GST cut, and the way the khakhra crumbles

Reduced tax on the cracker and other savouries is said to be BJP’s attempt to swing the Gujarat Assembly polls in its favour

The decisions of the Goods and Services Tax Council on Friday to lower the tax slabs for 27 broad categories of goods and provide relief for small traders by changing the frequency of e-filing from monthly to quarterly have got the thumbs-up from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In Gujarat, which is going to the polls later this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi especially referred to the reduction of GST on the traditional snack of khakhra and other savouries of the State from 12% to 5%. The exemptions given to yarns used for nylon and polyester, viscose and rayon and man-made fibres were good news for textile hubs in the State. The relief on waste glass was important for the glass industry in Vadodara. The relief in e-filing is also aimed at the BJP’s traditional base among traders.

The BJP’s increasing shift in political rhetoric to rural and agricultural communities had been making its traditional strongholds of traders jittery. Monthly e-filing was weighing on them heavily. “With these moves, we are convinced that any hard feelings will now be over,” a senior party leader said.

Traders’ response

In a statement, Praveen Khandelwal, secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders and treasurer of the Delhi unit of the party, said: “Enabling composition dealers to make inter-State sales is a bold decision, and will allow traders to remain competitive.”

“Increase in the composition scheme up to Rs. 1 crore, deferment of e-way bill and reverse charge mechanism will boost business sentiment in the country. Quarterly return for persons having an annual turnover of up to Rs. 1.5 crore will give much relief to small traders and take off the load of monthly tax compliance,” he said.

Petrol pumps to remain shut on Oct 13

Petroleum traders under the banner of Kerala State Petroleum Traders’ Association has called for a 24-pump shutdown on October 13.

The traders are protesting against “unjustified” hike in fuel prices and “wrong” policies of the government.

A statement issued by the association on Saturday said that all petroleum traders under the aegis of United Petroleum Front will go in for an indefinite cancellation of purchases and sales from October 27 if no steps are taken to address their grievances.

The fuel dealers alleged that the daily price mechanism had not benefited the consumer and the dealers and that the policy needed to be reconsidered for the benefit of all.

They said the proposal for home delivery was “riddled with safety issues,” which could lead to serious accidents.

Water released in irrigation canals

Farmers, officials hopeful of good samba season

With the Public Works Department releasing water in irrigation canals in the region on Saturday, farmers in the canal irrigated areas of the district are gearing up for samba paddy cultivation.

Water was released from Mayanur barrage in the North and South Bank canals, Krishnarayapuram canal and the Kattalai High Level Canal (KHLC).

However, water was yet to be released in the New Kattalai High Level Canal (NKHLC) pending the government approval.

A senior PWD official said permission had been sought from the government for releasing water in the NKHLC and it was expected by Monday or Tuesday.

Happy

Expressing happiness over the release of water in the canals, Puliyur A.Nagarajan, president, farmers wing of the Tamil Maanilla Congress, however, said water had not been released in Pullampadi canal and urged the PWD officials to ensure that water was released in the two canals at the earliest.

“Around three lakh acres will be irrigated through 17 canals in Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchi and Thanjavur districts,” he said.

R.Subramanian, Deputy Secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, urged the PWD authorities to ensure that the water reached the tail-end areas of the KHLC downstream of the Nachalur regulator so as to ensure farmers take up samba paddy cultivation.

Agriculture Department officials are confident that the normal area of coverage would be achieved in the district, after last year’s decline due to the drought like conditions.

“With the water being released from Mettur and prediction of a good North East monsoon, we are confident of a good crop this seaso,”said S.M.Uduman Mohideen, Joint Director of Agriculture.

According to officials, normally samba paddy is raised on about 48,700 hectares, of which about 38,400 hectares is in the canal-irrigated delta areas of the district.

Farmers too are hopeful of a good harvest this season.

“I am confident that this will be a good season for us,” said S.Govindarajan of Kondayampettai, who was busy channelising water from the Srirangam Nattu Vaical to his field on Saturday.

Mr.Govindarajan, who did not raise paddy last samba season, said he had already raised nurseries using borewell water and would transplant the same before Deepavali as water had been released in the canal.

Like most farmers in the district, he has gone in for the Andhra Ponni variety, which was hit by blast disease a couple of years ago in the district.

Too young to go online

Even pre-tweens are glued to Facebook nowadays. And how did these youngsters, who are still in primary school, manage to have social media accounts which usually impose an age limit on sign-ups? With help from their parents, ironically.

PETALING JAYA: More Malaysian parents seem to be helping their underage children set up social media accounts despite these sites restricting access to those below age 13.

Besides being pestered by their children to do so, these parents felt that it was a way to help the youngsters keep in touch with their buddies.

A study by Cyber Security Malaysia (CSM) found that almost half of the pupils aged between seven and nine have social media accounts.

This percentage went up to 67% for children aged between 10 and 12.

These students, said Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon, were probably helped by their parents or elder siblings.

He urged parents and guardians not to allow their young charges on social media, saying that they were “too vulnerable” and might be exposed to strangers.

Letting them on social media makes them an easy target, he said.

CSM, which comes under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, surveyed over 8,000 primary and secondary students nationwide last year. The full findings of the study have not been released but parts of it were made known to Sunday Star.

CSM chief executive officer Datuk Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab said the survey showed that about 65% of those aged between 10 and 12 would spend one to two hours on social media daily.

Most social media platforms set a minimum age of 13 to sign up on their sites.

Almost all (92%) of those surveyed, who are between 13 and 17, have social media accounts. Almost 7% of those in this age group would spend between seven and eight hours online. Another 8% stay connected for over nine hours.

The trend is the same in Singapore.

Two years ago, Singapore’s Media Development Authority found that children were going online and accessing social media platforms even before they reach primary school age.

Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said he knew of parents who had no qualms about their children accessing such sites.

“I know a few parents who proudly share that their young kids have social media accounts,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that there was no hard and fast rule about the “right age” of children getting access.

“It’s up to the parents,” he said, adding that the onus was on them to monitor their children.

He advised parents to follow their accounts so that they would know what was being posted.

A housewife, known only as June, opened a Facebook account for her eight-year-old son to keep in touch with his friends.

“We were living overseas then. When we moved back to Malaysia, he asked for a Facebook account.

“Then my other son wanted an account because his big brother has one,” she said, adding that the boys are not active users as they are too busy with sports and school.

They’re also on WhatsApp and YouTube.

She admitted to being more concerned about YouTube.

“How do we even monitor content when there are so many videos?”

Senior manager Louisa Chee, 39, admitted that she had started an Instagram account for her fouryear-old son.

To her, the danger is avoided as she does not usually share the location of the postings.

“It’s an account dedicated to him so that I can keep track of his growing up photos.

“Who knows, a modelling agency might sign him up,” she said.

Fleetwood breaks Carnoustie record

ST ANDREWS: England’s Tommy Fleetwood set a new Carnoustie course record to move into a share of the halfway lead at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland on Friday.

Race to Dubai leader Fleetwood, 26, produced a bogeyfree nine-under par 63 to lower the previous best by one shot on the course that will play host to next year’s Open Championship.

The effort, in bright but very cold conditions, saw the new father join compatriot and defending champion Tyrrell Hatton in the lead at 11-under par. Hatton also played his second round at Carnoustie and fired a 65.

“I wasn’t aware it was a course record until I holed that birdie at the last and someone mentioned it to me,” Fleetwood said. “So, it’s all in a day’s work.

Fleetwood’s 63 bettered the 64s carded by 10 other golfers, including Sweden’s Alex Noren last year.

Fleetwood has played just one event in the past seven weeks after taking time off to be with his fiancee ahead of the birth of their first child early last week.

Hatton is seeking to become the first player in the 16-year history of the event to successfully defend the title.

The 25-year-old holed three birdies in succession from the sixth hole and then birdied four of his closing six holes.

“I am happy with today’s round though I got lucky a couple of times, but obviously you need that,” he said.

Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy birdied his final hole at Carnoustie in a round of 71 to get back to level par but was still three shots shy of Saturday’s expected third round cut-off mark of three-under par.

McIlroy spoilt his round, and in what is his last event of the year, in taking a sixth hole triple-bogey ‘7’ after also posting a doublebogey early in Thursday’s score at St. Andrews.

The World No 6 looks set to finish the season without a win for the first time since 2008, having not claimed a title since the 2016 Tour Championship. AFP

Eyes on glaucoma

In conjunction with World Sight Day 2017’s theme of ‘Make Vision Count’, we look at glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness in the world today.

GLAUCOMA is the name given to a group of eye conditions in which the main nerve to the eye (the optic nerve) is damaged, which leads to loss of vision.

This nerve carries information about what is being seen from the eye to the brain, and as it becomes damaged, vision is lost.

This results in misty and patchy vision, with eventual loss of central vision.

Glaucoma is becoming an increasingly prevalent cause of blindness as the world’s population ages. Statistics gathered by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 showed that glaucoma was the second leading cause of blindness globally, after cataracts.

It has been estimated that by 2020, there will be approximately 80 million people with glaucoma, an increase of about 20 million from 2010.

Furthermore, it is thought that at present, over eight million people are blind due to glaucoma, a figure that is set to rise to over 11 million by 2020, unless improved screening and effective treatment strategies are in place.

There are four main types of glaucoma: primary open angle glaucoma, primary angle closure glaucoma, secondary glaucoma and developmental glaucoma.

Primary open angle glaucoma is the most common form of glaucoma in which the damage is usually caused by too much pressure within the eye (the intraocular pressure or IOP).

The reason for the rise in pressure is usually due to poor drainage of fluid out of the eye (which is required for the healthy function of the eye).

The increased pressure dam- ages the optic nerve by reducing the amount of blood that can get through the tiny blood vessels that supply the nerve, and also by compressing the nerve itself.

Detecting glaucoma

Early detection is key to managing and minimising the effects of glaucoma.

Hence, regular check-ups are recommended, especially as one grows older.

Some symptoms of glaucoma include hazy vision, pain in the eye and/or head, nausea or vomiting, the appearance of rainbow-coloured circles around bright lights, and in extreme cases, sudden loss of sight.

Although any vision that has been lost to glaucoma cannot be recovered, early diagnosis, careful monitoring and regular treatment allows the vast majority of glaucoma patients to retain useful sight for life.

The only way to know if you have glaucoma is to have your eyes checked at your local ophthalmologist.

The three common tests are:

● Ophthalmoscopy: Looking at the appearance of the main nerve in the eye (optic nerve).

● Tonometry: Measuring the pressure in the eye.

● Perimetry: Checking the field of vision.

Treating glaucoma

The majority of people with glaucoma will be treated with eye drops.

If eye drops are not successful in lowering eye pressure, laser or surgical treatment for glaucoma may be needed.

There are several challenges in the management of glaucoma.

Patients at a more advanced stage usually require more than one medication to control their IOP and keep their condition in check.

Multi-drug regimens for glaucoma pose several significant clinical challenges:

● It may negatively affect patient adherence (the extent to which a patient continues an agreed-on mode of treatment without close supervision).

● Reduced effectiveness due to the washing out of earlier medications when later medications are administered.

● Exposure to preservatives. Patient adherence to treatment is crucial for achieving good IOP control and slowing the progression of the disease.

Unfortunately, studies have demonstrated that adherence to treatment is often below optimal standard.

One study has shown that while 49% of patients using one medication for the treatment of glaucoma were compliant, only 32% of those using a combination of two medications were.

The more medications that are prescribed, the higher the chances of non-adherence.

Failure to achieve treatment outcomes due to poor adherence may lead to a perceived lack of efficacy and unnecessary changes in treatment regimen.

Unmet needs in glaucoma treatment

Factors associated with the medication itself, such as side effects and complicated regimens, are known to adversely affect adherence.

Glaucoma patients frequently develop side effects due to long-term exposure to preservatives in the eye drops (commonly benzalkonium chloride).

Although only trace amounts exist in each dose, prolonged exposure from multiple daily doses of eye drops from multiple glaucoma medications can lead to disorders of the surface of the cornea – the transparent layer that forms the front of the eye – such as as ocular surface disease (OSD) and increased risk of surgical failure.

OSD is a frequent complication caused and/or exacerbated by the chronic use of topical anti-glaucoma medication that contains preservatives.

Its overall prevalence ranges from 22%-78% depending on the method of clinical evaluation, with the number of preservative-containing eye drops positively correlating to ocular surface damage.

It stands to reason that the risk for developing OSD would be reduced if preservativecontaining eye drops were substituted with preservative-free eye drops.

The European Medicines Agency suggests avoiding preservatives in two groups of patients:

● Those who are unable to tolerate eye drops with preservatives.

● Those requiring longterm treatment.

A preservative-free fixed-combination anti-glaucoma formulation with once-aday dosing addresses the two major barriers that affect adherence in long-term glaucoma treatment:

● It eliminates side effects caused by prolonged exposure to preservatives.

● It simplifies the treatment regimen.

This article is courtesy of Santen Pharma Malaysia.

Skoda’s seven-seater Kodiaq is India’s latest SUV launch

The Kodiaq is Skoda’s second attempt at an SUV in India after the Yeti. But this one is much more premium. It also has seven seats when compared to Yeti’s 5. Looking at the growth the segment has seen in recent times, there cannot be a better time for Skoda to launch the Kodiaq in the country. A look at the Kodiaq confirms the fact that this one well and truly belongs to the Skoda family. It looks muscular from all angles but things like the butterfly grille help retain the sophistication. The fog lamps are placed at a much higher position than where they’re seen on most cars, which once again helps subscribe to the SUV DNA. The Czech crystal LED headlamps and tail lamps add a lot of style to the car. The Kodiaq gets 18 inch wheels as against 19 inch ones it gets internationally while the cladding on the doors and the square wheel arches makes it sportier.

Being Clever

Skoda has always taken pride in some clever innovations they come up with in their cars. The Kodiaq is no different. The two front doors have a housing to store an umbrella which also comes with the SUV. This was seen in the Superb as well. A great ad- dition is the door protectors which pop out every time a door is opened. It really helps in tight parking spaces as it keeps the paint of the door secure even if it touches the car next to it. The boot has a removable torch and there’s also a housing to store the rear parcel tray. And finally the tail gate opening height can be adjusted so that even kids can close the gate without any difficulty.

Interiors

Like most cars from the brand quality is top notch inside the Kodiaq. There’s a lot that reminds of the Superb but there are some dif- ferentiating elements as well, like the AC vents that grow bigger here. There’s 3-zone climate control inside the car but there are a little too many buttons on the dash for your liking. There’s an eight inch touch screen system that is compatible with both Apple car play and Android auto. The Kodiaq comes with hands free parking as well as ambient lighting. The front seats get memory functions and the second row too can be slid forward to create more space in the third row. With all the seats upright the Kodiaq still offers a boot space of 270 liters but fold the third row and that goes up to 630 liters. The SUV gets a sunroof, along with side curtains on the second row.

Engine

The Kodiaq has been launched in India with just one engine and one variant. It’s a 2.0 liter diesel mill seen on other cars from the brand but churns out a maximum power of 150 PS here. The motor is refined and what impresses are the NVH levels as hardly any noise creeps into the cabin. The peak torque of 340 Nm starts kicking in at fewer than 2000 rpms and this keeps the vehicle take on slow moving traffic with ease. Looking at the 1800 kgs of kerb weight and the 7 speed DSG gearbox the claimed mileage of 16.25 kmpl is pretty impressive. There are 5 driving modes namely Eco, Sport, Comfort, Individual and Snow and with each mode the settings of the engine, steering and even the Air conditioner change.

Ride & Handling

The ride quality on the Kodiaq is a bit on the stiffer side especially at lower speeds. But as the speeds keep getting faster the car deals with the bumps and the potholes in a much better way. Despite the SUV shape the Kodiaq is pretty agile and the body roll that you expect in SUVs is kept to a minimum. Stability at high speeds is really impressive and the car gives a very confident drive. The steering wheel is a bit on the lighter side but the way it responds helps really well in negotiating traffic. The Kodiaq gets a full time 4 wheel drive system and in difficult situations as much as half of the torque is transferred to rear wheels which is a useful tool. But there is no 4x4 lock either so it’s clear that the Kodiaq is more about convenience than sportiness.

Verdict

The Kodiaq comes with a lot of practicality for the entire family and is loaded with features. It’s got an engine that performs decently well and safety is also given a priority with the SUV getting as many as 9 airbags as standard. It’s priced at Rs. 34.5 lakh (ex-showroom, pan India) and looking at the competition overcoming that is the single biggest challenge for the SUV to succeed in India. Shams Naqvi is an anchor/producer for the News X motor show Living Cars

From Elite to Evolved

Learning has soared to new heights across top B-schools, embracing a world view that is holistic

Karan (name changed), a student of the 2017 batch of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), had a pre-placement offer from an FMCG major after doing summer internship with the company. However, he applied to four more companies – most of them in the consulting space – during the final placements in February. “I wanted to explore options in both FMCG and consulting ,” he says. He eventually opted for the initial offer, convinced that consulting wasn’t his cup of tea. The freedom to choose and explore job opportunities, says Karan, differentiates IIMA from other B-schools.

Many management schools don't allow students to appear for job interviews on the campus after accepting an offer by a recruiter. This becomes quite restrictive for students if a preferred recruiter comes for hiring later in the placement process, explains Nalin Gupta, General Secretary of the Student Council (2017), IIMA. The concept gets a big thumbs up from students as it gives them the freedom to get placed in firms of their choice. In 2017, 100 companies visited the campus – Amazon, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs and PwC were top recruiters.

Not surprisingly, IIMA tops our rankings for the sixth successive year. The others in the top five include the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC), XLRI Jamshedpur, S. P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) and Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurugram.

These institutes are constantly raising the bar in management education, blazing a trail for others.

It is often not just final placements that set apart the top B-schools. Often these institutes strategise to ensure their students get job offers even before the session ends. About 40 per cent of SPJIMR'S 2017 batch had a preplacement offer, says its Dean Ranjan Banerjee. There was a good reason for this phenomenon, according to Ankur Bansal, Head of Placement Committee, Class of 2017. Instead of summer internship, SPJIMR offers autumn internship in September.

This means that students start their internship a good three-four months after studying their specialisation subjects in the second

year. “This way they are better poised to apply their classroom knowledge in a real world setting. Due to this the project deliverables improve and the chances of companies giving a pre-placement offer are much higher,” he says. The highest salary on the campus was a record `39.5 lakh per annum and the average salary shot up to `20.9 lakh, up from `19.3 lakh last year.

WHAT IT TAKES: To get the best recruiters, institutes have to hone the skills of their students. The world is competitive not only for students but also for institutions and so there is a lot of focus on quality education, says C. P. Shrimali, Acting Director, MDI Gurugram. “The quality is improved by getting international accreditations, publishing original research papers, using state-of-the-art technology in classrooms and teaching innovations.”

Disruptive technology and a constantly changing world is also transforming how organisations work. It is pushing companies to look for people who are able to handle uncertainties, have a wider perspective and are leaders and not just managers. This has led the top flight management institutes to not only have a relook at their curriculum but also innovate on course delivery. In line with the recent and emerging trends in the industry, XLRI has introduced a compulsory course on ‘Introduction to Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability’, along with several

electives in strategy such as ‘Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid’, ‘Resource Based Strategy’ and ‘Transformation for Sustainable Superior Performance’. “Our intent is to help shape responsible business leaders who would also contribute in creating a more sustainable and equitable world,” says Sunil Varughese, Chief Brand & Sustainability Officer at XLRI.

IIMA also has cut back on traditional programmes in finance, operations and marketing and is revamping curriculum. Its Post Graduate Programme (PGP) now has courses on entrepreneurship, environment sustainability and design thinking. Till last year, courses on entrepreneurship and designing were electives.

These curriculum changes are a conscious effort on the part of these schools to be on top of the emerging industry trends. “Modifying curriculum is a continuous process as elective offerings change every year. Major curriculum review is also taken up every few years to update the compulsory courses. In fact 20 per cent of the curriculum content is new every year,” says Uttam Kumar Sarkar, Dean – New Initiatives and External Relations, IIM Calcutta. To meet the increasing demand for managers with exposure to niche areas, IIM Calcutta started a PGP for Business Analytics with a batch of 51 students in 2015-17. “We were wondering about the recruiters response but on the second day of opening placements all got hired,” says Sarkar. The average annual domestic compensation for these students was `17.14 lakh with the highest package at a whopping `33.67 lakh.

STRESS ON VALUES: It is not just skills and knowledge that are important but companies are also looking at the right personality fit and emotional quotient of the individual. At SPJIMR every student has to do a compulsory five-week internship in development programmes and projects in the non-profit sector as a part of its compulsory Development of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC) course. Also, in the first year, the MBA student has to mentor bright, underprivileged children from the neighbouring schools as a part of the course’s Abhyudaya year-long mentorship programme.

XLRI has also introduced a core course on ‘Managerial Ethics’. Millennials today don’t work just

for a paycheck but also look for meaning in their work. To connect with the new generation, XLRI changed its mission statement to ‘For the Greater Good’. XLRI also has an Ethics Research Centre and a Father Arrupe Centre for Excellence to promote human values. “It is ethics and culture that have kept XLRI at the top because then students bring to table more than just hard skills. It is this ethical approach that is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s business world,” says Varughese.

FACULTY FEEDBACK: The holistic development of the future leaders at management schools cannot happen unless there is a strong focus on pedagogy. For that to happen, it is important that there is constant feedback between faculty members. At MDI Gurugram, every year there is a two days retreat for faculty members where they participate in a brainstorming session on the changing management landscape and suggest changes to the curriculum.

“The idea is to make the institute faculty centric and not leader centric. It gives the faculty a voice and they do all the chintan and manthan of the changes they want to see in the classrooms,” says Shrimali. He says that, within a year of receiving feedback from faculty and industry partners they are planning to lauch two courses: Decision Making in Uncertainty and Design Thinking.

At SPJIMR, there is a weekly faculty meet to discuss new innovations in curriculum and course delivery. This also allows them to introduce courses faster in the classroom. For instance, the institute was able to conceptualise a course in Liberal Arts in September 2016 and are offering it to their current batch. They also have a teaching panel of nine faculty members. Here, each member gets an opportunity to teach the other eight. “The rationale is to get teaching feedback and share best practices on course delivery,” says Banerjee.

As out of the classroom and experiential learning becomes an integral part of the curriculum, schools are experimenting with different pedagogic styles. At XLRI, the course Strategy Implementation is taught partially through games. Also, the "Integrated Course" in the General Management

Programme was taught with five faculty members together to bring multiple perspectives to the classroom. Then, a lot of courses are taken by industry professionals to bring industry experience to the classroom. At MDI, at least 10 per cent of each module is taken up by industry practitioners to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

GOING GLOBAL : In an interconnected world, institutes have to bring global expertise to their school. “In the last five-six years we have been aggressively improving our brand presence in the international arena,” says Sarkar of IIMC.

One way has been through accreditations. IIMC is the only management institute of the country with triple accreditations – by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, Association of MBAs and EQUIS, the three major international accreditation bodies for business schools and has entered the Triple Crowned Club. “There are only 78 institutes in the world who have all three accreditations and we are one of them,” he says. Another milestone is their partnership with CEMS, a global alliance of 30 premier business schools from across the world.

IIMC is the only Indian member of this alliance of leading global business schools and multinational corporations.

It also has tied up with 80 foreign management institutes from which they get 100 foreign students in a year and around the same number go to foreign schools where they stay for one term. “This also helps to be recognised in global landscape where the degree gets recognised in those countries and also helps students get placements there,” says Sarkar.

IIMA also partners with 82 foreign B-schools for student exchange programmes. 153 students went to foreign universities and 90 students came to IIMA through such programmes.

This is in line with the attempt of the B-school to bring greater diversity to classrooms.

Meanwhile, these top schools are also trying to bring in students with non-engineering background and more women in classes.

At IIMA, intake of science students increased from 12 in 2014/15 to 23 in 2016/17 while number of commerce students rose from 23 to 48.

IIMC has 30 per cent women in classrooms, up from about 15 per cent five years back, says Sarkar. “It is still not 50-50 but is a significant improvement from before.”

The top B-schools in India are making their presence felt in the local and global management education landscape.

And this may just be the beginning. ~

B- schools are bringing diversity to their classrooms. They are partnering with foreign institutes for exchange programmes and selecting more non- engineers and women

The Shah of Strategy

Can Amit Shah’s manoeuvres take the BJP to the emphatic 350-plus-seats victory in 2019 it believes is par for the course?

AT A MEETING OF THE party’s accounts committee in Bhopal, BJP president Amit Shah makes a point. “From now on,” he says, looking around, “the party’s day-to-day expenses will be met through cheque donations.” There’s polite laughter all around. Most of the people in the room think it’s a joke and await a punchline. There is none. Shah, 54, is dead serious. The smiles evaporate. “Stop taking donations in cash,” he says.

Shah is on the move. Since April this year, he has embarked on a vistrit prawas (extended campaign), spending 85 of 115 days outside the national capital crisscrossing the countryside, visiting 22 states, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Gujarat to Assam. In the past 37 months, he has become the BJP’s most travelled president, having taken around 350 trips to states, covering 750 km a day. He takes mostly commercial flights—private jets are a strict no-no except during electioneering when time is of the essence. He skips hotels to stay in state government guest houses or party offices.

The nine months between the Uttar Pradesh elections in March and the Gujarat elections in December 2017 will be the longest break without elections. December onwards, it is going to be a non-stop electoral push for the BJP—protecting their bastion in Gujarat in December, going on the offensive against the last major Congress citadel, Karnataka, next March, and on the defensive in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in December 2018.

Shah is making the most of this nine-month hiatus to whip the party into shape. His nationwide tours are in the manner of a military commander visiting his field formations, not only to instil confidence in partymen, but to assess the ground situation as well. Predictably, his encounters leave a trail of hotly discussed anecdotes in their wake.

At a meeting of BJP unit morchas and heads of various cells in Kolkata this September, Shah was incensed to find positions in the morchas and cells unfilled. His diktat: “Fill the posts soon. If you can’t, say goodbye to your positions.”

At his next pit stop in Jharkhand capital Ranchi, at a closed-door meeting with party office-bearers and ministers, he derided anti-incumbency as “a term coined by hopeless people”. “If the nation has to change, then we have to rule for 60, even 100, years. So, workers of this party should have no time to rest. Those who want to rest should leave the party.”

This is much more than an astonishing vision for political parties which don’t look beyond the five-year election horizon. It is the clearest articulation of the flip side to Shah’s 2014 ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ coinage: a ‘BJP-yukt Bharat’. Shah is planning not just the Congress’s electoral obliteration. He wants to ensure the BJP can be an effective replacement.

The closest metaphor currently for his BJP 2.0 mission is the party’s partially-completed national headquarters, a gleaming seven-storeyed red sandstone-and-glass structure on 6, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, in central Delhi. Shah has not hidden his disdain for the existing party office on 11, Ashoka Road, a Lutyens’ bungalow flanked by a warren of ad hoc single-storeyed structures.

Hard-hatted workers swarm around the under-construction HQ whose foundation stone Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid last January. The building, a Shah brainchild, is to be inaugurated on December 25 this year, the 93rd birthday of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A building fronted by a sweeping staircase, multi-level underground car parking, wi-fi, a digital library, green lawns and an atrium, 6, DDU Marg will be among the largest HQs for any Delhibased party and the nerve centre of its connect with an army of workers right down to the booth level. Shah will strategise the BJP’s 2019 election charge from here.

BIGGER IS BETTER

The BJP has been on a bull run since the former stockbroker-turned-politician took over as party president in August 2014. Barring two early defeats in Delhi and Bihar in 2015, the BJP has formed nine state governments in a row, six on its own. In his three-year tenure, Shah has doubled the number of states in the party’s kitty to 18 and the party has won nine of the 15 elections it has contested. The party has never had the kind of pan-India presence that it has now.

Shah claims to have expanded the BJP’s membership to over 110 million this year from the 32.5 million he inherited in 2014, making BJP the world’s largest political party. He acknowledges “the popularity and performance of Narendra Modi as prime minister, coupled with the organisation’s ability to convert this strength into votes” (see interview: ‘The emerging BJP will be invincible’) as the principal factor for the party’s onward march. Asked whether the new party will simply be an electoral machine that might overwhelm the BJP’s ideological moorings, Shah replies: “The emerging BJP will be ajeya (invincible) in electoral politics. It is not a machine, but a mission for the nation’s development.”

The Modi-Shah electoral juggernaut poses an existential challenge to the Opposition. “We have to understand we are up against Mr Modi, Mr Shah,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told PTI in August. “They think differently, they act differently, and if we are not flexible in our approach, frankly, we will become irrelevant.”

Shah’s political hunger is insatiable and not only because of the food diplomacy he has pio-

neered on his state visits this year. He has sat cross-legged in the home of a Dalit or tribal family in every state and also had lunch or dinner with a leading citizen.

Each trip is marked by an average of six crucial closeddoor meetings where partymen can speak to him freely. He meets hundreds of party workers, from state and district office-bearers, elected MPs and MLAs to former MPS and MLAs, district party presidents, heads of public sector undertakings, civic body heads, vistaraks, chief ministers and ministers of states. Each of his three days is also broken into 15-18 sessions where he also meets the press, addresses public meetings and meets intellectuals.

Shah is clearly keen to avoid what one senior party leader says was the BJP’s undoing in the 2004 elections: “The entire party went into government… there was no one to fight elections.” He is equally conscious of other areas the BJP faltered in. The party’s explosive growth from two seats in 1984 to 85 in 1989 and finally 182 in 1999 was based on emotive issues like the Ram temple agitation. This growth was clearly unsustainable and never brought in the numbers for it to form a government on its own because the party had no reach in south India. That jinx was broken in May 2014 when the BJP got a simple 282-seat majority, the first in its 34-year history. Shah’s challenge is to create a pan-Indian party that will deliver every time. A party that is large yet nimble. Traditional yet modern. Managing these contradictions could be a tough task and Shah’s recipe for success, revealed during his whirlwind tours, is this: the party will be strengthened from the grassroots up; its catchment area will be expanded even if it means roping in leaders from other parties; an army of

trained, ideologically motivated and socialmedia savvy party workers will be fielded; new leaders will be groomed even as the party harps on its pro-poor agenda.

Shah’s interaction with BJP workers across the country offers an insight into the BJP’s 2019 campaign pitch. The party may be committed to the Ram temple and even cow protection, but the overtly Hindutva issues have been replaced by a distinctly socialist garibi hatao pitch. Shah only talks about the Modi government’s probity, transparency, inner party democracy and pro-poor approach. “It’s a government of the poor,” Shah tells workers. “Schemes like Mudra, Ujjwala, Jan Dhan and Stand-up India have opened a new chapter in poverty elimination.”

Significantly, even in closed-door meetings, Shah steers clear of contentious issues such as Article 370 and the uniform civil code. Those can wait as they have to be achieved within the constitutional framework, he reasons. For now, only development and poverty elimination are front and centre.

The focus for the upcoming state elections will be Modi’s image, his four pro-poor schemes as well as his crusade against corruption. In states like Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh where the Congress is in power, the party will raise the issue of corruption. Where the BJP is in power, the plank would be woven around achievements of the state government. The fulcrum of the strategy will be contrasting Modi’s image to the regional leaders. “The NDA’s corruption-free governance will be a major issue even in state elections and our state electoral machinery has been made aware of it,” says BJP general secretary, organisation, Ram Lal.

Shah’s three-day tours omit any mention of caste and focus only on Modi’s pro-poor measures as well as his image as a development icon. In the backroom, though, Shah and his team are drawing up state-specific caste strategies in consultation with local leaders—between Rajputs and Jats in Rajasthan, Vokkaligas and Lingayats in Karnataka, and Patels and other castes in Gujarat where the party fears a backlash over the Patel reservation stir.

The rise in prices due to overtaxation could affect his plans. The hotel industry is unhappy with the increase in tax following implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) and so is the vast handicrafts industry.

His challenge has grown in the past one month after the nation’s growth rate in the last quarter dipped below six per cent. BJP’s social media warriors appear slightly on the defensive for the first time on the economic front. Shah, however, is confident that it is a passing phase as two major decisions like demonetisation and GST are bound to cause some temporary convulsions.

He believes the Rs 400 crore worth of loans the government has provided to 70 million medium-level entrepreneurs has created ample self-employment which will take care of the loss of jobs in some niche areas. “You can’t analyse the job scenario without taking into account self-employment in which our government has broken all past records”, says Amit Malviya, convenor of the party’s IT department and a former investment banker .

Shah has set his targets for 2019. ‘Mission 350’, the plan to get as many Lok Sabha seats in 2019 was the buzz at the national executive of the party in New Delhi on September 24 and 25. The ‘Mission 120’ strategy outlined last year aims for that many Lok Sabha seats from Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Northeast.

THE NEW BJP

When Shah steps out of his 11, Akbar Road, residence on the days he is in Delhi, his gaze meets three sepia-toned paintings of personalities, only one of whom is from the Sangh. Chanakya, the political philosopher who laid the foundations of the Mauryan empire in the 4th century BC; Adi Shankaracharya, the philosopher who led the renaissance of Hinduism in the 8th century; and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who birthed the Hindutva ideology that forms the core of the BJP and its parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The troika are Shah’s guiding lights as he attempts to infuse their lessons of religion, statecraft and ideology into rebuilding the party.

Developing Gen Next leaders is one of Shah’s biggest priorities and also his greatest motivational hook—he repeatedly emphasises how the BJP is the only national party where a booth level worker can aspire to be party president. The UP polls saw the development of a new crop of new-generation leaders in the state BJP. Shah swam against the tide to back Yogi Adityanath for CM. Party sources say Shah has identified around 270 leaders, all under age 40, as future leaders. He holds these names close

to his chest. He wants the list to grow beyond 400 names.

Shah frequently brainstorms with key state office-bearers and breaks each state down region by region. A key leader from each state makes a detailed SWOT analysis based on queries Shah sends. At the end of this 90-minute meeting, Shah assesses what changes need to be introduced.

He conducts these open forums with great authority as well as openness. The slightest deviation is sternly dealt with while all genuine grievances are given an ear. Against pending work, like the appointment of office-bearers in party organisations, he sets deadlines with the consent of the appointing authorities and then holds out the threat of action in case of non-compliance. This approach on the one hand helps bring discipline back into the party and on the other provides a platform for genuine grievance redressal.

The grassroots rebuild of the party was among the 10 projects Shah started when he took over as party president. Phase 1 was to build offices in all 670 party districts. In 2014, only 114 district units had their own offices. Today, 30 new district offices have been readied and work on 388 is on. There are projects for making libraries in each state and district headquarter, with books on governance, Indian history, the state or district and the Constitution. A team comprising Arvind Menon, the party in-charge for departments and projects, and IT department convenor Malviya accompanies Shah during his state tours to take stock of progress in various projects.

A key electoral strategy for 2019 is the fielding of an army of 375,000 vistaraks, part-time volunteers who will donate 15 days of their time for booth-strengthening for the party till the general elections. A separate force of 4,000 vistaraks has been assigned to specific assembly segments across the country since May this year to boost the party’s prospects ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Shah has introduced assignment-based training for treasurers, party spokespersons and elected representatives of local elected bodies. “The present scale and speed of training is simply unprecedented,” says Muralidhar Rao, national party general secretary. As many as 1 million workers at various levels have been trained by the party in Shah’s new political work culture on specific tasks. The three-tier training structure—24 hour organisational training for mandal (block)-level workers under which 7,500 camps have been held in one-and-a-half years; two-day camps for district level workers and three-day ones for statelevel party workers. According to R. Balashankar, member of the training committee, the curriculum includes lessons on ideology, party history and goals, economic policy, media relations and party-government coordination. What’s more, Shah is keen his party workers are mobile and connected. He calls for a show of hands at a meeting to know how many of the 139 party vistaraks have smartphones and motorcycles. He then directs local party leaders to make good on the shortfall.

Shah’s plan is to train the party in such a manner that threats like the mahagathbandhan or anti-incumbency cease to matter, particularly against the onslaught of his unique booth management strategy. The growth due to his smart alliances is remarkable.

As many as 44 parties supported Ramnath Kovind in the presidential election, thanks to the skills of Modi and Shah. Earlier, 33

SHAH’S GRAND ELECTORAL STRATEGY MAY WELL RUN UP AGAINST THE SLUGGISH ECONOMIC GROWTH, THE JOBS CRISIS AND DEMONETISATION

parties attended an NDA meeting under Shah’s leadership. As he put it, “If you follow this mantra, then you have no one to fear but your destiny. You are home with a handsome margin irrespective of any mahagathbandhan or anti-incumbency.”

Soon after he took over, Shah floated 19 new departments, assigned them a work charter and set targets. Such work was being done earlier too but only when the need arose or by small cells with no clear-cut direction or targets. Now there are departments for election management and for coordination with the Election Commission. There is a separate department for handling social media, which has dramatically improved the BJP’s outreach. Then there are departments for party coordination with the central government and for policy research. The party’s Swachh Bharat department, for instance, urges party workers to take part in cleanliness drives.

“Amitbhai has given a new ideological thrust to the BJP. If the PM is aiming for a new India, Amitbhai is looking at a new BJP to match his vision,” says general secretary Bhupendra Yadav. “The transformation being brought about by him is all-encompassing, from improvement in party functioning and transparency to qualitative development of the party and creating a permanent infrastructure.”

BOOTH MANAGEMENT

The one political stratagem he has learned from Modi and deployed to deadly effect is a unique booth management strategy. The smallest unit of the BJP’s electoral machine, a booth covers around 1,000 voters. Shah was able to accurately forecast results in all seven phases of the UP elections earlier this year due to the booth-level feedback that flowed in from party workers on the ground. Now, he is fine-tuning the strategy. At closed-door meetings on his recent Madhya Pradesh tour, he told party workers to enlist 1.2 million (apart from the existing 58 lakh) members and ensure of them each casts their vote with two family members.

As BJP national general secretary Anil Jain says, “The benefits have been evident as in Manipur where the party’s vote share rose from three to 33 per cent.” Shah now wants all the committees to engage with booth voters on a regular basis.

MANY A SLIP

Shah’s grand electoral strategy is not without its vulnerabilities. The key imponderables causing worry within the party are the sluggish economic growth, the crisis in jobs and the impact of demonetisation and GST on the unorganised sector. The lateral entry of defectors from other political parties has fuelled discontent within the BJP. A section of the party’s senior leadership feels alienated. “The BJP’s victories are a result of Shah’s strategy and ability to convert support for Prime Minister Modi into votes. But he has to create a system where veterans are consulted,” says Janardan Mishra, 78, a senior UP BJP leader and former Vajpayee aide. A Shah aide dismisses the criticism outright. “There is bound to be ill feeling among veterans when new leadership is being created,” he says.

Meanwhile, despite three years as party president, Shah has not been able to appoint a full team of office-bearers. This has forced him to continue with the existing office-bearers even if their performance is not up to the standard he would like.

A party observer, who does not want to be identified, says Shah’s near-term target of 120 new Lok Sabha seats for the 2019 elections seems difficult. State units like West Bengal are gripped by infighting, failing to take advantage of what the BJP feels is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s unabashed minority appeasement. Nor has the BJP been able to do much in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Shah has to wield the axe, throw the deadwood out and get in new talent if he is to get results. If the winning streak falters, there will be no one else to blame. And Shah, more than anyone else, knows that.