Just the title of this piece will be enough to make many of you read it. So many of us have tried to lose weight, given up, tried again, then given up again, either due to our hectic work schedules or due to demotivating results. You exercise, eat properly, but are baffled by the scale. So what’s really going wrong? Here are the five most common reasons why your weight is not budging. Correct these and you will see fabulous results! You’re not sleeping enough. Yes you read that right. You can do everything right, but if you don’t sleep for seven hours, weight loss will stagnate after a bit, and refuse to go. Sleep helps us rejuvenate and repair, and helps kill hunger pangs. So make sure you ditch the early morning flights, and sleep it out. You’re exercising every day. Hey, wait a minute, you need to exercise every day to lose weight, right? Wrong. If you’re a man, you need to do aerobic exercises like walking, jogging, cycling 45 min, six days a week. If you’re a woman, you need to exercise for 45 min, five days a week. The rest days for men ensure that muscle fatigue doesn’t set in. The rest days for women ensure that hormones, responsible for weight gain, are pacified. You’re linking exercise and food. Exercise burns fat and kills the bad cells. Proper, high fibre food kills the bad cells and excretes toxins. Both are NOT linked. So if you have had a fabulous workout, it doesn’t mean you can take an extra helping at dinner. Especially if you’re over 35 years, 80 per cent of your weight loss and good health will come from food. Exercise will make you more energetic, alert and healthier. Using exercise to eat your favourite dessert then is detrimental to your weight loss plan. You’re eating your water calories. Thirty-five per cent of the time when our stomachs feel empty, we just need a glass of water. So instead of reaching for a snack, try drinking water first. This means that your food intake can be cut by 35 per cent and help you lose weight. You’re eating a late dinner. Everyone knows this, no one follows it. I have seen people lose up to half a kilo every day when they eat a light dinner by 7 pm and nothing after that. The old adage holds true: a king’s breakfast, a queen’s lunch and a beggar’s dinner. Please. Follow. That. It’s the MOST effective way to lose weight. Write in to me about your weight loss after following the above. I’m sure many of you will have dropped a few kilos quickly! Question Of The Fortnight Send in your questions to askrachnachhachhi@gmail.com I work in China and my ageing parents are in Nasik. What can I do to ensure they stay healthy and avoid emergencies? — Vishesh Amrit, Shanghai Dear Vishesh,As we grow older, our digestion becomes weak, leading to deficiencies that cause degenerative diseases. Ensure you order a good multivitamin for 50-plus adults, a good B-vitamin supplement to be taken after breakfast, and a calcium citrate + vitamin D supplement to be taken one hour after dinner. Also, educate them on eating higher quantities of raw foods to keep them healthy. Tie up with a hospital locally and get them to keep emergency numbers handy. The author is a certified nutritional therapist and WHO certified in nutrition. She is the writer of Restore, a book on how to fight diseases for working professionals (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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Bollywood collections of 2015 are all charioted by content instead of heavy dependence on film marketing gimmicks, Koral Dasgupta writes "Achche din" (good days) seem to have finally dawned upon the Indian box office with the cross-border emotional saga Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bahubali from down south taking the audience by storm. And even better is the fact that Bollywood collections of 2015 till date are all charioted by content instead of heavy dependence on marketing gimmicks. Otherwise who would have expected a Salman Khan starrer to leave the viewers with misty eyes, as the actor redefines his brand of entertainment such that it doesn't need him to strip or put all money on style or mouth some cheesy one-liners! Two religions merged subtly very much in the title of the film, it has been a master idea to release Bajrangi Bhaijaan during Eid. With touching portrayals by child artist Harshali Malhotra and the fantastic Nawazuddin Siddiqui, it is more than welcome that the box office jingled with Rs 102 crore very much in the opening weekend for the Kabir Khan film. The film is Salman Khan's 8th to cross the Rs 100-crore mark and finds him as the actor with highest number of Rs 100 crore projects in Bollywood. Bajrangi Bhaijaan has also taken Khan-fare to a new level, breaking the opening weekend records of Aamir Khan's PK, Shah Rukh Khan's Happy New Year and his own Ek Tha Tiger. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan box office collections on day 1 was Rs 34.40 crore worldwide, out of which the domestic figure being Rs 27.25 crore. However, Bajrangi Bhaijan's domestic take was almost half of SS Rajamouli's Baahubali which took home Rs 50 crores on day 1. Even with the overseas collections, Bajrangi Bhaijaan stands second to the Southern epic, which has set new records by becoming the fastest entrant into the elite Rs 100 crore club. Bajrangi Bhaijaan took the screens by fire only a day after Baahubali collected Rs 300 crore at box office within just nine days of its release. The content of the historical film has been criticised by a few for its sexist undertones, but nothing could stop the South Indian project from being recognised as the ninth highest grossing Indian film of all times, leaving Bollywood way behind. If predictions are correct then the film will not stop till it has garnered Rs 500 crore worldwide, calling Rajnikanth's Enthiran records a success of the past. The multi-lingual mythological saga from a regional director and cast once again raises questions on the heavy dependence of Bollywood on its star system and marches ahead proving that content is the king.
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Vastu remedies are like large umbrella or a raincoat that prevent you from getting drenched in the rainy days. Different cities in different part of the world have taken the help of Vastu Shastra to build their dream house, says Vastu Shastri Khushdeep BansalA Vastu-complaint house is energy-friendly with the 16 Vastu zones and the Panch Tattva (Five Elements) in balance. It brings happiness, health and wealth into the resident's lives. MahaVastu has devised the Shakti Chakra and the 4-Step Evaluation techniques to see which part of the house lies in which zones. Certain zones and elements are best suited to specific activities. In this context, the main aspects of consideration are the proper zonal location of the main entrance door and the rooms and other features (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, study, dining, seating area, storage area, staircase and servant's quarter, and so on). For example, a study in the West-South-West is an ideal location. If the rooms are assigned according to age, then this is even better.Vastu Shastri Khushdeep BansalThe colour schemes of walls, ceilings and floors, and the shapes, decorations and designs in every room/area are important. Objects, colours and shapes have symbolic power, so their locations become crucial. Coming to the water boring, it should be in North-North-East or East-North-East. The toilet and septic tank should be in East-South-East, South-South-West and West-North-West only. The water tanks should be in the North, anywhere else, it will create a zonal disturbance.The exterior of the house is also important. The house will benefit from a positive road hit from the East and North. Make the garden in the South or North, with no plants in the West, South-West and West-South-West. You should keep these factors in mind because your house determines the quality of your life. If your house is fine, so will you be.Most people living in urban areas are buying flats as opposed to independent houses, and want their homes to be Vastu-perfect. These flats may be irregular in shape, with cut, extended and missing corners, and require Vastu balancing. Only MahaVastu has the ability to harmonise the Vastu zonal energy.There are no challenges in ensuring Vastu compliance and aesthetics, as Vastu is as much about a beautiful house as a functionally efficient one. There is no demolition required to apply MahaVastu principles and treatments. If there is any Vastu imbalance, it is easily remedied by changing colours, applying designs, placing symbols and cures that will balance house energy without detracting from aesthetics. For example, a calm smiling Buddha in the North-East will empower this zone, and add to the beauty of your house.Try and evaluate the house before you buy it. If you can get a Vastu-check done, so much the better. If you find anything going wrong get it checked and fixed right way. Vastu cures are simple and easy to apply. Never leave anything is a state of disrepair or dirty. For example, always fix electrical gadgets, lines and switches, and replaces fused bulbs at once Keep your house clean and uncluttered. With a pooja room in the North-East, a statue of lovebirds in the South-West, a picture of a field ready for harvest in the West, a safe in the North or West-South-West, the medicine chest in the North-North-East, and a smiling Sun on the Eastern wall, energy flows in your house and in your life will improve. The author is Vastu Guru
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If intellectual property drain continues unabated, this can impoverish India more than the East India Company did and in a much similar manner, says Harish HVIndia has suffered heavily due to its restrictive economic policies and rigid processes in the government in the 60s and 70s which led to the cream of its talent migrating to the US. This was called the brain drain. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, Brain Drain is the movement of highly skilled and qualified people to a country where they can work in better conditions and earn more money. The UNDP estimates that India loses $2 billion a year because of the emigration of computer experts to the US Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually. I believe this problem has been addressed to some extent as there is a large population which is returning and being attracted to India in view of the progress made on many fronts and the opportunities to create value and build businesses. Those who are returning and building businesses as well as home grown new age entrepreneurs are focussed on building businesses around new ideas and concepts rather than producing traditional commodities based on easily available technologies. The core of these new businesses is the Intellectual Property that is created in these businesses. As per WIPO (world intellectual property organisation), the crucial point about legal protection of intellectual property is that it turns intangible assets into exclusive property rights, albeit for a limited period of time. These are now being valued by investors and owners as they have the ability to generate significant returns and are worth far more than physical assets. If military might, abundance of natural resources and sophisticated industrial capability were the factors which helped nations and societies to dominate the world in the past centuries, then this is the time for intellectual property (IP) to play the most important role in determining the ascendancy of nations in the current century. Relative strength of a country in terms of IP developed, owned and exploited by its people and enterprises will determine how well it does in the 21st century. Whilst the new age brains are building and creating IP in India (whether returned Indians or local), they find the Indian business environment unconducive to retain it in India and they all are being forced by the regulatory environment and the pulls of countries competing to own the IP, having realised its value to move it out of India. This is what I call “IP DRAIN” which is the second biggest drain phenomenon that has begun to happen. In my opinion,if IP Drain continues unabated, this can impoverish India more than the East India Company did and in a much similar manner. Indians are creating IP which is going to other countries and those countries will earn revenue from across the world and the wealth transfer will happen to the country owning IPwhich is going to be the most prized asset of the future. One country which has realised it quickly is (no surprises here) is Singapore and they are looking to become the IP capital of the world and are going about attracting IP from around the world and have obviously trained its efforts on India. Singapore has created its IP Hub Master Plan (2013) which aims to make Singapore a preferred place for IP transactions and management, offering world-class services for quality IP filings and a venue of choice for IP dispute resolution. In December 2014, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore launched a convenient one-stop online platform for the registration of intellectual property. Earlier that year, an IP Financing scheme was rolled out which enables eligible Singapore-incorporated companies possessing granted patents to raise finance with their patents serving as collateral. There is a special programme for small and medium enterprises under which grants are available to fund manpower, consultancy and IP registration / acquisition costs. Financial assistance can also be availed under the Global Company Partnership programme, a niche initiative by International Enterprise Singapore - a government agency that helps Singapore businesses in going global. A one-stop services centre was opened last year with effective linkages to the IP community, such as the local enterprises, IP service providers, IP owners, academics, etc. to offer the IP community a comprehensive suite of products, services and networks. This centre offers preliminary advice on anything to do with IP, provides access to Singapore’s IP database and holds awareness and training seminars for business and creative community. Singapore has also made suitable changes to its legal framework to facilitate cheaper and faster options to settle patent disputes such as inventorship or entitlement disputes or patent revocations that involve complex technical or scientific issues. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 ranked Singapore as number one in Asia and second in the world for intellectual property protection. India and China are at lowly 65th and 53rd ranks respectively on this parameter as per the same report. Apart from these measures, Singapore is creating a strong eco system and making itself the most attractive place for IP through a system of tax breaks forIP. In summary these are as under • Under Productivity & Innovation Credit scheme, qualifying small and medium enterprises that invest in acquisition and licensing of IP rights, registrations of patents, trademarks, designs &plant varieties and R&D activities, get 400% tax deduction for up to S$600,000 of expenditure per year per activity. This is where the Indian equivalent pales in comparison. Under Section 35(2AB) of the Indian income-tax law, expenditure on scientific research gets a weighted tax deduction of 200%. Singapore goes even further. For businesses with low or no taxable income, weighted deduction is of little immediate relevance. For such businesses, Singapore gives an option of a non-taxable cash payout of S$60,000 a year for S$100,000 of expenditure not claimed as tax deduction. Writing down allowance enables amortisation of capital expenditure on IP over five year on a straight line basis. • The headline corporate tax rate is just 17% in Singapore as against more than 30% in India. Even this rate of 17% can be further reduced to up to 0% under the headquarters programme for a specified period on qualifying income. This programme is available to those businesses that commit significant economic investment in Singapore in terms of recruitment and expenditure. As if all this was not adequate, the committee that worked on the IP Hub master plan also recommended to the government that Singapore should implement an IP Box or similar tax regime to provide greater transparency and certainty in its IP tax regime. It may be noted that France, China, Netherlands, Belgium and UK already have such IP Box regimes. • Service tax is another bugbear that companies have to contend with in India. Even if you are an export business and therefore not liable for an output service tax, it takes ages in India to get a refund of input service tax due to you. Managing such working capital is so much easier under Singapore’s GST regime. • On valuation front too, Singapore has an edge. Selling an IP owning company’s shares to investors in Singapore are likely to fetch more than what such investors might be willing to pay for a similar Indian company. Even if an Indian product company were able to sell shares at a good premium, there are regulatory restrictions to hold it back. Indian companies are not allowed to list abroad unless they are also listed in India. A small window was opened in 2013 to permit unlisted Indian companies to list abroad subject to certain conditions without requiring them to also list in India. However, the latest updated FDI policy issued earlier this month appears to have closed this route now. Despite all these odds, if an Indian IP company were to decide to list in India, it is up against the formidable listing conditions of SEBI, such as profitability track record. To be fair, SEBI seems keen to address this issue. It has recently released a discussion paper on its draft Alternative Capital Raising Platform, which, if operationalized, can make things a tad easier for knowledge-based companies. In addition to all these there is the ease of doing business where Singapore and other countries score and they have a functional legal system which delivers timely justice. India needs to wake up to this and we all need to work to ensure that like Make in India we have “IP in India” as an initiative and this requires a rethink of the business environment and the legal system with a fresh pair of eyes. The existing rules and processes are based on the oldworld manufacturing industrial promoter view of businesses. IP is created by founders who are young and first generation supported by VCs and they have a different worldview and approach compared to the promoters that Indian Regulators are familiar with. This article is a call for people to recognise the problem as realising that there is a problem is the first step in finding a solution. This article is written by Harish H V, Partner, Grant Thornton India LLP with the support of Shashishekhar Chaugule, Fellow Chartered Accountant. Harish is also on the policy board of iSpirit. Views are personal.
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The 360 degree view on the consumers, is a billion dollar valuation game of etailers if they play the cards right, says Vishal KrishnaFor a well-funded internet company it becomes a necessity to complete the consumers shopping loop.The company does this by partnering with services that are acquisition targets or are simply valuable to their core services. This includes linking daily shopping needs, such as grocery, with ancillary needs like booking air and rail tickets, hotels and cabs. Why do large etailers or consumer internet companies do this? It is for customer acquisition, it is to understand consumer behaviour and finally to make them “lazy”. Yes, if a person can sit at home and transact on a couch, for his or her needs, then the etailer has done its job. This 360 degree view, on the consumers, is the billion dollar valuation game if they play the cards right. Currently everyone is in acquisition mode so a large chunk of money is being spilt on inducing a purchase with discounts.But clever partnerships ease the load on etail companies. Vishal KrishnaHow so? They will cross sell services and bring in a revenue share on each transaction closed. It is a lead generation plus transaction based service model. If Flipkart ties up with MakeMyTrip, for example, the transaction made on a suitcase may offer a discount on a purchase of a ticket or vice versa. This example allows these companies to transact with each other and acquire new customers at the same time. This, as the retail industry calls it, enriches the experience of the customer.The question is whether this works. Retailing follows culture and like culture it is never static. If a particular experiment works then the cross selling services will be blown in to everyone’s TV screens. The tie up with IRCTC and Amazon is of strategic importance in a brand’s perspective. By tying up with the Railways Amazon is telling the people in this country that is a platform for the masses. The added strategy is the business value that it is trying to achieve, which is to induce the masses to shop on Amazon. We will see several such experiences, offered by internet companies, and tie-ups over the next five years. In the end it is just a means to complete the circle of shopping. Nothing more!
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Pradeep Lankapalli provides some tips for influencing colleagues, customers and industry partnersSo how can we influence others-be it colleagues, stakeholders or customers-if we have no direct authority to do so? In highly matrixed organisations, there will increasingly be opportunities to work across boundaries and teams; wherein influencing without authority will become a fundamental requirement for the operating model. However, it's a skill that anyone can develop, regardless of their role or level in the organisation.Here are a few tips that anyone can use to achieve shared goals and points of view with colleagues, customers and even industry partners. 1. Agree On A Desired End OutcomeThe first step to influencing others is to establish the end outcome you'd like to achieve. Ideally, this goal is something that everyone can agree which will be beneficial to all: customers, the company or the teams. A common outcome that clearly helps everyone be successful is a simple way to unite people in working together for a cause-regardless of where they are in the company or chain of command.Pradeep Lankapalli2. Establishing Trust Is KeyAt the very foundation of influencing others is a sense of trust. People must trust that you want the best outcome for the team, the business and the customers-and they must feel confident that you'll go about achieving that outcome in the right way. Establishing trust is a two-way street; you should trust the group that you are trying to influence and they should trust you. I believe that while it is often overlooked, earning and keeping people's trust is the most important element of influencing. 3. Look For Opportunities To Help Others Achieve Their Goals As WellThere are many employees who don't necessarily report to me and my leadership team directly. However, I view it as part of my job-and my leadership team's job-to help them be successful. Look for ways to help them develop their skills and be their best by working together with them on this common purpose. Though the leaders they report to might be in a location, as on the ground, I help them achieve their objectives-and that also works to build trust for working together in the future. The same is true for my leadership team in all our Center locations. 4. Influencing Sometimes Requires CompromiseRemember that successfully influencing others doesn't necessarily mean always getting your way. It will go a long way towards cultivating that all-important trust with others if people can see that you are sometimes willing to give in and compromise to achieve a desired outcome. Influencing others also requires asking, "What do you need from me to work towards our common goal?" People may need more data, more time, or more resources to accomplish what you want them to accomplish. Be open to showing others that you can give as well as take, and your influencing efforts will be much more successful. Influencing without authority is all about agreeing on a shared, positive purpose. We all want to grow our business; we all want to develop our skills, we all want to do the right thing for our customers. When we start with these types of goals in mind, it's easy to show others that working together to achieve these objectives is in everyone's best interest-and influencing others then flows naturally from working towards those shared goals. I encourage everyone to put these tips into practice and see how influencing without authority can strengthen our teams and our company.The author is managing director India and global head of operations centers at Thomson Reuters
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Using mobile devices, students can connect to any career counselors online and dig out information about prospective career options, writes Surabhi Dewra
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The key to changing for a right job is not to let oneself in a desperate situation, says Ankit BansalFinding a Right Job is daunting because most of the times the definition of 'Right Job' is unclear. In fact, many people believe in their intuition rather than accomplishment, in finding satisfaction in job. Switching job is easy for the latest generation workforce primarily because of two aspects. Availability of jobs in multiple domain that require unique skill sets and because availability of information has made the generation "Jacks of all trades", which is enough to fetch them a job in any domain. Furthermore, as industries have become integrated and processes are now correlated, the boundaries between industry verticals are gradually thinning, leveraging professionals' easy migration from a domain to another. Hence, Switching Jobs have been never a bothering task in current times. However, this silver lining have also brought forth the issue of job satisfaction or finding the right job. As migration has become easier, people are becoming more impatient to change a job.The job market in India is good. In spite of this fact, job satisfaction is becoming rarer. This has an adverse effect on the overall backdrop, increasing instability of employees in enterprises, which ultimately harms its business productivity. Hence, the problem incurred by "Right Jobs" has larger impacts than what appears to be. While seeking for new jobs, employees should be concerned not only about personal whims, but also asses the condition from a holistic viewpoint. Time taken to find the right job is inversely proportional to how desperate one is to change the job. This factor of impatience leads a person to another entanglement with a similar job, which is certainly not satisfactory. In such situation, finding a right job becomes tougher. These instances bring multiple complexities to the overall industry.The key to changing for a right job is not to let oneself in a desperate situation. Several aspects are critical in such situations. Impulse, judgment, short term and long-term goals and many more plays major role while switching a job. Although easier, the task should be done taking into account these multiple aspects. One of the common reasons of changing jobs is impulse. Many people cannot tolerate shortcomings of the boss any senior. In addition, people may find it suffocating to carry on with the job because of an unmatched team or any inter personal commotion. Most of the times, these impulses lead people to switch to another job without a second though, leading them to similar situations later on. Other reasons such as a little hike of salary, brand name of a company or seemingly lucrative profiles are common reasons.However, while looking for a new job, one should emphases to fulfill a number of "Deltas" instead of going for just one or two. For instance, delta for a person could be money, role, people, culture, company or the industry. One should not switch over considering only one or two deltas. While changing at least two aspects should be fulfilled as per judgment of the person to ascertain job satisfaction. Hence, scaling up expectation in both its upper and lower end is necessary.So, when it is the most appropriate time to change? Are there any signals that one could catch? There is an old saying "leave when you are on a high". So instead of realising of what's not working out, try to analyse what have you achieved. Answer some questions truthfully for yourself. Have you given your best to the company? Is your best good enough for company to go all out to retain you if you were to try quitting your job? Have you given sufficient time to understand the company and vice versa? What do you think the next couple of years in the company could look like, for both you and the company? If you are thinking of these questions when an opportunity comes knocking, you are not in a desperate situation. Now apply the previously stated delta points and make the right choice.The author is founder at Mykindofjob.com
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