Wednesday, August 22, 2012

At peace with that ponch? You could be slowly ‘inching’ towards dementia!

The waste-hip ratio differs in Asians and Europeans. If this ratio is abnormal, it would signify that the visceral fat (unhealthy abdominal fat) is more, which damages the arteries and increases the chances of a stroke by five to six times if coupled with diabetes and hypertension. Although a patient might not have a history of stroke, he could still suffer from dementia at a certain stage. Like in the case of treatable (preventive) causes such as hypothyroid, epilepsy, alcoholics or any accidents in which there might have been a brain haemorrhage, one might suffer from dementia. There isn’t a specific medication for dementia as such because in dementia the cause is treated to the extent possible,” says Dr. Mrinal Bhargava, General Physician (Resident Neurology). Dementia not only affects those who are too lazy to lose weight, but those who are fit as a fiddle may also suffer from a deadly neurodegenerative disease like dementia; like in the case of boxers. Due to repeated concussions they develop ‘Chronic traumatic encephalopathy’. It is also said that famous boxers and athletes such as Bobby Chacon and Jerry Quarry had suffered from this disease.

Being reduced to the state of a vegetable and being dependant on others for everything is not living but merely existing. The least one can do for oneself is to take control of those love handles, otherwise they could leave you with no control over your life.




 
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Indian cui‘sin’e

Prosecution is a must for control

India has a very strong law on food safety that sets down food standards and dispenses heavy penalties on infringers. The Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 includes specifications for ingredients, contaminants, pesticide residue, biological hazards, labels and others. In short, it takes all possible measures that are required to ensure safety of food in the market. Yet, it is common knowledge that people die consistently in India due to drinking adulterated milk, go blind or get paralyzed due to drinking adulterated alcohol and children are regularly taken ill with food poisoning after consuming mid-day meals at school, supplied by the government! Even temples are not safe (they are, after all, managed by humans), as devotees are taken ill or poisoned due to some adulterant.

Despite the fact that we have stringent laws to deal with it – hardly anybody is ever punished or prosecuted! The biggest culprits of these malpractices are food contractors and suppliers, to whom government agencies place their orders.


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Monday, August 20, 2012

A simple issue of timing

Godrej Industries has suddenly become more enthusiastic about its retail plans, especially in new concepts of retailing (like gourmet food). Is there any radical plan we’re missing or is this it? by Angshuman Paul

It was in January 2006 when Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group announced an investment of Rs.700 crore for the expansion of ‘Aadhar’ (chain of supermarkets in rural India) – part of Godrej Agrovet Ltd, and an additional investment of Rs.200 crore for the expansion Nature’s Basket – a gourmet food retail chain. The five-year plan was to take the number of Aadhar stores from 18 (in 2006) to 1,000 across the country and scale the footprints of Nature’s Basket from only three in Mumbai alone to 100 in metros by 2011. Today, after 40 months, while 70% stake in Aadhar has been taken over by Kishore Biyani-owned Future Group (in 2008), the progress at Nature’s Basket cannot be called anything better than sluggish with the current count of outlets standing at just 10 (7 in Mumbai & 3 in Delhi).

The detail – that the Indian retail industry is now a mammoth Rs.9.3 trillion with organised retail at only 4% - has apparently not been lost on the Godrej group. Company officials tell B&E how now, after identifying gaps in the retailing of home and office furnishings and equipments, Godrej plans to take the count of Lifespace stores from the current 51 to 90 by the year-end. The group has allocated Rs.16 crores towards advertising and promotion expenses. Would the fact that not many retailers are paying heed to the retailing of home furnishing and office equipment (except for Biyani’s Hometown, which is lagging behind on a similar model and is leveraging its finances from the other retail businesses of Future Group) make a difference to their highly niche offerings? Would Godrej, in the coming periods, expand the products portfolio to reduce the risk quotient? Godrej spokespersons reject the proposition. “We are not into the trading business and we won’t retail any other brands. And if we can offer everything to the people who are setting up their homes, why do we need other brands,” argues Shyam Motwani, VP & Business Head, Retailing Division of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. The company plans to reach a turnover of Rs.300 crores by the year-end from Lifespace sales alone.

At the other side of the Godrej strategy map is Nature’s Basket – their gourmet retailing arm. Nature’s Basket has tied up with many foreign brands and provides a wide array of food & beverages products. That is apart from selling the various food products of Godrej itself. But the issues of being extremely slow on the expansion plan hit here too. Mohit Khattar, MD, Godrej Nature’s Basket, defends the approach to B&E, “The type of format that we are offering is very exotic and we did not want to roll out stores unless we had completed our ground work.” It’s true that Nature’s Basket didn’t have to shut stores like its rival Le Marsche had to in Mumbai – after aggressive retail plans forced it to backtrack. But then, it’s also true that for every Le Marsche, there’re three other competitors who succeeded much better than Godrej.


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Times Come & Go, Basics Stay

Whether its about employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, or India at large, Infosys realises that it has a huge reputation to protect. So far, it has been able to shoulder the responsibility well. Infosys talks to B&E... by Virat Bahri

Their situation was extremely difficult last year, when Infosys announced increase in variable pay and freezing of salary hikes and promotions in April 2009; citing the devastating impact of the recession. And that makes the company’s decision to implement 13-17% salary hikes across the board very special for Infosys employees.

When you are one of India’s most respected IT companies, you obviously have a reputation to live up to. Moreover, you can ill afford to take any decision without the big picture in mind. Infosys demonstrated that even last year with respect to its HR policy. Salary hikes were frozen, but the company did meet its hiring commitments that it had made across campuses and build the bench, as Kris tells us. It was an investment in retaining its reputation, for that’s what matters in the long run for them.

Chairman & Chief Mentor N. R. Narayana Murthy expresses his view about the purpose of an organisation thus, “The primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth legally and ethically. This translates to bringing a high level of satisfaction to five constituencies – customers, employees, investors, vendors and the society-at-large.” Even as far as shareholders are concerned, Infosys is more concerned about long term shareholder expectations as opposed to short term. The company follows a defined set of standards on its dividend policy which mandate that the company cannot pay out more than 30% of its post tax profits as dividend, a policy which the board reviews periodically. Also, the dividend is declared twice a year, once in October post announcement of Q2 results and once during the AGM post the announcement of annual results. The interim dividend paid for FY 2009-10 was Rs.10 per share and the final dividend proposed is Rs.10 per share; which is expected to be approved at the AGM.


 
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