomputing Facility (CTSF) at Bangalore. The latest terascale supercomputing system has several hundred gigaflops of sustained power on internationally accepted benchmarks and storage of over 10 terabytes. Param Padma is powered by C-DAC's flexible and scalable High Performance Computing and Communication software environment.

SC Order On Divorce: Holding that the right to privacy is not an absolute right, India's Supreme Court in a landmark ruling has said that a matrimonial court had the power to order medical examination of a spouse in cases where divorce is sought on health grounds. While cautioning the courts not to order a roving inquiry about a person in a matrimonial dispute, a bench said that a matrimonial court has the power to order a person to undergo a medical test.

Donations By E-Hundi: Thanks to Andhra Bank, you can now make your money offerings to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Board from anywhere, virtually. The bank has launched a new product, e-hundi, that will enable devotees to send their contributions without actually visiting the temple. TTD's annual income is over Rs. 4000 million.

Indian Students Abroad: The Indian student population in the USA registered a growth of 22 % in 2002. The 66,836 Indian students currently studying in the USA represent 12 % of the total number of international students there. The population of Indian students is growing at all major educational destinations around the world, including UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and France. Research indicates that India and China will soon dominate the world education arena, with their students constituting about 50 % of the total demand for higher education in few decades.

Villages Without Phones: Of the 600,000 villages in India, 110,000 – that is, 20 % of them – still do not have access to a single public telephone. Some state-wise figures of villages without a telephone: Rajasthan (17,594), Madhya Pradesh (14,200), Maharasthra (11,988), Gujarat (7,068), Assam (6,701), Andhra Pradesh (6,124), Chhattisgarh (6,125), Jharkhand (6159), Orissa (6776).

Women Entrepreneurs In India: Manipur and India's four southern states are at the top as far as the ownership of manufacturing units by women is concerned. West Bengal and Orissa also have a relatively large number of women entrepreneurs, and Punjab is not far behind. The northern states, by and large, and the west are far behind. For every 100 units that have been set up in the unorganised manufacturing sector, only 6 % are owned by women in Delhi. The national average for women ownership of manufacturing units in the unorganised sector is 31.6 %, according to the National Sample Survey Organisation's 56th report. Manipur leads with 82.8 %. Some of the other figures: Karnataka (51 %), Kerala (50 %), Tamil Nadu (45 %), Andhra Pradesh (35 %).

'Theli Phones' For Self-Employed Women: About 5,000 women artisans, salt farmers, vegetable vendors, midwives and many other self-employed women in Gujarat will soon have the 'Theli Phone' (mobile phone in a shoulder-bag) in an innovative yet simply named scheme planned by the NGO, Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa). Sewa Bank will advance Rs. 5,000 to each member to buy mobile handsets and subscribe to the mobile services. SEWA had determined that the lack of effective communication services was a major factor hampering the efficiency of its members. SEWA has tied-up with all the cellular and limited mobility service providers operating in the state as well as handset manufacturers. In another development, SEWA is setting up 40 Computer Learning Centres across the state under its Vigyansewa scheme and it will install 400 computers at these centres.

Tagore As Brand: Viswa Bharti University, the institution founded by Rabindranath Tagore, may appoint a multinational communications consultancy, Ogilvy Public Relations, to devise a strategy and help distribute the poet's works in unexplored territories. The institution had exclusive copyright to the entire body of Tagore's work, since his death in 1941, but the monopoly ended in January 2002. The 'endeavour will be to strengthen Tagore's brand equity further by increasing the depth of reach and distribution of Viswa Bharti among potential and existing readers across the world', according to Ogilvy Public Relations.

Compressed Animal Feed: A Karnal-based company has come up with a fodder compressing system that reduces the volume of fodder to one-third without affecting its nutritional value. This innovation may help to revolutionise the Indian dairy industry. The technology developed by Poshak Feeds Ltd. compacts 12 kg of animal feed into plastic-lined squares of one foot by one foot. A truck can therefore carry 10 tonnes of fodder instead of the usual 3 or 4 tonnes. Dairy owners just have to open a pack, wet it and feed it to the animals. Others involved in the idea are the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, and the Indian Grassland & Forest Research Institute. Another way to produce straw based 'whole' feed is to grind straw and fortify it with other additives and make briquettes or pellets of this mixture. Baroda based Spectoms Engineering Pvt. Ltd. has used their 'Universal Grinder' for size reduction of straws and their Pellet Mills with special accessories to pelletise this fluffy product. Efforts are at an advanced stage to produce such feeds for domestic consumption as well as for exports to the Middle East.

Potatoes In A Cake: Appears strange but scientists at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, claim that this may be quite workable. Using potato flour, made of dried, mashed and sieved potato powder, a team from the university's Department of Food Technology & Bio-Chemical Engineering has come out with a cheaper and tastier alternative to wheat and rice flours for a range of bakery products. The team worked with a composite of potato and wheat flours to make a batter with equal quantities of fat and sugar. A cake made out of this batter, with 40 per cent potato powder, was found to be acceptable, maybe because it diluted the gluten content of wheat flour. India ranks fifth in the world in potato production, with an annual yield of over 28 million tonnes. Because of the limited availability of cold storage, a substantial portion of this production is wasted or fetches lower prices. Since less than 0.5 percent of the potato yield is processed, there is considerable scope for expansion of the potato processing industry.

Do Not Stop Payment On Post-Dated Cheques: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that the stop payment of post-dated cheques issued by a person to settle his debt or liability may amount to a penal offence. "A post-dated cheque will lose its credibility and acceptability if its payment can be stopped routinely," a two-judge bench said in a recent judgement. Some people fear that where post-dated cheques are issued against future services the customer will lose the option of stopping payment in the event of deficient service. It is however suggested that if there is a deficiency in service the borrower has the option of obtaining an injunction against the lender depositing the cheque.

Amusement & Theme Parks: India's Amusement park developers and equipment manufacturers are showcasing potential business opportunities at the ongoing trade show in Delhi's Pragati Maidan. Ashok Goel, who runs Essel World in Mumbai, is the president of the Indian Association of Amusement Parks & Industries (IAAPI). The fun business comprises amusement parks, theme parks, water parks, family entertainment centres, bowling alleys, go-carting, etc. There are over 100 amusement parks in India. An estimated 600 million Indians visit various melas, exhibitions and shrines every year. The next two years will see an investment of Rs. 4000 million added to India's Rs. 13,000-million amusement and theme park industry. Twelve fun parks will be added across the country. Domestic players are venturing outside India. Delhi-based Polo Amusement Park is setting up an amusement park in Australia.

Mother's Name Mandatory In School Admission Forms: From June 2003 the mother's name will compulsorily have to be indicated while admitting a child to school. The father's name will not be mandatory. The mother's name may be followed by the father's name, but no school should insist on mentioning the father's name. A government resolution to this effect has been circulated to all government and non-government primary schools. Also, a student named, for instance, Gita Ghanshyambhai Shah will now be allowed to change the name to Gita Kalyaniben Shah if she so wishes. This decision is the culmination of sustained representations by various social organisations, orphanages and divorced women.

Traditional Knowledge Library: The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) that will be launched in April seeks to protect India's traditional knowledge and strengthen the country's case in the international patent classification process. TKDL is being prepared in six languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Hindi – by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). After the patent fights in US courts for haldi, neem and basmati, an urgent need was felt to document the traditional Indian knowledge in languages understood by patent offices abroad. A team of 30 ayurveda specialists, five IT experts and four scientists are on the job of preparing TKDL.

India's Milk Sector: India is the world's largest milk producer. However, only 12 % of the total annual production of 84 million tones comes from the organised sector. With a turnover of Rs. 1 trillion, the milk sector provides employment directly or indirectly to over 83 million people round the year. Of these, 11 million are estimated to be part of the milk cooperatives in the country. India figures low among milk exporting countries because the infrastructure for collecting and handling milk is limited to a few cooperatives and a few states.

University Status For Dhirubhai Institute: The Gujarat Assembly has passed a bill giving the status of a university to the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology near Gandhinagar. This self-financed institute is the first of its kind in India to have university status.

Indians Love Debit Cards: Indians seem to prefer debit cards to credit cards, that is, they would rather spend the money they already have than pay banks interest for credit taken. The country's debit card base (9.6 million) has crossed that of credit cards (8.6 million), and it has been only five years since the first debit card was issued by Citibank. The potential for debit cards is mind-boggling: while only about 30 million people in the country are eligible for credit cards, all bank account holders qualify for a debit card.

Postal Department Introduces Customised Envelopes: India's Department of Posts (DoP) is innovating. Its Business Development Cell is pushing customised envelopes for large corporate houses, with a minimum order of 10,000. Company using this facility will be able to advertise on the back cover of the envelope and feature the postage stamp of the company on the front side. The company logo will also be permitted.

Dalda May Leave Lever Family: It has been reported that Hindustan Lever may sell Dalda, one of its oldest brands, a name which was once more familiar than Lever to most Indians. Dalda was launched in 1937 and it is a leader in the vanaspati cooking oil market in the organised sector. The brand may not fit into Lever's present strategies because the Rs. 20,000 million vanaspati market is dominated by the unorganised sector and Dalda's profits may now be insignificant for the company. Besides, consumer preference is drifting towards competing products such as soya oil. Also, vanaspati oil is now essentially a commodity market and it's difficult to sustain a powerful brand in it.

Corporate High-Flyers: India's corporate big-wigs are now opting for fancier flying machines, jet planes that are faster and armed with the latest avionics. Among the high-flyers: Aditya Birla group (Gulfstream 100); UB Group (Boeing 727); Reliance Group (Global Express, with a cruise speed of Mach 0.88 and a range of 11,000 km); Sahara Group (Challenger 800).

Government May Allow Private Employment Exchanges: The Gujarat government may permit all its 25 employment exchanges to be run by private persons, associations or non-government organisations having certain minimum facilities, such as office space, telephone, computer, internet connection, etc. The centers will not be allowed to charge any money from the jobless for providing employment, but they will be free to charge the employers. The centers will also be free to open branches in any towns or villages. The government expects that 1,000 such centers will be set up. There are 1.1 million job seekers currently registered with the exchanges.

Aerial Mining Of Copper: Scientists at the School of Environmental Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have discovered that the air over northwest India – parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh – has fairly high amounts of copper – 6,000 parts per million (ppm) in summer and 15,000 ppm in winter (copper constitutes nearly 1.5 % of the solid particles – aerosols – in the air over Delhi). Since copper ores containing just 0.5 % of copper are considered to be potential sites for commercial mining, it is only logical that the aerosols having three times more concentration should also be mined. The JNU scientists, reporting their findings in the latest issue of 'Current Science', suggest 'aerial mining' – extracting the copper by filtering the air.

Isabgul Processing Unit: Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU) plans to set up a Rs. 2.5 million plant on its Palanpur campus to process isabgul (psyllium) and other spices. Isabgul is separated in husk form and 85 per cent of the processed material is exported. Many medicinal formulations are made from isabgul husk. India is one of the major producers, and the highest area under cultivation is in Gujarat (mostly in Mehsana, Banaskantha, Kutch, Surendranagar and Sabarkantha).

Get Married Before 30th July: Those who believe in astrology may decide not to get married between July 30, 2003 and August 27, 2004. Based on scriptures and planetary alignments, this period is considered to be inauspicious ('Kamurta') in Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Delhi and other areas that between the rivers Ganga and Godavari. A special discussion on the new planetary position, the 'Sinhasta Guru' which starts from July 30, 2003 and continues for 13 months, has been planned by the Baroda Sanskrit Mahavidyala (BSM).

Energy Efficiency Of Consumer Durables: From June 2003 a directive of India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will ensure that manufacturers of durables like air-conditioners, refrigerators and lamps offer detailed information on energy consumption and life-cycle costs. The products will carry star ratings depending on their energy efficiency. Manufacturers have agreed to follow EFF2, a European standard for energy efficiency. According to estimates, the potential energy savings on refrigerators and air-conditioners could be 400 MW annually. In refrigerators, the energy consumption for various models varies between 400 units a year and 1,000 units a year, while the variation in energy efficiency for air-conditioner is 30 to 40 %.

Carry Your Credit Card Abroad: The latest Reserve Bank of India measure excludes expenses through international credit cards from the basic travel quota (BTQ) for private and business travel. This not only effectively increases the annual foreign exchange limit for overseas travellers, it also makes life easier for foreign travellers as they do not have to run around for traveller's cheques or dollars before they embark upon journeys. Currently, the foreign exchange ceiling for private travel is $10,000 a year, while for business travel it is $25,000 per trip.

Globe-Trotting Gujarati Skips Home State: When it comes to tourism, the people of Gujarat prefer other states and foreign destinations. It is not unlikely that many would have taken several trips to Hong Kong, Mauritius, Manali and Nepal, while being blissfully unaware of Somnath, Dwarka, Sasan Gir, Kutch, Pavagadh and Saputara. Some estimates suggest that 35,000 Gujaratis travel within the country every year, and another 85,000 holiday abroad. Most Gujaratis prefer Goa, Manali, Darjeeling, Sikkim or Nepal as their destinations.

The Price Of Autonomy: India's Prasar Bharati Corporation (the company behind Doordarshan) has been asked by the Department of Space (DoS) to shell out Rs. 5000 million for using its transponders. Courtesy DoS, Doordarshan beams about 20 channels through INSAT 3-C, PAS10, 2 DT, Thiacom, etc. DoS now plans to offer its services to private channels for a fee, and it wants to treat Prasar Bharati as just another private entity.

Pocket Braille Calendar: It's a calendar, but in Braille, for the visually handicapped. The size of a pocket diary, each month on a single page, it is easy to carry around. Designed by researchers at the R&D wing of the Bible Society of India, it is the first such attempt in the country to develop such a calendar. A similar calendar did exist earlier, but then it was a big chart that had to be pasted on a bulletin board and therefore difficult to carry.

Thornless Roses: Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, have introduced the country's first thornless rose. It is called 'Mohit', and it is deep red in colour. It will take two years to complete the field trials before it can be exported. There is demand for thornless varieties of roses as it is then easier for farmers to pack and sell them. Mohit has competition from the French, in the form of a thornless rose called Grand Gala.

Hospital Completes 100 Years: On February 15 the Salvation Army Emery Hospital in Anand celebrated 100 years of its existence in Gujarat. It was established in 1903 and has since then played a significant role in the development of Anand.

Corporate Jet For Ambanis: The Reliance Group may be acquiring a $40 million Global Express corporate jet with advanced features such as Satcom and Internet connectivity. The executive jet, for the use of Mukesh and Anil Ambani, is due in April 2003. The plane is capable of very high speeds (Mach 0.88) and it can fly non-stop for 11,130 km.

A US Patent For Atta Chakkis: The US Patent Office has granted patent rights to ConAgra Inc. for the 'method for producing an atta flour'. The patent application states "the present invention relates to a method for producing an atta flour, which is typically used to produce Asian breads such as chapati and roti. The atta flour method includes passing an amount of wheat through a device designed to crack the wheat so as to produce an amount of cracked wheat, followed by passing the cracked wheat through at last two smooth rolls designed to grind the cracked wheat into flour, etc…etc. The three co-inventors in the ConAgra application – Ali Salem, Sarath Katta and Sambasiva Chigurupati – have Asian ancestry.

'Veda' As Trademark: VEDA GmbH of Germany, involved in the development of computer software, has obtained exclusive rights over the name Veda for its computer products and registered it in many countries. The name Veda symbolises knowledge, heritage and much more to Indians. This occurs just months after another German firm patented the word 'Vaastu', the art of aesthetic architecture of ancient India.

CBI Website Launched: A new CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) website cbi.Nic.In has been launched recently. Besides details about the organisation and its functions, the website contains information on Interpol, Interpol Red Corner notices, fraud alerts, Central Forensic Science Laboratory, CBI Academy and rulings by the Supreme Court.

33 Gujarat Companies 'Vanish': Gujarat is home to 33 companies out of a total of 117 in India that seem have 'vanished' with public money. These companies and their promoters have been accused by the Department of Company Affairs (DCA), New Delhi, of misusing funds raised from the public through the issue of shares and debentures. The companies, 26 of which are in Ahmedabad and its suburbs, tapped the capital market and collected funds from the public before 'disappearing'. Baroda has four such companies.

Ahmedabad Phone Numbers Changed: From February 1, telephone numbers in Ahmedabad will be prefixed with '2'. With this, all the numbers in the city will become eight-digit numbers.

Elections To Local Bodies: Elections to 105 local self-government bodies across Gujarat will be held on February 16. By-elections to 139 seats in such bodies will also be held on the same day. The counting of votes will be on February 19. Going to the polls are 88 municipalities or nagarpanchayats, the Kheda and Banaskantha district panchayats and 15 taluka panchayats.

Cyclomoto: Hero Cycles, India's largest bicycle manufacturer, is likely to launch the country's first motorised bicycle by July 2003. The under-25 cc 'Cyclomoto' may do 80 kms with a litre of petrol with an effective speed of 20 kms per hour. The price may be Rs. 6,000. The investment on this project is Rs. 70 million. The company is also working on a 30 cc motorised bicycle running on kerosene. Motorised bicycles are quite popular in China, accounting for 10 per cent of the 54 million units cycle market. The Indian cycle market is around 250 million units, which includes cycles that are 10 to 15 years 10-15 old.

Internet Usage Grows: India's tribe of Internet subscribers continues to grow. The number went up by 34 per cent to 3.2 million at the end of 2002. About 23 per cent of the subscribers were with Sify and VSNL accounted for 21 per cent. The number is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 27 per cent, and it should touch 8.2 million by 2006. About 70 per cent are home users, and only 30 per cent are business users. The growth can be attributed to dropping access rates and more affordable PCs.

Pre-Marital Training: Manju Sukhramdas Sanskar Kendra in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) is a 'school' that claims to give young women the tips they need to ensure a happy marriage. It teaches the qualities and responsibilities of an ideal daughter-in-law, and how to adjust to a new household and how to behave with the husband and in-laws. There is no fee for the 'training' imparted and it seems that 4,500 ladies have graduated from this school since it opened in 1987. The 60-year-old Ms Hemnani is the school's founder and only teacher, and her purpose seems to be to pass on the practical wisdom she has acquired. However, considering that this is now the 21st Century, she should now think in terms of persuading someone to start something similar for the males of the species, because it may often be the case that the 'unfairer' sex may in fact be literally so too.

Your Gold May Be Impure: Indians love their gold, and they are the world's largest consumers of this precious yellow metal. What Indians favour traditionally is 22ct gold because it has more value than the 18ct variety that is common in western countries. However, it seems that customers are often duped by goldsmiths and even reputed jewelers and the gold they buy may not be as pure as it is claimed to be. A study conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) revealed that only 14 samples out of 120 drawn from jewellers in eight cities were of the declared value. Therefore, more and more people are asking for hallmarked gold to ensure that they are buying the genuine 22ct product (a minimum of 91.6 per cent is required). With only 11 hallmarking centres in India, including three in New Delhi and two in Mumbai, jewellers in several metros and large cities are waiting for more centres to become operational. The cost of setting up a hallmarking centre is about Rs. 6 million.

Lower Rates, More Talk: Though airtime rates have been dropping in India, the mobile phone bills have not dropped accordingly. The reason is that Indians are talking more: the average talk time per subscriber has risen to 550 minutes per month in recent months, from 400 minutes at the beginning of last year. The average in India is more than double the world average of 250 minutes, and close to the maximum of about 600 minutes in some developed markets.

Indian Autorickshaws Abroad: The Indian autorickshaw, the popular three-wheeler passenger carrier, is moving more forcefully into foreign markets. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says that exports of this vehicle increased by 300 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year; 31,611 units were exported during April-December 2002, compared to 9,429 units in the corresponding period last year. Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BAL) alone exported 29,285 units, and Piaggio shipped out 2,319 units. The major chunk was to Bangladesh, Srilanka and Peru. The Industry is now exploring the potential of markets of Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa. These developing countries have similar features – rising demand for convenient modes of urban public transport, less developed public transport systems and disparity in income levels. BAL offers autorickshaws that run on petrol, diesel and CNG.

Rudraksh May Become Rare: The rudraksh tree (elaeocarpus ganitrus), whose nuts are used as beads in rudraksh malas, may soon become extinct if immediate conservation measures are not taken up. There are 120 known species of this tree. It reproduces mainly through seeds, and the increased seed collection for household and industrial use has resulted in shrinkage of the seed bank in the soil, which in turn has affected the regeneration of the species.

Temples Receive Generous Contributions: The Economic Times recently carried a feature regarding the generous contributions received by India's religious institutions – of all denominations. The small and large donations are enough to run and properly maintain the institutions, as well as to carry out numerous charitable works.

Some examples:
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which includes the famous Sri Venkateswara Temple, had an income of Rs. 5,320 million last year. Of this, Rs. 1,880 million came from hundi collections (the money directly contributed by devotees. Sale of laddoos brought in Rs. 500 million. The interest on deposits was Rs.1,450 million. The temple has about Rs. 5,600 million in fixed deposits and five tones of gold reserves. Rs. 200 million was earned from the sale of hair alone.
The Ramakrishna Mission, the order of monks that was started by Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and had Swami Vivekananda among its main 15 disciples, had an income of Rs. 1,520 million.
Palani Devasthanam, the seat of Dandayudhapani Swami, had an annual income of about Rs. 800 million.
Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan, the trust managing the Shirdi temples, had an income of Rs. 620 million in 2001-02.
The Jaggannath Temple of Puri, the Dwarkadhish Temple of Dwarka and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple report annual incomes of about Rs. 100 million each.
The Ambaji Temple in North Gujarat recorded an income of Rs. 150 million last year.
The Sabarimala Temple in the Sahyadri hills of Kerala had an income of Rs. 190 million last year.
Mumbai's Shri Siddhi Vinayak Temple registers an annual income of Rs. 110 million.

Most religious institutions put their income to religious as well as charitable use, including education, rehabilitation after natural disasters and health. TTD runs numerous degree colleges, junior colleges and high schools in and around Tirupati and a college in New Delhi. It also runs hospitals. Shri Saibaba Santhan runs a 120-bed hospital.

Telecom War Hurts PCOs: The intense competition in India's telecom sector is beginning to hurt Gujarat's 43,000 STD-PCO operators. A decent income is no longer possible with just a small booth. The PCO business presently accounts for nearly 8% of BSNL's total revenue in Gujarat. However, the decline has begun. For instance, over 1,800 STD-PCOs in Rajkot alone have seen their billing drop to Rs. 20 million now as against Rs. 40 million two years back. The reasons for the drop in business:

The attractive cellular STD rate of Rs. 2.99 a minute
Over the last year the STD rates have come down by nearly 65%, but the commission rate for PCO operators remains the same
The attractive ground dialing system that allows phone calls within a 200-km radius without STD facility
Local calls have reduced because of mobile phones with messaging facilities
Among those affected will be handicapped persons, widows and ex-servicemen who were allocated PCOs on a preferential basis.

India Exports Salt To USA: India has for the first time exported common salt to the USA, which incidentally is the largest salt producer in the world. A consignment of 32,500 tonnes of salt was exported to the US from Jakhau port in Kutch last month. India is the third largest producer of salt in the world (17 million tonnes in 2002), after the US and China. The bulk of the salt is exported to countries such as Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh.

Circuses May Come Under Zoo Authority Supervision: In a move that will change the way that circuses are managed in India, the Ministry of Environment & Forests proposes to classify them as zoos by suitably amending the Wildlife (Protection) Act. Awaiting presidential assent, the amendment seeks to expand the definition of zoos to include circuses and rescue centers. As a result, circuses will no longer be able to operate without obtaining the prior permission from the Central Zoo Authority, a body which has the powers to recognise or derecognise zoos. The purpose behind the amendment is to improve the treatment of animals in circuses.

Coffee-Table Book On Tea: Corporate historian D.K. Taknet has written a 262-page treatise titled 'The Heritage of Indian Tea'. If you did not already know it, he reveals that India is the world's largest consumer and producer of tea and that Darjeeling tea is considered to be the champagne of all teas. The tea industry employs 20 million people (roughly 2 per cent of India's population), second only to the railways. Taknet is currently writing a book on the heritage of the Marwaris.

Trial by Videoconference: Ferrying undertrials between jails and courts is a costly and inconvenient exercise. Last year, the police spent a staggering Rs. 26 million in producing undertrials in courts in Ahmedabad alone, using eight sub-inspectors and 267 constables as their guards. With roughly 6,000 undertrials in the state's prisons, the total expenditure could be several times this figure. The Gujarat government is therefore thinking of trials by videoconferences. Such trials may first be conducted in Ahmedabad, linking the Sabarmati Central Jail with courts in the Bhadra and Meghaninagar areas.

Chorwad Resort May Be Privatised: Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) has identified the following 10 properties for proposed disinvestments:

Chorwad Beach Resort in Junagadh district in Saurashtra
Tithal Resort on the South Gujarat coast
A guesthouse and a restaurant at Balaram near Ambaji
Tourist facilities at Nal Sarovar, near Ahmedabad, where migratory birds come from Siberia and Europe
Motel at Limbdi
Motel at Valthan, neat Surat
Motel at Malvan in Kutch
Hotel at Dholavira, the site of the ancient Harappan culture in Kutch
Tourist bungalow at Kuda Resort off the Bhavnagar coast
Guesthouse at Shamlaji in North Gujarat

VAT From 1st April: The Gujarat government will implement the new value added tax (VAT) formula replacing the sales tax from 1st April 2003. According to the uniform rules of the VAT, the existing sales tax imposed by the central government will be slashed to 2 per cent from 4 per cent.

Kiran Bedi Moves To United Nations: India's first lady IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, 53, has won a prominent assignment at the United Nations. Currently special commissioner of Delhi Police, she has been appointed as the civilian police adviser in the department of peacekeeping at the UN, the first woman to hold the post. The three-year contract can be extended depending upon the performance. A 1972-batch IPS officer with five years to go for retirement, she has been honoured with numerous awards: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service, the Joseph Beus Foundation Award for holistic and innovative management and the Morrison Tom Gitchoff Award for actions that have significantly improved the quality of justice in India

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