Chinese varsity imposes blanket punishment on students

— By IANS | Sep 19, 2015 06:15 pm 

Beijing: A Chinese university forced its female students to wrap themselves in blankets in the hot sun as a form of punishment during the school’s compulsory military training, a media report said. The incident took place at a university in Hunan Province, according to Global Post.

Instructors at the College of Foreign Studies in Changsha ordered the group of 20 students to lie down on a paved athletic track and cover themselves in heavy quilts as a penalty for their “unkempt dormitory”, the report said. Drills and disciplinary action are part of China’s military education programmne. The report also quoted a school official defending the instructor’s actions, saying the punishment lasted “only five minutes”.

“The weather was good and temperatures were below 32 C,” said Xie Yong, a deputy director of the college’s student work department. The students were subjected to the penalty as more than 2,000 others participating in the military training watched. The school called the spectacle “punishment education”.

“It’s really miserable and embarrassing (to be punished) in front of thousands of people,” said an unnamed student. A freshman too sided with the authorities and said extreme measures are understandable.

“They don’t do what they’re told because they’re pampered at home,” said Hu Ling (pseudonym). “The instructors are being strict for our own good.” But Xie said such punishment was not appropriate for girls on an emotional level and that the school will arrange for counselling of the students.

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Another drowned toddler washes up on Turkish beach

— By FPJ Bureau | Sep 19, 2015 01:37 am 

Istanbul : A four-year-old Syrian girl’s body washed up on a beach in western Turkey today, state media said, just weeks after images of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi shook the world.

The yet-to-be identified girl was found lifeless on a beach in the Aegean town of Cesme in Izmir province after a boat carrying 15 Syrians to the Greek island of Chios sank, the official Anatolia news agency said.

It said the Turkish coast guard rescued the remaining 14 Syrians, including eight children, from the inflatable boat. The girl appeared to be the only casualty.

Harrowing pictures of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, whose body was found washed up on a Turkish beach after the boat carrying his family to the Greek island of Kos sank, caused an outpouring of emotion around the world, pressuring European leaders to step up their response to the refugee crisis.

But two weeks later EU members are still at odds over how to accommodate the tens of thousands of new arrivals.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Friday that the Turkish coast guard had rescued over 53,000 migrants from stricken boats since the beginning of the year.

He said around 274 migrants have lost their lives in Turkish waters this year seeking to leave the country by sea for Greece.

In the latest tragedy, 22 people who had left Turkey drowned on Tuesday when their wooden boat sank off Kos.

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Chileans deal with aftermath of 8.3 quake

— By FPJ Bureau | Sep 19, 2015 01:33 am 

Coquimbo : Hundreds of traumatised Chileans spent a second night out in the open or in shelters night after an offshore 8.3 magnitude earthquake left 12 dead.

In the coastal city of Coquimbo, the wrath of the earth’s twitch in this quake-prone country was clear and ugly: a jumble of fishing boats, remains of homes, trucks, vendors’ stands and cars washed up by tsunami waves bore testament to the sea’s fury.

Maria Zamorano, 60, recounted how she and her large family ran from the shoreline to save themselves from the surging waves.

“If we had stayed here we would have perished,” she told AFP, as people slowly and warily returned to see what was left of their homes. The town is 400 km north of the capital Santiago.

The earthquake Wednesday evening was the sixth strongest in the history of Chile and the most powerful anywhere in the world this year, officials said.

Close to one million people were evacuated from Pacific coastal areas as a precaution as Chile sounded a tsunami alert, with warnings issued as far away as Japan and New Zealand.

But as of Thursday, most of the evacuated Chileans had returned home.

Still, Interior Minister Jorge Burgos said that some 600 people remained in shelters or elsewhere and that some 650 homes were damaged, mainly in Cocquimbo.

The quake occurred at a shallow depth and the epicenter was 228 kilometers (about 140 miles) north of the capital Santiago, a city of 6.6 million people, where there were scenes of pandemonium as thousands fled swaying buildings.

In the hours that followed, tsunami waves of up to 4.5 meters (15 feet) came crashing onshore in the Coquimbo region, causing extensive damage to the region’s port. Eight of the 12 victims were in Coquimbo.

Scenes of destruction also littered the badly hit coastal town of Illapel, further south.

“It was a nightmare,” Maria Ramirez told AFP as she swept up debris outside her house.

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Muslim teen not to return to school that got him arrested

Houston : A Muslim boy in the US arrested over a homemade clock today said he will not return to the school where teachers got him arrested for an invention that ‘looked like a bomb’ as more support gathered for the 14-year- old, with people questioning the real motive of his detention.

Ninth-grader Ahmed Mohamed from Irving in Texas does not wish to return to MacArthur High and is searching for another school though his three-day suspension came to an end today, the CNN reported.

The teen’s family stated that they will consider other schools, possibly even some outside of the US. Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed said his son will either enrol at a private school or be home schooled.

Mohamed’s handcuffing and arrest over an innocent attempt to impress his teachers with his homemade clock sparked a debate, including on social media where netizens questioned the real motive of teachers and authorities amid fears of Islamophobia as the child in question was of brown skin and a Muslim.

Some Facebook users ‘shared’ a post that suggested the authorities never really thought the teen had a real bomb and wanted to ‘humiliate a little Muslim, African boy’.

The post highlighted why the school was not immediately evacuated following the beep and discovery of the clock — a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front.

“…they (authorities) didn’t evacuate the school — like you do when there’s a bomb. They didn’t call a bomb squad — like you do when there’s a bomb. They didn’t get as far away from him as possible — like you do when there’s a bomb. Then they put him and the clock in an office — not like you do when there’s a bomb. Then they waited with him for the police to arrive. Then they put the clock in the same car as the police. Then they took pictures of it…” it read.

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Pressure to be ‘cool’ and look good harmful to kids

— By PTI | Sep 11, 2015 03:13 pm 

London: The pressure to be ‘cool’, look good and own the ‘right stuff’ is detrimental to many children and teenagers, scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have warned. The study by the University of Sussex psychologists shows that while many young people buy into consumer culture believing it will make them feel better about themselves and help them to make friends, often the reverse happens.

The result is a negative downward spiral, said the researchers, whereby those with low well-being turn to consumerist values, which impacts further still upon their state of mind. In the study of 1,000 UK children aged 8-14 over three years, being disruptive, having ‘cool stuff’ and looking good was often seen as the best way to become more popular among peers.

The results, however, showed that valuing these behaviours actually has the opposite effect, with peer relations worsening over time for those kids turning to consumer-culture values. There were also some interesting differences between boys and girls: depressive symptoms in boys tends to predict increases in their materialism, whereas depressive symptoms in girls tends to predict the internalisation of appearance concerns.

“Our results suggest that children who have low levels of well-being are particularly likely to become orientated towards consumer culture, and thus enter into a negative downward spiral,” said Dr Matthew Easterbrook, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex.

“Consumer culture may be perceived as a coping mechanism by vulnerable children, but it is one that is detrimental to their well-being,” he said. “Our study shows how consumer-culture values are tied up with images of social success in childhood,” said Robin Banerjee, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Sussex.

“Although friendly and helpful children were ultimately more popular over time, young people mistakenly predicted that the route to being liked was in having a reputation for disruptive behaviour, having ‘cool’ stuff and looking good. “What we found was another example of a downward spiral – those rejected by peers then turned to consumer culture, which actually worsened, rather than improved, those relationships,” he said.

The latest research is part of a wider project at the University, led by Sussex psychologist Dr Helga Dittmar, that is systematically examining the impact of consumer-culture ideals on children’s personal and social well-being. The research was presented at the British Psychological Society’s Developmental and Social Psychology Section annual conference.

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Climate change will hit food security

— By Bharat Jhunjhunwala | Sep 05, 2015 12:09 am 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his resolve to help Island countries of the Pacific Ocean face climate change. The melting of glaciers due to global warming is expected to lead to an increase in the level of water in our oceans. This will lead to some islands completely being submerged into the ocean. Modi is also slated to join hands with President Obama on the issue of global warming during his coming visit to the United States. These steps taken by Modi are both timely and welcome. But there is a much more urgent problem lurking in our backyard that needs attention much before the global action plan is worked out.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that global warming will increase the number of extreme climate events such as floods, droughts and cyclones. The rainfall pattern is likely to become more variable too. Few days of intense rain followed by long periods of droughts are likely to take place even though average rainfall may remain the same. The average temperature in India has risen by 0.6 degree Celsius in the last century. It is expected to increase by 2.4 degrees by the year 2100. What we will face will be four times the increase in present century compared to what we have seen in the last century.

The impact of climate change will be more severe on rain fed agriculture. Crops like bajra, corn and ragi are cultivated in large tracts of the country. I have lived for a few years in Rajasthan. Often there are good rains at the time of sowing followed by long dry spells such that the farmer only harvests the straw at the end of the season. Climate change will hit at rain-fed agriculture majorly. Farmers in these areas will demand facilities of irrigation such as from canals. Crops in irrigated areas will also come under pressure. It is predicted that there will be a reduction in winter rains. Long spells of no rains in the monsoons will increase the demand for irrigation for paddy as well. There will be an increase in demand for irrigation in all the seasons.

The availability of water, on the other hand, will reduce. It is predicted that there will be less snowfall in the hills. That will lead to less flow into the rivers during the summers when the demand for water is the highest. Greater variability in the rainfall pattern will lead to less recharge of groundwater aquifers. Continuously drizzling water for a number of days enables large amounts of water to seep into the earth. One gush of heavy rainfall, on the other hand, provides less time for the water to seep into the earth. Most water flows into the rivers and into the sea. Our efforts to control flood have also led to less recharge of aquifers. Previously flood waters used to inundate large tracts of land and water used to seep into the aquifers. Now we have built embankments along many rivers which prevent the spread of flood water. As a result, groundwater level is fast reducing in most areas of the country.

The availability of water for irrigation will be further reduced due to evaporation from large storage reservoirs like Bhakra and Tehri. A study of 12 large reservoirs in the United States predicted that evaporation loss will increase by nine percent in the next century. The loss is likely to be more in our warmer climate. We are faced with a double whammy. The demand for irrigation will increase while availability of water for irrigation will reduce.

Climate change will also have global political implications for us. Warmer temperatures will be mildly positive for colder countries of Europe and North America; while it will be hugely negative for tropical countries like India which means that developed countries will be able to produce larger quantities of food grains while our production may decline. We had to go with a begging bowl to Washington in the sixties for supply of food grains under the United States’ PL 480 programme. A similar situation may be created yet again. Thus climate change will affect sovereignty.

We need to make changes in our agriculture and water policies to face these multiple challenges arising from global warming. The indigenous varieties of food grains like paddy and wheat are more resistant to climate variations. We had abandoned these varieties in favour of High Yielding Varieties to augment our food production in the wake of the food crisis of the sixties. We will have to retrace our steps. We must encourage farmers to grow traditional varieties even though the production may be less. The farmer is willing to make this change. He wants to insulate himself from the vagaries of weather. His problem is that he cannot make his ends meet if the production is less. Therefore, we must put in place a system of incentives for growing indigenous varieties. We must adopt water conservation measures such as drip irrigation so that we can grow same amount of grains with less water. Once again the problem is that of price. The farmers do not have the income or the incentive to invest in drip irrigation systems. This requires increase in price and provision of incentives.

We are consuming large amounts of water for growing water-intensive crops like grapes, sugarcane, and red chillies that are often produced for export. We pack our scarce water into these crops and export our water to foreign countries. There is a need to assess the availability of water in each block of the country and put restrictions on growing of crops that consume more water than is available. Farmers make tens of irrigations in dry areas of Gulbarga and Jodhpur to grow grapes and red chillies. This must stop.

Our water policy also needs reconsideration. Present policy is to make large reservoirs like Bhakra and Tehri and store monsoon water for use in the summers. As told above, this is leading to huge losses due to evaporation. Instead, we must store water in groundwater aquifers. We must remove all embankments along the rivers and let the flood waters spread over large areas so that the aquifers are recharged. We must build villages on mounds and houses on stilts so that loss of life is minimised during floods. Prime Minister Modi must be congratulated for putting global warming on the agenda in his talks with foreign countries. But one does not lecture about the need to buy a new fire engine when one’s house is on fire. Modi must first make policies to insulate India from global warming. Only then would his interactions with other countries be credible.

Author was formerly a Professor of Economics at IIM Bengaluru

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Movie review: Gauraiya – Gritty but distasteful!

— By Johnson Thomas | Aug 28, 2015 08:06 pm 

Cast: Raiya Sinha, Karamveer Chaudhary, Vijay Jora, Sumit Chawla, Sushma Salvi

Director: Rajesh Hans

Rating: * *

Runtime: 109 mins

Supposedly centered around true incidents of sexploitation of Harijans by Dacoits, thekedars and other armed forces located in the north Indian desert regions of Patha and Chitrakoot, this film tries hard to ensnare it’s audience with a surfeit of cuss words and exploitative frontal nudity.

 While the treatment is gritty and the ethos, look  and cultural landscape tends to realism, the overabundant use of dehumanizing slang and copious plants of frontal nudity in the guise of sexploitation exposes, is just not palatable. It seemed like the director had some noble intentions to begin with- like making a case for cautious implementation of the 216 A law that empowers the police to take in hapless villagers as a preventive measure against armed attack. But those intentions  get lost in the exploitative content masquerading as a social awareness treatise.

The writer/Director does try to broaden the ambit a bit by adding a young activist/writer, Shefali, working on a book titled ‘End of crime’ as part of her PhD thesis work – to the story. Shefali visits the oppressed and the oppressors,  making notes and soothing pained brows as part of her effort to understand the cycle of crime and criminality.  But there’s little or no affect there other than as a convenient prop- just like the NGO sent to the village to serve the oppressed victims, becoming yet another spoke in the wheel of oppression.

Also, the characters have no growth curve. The lead character Gauraiya(Raiya Sinha), moves from one sexploitative experience to another without any repulsive action to showcase her unwillingness. The performances are pretty sanguine though. The villains are also typically vicious and boot happy. There’s absolutely no relief to be had in the abusive assemblage. The entire experience was gross and the rendering criminally  undermines the cause of women’s empowerment. Token posturing of one so-called strong woman character who stands up against oppression doesn’t balance it out either. Best avoided or else be resigned to your thankless fate!

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Movie Review: Phantom: A misguided Missile

— By PTI | Aug 28, 2015 04:06 pm 

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Khan, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Rajesh Tailang

Director: Kabir Khan

Director Kabir Khan blends fact and fantasy is search of hi-octane thrills in Phantom, a spy drama that is irretrievably undermined by a weak script and pedestrian acting. The film harks back to the festering wounds inflicted on India by the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai and constructs a wishful scenario: each of the perpetrators of that crime is punished by an intrepid agent unleashed by RAW.

Kabir Khan is on a strong wicket after the runaway success of Bajrangi Bhaijaan. But Saif Ali Khan is in desperate need of a career-resurrecting hit. Like his eponymous character did in Agent Vinod, his fearless spy here is an inveterate globe-trotter who is never in one place for any length of time.

The script based on S Hussain Zaidi book Mumbai Avengers is no different – it flits about aimlessly as the hero goes pursues the mission of eliminating the big, bad terrorists in the neighbouring country and elsewhere. One commendable aspect of Phantom is its matter-of-fact approach that it adopts to its portrayal of the fight against terror. It keeps chauvinistic chest-thumping to the bare minimum.

While it does not conceal the identities of the men who plotted the 26/11 attack, it does not blame Pakistan as a nation or any particular community for that dastardly act. In fact, Phantom projects the people of Pakistan as victims too, introducing a Lahore mother who has lost her son to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

RAW plucks tainted soldier Daniyal (Saif Ali Khan) out of thin year and sends him on an impossible mission. The man has nothing to lose for he has lost all interest in life since being dismissed from the army for allegedly deserting his men in a bunker.

He is introduced to Nawaz (Katrina Kaif), a former RAW agent who, too, has a personal reason to go after the terror masterminds. Chicago, London, Beirut, Amman, Lahore – the duo hops from one location to another looking for their quarries in dangerous places.

Much of this is rather dreary and mechanical. It is not until Daniyal lands in Pakistan that Phantom perks up a bit. The climax is passable, but Phantom takes two-and-a-half hours to get there, by which time the action has turned too predictable and humdrum to kindle genuine interest of what is unfolding on the screen.

Saif Ali Khan wears an inscrutable facial expression all through Phantom. It is difficult to tell whether the lack of animation is a reflection of the character’s state of mind or the current state of the actor’s career. Katrina Kaif is a misguided missile in this drama – she does not know what she is supposed to be doing here. And neither does the audience.

Phantom has its moments, especially in the second half, but that isn’t enough to sustain the film all through its running time.

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Movie Review: The Gift – Psychological Thriller

— By Ronita Torcato  | Aug 21, 2015 08:46 pm 

Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton,Allison Tollman,Tim

Griffin,David Denman

Director: Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton  played the Pharaoh Rameses in Ridley Scott’s Exodus:God’s and Kings. He was the estranged older brother in the intensely moving sports drama Warrior, a  Hindi remake of which is currently showing in Indian cinemas. Like several others, the multi-talented Australian has dabbled in  various aspects of film-making. Now, he makes his  directorial debut with this smartly plotted thriller about about a young married couple Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robin (Rebecca Hall)  stalked by a former classmate of the husband.  This role is played by Edgerton who also wrote the screenplay which is full of surprises like that other stylish psychological thriller Gone Girl. A pivotal backstory (referenced in dialogue) reprises  the moral universe of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies in which humans (juveniles ) act in selfish, self-serving,and ultimately destructive ways, unrestrained by rules and regulations.

Simon and Robyn relocate from Chicago to  Los Angeles where Simon takes up cushy new corporate  job  and interior designer Robyn struggles to recover from a miscarriage. They are befriended by a stranger (Joel Edgerton), who tells them he is Simon’s childhood schoolmate. The mysterious man follows up the chance encounter with  a series of gifts:a bottle of wine, goldfish; he also drops by when Robyn is home alone.   She  is not amused when Simon refers to Gordon as “Gordo the Weirdo,” a nickname from school, and refuses to discuss the way things were. Dissatisfied, Robyn makes some enquiries on her own and discovers shocking things about the murky past.

There’s poetic justice at the end, which is all about revenge and retribution. In Lord of the Flies, the hero Ralph weeps for the end of innocence, I wondered what Simon wept for in The Gift. The fact that Gordo had the last laugh? The darkness inside Gordo’s heart, or his own? The Gift shows that  falsehoods and  deception can  corrode the soul and damage the psyche much in the manner as  physical violence destroys life. Edgerton’s script is studded with a couple of well-timed shocks, even as he keeps the violence minimal and does not indulge in cheap scares.

(In the hands of a lesser director, the life-altering incidents of adolescence might have become a gratuitously lewd exercise.) Beautifully shot and acted, The Gift is worth buying a ticket to the theatre.

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Movie Review: All Is Well – Tedious, cliched and humorless!

— By Johnson Thomas | Aug 21, 2015 07:06 pm 

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Asin, Supriya Pathak Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor

Director: Umesh Shukla

Rating: * *

Runtime: 125 mins

All Is Well directed by Umesh Shukla of OMG fame fails to get off the blocks and therefore rarely- if at all, makes it to the comedy goal posts it sets for itself. A dramedy that supposedly tackles a thorny issue and has a social message to boot, the film has little to offer other than tried and tired tropes, repetitive unappealing attempts at humor and distinctive lack of timing in the performances that seem dull and quite un-enlivening.

The entire dysfunctional Bhalla family is on the run. Inder (Abhishek Bachchan), the son, who ran away to Bangkok in search of a singing career comes back to Kasol with some debt collectors chasing him.  Inder and his father (Rishi Kapoor) never really got along, and it was in a fit of rage that he was asked to leave the house. Once back he realizes that he has been lured under the false pretext of his father selling the bakery business and the fake offer of wanting to give him a share. He also finds that his mother(Supriya Pathak) who suffers from Alzheimer’s, is in an asylum following her divorce from his money minded father. And yes, the commitment phobic Inder also has an ex-girlfriend(Asin) who conveniently turns up again- to spice things up, I expect. There’s also some hidden gold to chase. Sonakshi Sinhamakes her weighty presence felt with an item song that just shouldn’t have been.

The script is total nonsense. The writing lacks vigor and the attempts at humor are pretty much decadent.

The actors are all wasted to say the least. Rishi and Abhishek rail at each other in stereophonic surround sound and it’s not a pretty or entertaining sight. Asin and Supriya Pathak are wasted while a bit player like Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub as Cheema is the only one to lend some much needed positivity to this drab , distended affair.  Umesh Shukla who impressed everyone with OMG makes this one a total no show. It’s all very well to thrust a message that Positivity is what gets you to happiness but when it’s done in such drab, uninteresting and perilously aggravating fashion you’re not going there..are you?

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Listen to investors for value addition – Hoshang Sethna, Company Secretary, Tata Motors

— By Dipta Joshi | Aug 03, 2015 12:01 am 

Hoshang Sethna, Company Secretary, Tata Motors Limited introduced several best practices in the company much before they were mandated by law in India. Speaking to Dipta Joshi, he elaborates on the need of the hour given the changing regulatory landscape

If Hoshang Sethna, Company Secretary, Tata Motors Limited, were to write his memoirs, it would definitely make an interesting read. Hoshang joined the company when it had just one subsidiary and a turnover of Rs 8000 crore. Today, the company has 75 subsidiaries and a consolidated turnover of Rs.270,000 crore.

Of the three decades in the Secretarial field, Hoshang has spent 23 years with different entities within the Tata Group itself. He was associated with Tata Elxsi and Tata Oil Mills Company (TOMCO) before joining the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) which was later rechristened as Tata Motors Limited. It’s no surprise then, that Hoshang has been privy to many trend setting events in the Group’s celebrated history. He was part of the historic Jaguar Land Rover acquisition which remains one of the most successful foreign acquisitions by an Indian company in respect of merger control regulations and financing.

Recalling his association as TOMCO’s Company Secretary (CS), Hoshang reveals, he had no time for preliminaries like settling down in the new job etc. The company’s decision to merge with Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) was being contested by some of TOMCO’s shareholders and he found himself in the thick of action, handling the merger case. “The case was challenged in the Supreme Court too and turned out to be an unprecedented one, because it set standards in valuation of companies (during mergers) which are followed even today,” says he.

Hoshang had already built his expertise in dealing with public and rights issues, property besides certain corporate legal matters before joining the Tata Group. But his experience with Tata Motors helped hone his secretarial skills like never before when the company spread its presence across Asia, Europe, Africa, South America and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Hoshang was part of the core team that handled the listing of Tata Motors on the New York Stock Exchange and its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He gained an in-depth knowledge of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the COSO framework for internal controls – both of which protect shareholders from accounting errors and fraudulent practices through internal control and fraud deterrence in an enterprise. He also developed a working knowledge of the US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), and the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). He was also involved in the launch of various pioneering financial equity related fund raising instruments in the Indian and international markets like the issuance of the Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) with warrants attached, American Depository Receipts (ADRs), Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs), Yankee Bonds and the recent, first rights offering by an Indian company registered on the U.S. Stock Exchange.

Having gained a grip on international governance practices, Hoshang was encouraged to review the same and build in best practices suitable for the Tata Motors Group. “We introduced several best practices such as the whistle blower policy, auditors’ independence policy, a fully independent audit committee besides internal controls over financial reporting. All this, much before they were mandated in India,” says he.

However, there have been several challenges. “The change in the organisation, from being just a commercial vehicle Indian manufacturer to a complete automobile company having a global footprint needed a change in culture and mindset (from a supply driven organisation to a demand driven one),”says Hoshang. Thanking his seniors for all their encouragement, he adds, “The Tata organisation and culture grows on you and the journey continues to be an interesting one.”

Hoshang believes a Company Secretary has ample opportunity to improve and change the way an organisation behaves since he takes part in the Board meetings and is a witness to the visionary thoughts-in-action during discussions on strategy, financial results, budgets, oversight of subsidiaries etc. Besides by ensuring that the directions given by the Board are adhered to, a CS plays an important part in the democratic setup where the Board’s decisions are meant to be the last word in corporate decision making, except of course in cases where shareholders’ approvals are required. His own approach towards shareholder activism has always been proactive. In fact says he, “Dealing with shareholder activism has been refreshing with many lessons learnt and practiced. Listening to investors often results in value addition to the business and improved governance practices.”

According to Hoshang, having an open mindset towards change is the need of the hour given the changing regulatory landscape and the competitive blood-wars. “Changing continuously will be the only constant in the coming years,” he adds. If the last two years are any indication, the next five years would be very challenging and exciting for a CS. As India progresses into its next emerging phase, any and every relevant change should be expected and warmly welcomed, says he.

Like most CS, Hoshang too feels the Companies Act, 2013, has been a mixed bag. While it has brought in various governance related changes which were imminent and therefore welcome, there are just as many avoidable changes. “They require laborious and frantic activity and don’t offer corresponding benefits to either the company or its stakeholders. The Bill when enacted was very challenging and caused disruption and challenges in business. Compliance with Company law on the whole has become expensive.”

Hoshang believes the CS community needs to look forward to various simplified and business-friendly initiatives being launched by the current government.

Some of the issues included in his list of grievances include tax benefits on CSR expenditure (over the mandated 2 percent), managerial remunerations and filing of Board resolutions with the Registrar of Companies (ROC).

Hoshang also has reservations regarding too much disclosure (particularly by unlisted and private companies), which is why he has been proposing exclusion of debt listed companies from the definition of listed company.

“The risks are different for equity and debt investors. Equity investors might require more information but debt companies are closely-held entities. By asking equity and debt listed companies to provide the same amount of information, lenders are being given access to lot of unnecessary information,” says he.

Having dealt with various corporate laws in different jurisdictions, there is a lot that can be done to simplify the Companies Act, 2013, adds Hoshang. And yet, there is no doubt, the Act has provided ample opportunities to Company Secretaries, both in the field of profession and practice. “We need to live up to the expectations and the responsibilities carved out for us and take our rightful place in senior leadership,” says he.

With technology playing an important role going forward, Hoshang advices new Secretarial aspirants to be updated on technological advances and breakthroughs as also with the changing regulatory environment on an online basis. He concludes saying, “One needs to have strong functional fundamentals, be an expert in Company law and other corporate legislations. With this, the CS could be THE catalyst for change.”

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Consistent disclosures lead to higher investor comfort: P Ganesh, CFO & CS, Godrej Industries

— By Dipta Joshi | Jul 06, 2015 12:10 am 

Though Secretarial Standards have tended to be too prescriptive in some instances, its guidelines for the Board as well as annual general meetings, bring in greater transparency into corporate practices, says P Ganesh, CFO and Company Secretary, Godrej Industries Limited. Speaking to Dipta Joshi, he also elaborates upon the advantages of working with a large conglomerate

P Ganesh, CFO and Company Secretary, Godrej Industries Limited, has welcomed the new Secretarial Standards issued by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). The directives pertain to issuance of an advance notice to shareholders for Board meetings and discontinuing of the practice of gifting at annual general meetings (AGMs). The directive has become applicable since July this year.

Ganesh believes the new Companies Act, the Secretarial Standards and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulations are all working towards the same goal of bringing in greater transparency into corporate practices. Says Ganesh, “The Secretarial Standards lay down clear guidelines for both the Board meetings as well as the AGM, although there are instances where they have tended to be too prescriptive.”

Ganesh’s experience in the field of Finance and Company Law spans two decades. Interestingly, all of it was within the Godrej Group. In the early years, he handled different aspects of the finance functions such as accounting, treasury and direct taxes, besides assisting the company secretary on Secretarial matters. He assumed his first leadership role in the year 2005 as Company Secretary and Head of Finance of the UK based ‘Keyline Brands Limited’. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Company Secretary of Godrej Consumer Products Limited, a position he held until early 2015 when he took over as the CFO and Company Secretary of Godrej Industries Limited.

“Performing the role of a CFO as well as a Company Secretary has helped me combine my knowledge on financial matters as well as legal and compliance requirements. This has enhanced my effectiveness in business decision making,” says Ganesh. He has been involved in the due diligence activities for several acquisitions and has handled issue of shares through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) as well as preferential allotment route. He has also helped raise funds through debt instruments like non-convertible debentures, external commercial borrowings etc., for the company.

Ganesh feels he has benefitted immensely by being a part of one of India’s leading corporate houses. His association with Godrej Consumer Products saw him handling acquisitions in geographies as far and wide as South East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. He describes this period as, “A great learning experience in aspects such as cross-border business integration, putting in place tax efficient holding structures, transfer pricing, legal documentation and in picking up nuances of the English law in overseas debt financing etc.”

Ganesh believes, “Being attached to a big group means facing complex situations and challenges but it also means getting more opportunities to learn.” Typically, working for any large conglomerate always has its advantages. The sharing of knowledge and experience gained from the diverse sectors that its companies operate in, helps employees resolve issues without delay. In fact, the Godrej Group already has such in-house forums in place. ‘The Finance Centre of Excellence’ is steered by Ganesh and works across Godrej Industries and other associate companies. “Since the Group is large, with many companies, there was the need to create a forum that paves the way to harness the synergy potential,” explains Ganesh. Similarly, the Group also has an in-house Secretarial forum.

Currently, enhanced disclosure norms as prescribed by the Companies Act, 2013, ensure that investors are better placed in terms of the information availability. And greater the transparency, greater is the investor confidence. ‘Investor Relations is an evolving area and though we have seen an uptick in investor participation in the past few years, investor comfort is always higher in companies which have more and consistent disclosures,” says Ganesh.

With regards to the Companies Act, 2013, Ganesh points out, “Like any new legislation, the Act has had a few teething issues and operational challenges.” He hopes another round of positive changes will be recommended by the high-level review committee set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to look into any further issues raised by corporate houses. The eight member panel was set up in June this year. But, even before the committee was set up, the MCA had come out with a series of amendments and clarifications that addressed many of the concerns raised by corporate houses and legal practitioners.

According to Ganesh, as a corporate law specialist for his company, the role of the Company Secretary (CS) is critical to the smooth functioning of a corporate entity. “Given the increasingly complex business environment, and the interface that the CS has with multiple stakeholders, his stature in the corporate world has grown over the years and will continue to do so in the coming years,” feels Ganesh.

Happy to share some tips, Ganesh says aspirants into the Secretarial field should be technically sound on matters such as corporate laws, SEBI and Stock Exchange requirements. At the same time, he also urges them to work on developing and enhancing their communication and inter-personal skills. “The Company Secretary’s role involves a lot of interface with various stakeholders like senior management, directors, investors, regulators etc. Thus the need for developing softer skills cannot be over-emphasised,” says he.

Summing up the key qualities that a CS must possess, Ganesh says, he always looks for sound functional knowledge, an alert mind, an eye for details and a great attitude while recruiting members to his team.

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