Virasat-e-Khalsa dedicated to humanity

Rs 300-crore monument depicts the history, evolution of the Khalsa Panth
 500-yr heritage comes alive Complex stands at a site that is the birthplace of the Khalsa Panth

REPOSITORY OF RICH KHALSA HERITAGE: Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh presents a sword to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday during the inaugural ceremony of the Khalsa Heritage Memorial, a museum on Sikhism, located on a 75-acre site in the holy city of Anandpur Sahib in Punjab.

Anandpur Sahib,India - November 25

The Akalis today basked in the reflected glory of the steel petal roof of the Virasat-e-Khalsa that was dedicated to humanity in a ceremony that encompassed all faiths, but was essentially rooted in Sikh culture and tradition.

Badal, flanked by Akal Takth Jathedar Gurbachan Singh and the Sikh high priests, pressed a button to unveil the museum’s inaugural plaque as the Virasat-e-Khalsa monument seemingly rose out of the hillocks in the background. Nihangs astride horses and on foot along with ‘gatka’ troupes dressed in blue with saffron colour turbans dotted the hillocks and enhanced the backdrop.

Asha Bhosle started the function with a soulful rendition of the ‘shabad’ ‘Mera Sahib, Mera Sahib’ followed by Punjabi singer Jaspinder Narula’s ‘Deh Shiva Var Mohe’. The programme ended with an ‘ardas’ by Takth Sri Keshgarh Sahib Jathedar Giani Tarlochan Singh.

A glider then showered confetti and flower petals on the assembled congregation that had BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal among others. This was followed by a fireworks display.

The inauguration clearly belonged to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The veteran leader has achieved the unique distinction of being behind the creation of the Rs 300 crore monument destined to take the Sikh religious experience to a new level.

Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh set the tone for the function by reminding the congregation that the museum was the result of one man’s dream. With elections in mind, he prayed to the lord to give Badal more time to complete all remaining tasks of the Sikh community.

The Chief Minister recollected his chance visit to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and a meeting with its Boston-based Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. Calling the museum a culmination of his life tasks, Badal said, “I am satisfied that I have managed to fulfill the tasks set for me by the Guru.

Sacha padshah mehr karo, asin hor vi sewa kar sakiye (God bless us so we can serve the people even better).”

The Virasat-e-Khalsa stands at a site that is the birthplace of the Khalsa Panth. The second holiest Sikh shrine, Takht Keshgarh Sahib, is located here. It was here in 1699, on the day of Baisakhi, that 10th Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa Panth and baptised the 'Panj Piaras'.

Conceived as a repository of the rich heritage of the Khalsa, showcasing the history and culture of Punjab, the heritage complex has been built on a 100-acre site to emphasise the eternal message of the Sikh gurus.

The Chief Minister said that a never-before miracle in Sikh history would take place in the coming week — the inauguration of three more memorials to commemorate the two genocides that occurred in Sikh history and the victory of Sirhind by Banda Singh Bahadur.

Earlier, BJP president Nitin Gadkari said he had been in the construction business for long, but was impressed by the scale of the monument.

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said today’s ‘sankriti’ had been saved by the Khalsa Panth and that the 120-crore people of the country would be indebted to the Sikh Panth for the sacrifices made by its gurus in the cause of humanity.

Also present were Swami Madhav Ashram Shankra-charya Bapu Asa Ram, Pakistani dignitaries Imran Masood (ex-education minister) and Rai Azizullah (ex-MP), former Canadian MPs Ruby Dhalla and Gurbax Malhi, besides Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and other senior SAD and BJP leaders.

ROLL OF HONOUR: The Chief Minister honoured Israeli architect Moshe Safdie on the occasion. He said Safdie had studied Sikh religion for two years before designing the heritage museum. Safdie said he wanted the museum to look 300 years old and he thought he had succeeded in this objective. Others who were honoured included noted filmmaker Bobby Bedi and designer Amar Behl for creating the exhibits of the heritage museum.

India's Best Business Schools

Around 2,500 years ago, Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus had pronounced: "The only constant in life is change." Think of change as a never-ending game - 'The Change Game', if you like. As in every other sphere, The Change Game resonates through the 2011 edition of Business Today's annual special issue on business schools, or B-schools, as well. So, ladies and gentlemen, let us begin from the very top. The familiar order of A-B-C - or Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta - played itself out eight times in the 11 earlier rankings we have done since 1998. But in this year's BT-Nielsen ranking of India's Best B-schools, the top trio has shuffled into B-C-A. For the first time since 2002, IIM Bangalore finds itself perched at the top. What has helped it most is its unmasked ambition for growth and an increased thrust on research.

CHECK OUT: Full listing of India's best B-Schools 

Another significant change is in our methodology to rank the B-schools. For the past eight years, the responses of a perceptual survey by our partner Nielsen were wrung through its 'Winning Brands' model to arrive at brand equity scores to rank the B-schools. This year, too, we did a perception survey, but did not apply the Winning Brands model. Instead, scores were assigned to the responses of the five groups of stakeholders - MBA aspirants, current MBA students, young executives at companies, recruiters (human resource heads and functional heads), and permanent faculty of B-schools - across various parameters. These scores were aggregated, the highest scorer was assigned a score of 100, and the remaining scores were indexed to it. This makes the scoring more linear and simpler.

In the context of business education in India, an MBA degree from an IIM has always been the key to riches, glory and recognition. This year's ranking of the Top 10, too, suggests that at a time of turbulence in the economy, global and local, brand IIM is considered the safe house. For the first time ever, the top six colleges are all IIMs. The B-C-A trio is followed by IIM Indore (IIM-I), IIM Lucknow (IIM-L) and IIM Kozhikode (IIM-K), in that order. While IIM-I and IIM-L are familiar members of the Top 10 club, IIM-K rejoins it after nine years (see Dramatic Rise). IIM Shillong, too, joins the snoot club in style this year, catapulting to #9 from #15 last year.

Naturally, others have wilted. The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, a top-tier school in the league of the IIMs, has dropped one slot from #7 to #8. The two institutes that share the #10 rank, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, and XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur, have also taken a tumble, from #4 and #6, respectively, last year. Only Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi, shot up to #7 from #11 last year. That it is increasingly gaining equity in the B-school ecosystem is evident from the fact that last year, too, it had jumped to #11 from #17 in 2009. Backing these changes are vital insights on crucial shuffles at the very foundation of the system that schools the business leaders of tomorrow.

The vital triggers
Hard questions are being asked: Do our schools shape enough young leaders? What measures are the B-schools taking to reform their pedagogy? Why will our young, bright talents opt for Indian institutions, if they can study abroad? What will the entry of foreign B-schools mean for their Indian counterparts? In its golden jubilee year, IIM-A has come up with some answers of its own. "Our vision is to build on 'thought leadership', and come up with new paradigms in management thinking which are different from western models," says Samir K. Barua, Director, IIM-A (see Nifty at 50). Barua's statement comes at a time when leaders such as Jairam Ramesh in governance and N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys have accused top institutes of not doing enough research. Others such as Pritam Singh, Director General, International Management Institute, or IMI, suggest Indians have clung slavishly to western models of thinking that are inadequate for Asia.

Happily, good institutes admit to their need for research, and some have already initiated moves to create intellectual property. For instance, IIM-C has set up a finance lab that gets real-time data and news on companies from different stock exchanges. These are then converted into sentiment scores to predict share price movements. Unfortunately, "For this lab, we were sanctioned Rs 20 crore from the government, but the money has not come yet," says Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM-C.

At another level, B-schools are layering functional programmes with courses that equip students with soft skills. IIM-L, for instance, has an elective on leadership through literature. And Pramath Sinha, founding dean of ISB Hyderabad, has initiated an alternative value-add to education with The Young India Fellowship, a oneyear course in New Delhi that includes subjects such as Listening, Psychology, Plato's Republic (Philosophy), and Critical Thinking and Writing, besides regular management content.

The foreign hands
A big change on the horizon is The Foreign Education Bill, which once approved by Parliament, will allow the entry of foreign universities and other education providers into India. Should our B-schools be worried? "Yes, good institutions are likely to come, and we could all do with some healthy competition," says IIM-A's Barua.

IIM Indore: Up to #4 from #8 last year

Some are already here. For instance, Glasgow-based Strathclyde Business School has set up the Strathclyde SKIL Business School (SSBS) in Greater Noida partnering the Nikhil Gandhi-promoted SKIL Infrastructure. "Strathclyde will completely control the quality of education by providing the curriculum, faculty and also student exchange for a term," says Bhimaraya Metri, Dean of SSBS, who recently joined it from Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon.

GD Goenka Group, partnering the UK's Lancaster University, launched GD Goenka World Institute in Sohna near Gurgaon in 2009, which offers a two-year postgraduate diploma in business management. And the GMR Group has announced its decision to collaborate with Schulich School of Business of York University, Toronto.

But it would be inaccurate to assume that Indian B-schools will be lightly regarded once the foreign biggies swagger in. A case in point is 24-year-old Gopal Balakrishnan, a first-year student at IIM-A. He had Berkeley, Harvard and Columbia in his consideration list while interning at Cisco after his engineering degree at Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Mumbai. But on getting a call from IIM-A (where he had also applied along with ISB), his decision was clear. "The opportunity cost here is terrific. Besides, India is where the growth and opportunities are," he says.

The Foreign Education Bill also brings the matter of autonomy of Indian B-schools into sharp focus. "How is it that we struggle to prove our worth but do not have any say in designing the curriculum, whereas the foreign players can fix student fees, faculty compensation and design their own curriculum totally unhindered," asks H. Chaturvedi, Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) at Greater Noida.

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Last year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) triggered acrimony by sending a notification to state-funded B-schools which sought to curb their power to design their course curriculum and duration, determine their fee structures, and even their selection of an examination model for students. While IMI's Singh feels AICTE's role is not only to grant approvals, he also questions its attempt to paint all institutes - including established ones such as IMI and XLRI - with the same brush.

The IIMs, of course, can now choose their own directors, but according to IIM-C's Chaudhuri, faculty fee is an issue. "If we had the freedom to match salaries of US universities, we could have drawn better talent," he says. "But this may not be possible given the cost structure and environment in our country." In a double-whammy, what also hurts is the lack of good faculty.

The Department of Management Studies (DMS), IIT Delhi, for instance, needs at least 23 people now, according to Sudhir K. Jain, Head of Department. "We follow stringent selection norms. The entire academic background has to be sound. That's why a large majority of those who apply to us fails to fulfil the criteria," he says.
 
Positive shuffles
Even as the business education community grapples with autonomy and faculty issues, a positive change is beginning to happen at another level. Corporate consortiums are aiding institutes, not just with funding, but also with time to help develop curriculum and mentor students. For instance, the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) in Gurgaon, was co-created in 2009 by a consortium of 32 companies. When Anil Sachdev, Founder and CEO of SOIL, started the venture, he approached his former consulting clients. Luckily, he did not need funding support, but he asked them to invest time in co-creating the curriculum and also in mentoring students closely. "From day one, each student has a mentor from the industry who spends time with him or her on key issues," says Sachdev.

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Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, founded in 2004 by Kellogg professor Bala V. Balachandran, has five centres of excellence partnering TVS Capital Funds, which created the T.S. Srinivasan Chair Professor of Entrepreneurship for conducting research in entrepreneurship. Union Bank of India helped create the Union Bank-Great Lakes Center for Banking Excellence and a Faculty Chair as part of this.

Surely these are welcome moves for an industry feeling the pinch of not having enough employment-ready talent. "There has to be an investment from our side where we aid institutions in understanding our requirements," says Chandrasekhar Sripada, Head of Human Resource, IBM India/South Asia, which helps some B-schools design their programmes.

B-schools are also just beginning to wake up to the power of their alumni network. "The initial response to fund and to partner the institute in mentoring students has been terrific," says IIM-A's Barua. The emotional connect certainly helps. "IIM Bangalore helped me with my discipline and perspective, and also in valuing work-life balance," says Sonjoy Chatterjee, a 1994 batch graduate and Chairman of Goldman Sachs India (Securities). This respect translates into hires from the institute.

As India's business education ecosystem evolves and matures to prime itself for a world where India and Indian companies will play an increasingly key role in the global economy, change will indeed be the only constant going ahead. Heraclitus, you see, was a truly wise man.

The pros and cons of FDI in retailing

The Cabinet has approved 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, a decision that will allow global mega chains like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour to open outlets in India.

The Cabinet also increased the foreign investment (FDI) ceiling to 100 per cent from the present 51 per cent in single-brand retail.

The following are the main issues raised by those in favour of foreign equity in multi-brand retailingand those opposed to it:

Those against:
- It will lead to closure of tens of thousands of mom-and-pop shops across the country and endanger livelihood of 40 million people
- It may bring down prices initially, but fuel inflation once multinational companies get a stronghold in the retail market
- Farmers may be given remunerative prices initially, but eventually they will be at the mercy of big retailers
- Small and medium enterprises will become victims of predatory pricing policies of multinational retailers
- It will disintegrate established supply chains by encouraging monopolies of global retailers

Those in favour:
- It will cut intermediaries between farmers and the retailers, thereby helping them get more money for their produce
- It will help in bringing down prices at retail level and calm inflation
- Big retail chains will invest in supply chains which will reduce wastage, estimated at 40 percent in the case of fruits and vegetables
- Small and medium enterprises will have a bigger market, along with better technology and branding
- It will bring much-needed foreign investment into the country, along with technology and global best-practices
- It will actually create employment than displace people engaged in small stores
- It will induce better competition in the market, thus benefiting both producers and consumers

Follow procedure while acquiring individuals’ properties, SC to states

New Delhi, November 24
Slapping a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh on Haryana for illegally acquiring a farmer’s land in Sonepat, and quashing the acquisition as null and void, the Supreme Court has issued a fiat to all the states to desist from taking over the properties of individuals, particularly farmers, except in cases where it is “absolutely necessary.”
The SC pointed out that in the recent past various state governments had resorted to “massive acquisition of land and that too without complying” with the mandatory legal procedures in the name of public purpose only to “confer benefit upon private parties.”
Such reckless acquisitions depriving ordinary people of their agriculture land, houses built with life-time savings or small industrial units set up with great difficulty were “wholly unjust, arbitrary and unreasonable,” a Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya ruled.

In the present case, the Bench noted that the affected farmer, Raghbir Singh Sehrawat, was shown as dead on the relevant documents, while his wife’s signature had been forged and she was described as a widow. Further, it was wrongly contended that the state had taken physical possession of the land and handed it over to the Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation(HSIIDC) on November 28, 2008, while village records showed that Sehrawat was still cultivating the land and there was a standing crop at the relevant time.

“Before acquiring private land, the state and/or its agencies/instrumentalities should, as far as possible, use land belonging to the state for the specified public purpose. If the acquisition of private land becomes absolutely necessary, then too, the concerned authorities must strictly comply with the relevant statutory provisions and the rules of natural justice,” the Bench noted in the 25-page verdict, written by Justice Singhvi.

The Bench noted that several state governments and their functionaries were adopting a “very casual approach” in dealing with matters relating to the acquisition of land in general and “the rural areas in particular and in a large number of cases” the acquisitions had been quashed by the judiciary for not following the mandatory procedure.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to appreciate as to why the state and its instrumentalities resort to massive acquisition of land and that too without complying with the mandate of the statute,” the SC said.

While diversion of farm land in the name of planned development or industrial growth would seriously affect the availability of food in future, depriving people of their only assets like a small house or a small industrial unit would amount to denying them of a “semblance of dignity” they have been struggling for, the apex court observed.

The owners, whose land was being acquired, should be given a chance to raise all sorts of objections, either by pointing out that the land was not suitable for the proposed purpose or by suggesting that an alternative piece of land was available or through other means.

“In other words, the recommendations made by the Collector must reflect objective application of mind to the objections filed by the landowners and other interested persons,” the Bench clarified.

The apex court also noted that since independence, the administrative apparatus of the State had neither invested enough in the rural areas nor educated and empowered the farmers to adopt alternative sources of livelihood.

“It also appears that the concerned authorities are totally unmindful of the plight of those sections of the society, who are deprived of their only asset like small house, small industrial unit etc. They do not realise that having one’s own house is lifetime dream of majority of population of this country,” they observed.

Canada to give super visas to Indians

Chandigarh, November 23
Going by the claims of Parm Gill, member of parliament, Brampton, Springdale and Canada, the Canadian government in a bid to facilitate Indian immigrations will provide 25,000 super visas this year as compared to an average of 17,000 last year.

Gill along with Jagvinder Singh Virk, senior member, Liberal Party, Australia visited Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Landran, today apprised students about the latest benefits being offered by the government to attract Indian students and residents for immigration. The benefits of this visa will not only allow holders a 10-year long multiple entry visa but will also extend benefits to the near and dear ones of the visa holders.

Indians give foreign trips a break as rupee plunges to new lows

NEW DELHI: Foreign travel bookings out of India for this winter have gone down considerably, with international holidays becoming expensive - thanks t
o the rupee plunging to new lows.

Delhi-based D.Paul's, which was clocking a growth of 70-80% growth year-onyear till October, said the business slowed down 20%. "Winter packages are nearly 17-18% more expensive compared to summer season," R Singh, director of D.Paul's said. Add to that rupee devaluation and other factors, like airport development fee, the total travel package cost increased 30-35%.

He said that even if a consumer has booked his holiday package in advance, he needs to pay the differential amount, based on the rupee-dollar exchange rate. A travel company usually puts such conditions in their agreements with outbound tourists.
Travel operators said that floods in Thailand, which is the most popular destination among Indians, also contributed to the slowdown. Indian families usually travel to short-haul destinations in south east Asia during the winter season, and Thailand contributes 20-30% of the overall travel footfalls going abroad. Other destinations like Australia and New Zealand are also popular during winter season.

"Even as some islands of Thailand are unaffected, consumers are being cautious. Singapore on its own is very expensive which leaves travellers with no option but to visit Malaysia, where prices have shot up due to high demand," a travel company executive who did not want to be named said. "If we were expecting to grow by 30% during the winter months, we have grown only by 10%," he added.

The winter season is the second largest holiday season for Indians after the summer months and the Diwali breaks when schools announce vacations. In addition, traditional wedding season leads to a large number of honeymooners opting for holidays around this time of the year.

But high prices for international holiday packages have put the Indian families at the backfoot as they are being more cautious booking at the last minute as well as looking for shorter trips this winter.

"In the past few weeks, bookings for airline tickets for leisure destinations are down by 7-8% from a year ago," said Ankur Bhatia, executive director Bird Group, a travel solutions company.

Tour operators are also noticing late bookings by Indian families. Travel companies usually sell nearly half of their inventories by October-end. This time around, bookings for Christmas and New Year packages are expected to happen as late as the first week of December. Some travellers are also postponing their holidays to the January-March quarter hoping for the market to stabilise.

Rajeev Duggal, managing director of Kuoni India, one of the biggest travel firms, said that companies are closely watching the situation with uncertainty in economic conditions as well as currency value fluctuations. "Growth for bookings has slowed down during the third quarter as consumers are opting for shorter breaks and are being cautious about international holidays.

Some are even postponing it to the fourth quarter," he said, adding, "that going by advance bookings, the January-March quarter could see higher growth in volumes than the October-December quarter".

Alberta tops Fraser Institute’s annual ranking as most economically free jurisdiction in North America

Alberta Premier Alison Redford. 

It won't surprise anyone that the free enterprise-oriented Fraser Institute has dubbedAlberta the most economically-free jurisdiction in Canada. But would you be shocked to learn it tops the rankings for all of North America?

That's the finding of the Vancouver-based think tank's 2011 Economic Freedom annual report for this continent.

Alberta beat all Canadian provinces, as well as all 50 U.S. states on the institute's all-government index, which measures the impact of federal, provincial or state and municipal governments on economic freedom.

The index ranks jurisdictions based on the size of government, amount of taxation and level of labour-market freedom.

"The chicken is coming home to roost: Canada is staying on the course of economic freedom, while the United States has accelerated its spending and regulation," Fred McMahon, a Fraser Institutevice-president and co-author of the report, told the National Post. "It's been a long-term trend that's really beginning to bite now."

McMahon pointed out the rankings are based on 2009 data, which don't factor in even greater U.S. government stimulus spending, compared with Canada.

Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert said he was not surprised at his province's position. He said that while he was energy minister he met often with U.S. legislators who displayed what he called "Alberta envy" at the province's 10 per cent flat tax on personal income and zero sales tax.

"I remember a conversation with a fellow from Wyoming," said Liepert. "He had nothing but good things to say about the kind of climate we have here … In a general sense, they felt it was much easier to do business in Canada these days than it is in the U.S."

Canada also topped the United States in the institute's previously released ranking of economic freedom in the world, dropping to 10th place with a score of 7.6 out of 10 while Canada rose to sixth, scoring 7.81. Hong Kong was first, scoring 9.01 out of 10.

Interestingly, on the institute's subnational ratings, which takes out the federal component, Alberta drops to sixth, with South Dakota in first place. The institute said the difference is due to the much lower level of federal spending in Alberta.

The institute said in a news release the level of economic freedom translates directly into living standards.

"The connection between economic freedom and prosperity is clearly seen in the report's finding that the 12 Canadian and American jurisdictions with the highest levels of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $54,435 (Cdn) in 2009, compared to the 12 lowest-ranked jurisdictions in North America, where average per-capita GDP in 2009 was $40,229," it said.

But before Canadians start popping the Champagne corks, the report suggests the rest of Canada doesn't measure up so well on the institute's yardstick.

Delaware finished second behind Alberta in the rankings, followed by Texas, Nevada and Colorado.

"The Canadian provinces, with the exception of Alberta, are all clustered at the bottom of theeconomic freedom ratings, along with Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia," the institute's report summery said.

However, it said, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland improved significantly. Saskatchewan took the biggest jump, climbing to 32nd from 53rd and second overall among the provinces.

But McMahon pointed out it's not because of any major change in the prairie province but due to U.S. states tending downward.

Newfoundland and Labrador, at 37th overall, was the third-ranked province.

Canada's two biggest economies, Ontario and Quebec, finished near the bottom of the 60 Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions, finishing 49th and 58th respectively.

"The low economic freedom scores for Ontario and Quebec are quite troubling, given that they are Canada's two most populous provinces," McMahon said.

"If governments in these two provinces want to boost prosperity and improve the standard of living for their residents, they should look to the successful policies of provinces where economic freedom has increased."

British Columbia was 43rd, Manitoba 56th, New Brunswick, 57th, Nova Scotia 59th and Prince Edward Island 60th and last.

The complete report is available online here.