India is sitting on a ticking time bomb — the mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) of its bank. Already plagued by muted economic growth since 2011, even when the country is looking to set its house (read, economy) in order, it faces an unprecedented problem of worsening assets qualities of banks.
As a result of the prolonged slow growth of domestic as well as global economy, a number of businesses have seen their income falling and profit margins shrinking over the past six-seven years. This seriously impacted these companies’ capacity to repay bank loans taken to finance some of their over-ambitious projects undertaken when the economy was galloping at a rate of eight-nine per cent.
Now, things have come to such a pass that the banks’ overall stressed assets touched 11.5 per cent of their total advances in March 2016. The worst affected by this mounting NPA levels are public sector banks, whose gross NPA levels had increased from 5.5 per cent of total advances in March 2015, to 7.3 per cent in December 2015. In absolute terms, gross NPAs of public sector banks stood at Rs 3.6 lakh crore in December 2015, up from Rs 2.7 lakh crore in March 2015.
Although private sector banks have fared better with the gross NPA levels below the three per cent level, the overall NPA levels have increased from 2.36 per cent in 2010-11, to 4.5 per cent in June 2015.
While a lot of these NPAs were either buried under books of the banks or restructured to avoid recognising them as bad loans, it was Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s diktat that banks must clean up their books by identifying many of the stressed assets as NPA and provide for them, that we came to know about the gravity of the situation.
The banks have taken a hit to their bottomline due to the cleaning exercise they were nudged into by the RBI governor. Of course, the move was criticised by many for pushing the Indian banking system to the edge, but there are times when shock treatment is the best treatment. At least we now know how deep the malaise is.
Looking for cure
The disease is deep-rooted, and while we may blame slow economic growth, stalled projects and indiscreet lending practices for the precarious situation banks are in, one of the main reasons for this situation is the lack of an effective bankruptcy law in the country.
While in the past we have tried many laws such as SICA (Sick Industrial Companies Act) and SARFAESI Act (Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act), none of them have enabled faster recovery of assets by creditors. They were all framed in such a way that debtors could use many loopholes to delay the liquidation process and, hence, a meaningful recovery.
The failure of the previous laws necessitated the government to frame a new bankruptcy law that not only plugs the gaps in earlier laws, but also expedites the insolvency process.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act, which was recently passed by the Parliament, tries to compensate for lacunas in earlier laws. It not only has a scope for time-bound resolution of insolvency process, it also has limited scope for judicial review so that a case is not unnecessarily dragged through unending appeals.
It has provision for separate tribunals — The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) corporate insolvency cases and Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) for individual cases — for hearing and arbitrating cases related to bankruptcy so that such cases do not get into the rigmarole of our slow judicial system.
The new law also gives more control to creditors to ensure that debtors do not take advantage of loopholes in the system. Once a creditor starts bankruptcy proceeding against the debtor and the same has been approved by the adjudicating agencies (NCLT or DRT), the defaulting entity would be taken over by a committee of creditor and insolvency professionals — a new set of professionals to be regulated by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Board (the regulator). They together would try to revive the company, and within 180 days (which can be extended to another 90 days), come up with a resolution plan with approval from 75 per cent (by value) of the committee of the creditors. If the revival plan fails, the company goes for liquidation.
So far, so good. However, there is no time limit for the liquidation process to be completed. The liquidation process would again go to DRTs and NCLTs.
Chock-a-block DRTs
The Debt Recover Tribunals (DRTs), which at present work as an agency for recovery of debts, are burdened with work. It is a common practice for cases in DRTs to go on forever due to delaying tactics of the debtors and their lawyers.
As a result, the number of cases pending is mounting over years. At the end of June 2016, around 73,600 cases were pending in 33 DRTs across the country. The pace of work can be gauged by the fact that in June, only 1,304 cases were disposed off.
The DRTs are facing severe infrastructure constraints. As already mentioned, there are only 33 DRTs, with an average disposal rate of 35-40 a month despite the fact that a presiding officer, who is equivalent of a district judge, on an average hears 60-80 cases a day. If the government is indeed serious about addressing the slow judicial process, it must also look at reinforcing the infrastructure. It is learnt that there is a plan to add 10 more DRTs within a year. This is a good move. Besides, with NCLTs finally taking shape, some of the burden of DRTs would be shift to it.
However, technology should be used in a big way to buttress the legal system of bankruptcy. Although the idea of digital courts has not become popular in India yet, experts believe this is the way forward.
Another big issue is the mindset problem of judges. Corporate professionals believe that bankruptcy is a business problem and judges (presiding the NCLTs and DRTs) must understand that there is only business solution to this problem.
The judges manning the adjudicating agencies must also be aware of the usual delaying tactics of the debtors and they must ensure that the defaulters do not unnecessarily take advantage of the “natural system of justice”.
While the whole system (under the bankruptcy law) may take another year before it is rolled out, we can hope that it addresses the issue of bad loans in an effective manner.
There is something so compelling about seeing how different someone can look — especially when it seems to happen by magic. Changing your image can change your life, because you change how you feel about yourself. Your self-esteem soars when you know you look good. You walk across the room and heads turn. Your confidence soars and you own the room. Here’s a lowdown on image makeovers and what they involve.
Color analysis: Certain colors are capable of emphasising or, conversely, de-emphasizing an individual’s attractiveness to others. Consultants identify colors of clothing to match your skin complexion, eye colour, and hair colour which will enhance your beauty further.
Style analysis: It’s fascinating to see how changing your dressing style can change your entire look. During your style analysis, the consultant will tell you about your body type and what kind of clothes will make you look more attractive.
Personal shopping: Just take a day off and go shopping with your consultant, who will help you identify outfits that will best suit your body shape and complexion. You will get help in not only picking the right clothes for yourself, but also on how you can accessorise and mix-and-match them.
Make-up consultation: Consultants tell you how to apply make-up, what colors to use with your skin type and complexion, what kind of brushes to use, and so on.
There are also consultants who take care of fitness, manners, speech, and so on. There are special consultants for image managements of celebrities and politicians. It’s not just clothes that make a person. There’s more to an image makeover than the right clothes and makeup.
Your demanour and body language have a lot to do with it, too. Here are some ways an image consultant can help you with:
Module 1: First impressions and introductions
Module 2: Power, style, elegance, and professionalism
Module 3: Speaking, interacting, networking
Module 4: European, Asian, American and other dining styles
Image makeovers are absolutely amazing experiences, but how do we decide how far is too far? Where do we stop? Sometimes we get trapped in our own image. If you are not pretentious, if you are not trapped in your own image that you have built around you or about you, if you are not a conformist to the standards set by the so called society, then you can be really happy. So first and foremost, stop pretending. The day you stop pretending, you will feel how free you become inside and outside. You will not have to prove anything to anyone. Not even to yourself.
Next step: Stop living in fear of what might happen, if you do something. Your actions should not be driven by fear of any kind. Do not fear rejection. Do not fear of what people might say or think about you.
Over the years, I have realised and experienced that the happiest people are those who live on their own terms, behave in the way that comes to them naturally, are full of joy and, most of all, are leading a meaningful life.
Aworld premiere of his 1857: Turrebaz Khan and a week-long run of Quli: Dilo ka Shahzaada, exclusively at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe 2016
However, world-renowned artist and youngest Padmashri awardee Mohammed Ali Baig says, “I never wanted to be in theatre in the first place.”
Owing to the Bentleys and Jaguars parked neatly in his palatial residence, he could be a business man, a car manufacturer, even. Or an ice skater, an acrobat or a balladeer in the deserts of Rajasthan, he muses, in a candid chat.
Deeply spiritual and a firm believer of destiny, Baig brings a unique twin-honour, probably the first-ever, for an original Indian playwright-director-actor. He has succeeded in putting India on the world stage for his stellar theatrical performances. Baig’s new production premieres at The Edinburgh International Festival Fringe 2016, in August. The gritty play is based on the life of a 19th Century revolutionary soldier in the Deccan, Turrebaz Khan, who rebelled against the British and their allies, the Nizams. It is a gripping drama set in the last few hours spent with his captor who is, in fact, a slave to the very system that Khan is fighting against. Although Baig’s productions typically have a historical or a heritage theme, they are always contemporary and globally relevant, and this is one of the reasons why they are such a hit internationally.
India’s youngest Padma awardee in theatre and the winner of multiple global honours in Canada, France, London, Turkey, and the US, Baig is celebrated for his productions such as Taramati: The legend of an artiste, Resham ki Dor, Pankhdiyaan and more recently, Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada, Savaan-e- Hayat and Spaces.
Baig has earlier directed on stage, too, and performed along with stalwarts such as Anupam Kher (in Pankhdiyaan), Shabana Azmi (in Kaifiyat), late Farooq Shaikh (in Aaina), Lillette Dubey (in Dada Saheb Phalke), Suhasini Maniratnam (in Reading Between the Lines) and others in his own productions.
His twin honour reciepient, Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada has been highlighted in the Chicago Tribune as “Phenomenal. Mesmerizing!” The Asia Times, USA, hailed it as “The Indian masterpiece stole the thunder with explosive performances by lead actors, drew huge crowds in the US.”
Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada is based on the historical love-legend of the founder of the city of Hyderabad, poet-prince Quli Qutub Shah and his danseuse, the beloved Bhagmati. Universal and timeless in its appeal, it is a touching tale of two mutually respecting artistes whose soulful love overcomes political and cultural barriers. With a blend of fine art, Indian classical and shadow dances, period sets, costumes and verses written by King Quli Qutub
Mohammed Ali Baig was born into theatre but brought up under strict Asaf Jahi court etiquettes; so much so that even on a Sunday morning, his two brothers and he could not enter the dining hall in their lounge wear. It was a fairytale childhood where white ponies and dark mares replacing Lego’s and building blocks. Ahmed Bowla Bagh Palace, where he was born, is located on the outskirts of the city. “There was more emphasis on tehzeeb than on academic qualifications. To grow up with a legendary polo player as my grandfather, a theatre doyen as a father and three generations of grandmothers was inspiring, to say the least.”
After working for almost a decade in Odyssey, Bangalore, Baig returned to Hyderabad in 2004 on his father 20th anniversary to head the Foundation set up in his name by the I&PR Ministry and the Arts and Theatre fraternity of the country. His coming back to theatre was a two-way assimilation. While he used the inherent aesthetics and discipline of theatre into his ad films, he incorporated the glitz and communication methodology of the ad world into his theatre productions. “Odyssey exposed me to the outside world from a sheltered cocoon in Hyderabad to Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangkok, and Singapore. It transformed me from a trainee to a director, and a veteran of over a hundred advertising films.”
The annual Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival that he curates over a span of 10 days, gets a congregation of 200 artistes from various cities across the world and is today, one of the four most significant theatre festivals in the country.
“It’s really fulfilling when I perform original Indian theatre around the world in a language that’s my own, retaining the culture and heritage I was born into.”
The Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation is not just a son’s tribute to his father. It heralds a plethora of drama, emotion and has a rich historical legacy that has helped put Hyderabad on the international arena for theatre. The one thing that Baig enjoys most about his career is that it brings him closer to Baba, his father. He feels him wrapped around like a breeze in the echoes of the standing ovations. “That propels me to carry on a legacy. That I am immersed with the love and adulation of such a large audience and fan following.”
Shah himself, the play transports the audience back in time to the 17th century Indian kingdom of Golconda through a philosophical tale of true love.
The celebrated spectacle about the love legend of Hyderabad’s poet-prince Quli Qutub Shah made history when it had a run of six international arts festivals around the world in the very first year of its perception. Baig co-wrote the script with his wife Noor Baig.
Blushing slightly at the mention of his real life love, Baig goes on to say that he first met his wife at the Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad where she was coordinating the Australian Government’s Oz Fest. “When Ammi (mother) and I were received by her at the clock tower entrance, both of us were swept off our feet by this charming girl from Chennai clad in a turquoise anarkali and complementing jewellery. At the end of the evening, I had asked her out for coffee and very much like a well-brought up Indian girl, she didn’t respond. She flew back to Chennai the next morning and texted an apology along with a link to her blog. That was the first time I read someone’s blog and was very impressed by the maturity in her writing and her ease with words.”
He says the creating Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada with his wife made him realise they had so much in common. “Rarely do you meet a person whose thoughts are so similar that she completes your words before you finish your sentence. Our fondness for world cuisine, Mediterranean music and quest for Sufism bind it further. We got married at the same Darbar Hall at the Falaknuma Palace where we first met. People always feel that we are the quintessential Quli and Bhagmati!”. The wide smile on his face along with the pink in his cheeks says it all.
AN INDIAN PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket on June 22, 2016, delivered 20 satellites in orbit in one go. The launch vehicle had carried the Indian Cartosat-2C high-resolution optical Earth observation into a 507-km polar low Earth orbit along with 19 smaller satellites, including 13 U.S. commercial spacecraft. The vehicle achieved a high injection accuracy of 507 kilometers for Cartosat-2C. The target was 505 kilometers. This was yet another feather in the cap of country’s shining star, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).
An ISRO statement informed that the “June 22 launch took the tally of total number of satellites that the PSLV series has put in space in the last 22 years to 113, of which as many as 74 belonged to foreign clients. A bland statement perhaps, but this proportion shows how India has been slowly “gaining ground — or gaining space”.
India’s space parable needs to be told by gospel singers.
It was only the other day that ISRO’s “Mars-craft”, Mangalyaan entered into planet Mars’ orbit. With this achievement on 24 September, 2014, during India’s deep space Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India emerged as the first country in the world to successfully send a spacecraft to that planet in its first attempt. The ISRO, thus, became the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space programme, the American NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The decision to plan the MOM lift-off on 5 November, 2013, was crucial because it was going to use the less powerful PSLV rocket C25. In the original scheme, ISRO had planned to launch the MOM on its new Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), but the GSLV has failed twice in two space missions in 2010, and the planners were uncertain about its cryogenic engine. Also, they did not want to wait for a new batch of rockets since that would have delayed the MOM project for at least three years. Launch opportunities for a fuel-saving transfer orbit occur about every 26 months and in this case they would have come up only in 2016, and then in 2018. The choice, therefore, was between delaying the MOM and switching to the lesspowerful PSLV. They opted for the latter, being fully aware that it would have been impossible to launch on a direct trajectory to Mars with the PSLV since it did not have the requisite power. Instead, ISRO launched it into an Earth orbit first and then slowly boosted it into an interplanetary trajectory using multiple perigee burns to maximize the Oberth effect. In astronautics parlance, the Oberth effect is explained by the scientific logic that the use of a rocket engine when travelling at high speed generates more useful energy than one at low speed. This scientific tactic, calling for great precision, was the hallmark of this scientific achievement.
In the shadow of the Martian endeavour, let us not forget to recall India’s first lunar probe on the Moon Vehicle, the Chandrayaan-1 launched by ISRO in October 2008, and which was operated until August 2009. The spacecraft had then used a PSLV-XL rocket. Back then, India emerged as the fourth country in the world to place its flag on the moon. Over a two-year period, the planners had intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and three-dimensional topography. Of some importance was the fact that the lunar mission carried five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other space agencies including NASA, ESA, and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, which were carried free of cost. The Indian message to the world, of its benign objectives, was salutary.
Now the June 22 launch is giving the space launch companies a run for their money. It is believed that Space X, the California-based privately-funded space company in the US, and Arianespace, the French multinational, both leading satellite launch services providers are fearful of this commercial competition.
Operational launch costs are the points of concern and that is where ISRO’s PSLV emerges as the winner. Launching a satellite on an Arianespace’s Ariane-5 rocket for instance, costs about $140 million and, it is only after the subsidies that the cost comes down to about $100 million. The cost of launching a satellite aboard the Falcon-9 rocket of Space X goes further down by $60 million. But the average cost of the PSLV rocket of ISRO is merely $20 million or so. China is assessed to be lagging in the commercial launch business. China’s Long March rocket is nearly as expensive as Ariane-5. The Chinese haven’t found a way yet to cut its satellite launch costs.
Luckily for India, it is the market for the smaller satellites — of the kind it launched in June 2016 — which is steadily growing. There is a market forecast for nearly 200 small satellites expected to be launched up to 2023. What India needs in addition is to acquire the potential to use the same rocket to launch more than one satellite in differing orbits.
However, to become an allencompassing space superpower, India has to overcome a major hurdle. The limitation of the PSLV’s capacity to launch satellites up to a weight of only 1,800 kg needs to be overcome. The current operational Mk-II version of GSLV can handle payloads weighing up to 2,500 kg only. Therefore, to remain in the race, the development of the GSLV Mk-III needs to be pushed. Equipped with this launch vehicle, the ISRO will be capable of launching satellites weighing close to 5,000 kg and join in the ranks of big players. Currently, the US, the EU and Russia account for nearly 80 per cent of the global space market worth about $300 billion.
SURYA GANGADHARAN// Some would see the recent government decision to not allow Indian children to study in Pakistani schools as a fallout of the broader India Pak relationship, with recent developments in Kashmir as a trigger.
While the India-Pak issue is relevant, Kashmir as a trigger argument would be simplifying a complex issue that goes all the way back to the state’s accession to India. But we are not here to analyse that, rather this is about something more immediate, the violence in Kashmir that after more than two weeks, is showing some signs of levelling off.
Central ministers, beginning with Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh have blamed Pakistan for violence in the Kashmir valley, in which the death toll may have crossed 50. We also have reports from the army and intelligence sources in Kashmir that say the current violence is similar to what happened in 2010-11, when covert networks, funded and organised by Pakistan, coordinated a wave of violence targeting police, army and government assets.
While the Pakistani role cannot be denied, there is a disconnect within. Why is it that local politicians are not active? Why are they not communicating with the mobs of angry youth out there pelting stones? Public property is being destroyed, lives have been disrupted and yet they remain silent to the point where even Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has not gone anywhere near south Kashmir.
Curiously, the violence is at odds with the larger situation where militancy is at low ebb. In the past three years, the number of militant attacks has fallen from a high of around 200 to 38 in the first six months of this year.
Most militants today are local Kashmiris, with the army putting their numbers at less than 200. The average “shelf life” of a militant is between two months and about two years, Burhan Wani being an exception, since he had been on the loose since 2010. But be it Wani or some other, they are all poorly trained, and are taught only the basics of how to handle a rifle and throw a grenade. Training lasts a couple of days and then they are on their own.
If such training is to give the impression they retain the ability to strike, there can be no doubt about that, given the number of seemingly random attacks on police personnel in the last few months. More serious, however, was the attack on the Pathankot air force base in January, or the Lashkar-e- Toiba strike on a CRP bus in Pampore in June, which resulted in the deaths of eight personnel and injuries to 22 others.
Army and intelligence sources say the Pathankot attack was clearly planned from across the border; the Pampore attack could have been a local operation, given to local operatives with minimal training and equipment.
Clearly, the motivation to turn militant remains even when it is clear that there is a high element of risk. But nothing is being done to probe that motivation. While the mobs in the streets say they want azadi, what do 12 and 13 year old children understand by that?
This is what the politicians fail to address. They are not communicating with their constituents, and not moving in their constituencies trying to address local issues. The bureaucracy is no different. So many months after Kashmir’s worst-ever floods, Srinagar remains a mess, whole colonies have been displaced, and compensation is happening but in fits and starts.
Kashmir is going down the tube due to lack of governance that directly affects the lives of its people. This is not to say that the violence we saw recently was solely about governance but when everyday life is a burden, and government is apathetic, the anger will explode.
IESHAN WANI// The short-lived calm on the streets of Kashmir breaks every evening after authorities lift curfew. The valley has again come to a halt. Although there has been unrest in the past, followed by killings and curfew, but this time, the reasons are different.
A local militant commander of Hizb-ul- Mujahideen (HM), Burhan Muzaffar Wani died in an encounter with government forces some 60 km from his hometown, where he was mostly active.
The face of a new age and tech-savvy breed of militants in the Valley, Wani was instrumental in reviewing and bringing more youth to the gun. He had become a household name after he appeared in several videos and photographs on social networking sites.
Unfortunately, the government never tried to bring this “poster boy of militancy” to the negotiating table, choosing instead to hunt him down. Wani reportedly carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh and the fact that he picked up the gun at age 15 is a stark and telling comment on the frustration and anger of the youth in the Valley. He seems to have given a fillip to homegrown rebellion, resistance. Ever since he decided to take up arms against India, forces had been on the hunt for him, it doubled when his videos started to haunt them.
In 2013, Wani was involved in the killing of four Rashtriya Rifles men in Buchoo Baala area in Tral, his hometown. Since then, he wasn’t directly linked to any attack but was seen as a mastermind of many other attacks.
But many in his village offer a justifiable reason for his violent ways. “What will anyone do when he is beaten by forces in his own village without any provocation?” is a common refrain in his hometown.
The defining moment in Wani’s life happened when he and his brother, Khalid Muzaffar Wani were stopped at a checkpoint by counter-insurgency personnel and asked to fetch cigarettes for them in 2010. On return, Wani and his brother were beaten and he had reportedly threatened the police with revenge.
Khalid was allegedly killed by forces later when he had gone to meet Wani in the forests, further steeling his resolve to wage a war against the State.
Since the uprising, successive governments in the state have dealt severely with the militants. The policing hasn’t changed over the years even when the militancy graph dipped in the Valley. The results of entrenchment of forces, constant surveillance, curfew, compounded by lack of empowerment of the common people, especially the youth, are visible now, with more and more youngsters signing up with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, as Wani and his cousins previously had done.
Wani came from a sound, well-educated, well-off family. He was a topper in school and like most boys his age loved cricket, music, cracking jokes and having fun like a regular youngster. He really did not need to break away from his comfortable existence, join a militant outfit, but he did. Why, is a question worthy of collective introspection.
In his lifetime, youngsters across the spectrum, engineers, college students, scions from wealthy families joined Wani and even posed for the cameras with Kalashnikovs strapped across their body.
Every Friday after congregational prayers, protestors outside Jama Masjid in the old city of Srinagar held his picture and raised slogans in his favour. “Burhan dega azadi” (Burhan will give freedom) were the common slogans at every anti- India protest in Kashmir where 14-24-year-olds engage in pitched battles with the forces.
The youth in Kashmir today is angry, helpless, frustrated by a non-responsive system, that feeds his sense of alienation from the rest of the country. They have expectations but there seems to be no sign of the State addressing them. They feel cornered, abandoned and are drifting away from New Delhi, a dangerous shift that should set the alarm bells ringing. There are many unheard voices, but is anyone listening?
Many young boys in Kashmir who face similar situations see Wani as their “hero”. A local newspaper in Srinagar reported that the youngest victim of pellet, eight-year-old Asif from south Kashmir told a patient next to his bed that he ‘will pick up an AK-47’. Out-of the mouth-of babes they say, this stark statement is enough to bring home the realisation that Indian policies and politics have failed to usher peace in the valley.
Wani’s killing has fuelled the anger and sense of alienation more, as protests once again become a regular feature after curfew is lifted in the evening.
The goal isn’t to live forever; the goal is to create something that will”. What better way than creating something for the environment for this? Striving in this direction is 33-year-old Romika Rai, founder and CEO of greenassets.in, who is working towards a carbon-neutral and sustainable, clean, and green environment.
Greenassets.in is a platform to promote sustainable investments in carbon reducing assets and help the world to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Started in August 2014, the startup is already making the right noise with its diverse environmentally conscious projects.
Set up with a vision to introduce cutting edge eco-friendly technologies to India, it is also dedicated to improving the lives of undeserved rural communities across the world. The company focuses on diverse range of issues such as climate change, environment, biodiversity preservation, water sustainability, and energy security. The goal is to empower local suppliers by connecting them directly with consumers, communities and technologies, thus bringing about positive change.
The company’s first pilot project in July 2015 was powering their own headquarters in Dehradun with a 5KW SolarMill system. Later, they joined hands with the state forest conservation department by installing 2.5KW hybrids at both Nainital and Tarai East divisional offices. According to Rai, the first year projects were centered on rural electrification and biodiversity preservation in Uttarakhand. They also did an 8-KW residential project in Jangalia Gaon (above Bhimtal) and one for the headquarters of the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Authority (UREDA) as a test for community and utility scale projects.
In January 2016, Greenassets.in joined hands with two of the oldest residential schools of Mussoorie — Wynberg Allen School (founded in 1888) and St Georges College (founded in 1853) — to take care of their waste management needs. “The management wanted to address the issues of damage to the natural flora and fauna of the hillside, where for decades waste had drained down the mountain and into the river,” he explains. The administration decided to embrace a new “Invessel aerobic digester technology” that reduces the volume of kitchen waste by 90 per cent and converts it to nutrient rich organic compost. These institutions now responsibly recycle 400-500kg of kitchen and landscape waste per day.
Later, in April 2016, the company started design work on a 10-acre organic farm in Manduwala, and its future project plan is to create a hands-on vocational training institute for the local and neighboring communities to learn and adopt sustainable farming techniques.
The early spark
For Rai, who has always been environmentally conscious, the idea to start greenassets.in came when he was working with different insurance groups in Europe and was looking for investment opportunities. An experienced actuary and expert in financial risk management, Rai had seen how the world’s wealth was in the hands of few. The purpose was to invest in an asset which gives back to nature, is tangible, quantifiable, good for health, and also benefits the society at large.
He wanted to create an avenue where the life would be more economically-friendly, independent of government support. One such area was the energy sector with a great demand for power in the rural communities. “It is essential that utility providers look beyond resources such as coal, oil and gas when looking at how to power rural communities. Equally, they must ensure there is a move away from labour-intensive forms of energy, such as biofuels, which rely on people gathering materials to burn and, therefore restrict, their ability to contribute in other ways to a local economy,” says Rai.
Starting with an initial investment of Rs 50 lakh, Rai based his venture in Uttarakhand, his home state. Another reason was the state’s proactive energy policies, which are driven by the huge demand and supply gap in electricity production and its dependence on neighboring states for its energy requirements.
Creating an impact
The company works with social enterprises and “impact investors”, providing environmental stewardship and education on development using sustainable agriculture and clean energy as tools for progress.
Greenassets.in provides support in multiple forms, depending on the needs of the business and the impact they wish to achieve, ranging from areas such as funding, marketing, communications, seed funding, project implementation, functional expertise, co-product development, innovation, research and analysis and advocacy for sustainable investment projects and eco-friendly products. (The company defines “impact investment’ as any investment that addresses at least one of social, environmental or resource security challenges and generates a financial return.)
These impact investments span broadly in four industry categories, namely agriculture and forestry (working towards sustainable forestry, investing in organic farmland, food production and bio fuel plantations); renewable energy (Investing in renewable energy assets through ownership in clean energy producers, solar and wind farms and rooftop solar installations); clean technologies (Investing in clean technologies through ownership in eco-friendly products, alternatives to traditionally GHG-emitting or toxic products); and social infrastructure (Investing in social infrastructure assets through ownership in education and healthcare service providers and bulk drug manufacturers that have a significant impact on local community well-being).
The collective also runs an onsite eco-shop that offers eco-friendly products and provides information on living a healthy and balanced lifestyle without causing any harm to the environment. It markets over 100 solar appliances and also promotes 100 per cent organic products.
Way forward
According to Rai, the company already has a good structure in place, but now there is a need to significantly expand its hosting infrastructure, members interface, content publishing frequency and, most importantly, visibility through both online and offline campaigns and initiatives. While all these projects are at a pilot stage (testing and showcasing phase), he expects them to have a five to 10 times growth in the coming times with government subsidy in place.
His long term ambition is to create an online platform for individuals to invest in units of green assets such as wind/ solar farms and organic plantations. “Our goal is to reach 1 million members in two years, 10 million in five years, and 100 million in 10 years. Everyone works for the planet in whatever way they choose to do so. Together we can accelerate the move away from fossil fuels, petro chemical fertilizers and wasteful consumption. The members can plan projects, organize events, volunteer, collaborate and offer products and services - all having a positive impact on society and the environmental.”
The company also aims to start a large megawatt solar project (mainly a solar farm) for which it plans to raise 10 crore through IPO. “I see a bright future for the renewable energy in India,” says Rai before signing off.
“Bindu is a source of energy, source of life. Life begins here, attains infinity here.” —S H Raza, 1922-2016
When Raza sa’ab, one of the country’s foremost modern painters, also a founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, passed away on July 23, 2016, it was truly, as many in the world of art described, “end of an era”. Barely a week before his passing away, the editor of this magazine and the columnist had been discussing how it would be wonderful to have a write-up on Syed Haider Raza, the artist who made the bindu (the dot) his leitmotif.
His contribution to the world of art has been truly phenomenal, his own artistic journey to evolve as one of India’s biggest painters, exceptional, and even when one spoke of market forces, the pull of Raza sa’ab has been tremendous. He became one of India's priciest modern artist on June 10, 2010, when his seminal work, Saurashtra, sold for Rs 16.42 crore ($3,486,965) at a Christie's auction.
Unfortunately, we are now writing an obituary on the artist who gave Indian art a new direction and contributed to it in a vital way. Making France his home for six decades, Raza sa’ab’s absence from his homeland is what allowed him to express his angst visually. “It is India that was his magnificent obsession in all his waking hours and indeed, as he often confessed, in the dreams that haunted him after he fell asleep,” Dilip Padgaonkar mentioned about him. Staring at the landscape of Gorbio, a village in south of France where he lived with his artist wife, Janine Mongillat after they got married in 1959, the artist often found himself reminiscing about India and turned to Kabir dohas, Hindu scriptures, mythological epics, Urdu poetry and folk ballads. “He questioned himself -- ‘Who am I? Where am I?’,” Ashok Vajpeyi, a close friend of Raza sa’ab for the last several decades, said in an earlier interview, which he gave to a Delhi-based private art gallery. Vajpeyi continued visiting him till the artist breathed his last in a private hospital in New Delhi after being in a coma since his birthday in February.
The son of a forest ranger who grew up in Mandla, a village in Madhya Pradesh, it wasn’t surprising that decades later, the lush green forests and the Narmada river (whom Raza sa’ab always referred to as, “Narmadaji” as a mark of respect) featured in several of the artist’s landscapes. In fact, even the iconic bindu, has its genesis in his childhood days when he, as a young, restless child, was asked to meditate on a “dot” that was made on a blackboard of a nondescript classroom by his schoolteacher. “Focus,” the teacher ordered, pointing to the dot he had made with chalk on the board. The six-year-old Raza did and several decades later, the bindu would appear on the canvas in bright reds, Prussian blues, yellows, greens — colours, which, to the artist, signified India and its beauty.
Fame and recognition didn’t come too easily to Raza who struggled for a while to even buy himself paints and brushes and other tools for his art. He studied in Nagpur and then moved to JJ School of Art in Bombay (1943-47). He went to France after being awarded a scholarship from the French government to study at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1950 and 1953. For Raza sa’ab, this phase would be a turning point, allowing him to get exposed to several masters of Western art and turn to the genre of landscapes (he eliminated the human figure in most of his works, unlike several of his fellow artists who were experimenting heavily in the figurative genre). After his studies, he travelled across Europe, and continued to live and exhibit his work in Paris. In 1956, he was awarded the Prix de la critique in Paris in 1956, becoming the first non-French artist to receive the honour.
By the 1960s, Raza sa’ab was delving into “gestural expressionism”, inspired by the works of American artist Rothko. Appointed as a visiting lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley, USA, in 1962, this Rothko-inspired phase was a significant departure from Raza sa’ab’s earlier style, where the artist’s landscapes became impressionistic, reflection of the mind, even as several of them were inspired from the artist’s trips to India. The “colours” of Gujarat and Rajasthan, the energy of Benaras, the sheer artistic supremacy of Ajanta and Ellora caves, all of this served to inspire the artist, prodding him to question his identity, his journey to re-discover his Indian roots. As he commented in one of his earlier interviews: “I didn’t become a French painteror a European one. I remained an Indian painter through the years.”
It was truly in the 1990s, however, that Raza sa’ab introduced the world to something truly extraordinary and pulsating - - the bindu. The sacred, energy-inducing dot gave his canvases a unique profundity and perceptiveness. Full of depth, the dot with bold and evocative geometrical patterns and lines and bright colours allowed the artist’s artistic journey to be transformed dramatically. Raza sa’ab commented on the transformation in an earlier interview: “My work is my own inner experience and involvement with the mysteries of nature and form which is expressed in colour, line, space and light.’
Gaining global reputation, Raza sa’ab returned permanently to India, setting up the prestigious Raza Foundation to help promising artists with funds and sponsorships. The artist who lived to paint and painted to live continued his relationship with colours and canvases until the very end of his life.
GANESH SAILI’S book Gupp & Gossip from the hills, ‘is a wacky take-off about everyday things,’ says Saili, adding: ‘I am aware that humour isn’t the easiest thing to write. But living in a small town is like life lived in a fishbowl. Almost anyone knows your business or at least claims to know. Even things about you, you yourself don’t know.’
The book is both informative and entertaining with never a dull moment, never a dull page, it talks about everyone and everything that makes the Queen of Hills Mussoorie, unique.
‘Many people who went to school here return to the scene of the crime,as it were to discover that things have changed.’ He writes.‘For instance, an old friendof mine, Angela Middleton, who was a student at the austere, vegetarian Seventh Day Adventist School in the 1930s, tells me: ‘They relied as little as possible on hired labour with the students doing all the manual work.’
‘Now don’t you go eating chilly pickle!’ the grumpy matron used towarn the girls as they went out to town: ‘It heats the blood!’
‘The moment we hit town, we gobbled up as much of it as we could. Alas! No miracles happened,’ Angela chuckles almost sixty years later.
‘Still waiting for it to heat the blood!’ she jokes.
Anecdotal in style, the book is a personal collection of hilarious and sometimes scandalous gupp and gossip from the foothills of Himalayas. Its multitudecharacters amuse you with their tales as they send chinese whispers down the neighbourhood keeping the rumour-mill churning, making it close to impossible to put down the book before reaching the end.
Published by Niyogi Books, the 42 black and white sketches by gifted artist T.K. Manoj Kumar who spent four years of his bureaucratic career in the foothills of the Himalaya add value to the written word.
If you think you know-it-all about what makes the hills a special place, it’s the localsalong with the beautiful landscape that adds beauty and spice to the environ. Gupp and Gossip from the hills, is abook you keep close to yourself as it promises to amuse and entertain the reader at all times.
SMITA PATIL surmounted an actor’s biggest challenge — of acting without appearing to do so and total immersion in a role to an extent that viewers can nearly forget they are seeing a performance. And then, those mesmerising, smouldering and expressive eyes!
In her short life and career, Smita managed a gamut of earthy and complex performances, rendered with such intensity, empathy and maturity that older and more experienced actors would find hard to pull off. And she was prolific — in a career that stretched just over a decade, she managed nearly 80 films, including some of the most path-breaking ever made in India — and some utterly dreadful, redeemed partly by her presence despite the atrocious dialogues, situations and dresses heaped on her.
When she died at the impossibly young age of 31, Smita Patil was indubitably one of Indian cinema’s biggest icons. As one of Indian cinema's most accomplished actresses, she personified intensity in her "parallel" cinema roles and a refined sensibility in mainstream ones, and in real life, was unpretentious, spontaneous, and daring, had hitherto been underserved as far as a comprehensive story of her life is concerned. Bringing together the stories of Smita the person and Smita the actress is veteran film critic and writer Maithili Rao, who stresses that her attempt is not a “conventional biography” and neither a “collection of anecdotes" but actually recounting of Smita’s life - on and off-screen - and assessing her “significant films in their context and from the perspective of distance that time has given us”.
Rao, who has been a long-standing columnist and contributor to various anthologies on Indian cinema, has been through - interacting with not only Smita's family (including her mother Vidya Patil who passed away some months before the book released), close friends and her most significant films' directors - Benegal (who has also furnished a brief but incisive foreword noting Smita’s rise to rare heights as an actress in a film industry whose stereotypical demands and definitions of feminine beauty she never met), Jabbar Patel, Arun Khopkar (whose FTII diploma film was her debut), Ketan Mehta, Mahesh Bhatt, Ramesh Sippy, Saeed Mirza, Sandeep Ray (for his illustrious father Satyajit Ray's recollections) and many other actors - contemporary and modern - right down to Smita’s faithful make-up man.
She however refrains from focussing on relationships, specifically her controversial marriage to an already-married Raj Babbar, since she never knew Smita's own version and Raj was not keen on talking about it (though she notes he made his peace with her family). Smita Patil: A Brief Incandescence, tells her remarkable story, tracing it from her childhood to stardom, controversial marriage and untimely death. From the difficult equation she shared with her mother to her propensity for ‘wrong’ relationships, about which she was always open unlike other stars of the time, this is a complex and honest exploration of Patil’s life. The book also includes a critique of the films that defined her.
Some interesting facets of Smita's life come to light - she was never a FTII student but was always thought to be so because she regularly hung out there, was fond of driving motorcyles and army 'jongas' (according to elder sister Aruna, she and her friend once drove one from Delhi to Bombay, including through the then badlands of Chambal - only being careful not to let her parents know), could give the choicest abuses when angered, a dab hand at photography, and very fond of children (and raising them). But that is not the point of this book that highlights Smita's best known films, in which she invariably played a character dealt a bad hand by fate - in shape of caste, custom, economics, or relationships - but still fighting back, be it the feisty and fiery Bindu of “Manthan”, troubled actress Usha in “Bhumika”, freespirited gypsy Ujaan in “Bhavni Bhavai”, widow Amma coming to terms with the corrupting influence of poverty in a big-city slum in “Chakra”, Hyderabadi woman Najma who amorally sells a younger innocent woman to an older husband in “Bazaar” to help her own uncertain love life, upper class woman with a burning conscience.
In awe of The Grand Canyon National Park, I must admit that it deserved much more time than was available. Listed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and is thought to be somewhere between 6 million to 70 million years old, the 1 mile deep, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, north of Arizona state is about 80 miles north of Flagstaff. It runs about 277 miles, from Marble Canyon in the east to Lake Mead in the west. Most visitor activities take place in Grand Canyon National Park, in the South Rim and North Rim villages on either side of the canyon. The South Rim was my destination ans so is it for most visitors, 275 miles from Las Vegas. The more remote North Rim is accessed by secondary roads. Though the two rims are only about 10 air miles apart, they are 215 miles by road.
At 8,000 feet, the North Rim offers cool summers but experiences harsh winters from November to May. Although it is far less crowded than the South Rim, it offers limited views of the Inner Canyon. The South Rim is the most accessible part of the park and it is open all through year. I have wanted to visit the Grand Canyon for as long as I can remember and finally did it this summer.
The view from the top of the rim is breathtaking. Hiking down into the canyon you witness the different layers and landscape changing colours. Changing layers of alpine forest, vermillion cliffs down through red rock, limestone and sandstone.
A variety of tours offer unique ways to experience the Grand Canyon, from helicopter rides to white water rafting. Some of these start right at the Grand Canyon, others depart from nearby cities, such as Las Vegas. There is some accommodation in the national park at the Village, which is operated by a concessioner of the park. Just outside the South Entrance is the small town of Tusayan, with a much larger variety of chain hotels, as well as restaurants and other services.
Visitor Center and Mather Point Overlook
For visitors entering the park at the South Entrance, from the direction of Williams, the best thing to do is head directly to the visitor center. A few displays show a brief overview of the park and a little about the history. The park staff are ready toprovide information on hikes and attractions. From the visitor center, a short path leads to Mather Point Overlook, where there are a couple of large viewing areas on a peninsula jutting out into the canyon, with great views out over the dramatic landscape of the Grand Canyon.
Rim Trail
The Rim Trail is a mostly paved walking path that follows the rim of the Grand Canyon for 13 miles, from South Kaibab Trailhead, east of the Visitor Center, to Hermit’s Rest, at the far west end of Hermit Road. This nearly level path, with a mix of sun and shade from scattered trees, is one of the most scenic walks in North America, with fabulous views during the entire distance of the trail. You can access it in front of the visitor center at Mather Point, in the Village, or from any of the scenic stops along Hermit Road. If you have limited time and are only interested in a short walk, a good option is the section from Mather Point, heading west to Yavapai Point and the Geology Museum.
Geological Museum
Themost informative exhibits in Grand Canyon National Park is the Geological Museum. The location for this museum was chosen by a group of high profile geologists in the 1920s because the views from here were the most representative of the geology of the canyon. The museum describes in detail the layers of rock visible as you look out the long wall of windows. Huge diagrams describe the formation of the canyon, from the uplifting of the rocks to the erosive power of the water running through the canyon far below. From the windows, you can see the hiking trails below, including a great view of the route out to Plateau Point, an offshoot of the Bright Angel Trail, and a side path leading down to the Colorado River.
Bright Angel Hiking Trail
The most popular hike in the park is the Bright Angel Hike. The complete route, round-trip to Bright Angel Campground, is 19 miles and takes two days. Many serious hikers choose to go to Indian Garden Campground, which is a nine-mile round-trip hike, and takes between six and nine hours. This hike hugs the canyon walls, with steep cliffs and sharp drops off the outer portion of the trail. It is not suited for anyone with a serious fear of heights. Some portions of the trail are in shadow and may be snow or ice-covered, even when conditions at the top are warm and dry.
Wildlife Viewing
While most people don’t come to the Grand Canyon for the wildlife viewing, it's more than likely you will see at least some animals if you are driving through the park. One of the usual suspects that can often be spotted along the Rim Trail is elk. Although you are less likely to see them, mountain lions live in the park forests, and signs along the Desert View Drive.