Gaurav's Blog

2012-01-25T20:14:00.001+05:30

The Surge into Africa

The world does not wait, while you are sitting in the potty ("going through crap") and the rule applies perhaps more vigorously to our Industry than the rest. The Aviation Industry is in a perpetual hurry.

So, with this master piece of an acquisition- Etihad's 40% buy into Air Seychelles, a classic inorganic growth strategy fit for a latecomer to the market vs. someone like Emirates that has painstakingly built an organic business since 1986-7 (over 20 years) to reach where they are, is also the beginning of the surge into near virgin Africa.

This also comes at a time, when Emirates is increasingly facing more resistance to roll out their organic growth program- from countries like Canada, Germany, Australia and even India (no A380's allowed so far).

And if you have noticed where Seychelles is located and how many bilaterals they hold, it could also mean the end of the infantile, fragile & nascent, dream of several African and Indian/ Asian carriers to connect Asia to Africa.

Because this would mean that India & large parts of Eastern & Southern Africa could be connected using a narrow body with a good range.

Time will tell.

2012-01-10T18:06:00.001+05:30

A peep into Vietnam's Doi Moi Era

A memoir of life in Saigon during the late eighties

The fall of the Berlin wall, as the 5 decades old cold war came to an end, changed things all over the world. Whether it was Europe, Africa or Asia, no country had remained unaffected by the cold war, so naturally, its demise too, brought about tremendous changes. Vietnam was, very unfortunately so for its people, one such country, at the frontiers of the cold war and a theatre of some of the worst conflicts that played out during the era. So when Gorbachev announced his Glasnost and Perestroika, Vietnam, torn apart by years of conflict, saw light at the end of the tunnel and announced its own- Doi Moi, the rhyming, somewhat musical sounding version of the liberal face of communism. The year was 1986.

In December of 1986, my father accepted a United Nations assignment based at Saigon (Now Ho Chi Minh city) and that is how in May, 1987, I found myself, along with my brother, both teenagers, landing at Saigon's Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport. Today, an airport bursting at seams, Saigon was then, so poorly connected, it is unimaginable that the only reasonable way in was a once a week Air France flight on a 747-Combi that left Paris to arrive at Saigon after multiple hops, via Karachi, Delhi and Bangkok enroute. France had sought to maintain colonial connections despite the conflict.

As the plane touched down and taxied towards the terminal, it crossed rows of American war plane skeletons, as if lined up to showcase trophies of a war won against world's formidable power.

No sooner had we come out of the Airport and boarded the taxi, than my father started to narrate the queerness of a communist state- someone, a total stranger, had come up to him while he was waiting to receive us, and extended his congratulations for finally being reunited with his family. My father was taken by surprise and before he could ask, the stranger smiled and walked away. At social get-togethers ,We were to come across many such strange episodes later- A colleague of my father, while shopping at Dong Khoi, a posh Saigon thoroughfare, was addressed by his name and given advice on how to buy the best pearls- yet again, by a total stranger. There was never any doubt in the mind of a foreigner living in the Saigon of the late eighties, that he was being watched. Papers from my father's office desk would disappear, copied for government scrutiny and would then magically reappear. Chauffeurs, maids, guards, anyone who came in contact with the foreigners, were queried on a pre-designated time and day to obtain information on the whereabouts and movements of aliens on a strict, weekly basis. Going out of the city's 25 kilometers periphery required permission from the government. The government was pedantic almost hysterical about foreigners and nor were they in this game alone. Once, another friend of my father, who worked in the rural hinterlands of the Mekong delta, was approached by an unknown man in a party. The man knew that my father's friend had a daughter studying in the US and her exact whereabouts. He made a not so subtle suggestion that any clues to the missing American service men, especially from the rural Mekong delta area, where my father's friend farm was, would be handsomely rewarded. The Cyclo's lined up infront of our hotel- Cuu Long (Now Majestic), a 1925 built, French colonial era property at the end of Dong Khoi street, a hub for foreigners staying in the city and our home for the first 6 months of our stay, were always on the cue- with each cyclo assigned to a specific foreigner to keep tab on what places in the city were visited.

To a teenager's mind, even though, its backdrop hardly understood, this was 007-spy stuff, with imagination running wild- the whole of Saigon city was a large movie set, with the script of a Bond flick running live and we as characters in it. It couldn't have helped we visited Saigon during school holidays and that the supply of cold war depicting Bond movies (with Roger Moore taking train journeys between Eastern European Countries like Hungary to Vienna, Austria's capital and a major hotspot of cold war era's diplomacy), was unlimited, as was the Rambo series.

To my surprise then, once we finally moved into our own apartment, a former Jailhouse, perhaps earlier used for torturous interrogations & therefore considered well protected with high walls and barbed wires, was full of people from Eastern European countries- there was a couple from Hungary, a bachelor from East Germany and another couple from Poland. The neighboring apartment building had Russian families by the dozen. Vietnam's geo-politics at the time, its history of war with the colonial powers of the Second World War, drove it to be foes with the US & the Western allies, while being friends with countries of the Eastern Bloc- Hungary, Poland, East Germany & Russia. And India. Some reasons for India's involvement could have been historic- such as the presence of Buddhism in Indo-China and a large Tamil Diaspora during the British times, but India, led by Indira Gandhi and completely entangled into the cold era politics, sought to befriend a nation that was a sworn enemy of China. To showcase this, IRCON-the Indian Railway Construction Company had built parts of the Saigon to Hanoi railway line with Indian locomotives and rolling stock providing the weekly train service between the 2 cities that took 4 days to traverse the 1800 kilometers, if the engine didn't break down. There was also an animal husbandry project based in the fertile Mekong delta to rear milk yielding buffaloes that could help diversify Vietnam's agri-based economy. The Vietnamese loved us- we were a curiosity wherever we ventured, with loud cries of "Ando, Ando" (for Indian) following us. Once, an acquaintance pointed us to another Indian connection- the house of the infamous crook-Charles Shobraj (He had an Indian father while his mother was from Saigon). Shobraj is still alive, serving a jail sentence in Kathmandu. There were other influences- right next to the Ben Than market, then a place to buy everything counterfeit, now a popular place for the tourists, was an old Dravidian style temple, complete with an old Tamil Pujari, who spoke very little Tamil and didn't know when the temple was built. Now married to a Vietnamese woman, he had arrived as a little boy with his father on a ship during the Second World War.

Saigonese loved Americans too- but given the political compulsions, and the dictates from their Northern Hanoi based brethren, had to do so more discretely. To this day, there isn't much love lost between the power drunk Northerners and the commerce oriented Saigonese. Many secretly aspired to escape to the US someday. With over a million people of Vietnamese origin, living mainly in the West Coast cities of the US, many adopted during the war, while they were still infants, it was impossible to not have a relationship. As the effects of Doi Moi took hold, money from the non-resident Vietnamese started to flow in as investment. The Dong though continued to weaken, as the government dealt with high inflation. My mother would have to stuff currency notes in a gunny bag to go buy a week's grocery.

Friday evenings were a spectacle in the streets of Saigon- The adult went to the old R & R haunt of the American servicemen- The Rex Hotel with its famous dance bar. The kids could view the athletic spectacle of a cock fight in the high court square or enjoy a spectacular Vietnamese game of Da-Cao played like volleyball except with a shuttle kicked by lithesome, bare top, Vietnamese men. Women were no less beautiful in their long, black, straight hair, falling on their flowing elegant Ao-dai's, a long dress much like Salwaar-kurta's. The street had it all, but the sight that one beholds in the memory forever is the Notre Dame church at the end of the street- it was magical to be there during New Year eves.

The young Vietnamese, banned from going outside the city limits, leave alone going out of the country, were too restless to stay indoors. So, they got on their 100 cc Hondas, with their significant others on the back and did a 100 rounds of the city's main streets- so if you were sitting in one of Dong Khoi's several French style open cafés, having your extra bitter Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk at the bottom (my favorite, though, was ice cream served in a real coconut shell), you were sure to spot the same couple go past exactly every 5 minutes. It was hilarious but also sad. Vietnamese government, at the time, required its citizens to obtain a license to simply get married. There were other peculiarities of communist Vietnam- The door to commerce was still somewhat shut- so some things were always in short supply- cigarettes for example. Gifts of cigarette cartons were common place to garner a favor but if you really wanted something done, and make them do so happily, it had to be a full carton of 555 cigarettes- yes, the only word to understand this phenomenon was that the Vietnamese seemed to have a fetish for it. Dunhill was fine too, but if you presented 555, boy, then, it was either of the too- you were in an exceptionally generous mood or it was really the moon that you would ask for. Usually the latter.

There were other distractions for the foreigners- visits to Tanah Binh club for swimming, weekend trips to Un-Tao beach, where it wasn't uncommon to be presented with an entire turtle, complete with its shell, placed on top of a large tray, with all its' garnishes and served with a festive flourish, as lunch. My mother, a staunch vegetarian and unable to withstand the stench of the seafood(or aroma) depending on your preferences, was usually nauseated during lavish office parties where seafood was in abundance and at least once, I remember, almost fainted, with orange juice and some fresh air put to good use to revive her. A tourist trip to the Cu-Chi mines, 300 kilometers long tunnels by some accounts and bored manually by the Vietnamese to fight the Guerilla war against the Americans, or the long but beautiful 8 hour country drive to the French hill station of Dalat and a stay in one of its charming but haunted resorts. Apparently, a French army general would check in very often, only to disappear the next morning, and even his signatures on the register would disappear, as narrated to us by the hotel staff. It was a smart way to keep in business in an era with few tourists arriving.

We left in 1989, but as the new decade of the 90's arrived, Vietnam was to graduate from the Doi Moi Era and embrace full liberalization post the fall of the Berlin wall. Saigon, am told is now indistinguishable from any another bustling South East Asian Metropolis. The unparalleled view of the majestic bend in the Saigon River, the colorful street decorations and fireworks to celebrate Tet- Vietnamese New Year, the aroma of the Vietnamese coffee…. all of these are perhaps still very much there but I never could go back, so luckily these two and a half decades old images of the Doi-Moi Era are frozen in time as frames of a black and white movie playing in my mind.

2012-01-06T14:16:00.001+05:30

A review of a review

A comment on Mihir Sharma's review of Suhel Seth's book- 'Get to the top'

There is an old Panchatantra classic that I have read to my toddler several times:

An old Brahmin performs a puja (a prayer) for a king and gets a cow's calf as dakshina (alms). As the night falls, The Brahmin proceeds to carry it home on his shoulders. The path to his home passes through a forest. 5 thieves spot him coming from afar and decide to employ an unusual plan to grab the calf. As soon as the Brahmin enters the forest, the first thief, dressed as a common villager, presents himself and in mock surprise, asks the Brahmin:

First Thief - Why for god's sake are you carrying a pig on your shoulders?

Brahmin (lets out a cry) - You are mistaken oh kind man, it is a calf!

No sooner has the Brahmin traversed another 100 meters, the second thief confronts the Brahmin and says:

Second Thief- Where do you, a Brahmin, of all the people, go with a pig on your shoulders?

Brahmin (now angry) - Are you totally blind? Can you not see it is a calf?

This continues with the third and the fourth and even the fifth thief repeating the same question to the Brahmin throughout the forest, until the Brahmin , mired in self doubt, and troubled with the thought how his calf could have changed into a pig, finally decides to abandon the calf in the jungle and continues his journey home without it. The thieves of course pick the calf up and celebrate.

There is moral to the story, just as every Panchatantra tale has one, but certainly some people got it wrong- they thought the story told them how, if a lie was told enough times, it could magically turn into a truth or at least a half truth; if enough mud was thrown, some would definitely stick. And voila, the first practitioners of the PR industry were born.

Seth's influence or stranglehold, should I say, on the Indian media is such that at first I wasn't even going to read Mihir Sharma's (a writer at Caravan magazine) review of his book. In this age of crass commerce, when even seasoned authors resort to cheap gimmickry, can you really be faulted for becoming prejudiced? But should I say, of all book reviews that get published, very rarely are there any that come even close to offering such profound insights- not so much on Seth's book or on him personally though he is chosen as a medium, a symbol- but on the death of merit, on shallowness, even irrevalance of TV debates, on ubiquitous armchair subject experts enshrined by public appearances on TV, on the blindness of ambition.

Seth doesn't get this, judging from his twitter reactions to the review. No surprises there- people in love with themselves usually don't.

So, the book is of course not worth a dime, but the review- Mihir Sharma's review that is, all of India's gold can't get you what it can, if you were looking to understand the psyche of today's upwardly mobile India.

There is just one drawback- you have to have watched Seth in 'action' on NDTV or you won't understand "….Intemperance is intellect and fervidity is profundity in the India of today…"

A poor alternative, if you are not an NDTV audience, could be to have a colleague or a boss who comes from a similar background as Seth's but a clearer, more distinctive identifier of such a person would be his proclamations of "passion" towards his work more than 2-3 times in the same sentence when asked to explain something of intellect. If you mistook him to be a salesman for a condom brand called, well, Passion, by god, you are, in the esteemed company of a person whom Sharma's refers to as belonging to the 'age of Seth'. Judging from the thousands of MBA graduates that India is churning out at breakneck speed, all instilled with the sense that they are the next Jack Welch, finding such people shouldn't be too difficult either. Just visit the gali next to my house at Bangalore, (infact, any bylane in India) and you will come across the esteemed Sri-Devi (global) MBA Institute where such specimens are groomed. And why not? As the 'Suhelian era', dawns & every man an advertisement for himself, humility, far from being virtuous, is a terrible drawback in your personality, that must require you to see a career counselor or indeed a psychiatrist, if you have to reach anywhere.

Consider the following delights of Sharma's essay:

………..It doesn't matter, he (Seth) argues, if you are a blithering idiot when asked for your opinion: "It is not important what your opinion is. What is important is that you do not come across as someone who has nothing to say." Seth, the master people-brander, does not address the peril of having an opinion and expressing it vociferously, and yet still coming across as someone who has nothing to say. The possibility appears to never have occurred to him….

It reminds me of myriad competitive college entrance exams Group Discussions that were to judge your intellect merely from your ability to interject & aggressively elbow into the 15 minute discussion attended by a dozen contestants, where each of the other 11 were as eager to showcase their verbal prowess as our politicians are. No matter than many of our youngsters believe that stopping to breathe while talking may be a competitive disadvantage, a dangerous gap that could lead to the demise of a promising career. It is an ode to the age of commerce then that an entire empire has been built in teaching people how to remember to breathe.

Or of colleagues in large office meetings, who offer an opinion with no more conviction than as a statement of existence.

Sharma's 4000 words essay, then, is a master piece- if the details on Seth's journey to the top, do sometimes get a trifle tedious, they are only there to explain larger points about malice's in our society. Go on and read it now, I exhort you- because this is a good time of the year to get some perspective.

Mihir Sharma's review available on this link:

http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story.aspx?StoryID=1189&Page=1

2011-12-29T17:36:00.001+05:30

Playing all sides

How some domestic Airlines have used their dominant presence at an important Gateway Airport to align across the board. And why must it make sense

An incredible number of International Airlines (more than a dozen), all over the world, chose to join one of the 3 large alliance groups (Star, One world and Skyteam) over the last 2-3 years. Analysts differ in exactly what has precipitated this sudden change, in a kind of second wave (the first wave was when mega carriers formed alliances) of relatively smaller carriers rushing to join a global alliance- some may have used the opportunity available due to the loosening of the anti-trust laws but most were motivated by the imminent threat from the Middle East and the desire to protect their businesses in the face of this onslaught.

However, there is also another distinct pattern emerging, either as a reaction to increased grouping of carriers or just driven by individual business model of the carrier in question. More than one carrier now uses it or a variation of it as a calculated response, an anti-strategy, to further their business interests.

Let us start with the Americas. Take Jetblue. Based out of JFK, it made a conscious decision to depart from the establish stand alone 'LCC with a good product model' to code share with International carriers. Towards this end, it underwent, what some would regard as considerable risk of changing its existing Navitaire passenger reservation system to Sabre that allowed greater flexibility in code-sharing. Let's look at the list of International carriers that it code shares with: Lufthansa, Emirates, South African Airways, El AL, TAM & LAN. I understand they are also pretty close to signing a code share deal with Jet Airways, India. So there is no selection of carriers from any particular global Alliance. Why would it make sense for Jetblue to do so? The answer perhaps lies in Jetblue's location: It has the largest presence at the JFK Airport. JFK still is the largest gateway Airport for many non-US Airlines irrespective of the Alliance they may be part of and serves a very important catchment area that cannot be effectively served from Newark. So despite, Continental's dominant presence in Newark and it being a member of Star Alliance, a presence is required at JFK. While Jetblue's bread and butter is in US domestic operations, it does not hurt to get International feed onto the domestic network, if it comes as a by-product of being in the dominant carrier position in the most important gateway Airport of the country. Therefore it makes perfect sense to accept feed from whichever International source it comes from, without having to chose one alliance over the other and restrict your options.

West Jet, the second largest carrier in Canada after Air Canada, does the same- using its presence at Toronto, it code shares with the likes of Emirates, KLM, Cathay and American, as it prepares to enter even more code shares.

Take GOL, the Brazilian carrier based out of Sao Paulo. Exactly the same story with the only difference being, TAM, is the dominant carrier. But it is part of Star Alliance. Sao Paulo is the most important gateway Airport for International traffic into South America. GOL realizes that in absence of any other alternate carrier, which forms part of the other alliances such as Sky team or one –world, it can use its sizable although not dominant presence, at the Sao Paulo Airport to collect/distribute International feed. GOL therefore code shares with Delta, KLM and a number of other European carriers.

Elsewhere in the world, there are more examples- Virgin Australia, primarily an Australian domestic carrier based out of Melbourne, has recently announced its code share and partnership with Singapore Airline, a Star Alliance member to serve Asia, while in a code share agreement with Delta, a Sky team member to serve the US market. Its chief competitor Qantas is of course a one-world member.

So the jist of the matter is this: If a carriers' primary business is domestic in a vast country like US, Canada, Brazil, Australia etc., but it happens to have a large presence at an important gateway Airport city that has a lot of international traffic, it does no harm to accept high yield code share traffic from International carriers. Additionally, at least 2 of the carriers mentioned above already had a hybrid model, with a better in flight product, & fewer seats than a typical LCC has. This helps in aligning passengers traveling on the full service international leg with the domestic product.

So, the question is, which carrier/s in India or China, other than those that are already part of a major alliance or planning to become one soon, could take this route and use it as a strategy? I know one carrier, but I am not going to name it.

2011-12-28T20:22:00.001+05:30

Good Reads- 2011

Just a short synopsis of what comprised my reading this year. When I compare my list of intended reading to what was in fact read just as the year is coming to a close, it is no doubt full of surprises. So, while the intended list was meant to comprise more and more on Africa and its history, the actual list ended up looking like this:

1. 59 Seconds- Psychology is a popular subject now- more and more books are being written on consumer psychology and other related areas. 59 Seconds was gifted to me by a friend while we were still holidaying at Clarens, a lovely little hill town in Drakensberg. An old lady runs a smallish bookshop with an above average collection at this town of may be 5000 people. The book overturns some conventionally held psychological beliefs such as "..Imagining being thin.." and talks about some effective measures one could take, based on real research, to improve one's life. I got through it, but can't say how much I am convinced with its conclusions.

2. Jetlag -SAA in Andrews Era – Written by Dennis Beckett, A South African Journalist, this just came my way in the local Bedford view community library. For someone working at SAA, this can and did elaborate on a very important period in SAA's history giving insights into what has happened in the past and how it affects the future.

3. Cry the beloved Country- This needs no introduction. I saw a glimpse of the movie based on the book on TV one night and instantly decided that I wanted to read the book- it has to be the first novel I ever read (Ok, second. The first one was Memoirs of a Geisha). One could almost imagine how life must have been during the apartheid era.

4. India Yatra- Sometimes a book just mysteriously comes your way. India Yatra is a collection of short essays of local issues that fare in an election in India. If you think you know India, or can ever know or understand it fully, read the book and the illusion will wear off.

5. Deciding who leads- What was I thinking? Corporate bull. I forgive myself, everyone makes mistakes.

6. Diagnosis- Tanvi was born. Our world would never be the same. Diagnosis is a good peep into the medical world. How we expect that doctors will be perfect, they will never make any mistakes. The book tells the reader how doctors are still human beings and how diagnosis of a disease is still the most difficult part.

7. Dubai- This book, which I picked up from the local book shop explained a great deal about Dubai's history- that helps explains its rise. Dubai= no rules.

8. The case of exploding mangoes- This is a book about Pakistan's ex-dictator's assassination by CIA. While the book is written as fiction, but its plot seems so real.

9. The Seychelles Affair- Picked from the local library, this is a story of a coup attempt by a South Africa based mercenary soldier on the communist leaning Seychelles government in 1978. If you think about the events today, with a recent invitation to China to set-up a Naval base in this Indian Ocean Island, the story is not just relevant, it seems it could be just as easily written today. Nothing has changed in geo-politics except the state actors. Yesterday it was USSR, today it is China.

10. Better- Atul Gawande is a great writer. This book, like diagnosis, is a peep into the medical world, explaining how hospitals and doctors work.

11. Chile- Death in the South- Every country has had to go through a dark chapter. Chile had its own under General Pinochet. The book describes how people were brutally tortured and murdered during his reign and why it happened. It gives one an insight into Chile's political past.

12. Fly by Wire- Finally, a book on Aviation. And a great read on the US Airways incident of landing into the Hudson River due to a bird hit. Great insights into what goes in the cockpit. Can't wait for the Qantas A380 engine failure event to be written into a book.

13. Following Fish - This book submerged me, gently into slow nostalgia. It is a travelogue along India's coast, starting from West Bengal and ending in Gujarat. Almost written like RK Narayan would have written it. Simple, elegant, touching on day to day rhythm of life in great detail. I felt I am reading RK Narayan's own travelogue called The Emerald Route.

14. Super Freakonomics- A sequel to the first best seller by Steven Levitt, it started with great promise into examining economics behind every day behaviors of people and patterns but then fizzled out towards the end. I had to make an effort to complete it.

15. Inflight Science- Finally, the last book of the year too was on Aviation. Great for explaining concepts of physics to a school going child.

2011-12-28T17:53:00.001+05:30

Kingfisher Airlines- A clean sheet approach

Much has been said and written about Kingfisher Airlines in the recent press articles. No doubt that Kingfisher squandered, in fact spectacularly squandered a perfect opportunity to become India's premier airline, it is not the intention of this article to add to the already ubiquitous post-mortems of the company. Instead the approach is to see if Kingfisher were to play a second innings, a sort of re-birth, a resurrection with a clean sheet, what would be the opportunities. In a sense, this article starts off, where the previous article on Bangalore Airport ended.

Let us go back to mid-2005, when Kingfisher launched its operations. The original intention of the company was to base its operations at Bangalore, the Holding company- UB groups' Headquarters. This could not be accomplished as HAL was absolutely full with no parking bays to spare and little incentive to entertain more requests for civil operations. The new Bangalore Airport mired in controversy and with its scheduled opening then 3 years away in April 2008, Kingfisher decided to move its Airline head office to Mumbai. However, it continued to nourish ambitions of flying International routes out of Bangalore, including its bizarre, flashy plan to connect India's silicon valley to America's which meant starting a 19 plus hour flight between Bangalore to San Francisco route. A model replica of the aircraft was even erected at the entrance to the Bangalore's new Airport in 2008. There was just one small problem- A340-500 bought for the job, 5 of them infact, could not have accomplished this without payload restrictions, multiple flight deck crews, filing special DGCA exemption for the ULR status of the flight and several other problematic issues. Technically, the aircraft has an endurance that extends well beyond 20 hours, but any commercially oriented airline inherently knows that flying that long most definitely is beyond the profitable range of a commercial flight, as far too many cheaper options are available. Kingfisher only had to look at the experience of Singapore Airline and Emirates with the A340-500 (publicly available information) but the decision was made.

But I digress from the main point. Let us assume if Kingfisher was start again today, with a clean sheet, no wide body aircraft on order other than the A330-200's already in possession. Would starting off at Bangalore be a good idea? Statistics seem to suggest so. Kingfisher continued to be the largest domestic carrier out of Bangalore (beating Jet & Jetlite combined), just before the major downsizing of last 2 months. More Kingfisher ATR's were deployed at Bangalore than at any other station in the country, until Bangalore Airport failed to provide more capacity and parking bays forcing Kingfisher to deploy aircraft elsewhere. Bangalore provided and continues to provide a perfect opportunity to build an ATR based hub with opportunities to tap into the major North-South traffic flows and secondary South to West and South to East flows. With an ATR's effective range of about 300 nm, almost all South Indian cities in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala Karnataka and parts of Andhra Pradesh are within the payload-range an ATR had to offer. What is more, many of these routes were dense enough to be self sufficient by themselves and even allowed use of larger aircraft. This however, proved to be counter-productive, as the airline planners never felt the need to build a hub structure, or were discouraged by the availability of capacity and slots. In addition, many Airline planners tend to get too taken by utilization statistics of the aircraft, instead of looking at profitable utilization. Whatever the constraints may have been, the fact is that lack of effort in building a structured hub bank flight schedule led to a situation where slowly as lower cost competition emerged willing to aggressively flood the market with capacity (such as Indigo), stand alone routes were no more profitable. Kingfisher could have concentrated on building a hub structure at Bangalore instead of being over-ambitious in trying to conquer all markets, including the international ones. It failed to realize that there are ATR markets that are naturally protected as their Airports could not take the code C aircraft LCC's like Indigo were operating.

I believe this can still be done (ignoring of course the mess that is the accumulated debts and fleet on order etc. As I said, following a clean sheet approach). Kingfisher has to bring clarity to its thought process- a better product it has enjoyed right from the beginning. If it could rebuild its network, offering an advantage over its competitors through a true Hub network structure and its alliance membership, it can sustain itself profitably. It also has to learn to pick & chose opportunities and let others be sacrificed to compete selectively rather than be everywhere. Just like Spice jet has used the Q400's out of Hyderabad (with typically twice the range of ATR's) to connect major South and Central Indian cities, Kingfisher could replicate it with its own ATR hub out of Bangalore with 2-3 distinct advantages- denser routes ,better fuel efficiency and shorter distances.

On the international side too, as the market grows, Kingfisher could use its A332 to operate flights to London (& Hong Kong) as it did before. (More so now, with BA's feed available. BA too, could use a second bank evening departure out of Bangalore). You may notice that multiple European carriers including the smaller ones like KL, Swiss, Austrian and Finnair (other than the 3 large ones- LH, BA and AF-KL) fly to Mumbai and Delhi. However, carriers such as Finnair (and even JL) could easily consider Bangalore in future if there was a large enough feed available from a local partner such as Kingfisher collecting and disseminating traffic from all over South India. Currently, Kingfisher does provide this feed to Finnair out of Delhi. As an example, Nokia runs the largest cell phone manufacturing plant at Chennai that generates demand for travel and cargo. Similarly, Toyota's plant at Bangalore has continued to grow. Similarly, many seasoned travelers would seek to avoid the mega hubs of Frankfurt or Paris, preferring to transfer through quieter, more efficient Europeans transfer hubs such as Finnair's Helsinki hub.

There are other big advantages for Kingfisher in operating out of Bangalore- Young MBA analysts are taught to do PEST Analysis and from that point of view, there is no other place than the state of Karnataka, where Dr. Mallya has greater political clout. Infact, he is an independent Member of Parliament from Karnataka. Therefore, politically for UB, no city even comes close to Bangalore. Economically, no market has beaten Bangalore for the last 5-8 years with over 40% growth in traffic recorded in multiple years. That Bangalore is UB's headquarter means complete synchronization between the administrative functioning of UB and its fully owned subsidiary Kingfisher (which is mostly amiss) and convenience and coordination of office space (Kingfisher is currently talking of selling its high cost Mumbai office real estate).

Too late now – A good opportunity is lost. Forever.

2011-12-25T23:55:00.001+05:30

Bangalore- Gateway to South India?

Bangalore International Airport (BIA) has, in many of its promotional campaigns and adverts claimed it is the "Gateway to South India". Let us verify that claim. An Airport can truly claim to be a gateway to South India, if it provides connectivity to more South Indian cities than its immediate competitors- In Bangalore's case, these are Hyderabad and Chennai and Kochi to a lesser extent. Bangalore's claim rings hollow, as it only connects 13 destinations (counting Chennai & Hyderabad) and in these terms is no better than Hyderabad and Chennai who connect 13 and 12 destinations each, respectively. 3 of the 13 destinations are infact 1-stop flights either via Hyderabad or via Kochi. The only 2 unique destinations (over HYD and MAA) from Bangalore are Agatti (which is a one-stop destination via Kochi and in danger of being withdrawn as it is operated by Kingfisher which is in financial doldrums) and Calicut.

Hyderabad has continued to focus on domestic connections and develop itself into a domestic hub with capacity to spare as an Airport that can effectively connect East to West traffic flows, South to North flows, South to West traffic flows to cities like Baroda, Ahmadabad and Aurangabad, as well as South to Central India traffic flows by taking advantage of capacity constraints of current Mumbai Airport.

Bangalore, on the other hand failed to do so, because it has lagged behind in developing capacity. A key to developing air services is to have developed Airport capacity in advanced, allowing time for Airline planners to plan induction of new aircraft and the resources that go into launching new routes.

On the International side, historically, bilateral agreements have left out Bangalore (and Hyderabad) as these were never planned as International Airports whereas Chennai was included in most of them, as the Southern Gateway city as part of the 4 gateway cities to India, the others being Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Given the slow pace of change in anything related to the government, this is a clear disadvantage in developing air services to either of these new Airports. Meanwhile, the situation is likely to get worse, as the development of the new Airport in Chennai and the second Airport at Navi Mumbai would take away reasons for Airlines to consider Bangalore as a 'gateway' city.

Bangalore has a large established market to North America with relatively higher yields (compare to Chennai and Hyderabad which have a higher percentage of VFR market pulling yields down). Hyderabad could not sustain many newly launched International services such as KLM, BA and Lufthansa. Despite this, unfortunately, for Bangalore, it lies just outside the operational range of the B 777-200LR/A340-500 Aircraft that is the only aircraft that can be considered for non-stops flight to US Gateway cities. At 17 plus hours, New York- Mumbai is already at the very edge of the available range that the aircraft offers with standard payloads and even when it is operationally feasible to operate this non-stop service, profitable operations is a far-fetched goal. Non-stop operations require a premium on fares being charged (fewer seats being flown longer, no cargo). Generally said, India is a low fare, high volume market. Even on regular mid-haul, via large hub flights, it is difficult to break even, leave alone breaking even on non-stops. What is more is that the customer does not find value in paying a premium for a non-stop, where a dozen other cheaper options are available without much sacrifice on elapsed time. Notwithstanding Kingfisher's immature, laughable belief in 2008 that it can use an A340-500 to connect Bangalore to San Francisco, realistically US market from Bangalore can only be addressed through a one-stop service either through Europe, or via Middle East or Far East. This explains why European (and now Middle Eastern carriers) thrive at Bangalore (BA and Lufthansa both come in with a 744) and no US or Indian carrier has ever succeeded flying to/from Bangalore. The remaining traffic is carried to the US West coast via the Pacific and on Asian carriers like Singapore Airlines and Thai.

Some believe Bangalore's geography can be used to participate in the vast Australia-Europe market. This would have been an opportunity 40 years back. Today, with at least 7 major hubs and their respective airlines competing for that traffic, Bangalore's chances (with or without a hub carrier) are non-existent and delusional.

All of the above factors, limits options for an Indian carrier to develop Bangalore as an International Hub. Not just this, the self sufficiency European & some Asian carriers to use Bangalore as a destination on their network, without needing any supporting feed/defeed from a local carrier, hinders the development of a domestic feeder carrier. So what really are the options Bangalore has?

2011-08-14T02:51:00.001+05:30

Aero-Dhaba

Dear Patrons,

Welcome to the Aero Dhaba, a unique culinary experience developed for travelers (and accompanying friends and family).

You may have heard of 'Dhabas' on highways all across India. Aero- dhabas is the first chain of dhabas established at the Airport premises. Had regulation permitted, we would have liked to be right besides the runway. However, such liberties sadly not permitted even in our democratic country, you can find us right outside the terminal.

Note that I say, it is a chain- We are so confident of the success of our concept that we have simultaneously opened shop at Nagpur (our flagship restaurant), Kanpur (very popular) and Ahmadabad. We also have a special branch at Mumbai, mainly for export of frozen meat (processed at world's largest slum based Enterprise Dharavi (another unique concept) to Europe. This is self loaded live mostly in cargo holds and arrives frozen ready.

Menu Card:

Note to our customers:

- Due to the nature of our butchery, all our meat is 'Zatka'; No Halal meat available. We regret this inconvenience, but it is more than made up for in the freshness of meat we serve

- We are very proud of our culinary creations. The name of the dish is accompanied by a short history/background on how each dish is created and garnished.

A. Nagpuri ghost ka keema

This is an extremely popular dish, available almost on a daily basis at our Nagpur branch. Wild boars, specially trained by our experienced ATC staff, cross the runway just as the aircrafts are landing. These 'Jehadi' wild boars, as our staff likes to classify them, normally aim for the front landing gears to sacrifice themselves. As soon as the aircraft passes over safely (god is great, we have never had any crash), our staff scoots to the runway with special equipment to scrap the meat off the runway. (You may recall this equipment was donated to us to scrap the tire rubber marks off the runway). We challenge our patrons to find such a unique dish, even in famous game meat restaurants of Africa. Our German guests love it.

Self garnished with smell of freshly burned rubber from imported Dunlop aircraft tyres, you will love it.

B. Raan-e-Kanpuri

Our take on Raan-e-Sikandari, the famous dish you may have seen on some other menus. Now sample, a version you are unlikely to forget soon- Prepared from jungle fresh cuts of wild Neel Gai that roam our premises, it is unlikely to disappoint you. Note that the entire Raan is served as a single large portion for a family meal, because the Airport is served only by smaller ATR make of aircrafts that maim the animal, without causing any damage to the main edible portion.

C. Kebab-Kukkura ke (KKK in short)

An extremely popular dish amongst our visiting patrons from Korea, China and Vietnam, this is a seasonal creation from street dog meat. We must clarify that unlike on the roads of major Indian cities; our dog meat is processed in extremely hygienic runways, swept clear of 'FOD' every 6-8 hours.

D. Rodent –do-pahiya ( aero dhaba's take on chicken-do-pyaza)

Not to be mistaken with the do-pahiya as in the 2-wheeler, this refers to the double bogie of the rear landing gear. So called because assorted field rodents that are used for this dish, have a special preference for the rear landing gear when making the extreme sacrifice. This delectable dish finds particular favor in Eastern UP and Bihar.

E. Assorted Fowl from our Aviary

What can be said about this- it is the finest in culinary history of Indian Aviation with a long tradition. Every Airport offers a fine variety and selection in every possible season. Even visiting migratory fowl are not spared. Notably, this is offered to the customers taste in 2 different preparations- A- la- flambé or just plane-hit. The a-la flambé preparation is obviously garnished with A1 Aviation turbine fuel as the bird in question passes through the engine. Please note that this an extremely difficult dish to prepare, with considerable skill required for the flambé version. Aviation fuel is highly inflammable and roasting the tender bird meat is a delicate art that requires constant practice.

Note to our customers: Since the dish is obviously garnished with ATF, we cannot guarantee the price. Price is subject to change without notice. Please check with your waiter before ordering it.

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Author's note: Grotesque as this article may read, it is intended this way as a protest against lack of basic Aviation safety at our Airports that is shameful. Aside from being ' the killing fields' for so many animals, that in itself is cruel and worthy of being taken up as a cause.

2011-08-07T17:12:00.001+05:30

Invictus

Anyone can start a revolution. It takes greatness to stop one.

"…..I'm thinking about how you spend 30 years in a tiny cell, but come out ready to forgive the people who put you there…."

- From the movie Invictus

Oct 02, 1992: The only cinema hall at Mbabane, the pretty hill capital of Swaziland, a country of less than 1 million people, played Richard Attenborough's GANDHI the whole day, all 4 shows. It didn't quite made sense to a teenager, why Gandhi should be an important subject in a nation 8500 miles away from India. A vast ocean separated the 2 continents of Africa and India, and my passport read – 'not valid for entry into South Africa', but there was an unexplained link between the destinies of these nations.

Later that evening, my father had invited all his office mates for an evening together at a local Pizza restaurant. It was bitterly cold outside, so diners were all huddled together around a large rectangular table that hosted our entire group. There were other diners on the single corner tables. The evening discussions were centered on the ongoing Barcelona Olympics and the medal tally. Invariably, the discussions moved to how South Africa- allowed back into the games for the first time since the Apartheid era, was performing. I seem to remember that I said something to the effect that South Africa's performance was disappointing and even Kenya were doing better in the medal tally.

"…But it is still better than India.. at least we are assured of a medal.."

I heard a very sharp retort coming from behind me. Completely shocked from someone unexpectedly interrupting our conversation, I looked back to see a straight-faced white man staring at me and from what it seemed like, very eager to take the debate further. My father's Swazi colleague signaled to me to ignore the man and we all got back to concentrating on the pizza as if nothing had happened. Again, I did not quite understand, what made the white man take such grave offence.

A few weeks later, I was strolling down the local Swaziland mall, wearing a black color t-shirt with a large red color Nazi Swastika on it. Sold on Bangalore street corners, Hitler and Nazi symbols, while poorly understood, were sure to add to a teenager's cool quotient ratings. As I crossed the street corner, I saw a large black man, presumably Zulu, twice my height and width, coming towards me. He was looking straight at me and as he came closer and closer, I could sense, that we were not just crossing each other on the street, instead he was coming at me. No evasive action was possible, and before I knew, I sensed being picked up into the air with large blood-shot eyes in my face. The man could perhaps sense my fear because he said nothing and put me back down on the ground. I was shivering by now. He then pointed to the red sign on my t-shirt telling me if I were smart, I would not wear that t-shirt again and that he was telling me this for my own good. Completely hysterical and confused I ran back home and narrated the incident to my mother, who called my father at office. It was only later, that we learnt that AWB, the right wing, heavily armed and very often militant, Afrikaners Party used a version of Swastika as their symbol.

The early 90's were extraordinary times in South Africa and as a teenager one couldn't have learnt there significance until much later.

12 June, 1998: The blue red and white Filipino flag with a golden sun slowly went up the pole as tears filled the eyes of my office colleagues who watched the ceremony to commemorate 100 years of freedom. The birth of a free nation is always a solemn moment and its celebration even more so. I stood witness too as the Filipino national anthem played. At my graduate school, our dean quoted Gandhi, and related the Filipino freedom struggle to his thoughts. While the Filipino Freedom struggle is replete with violence, Gandhi's thoughts, he said, were relevant to them. While no longer a teenager, one wondered why nations that won their freedom through an armed struggle still regarded Gandhi's thought as central to their manifestos.

12 December, 2009: I attended a special screening of Invictus, a movie that describes true events before and during the South Africa of 1995. Apartheid is long since dead, at least in the law, if not completely in the spirit just yet, for vestiges of an evil, once created, die slow and even in dying leave behind relics that threaten to manifest themselves all over again in newer forms.

In South Africa of today for instance, it appears that, Indian, (or any other community) is not a race nor a nationality, not even a mistaken identity christened by an explorer. It is a category, for all people must be categorized for their rights to be determined and apportioned. One morning, a 5 year old, my son, posed to me a question as to whether he is Indian. Isn't it odd for a toddler to be that aware of his category at such a young age?

In their naivety governments, not just here in South Africa, still believe they can somehow go back in time and reverse the excesses of the past. And how? By doing exactly that, what was deemed unfair and unjust even back then, except, this time to a different category of people. It is an excellent example of how in trying to correct the past, we can't embrace the future.

The laws of physics govern that every action must have an equal reaction; that a pendulum, once swung to an extreme, must swing back to the other, opposite extreme. Those are irrefutable laws of our physical world.

It is exactly in this context that Gandhi's thoughts but what is even more so- Mandela's actions, which came much later in time, define true leadership. Almost anyone can start a revolution when the conditions are right. Make a few inflammatory speeches, cobble together a band of followers and if a cause is deemed worthy, people will sacrifice themselves. Infact, you can buy ready, custom made revolutions off the shelf today with help from some big brother nations.

Both Mandela and Gandhi, however, managed to STOP a revolution. That is, stopped a revolution going the wrong way. Gandhi stopped Civil disobedience movement when it turned violent. Mandela stopped his people from seeking revenge when Apartheid was demolished. He taught them reconciliation and forgiveness. Both stopped the pendulum midway, refusing to be governed by Newtonian laws. They refused to be subdued by popular sentiments of their own people, instead showing them the righteous path. That takes a lot of courage. They knew it would meet resistant from their own, most loyal supporters but will eventually result in the greater good.

Very few men have achieved this.

2011-07-24T23:47:00.001+05:30

The Flying train

It is just past midnight. After tossing and turning into your bed for an hour (a result of double dose helpings of the extra rich butter chicken that you have had for dinner washed down with Johnnie Walker black), you are just about to enter into the deep slumber when your blackberry (with overused faded keys due to constant SMS's that you send while sitting on the cold toilet seat, lulling yourself to believe that you make the most productive use of your time) starts to ring its irritating ring. You make a mental note to move to the I-phone 4 as soon as the new aircraft deal is sealed.

As you struggle to open your eyelids, sneaking one look at the phone and the other at your wife to check if she has been disturbed, 'Leahy' it announces, is the caller. He is your affable big boss and he has the license to kill,….er… I mean… to call you at any (or all) of the 24 hours in a day. It's minus degrees, but you rush to the balcony, and fake the adrenaline rush into your voice, managing to produce a crisp, enthusiastic greeting masking any signs of yawning. Leahy's voice is merry, dancing with jubilance. It may be your midnight but Leahy is in a mood to wax eloquent about his latest deal with XX airline while the cold numbs your feet. 45 minutes later, somewhere between him going on about his exploits, and you being in a dilemma about letting the wind out loudly (or not, lest the phone's microphone catch it), he suddenly changes the topic – the call is about your bonus. You are being given the India sales territory. You are about to let out a joyful shriek, thinking about moneybags you will bring home, when he drops the big dampener- no bonus on narrow bodies, until you sell A380's. You can't hold anymore, letting out the loud one, just at this very moment. But if any A380's were sold, it would seemingly be worth its weight in gold, the boss elaborates helpfully.

2 years later, you have tried every trick in a salesman book- arranging champagne and caviar parties, organizing aspiring Bollywood starlets for important people, obtaining secret lists of Swiss bank account holders, sponsoring MBA courses for the half dozen progenies (some unofficially so, born out of wedlock) of the prospective promoters but to no avail! You have even flirted with the idea of financing the coup in the small island nation that could change a few geo-political calculations, pleasing the powers that be. Success is still elusive. Then, as a blessing from god, you overhear your office peon talk about Mamta didi and The Duronto Express and unexpectedly, an idea strikes. What if you were to tell Leahy that Mumbai Airport capacity crisis can be turned into an opportunity? You are already visualizing the first slide of the slick PowerPoint you are going to show Leahy with the Chinese character Wei-Ji splashed over it in red that spells crisis one way but reads opportunity in reverse and just as the opportunity part of the character is displayed on screen, the slide will turn green (indicating greenbacks). Terrific, you think, congratulating yourself. Leahy would be sold on this. This year you are surely buying that Ferrari for your recent Lebanese interest you met at a Dubai bar. You jot down your thoughts and immediately decide to call Leahy on the phone. This is how the conversation goes:

Leahy (nasal American twang) - What have you got for me, son?

You- Well, I am sure of selling some A380's if we position it …er...um...as The Doronto Express. I mean, as a flying train that can carry 853 people in one class configuration mainly between Mumbai-Delhi. A train carries that many people, imagine the impact on per seat price, Leahy!

Leahy- Go to sleep son. I told you to get off Marijuana, didn't I?

You- Please let me explain Leahy. Look Mumbai Airport is bursting at seams. It can't handle any new movement, even though traffic continues to grow. The average boarded figure continues to rise, which means wide-bodies have to be used on domestic sectors sooner or later.

Leahy- There are a lot of wide bodies between A320 and the A380, now don't waste my time. A380's are optimized to fly long hauls. Are you even aware that our biggest customer has asked us for a higher gross weight variant of A380 so they can offer longer flights to the US West Coast?

You: Yes, I know. But I am proposing using the aircraft at the other, opposite end of the spectrum. After all, Japanese carriers did use high capacity 744-SR to service similar high demand domestic routes, don't they? Even China Southern has decided to test the A380 service between Beijing and Shanghai. Besides, we anyway offer a 1 class 853 seat configuration to Air Austral. All we need to do is to customize the maintenance program for short hauls, to take care of the increased engine cycles. We will need certification for it, but that's small change.

Leahy (somewhat less doubtful): hmm…The Indians can't even board an A320 in an organized fashion, and you want to compare them to the Japanese. And its not just the maintenance plan. We will have to work on a full variant customized for short hauls – with reduced fuel capacity, recalibrated lower power engines and some other changes such as the landing gears to take the strain of increased landings. Anyway, what figures are we talking about?

You- The Indians can change, Leahy. Really, take a look at Delhi Metro and how even the Delhites have shown discipline in boarding it. Plus we will have Airport bosses salivating just at the mention of A380's doing multiple landings every day.

Leahy- Figures son, I want figures!

You- Sure, I think we will manage to grow the market 20% every year for the next 10-15 years based on capacity increase multiple between the A320 and the A380. There is no constraint on demand in India except price. Price, is the strategic P in India, not product, unlike Japan. We will be able to offer second tier non- air conditioned train fares on at least 20% of the seats and even the rest would be sold at an incredible 3-tier air conditioned train fares of Rs.2000-2500. It is not unfathomable that we sell 50 of these special variants over a 10 year period.

Leahy (now almost in agreement) - Well son, I am pleased to hear that. Send me the plan and we'll consider it.

2011-07-07T20:21:00.001+05:30

What do you do, other than work?

Rosky Hilado, (name sounds Russian but she is a Filipino), started out at KLM Philippines, as a young, exceptionally beautiful, starry eyed receptionist with dreams to see the world.

She was 52, when I first met her. Elegantly dressed and always graceful, Rosky talked softly and had a drawing personality. Her conduct was impeccable and mannerism those of a sophisticated elite. Indeed, she had travelled all around the world to more than 50 countries and could speak Dutch, English and Malay fluently, other than her native Cebuano. I couldn't help but think, if I needed a role model to depict how to age gracefully and with dignity, it would be her.

Rosky never enjoyed having so much of a cubicle, leave alone having a cabin. Nor did she have a fancy title- she started with being an office Secretary and merely elevated to being an executive secretary. But at 52, she was the freshest, most energetic, first to get to work sort of person. Opposite her sat The executive secretary of Northwest. We will talk about her another time, suffice to say that the contrast made Rosky's beaming smile even more welcome every morning.

So, I had to ask her what was her secret of staying put for so many years at the same company, without seemingly not having an incentive to do so. I discovered that Rosky was a very well known traditional dancer of very high repute (thus those graceful movements), had a troupe that traveled and performed all over the world and had for many years represented Filipino cultural history, many of them sponsored by KLM. She said that she loved her job (and it showed) and that she had never had any ambition to hold a powerful management position, her only passion was to see the world and let the world see Philippines and Filipino culture. This was a big lesson for me- Very often, we assume, or at least I assume, that everyone is ambitious in the same way-wanting to rise up the ladders of corporate hierarchy, wanting to earn more money etc. Not true. There are people who are ambitious in a different way. They may actually prefer to be in the so called 'dead-end' jobs. Everyone does not want to handle more power and responsibility. There are other aspects to life- being an athlete, being a snooker, chess, or carom champion of your organization, learning an interesting language or just having a hobby to achieve work-life balance. There should be life beyond the rat race.

I say this because we all know that most, if not all (large IT companies providing some exceptions) Indian organizations deliberately create conditions, where it is considered good ethic to stay back late (even though afternoon hours are whiled away over tea and gossip, while the bosses waste time in meetings, returning at 5pm to assign work to their subordinates with a 9 am deadline the next morning. The result is that upon retirement, there are no hobbies, no diversions left anymore. No life left outside work. A particularly negative outcome of not keeping your people engaged either at work or otherwise, is that they then start looking into other people's businesses, start questioning everything, become generally negative. Because they are thinking about the work place all the time! There is no respite from office politics. There is resentment, comparisons over other people's salaries, promotions, even threats of leaving the organization time and again.

Every company cannot have an office like Google but there are plenty of ideas that can be borrowed easily and implemented without so much as spending a penny. To start with, all prospective employees must be asked (while hiring them) what they can do, other than work.

2011-06-22T21:02:00.001+05:30

Railway lamb Curry

You have heard of the 'Military' hotels in India – the name implies that they are eateries that serve non-vegetarian meals. This weekend however, while grocery shopping at a local grocery store, a pre-cooked meal box that read "Railway Mutton Curry" caught my eye. I already had an inkling that it had something to do with India. Curious, I picked it up to read the details and sure enough it was a throw-back to the British times in India, in the league of the "mulligatawny soup' and other such British Indian delicacies.

Surely, one can expect a few Indophiles to fall down if you shake a tree in London. What surprises me about these things is the extent to which India influenced that era not just in England but also amongst the various British colonies. This recipe therefore has travelled from the Chennai Central railway station to not just Britain but also subsequently to colonies such as South Africa and is being sold to this day, 100 years later! That is remarkable isn't it? (Remember, all of this happened without any internet, Facebook or other social sites!)

Amongst other similar surprises that I have had, is coming across a 100 year old Dravidian Tamil Hindu temple right in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). What was even more surprising was that it had a Tamil Pujari ( who could speak Tamil sparingly), was married to a Vietnamese women and still performed the rituals of the Puja, albeit, the Communist government that Vietnam had discouraged people from religious beliefs and had taken over the precincts of the temple for hand making toothpicks and other such things. On my father's prodding he told us the whole story of how he came to be at Saigon, as a little boy who escaped in a ship with his father. The temple however, was already there and he didn't really know much about who built it. ( Subsequently, with donations from a few Indians who were working there, the temple was renovated, the tooth-pick factory was moved out, although it needed some persuasion and the temple is in fine form I am told). For good measure, the Pujari also pointed us to the other (infamous though) India connection- a house that he said belonged to Charles Shobraj's Mother (the infamous crook, whose father was Indian, mother was Vietnamese).

Then, in the library of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos, I came across a book titled "Indian influences on the Philippines" (See the link below).

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL5345917M/Indian_influences_in_the_Philippines

It was actually a Phd. Thesis in the form of book written by a Filipino gentleman, who did his PhD. from University of Madras. If you read the book, you will find that many 100's of words that Filipinos use to this day, originated from either Tamil or Sanskrit. (The South African fruit 'Naartjie' at first sounds Dutch but its origins are Tamil) One of the major highways linking the mountainous North of Banuwe to the Bicol region in the East is called Maharlika. "Mukha" in Filipino means face. Fascinating! At one traffic circle in a small town, somewhere in the Visayas islands, is installed an idol of kali. However, there are no records of how it reached there. Visayas itself is the corruption of the name Vijendra (after King Vijendra, who ruled the parts of the Indonesian Islands).

Finally, however, one's elation at learning all of this is instantly punctured looking at today's India. Perhaps best explained by the title of the book "The Wonder that WAS India". The operative word being WAS.

PS: For those of you, who may be interested, this is the 150 th year of the arrival of Indian indentured labour in South Africa. Many books have been released on the gruesome history of what South African Indians went through. You may want to read: http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2277

THE FLAW IN MASLOW'S THEORY

2011-05-12T22:31:00.000+05:30

I once attended an interview with a leading Indian IT company. 9/11 had just happened, I was retrenched from a large Airline company and was trying to resume working.

No sooner had we finished exchanging very brief pleasantries, than I was asked about my percentile scores from nursery to high School, an explanation on the derivation of the theory of Black Scholes model AND my views on the flaw in Maslow's theory. This was the opening question for a sales position for selling Aviation related services (read outsourced call centers for large airlines). The interviewer was an IIM graduate ( probably 25 years old), brimming with cocky confidence, clearly relishing the sight of sweat on my brows and the fact that he had 'defeated' yet another 'rival'.

Not prepared for such dazzling display of intellectual prowess and faced with questions of such importance that would materially change the existence of human race, I failed the interview, infact miserably failed it- humiliated and red in the face, morale completely shattered and shaking with nervousness, I walked out of the room, head hanging down in shame, in less than 5 minutes of having entered it. Dejected, I walked back home, as hallucinations of failing math exams in calculus kept appearing with voices of my elderly relatives advising my father that opening a PCO booth at the corner of a busy thoroughfare in our colony would be the best career move for me. It would earn me a lot more than people earned in regular jobs.

However, You could probably imagine that I was curious to know who the bloody hell Maslow was, whose theory (or the flaw in it) was threatening to permanently interrupt my nascent career.

Maslow, a management theorist, (whatever that is), simply put, said this: People aspire for more material things early in their life such as money and gradually graduate to things like self esteem, standing in the society, respect etc. and he drew a pyramid to explain this. The flaw, again simply put, is that it is not necessary that people will follow Maslow's said trajectory and could desire and value self esteem right in the beginning. That is it- that's all that there is to it. Trust the management theorist and consultants to make common sense sound like rocket science.

You get the point I am making- why is there so much obsession with theory and so little with its application?

Take a look around you and you will find products with outdated technology everywhere- some very common, low tech, day to day examples- the whole world uses a variety of drip systems as toilet deodorants, we use phenyl balls. Visit the Yelehanka Air force station with machines like MIG-35 at display-the very pinnacle of Aviation technology that we have in the world, and hear about them on 'bhopus' (loud speakers) designed in Circa 1919-the rest of world uses slim smartly designed ones and much much smaller, that produce far better sound. But the technology simply hasn't permeated down. The world decorates its buildings and trees during festive time with special decorative lights, we still use the ones with large plastic beads- I have seen them since I was born- and am inclined to believe there is just one manufacturer of decorative lights in India and 1 single approved design. If this is the case with low technology items, you can imagine the state of high technology products.

Many years later, while talking to my wife, who is studying education, I learnt that Education, comes from the word 'Educe' which means 'to take out', or 'to extract' . We do it exactly the other way around. We drill rather than extract. Well, some amount of drilling is perhaps good, if the motive is to extract, but education cannot be 'planted'.

Anyway, back to the flaw in Maslow's theory, I noticed this wonderful signboard in a local grocery store and loved it. Maslow hasn't left me since the disastrous 2001 interview (and I thank my young interviewer for that) but now that I understand the flaw in his theory rather well, I do consciously look for opportunities where it can be applied. You can use Maslow's or other management theories as ammunition to unnerve and unsettle an unsuspecting interviewee or you could understand and apply them to make things better.

2011-05-10T09:59:00.001+05:30

EXODUS

Flipping through the Feb 20, 2011 issues of Business India, one statistic caught my eye:

Which is the number 1 state in India, in terms sending workers aboard? The top of the mind answer would be Kerela. And that was the correct answer, until 2009. Since then it has been UP. Just the first half of 2010 saw 68,375 migrant workers leaving, mostly to the Gulf.

This is a familiar phenomenon observed elsewhere- when Argentina was about to default on its sovreign debt in 2008, there was an exodus of people to UK, Italy, Spain. The flights were full- (one way). It was a short term phenomenon. In other cases however, like Mexico, Philippines and India, there is a recurring exodus- leaving for the US, or Japan and in India's case to the Middle East mostly. There is no prospect of a local job, so migration is forced. Real GDP in UP has been sliding with Behenji (may peace be upon her) at helm.

What does it mean for Airlines? Vast swathes of UP are underserved. Places like Bareilly (covered in the media, only when Priyanka Chopra opens her (much talked about) pout to let the world know that she schooled in Bareilly), have a fine airport controled by the Armed forces and can be opened to civilian traffic if Behenji wants it (may peace be upon her).

Those airlines that have been recently blessed (or should I say cursed) with a license to fly aboard, may want to consider launching flights from relatively uncontested territories like Lucknow, rather than do exactly what the others have done, launching yet another flight to Singapore/Bangkok from a Metro city. This is, a rather 'unglaomourous' option but then we have Ms.Chopra to lend all the glamour if a flight from Bareilly was ever launched. We may even have the other behenji (may peace be upon her) grace the occassion, given that elections in UP are near. Don't believe me? Ask Air Arabia- Where do you think traffic on their Nagpur flight comes from?

2011-05-08T11:43:00.001+05:30

Unusual hiring

The luxurious office of Northwest Airlines was located at the 19th floor of Cosco Tower at Hong Kong's Queen Road in Central Hong Kong. As I stepped into the corner office of the Vice President of Asia, I was stunned by the expanse of the room and the unfolding vista offered by the very large glass wall that overlooked the busy Kowloon bay area, as one got closer to it. That room was designed to portray power. For a brief moment, I felt I had stepped into the scene from 'Dewaar' where Iftekaar (playing Dabur Saheb) offers Amitabh Bachchan his first bundles of currency notes spread on the table and the camera moves to show the Marine Drive down below, clearly visible from the office….

I was there for an interview with the then VP of Asia at NWA (let's call him David). Awed by the set up, I was fumbling a bit when David asked me to take a seat and soon after asked me what it was that I wanted to do. I mumbled something about doing pricing. He smiled, looked at me intently and repeated his question, adding that he meant it in a much larger context, as in, my ambition in life. I hadn't expected the interview to start with this sort of talk, so could not muster any words at all for some time. Sensing my discomfort and nervousness, David sought to put me at ease by telling me his own story. A person with just high school education, he started his career as a baggage loader at TWA and rose to become VP Asia at NWA many years later. Another example- UPS Airline President Robert Lekites, started his career as delivery truck driver and rose to become president of the Airline company. There are numerous such examples of people, who were the most unlikely candidates for the top job, but succeeded nevertheless. I have narrated these story to make a point to which I will come to later in the article.

When you step into a 5-star hotel as a guest, unknown to you, the concierge Porter or Bell Boy, as they are called, has not just spotted you, he has noticed the car you got down from and its registration number, people accompanying you-and if these are women, he has judged whether they are your family, your office colleagues or otherwise. He has seen your shoes, the quality of your suit, the make of your mobile phone and the watch you are wearing. If you are a repeat guest, he has already welcomed you with your last name and reassuringly informed you that the hotel holds a reservation for you, even before you step infront of the reception desk. As a 21 year old, and their Manager, I was continuously challenged by them. They knew the views and vantage points of all the rooms. They knew the staff- all 500 of them by their first names. They could organize just about anything in a matter of minutes. They knew who the General Manager was sleeping with. They knew even whim and fancy of the repeat guests. A bell boy goes to every single room in the hotel and we are talking about 500 or more rooms here and he knows every nook and corner. If a switch wasn't working or there was something wrong with the carpet in the walkway, they were the first people to spot it. Infact, I would say, if a fire broke out, a fireman may lose his bearings, but a bell boy, is your sure shot bet to find a safe way out of the place.

In short, Bell Boys are far sharper than we think and do far more than their intended role. Yet will you ever think of a Bell Boy when looking to fill a role that requires sharp observation, continuous customer contact, ability to make polite conversation, and solve day to day issues. I would give a serious thought to enlisting them for an eventual role as managers in service organization, like the role of a Airport Manager at an Airline. I am not saying that every single Bell Boy should be made an airport manager, but just being a bell boy, does not exclude them from that possibility, so don't stop looking.

If you are an early riser, take an early morning stroll to the local street corner, where bundles of newspapers are dropped, and the local distributor's boys get down to the task of sorting them and putting the advertising inserts into them. Perhaps there's one boy there, who has done this long enough to help you with your direct marketing/advertising initiatives.

Ever spoken to a TTE (Train ticket examiner) of an express train? Imagine Abishek Bachchan's role in Bunty aur Bubli. A TTE would have traveled between a sector like Raipur and Delhi 100's of time. Could anyone know the route and the passengers who travel on it better than him? Why then would you want to hire a city boy, with a cozy confined up brining in a life full of luxuries to do a job that legitimately belongs to someone who has spent all his life traveling on trains?

Take the auto rickshaw drivers. Many of them are rowdy's and so is there public perception. But try talking to some, just to get through the noisy ride, if for nothing else. They go to every part of the city- to the railway station, bus station, city centre, suburbs, bazaars, high streets, red light areas, deal with the traffic police and local goons, who all have to be paid a 'hafta'. Some of them are in fact listed as informants for the police. Wouldn't you include them as part of your city sales team, even if just as the driver? I surely with responsibility for sales, it does not matter what I call him, but I know he would not fail me.

There are numerous other examples but the point I am making is this: Use imagination to hire. Leave the orthodoxy to the British Royals. They may make a living out of it. Just because someone has done something before is not an indication that he is good at it. You can't etch your designation on your forehead as an example of what skills you have. Infact, usually, if a candidate has done a job before, and you are hiring him for exactly the same job, he/she may bring little enthusiasm to it.

A high performance team needs all kinds of people, greater the diversity of experience, better the chances of achieving success. All fingers are not created equal, Yes you need an IIM graduate to take care of those complicated algorithms; yes you need the good looking bimbo (or brute) to attract some corporate eyeballs perhaps, or so people believe, but what a pity it would be, if you filled your ranks with people who are out of touch with the reality on the ground?

(CAN BE APPLIED ANYWHERE, BUT THE ARTICLE IS WRITTEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN INDIAN AIRLINE)

Deccan’s new avatar in Gujarat- Can it work?

2011-04-29T20:33:00.001+05:30

Deccan's new avatar in Gujarat- Can it work?

There have been many serial airline entrepreneurs in the world. It is as much an addiction as any. Branson and Neeleman are the two names that come to mind. Closer home is Capt. Gopinath, who is attempting is fourth Airline venture in Gujarat. With fuel at USD 125 per barrel, this requires considerable nerve. The house is however divided and the jury still out, on whether this will qualify as courage or audacity. Time will tell.

I just wanted to examine the possible directions this venture may take and how it could be grown through various stages, (a sort of a business plan, written more from the point of view raising finances):

STAGE 1: Getting off the ground-(Intra-State traffic)

Year 1

All the assurances from the Gujarat government mean nothing on the ground.

For a planner to actually implement flights and come up with a financially viable and coherent schedule is a nightmare. When planning them for the whole of India, there are at least a lot of airports available to play with. We are talking of only a dozen Airports here- most of which do not operate at night; many do not have fuel depots (it really matters in summers, when temperatures are high and payload is restricted). Most of all, ATC timings have remained unchanged for years. Just like the Indian courts, they function for a fraction of hours a day and then are in recess. Hopefully, corporatization of ATC will perhaps improve this situation. This isn't the full list of woes. The Airport Authority of India, a central government controlled body, feels no compulsion to lend an ear to what the state government may have to say. We have not even started talking about BCAS and CISF who are perpetually short of staff and only personal initiative from some of the more proactive commandants ensures that the day is saved. The Airport equipment- X-ray machines, Radars, passenger amenities, ground handling equipment….You get the idea of what it takes to get off the ground. Even with this list, the flight completion rate of the operator remains woefully low, because operations are so totally dependent on the elements without proper infrastructure. Passengers aren't likely to patronize a service that anything short of reliable.

When however, the above is achieved, the commercial target would be to get break-even traffic on the aircraft. This would mainly come from the point to point Gujarat intra-city, traffic, some from existing services, if any, and other from surface transport. For example, Surat to Bhavnagar is a lucrative route, as traveling by road can take easily upto 8 hours. Train takes longer. If, the promised additional new airports come on line sooner than anticipated, it will help improve Deccan's prospects.

STAGE 2: Growth beyond the state

Year2- 3

I believe that Deccan is not targeting getting into bigger planes beyond ATR's, if its stated objective is to provide intra-state traffic. I cannot, however, imagine that Deccan can survive independently just on the intra-Gujarat traffic, even if it makes a major break-through in terms of shifting traffic from surface transport modes. The fixed costs are far too high in India (Even if recent developments in third party maintenance provider availability and other related costs are taken into account) and it needs enough scale to cover all of them, which means growing the number of flights. This can happen in 2 ways:

1. Replicate the model in neighboring states: Deccan, can fairly easily replicate the model in Maharashtra, Goa and Rajasthan. They all fall within the range of an ATR and can easily be linked. This takes the scale up to about 30-40 airports. There are enough business linkages to provide sustainable air services, provided they come at the right price. AND, most importantly, the major carriers are too occupied with the trunk routes that it is unlikely that Deccan will find competition. Its real competition would be the railways and what has come to be known in India as 'Volvo' bus services (law of marketing: first entrant defines the category).

2. Become a feeder: I bounced this suggestion off a few people but they weren't convinced. It is true that Airlines that have an established network into Gujarat out of Mumbai have little incentive to change anything. But an Airline like Indigo, with one plane type, could use a feeder at AMD, can it not? Look at the US market- they are full of feeder carriers. Some are part equity owned by the major airlines and share the infrastructure keeping their overheads and costs low. While we are a long way off from achieving the traffic scale available to these feeder carriers, I have at least one very strong reason to believe that the time has come for a feeder carrier in India.

Currently most of the traffic to Gujarat's cities (other than AMD) is flowing over Mumbai. So, if you were coming from Calcutta and wanted to go to Jamnagar, you would have to connect via Mumbai. However, as is very well known, Mumbai is full up to the brim and will have no choice but to push out the smaller planes completely. That plan is dependent on the upgrade of Juhu Airport. Airlines will have no choice but either upgrade their Gujarat flights into larger code C aircrafts or move to Juhu. Looking at the number of hurdles, I suspect neither will materialize. However, the unintended consequence of this could be that traffic to Gujarat from the rest of India, that is today flowing over Mumbai could move to flowing over Ahmadabad, if (Big if), a feeder network is built at AMD. Let me explain: For all the traffic that is NOT local, ie, between Mumbai and Gujarat, there is no need to connect at Mumbai if an alternative was available to connect to any/all Gujarat cities via AMD. Deccan can provide this alternative. It is a great opportunity for AMD Airport if they can see it. They must therefore work with Deccan to make this happen.

On Deccan's part, instead of simply adding more flights to maximize utilization of the aircraft, they must align their departure and arrival schedules to the schedule banks of other major airlines serving AMD, such that their flights can get feed/Defeed flights arriving into/departing from AMD. Even without a formal interline agreement, Indian public is smart enough to figure out connection opportunities. That is not to say, that it isn't important to gear your systems to offer formal interline/code share services, particularly in light of the next stage (STAGE 3).

STAGE 3: Become an International Feeder

Year 3-5

We are now really dreaming, getting unrealistic, are we? But assume, 3 years down the line, Deccan Gujarat has been a resounding success, what will it need to continue to grow? Assuming that major airports in Gujarat have been activated for night operations, Deccan could introduce an early morning bank of flights that de feed traffic off the international arriving flights. In addition, the early morning bank can only increase utilization. If the government allows, it is possible that a foreign carrier may want to formalize this interline relationship into a larger role through equity. Deccan must ensure that its mission critical IT systems are geared to offer these services that can add a much required revenue stream and have a very positive impact on the yields. Sure the cost goes up too, but today, these services can be offered at much less overhead than ever before. Airlines like Jetblue in the US and GOL in Brazil are doing it.

STAGE 4: Launch International flights

Year 5 and beyond

You are laughing hysterically by now. But, look, all business plans can be unrealistic. Have you ever come across a business plan that shows negative growth in a given year? No right? Yet there are recession years where companies de-grow. Likewise, there is no harm in being a bit wishful when envisioning the future course.

So, the ATR is ETOPS rated for 120 minutes. A 2 hour (250-300 NMs) flight is more than within the profitable range of an ATR. You could probably offer flights to Karachi and some other destinations in Pakistan but that's about it. For other destinations like Muscat and Salalah in Oman, lesser known destinations in UAE like RAK and Fujairah and Bandar Abbas in Iran, Deccan would need to get into longer range aircraft. All of these are pretty poorly connected and can at max, support 1-operator. This cannot perhaps happen today, but 5 years down the line, anything is possible.

If you however ask the Deccan watchers, they will say, ah…why get into these complicated models, so much thinking is simply not required! The real plan is to get the company off the ground and then sell it off to a willing party! There are plenty of fools out there, who want to get into the Airline business. J

2011-04-28T21:15:00.001+05:30

Reverse hubbing?

Air India is in the news for all the wrong reasons so often, that even when it does something really sensible, it goes virtually unnoticed. Take for instance, its decision to establish an operational control center at Dubai, with the reasoning that too many AI flights are bound for Dubai and it therefore makes sense to operationally manage them through a central network control from there. I believe this is very sound reasoning. I have been thinking about this for sometime albeit from a more commercial angle.

India is sandwiched between the heavyweight mega-hubs-The Middle Eastern trinity-Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi and the Asian quartets- Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. These international hubs and their home carriers have been in the making for 20-30 years with oil money and the sub continental traffic funding the former while Asian tiger economies and Chinese growth, funding the latter. All of these have capacities above 50-100 million. A lot of silly money has been thrown on rearing the airlines to give them the scale and reach they have today. Infact, if you ask the network Planners from Emirates, such is their appetite for global dominance, they will tell you they are still not happy with the payload range of planes available to them today. For instance, they have not been able to dominate the Americas (US, Canada) to the extent possible; particularly the US/Canada West Coast remains virgin territory, as far as MEB3 are concerned. The airframe manufactures will tell you their great dilemma- on one hand, is this 1000 pound gorilla (or 3 gorillas), which is fortunately or unfortunately their largest customer today and on the other is the rest of the old world order. This 1000 pound gorilla is not shy of trumpeting its weight at the slightest of provocation, demanding aircraft designed specifically to offer payload-range solely to suit their network requirements.

But I digress from the topic I want to tackle in this note, which is reverse Hubbing.

Progressive liberalization of Indian bilateral air rights has ensured that even secondary cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Goa, Nagpur etc. are opening up to foreign carriers. Our Hubs, at Mumbai and Delhi, cannot at present handle traffic growth from these cities, and as a result, people are choosing to connect out of these International hubs outside India.

Given this scenario, does it not make sense for a carrier like Indigo or Spicejet to launch what I call 'Reverse Hubbing'? Let me explain:

Indian traffic is fragmented over 50 plus cities. India has 35 cities with over a million people that have an Airport that can handle Code C aircrafts. I talked about 7 hubs around us in Middle East and South East Asia. Multiply those number and you get 245 city-pairs. Not a small number. Multiple those by 4 daily frequencies in both directions and you get 2000 flights per day. That is not a small number either. Just as a fly Dubai, Air Asia, Tiger Air or Air Arabia can fly from their respective hubs at Dubai, KL, Singapore or Sharjah respectively to Lucknow, so can Indian carriers, as the bilateral allows that. Why not build operational bases in these 7 hubs and launch flights to all 35 Indian cities? The flight can be scheduled such that it originates at an Indian city to avoid violating the BASA, however, the operational base is used to rotate the aircraft between various city pairs. It is essentially a hub operation, but since it is outside the home country, I call it reverse hubbing. Very similar to what Ryan Air does, but EU is one single market, unlike the above.

Instead of resisting the liberalization therefore, Indian LCC carriers may in fact want to hasten it and even ask for open skies. In the end, an Indian carrier will know the Indian market better than foreign competitors and thus must prevail over them, eventually. The trick is to get the scale as fast as possible.

2011-04-26T16:04:00.001+05:30

The New Mumbai Airport

The New Mumbai Airport offers the best ever opportunity for the newcomers to level the playing field against incumbents.

The protest season is about to start, as the New Mumbai Airport gains traction. Expect even the corporate big-wigs to join just as they did when the New Bangalore Airport went online. And if you are overwhelmed with a feeling of Déjà vu, well, expect even more.

In the case of Bangalore, I expected that some intelligent soul, an industry veteran, people exposed to the world, Industry think tanks (such as CAPA), perhaps the Aviation press (if such a thing exists in India), would look at precedents around the world to suggest a solution. Because certainly, Bangalore's situation was not unique. Other cities around the world have been put through this dilemma of what to do with old infrastructure, once a new facility replaces it. Instead, we had a CEO of an IT company resorting to displaying placards and picketing outside the old Airport, in a cheap publicity stunt. Nobody even mentioned the Wright Amendment and the formula used to carve capacity between Love Field and DFW Airport in Dallas.

But this is not about Bangalore. This is about Mumbai. The situation is a bit different in this case, because Mumbai is so short of Airport capacity that both the new and the old Airport will continue to function ( and possibly the Juhu Airport will be made operational too for commercial flights). Given a chance, no airline would want to give up its operations at the old Airport and move to the new one, due to a number of issues- Distance from the city and lack of proper Airport transport in terms of a high speed train. Besides, cost of operation at the new airport in all likelihood is going to be far more than the old one. However, most certainly, some airlines have to shift to the new facility, as the old Airport is operating above its capacity and it's only going to get worse in the next few years until the new airport comes on line.

The central question then is: How would the authorities divide Airline operators between the old and the new airport?

In order to decongest the old Airport, will it require that some airlines be 'forced' to operate out of the new airport? And who will these be? All the foreign carriers, perhaps? Remember, discriminating between carriers on grounds of nationality is in contravention to the laws of EU and of ICAO and could seriously entangle the whole process into a legal fight.

Let us examine some similar case studies elsewhere:

Moscow has 2 Airports- one privately owned and home to most foreign carriers operating into Moscow, the other govt. owned (but proposed to be privatized soon) which is home to the home carrier and some other carriers from the so called 'Eastern Block'. Most carriers chose to operate from the private Airport, so there was no need for intervention.

There is the infamous case of Milan's Malpensa Airport. Italy insisted that routes carrying more than two million passengers a year should continue to use Milan's established Linate AirportLinate Airport (IATA: LIN, ICAO: LIML) one of the two major airports of Milan, Italy along with Malpensa International Airport. Due to its proximity to Milan compared to Malpensa, it is mainly used for domestic and short-haul international flights, with over 9. , because this would restrict its use to the Rome-Milan run operated by Alitalia, the Italian national carrier. Other Airlines were forced to use the poorly connected and untested new Airport at Malpensa.
There were also expected difficulties for passengers making onward journey into the city of Milan, as no rail or metro links from Malpensa to the City center existed. There were only bus services along an often congested motorway. Sounds familiar?

Another case in point: The London Air Traffic Distribution Rules came into effect on April 1 1978 and were applied retroactively from the beginning of April 1977. These rules were designed to achieve a "better" distribution of traffic between London Heathrow and London Gatwick, the UK's two main international gateway airports, to meet Government policy objectives of the time.

The 1978 London Air Traffic Distribution Rules (TDRs) stated that at peak times:

(a) Airlines that did not already operate an international scheduled air service from/to Heathrow prior to April 1 1977 would not be permitted to commence operations at that airport. Such airlines would have to use Gatwick for all their London-based operations;

(b) Airlines that did not already operate at Heathrow prior to this law taking effect could still commence domestic scheduled services at the airport provided that the BAA and the Secretary of State for Transport granted them permission to do so;

(d) All new all-cargo, business and general aviation flights were banned from Heathrow and Gatwick from 1 April 1978.

All of the above examples indicate a formula to equitably and justly distribute traffic between airports in the same or similar catchment area. Mumbai does present a somewhat complicated situation, however, there are pointers to some solutions that I wanted to explore:

1. If you examine the slot division and capacity deployed, you will find that incumbent airlines such as Jet Airways and Air India control 1/5^th of all slots available at Mumbai. Jet Airways alone deploys 20% or one-fifth of the seats available out of Mumbai Airport. This is little less than double of what an Airline like Kingfisher has. The situation is much the same in Delhi, if a little less imbalanced. This share is unlikely to change, as there is no more space left to grow.

2. Incumbent airlines like Jet Airways are far less likely to move out of the old airport, as they dominate the better slots, and therefore enjoy an advantage over their competitors.

3. Air India, in a business decision, decided to move its International schedule bank to New Delhi, as the new Airport allowed more flexibility to operate a hub and spoke network vis-à-vis Mumbai that is completely choked. Given that Air India's major stake holder and possibly its major customer as well, is the Government of India, it also makes good sense to be in Delhi.

4. Unlike in the 80's or 90's, the world's airlines are far more aligned into the 3 major alliances- Star, One World and Sky Team. In addition, the fourth major block is the so called MEB3- The Middle East Big 3-Qatar, Emirates, and Etihad, that remain non-aligned but have much the same strategies. India's own major carriers have chosen to align themselves- with AI becoming part of Star and Kingfisher becoming part of One-World. Jet Airways has been making aggressive overtures to both Star and Sky team, however, industry observers believe Jet will go with Star.

5. The newcomers like Kingfisher and possibly even Indigo and Spicejet therefore stand to gain the most out of the New Mumbai Airport. It offers carriers like Kingfisher, the best chance ever to level the playing field against the incumbents, differentiate the product and compete effectively. Take Kingfisher for example: it has been unable to offer a coherent hub and spoke network to its International flights, competing mainly for the point to point traffic, which has grown fast enough to keep them going. However, it is not going to justify building an International network, if you have no schedule bank to feed it. The advantage it may enjoy today on some short-haul International markets, is fast depleting, as the market fragments between more carriers coming on line. Sooner or later, they will have to evolve into a proper network carrier. Kingfisher must continue to tightly integrate with the one-world carriers (possibly even equity if the government allows it) It must continue to develop One world Alliance dependencies on its domestic and sub-continental network to such an extent that it must make it necessary for all one-world carriers to move along with it to the new Airport. The move to the new airport is not without risks, as it is dependent on support infrastructure. But there are advantages- such the incentives that the new Airport may provide to subsidize the move. In addition, it also opens up the very lucrative Pune market and the industrial belt cities of Maharashtra. Failing to do so, could result in Kingfisher being in the same situation as Virgin Atlantic today.

6. Kingfisher has also struggled with its fleet- having 2 different kinds of cabins even within the A320's required them to launch 2 brands- Kingfisher and Kingfisher Red. The new Airport offers them the opportunity to operate a hub and spoke network, while they can choose to operate the fleet configured for an LCC operation, out of their existing slots at Old Mumbai Airport. This will result in a split operation scenario driving costs somewhat higher; however, it will also allow division of risk and minimal disruption of cash flow. A smooth transition as far as the changeover to the new Airport infrastructure is concerned will take time to settle down and is not without risks. But do you have a better idea?

7. Finally, this would probably be the first time ever that Airport capacity is neatly carved out based on the 3 large alliances and Airlines operating within them. With AI calling Delhi its Hub, incumbent Jet Airways happier than ever at its old Mumbai Airport Den, and Kingfisher finally finding space at the New Mumbai Airport to transform itself into a true network carrier.

2011-04-16T22:37:00.001+05:30

Market Research: A neglected function in the Indian Airline Industry?

The CCO's phone starts to ring abruptly. Ordinarily, this would be a non-event except that it is 3 am in the morning and the much harassed CCO had only just completed half the 40 winks that he manages to get every night. Of course, it is the MD-owner of the Airline on the other side of the phone. And, of course he is in a daylight zone, somewhere in Europe-excited and talking hurriedly. The minister has been so kind to approve the plan to import 20 aircraft worth hundreds of crores. Not just this, in an extraordinarily generous gesture, the Minister has even agreed for allocating parking bays so the aircraft could be imported. There is just one small condition to this-They must launch a flight to his constituency somewhere in an obscure corner of India. That is not even the major issue. Now that the aircraft are finally arriving, the CCO must figure out where to use them. And quickly too, because the aircraft will start arriving in exactly 2 weeks time lest the Minister is shuffled out and his successor has a change of heart. The MD has spoken for about 2 hours about his wit and negotiation skills. It is 5 am now. There is no time to waste. Soon the CCO may find himself addressing a press conference in this regard.

The CCO scribbles down the names of a few cities on a scrap of toilet paper, while sitting in the potty and then decides to call his crack team: consisting of a failed property dealer, 2 fresher Hotel Management graduates (from Sri-Devi College of Hotel Management, Chickpet, Bangalore) and a retired Indian airline man. The team would be sent for a 'recce' trip to the 8 cities in question where they will do the following drill: They will meet some touts, local bullies and union leaders around the airport area, or the local MLA's cousin who could be possible candidates for PSA's. Then they will go and meet a handful of city Travel Agents, who are industry experts with years of experience in organizing Tirupati-Tirumala tours. You may see them salivating at the first mention of the possible flight to the city. Some may drop names of local MP's/ MLA's to get the coveted GSA contract. The evening is reserved for getting drunk and some merry-making. As for the prospects of the flight, you will get as much relevant information from them, as you can get in a film magazine. Armed with this anecdotal information and some figments of imagination, a 'report' would be drafted next morning and handed over to the CCO with an 'All iz well' conclusion. Oh and the fresher's, they haven't yet taken to the game, so they feel a bit guilty. They do some extra research on the internet about companies operating in the city and add those names in the report, as their contribution.

Welcome to the Indian Airline industry-You see it is almost philosophical- Life is about trial and error and so my friend, is the route planning process. So what if the Airlines are dabbling in assets worth millions of dollars, not one of them can produce a coherent 5 year, 3 year, even 1 year route plan driven by market research. That is because of the belief, that the universe will unfold as it has to, whether one plans or not. And when the day of reckoning comes, it must be won by way of Jugaad, the all Indian concept- the cure for all ills, for all human suffering. Ladies and gentlemen, hold your breath, for this certified management best practice will launch India into realms of a super power nation.

Could airlines learn something for an FMCG and the process of launching a new product? The process, in an FMCG could start almost 2 years in advance with a good budget assigned for market research. Just how much work and thought and detail goes into developing even a soap brand could be mind-boggling. Ask some of the advertising people and they will tell you how much they dread being on a soap company account because all that could be said about soap has already been said. I won't be surprised if we soon come across a brand that claims that it can negate or cure the harmful effects of nuclear radiation.

Some may say, this is the function of margins available in the business- an Airline's 2% net margin vs. an FMCG's 15%. However, I believe the process can adapted to reflect the realities of the airline industry. The truth is that Market research as a function does not even exist in most airlines.

Disclaimer: This article is not a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any events or persons, employed in the airline industry is purely intentional and deliberate.

Airline business models

2011-04-09T11:18:00.001+05:30

Airline business models

Lufthansa: You buy all the airlines around you that have failed or failing and replace their management with Germans.

Virgin Atlantic: Just like the others in the business, you too connect all the far flung, erstwhile British colonies or common wealth countries to each other via London, except while launching the flights you appear in the national costume of the country with a semi-clad, almost naked siren in your arms.

All US Majors: Just when you are about to go bankrupt, you convince your government to change the rules of the game.

Ryan Air: You make threatening, intimidating and using the 4 –letter word with abandon, part of your companies vision-mission statements.

British Airways: In between press statements of strike by your cabin attendants, you sometimes try to draw attention away by making acquisition announcements.

Finnair: You do exactly as Nokia does

Emirates: You borrow money from the Casino owner to gamble in his casino and then you make the biggest gamble ever. The casino owner makes sure all others lose to make you win.

Etihad: You make the same gamble as Emirates but you use Australian management.

Qatar: You convert your airline into a giant copier machine, copying everything that Emirates does.

Qantas: You call yourself the world's safest airline every time a serious accident happens

Singapore Airlines: You discover you can't rid of your advertising icon, nor of your mentors.

Kingfisher: You borrow huge sums of money to finance your airline. When your creditors discover you can't repay, you chop your stake into small pieces to distribute amongst them. You invite them to IPL cricket matches to keep them in good humor

Air India: Your make about 2 dozen turnaround plans and pull out the appropriate one from the shelf depending on who is in-charge that particular week. Your turnaround plan is as old as the company itself.

Pakistan International Airlines: You put all your employees through bomb diffusion training multiple times every year.

Spicejet: You sell your company to a new owner every 2 years at twice the price to allow him to convert some of his black money into white.

Jet Airways: Every time you make a serious error of judgment, you swear on your mother and blame it on your CEO.

Gulf Air: You change your business model and CEO every 6 months

Air New Zealand: You get your employees and your CEO to model naked in your adverts.

Tiger Airways: You run the airline as a cozy British old boy's school club.

Air Asia: You find a proxy for your ownership in every ASEAN country

Disclaimer:

This article is meant to make you laugh. If you take offense at what is being said, you will do great disservice to the author. If you notice some glaring omissions, in terms of airlines not mentioned, it is most likely because these airlines may hold future job prospects for the author. It is his intention to continue to preserve his employability while wanting to poke some fun.

List of Aviation books

2011-03-24T20:13:00.001+05:30

To my Industry Colleagues:

May we build, the best, most informed, most innovative aviation community in the world.

List of Aviation books

I was taking stock on the weekend. A list resulted in the process which I thought may be useful to you.

A. I have tried to broadly classify the books that I have recommended based on their major contents. Those which don't fit in any category come under General category although that should not take away from their importance.

B. With every book, I have attached an Amazon link, you can easily know what book it is, how much it costs and where to find it. Many of these books are now out of publication (nevertheless important) and can only be purchased second hand from Amazon. Some books also have a description and a 'look Inside' so you can see the table of contents. If you want to read book reviews, some of the books listed have been reviewed by AERLINES magazine (http://www.aerlines.nl/)

C. In general, Aviation focus books are being published by Ashgate (http://www.ashgatepublishing.com). Most material published is academic. However, some is also practical. Naval K. Taneja is an academic from a US university, who regularly writes on Aviation Strategy. Others include: Stephan Holloway, Paul Clark , Rigas Doganis (very likeable, on the board of HYD Airport and more an Aviation Historian than a strategist (in my opinion).

D. This is quite a substantive list but it is obviously still not exhaustive and may be even lopsided by the fact that many of the books that are in the list are the ones that I have read guided my own interests. There may be other areas that are not reflected adequately. Such as space travel and what Virgin is doing in that area. You may notice that I have not included any of Branson's books. I don't like them. Nor do I have any of the RM books. They tend to be very theoretical.

Airline Basics/Airline Economics: Many of these books are used as course material book in universities such as Cranfield in core modules and therefore are great for beginners:

1. Straight and Level

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Straight-Level-Practical-Airline-Economics/dp/0754672581/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288687908&sr=1-1

2. Profit Strategies for Airlines

http://www.amazon.com/Profit-Strategies-Transportation-Aviation-Books/dp/0071385053

(the name of this book is misleading, it covers a very wide area in short chapters. Good for beginners to read through)

3. Flying off-course: Airline Economics and Marketing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Off-Course-Rigas-Doganis/dp/0415447372/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288688318&sr=1-1

Airline Strategy:

4. Boeing vs. Airbus

http://www.amazon.com/Boeing-versus-Airbus-International-Competition/dp/1400078725/ref=sr_1_97?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288602230&sr=1-97

( Absolutely must read)

5. Flight of the Titans: A380 vs. 787 etc. ,

http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Titans-Boeing-Airbus-Battle/dp/0753510146/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288608201&sr=1-1-fkmr0

( Must read book)

6. Airbus A380- Superjumbo of the 21st Century

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Airbus-A380-Superjumbo-21st-Century/dp/0760338388/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288700267&sr=1-2#noop

( I wanted to really read this book to enhance my understanding of the aircraft, but couldn't find it, not even at Cranfield)

7. Stormy Skies

http://www.ashgatepublishing.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&pageSubject=314&title_id=9505&edition_id=12534

(This is a recent book by Paul Clark and I have not yet had an opportunity to lay my hands on a copy. But the book reviews and contents and knowing Paul Clark, this is a must read).

8. Looking Beyond the Runway- Naval K. Taneja

( Again a recent book by Taneja and written in the same style as is other books, this is the first book, that looks at other industries for solutions for Airline industry and Benchmarks the best practises followed in other industries.)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Looking-Beyond-Runway-Nawal-Taneja/dp/1409400999/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288688893&sr=1-2-fkmr1#noop

9. The Future of Pricing: How Airline pricing has inspired a revolution

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Pricing-Airline-Inspired-Revolution/dp/0230600190/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288697812&sr=8-2

10. Airline Business in 21st Century

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Airline-Business-21st-Century/dp/0415208831/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288697887&sr=1-1

11. The Global Airline Industry

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Global-Airline-Industry-Aerospace-PEP/dp/0470740779/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288697945&sr=1-2

( Belobela, Prof. Barnhart and Odoni are the MIT 'gang'. OR Practitioners (except Odoni), they have done a lot to operational problems. Read Chapter 5 and 6 for fleet planning)

Airline company Books

12. Nuts: South West Airlines crazy recipe for business and personal success

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nuts-Southwest-Airlines-Business-Personal/dp/0767901843/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288689806&sr=1-3

( Mr. Damania tried to copy him driving a exotic Bike every morning on his way to work to Sahara's HQ in Lucknow. if only had he stuck to the Poultry business)

13. The Southwest Airlines Way

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Southwest-Airlines-Way-Relationships-Performance/dp/0071458271/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288690349&sr=1-1

( I don't really recommend this book, as it is more an academic work, but people in OCC/operations/Ground handling and HR may find it useful. It describes the organizational structures and reporting relationships in Southwest. I gifted it to an HR HEAD and think it may have found its way to the waste bin, because I never saw it back)

14. Lessons in Loyalty: How SouthWest Airline does it

http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Loyalty-Southwest-Airlines-Insiders/dp/0976252856/ref=pd_sim_b_35#_

( haven't read yet, but a good one for HR)

15. Flying High: How Jetblue found and CEO David Neeleman beat the competition

Blue Streak: Inside Jet Blue, the upstart that rocked the industry

http://www.amazon.co.uk/JetBlue-Founder-David-Neeleman-Competition/dp/0471655449/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288690790&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Streak-Jetblue-Upstart-Industry/dp/1591840589/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288690790&sr=1-2

( I read both as part of a barter deal. I bought one and a 'lawyer' friend bought the other. The barter deal was his idea, being a lawyer. However, only 'Flying high is recommended'. I have had serious interest in David Neeleman and this book traces his journey from Morris Air to SouthWest to Jetblue to West Jet. Ofcourse, it does include Azul Air as it was before he announced his Brazilian venture. The other thing that this book tells you about is the journey of Navitaire. Many people in India loudly congratulate themselves on Aviation IT. The fact is that we have not yet been able to design a world-class product.

16. Simplifly- A Deccan Odyssey

http://www.flipkart.com/simply-fly-captain-gopinath-book-8172238428

( Some sneer as to why I have this book on the list and some others suggest the book is 'mis-titled'- It should have been 'A Deccan Ordeal', instead of 'A Deccan Odyssey'. I really think it is an important book to read because it is the first person account of setting up an Airline company in India and the problems faced in doing so. A 'critique' that I wrote (perhaps too critical) was met with stony silence. Read it without prejudice and as with other things in life, it will be educational.

17. Moments of Truth

http://www.amazon.com/Moments-Truth-Jan-Carlzon/dp/0060915803/ref=pd_sim_b_33

( Many people think this book is outdated, as it talks about how Jan Carlzon reinvented SAS. I read it while at ITC-Sheraton and I beg to differ. This is a must read for all those who face customers whether internal or external. And still very relevant. Infact, I think it should be made compulsory reading for all beginners. (Dare to Dream by Bachi Karkaria, a book on Rai Bahadur M S Oberoi, was compulsory reading for us).

18. RyanAir: How a small Irish Airline conquered Europe

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ryanair-Small-Airline-Conquered-Europe/dp/1845132939/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288696642&sr=8-1

(Must read)

19. Michael O'leary: A life in full-flight

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-OLeary-Life-Full-Flight/dp/1844880567/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288696642&sr=8-2

( I haven't yet read this one, but given his reputation for dirty talking, I would f…ing love to :) )

20. Easy Jet- The story of Britain's biggest Airline

http://www.amazon.com/EasyJet-Britains-Biggest-Low-Cost-Airline/dp/1845132475/ref=pd_sim_b_2

21. Driving Change: The UPS approach to Business

22. The Big Brown: The untold story of UPS

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Brown-Untold-Story-UPS/dp/0787994022/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IWFZRYLVUVJP9&colid=2CZB3KRC44FVT

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Driving-Change-Ups-Approach-Business/dp/1401302882/ref=pd_sim_b_1

( I read driving change, although there are 2 books on UPS. It helped me understand that for a Cargo Airline, network planning can be done by operations guys. And why for instance, a Jet Airways flight on BOM-PVG-SFO failed (because the operations guys took over the route planning process without regard to commercial concerns) . It tells you very nicely how the UPS hub in Louisville was developed. Someday I would like to go and see it.)

23. FedEx: Changing how the world does Business

24. FedEx Delivers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/FedEx-Delivers-Innovating-Outperforming-Competition/dp/0471715794/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.com/Changing-How-World-Does-Business/dp/1576754138/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288703242&sr=1-1

( Again there are 2 books, but I read the first one, that traces FedEx's early history. It is a remarkable history and I was most surprised to read about the Nagpur story in this book)

Airline Finance

25. Foundations of Airline Finance

http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Airline-Finance-Bijan-Vasigh/dp/0754677702/ref=pd_ys_home_shvl_14

( Bijan Vasingh teaches at Embry Riddle)

26. Airline Finance by Peter Morrell

http://www.amazon.com/Airline-Finance-3rd-Peter-Morrell/dp/0754671348/ref=pd_sim_b_2

( Final word on Airline finance)

27. Handbook of Airline Finance

http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Airline-Finance-Gail-Butler/dp/0079823793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288702426&sr=1-1

( These Mc-Graw Hill publications are all out of print, but luckily a friend in US bought them for me just in time)

Airports

28. Airport Systems- Planning, design and management

http://www.amazon.com/Airport-Systems-Planning-Design-Management/dp/0071384774/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288700516&sr=1-12

(Not a more comprehensive resource available. Anybody worth his salt in Airport Management must read in full)

29. Strategic Airport Planning

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strategic-Airport-Planning-Robert-Caves/dp/0080427642/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288701013&sr=1-15

( Haven't read this, looks like a good book)

30. Naked Airport

http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Airport-Cultural-Revolutionary-Structure/dp/0226304566/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288700516&sr=1-10

(this is just good literature on Airport. Good for people in Branding)

31. A week at the Airport: A Heathrow diary

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Week-Airport-Heathrow-Diary/dp/1846683599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288701578&sr=1-1

(Again this is literature on Airport. If someone in advertising or PR were given an Airport account, he/she must read this. Also I found it really funny, because the author is British and his sarcasm is so refined, you can miss it if you are not concentrating).

Route/ Network Planning/Operations/Fleet

32. Buying the big Jets

http://www.amazon.com/Buying-Big-Jets-Paul-Clark/dp/0754670910/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288702000&sr=8-1

(this is a classic course book by Paul Clark and many revised and updated versions have been published)

33. Beyond Airline disruptions

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Beyond+Airline+disruptions&x=10&y=20

( Definitive reading for OCC and disruption budget planning people)

34. Aviation Maintenance Management

http://www.amazon.com/Aviation-Maintenance-Management-Harry-Kinnison/dp/007142251X/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I5ARJHVAZI1ML&colid=1RWRCH1E7JDWQ

( Not started on this one yet, if I was working in an MRO, this would be asset)

35. Airport Slots

http://www.amazon.com/Airport-Slots-Achim-I-Czerny/dp/0754670422/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288702231&sr=1-1

( This is a lot of theory and a thick book, I could not get through, but it help explains the legal issues behind slots and important in a merger scenario when slots are being acquired)

36. Handbook of Airline Operations

http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-of-airline-operations/dp/0079823866/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288702535&sr=1-1

37. Handbook of Airline Economics

http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Airline-Economics-Darryl-Jenkins/dp/0076070875/ref=pd_sim_b_1

38. Airline Route Planning

http://www.amazon.com/Airline-Route-Planning-John-Grover/dp/0632023244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288702981&sr=1-1

( This book is out of print. Luckily, I got a copy from an Airshow. The book is written quite badly. But anyone who can through it, will know about aircraft performance, regulation on various airfields and will be able to thoroughly understand the operational side of route planning, I promise you.

General Books

39. Free Flight- From Airline hell to a new age of travel

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Flight-Airline-Hell-Travel/dp/1586480405/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288698440&sr=1-11

(this book made a very big impact on me. I also cursed myself for not reading it sooner, because Cirrus, one of the 2 companies that the Author, James Fallows talks about, ( the other being Eclipse, which collapsed but is being resuscitated by UTC) is based in Duluth, Minnesota, very close to Minneapolis which was the NWA HQ. I could have visited them.

Read it for a good understanding of VLJ's and General Aviation and possibilities.

40. An angel in the cockpit

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angel-Cockpit-Vijaypat-Singhania/dp/8174364277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288699235&sr=1-1

( Very few people know that Vijaypat ( yes, the other Vijay) Singhania also ran an airline, much before poultry and other farmers got into it. I read it for personal interest. I had climbed into one of his dakota's as a young child growing up at Pantnagar (Near Nainital) Airport just to be able to see how an aircraft is (no ride included). I fully expect him to write another one on his 'other' world record- in the 'hot air balloon' (the literal one).

41. Fly by wire: The geese, the glide, the miracle on the Hudson

http://www.amazon.com/Fly-Wire-Geese-Miracle-Hudson/dp/B0044KN1MG/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288699903&sr=1-2

( Not read yet, but I would really love to AND I would insist that others do to, to improve upon the pathetic safety culture that we have)

That's it.

Wake up call on Defence

2008-01-17T14:48:00.000+05:30

Anurag Viswanath: Clouds of history

Anurag Viswanath / New Delhi January 17, 2008

Apart from the border dispute, China's encirclement of India remains a serious cause for concern.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s maiden visit to China with an “open mind” concluded on a high note with the joint declaration on “A Shared Vision for the 21st Century”, a commitment to building a harmonious world of durable peace and common prosperity through developing the Strategic and Cooperative Partnership. The declaration supports China’s commitment to support India’s aspirations in United Nations, cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy, besides positively viewing India’s participation in regional and sub-regional multilateral process and furthering bilateral trade.

Clichés aside, the visit was symbolic — issues such as the border dispute will fester in the background. The PM’s visit to China provides not only an opportunity to deepen a win-win economic relationship but also, importantly, an opportunity to take a well-deserved cue from the Chinese to delineate what should be Indian foreign policy’s pragmatic face.

The visit marked a sustained effort to institutionalise high-level visits and sustain the momentum of dialogue, which received a boost after former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit in 2003. The 2003 visit had concluded on a high note of the Principles for Relations and Comprehensive Cooperation, which marked India’s tacit recognition of Tibet as a part of China, in lieu of China’s recognition of Sikkim. Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit in 2005 led to an agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the settlement of the boundary question, and in 2006, President Hu Jintao’s visit reaffirmed the Strategic and Cooperative Partnership.

The bilateral visit comes after the conclusion of the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation between India and China in 2006 which culminated in the first ever joint military exercise “Hand in Hand” held in Kunming, Yunnan province, in December 2007. This also comes on the heels of the 11 rounds of discussions between the Special Representatives on the unresolved border issue and the Third Round of Strategic Dialogue held in Beijing in 2007.

The visit took place in the backdrop of growing trade between the two. Sino-Indian trade which was $2.1 billion in 2000 has grown dramatically. It touched a high of $35 billion in 2007, up 54 per cent compared to 2006, making China India’s second largest trading partner. The target of $40 billion by 2010 set out in 2006 will be realised earlier.

On this visit, the target is to be further pushed to $60 billion a year. Border trade between India and China has resumed at the Nathu La pass after a hiatus of 44 years in 2006, facilitating the export of 15 listed Chinese goods and 29 Indian goods. However, trade is uninspiring at a meagre $1 billion.

This visit will also take forward the recommendations of the Joint Study Group (Feasibility Study) on the Regional Trading Arrangement (RTA) and measures to facilitate the same. While there has been progress on bilateral trade, India’s growing trade deficit, estimated at $9 billion in 2007, as well as the composition of the trade of low-value primary goods (such as iron ore) is worrisome. India is the 10th largest export destination for China.

The visit comes on the heels of new developments in the border region. Border negotiations continue to be tricky and remain under wraps. During the 11th round of talks between the Special Representatives, both sides agreed to form a Joint Working Group on the framework to resolve the issue.

The dispute in the Western Sector (WS, that is, Aksai Chin) and Eastern Sector (ES, Tawang) remains intractable with 14 areas under dispute (eight in the WS and six in the ES). There is no dispute in the Middle Sector. The dispute in the Western Sector has become complicated with the transfer of Shaksgam Valley (in PoK) by Pakistan to China. China does not recognise the Mcmahon line in the north-east and incursions along the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) have been reported in Arunachal Pradesh, an area which China covertly claims as South Tibet. Indian diplomatic channels have indicated China’s intransigence. China, on the other hand, alleges intrusions by India in the Western Sector.

China’s entente cordiale by way of defence or military arrangements with India’s neighbours — “encirclement” — has been cause for concern. China has upgraded or stimulated communication channels with India’s neighbours. The China-Nepal bus service started on the 736 km Kodari Highway since 2005; China also proposes to build four more road routes through Kunjerab Pass (PoK) to Pakistan doubling the existing network to eight. China and Pakistan also signed an MoU to upgrade the Karakoram Highway (KKH) in 2006. Pakistan has allowed China clout at Gwadar deep sea port at the mouth of Persian Gulf, an important Sea Line of Communication (SLOC). This will reportedly overhaul China’s maritime security, and enable an “energy channel” by giving it a strategic foothold in the gateway to West Asia. Plans are on the anvil to build a rail along the KKH, linking Western China to Pakistan.

China’s $3.1 billion Qinghai-Tibet Rail, which commenced operations in 2006, is also likely to have implications on Indian security. The 1,956 km rail line connects Xining with Golmud (both in Qinghai province) to Lhasa (TAR, Tibetan Autonomous Region). This line is to be further extended by 254 km at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion. The rail line will now extend to Shigatse, TAR’s second biggest city, during the ongoing 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010) and then onwards to Nepal. This would make India more accessible to China’s Chengdu Military Region (MR) and Lanzhou MR manned by the People’s Liberation Army.

There are allegations that tunnels built ostensibly for the railway may be used as missile bases. There are also unconfirmed reports that China is working on a military installation near Shiquanhe, Ngari prefecture, TAR. This backdrop explains India’s current initiative to step up infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh — seven roadways in the Indian state have been mapped out and 20 more planned in the border areas in the near future — which the Prime Minister will inaugurate later this month.

While the PM’s visit is a step forward, it is necessary, in the words of a famous sinologist, to see “China by daylight”, that is, to understand China in all its complexities and reign in both unbridled enthusiasm and cynicism about China.

Given the nature of the above developments, rabble-rousing about the “China threat” provides no solutions; the Chinese have not prevented India from setting its house in order, such as developing relations with peripheral states or upgrading infrastructure in border areas. Both vacillate between the promise of genuine friendship and the inextricable cloud of history. It is necessary to close the “knowledge gap” between the two. Geo-strategic compulsions and globalisation have underlined that there are no permanent friends or enemies.

And last but not the least, the visit entails lessons for India from China. From Mao to Market, leadership in China has maintained a constant goal, a long-term vision of fuqiang (fu, rich; qiang, strong) — of making the country rich and strong. China’s infrastructure has been one of the keys to becoming a manufacturing superpower.

What is admirable is China’s remarkable foresight. Defence preparedness, defence cooperation arrangements with neighbouring countries, developing relations around its periphery, progressive multi-dimensional relations with countries as disparate as United States, Congo and Myanmar, to name a few, proactive presence in regional and global fora, and a commitment to the goal of “Development is the fundamental principle” have propelled China’s resurgence in Asia and the world. The lesson for India is to take the cue.

Some thought provoking possibilities

2008-01-16T11:51:00.000+05:30

- Will the Nano or its equivalent finally replace the ‘autos’ in India?

- Can voting for PAN card owners, tax payers be made compulsory and can an e-ballot be casted through the cellphone?

- Can our multinationals, with the power to raise more money than the government does, in just 1 minute, think of adopting a district each for the ‘other India”?

- Reverse colonization- Will Indians spread to all parts of the World in their quest for economic opportunism?

- Could there be an Indian Amazon- how come there are no E-retailers for books, when there are so many for travel?

The book retailing business

2008-01-16T11:42:00.000+05:30

Just an observation- I buy a lot of books on Amazon because they are not available in the retail shops. But if one is in India, it is a bad proposition to use Amazon. On an average it takes 8-11 weeks for books to come to India, if you order on Amazon. I think that is too inefficient. With companies like Reliance getting into book retailing, if a company wants to take advantage of the current situation, it could establish a warehouse at Nagpur, particularly for discounted second hand books and tie-up with an express delivery companies (such as your) for a 48 hours delivery anywhere in India. There are plenty of E- travel agents, infact there are too many for any of them to be profitable for a long time but there currently is no Amazon type book seller in India. Amazon has warehouses even in China- a non-English speaking country, even in France, but not in India. If a tech company or even an existing book retailer wants, it can get into e-retailing in India very easily.

China bans free plastic shopping bags

2008-01-10T17:26:00.000+05:30

China bans free plastic shopping bags
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

China will ban shops from giving out free plastic bags and has called on consumers to use baskets and cloth sacks instead to reduce environmental pollution.

The regulation, effective in June, was decided on about 15 years after shopkeepers started handing out cheap, flimsy plastic bags to customers. "White pollution," a reference to the color of many bags, has cluttered landfills.

"Our country consumes a huge amount of plastic shopping bags each year," said the State Council, China's cabinet. "While plastic shopping bags provide convenience to consumers, this has caused a serious waste of energy and resources and environmental pollution because of excessive usage, inadequate recycling and other reasons."

The regulation is part of Beijing's increased efforts to fight the pollution that has accompanied breakneck economic growth. As factories churn out low-cost products for the world's consumers, they have severely fouled the country's air and water.

Beginning on June 1, all supermarkets, department stores and shops will be prohibited from giving out free plastic bags, the State Council said. Stores must clearly mark the price of plastic shopping bags and are banned from tacking that price onto products.

The production, sale and use of ultra-thin plastic bags - those less than 0.025 millimeters, or 0.00098 inches, thick - were also banned, according to the State Council notice. Dated Dec. 31 and posted on a government Web site Tuesday, it called for "a return to cloth bags and shopping baskets."

It also urged waste collectors to step up recycling efforts to reduce the amount of bags burned or buried. Finance authorities were told to consider tax measures to discourage plastic bag production and sale.

Internationally, legislation to discourage plastic bag use has been passed in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan, where authorities either tax shoppers who use them or impose fees on companies that distribute them. Bangladesh already bans them, as do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.

Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban petroleum-based plastic grocery bags.

Roger Cohen: Brazilian lessons for '08

2008-01-04T10:39:00.000+05:30

By Roger Cohen

Published: January 2, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO: It's good to begin the year in a country where coconuts are cleaved with nonchalant grace and the air is salty-sweet and there are guys on the beach from the "Life is Too Short Surf Club" and the Minister of Tourism advises those frustrated by long lines in airports to "relax and come."

That last remark, from Marta Suplicy, was voted one of the quotes of the year by the daily O Globo, along with another from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva evoking the most sensitive point of the female anatomy to explain his search for the essence of an energy accord with the United States. Brazil is different.

This is a serious as well as a sensuous country with a stock market up more than 70 percent in 2007, burgeoning oil and ethanol industries, planes for export, iron ore to keep the Chinese happy, and much else to buttress its rising-power status. But pleasure trumps sacrifice and there's a "jeitinho" - ingenious fix - for anything.

So I've resolved to adopt Brazilian karma for 2008 and forget all the little irritants that plague American lives: microwaved croissants, high-five contagion, globalized brunch, death by PowerPoint, shops calling themselves "shoppes," the inconsistency of belt- and-shoe-removal rules at airports, Apple addicts vaunting the latest gadgets and people who convey agitation or anger by writing in ALL CAPS.

I'm not even going to be irked by automatically flushing toilets that flush before you're done, "hot towels" that are just wet, automatically activated faucets that never activate, congealed risotto, the prodigious capacity for getting tangled of cords for iPods and computers and cellphones, backpacks with wheels, rolling backpacks being rolled by adults, voice-mail hell, or the middle-aged trying to sound hip about the Web.

Nope, I'm done with irritation. Give me expiring hotel key cards, yet more on Princess Diana and Dodi, TV correspondents waiting for hurricanes, headache-inducing prosecco, Web sites I'll only visit once that require a password, conspiracy theorists, people afflicted with the control-freak-martyr syndrome ("I do so much I never have time for myself"), tape dispensers that don't work, sommeliers who decant indifferent wine, even Christmas starting the day after Halloween - I won't raise an eyebrow.

Test me with flickering video images on planes, the noun-verb frenzy as in "you disrespected me," the insidious beat from others' iPods, people who say "waiting on" rather than "waiting for," the systematic relegation of Saddam Hussein's crimes to a subordinate clause, offshore wind turbines, the unerring instinct of hotel mini-bar replenishment people for arriving at the wrong moment, equally ill-timed calls from mothers-in-law, and the decorative use of indigestible red peppers. You'll find me happily tuned to Bossa Nova.

I refuse to be troubled in '08 by sensible "orthotic" shoes, kids staring at computer screens, kids saying "wait" at the start of sentences, surreptitious below-the-table BlackBerry use (the technological equivalent of picking one's nose, as my colleague Jill Abramson noted), undercooked arctic char, cinnamon or chocolate on cappuccino, greetings on your TV screen in hotel rooms, overfilled wine glasses in restaurants, organic everything, or people on the train saying "Hi, honey, I'm on the train" into cellphones. Nope, this is my Candomble season.

You can throw it all at me: overheated rooms, bank clerks who ask "Have I exceeded your expectations?" and rob you with the fine print, Brian Williams' bristling chest, theft-dissuasive hotel hangers that can only be suspended on rings with key-like slots, super-sized sushi, "adventures" in Africa for the rich, fear-mongering from banks about identity theft, Starbucks staff operating in slow motion, Chicago's ban on foie gras, and, as my daughter Jessica pointed out, all those people who respond to a compliment by telling you how much they paid ("I got it at Banana Republic for 75 percent off"). I'll be viewing the world through the surfer's prism.

I know, starting in Iowa today, we will watch the race for the most important post on earth unfold, one that will end our subjection to President Bush's irritating smirk and Vice President Cheney's irksome scowl, and we will watch in the hope that the fear that has pinched our lives and made us more irritable will be undone by November's winner.

No new president is going to deliver a tropical United States, which is more or less what Brazil is, or cabinet members who recommend sex for airport blues.

Still, it's a rich political moment. We've got a woman, a black, a Mormon, a creationist and perhaps a Jew in the race: Some U.S. taboos are falling. The end of a vexed political season may be in sight. Here's to an irritant-lite, liberating 2008 for all, and not just in Copacabana.

Govt plans financial sops for solar power units

2008-01-03T17:12:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, Jan. 2 The Centre plans to offer financial sops for the running of solar power units to enable developers to overcome high initial costs and ensure electricity generated by these units become cost competitive for injection into the grid.

“We will provide financial assistance amounting to Rs 12 per unit to developers in case of solar photovoltaic and Rs 10 per kilowatt hour in the case of solar thermal power fed to the electricity grid under a demonstration programme,” the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Mr Vilas Muttemwar, said here on Wednesday.

Pvt sector investment

Addressing a press conference, Mr Muttemwar said the private sector is expected to invest about Rs 1,000 crore in solar plants eligible for assistance under the scheme during the current Plan period. The demonstration programme would be limited to a total installed capacity of 50 MW of solar power during the Eleventh Plan. A maximum capacity of 10 MW in each of the country’s States and a maximum of five MW per developer will be considered under the scheme.

“To generate each unit of solar power, it costs around Rs 15 and the cost per MW comes to around Rs 20 crore. But with the announced incentives, more people would be interested,” he said.

Incentives

Developers would sell electricity to state-run utilities and the incentives will be paid to them based on the tariff the utilities provide. Project developers will be given the incentive at a fixed rate for a period of 10 years and these incentives would be over and above any financial assistance extended by States. “Due to the incentive, the volumes are likely to go up, which would further bring down the cost,” Mr Muttemwar added.

Currently, renewable energy accounts for about 7.5 per cent of the country’s installed generation capacity of 1,27,673 MW, with most of it coming from wind energy projects. The share of solar power in renewables is small and only 2 MW of grid interactive solar power is generated in the country.

Diamonds, Gold & War

2008-01-03T16:15:00.000+05:30

This looks like a sequel to Guns, Germs and Steel.

When Frederick Boyle, an author, returned from diamond diggings in 1871, he wrote about the need for monopoly in the industry, thus: “You cannot drown the market with an article only appertaining to the highest luxury — without swift and sudden catastrophe…”

By royal monopoly alone, or by means of great and powerful companies, can jewel digging be made a thriving industry, he proposed. Citing this, Martin Meredith writes in Diamonds, Gold and War ( www.landmarkonthenet.com ) that several attempts at amalgamation had since been made. “Two companies had emerged by 1885 as the most likely nuclei for a diamond mining monopoly: Kimberley Central and De Beers,” he narrates. “Both set about crushing smaller rivals by producing as many diamonds as possible; in the words of a Standard Bank report, by ‘swamping them with production’.”

De Beers developed its operations at breakneck speed, doubling the amount of ground it excavated in the process and showing, according to the Standard Bank, ‘a reckless disregard for human life’, informs the book. “With accidents multiplying and disease rife, the death rate in the mine reached 150 per thousand employed.”

Within a few years, at Cecil Rhodes’ behest, a new company was set up — De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.

“Instead of being limited to diamond mining, Rhodes wanted the new company to be able to engage in any business enterprise, annex land in any part of Africa, govern foreign territories and maintain standing armies.” At the first annual general meeting of the company, held on March 31, 1888, Rhodes “triumphantly proclaimed his determination to make De Beers ‘the richest, greatest, and most powerful Company the world has ever seen’.”

By September 1889, he had achieved ‘a complete monopoly of all Kimberley’s mines – 90 per cent of the world’s production.’ Together with the world’s principal diamond merchants, he then set out to achieve a marketing monopoly of the diamond trade to ensure that the market could be manipulated to the best advantage, keeping supply in line with the highest price available…”

Standing tall: The hardground barasingha

2008-01-02T19:09:00.000+05:30

Kanha National Park, Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh

The Kanha National Park is spread over Mandla and Balaghat districts with the Mukki range in Balaghat district being one of the homes for the rare hardground Barasingha (Cervus duvauceli branderi) with the swamp dwelling barasingha (Cervus duvauceli) being found in Terai, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. Besides Kanha National Park, the hardground species is not found anywhere else. The best place to see the swamp barasingha is the Dudhwa National Park, put up by Billy Arjan Singh in U.P.

At one point of time in the 1970s, the number of hardground barasingha had dropped to 66, going by an article, Hardground Barasingha, written by Kishor Rithe in Sanctuary dated October 2005. Today, the number of barasinghas is put at slightly over 300 and is thought to be a viable population.

After a 25-km run to Mukki range from Kanha, Ganesh and this writer, hit the Bishanpura meadow, which impresses one with its quiet spread, rather more than the Kanha meadows. Tall, dry grass nod with the wind and at a distance one could see with the help of binoculars (also naked eyes) a barasingha family – a male, a female and a cub. One also noted, far away, a sizable herd of the animal.

We were keen on seeing the animal from near and our guide took us to Sounp Meadows, where again one spotted a male and a female together. The rutting season is on in the winter months and one heard the rutting call resembling “a shrill baying sound” as S.H. Prater puts it. However, the best viewing was the last, Friday morning drive into the Park. Motoring along at a slow pace in the Kanha meadows, we watched a male barasingha, looking comical with grass stuck at the top of its left antler. Taking dainty strides, the animal walked past our vehicle, waited for a few moments near the forest track, before crossing over followed by a second male, which had lost its antlers.

“There is a handsome grace in the animal,” remarked Giri and it seemed so. Kishor Rithe writes, “Barasingha have special habitat requirements. They feed on special grasses and enjoy aquatic plants found in and around water bodies on the hard grounds. Though their diet consists chiefly of grass, they also enjoy the tender leaves of sal and other trees. The presence of tall grass is essential to their breeding, as it provides shelter to pregnant females and protection for young fawns, from tigers, leopards and jackals.” Our guide told us wild dogs went after the animal as it was sluggish, and a tad dumb, mover.

Over the years, the park officials tried their best to alter the environment to lift the number of barasinghas. Kishor Rithe contends: “Though the efforts of most researchers and funding organisations came to naught, the barasingha eventually responded to that most simple of solutions – village resettlement, habitat regeneration and minimal forest management designed to keep meadows healthy and vibrant.”

Khageswar Nayak, who was the Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director, Kanha National Park, in his book Kanha: Glimpses of a Tiger Reserve, writes of a future plan to keep this animal going. “The Kanha meadows are anthropogenic – old sites of relocated villages and abandoned agricultural fields – and are in an arrested stage of succession. Besides, the meadows have become regressive due to the long history of annual early burning. These have resulted in the encroachment of grasslands by woody species such as Butea monosperma (Palas), Lagerstroemia parviflora (Lendia), Shorea robusta (Sal) and Diospyros melanoxylon (Tendu). ….Keeping this is view, the park management erects chain-link enclosures before monsoon in some portions of the grasslands that require this treatment and allows them to recuperate for a season or two until they grow rich in heterogenous species,” writes Nayak.

Today, the barasingha have moved from Kanha to Kisli, Mukki, Supkar and Bhaisanghat. One can hope to live with this fascinating animal, with its antlers dancing above the grass, for long into the future.

Surprisingly, the book of Nayak seems to have missed out on the rare white-backed vultures (Gyps bengalensis). We saw nine vultures a distance away from Shravan Tal – five in flight taking the thermals and four absorbing the sun atop a dried up tree. In the bright sunlight, they circled the air and on the turn one could spot the white back of theirs which while resting is hard to see.

There is a crash in the population of the white-backed vultures and the drug Diclofenac has been banned. Expert Rishad Naoroji in his book – Birds of Prey of the Indian Subcontinent – says most of the potential substitutes for Diclofenac hurt the kidneys of the vultures. He is in favour of captive breeding “to ensure viable populations for future reintroduction (into the wild).”

Rounding up the case for vultures, Rishad says: “At the time of this book going to print, permissions have not yet been granted for holding and captive-breeding facilities and capture of three species of vulture, despite the gravity of the situation. The MoE has shown itself to be completely impotent and this lack of effectiveness and bureaucratic indifference will be recorded by history.” Well, the way the script is running, every common bird of yesteryear, including the common house sparrow (Passer domesticus), could become uncommon.

P. Devarajan

A stove that can trigger a fuel revolution

2007-12-26T18:47:00.000+05:30

IN SEARCH OF CLEAN ENERGY: PART III

Sreelatha Menon & Sapna Dogra Singh / New Delhi December 26, 2007

Jatropha oil and solar stoves for cooking? Many environmentalists see cooking as the right use for jatropha oil and other bio-fuels which are now being used only for running vehicles.

The reason is that 80 per cent of the renewable energy now in use is in the form of twigs and cow dung that the rural woman uses for cooking. Jatropha oil and solar stoves could help continue using a green fuel even when she leapfrogs into affluence.

Says environment activist Sunita Narain: This woman is cutting more CO2 emissions than the big companies which have been running windmills, because her stoves outnumber the windmills. She is too poor to afford a kerosene stove or a gas stove or a microwave. Women like her form 80 per cent of the entire gamut of renewable energy, while wind, solar power and other forms comprise just a fraction of 0.4 per cent. Her chulha (oven) forms 39 per cent of India’s primary energy use. The need of the hour is to find an alternative for women like her. That would provide a beginning towards a low carbon economy.”

The energy advisor in Greenpeace India says the idea does not make economic sense as the jatropha grower would prefer to sell the oil to a company like Reliance, for say Rs 30 a litre, and buy kerosene for Rs 2.

However, Subrato Mandal, a bio-fuel expert and an economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), says the economy of fuels is skewed as subsidies are determining the prices of fuels. The environmental viability of fuels should also be taken into account. He says there are scattered instances of jatropha and similar plant oils being used for cooking purposes. But it has not been documented.

He says it can definitely be a medium for cooking as it can be directly put in the stove and the wicks burn like they do in an oil lamp. It can definitely be a good alternative for a petroleum product.

He says that the clean development mechanism (CDM) should be used to make the prices affordable for the poor.

If the CDM is used to fund jatropha use for cooking oil, it should translate into carbon emission reductions (CERs) and earn in euros to the grower and if it is being sold to an auto fuel company then the CERs should be denied to it, says Mandal.

Currently, a CER earns 21 euros — double of what it earned a year ago. So CDMs should be exploited to make such green projects like solar stoves and bio-fuels viable and profitable, adds Mandal.

The bio-fuel expert says solar stoves can supplement other cooking medium in cities and villages. He says if a solar stove can help a housewife cut LPG use from 14 cylinders a year to four a year, then why not?

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Renewable Energy has no project for green cooking fuels. It has 4 million family-size biogas plants, about 1.4 million solar photovoltaic systems for lighting and other applications.

It is, however, supporting deployment of renewable energy systems by providing fiscal and financial support to reduce the capital costs of these systems.

It is left to communities to exploit the green opportunities, says the ministry.

Seeing a tiger at its own sweet will

2007-12-26T18:26:00.000+05:30

Kanha National Park, Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh A chital alarm called as our Maruti Gypsy rolled down Bison Road in Kanha National Park at about 8 in the morning. A few minutes ago, the Park, with a core area of 940 sq.km and a buffer zone of 1,005 sq.km, had just shed its mist cover. The chital alarm called again possibly from the far side of Shravan Tal at the end of Bison Road. We moved back and forth Bison Road when our guide, 30-year-old Kamalesh Maravi, advised us to halt the vehicle at the end of Bison Road in front of Shravan Tal.

Kishor Rithe of the Satpuda Foundation, at the wheel, switched off the engine and we waited. By about 8.20, one got the first glimpse of the radio-collared tigress as it climbed on to the embankment, strolled along before moving down towards us and away into thick, dry light brown grass. From a distance of about 80 ft. we could take some pictures as the tigress walked in and out of the skylight. Kishor refused to age the tigress while Kamalesh Maravi thought it was a full grown, six-year old female. It has three cubs and has earned a frightening reputation as some of the guides believe it had killed a human intruder into the Park some time ago. Kishor, Giri Venkatesan, this writer and his son, Ganesh, had a peaceful viewing as there was only a second Gypsy parallel to us.

Over five days, Ganesh and this writer (Kishor and Giri had to break off on work at Mandla) had five tiger sightings. Evening trips in Kanha start at 3 p.m. and end at 5.30 p.m. while the morning rides start at around 6 a.m. and end at 12 in the afternoon. There were about 30 minutes to go that evening as we were driving in second gear along Dhawajhandi fireline before touching the Indri-Chimta Road. Our guide Phagan Singh Maravi is passionate about tigers. He has a sixth sense as he told us in Hindi, “Saab, idhar tiger dekhne ko milega (Saab, we are sure to see a tiger here).” Sure enough at around 5.10 on the left side of the forest track, we sighted the powerful head of a heavy, radio-collared male. It was a profile in tiger thought as we switched off the Gypsy engine to watch. After a few minutes, it rose, looked round and walked away sedately in silent mode.

It was 5.15 p.m. Yet again, we were alone on the forest track. We moved along to spot a second male, probably mightier than the first, on the right side above a nullah. A peacock was strutting in front of it calling desperately. But the tiger did not attack. For a few moments it sat on its hind legs staring at the peacock nervously pacing in front. The tiger walked down the nullah, circled a tree to smell it and moved away as a few vehicles saw the action. The peacock also made it with its life. “Chalo aaj bach gaya (He is saved for the day),” remarked Phagan Singh Maravi. On the following evening, a male tiger sighting was ruined by many crowded Gypsies, desperate to see the animal. It lay curled up in the grass with its head tucked into its belly and did not bother to raise its head. Perhaps, from an aesthetic angle, the radio-collared tigress at the Kanha Meadow was the prettiest sight.

Driving along the edge of the Kanha meadow, we (along with our guide Kamalesh Maravi) thought we heard a high-toned roar and stood still at the spot. Two wild boars were feeding at a distance of about 80 ft. when Maravi took us back to the rim of the Kanha Meadows. At 8 a.m., in sparkling sunlight, a radio-collared tigress strode out across the grassless part of the Meadow towards a banyan tree. Two elephants tried to trap the lady (for the popular Tiger Show) as it crossed over into the forest beyond. For about a forever 10 minutes, one stood rooted at the easy grace of the lady as she made the distance. Panthera tigris is alone in the super league of Nature. Kamalesh Maravi had his own construct on the event. Possibly, the tigress was mating with a male and went off the scene for its own reasons. The elephants failed to trap the female but got the male for the Tiger Show. Three to four elephants surround a tiger or tigress for the public riding on the elephant’s back to have a sighting. Most wildlifers scorn the Tiger Show. This writer would ban it for the reason that the Tiger Show comes in the way of seeing a tiger at its own sweet will in the wild by the ordinary public.

On holidays (like the one starting ahead of Christmas and ending around the first week of January), more than 70 vehicles enter the Park when the carrying capacity is 55 vehicles per day (six to a vehicle). This information was given last year to this writer by Khageswar Nayak, Chief Conservator of Forests, Kanha National Park. With the media (including this piece) exclusively chronicling the fate of the tigers, the visiting public is exclusively tuned on the animal; the rest of the sal and bamboo forest and its citizens, which is Kanha National Park, are set aside. Using own funds liberally to reach Kanha, the public wants to see a tiger and at some places vehicles form double rows (with none yielding space) when the animal is spotted. It does not have an easy solution as disappointing too many visitors could get them forever against Nature, argues Giri. There is a scientific way to measure the carrying capacity of vehicles in a Park and that could act as the limit, says Kishor Rithe.

But one cannot understand the move of the Park management to open a third gate at Bitcha to add to the rush; currently there are two gates – Kisli and Mukki. In the bargain, the Tiger Show needs to be stopped as it is demeaning to the tigers, if not to the humans.

Public frustration can be really sharp going by the tale told us by Phagan Singh. A frustrated visitor, having spent well over Rs. 20,000, yelled at Phagan Singh Maravi and threatened to report the non-sighting of a tiger to forest managers in Bhopal and New Delhi. “Ek do tiger ko idhar bandh ke rakkho (Tie up one or two tigers in the Park),” he shouted at a scared Phagan Singh, who humbly replied, “Saab, aap kuch bhi karo. Mere ko chod do (Saab, you are welcome to do anything but leave me alone).”

Some time in the future the public may be able to see more tigers as the Satpuda range as Central India becomes one integrated piece of Tigerland. Proof: Dr. Y.V. Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India, has radio collared a few tigers in the area and one tiger collared in Kanha National Park was found recently in Pench Tiger Reserve Maharastra, some 250 km away.

P. Devarajan

Recycling company building $50m plastic-to-fuel plant

2007-12-18T14:47:00.000+05:30

Enviro-Hub's plant will be able to convert into fuel 30,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year

By Jessica Cheam

AN EXCITING new use has been found for the annoying plastic waste that often washes up on beaches and clogs rubbish dumps: fuel.

It may sound too good to be true, given the soaring price of crude oil and the global hunt for alternative fuels, but mainboard-listed Enviro-Hub Holdings says it is building the world's first large-scale, commercial plastic-to-fuel plant.

The waste management and recycling firm yesterday announced the construction of Singapore's first $50 million plastic-to-fuel plant - which converts waste plastic into useable fuels and gases.

Its executive chairman, Mr Raymond Ng, told The Straits Times that Enviro-Hub had been researching a long-term environmental solution for plastics since 2005.

Success came only last month, when a pilot plant it built proved that the technology imported from India worked.

This patented technology, for which Enviro-Hub now holds an exclusive licence, heats waste plastic with a special catalyst that breaks it down into 85 per cent diesel, 10 per cent liquid petroleum gas and 5 per cent coke.

'This plant is a historic milestone for the company,' said Mr Ng, formerly the co-founder of waste recycler Citiraya Industries, now known as Centillion Environment and Recycling.

'Plastic waste has always been a big problem for the world. The commercial potential in this technology is huge,' said Mr Ng.

Enviro-Hub's new 200,000 sq ft plant in Tuas, which will cost an initial $30 million to build, will be able to convert into fuel 30,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year.

Mr Mohamed Gani Mohamed Ansari, business development director of Enviro-Hub unit Cimelia Resource Recovery, said the diesel produced - unlike in older technologies - would have low sulphur content and also lower carbon dioxide emissions. The heating process of converting the waste plastic into fuel would also be emissions-free, said Mr Ansari.

Enviro-Hub is now looking into seeking carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

These credits are savings in carbon dioxide emissions - largely blamed by scientists for global climate change - that can be traded on the carbon market.

Enviro-Hub's facility - equivalent to a 24MW plant - will use about 5 per cent of the fuel it generates to power itself.

The rest will either be used to power the rest of Enviro-Hub's plants nearby or sold to industries.

The plant will start operations by the second quarter of next year, with its capacity expanding to 50,000 tonnes a year at an additional cost of $20 million by end-2008, said Mr Ng.

Enviro-Hub yesterday incorporated a new unit - Enviro-Power - to operate the plant.

Funding for the plant is internal, the firm said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange.

Singapore is estimated to generate more than 300,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year - a capacity Enviro-Hub hopes its plant will eventually reach.

Enviro-Hub also announced late yesterday that it would invest US$4.2 million (S$6.1 million) in a 30 per cent stake in Enviro Energy - a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

Enviro Energy, through a unit in Thailand, will also be looking to set up a similar plastic-to-fuel plant in Thailand.

The setting up of Enviro-Power and the investment in Enviro Energy are not expected to have any financial impact on the company's current financial year.

Enviro-Hub's shares was 0.5 cent higher at 57.5 cents at yesterday's close

Leadership in Governance

2007-12-18T12:11:00.000+05:30

MEN AND IDEAS

Blueline solution in Indore

GURCHARAN DAS

To be able to kill 113 persons in less than 12 months in broad daylight is something of an accomplishment. The distinction belongs to Delhi’s Blueline buses. Desperate citizens tend to blame drivers, police, politicians, or transport officials. They are all guilty, of course. The real problem, however, lies elsewhere. A few months ago a prominent public figure even blamed ‘privatisation’. A staggering comment, i thought, considering that major cities in the world (including in France and England) have excellent, privately run bus services.
   Closer to Delhi lies Indore, a city of 20 lakh people. Vivek Aggarwal, a 34-year-old IAS officer, became its collector in 2005. He had a hobby — he studied bus services in different cities. With a tiny capital of Rs 25 lakh, he launched a public-private bus partnership in Indore based on best practices in the world. Two years later, Indore has a fleet of 98 modern, low-floor buses with computerised ticket-vending. Electronic signboards at bus stops announce when the next bus is due based on satellite data. Investment in the system has risen to Rs 40 crore, all done privately. The city has made a profit since inception; so have its six private partners who run the buses. Soon, it will have 500 buses. Indore is now quoted (with Bogota) as having the best bus service in the world.
   What can Delhi learn from Indore? First, it must ditch the old socialist idiocy of ‘one bus one owner’ — a product of the ‘small is beautiful’ thinking of the Eighties. This same stupidity made India reserve 800 industries for the ‘small scale sector’. Economists believe this was perhaps the most harmful industrial policy of the past 50 years, which has effectively prevented our industrial revolution. Indore did not have such socialist hang-ups — it selected the most capable entrepreneurs and companies to run its buses. Secondly, Delhi must not allow two operators to compete on the same route. This leads to speeding and accidents as drivers scramble to maximise revenue. Bus owners must get exclusive routes and earn revenue based on distance travelled, and this can be easily monitored by an affordable satellite system that tracks bus movement. Indore has a daily and monthly electronic pass, whose revenues are shared between companies. Tomorrow, if Delhi switched to a system where Blueline buses earned revenue per kilometre, traffic deaths would disappear.
   Delhi must also have a regulatory body which assesses demand, plans routes, fixes fares, gives out tenders, and monitors daily performance. Indore has a five person team which does this continuously, and this is the secret of its success. Delhi is finally planning to have a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, but unless it gives it teeth, it won’t succeed. Some will argue that Indore is too small to be an example for Delhi. These are the same second rate minds who scoffed at Japan’s miracle in the Sixties and Korea’s in the Seventies, arguing that these countries were too small for India to copy. Just think of Delhi as 10 Indores!
   Another painful lesson from this tale of two cities is that it takes a bit of luck to throw up officers like Vivek Aggarwal, who have the knowledge and the will to deliver. The average IAS officer spends a lifetime pushing files and still gets promoted. Vivek Aggarwal, i fear, may actually be punished by a system that puts down achievers. But before that he would have had the moral satisfaction of bringing a smile on 20 lakh faces in Indore — something that most of his colleagues will never experience in an entire lifetime.

Technology leadership in Drip irrigation

2007-12-11T17:52:00.000+05:30

Last week I read about Singapore’s position as a global water hub. However, in the area of irrigation, due to the domestic market, Jain irrigation, an Indian company has made tremendous advances. In the next 10 years, as our glaciers and rivers dry up, we will need to completely overhaul our irrigation systems. Instead of mega projects like river linking, we need to concentrate more on issues like getting farmers access to drip irrigation.

BH Jain conferred Water Conserver of India award

moneycontrol.com: December 1, 2007

Shri B H Jain, Founder-Chairman of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited, has been conferred upon the prestigious UNESCO & West-Net instituted award as the “Water Conserver of India”. This is taking into account yeomen service to the cause of water conservation.

Jain Irrigation is pioneer in micro irrigation and sprinkler irrigation systems in India which is a viable alternative to the conventional irrigation methods.

This award has been presented by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Water Resources, Prof. Saif-Ud-Din Soz at a glittering function held in New Delhi on 29th November 2007 at the Jaypee Vasant Continental, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. The function was attended by eminent delegates from the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, Central Water Commission and TERI apart from the Industry and Press.

Till date, the Company has received 46 State Awards, 85 National Awards and 3 International Awards for outstanding export performance, R&D achievements and entrepreneurship, Fair Trade Practices Etc. The internationally prestigious "Crawford Reid Memorial" Award instituted by Irrigation Association, USA was conferred on the Chairman Shri. B.H. Jain for "Significant Contribution to the Irrigation Industry outside the United States".

The Company employs more than 4,200 people directly and several hundreds indirectly. The company operates through branches and depots practically in all the States besides overseas subsidiaries for supporting and developing Export business. The Company has an outstanding track record in successfully developing Micro Irrigation Systems and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems as an alternative to the conventional irrigation methods. Besides, the Company makes PVC Pipes for Irrigation; PE Pipes for gas and water distribution and ducts for Optical fiber cables. PVC & Polycarbonate Sheet for exports; Fruit Pulp & Puree Dehydrated and Onion & vegetables for exports.

Company has modern manufacturing facilities located in India at Jalgaon, Maharashtra, Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Baroda (Gujarat) and Udumalpet (Tamilnadu).

The company has recently acquired Companies in USA & Israel in its core line of business as part of strategy to become one of the top 3 global players. At present, Company has 13 plants outside India i.e. USA, Israel, Chile, Brazil, Spain & Australia

The Company has an extensive Research & Development [R&D] farm and training & development center spread over nearly 1,000 acres of farm at Jalgaon & similar facility near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. This center has extensive development laboratories and is engaged in pioneering efforts in developing tissue culture plants for Banana, Sugarcane etc. The Company's turnover for the last year ended on 31.03.2007 was Rs.1,267 crores and is currently expecting to accomplish a more than 45% growth in the current year with a turnover of Rs.1,850 crores, including Rs.515 crores of export turnover from India.

The Company's customers included some of the top MNC's like Coco-cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Gilroy Foods etc. besides Indian large customers like HLL, Reliance, L&T, BSNL, Bharati Telecom etc. The Company had established its leadership in almost all the businesses it is engaged in and the list of satisfied customers are even increasing.

Singapore bid to become global water hub

2007-12-07T12:04:00.000+05:30

If we could have ‘shower’ meters, linked to the volume of water being used & a display that converts that value into rupees, I think it will go a long way in reducing personal water consumption.

Turning a crisis into an opportunity

K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad, Nov. 29 Singapore’s success story with water reminds one of a Bollywood rags-to-riches story. From a water-starved State 30-35 years ago, it has now become a confident nation on the water front.

This, however, is not news. The success story has been written many times over in the last few years.

But what is new is the city-nation refuses to live on the laurels. It now wants to become a global hydro hub, offering technologies and skills in project implementations in the water sector.

It has already begun taking up desalination projects in West Asia and project management assignments in China and Vietnam, according to Mr Prantik Mazumdar, Centre Director (Kolkata) of Singapore Government’s International Operations Group.

“The Government has set up a $500-million fund for research and development in the water and related issues,” he said.

Mr Mazumdar was here to showcase the Singapore experience with regard to water and its plans for the future at a summit on water organised at the CII-Green Business Centre.

The city is taking up a S$2-billion project that envisages laying 40-60 metre deep tunnel sewerage system to collect all of its used water and, using the gravity pull, channelise it to Changi Water Reclamation system.

It will also help the City-State free 90 hectares of precious land. Singapore’s 700 sq. km is less than half of our national capital.

The 10-litre challenge

As a part of its bid to become a global water hub, Singapore is going to organise an international meet on water next year.

As it strived to save and use every drop of water, the Singapore Government launched the 10-litre challenge, asking its people to reduce the per capita daily consumption of water to 155 litres by 2012.

A businessman`s crusade against darkness

2007-12-04T19:21:00.000+05:30

A businessman`s crusade against darkness

PROFILE/ Harish Hande, CEO, Selco

BS Reporter / New Delhi December 04, 2007

Harish Hande, who has been honoured recently with a prize for social entrepreneurship, has made it his business to take solar power to every un-lit home.

Harish hande, CEO, Selco, who has been selected social entrepreneur of the year by the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation this year, has been in the business of solar electrification since the past 12 years. At last count, his clients numbered 85,000 in 220 villages in Karnataka and 2,000 clients in Gujarat where he started operations recently.

Hande says he is into business only because that is the only way he can take solar power to the largest number of people. That has been his dream and main occupation for the last 12 years when he started doing his Masters and PhD in Massachusets Institute of Technology. His subject was rural electrification and whether solar power makes sense.

He says he came upon the idea during a brief visit to the Dominican Republic as a student in IIT Kharagpur. “Those two hours of what I saw there — people using and paying for solar energy changed my way of thinking totally. I haven't touched technical applications after that,” says Hande.

His strategy for making solar energy succeed has been two fold: doorstep service and doorstep financing. He first started creating solar service centres in all the places he was setting up solar panels.

In addition, he got the centres to identify more potential technicians in nearby villages which were beyond the centre's reach, train them and then help them set up shop.

The second task was to persuade the existing financial network of Regional Rural Banks, cooperative banks to finance the solar panels he set up. “Once that was done, I have been piggy-riding on this network to spread the reach of solar power into the interiors of Karnataka villages,” he says.

In Gujarat, a tie-up has been achieved with SEWA and customers are getting financed while being offered solar energy.

Hande admits that solar electrification programmes have been criticised for providing just a single bulb and thus keeping the poor sections from being on a par with other beneficiaries of electricity.

He says that his technicians go with a clean slate to the customer's house. It is not a pre-planned one-bulb scheme being offered. People can opt for one or two or three bulbs and even run an electric sewing machine,. The installations can be done in phases depending on the payment capability of the buyer, he says.

He has the story of a customer who ran away when he was told that three bulbs would cost him Rs 12000. The technician of SELCO did not give up, says Hande. He went back to the customer, climbed on his roof and put a single bulb in such a way that it lit up three of his rooms cutting the cost by third.

The costs of lighting up houses come between Rs 5,000 and Rs 18,000 he says. “Of course, solar lighting cannot solve irrigation problems of villagers. That needs so much energy that the costs would be unbearable for the villagers,” says Hande.

He also is not in favour of a single transmission system catering to a number of customers. “It is so much easier to be modular,” Hande says.

He says the idea that drives his business proposition is the Gandhian principle of “production by masses rather than mass production''. And the fact that in Karnataka alone 44 per cent of people have no electricity

Bangalore Walks

2007-11-19T14:31:00.000+05:30

Bangalore Walks is an interesting way of exploring the city and its history. Much like anything else in India, the government should have done this long back, if it was serious about promoting tourism, but fortunately, today, Arun Pai, an entrepreneur and history lover and a proud Bangalore an has launched something which was so sorely missed. Bangalore Walks is all about re-discovering your city from a historical perspective and on foot. In good measure, a typical South Indian breakfast is thrown in to complete the walk. It has done more for city tourism than the 50 years existence of government tourism department/s.

At School, History was treated as just a study dates and some outdated facts which were to be memorized in order to pass the exam. Infact, it was even made fun off. If you had an interest in History, you were probably a sissy. The ‘real’ people would solve complicated math sums. In Economics, they say, for a thing to have value, to be precious, it must have scarcity value. Conversely, if you have too much of something, chances are, you will not value it. We have too much history and is it any surprise, we don’t value it. In France, they will take you to a Chateau (village) and talk about it for hours. In India, even a priceless piece of historical architecture is only good enough for the dogs (and humans) to relieve themselves.

We just took our second Bangalore Walk at Lalbagh and came back enthralled, with new eyes.

Here are two suggestions for Arun Pai and his team: Add Grover Vineyards & Nandi Hills as a walk with probably a meal thrown in at Angsana. Also, worlds largest flower Exporters, Karturi Floritech have a large, beautiful farm at the outskirts of Bangalore. It could be another suggested walk for your fan group.

What Business are you in?

2007-11-14T12:11:00.000+05:30

This morning I had an emergency. My glass frame broke down and I do not keep an emergency pair. I suspect, most people don’t, unless they travel very often.

First thing in the morning I went to my optician and asked him, if the frame could be repaired. “No’, said the neighborhood optician. So, naturally I asked him, if I could have a new one, and how soon I could have it. He could not even answer me without calling his central workshop at Ulsoor, who informed him that it took 24 hours to get the new glasses ready.

Now, compare this to how Essilor, a leading lens maker, who has a factory in Doddbalapur area, does its business. Orders come in from Europe real time through the internet- i.e., a customer visits an Optician, who records the customized requirement for lenses, places the order for manufacturing these lenses at Bangalore through the internet, Essilor receives and processes it and put its on the flight to Europe within 12-24 hours and the customer probably gets it within 48 hours.

It may be unfair to compare the two, but there is a point to this- Essentially, they both follow the same process, with scale being the only difference.

Consider the convenience or inconvenience to the customer who has a broken frame or lens and has to wait for 24 hours to get a new one. He/She will either suffer through a terrible headache throughout the day without the glasses or the other alternative to completely switch off from work.

Could not the optician fill in with an additional service of providing emergency glasses (and charge a reasonable amount for it)? Thinking on the same lines, can an optical retailer, not fill in to provide eyes masks, eye pillows, eye care solutions and eye massages instead of just providing frames and frame repairs. This would be a sure way to differentiate himself from the other neighborhood retailers and provide value add services, not without increasing the average bill amount of each customer.

Let us look at the neighborhood Optician a little more in detail. He easily stocks about 5000 frames- I am quite certain, without knowing what is the inventory turnover period, which frames are moving faster and which are slow and what is the cost of keeping this inventory- What is the cost of the retail space?

One really has to be ask oneself the larger question- what business am I in? Am I in the frame and lens business or am I in the Eye-care business? Only then would you get the right answers.

Ram Rajya

2007-10-16T17:39:00.000+05:30

The Vision for future India

Combine the vision of Gandhiji, Gopinath, Dr. Abdul Kalam and Dr. Devi Shetty with the learnings of ‘Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ and what do you get: All of our villages having PURA facilities, Health, education and entertainment through satellite (ISRO and Dr. Devi Shetty have a model for this) and at prices which even villagers can pay. All districts connected with Air Services so none of the produce goes waste. There are 600,000 villages in India and 700 districts. Imagine if each company can adopt just 1 village and provide the PURA facilities.

Imagine if a political party were to put out a manifesto, seeking a mandate for not just 1 but 2 terms of 10 years promising 10% for 10 years starting 2010. Vision 2020- that’s what will save India.

Sun struck: Jharkhand villages get water, light through solar power

Business Standard: October 9, 2007

Ranchi: Paharsingh is a hamlet, situated about 52 km from Ranchi. The village has a population of only 87 people, belonging to the primitive Birhor tribe.

Till a few months ago, the village had no source of drinking water. The villagers had to collect water from a hand pump located in a far-off village.

However, their water woes came to an end when a solar water pump of 1,200W capacity was installed in the village. The initiative was taken by Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA), run by the Jharkhand government. The agency works with the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy.

The project, which cost Rs 7 lakh, now also lights up the streets of the village.

The agency, with the help of the ministry, generates electricity from the solar plant and provides it to remote villages.

It plans to cover 224 remote villages of Jharkhand by the year-end through solar home lighting and street lighting systems. The JREDA has recommended more such units in remote villages of the state to ensure drinking water supply.

Under this programme, one solar home lighting system has been installed in each house of Paharsingh village and 1,211 solar lights have been installed in the streets.

"Over 84,000 people belonging to the SC/ST category have benefited from this programme and the JREDA has spent Rs 2,392 lakh on this project," says project officer Prakash Kumar Das.

"We are also doing a pilot project of providing power through bio-fuel. A diesel generator set of 5 KVA capacity has been installed in Gardih village of Nawadih block in Bokaro district. The engine runs on vegetable oil and supplies electricity to the village," Das adds.

The tribal village of Paharsingh, with 100 houses, gets 4 hours of power daily from the engine that runs on karanji oil, the seed of which is available in the village.

A machine for manufacturing leaf plates was installed by the villagers with the help of the agency, after a performance study of the engine running on different vegetable oils was made available by the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.

The electricity is supplied to the machine by the solar plant for 2 hours everyday. The villagers are happy because the availability of electricity has increased their income due to the sale of leaf plates. The total cost of the project is Rs 15.79 lakh.

Panna Tiger Reserve

2007-08-17T18:31:00.000+05:30

Panna Tiger Reserve or National Park is an incidental attraction for most tourists, as most land at Khajuraho and make a detour to the park, if they have time. Leave aside one or two hotels and the area around the reserve remains uncluttered, except for the lorry traffic on the highway bisecting Panna and the Gangau sanctuary.

Some time ago, wildlifers thought the Panna Tiger Reserve in the Vindhya mountains was going the Sariska way. A leading tiger expert had alerted the country over the sharp decline in tiger population at Panna. Officials in the forest department of Madhya Pradesh have still not got over the scare and dismiss the work of the expert with disdain.

Dinesh Kothari and myself did not expect to see a tiger at Panna Tiger Reserve when we went on our morning round in a jeep. The Ken river flowing softly through the reserve, defines the forest and is said to be one of the few clean river systems in the country. The Ken keeps the National Park alive. It originates at Bhuwar village near Katni and after running through the southern part of the Panna district, flows along the boundary of Panna and Chhatarpur districts to enter Uttar Pradesh and join the Yamuna.

For a start, we saw four-painted sandgrouse, for the first time, apart from chitals, sambhars and nilgais. On the way, we saw a few tiger pug marks and our guide got a message on his walkie-talkie of a tiger being sighted near the Shivla-Jheria link road. There were two jeeps ahead of us at the spot with the tiger resting deep in the forest. We climbed on an elephant using the top of our jeep as a base and the mahout guided the animal, busy tearing branches from the nearby trees, to the spot where the tiger lay on its side in splendour. We were four on the elephant — two aged foreign ladies, Dinesh and myself — and the five-minute ride was a bit of a roll.

For a minute, the four-year old, male tiger, lifted its head, looked at us before going back to sleep. The tiger did not bother about the 50-year-old she elephant, Anarkali, standing some 10 ft away nor did Anarkali think much of him. Watching the tiger from elephant back (popularly called elephant show) is not the ideal way of watching a tiger. Yet, we were part of the elephant show and at least this writer will not do it again.

At his offices in Panna town, Shahbaz Ahmad, Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Panna Tiger Reserve, said, "the tiger density in the area is good."

An October 2006 study of Wildlife Institute of India says, "We also have conducted camera trapping exercise covering an area of 185 sq km in the Panna National Park. The estimated density of tiger in this area is 4.9 tigers per 100 sq km. Number of tigers in the study area of 185 sq km with a confidence limit of 95 per cent comes to nine (range - minimum eight tigers to a maximum of 15 tigers). Viewed in the context of the all-India situation, this is a reasonably good density and indicates a healthy tiger population in the study area...

"So far as comparability of our studies with the past study done by Karanth (2002) is concerned, it would not be out of place to mention here that their study covered an area of 418 sq km of the Park and estimated a population density of 6.94 tigers per 100 sq km. They estimated a population of 29 tigers over 418 sq km with a range from 10 to 48 tigers. Such wide variance in population estimation is not a very useful tool for monitoring a population. It is also relevant to point out here that our density estimate over 185 sq km has a low CV (coefficient of variation) of 16.8 per cent compared to their high CV of 46.54 per cent. Thus, our estimates are more precise... "

On the way back near the exit gate, we had a chat with the range officer, Madla range, Narendra Singh Parihar, who was happy we had seen a tiger. He said the forest department was on the alert at the Panna Tiger reserve, which has four ranges: Madla, Hinnauta, Panna and Chandranagar. "We are trying our best to stamp out poaching and have built watch towers to oversee 98 per cent of the area," he said.

The Panna Tiger reserve is spread over a core area of 542.67 sq km (no buffer zone) and was at one time the royal hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Panna, Chhatarpur and Bijanor. At present, the Gangau sanctuary nearby is under the management of the Panna Tiger Reserve. Mining activity has completely stopped, including diamond mining, by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), said Shahbaz Ahmad. "The NMDC has approached the Supreme Court and we are waiting for the final ruling," Ahmad added.

But the Panna-Gangau forests may not remain with New Delhi keen on a dam plus two power stations across the Ken and a railway line lancing the forests to link Khajuraho to Satna. Also, the District Planning Committee is keen on denotifying a portion of the Gangau sanctuary, to probably restart mining and agriculture.

Recently, New Delhi sent a team of officials to drill 35 holes at various points in the Panna National Park as part of the work ahead of setting up the dam. The Field Director objected as any work inside the sanctuary needs the okay of the Supreme Court and the team went back. The Ken-Betwa river link proposes to divert surplus waters of the River Ken at Daudhan (2.5 km upstream of existing Gangau weir) through a Ken-Betwa link canal to River Betwa for meeting the water requirements in the water deficit Betwa basin.

A dam is to come up at Daudhan on the Ken river with a gross storage capacity of 2,775 million cubic metres; a two-km long tunnel followed by an about 230 km long link canal will transfer water from the Ken; two power houses, one (3x20 MW) at the foot of the dam and the other (2x6 MW) at the end of the 2-km long tunnel, are to be set up; the existing outlet of Barwa Sagar shall be used to drop the link canal water into Betwa, through the Barwa river.

A rather, distressed Shahbaz Ahmad said the dam and the railway line would reduce forest cover and cut into the Panna Tiger Reserve. About 74 per cent of the submerged area comes under forests and parts are reserved falling within the Panna National Park. The area of the National Park under submergence is estimated at about 45 sq km. That may be a low-end estimate for a project expected to cost Rs 1988.74 crore. What is being left unsaid is that the Government will denotify parts of the National Park to accommodate the development projects and push Panna into the past.

Kanha National Park

2007-08-17T17:54:00.000+05:30

We reach Kanha as the sun is homeward bound. From the open verandah of the guesthouse, we gaze at the kaleidoscope of colours that paint the horizon, the hues changing from bright orange to deep blue to purple, till the inkiness unveils the shimmering stars. Ahead in the open grassland looms a huge tree. Our guide calls it an ek mein teen (three-in-one), a banyan, neem and sal rolled into a single marvel. Quite a familiar sight in Kanha, he tells us.

As it darkens a host of sounds accost our ears. The cicadas' incessant orchestration is punctuated now and then by the loud hoots of an owl. A jungle cat slinks in, ferreting rather noisily for bits from the kitchen bin, and a scrunching and grunting has us train our torches to a clump of trees nearby. It's a family of wild boar at their favourite haunt. Deep in the forest we hear the plaintive cry of a deer.

The night is enchanting in this wilderness in the Maikal Ranges of the Satpura Hills. The next morning, up at dawn, we are at the gates just as they are being unlocked, our open jeep augmenting the excitement of an adventurous foray into the forest.

The jungle cock greets us with his loud crowing and we can just make out his brilliant multihued coat among the cluster of bamboo. Chitals dot the landscape, at times very near, their coats camouflaging them in the brownness of the foliage. It is the right season to be here as animals are most visible now, coming out to slake their thirst in waterholes and nibbling on whatever food is available.

We stop by a pond. It's surrounded by a host of creatures — monkeys, neelgais, deer in perfect harmony, drinking their fill. As we move on, we espy under the tall sal trees a lone gaur, the Indian bison in white-socked majesty. Chewing cud, it stares at us. We stop a bit and, looking into the forest behind him, find his entire kith and kin. This sanctuary is also the only habitat of the barasingha, herds of which congregate by shallow pools.

Diverse trails

Though the circuits are mapped out in Kanha, the trails are diverse enough to sight a number of creatures. It is however in its grasslands that wildlife abounds. As we near one we find it chock-a-block with herds of sambhar. At another peacocks display their finery, while a couple of blackbucks stand, leaping gracefully into the air as they hear us approach. And we witness a stag fight — the deer, horns locked, challenging each other's might! The evening round ends at Bamimi Dadr — sunset point — a spectacular area in the park. We settle here to see the sun go down in the horizon, an orb of red, the shadows lengthening as trees and grasses become silhouettes. Silence falls. As we wait in utter quiet we are rewarded by a rather rare sighting of a pack of dhole — the Indian wild dog.

Kanha is also a birdwatcher's paradise, harbouring almost 200 species of avian life. And so the next morning, binoculars in hand, we station ourselves in a clearing in the forest. The Racket-Tailed Drongo, Indian Roller and Shikra are here in plenty as are Treepies, Kingfishers and Woodpeckers. Water birds wallow in Kanha's many brooks and pools and at Sarvantaal, we catch a few Common Teals and Pintail Ducks.

Another round of the forest, and it turns out to be our chance to see the big cat! For as we are ushered into the jeep, we are told that a tiger has been sighted in the surrounding environs. A gathering twister has us take cover under a clump of trees but as it moves away our guide points to the nearby rushes. And there, with its tail raised high is the mighty beast. Giving us a nonchalant glance, it moves right across, turns around and strides back into the grasses. It's only after it disappears, that we exhale!

Big cat bonanza

Barely have we begun to get over the vision, when we make our way quickly to another spot, deep in the jungle. A big cat has been spotted here too. It's resting in the thickets after its meal. Clambering onto an elephant we sway along, crouching to escape getting entangled in the tree branches. We clutch on to the howdah as our mahout manoeuvres the elephant to stop at a grove of sal and bamboo. The creature is well camouflaged and difficult to sight.

But, as it turns over, the grass moves and we get a peek. It's lazily licking its paws, quite oblivious to our presence...

That's the second tiger we've seen, and we're in for a bonanza. Our guide's talkie gets the message that a tigress has been sighted at the end of our trail. Down a rivulet and up again into the forest we go, when suddenly the elephant stops in its tracks. The tigress must be nearby.

Frantic alarm calls across confirm its presence. We wait in silence. Fifteen minutes later the tigress walks by, a few feet away, two cubs in tow. We barely breathe...

As we get back a new family has settled near our lodge. It's the monkeys. They are there to entertain us for the evening. As we are busy watching their antics, we spot a sloth bear in the distance.

Kanha has surpassed our expectations...

Fact file

Getting there: Kanha is accessible from Nagpur, Jabalpur and Raipur — all well connected by air and rail from Delhi and Mumbai.

Local transport can be hired to get to Kanha from these cities.

The two main entrances to the park are Khatia (3 km from Kisli) and Mukki.

Accommodation: Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Wild Chalet Resort, Tuli Tiger Resort, Krishna Jungle Resort, Kanha Jungle Lodge, Royal Tiger Resort.

Best season: Feb-June. The park is closed from July-October.

Panna Tiger Reserve

2007-08-17T17:52:00.000+05:30

On a late afternoon waiting on the banks of the River Ken in the Panna Tiger Reserve for a boat, we heard the thud of the axe against wood. Villagers were removing forest cover and there was no forest official to stop them. The dhabas at Panna use wood as fuel and most of it could have only been trawled from the forests.

The poor have to live and cannot afford gas cylinders. They do not have any meaningful employment to talk of. But when the forests go, the poor will be the worst hit with policy makers taking the first flight out to the US. There are five villages with 1,900 families inside the Panna Tiger Reserve and have to be relocated, said Shahbaz Ahmad, Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Panna Tiger Reserve, and added eight villages have been relocated.

With the passing of the Tribal Bill will the five villages be relocated? Narendra Singh Parihar, Range Officer, Madla range, admitted to grazing being a major problem. We took the boat ride to watch crocodiles sunning themselves on the river banks but could not see any. It was the same at the 45.20-sq km Ken Gharial sanctuary.

A long 26-km ride over kutcha roads from the reserve took us to the Ken Gharial sanctuary and the guide promised to show us a gharial sunbathing in the River Ken. Work is on to rebuild the road and widen it, which could eat up some of the oldest mahuwa trees in the region. The river bed is rocky being made of granite, dolomite and quartz and during rains get submerged.

For about 30 minutes, Dinesh and myself floated down Ken without spotting a gharial with the adult male sporting a pot-like growth at the tip of its mouth. There is no sight better than the Ken in Panna. The river offers an easy fluidity to the forest made mainly of teak, mahuwa, salai and bamboo. The forest and its denizens know they will live as long as the river lives. One has gone to a few tiger reserves but there is nothing like the Ken with its ancient dignity still in place.

The Ken River Lodge, built on wooden stilts, on the banks of Ken (outside the reserve) offers a good birding site and we noticed darters, cormorants, including the large cormorant and a painted stork, basking under a winter sun. A guide at the lodge told us of the nesting of a pair of Sarus cranes at the far end of the river. In 2005, the Ken went wild during rains breaking banks and damaging quite a bit of the forest and signs of the destruction are still there.

The Government hand out on Panna lists the common trees, animals and birds populating the area and like all such documents is far off the mark. We did spot two Egyptian vultures, a few painted sandgrouse and vultures inside rocky pockets. The herbivore population is not well-built and there are some who doubt whether it can keep up a large tiger population.

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India noted, "The Kanha Tiger Reserve had 7 per cent of the area as grasslands which was to be increased to 15 per cent. On a comparison of the availability of grasslands during 2000-05, it was seen that except in the Badhavgarh Tiger Reserve, three other tiger reserves (Panna, Pench and Kanha) witnessed a decline ranging between 0.001 and 0.05 sq km land availability per herbivore. The decline in availability of grassland was due to increase in the number of livestock in these tiger reserves. The livestock population severely causes fodder shortage in the tiger reserves, which needs to be tackled while planning for grassland and meadows development in the reserves." The final notification to declare Panna Tiger Reserve a National Park has not been issued till March 2006 though the reserve was created in 1975.

A note of the Wildlife Institute of India says, "The rationale for taking landscape as a unit is that tigers are long ranging animals (at times ranging over 250 sq km), and also that their prime habitats are subject to high turnover of individuals. It will, therefore, be naïve to assign any absolute number to a given administrative unit. Another important point to be mentioned here is that the density of tigers in an area can vary widely over time due to natural process of recruitment, dispersal and mortality. Breeding success or failure of even a single female may drastically change the prevailing densities. Therefore, present assessment done by WII is useful more as a baseline for long-term monitoring of the status of tigers in the area rather than giving absolute numbers."

Are we ducking the critical issue of trying to get at a firm estimate of the tiger population in India? Some tiger experts believe India's forests today could at best hold about 1,200 tigers (1,500 tigers on the higher side), while there are unconfirmed reports of the government pushing for a higher count of 5,000.

In the absence of any estimate, one can today firmly believe the CAG 2006 report castigating the Project Tiger Directorate. It says, "... . Poaching and unnatural deaths of tigers outnumbered the natural deaths. There was a decline in the tiger population in many reserves. Conservation efforts in the Tiger Reserves by and large remained ineffective due to inordinate delays in the settlement of acquisition rights under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, inadequate wildlife corridors connecting tiger reserves with other Protected Areas, slow progress of relocation of villages outside the Tiger Reserves as well as poor tourism management." It may be noted that along with the tigers, other animals are getting scarce.

P. Devarajan

Navegaon National Park, Maharashtra

2007-08-17T17:47:00.000+05:30

The Flame of the Forest or the palash (Butea monosperma) is blooming in Vidarbha. The crimson orange flowers, standing out from bare branches, spread colour on an otherwise drab and tired landscape, offering respite to travellers in the 40 degrees C heat.

The Flame of the Forest is sacred for Hindus. "Among the trifoliate leaves, the middle leaflet is believed to represent Vishnu and the two lateral ones are Brahma and Shiva. The wood and leaf stalks of palash are used in havans (sacred fire) and the tree symbolises the moon, say Marselin Almeida and Naresh Chaturvedi in their book The Trees of Mumbai.

Elsewhere, at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, the Melghat Tiger Reserve and the Navegaon National Park the forests are blushing waiting for April to burst into flowers. The Mahua is in fruit and one watched tribal men and women picking the forest floor for the whitish yellow marble-size fruit. In April, the tree will flower and the sloth bears will make their visits. The first maroon coloured leaves of the kusum can be spotted now, before they turn green in the summer months. At Navegaon National Park, Bhimsen Sreenarayan Dongarwar took us to a tribal temple with the interior crowded with white coloured horses made of earth.

"The Gond tribals will not cut a tree if anyone places a white horse in front of it. The tree becomes inviolate," explained Bhimsen. Kishor Rithe and this writer started with an evening visit to the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve where the guides talked of two tigresses with kids roaming the interiors though we did not see them. One did hear the alarm and rutting calls of the chital and saw a few of them along with sambhars, blue bulls (neelgai) and two barking deer.

In the morning sitting on the veranda of the forest guesthouse, one watched birds stir with the sunrise. We were amused by an orange-headed ground thrush moving up and down the more than 60-year-old jamun tree a few feet away from the veranda, while a squirrel dared to come up to the plastic chair this writer was occupying. Generally, the birds search the underside of leaves for insects or worms for a free breakfast.

Having tea at the tea-shop, one was surprised by a black-headed golden oriole and a couple of tree pipits. Sometimes one forgets the cup of tea on the table as bird movements grab one's being. In Melghat, there is the Centre called the Muthawa with its flat-roofed bamboo and mud hut, where time waits for one to spend.

On World Forest Day (March 21), Nishibhau, Kishor and I spent a late evening on an elevation in the 20-acre campus. "At around 7 p.m., the owls will call for about 15 minutes and then fall silent busy searching for rodents and snakes. A good owl population is a positive statement on the forest," said Kishor and sure enough the owls called from various parts of the forest. Possibly, in another two years, when the Centre turns green and the trees gain girth, the owls will surely shift residence and come nearer. We slept on the roof of the hut and by about 10 p.m. had to cover ourselves with two rugs each as temperatures dropped.

A moon, scooped like a watermelon, wrested a part of the sky, while the stars and planets took their appointed seats for Nishibhau to give a short talk on astronomy. After identifying the Dhruva nakshatra and the Seven Rishis (saptarishi), Nishibhau was on his own scanning the skies when a satellite came into view. Not that this writer understood much.

Being a college lecturer, Nishibhau has the skill to keep one tuned in though one is not sure if his students at the engineering college will agree. But for me, Nishibhau is a must on any forest trip. While others snored off, one kept awake watching the sky and recalled the famous rhyme: "Twinkle, twinkle little star/ How I wonder what you are/ Up above the world so high/ Like a diamond in the sky." At school, no teacher showed the sky. On this night, the lines made sense and one wondered whether humankind has moved much beyond the anonymous poetry.

Getting up early, we readied for the sun to risein the eastern sky. We take a new day without a doubt, a sunrise is a given and are sure the routine will be stuck to even while human beings deface Planet Earth. The enormity of our easy assumptions is felt when one is alone for a few moments in a forest or a mountain or at a beach. Aren't we taking Planet Earth for granted and that at some moment in the future it may not oblige?

From Melghat to Navegaon National Park is a six-hour drive. As we neared the Park, the driver applied the brakes noticing a sand boa crossing the road. We got down to watch the crawl of the creature and granted it safe passage into the dense foliage on the road's edge. The guesthouse at the Park is a two-tiered structure with our room touching the top of the trees.

In the morning, we were grateful witnesses to yet another sunrise (our third consecutive) over the Navegaon Bandh Lake.

Sipping tea, we noticed an iora hopping around on a bare tree. Before setting out for home, one spent the afternoon watching some 30 to 40 Hanuman langurs, kicking up a racket on the trees outside. Never for a moment they stayed still, with the little ones swinging from branch to branch.

P. Devarajan

Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve

2007-08-17T17:28:00.000+05:30

Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve Chadrapur district Word of splendid tighter viewing in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), Chandrapur district has spread fast. The day before we touched the forests last week, some 200 vehicles had moved in a day into the Park to watch the tigers.

Two tigresses with three cubs each are roaming the area around Gosecanal and Dauna, while a second pair of tigresses with two cubs each has been located at Vasant Bhandara and Panderpauni.

We (Paul, Kishor Rithe, Giri Venkatesan and this writer) were blessed to spend about 30 minutes watching the three Dauna cubs late in the afternoon from an open Gypsy.

On the more than three-hour night run from Nagpur to Tadoba, it was raining with the sky spitting thunder and lightning.

"We may not see any tigers," warned Kishor as with the descent of the monsoon over the teak forests of TATR, tigers and most animals withdraw from waterholes located on the edge of core forest areas.

"It is like this. During the trying hot months with little greenery, prey and predators crowd around water holes with the prey (mainly herbivores like sambhar and chital) aware of the lurking danger. Sometimes, the herbivores pull back from the water holes in fear. In the process, they thin out physically and wait for the rains to go back to their old ways of living. With rains, they pull deep into the parks and scatter widely, making sighting difficult," explained Kishor Rithe.

That sounded like the lama in the book Kim, written by Rudyard Kipling where the lama exclaims, "We are all on the Wheel of Things." Sometimes on top, sometimes below.

On the morning trip, we saw nothing and kept to ourselves. We started the noon trip with a prayer and at around 4.15 p.m. we spotted the three Dauna cubs at the Panderpani water hole though there were no signs of the mother (usually, the mother is with her cubs for 18 to 24 months by which time, the cubs learn the tricks of living).

The three one-year-old cubs lay spread out in an arc behind some thin vegetation with one close to the water hole.

For a minute, the air crackled with the alarm calls of a sambhar but that did not make any difference. For about 30 minutes, the three cubs lolled around before a loud tourist vehicle drove them away from the spot.

The forest track we were on starts at Pandherpauni to touch Kala Amba and then proceeds to Bhanuskhindi. The Dauna waterhole lies on this stretch and to our good luck the three cubs had shifted to Panderpani.

From 4.15 p.m. to 4.45 p.m. we gazed at the one-year-old cub nearest to the waterhole, some 20 ft. away from our open Gypsy. It yawned twice, stared at us while tapping the ground and swishing its black-tipped tail.

The Panthera tigris was oozing grace while one turned reverential. It was Sameer, who spotted the three cubs and beckoned us. Sameer started as a guide and now owns a Gypsy to take tourists on rides in the Park. We left the place as the three cubs moved away only to enjoy the spectacle of a full-grown male tiger making its way towards us. It did not care for our presence as it turned off into wilder part of the jungle.

On the second morning, from the watchtower at Panderpauni, we had a glimpse of two chitals, calling in alarm, staring into a thick cluster of dry grass. They called for quite some time but no tiger emerged.

Credit for the strong and healthy population of tigers needs to go to the forest officials led by the Field Director of TATR, S.H. Patil.

He has been taking particular care to cut off some of the tourist paths to reduce the disturbance to the roaming tigers. "Now, the question will be to prevent any poaching in the coming years and that is going to be a tough job," remarked Kishor Rithe.

For this writer, TATR is hugely special. Over the last few years, the tiger population has remained steady at around 34 (males and females put together with cubs excluded).

The twin sanctuaries of Tadoba and Andhari form the TATR. The Tadoba National Park, declared in 1955, was transferred to Maharashtra in 1956 and became the state's first National Park, spread over 620 sq. km.

The Andhari Wildlfire sanctuary was declared a sanctuary in 1986 along with the Tadoba National Park and as the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in 1993, says Erach Bharucha in the recently published book National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries of India. The Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary has an area of 508.85 sq.km.

From TATR we drove to the twin protected areas on the banks of the Pench river on the M.P.- Maharashtra border with a total area of 758 sq. km.

In the two Parks, our streak of luck held being able to spot four jackals with one jackal (Canis aureus) striding ahead of us in Pench (M.P.) to join up with another, while the common langurs called furiously from tree tops.

S.H. Prater in his Indian Book of Animals puts it aptly: "In their pursuit there is no undue hurry, no violent outburst of speed. Dogs move with a lobbing tireless canter which in the end brings them to their exhausted prey. ... . The feet are adapted to one purpose, the pursuit of prey over hard ground." Wolves, jackals and foxes, dogs domestic and wild, together compose the Canidae family. Driving out of the Pench (M.P.) park, Paul pointed to an Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis), on an easy gallop. It moved along side our vehicle (keeping a safe distance of about 40 ft) before merging into the cluster of villages.

Prater opines climatic conditions "have done little to prevent the family from invading and settling in new countries. The wolf, the red fox, the jackal and the wild dog are immigrants into India from the north. They probably entered the country by way of our north-western passes.

"Here as elsewhere they have adapted themselves to life under contrasting conditions of heat and cold, of dryness and humidity. In this, the jackal has been perhaps, the most successful. It has spread over the whole of India. ... . Not so the wolf and the fox. In the Indian plains, wolves and foxes have selected for settlement the more open parts of the country. In contrast, wild dogs have kept exclusively to forests."