Kullu-Manali:Beckoning One and All

By M H Ahssan

Manali - the redoubtable hill station, abode of the Saptarishis (seven sages) nestling in the breathtaking peaks at the foothills of the Himalayas, is every tourist’s delight from the word go. Standing at 6398 ft. (1950m) above sea-level, it is 12 hours i.e.550 km away from Delhi. The journey up the slopes shows its charms by offering amazing views of mountain peaks, flora and fauna - all at once.

Nurtured by the gurgling Beas River, the twin attractions namely Kullu and Manali have always captivated the hearts of nature lovers. Chequered with stunning flashes of mirthful mountain flowers and soothing greenery, Kullu wrapped in the snug warmth of its simple populace, at 1220 m nudges us with eye-catching details of nature, visitors and local customs.

Manali splashed with restaurants offering varied, lip-smacking cuisines un spools vivid facets of nature to a diverse range of people.

The famous Rohtang pass, 50 km from Manali stands at 13,051 ft. (3,978m) above sea level is a mountain pass that connects both to Leh and the Lahaul-Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh. Adventure lovers indulge in Roller skating here. But it was only when one reaches Gramphu village (20km from Rohtang Pass) that one could switch over to the road on the left that leads on towards Leh via Keylong and Sarchu. Or to the road on the right that takes one to the splendid Spiti valley.

Watch the mellow paleness of pea flowers change into the beaming, fiery red of apples in Kullu termed the ‘Valley of Gods’, popular for Trout fishing as much as for the tall Deodars and grandly standing Pines.

The Mall road sprawling with people buzzes with activity, witnessing beaming eyes winning the race to broken roads, currently under construction.

Seeing my enthusiastic husband and young, inquisitive, boisterous sons head towards a gazing hill with modest nonchalance, the joyous sniff of mountain flowers alongside the stunning sight of clear springs prodded me to encourage their sporty efforts at Trekking. The mystery of the woods only deepens with each mind- bending visit.

Hadimba temple, barely a km from Mall road attracts pilgrims and tourists in millions. Built in 1553, it fascinates for the sheer effort it must have taken to construct those 4-tiered pagoda roofs and the exquisitely carved doorway.

Manu temple venerates Manu, after whom Manali is named. It is believed that Manu stepped off his ark in Manali to recreate human life here, after a great flood deluged the world .The Vashisth temple has natural hot springs on offer. The temple was built in memory of Sage Vashisth and also has idols of Lord Rama.

The JagatSukh temple and few Monasteries add holy vibrations in the realm of belief and wonder.

14 km away from Manali is the Solang valley known by its ski slopes.

The average temperature in Manali ranges between 4 degrees and 30 degrees throughout the year.

The psyche of material greed has enfeebled natural systems far sooner than we had expected. Newspaper reports about frequent landslides, cloud bursts and snow melting in the peak summer months only goes on to warn us of taking a cue. Traffic congestion on the narrow mountain roads has made matters worse. Here’s celebrating the glories of nature wrapped in the mist of history, mythology and adventure with a promise to posterity of us passing on undisrupted natural wonders.

Special attractions:

• Nehru Kund is on the road going to Keylong.
• In Keylong visit Kardang monastery on the banks of Bhaga river.
• View of a deep gorge at Kothi village.
• Club house has facilities such as a roller skating rink, billiards room, restaurants and video games.

Things to do

• Trekking, Fishing, Skiing, Roller Skating, Visits to Temples and Monasteries.
• Shopping: Shawls and handicrafts.
• Shopping for locally grown fruits like Apples and Pears.

Getting there

By road: From Delhi (NH-21) or NH-1 (to Leh)By rail: from Delhi to Chandigarh (Shatabdi express) and then by road uphill up to Kullu/Manali.
Nearest railheads: Pathankot (325km) and Kalka (310 km).

By air: Daily flights from New Delhi to Bhuntar airportAir India flights twice a week from New Delhi
MDLR flights, 6 days a week.

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Going gets tough for Indian Telcos

By Swati Prasad

Despite high growth in subscribers, challenges such as intensifying market competition, falling ARPU (average revenue per user) and uncertainty over government regulations are taking a toll on the margins of India's telecommunications industry.

The local telecom industry last year added between 11 million and 19.9 million wireless subscribers each month, but this healthy growth came with a host of challenges.

The industry has been facing stiff competition with 12 to 13 players in each segment.

Tariffs have also been falling and have touched new lows with various operators introducing per-second billing, leading to a further drop in the ARPU.

In addition, new subscribers are low-spenders, based mostly in semi-urban and rural areas. To make matters worse, taxes are comparatively high in India at over 30 percent.

All these factors are leading to a drop in operators' profitability.

For instance, Idea Cellular, a leading GSM mobile services operator in India, reported a 23 percent year-on-year profit dip, after tax, for the third quarter of its financial year, ended Dec. 31.

Similarly, the quarterly net income of India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel, has been decreasing with each quarter, from US$552 million in between April and June, to US$509 million between July and September, and US$484.6 million between October and December 2009.

"With 12 to 13 operators in each circle, India is witnessing hyper-competition," Kamlesh Bhatia, principal analyst at Gartner, told Newsindia in a phone interview. "And the direct impact of this can be seen on the operating margins."

Concurred Nupur Singh Andley, senior research analyst of connectivity at Springboard Research: "Owing to sharp fall in tariffs and hence the ARPUs in the past two to three years, operators are finding it difficult to maintain good profitability amidst low margins and high competition."

She noted that in the long-run, this situation is likely to impact the operations of smaller players that do not have financial muscle. "It will ultimately lead to market consolidation," Singh Andley added.

Regulatory uncertainty hits players
The numerous delays in 3G auction have also adversely hit the telecom operators.
The country's spectrum shortage has been worsening with millions of subscribers being added each month. This has led to a fall in service quality, with dropped calls and disturbances becoming commonplace.

The government has currently set Apr. 9 as the date for the auction.

"Given the uncertainty over the 3G auctions, operators can't plan their investments," Kasturi Bhattacharjee, associate director of advisory in infocomm practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a phone interview. "Similarly, the equipment vendors can't sell equipment. It's having a domino effect on the industry."

Singh Andley agreed: "The delayed rollout of 3G spectrum has demoralized the market sentiments to quite an extent." She added that the delay has put the country behind other nations in the deployment of 3G services by years.

"The high spectrum fee proposed by the department of telecommunications, government of India, and the limited spectrum availability to private players in each circle is likely to accentuate this sentiment as operators may find it difficult to make a lucrative business case for the launch of 3G services in India," she noted.

The government must take steps to address each of these challenges, she urged. For instance, there needs to be more discipline around regulation in the industry.

"Commencement of the long-overdue 3G spectrum auction is one action point that must figure on the government's priority list," Singh Andley explained.

Bhattacharjee added that taxes and regulatory expenses have been partly responsible for the industry's woes. He called for the government to consider reducing the tax burden, which is currently as high as 33 percent.

Similarly, relaxation of voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), introduction of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and allowing mobile number portability are other steps that will help the industry.

India has reached penetration rates of nearly 50 percent, with mobile phones expanding to the remotest villages. "The reach of the mobile phone is the most attractive feature of the industry," Bhatia said, adding that the government must now take steps to encourage mobile-commerce and mobile banking in the country.

India leapfrog to 4G?
Even as 3G auction is repeatedly delayed, India's telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has initiated discussions on the introduction of a 4G mobile standard in the country.

At present, the authority is working on a consultation paper for wider deliberation. This will result in recommendations that will allow the government to take appropriate decision or for regulations to be implemented.

4G networks are touted to enable users to stream mobile multimedia, such as TV broadcasts and online games, with speeds of up to 10 times that of 3G networks. The TRAI has called for comments from "all the stakeholders" by Mar. 15.

Bhattacharjee believes India should leapfrog from 2G to 4G. "Globally, we are probably past the 3G stage. The technology was launched in 2001 and most countries adopted 3G around five to nine years back," she said.

"Now is the age of 4G, which is 10 times faster than 3G. Should operators be buying 3G spectrum? Or should India leapfrog to 4G," she questioned.

Moreover, there are several new players that have just paid for the 2G spectrum, she said, noting that these operators may not have deep pockets to pay for 3G spectrum as well.

"The technology is not only dated, the spectrum is also expensive," Bhattacharjee said.

Who will hold the offshoring crown in 2020?

How India could lose its grip on the market without an education and innovation overhaul.

Noshir Kaka is a director in the Mumbai office of analyst house McKinsey & Company. In an exclusive interview, Newsindia's Nick Heath spoke to Kaka about his forthcoming report on how India's 50 per cent share of the global offshore technology and business services market could slip away by 2020.

What will happen to India's share of global IT and BPO market by 2020?
Dropping market share is one of scenarios that we have projected by 2020 if India chooses not to release the capacity in its education system.

India produces about three million graduates a year. The entire offshoring industry across IT and BPO is 2.1 million people, so clearly there're enough graduates - the real issue is the suitability of candidates. Effectively we are using a tenth of our workforce that is suitable for this industry. If that trend continues you will have a shortage of suitable talent.

The primary cause is the quality of communications and language skills, the second is that some people are not educated well enough to be able to serve a multinational corporation.

The combined market share of 50 to 53 per cent, which is what India has today, you could see that combined market share decline because India does not have the supply side availability.

But today the new Indian education minister has proposed a public-private partnership in India's education system, where 2,500 model schools would be created, which is something we have been shouting from the rooftops for for a long time.

When will the decline begin to happen?
We have seen an increase in India's market share in 2008.

The global financial crisis has given India a bit of breathing room, it's dropped the growth rates. In 2009/10 we will see low growth, so a supply side constraint will not come through in the next two years.

Beyond that, if gets back to original growth rate and we don't see any change in the education system, we could see those supply shortfalls happening very quickly thereafter.

Which countries look most likely to take that market share?
You have got to separate out those countries that are the volume hubs and those that offer more niche services.

When you look at the volume hubs, it's very hard to get away from China and Russia, which are two of the largest by population locations. China tends to be a lot more engineering, design and infrastructure services led, more catering to North Asia. Russia tends to be outstanding for software product development.

In Latin America, Brazil is one of the few nations that offers an emerging working population of that size. [Much of Latin America] is Spanish speaking, southern-US focused.

In Eastern Europe the talent pools are not as deep as in India and China and more fragmented by language.

Vietnam and Egypt has a reasonable talent pool and a lot of government support to promote this industry, support by real initiatives on the ground making changes to the education system and infrastructure to support this industry.

Which location will be the first offshoring destination choice for the UK and Europe in 2020?
For the Anglo Saxon world, the US and UK predominantly, India will continue to be the country of choice. Even with its talent constraints that I talked about, India continues to introduce about a third of the suitable talent in the world. I don't think that India's dominant position is by any means threatened in the near future.

Which of the global outsourcing companies will dominate by 2020?
You will see global systems integrators that will be very successful, some of them already have very large global footprints and have embraced a global delivery model and are moving to scale very rapidly.

You will also find a few of the Indian top tier companies, in the BPO and on IT services space, among the world's top ten - if you project their growth rates out.

You will see also the stabilisation in growth of the captives [inhouse offshore operations] turned third parties, such as Convergys did many years ago spinning out from Bell South. You will find you will have a few captives that have achieved the scale and size and become very successful third parties.

Will companies still be setting up their own inhouse offshore operations or captives by 2020?
As the market matures for commoditised services it gets tougher and tougher to establish the cost structure or attract the talent that would be viable in a country like India.

When you go for a commoditised service the case for outsourcing that in an offshore environment is growing as the capability of the vendor base grows.

For example there are very few IT captives on the application development and maintenance side. The ones that are there are very large, have been there for some time and can warrant the scale economies.

You will begin to see a very similar trend on the business services side.

What sectors will outsource the most work by 2020?
Fast forward to 2020 and we see almost 80 per cent of the incremental growth coming outside of today's core verticals of banking, insurance, telecoms and manufacturing. They won't decline but there are other areas that will assume greater or as much significance for outsourcers.

Today, in terms of outsourcing, government or public sector is slightly smaller than BFSI [financial sector]. The second sector we are excited about is healthcare, with the demographic changes imminent in US and most of Europe we think that healthcare provision are going to go through the roof. Automation and offshoring is one of the levers that government and companies will use to take care of that.

The two others are utilities and media.

Outside of the verticals we think the Bric [Brazil, Russia, India and China] nations are going to be a great source of domestic outsourcing growth for many companies.

The offshoring industry has largely focused on Fortune 1000 clients and we think going forward small and medium business will be a very interesting source of growth.

What type of new tech services will be being outsourced by 2020?
Energy efficiency and climate change, mobile applications and clinical products are just three examples.

In energy efficiency, another McKinsey study estimated that up to a third of the carbon abatement potential worldwide in greenhouse gases will be directly or indirectly induced by technology. If you look at the innovation around smart grids, industrial innovation or green buildings, a lot of this is technology enabled. That is a huge opportunity to innovate from a low cost environment.

Or it could be another product innovation such as the Tata Nano car.

If you look at what's happening in India or any other of the low-cost countries, a lot of the work that we do is replication of a service done somewhere else.

We have a whole new opportunity on to offer new products and services that have not been created somewhere else.

What effect will protectionism have on the offshoring industry?
We saw it in 2001 after the dot com bubble burst and we are seeing it again.

As economic cycles go up or down and unemployment grows you will see some degree of noise and bills being introduced.

We did some research showing the economic growth enabled by offshoring $1 of work from North America to India creates wealth worth more than that value in North America. It's an economic win-win.

So far I have not seen major political movements being pursued in earnest by both governments and we are very hopeful that the trade barriers stay down and we don't get a whiplash effect that will hurt both countries.

The Iron Man’s Masque

By Neelabh Mishra

Forced by the RSS to outright deny any prime ministerial ambitions behind his planned anti-corruption rath yatra, and outmanoeuvred by Narendra Modi and his choreographed fast, Lal Krishna Advani has now decided to play a different hand. The senior BJP leader’s rath yatra will now make a detour: he has now decided to make a bid for his long-cherished goal of becoming prime minister via the NDA route.

Modi, it must be said, has elbowed Advani about a bit, and jostled the compulsive charioteer even for his taken-for-granted mantle of Loh Purush Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He even made Advani change his original plan of starting the yatra from the Sardar’s hometown, Karamsad, in Gujarat. Not only that, for the first time in 20 years, Advani was made to miss his September 25 date with Somnath, from where he had begun his only ‘successful’ rath yatra, the 1990 one, which took the BJP to victory with the Ayodhya campaign.

Advani would have us believe the missed date does not matter, the purpose being fulfilled by the Allahabad High Court verdict on Ayodhya. But everyone knows the real reason: by announcing his own rally on September 25, Modi had displaced the old veteran.

Advani has had to content himself with planning his rath yatra from Sitab Diara in Bihar, the birthplace of Jayaprakash Narayan. Sending out a patent signal, he has invited Modi’s bete noire and rival in the NDA, Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar, for the flagging-off. The decision to start from an NDA-ruled state (in which the BJP is a junior partner) rather than BJP-ruled Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka or Uttarakhand is his reaction to the lukewarm fashion in which the Sangh parivar and the BJP have welcomed his idea of starting again on a rath yatra.

Given Nitish’s political distance from Modi, Advani is driving a point home to his own political parivar. Nitish would rather project himself as the NDA leader nationwide than have Modi claiming prime ministerial candidacy, and till then, he would gladly suffer Advani’s leadership than that of any other BJP leader. So Advani’s message in kicking off from Bihar is that he’s the BJP leader most likely to be acceptable to all allies.

Going by the way the RSS made Advani publicly shed his prime ministerial ambition in Nagpur recently, it wouldn’t like being outflanked like this, even though it might publicly go along for fear of showing dissension within the parivar. Taking lessons from some disappointments during Vajpayee’s NDA regime, the RSS would like a firmer grip on the alliance next time round. This is not possible without a firmer grip on the party it mentors, the BJP.

Hence, it has gradually been tightening its hold on the BJP, first by installing its man Nitin Gadkari at the helm, and then, through him, people at every organisational level. But a major obstacle it faced was stagnation in the Sangh’s own organisation. Because of this, the RSS had failed to provide a new generation of efficient, enthusiastic and committed foot soldiers for the BJP. The RSS saw this, and also the fact that its pet Ramjanmabhoomi agenda had run out of steam. Its outdated communal mobilisation and the Hindutva-nationalism hyphenation had failed to connect with a young and increasingly aspirational middle class.

The RSS saw an opportunity in Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign, even though it was not the agitation’s prime mover. Dismayed with the mainstream political class on corruption and unexposed to any alternative political vision, aspiring young Indians enthusiastically followed voices proclaiming their ‘civil society’ status in what was put out as an apolitical fight against corruption.

So it lent unconditional support to the agitation without staking any claims to leadership. Its youth wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, more active in the agitation, was careful in pushing an anti Nehru-Gandhi family agenda. In the long term, the RSS, through its ideological combination of nationalism with an anti-corruption platform, hoped to find new recruits from the milling crowds of youths. In the short term, the RSS possibly believed that the anti-UPA and anti-Congress fervour generated by the anti-corruption agitation would benefit the BJP by default at the time of voting.

As an arrogant and blundering Congress seemed to walk into this trap, an impatient Advani jumped the gun, in the process prompting Modi to outbid him with his farce of a fast and bringing the RSS and Nitish openly into the power-play, thereby exposing the fissures in and between the BJP, the Sangh parivar and the NDA.

There are more bad eggs than good in engineering colleges

By M H Ahssan

“IITians lack quality. IIT aspirants somehow get through the joint entrance examination. But their performance in IITs, at jobs, or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be,” Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murty had lamented recently. This holds true for not just IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), but for engineering colleges in general. Over time, the quality of students getting through in engineering colleges has deteriorated.

Academicians opine that the ease with which a candidate is able to get an engineering seat is what is lowering the quality of tech education. “It’s happening across the country. The level of education is coming down,” they said.

With the cut-off percentage set at 45 % for general merit students and 40 % for SC/ST, getting into an engineering college does not require much effort. “The cut- off must be restored to at least 50 %, so that the intake of students is up to the mark. Candidates scoring below this must not be made eligible,” said MR Doreswamy, founder-chairman of PES College.

Of 188 engineering colleges in the state, only 40 are up to the mark, which is basically about 25 % of the colleges, he said.

“There are far too many engineering colleges in the state, because of which there are more seats available. If the number of colleges is restricted, the number of students who can opt for the course will also come down,” said KR Venugopal, principal of University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE).

“In autonomous colleges, even if a student has scored poor marks, they will not fail him, fearing, if they do, their reputation will be at stake. So, after the course, when the candidate gets into a job, he ends up being a poor performer,” he added. Summing up, he said that more number of colleges along with institutions refusing to fail a poor performer has left the level of employability at less than 20 % currently.

Many academicians blame it on the quality of teachers at engineering colleges. “The biggest challenge is getting teachers. These days, a student who has completed his BE securing a first class can teach, without having much knowledge about teaching methodologies and communication skills. More effort should be made in the direction of improving teachers, which will see an improvement in the quality of education,” said Doreswamy.

Venugopal agrees that the poor pay scale for teachers adds to the deterioration in the quality of the staff. “Many colleges do not have enough student strength, because of which teachers are paid a low salary,” he said.

Varun Melanta, director, MVJ College of Engineering, feels that there is only a marginal difference between academics and industry requirements. “If colleges add on internships, it would enhance the quality even further,” he said.

'Long kurta with collars always look classic'

By M H Ahssan

Designer duo Varun and Nidhika talk about the uniqueness of their label and the freshness they bring into fashion.

Your line is known by your names Varun and Nidhika. Why is that?We’re married and equal partners in the designing process. Our work and our designs involve both of us — and we wanted a brand name to reflect that.

When did you start?We both went to NIFT, Mohali. We graduated in 2006. I worked with Manish Arora and Rohit Bal, putting in two years with each. Nidhika worked with Namrata Joshipura and Abhijit Khanna in that time too. After putting in four years in the industry, we felt ready to come up with our own line. We started in 2010.

What defines the style trends of the moments?
Fashion has become more individualistic. Since we work on a prêt line, let’s talk about the trends here. Bright and yet offbeat colours are doing great and the emphasis is on interesting theme elements. This means, no bling and no more usual kurtas. The cuts are edgy, the details are quirky and the silhouettes are unusual. Women want to experiment these days and this is what is being reflected in the trends these days.

What is the future forecast for Indian fashion?
In India, we have a long summer. It’s hot for almost nine or ten months. We’re going to see more blends of cotton and linen, with light fabrics like chiffons and georgettes. Bling embellishments will not be seen and when it comes to colour combinations, the palate will be bright, but these colours will be paired with nude or neutral tones. Say, instead of pairing a fuchsia with mustard, we’ll see a fuchsia and mustard paired with nude overtones.

Are you going to go beyond clothes and venture into accessories?
We have already done some of that, including designing spaces. It’s all about the aesthetics. We’ll try our hands on whatever comes our way - it could be home décor, it could be cookware, it could be interiors. One never knows.

What is a classic look for an Indian woman?
One look that always works is a really long kurta with collars and a keyhole neck. This is a classic one.