New Delhi, 21 May, 2012

A CNN-IBN Opinion Poll conducted across eight urban centres – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bangalore and Hyderabad – showed that even as the Manmohan Singh-led UPA is losing its credibility in urban areas, Narendra Modi stands head and shoulders above his rivals with voters when it comes to leadership of the BJP and the NDA.

The survey, conducted from 8-10 May with a sample size of 2,033, shows that Modi is the overwhelming urban choice as NDA-BJP leader with 39 percent seeing him as prime ministerial material. LK Advani comes next with 17 percent. The rest have preferences in single-digits.

Interestingly, barring Kolkata, Modi is No 1 choice is all cities, with Ahmedabad (not surprisingly) leading the pack with 76 percent preferring him, followed by Lucknow (which is surprising) giving him 60 percent. This suggests that Modi may be key to reviving the BJP’s fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, too.

The interesting point is that Nitish Kumar, who is widely seen as a possible prime minister in case the regional allies of the NDA fare better than the BJP itself, gets just 5 percent. He is more a media creation than anything else.

A majority of the respondents in the CNN-IBN survey (49 per cent) did not favor another term for the UPA II. When asked who would be the most ideal candidate from the opposition alliance, NDA, to be India’s next PM, 39 per cent of the respondents preferred Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

An overwhelming 66 per cent of India’s urban population thinks the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government has lost its credibility to govern. Also, more than half of the respondents (59 per cent) expressed dissatisfaction with the current government.

Ahmedabad, 21 May 2012

Presented above is a video containing Gujarat Congress President Arjun Modhwadia’s conversation with the media persons on the occasion of anniversary of Late Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi.

Ahmedabad, 21 May 2012

Star cast of the film Yeh Khula Aasman was on visit to Ahmedabad on promotion tour. The film is produced by Gitanjali creations. The story of the film revolves arond Avinash, a young intelligent boy going through an extremely challenging phase of life due to his academic failures. He feels an immense vacuum which unfortunately his busy parents are unable to fill. In desperation he visits his grandfather (Dadu, a role played by Raghubir Yadav) after several years.

Being the best kite runner of his era, Dadu subtly imparts lessons of life using the ‘kite’ as a metaphor for ‘life’. Under Dady’s company Avinash discovers many unexplored yet invaluable facets of life finding true friendship, love and inspiration to lead a life full of hope, joy and success.

The role of Avinash is played by Raj Tandon while the centre of attraction of the film, a beautiful girl Anya Anand plays role of Muskaan.

The film is directed by Gitanjali Sinha. Anand Milind are music director of the film.

Ahmedabad, 21 May 2012

Presented above are the pictures of 100s of new trees planted over the reclaimed land of Sabarmati river front between Ambedkar bridge (Vasna-Pirana river bridge) and Vasna barrage.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has initiated plantation of about 7,000 trees of 100 species to create an urban forest over 60,000 square metres of land near Vasna barrage on Sabarmati Riverfront. Majority of trees will be indigenous ones like Vad, Pipal and, Neem.

The plantation drive is expected to be completed during the current season. With proper watering and caring, the civic body expects 100% survival ratio of the plants. Further, a nursery will be set up for cultivating saplings to be planted in various gardens along the riverfront. The area of a dense urban forest will be off limits for motor vehicles and will have tracks for visitors only.

Ahmedabad, 21 May 2012

Essar Oil, amongst India’s top private sector refiners, and Larsen & Toubro (L&T), amongst India’s top engineering and construction companies, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for supplies of high quality bitumen for key infrastructure projects in Gujarat undertaken by the engineering giant. The initial supply agreement is for a quantity of 15,000 metric tonnes over the course of the project and is likely to be extended to other projects in and around the state.

Essar Oil will provide supplies for the Kandla – Mundra Road Project (KMRP) and the Samakhaiyali – Gandhidham Road Project (SGRP), both in the state of Gujarat from its state-of-the-art refinery in Vadinar. This cooperation will soon be extended to projects like the Kishangarh – Udaipur – Ahmedabad Road Project, among others.

Essar Oil has existing relationship with L&T under which it supplied about 60,000 metric tonnes of high quality bitumen over the last 18 months for L&T’s various road projects. The new MoU is over and above that quantity. Essar Oil will ensure availability of quality product for the projects and the relationship with L&T will open up avenues for sales of its refinery product.

“We are happy to be associated with L&T and in essence be a part of the infrastructure development of the country. Essar Oil is fully geared to meet the supply for increased demand of high quality bitumen for road construction,” said Mr. S. Thangapandian, CEO – Marketing, Essar Oil.

Larsen & Toubro is one of the pioneers of infrastructure development in India and currently has more than 15 road projects under various stages of construction / operations, across states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Essar Oil has the capacity to produce over 700,000 metric tons of bitumen per annum.

Surat, 21 May 2012

After doing indefinite fast in Palitana seeking ban on non-veg food in nine km area, Jain monk Maitriprabhasagar will now sit on indefinite fast in Surat from 26 May demanding ban on sell and consumption of non-veg food in all religious places of Gujarat.

The Jain monk said, “if the state government doesn’t accept my four demands, I would start fast-unto-death from 25 May against the government.”

On his four demands he said, “my first demand is that, no new slaughter house should be permitted in Gujarat and expansion and modernization of existing slaughter houses must not be permitted.”

“My third and fourth demands are that, over 400 illegal slaughter houses operating in the state are forced to shut down within a month, and ban on non-veg food’s selling and consumption at all religious places,” he further said.

Jain monk has selected a place opposite Surat’s Nanpura bahumali building to start his fast.

Same Jain monk had in recent past organized fast-unto-death in Palitana town, demanding ban on non-veg food in 9 km area. When state govt didn’t respond, he threatened self immolation, after which the district collector intervened and gave him promise to consider his demands.

Following this, the Palitana Municipality decided to ban non-veg and eggs.

Saputara, 21 May 2012

The summer festival for tourists was kicked off by minister of state for tourism Shri Ranjit Gilitvala at Saputara in south Gujarat.

One of the attraction added to this festival is paragliding. On Sunday 88-year-old freedom fighter Ghelubhai Nayak, local BJP MLA Vijay Patel among others enjoyed paragliding.

Surat, 21 May 2012

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will address a convention of Rajasthani and Hariyani communities in Surat on 27 May.

The convention has been organized at Parvat patiya at 5.00 pm.

BJP leaders from Rajasthan are invited to this convention according to party sources.

The Chief Minister will also dedicate various development projects including a water and gutter network project worth Rs 80 crore and Kapodra-Utran river bridge worth Rs 72 crore. He will address the inaugural function of new river bridge at Amroli cross road. The Chief Minister will also attend the installation function of new office bearers of local chamber of commerce.

Ahmedabad, 21 May 2012

Allan J. Lichtman, Professor and Chair of the Department of History at American University in Washington, D.C. will deliver lectures at three different public events in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagr on May 24-25. Following are the details of the events.

Thursday, May 24
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Topic: U.S. Elections: The Keys to the White House
Venue: Ahmedabad University’s Amrut School of Management.

Time: 18:30 (6:30 p.m.)
Topic: “U.S. Elections: Ethics and Transparency”
Venue: American Corner at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA), ATIRA premises,
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Marg, Ahmedabad 380 015

Friday, May 25
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Topic: The Keys to the White House
Venue: Main Building, SPIPA Campus, Satellite Road, Opposite ISRO, Ahmedabad 380015

Time: 15:00 (3:00 p.m.)
Topic: The Keys to the White House
Venue: Infocity Club Auditorium, Gandhinagar

Ahmedabad, 20 May 2012

On the eve of eight years of UPA rule, a survey has suggested that the Congress-led alliance is losing its sheen and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most popular national leader ahead of the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi.

The ABP News-Nielsen survey also suggested that if General elections are held now, the BJP would garner 28 per cent of the votes while the Congress would manage only 20 per cent.

“After eight years in power, the UPA pull seems to be diminishing. Narendra Modi, for the first time, emerges as the most popular national leader, ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi,” the news channel said in its release.

The channel said the survey, conducted in 28 cities across the country, also revealed that the BJP has turned out to be the most favoured party.

“In an interesting revelation, only 69 per cent of those who voted for Congress during the 2009 polls are still intending to vote for it if elections are held now,” it said.

In 2009 General elections, the Congress had won 207 seats whereas the BJP secured 116.

Daimler plant in Chennai

Ahmedabad, 20 May 2012

Following is the most popular version on “CREATION” found in the Puranas(India’s Ancient Sacred texts).

In the beginning there was Narayana who slept in a dreamless slumber. He slept in the coils of a serpent with innumerable hoods called Adi-Ananta-Sesha, meaning one-infinity-zero. And the serpent floated on a sea of milk that was still and unmoving. As long as Narayana was in slumber the world did not come into being. Creation began when he awoke. It is a vivid imagery that is very clearly a code, and not to be taken literally.

(http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/cradle-of-imagination.html)

Time stops, everything slows down and I am reminded of these words, whenever I visit Mahabalipuram 50 KM south of Chennai, a seventh century thriving port town and now one of the most famous UNESCO heritage sites in India. It is famed for one of the most enthralling rock carving and monolithic in the backdrop of Tranquil Sea. Archaeological evidence at site and as far as China or Greece confirms the prosperity of this place. Not to mention the legends and myths covering saga of this place. The myth says, “The place was so beautiful that the envious gods of Sea sent flood that engulfed six of its seven temples”. Marine Archaeologists confirm that only sixth of the place is on earth and remaining in the sea. Since then this part of the world slept in deep slumber only to be revived a millennium later.

Almost 1000 years since, another edifice was about to turn Sesha into Adi. This February, while waiting at the Industries department at St. Fort George (an edifice of seventeen century and the foundation of modern day Chennai city), I came across a coffee-table book on the Chamber of Commerce of Madras which has history of more than 175 years. According to the book, global trade was the very reason for formation of the city originally settled at St Fort George, (which is still used by incumbent Govt. and present CM does not want to leave it even though new secretariat building is ready). The first seeds of so called town were settled by East India Company to manufacture and export local clothes which later expanded to other mercantile activities. The entrepreneurship and global trade go hand in glove since the inception as the city grew and thrived with world business. The industry kept track of the events abroad and tried to remain in tune with demand.

Unlike Gujarat which is in the middle of National Highway 8, thus having access to lucrative domestic market on either side of Delhi/Bombay or exports to balance, TN had to mainly depend on the exports to derive economies of scale. In post liberalized India, the industry here faced one of the most terrible time and this triggered in massive obsession with quality as they were required to speak language that is globally understood to compete in global markets.

If you are looking for examples in contemporary history where low base economy grew on global trade; your search ends with East Asian miracles. The trade induced growth by generating wealth for self and others was exemplified by now famous Kojima theorem. Product Life cycle Theory (or Geese Flying Pattern theorem) that explains Japanese growth model; became sacred text book for other East Asian economies to emulate. They were the first ones to realize importance of quality and uniformity in products.

In order to achieve domination over world market, other remarkable and massive obsession Japanese companies had been around quality. The JITs, KANBANS, 5S, KAIZENs and many such tools were developed to make sure uniformity is maintained across all the products. The contribution of one American Mr. Deming was immense in this regard to bring Japan where it is now.

The principals of Statically Quality Control (SQC) defined by Mr. W. Edwards Deming were perfected by Japanese. It is said that when Mr. Deming was called to teach these issues to Japanese companies early post war, he was touched by his host’s eagerness to learn. Japanese host institute paid him his fees, but Mr. Deming returned that money asking his hosts to use it for the development of Quality improvement for Japanese industries. This moved Japanese so much that they decided to immortalize Mr. Deming by having an award named after him. The award was announced initially to be given to Japanese companies for their consistent performance improvement in quality and profitability. Over a period many companies around the world tried to strive for this award. For starters, the importance of this award lies in the fact that Industry considers the Deming award as equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the field of quality or more than that as I titled above. If you get it, you command respect, period. Mostly it remained Japanese forte with occasional USA and European companies making it in. India with hardly any integration with global economy was obviously out of question. Hardly any surprise considering India’s contribution to global trade was minuscule. Even after liberalization, it was thought it will take ages for Indian companies to even come closer.

Just seven years since liberalization, the world was in a big surprise when Venu Srinivasan’s SUNDARAM-CLAYTON stunned everyone to be the only Asian and (first non-Japanese company) to have gate-crashed in the elite club respectfully. In an interview of 1998, elated Venu was still humble and stressed that he would like to improve more and bring his defects level per million even lower. There was no sense of accomplishment in his words rather an excitement of a person on the journey who just discovered his path. Four years down the line his group scored Hat-trick. Two of his other group companies also won the recognition. Venu this time graciously shared his success mantra. And I quote him “There is no instant mantra or extra effort that can prepare one for such an examination (required for the award), except the arduous and diligent process of consistently applying the process of TQC over a long period in every facet of operation,” What he meant was that starting from senior management all the way to shop floor worker shared a common goal towards quality, day in day out. And another secret was Prof. Tsuda the Japanese quality Guru, whom he literally revered. When still competing on cost plus margin was the norm that SUNDARAM should invest heavily in TQC culture was indeed commendable thing and showed character of an entrepreneur.

This event was an absolute game changer. Let me explain by giving another example of different industry. In early nineties India was seen as cheap destination to source software programming. Until one day, Motorola’s iridium development center near Ulsoor Lake in Bangalore stunned the world by announcing receipt of SEI CMM level 3.

The astonishment was all the more pervasive and deep as the only other institute to have achieved before Motorola was NASA which had got SEI CMM level 4. The myopic view on Indian outsourcing changed overnight. The spillover effect of this small event was so dramatic that within no time all the species (read software companies) got their act together and strived to achieve highest accreditation. This was definitely the single biggest milestone in the history of Indian IT industry. The same happened in Chennai. What was started by Venu’s companies had spillover effect. Currently out of 20 Deming application award received by India, almost two thirds or 13 to be precise are won by companies who have bases in Chennai. Not just that, many Venu’s were created on their ways which had a huge force-multiplier effect on the overall Chennai Quality.

I must here admit that Gujarat also has one jewel in this league. Hazira plant of Reliance is one of the proud recipients of coveted Deming application Prize; however I will leave the spillover effect analysis to readers.

It also helped TN as most of these companies were in automotive parts industry which is the most dynamic in terms of speed, competition and research. Chennai has mastered this. One of the major factors for Ford to decide for Chennai in as early as 1996 (much before even Sundaram got Deming) was the wide Varity of companies in Auto clusters locally developed diligently with passionate entrepreneurs, who loved their work and had respect for global quality and global norms.

In my previous article, I mentioned there are ten times more Japanese companies in Chennai than in Gujarat. The latest entrant to this expanding list is Yamaha. In spite of crippling infrastructure on the verge of collapse, the global bike maker decided to make Chennai its home for largest bike factory in Asia. It seems they plan to innovate with product and introduce something that is very new in Indian market in terms of body material and delicate design dynamics. After going through Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, they zeroed on TamilNadu.

The biggest pull-factor this time was, most able and market ready eco-system to support their innovation. Some lessons for Gujarati Entrepreneurs here.

This is a third article in the series. First one we pondered over thriving India within Stagnant India briefly discussing the backdrop of Indian reforms. With so many comments, I expanded my next article. Two States Different paths (http://deshgujarat.com/2012/05/13/part-two-indias-port-of-calling-diligent-tamil-nadu-and-credible-gujarat-two-states-different-paths/).The idea was to see Gujarat with the lenses of Global investors compared to TN. While it is undisputed that the peaceful environment provided by hard-working leader and able administration has given Gujarat lead and enviable infrastructure, the data on the FDI in discrete manufacturing says something else as of now. The tilt is in huge favor of TN makes an interesting analysis to study and ponder over. Hope you will like and enjoy this one too. In next article will ponder over the difference of Enterprenures and nature of Industries.

Previous articles in this series

India’s port of calling: Credible Gujarat and Diligent TamilNadu

Two ports, different paths: How to attract FDI

Previous articles by Somindu Shah

Narendra Modi’s Gujarat re-writes story of Indian Auto Industry

Narendra Modi’s Blitzkrieg: A savior for Brand India

Why Narendra Modi’s sweet offer is good for Nano Milk