Rules of colonial vintage go digital to run Government of the day

article by Vinson Kurien 

An IT products company based here has managed to compress ‘system of office procedure’ written by late Richard Tottenham in pre-Independent India.

The Tottenham system of governance may be of 1940s-vintage, but it is faithfully followed by many Government offices, including in Kerala, to this day.

CHALLENGING TASK

There is ‘nothing to beat Tottenham’ in the manner in which it has sought to streamline functioning of Government Secretariat, the very seat of the Government.

The challenge of putting the Tottenham genie into computer files was worth taking, says Prasadu Vaghese, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Ospyn Technologies, based in Technopark here.

Digital Document Filing System appears to have achieved exactly this, Varughese told Business Line, citing feedback from satisfied customers.

Richard Tottenham was a British civil servant working then as a District Collector with North Arcot district (now in Tamil Nadu).

THREE MANUALS

He developed three manuals on the request of the then Government. These were secretariat office manual, board of revenue office manual and district office manual.

Tottenham system is based on the principles of bureaucracy. It divides the office into various sections.

The concept of office is in the form of a pyramid with management head at the top and cutting-edge level functionaries at the bottom.

The pyramid becomes large at the base. Different levels of functionaries work in a hierarchy.

Every office is divided in to various ‘sections’ depending on activities/functions of the office. These functions are allotted to the sections.

VARIOUS REGISTERS

The system prescribes various registers to monitor progress of work in the office. Registers will help not only to assess progress but also arrest delays and cut down on arrears.

Common office functions represent a self-fulfilling chain of collecting, clarifying and processing information; taking decisions and communicating them.

While giving due credit to Tottenham, Varughese said that the system was not without its blemishes.

The filing system involved paper-based filing systems, which apart from being space consuming and tedious, also posed serious cost and security concerns.

Records management, data sharing, distribution and information retrieval become more complex and difficult, thereby decreasing operational efficiency.

DIGITAL SYSTEM

Digital Document Filing System addresses these issues and provides tools to create, retrieve, distribute and organise documents Varghese said of his company’s product.

It enhances business performance and productivity, while increasing efficiency and reducing the cost and clutter of maintaining paper records, Varghese said.

A major cause of concern in a majority of government departments is the delay caused in the physical movement of files from desktop to desktop.

Once digital system is implemented, documents are passed on electronically. Hence delays and overheads associated with paper based document distribution are tremendously reduced.

Blame red tape on the British!

It is often said that the British was responsible for bringing red tape into Government business while introducing an elaborate system of handling records here.

Under the Tottenham system of office procedure, each paper and its disposal are manually recorded. Depending on its importance, a decision is made to determine how long it should be retained.

PAPERS RECORDED

Papers are of transitory value are kept for a year before being destroyed. Others are retained for three years, 10 years and the most important ones retained permanently or for 30 years.

A nomenclature of L, K, D, R, reflecting the period of extension is given to each file/paper.

But rules of procedure as delineated by Tottenham system find resonance even under e-governance garb, says Prasadu Varghese. He said this in reference to Tamil Nadu Government’s announcement that it wanted to do away with Tottenham system and instead embrace e-governance.

PRIVATE SECTOR

Even the private sector is looking at the Tottenham system favourably, though strictly in the digital version, Varghese said. Ospyn has had some enquiries already.

A section assistant in the Government Secretariat told Business Line on condition of anonymity that his department’s was happy with Digital Document Filing System from Ospyn.

It takes care of the attributes of accountability, surveillance, security and file retrieval. Significantly, it also helps avoid dependence on office peons for delivering papers physically.

Last but not least, it affords even a clerk the luxury of accessing office files from the comforts of his own home, provided he has internet connection.

Singapore emerging as favourite destination for Indian entrepreneurs, companies & students

An article on Singapore- India needs to learn from Singapore on creating the Entrepreneurial ecosystem that is driving economic growth and inclusiveness  

Ash Singh was born in Canada and educated in Hong Kong. But ever since his first start-up — when still in university — was acquired by a Singapore-based company in 2004, Singh has lived in Singapore. He was 22 then. A serial entrepreneur, Singh has invested in six digital media companies and is CEO of Interactive SG, a business accelerator in Singapore.

 prefer Singapore over other countries for my entrepreneurial journey because it is, for me, the most pro-business country." And, he stresses, it's not just the low tax rate that's the attraction. "The government here offers various schemes and resources at every level of business to give you the best chance to succeed," adds Singh.

Diversity and multiculturalism are among the top reasons for him to have decided in favour of Singapore as his work and home base. An avid basketball fan, he is a shareholder in Singapore Slingers professional basketball team. And in his free time he's busy with his favourite hobby: promoting turbans through The Turbanizer, a mobile app that he has developed.

For Professionals Too

It's not just entrepreneurs who are rooting for Singapore over other destinations, including popular ones in the West. Gunit Chadha, co-chief executive officer Asia Pacific and member of the group executive committee of Deutsche Bank says: "For Indian entrepreneurs, Indian companies and Indian students, Singapore is fast emerging as an important destination in a growing look east mindset." In his Asia Pacific role, he is keen to connect Indian entrepreneurs to their counterparts in Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines; or have Indian public sector companies share experiences with government-linked companies in Singapore.

For Indian companies, Singapore provides an ideal location for regional or even global headquarters, he feels. "For the financial services sector across investment banking, hedge funds, wealth and asset management, Singapore has a great talent pool with many professionals coming from India," adds Chadha. To be sure, Singapore has even become an attractive destination for Indian finance professionals from the UK and the US who want to move because of a tight job market there and Singapore having emerged as one of the key banking hubs in the world.

With a low average individual taxation rate, which is further lowered for those who make significant investments, the island nation is indeed an ideal choice. Besides, for Indians, the country is hospitable and unlike Dubai — another attractive location for Indians — provides an easier path to permanent residence and later citizenship for those eligible. Tax Cushion For All "Most taxes such as wealth tax, gift tax and capital gains tax are not there and there's no global income-tax for tax residents of Singapore.

It's a territorial tax system and hence you are taxed only on what you earn here. There are no restrictions on overseas investment. It's a great location for high net worth individuals (HNIs) from India," says R Narayanamohan, chairman of Singapore India Chamber of Commerce. Narayanamohan has lived in Singapore for over three decades and runs his own accounting firm.

Singapore's attractive tax regime includes a top personal tax rate of 20% which kicks in only on income exceeding S$320,000 (around Rs 1.4 crore). Up to S$320,000 there are gradual tax rates starting at zero for the first $20,000. Further, there are no estate duty or inheritance taxes and the corporate tax rate of 17% can be concessional in some cases and go down to 5-10%.

"Singapore offers multiple incentives for entrepreneurs, including the global trader incentive programme; and an R&D incentive which includes a cashback scheme by the government," says Sonu Iyer, tax partner and national leader, human capital services at Ernst & Young. Those setting up regional headquarters there are also eligible for sops, she points out. She, however, adds a word of caution about the stricter rules put in place by the Singapore government recently in granting employment passes and permanent resident status.

The Millionaire Club

A report by Boston Consulting Group released last year put the number of millionaire households in the island nation at 188,000 or around 17% of its resident households. This means Singapore, which has a population of 5.31 million, has the largest percentage of millionaires in the world. Singapore's uber-rich population has grown, with 10 in every 100,000 households now classified as ultra-high-net-worth or those with more than $100 million in private financial wealth.

"It is becoming quite common for some members of business families from India to relocate to Singapore. There's a strong business case, especially for those looking to expand in markets like South East Asia and Japan. Besides, there are tax and lifestyle advantages and a large ethnic Indian population too," says Amitabh Singh, an independent consultant and expert on personal taxes.

onen Palan, a professor of international political economy and an expert on offshore wealth and tax havens at City University in London, explains that Singapore is turning into an attractive location for HNIs, including many from India, with laws tailored to attract foreign capital. "The advantages of Singapore include a well-organised financial centre and political stability combined with a highly secretive regime.

The Singapore government will not be as easily intimidated as might be the governments of some of the Indian Ocean tax havens," he says. Sameer Sain, co-founder and managing partner of Everstone Capital, is yet another Indian HNI and entrepreneur who chose Singapore. Educated in the US and having worked in the UK, the US and India, he decided to move to Singapore in 2010.

Our investments are largely India-and South East Asia focused and Singapore's strong reputation as business-friendly  regulatory and tax regime makes it an attractive regional base. And the sound infrastructure enables businesses to attract top tier global talent," he told ET Magazine from Singapore where he now lives. The fact that his partner and co-founder of Everstone Atul Kapoor is a citizen of Singapore and has lived there for many years also helped. "Singapore provides the best gateway to India and the rest of Asia," avers Sain.

Packing the office, into the smartphone

Story from Kerala on a IT Company providing e governance applications  

Senior bureaucrats in Kerala could soon be working their smartphones to sign files in their department, even when they are on official duty abroad. They will be able to track files and sign them from across the world and even keep a constant tab on the work of employees in their office back home without missing a single overseas assignment.

All this will be possible because of a new mobile application developed by Ospyn Technologies, a Technopark- based firm, for its proprietary electronic file processing system that is being implemented in government departments. The Digital Document Filing System (DDFS), as it is called, networks the different functions in an office and is a critical element of the e- governance project launched by the government.

The mobile app has been developed to work on the iphone and ipad as well as Android- powered smartphones, according to the company’s chief executive and managing director Prasadu Varghese and Chief Technology Officer Kishore Kumar. They say it is the next step in the evolution of DDFS. 

DDFS is designed to address the delay in the physical movement of files from one table to another in government offices. What it essentially does is to replace paperwork with electronic files. The system is currently operational in 57 offices of 15 departments. As many as 2,000 government employees are networked through the system. 

In the Secretariat, the seat of the government administration, DDFS has been implemented in the departments of Higher Education, Information Technology and Food and Civil Supplies. Ospyn has been given the mandate to implement the system in seven departments.

DDFS provides tools to create, retrieve, distribute and organise documents. It significantly enhances efficiency while reducing the cost and difficulty of maintaining paper records, Mr.Varghese explains.

In the Secretariat, DDFS has been integrated with the archival database prepared by scanning old files and converted them to the digital format. This makes it possible for officials to access old record files without leaving their seat. 

“In the conventional system, the average time for a tapal to become a GO is one month; with DDFS, it has come down to one week”, says Mr. Kumar. “Decision making is much easier. Files can be tracked online and traced to officials”. Even putting a chit on a file, a common practice among government employees, is possible electronically. Linking, bookmarking- everything can be replicated in electronic form.

The system minimises the scope for manipulation of files. Missing files, a common complaint in government offices could soon be a thing of the past, says Mr.Varghese. 

The third version of DDFS to be released soon will be a minimised variety of the system

Why IT companies Infosys, Wipro are betting big on start-ups

BANGALORE: Indian information technology companies are turning venture capitalists in their quest for fresh ideas and technology to help them compete more effectively in a fast-changing business environment. Like multinational technology companies - Cisco, Intel and SAP - which are active investors, Indian firms too are tying up with emerging ventures possessing niche skills or buying stakes in them, thereby gaining access to what could even be blockbuster ideas.

 The trend was exemplified earlier this month when Infosys said it has set up a $100 million (Rs 540 crore) fund to invest in startups, besides spotting and funding internal innovation. Similarly, Mahindra Satyam, which has a stated goal of growing faster than the industry, has a $50-million fund exclusively for investments in global technology startups. Wipro, too, is actively looking to partner innovative young companies or buy minority stakes in them.

According to industry observers, Indian IT companies have become serious and methodical about identifying suitable startup ventures with the intent of investing and have tasked senior executives with such mandate.

No specifics
For example, at Infosys, M&A head Deepak Padaki is in charge of the fund. "This has become imperative, because of the pressure from customers and competition (to innovate as well as be more efficient)," said Sumeet Anand, who is a founder member of Nasscom IP4Biz, an initiative to connect startup ventures and large businesses.

Anand also runs Kreeo, a startup that offers enterprises a social media platform for internal collaboration. "Also the DNA and culture of a product company is different from that of services companies." While software services companies all agree that aligning with startups are an important part of their strategy, they decline to talk about specifics.
There have been earlier attempts at funding internal innovation- OnMobile at Infosys or SatNav at Satyam - but directing the funding spotlight to external targets is new for the Indian IT services companies, which are faced with fundamental changes taking places at a fast clip in the technology outsourcing market.

To stay abreast of latest technologies such as data analytics, cloud computing or enterprise mobility, they must work closely with niche startups with innovative technologies that can complement their existing service offerings.

"We place a lot of emphasis on innovation and we're actively promoting it within the company as well, but there is only so much one company can do, which is why we felt it may be good idea to tie-up with start-ups," added Manish Mehta, chief vertical solutions officer and member of the executive management team, Mahindra Satyam.

Indian IT companies are following a slightly different approach to investing compared to global firms such as Intel and Cisco, said an investment banker who has worked closely with one of the large IT firms.

"Multinationals deploy surplus capital in an organised manner partly to promote newer companies and partly to promote the ecosystem. In the case of Indian IT firms, investing in ideas internally or externally gives them an option to enter a venture early, thereby also giving them a better chance to acquire it at a later stage," said the banker, requesting anonymity.

Sanjoy Sen, senior director at Deloitte India, thinks that finding an external target and incubating it also forces companies to go out of their particular culture as it brings in new blood. "This also helps in enhancing the risk appetite.

 But some software companies believe that innovation is best done from within and are adopting external funding mechanisms and benchmarks to encourage new ideas from among employees. For instance, Cognizant incubates ventures within the company in a model patterned after Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Cognizant Capital, the vehicle which vets and funds these ventures follows a tiered funding process -- early stage, mid or late-stage investments.

Similarly, HCL Technologies believes in funding ideas internally and the exercise has helped it increase non-linear revenues, said Krishnan Chatterjee, senior vice-president and head of strategic marketing.

Mobile app to help govt officials take decisions on the move

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 16:  

Ospyn Technologies, a company based in Technopark here, bets big on the business of e-governance.

It is promising to take decision-making to the wireless world, enabling government officials track files and sign them on the move, with the help of a mobile application it has developed for its proprietary file processing system, digital document filing system (DDFS).

The app can be operated on iphone, ipad, android and other smartphones, say Prasadu Varghese, chief executive and managing director, and Kishore Kumar, chief technology officer, Ospyn.

DELAY CUT DOWN

A major cause of concern in a majority of government departments is the delay caused in the physical movement of files from desk to desk, Varghese said.

Once DDFS is implemented in departments, documents are passed on electronically. Delays and overheads associated with paper based document distribution are significantly reduced.

DDFS will help distribute and retrieve documents instantly without hindrance of any geographical boundaries.

The traditional filing system involved paper-based filing systems, which apart from being space-consuming and tedious, also poses serious cost and security concerns.

Records management, data sharing, distribution and information retrieval become more complex and difficult, thereby decreasing operational efficiency.

RECORD REPOSITORY

DDFS addresses these issues and provides tools to create, retrieve, distribute and organise documents, Kumar said.

It enhances business performance and productivity, while increasing efficiency and reducing the cost and clutter of maintaining paper records.

For instance, in the Government Secretariat here, all old files are scanned, converted to digital form and archived in a record repository.

DDFS has been integrated to this database and hence, users can access old record files through DDFS, without leaving their seat.

DDFS enables officials to keep an attentive eye on ‘peeping toms’ and also to control use and viewing of data or documents.

FILE STATUS

Malpractices such as replacing pages in a file, replacing an entire file, file stealing etc can be effectively checked by implementing DDFS.

Through DDFS public portal, file status and stages can be made public. It eliminates all issues associated with lost or misplaced documents.

Officers will have quick and instant access of relevant data and documents, enabling rapid decision-making.

Kumar said that systems such as ‘e-district’ as part of e-governance are used to improve transactional capabilities and processes of Government departments.

An efficient e-governance requires a smooth and streamlined functioning of both decision-making and transactional systems. DDFS has both, Varghese and Kumar added.

IT’s a question of branding

As competition hots up, IT players focus on differentiation rather than on cost reduction.

Branding in the Indian IT outsourcing sector has been more a sub-conscious effort than a planned strategy. However, as clients demand more bang for the outsourcing buck, coupled with shifts in technology, Indian outsourcers will have to create a distinct identity.

On a sunny afternoon in March, as N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus of Infosys walked in to address a gathering of mediapersons (on behalf of a Nasscom committee he chaired), accompanied by N. Chandrasekaran, CEO of TCS, the concern was writ large on their faces. On one hand was a slowing economic climate (both in developed and Indian markets) and on the other, the industry at the crossroads with regard to India as an outsourcing destination.

This dichotomy is reflected in the branding of Indian IT, which Murthy and others are trying to address. Murthy jokes that at times he used to get orders just waiting in the queue in an international airport lobby. Add to that an industry increasingly getting commoditised and the need to differentiate becomes apparent. Most of the companies have a similar management structure in the form of delivery teams, hiring capabilities, training, tools and management with similar backgrounds. All things being equal, the sector that built its brand more subconsciously now has to make an effort to build a brand that will have a significant differentiator.

BABY STEPS

Some developments recently point to the efforts taken by the sector that is being pushed into a corner and is now forced to hit back. TCS has ‘Experience certainty’, Wipro has ‘Applying Thought’ and Infosys ‘Building Tomorrow’s Enterprise’ as their taglines. But pit Indian brands against Fortune 500 companies and realisation sets in.

Only TCS has managed to crack the brand code to a certain extent. Last year TCS was named one of the ‘big four’ in IT services brands, by Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation firm. The company’s brand value is estimated at $4.1 billion and it plays with the big boys such as IBM, HP and Accenture. None of the erstwhile poster boys such as Infosys, HCL or Wipro figured in the list. Interestingly, in the last 12 months, it is the mid-sized IT companies which are making a push to rebrand themselves. Bangalore-based Mindtree has announced a change in its brand identity with which it would focus more on expertise than costs.

The new brand identity would help the $400-million company get more larger-sized outsourcing deals which could help it achieve the $1-billion target in the next few years. The company, which started operations in 1999 and took the help of a student affected by cerebral palsy to design its logo has this time opted for LA-based Siegel + Gale for its rebranding initiative. Explaining the rationale, Subroto Bagchi, Chairman, MindTree, says that every ten years an IT services company should look at a rebranding exercise. “In these challenging times, the message of outsourcing clients gaining more bottom line by adopting innovative solutions as compared to cost reduction is the need of the hour,” he added.

For the Nasdaq-listed iGate, Ogilvy and Mather late last year came out with a set of ads that took a dig at the traditional model of outsourcing and urged clients to talk of the results achieved by outsourcing rather than a mere ‘you do the job and bill for workable hours’ approach.

For a business that is people-intensive, Indian IT services companies have done well in the first phase but now the real challenge comes, says Rohan Deshpande, CTO, Ogilvy & Mather. The challenges come in the form of a different branding exercise that will distinguish one from the other. “Right now, it all looks the same,” he adds.

To get a sense of what Deshpande is alluding to, one needs to look a little deeper into the way multinational services companies such as IBM play the game. In 2008, then CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano, outlined a corporate initiative called ‘Smarter Planet’, which sought to highlight the way business, government and civil society around the world were capturing the potential of smarter systems to achieve economic growth, efficiency, sustainable development and societal progress.

It resonates beyond boardrooms and that should be the level of thinking at Indian companies aspiring to go global, says an executive who was involved in the creative process of this initiative.

To be fair, Indian companies do not have a 100-year-old legacy and tend to stay away from radically different branding strategies. iGate has made a start with its campaign but the differentiation has to come in sooner rather than later.

MindTree’s Bagchi has been trying to address this with the new branding strategy.

“In the past, we have rarely communicated differentiation and were defined by the category of business that we were present in,” he admits.

According to Atul Hegde, the CEO of Ignitee Digital Services, the time has come for Indian companies to look beyond Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and look at getting a buy-in right from the Board to the employees for the kind of services rendered. “When you look at the branding pyramid, services are at a lower end (when compared to products) and companies need to figure out what value can be added with branding to get that mind share,” he adds. According to Bagchi, the new branding strategy involves moulding market perception of the Mindtree brand and communicating it to the stakeholders. This aspect of Indian companies putting themselves in their outsourcers’ shoes is new. The business of outsourcing is unique in the sense that it involves longer client-provider relationships when compared to other sectors, wherein the relationships are relatively shorter.

However, in the light of economic volatility and with IT’s natural tendency to complicate processes, outsourcers are increasingly asking questions that can be answered in shorter time frames than multiyear engagements.

“It is time that the world looks at India as a destination that can go beyond cost and look at innovation – whether in services or products,” says Murthy.

Can Indian companies redefine business processes with the use of technology? The answer is unclear. However, one thing is clear: Companies need to find the answer sooner rather than later.

No food, no water in lush Kerala

An article that appeared in Business Line which shows the side effects of the development model in the state of Kerala . Thanks G K Nair for the article 

Kerala, glorified as the land of rivers, backwaters and lakes in a narrow strip of land in the southern peninsula, is faced not only with acute shortage of potable water, but is also designated as a ‘Statutory Ration State’ with over 90 per cent need of food grain met by imports.

The reasons for this are indiscriminate and ever increasing human interventions in the rivers, wetlands, lakes and paddy fields. The State has 44 rivers and over 900 tributaries, seven lakes including the Ramser Site Vembanad lake, and yet the government has to reportedly think of ‘rationing of water’.

Indiscriminate sand mining from rivers and reclamation of flood plains, which function as natural reservoirs recharging the underground water table, are pointed out as the reason for this precarious situation. Encroachment of forests and their destruction, coupled with demolition of hills resulting in removal of green cover, have contributed to it.

At the same time, riparian vegetation, an integral environmental component of river ecosystems, is also under threat from unscientific sand mining. This results in the destruction of feeding and breeding grounds of fish, apart from reducing the self-cleaning capacity of river water. Besides, pollution due to domestic and urban sewage and run-off from agricultural fields has led to water quality deterioration, fish mortalities and toxicity in organisms.

Hills and hillocks

If the hills are called Thannir kudangal (water pots), the wetlands are Thannir thadangal (water reservoirs). These two systems are nature’s two important organs and work as unique ecosystems providing habitats for several rare plants and animals of ecological and economic importance.

Demolition of hills and reclamation of wetlands means destruction of our hydrological cycle that sustains life and greenery of the Earth, says D. Padmalal, of Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), Thiruvananthapuram.

Soil quarrying and levelling of hillocks is not only reducing the net area of the region, but also wasting the soil resource.

Laterite soil from hilltops is usually used to fill the paddy fields. Since the water retention capacity of that soil is poor, the converted fields become harder, which leads to the growth of more amphibious grass and other weeds.

Wetlands ravaged

Wetlands are wet or water covered areas with a water depth of 6m or less and located between land and water bodies having depth greater than 6m, according to scientists. Most of our backwater systems, lakes, rivers, paddy lands, etc., are examples of wetlands. Of the various wetlands in the country, the Vembanad lake, Ashtamudi lake and the Sasthamkotta lake in Kerala were recently declared as Ramsar sites of international importance.

Our paddy lands are wetlands used traditionally for raising paddy. They act as the feeding and breeding grounds for a variety of aquatic organisms. Besides, many don’t bother to understand that groundwater recharging occurs when water moves from the wetland down into the underground aquifer.

Reclamation of paddy fields under the cover of skewed developmental projects — such as airports at Aranmula in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, Panamaram in Wayanad and Arankkara in Idukki districts and tourism projects in Kuttanad — is being carried out, depriving the people not only of drinking water but also of their staple food, rice.

Studies show that wetland and paddy-cultivated acreage in the State fell by 65 per cent in 30 years. If more than 30 per cent of the cultivated area in the State was under paddy in the middle of 1970s, it shrank to 12 per cent by 2000. The area under the crop has dropped to 213,185 ha in 2010-11 from 8.81 lakh ha was in 1974-75 while the total production fell to around five lakh tonnes from 13.34 lakh tonnes.

The estimated annual requirement, at present, is 40 lakh tonnes with a minimum per capita food availability of 320 g, according to official sources. “At a time when there is an overdependence for food grains/pulses on outside sources, paddy fields are sold out or are being reclaimed for non-agricultural purposes under the facade of 'development'”, Thomas Peeliyanickal, Executive Director, Kuttanad Vikasana Samithy, told Business Line.

Land grab

Even Kuttanad, the granary of Kerala is not spared, he said. The area under paddy in this region has shrunk to around 37,000 hectares from around 55,000 ha. The Kayals are allegedly being reclaimed rapaciously for converting into resorts, townships with golf courses.

The “Rani kayal” (lake) included in the Rs1,860-crore Kuttanad package created by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in order to bring it back to paddy cultivation, has gone into the hands of a major private group engaged in financial and tourism business. The “Metran Kayal” (lake) covering an area of 517 acres has allegedly been bought by a private company at Rs 15 lakh an acre. It was hitherto being used for cultivation of paddy.

Now this entire area is proposed to be reclaimed for developing into a major township, alleged farmers in Kuttanad. Add to this another 300 acres from the MN Block covering an area of 1,000 acres also said to have been sold. Negotiations are said to be under way for sale of nearby “Maran kayal” at Rs 9 lakh per acre while in the Marthandam kayal around 30 acres have already been left aside for reclamation, they alleged.

According to the Kerala State Land Use Board, a major land use change that has occurred in Kerala is the conversion and reclamation of paddy cultivated areas, both in the lowlands and uplands, to non-agricultural uses, jeopardising the food security of the State, when it is designated as a ‘Statutory Ration State’ with over 90 per cent need of foodgrain met by imports.

Thus, large scale reclamation of lakes in the granary of the state, under the guise of tourism development, is not only depriving Kerala of its paddy fields but also threatening the Vembanad wetland system already included in the National Wetland Conservation Programme. The shrinkage of Vembanad Lake to 37 per cent (13,224 ha) of its original area of 36,329 ha as a result of land reclamation is the most important environmental consequence of various human interventions, experts said. 

Creamy & Crunchy: Uncovering the Politics of Peanut Butter

Article that appeared in Knowledge@Wharton 

Most adults have experienced those moments in the grocery aisle or at the kitchen table when they realize that a once-cherished favorite snack from childhood just doesn't taste the way it used to.

Time and expanding palates can be blamed for some of this. But some foods taste different because they are different. An entire mini-category of books -- Dan Koeppel's Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World and Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, to name a couple -- has sprung up to chart the corporate machinations, cultural mores and political turmoil that in many cases have become the main influencers of what and how we eat. InCreamy & Crunchy, author Jon Krampner explores how the aforementioned factors and others have shaped one of the more ubiquitous treats from our childhood lunchboxes: peanut butter.

Krampner begins his history with the origins of both peanuts and peanut butter, pointing out that while the spread's use in the United States only dates back to the late 1800s, it's not an entirely original concoction. About 3,000 years ago, South American Indians were grinding peanuts into a "sticky paste" and mixing it with cocoa, and people living in West Africa have been eating ground peanuts for hundreds of years. Very few peanuts -- which are legumes having more in common with beans or peas than walnuts or almonds -- were grown in the United States at the time of the Civil War, Krampner writes, but that changed with the invention of better harvesting equipment.

Not all peanuts are created equal. There are four main types of peanuts grown in the United States -- runners, Virginias, Valencias and Spanish peanuts. In writing about the different varieties, Krampner explains one way that peanut butter today is not quite the same as it was in its early years -- or even as recently as 40 years ago: It used to be made primarily from Virginias and Spanish peanuts. But Krampner describes how runners -- which are easier to harvest and make for a more consistent taste across batches -- became the legume of choice as peanut butter moved from a product dominated by small, regional brands that customers bought from bulk bins at the general store to one typified by a few national brands and bought in plastic jars off supermarket shelves.

And then there is the matter of who invented peanut butter. The book notes that it's not entirely clear who the first person was to create a spread from ground and roasted peanuts. It might have been John Harvey Kellogg, one of the founders of the cereal empire. But it could have been George Bayle, the owner of a now defunct St. Louis snack food company. One person it most definitely wasn't, according to the author, was George Washington Carver, the African-American scientist who Krampner suggests became the inventor of legend because the white-owned mainstream media liked promoting a black man who was seen as deferential toward whites.

Krampner is exhaustive in his reporting of peanut butter's rise to pantry staple and the various skirmishes in the battle for dominance in the industry, with Peter Pan emerging as the number one brand, only to lose that title to Skippy, which subsequently relinquished it to today's top seller, Jif. For example, he goes so far as to track down George Bayle's great-granddaughter in an (ultimately unsuccessful) effort to learn more about his peanut butter--making exploits. And Krampner also interviewed a number of people who formerly worked in the plants and front offices of the "Big Three" brands.

Tough Nut to Crack

But one nut he was unable to crack was to actually get inside a plant owned by one of those companies or to talk to current executives from the corporations about where they see peanut butter going in the future. Rattled by bad press from salmonella outbreaks and other past reports of product contaminations, ConAgra (owner of Peter Pan), Unilever (which owned Skippy until its recent sale to Hormel) and J.M. Smucker (owner of Jif) all declined (or outright ignored) Krampner's efforts to include them in the book. While he dutifully documents all the unreturned phone calls and emails that went nowhere, it's a glaringly absent piece of the peanut butter puzzle.

To be sure, those peanut butter marketers and magnates might have had stories to tell as interesting as that of Frank Ford, the self-described conservative guy who created Deaf Smith, the precursor to the Arrowhead Mills brand that marked a rebirth in "natural" (i.e., the kind you have to stir) peanut butter and gained a following among the 1970s hippie community. Like its successor, Arrowhead Mills, Deaf Smith was one of the few peanut butters to be made with Valencia peanuts, which are smaller and sweeter, but harder to grow than the other varieties grown in the U.S. Then there's Herb Dow, the film editor whose efforts to create the first "gourmet" peanut butter (complete with a square jar) were felled by the dot-com crash of 2000. Krampner also interviews nonprofit groups and others working to use peanut butter to fight hunger in developing nations.

It's unfortunate that the author didn't try to incorporate more of these "peanut butter personalities," possibly by expanding passages that include interviews from some of the few independent and regional companies that still make it or by going into more detail about the international brands of peanut butter. (One interesting fact: Consumption in Canada is actually higher, per capita, than that of the United States.) Instead, the book is padded to 298 pages with recipes that are mostly curiosities and a throwaway chapter on music celebrating peanut butter. Spoiler alert: There isn't much, although Elvis was a famous fan.

But Creamy & Crunchy is buoyed by Krampner's obvious affection for his subject. Among the recipes included in the book is one of his own for a sandwich dubbed, "The Simon and Garfunkel," involving a whole wheat bagel, peanut butter, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and garlic, among other ingredients. At the back of the book, he includes his personal rankings of the best brands from various categories (among them, creamy, crunchy, international brands and the best made from the various types of peanuts).

While Creamy & Crunchy won't answer every question about peanut butter, it will likely spark a desire to crack open a jar and start spreading.

India Post to enter banking space

The Indian postal department plans to enter the banking business with RBI deciding to grant new bank licences to entities with credible track-record. 

Sources said the Department of Posts, which a strong foot print in rural areas, has appointed Ernst and Young as consultant for proposed 'Post Bank'. 

"Ernst and Young is expected to submit detailed project report by April 2013, after which all necessary measures will taken up to apply for banking licence,"a source at Ministry of Communications and Information Technology told PTI. 

Sources added that Department of Post (DoP) may need Cabinet approval for setting Post Bank of India. 

The Reserve Bank of India today issued the much-awaited guidelines for new banking licences. Among other terms, new banks should open at least 25 per cent of branches in unbanked rural centres. 

Of the 1.55 lakh post offices, around 24,000 district offices may be ready to offer banking services in next two years. Post offices are being enabled by core banking solution's connecting nationwide branches as part of an transformative IT project. 

DoP is in process of setting up 1,000 ATMs. 

The country has around 90,000 bank branches at present. 

"Post Bank shall not only take care of the banking needs of the rural poor but shall also converge with micro-insurance and micro-remittance services of the Department of Posts," the source said. 

The head offices chosen for setting up ATMs covers all the states, with Andhra Pradesh leading the tally at 100 ATMs, followed by Tamil Nadu (92) and Uttar Pradesh (73). 

As many as 61 ATMs would be set up in Maharashtra, 60 ATMs in Karnataka, 51 ATMs each in Kerala and Rajasthan.

As per data shared with Parliament, there were over 26 crore operational small savings accounts in the post offices as on March 31, 2012 having deposits worth Rs 1.9 lakh crore.

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Big IT firms in hot pursuit of smaller deals

Interesting article in Business Line on the changing dynamics of the Indian IT Industry 

An SME in Hyderabad has just lost a project to Accenture, the multi-national IT firm. Just under $2 million, the size of the deal is very big for the SME, though it is considered small for IT bigwigs.

TWO TRENDS

The IT industry is witnessing two trends in this regard. The medium and big IT companies are not leaving any project that they spot during slowdown. They are also admitting that the size of the deals is coming down as clients are distributing their IT requirements to different vendors instead of depending on one or two firms. “The client that had refused to renew the project was happy with our performance. But he was helpless as he couldn’t turn down the bid from the big firm, fearing criticism from his investors,” an executive of the Hyderabadi firm told Business Line, wishing anonymity.

This, in fact, is not isolated case. The medium and big IT firms are increasingly focussing on clinching smaller deals to offset the stagnation in bigger deals.

“There is a clear trend towards smaller deal sizes over the past few years. Multi-sourcing is a key driver for this trend, as clients seek deep process and technology expertise from their partners to solve specific business problems,” Prashant Ranade, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Nasdaq-listed Syntel Inc, said.

The number $1-million plus customers of Mahindra Satyam has gone up to 135 in the quarter ended December 2012, as against 126 in the same quarter previous year. The $5-million plus deals went up to 49 (47).

This trend can be seen in the top league firms such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys too. The $1-million clients of TCS went up to 551 (538) in the third quarter. Its $5-million clients went up to 273 (269).

Infosys gained 20 smaller dealers as its $1-million clients went up to 419 (391) in the third quarter. Its $5-million clients too went up to 209 (193).

BIG CHALLENGE

“The moment the deal size is crossing the $1-million mark, it is attracting the attention of the medium and big companies. And when they enter the fray to grab such deals, it will be difficult for the small companies to win. It, in fact, is a big challenge for the smaller companies,” Ravi S. Rao, a leader of ITsAP (IT and IT-enabled services industry association of Andhra Pradesh), said.