Saturday, June 30, 2007

The constraint is not money

The government's attention seems to have shifted firmly to ways of quickly improving the country's physical infrastructure, with big investment numbers being bruited. The initial investment numbers mentioned were $320 billion and $350 billion for the coming five years.

Now the Deepak Parekh committee has come out with a much bigger number, $475 billion.

Perhaps the government has got more ambitious, since GDP growth has crossed 9 per cent for two years in a row. Or the earlier numbers may have been an under-estimate, or the increase partly reflects the fall of the dollar against the rupee.

Whatever the case, setting apart something like 10 per cent of GDP every year for investment in infrastructure is going to be a new experience for this country -- and long overdue.

The question is whether the challenge is one of financial engineering, or of focusing on infrastructure policy in its totality. The fiscal situation has improved, corporate surpluses have ballooned, and global liquidity is such that India can easily attract the required funding if a sector looks like being an attractive bet.

This has been proven in telecom, where a single company like Bharti Airtel intends to invest $10 billion over the next five years. With some recent bids for road projects showing no requirement for viability gap funding by the government (the average till now was 7 per cent), it could be argued that the highway programme too has been shown to be viable (though it does not help that the Kerala chief minister has ruled out tolls).

The railways have become a more profitable organisation with significant cash flows, and have funding commitments from Japan for the dedicated, high-speed freight corridors. Four of the big cities already have projects for new airports, and 35 other cities too are getting new airports.

In other words, in the areas where sector-viability has been established, funding has not been a constraint. To be sure, the money still has to be found, but the government does not have to lose sleep over the issue because the market can take over.

That would be true of the power sector too, if policies could be fixed. Unfortunately, even in states where the separation of power generation, transmission and distribution has taken place, accompanied by the setting up of regulators to set tariffs, the rate of improvement in the performance of the power sector has been slow -- chiefly because state governments have worked assiduously to undermine the reforms that have been put in place.

This is where the funding gap looms large. The solution does not, however, lie in looking at financing issues, it lies in undertaking power reform. Were that to happen, there would be more than enough investment flowing into the power sector.

As for the Parekh report, with its stress on more liberalisation of the capital account (something to be welcomed), tax breaks for infrastructure funding (questionable, if people simultaneously question the subsidising of poor farmers), and the use of some of the accumulated foreign exchange reserves (which this newspaper criticised when it was first proposed by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission), each specific recommendation can be examined for its merits. But the real constraint is sector policy, not the absence of the appropriate financial tools.

Pratibha Patil, True Story- by Arun Shourie

'A big step for women... This shows India has a lot of respect for
women... My nomination will inspire other women and help their
empowerment...' - that is how Pratibha Patil described her selection
as the UPA candidate for being our President. Loyalists, of course,
went one better. 'A firm believer in women's causes and a tireless
champion of spreading education among girls... One who always stands
for a better deal for women... active role in checking such evils as
female foeticide and dowry...' 'Working women of Mumbai hail...' 'Yes,
Ma'am Commander' - Armymen look forward to reporting to first woman
Supreme Commander of Armed Forces...

And all this within two days of her selection.

Her bio-data lists her 'special interests' as 'development of rural
economy and welfare of women', and lists as evidence, 'Establishment
of Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank at Jalgaon, Maharashtra... of Mahila
Vikas Mahamandal...' It records her being Managing Trustee, Shram
Sadhana Trust, as her being the 'Chief Promoter and Chairperson of
Sugar Factory in Jalgaon District'. It records her having set up the
Engineering College 'for the benefit of rural youth'...

We start with the 'cooperative bank' she set up in her own name to
help other women - the Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank.

Although this is listed in her bio-data, and although it has been
referred to again and again by newspapers, how is it that neither the
bio-data nor the newspapers mention that the bank has actually been
liquidated? Under orders of the Reserve Bank of India, no less. And
that too on the telling ground that its continuance would be
prejudicial to the interests of depositors.


Brief history

Pratibha Patil established the bank in 1973 with herself as the
chairperson, and with many members of her own family as its directors.
She herself became a director for several terms. As for members of her
family, they inter-changed, among themselves, the chairs of the Board
of Directors in one 'election' after another. But while others changed
places, Pratibha Patil continued as Founder Chairperson right till the
demise of the bank.


Since the bank was not being managed properly, the Reserve Bank of
India, in 1995, included it in its list of 'weak banks' and placed it
under rehabilitation 'due to heavy erosion in its assets as observed
in the inspection in March 1994.'


The RBI conducted an in-depth inspection of the bank's functioning
again in 2002. In his order dated 25 February 2003, P.B . Mathur,
Executive Director of the RBI, stated that the inspection revealed the
following irregularities:


1: The real or exchangeable value of the bank's paid-up share capital
and reserves stands at minus Rs. 197.67 lakh. Thus, the bank is not
having adequate assets to meet its liabilities. The bank does not
comply with the RBI's requirement of minimum share capital...


2: The ratio of the net erosion to net owned funds of the bank is as
high as 312.4% and the erosion in the value of the bank's assets has
not only wiped out its owned funds but has also affected the deposits
to the extent of Rs. 197.67 lakh, forming 26% of total deposits...


3: The gross NPAs of the bank, that is loans that have gone bad,
amount to 65.8% of the total loans and advances...


4: The Board has not made any concerted effort to improve the bank's
financial position and bring it out of the weak status...


As a consequence, the RBI in its order stated: 'Having regard to all
the facts, the Reserve Bank of India is satisfied that allowing the
bank to carry on banking business any further would be detrimental to
the interest of the present and future depositors and hence the
license granted to the PRATIBHA MAHILA SAHAKARI BANK LTD. is hereby
cancelled.'


Who got the loans?

But how did the assets of the bank get eroded? Why did this
'cooperative bank' - functioning as it must have been in the interests
of its members - not take any action to retrieve the loans and instead
endanger its very existence? Remember that the order of the RBI to
liquidate the bank was not a sudden bolt. The RBI had put the bank on
its list of 'weak banks' in 1995, that is a full eight years before
the RBI had to decide that it just must be liquidated, and cancelled
its license. Throughout these eight years why did Board not make any
"concerted effort to improve the bank's financial position"?


A brief list of the sorts of persons who had been given the 'loans'
and were not repaying them, tells the tale.

Name of the NPA holder Relationship to P. Patil
Amount due with penalty


Rajeshwari Kishorisingh Patil Brother's daughter-in-law
Rs. 45, 82, 670


Kishor Dilipsingh Patil Nephew
Rs. 51, 02, 183


Kishor Dilipsingh Patil Nephew
Rs. 43, 87, 680

Udhavsingh Dagdu Rajput Brother's kin


Udhavsingh Dagdu Rajput Brother's kin and wife
Rs. 42, 89, 602

Jayashri Udhavsingh Rajput


Randhirsingh Dilipsingh Rajput Nephew
Rs. 21, 44, 800

Udhavsingh Dagdu Rajput


Jyoti Vijaysingh Patil

Kishor Dilipsingh Patil Nephew
Rs. 10, 69, 893


Dilispsingh N. Patil Brother
Rs. 3, 09, 562


Dilispsingh N. Patil Brother
Rs. 5, 62, 840


Total:
Rs. 2, 24, 49, 150


____________________________________________________________

Notice that among the women that were being empowered by this
cooperative for women - this Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank - were the
brother and nephews of Pratibha Patil! Males behind the Muslim veil,
Dr. Watson!


For my friends, the champions of employees' unions

The Cooperative Bank Employees Union wrote one memorandum after
another exposing how the directors of the Pratibha Mahila Sahakari
Bank were systematically bankrupting the bank. They demanded dismissal
of the family-controlled board. They demanded 'a CBI inquiry against
Pratibha Patil, former Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, for the
irregularities in the bank'. They wrote these letters, in Marathi, to
the relevant authorities in Maharashtra looking after the affairs of
cooperative banks. They sent them to the then President, to the then
Prime Minister, to among others, 'Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the
Opposition (Lok Sabha)...'

In one such lengthy memorandum dated 3.12.2001, the Employees' Union
complained, 'Founder Chairperson Pratibha Patil - during, before and
after the period when she was formally on the Board of Directors - has
facilitated the loot of large sums of money in the form of unlawful
loans without surety extended to her own relatives and to people close
to her family.' The Union alleged that, even though the bank was on
the verge of bankruptcy, Pratibha Patil got huge amounts of interest
waived on the loans given to her close relatives. As illustrations,
they listed three such accounts:

1) Anjali Dilipsingh Patil (Pratibha Patil's niece), who got a waiver
of Rs. 21.86 lakh;

2) Kavita Aravind Patil (sister-in-law of Pratibha Patil), who got a
waiver of Rs. 8.59 lakh; and

3) Rajkaur Dilipsingh Patil (another sister-in-law of Pratibha Patil),
who got a waiver of Rs. 2.47 lakh.

The waivers given, the accounts were promptly closed!

This, the Union stated, 'is a loot of Rs. 32.93 lakh'. You will not be
surprised to learn that, within the bank, the complaint got nowhere.
And for good reason: the legal advisor to the bank was Pratibha
Patil's elder brother, Dilipsingh Patil, and Dilipsingh Patil's own
wife was one of the beneficiaries of the loan waiver!

'The purpose of the cooperative movement,' the Union's letter stated,
'is to promote people's economic, social and educational development
and thereby strengthen patriotism in them. But (in this bank),
Pratibha Patil, her elder brother Dilipsingh Patil and the Board of
Directors have, through different means, robbed nearly Rs. 2 crore...
The bank is thus being bankrupted through a collusive strategy.' 'What
kind of morality is this?,' the Union asked.

In a writ filed in the Bombay High Court - Pratibha Patil is one of
the respondents in the case -- the employees of the bank also said
something else that will be of particular interest to our champions of
social justice. They said, 'The respondent Directors have also
appointed staff without following the recruitment procedure that the
posts are reserved for reserve categories such as S.C., S.T., O.B.C.
The managing Directors have appointed their relatives as employees of
the Bank...'

To rescue the bank from imminent demise, the Union demanded 'seizure
of the property of Smt. Pratibha Patil, her brother Dilipsingh Patil
and her relatives'. In addition it demanded an inquiry into how they
had amassed 'such huge assets'.

As a result of this memorandum, the Department of Cooperatives,
Government of Maharashtra, initiated an inquiry. Even as the inquiry
was going on, a past president of the Employees Union, Anantsingh
Patil, wrote an ever-so-helpful letter to Pratibha Patil, on the
Union's letterhead, informing her that she had nothing to do with the
irregularities of the bank! He even tendered an apology to her on
behalf of the Union! The Union nails the lie. It points to several
telling facts. For instance, it says, on 22, January, 2002, the Board
had met and, much as the Congress does today !, by resolution no. 23,
authorized Pratibha Patil to decide who should be on the Board of
Directors and who should be the bank's Chief Executive.

But the matter did not end with the Union's letter or the inquiry of
the Maharashtra Government's Cooperative Department. The Reserve Bank
of India went into the waiver also. In its confidential inspection
report dated 18 June, 2002, found the charge of financial fraud
involving those large interest waivers to Pratibha Patil's three close
relatives to be valid. It also noted that the Board had not taken
approval of the AGM for the loan waiver.

Some women were certainly getting empowered!


A pattern

Memoranda of the Employees Union show that such enterprising
sleights-of-account-books were part of a pattern. The memoranda and
communications were sent to, among others, Pratibha Patil herself. For
instance, in a letter to her on 13 March, 2002, the President,
Vice-president and Secretary of the Union informed her that

· She had allowed her elder brother,
Dilipsingh Patil, to use the bank's telephone (no. 224672, which he
had got installed at his residence) for running his stock exchange
business. He ran up a bill of Rs. 20 lakh. Phone records showed that
the calls were made to sharebrokers in Mumbai. These records were
subsequently destroyed. But later the charge was found to be one of
substance. It was one of the things that Amol Khairnar, who was
appointed as the chief administrator of bank, asked P.D. Patil,
manager of the bank, to explain in the show-cause notice that the
former issued on 1 February, 2003.

· The show-cause notice also mentioned
that the Pratibha Mahil Sahakari Bank had extended unlawful loans to
the Sant Muktabai Cooperative Sugar Factory from time to time. As you
will recall, the sugar factory too was set up by Pratibha Patil
herself to help rural youth! It was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi in
1999. As The Asian Age has reported, like the Pratibha Mahila Sahakari
Bank, the mill too has closed down - but only after running up a loan
default of nearly Rs. 20 crore and without ever producing much sugar!

· The bank also gave loans to
undeserving persons to buy shares of the Sant Muktabai Cooperative
Sugar Factory. Pratibha Patil and her brothers did so for a reason
that my good friend of long-standing, Sharad Pawar would again find
nothing extraordinary: they did so in order to retain control over the
sugar factory by having these shareholders support her in 'elections'
to the cooperative.


If you don't stop...

'It is because of these reasons that the bank is now on the verge of
going bankrupt,' the Employees Union charged. It then posed a question
to her that those - like my friend Sharad Pawar -- who are making
light of this state of affairs in the bank on the ground that such
things are nothing new in cooperatives would like to answer: 'Whom
should the society trust if politicians like you start cooperative
institutions to rob the hard-earned wealth of ordinary people?'

And then come two paragraphs that should be weighed in the scale of
the high office to which Pratibha Patil is being catapulted. Before
concluding, the Union's President, Vice-president and Secretary state,
'You are the Founder Chairperson of this bank, but you are today
attempting, out of selfish reasons, to lead the bank to its demise.
You know that the RBI has decided to cancel the bank's license if its
financial condition does not improve by March 2002. Once the license
is cancelled and the bank is liquidated, you are quite capable of
covering-up the fraud you have committed on the bank and the people of
this region by using your influence on the Government of Maharashtra.'

And then comes the last para. To get to know our next President, the
one who will be the Guardian of our Constitution, do read it twice:
'There is threat to our lives and to the lives of our family members
from you. You have already communicated this to us in our meeting with
you. Although you have made us aware of this threat, we are prepared
to lay down our lives for the pursuit of truth. If something happens
to us or to members of our families, accidentally or otherwise, you
will be responsible for it, which please note.'


And a letter from the women who were to be empowered

We have focused on 'women' who got loans. But who were the depositors?
They were the poor women of the area - who were eking out a living by
selling vegetables, by collecting rags... What were they telling our
'firm believer in women's causes', our 'tireless champion of...'? A
representative, and typically plaintive letter from them, awakens us
to their wail:

'We opened accounts in your bank trusting that it had been established
to help poor women and to come to their aid in times of need. You know
that the bank is now on the brink of bankruptcy. Therefore, a crisis
is looming before ordinary depositors. Politicians plant saplings on
Tree Plantation Day and get their photographs printed in newspapers
the next day. But they don't take care of the sapling thereafter. This
bank too was a sapling that you had planted. It was growing well and
promised to bear fruit. It had given shelter to you too. Then who
killed this tree? Once the bank is liquidated, those who took the
loans do not have to worry, just as when a sahukar dies, the persons
to whom he had lent money heave a sigh of relief. But what about poor
women depositors like us who are vegetable vendors, fruit-sellers,
rag-pickers, etc, who saved our meager earnings in your bank, hoping
that the money would be useful to us in our old age or for the
marriage of our daughters? Pratibhatai, we tried a lot to meet you
personally. We were unsuccessful. But you know everything. Therefore,
we urge you to disclose the names of all those culprits who are
responsible for the bankruptcy of our bank.'

And what did our tireless champion of women's rights, our devotee of
rural development do?


'It is all a BJP-conspiracy'

A murder they don't care about



The 'cooperative' bank for empowering women liquidated under orders of
the Reserve Bank... The sugar mill bankrupt, having swallowed over Rs.
20 crore of unpaid loans... We see the very same pattern in the other
endeavours of our next President. Her bio-data speaks of the Shram
Sadhana Trust that she has set up. It runs an engineering college -
for rural youth, as the bio-data says.

What do documents show? A Medical Aid Account is set up for students.
Naturally, money from it goes to doctors - and, lo and behold, her
brother, Dr. GN Patil's name stands out by a mile... Employees of the
college turn out to be working at the residences of the various
directors - some in Mumbai. A guest house is built, and comes to be
used, not by academicians visiting the college, but by members of the
family... Money collected from the students goes to the
soon-to-be-declared bankrupt sugar mill... Money is taken from the
teachers' salaries as compulsory deposits in that family-controlled
'cooperative' bank; these deposits are used to enroll 'shareholders'
in the bank - who in turn help the family win the 'elections' of the
cooperative bank... A pattern through and through.

Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who has been so exercised about enforcing
morality on the media, is unmoved. 'A visibly upset Dasmunsi hit out
at the NDA for trying to malign Patil's image,' The Indian Express
reports. 'In the process, he drew a parallel between Patil's case and
"many political leaders" whose brothers, sisters and relatives were
loan defaulters and also "electronic media industry" which has been
slapped with plenty of notices.'

Surely, the answer is to bring them to book too. Surely, the answer is
to do what so many of us have been demanding for so long - namely, to
publish the names of all bank-defaulters. Not to pick one of them at
random and make her or him President of India!

In any case, even Munsi, in spite of his fertile imagination, will not
claim that murder has brushed the hem of the 'electronic media
industry' as closely as it has in this instance.


Names and dates

But first a few names and dates.

Vishram G. Patil: Professor of English at a college in Jalagaon
affiliated to the North Maharashtra University. A Congressman for
thirty years. Elected President of the District Congress Committee not
once but thrice. Murdered on 21 September, 2005.

Rajani Patil: his wife. Professor of Marathi at the same college.

G.N. Patil: brother of the UPA nominee for the Presidentship of India.
Rival and adversary of Vishram Patil. Defeated by Vishram Patil in his
effort to become President of the District Congress Committee.

Ulhas Patil: former member of Parliament. Close associate of G.N.
Patil. Rival and adversary of Vishram Patil. Runs a number of NGOs.

Raju Mali and Raju Sonawane: two arrested for murdering Vishram Patil.
Raju Mali tells Aaj Tak correspondent that they are just being made
sacrificial goats. The real perpetrators of the murder are at large.
Who are they, he is asked. "The persons who are being named by Rajani
Patil," he says. He suddenly dies in police custody - three days
after, at long last, the CBI team visits Jalagaon on its first visit.

Leeladhar Narkhede and Damodar Lokhande: two who are named as having
financed the murder of Vishram Patil. Phone records show several calls
between them and G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil on the day before the
murder, on the day of the murder and on the day after. The two are
picked up. But four months later, they are let off. The FIR about them
is withdrawn.

A few dates: 21 September, 2005: Vishram Patil murdered. Great
commotion in Jalagaon. People openly say that he has been killed as
the result of a supari having been given to murder him. By the fourth
day, Police say they have completed '90 per cent' of the
investigation, and will soon get the killers and those behind them.
Police arrest the two who confess to the actual murder.

October 2006: Aaj Tak puts out a detailed story by Manish Awasthi
cataloguing the murder. In it, Aaj Tak takes viewers through the
records of the mobile telephone company that establish that numerous
calls were made between the two reported financiers of the murder and
the brother of Pratibha Patil, G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil - the calls
were made on the day before the murder, on the day of the murder and
on the day after the murder. The channel shows the exact times and
duration of the calls from the records of the mobile phone company.
Awasthi's story contains a devastating interview of Raju Mali from
within the jail. In September 2005, they had gone on an indefinite
fast inside the jail. Raju Mali says in the interview that they had
stopped taking food to protest against the Police for not arresting,
for not even questioning the real culprits, 'the persons named by
Rajani Patil'. 'We have simply been made sacrificial goats in the case
while the real culprits are untouched.'

4 April, 2007: a year and a half after the murder, and after
vicissitudes that we shall soon encounter, the CBI team comes to
Jalagaon for its first visit.

7 April, 2007: the CBI team interrogates Rajani Patil, the widow of
the murdered DCC President. But something else happens in the jail not
far away: Raju Mali dies in Police custody.


Events

The brother of Pratibha Patil, G.N. Patil -- who, as we have seen, has
been a close collaborator in her endeavours to empower women and bring
succour to rural youth - is a frustrated rival of Vishram Patil. The
latter has defeated him to the Presidentship of the District Congress
Committee.

Congress workers collect funds - ostensibly to provide relief to
tsunami victims. These are never deposited in the Chief Minister's
Relief Fund.

Congress workers again collect funds - this time to felicitate
Pratibha Patil upon her appointment as Governor of Rajasthan. No one
hears what happens to these funds either.

Several office-bearers of the District Congress Committee send a
memorandum to Prabha Rau, head of the Maharashtra Congress, asking her
to institute an inquiry into the missing funds. They receive no reply.

15 August, 2005: nine office-bearers of the DCC issue a press release
saying that G.N. Patil, the brother of Pratibha Patil, has not
submitted accounts of funds that were collected by Congress workers
for felicitating Pratibha Patil.

Vishram Patil commences an inquiry within the Congress into the
misappropriation of the funds. He also commences an inquiry into
financial dealings of Ulhas Patil and his NGOs. He brings the matter
to the attention of the high-command of the Congress.

He receives three anonymous letters. Written in hand, they state that
a supari has been given out to kill him, that he should be careful. He
persists with the inquiry.

He is killed. Local dailies are full of the murder. They surmise that
it is the result of political rivalries in the District Congress
Committee.

Because of the enormous commotion among the local people, the Police
act. Within a few days, they nab the killers.

They make swift progress in the investigation. They tell Rajani Patil,
the widow, that 90 per cent of the investigation is over, that they
will soon get the ones who instigated the murder also.

Suddenly, the investigation goes off the rails. The police now put out
a story that the murder actually took place because of a dispute over
money that Raju Mali had borrowed from Vishram Patil. Rajani Patil
strongly refutes the insinuation. Local papers puncture holes in this
new concoction of the Police. As suddenly as the concoction had been
put out, the investigation is taken out of the hands of the local
police entirely, and turned over to the CID of the state Government.

26 September, 2005: alarmed at the way the investigation is being
derailed, the widow, Rajani Patil writes to Sonia Gandhi. She says,
'The brain behind the crime is pressurizing the investigation
process.'

27 September, 2005: a local paper, Deshdoot, reports that at a press
conference, Rajiv Patil, the parabhari adhyaksha of the Congress, has
said that Raju Mali, the killer, is an agent of G.N. Patil, the
brother of Pratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan. Another report in
the paper says that everyone in Jalagaon is talking about the contract
killing, about how much was paid for it, and by whom...

The same day, 27 September, 2005, thirteen office-bearers of the
District Congress Committee write to the local Superintendent of
Police. They name G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil as being the persons
behind the murder and express grave concern that the investigation is
being dragged down to a crawl.

28 September, 2005: Local papers like Deshdoot and Deshunnati carry a
tell-tale photograph. It is the day the election of the District
Congress Committee President takes place. A group is standing around
the victor, Vishram Patil. In the picture, mysteriously, is Raju Mali
- the very man who is to kill Vishram Patil soon. He was not and is
not a member of the Congress, the papers say. Who let him into the
party office? With whose blessing was he roaming inside the office?
With who is he linked? They have no doubt about the answer...

On 28 September, 2005, Manik Rao Gavit, the Minister of State in the
Home Ministry at the Centre, writes to the Chief Minister of
Maharashtra. He writes that he has received a letter from the Working
President of the Jalagaon District Congress Committee, Rajiv Patil, in
which the latter has named G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil as the
conspirators behind the murder. Gavit says that there is haa-haakaar
in the local Congress, hence he is sending Rajiv Patil's letter. He
urges the Chief Minister to have the matter investigated in this
direction and to do everything necessary to get at the real culprits
and have them punished.

The local papers are full of the inaction that has overtaken the
investigation. The real culprits are at large, they say. The names of
G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil are splashed across the headlines of
stories connected with the murder. Rajani Patil, the widow, writes to
the local Police chief: 'This murder has been committed out of
political enmity. I therefore urge you to investigate the case from
this angle and arrest the persons concerned. I strongly believe that,
under somebody's pressure, there is an attempt to misdirect the Police
investigation by fabricating cock-and-bull stories.'

5 October, 2005: Rajiv Patil, the parabhari-adhyaksha of the Congress
, writes to the Chief Minister, to the Director General of Police, and
to the head of the Pune Branch of the CID. He records his concern that
the investigation is going nowhere. He urges that some of the officers
who were handling the initial investigation and who know the facts
should be involved in the inquiry. He gives the names of the concerned
officers. He receives no reply.

15 October, 2005: Rajiv Patil writes to the authorities again pointing
to the connection between the killers and G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil.
He says that the killers who have been nabbed were never Congress
activists, that they were brought to the Congress office by G.N. Patil
and Ulhas Patil only at the time of the DCC election.

1 December, 2005: two months have gone by since the murder, the
investigation has been steered into the wrong direction all
too-patently. Rajani Patil, the widow, writes to R.R. Patil, the
Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister of the state. She expresses
her anguish at what has been done to the investigation. It is going
nowhere, she says. The police had assured us that 90 per cent of the
investigation is over and that they will soon get to the real
conspirators. But as 'the real conspirators have high-level
connections, when only 10 per cent of the investigation was left, the
case was taken out of their hands and given to the state CID.'

8 December, 2005: Rajani Patil again writes to the Chief Minister and
Home Minister of the state. She strongly repudiates the police
insinuation that there was some financial dispute between her husband
and the killers. My husband was killed because of the supari given by
the political rivals of my husband, she writes. You can find out who
gave the supari by asking the two who are in custody, she tells them.
There is no response.

Rajani Patil travels to Delhi. She meets Sonia Gandhi personally in
January 2006. She narrates the sequence of the case. She also meets
other Congress bigwigs - Ahmed Patel, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Margaret
Alva and others.

They move not a finger. Instead, the FIR against the two who are said
to have financed the murder is dropped. Having first snatched the
investigation away from the local police and transferred it to the
state CID, the Government now decides that the investigation is best
done by the CBI!

Three months pass - ostensibly waiting for the CBI to respond.
Eventually, the CBI informs the state Government that it is
overwhelmed with work, that as the case has no 'inter-state or
international ramifications', it is not a fit case for the agency.

Everyone sees through the attempt to kill the inquiry and thus protect
the real conspirators. The intrepid widow files a petition in the
Aurangabad Bench of the High Court. On 23 February, 2007, by a
detailed order the Court dismisses the CBI's objections about there
being no 'inter-state or international ramifications'. We are aware of
this as well as of the work which the agency is already handling, the
Court records. That is why only in exceptional cases does the Court
direct it to take the case in hand. This is a case of that kind. 'We
have scrutinized the record with the help of counsel of both sides,'
the Court records in its order. 'We have considered the chequered
history of the present case, the developments which have taken place
after filing of the chargesheet, issues involved, and the reference to
alleged conspiracy by influential political leaders of the region.
Having regard to the importance of the issues involved and the alleged
complicity of the influential political leaders..., in our considered
opinion, this is a fit case where the investigation should be
conducted by the CBI.'

Of course, by knocking the investigation around - from the local
police to the state CID to the CBI, only to have the CBI turn down the
case - the powers-that-be have already achieved one objective: by now,
more than a year and a half has passed since the murder was committed.

5 March, 2007: disheartened and broken, Rajani Patil again writes to
Sonia Gandhi. As you also lost your husband, you are the one person
who will understand my wound, she writes. She recalls the anonymous
letters that her husband had received warning him to desist from the
inquiry, warning that 'a supari to murder my husband had been given by
Dr. Ulhas Patil and Dr. G.N. Patil, the brother of Smt. Pratibha
Patil, Governor of Rajasthan. On the morning of 21.9.2005, my husband
was brutally murdered...' 'I fear that my whole family is likely to
get liquidated by these brutal murderers if they continue to get
politically patronized by the party,' she concludes.

She receives no reply.

Recounting all this in the memorandum she submits to the President
later on, and driven to despondence by the fact that no one has paid
the slightest heed to her tears and pleas, she adds, 'I feel anguished
that they are indeed getting politically patronized by the party.'

The CBI team comes at last to Jalagaon on 4 April, 2007. It
interrogates the widow on 7 April. On the same day, the killer, Raju
Mali dies in police custody...

Throughout this period, the widow, Rajani Patil, is pleading before
the state and Congress authorities. Not just she, but functionaries of
the local Congress themselves, in particular Shridhar Bapu Chaudhury,
the party's General Secretary keep dispatching letters and memoranda
pointing to G.N. Patil and Ulhas Patil. All these letters as well as
those of Rajiv Patil, the prabhari adhyaksha of the Congress in
Jalagaon, are on letterheads of the Congress.


The response

'It is all a BJP ploy. It shows their desperation at not being able to
find a candidate of the stature of Pratibha Patil,' proclaim the
Congress spokesmen. But the record consists of letters, memoranda,
press conferences, writ petitions of Congressmen.

But I am on another point: assume that everything is a conspiracy of
the BJP. What about the facts? What about the facts, for instance, set
out by Aaj Tak?

'But why now? The timing of these allegations itself shows that they
have been manufactured only to tarnish the image of Pratibha Patil as
she is standing for the Presidentship of the country. After all, why
are they bringing up these things now?' This is their other, wholly
predictable defence.

It so happens that all the events, documents, proceedings in court,
communications, etc., pertain to the period before Pratibha Patil was
plucked from nowhere to be the Presidential candidate. And they are
being recounted today precisely because Pratibha Patil has been
nominated to become the President of the country. Till the other day,
these were frauds of some district politicians. The murder was of
concern primarily to the Jalagaon people. Precisely because Pratibha
Patil is likely to become the President, each facet -- the financial
frauds, the murder, the deliberate derailment of the investigation --
becomes a matter of urgent national concern. If the frauds and murder
are not exhumed today, why, that would be a real conspiracy...


The politics

Could it be that the Congress high-ups, in particular Sonia Gandhi,
did not know about these associations of Pratibha Patil? I was at
first inclined to think so. After all, Pratibha Patil's name had been
picked out of a hat at the last minute. There might have been no time
for a background check.

But on going through these letters after letters, these memoranda
after memoranda - one and all of them written and sent by Congressmen,
one and all of them sent to Congressmen; after reading Rajani Patil's
account of her meeting with Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders in
Delhi; after going through the proceedings in courts; after seeing the
screaming headlines of the local papers, I just can not believe that
neither Sonia Gandhi nor her immediate colleagues remembered nothing
of the case. After all, the head of their own party in the district,
the very man who had been thrice elected to the post, had been killed.
After all, all concerned in the party unit had been pointing to an
ex-MP of the Congress and the brother of the Governor of Rajasthan...
how could everyone have forgotten? Murders of district Congress chiefs
are still not that common.

So, the only inference is that they knew of the antecedents of
Pratibha Patil and for the very antecedents selected her.

And that stands to reason. A person who is weak and dutifully
submissive is already Prime Minister. But he has one defect - being
financially honest, he is not vulnerable. There is always the danger,
inconceivable though it seems at present, that at some point, he may
throw up his hands...

So, what is needed is not just a weak person. What is needed is a
person who is weak and vulnerable...

Dhirubhai Ambani

Brief Biography



(1) Early life Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on 28 December 1932 , at Chorwad, Junagadh in the state of Gujarat , India , into a Modh family of very moderate means. He was the third son of a school teacher. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden ,Yemen . Initially Dhirubahi worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co.. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became distributor for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden. He was married to Kokilaben and had two sons and two daughters.

(2) Life in Aden In the 1950s the Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency Rial was in disappearing. After investigating the matter it was realized that all Rials were routed to the Port City of Aden. There a young man in twenties was placing unlimited buy orders of Yemini Rials. During those days the Yemini Rial was a pure silver coin and was much in demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young Dhirubhai would buy Rial, melt it in pure silver and sell it to bullion traders in London . In the later part of his life while talking to reporters it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakh of rupees. I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.”

(3) Reliance Commercial Corporation Ten years later, Dhirubai returned to India and started a business Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of Rs. 15000.00 (US$ 375). The primary business of Reliance Commercial Corporation was import polyester yarn and export spices. The business was setup in partnership with Chambaklal Damani , his second cousin who was also there with him in Aden , Yemen . The first office of Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at Narsinathan Street at Masjid Bunder . It was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table and three chairs. Initially they had two assistants to help them in their business. In 1965 Chambaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. It is believed that both had different temperaments and a different take on business, while Mr. Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building Yarn inventories, Dhirubhai was a known risk taker and he considered that building inventories with anticipating a price rise and making some profit is good for growth. During this period Dhirubahi and his family used to stay in an one bedroom apartment in Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar. In 1968 he moved from the chawl to an upmarket apartment at Altamount Road in South Mumbai. His first car was Premier Padmini , the Indian version of Fiat 1100 , later he brought a Mercedes-Benz Car . In 1970s he brought a white Cadillac Car.

(3) Reliance Textiles Sensing good opportunity in the business of textiles, Dhirubhai started his first textile mill at Naroda , near Ahmedabad in the year 1966 . Textiles were manufactured using polyester fiber yarn. Dhirubhai started the brand “Vimal”, which was named after his elder brother Ramaniklal Ambani’s son Vimal Ambani. Externsive marketing of the brand “Vimal” in the interiors of India made it a household name. Franchise retail outlets were started that used to sell only “Vimal” brand of textiles. In the year 1975 a Technical team from the World Bank visited Reliance Textiles’ Manufacturing unit. This unit has the rare distinction of being certified as “excellent even by developed country standards” in that period.

(4) Initial Public Offering Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investors from various parts of India subscribed to Reliance’s IPO in 1977. Dhirubhai was able to convince people of rural Gujrat that being shareholders of his company will only bring returns to their investment. Reliance Industries holds the distinction that it is the only Public Limited Company whose several Annual General Meetings were held in stadiums . In 1986, The Annual General Meeting of Relaince Industries was held in Cross Maidan, Mumbai, was attended by more than 30,000 shareholders.

(5) Dhirubhai’s Control Over Stock Exchanges In 1982 Reliance Industries was coming up with a rights issue of partly convertible debentures. It was rumored that the company is making all efforts to ensure that the stock prices did not slide a inch. Sensing an opportunity a bear cartel which was a group of stock brokers from Calcutta started to short sell the shares of Reliance. To counter this a group of stock brokers till recently referred as “Friends of Reliance” started to buy the short sold shares of Reliance Industries on Bombay Stock Exchange . The Bear Cartel was acting with a belief that the Bulls will be short of cash to complete the transaction and would be ready for settlement under the “Badla” trading system prevalent in Bombay Stock Exchange during those days. The bulls kept on buying and a price of Rs. 152 per share was maintained till the day of settlement. On the day of settlement the Bear Cartel was taken a back when the Bulls demanded a physical delivery of shares. To complete the transaction the much needed cash was provided to the stock brokers who had brought shares of Reliance by none other than Dhirubhai Ambani. In case of non-settlement the Bulls demanded an “Unbadla” (penalty sum) of Rs. 35 per share. With this the demand increased and the shares of Reliance shot above 180 rupees in minutes. The settlement caused enormous uproar in the market and Dhirubhai Ambani was the unquestioned king of the stock markets. He proved to his detractors as to how dangerous it is to play with Reliance. The situation was completely out of control. To get a solution for this situation the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed for three business days. Authorities of Bombay Stock Exchange intervened in the matter and brought down the “Unbadla” rate to Rs. 2 with a stipulation that the Bear Cartel has to give the delivery of shares within few days. The Bear Cartel brought shares of Reliance from the market at higher price levels and it was also realized that Dhirubhai Ambani himself supplied those shares to the Bear Cartel and earned a healthy profit out of The Bear Cartel’s adventure After this incident many questions were raised by his detractors and the press.

Not many people were able to understand as to how a yarn trader till a few years ago was able to get in so much of cash flow during the crisis. The answer to this was provided by then finance minster Pranab Mukherjee ] in the parliament. He informed the house that Non-Resident Indian had invested upto Rs. 220 Million in Reliance during 1982-83. These investments were routed through many companies like Crocodile, Lota and Fiasco. These companies were primarily registered in Isle of Man . The interesting factor was all the promoters or owners of these companies had a common surname Shah . An investigation by the Reserve Bank of India in the incident did not find any unethical or illegal acts or transactions committed by Reliance or its promoters.

(6) Diversification Over time his business has diversified into a core specialization in petrochemicals with additional interests in telecommunications , information technology , energy , power , retail , textiles , infrastructure services, capital markets , and logistics . The company as a whole was described by the BBC as “a business empire with an estimated annual turnover of $12bn, and an 85,000-strong workforce”.

(7) Criticism Despite his almost Midas Touch, Ambani has known to have flexible values and an unethical streak running through him. His biographer himself has cited some instances of his unethical behavior when he was just an ordinary employee at a petrol pump in Dubai. He has also been known to have links with the V P Singh government and later the BJP government. He has been accused of having manipulated government policies to suit his own need, and has been known to be a king-maker in government elections. Although most media sources tend to speak out about business-politics nexus, the Ambani house has always enjoyed more protection and shelter from the media storms that sweep across the country.

(8) Unauthorized Biographer Hamish McDonald, who was the Delhi bureau chief for the Far Eastern Economic Review for several years, published an unauthorized biography of Ambani in 1998 in which both his achievements and shortcomings were reported, but the Ambanis threatened legal action if the book was published in India.

(9) Death Dhirubhai Ambani was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai on June 24 , 2002 due to a major “brain stroke” suffered by him. This was the second stroke, the first one had occurred in the year February 1986 and had kept his right hand paralyzed. He was in a state of coma for more than week. A battery of highly efficient doctors were unable to save his life. He breathed his last on July 6 , 2002 , at around 11:50 P.M.(Indian Standard Time). His funeral procession was not only attended by business people, politicians and celebrities but also by thousands of ordinary people. His elder son Mukesh Ambani performed the last rites as per the Hindu traditions. He was cremated at the Chandanwadi Crematorium in Mumbai at around 4:30 PM (Indian Standard Time) on July 7 , 2002 . He is survived by Kokilaben Ambani, his wife, two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani , and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaocar .

(10) Film A film inspired by the life of Dhirubhai release in January 2007. The Hindi Film Guru , directed by Mani Ratnam and music by A.R.Rahman showed the struggle of a man who strives to make his mark in life. The movie stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai in leading roles

(11) Awards and Recognitions November 2000 - Conferred ‘Man of the Century’ award by Chemtech Foundation and Chemical Engineering World in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the growth and development of the chemical industry in India 2000 , 1998 and 1996 - Featured among ‘Power 50 - the most powerful people in Asia by Asiaweek magazine. June 1998 - Dean’s Medal by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania , for setting an outstanding example of leadership. August 2001 - The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence for Lifetime Achievement Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Man of 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted him “Greatest Creator of Wealth In The Century”.

(12) Famous Quotes From beginning Dhirubhai was seen in high-regard. His success in the petrochemical business and his story of rags to riches made him a cult figure in the minds of Indian people. As a quality of business leader he was also a motivator.

He gave very less of public speeches but the words he has spoken are still remembered for their value.

“Growth has no limit at Reliance. I keep revising my vision. Only when you dream it you can do it.”

“Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly”

“Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance and for India.”

“You do not require an invitation to make profits.”

“If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow.”

“Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties, and convert adversities into opportunities.”

“Give the youth a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the support they need. Each one of them has infinite source of energy. They will deliver.”

“Between my past, the present and the future, there is one common factor: Relationship and Trust. This is the foundation of our growth”

“We bet on people.”

“Meeting the deadlines is not good enough, beating the deadlines is my expectation.”

“Don’t give up, courage is my conviction.”

”Think big, think fast, think ahead , ideas are no one’s monopoly”

“Our dream have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitments depper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance an for India.”

"Growth through Vision"

Dhirubhai H. Ambani
Founder Chairman

Mr. Narayana Murthy’s views on staying late in the office!!!!!!!

It’s half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on…PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing… and who’s at work?


Most of them??? Take a closer look……

All or most specimens are?????-some male species of the human race!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
Look close… again all or most of them are bachelors…and why are they sitting late? Working hard?

No way!!!

Any guesses???

Let’s ask one of them…

Here’s what he says… “What’s there to do after going home… here we get to surf the Net, AC, Phone, Food, Coffee.. That is why I am working late…most importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the scene in most Research centers and Software companies and other Off-shore offices.
Bachelors “time-passing” during late hours in the office just because they say they’ve nothing else to do…

Now what are the consequences… read on…

“Working”(for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.
With bosses more than eager to provide support to those “working” late in the form of Taxi vouchers,

Food vouchers and of course Good feedback,(oh, he’s a hard worker… goes home only to change..!!).They aren’t helping things too… To hell with bosses who don’t understand the difference between “sitting” late and “working” late!!!

Very soon, the boss starts expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.

So, my dear Bachelors, let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family… Office is no longer a priority, Family is… and that’s when the problem starts… because you start having commitments at home too!!!!!!.

1. For your boss, the earlier “hardworking” guy suddenly seems to become an “early leaver” even if u leave an hour after regular time… after doing the same amount of work.

2. People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers…

3. Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays… though) leave on time are labeled as “not up to it”.

All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on “working” not realizing that they are spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they would have to regret at one point of time.

So what’s the moral of the story?? *

* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time ” *unless really needed*
* Don’t stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.

There are hundred other things to do in the evening..
* Learn music…
* Learn a foreign language…
* Try a sport… TT, Cricket, Exercise etc etc
* Importantly Get a girl friend or gal friend, take him/her around town…
* And for heaven’s sake, Internet cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.
* Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *”Life’s calling, where are you??”*
* Please pass on this message to all those colleagues and please do it before leaving time, don’t stay back till midnight to forward this!!!

IT’S A TYPICAL INDIAN MENTALITY THAT WORKING FOR LONG HOURS MEANS VERY HARD WORKING & 100% COMMITMENT ETC. PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SIT LATE IN THE OFFICE DON’T KNOW HOW TO MANAGE THEIR TIME.

That’s the Bottom Line……SIMPLE!!!!!!!!

An anti-reform budget?

The 10th anniversary of Mr Chidambaram's dream Budget was presented by a person (obviously) 10 years older, and now past 60. The tragedy is that it shows.

There was so much he could have done, but he chose to take the safe, well-travelled route. A route travelled by only those who believe in eternal, glacial gradualism. A gradualism that means that you can even walk backwards, while all the time claiming that you can walk on water. Also showing the age was a hardening of the arteries.

This particular FM has always had a stubborn streak, and by golly, I brought some ingenious taxes like the fringe benefit tax and the cash transactions tax, and by golly I am not only going to keep them, but also enhance them.

Few finance ministers, anywhere in the world let alone India, are as lucky as this one. When he assumed office in May 2004, the economy was booming, and some even said it was shining. Two major economic reforms were in the system when he took office -- reforms on taxes and reforms on interest rates.

Two tax reports (both under the supervision of Dr Vijay Kelkar) were already in the process of implementation, including the elimination of long-term capital gains tax, and a reduction of short-term capital gains tax to 10 per cent, and the introduction of the securities transaction tax. Major interest rate reforms, in the form of interest rate reforms on small savings, had also already been initiated.

Such interest rates on postal deposits were yielding 12.5 per cent, nominal, and tax-free, in June 1999, a time when inflation was a subdued 4 to 5 per cent. These rates were cut by just 50 basis points but they set in motion a path that has made possible the structural break in the Indian economy. The same structural break that has caused industry to boom (because of radically lower borrowing rates), tax receipts to zoom, and the Budget deficit to be brought down to historically low levels.

Now think back and do a "mental" experiment. Would the UPA government have cut the interest rate on small savings deposits? No, because that would go against their slogans�we are for the aam aadmi, and aam aadmi needs high deposit rates for the several lakhs of deposits. Equally, would the UPA FM have reformed the capital gains tax system, a system with high nominal tax rates to make the aam aurat feel good, but with zero tax collection. Of course not, it hurts our sleep, because we want to rest at night knowing that we are at least thinking of doing good for the aam India.

So what has the FM brought in this�the third full Budget? Tax reforms have continued, and for this the government deserves all the credit, even though it is a worthwhile question to ask as to what would have happened if we did not have WTO commitments and if competitors led by China were not breathing fire down our necks? What other tax and/or expenditure reforms have happened in the last three years?

Something all of us support is increased government financing of education expenditures. What one would have wished is greater private participation in schools, especially in poor areas. This would have meant at least a pilot introduction of a school scholarship system for poor students.

A system that would give Rs 2,000 or more to each poor student so that she can choose to attend the school of her parent's choice -- a choice that poor parents are already exercising. Instead, in the grand tradition of tax by stealth in the name of the poor, the cess on education has now been increased to 3 per cent. Why not just raise the tax rates instead?

Such oh so clever proposals (can you imagine anybody protesting for more expenditure for motherhood?) have been a hallmark of the now older finance minister. The fringe benefit tax, introduced two years ago, has now been further tinkerised -- amidst great fanfare, enough to get prominent mention in the Budget speech, we are now told that the government, in its grand munificence, would henceforth exclude "expenditures on free samples as well as expenditure on displays from the scope of the FBT". Gosh, we are all so relived.

The same generosity extends to the touching concern about agriculture. Fertiliser subsidies have increased from Rs 17,000 crore to Rs 23,000 crore, and the government proposes to set up a study group with the fertiliser industry. For clarification, the readers should know that less than 10 per cent of the fertiliser subsidy actually goes to the farmer, and the reason for that is the system of fertiliser pricing for Indian fertiliser forms who receive subsidy on a cost-plus basis. And many such high-cost firms are in the public sector. So the government is going to bring about agriculture reforms by receiving advice from those who have bankrupted the farmer -- but in the name of aam kisan, of course.

What this Budget has brought, in the tradition started in February 2005, is more and more anti-reforms, more and more tinkerisation, more and more back-pedalling while all the time claiming that to move ahead. Cement prices are too high? Why, it must be because of bad industrialists, who are gouging the poor consumer. So the appropriate policy is to bring in price controls, ostensibly via tax incentives.

The prevailing price today is close to Rs 210 per 50 kg bag, and there is an excise tax benefit of Rs 12.5 per bag. So with the benefit, the price can drop to Rs 197 per bag. But to avail of the benefit, the bag has to be sold for less than Rs 190. Maybe I am missing something; else, there is little rationale for this intervention.

As for many other interventions, policies that we thought we had left behind. Not an anniversary to remember.


Golden' management lessons from Titan

Swarna Ganesh has attended over 100 weddings in his hometown Erode in Tamil Nadu in the past year. He is a little anxious about the weight he has gained, but Ganesh isn't really complaining.

As the franchisee of Titan Industries' Gold Plus chain of jewellery stores, the weddings have meant brisk business - the Erode store earned Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) last year with every sign of doing as well this year, too.

So much so that the Bangalore-based Titan has stepped up its focus on the lower-end jewellery brand: it has rolled out eight Gold Plus showrooms in the past six months, with another 18 slated to open later this year.

That's an indication of the new focus at the Rs 1,483-crore (Rs 14.83 billion) (2005-06 sales) Titan. Managing director Bhaskar Bhat sums it up: "If one can be smart at managing costs, the opportunity to make money at the lower end is huge."

Accordingly, for the next few years, Titan will be setting its sights firmly on the lower end of the market, both in jewellery and watches. Over the next five years, Gold Plus will account for a third of Titan's jewellery sales, from less than 5 per cent currently.

Jewellery sales, coming almost entirely from the Tanishq brand, are tipped to touch Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in 2006-07 and should grow to Rs around Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) by 2011-12. The contribution from low-end watches to total revenues from watches, too, is tipped to go up to 40 per cent, from around 25 per cent at present.

The purity plank

Of course, that's easier said than done. Consumers from the B and C income groups react to different triggers, have different tastes and need to be communicated with differently.

Then, a significant chunk of Gold Plus's target customer group comprises people who are investing in the yellow metal rather than buying it for immediate use - this includes people saving for their weddings, or those putting aside a little something for their daughters' trousseaus.

As L R Natarajan, vice president in charge of the Gold Plus business, points out, "There are customers who start buying for their daughters' marriages even if the child is barely six." Over 40 per cent of the estimated annual gold purchases of Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) (industry-wide) is accounted for by this group.

For such customers, purity of the gold is more important than the variety of designs and quality of workmanship (important issues with the SEC A).

Which is why Gold Plus is continuously educating would-be buyers on the need to buy the real thing - it has even installed carat meters in all its outlets. Purity is the dominant theme of its media campaigns and also the audio-visual shows and question-answer sessions that it organises at street corners.

Equally important is the Tata tag. Gold Plus and Tanishq are two distinct entities - there are no obvious signs to connect the lower-end range with the older, more upscale jewellery brand. Instead, the Tata name is flaunted conspicuously on all Gold Plus hoardings and shopfronts - research by the company showed this was more widely recognised and trusted, in any case.

Bonding with the buyer

To make customers feel comfortable, the Gold Plus stores have been designed to look traditional - either homelike or resembling temples. Explains R Sharad, head, retail and marketing, Gold Plus, "Many of these buyers are accustomed to buying jewellery from local goldsmiths or family jewellers, so we need to make them feel at home."

The price points are low so as to bring in the footfalls: customers can buy as little as one gramme of gold. Exchange of old gold for new - a popular practice in South India - is permitted at just 2 per cent charge, compared with the market rate of 6-8 per cent.

"We also make sure that we constantly bring in new designs because customers are demanding and preferences vary from community to community," observes Sharad.

Unlike the Tanishq stores, which are a mix of company-owned and franchises, the Gold Plus chain is entirely franchisee-driven. The logic: jewellery is a localised business and in smaller towns especially, the store manager needs to have local contacts and be a trusted individual so as to be able to inspire confidence in customers.

"The franchisee is the face of the brand in every town and is key to the success of the model," declares Natarajan. Potential franchisees - typically, the most prominent jewellers in the area - are decided on the basis of their network and their potential business worth. (They also have to be capable of investing Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) in the new venture).

Even the options Gold Plus extends to its customers - programmes like chit funds and savings schemes (where money saved with the company earns interest, which is later used to buy jewellery) - are more typical of traditional jewellers than corporate organisations.

The emphasis on local involvement is also why Titan is convinced that the direct approach in marketing will benefit Gold Plus the most. The store manager keeps track of weddings and other social events by networking with local priests.

He then sends a congratulatory card and token gift well in advance to the families concerned. Should they then shop for appropriately large sums at the Gold Plus outlet, the company sponsors banners at the wedding, and another round of gifts follows. And since the manager is invited to the wedding, it gives him an opportunity to network further
with potential buyers.

Of course, more conventional approaches are being followed as well, including hoardings, wall paintings and event sponsorships. Titan is also stepping up its advertising and promotion activities; apart from advertising on local cable channels, it is also experimenting with FM radio channels. But Sharad believes that here too, the local flavour - rangoli and cooking competitions - work best.

Watch this space

If Titan is trying to cash in on the craze for jewellery, it is equally determined not to miss out on the opportunity in the lower end of the watches space.

Consider some numbers first. The total watches market is about 36 million units and is worth Rs 2,200 crore (Rs 22 billion) (industry estimates). Of this, the Rs 300-1,000 price band is noteworthy. It accounts for 45 per cent value share and 16 million units in terms of volume, and is growing at 6-7 per cent a year.

Now, Titan is already a significant player in this segment. With 600 models, Titan's Sonata is already India's biggest watch brand, selling around 4.6 million units a year. But Titan believes it should now tap the potential for bringing in new buyers - primarily, people who don't already own watches.

Says Sonata Business Head C Srinivasan, "In the next two to three years, we will focus on the sub-Rs 500 category by launching a range of products." At present, there are 40 variants in this category.

Srinivasan believes that total Sonata volumes could more than double to 10 million units in three years, which will also help increase the company's share of the Rs 300-1,000 segment.

The pull factor

Most of this volume growth will come from the lower price points. Come summer 2007 and a watch priced Rs 275-295 will be on store shelves, which is about Rs 100 less than the present Titan starting price point. A sizeable chunk of the market (around 30 per cent) is accounted for by watches under Rs 250 - mostly Chinese imports or smuggled ware.

The Rs 275 pricing, then, is significant - it is just a small leap from a grey market product to a genuine branded watch, complete with guarantee. "As aspirations grow, there are many buyers, especially those on the borderline, whom we can draw in on the strength of the Sonata brand and the Tata pedigree," agrees Srinivasan.

Batting for the brand

Like Gold Plus, Sonata's marketing needs are quite distinct from its parent brand. Hence the company's choice of cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni as mascot, a present-day icon of small town boy made big. (Compare that with the brand ambassadors of Titan's premium range xylys: international celebrities like Carlos Moya and Saira Mohan.)

Titan believes bringing Dhoni on board has paid off: in the past year, sales have increase 13-14 per cent, even as the category has grown at a slower pace.

Cost side story

The key to operating profitably at the lower end of the market is, of course, keeping costs under control. Which is why Titan plans to outsource 75-80 per cent of its production, from virtually nothing at present.

Srinivasan says the biggest savings in costs will come from outsourcing, re-engineering products and through better prices from vendors as volumes rise. Besides, the company doesn't intend to add too much to distribution: 12,000 outlets in 2,600 cities is sufficient, it believes.

Instead, money will be spent on improving in-store visibility for the Sonata brand - better shelves, lighting and more point of sale displays.

"Although we will be selling incrementally more volumes at the lower end, we hope to sustain margins at current levels of 20 per cent at the operating level, because we expect costs to stay flat," says Srinivasan.

Growing the market

In the short to medium term, Titan's game plan is to gain share from the competition, both from branded players like Maxima, as also the regional players. Maxima's volumes are less than half of that of Titan (according to Titan management estimates), but it is nonetheless a competitor.

In the long term the plan is to get in new buyers, which is possible because penetration of watches in India is still low at around 20 per cent. But that would call for a fair amount of investment. Explains Srinivasan, "We need to educate people about the usefulness of a watch and convince them that they need one."

Srinivasan has been touring the countryside and has initiated pilot projects in places like Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and Vellore in Tamil Nadu. His learnings: aspirations of rural folk are high; they are aware of the benefits of education and are willing to spend on it. So they will spend on watches, too, if it is within their reach.

Swarna Ganesh would say this is time well spent.

How Infosys grooms its future leaders

Great companies can neither be built nor their greatness sustained without great leaders. A Reliance would not have been possible without a Dhirubhai, nor an Infosys without a Murthy.

But on August 20, 2006, at the age of 60, when N R Narayana Murthy retires as the company's chief mentor and chairman, Infosys Technologies Ltd is not really chewing its nails anxiously.

A succession plan has long been put in place and the smooth transition of authority and leadership ensured. Murthy will also continue as the non-executive chairman of Infosys.

Of the seven original founders of Infosys, one of India's greatest corporate success stories, only four will remain at the helm of affairs at the company from August 21: Nandan Nilekani, S Gopalakrishnan, S D Shibulal, and K Dinesh. N S Raghavan retired in 1999, while Ashok Arora had quit the firm much earlier, in 1989, to settle down in the United States.

While Infosys continues to be in very good hands to take on any challenge, the IT major has already identified a pool of 400 leaders who will steer it in the future. Especially, since the founders of the company are in their early- or mid-fifties and due for retirement at 60.

So how does Infosys groom its future leaders? The process is long-drawn, meticulous, and in consonance with the company's stated vision: 'To be a globally respected corporation that provides best-of-breed business solutions, leveraging technology, delivered by best-in-class people.'

This is where the Infosys Leadership Institute at the company's Mysore campus comes into the picture. The 162,000 square feet structure, built at the cost of Rs 41.1 crore (Rs 411 million), is where the next generation of Infosys leaders is being primed.

Says S 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer and deputy managing director, Infosys: "The company has identified 400 'leaders' on the basis of several parameters: their performance throughout their tenure with the company being a prime criterion for selection."

Gopalakrishnan, who will take over as the company's President, COO and Joint MD, on August 21, spoke to rediff.com at Infosys' Mysore campus during its 25th anniversary celebrations.

"Great performance puts employees on the fast track to growth within the organisation. As does their commitment to surpassing customer expectations, setting standards in business and transactions, and being an paradigm for the industry and the company," adds Gopalakrishnan.

"Creativity, devotion to being ethical and sincere in dealings, and the commitment to strive relentlessly in pursuit of excellence are also major considerations while identifying future leaders at Infosys," he points out.

The charismatic Narayana Murthy, speaking about his retirement, said: "I do feel sad, but am happy too. It is a mixed feeling. It's like getting your daughter married: you are sad that she is going away, but happy that there is someone younger -- and stronger -- to take care of her."

"The company is now in the hands of the youngsters. It is necessary to recognise the power of youth and to nurture it. We must respect youth and create opportunities for them to participate in everything. Which is why at every function, we have the youth participating. I am about the past. I am gone. They are the future," says Murthy.

"The pool of 400 leaders," says Gopalakrishnan, "that Infosys has identified is from across the globe and does not comprise Indians alone. It is in keeping with the company's multi-national, multi-cultural image where excellence is the most important condition."

"There is a three-tier mentoring process at Infosys.

Tier-1 of the Infosys Management Council, which consists of the company's board of directors, mentors Tier-2 leaders who in turn guide the Tier-3 group.

About 45 executives are a part of the company's Tier-1 of the management council. And each of the leaders undergoes exhaustive and sustained training through the company's personal development programme -- PDP.

Infosys training programmes are designed to enable company professionals enhance their skill sets in tune with their respective roles," says Gopalakrishnan.

The management council is an advisory body that takes strategic decisions on the company's businesses and was set up by N R Narayana Murthy, with the idea of building an outfit that is built to last and is ably "geared to handle the uncertainties of a global market, the high and lows of business cycles, and to power the company towards strong growth in the future," says the Infosys COO.

When Murthy first set up the council, he found that the young go-getters in the company were diffident to air their suggestions. It was then that the idea of an in-house leadership institute was born. Encouragement from the top management has put an end to the fears of transgressing the chain of command, and young Infoscions are now urged to give vent to their creative talent and come up with their ideas and plans.

The faculty at the ILI has in a note spelt out the rationale behind the institute and charted out the manner in which it operates.

The ILI was set up in 2001 to prepare Infosys to manage its exceptional growth; to prepare its executives to handle the external and internal business environment; and through 'thought leadership' create better customer value.

The leadership development programme at Infosys takes after similar processes followed by many global mega corps. It has been refined to suit the particular needs of Infosys and is termed as the 'nine pillars for leadership development in Infosys.'

These nine pillars form the backbone of the PDP and each leader can choose from these pillars for personal development. "Depending upon the individual's need to grow and the company's sensitivity to these needs, every (short-listed) individual is groomed to lead the company in the future," Gopalakrishnan says.

The chosen few -- 400 of the 58,409 employees -- identified as 'high potential Infoscions' undergo a three-year 'leadership journey' that includes training, actionising personal development programme, interacting with other participants, understanding the company better and resolving real business issues.

The note prepared by the ILI faculty enumerates 'the nine pillars for leadership development' as:

1. 360 degree feedback

This is the mechanism through which the company gathers data about an individual's performance and abilities. This information is collected from coworkers, including peers, subordinates, managers and customers. Personal development plans are prepared on the basis of this feedback. Then, each of these individuals is assigned an ILI faculty member to help prepare the PDP and to follow it.

2. Development assignments

Identified high potential Infoscions are trained at various functions of the company through job rotations and cross-functional assignments. This helps employees to acquire new leadership skills outside their own areas of expertise and experience.

3. Infosys Culture workshops

These workshops are designed to fortify the Infosys culture amongst the participants, help instill better communication skills through sustained interaction amongst themselves, and identify with the values and processes involved in leadership development.

4. Development relationships

This includes one-on-one interaction in actual on-the-job work climate and leads to better sharing of knowledge and camaraderie amongst individuals. Mentoring forms an integral part of this exercise.

5. Leadership skills training

The 'Leaders Teach Series' are workshops that the company's Tier-1 members, including Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani (CEO and MD), hold to acclimatise the next rung with leadership roles and to groom them through their own rich experience.

6. Feedback intensive programmes

These are akin to 360 degree feedback, but based on formal and informal feedback from employees that an individual interacts with.

7. Systemic process learning

This helps individuals to gain an overall view of the company and its diverse and complex systems, business, operations and processes. It is a continuous process and helps improve the individual and also the systems.

8. Action learning

This exercise constitutes solving real problems in real-time conditions, but as a team.

9. Community empathy

The company stresses the need to give back to society through involvement in various developmental, educational and social causes. This programme helps nurture a social conscience amongst its leaders.

"The last 25 years for Infosys have been successful. And we are ready for the future. Yes, our growth rates will change, the business cycles will change, our ability to influence the business environment will change, even our leaders will change. But what will not change in Infosys's future is our ability to achieve profitable growth legally and ethically, our guiding set of principles and our values," says Gopalakrishnan.

Meanwhile, there is a buzz about the imposing edifice of the ILI set amidst the verdant expanse that is the Mysore campus of Infosys: the next CEO, COO, CFO are being readied there.

3 lessons B-schools miss teaching

Business schools are great! They add value to students' education by actively providing insights into the learnings and practices of some of the world's best theorists, academicians and business leaders. B-schools certainly do teach you a lot, but then there is more that needs to be learnt.

Initiative and risk-taking: Learning from others' experiences is wise. The successes and failures of individuals and companies have shaped current-day management courses.

Each of those instances was pioneering in its time. There were a small percentage of risk-takers who lived to tell the tale, instantly defining newer paradigms. Each perspective comes with its assumptions and constraints, and it is up to the individual to challenge and break new ground.

Adaptability: To roll with the punches and come on top each time, an individual has to assimilate the operating environment and conditions and, using that as a base, act!

That is easier said than done since the environment itself changes so rapidly - be it politics, the economy, competition or consumer preference. A motley combination of various, seemingly unrelated, factors interact to create this environment.

Each instance of variation has a counterbalancing impact on some other factor, with a resulting change in the operating environment. The skill to succeed in this ever-changing, always evolving environment resides in the person, not in the B-school he or she went to.

Application: B-school courses use models, metrics and terminology to get potential entrants into corporate roles off to a flying start. They speak of and relate to events in the same way, using the same jargon.

However, the correct application of a model or tool is usually an individual's discretion; it is his or her interpretation of the situation that forces a judgement, accurate or otherwise. The application of learning is the proof of the pudding - a realisation of the latent knowledge in an actual business context, which rests squarely on the individual's shoulders.

B-schools, too, work continuously trying to bring in the best inputs possible, in terms of trends, preferences and principles, though the introduction of such knowledge in course curriculum happens only after it has been published or, at least, documented.

This involves significant lag time, and given the breadth and speed of change, this is an uphill and never-ending task.

In sum, a B-school is the basic foundation that equips individuals to get a firm footing in the corporate arena, but there are several other skills that one needs to assimilate to survive and succeed there.

But most important of all - don't forget to live and have fun. It is too easy to get caught up in the rat race; stay out of it. Spend the first few years of your corporate life with your nose down, bury your ego, enjoy every moment of your work and make sure that you do the best you can. Success will follow.

'In 20 yrs, 290 mn Indians will be out of poverty'

In the first millennium, India was called the Sone Ki Chidiya (Golden Bird) because it was such an attractive market.

Today, in 2007, McKinsey has released a report on the Indian consumer market titled 'The Bird of Gold' that finds the emergence of the new middle class. India will become the fifth largest consumer market in the world and incomes will triple, and all this will happen in less than 20 years.

McKinsey Managing Director Adil Zainulbhai, and Partner, McKinsey India Subbu Narayanswamy explain the key findings of this report.

Excerpts from an interview given to CNBC-TV18:

Almost everyone is bullish about the India growth story and is placing their bets on the Indian middle class. What is the basis of your optimism? And in that sense, how different is your report?

Zainulbhai: Two things; first of all we have taken a 20-year look and over a 20-year time frame even small differences can magnify, so we thought it would be worthwhile to take a 20-year look as very few people have done that.

The second thing is, we actually think we have a very balanced view. I don't think it is either optimistic or pessimistic. For example, we have assumed an average growth rate over 20 years of 7.3%; some people will say that given that the economy has grown at 9% over the last year, this is too conservative.

On the other hand, some people would say that very few economies have had a sustained growth rate of 7.3% over 20 years. So, I don't think we are being optimistic, I think we are trying to be reasonably real and not too pessimistic or optimistic.

Your report says that India's income will triple in two decades. We are growing at 8 to 9% on an average, so will the income growth keep pace with economic growth? How would we stand say with a China or fare among the emerging markets?

Narayanswamy: What this growth will do is that from an average per capita income of about $364, India's per capita income will go to about $1,064.

If you look at China's per capita income, it's already $1036, so it will take us to where China's current per capita income is. 80% of this income growth is coming from GDP growth, about 16% comes from population growth and about 4% comes from the fact that we are going to save less and spend more.

While talking about the burgeoning middle class, your report mentions how it is going to grow from 50 million to 583 million. Everyone has talked about inclusive growth, so will this growth be inclusive?

Zainulbhai: The answer is yes, which is every element of society will do well, so let's start at the bottom. Over a 20-year period, almost 291 million people will be above the poverty line from where the are today -- that's a huge step up of people, whose incomes will increase.

Of course, the middle class will increase and this is because the large number of people who are below the middle class will become part of the middle class. Today it is 50, it is going to be 583; so you could argue that another 530 million people are seeing the benefit of growth. Of course, there will be a set of people who will do extremely well. For example, the very top end of this group whom we are calling global Indians will almost be earning at global compensation levels and will be enjoying the lifestyle that is there in developed markets today.

Such people will be more on the order of 20-25 million. I think the real story in terms of inclusive growth is that 583 million people will be classified as middle class from the 50 million today, and 291 million people will come out of poverty.

What will fuel this growth story? Over the last decade, we have seen the services sector fueling over 50% of GDP growth - will the services sector continue to dominate this growth?

Narayanswamy: Yes, I think the services sector will continue to dominate the growth. What's going to fuel this consumption growth is that, with this kind of growth in income levels, the amount of discretionary income actually goes up.

So, the research actually points out that over 70% of the income will actually be use on discretionary items and this will trigger enormous consumption growth in categories like healthcare and communication. So, basic necessities like food and beverages will grow but all these new categories like transportation, healthcare, communication will actually show enormous growth potential.

How will consumption pattern change in rural and urban India?

Narayanswamy: As I mentioned with growing income, the extent of discretionary income also goes up and to that extent, urban consumption will show a greater percentage of discretionary spend.

So, for example, the spend on recreation in urban India will be higher than that of rural India but both urban and rural India will demonstrate substantive increase in all categories. In both places, the spending on food and beverages will as a relative percentage go down and spending on economic- enabling categories - like education, healthcare, transportation will go up.

What can be the challenges to this growth?

Zainulbhai: Nothing should be done that should go backward on reforms because that's what has fed the flywheel to date. Second, there are a series of reforms in terms of licensing, in terms of infrastructure growth, which if not done will slow down this economy dramatically.

If there is not enough investment in primary education, especially in rural areas, that could slow it down, reform of VAT and reduction of indirect taxes which we think will fuel a consumer boom, if that doesn't really happen that will slow it down.

Land reform, which is really increasing the costs for people and if that doesn't change, it would slow it down. Finally, things like the cost of power in Mumbai is among the highest in the world, so that slows down the economy. So, to the extent that these infrastructure, health and education sectors are not addressed sufficiently, then the economy could slow down.

The economy cannot grow on the basis of agriculture. The growth of the economy is on the basis of services, manufacturing and other things. Agriculture has to grow faster than what it is today, but it will never drive 8% growth rate in the economy.

ICICI- A global giant

In 1955, seven years since India had become independent, it was also the time to rebuild the nation and industrialisation was the only way forward.

It was at this time that with the initiative of the World Bank and the Indian government, that the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, ICICI, was formed.

Sixteen years later in 1971, to give a new lease of life to its rather nondescript existence, the corporation hired a batch of young business graduates. Among them, was 24-year-old Kundapur Vaman Kamath; fresh out of management school in Ahmedabad. In time, Kamath would redefine banking in India and become a legend in his own right.

Mangalore-born Kamath joined the Project Finance Division of ICICI as a management trainee in 1971. A quick learner, Kamath demonstrated his entrepreneurial skills early in his career and his sheer talent caught the attention of the then chairman of ICICI, N Vaghul.

Kamath set-up new businesses in leasing, venture capital, credit rating as well as handling general management position. Taking his responsibilities a step further, he implemented ICICI's computerisation programme, which in later years would give ICICI a huge competitive advantage.

For 17 years, KV Kamath looked beyond the obvious to create value for ICICI. In 1988, an opportunity came calling that would take him beyond the shores of India.

Managing Editior of The Smart Manager, Gita Piramal, told CNBC-TV18, "Kamath was with ICICI for 17 years before he decided he needed a change. He went to Manila to the Asian Development Bank, and this was an absolutely critical turning point in his career. He learnt about new processes, how emerging markets work, he learnt to deal on a global international scale and this was absolutely important when he came back to India. He was with the Asian Development Bank for about eight years before he got a call from his mentor."

Chairman at ICICI Bank, N Vaghul, recalls, "Within a few months of my joining I had interacted with Kamath. Kamath was at that time in the leasing department and I had more or less made up my mind that he would be my successor."

By 1994, the impact of the economic reforms initiated by the Narasimha Rao government were beginning to show, albeit rather slowly. The same year, ICICI Limited had set up its subsidiary -- ICICI Bank. Two years later, in 1996, Vaghul's protege KV Kamath rejoined ICICI as its new Managing Director and CEO.

Kamath immediately initiated strategic initiatives and structural changes across the ICICI Group that helped redraw its boundaries and take it to the next level. MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, KV Kamath says, "An organisation, which is 40 years old, you need to move some people into some positions, in which you think they would be better of and that's what was on top of my mind."

Kamath's immediate priority after his return was to create new operations in the organisation and more importantly, to tap new markets. He introduced flexibility in the bank's functions and shaped them to respond to new market reactions.

The company was now laying the foundation to become a financial powerhouse, but Kamath had a mammoth task ahead.

Piramal explains, "Kamath had a daunting assignment to get a banking license. This was a very important moment because the Indian government had not issued licenses since Indira Gandhi had nationalised banks. But at this juncture, the government did issue licenses and there was a mad scramble for them. Amongst those who managed to get it -- the Times Group, the Hindujas, Kotak and of course ICICI. But this was just the beginning - he had far bigger dreams."

The visionary banker saw an encashable opportunity in the retail banking space. ICICI's strategy and product offering recognised the changing demands of a growing middle-class.

Deputy MD, ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar, says, "When we rolled out the retail strategy in a big way -- that was again a huge change and therefore a hugely enriching experience because at that time, the entire consumer finance business was very nascent for the country as a whole. So, we really had to create a vision of what this business is going to be like for the country and of course it was absolutely new for ICICI. One was really moving in uncharted territories and taking decisions, taking a call as one moved along and learning alongside."

Retail financing in the mid-1990s was an open field, with no major players and Kamath recruited a young bunch of strikers who would score winners for him. In 1997, ICICI became the first Indian financial institution to go online. At a time when word was experiencing the dotcom boom, Kamath was quick to sense the shift in customer demands.

Fighting skeptics, Kamath went ahead with a plan to offer a multi-channel delivery system to its customers. Starting with just 5,000 online customers, ICICI today serves over 2.5 million people online. It opened the floodgates of a unique success story.

By the end of the 1990s, Kamath had chalked out ambitious plans to spruce up ICICI from within. Supported by an able group of young aspirants who believed ICICI had places to go.

Impatient by the dream and brimming with confidence to make ICICI a market leader, Kamath would soon take crucial steps that would influence the fortunes of this financial institution.

In September 1999, within three years of taking over as the Managing Director and CEO of ICICI, KV Kamath drew up aggressive plans for growth. That year, ICICI Ltd got listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, the first ever Indian financial institution to go the American Depositary Receipts, ADR route.

The next year, ICICI Bank followed suit and its ADRs made a debut at $14 on the NYSE, at a premium of over 27% over its issue price of $11.

Post the listing with the NYSE; ICICI had ambitious expansion plans and this time, it was through inorganic growth. The process had begun way back in 1997 and between 1997 and 2001; Kamath engineered a string of acquisitions like SCICI Ltd, ITC Classic Finance, which had a strong retail base in Eastern India and a strong base in the West.

Most significantly, it acquired Bank of Madhura at a time when its own revenues stood at Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) and that of the bank at Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), it was time for the next courageous move.

The year 2002 was the landmark year for ICICI, the board of directors of ICICI and ICICI Bank approved the merger of the parent company ICICI and subsidiaries like ICICI Personal Financial Services Ltd and ICICI Capital Services Ltd, with yet another subsidiary ICICI Bank.

The entire banking and financial operations of the group was bought under one roof. It was a reverse merger and quite rare in corporate India, where a parent company merged with its subsidiary and adopted the later's identity.

KV Kamath explains, "The bank was the entity into which ICICI Ltd went backwards into. You did not then have to address the issues of regulatory clearance to do a whole lot of things because the bank already had those approvals and that facilitated the whole process and that was the critical reason. The other reason to use this route, was to clean up ICICI Ltd at the time of the merger and the only way we could do it was, if ICICI Bank was the entity into which ICICI Ltd merged."

Soon after the merger, it was time for ICICI now in its new avatar ICICI Bank to takeoff and win new markets as well as look for horizons beyond the Indian seas. In 2002, ICICI set up offices in New York and London.

The very next year it established subsidiaries in Canada and also joined hands with Lloyds TSB in the UK. Offshore banking units were set up in Singapore and representative offices in Dubai and Shanghai.

Kamath's passion for growth was fanning ICICI Bank's burning ambition to grow beyond its dreams and to achieve it, he added a new weapon to his armoury -- technology.

He introduced ATMs across the country using current technology as an enabler. ICICI Bank had experienced a growth rate of more then 180% in its very first year and a separate majority owned company called ICICI Infotech supported the IT operations of the banking section. But it was the innovative idea of introducing ATMs, that tips the scales in their favour.

Kamath says, "To set up an ATM, you need three-four levels of redundancies. You set up recycling, you have to have a lease line, a dial-up line and you are still not sure the ATM would work 94-95% of the time. Today, you have ATMs available 99.99% of the time. So, there were these risks but we bet on technology."

Piramal adds, "Kamath found himself sandwiched between State Bank of India and the foreign banks who had an excellent retail presence. One of the ways is to meet the shortfall of being able to offer branch facilities, and at that time ICICI had just 50 branches. To meet that shortfall, Kamath hit upon an absolutely winning strategy and that was to install ATMs across the country."

There are many who dream big and let their dreams fade. . . to die forgotten deaths. But there are still a few who nurture their dreams, give them wings and then turn them into realities. These are the people who make a difference and that's precisely what KV Kamath did.

With the turn of the millennium, ICICI emerged as the largest private bank in India and fueling its growth was the untiring efforts of one man -- KV Kamath. He rightsized the organisation, expanded internationally and gave a fillip to its technology driven expansion plans, and then Kamath set his eyes on making ICICI a universal bank.

He had a vision and it was to create an international banking experience in the country, which would provide complete financial services to different classes of customers.

For the first time ever, the rural community was included. With the use of technology, the bank started tapping into the micro- banking space in rural India, utilizing partnerships with multinational and local agricultural institutions.

Kamath repeated his earlier success with ATMs, when he introduced cross-selling in ICICIs banking system. He recognized the inconvenience faced by busy customers and brought in direct selling agents, who would reach customers easily, identify prospects and initiate dialogue. This not only helped ICICI deliver personalized banking facilities, but also changed the banking experience in India forever.

Joint Managing Director at ICICI Bank, Lalita Gupte, says, "When I look at the vision for ICICI Bank in the next 10 years, I think major changes will take place. I see a very bright future ahead and I see the aspiration has been to move into the top league in the world - in top 25-50. This in a way reflects the place India will actually find in the global economy."

"Several Indian corporates are going overseas in acquiring businesses and expanding into the global marketplace. Mr Kamath is a visionary and I do see that this will definitely have an impact on the bank, as we go forward."

Piramal says, "In all the different directions that it was growing, Kamath also had to look after the legacy of the past. He had to streamline and rightsize the organisation. It had 33 subsidiaries, he gradually brought them down step by step from 33 to 24 and then 12 and he prepared the company for an IPO. This was an absolutely critical testing time for Kamath."

In December 2005, ICICI Bank announced its initial public offer to the Indian market and amassed over Rs 80 billion. With a very well defined roadmap, ICICI Bank soon put in place, a formidable plan for its future. With its current asset over Rs 250,000 crore (Rs 2,500) billion and a net profit of over Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion), with a network of 614 branches and over 2,000 ATMs, ICICI Bank has left its competition years behind.

Kamath's contribution to cutting edge innovations in the banking sector will soon recommence, and as if to acknowledge the years of dedication he has put in to making sure that ICICI Bank stands at the apex -- in 2001, he was named the Asian Business Leader of the Year. A fitting finale one would say. . . but there just might be more coming from him.