Business school graduates see opportunities in India

India Inc has found another reason to smile-students of the Kellogg School of Management in the US are keen to work here.

Says Charmaine Hussain, a first-year student at Kellogg: "India has seen phenomenal growth in the past 10 years and 95 per cent of us are looking for business opportunities here. Students in the US feel this country has a lot to offer."

Hussain is one of 20 students from the management school who are here on a 15-day programme to understand the opportunities and trends in the domestic industry.

They have been meeting industrialists like Ratan Tata, Adi Godrej and Azim Premji as well as Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie and external affairs ministry officials. The programme is being supervised by Professor Mark Finn.

The students are impressed with Ratan Tata. Most of them are looking forward to work with business houses that are receptive to change and not married to tradition.

Premji told the students about the challenges he faced while getting business from abroad.

The visit is part of an annual programme of the Kellogg School of Management called global initiatives in management, an intensive course on global business leadership designed by the students.

In India, the students also had meetings with several companies like Hindustan Lever, Modicare, the Pantaloon group, BPL Mobile, Tata Telecom, the Boston Consulting Group, Motorola and HDFC Bank.

Courtesy: www.business-standard.com, March 31, 2003

MANIPAL MARCH 28. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Friday said the country should join the ranks of developed countries by 2020. Speaking after inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of the Kasturba Medical College (KMC) here, Dr. Kalam said this goal could be achieved only by hard work and dedication. Concerted efforts should be made to remove illiteracy and poverty. In the India of future, children should sing songs of prosperity. " The Indian mind should be ignited by a real vision.''

Children should be curious and develop the spirit of questioning. The great scientist, C.V. Raman, was sailing to Europe on a ship. When he found the colour of sea to be blue during the evening, he investigated it. This made him propound the famous "Raman Effect''. The scientist Chandrashekhar had propounded the "Chandrashekhar Limit'' with regard to Black Hole.

Without questioning, scientific temper could not be developed. It was essential for young people to dream of becoming doctors, engineers, and other professionals. In the future, the young would have to work in a multi-disciplinary environment and they should be prepared for it.

Lauding the founder of the KMC, the late T.M.A. Pai, the President said that Pai had a "beautiful mind.'' He had converted Manipal into a centre for education, banking and health. Manipal was a multi-discipline campus. About 90 per cent of medical equipment in the country were being imported. Manipal should make efforts to provide locally-produced hospital equipment.

Stating that medicine and engineering go together, Dr. Kalam recalled an incident when such an effort had borne fruit. Years ago, a cardiologist, Somaraju, visited his laboratory, where he found Dr. Kalam using a particular material for developing a missile. Dr. Somaraju told him that missiles brought pain to mankind. The material could be used for some productive purpose. He took Dr. Kalam to a hospital in Hyderabad and urged him to use the material for facilitating angiography and angioplasty. Dr. Kalam's team worked for 14 months and succeeded in using it for angiography and angioplasty.

The Karnataka Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi, the Union Defence Minister, George Fernandes, the Karnataka Higher Education Minister, G. Parmeshwar, The Udupi district incharge Minister, Vasanth Salian, the Karnataka Transport Minister, Ramanath Rai, Dhananjay Kumar, MP, and Ramdas Pai, president of MAHE, were present. B.M. Hegde, Vice-Chancellor of the MAHE, welcomed the gathering. R.S.P. Rao, Dean of the KMC, Manipal, compered the programme. Gurumadhva Rao proposed a vote of thanks.

Courtesy: The Hindu, March 29, 2003

London, March 8. Southall, the British capital's mini India, was taken aback to see former England striker Gary Linekar dressed as an Indian bridegroom, with his hair dyed black, and sitting on a white horse.

There were women in saris dressed for the wedding, and a proper 'baraat', or marriage party, in tow. So was he marrying a girl from Southall?

Not quite, he was modeling as an Indian bridegroom for an advertisement for crisps. He goes to the bride's house and discovers her to be instead an elderly woman. But she has dowry for him - the keys to a corner shop with crisps inside.

Some of the biggest selling crisps in Britain now need a helping hand from Bollywood.

The ad will particularly push a new brand of crisps with, what else, chicken tikka masala flavour. Gary Linekar has been dubbed the new Curry Linekar.

One of the most popular ads in recent weeks has been an ad for Peugeot cars. It features a man in Mumbai who sees an ad for a Peugeot, and bangs and hammers his old Ambassador car into shape to look something like a Peugeot.

The ad features an elephant and the usual Indian shots. The hero ends triumphantly in a cool drive down Mumbai in his new Peugeot, basking in the female adoration that his new vehicle is attracting.

The Indian summer of 2002 is gone, but the Indian flavour lingers. But many Indians wish it was something other than elephants, curries and arranged marriages.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, March 28, 2003

NEW DELHI: The alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the oldest among the five premier institutions, have decided to put it past the Harvard and Stanford in terms of developing what they term as "one of the best alumni networks in the world".

The move comes close on the heels of Vision 2020 initiative which was launched last month, and which seeks to raise $200 million for IIT Kharagpur by 2020.

This move will also be spearheaded by the US-based IIT Foundation, which is IIT Kharagpur's alumni organisation, and has several influential top tech honchos in its fold. Located near Calcutta, IIT Kharagpur was the first IIT to be established in 1951.

"I, and most of the alumni, feel fortunate to have graduated from IIT Kharagpur. It is difficult to imagine a career without the IIT Kharagpur educational experience. When I think along those lines, I am convinced that our alumni network, much like the Harvard and Stanford, will soon become one of the many reasons for future students to select IIT Kharagpur as their destination of choice," according to InfoUSA chairman and CEO Vinod Gupta.

Gupta is one of the founder members and a director of the IIT Foundation. He is also one of the largest donors to IIT Kharagpur.

"IIT Kharagpur alumni share a special affinity towards their alma mater. The vibrant campus life, the small town and IIT culture, and infrastructure fostered a strong inter-dependence with fellow students. In addition, there was tremendous passion for extra-curricular activities. All of this developed a fierce, but healthy competitive spirit on one hand, and an extraordinary team spirit and camaraderie on the other," recollected Gupta.

Another alumnus Raj Khanna is president of the IIT Kharagpur alumni's San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and vice-president at Sun Microsystems. He is the co-chair of the Alumni Network campaign.

"We have a strong alumni network in most of the major metros in the US and India. Our alumni are also present in large numbers in Europe, Australia and the Middle-East Asia. Thus, we are able to provide our alumni around the world an instant support structure. In addition, we organize various social, cultural and professional events throughout the year. These events provide a home away from home for alumni and their families and assist in professional networking," Khanna pointed out.

The IIT Foundation is kicking off this campaign with a global alumnus registration drive in what is the golden jubilee year for IIT Kharagpur. As the first step, it has decided to encourage all IIT Kharagpur alumni worldwide to register at its web-site.

"In fact, to make it a fun event we are running an inter-batch, inter-hall and inter-department competition. The batch, hall and department with the highest percentage increase in alumni registered will get special recognition," he added.

Set up in 1994, the IIT Foundation was the first amongst US-based IIT alumni organizations. It already has over 6,000 alumni registered on its web-site www.iitfoundation.org. According to Khanna, the number is expected to cross 15,000 after the present drive.

IITs have never had it so good. The institutes have always had alumni who have in the past paid back their alma mater in cash and kind. But the golden jubilee year is something special. The IIT, Kharagpur alumni had last month pledged to raise $200 million to help the institute maintain its "cutting edge".

This initiative, dubbed as Vision 2020, envisages raising and endowing IIT Kharagpur with $200 million by year 2020 to help it "maintain and enhance global leadership and excellence in technology education, research and innovation."

Some of the noteworthy work sponsored by the alumni in the past includes funding the first management school at the IITs, a world-class advanced VLSI Lab and a high bandwidth Internet access to each student's room.

Courtesy: Times News Network, March 12, 2003

The success of Asian films and showbiz has made their makers millionaires in the UK and has brought women centrestage. This year there are 19 women on the rich list.

Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, 43, and comedienne Meera Syal, 41, famous for Goodness Gracious Me and Kumars At 42 and who also wrote the musical Bombay Dreams have, for the first time joined the list of Britain's richest Asians. Both have been valued at 4 million and slotted at 276.

Philip Beresford, who has compiled the list for the past three years, said: "This is the first year I have seen independent, younger women who show signs of cracking the glass ceiling, if they are not yet breaking it. It shows a shift from the traditional and sometimes subservient role some Asian women have taken in the past."

The Asian success is evident from the fact that there are 71 more millionaires this year as compared to 2002. Despite a fall in economic fortunes in general, Asian entrepreneurs are on the increase, worth at 8.9 billion.

While billionaire steel giant LN Mittal remains the richest Asian for the third consecutive year, the exclusion of the Hinduja brothers from the Asian Xpress list of richest Asians has caused a major stir.

Although they were at second position last year the paper said they appeared to have moved their money back to India after losing their costly battle for British citizenship. A spokesman for the Hinduja brothers said that both Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja have been travelling on their British passports. Not only that but wives and children also have British passports. They do not have any other passports.

It is well-known that first Gopichand and later Srichand Hinduja had got their British and gave up their Indian ones. The spokesman also denied that the Hinduja wealth has been transferred from the UK. "What was there before, is still there."

Even though the collective wealth of the 300 leading Asians is worth slightly less than last year, they include several rags-to-riches stories. The list also shows that Asian millionaires are getting younger with 47 under the age of 40 and worth 1.33 billion. Ammet Kotecha, 29, is the youngest entry worth 5million.

Beresford identified the presence of East Africans, including Jasminder Singh and Manubhai Madhvani, who was expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin, as significant. He said: "There was a huge debate about whether we should let in the Ugandan Asian immigrants. I hope those who argued against it will be eating humble pie."

He also pointed out: "Asians are becoming more successful and success in showbiz terms translates in the long-term into money." He said Asians are "heroically trying to prop up industry. They have a strong family spirit, they believe in education and the rule of law. They are the sort of 'new Britons' who are exactly what this country needs."

The 10 Richest Asians

1. Lakshmi Mittal, LNM Group, 1.31bn (last year 900m), 2. Mike Jatania and family, Lornamead Int, 570m (548m), 3. Vijay & Bhikhu Patel, Waymade Healthcare, 350m (298m), 4. Jasminder Singh and family, Edwardian Group, 350m (400m), 5. Tom Singh, New Look, 250m (160m), 6. Anil Chandaria and family, Comcraft, 200m (200m), 7. Sir Anwar Pervez, Bestway, 167m (175m), 8. Gulu Lalvani, Binatone, 150m (120m), 9. Bharat and Ketan Mehta, Necessity Supplies, 118m (80m), 10. Navin and Varsha Engineer, Chemidex Pharma, 111m (105m)

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, March 12, 2003

WASHINGTON: Indian Americans have carved a strong position for themselves in the US hotel industry, especially in New Jersey area, providing jobs for whole families and cutting costs by running hotels as family affairs.

New Jersey, where the Asian-Indian population more than doubled in the 1990s to nearly 170,000, has the highest number of Indian-owned motels and hotels. Many of the owners are named Patel.

Between the early 1990s and 2000, Asian ownership in the Parsippany, New Jersey-based Cendant Corp. hotel group tripled. Of Cendant's 5,000 franchisees, 44 per cent are Asian-Indian.

Total of Pacific Asian, Hispanic and African-American franchisees. Cendant's vice president is Rajiv Bajatia, a native of India. Prime Hospitality Corp. of Fairfield estimated that one-third of its 65 franchisees are Indian.

Kundan Patel, 57, a native of India who came to the US two decades ago and now owns four budget hotels with her husband, was quoted by a publication as saying that the hardworking and friendly nature of Indians was a key factor in building up clientele. Gujaratis form the largest segment of the Indian-American population in New Jersey.

Most Indian-operated hotels and motels are strictly family businesses, providing jobs for relatives as well as a place to live.

According to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), its 6,000 members own 35 per cent of all hotel properties and 50 per cent of all economy lodging houses in the US.

AAHOA president Mike Amin, whose grandfather opened his first hotel in 1953, said the trend began in the 1940s, when few immigrants bought cheap hotels in San Francisco. Over the years, the Indian American families acquired more properties.

Indian investment in the hotel industry is unlikely to slow, according to Bajatia, who believes much of it will now come from established owners buying more properties, rather than immigrants.

Courtesy: IANS, March 10, 2003

Silicon Valley: For demonstrating outstanding professional achievement and significant contributions to the Silicon Valley and the Greater Bay area communities in the United States, two Indian-Americans have been inducted into the prestigious Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.

Kumar Malavalli, co-founder of Brocade Communications Systems Inc, and Mihir Parikh, founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Asyst Technologies, have become the first Indian-American business leaders to be bestowed with this honour.

With this recognition, the two have joined ranks with the likes of William Hewlett and David Packard, co-founders of Hewlett-Packard; Robert N Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor Corp and Intel Corp; and Russell H Varian and Sigurd F Varian, co-inventors of Klystron.

Considered one of the founding forces in fibre channel technology, Malavalli has been a major contributor to the development of fibre channel standards and products over the last 15 years, and has been instrumental in the evolution of the storage area networks that support today's leading companies. A co-founder of Brocade, Malavalli holds several US patents in fibre channel technology.

He became chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) T11 Technical Committee, which established universal standards for fibre channel, and was a director of both the Fibre Channel Industry Association and the Storage Networking Industry Association.

Courtesy: PTI, March 09, 2003

NEW DELHI: A three-member team of a Mumbai institute has stood second in the Asia Pacific Student .NET competition organised by the Microsoft Corporation.

The third year electronics engineering students of Vivekanand Education Society 's Institute of Technology, Tejas Shah, Abhijeet Akhawe and Yash Doshi have finished runners up among the 12 teams that participated in the competiton, a Microsoft release said.

They submitted a software solution for healthcare industry to empower doctors and surgeons to diagnose and treat patients more efficiently.

The other winning teams are from China, Taiwan and Singapore, it said, adding that the winners were awarded prizes by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at Next Generation Technology Forum held at Beijing recently.

The contestants were tasked to develop an original design of XML Web Services Application using the .NET framework and Visual Studio.NET.

All the four winning teams would be invited to attend upcoming Microsoft TechEd Conference in Barcelona on June 30 to July 4 and would participate in the first Worldwide Student .NET competition.

Courtesy: PTI, March 04, 2003

SACRAMENTO & ARTESIA, CA, March 6, 2003 - Assembly Member Rudy Bermdez (D-Norwalk) introduced legislation to place signage on the Artesia (91) Freeway directing people to the Little India business area and ethnic enclave on Pioneer Boulevard. The goal of the signage is to increase visibility of Little India and encourage tourists to visit the Artesia and Southeast Los Angeles area.

"People come from all over California and the western states to visit Little India and shop," said Assemblyman Bermdez, who represents Artesia where the Indo-American enclave is located.

"The Indo-American community has turned a blighted Pioneer Boulevard in the City of Artesia into a destination, where Indo-Americans, their neighbors and visitors experience the rich Indian culture."

Assemblyman Bermdez has also begun discussing the unique characteristics of Little India with state tourism officials and how the area can be promoted to Californians and out-of-state visitors.

"I am proud to represent the largest Indo-American enclave in California. I want others to know that we are here. Even more, I want them to come and shop in our stores, eat at our restaurants visit our cultural and religious centers, and experience and respect the Indo-American culture."

Assembly Member Bermdez (www.assembly.ca.gov/bermudez) was elected to the Assembly in November 2002. His district includes portions of Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as the cities and communities of Artesia, Buena Park, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Los Nietos, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, South Whittier, Whittier and West Whittier.

Courtesy: www.indolink.com

After issuing stamps with holiday themes such as Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and most recently, Eid, the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Commission under the US Postal Service may soon issue a stamp honouring "Diwali", the Indian festival of lights.

Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, co-founder of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, has introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives demanding the United States Postal Service issue a stamp honouring the festival.

"I feel that Diwali is truly a marvelous holiday that deserves recognition. As the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee continues its plans for issuing new stamps, I hope that it will consider issuing a Diwali stamp to honour this culturally significant holiday celebrated in the United States and abroad," he said.

"The spirit of Diwali has survived political, economic and social vicissitudes throughout history, while always carrying the universal symbolism of the triumph of light, goodness, knowledge and truth," Pallone said.

"It marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year and is seen as a brand new beginning for all. The rich culture associated with the Diwali tradition includes observation of this holiday by Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Muslims and Buddhists," Pallone said.

"The Commission has not issued a stamp honouring Diwali and I am hopeful that there will soon be a US postal stamp commemorating this beautiful festival celebrated in India and throughout the world," he said.

Courtesy: PTI, March 07, 2003

BANGKOK: Narayana Murthy, head of software giant Infosys Technologies, has been appointed Thailand Premier Thaksin Shinawatra's adviser on information technology matters.

Thaksin on Monday said he has appointed Murthy on his team of advisers as he was impressed by the way the Infosys chief made his company one of the world's top software firms in just a few years. He said he was also impressed by his efforts in making Bangalore the "Silicon Valley of Asia".

Murthy's talent would be utilised to develop Thailand and the southeast Asia in the IT field, he said. Murthy's appointment was announced by Thaksin at a banking software technology seminar here.

Thaksin, a billionaire telecom magnate, before he became Thailand's Premier, said he wanted to tap Murthy's ability to develop the country in the field of IT.

Meanwhile, Infosys said it had identified Thailand as a target market for its Finacale banking solutions. It has entered into a partnership with Thai companies Datamat and Yip In Tsoi Co Ltd to market Finacle in the region. The banking software is currently used by 67 banks across 21 countries, Infosys said.

Thaksin founded Shin Corp, and has long had a business presence in India. The company's Shin satellite unit has a conract with the Government of India.

Courtesy: PTI, March 04, 2003

While others of his age are busy climbing trees or wielding cricket bats, 14-year-old Sushant Kumar of Bihar is making history with his deep knowledge of historical events in India and the world.

A student of a school in Danapur near Patna, Sushant has written a history book about India and the world, leaving historians and teachers stunned.

In March last year, the Guinness Book of World Records reportedly wrote him a letter encouraging him to work hard to win a place in its annals.

The young history writer has now set his sights on attending the Indian History Congress, a meeting of the country's top historians including giants in the field like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib.

"I want to attend the Indian History Congress to realise my ambition to become a historian," says Sushant.

He has written to Bihar's education minister and to renowned historian Thapar for information on the congress.

While Thapar made it clear that she had no idea how to get him there, shesaid she was sending his letter to a professor in the Centre of Advanced Study in History at Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh to help him in the matter.

Sushant, who has information from primary and secondary sources of history on his fingertips, has completed a study of the ancient Indian scriptures of Vedas and is now delving into the Upanishads.

This is not the first time Bihar's children have made news. Last year, 13-year-old boy Subodh Kumar of Muzaffarpur penned a book on Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit.

Courtesy: Indo-Asian News Service, March 4, 2003

CALGARY, CANADA, March 4, 2003: Dr Brijendra Sood of Calgary, Alberta, Canada has been named to The Order of Canada, the highest and the most prestigious honor bestowed on a Canadian Citizen by Canada. He will be receiving the insignia of this high honor from the Governor General of Canada at an investiture in Ottawa.

The citation reads: "A dedicated physician, he has promoted multicultural awareness by recognizing and valuing the strengths of Canadas rich cultural mosaic. Since arriving in Canada in 1964, he has worked to develop and strengthen the social and cultural fabric of Calgarys East Indian community. He has played leadership roles in the citys India-Canada Association, Multicultural Centre, Hindu Society and Temple. The recipient of numerous honors for his ethno-cultural contributions, he was also named Outstanding Physician of the Year 2000 by the Calgary Medical Society."

Sood was born in Punjab in Ludhiana, and grew up in Kenya where his dad was a general practioner. He studied medicine in England and returned to Kenya in 1956 where he worked for the Ministry of Health. In view of the changing political situation in Kenya, Sood moved to Canada in 1964, and was the first Indian from East Africa to immigrate to Canada.

Besides working as a surgeon, Sood is also a very active stage magician and has been the President of Calgary Magic Circle.

"Order of Canada came as a very pleasant shock. It was a recognition by Canada to all the members of our community who have made a name for themselves and have integrated into the North American society without sacrificing there culture and its high values", said Sood when he learnt about his appointment.

The appointments to the Order of Canada were announced by Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson. The new appointees include four Companions (C.C.), 33 Officers (O.C.) and 68 Members (C.M.). There is also an appointment of a British subject as an Honorary Officer.

The steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal leads eight other NRIs in the list of 300 Top Rich millionaires in Britain. 'The Rich list of 2003' compiled by the Sunday Mail puts Mittal with an estimated wealth of 1.25 billion at the 14th, that is in the first 20, richest in this country. He has climbed four position up from 18th last year when his assets were estimated at 1 billion.

The reason for the addition to his wealth according to the Mail is that "new acquisitions by LNM in Kazakhstan, Romania and Algeria are flourishing. Mittal has also expanded holdings in South Africa and has a stake worth nearly 300 million in its largest steel works".

The Hinduja Brothers are the next at the 40th with the Mail estimating their assets at 670 million. Last year too they were placed at the 40th but then their wealth was said to be 650 million. This means it has increased since then. " They are India's richest businessmen with a multi-million pound local empire" note the Sunday paper.

The next to the Hindujas are the Jatania Brothers with estimated wealth of 330 million in 93rd slot. Last year they were at 101st, so it has been a major climb up for them. The Uganda-born Mitesh Jatania and his family head a worldwide cosmetic empire. Their company the Lornamead Group was founded in 1978 and is based in Dubai but has affiliated offices in London, Dublin, Moscow, Lagos, Johannesburg, Holland as Scandinavia.

Tom Singh is another Indian-origin businessman to have added to his wealth, climbing to 113th position this year compared to the 142 slot last year. His wealth as gone up from 213 million to 290 million this year. The Gypsy look that swept England last year has helped his womenswear chain double its profits from 30.6 million o 62.3 million. The chain he created in 1969 was started with a loan from his farmer parents in Punjab.

Jasminder Singh and family, the well-known hoteliers are at 134th position this year as compared to 112 last year. Their fortune has from 268 million in 2002 gone down to 240 million.

The last three Indian-origin businessmen in the list are brothers Bharat and Ketan Mehta, Lord Swraj Paul and Dinesh Dhamija in online travel business at 239, 262 and 279th positions respectively.

Lord Paul was at 200th last year with an estimated wealth of 160 million. But this year the Mail has estimated his wealth at 115 million and slotted him in the 262nd position. An ambassador for British industry, Lord Paul's Caparo has suffered from the steel slump.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com